fliCOTT\W». k  J
Health Tracts.—No. 2.
HOW
TO
PREVENT  CONSUMPTION.
            BY DR. WM. A. ALCOTT,

Author af the Young Husband, Young Wife, Young Housekeeper, Young Mother,
            House IXive in, Young Man's Guide, &x.
CONTENTS.
General remarks.
Fatality of consumption.
Comparisons to illustrate it.
Meau* of prevention.
Health of parents.
Opinions of Dr. Clark.
Health of children.
A common mistake.
The case correctly explained.
Exemption from colds.
Philosophy of taking cold.
How to avoid colds, -
The importance of fresh air.
Proper food and drink.
Physical and moral purity.
Proper dress.  Flannels.
Danger of compressing the lungs.
Cleanliness.  Cold bathing.
Exercise. Ventilation.
Avoiding medicine.  ""    -j_^
Health of mjncL  Cheerfu>riss7\
Peace of conscience.'•'""~~
First Published in the Library of HKALTflJ*>n.Af>ril
           BOSTON

GEORGE W. LIGHT, *
     NEW YORK :—126 Fulton Street

               1839.
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I 
HOW  TO  PREVENT  CONSUMPTION.
  General  Remarks.—Of all the various punishments
which a wise, and  good, and  merciful  Father in heaven
has seen fit to employ, to bring back to strict obedience to
all his laws, natural  and revealed, his  erring creatures,
none seems  to  us  more striking than that wide wasting
disease, pulmonary consumption.   Hardly any  climate
affords entire exemption  from its ravages, though it is
unquestionably  much more common in  some countries
than in others.   Nor is it  wholly confined to particular
age,  constitution, sex or  circumstances.   It is a scourge
of transgression wherever transgression exists, espe-ialiy
in our own country.   Few parts of the world,  if we
except  perhaps  Great Britain, are more  exposed to its
terrible inroads than the United States; and,in particular,
New England.

  Fatality  of  Consumption.—The annual  number of
deaths in the United  States from  consumption has been <
variously estimated.   Some  suppose it not  to  exceed
40,000 ; while others place the number as high as 80,000.
One  reason  for  this  diversity of opinion is found in the
fact,  that  some forms of  consumptive  disease  are not
included in the estimate of one individual, while they are
            1
 
2           HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.

embraced by that of another.  Thus there is a wasting
disease of drunkards, in which, after the liver and stomach
are destroyed, the  lungs  participate largely in the suffer-
ing.  So  frequent are these cases, that if reckoned  as
cases of consumption, they make a yearly difference, in
the aggregate, of many thousands.
  We have supposed ourselves safe in placing the annual
mortality  of  the United  States, from  consumption,  at
50,000; or 1,000,000 for every twenty years.  That  of
New England  alone is about 8,000 ; or in twenty years,
160,000.
  Now if the plague, or the cholera,  or  any other fell
destroyer, were to sweep from the United States, once in
twenty years—and  that,  too,  in  a  very short season—
say  four  or  six  months—a  million of its  inhabitants,
what mourning,  lamentation,  and wo,  would be heard
from every corner of the  land !   If no one complained of
anything else, he would  murmur at our sickly, wretched
climate,  as  fit  only for  the  wild beasts of the  forest—
hardly for them.   True, the murmuring would cease
before the expiration of each  intervening period of nine-
teen years and  a half, but it would be revived and reiter-
ated when the scourge was repeated.    In like manner, if
160,000 of our  hardy New Englanders were to be swept
away suddenly by some  terrible  pestilence every twenty
years, who would not tremble ?
   Or, again  ; if some yearly pestilence, like the breath
of the  sirocco, were to destroy, in a few weeks, 50,000
persons in the  United  States, and 8,000 in  New Eng-
land alone,   what should we say of  the  health of the
country 1
   Or once more ; suppose,  every year, some  malignant
epidemic  should destroy, in the  course of a few  days, or
even a few weeks, 300  persons  in Boston, 75 in Provi-
dence,  100 in Albany, 1000 in New York, 600 in Phila- 
             HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.         3

delphia, 300  in Baltimore, and  from 40  to  50 in  our
smaller cities of  from  10,000  to 15,000  inhabitants—
which  is believed to be about a fair estimate of the aver-
age annual number of deaths  from consumption.  Sup-
pose it were not  confined to our cities, however, but to
extend  its visits to  every township, taking away from
each township of 2000 inhabitants its 8 or 10 individuals;
from each of 4000 its 15 to  20, and so on.  What com-
plaints of a deadly climate, &c, should we not continually
hear 1
   But is the  mortality less dreadful because it comes not
at stated seasons ?  Is it  any less alarming that Boston
should lose 25  or 30 inhabitants  upon  an average, every
month, or nearly one a day, than that  it should  lose 300
or more once a year,  and  that, too, in the compass of only
a few  weeks  or days 1  Why should New York be more
alarmed at the loss of three inhabitants a  day for every
day in the year, than at the sudden invasion of a disease
which should sweep away 1095  in a week, and then dis-
appear for the year ?  Why should  a township of 5000
inhabitants make a greater outcry at the annual  return of
a malady, that should sweep  away  25 or 30  in  a few
days,  and then  disappear, than  at a  more  insidious but
equally deadly foe, that should destroy upon the  aver-
age two every month ?
