Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-07-28
CONSUMPTION

ic Complaints.
CONSUMPTION
Does not begin. as people generally think
usually with debility, weakness. languor
dyspepsia, or catarrh. The most common
and most fatal form Is that in which tuber
Giles are deposited In the substance of The
lungs. These are small cheesy kernels. tina
usually lie dormant for many months. ever
for years, showing their presence only by
shortening the breath and weakening tht
frame, aud indu ing languor and inability
to walk fast, or far, or work hard.
The young wife, settling into decline
leans more heavily on the husbands arm
Once she walked lightly with him step fol
step; now she leans, and complains that he
walks so fast. and puts her all out of breath
She gets better for u while 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, then
she coughs. at first and perhaps for n long
time. a dry, hacking cough; then 1t becomes
moist and softer and she raises matter either
yellow or saltish, and perhaps offensive 10
the taste, or II may be frothy or glairy, like
upon as of no great account, but treated as a
common cold, the patient not deigning 10
call in even the family physician. But even
II he is called he is apt TO make light of IL,
waits and hopes. but Is annoyed to fnd she
does not get rid of IL; thinks 1t bad cold,
that hangs on worse than any she ever had
before; coughs worse evenings and morn
iDgs, and fears she has caught more cold
but cannot account for IT..
The following are the more COM
mon signs of this form of consumption
First. lassitude, or languor. or shortness of
breath. with disposition to gasp or sigh or
catch for breath. AT this stage 1t is easily
cured II the patient tries the sperometer
he finds that he cannot breathe an average
amount, perhaps by forty or nifty inches
not that the tubercles fill so much space, but
that they weaken the power Of initiation and
expulsion of air. Young girls, at this stage,
are prone to lean on the parasol in walking,
as II for cane TO support, and are disposed
them out of breath" They like TO recline
on the sofa, or lounge in a rocking chair.
They rclinquish 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 10 look on, raj ely dreaming
that the time is fast approaching when they
shall even look on no more. and the dance
and the skates will go on Just as me:r!iy
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, it Is changed into creaking
called crepitation--but very faint.
This sound cannot be detected through the
garments, nor through any of them, nor can
the dullness be detected through them with
the hammer. There isno resort In the prac-
tice of medicine m0reabsurd and pernicious
than that of pretending to 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 1t over garments that
would utterly obscure much louder sound
than the one for which the practitioner is
supposed to be listening. Such examine
lions beguile 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 as usual only
sit dow n while at work, till the patient is
often considered more lazy than SICK"
II application be made 10 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 blindnessl fhe patient returns
eomforted. 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 hollowness
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 1t with
others that make 1t much more difficult to
cure. But even at this stage, by iudicious
system 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
a 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
cd some or all OF the following: In the
woman the monthly discharges cease or be-
come scanty: the mind becomes, so to say,
capricious, the hopes being at one moment
unduly elated, and perhaps the next more
depressed and moody, and there is mark
scenes ald stories, and to laugh heal thy at
the slightest absurdities or witticlsms; the
emotions become very sensitive and tender,
and this is most observable at night. when
q cold, clammy sweat awakens the patient
from unguiet sleep, and gives reins to the
widest fancies. The lips are often observed
to be purple or black and dry; flush fire.
quently appears on the cheek; the white OF
the eye becomes of a mother-ofpearl ap-
pearance; the cough deepens and extends
from morning till night. and from night till
morning, even sometimes continuing
through sleep that brings little refreshment;
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, or Hnduly sonorous; the periods of ex-
ercise grow shorter with the shortening
breath, and less and less frequently, the
walk Of a few rods being su fficient to induce
fatigue; the chest becomes tender. even to
a slight percussion, and it is now generally
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
who says consumption caunot be cured
recognizes the foe with which he
has so long been dealing, and advises
codliver oil, or the super-phosPhates, or
whisky and cream, or the last fashionable
folly In the treatment of this dread disease,
and perhaps a change of air 70 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 to see such help
lessness at such a time, the last precious
days in which there may be ground for
hopel This soon passes; the patient lies
later and later from day to day, till finally
the whole day is spent In bed; and now the
cough is so harrassing and the discharge so
copious that the nurse holds up the patients
head that the sputa may be thrown into a
cup or bowl; the appetite becomes very
capricious, the stomach feeble; probably
the tubercies ripen and slough In the bow
els, giving rise TO persistent and exhausting
though mild diarrhoea. There is constant
sense OF want of breath that is sometimes
called being tired and weary and is attribu-
ted to the cough. Even at this late stage the
patient will sometimes sit up in bed and
write words OF love and hope 70 some dis
tant friend, and make promises OF visits and
talk of worldly affairs; IL woman, will
speak of what she is TO wear when she gets
well, and hog she will dress her hair, etc,
and the next minute may be found in tears.
as she suspects she may never recover. But
why follow this declining life into the deep
darkness to which 1t so swiftly and surely
tends? All ground for hope is long since
gone. It took years, perhaps, to do the
work but Ii is done. The reason consump-
ton Is so seldom cured Is that 1t Is not rec
Physicians close their eyes to it till too late
to master 1t, or having accidentally cured II,
get credit for what they have done.
uMAAIATlnN