"The huge poison-tree once lay concealed in the heart of the minute
seed. Why seek ye not the germs of disease poison in their minute
receptacles?"
Formerly, in certain parts of the low marshy lands, the moist and
noxious exhalations generated various diseases, particularly one
answering to your phthisis, and called by us karni-feroli, that is,
"absorption of the vitality." Numbers lingered, with energies depressed
and faculties impaired, till cut off by death. In its early stages, the
disease gave no indications of its presence beyond the signs common to
the most ordinary illnesses to which, indeed, they were attributed.
However, no remedy was found by the doctors.
Even where the possible presence of the disease was suspected, the
respiratory organs of the sufferer were subjected to various tests; but
if certain symptoms were absent, and the patient breathed easily, the
physicians concluded that there was no danger in the case. The signs
they sought were in reality those belonging to an advanced state of the
disease and, when these appeared, the malady was generally beyond cure.
No effectual measures were taken for discovering indications of the
earlier stages of the malady before the beginning of my reign, when I
observed that many young girls, who at first seemed to suffer only from
debility and lowness of spirits, soon afterwards withered, and died of
what was then called by a term answering to your expression of "rapid
consumption." This often happened where the patients had been previously
pronounced free from organic disease.
I knew that, in the physical as in the moral constitution, evils,
however grave, have their origin in some incipient germ of small
proportions, and I would not believe that the confirmed ulcers, which I
had seen during the examination of diseased lungs in the Theatre of
Anatomy, had arisen suddenly, for I reflected that the operations of
nature are gradual. These ulcers, which are, I think, called "tubercles"
by your physicians, had been the immediate cause of many deaths.
After much meditation, I concluded that the actual beginning of the
malady was unknown, and that the inability of the doctors to master the
disease arose from the inadequacy of the means employed for its earlier
detection.
I had frequently expressed my convictions to the ablest medical men, but
they held to their opinions and practice with unyielding tenacity. Our
doctors at that time thought that there was no science beyond what they
themselves knew, just as there were many able men who maintained that
there was no other world but Montalluyah, until the invention of my
telescope brought your earth and other worlds within the limit of their
vision.
A young and interesting girl, a penitent, from a course of incontinence
and excess, suffered much from weakness and lowness of spirits. The
doctors examined her in the usual approved way, with and without their
instruments, and declared that her lungs were healthy and sound; all
that now ailed her, they said, was the depression arising from
involuntary regrets and longings for the excitements of her former life.
I had a strong impression, however, that this was not the cause of her
prostration, firmly believing that her lungs were affected, though the
doctors assured me that they had used every test with scrupulous care to
detect disease and had arrived at a contrary decision. Not being
convinced, I requested them to give me a daily report of the girl's
progress.
As she grew weaker, the doctors determined to administer a powerful
potion, which would lay the foundation of her cure, if their estimate of
the malady was right, but would accelerate death if the lungs were
really affected. Persuaded that, in the then state of medical knowledge,
the girl's life could not be saved, if the disease was really phthisis,
and knowing that, if it was not the case, the potion was calculated to
do good, I did not prevent the doctors from acting according to their
own convictions.
The potion was administered accordingly, and the girl soon fell into a
calm and tranquil sleep, from which, to the surprise and consternation
of the physicians, she never awoke.
The body was examined, and on the right lung were found pimples, small
indeed, but visible to the naked eye, which, on closer examination with
the microscope, proved to be incipient tubercles; the left lung was
similarly affected. These incipient tubercles, though sufficient to
cause languor and debility, by attracting the vitality of the body, had
not yet become of sufficient size and virulence to affect her breathing;
hence her lungs were considered sound by the doctors, who only regarded
the usual tests.
I called together the principal physicians, chemists and heads of
science, and requested them carefully to study this formidable disease;
and, after a time, the discovery was made that all the most fatal cases
of consumption were ushered in by the appearance on the lungs of minute
incipient spots, which attract and feed on the vital juices of the body.
