Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1883 — Pneumonia. [ARTICLE]

Pneumonia.

The prevalence of pneumonia in many parts of the country hag led to the interviewing of a number of prominent physicians in New York as to the cause and prevention of the disease. Dr. William A. Hammond mentions as a contributing cause the well-nigh uni? versal habit of living in over-heated rooms in the winter. When it is neces • sary for persons living in such an atmosphere to go out “the great difference in the exterior temperature strikes upon their organization, the cold penetrates them and pneumonia kills them. ” Dr. Hammond keeps his office and re-ception-room at a temperature of 64 degrees, and thinks it greatly lessens the danger of taking cold upon going out. He likewise mentioned the excessive use of alcoholic drinks as the door for the disease.” Another physician classified pneumonia as “not contagious, but a traveler,” and has found in his practice that persons taken with it “are generally in a low or weakened condition, either from mental anxiety or from overwork, or from the state of the weather. ” Winter dampness, he said, predisposes people to the disease, though a cold seldom does more than develop it from conditions already existing in the system. The preventive measures suggested can be summed up in the always applicable advice: Keep yourself in good condition; do not habitually overwork or underexercise; avoid sudden chills, or take prompt measures io restore the circulation; drink and eat temperately; breathe pure air, and don’t rob nature of sleep. So may you “defy the foul fiend."

We like St. Jacobs Oil, and observe, too, that the Ri. Rev. Bishop Gilmour indorses the remedy. Baltimore, Md., Catholic Mirror.