till Am  Whilt
  COUGHS  AND  COLDS;

              OK, THE

PREVENTION, CAUSE, AND CURE OF VARIOUS
        AFFECTIONS OF THE

           THROAT;

WITH CASES, ILLUSTRATING THE REMARK-
         ABLE  EFFICACY OF

     OUT-DOOR ACTIVITY
               AND


    HORSEBACK  EXERCISE,

IN PERMANENTLY ARRESTING THE PROGRESS
        OF DISEASES OF THE
          NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED  BY HURD  AND HOUGHTON.
    ©amim&se: 3&.fbersfT»e tyxess.
             1870. 
A
   r\r\eX
WF
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
                  Dr.  W. W. Hall,
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
       RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE :

STEREOTTPED  AND  PRINTED BY

    H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 
PREFACE.
  Multitudes have had coughs and colds at
intervals  for a  long life-time,  and at  death
their lungs have been found perfectly healthy;
yi t,  of all who die a  natural  death, one  in
•3very six has a cough  arising from a diseased
condition of the lungs.   This cough originates
in a tickling sensation  at the little hollow at
the bottom of the  neck  in front.
  Sometimes this  tickling disappears of itself
in a week, a day, an hour.  Sometimes it lasts
a score or two of years, as in  bronchitis, with-
out seeming to  shorten life.   Then again, if
it always comes  on in the morning, not neces-
sarily at other times, with two or three  other
symptoms, it means consumption begun, and
death within two years, on an average. 
4               PREFACE.
  The object of this book is to show how to
ascertain the character of these ticklings in the
throat, in their beginnings,  and to  point  out
the unmedicinal means of alleviation eradica-
tion, and cure, in all curable cases. 
PART I.
COUGHS AND COLDS.
          TICKLING  IN  THE THROAT
 Always precedes death by common consump-
 tion of the lungs in about two years, on an
 average;  but this tickling is  not always fol-
 lowed by consumption.  Common prudence
 then suggests that in every case of tickling in
 the throat, which seems to be  at the little hol-
 low at the lower part of the windpipe, or just
 above the top of the breast-bone — especially
 if such a sensation is more or  less decided for
 days and weeks, at intervals — an effort should
 be made to ascertain its character, and to use
 safe and judicious means for its removal.
  It would not be  safe  practice  to use means
to destroy the sensation  of tickling,  merely 
6        COUGHS  AND  COLDS.

smothering the symptom, while the cause of it
was in operation.   Shutting up the hatches of
a ship, to prevent the escape  of smoke, while
the hold is on fire, does not quench the flame,
though it may seem to some to do so.
   It would not be judicious to apply a remedy
to the tickling spot when the cause of the sen-
sation was  a foot or two away in a different
organ of the body.   Both  these positions will
be better understood by enumerating some of
the causes of the tickling in the throat:
   1.  If a man laughs heartily there will some-
times be such  a hasty,  urgent tickling  as to
make the cessation of laughter imperative.
   2.  Persons in robust  health will cough vio-
lently on retiring to  bed, the tickling being oc-
casioned by lying with  the hands or arms un-
covered, thus cooling the skin, contracting the
pores, and driving in upon the  lungs, to oppress
and irritate, what should more naturally have
had an exit from the body in the shape of in-
sensible perspiration  through the skin ; as soon
as  the arms are covered up and have had time
to become healthfully warm on the surface, the
tickling ceases and the cough  disappears. 
TICKLING IN  THE  THROAT.
7
  Suppose that paregoric, laudanum, or any
other of the thousand and one remedies for
coughs, colds, and consumption should be given
to an extent sufficient to dull  the sensation  of
tickling, as any anodyne would do, the cough
would cease for a while, but the cause being in
operation, the skin would  become  colder and
colder, tending to produce before the morning
an attack of pleurisy, lung fever, or dangerous
hemorrhage.
  3. Many a person  has gone to bed at night
to be waked up in a few minutes with a cough,
which would continue for  hours, most effectu-
ally  preventing sleep; irritating  the mind,
making the body more and more restless ; the
cough meanwhile growing more and more an-
noying until there is  first  gagging, and finally
vomiting of everything eaten at the last meal,
and in  ten minutes the person will be sound
asleep and remain  so  until the  morning.   On
inquiry, it will be found that the food was
thrown  up almost unchanged,  except that it
was " as sour  as vinegar ; " in  other words, it
was  undigested.  The person  had eaten toe 
8        COUGHS AND COLDS.
much,  or too  fast, or had  taken something
which the stomach could not work up. -
  Suppose an  anodyne, or a " trochee," or a
" tablet" had been taken, to an extent suffi-
cient to remove the tickling or to smother  the
cough ; the undigested food which caused  the
tickling would have remained in the stomach,
becoming more and more sour and noxious,
until nature, outraged, brought spasms, convul-
sions, or apoplexy to relieve herself.   This is a

              STOMACH  COUGH,
requiring the removal  of its contents by an
emetic, and not such remedies as would merely
smother up the sensation of tickling, which, al-
though felt at the  bottom of the throat,  was
caused by a certain condition of things in  the
stomach a foot or two distant; much in the same
manner as the tingling or numbness is felt at the
ends of the fingers sometimes, when a blow has
been given at the elbow.   There is a nerve with
two branches, one of which goes to  the stom-
ach, the  other to the throat  and lungs, and in
certain conditions, when  one branch is  in  a 
          nature's  COUGH.           9

suffering condition, the  other  is more or less
affected ; and  this  is what physicians some-
times mean when they speak of the relative
condition of two parts  as being in  " sympa-
thy."
  4. Many  have  experienced  the sensation,
and  know very  well the  meaning of the ex-
pression which we very  often hear, of a

      CRUMB GOING THE  WRONG WAY,
induced by a particle of food or drop of water
going into the windpipe  and down to  the top
of the lungs, instead of  being  passed  into the
stomach ; this misdirection being occasioned by
attempting to breathe at the instant  of  swal-
lowing ; in this case, Nature sets  up a violent
and  irrepressible  tickling in  the  throat, the
object of which is to excite cough, which is a
violent expulsion of air  through the branches
of the windpipe down among the lungs, and
through the windpipe  itself, in the hope, as  it
were, that the offending  particle may be thrown
out of the system.  Here Nature originates her
own mode of cure — excites a cough.  Some- 
10       COUGHS AND  COLDS.

times the particle is  so  large that the cougn
cannot dislodge it; then the surgeon must cut
down into the lungs and take it out;  otherwise
the cough would become so violent as to cause
fatal hemorrhage of the lungs, by the bursting
of a large blood-vessel, from the strain of the
violent coughing.
  But suppose  a  remedy had  been  addressed
to the tickling sensation, and had suppressed it,
which  means removing  the cough, then the
foreign matter would remain in the lungs, to
cause in a few days a dangerous or  even fatal
form of inflammation or of pneumonia.

                  CROUP
is a word of terror to every  young mother ;  it
is simply a form of diphtheria — the very sound
of which  is  often the knell of death.   This
croup is instantly known  by the peculiarity of
the cough, which once  heard by a parent will
never be forgotten.  The essence of the dis-
ease is the formation of a solid substance  on
what is commonly spoken of as the inner side
of the windpipe ; this goes on thickening until 
        COUGH  IS CURATIVE.       11

the windpipe is closed and  air enough cannot
pass into the lungs to support life, and the poor
sufferer is smothered  to  death.   The true
remedy is to  do something which will  loosen
or detach  and absorb this membrane, allowing
the tickling and cough to remain, so as to force
it out of the windpipe as soon as it is loosened ;
it often comes out a mass of almost  leathery
tenacity.  This being the case, as every intel-
ligent  physician will admit, whatever is done
to remove the tickling, or the cough, does just
that much towards  destroying  all  chance  of
life.
  In  all the above  cases,  the tickling  in the
throat is  Nature's mode of exciting  cough;
and it is precisely so in consumption.

            COUGH IS  CURATIVE!
Is nature's cure, and to smother  cough without
removing  what causes  it, is to hinder nature
and take away all chance  of cure.   When a
man clearly has consumption, coughs a great
deal, has been bringing up  yellow matter for a
long time, if  his cough should subside he will 
12       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
inevitably die  in three or four days, because
the cough helps to bring that matter  out of
the lungs and  keeps them clear;  but when the
cough  becomes so weak or so unfrequent  as
not to remove the matter as fast as it is formed,
the lungs begin to fill up with it, air cannot get
in, and  life ends.   The only hope of curing
consumption is to promote cough on the one
hand, so as to get the lungs clear of the  mat-
ter in them, and then prevent the formation  of
more.   But the popular sentiment  is, that  in
proportion as there is less cough, the  chances
of life are increasing, and willingly and hope-
fully the patient takes what " cures his cough,"
and is thus led a willing victim to the grave  of
his own digging.   So much are men,  with  all
their boasted  intelligence, like the silly  crea-
ture which feels itself safe when it can hide its
head in a hole, to  be crushed the  next instant
in the jaws of its relentless pursuer.

               A COLD COUGH.
   The cough from a common cold is dry for a
 few days, no  phlegm is brought up, but within 
      A  CONSUMPTIVE  COUGH.    13

a week the  cough becomes loose, a yellowish
matter is expectorated, and in  two  or  three
days it becomes less and less, and in about two
weeks has pretty much  disappeared, unless the
cold is renewed, and then it may be protracted
for weeks and months by frequent renewals.
   When a  person once takes cold, especially
one who has not a vigorous constitution, it is
very  easily renewed.   " The  slightest  thing
in the world gives me a cold," is the familiar
expression.

          . A  CONSUMPTIVE COUGH
also  comes on with a  dry, tickling  sensation
at the bottom of the neck in front; it is a fruit-
less  cough; nothing  comes  up, and in  the
course of an hour or two or more it disappears,
and is not noticed again until  next morning;
thus morning after morning it comes with the
certainty of the morning itself; but it is known
from the dry" tickling cough in the first days of
a cold, by its continuance for weeks together ;
the  same tickling,  fruitless cough ; and  if in
addition  to this, the pulse for weeks before 
14       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.

breakfast-time  is found  to  be  beating ninety
times or more in a minute, especially if there
is a perceptible shortness of breath in going up
a few steps, it is consumption begun, and in
nine cases out of ten will  prove fatal within
two years, simply because the person cannot be
made to believe  it  is consumption, and hence
will not use the means which in almost all cases
would avert  it, to-wit, out-door activities  and
horseback riding for the  greater portion of
every day, until the cough has disappeared,
and the pulse has come down to its natural,
healthful standard of about seventy beats  in  a
minute, not within an hour of eating and after
the person has been  seated quietly for about
half an hour.

         CHRONIC STOMACH COUGH.
   A person may have a cough  arising from an
inflamed or  otherwise  diseased  condition of
the stomach, but then the edges and tip of the
tongue will be more  or  less of an  angry red
color, because the tongue is simply a continu-
ation of the lining of the stomach and reports
the stomach's condition. 
MORNING  PHLEGM.
15
   The stomach cough is louder and harder and
 deeper than the cough from the lungs;  besides,
 it comes  on in fits, and the  cough from the
 stomach seems to be  excited  at a point lower
 down than the hollow at the neck, almost from
 the stomach itself; the  bowels are costive, and
 often there is  pain in the forehead.  In cases
 like this a  physician should  be called, if the
 patient  does not get better in a few days by a
 mild diet,  eating not oftener  than five hours
 apart during daylight, taking nothing between
 meals; keeping the body warm, and causing a
 free motion of the  bowels  at  least  once in
 twenty-four hours ;  and being several hours
 in the open air every  day.

             MORNING  PHLEGM.
   There is a cough of persons over fifty years
 of age which brings up  a good deal of  phlegm
 every morning, of  a very sticky,  tenacious
 character.   It arises  from a  condition of the
 stomach, caused by eating too much habitually
and for a long time.   The only remedy or al-
leviant is a more abstemious system of  eating; 
16       COUGHS AND COLDS.
the food should be more nutritious and  more
simple,  fresh  beef, mutton,  poultry,  coarse
breads, and no desserts but raw ripe berries  or
roasted or baked apples or stewed fruit, with-
out milk or sugar.

              NERVOUS COUGH
comes on at  any time during the day; caused
by  anything  which  excites  or worries  the
mind.   This  cough  has a  sharp sound, one
cough quick  after another, lasting sometimes
for an hour; very nervous or  excitable per-
sons, and those of a hysterical temperament, are
most  liable to this cough.   The sure cure is to
obtain a high state of general  health by  travel
on  horseback, or following  some agreeable,
profitable  occupation, which keeps  the  person
in the open air for the greater part of daylight,
with nourishing food and regular bodily  habits
of every description.

                LIVER COUGH
is easily distinguished from the others  named
by being dry; the patient  at the same time is 
CAUSES  OF  COLD.        17
" bilious; " has sickness at stomach ;  variable
appetite ;  bad taste in the mouth of mornings;
tongue is furred, yellowish, with a thick, ugly,
sickish looking coating, keeping the person de-
spondent, irritable, and indisposed to  do any-
thing.  This is easily  cured by the person
going to work out of doors  from breakfast  to
sundown, eating at three regular times a  day,
nothing between meals ; a cup of warm  drink
at each meal; eating bread, meat, and fruits  or
berries, with one vegetable at a  meal, such  as
tomatoes, potatoes, or boiled turnips.

              CAUSES OF COLD.
   Persons of frail  constitutions, or who are
temporarily feeble  from any cause, take  cold
from  very slight  causes ;  a " breath "  of air
will give  them  a  cold, because  they have no
powers  of resistance,  of repelling  cold;  their
circulation is feeble, the blood is  not  thrown
to  the  surface  and to the  extremities, the
hands and the feet, so as to keep them  health-
fully warm;  there is no glow on the skin, it is
either feverish  or  it  is cold and harsh; the
              2 
18      COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
body is easily chilled, and " creeps " run along
the back from a draught of air which a healthy
person would not notice.
  All colds arise from one of two  causes : first,
a person gets chilled from remaining in  a  still
position too long; or second, from cooling  off
too soon  after  being  warmer than natural,
which is  known by perspiration,  called sweat
by some,  appearing  on  the  forehead  or other
parts  of  the body.  By  ascertaining intelli-
gently what gives a cold, thoughtful persons
may be induced to make a systematic effort to
avoid  these causes of cold, which  may be done
to such an extent that a person may not take
cold once  in a year.
  An observant lady  of  a frail  constitution
noticed that she took cold every Friday.   On
investigation it was found to be  the  habit of
the family to take up the  carpet which  led to
the dining-room, and wash  the  stairs  every
Friday about eleven o'clock.  At one o'clock
this lady came down to her dinner.  It was
walking over damp stairs which gave the colds.
A remedy was promptly applied; she had her 
CAUSES  OF  COLD.         19
dinner brought  to her room  on Fridays.  By
careful practices like these she  lived in enjoy-
able health to the age of seventy-five years.
Many  persons would have ridiculed the idea
that a person could take cold by  crossing a
damp floor ;  certainly it  was wiser to accept
the situation  and act accordingly, than to  as-
sume a foolhardy attitude, and resolve to fight
it  out, and harden  the constitution to it,  by
keeping  up the practice.   Men  gain  nothing
by fighting  against Nature  and against the
peculiarities of the system ; in very many cases
it  will be found  better  to humor her.  The
reed bends to the hurricane and survives ; the
oak of a century resists and  is wrecked within
an hour.   Colds are given, —
   1st.  By sudden  transitions  from  heat to
cold.
   2d. By  throwing  off  clothing  while per-
spiring.
   3d. By  going from a  hot room to a cold
air.
   4th. By riding in a vehicle against a cold
wind, until the body is chilled. 
20      COUGHS  AND COLDS.
   5th. By exposure to a cold damp air, or raw
wind, after the throat and  lungs  have  been
warmed up by singing or speaking.
   6 th. By eating ice-cream or drinking freely
of cold water or soda water, or any other cold
drink when the body  is perspiring freely, es-
pecially if one remains in a still position after
such things.
   7th. By sitting near an open  window or
door with the wind blowing on the person.
   8. By sleeping in damp  sheets.   The  safest
side  of a  bed  to  sleep when away from  home
is  the outside.
   9. By failure to remove an article of  damp
clothing from  the body or feet  the instant a
person becomes still.  By all means keep ac-
tively moving  up to  the  moment  when  a
change can be made ; better still if something
hot can be drank  at  the instant, for this  helps
to  drive  the  heat to the  surface while the
clothing is being changed.
   10. By failing to walk with  sufficient brisk-
ness  in  the open  air,  either after  night  or at
any other time.  No one can take cold at any 
CAUSES OF COLD.         21
time, night or day, rain or shine, in hail, sleet,
or snow, however frail and feeble  the  person
may be, if the simple precaution is  observed to
walk with sufficient rapidity to keep off a feel-
ing of dullness, and when it is  over sit in a
warm room, or before a good fire.
   11.  By sleeping near  an open  window at
any season of  the  year;  the  warmer the
weather  the  more  dangerous it  is, because
the cooler the weather the more  covering  is
on the person, and it is  kept there by instinct
in sleep ; while  in warm weather the  entire
person is  liable to be exposed.
   12.  By wiping the body with a damp towel,
or getting into a bath immediately  after eating
or while in a perspiration.
   13.  By rubbing the feet or body with spirits
of any kind when feeling over-heated.  This is
more dangerous  than the use of cold water,
because  the  alcohol  of the  spirits evaporates
with greater rapidity than the water, and con-
sequently carries the vital heat from  the  body
with more celerity.
   14.  By sitting  in  a public meeting where 
22       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
the wind falls upon the body with perceptible
coldness, however  slight.   A false politeness
has often led persons to  " sit it out," with a
fatal result.
  15. By  laying  aside the clothing  too soon
after out-door exercise : even if, when  entering
the house, the atmosphere for the first  few
breaths feels close  and oppressive.
  16. By sitting still in a parlor on making a
call, waiting until the person arrives.   This is
specially dangerous in  the fall and spring of
the year, when it is not  thought to  be  cool
enough for a fire;  then it is that while the out-
door air is balmy,  the atmosphere of a closed
parlor is sepulchral.   Never keep  a  visitor
waiting  a  single instant  under such circum-
stances ; better far to adjourn to the  kitchen,
because the visitor is warmer than natural by
reason  of the walk, while  the parlor is twenty
or thirty degrees below the natural heat of the
body, which is  ninety-eight.  It may serve  a
useful,  practical purpose   to  narrate  some of
the  circumstances  under which persons have
taken dangerous and even  fatal colds : — 
CAUSES OF COLD.         23
  Edward Everett,  the finished scholar, the
accomplished diplomatist, the orator, the states-
man, the patriot, became over-heated in testi-
fying in a court-room.  On Monday morning he
went to Fanueil Hall, which was cold, and sat in
a draught of air until his turn came to speak ;
" But  my hands and feet were  ice, my lungs
on  fire.   In this  condition  I had  to go and
spend  three hours in  the  court-room."  He
died in less  than a week from this checking of
the perspiration.  It was  enough to kill any
man.
  Professor Mitchel, the gallant soldier, and
the most  eloquent astronomical  lecturer that
has ever lived, while in a state  of perspiration
in yellow fever, the  certain  sign of recovery,
left his bed, went into another room, became
chilled in a moment,  and died the same  night!
  If,  while  perspiring, or  while  somewhat
warmer than usual, from exercise or a  heated
room, there  is a sudden exposure in stillness  to
a still,  cold air, or  to a raw, damp atmosphere,
or to a draught, whether at an open window  or
door or street-corner, an inevitable  result is a 
24       COUGHS AND COLDS.
violent and instantaneous closing of the pores
of the skin, by which waste  and impure  mat-
ters, which were making their way out of the
system, are compelled to seek an exit through
some other channel,  and break through  some
weaker part, not the  natural one, and harm to
that part is the result.  The idea is presented
by saying that the cold has settled in that part.
To illustrate.
  A lady was about getting  into a small  boat
to cross the Delaware, but wishing  first to get
an orange at a fruit-stand,  she ran up the  bank
of the river,  and on her  return  to the boat
found herself much heated, for it was summer,
but there was a little wind  on  the water, and
the  clothing  soon felt cold to her.   The  next
morning  she  had a severe cold, which settled
on her lungs, and within the year  she died of
consumption.
  A stout, strong man was working in a gar-
den in May;  feeling a little  tired about noon,
he sat down in the shade of  the house and fell
asleep ;  he woke up  chilly; inflammation of
the lungs followed, ending, after two years of 
CAUSES  OF  COLD.         25
great suffering, in consumption.  On opening
his chest, there was  such an extensive  decay
that the yellow matter was scooped out by the
cupful.
   A Boston ship-owner, while on the deck of
one of his vessels, thought  he would " lend a
hand" in some  emergency ; and pulling off
his coat, wrorked with a will, until he  perspired
freely, when he sat  down  to rest a while, en-
joying the delicious breeze  from the sea.  On
attempting to rise,  he found  himself unable,
and was so stiff in his joints that he had to be
carried home and put to bed, which he did not
leave until the end of two years, when he was
barely able  to hobble  down  to the wharf on
crutches.
   A lady, after being  unusually busy all day,
found herself heated and  tired toward sun-
down of a summer's  day.   She concluded she
would rest herself by taking a  drive to town
in an open vehicle.  The ride made  her un-
comfortably  cool, but she warmed herself up
by an hour's shopping, when she turned home-
ward ;  it being late in  the  evening, she  found 
26
COUGHS AND  COLDS.
herself more decidedly chilly than before.   At
midnight she had pneumonia (inflammation of
the lungs), and in three  months had  the ordi-
nary symptoms of confirmed consumption.
  A lady of great energy of character lost her
cook, and had  to take her place for four days ;
the kitchen was warm, and there was a draught
of air through  it.   When the work was done,
warm and  weary, she went to her chamber,
and laid down  on the bed to rest herself.  This
operation was  repeated  several times a  day.
On the fifth day she had  an attack of lung
fever ;  at the end of six months she was barely
able to leave her chamber, only to find herself
suffering with  all  the more  prominent symp-
toms of confirmed consumption, such  as quick
pulse, night and morning cough, night-sweats,
debility, short breath, and falling away.
  A young lady rose from her bed on a No-
vember night,  and leaned her arm on  the  cold
window-sill to  listen  to a  serenade.  Next
morning she had pneumonia, and suffered the
horrors of asthma for the remainder of a  long
life. 
CAUSES  OF  COLD.
27
  Multitudes  of  women lose  health  and life
every year,  in one  of two ways :  by  busying
themselves in a warm kitchen until weary, and
then throwing themselves on a bed  or  sofa,
without covering, and perhaps in a room with-
out fire ;  or by removing the outer clothing,
and  perhaps changing  the  dress  for a more
common one, as soon as they enter the house
after a walk or a  shopping.  The rule should
be invariable  to  go at  once to a warm room
and keep  on all the clothing, at least for five
or ten minutes, until the forehead  is perfectly
dry.   In all weathers, if you have to walk and
ride on any occasion, do the riding  first.
  A Boston young lady, in  perfect health, the
loved of a large  circle  of admiring friends,
slept near an open window; the weather sud-
denly changed during the night, bringing with
it  a  cold, raw wind.  She  waked  up in the
morning with a chill, and died of consumption
in a few months.
  A young man walked rapidly some  distance
to a public meeting.  The house was crowded,
but there was no fire, and the  room was cold, 
28       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.

although it did not feel  so to him ; but after
sitting an  hour or more he felt chilly.   Next
day he  had  inflammation of  the  lungs, and
soon after died.  A person in perfect health
and without  previous  exercise may sit still in
a cold room until chilled through and through,
and die  of lung fever within a week.  The
principle in  all these  cases is : avoid  cooling
off too quickly or getting chilled.

                VOICE  COUGH.
  Many persons begin to cough after speaking
loud for a few minutes, or reading in a conver-
sational tone, or laughing heartily ; this cough
is excited  by a tickling  in the throat, at the
little hollow at the bottom of the neck.  This
does not indicate any diseased condition of the
parts, as the cough arises from an  unusual
exercise of the  organs of voice.   The profes-
sional name would be

             LARYNGIAL  COUGH,
as it  arises  from  the  condition of the larynx
or voice organs.   But there is a condition of 
     HECKING  AND  HOARSENESS.   29

these parts which  preludes  a tedious, trouble-
some, and  even fatal  disease.  The cough is
but occasionally present, and  is always slight;
in fact, is more of a hem or heck than a cough,
especially preceding an  effort to speak, as if
the  person was conscious that  without  this
" clearing away " he could not speak distinctly,
could not  speak without more or less hoarse-
ness.  This

    HECKING,  HEMMING,  AND  HOARSENESS
is an instinctive effort  of nature to secure a
clear vibration of the  voice-organs, which  are
near the top  of the  windpipe,  and are  four
little plates as thin as  paper, two on each side,
one above  the other, forming a little chamber
in which they vibrate  and make a sound, as a
fiddle-string or  harp or  banjo makes  a sound
by its vibration.  It is easily understood,  that
if any  gummy or  tenacious substance  was
smeared on  the string  it  would  not vibrate
clearly, would  not make  the proper,  natural
sound;  so  in the voice strings, if a  person  has
a slight cold, water forms in  the  nose, thicker 
30       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
and thicker, according to the state  or violence
of the cold.   The nose and the voice  organs
and lungs  are a continuation of one another,
and when  this substance, as a  result of  a
cold, is thicker in the nose  than clear water, or
the natural substance which is constantly pre-
pared in  the  nose  to lubricate it and keep  it
moist  — for if it were not  moist we should be
always sneezing, or subject to some unpleasant
sensation, — this  unnatural  thick  substance
prevents  the voice organs  from vibrating with
clearness, and Nature  instinctively causes  a
heck or hem to dislodge it.  If this substance
is very thick, we cannot speak above a breath,
there  is
                 APHONIA,
as the Greeks  would say, — that is, " without a
voice," or voicelessness ; hence we are more or
less hoarse when we have a cold.   This ma-
terial  which  causes  the hoarseness  of a cold,
is  caused  by an  inflamed condition of  the
parts ; for cold causes inflammation.  Inflam-
mation is more blood sent to a part than  is
natural;  and as it is out of the blood that  the 
DYSPEPSIA.
31
lubricating material  is formed, if more blood
is sent to the part than is natural, then more
lubricating material  is formed than  natural,
and this is called phlegm ; and because more
is  formed than  natural, it is in the way ; the
delicate machinery  is clogged and  does  not
work well.  But if inflammation  caused by a
cold thus  clogs  up the voice organs,  the same
inflammation caused by  anything else would
do the same thing; that is, cause  becking  and
hemming and an occasional cough.

                 DYSPEPSIA
will  cause inflammation  of the voice organs,
generating phlegm, and a frequent instinctive
hemming  to clear it  away.  In dyspepsia, the
stomach is  inflamed in  its  coating,  but  this
coating, called mucous membrane, extends to
the voice organs, and onward to  the very tip
of the tongue ;  so when the stomach  is  in-
flamed the voice organs are liable to become
so too, and also the tongue ;  that is the reason
a physician wants to  see  the  patient's tongue,
because from its appearance he determines the 
32       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
condition of the stomach.  In  dyspepsia, the
coating  of the  stomach is inflamed by too
much or improper food and drinks being taken
into  it,  hence a throat which becomes  ailing
in this manner is called

          DYSPEPTIC THROAT AIL,
and  has nothing to  do with the condition of
the lungs.   The stomach  is  the seat of the
disease;  hence  the  essential   importance of
having skillful professional advice to determine
the seat of the ailment; for if that  is in the
stomach, a lifetime might be  expended in ad-
dressing  remedies to  the  throat  and  lungs
      ©                                  ©
without the slightest effect on the parts dis-
eased.  This  Dyspeptic  Throat  Ail has for
many years  been denominated

        clergymen's  sore throat,
because many ministers were noticed to have
had  it;  not that it was  peculiar to them, but
their habits  of life tended to  that particular
form  of the  malady.   Their occupation  is
sedentary;  a great  portion  of their time is 
CLERGYMEN'S  SORE  THROAT. 33
spent  in-doors; their habits are studious, sit-
ting down to study immediately after  eating,
diverting the  nervous energy to the  brain
from the stomach, thus causing the food there
to remain  undigested for a much longer  time
than  natural.  This  irritates the stomach, in-
flames  it,  and the causes  being kept  up for
months and  years, a permanent state of in-
flammation is set up,  extending along the same
membranes or lining up to the voice organs;
and when once in this condition, the inflamma-
tion,  originating  in  dyspepsia, is  aggravated
from time to  time by colds taken which inva-
riably  settle on the weak  part of the system,
and with such clergymen  the voice organs are
the weak parts, made weak not only by the
inflammation existing, but  by the strain  of the
delicate voice chords in public speaking,  aggra-
vated  in  multitudes  of cases  by  injudicious
conduct  in connection with their  public ad-
dresses.  In making a speech these organs are
heated ; the whole breathing apparatus  is ex-
cited,  warmed up ;  the body  itself is  placed
in a perspiring condition,  aggravated by the
                3 
34       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
warmth of a crowded room and the influences
of a foul  atmosphere.   If, when the services
are over, the minister goes into the  colder out-
door air;  if he  stands still conversing with
persons ; if he walks very slowly home ; if he
rides in an open  vehicle against the  wind or on
horseback, especially if it  be a cold, raw  wind,
the effect is positively inevitable that  he  cools
off entirely too soon, and  most probably finds
himself in a chill, to result in a cold settling on
the weak part — the throat, — to be followed
with soreness,  hoarseness, cough,  to last for
weeks  and months, if indeed it does not  result
in  ulceration, or going  downwards,  induces
consumptive  disease  in  the   lungs,  already
weakened or  in a tuberculous state  from years
of sedentary in-door occupations and the effects
of a dyspeptic condition of the  system.
   These colds can be modified  and prevented
for an indefinite time  by a little care.  As
soon as a minister sits down after his sermon,
he  should throw a  cloak or shawl over his
shoulders, to  remain until he leaves the pulpit,
when  he should adjust his clothing  for going 
   CLERGYMEN'S  SORE  THROAT.  35

out-doors, putting on hat, coat, and gloves, and
remain in  the church near the stove or regis-
ter for a few minutes to  allow the body to cool
down gradually; then, on leaving the church,
keep the mouth closed and walk briskly away*
The object of  keeping  the mouth resolutely
closed is to send the air to the lungs through
the nose and head, thus warming  it before it
gets to the lungs, and  thus preventing their
being chilled.  It is nothing short of suicide
for a minister on a cold day to leave his pulpit
and ride on horseback or in any kind of vehicle
from the church, because the body is in a still
condition, preventing the  vigorous circulation
of the blood;  besides,  the wind carries the
vital heat from the system with  great rapidity.
Fatal pneumonia, putting  the  victim  in the
grave within  a week, often results  from the
conduct just  detailed.
  But clergymen and  public  speakers  are
not the  only persons liable to this  ailment
of the  voice  organs, causing  hecking, hem-
ming, and cough,  according to  circumstances.
All who sit  a  great deal, all  who  have in- 
36       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
door occupations, all who are of frail constitu-
tions from any cause, are liable to be annoyed
more or less by the troublesome symptoms just
named, because  such  persons  are  specially
liable  to  dyspeptic disease, which has  been
shown to be a frequent  cause  of the malady.
It was  stated that in the case  of clergymen
and other public speakers, the dyspeptic throat
ail was  frequently kept up and aggravated by
the colds which they were liable to take  from
the peculiar circumstances connected with  their
calling ; but the other classes of persons named
are also liable to have the ailment kept in con-
tinuance by the same cause of frequent taking
colds.   Such  persons are all the time  taking
cold, and that too from the slightest causes,
because they  have a  feeble circulation, and
have  such  little strength that  the  least thing
in the world   gives them  a  cold ; and  these
being so frequently renewed, the hecking and
hemming and  clearing the  throat  are  so in-
cessant  that after  a while it  becomes  a habit,
and the person never attempts  to speak with-
out preceding  it with a hem or a heck.   Un- 
    CLERGYMEN'S  SORE THROAT.   37

der such a  condition of  the voice-making
organs, caused in the first place by a dyspeptic
condition of  the  stomach, and kept up by re-
peated little colds, it must  be evident  that the
first step toward cure  must  be the  cure  of
the dyspepsia,  and  the next step,  quite  as
essential, must be the avoidance of colds.  The
latter is more fully treated in " Bronchitis and
Kindred Diseases ;" the former in the  book
entitled  " Health by  Good  Living,"  or the
unmedicinal  treatment of  dyspepsia, and sev-
eral other ailments.  The general principles
of treatment only can  be laid down here.  As
to the avoidance of cold,  persons  by care as
to the points laid down at page 17  need not
take cold once  in a  year, especially if the dys-
pepsia has been  cured; for then the general
health becomes so firm, and the  circulation so
vigorous, that a bad cold is a rare occurrence.
   Dyspepsia is best  cured by taking long jour-
neys on horseback, or travelling great distances
in stage-coaches,  if the person eats but thrice a
day at  regular times, avoids  eating  between
meals, and maintains regularity in all the bod-
ily functions. 
38       COUGHS AND  COLDS.
  The  more persons are out of doors,  in  all
weathers daily,  the less  liability is  there to
take cold.
  The  more  persons  bundle  up with  great
quantities  of  clothing, the  more  liability is
there to taking cold.
  At the same time, every person for himself
must dress in  such a  way  as to  keep off a
feeling  of chilliness when in a still  position  ;
and  if out of doors, there  should be bodily
activity sufficient to prevent  any chilly sen-
sation.
  Above all, each one  should observe what is
most likely to give him a cold, and  then be
always on his guard against it.

                 COLD FEET.
  All persons who have  cold feet, take cold
from slight causes, and these  colds are followed
with cough.  When this is the case, the  atten-
tion  should be constantly directed toward what-
ever may have the effect to keep the feet warm,
so as to draw excess of warm blood from the
head and throat and lungs.   The feet are cold 
COLD FEET.            39
 because  there is not blood enough there, and
 there is too much  about the lungs and head;
 and if the circulation is equalized by drawing
 more of  the warm life-blood to the feet, more
 good will be done  toward relieving various ail-
 ments of the throat and voice and lungs,  than
 by any medicine known to man; — and many
 good medicines fail of  their good effect  alto-
 gether, because the feet are allowed to remain
 cold habitually.
   One important  means of keeping the  feet
 warm, and of  restoring to  them  the  natural
 warmth, is to  keep them scrupulously clean.
   The largest pores of the skin in the  human
 body are in the feet, and through these pores
 a vast amount of the wastes of the body escape,
 and if they are clogged up, these wastes are
 driven back and  reabsorbed, and the whole
 mass  of  blood  in  the body is  contaminated;
 hence persons who are troubled with cold feet
 should dip them in cold water an inch deep,
 night and morning, for half a minute, then
rub them with the hands, and wipe dry  and
draw on  the stockings, all within three or  four
minutes. 
40       COUGHS AND COLDS.

  In  reference to the hecking and  hemming
and clearing of the throat, which cold feet may
keep up, after it has been established by dys-
pepsia, it ought to be borne in mind  that it is
more  troublesome than dangerous ; persons fre-
quently have  it for fifty years,  without any
appreciable  effect on the system ; if there is
a decided cough with it, coming on every day
more  or less for months, it may be  taken  for
granted that it is consumption ; that the disease
is founded in the  lungs, and that  the stomach
has nothing to do with it.

                   COLDS.
  " Colds, coughs, and consumptions " are  as-
sociated in the popular mind, and are considered
so nearly alike as to be closely connected with
a fatal and dreadful form of disease.   This ap-
prehension has no  real ground, except in  the
fact  that persons  who have  colds cough,  and
persons who have consumption cough ; and be-
cause consumption  is always  accompanied with
cough, there is a feeling that any cough may
end in consumption. 
COLDS.
41
  The cough of a cold and the cough of con-
sumption are essentially different in two things.
  First the cough of consumption is dry, brings
up nothing for weeks  and weeks.   The cough
of a cold gets  loose,  yields phlegm within a
week.
  The cough of consumption in its first far-off
beginnings, comes on in the morning on waking
up, or soon after rising and stirring about the
room a  little,  and is not  noticed again  until
next day, unless the disease is  considerably ad-
vanced.   The cough of a cold  comes on at any
time of the day or night, with no regularity
whatever,  and  grows rapidly more  frequent
within the first ten days after  taking cold, and
then becomes rapidly  easier and less frequent,
and at the end  of two weeks  generally disap-
pears, if the cold is not renewed ; with frequent
renewals it may last for months.
  Second, the product of a cough from a com-
mon cold, called phlegm, is simply an excessive
secretion,  an  unusual  amount  of a  natural
product  or manufacture  of the body.   The
product of a cough in  consumption is appar- 
42       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
ently pretty much the same, but in reality it
is a part of the substance of the lungs, — they
are in a state of destructive decay.   But thus
far  no reliable practical use can be made of
these facts, because no way has as yet been
devised by which  one can be told from  the
other.   Various differences in  the  product of
two  phlegms have  been suggested, but  up to
this writing, experienced educated medical men
place no reliance upon any known distinctions,
until at so late a state of the disease that death
must inevitably ensue within a very few days.
  It is a  popular  belief  that if the  phlegm
sinks in water  immediately, it  must be from
decaying lungs ; but the phlegm of a  cold will
very soon sink in water sometimes, especially if
the cold be a very bad one.
  If a person chews a rag or a piece  of paper
and throws it down  on the  floor, it will present
ragged  edges, or they may be  called jagged.
In the later stages  of consumption, the  edges
of what is spit out on the floor are jagged,  are
sharp and irregular.   In a common  cold,  the
matter is more even and rounded at the edges^ 
          NATURE  OF A  COLD.       43

like  the  appearance of oil poured into water.
But  long before the expectoration of the  con-
sumptive presents this jagged  appearance, the
experienced physician has determined  the fact
by infallible indications.   It is therefore  un-
satisfactory and altogether unsafe for any per-
son,  not a  physician, to decide whether any
case  is consumptive or not from the appearance
of what  is expectorated after coughing.

             NATURE OF A COLD.
  When the whole or any portion of the body is
exposed  to cold in any way, until it has become
colder than  natural for a longer or shorter time,
according to the vigor of the individual, a cold
will  be the  result; which means that  reaction
has taken place, and there is fever or inflamma-
tion, according to the violence and continuance
of the causes.  There is in this a kind of intel-
ligent instinct.   If a fort contains a great num-
ber of soldiers, distributed  in various parts of
the structure, and one portion  is unexpectedly
attacked from without,  the intelligence of the
men  leads  them  to  hurry  toward  the  part
attacked for purposes of defense and repair. 
44       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
   The life-giving warmth of the human system
is  supplied by the blood, and when cold, or any
other injury is applied or done, the instinct of
the body sends instantly an extra amount of
blood to the spot for purposes of warmth ; this
excess of blood is called inflammation, that is,
flame-like, red, like a flame of  fire.  If the
finger  is cut or  scratched, blood  is hurried to
the wound;  in time the edges of the  wound be
come red, become inflamed;  this extra blood is
to  supply  new particles of flesh  to  take the
place of these injured or destroyed ; and without
this  inflammation the healing process could
never take place.   Sometimes there  is so little
life in the body that there is no inflammation,
and the part would never heal, unless the  sur-
geon, knowing what was the matter, uses means
to  create an inflammation, and  healing  takes
place at once.   So that in reality a  cold  is a
fever or an inflammation, which is not the  cold
in  reality, but caused by cold.   This is  recog-
nized in the  fact  that when a man takes  a bad
cold and it settles on the lungs, it is  called by
some  " lung fever," by others  " inflammation
of the lungs,"  by others " pneumonia." 
COLDS.
45
  If a person takes a'cold and it settles in the
throat, causing hoarseness or pain or other ill
feeling, it will appear on opening the mouth and
looking down  into the throat, near where the
voice organs are, that the parts are almost blood
red, instead of having the  appearance of the
color of the lips, and the throat is said to be
inflamed.

                    COLDS
affect different persons differently; they " set-
tle " upon, they attack the weakest part of the
system, as a wily enemy attacks the weaker part
of a fortification.  The part is weak  for  want
of a vigorous action and circulation there, made
weak by  some  exposure, by  some wound or
hurt  or  over-strain.  Stephen   A.  Douglass,
once a great political power, spoke to a  large
out-door assembly with  considerable  effort of
the voice organs, which were overstrained; and
remaining in the  cold open air after the speak-
ing, a cold settled on  the delicate organs and
he died in a few days.
   The name of a cold is given from the organ 
46       COUGHS  AND COLDS.

on which it settles:  if in the head, it is called
" a cold in the  head ;"  if in the  nose, it is
denominated a " catarrh ; " it causes " croup " in
children if  it settles in the throat, or " quinsy "
if in grown persons.  Cold in  the lungs is  " a
common cold,"  if light;  if severe, it becomes
" pneumonia."   If its force is expended on  the
covering of the lungs we have  " pleurisy; " if
in the  branches of the windpipe, " bronchitis "
is the result. A cold making itself felt all over
the body, is under certain circumstances " influ-
enza."  When a cold  settles  on the liver,  the
person has a "bilious attack," or " sick head-
ache."   If a  cold  spends  its force  on  the
covering of the bowels, known by a dull pain,
increased by a  long breath, it is  " peritoneal
inflammation," getting worse for three morn-
ings in succession, ending in death or recovery.
Colds sometimes attack the bowels, causing thin
and frequent discharges; in this case the cold is
said to have run off through the bowels, and is
one of the  easiest and speediest ways of getting
rid of  a cold; hence persons who have a cold,
and during the first twenty-four hours  use 
CUREOFCOLDS.          47
means to have several free actions  of  the
bowels, cut the cold short off and are well in a
few days.
  It is therefore wise  for each  individual to
ascertain how a cold affects him, and address
suitable  remedies  accordingly.   It  saves  life
sometimes to know the cause of a  symptom.

