The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-27
ANTITUBERCUL SiS
 ASSOCIATION ACTIVE Contradictory Medical Ad- vice Given to Con-
 sumptives. CONFUSING TO LAYMEN There is Need of Greater Uniformity in
 Counsel.
CONFUSING TO LAYMEN

now Tn process of organization throughout the world has already pro- duced flood of literature for laymen but there are so many contradictions in it that the work is bound to be se- riously hampered unless physicians come to more nearly unanimous opinion on disputed matters in pre- vention and cure. For instance, the layman who is told that improvement takes place mostly in the winter, and not in the summer is naturally be- Wildered by the almost universal ad- vice to go South in the autumn, so as to have perpetual summer. It is also well known that in the northern i mountains like the Adirondacks, 4Where such excellent results are ob- tained, there is a maximum of cloudy days and but little sunshine at any time, particularly in winter The patient must be astonishe1, then, to hear that nearly every American text book asserts that unstirted sunshine is an absolute essential for cure. It has been asserted that there are a minimum of cases and a maximum of cures in very rainy climates, such as our northwest coast and the north
 west corner of Europe, yet almost ev-
 cry authority states that the ideal climate should have no rainy days on1 n+ i.
 Island in the city, even in quite ad-
 vanced cases are said to be obtained
 "in spite of unfavorable conditions" i"
 but the layman will naturally ask
 why it is 'unfavorable' if it cures so
 remarkably.
 Burton Tanning in his work on "The Open-Air Treatment of Tubercu-
 losis" mentions the fact that even in England the glare of the sun Is very
 powerful in producing headache,
 anorexia, prostration and even fever, and that protection from the summer sun is essential. It is rather bewild- ering, then, to the patient to be told
 by the majority of physicians that he
 must live in the sunlight in summer. Dr. John E. White of Colorado . Springs also says (Archives of Physi-
 ological Therapy October, 1906) that the coolest places must be selected in summer, avoiding direct sunlight and
 that he has proved that the sun
 bath" almost invariably raises the
 temperature. Others have reported
 adverse results of the sun-bath, even hemorrhages, but there are many who
 advocate it's use, even to the naked
 body, and one New York physician ad-
 vises clothing which transmits the
 light, so as to have perpetual sun
 bath.
 Every little while there are articles
 published by men whose opinions can not be ignored, stating that noder-
 ate amount of alcohol is beneficial in
 all cases, and a necessity when there
 is fever. Perhaps most physicians
 prescribe it, yet the literature for lay
 men often states that total abstinence is essential in treatment. It is also
 generally taught that alcoholic indul-
 gence is a predisposing causative fac for but the recent report of the
 Phipps institute says "that alcohol
 neither prevents nor cures tuberculo- sis. is evident from the number of al- coholics who nave Come for treatment
 and that 1t does not strongly predis-
 pose to the disease seems to stand ou. prominently from the vast preponder-
 anoe of nonalcoholics among appli- Icants for treatment" and 1t also states : that there Is no evidence of greater susceptibility in the children of alco- ] lholics. Laymen might twist that into
 A. proof of the old idea that total ab- stinence was predisposing cause but the above report wisely says that all lextreme views must be abandoned
 Even in selecting his food the patient must choose between the extremists 7 who insist upon a process of excessive lfeeding and those who advise a low , lproteid diet, or follow those who ad- Ivocate merely a generous amount of food Should a patient seek another , climate, he Is again bewildered by the contradictory advice, for he finds that l about every place is advertised as ad- 2 vantageous except his home. while s tthere are many who advise him not ] | to leave home at all.
 Surely there is need of greater uni i. Iformity in advice, for the average : layman is unable to sift it out and re- e feet everything except the few essen- h tials on which there are no differences !, of opinion. It is well to remember e also that there is a growing number
 of observations which seem to prove 0 that what Is good for one type, either n blond or brunei, Is not necessarily : good for the oposite, but we have moi y Icolleeted sufficient data for good, safe lconclusions, except on general princi- e ples There is then another ground a for differences of opinion, for while e few observers are reporting adverse : results in certain types in certain . places. the mass of the profession i: I of the opinion that complexion has nc 0 Influence on the result. It must bt = very disquieting to very blond patti g ent, after reading that he cain go any Y where. from Sweden to Egypt, ol a from New York to southern California
 to learn from someone else that to gt d to hot sunny place is suicide. Per Il haps it would be better to omit all ref d erence to disputed points in literature W intended for laymen, unless the twV y sides can be reasonably set forth - Medical Record.