Note 6 — LIFE IN A TUB.1

We would next make some observations on the different modes of treating pulmonary consumption, that fatal and mysterious disease, which has so long baffled the curative efforts of the most eminent physicians of their day, and it is gratifying to find that a great step towards a rational and successful mode of treatment, based on sound physiological principles, has lately obtained in its case, which mode we hope soon to see generally adopted by the medical profession.6 The unsuccessful treatment of this disease has hitherto cast a slur on medical science, and it is not to be wondered at that little success should have attended on the orthodox mode of treatment, since recent observation, and matured experience have shown, on physiological principles, that no worse mode could have been devised for curing, nor a surer one adopted for aggravating the disease. This new view of the matter is very ably set forth in Dr. Lane’s work, which we heartily recommend to the perusal of our readers, as a sensible and modest statement of the benefits resulting from Hydropathic treatment in cases of that nature. Dr. Lane looks upon consumption as essentially a blood disease, in which opinion he is confirmed by the first physiologists of the day, and by those physicians who have had most experience in the treatment of that particular disease, Sir James Clarke, Professor Bennet, Dr. Balbyrnie, and others. These physicians concur in confirming the observation of others, to the effect that indigestion or derangement of the stomach and digestive organs, is a universal forerunner of pulmonary consumption, and that without such derangement consumption cannot exist. Consequent on this diseased state of the digestive organs, imperfect blood is assimilated, deficient in its oleaginous elements, and containing an undue amount of albuminous materials; that in consequence of this deficiency of oleaginous elements, the blood is incapable of being converted into true cellular tissue to replace the effete material of the lungs, and the superabundant quantity of albumen has a tendency to exude upon the lungs on their exposure to cold in the form of tubercles, which process is unaccompanied by inflammatory action. These facts are based on long observation and direct chemical analysis of the substance composing the tubercles, which consist of almost pure albumen; and on this theory the wonderful effects of cod liver oil in consumptive cases, and the great emaciation of body which results from the disease are satisfactorily explained. In the one case, the cod liver oil supplies, in a light and digestible form, the oleaginous element in which the blood is deficient; in the other, the system has recourse to the fatty or adipose matter of the body to supply the oleaginous principle. But now the question arises, supposing that indigestion is the universal precursor of consumption, from what does this indigestion and consequent imperfect assimilation of the blood proceed? This question Dr. Lane does not touch upon, but we believe that Dr. Barter, the well-known Hydropathic physician of Blarney, considers that it arises from defective vitality7 in the blood, caused by deficiency of oxygen in the system, more immediately proceeding from defective capacity of the lungs, and imperfect action of the skin. The skin and lungs, it must be remembered, are supplementary organs; stop the action of either, and death inevitably ensues, and on their perfect or imperfect action, perfect or imperfect health depends. This view of the disease is illustrated by the history of the monkey: in its wild state, the best authorities state, it never gets consumption, but domesticate the animal, so inducing bad action of the lungs, from want of sufficient exercise and wholesome air, and imperfect action of the skin, arising from the same cause, and it usually dies of this disease. These observations equally apply to all cases of scrofulous degeneration, which physicians estimate as carrying off prematurely one-sixth of the whole human family.8 Of this terrible disease, the scourge of the human race, it is sufficient to observe, that consumption is merely a form of it, and that it is, moreover, hereditary, a fact which would corroborate the opinion of its being a true blood disease.