               CURE OF COLDS.
  A common cold has its course to run like
measles or similar diseases, requiring about  two
weeks if it is not renewed ; but if proper meas-
ures be adopted to cure a cold within  thirty-
six hours after it has  been taken, it can almost
always be cut short off and will disappear with-
in three  or four days.   If measures for  a cure
are not thus promptly adopted, the cold will run
its course of  two weeks, in spite of all  human
remedies to the contrary.   In this simple  fact
is found  the   reason why there  are so many
cures for a cold, which are as utterly valueless
in that respect as the application of a thimble-
ful of dust to the end of the  thumb-nail;  and
yet every one of them is advised with a confi- 
48       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
dence  and sincerity and earnestness which  is
almost irresistible.  A cold is taken, a remedy
is tried; it is unavailing.  Another is proposed
with like results ; after three or four or more
have been tried, another is  suggested at about
the time the  cold in its regular course would
" break,"  that is, become loose, and get well;
this remedy seeming to be efficacious after  all
the  others  had so  ignominiously failed,  is
vaunted to the skies; every person who is will-
ing to listen is told with various embellishments
and exaggerations  of  the wonderful  effects
after so many other noted ones had failed, and
forthwith  the happy man commences to make
it the business  of  a lifetime  to propose this,
his  favorite remedy, as an infallible  cure under
all circumstances of the worst cold that could
possibly be taken.
  The safest, most prompt, and certain method
of curing a common cold, is to go to bed within
twelve or  fourteen hours after it has been first
taken and stay there until cured, observing, —
  First.   Keep abundantly warm all the time,
with the hands under the cover. 
CUREOFCOLDS.         49
   Second.  Drink  nothing but  hot teas, eat
nothing but coarse  or crust bread  softened in
the tea, with  raw fruits, berries, or melons in
their  natural  state, at intervals of five or six
hours  during  daylight.
   Third.   Keep the bowels  acting freely, at
least  twice a  day, by such means as are  most
familiar.   It is impossible  that this treatment
should fail to  cure a cold  under any ordinary
circumstances, if fairly tried and with sufficient
promptness, because  the pores of the  skin are
kept open by  the warmth,  and give exit to the
ill humors in the system and prevent fever.
   The grosser wastes of the body are conveyed
away by the free action of the bowels, whilst
the supply of phlegm is cut short by the mod-
erate  and  light and cooling diet.  For let it be
remembered that every mouthful of solid  food
swallowed after a cold has been taken protracts
the cure that  much by furnishing material to
be  converted  into  phlegm,  which must be
coughed up before a cold can begin  to get well.
A judicious attention to these suggestions will
              4 
50       COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
prevent much human suffering, and save many
a life from being prematurely cut off.

              NERVOUS COLDS.
  Persons of a nervous temperament of large
brain, whose nervous system has been shattered
by trouble or disease, suffer greatly from colds
taken; they seem to settle on the nervous sys-
tem  and expend their full force  upon it, espe-
cially upon the nerves of digestion, which seem
to a great extent to lose their power and fail to
act on the food.  The appetite may be good, in
fact is too good, but within an hour after eating,
the stomach  begins  to complain ;  wind  is gen-
erated in large quantities and does not readily
escape, but distends the stomach, makes it tight
as a drum;  this  distention  causes it to press
upwards  against the yielding lungs, inducing
such shortness of breath as to cause the patient
to have at times a feeling of impending  suffo-
cation, and an open window or door  is  sought
with a kind  of desperation.   This want of free
breathing, in consequence of the compression of
the lungs by the gas-distended stomach, induces 
NERVOUS COLDS.         51
a feeling of fainting, or lightness or dizziness in
the head, so great sometimes as to require the
person to catch hold of the nearest thing within
reach for support.  Those conditions set up an
irritable  state of the whole nervous system; the
mind is greatly disturbed, fitful and changeable
in its decisions;  the temper is soured, finding
vent in complaints and fault-findings, alternating
with  a great  depression of spirits, weighing
down both mind and body ;  at length  the  bed
is  sought  in  weariness  and  exhaustion; but
there is  no sleep for hours, if any; now  and
then  there may be a fitful doze, but unsat-
isfying, and the morning  comes  finding  the
unhappy patient more miserable than the night
preceding, — no strength, no appetite,  no rest;
the mouth and throat seem to be full of a slimy
phlegm, and in  the efforts  to hawk it up the
" stomach  is  turned;"  vomiting  is  induced,
bringing up more or less  of  the food eaten  the
day  before, undigested  and unchanged.   At
this point, improvement begins, for the  stomach
being emptied  of its food,  and nature taking
away the desire for more, the system has  time 
52        COUGHS AND  COLDS.
for rest, repose, and sleep, and soon recovers its
usual tone.
  In cases like these, nature is the best physi-
cian because the safest, although judicious med-
ical aid could cut short the attack  in a few
hours ; or judgment, decision, and self-denial on
the part  of the  patient  would ward off the
attack in a great many cases ; for  the  sufferer,
as soon as the cold has been observed to be
taken, has only to  take  no food, go to  bed,
keep warm, and  stay there until  next day; or
if from inattention the attack has begun, a vig-
orous emetic to empty the stomach would make
short work of it.  A less disagreeable, but not so
prompt a remedy, would be in bringing about a
loose condition of the bowels, by a table-spoon-
ful or two of salts or castor-oil, or better still,
some medicine which would act  on  the  liver
certainly and vigorously.  The great points in
all colds, however differently  they  may affect
the system, are: keep warm  in bed; use hot
drinks, and  take very little food, — and that
should be cold coarse bread, fruits, berries, and
tomatoes. 
PART  II.
CONSUMPTION.
   Is a gradual destruction of the lungs, a slow
 wasting away of the " lights," as they are call-
 ed, by many, when applied to animals.
   There are various kinds of consumption: Con-
 sumption  of the  Throat, Consumption of the
 Bowels, but when the word " Consumption" is
 employed,  by the  great mass  of people, it
 means Consumption of the Lungs, and there
 arises in the mind the idea of cough, of pale
face, of wasted flesh, of stooping frame, of slow
and careful walk, of large round eyes, the white
predominating, a waxen countenance, as serious
as the grave, with a general  look  of anxiety
and distress, which wakes  up warmest sympa-
thies in hearts which seldom feel at all. 
54           CONSUMPTION.
      The reason of this  universal application  of
   the word " Consumption" to the lungs is, that
,   so many are destroyed by it in civilized society.
   It is estimated  that one adult out of every
   six,  dies of this disease.  Such being the case,
   scarcely a  man who  reads these pages, but
   will, sooner or later, even if he escape himself,
   have his eye moistened or his heart stricken by
   the work of this great destroyer.   These things
   being so, every man owes it  to himself,  to his
   family, and to his kindred, to obtain a know-
   ledge of this disease, as to its nature, its causes,
   its  prevention,  and  its alleviation  or  cure.
   Information of this  kind can be communicated
   without the necessity  of long disquisitions, of
   tedious  investigations and distressing niceties
   of discrimination.   The ailment is so common,
   it is of such every  day  occurrence, that  most
   readers are familiar with it, can pronounce up-
   on its existence in the person of another with
   considerable correctness, in its decided stages;
   yet such is the deceptive character of the mal-
   ady, that it is almost a symptom of it, that the 
ITS DELUSIVENESS.        55
man himself cannot be made to believe in its
presence,  in  his own  person, until within the
last weeks of his existence, and  in very many
instances, not until the last, the  very last hour
of conscious life.   On being called to a gentle-
man on one occasion for the first time, it was
apparent  that he would  soon die.  When in-
formed of his true condition, he replied, " Doc-
tor ! you do not understand my case ; if I only
had a carriage to ride  about the city,  I would
be a new man  in  a few days."  He died that
night.   Another was  a  young  gentleman  of
high promise.  I had been attending  him for
some time and steadily  acquainted him with
the progress of his disease.   But he constantly
talked of his plans and purposes, with that pa
tronizing consciousness of the groundlessness
of my fears, which it was difficult to withstand
with equanimity.   " Why," said  he, " my mind
is as clear as a bell."  And so it continued to
be, on all other subjects.   Soon  after, his fac-
tor came to render an account of bills of sale
of his cotton crop.   He examined it with great 
56
CONSUMPTION
care, and in adding up the column, detected an
error of a few dollars.  He died the next day.
  The great reason of this deception is, there
is  sometimes no  pain at  all, no  suffering, no
apparent violence, and the  patient proposes to
himself the question,  " How can I be seriously
ill, when I am conscious of no distress ?"  He
feels that if he only had a little more strength,
he would be well  enough.  Besides, there are
moments during  any day  either  soon after a
sound  sleep,  or  in  the excitement of  fever,
when  he feels as if he  had that strength, and
this increases the illusion.   A young gentleman
of family and fortune was travelling homeward
with this  disease  upon  him.   On waking up
early one  morning, he  said to me, " I feel as
if I could travel a thousand miles."  The same
week, he slept the sleep which knows  no wak-
ing.
  There is something fearful in the thought of
being a victim to  such a  delusion; of travel-
ling along the very verge of the grave, believ-
ing ourselves to be treading on solid ground, 
ITS  DELUSIVENES
57
all unconscious of the actual fact,  that every
moment  it is crumbling from beneath us.
  There  is a moral reason for this strange de-
lusion.   We are  all loth to admit  unpleasant
truths.   A  man  in  business is  the very  last
one to perceive that he is a broken  merchant.
His neighbors have known it long ago, but he
himself does not become  fully conscious of
the fact, until the sheriff turns  the  key on his
door.
  One of the consequences of this delusion is,
that it prevents the person who  is  the subject
of it, from taking those active measures which
would avail to defer  the malady indefinitely,
if not to accomplish a permanent cure.  Fore-
warned is to be  forearmed.  A stitch in time
here, saves a million.
  As the reader, however strong and robust
now, however high  in health and buoyant in
hope of years, long and successful, may at any
time become the subject of a malady so decep-
tive, he will, if he is wise,  be at pains to ob- 
58
CONSUM PTION.
tain such a knowledge of it, as to prevent him
becoming a victim to its delusions.
  There is another thought in the minds ol
men, in reference to this affection, which is not
less illusory than the one already named.  Per-
sons often express themselves  thus, "I wish
I could die of consumption, it is so  painless a
disease, and gives one full time and fair warn-
ing to prepare for death."  The time  it does
give, as about two years is the average of its
duration.   As to the warning,  it  is certainly
given in tones loud enough to be heard by thou-
sands afar off, but not loud enough for the ears
of the man himself—given in  arguments so
convincing and so palpable, that the humblest
intellect can  perceive  them,  but  not clear
enough to make the invalid himself  appreciate
their power.
  As  to the painless  nature  of consumption,
the delusion is as complete as it is general.   In
some very few  cases,  there is measureably lit-
tle pain, one in  a million perhaps.  In all, there
are times of measurably exemption from severe 
ITS  DELUSIVENESS.
59
suffering.  But the very countenance of a con-
sumptive shows an abiding distress, so continu-
ed, so ever present, that it has fixed its unmis-
takable imprint  on the whole  man.  " Death
by the drop" as it is called, where a single drop
of water falls upon  the  head at one  spot, is
said to be rather pleasant at first, but continued
hour after hour,  day  and night, soon produces
delirium, and if  continued, the man  becomes
a raving maniac for life.  But there is nothing
in consumption which is even transiently agree-
able, not one symptom, but many.   The whole
man is  diseased,  every drop of his blood  is
on fire.  The ceaseless fever burns out his life.
And when all his fat and flesh are consumed
and there is no more oil  to feed the flame,  no
more carbon to keep  up the dying fires, nothing
left but skin and  bone and tendon and ligament
and  strings,  then he begins to freeze.  The
fingers first, and  feet, all his efforts cannot keep
them warm.  Week  after week  the cold chill
of death creeps higher and higher, nearer and
nearer  in  the slow progress  of months,  until 
60          CONSUMPTION
the heart itself becomes an icicle, and the man
 is no more.
  So far from death by consumption being an
easy one, there are few maladies which involve
a more fearful amount of suffering in the  ag-
gregate.   The shivering  chill of the forenoon,
the burning fever in the  after part of the day,
then the  drenching night sweat, clammy and
cold as death, and thus for days and nights, for
weeks and months, if there is any '* ease" here,
We cannot bring our mind to perceive its reality.
                THE  COUGH.
   The very sound of  it, in an advanced stage
of the disease, is unspeakably distressing.  At
night-fall, the poor, wasted, wearied body yearns
for repose, the eye looks longingly to  the bed,
 while the effort for undressing seems herculean
and the time requisite for it, an age.  The flesh-
less skeleton totters to its pillow, and on the in-
stant,  the very instant, the cough  begins, at
 first hard and dry ; nothing comes up.  Cough,
 cough, cough ! straining, jarring, racking.  He 
THE  COUGH.            61
feels " If I could only get it up,  how sweetly
could I rest."   And he coughs on.   The slow
minutes  are hours,  and the hours, ages, as he
tosses on his bed, the wan face bathed  in the
perspiration of exhaustion, or flushed with the
fever which is burning out his life.   At last a
mouthful does come, and he hopes for rest.
A mouthful of lungs rotted away, falling upon
the floor in thick yellow lumps, with spraggling,
ragged edges, giving the coveted repose, not for
hours,  nor even minutes always, but for one, a
few brief seconds only,  and then begins again
the sad, sad labor, to be completed  only until
the grey of the morning comes, when more dead
than alive, and from utter exhaustion, the pa-
tient falls into a troubled sleep, as unsatisfying
as it is  brief;  and more weary than when  he
retired,  he leaves the bed  with the same con-
fident hope of  relief, as he had on  retiring, and
as certainly  to be unrealized; and thus  baffled
from sunrise until evening, and from nightfall
until the morning comes, he wears his life away.
  Death by consumption  easy 1   Look  at it. 
62          CONSUMPTION.
The appetite is usually good, he looks forward
to the eating hour with interest and satisfaction ;
he thinks over and over again how he would
enjoy this and that article of food, and in the de-
lirium of anticipation, he projects himself into
the long years  of the  future,  and revels in
thoughts of how, when he gets well again, he
will take care of his health and purchase him
a little farm, and ambitionless of society, and
position, and  equipage and office,  and wealth
and a name, he will devote himself to the leisure
cultivation of fruits and flowers, and feast day
after day on pure milk and fresh eggs, and new
butter, with vegetables  from his own garden
and honey from his own hive.   Upon this ely-
sian reverie the call to dinner breaks, and with
watering mouth and eager expectancy, forget-
ful of every symptom, oblivious  of  every pain
and suffering, he lays himself out for a hearty
meal.  He eats much and long, and enjoys it.
Food never tasted  half so good and he rests
not  until  a  feeling of  perfect  satisfaction
comes over him.  But the first material change 
THE COUGH.            63
of position, moves also the fluid mass of rotted
lungs within him as certainly as the motion of
a glass changes the position of  the water in it;
t"his  change  of matter to  a fresh part of the
lungs, the  sensibilities of which have not been
obtunded by the long pressure of this decayed
substance on one spot, excites a tickling sensa-
tion, not in  the lungs themselves, but in the
hollow at the bottom of  the neck in front, just
as the eye sees, not at the  eye-ball, but on the
retina, just as  the stricken elbow  gives the
sensation  at  the  distant finger-ends, this tick-
ling gives cough, a mere heck at first, but each
successive  heck causing another quicker  and
more decided,  ,. itil a regular  hard cough sets
in, bringing  on gagging, and  soon the whole
meal is cast up, for no rest comes until it  is all
brought away.  And thus it is with every meal,
for many of the last weeks of life, and in which
we look around in vain for any " ease.v
  To listen to the  merry laugh of others, but
no such mirth to you, for it brings on a cough,
which may last for the next half hour.   You 
64
C0NSUMPTI0 N.
hear the song of gladness in others, but the
first note you strike, brings on the  inevitable
cough.  You listen to some splendid speech; or
contemplating some noble action, or gazing at
some  magnificent object of nature  or  of art,
the thrill of admiration sweeps over you! and
the hated cough comes on by the very emotions
of the mind.
  You look out upon the gay fields of  a sum-
mer's morning, or upon the bustling crowd in
the business street, or the more joyous promen-
aders of the avenue,  or  the sleigh bells tingle
by  on the bed of driven  snow, and  the cease-
less laugh, or the loud yell of youthful reck-
lessness, all, all pass  before you with sweet re-
membrances, the sweeter from the distant im-
pression, that none of these may be ever yours
again.  In none of  these can you participate
now.   There is no strength of limb to walk the
summer fields;  there is  not breath  enough to
enable you to keep pace with the busy crowd,
no heart to join with the gayer throng, while
the very thought of sleighing over the cold 
THE  COUGH.
65
snow, causes you to shrink back with a shiver,
and the sympathetic cold chill drives you from
the window to the fire place.  If there is any
"ease" in aught like this, it is imperceptible to
me.
   But when confinement to the bed gives loud
note of death, and one  by one your delusions
have all passed away, and you sit propt  up by
pillows, your only apparent enemy being  the
phlegm, which you wish to get away, there is
less prospect of ease than ever.   Every breath
you  draw makes it boil up and rattle and bub-
ble within  you.   You feel as if a little cough
would bring it up.  But the sensibilities of the
parts are in the main taken away, for you  are
dying.  You have not  strength to cough, ex-
cept at intervals, and then so faint,  that it does
not "reach  it" or if it does, it barely brings
it up to the throat, when it falls into the " Swal-
low," and  goes  down into the stomach, there
to be mixed up with your food and drink, whole
pints of it  in a day sometimes!  0 let me run
           5 
66
CONSUMPTION.
away to some distant planet, to escape so hor-
rible an end.
  At last, there is not strength enough to bring
it as far up as the gullet,  and accumulating
 every hour, the remaining lungs become clog-
ged  up,  the slightest amount  of air gets in,
and  a dreadful oppression comes  over you;
you feel  as if one good, long, full breath would
be perfect happiness,  and no giant could labor
harder to get that breath than you.   In that ter-
rible effort, the effort for  life,  the eyes become
glary,  the mouth remains open,  the  bosom
heaves laboriously, each partial breath a groan,
large drops of clammy sweat stand upon the
forehead, the speechless  tongue, the pulseless
wrist, the fading sight, and all is over!

          CAUSES OF  CONSUMPTION.
  Such being a history of  the progress and end
of this ruthless disease, it may be instructive to
inquire into its causes.
  Suppose we close the books,  lock up the li-
braries, consign all  theories  to  the grave and 
CAUSES  OF
67
rely upon that best of all informers, observation,
and with the aid of common sense, endeavor
to learn  some facts for ourselves  and deduce
conclusions, which it is impossible to gainsay.
  The first idea which strikes us, on mention
of the word " Consumption," is that of a pale,
emaciated  form.  We all know that paleness
of the face arises from the  absence of the na-
tural amount of blood, the pure blood of health.
Emaciation forces on the mind  the conviction
of a want of nourishment.  We  then arrive
at that most important fact,  underlying  all
others, that the essential nature of consump-
tion is a marked deficiency of flesh and blood,
paleness and emaciation being its universal at-  *
tendants,  conditions,  or symptoms, without
which it never can exist.  It must then strike
the thoughtful reader, that if paleness and ema-
ciation are always present in consumption, de-
bility must be as inseparable from it, as death
is inseparable from the  grave ; and this other
conclusion is equally  obvious that inasmuch
as Paleness, Emaciation and Debility are always 
68           CONSUMPTION.
present in consumption, that whatever causes
paleness, emaciation and debility, in  continu-
ance, is capable of causing consumption.
   It must not be inferred here, that every man
who is pale, emaciated and weak, has consump-
tion.  The fact is stated, and there left, Pale-
ness, Emaciation and Debility are never  absent in
any  case of common consumption of the lungs,
and  that whatever causes these, in permanence, is
capable of causing consumption.
  Now, instead of going  on naturally,  and
stating the causes of consumption, we will first
proceed to  show what  are not the  causes  of
consumption,  in order  to  make the  contrast
more instructive and impressive.
  A man naturally shrinks from taking ground
antagonistic to generally received opinions, and
it ought never to be done, except on  mature
investigation,  on the clearest conviction and
with the fullest impression,  that it is  for the
public good, by advancing the truth.   It is by
the pure  truth that the world is  to  be mil-
lenialized, and made a paradise;  and  the uni- 
CAUSES OF.
69
versal  sentiment  should be,  Let  truth prevail,
wherever it may lead.   We have nothing  to do
with the  consequences of pure truth.  He who
is Truth itself, will take care of that.
  " Tight lacing," as it is called, does not direct-
ly originate  consumption;  its tendencies are
to prevent it, if not  actually present, and to
cure it, if it is.
  All  physicians know that consumption at-
tacks the top of the lungs, under the collar bone,
and that long before it reaches half  way down,
the man dies, not actually for want  of enough
sound lungs to live upon, for persons have lived
to a  good old age, who have had but one half
of the whole lungs in healthful operation, but
they die from the effect which the disease has
had on the whole system.
  Tight Lacing affects the lower portion of the
lungs mainly, and causes the person to breathe
less with the  bottom of the  lungs  and  more
with the top.  We have seen that the bottom
of the  lungs can take care of themselves.  It is
not one time in many thousands,  of those who 
70          CONSUMPTION.
die of this disease, that the lower portions are
materially affected, if at all.
  The reason that the lower  portion of the
lungs is the last to become consumptive is, that
it has more room for full action, the lower por-
tion of the ribs and the stomach are distensible,
and in drawing a full breath, we see how readily
they swell out.  And consumption never can
exist where the lungs have free,  full play  to
the influences of a pure atmosphere ; and even
when the  atmosphere is  foul, those portions
which work most freely, are the last to become
diseased ; and conversely, the upper  parts of
the lungs,  being  encased by unyielding bony
walls, have not the  capabilities  of distension
which the lower portions have, and consequent-
ly are more liable to disease.
   It is intuitive  to us all, that those who are
out  of doors  most, who  run  and race about
 most, who are most active in their pursuits, are
 less liable  to consumption than those who fol-
 low still occupations, indoors.  Eeasoning from
 a general fact we  would conclude then,  that 
CAUSES OF.
71
very many  more women  die  of consumption
than men.  But it is simply not so.   Now what
is the reason ?   Women breathe more with the
upper portion of the lungs than men do ;  any
one's  observation  will confirm this assertion.
Therefore, the province of woman being more
naturally within doors, a beneficent Providence
seems to have so created them, that there should
be an antagonism within them, and beyond their
control, to the otherwise natural liabilities to the
disease.  We therefore arrive  at the inevitable
conclusion, that compression of the  lower por-
tion of  the lungs, throwing as it does, a large
part of the breathing and  distension  to  the
upper portion, does  thereby render the upper
portion less susceptible  to disease.  We mean
moderate compression.
  What then becomes of the  impression that
tight lacing originates consumption? It must
simply go the way  of multitudes  of specious
errors.
  The reader will please bear in mind, that we
do not advocate tight lacing.  On the contrary, 
1-2
CONSUMPTION.
we  are opposed to all kinds  of compression,
all impediments to the fullest and freest action
of every member  and  portion of the human
body, that there should not be a buckle or but-
ton, or string or pin or pad about us, more than
is absolutely necessary to keep our clothing from
falling off our bodies.  We are only speaking
of Tight Lacing in its bearing  on consumptive
disease.  If the statements which we have made
are startling to some, and inconclusive to others,
let us appeal to facts.   The advent of the Cold
 Water Era has been  the means of introducing
many wholesome truths.   Its friends have been
energetic, enthusiastic men, not over bright,
it is true, but they have been sincere ; whether
they have done more good than evil, it  is not
now  necessary to inquire.    But  one  effect,
which their efforts have aided very considerably
in bringing about, is the  comparative abolition
of tight lacing,  and for their labor  they de-
 serve  much praise,  showing  as  it does, that
they are not so bigoted that  they cannot fol- 
CAUSES  OF.
73
low in  the  path of educated medicine,  when
they believe that path is truth.
  It has taken ten years to bring about the aban-
donment of the corset.  And now we have two
simple questions to propose.
  Do fewer women die of consumption to-day,
when the corset is in comparative desuetude,
than ten or twenty years ago when tight lacing
was all the rage ?  All statistics show that there
is no remarkable change.
  The people of the town are more dressy
than those of the country, more apt to go to
extremes, and more universally follow leaders.
Is the  proportion of women who die in  town
of consumption, materially greater than in the
country?  Statistics say no.  Binguet says of
ninety-one women dying of consumption, forty-
seven were brought up in town and forty-one in
the country,  showing a difference of only one-
seventh in favor of the country.  But women
wear corsets and  men do not, yet in 1837, of
persons dying in a Paris  Hospital of consump- 
74          CONSUMPTION.
tion  during four years, one-tentb. more were
males than females.
  In England, the returns of theEegister Gen-
eral show, for 1845, that in the country, where
corsets are less worn, more women die of con-
sumption than men; but that in London and
other large cities,  the mortality from this disease
is much less among women  than  among men.
Now it is reasonable to infer, that there is less
tight lacing among a farming population than
in a city, and the above fact shows that where
tight lacing most abounds, consumption is less
prevalent.  We do  not  say  that  tight lacing
has the credit of this exemption,  but it is clear
that if tight lacing does tend to  produce con-
sumption, there  are causes in operation which
greatly overpower that  tendency ; hence we
have some reason to infer that such a tendency
has no appreciable existence.
   It is thus seen, that  in cities,  where corsets
are more worn, fewer women who wear them die
of consumption than men, who do not wear them,
notwithstanding their  greater liability to the 
               CAUSES OF.            75
disease from their  sedentary indoor employ-
ment, and so great is the difference of liability.
as to in and out door occupation, that in Gene-
va,  thirty-seven per cent, of varnish painters
died of consumption, while  of gardeners who
perished  by the same disease, there  was only
four per cent.   Of painters,  tailors, engravers,
clerks, &c., a  hundred  and  forty-one  out of
every  thousand  died of consumption,  while
only eighty-nine of agriculturists, blacksmiths,
slaters and the like  died of it.  With these
strong facts before us, we are obliged to infer,
that there is something in woman which is ex-
emptive  of consumption, and it is legitimate
to conclude, that  one of the elements of that
exemption is  a fuller, freer working  of the
upper portion of  the lungs,  which is uniformly
the seat of the disease.   This is fully  coinci-
dent of the admitted fact, that full, free breath-
ing,  tends to  prevent consumption.  If addi-
tional  proof of this most important practical
fact is needed, it is found in  the uniform state-
ment of great  travellers and close  observers. 
*
76          CONSUMPTION.
Buffon writes that  all animals inhabiting high
altitudes have larger lungs, and more capacious
chests  than those which live in the valleys.
Wilson and Audubon  agree that birds  which
practice the highest flights have the largest re-
ceptacles for air.  Thus  it is,  that reasoning
from birds and animals to men, there is no city
in the world so free from consumption as Mexi-
co, it being nine thousand feet above the level
of the sea.  For in the same year, while three
persons out of every hundred died of consump-
tion in that city, there perished by that same
disease, in our larger  cities,  eighteen persons
out of every hundred.  Why ?   Because the
rarified atmosphere of high  altitudes, compels
the breathing of larger volumes of air, to an-
swer the wants of the system, there being less
substance in a  rarified,  than in a condensed
atmosphere; and  this taking in an increased
volume of air at every breath, produces a cor-
responding development,   distension   of the
lungs, which is, as we purpose to show  here-
after, the fundamental essential, in the preven- 
CAUSES OF.
77
tion, the amelioration, the cure, in every case
of consumption ever reported.
  Hereditary Tendency  is not specially pro-
motive of consumption; it  is more nearly a pre-
ventive.
  To concentrate the argument in a few words^
and make the ordinary, the every  day obser-
vations of reflecting men  constitute the proof,
it is  only necessary to draw attention to one
familiar fact.  Lt is not the feeble of adult life who
soonest die.  We  can all  bring  multitudes  of
cases to our remembrance, where the stout and
robust and strong, full of vigor and health, have
long since been laid under the clods of the val-
ley, and whose names are remembered to the
very  few;  while of others, so  tottering and
frail,  that no one believed they could possibly
live  beyond a few short  years,  an  age or two
has passed away, and they are living yet, and
likely to live a good  long time to  come.  At
the age of twenty-two, P.  S. was believed to be
in a  hopeless decline,  "she can't possibly live
beyond a year or two," was a  very  common 
78           CONSUMPTION.
expression among her friends.   But  she did
live, has survived three  husbands, and half a
century besides.  And this day,  we know her
to be in  better health than at any time within
the last ten years, and bids fair to reach  " four
score."
  The explanation of this fact is simple, con-
clusive, and of great practical value.
  The feeble feel the  absolute  necessity of
taking  care  of themselves.  They know that
upon it hangs the question of enjoyment  and
suffering, of life  and death; indiscretions, im-
prudences, tell  upon their feeble  frames, with
almost telegraphic rapidity, and there is only
one alternative, carefulness or suffering.
  On the other  hand,  those who abound in
vigorous  health, feel  that their  constitutions
are impregnable, that nothing can hurt them.
Thus they are habitually negligent,  careless,
and  often even reckless.   The result is, they
soon pass  away,  many of them long before
their prime.   Hence, practically, persons hered-
itarily  consumptive, do  not very necessarily 
CAUSES OF.
79
    suffer  more from  consumptive  disease, than
    those who are exempt from this tendency.
      This at least  is the  theoretical  statement;
    but mere  theory should never override care-
    fully ascertained statistics.  And to this very
    point,  the  attention of  scientific men has been
    long drawn, and we only record the statement
    of one of them,  and he  had large opportunities
    of long and  wide  observation.   " Hereditary
    predisposition to consumption is. as frequent
    among persons brought up  in the  country  as
    among those brought up in town.  Those born
•   of consumptive  parents  seemed not to be more
    liable to take cold than  others."
      The same writer states, that " of  ninety-eight
    persons who died of consumption,  thirty-three
    were naturally  of a robust constitution, and
    twenty-one were of a feeble constitution.
      Bad colds do not originate consumption.  Truth
    is useful everywhere.  Its practical application
    in physics  and morals  tends to ameliorate the
    evils of life and  elevate our natures.  Hence,
» 
80
CONSUMPTION.
we make the  above statement, which many
will consider as extravagant as it is untrue.
   The result of the very  prevalent  opinion
that  bad  colds beget, generate, originate  con-
sumption, is that, for fear of taking cold, many
are induced  to avoid going out of doors, ex-
cept in the mildest weather ; this causes them
to remain indoors, especially  if invalids, full
nine-tenths of their time, in this climate; hence,
nine-tenths qf their  time they are breathing a
vitiated atmosphere, which is quite competent
to generate general disease where it is not, and
aggravate what already exists.                   4
   But suppose the impression was as  general
that bad colds were curative  of consumption,
as that they originated the  disease, then,  the
consumptive would expose himself more freely,
would go out in all weathers, hot or cold,  rain
or shine, fair or foul, burning or freezing, and
with a kind of desperate recklessness, he would
court what is now considered the  danger,  and
THAT WOULD CURE HIM! !
   A bad cold can no more originate tubercular
* 
CAUSES OF.
81
consumption, than powder could ignite without
fire.   When  tubercles  are already existing in
the lungs, bad colds may develope them.  As
the powder must be there, before the fire can
produce explosion, so tubercles must be in the
lungs, before a bad cold can develope them
into consumption, and the prevalence of tuber-
cles is the result of operations going on in the
system for years; while a bad cold has nothing
in it which tends to produce tubercles,  for it
runs  its  course usually  in  ten days,  just as
measles run their course, or mumps, and then
passes out of the system.
   The reason of the prevalent belief of the con-
nection between a common cold and consump-
tion is, that  cough is  the  distinguishing fea-
ture of both.  Hence, whenever a consumptive
gets worse, the almost invariable expression is:
" I must have taken cold  in some way, and yet
I do not see how it can be so, for I have taken
every  precaution."  So  that,  whenever the
cough becomes worse, is more decided  or
troublesome,  the  invalid's inference is that he
          6 
82          CONSUMPTION.
has taken a fresh cold.  This is a delusion, and
in its practical bearings, is a fatal one, as it re-
sults in  more  continued  confinement  to the
house, in order to  prevent taking  cold,  and to
the securement of an even temperature, when,
in reality, an even temperature, a temperature
of room regulated to a degree for months to-
gether, is as certainly fatal in any case of  de-
cided  consumptive disease as we can readily
imagine.  In the reading of an age, we do not
remember to have seen a single case described
in medical publications, in which a regulated
temperature did not end in death.  So, the fear
of taking cold,  in  the belief that  such  a cold
aggravates consumption,  effectually cuts  off
the  invalid from  the most  important of  all
means  of cure.   For, without  a full and free
exposure to out door air, regardless of all weathers,
no*case of consumption ever has been cured; while
with it, and it alone, many cases may be.   Let
the  reader manufacture his own statistics on
this point in this way.  One  person out  of
every six dies of consumption. 
CAUSES OF.            83
  Of these, five have had bad colds a thousand
times  during their life, and here we  have five
thousand bad colds without  a single case of
consumption; and as to the man himself, he
had a bad cold five, six or eight hundred times
before, and under it all, he never became con-
sumptive.   And because one bad cold out of
five or six thousand was reputed to have been
followed by consumption, it is the slimmest of
all arguments to make it the foundation of a
conclusion,  that consumption is originated in
a  bad cold.   No theory ever  worth  a thought
could stand upon a  foundation like this, and
since that theory originates a very general and
practical and fatal error, we owe it to ourselves,
every lover of truth, every humane  man owes
it to  himself, to give the subject a stern and
thorough investigation.  ,
   If, then, Tight Lacing does not directly origi-
nate consumption;
   If Hereditary  Tendencies do not practically
make persons more liable to die of consumptive
disease; 
84
CONSUMPTION.
  If Bad Colds do not originate consumption;
  What are some of the more prominent  and
pregnant  causes  of a  disease,  under which
there  are  suffering  in  England  and  Wales,
every year, no less than  seventy thousand hu-
man beings, and, no doubt, an equal number in
the United States?
  We have already seen that Paleness, Emacia-
tion and Debility  are symptoms which  are al-
ways  present in common  consumption of the
lungs; and, although these are not always in-
dicative of the presence  of consumption, yet it
is a legitimate inference that, whatever causes
these, is  a sufficient cause for consumption;
and,  consequently,  it is our duty to know all
occupations, and callings,  and pursuits, the in-
temperate  prosecution of which inevitably in-
duces, if  persevered in, paleness, emaciation
arid debility.  Let it be remembered, it is not
designed to advocate the total  abandonment of
these  pursuits,  for  they are useful and neces-
sary ; but  to follow them only so far as they
do not seriously impair  the health.  We know 
CAUSES  OF.
85
of no calling of human life, which may not be
pursued with  impunity,  which  may  not be
pursued in such a way as to promote health,
if done judiciously, wisely,  moderately.
  What, then, are some of the callings of hu-
man life which, in our own observation,  give
the pale  face,  the wasted flesh and the feeble
walk?
   Indoor employments, especially those which
do  not demand activity on  the feet,  supply
much the largest number  of victims  to con-
sumption, while those who are  out of doors a
great deal are almost wholly  exempt,  or if
attacked at all, it is the result of a change of
life, to an inactive or indoor employment,  or
to some unpardonable instance  of thoughtless
indifference, or some hardy recklessness.
   Out of every hundred varnish painters, thirty-
seven die of consumption.  They live mostly
indoors. . 
86
CONSUMPTION.
Years. > Yc Varnish Painters, 37 Blacksmiths,		;ars. 9
Tailors,	14 Slaters,	9
Engravers,	14 Agriculturists,	9
Printers,	14 Butchers,	7
Clerks,	14 Tanners,	7
Polishers,	12 Candle Makers,	7
Plasterers,	12 Easy Circumstances,	5
Sculptors,	12 Butchers,	5
Stone Cutters,	12 Dyers,	5
Watch Hand	Ma- Bleachers,	5
kers,	12 Watermen,	5
Carpenters,	9 Gardeners,	4
The influence which out door activities have		
on the general	health accords with that had	on
consumption.		
The average	life of	
Years. Years. Stone Cutters is 34 Surgeons, 54		
Sculptors,	36 Masons,	55
Millers,	42 Gardeners,	60
Painters,	44 Merchants,	62
Carpenters,	46 Clergy (Protestant)	63
Butchers,	53 Magistrates,	69
Lawyers,	54	
 
CAUSES OF.
87
  By a careful examination' and comparison
of these  tables, which are regarded as  merely
approximative, it will be seen  that there is a
striking correspondence between the causes of
general disease and the causes of consumption ;
that persons who  are out of doors most, and
most active, live longest, and are most  exempt
from consumption.
   In speaking of the causes of consumption
it is useful  to remark, that among those who
are least liable to consumption are persons in
u easy circumstances.1'  What a loud and im-
pressive lesson is here read to humanity. What
a strong reproof  to the men and women who
are working their very eyes out for gold ; who
day and night, summer and winter,  are tug-
ging, and striving, agonizing after money, who
rob themselves of necessary sleep, who  stint
themselves  of necessary  food and  clothing
and comfort,  to  hoard up  that which perisheth
with the  using, who work beyond their strength
every day of their lives in their struggle after
the greed of earth.  These are people of uneasy 
88           CONSUMPTION.
circumstances, and it is not they who are ex-
empt  from consumption, but those who are in
easy circumstances, and being content there to
remain, are in easy circumstances still.  To  be
in moderate circumstances, and take the world easy,
that is the true philosophy of life.
  What a sad tale, that item about  "easy cir-
cumstances," tells of poor humanity ! while they
are almost exempt!ve  of  consumption,  how
forcibly does it speak to us of the converse as a
cause.  The uncertainty of to-morrow's bread I
to not know where the next " rent" is to come
from!  to not know but in another  twenty-four
hours, one's family will be roofless!   To lean
day by day on the dagger of unrequited love,
of misplaced affection, of  confidence forfeited,
of heart broken!  To pine away in  desertion,
in hopelessness, in the consciousness that our
life time has  been a failure, and that it is too
late  to try again; to  be  young and all one's
kindred gone, sister, brother, father, mother, all
passed away ; to be yearning for something to
love and lean upon, but  to meet  indifference 
CAUSES  OF.             89
and coldness and rebuffs;  or to be old, the sad
and* sole  survivor  of a  large kindred, the
friends of our  school  time, the  associates  of
our youth, the companions  of  riper years, the
dear, dear children of  our prime, of these not
one left, departed all—not  " easy" circumstances
these, but terrible; and no wonder, is it, that
under them, the heart and  body too, pine away,
and only find an end in the consumptive's grave.
   We then have arrived  at a great fact that
depressing mental influences are  a "  cause" of
consumption,  while in connection with it the
interesting and instructive truth presents itself,
that while moderate  bodily  exertion  out  of
door exempts from  consumption, immoderate
labor or comparatively inactive out door em-
ployment invites the  disease.  The  sculptor,
who stands at his stone, chisel in hand, in the
self-same square yard  for days and weeks  to-
gether, and for hours at a time in the self-same,
almost immovable  stooping position, is one
third  more  liable  to  consumption than the
agriculturist,  who  is constantly changing the 
90
CONSUMPTION.
position of his body, constantly bringing a large
variety  of muscles into  exercise, and whose
locomotion amounts to miles asunder  every
day.  Nor is it less curious to observe that the
gardener is one hundred  per cent, less liable
to consumption than the agriculturist; a suffi-
cient explanation lies in the fact that his labor is
more moderate, and uniform, attended with less
anxiety and surrounded with the more pleasing
associations which  gather  around fruits  and
flowers.  The tastes of the man are compelled
into exercise and his mind is drawn out, dozens
of times every day in comparisons  as to pro-
portions,  adaptations,  appropriateness,  and
beauty, all pleasurable, all elevating, while the
farmer's heart is eaten out by the two great cor-
morants, Season and Price.  Did any man ever
know a farmer who was not an habitual grum-
bler, who was not  always ready with a too dry
or too wet, too  backward or too forward, too
hot or too cold?  We ourselves have known
some, not many, who were habitually and hum- 
CAUSES OF.
91
 bly thankful for whatever sort of weather a
 kind Providence thought proper to send.
   Whatever renders the blood impure tends
 to originate  consumption.  Whatever  makes
 the  air impure makes  the blood  impure.  It
 is the  air we breathe which purifies the blood.
 And as, if the water we use to wash our cloth-
 ing is  dirty, it  is impossible to wash the cloth-
 ing clean, so if the air we breathe is impure,
 it is impossible for it to abstract the impurities
 from the blood.
  What then are some of the more prominent
 things  which render the air impure?   It is the
 nature  of still  water to  become impure.  It is
 the nature of still air to become impure.   Pun-
 ning water purifies itself.  Air in motion, drafts
 of air,   are self-purifyers.   Thus it is that the
 air of a close room becomes impure inevitably.
 Thus it is that  close rooms bring consumption
to  countless  thousands.   Hence  all rooms
should  be so  constructed as to have a constant
draft of air passing through them.  The ne-
glect of it, murders myriads.  A man  of ordi- 
92
CONSUMPTION.
nary size renders a hogshead  of air unfit  for
breathing, consumes its blood-purifying quality
every hour,  so  perfectly, that if a man could
re-breathe a full breath of his own the next in-
stant after its expiration without  any intermix-
ture with  the outer air, he would be instantly
suffocated.    Hence sleeping  in  close  rooms
even though alone, or sitting for a very short
time in  a crowded vehicle or among  a large
assembly.is perfectly corrupting  to the blood-
Close bed rooms make the grave of multitudes.
  Among other causes of consumption are  in-
sufficient food or  clothing; sleeping in base-
ments or sitting habitually in damp apartments.
A dog will become consumptive in a few weeks
if confined in a damp cellar, especially if it be
a dark one.
  Hence the room which we  occupy for the
largest  portion  of  each twenty-four  hours
should be  the lighest, dryest, most airy and
cheerful in the whole building.
  As occasional causes of consumptive disease
there may  be mentioned all  suppressions, the 
FALSE  CURES.
93
sudden driving in of all  eruptions, such  as
measles, tetter and the  like, the sudden heal-
ing up of sores which have been running for a
long time, without intelligent medical advice,
in carrying  off  the  drains  of the  system in
another  direction.   Many lives  are thrown
away  by ignorant  persons,  in  applications
to old sores:  they are elated to the highest
degree in having  " cured up" an ulcer,  which
the " regular  doctors" had failed  to do after
months of effort,  but they fail to  note  the
after  fact, that within a very short time  the
" cured up sore" has broken  out again, or fall-
ing on the lungs, has laid  the victim  in the
grave.
  It is the province  of the skilful physician
to know when  to  let  alone as well as when to
act.  To do little  or nothing, is sometimes the
highest wisdom. 
94
CONSUMPTION.
       THE  NATURE OF CONSUMPTION.
  If  a bush or tree  is pulled  up  by  the
roots, and turned upside down, the roots be-
ing cut off,  close  to  the body,  a good  gen-
eral  idea  of the Air  Passages is presented.
The  end  of the bush next  the ground re-
presents the part of  the throat where  the
voice organs are, the body of the bush repre-
sents  the  windpipe, the branches  of the bush
represent the bronchial tubes, the leaves of the
bush  represent the lungs themselves;  and as
the leaves cover the branches from sight, so the
lungs, which are nothing more than little blad-
ders  distended with  air,  hide the  bronchial
tubes.  Here then, are  four distinct parts of a
great apparatus, each different in locality,  and
each  locality the subject of a distinct disease,
requiring  different  remedies  and a different
treatment.  Liquid guano destroys the leaf, but
gives life to  the roots.   Water does but little
good  if thrown over a  tree, but  saves it from
dying if thrown on  the ground about it.  So
* 
               THROAT-AIL.            95
what would benefit one part of the air-passages,
might be wholly  unavailing  if applied  to an-
other part.   What would cure a disease  of the
windpipe,  might destroy the  lungs, or be per-
fectly  useless.   Thus  showing how important
it is to know certainly what the disease is, and
where it is located, in reference to the  great
machinery of life, the breathing apparatus.
  In the  book called  " Bronchitis and Kindred
Diseases," 8th edition, these parallels are car-
ried out minutely.  Here it is sufficient to say,
that when the  disease is located  at the  voice
organs, it is called Throat-Ail or chronic  laryn-
gitis.  The common  and well-known  name of
Croup is an affection of the windpipe.  Bron-
chitis belongs  to  the branches  of the  wind-
pipe; while  consumption  is  a disease of the
lungs themselves, destroying the little air blad-
ders to which reference has  been already made.
Perhaps a parallel may illustrate more plainly.
 Name.              Locality.           Disease.
Eoot,         Voice Organs,    Throat-Ail.
Body,          Windpipe,       Croup. 
96          CONSUMPTION.
Branches,     Air Tubes,      Bronchitis.
Leaves,       Lungs,         Consumption.

