Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-04-14

The Treatment Of Pneumonia.
The recent deaths from pneumonis
haye created feeling Of apprehension
on the part of the public that the dis
ease has assumed the form of an epi.
deu1ic, or that il has assumed proper
tions beyond the reach of skillful ply
sicians. This is regarded as false i'm
preston by physicians, who aver tina
simple pneumonia will pursue steady
and brief course for week or ten days
when it will terminate favorably with.
out any further treatment than good
nursing and in the more severe forms
which it assumes it only requires the
addition of supporting treatment, espe.
cially the use Of quinine and mild stim-
ulation. There was q time when Wig.
orous depletion was considered the
duty of every physician at the outset
of pneumonia, often with the view oi
completely checking it, and IN its
earlier stages, for the purpose OF short
ening its duration and limiting the ex-
tent of lung involved, and the prolon-
CATION of the disease. Blood-letting
as a method of routine treatment, has
been abandoned, not only in pneumo-
mia, but in all inhammatory diseases.
At the same time there is a growing
opinion among many physicians that
the utter abandonment of bleeding is
a natural reaction from its former abuse
and that there may occur In the expert
ence of any physician cases OF extreme
congestion or incipient Inflammation In
which the withdrawal of blood will be
indicated as a sure and immediate
means of relief. As, however, cases of
inflammatory disease are seldom seen
until the process has been in measure
established, if there is a withdrawal OF
blood it lowers the vitality of the
system. which will be required to pass
through the natural period Of the
disease and insure successful removal
of the infammstory deposit. And all
the blood withdrawn must be restored
by subsequent vigorous supporting
treatment. Following the method OF
depletion, various remedies supposed
to have sedative influence upon the
nervous system, and to lessen the plas-
ITCHY of the blood, were extensively
used. Such treatment Is still In q
measure employed, with view of di-
minishing the extent of iniammatory
action, but, as rule, combined with
tonics and liberal diet.
1t would be impossible to enumerate
the various articles which are employed
or the numerous class of remedies used
but the diversity of remedies does not
argue any essential difference in the
mode of treatment, the particular arti-
cles employed individually by different
physicians having substantially the
same effect. With view of diminish
ing the action of the heat and lessen
ing the local congestion, elevated tenn
perature, and rapid pulse, one physician
would use aconite, while another would
prescribe veratrum viride, or digitalis,
all of which would subserve the same
purpose. There is, however a general
recognition of few simple principles
lieve the extreme exhaustive pain IN
the side ; to reduce the temperature of
the body, or at least control the de-
structive febrile action of which the
elevatedtemperatureis is the eexponenta
by regulating the action of the heart
and the violence and rapidity of the cir
culation, to restrict the inflammatory
process to as limited an amount of
lung tissues as possible. From this
stage of the disease one general method
of treatment is pursued that is to so
thoroughly restrain the patient by rich
concentrated food and tonics, espe-
cially calisaya bark or quinine, and
when necessary the administration of
alcoholic stimulants, thus enabling the
patient to convalesce rapidly with a
complete restoration of the lungs to
healthy state.
A well known New York physician
says the disease is to a certain extent
subject to atmospheric influences, and
has very close connection with those
affecting diphtheria and cerebro-spinal
meningitis. 1t was more fatal among
people between the ages of twenty and
forty, and those who had passed the
age of sixty years. Persons between
the ages of forty and sixty were seldom
attacked by it. The nature of the
disease, he said, was Inflammation of
the lungs, and the exciting causes were
exposure of the body to extreme cold
or prolonged chills. The predisposing
causes, he said, were malaria, the IN
due use of alcoholic stimulants, and IN
known atmospheric changes such as are
present when certain malarial diseases
are prevalent. The disease might also
be developed by the inhalation of sewer
gases. The symptoms manifested
themselves in the patient by distinct
chill, lasting from half an hour to two
or three hours, followed by pain in
the side of several hours duration, ac-
companied by high fever, hacking
cough, and rapid respiration, and hem
orrhage. The possible danger of death
was to be apprehended between the
fifth and ninth days.