Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-06-09
TheOrr Of MedIeated inhalation.
DIR. NJ
ON
THE CAUSES OF CONSUMPTION
(CoNTINuEDl
LETTER NO. 4.
(coNTrNUED.)

LETTER NO. 4.
In order to simplify our observations,
the fourth cause of Consumption may be
divided into several different classes.
Our Gppetites and the strength Of our
bodies depend on the air we breathe. The
stomach may prepare the chyLe to renew
our blood, but the chyle is not blood, nor
has it any power of imparting strength to
the system, until it has been UitGlized in
the lungs. 1t must be sent TO the lungs
first, and there receive a last change from
the oxygen of THE air we breathe. Hence
it is that the size of the lungs and the pu-
rity of the air, by determining the guam
tity of oxygen received, determine also the
quantity of chyle which can be sssimilated.
The appetite generally keeps pace with
the wants of the body; for were more
chyle prepared by the stomach han the
lungs could transform into blood, il would
clog and derange the system.
Let the following facts, then, be ever
remembered
l. No matter how largo our lungs may
be, if the air we breathe be impure, the
appetite fails, the face grows pale, and the
breathing becomes hurried.
II. The same symptoms follow when
ever the air, though pure, is diminished in
quantity, as is always the case after q re-
| cent Heoid7 or during a seated "chTonic
bronchitis"
III. Whatever clogs the lungs and OBJ
/ structs the freedom of desperation, causes
the blood to be charged with c~arbonaceous
impurity and lays the foundation for Con-
sumption.
". A deficient supply of oxygen to the
lungs will cause consumption in any ami
NAL creature-hnman or brute-that
walks the earth.
When we are asked, "What is the
Cause of Consumption Our answer is,
whatever will produce tubercles in the
lungs of men and the lower animals with
uniform certainty, no matter hoio strong
they MAJ be By nature, or how free from
hereditary predispositioR. As a deficient
supply of oxygen will do this-as all
known causes act by first producing a
deficient supply-and as nothing in ma
ture has ever been known to produce this
disease IF we except children born of
parents actually consumptive at the time
of their birth) without q deficiency of OK
ygen also existing, We regard this as the
true cause of Consumption.
1t is a well-known fact that cows, when
shut up in close, badly-gentilated stalls,
all become consumptive. This, some per-
sons will tell you, is because they are gen.
orally Hfed on SIopS;" but we tell you that
it is no such thing. You may feed them
on dry food and give them plenty of pure
water, and they will still sieken and die
of this disease. Give them airy, well-ven-
tilated stalls, and you will find compare
lively few cases Of Consumption among
them, no matter how you feed them.
| Mr.. Owens, Assistant Curator of the Mu-
scum of the Royal College of Surgeons,
London, found tubeTcles and caUities in
the lungs of most of the animals which
diedin the Gardens of the Geological So
ciety. The impure air Of their cages
caused them to die of consumption, not
withstanding they were fed on the best of
food in great abundance, and had the ut
most care bestowed upon them. Monkeys
are particularly liable to consumption
when Gagged; DR.. Regnand, of Paris,
found tuhercles in every stage of devel-
opment in their lunge. In many cases.,
he tells us, there were distinct cavities
filed with softened tubercles, while others
had liberation of the bronchial glands,
Laru1s and eDigLottiS, the same as are
found in laryngeal Consumption in man.
Professor Carswell, of the London Uni
versity, the eminent Psychologist, found
that he could readily produce tubercles in
rabbits by simply combining them In m
pure air. We know of nc exception to
! this rule in the animal kingdom.
If the reader will now go over again,
the several causes given in preceding let
ters. he will find that they all meet at this
| one point-they prevent the proper oxy-
| oenation of the blood; and those WHICH
| do so in the greatest degree, are tho chief
causes of this disease. But few cases can
be traced 10 inheritance, or even to predls-
position. In the face Of all these facts,
physicians who have grown gray without
making one contribution to medical sci
ence, aud old women who have grown
wise npon their precepts, will doubtless
still continue to harp on "hereditrTy faint
in the blood but it is inexcusable for in
telligent people to be frightened by the
iqaus fataRs OFFS by-gone age, or to build
up anv hopes of immunity, because of
their presumed freedom from it.
All observation and experience unite
TO prove that the root of this malady is in
the hwgs and that tubercIes are but the
fruit of imperfect respiration. If we
would cure il, We must attack it here We
must remove the mucus which obstruets
the tubes and restore the purity of the
blood by acting upon it through the air
cells. We are aware that this is different
from the theory generally held by our
professional brethren, but then we also
know that the treatment based upon it IS
| successful while theirs-dosiag The stOnl-
! ach to cure the lungs is little better than a
melancholy iEnpOsture upon hopeless misery.
/ Tho only sure test Of a truth GA a fals'ty
of a medical doctrine, is the practical re-
/ suits TO which it leads. The results to
which their practice has led, are the upi-
versal dread with which Consumption is
regarded, and the almost universal con-
| viction that it is necessarily IN innurable
disease. Thus it is that professional error
JOINS hands with public creduilty, and bars
the road to truth. .
In order to fairly estimate the causes
which produce tubereles in the lungs, let
us take a given number Of those who
apply for advice. What do we fnd2
| Why, that the great majority
are of persons leading a Seden-l
/ targ -..Iifsj meDhants who confne
themselves very closely to the duties of
the counting-house; clerks and book
keepers who are compelled TO eramp the
| chest and limit its expansion by sitting
day after day over the desk; mechanics
who work on the bench in close, W-Venti-
\ lated rooms, or who breathe an atmos-
| nhere loaded with Gast and the Door who
live miserably in damp cellars, or the
| close air of tenement houses" We are
aware that many who lead an active life
in the open air, are also cut of by it, but
n them it always arises from Neglected
| colds. Thin shoes, insufficient clothing,
and exposure TO f0et deprive them of the
immunity they would otherwise enjoy.
In private drawing-rooms, in the street,
at church, everywhere, in fact, where men
and women meet together, we hear the
'deatA tick of Consumption in the b0tk-
ing and rasDilg efforts made to clear the
windpipe from sticky mueus. They may
go on thus for q time, but, unless the cause
be removed, the blood soon becomes car
~bonaceous, and they slowly but surely fall
into Consumption.
If we except iHheTitGnee-which as a
cause of Consumption, does not extend to
those whose parents may haYe died of
this disease years after they were born, 4
but is confined exclusively TO persons
whose parents, one or both, were actually |
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