St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-01-16
.Gbe CALIFORNIAN.
THE CURE OF CONSUMPTION.

Il
DR.. Henry l. Bowditch of Boston
recently recited to the Genealogical
Associa ton a most instructive story
of the way in which his father, when
apparently far advanced in consump-
.tion, overcame it by open-air travel
and exercise, and by a systematic
training of his children in similar
Hopen-air habits of living, overcame
in them strong tendencies to the
s. same desease.
According to the story, in 1908 the
elder Bowditch had cough, splitting
pf blood. hectic fever and great de-
=. bility In August of that year,
Though very i'll, he started, with a
friend as his companion and driver.
i in an open one horse chaise, for
tour through New England. Dur
hing the trip he Travelled 74S miles,
land passed through 113 towns and
tities, the time occupied being thirty
Hays The first day after a drive of
Il Il twenty-five miles, he was so much
1 Exhausted, and spat blood to such
Van extent. that the landlord of the
hotel at which they put up advised
his friend to take him back home to
die But the sick man was plucky;
at the end of the next days journey
he felt somewhat better. He per
/ severed in his journey, grew steadily
4 better, and finally, when he reached
.home again was in much better
health than he had when starting.
The journey, though bencfting him
immensely, did not wholly cure, but
i it had proved to him the absolute
need he had of regular, daily, physi-
heal, open-air exercise. Afterwards,
under walks of 12 to 2 miles, taken
three times daily during thirty years
IOf his life, all pulmonary troubles
4 disappeared. He died i'll 1888, from
carcinoma of the stomach, one lung
Il presenting evidences of an ancient
4 kicatrix at its apex, both being other
wise normal He was sixty-fve
\ years old, that is, thirty years after
1.-THE journey
Having thus experienced, in his
4 |own case, the vast benefits resulting
=from constant, regular exercise out
pf doors, he apparently determined
hat his children should be early in
4 structed III the same course. AS
#lsoOn as we were old enough, says
1.-THE younger Bowditch, he required of
us daily morning walks down to a
certain welI-known divine's meeting
Il housc, about thrce-quarters of mile
from our home
i If any of us, while attending school,
were observed to be dropping, or
! made the least pretence even to being
not, exactly well, he took us from
country to have farm life and out-of-
door play to our hearts content"
i Once he told me to go and play, and
u to stay away from study as long as
4 YOU choose" In fact, he believed
heartily in the old Roman maxim of
! ia healthy mind in a healthy body
In consequence of this early instruc
&Htion, all of his descendants have be
#come thoroughly impressed with the
4 advantages of daily walking, of sum-
mer vacations in the country, and of
s camping out, etc, among the noun
& tains.
4 DR.. BOwditch adds that for years,
E D have directed every phthisical pa
u tient to walk daily from three to six
u miles; never to stay all day at home
A unless a violent storm be raging.
II When they are in doubt about going
out, owing to bad weather. | di-
8 rected them to ''sOlve the doubt, not
#by staying in the house, but by go
3 ing out. = The Medical News.