between the bodies of the vertebræ, beginning with inflammation, and
finally resulting in ulceration and a breaking-down of the cartilages.
It next invades the vertebræ themselves, and producing caries, or death
and decay of the bony substance, which softens and wastes away, as shown
in Fig. 1. The vertebræ become softened and broken down, and weight of
the body pressing them together produces the deformity known as
"humpback." (See Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.)
SYMPTOMS. Among the various symptoms present in the earlier stages of
the disease, and during its progress, we deem it necessary to mention
only a few of the more prominent ones. While the patient is yet able to
go around, the disease manifests itself by occasional pain in the
bowels, stomach, and chest. Often there is a hacking cough, nervousness,
lassitude, and a generally enfeebled condition of the whole system. The
patient is easily fatigued; there is apparent loss of vitality, impaired
appetite, a feeling of tightness across the stomach and chest, gradually
declining health, and loss of flesh and strength, torpidity of the
liver, deficient secretions, constipation, and morbid excretions from
the kidneys. The victim, in passing chairs, tables, and other objects,
instinctively places his hands upon them, and, as the disease
progresses, when standing, leans upon some support whenever possible. In
walking, he moves very carefully and cautiously, with elbows thrown back
and chest forward, to assist the body in keeping its equilibrium. The
body being kept in an upright position, the patient bends the knees
rather than the back in stooping, as illustrated in Fig. 5, and the body
is frequently supported by the hands being placed upon the thighs or
knees. Sudden movements or shocks cause more or less pain.
The development of the disease then becomes rapid; suffering increases,
and pain about the joints and lower extremities and muscles of the
posterior part of the pelvis is experienced; numbness and coldness of
the extremities are felt; locomotion becomes more difficult, and a
slight projection is observed upon the back. Even in this somewhat
advanced stage of the disease, when the symptoms are so apparent, many
cases are shamefully neglected because an ignorant adviser says it is
nothing serious and that the patient will outgrow it. The pain and
tenderness not always being in the back, the inexperienced are very
often misled as to the true character of the trouble. This distortion or
deformity of the back now becomes painfully prominent; the diseased
vertebræ quickly soften and waste away; the pressure upon the spinal
cord increases, and paralysis of the limbs supervenes; the power of
locomotion is lost, and, at last, the danger is realized and the
struggle for life begins.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
Thus, through ignorance, neglect, and improper treatment, the poor,
helpless victim is doomed to a life of hideous deformity and suffering.
We would, therefore, urge upon parents whose children are afflicted with
this terrible disease, the great importance of placing them under the
care of surgeons who have for many years made the treatment of such
cases a specialty, and who have every facility and all necessary
surgical appliances for insuring success in every case undertaken.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.
Appearance of a child suffering from
Pott's disease of the spine.]
[Illustration: Fig. 5.
Mode of stooping adopted by a child
suffering from spinal disease.]
TREATMENT. The great essentials for the successful treatment of disease
and deformities of the spine are first, a thorough knowledge of the
structure and parts involved by the disease; secondly, the adjustment of
mechanical appliances perfectly adapted to the requirements and
necessities of each individual case, and the proper use of our system of
"vitalization," applied to the spinal muscles to strengthen the weaker
and relieve the undue contraction of the stronger. For many years our
specialists have experimented, and have given the various appliances in
common use in these cases most thorough and practical tests, and have
found them very defective, being generally constructed upon wrong
principles. The physician who sends to a mechanic for an appliance, such
as are now made in the shops of most instrument makers, and uses the
same, is doing himself an injustice, and barbarously torturing his
patient by forcing him to wear an apparatus which is heavy, clumsy, and
inevitably injurious, instead of being beneficial in its results. In the
treatment of diseases and deformities of the spine, there should be no
compromising; the appliance that fails to give complete support should
not be worn. In our treatment of these maladies we employ only
appliances which are constructed under the personal supervision of our
specialists, upon principles dictated by common sense and the actual
necessities of the case. We do not confine the body in an iron jacket.
Our apparatus is light, yet durable, and is worn by the most delicate
children without pain or inconvenience. It gives proper support to all
parts, and is so nicely adjusted as to produce pressure only upon those
points which should receive support, leaving the muscles of the spine
freedom of action, thereby assisting in their development. In many
hundreds of cases treated by our specialists, the disease has been
entirely cured and the deformity removed. After seeing the patients and
adjusting the appliances, they can generally be treated at their homes.
LATERAL CURVATURE OF THE SPINE.
(CROOKED BACK.)
[Illustration: Fig. 6.
Lateral curvature of the spine. E to F, the primary curve.]
[Illustration: Fig. 7.
A mild case of lateral curvature of the spine.]
This deformity appears more frequently in anæmic persons, in whom the
flexibility and elasticity of the muscles are weakened, than in those of
a plethoric habit. It is generally contracted during youth, between the
ages of twelve and eighteen. Persons of sedentary and indolent habits
are especially liable to this deformity, hence, girls are most
frequently its victims. It is never seen among the natives of tropical
countries who habitually live in the open air, and seldom among the
barbarous races of northern latitudes. A distinguishing feature of the
American Indian is his erect carriage. The _primary_ curvature is
generally toward the right side, as represented in Figs. 6 and 7. Figs.
8 and 9 show the disease in a more advanced stage. The ribs are thus
forced into an unnatural position, and the vital organs contained in the
cavity of the chest are compressed or displaced, thus distorting the
form of the whole upper portion of the body.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.
Lateral curvature in an
advanced stage. ]
[Illustration: Fig. 9.
Lateral curvature in an
advanced stage. ]
SYMPTOMS. The first indication of lateral curvature of the spine is a
marked projection of the right scapula, or shoulder-blade. It is
sometimes first observed by the dressmaker, or, accidentally, while
bathing. The right shoulder is slightly elevated, while the left hip is
depressed and projects upward. If not corrected while in its earlier
stages, it progresses very rapidly, and a second curvature is developed.
The symptoms vary in different cases, and in the early stages are
somewhat obscure and undefined, but generally the patient feels a sense
of uneasiness, languor, stupor, and nervousness, loss of energy and
ambition, general debility, poor appetite, gradually declining health,
loss of strength and flesh, and, as the disease progresses, a slight
elevation of one of the shoulder-blades is noticed, as well as the
deviation of the spine to one side. The curve, or distortion, of the
spine increases more rapidly as the body becomes heavier, the spine
often assuming the shape of the letter S, and, from compression by
torsion of the vertebræ and distortion of the ribs, the vital organs are
encroached upon, causing serious functional derangement of the heart,
lungs, liver, and stomach, producing, as its inevitable consequence a
list of maladies fearful to contemplate.
CAUSES. In rare instances, the lateral curvature of the spine is due to
defects of certain bones of the pelvis or limbs. Cases are recorded in
which this deformity was caused by diseases of the abdominal organs,
but, as we have intimated, it is generally due to a lack of tonicity of
the muscles, or, as a late writer has expressed it, "Want of
correspondence in the antagonism of those muscles which control the
motions of the spinal column." Habitual sitting or standing in a leaning
posture, or standing upon one foot, thus constantly using one set of the
muscles of the back, while the other becomes enfeebled by the lack of
exercise, is a common cause of this deformity. The habit which so many
school-girls contract of drawing up one foot under the body while
sitting, often produces a lateral curvature of the spine.
TREATMENT. No disease or deformity of the spine is so easily cured and
perfectly corrected, if the proper plan of treatment is pursued. To
correct this deformity, many ingenious forms of apparatus have been
devised and invented by our specialists, which should be carefully
adjusted to each individual case. In addition to this, our method of
treatment by "vitalization," and by mechanical movements and
manipulations, is almost indispensable in these cases. It never fails to
give relief, and, if properly pursued, invariably results in a permanent
cure.
DEFORMED FEET, HANDS AND LIMBS.
There are thousands whose feet, hands, and limbs are almost entirely
useless, besides having an unsightly appearance. Their condition has
been helpless so long, their treatment so varied, and their hopes of
relief or cure have been so often disappointed, that few can believe the
truth of our statement, when we positively assert that we can correct
and cure nearly all cases of talipes, club, or crooked feet and deformed
hands, and make them as perfect in appearance, and as useful in action,
as feet and hands which have never been deformed. While this may seem
miraculous, or even impossible, to those who are unacquainted with the
wonderful improvements and rapid progress made in this department of
surgical science, it is attested and verified by living witnesses whose
feet and hands were once deformed and useless, but which have been made
perfect by our new and improved method of treatment. We do not make
these statements in a spirit of vain boastfulness, but having devoted
many years to improving and perfecting surgical appliances and
apparatus, and having had practical experience in the successful
treatment of thousands of cases, we do say that our manner of treatment
is original and employed only by us. We entirely ignore the ineffectual
methods usually employed in such cases. Our treatment causes no pain,
and little inconvenience, yet the curative results are speedy and
certain, and a hundredfold more satisfactory than those obtained by any
other course.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.
Talipes Equinus.]
[Illustration: Fig. 11.
Talipes Calcaneus.]
We have most thoroughly tested all the best forms of treatment
heretofore devised and employed in this class of diseases, and have
adopted the best features of all the various methods heretofore pursued.
We have combined these with our own improvements and, as the result, we
have perfected a thorough and efficient system of treatment, based upon
scientific principles.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.
Talipes Valgus.]
[Illustration: Fig. 13.
Double Club-foot.]
[Illustration: Fig. 14.
Bow-legs.]
[Illustration: Fig. 15.
Knock-knees.]
[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
[Illustration: Fig. 17.]
[Illustration: Fig. 18.]
[Illustration: Fig. 19.]
[Illustration: Fig. 20.]
[Illustration: Fig. 21.]
[Illustration: Fig. 22.
The above illustrations represent various Deformities cured by our
Specialists
at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.]
* * * * *
MECHANICAL AIDS
IN THE TREATMENTS OF
CHRONIC DISEASES.
We have, in different parts of this work, referred to a large variety of
ingeniously devised machinery and apparatus employed at the Invalids'
Hotel and Surgical Institute, in the treatment of chronic diseases.
Although we can, on paper, give but a meagre idea of the variety and
adaptability of these valuable mechanical appliances, yet we will
endeavor to illustrate and explain a few of our machines for the
application of transmitted motion.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.
The Manipulator. ]
Fig. 1 represents a machine, called the Manipulator, which transmits
motion through suitable attachments, which are adjustable by means of
the ratchet _G_, so as to reach all parts of the body. It is equally
available for applying motion to the head, feet, or any intermediate
part of the body.
_B, B_ are rubbing attachments, with two opposing elastic, adherent
surfaces, between which an arm or a leg may be included. These have
alternate reciprocating action from the rock-shaft _H_, and are made to
approach each other, and press the included part at the will of the
patient. This is sometimes called the double-rubber, and is made
detachable if desired.
_A_ is the lever, by which the two parts of the double-rubber are made
to compress the arm or leg.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.
Manipulator Extended.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.
Manipulator Folded.]
_D_ is a single attachment for rubbing. It may be connected at either
side of the machine, so as to present the rubbing surface in four
different directions, as may be most convenient. It will act
perpendicularly, horizontally, or diagonally, and from below or from
above the part receiving the action, according to requirements. The
shank of the rubber may have any special form to suit special cases.
_C_ is the _foot holder._ It communicates to the leg the semi-rotary or
oscillating motion of the rock-shaft. It may be attached to either end
of the rock-shaft.
_E_ is the _hand holder,_ which, grasped by the hand, communicates
motion to the arm, shoulder, and chest; or the hand may be inserted
passively, when the effect of motion is more confined to the hand and
fore-arm.
In the position shown in Fig. 2, by means of the single rubber
attachment, the manipulator acts upon the upper portion of the trunk,
neck, head, and arms; by means of the hand-holder, upon the arms; by
means of the double-rubber, upon the arms, shoulders, and scalp.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.
Rubbing the Arms.]
