The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-04

| sheets of cardboard every hour for nine | and one-half hours each day. This is not exactly a rest cure, and everyone knows what havoc Is wrought in con-
 sumptives by severe exercise. Yet the boy got we'll in about year and a
 half. having gained in all thirty-eight 1 pounds. L
 Harsh as it may seem. financial as- | sistance cannot be rendered to the suf- | ferers Experience has shown that charity inevitably pauperizes them, breaks down their will power, and de- stroys the whole value of the physi- clans efforts. They pay nothing for the treatment, and they are at liberty, If necessary. to borrow the money to pay for their food as many of them do: {:
 but the authorities of the post-gradu- ate hospital are compelled to be blind to the privations of the individual. One of the requisites for admission is that the patient must be financially inde- pendent.
 Pulmonary tuberculosis Is one of the many results of ,mal-nutrition. The weekly increase in weight is the index of the patients progress. One indoor salesman, who weighed 107 pounds when he was admitted, tipped the scales at 163 1-2 twenty-one months later, an increase of more than 30 per cent. These gains are not the result of any specific remedy, but a system of forced | feeding. The aim is to build up the body faster than the decrease can break it down, to restore the blood to the normal state. in which the tuber- | culosis germ has no chance of life. | Much more nourishment, therefore, Is required than would be needed under
 ordinary circumstances, and the prob i lem thus resolves itself into the ques- l tion of how best to supply this food Ultimately it is hoped that a specific diet of universal applicability can be formulated. Towards this end the phy-
 sicians in the dispensary annex of the Post-Graduate are now working Enough has already been done to show that the underlying chemical principles of scientific feeding can be applied to patients living in their own homes and
 working at their daily business. and that by means of them uncomplicated cases of pulmonary tuberculosis can be cured, and are now being cured.
 The scientist recognizes two main classes of food, the tissue builders and the heat or energy producers. Tho body must have both of these, but at all costs 1t will obtain heat-the first es- sentiaI of life-leaving the tissues to be replaced with the remainder as best they can. Proteids, especially as found in milk, cheese, eggs and meat, are useful for both purposes, but In order that they may be saved for build ing tissue 1t is necessary to supply the body with other substances from which to derive it's requisite heat and energy. These can be obtained from fats and from carbo -hydrates, such as vegeta- bles, starch and sugar. In combating mal-nutrition, in repairing the waste of consumption. the problem is, there- fore to supply sufficient carbohydrates nYs fat In tho nrAtnidS for their special purpose. For various technical reasons fat Is preferred to carbo-hy- drates and an emulsion of fats to any single one. At present two doses of fats are administered each day, the patients coming to the dispensary for that purposes in order to give the head nurse and the physician an opportunity for cross-examination. In addition, large quantities of milk or eggs or both. are consumed at home. The ex- pense of obtaining sufficient quantities of these proteid substances necessarily troubles the poorer patients, for fresh eggs and good milk are luxuries in the winter.
 In working out the diet which will do the most good with the least incon- yenience, the dispensary annex recently acquired by the Post-Graduate Is of the greatest assistance. In the eight beds there are sufferers from the relapses- cancellations is the technical name which are a feature of consumption. There are under the eye of the physi- clan all the time, and the effect of the treatment can be ascertained by q thorough and elaborate system of rec ords much like a bookkeeper's balance Eight weeks is the time generally spent in each case. If any more evidences were needed of the havoc of consump- tion and the great work to he done in overcoming it among the poor of our cities, it would be furnished by the dif- ference between the wasted sufferers in the annex and the comparatively robust members of the class who gather every evening in the dispensary.
 The Post Graduate Hospital is not at tempting single handed to fight the plague. This must be done on scale proportionate to the magnitude of the task, but it Is being proved to the scientific world that the consumptive working -man or woman is no longer doomed to sink into greater and great CT poverty as he grows more unfit to work until death finally puts an end to his hopeless struggles.