Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-11-16
A DANGEROUS ENEMY.
Great Increase In the Fatality of Pncu-
Notwithstanding Statistics.

Great Increase In the Fatality of Pncu-
Notwithstanding Statistics.
There is valuable discussion in The
Medical Record respecting disease
which begins to be rife as the cold
weather approaches, and which is one
of the most prevalent and most dan
gerous from which this community
suffers. 1t is pneumonia, and the
paper is by DIR. Gouverneur M. Smith.
Pneumonia has become a dreadful
enemy to human life in this climate.
1t is also disease from which the
mortality is increasing rather than
diminishing. The deaths from it in
New York city last year were 3,707,
and in 1856 they reached 1867. DIR.
Smith does not give the number of
cases of pneumonia reported, but
among them is high. The statistics of
the Pennsylvania hospital show that
there the mortality advanced from 81
per cent. in 1S47 to 1874 per cent. in
1867, and to more than 81 per cent. in
1886. In the New York hospital the
ratio of mortality during the last ten
years is more than double what it was
in the past. Thirty or forty years ago
the disease was regarded as serious
but it did not at all excite the terror
which it now so reasonably awakens.
DIR. Smiths statistics show that in
New York pneumonia begins to be rife
at the opening of autumn, and that
the deaths from it steadily increase
from September until they reach their
maximum i'll January. April comes
next in its amount of mortality, but
the death rate continues high through
out the winter and spring and until
the warm weather of June comes in.
During the three summer months it
decreases to about one-third, but as
soon as September arrives it starts up
ward again.
Though the medical art has advanced
so greatly of recent years in many di-
rections, DR.. Smith confesses that 80
far as pneumonia is concerned, science
has shriveled;" and he seems to think
that this is because the old methods of
treating the disease, at the time when
it was less deadly, have been aban-
doned for methods more fnical, but
less efficacious. However that may
be, the fact remains that a malady
once looked upon without extraordin-
airy alarm has now become a veritable
scourge in our climate, and is deadly
far beyond other diseases to which we
are commonly subjected
The first requisite appears to be a
''superabundance of pure air. about
the patient. In pneumonia the breath
ing apparatus only partially performs
its functions, for the diseased parts of
the lungs are substantially useless
The working portion must perform
the work of two lungs for week or
ten days, in order to maintain the
blood in proper condition to sustain
life" and therefore 1.-THE patient re-
quires purer air and vastly more than
one in sound health" Pure air as a
remedial agent in the management of
pneumonia and of other disorders,
both acute and chronic, has ever been
a more potent ally of therapeutics than
any panacea offered by alchemy or
any hobbledehoy presented by modern
chemistry"
The discussion is of profound gen.
eral interest, for the great increase in
the fatality of pneumonia is very
alarming, especially as the disease
carries off SO many in the fullness of
life and in the possession of what
otherwise seems to be sound health
and constitutions well fitted to stand
out against ordinary maladies. New
York Sun.