The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-05-11
CONSUMPTION.
Cause Of the Dreaded Disease Remedies
by Which IL May BE Arrested.

Cause Of the Dreaded Disease Rcmcliss
by which IL May BE Arrested.
from the Chicago Tribune.l
Tho eminent physician, DR.. Felix l..
Oswald, in the course of an article in
the Popular Science Monthly upon
THE Remedies of Nature" with an APP
plication to the cure or alienation OF
consumption, lays down q generic prin-
ciple broad enough, as it would seem,
to be the foundation Of new system of
medicine. 1t is to the effect that nature
always tries to relieve itself, and that
the sensory symptoms attending the pro-
cess of reconstruction are in reality O
plea for noninterference. Hence the
best way to assist nature is to forbear
from meddling with the restorative pro-
cesses and to seek to remove the predis-
posing cause. In his own words:
"There is strong upward and health
ward tendency in the constitution of ev
cry living organism. Natures revenge
is but an enforced condition Of peace.
Pain, discomfort, and even the prema-
ture loss of organic vigor, are the at
tendant symptoms of reconstructive
process, and their permanence is pre-
sumptive proof that, in spite of such adj
monitions, the process is struggle
against a permanent obstacle, or con-
stantly repeated Illustration of its Of
forts"
1t is this general rule that DR.. Os-
valid applied to the treatment of con-
sumption, evidently singing out that
disease because it the most terrible de-
stroyer of human life, even as compared
with the alcohol habit and the diseases
that grow out of it. His statistics
prove that the proportion Of deaths
from the latter cause, compared with
deaths from pulmonary consumption, is
as three and half to ten in Northern
Europe and as four to ten in the United
States and Canadian other words,
consumption causes almost three times
as many deaths as the use of intoxicat-
ing liquors. Tubercular consumption
alone claims yearly aggregate of "a, 600
lives in the United States, 10000 in
Great Britain and Ireland, $1,000 in
France, 100000 in European Russia,
and 80, 900 in Northern Germany. 1t
is another peculiarly of the disease
that it selects it's victims from the in
dustrial classes. North or South,
East or West" says DR.. Oswald, "the
death, rate from lung diseases is found
to bear an exact proportion to the per-
centage of the inhabitants habitually
engaged in sedentary and indoor occu-
pations. Towns suffer more than the
rural districts, cities more than country
towns, manufacturing more than COM
mercial and semi-agricultural cities,
weaver towns more than foundry
towns" In this quality and locality Of
the disease was found the error of the
theory that ascribed consumption to the
influence of low temperature. On the
other hand it is declared to be house
disease and this DR.. Oswald proves by
numerous illustrations, showing that in
non-manufacturing regions q low tenn
perature Is a protection against pull
monary disease, and that cold sections
of q country are remarkably free from
it, while on the other hand it is abun-
dant where vitiated air Is constantly
breathed, or where in cities large num-
bers of persons are confined to indoor
occupations.
DR.. Oswald's theory does not conflict
with the parasitic theory of DIR. Koch,
for he claims thst vitiated air, or air
breathed over and over again, fills the
lungs with indigestible elements, which
gradually accumulate until they cor
rupt the tissues and favor the develop
ment of parasites. But" says DIR.
Oswald, cease TO feed the lungs with
azotic gases and DR.. Koch's animalcule
will stsrve and disappear as surely as
maw-worms will starve and disappear
if we change pork and sauer-kraut
diet for bread and apples" DR.. Os-
valid, therefore, lays it down as certain
that "in all ATTITUDES of the Temperate
zone the disease known as pulmonary
consumption is caused by the breathing
of vitiated air, and can be subdued by
outdoor exercise" He does not claim
that wasted tissues can be reproduced,
but he does claim that in all but its last
stages the progress OF the disease can
be arrested by outdoor life alone, and
that three-months' mountain trip,
with or without tents. and even at
tended with all possible discomforts,
will cure all the symptoms of the dis
ease.
The doctor advocates airy bedrooms,
outdoor exercise in winter, sightseeing
afoot, the use of fat-containing sub
stances, and the avoidance, on the other
hand, of all scorbutific articles Of diet,
such as salt meats, pickles, rancid
fat, pungent spices, cheese and in
toxicating liquors, the use of gymnastic
apparatus, etc. In fine, he recommends
series of atmospheric, gymnastic and
dietetic remedies, which he claims will
always arrest the progress of this dread
full disease. Fresh air and active exer-
else are medicines easily procurable
and easy to take. They are within the
reach of all, and are certainly worth
the trying. They can harm no one, il
they do no good. 1t adds to their en-
joyment that they can be made attract
i've and pleasant.
Cookery i'm Dixie