The progress of the disease is determined largely by the nature of the tubercular matter at the time it is deposited.
The variety of matter which has been partially vitalized commonly exists in small quantity, has a strong tendency to maintain its semi-organized condition unchanged by time, and rarely causes inflammation.
A small or moderate quantity of this sort of tubercle exists in the lungs of many persons, in whom it produces no tangible symptoms, and who are therefore quite unconscious of its presence; and even when it does exist in sufficient quantity to develop the symptoms of lung disorder, the progress of the disease is slow, often continuing for many years. It constitutes a variety of consumption which is specially amenable to proper treatment. On the other hand, the soft, yellow, cheesy, tubercular matter, which is totally destitute of any vitality, is too often deposited in large quantities, acts on the adjacent lung tissue as an active irritant, causes inflammation, undergoes softening, forms cavities, defies treatment, and rapidly hurries the sufferers to a premature grave. These facts, taken in connection with the immunity from lung diseases enjoyed by those whose respiratory capacity is well developed and properly used, as well as the beneficial effects that are promptly secured in the favorable varieties of consumption by any important increase in the vital volume, I believe fully justify the statement that tubercles are the results of defective nutrition directly traceable to inadequate respiratory capacity, either congenital or acquired—in other words, tubercles are composed of particles of food which have failed to acquire sufficient life while undergoing the vital processes, because the person in whom they occur habitually breathed too little fresh air.
Persons who possess what is called the scrofulous constitution are specially liable to the occurrence of tubercular matter when their respiration is defective, or they are exposed to any other influences that favor its development in the organism. But habitually defective respiration, or the breathing of an atmosphere containing too little oxygen, which practically amounts to the same thing, has a very powerful tendency in the same direction, in persons who are apparently as free from scrofulous taint as any human being can be.
THE VALUE OF COD-LIVER OIL IN THE PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION.
There is a broad but not commonly recognized distinction between what constitutes a medicine and a food. All the materials that normally enter into the composition of the living body, and are necessary to the maintenance of health and strength, may be property classed as foods, whether they be obtained from the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms; thus the iron, sulphur, phosphorus, lime, potash, etc., required by the system usually exist in and are organically combined with the various foods in common use, and they are perhaps quite as essential to the physical well-being as albuminoid, fatty, and saccharine matters. When the system is suffering from lack of any of the above mentioned chemicals, their administration is to be regarded as the giving of nutritive substances, although they be prescribed by a physician in divided doses and procured from a pharmacist.
On the other hand, a medicine is any substance that does not naturally enter into the composition of the body, but which has the power, when skillfully used, to modify the physical processes so that physiological disorder—disease, shall be replaced by physiological harmony—health. Belladonna, hyoscyamus, opium, etc., are familiar examples of medicaments. Therefore a food is any substance that is capable of directly contributing to the nutrition of the body, and medicine is a substance competent, under proper conditions, to secure the same results indirectly. Viewed in the light of the above definition, cod-liver oil is to be regarded as a very valuable food, as well as a most effective remedy both for the prevention and cure of consumption.
I have previously stated that food is divided by physiologists into three great classes. The albuminoids are used to build up the organism, while the fatty and saccharine are burned in the body to keep it warm. Although these are the chief functions devolving on the above mentioned food elements, yet they are mutually interdependent on each other for the proper performance of their several offices. Thus the albuminoids cannot undergo the wonderful vitalizing process necessary to fit them to enter into and form part of the living body, except an adequate quantity of fatty matter be present to assist in the vital transformation. On the other hand, the assistance of the albuminoids is equally necessary to enable the fatty and saccharine foods to maintain the internal heat of the body. Of all fatty matters, whether derived from the animal or vegetable kingdom, none possesses the property of stimulating and perfecting the nutritive processes in so high a degree as cod-liver oil; it is more readily emulsified and fitted for absorption by the pancreatic secretion during intestinal digestion than any other fatty matter of which we have any knowledge. The beneficial effects of its use have been proved in myriads of cases of confirmed consumption, and if it were used for prolonged periods by persons who are losing weight, and whose breathing capacity is too little, along with effective cultivation of the latter function, many persons would escape this disease who now succumb to it.
THE INFLUENCE OF NORMAL BREATHING ON THE FEMALE GENERATIVE ORGANS.
