Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-11


sl Deaih' .hi 1U fh1ifsss s.4.a vsft
Halls JoUrNalcct Health saysto1 sfi 30 3i
Pleasant memories gathered around the
name OF washington Irving. By six years
he had passed the three score and ton = ana
with the advantage Of his quiet and regular
mode Of living, he might well have re-
mained with us for some years to come, had
il not been for advice, kindly intended, no
doubt, but given in nthoughtlessness and reck-
less ignorance. He had a cold, which, "by
some iDjudicious prescription, had been con.
verted into an asthma, which was accom-
panied by an enlargement Of tie heart"
of which he died without moments warn
ing. This, at least, is the published record.
who gave that prescription" and what it
was, the outside world will never know.
Doubtless half a dozen lines would embody
II, and would do more good as beacon.
light than will by any hundred pages of his
complete works" now in process Of publi-
cation by Putnam.
1t may safely be taken for granted that
the prescription was a drug of some kind, IL
not dozen of them, simple and unsimple,
the main one being opium in some form,
laudanum, paregoric or morphine, for no
mixture ever sold for coughs, colds and con-
sumption, ever, by any chance, fails of one of
these Ingredients. Such mixtures always
soothe, always diminish the cough, causing a
belief that they are doing good, hence they
are most frequently and freely taken. 1t is
precisely as if when the hold of ship is on
fire, the matches are closed, and because no
more smoke is seen 10 arise, the Captain
should Immediately place himself at ease,
under the conviction that the FIRE is out,
while in reality it is kept under, gathering
force, only little later to break forth with
resistless power. 1i' Fi
Opium does not cure any thing-it never
did. All that can be scientifically claimed
for 1t is that IL gives time to nature or the
physician, as does the matches when the hold
is on fire, but if the time is not wisely inn
proved, disaster must follow.
n Cough, in cold, is Natures effort to eject
from the lungs what does not properly be.
long there; precisely as when 'crumb
goes the wrong way, that is, into the wind
pipe instead of the stomach. In each case
opium diminishes the sensibility of the parts
SO that they do not feel the presence OF the
offending particles, and nature is cheated.
Any one can see that because dose Of NOR
phine quiets the cough from a crumb in the
wind-pipe, it does not cure, il does not bring
II away. Most precisely so is IL with phlegm
in the lungs: it has the effect to keep Il there
to accumulate, just as water does in the spout
of pump, when little boys close the mouth
Of it with their hands, pumping all the time.
4NCe sO hAth PllloBhul buO luuHoI GN6fy
instant it is kept there, the heat of the parts
being 1909 of Fahrenheit, it evaporates and
becomes watery, and of consequence, more
tough, harder TO dislodge, increasing in bulk
by accumulations, which also grow thicker
by evaporation, until 'the pipes" are plugged
up with tough phlegm so that the air passes
it with increasing difficulty, and the patient
wheezes like an asthmatic, the lungs labor
fearfuly for breath, they can not get air
enough, hence the blood becomes impure
and thick, and in such condition goes to the
heart, which labors to send it on through the
body, but can not wholly empty itself at
each beat, as is natural, and the blood still
pouring into it, the fibers are relaxed and
then distended. This is enlargement Of the
heart" For a while Nature struggles to
relieve herself of this surplus, until the
laboring heart has expanded all its strength
in the vain effort, until it can not give an
other beat, and suffocation is the instanta-
neous result. -... ..- -.,--. -.
Many man before now has been literally
killed with kindness as it would seem was
the fate of Washington Irving, of whom il
may be truthfully said, was kindness per-
sonifed. No sooner does a man show that
he has cold than advice is protruded in the
glibbest manner possible by every second
friend he meets. Let the reader learn by the
sad narration given, never to give or take
advice, even in so simple thing as COM
mon cold. Let tcounsel come in all cases from
common sense or physician. 'a Ell s#
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