Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-07-11

Does not begin, as people generally think,
with a cough OF soreness OF the lungs, but
usually with debility, veal weakness, lsnsuor,
and most fatal form is that I'm 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 fast, or far, or work hard.
The young wife. settling into q decline.
leans more heavily on the husband arm
Once she walked lightly vita him step for
step: now she leans. ano complains that he
walks so fast, aud puts her all out OF breath.
She gets better for awhile IN brighter wealth
er, and then without evident cause sinks
lower than before; aud thus rises aud sinks,
perhaps. many times before the tubercles
ripen and rot the tissues around them, when
she coughs. at first and perhaps for a long
time. dry, hacking congh; then 1t becomes
moist and softer, aud she raises matter either
yellow or saltish, and perhaps offensive 10
the taste. or. 1t may be frothy or glairy. like
the white of an egg. 1t Is usually looked
upon as OF no great account, but treated as a
common cold, the patient not deigning to
call in even the family physician. But even
II he is called he Is apt to 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 II. thinks IL a bad cold,
that hangs on worse than any she ever had
before; coughs worse evenings and morn
lukht uHu itdfb 6lit llhh thuBut lubTt tblu,
but cannot account for 1t.
The following are the more cm-
mon signs of this form of consumption
First. lassitude, or languor. or shortness OF
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 fifty inches
not that the tubereles 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 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, and preferto 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 meIrily
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, II 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 dizziness be detected through them with
the hammer. There is no resort in the prac-
tice Of medicine more absurd 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 IT over garments that
would utterly obscure a 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 50 deep as to pass all hopes of recovery.
Still, up to this time the ordinary
duties OF life are carried on as usual only |
with an increasing disposition to rest and |
SIT dow n while at work, till the patient is /
often considered more lazy than sick"
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 a little irritation of the tubes. oh.
this fatal blindnessl fhe patient returns |
comforted. and tries, perhaps, some cough |
drops or expectorant to loosen the cough, |
aud 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 squilis, ipecac, lobeiia, etc These ex
pectorants hasten on the disease at much |
accelerated rate; and complicate 1t with |
others that make 1t much more difiicult to |
cure. But even at this stage, by. judicious
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 iroches,
cough drops, and expectorants of all kinds
They hurry many to the g. ave, and In 9TH
ers induce dyspepsia, rose catarrh or fever.
hay asthma and other troubles indicative OF
perverted tone of the mucous membrane.
In the succeeding stages OF the disease the
symptoms of the prect 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 a mark |
ed disposition to shed tears over touching |
scenes and stories. and to laugh heartily at |
the slightest absurdities or witticisms, the |
emotions become very sensitive and tender, |
and this Is most observable at night, when |
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; ilush 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, 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 few rods being sufficient to induce
fatigue; the chest becomes tender, even to
a slight percussion, and 1t 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 cu.ed-
recognizes the foe with which he
has so long been dealing, and advises
codliyer oil, or the super-phosphates, or
whisky and cream, or the last fashionable
folly in the treatment OF this dread disease,
and perhaps 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, IL is pitiful to see such help
lessness at such a time, the last precious
days in which there may be ground for
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
copfous that the nurse holdsup the patients
head that the spu1s n may De b .nrown INTO
capricious, the stomach feeble; probably
the tubercles ripen and slough In the bow
els, giving rise to persistent and exhausting
though mild dlsI hS nm ners Is cons,aas
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 aud
write words of love and hope TO some dis
tant friend, and make promises of visits and
talk OF worldly affairs; If woman, win
speak of what she is to wear when she gets
we'll, and how she will dress her hair, etc.
and the next minute may be found in tears
why follow this declining life into the deep
darkness to which 1t so swiftly and surely
tends2 All ground for hope is long since
gone. 1t took years, perhaps, to do the
ton is so seldom cured is that Ii is not rec
ognized till Its work is so far advanced.
Physicians close their eyes TO 1t till too late
to master II. or having accidentally cured II,