The morning call., 1893-11-26

but with the laity as well the SUBJECT Is
coming TO be one of general inquiry, Sep
ticemia. toxemia. pyemia, words all un-
known outside the profession few years
:. ago, now come trippingIy off The tongues
:. Of. babes, and he is q backward schoolboy
tow hom their meanings are not familiar.
:: ttWhat does. it all mean, anyway"
T.. asked. a young man of me recently.
+: =: Seems TO me it's taking mean advantage
!: of: lhe bugs 10 lay it all to them"
: Truly, it does seem as though micro bes
= were coming in for almost more than their
share of blame for the ills of the human
race, and as though even the germ theory,
hardy infant though it is, must now and
then grow little weary from the burdens
f. modern science shows disposition 10
: ma ke it carry
~ Il was travelling few years ago through
- tie State of Missouri W hen l fell in with a
good old country doctor, who began ask
:. ing me concerning this theory, which was
then just beginning to attract attention
"There's nothing in it, nothing in it," be
- exclaimed at last. "Why I've lived and
practiced medicine along this here bottom
;: for forty-six years, and I've seen as much
dfres the next one, but never see dirt
bred. disease. / know men, have known
:. 'em for years, who put on a flannel shirt
first come winter and wear it straight
through till spring. Most of 'em do it
.; hsreabouts, and if there was anything in
.y@ur germ theory they'd all have been dead
years ago. but they're alive and hearty"
4 fastened to disclaim any proprietary
q. right in the germ theory, but the old doc
tor was not to be appeased. II tell you
what it is now, he went on to say. 1t
ain't blood-poisoning that's killing our
:. people nowadays, IFS blood exhaustion
aud brain poisoning. We work so hard
We don't take time to breathe deep enough
aor~often enough, or empty our lungs clean
enough; the blood is exhausted from
oxygen starvation, and can't keep the
brain going"
T have thought, often, since then, of the
old medicO's theory. and as Charles Lamb
would say: THE more l think of il. the
more think of it,.
Every physician, every gymnastic in
strUctor, every teacher of eloeution or
singing knows that one Of the first and
most important steps in advancing certain
classes OF patients or pupils is to teach
them TO breathe. and, In nearly every in
stance, this art is very difficult for them to
acquire. Most people do not know how to
breathe. Tell the average man to take a
deep breath and he Will Initiate the upper
part of his chest, lift his shoulders and
pull at the air until his head feels light
and his throat contracts. He has no idea
should breathe with the whole chest until
be can feel the lower ribs rising, the ower
chest expanding and The abdominal mus
cles acting with the effort. Men complain
of lack of time for athletic exercise. who
have not the strength TO take such eXer-
else if they bad the time. They would
gain that strength. however, did they but
snatch a moment now and again through
the day to take breathing spell" behind
desk or counter or before the machine. It
d ift-6 6nnn nd
tion, but 40 Gu bic inches of pure air can in
an instant be taken into the lungs and car
rled through the system By the blood.
Instead of this amount, however. most
of US are lazy enough and unclean enough
to be contented with the few cubic inches
twenty to thirty and often much Iess-that
we CT sT1tch III the puny inhalations that
~ call breathing. and never know wnat it
t,s to empty the lungs of the reserve fund
Of air and get in an entirely fresh supply a
ozen or so times day. AS consequence
aur systems become clogged with the i'm
%7UrRttes the blood carries; the eliminating
CTgaDs are too weak 10 carry these of, and
the brain becomes at last saturated with
poison or the blood itself succumbs to the
toxic influence aud we have a well-deflned
case Of blood poisoning. The raeehorse
who chokes~>up and falls dead upon
the track does so, not because, as
horsemen ignorautly contend, he got
his head down and shut off his
WlQQ. All the cD0CkIciuS III the WOTlQ
would not have saved such an animal. He
dies. not berause his breath is cut off, not
from heart failure, but because the over
worked heart and lungs cannot supply the
blood with sufficient oxygen, the life fluid
becomes surcharged with poison, and
poisons the brain. 1t is for a similar rea-
son that the flesh of deer, hares or any
other animal that has been hunted and
made TO run before killing is apt to be un-
wholesome. The exhausted, de0xygenated
blood posons the whole system. For the
::bloOd is the life" says the old Scripture
record, and that the blood is the life we
;rasiize as we see life going out when this
<cfuid becomes contaminated. Athletes,
::inyalids, the sower Of wild oats and the
=: anch0rite alike. in these days, are sue
: cum bing to blOod-poisoning. The disease
rs coming TO be almost as fashionable as
: appendicitis. Overwork, mental or ply
sical, overworry, overstrain, everest and
TEST Of the wrong sort are some of the
leading causes of degeneration in the
blood.
:: Rest is a matter very little understood.
I'VE have been taught in years gone by
that the best sort Of rest is change of
Occupation, and l have seen more than one
professional or business maD, after two or
jthree hours OF severe mental labor, put
aside his work and plunge into physical
exercise, under an impression that he was
:.doing the very wisest thing possible for his
:*bodiY good. He could not make greater
-smislake. Some very clever experiments
.:.iIave been tried along this line lately by an
italian professor, who, by the aid of an
ingenious measuring apparatus has been
:abie to determine the amount OF work he
:: can do before stopped by WEAKNESS. Then
setting himself two hours hard mental
:. work he has afterwaId found in even so
:: trifiing a matter as the bending of finger.
Ibis physical strength to be perceptibly
diminished. mental exertiOn produces mus
:: cular as well as brain exhaustion. and ply
: steal exercise, unless Of the lightest sort.
j.: taken after such exertion. is not means
of rest, but of additional depletion of the
: system. That is the best and only rest
: that nsures to every part of the body op-
:: portunity for renewal OF strength.
= Professor Foster of England has re-
Gently advanced a novel theory in regard
TO fatigue. The real cause of that tired
feeling" be contends, is inability of the
organs to keep the blood sufficiently pure.
-: Mental and physical exertion alike are
attended by a giving off OF impurities by
ship, of the blood. Pure blood lessons
:: WEAKNESS, and impure blood produces ii