!
DR. CORNEL

A{/-'-\::}Mi\ ''^Cm-.::;* 
ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY
FOUNDED 1836
WASHINGTON, D.C. 
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f 
 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE,
ITS  TREATMENT.
BY WM. M. CORNELL, A. M., M. D.

          BOSTON:
WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS,
        111 Washington Street.
           1850. 
c  s/V
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
              WM. M.  CORNELL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
         Stereotyped by
      HOB ART fc ROBBINS;
New England Type and Stereotype Foundery,
           BOSTON. 
PREFACE.
  Every bookmaker has some plea for publishing his
views, or making his book.   The author has his.  He
has been a careful observer of consumptive persons and
consumption for many years.  He belonged to a con-
sumptive family — father, mother, and brother all hav-
ing died of this disease.  He had a strong predispo-
sition to it in his own person, which has cost him much
effort, but which he has been enabled so far to over-
come, as to yet live — which, more than one physician
told him he would not do till he was forty years of
age.  More than twenty years since,  he had a long
sickness, and  more than one, of thirty physicians con-
sulted, said, he had tubercles in his lungs, which would,
probably, develop themselves by consumption, before he
saw forty years.  It was this prediction, together with
the fact that  he supposed, he  knew  how to prevent
their development, which led him  to publish, in  1845,
" Consumption Prevented," which passed  through
several editions.  In that, some reference was had to
another volume, meaning the present, on " The Cura- 
iv                   PKEFACE.
 bility of Consumption."  He then supposed, it would
 have appeared long before the present time ; but pro-
 fessional duties, and a somewhat feeble state of health,
 have caused its  delay.  Such as it is, (and  it is as
 perfect as he has been able, under the circumstances,
 to make it,)  it  is  now given  to  the public.   The
 author hopes it will  benefit some who are exposed to
 the ravages of consumption.   He asks only, that it be
 read, before it be condemned, or criticized.
  He has omitted giving the  physical signs and patho-
 logical symptoms of consumption minutely,  in this
 work, as they appropriately belong to the treatment of
 the disease by the medical profession, which he, by no
 means, feels competent to instruct, nor has he any wish
 to attempt it.   The main design of the work is, to hold
 out encouragement  of  recovery, as  possible, to  the
 invalid, and  to strengthen the hopes of his medical
attendant, and to collect together the  remarks of emi-
nent physicians on  this subject, and  suggest some of
his own ideas.
                                   The Author
  Boston, No. 496 Washington J
     Street, Feb. 25, 1850.    J 
CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.
              CHAPTER I.
PROOFS OF  THE CURABILITY OF  CONSUMPTION,
      TAKEN FROM  EMINENT PHYSICIANS.
  I purpose to write  a short, plain treatise
on Consumption;  a disease, which, I need
not say,  makes fearful ravages among our
citizens  who  live on the  borders of the
Atlantic.  I have  written my views on the
"prevention"  of this  disease,  in a work
which has been before the public for some
years.
  If the cholera were to cause  as  many
deaths each year, among us, as consumption
does,  we should be greatly  alarmed.  Our
newspapers and medical journals  would  be
           1* 
6
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
full of reports, recipes, fearful ravages, and
forebodings.  We should have cholera hos-
pitals, physicians, boards of health, quaran-
tines,  rewards  offered  for  specifics,  and
dissertations  upon  that dreadful  disease,
which  was making  such  terrible havoc
among us.
  Now, about one  fifth of  the deaths  in
Boston, and the vicinity are from consump-
tion ; and yet, we move calmly on, consoling
ourselves, as best we may,  that such is the
inscrutable  law of a mysterious Providence,
and we cannot help  it.   The late Dr. James
Johnson, of London, than whom no man did
more for the promotion of medical  science,
or was more skilful in the medical profes-
sion, said:  "Pulmonary consumption alone,
is computed to carry off fifty-five thousand
British subjects annually, or cause  one fifth
or sixth  of the whole mortality."   I select
the following from the British and Foreign
Medical  Review.  They are  extracts from 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
7
M. Louis'  Researches on Consumption  in
Paris.
           DURATION OF CONSUMPTION.
   " Too much stress can scarcely be laid  upon
the importance of acquiring an accurate notion
of the mean duration of consumption, and yet no
task of greater difficulty, probably, can be assigned
the physician.  He who has practically, and, at
the same  time,  conscientiously, endeavored to
ascertain the period of origin of the disease, in a
considerable  number of cases, will fully bear us
out, we  doubt not, in this view of the difficulty of
the attempt.   It is obvious that the real duration
of the malady, from the first hour of anatomical
change, can never — no more than in the instance
of cancer, for example—be accurately made out;
all we can hope to arrive at is the mean duration
of the  disease, after it has given symptomatic
evidence  of  its  existence.   In  other words,  its
average apparent duration.
   " In the former edition of his work on consump-
tion, M. Louis gave the duration of 114 cases; 
8           CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.
in the present, he adds that of 193 more.   We
shall place together these two series of results.
No. of Cases.
          1
          2
          1
          2
          1
          1
          1
          1
          1
          1
          1
          7
          5
        17
          2
        19
          4
        25
          2
        16
          6
        17
          1
        20
          2
        10
          1
        10
        13
         3
Duration.	No.	of	Cases.
39 days,.... 2			
40 " .			1
45 " .			1
50 " .			. 2
13 months,			. 2
131 "			. 2
14 "			. 9
14* "			2
15 to 19 months,			10
17 to 18 "			7
19 months, . .			5
20 "			4
21 "			2
23 "			3
24 "			18
28 "			1
30 "			3
36 "			9
39 "			1
48 "			11
60 "			6
66 «			1
72 "			4
84 «			1
90 "			1
10 years,			o
12 «			1
14 »			1
20 »			1
 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.           9
   " Hence it follows, that out of a mass of 307
patients, 4 died within the first month, 14 within
two months, 26 within the first three months, 98,
or about one  third of the whole  number, within
the first six months; facts sufficiently demonstra-
tive  of the rapid  progress  of the disease  in a
large proportion of cases.   In  two years 264 of
the total number  are  gone, leaving  only 43 to
drag on  their weary existence.  The author  has
not calculated the mean duration of  the malady
from his individual facts; we find it  to be from
seventeen to  eighteen months, taking the entire
mass of cases ; but if the five cases in which the
disease lasted ten years or upwards  be  omitted
from  the calculation,  the   average  duration is
reduced to from fourteen to fifteen months.
   " The  mortality produced by consumption in
the wards of  M. Chomel, where the author's first
collection of  cases was taken,  was really  enor-
mous,  being  in  the proportion of one to two  of
the  total amount of  deaths.  And  if  to  the
number of persons actually dying from consump-
tion  be added that of subjects, who. perishing of 
10         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
other affections, had,  nevertheless, tubercles, or
tuberculous cavities, in the  lungs, (forty persons
appeared in this category,) we have a  total mass
of 163 tuberculous deaths, (if the  expression  be
admissible,) out of 358 occurring in the wards
of La Charite.  There is too much reason to
believe  that  the  proportion would  be found
equally  high  among  ourselves, had  we  some
physician possessing the devotion and the oppor-
tunities  of  M. Louis,  ready to investigate  the
question on the same principles, in the wards of
our hospitals."
  This calculation of the vast number of
deaths  from  consumption, by  one  of  the
most eminent physicians in the  world, is
startling; one  half, or nearly that amount,
of all the deaths from tuberculization ; and
the editor of the British and Foreign Medi-
cal Review thinks the  case is not much
different among them.
  In  our climate  the mortality from this
disease  does  not vary much  from that  of 
           CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.         11

England.   This is, indeed, a fearful ravager;
and  seemingly to increase the panic,  and
cause the  greater mourning,  these persons
are usually the most mental, beautiful, active
and enterprising, of any class in the commu-
nity.  They are, generally, young persons,
or, at most, but in the meridian of their days,
for, it is a well-known fact, that after the age
of forty-five, the deaths  from this disease are
proportionally much  less, than from  fifteen
up to that period.
  The average yearly  mortality, as near as
the writer  has been able to  gather the facts
of deaths in Boston, from consumption, for
the  last  five years, has  been  over  four
hundred.   Verily, this is a startling fact.
  The symptoms of this disease are marked
and  well  known.    The  hectic  flush, the
cough, expectoration, nocturnal perspiration,
the  wasting  body,  the sharp and  drawn
nose, the shining white  around the eye, and
a shade of pearl blue, the hollow cheeks and 
 12        CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

 bitter smile, the oblique neck and projecting
 shoulder-blades, the  stooping  form,  incur-
 vated nails and large joints, the vermilion lips,
 and burning heats in the palms of the hands,
 and brick  red line around the gums, are too
 striking to  be mistaken.  These heart-rend-
 ing  symptoms are daily presented  to the
 agonized friends.   The loveliest of creation
 thus sink.
  And can nothing be done to avert this sad
catastrophe?   Must this fearful mortality
still continue,  yea,  even  increase ?   I
have now  only  a few additional words to
say about  prevention, (having  treated that
subject elsewhere.)
  1. Consumption is contagious.   I  mean
by this, that  it can be taken by one person
from  another.  The ancient  Romans  so
believed, and hence burnt the beds, clothes,
furniture,  and books, of those who had
died from this disease.  Rarely, if a husband
or wife has this  disease, and  the  healthy 
           CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.         13

companion continues to lodge with the sick
one, does the healthy one escape the disease.
Many cases of this  kind  I have known.
The same  is true  of  a sister, who takes the
nursing of, and  sleeps with a consumptive
sister.
  I know it seems hard to the sick that a
companion, or a near  friend, should be afraid
(as it is termed) to lodge with them.   But it
is  "the first law of nature to preserve one's
self."  If  the  sick must suffer unless the
healthy were  thus exposed, the case would
be very different.  But  such is not the fact.
They can have all  proper  and necessary
attention,  without the  health  of a  friend
being thus endangered.   This breathing the
air, as it issues from a decayed, or decaying
lung, and receiving the  perspiration  from a
consumptive body, is  at the  risk of  health
and life.   Who has not seen a whole family
of sisters, living together, and nursing each
other, successively follow one another, with
          2 
 14        CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

 fearful strides, to the  same dark and final
 resting-place; while the one, or two, who had
 earlier removed from the paternal mansion,
 have escaped ?  Such instances are not rare.
 I have now in vivid recollection a family of
 five sisters, who  all died of consumption in
 a  few years,  while one, who was  married,
 and had removed from the paternal domicil,
 still lives.  My only brother  died of con-
 sumption.  His wife nursed him, and lodged
 with him till  two days before his decease;
 and though she  was of a healthy family,
 and where there  was no hereditary predis-
 position,  yet she  took  the  disease,  lingered
 for about a year, and died.
  Several years since, I knew a young lady,
 who, while taking the care of a consumptive
 sister, as she inhaled her breath, one day,
 when the sick sister  was  coughing,  was
conscious that she  had taken  the  disease.
She was immediately sickened at the stom-
ach, and  in three months after the death  of 
           CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         15

her  sister, she  also died of the same dis-
ease.
   In the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical
Journal, volume xxx., page 491, Dr. Com-
stock, of Lebanon, Ct., gives an account of a
Capt. Griswold, who, being in consumption,
was sent  to South Carolina, where he died.
His  brother, then  in health, accompanied
him and  nursed him, and took the disease,
and  also  died.   There was no hereditary
predisposition to the disease in the family.
The "disease was filial or fraternal," says
Dr. C.; by which he could mean nothing, but
that it was taken by the one from the other.
   Much  more  might be said on this point,
but  it is not  necessary.   If this does  not
convince  of the contagious  nature of con-
sumption, more would not be likely to do it.
The words of the poet are worth remember-
ing:
" If health you 'd keep, shun those who are unsound ;
 By looking on sore eyes our own we wound." 
16         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

