The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-06-11

table companions, Don Piatt, was alive.
we had arranged to have little dinner
together Mt an up town cafe. was on
time, but Piatt was late. When he did
come, he looked grave and said in the
low and well modulated voice SO memo
rable:
II am sorry, but the simple truth is ]
discover that am afflicted with an all
ment that will not yield to treatment
one indeed for which 6,000 years of med
ical science have not been able to find a
cure"
Though always on my guard for Joke,
the sadly solemn face of my friend alb
solved him this time, and with all the
sympathy could throw into nv words
| eXclaimed:
why, my dear Piatt, don't you be-
heve it! What is this maladyl''
ALIAS, old age! l set out to walk here.
1t was too much of an undertaking."
The timeliness of this reference to the
infirmities of age is accumulated by sew
eral important cases in court that have
depended upon the incurability of snor-
ing. This vexatious affection to which
the human family is heir has increased
in this country with alarming rapidity
character is recognized by progressive
physicians, and the definitions found in
the dictionaries are now admitted to be
quite wide of the mark. Webster init
mates clearly. by tracing the etymology
of the word, that the nose is the impor-
tant organ in producing the noise during
sleep.
This belief must have been general in
the last generation, for we all know that
aclothespin was the remedy best thought
of i'll practice. That treatment was no
moro severe than cupping and far more
direct i'll application. But during the
past five or six years, or since the French
form of Influenza fastened upon us, there
has been anarked and alarming increase
i'll the number of people addicted to
snoring. 1t is popularity Of this NAL
ady that the sufferers are not confined to
| those attacked. Like the deliriuln ire
mems, the cornet habit and other obnox-
| ious forms of nervous unrest. snoring
awakens an antagonism in the human
breast that mere medicine is powerless
| to subdue
Those who fail to agree with me as to
the gravity, the seriousness or the time
hness of these remarks are requested to
communicate by mail, and they will be
made acquainted with case in point
that will amply convince them.
An acquaintance living OH West End
avenue is now suffering from the most
thoroughly developed case of snoring
that has appealed to medical science in
recent times. His life up to the past
| year has been exemplary, but it is the
now looks upon himself as IL victim to
the inadequacy of medical science to
reach his case. His wife has left him.
taking the children with her, and while
1t is unlikely that the case in Wis
consin will be taken as a precedent for
| procuring divorce there can be no
| doubt that the couple are irrevocably
separated. That husband was deeply at
| tached to his wife. he took the best of
| medical advice. He even visited that
city of physicians, Philadelphia, in the
| hope of restoration to normal method
of sleeping.
His medical experience was extensive.
| He began with anodyne and ended with
n serious contemplation Of deadly strych-
nine. He tried oxides and bromidcs,
nerve foods and antifats. Tactics and
laXatives, iodides and chloridcs. acids
| and alkalis oatmeal and cornmcai. AL
| ternating with these he took beer, baths
and blisters. Knowing that bclladonna
made large the pupils of the eyes. he
searched for Il medicine that would have
the effect of Il mydratic upon the nos
trils. Then he went To Dr. Curtis and
had the cartilage Of his nose removed.
Somebody told him about the Prince of
Wales being cured of insomnia by the
use of a hon pillow, and he tried that
without effect. His case was incurable.
He grew desperate. He resorted to at
rophine, camphine. e-bombaZine!
At this stage his wife left him, and one
10y one the servants in the house gave no.
tice
Thus was Il household wrecked be-
cause the head of it snored.
We all regard with serious apprehen-
sion the threatened approach of cpl
denies from the old world, and we re-
member that from the same old world
was brought the sad, sad infirmity of
snoring-a gift that we could have done
without and would have been happier
had they kept at home.
Now that recognition of the deplor-
able seriousness of snoring is forthcom-
ing | would soberly suggest that some
philanthropist offer a prize for the spe-
cific thatwill antagonize and destroy this
sunderer of homes and destroyer of hap
piness. The remedy must be real and
the cure effected permanent.
Snoring must be removed from the
category of incurable Affections
Chambers in New York Recorder