The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-03-30
ILLS OF THE FLESH.
Six Hundred Diseases to Which
Mankind Is Heir,
Many and Varied Are the MaIadIes
That Keep Medical Scientists
Busy Studying Out
Remedies.


the unpleasant prospect which stares
in the face the human being who is
about TO enter the twentieth century
These. according to the testimony of
a well-known physician, include only
diseases as such, and not injuries,
growths and accidents which require
surgical attention. and yet may prop
erly be included among the ills of
flesh.
From infancy to old age man is beset
by the perils of illness, but when it
is considered that some forms of dis
ease attack only the young and other
forms attack only the old. or those of
a certain age, the chances are still
more in favor of the average sojourner
in the world escaping one or the other.
Some diseases may be borne without
serious consequences and recovered
from with comparative ease, while 9th
ers leave their mark for life, as it were.
engendering other complaints which
go to make up the list of sick dangers.
From another point Of view the dis
eases may be apportioned among the
various external parts and organs of
the body, in a measure cutting down
the total for the whole body at the
expense of some particular part
Thus, the head may be subject TO so
simple a disease as the falling out of
hair, or so serious a one as the tear
ing off Of the scalp by accidental
means. The one is apt to occur to al
most anyone. while the other happens
only in rare accidents. Again. sim
pie exposure and stiffness in the mus
cles of the neck. which. for a few days.
may be extremely trying to the man
of affairs. But this is not in il with
having a steel chisel shot into the
head. as was the case with a recent
patient in Baltimore. from whose skuD
the iron was successfully removed.
4 simple headache. while annoying.
may be due to no traceable derange-
ment OF the nerves or brain. On the
other hand, the growth of a tumor in
the brain or the blood clOt formed
II OlA lMIlinAfA VI AAirtuntn DAOON
vessel may. by its pressure on an inn
portant nerve center, cause paralysi,
of limb or the whole side of the body.
a single organ may be subject to
nearly q score of diseases, as for in
stance, the liver about which much
IS said and written. and which receives !
much blame for the varying moods !
Of man. In well-known work on the !
practice of medicine the liver has set |
down TO It Is diseases with which its
owner may suffer.
Besides the specific disease which is
supposed to attack all well-ordered |
hearts in their youth and leave them |
more or less affected throughout life.
the medical writer's assign half dozen
diseases to that organ which are to
be treated by the doctor.
Vacations Of life give their impress
TO diseases, as the 'clergyman's sore
throat" the "housemaid's knee" |
writers cramp" and "chimneysweep's |
cancer" Some of the recent additions
to this class Of diseases are "typewrt-
ers' paralysis" and telephone head
ache" an affliction TO which some of |
the exchange girls are subject, from
constant use of the telephone receiver.
Diseases. like fashions. change with
the seasons, some being more preva-
lent in one month of the year than in
another, although there is no hard
and fast rule to confne them to par
ticular season. Under the proper prov
ocation a person may have a cold In
the head in midsummer, as we'll as in
winter. There is less change from
year to year than in fashions. 1t is
quoted from the Bible that there is
nothing new under the SUM-" This is
held by some to be true of medicine.
1t is pointed out that the same NAL
aides have existed for centuries. only
perhaps. they were not so well stud
led and less was written about them.
The progress of medical science has
also brought about changes in the
method of treatment. and this caused
prominence to be given some diseases
WhiNh udb previously htlu al oDoSuit
place in medical and surgical litera-
ture. A case in point is appendicitis,
which in old works on medicine held
little, If any, place. and then under
another name. The first performance
of the operation of opening the alb
domen. by an American surgeon. less
than a score of years ago. led TO the
recognition Of this disease and its
surgical treatment Nowadays hardly
a day passes without an operation for
Influenza. or grippe. has its periods
of convenient activity when every cold
of consequence is called by this better
sounding name along with the genuine
cases Of the malady Again. 1t sinks
into comparative obscurity until
dragged into prominence by an epi-
demic in some section Of the country.
The multiplication of remedies has
more than kept pace with the growth
in the number Of diseases. All the
coal tar products were unknown but
a few years ago. Chemists and man
ufacturers are now busy. and allow
scarcely q week to go by without put
ting on the market n new remedy for
which some special curative function
is claimed
The medical colleges too. are turn
ing ont hundreds of graduates every
year who are taking up the fight
against disease adding their investi-
CATIONS and deductions TO the work