  2.  Travelling for the prevention of con-
sumption  is  good.  Before  the lungs  are
really diseased, travelling to a warm climate,
where the air  is  mild and of a uniform
temperature, has a tendency to ward off  the
disease.  If our ever variable climate  be
changed for the beautiful and  mild atmos-
phere of Italy, or  the south of France, or
the southern portions of our own country,
such  as  Florida,  or Alabama,  before  the
lungs have become essentially diseased, they
will be likely to remain in a healthy state.
  I once thought favorably  of sending  the
consumptive invalid abroad; but I think I
have  grown wiser  on this subject.  To send
him from  his home, when he most needs a
home, is but to give him a lasting home.  It
is  but to leave the circle  of his friends, to
die among strangers.  But few can bear
the shock of being wrenched  from friends
and home; much less, the consumptive  pa-
tient.   The fatigue of travel, the cold, or  the 
           CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         17

heat; the worry and bustle of hotels; the
change  in diet and  drink, with, not unfre-
quently, the  badness of both; the  risk  of
damp beds, and other  inconveniences  that
need not be named, more than overbalance
the good to be derived from going  abroad.
So thoroughly have I been convinced of this
truth, that for some time past, I  have advised
the consumptive  patient to take his chance
at home.  The numerous instances of deaths
abroad are an alarming beacon to those who
would thus venture.   They seem to say, be-
ware ! for death is here.
   A cold climate acts as a  protection against
consumption.
   Dr. A. S.  Weatherspoon, in  a paper read
to the New York Medical  and Surgical So-
ciety, says:
   " The climate of Fort Kent, Maine, like that of
the colder regions of Northern Europe,  does not
seem favorable  for the production  of  pulmonary
consumption.   During my sojourn at  the post, I
             2* 
18          CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

have neither seen nor heard of a case of this dis-
ease among  the French  or  American settlers.
Assistant  Surgeon Isaacs, who, during the two
years he was resident at the fort, had a  much
better opportunity than myself of becoming  ac-
quainted with the diseases of  the  country,  in-
forms me, not only that  he never saw a case of
consumption in the country, but that some of the
inmates of the garrison, who were affected with
suspicious  symptoms, recovered from  them en-
tirely.   The  present revenue officer  at  this post,
a man of decidedly scrofulous temperament, had
suffered a slight attack  of  haemoptysis, and  other
symptoms of incipient pulmonary disease,  when
he was  ordered  to this  post.   Though  liable to
catch cold when exposed, his  cough no longer
troubles him.   He has gained flesh and strength,
and considers himself free from the disease.  A
careful  examination  of the chest, in  this case,
gave no marked results, yet I have no doubt, from
his  symptoms, that, when  ordered to Fort  Kent,
he was  suffering under tubercular deposition in
the  lungs."— Dr. W.,  in  Boston Med. and Sur.
Journal. 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         19
  Many such results have induced me to be-
lieve that it is better to go North, than South,
for consumptive patients.
  The cure  of consumption has been under-
taken by multitudes of empirics, and it has
often afforded them a fruitful harvest; while
the medical  faculty have generally supposed
nothing could be  done to avert impending
doom.   Or, if they have prescribed, it has
been with but little confidence, or expectation
of success.   They have  felt, that  so  little
could be done, that what they  have done,
has not  accomplished much.   They have,
generally, looked upon consumptive patients
as hopeless  cases, and  all who  gave them
encouragement of recovery, as either utterly
ignorant of their situation, or consummate
villains.  I mean, this has been the case, till
recently, and with some, is still.  This has
had a tendency to drive such invalids to those
who promised much, how little soever  they
might be able to perform.   I say, generally, 
20         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
for it has been admitted, that some have re-
covered who really had consumption;  and,
more recently, men of the greatest eminence
in the profession  have believed,  and  pub-
lished the belief, that consumption is curable,
and has been cured, both by nature and art,
or by nature greatly assisted by art.
  Were I not conscious that I could verify
this declaration by the published statements
of many of the most  skilful  and  scientific
men in the  medical profession, I should not
make it.  But, lest it may be thought pre-
sumptuous, I will  proceed to prove it in the
sequel.
   Sir  James  Clark, in his treatise on con-
sumption, says:—"That  pulmonary con-
sumption admits of a cure, is no longer a
matter of doubt; it has been clearly demon-
strated by the researches of  Laennec and
other modern  pathologists."  Dr.  Car swell,
who investigated  such matters, probably as
thoroughly as any man,  says : " Pathojogi- 
          CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.         21

cal anatomy has perhaps  never afforded
more  conclusive  evidence in proof  of  the
curability of a disease, than  it has in that of
tubercular phthisis."   Again,  Dr.   Clark
says:  "It not  unfrequently happens that
young persons are attacked  with symptoms
of phthisis, which, under proper treatment,
cease, and years  elapse  before there  is any
renewal  of  the  disease.  Were  advantage
taken of  the intervening period, to  correct
the tubercular  diathesis, the  cure   might
prove perfect.   I have known recoveries
from  two such  attacks, the third  proving
fatal; the interval between the first and last
attack was  twelve  years."   Laennec also
says:  " I  think it is more than probable that
hardly any person is carried off by a first
attack of  phthisis."
   These are very important  statements, and
seem  to throw the fate of the consumptive
man almost into  his own hands, or that of
his own physician; for,  as is above said "if 
22         CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.

advantage  be taken of it, he may perma-
nently recover;" and  who would  not take
advantage  in such a case,  when  life is at
stake.
  Dr. George B. Wood,  Professor of Materia
Medica  and  Pharmacy in  the  University
of Pennsylvania, one of the physicians of
the Pennsylvania Hospital, and  one  of the
Authors of the Dispensatory of the  United
States  of America,  whose orthodoxy  and
medical conservatism no one will  doubt, in
his " Practice of Medicine," page 109, says,
"I am not one of those who believe that
phthisis (consumption)  is in all cases nec-
essarily fatal.  On the contrary,  I  believe
that, in one  stage or  another,  it is occa-
sionally cured, or at  least, ends in  perfect
recovery.   It is no very unfrequent event to
see  threatening  symptoms of phthisis give
way under suitable treatment.   It cannot be
proved, with absolute  certainty, that these
symptoms  were tuberculous; because the 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.        23
evidence of dissection  is wanting, and the
physical signs are not  sufficiently positive,
in mild cases  of early phthisis, to authorize
a  certain conclusion.   But they  are undis-
tinguishable from symptoms, which, in other
cases,  are the  forerunners  of  confirmed
phthisis, (consumption,) and  we have abun-
dance  of evidence, from dissection, that tu-
bercles are capable of undergoing favorable
modifications.   The probability is, that the
tuberculous matter is absorbed,  and some-
times,  as shown by dissection, replaced by
calcareous matter; and if the diathesis be
so far subdued as to prevent the deposition of
other tubercles, before  these  have complete-
ly run their course, the disease may be said
to be cured.
   But this is not all.  It sometimes happens
that consumptive symptoms disappear en-
tirely, even in the second stage  of the dis-
ease, after the formation of a cavity.   This
event, it is true, is comparatively rare; but 
24        CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

some such cases have probably fallen within
the  notice of almost every practitioner of
extensive experience.   Even should the dis-
ease ultimately return, still the case may be
said to have been cured; as an occurrence
of a second attack of  pneumonia is certainly
no proof that the first was not cured.   Two
instances of this kind have occurred in med-
ical men of this city, (Philadelphia.)  One of
the  patients  was  afflicted, when  a young
man, with all  the symptoms of  phthisis,
including frequent  attacks of haemoptisis,
severe cough, hectic fever, &c., from which
he   completely  recovered,  and  continued
exempt up to the time of his  death, which
occurred many years afterwards, of typhoid
fever.   [See  N.  Am.  Med. and Sur. Jour.,
vol. vni., p. 277.]
  The other was my preceptor and friend,
the late Dr. Joseph Parish, who, in early life
labored for a time under symptoms of phthi-
sis, and, after his death, at an advanced age, 
           CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         25

was found to have several cicatrices of the
upper  part of  one lung, which were obvi-
ously the remains of  tuberculous cavities.
See Am. Jour, of Med. Sci., vol. xxvi., p. 265,
where is the following interesting account of
Dr.  P.'s  case.   "When about twenty-five
years of  age, the Dr. was affected with  a
severe and lasting cough, and considered
himself in danger  of pulmonary consump-
tion ; to  which he believed that he had  a
family predisposition, having lost a brother
and  sister by  that  complaint.    Under  a
course, however, of rigorous exercise and free
exposure to the air, without the use of med-
icines, he ultimately surmounted the threat-
ening symptoms.   The existence of cica-
trices in  the upper portion  of the  lungs,
discovered upon post mortem examination,
proves that his  apprehensions  were  well
founded,  and at the same time affords strong
evidence  in favor of the plan of treatment
           3 
26          CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

which he adopted  in  his  own case, and al-
ways strenuously advocated.
   " For many years after the disappearance
of the pectoral affection, Dr. Parish suffered
much from dispepsia, which continued with
him even until  middle  life.   But  from this
also  he was at length relieved,  and after-
wards enjoyed good health."
   The following is from the record of the
post mortem: —
   " Thorax.— On the right side some adhesions
are found posteriorly, with effusion  into  pleura
of half a pint of reddish serum.  The right lung
at  its summit  presents  an irregular  puckered
depression, which is firm  and opaque; upon cut-
ting  into it, there is found a substance, for the
most  part of a dirty grayish  color, nearly cartilagi-
nous in consistence,  with some grains of a calca-
reous matter in it, evidently the cicatrix of an old
tubercular cavity, of small size.   From the back
part of this depression there extends another one,
which  is more  irregular,  running   around  the 
CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.          27
lung and connected with similar  deposit.  Upon
stretching and pulling the lung slightly, cellular
tissue  may be discovered passing through  this
hardened  mass, and  apparently  constituting it.
Several large vessels may be seen passing around
the above cellular substance ; one or two slighter
depressions are found,  of  the  same  kind, in the
adjacent parts of the lung.  The substance of the
lung generally is  gorged with serum, crepitous,
and contains air;  the vessels are more or less en-
larged ; the pleura of the upper third of  the lung
is more or less opaque,  giving to the whole of this
portion of the lung a peculiar wrinkled aspect,
less marked, however,  than at the summit.   The
mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes, opaque,
jaundiced, but not reddened.
  " Left Lung.—Nearly  as  much serum in the
pleural cavity of  this  side, as in  the right  one,
of the  same character; the lung free from adhe-
sions ;  its lower lobe more engorged with blood
than the  right, but containing less serum;  still
crepitous  throughout;  upper  lobe  in its  lower
three   fourths paler than  natural;  some emphy- 
 28         CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.