When the acting part or head is lowered to its extreme limit, the
machine occupies the least space. In this position, by means of the
foot-holder it communicates oscillation to the legs; by means of the
single-rubber, it acts upon the feet, ankles, and lower leg; by means of
the double-rubber, it acts upon the legs, including the feet, the
patient either sitting or lying.
In all of these applications of motion, energy travels from inanimate to
animate matter; non-vital contributes to vital energy: and the various
processes through which vital power is developed are promoted and
carried forward in a degree till the point which constitutes health is
attained.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.
Rubbing the Legs.]
The name, _Manipulator_, is very naturally applied to the instrument,
the action of which resembles so much that of the living operator. It
is, however, impossible for the unaided hand to impart the degree of
rapidity necessary to secure the effects easily attained by this
machine; and, practically, restoration is often secured in cases in
which it is quite unattainable by any other remedial agent.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.
Rubbing the Chest and Abdomen.]
Motion, transmitted by the manipulator, exerts a curative effect in
_all_ chronic affections, and is not limited, as is sometimes supposed,
to paralytic affections and deformities. In these latter affections it
is a great assistance in effecting a cure; while, in chronic affections,
whatever the local symptoms, it supplies the additional energy which is
indispensable for recovery in all diseases of long standing.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.
Rubbing the Back.]
_Mode of Operation_.--Fig. 4 represents the manipulator in operation.
The machine is propelled by steam power at the Invalids' Hotel and
Surgical Institute, but may be worked by hand, as here represented. One
arm is inserted between the double-rubbing pads, which are raised to
about the height of the shoulders, the patient being seated at the side
of the machine; the other hand is placed on the lever, and as much
pressure is applied as is perfectly agreeable, care being taken to
diminish the pressure at any part which is unusually sensitive. All
portions of the arm from the shoulder down are successively included in
the rubbers, while a suitable degree of reciprocating or rubbing action
is obtained by giving motion to the wheel.
To apply the same operation to the other arm, the patient may either
turn in his seat or change his position to the opposite side of the
machine.
If any portion of the extremity is affected with inflammation or
swelling, it is necessary to apply the action described to the whole of
the unaffected portion first; after this the affected part may be
beneficially operated on, provided that the sensations are strictly
heeded, and that it is so managed that only a comfortable feeling is
produced.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.
Oscillating the Arms and Chest.]
In Fig. 5, the patient is so seated beside the machine that he can
insert one thigh between the pads of the rubber, and also control the
lever with the hand. It is sometimes more convenient to suspend a
movable weight from the lever. While the machine is running, he can
withdraw the leg gradually, as each portion receives its proper amount
of action, till the whole, including the foot, becomes glowing with the
effect. The boot or shoe affords no impediment to the effect, and should
remain on.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.
Oscillating the Legs.]
Sometimes, especially in the beginning, or when the feet are habitually
cold, it is better to apply the action only from the knees down.
The rubbing-pad (d) may be attached to either side of the machine,
according to convenience or effect sought. The action derived from the
right end of the rock-shaft is much less severe than that from the left,
on account of the shape of the rubber appendage, and at the beginning
should be used in preference. In Fig. 6, the patient sits on an ordinary
stool, or, if feeble, in a chair, and presents any portion of the chest
or abdomen to the action of the rubber. The instrument is raised or
lowered to suit convenience, while the patient gently presses portions
of the trunk successively upon the rubbing-pad. The degree of the effect
is thus always under the absolute control of the one receiving the
action. This operation, like the preceding, produces great heat, reddens
the skin, relieves pain, and greatly stimulates the functions, not only
of the skin, but of the organs contained in the cavities of the chest
and the abdomen.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.
Vibrator operated by Manipulator.]
The same operation may be applied also to the legs while the patient is
standing.
In Fig. 7, the back is presented to the action of the rubbing-pad. The
action will, if desired, be made to reach from the neck to the hips, and
even to the thighs. All sensitive portions of the back should at first
be omitted, in order that they may be benefited by the
counter-irritation or drawing away of the blood. This is easily produced
by those familiar with the use of the machine. The rubbing of the back
should be deferred till the close of each application, in order that the
spinal centers may be relieved of hyperaemia, or excess of blood.
The machine, as represented by Fig. 8, is brought to the desired
elevation, about as high as the shoulders, and the hand-holder is
attached. One arm is extended horizontally, and the hand grasps the
hand-holder, while rapid motion is given by turning the wheel. An
alternate twisting motion is communicated to the arm, which causes
corresponding pressure and relaxation of all the soft tissues of the
limb, combined with slight rubbing or attrition. The action is increased
by contracting the muscles, and also by grasping at greater distance
from the center. Both hands may grasp at the same time, or the two sides
may receive the motion in turn. The effect is similar to that of the
rubbing before described, but it is less limited; by grasping firmly, it
may extend to the whole chest.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.
Vibrating Kneader.]
The foot-holder is attached, as shown in Fig. 9, and brought by the
means before described to a position to receive one foot at a
comfortable elevation, the leg being extended, while the patient is
seated in an ordinary chair in an easy position. The action is precisely
like that above described as applied to the arm, and extends to the
thigh and pelvis. If the knee is slightly flexed, the action is almost
entirely confined to the lower leg. Each leg may be operated on in turn.
_Mode of Applying Mechanical Movements to Very Feeble
Invalids_.--Experience demonstrates that no degree of feebleness
excludes the beneficial use of these operations. Invalids too weak to
stand, or able to help themselves in the least degree are often treated
with perfect success. A judicious use of the Manipulator _always_
increases nutrition and strength without any fatigue or exhaustion,
however feeble the patient may be. It is only necessary to provide for
these cases additional conveniences, so that the applications can be
made in the recumbent position, and also that proper intervals of rest
be allowed between successive operations. For this purpose couches are
provided, each containing a certain portion of the Manipulator. These
are operated by means of a short connecting-rod, joining the rock-shafts
of the two pieces of mechanism, as shown in Fig. 10. The Vibrator has
two small discs, or heads acting through an opening in the couch on
which the invalid rests. These impinge with a rapid, direct stroke upon
the portion of the body exposed to the action. The top of the couch is
adjustable, and is quickly placed at the elevation which secures the
proper force of the instrument, as shown in Fig 11. By simply turning
and moving the body, the patient brings any part in contact with the
vibrating discs. The cut represents the Vibrator, in which the force
impinges at right angles with the surface of the body, sending waves of
motion through its substance.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.
Apparatus for the Rubbing in a Recumbent Position.]
The rubbing which is shown in Figs. 4 and 5 may be applied to all parts
of the body in a recumbent position. A couch is required of similar
construction to the vibrating couch, but with a rubbing-pad instead of
vibrating heads acting through the opening and operated by appropriate
connections, as shown in Fig. 12. The top is adjustable, and the degree
of effect desired is capable of easy regulation. The patient turns
different portions of the body to the action of the rubber as required.
KNEADING. Kneading is a process applied chiefly to the abdomen. The
purpose of this operation is to increase nutrition, the muscular power
and action of the abdominal walls, and the function of the organs which
they contain. Three modes of applying this operation by the mechanical
apparatus are in use, effected by the Direct, the Rotary, and the
Revolving Kneader.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.
Apparatus for Rotary Kneading.]
THE DIRECT KNEADER. This resembles in form and action the vibrating
instrument shown in Fig. 11. The impinging heads, however, are made
broader, the motion greater in extent, and the rate of motion less than
one-tenth of that employed for the purpose of vibrating. This slowness
of motion seems to increase the action of the muscles.
THE ROTARY KNEADER. The action of the kneading heads in this form of
apparatus, as shown in Fig. 13, is _inward_ and _upward_ alternately,
and it is eminently well calculated to stimulate the action of the
abdominal organs.
THE REVOLVING KNEADER. In the form of kneading apparatus, shown in Fig.
14, two thick rollers, which move freely on axes at the extremities of
arms, projecting on either side of a shaft turned by a crank or belt,
are made to act alternately upon each side of the abdomen.
In the methods of kneading above described, the degree of force acting
on the body is governed by an arrangement for elevating or depressing
the upholstered top of the couch upon which the patient rests, and
through which the action is transmitted to the body.
If this form of apparatus is driven at a rate ten times more rapidly
than is desired for kneading, the effect is vibratory, and it is, in
fact, used for that purpose.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.
Apparatus for Kneading with Rollers.]
THE CURE OF SWELLINGS AND TUMORS.
The application of motion through the Manipulator promotes absorption,
and thus all kinds of _swellings_ and non-malignant _tumors_ are made to
diminish under its use. In these cases the vessels of the affected part
are distended with stagnant blood, and a portion of the fluid passes
through their walls, distending the surrounding tissues, which become
more or less hardened. By the transmission of active motion to the
affected parts, the contents of the vessels are urged forward; the
outside fluids are thus permitted to return to the general circulation
and become subject to the energetic vital action of the general system,
local deficiencies of oxidation being increased to the normal degree,
causing destruction of morbid matter and giving place for new and
wholesome nutritive materials for vital use. In short, normal functional
activity is established, both locally and generally. Scrofulous,
dropsical, rheumatic, and other local accumulations disappear, and even
tumors are dispersed, by the use of the Manipulator, in cases in which
the knife would otherwise be required.
COUNTER-IRRITATION AND REVULSION.
Artificial means have always been employed to produce an energetic flow
of blood in different parts of the body, thereby relieving morbid
distention of the vessels, and consequent irritation and pain in
neighboring parts. Cupping, hot applications, mustard, capsicum,
blisters, and other irritants, are resorted to, but their effects, while
generally very good in acute cases, are too transient to be of material
aid in chronic affections. By the use of the Manipulator, we can produce
the most thorough revulsive effects, operating upon large surfaces, and
causing large masses of muscle to receive an increased amount of blood,
thus drawing it away from parts oppressed by too great a supply,
constituting engorgement. No injury is done to the parts acted upon; on
the contrary, they are strengthened by the application, which can be
repeated as often as necessary till relief is permanent. Thus, the head,
heart, digestive organs, liver, chest, or whatever part is oppressed by
excess of blood, may be speedily and permanently relieved. By means of
this ability to relieve any part of the system from engorgement, and
consequent inflammation and its results, are we enabled to permanently
cure a large variety of chronic inflammatory, ulcerative, and nervous
affections.
Local inflammations by this method of treatment may be speedily cured.
CURE OF NEURALGIA.
By the transmission of motion through the Manipulator and other
ingeniously devised apparatus and machinery, we increase the functional
power and activity of the muscles, and thereby diminish morbid
sensibility of the nerves, which is present in neuralgia. Prolonged and
excessive nervous action is attended with too great a rush of blood to
the nerve-centers, which can only be relieved by increasing the flow in
the muscles. Congestion, or hyperaemia, in the spinal cord or brain, or
both, is a condition ever present in neuralgia. The application of
motion through the manipulator causes the blood to flow to the muscles,
thus relieving nervous congestion and consequent neuralgia.
CURE OF PARALYSIS.
In no single disease has the transmission of motion through the
Manipulator proved more thoroughly efficacious than in _paralysis_. The
most prominent requirements in these cases seem to be the following:
Excess of blood in the brain and spinal cord needs to be removed and
diverted to parts in which it will be useful instead of obstructive.
The contractile power of the capillaries should be improved.
The quality of nutritive fluids should be improved by the promotion of
oxidation through increased circulation.
These and many more wants of disordered nerves, are readily supplied by
transmitted motion.
The Manipulator combines, in a single ingenious mechanical contrivance,
the several movements best adapted for the promotion of healthy
functional activity.
CURE OF DEFORMITIES.
"Deformities arising from _paralysis and contractions of muscles and
tendons_, producing stiffened joints and distorted limbs, are of common
occurrence. A rational explanation of the wonderful curative results
which follow the employment of transmitted motion in these cases may not
be without interest to the reader. The muscles are composed of _bundles_
of little fibers which glide upon one another in every movement. Another
set of fibers called _connective tissue_, holds the fibers together in
bundles or separate muscles, and interlaces and crosses them in every
direction. Now, if these fibers remain long in a fixed position, or are
involved in inflammation, there is danger of adhesions forming between
them, producing permanent immobility; gliding movements are interfered
with, and the muscle ceases to perform its function. Inflammation gives
rise to effusion, or the formation of a kind of cement which binds
together the muscular fibers and prevents motion.
