Catarrh is peculiarly a Yankee disease. Now, how does a Yankee differ in
his habits from the rest of the world's people?
Let me tell you wherein he differs. The "five minutes for refreshments" is
an illustration. He hurries, he rushes, he's a talker; and having hurried
unnecessarily, and got himself all in a perspiration, he stops to talk
with a friend on the street, in a current of air, possibly in a puddle of
water, the consequence of which is checked perspiration, a cold, the
catarrh. If the circulation to the skin is checked, that excretory organ
ceases to throw off the waste and worn-out matter of the system, and the
work is thrown upon the mucous membrane, which if failing to perform the
unnatural office, the patient goes into a decline. Set this down as reason
No. 1 for the catarrh being peculiarly a "Yankee disease."
Chronic catarrh necessarily must be connected with a bad circulation of
the blood, a want of action in the skin, and usually with cold feet. I
must take time to explain these causes of a disease which usually leads to
the more fatal one--consumption. Now we have cold feet and loss of action
in the skin. Result, catarrh, terminating fatal in consumption.
To keep the feet warm is to restore the circulation. Has your doctor
failed to do this? I fear he did not understand the connection, or the
patient did not follow his instructions. Dip the cold feet into a little
cold water! Is that "too homeopathic?"--cold to cure cold! Never mind, do
it. It feels cold at first. Well, catch them out, rub them vigorously with
a towel, then with the hands, and when quite red, cover them up in bed, or
in stockings and boots. Repeat it daily till cured. Wear thick-soled boots
and shoes always. Meantime, take a dose of the third dilution of sulphur
mornings, or at ten A. M., and the third trituration of calcarea-carbonica
at early bedtime.
To restore the loss of circulation to the skin, meantime--for they must
both be cured together--take a daily hand-bath; that is, with the hand and
in a comfortable room, apply a dose of castile or Windsor soap to the
skin, half of the person at a time, if the weather is cool,--avoiding a
current of air,--then, with cool or cold water, _and the hand only_, wash
rapidly over the surface, following quickly with a dry towel and the dry
hand, till warm. Cover the upper extremity, and proceed to wash the other
portion of the body in the same manner. I really believe that there are
individuals with such peculiar temperaments, or low state of the blood,
that they cannot bear cold water. See to it that it is not fear, or habit,
which prevents its use, before abandoning a remedy of such curative
powers.
Now, there is no other way under heaven whereby man can be saved from
catarrh than this which I have here given. If the patient requires further
medical treatment, he or she surely requires this, else there is no
catarrh in the case.
"But can't you give me some snuff, doctor?"
Snuffs and nasal injections are humbugs. They will not cure a chronic
catarrh. The sugar and gum arabic powder is excellent for the local
irritation. That is all any local remedy can reach. Thousands of dollars
are expended annually for "Catarrh Remedies," which never cured a case
yet, but have been the death of thousands, by aggravating and prolonging
the disease.
Indigestion and "a goneness at the stomach" not unusually accompany the
above disease. In addition to the instructions here given, rubbing and
slapping the region of the stomach with water and the hand, and taking
small quantities of extract gentian, orange-peel, dock, and ginger, equal
parts, twice daily, following the directions regarding slow eating and
cheerfulness, will eventually remove the distressing disease.