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   NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE

    LIBRARY.
Section
 No. 113,   /V0.
W. D. S. G. O.
1-513
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3—513
NLM051101154 
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       RETURN TO
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A
Hereditary Consumptive's




       SUCCESSFUL




  BATTLE FOR LIFE


        ^513
           BY

    J. M. BUCKLEY, LL.D.


       LTBF.
OCT
 NEW YORK: HUNT &• EA TON

CINCINNA TI: CRANSTON &■ STOIVE


       1892 
        VJFA




MTJONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
     WASHINGTON, D. C.
  Copyright, 1892, by


HUNT & EATON,


    New York. 
   This  Essay consists of articles which  ap-
peared originally in "The Christian Advocate"
and  some  additional  matter of  importance.
The  principles underlying it are that  pure  air
is  life  and the  want of  it death ; that deep
breathing is essential to vigorous health; and
that  chronic  disease—except when the  result
of accident—is caused  by  neglecting, and
by  transgressing,  little  by  little for a  long
time, and  can only  be  cured  by attending,
and  by obeying, the laws of health for a long
time. 
 
CONTENTS.
                                        PAGE
  I. The Case................................   7

 II. The Victory.............................  23

III. A Plan of Battle.......................  37

IV. Cautions and Confirmations.............  51

 V. Climate and Consumption................  70

VI. How Dr.  Bowditch  Cured Himself  of
      Consumption...........................  93
-HNr" 
 
                 A
MdiWi Consumptive's
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.
                  I.
             THE CASE.
  IN The Christian Advocate of July 16,
1885, there was an editorial entitled "Fight-
ing Consumption," which  put  so  many
persons  in a  way to regain  their health
that  letters and thanks for it have  been
received at intervals ever since, as well as
frequent calls for a reprint.
  At the urgent and oft-repeated request
of Chaplain McCabe, and many others, in
the autumn of 1890 articles were announced
for the year  1891  on "A Hereditary Con-
sumptive's Successful Battle for Life."  For
reasons which would occur to the thought- 
8      A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
ful, I have found it difficult to begin  the
task.  But one letter has decided me to de-
lay no longer.  It is from a father who has
already lost one  son by this  fell  scourge,
and fears that the life of another is  trem-
bling in the balance.
  The reader is  entitled to be made  ac-
quainted with such facts as justify the be-
lief in the correctness of the title given to
this  article;  that the predisposition and
disease existed, and that the latter is  gone.
By these he will  be placed in  a position to
judge whether what the writer supposes to
be the means of relief are entitled  to that
credit or not.  He may then decide whether
it is wise  for him to employ them in his
own  struggle.  This chapter  must, there-
fore, be autobiographical.
  Short work will be made  with hered-
itary predisposition.  I applied for a policy
of life  insurance about the  year  1856.
Among others this question was put: " Is
your father living ?  If not, of what disease 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     9
and  at what age did he die?"   Answer,
" He is dead ;  the cause of death  was con-
sumption; his age thirty-seven."  " Had he
brothers  and  sisters?"   "One  brother."
"Is  he dead or living?"   "Dead."  "At
whatage?"  "Twenty-eight."  " Of what
disease?"    "Consumption."  "Of  what
disease  did  their  mother  die?"   "Con-
sumption, aged about thirty-five." " And
their father ?"   " Of an acute lung disease,
aged forty-three."
  This swept out the whole family on that
side  except a younger brother, and left me,
at the age of less than six years, the oldest
person in the world in my direct line on
the father's side.  The policy was prompt-
ly refused.
  Subsequently  other applications  were
made and all  declined but one,  and the
company that accepted that went out of
business in less than four years ;—probably
as a  result of taking improper risks.
  This  by  no means  proves that  I am 
IO    A  HEREDITARY  CONSUMPTIVE'S
a hereditary consumptive.  First, because
prior  to the  death of my  grandmother
and grandfather no indication of the dis-
ease appeared in the family history.  Sec-
ond, because my father married into a line
in which no  cases have occurred before
or since.  On the  other hand, at the time
of my birth my father was in failing health,
soon  broke  down,  and  after struggling
with the disease for several years died as
stated.
  Consumption is never hereditary in such
a sense that every child, or even a majority
of the children, of families where one line
is consumptive must die  of it.   Nor is  it
hereditary in such a sense that all children
where both  lines were victims of it die of
it, or that none of them can or do live to
extreme  age.
  I have had the acquaintance of persons
whose father and  mother and  from three
to six brothers and sisters had  died of the
malady, and  they alone survived to above 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR  LIFE.
three-score and ten.  But the facts given
are sufficient to make  a hereditary  ten-
dency reasonable and probable.
  It is on that ground that life insurance
companies refuse to issue  life policies to
applicants with such a record.
  In childhood I was not destitute of phys-
ical  strength,  activity,  and endurance in
proportion to my weight.  When a student
at boarding-school, and  less than fourteen
years of age, I was attacked by acute bron-
chitis,  and by  it was  brought so  near to
death that my relatives were sent for; I re-
covered slowly, and  was subject for some
time to shortness  of breath  and  cough.
Through that period it was customary for
persons who had formerly known my father
and uncle, both of whom  were ministers,
and had been in stations not far from the
place, to say,  " My poor  boy, how much
your cough reminds me of your  dear  fa-
ther!"   All this produced  a  feeling  of
desperation  which  led to excess in ex- 
 12     A HEREDITARY  CONSUMPTIVE'S
 posure and in other respects, instead of to
 caution.
  A short  life and a  careless one seemed
 to be predestinated, and for two or three
 years the supposed decree was promoted.
 At  that time  there  were many dietetic
 and  hygienic theories  afloat,  and  when
 eighteen years of my life were  passed  I
 began  to try them.   Becoming  a convert
 to the vegetarian theory, I went without
 meat for nearly three years, as I  now sup-
 pose to my injury  For whatever may be
 said in favor  of vegetarianism, it is incon-
 testable that  good meat is to be preferred
 to poor vegetables and pastry, heavy and
 hot bread, and neither my knowledge  nor
 my opportunities  admitted of giving vege-
 tarianism the best test.   Lest the reader
 may regard this  as a reflection  upon  the
 menu, I have to state that in those days
only about  a dollar and three-quarters  per
week was charged for the food of the stu-
dents, and  meat  was supplied  to those 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     13
who would  eat  it.   The accommodations
were cheap at the price, and in view of the
appetites of the students I do not wonder
that the records of the institution  show
that it ran behind nearly every year.
  In 1856 I removed from a most salubri-
ous  climate, unsurpassed  in  the Middle
States, to Middletown, Conn., and began,
in partnership with certain fellow-students
with whom I am still intimately associated,
the dangerous experiment of boarding my-
self. The average expense for each person
per week was eighty cents.  Of the  hard-
ships of that period, the irregularity, the un-
certain condition of the cookery, a volume
might be written, and its proper title would
be The Dyspeptic s Carnival.   Suffice it to
say, that the cold, inconstant, and often se-
vere winter climate of Connecticut, acting
upon such  a constitution as has been de-
scribed, supported by such food and  drink
as we had,  at hours daily decided  anew to
be convenient for the majority of the four, 
14    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
soon produced symptoms  of pulmonary
and gastric disease.  Then came the neces-
sity of teaching school, to add to  what was
supplied with much self-denial from home.
  There was great political  excitement in
those days, in  which I shared,  speaking
frequently at night, and losing much sleep.
During  the winter's teaching public de-
bates were held at points within  ten miles
of the academy where I taught and  some-
times in the building.  Before  the first
New England winter was  over  I  could
sympathize with  the  Pilgrims; for hectic
fever, cough, shortness of breath,  and ema-
ciation came on apace.   Physicians exam-
ined the lungs and shook their heads. When
spring  came it  was impossible to go back
to college.  My fellow-students considered
me " as good as dead."  Accidentally I
saw a letter from one of them to his parents
predicting my demise before Commence-
ment.   Rambles  without  care  or  study
through Delaware and New Jersey enabled 
       SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     15
me to survive until fall.  Having had suf-
ficient  of the  "voluntary humility"  of
boarding  one's self " not in any honor  to
the satisfying of the flesh," I took board
in a  private family, where  with regular
hours for  meals and an abundance of good
food there was an obvious improvement.
  The next winter another school was  to
be taught.  It was a second edition of the
first as to  declining health, and when spring
opened, to the symptoms previously men-
tioned hemorrhages were added.   A revi-
val of religion arose in the community, and
quickened my own spiritual life, which had
been low,  and, convinced that I had hardly
a year to live,  I determined  to  give that
year to religious work among young men.
The year passed away broken with attacks
of illness,  including hemorrhages while
preaching, and  many  other  things  not
necessary  to detail, that, in the opinion of
physicians, pointed unmistakably to death.
Nevertheless, during a temporary restora- 
 l6     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
 tion I was received  into the New Hamp-
 shire Conference, made pastor  of a large
 church, the former pastor becoming pre-
 siding elder and living in the parsonage.
  Those who have seen a young minister
 exhaust  all his  strength in preaching,  re-
 maining feeble and feverish until the middle
 of the  week, then  giving himself up  to
 preparation for another crisis, can under-
 stand the situation.  At last the then pre-
 siding elder,  the Rev. Calvin   Holman,
 now of Kansas, after consultation with my
 personal friends,  made  a  solemn and ten-
 der call, assuring me that it  was the uni-
 versal  opinion that  the time was short,
 and  recommending an  immediate depart-
 ure for home, to be  within reach of  those
loving attentions which, though they can-
not make death  easy, rob it of some of  its
terrors.
  These  details  are given to show  those
who are in the struggle that I can, not only
feel for, but with them. 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.    17
  Was it pulmonary consumption?   Some
will say at once, " Certainly not; whoever
has genuine consumption never recovers."
Whether a  layman  or  a physician, who-
ever says this is entirely behind the times.
Pulmonary consumption, either fibrous or
tubercular, often terminates spontaneously
in recovery and  often  yields to hygienic
methods.   It is the opinion of one of the
most celebrated physicians of Europe that
for every two  cases  of death from con-
