Yet whooping cough is one of the simplest and most easily-cured diseases with which zone therapy has to contend. An ordinary case of whooping cough, which has persisted for weeks, can sometimes be cured in from three to five minutes. Rarely are more than four or five treatments necessary. Case after case is recalled in which, after the application of a cotton-tipped probe—held down firmly on the back of the throat (the post-pharyngeal wall), little patients who had whooped themselves into a state of nervous and physical exhaustion, never had another paroxysm of coughing.
If the savants of the various research institutions throughout the country are really sincere in attempting to discover a cure for whooping cough, asthma, goitre, and a score of other conditions—conditions successfully treated by zone therapy—it will be easy to put this method to the test.
If they do not themselves care to make the experiment, I will come to New York and demonstrate the method on one or one hundred cases, and show that, in from one to a half dozen treatments with a steel probe, whooping cough can be effectively and permanently overcome. This may or may not be worth the attention of these gentlemen. I can do no more than make the offer, which, I emphasize, is made in perfect good faith and in the interest of humanity and science.
The most remarkable feature of a brand-new discovery is very frequently its hoary-headedness. For this reason, when we come to think about this matter of the mechanical relief of cough, we are struck with its antiquity. From time antedating the memory of man, humanity has pressed its second finger in its pharynx (that space which spreads out from the back part of the mouth and throat up into the nose) or the larynx (a continuation of the pharynx), for the purpose of loosening a dry cough or to facilitate expectoration.
All grandmothers, ever since there were grandmothers, have put their fingers in babies’ throats to give them relief in croup. Some of the wisest of these grandmothers used to press the handle of a spoon on the back part of the tongue, in order to abort a beginning cold, or cause a profuse secretion of mucus in conditions associated with a dry, metallic cough.
Our old-time cure for hiccoughs has the same reason for its existence. For, when we grasp the tongue of a hiccougher, and with a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together, haul the offending member to tongue’s length—and hold it there—we cure the spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm (the cause of hiccough) by influencing the zone in which the trouble originates. This is the principle by which we cure whooping cough, or indeed any cough that originates in any portion of the respiratory tube. But, we have found in these cases that spots in the vault or wall of the pharnyx, if pressed firmly with a cotton-wrapped probe, as large as can be comfortably passed through the nostrils, gives the quickest and most definite results.
For the “reflex”—the sensation of pain, tingling, or cold, which is transmitted along the nerve zones by this contact,—can be definitely traced by the patient to the exact spot where the irritation seems to originate.
By slightly raising the handle of the probe, and thereby altering its point of contact on the business end, this influence can be directed with almost mathematical precision to the area we desire to influence.
When the exact “spot” is pressed—and a little practice will soon make the finding of this almost automatic—the pressure should be firmly held for several minutes. The throat may feel slightly “lame” afterwards—but this soon passes off. If it does not, pressure brought to bear upon the appropriate thumb or finger will relieve the “lameness.”