The Shasta courier., 1867-03-16
Consumption.

MS disease causes about one sixth or one
seventh Of all the deaths north of the tropics.
The proportion in Boston and New York is
little less than one-ffth, and in Philadel-
pha and Baltimore a little less than one
sixth With such an enormous mortality
this may well be singled out from all NAL
aides as the grand scourge of all cold and
temperate climates.
Can anything be done to diminish this
mortality? Let us sec.
There is one general fact in the preva-
lence of this disease which stands out prom
inently, and which, duly considered, is a
key to measures of prevention capable of
lessening vastly its ravages. 1t is the Fact
that ce,y many more temales than males die
OF mptiOa-and in the experience of
some physicians, about twice as many. The
statistics of hospitals often seem to contra
diet this, for there are generally more male
than female inmates laboring under this dis
ease. But it is to be remembered that on
the whole, in any sickness, more males than
females are compelled by circumstances to
resort to the conveniences and care Of the
hospital We can ascertain the proportions
of the sick, then, only from the records of
private practice and they, so far as they
have been examined, are very decisive on the
point in question.
In the observations on this point there
has come out one significant fact which
indicates very distinctly some of the
measures of prevention. 1t is this In
families where the disease or rather ten
dency to it's inherited. the female mem
bers are more apt to die of it than the male.
We have known some instances in which all
the males esca ped while the females died.
Why this difference? 1t cannot be in the
Inheritance. A better constitution could
not have been inherited bv the one sex than
the other The difference then must have
been in the habits and circumstances of life.
IT, then. we observe what this difference
is, we shall discover what are the chief means
of counteracting the tendency to consump-
ton. whether it be inherited or generated in
the individual.
There are two things in which the cir
cumstances of the two sexes differ. One of
these is the amount of exercise in the open
air. After the first few years of childhood
ere is a marked difference in this respect.
becoming greater and greater with the ad
vance to maturity. The school girl seldom
takes any exercise that reddens the face,
starts the perspiration, and puts the heart
in strong action. But the boy does this as
a matter of every habit. The result in him
is vigor Of constitution, counteracting any
tendency to consumption and other kindred
diseases that he may have Inherited On
the contrary, in the girl there are laxness
and feebleness of structure, favOrlng the
development of the latent morbid tendencies
which may have been born with her. or en-
eendering them in a constitution originally
vigorous. and therefore well fortified against
disease.
Consumptionfs pre- eminently disease of
debility, and hence the great Importance of
measures for impartng vigor either in its
prevention or its cure. 1t is in vain to try
to cast off either the disease or the tendency
to it by vaunted cure and preventives, to
the neglect of these measures, as is often
done.
We sometimes have an opportunity of
seeing in very striking manner the infu
ence of outdoor exercise in renoyating the
system, and thus destroying diseased ten
dencies Here is a case as an example,: A
young lady, who had superior scholarly
attainments, at the expense of health, from
neglect of active exercise in the open air,
consulted physician who was in the habit
of thinking that his vocation extended be
yond the administration of drugs, and in
cluded properly the control OF all the cir
cumstances of his patients. Giving her but
little medicine, he enjoined an entire change
of the habits, confning her to two studies
one of which was to botany, and this was to
/ be pursued largely in the open air. There
was such an entire change from the long
continued sedentary habits in this case, thai
| in less than year she walked in one day
! over twenty miles, and with this change
there was a perfect deiverance from the
| old morbid tendencies which her over con
! fnement to study had induced.
The other circumstance in which there i.
great difference is the mode of dress. In
the stronger sex this is such, for the most
part, as will allow the freedom which nature
provides for the organs. Not so with tn,
fenae where Fashion bears rule-anc
where does she not? Restrictions are pu
upon freedom of movement in various ways
thus tending to prevent exercise from being
taken in sufficient amount The chief re
! strlction is in the compression Of the trunl
of the body, bearing mostly upon the chest
so that while it impedes the general notion
! Of the trunk, which nature desgnei to hay,
so abundantly varied, it also prevents III,
lungs from having their required volume
1t Is in this last point that the prlncipa
mischief is done. There is C, rtain patura
proportion between the lungs and othe
organs which is essential to health. Bu
fashion undertakes 10 alter this by restrict