Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-12
Or. Hunter on Chronic Nasal
CatarPh.
LETTER NO. II.
the Editors of the Union and Dispatch.

To the Editors Of the Union and Dispatch.
GENTLEMEN: In proceeding to de
scription Of those diseases which are most
frequent and fatal in their effect upon the
health and strength of the Lungs, and
therefore the most fruitful sources of Con-
sumption, commence with Nasal Catarrh.
In consequence Of the almost fatal apathy
of the profession, this disease has been the
remote cause Of consignment to an I'M
timely grave of more victims than the
Asiatic cholera; for it performs as certain.
", though more tardily, after years of men
tai anguish and physical suffering, what
cholera accomplishes in few hours.
So long az the people remain ignorant of
the causes which produce Consumption.
and of the symptoms which mark its first
stealthy and insidious approaches, We can
not hope that any timely steps will be
adopted for its prevention, or that those who
are unhappily struck by the fatal arrow
will be spared the suferings and danger
arising from confirmed disease of the lungs.
That this want of information does exist
among the people, cannot be denied. How
ever well informed they may be on politics,
government, mechanism and trade, they
are, as a rule, compelled to confess them
selves utterly ignorant of the laws of health,
and of the principles on which prevalent
and dangerous diseases ought to be COM
hated and removed.
In word, the art of preserving life by
the prevention of disease, is regarded as
entirely secondary to the acquisition Of
wealth, and the latter may almost be said
to bound the aspirations of the popular
mind.
Consumption haa several stages: it has
first, or forming stage; second, or con-
frmed stage and a third, or nleerative
stage The lungs do not become immedi
ately stuffed with tubercles, or corroded
with foul ulcers, but only after months or
years of irritation, or slow, insidious pro-
gress from the slight catarrh to the seated
bronchitis, characterized by little, hack
ing cough, slight pain in the chest, occa-
sional fiushes, accelerated pulse, fnrred
tongue and dyspepsia. Then from Bron-
chtis to the first depositing of little tu-
bercular matter in single glObule, and
more or less aggrayatiOn Of all the previ-
Gus symptoms, as the deposits increase in
quantity, supplanting the healthy structure
of the lungs, when softening, or liberation,
takes place, fostering and burrowing among
the delicate air-cells, until the whole Of
the diseased lungs become reduced to a
hopeless mass of DISCRIMINATION, and that
malady has reached its last and fatal stage.
The error is too wide spread among the
people, and too general even among physi-
clans, to regard Consumption as a disease
marked not only by cough, but purulent
expectoration, hectic fever, night-sweats,
asting of flesh, and loss of strength; in
other words, to apply the name consump-
ton only to that stage of the disease. Were
il otherwise, we should not have to listen,
with feelings of pity and sorrow, to such
expressions as, I" it is only catarrh )" "the
disease is all in the throat; :" or, cit is only
a slight bronchial affection" Alas! how
few realize the fact that these diseases, I'M
important as they are generally looked
upon, and consumption, are all links in the
same chain, and that there are few who
suffer from these affections who do not
sooner or later fill consumptives grave
Chronic Nasal Catarrh is generally the
result of neglected and frequently repeated
attacks of the acute variety of this disease,
which becomes practically known to most
of us several times year in the shape Of
cold in the head"
After a longer or shorter time, the liabil-
ity to attacks of acute catarrh becomes in
creased, and the patient finds, after it has
passed of, there remains discharge of yell
low mucus This is Chronic Catarrh in its
most usual form. On examining the nos
trilswith speculum or instrument special
ly adapted to that purpose, We find its
membrane more or less thickened-redder
than in health, and often liberated In the
simplest form we have merely an sccumu-
lation of yellow or straw-colored mucus in
the posterior nares above and behind the
palate, which the patient hawks" ont
from time to time during the day. AS the
disease advances, little points of liberation
appear in the mucus membrane, upon which
the secretion becomes hardened, forming
crusts, requiring almost constant picking"
to keep it free; and as these inspissated
masses of mucus are tern from the diseased
surface of the nose, they become irritated
and frequently bleed profusely.
Ny next letter will be on Ozaena, one of
the most distressing and offensive diseases
Of the nose and head.
JAMES 4. HUNTER, N. d.
ST. CLOUD HOTEL, Oct. 11th.