The Worthington advance., 1900-03-23

OuIy Ill rdre accluentS. AGAIN, SIM
pie exposure and stiffness in the mus
cles of the neck. which. for few days.
may be extremely trying to the man
of affairs. But this is not in it with
having a steel chisel shot into the
head, as was the case with a recent
patient in Baltimore, from whose skull
the iron was successfully removed.
A simple headache, while annoying,
may be due to no traceable derange-
ment of the nerves or brain. On the
other hand, the growth of tumor in
the brain or the blood clot formed
from ruptured or diseased blood
vessel may, by its pressure on an inn
portant nerve center, cause paralysis
OF a limb or the whole side of the body.
Outside of the zymotic diseases. or
those caused by the reproduction with
in the body of living germs, introduced
from without, this physician says that,
after all, the other diseases are mere
ly forms of inflammation. Thus, one
form of Inflammation of the mucous
lining of the throat will produce a
simple sore throat, while another form
OF inflammation of the same tissues
will cause a deadly case of diphtheria.
Thus. too, an Inflammation of the
membranes lining the interior of tn.
lungs will be called pneumonia, while
another form of inflammation of the
membrane covering the lung is called
pleurisy. So it goes through various
tissues and organs of the body, each
having variety of forms of inflamma-
tion. particularized as diseases which
are known by this or that pame.
A single organ may be subject to
nearly a 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 it's
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.
Vocations 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 "typewrit-
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 confine them to par
ticular season. Under the proper prov
ocation 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 mall
aides have existed for centuries. only,
perhaps. they were not so we'll 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
pron-i -inence to be given some diseases
which had previously held an obscure
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 it's
surgical treatment. Nowadays hardly
a day passes without an operation for
appendicitis.
Influenza, or grippe, has it's 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. it 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
week to 60 by without put
ting on the market n new remedy for
which some special curative function
10 claimed. ~. ssH
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
that has gone before. Hygiene and
lietctics are being given more atten-
ton in the field Of preventive metli-
zine, in orde- to build up the human
system 30 that It win resist the sim
gle combined assaults Of Its disease
enemies. so the fight goes on against .
the eoo-odd diseases altinore Sun.
sSs