sumption there is one case that is either in-
definitely prolonged, the patient living to
be old, or entirely recovering and dying of
some different disease or of old age.
   It may be asked how such a fact as  this
can  be established.  By two  modes, the
one  probable,  the other conclusive.  The
probable mode is where the patient  had
all the external symptoms of disease, an
examination of  the lungs  by competent
specialists  gave results which agreed with
each other and with the  external symptoms,
       2 
l8    A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
and  such patient subsequently recovered,
and  lived for many years without  a re-
turn of  those  symptoms.   This is  my
case.  The possibility  of error in the di-
agnosis  of course  remains, but where all
these conditions exist  it is  reduced to a
minimum.   Such   cases  are  numerous.
Stephen M. Merrill and Charles  H. Fowler,
now Bishops of the Methodist  Episcopal
Church;  Dr.  Luke  Hitchcock,  and a mul-
titude  of well-known  men  have passed
through such experiences.
  Conclusive demonstration  is  found  in
post-mortem examinations. The  late Pro-
fessor Austin Flint, of this city, author of
the Practice of Medicine, was also the author
of a Clinical Report on Consumption, and
describes sixty-two cases in which an  arrest
of the disease took place ; in seven of these
cases it occurred without any special  med-
ical or hygienic treatment, and in four of
the seven  he declares that  the  recovery
was complete. 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.    10.
   Professor  J.  Hughes Bennett,  of the
 Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh, says in a
 lecture: " Up to a recent period the general
 opinion  has  been, consumption  always
 marches on to a fatal termination, and that
 the  cases of those known to  be restored
 were so few as to be merely an exception
 to the general rule." ..." Morbid  anat-
 omy has  now, I  think, demonstrated that
 on   the  contrary tubercles  in the  early
 stage degenerate and become abortive with
 extreme frequency  in  the  proportion  of
 one  half to one  third of all  the incurables
 who die over forty."  Both the Edinburgh
 Journal of Medical Science and  the Lon-
 don Lancet indorse this conclusion.   It is
 equivalent to saying that from one third
 to one half of all the  incurables of Scot-
land, who die over forty, have had incip-
ient  consumption  and  got well of it.  To
meet those who would say that these were
cases where  there were only a few isolated
tubercles, Professor Bennett  declares that 
20    A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
" Laennec, Andral, Cruveilhier Kingston,
Pressat,  Boudet, and  many others have
published cases where all  the functional
symptoms of the disease, even in its most
advanced state, were present, and yet the
individual lived many years and ultimately
died of some other disorder, and on dissec-
tion cicatrices and  concretions have been
found  in the  lungs."  While delivering
that lecture  Professor Bennett showed the
lungs of a man who died suddenly of con-
gestion  of the brain, aged fifty years.  At
twenty-two he had been given up to die of
pulmonary  consumption, got well, lived
nearly thirty years, and his lungs exhibited
most indubitable marks of the progress
and termination of the disease.
  My post-mortem has not yet been per-
formed, but many physicians to  whom
my recovery has been narrated have made
an examination, and  find  evidence  that
there had been an extensive disease of the
right side of the upper part of the right 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.     21
lung.   My intimate friends among fellow-
students and room-mates  had no expecta-
tion that I  should  live.  The Rev.  Dr.
Simmons, now of Danbury, Conn., who al-
lowed me for a time to sit at table in his
room in the university, some years ago in-
troduced me to an audience on a festive oc-
casion, saying it gave him pleasure to intro-
duce the speaker.  " I once  boarded him
at eighty cents a week. He then exhibited
consumptive symptoms, and I did not sup-
pose he would live six months, but  here
he is."
  It may relieve the somber character of
this article to say that the speaker began
his remarks by saying : " What young man
would  not exhibit consumptive symptoms
who was fed at an expense of only eighty
cents a week ? "
  The  day  after the  Rev.  Mr.  Holman
made  his supposed ante-mortem but most
brotherly call a battle for life began.   Like
the Revolutionary War, it  had its successes 
A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
and defeats, its dreary winters and varying
fortunes  in its  summers, but  like  that,
under  the protection  and help  of a kind
Providence  and good advice, it expelled
the enemy. 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     23
                  II.
           THE VICTORY.
  THE story here told  is not narrated for
my own pleasure or  honor, but as a warn-
ing and an  encouragement.  There is no
pleasure  in  remembering  that  years of
precious  time  were wasted—years  that
might  have  been  saved—years  in which
what  can  never be  obtained might have
been easily acquired.
  The encouragement is in  showing how
kind Nature may be when  one becomes
willing to obey her laws; or to speak of it
from a strictly religious point of view, how
the providence of God works through Nat-
ure, without   miracle,  to the restoration
of those who have been indifferent to his
laws.
  From 1857  to 1859 ^ was more or ^ess
under the care of physicians for acute affec-
tions  of the lungs,  and bronchial organs, 
24     A  HEREDITARY  CONSUMPTIVE'S
and dyspepsia.   From early autumn to late
spring I passed  apparently from one cold
to another, with an interval seldom longer
than a week between the successive attacks.
During this period a morbid fear of taking
cold arose, and no valetudinarian of eighty
years of  age  ever wore  more coats, caps,
scarfs, fur capes and collars, and  overshoes.
Perhaps  in the  severe  climate of  New
Hampshire some good resulted from this,
but  the  practice was extreme.  On warm
winter days perspiration  was induced, and
being  caught  occasionally  without  the
fur collar, or  allowing  the  air to  strike
the neck, was followed by as bad a cold
as might have been taken with complete
exposure.
  This fear led me to remain in the house
in winter in all but the pleasantest weather,
and thus diminished appetite and strength.
As meetings and funerals had to be attended
and some pastoral calls made, nearly every
time I emerged from the house it was with 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     25
 an expectation, rarely disappointed, that a
 cold would be taken.
   In the late spring there was generally a
 change for the better, but in i860 the usual
 improvement did not take place.  During
 the  preceding  period whatever  had been
 recommended by respectable sources was
 tried, especially the malt liquor  treatment
 then popular.  London or  Dublin porter
 was prescribed,  which was taken at  the rate
 of about a quart a day, continuing, though
 without improvement, until by accidentally
 omitting the dose the discovery was made
 that the system sunk greatly below its nor-
 mal  level. Fearing that a disease worse
 than the one for which it was taken would
 be set up, the porter was stopped. Another
 physician  urged  the use of rye whisky in
 set doses.  This seemed to produce a good
 effect for a little  time, but a tendency to
an increase was manifest, and for the same
reason  as in the case of porter it was dis-
continued. The current patent and propri- 
26    A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
etary medicines were tried.  Courses of treat-
ment by  both allopathic and  homeopathic
physicians were successively undergone.  I
would  not intimate that no benefit was
derived, but the  disease appeared to  pro-
gress steadily, with intervals of temporary
apparent  improvement. At last suggestions
were made that  a sea voyage or removal
to the South  was essential, which was un-
derstood  to imply that the case was con-
sidered hopeless  if I remained there.
  On the nth  of June, returning  from a
visit to Washington, a  severe hemorrhage,
of which there had been several before, in
Baltimore, followed by others, greatly re-
duced strength, and for several weeks after
that only one Sabbath service could be
performed.   About the first of  July  the
Rev. Calvin Holman made  his call.   On
his departure I felt much as a prisoner who
had hoped for reprieve might feel when the
sheriff called to notify  him of the hour of
execution. 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     27
  Brooding over  the  gloomy prospect, I
thought, What is this terrible disease, con-
sumption, of which one quarter of the peo-
ple of this country die ?  Did the Indians
ever have it ? Is it common among soldiers,
sailors, hunters, trappers, farmers, and gar-
deners?  Forthwith I  pulled down books
and pamphlets, called  upon a neighboring
physician, consulted some of his books, and
came  to the conclusion that consumption
is a kind of premature  old age, a  defect  of
nutrition which medicinexannot cure.
  Taking up a medical work, I read these
words : " Medicine cures no chronic disease
of the general system;  it  may  mitigate,
sometimes assist natural processes, give re-
lief from pain, but Nature cures, and food,
exercise, diet, light, with rest, and peace  of
mind, do the work."
  Then was formed the resolution to make
every thing for awhile  subordinate to liv-
ing, and to die—if death should be the
doom—in the open air. 
28     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
  No  sooner was this resolution  formed
than its apparent absurdity caused a fit of
depression.  " Where can you go ?  What
can you do ?  Resign your ministry and go
to farming ? You have not strength enough
to milk a cow.  Go to some sanitarium or
watering-place?   People die of consump-
tion every-where.   How  could you  get
there,  or support yourself there ? "   Walk-
ing round the  study and  thinking  of  the
issues,  half inclined to give up, mechan-
ically another book was taken  down from
the shelf,  a book  possessed but till then
unread, Jarviss  Physiology, and turning
over the pages at random the eye fell upon
page 281,1" 678:
  678. " However small may be the person's strength,
that must be the measure of the exertion. However
low the power, that must be the starting-point.  Any
other measurement, any other  point  of beginning,
would be fatal to the hopes of  gaining strength by
the effort."
  679. " A  young man in Waltham,  Mass.,  was
very feeble, but  not sick.   He was advised by his
physician to set out upon a journey on foot, but was 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.     29

cautioned not to walk at any time until exhausted.
He began his journey in the  morning, and with
short exertions and  frequent rest he walked three
miles on the first day and was fatigued.  The next
morning, to his surprise, he felt more vigor and cour-
age to go on, and started again.   He walked on that
day, in the same  manner, and accomplished four
miles  before  night.  He thus gained strength and
energy day by day, adding little to little, and finally
walked to Niagara Falls—more than five hundred
miles.  After viewing  these to his satisfaction, he
returned in a much shorter time than he went; but
he did not return  by a direct course.   He visited
the interesting places  in the neighborhood of his
homeward route, and at the end of his sixth week
he reached home, having walked more than a thou-
sand miles in forty-two days.   On the last day he
had walked  forty  miles, and was so little fatigued
with the day's journey that in the evening he felt
sufficient  energy to  visit his young friends in the
neighborhood."

