The Springdale news., 1890-01-24
eulwtaAaY DISORDERS.
ont-oaor Ar and Ixereise the Best Rem .dtgs for Consumption.

oat-oaor Ar sad Exercise the Best Rem .dies for Consumptton.
 In the course Of the last fifty years a
 number of observant physicians have
 eyinced moro and Inore outspoken con viction that pulmonary disorders make no exception to the general rule that all diseases become more .cu-able in cold weather. Tlree generations ago all lung troubles, almost without an eX. ception were ascribed to the influence of cold air-a delusion perpetuated in the still sadly misleading word cold as a synonym of catarrh, and in the not yet quite obsolete fashion of sending eonsumptives to m early grave in the sultr7 coast regions of the tropics Cold night air, 'draughts' and raw March winds had be- come the bacbearJ of lung-siek per sons. 4 disease due to a low temper
 ature seemed naturally to demand
 warmth for its cure, and patients who could not afford the expense of journey
 to Florida or the West Indies were kept penned up in the stiiling atmosphere of an overheated sickroom, with every
 breath of fresh air carefully excluded.
 Those delusions were first shaken by
 the result of comparative statistics, The
 mortality records of every civilized country eaet west, north or south dem. enstrated the suggestive fact that the
 prevalence Of consumption bears an ex- act proportion to the prevalence of in- door occupations. In pastoral Norway pulmonary disorders were found to be less frequent than in eotton-spinning
 England; in frosty Switzerland less ire. quent than iii sunny France. The unan- imous reports of Arctic travellers estab- lished the still more remarkable eirourn- stance that in the polar regions lung diseases are almost wholly unknown. duo to diet Of train oil argued the old-school doctors Let us try that specific. And the cod-l!ver-oil nuisance was added to other sorrows of afflicted mankind. Kohl, Father de Smeth and other explorers of the North American inland regions, in the meanwhile no. tieed that the hunting tribes of our frozen Northwestern prairies share the privilege of weather-proof lungs at a distance of 8 900 miles from the next train-oil kettle; while the reports of the Naples hospitals proved that the de. selopment of factory towns had made consumption extremely prevalent in the more than halftropical coast district of Southern Italy.
 At tho same time experience had left no doubt that a change from indoor to outdoor occupations could, In four out of five cases. be relied upon to avert the doom of hereditary consumption The sickly wives of Silesian weavers recov- cred from malignant lung disorders after the removal of their household to the baekwoods of the Tennessee valley; hollow=cheelod mechanics. worn out with hectic coughs, became athletes by adopting an outdoor mode of life; of five sons descended from an ancestry of consumptives, four died in city work shops before the completion of their fiftieth year, while the fifth on his mountain farm outliYed his nephews aud grand nephewS. Consumption was gradually recognized to De house dis ease.
 Ii IS true that the theory of the old school party is apparently supported by the circumstances that lung disorders become more frequent after the end of October, and subside about the middle of May; but should that phenomenon Do wholly unconnected with the fact that winter is, by excellence, the season of indoor lite2 Savages, who spend their winters outdoors, and trappers In their draughty winter camps in the gully of a Western sierra, know eatarrhs only from hearsay, and We have seen that tbe natives of the arctic regions share that immunity in spite of their Ill., ventilated novels, which may keep out snow flakes, but can not counteract the force of polar winter storm.
 These facts suggest considerable mod. iiications In the conventional method of treating catarrhs and other disorders of the respiratory organs. They have al ready led to the practical lestablishmentof the truth that cold pure air, rather than warm foul air, is natures specific for the of lung microbes, and scores of consumptives are actually cured by their removal from the suItry iowlands of the Mississippi valley to the frosty high land- regions of the Adirondacks L.r-the same reason Dr. Lewis advised his lung-sick patients to take an extra dose of outdoor air in mid-winter, and 1t would not be a bad plan to utilize the celdest and driest breezes of every win ter for disinfectant purposes. Just as the owners of new family residence cele brate a "house-warming, old tene. ments should be treated to an occasional house freezing - ps. T. L, Oswald, iu Harper's Bazar.