The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-06-27
DEATH-DEIAYING DISEASES.
Affections That PrOIOng Life Which
Are Commonly Supposed to
Hasten the End.

One of the latest medical theories
| is that certain diseases ward off
death. Rheumatic people, for in
stance, are said rarely to die young.
| Why, the medical men are unable to
say, but it is proba BILE that the blood
acquires some property which is fatal
to the germs of other diseases. A doc
tor of experience has noticed the fact
that in a family of five or six broth
ers and sisters, one of whom is rheu
matte, that one will outlive the 9th
ers, as a rule. If govt can be kept
away from the heart and confined to
the big toe the patient is likely to
live to be 80 or 100 years old. 1t is
said that this is due to the fact that
the disease purifies the blood.
If one has an attack of smallpox
and lives through it, he stands an
excellent chance of attaining a ripe
old age. In a census of aged people
taken many years ago it was found
that a large percentage of them were
pock-marked. This led an eminent
physician to make calculation which
proved that there were twice as many
pock-marked people over so years old
as there would have been had not the
smallpox exercised preseryative in
fluence. He accounted for this curious
fact by concluding that the smallpox
microbe frightens away all other mi
crobes, just as rats brighten away
mice from a house.
Daa fnacc &c sai1 70 bova tho
ty of adding to the victims age. Now
and then a deaf man is run over in
city street, but when deaf people
prudently pitch their tents in the
country their chances of a long life
are extremely good. The true ex-
| PLANTATION of this is declared to be
| the fact that deafness saves people a
lot of worry over small matters and
| from the wear and tear of noises.
Bronchitis often shortens life, but
| in some cases it has the opposite eff
| feet. A large number of the old peo-
| pie one meets cough all the year
| round with chronic bronchitis. One
would think to listen to them that
| they must cough themselves to death
soon, but that is not so. The cough
| ing helps the heart to circulate the
blood, and, in fact, gives exercise to
many of the organs. Only for this
| daily exercise many old peoples
mechanism would get fatally clogged.
Besides, a man with bronchitis will
not sit in a draught, he win avoid
| getting wet and will not stay out half
the night losing his sleep and paint
ing the town" with the "boys."
Perhaps the most surprising asser-
ton is that disease in parents often
| confers long life on children. The
contrary is believed, popularity. and
no doubt there is some ground for
| the belief. Some time ago the Brit
| fish Medical association investigated
the subject of old age. Taking $40
people aged from so to 90 years, they
inquired into their family history.
| Here is the result:
consumption in 65 families; govt in
| a. families: rheumatism in 50 fami-
lies; insanity in IS families; apo
| plexy and paralysis in ~ families
Thus there was a history of dead
| 1y diseases in the families of 253 of
| the old people. In At more families
| there was likewise some grave dis
ease. And only 40 families were free,
| or said to be free, from those mala-
dies which usually are supposed to be
|