   The next morning was  dull and cloudy.
Looking out of the window, came the mis-
giving : " It will not do to start to-day; you
will certainly take cold!  "  This was  an-
tagonized  by:  " He  that  observeth  the
wind shall  not sow; and he that regardeth
the clouds  shall not reap." 
30    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
  After breakfast a start was made.   The
day proved better  than was anticipated.
There was  no difficulty in walking to the
outskirts of the  city,  but as soon as the
sandy  roads  and   occasional   hills  were
reached it  was  necessary to  rest.    The
details of this journey are not  important,
except to  say  in  about seven hours I
made eight miles—the walking time was
probably not  more than  three hours—the
residue was consumed in rests.
  This was encouraging, but Dr. Jarvis's
rule  in paragraph  678 had  been violated.
After remaining  weak  and languid  two
days at the  residence of a former parish-
ioner, I returned by train, and the next day
was content with making about four miles.
This continued for about three weeks.  The
official board  of the church kindly allowed
the omission of the  second service for four
Sabbaths.   A neighbor, taking an interest
in me, took his horse and carriage and drove
to the White Mountains, a distance of one 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.    31
 hundred miles each way, in six days, thus
 keeping me in the open air the whole time
 and admitting of some exercise in climbing.
 The time was mostly spent in arguing with
 him as to his duty to join the church, and
 on the following Sunday when he took his
 place in  the congregation  he had to hear
 all the  arguments  previously  advanced
 thrown into the  form  of a sermon.   He
 said afterward " it was rather hard upon
 him to bombard  him  during  the entire
 week, and then rehash the  matter for  the
 Lord's day."
   By continuing  upon  the principle laid
 down there  was a slight improvement.
   On  September  23 I preached  for the
 Rev.  Dr. Ridgaway, then pastor of the
 Chestnut  Street  Church,  in   Portland.
 Me., and there had an  interview of much
importance to me with the late Dr. Eliph-
alet Clark,  who  made  a thorough exam-
ination, and gave certain definite instruc-
tions which were of much  assistance, fully 
A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
 confirming the course entered upon, point-
 ing out proper methods of breathing and
 speaking, and furnishing hints concerning
 diet,  which  effectually  co-operated with
 the plan.
   Then came a winter so cold and stormy
 that  many vigorous  persons  succumbed
 and died  of different  diseases of the res-
 piratory organs.   During that time  the
 open-air system was  maintained, sermons
 being prepared while walking or  riding.
 But the process  of  recovery was greatly
 facilitated  by the habitual  use of an  in-
 itialing tube, of which  The Christian Advo-
jcate  gave  a description at  the time  of
I the death of Dr. J.  M. Howe; the kind
i of  tube referred  to  by  Dr. Mark Trafton
\ in  an article on  the  " Conditions of Lon-
i    -4. "
 Igevity.
    To this instrument  I owe  more than to
 all medicine, or  to out-door  exercise, and
 were I compelled to choose between  the
  use of the tube for  an hour and a half a 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     33
day, and all other  exercises and medicines
without it, for the  removal of pulmonary
disease, experience and observation would
lead me to prefer the tube.
  Whatever may be the cause of consump-1*
tion, it is always accompanied by a reduc-'
tion of the breathing capacity, and it has
been demonstrated that a reduction of that |
capacity below a certain point will produce f
it.  The tube is so constructed as to admit
the air without difficulty, but to obstruct its
expiration. It is not a blowing, but a breath-
ing machine, designed to restore and main-
tain the  habit of  full inspiration and ex-
piration of air.  By its  use all the muscles
naturally   employed in  respiration  are
brought into play.   It is impossible to use
it without  detaining the air in the lungs a
considerable time, and  breathing deeply.
Every cell, whether diminished in its ca-
pacity by the  presence of tubercule or
not, is thrown  open, and the  blood arte-
rialized.
      3 
34    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
  To the use of the tube, the amount of
time spent in walking and  riding in the
open air, and the observance of certain ad-
ditional hygienic  methods, together with
the determination not to die,> I owe my
recovery.
  The average amount of time spent out-
of-doors was four hours per  day, the tube
being used three  times, half an hour each,
in the open air when the weather admit-
ted ; otherwise in a  well-ventilated room.
In the  summer a pedestrian  tour of from
three to six weeks, averaging from fifteen
to twenty  miles  per day, with occasional
longer walks, was taken for several years.
  In 1861  no marked  improvement was
seen.  In  1862  progress  became  more
visible;  and  in  1863,  while in  Europe
climbing the Alps, the last  vestige of the
disease, as was supposed, disappeared.  As
a result of continued exercise, shortness of
breath  gave place to a  rather more than
average lung capacity in  actual use. 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     35
   Attention to health and health rules con-
 siderably diminished;  and in  1868, at the
 close of a long pedestrian  tour, a violent
 cold was  taken by undue exposure, which
 brought on an attack that in the course of
 six weeks became alarming.  A physician
 was consulted, whose prescriptions were
 faithfully followed without material  im-
 provement.  At the end  of two months,
 assuming that  what had wrought a  cure
 before might do  it again, the regular use
 of the tube and systematic exercise in the
 open  air  were  undertaken,  and in about
 five weeks the portentous symptoms dis-
 appeared, and from then till now not one
 indication of a tendency to pulmonary dis-
 ease has been seen.
  During this  long  period  I  have made
the acquaintance of many consumptives,
to whom  this history  has been detailed,
and  literally  hundreds   have   been  in-
duced to  use  the inhaling  tube,  and to
begin  a fight for life.  Of these, all who 
36    A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S______
faithfully complied  with the  suggestions
have  either recovered, or their lives have
been prolonged beyond the expectation of
their friends. 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.    37
                  III.
        A PLAN OF BATTLE.
  I PURPOSE to outline  a  scheme of bat-
tling  against consumption.  The  reader
must  not fancy that I underestimate the
importance  of  physicians,  or  recommend
the consumptive to reject their counsels or
refuse their prescriptions.   My suggestions
have been  submitted to three of the best
known and most eminent  physicians, not
only in the United States, but in the world,
two of them residing  here and  the other
abroad, two practitioners of the regular or
allopathic school, the third,  one of the most
distinguished of the homeopathic frater-
nity.   More than that,  if  it were desira-
ble, passages explicitly recommending the
principles involved could be quoted from
standard medical works of every school.
  I have no doubt that  most persons fol-
lowing out this scheme could either trans- 
38     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
form  their  consumption  into a  chronic
state,  which will  not materially  shorten
life, or fight it off entirely without the aid
of a physician.  And  I have little  confi-
dence  in any thing  any physician  could
recommend  who disregards these princi-
ples, and does not enforce something an-
alogous to them.  But painful symptoms
and intercurrent conditions can be greatly
relieved by  judicious  medical treatment.
The spirits of the patient can be kept up
thereby, and the sense of responsibility,
which would be depressing if he attempted
the exclusive management  of  his  case,
transferred to the medical adviser.
  As for the bacilli, which it is now claimed
are found wherever consumption exists, it
is not yet absolutely certain whether they
cause consumption,  or accompany  it, or
are its  consequences.  Assuming that they
are the cause, after they have entered the
system  some  constitutions  succumb  to
them, and others do not.  Those that do 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.
 not are such as are naturally strong enough
 to  resist  their inroads, or by methods of
 life are able to war a good warfare against
 them; so that, so far as hygienic measures
 are concerned, it makes  practically  little
 difference whether the theory of the bacil-
 lus is true or not.
   Consumptives  may be  divided  into
 classes: those considered to be far gone;
 those who are still about and comparative-
 ly active, but plainly declining in health,
 emaciated, with capricious appetites, short-
 ness of breath, hectic fever; and those who
 have been recently attacked, have always
 enjoyed good health, and  are not materi-
 ally diseased at the present time, but  have
 been told by their physicians  or suspect
 that their lungs  are  affected.   Some  of
 these  may have  had  hemorrhages, some
 not; some may be better than  they  were
a few months ago, or worse.
  Of course, of the first class many are so
far  gone  that  the final  breaking up  of 
40     A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
their  systems has begun;  yet  it  is  pos-
sible  for  some of these  to  recover  in
whole or in part, and live for many years.
We will begin with them.  What shall be
done?
  First, they must live in a large, airy, and
sunny room, which should be well venti-
lated day and night. If they are not able
to sit up, the bed should be moved within
the range of the sunlight;  the temperature
of the room must not be high—not above
sixty-five degrees.  They should not remain
in bed more than eight or nine  hours at a
time; if possible, must  rise  and sit in an
easy chair, wheeled into another room. If
the weather  is  fine, without  wind, they
should be carried out (if they cannot walk),
and  placed  upon  the  piazza  for  a  little
while, morning and afternoon.
  Second, an inhaling tube should be pro-
cured, and  its use at once  begun.   There
are several  sorts  on the  market;  some
made of  glass, that can be obtained for a 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.    41
few cents, which are as good as any other;
some of silver,  and some of rubber.  I
have no interest in any of them, direct or
indirect, but the tube which I used, which
has been entirely satisfactory, is known as
the Howe Tube, from the late Dr. Howe,
of whose  recovery by means of it an ac-
count is elsewhere given.   There is  no
mystery  about the tube.   Any  one who
can make a whistle can make the instru-
ment.  Let it be a hollow tube three or
four inches long, with a hole at  each  end
about an  eighth  of an inch  in diameter;
in the center the diameter of the hollow
should be about twice that width ; bore a
hole in the side about as large in circum-