   We press these inquiries, because we wish every one
to  perceive the extent of the  malady of which we are
treating, that he  may feel the  full  force of our remarks
on the importance of well directed efforts to  prevent it.
 Were a yearly pestilence to destroy in one week, or even
 in several weeks,  as many of our inhabitants as are now
 destroyed slowly by consumption, and  were an individual
 to  come  forward, and  devise,  and carry into execution,
 measures for diminishing its  mortality only one half, he
 would be considered the benefactor of his country and of 
4          HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
his race.  Now we are about to propose means and mea-
sures,  which, if universally  employed and carried  into
execution, would  save much more than half the annual
mortality from  consumption.   They are  not  new; but
they are not therefore the less important.  Nor are they
less  valuable, because instead of inventing or originating
them, we only point to them, and press them on the pub-
lic attention as others have done before us.

  Means  of Prevention.—The appropriate means  and
measures  for preventing  consumption  are exceedingly
numerous.   We shall present  a few  of the  leading or
principal ones only ;  and those will be treated as briefly
as the  nature of the case will admit.
   1. Health  of Parents.—Whatever promotes the gen-
eral  health of parents, does  so  much towards  preventing
pulmonary  consumption.   For though  the  debility  of
parents, however  induced, does not,  in  every instance,
predispose children   to this  particular form  of  disease,
there  is no  certainty that it may not.   Indeed, it would
seem to be a most remarkable fact, that the strumous or
scrofulous constitution  now  become  so  common among
children—a state of constitution which is closely allied,
if indeed it does not  lead directly to pulmonary consump-
 tion, since it is commonly attended by tubercles, the seeds
 of consumption—appears to increase just  in  proportion
to the progress of intemperance, gluttony and vice, and
other  causes of parental loss of health and vigor.
   That this is the unhappy state of things  in  this coun-
 try, especially in  our manufacturing  and densely popu-
 lated  towns  and cities, and wherever  there are what are
 called flourishing schools, is the  testimony of our most
 observing physicians ;  and  that it is  so in a  degree  still
 more  striking  in those other countries in whose footsteps
 we  are rapidly following, is fully asserted by all  those 
HOW TO PREVENT  CONSUMPTION.
5
who have  made  the  causes of disease, and especially of
consumption, a favorite object of study.  From a treatise
on Pulmonary Consumption, by Dr.  James  Clark,* we
copy the following remarkable sentiments :
  "  Parents may transmit the' tuberculous constitution to
their children.   Every member of  the profession,  by
observing  what  is daily  passing  before him,  may see
numerous  proofs of the truth of this statement.   He will
find many children presenting  the  tuberculous  constitu-
tion, while no  traces  of  it are to  be observed in the
parents.  The children of those who have suffered long
from dyspeptic complaints, gout, cutaneous  affections, or
any  other form of chronic disease, originating in derange-
ment of the  digestive function tohich has  produced an
influence on the constitution, are very frequently the sub-
jects of scrofula, or  of disorders  which dispose  to and
ultimately induce  tuberculous cachexias."   [By tubercu-
lous cachexia?, is meant  a habit of  body in which  tuber-
cles  or the seeds of consumption preyail.]
  But Dr. Clark is still more particular. Not only gout,
cutaneous  or skin  diseases, and a disordered state of the
digestive  organs, induce  the  tuberculous habit  in chil-
dren, but  the " injurious influence of  mercury  on the
system " of the  parent, debility from  disease, age, &c.;
in short, a deteriorated state of health in the parent  from
any cause."   We beg the  reader to note this testimony of
Dr. C. with particular care.   If any cause whatever which
goes to deteriorate the health of the parent, will predis-
pose his children to tubercles, and of course to pulmonary
  * We do not quote from the  writings of Dr. Clark, because he
happens to have been  consulting physician to the king and queen
of Belgium, and physician to  Queen Victoria, but because hii
work, besides being the most recent, is considered  by our medical
men as one of the most valuable on the subject of which it treats
which can be found in the English language. 
6          HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.

consumption ;  and if it is a fact, that the daily dosing and
drugging which exists everywhere, debilitates us, are we
to wonder if we find everywhere, and  in  almost  all our
children, the  seeds of consumption ?   And if one death
in five throughout the greater part of New England is, at
present, from  consumption, and  one in three or  four in
Great Britain, are we to wonder if  the proportion of
deaths from  this  cause—unless  we  reform—should, in
sixty or seventy years more, be doubled ?
   Dr. Clark says further—"According to my observation,
we never see the parents in an  unhealthy  state, whatever
may be its nature, without finding at the same time, that
their children are strongly disposed  to tuberculous dis-
ease."   And, finally, in  attempting to  explain, most
clearly, why the mischief should be more extensive  still,
and  why  many children  should  be   found  tuberculous,
while the parents  appeared generally healthy, he observes
that a disordered state of the  mother's health, depressing
passions, a sedentary or  unhealthy  mode of life, or what-
ever induces imperfect  nutrition  in  the  mother, during
gestation, may lead to such terrible results.
