Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-07-13
CONSUMPTION

Does not begin, a. people generally think.
with cough o. soreness OF the lungs. but
dyspepsia, or cstarrh. The most common
aud most fatal form In that In which tuber-
Giles are deposited in the substance OF the
lungs. These are small cheesy kernels, that
usually lie dormant for many months. even
for years, showing their presence only by
shortening the breath and weakening the
frame, aud inducing languor and inability
TO walk last or far, or work hard.
The young wife. settling into decline.
leans more heavily on the husband = arm
once she walked lightly with him step for
step; now. she leans, ano complains that he
walks 30 fast, aud puts her all out of breath.
She gets better for nile In brighter wealth
err, and then withou evident cause sinks
lower than before; and thus rises and sinks.
perhaps. many times before the tubercles
ripen and rot the tissues around them, when
she coughs, at first and perhaps for long
time. a dry, hacking cough then 1t becomes
moist and softer. and she raises matter either
yellow or saltish. apd perhaps offensive s 70
the white Of an egg. 1t is usually looked
upon as OF no great account but treated az a
common cold. the patient not deigning to
call 10 even the family physician. But even
II he Is called he Is apt 70 make light OF 1t,
and advise some simple thing. The patient
waits and hopes. but Is annoyed to find she
does not get rid Of 1t; thinks II a bad cold,
before; coughs worse evenings and morn
ings, and fears she has caught more cold,
but cannot account for II.
The following are the more Com
mon signs OF this form OF consumption
First, lassitude. or languor. or shortness of
breath, with disposition 10 gasp or sigh or
catch for breath. At this stage IL Is easily
cured. II the patient tries the sperometer
he finds that he cannot breathe an average
amount. perhaps by forty or fifty inches
not that the tubercles I'll SO much space.but
that they weaken the power of imitation and
expulsion OF air. Young girls. at this stage.
are prone TO lean on the parasoi in walking,
as II for cane TO support, and are disposed
TO loll and sit at ease, for any exertion ''puts
them out OF breath" They like to recline
on the sofa, or lounge in a rocking chair.
They relinquish many of their previous and
more active pleasures, and voluntarily with
draw from the dance, or skating. or amuse
ments requiring lively or vigorous move
ment, aud prefer TO look on. rarely dreaming
that the time Is fast approaching when they
shdll even look on no more. and the dance
and the skates will go on just as mefrily
perhaps without them. Ii the lungs be
carefully examined with the proper instru-
ments at this stage they sound dull under
the hammer, and give no sound at all
through the stethoscope over some one spot.
more commonly over the middle lobe OF the
right lung; or instead of absence of the
healthy sound. 1t is changed into creaking
called crepitation-bnt very faint
This sound cannot be detected through the
garments, nor through any of them, nor can
the dizziness be detected through them with
the hmfner. 1Dert is 10 resort In the pfhc-
tice OF medicine moreabsurd and pernicious
than that of pretendingto examine the lungs
with the fingers OF one hand drumming on
those OF the other over the chest; and what
makes 1t still more worthless is the
doing OF ii over garments that
would utterly obscure much louder sound
than the one for which the practitioner is
supposed to be listening. Such examine
lions begnile the patients. until the disease
Is so deep as to pass all hopes of recovery.
Still, up to this time the ordinary
duties OF life are carried on usual only
with an increasing disposition to rest and
sig dow while st WORK, TIL the patient is
II application be made TO a physician In |
common located practice, he declares after /
one Of those shiftless, faulty examinations |
with his fingers. that the lungs are all right; |
only little irritation of the tubes. oh. |
this fatal blindness fhe patient returns |
comforted, and tries, perhaps. some cough |
drops or expectorant to loosen the cough. |
and begins TO raise the phlegm much
more easily: but after while complains Of |
some nausea after eating, and holl0wness |
when hungry-the early symptoms OF dys- |
pepsia, brought on by the depressing cough |
drops, or troches, or expectorants, which |
are all made Of some drug. which taken in
larger doses produce sickness at the stomach |
as squills, ipecac, lobelia, etc. These ex-
pectorants hasten on the disease at a much
accelerated rate; and complicate y with
Others that make IL much more difficult TO
cure. But even at this stage, by q judicious
81 stem Of inhalation, proper diet, habits, /
tonics and change OF air, 1t Is easily brought
under control. We cannot too deeply con
denim and deplore the free use of troches,
cough drops, and expectorants OF all kinds
They hurry many to the grave, and In 9th
ers induce dyspepsia. rose catarrh or fever.
hay asthma and other troubles indicative OF
Q perverted tone Of the mucous membrane.
In the succeeding stages OF the disease the
symptoms of the prece ding ones are greatly
aggravated, and TO these are commonly add
woman the monthly discharges cease or be-
come scanty: the mind becomes. so TO say.
cspricious, the hopes being at one moment
unduly elsted, and perhaps the next more |
d snd tn ss sea there 4 %
scenes and stories. and TO laugh heartily at /
the slightest absurdities or witticisms; the /
emotions become very sensitive andtender, |
q cold, clammy sweat awakens the patient
from unquiet sleep, and gives reins to the |
widest fancies. The lips are often observed /
to be purple or black and dry; a flush fire. |
quently appears on the cheek; the white of |
the eye becomes of a mother-of-pearl APP
pearance; the cough deepens and extends |
from morning till night. aud from night till |
morning, even sometimes continuing |
the spit or sputa is salt and yellow and OF
bad taste, and increases In quantity from /
time to time, when the patient is said TO |
catch cold the voice becomes huskyor hol- |
low, OF duOuly bOuOfOuSs the peTlO0B OF eX-
ercise grow shorter with the shortening
breath, and less and less frequently. the |
walk Of n few rods being ufficient to induce |
fatigue; the chest becomes tender, even to |
conceded that the patient is in . decline,
or wasting fever, or perhaps the bold word |
Consumption is used. and by or before this /
time the careless examiner-the physician /
recognizes the foe with which he /
has so long been dealing, and advises
codliver oil, or the snper-phosphates, or |
whisky and cream, or the last fashionable
folly In the treatment Of this dread disease.
and perhaps a change of air to the south, |
and probably sanctions plaster to the /
chest or between the shoulders, or covers |
these parts with croton oil or tartarized an /
timony. Oh 1t is pitiful t. see such help |
lessness at such q time, the last precious
days in which there may be ground for
hopef This soon passes; the patient lies |
later and later from day TO day, till finally /
cough Is so harrassing and the discharge so
copious that the nurse holds up the patients
head that the sputa may be thrown into
cup or BOWL the appetite becomes very
the tubercles ripen and slough in the bow
els, giving rise to persistent and exhausting |
though mild diarrhea. There is constant
sense of want of breath that Is sometimes |
ed to the cough. Even at this late stage the
patient will sometimes sit up in bed and
write words of love and hope to some dis
amt friend. and make promises of visits and
ialk OF worldly affairs; II woman, will |
speak Of what she is to wear when she gets
well, aud hoS she will dress her hair, ETC., |
md the next minute may be found in tears.
rs she suspects she may never recover. But
why follow this declining life into the deep |
darkness 10 which 1t so swiftly and surely
.ends7 All ground for hope is long since
gone. 1t took years, perhaps, to do the
work, but Il Is done. The reason consump-
ion Is so seldom cured Is that 1t Is not rec.
1gnized till Its work Is so far advanced. |
Physicians close their eyes to it till too late |
% master II, or having accidentally cured Il, |