American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-06-01
Modern Diseases.

A writer in the Boston Journal of
Chemistry not long since briefly review
ed the situation with reference to mod
ern diseases and methods of treatment.
His conclusions are worthy of another
hearing, and we reproduce some of
them as follows:
A large number of bodily ailments
which afflict the race come from hered-
itary transmission. The neglects, the
excuses of the fathers, which have in
duced physical weaknesses and organic
LESSONS in their own bodies, find fruit
age in their children. Three fifths of
the physical miseries of the present race
are hereditary, and as the generations
march along in the great procession of
life, their transmitted torments will
increase in number and intensity unless
sanitary rules are better known and OBJ
served. The race could unquestionably
be physically improved in a large de-
gree, in two or three centuries, if it were
possible for all parents to live in strict
accordance with hygienic laws. The
hope of those laboring for higher
standard of public health lies in this d.
rection. Transmitted poisons can be
eliminated and weaknesses removed,
and happy will be the race living upon
our planet when legacies of pain and
mental anguish are no longer left by
parents to their children.
Science has already obtained the mas
terry over many forms of what are
known as zymotic diseases, or those
which arise from germinal poisons ex-
isting in the atmosphere, in water and
in foods. This class is very numerous
and very fatal in tendency. Smallpox,
fevers, diphtheria, scarlatina, cholera,
and some forms of dysentery, are all
believed to be zymotic in origin; they
arc instances of blood-poisoning, the
poison coming from agencies external
to the body.
| But fevers of all kinds are less preva-
lent than formerly, owing to a better
knowledge of their nature and origin,
and when instances occur, the treat
ment is such. or ought to be such, as to
cut short their continuance and change
a severe affiiction into a comparatively
mild one.
Diphtheria is new enemy, or rather
it is an old enemy which for some rea-
son gets fiercer grip upon us than
formerly. This may be owing to habits
of life, or morbid conditions which give
the poison freer scope in the system.
At the present moment the battle with
this cruel ailment does not result salts
factorily. Still, science is making a
clear gain in the contest, and it can not
be many years before this disease will
be looked upon with less dread than
now.
Scarlatina continues to be &c a monster
of most hideous MEN, and inspires
dread in every household. Idiosyn-
crasies of organization have much to do
with the fatality of this poison. Elevate
or improve the general standard OF
health, purify the fountain of life, which
is the blood, and the fire of scarlatina
will burn less fiercely in the children's
veins. Although ordinary medical skill
is often of no avail, still in a large ma
jority of cases, the terribleness of the
poison is modified by intelligent treat
ment, and lives are saved. There i:
ground for hope that in the centuries to
come scarlatina will be classed among
the durable affections, if its occurrence
be not entirely prevented.
Cholera is no longer looked upor
with special dread, as it is certain thai
its career can be arrested wherever san
itary and medical science holds sway
Personal cleanliness, temperance, prop
er food, adequate clothing, healthfu
employment-these are the grand agen.
cies by which the blood is put in con
dition to resist the introduction o.
poisonous spores; and when they find
ingress the fuel to feed the fires of fer.
mentation is lacking, and but feeble
fame results. Parents must remember
that the purity and regularity of theil
lives give to their children immunity
from zymotic diseases; for, as is their
blood, SO is that of their progeny.
The I" cure'' of the disease (of the
diseased y is rendered possible by GER
tain conditions which, alas, are too of
ten wanting in both adults and children
Medicines, if intelligently employed, are
of service to the physician in the care O.
the sick. The indiscriminate use o.
drugs will not, however, cure disease
but will, on the other hand, certainl,
aggravate and complicate every form o
physical and mental arrangement. The
notion that there are simple or com
pound agents adapted to remove ply
steal ailments under all circumstance,
is fallacious and absurd. Cures, so
called, do not often result from the use
of remedies alone, but from natures eff
forts, assisted by proper dietary ant
sanitary regulations. The tendency o
nine-tenths of all diseases is toward re
covery. 1t is astonishing how tenacious
ly life clings to the frail body, when it i.
racked with pain or consumed with fe
yer. Body and spirit part only aftel
q desperate conflict, in the usual form:
of disease. (The conflict is between the
chemical forces on the one hand, anG
the vital forces on the other, and the
destructive chemical forces are mos
frequently beaten in the fight.) 1t is
through vital action that the spirit
makes defense, and by it not only are
all the strongholds of the body defend
ed, but also the Outposts, where the
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