Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1857-10-29
Pulmonary Diseases - Their Rational
Treatment.

Statistics show that nearly one fourth of adult
population die of pulmonary diseases; the annual
aggregate of deaths from these affections in the Uni
ted States is not far from lO0, 900 In the Canadas
they are quite as prevalent and as fearfHy fatal
This frightful prevalence is in great measure due
to the prevailing belief among physicians that con
sumption is utterly incurabe. 1t was SO pronoun.
ced by the medical authors of former age, and hei
successors have accepted their decisions antaii
bio, and have therefore avoided as useless that con
tinued and patient investigation which the Impor
| lance of the subject demanded, and have made nc
| attempt to devise q ear0tire mode of treatment ex
cept those based on faint and vague hope of dis
covering some specific remedy. some Jingle medicine
which should prove panacea or cure all. Hun
dreds of such remedies have been confidently an
nounced, and after brief trial discarded because
not effectua in every case, and thus the Profession
al belief in the incurabity of the disease has been
| again and again confirmed until it hes become a
test of medical orthodoxy, and he who hazards a
doubt ofits correctness is at branded aquack
and indeed not without show of justice, for many
of these specifics have been taken up by empires
and medicine vendors, who pursue the opposite ex-
IRENE of asserting that they will all forms and
all cases of Lung diseases. The remedies selected
by this class of men generally possess value,
as Iodine. Wild Cherry bark, Tar, Napths, use of
Medcated Vspors. Cod Liver Oil, &c, any of which
will effect occasional cures of Pulmonary disease,
and it is somewhat curious that the one which has
most recently been brought before the public in this
way, viz: Cod Liver Oil, was probably the first OF
these that tried and rejected by the Profession
Ihe use OF l0DdiatlOn was Introduced MuuRe,
Of London nearly century since extensively test.
ed and rejected only when the round of Drugs cap
able of being used, had been exhausted. From
that time has scarcely been mentioned in this
try till very recently, when it has been revived
der the color of discovery in medicine, and by
dnt of liberal advertising has become the hobby of
the day indeed there are probably ut this moment
in the United tates not less than Eve hundred In
halsts all men of lifelong experience though five
or six years ago not of them had been heard of
Hundreds of invalids are deceived by their plausi
BILE cutlery against giving medicine into the stomach
for diseases of the Lungs, and by the apparent fair
ness of their argument tor applying remedies direct
y to the seat of the disease The truth ts liberation
whether upon limb, or in the ungs il arising from
vitaed condition of the blood, cannot be cured by
local applications alone, and nothing in medical
science is more certain than that tubercle results
ire m general condition ofihe system and is depos-
red in the lungs directly from the blood thus vita
ted and the condition of the blood cannot be chang
ed by the mere use of medicated inhglations These
act upon the local disease, and in their place OF
great value, but proper constitutional treatment is
also indispensable.
That consumption is durable is shown by the fire..
auent occurrence of scars in the lungs OF persons
who have died of other dseases-these scars prov
ing concIusvely that the lungs have formerly been
Diseased and healed up. We affirm therefore, that
consumption is curable but we do not by any means
affirm that every case of consumption can be cured
Typhoid fever 10 durable in majority of cases. but
e,erv case is not and the same is true of c0nsump
ton; and while we have had patients recover whose
lungs were extensively diseased who were apparent
Iy past hope, we have on the other hand Loaf pa
TENTS where the local disease slight as to be
hardly perceptble; but where the constitution was
so broken down from dyspepsia fevers, female dis
cases. or other causes, that there was longer suf
cient vitality TO enable nature by any assistance, to
rally and resist the encroachments of the disease
which was to terminatelife. Where there is marked
hereditary predispositon TO consumption, the dis
ease is always more dangerous than IN other cases
Consumption is u disease which, above all others,
should be taken in times yet its symptoms are at
the first slight its progress IS SO insdnouss that
few make application Tor treatment until their lungs
have befn affected for weeks perhaps for months,
perhaps not before one lung may be almost &c ne,
and thus thousands of lives annually sacrificed
which by the timely attention, might have been
saved. "t
We have shown the absurdty of treating eousump-
tcn by medicated Inhalation alone and because the
disease is beth local and it is equally
absurd to depend upon any other ssHgte remedial
means for, TO effect cure, it is necessary:
First, to prevent the spread further deposit of
tubercle in the lungs,
Second, to promote the healing Of the ulcers as
the tubercle softsns down and is discharged, and
Third to remove the constitutional faint which
leads to the deposit of tuberele.
And these three ends never be effected by
one agent; in addition to the local means furnished
nv inhalations medicines should also be given to
cleanse the blood, and measures taken TO keep oil
the serretions free, and allow the impurities readily
to be eliminated from the system, and also by APP
propraie tonics by exercise diet, bathing friction
etc etcs TO strengthen and elevate the tone of the
whole system. We therefore employ no half way
measures, nor rely upon any one thing alone 10 the
exclusion of everything else, in our treatment OF
consumption but strike at once at cause and ef-
feet combine all those means and measures which,
from experience. we know 10 be of value. Thus,
we do not depend upon cold rdter, nor exercise g.
lone nor diet alone, nor upon instruments merely,
nor upon medicine alone, whether inhaled or taken
into the stomach; but We COMBINE eli these, as the