Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1862-10-10

WHICH IL is dueCI6u ny uioedSt anu meul
cine ? Away, then, with all kinds 0
quackery, from cold water to cayenn
pepper-from homeopathic pills to th'
murderous probang and caustic, all 0
which are nothing. In using them, pre-
cous time is wasted, if no actual injur,
is done, and death may be the conse
quence of the error. How much to bt
dreaded, then, are they when they do ac
tual injury and destroy, perhaps, the only
chance of recovery.
1t were folly in me to hy to give the
symptoms of diptheria--it has no definite
symptoms. 1t appears different in al
most every case in the same locality. -
The symptoms OF a cold, the measles
scarlet fever, and Group which is also a
diptheritic disease, are all common enough
in dipthera; and so far as | can learn
the membrane formed, or in a forming
stage upon the mucous membrane of the
back part of the mouth and throat, is the
only pathognomonic sign of diptheria-
and even that is hardly worth the name
of sign, when freed from the other
symptoms, because a membrane not to be
distinguished from it is formed in other
affections. 1t is not, therefore, easy to
distinguish dptheria, in its early stages,
/ from some other affections, and The same
cause produces them; or some other
cause operating at the same time and in
the same locality, for we read that wher-
ever diptberia prevails, influenza and
sore throat, without the membrane Of
diptheria, also prevail, as was the case in
Albany, n. Y, in 1858, where there
were one hundred and sixty-seven deaths
from diptheria and probably about the
same number Of cases Of recovery; but
there were also about two thousand cases
of sore throat, mostly in the fall of that
year. The short time during which the
disease prevailed, and the large number
Of cases both Of sore 9roat and dipthe-
ria, is a fact which would lead us to infer
Ihat they both originated from the same
epidemic contagion. The first case ap-
peared April 2nd, the second on the 20th
of that month but it was not until Sep
tember that it began to assume its true
epidemic character, and then it began 10
increase in severity until the last Of No
vember. Nearly all the deaths occurred
between the middle of September und
the middle of December The disease
spread but little without the limits of the
city. This was very different from its
progress in Orange, Ohio there it was
most severe at its commencement, four
teen out of fifteen of the first patients
having died.
In California, diptheria did not appear
SO entirely confined to children, as it has
in some other places. In Albany, n. Y,
there were only three adults in one hun
dred and sixty-seven cases of death. In
Orange, Ohio, the report is given thus
In the first fourteen deaths, five were un-
der ten years of age, eight were from ten
to twenty-five, and one was forty. In
Halifax, Nova Scotia, almost as many
adults as children fell victims to it. In
Oxford County, Me, the disease has been
confined almost entirely to children, and
in Androscoggin County, the same,
though sore throat among adults, has pre-
vailed at the same time, which partakes
of its nature, though it cannot be called
true diptheria. From such evidence we
can only say that adults are not exempt
from the contagion, but generally suffer
less from it than the children.
The most frequent symptoms of this
dreadful malady are: A hard, quick .
pulse, dry skin, loss Of appetite, red
watery eyes, (dysphagia) loss Of voice,
speaking only in a whisper, not being in
clined to talk much, fetor of breath, cough, .
and spots Of plastic fibre covering the
membrane of the throat; but, as l have
before intimated, there is no regularity of
Sometimes those named are
nearly all absent, and in other cases, the
most, or even all of them may be dis
severe.
People talk of diptheria as a disease
If the throat, when in fact the whole
mucous membrane of the system is often
involved, and sometimes patients sink and
lie Of the disease without ever having
he least exudation or trouble of any kind
,bout the throat. The period from the
ime of exposure to the disappearance of
as near as can be estimated,
5 from five to twenty days; and during
hat interval the poison is working in the
ystem, disorganizing the blood. As in {
holera, the watery part of the blood {