Rubbing, kneading, and actively manipulating the affected parts with
that intensity of administration secured by the manipulator, rends
asunder and breaks up these minute adhesions, re-establishing gliding
motions, causes absorption of effused materials, and restores the
affected part to a normal condition.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.
Muscular fibre highly
magnified.]
The deformed limb is straightened by the filling out of the
muscle-cells, and increasing the length and also the nutrition of the
affected muscles. No pulling or _forced extension_ is required.
Deformity ceases when the conditions upon which it depends are removed
by rational appliances, which are always agreeable. No brace, splints,
or other confining appliances are necessary, except in rare cases in
which the bones are very badly distorted.
In withered and deformed limbs, resulting from infantile paralysis, the
manipulator furnishes the most agreeable, direct, and certain remedy. It
restores nutrition, sensation, and power, and dispenses almost wholly
with mechanical supports. Club-feet, wry neck, spinal curvature,
hip-joint disease, white swellings, and stiffened joints, are all
readily amendable to the curative effects of motion administered by the
manipulator and other machinery.
Contracted and shortened muscles are gradually lengthened by vigorous,
long-continued, and frequently repeated rubbing with the manipulator
across their longitudinal fibers; bound-down and confined tendons are
liberated and normal movements established.
DISEASES OF WOMEN.
Uterine and ovarian congestion, chronic inflammation, discharges, morbid
enlargement, prolapsus, anteversion and retroversion, anteflexion and
retroflexion, and other derangements of the womb and its appendages, are
radically cured by the vibratory, rubbing, kneading, and other
movements, administered through the manipulator and other mechanical
appliances employed at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.
To those who are tired of taking medicine, this mode of treatment
commends itself as being both agreeable and efficient. There is no case
too weak, nervous, or helpless for the use of this curative agent. It is
entirely devoid of objectionable features, being _always applied outside
the clothing_.
CAUSE OF FEMALE WEAKNESS. The true relations of cause and effect are
very liable to be misunderstood, when considering the various diseases
incident to the organs contained in the female pelvis. Treatment
intended to be remedial is therefore very often misdirected and fails to
afford relief, positive injury frequently resulting instead. When the
nature of these diseases is properly understood, their cure can be
effected with comparative ease.
These diseases are always attended with weakness, which is often very
great, of the muscles that hold the diseased organs in position. The
muscles forming the walls of the abdomen, and the diaphragm, or midriff,
all of which are concerned in the act of respiration, become feeble and
only partially perform their functions. In health, they act constantly,
even during sleep, producing a rhythmical movement, which is
communicated to the contents of the abdominal and pelvic cavities. This
motion promotes a healthy circulation in the parts. In almost all
affections of the pelvic organs, this normal condition is greatly
diminished.
Diminution of the motions of respiration is attended with an increase of
the amount of the blood in the pelvic organs, constituting an
engorgement of the parts, called congestion, or inflammation. This gives
rise to enlargement of the womb, ulcerations, tumors, and a multitude of
kindred secondary effects, usually considered as the primary disease and
treated as such. The contents of the cavity of the trunk, weighing
several pounds, are allowed to gravitate down and rest upon the contents
of the pelvis, forcing the congested uterus and ovaries down out of
their natural positions, and often bending or tipping the womb in
various directions. A long list of symptoms follows as the natural
consequence of these abnormal conditions.
RATIONAL TREATMENT. Ovarian congestion and inflammation, inflammation of
the uterus, ulceration of this organ, deranged menstruation, leucorrhea
with the attendant pain, nervousness, and other derangements depending
upon loss of supporting power in the abdominal muscles, all result from
loss of the _natural_ motions of respiration, and consequent deranged
circulation. These several conditions can be cured by removing their
cause. When the power of the parts involved in the weakness is restored,
all these morbid conditions disappear. Judicious cultivation of power in
the weakened supports is attended with certain curative results. This is
best accomplished by mechanical motion, by which the normal circulation
is restored, inflammations and congestions are subdued, displacements
corrected, ulcers healed, and functional activity is re-established.
RECAPITULATION.
Motion properly transmitted to the human system by mechanical apparatus
is transformed into other forms of force identical with vital energy, by
which the ordinary processes of the system are greatly promoted.
It increases animal heat and nervous and muscular power to the normal
standard.
It removes engorgement or local impediments to the circulation.
The electrical induction produced renders it a most efficacious remedy
for paralysis of all kinds.
It removes interstitial fluids and causes rapid absorption and
disappearance of solid and fluid accumulations.
It is a powerful alterative, or blood-purifier, increasing oxidation and
stimulating excretion.
It diminishes chronic nervous irritability and promotes sleep.
Deformities are easily cured without the cutting of tendons, or use of
mechanical supports.
It hardens the flesh by increasing muscular development and improves
digestion and nutrition.
* * * * *
WORLD'S DISPENSARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
INCORPORATED UNDER STATUTE ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW YORK.
[Illustration]
Dr. R.V. PIERCE, having acquired a world-wide reputation in the treatment
of Chronic Diseases, resulting in a professional business far exceeding
his individual ability to conduct, some years ago induced several
medical gentlemen of high professional standing to associate themselves
with him, as the Faculty of the World's Dispensary and Surgical
Institute, the Consulting Department of which has since been merged into
the Invalids' Hotel. The organization is duly incorporated under a
statute enacted by the Legislature of the State of New York, and under
the name and style of the "WORLD'S DISPENSARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION," of
which Dr. PIERCE is President, and in the affairs of which he will, as
heretofore, take an active and constant part.
* * * * *
EUROPEAN BRANCH, NO. 3 NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON, ENG.
* * * * *
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.
Dr. R.V.PIERCE, having in the Fall of 1880 resigned his seat in
Congress, has since been able to devote his whole time and attention to
the interests of the Association, and those consulting our Medical and
Surgical Faculty have the full benefits of his council and professional
services. That he should prefer to give up a high and honorable position
in the councils of the nation, to serve the sick, is conclusive evidence
of his devotion to their interests and of love for his profession.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, 663 Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y.]
INVALIDS' HOTEL
A MODEL SANITARIUM AND SURGICAL INSTITUTE.
NOT A HOSPITAL, BUT A PLEASANT REMEDIAL HOME,
ORGANIZED WITH
A FULL STAFF OF EIGHTEEN PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
AND EXCLUSIVELY DEVOTED TO THE
TREATMENT OF ALL CHRONIC DISEASES.
This imposing Establishment was designed and erected to accommodate the
large number of invalids who visit Buffalo from every State and
Territory, as well as from many foreign lands, that they may avail
themselves of the professional services of the Staff of Skilled
Specialists in Medicine and Surgery that compose the Faculty of this
widely-celebrated institution.
DESTROYED BY FIRE.
On the sixteenth of February 1881, the original Invalids' Hotel was
totally destroyed by fire. Although occupied at the time by a large
number of invalids, yet, through the extraordinary exertions of the
Faculty and employees, all were safely removed from the building without
injury to any one. The Board of Trustees took prompt steps to rebuild,
for the accommodation of the many sufferers who apply, to avail
themselves of the skill, facilities and advantages of treatment which
such a perfectly equipped establishment affords. Profiting by the
experience afforded by several years' occupancy of the original
Invalids' Hotel building, which at the date of its erection was the
largest and most complete establishment of its kind in the world, we
believe we have, in the building of the elegant structure illustrated
herein, made great improvements over the original Invalids' Hotel, for
the accommodation of our patients. Although our new building has only
been occupied about two years, yet almost immediately our business
required the erection of a very large addition thereto, to accommodate
our growing practice. This large _Annex_, which is about the size of the
original building, has ever since been kept well filled with patients,
hailing from every State and Territory of the United States, Canada and
occasionally from a foreign country,
THE INVALIDS' HOTEL AND SURGICAL INSTITUTE IS PLEASANTLY SITUATED AT NO.
663 MAIN STREET,
in the city of Buffalo, just above and outside the business and bustle
of this Queen City of the Lakes. It is easily reached from the railroad
depots by the Exchange and Main Street car lines (see map on last page
of this book). It is a substantially built brick building, trimmed with
sandstone, well lighted and provided with a patent hydraulic elevator,
so that its upper stories are quite as desirable as any, being more
quiet than those lower down. It is well provided with fire escapes, and,
in fact, nothing has been neglected that can add to the comfort and
home-like make-up of this popular national resort for the invalid and
afflicted. Great pains and expense have been assumed in providing
perfect ventilation for every room and part of the building.
[Illustration: Grand Entrance.]
[Illustration: Ante-room.--Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.]
The surroundings of the Hotel are very pleasant, it being located in the
finest built part of the city, among the most elegant residences.
STAFF OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.
Only men who are, by thorough education and experience, especially
fitted to fill their respective positions, have been chosen to serve as
physicians and surgeons in this institution. After having spent a very
large sum of money in erecting and furnishing this national resort for
invalids with every requirement and facility for the successful
treatment of all classes of chronic diseases, it is the determination of
the Board of Directors that the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons shall
be superior in culture, experience and skill.
We have not the space to speak, individually, of the eighteen
professional gentlemen composing the Faculty, but will say that among
them are those whose long connection with the World's Dispensary and
Surgical Institute has given them great experience and rendered them
_experts_ in their specialties. Several of them had previously
distinguished themselves in both private and hospital practice, had held
important chairs as lecturers and teachers in Medical Colleges, and had
filled responsible positions in military and civil hospitals; also in
some of the most noted Asylums, Dispensaries, and Sanitary Institutions
in the land.
With such a staff of Physicians and Surgeons, efficient and trained
nurses, and with all the most approved sanitary, medical and surgical
appliances which study, experience, invention and the most liberal
expenditure of money, can produce and bring together in one institution,
the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute affords the afflicted unusual
opportunities for relief.
THE GRAND ENTRANCE.
The entrance to the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute is covered by
a lofty porch of beautiful design, the roof of which is supported upon
heavy iron columns. Above the massive double doors, through which the
visitor enters, are large, heavy panels of beautifully wrought stained
glass, on which the words "Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute" stand
out conspicuously.
[Illustration:
Gentlemen's Reception-room,
Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.]
FIRST FLOOR.
The first floor of the building is reached through a beautifully
finished vestibule, by a short flight of broad, easy stairs, and once
inside the visitor is struck by the beauty of design as well as by the
home-like appearance of the surroundings. The wood-work is mainly of
hard woods, oak and cherry predominating. In a large part of the house
the floors are of oak, with a cherry border, neatly finished in oil and
shellac, and covered with rich rugs and elegant carpets of the very best
quality.
[Illustration: Ladies' Parlor.--Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.]
On the first floor is the gentlemen's reception-room, which is thronged
with patients from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. It
is entirely distinct from the large reception-room and parlors for lady
patients, and the utmost privacy is secured throughout the whole
arrangement of the Institution. On this floor are the suites of offices,
parlors, and private consultation-rooms, some fifteen in all; also a
well furnished reading-room and circulating library, for the use of the
inmates of the Institution. On all sides are beautifully frescoed walls
adorned with numerous choice engravings and other pictures. All the
rooms throughout the house are furnished in the best of style, and in a
manner to afford the utmost comfort and cheerfulness of surroundings for
the sick and afflicted who seek this remedial resort. The Turkish and
other baths are elegantly fitted up on the first floor, opposite the
reading-room.
THE UPPER FLOORS.
Above the first, or main floor, the building is divided into separate
rooms and suites of rooms for the accommodation of patients. All are
well lighted, have high ceilings, and are cheerful and well ventilated
apartments. On the second floor is the large medical library and medical
council-room, for the exclusive use of the Faculty, also the
museum-room, which contains a large and valuable collection of
anatomical and morbid specimens, many of them being obtained from cases
treated in this Institution. On this floor are also suites of rooms,
occupied by the Bureau of Medical Correspondence, wherein from ten to
twelve physicians, each supplied with the improved graphophone, are
constantly employed in attending to the vast correspondence received
from invalids residing in all parts of the United States and Canada.