   " It is a very common opinion," he says, " that during
 this period of a mother's life, a fuller and more stimulat-
 ing diet is required  than that  to  which  they have  been
accustomed ;" whereas,  as a general rule,  " the more
plain and simple the diet—the more sparingly stimulants
 of all kinds are used—so much the better for both mother
 and child."  The mother should not forget, for a moment,
 that  whatever mode of living  is most conducive to her
 own health, is the best guaranty for that of her infant.
    We cannot write these pages without emotion.   We
 see  society  everywhere  degenerating—independently  of
 the tendency everywhere to  this particular form of dis-
 ease, the  consumption—because   the  circumstances  to
 which  Dr. C. alludes, are everywhere  overlooked  and 
HOW TO PREVENT  CONSUMPTION.
7
practically disregarded. On this account, to use once more
his own language,  " the race often terminates "—that is,
the  family stock—in  the third generation.   We close
this part of our subject, by  entreating all  parents,  to
whom these pages  may come, to heed them ;  and by one
more extract from  the distinguished author to whom  we
are already so largely  indebted.
   " In order effectually to prevent the extension of tubercu-
lous disease, we must, in the first place, direct our attention
to the state of the parents.  Were parents, in general, con-
vinced that the health of their children depended chiefly on
the integrity of their own health, a beneficial  effect might
be  produced upon society at large, and especially on the
members of scrofulous families.  If a more healthy and
natural  mode  of living were adopted,  [one  at  any rate
which  should  exclude from our tables  the  long  list of
medicinal substances  often found  there,]  and  if  more
consideration were bestowed upon matrimonial alliances,
the disease which is so often entailed upon their offspring
might  not only be prevented, but even the  predisposition
to it extinguished in their families in the course of  a few
generations."
  2. Health of Children.—Some may smile  at the bare
suggestion of the idea, that one means of preventing con-
sumption in an individual  is  to  secure and preserve his
health.   Every one, it will  perhaps be said,  knows this,
without any information on the subject.
  But is it so, after all ?  Is there not a sort of indefinite
notion  abroad,  that good  health is not a security against
disease ?   True, indeed, every one knows that as long as
a person is in health, he is not sick ; and were we merely
to say this, we might justly be  regarded  as trifling with
our readers.  But we mean much more.  Is  there  not a
general belief in  our community, that firm health invites
disease,  instead  of repelling  it ?   If not,  what then 
8
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
means the common remark in regard to fevers and epi-
demic diseases  in  general, that  they seize upon and go
hardest with the most healthy ?  What means the saying,
that the healthiest children are most likely to be attacked
with  croup, troubled  with  worms, &c. 1  What means,
too, the saying, in reference to the victims of consump-
tion in particular,  which has  been repeated till it has
passed into a  maxim,  that  death  delights in or loves  i
" shining mark ? "
  We are hardly willing  to  stop here to combat  a  belief
which seems to us so  very absurd as to carry its own
refutation on the face  of it.   The very idea that the most
healthy are most liable  to be sick, or that health invites
or encourages disease, and renders  it more fatal, is in the
very nature of  things, a contradiction in  terms.  It cannot
be so; it certainly is not so.
  The mistake may  have arisen,  in  part at least, from
the fact that many individuals,  children  and  adults, who
appear fat and have red cheeks, have become the subjects
of severe disease.  Fat children, it  is well known, are
most  liable to croup  and  several, other diseases.  Fat
adults, too, are  peculiarly  liable to some forms of disease.
And both children and adults, who  have red cheeks, and
of whom it is so often said they  are  the very picture of
health, most  commonly labor under  disease of some of
the internal organs.  The  robust, healthy looking laborer,
especially the  farmer, is often  found, in  consequence  of
his  bad habits, and  notwithstanding his  external appear-
ance,  to have a beginning liver complaint or gout preying
upon  him.   Such is the health of people who are said to
be  so very healthy;  and yet are so much exposed  to be
taken violently sick, and to die.  Such are the "shining
marks " at  which death delights to  aim.
  Now the plain  matter  of fact  is, that the best preven-
tive of disease, in all  the  circumstances and conditions of 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.           9
 life, from infancy to age, is good health.   Let us labor to
 secure this, and  just in proportion to our success will be
 our immunity from disease.  The perfectly healthy per-
 son, whether child or adult, need not fear  disease;  no,
 not even the cholera, the plague,  or the small pox.'  It is
 our unhealthiness, or rather  our imperfect  health,  that
 invites  these  and all diseases.  Even  when we look
 healthy externally, if our habits  are  bad, there is often
 mischief within ;  disease of some of our vital organs; a
 worm at the root.  We  repeat the sentiment, for it is an
 important one; it is  as impossible for a  person who is
 perfectly healthy—were there any such person among us
 —to be taken  suddenly sick, even with epidemic or con-
 tagious disease, as it  is for fermentation suddenly to take
 place in mere  sand, or pebbles, or ice ; or for putrefac-
 tion to take place  instantly in  rock salt or rock crystal.
 But let  the  human  system be properly prepared  to be
 wrought upon by  disease, and then let contagious matter,
 or  any other  cause  of disease be  introduced, and  like
 yeast or leaven introduced into a parcel of meal, it  will
 find foothold,  and the whole mass ere long be changed.