  Throat-Ail gives a change of voice.
  Croup gives difficult breathing.
  Bronchitis gives a stuffed-up feeling.
  Consumption gives steady emaciation.
  Thus it is  seen  that  throat-ail,  or  chronic
laryngitis, is a disease at the  top of the wind-
pipe, where the voice organs are, its distinguish-
ing feature being some change of the  voice.
Occasional additional feelings and symptoms
are a huskiness  of speech; sometimes  the pa-
tient can  only speak in the slightest whisper.
Conversation is attended with an effort.   Some-
times there is a painful feeling about the " swal-
low," a hurting sensation.  At other times there
is a pricking in the throat.  Now and then
these  sensations extend up along the side of
the neck towards the ear.  An entire indisposi-
tion to talk is not unusual, for it requires an
effort, or may excite cough.  In almost all cases
there is  an incessant disposition  to  heck and 
        TREATMENT  OF  CROUP.     97
hem and clear  the  throat, present sometimes
even in the sleep.
   A gentleman applied to us in eighteen hun-
dred and forty-three in the last stages of sim-
ple,  uncomplicated throat-ail;  he could swal-
low  no food;  even liquids  returned by  the
nose; the  pain  was terrible.   He  starved  to
death.
   Croup is so common a disease among children,
that it requires no description here; it affects
the windpipe.  As it  attacks suddenly, most
often in the night, and as  an hour's time may
be all the difference between life and death, it
is  proper to state  the most reliable  course  to
be pursued, until a physician  can be obtained.
  1st.  Keep the feet warm by having a jug of
hot water kept against them; let them also be
well wrapped up in woolen flannel.
  2nd. Have a bucket of water almost as hot
as the hand can bear.  Have two pieces  of
woolen flannel of several thicknesses, one being
on the throat, while the other is in the hot water,
renew every two or three minutes,  until relief
            7 
98          CONSUMPTION.
is given,  or the physician arrives.  The water
in the bucket must be kept hot by the constant
addition of boiling water.
  Bronchitis is a disease of the branches of the
windpipe, which  are the tubes, conveying the
air from the windpipe to the lungs themselves.
The distinguishing  feature  of  Bronchitis, as
above stated, is a stuffed up feeling. The eyes
and  nose water very much.   There is a sensa*-
tion of oppression.   In fact, Bronchitis is a
common  cold, lasting for many days.  But cus-
tom has given the name of " Bronchitis" to the
symptoms of a  common cold when they have
become permanent.   Properly speaking, this
is chronic bronchitis, for shortness called  " bron-
chitis."  The reader will  do well  to remember
that " bronchitis,^ that puzzling name, that mys-
terious, that fondly hugged designation,  pro-
nounced  so often, so  glibly and familiarly by
the deluded consumptive, is a common cold pro-
tracted.  And as in a common cold, the cough
is not the first symptom, not appearing some-
times for a day  or two, and then  becomes the 
        BRONCHITIS  DEFINED.      99
main feature:  so  the first symptoms of bron-
chitis  are as above stated, but they end in a
cough, which  soon becomes the all-absorbing
symptom, tearing and racking the lungs day
and night, with scarcely any intermission some-
times, and  in this, is strikingly different  from
consumption, for its cough is  mainly at night
and in the morning.
  While, then, throat-ail is an affection of the
voice-making organs,  and croup is located in
the windpipe,  and bronchitis  belongs  to the
air-tubes, which come out from the windpipe,
as the branches  of a tree come out from its
body, diverging widely; so consumption is a
disease  which  attacks  the lungs  themselves,
answering to the  leaves of the tree, the lungs
being at  the extreme  points  of the air-tubes,
as leaves are at the extremities of the branches
of a tree.
  But it is of consumption  that  these pages
mainly speak.  No doubt some degree of minute-
ness will be acceptable  to  the great  mass of
readers. 
100          CONSUMPTION.
  Imagine each leaf of a tree  to  be a small
bladder or air-cell, filled with air, reaching them
through the branches which draw their supply
from what passes along the windpipe, derived
from without.  These air-cells are of various
sizes,  from  a pin  head  to a pea, and thinner
than any  paper we know of.  All  over these
air-cells, like a vine on a wall, there are branches
of blood-vessels, bringing the blood directly from
the heart.  These blood-vessels must evidently
be very minute, and  to pass along them with
any  degree  of facility  the  blood must  neces-
sarily be very pure, that is, it must not be thick,
must  not have in it  foreign matter, sediments,
the wastes of the system, its impurities.   Mush
will not readily flow through a hose-pipe.   If
water was so  filled with  mud as to  have the
consistency  of stirabout,  all the efforts of our
gallant firemen would be in  vain.   This idea
is of such vital importance, theoretically  and
practically,  that the reader is earnestly desired,
before he proceeds farther, to mature it fully.
  Of not less importance is it to remember a 
             FOUNDATION  OF.         101
 familiar fact, that if a hose-pipe lays in a direct
 line, the water passes along with great ease and
 power, but if the hose are laid crooked  and
 angular, even the purest water moves slowly.
   If you take a common bladder, fully  distend-
 ed with air, and draw straight  lines  from  its
 neck  to the bottom,  those lines will  become
 very crooked, if a great portion of the air be
 allowed to escape.
   In health, the lungs are fully distended.   The
 blood-vessels are, comparatively speaking, in a
 direct line.   The blood itself is pure, and from
 both causes, it courses along the channels of life
 with rapidity and ease.
   The first foundations of consumption are laid
 in  the want of full  breathing;  the  conse-
 quence,  instantaneous and inevitable  is,  that
 the little blood-vessels stretching along a dis-
 tended air-cell, become tortuous, winding, doub-
 ling, thus retarding  the flow of blood, and re-
 tardation is death.   The  moment the life-blood
 stagnates, that moment it begins to die, and in
approaching actual stagnation,  it becomes cor- 
102         CONSUMPTION.
rupt,  impure, thick.   But more blood coming
in from behind, the pressure becomes greater,
the sides of the blood-vessels become distend-
ed and  at last  begin to yield, and there  is an
oozing through of the more liquid portions of
the blood, in the shape  of distinct atoms or
drops, which as they ooze, become hard, as
the gum  does  from a puncture of the bark of
some tree; this oozed blood-particle, harden-
ed, is the hateful Tubercle, the seed of con-
sumption and death.
   An atom  ever so  small takes up room, and
millions of them amount to a great deal, hence
the room, in the air-cells, already diminished by
the want of full breathing, and further by the
detention of the blood  in the  tortuous blood-
channels, is still  farther taken  up by the hard
tubercles, so that from the three causes, there
is very little room for any air at all; thus it is
that shortness of breath is never absent in  any
case  of consumption.  In fact,  it is an early
symptom, and comes on by slow degrees, so slow 
           SPITTING  BLOOD.        103
as to be imperceptible ;  it comes on months before
any cough is noticed.
   But another result springs from the increased
diminution  of room in the lungs, caused  by
tubercles of all sizes from a white mustard seed
upwards;  they help to intercept the  flow of
blood  along the veins and arteries, and the
pressure from behind still continuing, the blood-
vessels cannot bear the strain, and burst, pour-
ing out the blood into  the lungs,  that is, bleed-
ing of the lungs, spitting of blood, the forerun-
ner of  death.
   Spitting blood is present in  perhaps  two-
thirds  of all who die of consumption.
   When blood appears as a mere speck or drop
or streak in the saliva, it is not a  symptom
worthy of notice.   In any other form, it is the
knell of death in men.  In  women,  the mere
spitting of blood, if during the periods, is no
critical symptom; does not indicate the presence
of tubercles necessarily.  In men, it does. That
is, when the blood is mixed up with the saliva,
or comes clear,  from half a teaspoonful  at a 
104          CONSUMPTION.
time to a quart, tubercles are largely present,
and in about two years the man will die, un-
less this symptom is removed.
  Spitting of blood relieves the over fullness
of the lungs, anddiminishes-cough remarkably,
sometimes.   Thus  it is that bringing  up a
mouthful or two at a  time, at intervals, is a re-
lief, and may  protract  life for several  years
longer than would have been the  case  had it
not been  a symptom.  Women losing  blood
naturally and periodically, thus protract the dis-
ease indefinitely.
  We have recorded  the birth  of tubercles as
founded in a want of sufficient distension of the
air-cells by full breathing, to give the  blood-
tubes a direct line of conveyance.
  But it is important  to observe that precisely
the same result will follow, if the blood becomes
thick, mush-like.  The blood-tubes may be ever
so straight, yet if the blood be thick with im-
purities or from being of an imperfect material,
the blood-vessels will, if but moderately  dis-
tended, allow the oozing through of its thinner 
         CAUSES OF  TUBERCLE.     105
 particles, and give rise to tubercle.  If the dis-
 tention is intensified, then they burst their sides,
 and  there is Hoemorrhage of the Lungs.  In plain
 English, spitting of blood.
   Thus we have come to two great important
 practical facts:
   The want of full  breathing  gives birth to
 tubercle.
   The want of pure blood gives  birth to tuber-
 cle.
   And here we have the two universal causes
 of Consumption:

   Imperfect Breathing.   Impure Blood.
   Surely it will not be  difficult to remember
 these two things.   We thus can plainly see how
 it is  that  persons who sit a great deal become
 consumptive ;  and any one may apply it to him-
 self in the  various occupations of life, without
 any further specifications as to this  branch of
 the causes of Consumption.
  More time will be spent in considering the
other  great  branch of causes, Impure Blood, be-
           3* 
106         CONSUMPTION.
 cause it is  not  generally understood what are
 the more general causes of impure blood, and
 they ought to be universally known.
   The heart has two suits of rooms, one filled
 with impure blood, going to the lungs to be
 purified ; the other containing the purest blood
 of the body, which having undergone purifica-
 tion and perfection in the lungs, has  been re-
 turned to this other side of the heart, to be pro-
 pelled therefrom, to  the most distant portions
 of the human frame, imparting in its progress,
 renovation, restoration and life.  The right side
 of the   heart contains the impure,  imperfect
 blood, while the pure blood is found in the
 left.  But it cannot get from the right side into
 the left, without passing through an out-house,
 the Lungs, where  the purifying process is car-
 ried on ; and how ?
  We have seen that the blood is in  the little
branches of  blood-vessels spread like a vine on
the walls of the air-cells, the lungs, distend-
ed by air.  Now, the blood does not come in
actual contact with the air,  the membrane of 
      HOW  BLOOD IS  PURIFIED.  107
 these minute vessels, thinner than the thinnest
 paper, manufactured only in  Heaven,  by om-
 nipotent  skill  for  the express purpose, is be-
 tween the air and the blood.  But a most won-
 derful process goes on here ; there is a passage
 of substances through these  membranes, the
 life of the air, the oxygen, as we say, passes out
 of the air-cell into  the blood in the blood-ves-
 sels, and the impurities, the death of the blood
 passes from the  blood-vessel  into the air-cell,
 and in a moment the dead blood is made alive,
 and the air so pure from without but a moment
 before,  is now deadly.   So the death of the
 blood  and the life  of  the air  pass through
 these membranes, as light passes through glass
 or as  electricity  along  the wires.   Thus the
 Lungs are the great 'Change of life—the mar-
 ket place where Vitality  and Death  change
 their wares, the air being the nobler of the two,
for while it takes  death from the blood, it gives
its own life therefore, the savior of physical hu-
manity.
  Let  the most careless reader note and feel 
108         CONSUMPTION.
here, how impossible it is for the blood to be
purified unless he breathes abundant pure air.
The importance of breathing it constantly, is
strikingly exhibited in the established fact, that
every ounce of blood of the whole body is thus
aired every two and a  half minutes of our ex-
istence.  Thus  the  breathing of a pure air for
so short a time as two  and a half minutes  im-
parts purification and refreshment to the whole
human frame.   This explains the instantaneous-
ness with which  persons are revived when
taken  into the  air after confinement to a close
room or crowded apartment for some time.
   Thus,  when after writing,  or reading,  or
sewing, in one position for a long time, and the
whole body feels tired, we get up, stretch  the
body,  draw a full deep breath and walk across
the room a few times, there is a feeling of rest
and refreshment comes over us which is most
agreeable.  Why ?  Because the full breath  dis-
tends the air-cells, straightens the blood vessels,
the blood passes onward, presenting itself as it
passes, to the  life giving influences of the air 
            IMPURE  BLOOD.         109
in the freshly and fully distended air vessels.
What madness  it is, what  deliberate  suicide,
to repress these  yearnings of our instincts for
the  life-giving  agencies which a  beneficent
Providence has thrown around us with  such
bounteous profusion : the Pure Air of Heaven !
   But how does the blood become thus im-
pure at the right side  of the  heart, before it
goes for renovation  to the lungs ?  There are
two sources of impurity.  A barrel of the purest
water will be sadly defiled, if taken to the attic,
and  every floor  in the house is washed with it,
down to the cellar.   The blood starts from the
lungs pure and clean, it goes through the whole
frame, washing  out as it goes along,  the par-
ticles of our body which have died since the
last  visit; for we are always  dying,  reader!
Particles which have subserved their uses, and
having answered the great end of their creation,
must be swept away as the cinders from the
grate or the ashes from the hearth.   Thus the
blood, so pure but two and  a half minutes be-
fore, is now loaded with offal, and is deposited 
110          CONSUMPTION.
in the heart, the great  Clearing House of the
body.  So  this body  of ours is swept out, is
washed clean every two minutes and a half  of
our existence.  Like a magnificent steam engine
requiring the constant attendance of the  engi-
neer, who if he does  his duty, is all the time
cleaning and oiling, so as  to  keep it in  per-
fect working order, so is our body.
  Does not the reader see, then, that not only
is the want of full breathing a cause  of impure
blood, but that if the air he breathes is not pure
when first breathed, it can no more unload the
blood of its impurities as perfectly as it ought
to have been done, than dirty water can wash
a garment clean ? You, who habitually breathe
an  impure, that is, confined air, for all confined
air is impure, are a moral suicide.  Hurry then,
from  your bed-chamber the instant of rising;
hoist the windows of your sitting apartments,
fling wide open your  doors, divers times daily,
even in the  coldest weathers,  and let out the
death, instead of drawing it into your own sys-
tem, to fester, and corrupt and rot you. 
            FIRST  THINGS.          Ill
  The other great cause of blood  impurity at
the right side of the heart, is the following:
  We eat to live.  What we eat is turned into
blood, the  object of that blood  is two-fold.
  First, to keep  us  warm.  Second, to repair
the pastes of the system.  Washing these wastes
away in the manner we have named, is a mat-
ter of secondary importance, as to the blood;
it  is rather  an incidental  work.   To keep us
warm and to repair, these are First Things.
   The process of converting food into blood is
as follows:
   After entering the stomach, it is converted
into a sweetish, whitish fluid in about two hours,
when it is gradually  passed out of  the stomach
along the  intestines down to the vent of the
system, receiving as it passes out of the stomach,
drop  by drop, the bile from the liver.  In about
four  hours after eating an ordinary meal, the
stomach is empty, and in another hour or two
we begin to get hungry.  Opening into  the
stomach and all along the intestines, there are
multitudes of little agencies, whose office  it is 
112         CONSUMPTION.
to absorb,  or withdraw what is  real  nutri-
ment, from the passing mass of food, its essence.
Some of it is ready to be withdrawn while in
the stomach, other portions only become ready
at various points along the intestinal passages,
some only at the  end.  Thus  it is  that some
elements of  food are not converted  into nutri-
ment until  long after having passed  out of
the stomach.  These diminutive tubes convey
their contents towards the great central tube
of the  system, just  as  the  various springs,
rivulets, creeks, &c, of any of our great rivers,
flow together until all are united in one mag-
nificent stream, which  itself is finally emptied
into  the boundless sea. The heart is the great
receiving sea of the myriads of nutriment-bear-
ing channels of the human system.   This nutri-
mental  material enters the heart at the same
time that another great river pours its contents
into  it; that river  of  blood which started from
the heart a very few minutes before, and having
washed out the body, delivers the defiled mass
into  the heart again,  to be renovated, refined, 
           BLOOD  VIVIFIED.       113
vivified.   So  that at any moment, the right
side of the heart is industriously receiving two
different kinds of fluid, the washings out of the
body, and the imperfect nutrient  material for
blood, just as the Mississippi and Missouri pour
very  different waters together at their uniting
point, soon mingling, however, into one homo-
geneous  stream.   The  impure blood and the
nutrient material soon coalesce, commingle and
enter the  lungs for purification,  thoroughly
mixed together.  There meeting with the air,
the nutrient fluid is in an instant converted in-
to pure blood, and in the same instant of time,
are the washings of the system converted into
blood equally pure,  by having had all the im-
purities abstracted at a breath.   Thus we see,
that in reality, our food  does not become living,
actual blood, until it has entered the lungs and
been  exposed to the life-giving  influences of
the air therein;  hence we see that if air has not
its life, that is, its purity, it is utterly impossible
for the food  we have   eaten to  receive that
finishing stroke which  makes it real, perfect
           8 
114
CONSUMP TION.
blood.  And  if not perfect, the system is im-
perfectly  fed, and debility and disease are in-
evitable.
  After the air in the lungs has given the finish-
ing stroke, which makes pure and perfect blood
out of the heterogeneous mass before described,
this blood is sent to the great receiving reservoir
of the system, the left side of the heart, and is
sent by thousands of distributing pipes, or blood-
vessels,  to every fibre  of the human  frame, to
be made into flesh, and bone, and joint, and
ligament, wherever renovation is needed.   And
how minutely grand the process.  The instant
the air meets  the impure and  imperfect  fluid
mass  in the lungs, it is converted into life, as
instantaneous as crystallization, as quick as the
very lightning.  This life consists in forming a
little  boat or cell, like a  Nautilus on the sea;
in this boat is an atom of life-giving life, which
is  freighted along  the current of the blood,
until it arrives at its destined port; the instant
of its striking, the  vessel is broken, the living
atom, as instantaneously as the needle to the 
           USE  OF PURE  AIR.       115
armature, bounds to  its new home and  is a
part of the living man, in its turn to die and be
washed away to make place for others.   How
wonderful is our life!  How grandly mysterious,
and how beautifully wise, is He who made it.
  The reader has no doubt felt long ago in
this narration, how doubly essential to human
health is the pure air of heaven, for it alone can
purify the blood; it only can make blood out
of the nutriment of the system.   How infinite-
ly essential, how gloriously useful is pure air
and A plenty OF IT, in making the human
frame all that it ought to be—all  that it was
intended to be.
  But if the food be imperfect, its nutritive es-
sence must be imperfect,  and  no air, however
pure in quality, or in quantity large, can make
a perfect blood out of it.   We thus arrive at a
sweeping general  fact, that in order to have a
perfect life-giving blood, under the most favor-
able circumstances, the food we eat must be per-
fect.
  The vegetables we cook must be fresh and 
116         CONSUMPTION.
perfect of their kind.  The meats we consume
must be the untainted meat of healthy animals.
And both vegetables and meats should be pro-
perly and well cooked, and no more.
   But to return to the new-born tubercle.  How
does it destroy  the  lungs ?  In going into an
apple orchard, some trees appear to be  well
filled with fruit, equally  distributed.   Other
trees have bunches  of apples in patches, and
by reason  of varied exposure to the sun, we
observe apples ripened in one spot, ripening in
another, and  quite green in a third.  So it is,
if we could see the lungs of  people.  In some,
tubercles are thickly and equally distributed
over the lungs.   In others they are scattered
about,  a patch here, another there, a third yon-
der.  A patch ripening in the first place;  just
beginning to turn in the second;  while in the
third, they are young and hard, and may never
be different.   A blackberry patch is  a good
and  useful illustration of this point.   It is the
key which unlocks all the mysteries of quack-
ery.  There is a truth here, which every  con- 
RIPENING  OF  TUBERCLES.  117
suniptive should understand, for there is more
curative virtue in  it, than in all medicine.  It
is wonderful how it has been lost sight of pro-
fessionally.  It is amazing how people won't
see it.   And the honest physician remains but
a Cassandra still—a prophet, whose teachings,
truth as they are, are wholly disregarded.   But
more of  this in another place.
   As an apple grows, it takes up more room,
and soon touches its neighbor.   Tubercles  in-
crease, meet, soften, and rot away together, eat-
ing up the lungs as they go.  That is consump-
tion.  But what makes them grow, and what
makes them soften and decay away together ?
The nascent crude tubercle may remain station-
ary for half a century ; may be inappreciably
hurtful;  may  and  does remain innocuous  for
a life-time ;  may be as  harmless to the system
as powder  is  harmless, if fire is kept  away.
En proof of this,—a fact is stated—a fact of every-
day occurrence in the dissecting-room.  Out of
fifty people, dead  of other diseases  than con-
sumption, and being over forty years of age, 
118         CONSUMPTION.
scarcely one will be found who has not more
or less tubercles in the lungs.  This important
fact is conclusive as  to one interesting point:
tubercles do  not necessarily destroy life,  as
they may lie dormant for a life-time.
   But what  causes  the  tubercles to enlarge,
soften, and rot  the  lungs away?   Instead of
writing down a long list of specifications, some
of which  might be omitted and many forgot-
ten, it is of prime importance to notice one ef-
fect, instead of a hundred different causes.
   Tubercles  enlarge  and are softened  by de-
bility  of body,  long  protracted.   Whatever
then, has  a debilitating  effect  on  the body,
whether  of a mental, moral, or physical na-
ture,  is the match which fires the magazine of
life and  burns it to  ashes.   Whatever  keeps
the body in  a debilitated condition  for weeks
together,  is capable of softening tubercles.  If
there be a great many tubercles of about the
same age, as  it were, any debilitating cause, act-
ing for a comparatively short time, commences
the decay, which, from the number of tubercles, 
            EXPECTORATION.         U9
 soon becomes general, and the constitution fails
 rapidly.  This is rapid"consumption.  It is like
 a spark applied to  a wooden tenement which
 has been standing  for half a century—every
 inch  of wood is a tinder-box.
   The evidence of softening tubercle is the spit-
 ting up  of mouthfuls of yellow matter, which
 falls lumpily or heavily on  the floor, with un-
 even  edges, just as if one had been chewing a
 rag or piece of paper somewhat soft, and thrown
 it on  the floor.   If spit in water, it sinks rapid-
 ly to  the bottom, or if spit  into  a  cup where
 there is but a spoonful or two of water, and the
 cup is tilted, the contents run rapidly from side
 to side.  When an  ulcer breaks or the lungs
 are decaying rapidly, the matter expectorated
 is not unlike thick rich cream.
   A truth is about being stated, whose import-
ance  is  such, that the whole civilized  world
should keep it in remembrance.   As in  a tree,
there  may be a single  cluster of apples, so in
the lungs, there  may be but  a single  cluster of
tubercles, and the  remainder of the lungs may 
120
CONSUMPTION.
be perfectly sound.  Or there may be two clus-
ters or a dozen; each cluster may be a large or
a small one; or they  may be of various sizes.
The symptoms of a ripening cluster are, first, a
slight  unfrequent  cough; then  more decided,
still  dry; next a little  mucus  comes;  soon a
large and free expectoration of yellowish mat-
ter is  observed.  If the cluster be large, this
yellow matter is not brought away fast enough,
and it  is reabsorbed into the system.  This re-
absorption—this mingling of the matter of de-
cayed  lungs with the blood again—gives fever,
hectic, night-sweats.  As soon as the decayed
matter of tubercle is removed,  the patient be-
gins to get better; the cough has disappeared
in great part, if not wholly,  the appetite im-
proves, strength returns, flesh is gained, and the
man may live half a century.
   Whatever was done remedially at the time
when the matter was about got rid of, gets the
credit  of  having cured  a  man in the very last
stages of consumption.   The ignorant  admin-
istrator and the  more happy  recipient,  are 
THE  CERTIFICATE.
121
willing  enough to give the remedy the credit,
and with all due formality a magistrate is sought,
the declaration written, the hat pulled off, the
bible  procured,  the  hand held up, the head
bowed, the deponent there affirming that
   " I, John Lubberlie, was supposed  to be in
the last stage of consumption in the year 'forty-
eight, suffering at the same time under  a severe
attack of  rheumatism, liver complaint, dropsy,
gravel, and cholera morbus.   Simultaneously,
also, I took the yellow fever, bilious colic,  and
small pox; the latter assuming  the chronic form
of scrofula,  completely destroying my lungs,
liver, spinal marrow, nervous  system, and the
entire contents of my phrenology.  I finally
got so low, that I did not know my brother-in-
law when he came to borrow  money.   For
three months I swallowed nothing but twenty
packages of Kunkelhausen's pills, which effect-
ed an immediate cure in three  weeks.
   " My  uncle, Bacchus Pottinger, was afflicted
so long with the gout that his life became a
burden  to him.   He took only four boxes of 
122
CONSUMPTION.
said pills, and life was a burden to him no longer.
Further deponent saith not.
  "Sworn and subscribed to, &c, &c."
  Or  if the patient happened at that critical
time to go to the South, or North,  or do any
extraordinary thing, or any silly thing, such
as drinking mule's milk, or goat's cream, or
tar water, or brandy smash ; if he had slept in
a pig-pen,  or cow-house, or inhaled hot water,
or cold alcohol, or any thing else, the thing
last done, has the  credit of cure ; and thus it
is, that  although  the very next person who
" tried "  the  same remedy  died under it,  the
report has gone abroad, and like the cork leg,
couldn't  stop itself, and is going yet.  Thus
the world is  full  of cures,  and any man you
meet can deliver at sight, half a dozen, any  one
of which cured a friend of his who was a great
deal worse than you are.  But to the crushing
disappointment of multitudes,  the  experience
is sadly uniform  that " whatever it may have
done for others, it has not availed for me."
  If  there be  two or  more patches of these 
         THE GREAT  LESSON.      123
tubercles, another softens, as the causes of soften-
ing are applied,  and the same routine  is gone
through, perhaps until the dozenth time, which
being  the  last, he  may live on, to die many
years after, of some  totally different  disease;
or if the constitution  be not strong, the  man
succumbs under  these repeated attacks, and
passes  away.
  The practical uses to be made of this narra-
tion of undoubted  facts are various  and  im-
portant : first,  it is useless to take any thing
without the advice of a regular physician, who
must be acquainted with every constituent of
the remedy, so as to know in what direction its
curative agencies  tend;  second,  do  nothing
which  common  sense, joined with professional
science, does not indicate as rational and wise.
  The reason of these inferences is,  the wide
difference between  an antecedence and subse-
quence and cause and  effect.  It is clearly ir-
rational  to  adopt any remedy, simply  because
it was  applied and restoration followed its ap-
plication.  The  scientific practitioner  takes no 
124
CONSUMPTION.
such grounds.  It is not  until after repeated
experiments, made under every variety of cir-
cumstances,  extending  through months,  and
seasons, and years, giving a  uniform result,
that he lays  hold of any remedy, but  once
laid hold of, he never rejects it for a single nor
for a dozenth failure.   Such is the difference
between scientific medicine and quackery, be-
tween intellect and ignorance.  It is  only af-
ter many a long  year's trial,  that the skilful
practitioner  can  be  brought  to  say of  any
remedy, "I gave this, and it cured him."  The
charlatan speaks  thus  after the first trial, his
ignorance sustaining his effrontery.
  Hope is the  highest remedy  of the soul, the
most efficient for the body.  This Cluster Doc-
trine is a true  groundwork for it, in consump-
tive disease.   Surely it is Nature's remedy, for
who among a  thousand does not hope to the
end, in consumption ?   The mischief lies in not
making that hopefulness the ground of practi-
cal  action.  The  consumptive hopes but  does 
              THE CURE OF.           405
nothing, and thus it  is that  by hope he  lives
and dies.
   Some of the best medical minds in the world,
men who have spent a quarter of a  century
in examining the lungs of the dead,  state to
us this important, every day fact, that few peo-
ple die, after forty,  who have not in the lungs,
the signs of having had consumption,  without
ever having had the slightest suspicion of the
existence of the disease, and who  finally died
of maladies having no approximation towards
it in nature.  These signs, are scars of various
lengths, little excavations, or cavities or pucker-
ings of various sizes; all very small it is  true,
but still showing the great fact, that decay  once
existed there, and that the lungs may perfectly
heal after having been divided or broken, or
pierced, as numerous  cases bear witness in the
perfect  recovery of men who have been  stab-
bed in thebreast, or shot through the lungs.
  The great curative principle, to which the
reader's attention is specially solicited, is this:
In any attack of consumption, or its repetition, 
126
CONSU MPTION.
the patient should hope it was the last cluster
to soften, and that if he can  only weather this
storm, it may be the last, and life and happi-
less may be his, for long years to come.  Too
much  attention can scarcely be paid  to  this
idea, and we hope every invalid reader will sleep
on it nightly, and make it  the ground of active,
strenuous  effort for  health,  every succeeding
day, even until life's close, for the truly brave
die striving.  This being  their motto, they do,
in these diseases often, very often,  outlive the
prognostications of ignorance and presumption,
for it is only such  who can peril  a prophecy
of recovery or death ; they speak firmly, where
the physician gives  opinions with trembling on
the tongue.
  There is another practical fact, which it is
difficult to refrain from mentioning here:
  On the partial or complete recovery from an
attack of consumption, do  not,  as you value
life, intermit a single possibly effort for main-
taining the highest possible  degree of health;
keep it up, until a habit of health is establish- 
         FAR  OFF  SYMPTOMS.      127
ed,  and even then, until the close of life, make
it your study to live rationally, apportioning
your eating to your  exercise, as true wisdom
dictates.
  The symptoms of consumption  have  been
described in a general manner.  It is purposed
under this head to speak of the far-off symptoms,
which, if promptly  treated, may eventuate in
cure, with as much certainty as belongs to or*
dinary diseases.   It is scarcely to be hoped that
any attention will be paid to these, yet a book
on this subject could not have claim to com-
pleteness of history without discoursing some-
thing on this head.  It is certainly desirable,
for  it  is highly  practical, capable as it  is, of
making Consumption of the Lungs a manage-
able disease.   But it is sadly feared, that it is to
be the consummation of future centuries.
  It is with consumption as it is with cholera,
easily manageable in its first stages ; in its last,
utterly incurable.  All men looked with horror
on the Asiatic  curse when it first  visited  our
shores.  When it was first described as sweep- 
128          CONSUMPTION.
ing the world with death, it was represented to
be as instantaneous as a plague or palsy, and
without one single warning note, hurrying mul-
titudes to the grave;  and yet on more minute
and scientific inquiry, it is an established fact,
that cholera,  when attended to,  in its premoni-
tory stages, is  an  easily  controlled disease,
and  is now shorn of half its horrors.
  So  of  consumption, if we took note of its
far off symptoms, and would then enter upon
a course  of life wisely  energetic,  it  becomes
one of the most manageable of  diseases.  The
important practical inquiry then  arises, what
are the earliest and most  invariable symptoms
of common consumption of the lungs ?
  Cough  is not an early symptom of consump-
tion, necessarily,  for  there are  many cases on
record, in which cough  was not an observed
symptom, until within two or  three weeks of
death, and  on examination, the lungs present-
ed a diseased mass, burrowed with cavities.
  Spitting blood is not an early symptom of con-
sumption, necessarily, for  about  one-third of 
          EARLIEST  SYMTOMS.      129
 those who die of that disease, do not spit blood
 at all.
   Among the very earliest symptoms of form-
 ing consumption, are combinations of the fol-
 lowing; not all, perhaps, observable in any
 one  case: A qaicker pulse than ordinary,  a
 paler  face,  easily  chilled after eating,  more
 readily put  out of breath than common, less
 fullness of flesh than usual  at the correspond-
 ing  season  of the  year, an  unusual feeling of
 unrest on getting up in the morning, a greater
 tendency  to  coldness  of the hands and feet,
 every now and then a day passing without any
 action of the bowels, with a very  bad taste in
 the mouth when first waking up in the morn-
 ing ; a cold is easily taken,  is  more frequent,
 and  lasts  longer and  longer, until  one  cold
runs into another, making the confirmed cough,
so ominous of approaching ill.
  It will be seen at a single glance, from these
symptoms, that they all indicate one thing, and
that  one thing is at the bottom of every case of
            9 
130          CONSUMPTION.
consumption—a want of vitality ; that is, a want
of general vigor of system, of constitution.
   But of all the things named, it will be  more
practical to  select the two which are seldom, if
ever absent, in any of the above combinations
which result in consumption;  hence it is im-
portant  to be at some pains in stating them in
their  bearings.  A quick  pulse and  a  short
breath pervade the disease from its earliest be-
ginnings, during its entire progress, and down
to its  fatal end.  Multitudes of lives might be
saved yearly,  if  these two symptoms  were
promptly  and wisely attended  to.   The im-
portance of so doing, no  language can ade-
quately  portray, and if it did,  the people would
not attend to it, with only here and there an
exception.   But a great truth is of  small seed
and of slow growth; yet that  growth is certain,
and its spread uncontrollable—the more so, as
education becomes more general.
  The pulse beats about sixty-eight times in
every minute of healthful adult life.   The range
is from  sixty-six to seventy-two.  When it is 
               THE PULSE.           131
 below sixty-six, there is something at fault;
 when it is over seventy-two, during all the hours
 of the twenty-four, there is always disease;  and
 if it continues so for weeks and months, there
 is the strongest ground for  apprehension  that
 consumption is approaching.
   There are intelligent men in the profession
 who will not coincide with  this statement, but
 it will be because they have not had  the op-
 portunities of observation.
   Whatever  may be said of  auscultation, of
 plessimetry,   of  sounding,  of expectoration,
 there is in none of these a guide so sure as the
 condition of the pulse, with the aid of a com-
 petent interpreter; more, it  is worth, to such
 an  one,  all the other modes of determination
 put together.   It is said that  the physicians
 among some of the Orientals, are not allowed to
 see their female patients, the hand only being
put out  through the bed curtain, and by feel-
ing the pulse,  prescriptions must be made.   If
the powers of life are being pressed to death,
the full, soft, slow pulse tells it  in an instant; 
132
CONSUMPTIO N.
if active, an  actual destruction of organic life
is taking place in the body, the inflammatory
pulse,  quick, wiry,  angry, spiteful,  at  once
raises  the  note of alarm.  Every physician
knows how gratefully  the pulsation,  as  of a
woolen yarn  beneath his  finger, strikes  upon
his perceptions, on some urgent call, and how
troubled, if it gives  the  feeling of  a quick
vibrating, small wire.  The multitude of shades
of difference  between these, carry with  them
their varied impressions, all highly instructive.
In strongly-marked  cases, however  wan the
patient may look, however hollow or fierce
his cough, at first sight, an instantaneous feeling
of the pulse  is sufficient  for  the conclusion,
" You  have no consumption."  But inasmuch
as there have been cases of  no appreciable
activity of  pulse,  and even diminished pulse,
where  consumption existed, the wise physician
will  never  pronounce an  opinion on  any one
single symptom.  In some cases of spinal irri-
tation,  for  example, there may be  a trouble-
some hacking or hemming, and a quick pulse 
THE  GREAT LESSON.     133
for months and years,  without  any special di-
sease in the lungs.   Still, this  one broad fact
should stand out prominently as an instructive
beacon to all:
   A pulse steadily over  eighty beats in a minute,
for weeks together, is a forerunner of consumption.
   The physician  in his kindness or hopeful-
ness may tell you  that  some  persons have a
high pulse  constitutionally, hereditarily,  or
some other plausible reason may be given for
its presence in you; but if you are wise,  with
a  pulse  among the eighties,  you will set it
down as  consumption begun, and will act ac-
cordingly.
   Acceleration of the breathing is never
absent in  any case of actual  consumption.  In
the  last few weeks  of  life a few steps put  the
patient out of breath,  even  if those steps  be
over a level floor.   But long before this  there
was observed an inability to  walk fast without
considerable  discomfort.  In fact,  a slow and
measured tread  is  the symptom which first
strikes the ordinary obseryer.   The man  him- 
134         CONSUMPTION.
self may be scarcely an apparent  invalid, ex-
cept on close scrutiny.  He may  be lively in
conversation, he may eat heartily, may have
little or no cough, but any effort on your part
to induce  him to greater bodily activity, is in-
stinctively avoided.  At a still earlier period,
one thing  has been forced upon the  attention
of the patient: that he does not mount a pair
of stairs with the same  celerity as formerly.
In days long ago, he could take two or three
steps at a  stride, and even feel the better for it
when he reached the top;  but now, such an
effort would make him puff and blow  incon-
veniently.  At an earlier period still, there is
an observable feeling of  tiredness about the
legs  and knees on going up stairs,  a feeling of
weakness  there, not known in earlier years,
implying a want of bodily vigor, not pertinent
to that stage of life.
  It is to  be hoped, that no one will  haste
away with the impression that a little feeling
of fatigue  in going up a pair of stairs, is a sign
of consumption.  This book is not written for 
           discrimination.        135
 quibbling critics;  it is written  for the instruc-
 tion of people of  sober  views, who can look
 at a subject  steadily, willing to be informed,
 but unwilling to run away with either end of
 the subject, or precipitate themselves into the
 weakness of extremes.
  But it is an instructive fact, that if this easi-
 ness of fatigue in  ascents,  be  conjoined with
 the  quick pulse,  and be  so  for months in
 succession, it is  an  impressive warning  of
 coming consumption, and millions would be
 saved, if it were heeded.
  A man may be lazy, it  may be summer time,
 or various other things may give rise to a trans-
 ient exhibition of acceleration in pulse and
 breath,  or they may arise from  the mere habit
 of sedentariness; but there is one easy, decisive,
infallable   method of  determining  whether
these symptoms are from transient causes, or
from  an actual change going on in the struc-
ture of  the lungs themselves; and that  is, by
measuring the quantity of air which the lungs
are  capable of drawing  in, at  one  deep, full, 
136         CONSUMPTION.
free breath,  that  is done by  the use of  an
instrument often seen in the street, " The Lung
Measurer," or  " Spirometer," as  Mr. Hutchin-
son, of London, its inventor, names it.  The
first instrument of the kind ever made in the
United  States, was made for  the Author  of
these pages,  in 1847, since which time a num-
ber of  eminent  English practitioners have
learned to employ them,  and some few in this
country.   As a general thing, it has not found
favor here, as it is expensive, is liable to abuse,
and to the mass of physicians, the opportunities
of making varied observations upon it, are  not
offered.   Besides,  it requires time and patience
to classify the  phenomena which it  presents;
and unless a man have a considerable practice
of that  kind, it does not  pay, either in money
or in data for scientific results.
  In the  Author's practice, then,  the great
preponderating indications of consumption are,
accelerated pulse and breathing ; no judicious
practitioner  will rely merely on the pulse, or
any other two or  three symptoms wholly,  but 
                confirmed.          137
 on the whole set of symptoms which any given
 case presents,  together with the history of his
 life, his  temperament,  his habits,  his  hered-
 itary tendencies and  idiosyncracies, that is,
 peculiarities, of constitution.
    The more  obvious symptoms of consump-
 tion have been already sketched  in a general
 way.  So few persons  recover  from what is
 called confirmed consumption,  that it was not
 considered  profitable to enter into a critical
 enunciation and description of all  the  symp-
 toms, real or  imaginary, and in their various
 stages, degrees and progress; such a thing would
 materially  detract from the  practical, utilita-
 rian design, which has been ever prominent.
 There is so little hope of clearing out the  Au-
 gean stable of a confirmed consumptive,  in any
 given case,  that it is considered only  worth
 while to  direct attention critically, to the  symp-
toms and stages which admit of a comparatively
speedy and permanent arrest or cure.
  The large majority of deaths by consump-
tion, are out of married life, indicating the gen- 
138
CONSUMP TION.
eral fact, that its victims are mainly the young,
from twenty to thirty.  As dying at twenty, or
soon.after, proves the actual  existence of  the
disease in its forming stages,  while yet in  the
teens, our hope lies in parental influence and
intelligence, for then, they can  enforce by au-
thority, that course  of life, most appropriate
towards arresting and removing the disease.