These spots swell gradually into pimples of a reddish hue, on which
ultimately a small yellow head appears. This breaks in due course, and
the matter discharged spreads, combines, and assists in the growth and
accumulation of other and larger tubercles, which cause much pain,
greatly impede the passage of the air, and eventually carry off the
patient.
Although pain is sometimes felt in the earlier stages of the malady, the
passage of the air through the lungs is not as yet affected to any very
perceptible extent. It was also found that the ordinary symptoms
accompanying the presence of these spots were similar to those produced
by many other causes; so that the symptoms of one disease might easily
be mistaken for--as was actually the case--those of another.
The tests hitherto used were thus clearly shown to be insufficient for
detecting the disease, until the tubercles had assumed a size and
virulence sufficient to affect the breathing,--until, in fact, the
malady was too often beyond cure.
After some time and many experiments, most efficacious means were
discovered for detecting and curing this dreadful disease while still in
its incipient state.
I ought to mention, that on the death of the girl to whom the potion was
administered, her friends learning that I had not opposed the
administering the fatal potion, were very violent against me and,
instigated by those who had at first opposed my law, openly declared
that she had been put to death by my orders. They thus succeeded in
arousing the passions of the multitude. At that time many young persons
were dying of consumption in a marshy valley, while others were
afflicted with disorders, which baffled the skill of the physicians and
were accompanied with the same symptoms that attended the malady of the
deceased girl. During the popular excitement to which I have referred,
the parents of these sufferers were made to believe that potions similar
to those which had already been administered with such fatal results,
were now to be administered to their own sick children, and that similar
results would ensue.
I lost not a moment in summoning before me the heads of families and
friends of the sufferers, at the same time announcing the subject on
which I wished to discourse.
The meeting took place in the great hall of my palace, which is capable
of containing many thousands, and I explained to the assembled multitude
that when the potion was administered to the deceased girl, the malady
was so far advanced that there were no means of saving her life, and
that in administering the potion the doctors had hoped to do good,
believing, contrary to my own convictions, that the complaint was not
organic. I explained that her death, and the knowledge gained by the
examination of her lungs, would be the salvation of most of their
children, of the nature of whose malady the doctors were now convinced.
Asked by the girl's friends if I would myself take a potion similar to
that administered to the girl, I offered to drink double the quantity,
in the presence of the assembled multitude. When the cup was close to my
lips, and I was about to drink the potion, a woman in the crowd called
out that the liquid I held in my hand was innocuous, and very different
to the poisonous draught administered to the girl! So convinced was she
of this, that she offered to let her own child drink the potion out of
my cup!
This child being, as I believed, afflicted with incipient consumption, I
cautioned the mother, explaining to her what would be the consequences
of her rashness. Still she insisted, and adhered to her opinion that if
I could drink the potion with impunity, the child could do the same. I
resisted, until at length many in the crowd, who had before been
influenced by my words, inferred from my hesitation that what the woman
said was really true! Perceiving that further hesitation on my part
would result in great evil, and in many deaths, I allowed the child to
drink a quarter of the potion, and I swallowed the rest myself. My lungs
being perfectly sound the potion only stimulated my system, but the
effect on the child was the same as it had been on the girl: it slept,
and woke no more.
Having addressed the people for a long time and calmed their anger, I
requested them to proceed to the place where the girl's body lay, to
convince themselves of the advanced state of the disease under which she
bad suffered. They were then marshalled by the officers of my palace,
and proceeded to the Anatomical Theatre, where they satisfied themselves
with their own eyes of the truth of what I had told them. Public
confidence was restored, and many sufferers were saved from premature
death.
Effective means were afterwards taken to detect the minute incipient
pimples with which the disease was always ushered in, and never
afterwards was it allowed to reach serious proportions. It was destroyed
in its earliest germ, and thus much power and vitality and thousands of
lives were saved to the State.