ference  as the lead of a common pencil,
one third of the way from  the  end.   A
quarter  of an inch beyond  that  hole to-
ward the end  of  the tube which is to be
placed in the mouth run a little bar across
from side to side ;  between  the  crossbar
and the end put any thing of the shape of 
42    A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
a tack the head of which will be sufficient-
ly large to stop up the hole, but not large
enough  to  more than half fill  the  tube in
the center, where the tube  is  larger than
at the end; or put in a ball  the shape of a
pea, which will have the same effect. Now,
when the person puts the proper  end of
the tube in his mouth and inhales, he draws
the valve back as far as  the  crossbar;  this
allows the  air to flow in easily;  in exhal-
ing he blows against the ball, or whatever
he has for the purpose, which closes up the
end of the tube, and the only place for the
air to escape is the little hole in the side.
   It is very important  that the tube be
used correctly.   The person who  uses it
should sit, stand, or lie in a position to  give
the lungs and abdominal muscles ample
opportunity to work, and  the  atmosphere
should be pure;  the time  should be about
an hour before each meal.
   " In drawing the air through the tube do
not attempt to fill the lungs to their utmost 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.    43
capacity, but moderately full; so in blowing
out the air through the tube, do not exhaust
all the  air.   Be moderate."   When  the
tube is first used let it be only two minutes
each time.  If tired  rest, and then  go on,
so as to make two minutes'  use of the tube.
This is the rule for the very sick, weak per-
son.  The next day it may be increased to
three minutes and so on, increasing a min-
ute each time, until thirty  minutes are
reached, making in all an  hour and a half
a day.  Then  decrease. When fifteen min-
utes  at  each  exercise are taken, if the
symptoms are all favorable,  it may  be
increased two minutes each time, instead
of one;  but  when   thirty minutes  are
reached,  it  may be  decreased until it  is
only five minutes three times.  After that
rise again as before, and continue the use of
the instrument thirty minutes three times
a day until the last symptom of the disease
is gone,  which may require some years.
   Should  there  be   much  inflammation 
44    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
about the chest, accompanied with pain or
any other disagreeable symptoms, discon-
tinue  the  tube for a day or two while the
physician  reduces  these  symptoms.  But
as soon as they disappear let it be begun
again.  Should a hemorrhage occur, let the
tube be laid aside  for a  day or two, and
medicinal  means employed.  In like man-
ner, if there  are  night  sweats or fever,
medicinal  treatment  to  relieve  these  is
necessary.
  If possible, the patient  should spend his
hours out of  bed  in  another room from
that in which he sleeps, and in the inclem-
ent seasons  if a wood fire and an  open
grate  can  be  used in both these  rooms it
will be a great advantage.
  No gas should be burned  in the sleeping-
room  of  a consumptive.   It is more per-
nicious than  it would  be to  have two or
three  persons occupying the  same room,
both by the  products of combustion and
the consumption of oxygen.  The electric 
       SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     45
light  in this particular is unobjectionable.
No lamps of any kind  should  be used.
If a light must  be had let it be a sperm
candle set in the fire-place when there is no
fire, or placed not far from the window, and
as far as possible from the sick man.
  With regard to exercise in the open-air:
If a person has been  taking it up to  the
time  that he  reads these words, he knows
the present amount of his strength.  If he
has not been taking it for a long time, he
must  begin  very gradually.  I would sug-
gest walking, beginning about an hour be-
fore the time for using the tube, in  the
morning after breakfast, about five minutes,
and the same in the afternoon before sun-
set, and, returning, rest,  without exposure
to a draught, until the time comes for  the
tube,  then  increase the next day to six
minutes, and thus continue till each walk is
half an hour  or more  in length, always
allowing time for  an  hour's rest  before
using  the   tube.   Consumptives cannot 
 46     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
 measure their own strength, and are very
 liable in attempting any exercise to overdo.
 Beware  of this.  Decide the time  before-
 hand.   Walk  half the  time  away  from
 home, and the other half toward it.  The
 good effects of exercise, both in riding and
 walking, have  often  been  destroyed by
 going  so far that  getting home has pro-
 duced exhaustion.
  By this means I induced a young lady in
 Brooklyn—who had not walked a step for
 four months, and had lived entirely in her
 room  waiting  for death,  whose  friends
 had no hope of her recovery,  and whose
 physician had  even ceased his visits be-
 cause of the hopelessness of her case—to
 begin  when she  could walk only  half a
 block.   In three months she was walking
 five  miles  a day,  and  lived  for seven or
eight years  afterward,  combining   with
walking  the use  of the tube,  which was
employed a fortnight before her first walk
and  a  week  before she  could   leave her 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR  LIFE.     47
room.   Riding in a  carriage and  sitting
therein quietly in some  sunny  spot in
winter or  in the  shade in summer where
the view is pleasing will afford  a pleasura-
ble stimulus to those  unable  to walk.
   Much has been said about  the food con-
sumptives  should eat.   Some  have been
fed upon  carbonaceous food  almost  ex-
clusively, with  plenty of fats,  cream,  and
butter.   Others upon lean meat with all
the fat removed, and no vegetables allowed.
Others have  been forbidden the  use of
meat.  Some have fed their patients upon
milk almost exclusively, goat's milk, ass's,
cow's, or mare's milk.   The Salisbury treat-
ment is meat, with large quantities of  hot
water.   Some have forbidden,  and  others
have recommended, fish.  Dr. Jackson, of
the Sanitarium  at Danville, does not be-
lieve in  either  meat  or milk, and recom-
mends a farinaceous  and fruit diet as the
best that consumptives can  possibly use.
He alleges as an objection against the  use 
48     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
of flesh by persons who actually have the
disease, that the meat they eat may be un-
healthy,  and they not  know it, and that
meat excites the nervous system too much.
He says if he had to feed  them upon meat
he would give  them the flesh of wild ani-
mals, or if he used any of the domestic ani-
mals  he  should choose mutton before  all
others.   If he could not get this he would
give  fresh fish, excluding shell-fish.   He
believes that simple diet composed of prep-
arations of grains and fruits eaten plenti-
fully is better than a free use of flesh meats
with alcoholic liquors.
  I tried all sorts of diet and watched the
effects, and believe that a  plain mixed diet,
consisting of fresh vegetables and a moder-
ate amount of meat, with good  Graham
bread, ripe  fruits  and cooked  fruits  in
moderation, taking great pains not to over-
load the stomach at any  one time, using
cream and butter, and avoiding pastry and
all puddings, except the simplest, particu- 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     49
larly avoiding sauces and other things cal-
culated to produce fermentation, is the best.
Four meals per day, in some cases, are
better than three.
  Cod-liver oil was once supposed to  have
medicinal value.  It is simply food, and a
preparation of it that agrees with a person
does  about the same for him that cream
would do, and some persons  have  derived
immense benefit from it.  A consumptive,
as has been well said, should eat what he
relishes best,  provided  always  the  sub-
stance chosen  has sufficient nutrition  in it
to meet the wants of the system, and is at
the same time free from constituents which
tend to exhaust the vital force.
  To encourage persons in this low state I
will give a case.  In Stamford, Conn., there
was  a man dying  of consumption.   He
had been shut up in his house from August
to February, and was finally reduced to his
bed, and  his  physician, the most noted
allopathic physician  that  till then  had
      4
       NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
            WASHINGTON, D. Q. 
50     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
practiced medicine in that town, remarked
to me, " There is no hope for him ; he is a
gone  case."   I  presented him with  the
tube,  giving  him  no  other  instructions
than  are here  printed.   He recovered,
afterward became a coachman for William
Hoyt, the present treasurer of the Board
of Trustees of Wesleyan University, filling
the said position of coachman for five or
six years, and did  not die  for a number
of years after that  service, the final cause
of his death being dropsy.   He was consid-
erably above fifty years of age at the time
he began to use  the tube, and had been in
consumption for a  year.   As  the  patent
medicine certificates say, " This is only one
of scores of cases " that might be given ;
but the difference between the two is that
this was simply the breathing of pure air
in a proper way, and  other suitable  ex-
ercise. 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     51
                     IV.
  CAUTIONS AND CONFIRMATIONS.
   The  person referred to  in the  close of
 the last chapter at first declined to go out
 of doors for fear of taking cold.   Note two
 things:   consumptives  seldom  take  cold.
 They think they do  because of the ordinary
 changes  in the course of their disease.   If
 they do it is fully as likely to help them in
 their struggle for health as to harm  them.
 Should  any  physician who has never had
 his  attention directed  to  this  subject be
 inclined to say that this is nonsense, I quote
 for his benefit a passage from Austin Flint's
 Practice of Medicine:
  I am well satisfied that here is the foundation for
 the successful  management of  pulmonary tuber-
 culosis.   I would rank exercise and out-ot-door life
 far above  any known  remedies for the cure of dis-
 ease.  Properly clothed, the patient, if he be strong
 enough to  go out of  doors,  should scarcely be
kept within doors by the state of the weather, but
should resolutely keep  up habits of out-door life, 
52     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
despite the  ordinary  changes of temperature and
wind, remaining in the house only on inclement days.
It is to be borne in mind that the susceptibility to
attacks of bronchitis is less the more the exposure,
and also that an attack of bronchitis does not usually
exert any unfavorable influence on the tuberculous
disease.  Many patients are  deterred from going
out of doors when the weather seems unfavorable
by needless apprehension  of taking cold.  The
danger from this source is certainly less than from
a deficiency of out-door life.