 sema along its anterior margin; tissue engorged
 with bloody serum; containing air; its upper one
 fourth hardened and puckered, but less so than on
 the right side;  whole  tissue somewhat solid and
 condensed.  Several masses of cellular substance,
 of the same color as those in  the right lung, are
 found  in  it, two  of which are particularly well
 defined, and present an irregular central nucleus,
 one  eighth  of  an inch in  diameter, from which
 run radii, of firm cellular substance; appearances
 still  more characteristic of cicatrization.  No re-
 cent  tubercular granulations, nor any trace of re-
 cent  tubercular deposition, are anywhere discov-
 erable."
  I  have given  this case  fully,  for several
 reasons.
  1. Dr. Parish was one of the most eminent
 physicians of Philadelphia.
  2.   The  post mortem examination   was
 made in the presence of distinguished phy-
 sicians, all veritable  men of high standing.
  3.  No  man will dare say Dr. Parish did
not have consumption. 
           CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         29

   4. No man will venture to say, he was not
cured, and lived many years, to the age of
sixty-one, and died of another disease.
   And, finally, the fact is made sure, by this
case, that consumption can be  cured, and
Drs. Otto,  Wood, Ashmead, Pennock,  Ger-
hard,  Kirkbrige,  Barton,  and  West,  of
Philadelphia, who examined the body, are
our  witnesses.   And,  if cured in this case,
pray tell me why it  may  not be cured in
others? ■
  " The probabilities, upon the whole, are that
each tubercle has a tendency towards health,
and, if alone, would, in time, end in a perfect
recovery.  We may, therefore, always enter-
tain  some hope, if applied to in the  early
stage, in cases of no great severity, of seeing
a  cure  effected; and,  even in  the second
stage, when the diathesis is not very strong,
or the local  disease extensive, there is  no
reason for absolute despair.  Even in  cases
which appear to offer no chance of  ultimate
           3* 
30         CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.

recovery, we may hope to be able very much
to prolong the duration of the complaint, and
sometimes even to add years to a valuable
life.  There is an individual now pursuing an
active business in Philadelphia, though with
a cavity in his lung, who eight years since
was  under my care, with  a  severe cough,
copious purulent expectoration, night sweats,
hectic paroxysms, and great emaciation and
debility."
  Thus much  from  Dr.  Wood.  He  is
guarded in his expressions, but still holds
out the hope of recovery to  the consumptive
patient.
  M. Laennec, a celebrated French surgeon,
who  dissected more bodies  dead from con-
sumption,  and did  more in exploring this
disease, than any other man, says : " In some
cases consumption  is cured by nature,  in
the last  stages,  after the  softening  of  the
tubercles and the formation of an ulcerous
excavation." 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         31
  He thinks the disease is checked, or cured,
by catarrh, or a cold, as it is called.
  He says:  "While examining the lungs of
subjects  that  had  suffered from chronic
catarrh, I have observed irregular  cavities,
lined by a semi-cartilaginous membrane, and
these cavities accorded perfectly with tuber-
culous ulcerations, except  that they were
empty.   I  found  that  such  subjects  all
referred their  catarrh  to a severe  previous
disease, which bore the  character of con-
sumption  so much  as to make their case,
at the time, appear desperate.  On the other
hand,  in  subjects  dead of consumption,
whose disease had lasted very long, we very
commonly find similar excavations entirely
lined with a similar cartilaginous membrane,
and free, or almost free, from  tuberculous
matter.  The formation of semi-cartilaginous
membrane  on the  surface  of  tuberculous
excavations must be considered as a curative
effort of nature." 
32         CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.

  Catarrh,  then,  supervening  upon con-
sumption, according to Laennec, is a favor-
able  symptom.   According  to  him, also,
nature sometimes cures consumption.  His
25th  case  is entitled, " Tuberculous Con-
sumption cured," and is  proof that it can be
cured, and is cured.
  In  the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journal,  Dr. J. Hughes Bennet says: "Of
seventy-three bodies which he had examined,
he  found puckerings or concretions in  the
lungs of twenty-eight.   He thinks that these
observations serve  to establish the fact, that
the spontaneous cure of  pulmonary tubercle
occurs in the proportion  of from one  third to
one half  of all the individuals who die after
the age of forty."
  Dr. Bennet observes,  " that as empirical
means for accomplishing a cure have noto-
riously failed, perhaps a study of the  method
in which nature  operates  may be  more
successful.  There seems to  be  no reason 
- A
           consumption curable.        33

 why cavities in the lungs should not heal
 with the same frequency as  ulcerations or
 abscesses  in other internal  organs, if the
 further  deposition  of tubercles  could be
 arrested.   He  thinks the inflammation may
 be overcome by naphtha."
   So  much from  Dr. Bennet, on  recovery
 from consumption.
   Verily, Doctors  Laennec,  Wood, Clark,
 Carswell, and Bennet, form an array of pow-
 erful names in favor of recovery from this
 disease.   But they stand not alone.
   Other physicians admit its curability.  UA.
 M. Deschamps, M.  D., has addressed a letter
 to  the Academy of Sciences,  in which he
 asserts that he has succeeded in discovering
 an  infallible  remedy for disease  of  the
 lungs, even when  tubercles have  formed.
 He has forwarded his recipe, and sent secu-
 rities to the  value  of 70,000  francs, to be
forfeited in case his remedy should not be
established by experience." 
 34        CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

   This statement, I find in  the  second vol-
 ume, page 730, of the Charleston Medical
 Journal.  Who Deschamps is, is well known
 to scientific  medical men.
   Dr. Wm. A.  McDowell,  of Louisville,
 Ky., says, " Consumption is curable in all its
 stages."   Nor does he claim any originality
 in this; for he also says, "1 have  faithfully
 and even greedily quoted, in support of my
 position of curability, all the authority I had
 access to, comprising every one of  note who
 had  then  written upon the subject — Stokes
 nbt excepted."   Thus  he, not only declares
 it  curable, but also proves it so from  others.
  On the  237th page of the 31st vol. of the
 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, I find
 a quotation from Nasse, in Schmidt's Journal,
 as follows:  " Simon,  Andral,  &c,  show
that  in the  early stage of tubercular con-
sumption  the blood corpuscles  gradually
diminish in   number:  this accounts for the
early disturbed state of the digestion."  After 
           CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         35

stating  the curability  of  consumption, he
proceeds to give directions as to diet and
medicine, which, as I shall speak of them
in another place, I will not dwell upon here,
save only to say, he recommends a milk diet,
and frictions  with oil or lard;  and especially
Stokes'  liniment, consisting of oil of turpen-
tine and acetic acid.
   In  a copious perspiration, combined with
great weakness, he recommends the following:
         R. Inf. cascar. gvii.
            Quinia sulph. gr. ss.
            Sulph. dilu. acid, gutt. xv.
            Tinct. hyoscyam. 5SS-
   Two table spoonfuls every three hours.
   In  the St.  Louis  Medical  and Surgical
Journal,  I find the  following  preparation
very highly recommended in consumption—
    R.  Tincture of muriate of iron, 1 oz.
        Sulphate of quinine,        gr. xv.
        Sulphate of morphine,      " v.
        Simple syrup,               8 oz.
   Mix.   Dose, a tea-spoonful  three times a
day. 
36         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

  Another physician, writing in the Boston
Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. xxxi., p.
491, says: "In six cases of tubercular con-
sumption, in  which I used dram doses  of
finely pulverized charcoal, three times a day,
obviating any irritable effects upon the bow-
els by a few drops of paregoric;  and costive-
ness, by combining with it a few grains  of
rhubarb;  it was highly beneficial.   In two
of the cases, the  tubercular  irritation  is
suspended.  The patients believe themselves
to be entirely free from the disease, after
having been  so much  reduced as to  be
obliged to confine themselves,  almost  con-
stantly, for a  number of weeks, to their beds,
and having suffered for months  from all the
characteristic symptoms of tubercular  con-
sumption."   He adds, also, that the disease
had proved peculiarly fatal in each of their
families.
  These  medicines and this treatment prop-
erly  belong  to  the next chapter; but  it is
difficult to give the cures without giving also 
          CONSUMPTION CURABLE.        37

the means by which they were effected.
Much, very much, is  undoubtedly, depend-
ing upon a proper and rigid course of diet.
By such a course, the whole system may be
changed, the blood purified from any cor-
ruptions, and the man made over  anew.
  While Drs. Carswell and Clarke both thus
maintain the curability of consumption, they
inculcate the necessity of  taking  advantage
of every improvement in  the disease of  the
lungs, to correct the generally depraved con-
dition  of the  system.  Dr. Clarke  says,
" Unless we can correct  the constitutional
disorder, in which local  tubercular disease
has its  origin, such cure is of little avail."
But, he says, it was a cure.
  Now, in the face of such positive asser-
tions of these men, most eminent in the med-
ical profession, when we  assert  that con-
sumption is curable, many, with a sarcastic
smile,  shrug  up the  shoulder,  and calmly
and wisely add,  " they don't believe con-
sumption was ever cured."  And any man
         4 
38         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

who will do it, after such proof as has been,
and will be, adduced in this treatise, is wel-
come to his opinion.  He may carry it to his
grave.   It is not worth a straw.
  I  have said  it is  better  to travel North
for  consumption  than South,  and  in  the
Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,
vol.  xxxvn., p. 283, I find an article to the
same effect.   In  it  occurs the following
sentence:  " When a  change of location is
advised, instead of creeping onward further
South,  the  gentleman with whom we had
been conversing, argued with much ingenuity
to prove that they should hasten North, and
that their only chance of a  permanent resto-
ration,  depended more upon that movement
than any other.   He called  to his aid some
cogent  facts, besides dwelling, with enthusi-
asm on the philosophical principles involved
in the  proposition."   This will not  appear
so singular, after a moment's reflection,  if
we consider that consumption prevails to a
much greater extent  in our climate than it 
           CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.        39

 does further North.  It  is much less preva-
 lent in Russia, in the Canadas, and  among
 the Alps in Switzerland, where the winters
 are long and severe, than it is  in New Eng-
 land.  The reason undoubtedly is, in those
 climates in winter the weather is  uniformly
 cold and severe.   The thermometer instead
 of ranging over a space of forty degrees in
 one week, is at about the same temperature
 for several months.
  That both  sides of  the question on the
 curability of  consumption may  appear, I
 give the following:
  Dr.  Chapman, in a treatise of considerable
 merit  on " Thoracic  and  Abdominal Dis-
 eases," says of consumption : "Known from
 the earliest times, and studied, especially of
 late, with unexampled  diligence, and under
 every advantage, it still proves  as intractable
in the  management as at the very dawn of
medical science.  Being fully  established, I
doubt whether a  cure was ever effected of 
 40        CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