   While, therefore, we have been endeavoring to  show
 that the diseases  of parents, such  as skin affections, gout,
 dyspepsia, intemperance—anything,  in short,  which at
 any period of their  lives  previous  to  their becoming
 parents, even  the taking of poisonous  medicine—predis-
poses their offspring  to  scrofula and consumption,  we
 ought also to  say, with equal  confidence, that the  same
 diseases, or anything  else which  induces debility in the
 same way on  the children themselves,  will  favor  the
 development of consumption in them.   It may do so, if
 they are  not predisposed to  it, either constitutionally or
 otherwise ; it will do  so, inevitably, if  they are thus pre-
 disposed.   Let parents, then, remember this  great  truth,
and govern themselves accordingly.   Let  them study to 
10          HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
form, in  their children, healthy physical  habits ; and let
them be the more earnest in the  matter, in proportion as
their  own  course  has been  more  erratic, and  as their
own health has become impaired as the consequence.
  3.  Exemption from Colds.—Perhaps the most fruitful
particular source of consumption, is the  habit  of  taking
cold.  We call it a  habit, because we regard it as such en-
tirely.  We no more believe it necessary for people, did
they obey the  laws of God throughout, to be perpetually
suffering, as many persons are, from cold, and withal lay-
ing  the foundation of other diseases  still  more trouble-
some—not to say dangerous and fatal—than  it  is for
them to have the small pox, or the typhus fever.
  Here we come once more to a thought which perpetu-
ally harasses us, and, as it were, paralyses  every exer-
tion.   We allude  to the utter skepticism  which prevails
in the community—enlightened  as  it professes to  be—in
regard  to  the power which  mankind possess to prevent
disease.   There is, somehow or other, a deep sentiment
everywhere prevailing, which counteracts  all our teach-
ings to the contrary, and which,  notwithstanding  all we
have said, will be  likely to  haunt many of  our readers,
that diseases  are  sent  upon  us ; that they  are not the
natural consequences of our  misdeeds ; that  they are, in
one word, in a greater or  less degree, a species of arbi-
trary dispensation, not to say infliction.
   If  this feeling could ever be driven from society—if it
could ever be  fully and  practically believed,  that disease,
in every form, is the natural consequence of transgressing
the moral and physical and especially the organic  laws of
the Creator ; and  if it should ever come  to be a generally
received opinion, that a person in good  health could  no
more be sick than a stone can swim or water run  up hill,
we should labor with more hope.  However, we must toil
on, hoping for the best. 
            HOW TO PREVENT  CONSUMPTION.          11

  A large proportion of our consumptive cases are either
excited or aggravated, as  we have  already intimated,  by
colds.   The philosophy of taking cold is but little under-
stood, and the causes of this  frequent  but  unhappy com-
plaint, for the most part overlooked.   We cannot discuss
the subject freely or fully in a  short essay like this.  It
is sufficient, perhaps, to say, that whatever gives a per-
manent check  to the natural perspiration, may produce
those effects which  we call a cold, or  in  the language of
the books, a catarrh.
  This permanent check may be accomplished in several
ways.   It may  be  induced by a large  quantity  of  cold
drink taken suddenly, when we are debilitated  by fatigue
or excess of heat;  by currents of cooler air falling upon
the body, when in a very warm  place and inactive ;  by
similar currents falling upon  a part of the body for some
time in a warm room—as when  we  sit by a raised  or
broken  window;  by going  out  of  heated rooms, per-
haps  fatigued,  into  the  night  air,  especially  without
sufficient covering; by the application of cold, though it
should not be  inordinate, after we have been long exposed
to a high  temperature ;  and  by cold iseif,  when  con-
tinued for a long time, as  in travelling too long in a stage
coach during cold  weather, sleeping too cold  during the
night, sitting with wet feet, &c.
  To avoid taking cold, then, we  must avoid these and
the other causes which lead to it.  But we may do some-
thing more  than merely exert  ourselves  to prevent  the
exciting  causes  of cold ;  we  may  harden  ourselves
against its effects, so that  these  exciting causes will  not
operate.  To  this end, we should be accustomed, from
early infancy,  to  much  exposure in the open  air, at  all
seasons.   The practice of daily sponging the chest with
cold  water,  fresh or  salt, is  also  of  great  value;  and
should be adopted by all persons of delicate constitutions, 
12
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
at all seasons of the year.  Sponging the whole body with
cold water, in  the early part of the day,particularly at ris-
ing, when the practice is followed  by warmth, increased
strength and a keen appetite, is still better, as  a means of
hardening ourselves, than local bathings.   Cold, when so
applied as to produce the reaction we have just spoken of,
is a powerful tonic to  the whole system ; and whatever
in this way gives tone  to the  whole system,  goes so far
towards preventing our taking  cold, or suffering, in fact,
from disease of any kind.
  4. Plenty of good Air.—" As the respiration of  an
impure atmosphere," says Dr. Clark,  " is one of the most
powerful causes of tuberculous  cachexia?, so  is  the res-
piration of pure  air an indispensable requisite  for stru-
mous  children.  Indeed, without this, all our efforts to
improve  their health  will  fail.   Too much  attention,
therefore,  cannot be paid to the  construction and  ventila-
tion of the  child's apartment.   The  room in which he
sleeps should  be  large, the  air  should be frequently re-
newed, and his bed  should not have more curtains than
are necessary to protect him from currents of air."
