Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-04-17

Pleasant memories gathered around the name
of Washington Irving By six year. he had
passed the "three- score and ten," and with the
advantage of his quiet and regular mode of living,
he might well have remained with us for some
years to come, had it not been for advice, kindly
intended, no doubt, but given in thoughtlessness
and reckless ignorance. He had cold, which
"by some injudicious prescription had been con-
verted into an asthma which was accompanied by
an enlargement of the heart" Of which he died
without moments warning: tins, at least, is the
published record. Who gave that prescription"
and what il was, the outside world may never
know. Doubtless half dozen lines would en-
body it, and would do more good as a beacon
light than will be done by any hundred pages of
his complete works." now in process of publca-
ton by Putnam. 1t may be safely taken for
granted that the prescription was drug OF some
kind, If not a dozen of them, simple" and un-
simple the main one being opium in some form,
laudanum, paregoric, or morphine. for no mix
ture ever sold for coughs, colds and consumption,
ever, by any chance, fails Of one of these ingre-
dients. Such mixtures always soothe. always
diminished the cough, causing belief that they
are doing good, hence they are more frequently
and freely taken. 1t is precisely as If when the
hold of ships ON fire, the matches are closed, and
because no more smoke is seen to arise, the cap
tain should Immediately place himself at ease, un-
der the conviction that the fire is out, while in
reality it is kept under, gathering force, only q
little later to break forth with resistless power
Opium does not cure anything, it never did.
All that can be scientifically claimed for it 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 improved, disaster must follow.
Cough, in cold, is natures effort TO eject from
| the lungs what does not properly belong there,
precisely when "crumb goes the wrong way
that is, into the wind-ppe. instead of the stomach.
In each case opium diminshes the sensbity of
the parts that they do not feel the presence Of
the offending particles, and nature is cheated.
Any one can see that because dose of morphine
quiets the cough from a cIumb in the wind pipe,
it does not cure. it does not bring it away. Most
precisely so is it with phelgm in the lungs it has
the effect to keep it there to accumulate, just az
water does in the spout of pump, when little
boys close the mouth of il with their hands,
pumping all the time.
Not so with phlegm in the lungs every in
stant it is kept there the heat of the parts being
hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, il evaporates.
and becomes satery, and Of consequence, more
tough. harder TO dislodge. increasing in bulk by
accumulations, which also grow thicker by evap-
GRAFTON, until "the pipes" are plugged up with
tough phlegm so that the air passes it with in
creasing difficulty, and the patient wheezes like
ssthmetic, the lungs labor fearfully for breath
they can not get air enough, hence the blood be-
comes impure and thick, and IN such condiuon
goes to the heart, which Iabors to send il on
through the body, but can not wholly empty
itself at each beat as is natural, and the blood
still pouring into it, the ibers are relaxed and
then distended. this is enlargement Of the heart
For while nature struggles 10 relieve herself OF
this surplus until the laboring heart has expanded
all its strength in the vain effort, until il can MOI
give another beat. and sufocation is the instanta'
neous result.
Many man before now has been literally
"kllled with kindness" as il would seem MAJ
the fate of Washington Irving, of whom il may
be truthfully said, was kindness personifed. Nc
sooner does man show that he has cold thar
advice is protruded in the glibbest manner pos
sible by every second friend he meets Let the
reader learn by the sad narration given, never Il
give or take advice, even in SO simple thing a
a common cold. Let counsel come in all case
! from common sense or physicisn.-HaHi
Journal Of Health.