The Florence daily tribune., 1899-03-18
FRESH AIR AND FOOD.
The BLACK FOREST SURE CURE FoB
CONSUMPTION.
No Medicines. No InocuIntion. 20
C--ddIIne-simpIy Pure Air D"y Rnd
wight. Enormous NenIs, Carefully
Regulated Exercise and Rest.

There is an interesting article IN The
Nineteenth Century in which Mr.. J.
A. Gibson tells how he was cured of
consumption. MIR. Gibson found him
self, a, the age of rs, suffering from
acute phthisis. His case was pronounced
To be desperate by the doctors. He
weighed only 0 stone pounds, and the
disease had such hold upon him that
ho never expected TO recover. However,
he won't of into the country, as tile
doctors advised, and after three months
of complete rest ana diet OF more
than haif gallon of milk "A day he had
put m a few pounds weight Then
friend urged him to go to Nordrach in
the Black forest and place himself un-
der DIR. Walther
be did so. and in four months he
came back to England in n state of bar
barrie health. weighing 12la stone and
with chest measurement to correspond.
Whnt was this magical treatment of DIR.
WaltherY Nourishment, rest and fresh
air-no medicines, no inoculation, no
coddling, but simply open windows day
and night, enormous meals and careful
ly regulated exercise and rest.
II sounds an easy cure, and it begnn
to take effect instnntnneously in Mr.
Gihsons case The first thing was 10
gain in weight, and with this object in
view DR. Walther fairly crammed his
patient Mr. Gibson gained in weight.
Every body else gained in weight. There
was competition as to who should
gain most. and people ate for dear life.
with an eye on the scale.
1--WE 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 tho disease and third pur-
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 ut and up at Z break
fast at s, dinner at 1, supper Mt 7-tlhs
was the days routine, with II walk at
a snail pace.
From the moment of arrival until
leaving Nordrach the patient never
hreathes one breath of any but the
purest air. MS Nordrach is in the Black
surrounded by trees, and long way
from town or even n village The
easement windows of the sanitaIium are
kept wide open day and night, summer
and winter. and in some instances the
windows are taken completely ont of
the frames
Thus it is practically an outdoor life
the patient lives continuously. There Is
therefore no danger of chills ON going
Yoohfa. IN ass ssnssn Observation-Disclosures appSl apSl,
without is equal. So pleasant docs 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 room with closed windows
Being at such n considerable height
II 800 feet, with rise in the longer
walks of another 500 feet-the pa
tient, 20 get the same amount of oxygen
into the system, must breathe relative
ly more of the raretied 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-
eminently calculated to effect, while at
tho same time the almost absolute rest
the patient enjoys allows bhe lungs to
be practically undisturbed, and SO per-
mits the healing process to proceed.
The climate is much the same as in
En- Gland. There quite as high rain
fall and in winter it is much colder,
But it has been demonstrated beyond u
doubt that climate has absolutely moth
ing to do with the case,
There the patients. who 20 out regu-
larly day after day in all kinds of
weather sometimes walk for hours at
time i'll the rain without ever thinking
OF changing their wet clothes afterward
This course Mr.. Gibson still adopts and
finds that such wetting sometimes
twice in one day-never does him any
harm whatever,
He asked DR. Walther if he thought
his system could he carried ON with hope
of success in this country. He said that
it could be worked here quite as well as
at Nordrach or as in the balmiest
cline; that all that was required was II
place where pure air was to be had. sit
uated well away from town, at 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 Wild, high average of
sunshine. dry climate and all such other
things as are generally supposed to be
SO necessary go for nothing. And this
is the crux of the whole matter. 1t is
possible to cure here. ON the spot, al
most all the people of this country who
are i'll of phthisis. Why, then, are sani-
tariums not erected at once to cure tho
hundreds of thousands of those who are
i'll and who have not the means to go
abroad hundreds of thousands who are
as certainly doomed to death as if they