The Washington herald., 1913-02-16

secrecy ought to be. until it is shown
TO be otherwise, worthy of respect. In
estimating the value of serum therapy,
neither successful or unsuccessful dis
CoVercrs appear to take into account the
probability that in hacilIi of the same
elias sSitiCation. there may be some indi-
viduals immune. as ii were. against fatal
effect Of the serum that is directed
against them. while others perish from
its effect. somewhat after the phenomena
which at times is exhibited by the ami
mai body as whole. with respect To the
different effects upon different individ-
uals Of tho same drug. Strictly speaking,
serum therany has advanced no further
beyond the COnjeCtural stage of develop
ment than medication via the stomach.
Tn" writer has met those who were
affected with pulmonary tuberculosis
camping in tents upon the slopes of the
Rocky Mountains, all the way from the
forty-nnth down to the twentieth paral-
lcl north latitude. and as well, in the
more eaSterly Appalachian range. and
almost to a unit they have declared in
the most optimistic terms that no form
of treatment benefited them SO much as
that which ut the time they were taking
The last instance of this kind that |
encountered was that of a Young man
from Florida. who had pitched his tent
within the ruins of the adobe fort built
by Gen. Taylor. who commanded the
battlefield of Buena Vista, Saltillo. Mex
leo. The distinctive merits OF this form
Of treatment appear to the writer 10 be:
the possibility it affords of being continu-
Gus. that is to say, it is not diuranally
offset by the necessity that otherwise
exists of passing the sleeping hours of
the night in less beneficial and often
harmful situations.
Fresh air. know il. consists of
about twenty parts OF pure oxygen d.
luted with eighty parts by volume OF
nitrogen gas, and which. owing to its
elasticity, expands to n greater bulk the
higher We are situated above the sea
level, and 1t Is thus that mountain air
acquires those properties which compel
an increased frequency of the natural
act of respiration. an increase of the ac-
uvity in other terms. OF the barter that
goes on between the air of inspiration
and the blood as they meet in the lungs
of the volume of aerial nourishment TAX
en- into. and of the quantity of tissue
waste in its gaseous form. that is ex-
PEELED through the pulmonary tract.
1t would indeed be strange Is such
treatment, when not abused were other
wist than beneficial to the consumptive.
To the air of the mountain forests of
pine. there is attributed some special ef-
hcacy. and il is not improbable that the
air Of mountain forests of eucalyptus
might prove more effiCacious still, IL such
forests exist In vOlatilized state, the
essential oils of the pine and the euca-
lyptus arc germicidal. the latter prob
ably more so than the former and the
is offered: II a Fictitious air
a due proportion of the vola-
tile properties of either one of these VOL |
atilized substances should be breathed
during night and day for a |
sufficient period of time, might 1t not |
arrest the work of the tubercle bacilli |
in the lungs, through the ultimate medi- |
UNI of the somewhat restored blood |
stream which no longer carried the es- |
sential working elements of the bacilH? |
In an empirical way. some such form of |
treatment Of pulmonary consumption has |
already been tried. in strictly scien- 4
life way, however. nothing appears to |
nave been attempted. The proposition is |
in conclusion that when the
'eaIly effective remedy for this dread
,courge is finally discovered it will be
ound that the discoverer had all along
his course hewed close to the line of ma
ure, for nature is the best as well as
he earliest teacher.
WILLIAM HARRISON
Hotel Vendome.