COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE 
 
 HEALTH SCIENCES STANDARD 
 
 HX00033545 
 
College of J^ftpgicianfi anb ^urgeong 
 
^,w'',-'-'^i:' 
 
 PNEUMONIA 
 
 AND 
 
 TYPHOID FEVER: A STUDY. 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. CHARLES E. PAGE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 " Natural Cure of Consumption," " How to Treat the 
 Baby," etc. (See fourth page of cover.) 
 
 gtourt^ mbition, '^evi^eb. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 DAMRELL & UPHAM, 283 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
The first edition of this pamphlet was noticed by the Boston 
 Sunday Globe, as follows : 
 
 [From the Boston Sunday Globe, May to, iSgr.l 
 
 "Pneumonia and Typhoid Fever; a Study." 
 
 If the author of this little pamphlet had used the term " an 
 expose" instead of *' a study," it would have been quite as appro- 
 priate. He has quoted freely from the private utterances of physi- 
 cians of the highest repute facts that were never designed for the 
 ears of the public, — which does not take much interest in medical 
 literature in general, — and in giving us the cream of the best 
 thought of the foremost medical men in this country and Europe, 
 backed up by his own most emphatic indorsement, he has certainly 
 earned the gratitude of all who employ or ever expect to employ a 
 family physician, if not that of the doctors themselves. 
 
 These, however, cannot afford to miss reading this caustic little 
 monogram. 
 
 If typhoid fever is really a readily curable disease, and a certain 
 method of treatment will cure nearly every case (that has not been 
 made incurable by neglect or bad treatment), while the usual treat- 
 ment is fatal to the extent of at least one fourth of all cases, it is 
 high time that the public be made aware of the fact, for it means 
 simply this: That in every i,ooo deaths from this disease over 900 
 are due to ignorance on the part of the medical attendants. 
 
 The system recommended is, we are told, practised by the most 
 famous physicians of Germany, and here and there one in this 
 country, including, of course, the author, who, while reading old- 
 school, routine practitioners a somewhat humiliating lesson, makes 
 no claim to exclusive knowledge, but simply the desire to speed a 
 much-needed reform. 
 
 ["Pneumonia and Typhoid Fever; a Study." Dr. Charles E. 
 Page. Boston: Damrell & Upham. Pp.28. Paper, 25c. 
 
PNEUMONIA 
 
 AND 
 
 TYPHOID FEVER: A STUDY. 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. CHARLES E. PAGE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 " Natural Cure of Consumption," " How to Treat the 
 Baby," etc. (See fourth page of cover.) 
 
 ^ourt^ ^bttion, '^evx&eb. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 DAMRELL & UPHAM, 283 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 1891. 
 

 Copyright, 1891, 
 BY DR. C. E. PAGE. 
 
ZS 
 
 00 
 C2 
 
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 O 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 " A man is a fool or his own physician at thirty," said 
 Tacitus. But this is putting it altogether too strong. 
 Although most persons may learn to do certain things 
 that 'seem useful, and to avoid other certain things that 
 " disagree," it is practically impossible for busy men and 
 women, in this driving age, either to learn enough of 
 the laws of health, or to practise sufficient self-denial, 
 to prevent disease. Hence, old and young are subject 
 to all manner of attacks. They may be deemed suffi- 
 ciently fortunate, then, if the family physician is one 
 well skilled in the most approved methods of treatment. 
 
 CHARLES E. PAGE. 
 
 47 Rutland St., Feb. 23, 1891. 
 
AUTHORITIES QUOTED. 
 
 Simon Baruch, M. D., New York yuvenile Asylum and 
 Manhattan General Hospital^ New York, 
 
 George L. Pea body, M. D., Prof, of Materia Medica 
 and Therapeutics in the College of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons, and attending physician to the New York and the 
 Bellevue Hospitals, 
 
 J. C. Wilson, M. D., of the German Hospital, Phila- 
 delphia, 
 
 and the following eminent German physicians : 
 Dr. Brand, of Stettin, 
 Dr. Juergensen, of Tubingen, 
 Dr. Liebermeister, 
 Dr. Ziemsen, and 
 Dr. Vogl, chef of the Garrison Hospital, Munich. 
 