   THE EARLIEST SIGN OF CONSUMPTION.
  A quick pulse  and a short breath, continu-
ing for weeks together, is the  great alarm bell
of forming consumption ; if these symptoms are
attended with a gradual falling off in flesh, in
the  course  of  months, there  is no rational
ground for  doubt,  although  the hack  of a
cough may never have been heard.  Under such
circumstances, there ought not to be an hour's
delay, in taking competent medical advice.
  The vast mass of consumptives die,  not  far
from the age of twenty-five ; and this, in con-
nection with another fact,  that  consumption is
several years in running its course, suggests one 
            THE  SEED  SOWN.        139
of the most important practical conclusions yet
announced, to wit:
   In the large  majority of cases, the seeds of
consumption are sown between the ages of six-
teen and twenty one years, when the steadily
excited pulse and the easily accelerated breath-
ing, may be readily detected by an intelligent
and observant parent, and should be regarded
as the knell of death, if not arrested, and yet
it is easily, and  uniformly done, for  the Spir-
ometer will demonstrate the early danger, and
the educated  physician will be at  no loss to
mark out the remedy.
  The quick  pulse  and short breath go to-
gether; rather " easily put out of 'breath," is the
more common  and appropriate expression.
Ordinarily,  persons breathe once,  while the
pulse beats four times; this is  an approxima-
tive average, a  general result.  A  person in
health breathes  seventeen  times in a minute,
and during that time, the pulse numbers sixty-
eight strokes. A person decidedly consumptive,
breathes from twenty to twenty-four times in a 
   140         consumption.
   minute, the pulse being proportionably rapid.
   A man whose pulse is among the nineties, with
   a breathing  which  corresponds,  lasting  for
   weeks, may  with great  uniformity be  pro-
   nounced  to  have unmistaken consumption.
   And even  here, the  permanent arrest of the
   disease is quite probable,  if the invalid could
   only be  induced to  act wisely,  promptly, and
   energetically.  But unfortunately such is  not
   the case; nine out of ten are led away with the
   hope that it may be something else, that  it is
   only Bronchitis, and this  is confirmed in their
   own judgment by two facts, they have no pain
-  in the breast, and they  triumphantly strike
   upon it with their whole force, as  a demon-
   stration of  the soundness of the lungs; and
   this other feeling, equally fallacious comes to
   their  aid,  the  prominent trouble is  a mere
   tickling at the bottom of the neck, at the little
   hollow there.  They should remember that no
   Bronchia are there, it  is the windpipe.  Bron-
   chitis is situated in the branches of the wind-
   pipe,  and it  begins .to  divide into branches 
        THE  SELF  DECEPTION.    141
below that spot.  That Utile hollow place is the
telegraphic station, as well for the distant lungs
as the Bronchia.   The news comes from afar;
that is the point of enunciation only.  It is the
news of mischief in the lungs, that something
is there which requires removal, which is work-
ing harm and may breed death;  and it does
breed death.  That  very tickling  at the little
hollow, exciting cough for months together, is
the forerunner of consumption in perhaps, at a
moderate calculation,  four times out of five.
If a person could be amused at  such a serious
symptom, the physician would be, at the very
indifferent, unconcerned air and  tone and gest-
ure  with which the  patient  often announces
this symptom, " Doctor,  I have Bronchitis, I
believe, a trifling  little tickling at the bottom
of the throat here; I wish you would give me
something to take  it away. I'm not sick at all,
I feel as well as I ever did in my life, all  ex-
cept this kind of itching here."  Upon a close
cross questioning, a  large amount  of  undis-
covered truth will be elicited in almost every 
142         CONSUMPTION.  *
  instance, of symptoms dated many months and
  even years before.   If  then, a patient for him-
  self, or for his child, has any apprehension of
  the  disease, let the family physician  be re
  quested to notice the pulse with care and accu-
  racy, at different hours of the day, not within
  half an hour of active exercise, or within two
  hours after a regular meal,  and if the invaria-
  ble report be preternatural excitement, there is
  ground for alarm, in proportion to the intensity
  of that excitement.
   It has been seen how  invariably the de-
  rangement of pulse and  breathing go together,
 showing that the cause is one,  and the locality
 the same, the Lungs.  A3 the  heart is always
 pumping its blood into the lungs, to present
 it to the action of the air, in  order to render
 it fit for vital purposes, the faster the pumps
 work, the  faster  must the lungs work.   But
 what makes the heart work faster ?  The blood
> in it is more impure than natural, that is, more
; thick, it does not flow with  ease, it is sluggish,
 each motion of the heart does not  get rid of 
CEASELESS  DESTRUCTION.   143
its proper quantity, and it must work faster or
drown; as the refractory poor in  the  work-
house, who are unwilling to work, and are
placed in a large tank or tub, into which water
is pumped,  and they have the alternative of
pumping  with another  pump, or  drowning.
This  thickened nature of the blood, makes
itself felt  in the  lungs, in the same way as in
the heart,  with the additional effect of the for-
mation of tubercles, and these taking up more
room in the lungs, leave less room  for  the re-
quisite amount of air, the person must breathe
faster and consequently shorter, the result be-
ing to aggravate the difficulty.  Thus it is that
consumption does  not get well of itself, like
many other diseases, any more than a fire will
go out of itself, until it has left the building
in  ashes, unless for the  want of one of two
things—a want of burning material or an arti-
fical barrier.  But  in  consumption, there is
material, as long as there is a body ; and how
it is destroyed, until nothing is left but skin and
bone  we need no information!  The only rem- 
144          CONSUMPTION.
edy then,  is the artificial barrier.  What is it ?
  But before replication is made to that inquiry,
it is practically useful to go another step more
remote  in our inquiries in  the way of a re-
minder.  What makes the blood thus preterna-
turally impure in  the heart, so as to  lay the
foundation for such vast destruction ?  This is
answered  in  preceding  pages, beginning  at
fifty-seven, where  it is shown  that the fun-
damental origin of impure, consumption-origi-
nating  blood  is, imperfect nutrition and  the
habitual breathing of a still atmosphere in-
doors. And let it be painted before the mind's
eye in living light, that either of these  causes
can,  alone,  certainly originate" consumption,
however wholly and completely the other may
be absent. That all our care as  to our food will
not save us from consumption, if we habitually
breathe a confined air.  Nor  will an active out-
door  life  save us  from consumption or  other
fatal disease, if we live upon improper food, or
habitually eat more of the best food  in the 
         RADICAL  CURATIVES.     145
world, than the  digestive functions  can turn
into pure nutrient blood material.
   Here then, we are brought square up to the
important inquiry, the prevention, the  perma-
nent  arrest, or  lasting  cure of consumption.
It is found
   " IN THE FOOD WE EAT—IN THE AIR WE
                 BREATHE."
   A perfect  digestion  of wholesome nutri-
tious food,  and  a habitual breathing of out-
door air, under circumstances of proper bodily
activity,  are  competent  to cure consumption,
from its first beginnings  to its  last stages, that
is, the stage of accual decay of the lungs.
   But as very few, in the latter stages, possess
the energy requisite to secure  the amount of
out-door activity, necessary to the proper di-
gestion of substantial food, we must go back
to a point where we can secure  the intelligence
of the parent, acting authoritatively  over the
child.  There must be Light and Force.  There
is power  in.  concentration.  And it  is of in-
terest to inquire,  to which of the two causes of
           10 
146         CONSUMPTION.
blood impurity, is  the origin of consumption
most attributable ?  Then, by directing most of
our energies to that one  principal  cause, we
may act more efficiently.   A stream of water
puts out a fire, if played on one spot, but may
be wholly unavailing, if thrown over the whole
building.
  The consummating act  of Creative Power
was to make man.  The consummating act of
Infinite Beneficence, is his preservation.   We
evidently  were made to  people  the globe;
wherever we live,  we must subsist.  Thus we
find that the stomach makes out of  all things,
one thing, a fluid mass, which does not materi-
ally vary in color,  consistency or nature, what-
ever we may eat.   So that in a modified sense,
we can, in health, derive nutriment from almost
any thing we can swallow, from the lion to the
worm; from the eagle to the insect; from the
tree bud to its root, whether leaf or fruit, or
bark  or wood. Hence  then, we  come to an
important  practical fact:   In  consumption,  a
man may eat almost any thing, if judicious aa 
.what shall  we  eat?     147
to quantity.  Thus it  is,  that  uniformly, we
have, in our own practice,  as  a general rule,
given  the  broad direction:  Eat what You
like, and which  is not followed by any un-
comfortable  feeling within  an  hour or two
afterwards.
  It is a truth which should be kept sight of
in all human maladies,  that great Nature is
our  safest and wisest Teacher, and with an al-
most unerring instinct creates  in us a  desire
for that kind of food, which contains in it those
elements which the body most needs at the time.
An instructive illustration, occurring within a
few  years,  may not  be  out of place at this
point, as serving to impress an important truth
on the mind:
  A girl fell down a flight of stairs, receiving
an  injury  from  which  it was thought  she
would not recover.  But with the exception of
hearing and sight, she did recover.   For some
weeks her appetite  called for nothing but rai-
sins  and candy, then for several months, noth-
ing but apples were eaten.  At a later period, 
148         CONSUMPTION.
she commenced eating maple buds, since which
time she has nearly regained her former health,
and  at the end of three  years, her  sigbt and
hearing were restored.
  We knew a child, twelve months  old, aban-
doned  to  die  by  several of the most  skilful
physicians of New York, from teething and at-
tendant summer complaint.   As a last resort,
it was sent to the sea shore in a two hours jour-
ney; on arriving there in a cold raw  after-
noon of August, the only attainable thing that
seemed  at all  suitable, was  a bowl of boiled
milk, which she took ravenously, and would
take nothing else for a week, improving from
the first hour, and at end of a year, is among
the heartiest and most rugged of children.  And
to make  the  prescription  more  impressive,
having nature  still on our side, we say to those
under our care:
  Let no man's appetite be  a guide for your
stomach; but only eat what you crave, even if
it be a piece of pound  cake or sole leather; eat
it in  great moderation first, so as to  be on the 
      THE TWO GREAT REMEDIES.   149
 safe side, and gradually increase the quantity.
 On  the other hand, never  swallow an atom
 which you do  not crave, for nothing  nor no-
 body.  A pig would  not so violate nature.  It
 should strike us as one of the most reasonable
 of inferences,  that the  stomach would most
 easily digest that which it most eagerly  craved.
 There are morbid and unnatural cravings, but
 these are exceptions.   We are speaking as to
 general rules, here and  elsewhere  in this  vol-
 ume, and it will  help the reader to a more
 truthful appreciation  of the principles advoca-
 ted in these pages, if this distinction is kept
 clearly in view.
  If then, in  the  two great  points of diges-
 tion  and out door activities,  the former may
be,  to a considerable extent lost sight of, as
being, under  a wise arrangement  of  provi-
dence, able to take care of itself, we naturally
throw  our whole  attention to  the  other  and
only one great  remedial means  in consump-
tive disease, which is— 
150         CONSUMPTION.
           OUT DOOR ACTIVITIES.
  Any train of argument may look beautifully
conclusive,  until a missing or unbelonging link
is discovered;  the removal of the latter or the
replacement of the former, makes  sad havoc
sometimes,  of splendid theories.  But when
facts coincide with theories, in the management
of consumption, there is a triumph for science
well worthy of being recorded.   And we are
led  to the inquiry:
  DO OUT DOOR ACTIVITIES CURE CONSUMP-
                  TION ?
  If in answering this important question, we
gave cases coming under our own management,
they might be questioned as to their authenti-
city, by reason of our personal interest in the
same.  So we will  first give  a history or two
from undoubted medical authority.
        Edentown, N. C, February, 1830.
Dr.  Physic, Philadelphia—Dear Sir :
  In  the month of April, 1812, after having
been  extremely reduced by an attack of bilious 
THE LETTER.
151
 fever,  I was seized with a cough, which con-
 tinued,  with  great  obstinacy  and  severity,
 until the month of November, when decided
 symptoms of Phthisis (consumption) began to
 make their appearance.  I had  every evening
 an exacerbation (recurrence) of fever, preceded
 by chilliness, and succeeded by copious perspi-
 ration.  My cough began to be less painful, but
 was  attended with an expectoration of mucus,
 mixed with pus, (yellow matter.)   Before this
 complaint came on me, I had accepted a sur-
 geon's  commission in  the army,  and was  sta-
 tioned  at Tarborough, about seventy-five miles
 from this place.  In  the  month  of December
 the part of the regiment  which had been re-
 cruited, then having been ordered-  to Salisbury,
 it became my duty to repair to that place.
  " Accordingly,  about the  middle  of  the
month, in the situation I have described, I set
out on  my journey.
  " In  two  days I  reached Raleigh,  without
having experienced any material change in the
symptoms of my complaint.   During my stay 
152
CONSUMPTION.
in Raleigh, the disease increased every day, so
that I  was obliged to  remain there nearly a
week,  at the expiration of which time I had
almost determined to retrace my steps, return
home, and  take my station among the forlorn
and  despairing  victims  of this  unrelenting
malady.
   " But reflecting deeply on my situation, and
recollecting that scarce a patient in a thousand
had been known to recover from  the disease
after having been confined to bed  by it, I was
resolved to resume my journey, and to  reach
the place of destination or perish on the road.
It will be impossible for me ever to forget the
effort I had to make in pursuing this resolu-
tion.  On a cold and blustering morning about
the 20th of December, weak and emaciated,
having been literally drenched in  perspiration
the night before, I ascended my gig and pro-
ceeded on my journey.  The first  part of my
ride, this day, was excessively irksome and
fatiguing.  Eveiy  hovel and hamlet on the
road seemed to invite me  to rest, and to dis- 
         EXPOSURES CURATIVE.     153
 suade me from the prosecution of my  under-
 taking.   Often and anxiously did I wish that
 my disease had been of such a nature as to al-
 low me to indulge in the inclination I  felt,  to
 desist from motion.  But I continued my ride
 for three hours, when I found it necessary  to
 stop  for a  little refreshment.   While  dinner
 was preparing, I lay down on a bed to rest.  It
 was, perhaps, an imprudent act.  Never was a
 bed so sweet to the wayworn  and exhausted
 traveller, as was this to  me.   I  lay on it for an
 hour, wrapped, as it were, in elysium.   When
 summoned  to  dinner, though  sleep was fast
 stealing on me, and inviting  me  to be  still, I
 arose and  attended, and after having made a
 very moderate meal of very  common country
 food,  I resumed my ride, and at night, about
 half past six o'clock, arrived  at Hillsborough,
 which is distant about *36 miles from Raleigh.
The inn to which I had been recommended was
unusually crowded,  and  I had to accept of  a
room  that was out of repair, the window-sashes
rattling in their casements, and the wind pass- 
154         CONSUMPTION.
ing through the  sashes in several places.   In
such a chamber, at such  a season, and in  the
situation already described, was  I  quartered
for the  night.  To my surprise,  however, I
had a better night's rest  than I  had had  for
several  weeks,  and  less  perspiration, and
coughed less than I had for a month before.
   " In the morning, considerably refreshed, I
proceeded on my journey, and travelled in a
foggy misty  atmosphere  full 40 miles;  the
next day about 35, and on the 4th  day about
12 o'clock, I arrived at Salisbury.   On my  ar-
rival, I heard it  mentioned  as a matter of as-
tonishment, that a man in  my situation should
think of travelling in the cold and  inclement
season of winter ; much more astonishing that
I should venture to approach the  mountains
at such  a period.  But I had taken my resolu-
tion, and was determined  never to  relinquish
it while I  had power to  walk or ride.  The
regiment to which I was attached, was  en-
camped about four miles from the town  of
Salisbury.  To this place I tasked  myself to 
            THE  HAPPY  END.        155
 ride  twice  every  day, a duty I regularly per-
 formed in the coldest weather until I left the
 service.
   " Early in January the officer  in command
 received orders to repair with his regiment  to
 Canada.   While preparations were  making for
 that  purpose,  believing that such  a  climate
 would be too severe  for me, and that  I must
 of course soon cease to be useful to the Gov-
 ernment, I addressed a letter to the Secretary
 of War, soliciting permission to retire from the
 army. This request was promptly and kindly
 granted to  me.  In February, 1813,  I com-
 menced the practice of my profession again  in
 this place, and continued to attend to the most
 laborious  duties of it at all times of the day and
 night, in rain, hail, snow, storms, and sunshine,
 whenever I was called on, for eighteen months.
  " At  the end of  that time, I had lost my
hectic fever, night-sweats,  purulent expecto-
ration, and my cough had nearly left me ; my
chest  had recovered its capacity of free  and
easy  expansion, and the ulcers in  my lungs 
156
CONSUMPTION.
had entirely healed. Many who read the fore-
going  statement, will no  doubt be curious, to
know what medical means were used as auxil-
iaries in the cure of this very alarming state
of disease.   It would not  be in my power to
satisfy curiosity on  this point were it a matter
of any importance, which  I conceive is not the
case, the complaint having been  cured bg hardy,
invigorating exercise, continued  without interrup-
tion in every variety of temperature and weather.
   " That palliatives of different kinds were re-
sorted to at various periods, must  at once be
supposed, but I do not  consider it a matter of
consequence to  name them, as they were such
as would readily suggest themselves to physi-
cians of every grade of skill or intellect, and
never produced more than a temporary allevi-
ation of symptoms. Perhaps it may be material
to state, I never used opium in any form what-
ever, and that I never incautiously  wasted the
resources of my constitution by depletory, or
debilitating means.   When symptoms of high
arterial excitement  occurred,  which  would 
       HORSEBACK  EXERCISE.    157
sometimes be  the case,  it was my practice to
abstain from strong,  high-seasoned food, from
all fermented  and spirituous liquors,  and from
active exercise until they subsided.  By this
negative mode of  management  I  generally
succeeded in removing  inflammation without
materially impairing  the  energies of my sys-
tem ; and on the increase  of the purulent dis-
charge,  subsequent  to such inflammatory ap-
pearances, I betook myself again to  my exer-
cise,  and ate and drank everything I wanted.
I always found that  the inconvenience pro-
duced  by  a full meal,  yielded  very soon to
horse exercise, and  that I generally coughed
less while riding than at any other time.  The
hectic  paroxysm was generally  interrupted,
and  sometimes cut short by  a hard ride, and
often, very often, during the  existence of my
disease,  have I checked the exhausting flood
of perspiration,  and renewed my  strength and
spirits,  by  turning  out of bed  at  midnight
and riding  a  dozen  miles or more; many a
time, too, have I left  my bed in the early part 
158         CONSUMPTION.
of the  night, wayworn with coughing,  rest-
lessness and sweating, for the purpose of visit-
ing a patient, and after having rode an hour
or two, returned home  and slept quietly and
refreshingly for the remainder of the night.
  " Another  thing which I remarked  in  the
course of  my experience in  the  disease was,
that some of the most profitable  rides I ever
took were made in the coldest and most incle-
ment weather, (air dense and plenty of oxygen
for assimilation,) and that scarcely in any situa-
tion did  I return from a long and toilsome
ride, without receiving  a sensible amendment
in all my  pulmonary complaints.   In short,
sir, were I asked to  state in  a few words the
remedy which rescued me, I should say it was
a life of hardy exercise and of unremitting toil,
activity, and  exposure.  With pectorial medi-
cines, or those articles or compositions denom-
inated  expectorants,  I seldom meddled in my
own case ; without opium,  which from a con-
stitutional peculiarity, I have not  been able to
take for many years I found them too debili- 
           SINGING CURATIVE.   •    159
 tating;  and with it, had I been able to use the
 article, I should not have been disposed to take
 them, lest their effect in disposing to  rest and
 inactivity  might have  operated against  the
 course I had prescribed for myself, and from
 which I expected relief.
   " It remains for me to mention another agent
 which I think excited a very curative  influ-
 ence upon my disease, and that is singing.  In
 first using this remedy it was  my custom  to
 sing  in  a  low tone,  and  not  long at a  time,
 so as not to occasion much pulmonary effort.
 But by  degrees I became able to sing in the
 most elevated tones, and for  hours together,
 allowing  myself only such intervals of rest
 as the lungs required to obviate injurious fa-
 tigue.   So long and so frequently did I repeat
 this  act  in the course of my disease, that the
 exercise  of singing became so  strongly associ-
 ated, that as soon as I mounted my horse or
ascended my chaise,  I found myself humming
a tune,  and often in my lonely rides through
the country, at late and unseasonable hours of 
•  160    •     CONSUMPTION.
 the night,  have I made the woods vocal with
 the most exhilarating music.  Singing seemed
 always to have the effect of clearing the bron-
 chial passages, of opening the chest, and of giv-
 ing a greater capacity of motion and expansion
 to the lungs.  [The Doctor was killed by acci-
 dent, in 1850.]
                    "Yours, etc.,
                         James Norcom."
  Dr. Norcrom mentions a case  as having oc-
 curred in 1810, which in 1830, twenty years
 later, was wholly free from any disease of the
 lungs.  All this  patient did, was to  ride ten
 miles a day, gradually increasing to  twenty
 miles a day, and by a continuance of exercise,
 was eventually  restored to perfect health.   All
 the medicine this  man took  was  tincture of
 digitalis; but as it is now generally conceded
 that  this remedy is worthless in consumption,
 the cure must  be  attributed  to  the  exercise,
 just as the following case as  given  by Dr.
 Stokes, whom we  have personally known at
his own home in Dublin; and whom we found 
           A  RADICAL  CURE.        161
 to be, as is universally accorded by the profes-
 sion, among the very foremost of living med-
 ical minds.   The case was first reported in one
 of the British medical periodicals in 1854,  and
 republished here in April of the succeeding year.
   " Some years ago I saw  a gentleman  who
 came to town laboring under all the symptoms
 of well-marked phthisis. The disease had been
 of several months' standing, and the patient was
 a perfect picture of  consumption.    He had a
 rapid  pulse,  hectic,  sweating, purulent expec-
 toration, and the usual  physical signs of tuber-
 cular deposit, and of a  cavity under the right
 clavicle.  I may also state, that the  history of
 the  disease was in accordance, in  all  particu-
 lars, with this opinion.   I saw this patient in
 consultation with  a  gentleman of the  highest
station in the profession, and we  both agreed
there was nothing to be done.  This  opinion
was communicated.to the patient's friends, and
he was advised to return to  the country.  In
about  eighteen months  afterwards, a tall  and
healthy-looking  man, weighing at least twelve
                11 
162         CONSUMPTION.
 stone, entered my study with a very comical
 expression of countenance: " You don't know
 me,  Doctor," he said.  I apologised, pleading
 an inaptitude that belongs to me for recollect-
 ing  faces.   "I  am,"  he said,  "the  person
 whom you and Dr.----sent home to die last
 year.  I am quite well, and I thought I would
 come and show myself to you."  I examined
 him  with great  interest,  and found every sign
 of disease had disappeared, except that there
 was  a slight flattening under the clavicle.
   "' Tell me,' said I, ' what have  you been
 doing ?'   ' Oh!'  he replied, ' I found out from
 the  mistress  what  your opinion  was,  and I
 thought as I was to die I might as well enjoy
 myself while I lasted, and so I just went back
 to my old ways.'  ' What was your old system
 of living?' said I.   'Nothing particular,' he
said, 'I  just took what was going.'  'Did you
take  wine ?'  ' Not a drop,' he replied, ' but I
had my glass of punch as  usual.' ' Did you ever
take  more than  one  tumbler?'    'Indeed I
often did.'  ' How many: three or four ?' 'Ay, 
          RADICALLY  CURED.       163
 and more than  that: I  seldom went to bed
 under  seven!'   'What  was  your  exercise?'
 ' Shooting,' he said, ' every day that I could get
 out.'  'And what kind of shooting?'  'OhI I
 would  not give a farthing for any kind  of
 shooting but the one.'  ' What is that?' ' Duck
 shooting.'   ' But you  must have often wetted
 your feet.'  ' I was not very particular about
 the feet,' says he, ' for I had to stand up to my
 hips in the Shannon for four or five hours of a
 winter's day following the birds.'   So, gentle-
 men, this  patient spent his day standing in
 the  river,  and  went  to  bed  after drinking
 seven tumblers of punch  every night; and  if
 ever a man had recovered from phthisis he had
 done so when I saw  him  on that occasion.
 Suppose now that he had been confined to an
 equal temperature and a  regulated diet,   and
had been treated in all respects secundum artem,
what would  have been the result?  Any of
you can answer the question.  In point of fact,
this very treatment had been  adopted during
the first three months of his illness, and his re- 
104          CONSUMPTION.
covery may  be fairly attributed  to  the  tonic
and undepressing treatment which he adopted
for himself, and which his system so much re-
quired, to enable him to throw off the disease."
  In this case  of Dr. Stokes, it should be re-
membered first, that he is one of the best judges
of consumption in the British nation, and that
he considered  it hopeless of cure.   We must
also  in  this,  as well as in the case given by
Dr. Norcom,  attribute the cure to the exercise
in the open air, and not to potations of punch.
We have had, in our own practice, a variety of
cases similar to the  above,  and  complete and
pemanent recovery took place without resort to
digitalis, or whiskey, nor to an atom  of nause-
ants or alcoholic preparations of any sort.  It
can not fail to  strike the  reader with peculiar
power, that  when  under a certain  variety of
treatment a person recovers from a particular
disease, but that in that treatment one element
is always present  largely  under all circum-
stances, while  as to the other elements there
is great diversity as to combination, as well as
* 
          CURED BY  HUNTING.     165
to their very nature, we are obliged to conclude
that  restoration depends on the one  large ever
present element, and  that the other elements,
various in nature, quantity, and combination,
are without any material efficiency.
  A. P.,  a  lawyer poet of some  renown,  a
native of  New England,  a  sixth child.  His
parents had  died  of  consumption,  all  his
brothers and  sisters as they approached the
age  of twenty-one, paled away and died of
the same  disease. No  one of his  neighbors
looked for any different result as to him, and
beginning to grow feeble in his twentieth year,
and being the last of  his family, with dear as-
sociations around the home  of his  childhood,
he, in utter recklessness, penetrated  the forests
of Arkansas,  lived a hunter's life, camped out
for  weeks and months together, and now, at
the end of twenty years, and in perfect health,
weighs over, at our last report,  a hundred and
seventy-five pounds.
  Gregg,  the  author of  " Commerce of the
Prairies,"  for  some months  preceding 1831, 
 166         CONSUMPTION.
 could scarcely walk beyond his chamber, from
 a complication of chronic  diseases, unable to
 ride on horseback, he  left  Missouri for Santa
 F«, in a carriage, could saddle his own horse
 in a  week, and at the end of a  quarter of a
 century  is, we  believe, an official, under our
 Government, in some of  the islands of the
 Pacific Ocean.
   On the tenth of June eighteen hundred  and
 forty-eight, R.  B., aged twenty-eight, slender,
 six feet  high, lacking half an inch, a New
 Orleans merchant,  called upon  the author for
 medical advice. He had weighed one hundred
 and  sixty  pounds,  now  one  hundred  and
 eighteen, pulse pne hundred a minute, breath-
 ing twenty-five, most  drenching  night-sweats
 which nothing could control, pain in the breast.
 There seemed to be a large collection of matter
 in the hinder part of one lung, and steadily ac-
cumulating; the pain  became  incessant, and
 almost insupportable.    His cough  was con-
stant.   He could not cough without pain.   He
had piles so badly that he  could not sit down 
         PERMANENTLY  CURED.     167
without  pain, while  the pain  in his breast
would not allow him to lie down in any natural
position.   He  literally staggered  across  the
floor  when  he attempted to walk.  He could
get no rest at night, and we began to fear for
his mind.
   Under all the circumstances of the case, we
advised  him to  start instantly for  Canada by
railroad, so as to get there at once, and then to
travel on horseback until he  got well, and to
correspond with  us in  the  mean  time as  to
modifications of treatment in his changing con-
dition.
   He reached Niagara Falls in  safety, but on
his arrival  had a  leg bone  fractured by the
kick of a horse.   To show  his  own views of
his condition he  wrote : " I  hope to spend the
few days I shall live out here,  in making a
perfect preparation for  that place  where our
state is invariably and forever  fixed."
   Six months later I met a  gentleman in the
streets of NewOrleans so much like my former
patient in  general  features  and form, that I 
 168         CONSUMPTION.
 thought him a brother, but it was the man him-
 self, just returned in a ship from New York.
 He seemed in every respect well.  He was one
 of the most grateful of men.  In the language
 of a member of a mercantile firm, who had in-
 troduced  him  to me,  his recovery seemed
 " almost miraculous."
  D. H. called for advice July tenth, eighteen
 hundred  and forty-four.   Pulse ninety-two,
 constant pain in the  breast, had frequent  spit-
tings  of blood,  as much as a pint at a time,
with various correlative symptoms.
  In endeavoring to find out his business re-
lations, so as  to adapt the advice to them as
far as practicable, I found he  could change his
present  occupation, and obtain  the office of
Sheriff; which, among  other things, I advised
him to do by  all means.
  Some six years later he wrote to  me volun-
tarily, that he  considered  himself  in perfect
health.  That he had done enough to kill  a
dozen men, had ridden through  the country
day and night, winter and summer  regardless 
    BRAINARD,  THE  M I S SI O JS A R Y . 169
 of all weather, after having to walk for miles
 in slosh and snow half leg deep, and not only
 did  nothing seem to hurt him,  but he got
 better in spite of his exposures.
  David Brainard, the great missionary, while
 a student at Yale College in seventeen hundred
 and forty-two, was expelled for what he con-
 sidered an unjust cause; still it had its depres-
 sing effect  upon  the mind,  while his body,
 exhausted  by repeated hemorrhages from the
 lungs,  seemed to be sinking under the general
 disease.  But determining to be useful, he ob-
 tained  permission to  preach, went among the
 Indians, lived twelve months first in a wigwam
 of his own making, and then in a cabin, and
 all the time with returning health, but unfortu-
 nately returned to civilized  life and its habits,
 his  symptons returned, and he died of con-
sumption towards the close  of seventeen hun-
dred  and  forty-seven.   There is but  little
doubt that  a continuance of Indian life would
have wholly restored him.
  A few years ago a gentleman was  declared 
170         CONSUMPTION.
by the best and most skilful examiner of the
lungs, to have partial decay in the right breast,
with the ordinary attendants of night-sweats,
distressing  cough, spitting blood, emaciation
and  debility.  On consulting  me,  I advised
him, as  the only certain mode of  recovery,
under the circumstances, to purchase  a  farm
in the  West, and convert it into an extensive
fruitery.  This was in September.  He at once
began to carry out our suggestions, and without
wearying the  reader with  minute details,  he
wrote  us from  his Western  home  late  in
November:  "I could  not have  believed that
so great a change could have taken place in
so brief a period.  I  have superintended the
setting out of  some two  thousand fruit trees,
working more  or less myself all the time, some-
times standing on the  ground for hours in  a
drizzling November rain,  with  an umbrella.
The  roof of my  cabin is defective, so that
wherever I place my head, and there is a leak
anywhere, it is sure to find me out."
  And, most marvellous, with all this improve- 
         TnE GREAT MISTAKE.     171
 ment he returned to his family in Philadelphia
 to spend his  Christmas time,  without consult-
 ing  me.  I  wrote him  at once,  "You have
 made a great, if not fatal,  mistake.  I  advise
 you by all means to return at once to your oc-
 cupation in the West, and  remain there until
 perfectly restored."  And such was  his deter-
 mination.  But, unfortunately, not being under
 any pecuniary necessity to labor,  having no-
 thing to do but to eat and drink, and loll about
 on chairs and sofas, he soon began to imagine
 that the weather  was too cold, and that he
 would defer  it until spring.   The second and
 the third time did he  try the  out  door life
 with surprising results,  but with amazing in-
 fatuation he lingered around home, and all the
 symptoms  returned,, with  aggravated  power,
 and  on  going to the out door activities for the
fourth time he found that all his recuperative
power was gone,  there was nothing to build
upon, and he died.  He  was our  brother.
  On the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  eighteen
 hundred and# forty-nine, D. W. M. wrote from 
172         CONSUMPTI ON.
Georgia for medical  advice.  The prominent
symptoms were hacking cough, soreness in the
centre of the breast, quick pulse, cold extremi-
ties,  constipation, narrow chest,  from a con-
sumptive family.
  This case was brought to remembrance by
a letter, dated January 18th, 1856:
  Dear Sir,—I frequently see in the papers
extracts  from " Hall's  Journal  of  Health."
The  pieces sound  like an old benefactor of
mine some years ago.  If you are the same
man, I can say something of your system of
treating pulmonary diseases, which will  be  of
much service  to the afflicted,  and of interest
to you.  I have been raised  from death  to
perfect health.  If you are my physician you
will remember my case.   I am  at my old trade
of bills and answers, and have no thought of
turning doctor.  Yet  I am  disposed to think
that  if I  were to  turn  my attention  to the
curing of pulmonary  ailments, I could have
some success from the light which you and my
own experience have given me.  . 
          MEN  THOUGHTLESS.       173
  The great  trouble in the practical  operation
of your system lies in the obstinate'indifference
and  total want  of thought of most  invalids.
It is next to impossible to get  people to accept
the truth that their own reason and heroic per
severance  in the  employment  of  remedial
means,  must  co-operate with the physician.
The vast  world  of human  beings are mere
machines.  They are deaf to  all the  whispers
of nature.  Men are now as they were  at the
foot  of Sinai, believe in no Divinity  unless it
assumes  a visible and tangible form.   If they
could be prevailed upon to think a little, they
would see that  oils and  inhalations and nos-
trums can never expel a disorder which comes
from physical inaction  and the want of pure
air.  I am indebted to your suggestions for the
little common sense I have, in relation  to the
preservation and restoration of health.   I have
never ceased  trying  to impress  upon   other
sufferers the truths to which I owe my life and
the enjoyment of its blessings.   But I need not
say to  you that  my lectures  are mere  sound 
174
CONSUMP TION.
to  most persons.   They may  be willing to
assent to the truth, but when it comes to acting
in a way not  prescribed by custom, they are,
like monkeys, apt enough to  do like others
around  them, but incapable of original thought
and action.
  I have seen no man outside of a coffin who
was as low as I was, several times since  I re-
ceived your  prescription.   I have followed
your advice till I  got well, and  then relapsed
through  imprudence, and want of thought.
At last, I saw that the next relapse would put
me beyond resuscitation, I began to think to
despise  custom, and to  follow nature.  I am
now restored, but do not cease to work.
  But in spite of the insanity of the suffering
world, I  trust you will  continue to find a few
favored spirits who  will joyfully accept  your
light, and return to health and  happiness.
Pardon me for thus boring you, and also  for
feeling towards  you as  a brother, certainly as
your friend."
  The above letter is valuable—every line of 
        RELIABLE  TESTIMONY.    175
it is suggestive;  it was volunteered,  not writ-
ten for pay  or  publication.  Not written  in
the excitement  of the first month's improve-
ment, nor when  it was undecided whether the
benefits were reliable  and permanent, but after
seven years' testimony to a solid improvement,
a permanent restoration.   This  communication
is valuable also, not  as  being the production
of John Smith,  " his mark," or of some down-
trodden child of poverty,  whose  heart is car-
ried away with  gratitude for the slightest  at-
tentions, the more impressive  from their  in-
frequency, but it is the spontaneous expression
of a professional  man, of a lawyer, whose talents
have made for him a  name and a fortune.  If
there is any one practical truth  more important
among the many than another,  it is this : The
continuance of remedial  means until long after
the health seems to be fully restored.  It was
the neglect of this, which proved fatal in  the
case preceding this last.
   The mode  of treatment in this  case was
first,  the  use of the ordinary medicines em- 
176         CONSUMPTION.
ployed by educated practitioners to restore the
digestive  functions, and  the  circulation, to
their natural condition.  This  was done  in a
short time, and then, and after, the only means
were out-door activities, with the usual atten-
tion to the daily habits and practices of life.
On the fifth of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-
six,  I saw this  gentleman  for the  first time.
He reported himself to be, and appeared to me
to be, in the enjoyment of good health.
   At this  moment, a case occurs  to me of
a young lady,  who made  application some
years ago for  medical advice.  The predomi-
nant symptoms were cough, thinness  of flesh,
a pulse of over a hundred,  and a breathing of
over twenty-six in a minute.   An only daughter
of a family, with whom a whole community
sympathized, it became a case of unusual in-
terest.  Nothing that I could offer as an argu-
ment, could remove from the mother's mind, that
it was not consumption.  It was spinal disease.
Her medical advisers had insisted upon walk-
ing and horseback exercise, and riding in a car- 
            HEART  DISEASES.        177
 riage, all which she had endured with heroic
 fortitude, even when, as often as she went out,
 she returned home almost  fainting  with  pain.
 These inappropriate exercises only aggravated
 her disease, and now at the end of four years,
 she has not known one waking hour free  from
 suffering,  and thousands,  yes,  thousands of
 these hours, have been hours of agony.
   Some heart affections give many of the symp-
 toms of consumption.  A lady of literary repu-
 tation called on me about eight years ago, with
 cough, and other symptoms of an affection of
 the lungs.   I  considered it a heart disease, and
 declined prescribing.  She made application to
 a very distinguished medical writer.   She died
 in a week.   He told me  afterwards,  that his
 treatment had precipitated her death.
  But it is  not one case in a multitude, where
consumption is simple ;  that is,  where  there is
only cough,  as  the overwhelming  symptom.
Most generally, there are complications of cos-
tiveness, pain  about the chest,  white or furred
tongue,  or insufferably bad taste in the mouth
           12 
178           CONSUMPTION.
of mornings, indicating imperfect digestion and
nutrition ; all  of these symptoms must be re-
moved by medicines judiciously administered,
so as to prepare the system for receiving the
highest benefits from the prescriptions.
  Then again,  grave changes  sometimes take
place in the progress of the complaint, requiring
not only a transient, but total  abandonment of
all exercise.
  In other cases there are peculiarities of con-
stitution  requiring a modified treatment.
  In some instances, acute symptoms arise in
which every step a man takes only precipitates
death. A kind of continued looseness of bowels
is a very common symptom in some stages of
consumption, which, if aggravated by exercise,
will be speedily followed by results similar to
those of cholera. In fact, the immediate cause of
death  in consumption  is not unfrequently a
wasting diarrhoea, which sweeps away life in a
few days, when the event might have been post-
poned for months,  and in some cases indefinite-
ly, by the judicious administration of the sub- 
EATING  TO DEATH.       179
nitrate of bismuth, or some of the various other
remedies familiar to the educated  physician.
  One of the most important of all items is to
secure a  constant, perfect  digestion;  and al-
though out-door activities might do it in time,
yet weeks and months  of time, of momentous
value to the patient, may be often saved  by the
judicious administration of  a  single pill, or
even by a mere change of food, as to quantity,
quality, or mode of preparation.   I was called
to a man once who had been sick for a year;
cough, spitting of blood, night sweats,  and so
forth.  His family were around  him  crying,
and the neighbors had collected as if they ex-
pected him to die.  (Three years afterwards he
called at my office in good health, on some mer-
cantile agency on his way to the South, where
he subsequently died of the fever of the coun-
try, as I understood.)   He had been dining on
bacon and cabbage for two or three days pre-
vious ; this changed, with some ordinary reme-
dies,   he was gathering corn from  the field
two or three weeks after I first saw him.  It is 
180
CONSUMPTION.
scarcely worth while to say more, to convince
any one of reflection, that it is nothing short of
infatuation for a man with even  slight  con-
sumptive symptoms, to attempt to treat himself,
even if he does nothing but live out of doors.
  As to the amount and degree of  exercise to
be taken daily, a sound discretion must be ob-
served.   Two main rules  should  govern in
every case.
  First. Never exercise to actual fatigue.
  Second. Begin in moderation,  and gradually
increase in amount, day after day.
  It is a good plan for the patient to turn back,
when on an excursion, the moment he begins to
feel a little tired.   For exercise,  after one  feels
fatigued, does more injury than the previous
exercise has done good; besides, by leaving the
system in a debilitated, as well, perhaps, as in a
heated condition, it is extremely susceptible to
cold.
  To give an idea of the care requisite in some
cases, I advise persons to  exercise about  an
hour before eating, to walk a  block or square, 
MODES  OF  EXERCISE.
181
say thirty yards, and return, and if not incon-
venienced, having done this two or three times
a day, then increase the distance next day some
twenty yards, and thus regularly adding twenty
yards daily, thrice a day, at regular times  be-
fore meals, not increasing the pace materially,
until they find themselves walking two or three
miles at a time.
  If riding on horseback, go  a mile  the first
day and return, until ten miles out and back
are ridden.   Then keep at that distance, but in
five minutes less time each day, until a fast trot
or hard gallop  is reached for the return  ten
miles ; for the faster the gait the greater good
is done, by reason of the increased exercise to
the whole muscular system.
  Swimming is a delightful form  of exercise,
especially in  the early part of the day, and it
is discreditable to the enterprise,  the  benevo-
lence  and  intelligence  of this and our other
large  cities, that artificial swimmeries are  not
furnished both for males and females, where
adults may amuse themselves,  and  boys and 
182         CONSUMPTION.
girls may learn an art, the ignorance of which
is the  occasion of so large a loss of valuable
human life every year.
   Where it  is practicable, I have made it a
favorable prescription to retire to some private
place in the woods,  and run some twenty yards
and back, twice a day,  about an hour before
eating, as fast as  practicable, with  the mouth
resolutely closed until the race is over, increas-
ing the distance some five yards every fifth day,
until the  person  is running  a hundred yards
and back thrice a day.  If the weather is un-
propitious, or other circumstances prevent, I
often suggest running up stairs from cellar to
attic, on  the same principle of small beginning
and gradual increase.  When there is recupera-
tive power left, it is often surprising how the
capabilities of the system are increased in ways
like these, when they are  engaged in with a
hearty and pleasurable interest.
   The reason for keeping the mouth closed, is
to intensify the effect of the exercise.  The ob-
ject of the exercise is to expand the lungs in a 
GYMNASTICS.          183
 natural way, to make room for a larger recep-
 tion of air at each breath ; the more  perfectly
 to purify  the blood  and render it  life-giving.
 The first effort, after one of these exercises, is,
 to open the mouth and let out the pent-up air,
 which, by thus being  pent-up,  gets warmer
 every second, and by its increased temperature
 increases the expansion of each air-cell, and on
 getting rid of  it, a full, long, deep breath is
 taken, which  forces the air  to the farthest re-
 cesses of the lungs, carrying with such inspira-
 tion its fullest, richest freight of pure, fresh air.
 The reader will see at once the superiority of
 these modes, being out of doors,  over the use
 of dumb-bells, imaginary fisticuffs, beatings of
 the chest, and forcible and frequent large  in-
 spirations, which  but give  evidence  of  their
 unnaturalness by the light-headedness, or other
 uncomfortable sensations which  they produce.
Dumb bells and violent  gymnastics  I  do not
advise, if symptoms of decided consumption are
present; for I have known strains and bleeding
to have followed these sometimes, which were 
184          CONSUMPTION.
never after recovered  from.   In the treatment
df this disease, we uniformly adopt the princi-
ple, the safer plan is the better one.   I would
not lightly have my own life risked, nor would
I do so to others.
  Boat-rowing, hunting on foot, especially in a
hilly  region, are  excellent  forms of  exercise.
Sawing wood, if done regularly, and in modera-
tion, has great advantages.   But  in  all these
forms, the reader is  entreated to remember,
that the good effect is increased in a multifold
proportion, if in addition to the exercise, there
is a pleasurable and profitable object ahead; one
which agreeably  absorbs the whole  attention.
This simple idea well merits the mature reflec-
tion of every invalid and every physician.  To
walk a mile to a certain post,  and then turn
round and walk back again, or any other routine
exercise, with the  sole object of health,  is  de-
pressing and burdensome to any one, and  the
more so to those who  have  been educated,  or
have pursued lives of remunerating  activities.
  These things are stated as being merely sug- 
         MODES  OF  EXERCISE.      185
gestive, with a view  of impressing the princi-
ples of action on the reader's mind; to be  ap-
plied and modified in any given case, accord-
ing to the soundest discretion of the intelligent
practitioner.  Most especially does it require a
sound  judgment in apportioning  exercise to
women at particular seasons  and conditions of
life,  and the various  states  of their peculiar
systems.
   The kind of  exercise which in our judgment
is preferable to all others, is steady, continuous
journeyings  on horseback, every day, regard-
less of weathers and seasons, some fifteen miles
in the  forenoon and ten in the afternoon ; never
going out before breakfast, nor  traveling later
than sundown ; leaving all medicines at home
and eating whatever may be placed on the ta-
ble ; if not palatable,  let it alone, or take the
less of it;  never asking for a particular drink,
but being  careful to drink something hot for
breakfast, in the shape of a single cup of weak
coffee, or if preferred,  any kind of green, black 
186         CONSUMPTION.
or herb tea, with as much  or little cream or
sugar, as the taste may require.
  What has been stated so much at length is
merely secondary.   The thing of first import-
ance, and which should most deeply impress the
general mind is, not  the arrest  or permanent
cure of actual consumption—for until men be-
come more energetic, more systematic, and more
intelligent, but few cases of  decided disease can
be cured, comparatively speaking.  The great
practical point is,
  First. To ascertain the first far-off symptoms
in the  young.
   Second.  To adopt  measures which in most
cases would  certainly  ward off the disease
effectually and  permanently.
   In a preceding  page, three great, ever pre-
sent,   predominating,  early  symptoms were
stated—
   First.  Acceleration of the pulse.
   Second.  Acceleration of the  breathing.
   Third. Diminution of strength and flesh.
   As these three symptoms are sooner or  later 
          IMPORTANT  SIGNS.       187
a combination in every case of consumption, it
is believed that the increase in the rapidity  of
the pulse for weeks and months, ought to be
considered as  a warning of approaching con-
sumption ; ought to be a note of terror to every
paternal  heart, and  the physician should be
promptly  consulted, and urged  in  the most
earnest manner to a thorough examination of
the whole case, and if, in addition, the lungs are
found to work imperfectly, all ground for hesi-
tation should be considered  as removed, and
the person should be treated as a consumptive,
and the treatment should  be continued in the
most prompt, systematic and energetic manner
for months after every  consumptive symptom
has disappeare'd, so as not merely to place  the
system in health, but to continue until  a habit
of health is restored to it; then and then only,
is the haven of safety reached.
   To Spirometry, or breath measurement, is the
most special attention directed.
   The Spirometer is an instrument which meas-
ures the amount of air which the lungs are 
188
CONSUMPTION.
capable of expiring, with mathematical preci-
sion, nicety and accuracy, down to the fraction
of a cubic inch.
  If we measure the lungs of a thousand men,
under  similar circumstances, with undisputed
health of lungs, and  find  that  the  smallest
amount given by any one is two hundred and
forty cubic inches, we begin to conclude  that
any  man who can  expire two hundred and
forty cubic inches  of air at  one effort,  has
healthy lungs, and the evidence is cumulative,
as each known healthy pair of lungs comes up
to that measure.
  The  testimony is strengthened, if on measur-
ing the lungs  of as many persons who are ap-
parently consumptive,  and who, on dying, are
opened and found to have diseased and decay-
ing lungs, and that in no single case was there
a greater amount given than one hundred and
twenty, then we begin to fix in our own minds
a standard of health in connection with  a
measurement  of two hundred and forty cubic
inches, or six  pints, forty cubic inches being a 
          MOMENTOUS  TESTS.       189
 pint.   On the other hand, to a measurement of
 only one hundred and twenty, or three pints,
 we attach  the notion  of actual consumption.
 With  these for starting points, medical men
 have for some years been making their obser-
 vations, and the general truths arrived at are,
   First.  That if a pair  of lungs,  in  perfect
 health, measure  two hundred  and forty cubic
 inches, it is evident, that if half the lungs are
 gone,  they can measure  but a hundred  and
 twenty cubic inches, and so on as to any pro-
 portion above or below.
   Second.  If under treatment, where there is
 deficiency, that deficiency becomes less and less
 every week ;  then is the patient making a cer-
 tain and safe improvement.  On the other hand,
 if in all  cases where  the deficiency becomes
 greater and greater,  from week to week,  the
 symptoms become aggravated, and the patient
 always dies, we  have  double testimony as to
 the practical value of lung measurement. With
this high advantage,  the patient  has  ocular
evidence  of his actual condition ;  an evidence 
190         CONSUMPTION.
 which impresses the  mind above  his own san-
 guine nature, and above the benevolent wishes
 of the physician, who is apt to believe what he
 wants to be, even contrary to his  own  convic-
 tions.
  An objection will instantly present itself, that
 some persons  have more lungs  than  others.
 That is true.   And it has been discovered that
 nature has regulated the amount  of lungs for
 each person according to  certain fixed laws.
  First. The taller a man is, the more lungs he
has,  by a regular average of eight cubic inches
more for every inch in height, beginning at a
certain figure to  start upon.
  Second. That  women have eight per  cent.
less lungs than men.
  Third. That increased girth of chest does not
give increase  of lungs; that is,  of two  men
measuring five feet seven inches in height, the
girth of  one being thirty  inches, while  that
of the other  is forty-four  inches, the  lung
measure of each, in health of lungs, will be
two  hundred  and twenty-two  cubic  inches. 
       PRACTICAL SPIROMETRY.    191
That observation  accords with science, is the
familiar fact, that fat men are not more  long-
winded than lean  men.  And  yet the  multi-
tude have run away with the fact that a large
chest is a guarantee of increased safety of lungs.
   A man applied  to me, and there was  a de-
ficit of an  hundred inches.   I  told him there
was no remedy.  He did not believe me, for he
had walked to my  office.   He died in ten days.
On the other hand, I have numbers of living
cases where the persons believed themselves on
the verge of a decline.  The lungs gave their
fullest  measurement, and at the end of years,
they are scattered over  the country in  good
health.
   Of the practical uses of Spiromeiry, a single
case will be given  of a youth, aged seventeen,
thin in flesh, pain in the side, sore throat, tight-
ness across the breast, short  breath, difficult to
fetch a long breath, weak  back,  troublesome
running and sniffling of the nose, with other
symptoms  indicating a  weakly  constitution.
The measurement  of his lungs  should  have 
192         CONSUMPTION.