 it.  Not an instance, at  least, have I  seen,
 and I believe that those who report to the
 contrary deceive themselves, or the. truth is
 not in them."
   This is saying much for a man who has
 had as many advantages for practice, and
 seen as much as Dr. C.  It certainly contra-
 dicts  the opinions and statements we have
 already quoted from Drs. Wood,  Laennec,
 Clark, Carswell,  Bennet,  and  others,  men
 at least, not inferior in medical research to
 Dr. Chapman.
  But this is not  all.  I shall now proceed
 to detail other cases, declared to be consump-
 tion, and cured,  giving the  names of  the
 physicians,  and the remedies employed, and
 the reader  can soon see which side  of the
medical testimony " kicks the beam."   The
authorities,  too, shall be such as no one  ever
supposed wanting in medical orthodoxy, or
conservatism, and who were so  far of  the
old school, as never to have been suspected 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         41
 of dabbling in any of the modern -pathies or
 -isms.
   Professor Trosseau  (no mean  name in
 medical science) relates four cases  of con-
 sumption,  in  an  advanced stage, in which
 he employed  cod liver oil.   The  patients
 were  all females.  One  forty-eight years
 old,  one thirty-five,  the  other two from
 twenty to twenty-two.  In three the  amelio-
 ration  was immediate;  the  fourth, after
 becoming worse for a time, grew,  at last,
 gradually better.
   In  the Medico-Chirurgical Review, "M.
 Fournet,"  a distinguished French  surgeon
 and physician, "alludes to his having met
 with, in the course of one year, no fewer
 than  fourteen  cases  of confirmed phthisis
 (consumption)  that were cured; besides ten
other cases, in  which dissections  revealed
the traces  of caverns which  had  become
perfectly healed.
  " He goes on to remark, that these fourteen cases
            4* 
42          CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
 of consumption cured in  the living subject  have
 proved to me,
   " 1. That certain persons, who have exhibited
 the most decided symptoms  of the disease, in its
 most  advanced stage, may yet  be  restored to
 excellent health.
   " 2. That even hereditary consumption, in its
 most  advanced stage,  is  susceptible  of cure;
 although  such  an occurrence is  certainly much
 more  rare than in cases  of accidental disease.
   " The capital fact, which seems to spring from
 these  inquiries, is, that tuberculous disease is not,
 like cancer,  essentially incurable ;  on  the  con-
 trary, that it is often curable, and that its extreme
and   most disheartening  fatality  is   referable
rather to  the circumstance of  its  being seated in
one of the vital organs of  the system, and to its
tendency to frequent relapses, than to its primary
and essential  nature."

   Verily, who will say  these men — men of
 such  science  and standing—"were  either
 deceived, or the truth  was not  in them." 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.          43
   Dr. Marshall Hall (and if any man stands
 higher as  a medical man, I  know not who
 he is) says :—

   " So many persons  afflicted  by incipient  con-
 sumption, marked by dulness of  sound on  per-
 cussion, and no doubtful pectoriloquy under the
 clavicle,  haemoptysis,  and  disposition  to  chills,
 heats and early morning  perspirations,  &c, have
 been benefited and restored to apparent health,
 by the remedy or remedies which I am about to
 mention, that I cannot doubt they possess great
 efficacy.
   " The first and principal  of the remedies is an
 alcoholic lotion, constantly applied by means of six
 folds of linen over and across the upper lobes of
 the lungs.
   " One part of pure alcohol is mixed with three
parts of water.  It  is applied tepid at first, after-
wards of the temperature of the atmosphere.  It
is  applied in small quantity at a time, every five
minutes,  so  that  the  application  may always
consist of  alcohol  and  water.   (If  applied in 
44          CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
larger quantity and less frequently, the  alcohol
would evaporate, and  water alone would be left;
and this would be a source of a  feeling- of dis-
comfort, instead of the feeling of glow which the
alcohol induces.)   The  application  is  easily
made;  a piece of  soft  linen,  of  the  size  of  a
large sheet of letter-paper, being  folded  in the
usual manner, is  then  folded twice more, in lines
parallel with the first, so  that the whole consists of
six folds.   These  are stretched, applied across
the upper part of the thorax, just below the clav-
icles, and fastened to the shoulder-straps, or other
part of the dress, which latter is to be arranged
so as to be readily opened and closed.   A sponge,
the size of a  walnut,  is  then  filled with the
lotion, and pressed upon  the linen along its whole
course, the  dress  being  opened for this  purpose
and  immediately  closed.   This operation  need
not occupy five seconds.   It should be repeated,
as I have stated,  every five minutes.  The appli-
cation should be incessant during the day, and all
waking hours,  the  dress  being light,  or  even 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.          45
 entirely removed, so as to allow a free and rapid
 evaporation.   It is suspended during the night.
   " It is by no means my wish to laud  this rem-
 edy beyond its just value; but I have no hesita-
 tion in  asserting  that it possesses a  power in
 checking the  progress  of  the  deposition,  and
 softening of  tubercle in  the lungs, beyond  any
 other which  I  have  ever tried;  and the number
 of patients which  have  recovered from incipient
 consumption under its use, and who, after many
 years,  are  still living, and  in  apparent  health,
 induces me to express myself in strong terms in
 regard to its extreme value.
   " One patient, who consulted  me fifteen years
 ago, had dulness on percussion, and pectoriloquy,
 and every other sign of incipient consumption.
 He applied, and long wore,  the alcoholic lotion,
 called it  his ' breast plate,' and is now a professor
 of---------College."
   Will Dr. Chapman say  Dr. Marshall Hall
was  "deceived" in  his  diagnosis of  this
patient ?   Or  will  he  take the harder side,
and say, "the truth is not in him?"   Few 
46          CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.
medical men would like to hang their repu-
tation on either horn of this dilemma.
   But Dr. Hall proceeds:—

   "A lady, about 30 years of age, became affected
with  haemoptysis,  and displayed the  physical
signs  and the usual symptoms of consumption.
She  was enjoined  the  alcoholic  lotion.   It  is
fourteen years since it was first applied, and it is
continued, or renewed, if ever suspended, to this
day.
   " I  saw a young  lady two years ago, one of a
most  consumptive family, affected with haemop-
tysis,  and with every threatening sign and symp-
tom  of incipient consumption.  I  prescribed the
alcoholic lotion, and the  cough and haemoptysis
were removed, and every fear  dispelled.
   " Three months ago a young lady was brought
to me having a recurrence of haemoptysis.   There
were  pectoriloquy and dulness under  the  right
clavicle, cough, loss of color, and  of flesh.   The
alcoholic lotion was applied.  The haemoptysis
and cough ceased.   The patient went to Hast- 
           CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         47

ings, and every account which  I  have received
has been one of improved health."
  Thus much from Dr. M. Hall, as pub-
lished  in  the London  Lancet.   I  have
adduced this to show, from the best medical
authority,  the  curability of consumption;
if not  cured, at least   its suspension  for
fifteen  years, and no return.  But I have
not  done yet.  I have more authority and
numerous other cases to present.
  Another quotation from the Annale Univ.
de Medicine,  in the London  Lancet,  again,
shows  that consumption is curable.   It is as
follows : —
  " Of 176 patients under consumption, 47 in
the  incipient, and 129 in  the advanced  stage,
admitted during a period of four years into  the
Military Hospital at Capua, were ultimately  dis-
charged, perfectly cured; their treatment  having
consisted in the administration of a table-spoonful,
night and morning, of the following mixture : —
Tartarized  antimony,  three grains;  syrup of 
48         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
cloves, an ounce;  decoction of marsh mallows,
six ounces : mix.  The dose was to be repeated
until vomiting ensued."
  This comes to us through the high author-
ity of the London Lancet.   Consumption is
curable, or " they must have been deceived,
or the truth was not in them."
  Dr. J. Eberle, in  the Western Medical
Gazette,  and  republished  in the  eighth
volume of  the Boston Medical and Surgi-
cal  Journal, speaking of the Sanguinaria
Canadensis, (blood-root,) says: —
  " I  have been in the habit, for many years, of
employing the  tincture of blood-root  in chronic
bronchitis, protracted catarrh, and  the trouble-
some  cough  and pectoral oppression which are
apt to remain after an attack of acute pulmonary
inflammation; and the result of my experience
induces me to regard it as  a peculiarly valuable
remedy in affections  of this kind.  Within the
last twelve months, I have witnessed its salutary
powers in two very remarkable  instances.  One 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.          49
of these cases was in a young man, who had been
affected for four months with a very troublesome
cough, purulent expectoration, febrile irritation of
a hectic character, a constant soreness in the left
side of the chest, emaciation, and night-sweats.
  " He was  put on  the  use  of the  tincture
of sanguinaria, or blood-root, without any other
remedial means.   In  ten   days  after  he  had
commenced taking  the tincture, his pulse  was
reduced at  least fifteen strokes in a minute, and
of nearly a  natural  degree of compressibility.
The pulmonary irritation gradually subsided, and
he now enjoys an excellent state of health.  The
other case was equally alarming in its symptoms.
It was in a child, about six years old.  The use
of the  sanguinaria  effected a perfect restoration
to health."
  This is, undoubtedly,  a remedy of much
power  in- diseases  of  the  character  here
described.   I  have  used  it alone,  and in
combination  with other  remedies, with the
best success.  The common tincture  of the
Dispensatory is, perhaps, as good a form as
               5 
50        CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
 any in which it can  be administered.  The
 dose for an adult is from twenty to thirty
 drops, from two to three times a day.
   There is a decidedly quieting or soporific
 property in this root, which I do not remem-
 ber to  have seen referred to by any writer
 who has spoken of its  properties.
   The black cohosh,  New Jersey red-root,
 and the  liverwort, are excellent medicines,
 of this kind, in all pectoral diseases;  proba-
 bly superior even to the wild cherry bark ;
 and the virtues  of  the latter,  I  suppose,
 depend upon the prussic acid which the bark
 contains.  This acid may,  sometimes, be
 given in consumptive  cases with the most
 decided  benefit.   Magendie  "asserts and
 maintains that, with  this acid, he has cured
 patients having all the symptoms of incipient
 consumption, and even in  its  advanced
 stages."
  Dr. Frisch, of Denmark,  has also  em-
ployed it successfully in consumption.
  Dr. Williams, in the London Journal of 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         51
 Medicine, reports the  following results from
 the use of cod liver oil in consumption: —
   " Dr. W.'s conclusions are ba^ed on the expe-
 rience of about four hundred cases.  Of these, two
 hundred and thirty-four are recorded in his note-
 books, and are therefore  susceptible of numerical
 classifications and analysis.   Among these two
 hundred and thirty-four there  were nine cases in
 which the oil disagreed, nineteen in which  it
 appeared to do no good, and two hundred and six
 in  which its  use was followed by marked and
 unequivocal improvement.   Of the two hundred
 and six patients, sixty-two had cavities: all of
 these improved  materially under the  use  of the
 oil; in  thirty-four,  the improvement has  con-
 tinued ; in eleven, the improvement was only tem-
 porary ; in seventeen, the patients were lost sight
 of.   In one hundred patients, the tubercles had
 commenced to soften, but actual cavities had not
 formed, and both physical and general symptoms
 materially and rapidly  changed for the  better.
 The process of softening seemed arrested, as the
moist ronchi, in the supra or infra clavicular, or
the  supra spinous regions, gradually ceased, the 
52         CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.
 dulness more or less  disappeared, and,  at  last,
 vesicular breath sound returned, and no physical
 signs whatever  remained, except  a  little  pro-
 longed, and perhaps  tubular expiration.   Coinci-
 dently with these  changes, the  constitutional
 symptoms disappeared.  In the remaining forty-
 four patients, the disease was in  the early stage,
 the results were not less satisfactory."
   Dr. Jorgh, as translated  from  the Ger-
 man,  in  the  London  Medico-Chirurgical
 Review, says: —
   "Dr. Williams' estimate of the value  of  cod
 liver oil is  certainly higher  than that  of most
 writers, and possibly higher than it would have
 been, had the  remedial measures  which were
 employed in addition to the oil been taken into
 the account.  But yet the  opinion of a physician
 so eminent,  and so skilled in the diagnosis of
 consumption, is necessarily of great weight."
   The following is of the same tenor, from
the London Medical  Gazette: —
  " At a meeting of the Medical Society of Lon- 
             CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         53