 Note. — It may not be amiss to state for the benefit of the lay 
 reader, what all well-informed medical men will recognize at a 
 glance, that the authorities named above are all of them front- 
 rank men of the regular, or allopathic school. And it is only fair 
 to say of the homoeopaths, that there is an increasing number from 
 amongst their foremost practitioners, also, who fully subscribe to 
 the principles set forth in this little pamphlet. 
 
TYPHOID FEVER: A STUDY, 
 
 By Dr. C. E. Page. 
 
 ^^ If the right theory should ever be discovered, we shall know it by this 
 token: that it will solve many riddles.''^ — Emerson. 
 
 While this treatise will deal chiefly with the 
 question of typhoid fever, I wish, at the outset, to 
 say that the principle involved is practically the 
 same in all the zymotic diseases, comprising those 
 which are epidemic^ endemic, and contagious, as, 
 for example, measles, scarlet fever, influenza (" la 
 grippe"), rheumatic fever, pneumonia, diphtheria, 
 tonsilitis, puerperal fever, peritonitis (inflammation 
 of the peritoneum, popularly called "inflammation 
 of the bowels "), etc., in fact, all acute disorders 
 attended with high temperature. 
 
 Dr. Simon Baruch,* a prominent New York 
 physician, of the regular school, recently delivered 
 an address before a body of New York physi- 
 cians, in which he reviewed **the present status 
 of water as a therapeutic measure." With a vast 
 array of statistics, which, as he truly declared, 
 " could not be controverted," he showed conclu- 
 sively that the usual treatment for typhoid fever 
 
 * S. Baruch, M. D., attending physician to the New York Ju- 
 venile Asylum and Manhattan General Hospital. 
 
was a piece of wretched blundering that must be 
 thrown aside ; while, on the other hand, the new 
 treatment, which he described at length, was shown 
 to be worthy of all acceptation, and, jn fact, that it 
 was what we must adopt or be driven to the wall. 
 
 Dr. Baruch reminded his hearers that the 
 records of the Board of Health, New York (1876 
 to 1885), show 7,712 cases of typhoid fever, with 
 3,184 deaths; according to which, 41 die out of 
 every 100 patients treated. 
 
 In hospital practice, the results are less disas- 
 trous, but still even these are sickening. Dr. Dela- 
 field, in an instructive paper on typhoid fever, read 
 before the New York Academy of Medicine, states 
 that the mortality in our city hospitals from 1878 
 to 1885 averaged 24.66 per cent., or a trifle less 
 than 25 deaths out of every 100 cases, which is 
 still an appalling and outrageous death-rate, in 
 view of the results achieved by the new method 
 of treatment. 
 
 "/ am convinced,' says Dr. Baruch (and the 
 italics are his own), '' by personal observation and 
 inquiry, that this mortality is equalled also in 
 private practice in this city. Shall we, then," 
 he asks his brother physicians, "stand idle, and 
 continue the expectant plan of treatment now in 
 vogue, when these appalling figures stare us in the 
 
face, or shall we be admonished by these to search 
 for the reasons, and, if possible, secure some 
 method of diminishing this fearful loss of life ? " 
 
 Those of my brother physicians who are at all 
 familiar with the subject will agree with me that 
 we, in Boston, have little to boast of in comparing 
 the records of our own Board of Health with those 
 of New York, Philadelphia, and the other great 
 cities of the Union. 
 
