2 22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



As a general rule, where a cough is habitual, whatever the age of 

 the patient, recourse should at once be had to those means of cure 

 which usually are resorted to only at the last moment, and then with- 

 out any hope of good r.esults. But, unfortunately, most people think 

 only of the present moment. They want a son to complete his school- 

 ing as early as possible, and to go to earning money. But what is 

 the gain if the young life, after a few years, ends its earthly career ? 

 Better, therefore, that a year or two should pass without remunera- 

 tive employment, while in the mean time care is taken of the bodily 

 health and strength, the affected lungs are invigorated, and the spir- 

 its are renewed. In the first case we have dead capital, in the second 

 capital which bears interest. 



The person whose lungs are affected must once for all give up 

 dancing, for dancing as now practised is not " motion," but only de- 

 struction of the pulmonary apices by dust and vapor, fatigue of the 

 body through want of sleep and privation of fresh air. 



With this one exception, " caution " as usually understood is bad. 

 Let the one who is threatened with consumption look on himself not 

 as one doomed to die, but only as a pulmonary invalid. He should 

 consider that, while it is a misfortune that the pulmonary apices are 

 from their position exposed to disease, we nevertheless have plenty 

 of lung-cells which can be made to do duty in place of them. Still, 

 if these are not daily strengthened by careful treatment, they are in 

 danger of being infected by the others, and of becoming diseased like 

 them. By timely and continuous exercise, it is possible to restore 

 even the diseased cells, and to cure the consumption, or at least to 

 stay its further progress. If one can find the means of visiting Flor- 

 ida, Colorado, or Southern Europe, it is well to do so. But if this is 

 not possible, one must find the means of an air and movement cure at 

 home. That this is possible, the reader will see from the following 

 analysis of the means of cure : 



1. Lung- Ventilation. The patient must with scrupulous conscien- 

 tiousness insist on breathing fresh, pure air, and must remember that 

 the air of closed rooms is always more or less bad, impure. No man, 

 however uncleanly, would drink muddy, dirty water. Unfortunately, 

 for detecting impurities of air, the only organ we have is the nose, 

 and in most persons the nose is of so obtuse a sensibility that it is of 

 no service. Besides dust, injury to the lungs is caused principally by 

 the products of respiration (carbonic acid and watery vapor), which 

 act as poison on the lungs and the blood. A party which occupies a 

 room for hours, breathing the same air, might be compared to a party 

 ofbathers drinking the water in which they bathe. The man who on 

 the street cuts off from his lungs the " cold " air, is like a ruminant. 

 If this literally true comparison were universally accepted and acted 

 on, the number of cough-complaints would be reduced one-half. 



The patient must keep the window of his bedroom open. Night- 