  When Dr. John M.  Howe had been re-
duced to the lowest state, and sent by Dr.
Valentine  Mott on a sea voyage to Europe
in  a  sailing vessel,  he  journeyed  to the
north of England and to Scotland, consult-
ing prominent  physicians, growing worse,
then to the south,  then to  the climate of
France,  where  he sank  rapidly.   Finally,
as he was about  starting   for  home, he
happened  to meet Dr. Ramadge, the in-
ventor of the inhaling tube, at that time
superintendent  of  a celebrated  lung  in-
firmary in London.  After having received
the tube and directions, when about  to sail 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.    53
for New York in October he consulted Dr.
Ramadge concerning  climate, and said:
" Ours is a dreadful climate; it snows and
hails and blows.   I  shall have to shut  my-
self in the  house  all  winter."  " By no
means," he  replied; "go  out  every  day;
choose the best  time in  the day,  and go
out every day."
  As to taking cold, Dr. Ramadge  was led
to invent the tube by observing the effects
upon  certain patients  who were exposed,
took  cold, had  severe attacks of bron-
chial  catarrh, and   to  his  astonishment
recovered from  the  pulmonary  disease.
This is the history: One winter, becoming
discouraged  with  unsuccessful  efforts in
treating his  patients, he  advised them to
leave the warm apartments in which they
were during the  inclement months of the
year, being assured  that if they continued
with him they would  sink on  his hands,
and they went their way,  some of them to
poor and even exposed habitations.  Sub- 
54    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
sequently, much to his surprise, he found
some of these persons  in  the enjoyment
of good health,  and  by investigation he
ascertained that their exposure had been
the means of their restoration.  The bron-
chial catarrh, while it lasted, had reduced
the size of the windpipe ;  this compelled
deep  breathing,  and  the deep breathing
brought about the recovery.  Before  Dr.
Ramadge invented the tube he used a steer
spring to  be worn on  the neck  so as to
make pressure  upon  the  trachea  imme-
diately above the sternum,  and be worn at
intervals.   The  details are given  in  his
large work.   Finally  he devised the tube.
  It should  be  hardly necessary to  say
that a person struggling for  life with this
disease should never  go away from home
in the evening.  Especially should he stay
away from church, prayer-meeting, lectures,
concerts, parties,  and all  other  crowded
assemblies.   It  might  be proper  when
in an excellent condition to attend church 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR  LIFE.     55
in the morning, but not  until well  along
toward recovery.   I  did  because I  was a
minister and had  to preach  or resign my
position, but I spent the greater part  of the
rest of Sunday in the open  air.  Unable
to walk and bear  the labor of preaching, I
accepted the invitation of a physician to
ride with  him  and remain in his carriage
while he was visiting his patients.
  Rooms where prayer-meetings are held,
like churches in  the winter  season,  are a
great strain upon  the healthy, especially at
night, when the gas is lighted.   Most per-
sons appear to care very little  about pure
air in churches.   They are breathing  in ex-
hausted receivers ;  they sleep  and  abuse
the minister because  they  are stupefied.
Sextons know that more ventilation means
more  putting  in  of coal, and as lowering
the windows often  induces a very seri-
ous danger  to  those  who sit  near  them,
causing them to  urge  the sexton to close
them,  it comes  to pass  that the  air in 
 56    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
 churches, to say nothing of admixtures of
 coal-gas and smoke, is most deleterious for
 persons with weak lungs.   In the evening
 all excitement should be avoided.
   I have taken  the worst  possible case as
 the basis, and need say but  little additional
 concerning others.   A sedentary  in-door
 occupation, in which consumption has been
 brought on, perhaps, by the  confinement
 and want of pure air, is opposed to recovery.
 It must be given up.   If the hours could be
 shortened, and  time found for the use of
 the tube an hour and a half a day in pure air,
 with some additional  exercise, horseback
 or walking, in  many cases  recovery might
 take place.  I have known several school
 teachers, even in rooms where from forty
to sixty children were consuming the air
by their  inhalations,  and  polluting it by
their various exhalations, to recover with-
out medicine by this simple  exercise, and
by removing their boarding-place so as to
make it necessary to walk for an half hour 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     57
each way in going  to and  from school.
One who refused to do  it, and relied on
using some medicated  vapor,  confessed
his fault when it  was too  late  in  these
pregnant words: " What a miserable fool
I was to undertake to swindle nature."
  Out-door occupations can and should be
continued in moderation.  I fancy that I
hear some person say : " O, I have to get my
living.   Your directions  all imply money,
and of that  I have but little."   You can-
not get your living  long if you have con-
sumption.  If you could get some kind of
light work that would only give you half a
living for a  few months,  but keep you  in
the open air, it would be better.   I advised
a young man to try  peddling.   At the
close of two days he had made thirty-six
calls and netted but  seventy-five cents.
He continued,  earned his living,  and re-
covered his health.
  A- young man  in Boston  within my
knowledge,  an  alumnus of Harvard,  who 
 58     A HEREDITARY  CONSUMPTIVE'S
 was in consumption, acting under the  ad-
 vice of Dr. Bowditch, took a position as
 horse-car conductor for the same purpose
 and with the same result.
  For those who  are not  thus  prostrate
 the great rule is  the faithful use of the
 tube and the  gradual increase of exercise.
 Many  will  not use it; it seems too sim-
 ple.  If it were only the inhalation of tar,
 iodine, chlorine, hemlock, turpentine,"com-
 pound oxygen,"  "sulphureted  hydrogen
 and carbonic  acid,"  or  something  else,
 they would do it; but that inhaling the air
 could produce such effects seems incredi-
 ble. " If the prophet had bid thee do  some
 great  thing  wouldst  thou not have  done
 it?   How much rather then when he said
 to thee," Breathe  God's  pure air and  be
 well.
  Some will laugh  at  the user  of the
tube,  others try  to reason him out  of
it.   Some   physicians will countenance
nothing they do not  invent.  Some will 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     59
say that the nostrils  are the organs  with
which to breathe. This is true, but in con-
sumption the  natural  balance  has been
broken—the patient  breathes  but little
and rapidly.  To attempt to take the ex-
ercise by compressing the nostrils or hold-
ing back the breath, would require that
the mind should  be concentrated on  each
successive breath.  The mere act of hold-
ing the  tube fast in  the mouth soon be-
comes a  habit and  relieves  from such  an
irksome necessity.
  I warn all who  use the tube that the ex-
ercise and expansion of their  lungs  may
cause them  to be  sorer for a time than they
have been before.  In  my case there was
a great deal of local irritation for months,
which occasioned alarm.  Also, in tubercu-
lous consumption there will be a breaking
down of the tubercles, which will produce
much more coughing  for a  short time.
Moreover, if the  person had  consumption
there will be a return of the  symptoms at 
60     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
intervals.   The tube is  to be used, how-
ever, persistently and regularly.  There are
many  persons  who, independent of their
physical state,  have not the  moral cour-
age to overcome consumption, and  if that
cannot  be  aroused  they will  do nothing
but die.
  Some coughs are purely nervous, others
are merely  habitual. One man, the cause
of whose cough disappeared, informed  me
in good faith that  he  felt lonely without
it, and  that  he found  himself coughing
from habit  at intervals  for nearly a year.
There  are  stomach, liver complaint, and
bronchial coughs.   A cough  is an  auto-
matic,  unintelligent effort of nature to re-
move an obstruction.  The tickling in the
throat  which  leads persons to cough is not
the obstruction, nor does  it  indicate  its
place;  it is simply recognized there.  Any
person who has a chronic disease accom-
panied  by  a  cough should  subject the
cough  to discipline. Dr. Brown-Sequard 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.    6t
has given various rules for checking cough
without medicine by pressing certain nerves
in the roof of the mouth and at the side of
the nose.  A very simple rule  is this; as
the spasm  comes on take a deep  breath
against  it by an effort of the will, and then
allow the air to  escape slowly.  This will
not  forever prevent  a cough  if there  is
any cause for it; but instead of coughing
twenty-five  or thirty times, two thirds of
those pernicious spasms will be prevented,
and  when the  obstruction  is  sufficiently
large or has become loosened one effort
will  bring   the  foreign  substance away.
When  I was struggling with consumption
I prevented  coughing in this way, some-
times for half an hour at a time.  When
a cough is loose it does not rack the sys-
tem, and  brings  away what  is  in the
bronchial  tubes.  This recommendation
relates to a  tight cough, which should al-
ways be suppressed if possible.
  The  " expectorants," so called, generally 
62    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
damage the  stomach, and  except when
necessary  to  sleep  should not  be taken,
and then as little as possible.   In nineteen
cases  out  of twenty the cough  entirely
disappears.   In eighteen  months after I
began the use of the tube it  took its de-
parture.
  Many consumptives are subject to hem-
orrhages.  The tube, if used  violently,  as
though it were a  blowing  machine instead
of an instrument to induce proper breath-
ing, might bring on such an attack. I will,
however, state an  important fact not gen-
erally known  to sufferers, namely, that if a
person has  consumption  his  chance for
recovery is often better if he has hemor-
rhages than  it would be if he  did  not.
This is  the opinion of  many  of the most
eminent specialists.  There are  different
sorts; a violent and excessive  hemorrhage
may be, though it seldom is, immediately
fatal.   Do not be frightened.   My first
hemorrhage was at  a considerable distance 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     63
from home.   I was  terrified and felt weak
almost to faintness, but as I could  not  get
any help  I began to reason: " You have
not lost  blood  enough to  kill you,  go to
the next house."  By the time I got there
I found it possible to go a little farther, and
reached home.  Many consumptives are so
alarmed by the hemorrhages they have had
and those they fear  that they do  nothing
and  die.  It  is only necessary to remain
quiet a day or two,  and then resume exer-
cise  cautiously.   There is  no tendency in
a proper use  of the tube, nor in U7ihurried
regular and  moderate  exercise,  to induce
hemorrhage.
  Some  persons can generally tell  when
they are going to have a hemorrhage some
hours or a day in advance; if, when they
have those feelings, they will take a dose
of salts or something  equivalent,  in four
cases out of five they will not have it.   A
family  physician who knows the patient's
constitution   is  the best adviser on  that 
64     A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
point.  I never waited more than  twenty-
four hours, or at the utmost thirty-six, be-
fore beginning again with moderate exercise.
  The reader may suppose that the writer
is in some way heated upon this  subject,
and thinks that the tube means more than
it does.
  I  have  permission  to  print the   fol-
lowing letter.   In 1877  I was  in  New
Orleans and  met  General  Cyrus  Bussey,
now occupying a high administrative posi-
tion in the Department of the Interior.
Perceiving that  he seemed very  ill,  and
suspecting that the fatal seeds of consump-
tion had been planted in  him, I  said to
him : " General, you are not well."
  " By no means."
  " If I were  to  tell you of a simple exer-
cise that will in  six  months or a year
make you as strong  as  you ever were,
would  you have  confidence  enough in
me  to  try  it  faithfully for that  length of
time?" 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.     65