  We should  prefer no  curtains at all.   Currents of air
falling on the bed  should indeed  be prevented ; but it
should be  done in quite another manner.  What Dr. C.
has said,  moreover, in  regard  to strumous or scrofulous
children, is equally  applicable  to all.  " Be  it  remem-
bered," says Dr. Thackrah, " that mankind subsist more
upon air than upon their meat and drink."   The  respira-
tion—we might almost say, the  digestion—of pure air be-
comes  therefore a matter of the highest importance to
health.  The  moment we inhale any  atmospheric impuri-
ties, that  moment does  the  change of the blood in  our
lungs begin to be more or less  imperfect; whether those
impurities  consist  in  a diminution  of the  oxygen of the
atmosphere, an increase of the carbonic  acid, or in  an 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
13
accumulation of other  gases,  and especially the impure
exhalations of our bodies.—There is scarcely to be found
a more subtle  and poisonous  agent than the gas—sul-
phuretted hydrogen—which is expelled from  our bodies;
though this, of course, is not originated in the lungs.
  It is hardly possible  to say too much in favor of a  sup-
ply of good air,  especially as  a  preventive of consump-
tion.  All our buildings—dwellings, school houses, shops,
churches, lecture  rooms,  &c, &c.—should  be regularly
and  faithfully ventilated.   Especially should  unwearied
attention  be  paid, in  this  respect, to our sleeping cham-
bers, our  shops, and our  school  rooms,  in which we are
under  the necessity of passing so  many hours of every
day of our lives.   The evil  tendency of the  bad air of
our shops and school  rooms  is  greatly increased by its
elevated  temperature.   For want of  attention to this sub-
ject, and  for want, too, of a due  supply of exercise—
joined, perhaps, to the  habit of going out suddenly into
the colder though purer air, without being  sufficiently
protected—ten thousands sicken, and thousands die.  Our
school rooms, our  factories, our shops, and  our sleeping
chambers—to say nothing of our  parlors and  sitting
rooms—do more  to people our grave-yards, every year,
than what is usually  called  intemperance,  with all its
horrors.
  5. Proper Food and Drink.—Perhaps we have  said
enough of drink, in  speaking of the want  of health in
parents, and  the  causes.   We need  only say, here, that
those who wish to enjoy the most perfect health, in their
own persons, to set  the best  and healthiest  example to
those around them, and to transmit the best constitutions
to those  who  are  to succeed  them,  through  all possible
generations of time, should be careful to confine them-
selves, as much as possible, to  nature's best, if not only
appropriate article of drink for man—pure water. 
14          HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
  Of food, in  reference to the prevention of scrofula and
consumption, Dr. Clark and other  writers say much, but
their  testimony does not, in  every respect, coincide.   In
two  points, however,  do they all agree, which are, in
confining  those  children who  are in the least suspected
of a  predisposition to these diseases, for  two  or three
of  their first years, to  a  diet exclusively  of milk  and
farinaceous vegetables, and  in directing persons of  this
description, of every  age,  to  use  food which  is plain
and unstimulating.  Crude vegetables, indeed,  they do
not recommend ;  but  the  various preparations  of  rice,
wheat, corn, oats,  barley, potatoes, beans and peas, with
the mildly  acid  and   moderately  sweet  fruits,  are  con-
sidered as  indispensable.    These,  while  they answer
nature's purposes,  in every possible respect, produce  less
hurry or disturbance in the vital functions,  than flesh and
fish,  and  those  common  dishes  of  fashionable  tables
which are  high seasoned or greatly concentrated.
  Food  and drink of every kind, for those predisposed
to consumption, should  be  cool.   So long has  common
sense  understood  this, at  least in part, that  every one
warns the  consumptive against indulging too freely in hot
food, such  as  hot  bread  or biscuit.  But they should not
only avoid  indulgence, they should not use it at all.
  6. Physical and Moral Pnrity.—A writer in the Boston
Medical and  Surgical Journal—Dr.  Gold—about  three
years ago,  insisted strongly on the  tendency of physical in-
dulgence to pulmonary consumption.   His remarks are as
follows—" In  a thousand instances, may we trace back this
disease to  effeminate  habits or exhausting indulgences,
which have wasted the energies and enfeebled the general
tone  of the system.  The period spent in the nursery is an
important  one in regard to the future health of the indi-
vidual.  Such a  place  is  too frequently like  a hot bed,
where nature is forced from its ordinary course, producing 
            how to prevent consumption.          15

an imperfect assimilation of parts, a laxity of fibre, and a
morbid sensitiveness, which render the individual unfit to
withstand the  unavoidable exposures of after life."
  Nothing can  be more  just than  the  remarks of this
writer.   The  indulgences  and habits to  which he refers,
and for which a foundation is  often laid in that morbid
sensitivenes of which  he speaks, are  not confined  to a
single appetite, nor wholly to a single sex.   Nor are  they
among the least efficient of the  causes which are in per-
petual—we had almost  said universal—operation, and
which tend to  destroy, prematurely, all bodily vigor,  and
produce numerous diseases, among which stands conspic-
uous, pulmonary consumption.
