3 scriijvcK or medjclne, Serena of life, anfo Clwr.ii of Qisease. A CH)NDE.\sKD VIEW or THE Tlllopy op Dlsi: \SE. AND THE APPLICATION OF PP M Phi PS. AND AlPhPAE imiJKXK. T By Dr. A. G. LAWTON, OF LA *ALLK, ILLINOIS. LA nALLE, ILL. 1 h i i: K pa 'j P T C K & B 0 W E N. P P rNTE li S : r. \ sVI.LK JOURNAL OFJIPE. I 1S57. Id /"—* c SX>' \ ,- -^-"^ _ _ . . ?c& «s. PREFACE, Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, Make use of every friend and every foe. A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring : There shallow drafts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again." —Pope. In offering the following work to the public, I have no excuse to make. If it proves to be worth anything, I shall consider myself well paid for writing it; but if not, I have this consolation: that thousand! have done the same thing or worse before. This work is merely a synopsis of the sciences herein treated of, and my intention is, at some future day to write it out in full, embra- cing three or four additional chapters. A TEXT-BOOK ON THK SCIENCE OF LIFE AND MEDICINE. THE SCIENCE OF LIFE, AND THEORY OF DISEASE. CHAPTER I. The essential phenomenon of an- Heat is a primary element of all imal life is, and very likely always animal as Avell as vegetable life. will be, measurably veiled in obscu- Even in the cold blooded animals, rity. Nevertheless, the laws which heat is a primary element of life, govern it, which are the laws of na- < for the serpents become stiff when lure, are plain, simple, and easy to, cold, and the tortoise hatch their be understood; and this is what I j young by the heat of the sun; there now propose to speak of, with all ■ is nothing lives, grows or decays its various influences. j without the agency of heat. Water is the medium by andj Electricity, or vital electricity, is through the aid of which all earthly; one of the primary agents of all or- bodies are formed ; hence, water is J ganic life. It controls the nerve one of the agents in the vital pro- power ; it is polarized like all com- cess of animal as well as vegetable; mon electrical currents; the affe- life. Heat, light and electricity rent nerves are in opposite polarity are the agents required to vitalize, from the efferent nerves. Thiselee- and to perpetuate animal as well as tro-nervous fluid is evolved from vegetable life. Although light may; the changes of the fluids in all the seem doubtful becauso some fish are: organs and tissues in the body, and found in dark caves, but they are < especially from the process of diges- merely exceptions to a general rule tion, which supply to the nerves —they are anomalies—they have their vitality and strength, by no eyes; they are defective in struc- Which means the animal organism ture ; and I believe this defect is becomes enabled readily to decom- produced by Avant of light, and pose, or to recompose any and all proves of itself that light has a substances which may be needed powerful influence on the formation in .the animal economy. of the animal structure. Heat, light and electricity, acting 4 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE on animal matter by the agency of I is to say, in man and all the ani- water, produces motion, and deter- mals which suckle their young. mines the course of the fluids, caus-; The circulating system of the hu- ing them to flow to and from cer- man body is composed of arteries, tain established centers, as is plain veins, lymphatics and capillary ves- to be seen in the formation of the sels. The arteries and veins form chick by the incubation of the egg. two complete circles, of which the Until the body is fully formed in j heart is the grand center. The every part, the heat is supplied; veins, which return the blood from from the parent, after which it is jail parts of the system to the heart capable of generating heat within (from Avhere it is thrown into the itself sufficient for the perpetuation j lungs and back to the heart on the of life and the future growth of the; opposite side; from thence it goes body. Hence, life depends upon j out to all parts of the system, to certain contingencies, Avhich when nourish and support all the organs rightly associated, produce motion, I and tissues, and also to supply all which facilitates organic changes, the secretions, the fluids of diges- by which means matter is formed j tion, exhalation, the excretions and and transformed into organs and (the growth of the body, to effect tissues, and finally into a perfect Avhich it has to pass through all living being. the organs, tissues, and the flesh ; The beginning of all animal life after which it passes into the ATeins, isunder water, or in a fluid of which which carry it back to the heart water forms the greater part;—j again from where it started. Thus (hence man is an aquatic animal in j the blood is continually performing one sense.) The blood is 80 per\a double circuit; it goes from the cent, water—without this prepon- heart into the lungs and back, in derance of water, motion of organic which course it becomes oxydized, matter would be impossible, and j and assumes a more florid color. motion is one of the first principles; This is one complete circuit. Then of life, for Avithout motion matter \ it goes out from the heart 10 every could never become endowed with; organ and tissue, passing through life. j the capillary vessels into the veins. In the formation of the chick, the; and so on back to where it started first sign of life is motion, Avhich is > from. And these two circles toge- immediately followed by organic^ ther with their connections and Oe- ehanges in the fluids around the ve-: pendencies, form one complete eir- sicle or centre point, which results'■ dilating -ystem. of which the heart. in the formation of white blood. \ is the grand center. The first sign of the organization; The lymphatic system forms a of matter is the formation of red separate circulating system, and blood, or the change of white blood : they "onstitnre what is called the into red, and the red blood forms absorbing system. They are named the nerves, blood vessels, organs. I from the'lvmph, Or milk like fluid tissues, bones, &c, for healthy blood, which they carry. They are mi- oontains all the elements necessary ' nuto transparent vessels, uniform to the formation of the body. The: in size, having numerous valves, formation of the hotly in the mam-pvhich give them a knotted appear- mifer tribe is like the chick, only., ance. They are intercepted by nu- under different circumstances; that memus oblong, flattened bodies, • AND THEORY OF DISEASE. o called lymphatic glands; they di-S vessels that the growth of the body vide before entering a gland, into Us effected. several branches, and after leaving! When the blood passes through it unite again, forming a single!these vessels into the liver it ia trunk. Their office is to collect the j changed to bile; in the stomach to nutritive product of digestion from | gastric juice; in the kidneys to the alimentary canal, and also to-urine; in the saliva glands to sa- secrete or absorb a certain class of liva, &c. Each organ secretes a fluids from the skin and the A-ari-n'uice peculiar to itself, which when ous other organs and tissues, which'united to the blood, or to parts of are conveyed to the thoracic duct j the blood, forms bile in in the liver, to be mixed with the chyle, and:gastric juice in the stomach, &c, these two fluids combined, form ajthe sum total of which, added to- constant supply to the blood, pass-lgether, form the fluids of digestion, ing into the large vein near the j by which the formation of blood is heart. Many fluids wInch are ta-> effected in the bowels in the form ken into the stomach are taken upjof chyle, which is taken up by the by^these vessels, and pass into the | secreting mouths of the lacteals circulation Avithout being subject to aftd carried into the circulation by a formal process of digestion. These j the thoracic duct. In passing vessels, together with their glands, S through the capillary vessels the constitute one link in the grand blood loses the vivifying properties chain of the organic functions. land florid color it received in the To the nervous system there are: lungs, and becomes dark by the loss many centers. The brain is the over the system, which may con- pire. Thirdly : a person receives tinue for some indefinite time, from a severe injury, at which time all;a feAv days to one or two weeks, (in the animal functions are suspended, small pox, three days) at which from' which he partially recovers: time this cold languor-like torpid but the first effect continues, until: feeling gives place to a reactive fe- from a defective functional action ver, the same as in ague, only un- and an impeded circulation of the > der different circumstances, all the fluids, the secretions become sour causes of disease' being more in- and vitiated, the result of Avhich is; tense, at Avhich time the patient the development of another condi- tfj-st begins to believe himself sick ; tion, which marks the second stage, and this is the beginning of the sec- being the result of the first, the con-, ond stage, soon after which the dis sequence of which is fever, from the \ ease assumes a decided form, show- effects of which, added to the first,; ing the characteristic features of a he dies after suffering a long time. \ distinctive and peculiar disease not In this case death took place from before noticed, which have become. a secondary cause, that is, by the suddenly developed after the acces- corroding and poisonous character sion of the second stage or condi- of the secretions, which added to j tion. the first cause, produced death—) When a person takes a sudden which might have been avoided by cold, the first effect is precisely the appropriate remedies, that is, by; same so far as the manner in which not allowing unhealthy accumula-|it takes place, and it depends en- tions to continue to the injury of! tirely on circumstances what the the organs. result will be. It may result in The small pox virus is a specific typhus, billious, or common fever, poison—it will eventually produce': or a cough, ending in consumption, a certain effect on the organism—;or some slight catarrhal affection, so are all other morbific agents, in. the termination of which may be a measure; the forming stage in!in a few days or a few weeks, or it all are alike; it is only after the [may continue at intervals for as accession of the second stage, the' many years, and then terminate in result of which determines and es-i death by decline or consumption, tablishes a distinctive disease. A;depending entirely on opposing man enters a hospital and attends treatment or circumstances. Na- the sick of typhus or any epidemic; tive strength in the full vigor of disease; he inhales the poisonous; health is not easily brought under effluvia exhaled from the sick, after; the influence of disease : it takes a which he feels well as usual often- > long time and a great deal of hard times for weeks, and sometimes \ usage to effect it sometimes. The foes clear of disease altogether; j late and lamented Samuel Forry, ut in some cases, eventually the M. D., who died in New York City, signB of disease appear : first, the-is a case in point. He made a voy- circulation in the capillary vessels, age round the globe, being gone becomes torpid, the exhalations I three years, during which time he from the skin and lungs, and the \ Avas more or less exposed in differ - animalization of the fluids cease tojent and highly malarial countries, AND THEORY OF DISEASE. 9 Avhich took effect in a slow and im-'some other kind of malarial fever perceptible manner. He was not or disease, which generally come* aware of it at the time, yet the*down on them soon after some un- effect was no less certain, and a' usual exposure, over exercise, over long time afterwards Avhile at home leafing, or some slight hurt, &c, he fell a victim to its influence. j which sometimes amounts to a Be- Daniel Webster is another case;ivere attack, and generally illy he got the seeds of his disease in j bears trifling Avith, and these at- an electioneering campaign in the;tacks are oftentimes the result of South-western States, which retnai-' auses or exposures which trans- ned dormant until some time after pired years before, the effects of getting home, when by some unu-? which were continued in a greater sual exposure, over exercise, or cold,,; or less degree during all that time, it took Effect, of Avhich he died. In; and only wanting some trifling ex- these tAvo cases the ostensible cause;citing cause to kindle into a flamo of death was doubtless malarial jail the dormant elements of disease. poison, Avhich had been'received a| Thus Ave find that all morbific long time previous. The%post mor- agents or causes of disease must tern in Webster's case showed the (first have their effects, and this unmistakable signs of the result effect must continue in contageous of some invisible morbific agency, j diseases some certain length of Avhich may be accounted for in two time, and in non-contageous disea- Avays : first, by the effects of an ep- j ses some indefinite time, according idemic state of the air; second, he;to circumstances, before a distinct- got the seeds of his disease while • ive disease can become manifest; traveling in the South-western ma-; and this distinctive disease will be larial States. And then when we!precisely in accordance with the consider Iioav inadequate the treat- \ antecedent cause, the constitutional ment must have been under the cir-j conformation of the patient, and cumstances, it is no wonder that' the circumstances which may sur- he died. I round the patient at the time. "In the treatment of the disease/; All diseases seem inclined to run (i. e. Webster's) attention Avas par- a course according to circumstan- ticularly directed to the duodenal; ces. Thus, you go to Panama, and obstruction, relief from Avhich was'you av ill get a fever called the Pan- obtained by the laxatiA'es occasion-; ama Fever; at New Orleans, tho ally administered, and these, Avith yellow fever; on the Western prai- opiates, were almost the only im- ries, the ague, or bilious remitting portant medicinal agents."— Xew fever; in Connecticut, the typhus York Journal of Medicine, Vol. 10,;fever; in the city of New York, a Page 283; Xew Scries, March No.,' little of everything, well mixed up; 1853, where it is credited to the; in the city of Mexico, dry jnortifi- A. M. Journal of Med. Science. -cation; and on the New England It is a common occurrence that; coast, the consumption, &c. There people from the Noav England is just as much difference in the States spend one, tAvo or more years' diseases of a latitude or country as in these malarial countries and en-!there is in the soil and productions, joy good health all the time, Avhen^ami no more. at some indeifme time after retur- The peculiarities of all diseases ning home they get the ague, or are brought about and governed B 10 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE, by a combination of circumstances, A'itality of the fluids, then the re* which taken eollecti\'ely, form and suit soon becomes apparent, and govern the disease. Hence we find I the forming stage gives place to that the manner in which causes fever, or the disease becomes fixed take effect are alike in all parts; upon some organ or tissue, followed of the world, circumstances being;by pain, restlessness, &c. The ex- equal, but their course and termi-! halations from the skin now become nation are different in accordance < more completely closed, and all tho with the latitude, soil and country.; secretions become decidedly vitia- The same causes which Avould pro- ted, and the internal organs become duce a yellow fever in New Or-j loaded with impure and vitiated leans, or a bilious fever in Ken-! matter, (bilious, as people say) the tueky, might produce the typhus \ pain and suffering increase, the ap- fever or consumption in the New!petite fails, &c, &c, the intensity England States. land result of which will be pre- As a general thing, when a per- •< cisely in accordance with the in ten- son falls under the influence of any jsity of the primary cause, the con- cause of disease, the first effect ex-1 stitutional conformation and the tends to all the organs and tissues,; surrounding circumstances, which transmitted there by the nerves,', will be fever—yellow, bilious, con- by which digestion, chylosis, as- j gestive or typhus ; or it may eAeut- similation and nutrition are effected! uate in a cough ending in consump- from the start, pari passu accord- j tion, abscess on some internal or- ing to the intensity of the offend- jgan as the liver, lungs, &c, or on ing cause, and the circulation of: the skin in boils, carbuncles, fever- the fluids in the capillary vessels J sores, mortification, osteo-sarcoma, become checked in the same ratio, rheumatism, &c. But in all cases and the organic functions soon!the manner and form the disease cease to be free and healthy. And! will assume will be preciselv in ac- this effect may be so slight that itjcordance with the intensity of tho may continue for weeks, and some-' effect of the primary cause, the con- timea for months, hanging on a bal- stitutional conformation and tho ance between health and disease, | circumstances Avhich may surround when a very little medication, or j the patient at the time. * even a little caution or manage- All grave diseases have throe ment might turn the balance in fa- stages: the forming stage, the stage vor of health, or a very slight ex- j of excitement or acma, and thesta^o citing cause may operate equally' of decline, collapse, or con vales- potent to confirm disease, or it may (cence. Many of the minor affec- be of sufficient intensity as to bring! tions have but one stage, the stage the individual immediately under!of formation, as when it niav be the influence of an active state of checked or cured before it has be- di^??; j i • « come seated. As a general thing. While under the influence of this the fluids become more or less im- first condition, whenever the cir- pure in the forming stage but more cumstances conspire to establish or decidedly is this the case in the see- to bring on actual disease, and the ond stage, and this impurity in the first effect of the foregoing cause:fluids increases pari » ural; functional from a loss of func- store the nerve force to its normal tional action, and structural from state, and to bring the poAvers of the effect of the morbid secretions life to their native strength and which have accumulated in the or- healthfulness. CONSUMPTION. CHAPTER II. The phenomena of animal life i My first impressions concerning are like an endless chain—so much I pulmonary disease were obtained so that Ave can hardly tell Avhere it; from seven cases, four of Avhich begins. All the animalized secre-idied, and throe recovered. Being tions of the body are taken from! acquainted with these cases at the the blood, but two, and they are time, and the manner in which the the chyle and the lymph, and these ,; three recovered, together with ma- two constitute the blood to all in-'ny Other circumstances, I have been tents and purposes, except a little led to adopt views somewhat at va- oxygen. Honce, Ave conclude thev nance with those entertained by fountain of life and the mainspring-the profusion at large cor cernin* of health lies in tho lymph, and the the cause, manner, course and treat" chyle forming organs. These two : meat of this formidable disease sets of organs, which terminate in >. In order to be more fully under- one and conspire to the formation*, stood in what I am about"to *av 1 of the blood, constitute the grand will stats what I undersi-M.d bv a chain and centers of all tho organic; consumptive diathesis, or consump- linct,0I's tiv*> t-.»nformation. A consumptive CONSUMPTION. 