Every important case receives the careful consideration of a council
composed of from three to five of these expert specialists, before being
finally passed upon and prescribed for.
[Illustration: Library and Reading-room--Invalids'
Hotel and Surgical Institute.]
ON THE THIRD FLOOR
are the large treatment-rooms, supplied with all the apparatus and
appliances for the successful management of every chronic malady
incident to humanity. Electrical apparatus of the latest and most
approved kinds, some of it driven and operated by steam-power, dry
cupping and equalizing-treatment apparatus, "vitalization" apparatus,
numerous and most ingenious rubbing and manipulating apparatus and
machinery, driven by steam-power, are among the almost innumerable
curative agencies that are here brought into use as aids in the cure of
human ailments. Our
ELECTRICAL OUTFIT
[Illustration: President Pierce's Business Office--Invalids' Hotel and
Surgical Institute.]
is the finest to be found in any sanitarium in the United States and, we
believe, in the world. There are two forty-cell galvanic batteries with
switch boards for controlling the voltage, or force, from the whole
power to one-fortieth of this amount, at the will of the physician.
Safe-guards in the shape of milli-ampere meters continually indicate to
the operator the force of the current. There is a dynamo for charging
the storage batteries, which may be used in a patient's room when this
method is found more convenient or more comfortable for the invalid.
There are two static or Franklin machines. These are used when the
milder current is desired, and for spraying, sparking, etc. One of the
instruments is of high voltage and furnishes us with the X rays for
examining the interior parts of the body. The largest treatment room
also contains a powerful ozone generator, operated by a dynamo. This
supplies the room with allotropic oxygen and is invaluable in treating
diseases of the lungs and air passages. This supplies the patient with
vitalized air, equal to the most salubrious atmosphere in any part of
the globe.
Beyond this and separated by a court, across which is an iron bridge,
are the large dispensing-rooms, stocked with drugs and medical compounds
of almost endless variety, and representing every branch of the _materia
medica_. Here all medicines prescribed are most carefully and specially
prepared for each individual case. Those to be sent away by mail or
express, to patients being treated at a distance, are placed in trays,
with full directions for use, and sent to another large room, where they
are carefully packed, and shipped thence to their destination.
FOURTH FLOOR.
On the fourth floor are located the surgical operating-rooms and
surgical ward. There are also a large number of nice, large, well
furnished separate rooms on this floor, used principally for the
accommodation of surgical cases. Strong, broad, iron staircases connect
all the upper floors with the ground, so that in case of fire, patients
need have no fear of being unable to get out safely. In fact, the
building has been constructed so as to render the rapid spread of fire
through it impossible, all the floors being laid on cement.
A STEAM PASSENGER ELEVATOR
is provided, so that the upper floors are quite as desirable as those
lower down. The dining-rooms for gentlemen, as well as those for
ladies, are located in the basement, which is reached either by
stairways or by the elevator. The kitchen, store-rooms, chill-rooms,
pantries, and all culinary arrangements are also in the basement.
FIRE-PROOF VAULTS.
Six large fire-proof vaults are provided in this building in which to
preserve, secure from observation, as well as from fire, all records of
cases examined and treated by the Faculty.
Throughout all this vast building the visitor is struck with the
wonderful order and system with which every detail is carried out.
THE BATH DEPARTMENT.
[Illustration: A glimpse at the Turkish Bath Department.]
The Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, as hereinbefore indicated,
is provided with Turkish, and other approved baths, with a
treatment-room, fitted up with vacuum and movement-treatment apparatus
of the most modern and approved style. These and much more ingeniously
devised apparatus and appliances are brought into use in a great variety
of chronic affections with marvelously successful results. A perfect
system of physical training, especially adapted to the wants of the
invalid and weak, and most skillfully conducted and applied, is not the
least important among the many advantages that the chronic sufferers
here find.
THE SURGICAL DEPARTMENT.
In the Surgical Department, every instrument and appliance approved by
the modern operator is provided, and many and ingenious are the
instruments and devices that the Faculty of this institution have
invented and perfected to meet the wants of their numerous cases.
OUR REMEDIES.
In the prescribing of remedies for disease, the Staff resort to the
whole broad field of _materia medica_, allowing themselves to be
hampered by no school, _ism_,_pathy_, or sect. The medicines employed are
all prepared by skilled chemists and pharmacists, and the greatest care
is exercised to have them manufactured from the freshest and purest
ingredients. Our Faculty probably employ a greater number and variety of
extracts from native roots, barks and herbs in their practice than are
used in any other invalids' resort in the land. All of the vegetable
extracts employed in our practice are prepared in our own Laboratory.
REGULATION OF DIET.
The table is supplied with an abundance of wholesome and nutritious
food, especially adapted and prepared to suit the invalid, it being
varied to suit each particular case. The Faculty recognize the
importance of proper food as one of the greatest factors in the
treatment of chronic diseases. While properly regulating and restricting
the food of the invalid when necessary, they also recognize the fact
that many are benefited by a liberal diet of the most substantial food,
as steaks, eggs, oysters, milk, and other very nutritious articles of
diet, which are always provided in abundance for those for whom they are
suited.
[Illustration: View of Lake and Boat-house.--Buffalo Park.]
From previous experience somewhere, some people get the impression that
they are to be half starved at such an institution as this. If this is
the case anywhere it is not so here, as any one who has ever resided at
our sanitarium will attest.
TRAINED ATTENDANTS.
A sufficient number of trained and experienced nurses are employed, that
those requiring attendance may have the very best of care.
GOOD ORDER.
The institution is conducted in an orderly manner, that the utmost quiet
may be secured. The Faculty insist, upon the part of the invalid, while
under treatment, on the observance of habits of regularity in eating,
sleeping, bathing and exercise. Only by such observance of hygienic laws
can they succeed in their course of remedial training, and make the
treatment curative.
AMUSEMENTS.
While insisting upon strict observance of rules established for the good
of the patient, they do not make their requirements so rigid as to
interfere with the comfort and enjoyment of their patients, but, on the
contrary, endeavor, in every manner possible, to provide innocent and
entertaining amusements for all, recognizing the great importance of
pleasant occupation of the mind, as an essential part of the treatment.
Hence the introduction of music, amusing games, light reading, and
kindred agencies for pleasant entertainment, is not neglected.
UNPARALLELED SUCCESS.
[Illustration: One of the Private Consultation-rooms, Ladies'
Department.]
The founder of this institution commenced, many years ago, with little
capital, to build up a business in the treatment of chronic diseases and
devoted himself diligently to that end. His reputation for skill in his
chosen field of practice gradually extended until, to-day, his fame and
that of the World's Dispensary and Invalids' Hotel and Surgical
Institute, are simply world-wide. As the business increased those
eminent for skill have been induced to join the Faculty, until eighteen
professional gentlemen, each devoting his attention to a special branch
of practice, constitute the Medical and Surgical Staff.
[Illustration: Soldiers' Monument.--Lafayette Park, Buffalo.]
One reason why we excel in the treatment of _chronic diseases_ is the
fact that we are supplied with all the modern improvements in the way of
instruments, appliances and remedial agents used in the healing art, the
expense of which deters the local physician in general practice from
procuring, for the treatment of the limited number of cases that come
within the circuit of his practice. The treatment of such cases requires
special attention and special study to be successful.
A COMMON SENSE VIEW.
It is a well-known fact, that appeals to the judgment of every thinking
person, that a physician who devotes his whole time to the study and
investigation of a certain class of diseases, must become better
qualified to treat them than he who attempts to treat every ill to which
flesh is heir, without giving special attention to any particular class
of diseases. Men, in all ages of the world, who have _made their marks_,
or who have become famous, have devoted their lives to some special
branch of science, art or literature.
LIBERALITY.
We wage no war against any physician, no matter what school of medicine
he may represent; but, on the other hand, we invite the co-operation of
all regular physicians. We are always ready and willing to impart to
them any information or render any assistance that will be of mutual
benefit to them and their patients.
OUR PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
do not travel to solicit practice, having all the business that they can
attend to at our institution, nor do we employ any agents to travel and
peddle or otherwise sell our medicines. If any one engaged in such
business, represents himself as in any way connected with our
institutions, he is a swindler and should be apprehended and prosecuted
as such. And any one who will give us such information as will lead to
the arrest and conviction of any person so misrepresenting will be
liberally rewarded.
[Illustration: Undergoing Examination of the Lungs
at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.]
While not permitting any member of our professional staff to travel and
solicit practice, yet we are always willing to accommodate and send a
specialist to visit important or critical cases in consultation, or
otherwise, or to perform important surgical operations as explained on
page 971 of this book.
Let none deceive you by representing that they have heretofore been
connected with our institution and have thereby learned our original and
improved methods of treatment. We have a large and competent Staff of
Specialists and while we have sometimes found it necessary to make
changes, yet we always manage to retain the most expert and skillful, as
we cannot afford to part with the services of those who excel.
[Illustration: Chemists' Department.--Invalids' Hotel and Surgical
Institute.]
By adopting similar names to those which have long designated our
world-famed institutions, some have endeavored to deceive and mislead
invalids who were seeking relief. Others have named so-called "Electric"
Trusses, "Liver Pads," and other contrivances after our President,
thereby expecting to reap benefits from Dr. Pierce's well-known
professional standing. Neither the Doctor nor this Association have any
interest in any such articles.
NO BRANCHES.--Remember we have no branches except the one at No. 3 New
Oxford Street, London, England.
Those desiring to consult us by letter, should address all
communications plainly to
<b>World's Dispensary Medical Association,
_No. 663 MAIN STREET,_
BUFFALO, N.Y.</b>
* * * * *
WORLD'S DISPENSARY.
The immense building erected and occupied by the World's Dispensary
Medical Association as a Laboratory, wherein are manufactured our Dr.
Pierce's Standard Family Medicines, as well as all the various
Tinctures, Fluid Extracts and other pharmaceutical preparations used by
the Staff of Physicians and Surgeons of the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical
Institute in their practice, is not inappropriately called the _World's
Dispensary_, for within its walls is prepared a series of remedies of
such exceeding merit that they have acquired world-wide fame, and are
sold in vast quantities in nearly every civilized country.
[Illustration: World's Dispensary.--New Laboratory Building.]
The structure, located at 660 to 670 Washington Street, immediately in
the rear of the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, is of brick,
with sandstone trimmings, six stories high, and 100 feet square. Its
most striking architectural features exteriorly are massiveness,
combined with grace and beauty of outline, and great strength.
THE BASEMENT.
The basement or first story opens on a level with the Washington Street
sidewalk, and is occupied by a plant of two large boilers, which supply
the steam to run a huge American engine, of 100 horse-power, built by
the American Engine Co., Bound Brook, N.J. It drives all the machinery
of the establishment, including drug mills, pill machines, packing
machinery, a large number of printing presses, folding machines,
stitching, trimming, and many other machines, located on the different
floors, and used in the manufacture of medicines, books, pamphlets,
circulars, posters, and other printed matter. On this floor is located
steam bottle-washing machinery, and also the shipping department. Here
may be seen huge piles of medicine, boxed, marked, and ready for
shipment to all parts of the civilized world. A large steam freight
elevator leads from this to the floors above.
MACHINERY.
[Illustration: Postal, Advertising, Wrapping and Mailing Departments.]
In addition to the power engine just mentioned is a 25 horse-power
upright engine for running the dynamo for electric lighting, with a
capacity of three hundred (300) lights. This engine and dynamo were also
manufactured for us by the American Engine Company of Bound Brook, N.J.
