Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-03-25

the bacillus. Now, however, an Ameri- can physician-Dr Louis Weigert of od, directed against this bacillic cause of consumption, which is easily borne by the patient and which, almost with out exception, produces most favorable results.
 It is we'll known that all the kinds of bacteria, the tubercle bacillus among the number, can flourish only between cer- tain well-defined limits of temperature. The normal temperature of the tubercle bacillus is that of the healthy human body, say 31.5 degrees Centigrade, or 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. At 3S.5 Centi- grade they hardly grow at all, and at42 degrees Centigrade their development entirely ceases. 50 degrees Centigrade causing them to die within month. Dr Weigert conceived the idea of attack ing the tubercle bacilli in their weak point by exposing them in the lung to a degree of heat so high as to weaken them and hinder their development and null tiplication. The method chosen was the inhalation of dry, superb air. It Is shown that the air in the socalled Rus sian baths has a temperature of 100 de- grees Centigrade and that even higher temperatures are borne without danger or even discomfort by employees of pot teries, Sc. Experiments made by Dr Weigert on his own body proved that man could breathe without difficulty and for protracted periods air heated to 1S0 degrees Cent. 356 degrees Fahr.( Pre- parations being made for the treat ment of consumptive patients in this manner, the results in almost all cases were the removal of difficulty in breath ing, where it existed; lessening or total cessation of cough; increase of eXpectora- tion at first, next lesscning, and finally | its disappearance: cessation of fever and nigh htsweats, increase of appetite and bodily strength; in most cases, after short period, an entire stoppage of the ] progress of the disease: less frequent oc- currence and then total disappearance of hemorrhage; removal f catarrhal symp- toms and clearing of the impervious DOT tions of the lungs: disappearance of the dilatations of the bronchial passages, and healing of the cavities in the lungs caused by the disease. These results were so remarkable and so indisputable as to have occasioned recognition at the hands of the leading members of the medical profession all over Europe, and tests have been made by them with the most rigid exactitude.
 The apparatus used to effect the cure is of the simplest kind. A stand with gas burner (or alcohol lamp and reading desk carries a double copper cylinder, the outer of which has an asbestos shield and the inner of which has two small chimneys piercing the outer one. The air enters at the base of the outer cylin- der. is heated in the annular space, and is drawn therefrom thrt ugh an inhaling tube having an aluminium check valve, a rubber mOuthpiece and thermometer. There is not a supertluous piece the ad- aptation to the desired object is perfect.
 One who tested the apparatus commence ed to inhale the superheated dry all
 when the thermometer indicated a tenn
 perature neally that of boiling water
 and continued, with deep, steady inhal ations, until the mercury showed about 3OS degrees Fahrenheit, at which time
 the air, which reached the deepest re cesses of the lungs, had grateful sense of warmth, and the only discOmfort-ol
 abnormal sensation-was a slight dry ness at the root of the tongue, easily
 done away with by a sip of water.
 If Dr Weigert's cure shall be really |; , cure and shall not prove a failure as SC many others have done before, the coun
 try, and in fact the W hole civilized world
 will rejoice that the most insidious of al
 diseases, and the one which stays the
 greatest number of victims, has beer
 proven absolutely conquerable by means which are simple, effective and easily ap plicable. New England has suffered particularly from this disease, and the
 progress of this latest cure will be
 watched with hopeful interest in this
 section of the country.