  " Yes, if it seemed reasonable," said he.
  I  then recommended  the tube  and  the
exercise, and  wrote  to the general  ask-
ing  him if he would object, for the sake
of encouraging the  thousands  who in  a
very little  while  will  be  beyond hope,
to state his  experience with the tube and
his observations of it since.  And  this  is
the letter  he sends :

            Washington, December 19, 1891.
  Dr. f.  M. Buckley: In 1877  you  visited New
Orleans, where I then resided, and recommended
a breathing-tube for disease of lungs.  I  have used
one ever since, and regard it as an invaluable rem-
edy.   By its use my lungs became wonderfully de-
veloped and perfectly sound.
  During the past thirteen  years  I  have recom-
mended  the tube to  many persons with consump-
tion.   I can recall  many who had every symptom—
cough, expectoration, hectic  fever, night sweats—
who are to-day in perfect health, the result of  the
use of the tube.
  If every young person predisposed to lung disease
would use a tube faithfully every day, consumption
would almost  cease.  Where  the use of the  tube
fails, the  party either neglects or is too lazy to use
it properly.  I strongly recommend the use of the
       5 
#
66    A  HEREDITARY  CONSUMPTIVE'S
tube, whether suffering from lung disease or not, to
those who  desire to attain to and enjoy a vigorous
old age.   Very truly yours,
                         Cyrus Bussey.
  Of  all  forms  of out-door exercise, the
best for  the consumptive is horseback rid-
ing.   Begin with an animal that is a good
walker,   and  does not  require  special
strength  of the arms to  manage  it, and ex-
change it as  soon as the experience  and
development  are sufficient.  Dr. Henry M.
Storrs, now one of the  most robust men
in this country,  when a victim  of hemor-
rhages and all the symptoms of pulmonary
disease,  went  to  Kentucky,  bought  a
horse, and  rode  it back to this part of the
country and sold it.  Dr. Cutler, rector of
St. Ann's Protestant Episcopal Church for
many years in Brooklyn, shook  off half a
dozen incipent attacks by riding on  horse-
back  from the  South  up and  down the
coast, from Texas to Maine.  (Horseback
riding occasionally proves unfavorable by
inducing some other maladies.)   Walking, 
         SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     67
  however, is the most accessible.   One of
  the  greatest  physicians  justly  says:  " I
  know of nothing  in  the whole  round of
  physical exercise so good as habitual, regu-
  lar, and vigorous walking. What horseback
  exercise is  to a person actually  suffering
  from incipient or  advanced  consumption,
  pedestrian exercise is to one  who having
  it not is yet predisposed to it."
    I append a letter from the late Dr. Joseph
  Parrish, himself a physician of much distinc-
  tion, which confirms by reference to himself
  and his father, who for twice an average life-
  time was one  of the most eminent physi-
  cians in this country, the views herein set
  forth:
        BURLINGTON, N. J., November 29, 1890.
   My Dear Dr. Buckley.;  Your  editorial  in this
'  week's Advocate, entitled " Consumption,"  strikes
  me as very timely, and in connection with it I am in-
  clined to give you a bit of personal and family history.
   You probably knew of the case of  my father, the
  late Dr. Joseph  Parrish, of  Philadelphia. When a
  beginner  in his profession he had  incipent signs of
  pulmonary consumption ; he lived  sixty  years, and 
68      A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S