13 conformation consists in a peculiar action, with a cold and languid t.er- and delicate formation of the body,, cons xnisibility. and especially the chest, the chest It is m\y opinion that the con being of small capacity, a feeble ac- sumption (so called) is not a prima- tion of the lungs, and a peculiar ry disease, but a sequel or sequence and delicate formation of the tis- of some foregoing disease; and sues. It is a conformation which this foregoing disease is produced is decidedly predisposed against: by a long continued OArerloaded fever; it is a conformation on Avh'ch condition of the capillary vessels of all the ordinary causes of disease tho bowels and other organs, which fail to produce lever. In these for- induces a Ioav grade of sub-acute mations the nervous system is slow inflamation of the secreting organs. to react against tho morbific cause, the lacteals. mesenteric gland, A.c\, Hence, a morbific agent or cause involving the entire chain of the of disease sufficient to produce a organic functions and digestion, strong reactive fever or: other con- which is followed by a morbid ap- formations, would hardly produce petite, depraved condition of assim any sensible; effect on a person of a ilation, and a cold and languid con- decidedly consumptive conforma- dition of the exterior, and tho chy- tion. Vv'hen a morbific cause falls liferous absorbents take on or ae- on a bilious conformation, it kin- Mime a morbid action. And this dies a reactive fever directly, which' on these most important and vital continues until the offending cause organs is in fact the foregoing and is disposed of, or to a fatal lermi original disease before spoken of, naiion; Avherea;,, on the eonsump and the consumption is only a se tive diathesis, the offending cause quel of this foregoing disease: and is allowed to remain unresisted., this foregoing disease has run its The system becomes by slow do-j course and terminated beibre tho gives 'accustomed to this unnatural' first true signs of consumption ap- condition, and the offending cause pour. When this inflammatory is allowed to rest on the system condition of the mesentery termi- liko a slow corroding canker! until, nates, this termination is by eft'u- the powers of life are Avorn doAvnjsion into the cavity of these ves- under this overloaded condition, sols; hence, it follows that these when digestion fails, the .-•ooretions vessels, and especially the lacteals, become '"depraved, and the blood: become loaded with vitiated matter, loses its healing principle; then, at Avhich time there is an unusual and not till then, comes a reactive coldness about tho system. The fever, but it is a low hectic, Avhich vitiated matter in the lacteals. pass- corn e's too late to save, and conies ing up the thoracic duct Avith tho like a slow consuming tiro. ; chyle into the large vein and heart. The consumptive conformation mixed with veinous blood, but in in point of structure, the'various uowise changed, and from the heart organs and tissues are just as sound it is throAvn directly into the lungs. and perfect originally as in the op- producing cougii, expectoration, &c. posite diathesis, differing only in These are the first decided signs of this; that in the consumptive the! phtlii-is pulmomdis, and the form- powers of life are si >w to act. thcation of tubercles. or^aus and tissues are delicately: This foregoing disease, slow and funned with a feeble, power of re-' insidious in its progress, by contin. H CONSUMPTION. uingfor a long time, produces an' is far more dangerous and uncer- altered condition of the ehyliferous tain. . ,1fiWa mnT1 hv absorbent, and otherwise injures Somewhere about 1837man bj the chyle-forming organs, so that tho name of Ahlredp, who hvedm after the acute stage of the disease Hamilton N. 1 where I theniie- has passed away the chyle ducts sided, had been sick about twenty and the ehyliferous absorbents have years, supposed to be with pulmo- lost their healthy functional action nary phthisis, as he had some o in part, so that they continue to pro-. the most prominent signs ot that duce and transmit into the blood « disease. At this time he tell rap- vitiated and impure chyle, which vividly into a decline, and called in tiated chyle in passing through the the aid of H. G. Beardsley, M. V., lungs, forms a constant cause of ir- who pronounced the lungs to be ritation, producing cough, expecto- sound, for which he Avas dismissed, ration, and all the various other and another physician called m, decided signs of pulmonary disease, who treated him for consumption, As this disease becomes more thor- after which he died. A post mor- oughly understood, it will be found tern revealed an abscess of the kid- that this tubercular deposit which neys—the lungs and all other parts takes place in the lungs, and some- being perfectly sound. ■ Tn reflect- times in other organs, comes from a; ing on this case. I thought it very vitiated and depraved chyle, which strange that a disease situated so is produced by an altered condition far from tho lungs should have so of the chylo-fjrming organs, Avhich powerful an influence over that or- condition is produced, or is a se- gan during life, and yet the lungs quence of, this foregoing disease, he found perfectly healthy after state or condition above spoken of. death. I have often been astonished to Buf as time rolled on I saAv other see how long these persons of a cou- cases similar, where chronic affec- sumptive habit Avill bear up under tions about the bowels produced a disease Avithout showing any out- like result. W hen I returned from ward symptoms of ill health, save Mississippi, a case occurred on a that peculiar cadaverous paleness young man by the name of Allen. of the exterior. In reti'acing the He had been sick and complaining history of consumptive families, some time, Arith very prominent we find many of them live to a very advanced age in the Now England States, as Avas the case Avith some dgns of pulmonary disease, and be- ing uncommonly on the decline at this time, II. G-. Beardsley, M.D. of my own relatives; yet in these was called in, when, after mature very families nearly one-half of j deliberation he decided that the them die between the agou of six- disease was not consumption, he teen and twenty-five, and some of; was again dismissed and another them without ever taking a dose of called in to take charge of the pa- medicine worth speaking of. Ma-Hient, Avith the understanding how- ny of these people in the New Eng-! ever, that if the patient died Dr. B. land States haye such a horror of \ should have the privilege of a post all apothecary drugs, that I verily \ mortem examination. The patient believe there are many who Avouldj Avas treated for consumption, and rather die than take one dose of! died. I assisted Dr. B. in the post calomel, yet they will do that which \ ,iiurrem examination, the result of CONSUMPTION. 15 which Avas as follows: An abscess dible amount of vitiated matter fully formed in the left lung, and a Was flooded off from the system. small one just forming in the right Although the effect of this was very lung, to all appearance of recent pros'rating. yet after a Aveek or ton formation, with numerous tuber- days he recovered so as to be able clos in both lungs. There was an to walk about, and in a few weeks intussusception of the left descend-! ho found to his delight and aston- ing colon, of about three inches ; J ishment that his consumption Avas this also appeared to be of recent; fast passing away. And it did formation. On further examina- finally entirely vanish, so that at tion of the boAvels, Ave found an al-the end of a foAv years he was so tered condition of their coats, to all perfectly recovered that you would appearance of long standing, but never have known by his looks no ulceration, and on examination that he had once been a consump- of the mesentery, tho lacteals were tive. He was of a decidedly con- found to bo injected Avith a fluid as sumptive family. black as ink, from their tormina- In this case tho fever and the ex - tion in the intestine to near the treme vomiting and purging un- thoracic duct, and the contents of loaded the capillary and secreting the duct Avero depraved and vitia- vessels of the boAvels and other or- tod, having lost all their original gans connected Avith the digestive characteristic qualities of chyle. ; organs, in such a manner that it Now the question arises in this gave immediate relief, and then na- case, whore was the origin of the; ture being freed of this overloaded disease? was it in the chyle-form- condition, of this great amount of ing organs in connection Avith di- vitiated matter which had been gestion. or was it in tho lungs? My! locked up in the system for years, opinion is, that the origin of the'operating on the powers of life like disease Avas in or about the chyle- a *h>w corroding canker—but now forming organs, and tho affection being freed of this, convalescence of the "lungs avus a secondary dis- was soon established on a firm and ease, and a sequence of the former.; healthy basis. And iioav I have something to! In the other tAvo cases that re- say about these before-named seven covered, of the seven, the same CJlSos : thing happened, that is. they had a ' Case 1st, Dr. E. L.—After being little fever, and the system was sud sick about tAvo years, it was deci-denly disgorged, either spontane- ded that his case was one of con- ously or by the aid of medicine,* firmed consumption, and he left for and the same permanent relief fol- the South. On his wav down he lowed. stopped at Shawneetown. 111. At- Of the before-named seven cases for being there about four months, four died. After their disease be- lie took sick Avith bilious remitting came settled they went South to fever of a mild grade. In a few regain their health. v They visited days he was taken suddenly with the large cities of the great valley vomiting and purging, Avhich con- of the South-west, but that same tinued all day in spite of all treat- cold and languid nervous sensibil- mont or attempts to stop it, the de- —.----------------------- joctions being of a dark brown and * We cannot get this effect by IpeaM mr from green, during which time an incre- Antimony: they are too active and depressing. 16 CONSUMPTION. itv followed them wherever they tiatod.matter thrown intothoWood went* Thev contracted no fever in this way, that the f*\"***J* -the milder climates failed to.the disease is suddenly changed arouse the native poAvers of life.; from a mild to a mahgnant and fa- That icy chain which had hound tal grade. And this was o toner them so long still held them fast;:the case under he old depleting neither the malarial wind, the misty practice than of late under a more morning fogs, nor the burning sun tonic treatment. of a Southern clime, Avas able to The first time I traveled down kindle the fires of life anew, and;the Mississippi River a circum- the fell monster, disease, continued stance happened which illustrates on its even course till death. so well tho old mode of treat^g My convictions concerning thbv consumption, that I will take tne disease were brought about by a, liberty to relate it by the way ot careful study of these seven cases; j comparison. In one sense, a steam- but now I have the history of more! boat may be compared to the am- than one hundred cases, and alLmal frame. Boats sailing on the Avith the same never-vary ing result.! turbid waters of the Mississippi ex- That is to sav, the capillary circu - jperience much difficulty on account lation became suddenly disgorged,! of the machinery becoming c,oat?d either spontaneously or by fever, or; over with a substance Avhich the by the aid of medicine. We find waters of that river hold in solu- evidences of the same thing often-1 tion. Tho boilers and pipes be- times in the course and progress of \ come covered with a clay-like sub- typhoid and typhus fevers, as Avell stance on their inner side, which as other fevers, Avhere the capilla- > accumulates by sIoav and impercep- ries of the chest and bowels haA-ejtible degrees, Avithout any percep- been for a long time overloaded jtible effect on the boat's engine,un- with vitiated matter. I have often-! til it has accumulated to a thick- times noticed a cough to set in sud-1 ness sufficient to become a non- denly, and the lungs to become ve- conductor of heat, at Avhich time it ry much oppressed by an influx of first becomes a barrier between the vitiated matter being thrown sud- j heat in the furnace and the water denly on the lungs, and sometimes \ in the boilers, at which time the fever patients get well with a cough,! amount of steam generated begins which wears off as the blood be-1 to lessen, and the motion of the ma- comes free from vitiated and un- j chinery is first noticed to falter or healthy matter. to flag. Inexperienced persons at- This cough is evidently produ-jtribute this to Ioav fires;—a little ced by vitiated matter being trans-; more fire makes the boat move on mitted into the blood through the{all right again for a time, but after various avenues of its formation, a while she falters again; the ma- which on reaching thelungs, pro! chinery has lost its capacity for duces cough, inflammation, &c. ! heat and its former speed, and it And again, we sometimes find is again attributed to want of fire in fevers that there is so much vi-|in the furnace; again the fires are ------------------- -.-- — .. _|raised to an unusual degree, and * In order to be benefitted by a change of cli- the machinery is once more COm- mate, the patient must become located, uud rtay j pelled to move On slowly, but after there. , >a while it falters again, the ma- CONSUMPTION. chinery grows cold, the boat moves all out by the escape pipes, and the slowly" and more sIoav, until it boat soon moved on with all its na- iinally stops in spite of all the in- tive speed. I heard no more about crease of fire which can be raised tilling the boilers with water al- iu the furna fivr« l»n»- ilmf. mil\-'' nrrat.ure. Avith heat enough and to . pheric vicissitudes. tnat lancu, ana ancr trying a mul-. Although this circumstance oc- titude of'Avays. and all failing, they curred a long time ago, yet it cor- came very 'near giving it up for responds so completely Avith the lost, when a new light" opened to popular mode of treating consump- thei'r minds, or was* suggested by tive diseases, that it taught me a one of tho party, and that was. that lesson which has led me to exam- ine machinery was too much ex- iuo more closely the pathoh-gy of posed to the air. and the plan wasjdisease. This notion of supplying to roll up tho machinery in flannel.tho machine Avith water already to keep in tho heat, and then to fill heated, and covering it up to keep the boilers with water already . in the heat, is just what aas boon heated to boiling hot, and then by; done in the treatment of coiisump- startinga good fire in the furnace, lives for the last two hundred.years, it was thought the old boat would with an increasing mortality all move on Now this being thought the time, yet they stdl persevere such a capital plan, thev all with in this fatal and pernicious manner one accord fell in with it, and they .of treating these diseases. pared neither time nor' money to! The children are ted on hot slops accomplish their object. And after j they are rolled up muffled up, and epoated failures they still worked 5 clothed up, until their f kms are, ias on sanguine of boing in the right, it were, parboiled, and lose all then nd the longer the? worked, the native olastm.tA- cdoiMind^rong^ farther thev were led astrav from becoming feeble and tender tne f tv-tl, ifntil one day a stranger outward attractive force of the finds ;i,;h pfr^TfBoaj into ™x*£Xto&&^ outthepipesandtheboiluH.ttnOT J" , fountain of life « iSffiL^r^^iKT^ ^ oa,9 where tho IS CONSUMPTION. saliva was composed of nothing but;our object be to pre. cut if from these decomposing fluids and the > foi m g It ^ thl. wasting away of the tissues. Tho gcneithong, ™atcl le becomeg perspiration in these night. sweats formation o the <*£. is composed of the same thing; and perfect™d heaIth^tbe * > 1 _ this vitiated matter, tho detenora- oms subside unlosb *™S ted fluids in process of decompose tion ofthe.tissues ot the tion, is what causes the hectic fever already gone too tar on those patients, in the same wayy ^ahug^ ^^ that heat is generated by the de- ine ioiot,u mesentery composition of metals in a galvanic jtjc* &&11 ^n tbejnese.t^ NoTcomes the question, what j fall on other organs in some other is the cause of the formation of tu-;form as white ^^'J^^ bercles in the lungs. Tubercles in tism, fever sore, cancel osteo sai the lung are form!d from depraved \ coma, gout, &c, depending en irely materfn the blood, which 'comes- on the constitutional conformatio^ from an impure or an imperfectly i &c, to be more fully explained formed chyle, and when the blood; hereinafter. receives oxygen in tho lungs, this The blood receives its oxygen impure or unhealthy matter is pre-,through the skin, and parts with cipitated, being thrown on the > its surplus carbon and a large lungs, this impurity being incon-' amount of fluids, by which means sistent with the perfect oxygena->its purity is maintained constantly tion of the blood, therefore it is \ at a healthy point—in this partic- droppedin the lungs, the fluid part ular the functions of the skin are of which is expectorated, and the; like the lungs. And Avhen by sud- more solid parts, or the albumen-, den cold the cutaneous emunctonos ous portion, form in concrete glob- are closed, this surplus impurity is ular masses in the cell structure of j retained in the blood, which takes the lungs, where they harden, for- \ effect on the lungs in the same Avay ming Avhat we call tubercles. jthat vitiated chyle does, but this Sometimes we find abscesses in < effect from a cold is only tempo- the lungs to follow surgical opera-jrary, being relieved as soon as the tions, wounds, &c, but never tuber- \ cutaneous transpiration is again cles. This tendency to the forma- \ established, which is not the case tion of abscesses after amputations, j where the cause arises from depra- ve, comes from pus being absorbed-ved or defective chyle. and transmitted in the blood, but ■ But all consumptions are ushered this tendency to the formation of: into our notice by the meeting of tubercles comes not from pus, but) these two causes—a depraved chyle. from a wrong condition, or an im- j which is the foregoing cause, and perfectly formed chyle, in conse-j cold, Avhich is the exciting cause— quence of the ehyliferous absorb-\ and although the patient may have ents being in a morbid state; which been a long time on the decline be- morbid condition is produced by; fore, yet it is so sIoav and imper- some foregoing disease, and the cu- \ ceptible in its progress that it is rability of consumption depends on our seldom thought worth our notice being able to correct this morbid ten-j until these two causes meet, at dency. But more especially should j Avhich time the means often used to CONSUMPTION. in cure the cold aggravates this dis-j is always rapid, or acute, Avhich is eased and debilitated condition of* never the case in diseases of a see- the organic functions. Although'ondary character. "A uthors agree the patient may consider himself; that fever is an effort of nature to cured of the first attack, yet after a| cast off something offensive to its while ho is attacked again, and yeti Avell being," but if this effort fails again, every time a little worse, I in its object, then it becomes an until finally ho is compelled to yield I agent of disorganization, an instru- to the disease. jment destructive to animal life—it Whenever circumstances arc fa- j may be called a decomposing agent vorablc for the healthy continuance Fevers may, for the sake of brev of the lungs, as, on conformations J ity, be reckoned of three kinds: intermediate between tho bilious j bilious, typhus and hectic. They and the consumptive, then under;arise, or are produced in the fol- thc influence of these before-named S lowing Avay, or manner, and require morbific agencies, the force ,>f this\the folloAving condition or state of ; of food they oat ;the main hulk of their living is Many substances which Ave use compos! of bread, fruits, and the as food and as a beverage, do not various kinds of pastry, sweet-cake. digest and pass down by the 