been two hundred and twenty-five inches; they
were only two hundred.
	Date.		Pulse.	Weight.	Breathing.	Lung Mea
May,	1852,	22.	72	103	16	200
June		2.	72	103	16	206
		9.	72	103*	16	216
		24.	72	107	16	238
July		19.	88	104	20	216
		23.	82	103	18	216
Aug.		7.	78	105	15	230
		24.	76	1071	16	238
Sept.		27.	72	mi	16	250
Nov.	1853,	8.	72	121*	16	252
  The parents of this case visited me at differ-
ent times, expressing the deepest solicitude,
and exhibiting an abiding impression, that their
child, upon whom so many hopes were hung,
was certainly going into a decline, especially as
he had grown up rapidly, and was a slim, nar-
row-chested youth.
  The reader  will see with  what admirable
promptness the lungs answered  to the means
used for  their developement,  in the very first 
         AN  ONLY  SON  SAVED.      1<>3
fortnight, and with that  increase of action, a
corresponding increase in flesh, so that in four
months, and they embracing the hottest of the
year, when  most persons lose both flesh  and
strength, he had gained eight and a half pounds,
while the  capacity of the lungs for receiving
air had  increased  one-fifth, that is, fifty cubic
inches,  and at the  end of the year, when he
called as a friend, was still  gaining  in flesh,
strength and vigor, with no  indication of any
disease whatever.
   What untold treasure would  those  parents
have given, when their child was first brought
for examination and advice, to have known
that the very next year, their son would  have
been one of the most hearty, healthy, manly
looking young nien of his age in  New York.
And yet, there can be no doubt that he would
have dwindled away, like a flower prematurely
withered, had  his case been neglected, in the
vain hope of his " growing out of it."
  The reader will notice, that on the thirteenth
of July,  every symptom became unfavorable.
             13 
194         CONSUMPTION.
The reason was, he had gone with  his parents
first to Newport, then to Saratoga, intermitting
all remedial means.   But  on  resuming them,
the symptoms speedily abated, and his improve-
ment was steady, until his full restoration, and
four  years  later his health is  in  all respects
good.
  The only value of the  Spirometer is in  its
accurate measurement  of the capacity of the
lungs to receive air.  It does not tell what is
the reason.   It does not determine whether any
deficit arises from  actual  decay of lung  sub-
stance, whether it is because the lungs merely
work feebly, or whether they are filled with the
phlegm of bronchitis or a common cold.   It de-
termines infallibly how much air the lungs are
consuming, and determines no more.  It is for
the skilful physician to decide from what cause
that  defect  arises, and to advise accordingly.
   He is not wise who decides, in any given case,
whether it  is consumption or not, from any one
symptom,  or  from any  half dozen.  Every
symptom  the patient  presents, with several 
         HOW  TO  BE  DECIDED.     105
which he may not present, must be taken into
consideration, and besides, the parentage,  the
health  of brothers and  sisters, temperament,
habits of life, business occupation, in fact,  the
whole history of the man, should be spread out
like a map, and well considered, and even then,            >
should be decided upon, with mature delibera-
tion.
  Wrth all the light which so common  a dis-
ease has  given in the course of ages,  it is  an
acknowledged fact, that to this day, consump-
tion may exist in a given case, and go on to a
fatal termination, and yet, eminent medical men
be unable to detect its presence until by actual
inspection of the lungs after death—Spirometry
not having been brought into requisition.   Under
such circumstances, the  intelligent reader will
readily  appreciate  its value, when contrasted
with lights derived from its  use  in  the  fol-
lowing  case,  as detailed  in The British and
Foreign Medico- Chirurogical  Review for July,
1856, republished by S. S. & W. Wood/ 389
Broadway,   New York,  originally  reported 
196
CONSUMPTION.
by the inventor of the Spirometer, John Hutch-
inson, Esq., now Doctor, of London, in eighteen
hundred and forty-six.
   " Freeman, the American giant, came over
to England in eighteen hundred and forty-two,
to train for a prize fight.
    Date.       Height.     Weight.    Lung Measure.
1842, Nov.  6 ft. Ill in.  271 lbs.  434 cubic in.
1844, Nov.      ;i      243 lbs.  344   ""
1845, Nov.  6 ft.  71 in.  141 lbs.
   It will be thus seen, that in perfect health, in
November, 1842,  he gave the weight and lung
measure as above.
   Just two years later, he came to Dr. Hutchin-
inson in ill-health, with a loss of lung measure
of twenty per cent., and in weight of near ten
per cent.   At  this time, the  physicians, well
skilled in auscultation, affirmed that they could
not detect any  organic disease, which means,
they saw no evidence that there Was  anything
like destruction of the lungs, going on.  One
year later, Surgeon Paul, of Winchester hospi-
tal, wrote to Dr. Hutchinson, that Freeman had 
           MOMENTOUS  TESTS.       197
j ust died.  " His lungs were studded with tuber-
cles ;  large cavities filled with yellow matter
were found at the top of each lung, while both
lungs were nearly healthy at their base."
   In this one case, there is an exemplification
of several of the most important points in this
volume, summed up in few words, that,
   Consumption begins with a gradual diminution
of breath and flesh,  which can be detected at a
stage  of its progress, by lung  measurement, when
the best auscultations fail to discover any symptom
of actual consumption.
   With the utmost earnestness, therefore,  do
we call upon every reader, to weigh well what
has been said in reference to any falling  away
of flesh for weeks and months  together; any
diminution of length of breath, as indicated  by
actual lung measurement, or by a perceptible
easiness of fatigue or unusual acceleration  of
breath from exercises or efforts which formerly
gave  rise  to  no  appreciable inconvenience.
Better a thousand times be falsely alarmed,
than not to be  alarmed  at all, until  you find 
198          CONSUMPTION.
yourself stepping  into the grave.  And irre-
spective of consumptive disease, leaving it out
of view altogether, as  impossible of occurrence
in any given case,  a protracted imperfectness,
want of fulness of breathing, must be inevita-
bly followed by some sickness or other, and a
premature  death from  this,  there is  no  es-
caping ; proving as it does in the language of
an eminent medical writer, that " The study
of lung measurement  in health and disease, is
as beneficial as that of the mechanism of respi-
ration to the science and progress of medicine,"
and that medical men "have been forced to
unite their testimony, in  pointing out how a
knowledge of lung measurement lends invalu-
able  aid in the indication of a disease, most
subtle in its commencement and most fatal in
its termination."
  As early as sixteen hundred and seventy-
nine, near  two centuries  ago, Borelli insti-
tuted experimental inquiries as to the quantity
of air which the lungs could contain, and from
that time until the present, urged by a convic- 
              SEA  VOYAGES.        199
 tion of its high importance, various attempts
 have been made and instruments contrived by
 such men as Goodwin, Davy, Thompson, Kite,
 Pepys, Herbert, Seguin, and many others,  to
 accomplish a mathematical measurement of
 lung ability of respiration, and not until eigh-'
 teen  hundred and forty two, has the method
 been perfected.
               SEA  VOYAGES,
 In consumption, are  often advised.  Old sailors
 know what the " land coughv is.   As soon as
 the ship comes within forty or fifty miles of
 the land, the cough  returns.   A  voyage of
 many months, and even years, seldom coming
 within a hundred miles of land,  the person do-
 ing ship duty, may have a valuable  remedial
 effect in cases of forming consumption ; but a
 much less time, in horseback journeys among
 the  mountains of the middle states of the
 Union,  would have a many fold happier effect
in any given case.
   A single glance at passenger life aboard
ship, as to  its details, is sufficient to show how 
200         CONSUMPTION.
unlikely a consumptive is to be benefited by it.
  The author has travelled  much  by sea, in
sailing vessels and steamships, has been out of
sight of land for months at a time, but he has
failed to find a single breath of pure air in
any ship's cabin he ever entered.
  Very few persons  are on  deck before  sun
up, and very few invalids are there  after sun
down.   Very few indeed, manage to get out
of the cabin until after breakfast, or 8 o'clock,
and retiring for supper  at six, there are just
ten hours left for breathing the pure sea air on
deck, but out of that ten, two must be deducted
for taking dinner  and lunch  and a nap.   But
every fair day, in a well regulated ship, the
decks are washed off  in the morning and are
quite  wet even as late  as nine  o'clock;  this
leaves  but seven  hours.   But  somehow or
other, there is always something to be done on
deck in fine weather,  and the space for pro-
menade is confined to the quarter deck, which
being occupied by other passengers,  sitting,
lounging,  standing in groups, is  to an  invalid 
SEA  SHORE.
201
needing exercise, about equal to no exercise at
all.  Thus, even in fair weather at sea, an in-
valid has seven hours out of the twenty-four to
breath the pure  air of heaven, with  compara-
tively limited opportunities of exercise, while
fourteen hours—just double the time—must be
spent in breathing a bilge water atmosphere.
Then again, when it is remembered how many
days are not  " fair" at sea, even in  summer
time; foggy days, rainy days, days  in which
cold, raw, damp winds prevail, when confine-
ment to the cabin  for the whole twenty-four
hours is a necessity to an invalid,  it must
strike the  reader that the advantages of pure
air at sea,  are a myth, and bear no appreciable
proportion to  horseback activities, as far as a
consumptive person is concerned.  To get at
the pure truth of any thing, we  must look at
minute specifications,  and judge and act ac-
cordingly.
                SEA  SHORE.
  The common observation of persons living
on the coast, is so. conclusive  of  the injurious 
202          CONSUMPTION.
effect of such localities in all affections of the
lungs, it is not necessary to offer an argument,
except merely to state the reason.
  All consumptives are  easily chilled,  from
want of vitality, of physical vigor;  there  is
always more or less dampness in sea-coast situ-
ations, as well  as  of wind.   Dampness cools
the surface rapidly, and so will a slight draft
of air, and when both are combined, the chill-
ing effect is prompt and most pernicious.  This
is one of the reasons why consumptives have a
good appetite usually; the body needs warmth,
that  warmth is derived from the food, and the
appetite is in proportion to the demand for
heat; but since the digestion is not vigorous,
the fat of the system is used for fuel, and this
supply being drawn upon day by day,  the pa-
tient wastes away  to skin and  bone ;  hence,
heat  being more needed on the sea-shore, the
decline in  flesh  is  more  rapid;  hence,  also,
consumptives should select  inland localities,
where many miles of woodland break the force
of the winds and absorb their moisture. 
    IS  CONSUMPTION  CATCHING?  203
   Lake shore  and prairie localities are unde-
 sirable, as cold damp  winds usually prevail
 there.
   The  locality beyond all others best suited
 for the  restoration  of consumptives,  should
 possess a cool,  dry, still atmosphere.
   The coldest  latitudes are the dryest,  and
 often less subject to winds.  Hence it is, that
 in Wisconsin,  the roads  are often dusty  in
 winter time.
      IS CONSUMPTION COMMUNICATED ?
   It is not "catching," in the general sense of
 that word.   Quite a number of those who have
 applied to the Author for treatment have had
 a wife or husband die of consumption.  A per-
 son in robust health need not fear sleeping  in
 the same room.  At  the  same  time, an indi-
 vidual in feeble health would be injured by it,
 and if inclined to  consumption  would have
that disease more speedily developed;  not be-
cause of its  "catching" nature,  not because
there  is any substance emanating from a con-
sumptive in the nature of seeds of the disease, 
204
CONSUMPTION.
but because the air has been rendered impure ;
any other atmosphere equally impure  from
any other cause, would promote or precipitate
consumption just as well.   Let the reader keep
in mind that impure air of any kind and from
whatever cause, is not only promotive of con-
sumption but originates it, whether that air be
rendered impure by natural causes or by arti-
ficial means, whether  by  the odors of a slop-
tub or the fumes of medicinal substances. No-
thing  can add  to  the virtues  of  pure air, in
cleansing and perfecting the blood; otherwise,
an Allwise Father  would have made it differ-
ently ;  nor can  anything  else supply its place,
because, whatever Omniscience has contrived,
that is the best of its kind.
             EXPECTORATION.
  No means known, can  determine any thing
positive, from the expectoration, as to whether
consumption  exists in any given  case or not,
until a period of the disease so far advanced
that other  symptoms  supply  all  the proofs
needed.  Much has been written  on this sub- 
        RICE-LIKE  PELLICLES.    205
ject, but scientific physicians of all countries
have come to the conclusion, that the expecto-
ration  affords no reliable or valuable test, un-
til the later stage of the disease.
              CHEESY MATTER.
  In looking down the throats of some per-
sons, whitish lumps are discovered about the
Tonsils and adjacent parts;  these lumps are of
various sizes,  from  a pin-head to a filbert.
The ignorant conclude that the Tonsils are ul-
cerated, and apply to the physician in a state
of alarm.   Other  persons  are  constantly spit-
ting  up  similar  particles,  either  cheesy  or
chalky.   The soft ones have sometimes a very
disagreeable odor; sometime the harder par-
ticles  from a particular  position  excite  dis-
tressing cough lasting for weeks, and at others
very inconvenient breathing, in either case the
symptoms abate at  the moment of their  dis-
lodgment from any of the branches or bifurca-
tions of the windpipe.  The author had a case
presenting violent cough, short breathing, fall-
ino1 off in flesh, with other  indications of con- 
206
CONSUMPTION.
sumption.  In a short time a chalky lump was
expectorated, and the man got perfectly well.
  A lady aged twenty-seven,  had a habitual
cough, hectic, flushed cheek, pains in the chest,
difficult  breathing,  debility and yellow ex-
pectoration.  She died, and not a solitary tu-
bercle was found in the lungs.   All the symp-
toms arose  primarily from two chalky  con-
cretions,  pea-sized, and joined  together in the
centre of the lower portion of the left lung, the
right lung being perfectly sound.
   The presence of these  substances  in the
throat; or  as  expectorated  in  small rice-like
bodies, whether chalky or cheesy in hardness,
whether  offensive or inodorous, indicates a de-
praved condition of the blood.   Tubercles may
or may not be present.   In cases where they
are a form of tubercle, the author considers it
the easiest way of getting rid of them.  In
whatever form they exist,  the  best plan is to
let them  alone, they do no special harm; their
simple presence, is no sign of consumption.
But build up the general health. 
     NATURE  OF  NIGHT  SWEATS.   207
                NIGHT SWEATS,
   Merely indicate debility; they are of them-
 selves no possible proof of the presence of con-
 sumptive disease, as all experienced physicians
 know; when accompanied with flushed cheek
 and fever, what is called hectic,  they indicate
 that yellow matter is in the  body somewhere,
 and that it is being re-absorbed into the circu-
 lation.   The only remedy where it exists, is to
 get rid of it.  Taking quinine,  elixir  vitriol,
 and other constringing remedies, only increases
 the cough, and shuts down the hatchway while
 the hold is on fire; it  is confining matters
 which nature is endeavoring to push  out of
 the system.  The true policy is to  help na-
 ture, by  setting  the liver to work, and causing
 copious  evacuation ; by keeping the skin well
 rubbed with  tonic appliances, so  as to relieve
 it from its flabby condition, and  above all,  to
breathe the greatest amount of pure air, so that
every breath  that leaves the body may go out
laden  with these impurities,  most especially
when this yellow matter  is in the lungs.  At 
208
CONSUMPTIO N.
 the same time, let the patient eat heartily, so
 as to give strength to the system to throw off
 this  offending material.
                  TONICS.
  The great cry is for something to create an
 appetite; but how wise, let the thinking reader
judge.
   Consumptive  people are weak all over;
 every muscle  and gland in the system has its
 share of the debility.  Nature ordinarily regu-
 lates the appetite to the needs of the  system,
 and  its  capabilities.  But in consumption, the
 need for food is greater  than the power of di-
 gestion, because there is an extra demand for
 both strength and warmth. Here then,  science,
 for once,  must devise  a proper adjustment—
 must interfere.   But how ? Not  by digitalis
 and  tartar-water, or  other nauseants, to  take
 away the appetite ; great nature, alive to such
 an error, takes away the susceptibility to  nau-
 sea, and what makes nine out often "deathly
 sick"—a storm at sea—fails of its usual effect
 as to the consumptive, in many instances. 
        THE TIME  FOR  TONICS.     209
   It would be equally unwise to assist nature
in giving or increasing the appetite, because,
already, the stomach has more to do, than in
its participant debility,  it is able  to perform.
The true course to be pursued then, is, not to
take away the appetite nor to increase it, but to
direct  all the attention towards giving to the
stomach greater powers of assimilation, by ad-
ministering suitable remedies after eating.   The
physician is not to give tonics to increase the
feeling of hunger,  but to add to the power of
digestion.   Otherwise,  the consumptive will
eat more than he  can digest, and thereby,  in
many instances, aggravates the cough, by the
acidity  of an over meal,  which  irritates the
throat, causes "tickling" to be felt there, and
a cough, lasting for  hours, is suddenly termi-
nated by vomiting up all that had been eaten,
which,  by the sending forth of sour fumes,
shows  plainly enough the  cause of mischief.
The author has known persons to cough half a
night from a hearty supper.   Hence his almost
universal  advice, to  take nothing for supper,
             14 
 210         CONSUMPTION.
 absolutely nothing, but a single cup of weak
 tea, or other warm, mild drink,  and some cold
 bread and butter.   At other  times, the acidity
 passes off in the shape of a wasting diarrhoea,
 sometimes cutting life short off, in a few hours,
 unless competent  medical advice is promptly
 sought.
   A consumptive  person ought  never to have
 more than two actions of the bowels in twenty-
 four hours, nor less than one, but it is far bet-
 ter to have less than one, than more than two.
   The scientific practitioner will know at once
 the whole class of  tonics.  It is practically use-
 ful to state here some things that are largely
 advised, but are injurious, and  not beneficial,
 to wit: the whole  class of beers, ales and por-
 ters ; they give no solid flesh, impart no  real
strength;  they do sometimes  give a  puffy,
flabby  condition of muscle, but it is not real
fat.  They make a deceitful show up to a cer-
tain point; after that, they cease to have  any
effect, give not even of their temporary stimu- 
THE  BEST  TONICS.       211
lus, leaving the patient the more rapidly to fail
and sink into the grave.
  The same objections apply to all the wines,
while there are occasional effects from their em-
ployment in special  cases which  make them
more decidedly injurious.
  In  cases where tonics are indicated in the
clear judgment of the physician,  they should
be  in the  form of  the unmistakably  pure
brandies and whiskies, saturated with the bit-
ter  principle of  those  roots  which educated
physicians usually employ, always to be taken
after meals, say within half an hour after eat-
ing, with an alkali or not, as  the  state of the
system  may demand.   Still,  the author be-
lieves that the pure Cayenne Pepper, as found
at the best city drug-stores,  if largely used at
meals, would have  all the  best effects of the
brandies,  without the  exciting or  injurious
and transient influences  of the alcohol.  The
Cayenne gives power  to  the stomach, without
affecting the brain  or the  pulse.  It is hoped
that medical men will mature  this suggestion. 
212
CONSUMPTION.
  The author does not believe that alcohol or
fat, whether in the shape of pure brandy or
genuine cod-liver oil, has ever had any direct
curative  agency in any  case of consumption
ever treated by them;  both remedies have their
champions, and they are  equally self-deceived,
from not taking an enlarged view of the sub-
ject.  That both of them do good in consump-
tion, is not denied; but it is not a radical good,
and is never permanent.  The only benefit de-
rived from them  is time; they protract the
burning up of the  system, by affording fuel to
the ceaseless fire which wastes the consumptive
away ; and as long as there is oil or alcohol to
feed the  flame, the body itself remains, with
limitations, unconsumed.   Oil and alcohol are
useful in consumption for the very same reason,
to wit: they are largely made of carbon. Thus
it is that there are cases, in the experience of
all, where persons  improved wonderfully for a
season, but after swilling down " whole tubs"
of whiskey and gallons. of cod-liver oil, they
have died at  last.   A  further  evidence of 
OUT-DOOR  ACTIVITIES.     21-j
the nature  of these remedies, is the frequent
confession, "Igain no strength" under their em-
ployment.   But these remedies do often "give
time," and if that time is properly improved by
out-door activities, a good result will be gained.
But when it is remembered that out-door  ac-
tivities have been efficient of themselves, with-
out the aid of oil or  alcohol, there is abundant
reason to question the efficacy of either; and
that after  all,  the  great curative  agent  in
any case of consumption removed, and replaced
by permanent health, has been moderate exer-
cise out of doors, IN all weathers, for a period
of many  weelcs and months.
   It is important to  note that the  great and
radical difference between these two classes of
remedial means, is this:
   Out-door activities, by improving the di-
gestion, eliminates from the food both warmth
and  nutrition, while oil  and  alcohol  give
warmth only, affording  no nourishment, im-
parting no strength, and consequently effecting 
 214         CONSUMPTION.
 no radical cure; bringing about no fundamental
 change in the system.
   But if moderate and persistent exercise in the
 open air has accomplished so much in the cure
 of consumption, how is  it, that it has not been
 known before, and  why is it not more fre-
 quently  resorted to ?   It  has been  known
 among educated physicians for centuries, but
 not one in a thousand has the time and money
 necessary to  carry out  the remedies, and of
 those who have both,  not one in a  million has
 that firmness of will and energy of character re-
 quired to a thorough observance of the means
 of cure.
   A case is  given, where a lady made a be-
 ginning with a short  ride, supported by  pil-
lows in a carriage.   In two months  she was
 able to drive herself, which she did every day
regardless of the weather.  In another month she
began to ride on horseback.   In six months
she was nearly free from the general symptoms
of the disease, but intermitting the  exercise,
 before she was fully restored, she  relapsed and 
      CURED BY  SAWING WOOD.  215
died six months  afterwards.  This single case
illustrates the perversity of multitudes and their
want of perseverance.  In the  very face  of
such a remarkable improvement from  the use
of means neither disagreeable nor expensive,
this lady tired and died.
   Another case is reported  of a wood-cutter in
Maine, who could scarcely  lift his axe, but he
was compelled to work for a subsistence, and at
length became strong enough to  do full labor.
Yet  with the every-day admission  of  feeling
better  from being out of doors,  patients will
cling to the house, and loll  about on sofas, and
doze away their existence in warm rooms and
sweltering feather beds, and  thus become the
passive instruments of their own execution.
   Sydenham, called the father of physic, born
more than two  hundred years  ago, wrote of
the out-door activities as the "all in all" reme-
dy for consumption, asserting that if these were
carried out fully, a man could afford  to eat and
drink whatever he wanted.
  M. *Piorry,  one of the most experienced phy- 
216         CONSUMPTION.
sicians in France, in lung diseases, uses the fol-
lowing explicit language : " If I was called upon
to choose between health precautions and the
whole category of remedies, (besides Iodine,) I
should give preference to good regimen, a nu-
tritive and reparative diet.  Patients coming
from the  north, in spite of  all that has been
said to the contrary, recover no faster and no
better, than elsewhere."
   It is instructive  to remember that only those
who are in the forming stages of consumption
derive any substantial benefit  from going to
the south, and that benefit is the result of the
milder weather enabling them  to  spend the
greater portion of their time out of doors.
               the  tonsils.
   It has become  fashionable of late years to
cut out the tonsils, and to clip  off the palate,
whenever a man  complains of a  cough  or a
sore throat.
   Dr. Physic  once cured a  man who was ap-
parently in the last stages of consumption, and
who had tried in  vain the most eminent prac- 
removing tonsils.       217
titioners in Europe and America, by clipping off
the palate.   It is the mature conviction of the
author, that not one case in ten thousand, is ma-
terially  or radically  benefited by the bloody
practice.  It is very much like the vaunted rem-
edy of passing a  knitting needle  through the
tongue horizontally for the instantaneous cure
of stammering, but as soon as the parts heal, the
impediment returns.  For a  few days after a
palate is clipped off, the symptoms abate, but
return on healing.
   Cases  are recorded  where  persons  have
nearly bled  to death from excision of the ton-
sils. The operation is not a painful one, and
the risk is rare, but it should not be incurred,
without the clearest indications of its value.
   The author believes that in many cases, the
removal  of  the tonsils is an  indirect,  but the
actual cause of death; in this way, colds often
settle in the tonsils; that is,  spend all their
force there,  and being sparsely supplied with
nerves, they have not much feeling, while be-
ing attached to soft parts, they swell readily, 
 218         consumption.
 and thus become a temporary reservoir for the
 inflammatory  or congested blood.  Thus the
 tonsils  bear the brunt of every cold that  is
 taken.  But suppose the tonsils are removed,
 every cold passes lower  down  and settles on
 the  delicate throat  organs, or  on  the lungs
 themselves, which, if tubercated, amounts  to
 nothing short of adding fuel  to the  flame of
 consumption.  Thus  it is, that when we look
 into a  man's  throat  who has consumptive
 symptoms, and find it looks like a great cav-
 ern, we  conclude he is going to die, because
 there are no tonsils there to act as a derivative
 from the lungs, while remedial means are em-
 ployed in another direction.  The author com-
 mends this suggestion to every young physi-
 cian, for nature does nothing in vain, and the
 tonsils must have  an  important purpose, al-
 though men have not yet found  out what thai
purpose  is.
                 drains,
  Of whatever character,  especially about thf
age of twenty, sap  the health  of multitude* 
TO  theological  students.  219
but  of none more than of those who yield to
youthful   indulgences,  indicated by the pale
face, the  hollow cheek, the nervous habit, the
depressed spirit, the love of solitude, and that
general  want of vitality,  which often  leaves
the feet  cold, the fingers icy, while the whole
body is so sensitive, that a slight breath of air,
or an emotion of the mind, sends a tear to the
eye or a chill through the whole frame.
  As such medicines as  control these things,
either act temporarily or take away the powers
of the individual permanently,  those who are
thus afflicted should consult  their  own physi-
cian, for  in him only are  they  safe from pe-
cuniary impositions ; and by such natural agen-
cies as will build up the general health, he will
indicate the only road to restoration, and thus
save from an early consumption.
          theological students
  Of the present da}'-,  conduct themselves in
such  a  manner at the seminaries, as sends
them into the ministry  in a physical condition
which incapacitates them  both in body and 
220         consumption.
mind for the arduous and responsible duties of
ministerial life.  While every means are used
to educate their minds to the highest capabili-
ties of logic and of science, no efforts are made to
give them high bodily health; the consequence
is, that not  a few  die within  a year or two
after leaving the seminary, while many desert
their calling on account of ill health.   This is a
monstrous oversight—an error in church econ-
omies,  which is amazing; thousands of dollars
and ten years  of time are spent in preparing a
young  man  for the ministry, and just as the
course is completed, he lays himself down and
dies.  With a  view of reaching such, and also
of making these  pages practically useful to a
large circle of readers, the author appends two
circulars which he prepared some years ago,
for the use of those who  applied to  him for
medical advice, not only  as a present guide, but
as a permanent counsellor, after they  were no
longer under his special  care:
            AIR AND EXERCISE.
   No remedy  known to  men, has such a pow- 
AIR  AND  EXERCISE.
221
erful and permanent influence in maintaining
or regaining health, as the judicious  employ-
ment of cheerful, exertive exercise in the open
air;  and if properly attended to in  a timely
manner, it will cure a large majority of all cura-
ble diseases, and will sometimes succeed, when
medicines have lost their power.
   If you  have actual consumption,  or are
merely threatened with it; or if,  from some of
your relatives having died with it, you  have
unpleasant apprehensions  of its  lurking  in
your own body; or whether  from a diseased
liver  or disordered stomach, or a dyspeptic
condition of the  system, the foundations of the
dreadful disease are being laid  in your  own
person;  or whether by  exposure,  by  over
bodily exertion  or  mental labor, or wasting
cares for the present, or anxieties for the fu-
ture, or by hugging sharp-pointed memories
of the past, or by intemperate living, in eating
or drinking, or by unwise habits or  practices
in life, you have originated in your  own per-
son,  the  ordinary precursors  of  consumption, 
222          consumption.
 such as hacking cough, pains in the breast,
 chilliness, wasting of flesh and strength, short-
 ness of breath  on exercise—under  all these
 circumstances, a proper  attention to air  and
 exercise are indispensable aids—are among the
 principal,  essential  means of cure,   and are
 never  to  be dispensed with ;   confinement to
 the regulated temperature of a room  in  any
 latitude, is certain death, if persevered in;  and
 if from any cause, this air and exercise are not
 practicable to you, except to a limited extent,
 it is your  misfortune; your not being able to
 employ them, does not make them the less ne-
 cessary, and they have  no substitutes.
  When the body is  diseased, it is because it
 is full of diseased, decaying, dead, and useless
 particles;  the object of exercise, as  well as
 medicine, is to throw off these particles; med-
 icine does it more quickly, but exercise more
 safely and certainly, if there is time to wait for
its effects.  Every motion  of the body, every
bend of the  arm, every crook  of the  finger,
every feeling,  every breath, every thought, is 
OVER  EXERCISE.        223
at the expense, the consumption, the throwing
off, of a greater or less proportion of the mate-
rial body;  all muscular motion implies friction,
and where there is friction there must be loss.
In proportion, then, as you exercise, you get rid
of the old,  useless and diseased particles of the
body,  and by eating substantial, plain,  nour-
ishing food, you  supply  new, healthful, life-
giving particles in their stead; therefore,  every
step you take, tends  to your  restoration, pro-
vided that step be not taken in weariness or
fatigue;  for then,  it  prepares the way  for  a
greater destruction of living  particles,  rather
than a removal of the old.   You will  never
fail to find, that whenever you overdo yourself,
in the way of exercise, you will feel the worse
after it.  The exercise must be adapted to the
strength, and the  rule is imperative under all
circumstances.  Stop  short of fatigue.  This
applies to mental as well as to bodily operations.
But if you say, as  many others have said, and
died, " I can't help it," then you must take the
consequences  and responsibility.  If you do 
224           CONSUMPTION.
.:ot use  -.he means of health, you cannot be
cured.  If  you really and truly cannot use
them, that inability does not alter the necessity
of their observance, nor the effect of their neg-
lect.
   Have, if possible, an hour's active, cheerful,
willing, out-door exercises thrice a day; this
is  many times better than three hours' contin-
uous exercise. If you walk, or leave the house,
before breakfast, eat first a cracker or crust of
bread.  Avoid, during warm-  weather, in the
south and west, and in level or damp situations,
the out-door air, including the hour about sun-
rise and sunset.   There  is  no danger usually,
even to invalids, in exercising in the night air,
if it be sufficiently vigorous to keep off a feeling
of chilliness.  This should be  the rule  in all
forms of out-door exercise, and is an infallible
preventive,  as  far  as  my  experience  extends,
against  taking cold in any and all weathers,
provided  it be not  continued to over exhaus-
tion or decided fatigue.   Such exercise  never
can give  a cold, whether  in rain, or sleet or 
       WHEN  A  COLD  IS  TAKEN.    225
snow, unless there be some great peculiarity in
the constitution.  It is the conduct after exer-
cise, which gives  the  cold;  it  is the getting
cool too quick,  by standing or sitting still in a
draft  of air or  open window or  cold room.
The only  precaution  needed is,  to  end  the
exercise in a room or temperature, uncomfort-
ably warm when  first entered,  and  there re-
main until rested, and  no moisture is  observed
on the surface.
  If working or walking cause actual fatigue,
then horseback exercise is the  next  best  for
both sexes, but if not able, then ride in a close
carriage, especially in  cold weather,  or when
there is a damp raw wind  blowing.  You may
in  the bitterest,  coldest  weather, secure  for
yourself the most favorable of all circumstances
for recovery—that is,  a cool, dry, still atmo-
sphere, by riding several hours  a day in a
close  carriage,  well and  warmly clad, with
your feet on bottles of hot water.  The atmo-
sphere of the carriage  will not become impure
but to  a slight  extent, as the cold fresh air is
             15 
226         CONSUMPTION.
constantly coming in  at  every crevice  at the
sides  and below,  while  the  warm,  used air,
rises to  the top, and is expelled by the more
powerful currents from without.
  It is  a laborious  business  to spend hours
every day in exercising, for the mere sake  of
the  exercise; therefore,   if  possible,  devise
means of employment,  which will  combine
utility with  your exercise.  The reader's inge-
nuity may devise methods of accomplishing
this, adapted to his condition, and the circum-
stances  by  which he is  surrounded.  Some
trim,  or bud or graft fruit-trees, work in a gar-
den, cultivate  the vine,  or flowers,  or plough
in fields, free  of stumps  and stones, thus  re-
quiring no great effort, yet a steady one, which
can be  left  off at any moment, and followed
more or less energetically, so as to  produce a
very moderate degree of perspiration  on  the
forehead, without fatigue;  others  saw wood,
visit the poor and unfortunate,  drive cattle,
collect accounts, obtain subscriptions, sell books,
distribute tracts, ride 01 agencies.   The great 
REMUNERATIVE  EXERCISE.   227
object is, useful, agreeable, absorbing, profita-
ble employment, in the  open air, for several
hours every day, rain or shine, hot or cold;
and whoever has the determination and energy
sufficient  to  accomplish  this, will  seldom fail
to delight himself and his friends with speedy,
permanent and most encouraging results;  and
be assured, that these alone are the persons
who can rationally expect to succeed in effec-
tually and permanently  warding off the  dis-
ease when seriously threatened, or in arresting
its progress permanently.
  While exercise is important in working off
the old, useless, decayed, dead particles from
the system, it is equally advantageous in keep-
ing the body warm, by  driving the blood to
the skin, and keeping it soft and moist; for
persons who have a dry,  harsh, cold  skin, are
never well.   But pure air is as important as
exercise, because the  food we eat never be-
comes blood, until it meets in  the lungs, the
air  we  breathe; if  then, we  do not take in
enough  air,  or  what we do  take in  is  im- 
228
CONSUMPTION.
pure, the blood will be imperfect  and impure,
and in proportion, unfit to nourish, strengthen
and vivify the  body.   And as in threatened
consumption, the lungs work more or less im-
perfectly, and consume less air than the system
requires, so much the  more need that the air
which  is  consumed, should be of the purest
kind  possible.   Therefore,  every hour spent
out of doors in  the pure air, fatigue and chilli-
ness being absent,  adds  that  much to  the  cer-
tainty of  your recovery.   Thus  you see, that
while  exercise  works the old diseased particles
from  your body,  pure air  puts  the  finishing
stroke of perfection to  the new particles which
are to  take their place, and the whole body, in
proportion, becomes new and fresh and health-
ful and young.  And whatever advice is given
you in other printed or written papers, it is de-
signed as an aid to bring about these things in
a  shorter  time and easier way.  This aid  is
needed in most  cases, because, unfortunately,
the disease has been neglected or mistreated so
long, that nature has lost  the power, to a great 
       DANGERS  OF  EXERCISE.    229
extent, of helping herself, and medicine must
be taken, or the patient perish.
  There are two dangers in  taking exercise,
that of overdoing it, and of getting  cool too
quick afterwards.  Therefore observe the fol-
lowing rules:
  If you ride and walk on  any one occasion,
do  the  riding  first,  then the walk will warm
you up;  but riding after a walk, you get chilled
before you know it.
  At the end of a ride or walk, do not, for a
single moment, sit or stand still  anywhere out
of doors, nor on damp places, nor on stone or
iron seats.   Never end  a walk or  ride, in a
new building, or in a  room which has  been
closed for some days, or has no  fire in it if in
winter.   Walk  quickly, cheerfully, with the
chin on or above a horizontal  line.  Make no
other effort to walk straight, except thus to
elevate  your chin.   In other words,  hold up
your  head.    Breathe  habitually with  your
mouth closed, in damp or cold weather;  and
in going into  the out-door air, close it before 
230          CONSUMPTION.
you leave the house, and keep it closed, until
you get  warm,  especially after speaking  or
singing.
  Embrace every opportunity of running up a
pair of stairs, or up a hill, with the lips closed ;
a dozen times a day if possible.   A rapid run
of fifty or a hundred yards and  back, three or
four times  a day, with the mouth closed, will
be of  inestimable advantage.   The reasons you
can study out at your leisure.
  But simple as these things are, never attempt
them, without  the special  advice of an  ex-
perienced physician,  for  in  certain forms of
heart  affections,   as  every  practitioner well
knows, as also in  one or  two other ailments,
such exercises would, in  half an hour, cause
certain death.
  It is of high importance to the healthy, who
wish to  keep so,  and to the  sick, who  are  in
search of so great a happiness as that of being
sound and well again, to breathe  habitually
with the lips  closed, in cold weather,  in going
from a warmer to a cooler, or from a cooler to 
COOL  OFF SLOWLY.        231
 a warmer  atmosphere: the injury is perhaps
 equally great either way.   Close the mouth be-
fore leaving a concert room, or church, or other
 warm apartment, and keep it resolutely closed,
 until you have walked far and  fast enough to
 have hastened the circulation of the blood, and
 made it more full, as well as active.
   In going into a warm apartment, from the
 cold out-door  air, the same direction is  of not
 less importance;  nor should you go at once to
 the fire;  a delay of two or three minutes is
 sufficient in this case.  The object, in both cases,
 is the same, to prevent a sudden transition from
 heat  to cold, or  the  contrary.  Such sudden
 transitions give pain to the solid tooth, or dis-
 comfort, when made to a single square inch of
 the skin ;  and when it is remembered that the
 air-passages are among the most delicate struc-
 tures of the body, and that the lungs, if spread
 out on a wall,  would cover a surface ten times
 larger than the whole skin would  do, the im-
 portance of the subject must strongly impress
 every reflecting mind. 
232          CONSUMPTION.
  With the above precaution, you need not be
afraid of out-door air, night or day, as long as
you are in motion sufficient to keep off a feeling of
chilliness; hence, in cold weather,  exercise on
foot is  infinitely preferable to riding, even on
horseback.  While walking in moderately cold
weather,  the hands should be covered with  a
thin pair of gloves, such as silk or thread, and
woolen ones in mid-winter.  If you  have to
ride in  winter, endeavor to have clothing enough
to prevent a feeling of chilliness,  but be careful
to wear a loose fitting boot  or shoe ; never  put
on a new pair, winter or summer, when start-
ing on a journey, or  coming to the city.   In
very cold or windy weather, ride in a close car-
riage.
            RULES FOR HEALTH.
  Eat  three times a day, and at the same hours.
At the first meal, and when you dine, take the
kind of  food which best suits your taste,  and
which  does not make you feel dull, or sick, or
full; which leaves no weight; nor should  it
cause  any spot to burn, or  feel  sore, or raw,
from the throat  down. 
RULES  FOR HEALTH.      233
     For the third meal of the day, take cold
   wheat, or brown bread, with  but one cup of
   green, black,  or herb tea,  to which you may
   add cream or milk; you may make it sweet if
   you wish.  Or, in the place of these, you may
   boil some rice and eat it.
     Do not fry your food at  all, nor eat at one
   meal more than four kinds of  food,  one of
.   which should be bread  one or two days  old.
   Eat corn bread  while it is  hot and fresh.  If
   you toast your bread, do not make it black or
   brown; it should be of a pale straw tint.
     From Spring to Fall take meat but once a
   day, and this should be  salt ham two or three
   times a week.
     From Fall to  Spring,  take meat twice a day
   if you wish it.  Use fresh  meat,  and roast or
   broil it, but do not fry or boil it.   Take at each
   meal one cup of warm drink.   Do not at one
   meal, take more than one cup or half a glass ;
   nor when you rise from your meal, drink at all
   for an hour or more.  At all times, when there
   is much thirst, or the tongue or throat is dry, 
234          CONSUMPTION.
it is best to eat as much ice as you want;  you
may eat  it all the time; but do not take cold
drinks,  or if you do, do  not take more  than
half a wine-glass, in the course of an hour.
  Cut up all your food as small as peas,  and
chew it well too.  Do not eat fast, take your
time.  Spend at least half an hour at each meal.
If it is hard for you not to  eat too much, have
your meals brought  to your room, and while  *
you take them, let no one be with you.   You
need one third less food from Spring  to Fall,
than from Fall to Spring:  note this well.
                  DRUGS.
  We use drugs, now and then, to take from
us that, which if it does not pass off, will cause
harm.  But if we can make our food act thus,
we gain a great  point.  This can be done for
the most  part, if we take the care and pains we
ought to do.   If  then, our food can be made to
do its own work, and made to do that of drugs,
it gives us its own strength and  saves us from
that weak state which all drugs fail not to cause.
It is well known, that drugs do,  nine times out 
          BOUND  AND  LOOSE.       235
of ten, make us feel sick or weak, if not both.
If then you  are bound, use such food as will
make you less so.  If you are loose, use what
will bind you.  There are but few who will
fail to do this, if they will take some care  to
note  these points.   If the food does  not act
from  day to day,  then you must use drugs  of
some kind,  but first try the food,  and try  it
well.   If bound too  much, use figs, hot corn
bread, rye bread, brown bread, or fresh fruits ;
but these last you should eat soon in  the day,
they then act best.   When bound, do not take
meat  or milk.
   If loose, then use rice thus:—parch half a
pint  till it is brown, then boil  it, and eat no
food  but this,  for a day or two, and take no
drink;  but  you  may eat as much  ice as  you
want, if there is much thirst. . When loose, by
all means be still, lie down on a bed and stay
there, till you are well.  It must be a bad case
which rice does  not cure in a day or two,  if
you are still all the time.   If you  do not like
rice, boil some milk, and while it boils stir  in 
236
CONSUMPTION.
some dry flour, till it is as thick as mush, then
eat it, and in four hours eat some more, and
so on—eat no food till you are well but this
mush, made out of flour and milk.  Do not eat
much at a time.   These  things will,  at times,
cure you, when drugs fail.
  Men are more apt to be bound too much, than
to be loose ; then mark what kinds of food tend
to make you loose,  and  use them, when you
are bound.  The  best way is, as soon  as the
time for a move has  gone by for three  or four
hours, cease at once  to use meats of all  kinds,
and use what tends to make you loose.
  Keep these things in view,  in  all time to
come, sick or well.  When food fails to keep
you in such a state  as to  pass off the waste
day by day,  then  I will point out  such means
as may best meet the case.
                  SLEEP.
  No one can be well long, who does not have
sound sleep.  All do not need to sleep  for the
same length of time : the old need less than the
young ; those who work, more than those who 
          RULES  FOR SLEEP.       237
do not: a man does not need as  much as she
who was  made "a  helpmeet for him."   To
give rest and  strength,  sleep must be sound,
and  it should be for six or eight hours at a
time; if in short naps of half an hour or so, it
does not do much good, as it does not make one
feel fresh and strong, and full of life.
  As sleep, then, is of such use to all, you
should do what you  can to have  sound sleep,
for some hours at a time ; for those who are not
well,  must have it.   Do not sleep in the day
time.   Go to bed at the  same hour each day,
at least by ten, and when you wake,  rise at
once,  and sleep no more that day; and soon,
it may be, in a week  or two, you  may  thus
go  to sleep  as  soon as you lie down, and
sleep sound, till the  dawn of day; or at least,
you will wake  up as  soon as you  have had as
much sleep as you need ; such is  the wise law
which rules your frame.
  The length of time which we pass in  sleep,
is not the  same for all; some  need six, a few,
nine hours sleep.  One may doze from ten to 
238         CONSUMPTION.
twelve hours a day, but it is not the true sleep
of health.
  Sleep in a large, light, clean, dry room, at
least a score of feet'from the ground, if you
can get such an one; it should not be less than
twelve feet  square and  eight or ten  feet in
height.   The air is more pure as you go  up.
Have where  you sleep no more clothes, stands,
chairs, books, and the like, than there is need
for.
  Have no wet or damp place or clothes in the
room.  Let  it be so that the first rays of the
sun shall stream in and make it light and pure.
Do not, at night, close  the doors, or grate, or
place for fire.  Baise the sash  an inch or two,
and if you can, let it down as much or more,
at the top, so as to have a  draft  of fresh air
pass through the room all night.  This should
be the case all the year round, though ice may
form in the room half an inch thick.  If you
are  quite ill,  you may have  some fire.   In
the cold months, have  a fire  to get up  and
dress by. 
         ROOM  TO  SLEEP IN.       289
  Leave the room in which you have slept, as
soon as you can, to get clear of the foul air;
but when you leave it, shake up the bed, have
the clothes  spread on the backs of the chairs,
to air them.  Kaise each sash, do not shut the
door, and let the sun shine in for two or three
hours each  day, but if the day is damp and
raw, close the doors, put down the sash,  and
make a brisk fire to burn for an hour or more,
when the sun sets:  then, the room in which
you sleep,  will be  kept  fresh, and dry, and
clean; it will be full of pure, sweet air; thus
you will do much to cause good sound  sleep,
which in turn will aid more than you think
for, to make you fresh, and strong, and well.
  Wear none  of the clothes at night, which
you have worn in the day, but hang each piece
on  a chair, to  air all night, to be fresh and
clean to put on next day.  Sleep in a gown at
night, not  made of wool, but of that which
sheets  or shirts are made of.  You will not
take cold  by  this change,  though you may
have slept  in wool for a great while, if you 
240         CONSUMPTION.
take pains  to rub the whole skin from top to
toe with a coarse wet, cold, cloth, when you go
to bed.
                   FEET.
   No one can sleep well with cold feet, and no
one can have good health long, whose feet are
cold all the time.  It is worth, then, all the
pains you  can take, to keep your  feet warm
and dry, day and night.  By all means, let the
shoe be loose.  If  you  ride in a coach,  or sit
still, a pair of socks made of wool,  will warm
your feet, when a tight pair of boots would let
them freeze stiff.  The length of the shoe should
be one tenth more  than the length of the foot,
 at least.
   When you first get up, put both feet at
 once, in a cold bath, an inch or two or three
 in depth, for as long as you can count six score
 and ten, rub them  well with the hand, all the
 time they are in the bath, then rub dry with a
 coarse cloth,  and hold them to the fire,  if you
 have one, and if not, rub them till  the skin is 
SOME  GOOD RULES.       241
red or warm as can be  made.  By no means
should the bare feet touch the bare floor.
  When you go to bed, warm the feet well by
the fire for some  time, and  rub them  all the
while, till not a damp spot is to be found from
heel to toe.  If your feet get cold in the night,
have a hot block  of wood put to each  foot at
bed time.   A  brick may set the bed on fire.
Do not try  to  warm or dry the feet with  the
shoes or socks  on.  When you come in from
a walk, if the feet are at all damp from sweat,
or rain, or mud, pull all off at once, dry them
by the fire,  and put on fresh, clean, dry socks,
and shoes.
  Do not, when you come in from a walk,  put
your feet in a cold pair of shoes. I have known
some  who  were  made quite ill  for months,
from such a cause. Should your feet or  clothes
get wet from sweat or rain, change  them  as
soon as you cease to move;  if you sit or stand
still for a short time, you will be quite sure to
take a bad cold ; but first rub the skin with a
           16 
242
CONSUMPTION.
coarse dry cloth, fast  and hard, as far as you
can reach, with your  mouth shut.
                CLOTH BATH.
   In the same way, rub with a coarse wet
cloth the  whole skin, when you get up, for
near the tenth part of an hour ;  thro.w out the
breast and rub  it well.   Do the same  when
you go to bed, with the dry hand, mouth shut,
so as to keep the air in the lungs,  and swell
them out.
   The aches, ails, and ills of all, are not the
same, but the rules which I have laid down in
this sheet, are such as all can keep; and they
will not fail, in one case, to do great  good;
they would keep in good health half of all who
live; and would bring  good  health back to
half who are sick.
              SPITTING BLOOD,
   Is not  causative, but  curative of consump-
tion.  While two thirds of all who  die of that
disease have this symptom,  the other third do
not, showing that it is  not  necessary to that
malady.    Consumptive  persons,  who  spit 
           SPITTING BLOOD.          243
 blood, live longer, by months and years,  than
 they would have done, had not this symptom
 been present; because, every occurrence  of it
 unloads the blood-vessels; while their being
 overloaded,  is  the  direct cause of  tubercle.
 Spitting of blood,  then, directly diminishes the
 formation of tubercles; and the fewer tuber-
 cles,  the greater is the hope of cure, and the
 longer will the  person live.
   At the same time, there is a popular horror
 of spitting blood, or as it is  sometimes ex-
 pressed, " bursting a  blood-vessel."  The idea
 of imminent death is  attached to such an oc-
 currence, and it  does sometimes take place.
 But the fact is,  that not half a dozen  persons
 in a million,  who die of consumption, bleed to
 death.  The author  has never  known such a
 case.  Death by the rupture of a blood vessel,
 is nearly always the  result of some disease of
 the heart, or physical violence.
   But while spitting blood has no agency in
 causing  consumption, it  is, for  all  that, a
strong presumptive evidence of the actual exist-
v 
244         CONSUMPTION.
ence of tubercular disease,  in  its early stages.
So  that when a  person spits blood in  any
quantity, from a quarter of a tea-spoonful, up-
wards, not connected with the periods of wo-
men, nor with physical violence, it is quite cer-
tain, that the lungs are tuberculated,  and the
patient should consider himself as having con-
sumption  the very moment it is first observed,
and  should, without  a single hour's delay,
adopt vigorous, decisive and persevering mea-
sures for restoration.  In three cases out of
four, a permanent  cure may be effected.   But
the suggestion that it  may be from the throat,
or gums, or from  the nose, and falling down
behind, comes out of the mouth, is indeed com-
forting to the patient, especially if the physi-
cian makes that suggestion or  countenances
the supposition ; but by quieting fears which are
but too well founded, valuable  time is  lost, and
multitudes perish,  who else might have  been
saved.  For certain it is  that  many have spit
blood in youth, and died of old age,  showing
that it  is  not of itself, by any means, a fatal 
SPITTING  BLOOD
2-15
symptom.   If  inquiry  be made here—close,
specific inquiry—it will  be found that such a
result followed some decided change in life,
either as to locality, climate, or occupation, in-
volving one of two things, either much larger
out-door activities, or more energetic-in-door
employment.  Let spitting of blood,  then, be
set down as a demonstration, that the seeds of
consumption  are present,  except  when   it
amounts to  a  mere spec or drop,  or  a  streak
or two, or from physical violence, or female
periodicity.  And while its repetition,  in the
course of proper treatment, should be regarded
as retardative of the progress of the disease, it
should be looked upon as an evidence that the
seeds of  consumption are  present,  and that
more and  more  strenuous  efforts should  be
made and kept up, for many months after the
symptom has entirely disappeared.
   Spitting blood indicates that consumption
has advanced beyond its first stages, and close
inquiry will elicit the fact,  that some falling
off, or  change of breathing or  frequency  of 
246          CONSUMPTION.
pulse, had preceded this symptom.    Some
persons never noticed any cough until  at, or
soon after the first blood appeared ; generally
haemorrhage  modifies the cough.  Whenever
it  appears,  send for a  physician;  then,  lie
down,  envelope the feet in a bag of mush or
hot salt, lay a flat  piece of ice on each breast,
just under each collar bone,  and quietly wait
until  the doctor comes.   If the  patient  is
alarmed and must be doing something, let him
eat common table salt as freely as he desires.
The author himself, would let  it bleed away,
until it stopped, and next day, would travel on
horseback, a mile  or two or three; increasing
a mile or two,  daily, until fully restored, hav-
ing also some other and more agreeable object
in view.   Spitting  blood then,  is an evidence
that tubercles are in the lungs, to a hurtful ex-
tent,  the exceptions previously named being
understood.
   It is a symptom which should not be sud-
denly  controlled ; and if it exists but to a mod-
erate extent, merely tinging the saliva, or not 
SPITTING  BLOOD.         247
amounting to a tea-spoonful or two in twenty-
four hours, then disappearing for days or weeks,
to be repeated ; or even if  it amount to a tea-
spoonful or two at a time, and then abates of
itself, under such  circumstances it should not
be interfered with, for it directly retards tuber-
cular deposite, abates the  cough,  and by re-
lieving internal clogging up, causes, in many
instances, a feeling of general relief.   The au-
thor believes,  that no internal remedy has any
direct and safe control over  this symptom, un-
less it be common salt, a level teaspoonful dis-
solved in  three or four teaspoonfuls  of water
and  drank quickly, and then two or three or
more level teaspoonfuls,  to be eaten  in the
course of  the day, as freely  as desired.  Per-
haps the benefit derived  from this remedy, is
on the principle  of  revulsion,  as  salt  excites
thirst, thereby indicating an  absorption of the
fluids of the system, and thus diminishing their
amount, and  consequently relieving the pres-
sure  in the lungs.  The author merely hazards
this  conjecture, in the  absence of anything 
248          CONSUMPTION.
more plausible.  If this be so, little or no fluid
should be swallowed, while  this symptom is
present.  The safest and best plan of modify-
ing or  controlling this  annoying symptom in
the way of internal remedies, is the exhibition
of some medicine, which will act efficiently and
with considerable certainty on the liver.  It is
believed that all astringent  remedies are  de-
cidedly mischievous in their  tendencies.   The
most  favorite remedy,  acetate of lead, is hurt-
ful and dangerous,  as it leaves  the digestive
functions in  a deranged  condition for  weeks
and months afterwards.  All the evidence  of
its efficiency is negative, for  it is  not  always
followed by a  cessation  of  the  symptoms;
and  whether  that cessation  would  not have
occurred just  as soon without it, no one can
deny, for in a great many instances, the  symp-
tom  disappears  when nothing at all is done.
Therefore,  as spitting blood  certainly arrests
the deposite of tubercle and modifies the couo-h
let it alone, if not large; but if the patient is
much disturbed in mind by  it, and must take 
            SPITTING BLOOD.         249
some internal remedy, let it be common salt,
or some medicine which will act decidedly on
the  liver, but do  not  use astringents in  any
form whatever.  It must be remembered, how-
ever, that spitting blood is a good sign, in the
same sense that common boils are a good sign.
Not signs of health indeed, but evidences that
nature is attempting  to  relieve  herself,  by