There is a small dynamo with a capacity of one hundred (100) lights used
during the day to light safes, vaults, dark closets and hallways. All
the offices and rooms of patients are supplied with electric light, as
well as illuminating gas. An automatic Worthington pump is also located
in the basement. This supplies the elevator and sprinkling system. The
sprinklers come into play only in case of fire, when they are
self-acting. This pump at its best is capable of forcing nearly two
hundred gallons of water a minute. There is no place in which pure water
is more desirable than in the manufacture of medicines. Our New York
filter could, if such a large quantity were ever required, furnish the
Dispensary with one hundred (100) barrels of pure water a day. Just
beyond the south wall and buried several feet under ground is a
boiler-shaped tank capable of storing ten thousand (10,000) gallons of
medicine.
MAIN FLOOR.
The main or second floor of the Dispensary is entered from Main Street,
through a hall leading from the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.
On this floor are located business offices, counting-room, the
advertising department and mailing rooms. Large, fire-proof vaults are
provided for the safe keeping of books, papers, and valuables, whilst
the counting-room and offices are elegantly finished in hard woods, and
present a beautiful and grand appearance.
THIRD FLOOR.
On this floor are the Association's extensive printing and binding
works. Fourteen large presses, driven by power, with numerous folding
machines, trimming, cutting, and stitching machinery, are constantly
running in this department. Here is printed and bound Dr. Pierce's
popular work of over a thousand pages, denominated "The People's Common
Sense Medical Adviser," over 1,200,000 copies of which have been sold.
Millions of pocket memorandum books, pamphlets, circulars and cards are
also issued from this department and scattered broadcast to every
quarter of the globe.
FOURTH FLOOR.
Large mills for crushing, grinding and pulverizing roots, barks, herbs,
and other drugs occupy a considerable part of this floor. Extensive
drying-rooms, in which articles to be ground in the drug mills are
properly dried, are also located upon this floor, as are also thousands
of reams of paper ready for printing the different books, pamphlets,
labels, etc. In large rooms set aside for that purpose, are stored vast
quantities of labels and wrappers, for use in putting up medicines.
FIFTH FLOOR.
On this floor is located ingeniously devised filling and bottling
machinery, also rooms for labeling, wrapping, and packing medicines;
others are occupied for the storage of crude drugs, glass, corks, and
supplies for use in the general business.
SIXTH FLOOR.
This entire floor is occupied with mixing, percolating, distilling,
filtering, and other processes employed in the manufacturing of
medicines. Every process is conducted under the watchful care of an
experienced chemist and pharmacist, and in the most perfect and orderly
manner; the apparatus employed being of the most approved character.
Here are manufactured all the various medicinal preparations and
compounds prescribed by the Faculty, in the treatment of special cases.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
[Illustration: Section of Chemical Laboratory.--World's Dispensary.]
In all departments of this vast business establishment, the visitor is
struck with the perfect system which everywhere prevails, and the
wonderful accuracy with which every process and transaction is carried
on and consummated; hence the uniformity of purity and strength for
which the medicines here manufactured have so long been celebrated. To
this, also, is due much of the marvelous success attained in the
department established for the special treatment of chronic and
obstinate cases of disease. In this department the Faculty are not at
all limited or hampered in prescribing, and do not confine themselves in
the least to the proprietary or standard medicines manufactured for
general sale through druggists, but employ a series of curative agents
unsurpassed in variety and range of application. They aim to carefully
adapt their prescriptions to each individual case.
* * * * *
THE
INVALIDS' HOTEL AND SURGICAL INSTITUTE
_SOME OF THE CAUSES THAT LED TO ITS ERECTION, AND THE ADVANTAGES WHICH
IT AFFORDS._
[Illustration: One of the Private Consultation-rooms, Gentlemen's
Department.]
The destinies of institutions, like those of men, are often determined
by pre-existing causes. The destinies of some men are like those of
way-side plants, springing up without other apparent cause than the
caprice of nature, developing without any apparent aim, yielding no
perfected fruit, and finally, dying, leaving scarcely a trace of their
existence. Thus it is with institutions which have their origin only in
man's caprice. To be enduring, they must be founded upon the needs and
necessities of humanity. Many of the great men of the world owe their
greatness more to surrounding circumstances than to the genius within
them. The highest genius can be dwarfed or deformed by the force of
adverse circumstances; hence the poetic truth of Gray in those exquisite
lines:
"Some mute inglorious Milton here may lie,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood."
Opportunity is the guiding star of genius. Without it, genius would
drift hither and thither upon the restless, ever-changing waves of
circumstance, never casting anchor in a secure haven. Upon opportunity,
too, depends the success of institutions. By opportunity we mean a real
and acknowledged public want. Whoever undertakes to supply this want
finds himself upon the crest-wave of prosperity. It was to supply such a
want that this institution was erected.
A REMEDIAL HOME.
Of the seventy millions of people living in the United States to-day, it
is estimated that nearly twelve millions are sufferers from chronic
disease. Think for a moment! Twelve millions of people slowly but surely
dying by the insidious and fatal development of chronic diseases! This
is an appalling fact. And yet this is the very class of diseases with
which the general practitioner is least familiar.
As a general practitioner of the healing art, fresh from _curriculum_,
the founder of this institution early realized that the grand
unpardonable sin of the medical profession was the neglect to more
thoroughly study and investigate this class of diseases.
The profession is diligently cauterizing and poulticing the sores which
now and then appear on the surface, but the internal chronic disease, of
which these are merely the external signs, is too often overlooked or
neglected.
Some years ago we devised and put into practical operation a method of
TREATING PATIENTS AT THEIR HOMES,
without requiring them to undergo personal examinations. We reasoned
that the physician has abundant opportunity to accurately determine the
nature of most chronic diseases without ever seeing the patient. In
substantiating that proposition, we cited the perfect _accuracy_ with
which scientists are enabled to deduce the most minute particulars in
their several departments, which appears almost miraculous, if we view
the subject in the light of the early ages. Take, for example, the
electro-magnetic telegraph, the greatest invention of the age. Is it not
a marvelous degree of accuracy which enables an operator to _exactly_
locate a fracture in a sub-marine cable nearly three thousand miles
long? Our venerable "clerk of the weather" has become so thoroughly
familiar with the most wayward elements of nature that he can accurately
predict their movements. He can sit in Washington and foretell what the
weather will be in Florida or New York, as well as if hundreds of miles
did not intervene between him and the places named. And so in all
departments of modern science, what is required is the knowledge of
certain _signs_. From these, scientists deduce accurate conclusions
regardless of distance. A few fossils sent to the expert geologist
enables him to accurately determine the rock-formation from which they
were taken. He can describe it to you as perfectly as if a cleft of it
were lying on his table. So also the chemist can determine the
constitution of the sun as accurately as if that luminary were not
ninety-five million miles from his laboratory. The sun sends certain
_signs_ over the "infinitude of space," which the chemist classifies by
passing them through the spectroscope. Only the presence of certain
substances could produce these solar signs.
[Illustration: Medical Library and Council-room.--Invalids' Hotel and
Surgical Institute.]
So, also, in medical science,
DISEASE HAS CERTAIN UNMISTAKABLE SIGNS,
or symptoms, and, by reason of this fact, we have been enabled to
originate and perfect a system of determining with the greatest accuracy
the nature of chronic diseases without seeing and personally examining
our patients. In recognizing diseases without a personal examination of
the patient, we claim to possess no miraculous powers. We obtain our
knowledge of the patient's disease by the practical application of
well-established principles of modern science to the practice of
medicine. And it is to the accuracy with which this system has endowed
us that we owe our almost world-wide reputation for the skillful
treatment of all lingering, or chronic, affections. This system of
practice, with the marvelous success which has been attained through it,
demonstrates the fact that diseases display certain phenomena, which,
being subjected to scientific analysis, furnish abundant and
unmistakable data to guide the judgment of the skillful practitioner
aright in determining the nature of diseased conditions.
So successful has been this method of treating patients at a distance
that there is scarcely a city or a village in the United States that is
not represented by one or more cases upon the "Records of Practice" at
the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute. In all chronic diseases that
are curable by medical treatment, it is only in very rare cases that we
cannot do as well for the patient while he or she remains at home, as if
here in person to be examined. But we annually treat hundreds of cases
requiring surgical operations and careful after-treatment, and in these
cases our Invalids' Hotel, or home, is indispensable. Here the patient
has the services not only of the most skillful surgeons, but also, what
is quite as necessary in the after treatment, of thoroughly trained and
skilled nurses.
What should be the essential characteristics of an Invalids' Home?
CLIMATE.
Obviously, the most important of these characteristics is _climate_.
Climatology, from being a mere speculative theory, has arisen to the
deserved rank of a science. The influence of the climate of a country on
the national character has long been observed and acknowledged. The
languid but passionate temperaments of the South are like its volcanoes,
now quiet and silent, anon bursting forth with terrible activity,
flooding entire cities with molten fire; or, like its skies, now sunny,
cloudless, an hour hence convulsed with lightnings and deluging the
earth with passionate rain; or like its winds, to-day soft, balmy, with
healing on their wings, to-night the wind fiend, the destroying simoom,
rushing through the land, withering and scorching every flower and blade
of herbage on its way. On the other hand, the calm, phlegmatic
temperament of the North accords well with her silent mountains, her
serener skies, and her less vehement, but chilling winds. The South,
too, is the native home of the most violent acute diseases, such as
yellow fever and cholera. But, aside from this general climatic
influence, there is the yet more restricted one of locality. It has
often been observed that certain classes of diseases are most prevalent
in certain localities, the prevalence in every instance being due to
peculiarities of climate.
EXTREME HEALTHFULNESS OF BUFFALO.
In the published records of the examination for military service in the
army, during our late civil war, this fact was clearly and definitely
stated, and maps were prepared and presented showing the comparative
prevalence of certain diseases in the several States and districts
represented. The maps are prepared by a graduation of color, the lighter
shades indicating the localities where the special disease under
consideration is least prevalent; and it is a very significant and
important fact that in all chronic diseases not due to occupation or
accident, Buffalo and its immediate vicinity is marked by the lighter
shades. Thus, in epilepsy, paralysis, scrofula, rheumatism, and
consumption, our city is little more than tinted with the several colors
used to denote these diseases.
[Illustration: A Patient's Room.--Invalids' Hotel
and Surgical Institute.]
There is a popular, but unfounded, belief that Buffalo is a hot-bed for
pulmonary diseases. This idea could have originated only in an ignorant
disregard of facts; for medical statistics prove that in her freedom
from this class of diseases she is unrivaled by any city in America, not
excepting those on the seaboard.
EVIDENCE OF HEALTH STATISTICS.
Compare, if you please, the statistics of Buffalo with those of the
great Eastern cities in this respect. In Boston and New York the
death-rate from consumption shows a ratio of about 1 to 5 of the whole
number of deaths. In Baltimore and Philadelphia the ratio is 1 to 6,
while in Buffalo the death rate from consumption is only 1 to 10--very
remarkable difference in favor of our city. Only last summer a gentleman
residing in the eastern part of our State collected and compared the
health statistics for 1876 of all the prominent cities in the United
States. The result showed that
BUFFALO OUTRANKS ALL IN HEALTHFULNESS.
A great deal of precious breath has been expended in blustering about
"Buffalo zephyrs," as our delightful lake breezes are sometimes
ironically termed. It seems to be a popular belief among our sister
cities that old Boreas has chosen Buffalo for his headquarters. When we
hear a person dilating upon "Buffalo's terrific winds," we are reminded
of one of our lady acquaintances who recently returned from a European
tour. She was asked how she enjoyed her sea voyage, and she replied,
"Oh, it was delightful, really charming! There is something so grand
about the sea!" We were not a little surprised at this enthusiastic
outburst, as we had been told by a member of her party that the lady had
industriously vomited her way to Hamburg and back again. But the lady's
enthusiasm was easily explained. It is fashionable to characterize sea
voyages as delightful, charming, etc. Now, we suspect this popular
notion about our "trying winds" is traceable to the same source. It has
become customary to call Buffalo a "windy place," and so, when the
traveler feels a slight lake breeze, he imagines it to be a terrific
gale. Whatever may have originated this notion, certain it is that it is
utterly, undeniably false; and, in making this denial, we are not alone
dependent upon observation, but upon the
FACTS OF SCIENCE.