1>oav and the like. The acids, alkalies eU al all. but thev pass into the and vegetable-, predominate over 22 CONSUMPTION. the animal substances in their liv- ing, and here we find the liver almost universally sound, whereas the lungs of those who get sick are almost as universally found to be diseased. In the new States, where there is little or no fruit and plenty of meat, wild game, and the like, Avhere the people live on hog and hominy, where there is as much wild game as they want, which they can shoot at any time, here ague and bilious affections prevail. As the country becomes more set- tled and supplied with orchards of the various kinds of fruit, the Avild game all gone, and the people use less meat and more fruits and veg- etables, these peculiar forms of bil- ious affections pass away and give place to the typhoid, typhus fever, and consumption. Thus we find that in a popula- tion who subsist mostly on animal food, with little or no vegetables, diseases most generally fall on the liver, stomach and spleen, and in a population Avho subsist mostly on vegetables, fruits and farinaceous substances, Avith a scarcity of meats and oily substances, diseases most generally fall on the lungs, bowels, and mesenteric vessels. And this is the reason Avhy cod liver oil has proved so beneficial in tho treat- ment of consumptive persons. Hence, we find the effect of mor- bific agencies are generally modi- fied or changed, and sometimes rendered whoily inoperative by our habits of life, food, manner of liv- ing, occupation, the kind and qual- ity of food we eat, drinks, &c, and in fact this is just Avhat Ave should be led to conclude from apriori rea- soning. There is no doubt in my estima- tion, that one of the great predispo- sing causes of disea.se on the more civilized races of the present day, is over-clothing, and living in over- heated and badly-ventilated houses. A writer, who I cannot now name. says the rheumatism was never known until after the manufactur- ing of linen became common ; and he attributes the prevalence of that disease to the wearing of that kind of clothing. But the truth is, that that disease, and the consumption, and a host of other diseases, Avere never known until after the intro- duction of the more civilized cus- toms among mankind (i. e., what is called fashionable life). Civili- zation is a great promoter of health, happiness, and of a long life, but that is a different thing from many of our customs, which oftentimes amount to the grossest kind of bar- barism, both as to health, happi- ness and morality. The Santa Fc traders formerly were in the habit of taking consumptives with them to Santa Fe, and they most gene- rally got well after being gone about two years. Some people Avould call it hard fare to live as they do, and exercise as they do, but that is the very thing that makes them hardy. Their living is composed of meat, coffee, a little corn bread, Avith sometimes a little flour, but not often. Meat consti- tutes the greatest portion of their living; and as to light bread, it does not enter into their list of eatables at all. By being con- stantly exposed to the weather, the skin becomes strong, elastic, and well filled Avith blood, and capable of Avithstanding almost any degree of temperature. All the South- Avestern outsiders bring up their children to Avear very little cloth- ing, and go bare:footed mostby win- ter and summer, Avhich produces a hardy skin, solid muscle, and the circulation of the fluids in the ca- CONSUMPTION. 2:; pillary vessels is free and full: uu- and to maintain a free and equal dor which circumstances tho con- circulation of the fluids in tho ca- tral organs are sound, healthy and pillary vessels throughout the eu- fully developed, both physically cire fabric, and to maintain a free and in functional action, without.and unobstructed action of all the which there can be no perfect health secretions, and to preserve and sup- either of body or mind; for the port a healthy action of all the or - force of the mind's action depends ganic functions. on the development of the organs. In treating consumptives, the as tho brain, <\o. first indication to be fulfilled is to Hence, among these outsiders; free the circulation from all ob- there are no sickly children; there structions or engorgement, and to are no consumptives; there are cleanse the fluids from all unheal- veiy few cases of long continued thy or vitiated secretions, for Avhich sickness; and Avith all their igno-; wc should use calomel and Dover ranee, imprudence and bad man- powder, or calomel, aloes and rhu- agement in sickness, there is far,barb, to be followed by quinine, less waste of human life, far less salicine, tho tincture of bark, or time spent in doctoring, and fewer some other of the preparations of casesof early deaths than there are these barks. But the following among the more civilized classes of'medicines should never bo used un- tho North-eastern States. ;der any circumstances onconsiimp- We do not contend that civilized j fives: gamboge, jalup, may apple, people need to come do\A-n to the: squills, nor any of the like drastic standard of these outsiders in order |remedies. The}- act on these cases to insure health (far from it), but more like a poison than like medi- thoro is ono thing certain, and that jcino ;—they injure the organic func- is, they must abandon their pres-ltions. cut habits and manner of living, j If a person take a cough by a lhoy must live less in overheated sudden cold, they should treat it apartments, the children must bo Try home remedies first—Avith teas brought up to wear lighter cloth- made of upatorium (bonseO. the ing, and go baro-footed moro in s mints, molasses, Avater and vine- ihe summer, they must exorcise i gar, ginger tea, or any of the stim- more in the sun s rays, they inust;ulating remedies usually resorted drink loss hot slops" eat loss hot! to in such cases in order to re-es- food, eat loss light bread and but-jtablish the cutaneous transpiration. tor, and eat more meat and garden If this fail to relie\Te the cough, and vegetables. the cough shoAV signs of continu- ance, or to assume an inveterate treatment, form, then they should wait no lon- ger, but should commence immedi- Wk now come to the treatment, ately on tho folloAving treatment, Avhich is a more simple thing to and continue it at intervals until understand Avhcn the true charac- the cough is relieved: tcr and pathology of the disease is H Calomel - gr. x fully understood" than might apri- Pulvis Doveri gr. iij »ri bo supposed. j Mix, to be divided in three poAv- The first ami most important in-;ders, ono to be taken every night dioation to be fulfilled is to obtain,or every other night on going to 24 CONSUMPTION. bed, until all are taken, or the de-' betAveen, but sometimes once will sired effect is had, to be followed do, that is. by taking one on three by castor oil in tho morning, or nights, or even less, depending on salts and senna, in case they do not;the effect produced, always contin- operate sufficient of themselves, uing the tonics Iavo or three days and quinine, salicine, or the tinct- ;aflbr the calomel powders are stop- ure of bark, three or four times a; ped. I sometimes give the quinine day in small doses. The system, ■ clear in grain doses, and sometimes under these circumstances, as a \ as folloAvs : general thing is very sensitive to'R. Quinine Sulphate of - gr. x the effects of calomel, therefore ; Ammonia Muriate of gr. xx small doses are better than large, • Pulvis Gum Camphor gr. x but should it fail in its effect, as it; Mix divide No. x. sometimes happens in consequence J Give one three times a day. I of a torpid state of the nervous sen- j sometimes leave out the camphor sibility, or from a Ioav state of the and add myrrh, with or Avithout vital force, then it will become ne- the ammonia. cessary to use three of these pow- i The following is a very good ton- ders in place of one. Beginning in ic, where it agrees with the patient. the afternoon at three o'clock, give R. Precip. Ext. of Bark gr. xxx one at three, one at six, and one at; Quinine Sulphate of - gr. x nine o'clock at night, to be followed Gum Camphor - gr. xxx with quinine, &c, on the next day : Piperine, - - gr. xxx as before directed. " Wet doAvn the camphor with al- It must be understood as a gene- jcohol and work it into the extract ral rule, that when calomel is taken, j of bark, add the piperine pulver- it must always be taken at night,; ized and the quinine, and make and when it fails to operate on the! forty pills. Where it becomes nec- bowels, it must be followed the i essary to continue the tonics long- next morning by castor oil, salts after the calomel is stopped, I have and senna, or some laxatiA-e bitters,; found these pills better than qui- in small doses, say one drachm of* nine. senna to two drachms of epsom or glauber salts, one-fourth to be taken every three hours until it operates. The calomel powders shoulel be re-: peated every night, or every otherjgatives to work off the calomel: night, according to the effect pro-> R. Aloes Rhei - aa 31 duced, until thej- have been taken j Zingeber - - t~ij on three nights, if the desired effect; Cinnamon, Cloves aa 31J is not obtained before, continuing! Orange Peel - ^i the tonics all the time, and for a Camomile FloAvers ^ij few days afterward. If the patient' Whisky - - Oj is not relieved, the same treatment: I'ose, a tablespoonful three times must be repeated in the course of a day or less often, according to its a few days or a Aveak in the same; effect. This ma}- be taken as a lax- way, and this course of treatment: alive after calomel, or it may be sometimes will have to be repeated; taken in teaspoonfnl doses us a tonic three or four times, at intervals of to increase the digestive functions. a greater or less time intervening < It may.be taken at any time, or un- Whenever the bowels are Aveak and slow to act. the following com- pound may be used, which may obviate the necessity of using pur- CONSUMPTION 25 dor any circumstances almost, but o'clock i>. .n., and sometimes on go- must not be continued but a feAv ing to bed. if the patient is not in- days at any one time, on account clined to sleep avoII at night, in of its having a tendency to consti- doses of from one-half an ounce to pate the bowels. Sometimes Avhon an ounce or more. It' this sets calomel operates lightly, one or two coolingly and pleasant on the stoni- soidlitz powders taken along in the ach. continue, but if it flies to the forenoon the day after the calomel head aud disagrees with the stom- is taken, Avill sometimes ho stiffi- ach, then wait until more of tho ciont to Avork off the calomel with- calomel powders have been taken. out taking anything else. after which it Avill become more The object is not to over-purge agreeable, Avlnn it should be com- iho bowels, but to unload the capil- menced again as before directed. lary vessels into the alimentary Inder these circumstances whisky canal, and then to gently work it is slightly stimulating, narcotic,* off before it has a chance to corrode and in large doses powerfully .-oda- tho coats of the bowels. Calomel tive, which is not the case before is not a purgative, strictly speak- calomel has been used to disgorge ing, but it promotes in a decided the over-loaded and distended or- dogree the capillary circulation, gans of their vitiated contents. and it Avill sometimes operate on: The first object in treating eon- the bowels by its secondary effect sumptives is to open and free the Calomel, 'by freeing the capil capillary circulation, and to ruain- lary vessels, oftentimes fills up the tain itso until the organic functions alimentary canal with crude, sour, have assumed a healthy action. and vitiated matter thrown out which can be accomplished in the from other organs (the clearing out following manner : First, open and of obstructions), which, if allowed establish a free and healthy circu- to remain there, may corrode anddation of tho fluids in the capillary injure the coats of the bowels; and vessels of all the organs by the ao- therefore, when this does not pass tion of calomel, quinine or salicine, off by the action of tho calomel, it or some other of the preparations must be forced off by other means,, of bark; after which, secondly. in order to save the boAvels and tis-; support and maintain a free circu- siies from further harm, which j hition of the fluids, and prevent a should be done in the mildest man- re-accumulation of vitiated and mi- ner possible, for which purpose healthy matter in the capillary castor oil and turpentine, and salts vessels or the blood, by forcing the and senna stand at the head. As circulation for a time Avith stimu- soonas the calomel has taken effect, hints (whisky), at the same time and the organs and tissues are un- ,________________ ______ loaded of their more acrid and ^ Qa and fhe c vit.atod contents and the capilhu a ^^ £d M^ to ^ fw a week circulation has become more free; r directedwhi!kv in tWounce do** every hour. from obstructions, the patient will Thefiret ,iose. however, m* sufficient; ten houw commence using spirits. For this of refreghing s|eep followed, and a speedy eon- purpose there is nothing equal to vale8cence- xhere is nothing better to tranquil- old rectified rye and corn whiskey, ;zethe nerve*, and to produce sleep on infants. Avhich should bo taken along about than wbL-ky. If it fa its. it is a certain sign that ton o'clock A. M. and three 01* four the child nee-ls physic—give <>ne <>r kwo grain* of 2a CONSUMPTION. bathe the feet in warm water (mod-1 hemorrhage from the ixngs. icated sometimes) at night, and the: rami0,i,,ff .nH d«n hands arms and sometimes the; This often perplexing and dan- shoulde r. in cold water in the mor- Jgerous ^^^J^^ZZTZ on any patient where a judicious D1When the circulation in the ca-; treatment has been instituted and pillary vessels ceases to be free and: pursued from he start; but should healthv. the organic functions cease it occur, the following treatment to be performed in a healthy man- will be found effectual as a general ner, and these are the functions j thing : which are at fault on all these con- \ R Calomel - gr. xxy eumptives. And just as soon as \ Plumbi Aeetas - gr. nj you can establish a healthy func-: Opium pulverized gr. j tional action in the capillaries of Mix, divide in three powders and the skin, lymphatics, and tho chyle- j give one every hour until the bleed- forming organs, so soon all diseases j ing ceases. If this does not operate of the lungs will vanish, abscesses i in nine or tea hours, give oil or and tubercles to the contrary not-j some salts and senna; after Avhich withstanding. j quinine should be given for a day In 1844 I treated a case where an or tAvo. abscess formed in the lungs, broke I Hemorrhage occurs from two into the bronchial tubes, and he j causes: an obstructed circulation, Bpit up a full pint of purilent mat- \ and a depraved state of the fluids ; ter in twenty-four hours. It con- j which circumstances must govern tinued to discharge freely for three j the treatment in a measure. In ca- or four days, after Avhich it healed, sos of the latter, the calomel should and in less than two weeks he Avasibe used in small doses, increasing able to go to work again as usual.; the lead and opiunf, and oftentimes and became just as healthy as be- \ quinine at the same time, Avhich fore. I have never lost a case under] should be continued some time af- these circumstances but once, and j ter the others are stopped. then it was by the imprudence of j the patient during convalescence, j diarrheas. This foregoing treatment is appli-j cable to all the forms of incipient I Tho diaraheas Avhich are pecul- phthisis, or confirmed consump-jiar to consumptives are the most tion, varied to suit the case or the difficult to manage of anything we constitution. have to contend with in treating ! consumptives. They arise from a ____________________________) depraved state of the fluids and an i„ „i „♦ ■ v.* *u . • , ! injured state of the tissues, which calomel at night, see that it operates in the mor- „„ «.v „ ^ ■, ]. ning, after which, if .he ehildlis restless, or fails J? ^ C0Ifrmed consumptive in- to sleep, a teaspooaful or more of whisky, accor- Jr^. *U alarm.ing development of ding to the age of the child, will have the desired f Je dl.8ease, Avhich if not SOOn mod- effect, and that too, without destroying the future j..' 1S 8ure to VTOve fatal, because growth and health of the child, as all the prepa- \ ^ invades the m08t vital and im- rations of opium do. One-half of tho children j POl'tant class of all the Organic funC- uf the present age are drugged with opium until \ tions ;—hence the treatment must their intellects ar« ruined and their healths de- > be conducted with care and cau- ttt°yei- itioa. The treatment may be com- CONMMPTloN :>: nienced with the folloAving powder::cases where tho diarrhea is far it Calomel gr. x .advanced before treatment is com- Pulvis Dfivcri gr. v menced, for it is neces-ary in treat Opium pulverized gr. ij • ing any diseas •. and more especially Mix, divide in x powders, one to the consumption, to maintain all be taken three or four times a dayJthe secretions in a state of perfect as the case may require, and at the; freedom of action. When the bow- name time Huxham's tincture of els are much disordered, as is the bark should be taken three times a case where diarrhea continues long, day in tablospooni'ul doses or less,pvhite sugar has a good effect. In as the case may need. As soon as Xew (>rleans, on convalescents from these first powders have taken! tho cholera, it has been used to some effect, if tho diarrhea continues, considerable advantage. givo the fol Ioav ing: '-j R Quinine Sulph. of gr. x j 'onuii. hovn- PoAvdcrs gr. v Whenever a troublesome cough Plumbi Aeetas gr. xij | remains after the foregoing treat- Mix, divide in x powders, one to . mentor inflammation of the throat, be taken every throe or four hours! gargles should be used two or three until tho diarrhea becomes meas-jtimes a day ; for this purpose Hux- urably checked, after which sali-j ham's tincture of bark diluted with cine or quinine should be contin-lwater is tho best. But there are ued three times a day for a number many other things that will do:— >fdays. Sometimes salicine hrs u, bci ter effect in those diarrheas than quinine, to take it three times a day in doses of throe or four grains. A vinegar and Avater, pepper tea, cold water, sage tea, or common tea. Ac. After using these remedies, should there be found an a* ulceration of little old whisky is good, and often 1 the throat that fails to heal, gargle has a good effect when taken at ten (the throat Avith a solution of lunar A. at. and three v. at., and some- caustic of two or three grains to times on going to bed. jthe ounce of Avaler. Should there In diarrheas under these circum-jbe found ulceration that cannot he stances great care must be taken reached in this way, the throat not to over tax nature Avith drugs, {must be cauterized bv lunar caustic It oftentimes becomes necessary to Arary or change the treatment. The calomel powders may be repeated a number of times at intervals be tween. Should the diarrhea prove inveterate, uso the nitric acid drops, after the plan of Dr. Croon. ofNeAv York City. Toiu balsam, turpen- tine, or hemlock oil, taken on sugar on going to bed. in doses of a few drops, aa iil oftentimes have a salu- tary effect on the cough. blackberry root syrup, hemlock oil. \ In the incipient stage of tho con- spirits of turpentine—and tolu bal nam is often good, a few drops on umption, and also on convales- cents Avhen the patient is not under sugar taken Iavo or three times a jother special treatment, if there day. or with castor oil and lauda-jshould remain some slight cough, I num. Whenever an astringent is j sometimes uso the following with used to chock a diarrhea, ir must very decided benefit: not bo continued longer than barely i R Sanguinaria Canadensis £iij to chock the bowels ; it is very sel- \ Coivandrum Semina - siij dom I use them at all, unless on j Diluted Alcohol pt. j 28 CONSUMPTION. Make a