 Under the prevailing treatment about one fourth 
 of all the cases succumb to an attack of typhoid 
 fever or pneumonia. The survivors usually have 
 a long, painful, and expensive sickness, and quite 
 a proportion of these are seriously disordered for 
 months after leaving their beds ; all of which is in 
 quite marked contrast to the results following 
 hydrotherapeutic methods, in which the rule is, 
 " Short sickness and complete recovery." 
 
 Now, I would ask every one who may chance to 
 read this little book, — and it has not been pub- 
 lished exclusively for the medical profession, for I 
 hold that in proportion to the people's knowledge 
 of these important matters will they be prepared 
 to discriminate wisely as to the qualifications of 
 competent physicians, — Have you ever had typhoid 
 fever, pneumonia, scarlet fever, ** la grippe," or any 
 other serious acute disorder ? 
 
Have you- ever lost a beloved friend, or a member 
 of your own family, by any one of these diseases? 
 Has any one dear to you had a long and painful 
 sickness ? Do you realize that a repetition of such 
 experiences is likely to occur at any time ? If so, 
 you may readily conceive that it is worth your while 
 to examine this matter with some degree of care. 
 
 If one of the results of this study is to make the 
 people more exacting in their demands upon their 
 medical attendants, it will prove a most wholesome 
 stimulus to the profession. 
 
 Have we indeed discovered a method of dimin- 
 ishing this fearful loss of life ? 
 
 " There is, happily, such a method,'' says Dr. 
 Baruch ; " and I desire to ask your serious consid- 
 eration of it." 
 
 ** It has been clearly shown," he continues, "by 
 the statistics of Liebermeister, Brand, Ziemsen, and 
 others, that the cold-water treatment, even in its 
 half-hearted, modified form, as now practised in 
 many hospitals in Germany, has reduced the mor- 
 tality from 21 per cent to 7 per cent, the basis of 
 these statistics beifig 19,017 carefully gathered 
 cases of typhoid fever. 
 
 " But this is not all. Brand has two years ago 
 obtained from twenty-three German and French 
 sources, aggregating 5,573 cases, statistics which 
 
have not and cannot be controverted, by which it 
 is clearly demonstrated that this treatment, as 
 originally recommended by him [that is, not in 
 the 'half-hearted' form] in 1861, has reduced 
 the mortality in typhoid fever to less than 4 per 
 cent. The latter, however, still contains many 
 imperfectly managed cases. Eliminating these, 
 the number treated by Juergensen, Vogl, and J3rand, 
 up to 1887, amounted to 1,223 cases, of which twelve 
 only died, or l per cent. 
 
 " And yet this is not all, for the most significant 
 fact deducible from these statistics remains to be 
 told. Not a single one of these twelve deaths oc- 
 curred in any case that came under treat^nent before 
 the fifth day. 
 
 " It would seem a bold assertion to claim that 
 all cases of typhoid fever may, by early treatment, 
 be rendered so mild as to tend almost invariably 
 to recovery. But the assertion is boldy made 
 by Brand, on the strength of these 1,223 cases, 
 of which he treated one fourth himself, the 
 remainder coming from Juergensen's hospital at 
 Tubingen, Vogl's at Munich, and the military hos- 
 pitals at Stralsund and Stettin.* 
 
 *' The exactness of these figures," continues Dr. 
 Baruch, "cannot be doubted, coming as they do 
 
 ♦Deutsch Med. Wochensehrift, 3 Mch. 1887, p. 179. 
 
10 
 
 from university clinics and military hospitals, in 
 which the cases were admitted early, and observed 
 by well-trained medical men ; and they are the 
 better adapted to the elucidation of this question 
 of treatment because of the variety of sources 
 from civil and military life." 
 