pushing  the  enemy out of the  system.  And
inasmuch as  this  spittting of blood indicates
the  presence  of  tubercles,  all  the  remedies
should be persevered in, which are applicable
to consumption itself, and not be intermitted,
until for  many months after it has  ceased to
appear, no—not while life lasts, for it so hap-
pens, that the true remedies for consumption
are such as are  calculated to build up, and
maintain the general health, as  it ought to be
maintained, whether a man has ever been sick
of anything  at  all, or not.  For whatever
keeps the general  health  at a high standard,
keeps off consumption. 
250
CONSUMPTION.
          CURE OF  CONSUMPTION.
  This question is fully discussed in the eighth
edition of a former  publication of the author,
entitled "Bronchitis and Kindred Diseases."
Dr. Carswell, who stands in the front rank of
educated medicine in England, says:
  "Pathological anatomy ha?  perhaps never
afforded  more convincing evidence,  in proof
of the curability of disease, than it has in tu-
bercular  consumption.   Its curability has been
satisfactorily established, and its perfect cure
DEMONSTRATED."
  In confirmation of this  opinion, a fact will
be given, so conclusive in its nature, that upon
it the decision of this  subject may be safely
rested.   The full  account is  given in  the
Transactions of the  Pathological  Society for
eighteen hundred and fifty-one, as published in
London.
  In May, eighteen  hundred and forty-eight, a
poor young girl  made application  at the hos-
pital, for consumption, as an out-door patient.
In  July, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, she 
CURED.
251
looked well and coughed only in the morning.
Subsequently, she appeared healthy,  and re-
quired no more medical advice.   In the winter
of eighteen hundred and fifty-one, she  had a
stomach affection, and in four days died from
bilious vomiting and diarrhoea.  The body was
opened, the lungs  examined and preserved.
Nearly the whole of the upper portion of the
left lung was found destroyed,  and presented
the appearance of a cavity,  such as mice leave
in cheese.   This cavity was lined with a hard
substance, which prevented the extension of
the destructive process.   To give an idea of
the extent of the loss of lung  substance,  the
left lung was put in water and displaced only
nine ounces,  while the right  lung displaced
twenty-three   ounces.   Presenting,   as  Dr.
Quain  justly observes,  "an  example of  the
great  length to which  the ravages  of con-
sumption may extend, and yet be  stayed."
  From this  single case, even  if there  were
not multitudes similar to it, the following irre-
sistible conclusion is drawn, that 
252         CONSUMPTION.
  Consumption, even in its last stages, when near-
ly one half of a whole  lung  is  utterly destroyed,
may be permanently  arrested,  and the  person
eventually die  of some other disease.
  It may be of practical benefit to note here,
that the  person was  a poor girl,  and  had to
work for her living ;  that she was an out-door
patient, and had to  walk to the hospital,  in
winter as well as  in summer, alike exposed to
the heat and  dust of  July, and the cold blasts
of December,  and  had to put  up with that
plain fare and  insufficient clothing,  and warmth,
which are common  to the poor.   It is quite
certain, that if she had enjoyed all  the comforts
of wealth, she would have died.   Instead  of
working for a living and an appetite, she would
have spent her time in listless lounging, and    ♦
forced the appetite  by tonics.   Instead  of
walking to the hospital, she would have been
visited by the physician.   Instead of exposure
to summer's heat and winter's cold, she would
have taken her airings in the  luxurious  car-
riage;  and instead of  occupying  some crazy 
CURED.
253
tenement, through whose multitudinous cracks
and crevices the  bleak winter winds whistled
mercilessly, she would have  occupied a  sum-
mer-heated apartment,  with  double  windows
and listed doors,  with  numberless shawls and
mufflers  and comforters,  to  protect her from
any friendly whiff of pure air which might by
stealth' have found its way to her.
  A  gentleman remarked incidentally, a few
days since, that four years ago, while doing a
large  dry goods  business,  his  health was seri-
ously affected, he became  thin in-flesh, weak
and inactive.  His friends freely predicted his
death from consumption.  Becoming alarmed,
and being  a man  of decision and energy, he
sold out, procured a birth^ for driving a  milk
cart round  the city, rising at four o'clock of a
winter's morning.  Now, he is a perfectly well
man !    Quite a descent from doing a business
of sixty-four thousand dollars a year, to selling
milk  at  people's  doors at six cents  a quart.
But this same independence,  energy and  de-
cision, is the great secret of cure, in this fatal 
254          CONSUMPTION.
disease.  It is more than half the battle.  If
men could be made to feel this  truth, multi-
tudes  might be saved from a consumptive's
death every year, provided  competent medi-
cal advice be steadily had, in the supervision
of these out-door activities, to direct, control,
and  modify,  according to the capabilities  of
the system.
   Says the Edinburg Monthly Journal of Med-
ical  Science, for  April, eighteen hundred and
fifty-two, and endorsed by the London Lancet
for June 12, of the same year, " The curability
of consumption, is one of deep and paramount
interest, for  notwithstanding  the  abundant
proof which has  been  accumulated  of late
years, it is still the opinion of the majority of
the medical profession, as it is of the public
generally,  that common consumption is incu-
rable.  In those  cases in which recovery would
seem to have taken place,  their having had
consumption is doubted.  It is no small matter
therefore,-to explode this fatal fallacy;  fatal in
a thousand ways.   Hence we hail with  more 
       DR.  J.  HUGHES  BENNETT.   255
than ordinary satisfaction such communications
as the following  from Professor  J.  Hughes
Bennett, in a lecture in the Boyal Infirmary at
Edinburg:
   " ' Up to a recent period, the general  opin-
ion has been that  consumption almost always
marches on to a fatal termination, and that the
cases of its known arrestment  were so few, as
to be merely an exception to  a general rule.
Morbid  anatomy  has  now,  I  think,  demon-
strated that tubercles, in an early stage degen-
erate, and become abortive, with extreme fre-
 quency, in the proportion of from one-third to
one-half of all the incurables  who die after
forty."'
   To make this statement in  terms more fa-
miliar to the general reader,  it is that in Scot-
land nearly one-half of all who die after  the
age of forty years have had  consumption, tu-
bercular disease, in its early  stages, and have
got well of it spontaneously.  This shows con-
clusively that nature cures consumption  in its
first stages very frequently indeed ; therefore, 
256          CONSUMPTION.
all that the physician has to do is to observe
how nature proceeds in her frequent and suc-
cessful treatment of this very common disease.
Dr. Bennett goes  on to say,  " Since these ob-
servations, however, have  become  known, it
has  been stated,  that after  all, practically
speaking, consumption  does not mean the ex-
istence of a  few  isolated  tubercles, scattered
through  the  lungs;  and that what is  really
meant, when the cure of consumption is denied,
is that advanced stage, in which the lungs are
in a state of ulceration, and in which the bod-
ily powers are so lowered,  that perfect recov-
ery  seldom or  never takes place.  But  here
again,  careful examination  of the  records of
medicine  will show that many, even of these
advanced cases have recovered.   Laenec, An-
dral, Cruveilhier,  Kingston,  Pressat,  Eogee
Boudet, and many others, have published cases
where all the functional symptoms and physi-
cal  signs of the disease,  even  in  its most
advanced stage, were  present,  and yet  the
individual survived many years,  ultimately 
        CASE OF  JOHN KEITH.      257
died of some other disorder, and on dissection,
cicatrices  and concretions have been found in
the lungs."
  The general reader must remember that a
" cicatrix" is a scar, which we all know to be
a sign of a healing process, whether in the skin,
in the bone, or in the  lungs.   " Concretions"
are similar demonstrations of the healing pro-
cess, more appreciable by the physician.  As
an  illustration, the Professor then exhibited
the lungs of John Keith, who  died suddenly
of congestion of the  brain,  Feb. 8th,  1844,
aged fifty years.   It was established that this
man, at the  age  of twenty-two, labored under
all the symptoms of a deep decline, and his life
was despaired of.  Yet he got well, lived nearly
thirty years  afterwards, and might have been
living yet, had he not abandoned himself to
drink.  On  examining the lungs,  a scar  was
found a quarter  of an  inch broad and three
inches long, with that  puckered  appearance
around it, which proves  a loss of substance,
and this, with five or six chalky substances, all
            17 
258         CONSUMPTION.
surrounded with healthy lungs, gave evidence
of cured  ulceration to a very large  extent,
which  no scientific man can possibly deny.
Evidences of this sort  are largely cumulative,
and  having dissipated the  prejudices  which
have hitherto  enveloped the lights of the pro-
fession, and when  further unbelief  would be
considered very little short of fatuity, the most
distinguished  physicians of Great Britain and
the continent have reviewed cases occurring in
past years, in  the  light of these new develop-
ments, and have found themselves able to refer
to cases which they are  now satisfied have un-
dergone a permanent recovery, even  when cav-
ities had existed in the lungs, and all the ad-
vanced symptoms of the disease had  been  pre-
sent.
  But to the great fact itself, nothing more can
be added in the way of evidence than Keith's
case.   So deeply rooted, however, has been the
opinion, of the necessarily fatal nature of this
disease, that the  generality of  practitioners
have concluded, that because consumptive cases 
OBSERVE  NATURE.        259
recovered, the disease was not consumption;
that is, they have rather distrusted their own
judgment, than  ventured to oppose a  dogma
of general belief.  But although the fact of the
curability of consumption, even in its most ad-
vanced stage,  can no longer be denied, it has
been argued that this  has  been entirely owing
to the operation of nature, and that the  phy-
sician can lay little claim to the result; for  it
is not art which heals these caverns and leaves
the scars; it can only favor this, by not oppos-
ing nature.   But if this be true, it follows, that
by carefully observing the operations of na-
ture, learning her method of cure, imitating it
as closely as possible, avoiding what she points
out to be injudicious, and furnishing what she
evidently requires, we may at  length arrive  at
rational indications of cure.
   In this connection, let the reader  keep in
mind, the one main idea in these pages, to wit,
th*e principles of cure, out-door activities,  com-
pelling the mind away, pleasurably; for Keith
began to recover from the time  of his public 
260          CONSUMPTION.
appointment, changing his residence and occu-
pation, while his social condition was greatly
improved, his office  being agreeable and pro-
fitable ; absolutely requiring daily exposure to
the weather, remorselessly imperative, through
all  seasons, to be at his post at  a  specified
hour, punctually, promptly,  under  all circum-
stances, short of an impossibility, compelling out-
door exposures, regardless of weather or of feelings.
         THE PHILOSOPHY OF  CURE.
  One of the most important aids, in the cure
of any disease, is an intelligent view of the na-
ture  and design  of the  remedies employed,
with a rational hopefulness of ultimate success.
Therefore,  the attention of  the educated  and
reflecting, is  earnestly directed to an assertion
of Liebig,  the great chemist of modern times.
It is  not new,  indeed, but it is a great truth
succinctly expressed, embodying as it does, in
a single sentence, in plain English, the  nature
of the treatment and cure of consumption: '
  " The amount of nourishment required by an
animal for its support,  must be in a direct pro- 
       EATING  AND EXERCISE.      261
portion with the quantity of oxygen taken into
the system."
   In other words, To be fully nourished, the food
we eat, and the pure air we breathe, must bear a
just proportion.  Keeping in view the fact, that
only  out-door air is  pure, and that all the func-
tions of the body are kept in proper condition,
by constant  medical supervision, it is a  favo-
rite prescription of the author, in consumptive
cases—
   Eat all you can, exercise all  you can.  And in
order to secure attention  to so important a di-
rection, it is  added, when you cannot exercise, do
not eat.   If any thing, after breakfast, prevents
your being out of doors actively, do not allow
yourself to partake of an atom of food,  until
you  have  been out of doors actively.  As a
consumptive usually has a good enough appe-
tite, but for want of digestive power, is not well
nourished,  gains no strength; there  are few
weathers which will  keep him in doors, when
the  alternative is,  " no exercise,  no  dinner."
The truth is, the worse the weather, the more 
262          CONSUMPTION.
need of being out of doors,  in order that its
enlivening  influences  should  counterbalance
the influences of " a rainy day, in  a country
Inn."  It is a groundless fear of the weather,
which sends  multitudes of consumptives  to an
early grave.    If we courted " all out-doors,"
with half the zeal we do in-door life,  multi-
tudes would live to old age, who now die before
their prime.  Let  it be  borne in mind,  that
nothing  is  curative of  consumption,  which
does  not promote nutrition;  by  which  we
mean, the perfect digestion of substantial food;
and the most obtuse intellect is conscious that
exercising out of doors,  is the best appetizer
in the world.  A forenoon's shopping, a horse-
back ride of a dozen miles, a fishing or a hunt-
ing frolic, a row boat or  a drive into the coun-
try,  will any day demonstrate, that being in
the  open air is a more sure tonic than any
medicine from  the  shops.   A  tonic whips up
the stomach, but unless the other  glands, the
other workshops of the  system are also stimu-
lated, it is  very much as if a man should at- 
  PURE  AIR  MAKES PURE  BLOOD.  263
 tempt to regulate  his watch, by making one
 wheel go faster, while all the  others were ar-
 ranged to move at the old rate.
   As a general rule, the  appetite of the con-
 sumptive is good  enough;  in fact,  he eats
 enormously, but like a man with a tape-worm,
 the  system  is  not nourished, simply  because
 the lungs do not convey to the nutrient mate-
 rial, an amount of air sufficient to transform
 what comes from  the right side of the heart,
 into life-giving blood.  As  before  explained,
 it is the pure air, coming in contact with foul,
 imperfect blood, which makes that blood alive.
 And if that pure air is  not  given, that blood,
 or rather that mixed-up  mass, made of  the
 three different  materials, the new nutrimental
 fluid,  the  blood   which  has  just   washed
 out  the system, and the liquid  made up of the
 other waste  matters of the body, is  not made
alive, or if alive at all, the vitality is  so low
that  it carries  but little vigor to the distant
portions of the body, hence there is no strength.
  There  are but few readers who have  not 
264         CONSUMPTION.
seen machinery  in motion;  to  facilitate  that
motion, a superintendant is constantly oiling it,
and the very motion of that machinery, works
that oil off from the parts in motion, while the
engineer removes it wholly.  If ceaseless atten-
tion was not given, the machinery  would  be
clogged up, and  would soon cease to work at
all.  But  the human body is a self-attending
machine.   Its Immortal Architect has so con-
structed it, that  it oils itself, and removes its
own wastes,  and thus  keeps itself clean,  pro-
vided that one condition is observed—a condi-
tion imposed alike upon every living creature
in the boundless  empire of the Almighty—the
condition of activity.   Every twinkle  of
the eye, every motion of the finger, every beat
of the  heart, every thought of the mind, is at
the expense  of the death of  some atom of the
body, just as certainly as every letter conveyed
along the  telegraph wires,  is at the expense of
an appreciable amount of acid in the generator.
But this oil of the machinery, which has sub-
served its purpose, must be removed, these 
         MODERATE  EXERCISE.     265
 dead atoms of the body having answered the
 end of their creation, must be conveyed out of
 the body. As in the battle field, the multitudes
 slain are removed as soon as fallen, that they
 may not impede the living; so every particle
 of matter,  now dead, but full of life a single
 minute before, must be removed from our bo-
 dies, just as instantaneously, otherwise these
 heaps  of slain  would  impede and  clog up
 the  whole  machinery,  spreading putrefaction
 and death to its remotest limits.
   How  are  these  dead particles  removed?
 There are millions of little agencies in the sys-
 tem, which convert these tlead atoms into fluid
 matter, which is then drawn up, and conveyed
 eventually  out of the body.  But these little
 agencies  do not operate, unless the body first
 moves.   The instant the body  exercises, that
 instant these agencies answer  to it, as instantly
 as the machinery of a watch answers to the first
 movement  of  the fly-wheel.  Hence, in pro-
 portion to our bodily activities—when not ex-
cessive, when not excessive—when not  exces- 
266         CONSUMPTION.
sive! are these waste matters perfectly and in-
stantaneously  removed,   all  its  joints  and
wheels and slides are kept clean, and like to a
well attended machine, it seems to work with-
out an effort, but unlike the machine, it is a
pleasure for such a body  to work.  Thus it is,
that a healthy, industrious man, would rather
work than not, because his habits of  activity
keep the  machine in such order, that motion
is a pleasure.
  But  it must  occur to  the  reader,  that if
bodily  activity  is destructive, and  then re-
moves  the dead atoms, these must be replaced
by fresher particles,  by new recruits; and so it
is.   The measure of this supply is Instinct: we
call  it appetite.   In  proportion  as new  atoms
are  needed, we are  hungry.   The more exer-
cise we take, in moderation, the more hungry
we are, the more food we can eat with  satis-
faction.   Thus it is,  that while exercise carries
off the dead atoms, it lays the foundation for a
 new supply,  the activity of removal corres-
 ponds with the activity of replacement and the 
        ITS GREAT REMEDIES.     267
whole body is kept new and fresh and strong,
as we see exemplified in  the  steady vigorous
health of those who are temperate in the indul-
gence of their appetites and industrious in the
observance of laudable activities.
  Reason then, and philosophy, and common
sense, all join in impressing upon us the all-
important fact, that in a disease like consump-
tion, whose prominent and ever present fea-
ture is a wasting away, we must look for remedy
to substantial food and out-door activities.
  In view then, of the efficiency of moderate
exercise, in the open air, for a great portion of
daylight,  in  promoting the arrest, or perma-
nent cure of common  tubercular consumption,
medical attention is  earnestly  invited  to the
following three inquiries;  and it is hoped that
the observation of  all intelligent persons will
be turned  to  the same points, because, con-
sumption is so common a disease, there ought
to be a  general intelligence in reference to its
nature, its prevention, its  retardation,  and its
cure: 
268         CONSUMPTION.
  1. Have you ever known a case of apparent
or supposed consumption cured, unconnected
with free exercise  in the  open air, at  all sea-
sons?
  2. Has any form of treatment, without ac-
tive exercise out of doors, materially protracted
life in any case of active consumption?
  3. Have you ever known a single case of
true consumption averted, arrested, or perma-
nently cured by bleeding, by medicinal means,
by  stove rooms, by removal to a warmer or
colder climate, unconnected with out-door ac-
tivities 1
  It is the author's conviction,  that instead of
turning over  the  treatment of consumptive
cases to patent medicines, to secret remedies, to
advertised  nostrums, to  those who attend to
that disease exclusively, or to the heartless and
brazen faced  pretenders  to  almost infallible
skill, or of abandoning the patient to the rou-
tine or  stereotyped  prescriptions of  a  sea-
voyage, or southern climate, or tartar water,
digitalis, opium, cod-liver oil, brandy and salt, 
       MEDICATED  INHALATION.   269
 and the multitude of other empyrical and fal-
 lacious remedies,  every educated practitioner
 should take in hand every case of consumption
 that presents itself, with  the hope of possible,
 if not probable restoration,  directing his ut-
 most energies to these two points, so to medi-
 cate the system, as to enable the patient to be
 most out of doors, without actual fatigue;  and
 to digest most  thoroughly the largest amount
 of substantial and nutritious food.
   If educated medicine  should concentrate all
 its energies  in bringing about these two  con-
 ditions, it is  firmly believed, that even  con-
 sumption would become a manageable   dis-
 ease, and  no longer continue an approbium to
 the profession. •
          MEDICATED INHALATION,
   Or the  breathing of an atmosphere impreg-
nated with the fumes of medicinal substances,
as a cure  for various ailments of the air  pas-
sages, has largely attracted public attention of
late.  It was not intended to have noticed it
at all, but it may be instructive, as a matter of 
270          CONSUMPTION.
future historical  reference, to refer to a dying
delusion.
  The well-read physician of  all schools, is fa-
miliar with the fact, that this has been proposed,
practised and discarded, over  and over again
within two centuries, to be  proposed,  prac-
tised and discarded again, like the fashions of
the streets,  or the squabbles of the schools; or
like the attempts to discover perpetual motion,
always made by ignorant or designing men.
An educated  physician would  no  more  at-
tempt to cure consumption by inhaling medi-
cated air, than  a finished scholar in the nat-
ural sciences would revive the attempt to con-
struct  a  self-moving  machine,  because  they
know, that  in the very nature, of things, they
are impossibilities.  And the superficiality of
modern medical  education has been strikingly
demonstrated by the  great numbers of letters
written from all parts  of the country, by young
practising physicians,  for information as to  the
truth  of Medicated Inhalation, as a remedy for
ailments of the air passages.   The tone of these 
    MODERN MEDICAL  SCHOOLS.  271
letters,  their spirit,  the  peculiar something,
which ran through  the  whole of them, indi-
cated a want of  intelligent,  independent and
confident Amor Propriae  of Old School medi-
cine, both mortifying and irritating.   Some of
the medical Journals even, seemed to be falling
into the current of the delusion.  No  louder
call has been made during the present century
on our medical schools, for a radical reforma-
tion, than  has  been incidentally made  by the
revival of a so long exploded theory.  It calls
for a reformation,  deep, radical,  thorough.
What is wanted,  is fewer schools of medicine,
at least a  decimation of the present number,
abler professors, and a stern, uncompromising
requisition  of a thorough classical  collegiate
education,  together with  an amount of natural
parts  in each applicant, which would secure
him eminence, if employed in the direction of
the bench,  the pulpit or the halls of legislation.
Heretofore, in order to  make a clergyman,  it
was necessary to have a solid education ; or if
a  lawyer,  the gift of gab was indispensable; 
 272         CONSUMPTION-
 but when a youth was too much of a numskull
 for the pulpit, and too stupid for the bar, and
 too lazy for any thing else, he  has been  sent
 off to  a  medical school, where money could
 secure a diploma, and to be mum, was the talis-
 man for medical success.
   A  few facts  may be  more convincing  to
 general readers,  than any amount of logical
 argument.
   In the first place, nearly the entire press of
 New York city, political, neutral and religious,
 was subsidized  to the  advocacy of " Inhala-
 tion."   This  attracted  attention,  and  multi-
 tudes flocked in to touch  the bubbling waters.
 Cases  of " cure" were called for.   But it was
 answered,  that time had not been allowed to
 verify them.   But at the  end  of years, not  a
 single individual of "standing," has, as far as
 the writer knows, come forward to declare—
K  " I have been cured of consumption by means
 of Medicated Inhalation."
   A New York physician brought a friend to
 the author for examination and an opinion as 
              INHALATION.          273
to the nature of his case.   He  was a stout,
compact looking man, flesh full and firm, pulse
sixty-eight, breathing seventeen in a minute,
appetite good, bowels regular, sleep sound ; the
lungs gave their full measure.  After having
pronounced him free from  any  consumptive
ailment, he remarked that the principal inhalist
of New York had been consulted, and declared
that one of his lungs was in a state of decay.
   Yesterday, October 14th, 1856, a gentleman
called for medical advice.  The author gave a
written opinion  as follows :  " Yours is a case
of common  consumption.   One  half of the
lungs are inoperative and decaying at this time.
Your comparative youth, wiry constitution and
recuperative power make it probable that you
may, once more, have reasonable health."
   After handing this gentleman the paper, he
said he had thought he might live until spring,
and had made up his mind that his lungs were
decaying; that he had applied to an Inhala-
tionist,  who assured him   that  the greatest
trouble with him was, an affection of the kid:
             is 
274         CONSUMPTION.
neys.   He  commenced inhaling, with  other
means.  In about two weeks his cough seemed
to tighten,  and he began  to spit  blood.  He
left off inhaling for two weeks, when the bleed-
ing disappeared. Inhalation was resumed ;  the
bleeding and toughness of expectoration  re-
turned.   He declined to follow the treatment
further.  He stated  that he had been induced
to try it, from  its  appearing reasonable, and
from the noise made about  it in the public  pa-
pers.  This gentleman is neither obscure,  un-
known,  or  poor.  His worst symptoms were
cough, debility  and  shortness of breath, hav-
ing fallen  away  thirty pounds.   Why  the
lungs of a perfectly healthy looking man should
have  been  pronounced in a state  of decay;
and of another whose lungs were  decaying,
it should have been said, that the kidneys were
the parts which most  required  attention, and
yet inhalation  recommended, is suggestive to
reflecting men.
  A young  lady applied   to the author  for
medical  advice.  Attending  physicians had 
INHALATION FATAL.      275
pronounced her case a hopeless one.  She was
soon able to leave her bed, then her room, and
" undertook a  journey  from Newark, New
Jersey, to Goshen, New York. On her return,"
says  her brother-in-law, a  clergyman, " she
took  cold, her  old  symptoms returned, and
through the influence of some one, Dr.----, of
medicated air celebrity, was called. He saw her;
said the case was a hopeless one ; too far gone,
but he would try and see what he could do. He
furnished the apparatus, gave directions; the
medicated air was inhaled.  A few days after,
spasms or convulsions seized her.   From this
time, she  rapidly  sank, and after  suffering
greatly, died, in the sweet  peace of the Chris-
tian's hope."
   This  case  is  presented as being one  of
thoughtful interest.   A year or two before, this
most interesting and  accomplished young wo-
man, applied to the author, under circum-
stances of great suffering; her  friends, hope-
less of her recovery ;  it was treated as a spinal
affection, masking consumptive symptoms.  In
due time she ceased  to require special medical 
276          CONSUMPTION.
advice.   Some months afterwards, a  disap-
pointment,  under  the  opposition of  friends,
produced convulsions and temporary insanity ;
pronounced hopeless of cure by the physician
in attendance.  The author was  called on a
second time, and with the previous light on
the case, she was rapidly restored.   On being
taken ill again, instead of applying to the phy-
sician who had  twice  saved  her,  "friends,"
who had no life to lose by making a mistake,
gave counsel to apply to a stranger, for reme-
dies proclaimed  to be new,  and if  so, needed
the test of time to make them reliable.
  All know that consumptive persons do  not
die with convulsions.  The conclusion is there-
fore legitimate, either the disease was mistaken,
or the remedies induced  the  convulsions  and
hastened a fatal termination.  If it was con-
sumption,  the remedies induced  the convul-
sions ; if it was not consumption, the remedies
were inapplicable,  and by incurring loss of
time, caused a loss of life.
  Had convulsions supervened on the employ- 
SECRET  REMEDIES.       277
ment of ordinary medical means, the fashions
of the  times are such,  in some  parts of our
country,  that  these same friends would  have
brought  an action for  damages  or for  man-
slaughter.
   In the long run, the regular physician is ben-
efited pecuniarily and morally,  by the intro-
duction  of every  such  delusion, and  by the
sale of every bottle  and  package of patent
medicines in the land.   In both cases,  chronic
diseases  are ultimately engendered in the sys-
tem, over  which  secret  remedies,  and  pre-
sumptuous  ignorance have no  power, and in
the  last sickness  of weeks and weary months,
the regular physician is called in, and uninter-
ested administrators and hungry  heirs, pay
large charges willingly.
   It is safe to infer that other physicians, tempo-
rarily left for the new cure, have had their pa-
tients return  in nowise  benefited by  months
of inhalation.
   A gentleman from a  sister city wrote two
months ago,. "You have protracted my life for 
278         CONSUMPTION.
years, but I would like to  try the  merits of
Inhalation, about which so much is said." The
answer was, " Try it.  It will  prove hurtful,
inefficient or beneficial.  You have intelligence
enough to decide  as to these three points, and
in any event, your testimony will be reliable,
and a public good will be gained.  Only make
a thorough and a fair trial, and I shall look to
your report to'me with peculiar interest."
   At the end of a month or more he called to
say, he was doing well; he had done so before,
and  could not say it was owing to  inhalation.
   The author advised, " As long  as you are
doing well under any course of treatment, it is
fair to give the credit  to that treatment,  at all
events to continue it as long as  it seemed not
to do a positive injury."  No later report has
been received.  But this case and that of the
young lady, show  alike how even educated
minds allow a confidence to grow up  seem-
ingly founded on nothing else  but the  appa-
rent confidence  with which  the abettors of
delusions advocate them, the opinions of sci- 
     INHALATION  AGGRAVATES.  279
entific men, perfectly at home in such matters,
counting nothing.
  A later letter, received before the above was
put to press states, " I think  my present con-
dition  is a very precarious one, and that  my
disease for five or six weeks past, (except last
week,) made more progress than it  has done
in two years' time before.  I am in hopes to
get to New York after the election, purposely
to see you, and be where you can see me daily,
to see precisely where I am, and ascertain as
far as you can, my true condition, and advise
with you what is best to be done.   I am grad-
ually doing away with Inhaling. I thought that
better than to leave off all at once."
  From the above statement it appears, that
after  Inhaling three  months,  spending sev-
eral hours each day in a room  having the air
impregnated with the fumes of some medicinal
substance, he came to the conclusion that in
the latter part of that time his disease had
made more  progress than it had  done  in the
two  preceding years, excepting the last week, 
280         CONSUMPTION.
during which there had been an improvement.
Perhaps that was because the inhalation was
about showing its good effects.   Such will  be
the grounds taken by its advocates.   And the
candid reader doubtless regrets  that the expe-
riment had not been continued, at least a while
longer.
  But it is time to pass to another topic, de-
siring the  reader however to read the  above
letter again; and  notice the three words indi-
cated in  bracket^ " except last week."   There
are two important points connected with this
" last week."
  First, He was gradually abandoning Inhala-
tion.
  Second, In another part of his letter he writes,
that  he had " been  attending the great Horse
Exhibition all the week, which has  kept me
out-doors, in  the open  air,  most all the time.
My opinion is, if I  could  have something to
occupy my mind and  time, out-doors, six or
eight hours a day,  that it would be one of the
best  medicines I could apply to my case." The 
        RISE OF  INHALATION.     281
author had urged this gentleman a year before,
by every consideration, to take a long and con-
tinuous horse-back journey, as the most appli-
cable means to  his  case, and  promising the
largest beneficial results.
  It is  reasonable to infer, that if at this late
time, a single week's interested occupation in
the open air, for a greater part of every day,
had not only arrested a rapid running down of
a month's continuance, but had actually begun
to set up an improving condition, the proposed
journey wisely conducted, a year earlier, would
have resulted in benefits  to him of incalculable
value.
  I connection with this, a co-incident fact may
be stated with advantage,  not only as to the
inefficiency of Inhalation, but as to the value of
out-door activities, in affections of the lungs.
  The  first impetus  given  to  Inhalation  in
New York, was the certificate of the mayor of
a neighboring city, as to  its efficacy in the case
of his wife; this  was in eighteen hundred and
fifty-four. Two years later she was still an inva- 
282         CONSUMPTION.
lid.  A year ago, she resorted to daily rides in
the open air, and one  of the members  of her
family  stated  it as an opinion,  that "she  had
derived a greater benefit  from such exercise
than from any means she had employed."  This
statement  of one of her children, was reported
to the  author, by the gentleman to whom it
was said to have been made. It is given merely
as a report.  The reader can put such a value
upon  it as he  may think it merits ;  the other
part of the statement is of public notoriety.
  Many people appear to have an all-controll-
ing fear of exposure to  the  weather, yet will
exhibit a degree of  reckless indifference to
health  in other directions which is amazing.  It
may be useful here to  append part of a letter
from a young lady who was a short time under
treatment for a throat affection ; she was a most
beautiful  singer, not less beautiful  than  her-
self, and her loss to the village choir at church
would  have been a public calamity :
   " I do not go out much in the evening air.
I was invited about two weeks ago to go a sail - 
EXPOSURE  SAFE.        283
ing in the afternoon, the gentlemen promising
to have me home by  seven;  but when we
started for home there was not the least wind,
and there we were.  After a while there was
sufficient to help us on, but  that was the last
of it;  it was nine o'clock in  the evening, and
no prospect of getting  home.  At last it was
proposed  we should go on shore and walk
home, a distance of nearly two miles; they felt
worried on  my account,  for  I  was getting
hoarse, and they knew we should not get home
before morning."  The ladies were all willing,
so they  managed to get the boat  to the shore,
and get us off.  I, with  unusual  prudence for
me, had taken a large shawl and my overshoes.
It was very well I did, for our passage from
the boat to the shore was not a very dry one.
It was a  mild warm evening, but I had my
shawl on:  this, with walking, made me perspire
freely.   On reaching home, I went into a warm
room and  remained  there until I got cool and
the perspiration had ceased.  The next morn-
ing my hoarseness was gone and  my cough  a 
284          CONSUMPTION.
great deal better.  So I think it helped, rather
than harmed  me.  It might  not do  to repeat
the experiment too often.          s. w. m."
  The one  thing which made this sailing ex-
cursion a benefit instead of an injury; which
left all the symptoms better, instead  of worse;
the thing, the neglect  of which has laid the
foundation of life-long sickness and premature
death to  multitudes,  and which will continue
to do so,  until  men  and women begin to feel
that  the  study of health is a duty,  is simply
this ; her going into  a  warm room at the close
of her exercise  and  there remaining, until
perfectly  cooled off.   This  precaution  she
had learned from a previous letter, and it was
only  necessary  to reply to  her, that a repe-
tition of such  an excursion every  few  days
would cure her. But in spite of the benefit,
the reader will note the inveterate prej udice at
the close of the letter.   Had any medicine re-
moved the hoarseness and so much abated the
cough in a single night, and especially'a patent
medicine, its  praises would have  been com- 
      INHALATION "WORTHLESS.   285
mitted to record  and published millions of
times, in the course of coming years.
  It ought  to have  been conclusive of the
worthlessness  of Inhalation as a radical cure,
that educated physicians  had abandoned  it
ages ago; because upon full and  fair trial, it
was ascertained, that  while there was nothing
radically curative in it, the temporary or appa-
rent benefits which attended its employment,
were more readily attained by means more
generally practicable and more facile of applica-
tion.  The force of this inference was sought to
be broken, by the assertion of an acknowledg-
ment of the inefficiency of these means hereto-
fore, but that  the discovery of a new remedy,
placed it in  the power of the practitioner to
warrant  it one of the most  important discov-
eries in medicine, of modern times; while the
ineffable  stigma of concealing  an  important
remedy  from the knowledge of the profession,
was parried by the announcement,  that  the
nicety of its application was such, that the dis-
coverer could not make physicians understand, 
286          CONSUMPTION.
in any given  instance, how to apply it;  that
only the discoverer could decide, lest in a par-
ticular  case, it  might be  " too  much  or too
little, too hot or too  cold, too  strong  or too
weak," but  that as soon as it could be done
consistently with the safety of  the interests
and  reputation of the discoverer,  the  whole
thing would be thrown open  to the medical
world.
  With such subterfuges as these, unprincipled
characters and adventurers have in all  ages
made dupes of their race, and all-trusting, have
led them blindfold to the grave.  It is not the
business  of a practitioner of medicine to seek
out and expose these delusions ;  his province is
to save  the  sick  and  ease the dying.   The
caveat emptor is a principle of universal applica-
tion, and not confined to barter and sale.   The
author cannot remember one name in medicine
that  acquired  a  reputation rapidly,  from  any
cause, and permanently retained it.  Sir Astley
Cooper's receipts for  medical  services for the
first year in London  amounted  to  twenty-six 
ASTHMA.             287
dollars, it was not until an age had passed that
they reached to a hundred and fifteen thou-
sand dollars a year.   And yet, within  a year
after the announcement of Medicated  Inha-
lation  as a cure for consumption, thousands
had  crowded  forward  to  test the  remedy;
offices  were  opened  in  every considerable
town in the land; and in another year, few ex-
cept the desperate are so weak as to try it.
                  ASTHMA,
  In its common form, is generally considered
as allied to consumption; the cough,  expecto-
ration and shortness of breath, being  common
to both.
  In  Asthma,  the  cough prevails when the
attack  is about  going off.
  In Bronchitis, the attack  is equally trouble-
some during the whole twenty-four hours.
  In Consumption, the cough is more on going
to bed  and getting up, while during  the day
and during the  night,  it is not special,  except
in the more advanced stages of the disease.
  In Asthma, the  patient has  good  health 
288         CONSUMPTION.
during the  interval of the attack ; those inter-
vals are from days to years, according to the
phase of the disease.
  In Bronchitis, the health suffers all the time
of its presence.
  In  Consumption, there  is generally some
portion of  the day, during which the  patient
feels comparatively well.
  In  Asthma, there is no  cough at all, until
the violence of the attack is  passed, which is
after the turn of the night, when the symptoms
begin to ameliorate.
  In Bronchitis, the cough comes on whenever
there  is phlegm to be dislodged;  and  then,
there  is temporary relief, to occur at any hour
of the day or night, for dozens of times.
  In  Consumption, there is  most  cough  on
going to bed, and on getting up; whether there
is phlegm or not.
  In Asthma, the breathing is worse in the
fore part of the night.
  In Bronchitis, it may recur any hour of the 
ASTHMA.             289
twenty-four, when phlegm is about being dis-
lodged.
  In Consumption, the shortness of breath on
all ascents, is ever present, day and night alike.
  In Asthma, a single step, the raising of the
arm, the crook of the finger, the utterance of
a* word, seems almost to take away the life, for
a few hours.
  In  Bronchitis, the patient  can walk  very
well.
  In Consumption, locomotion on level ground
does not require an effort.
  In  Asthma, there is no  destruction of the
substance of the lungs.
  In Bronchitis, the lungs are entire.
  In Consumption, the lungs are in a state of
decay, and are growing less, steadily.
  In Asthma, a person may have perfect health
in the intervals of attack.
  In Bronchitis, there may be a perfect and
permanent recovery.
  In Consumption, there is  a  steady progress
to  the  grave;  and  where there   is  a  per-
              19 
290          CONSUMPTION.
manent cure, the patient can  never be as per-
fect, because a part of the lungs have been de-
stroyed and  they cannot be replaced.
  In Asthma, the lungs are all there, but the
patient cannot get enough air out; it is confined
in the lungs, distending them distressingly.
  In  Bronchitis,  the  lungs  are  entire,  anal
the  air is confined, but may be liberated by the
dislodgement of a plug of phlegm, at any hour
of the twenty-four.
  In  Consumption,  the lungs  are partly de-
stroyed, and the patient cannot get enough air
into them, to answer the purposes of life.
  These are the parallels in  reference to the
ordinary forms of these three diseases.  Asthma
rarely, very rarely,  indeed  ends in consump-
tion ;  it is antagonistic of that disease.  It sel-
dom destroys life, until the patient is advanced
in years.  It is incurable.  The attacks  may
be warded off, indefinitely, by proper care and
medical counsel. Asthma is always brought on
by  a bad cold or a torpid condition of the
liver  and bowels, which last, most probably, 
          ITS EARLY ORIGIN        291
laid the system liable to the cold.  The author
believes the profession will find, that by keep-
ing the liver  in proper daily action,  the feet
warm, the appetite and digestion vigorous, the
most inveterate asthmatic,  (if it is not  con-
tinued asthma,) may ward off attacks for  a life
time.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS AND DEDUCTIONS.
  Half of all  the adults  dying in London be-
tween the ages of twenty-one and forty, are the
victims of lung diseases ; and so, doubtless, of
other large cities and towns.
  As consumption is from two to twenty years
in developing itself,  after the seeds of it, in the
shape of tubercles, have been deposited in the
lungs, it is a  legitimate  conclusion, that the
foundations of it, are laid between the ages of
sixteen and twenty years, while the young are
yet under parental control.   These things be-
ing so, every father and mother in the land, as
they value the earthly happiness of their chil-
dren,  as they value their offspring's exemption
from a life of weary suffering and a premature 
202          CONSUMPTION.
death by a fearful disease, are hereby, even
conjured, to make that period of the lives of
their sons and  daughters, the  object of their
ppecial and daily  supervision; and at the sac-
rifice of every thing else, to require and com-
mand and impel,  the utmost regularity in eat-
ing and  sleeping and exercise; to  allow no
day to pass without full  eight hours for sleep,
and full six hours out of each twenty-four, for
out-door exercises of an exhilarating character,
in walking, running, swimming, hunting, fowl-
ing, base ball, cricket, rowing, but beyond and
above all, riding on horseback, from a trot to a
gallop, the faster the better; giving the pre-
ference in these forms, to continuous journeys,
with an agreeable companion and a profitably
animating object  in view.  For all  our obser-
vation, but accords with the quaint  language
of Sydenham, the great father of medicine,
some two hundred years ago:
   " The palmary remedy in Consumption,  is
daily riding, which is all in all."
  No cough remedy  ever yet sold as a patent 
BRANDY CURE.
293
medicine, has  afforded any real, radical  good,
in any single  case; but  does, in  all instances
by interfering  with ; and deranging the action
of the stomach, liver  and bowels,  aggravate
the malady and render it more speedily and
certainly fatal.
  Of any consumptive reader of these pages it
is asserted, on the most convincing grounds,
you will  find by multifold  experience, that
however,  almost  miraculous, may have been
the benefits derived by others, from the  thou-
sand and  one remedies  which the  mistaken
kindness and  humanity  of friends may pro-
pose for your  trial from  time to time, in your
case, they will be  utterly inefficient of any
radical  benefit.    Temporary  relief may  be
afforded, only to aggravate the symptoms ulti-
mately, or to lose valuable time.
  It is the author's deliberate conviction, as to
the remedial  powers of other agencies in cur-
ing consumption, such as Medicated Inhalation,
Cod Liver  Oil, Brandy  and Salt,  Alcohol,
Whiskey, Brandy, Beer, Ale, Porter, swabbings 
294          CONSUMPTION.
with Nitrate of Silver, all of them, are utterly
inefficient, as to any permanent radical effect,
towards the cure of consumption ; and that by
their temporary and  deceptive ameliorations,
they but lose  invaluable time and  lure  but
to destroy.
  A simple statement of the  actual effects of
alcohol, in  any  of  its  forms, as a remedy
for  consumption,  or  for  any other disease, is
sufficient to convince thinking men, not only of
its inefficiency, but of its positive hurtfulness.
  Alcohol exhilarates the brain, but imparts no
strength to the muscles ;  as witness the totter-
ing toper and the fallen  drunkard, as helpless
as a log.
  Scientific  observations have established the
fact, that the more a man drinks, the less  car-
bonic acid gas is carried out of the system  by
the expired air; it must, therefore, be retarded
and must accumulate, rendering the blood more
and more impure, blacker and blacker at each
breath, and all know that black blood indicates
mischief.  One of the most important  offices 
        EFFECTS  OF ALCOHOL.     295
of breathing is to remove from  the  blood the
carbonic acid  gas, while  drinking alcohol re-
tains it.  Every expiration in health, goes out
of the body loaded with this gas;  if a single
breathful is arrested, the instantaneous and in-
stinctive struggle  of nature  for relief,  shows
her appreciation of the danger.   Witness the
slow breathing of the drunken man, how more
and more helpless  he becomes  each moment
under it.
   Further, it  is demonstrated,  that even  in
moderate drinking, the total amount of bodily
excretions,  in a given time, is less  than when
no liquor has been swallowed ;  and  all know
that the arrest of these excretions,   even  to a
limited extent, is the certain cause  of disease,
diminishing the heat of the body, thus thicken-
ing the blood  and clogging all  the wheels  of
life; every  manufactory  is  deranged,  every
gland disordered. Consequently,  the presence of
alcohol must impair nutrition, the very function
which, of all others, it is important in consump-
tion to  maintain in its highest  integrity. 
296          CONSUMPTION.
  The use of alcohol,  then,  is doubly hurtful
in consumption.  By impairing the vital func-
tions, the wastes of the system are not perfect-
ly dissolved into fluid and gas, their more solid
particles remaining; and for the same reason,
the food is  not converted into a perfect  blood
material; hence the particles which it  bears
on its tide  to the various parts of the system
to repair its wastes, are imperfect;  consequent-
ly the repair is imperfect and incomplete ; thus
it is,  that in drinking brandy, porter, lager beer,
and the like, there is an  appearance of improve-
ment, a seeming increase  in  flesh, but it is not
a solid  flesh,  while the strength  itself is not
increased at all.  Even this apparent improve-
ment continues only to  a certain point, when it
abruptly ceases, and the system sinks  rapidly
down.  The same  holds good as to the use of
the various oils in  consumption.
  Notwithstanding the almost miraculous effi-
cacy  of out-door  activities  in arresting and
curing consumption, the necessity of having
an intelligent and skillful  and attentive physi- 
    CONSULT  YOUR  PHYSICIAN.   297
cian to watch over each case is imperative, for
the following reasons, among others :
  On the very threshold, it is of primary im-
portance to ascertain the exact  nature of the
disease, whether, instead of being consumption,
it be  not  some  one of those other  ailments,
which put on some of the appearances of Con-
sumption, but are  so different from it, that if
the same activities  were employed as  are re-
commended as   available in consumption,  a
speedy aggravation of all the symptoms, and
ultimate  death, would be inevitable; such as
disease of the heart, spinal affections, and the
like.
  The conviction that one has consumption, is
of slow growth,  and comes at so late a period,
in too many instances, that the necessary out-
door  activities are, at the time, an impossi-
bility; then, all  the intelligence of the most
experienced practitioner is required to devise
those  substitutes, which may  prepare the way
for more efficient measures.  It is in circum-
stances like these,  that  nature  may be  most 
298         CONSUMPTION.
advantageously aided by medicine, to create
and sustain that appetite and  digestion which
so wonderfully follow  active employment in
the open air.
  But in almost all cases of consumption, some
one symptom is so prominent, so  aggravated
in its character, and so  distressing,  that  its
amelioration is not only a necessity, as far as
personal comfort  is concerned, but would ac-
tually retard the  progress  of  the disease, and
in some instances,  prevent  a speedily fatal ter-
mination, as  diarrhoea, profuse  spitting  of
blood, exhausting night sweats, and indigestion.
  As to the  cough in consumption, a very
attentive consideration should be given.  If it
be  loose and free, and something  is readily
brought up, then,  by all  means,  no interfer-
ence  of any  description should be  allowed;
but when it is dry and hard, when the greatest
straining is  requisite to bring up any thing at
all, it is from one of these  principal causes:
1.  Actual  fever.   2.   A  general  irritation.
3. The  turning point, when tubercles are about 
     DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF COUGH. 299
  to set up actual  disease.   In either  of these
  cases the constant jarring and straining of the
  lungs by the fruitless  cough, not  only wastes
. the general  strength, lout hastens the  develop-
  ment of tubercles.  Under such circumstances,
  it is of high importance to modify the cough,
  and the  remedies employed are  essentially
  different, according to  difference of cause, and
  none but a patiently thoughtful physician
  can decide and act in the premises.
     Then again,  there  may  be a  temporary
  cause of cough, operating  at a distance from
  the  lungs.   Some of  the most violent pa-
  roxysms of cough, lasting for hours at a time,
  without cessation, have arisen from some arti-
  cle of food taken into the stomach which it has
  not been able to digest, and  it has remained
  there for hours,  irritating and disturbing the
  whole  digestive machinery;  when  a  slight
  emetic will bring from  the stomach, a foul, sour
  mass of undigested food, the fumes  of which
  are horrifying,  and in  twenty minutes the pa-
  tient will be sleeping sweetly and soundly, 
300
CONSUMPTION.
  Sometimes the cough arises from constipation
or cold feet, when a different class of remedies
must be employed, only to be done wisely and
well, by the educated physician.  From  these .
statements  the  reader  can comprehend the
amazing folly  of the multitude, in the pur-
chase of cough medicines and  taking them in-
discriminately  for the cough, regardless of the
nature of its origin or its locality, whether in
the spine,  the  food, the liver, the stomach, the
throat or the lungs.  And nothing can exceed
our utter detestation of the unblushing empiri-
cism in indiscriminately prescribing the nitrate
silver swabbings and medicated inhalations and
abdominal  supports, and bungling but costly
shoulder  straps  and braces,  whenever  the
sound of a cough  is heard, regardless  of its
true causes.  Relieving men of their money by
false pretences is a criminal offence, consign-
ing the culprit to the same cell with the incen-
diary, the  horse-thief and the  manslayer; but
to defraud the unsuspecting  and  confiding of
their health and of life itself;  to do it know- 
LOCALITIES FOR  C OS S U M P T I 0 N . 301
ingly and deliberately, in the long practice of
years, and often under the plea of humanity;
and to aid and abet such by throwing open the
columns of the newspapers, political,  neutral
and  religious,  to  the dissemination of these
falsities, for  the price of a few  dollars, may
well "cause us pause," and leave us in doubt,
whether to be most astounded  at the wick-
edness of the dupers  or  the ignorance  of the
duped.
           THE BEST LOCALITIES.
  The best place for  a consumptive, is a dry,
cool, still locality.   Damp  places, raw winds,
and  sultry  latitudes, are in every way inju-
rious.
  From the first of December until the first of
April, a large city is the best place.  For those
months  of the  year, New York city is the most
desirable spot in the Union for persons suffer-
ing with consumptive disease, under  all the
circumstances, and for reasons that none can so
w*ell appreciate as the stranger and the poor
man. 
302          CONSUMPTION.
  A man may ride along the finest road in the
world, in a wheeled vehicle, for less  than two
cents a mile; to wit, along Broadway on an om-
nibus.   He may thus travel fifty  miles a day,
for less  than a dollar, having a variety and a
novelty in every rod of his progress, not  at-
tainable on an equal amount of  road on  the
face of the earth.   And then, there is  safety, if
a man is civil.  Omnibuses never capsize, their
horses never run away, their drivers  never  go
to sleep, and will take you  in as often as you
apply for a ride.
  If walking is preferred, there is the advantage
of walking any  distance, and then  riding  in
case of  rain or fatigue or accident, while the
opportunities  for  rest  and for spending  an
hour pleasurably,  are  almost  without  limit.
Walking in the country, in winter-time, is out
of the question.  In New York,  the sidewalks
in the principal streets are available all  the
year; then  there  are reading-rooms, lectures
concerts,   operas,  picture-galleries,   libraries
churches,  society reports,  and various  other 
DIRECT  THE MIND.       303
 opportunities of whiling away an hour in an
 interesting  and instructive manner; which in
 a remedial point of view, is of the very highest
 value.
   For,  let it not be  forgotten, that many an
 invalid thinks himself to death.   And none
 but the sick can ever know the  dreariness of
 spending hour  after  hour in the same house
 and room and fire-side for weeks and  months
 together; while the relief is but  small to take
 a  walk  in  the  same one  street  of a country
 village,  or  along the road by a farm-house.
 The fact is, restoration  from  consumption is
 not to be looked for  unless the  mind  is con-
 stantly  compelled away  from itself, and from
 its companion, the body, and is fixed on some-
 thing interesting, agreeable and profitable.  It
 is  hoped that this idea will  be kept ever in
 view.
   It is  also  a  consideration, which will bear
 reflection, that in a great city, the patient may
have the medical advice  of the most eminent 
304         CONSUMPTION.
men of the " school" which his prejudices may
most favor.
  From May until November is the season for
continual horse-back journeyings.  The pre-
ference should be given to hilly countries, as
exercising the muscles of the body more va-
riously,  as  affording a  purer atmosphere, a
greater simplicity of diet, and a more impressive
scenery.  The grandeur of the mountains of
Pennsylvania, the beauty and mildness of the
hill country of East Tennessee, and the Blue
mountains of the Old Dominion, would delight
the traveller  for  months  together.  A most
lovely excursion for a company on horseback,
would be in September and October along the
shores of  lake Superior,  in Minnesota, and
about the  falls of the classic Minnehaha; re-
membering in  all journeyings  to have an
agreeable and profitable object in view; and to
make it a  matter of principle  to prosecute
those journeys, day after day, regardless of the
weather.
  There is a region of country about Cochecton, 
COCHECTON  HILLS.        305
in Sullivan county, New York,  on the Dela-
ware river, and the line of the Erie Railroad,
which is remarkable for a fine, clear, dry atmos-
sphere; it is very hilly and  affords good hunt-
ing for deer, quails, squirrels, and an  occa-
sional bear, for  variety.   It  must  be  remem-
 bered, that whatever may be the advantages of
a locality, there must be  something connected
with it, which will strongly invite  the patient
from the house.   It is the out-door part of any
locality which possesses the curative quality in
Consumption.  If the patient will cling to the
house, and loll on the sofa, and hover over the
fire, when the weather is a little cold, one place
is as good  as another, for  he  will die any how.
There is such a deep-rooted fear of taking cold
by going out of doors, and by  encountering
changes of weather, that when persons do go
to a favorable locality, its benefits  are allowed
to be lost, in a great measure, by going out only
in  pleasant weather.   Four  years  ago, a con-
sumptive looking young man, fair complexion,
narrow chest, with  pains, cough and  spitting
           20 
306         CONSUMPTION.
blood,  obtained a  conductor's place on the
Hudson River Railroad.   Two years later, he
reported himself well, and appeared to  be so,     ,
and seemed to feel surprised that  such a life
had  agreed with him so well.   When  three
things are remembered:
  1st. How seething hot  the cars are kept on
that line in winter time.
  2d. How cold the winds are capable of blow-
ing on the banks of the Hudson at that  season
of the year.
  3d. How many dozens of times a conductor
has to pass out of one car and cross into another
in a single day, and that these changes  do not
destroy those who are well, but actually restore
the sick—the inveterate prejudice against sud-
den changes of air must be swept away like

