Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-20
DR., ]. A. Hunter on 0zana and
p Treatment of Oatarrh.

To THE EDITORS OF THE UNION AND
Observation-Disclosures Ozsena is only an
advanced stage Of Chronic Catarrh, when
the liberation Of the mucus membrane has
become extensive, and the bones of the
nose involved in the disease The dis
charges in this case are purulent, or of a
yellowish or greenish color, frequently
tinged with blood, with an odor generally
more or less disagreeable or. intolerably
offensive. In the language Of DR.. q. B.
Wood, Of Philadelphia, THIS FORM OF
DISEASE Is ONE OF THE MOST OBSTINATE
AND DIsAGREEABLE AFFECTIONS WHICH
THE PHYSICIAN HAS TO ENCOUNTER. In
SOME INSTANCES TBE BREATH OF THE
PATIENT Is so REvoLTINGLY OFFENSIVE
AS ALMOST TO ISOLATE HIM FROM SOCIETY.
AND RENDER HIM AN OBJECT OF DISGUST
EVEN TO HIMSELF" This form of the dis
ease generally occurs in strumous, scrofu-
lous and unhealthy constitutions. When
the health is injured and the vitality of the
system broken down by dissipation and
vicious habits, the blood becomes impure,
and all local diseases are liable to assume
an aggravated character.
In some cases of Ozsena the liberation of
the bony paris becomes so extensive that
piecescome away with the pus, and plastic
exudations in the form Of large, solid
flakes Of excessively offensive matter are
discharged from the surface of the ulcers,
accompanied with blood.
The sense of smell is frequently more or
less injured, if not entirely lost. The dis
ease sometimes becomes so extensive as to
produce inflammation of the brain, which
in many cases results fatally.
REATMENT-Chronic Catarrh like
Asthma and Consumption, has hitherto
had no remedy. 1t remains a stain and
reproach on the page of medicine.
Nor has failure resulted from a want of
means of relief within our reach, or from
the seat of the disease or the malignity of
its nature; for we can reach the affected
parts by all the force of the materia med
ica-solids, fluids and gases-and the dis
ease itself is simply chronic Inflammation
Physicians have failed because they have
not striven to succeed earnestly and ration
ally. They have generally been satisfied
with squirting little warm water up the
nose, and prescribing an Alternative for the
stomach, which, unaided by proper and
effective local applications, is productive
of no good. Catarrh is rarely found as a
disease of the nose alone, but is generally
accompanied by more or less hoarseness,
showing that the irritation which exists in
the greatest intensity in the nasal men,
brane, also involves the larynx and lining
of the windpipe. We cannot, therefore,
hope to remove it by applications to the
nose only. The course / have pursued
with almost inYariable success is by the
inhalation of medieated vapors, and daily
showering the nostrils with solution
adapted to the condition of the membrane,
by showering syringe, which have con-
structed for the purpose.
So generally successful have been the
means l have employed in the treatment
of Catarrh that 1 doubt their failure in one
case of hundred, when properly and
faithfully employed. Unfortunately Ca
tarrh is too generally treated with equal
neglect by both physicians and patients,
until it becomes lost sight of in the disas-
trous consequences to which it gives rise.
JAMES A. HUNTER, NJ II.
ST CLOUD HOTEL, October II.