 After supplying a still greater array of statistics, 
 and reviewing the whole field, he says : ** Brand's 
 claim, sustained by such incontrovertible proofs, 
 certainly challenges attention ; and I ask you 
 to-night to consider if we can with justice to 
 suffering humanity, and with justice to ourselves, 
 continue to treat it with indifference or scep- 
 ticism ? " 
 
 Then, following a description of the method re- 
 ferred to, and its successful results in his own prac- 
 tice, — results, I may add, which I have also been 
 so fortunate as to secure in my own, practice, — Dr. 
 Baruch concludes with these remarkable words: — 
 "A review of the history of the treatment of 
 typhoid fever convinces me that we have reached 
 an epoch when we must choose between the fatal 
 expecta7it plan [the italics are mine] and the suc- 
 cessful plan to which I have had the honor to call 
 your attention. The history of medicine does not 
 present a parallel to the application of statistics for 
 the elucidation of a question of therapeutics which 
 
II 
 
 Brand has recently presented to us. The evidence 
 is before us, clear and incontrovertible ; upon our 
 conscientious, fearless, and unbiassed judgment 
 rests the weal or woe of those who commit their 
 lives into our keeping." 
 
 " The Fatal Expectant Plan." 
 
 What a name this is for the plan that prevails in 
 Boston, as well as in New York and throughout 
 the country, viz., that of treating the sympt07ns 
 instead of the disease, and practically by drugs alone. 
 It expects, in every case, at least the traditional 
 " twenty-one days' run " of the fever, with more 
 or less delirium ; and, of course, so long as this 
 is regarded as the regular thing, something that: 
 cannot be prevented, the doctor and nurse and 
 friends rest content during the entire siege, amply- 
 satisfied and grateful if only the precious life is not 
 lost at last, when, sad to say, it is the treatment^ 
 so outspokenly denounced by the unimpeachable 
 authoi-ities herein quoted, which transforms an 
 easily curable ailment into a dangerous and often 
 fatal disease. 
 
 On the other hand, the Brand system, if I may 
 so style it, expects convalescence in a very few 
 days. By helpful instead of depleting measures, 
 we reduce the temperature to near the normal 
 
12 
 
 point,* and there maintain it, and so protect the 
 brain by skilful management as to prevent delir- 
 ium. In brief, the experienced hydropathist ex- 
 pects to prevent danger, and to make a long sick- 
 ness impossible. In doing this, he lays himself 
 open to the charge that he really has no bad 
 cases, simply because patients are shortly free 
 from most of the ugly symptoms, and make a 
 speedy recovery. 
 
 I will venture to relate, in this connection, the 
 history of a case that affords a very good illustra- 
 tion of the merits of the new treatment, under con- 
 ditions constituting rather a crucial test. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth day of August, 1887, while 
 in consultation with a patient in my office, the fol- 
 lowing telegram was placed in my hands : — 
 
 New York, Aug. 25. 
 
 Dr. C. E. Page, 47 Rutland Street: — 
 
 My boy, Donald, five and half years old, has typhoid 
 fever. Temperature, 104^-° ; some delirium. Wire me 
 important advice as to food and medicine, and reducing 
 fever, and write fully treatment by mail. This is ninth 
 •day. Of course, my physician^is in charge ; is giving 
 
 * I have in an hour's time reduced the temperature <jf a typhoid 
 patient (twelfth day, first visit) from 104.5" F. to 100° F., and with 
 an improvement in his condition and feehngs so marked as not only 
 to excite his deepest gratitude, but to constitute true convalescence; 
 and during the day, by more moderate measures, the normal ])oint 
 was reached, and the patient made a rapid and complete recovery. 
 
^3 
 
 all the milk he will take every three hours, and aconite 
 
 every half-hour. 
 
 G. D. Mackay,* 
 
 New York Stock Excha?jge. 
 
 I wired definite instructions, confirming by let- 
 ter, and from that time had entire charge of the 
 case, exchanging messages every hour or two for 
 the first forty-eight hours, then less frequently for 
 the next few days, which, with my letters, sufficed 
 to put the little patient in the way of a speedy 
 recovery. 
 
