The age-herald., 1900-05-27
HOPE FOR CONSERVATIVES
Notes Of English Success With the Open
 Air and Overieeding Treatment

From the London News.
 An interesting account of the open-air
 treatment of consumptives embodying the
 results of seven years experfendce in Eng
 land, has been published for Dr. Jane H.
 Walker, physician to the New Hospital for
 Women and medical superintendent of the
 East Anglian sanatorium, by J. & A.
 Churchill, Great Marlborough street. In
 her introduction Miss Walker notes a cu-
 rious change in the attitude of some of
 the public toward consumptiyes. Some
 people have passed, she says, from the
 mental condition in which they treated
 consumption as if it were incommuni-
 cable by contact as broken leg or glass
 eye to one in which they regard It as II
 it were as infectious as measles or scarlet
 fever. Since she has had sanitorium peo-
 pie in the neighborhood have sent mes sages to excuse their not calling, as they
 were afraid to venture to the front door
 of house inhabited by consumpt1ves The
 continuous breathing of fresh air, MISS
 Walker explains, is only part of the cu-
 rative process. A superabundant dietary Is
 a part of the cure, the strain on the d.
 gestive organs being lessened as far aS
 possible by very carefully regulated inter-
 yals Of exercise and rest.
 pr. Walkers experience must help the
 housing movement. They confirm the im-
 pression that the decreased mortality from
 consumption, which which is peculiar to
 Great Britain, in the countries of Europe
 has been largely due to increased wage
 earning power of men and women, and the
 reduction in price of all the necessities Of
 life. Good wages and cheap food, she
 points out, mean better housing, less over
 crowding, more opportunities for fresh air
 and exercise. Credit, of course, Is due also to the influences which have improved the sanitary administration of our towns
 and secured so many parks and open spaces.
 The fresh air and feeding cure being | familiar to Miss Wilker from experience gained at Nordrach in the Black Forest, Miss Walker began first to treat patients of the hospital class on the same prlncl- ples at a cottage in Downham, Norfolk, and afterward in the next village of Den yer at farmhouse converted into a sana- torium for paying patients. larger sanatorium is now being erected in conse- uuence of the proved success Of the earlier experiments. From 1892 to 1899 IS patients were treated at the two sanatoria of these, 26 have recovered, ' more have been lost sight of, 6 are improving, 20 are sull under treatment, 4 are going back, and 5 have died. But only one of the deaths | took place in the sanatorium. The other | eight patients lived for some time after leaving-one for as long as four years In London slum. As the sanatorum for pay ing patients WAS lOl OpSi NiNA' oN-'' the results relate mainly to the poorer patients. Half the cases were those Of per sons who could not stay long enough, anu who were insufficiently housed and badly fed on their return to their own home The history of several cases are given Tn Dr Walkers little book. One case mas so much astonished Miss Walker herseh M thal | she describes it as sensational, ana Iears beinp charged with romancing. The case | was that of a housemaid, aged twenty-hVe' sent to her by a medical practlcloner III | IiverpooI "a most difficult and obstinate 1 natient," with distressing symptoms, most | anxious to preserve her figure, so she would | neither leave off nor enlarge her stays l which were tightly laced. The story goes | on:
 1 During her stay she had several extraor- l ninary and quite unaccountable rises or | ten,nerature On November it rose to l 10i.S. on the 26th to 112 degrees and on De- | cember (evening temperature) to llo de- | srees. On the 7th, the next morning, she was walking for three hours with no Ill effect. When the rises of temperature were made known to the resident medical or fcer the patient was kept in bed as pre- cautionary measure, but at no time was anything found to account for these ex- | traordinary variations. When she arrived, | in October, 1898, her weight was 100 pounds; | for the next six weeks she lost weight, and on December her weight was 97 pounds. During the next week she left off her stays let out her dresses four inches on | each side and expressed fixed determina- ton to gain weight On being weighed 1t was found that SC had made an increase of | 23 pounds in the course of week. She | was weighed by three different persons al | the cottage, and then sent up to Caius Cot | tage Farm to be weighed on different ma | chine and in each case the result was the | same During the following week she | gained another 6 pounds, so that her total l gain in fortnight was 29 pounds. The ] whole case is almost incredible, but there | arc one or two points that make it less i'm | possible. During this time the patient ate l enormously, all day long, ravenously, il | was described to me, and her whole appear | ance was changed. From being thin \ lanly girl she developed in a fortnight tc ! a really stout, buxom woman. It only re-
 mains to say that with the exception of