A very frequent cause of vocal ills, and a condition most generally associated with a congested throat, is a “stuffy” nose. Also, it is quite impossible to get a perfect vocal resonance if the membranes of the nose are swollen and congested with “cold” or catarrh.
The tongue and finger pressures do much to relieve these conditions, but perhaps the surest and quickest method of curing them is to “pencil” the nose with a probe, using the uncovered steel for this purpose. And, I may here remark, that the patient’s own saliva is one of the best and least irritating lubricants for this probe work in the nose.
The steel should be left in each nostril several minutes, and gently moved back and forth from time to time, for the tonic “penciling” or “ironing” effect. The curative influence of this on chronic nasal catarrh or other pathological conditions of the nose is sometimes quite remarkable.
Also, it might be well here to add that atomizers are useless, except temporarily—as after exposure to a horde of sneezers or coughers. In this event, an alkaline antiseptic may be of value.
But the constant washing away of the natural secretion of the mucous membrane, or the perpetual coating over of the air passages with a film of oil—which prevents the natural secretion from being natural—is distinctly injurious. For it tends to provoke, perpetrate and perpetuate all forms of catarrh, and none should use them—except under physician’s instruction—and then for a short time only. Stimulate normal function with a probe or sound, used at night before retiring, and in the morning on arising, and cure the condition instead of making it chronic.
It wouldn’t be difficult to get affirmative evidence to the fact that a sick voice is one of the sickest and most disheartening things that can befall one who must depend upon it for a living. But, with a little patience, and an intelligent application of the principles of zone therapy, it is a “cinch”.
CHAPTER XIII. A SPECIFIC FOR WHOOPING AND OTHER COUGHS.
For years eminent scientists have been spending much valuable time and money in seeking a cure for whooping cough. Still the whoop persists. The distress, the after effects on the bronchial tubes, and the weakening influence—frequently leading to the later development of tuberculosis—remains uninfluenced. The disease runs its course, irrespective of any or all treatments.