Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-10-29
A Great Enemy of Life.

From the New York Sun
There is q 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 danger
Gus from which this community suffers. It is
pneumonia, and the paper is by DR.. Gouver-
neur NJ. Smith.
Pneumonia has become dreadful enemy to
human life in this climate. II is also q disease
from which the mortality is increasing
rather than diminishing. The deaths from It
In this city last year were 3.707, and in 1885
they reached 1851. DR.. Smith does not give
the number Of cases Of pneumonia reported,
but merely says that the rate Of mortality
among them is high. The statistics Of the
Pennsylvania Hospital show that there the
mortality advanced from 81 per cent in I847
to 1871 per cent in 1867, and to more than 81
per cent in 1856. 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 re-
garded as serious, but it did not at all excite
the terror which it now so reasonably awakens
DR.. Smithss statistics show that in New
York pneumonia begins to be rife at the
opening of autumn, and that the deaths from
1t steadily increase from September until they
reach their maximum in January. April comes
next in its amount Of mortality, but the death
rate continues high throughout the winter and
spring, and until the warm weather of June
comes in. During the three summer months
1t decreases to about one-third but as soon as
September arrives it starts upward again.
Though the medical art has advanced so
greatly Of recent years in many directions.
DIR. Smith confesses that $50 far as pneumonia
is concerned science has shrivelled;" and he
seems to think that this is because the old
methods Of treating the disease, at the time
when il was less deadly, have been abandoned
for methods more fnical, but less eficacious.
However that may be, the fact remains that
malady once looked upon without extraordin-
airy alarm, has now become veritable scourpe
in our climate, and is deadly far beyond other
diseases to which we are commonly subjected.
The first requisite appears to be a super
abundance Of pure air" about the patient In
pneumonia the breathing apparatus only par
TALLY performs its functions, for the diseased
parts Of the lungs are substantially useless
THE working portion must perform the work
of two lungs for a week or ten days, in order
to maintain the blood in a proper condition to
sustain life" and, therefore, 1.-THE patient re-
quires purer air and vastly more than one in
sound health" "Pure air a. Q remedial agent
in the management Of pnuemonia and of other
disorders, both acute and chronic, has ever
been q more potent ally Of therapeutics than
any panacea offered by alchemy or any hob
bledehoy presented by modern chemistry"
The discussion Is Of profound general inter-
/ est, for the great increase in the fatality Of
disease carries OF SO many in the fulness of
life and in the possession Of what otherwise
| seems TO be sound health, and constitutions
weii-htted TO stand out against ordinary mala-
| dies.
L