in his last illness  defined the region of his lungs
which he desired should be examined after his death,
and said that there would be found in that particu-
lar  spot a distinct cicatrix, illustrative  of a healed
consumption  lesion which  had  threatened him in
early life.  He  took  but little medicine, but  prac-
ticed for himselfwhat he invariably advised toothers
in like conditions, namely, temperate, but substantial,
generous living; fresh air, and plenty of it, and in the
house, as well as out of  it, a cheerful and hopeful
spirit, looking  forward  always  to  recovery,  with
healthy and steady occupation added.
  As long ago as 1856 I was in feeble health.  After
two  attacks of  pleurisy, in  the few previous years
there was developed  in my right  lung what seemed
to be a hereditary cough and other symptoms which
are  characteristic of consumption.  I was obliged
to abandon work, and was attended and prescribed
for by two of the most eminent physicians of Phila-
delphia, the  late  Professor G. B. Wood and  Dr.
Gerhard.  They diagnosed the  beginning of  con-
sumption, and  sent  me  South.   I  went to a pine
district  in Alabama, and returned in the  following
May, not much improved.  Then  they sent me across
the sea,  with letters to the two most eminent men in
their day for the treatment of pulmonary disease,
the late Dr. Stokes, of  Dublin, and Dr. Walsh, of
London.  I saw them as soon as possible.  One of
them said :  " Your right lung is of but little, if of any,
use to you.   If you  return  to America  and follow
your profession you can probably not  survive  more 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     69
than a year."  The other  said : " Young man, you
have  a poor chance without great care.   Enjoy
yourself here and on the Continent as much as you
can, and stay as long as you can.  Keep  all your
functions in good working order as far as you can.
Carry a little bottle of pure glycerine in your pocket,
and every time you cough  take out the cork and sip
a little of it, just enough  to  lubricate your mouth
and throat."
  I did so.  Crossed  St. Bernard Pass, in  Switzer-
land,  in  the  month  of  December, and in  eleven
months returned improved in health, and able to do
a little  guarded  work.  I  am now in my  seventy-
second year of age, and not yet dead.   Work has
been my specific, and the amount of it from then till
now has had no mean limit.
  I thought you  might be interested in these facts
and experiences, which may serve to give support to
what I take to be in a measure your own views.
            Faithfully yours,
                            JOSEPH PARRISH. 
70    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
                   V.
  CLIMATE AND CONSUMPTION.
  By due  attention  to  the suggestions
already made, nineteen cases out of twenty
—perhaps  a still  larger proportion—that
could be cured anywhere can be overcome
where the person now lives, provided there
are no conditions unfavorable in a marked
degree to recovery peculiar to the house or
immediate  location.
  When  possible it is. vastly better to fight
the battle and win the victory on the ground
to which the sufferer knows he must return.
Removal from kindred and friends, sacrifice
of property,  influence,  associations of  all
kinds, take away much of the value of life.
  In cases extremely far gone—where  it
has been for a considerable  time  impossi-
ble to take the least degree of exercise—it
is  folly  to go  far  from home.  It  may
hasten death and  often entails the neces- 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.    71
sity of it under the most harrowing cir-
cumstances  both  to  sufferers  and  their
friends.
  It is absurd to  condemn  or commend
vast sections of the country by wholesale.
Take New England as an example ;  it has
a bad reputation for consumption, and yet
there  are many places in every State where
it seldom occurs.  Dr. Bowditch observes
that " there are some  places in New En-
gland which  enjoy a very great freedom
from the ravages of consumption,  if not
quite  as  much exemption as any portion
of the globe  can claim."  On the other
hand, the West India Islands have a high
reputation  for the  mildness of the cli-
mate, yet Sir James  Clark,  in  his  work
on Climate, showed that consumption was
more  frequent there  than  in  England.
A decided  difference exists in  certain re-
gions  relatively to the production of this
disease ;  but before a person proposes to
change climate he would do well to know 
72     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
something about the  State  in  which he
lives, the county and even the town.
  Regions where there is a great  deal of
moisture  in  the  soil  are  unfavorable.
Houses surrounded by shade-trees  so  that
the sun seldom reaches them may produce
consumption  in  any  climate.  Even in
cities it depends  much on where  persons
live.  Houses in blocks, except at corners,
of course, lose the sun on both sides, and in
narrow streets much of it in front and rear.
When in addition to that the  house faces
the north, and is shut off from the sun on
the southern  side by reason of  the great
elevation and proximity of the  buildings
in the rear,  what is to  be expected but
that some of  the members in such families
will  sooner or  later succumb  to wasting
disease?   Even such houses, owing to the
superior  draining  of cities, have  an ad-
vantage  over many  houses  in country
places unhygienically situated or shaded,
so  long  as the patient can  get  out of 
      SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     73
doors.    For the  same  reason  dwellings
built on  clay soil  are liable to  be damp,
and  also  to  induce  malarious  diseases.
Some have accumulated  statistics to prove
that where  malaria  prevails consumption
does not.  But the person who would settle
in a malarious region to escape  consump-
tion, or in a consumptive region to escape
malaria,  would  not  exercise sound judg-
ment.  Nor do such statistics prove  what
they are  intended  to prove.
  Slight  changes of a few miles, with proper
regard to the new  situation,  will oftentimes
do as much good  as changes of hundreds
or thousands.   When  the person has con-
tracted  the disease  in a hilly country  it
may give  him a  new lease of  life  to  re-
move to the sea-coast;  and one who, liv-
ing on the sea-coast, finds himself a victim
of the disease, has the best reason for im-
provement by going inland.  This is very
important, especially to the  poor and those
in moderate circumstances, or whose situa- 
  74    A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
  tion does not admit of an entire renuncia^
  tion of home associations and duties.  Even
  a change  to a different part of the same
  city will  produce wonders.   It  would be
  safe to say that hundreds of families who
  were in failing health in South  Brooklyn
  have greatly improved by going to higher
  parts of the city, though many of stronger
  constitution are not affected unfavorably in
  the former section.
    Foreign travel of the  modern American
  sort on ocean steamers that cross the At-
  lantic in six days,  and then traveling from
*
  point to point sight-seeing,- is not only not
  helpful to persons suffering from  consump-
  tion, but almost certain to accelerate the
  progress of decay.  Fortunately most phy-
  sicians are  awake  to this  fact,  and  very
  few comparatively who have lung disease
  are now sent  abroad as general  travelers.
  There are in  Europe many places admir-
  ably adapted for a consumptive  to spend
  several months, but  none better than can 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.    75
be found in the United States.  Much may
be said in favor  of an  ocean voyage on a
sailing vessel.  A real invalid should, how-
ever, not attempt such  a thing alone; and
it is doubtful if in any case a sick woman,
unless the captain or some important officer
of the vessel is a personal friend or relative,
should go away from home alone under such
circumstances.
  The difficulty of deciding where to go is
greatly increased by the fact that business
interests are involved  in booming all places
alleged to be  favorable to recovery from
consumption.  Physicians of note settle at
such points, compile  tables with consum-
mate skill, and reason  with marvelous plaus-
ibility, apparently demonstrating that  no
one ever did  or could die of consumption
there, unless he was in the last stages when
he arrived.  I have  thirty or forty works
each conclusively proving that the place
it  eulogizes  is by far  the best  resort in
the world.  They not only seem to prove 
76     A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
it, but the descriptions in some of them
exhibit more  skill in  composition than
can be found in the works of  successful
novelists.   Yet when one arrives at such
a place it  may be in a wilder storm or a
more  depressing atmosphere than he ever
felt at home.  To  explain  this a new dis-
tinction is brought forth, namely, that there
is " a  marked  distinction between climate
and weather"  and  " our climate is so good
that precisely the same weather here is not
half so harmful as the same kind would  be
elsewhere." There is something in  this,
but I  have  known persons to have to walk
by faith and suffer much  for four  weeks
before they saw a day half as pleasant  as
the average days of the winter in the home
which  they had left.
  It should be understood that consump-
tion operates very differently upon different
persons.  In some it is complicated with
catarrh ; in others, not; in some with bron-
chitis ; in others, not.  In some the throat 
      SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     77
is affected ; in others, not.  in some cases
it is attended with much expectoration; in
others, with very  little.   In some with a
hard cough; in others, very slight, or even
none.  It is clear that a climate  ought to
be prescribed for individual cases.  There
are consumptives who would be as certain
to die in Colorado as if  a decree had been
issued that they should be executed imme-
diately on  their arrival; and  the same is
true  of Minnesota, the Adirondacks,  and
Florida.   Some  who would  die in any one
of these places might be greatly helped or
recover in one of the others.  In consider-
ing any State or country it  is as necessary
to determine where to settle as it would
be in the very State or country  where the
patient lives.
  No fact  is better  established  than that
some climates especially favorable to con-
sumptives exert a harmful  influence over
diseases  of the  nervous  system; and  in-
stanceshaveoccurred where persons who had 
78     A  HEREDITARY  CONSUMPTIVE'S
obtained great relief from the former malady
became subject to those more intractable
and dreadful.  There  are climates also in
which, if a person recovers, he must pay the
price of always remaining there. Even after
a number of years' exemption  from  the
symptoms a return of  the disease is certain
to follow a return to his former abode.
  A consideration of great  importance is
that without exercise  no climate will cure
consumption.  If a person proposes to go
away  from home  to  sit in  parlors or on
piazzas without  any exercise  the hope of
recovery will  prove  but a pleasant  de-
lusion.  The great advantage of most of
the removals is that the climate admits of
and prompts to exercise.  This is the chief
reason why Northerners often derive such
extraordinary benefits from going South in
February, March, and April.  The weather
being so  stormy  as to make it  inexpedient
to go out of doors at home,  as they ride
into a warmer climate where spring hastens 
       SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     79
to  meet  them, almost  imperceptibly  to
themselves  they begin to ride,  walk, and
do  many  other tilings  in addition  to the
breathing of outdoor air much of the time.
This  gives  them  new hope, and as their
exercise increases appetite and strengthens
digestion  they increase in  weight and
strength, and resume the battle of life with
energy.
  Turning from these general  remarks,  I
will suppose the  sick person to be a resi-
dent  of some  part of New  England, the
Middle States,  Ohio, Illinois,  Michigan,
Wisconsin, or Canada, and that he proposes
a transient change.
  This  will be made  in  the  inclement
season; for there is  no reason for leaving
any of these parts of the country during
the late spring, summer, or  early autumn,
as during these periods he can have  plenty
of open air and  exercise.  Supposing, then,
that as winter approaches, or at any time
during the middle of winter, or toward the 
80    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVES
close, as the  more to be  dreaded months
of March  and April approach, he  wishes
relief from the severity of the climate for a
few weeks ;  where shall he go ?  Speaking
generally,  if he has a moist variety  of con-
sumption he should stay away from Florida.
If heat enervates him, inducing  languor,
that is not the place for  him.   (Note that
there are some parts  of Florida that might
benefit him, but Florida stands in popular
estimate for  a  type  of climate.)  Such a
person will find benefit by going at  first to
some point not farther south than Thomas-
ville, Ga., and  there remaining until  the
opening of March.  When I say " to some
point,"  etc.,  it  is not  to  recommend
Thomasville  in  preference  to fifteen  or
twenty others in Georgia.  It  is a mistake
to think because fashion has made a place
popular,  even  though it have excellent
merits,  that  there  are not  other places
similarly situated equally as good.  Many
a struggling  person  could find excellent 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.
board  at six or eight dollars a  week  in
towns in Georgia who will not go South at
all because  of  the  great rates charged in
these local  centers,  where  every man is
taxed  to pay for the luxuries required by
some.   About  the first or middle of March
let him move  northward as far as Aiken.
This is one of the most discussed places in
the  country and, take it all in all, one of
the  best, though the winds are often high
and the rains sometimes terrific.
   A return to the North  should  not be
made before the middle of May, and prior
to that time it becomes too hot at Aiken.
 It is well,  therefore, to move into  North
 Carolina  or some  point in Virginia, and
 there remain a week or two.
   It is necessary on returning so to dress
 during May and so to  guard against  the
 chills that occasionally take place in June
 as to avoid evil effects.  There are several
 points in  North  Carolina well  adapted,
 notably Asheville, to  those who can bear
       6 
 82     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
 some cold ;  and all through that region are
 little mountain retreats to which the in-
 valid not too weak, and who  still retains
 self-regulating  power,  can go,  and return
 with  a new lease of  life.  I know con-
 sumptives  in  New Hampshire,  Canada,
 and  New York  who  have  undoubtedly
 prolonged their lives a quarter of a century
 by these yearly visits, especially ladies who
 cannot  take much  exercise,  but  in the
 South have  been able  to be in the  open
 air all through  the spring.
  San  Antonio  and  Austin,   Tex., are
 both  good for  such spring  visits.   I  have
 never felt a more stimulating air than that
 of San Antonio.  The effect of the climate
in some parts  of Florida is to  make  a
person  wish  to avoid exercise ; to prefer
riding in  a  carriage  or sitting upon the
piazza—an excellent thing for many cases.
The  air of San Antonio fills me with life;
 I wish to  be on horseback, to walk, or to
move about constantly. 
       SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     83
  Others have found this quality injurious.
I repeat that the places whose names are
