The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1888-11-08
NO CURE FOR CONSUMPTION

NO CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.
The Bergeon Method of Treatment De-
clared Failure.
The Bergeon method of treating consump-
tion through the use of gaseous enemata has
attracted great deal of attention among
physicians in private practice in this city and
/ from those connected with it's many hospitals,
says New York paper. Charity and other
hospital patients suffering from tuberculosis,
or phthisis, have been especially experimental
upon. Hospital physicians naturally took up
the method tentatively. An occasional case
is reported where physician became an en-
thusiast on the subject. DR.. Hogan, the
house surgeon of the Charity Hospital, is
said to have been one who followed expert
ments on the Bergeon system with ardor for
a time, while his assistant, who had the di-
rect personal charge of the patients, was
| skeptical throughout, and, it is said, now de-
clares the method valueless.
| The use of gaseous enemata for the cure of
consumption was taken up at Bellevue, Char
ity, the Workhouse, and the New York hos
pitfalls. and at all of those institutions it now
seems to have been abandoned for the simple
reason that experiments have shown that
there lis nothing in the method" Sulphur
eted hydrogen, the gaseous agent employed,
| has been shown to be not germicide, and
this fact is one reason assigned for the aban-
donment of this plan of destruction of tuber-
culosis. There is profound and elaborate
mystery surrounding the results Of the adj
ministration of gaseous enemata at the New
York Hospital. Two of the younger physi-
clans there employed under the house sur
geon, DR.. Richards, have made the interest
ing statements given below, commendatory
Of the method. DR.. Richards himself was on
his vacation at the time. He has now re-
turned. Yesterday, in response to inquiries
as to the results of the enemate
as preventing or curing consumption,
DR.. Richards replied: II prefer to
say nothing of the matter. I am
| preparing an article for the Medical Review
and shall there state my conclusions The
experiments are now only in their tentative
| stage" DR.. Richards retired into the region
| of psychometric mystery, and had nothing to
say to the fact that his assistants, ignorant
of his desires, had unwittingly proclaimed
the Bergeon method complete failure, and
they had personal charge of the cases, at
least more than half of Them
doctors, "was a complete failure. I tried il
on four patients. The effect of the use OF
the gas was rather startling The patients
abdomen would be swelled up as tight as
drum and pains very much like collie resulted.
The sulphureted hydrogen undoubtedly
passed almost Immediately into the lungs,
but it had no effect in staying the disease.
The method is pretty tough on the patient.
T no hafo o1c
patients appetite would be destroyed, and il
gave them after meals vomiting would fol,
low"
The acting Superintendent at Bellevue Hos
pital stated that the Bergeon system was not
in use there. The effects of the gaseous
enemata have in many cases been good and
encouraging for a period of some seven days;
then patients have relapsed. The improve
| ment for the short time mentioned is as.
signed to mental causes; the patients, having
faith that they were to be benefited by the
treatment and throwing all their souls into
the belief, exercise upon themselves the inhu.
ence which is said to be brought to bear in
instances of marked "faith cures"
DR.. A. N Collins, physician Of acute per-
ceptions, who had eleven cases of consump.
ton under his charge at the time the Bergeon
method had it's run, and who tried it ON these
patients at the Workhouse Hospital on
Blackwell's Island, states that he has lost all
faith in this Wanted cure. "The theory in
the use of gaseous enemata," said he the
other day at Bellevue Hospital, "is that
phthisis depends on the presence of bacilli
and that sulphureted hydrogen is a germi-
eide or antiseptic. The gas is introduced as
all enema and is rapidly absorbed into the
circulation, going quickly to the right heart
and thence to the lungs The great difficulty
in treating tuberculosis has been to bring
any gaseous or other substance into contact
with the lung tissue, which is so sensitive
that direct contact with it is impossible. Sc
far as surmounting this difficulty is con.
cerned, tire is no doubt whatever that the
use of gaseous enemata has been a sue
cessful experiment., for you can smell sui
phureted hydrogen in the patients breath
within very short time after its introduc
ton into the alimentary canal, this fact
showing that it is quickly introduced into the
circulation and thence conveyed through the
heart to the lungs.
81 had eleven consumptives under my care
at the Workhouse Hospital, and in each case
there was an improvement for about week
This was probably moral effect. The pa
tent was aware that new method promis-
ing great results for good, as alleged, was be-
ing tried, SO that the mental effect helped him
for time. Then came relapse into the
former condition. In no case was there per-
manent benefit derived The weeks
temporary improvement was effected in
the same way with patient
who did not have tuberculosis. Gaseous
enemata bave been used with good effect,
am told, in cases of sporadic asthma But
the general idea now prevalent among physi-
clans is that this method of treatment is a
failure. 1t has been dropped at Bellevue, at
the Charity hospital, and on the islaeds for
this reason.