The issue of July 18, 1874, of the Buffalo _Commercial Advertiser_,
contained a series of tables, furnished by the Signal Service Bureau,
showing the velocity of the wind at eleven prominent cities for the year
1873. An examination of the table shows that the total velocity for the
year was the _lowest in Buffalo_ of any of the lake ports; while
Philadelphia and New York showed far higher aggregates of velocity than
our city. On this subject, in the issue of August 21st of the same year,
the editor pleasantly remarks: "Only the interior and southern seaboard
cities, and not many of them, show a lower total velocity of wind than
is marked against this city; and as for those places, heaven help their
unfortunate inhabitants in the sultry nights of the summer season, when
they are gasping in vain for a breath of that pure, cool lake air, which
brings refreshing slumbers to the people of blessed, breezy Buffalo."
EQUABILITY OF CLIMATE.
[Illustration:
One of our Physician's Rooms--Bureau of Correspondence--Invalids'
Hotel and Surgical Institute.]
Then, in regard to _equability of climate_, the great desideratum for
invalids in any locality, here again sentiment and science are greatly
at variance. An examination of the official records of the Signal
Service Bureau, and the statistics of the Smithsonian Institute, showed
that out of a list of forty cities on the continent Buffalo ranked
highest for equability of climate. Thus we quote from an editorial in
the _Advertiser_ of the same issue: "While the aggregate of change for
Buffalo stood at 67 for the year, that of Philadelphia reached 204,
Washington was 224, Cincinnati 205, St. Louis 171. Winchester, in one of
the healthiest parts of Virginia, reached as high as 201. Aiken, in
South Carolina, a famous resort for invalids, touched 220. St.
Augustine, one of the lowest in the list, showed a much less equable
climate than that of Buffalo, being 94 to our 67." The transition from
summer to winter, and _vice versa_, is exceedingly gradual, and,
consequently, Buffalonians are seldom afflicted with those epidemic
diseases which generally appear in other localities during the spring
and summer months. Thus the thermometric readings of the Signal Service
Bureau for 1873, show that the average temperature for July and August
was 74°. For September it was about 64°, which was again reduced by
about 10° for October. The monthly average for November was 73°, and for
December 25°, which was also the average for January. Then the readings
for February showed an average of 26°, for March 32°, and 43° for April.
A more equable and gradual transition from midsummer heat to midwinter
cold cannot be shown by any locality on this continent. Seldom does the
mercury rise above ninety during our warmest summers, or fall below zero
in our most severe winters. In J. Disturnal's work, entitled "The
Influence of Climate in North and South America," published by Van
Nostrand, in 1867, the climate of Buffalo is thus characterized: "From
certain natural causes, no doubt produced by the waters of Lake Erie,
the winters are less severe, the summers less hot, the temperature night
and day more equable, and the transition from heat to cold less rapid,
in Buffalo than in any other locality within the temperate zone of the
United States, as will be seen by the following table." The table
referred to shows that, "during the summer months, the temperature of
Buffalo is from 10° to 20° cooler than that of any other point east,
south, or west of the ports on Lake Erie; while the refreshing and
invigorating lake breeze is felt night and day." The author further adds
that "during the winter months the thermometer rarely indicates zero,
and the mean temperature for January, 1858, was 20° above."
A careful investigation into the comparative climatology of the several
great social and commercial centers, proved _Buffalo to be superior to
all others in the climatic requirements for the invalid_. Besides, it
has the important advantage of being a central point of traffic and
travel between the West and the East.
ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION.
The second important consideration in projecting this home for invalids
was _location_. It has generally been customary to locate institutions
of this character in rural districts, removed from the advantages of
city life, on the plea of escaping the confusion and excitement so
detrimental to recovery. The result is well known. Invalids have
regarded them more as pleasure resorts than health resorts, spending the
summer months there, but fleeing to their homes at the fall of the first
snow-flake. The good that was done in the summer is undone by
carelessness and exposure in the winter. A location that would combine
both city advantages and rural pleasures, seemed to us, upon reflection,
to be the desirable one. Fortunately, Buffalo afforded the happy mean.
Our extensive parks, our unsurpassed facilities for yachting, fishing,
and all aquatic sports, our many sylvan lake and river retreats, our
world-famed Niagara,--certainly a more desirable selection of rural
scenes and pleasures cannot be found in another locality in America.
A GENUINE HOME.
In erecting the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, our paramount
design was to make it a genuine home--_not a hospital_--a home where the
child of fortune would miss none of the comforts of her palatial home,
while the poor man would find not only health but his pleasures
multiplied a thousand fold.
OUR TERMS MODERATE.
The wholesale merchant's prices are far less than those of the retail
dealer. He can afford it, his sales are so much larger. It is on
precisely the same principle that we are able to make the rates at the
Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute comparatively low. If we had only
a limited number of patients, we should be obliged to make the charges
commensurate with our expenses; but our practice having become very
extensive, and the income being correspondingly large, we are enabled to
make the rates at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute so moderate
that all who desire can avail themselves of its medical, surgical, and
hygienic advantages.
[Illustration: Prescription Department--Invalids' Hotel and Surgical
Institute.]
FACILITIES FOR TREATMENT.
Of the many advantages afforded by the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical
Institute, in treating disease, we can make only brief mention of a few
of the more prominent.
DIVISION OF LABOR.
In the examination and treatment of patients, our practice is divided
into specialties. Each member of the Faculty, although educated to
practice in _all_ departments of medicine and surgery, is here assigned
to a special department only, to which he devotes his entire time, study
and attention.
ADVANTAGES OF SPECIALTIES.
The division-of-labor system proves as effectual in the exercise of the
professions as in manufactures. In the legal profession this has long
been a recognized fact. One lawyer devotes his attention specially to
criminal law, and distinguishes himself in that department. Another
develops a special faculty for unraveling knotty questions in matters of
real estate, and, if a title is to be proved, or a deed annulled, he is
the preferred counselor. In a certain manner, too, this has long been
practiced by the medical profession. Thus some physicians (and we may
add physicians who call themselves "regular," and are specially caustic
in their denunciation of "advertising doctors") are accustomed to
distribute cards among their patrons, certifying that they give special
attention to diseases of women and children. In this institution each
physician and surgeon is assigned a special department of medicine or
surgery. By constant study and attention to his department, each has
become a skillful specialist, readily detecting every phase and
complication of the diseases referred to him. Not only is superior skill
thus attained, but also _rapidity_ and _accuracy_ in diagnosis.
Thoroughness and efficiency in any branch of learning can be secured
only by devoting to it special study and attention. When the faculty of
a university is to be chosen, how are its members selected? For
instance, how is the chair of astronomy filled? Do they choose the man
who is celebrated for his general scholastic attainments, or do they not
rather confer it upon one who is known to have devoted special attention
and study to the science of astronomy, and is, therefore, especially
qualified to explain its theories and principles? Thus all the several
chairs are filled by gentlemen whose general scholarship not only is
known to be of the highest standard, but who devote special attention to
the departments assigned them, thus becoming proficient specialists
therein. The same system of specialties is observed in the departments
of a medical college. The professor who would assume to lecture in all
the departments with equal ease and proficiency would be severely
ridiculed by his colleagues; and yet it is just as absurd to suppose
that the general practitioner can keep himself informed of the many new
methods of treatment that are being constantly devised and adopted in
the several departments of medicine and surgery.
PROGRESS IN MEDICINE.
In no other science is more rapid and real progress being made at the
present time than in that of medicine. Even the specialist must be
studious and earnest in his work to keep himself well and accurately
informed of the progress made in his department. Thus it so often
happens that the general practitioner pursues old methods of treatment
which science has long since replaced with others, acknowledged to be
superior. The specialist, on the contrary, by confining his studies and
researches to one class of diseases only, is enabled to inform himself
thoroughly and accurately on all the improvements made in the methods
and means of practice in his special department.
The difference between the practice of specialists and that of general
practitioners is aptly illustrated by the difference between the
old-fashioned district school, in which the school-master taught all the
branches, from a-b-abs to the solution of unknown quantities and the
charmed mysteries of philosophy, and the modern seminary, with its
efficient corps of teachers, each devoting his or her whole attention to
the study and teaching of one special department of learning.
We attribute the success which has attended the practice at the
Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, in a great measure, to a wise
adoption of this system of specialties.
ADVANTAGES OFFERED TO INVALIDS.
Obviously, the most important of these advantages is _facility of
treatment_. Of the thousands whom we have cured of chronic diseases, we
have probably not seen one in five hundred, having accomplished the
desired result through remedies sent either by mail or express, and
advice given by letter. Yet in some obstinate forms of disease, we can
here bring to bear remedial means not to be found or applied elsewhere.
That thousands of cases of chronic disease, pronounced incurable, have,
by our rational and scientific treatment, been restored to perfect
health, is conclusively proved by the records of practice at the
Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute. Here, in obstinate cases, are
brought to bear all the most scientific remedial appliances and methods
of treatment.
A system of mechanical movements, passive exercises, manipulations,
kneadings and rubbings, administered by a large variety of
ingeniously-contrived machinery, driven by stream-power, has been found
especially efficacious and valuable, as an aid to medical and surgical
treatment, in the cure of obstinate cases of nervous and sick headache,
constipation, paralysis, or palsy, stiffened joints, crooked and
withered limbs, spinal curvature, tumors, diseases of women, especially
displacements of the uterus, or womb, such as prolapsus, retroversion
and anteversion, chronic inflammation, enlargement and ulceration of the
uterus, and kindred affections; also in nervous debility, sleeplessness,
and other chronic diseases. Mechanical power, or force, is by these
machines transmitted to the system, in which it is transformed into
vital energy and physical power or strength. This mechanical, passive
exercise, or movement-cure treatment, differs widely from, and should
not be confounded with, "Swedish movements," to which it is far superior
in efficacy. Coupled with our improved and wonderful system of
"Vitalization" treatment, it affords the most perfect system of physical
training and development ever devised. For the restoration of power to
wasted, undeveloped, or weakened organs or parts, for their enlargement,
this combined movement and "Vitalization" treatment is unequaled. It can
be applied to strengthen or enlarge any organ or part. We also employ
both Dynamic and Static electricity, "Franklinism" and Electrolysis, and
chemical, Turkish and other baths, in all cases in which they are
indicated. Inhalations, administered by means of the most approved
apparatus, are employed with advantage in many obstinate lung,
bronchial, and throat affections. We have no hobby or one-idea system of
treatment, no good remedial means being overlooked or neglected.
[Illustration: A glimpse of some
of the rooms for the
application of Electricity,
Mechanical
Massage, "Vitalization"
treatment, and
other agencies prescribed by our Staff;
furnishing a perfect system of physical
and remedial training, carefully adapted
to the wants of the most delicate and feeble,
as well as to the more robust.]
A FAIR AND BUSINESS-LIKE OFFER TO THE AFFLICTED.
Reader, are you accustomed to think and act for yourself? Do you consult
your own reason and best interests? If so, then do not heed the counsel
of skeptical and prejudiced friends, or jealous physicians, but listen
to what we have to say.
You perhaps know nothing of us, or our systems of treatment, or of the
business methods we employ. You may _imagine_, but you _know nothing_,
perhaps, of our facilities and advantages for performing cures in cases
beyond the reach or aid of the general practitioner. Knowing nothing,
then, of all these advantages, you still know as much as the would-be
friend or physician who never loses an opportunity to traduce and
misrepresent us, and prejudice the afflicted against us.
Now to the point--are you listening? Then permit us to state that we
have the largest, the best, and the finest buildings of any like
Association, company, or firm in this country. We employ _more_ and
_better_ Medical and Surgical Specialists in our Invalids' Hotel and
Surgical Institute than any similar Association, company, or individual,
and actually have more capital invested. We have a thoroughly qualified
and eminent Specialist for every disease that we treat. We treat more
cases, _and absolutely cure more patients_ than any similar institution
in America. In addition to those we treat medically, we perform all the
most difficult surgical operations known to the most eminent Surgeons,
and so frequently do many of these operations occur with us that some of
our Specialists have become the most expert and skillful Surgeons on
this continent.
