The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English Part 49

VARIETIES. People often suppose that there are a great many varieties or species of catarrh. This is an error. The nature of the disease is the same in all cases, the symptoms only varying with the different stages of the disorder, and the various complicated conditions which are liable to arise, and which have already been pointed out.

CAUSES. Anything which debilitates the system, or diminishes its powers of evolving animal heat and withstanding cold or sudden changes of atmospheric temperature, and other disease-producing agencies, renders the individual thus enfeebled very liable to catarrh. Among the most common debilitating agencies are a scrofulous condition of the system, or other impurities of the blood, exhaustive fevers, and other prostrating acute diseases, or those badly treated; exhaustive and unnatural discharges, intemperance, excessive study, self-abuse, adversity, grief, want of sleep, syphilitic taints of the system, which may have been contracted unknowingly, or may have been inherited, having perhaps been handed down even unto the third or fourth generation, to an innocent posterity from infected progenitors; too sudden rest after great and fatiguing exercise, and living in poorly-ventilated apartments. These are among the most fruitful causes of those feeble, deranged, or impure conditions of the system to which catarrh so frequently owes its origin. Although the immediate or exciting cause is generally repeated attacks of "cold in the head," which, being neglected or improperly treated; "go on from bad to worse," yet the predisposing or real cause of the disease is in the majority of cases, an enfeebled, impure, or otherwise faulty condition of the system, which invites the disease, and needs only the irritation produced in the nasal pa.s.sages by an attack of cold, to kindle the flame and establish the loathsome malady. Some people are convinced with difficulty that there exists in their system a weakness, impurity, or derangement of any kind, which permitted the disease to fasten itself upon them. They may not feel any great weakness, may not have any pimples, blotches, eruptions, swellings, or ulcers, upon their whole person; in fact, nothing about them that would, except to the skilled eye of the practical and experienced physician, indicate that their system is weakened or deranged with bad humors; and yet such a fault may, and GENERALLY DOES, exist. As an ulcer upon the leg, or a "fever-sore," or an eruption upon the skin, may be the only outward sign of a fault in the system, so frequently chronic catarrh is the only sign by which a bad condition of the system manifests itself in a manner that is perceptible to the sufferer himself, or to the non-professional observer. The finely-skilled physician, whose constant practice makes his perceptive faculties perfect in this direction, would detect the const.i.tutional fault, as an experienced banker detects a finely-executed and dangerous bank-note which the unpracticed eye would p.r.o.nounce genuine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 9.

Examination of the Nasal Pa.s.sages by means of the Rhinoscope and Head Mirror.]

TREATMENT. If you would remove an evil _strike at its root_. As the predisposing or real cause of catarrh is, in the majority of cases, some weakness, impurity, or otherwise faulty condition of the system, in attempting to cure the disease our chief aim must be directed to the removal of that cause. The more we see of this odious disease, the more so we the importance of combining; with the use of a local, soothing and healing application, a thorough and persistent internal use of blood-cleansing and tonic medicines.

As a local application for healing the diseased condition in the head, Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy is beyond all comparison the best preparation ever invented. It is mild and pleasant to use, producing no smarting or pain, and containing no strong, irritating, or caustic drug, or other poison. Its ingredients are simple and harmless, yet when scientifically and skillfully combined, in just the right proportions, they form a most wonderful and valuable healing medicine. Like gunpowder, which is formed of a combination of saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal, the ingredients are simple, but the product of their combination is wonderful in its effects. The Remedy is a powerful antiseptic, and speedily destroys all bad smell which accompanies so many cases of catarrh, thus affording great comfort to those who suffer from this disease.

The reader's mind cannot be too strongly impressed with the importance of combining thorough const.i.tutional with the local treatment of this disease. Not only will the cure be thus more surely, speedily, and permanently, effected, but you thereby guard against other forms of disease breaking out, as the result of humors in the blood or const.i.tutional derangement or weakness.

