Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-07-29

ic Complaints.
CONSUMPTION
Does not begin, as people generally think
with cough or soreness of the lungs, bu
usually with debility, weakness. laneuor
dyspepsia, or catarrh. The most common
and most fatal form Is that In which tuber
Giles are deposited Ia the substance of tn,
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 tn,
frame, aud induting languor and inability
| to walk fast. or far, or work hard.
The young wife, settling inc. decline
leans more heavily on the husbands arm
Once she walked lightly with him step foi
step; now she leans, and complains that he
| walks so fast, and puts her all out OF breath
| She gets better for 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, when
she coughs. at first and perhaps 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, or 1t may be frothy or glairy. like
the white Of an egg. 1t is usually looked
| 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
I
| does not get rid OF III thinks IL bad cold,
| that hangs on worse than any she ever had
before; coughs worse evenings and morn
| ings. aud 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 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 fifty inches
not that the tubercles fill 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 parasol In walking,
as II for a cane to support, and are disposed
20 loll and sit at ease, for any exertion puts
them out of breath" They like TO reoline
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
ment, aud prefer TO look on, rarely 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 merrily
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 a ereaking
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 is resort in the prac-
| 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 IL still more worthless is the
| doing of II over garments that
would utterly obscure much louder sound
Il har ho ora for xub foh 40 io..a fa
supposed to be listening. Such examine
tions beguile the patients, until the disease
is so deep as TO pass all hopes of recovery.
Still, ~. to this time the ordinary
duties Of life are carried on as usual only
with an increasing disposition to rest and
sit dow 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 q little irritation OF the tubes. Oh.
this fatal blindnessi rhe patient returns
cornforted, 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
pectorants hasten on the disease at a much
accelerated rate; and complicate 1t with
| others that make Ii much more difficult to
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 deplere 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
perverted tone of the mucous membrane.
In the succeeding stages Of the disease the
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
ed disposition to shed tears over touching
scenes and stories. and to laugh heal thy at
emotions become very sensitive and tender,
and this is most observable at night, when
cold, clammy sweat awakens the patient
IRON nn9ist SLEEP snq gives reins 10 sne
to be purple or black and dry; flush fire.
quently appears on the cheek; the white of
the eye becomes of mother-of-pearl ap-
the e9pgh deePednss ana e1,e1 ,t
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
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 uficient to induce
fatigue; the chest becomes tender, even TO
slight percussion, and 1t Is now generally
conceded that the patient is in decline,
or wasting fever. or perhaps the bold word
time the careless exaAfner-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-phosphetes, 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 tartariEed an
timony. Oh, 1t is pitiful to see such help
lessness at such time, the last precious
days in which there may be ground for
hopei 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 holdsup the patients
head that the sputa may be thrown into a
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 and
write words of love and hope TO 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 how 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
tendsG All ground for hope is long since
| gone. II took years, perhaps, to do the
| work, but 1t is done. The reason consump-
| ton is so seldom cured is that IL Is not rec
/ o1hized till its work is so far advanced.
| Physicians close their eyes to IL till too late
| to master It, or having accidentally cured it,,
| get credit for what they have done.
INHALATION.
For years l have relied mainly for treat
-. i'll. l..ft ~