tincture. Dose, a tea- •: with one, sometimes will not vvith spoonful three times a day—before another. That food should be adop- breakfast and dinner, and on going-ted Avhich agrees best; it should be to bed This may be continued ac-! good, varied, nutritious, and but cording to circumstances—a few little of it, that is to say, the patient days or longer. Sometimes the should eat but little at a time. In- bitters recommended in the fore; valids always drink too much flu- part of this treatment, taken in tea- ids, which is a great fault with the spoonful doses in the same way, [most of people of late. They should will help the cough; and if they • never drink fluids while they eat— affect the boAvels too much, take,one cup at the close of a meal is them only on going to bed, or stop: more than they ought to drink, but them entirely for a time. that would do if it was a small cup. All the ordinary routine of cough j And of all things, hot drinks are drops or cough mixtures are inad- jthe worst;—a little beer or wine at missible—they are injuribus on all;meal-tinie is better than tea or cof- these consumptive conformations, j fee, yet there is nothing unhealthy It is very seldom there is a cough (in tea or coffee, except their being to amount to anything if the case ; drank so hot. is properly treated from the begin- j The drinks should consist of beer, ning; it is only on those cases that; Avine or cider, Avhichever agrees have been neglected that any diffi-;best, but none should be used un- eulty is to be apprehended from a less it is pure, and that cannot be cough. | had of our liquor dealers. You trade, like sawing wood over a saw- state of disease. Meat and vegeta- < buck, for a short time every day. ble roots must compose our constant j But Avhatever they do should be living, Avith greens occasionally,!something that will engage the and when a plenty of these are to mind and become interesting; that be had, very little bread will be re I which can be taken at any time of quired. And what little bread we''day at their pleasure, and that need must be ground wheat, corn,Avhich is productive of profit in barley, oats, or buckAvbeat; but of; place of being expensive—this will all these, barley, buckwheat and have some effect on the patient for oats are decidedly the most healthy, his good. Consumptives should drink as; little fluid as possible—as a general; givi.no medicines thing invalids drink too much when j they cat. In treating all these slow chro- jnic and long continued affections, exercise. where the organic functions are involved, the greatest caution is In treating consumptives, as well (required in the administration of as all such continued chronic affec- medicine—everything depends on tions, exercise is one of the most the time and manner of giving me- important features in the treat- (Heine, or of adopting remedies. I ment, and without which the pa-, have a case in point, Avhich illus tient never can get Avell. Some 1 rates the effect of a little medicine light, healthy employment should < judiciously applied; it occurred in be instituted, so that they may have«the family of R. W. B—, Saline something to do every day; and j County, Mo.: this should be some business noti There had been thirteen children exposing, but that which requires:—ton of them healthy, and three constant changing of posture, and! of them had died under the follow- when they become tired the}-should i ing circumstances : To all appear- _______'-----------------—-—jance at birth, they were healthy and his wife, a Iv.y f'»ur years old, and a girl ten j children ; • of full grOAVth, and in ev- ve.irs old, cat twniy two hundred pounds of ery way natural as far as could be pork iii nine months. In sides prairie chickens,! (jigcovered. They never grew any venison, wild pp-sc. Ao This is a common oe- j after birth, but on the contrary be- eurrence in these State*. ;>nd if you want to see; J?an to snrjvel and decline, and leS- the effect of meaf eating, just -o ;.nd look at; ^oned Jn wejffnt from tnt.jr birth ,hcm: ihcy»re..fvn mx feet high.-loa... hard unti, lWy ^d—nearly a VCar fle>hod. hardy pioneers. Their pork .. a!l fed ,n > Thp ^ ,hjunk • and 'thtfV grass, arnrn,. haul and corn, not on st.t.-s.op ^^ ^^ ^ ^ j^ gome o](j norpr^so. decrepid person: thev had good [i is a proverbial laying in \\ostorn Now. 1 I . to ,. , , '. ,K t „„. ,r ,»rfc ,ii.-v «.u>ni(> dieal attention, but all to no \ rU. that when they pit out of pom uk> an j having had no diarrhea, I was not at the truth in the case. ! alarmed. This continued at inter- EPIDEMIC CHOLERA 31 vals until nine o'clock, when sud- least for some time before the ter- denly an awful fooling of distress mination. came over me, and I fell down in a The first indication of the cholera spasm. Thus I continued for half that came to my knowledge in Mis an hour or so, during which time I souri, in 1849, occured in some ague cramped, feeling a sensation as if patients. They first had diarrhea eohl Avatcr wore fallingonmy head; come on suddenly,as the chill came after a while I got up and Avalked on, after which they had no more across the floor, and fell down again until the next chill time, at which in the same way, with eyes sunk, time they had a return of it. and skin contracted, complexion chan-;died the same night of the cholera. u;od, skin Avet and clammy, cold In the course of a few days there perspiration, and pulse nearly ex-';were a number of cases of cholera tinct, at which time purging first;in the neighborhood. Soon after, commenced quite severe, with a all the cases along the river lvere rapid failing of the powers of life,:cholera, and this disease spread in which continued about three hours, jthe country along the streams, un- After this the \dtal powers began til all the ague and other affections slowly to mend, but the purging seemed to be merged in this all- continued about twelve hours, after j prevailing epidemic. Whatever the which it ceased, and convalescence beginning might be, in Avhatever continued till health Avas slowly re-form of disease, they all seemed to stored. In a Icav days after this I, manifest a strong tendency to ter- saAV another case precisely like theminato in the cholera. After tho above, but in place of terminating epidemic become fully developed, in convalescence it terminated iiC all signs of other diseases vanished ; death in about six hours, the di-jand again, when the epidemic be- arrhea being absent in tho form-, gan to decline, fevers and agues ing stage. came in, and as the cholera lessoned, Now Avere these cases cholera? |they increased, until fevers again In the cholera of 1832-4, though i became the ruling disease. a majority of the cases were prece- In 1849. along the valley of the ded by diarrhea, yet a great part Mississippi, in May and June, the of them wore much like the above, cholera Avas generally preceded by as far as the foregoing diarrhea isjdiarrhea, or a Avatery discharge; in concerned. These cases were pre-; July and August, or as the weather ceded by some slight indisposition., became hot and dryer, the worst a hardness or aching about the sto- though generally overlooked by the or over-eating. Under those cir- j patient. This is sometimes follow- cumstances these cases terminated! ed by a Avatery discharge, during in death Or convalescence in a very Avhich time the contents of the boAv- few hours. 'els divide, the fluid portion passing In the cases preceded by diar- off Avhile the more solid portions rhea, the diarrhea Avas painless, at remain, indicating a depraved state 32 EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. of the digestive fluids and a para- out abatement, a dose of castor oil, lyzed condition of the bowels. The turpentine and laudanum, brought patient becomes nervous, easily;away a hardened mass near three alarmed, and restless. This state*inches long and an inch thick the of things may continue for a longer; centre of which was dry and hard. or shorter time, from two days to'The patient recovered. fourteen, or even longer, according; Most cholera patients drink con- to circumstances, or the conduct ofUiderable water in the fore part of the patient. j their sickness. When a healthy During this time the circulation < person drinks water, it is taken up in the bowels is checked, being gor-' by the various emunctories of the ged with blood, by which means I system and used to supply the Avaste assimilation is delayed, and finally of the different changes, perspira- euspended, and the diarrhoea con-j tion, &c. Not so Avith the cholera tinues, and often assumes a frothy, j patient; for in his case all such fermenting character. \ action has ceased. All action to Meanwhile the fluids of digestion j and from the bowels and stomach fail by slow degrees, until they fail has become suspended; hence, the to be secreted at all, when the jui-fblood failing to receive its accus- ces of the stomach, liver, spleen, and the bowels cease to flow out; the urine is suppressed, and in feet, tomed fluids assumes a tarry con- sistence and settles towards the center. It no longer Aoavs out to the entire secreting surface from \ nourish and support the Avaste of the stomach to the descending colon j the cutaneous emunctories, while ceases to act; digestion and assim- the subcutaneous cellular tissues ilation totally fail; the contents of; become disgorged through theskin, the stomach become sour, and con-1 and, no longer supported by the stant vomiting and purging is the > blood with its accustomed fluids, it result;—the viscera of the chest and j collapses, and the exterior shrinks, bowels become gorged with blood, the skin becomes relaxed, and the the chyle ceases to be formed, and moisture of the flesh evaporates the blood, being cut off from all through it as it Avould on the dead supplies of chyle or any other!subject. fluids, becomes of a tarry consist-; The evacuations in cholera con- ence, the watery portion passes off j tain no mucus, for the mucous sur- through the skin, as well as by ex-1 face is shut up ; they contain no osmosis, and the subcutaneous cel-jbile, for the biliary organs are clo- lular tissue becomes disgorged in sed; they contain none of the jui- the same Avay. This causes a shrink->ces of digestion, for all the organs ing of the exterior, which although Hhat supply this fluid have ceased it appears considerable in some pa-j to act—and, these fluids have ceased tients, yet the loss of a very small\to be formed; these organs are par- quantity of fluids under these cir-lalyzed, and their contents are in a cumstances is sufficient to cause itjstagnating condition, and they pass all. In this disease, as in some oth-; rapidly into a state of decomposi- ers, the bowels are overloaded after; tion, Avhile everything taken into vomiting and purging have contin-ithe stomach sours, passing rapidly ued for a number of days. In one j through the patient; forms the Ava- case, after vomiting and purging stery discharge, for Avhen the fluids had continued for along time Avith-1cease to be animalized, chemical EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. 33 action sets in. As an evidence of'dejections from the stomach have tho truth of this, when the modi--no smell or color, tho diarrhea is cine takes effect, tho first *ign of without pain or griping, so is the convalescence in that tho rice-water vomiting; there is no paiu, except discharge changes to a dark given in the spasms. or black very offensive discharge. The first symptom of the cholera Soon after this, true bilo is found is a torpid condition of the abdom- in tho stools, and the patient is pro- inal viscera, depending on a par- nouncod to be out of danger. Now. alyzcd condition of the nervous it is my opinion that this dark -col- ;c«'iitros, which may continue up to ored matter that is discharged at; the very moment of the prostrating the onset of convalescence i« mil-, attack, or it may bo followed by cus, and the various fluids of diges-jdiarrhea. But when this torpid tion partly decomposed in conse-j condition in followed by diarrhea, quence of remaining so long locked (the forming stage i>f cholera is pro- up in the system ; tor Avhon the an- ] longed; and sometimes by a simple inial fluids stagnate, decomposition-treatment, or even a little caution. folloAVs ; and when decomposition the disease may be cut off all<>- passes beyond a certain point, death Jgothor. The cholera has three sia- is inevitablo. When tho stools be-'gos—the forming stage, the stag* come dark and otlensive, and true of excitement, and the stage of col- bile is found to pass, tho crampings lapse; the forming stage is gcim- subsidc, undalltho alarming symp-j rally long, tho stage of excitement toms of cholera vanish ; thoGxtcrior varies from thirty minutes io two regains its native heat, and the skin! or three days; the stage of collapse slowly regains its former plump-, is uncertain, but generally short, ncss. * J and very apt to terminate in death When the muscle fails to receive, This white. Avatery discharge- that nourishment from the bloodj a common symptom in the forming which it requires, it is uneasy; it'stage of cholera—which is often contracts and relaxes, which is the'mixed with undigested matter, and cause of the spasmodic crampings ; .often looks like fermenting beer but as soon as the blood regains its or yeast, is a different thing as a lost action again, imparting life and; symptom from the true rice water heat once more to the muscle and j discharge; for Avhile this frothy system, the spasms return no more.} discharge continues, a simple treat Tt will readily be understood how mont will cure the diarrhea; but it may happen that when tho diges- when the true rice water discharge live fluids have lost their solvent appears in any considerable quan- principle, tho food is no longer re- tity, it is an alarming symptom. fained in a homogeneous mass, but for then the disease soon comes to is apt to divide, tho solids becoming a close, for this is a symptom of an compact while the fluid portion J approaching stage of collapse. becomes sour and passes off in diar- The rice water discharge gene rhea &v while tho capillary circu- rally comes on suddenly at the lation of'the bowels becomes more I onset, or during the stage of i'\_ •uid more loaded with vitiated mat-jcitenient,and is often preceded, and tor as tho diarrhea continues. always followed by an alarming The evacuations from tho bowels degree of prostration and clammy luck their peculiar fecal odor, the wot skin and perspiration. 3-i EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. This rice water discharge looks; became in while I was in the house, like a copious evacuation of water, Und fell down in aspasmAvith cramps with iust starch enough in it to give showing all the signs of extreme it a little opacity, with little floculi prostration, having a pale and hag- which settle at the bottom, and are gard look, eyes sunk, countenance plain to be seen through the fluid, beginning to shrink, hands and feet In 1849, around the borders of cramping, cold perspiration, and cholera districts, on the more high,pulse failing. Soon after, purging and healthy localities, the diarrhea and vomiting began, which only continuing for a longer or shorter lasted thirty minutes, during which time, the evacuations became loaded time he passed over a gallon and a Avith reddish matter, which looked half of fluid. After this, nothing like strings and bunches of pounded passed him up or down, nor did he flesh; and after continuing for an, cramp or have any more spasms; indefinite time, an alarming pros-; he died in four hours in spite of all tration seized on the patients, and \ treatment. His death was like they died suddenly, without shoAV-1 passing into a tranquil sleep. ing many of the ordinary sMgns of; The fourth case I shall set down cholera; yet I look upon this as one; for comparison occurred in July, grade of the cholera modified by! 1852. The patient Avas thirty years circumstances. This type of chol- old, of a good constitution, and had era was common in many parts of had no diarrhea. About noon he the interior of New York State. 'complained of an unusual languid- July, 1849. A lady, after having, noss, during Avhich time the upper a painless diarrhea two Aveeks, sat \ eyelids seemed to fall doAvn, tho down to dinner and ate nearly< patient having to raise them a num- twice her usual amount, and while ;ber of times Avith his finger. This yet eating, sickened, vomiting and; all passed off in an hour or tAvo, and purging followed, and in three|he thought no more about it; but hours she was dead. >on the next day at the same hour, Another lady, after having diar-s the same thing occurred, which also rhea two weeks, got up and pre-passed oft* as before; but on the pared breakfast as usual, and sat third day at the same hour an aw- down to eat, when vomiting com-4ul feeling of distress came over menced,with extreme purging. In j him ; his strength failed, his Avhole thirty minutes I saw her, Avhen she; frame became "poAverlcss, the skin had vomited and purgedeight times, I shrunk, the eyes sunk back, tho and discharged over two gallons of. countenance changed, becoming fluids, &a Extreme prostration fol- pale and haggard, the muscles qui- loAved, Avith cramps and cold per- < vcrcd spasmodically, the pulse sank spiration, and she became almost rapidly Avith cold perspiration. pulseless. Although the retching Soon after, the stomach sickened, and tenesmus continued, nothing; followed by copious evacuations passed her aftorAvards, either up oiy from the bowels, followed by an down. She recovered in alow days alarming degree of prostration. under a mild treatment. During this time I saw him: he A boy, nine years old, in a family recovered under a mild treatment, where four deaths by cholera had although the diarrhea continued occurred within a few days, had no slightly on the next day signs of diarrhea before tho attack. The reader will find by compar- KPIDEM'C CHOLERA 35 ing those cases with those quoted nine, turpentine, castor oil, trie rotn the epidemic of IS32, that nitric acid mixture, salts, extraci thoy arc alike, with this difference, of bark, boneset, fomentations, hot that this last came on with parox- whiskey, cold water, &c, till I am ysnis, periodically, like a remitting perfectly satisfied with them as to fever, and this I attribute to cli-tho result. mate, locality, and circumstances. I have used them in Mississippi. 1 I use cases are laid down as a Missouri, and on the rivers in Illi- mir comparison for tho tAvo most nois and on the lakes, under many fatal grades of cholera, with one and varied circumstances, and the exception—that is, the periodical following is my conclusion as to paralysis of the eyelids spoken of what I have found to be the safest in tho last case. I have only scon and most successful mode of treat- thrco cases where that occurred as ment: a foregoing symptom. I commence tho treatment with lhe greatest majority of cases these powders : in both epidemics had a preceding R Hydrarg. chlor. mit. ; diarrhea ; yet all through both opi- J'ulv. ipec. et. opii. aa.'gr. iij demies there Avere cases which had Opii.quinhe. sulph.aa.gr.j vel.ij no preceding diarrhea whenever- E. chart, no. iv. tln> weather inclined to be hot and. Give ono, and repeat as often as d'T- jit is thrown up. When they arc In all those ague districts thodis- no longer throAvn up, then repeat. ease assumed more of a periodical them every half-hour, hour, or tAvo character than it did in tho non- hours, according to the intensity of malarial districts; and more espo- the symptoms, until thev have ta- cially Avas this the ease in 1 Sal.' ken effect, and the character of tho when tho epidemic was on the j stools is changed; then stop, after decline, so much so that the cholera; Avhich I sometimes use the nitric and paroxysmal fevers Avere blcn- acid mixture : dod together, at which time the- R Acidi. nitrici. cholera and bilious fevers were of-, Tr. Opii. - aa. f. ,"j ton mistaken one for the other. Aqua\ ('amphora?, t'svj M. Many cases of bilious ievcr wore The dose is a tablespoonful occa- treatcd as cholera; for the bilious -sionally, sometimes adding a little fever sometimes comes on so nearly quinine to it. like the cholera, that it is very dif-j During this time I use Avhatever ficult to tell the difference at the-other moans the case may require onset. {of a simple nature; but I have ne- In tho treatment of the choleras ver seen any good come from rub- wc must be governed by the cir- bing the patient; but there arc cumstanees of tho case, tho state of many simple things which may be the weather, and tho intensity audi done that can do no harm, and may grade of the disease, always boar-'sometimes do good—such as giving ing in mind that a little plain com-; mint tea, using hot air, Aviping the iiimi sense is worth more than all skin dry whon it is Avet, or bathing tho fictitious theories in tho Avorhl. the forehead and breast in cold Ava- I have used nearly all kinds of tor. Wine whey, beef tea, or Avater treatment, from large doses to small gruel sweetened Avith sugar, should —-calomel, opium, camphor, qui-1 be given as soon as convalescence 3fi r.nOEMTC CHOLERA. , . , „ 4.i,0(-«vith the natients, let them eat as Ifbgins, after which Boups aro the- ath thP*t . Thereisnoth- most appropriate as convalescence, much a, thc^ ^^ ^ ^.