The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-05-05
THE CLIMATE CURE.

The following extracts are from an
article by Frank D. Y Carpenter, in
LippincottS Magazine:
Is there climate cure for consump-
ton? The census-takers of the world
tell us that from one-seventh to one
third of its population die of that dis
ease; and it is of no little importance to
know if the afflicted one should aban-
don the comforts and sympathy of home
for the doubtful benefits of the health
resort, with its dispiriting society and
and its frequent funerals. Never was
evidence more one-sided than that upon
the climate cure; and it's unreliability
is aggravated by the fact that the testi-
mony of the principal witness, the in
valid himself, is all but valueless. The
consumptive is proverbially blind to his
own condition, and, imagining restora-
ton where the impartial observer sees
nothing but dissolution, blesses the eli
mate for the change.
Should visitor, having recovered his
health, hint the possibility that his cure
was Independent of climate, he would
be looked upon as monster of ingrati-
tude. And yet legions of invalids stay
80 home and recover Who has not had
friends who, after the fever, cough,
emaciation, and other symptoms of de-
cline, have regained their former vigor
without change of climate? A man
in Boston is brought to deaths door by
a frightful hemorrhage of the lungs. He
stays quietly in the city, and afterward
enjoys the best health of all his life.
Yet he would be considered fool to at
tribute his restoration to the climate of
Boston. There are a number of in
stances on record in which people have
gone from New York to Colorado and
gained flesh. Probably an equal num-
Der could be found in the removals from
the latter to the former State, if there
was an equal emigration in that direc-
ton; but it is doubtful if such statistics
would be cherished by the Newly orkers
as worthy of remark.
Many physicians reputation and
patent medicine mans fortune and
sanitarium's fame have been built up
on gullible peoples readiness to
believe that post hoe equals propter hoe.
Meanwhile, we ignore our one great
curative agent, the recuperative effort
with which nature is eternally striving
to restore vitality, battle disease and
counteract the effect of the drugs with
which the invalid is fed 1t is said that
man is born to die. No; he is born to
live, and he RECEIVERS health a hundred
times before he dies one.
Down in some parts of benighted
Delaware the inhabitants with one ac-
cord are afflicted with kind of malarial
disorder which, without any waste of
words, they call ''the bilious" Some
betake themselves to one remedy, and
some to another; but a favorite resort
is to "conjure" it away. A young man,
for example, goes into the woods, bores
three holes in a tree, places three
pebbles in each hole, makes three revo-
lutions on his heel, says, $50 away,
Bilious!' three times, and loi he feels
better Immediately, and is completely
well in few days. Ridiculous, of
course, but not more so than most re-
ports of cures in which the desired eff
feet follows more or less closely upon
supposed cause. The truth is that no
one can know positively that he has
been helped by any physician, medicine
or climate, for the simple reason that
he can never know what would have
been his condition if he had not tried
such expedient. There are thousand
and one secret springs of life whose
action he cannot follow. On the other
hand, it is easy to number with preci-
sion host of those who have not been
cured by any treatment; the head
stones in the graveyard tell the tale.
In consumption, as in other ailments,
there are fluctuations in the disease
Sometimes the patient is better, and
sometimes worse, until death comes
Hence it almost always happens that
season of improvement follows his ar
rival at the health-resort, and this is
seized upon as proof that the climate is
beneficial, if not absolutely curative.
Granting that there is climate cure,
where shall we find itP Advice on that
subject will be plenteous enough. Every
friend will tell of some one who went
somewhere and got better, That is
nothing People have stayed at home
in Maine and Massachusetts and done
as much. Some advisers are so ira
tional Us to say that any change is bene-
fetal; but this can only be true of one