Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-04-07
COnsunap1ion-It. Treatment.
LETTER. NO, II.
ftt0r Of The Boston HsrnLd;

COnsuanPiiOn-Its Treatment.
LETTER il.
10 tAe Editor Of the Boston Herald:
obNrLtMeN Permit me through your columns to ad-
"ress thit large Of the public Who are interested in
person. or b7 rind in the proper treatment and cure of
0onsenpuon My exien i've observation con iuotsd for
many ars under circumstances which, by every medi
cal man. would b. considered favorable give me author
ly to speak confidently to my fellow beings in this par
"'uar' have lived long enough to learn hat this is
truly an age of empricisman age in which medical men
OF large understanding and wide experience have fallen
into the too common treating diseases particular
" of the pnenmoutic class upon pathological rather than
upon physiological principles
Diseases Of the Trachea Larynx, Esophagus, and par
acuiary o. The Lungs, have for many years made spec
latles tndee l. for long period. have confined nv
pracnce solely to these. Ihave found-upon this pred
lcate my really astonishing success-that in many thou
SAND cases OF CONSUMPTION present precisely the
same diagnosis and that the treatment therefore which
is decidedly beneficial in case may and often does
prove detrimental in another. have found that Con-
sumption may not be treated specuatiyely cut that if
restoration to normal condition OF health is desired it
mast De approached upon principles immutabe as
truth and as broad and harmonious as nature.
have also lived to learn that the experiences of tho
past are at best but blind guides to the actuales of h
many practitioners rely, is oten5r ojudica than beneAo
a Casting myself loose from the dogmas of the schools,
unearnng all that had laborousy acquired took ex
percence for my guide and an impartial Eeclectico for
my mode of practice. now proudly assert that of
the hundreds who have placed hense Ives under nv
not to exceed ten per cent have been lost to mel This
" many may seem vain boast; but it is solemn truth
an conscious that many preenders to medical knowl
suse VIII take umbrage at my statement perhaps even
dispute IT. but for this care little know full well that
physicians (emprics am constrained to call them) CAL
culste upon losing many per more InIeed it wouId
be difficult for of them to show that he has savd
G)twenty five per of his patients Think of # for
one moment! practising physician in whom the com
muny place confidence thinks himself successful if he
loses seventy five out of every hundred Of his pu
monte patients Indeed, it may with entire confidence be
said, that in almost every instance Nature more than
nostrum have restored the patient to health
Hut it is not my purpose in this letter to sneak of nv
Pcce nor OF my remarkable in the removal Of
Consumption have merely alluded to them en- passaat
Of these shall have say hereafter AT present
would dire't attention two preliminary obseva
tions would ask, what is Consumption that it should
strike terror to the souls of thousands sending hourly to
premature graves. stallwrt men, beautiful women and
too often, sweet children Of in the very blossom and
morning Of their lives? Oh, it is dreadful maladv this
Consumption And whyf Because it is wrongfully and
lgnoranty treated by whojudge of it wholly by its
extsrnas upon its exernaes presume to diagnose that
OF which they can have at best but presumpve knowl
edge
1t is this superficial Observation-Disclosures alike bv aro
pahist homeopathsts, Undergraduates and followers of
other schools of medicine, known to the world onv nv
dogmatisms-hat has made diseases of a pulmonary
type so terrible and CHASTITY ohose who are 40 unfrnn
ate as to be afflicted Inhalation although it presents
specious claims to the pubc the hands Of charatans
is even more injurious and oener fatal in its
Is than either of the other systems of me cine They all
however leao inevitably to The same result death How
NJ hvsiraas, thir -vea-,tal,e ,..ssse.
-Iay ST. tsE5 ITO fs 5ohsidera
lion the habis of their patients temperaments mentaes
and avocations, and upon knowledge base their treat
ment' Hesitate not to say in thousand! Can it,
therefore, be wondered at that many physical dissou
tons from phneumonitisis recorded The bills q
mortality prove beyond the necessity of demonstration
thai ignorance the sole and only to which can be
attributed many deaths.
would not thus speak disparagingy of my medical
brethren did know that the verest quack often sue
ceeds better than they do And for this transparent
sonThe quack treats those he undertakes to cure in
common He is Ignorant is true of pre-
cedents and makes prentions to medical lore. His
success on this account the less remarkabe be-
cause, were his mind filled with the experiences OF the
past he would doubte have lost the use of his dscrm.
NATIVE faculties and relied precedent rather than upon
common do not desire to be understood as apo
ogisng for quackery instance its success In the treat
men of Consumption to show stereoyped meth
DDS Of the schools have nothing whatever upon which to
plume themselves.
Iwoud have medical follow Nature in all things i,
they would be successful in prognoss Of the throat and
lungs morbifcally diseased would have them remem-
Der that the phenomena Of Consumption are as various
the in which it is presented. would also have
them catholic in their observation and not as they
do from their preudices and professional bgotres,
make the resides of happy homes tenantless of
cherished Objects upon whom weaths of care prompted
by love- expended in vain Those who approach the
touches Of the sick in professional capacity should cuI
vae their emotions and permit their hearts equally with
their heads to dictate the course Of treatment that
be pursued,
For my own part have endeavored to take upon m :
self the feeling my patientshave endeavored to pene-
trae to the very Of their houghtsto enter sym
pstheticay, 10 speak, into their Affections and to
judge rem the stand point of their hopes and fears how
each particular patient and complaints should be treated
am happy to say have been successful even beyond
my most sanguine expectation Nay, mcre-I verify be-
eve there this day hundreds walking the earth in full
vgor of life tho would long since have gone to their final
account had they not been placed uuder my charge.
In my next letter, gentlemen, shall have few words
say in explanation Of the class of diseases or aades
known medical men under the nomenclature of pneu
monitisis
remain, respectfully, &c.
j. D. DURKIN,