^ ''Thenthe cholera is decidedly Secretions of the boAvels; it is also o be tho mostLccessful treatment.' after mature deliberation and reflec- Ibit when the disease fluctuates, (tion I changed my opinion as to the veiling towards other diseases, or i pathology of the disease, and con- especially fevers, which is apt to eluded to use simpler means. At be the case in dry, hot weather, or j this time, being called to a family when the disease is on the decline, lof Swedes Avhere a number had then it will be found advantageous Idled, and three more were sick, two to increase the calomel to ten, fif-; of whom I considered hopeless, and i eon twenty, and sometimes to forty thought they would die any way, ■ ■rains at a dose, leaving the other I gave them calomel, Dover spow- parts of the powder as they were, der, each a grain ; opium, quinine, or to leave the opium out entirely, each a quarter of a grain ; to be f rlhave some doubts if the opium repeated as often as thrown up; does much good under any circum- afterwards every hour or two hours, stances. ;as the case might need. In tho In 1854, large doses of calomel' worst case, seven of these pov ders wore followed by more favorable; wore taken in the first hour, and results than in any previous year, only three afterAyards, Avhen I put and more especially as the epidemic' them on Huxham's tincture of bark, began to decline. When the dis-; and they all got well. ease assumes decidedly an epidemic This satisfied me as to the princi- character, the vital powers sink too pie, and I have used milder and fast to bear much medicine; and'simpler means, and more directed where there is but little life in the against inflammation in the bowels tissues, a large dose of medicine since, and the result has been per- will sometimes act more like a poi- fectly satisfactory. son than as a medicine, Avhen a small The diarrhea Avhich precedes the dose might do good. cholera has no outward fever, and It is worse than useless to give the best Avay to cure it is to give medicine unless tho stomach can these same kind of poAvdors every dispose of it and throw it into the three hours till they take effect; circulation ; hence the most malig- then give quinine, or what is bet- nant case must be treated with the ter, Huxham's compound tincture most caution and the smallest doses of bark, in tablespoonful doses three of medicine. Castor oil and spirits or four times a day. If tho diar- of turpentine are valuable remedies rhea returns, repeat the same treat- Avhen used after the powders, the ment, after Avhich we need not fear effects are generally good, and some- for the result, and the patient will times decidedly so—at least it has soon get well and stout.. been so in my hands. White sugar There is nothing more certain, is a very good thing for convaios-in my estimation, than that cloro- conts from cholera ; where it agrees form, narcotics, and all this class EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. 37 of medicines which injure tho ncr-'ed to this is the fact that, when vous sensibility, arc pernicious in*calomel takes effect to produce bil- cholora, and should bo used with ions stools, the patient is generally the greatest caution, more espe- pronounced to be safe, after which cmlly after the first signs of conva- good nursing, with suitable tonics, lescenco begin. They are good to!is all he requires. check the diarrhea in order to get, 3dly. This very poAvder, which the effect of other medicines, and!we find the most successful to cure that is about all. Hence, all patent the diarrhea and vomiting in chol- medieines called cholera-drops, hot- era, is the very combination (except drops, astringents, &<•., together: the quinine) which I have used for with the entire catalogue of sure 'ten years in Missouri to cure the currx, preventives, and the like, are!vomiting and purging which come pernicious in cholera, as well as in ; at the onset of an attack of bilious all diseases bearing the semblance fever. of cholera; and the truth is, thcyj 4thly. That in all ague districts have killed nearly as many in the;the cholera, when not very intense, last epidemic as the disease itself. > is very apt to be characterized by, In St. Louis, in 1SIJ2, '33, '34, as, or to bo governed someAvhat by the the cholera fluctuated between the; type and form of diseases endemic true epidemic tendency and other there. Thus in malarial districts diseases, it afforded a most intense grades of all these a bilious affection governed by an ; affections, and are governed by atmospheric distemperature, or an'some peculiar state of the atmos- o~ ./ - — o------------ v* ^ -^"w^~ |.Uv,...v*. epi«.^....»v ~—----- malarial poison, and is a favorable; stances, Avith humidity, may become medium for the propagation and j of an intensity sufficient to produce spread of mildeAvs and poisonous! death with a' suddenness equal to vapors. This humid state of the air ; the most corrosive poison, as it did predisposes against fevers, hence on the French troops at Baix, near all diseases Avhich would bo fevers Naples, in 152S, where it killed or common diseases, under a dry I twenty four thousand men in a very THE IMPURITIES OF WATER. 39 few days* Those who die under tained to an intensity sufficient to such circumstancoH never show any prostrate the poAvers of life at the outward signs of fever or inflam- onset, as is the case in some epide- mation, but those Avho recover at mics ; but as soon as the intensity such times have not only fever,but of the cause lessens, the signs of oftentimes have the most intense fever appear, and the epidemic is inflammation of the throat, and soon changed to a readable, tract- sometimos of the lungs, stomach able affection, which anybody can and bowels. Tho most intense in- understand and manage. flanin.ation of the throat I ever Those who die of the plague, gen- troatod was that which sometimes erally die in the chill, or the cold follows an attack of cholera. stage, although some die after a When death takes place in con-: partial reaction has taken place, .-•csiivr lever, the patient, dies in whore some signs of fever are seen ; the chill. There is no fever at tho so it is with the cholera, and those time, simply becauso the powers of who recover from these diseases life arc swamped at the start, and have more or less lever. nature is incapable of resistance, or I have only one thing more to is unable to bring on the reactive add at this time, and that is, that in lever, for lover is produced by an order to pursue this subject farther effort of nature to throw off some-! to advantage, we need some addi- tbing offensive to its well-being..tional information as to the follow- Therefore fever will not appear in ling point-an exact and true h.sto- any disease whore the morbific ry of the morbid changes, cond.t.on agents which produced it have at- of the tissues, and the fluids rm.-u- •^ L_________biting in tho mesenteric gland9 of " , . , ,. persons avIio die of cholera. Those *S,omyformer K.-sa,s on malanal diseases.; I n ^^ been Qver. p„b.i,hedin,l,oNewYork.Fourna of MedK-,ue P - pathologists, Or at least Ac, v.... 8 page 61, vol. 9, P-ge 54, and voL 10, 7\ ^^ • ^^ page 74, old series. J ° THE IMPURITIES OK WATER AND THEIR EFFECTS, AS CONNECTED WITH EPIDEMICS AND ESPECIALLY THE CllOl.EKA. CHAPTER IV \\ uatkv kk may be the remote or; powers of life on the human consti- tho essential cause of epidemics, tution. ^ ,,,. 1 Md et, e ally of cholera, there is Water is capable of holding in i thin- tolerably certain, and solution eighty per cent, of vegeta- • t s at the atmosphere and wa- ble and foreign matter. How much ia v I egrand mediums, through foreign matter the air is capable of ud v thfa-cey of which it is retammg is uncertain,but the quam i ou L otearon and against, the t.ty of foreign matter it ,s capable 40 THE IMPURITIES OF WATER of holding in a gaseous form is no (solution Hence, a stagnant pool doubt very great under certain cir-iof water becomes a perfect barom- cumstances eter, by which we can predict an MlZ vicissitudes, changes,and approaching storm and also when variations which take place in the rain and storms are about to cease air, are instantly followed by cor- with perfect certainty some days responding changes in the water, beforehand Thus Ave shall find These two elements are very much that a cloudy sky is always prece- fore'the study of the one is neces-! runner of clear weather. These ly blended with a knowledge (changes are more decidedly con- sari of the other. spicuous in stagnant pools of water. The capacity of water to retain j where the water lies in contact foreign matter in solution, depends, with decayed vegetable matter. In very much on the hygrometricjlong-continued dry, hot weather, state and temperature of the air J the water becomes perfectly clear. In 1849, when the cholera first be- j and when rain and cloudy Aveather came epidemic in the Southwestern > are about to return, the water as- States, there Avere various conjee- jsumes an opaque appearance, pic- tures as to its direct or approximate >duced by the rising of the impuri- cause. Some supposing it to be in- ties from the bottom. In long-con- duced by using lime Avater, others jtinued dry, hot weather, the water by animalcuke in the air, and oth-Mn stagnant pools may become per- ers by poison emanating from the; fleetly pure, so that it may be drank ground, &c, &c. The following j with perfect impunity for any facts may lead to something of; length of time; but as soon as rain value, or may throw some light on j sets in, or the weather becomes the subject. I cloudy, the Avater will, whenever The water of springs, wells, and \ the circumstances are favorable, streams, indicated an extreme vari- > become poisonous and unhealthy, ableness as to purity, from the' And this is the case to a greater or beginning of the epidemic to its loss extent in Avells, springs, and close. Water is, like the atmos-^streams, or whenever there is veg- phere, subject to changes, and etable matter in contact Avith the agrees with the state and condition Kvater, for it to act upon. This is of the air, both as regards its purity the reason Avhv epidemic diarrheas and its capacity to hold foreign land dysenteries always prevail the matter in solution. When thewea-| most in Avet and rainy seasons— ther is hot and dry, the vegetable because in wet weather the Avater impurities in water are thrown is poison, which poison takes effect both up and doAvn, but mostly on the stomach and boAvels. down; and on the approach of rainy While I lived in Saline County, weather, clouds and storms, the Mo., in 1845, in order to test some impurities rise from the bottom of; points concerning the purity of awi- ponds, wells, and springs, being iter under different circumstances, re-absorbed, and tho water again; I drank water from a stagnant pool becomes capable of retaining an in-: six weeks, it being very dry hot creased amount of impurities in weather. The water was clear and AND ITS EFFECTS. 41 sweet, the taste was good, and it had used and drank for ten years, agreed well until the 38th day, du-'and they had boon generally heal ring which time my health Avas thy. Some logs being accidentally never latter. On the 3,Sth day 1 hauled through the pond riled the noticed a slight dimness of the Ava-jmud deep from the bottom, which tor. and something disagreeable in had a very rank and offensive odor ; tho taste; on the 39th, still more yet the family continued to drink so ; on tho 40th day, the water and use the Avater, and on the third showed whiic signs of being a little day two of them took the fever, and riled, and was quite disagreeable on the fifth day after using this rily in taste; on tho 41st day when 1 water there was not a Avell person drank of tho water it sickened me, in the house but a small child, and as though 1 had taken a very little one of them died.—the fe\*cr being ipecac, and on this day tho first: of a malignant grade, resembling signs of rain appeared in the sky ;,< some grades of typhus. and on the 42d day the rain coni-j I have no doubt that this fever moncod, at which time, when I Avas produced by drinking and us- drank of tho water, it came near j ing this Avater, it being loaded with vomiting mo for some little time, j poison from the bottom of this pond, and about 10 o'clock I had some- which may have been accumulat- thing like a chill, which lasted two; ing there for years; for the pool hours and passed off Avithout fever. * had no outlet for most of the year. On the 4'.'>d day the rain continued,; In the Fall of 1840. in the town and tho Avater sickened mo morcfof Marshall, Saline County, Mo than over; about 10 o'clock I had the same thing occurred, only on a a more decided chill, Avhich lasted*larger scale. They Avere in the about tAvo hours, at tho end of habit of hauling Avater to drink and which time a diarrhea set in, Avithiuse in town, from ono of these stag- more decided signs of vomiting. 1 mint pools. While Court Avas in became alarmed and stopped drink- session, they hauled more than ing the Avater, and began to take usual,—so much so that the water medicine to counteract and to drive became very much stirred up from away the poisonous effects of the the bottom of the pool. water, which required three or^ Towards night this water Avas four days to accomplish. I had drank very freely about tOAvn, es- fever on the tAvo days after the; peeiall v just before and after sup- Bccond chill. j per. Soon after supper, the people The experiment Avas satisfactory (began to fall sick with excessive to mo, hoAvevor, and fully convinced vomiting and purging, and in a few me that all the poisonous matter hours there Avere found to be about which the water may have con- j seventy persons on the sick list, tained was on the bottom of the I besides many Avho Avere affected in pond, until tho air shoAvcd signs of a loss degree,—it being nearly all an approaching storm and cloudy i who had drank of this kind of wa- Avcather, a\ Inch Avas four days from | ter. In these cases, the water being the time the water showed the first.highly charged Avith deleterious signs of an unsettled state till rain {matter, it took effect suddenly, like began to fall. One of those pools an overdose of corrosive poison; had a wet weather spring which and so sudden and alarming were run into it. out of which a family jthe attacks that tho patients actu- 42 THE IMPURITIES OF WATER ally believed, at the time, that there had been arsenic put in the water by some unknown person. Al- though medical aid was at hand, yet many of the patients had fever on the next day, Avhich continued on some for a week or ten da}*s, and some of them remained pale and feeble for many Aveeks. The time Avhich elapsed from the drink- ing of the poison-water till fever set in, was twenty-four to forty- eight hours, according to my notes made a few days after the time. In these cases, had the water been less highly charged with poi- son, and the effects less sudden, and had sickness followed at some later date, the Abater would never have been suspected of being the pri- mary cause. There are many springs that con- tain so little of this poison, that it is often used for a long time with impunity, yet all at once the water becomes highly charged with poi- son from some peculiar change in the weather or season, and sickness follows; but they know not from Avhence it springs. There are ma- ny springs in the South-west, the Avater from which, while the wea- ther is cloudy and rainy, always sickens me when I drink of it, and sometimes it will produce vomit- ing ; yet, while the weather is clear and dry, it has all the taste and ap- pearance of good, and passes for such by those who use it. This kind of water is to be found, more or less, throughout the South-west- ern country, and especially on the lowlands and fertile prairies. The Avater is affected by the hygromet- ric state and temperature of the air, and very likely by the electric condition also, and by passing through a very rich soil, with an overgrowth of vegetation, con- stantly in a state of decay, it ab- sorbs and carries Avith it more or less of decomposing vegetable mat- ter, Avhenevcr the circumstances of the weather are favorable for it to do so. More especially was this the case in the late epidemic cholera. As early as May, 1849,1 acciden- tally discoA-ered that there Avas an unusual amount of impurities in the water of wells, springs, and the streams in Missouri and along the Mississippi River; but I thought little of it until I came to La Salle. On arriving at La Salle, I was very much surprised to find an ounce vial nearly half filled with a cotton- like floculent substance, after put- ting into it five grains of lunar caustic. The most of this, as near as I could judge without a chemical test, Avas vegetable. The Avater here continued to shoAV an unusual amount of this impurity until the cholera subsided, after Avhich the water in La Salle was found to con- tain nothing but a little lime and gypsum. In all the districts which I visited in Mississippi, in '49, while the cholera prevailed to a great extent, the water contained an unusual amount of impurities; but not knowing how much of these impu- rities it contained in its normal state, these experiments are of no valid use. Precisely so is it with many parts of Missouri, Illinois, and NeAv York, hence I shall only speak of it in La Salle and its sur- rounding country. The water of wells, springs, and streams, in La Salle and its sur- rounding country, shoAved an in- creased amount of vegetable impu- rity, beginning about fourteen days or less, before each annual visita- tion of the epidemic. 1 noticed that Avhenevcr the wa- ters had acquired and held in solu- tion a certain amount of foreign AND ITS EFFECTS. 