The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-03-10
TEMPERA NCE
DEPARTMENT.
ALCOHOL IN THE TREATMENT
OF TUBERCULOSIS

OF TUBERCULOSIS
have met with a small class Of
consumptive patients who could take
alcoholic liquors freely for length Of
time, without deranging either the
stomach or the brain, and with de-
tided amelllrat'cn of al: the pulmo-
nary symptoms, and an ares. of the
emaciation Some of these have act
ually increased in embonpoint, and
from theree 60 six months were highly
elated with the hope that they were
recovering. But truth comnels fle to
say that have never seen case in
which this apparent Improvement I'M
der the influence of alcoholic drink
was permanent. On the contrary, even
in those cases in which the emacia-
ton seems at first arrested. and the
general symptoms ameliorated, the
physical signs do not undergo a cor
responding Improvement; and after a
few months the digestive function be-
comes impaired; the emaciation be-
gins to increase rapidly, and in a
short time the patient is fatally pros
trated.-Dr. Nathan S. Davis, Sr. of
Chicago. (Deceased.)
The therapeutics of consumption IS
now upon firm physiological founda-
ton. Provided certain conditions can
be fulfilled pulmonary phthisis can
be cured, and, by submitting to these
requirements, it is an every day expe-
rience that these patients are arrest.
ed in their downward path and are
restored to health and economic use.
fitness. A survey of the methods fol-
lowed at the present day, which have
been found the most successful, dem
onstrate conclusively that treatment
by drugs really has very subordinate
place.
The, important factors are air, as
pure as possible, climate as favor
able as can be obtained, and food, as
nourishing and as abundant as the
patient can assimalate. Under the
new methods in which living and
sleeping in the open air, sun-baths
and a diet chiefly of eggs and milk,
are the. principal constituents the
success has been most gratifying. In
old methods of treatment, drugs, in
Guiding alchol, occupied the chief
place: and patients died in such mum
bers that consumption received the
name of the great white plague. In
the present system, drugs and alcohol
have no place at all practically, and
patients Cat least in the early stage)
uniformity make rapid progress to-
wards recovery. Why has alcohol
been abandoned?
~ Because many cases occur in
persons addicted to the constant use
OF alcoholic drinks, and alcoholism is
recognized as one of the predisposins
causes of pulmonary tuberculosis
The first principle of treatment il
to remove the cause of the disease.
(2) Because it retards norma
metabolism. lowers temperature, ant
impairs nutrition.
go Because it produces gastric
catarrh, hepatic cirrhosis, and inter
feres with digestion.
(4) Because it causes degenerativ'
changes Of the kidneys, and retardi
the elimination of waste.
go Because its action upon tn,
nervous system, after brief perioC
of excitement is that of a sedativt
and narcotic. 1t gives temporal!
sensation of well-being, while it reall!
hastens the process of disease, an,
paralyses the defensive function o
the white blood cells and lung tissue
Finally, because it does not cor
tain the elements required for build
ing up the body and is therefore no
constructive, while on the other hand
its physiological action and patholog
cal results stamp it as essentially dt
structive in its action upon the huma
organism Professor Frank B. Woot
bury. NJ. D., Philadelphia, Pa
The consensus of AUTHORITATIVE
medical opinion of the present time
that alcohol has no value as remed
for consumption. More than this. it
recognized that the habitual use G
alcohol makes the user more suscept
BILE to the invasions of disease germs
including bacillus. The children Q
drunkards are more frequently tn
victims of consumption than tn
children Of those who abstain fror
alcoholic drinks. and so marked /
this relationship that drunkard PAL
entage is looked upon as causatiy,
factor in the production of tubercu
1osis. These propositions are accept
Sn,,,1nr&ohIa foo@o ~. A.