Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-07-25
CONSUM PTlON


with a cough or soreness of the lungs, but |
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, that |
usually lie dormant for many months, even
for years, showing their presence only BY
shortening the breath and weakening the
frame, and inducing 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 for
step; now she leans. ano complains tnat ne
She gets better forawhile in brighter wealth
err, and then without 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 a long
time, dry, hacking cough then 1t becomes
moist and softer, and she raises matter either
yellow or saltish. and perhaps Offensive 70
the white Of an egg. 1t is usually looked
upon as OF no great account but treated as
common cold, the patient not deigning to
call In even the family physician. But even
and advise some simple thing. The patient
waits and hopes, but Is annoyed to md she
does not get rid Of 1t; thinks 1t bad cold,
that hangs on worse than any she ever had
ings, and fears she has caught more cold,
but cannot account for IL.
The following are the more com
mon signs of this form OF consumption;
first lassitude, or ianguor. OF shortness oil
catch for breath At this stage IL Is easily
cured. If the patient tries the sperometer
he finds that he cannot breathe an average
amount. perhaps BY forty or nifty inches IS,
that they weaken the power OF imitation 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 relinquish many of their previous and
more active pleasures, and voluntarily with
ments requiring lively or vigorous move
ment, aud prefer 10 look on, rarely dreaming
that the time is fast approaching when they
shall even look on no more, and the dance
Ss NSu w hsS on pi he as a msr bs
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
right lung: or instead OF absence OF the
healthy sound, IL is changed into creakfne
called crepitation-but very faint. .
This sound cannot be detected through the
garments, nor through any OF them, nor car
the dullness be detected through them witt
the hammer. There is no resort in the prac
tice of medicine moreabsurd and pernicioui
than that of pretendingto examine the lungs
those OF the other over the chest; and whai
makes IL still more worthless is the
doing of 1t over garments tina!
would utterly obscure much louder sound
than the one for which the practitioner Is
supposed to be listening. such examina.
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
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 little irritation of the tubes. Oh.
this fatal blindness fhe patient returns
comforted. and tries, perhaps, some cough
and begins to raise the ...phlegm". much
more easily; but after while complains OF
some nausea after eating, and holiowness
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 i with
others that make it much more difficult to
cure. But even at this stage, by judicious
system Of inhalation, proper diet. habits
tonnes and change OF air. it 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 gave, and In 9th
ers induce dyspepsia. rose catarrh or fever
hay asthma and other troubles fndicative0
: perverted tone of the mucous membrane
In the succeeding stages OF the disease ths
symptoms of the prect 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
capricious, the hopes being at one moment
unduly elated. and perhaps the next more
derrssssdi sald moody aud there - sa marx
scenes and stories. and TO laugh tily al
the slightest absurdities or wirticisms; the
emotions become very sensitive and tender,
and this Is most observable at night. when
a cold, clammy sweat awakens the patient
from unquiet sleep, and gives. reins to the
wilde It faHcies The lips are often observed
to be purple or black and dry; flush fire.
quenty appears on the cheek; the white OF
pearance; the cough deepens and extends
from morning till night, and from night till
morning, even sometimes continuing
through sleep that brings little refreshmeut;
the spit or sputa is salt and yellow and OF
bad taste. and increases In quantity from
time 70 time, when the patient is said to
catch cold; the voice becomes huskyo or 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 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 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 change OF air TO the south,
and probably sanctions plaster to the
these parts with croton oil or tartarized an
| timony. oh, II Ii pitiful to see such help
lessness at such 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
copious that the nurse holdsup the patients
head that the sputa may be thrown into
cup or bowl the appetite becomes very
| capricious, the stomach feeble; probably
the tubercles ripen and slough in the bow
els, giving rise TO persistent and exhausting
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 aud
write words OF love and hope 10 some dis
tant friend, and make promises of visits and
talk OF worldly affairs; II woman, will
speak Of what she is to wear when she gets
well. and hoS 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 II so swiftly and surely
tendsY All ground for hope is long since
gone. II took years, perhaps, to do the
work, but IL Is done. The reason consump-
ton is so seldom cured Is that ii is not rec
ognized till its work is so far advanced
Physicians close their eyes to it till too late
TO master II, or having accidentally cured IL,
get credit for what they have done.
INHALATION.
For years have relied mainly for treat