43 matter, diarrheas and bowel aff*c-| this time, nor anything very closely tionssotin, and whenever the water, allied to it. had attained to a still higher degree ] I have kept a record of the wea- of impurity, the cholera made its-therfor twenty years, during which appearance; and furthermore, that; time I have been a close observer the grade and intensity of the dis-; of tho various kinds and quality of ease ranged in accordance Avith the j water, for my OAvn amusement; and amount of impurity found in thesit is only AA'ithin the last ten years water, and whenever the water that I have thought of turning my dropped this impurity suddenly, observations to any useful account. the cholera subsided equally as sud- But now it is my opinion that it denly. So that if this phenomenon; these observations are followed up, shall prove true, and continue to as they ought to be, by medical hold good in future with other epi- men, the result will be the discoy- domicsof the same class, and under cry of some important, valuable the same circumstances, as it has ini truths. this past epidemic cholera, then it . The most important circumstance will givo us a sure and certain rule'concerning the self purification ot by which we can judge or tell bo-; water, occurred in the water of the forehand when we may expect a Illinois River, on the 4th.5th, and visitation of an epidemic of this pe-jb'th days of July, 1S;>1. The wind culiar class and aNo when it is had blown from an easterly direc- about to subside. I think it will! tion for a long time ; thermometer hold true, for in lSaf), in May, the,ranging from GO deg to M. dog.; impurities in water began to accu-jthe cholera being decidedly epide- mulato, and continued to increase inic at the time, though a little on for a week, at which time lunar \ the decline. At, midnight tho wind caustic throw down nearly as much {changed to the South-west. At 4 impurity as it had at any former.o'clock m tho morning, the ferry - visitation of the disease, inimcdi- man, in attempting to cross tho ately after which tho cholera Avas'River, found the rope so completely Sported along the Mississippi Ri-iloaded with slime that it took him ve? at St Louis, Rock Island, and a long time to clear it so he could lomo other places in an endemic; cross. At 11 o'clock he informed fonn BoAvel affections were com- me that he had then crossed four mon here, and some deaths; and! times, and found the rope loaded four or five cases resembling cho-jwith slime every time, to the extent, lei a occurred here,-brought from sometimes of eight or nine hun- thc South—of which four died sud-1 dred pounds denlv At this time tho impu- On examining the water 1 found ■r y'in the Avater bo-an rapidly it very much clouded, and appeared to dis im^ r and Ihree \JJ to be ^undergoing a process of sclf- Ihcv were all "one; after which purification. There was constantly fhen>- nothing found in the Ava- forming in it masses of various ♦ V tnvnrv little lime and <*yp-! colored slime, which collected :n tor but a very httl 1 me xua } . bunches, like the slime 44 THE IMPURITIES OF WATER as it lodged on the rope of the for- i life under different circumstances ry, it hung over the rope two and hence the effect is made manifest to three feet long. The water had a ; us in a different form In one case turbid appearance, as though some j we get the effect of the poison by re-agent had been thrown into it be- the water, which has its effect on ing dark and clouded. I the stomach and bowels ; in the This process continued for three other case wc get it from tne an, days, at the end of which time the j which takes effect by or tnrougn water began to assume its native jthe lungs and skin. Hence, tne transparency, soon after which it (result of the former will be mar- became perfectly clear, and much rheas and the like, while the latter more transparent than before. One! will result in a class of diseases de- thing worthy of note is, that the < nominated fever.—each one being cholera continued up to this timeJgOA-erned by its OAvn peculiar hy- when it disappeared suddenly, andigrometric state and temperature of returned no more that year in the! the air, and other circumstances. tOAvn of La Salle. ; It is very likely that electricity is It is an universally admitted fact | in some way concerned, or governs in the South-west, that river water | in some degree the purity or nnpu- is more healthy to drink than wa-;rity of Avater and the air : but how ter from Avells or springs, and the lor in Avhat way, Ave do not as yet reason is obvious : the river Avater,; understand. by being exposed to air and solar < Spring and well water always heat, undergoes a process of purifi-; contain more or less foreign mat- cation as above stated. The phe-jter or impurities, and the health- nomenon above spoken of was on a, fulness of the AA-ater depends upon larger and more magnificent scale!what this impurity consists of, and than I ever saw before; because, \ the quantity it may contain. These I suppose, the Avater held at this j impurities generally partake nieas- time a far greater amount of impu- urably of the soil, vegetation, and rities in solution. This, I think, the under strata of the ground shows very plainly that this ten- j through which the Avater flows. dency of water to take up and re- j Many cold springs are transparent tain in solution an increased amount j Avhen the water first runs out of the of foreign matter, is in some way!ground, but as soon as it is exposed connected or concerned in the pro- to Avarm sunshine it assumes a tur- pagationof epidemics under certain | bid appearance, or a darker hue, circumstances, and especially diar-land sometimes it becomes quite rheas and cholera. milky in appearance. When this Long-continued dry, hot weather is tho case the water contains a will put a stop to cholera with al- j large quantity of vegetable impuri- most as much certainty as heavy; ties, and oftentimes of a poisonous rains will put a stop to epidemic'character. fevers at the end of a dry, hot Sum-; A good svay to test this kind of mer. These two diseases are en- Avater, or any cold water, Avhen gendered by the two extremes,;there are no other means at hand, although they are both produced is to dip up a glass or pitcher full by the same invisible poison,'or as; and let it stand during hot weather some say, state of the air ; yet they\ If the water is bad, it will show an are brought in contact with human increased opacity, and a more dis- MEDICAL HYGIENE. 45 agreeable taste, and after it has epidemic cholera, and the water stood a feAv days a greasy-looking retains its impurities, and also ac- scuni will be found on the top, and quires an increased poAver to absorb slimy sediment on the bottom, at and retain in solution an increased which time the Avater becomes clear: amount of foreign matter; for the again as at first, and sometimes; water in all the cholera districts more so ; and this result will be in ;showed an increased amount of im- proportion to the vegetable impu-i purifies as the cholera advanced, rities contained in the Avater. and Avhenever this impurity in the All Avater has a tendency of itself; water disappeared, the cholera also to throw up and down all foreign vanished at the same time, or soon vegetable matter Avhen brought to- after. gether in large bodies, whoneverl In 1849, while the cholera was the hygrometric state and tempe- Avorst in La Salle, the fish died in rature of tho air is favorable for it great numbers along the Illinois to do so. j River, and the same thing Avas no- As a general thing this processjticod in some other streams, which of self-purification of water is con-]shows plainly that tho waters of stantly going on in water as fast as'cholera districts at that time con- it becomes exposed to the air in tained something unusually un- warm weather. Hence, some very healthy and poisonous, and that it impure water may pass for good Avas in some Avav connected with water, becauso the most of the im- the epidemic then common in our purities fall to the bottom, or float country. off in scum, while the water is stand-' And many people who ate offish ing in the spring or avoII, before .taken from these waters at this being taken out. jtime, took the cholera soon after But it seems that under certain and died, of which I could give circumstances the laws of solf-puri- some decided cases if space would fication of water cease, or are sus- permit. ponded, as Avas the case in the late FOOD, DIETARIES, AND MEDICAL HYGIENE. CHAPTER V. The food most conducive to? than is generally supposed, so much health is a theme which has attrae-'so that a race of people may become ted the attention of the learned for entirely changed in character, con- a.'os past but as a general thing stitution. complexion and capacity, with littlc'succosstoAvardstheadop- both in body and mind, by simply tion of reasonable rules to govern changing their food, habits, and it I am well convinced that food manner of living, it has been so and diet have a moro powerful'with the Irish Since they have effect on tho human constitution adopted vegetable eating, living 46 FOOD, DIETARIES, AND mostly on potatoes, they have fallen j into a decline, losing their nation- i ality, as all those nations ever will) who subsist on vegetable roots and; herbs. The Celts are a meat-eat- j ing people, and although Ave may sometimes find traces of the Celtic j blood in some of the Irish, yet the Irish are not of Celtic origin. The j native unmixed Celt has yellow j hair, and when the Celtic blood mixes with other races, it becomes a flaxen white, and finally auburn, { with various other shades, depend- ing on the line of the races with which they mix. They are tall, broad-shouldered, masculine, light' complexion, and decidedly rural in their habits. The purest Celtic \ blood now to be found is on the Baltic, in Sweden, in the more re- mote parts of Scotland, Wales, SAvit- zerland, and in the more remote parts of Germany, where the pecu- liar Celtic form, with light com- plexion and flaxen hair, is plain to be seen. The true German are of Celtic origin, so are the Scotch, Welsh, and the Swiss; yet the Irish,. English, French, and some other of the races, contain a little mixture occasionally of the Celtic blood, but not enough to effect a national char- acteristic ; hence, the American characteristic is decidedly Celtic. According to Logan's Scottish Gaul, the first ever known of the Celt was 3660 years b. c, at which time they were sufficiently powerful to \ subjugate Asia; after which theyj emigrated to Europe, where we uoav find them. The manners, customs, food and j habits of these people who lived on \ the borders of Europe, Avere pecul- iarly adapted to insure a strong\ mind, permanent health, and a longj life. They possessed the strength i of nerve, and the unfaltering deter- < mination of the Avill which is known I only among those people who sub- sist upon food in its native and richest state, uncontaminated by second-hand manufacturers. They lived on meat and vegetables ; and could we live as they lived, and exercise as they exercised, in con- nection with the science and refine- ment of the present time, I think it Avould insure to us better health, stronger minds, and a greater de- gree of happiness than they pos- sessed, or than we now possess. But we are fast passing into an extreme the opposite to them in all things, and especially in food and clothing. The manners and customs of these ancient people are still pre- served in some of the more* remote parts of German}'-, and the high- lands of Scotland. The people in these early days liA*ed in the sim- plest Avay : they lived by hunting and their flocks, which, together Avith roots, herbs, wild fruits and berries, honey, and their garden vegetables, formed the sum total of their living. Their common drinks were homo-breAved beer, wine, and drinks made of honey, nearly all of which Avere plenty in those countries ; and their wander- ing habits Avere constantly bringing them in contact Avith noAv and fresh supplies. Malt beer and whisky were both manufactured by these people at a very early period—so much so that we have no knowledge of .the time when malt beer Avas first made. Whisky was first made from birch bark and some other substance com- bined, but was never used as a com- mon drink until after the introduc- tion of civilized customs. These people were accompanied by their herds of sheep and cattle wherever they went; therefore, their pasturo was always good, and MEDICAL HYGIENE. 47 they wore ahvays well supplied' with moats, both wild and tame. And when Ave compare the food and living of these people with ours at this time, we shall find that their living was far moro nutritious andi healthy. They dressed lightly, \ slept on hard bods, and were con-: stantly exposed to the weather. \ They ate their food mostly cold,! drank their home-brewed beer in place of tea and coffee, which gave them good health, a strong mind, long life, and healthy children. Their children grew up with as lit- tle trouble as a pig, or any wild animal, simply because their food and exercise Avasthat which nature required. As for the mind—give them tho mental culture that wej have now, in connection with their; living and exercise, and they Avouldj have accomplished far moro than! we do now, circumstances being, equal. j But in these later days of science and refinement, it is not polite to be in good health; a person must look delicate, or they aro vulgar; they must stay in the house for fear of a dark skin, and feed on starch andhotwater, politely called j tea, when in fact, of the two, branj is more healthy to live on than starch. They must lace, and wear bandages of pasteboard and cotton; tho organic functions must be sup- pressed at all events till the exte- rior becomes blanched, and if nature \ rebels she must be silenced with; opiates, and then Avhen all or nearly i all tho children die, they complain of their hard lot, and call it the Avonderful and mysterious provi-, donee of (Jod. > So avo shall find that the food of these ancient people, so far from being poorer than ours, Avas actu- ally much more nutritious and sub- stantial, which will be found to be a fact supported by tho latest che- mical research. And with all our boasted science in cooking, we have gained nothing, for we have fallen into a routine manner of living— the chief object is to get something that will look nice or fanciful, Avhe- ther it is good to eat or not. It has been ascertained by the latest che- mical research, that roots and herbs, taken singly, are more healthy as food than light bread. Many of these outside barbarians never used bread at all in former times, and they were the most hardy, healthy people in the world. Bat it is only within a few years that our living has become so per- verted. The food must be eaten hot three times a day, with hot tea and coffee,steaming hot cakes, dish es of all kinds mixed up and all h<>t. and to this there is no change. The living has become a monotony of changes, all having refined flour for its basis, an article which has been divested of its most healthful constituents,—the phosphates aro all taken out in the gray shorts and bran. They cook tolerably well, to be sure, but then it is warmed up and mixed up, and kept steaming hot in place of eating cold, as for- merly : and then when the appetite fails, Avhich is certain to be the caso under these circumstances, they Avash it down with hot tea. A per- son should never drink at all while eating until near the close of the meal. They must sleep on downy beds, spend the prime of their days in idleness, their old age in sickness and misery, or die young, and eve- ry time they have a pain or an ache, they must have some patent nos trum to swallow doAvn till they are stupefied by its narcotic and poi- sonous effects, when they lie down to sleep, to get up and go over the 48 FOOD, DIETARIES, AND And thus they'wild berries, wild fruit and greens, spend their lives in eating innutri-1 which formed an important item m same thing again. spend their lives in eating innuxri-; wuiuu ium*»« "" ""-Th - bpepanci tious food boiling hot, taking pat-j their common fare Their beer and ent medicines (Avhich are made by wine were of their own manu^ ignorant, heartless men, to get mo- ture : it was made soleh^b.the wo ney with), and going to some cele- men; it was pure and healthy, (not brated springs to gain that health like of late composed of ^hmne which they have lost by idleness logwood,potash water-and ^kj) and fashionable folly. and as long as they held to this cus- As soon as we depart from that item, they were free from drunken-^ mode of Jiving which our nature \ness and disease, but as soon.as they requires, it produces a longing or departed from this mode of living, hankering after things or substan- they fell into drunkenness and de- ces which the blood lacks, or it in- bauchery, their greatness departed, duces an unnatural appetite for and they became a feeble, penurious strong drinks, and oftentimes for race. See Logans Scottish fcraef. the most innutritious and unheal- At this present time we find an thy kinds,—e>en dirt is often eaten example of the same kind among with avidity, and chalk has been the French who live in Louisiana; eaten till the skin assumed-a mar- they live mostly on roots, herbs, ble-like appearance. j and vegetables, yet their tables are All craving appetites come from j seldom without meat of some kind, a defective, or an exhausted state of \ especially mutton, bacon, foAvls and the fluids, and especially the blood, j the like. Their food is generally So when our food is defective in-well cooked,and of a character do- vegetable matter, it produces a de- 5 cidedly healthy, but it is peculiar to sire for strong drink, which sup-1 themselves. Their common drink plies that for the time, and this is I (extra of cold water.) is a good ar- the grand cause or starting point tide of claret Aviuc, Avhich they which leads imperceptibly to the < use at meal times, and sometimes most dangerous habits, that is, of i during the day. They use coffee drunkenness and other debasing sparingly, but seldom uso tea. habits, for a defective living produ- And drunkenness is seldom knoAvn ces a defective blood, and a defect- among them, that is, among those ive blood induces a craving appetite ;Avho adhere strictly to these old for strong food of some kind, or j customs, for they have no appetite strong drink. ifor strong drink—simply because As an evidence of this, Ave need j their living contains all that native only to look over the histoiy of < health requires for the development mankind from the earliest ages up;and formation of every organ and to the present time, and we shall tissue, and the perfecting of the flu- find these truths to be a never fail-; ids. And these people Avho li\re in ing certainty. The Celtic and Ger- this Avay, enjoy a freedom from dis- manic tribes Avere the most ancient ease beyond all other people, so people of that race that we have \ much so, that it has become proverb- any knowledge of; they lived on 1 ial in the country where the3* live, beef, pork, mutton, and wild game; j that when the 3TelloAv fever or any their vegetables were very numer- other epidemic disease, sweeps like ous, of which they were vory fond, a devastating fire in and about Noav which consisted of roots, herbs, Orleans, those people escape the MEDICAL IIYGENE. 