Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — THE BODY AND ITS HEALTH. [ARTICLE]

THE BODY AND ITS HEALTH.

In Case of Diphtheria. —First, strips of linen or cotton fabric, about eight inches wide, folded several times, and long enough to reach from ear to ear, should be wrung out of the water (if in winter), and if in summer put directly upon the ice, and then applied externally to the throat, and as fast as one cloth gets warm another should- be ready to take its place, writes C. G-. B. Klopbel, M. D., in a contemporary. If the child complains of being cold, its feet and hands should be bathed in as hot water as it can stand. When the child is very young, it may readily be ascertained if it be cold or not by feeling its hands and head. Under no should hot applications be made to the throat. If the child is old enough, it may begiven broken ice to suck constantly, even if the water is spit out. The cold applications inhibit the growth of the microbes. The patient’s hands should be washed frequently—and here let me say so should those of the attendants—and the vessel used for' the purposeshould not be used by any one else. The patient's clothing needs protection in front. This may be done by pinning back of the neck a large piece of linen or cotton fabric, which will cover the whole front of the child and reach as far as the knees. A material should be used which can easily be boiled or burned when soiled. The little patient, if old enough, will want to spit, and for a spittoon a small wooden box, with an inch of sawdust on the bottom, is capital. Fresh sawdust should be supplied at least once a day—three times a day would be better —and that which has been used should be emptied upon a good hot fire, and thus burned at the time the change is made. If there are any flies about, the box should be kept covered, and as a matter of course, only uncovered when the patient desires to spit; otherwise, the flies alighting upon this spittle, would cany the germs of the disease with them, and then alighting upon the family’s food and drink, uecessarily infect them, and thus indirectly infect the whole family. This is by no means chimerical, but a wellestablished fact.

Health and Living. —The prevalence of pneumonia and consumption, as shown by the mortality records of large cities, is a startling fact which ought toarrest the attention of medical societies and of the public, says the Tribune This is a year when sanitary questions will be constantly discussed, owing to widespread apprehension of an outbreak of cholera. Public opinion will sustain the most radical measures for the protection of the country against the Asiatic scourge. It is not our purpose to call in question the necessity for a rigorous quarantine and systematic regulation of immigration as safeguards against pestilence. What we desire to emphasize' is the fact that whether cholera is let in or kept out, New York and other cities are already ravaged by scourges which escape public observation. In proof of this assertion we have only to refer to the mortality statistics for this city during the last decade. The average annual mortality from pneumonia, phthisis and bronchitis is 13,245, or 29i per cent, of the entire death list. That is an alarming exhibit, which ought to be seriously considered in the sanitary discussions of a cholera year. The first inference to be drawn from the increasing prevalence of these diseases is that they may be regarded as infectious or contagious under certain conditions. Certain forms of pneumonia have indeed been shown to bo communicable. Recent reports of medical officers to the Local Government Board in London have tended to confirm this opinion. There was moreover, a striking illustration of the spread of this disease in Vienna a year ago. The Grand Duke Heinrich died of pneumonia; his room attendant was seized with the same disease; then his aide-de-camp, Colonel Copal, and finally his physician. This instance of pneumonia *in an infectious form is vouched for in ‘‘Public Health Problems,” a recent English work. As for phthsis, there is a steadily growing opinion among medical men that it is a contagious disease. One of the best-known cases was that of a French dressmaker who had three apprentices. The young women took turns in staying overnight and shared her bed with her. She had consumption and died of it. The apprentices, who had been vigorous young women in perfect health, all contracted the fatal disease. Such instances as these point to infectious or contagious conditions which are ordinarily disregarded. Another deduction which may be grounded upon the terrible mortality of these diseases i 9 that their development is promoted by existing of living. The reforms in sanitation of houses, which have had a marked effect in diminishing the ravages of diseases like diptheria and typhoid fever, do not appear to have affected pneumonia and phthisis. These reforms have been confined mainly to improvements in plumbing and drainage and to facilities for ventilation, especially in tenement houses. If there has been any marked change during the last thirty years in the conditions of living and ordinary business in cities, it is in the climate indoors, especially fiom October to May. By means of steam-heat, hot-water systems and improved furnaces the temperature, of houses, offices and stores has been considerably raised during the winter months. It is at least an open question whether overheated''houses and offices are not to a large extent respbnsible for the prevalence of the class of diseases which we have been considering. It is certainly a natural inference that the artificial climate indoors is debilitating, and that those who pass constantly from overheated parlors, stores, offices, churches and theatres to a much lower temperature outside are exposed to radical changes from heat to eold. We have no space in reserve for discussing other predisposing causes to lung disease, such as lack of outdoor exercise, ill-ventilated sleeping-rooms, injudicious diet, and unnatural habits of breathing. The subject is one of very great importance, in view of the overwhelming evidence of the terrible mortality of these modern scourges. It is, we repeat, one to which medical societies and the {Tress ought to devote much attention during the present year, when sanitary questions will be invitaly be .widely discussed -