 don, April 9th, 1849, some statements were made
 with respect to cod liver oil in consumption.  Dr.
 Bowie,  in nearly a thousand cases, has proved
 its  efficacy  in  arresting   consumption.   Many
 cases had occurred, in which patients  suffering
 from small cavities in the lungs, had, under the
 use of that medicine, been so much relieved as to
 return to  their  employment, and to discontinue
 the use of medicine.   It was in the early stages
 of the complaint that  cod liver oil asserted its
 most beneficial effects;  but it seemed of service
 in all stages of the disease."
   A more shrewd man  than Dr. Abernethy
 (everybody  knows  who  he   was)  never
 lived.   He  asks: —
   " Can  consumption be cured ?  Odd bless me !
 that is a question which a  man who had lived in
 a  dissecting room would laugh  at.   How many
 people do you examine who have lungs  tubercu-
 lar which are otherwise sound? What is con-
sumption?  It is a tubercle of the lungs.  Then
if  those  tubercles were healed,  and the lungs
            5* 
t
54         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

otherwise sound, the  patient must get better;
but if the inquirer shift his ground and say, ' It
was the case I meant of tubercles over the whole
lungs,' why, then he shifts  his ground to no pur-
pose, for there is no case of any disease, which,
when it has proceeded  to a  certain extent, can be
cured."
  Surely he implies that  consumption, taken
seasonably, can be  cured;  and  no man  is
fool enough to believe  it can be cured when
the lungs  are all consumed,  or  when the
patient is mouribund.  No disease is curable
in the last stage, or in the dying state of the
patient.
  In  the  Boston Medical and  Surgical
Journal, vol.  xll, No.  13, p.  263, is the
following, which shows, in the judgment
of that talented  editor, that  one learned
man, at least, now visiting us from abroad,
maintains  that consumption  can be cured.
The editor says: —
  " A French  physician of celebrity, Dr.  A. M. 
CONSUMPTION CURABLE.         55
Bureaud Riofrey, has recently  visited  Boston,
and very much interested those of the profession
who have  had an  opportunity of making  his
acquaintance.  He promulgates the doctrine that
certain forms of consumption are certainly cura-
ble  and his theory and facts go strongly to prove
its •truth.  Dr. Riofrey is the author of two
works now before us, that show  him  to be a
man of profound  research, and  who is desirous
of creating a new interest in behalf  of a mel-
ancholy  class  of sufferers, that have  too fre-
quently been  supposed  beyond the reach of
medical assistance."
  At the  last  meeting  of the New York
Academy  of Medicine, Dr.  Riofrey was
introduced  to the members,  in a warm and
eloquent address by Dr.  Francis.  The fol-
lowing,  from a  New York  paper, gives a
synopsis of Dr.  R.'s views, as expressed to
that meeting: —
  " Dr.  Bureaud Riofrey rose  to  thank  the
Academy for  the kind  reception he had met 
56         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.

with, and then read a paper on the Curability of
Consumption,  to which he has  devoted  special
attention for many years.  Again, and again, I
say, consumption is  curable, by a new  science,
that I call the true philosophy of medicine ;  in
other  words,  by opposing  cmistant  means  of
restoration and  health,  to  constant  means- \>f
degeneration and disease."
  I have dwelt much longer on the point to
be proved in  this chapter, — namely, the
Curability  of Consumption, — and quoted
many  more proofs than I  otherwise should
have done, (and given the treatment, though
I did not design this here, and did  it only to
prove the first point, viz., its curability,) if this
were not  considered the gravamen, the cli-
max,  of the  charge made by many  of the
faculty against any one who  maintains its
affirmative.  It has been  the wish of the
writer, first, to  settle this point, by indubita-
ble authority;  by the testimony of the most
eminent and  conservative  men in the medi- 
          CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.        57

cal profession: and he is satisfied that this
one point has been established by quotations
from  Laennec,  Bennet,  Hall,   Williams,
Wood, and an host of others;  and, lastly, by
the " learned and experienced Dr. Riofrey,"
who is now  visiting the medical  faculty of
this Western World to convince them of this
great truth.   To nail  this  point, all  the
quotations have been  made from  such men
as are above suspicion, as to  any and every
divergency from  regular  practice; and all
that  host of physicians who have written
directly upon the curability of this disease,
or who have professed to cure it, have been
entirely omitted.
  There seems to be much incredulity among
some  medical men as  to the curability of
consumption;  so much so, that one is almost
tempted to believe they are not willing any
should  be cured,  unless   they  themselves
have done it.  I mean no offence to those of
the highest respectability, for I have amply 
58        CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.
shown that an host of such have stated, and
fully attested, its curability.
  I was not a little impressed with this idea
upon reading, in the London Lancet, vol.  n.,
No. 10, p. 279, the  case of consumption
treated and cured by oxide of  silver.  It
can readily be referred to by all who have it.
  I might  enumerate  hundreds of  cases
where the attending physicians state that  all
the ordinary symptoms of consumption have
disappeared under the use of cod liver oil;
but it does not seem to be necessary.  I have
myself found great benefit from this article,
combined with a  syrup of the wild cherry.
One case  of  which  I  reported  for  the
 Charleston  Medical  Journal  and Review,
and  which will be  here inserted, only
changing the  technical names for the com-
mon, (as that was  for a  scientific journal,
 and this more for general readers.)
   " In September, 1848, Mr.----, called on  me
 for medical  advice.   He was 22 years  of age, 
CONSUMPTION  CURABLE.         59
had been afflicted with a severe cough for three
months,  had  laryngitis, (inflammation  of the
larynx,) and every diagnostic symptom  of con-
sumption in the right lung.  I prescribed for him
cod  liver oil, three table-spoonfuls  a day, and
two  tea-spoonfuls  of paregoric,  with a  strong
decoction  of the wild  cherry  bark;  being fond
of the oil, he took the full amount, and the latter
part of the time, six ounces  a  day.   He rode on
horseback every day.  The  larynx was touched,
daily, for two weeks, with a  solution of nitrate of
silver,  forty grains  to the  ounce  of distilled
water.   In six weeks  he had gained  twelve
pounds of flesh, and was free from all his con-
sumptive symptoms.  He has had no return of
them  since.  Whether  this was one of  those
cases which would have come  under the  denom-
ination of Laennec's spontaneous cures;  or like
the late Dr. Parish's case in Philadelphia, where
puckerings and fistulous cavities  will be found in
the lung upon post mortem  dissection, I will not
determine.  That it was a  case of consumption
I have no doubt.   I would merely suggest that a 
60         CONSUMPTION CURABLE.
combination of these two agents, the cod  liver
oil and wild cherry bark, may be more efficient
than we have heretofore supposed, and may be
worthy of a trial in all cases."
  Having settled this  point,—the curability
of consumption, — then, beyond all contro-
versy, the way is now fully prepared to pro-
ceed, as will  be done in the next chapter, to
the Treatment and Cure of Consumption. 
CHAPTER II.
   TREATMENT AND CURE OF CONSUMPTION.
  After having spoken of this disease as I
have, and given experiments by some of the
most  eminent  physicians  in  our country
and  abroad,  with  various  remedies, and,
especially, cod liver oil; experiments made
upon  a large scale, (many of them in the
populous hospitals of  Europe,) and where
statistics were  very carefully and correctly
kept, it will be expected that I  should give
my own  treatment, if I have any, which I
can call my own.   This I shall attempt to
do, premising, first, two things; the one is,
that  I do not lay claim to any very  great
originality in the discovery of new medicines;
though I claim some,  in combining and ad-
ministering old ones;  and the other is, that
I have no one specific which will effect a cure
             6 
62     TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

in every case, but strenuously maintain that
the physician must carefully examine  each
case  separately,  and  prescribe  for  the
particular case, according to his bestjudg-
ment, as  it appears when under his hand.
This  principle  lays the grand distinction
between the empiric and the scientific man.
Physicians cannot be dispensed with;  but
if one remedy, in the same dose, will  cure
every disease, or the same disease in every
stage of  it, then they may  be  forever laid
aside, and empiricism become triumphant.
   Though, in  the preceding pages, I have
abundantly proved, from the most eminent
physicians, the  curability of consumption,
yet so numerous have been the specifics and
the panaceas  of  ignorant  and  interested
men, from the air of the " Kentuckian Mam-
moth cave," down to " Wistar's  Balsam " —
(the latter of which, if made of wild cherry
bark,  is a very good thing) — that I almost
fear it will be a  hopeless task to point  out 
        TREATMENT OF  CONSUMPTION.     63

any particular treatment, or remedy for this
disease.  But the ravages of this destroyer
are  too heart-rending to  deter  me   from
writing what, I trust,  may be beneficial to
some now hastening to the grave by con-
sumption.
  No one medicine, or course  of treatment,
will  always cure: nor will any treatment
cure in  some cases;  (this I repeat, because I
wish  to be perfectly fair and honest;) yet,
the statements of such men as Dr. Marshall
Hall, with his alcoholic lotion, and Dr.
Williams, with his cod liver oil, in affirming
the cure of so  many, are the best  possible
medical proof of the curability of consump-
tion.  To  begin, then,  I  will  first  detail
several  courses  of  treatment which  have
sometimes proved successful in the removal
of consumption.
  I have already given a case, where the
disease  disappeared  under  the use of cod
liver oil and wild cherry tree bark, in my 
64      TREATMENT  OF CONSUMPTION.

own practice.  But  I have found that  this
course will not effect a cure in every case.
  In another instance, the  disease went off,
and  a good  degree of health was  estab-
lished by the use of Lactucarium and Salcp,
and the application of bandages to the chest
and throat, dipped in cold water, and alcohol.
I wish here to direct the reader back to the
numerous cases  of  successful treatment  as
detailed in the preceding chapter; the treat-
ment of which was there  fully given;  but
placed in  that part of the work to show the
curability  of this disease, but will be equally
useful, as  showing how it may be  done.
  Scarcely anything can be  more satisfac-
tory  than  Dr. M. Hall's cases, cured by the
alcoholic  lotion, and the various  cases  of
others, by cod liver  oil,  and other remedies;
so that  I  may say,  that I was necessitated
to give  no small share  of the treatment in
the former chapter.   The additional treat-
ment will  now be named. 
           TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.     65