40 discaso altogether, while death people, suffer far less by female dis- reigns among the balance It ap- oases than any class of females in pears that tho ordina^ causes of the world ; hence, their children disease have no offecton these pco- are healthy, and generally free from pie under theso circumstances, and i disease, and their confinements are this we attribute solely to their easy, and attended Avith little or no manner of living, habits of life and danger. oxerciso, for as soon as thoy depart Tho Indians make no use of wino from those habits of living, cooking,, or beer, nor anj' vegetable drinks; food and the like, they fall obnox-;they live on meat and roast corn, ious to epidemic influence and suffer Avith Avhat Icav roots and "herbs thc3_ b3' ail tho ordinary affections which [ collect Avithout cultivation ; they ma3r prevail in the country. j seldom use milk. Their living is And again, we find the same'one continued monotony of meat thing Fully illustrated in the wino-', and roast corn, Avith what little Avild growing countries of Europe. In , fruit thoy pick up by the wa}', and this land of vineyards, tho manners then, behold the effect it has on and customs of tho people aro do- their health, prosperity and happi- cidedly original, especially in the noss. Of all tho children born rural districts : hero the pooplo arc among them, four out of every fivo well supplied Avith the rich produce' die under ono year ; nearby one-half of their gardens—there is no scar-; of tho balance die under fifteen city of fruit, or any of tho strictly: years of ago, and tho balance, which essentials to a healthy fare. And is a littlo over one-tenth, generally then, their extra drink is pure Avino live to ordinary old ago unless do- of their own manufacture—it is not. stroyed by epidemic diseases. made of poison drugs like ours, but: Thus avo find that of all tho chil- is pure and unadulterated—and injdrcn born among them, hardly ono tho spring of tho year, Avhen there tenth attain to adult age,tho conse- is littlo or no vegetable food, this quence of Avhich is, their numbers Avino supplies that vegetable prop-Wesson every year, and in a few erty to tho blood Avhich it requires; j-ears there Avillbono ono left to tell in ordor to the preservation of health j tho melancholy story of their race. and tho maintenance of strength Their food is so defective that tho and a healthy condition of the flu- appetites are uncontrollable, so that ids. The effect of this is. that!if they could get whisky with as among theso people thero is no j much facility as we can, in a foAv drunkenness, no hankering after years they would become a nation spirits, there is no unnatural appe- j of besotted drunkards, and this we tito to lead to excess, and thoy aro > attribute solely to their manner of exempt from a certain class of do- \ living, food, cvc.; they havo not tho moralizing habits which avo find} power to control tho appetite under among people Avho live under a j theso circumstances*______________ different or the opposite circum-j *Thcre i8 a ^be of Indians who live in the stance. And then, Avhen wo come j Rocky Mountain8. They are called Digger In- to look for health among theso peo-; dians y^^^^ tr,Cy live on roots. They eat no pie, WO find them decidedly more i mffat atauf but subsist on roots and herb*. They health3' in every particular, tfMd;ar0 the only human beings who subsist solely on especially the females. The female 'roots and herbs, and they are the most wretched portion of community among those people I ever jhw, being nearly without teelh, a 50 FOOD, DIETAKIES, AND Hence, wo arrive at the following, civilized races drink too much fluid conclusions, and these are: that;at all times and especially while man is so constituted thatdie must < eating. A person should never have a varied living; his diet must \ drink Avhile eating at all until near consist of meat and vegetable food, \ the close of the meal, for it dilutes and some kind of vegetable drink; and weakens the fluids of digestion is necessary to use in the season of; and injures digestion. The early the year Avhen there is no fruit to \ inhabitants of the borders of Eu- be had, which is in the spring and) rope, never used bread made of fine fore part of the summer. We can ' flour at all, until about the time, or live on animal food, or on vegetable \ after the invasion of Briton by food by itself, but when we have! Julius Casar, and even now in many done so, Ave are no longer healthy, \ of these moro remote districts, bread we become sickly and degenerate, j such as we use is unknown, and every generation becomes weaker there never was a more healthy, and more feeble, and we know not hardy- race of people lived than the cause; the mind droops, the fac-; they. Many of these border tribes ulties become languid, health fails, '■ even to this da3'- continue to live our happiness is gone, a feebleness solely on meat, cabbage, roots, fruit, steals over us, and our children die) and greens, and a doctor could not young, for food and diet affect chil-;get a living among a population of dren far more decidedly than it does; ten thousand of these people. And grown people. Armies of promis-; when these people arc educated, ing children have been consigned; they make the brightest men in the to an earby grave for tho Avant of j world. It has become a theme of something better to eat than bread i late with learned men and fools, to and butter, for something more con- < extol the superlatiATe qualites of genial to the growing and the de- < bread and butter; their only aim veloping organs than bread made of j seems to be to get the most concen- fine bolted flour Avhich has been j trated food, which is a gross error, divested of one of the most essen-jAvhich any one may see who ini- tial parts which the wheat contains, j derstands the true science of life. namely, the phosphates. } Fashion discards the most healthy It is a hobby story of late that!portion of our food, and takes as a "bread is the staff of life," there-1substitute indigestible and innutri- fore, bread and butter constitute the j tious substances. However it is not sum total of all we need to live on, | always that the most nutritious unless it is abouta quart of boiling; substances are the most condu- hot tea, or some other inhutritious,j cive to health, for health requires and drugged stuff, to take hot every I substances to supply the waste of time we eat. The truth is, all_our j the system as /ell as to nourish without strength, deformed,h«lpless and unhappy.; an£ Support the tissues. And this is the inevitable result of living exclu- \ J Wa7 to arrive at any Bivslyon roots and vegetables. They live in ;^rutnful Conclusion On these points caves, holes dng in the ground, or hollow trees,;is b7 Comparing the effects of the and seldom live to be over thirty years old. Yetjaifferent niodes of living as prac- you take one of these while young, and give jticed by different nations and tribes them meat as we u*u it, and when they are grown ! of the human race youwouldhardlyknowtheybelongedtothesamej Goto England and see how they are, and Avhat they live on, with # MEDICAL HYGIENE. 51 roast beef, wino, beer, vegetables,; and this should bo in the morning. fruit and the like, and then sec; When this is attended to, we shall what thoy are; the health, the ac- be less cursed with an over-stock of tivity, and the force of the mind, j insane, literary productions, the Go to German}', where the people j offspring of a diseased imagina- make their own wine, cultivate all j tion, both in medicine and inother manner of vegetables in the great-;branches of science. God never ost perfection, with an abundance;intended man to sleep his days of all the various kinds of food that j away in a state of inaction ; there- health requires, and you will find fore, Avhoever does so, must pay the almost universal health prevails, j penalty, which is an unhappy state Then go to Ireland and see what;of the mind, disease, wretchedness they live on, potatoes, nothing but f and death in every case. potatoes, and then see what they j Bread made of fine flour is cer- arc. Visit Mexico whore thoy foeditainly not healthy, and AA-hen you on food far inferior to what wo feed [take this kind of broad, butter and to our horses, often times nothing' hot slop, leaving out all vegetables but roast corn and milk, and what;and moats, it forms a diet much aro they ? The3' are fit for nothing more unhealthy than to live on roots " but slaves, which in truth they are, ■ exclusive!}-. But when the wheat and always Avill bo while their cus-i is ground all together with onl}' toms remain as they arc. Then j tho bran taken out, then it makes visit Africa, where tho people live : healthy bread, but even then it does on snakes, snails, Avith some veget-j not make a health3' living alone by ablcs, sometimes eating dirt, and! itself. It is found by the most ex- then compare the condition of the | act research, that the food most people and avo shall find that the > adapted to our nature is the plain, moral condition, the character and j simple productions of the earth, the effective capacity of tho mind;. uncontaminated by the second-hand ranges on a level Avith their habits]manufacturer, and this should bo and manner of living, and tho kind 1 cooked well, and prepared in the and quality of the food they eat, most simple manner. and this principle holds good Avith The Creator has designedly so every nation and race of people on j arranged it, that nature abundantl}' the face of tho globe. The brain, furnishes us Avith the kind of food norvc, and muscle, aro formed from precisely adapted to our nature what wo cat; there is no way to J cheaper than any other. The great- get aAvay from that. est difficult}' Ave have to contend But the most pernicious of all with, is adulteration by the second- things to health, and especially to; hand manufacturers, and this has the \"oung is, this fashionable AAray, become a Avholosale business, so that of living on hot slops, hot food, over; it is almost impossible to get a pure clothin"" and living in over heated; article of food, and oftentimes this apartments in idleness. Nothing; adulteration is made by adding the will compensate for a healthful ox- j most gross and corrosive poisons. orcise, Avithout Avhich the mind in- Whenever avo depart from a mode evitably droops; all literary men of living Avhich is natural and should have some regular muscular health}', avo aro apt to fall into bad exercise every day, where the mind habits, for I believe that all drunk- and body can exercise together, enness is measurably induced by a 52 FOOD, DIETAEIES, AND departure from a healthy standard j them drop these P^df* "f *n" of living, improper and innutritions jurious habits by *°B^**? ™ey food and bad cooking, which pro- j will soon find that they will have duces an unnatural appetite, creates j no trouble about sleeping or worlc- a vitiated taste and a craving appe- ing either* tite for innutritions substances or j The four following linos are *rom strong drink, and the only way we; Logan's Scottish Gael: can eradicate these evil tendencies! The free born statesman stood. is, to fall back upon first principles, j Old was ^^ififfi.lKSJ^ and make our living what our na-, He drank the poi!Jon and his spirit died. a good quality and well cooked.! and spirits among these People waa And furthermore, the breakfast and \ attended with the most amendable ,.,'.. • : .mH •noi-nipimis eonseauences, It more ngnt, ior uie suijirji- ubiur----> , ., • „. oaten after the days wort is done, j money, besides encouraging it has twelve hours to digest in, ness and bad habits. whereas the other meals have only J These imported liquors are very six ; therefore, the supper should be apt to be impure being adulterated the fullest and heartiest meal of the! with poisonous drugs, and since three. There is nothing In nature j chemistry has become more fully so injurious to health as to eat I understood these liquors are made heartily, and then work hard or I wholly of poisonous drugs com- exerciso freely immediately after- ibined Avith various unhealthy corn- wards, neither man nor animals can | pounds, while their home-brewed do it and live healthy long at a!beer, or claret, as they sometimes time. The New England habit of called it, was pure, being free from eating supper at five o'clock is ex-: poisonous compounds. For these ceedingly pernicious to health; they Ancient people were governed by eat three meals in ten hours, and; very stringent laAvs concerning the then go fourteen hours without eat-'manufacturing of beer as early as ing anything, and those fourteen J we have any knowledge of them. hours aro in the very time when the * To make bad ale was punishable by vital powers of life are capable of | fine and imprisonment. See Lo- digesting faster and more than any gan's Scottish Gael. other time in the twenty-four hours, j Tet in these latter days of science and Avhen avc consider the perni-,and arts, as they say, an age of en- ciousness of these habits, which lightened civilization, we allow peo- have so long been pertinaciously! Ple t0 sell drugged liquors, adulter- followod, it is no wonder they d\vin- visible agencies Avhich have been is much better to drink at moalsloAvly undermining the constitu- tions than tea or coffee. The fol- tional powers of life, are brought lowing is a very good substitute to bear on and against tho powers for tea and coffee : of life suddenly, and that, too, Avith- R Take of brown sugar 10 lb out the possibility of escape. Molasses 1 qt > It is a melancholy thing to see Lees of .Malt Boor 2" jthe degenerating tendency of the Tartaric Acid S oz present race, not only the adults. HrewerorbakorsyeastJ.pt but to see oven young children Water if) gal with decayed tooth, spine diseases, 54 THE DEVELOPMENT OF nervous affections, and a host of {ago, and which are the legitimate off- other diseases, too numerous to {spring of what people call the latest mention, eight-tenths of which land most approved fashion. were hardly known sixty years | THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN MIND. CHAPTER VI. It is by the agency of the capil:;had none of it of account since. lary vessels that all the organic; It seems that this liniment was functions are performed—the func- j absorbed by the capillary vessels tions of these vessels comprise the until they were full, the vital force grand elements of growth and de- \ being feeble, with a paralyzed ner- cay—hence, my first object will be \ vous sensibility ; it remained there to show by some tangible illustra- two years, after which, the vital tions the various morbid conditions I force being restored, it was thrown which these vessels are liable to as-S off, and the parts regained their na- sume under certain circumstances, tive elasticity and strength. In 1836 I had an attack of what j That the capillary vessels can folks called the rheumatism, but in \ remain dormant for tAvo j-ears and fact it was produced by using nier- jeven hold a foreign substance with- curial ointment to cure the itch in their calibre, of so diffusable a five }-ears before. This affection nature as turpentine is, is a strange occupied the ankle and knee, some- thing, but this case puts the ques- times on one, and sometimes on the ; tion beyond a doubt, for so it was, other. It troubled me for a num-< and this seems to militate against ber of 3-ears so severely I could jthe doctrine of endosmpsis. hardly get about, during which; My opinion is, that in this case time I used a liniment composed of the capillary vessels throughout ammonia and turpentine, but all to \ the system were more or less in a no effect. I stopped all treatment, {paralyzed condition, produced by except cold water at times, and I j some* imperfection in the blood, or got some better, and two years after an imperfect elaboration of the flu- using this liniment, while getting lids, and that the rheumatism Avas Avell of a fever in Mississippi, I an accidental circumstance brought could smell the turpentine every!about by this peculiar morbid ten- time I bathed my feet in Avarm wa-; dency. ter, and the perspiration flowing j Again: Jesse Witter, of Ngav out of the skin where the liniment j Philadelphia, Ohio, when nine years had been applied, was loaded with j old, fell from a horse backwards, the turpentine liniment which had \ and struck-the small of his back on been rubbed on the parts tAvo years< a stone, after which his le«-s never before, after Avhich my so-called 1 grew any more. He is now (184(0 rheumatism vanished, and 1 have-over fifty years old, and healthy THE HUMAN MIND. 55 tl wl L ?J°WCrextrcm-fha8 bcon arrested, and the func- tus, which are of the size of a boy'tional power of tho organs is de- nnUploiwT a' r£.° fl?h looks; 8tr°y«d; all the organic functions quite solid and a littlo rcddish-he:have become suspended. ^°0Lk1R0 * T ,n°,r 8traighten It is my opinion that this condi- them, otherwise he feels well as any tion may become fixed, not only on other person. I can adduce many jthe extremities of the body, but other similar cases, but these nro that it may happen on important sufficient for my present purpose. ; organs in the animal economy, and Hero Ave have a case where the; should it happen on the liver, lungs, flesh has held its own, neither in-1 or on any portion of the alimentary creasing nor diminishing, for more;canal, it could not continue long, than forty years. There is just vi- j for it would soon terminate in death tahty enough remaining in the flesh by engendering other diseases; but to hold the parts whore they are.'should it happen on the brain, i In this case nutrition is totally sus-1 think it may continue during a long pended; so is absorption; there is'lifetime, or until death occurred no groAvth and no decay, and yet from some other cause; but in such life remains in the parts. Here wcU case, what will be the conse- find a case where the powers of quence? In my opinion the conse gro;vth and decay are equally sus-?quence will be insanity, and this is pended, or paralyzed, with just vi- the only cause which'is capable of tality enough left to save the parts producing insanity, and the insan- from decay; and that this state ity will bo partial or complete ac- may continue during a person's life \ cordingly as the brain may be par- time, is proved by the foregoing; tially or completely involved in case, and many more which I could; this peculiarly morbid condition. furnish if it was necessary, under j The functional action of the brain which circumstances the tissues are is a unity, therefore the loss of a never regenerated, that is, there is \ portion of its substance will not no renewal of substance while this materially affect the mind. Al- Btate may continue, and but very ^ though common acute diseases may little absorption or wasting away I affect the mind, injure the memory, of the tissues, but they become more; or produce delirium for a while, compact, and acquire a more solid J yet they never produce a settled consistency. j insanity as a primary effect, for in- The flesh is capable of sensation, I sanity is a secondary disease, a and continues to receive and trans- i sequel of some foregoing disease or mit impressions; it feels cold, heat,'; morbid condition. Sometimes a the effect of wet and dry in a feeble simple disease may terminate in a and morbid degree, and although ; state of insanity, and often by neg- the nervous power is nearly par- j lect or bad treatment; but when it alyzed, yet there is a peculiar \ does so, all apparent signs of an morbid sensibility about the parts?acute disease have vanished and which render them peculiarly sen-: leave no trace behind, at least in a sitive under certain circumstances, majority of cases. The reactive powers of life are too j We are called to witness diseases feeble to support fever, and yet it, of the brain almost daily in our has vitality sufficient to save from practice, inflammation, wounds, sof- decay; the development of the parts teningof its substance, &c, yetnone 56 THE DEVELOPMENT OF of those produce a settled insanity, ues. The ™»%™n*^\^* as a primary effect, yet insanity isjon the scenes of the: pastthe im- produced by a diseased condition of pressions which are already indeh- he brain/and the nerves which bly fixed on the tables ofthe.brain communicate with the brain. remain, yet this knowledge is so The brain of an insane person; mystified by false and morbid con- may sometimes, and generally is, S ceptions that it only serves to per- more compact, lessening in bulk, plex and beAyilder. _ # as is oftentimes indicated by a. But should the brain regain its shrinkingof the bonesof the era-1 lost action once more, ana the nium, which is plain to be seen du- j healthy blood once more SAvell the ring life, yet the structure of the I brain, which is sometimes the case, brain remains entire; and although \ with the re-establishment of the the nerve force is so far paralyzed! lost or suspended functions of nu- as to act nearly independent of the; trition, and the vital force once more will, yet it is capable* of acting, and assume complete control, then the sometimes with considerable force, j individual awakes as from a dream, for these people are often very j and the will again controls the shrewd in argument, and sometimes ^mind's action, and this gives us a use tolerably good reasoning while; clue to the mind's action as connect- you can engage their attention, es-jed with matter. pecially if it happens to be on some; And hence we find that there are favorite subject that does not touch j three distinct identities, or indepen- their hallucination. \ dent powers which govern or con- In the case of Jesse Witter, whose istituto in partthemind independent lower extremities have remained! of the animal organs, impressions the same for more than forty years, \ or emotions which stimulate to neither increasing nor diminishing, faction, the will, and the invisible yet the flesh is