Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-07-31

Does not begin, as people generally think,
with cough or soreness OF the lungs, bui
usually with debility, weakness, languor,
dyspepsia, or catarrh. The most common
aud most fatal form Is that In which tuber-
Giles are deposited In the substance OF the
lungs. These are small oheesy 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 in,o u decline,
leans more heavily on the husbands arm
Once she walked lightly with him step for
step; now she leans, anQ complains that he
walks so fast. and puts her all out Of breath.
She gets better for a while in b liter wealth
er, and then withou eyidel cause sinks
lower than before; and thus rises and sinks.
perhaps, many. times before the tubercles
ripen aud rot the tissues aroun hem, when
she coughs. at first and perha for a 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, OF II may be frothy or glairy, like
the white of an egg. 1t is usually looked
upon as OF no great account, but treated rs
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 II,
and advise some simple thing. The patient
waits and hopes, but is annoyed TO find she
does not get rid Of it; thinks IL bad cold,
that hangs on worse than any she ever had
before; coughs worse evenings and morn
but cannot account for it.
The following are the more @ m
mon signs OF this form of consumption:
First, lassitude, or languor. or shortness OF
catch for breath. At this stage it Is easily
cured. II the patient tries the sperometer
he finds that he cannot breathe an average
amount, perhaps by forty or dfty inches-
not that the tubereles I'll so much space but
that they weaken the power OF initiation aud
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
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
ment, aud prefer 70 look on, raiely dreaming
that the time IL fast approaching when they
shall even look on no more, and the dance
and the skates will go on Just as merrily
perhaps without them, II the lungs be
carefully examined with the proper instru.
ments al 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-but very faint.
This sound cannot be detected through the
garments, nor through any of them, nor can
the hammer. There isno resort In the prae-
tice Of medicine more absurd and pernicious
than that of pretending to examine thelungs
with the fingers of one hand drumming on
makes it 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
tions beguile the patients, until the disease
Is so deep as to pass all hopes of recovery.
STILL up to this time tie 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 little irritation of the tubes. oh,
this fatal blindnessl rhe 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 hOllowness
when hungry-the early symptoms of dys-
pepsia. brought on by the depressing cough
drops, or troches, or expectorants. which
larger doses produce sickness at the stomach
as sQuills, ipecac, lobelia, etc. These ex-
pect0rants hasten on the disease at a much
accelerated rate; and complicate y with
cure. But even at this stage. by a 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 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 indicative OF
a 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
come scanty: the mind becomes, SO to say,
capricious, the hopes being at one moment
unduly elsted, and perhaps the next more
depressed and moody, and there il a mark
scenes and stories. and to laugh heai tily at
the slightest absurditfes or witticlsms; 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. fhe 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 refrsshment
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 husky or hOl-
low, or unduly sonorous; the periods OF ex
ercise grow shorter with the shortening
breath, and less and less frequently, the
walk Of a few rods being suficientto induce
fatigue; the chest becomes tender, even to
a slight percussion, aud 1t is now generally
conceded that the patient is in decline,
Consumption is used, and by or before this
time the careless exafAiner-the physician
who says consumption caunot be cured
recognizes the foe with which he
has so long been dealing, and and, advises
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 10 the
chest or between the shoulders, or covers
these parts with croton oil or tartarized an
timony. oh, it is pitiful t, see such help
lessness at such 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 80
copi0us that the nurse holds up the patients
head that the sputa may be thrown into a
cup OF bowl; the appetite becomes very
oaprieious, the stomach feeble; probably
the tubercles ripen and slough IN the bow
els, giving rise TO persistent and exhausiing
sense OF want of breath that is sometimes
called being tired and weary and is attribu-
ted to the cough. Even at this latestage the
patient will sometimes sit up in bed and
write words of love and hope 10 some dis
tant friend. and make promises ofvisits and
talk OF worldly affairs; II woman, will
speak Of what she is to wear when she gets
well. and hoH 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 70 which It SO swiftly and surely
tends9 All ground for hope is long since
gone. 1t took years, perhaps, to do the
work, but 1t is done The reason consump-
ton is SO seldom cured is that it is not rec
oShized till its work is so far advanced
Physicians close their eyes to 1t till too late
to master II, or having accidentally cured IT,
get credit for what they have done
INHALATION.