The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-04-16
THE FROST CURE.

DR.. Oswald holds that the prevalence of
pulmonary diseases decreases with every
mile further north on the road from the
factory districts of the English border to
the pastoral regions of sea-girt Scotland,
and next to the natives of Senegambia,
where indoor work is almost unknown.
Inc Norwegians, Icelanders and va
kuts OF North Siberia enjoy the most
complete immunity from consumption.
The severe frosts of the Arctic regions,
he says, counteract even the filthy habits
OF the howell dwelling Esquimaux, and
whalers in an atmosphere not especially
distinguished tor it's purity or abundance
OF ozone manage to get the better of in
cipient tubercles by frequent exposure to
icy gales.
The doctor is a champion for pure air,
cold air, and an enemy of most fears
about air exposure and draughts, straw
air" and chilly atmosphere. Cold air
currents have boen greatly overrated as
to their danger, he declares He cites
Priessintz, the founder Of hydropathy.
who cured dyspepsia by cold shower
baths; but DIR. Oswald thinks inhalation
of fresh, cold air would do as well, and
be ever so much more agreeable, of
course.
Mountaineers, he declares, are almost
indigestion proof, and in the Norwegian
Highlands are impregnable to such dis
order. If we will have wide-open win
dow in our bedchamber, and let in
plenty Of cold, pure air, the meanwhile
snugly covered in bed, DR.. Oswald thinks
we will escape host Of ills, and aches
and pains.
Moderate refrigeration is a stimulant,
according to his authority, and he recalls
to the memory of his readers how coil
nights undo the work of hot, enervating
days. But it should he cold refrigeration,
by the breathing of cool air, for it's
draughts revive the lungs, just as cool
water refreshes the parched palate.
Ice, he tells us. has become substitute
for less harmless antiseptics in many
hospitals; and declined bedrooms have
been proved in Spain to be very efficient
aids in the cure of yellow fever patients,
but DIR. Oswald thinks that the pure cool
air breathed had more to do with the
cure than anything concerning tempera-
ture of the ''polar chamber" Or the
chloride of lime and other chemicals
used in the room. The centers of civil
zation during the last two thousand
years have moved at least eight hundred
miles nearer the poles, and the balance of
intellectual power has been transferred
to northern populations. It is also true
in America that the drift is northward.
and DR.. Oswald finds the key to this
mystery" in the stimulating influence
OF low temperature, for frost is an an
tidote, kills off climatic fevers in south
low lands and greatly modifies the PEN
alties of our manifold sins against the
health laws of nature"
This frost remedy the doctor holds to
be one especially adapted to the gluttons
and the topers, who in the tropics would
be killed in a few months, but in the
northern cold air will survive their ex-
cesses for years. The chronic Incidence
of exhausted constitutions finds in it a
remedy and stimulant. If we cannot
have Arctic atmosphere to brace us up.
nor clear, cold, pure air of the northern
lakes, we at least may have "open bed
room windows and less superheated tea
DR.. Oswald calls attention to the fact that
American physicians give testimony for
the frost cure by sending patients far
gone in consumption to tent-life in the
upper Adirondacks, where the tempera-
ture sinks low, even to 150 below zero,
There they are made to dwell without
fires, but with plenty of clothing and
bedding, and in most such cases the
tubercle microbes give up the contest
and the patient is saved This result he
attributes to the protracted influence of
cold air breathing. So DR.. Oswald. whose
rank in medical circles entities his opin
ion to profound respect, concludes that
the frost cure is logical and the most
important correlatiye of the germ theory
Of disease.