susceptible of recei- \ essence of the mind, and these ving impressions in a morbid de- \ powers may be perverted, crippled grce, and so it is with the brain ofior dethroned by a diseased condi- the insane. The brain of the sane \ tion of the animal fluids, organs person is capable of receiving im- \ and tissues, and especially the brain pressions with much more facility; under certain circumstances. and precision than an3r other known I The brain requires nearby twice structure, but in order for the brain j the amount of blood in healthy to act with certainty and effect, it action of an3r other organ in tjio requires a perfect state of health, body of the size, and this is tho In consequence of some foregoing j grand center of thought, and just disease, under certain circumstan-Sas long as the brain receives a full ces the capillary circulation in the supply of healthy blood, with an brain becomes suddenly checked, j unimpaired nutrition in that organ, the nerve force being paralyzed, so long the mind will be perfect in nutrition is suspended, the blood j its action and harmonious. But as fails to supply and to nourish the {soon as nutrition ceases in the brain brain, and all the organic functions | by defective blood, or a partial par- in the brain suddenly cease, after alysis of certain antagonizing ner- which the individual becomes inca- \ vous ramifications, it loses its power pable of ever learning anything < of conduction, or at least it becomes more Avhile this condition contin- i a bad conductor, a»d loses its ca- THE HUMAN MIND. :>7 pacity of correctly transmitting or be no impression left on the paper; as, the brain of tho insane person,!or if the paper has become unim- although it is sensible to impres-; pressible, or in any way incapable sions, yet these impressions leave;of receiving true and correct im- no trace behind, at least of a tangi-; pressions, then }-our chain of com- ble character, so that when a person5 munication is lost or broken, so recovers from a paroxysm of insan-; that it cannot be intelligently read itv, he cannot recall to his recollec- and understood ;—and so it is with tion circumstances Avhichmay have j the intellectual phenomenon of the transpired during his paroxysm of" human mind. insanity. External impressions being the All impressions which are receive great stimulating cause calomel, because it is an alterative, in a decided manner the individu- and also promotes an increased ca- al s future character. j pillary circulation; and quinine, Hence, the mind's action depends | because it will restore the lost on the healthy state of the brain, taction of the brain and nerves, and nerves, and the fluids, for as the ^restore any injury that might have brain is the medium through and | occurred to these organs ; and salts by which the mind's action is made j and senna, because it will thin tho manifest, it follows that sanity or j blood, and assist in removing capil- insanity of the mind depends on lary obstructions, and very likely three conditions, which are all in- \ add something advantageous to the dependent of the essential princi-j blood. pies of the mind, that is to say, i In December, 1848, I Avas called insanity is produced by a diseased to see a negro Avoman, for the pur- condition—1st, of the fluids; Idly, of pose of making out some papers to the brain and nerves; and 3dly, of send her to the Lunatic Asylum. other organs; the effect of which She had been crazy at times for produces insanity. And this effect about twenty years, but of late had which produces settled insanity is become so perfectly unmanageable an injury done to the brain and that it Avas thought advisable to nerves, whereby the conductibility isend her to the Asylum. Her age and impressibility of these organs j was about forty; she was thick- are injured or paralyzed, in which set, and rather full-fleshed. After case nutrition and absorption are questioning her till I Avas satisfied checked or suspended in the brain, that she Avas insane, and had boon So longas nutrition and absorption so for some time, I told her master go on freely and healthily in the I would like to try the effectof med- brain, so long a person will remain icine in her case, and if it failed to of a sane mind, and no longer. In cure her, then he could send her to all cases of insanity the organic jthe Asylum, which Avas agreed to. functions are checked, retarded, or jl then directed calomel, 30 grainy wholly suspended in the brain, and Dover powder, 3 grains, to be divi- the insanity will be partial or com- ded into three powders, and one to pleto accordingly as this is partially be taken at bed-time on every other or wholly the case. night till all were taken, and in case This being the true philosophy they did not operate on the bowels of the mind's action as connected in the morning,take senna, 80 grs., with matter, it follows of course j salts, 1 oz., to be steeped in a, tea- that it Avill lead us to adopt a cor- j cupfull of hot Avater, and take of rect and successful mode of treating this two tablespoonfuls every two all diseases where the mind is affec- hours until it operated smartly, ted perverted, or in any way in- and to take in the meantime gram volved, as in cases of insanity, and} doses of quinine every two hours tho indications to be fulfilled are, to during day-light, tne quinine to be restore a free circulation of the blood continued sometime after the pow- in the brain, remove the capillary ders were all taken. obstruction^ purify and strength- This treatment was strictly^ad- en the bloo(i,and to restore the lost ^hered to, and resulted in a perfect 00 THE DEVELOPMENT OF cure. She has had some signs of a paroxysm of the same complaint since, but they all A'anished under a repetition of the same treatment; and now she is entirely free from that gloomy, taciturn despondency which hung over her mind during her former lucid intervals, and she has assumed that peculiar vivacity of manner which indicates a fixed and settled sameness of mind which is seldom the case with those who are liable to relapse from slight causes. I candidly believe if this case had been bled, blistered and physiced on the old depleting plan, as is generally done in such cases, hopeless insanity Avould have been the result; and furthermore, I be- lieve that insanity may be cured Avith as much facility as any other disease, if a rational and judicious treatment is adopted. It is Leibig's opinion that the constituent princi- ples of quinine are precisely Avhat are required in the formation of the brain and nerves ; hence I conclu- ded that it Avould restore any injury of the brain and nervous structure, and it proved in this case completely successful, as I believe the same treatment, varied to suit peculiar cases, will as a general thing. In all affections where the mind's action is implicated, there is cer- tainly an injury of the brain and the nerves which communicate with that organ, indicated by the way the eye tolerates a glaring light, the same with the ear, the torpid state of the bowels, indicat- ing a paralyzed condition of the nerve centers ;—the stools lack their foecal odor, the appetite is fickle and often craving, and always unnatural and unhealthy; and in fact all the symptoms point to the brain as the great nervous center, which has lost its impressibility;— the blood has ceased to pass freely ; through it, to nourish and support \ it—it has become like the flesh on • the legs in the case of Jesse Witter, | and the mind is perverted because ! the brain cannot act by or from the j impulse of the will or circumstan- ! ccs connected Avith the body, hence ! under these circumstances the mind ; is incapacitated from acting, judg- Ung, or calculating concerning the I business of life, and this we call in- !sanity. i The difficulty lies in a diseased \ structure, through which the mind's \ action is manifested to man and ob- jects, and all Ave have to do to cor- | rect this diverted state of the mind, Sis to cure this diseased condition of jthe organs and tissues, and to re- store the lost action of the brain land nerves. When this is done, ithe action of the mind, brain, and | nerves becomes a unity, and is again | subject to the will. Just in proportion as the brain | and nerves are formed for a speedy and correct action, being supported I by a forcible will, the individual will be capable of accomplishing much or otherwise, that is. the brain ! must be in a state or condition in | which it is capable of receiving and | transmitting impressions correctly, and of retaining them long enough | for the mind to act on them; hence, the brain must be well supplied | with blood, for by the blood the | brain has its life, and from the blood the brain receives that pecu- j liar property which is like the bur- nished face of the silver plate, upon which the daguerrean artist strikes | the figure of a man by causing the ^reflected rays of light to shine up- | on the plate, for the brain receives | impressions in the same way. Thus (you can imagine hoAV essentially > necessary it is that the brain should | possess this peculiar property or ! quality, which I call the power of THE HUMAN MIND. 61 impressibility, without which it is .union of mind and matter, yet the impossible for the mind to act cor-: will is the head and front of all rectly, or to appreciate truly the; effective action. The mind of the force and import of impressions. ': female is precisely like the male, The phenomenon of life in the! although her character is decidedly brute is like man, as far as the de- different, and this arises from adif- velopment of the organs are con- ference in structure and the devel- cerned—the brain and nerves re- opment of the organs; the brain is ceive and transmit impressions as more elastic, more delicate, and in man, although they cannot cal- \ more capable of yielding to the culato or appreciate them—they are j force of the will. influenced by circumstances; exter- The animal desires arise from nal impressions impel the organs the functional requirement of tho to act, and internal emotions which organism. The brute is possessed arise from the intuitive functions of an intuitive knoAvledge, and this of organs stimulate the animal to arises from an instinctive require- move. The desires arising from ment of the organism, as hunger, the reflux functions of organs are thirst, &c, which impels instinct- alike in man and brute: there isjively to action. The brute pos- hunger, thirst, fondness between sesses this knowledge to a greater tho sexes, fear and the like, which j extent than man, but you }*ou can- arise from the functional fitness of not educate him be3-ond this; 3'et the organs; hence the knowledge man possesses this in a degree, of che brute is inevitable from his which is evident to our senses, in- very nature—it is the effect of the dependent of our will or the dictates spontaneous evolution of the devel- of the mind. Hence, a difference opment of the organs. in the formation of tho organs, or In man, as these organs are theja difference in the development of instruments upon which the mind (the organs, will have a tendency to and the will have to operate, we!a difference in character, unless can readily understand how it is < counteracted by education. As the that one person may bo great and j poet says— another mean, simply because they \ " 'Tia education forms the common mind- are possessed, one of* a well formed Just as the twi«is ^the tree'8 inclin«d-" brain and neiwe, while the other This is true. The organs have to may be defective in the formation be trained to act in harmony with of these organs, in Avhich the tables the mind's dictation, and to obey of the brain are like coarse paper jthe mandates of the will;—there —it does not receive and retain ini-jis nothing plainer than this, for we pressions either with speed, pre- jhave to learn to talk, to act, and to cision or discrimination Hence, think before we can express our the difference in character arises wants or emotions. from the animal structure and the We often see great differences in development of the organs, as well {the members of a family : this ari- as from the soundness of the parti- |ses from the state of the mother's clos of matter in their formation, \ mind during gestation. The child's for in this lies their power of sus-j temper and character will range ceptibility and conduction, which (precisely in accordance with the are governed by the will, and al- state of the mind and temper of the though the will is the result of the'mother during pregnancy. 62 THE DEVELOPMENT OF From the foregoing facts we con- clude the mind singly to be an im- ponderable body like the magnet, that we cannot fathom nor compre- hend : we know its attributes only by the effects of its action as con- nected with matter, and we have very good reason to believe that the natural tendency of the mind, independent of surrounding cir- cumstances, is to a rectitude of pur- pose ; but the mind is subject to the will in a measure, and herein lies the difficulty in the control of human nature. As the individual becomes edu- cated and acquires knowledge, the brain enlarges and expands in pro- portion to a person's acquirements. This may be proved in our common schools and colleges, a circumstance often noticed by teachers. In cases of insanity, the brain never grows any more, but on the contrary of- ten shrinks, as is plain to be seen during life. The difference between the brute creation and man is, in man, the mind is capable of being improved and cultivated by education, and that the attainment of knowledge by the human mind has no end while life and health remain, where as in the brute, it is not possible to educate them or improve them be- yond the influence of this intuitive capacit3T for knowledge, arising from the functions of the organs. This intuitive capacity, arising from the harmonious development of the organs while being impressed or actuated by impressions or cir- cumstances, are possessed alike by man and animals, and those emo- tions being seconded by the will, impel to action and lead instinct-1 ively to a repetition of certain acts' or evolutions, which folloAv as a sort! of imitativeness; hence animals! may possess the poAver of imitation in a striking degree, as the parrot, monkey, and many other animals. But when you have educated an animal to a certain degree, all im- provement stops, which is not the case in man, although he may be born deaf, dumb, and blind : by ed- ucation he reads, Avrites, can con- verse, transact business, &c, with as much facility and precision as anybody else. The passions arise from the phy- sical development of the organism and the susceptibility of the ner- vous tissues, and the nervous cen- ters depending on the excitabilit3T of the nerve centers, and the nerve expansions, and the reactive pow- ers of the organs. Hence, we arrive at the following conclusions, and these are,—that the human mind is composed of three distinct identities, which in the sane mind form a unity, but in cases of insanity they are diverted,—the invisible essence of the mind is one, the brain and nervous centers are one, and the will is the third. When mind and matter are brought in unison, this union gen- erates a third poAver, which is the will, and the will rules over the en- tire fabric; hence Ave can see the truth of the old adage— "Convince a man against his will. And he is of the same opinion still." And as Pope justly says:— "And binding nature fast in fate, Left free the human will." That the will is a sequence of the union of mind and matter, we have ample evidence to prove, for in the lunatic the force of the will is par- alyzed in proportion to the inten- sity of the disease, for insan^ is a disease of the organism. As a per- son approaches to a state of insanity the will becomes enfeebled, which feebleness progresses pari passu until its effective force is lost, so THE HUMAN MIND. 63 that in a case of absolute insanity,'. thing certain in treating all such tho effective power of the will is so • affections, that bleeding, blistering, completely lost that it is impossible land physicing with gamboge and for tho individual to will to do any- j the like drastic medicines, are ex- thing and then go on and do it; jceedingly pernicious, and injurious and so it is in those who are conva- in the extreme. lescing from a paroxysm of insan- Hence, we find the human mind jty—tho will gets stronger as the to be a type of the Trinity, and brain and nerves gain strength, this type of the Trinity is again until the individual becomes capa- j three fold, as manifested in the ble by tho force of the will of again j mind's action. The brain and the controlling tho mind's action, when j nerve centers are the first, the in- the mind and the organs are again I visible essence of the mind is tho brought to act as a unity. second, and the will is the third, thus avo find that tho develop-'which threo constitute a true type mentoftho human mind depends j of the Trinity. on the soundness and the fitness of Again, the action of the mind in- tho brain, nerves, blood, &c, with- volves a conditional trinity, thus : out which it is impossible for the external impressions or internal mind to act correctly or rationally, emotions Avhich stimulate to action, and that all diseases, however light {the invisible essence of the mind, they may be, affect the stability of! and the will, these three constitute the mind in a greater or less de-jthe second typo of tho Trinity greo, Avhich fact is proved by uni- which is manifested in the mind's versal practice, and that insanity action. And again, the conditions (so called) is in fact only an aggra- necessary to the healthy action of vatcd form of paroxysmal fever, I the mind are three fold; thus, it (see Chrono Thermal System of; requires a healthy condition first, Medicine, by Samuel Dickson, M. of the fluids, secondly, of the brain D., of London), with a peculiar ten- j and nerves, and thirdly, of other doncy to the brain and other ner-iorgans. vous centers, which can be cured by the same remedies usually re- sorted to in the treatment of our common, ordinary bilious remitting fevers. As far as my experience goes,: this manner of treating diseases 'the patient in what he is to take, Avhere the mind's action is involved the object of, and the effecfthe me- has been successful be3-ond my most jdicine is to have on the system. sanguine expectations, which is ve- ■ He must understand what he is to ry good evidence that this practice > do, and Avhat he is not to do, and is based on correct pathological de- j all the circumstances attending it, ductions, and that this theory con- ;so that when he is out of your sight cerning the mind's action is correct, j he will continue to carry out the I believe the day is not far distant principles involved in your direc- when affections which involve the?tions. mind's action will be cured Avith as; The practice of medicine can ne- much facility as avo noAv cure fevers \ ver be carried to a successful issue and other diseases,but there is one i until the people are educated in the CONCLUDING REMARKS. In treating consumptives, as well as in all other chronic diseases, the first thing to be done is to educate 64 CONCLUDING KEMAEKS. science of Medical Hygiene and all .•■-.. '::::. nnd VU ; symptoms. periodicity ol. eases and treatment, m:ilariiil ovinia, (if Cholera and the I'la-ii.-, Causes ol lii.-ease, bow jviverned, l'oii>iunpi'nin, eonformai ion of, cases of Clotliiiifj;. hot food, Ac., Circulation, Capillary \'e.--els, morbid state of Cough, Child, treitment of Calomel and Quinine, Diarrhea, Dres>s and Fashion, Drunkenness, Exercise, East A\ iud, effect of Klectncal Ounouts, Fffeet of medicine, how manifested, Eating, Epidemics, how engendered, Fluid-, vitality of eoulauiinationof '.D 1 59- 29 Kluid?. de:-i>m;>"-d in Clmleru, IV\pr, how produced, seconJary siasre-, secondurv in cholera, cold -I a ;:<.■-■. and aj'e dull, I, the .ltd un man and In •■;.-■. il,.. , ,),.,•, in Mi,- tl,- oi,i :md new Siati ... i an.I I 'rink-, i ..1 nj i be French. olthcClt. adulleiati'ii of Heat. Light and Electricity, - Hemorrhage fi