       " The baseless  fabric of a vision," and
       <: Leave not a trace behind."

   Dr.  Kane, the Artie navigator, was  in the
 feeblest health  in  the waters of the Gulf of
 Mexico, in summer time ; six months later he 
      DR.  KANE AND  ICEBERGS.   307
was among the  ice-bergs of a p'olar sea,  and
there  remained  for  two  years, returning in
better health  than when he left.  But sin'ce
his return  his health declines again, and yet
public papers assign as a  cause, his exposures
in his  northern  journey,  thus perpetuating a
prejudice and  reversing truth.
   The greatest obstacle  to be met by the phy-
sician in carrying out the remedial means ad-
vised  in these  pages, is  in the patient himself.
In many cases  where these means are prac-
ticable, business  ties have  such a hold on men,
that it is impossible almost to sever them.
   A gentleman  of position, of education,  and
of wealth, writes:  "I think  my symptoms are
very unfavorable, but I may weather the storm
for a  while longer.   It don't discourage me in
the least.   Your idea of a horseback journey
is no  doubt among  the  best  for me,  and  I
have  thought of it many times.   Perhaps you
will say, * Why  don't you go ?'  Well, there
are several  pull-backs and reasons which have,
and still do, prevent me;  and perhaps they 
308         CONSUMPTION.
will, until 'tis too late, if not too late already."'
  Such then being the inveterate prejudices
arid ignorance as to the nature of consumption
and the means of removal;  and such the diffi-
culty of inducing persons to attempt the reme-
dies, when they have time  and money to ena-
ble them to do it;  and when too,  their intelli-
gence and observation  alike convince  them of
the efficacy of those  means;  the  physician is
tempted to turn away  in despair of cure,  and
to concentrate his  whole attention on  the  pre-
vention  of such a  death-dealing  malady  at a
time when the seeds of it are usually  sown, as
detailed  in pages ninety-one and two  hundred
and forty-three,  by compelling children to en-
gage more in out-door  recreations, to live lives
of regularity, system,  temperance, and useful
industries.
             SOUTHERN CLIMATE.
   It is a standing  direction to go to a warmer
climate in threatened or actual consumption.
   Warm weather  takes  away the energies of
the healthiest among us, and the universal ex- 
         SOUTHERN  CLIMATE.      309
perience of physicians and patients  is, that it
debilitates  consumptives  greatly.   If  warm
weather at home debilitates, how can it fail to
debilitate when away from home?
  The chemist knows there is more nutriment
in a pint of cold air than  there is in a pint of
warm air,  because it is more condensed.  It is
a  conceded point in consumption, that the
larger the quantity of air the patient can con-
sume, the  greater are his  chances of recovery.
The fewer lungs he has, the more reason there
is that he should consume the most concen-
trated and the purest air there is.  Besides the
rarefaction of a  southern  atmosphere, it must
necessarily be loaded with vapor, and partly so
with  miasm, the fruitful  cause of violent dis-
eases.  These suggestions will bear study.
   In some liver affections, the  person loses
flesh, pales away and with more or less cough,
the friends become alarmed, and fear that he
is going in a decline.  He is sent South, and
relief from business cares, change  of air and
scene, and food, and habits of life, soon restore 
310         CONSUMPTION.
him, and he returns home a well man.   And,
like the drawing of the highest prize in  a lot-
tery, the one  success sends  thousands  on the
same errand,  to meet with a hopeless failure;
for, in  the  first case, it was a disease of the
liver,  which  readily  yields  to  the remedy,
because it was applicable, but in the other case
it was a disease of the  lungs, which, if in the
advanced stages is rendered more speedily and
certainly fatal.  In forming  consumption, out-
door activities abate all the symptoms, and the
patient  hurries home,  feeling well, but not
having  kept up these  activities long enough,
the tendency to disease of that  kind has not
been fully broken up, a habit of health has not
been established,  and  slight  causes  bring a
return of the symptoms, and you see such per-
sons going  to the South every winter, until the
system  loses  its power of recuperation  from
these fitful  efforts, and the final result is, " died
of consumption" the very case that had been
noised about a few years before as having been
cured of consumption by going  to the South. 
ITALIAN  SKIES.         311
 Thus  it is that the gross error is kept alive,
 and is almost a universal belief.   A  few years
 ago, a gentleman of note sufficient to have his
 movements chronicled in the papers, left home
 for a throat affection, with a view to spending
 a winter in the South.  Circumstances led him
 to call  on the author for  advice, in  this city,
 and he returned home, and  is in good health
 to this day.  But shortly after his resumption
 of professional duty it was  announced in the
 papers that this gentleman's  visit to the South
 had fully restored him.
   It is a significant fact, that the  British gov-
 ernment sends its consumptive soldiers  from
 its Southern stations towards the North.   The
 reader is referred for statistical statements on
 this subject to Bronchitis and Kindred Diseases,
 8th edition.
   Very much  has been said of Italian skies,
 and  of  the South of  France,  but the simple
 fact that the natives of these localities do not
 reach the  average  of human  life  which pre-
vails in England and more Northern  latitudes, 
312         CONSUMPTION.
is an unanswerable argument  sgainst the salu-
brity of those far-famed localities.
  Foul air, whether malaria or miasm, whether
warm or cold, will generate consumption wher-
ever it is habitually breathed.  It is impure air,
any air that has in it any ingredient not de-
signed by  nature, is what breeds consumption
and death  in all its habitations.   The idea that
fever and  ague localities are exempt from con-
sumption is theoretically and actually unsound,
for whatever lowers the  powers  of life lays the
foundation for  consumption;  the  emaciated
forms that  lounge about where chill and fever
prevail, have but a single  step to make to be
in advanced consumption.
  The infatuation for a  southern  climate is
such, that  in cases where it becomes impracti-
cable, an attempt is made and much study  has
been given towards accomplishing the breath-
ing of a warmer atmosphere, and Respirators
of various patterns and principles have been
devised to bring  about, this result.  But  a
single  reflection ought to be sufficient  to ex- 
        THE  BEST  RESPIRATOR.    313
 pose the absurdity of  their employment.  If
 they prevent the cold air from coming in, they
 prevent the warm  and wholly poisoned air
 from going out, and in proportion as the warm
 air tempers the cold air, in the same proportion
 does it make  it incapable of sustaining life.
 Great Nature shows  her abhorence of the air
 which passes out in  the act of breathing, by
 giving  it constituents which cause it to ascend
 where it cannot be rebreathed,  the instant of
 its leaving the  body,  as can be seen of a frosty
 morning.  If a man could rebreathe  a breath
 of his own or  of another person,  without a
 mixture with pure air, he would in an instant
 suffocate.  The best  respirator  in  the  world
 costs nothing but an  effort; it  is to keep the
 mouth  shut on going into a much cooler at-
 mosphere ; this compels  it to make the circuit
 of the head, and in passing upward  through
 the nose and along down the throat, it becomes
 warm enough by the time it reaches the lungs;
just as warm as nature intended, with the in-
 calculable advantage  of  being introduced into 
314           CONSUMPTION.
the lungs in  a  state of comparative purity.
When will we learn nature's method of taking
care of herself.

