Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1899-03-08


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 OF
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 8 stone 7 pounds, and the
disease had such hold upon him that
ho never expected TO recover. However
he went of into the country, as the
doctors advised, and after three months
of complete rest and diet Of more
than half a gallon of milk day he had
put on few pounds weight Then
friend urged him to 90 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 1212 stone and
with a chest measurement to correspond
What was this magical treatment OF DR.
Walther? Nourishment, rest and fresh
air-no medicines, no incubation, no
coddling. but simply open windows day
and night, enormous meals and careful
IL regulated exercise and rest.
It sounds an easy cure, and 1t began
m take effect instantaneously in Mr..
Gihso,7's case. The first thing was to
cain in weight, and with this object in
view DR. SValther 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 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,
g second portion to replace the extra
waste from the disease and third por-
ton 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 /, 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
unrest 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 even q village. Inc
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 ana
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
Il. 500 feet, with a rise in the longer
walks Of another 800 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 all.
All the odd corners and crannles, which
he has-hardly used for years, are ventl-
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 sQuite as high 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, VINO 90 out regu-
larly day after day in all kinds OF
weather, 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
dnds that such wetting-sometimes
twice in one day-never does him any
harm whatever.
He asked DR.. 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
Of Nordrach, or as in the balmlest
cline; that all that was required was
place where pure air was to be had, sit
mated 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 wind, high average Of
sunshine, dry climate and all such other
things as are generally supposed to be
so necessary go for nothing. And TINS
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 SAM
tariums net erected at once to cure the
hundreds Of thousands of those who are
III and who have not the means TO go
abroad-hundreds of thousands who are
as certainly doomed to death as if they
were already under the sod if some
such steps be not at once taken? 1t Is
sad to think that all these people must
die when they might easily be saved
have been afflicted with rheumatism