  On the subject to which  we allude,even our physicians,
as a general fact, are  as yet but half awake ;  while the
mass  of the community are neither awake nor  willing to
be awaked.   It is almost in vain that we attempt to rouse
them, even with the astounding facts of Dr. Woodward, and
the reasoning  of Mr. Graham.   Our children  cannot  be
guilty of these  deleterious practices, they say ;  and in-
stead  of being grateful for light and  caution, they  only
execrate those whom they ought to bless.
  7. Proper  Dress.—We  have  already alluded, under
another head, to the  evils  of long continued cold.   It is
necessary, then,  to dress  in such a manner, if possible,
as to  prevent  such results.   Whatever  invigorates the
whole system, increases its power to generate heat, and
diminishes the  necessity of clothing; and though in our
climate, and in the winter, no person is able to do  without
a greater or less amount of  warm  clothing by  night and
by day, yet is  the quantity which  he needs  exceedingly
small, provided more than is necessary has never, at any
time,  been used ;  and provided, too, he is in perfect health,
mental and bodily.  Yet when there is a deficit of  internal
heat, it is better to add clothing than long  to remain chilly. 
16
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
  Exercise and clothing  should, however, to the robust,
be nearly sufficient.  The  enervating  tendency of artifi-
cial temperatures, especially when these temperatures are
high, as is often the case in our shops, factories, school
rooms—nay, even our kitchens and parlors—is  not  well
understood ;  nor should  we be  credited,  were we to en-
deavor to set it forth.   Boerhaave,  one of the fathers
of medicine, avoided the heat of fires, stoves, &c, during
the whole winter, even in the cold  moist climate of  Hol-
land;  and  Bishop  Cheverus, while residing  for many
years in Boston, kept no fire  in  his  study, even in the
intensest cold.  We do not say that  every one can endure
this, but  we  do say, that the  nearer we can come  to  it,
and  not  be  permanently chilly, the  better.   It is our
being soaked in warm rooms and beds, and  immured  in
shops, and factories, and school rooms, from  our cradles
upward, that create the demand for  so  much clothing;
and which, in spite  of all  our  efforts  to keep warm  with
the aid of clothing, finally give thousands and millions
of us the consumption.
   Much is said on the necessity of  flannel  next the skin,
in the  cold season.   If such is our occupation,  such our
habits, and so  imperfect our  health, that we  cannot  be
always comfortable  without flannel  next to the skin,  let it
be thus used.   But  it  is, to the healthy and robust, too
stimulating, and defeats, in the end, the very purpose for
which it  is used; making us  so  tender, that we are pro-
bably losers  by  its use.   Cotton flannel, as it  is  called, or
indeed any sort  of cotton, is better and safer for permanent
use, next the skin, if we can get along  with it without im-
mediate discomfort, than any woollen materials whatever.
   There  is one  never failing source of pulmonary dis-
ease,  connected with dress, which,  though often adverted
to, should not be passed over.   We allude to the custom
of dressing  in such a way as to impede the motion of the 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.          17
chest.   It is of comparatively little consequence what the
form of the dress is;—if it hinders  free  motion and full
expansion, it is always injurious.
  Most people seem to think that dress is only injurious,
when it is so tight as to prevent the bending or flexion of
the whole body.  That complicated motion of the lungs,
which should  permit them  to expand when we inhale the
air, they never seem to dream of, for one moment.  Or if
they get  any  ideas of injury from this source, they are
very imperfect and  inadequate.
   We cannot, in a  single short essay, enter fully into this
important subject.  It is perhaps sufficient  to  say, that
every ounce of steady, continued  compression  upon  any
part of the chest,  prevents  the delicate organs  within
from doing their work as  perfectly as  they  would other-
wise do it;  and that this  tends to  disease.  Our blood
can neither be made perfectly, nor properly restored  after
it loses any of its vital properties—which  it is perpetually
doing, in  the progress of its circulation—unless the lungs
have the utmost freedom.
  Their compression is especially injurious and produc-
tive, sooner or later, of disease,  in the  case of those who
are at all  predisposed to consumption. Those not inclined
to the latter complaint, will sometimes  appear  to. endure
compression, for many years, without  injury ;  though a
day of reckoning finally, even in their  case, mast come.
But to those whose chests  are somewhat smal-'f and  who
have the consumptive structure generally, the-compression
of a single day, even in the smallest degree, favors more
or less  the  development of that fashionable but dire dis-
ease of which we are treating.
  Our world is most deeply indebted to  those individuals,
of either  sex,  who  have labored, or are still laboring to
awaken mothers—especially christian mothers—to a thor-
ough conviction of the necessity  of avoiding, in the educa- 
 18         HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.

 tion of their daughters, the error to which we allude.  It
 is productive of a thousand  forms  of mischief—some of
 them of magnitude—besides pulmonary consumption ;  but
 our business, at present, is chiefly with the latter.  Would
 that we did not feel that on this point—one of paramount
 importance to almost all others—we are destined to labor
 in vain !
   8. Cleanliness.—We cannot help  thinking that  the
 value of a clean skin, as a means of preventing consump-
 tion, has usually been  underrated.  Many people imbibe
 the notion that dirt, to the  consumptive, is even healthful.
