San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-03-18
A LECTURE.

Easily Cured.
TERsE, PHILosoPHIC AND CONVINCING
ESSAY.
(CoPYRIGHrEDD
In giving my two radical reasons, 1 shall be
as brief as possible. shall not enter at all
upon the various remedies that have been
used in the treatment of catarrh, but contine
myself to two important points First the
method of applying locally the various med-
cal agents that have been used and second,
the lack of permanency of these applica-
tions.
The nasal cavities have very irregular and
extensive surfaces, extending from the front
of the nose backward, from the anterior mares
to the pharynx or back of the soft palate;
and reaching from below upward, from the
floor OF the nose up between and higher than
the eyes. This surface is made very irregular
by three turbinated bones on each side. 1t
also connects with other cavities, the
| trums, the frontal snuses, the lachrymal
| canals, the Eustachian tubes leading TO the
| internal ear, etc.
| H1t would be waste of time for me to give
| description of the many inventions that
| nave been brought out for the purpose of
| making a complete local application to these
| very Irregular surfaces of the nasal cavities;
| and it must be kept in mind that a diseased
| or catarrhal nasal surface is much more ir-
| regular than healthy one, as many of the
] natural passages are almost entirely closed
| by congestion, mucus secretionS and infam
matory deposits. The nasal douche forces
| medicated water into one nostril and out of
| the other touching only the lower portions
| of the cavity, tearing away the scaDs and
| other offensive secretions; then there are
| steam and various mechanical atomizers for
| throwing medicated spray into the head vari-
! Gus shaped syringes to use through the throat,
| anterior and posteriOr nasal syringes) bottles
and jars with breathing tubes for inhaling air
that passes through medicinal liquids. and
| different kinds of snuff, almost without mum
| be,r used in various ways. | have seen snuff
! put into little rubber balls or pulled out of a
tube as we use insect powder. have seen it
| tied up in a rag in the shape of ball with a
little spring to snap the ball and slft the snuff
| through while the patient shifts it in But
with all the experiments with a thousand
medicines, and the hundreds of ways of using
them, what has the medical profession done in
| finding a cure for catarrh? You will get the
answer to this question from any good honest
physician. even if he be cata rrh specialist
| He will say, "Catarrh cannot be cured" Why
| does the honest physician say it cannot be
| cured? Because all the various modes Of
| treatment that they have hitherto pursued
| have failed, and they answer honestly Ca
| tarrh cannot be cured" | will now ask this
| question: If a disease similar to catarrh in
! any OF its forms was on some external D lrt of
! the body, the thigh, arm, or back, could it be
| cured? And the medical profession would an
! swer "Yes, it could be cured, because we can
easily reach the disease with our remedy
| This you will see answers conversely why we
cant cure catarrh. Because all of the previ
Gus named Treatments have failed to reach
the diseased mucous membrane OF the nose
especially the upper portion of that cavity.
This is one radical reason.
The second is this: All douches atomizers
! sprays. etc, are watery or aqueous solutions
| of medicines, and, for the sake of argument
| if we admit that they could be placed at the
! desired part of the nasal cavities, they would
| stimulate the mucous membrane so that il
! would throw out or scCrete a large am unt of
! saineous or watery substance of its own, and
| thus dilute aud wash away in ten minutes all
the medicine we might have applied to the
| catarrhal surface. This is my second radical
| season.
Now that we know what they are, how shall
! we overcome these two difficulties mean
get the remedy to the diseased part a. d then
| have it stay there. 1t is very simple after all,
| and so at last we can cure catarrh as easily
as we can an external sore or ulcer.
the vernacular, l will now put the cart
| before the horse and deal with the second
proposition first What slrt of vehicle or sub
| stance shall we mix our remedy in so when
| once thoroughly applied to the catarrhal sur
| face it will not be washed away at once, but
remain in contract with the diseased for
many hours as We would treat an externally
diseased surface TO cure it. You have seen
an engineer on a hot summers day with black
grease on his face and hands he would per-
spirO hour after hour, the sweat actually
dripping from his face and the back of his
hands and running all the time right through
The black grease, and yet it remained
there all day without its being
washed away, because the grease and
| water were incompatible and would not mix
or unite one with the other. So we must mix
our remedy in suitable grease or ointment,
and then it will not be washed away by the
secretions of the nasal cavities. Now how
shall we get 1t there? The easiest thing in
the world. If you wanted to fill your boot
with fluid, you would not turn it upside
down and use syringe or blow it up with an
atomizer; no. you would set it in proper po-
sition and let the fluid flow or grsvitste into
the boot; and to get our remedy into the
head, we also make use of gravity by placing
our soft medicated ointment, the size OF pea,
in each nostril, then lean forward and tip the