The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-09-14
Rhinitis or Dry Catarrh.

A s | TOOK occasion to warn the readers of
"a the salad against sci.duggnG last Satur-
day, ! feel Justified in giving to them in to-
day 5 issue an extract Of paper on dIy Cdtarrh
which | read before the Eastern Section of the
American laringoIogicdl, Rhinoogical and Oto
logical society at the annual meeting in Buffalo,
june -, 1901, for the same reason namely, as a
warning against placing too much confidence IN
the statements made in manY OF the adlcr.
tscments in our daily papers. What | wish TO
| convey to you all, as being interested in the
various forms OF nasal disease, is only my person
al unbiased conclusions, unbiased by any OF the
numerous theories advanced by writers ON dis
cases of the nose in regard to the CauSdtion,
pathology, and svmptomatology Of this more
rare than commonly supposed to be variety Of
nasal diseases; and as the sound Of the ttum.
pct will waken up the long forgotten mart ial
| spirit in the old horse who has spent his
| declining years before the pillow. 80 may these
| remarks Of mine act like the sound Of the trum.
pet to recall forgotten facts and observations in
| some of you, which were forgotten only because
| of the spcndor and dazzling brilliancy OF The
| modern teachings Of enthusiastic bactcrioosi,ts
| (not to say pathtlogsts) which make it so easy
| to account for the different phenomena and
| symptoms IN given case without the trouble II
| searching further than tor the pdthogcnc disease
producing micro-orgdnsm which is alleged TO be
| the cause Of the disease, and, when found with
absolute certainty determines the diagnosis with.
| out further consideration of the various patho.
| logical changes which may be present in given
| case.
| In my extensive experience, both in the out,
| door clinic Of the University Of Pennsylvania
| hospital and in the Northern Union Dspensary
of Philadelphia (Which, by the way, | am the
| founder OF, for period Ot fifteen years kept
tally " the various cases Of nasal diseases which
came under my notice as chief Of the nose and
| .t Tt1 MT nd | Al go ~
to the general belief atrophic rhnitis (dry ca
| tarrm, from whatever cause, was compara
| lively rare disease, averaging about fifteen 10
one thousand OF the other forms OF nasal catairh
| also found that the different nationaIitic,
aud races showed, numerically speaking,
marked difference in the frequency of the oc
currcnce of the disease among them.
Thus, | found that the Amcrcan-horn male
children Of Irish parents were largely in the ma
| iority; next came the lrsh.born, then the Ital
| ian.hoTn, the French native, and the German
and the smallest contingent furnished il
| my statistics by the negro race. Other nationai
ties, such as the slavic were too small in nun
her TO he taken into account as to the prevail
ence nj dry catarrh among them.
Another most interesting and valuable obscrva
tion which | was thus able 10 make was that
contrary to the assertion Of many authors, tn,
| occupation Of the patients had no significant in
fucnce upon the CauSation of the disease eNcep
IN those very rare cases which presented them
selves in employees of chemical manufacturing
establishments and ! made the observation tina
particularly those persons employed in the manu-
facturc Of cinchona preparations and OF quinne
as we'll as in those who were employed in tn
manuiarturc of bichrouatc Of potassium, fur
njshcd instances ut influence Of occupation. II
the latter ! found that a pcrforation OF the sep
tum, the partition between the two anterior ma
sal cavities which extends from the noStril
back TO within a short distance Of the uppe
| part oi the throat and is composed partly n
cartilage and partly Of hony structure, very 500
occurred after the usual symptoms OF the for
nation ot dry scahs in the anterior nasal cham
hers a fact which ! pointed out years ago, an
which may he due TO the influence Of the chromi
acid yapOr as destructive agent 10 cartilage
az well as to the mechanical injury inhcte
| upon the septdl mucous membrane by the fnge
nail Of the patient in his Cndeavor to remove
even temporarily, the obstruction to nasal re,
pration ocoa,ioncd by the hard scabs accumull
ing and adherng TO the mucous membrane ic
want Of sufficient secretion from the atrophi
(wa,tcd) tmhinatc tissue, due to the astrnger
action Of the chronic acid vapor
Another observation which l. as well as otl
ers, have frequently referred to in writings, W,
that not inircquently persons presented then
selves who were afflicted with unilateral atroph
rhinits and, in one or the other Of the mas
chambers presented the well known charactc
, | istic feature Of the disease, and were even 10
greater or less extent afflicted with that prom
, nent and disagrccable symptom o2aena, or,
: | It is commonly called offensive breath. The
cases | did not include in my statistics, for II
! reason that found the pathological condition
, to he due invariably to a mechanical obstructi,
! to nasal respiration in the ether anterior mas