 A review of the case is given by Mr. Mackay in 
 the following letter, which I commend to all who 
 wish to obtain a clear understanding of this ques- 
 tion. It was never intended for publication, but 
 is the candid story of a devout Christian, and level- 
 headed business man, who, in consenting now to 
 its appearance, says that he "would do the same 
 thing again," and expresses the "hope that it may 
 help some one " : — 
 
 Vermilye & Co., Bankers, 
 
 New York, Aug. 31, 1887 
 My Dear Dr. Page : — 
 
 I take pleasure in giving you an account of our boy's 
 
 attack and sickness, as viewed at this end of the line. 
 
 Donald was taken sick Tuesday, Aug. 16. He com- 
 
 * Mr. Mackay is a member of the old and well-known firm of 
 Vermilye & Co., bankers. Through Boston friends, he had learneci 
 something about my treatment of fevers. 
 
H 
 
 plained of weariness, the day previous. We have reason 
 to believe that he was really upset for two weeks ante- 
 dating his attack, as it seemed impossible for him to get 
 to sleep after going to bed at right. He would lie 
 awake for two or three hours after the other children 
 were sleeping, playing, and talking to himself, but appar- 
 ently unable to quiet down to sleeping. 
 
 His appetite failed a little for three days before the 
 attack, and on the Tuesday mentioned he gave up com- 
 pletely, — vomited his breakfast, had slight diarrhcea, 
 and was feverish. We thought it biliousness from 
 wrong or over eating, and for several days nothing was 
 done but to lighten and simplify his food, and let him 
 rest, which he did absolutely, — not willing at any time 
 to stand on his feet. This ran along until Sunday, 
 
 when Dr. , a homoeopathic physician of Brooklyn, 
 
 saw him, guessed he had some temporary gastric trouble, 
 and prescribed for him. On Monday, he was no better. 
 
 Dr. had gone. Dr. , an English allopath from 
 
 , resident physician at the hotel, came at my 
 
 request, look his temperature, found it ioi^°, and after 
 some deliberation said the boy had some kind of ma- 
 larial fever, possibly typhoid, and prescribed quinine in 
 one-grain doses, three times a day. 
 
 His mention of typhoid filled me with horror, and I 
 sent for an old friend of mine, a physician of the reg- 
 ular school, who himself had had typhoid fever last 
 autumn. He took charge of the case Wednesday, 
 Aug. 24, about a week after the attack. He began to 
 feed the boy all the milk he would take, and aconite in 
 solution, one drop to a teaspoonful of water every half- 
 
15 
 
 hour. When I arrived home* on Wednesday night, I 
 found his temperature had opened at 102^ F. in the 
 morning, and was then, 6 p. m., 104!°. I slept scarcely 
 any; watched the boy all night. He was excited, and 
 slightly incoherent and wandering in his talk, and evi- 
 dently very sick. 
 
 On Thursday, the 25th, I wired you all I thought 
 necessary, and was cheered by your vigorous and 
 rational advice, especially that part which promised 
 convalescence in four days. The other physicians said 
 it would be a three weeks' battle, which, handicapped 
 by a temperature of 104° at the start, I thought was 
 odds too much against the boy to suit me. 
 
 When I reached home, and showed your telegrams to 
 the two physicians, they at once scouted your views ; said 
 you evidently did not understand the disease ; that the 
 treatment you prescribed would weaken the body, 
 especially the nervous system ; might cause heart fail- 
 ure ; t and advised me strongly against it, and said they 
 would wash their hands of the whole case if I intended 
 resorting to any such measures, and did all they could 
 to frighten me away from heeding any of your " so-called 
 treatment." They said the very estimate of the result 
 
 * Mizzen Top Hotel, Pawling, N. Y., where the family was 
 summering. 
 
