The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-04-12
What Killed Him.

Pleasant memories gatcer round the name
of Washington Irving. By six years he
had passed the "three score and ten," and
with the advantage of bis quiet and regular
mode of living he might we'll 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 converted
into an asthma, which was at length &C..
companied by an enlargement of the 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 may never know.
Doubtless half dozen lines would embody
it, and would do more good as beacon
light than will be done by any hundred
pages of his complete works." now in pro.
cess of publication by Putnam. 1t may be
safely taken for granted that the prescrip-
ton was drug of some kind, if not a 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 consumption,
ever, by any chance, fails of one of these
ingredients. Such mixtures always soothe,
always diminish the cough, causing belief
that they are doing good, hence they are
more frequently and freely taken. It is
precisely as if, when the hold of ship is on
fire, the matches are closed, and because no
more smoke is seen to arise, the captain
should Immediately place himself at eaoe,
under the conviction that the fire is out,
while in reality it is kept under, gathering
force, e,only to break forth with resistless power
Opium does not cure anything; it never
does. All that can be scientifically claimed
for it is, that it 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.
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 offend
ing particles, and nature is cheated. Any
one can see that because dose of morphine
quiets the cough from crumb in the wind
pipe, it does not cure, it does not bring it
away. Just precisely so it is with phlegm
in the lungs; it has the effect to keep it there
to accumulate, just as water does in the
spout of pump, when little boys close the
mouth OF it with their hands, pumping on
the time. Not so with phelegm in the lungs;
every instant it is kept there, the heat of the
parts being hundred degrees Of Fahrenheit,
it evaporates and becomes watery, and
of consequence, more tough, harder to dis.
lodge, increasing in bulk by accumulations
which also grow thicker by evaporation, un-
til the pipes" are plugged up with tongh
phlegm so that the air passes it with In.
creasiDg difficulty, and the patient wheezes
like an astmatic. The lungs labor fearfully
for breath, they cannot get air enough
hence the blood becomes impure and thick,
and in this condition goes to the heart,
which labors to send it on through the
body, but cannot wholly empty itself at
each beat, as is natural, and the blood still
pouring into it, the fbres are relaxed and
then distended; this is enlargement of the
heart" For while nature struggles to-
relieve herself of this surplus, until the
laboring heart has expended all its strength
in the vain effort, until it cannot give anoth-
er beat, and suffocation is the instantaneous
result. m Il ps sBdsagaM sad III
Many man, before now, has been lit~,
orally killed with kindness" !" as it would
seem was the fate of Washington Irving, Of
whom it may be truthfully said, he was
kindness personi6ed. . No sooner does
man show that he has q cold than advice is
rotruded in the glibbest manner possible
by every second friend be meets. Let the
reader learn by the sad narration given
never to give or take advice, even in so
simple thing as q common cold. Let
counsel come in all cases from common sense
or q physician Journal of Health.