The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English / or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred / and Fifty Thousand

by Ray Vaughn Pierce

Varieties. People often suppose that there are a great many varieties or species of catarrh. This is an error. The nature of the disease is the same in all cases, the symptoms only varying with the different stages of the disorder, and the various complicated conditions which are liable to arise, and which have already been pointed out.

Causes. Anything which debilitates the system, or diminishes its powers of evolving animal heat and withstanding cold or sudden changes of atmospheric temperature, and other disease-producing agencies, renders the individual thus enfeebled very liable to catarrh. Among the most common debilitating agencies are a scrofulous condition of the system, or other impurities of the blood, exhaustive fevers, and other prostrating acute diseases, or those badly treated; exhaustive and unnatural discharges, intemperance, excessive study, self-abuse, adversity, grief, want of sleep, syphilitic taints of the system, which may have been contracted unknowingly, or may have been inherited, having perhaps been handed down even unto the third or fourth generation, to an innocent posterity from infected progenitors; too sudden rest after great and fatiguing exercise, and living in poorly-ventilated apartments. These are among the most fruitful causes of those feeble, deranged, or impure conditions of the system to which catarrh so frequently owes its origin. Although the immediate or exciting cause is generally repeated attacks of "cold in the head," which, being neglected or improperly treated; "go on from bad to worse," yet the predisposing or real cause of the disease is in the majority of cases, an enfeebled, impure, or otherwise faulty condition of the system, which invites the disease, and needs only the irritation produced in the nasal passages by an attack of cold, to kindle the flame and establish the loathsome malady. Some people are convinced with difficulty that there exists in their system a weakness, impurity, or derangement of any kind, which permitted the disease to fasten itself upon them. They may not feel any great weakness, may not have any pimples, blotches, eruptions, swellings, or ulcers, upon their whole person; in fact, nothing about them that would, except to the skilled eye of the practical and experienced physician, indicate that their system is weakened or deranged with bad humors; and yet such a fault may, and generally does, exist. As an ulcer upon the leg, or a "fever-sore," or an eruption upon the skin, may be the only outward sign of a fault in the system, so frequently chronic catarrh is the only sign by which a bad condition of the system manifests itself in a manner that is perceptible to the sufferer himself, or to the non-professional observer. The finely-skilled physician, whose constant practice makes his perceptive faculties perfect in this direction, would detect the constitutional fault, as an experienced banker detects a finely-executed and dangerous bank-note which the unpracticed eye would pronounce genuine.

Treatment. If you would remove an evil strike at its root. As the predisposing or real cause of catarrh is, in the majority of cases, some weakness, impurity, or otherwise faulty condition of the system, in attempting to cure the disease our chief aim must be directed to the removal of that cause. The more we see of this odious disease, the more so we the importance of combining; with the use of a local, soothing and healing application, a thorough and persistent internal use of blood-cleansing and tonic medicines.

As a local application for healing the diseased condition in the head, Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy is beyond all comparison the best preparation ever invented. It is mild and pleasant to use, producing no smarting or pain, and containing no strong, irritating, or caustic drug, or other poison. Its ingredients are simple and harmless, yet when scientifically and skillfully combined, in just the right proportions, they form a most wonderful and valuable healing medicine. Like gunpowder, which is formed of a combination of saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal, the ingredients are simple, but the product of their combination is wonderful in its effects. The Remedy is a powerful antiseptic, and speedily destroys all bad smell which accompanies so many cases of catarrh, thus affording great comfort to those who suffer from this disease.

The reader's mind cannot be too strongly impressed with the importance of combining thorough constitutional with the local treatment of this disease. Not only will the cure be thus more surely, speedily, and permanently, effected, but you thereby guard against other forms of disease breaking out, as the result of humors in the blood or constitutional derangement or weakness.

In curing catarrh and all the various diseases with which it is so frequently complicated, as throat, bronchial, and lung diseases, weak stomach, catarrhal deafness, weak or inflamed eyes, impure blood, scrofulous and syphilitic taints, the wonderful powers and virtues of the "Golden Medical Discovery" cannot be too strongly extolled. It has a specific effect upon the lining mucous membranes of the nasal and other air passages, promoting the natural secretion of their follicles and glands, thereby softening the diseased and thickened membrane, and restoring it to its natural, thin, delicate, moist, healthy condition. As a blood-purifier, it is unsurpassed. As those diseases which complicate catarrh are diseases of the lining mucous membranes, or of the blood, it will readily be seen why this medicine is so well calculated to cure them.

The "Golden Medical Discovery" is the natural "helpmate" of Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy. It not only cleanses, purifies, regulates, and builds up the system to a healthy standard, and conquers throat, bronchial, and lung complications, when any such exist, but, from its specific effects upon the lining membrane of the nasal passages, it aids materially in restoring the diseased, thickened, or ulcerated membrane to a healthy condition, and thus eradicates the disease. When a cure is effected in this manner it is permanent. The system is so purified, regulated, and strengthened, as to be strongly fortified against the encroachments of catarrh and other diseases. The effects of the "Golden Medical Discovery" upon the system will be gradual, and the alterative changes of tissue and function generally somewhat slow. They are with however, less complete, radical, and lasting; and this constitutes its great merit. Under its influence all the secretions are aroused to carry the blood-poisons out of the system, the nutrition is promoted, and the patient finds himself gradually improving in flesh; his strength is built up, his lingering ailments dwindle away, and by and by he finds his whole person has been entirely renovated and repaired he feels like a new man—a perfect being.

The Clothing. With most persons suffering from chronic nasal catarrh, there is a great disposition to take cold, even slight cause being sufficient to produce an acute attack, which greatly aggravates the chronic affection and operates to render it permanent. To obviate the bad effects that are liable to result from this predisposition, great attention should be paid to the clothing, that it thoroughly protects the person from sudden changes of temperature. For more particular and practical suggestions in regard to this matter, the reader is referred to the article on Clothing, in Part Two, Chapter II, of "The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser."