Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1879-02-06
How Consumption May be Pre-
vented.
BY DIR. w. II. BENSON.

Consumption is disease caused by the
presence Of little particles Of matter called
tuberoes. These tubcrclcs are deposited
by the blood, sometimes in other portions
of the body, but usually in the lungs
They there act as foreign bodies. II you
were to stick splinter i'll your hand and
let it stay there, that splinter would 10
foreign body, and nature would try to
get rid of IT, The flesh around the splinter
would indamc, then soften or tester, and
finally slough out, carrying the splinter
with it. The resulting sore would then
get well. Tubcrcles aot on the lungs like
splinter in the flesh. They first iunamc,
then soften the particles of lungs in which
they are deposited, and finally arc sloughcd
out, couahed up and cxpcctorated The
resulting sores get well, but more tubcrces
arc deposited in the lungs. These act as
the first, and this process goes on until
the lungs are gradually destroyed and the
patients strength exhausted. This is the
ordinary course of most cases of consump
ton. The cough, the paiu, the hectic fever,
night swcats and debility, arc tho natural
consequences Of the Inflammation in the
Lungs caused by the tuberclcs
What l would earnestly press upon the
readers attention is the simple fact that
consumption is invariably caused by tubcr-
oles. Unless man has tuberclcs he cannot
have consumption. Since this is tho case,
what makes tho blood deposit tuberclcs?
is evidently the question to be asked. The
answer is, Simply because the blood is i'm
perfectly oxidized
Experience has shown what my theory
teaches, that consumption has been cured
only by that mode of life calculated to
completely oxidize the blood. Dr.. Syden.
ham, very celebrated physician, said,
"Ridng on horseback is as certain cure
for consumption as qunino is for intcrmit-
tent fever" Dr. Benjamin Rush, Amer.-
cas- greatest physician, fifty years ago limited
at the true cause Of consumption. After
giving an account Of several persons who,
during the war of 1912, were cured Of con.
sumption by the exposure of military life,
he says: "To tho cases havo mentioned I
shall add one moro which was commun-
Gated to mo by tho venerable DR.. Benjamin
Frankln. in travelling many years ago in
New England the doctor overlook tho post
rider, and after some inquiries iuto tho his.
tory Of his life, he informed hiuI that he
was bred shoemaker, that his confinement
and other circumstances had brought on Il
consumption, for which he was ordered by
his physician to ride on horseback. Find
ing this mode of exercise too expensive, he
made interest on the death of tho old postridcr
to succeed to his appointment, in which he
perfectly recovered his hoalth. After this
hc returned to his old trade on which his
consumption returned. Ho again mounted
bis horse and rode post in all seasons and
weather, in which employment he continued
in euod health for thirty years"
During the lato civil war, pale and doll.
cate young men, threatened with consump.
ton, instead of being injured, were in most
cases vastly benefited by tho tolls
and exposure incident to tho life of SOL
der.
If space permitted, I could advance other
arguments in support of my theory that
consumption, this terrible disease of which
one-fifth of civilized nations die, is owing
almost entirely to tho fact that men, on
account Of leading sedentory lives, and liv.,
ing in close, badiy-ventilatcd houses, do
not thoroughly ytalizo their blood by