    INHALATION OF NITRATE OF SILVER, AND OTHER
                     AGENTS.
      Several  other cases have been  greatly
    benefited,  and more than one cured, by the
    inhalation of pulverized nitrate  of  silver,
    and other substances.  I think this bids fair
    to be a most  successful  method of treating
    and curing diseases of the lungs.  It is well
    known that no substance has so much power
    in putting a diseased mucous membrane in
    a state to  heal, as this salt, when it can be
    brought in contact with it.  By this process
   of inhalation, the nitrate, with its concom-
   itants,  is gently and  safely conveyed into
   the diseased  lung, and its good effects are
   soon visible in the mitigation of the cough
   and  expectoration,  dyspnoea,  and ulcera-
   tion, and in the universal improvement  of
»  the whole system.
     I have administered the nitrate  of silver,
   with other substances, made  into  a fine
   powder, by inhalation, with  great benefit in
             6* 
66      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

consumption.  Indeed, I look upon this as the
most  efiicient  means  of curing this  most
formidable disease.  As I have administered
it. it is perfectly safe,  and the process is not
unpleasant.   The use of the  nitrate, in this
manner,  was inferred  from the  powerful
effect it  produces in healing  diseases of the
mucous  membrane,  when  applied to the
mouth and throat.  It is well  known, readily
to reduce all this class  of diseases, whether
chronic, or acute, to a healing state, and it
was conceived, that the same happy results
would be experienced from its application to
the lungs.   I think I can say I have seen
consumption cured by breathing  it, when
joined with other treatment.
  For three  years  I have been in  the habit
of treating laryngitis,  or inflammation of the
larynx, and the throat, and bronchitis,  with  „
a solution  of the nitrate, introduced by a
probang, after the  plan  of  Dr. Greene, of
New  York.   In  many  cases,  especially 
        TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.     67

where  the  main part of the trouble was in
the throat,  this mode of treatment has been
very successful.  Still, it has been attended
with much that is unpleasant; and to think
of benefiting a diseased  lung, it  is utterly
impracticable.  The  thought of  having a
piece of sponge, at the end of a bent whale-
bone,  pushed into the throat is  very dis-
agreeable, and  in some cases dangerous.  I
have, in my own practice, had one case of
very uncomfortable,  and,  to  the patient,
alarming spasms produced by its  introduc-
tion.  Nor  can it be always safe, for if the
sponge should be separated from the whale-
bone, and be left in  the  larynx, the conse-
quences might be  alarming, and the spasm
is  sometimes so great, by its  introduction,
that we  can never feel  entirely  safe  that
such an event may not take place.
  But  where the  lung  itself has become
diseased, it has been  impossible to reach the
source  of  the  trouble in  this way;  thus 
68      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

leaving,  in every  case of consumption, the
disease  entirely beyond our reach.   But by
the inhaling process,  the healing substance
is conveyed, not only  along the air-tubes of
the throat, but  also into every cell, or niche,
or sponge-like,  or  honeycomb-like aperture
of the lungs, where air enters.  This seems
to be the grand desideratum which has long
been  sought, but  heretofore vainly  sought,
from  inhaling  the fumes of tar, rosin, and
many such like substances, or from inhaling
air  alone with a tube.   Where the disease is
recent, and situated in the upper part of the
lung,  (as is generally the  case in  the com-
mencement,) it  holds out a hope for recovery,
which is not likely to be disappointed.
  This process  of inhaling the remedy also
comprises all the  benefits  of the " inhaling
of air alone with a tube,"  which has been
so much lauded by some,  and encouraged,
even,  by many.  It  is,  undoubtedly, true,
that deep and full inspirations are necessary 
         TREATMENT  OF CONSUMPTION.      69

 to  the enjoyment of health;  and the lungs
 must be filled with  pure, wholesome  air, or
 they will not  perform their functions; and,
 vice versa,  consumption cannot, and never
 does, take place when the air fully permeates,
 or  passes freely into, and out of, all the air-
 cells or ramifications  of the lungs; and, on
 the other hand, consumption cannot be cured,
 until the thickenings or congestion, engorge-
 ments or ulcerations,  (call them by what
 name you please,)  cease, so that air  is ad-
 mitted fully into  all the cells of the  lungs.
 I do not mean, by this, that air will pass into
 those cavities  in which the cells have been
 obliterated,  but into all the  healthy, open
 air-cells.
  No person, who has not  actually seen, or
 experienced the beneficial effects  of this treat-
 ment, can form any adequate conception of
 the wonders it  performs; or, rather, enables
 Nature to perforin; for, after all, she is the
great physician, and every healing process 
70      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

is begun and completed by her power alone.
All our  art can accomplish  is to assist her,
and happy would  it be for  mankind, if, in
attempting to assist, the physician  never
opposed and frustrated her healing efforts.
  By inhaling this remedy,  the patient gets
the good results which usually follow upon
applying this salt to a diseased portion of his
body, and also the benefit  which flows from
having the lungs fully inflated with air.
  Since the above was written, and  while
the proof was in my hands, I have noticed
the following important remarks on Inhala-
tion, in  the last number of the Boston Med-
ical and Surgical Journal, from the pen of
Dr. George Bartlett, of Boston.  They are
very much to the point here discussed, •and
I readily  incorporate them  into this work.
They should be carefully pondered by every
physician who treats  diseases of the lungs, or
air passages: —
  " How much therapeutic importance the profes- 
TREATMENT OF  CONSUMPTION.       71
 sion in general concedes to local treatment of dis-
 turbed action in the throat, is only a matter of
 inference.   Probably it sustains but a feeble rep-
 utation, and will continue to  do so, not so much
 from unsoundness in its claims, as a want of per-
 severance in gaining knowledge from experience.
   " An important  consideration  to be borne in
 mind, is the circumstance that it is not an exclu-
 sive course, and by no means implies an abandon-
 ment of any general or constitutional treatment
 that may be thought judicious.   The question,
 however,  may fairly be  put whether, if  either
 mode be relied on singly, this  fails so often as the
 ordinary routine of internal remedies ?   All must
 remember cases of obstinate  cough, hoarseness,
 loss of voice, &c, &c, that have resisted counter-
 irritation and constitutional  treatment to the sore
 discouragement of  both patient  and  physician.
 So accustomed are practitioners under these cir-
cumstances  to the via trita — not always the via
tuta — that  if they diverge occasionally,  they are
apt not to  follow  a new path to  the  end, and
hence, perhaps, the indifference to  topical  medi-
cation. 
72      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.
  " This indifference is not justified, if we adopt
the numerical system of comparison, and do not
act from discouraging impressions left  by fatal
terminations which must happen under any and all
modes of management.   These impressions, too,
are much  lightened by taking into consideration
the comfort and  relief given even  in fatal cases;
to which are to be added the instances in which
topical medication of the passages delays where
it does not ultimately avert development of tuber-
culous disease.
  " There are many instances, also, of acute dis-
turbance of function in  the respiratory passages,
unaccompanied with organic  change, which well
reward the application of local remedies.   Some
of these are trivial in their character, and some
very grave.   Why should not these be treated as
if they were on the external surface ?  If the eye,
or the nose, or the rectum, or urethra, is the seat
of disorder, and  we can see any physical change
that may cause or continue the evil, we do not
keep our hands off, and allow disorganization, per-
haps, to go on while the patient  is swallowing 
         TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.      73

drugs.  To be consistent, the same local remedies
should be  applied  to the  earliest indications of
physical change in  the throat.  With  a little
pains-taking, these may readily be brought within
sight in very many instances, and in all  the eye
or the ear are pretty sure  guides for discovering
their presence.   Remembering that  nicety  in
function in any organ does not necessarily imply
intolerance of interference when that  function is
disturbed, and  that experience  has  shown  that
the animal sensibility of the respiratory passages
is not very exalted, why is not topical  medication
as appropriate practice on one surface as another ?
   " Among the indispensable  requisites  for suc-
cess in the treatment  under consideration,  is a
long perseverance on the part of both patient and
physician, to which  should be joined, on the part of
the latter, a ready familiarity with a large  number
of different remedial substances.  By too general
consent, nitrate of  silver has almost  exclusively
been relied upon; while in  addition to the already
well-known escharotics, alteratives, and narcotics,
modern chemistry  has  furnished us with many
               7 
74       TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.
new agents of nearly untried  efficacy in surgical
practice.
   " To avoid monopolizing the Society's time, the
natural history and pathology of the disorders of
the air passages  have  been purposely omitted.
Looked at  from simply  the  practical  point  of
view, the  following deductions seem to be justi-
fied by our present state of knowledge.
   " 1st. That no good reason can be given why
disease of the  respiratory passages, manifest to
the eye, should not  be treated on the same prin-
ciples as analogous morbid changes on the exter-
nal surface.
   " 2d. That disease in these passages is not rare,
but frequent; and is as often the cause as  it is
the consequence of tuberculous development.
   " 3d. That the benefit of topical treatment is
by no  means confined to  chronic  cases — acute
affections yielding to it more promptly and surely
than to any other,
   "4th. That cough,  hoarseness,  loss  of voice,
&c,  whether accompanied with incurable disease
of the lungs or not, should be treated  topically; 
         TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.      75

 if not with the expectation of saving life, at least
 of prolonging it, and with a certainty of dimin-
 ishing suffering.
   " 5th.  That nitrate of silver is not a universal
 remedy — other substances frequently possessing
 the same superiority over it,  when applied to the
 internal surfaces, that they do when used exter-
 nally."

