Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-28
SEtSiCkNESS.
Facts and Theories of Interest to Travel.
ers About Its Cause and Cure.

Facts and Theories of Interest to Travel
ers About Its Cause and Cure.
Seasickness is one of the minor miseries
for which there appears to be no cure, as
thousands of returning travellers this sea-
son will testify. Professor Rosenbach, of
Breslsu, has made a ten years study of
this sickness and now gives to the public
some interesting facts and theories about
it, among them the following:
l. TIE malady commences as soon as the
vessel pitches; that is. rotates on its trans
verse axis. q The rolling, that is, rotation
on its long axis, is less severe, but the COM
bination of the two is very unfavorable.
8. The phenomena appear more quickly
and are more severe the farther the patient
is from the middle of the ship. Persons
sleeping are attacked, also small children
and animals. 4. A moderate amount of
food in the stomach and small quantity
OF aisehol is more likely to act as pre-
NAIVE than an empty stomach. .. The
horizontal position on the deck acts in
some degree as preventive. G. Anxiety
and apprehension precede sickness; GER
tain exhibition of energy and resolution
may in short voyages and with slight YES
sci motion control the tendency to sickness.
Soft winds (for example, sirocco), strong
odors, etc., are unfavorable. Z. There are
two categories of the affection dependent
on individual predisposition; in one the
head, in the other the abdomen is princi-
pally affected. Cases where both are affect
ed are common.
AS to the cause of seasickness Professor
Rosenbach accepts the theory Of dis
turbed equilibrium" according to which
the permanent disturbances Of equilibrium
act as painful irritations to the contents Of
the skull and of the abdomen, and are thus
the causes of the phenomena. The author
thinks that he has discovered new eX-
PLANTATION of the action Of external move.
ment impulse by the phenomena observed
in rapid elevators. 1t is found that in as
cending with the eyes closed, no noise be
ing heard. there is experienced a peculiar
feeling at the epigastrium which goes of
during the rise, say. of four or five floors,
but reappears the moment the elevator
stops. The same thing occurs when the
elevator moves downward. There occurs
a sudden movement and sudden arrest of
the movement, and the effect of this in pro-
ducing the epigastric disturbance is held to
be analogous Co the effect of the motion in
the vessel at sea.
The immediate transition from one
movement to another movement in diff
ferent direction is assumed to be the cause
Of the disturbances experienced Thus the
painful sensations in seasickness, in the
act of swinging, in the oscillation liable to
occur in rapid railway journeys, agree in
this, that the peculiar symptoms of irrita-
ton, the distressing feeling at the epigas-
trium, the cold swests, the general feeling
of illness and the headache, appear at the
moment when the direction of the move
ment changes.
The author considers that the only real
cure is custom" He speaks favorably of
certain medicines for very short sea voy
ages-quinine. antipyrine, bromide salts,
cocaine, morphine, chlorai and other an
aesthetics He advises that the horizontal
position at niddsck should be taken before
the voyage begins, and that a bandags
should be tightly placed over the liver,
whereby the intensity OF the motion is di-
miaished and certain degree Of fixation
of the abdominal contents promoted.