Rock Island Argus., 1899-04-12


Night. Enormous Meals. Carefully
| Regulated Exercise and Rest.
There is an interesting article in The
Nineteenth Century in which Mr.. ].
A Gibson tells how he was cured oi
consumption. Mr. Gibson found him
self. at the age of IS, suffering FROM
acute phthisis- His case was pronounced
to be desperate by the doctors. He
weighed only 0 stone Z pounds, and the
disease had such hold upon him that
lie 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 day he had
| put on few pounds weight. Then a
| friend urged him to go to Nordrach IN
| the Black forest and place himself un-
der DIR. Walther.
| He did so, and in four months he
game back to England i. state of bar
barrie health, weighing 1919 stone and
| with chest measurement to correspond.
| What was this magical treatment of DIR.
| Walther? Nourishment, rest and fresh
| air-ro medicines. no incubation, no
| coddling, but simply open windows day
| and night, enormous meals and careful
| Iy regulated exercise and rest
1t 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 DIR. Walther fairly crammed his
patient Mr. Gibson gained In weight.
Every body else gained in weight. There
was a competition as to who should
gain most, and people ate for dear life,
with an eye on the scale.
I'VE 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 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 . and up at Z; break
fast at s, dinner at 1, supper at This
was the days routine, with 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 /, 800 feet,
uN lIttS, anu d lOLf1 way
from a town or even 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 ont 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 considerable height
Il. 500 feet, with a rise in the longer
walks of another /, 500 feet-the pa
tient. to get the same amount of oxygen
into the system, must breathe relative
" more of the rarefied 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 rain |
fall and in winter it is much colder. |
But it has been demonstrated beyond |
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 /
sometimes walk for hours at /
time in the rain without ever thinking |
of changing their wet clothes afterward. |
This course Mr.. Gibson still adopts and |
finds that such a wetting- sometimes /
twice in one day-never does him any /
harm whatever.
He asked DIR. Walther if he thought
his system could be 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 1
CLINE; that all that was required was a
place where pure air was to be had, sit
uated well away from a town, at fair
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, high average of
sunshine, dry climate and all such other
things rs 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 the
hundreds of thousands of those who are
i'll and who have not the means to go
of thousands who are
as certainly doomed to death as if they
we're already under the sod If some
;uch steps be not at once taken2 1t Is