   I should have said more of the importance
 of topical applications to the air passages,ha.d
 I not here been confining myself to the treat-
 ment of Consumption.  But I fully agree
 with Dr. Bartlett.  Such applications (and
perseverance in them)  are our strong-hold
 in diseased states  of the respiratory organs.
   I  have not seen Dr. B.'s instrument, de-
 signed  for  making  these applications, but
 from its  description, have no  doubt of  its
 being a good  one.   I  have one of my own,
 which I  have found well adapted to the pur-
 pose, and which I have used with good suc-
 cess.  It conveys the remedy either  into 
76      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

the lungs, or only into the throat  and bron-
chial vessels, as seems necessary; of which
the attending physician must be the judge.
  I have occasionally used other substances
besides the nitrate, among which the sulphate
of copper has been prominent;  but I give a
preference to the nitrate, in nine cases out of
ten.   I can but express the hope that this
method of treating diseases of these organs,
so essential  to health, and necessary to life
even, will be  more  generally resorted to;
especially is this  the more desirable,  as it
does not in the least interfere with any con-
stitutional or  general treatment, which the
attending physician may wish to pursue.
            EXPECTORANT PLAN.
  In my opinion the expectorant plan, as it is
called, is not the most  proper way to  treat
consumption.   It is a disease affecting the
whole system, debilitating the  whole, and
requires a tonic, stimulant, and  corroborant
course.  Though the  disease has not usually 
        TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.      77

 been  cured,  yet  those  physicians  have
 succeeded best  in  prolonging the patient's
 life, who  have prescribed the strengthening
 or  sustaining plan.  The depleting process
 has always, or nearly so, hastened the dis-
 ease on to a fatal termination.
  General or constitutional  treatment will
 often be  necessary, in order  to destroy the
 tuberculous cachexia, or diathesis, (as it is
 called,) by which is meant, that predisposi-
 tion and scrofulous  tendency to consumption
 which exists in such persons.  This  treat-
 ment is of the utmost importance.  As a gen-
 eral principle,  the  digestive  organs  are  in
 fault, and the remedies must  be directed  to
 them.   Diet is of vast importance, as by it
 alone the whole constitution may be changed.
 Homoepathic treatment (whatever else may
be said of it, and however valuable or val-
ueless it  may otherwise  be) is  certainly
praiseworthy, for the strictness with  which
it enforces dietetic  rules.  In one word,  it
             7* 
78      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

must be  strictly  regulated.   A  mild diet,
free  from  heating and  stimulating  condi-
ments, is  the best.  The drink, m general,
should be  water,  or toast, or barley-water,
or black  tea.  Here I  may remark,  that
while I consider the use of spirit sometimes
a remedial  agent  in consumption, it may,
and often does, lay a foundation for it, when
freely used in health; and when I shall have
spoken of it as being beneficial in the disease,
it will be upon the  same principle as other
poisonous articles  are used to expel poison.
If he, who is  in  health,  wishes to  escape
consumption, let him avoid the use of spirit;
and  let him who  is diseased, be well con-
vinced that his disease  is tuberculous con-
sumption, before he resorts to it, as, if it be
of another kind, or a different disease, it may
hurry him on to the grave.
  While I recommend the tonic plan of treat-
ment, as it respects medicine, I  would cau-
tion  against administering steel, bark, &c., 
        TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.     79

before the digestive organs are prepared  for
it.
   The remedies to be used in this state of
the digestive organs, are, in my opinion, not
calomel, or any mercurial preparation, but
among the vegetables, the taraxacum, (dan-
delion,) the  podophyllum peltatum, (man-
drake,) the  sarsaparilla,  blue flag,  dock
root, &c.  I  have known a few gentle doses
of extract of mandrake, or jalap and senna,
with an aromatic, and the plan pursued  by
a course of the expressed juice of the taraxa-
cum,  especially in the spring, followed  by
the most happy results.  It is better to com-
bine the extract with some aromatic water,
especially if  the patient is a child, as it will
be much more readily swallowed.
  But the frequent repetition of harsh pur-
gatives, is, in my opinion, the worst possible
treatment.  If the bowels are torpid, and the
alimentary canal  free from irritation, a sin-
gle dose of  some active cathartic may  be 
80      TREATMENT  OF  CONSUMPTION.

useful, and  even then, a combination  of
senna and jalap, with some aromatic, is pref-
erable to calomel, in a strumous habit.  The
remarks  of  Dr. Stokes, of Dublin, on this
subject, are  excellent.  He says,  (speaking
of derangement of the liver and bowels hast-
ening on a fatal termination of consump-
tion,) " I feel satisfied,  that under a different
mode of  treatment from that ordinarily em-
ployed,  this  complication would  be  much
less  frequently observed; as  in  numerous
instances  I  have known  it  to be induced
clearly  by  purgative  medicines.   If ever
there was a case in which  we  should  be
cautious  in giving medicines of this descrip-
tion, it is in  incipient or threatened consump-
tion, on  account  of the great liability that
exists to  inflammation and ulceration of the
digestive tube; yet, in all those cases, which,
in conformity with the  prejudices of the day,
are supposed to arise from a disordered state
of the stomach — of the digestive apparatus 
        TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.      81

— a depressed state of the biliary organs —
atrophy of the chylopoietic viscera, &c., &c., —
a set of terms invented to cloak ignorance, and
conveying no single clear idea to the mind;
this practice is constantly pursued;  a diar-
rhoea is established, and the digestive appa-
ratus becomes indeed disordered, more from
the remedies than the disease."   The oracle
of Apollo never spoke more truth in as few
lines  than the Doctor  has in these, and I
verily believe, every practising physician
can bear testimony to their soundness.  No
language can fully set forth the magnitude
of the evil which arises from administering
such medicines, in powerful doses, to delicate
persons, of a scrofulous habit and predisposed
to consumption;  worst of all is this practice
in delicate children.  But, alas! how often
has this been done under the idea of freeing
the system from humors,  and  destroying
worms, &c.   It frees the system, indeed,  of
its vitality,  and  induces irritation, and in- 
 82     TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

 flammation, and ulceration of the delicate
 organs of the  nutritive canal, leaving them
 in the most deplorable condition.  It does,
 indeed, destiny worms, but the worm human
 is the first victim.
   In some cases, I have known emetics to do
 good; and their place cannot be supplied by
 other medicines.  In children they are strik-
 ingly beneficial, as they free the upper part
 of the alimentary canal from an unwelcome
 load, clear the furred tongue, restore a sweet
 breath, and a healthy appetite.   But  this is
 not all.  Often, where there is a tendency to
 the deposition of tubercles upon  the  lungs,
 they act as  a preventive.  But  this  treat-
 ment  is  sufficiently recommended by  the
cases at Capua, on the forty-seventh page, in
 the first chapter,  to  which  the reader is
 eferred.
                  AIR.
  A grand error  in  the  treatment of con-
sumptive patients, in my opinion, has been 
        TREATMENT  OF CONSUMPTION.      83

in excluding them, in a great degree, from
air and exercise.  Both  these are essential
to the prevention of this  disease, in  those
predisposed  to it, and to the cure, in, those
who already are laboring under it. In all per-
sons predisposed  to this disease, confinement,
seclusion from the air, spare diet, and inac-
tivity, are  the harbingers  of the onset of
consumption.  My sentiments on this sub-
ject have been much better expressed by Dr.
Graves, of Dublin, in a lecture as published
in the London Medical and Surgical Jour-
nal, than I am able to state them.  He says:
  " You will ask me what is to be done in order
to avert this  consumptive tendency ?  It was
formerly thought  that consumption arose from
inflammation of the lung, and on this erroneous
reasoning was  founded  its preventive treatment.
The  patient was confined to his room, and kept
in an equable temperature, wrapped up  in flan-
nels.  I well remember this mode.   If a family
lost one of its members by consumption, these 
84       TREATMENT  OF CONSUMPTION.
 were the means employed  to avert its occurrence
 in those who  remained.   This absurd mode was
 followed with rigorous exactness, and the consti-
 tutions, of the survivors were so debilitated thereby
 that they became similarly affected, and in  time,
 the  whole  were swept  away.   All these  pre-
 cautionary measures, generally, tend to the  same
 purpose, to make the constitution delicate, and
 consequently, more liable to the  inroads of con
 sumption.   A rational physician will endeavor to
 prevent  its  occurrence,  not  by confining  his
 patient, and wrapping him in  flannels, but by
 hardening  him  against  cold.   Any one,  who
 wiaps  himself up and  confines  himself within
 doors,  takes cold in  tenfold proportion to  the
person who dispenses with superfluous covering,
washes his chest with cold water, and rises early
in the morning.  Habits  such as these, with a
good, nutricious diet, but  not stimulating, and
exercise, are the best preventives of consumption.
Make  your patient lay aside slops and tea; let
him take wholesome fresh meat, bread, and good
beer; let him rise early, and breakfast early, and 
        TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.     85

dine also early; when the weather permits, make
him be in the open air for four or five hours, taking
exercise on a jumping car, or on the top of  a
coach.  The good diet will invigorate the system,
and so far from producing inflammation, will do
exactly the contrary."
  So, also, will the right kind of stimulants.
  These are the remarks of a man of expe-
rience and skill, and  I add that they fully
harmonize with my own views,  and are as
applicable to the  cure of consumption, as to
its prevention.
  The first direction which I give  to a con-
sumptive patient  is  to throw  aside  his
mufflers, tippets,  and all the usual append-
ages added to his ordinary dress, because he
is  an invalid.  They  all tend  to  augment
his invalidity
  The  next is  to take  full  and  hearty
inspirations of the pure air of heaven, which
was made for the lungs, and the lungs for
it.   No person can long be in health with- 
86      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

out a full supply of such air, and much less
can he, whose lungs are diseased, or partially
consumed, afford to do  without it.  A tube
may be serviceable for  breathing some-
times ; but tube, or no tube, the consumptive
patient, who confines himself from the air,
will surely  suffer for it,  and,  in  all prob-
ability,  pay the  debt  of nature  much
earlier  than he need do it.  But, as every
book on health for  the  last ten years has
been full of directions about air and ventila-
tion, no more need be said by me.

                EXERCISE.
  The next  thing to be noticed is exercise.
This is an old subject, but as important as
when it was young.  Exercise, not in  an
easy carriage, stuffed with pillows, and hair
cushions,  on springs, but  on  the  feet,  in
walking,  running,  hopping,  jumping;  at
manual labor, using the axe, the  saw,  the
hammer,  the  shovel,   hoe,  scythe,  rake, 
TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.      87
 sickle;  on horseback, on the water, in fish-
 ing, mowing, &c., &c.
   Dr. Joseph Parish, already referred  to,
 cured himself of consumption, without med-
 icine, by riding over the pavements of that
 city, to visit his patients, at a brisk jog, in
 a carriage  built for  the purpose, without
 springs.
   Others may do the same,  and with equal
 benefit.   But if they will not, but will  lie
 on sofas,  and divans,  and feather beds,  or
 loll in easy  coaches,  they must take  their
 chance,  and " verily they have their reward."
   I have known many consumptive patients
 greatly  benefited by a change from seden-
 tary to active habits;  and, on the contrary,
many who have laid aside out-door occupa-
tions  and confined  themselves to in-door
business, have soon given marked signs of
the approach of this disease. 
88     TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.