In curing catarrh and all the various diseases with which it is so frequently complicated, as throat, bronchial, and lung diseases, weak stomach, catarrhal deafness, weak or inflamed eyes, impure blood, scrofulous and syphilitic taints, the wonderful powers and virtues of the "Golden Medical Discovery" cannot be too strongly extolled. It has a specific effect upon the lining mucous membranes of the nasal and other air pa.s.sages, promoting the natural secretion of their follicles and glands, thereby softening the diseased and thickened membrane, and restoring it to its natural, thin, delicate, moist, healthy condition.

As a blood-purifier, it is unsurpa.s.sed. As those diseases which complicate catarrh are diseases of the lining mucous membranes, or of the blood, it will readily be seen why this medicine is so well calculated to cure them.

The "Golden Medical Discovery" is the natural "helpmate" of Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy. It not only cleanses, purifies, regulates, and builds up the system to a healthy standard, and conquers throat, bronchial, and lung complications, when any such exist, but, from its specific effects upon the lining membrane of the nasal pa.s.sages, it aids materially in restoring the diseased, thickened, or ulcerated membrane to a healthy condition, and thus eradicates the disease. When a cure is effected in this manner it is permanent. The system is so purified, regulated, and strengthened, as to be strongly fortified against the encroachments of catarrh and other diseases. The effects of the "Golden Medical Discovery" upon the system will be gradual, and the alterative changes of tissue and function generally somewhat slow. They are with however, less complete, radical, and lasting; and this const.i.tutes its great merit. Under its influence all the secretions are aroused to carry the blood-poisons out of the system, the nutrition is promoted, and the patient finds himself gradually improving in flesh; his strength is built up, his lingering ailments dwindle away, and by and by he finds his whole person has been entirely renovated and repaired he feels like a new man--a perfect being.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 10.

Atomizer. ]

THE CLOTHING. With most persons suffering from chronic nasal catarrh, there is a great disposition to take cold, even slight cause being sufficient to produce an acute attack, which greatly aggravates the chronic affection and operates to render it permanent. To obviate the bad effects that are liable to result from this predisposition, great attention should be paid to the clothing, that it thoroughly protects the person from sudden changes of temperature. For more particular and practical suggestions in regard to this matter, the reader is referred to the article on Clothing, in Part Two, Chapter II, of "The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser."

THE DIET has an important influence with this disease, as with consumption and many other chronic ailments. It should be largely composed of those articles rich in the non-nitrogenized or carbonaceous elements. Fat meats, rich, sweet cream, good b.u.t.ter, and other similar articles of food, should comprise a large part of the diet. These elements, which are prolific in the production of animal heat counteract the predisposition to take cold, and thus become most valuable remedial agents--not less essential than the medical treatment that has been advised. The patient, suffering from chronic catarrh, should study well the hygienic teachings to be found in Part Two of "The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser," and govern himself accordingly.

TREATMENT OF COMPLICATIONS. There are various complications of this disease that require modifications of the treatment to meet them successfully. The rules cannot be made that would enable non-professional readers to vary the treatment to suit peculiarities of const.i.tution, or complications of the disease. When consulted, either the person or by letter, we have been able to so modify the treatment as to be adopt it to peculiar individuals which rejected the ordinary treatment, and have thus cured hundreds who had otherwise failed to find relief.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 11.

Steam Atomizer, ill.u.s.trating position of head during treatment.]

TIME REQUIRED IN EFFECTING A CURE. Reader, if you suffer from chronic nasal catarrh, do not expect to be very speedily cured, especially if your case is one of long standing. Unprincipled quacks and charlatans, who possess no knowledge of disease, or medicine either, and whose sole design is to palm off upon you a bottle or two of some worse than worthless strong, caustic solution, irritating snuff, or drying "fumigator," "dry up," "annihilator," "carbolated catarrh cure,"

