Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-07-27
CONSUMPTION

OON0ON uuON
Does not begin, as people generally think,
with cough % de songpess reatness isnsuor
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, and complains that ne
walks so fast, and puts her all out OF breath
| She gets better for W lille In brighter wealth.
er. and then withou evident cause sinks
! lower than before; and thus rises and sinks,
perhaps, many times before the tubercies
| ripen and rot the tissues around them, when
| she coughs. at first and perhaps for long
| time, dry, hacking cough; then II becomes
| moist and softer, and she raises matter either
yellow or ssltsh and perhaps osnslvf ne 70
the white OF an egg. 1t is usually looked
| upon as Of no great account, but treated as q
| common cold, the patient not deigning TO
i be Is called he is apt to make light Of it.
and advise some simple thing. The patient
waits and hopes, but Is annoyed TO find she
does not get rid OF 1t; thinks 1t bad colo,
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 IT,,
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 Atty inches
| not that the tubercles fll SO much space, but
that they weaken the power Of initiation and
expulsion Of air. Young glris az TINS i stage,
as II for a cane to support, and are disposed
| to loll and sit at ease, for any exertion puts
| them out OF breath" They like TO recline
They relinquish many Of their previous and
| more active pleasures. and voluntarily with
draw from the dauce, or skating, or amuse
ments requiring ixs,y or yis9rodns moy
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 mefriiy
perhaps without them en-. II ane lungs i,ss,r De
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 q the the
healthy sound, it is changed into breaking
called crepitation-but very faint.
This sound cannot be detected through the
garments, nor through any of them. nor can
1
the hammer. There isno resort In the prac-
tice Of medicine moreabsurd and pernicious
than thatof pretendingto examine the lungs
those Of the other over the chest; and what
makes 1t still more worthless Is the
doing OF 1t over garments that
would utterly obscure much louder sound
than the one for which the prsctitioner is
supposed to be listening. Such examines
lions beguile the patients, until the disease
Is 20 deep as to pass all hopes of recovery.
Sun, up, 70 this time tae ordinary
with an increasing disposition to rest and
sit dow while at work, till the patient is
often considered more lazy than sick"
ossad be er %sds he sel
one OF those shiftless, faulty examinations
with his fingers, that the lungs are all right;
only little irritation OF the tubes Oh,
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 h0llowness
when hungry--the early symptoms Of dys-
pepsia brought on by the depressing cough
: drops, or tr0ches, 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 a much
accelerated rate; and complicate Il with
Others that make II much more diincuit e
G
. system OF inhalation, proper diet. habits
tonics and change of air, 1t is easily brought
i. under control. We cannot too deeply con
denim and deploIe the free use 81 trochss
Z They hurry many to the grave, and IN 9th
|, ers induce dyspepsia, rose catarrh or fever
. hay asthma and other troubles indicative oil
|. a perverted tone of the mucous membrane
! In the succeeding stages OF the disease the
9 symptoms Of the prece ding ones are greatly
{ aggravated, and to these are commonly add
ed 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 al
the slightest absurdities or witticisms; 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
| widest fancies. The lips are often observed
to be purple or black and dry; flush FIRE
9uently appears on the cheek; the white Of
the eye becomes of mother-of-pearl ap
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, UT dnuuil sOnOfOust tht Ptfiuus VI tA-
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 a 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 phosphates, or
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 to the
chest or between the shoulders, or covers
these parts with croton oil or tartarized an
timony. oh, II is pitiful y see such help
lessness at such a time, the last precious
days in which there may be ground for
hope This soon passes: the patient lies
the whole day is spent in bed: and now the
sough 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
capricions, the stomach feeble; probably
the tubercles ripen and slough in the bow
els, giving rise TO persistent and exhausting
though mild diarrh9a. There is 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 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
| we'll and hos she will dress her hair, etc,
and the next minute may be found In tears,
as she suspects she may meyer recover But
why follow this declining life into the deep
darkness to which IL so swiftly and surely
tends2 All ground for hope is long since
gone. II took years, perhaps, to do the
| work. but II is done. The reason consump-
tion is so seldom cured is that 1t Is not rec.
oGnized till its work Is so far advanced
| Physicians close their eyes to II till too late
to masterit or having accidentally cured It,
get credit for what they have done.