220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



And this result we may hope to attain. That pulmonary con- 

 sumption is only an acquired disease we know from the fact that it 

 first appeal's in the apices of the lungs a portion of the organ which 

 is not affected by hereditary pathological processes. The diathesis 

 only is hereditary, and this diathesis consists simply of a general de- 

 bility, which, however, can be overcome. But the thing that is trans- 

 mitted hereditarily is habits of life the avocation descending from 

 father to sou. 



MacCormac tells of a family in which father, mother, and six 

 children, died of consumption ; the seventh son alone survived, he 

 having quit the paternal house and calling, and gone to sea. Many 

 instances of a like kind might be cited. This case is easily under- 

 stood when we consider that here the parents and the six children 

 who died had followed a sedentary trade; that they lived in narrow 

 quarters, the air of which was quickly vitiated by the large number 

 of persons breathing it; that they slept in a (.lusty room, with win- 

 dows closed, lest they should take cold. They fell sick one after 

 another; but the seventh son, who quit the unhealthy locality, had 

 exercise, inhaled fresh, pure air, became vigorous and healthy, and 

 escaped from consumption. 



This simple explanation appears strange to those who believe in 

 " tuberculosis." If this disease has grown to be the curse of modern 

 society, the scholastic interpretation of it has to bear no small part 

 of the blame. The doctrine of the heredity of consumption leads to 

 the belief that the consumptive patient is fated to die of his com- 

 plaint, and that his death is merely a question of time. He himself 

 often draws the conclusion that the best thing for him to do is to en- 

 joy life as best he may while it lasts. On the other hand, we must 

 condemn the heedlessness of those who, so long as danger is not prox- 

 imate, fear the expenditure of time and money. These same people, 

 when haemorrhage suddenly appears, quite lose their heads, adopt the 

 most preposterous methods, whose only result is to cause new hemor- 

 rhages, and to produce a regular case of consumption : whereas many 

 of the old physicians recommend horseback exercise as the best cure 

 for those suffering from haemorrhage of the lungs, we now often see 

 patients shut up in a hot, dusty room, not allowed to talk, and almost 

 forbidden to breathe. 



It is a peculiarity of consumption that it may appear in association 

 with all diseases in which recovery is slow. In the first place, it ac- 

 companies inflammation of the lungs, unless the patient, while recov- 

 ering, is permitted to breathe plenty of pure air. But it also makes 

 its appearance in typhus, diabetes, and meningitis, when the pa- 

 tient is kept for a long time in a close room. So, too, delicate persons 

 those supposed to tend toward consumption will all the sooner 

 become indeed " tuberculosed," the more they are coddled, protected 

 against cold, and treated with warm drinks and so-called "invigo- 