"catarrh specific," or other strong preparation, will tell you that the worst cases can be _speedily_ cured by these unreasonable means. It is true that such strong, irritating, and drying preparations will many times suddenly arrest the discharge from the nose, but the thickened or ulcerated condition of the lining mucous membrane, which really const.i.tutes the disease, is not removed by such treatment, and the discharge soon comes on again. Besides, there is danger attending the employment of such strong, irritating, or drying preparations. The disease, by their use, is frequently driven to the throat, bronchial tubes, lungs, or brain, and thus a bad matter is made worse. Not less irrational and unsuccessful is the plan of treating the disease with inhalations of "carbolized iodine," and other drags, administered through variously-devised pocket and other inhalers. Such treatment may mask or cover up catarrh for a time; but, by reason of the const.i.tutional nature of the disease, it cannot effect a perfect and permanent cure. Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy, on the other hand, cures the disease on common-sense, rational, and scientific principles, by its mild, soothing, and healing properties, to which the disease gradually yields, when the system has been put in perfect order by the use of "Golden Medical Discovery." This is the only perfectly safe, scientific, and successful mode of acting upon and healing it. Without, we trust, being considered egotistical, we can say that this opinion is based upon a large experience and a perfect familiarity with the nature and curability of the disease. For many years our whole time and attention has been given to the study and cure of catarrh and other chronic diseases treated of in "The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser."

Cases of catarrh have been treated by thousands, and our medicines for the cure of this loathsome disease, and of other chronic diseases, have met with an extensive sale in all parts of the United States, and have found their way into many foreign countries. The universal satisfaction with which their use has been attended, and the grateful manifestations received from the cured, have afforded one of the greatest pleasures of our lives. Scarcely a mail arrives that does not bring new testimony of cures effected by the treatment here recommended.

DIRECTIONS FOR USING DR. SAGE'S CATARRH REMEDY.

To prepare the medicine ready for use, put the whole quant.i.ty of powder contained in the package, as put up for sale, into a bottle; pour into it one pint of cool, soft water. Rain water or melted snow is good.

Ordinary lake, river, well or spring water will do if only _slightly_ hard. Cork the bottle tightly and shake it thoroughly, after which allow it to stand six or eight hours to settle. Two of the ingredients of which the remedy is composed do not entirely dissolve, but their medicinal properties are completely and speedily extracted and taken up by the water. These settlings have lost their medicinal properties and should not be allowed to enter the nasal cavity. It should be kept tightly corked, not allowing it to freeze in winter, or be kept where it is very warm in summer. This we term the "Catarrh Remedy Fluid."

Use the fluid, prepared according to the above directions, not less than three or four times a day, the last time just before retiring, in the following manner: Without shaking the bottle to roll the fluid, pour out a teaspoonful or more into the hollow of the hand, hold it there until warmed; first gently, and afterwards forcibly, snuff the fluid up one nostril and then the other, until the nose is well filled and it pa.s.ses back into the throat. No fears need be entertained that it will produce strangling or any unpleasant effect in thus using it, for, unlike any other fluids (simple tepid water not excepted), it does not produce the slightest pain or disagreeable feeling, but, on the contrary, leaves such a cooling, pleasant sensation that its use soon becomes a pleasure rather than a task. In a few minutes after thus using the remedy, it should be blown out gently (never forcibly), to clear the nose and throat of all hardened crusts and offensive acc.u.mulations, if any such exist. Never blow the nose violently, as it irritates the pa.s.sages and counteracts, to some extent, the curative effects of the remedy. This process should be repeated until the remedy has been thoroughly applied two or three times, not blowing it out the last time of using it, but retaining the medicine in contact with the affected parts for a considerable length of time. No harm can result if the fluid be swallowed, as it contains nothing poisonous or injurious.

A BETTER WAY. The manner of using Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy, advised above, is somewhat imperfect and not nearly so thorough a mode as the one to which the reader's attention will now be directed.

In a very large number of bad cases of catarrh, or those of long standing, the disease has crept along and extended high up in the nasal pa.s.sages, and into the various sinuses or cavities, and tubes communicating therewith. The act of snuffing the fluid _carries it along the floor of the nose and into the throat_, but does not carry it _high enough_, or fill the pa.s.sages _full enough_, to reach all the chambers, tubes, and surfaces, that are affected with the disease.

