, 1889-04-04
FRESH AIR FOR CONSERVATIVES.
Beneficial Treatment of Victims of the
Disease in n Western Hospital

Beneficial Treatment of Victims of the
Disease in n Western Hospital
Last year 2S9 patients, mostly
adults, died of consumption in this
community. In comparison with the
consumption death rate in other north
ern cities this number Of deaths is
small. Under proper living the aver
age of twenty-four deaths q month
from consumption could be reduced
one-half.
Consumption can be cured. 1t can
be prevented. 1t is essentially a dis
ease of bad air and poor nourishment.
1t has its specific germ, but this may
be rendered harmless except in the
"a of the few who are most strongly
predisposed to the disease. Drugs in
the strict sense are of NJ sort of value
in this disease, but in an abundance
of pure air and much outdoor life,
combined with nourishing food, there
is ample security in the most of cases.
The person predisposed to consump-
ton should spend all available time in
the open air. He should become a
fanatic on the subject of ventilation
and on maintaining an equable tenn
perature, as low n he can bear with
ONh oboCAulC ulotOllllOll I, III Ills u Il
rooms. He should, and everybody
should, make it an invariable rule to
initiate his lungs fully and frequently
every day. The person who has
charge of n consumptive should never
falter in the belief that consumption
is q communicable disease. He should
go into the air frequently and initiate
his lungs to their capacity. He should
use disinfectants freely. Give out of
doors and have nourishing food" is q
direction which, if followed, would
make q great reduction in the con
sumptive mortality.
The success of DIR. Detweller's con-
sumption hospital, at Falkenstein, is
so positive that there is little doubt
that he has found the proper mean of
dealing with this disease which carries
away more than n hundred thousand
lives in n year in this country alone.
His method, in brief, is to keep the pa
tent either lying or walking in the
open air almost day and night, and to
give them n rich, liberal and peculi-
arly adapted diet. Houses milk freely,
and wine and brandy under careful
regulations. All cases cannot be
treated alike in every detail. Some
consumptives cannot endure the cold;
in some cases it is necessary to use
compressed and in others ''dilated" air.
But in the main the patient is made to
spend many hours every day lying,
profusely covered, on a lounge placed
on a veranda, even in the coolest
weather. Some spend eleven hours q
day in this way.
Massage is systematically applied,
daily rubbing down, and the cold
douche where patients can stand it.
The diet is carefully regulated to tempt
the digestion. The meals consist of
breakfast from z to half-past s, q sec
ond breakfast at 10, dinner at 1, fresh
milk at 4, and a warm supper at z.
The food is cooked rather rich" and
IS so appetizing that so per cent. of the
patients gain an average of ten pounds
in three months. The average patient
takes nearly a bottle of claret, Rhine
or Hungarian wine daily, while others
arc given two ~teaspoonfuls of brandy
every hour or two and a glass of
brandy milk punch on retiring. The
patients sleep with their window wide
open at night, no matter how cold the
weather.
This hospital is near Frankfort,
where the climatic conditions are not
particularly favorable and where the
season are no less severe than here.
1t is just as tolerable to live outdoors
here as there.
From this brief report of the meth
DDS of DIR. Dettweller the reader Fan
make certain rules concerning the
~consumptive patient whose case has
not reached the severe stages. The
two essential rules are to have the pa
tent live in the open air and to sup
ply him with nourishing food.-Mil-
waukee Sentinel. e