Delaware State journal and statesman., 1863-07-07
HOW TO STRENGTHEV WEA "a
LUNGS.


pressed into the same amount of space
The author, DIR. Dio Lewis, whose new
system Of gymnastics has already made
him widely known, scouts the theory that
consumption is local disease 1t is, he
aifirms, general disease of the system OF
which the affection Of the lungs is mani
festation. Says DIR. Lewis:
"a ships crew is seized with some fear
ful malady They hang out u flag of dis
tress Another ship passes near the in
iected vessel. Its captain discovers the
flag Of distress. a boats crew Is sent to
cut it down The captain turns to his
passengers with the triumphant cxclama--
tion We have saved them All signs
of distress have disappeared = A humi 1
body is diseased in every part A flag of
distress is hung out in the form of some
malady at the surface Some physician
whose thinking is or the surface Of things
applies an ointment, which compels the
malady to 60 back within the body again.
Then he cries have cured him see
it is all gone = 1t may be said that, when
the disease attacks the lungs, it must be
driven from the vital organ at any sacri-
flee. | reply if the drug yapors which are
inhaled could disperse the tubercuous de-
posit-which is impossible-the tubercle
could not be transferred to any other in
tarnAl organ where it would do less harm.
No other internal organ can bear tuber-
culous deposit or liberation with less dam
ger to life. In 1916, two brothers, bank
officers, afflicted with chronic inflammation
! nf tbn 1
peatedly prescribed for them, but their
eyes got no better. Indeed, they had lit
tie hope of relief; for, during their years
of suffering, many physicians had treated
them without avail. At length told
them there was no hope but in absence
from their business, and such recreation
as would elevate the general tone. \ few
months of limiting, fishing, and enjoyment
in the country sulliced to remove the red
ness and weakness from their eyes ASH
have argued, the disease was not one of
the eyes, but Of the entire system, which
had assumed local expression. This de-
pendence of particular upon general dis
ease is common idea with the people
A young man begins business with large
capital. He falls into dissipation In ten
years it eXhausts his fortune When at
last we see him begging for bread, we do
not say this exhibition of his poverty is
his financial disease. His financial con-
StttUtion has been ruined. The begging
is only an unpleasant exhibition of that
ruin During this course of dissipation,
the oung man, in addition to the exhaus-
ton of his fortune, ruins his health. His
lungs fall into consumption. Some doc
tor may tell you it is disease of the lungs
But it is no more disease of the lungs than
was begging the mans financial malady
In either case, the apparent disease is
only an exhibition Of the constitutional
malady."
We have long been convinced that witt
ated air and senseless modes of dress are,
in our cities at least, the chief causes of
pulmonary disease We have earnestly
longed for the appearance of some one
who would preach the gospel of pure air
it is almost as much needed as the gospel
of grace. Thousands of persons, other
wise intelligent, do not appear to know
that vtiated air is an active poison We
have often felt inclined TO ry out against
the builders of tcncment-houses, and the
lazy authorities who suffer filth " accu-
mulate in the streets as murderers of men,
women, and children. DIR. Lewis con
demns the common usages of society in
respect to ventilation in unsparing terms.
On this point he says
"The victims of the Black Hole in
Calcutta and Of the steamer Londonderry,
with the thousand other instances in
which immediate death has resulted from
carbonc acid, are terrible examples
in the history Of human suffering but
these cases are all as nothing, compared
with those of the millions who nightly
sleep in unventilated rooms, from which
they escape with life, but not without
serious injury As medical man, | have
visited thousands of sick persons, and
have not found one hundred of them in
a pure atmosphere. have often returned
from church seriously doubling whether l
had not committed sin in exposing my
self to its poisonous air. There are in
our great cities churches costing fifth
thousand dollars, in the construction Of
which not fifty dollars were expended in
providing means for ventilation. Ten
thousand dollars for ornament, but not
ten dollars for pure air Parlors with
furnace.heat and number of gas burners
(cach of which consumes us much oxygen
as several men) are made as close as
possible, and party of ladies and gentle
men spent half the night in them In 1861
| visited legislative hall The legisla.
ture was in session. remained half an
hour in the most impure air ever at
tempted to breathe. If the laws which
emanated from such an atmosphere were
good, it is a remarkable instance of the
mental and moral rising above u depraved
physical. Our school-hOuses are, some
them, so vile in this respect that | would
prefer to have my son ignorant of books,
rather than breathe during six hours Of
every day, so poisonous an atmosphere.
Theatres and concert rooms are so foul
that only reckless people can continue TO
visit them. Twelve hours in a railway
car eXhausts one, not because Of the sit
ting, but because of the deyitalized air
While crossing the ocean in the Cunard
steamer Africa, and again in the Collins
steamer baltic, | was constantly amazed
that men who knew enough to construct
such noble ships did not know enough to
furnish air to the passengers. The dis
t-esses Of sea. sickness greatly intensiliep
by the sickening atmosphere which per-
vades tue ship Were earbonic acid
black, what contrastwould be presented
between the air of our hotels and their
elaborate ornamentation 1t is hardly