The fluid may seem, from the sensation produced, to pa.s.s high up between the eyes, or even above them, but it does not. It is only a sensation transmitted to these parts by nerves, the filaments of which are distributed to that portion of the mucous membrane which the fluid does not reach, just as a sensation is transmitted to the little finger by a blow upon the elbow.

Now, in order to be most successful in the treatment of catarrh, it is necessary that _the remedy should reach and be thoroughly applied to all the affected parts_. This can be accomplished in only one way, which is by _hydrostatic pressure_. The anatomy of the nasal pa.s.sages, and the various chambers and tubes that communicate therewith, is such that they cannot be reached with fluid administered with any kind of syringe or inhaling tube, or with any instrument, except one constructed to apply it upon the principle above stated. Such an instrument is Dr. Pierce's Nasal Douche.

By the use of this instrument, the fluid enters every portion of the air-pa.s.sages of the head by its own weight, no snuffing being required.

DIRECTIONS FOR USING DR. SAGE'S CATARRH REMEDY WITH THIS INSTRUMENT.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 12.

This cut ill.u.s.trates the manner of using Dr. Pierce's Nasal Douche.]

To cleanse out the pa.s.sages previous to applying the Catarrh Remedy fluid, take one quart of soft water, add to it two large tablespoonfuls of common salt, and shake it up occasionally until all is dissolved.

Before use heat it until blood warm, or, in other words, until it gives a pleasant, mild warmth to the inserted finger. Put the reservoir on a shelf, or hang it up, so that it will be a little higher than the head: fill the reservoir with salt and water, pressing the tube between the thumb and finger so as to prevent the fluid from escaping through it; introduce the nozzle at the end of the tube into one nostril, pressing it in far enough to close the entrance of the pa.s.sage so that no fluid can escape by the side of the tube, breathe through the mouth, avoid swallowing, and allow the fluid to flow. The soft palate, by the act of breathing through the mouth, is elevated so as to completely close the pa.s.sage into the throat, and thus the fluid is made to flow up one nostril in a gentle stream, to pa.s.s into and thoroughly cleanse all the sinuses, or cavities, connected with the nasal pa.s.sages, and to flow out of the other nostril. The douche should not be employed unless both nostrils are open and the flow is free. If the head is "stopped up,"

snuff up the warm liquid from the hand occasionally, until the pa.s.sages are open and you can breathe freely through both nostrils.

Do not forget that the instrument will not work properly unless you _breathe through the mouth and avoid swallowing_ while the fluid flows.

Fill the reservoir a second time with the simple salt and water, and, inserting the nozzle into the nostril out of which the fluid flowed on using it the first time, pa.s.s the current through in the opposite direction; that is, so that it will flow out of the nostril into which it flowed the first time of using it.

After having thus thoroughly cleansed the pa.s.sages, fill the instrument half full or more with the "Catarrh Remedy Fluid," prepared as heretofore directed, and warmed to a moderate temperature, and pa.s.s this through the nose in the same manner as directed for the salt water. The salt water is not curative, but is milder than simple water, and is, therefore, preferable for cleansing the pa.s.sages.

On first commencing the use of the instrument, it is best to hang it only a very little higher than the forehead, but after using it a few times, put it up about as high as the length of the tube will admit.

Let no one entertain any feeling of timidity on commencing the use of this instrument, as its operation is perfectly simple and harmless, and, with the fluids which we recommend, is never attended with any strangling, choking, pain, or other disagreeable sensations. The medicine should be applied with the Douche at least twice a day, in the morning and at night on retiring. There is no advantage in using the medicine oftener than three times a day, when used with the instrument, but a _sufficient_ quant.i.ty should be used each time to medicate all the diseased parts. If any remains in the Douche it may be poured back into the stock solution for subsequent use, but a liquid that has once pa.s.sed through the nasal cavity contains the germs of the disease and must not be used a second time.

