THE HYGIENIC TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION. 89 



like, placed specially on the chest, are useless ; and the plaster is worse 

 than useless, since it checks the functions of the skin over a consider- 

 able surface, and is soon dirty. 



There is one modern article of attire on which a word of caution 

 must be said, because its bad effects are unmistakable. I must warn 

 all, but the consumptive in particular, against wearing what are called 

 water-proof India-rubber coats. The healthy man may tolerate one of 

 these garments ; the consumptive, never. It loads the under-clothes 

 with moisture ; it gives a cold envelope to the surface ; it produces 

 chill ; and, by checking the cutaneous function, it throws a double 

 amount of work on lungs already failing under their ordinary duties. 



Is it necessary to more than condemn those abominations of female 

 attire, corsets ? I hope not. But not less injurious than the corset is 

 the practice of placing a strap or belt round the waist, tightly buckled. 

 In the old times, the ascetics wore the tight strap as a penance for sin. 

 This was surely the true and original function of the article. Now it 

 is a penance worn for society in a foolish mood. 



Rule V. The Hours of Rest of the Consumptive Patient should 

 be regulated mainly by the Absence of the Sun. — If exercise is impor- 

 tant to the consumptive patient during the day, a due allowance of 

 sleep is equally necessary during the night. The natural hours of 

 sleep are from sunset to sunrise, and it is the business of the con- 

 sumptive to make Nature his oracle. Shakespeare has happily said 

 that sleep is the "chief nourisher of life's feast," and Menander held 

 that it was "a remedy for every curable disease." The great use of 

 sleep truly is to renovate ; for in the sleeping state the formative 

 processes go on most actively. Metcalfe has well defined the differ- 

 ence between exercise and sleep by saying that " during exercise the 

 expenditure of the body exceeds the income ; whereas during sleep 

 the income exceeds the expenditure." 



It is obvious that to the consumptive person nothing can be more 

 important than that the income should alternately and at natural sea- 

 sons exceed the expenditure ; and it is quite remarkable how much 

 alleviated all the symptoms of consumption are when sleep is insured. 

 The rule I have laid down regarding the hours for sleep is imperative 

 for many reasons : First, because in all seasons the actual amount of 

 rest required by the natural man is pointed out by the course of the 

 sun. Second, because to extend the day by artificial lights, making 

 a little sun out of a gas-lamp or candle, is to feed that lamp with a 

 part of the breathing store of the air, and vitiate the atmosphere. 

 Third, because, though artificial light is injurious, the pure sunlight 

 is, on the contrary, of the greatest worth in the acts of vitality. 



Thus, to fulfill the natural law regulating the times of sleep, to 

 escape from the artificial light, and to obtain the advantage of all the 

 sunlight that can be secured, the consumptive patient should make the 

 sun his fellow-workman. 



