Communicable disease

“ Chief among these diseases are colds, septicæmia (blood poisoning) , influenza, pneumonia, diphtheria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, whooping cough, Asiatic cholera, bubonic plague, meningitis, tetanus ("lock jaw") , leprosy, gonorrhœa, syphilis, relapsing fever, typhus fever, glanders, and anthrax. Micro- [4] organisms not yet identified probably cause the communicable diseases whose origin is not known with certainty. ”

“ The light that has lately been thrown on chronic sources of focal infection has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the causation of certain obscure affections—chronic rheumatism, arthritis deformans, certain forms of anemia, goitre, chronic heart and kidney troubles, diabetes, ulcer of the stomach, duodenum, etc., and other forms of chronic disease, especially those that have proved resistant to known methods of treatment. ”

“ This immunity extends through every age of life. Hepatic and kindred diseases are unknown; of lung affections there is no land that can boast of like exemption. Be it the equability of the temperature or the aseptic condition of the atmosphere, the free sweep of winds or the absence of disease germs, or what else it may be ascribed to, one thing is certain, that there is no pneumonia, bronchitis, or pleurisy lying in wait for either the infant or the aged. ”

“ For this reason the chronic diseases contribute so much toward the multiplication of the number of consumptives, because they stipulate a continuous weakening of the organism and an emaciation of the system. To these belong Bright's disease, which very often turns into pulmonary consumption, greensickness or chlorosis, anaemia, continued febrile diseases, severe chronic suppuration, chronic catarrh of the stomach, frequent pregnancies, childbed diseases. ”

“ When it comes to diseases caused by germ infections, you have a double aspect of the problem, and must have a double method of attack. I would not like to say that fasting could cure such a disease as sleeping sickness, to the germs of which our systems are not accustomed, and against which they may well be helpless. On the other hand, in the case of common infections, such as colds and sore throats, the fast is again the touch of magic. ”

“ So serious are the disturbances of the circulation all over the body by these spasmodic suffocation-fits, that rupture of small blood-vessels may occur in the eyes, the brain, in the lungs, and on the surface of the skin. The heart becomes distended, and if originally weakened may be seriously dilated or overstrained; the lungs become congested and inflamed, and any of the [Pg 265] numerous accidental germs which may be present will set up a broncho-pneumonia, which is the commonest cause of death in this disease, as in measles. ”

“ Nearly all serious illnesses commence with a shivering fit: severe colds, influenza, inflammations of different organs, scarlet fever, measles, small-pox, and very many other diseases, begin in this way. If, therefore, your child should ever have a shivering fit, instantly send for a medical man, as delay might be dangerous. A few hours of judicious treatment, at the commencement of an illness, is frequently of more avail than days and weeks, nay months, of treatment, when disease has gained a firm footing. ”

“ In most other lands, and particularly in the United States, public health has been regarded almost exclusively as a matter of protection against germs; but protection against germs, while effective in defending us from plague and other epidemics of acute [Pg 105] diseases, is almost powerless to prevent the chronic diseases of middle and late life. These maladies—Bright’s disease, heart disease, nervous breakdowns—are due primarily to unhygienic personal habits. ”

“ In senile subjects, in adults, and in children more than two years of age it is cachectic, and observed chiefly toward the close of some fatal and exhausting disease, such as diabetes, carcinoma, tuberculosis, chronic pneumonia, enteric fever, puerperal fever, erysipelas, chronic entero-colitis and recto-colitis, and pseudo-membranous sore throat. ”

“ The remote causes are pneumony, catarrh, hæmoptysis, rheumatism, gout, asthma, scrophula, chronic diseases of the stomach, liver, and kidneys, nervous and intermitting fevers, measles, repelled humours from the surface of the body, the venereal disease, obstructed menses, sudden growth about the age of puberty, grief, and all other debilitating passions of the mind ”

“ In all probability the protection of the lungs will be protection of the entire system. For it is exceedingly probable that the germs which lodge in the air-passages, and which, at their leisure, can work their way across the mucous membrane, are those which sow in the body epidemic disease. ”

“ These agencies, whether circulating liquids or cells or corpuscles, are most active in the healthy body, and anything that tends to reduce the general health, such as exposure, overexertion, imperfect nourishment, overeating or overdrinking, or lack of sleep, tends to diminish their activity and so makes the individual more susceptible to disease. ”

“ One half of the sickness in our land is catching sickness. That is, it is sickness which passes from one person to another and is caused by tiny germs or microbes. A catching sickness is called a contagious disease. Some of the common catching diseases are sore throat, colds, diphtheria, pneumonia, typhoid fever, measles, grippe, and whooping cough.
How we get a Catching Sickness.—We get a catching sickness by taking into our bodies the germs from some other person. The germs of the sick do not pass off in the breath, but in the spit or anything else which comes from their bodies. ”

“ These five routes in a given case differ greatly in relative importance, but the fifth, or direct route plays an immense part, although its importance in causing sickness has only lately been recognized. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the chief agent in the spread of human diseases is man himself, and the human hand is the great carrier of disease germs both to and from the body. ”

“ That it may be complicated with various diseases, and be associated with strength or weakness of the individual attacked, is no proof of any specific change in the disease itself. In this respect it is in no way different at present from what it has ever been. Then, as to treatment, can it be seriously maintained that the low diet in the first case, that the loss of six ounces of blood in the second, or the six leeches and other treatment in the two others, benefited the pneumonia and hastened its resolution? ”

“ Now, if a man were to subject himself for the whole average lifetime of fifty years, or one-sixtieth of a million days, to the ordinary, benign, and necessary conditions of breathing air, drinking water and milk and eating food, he could not possibly do this without at some time contracting some disease and possible death from these perfectly normal, necessary, and benign conditions of breathing, eating and drinking, as most of our diseases and infections are admittedly contracted through these three benign sources! ”