We wish to add further that we are responsible to _you_ for what we
represent; we therefore ask you to come and visit our institutions; and,
if you find on investigation that we have misstated or misrepresented
_in any particular_ our institutions, our advantages, or our success in
curing Chronic Diseases, _we will gladly and promptly refund to you all
the expenses of your trip_. We court honest, sincere investigation, and
are glad and anxious to show interested people what we can do and are
daily doing for suffering humanity. Can a proposition be plainer? Can an
offer be more fair and business-like? If, therefore, you are afflicted,
and are seeking relief, come where genuine ability is a ruling feature,
where _success_ is our watchword and the alleviation of human suffering
our mission.
Whether arriving in our city by day or night, _come directly to the
Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, 663 Main Street_, where you will
be hospitably received and well cared for.
Address all correspondence to
WORLD'S DISPENSARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION,
_663 Main Street, BUFFALO, N.Y._
* * * * *
SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF CHRONIC OR LINGERING DISEASES.
[Illustration]
For many years the founder of the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute
and World's Dispensary has devoted himself very closely to the
investigation and treatment of chronic diseases. Some few specifics
have, during this time, been developed for certain forms of chronic
ailments, and given to the public, but they have not been lauded as
"cure-alls," or panaceas, but only recommended as remedies for certain
well-defined and easily recognized forms of disease. These medicines are
sold through druggists very largely, and have earned great celebrity for
their many cures. So far from claiming that these proprietary medicines
will cure all diseases, their manufacturers advise the afflicted that,
in many complicated and delicate chronic affections, they are not
sufficient to meet the wants of the case. These must have special
consideration and treatment by a competent physician and surgeon, the
medicines and other remedial means required being selected and prepared
with reference to each particular case.
In order to be able to offer those afflicted with chronic ailments the
most skillful medical and surgical services, Dr. Pierce, many years ago,
associated with himself several eminent physicians and surgeons, as the
Faculty of the old and renowned World's Dispensary, the consulting
Department of which is now merged with the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical
Institute.
DIVISION OF LABOR.
In the organization of the medical and surgical staff of the Invalids'
Hotel and Surgical Institute, several years ago, we assigned to one
physician the examination and treatment of diseases of the nervous
system; to another, surgical operations and the treatment of surgical
diseases; a third had charge of catarrhal and pulmonary diseases and
affections of the heart; a fourth attended to diseases peculiar to
women; a fifth, to diseases of the eye and ear; a sixth, to diseases of
the digestive organs; a seventh, to special surgical cases; to another
we entrusted diseases of the urogenital organs; and to others, various
other specialties. Now that our practice has become so very extensive as
to require for its conduct a greatly increased number of physicians and
surgeons. Thus four physicians and surgeons devote their undivided
attention to the examination and treatment of diseases of the urinary
and generative organs of men. Three physicians give their sole attention
to diseases peculiar to women and three to those of the nasal organs,
throat and chest, embracing all chronic diseases of the respiratory
organs. Thus we have a full council of three and four physicians in
these several specialties. In several other divisions we have two
specialists. No case is slighted either in the examination or in the
treatment. All doubtful, obscure or difficult cases are submitted to a
council composed of several physicians and surgeons. Skilled
pharmaceutists are employed to compound the medicines prescribed. For
the purpose of enabling us to conduct our extensive correspondence (for
we have an extensive practice en every part of the United States and
Canada, as well as in Great Britain from our London branch),
graphophones are employed, to which replies are dictated, recording the
words of the speaker. Afterwards the letters are written out in full,
generally on a type-writing machine, which prints them in a plain,
legible style. These machines are operated as rapidly as a person can
think of the letters which compose a word, each operator thus
accomplishing the work of several copyists. This system, by which we are
enabled to correspond with our patients as rapidly as we can talk, has
been rendered necessary by the growth of our business, which has
attained immense proportions, giving rise to so large a correspondence
that a dozen physicians cannot possibly conduct it all and give each
patient's case careful attention, without the employment of graphophones
and all other facilities which modern invention has given us. By the
adoption of these various means, we are enabled to fully meet the
demands of the afflicted, and give every case the most careful
attention.
[Illustration: Faculty of Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute in
Session.--Council-room.]
As many persons, particularly young ladies and gentlemen, having catarrh
or almost any other chronic disease, especially if of the urogenital
organs, are very sensitive and fearful that somebody will know that they
are afflicted and employing medical treatment, precautions are taken
that none who consult us may incur the least risk of exposure. Although
none but the most honorable and trustworthy gentlemen are employed as
assistants, yet as a _guarantee_ of perfect security to our patients,
that every communication, whether made in person or by letter, will be
treated as _sacredly confidential_, each professional associate, clerk,
or assistant, is required to take a solemn oath of secrecy. Great care
is also taken to send all letters and medicines carefully sealed in
plain envelopes and packages, so that no one can even _suspect_ the
contents or by whom they are sent.
ADVANTAGES OF SPECIALTIES.
By thorough organization and a perfect system of subdividing the
practice of medicine and surgery in this institution, every invalid
consulting us is treated by a specialist--one who devotes his undivided
attention to the particular class of diseases to which his or her case
belongs. The advantage of this arrangement must be obvious. Medical
science offers a vast field for investigation, and no physician can,
within the limit of a single life-time, achieve the highest degree of
success in the treatment of _every_ malady incident to humanity. A
distinguished professor in the medical department of one of our
universities, in an address to the graduating class, recently said:
"Some professional men seem to be ashamed unless they have the character
of universal knowledge. He who falls into the error of studying
everything will be certain to know nothing well. Every man must have a
good foundation. He must, in the first place, be a good general
practitioner. But the field has become too large to be cultivated in its
entirety by any individual; hence the advantage of cultivating special
studies in large towns, which admit of the subdivision of professional
pursuits. It is no longer possible to know everything; something must
be wisely left unknown. Indeed, a physician, if he would know anything
well must be content to be profoundly ignorant of many things. He must
select something for special study, and pursue it with devotion and
diligence. This course will lead to success, while the attempt to do
everything eventuates unavoidably in failure. Let there be single hands
for special duties." Our institution is the only one in this country in
which these common-sense-ideas are _thoroughly_ carried out. The
diversified tastes and talents of physicians cause each to excel in
treating some one class of diseases, to which he devotes more attention
and study than to others. One medical student manifests great interest
in the anatomy, physiology, pathology, and treatment of diseases of the
eye. He becomes thoroughly familiar with all the minutest details
relative to that organ and its diseases, and so thoroughly qualifies
himself in this branch of knowledge that he is able to cure an
inflammation or other affection of the eye in a very short time. Another
student is more interested in some other class of diseases, for the
study of which he has a liking, and neglects to inform himself in the
ophthalmic branch of medical and surgical science. If after engaging in
the practice of his chosen profession, he is consulted by persons
suffering from diseases of the eye, he tortures them with unnecessary
and oftimes injurious applications, clumsily and carelessly made, and,
as the result of such unskillful treatment, the inestimable blessing of
sight may be sacrificed.
[Illustration: A Corner in Printing Department.--World's Dispensary.]
The great majority of physicians allow acute maladies, diseases of
children, and the practice of midwifery, to engross most of their time
and attention. They manifest an absorbing interest in everything that
relates to these subjects, and devote little or no time to acquiring an
intimate knowledge of the great variety of chronic maladies which
afflict mankind. They acquire skill and reputation in their favorite
line of practice, but are annoyed if consulted by one suffering from
some obscure chronic affection, usually turn the invalid off with a very
superficial examination, and, perhaps, only prescribe some placebo,[6]
apparently indifferent as to the result, but really desiring thus to
conceal their lack of familiarity with such diseases. The specialist,
the treatment of chronic diseases being his vocation, is equally annoyed
if consulted by those suffering from acute diseases, but does not pursue
the inconsistent course of assuming to treat them. He refers them to
those of his medical brethren whose daily dealings with such cases make
them, in his way of thinking, more competent than himself to render
valuable service to such sufferers. He recognizes the fact that no man
is likely to succeed in any line of study or business for which he
possesses no talent or relish, nor does he believe in being a
"jack-at-all-trades and master of none."
ADVERTISING.
Having thoroughly qualified himself for the practice of some particular
branch of the healing art, the specialist sees no impropriety in
acquainting the public with his ability to relieve certain forms of
suffering. He believes that medical men should possess equal rights with
other business men, and that any code of medical ethics which would
deprive him of any of the sacred rights guaranteed to all by the liberal
laws of the country, is professional _tyranny_, and merits only his
contemptuous disregard. Nor does he display any false modesty in the
_manner_ of making known his skill. He maintains that he has an
undoubted right to place his claim to patronage before the public by
every fair and honorable means. He recognizes the display of goods in
the merchant's show-windows as no less an advertisement and in no better
taste than the publication of a card in the newspaper. So, likewise, he
regards the various devices by which the extremely _ethical_ physician
seeks to place himself conspicuously before the public, as but so many
ways of advertising, and as not more modest than the publication of
cures actually performed, or than his announcement through the public
press of his professional resources for treating certain maladies.
The physician who expresses a "holy horror" of the "_advertising
doctor_," liberally bestowing upon him the epithet of "quack," announces
_himself_ a graduate, talks learnedly and gives notice to the public in
_some_ way that he is ready to serve them. He endeavors to impress upon
the mind of the patient and family his skill, frequently exaggerates as
to the extent of his practice, rides furiously about when he has no
professional calls, keeps up business appearances by driving several
horses, or joins influential societies. He may make a great display in
style, manner, dress, pretensions, writing for the newspapers,
exhibiting literary pedantry, referring to the superior facilities
afforded by some particular school or society to which he belongs; or by
editing and publishing a medical journal, ostensibly for the advancement
of medical science, but practically to display titles or professorships,
to publish reports which flatteringly allude to cases he has treated,
the number of capital surgical operations he has performed, or the
distinguished families he is treating. All these are but _modes of
advertising_ professional wares; in short, are artful, though not
refined, tricks, resorted to for private announcement. We say to all
such adventurers in modern advertising diplomacy, that these indirect,
clandestine methods are not half so candid and honorable as a direct
public statement of the intentions and proposals of a medical
practitioner, who thereby incurs an individual responsibility before the
law and his fellow-men.
No good reason has ever been assigned why any well educated physician,
trained in the school of experience until he becomes proficient in
medical skill, may not publish facts and evidence to disclose it,
especially when these are abundant and conclusive. The following
extracts from an able article by the Rev. THOMAS K. BEECHER embodies a
sound view of the subject of medical advertising. He says:
* * "I am glad that the doctor cured him; I am glad that the doctor put
it in the paper that he could cure him. And if any doctor is certain
that he can cure such diseases and don't put it in the paper, I am
sorry. What a pity it would have been had this doctor come to town with
his wealth of science and experience and gone away leaving him uncured!
What a pity it would have been if he had been so prejudiced against
advertising as to read the responsible certificate of the doctor and
give him the go-by as a quack! What are newspapers for, if not to
circulate information? What more valuable information can a newspaper
give than to tell a sick man where he can be cured? If a man has devoted
his life and labor to the study of a special class of diseases, the
necessity of his saying so becomes all the more pressing. His _duty_ to
advertise becomes imperative.
"When I was in England, I found on all the dead walls of London,
placards, declaring that Dean Stanley, Chaplain to the Prince of Wales,
would preach at such a place; that his grace the Archbishop (I think) of
Canterbury would preach at another time and place; again, that an Oxford
professor would preach. In short, religious notices were sprinkled in
among the theater bills, and the highest church dignitaries were
advertised side by side with actors, singers, and clowns. Of course, I
was shocked by it, but in a moment I bethought me--if it be all right
and dignified to hire a sexton to ring a bell when the minister is going
to preach, it is all the same to silence the bell and hire a
bill-sticker to tell the same news, the essential thing being to tell
the truth every time. The remedy for the lying advertisements is for
honest men to tell the truth. 'When iniquity cometh in like a flood,
then the spirit of the Lord lifts up the standard.' A really able man,
whatever be his gifts, makes a great mistake if he fail to use those
gifts through want of advertising."
