The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-12
THE NEW CONSUMPTION CURE.

disease were not extraordinary.
THE NEW CONSUMPTION CURE.
A recent dispatch from Denver states that
the chief feature Of the annual convention
of the American Medical Association was
an address by DR.. ]. B. Murphy, of Chi
cago, describing his new treatment and
cure for consumption. DR.. Murphy is the
inventor of the intestinal button" that
bears his name and in other ways is so
widely known in the profession that any
statement coming from him will carry full
weight. His new treatment of consumption
is the result of careful study in lung sur
gerry, accompanied at each step, by expert
mental tests and scientific methods. The
Denver dispatch said:
DR.. Murphy's new treatment Is based
upon the fact that the sore spots in the
lungs have a natural tendency to heal, the
healing process being retarded or prevented
by the constant expansion of the tissues in
breathing. The treatment consists in the
introduction of pure nitrogen into the lung
cavity through a hypodermic needle. The
action of the nitrogen congresses the lungs
and gives them entire rest. After few
weeks the nitrogen is Withdrawn and air
admitted, the lung expanding to its usual
dimensions.
From this 1t appears that DR.. Murphy's
treatment is to throw the diseased organ
out of service temporarily by collapsing it
with nitrogen gas injected into the chest
During the quiescent state of the lung thus
secured, the tendency Of nature itself to
cure disease and the action of the accom-
panying pleuritic effusion are depended on
to effect cure. The idea of collapsing the
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new, but DR.. Murphy's method is strictly
so. Physicians know that nature does cure
a great many cases of incipient tuberculosis
of the lungs by her own curative energy in
depositng connective tissue around the TO-
Gus Of infection, or center in which the dis
ease bacilli are situated. DR.. Murphy's
method promotes this natural process and
adds very greatly to it's effectiveness. On
the latter point he says:
1 have tried it in five cases Of advanced
tuberculosis with unqualified success AS a
result can say with safety that unless the
lung is entirely gone permanent cure can
be effected. The action of the nitrogen
congresses the lung and gives 1t an entire
rest. The nodule of tuberculosis becomes
cicatrized, or scarified into a solid substance
and the new tissue builds up around 1t. In
one case which commenced to work on in
December last the patient, who had not
slept for months on account of continual
coughing, slept that night for the first time.
The cough disappeared entirely, the night
sweats disappeared and the temperature
was reduced to normal, thus leaving no
symptoms of the disease. In April a ska
graph was taken of the case and the tuber-
culosis was found to have entirely disap-
peared. In the five cases in which l have
used this treatment cure was erected In
from four to eight weeks.
Arguing from these cases and the results
of his experiments in lung surgery, DR..
Murphy does not hesitate to say that. unless
the lung is entirely gone, permanent cure
can be effected.
A local physician, in a communication to
the Journal, takes exception to the alleged
discovery on the ground that perfect rest
of the lungs would cause death. He says:
A large number of physicians, possibly a
majority of the profession, have, in some
way got it into their heads that the action
of the lungs was necessary to life, and that
perfect rest of the respiratory organs
if a person quits breathing from scientific,
domestic or even political causes for, say a
week or two, he would hardly need the at
tention of even Chicago doctor.
This is unfair criticism, and, from one
member of the profession upon another,
particularly So The human outfit embraces
two lungs, the right one having three lobes
and the left one two. 1t is a demonstrated
fact that a person can live and exist with
comfort with only one lung. Dr. Murphy,
in his experiments on dogs, first removed
sections of the lungs and ligated the por-
ton left. The dogs so treated lived and re-
covered. Gradually, more and more Of the
lung was removed in succeeding expert
ments, until, finally, a dog was relieved of
one lung entirely. The animal lived for sew
en- months after the operation and, when
killed, it was found that one lung had in
creased in size to do the work of two until
it nearly filled the cavity that had formerly
been occupied by BOTH From this it is evil
dent that one lung may be temporarily put
to rest or laid off for repairs without any
injury to the health or comfort of its own
er. DR.. Murphy has demonstrated that by
the injection of nitrogen one or both lungs
can be rendered so far quiescent, without
injury to the patient, that nature can prose-
cute her remedial process. without hind
rance, to perfect cure.