Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-27
Tuesdav. Feb. 27. 1888.
PNEUMONIA

l
 Pneumonia has been unusually prevalent
 among it's victims not few distinguished
 men and women. Some of the New York
 doctors have been interviewed concerning
 the dreadful disease and though they do not
 agree in their opinions what they say is in 1 teresting
 Dr. William A. Hammond thinks the great
 trouble with people in this country is that
 they will persist in living in overheated
 rooms. As consequence of this bad habit
 when they go out the great difference in temperature strikes upon their organization,
 the cold penetrates them and pneumonia kills them. Even without going into the
 street persons inhabiting very warm rooms may contract fatal cold when passing into halls that are not heated. To avoid pneunao- mia, says Dr. Hammond, ''people should take good care of themselves. I don't mean by staying at home and making themselves as comfortable as possible, but by taking out door exercise and making their habits regu- lar. Many suppose that when the winter is severe aud the atmosphere is what is termed 'bracing,' that the mortality is not great. But
 
 both ends-kills off the very old and the very young. There is less mortality in a mild winter. Now. to avoid the danger of taking cold would recommend people to keep their houses only moderately warm" Dr. Ham, mond would also advise people to abstain from alcohol, for much drinking predisposes to pneumonia.
 Dr. Alfred l.. Loomis said that simply talk ing cold, without any predisposing cause being present, could not be regarded as prominent cause of pneumonia. Sudden change from hot to a cold atmosphere, and 0ice Oers0, would bring on the disease. Out side atmospheric influences too, he thought, were at work in producing pneumonia and among other causes he especially mentioned 1 drinking. 'Persons will take it." he said, 1 ''from exposure or from anything that will 1 depress the vitality. Excesses of all kinds | will bring it on, particularly exposure to the | night air. for at night we are much more lia- | ble to it than in the daytime. It is the old | who are killed off by it. Youth is not so liable as old age, and elderly people | should be particularly careful"
 Dr. J. R. Learning said that pneumonia | has been coming north since about 1870. In | his experience he has found that it is accom-. panied by pleurisy. Persons taken with it | are generally in low and weakened condi- | tion, either from mental anxiety or from the | state of the weather. As means of warding | of the disease he suggested that people | should keep themselves in as good condition as possible. They should not overwork | khnroC 1uaC free from anxiety of mind. Men who have | 8 great deal to care about, men who have | great responsibilities, are very liable to this | disease. He told how to distinguish the mild | from the more serious forms of the disease, | First, in the mild form the respiration is not | greatly oppressed: and although the febriIe l conditions, pulse, temperature, etc., may de- l note much activity, yet from the eighth to | the ninth day there is suddenly aza generally complete abatement of fever, with or without | treatment, and the convalescence is uninter- | rupted. In the serious form there isdiffcul- ty of breathing, ividity of the countenanee. restlessness and seeking the upright posi- lion. The pulse is frequent and feeble and the skin cool and moist. In many cases the patient dies before the fifth day.
 What Dr. Hammond says about keeping rooms too warm strikes us as especially sen- 'ible. With improved stoves, furnaces, 'team radiators, etc., our houses are very comfortable, but the heat tends to weaken hose who enjoy it, and the change to the outside air is too great and sudden. Our athers and mothers, who did not have all 'the modern improvements, were quite as lealthy as we are.