The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1899-03-03
FRESH AIR AND FOOD.
THE BLACK FOREST SURE CURE FOR
CONSUMPTION.

CONSUMPTION
No Medicines. No incubation, NJ
Coddling-Sinp7 ply Pure Air Day and
Night, Enormous Meals, Carefully
Rexulated Exercise and Rest.
IL There is an interesting article in The
Nineteenth Century in which MI. J.
"A. Gibson tells how he was cured Of
consumption. MI. Gibson found him
self, at the age of 80, suffering from
acute phthisis. His case was pronounced
to be desperate by the doctors. He
weighed only 9 stone Z pounds, and the
disease had such a hold upon him that
he never expected to recover. However,
he went off into the country, as the
doctors advised, and after three months
of complete rest and a diet Of more
than half a gallon Of milk a day he had
put on a few pounds weight. Then a
friend urged him to go to Nordrach in
the Black forest and place himself I'M
der DR.. Walther.
He did so. and in four months he
came back to England in a state Of bar
baric health, weighing 1915 stone and
with a chest measurement to correspond.
What was this magical treatment of DR..
Walther3 Nourishment, rest and fresh
air-no medicines, no incubation, no
coddling, but simply open windows day
and night, enormous meals and careful
" regulated exercise and rest.
It sounds an easy cure, and it began.
to take effect instantaneously in Mr..
Gibson's case. The first thing was to
gain in weight, and with this object in
view DR.. Walther fairly crammed his
patient. Mr.. Gibson gained in weight.
Everybody else gained in weight. There
was a competition as to who should
gain most, and people ate for dear life,
with an eye OF the scale.
.sWe used to say among ourselves,
writes Mr.. Gibson, ''that we had to eat
three times the ordinary amount of food
one portion to replace natural waste,
a second portion to replace the extra
waste from the disease and a third por-
tion to put on weight so that the system
might be strengthened and finally get
the better Of the disease. Everybody
had to lie down for an hour before
meals. To bed at 9 and up at Z; break
fast at s. dinner at /, supper at this
was the days routine, with a walk at
a snail's pace.
From the moment of arrival until
leaving Nordrach the patient never
breathes one breath of any but the
purest air. as Nordrach is in the Black
forest. at an elevation of 1900 feet,
surrounded by trees. and a long way
from a town or ever a village. The
easement windows of the sanitarium are
kept wide open day and night, summer
and winter, and in some instances the
windows are taken completely out Of
the frames.
Thus it is practically an outdoor life
the patient lives continuously. There is
therefore no danger of chills on going
out in any kind Of weather or at any
hour, as the temperature within and
without is equal. So pleasant does this
living in the open become and SO hardy
is the patient made and SO %invigorated
that on his return to this country it is
the greatest misery for him to have to
remain in a room with closed windows.
Being at such a considerable height
II, 500 feet, with a rise in the longer
walks Of another 1, 500 feet-the pa
tient, to get the same amount Of oxygen
into the system, must breathe relative
" more of the rarefed air and thus ex-
pand the lungs. In this way the lungs
are completely flooded with pure air.
All the odd corners and crannies, which
he has hardly used for years. are venti-
lated. which the easy walking up hill is
eminently calculated to effect, while at
the same time the almost absolute rest
the patient enjoys allows the lungs to
be practically undisturbed, and SO per-
mits the healing process to proceed.
The climate is much the same as in
England. There is quite as high a rain
fall, and in winter it is much colder.
But it has been demonstrated beyond a
doubt that climate has absolutely moth
ing to do with the case.
There the patients, who go out regu-
larly day after day in all kinds of
weather, sometimes walk for hours at a
time in the rain without ever thinking
of changing their wet clothes afterward.
This course Mr.. Gibson still adopts and
finds that such a neutrality-suspicious.
twice in one day-never does him any
harm whatever.
He asked DR.. Walther if he thought
his system could be carried or with hope
of success in this country. He said that
it could be worked here quite as well as
at N0rdrach. or as in the balmiest
cline, that all that was required was a
place where pure air was to be had, sit
uated we'll away from a town, at a fair
elevation, and the man to see that the
system was properly carried out. Mr..
Gibson is now convinced that this is
perfectly true.
Absolutely nothing else is needed.
Freedom from wind, a high average of
sunshine. dry climate and all such other