NASAL POLYPUS.

The term Nasal Polypus is usually given to a variety of growths which are met with in the nasal pa.s.sages far more frequently than any other tumors. They are thus designated because of their fancied resemblance to the aquatic polypus. They occur singly, or in cl.u.s.ters, as ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 13. In the early stages the mucous membrane is swollen and irregularly dilated, presenting a rough and mottled appearance not unlike chronic catarrh with which they are usually a.s.sociated. Gradually these mound-like tumors enlarge, usually becoming pendulant, and presenting a grayish opaque glistening surface, similar to the pulp of a grape. Occasionally they become ma.s.sive at the point of attachment, and a.s.similate a warty or cauliflower growth. The latter variety is better supplied with blood vessels and presents a red or dark pink surface and may bleed on slight irritation. The favorite location is beneath or behind the middle or superior turbinated bodies, oftentimes nearly or quite concealed. However, no portion of the mucous membrane lining the upper air pa.s.sages is exempt. Sometimes they grow from the roof of the nostril and pharnyx in pendulous ma.s.ses, a.s.suming the shape of the cavities, filling the entire nostril and upper portion of pharnyx. The mucous membrane covering the turbinated bodies may become dilated and swollen, finally developing by catarrhal processes into a polypus at that point. (See _H_, Fig. 13.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 13.

NASAL POLYPI.

_A_. Anterior opening of the nostril.

_B_. Soft Palate, _C_. Orifice of the Eustachian tube. _D, D_. Superior and inferior turbinated bodies. _E_.

Large Polypus. _F_. Several small Polypi. G. Throat. _H_. Polypoid growth on turbinated body.]

CAUSES. Nothing definitely is known regarding their causation. They are generally supposed to originate in some const.i.tutional derangement, impairing the nutrition of the mucous membranes. Other cases are closely a.s.sociated with chronic nasal catarrh, and frequent attacks of cold in the head.

SYMPTOMS. These may vary considerably in different cases due to the character and location of the polypus. In the early stages before the tumor is well developed, the symptoms may be those of nasal catarrh, and the diagnosis of polypus be possible only after a personal examination by a skillful specialist. Neither is the size of the polypus always in proportion to the severity of the symptoms. The nasal discharge is generally increased and of a variable character. As the tumors enlarge they cause a sense of fullness and weight between and below the eyes, with more or less headache and facial neuralgia. There is partial or complete obstruction of one or both nostrils. In some cases the obstruction changes from one nostril to the other when lying down; the stoppage generally being on the side toward the pillow. A polypus located at the junction of the nasal pa.s.sages and throat by force of gravity always causes obstruction to the lower nasal cavity when lying down. Polypi often attain considerable size and by pressure upon and displacement of the surrounding structures occasion hideous facial deformity. Changes in the weather often aggravate the symptoms. By blowing the nostril the tumor sometimes may be forced forward, so that it may be seen a short distance from the anterior opening of the nostril. The _voice_ is often affected, being m.u.f.fled or harsh in tone, similar to that which accompanies a cold in the head. _Respiration_ may be considerably embarra.s.sed, due to the obstruction in the nasal pa.s.sages, and the patient necessarily resorts to mouth breathing. In advanced cases the Larnyx is usually much congested, being constantly irritated, not only reflexly through the nervous system, but directly by the inspired air, and excoriating discharges dropping in the throat from behind the palate. Thus it is plain to understand how chronic Pharyngitis, Laryngitis, Bronchitis, and Asthma may result from a small polypus in the nasal cavity.

TREATMENT. In mild cases correcting the const.i.tutional derangement may check the morbid process in the nostrils and cause absorption of the polypus growth. For this purpose Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery is unequaled. The removal of the polypus may sometimes be accomplished by snuffing powdered blood-root. When these measures fail it is necessary to seek surgical a.s.sistance. After the removal of the polypus Dr. Sage's Catarrh Remedy should be used to prevent a recurrence.

OUR OPERATION FOR NASAL TUMORS.