used are merely employed as indications.
  In selecting a place even for a temporary
residence,  as  far  as possible,  a  uniform
temperature, dry, not  too cold  nor too
warm, with as few violent  changes as possi-
ble, should be chosen.
   What I have  to suggest concerning
selecting a region in which to  spend one
or more years in the hope of recovery or
settling will be treated  under a few grand
divisions.
  The climate of Florida as a whole is fav-
orable to consumptives, and affords much
greater variety than is generally supposed.
For a long  time persons were sent to that
State  without   any  discrimination,  and
many who  needed a different climate died,
and many  more were sent home in a dy-
ing condition.   The  number of  cases  of
consumption among  permanent  residents
is very small.   In  1880 in Florida, includ- 
84     A HEREDITARY  CONSUMPTIVE'S
ing many persons from the North, only one
inhabitant  in one thousand four hundred
and forty died of consumption.   It is an
immeasurably better climate than that  of
southern Italy.   If points near the coast
do  not agree with the particular case the
sufferer can try with more hope the central
portion of the peninsula of Florida equally
removed from  both  coasts,  which is  the
best part of the State, for there the climate
is   moderately  warm,  dry,  bracing,  and
equable. The great advantage is that in
the central portion there are locations  on
an average  of one hundred to one hundred
and fifty feet  above  the sea-coast, which
mean a great deal for  the bracing charac-
ter  of an otherwise enervating air.  There
are   only  five  or  six  rainy  days  in  a
month.  The State  is covered with  pine
forests, and there are  high regions where
the weather is sufficiently stimulating; new
towns  are springing up in different parts;
all  the comforts of life can  be  enjoyed 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.    85
there.  Northern institutions, Chautauquas,
schools, colleges, cultivation of oranges, dif-
ferent kinds of business, afford society and
occupation.  I must, however, repeat the
caution that there are parts of Florida which
will not only not benefit, but will harm some
sufferers from consumption.
   Georgia, with  great diversity  of  soil,
has also a diversified  climate.  Northern
Georgia consists of an  upland region,  cool
and healthful in summer, occasionally very
cold in winter.   In all the pine land re-
gions the air is wholesome.  The lowlands
are not to be recommended for a perma-
nent residence.   Thomasville  has already
been  mentioned.   Savannah  is  pleasant
in the winter  and  spring.   The preva-
lence of high winds in northern  Georgia
would  be an objection to some.  In  1880
in Georgia only one inhabitant in two thou-
sand one  hundred  and fifty died  of  con-
sumption.
  Texas   affords  a  boundless field  from 
 86     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
 which to select.  It is subject  to " North-
 ers," and these tend to the production of
 pneumonia,  but  they  clarify  the  atmos-
 phere, and the inhabitants learn to guard
 against them.  The dryness of the  atmos-
 phere in Texas is a point  of the first im-
 portance ;  the  absence of fogs  and mists
 of all kinds makes  the climate negatively
 as well as positively the best.
  The more mountainous parts of South
 Carolina, indeed the whole upland regions
of western North  Carolina and  eastern
Tennessee, are exceptionably favorable for
consumptives.  I cannot believe, however,
that the present tendency to send all classes
to high altitudes  in western North  Caro-
lina rests upon a  perfectly sound hygienic
basis.  Consumption thoroughly pinches
up some persons ; they cannot endure the
slightest degree of  cold, and this is to  be
taken into the account. Others do not suffer
from  cold, but rather rejoice  in it.  All
such can thrive at  high altitudes and en- 
       SUCCESSFUL  BATTLE FOR LIFE.     87
dure such winters as there  are in western
South and North Carolina and eastern Ten-
nessee with pleasure and decided benefit.
  The Adirondacks  were first brought  to
popular notice by a book  written  by the
eccentric Murray.  Crowds of consumptives
poured  in, overtaxed the accommodation,
and returning, recorded  their names upon
the registers as " Murray's  Fools."   Mr.
Murray is said to  have remarked  that " a
higher power than he made them  fools."
Finally that region obtained a permanent
and just reputation  as one of the best re-
sorts, winter and summer, for many cases of
consumption.   The atmosphere is so pure,
the winter climate upon the whole so regu-
lar, and the recreative  pursuits  so stimu-
lating,  that hundreds have there  regained
their health.
  Persons far gone in consumption should
not go to Colorado.  They may go to South
Carolina or to California, or some parts of
Florida, and live there for many years.   In 
88     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
the early stages  of consumption Colorado
affords an excellent prospect of recovery.
Persons with  profuse night-sweat,  diar-
rhoea, great emaciation, large expectoration
seldom recover in  Colorado.    The  late
Rev. William T. Egbert, formerly assistant
rector  of Grace Church in the city of New
York, and ten of his friends, went to Colo-
rado within the course of  a year.  He did
not improve, nor did any of those ten, who
all died  in  the State, or en route East.
This  is  no reflection  upon the climate.
They were not in the stage of the disease
suited  to it.  Persons  who have had con-
sumption for one or more years, but who
are in  fair condition,  if they can  get to
Colorado  and live  two or three months,
often  recover and  live many years.   My
old friend and fellow-student,  Governor
Pitkin, was a case of this class.  Generally
speaking,  consumptives get along better
in winter than in summer  in Colorado.
  New Mexico has recently attracted many, 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR  LIFE.     89
and has secured the approbation of a con-
vention of climatologists.   All over that
country are  men whose  cases were con-
sidered hopeless, but who by going there
and entering upon  an active life,  often in
connection with horseback riding and other
travel, have become not only well, but phys-
ically very strong.
  California has great range of latitude,
nine and a half degrees.  " Properly speak-
ing,  California has  several  climates,  the
basin of the  Sacramento and San  Joaquin
valleys having one, the western slope and
the Coast Range north of latitude thirty-
five degrees  another, and that  portion  of
the State south of thirty-five degrees still
another."   No country  in  the world  has
such high  average  warmth  in  winter and
such average coolness in the  summer as
that State.   A difference of thirty  miles
will make a vast difference in the weather.
Take San  Francisco  and San  Jose  as  an
example.   San Diego, Santa Barbara, and 
90     A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
a number of other places have a just repu-
tation as sanitariums.  Like some places
on the French and Italian Rivieras, Santa
Barbara  owes  its  advantages to  its local
situation.  But even there the change of a
mile makes the difference between health-
fulness  and unhealthfulness  for consump-
tive cases.  I have personally known a num-
ber to go there and die, and a large  num-
ber equally sick, apparently, go there and
live.  Sometimes husband and wife, both
afflicted with pulmonary disease, have set-
tled  in California,  and one  of them has
died,  while the  other has  progressively
recovered.
  In incipient stages of consumption Min-
nesota has long been recommended.  It is
very cold there in  the winter, and the sea-
son is long.  Yet the changes  are not ex-
treme.  The air is  bracing; but  it is not
favorable to advanced  cases.  Unless pa-
tients are able to bear the cold and to take
bodily exercise they will fail.  In my visits 
      SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     91
to that  State I have  found numbers who
have  fought  it  out.  Mr.  Mendenhall, a
banker of Minneapolis of many years ago,
told me that he went there  as an advanced
case and found patients dying all around
him ;  driven desperate, he  spent  seven
months,  day and  night, in the open air,
and believed he owed his recovery to that.
An eminent authority  says:  " The cold,
clear air of the State  is  undoubtedly ben-
eficial  to certain  cases of consumption.
None, however,  should  attempt the jour-
ney whose lungs are seriously diseased, or
who have not the strength to take exercise
out of doors.  It is the open-air life that
does the work, after all,  of curing, and it is
therefore little less than  suicide for invalids
to seek a home where they are compelled to
shut  themselves in-doors day after day."
There are a hundred places in Minnesota
that have all the advantages of any.  The
more sheltered  the location is the better.
   #     *    *    *    *    *    * 
92    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
  So important is the subject, and so many
are the interests involved, that it is difficult
to decide at what point to close.   The
places  mentioned, with  the exception of
New Mexico, I have visited.   I would ad-
vise all those who  intend to settle perma-
nently  to surround themselves  so  far as
possible with the comforts of life, churches
and  schools, and  if they can have  some
friends whom they knew before to go with
them to settle in the neighborhood, so much
the better. 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.    93
                   VI.
HOW DR. BOWDITCH  CURED HIM-
      SELF OF CONSUMPTION.
   The  following account, confirming the
principles herein before set forth, is taken
from  The Medical News :
   Dr. Henry J.  Bowditch, of Boston, re-
cently recited  to the American Climato-
logical Association a most instructive story
of the way in  which his father, when ap-
parently  far  advanced  in  consumption,
overcame it by open-air travel and exer-
cise, and by a systematic training of his
children in similar open-air habits of living
overcame in them  strong hereditary  ten-
dencies  to the same disease.
  According to the  story, in 1808 the elder
Bowditch had cough,  spitting  of blood,
hectic fever, and great debility.  In August
of that  year, though very ill, he started,
with a friend as his companion and driver, in 
94    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
 an open one-horse chaise for a tour through
 New England.   During the trip he trav-
 eled seven hundred and forty-eight miles
 and passed through one hundred and thir-
 teen towns and  cities, the time occupied
 being  thirty  days.   The first  day, after a
 drive of twenty-five miles, he was sp much
 exhausted, and  spat  blood  to  such  an
 extent, that  the landlord  of the  hotel
 at which  they put  up advised his friend
 to take him  back home to die.  But the
 sick man  was plucky; at the end  of the
 next day's journey he felt  somewhat bet-
 ter;  he persevered  in  his journey, grew
 steadily better, and finally when he reached
 home again was in much better health than
 he had when starting.  The journey, though
 benefiting him immensely, did not wholly
 cure, but  it  had  proved to him the abso-
 lute  need  he  had of regular  daily phys-
 ical open-air  exercise.  Afterward, under
walks of one and a half to two miles, taken
three times daily during  thirty years  of 
       SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.     95
 life, all  pulmonary  troubles disappeared.
 He  died in  1838 from carcinoma  of the
 stomach, one lung presenting evidences of
 an ancient cicatrix at its apex, both being
 otherwise normal.  He was sixty-five years
 old—that is, thirty years after the journey.
  Having  thus experienced,  in  his  own
 case, the vast benefits resulting  from con-
 stant,  regular  exercise out of  doors,  he
 apparently determined  that  his children
 should  be early instructed in  the  same
 course.  "As  soon as we were old enough,"
 says the younger Bowditch,"he required of
 us daily morning walks  down  to a certain
 well-known divine's  meeting-house, about
 three-quarters of a mile, or a mile, from our
 home.   I remember them  very well for the
 tricks played  with my brothers on our way
 down, and for sundry twinges of conscience,
 felt even at this moment, at the thought
that we sometimes decided that the sight
of the  'weather-cock  on Dr.  Bentley's
steeple,' though seen more than  a quarter 
96    A  HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
of a mile from our proper destination, was
near enough to our father's directions!
  " If any of us,  while  attending school,
were observed to be drooping, or made the
least pretense even to being not ' exactly
well,' he took us from school, and very often
sent us  to the country to have farm-life
and out of door ' play to  our heart's  con-
tent.'  Once  he told me  to  go  and play,
and  to ' stay  away from study  as long  as
you choose.'   In  fact, he believed heartily
in the old  Roman maxim  of ' a  healthy
mind in a healthy body.'  In consequence
of this early instruction, all of his descend-
ants have  become thoroughly impressed
with the advantages of daily walking, of
summer  vacations in the  country, and  of
camping out, etc., among the mountains.
These  habits have  been transmitted,  I
think, to his grandchildren  in  a stronger
form, if possible, than he himself had them.
Such habits are among the surest guaran-
tees against the prevalence of  phthisis in 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE  FOR LIFE.    97
a family.   Before  detailing the actual  re- ^
suit  of these habits upon our family, I
must state the prospective chances of our
escape from the malady.  My father mar-
ried  his cousin, who, after long invalidism,
died of chronic phthisis in 1834. Certainly
a consanguineous  union of two consump-
tives foreboded nothing but evil. They had
eight children.  Two died, one at eleven
and  the  other at birth.   All  the others
either  are  now  alive  or they arrived  at
adult life and married and have had chil-
dren and grandchildren, but not a  trace of
phthisis has appeared in any of these ninety-
three persons."
  Dr. Bowditch adds that for  his part  he
fully believes " that many patients  now die
from want  of this open-air treatment. For
years," he  says, " I have directed  every
phthisical patient to walk daily from three
to six miles; never to stay all day at home
unless  a violent storm  be raging.   When
they are in doubt  about going out, owing
      7 
98    A HEREDITARY CONSUMPTIVE'S
to ' bad weather,' I direct them to ' solve
the doubt, not by staying  in  the house,
but by going out.'
  "A cloudy day, or a mild rain, or the cold-
est weather should not deter them.   If the
weather be very cold,  let them put on res-
pirators before  leaving  the  house and be
thoroughly wrapped in proper clothing for
the season.   I  direct  them never to stand
still and gossip with  friends in the open
street, as by so  doing they are much more
liable to get a chill  than while walking.
Hence,  summer and winter alike,  my pa-
tients usually get  plenty of fresh air, un-
contaminated in a great part, at least, by
the previous breathing of it by themselves
or by other occupants of the house.  This
course, I believe, might  be pursued in any
part of our  common  country.   I am cer-
tain that I know of patients who have be-
come well and  able to attend to the busi-
ness of life  under this  course.  May we
not also at times send  our  patients over 
SUCCESSFUL BATTLE FOR LIFE.
short distances in open vehicles, instead of
thousands of miles off in ill-ventilated cars
to an entirely different climate ?  Have any
of us ever  sufficiently  tried this open-air
journeying  at home, so to speak—that is,
in the region of the country where the pa-
tient lives, wherever that may be?" 
 
 
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