TREATMENT BY ALCOHOL INTERNALLY AND EX-
            TERNALLY APPLIED.
  I have seen consumptive patients greatly
benefited  by taking medicine prepared  in
spirits.—I hope none  of the  friends of
temperance  will  feel alarmed at this re-
mark, as  I speak of it, wholly as a medi-
cine in this disease.  The idea is, perhaps,
not new;  but, new, or old,  I  venture to
say, it is one which will bear the test of
experience.   Long before I was able in any
way to account  for it,  I  found it to  be a
fact, that spirit-drinkers were much  more
apt to recover from lung  attacks than any
other class in the community.  The fact I
knew; the why, I could not  tell.   But the
recent investigations upon  pathology and
chemistry  appear to me  to  have  thrown
some light upon this subject.
   Many  morbid  anatomists,  among whom
Dr. Bennet holds a prominent place, have
asserted that puckerings or cicatrices of the 
         TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.     89

 lungs, — indicating  tubercular disease, at
 some former period, which had been cured,
 — are much oftener found in the dead bodies
 of spirit-drinkers, who have died of other
 diseases than those of the lungs, than of
 others.  This being the  fact, and  corre-
 sponding, as  it does, with my experience,
 may not the following be the reason ?  Spirit
 prevents the arterialization of  the blood, as
 it circulates in it unchanged,  uniting with
 the oxygen  in the blood, and forming with
 it carbonic acid, thus keeping  the blood in
 a  venous condition, and  preventing that
 abundance  of fibrin upon which consump-
 tion depends.  It has long been known, that
 alcohol is not digested ; and the first chemists
 tell us, that it has a constant tendency to
keep the blood venous.
   Now,  in  every consumptive  person, the
blood  is highly  arterialized and abounds
much in fibrine.  The statement of some of
the most distinguished  pathologists is, that
             8* 
90      TREATMENT OF  CONSUMPTION.

during the whole process of tubercular dis-
ease, when it ends fatally, it depends upon
this fibrous state of  the blood, and that we
cannot cure the disease till we can change
this state, and bring  back the venous condi-
tion in which the blood  usually exists in a
healthy person.
  The idea I mean to  communicate is  this:
spirit does not nourish  the body, and, conse-
quently, would do injury in health; but  it
enters undigested into the circulation, and
changes the fibrinous condition of it, (where
it  exists,  but may  do great injury  in  a
healthy man by inducing other diseases—for,
sometimes people die without consumption,)
and thus destroys the aliment upon which
tuberculization depends;  thus staying  con-
sumption, as  pregnancy does in the female,
and as chronic bronchitis  and disease of the
heart often do, both among men and women.
Pregnancy stops, or if you please,  cures con-
sumption, till after the birth of the child, and 
        TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.     91

chronic  bronchitis often  does the  same.
Every practising physician has seen  cases
of this kind, and the reason why these dis^-
eases stop the tubercular deposition is, they
prevent or destroy the arterialization of  the
blood upon  which the poison  depends.  If
the same state of venous blood  continued in
the female after  giving  birth  to the child,
consumption would make  no progress.   It
would be forever stayed.   So, often would it
he, if a chronic catarrh  continued.  And so
will it be by anything which  keeps up  the
venous state of the  blood.   Sir B, Brodie,
pf Paris, and a multitude  of the most emi-
nent  pathologists tell us,  tubercular con-
sumption never exists where the proper state
of venous blood continues;  and everybody,
that is, every chemist and every temperance
lecturer, tell us that spirit prevents the blopd
from being arterialized;  pray  tell us, then,
why spirit will not stop, or cure consump-
tion. 
92      TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.
  I would not encourage intemperance, but
I do believe, there are more  cases of con-
sumption now, than  when  physicians  al-
lowed such  patients the use  of spirit, and
when men drank more of it.  I would pre-
scribe it, in  consumption, as I would medi-
cine, and much  sooner  than  I  would such
kind of medicine as has often  been swal-
lowed to cure diseased lungs.
  I do  not  repudiate all medicine in con-
sumptive cases, though I do think there has
been a  great mistake, generally, as to the
kind of medicines to be used, and in expect-
ing from them that which they can never do
alone, and unaided, by the  application of
proper   remedies  directly to  the  diseased
lungs,  and  the  course to  be  pursued to
change  the  fibrinous state  of  the  blood.
Cod liver oil and all  its concomitants  have
been overrated; and I have named the cures
recorded by those who have used these med-
icines, not so much to show their value, as 
        TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION.      93

the fact that consumption is curable.   "The
alcoholic lotion" of M. Hall, which was the
most  successful of any plan heretofore laid
down, in my opinion, owed its value to the
absorption of the alcohol; and the same effect,
or a better  one, would have been realized,
by  some alcoholic medicine.    I  think  this
has never been thus  accounted for, and yet
it is the result of my experience in treating
consumption,  and  enabling  nature (who
always does the work) to cure this disease.
  One of the most skilful physicians I ever
knew, said to  me, more  than twenty years
since,  "If  I had a scrofulous patient, his
medicine should contain  half a pint of rum
a day," and experience since  has verified
his wisdom.  But no man should prescribe
this for himself, lest he bring on the disease,
and die  before  his  time;  and  in no case
would I  have a  man  attempt  to prescribe
this—physician or not—until fully satisfied
that the disease was tubercular consumption. 
CONCLUSION.
  Of what we have to say, then, this is the
sum: —
  1. Consumption has  been,  and  can be,
cured.
  2. The inhalation of the proper substances;
a free use of water, or spirit and water,
externally, as prescribed by Dr. M. Hall;  a
large amount of exercise; free and full ex-
posure to the air; a total discharge of feather
beds, easy carriages, extra clothing, such as
mufflers, flannels,  heavy overcoats, tippets,
and the whole paraphernalia of dresses that
serve to keep  off air and debilitate  the al-
ready debilitated;  a nourishing, but easily
digested, diet; and the temperate use of spirit
medicated,  and,  as  a  general thing,  the
only medicine  to be  taken.—The whole is
thus comprised in a nut-shell, and I venture 
CONCLUSION.
95
 to predict, that  more consumptive  patients
 have, and more will, recover health under
 such a course of treatment, adopted in whole,
 or in  part, than by swallowing hogsheads
 of  elixirs,  balsams,  pectorals,  panaceas,
 cough-mixtures, and cough  lozenges,  and
 ten thousand  other namable, and nameless
 compounds, recommended  as sure specifics
 for consumption.
  I do not say, I would never give medicine
 — but I do say,  of the two courses, the old
 mode  of  housing and drugging,  or  the
 one  above  described of out-door business,
 with no medicine, or next to none, give me
 the latter.  Still, some  kinds of the  mildest
 and most quieting substances may be used,
 as mere aids to the course here prescribed.
  I speak that I do know.   I have seen it
 tried in city and in country, in hospital and
in private  practice, and the few who  have
recovered have  been those who pursued,
fully, the out of doors remedies.  I have had 
96
RECIPES.
patients who have come up on this plan, that
were  rapidly going down upon  the other;
and I venture the prediction, that, in ninety-
nine cases in a hundred, taken in any toler-
able season, this plan will succeed the best.
              RECIPES.
  In the treatment of its various stages, the
following medicines may be useful, or satis-
factory to those who wish for medicine:
  For the cough :
  R.   Gum ammoniac, 3 drachms.
       Syrup of squills, \ oz.
       Paregoric,        &. kz.
       Water,          7 ozs.
  Mix.   Take  a  teaspoonful three times a
day.
  To keep up the strength :
  R.  Tincture of muriate of iron, 1 oz.
      Sulphate of quinine,        15 grs.
       Sulphate of morphine,      5 grs.
      Simple syrup,              8 ozs. 
RECIPES.
97
   Mix.  Dose,  a  teaspoonful three  times
 daily.
   For the tubercular deposit:
   R.  Wood naphtha, two drops three times
         a day.
   To quiet irritation:
   R.  Syrup tolu,     ? ,-,   .
       ~         '     I Equal parts, one oz.
       Syrup squills,  )
       Paregoric, half an oz.
   Mix.  Dose, a teaspoonful, often.
   A better, for the same :
   R.  Extract of lettuce.
   Dissolve in the mouth and swallow.
   Another, for the same :
   R.  Pulverizec' '•apsicum, }
           "     lobelia,   v Equal parts.
                 valerian,  }
   A small  pill occasionally.
   For bad  digestion:
   R.  Mandrake, pulverized, 1 oz.
       Extract of dandelion,  £ oz.
   Make into medium sized pills;  dose,  three
twice a day. 
98
RECIPES.
  To promote expectoration :
  R.  Liquor potassa,    10 drops.
      Tincture of squills, 10   "
  Mix, and take at once.
  To restore injured digestion and quiet ner-
vous irritability:
  R.  Pulverized  asafcetida, 1 oz.
      Sulphate quinine,     1 drachm.
      Pulverized rhubarb,   2    "
      Pulverized ipecac,    1 scruple.
  Mix, and make into 120 pills; take three
two or three times daily.
  Strengthening solution:
  R.  Sulphate of quinine,  1 scruple.
      Sulphuric acid,     20 drops.
      Water,              1 ounce.
  Dose, a  teaspoonful two or  three  times
a day.
  For cough  and restlessness:
  R.  Syrup tolu,              1  oz.
      Syrup black snake root, \  drachm.
      Paregoric,               2 drachms.
      Wine of ipecac,         1      "
  Dose, a teaspoonful, often. 
RECIPES.
99
  For heart-burn, or sour stomach :
  R.  Rhubarb,              10 grs.
      Super carbonate of soda, 1 drachm.
  Divide into three papers;  take  one three
times a day.
  For the same
  R.  Rhubarb,                    £ oz.
      Bi. carb. of soda, or salseratus,  "
      Peppermint herb,             2 dr.
      Boiling water, half a pint.
  Sweeten with sugar.
  Dose, a teaspoonful every two hours.
  For cough and dyspnoea :
  R.  Tincture ammonia, 1 oz.
      Syrup squill,      2 drachms.
         "   tolu,        3    "
      Paregoric,         2    "
  Dose, a tablespoonful, often.
  For the same:
  R.  Almond mixture,  6 oz.
      Wine of squills,    3 drachms.
      Paregoric,         2    "
      Tincture digitalis,  20 drops.
  Dose, a tablespoonful, often. 
100
RECIPES.
  Diet drink for consumptive patients :
  R.  Decoction of barley, 2 pints.
      Gum Arabic,        3 drachms.
      Syrup of limes,      1£ oz.
  Use freely.
  For the same:
  R.  Decoction cinnamon,          5 oz.
      Solution of acetate of ammonia, 1 oz.
  Dose,*2 table-spoonsful often.
  For consumptive debility:
  R.  A tea of the sweet bugle, drank cold,
         frequently during  the day.
  Ointment for sore throat:
  R.  Iodide of potassium,   1 drachm.
      Acetate morphine,   10 grs.
      Spermaceti ointment, 1 oz.
  Rub on a little, night and morning.
  The following are good  methods of pre-
paring the cod liver oil:
  R.  Cod liver oil,        ) a„
      Syrup orange-peel,   > %•
      Aniseseed water,     ;
      Oil of calamus,       3 drops. 
RECIPES.
101
   Mix.  Dose, a table-spoonful three times a
day.
   R.   Cod liver oil,                 §iv.
       Solution of carbonate of potash, |ss.
       Syrup of orange or lemon peel, §ii.
       Caraway water,              gss.
   Mix.  Dose, two  table-spoonsful twice  a
day.
   R.   Cod liver oil,      ) aa.
       Malaga wine,     ) §iv.
       Pul. gum Arabic,   gi.
       Syrup orange-peel,  gi.
       Spirit of peppermint, 5ii-
   Mix.  Dose, two table-spoonsful twice or
thrice a day.
   External use of cod liver oil:
   R.   Cod liver oil,    §ss.
       Liquor of potash, 5ss.
       Lard, sufficient to form an ointment.
   R.   Cod liver oil,            5X-
       Liquid diacetate of  lead, 3 v.
       Yolk of egg,             5iv.
   Mix.  Both these may be applied to scrof-
ulous ulcers.
             9* 
 
 
 
JUL 23 1946 


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