The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-05
TREATMENT of DISEASE.
The SUN and Air as Remedies for the
His of Mankind.
From the Literary Digest.

His of Mankind.
From the Literary Digest.
There was a time when the treatment
of disease by other methods than the
administration of medicine was almost
exclusively in the hands of quacks
Nowadays, however. the man who OBJ
jects to drugs need not go outside the
ranks of legitimate practitioners to
get other forms of treatment, and he
who is willing to leave no stone I'M
turned to bring about a cure can sup
plement his medicines with whole
battery of effective therapeutic agents
that were almost unknown, or at least
unused, a few years ago. M. Alfred
de Vaulabelle writes on this subject in
Paris Cosmos of June 90 Instead of
resorting almost exclusively to drugs,
physicians, he says, are beginning to-
utilize energy in its multiple forms. We
know the air, when pure, performs
through the oxygen that it contains,
the functions of nutrition; that it pos
sesses special properties according to
its composition; that dry air, moist
air. cold air, hot air, that which pre-
walls on the sea or the coast, the at
mosphere of the plains and that of the
forests, are factors of which we must
take account, and whose effects on the
organisms are more appreciable than
is generally believed Like air, light
has a very great influence on our or
gans. 1t is one of the most active, slim
ulants of animal and vegetable energy.
that which contributes especially to
the development of hemoglobin and
chlorophyll A special method of treat
ment called heliotherapy, we are told
by the writer, has now been adopted
for the benefit of the nervous system.
Near Trieste, in the mountains of Car
niola, at an altitude of 800 feet, neu-
rasthenics are made to take actual
sun baths" which cure them in a
short time.
sun and Electric Light.
DR.. Finsen of Copenhagen, inventor
of ''phototherapy," has cured in few
months very refractory diseases of the
skin In his phototherapic institute at
Lysyria he has cured 800 out of 400
cases of lupus, that frightful germ dis
ease that so successfully treated vari-
Gus cancerous maladies and even tu-
berculosis. He employs not only sun
light, but also the electric arc. M. de
Vaulabelle continues:
THE purifying action of the suns
rays is such that, according to Mar
shall, the spores of anthrax, one of the
most hardy bacilli known, rapidly be-
COME lICdDdOtS VI III sum
light. Bacteria, even when they are
not destroyed by light, are so affected
that the ferments or toxins that they
secrete are profoundly modified in their
specific virulence. We shall not dwell
long on the good effects of 'thermo-
therapy,' 'hydrotherapy' and electro
therapy' Every one knows the import
ant part played by heat in medicine
and the favorable results obtained by
subjecting the extremities of sick
person to high temperatures. The oven
of NJ. Thallerman enables US to raise
the temperature in dry air to 230 and
266 degrees Fahrenheit without occa-
sioning the insuportable pain caused
by vapor baths. In contrast to theno-
therapy we have frigotherapy, whose
applications become daily more numer-
Gus. M. Raoul Pictet greatly lowers
the exterior temperature of the patient
without causing any other sensation
than an agreeable freshness. Often the
patient rises from the treatment with
an appetite that no medicine could have
given him, and, what is better still.
cured of the nervous trouble or the in
digestion from which he has perhaps
suffered for long time. Finally, suf-
ferers from tuberculosis regain appetite
that has long failed them when fire.
ouent applications of solid carbonic
acid are made to the stomach.
The Uses of Water.
Thanks to hydrotherapy, the prac-
tice of which dates only from 1927 and
is due to a peasant of Groefenberg, in
Silesia. a very large number of invaldis
have been relieved. II is to Priessnitz
that we owe the first establishment OF
undertaking the treatment of patients
with cold water-a method at first
badly managed, but since modlned by
able physician. 1t now renders signal
services in almost all chronic affections
except those of the heart and lungs.
"Flectrotherapy also does good
dailv. Its application dates from 1740,
when Jalabert first advised static
electricity for the treatment of certain
nnaladies But it is only since the in
vestigations of Manduyt, Dubonelx,
Ponna, Sarlandiere, Prof. Jules Col
auet, DR.. Buchesne, ]. Guitard and A.
Becquerel, that dynamic electricity has
been used successfully in treating neu-
ralgic affections, and particularly sci
atica, muscular rheumatism, hyper
esthesia, anesthesia, the paralysis of
sense organs, etc. By means of the
high frequency currents obtained with
D'ArsonvaTs apparatus we are now
able to cure nervous maladies and dis
eases of exhaustion. Placed in the CEN
ter OF a large cylinder formed by a
spirally wound wire through which the
current passes. the patient is subjected,
without actual contact with the con-
ductor, and without feeling the least
discomfort. to treatment whose good
effects he feels at once.
FINALLY, by mechanotherapy, sew
eral institutions for which exist in
Paris and abroad. we are enabled to
restore vitality to the muscles by CIV
ing them appropriate movements. and
by vibrotherapy we can cure some
cases Of neuralgia by material vihra-