        CONCLUDING  CHAPTER.
                    OR,
          THE GIST OF THE BOOK.
  The prominent ideas presented in the pre-
ceding pages are:
  Common Consumption of the Lungs, from
its inception to within a month or two of death,
may be indefinitely arrested or permanently
cured.
  The cause  of Consumption is an imperfect
nutrition  and an impure blood, arising in all
cases  from an imperfect  digestion  and  the
breathing of an impure atmosphere.
  The removal of the cause of  any malady, is
the first, the essential, the most  important step
towards its cure; therefore, a  pure air and a
perfect digestion,  are the  indispensable requi
sites in the successful treatment of any case of
consumptive  disease. 
         OUT-DOOR ACTIVITIES.     815
   Substantial food, well digested, is the mate-
rial out of which blood is made; but it is not
converted into perfect blood until it  has  been
exposed to the action of fresh, pure air, drawn
into the lungs at every breath;  it is therefore
a  physiological impossibility,  that any  con-
sumptive can be  cured  unless  he  largely
breathes a pure atmosphere, and that implies
a necessity of being out of doors;  for  the air
within any four walls,  must be more or less
impure.
   Muscular exercise is essential to the removal
of useless particles from the system ; therefore,
the fundamental agency  in the  cure of  con-
sumption, is THE LARGE EMPLOYMENT OF  OUT-
DOOR activities, involving, as they do—
   First.  The breathing of a pure atmosphere.
   Second.  The  working  off of the  useless,
decaying, and dead particles of the body.
   Third.  The securement  of a good appetite
and a vigorous digestion ;  which, by imparting
substantial strength,  increase  the ability for
exercise; thus the healthful agencies re-act on 
316          CONSUMPTION.
one  another for  mutually invigorating pur-
poses.
  It is neither  creditable  nor humane,  in  an
educated physician, to banish any consumptive
applicant from home; nor to abandon him to
the questionable benefits of a southern climate,
nor to the  pretensions  of the Consumption-
Curer; but on the contary, he should energet-
ically and hopefully undertake the treatment
of every case presented  to him, with the rea-
sonable expectation  of encouraging success,
addressing himself----
  First. To the amelioration of urgent symp-
toms.
  Second.  To securing a perfect digestion, as
far as possible by natural agencies, employing
medicine as a last  resort.
  Third.  To superintend the out-door  activ-
ities.
  While out-door activities are competent to
the cure of Consumption, no patient should be
so unwise as to attempt his own restoration,
by  the adoption of these  means: but should 
PREVENTION.
317
place himself under the implicit guidance  of
that regular  and  educated physician nearest
him, who most possesses his confidence and re-
spect.
   Drunkenness,  Consumption, and  Syphilis.
are diseases of the entire man;  every atom of
blood is corrupted, every fibre of the body is
physically  degenerated,  and  none  but  the
Power which made man first, can make him
whole again.  All that can be done  in  either
case is to accomplish their  arrest;  to be made
permanent, only at the price of a life-long vigi-
lance.  The first moment off the guard, and the
pent up whirlwind sweeps all before it.
  The only hope  of ridding the world of these,
its  three greatest destroyers, is prevention,
never to be  attained, except by the  diffusion
of a general intelligence as to the laws of  hu-
man health, and the securement of a well edu-
cated conscience, which  shall enforce their
obedience.
  The most indelible  truths of  our nature are
the  result of  convictions founded on personal 
318          CONSUMPTION.
observation  and  experience;   and that this
book  may carry with it a power nothing short
of a  moral demonstration, it is proposed as a
pivot on which the truth or falsity of the main
argument shall turn, that the reader, sick  or
well, who can be  delighted by the establish-
ment of any important truth, shall make an ex-
perimental test of  the fundamental  principles
here involved, to wit: of the appetizing influ-
ences of out-door  activities,  and spend six or
eight hours in roaming through the woods  on
foot, in fishing, hunting, berrying, or in a horse-
back ride of equal time, with  an interesting
and agreeable object ahead; then  mark  the
vigor with which he can dispatch  a  meal of
plain  meat and bread; and  note  too,  if there
is any  abatement  of that tonic  influence after
any number  of repetitions;  if there is any
abatement of flesh or strength or vigor or elas-
ticity of mind or body ; but if, on the contrary,
there is not a steadiness and a permanancy in
these which no drug can ever give ? Nay, fur-
ther, if the worse  the weather, the beneficial 
        OUT-DOOR  ACTIVITIES.     319
influences do not abate, but if any thing rather
increase,  thus  strongly  enforcing  the truth,
which is so uniformly testified to in this vol-
ume,  that those who derived the highest ben-
efits were those who  employed  the  out-door
activities every day, regardless of the weather.
Then there comes upon us with its fullest force,
the weakness, the folly, the madness of attempt-
ing the cure of Consumption, whose cause, im-
mediate, central and most remote, is the want
of pure air and  a vigorous digestion, by con-
finement to the house, by impregnated air, and
medicinal  tonics as an  artificial  stimulus  to
appetite and digestion, when judicious out-door
activities  are  their  immeasurable  superiors;
being without  their drawbacks,  pleasureable
to take, and as to their remedial effects, allied
to the infallible.
42 Irving Place, N. Y., \
   October 23d, 1856.    J 
320
CONSUMPTION.
   It may be interesting to add, at a date several
years later  than  that  of the preceding  page,
that the treatment of consumption of the lungs,
commonly called  a " decline," by means of
medicated inhalation, that is, by the introduc-
tion of the fumes of medicinal substances into
the lungs, has so entirely fallen into  disuse, as
scarcely, at this time, to be ever heard of.   No
stronger proof could possibly be  given  of its
utter worthlessness  as  a remedial  agent  of en-
during value.
   The case  on page two hundred and thirty,
abandoned inhalation   immediately after the
letter mentioned on the next page, having found
that the only means of protracting  life,  con-
sisted in steady travel  in the north-west.   The
severe winters of that region, together with the
want  of any seasonable accommodations as to
bedding and fires, drove him home again, where
he died  two and a half years later  than the
letter of page two hundred and thirty-one.  As
to the writer of the letter on page two hundred
and thirty-four,  she was in good  health three
years later.  So of the case,  seven years later,
on page one hundred and forty-four. 
NOr  NECESSARILY INCURABLE.    321
   Consumption itself, is not in its nature,  an
 incurable disease, but is so, in too many cases
 unfortunately, for two main reasons.
   First: Persons do not yield to the conviction
 that they have consumption,  until it has made
 such a fearful progress, that nothing short  of
 creative power could rescue from the grave.
   Second: In the cases where  it is strongly
 threatened, but not in actual  existence, that  is,
 where the lungs have not begun to give way,
 are  as  yet  entire,  but  have  tubercles  within
 them, to a greater  or less extent, with a pulse
 ranging over eighty beats in a minute, in such
 cases, the patient, because he has a good appe-
 tite, can thump his breast without pain, coughs
 but little, and expectorates none, or very rarely,
 can not be made to feel the  necessity of those
 strenuous out-door efforts, which the experienced
 physician knows are essential  to life.  The call
 is,  "Give me  something to  make me a little
 stronger," or, " Only take away this cough and
 I will be well  as I ever was in my life," and
any one who gives the  tonic  to bolster up the
strength, or provides the secret anodyne to con-
trol the cough, goes off with the present honors,
                21 
322
CONSUMPTION.
only to reap, a little later, the merited but vain
execrations from both patient and friends.   New
remedies are proposed from time to time as effi-
cacious  in  the  cure of consumption, and are
greedily taken hold of by the multitudes who
are constantly laboring under that dreadful dis-
ease ; but one by one is gradually dropped and
forgotten, to be exhumed from the grave of its
inefficiency in a decade or two later; but even
while it is dying,  a new claimant is proposed
with all the appliances of money and of mind,
of ingenuity,  and of science.  But before it can
be fully tried, and wanting it to be true, medi-
cal men set themselves about accounting for its
possibly curative virtues, and forthwith a theory
is made out, which seems  " so reasonable," that
the mind grasps at it with avidity, and declares
that  it  must be true.   Millions of pages have
been published and scattered broadcast over all
civilized nations, showing why cod-liver oil was
curative of consumption, that it was a fuel, and
that  consumption was a fire, which, if not sup-
plied with something to burn  up,  would feed
upon the body, thus gradually destroying all
the flesh; and all  of us being conscious of the 
FALSE CURES.
323
fact that consumption is a gradual wasting away
of the flesh, until there is nothing left but skin
and bone, we are taken with the plausibility of
the thing, and forthwith cod-liver oil  is swal-
lowed by the hogshead, many times more horri-
bly nauseous and disgusting though it is than
castor oil, so  that  consumption may  feed  on
the fat of a fish, instead of the flesh of a man.
In the  mean while, it is  expected,   that,  in
some unexplained  way, the lungs are to get
well and become sound again.
  Soon after, chemical research announced that
there was a deficiency of lime in-the blood of
consumptives, that  its particles formed a kind
of barge, on which,  nutrient atoms were floated
to parts of the body needing sustenance or re-
pair ; but if there was no boat  to carry it,  the
nutrient  globule could not be conveyed, and it
was  no wonder that consumptive people " fell
off" to skin and bone;  hence it was as  plain as
day, that if boats  could be procured, if  lime
could be  artificially provided,  a consumptive
could not possibly help getting well; so people
went to swallowing lime, in  the shape of burnt
bones powdered.  But it was  soon discovered 
324
CONSUMPTION.
that this would not work;  not soon enough,
however, for the unfortunate druggists, because
in anticipation of selling burnt bones ground to
powder, at a thousand per cent over cost price,
they sent scavengers in all directions to pick up
every bone  they saw, whether of hog,  horse,
hound, or human, and  their shelves were soon
lumbered  with tens of thousands of pounds  of
burnt bones, in neatly-labelled bottles, with scien-
tific names, to  remain there for an age to come.
  It was next found that it was not exactly
vulgar lime  that a  consumptive wanted, but a
particular kind of lime—lime that had a little
phosphorus in it. It was  not so certain either
whether it was the lime  or  the  phosphorus
which was the wanting element; most likely it
was the phosphorus  itself, or the phosphorus in
some other article.  To make it all trebly sure,
it was  determined not only to make the poor
consumptive eat lime, but he must eat lime with
phosphorus in  it; and for fear that it might not
be  that particular kind of phosphorus, it  was
concluded to add to the mixture a variety of
things which had phosphorus in them, and thus 
BRANDY  PRACTICE.
325
was  the  birth of the  latest  cure, the  " Phos-
phites of lime and soda and iron."
  A modification of the cod-liver oil theory is
the brandy practice.  It came about in this wise.
Cod-liver oil is hard to take—brandy is n't; and
as both are almost pure carbon, the latter is the
more available;  and if it is good in one way, it
is good in another;  if it  is  valuable inside, it
must be valuable out.   These opinions  seemed
" reasonable," and the practice was adopted in
New-York in cases of consumption,  certificates
published of  the success of the same, and edito-
rials purchased in corroboration of inhaling the
fumes of alcohol, of bathing in it, and of drinking
it largely at  each meal;  thus the patient was
made to  breathe, soak, and swallow brandy.
However, brandy is not  always insisted  upon
by the stimulating advocates; some  swill  beer,
or porter, or ale;  others luxuriate  in  milk
punch, odoriferous gin, and  Bourbon or  Irish
whisky.   But in all  these remedies the  alcohol
is the agent relied upon, with rarely indeed any
other result,  and never to the author's know-
ledge,  than that the patient lived  a fictitious
life,  walked unconsciously over a magazine of 
326
CONSUMPTION.
powder, to perish in an unexpected moment;
and more, perished while hoping for a speedy
restoration;  for a point is arrived at  in such
treatment, as in the last stages of an inveterate
toper, when the alcohol ceases to stimulate, and
the patient sinks rapidly into a remediless grave.
Stimulants,  in whatever form, are only  excus-
able under circumstances of temporary expedi-
ency, as in sudden sinkings, or when taken only
at meal-times, so that the strength of it may be
expended, not on the brain or nervous system,
but on  the  stomach, in giving  it a transient
power of digestion, the more perfectly to ex-
tract from the food eaten the  elements  of reno-
vation and life, but not before meals, for then its
power is spent in exciting an appetite for more
food than would otherwise be eaten, when al-
ready the stomach wants  strength to properly
digest what  the ungoaded appetite would take.
But even under these circumstances, stimulants
are  not  to be considered the  main, the perma-
nent, or the essential means  of cure;  they are
only to give time for bringing  to bear such
remedies as  are actually curative,  or have the
power to arrest the further progress of  the dis 
STIMULANTS INEFFICIENT.      327
ease,  and raise  the  patient to life and  health
again.
   All previous medicinal remedies for the cure
of consumption, of whatever name or note, have
lost their reputation, have fallen into disuse one
by one as soon,  if not before, some " new cure"
is proposed, to be run after with as much greedi-
ness as any of its predecessors.   Some medicinal
cure  may be found hereafter  for the dreaded
disease;  but it is not at all likely to be obtained,
for no medicine  can give breath or make lungs.
A consumptive  dies because,  for a long time
previous, he has not been taking breath enough
for the wants of the system; that is, he has not
been taking enough air into the lungs to  purify
the blood and to give it  life.  The  simple rea-
son why enough air is not had is, there  is not
room  in the lungs to hold it;  not only because
part of the lungs have decayed away, but an-
other  portion is preoccupied by solid rounded
lumps called tubercles;  and it is plain, that if
the lungs are largely filled with these, they can
receive just that much less of air.  But if any
portion of the lungs has decayed away, in a case
of actual consumption, that portion can not be 
328
CONSUMPTION.
replaced by any thing short of creative  power,
no more than a lost finger or limb can be repro-
duced ; and if there be a solid particle, or thou-
sands of them, fungus and yet foreign, it is diffi-
cult  to imagine  how they can be removed by
any thing that can be introduced there  or into
the stomach.  All that is to be hoped for in any
case  is, to arrest the decay, and to prevent fur-
ther  increase of tubercles as to size, numbers, or
softening;  for increase as  to either is  certain
death, unless arrested.
  That when the lungs have begun to decay
away by consumption,  that  decay  is arrested
spontaneously, and that the  person ever after
may remain in good health, no intelligent ana-
tomist or physiologist will perhaps  deny, since
the lungs of most persons over forty, who have
died of any disease or  casualty, present ocular
evidence of such arrested decay,  while the im-
mense majority  of consumptives  die  under
thirty-five years  of age, leaving us to infer that
very many others who had  passed forty, and
had  not died of  consumption, had been on the
road to consumption, were actually under its in-
fluence, but that circumstances arrested  its pro- 
PRINCIPLES OF CURE.        329
gress.   The inquiring will not fail to find, in
every case, that these circumstances embraced a
prompt and radical change of habits of life or
bodily condition, that bodily condition  being
one  of these, pregnancy or corpulency,  both
being  physical  and essentially the same,  and
corpulent  people  do not  die of  consump-
tion, for  the  increase of the  volume of the
abdomen  presses upwards against the lungs,
thus bringing  the  two  sides of any  existing
cavity or sore in contact, which will inevitably
be followed by healing, if the general health is
kept good; just as a gash in the finger will heal
soon, if the sides are kept pressed together, and
will not heal unless thus kept together.  It has
just been said, that  corpulent persons do not die
of consumption.  Such persons  are always ob-
served  to walk erect; in fact, they lean back-
wards ; a line from the  point of the  shoulder-
blade would fall several inches behind the heel.
Such persons  stand  in  the same way;  their
favorite posture is with the hands behind them;
one hand is held in the other, for they have in-
stinctively found that thus they  can walk  or
stand easier, and both without an effort.   This 
330
CONSUMPTION.
erect position favors an easier and a deeper breath-
ing ;  the lungs are more fully distended, and be-
ing so, they, as well as the  abdomen, promote
the more perfect and close contact of the sides
of any cavity or sore that may be in the lungs.
Such  postures of body, therefore, all ought to
strive for, whether in sitting, standing, or walking.
  Persons cured of consumption by a change of
bodily condition, if they do not owe it to an in-
crease in the bulk of the abdomen, owe it  to a
change to some  other disease, or  to some .per-
manent  eruption or running sore;  and  the
sudden  healing up of such sore, or driving in
of such  an eruption, will be certainly followed
with a return of the consumptive malady.
  If  a person has  not been cured of a  con-
sumption by some  great change of bodily con-
dition, of the characters just  named, it will be
found to  have  arisen  from  some  great  and
abrupt change in  the  habits of life,  some of
which will be named,  without expressing  the
reason,  for this  has been mainly done in  the
preceding pages.
  Going to sea on  a several years' voyage, do-
ing ship duty, or something equal to it; inces- 
OUT-DOOR ACTIVITIES.         331
sant horseback travel, day in and day out, ine-
vitably ;  driving a trotting horse or pair several
hours  daily, the position of the arms, and the
incessant motion of their hinges,  favoring the
protrusion and development of the chest, which
allows the fresh air of every step, to crowd  in
and down upon the  lungs, without  meet  or
hindrance; a month's  driving will, in  some in-
stances, increase the capacity of the chest ten  or
fifteen cubic inches; going on a farm, and per-
forming a regular hand's work; sawing wood
in the manner of the  street-sawyers who work
by the day, not by the job, moving with the
greatest deliberation;  going  on  hunting ex-
cursions,  camping  out for months together;
driving milk, or butcher's or grocery carts over
the stones of the city streets, always going fast;
riding or walking on collecting tours or agencies;
all these embodying the same general principle,
the constant,  steady, and large consumption of
pure, fresh  out - door  air,  regardless of  the
weather, in order that  it shall be constant and
continuous.  Consumption, like fire, is a pro-
gressive thing.  To supply water  to the latter,
and  air to the former, only on  alternate days, 
332
CONSUMPTION.
could not but result in certain and hopeless des-
truction.  If any portion,  say one tenth of a
man's lungs is destroyed, and that destruction is
arrested, he can have as good health as ever,
although the lost lungs can not be replaced, be-
cause the  lungs are compensative, are disten-
sible.  If an inch be taken from a foot of india-
rubber  line, it  can be  made to stretch a foot
again.   If  one  horse from a team  of half a
dozen dies, the  remaining five may be  made to
draw the wagon home.  So if a part of a lung
is  destroyed,  the  remainder  is  capable, by
practice, of being made to receive the usual and
natural  amount of  air for the wants of  the sys-
tem, so as  to enable  the whole machinery  to
work well.   This is what is called the " cure of
consumption."  How  much of lung  substance,
or power, or capacity, is lost in any given case,
can be  measured with as much certainty and
accuracy as the contents of a box  or barrel.
How to increase the working capacity perma-
nently,  so that the remainder may be made to
do the  work of the whole  without a strain, is
the province of the physician, the general princi* 
CONDITIONS OF CURE.         333
 pies by which it  is done having been already
 referred to.
   In all cases of consumption cured by artificial
 means, that is, not spontaneous, two things are
 essential.
   First. The general  health  must  be  kept in
 good  condition,  so  that  the  food   may  be
 thoroughly and well  digested, so as  to  make
 materials for a pure blood.   To do this, remedial
 means must be judiciously employed, in addition
 to the rules and requirements of general hygiene.
   Second.  Exercise must be freely taken,  as in-
 cessantly as eating, in  order to work off the im-
 pure blood, which is the immediate cause of the
 tubercular, the consumptive condition;  and that
 exercise must be taken in the open air, because
 it is impossible to make  pure blood out of the
 most nutritious  and best-digested food in the
 world, without pure fresh air comes largely in
 contact with  it;  and without  this contact with
pure fresh air, the making of one drop of health,
life-giving  blood is an  absolute impossibility.
So that the reader can  clearly  see how it is that
medicine can never cure consumption.  All that
it can possibly accomplish is,  to pave the way, 
334
CONSUMPTION.
to make preparation for the cure; but the cure
itself is in the breathing of a pure fresh air, and
without that, a  consumptive will always die,
whatever temporary deceptions may be created
by the administration of medicine.
  In cases where running sores arise, and a con-
sumptive gets well, it is in this wise: It is a law
of nature, that any running sore is the outlet of
the impurities of the system; thus the blood is
unloaded, or in vulgar though incorrect phrase,
the "bad blood runs off," and by doing so, the
general system becomes healthy, and that health
enables the person to exercise and go out.
  In the case of  a pregnant  woman who gets
well  of consumptive symptoms, it is a law of
nature that all her powers shall be summoned
to the production of the new being; and to this
end there is a spontaneous increase of general
health, giving increased strength and ability to
exercise and go out of doors.
  In every light, therefore, in which the cure
of consumption is contemplated, the two attend-
ants  are inseparable and  are always present—a
vigorous digestion to give strength, with  ma-
terials for a pure blood, and the expenditure of 
            TUBERCULAR  DEPOSITS.        335

 that strength in enabling the patient not only to
 take more exercise, in order to work off the bad
 blood already in the system, but also to enable
 him to go out of doors, and breathe that pure
 air which is essential to the making of every
 drop of living blood,  to say nothing of the
 agency which this  same pure air has in with-
 drawing from the old blood a very large share
 of its impurities; so that while pure air helps
 materially to  deprive the old blood of its im-
 purities, it at the same time does what no other
 ag?nt in the wide universe can do, for its con-
 tact in the lungs with what is so soon to become
 new blood is essential to its becoming blood at
 all.  To try therefore to get well of consump-
 tion,  without  a large breathing every  day  of
 pure, fresh, out-door air,  is  as hopeless as an
 attempt to level the Andes, or to blot out the
 sun.
  In cases where there are tubercular deposits,
 which preoccupy the room in the lungs to a
certain extent, so that the needed amount of air
can not get into them, the cure is effected mainly
by circumstances occurring tending  to increase
the development of the  lungs, which are little 
336
CONSUMPTION.
air-cells, and by being distended by forcible in-
breathings, each air-cell presses up  against the
tubercle next it, not only preventing that tuber-
cle's increase in size, but to some extent dimin-
ishing its size, by the law of pressure and  ab-
sorption ;  thus the tubercle is made permanently
innocuous.   Hence  it  is,  that in almost  any
man of forty or over,  in good health, killed
suddenly, there will be found  these harmless
tubercles.  Let it be remembered here, that the
mere existence of a few tubercles in  the lungs is
no  "sign of consumption," for if  the person
maintains general good health by means of tem-
perance  and industry  and rational  personal
habits, these tubercles will never hurt him, any
more than powder will " go off" without fire is
applied.   But the softening of  tubercles is like
the application of a match  to a magazine;  that
softening  coming on always by whatever  pro-
duces a weakly or sickly condition of the body
for months together, or by bad colds long con-
tinued, or  so frequently  repeated, although
slight, as  that one cold terminates  in another.
Antagonistic of  such  conditions of  the  sys-
tem are  the forms of exercise  already referred 
HOPELESS CONDITIONS.         337
to.  Next best to these, and oftenest applicable
in cities, where such forms are impracticable, is
a  well-arranged  and well-ordered  gymnasium,
under the personal eye of a conscientious and
thorough physiologist.   If, however, the lungs
are in an actual  state of decay, or if there is a
great tendency to bleeding in any shape or form,
from an extensive tubercular deposit,  or from
any other cause, our belief is that gymnastic
exercises are useless, hurtful, and hazardous.
   The author would fail of duty done, to close
without  saying, that whenever the  lungs have
once begun to decay, even  to a small  extent,
with a pulse usually over  ninety beats in a
minute,  death is the rule;  recovery, the rare
exception.  When the lungs are thickly studded
with tubercles, with a pulse usually over ninety
beats in a minute, death is the more certain.
If a girl is in her teens, seasons  interrupted or
unnatural, pulse over ninety, with blood in any
shape, or in  any quantity in the saliva, daily,
or every now and then, or even for several oc-
casions, recovery  is a very rare occurrence, and
is never to be hoped for, unless a good digestion
is secured, and the out-door activities are pushed
               22 
338             CONSUMPTION.
with a persistent and determined courage.  But
we repeat it with an emphasis, believing that it
will  be to the saving of the life of some whom
the author may never see, that failures of cure
in these and other cases are not from the incur-
able nature of the disease in itself, but from the
impossibility of making  persons feel  the im-
portance, sufficiently early, of using  a most en-
couragingly certain means of cure, such as has
been already repeatedly detailed. 
ADDITIONS.
 In our own time a variety of reported cures for
 Consumption have been presented, have lived
 their hour and passed away;  thus has it been
 for centuries, showing beyond all dispute, there
 is as yet no medicine which has any effect what-
 ever in restoring to health the unfortunate vic-
 tims of the dreaded scourge.
  As one person out of six dies of  consumptive
 disease, every man, woman,  and child is more
 or less directly interested in every thing having
 a practical bearing in reference to  a malady
 which has already carried millions to  the grave,
 and  is destined to destroy millions more.  In
 reading the public papers, the impression might
 be made on the unthinking that consumption
was more easily cured than any other human
ailment.   The confident manner in which it is
announced that this, that, and the other remedy 
340            CONSUMPTION.
 is uniformly successful, and that  all that is ne-
 cessary to procure the same, is  to forward a
 three-cent postage-stamp,  and the way is open
 to a prompt, permanent, and radical restoration,
 does mislead thousands every year.   Cod liver
 oil, naphtha,  medicated  inhalation, Bourbon
 whisky; the injection of solutions of nitrate of
 silver, the ruthless excision of the tonsils, and
 pectorals  and  syrups and troches and a multi-
 tude of other remedies, safe, sure,  and infallible,
 have  been proposed  from time  to time,  have
 had their fashion and their butterfly hour; but
 the people still  continue to die of the dreaded
 disease;  not as before, but  more numerously
 than ever, proving beyond contradiction,  that
 there  is  no curative  power in  any of them.
 And  the very  avidity with which  any  new
 remedy is seized  upon and  published to  the
 world, is evidence enough, that the great want
 is  still unsupplied.  When  it is remembered
that consumption is a general destruction of the
substance of the lungs, it ought to be felt, even
by the unreflecting, that in reality, there can be
no absolute cure; because, when a portion of
the lung is  once destroyed, its reproduction is 
ADDITIONS.
341
 as impossible as that of a lost limb or finger.
 In  a literal sense,  then,  consumption  is abso-
 lutely incurable.   At the same time  a  man
 may, from various causes, lose  a part of his
 lungs, and yet have that decay arrested, and
 live in reasonable health for  many years after-
 ward.  Anatomists say  that in examining the
 lungs of those who have died after the age of
 forty-five, it is a very  common thing to notice
 evidences of a partial  destruction of the lungs,
 and their subsequent  healing up, without the
 subjects of this process ever having had a sus-
 picion in life, that any thing was  the  matter
 with his  lungs.  It follows  then,  that being
 cured of consumption, in this restricted sense,
 is an event of every day occurrence.  But  such
 a conclusion brings with it very little  comfort
 when connected with that other observation,
 that such "cures" are always  spontaneous, and
 are never clearly traceable to any  drug swal-
 lowed, to any  gas or atmosphere inhaled, or to
 any  surgical operation.  The  reputation which
 successive vaunted  remedies have obtained, has
been owing to several causes, each of which is
particularly calculated to foster a  deception;
and 
342            CONSUMPTION.
  First. Consumption is a disease which, in its
nature, is of a very flattering character, in that
it generally,  except  in its very last stages, is
not attended  with any pain;  the  appetite is
good, and the intellect clear; the malady itself
is in the lungs, which, being scantily supplied
with nerves, have very little feeling.
  Second. The  seeds of  consumption, as  pre-
viously explained, are little, hard, roundish sub-
stances, called "tubercles," scattered through
the lungs in little patches, more or less exten-
sive, which patches ripen, as  it were, at  differ-
ent times, as apples on a  tree or berries  on a
bush; this ripening, however, is rather a rotten-
ing process ; it is the  softening of the tubercles,
whereby the lungs become disorganized  and
destroyed, and are in this state spit out of the
mouth, in the shape of a thick, yellowish mat-
ter.  While this softening process is going on,
and until the  matter is  wholly expectorated,
the patient  does not " feel so well;" there is
fever, and there  is  cough, with  a variety of
other discomforts. But  when the  matter of
that "patch" is all expectorated, and the lungs
are relieved of the discomfort of its presence; 
ADDITIONS.
343
the elasticity of the system returns ; the cough
greatly  abates, and  in  some  cases  disappears
almost entirely, and  the patient expresses him-
self as feeling "almost as well as I ever  did in
my life."   This better feeling continues until
another patch ripens,  rots,  and is spit  away;
the process  going  on, in repetitions, from time
to time, until such a large portion of- the lungs
has been  destroyed, that enough is  not  left to
live upon, and death closes the scene.   Hence
it is, that the history of almost every consump-
tive, is  that of being better and worse, through
the whole course  of its progress; which aver-
ages about two years.  These "spells" of being
"worse" are  uniformly attributed  to  having
"taken a little cold."  The  patient,  too willing
to be deceived, takes comfort  in the reflection,
that if he had not  taken that last cold, he would
still have gotten better; and summoning up a
new resolution and energy,  determines that he
will be more careful against taking cold another
time; and as a means of so  doing, "bundles
up" more; is more guarded as to "exposures;"
that is, goes out  less, hugs  the  stove more,
leaves less frequently his cozy corner  at the 
344
CONSUMPTION.
fire;  not taking note of  the  fact for a long
time that he  "takes cold,"  as he calls it,  in
spite of all his efforts, and finally settles down
in the declaration that the " least thing in the
world gives me a cold;" or  there is  a positive
inability to determine how he got his last cold ;
and then begins to think that it  came on of
itself; the true state of the case being that it is
simply the natural progress of  the disease; that
"taking cold" had nothing  to do with  these
repeated back sets.  And  there is  a failure
also  to  observe, that during  this "bundling
up," this fearfulness of " exposures,"  involving
closer and closer confinement to the house, the
"colds" come more frequently, last longer and
longer, until one runs into another, and there is
a continued cold; which means in reality, that
the destructive process is now going on stead-
ily, and with  it there is a more and more ha-
rassing cough, a greater and greater thinning of
flesh,  a  more and more distressing shortness of
breath, more drenching night-sweats, more con-
suming fevers, with  a weakness, approaching
the utter helplessness of a new-born child.
  But suppose in the earlier stages of the mal- 
                 ADDITIONS.              345

ady, when perhaps the first or second or third
"patch"  had pretty much softened and  the
patient  was beginning to spit  it away,  a  par-
ticular remedy was administered ; the improve-
ment which always  follows the riddance of the
yellow  matter, which is  really  rotted lungs,  is
attributed to the last thing taken qr done;  it
may be a week,  a month, or a  year  before an-
other "patch"  of tubercles begins  to  soften;
meanwhile considerable health  is enjoyed,  and
the patient, quite willing to believe that he has
been  cured of consumption, speaks of the rem-
edy used, in  the most extravagant terms;  and
with a kind of gratitude gives his "certificate"
of its value in his own case; and in a month
it has been read  by  millions.  Hence the mul-
titude of fallacious  " cures," so  called,  which
flood  the country.
  But suppose  there  had been but a  single
" patch  of tubercles," and nothing had been
done; but there  was the usual cough, expector-
ation, night-sweats, etc., and  then an ultimate
restoration to health, the whole thing is  dis-
missed with the remark that it was only a very
bad cold. 
346            CONSUMPTION.
  There is, perhaps, not a  man living who  is
troubled with  "a  very bad cough," who has
not been advised to try a  multitude of reme-
dies, with two stereotype  statements,  "It can
do you no harm, if it  does  you no good;" and
" It cured a much worse case than yours."
  But  there are  literally  millions who, after
hopefully trying  the remedy, have been doom-
ed to the sad  experience  and admission, that
" however much others may have been benefit-
ed, no benefit has resulted in my case."
  But  as there are  persons who have labored
under  the  more  common  and  unequivocal
symptoms of  consumption, such as  cough,
spitting blood, expectoration of  yellow mat-
ter, night sweats and  swollen ankles,  and yet
have recovered  and lived in  good  health  a
quarter of a century afterward, it will be in-
structive to  note, what are the circumstances
in  common,  in  all  these well authenticated
cases;  then we may conclude,  that if in any
given case these  circumstances can be brought
about,  similar favorable and triumphant results
may be reasonably anticipated.   Let the reader
turn to the cases  of  apparent cure already 
ADDITIONS.
347
noted; to wit:  Dr. Norcom's case, (page 102 ;)
another reported in a British medical period-
ical, in  1854, and reproduced in this volume,
(page 113,)  and  others following.  To these
may be  added  the case of General Andrew
Jackson.  It was stated in the public prints at
the time of  his death, that there was every in-
dication that one fourth of the lungs had been
destroyed by disease  twenty-five years before.
To these may  be added a  case which  came
under the author's notice five years ago.
  Volume 15, case 2097, was an Englishman;
tall, slim, nervous temperament, a traveling
clock-mender and tinker.  The  yellow matter
in the air-passages was so  abundant that he
could bring  up a mouthful at any time, with a
kind of gulp, or hem.   This seemed to be a
case so utterly  hopeless in all its aspects, and
one wherein no medicine whatever seemed to
be appropriate, the only advice which was at the
same time applicable and* possible to him, (as he
was extremely poor,) was that he  should eat reg-
ularly and as much as possible, and spend his
waking  existence in some yery active exercise
out of doors. He was advised to cough as little 
348
CONSUMPTION.
as possible, to make every effort to repress  it,
to endeavor  to  get  rid of the "phlegm" by
hemming;  but that whenever it was  not pos-
sible to restrain a  cough,  to  throw the head
back and cough out at an angle of about forty-
five degrees, so as to jar and  strain the lungs
as little as possible, and thus bring away the
phlegm more easily, as would be the case when
it came up  much nearer in a straight line, than
at a right angle,  as in ordinary coughing, or  at
a more acute  angle still, when the chin is bent
down as it usually is, in the act of coughing.
This man was so very poor,  (and the  winter
was approaching,) that it was considered neces-
sary to furnish him with some clothing.  But
he was well  informed; had seen and thought
for himself as to the nature and philosophy  of
his  malady;  so  that there was a sufficient in-
ducement to explain to him the reasons for the
particular courses advised ;  these he seemed  to
comprehend  and appropriate.  Still, there was
no expectation of ever seeing him again in life.
A year later he was heard from through a third
person, who  spoke of him as the "crazy car-
Tier."  Adopting the suggestions made to him, 
ADDITIONS.
349
he at once procured the situation of meeting
the  express  railroad train at a certain point,
receiving the daily  newspapers, which had to
be carried on foot to a post-office two  or three
miles distant.   At  first he  was too weak to
walk fast; but by  great patience  he had  in-
creased his gait, until at the time of his report-
ing, he was  literally running five miles every
twenty-four hours;  never missing  a day.  On
one  occasion, when  the thermometer was hov-
ering about zero, he was seen without gloves
or overcoat, his hat  thrown back,  so as to ex-
pose the whole forehead, papers under arm, and
at a long, loping gait, " making time " for the
post-office; this furnished the occasion for giv-
ing  the  sobriquet  of the  " crazy  carrier."
Later on he came to  pay a fee for the  first con-
sultation, and five years from the first interview
he called to say that he was well;  that  he had
supported his old father and mother during the
interval; that he was  drafted, and wanted to
know what could be done for him  in the way
of securing an exemption.  On a careful exam-
ination,  there was found no physical ground for
excusing him from serving as a soldier;  and all 
350
CONSUMPTION.
that could be conscientiously done for him, was
to give a certificate that he had  been under
treatment within a few  years for consumptive
disease.
  In all the cases of apparent restoration from
consumptive symptoms above referred to, there
is one element,always present, never absent; it
is no pill or potion, no drug or "simple " reme-
dy ; no syrup nor " pectoral;"  no lozenge, no
surgeon's  operation,  nothing  physical ;  but
something as impalpable as thin air; it is  sim-
ply force of will; an unconquerable determina-
tion to live above disease; to conquer it or to
die in the attempt.  Moral courage, then, is at
the very foundation of all effective treatment for
consumption  of the lungs; and is worth a thou-
sand times more than any "dose" ever com-
pounded  by the .apothecary;  or than  any
" operation," which the most skillful surgeon in
existence  can boast of.   Without  this quality
of the mind,  invincible determination, all artifi-
cial means for the cure of consumption in  its
ordinary  course, have  seemed  to be  utterly
unavailing.   It must not be that fitful bravery
which leads  a man, in the excitement of the 
ADDITIONS.             351
 moment, to march up to the cannon's mouth, at
 the instant of its belching forth flame, and fire,
 and death ; but it must be a persistent  resolu-
 tion, a "chronic" courage, which remains at
 the highest point all the time ; day in and day
 out;  reaching through days and weeks and
 months, and even years if need be.  A courage
 which can  at  a  moment's warning leave  the
 cozy fireside and brave the fiercest winds of
 winter, which  can  any day abandon the com-
 forts and happiness of home, and undertake
 long journeys  on horseback or foot, through
 snow and frost and freezing rains;  sleeping in
 comfortless  cabins,  or  by  the wayside;  living
 on the coarsest fare of "squatter" poverty, or
 depending on  the precarious " bringing-down "
 of the hunter's rifle; the men who can do these
 things,  and do them  with  such a will  as to
 make them as mere pastimes, these are the men
 who can, and  who often  do, survive for long
 years, the fierce attacks of consumptive disease,
 and all honor be  to them,  for such  high  types
 of heroism!
  But  in  this  connection  let it  be borne in
mind that such moral  courage, such force  of 
352
CONSUMPTION.
character, is not found oftener than once in a
thousand, and that this being so, the man who
has actual  consumption may consider himself
inevitably doomed,  except  in the very rarest
number of  cases; and that they are wisest who
make a systematic effort to  live in such a way,
as not to fall into the grasp of so remorseless a
disease themselves; and to do all that is possi-
ble, by judicious counsel and unceasing watch-
fulness, to  preserve their children, and others
who may be under  them, from those habits of
life which invite so fell a malady.

        Climai:e for  Consumptives.
   It has been a fashion of many years' standing,
to go to  the South, when the lungs seemed to
be affected; or to  take long journeys by  sea.
Of late years another " notion "  seems to have
taken hold of the public mind, to wit, that Min-
nesota, the  great North-West, is best  adapted
toward recovering  a  man  from consumption ;
and now, the stream of consumptive travelers is
in that direction, instead of toward  the sunny
South, to  Cuba, Madeira, and other localities
This change of  sentiment originated in loose 
ADDITIONS.
353
 newspaper  statements, that very few  persons
 were noticed to have died of consumption in
 Minnesota.   Similar statements have been made
 as to California, and for the very same reasons;
 both countries  are comparatively  new ;  few,
 other than the hardy, " settled " in them, and for
 obvious  reasons the statistics on  the subject
 must  have  been  very imperfectly gathered.
 California is in a measure inaccessible, by reason
 of its distance.   Havana and other warmer lat-
 itudes require more means than the multitude
 can  command;  hence,  the great army  moves
 toward the  "North-West," with most discour-
 aging results.   The ablest resident physician at
 St. Paul, the chief town of Minnesota, says that
 two  thirds of the consumptives who reach that
 point, die there ;  and it is his frank and honor-
 able habit to advise visitors to leave there  as
 soon as possible.  The air is  indeed pure, and
 still, and dry, having a uniform temperature  in
 mid-winter; but whether from its great  sever-
 ity, or its rarefied  character, or  from its  pos-
sessing some stranger ingredient, not yet de-
tected, or whether from other causes, the fact
remains the  same, that two thirds of all who go
                 23 
354
CONSUMPTION.
to Minnesota  for the removal of consumptive
symptoms, perish there;  and how many, soon
after their return to their own homes, there  are
no means for ascertaining.   But it is suggestive
to note  in  the cases given in the preceding
pages, that  they were from all latitudes, from
Canada to Cuba, leaving us to fall back on  tho
great comprehensive fact,  that the essential,  the
fundamental, the all-controlling agency  in  the
arrest of any case of consumptive disease, and a
return to reasonable  health for any considerable
time, is an active, courageous, and hopeful out-
door life, in all weathers and in any latitude,
with some rousing motive, other than regaining
the health, beckoning them onward, to do and
to dare.
  Although the main elements in the cure of
consumption are first in nature, and second in
the moral courage of the individual who is suf-
fering from its ravages, it is of the utmost im-
portance  in every case  where  the disease  is
supposed to exist, to consult  a physician, not
only to decide  whether  the disease is  actually
present, but to use those means which  are best
calculated to aid nature in her efforts at restora- 
                 ADDITIONS.              355

tion.  In other words, it is always important to
keep the appetite and digestion  in a healthy
condition; it is not merely requisite to have a
vigorous appetite, for there are many who can
eat a great deal and have pleasure in so doing,
but the powers  of digestion are so weak and
imperfect, that enough nutriment is  not  ex-
tracted from the heartiest meal to afford strength
for the performance of the most common duties,
or to take any efficient exercise.  The amount
of strength derived from what has been eaten,
does not depend on the quantity of food which
has been taken into the stomach, but upon  the
perfection with which the food has been digest-
ed.  An ounce  of food thoroughly  digested
affords  more nutriment, imparts more  vigor,
than a  pound, upon  which  the stomach  but
feebly  acts.   It is a very common complaint:
" I eat heartily, and relish my food, but  it does
not seem to strengthen me."   Many such cases
could be remedied if a quarter as much food
were eaten and as much  digestive power were
expended on this as would have been on a fuller
meal; for then a  better quality of blood would 
356
CONSUMPTION.
have been made, and out of that comes strength,
which is the power to exercise.
  A man may have  ever so much moral  cour-
age to exercise, but if he  has not the physical
power, he must die;  and that power must come
from hearty food, well digested.   If the  great
glands, the manufactories of the system, are not
kept in working  order, that is, if the skin  is
dry, if the bowels are  sluggish, if the liver is
torpid, all of which  are indicated  by a " poor
appetite,"  the  strength will  decline, because
there is no good digestion, and the health and
life will waste away.   But the skillful physician
can, by proper medicines, in a great many cases,
bring the skin to its  soft, moist, natural consti-
tution.  He can by medicines regulate the bow-
els ; he can by the virtues of his art regulate
the action of the liver, and thus in this indirect
manner do a great deal toward the cure of con-
sumption  by  enabling the  patient  to obtain
strength to use nature's great remedy, to wit,
vigorous,  continuous,  and persistent  out-door
activities.   Then again, a consumptive person is
liable to a great variety of accidents, to attacks
of acute diseases, such as" diarrhea, dysentery 
ADDITIONS.
357
fever, inflammation of the lungs, and other sim-
ilar and rapidly debilitating maladies.  Prompt
medical attention to these, by arresting them at
once, saves valuable time and saves greatly the
strength of the patient, the husbanding of which
all  the time,  is of  fundamental importance,
Hence every person having consumptive symp-
toms  should be  constantly under  the  super-
vision  of a conscientious and skillful physician,
to watch his symptoms,  to guard him from im-
proprieties in eating, sleeping, and taking exer-
cise, and, in fact, in all the habits of life, with this
additional advantage—a relief from  the feeling
of responsibility,  which  is enough in some cases
to operate as  an incubus both on body  and
mind, thus greatly retarding the progress toward
health. 
 
INDEX  TO   CONSUMPTION
                                              PACE
Appetite of Nature.........................         137
Arkansas Hunter,.........................         165
Air and Exercise..........................         220
Asthma.................................         287
Alcohol Effects...........................         293

BadColds...............................      79,125
Bronchitis...............................    95, 98, 287
Blood Purified........ ..................      107, 296
Bowels Regulated.........................         210
Brandy Drinking..........................     .   293
Braces...................................         298

Consumption Described....................        53, 99
      "     delusive.....................           56
      "     not painless.................           58
      "     causes of...................          66
      «      localities....................      76,301
      «     liabilities....................          87
      **      its nature...................           94
      «     curable......................     125,250
      "      commencing.................         203
      "      seeds deposited...............         291
      "      communicable................
Oouah....................................60,128,141,296
Croup 
360
INDEX.
                                                    pack
Chronic Laryngitis.  ......................-          96
('luster Doctrine ..........................         1-4
Canada Case.........»....................         166
Cheesy Particles...........................         205

Drains....................................         218

Eruptions.................................          92
Earliest Symptoms.........................     129,138
Exercise..................................180, 225, 265
    "   various............................     230,292
Expectoration.............................         204
Eating and Exercise........................         259
Eating, Rules for..........................         232

Fatigue...................................         135

Gregg's Case...............................         165
Great Mistake..............................         219

Hereditariness............................_          77
Hectic.................................._         206
Health Rules..............................         232
Horseback Exercise........................         292

Impure Air.................................          91
Impure Blood...............................     106,301
Inhalation.................................         269

Lacing, Tight.............................          69
Laryngitis...............................          gg
Localities.................................     yg  oqi
Liquors, not  curative.......................         093 
INDEX.
m
 Medicated  Inhalation.....................,,         269

 Norcom's Case.............................         150
 Night Sweats..............................         207
 Nitrate Silver..............................         294
 Newspaper Dereliction......................         301

 Occupation in Consumption..................          gg
 Out-Door Activities........................     150 211
 Over Exercise.............................         223

 Pu,se....................................     129,138
 Porter Drinking..........................,         293

 Respirator, the best.........................         229

 Symptom of Consumption...................      84 186
 Spitting Blood............................98,103,233,242
 Short Breath..............................     133 288
 Spirometer................................     136^ 187
 Summer Complaint.........................         14g
 Sea Voyage...............................         199
 Sea  Shore...............................     148,201
 Stokes Dr.. Case...........................         160
 Spinal Disease............................         176
 Self-Treatment.............................         295
 Self.......................................         218
Sydenham's Opinion.......................         292
Southern Climate..........................
Seed Sown...............................         139
Tight Lacing
Throat Ail...
69
95 
2£aF***
:jtj2                 INDEX.
                                                PASS
Tubercle..................................         102
Tickling Cough............................
•n  •                                  ...         208
Tonics....................................
Tonsils....................................     205'215

Variety of Exercise....................... 
 
 
 
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