“ I infer that the pulmonary consumption is a disease of the whole system from its analogy with several other diseases, which, though accompanied by local affections, are obviously produced by a morbid state of the whole system.
The rheumatism, the gout, the measles, small-pox, the different species of cynanche, all furnish examples of the connection of local affections with a general disease; but the APOPLEXY, and the PNEUMONY, furnish the most striking analogies of local affection, succeeding a general disease of the system in the pulmonary consumption. ”

“ Exposure to cold, the prolonged use of poor food, or excessive fatigue, any of these may lower the tone of the system to such an extent that its cells and fluids, being out of their normal condition, can no longer resist or overpower the germ of the disease, which, finding lodgment in the tissues of the lungs, produces the malady known as pneumonia. It is on this point, that the cells and fluids of a perfectly healthy body have the power to protect the inner organs from the invasion of bacteria and bacterial products, that we base our strongest argument for more healthful ways of living. ”

“ If we live in a city, we [Pg 35] take into our lungs and throat millions of the germs of these diseases every day. Therefore the one hope that is left is to keep ourselves in such a condition of health that the army of our bodies shall be able to destroy these germs. When the blood is in a healthy condition, the white cells are numerous, powerful, and active, but when the blood flows stagnantly, or when it is impoverished, then the white cells are few and the forces of disease obtain a foothold.
Healthy men can go through many epidemics with impunity. ”

“ With this broader and more accurate knowledge of the conditions of the health of the circulation a corresponding efficiency has been gained in the manipulation of certain remedies and new methods of treatment of heart diseases, especially by baths and exercises.
As regards pulmonary disease, pneumonia has passed more and more definitely into the category of the infections: the modes of invasion of the lungs and pleura by tuberculosis has been more and more accurately followed; and the treatment of these diseases, in the spheres both of prevention and of cure, has undergone a radical change. ”

“ As a result, we become depressed, weak, tired and retain little bodily warmth. Digestion is upset, metabolism falls far below normal, and the skin becomes pale, because of the morbid action set up in the mucous membrane by the excess of negative electrons. Catarrh supervenes. This is the condition in which negative disease thrives best: Influenza, nervous debility, anaemia, sleeping disease, cholera, diphtheria and the rest, in all varied forms of negative disease. ”

“ Though consumption is not inherited, as some suppose, lung weaknesses may be transmitted from parents to children. This, together with the fact, now generally recognized, that consumption is contagious, accounts for the frequent appearance of this disease in the same family. Consumption as well as other respiratory affections can in the majority of cases be prevented, and in many cases cured, by an intelligent observation of well-known laws of health. ”

“ Permeating the whole organism, they give rise to such diseases as fever, Sarvangaroga, etc. which invade the entire system. The aggravated and expanded humours, thus firmly ensconced in the different parts of the body, exhibit the premonitory symptoms of diseases which will be fully dealt with under their respective heads. The manifestation of these premonitory symptoms should be considered as the fourth occasion for medical treatment.
Disease-Its Development:—Now we shall deal with the full development or manifestation of a disease. ”

“ Now it is presumable that those who do show symptoms have some extra factor which prevents their throwing off the disease. For instance, persons who suffer from chronic bronchitis, or who are barrel-chested, or who are run down in health, etc., are less likely to successfully combat the disease than are others. ”

“ A few brief observations on the control and prevention of infections diseases, such as small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, typhus fever, typhoid fever, cholera, &c.
The above-mentioned diseases are capable of being transmitted from those who are infected to those who are not. It is at once cheering and obligatory to know that the spread of these infectious diseases depends upon certain specific conditions, and that these conditions are primarily within the control of man. ”

“ When any large proportion are down at once, the doctors call it an epidemic, and it is attributed to a “wave”—an epizootic or influenza wave, for example, according as the victims are horses or men (the poor animals depend upon the elevated race for their habits, and never have disease except these are unphysiological) ,—when, in fact, the so-called epidemic, whether it be10 scarlet or yellow fever, diphtheria, or what not, is the result chiefly of the uniformly bad living habits of our people and their consequent predisposition to sickness. ”

“ I pull a second handle when he is snug in his bed, and the window noiselessly closes in a moment. Nothing to irritate him, ladies and gentlemen—absolutely nothing to irritate him! But I haven't done with him yet. Epidemic disease, in spite of all my precautions, may enter this Sanitarium, and may render the purifying of the sick-room necessary. Or the patient's case may be complicated by other than nervous malady—say, for instance, asthmatic difficulty of breathing. In the one case, fumigation is necessary; in the other, additional oxygen in the air will give relief. ”

“ They are diseases which of themselves tend either to produce undue loss of force, or that tend to prevent the development of force at its origin. Thus affections which are accompanied with exhaustive loss of fluids from the body, such as diabetes, dropsies, and hæmorrhages, are of the first class; affections in which due supply of air to the lungs is prevented are of the second class, especially bronchitis, a disease so commonly assigned as the cause of the deaths among the members of the aged and enfeebled population, that succeed immediately on an extreme fall of the thermometer. ”

“ At the beginning it is not possible to determine to which particular germ the distress of the patient is due, and probably the continued prevalence of these diseases is chiefly owing to the fact that in the early stages and in mild cases throughout, the sufferer is allowed to be at large with every opportunity for spreading the disease. ”

“ The less the power of resistance and the greater the degree of impressibility, the more aggravated will be the character of every disease which affect the system while it is thus predisposed; or, in other words, the severity of the disease will be proportionate to the degree of departure from the standard of health.” [2]
[2] “Predisposition and Typhoid Tendency,” by Thomas Moore, M.D. Philadelphia. ”