 It cannot be so.   It is not  so.   The skin should aid  the
 lungs in performing  their office  of  renewing  the half
 spoiled blood; and if it does not afford this aid, the lungs
 either do a part of the work which they ought not  to  do,
 and are  thus overworked and  injured,  or the  work  which
 the skin  should do, is not done at all.   In  the latter case,
 mischief must ensue in various ways; in  the former case,
■the lungs, by being overtasked, are debilitated,  and  the
 coming on of consumption is greatly favored.
   This explains why daily cold bathing, to those  who  are
 predisposed to  consumption, is so useful.   There  is an
 oily substance, which is constantly exuded from the skin,
 and which greases it  over, and in a  little  time  impedes
 perspiration,  unless  we wash  often.   More than  this;
 the dirt  adheres to us,  and blocks up  the openings  of  the
 skin.   But washing removes the oil and dirt.
   The almost universal neglect of bathing  and*washing,
 in this country, is very bad for consumptive people.  Var-
 nish over one of these  people, and he  would soon perish ;
 but what is the mighty difference between having a coat
 of dirt and grease on  the skin, and a coat  of varnish ?
 We wish consumptive people—and indeed all persons—
 would remember this. 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
19
  9. Proper Exercise.—Due exercise of body and mind
is  indeed indispensable to  all; but especially so to the
consumptive.   By  due exercise we do  not,  however,
mean ouer-exercise;  for he who, in  avoiding the miseries
of inaction, exercises  beyond his  powers or strength, is
running  on one  rock  to  escape another.   Let  all the
functions  and faculties of body and mind both, be  duly
employed,  from  early life—especially  the  lungs.   Dr.
Rush, long ago, spoke of the importance of singing as a
means of  preventing consumption.  But speaking and
even reading, no less than singing, may produce the same
results.   If the  general  health of the system were pro-
perly maintained, and  the  lungs were  at the same time
exercised, daily, by conversation,  reading  and singing—
not too long at once, too loud, or too violently—we do not
believe  consumption  would often appear, even in  those
who are  strongly predisposed to it.  Let it be remem-
bered, however,  that just in  proportion as proper exercise
of body and  mind  both, taken as  a whole, and of their
several functions and faculties taken separately, is benefi-
cial to the consumptive,  so, in the same proportion, is
over-exercise, or excess, injurious.
  10. Proper Ventilation.—One thing  which we believe
to be a fruitful source of consumption, has been alluded
to, under  the head, Pure  Air, though not with so much
distinctness as its  importance  demands.  We must be
permitted to recur to it, under another head, and urge the
importance of ventilation.
  The common  statement,  that we  spoil a gallon of air,
by breathing, every minute, does not express the whole
truth.  He who  is  confined to the use of a  gallon of air
a whole minute, or what  is the  same  thing, he  who is
eonfined to sixty gallons, sixty minutes, or to  twelve  hogs-
heads of it  twelve  hours, is indeed injured to the  full
ejtfent which has usually been supposed.     ( 
20
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
   But, as we have already said, this is not all.   We are
beginning to be injured long  before we have spent  a full
minute, on our gallon of air.  There  is quite  too  much
carbonic  acid  gas, contained  in  a gallon of air, ere we
have  lived upon it half a minute.  Nay, more;  it is not
certain that we remain uninjured if  we breathe  over,
the second time, any portion  of air which has the  previ-
ous instant issued from a pair of  lungs, whether  ours or
those of somebody else.  Our own opinion is, that  no air
which has  just issued  from the cavity of  the Jungs,
should be inhaled again ; and that by neglect of this rule,
though it be  in  ignorance,  thousands and tens of thou-
sands are  slowly injuring themselves, and implanting the
seeds of disease in various forms, especially consumption.
   To prevent this, great pains should be taken  to have a
free circulation of air in all our rooms, especially, as we
have already said, in our parlors, sleeping rooms, school
rooms, churches, &c.   Unwearied pains should be  taken
to avoid the necessity—particularly in feeble  people or
children—of taking in  the  breath which has just issued
from the lungs of another;  whether it be a fellow being,
or a favorite domestic  animal—a horse, a  dog, or  a cat.
Fires also, of every kind, lamps,  candles, &c.—in  short,
combustion of every sort—as well as respiration,  produce
the results of which  we have  been  speaking ; and call
equally loud on us, for careful ventilation.
   11. Avoid Medicine.—All  who  have read our two last
numbers, may at  once  see the tendency of  medicine  to
destroy health and induce disease ;  but they may not  so
readily see  why it should  have  a  special  tendency  to
consumption.
   The truth is, it has no such special  tendency.  What-
ever debilitates us, invites  disease.  The particular dis-
ease thus  invited, will  be that  to  which we are constitu-
tionally predisposed.   In the case of those  who  are pre- 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
21
disposed to rheumatism,  that form  of disease will be
induced.  Those who incline to  gout or apoplexy will
have  those  diseases.   Those who are inclined to  con-
sumption, will have the consumption,  &c.
  All  we  can say, then, in  regard  to the tendency of
medicinal substances to invite disease  is, that they always
weaken  the nervous system, and exhaust, too  fast, our
vital energy ;  while they sometimes, but more rarely, im-
plant the  seeds  of diseases  which  are  entirely  new.
But whatever exhausts  vital energy,  in ftiose predis-
posed  to consumption, greatly favors the production of
tubercles  in  the  lungs, and the ultimate appearance and
dreadful ravages of that disease.