If a physician possesses knowledge that enables him to remedy diseases
heretofore regarded as incurable, what virtue or modesty is there to
"hide his light under a bushel"? In this free country the people think
and act for themselves, and hence all have a deep concern in the subject
of health. The strong popular prejudice against the doctors who
advertise is due to the fact, that by this method so many ignorant
charlatans are enabled to palm off their worthless services upon the
uneducated and credulous; but the practice of such imposition should not
cause a presumption against the public announcement of real skill, for
the baser metal bears conclusive evidence that the pure also exists.
Every step in scientific investigation, every proposition which relates
to the interest and happiness of man, every statement and appeal
involving a valuable consideration, must be submitted to the scrutiny
and judgment of individual reason; for every person has the right to
form his own conclusions, and justify them by experience. Those claims
which are only supported by empty assertion are very doubtful. Misty
theories vanish before the sun of truth. He who renders professional
services cannot be successful, unless he be sustained by real merit.
TREATING PATIENTS WHO RESIDE AT A DISTANCE.
We can treat many chronic diseases as successfully without as with a
personal consultation, as our vast experience enables us to correctly
determine the malady from which the patient is suffering, from a history
of the symptoms, and answers to questions furnished. We have not seen
one person in five hundred of those whom we have cured.
Some may suppose that a physician cannot obtain, through correspondence,
a sufficiently accurate idea of the condition of a patient to enable him
to treat the case successfully; but a large experience in this practice
has proved the contrary to be true, for some of the most remarkable
cures have been effected through the medium of correspondence. In most
long-continued cases, the patient has thought over his symptoms hundreds
of times. The location of every pain, whether acute or mild, constant or
occasional, and the circumstances under which it occurs, have been
carefully noted. He has observed whether he had a rush of blood to the
head, was feverish or chilly, whether troubled with cold hands and feet,
whether full of blood, or pale and bloodless; and he states these
matters with accuracy and common sense when writing to us, for he has a
very good, if not a professional, knowledge of the relative importance
of these symptoms. So in regard to digestion, he states what kinds of
food agree with him, or whether he is troubled with excessive acidity or
a flatulent condition of the stomach. He also informs us whether his
tongue is coated and bilious, or clean and healthy, and gives many other
particulars too various to enumerate, by which we are enabled to gain a
perfect understanding of the case. If his description be not
sufficiently complete to enable us to obtain a definite understanding of
the case, he is requested to answer a list of important questions which
are sent him. The people are far more intelligent in these matters than
physicians are generally willing to admit. A patient is often confused
while being personally examined by a physician, and gives imperfect or
incorrect answers. After he has left the presence of the physician, he
finds that he has failed to enumerate many of the most important
symptoms. In consulting by letter, the patient is not embarrassed, he
states the exact symptoms, and carefully reads over the letter to see if
it is a complete and accurate description of his sufferings. In this way
he conveys a much better idea of the case than if present in person, and
subjected to the most thorough questioning and cross-examination. The
timid lady and nervous young man write just as they feel; and one
important reason why we have had such superior success in treating
intricate and delicate diseases, is because we have obtained such true
and natural statements of the cases from these letters, many of which
are perfect pen-pictures of disease. As bank-tellers and cashiers, who
daily handle large quantities of currency, can infallibly detect
spurious money by a glance at the engraving or a touch of the paper, so
the experienced physician, by his great familiarity with disease,
becomes equally skilled in detecting the nature and extent of a chronic
malady from a written description of its symptoms.
URINARY SIGNS.
A careful microscopical examination and chemical analysis of the urine
is a valuable aid in determining the nature of many chronic diseases,
particularly those of the nervous system, blood, liver, kidneys,
bladder, prostate gland and generative organs. This important fact is
not overlooked at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, where an
experienced chemist is employed to make such examinations and report the
result to the attending physicians. Medical authors, professors, and
practitioners of all schools, admit and even insist upon the importance
of such examinations in diagnosticating diseases. Many practitioners
neglect to take advantage of this invaluable aid, while others fear that
if they attach much importance to such examinations they will be ranked
with "uroscopian" or "water" doctors, a class of enthusiasts who claim
to be able to correctly diagnosticate every disease by an examination of
the urine. Persons consulting us and wishing to avail themselves of the
advantages afforded by these examinations can send small vials of their
urine by express. The vials should be carefully packed in saw-dust or
paper and enclosed in a light wooden box. All charges for transportation
must be prepaid, and a complete history of the case including the age
and sex of the patient, must accompany each package, or it will receive
no attention. This saves valuable time by directing the examination into
the channels indicated, thus avoiding a lengthy series of experiments.
As we are daily receiving numerous vials of urine, every sample should,
to prevent confusion, be labeled with the patient's name.
[Illustration: Binocular Microscope used at the Invalids' Hotel and
Surgical Institute.]
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
There is a natural, definite proportion of the component elements of
every solid and fluid of the human body. These proportions have been
reduced to definite standards, a deviation from which affords evidence
of disease. Thus, there being a fixed standard in a normal proportion of
the elements of the blood, any deviation from it, as in anæmia,
leucocythæmia, etc., indicates disease. So also the standard proportion
of the urinary elements being known, any considerable change, either in
quantity or quality of its parts, bears unmistakable evidence of
disease. The invention of the microscope has provided increased
facilities for detecting diseases by examination of the urine. By the
aid of this wonderful instrument, we are enabled to discover with
absolute certainty the various urinary deposits characteristic of
different maladies; thus in Fig. 1, A represents in a general way the
sediment of abnormal urine as seen under the microscope. In division B
is represented oxalate of urea upon precipitation by oxalic acid.
Nitrate of urea is represented in division C. A deficiency of urea in
the urine, with albumen and casts present, is a most important guide in
the diagnosis of Bright's disease. The average quantity of urea present
during health is 21.57 parts in 1,000. The microscopic examination of
the urine, notwithstanding the distaste, and even contempt, which many
physicians manifest for such investigations, is pursued at the Invalids'
Hotel and Surgical Institute, with inestimable benefit to our patients.
It has revealed the existence of many serious affections, which, with
all our other modes of investigation, we might have been unable to
detect. It has also thrown light upon many obscure chronic diseases.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
We have already spoken of the marked changes effected in the urine by a
derangement of the digestive functions. It is a matter of surprise that
physicians generally pay so little attention to the urine when dyspepsia
is suspected, since all admit that an examination of that excretion
furnishes unmistakable evidence of the nature and complications of the
disease. In this way we are many times enabled to determine whether the
indigestion is caused by congestion or functional disease of the liver
or kidneys or by nervous debility. And when such cases are treated in
accordance with the indications furnished, increased success attends our
practice. In Fig. 2 highly magnified urinary deposits, which indicate
impairment of the digestive functions, are represented. The crystals are
composed of oxalate of lime and appear in the different forms shown in
the five sections, of octahedral, decahedral, round and dumb bell
shapes. The latter are formed in the kidneys, and are sometimes
discovered adhering to casts.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
INVALUABLE AIDS IN DETERMINING DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS AND BLADDER.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
The various forms of gravel, Bright's disease of the kidneys,
hæmaturia, inflammation of the kidneys and bladder, diabetes, and other
functional and organic diseases of the urinary organs effect
characteristic changes in the urine, thus enabling us to distinguish
them with certainty and exactness. Some of the various microscopical
appearances of the urinary deposits in diseases of the kidneys and
bladder, are represented in Fig. 3. In division A is represented pus and
mucus, with decomposition, indicating suppuration somewhere along the
urinary tract. In B pus globules are alone represented. In the division
marked C are shown blood corpuscles as they are arranged in blood drawn
from a vein or artery. D represents the same separated, as they always
are when present in the urine. In E highly magnified oil globules are
represented. If present in the urine, they indicate disease of the
kidneys. In F are represented epithelial cells, the presence of which in
large numbers is indicative of diseases of the mucous lining of the
urinary organs.
Fig. 4 represents the microscopic appearance of phosphates in the
urine. These are present in great quantity in cases of nervous debility
and kindred affections. By attaching the _camera lucida_ to the
microscope we can throw an image of these urinary deposits upon paper.
By the art of the engraver this may be faithfully traced, and thus we
are enabled to produce an accurate representation of them. Some of the
beautiful crystalline deposits shown in Fig. 4 represent less than a
millionth part of a grain, yet their forms are delineated with
geometrical precision. Earthy phosphates are often mistaken for pus and
also seminal fluid. Phosphates are always found in decomposed urine,
otherwise they indicate brain affections, acute cystitis, etc.
Experience has taught us that the voiding of urine loaded with
phosphates is a forerunner of cystitis, or enlargement of the prostate
gland, or both. In fact, persons so affected are "prone to serious
consequences from mild attacks of almost any and every acute disease."
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
Fig. 5 represents the microscopic appearance of mixed urinary deposits.
In division A is represented fermentation spores as they appear in
diabetic urine. Pasteur asserts that the germs of this fungus get into
the urine after it has been passed. Urates appear in division B. These
indicate waste of flesh, as in fevers, consumption, prolonged physical
efforts, etc. Division C pictures urates of ammonia. These appear in
alkaline decomposition of the urine; it is isomeric with uric acid in
acid urine. In division D is represented urate of soda, which is present
in the tissues of persons suffering from gout. The crystals shown in
division E consist of the same salt.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.]
In Fig. 6, division A, is represented purulent matter as it appears in
the urine. The formation of pus in different parts of the genitourinary
system is accompanied by the appearance of pus corpuscles in the urine.
When fat globules, represented in division B, are found in the urine,
they indicate fatty degeneration. In division C are representations of
the cells found in the urine of persons suffering from cystitis or other
inflammatory diseases.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
Fig. 7, divisions A and B, represent different forms of cystine.
Fortunately this substance is rarely found in the urine. When present
however it indicates liability to, or the actual presence of, a calculus
or stone in the bladder. In division C is a representation of the
deposits seen in the urine of those who are greatly debilitated. In
division D are seen epithelial cells mixed with mucus.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
In Fig. 8, division A, are represented the caudated cells from the deep
structure of the bladder. The cells represented in division B are
amyloid concretions, found where there is an enlarged prostate gland.
Fig. 9 represents the appearance of spermatozoa as seen in the urine.
When present, they afford indisputable evidence of the escape of semen
in the renal excretions.
We might add many other illustrations of urinary deposits and state
their several indications, but a sufficient number has been introduced
to show the importance and practical value of microscopic examinations
of the urine in revealing obscure diseases.
Although the microscope is of inestimable value in examining the renal
excretion, it does not entirely supersede other valuable instruments and
chemical re-agents in determining constitutional changes. By the
urinometer we determine the specific gravity of the urine; by the use of
litmus its acid or alkaline reaction, is ascertained; while various
chemicals, when added to it, produce certain specific changes, according
to the morbid alterations which it has undergone by reason of disease.
By the application of heat, or the addition of a few drops of nitric
acid, the albumen, which is invariably present in Bright's disease of
the kidneys, is coagulated. By the employment of other re-agents we may
determine the presence of sugar--a characteristic of diabetic urine. And
thus we might mention almost innumerable chemical tests by which the
several changed conditions of the urine, _characteristic_ of different
diseases, may be ascertained with _absolute certainty_.
THE MOST EMINENT MEDICAL AUTHORITIES ENDORSE IT.
Dr. Eberle, a distinguished allopathic author, thus writes: "Whatever
may be the disease, the urine seldom fails in furnishing us with a clue
to the principles upon which it is to be treated."
Dr. Braithwaite also says: "We can arrive at a more accurate knowledge
respecting the nature of diseases from examining the urine than from any
other symptom."