Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-07-24
OLD CURES FOR CONSUMPTION
SOME REMEDIES WHOSE VALUE TINE
HAS DISPROVED.

SOME REMEDIES WHOSE VALUE TIME
HAS DISPROvED.
In view OF the present widespread
enthusiasm over the open-air cure for
tuberculosis, many laymen and some
physicians will be surprised to learn
that at one time fresh air was held to
be positively injurious to the patient
This view was set forth after much
study long ago by Beddoes, a chemical
enthusiast, who attributed tuberculosis
to an excess of oxygen in the system.
His ideas tended to the belief that the
inhalation of air containing carbonic
acid gas was the proper plan of treat
ment.
This is only one OF many curious be-
liefS and cures in connection with the
white plague-nOt remedies put forth
merely for the purpose of enriching
their promoters, but discoveries made
after years of honest scientific research
by men not moved by mercenary
spirit. One "sure cure" after another
has been up and abandoned, and pro-
phylactic and therapeutic possibilities
at first hailed with great acclaim have
soon fallen into disrepute The history
of the disease shows numerous in
stances of methods of treatment that
were looked upon one day as strictly
proper and ethical being considered
almost the next day as akin to mall
practice.
Hippocrates, the ''father of medi
cine" began the search for a specific
for tuberculosis, and it has been con-
tinued through the centuries since with
a constantly changing fashion in drugs
and methods of treatment, though the
writings of the ancients show that
some of the present-day beliefs are by
no means modern.
Not long ago the opinion prevailed
in medical circles that the consump-
| tive, or person with weak lungs, should
| be kept in warm room and carefully
guarded from the outside air. Now
the patient is advised to stay outdoors
day and night. 1t used to be the fash
ion, when the freshair cure was in its
infancy, to encourage patients to take
all the exercise they could possibly
stand, to go out and trough it." Now
''roughing it" is strictly tabooed and
the patient warned that his only hope
is in keeping as quiet as possible. 1t
used to be the fashion to ship patients
off to warm, dry climate. Now cold
climates are recommended, and many
| physicians assert that moisture in the
air has its advantages.
These are all things within the re-
collection of even men who are still
young, but the history of tuberculosis
reveals similarly divergent views ever
since the time of Hippocrates, who, by
the why, himself advocated outdoor
life for the consumptive, but thought
walking 10 or Is miles day necessary
to derive benefit-a view now vigor-
ously combated.
AretXus, Greek physician, in the
first century recommended sea voyages,
but Galen, also Greek physician, in
the second century advocated dry
climates. The climate controversy has
been going on in medical circles ever
Since, and now it is quite generally
agreed that climate is not very inn
portant at ail-that it is not where the
patient is, but what he does that
counts.
The use of olive oil, forerunner of
cod-liver oil, is not modern idea at all,
as Avenzoar, Spanish physician, sug-
gested it away back in the twelfth CEN
tury. Eggs and milk, which now fig
ure so largely in a consumptive's diet,
were recommended even before the
twelfth century.
There have been almost as many sug-
gestions as to the cause of tuberculosis
as there have been cures. One investi-
gator blamed it on the use of chimneys
in houses; another said the disease was
clused from the wiclls of candles. Tight
lacing and stays were blamed very ear.
ly in the Investigations.
Beddoes' suggestion that fresh air
was injurious to patient was followed
by suggestion that remedy was to
be found in the ammoniacal atmos-
phere of the stable, although one inves-
tigator considered the atmosphere of
cow barns as of somewhat superior
curative power.
The continued inhalation by person
with lung trouble of dust and smoke
would today be considered suicidal, yet
less than 60 years ago, when the char
coal furnaces of Pennsylvania were in
full blast, many physicians sent con-
sumptives to that region because the
atmosphere was supposed to possess
some peculiar. curative properties.
For long time it was thought that
gas or some sort of vapor could reach
the diseased area in the lungs and so
kill the germs, and many things were
tried and discarded as of no value.
Among them was hydrofiuoric acid,
which etched all the glass in the room
and did no good. Another was the
odoriferous sulphuretted hydrogen, a
Whit of which ought to be sufficient to
annihalate any germ, but never feazed
the tubercle bacillus.
1t isn't so very long ago that many
laymen and quite a few physicians
cherished the idea that whisky was
good for the consumptive, and that if
he stuck to it manfully he could drink
the disease out of his system. Now ev-
cry consumptive is warned against the
use of whisky. CreOsote, hypophOs-