  Dr. Clark says—" Mercury, when  used so as to affect
the system, has been  very generally considered as capa-
ble of inducing tuberculous  disease.  I  am inclined to
believe  this: and  therefore consider  that in persons of a
delicate  or strumous  constitution, its use  requires the
greatest caution and circumspection."
  We should say, rather, in  view of  this  fact, mentioned
by Dr. C, that instead of using  it with caution and cir-
cumspection, it  would be safer to omit it  almost entirely.
Struma, as Dr. C. calls it, is so common now-a-days, that
we scarcely know  who is  free  from it.
  But Dr.  C. also thinks that hard water tends to induce
consumption; though  he says it may be difficult to ex-
plain how  it does so.  And yet, in  the next paragraph
but one,  he speaks, with  confidence,  of the general ten-
dency of all things which debilitate  the  nervous system,
and depress the powers of life, to  produce this  fatal dis-
ease !
   How closely wise men  sometimes  approach to the
truth, without discovering it!  So with  Dr.  C, in the
present  case.  From mercury, one  of the more active
medicines, to hard water, which is only slightly medicinal, 
22
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
is  a host of  medicinal  substances, every one  of which
tends,  in  the  consumptively disposed,  to produce  con-
sumption, and  all in the same way;  that is, impairing the
general tone and  powers of the  system.  Mercury and
hard water,  we  may consider as the two extremities of a
long series of medicines, of which  most or all of us are
taking one  or another—some  of us, many of them—
every day we  live.  All  dosing of  every sort, all drinks
but water, all condiments, and some sorts of food, are, in
the above sense, medicines, and favor the production of
tubercles  and  consumption.  We  should be  trained to
avoid them, on penalty of disease and premature death,
except when ordered by a physician.   Then  they are,
indeed, evils, but they are supposed to be necessary evils,
and are or should be prescribed  on that principle.
   12.  Health  of Mind.— Hardly  anything is worse for
the  consumptive than intense mental  exertion.   This
operates  to  produce mischief  in several ways.   1. It
almost always involves  sedentary habits ; which, as we
have just  seen, are of themselves hurtful.  2. It is apt to
produce imperfect  digestion.  3. It  induces  constipation,
and  its host of  evils.  4. By means  of  these last evils,
and  by other means which might  be mentioned, it causes
too great a flow of blood  to the  upper half of the system,
and  to the  lungs  among the rest.  You  will often find
sedentary people with  a hurried circulation—one of the
worst things which, to a consumptive person, can possibly
happen.
   One  reason why agricultural  employments and  sea
voyages—indeed, travelling in general—have had so high
a reputation in  consumption, is because  they remove us
so  far from  the evils  of sedentary habits;  and because
they prevent,  generally,  intense  mental exertion.   It is
true, we thus secure, at the same  time,  the benefits of
pure air and appropriate  exercise in that air, which are of 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION.
23
unspeakable importance.  But it  is not true—we repeat
it—that the smell of the earth, or breathing of dust, which
is  incident to some of these  exercises  or employments,
is beneficial.   On  the  contrary, breathing pure  air, un-
mixed  with  dust  of  any sort,  or  noxious gas,  is of
more importance to the person with diseased lungs than
to almost any other; and it is only when, along with this,
we  have  so  many other things which are favorable, that
the person does not suffer immediately.
  The grand reason,  however, why intense application
to study is a  powerful source of consumptive disease, is
because it exhausts the sensorial power, and weakens the
nervous system, and thus deprives the various organs of
the body, especially the  lungs, of their proper share or
allotment  of nervous influence and energy.  To have the
lungs work well and change  the blood properly, a strong
and energetic brain are indispensable.
   13.  Cheerfulness.—This is  essential, everywhere, in
life; but to none more so than to the consumptive.  Be
not anxious—that is, over anxious—has, to such persons,
a deep and important meaning; would that it were under-
stood so.  The  heaven of this life is no more to be ob-
tained than the heaven of the future world, till anxiety is
far removed from  us, and  perpetual cheerfulness reigns.
A few generations following each  other in succession, who
should contrive to maintain unremitted cheerfulness, even
if other causes were  to remain the same, would  banish
three fourths of our consumptive diseases from the world.
   14.  Peace of Conscience.—This is not easily separable
from general cheerfulness.  He  who has the latter, will,
at the same time, almost inevitably, possess  the former ;.
while he who has peace-of conscience will, sooner or
later become cheerful.
   We  know, full well,  that  many  an individual will
smile at the idea of setting forth cheerfulness as a preven- 
24
HOW TO PREVENT  CONSUMPTION.
tive of consumption, and that some will even question our
sincerity.   Now, be it  remembered,  we  are in  earnest.
We  might  even go  farther.   True religion is cheerful;
producing both health of mind  and peace of conscience ;
and  we might therefore say, in  general  terms,  that the
religion of Jesus Christ was a prevention of the disease
in question.  The truth is, that the Christian religion has
a  tendency,  direct and indirect, to prevent  disease  of
every kind.  And should the time  ever  arrive, as we
doubt not  it will, when  Christianity shall be fully applied,
as its author no doubt intended it should be, to the  whole
condition and renovation of man, physical  and intellectual
no less than moral, the  greater part, if not  the whole  of
the diseases which prevail in the world, will be banished,
except from the pages of history.