Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-07-30
CONSUMPTION

l - $500
ic Complaints.
CONSUMPTION
Does not begin, as people generally think,
with a cough or soreness OF the lungs, but
usually with debility, weakness. lansuor,
dyspepsia, or catarrh. The most common
and most fatal form Is that In which tuber-
cles 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 into decline,
| leans more heavily ON the husband s arm
Once she walked lightly with him step for
| step; now she leans, ano complains that he
| walks so fast, and puts her all out of breath.
She gets better fora In brighter wealth
er, 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 long
time. a dry, hacking cough then II 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. II 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
II he Is called he is apt 70 make light of 1t,
and advise some simple thing The patient
i waits and hopes, but Is annoyed to hud she
does not get rid of IL; thinks 1t a bad cold,
that hangs on worse than any she ever had
before; coughs worse evenings and morn
| ings, and fears she has caught more cold,
but cannot account for 1t.
The following are the more COM
i 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 hity inches
not that the tubercles ill 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
| 10 loll and sit at ease, for any exertion puts
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, 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 dun under
the hammer, and give no sound at all
through the stethoscope over somanDne 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 dullness be detected through them with
| the hammer. There Is no resort in the prae-
| tice of medicine moreabsurd and perniciOus
than that of pretending to examine the lungs
i with the fingers of one hand drumming on
those OF the other over the chest; and what
makes it still more worthless is the
| doing of 1t over garments that
would utterlv obscllre a much Iouder sound
i 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.
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 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
| are all made OF some drug, which taken in
| as squills, ipecac lobelia, etc. These ex-
pectorants hasten on the disease at much
accelerated rate; and complicate it 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, 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 81 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 mark
| ed disposition to shed tears over touching
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 unquiet sleep, and gives. reins to the
| wilde It fancies. The lips are often observed
i to be purple or black and dry; hush FIRE.
| quently appears on the cheek; the white of
the eye becomes Of mother-oipeaIl aP-
from morning till night, and from night till
i morning, even sometimes continuing
/ through sleep that brings littlerefreshment;
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 few rods being efficient to induce
/ fatigue; the chest becomes tender, even to
| slight percussion, and il is now generally
conceded that the patient Is in a decline,
fttar fnWrn mr. M q
Consumption is used, aud by or before this
time the careless exakA1ner-the physician
| who says consumption caunot be cured
recognizes the foe with which he
codliver oil, or the er-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 u plaster to the
chest or between the shoulders, or covers
these parts with croton oil or tartarized an
timony. Oh, 1t 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 III 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 tubercles ripen and slough in the bow
els, giving rise TO persistent and exhausting
though mild diArrh9a. There is a 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 aud hope 10 some dis
tant friend, and make promises OF visits and
talk OF worldly affairs; If 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 II so swiftly and surely
tends? 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 it is not rec
ognized till its work is so far advano ed.
Physicians close their eyes to it TILL too late
TO master 1t, or having accidentally cured 1t,
L ..a4 arodit Cor ~ hal thaN have dnIn