The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-09-26
pulmonary Diseases-.-Ihelr Rational
Treatment.
BY DR.. c. n. FITCH.

BY DIR. C. n. FITCH.
Statistics show that nearly one-fourth O
our adult population die of pulmonary dis
eases; the annual aggregate Of deaths from
these affections in the United States is no
far from 100000! In the Canadas they ar,
quite as prevalent and as fearful. Th
frightful prevalence is in a great measur,
due to the prevailing belief among physi
r clans that consumption is utterly incurable
1t was SO pronounced by the medical author!
OF former age, and their successors hav,
accepted their decisions as infallible, anc
have therefore avoided as useless that con
tinued and patient Investigation which the
Importance of the subject demanded, anG
have made no attempts to devise curativs
mode OF treatment, except those based on &
faint vague hope Of discovering some specific
remedy-some single medicine which shal
prove panacea, or cure all. Hundreds o.
such remedies have been confidently an
nounced, aud after . brief trial, discarded
! beeause not edectual in every case, and thus
the professional belief in the incurability o
the disease has been again and again con.
hrmed, until 1T has become q test Of medical
orthodoxy, and he who hazards doubt OF
Its correctness is at once branded Quack,
! and indeed not without show of Justice,
| tor many of these discarded specifics have
been taken up by umpires and medicine ven
ders, who pursue the opposite extreme of
asserting that they will cure all forms and all
cases of lung disease. The remedies select
ed by this class of men generally possess
some value, as Iodine, Wild Cherry Bark,
Tar, Naptha, use of Medicated vapors, Cod
Liver Oh, &c, any of which will effect oc-
casional cures Of pulmonary disease, and it
IS somewhat curious that the one which has
most recently been brought before the pub
lie this way, viz: Cod Liver Oil, was pro-
badly the first Of those that was tried and
rejected by the profession. The use Of in
haation was introduced by DR.. Nudge, of
London, nearly century since, extensively
tested, and rejected only when the round
drugs capable of being SO used, had been
exhausted. From that time it has scarcely
been mentioned IN this country till very re-
Gently, when it has been revived under the
col,r of new discovery in medicine, and
by dint Of liberal advertising has become
the hobby of the day; indeed there are pro-
baby al this moment in the United States
not less than five hundred Inhaists, all men
of Il" lifelong experience, though five or six
years ago not one Of them had been heard
Of Hundreds of inyalids are deceived by
their plausible outcry against giving medi-
cine into the stomach for diseases of the
lungs, and by the apparent fairness of their
argument for applying remedies directly to
the seat of the disease. The truth is, ulcera
ton, whether upon limb, or in the lungs,
If 1t arises from yitlated condition of the
blood, cannot be cured by local applications
alone; and nothing in medical science Is
more certain than that tubercle results from
a general depraved condition Of the SYSTEM
and is deposited in the lungs directly from
the blood thus vitiated; ard the condition
Of the blood cannot be changed by the mere
use Of n-edIcated InhaIatIons. These act up
on the local disease, and in their place are
Of great value, but proper constitutional
treatment IS also lndispen sable.
That consumption Is durable is shown by
the frequent occurrence Of scars in the lungs
Of persons who have Died of other diseases
these scars proving coDclusively that the
lungs have formerly been diseased and heal
cd up. We affirm, therefore that consump-
ton is durable; but We do not by any means
affirm that every case of consumption can
be cured. Typhoid fever is durable in
majority of cases, bat every case is not, and
the same is true Of consumption, and while
We have had patients recover, whose lungs
were extensively diseased, who were appa
rently past hope, We have, on the other
hand, lost patients where the local disease /
was so slight as to be hardly perceptble I
but where the constitution was SO broken I
down IRON dyspepsia, fever, female diseases,
or other causes, that there was no longer /
sufficient vitality to enable nature, by any
assistance, to rally and resist the eucroach-
ments of the disease which was to terminate
life. Where there is marked hereditary
to consumption, the disease is
always more dangerous than in other cases
Consumption is disease, which, above all
others, should be taken in ti,ne-yet Its
symptoms are at first SO slight, its progress
is SO insidIous, that few make application for
treatment until their lungs have been affect
ed for weeks, perhaps not before che lung
may be almost gone, and thus thousands of
lives are annually sacrificed, which, by time
ly attention, might have been saved.
We have shown the absurdity Of treating |
by medica,ed inhalations alone,
and because the disease is both local and con-
it is equally absurd to depend up |
on any other single remedial means, for, TO /
effect cure, it is necessary:
barst, to prevent the spread or further de- !
post of tubercle in the lung.
Second, to promote the healing of the ul- |
charged, and
Third, to remove the constitutional taint |
which leads to the deposit of tuberce
And these three ends can never be effected |
by one agent; but, in addition to the local |
means furnished by inhalations, medicines
should also Le given to cleanse the blood, |
and measures taken to keep all the secretons |
free, and allow the impurities readily to be
eliminated from the system, and also, by ap-
propriate tonics, by exercise, diet, bathing,
friction, &C., &c, to strengthen and elevate
the tone of the whole system. We therefore
employ no half way means, nor rely upon
any one thing alone to the exclusion of eve
rything else, in our treatment of consump-
ton but We strike at once at cause and ef-
feet, combine all those means and measures
which, from experience, we know to be of
value. Thus, We do not depend upon cold |
water, nor exercise alone, nor diet alone, nor |
upon instruments merely, nor upon medicine
alone, whether inhaled or taken into the
but we COMBINE all these, as the
case may indicate, and thus afford our pa
tients all the benefit they can have from any
exclusive system with the additional advan-
tage to be derived from other measures, and
we know thet the great success which has
attended our mode of treatment, is due to
this judicious combination of measures, as
demanded by the complex nature of the dis
ease.
SALT BARRELS FOR PRESERVING APPLES
A correspondent of the Scientific american
says: "He purchased five barrels of choice
apples, taken from one pile, last autumn, and
put them into his cellar. On the 1st of April
last, when he came to examine them, those
in four of the barrels, were mostly all da-
maged, while those placed in the other bar
rel were sound" fresh and good" What
was the cause of this preservation of the
apples in this barrel? Our correspondent
saws it was Syracuse salt barrel, and con-
tanned coarse salt, and he believes that this
-., &ho co,co Of thoir Immunity from ROT