 t Such objections, in the face of rational advice strictly in accord 
 with Dr. Brand's practice, only serve to show the bed-rock igno- 
 rance that prevails in the profession on this subject, and to justify 
 the strong language employed by the eminent men whose utter- 
 ances are herein recorded. The very merit of this treatment lies in 
 its soothing injluence upon the nervous system, and in the relief it 
 affords to the over-taxed heart, thereby removing the danger of 
 heart failure; and, moreover, as would naturally follow, so far from 
 weakening the body, the eflect is quite the reverse. 
 
i6 
 
 of your treatment, ending in convalescence in four to 
 six days, proved your ignorance of the disease, which 
 was a germ disease, self-limited, and bound to run 
 about twenty-one days at best. I was also surrounded 
 with well-meaning friends who backed up the physicians, 
 and advised me for their sakes not to risk the life of 
 my child by any rash experiments, especially when pro- 
 fessional knowledge (!) was so overwhelmingly against 
 the benefit of that treatment. Luckily, I was deaf to 
 all their arguments, and you may imagine that my 
 position was not a pleasant one to be the only one at 
 the wheel who was bearing the responsibility, following 
 the advice of a physician two hundred miles away, con- 
 scious that complications might arise that would require 
 very delicate handling, while my knowledge was only 
 half sufficient to do justice to the situation. 
 
 For days I endured this, blessed by improving con- 
 ditions all the wdiile, using your treatment, modified by 
 my intimate knowledge of the boy's temperament and 
 the easy yielding of the symptoms to the treatment used. 
 
 The boy is now practically without fever. He sleeps 
 well, has an eager appetite all the time, and apparently 
 has no disturbance of the stomach or intestines, no swell- 
 ing or pain. Dr. Page may not know whereof he speaks. 
 I would be glad to hear of his experience of the life of 
 the typhoid germ, and the heart failures that follow his 
 treatment in private practice.* /say to him, however, 
 
 * I can only say, in this connection, that this case is given illus- 
 trative of my usual experience, except, of course, some cases require 
 somewhat longer attendance; while, on the other hand, when the 
 case comes earlier under treatment, a day or two sometimes suf- 
 fices to set things right. 
 
17 
 
 blessed be his name, and may he live long to give to 
 others the happiness he has given us, by lifting up the 
 sick bodies of little children from beds of suffering to 
 the arms of their rejoicing parents. The danger line 
 has passed, and I believe that your instructions as to 
 diet relieved the stomach and intestines, at a critical 
 juncture, of the work they were incapacitated for doing 
 by disease, and that this prevented the glandular swell- 
 ings, or deadly Peyer's ulcerations, that are called the 
 necessary adjuncts to the disease, and impossible to 
 avert, and said to be due solely to the presence of the 
 "germ." We shall always hold you in grateful remem- 
 brance. With affectionate regards. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 George D. Mackay. 
 
 Dr. George L. Peabody,* in a paper on typhoid 
 fever, read before the Practitioners' Society, of 
 New York, Dec. 6, 1889, says: — 
 
 "The results in the treatment of typhoid fever 
 continue to be so bad in general in this country as 
 to constitute a chronic opprobrium to the art of 
 medicine here. We do not seem to be capable of 
 approaching the low rate of mortality which has 
 rewarded the efforts of the medical profession in 
 many cities of Europe. 
 
 " Those who still adhere to the expectant plan 
 
 * George L. Peabody, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and 
 Therapeutics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. 
 
I8 
 
 of treatment," continues Dr. Peabody, " are still in 
 the large majority here. The expectant plan seems 
 in a general ivay to make ns quite cofitent with our 
 bad results y and to lead tis to expect the patient to die 
 if he becomes gravely ilir [The italics are mine.] 
 
 But ihQ people 3XQ by no means " content with our 
 bad results." They are growing more and more res- 
 tive — indeed, rebellious. Witness the rise of the 
 Mental Scientists and the Faith Curers, whose " prac- 
 tice," though without doubt less fatal than the one 
 to which their theory is a protest, is nevertheless 
 (except, it has to be said, in strict justice, in a 
 class of ailments which require simply the element 
 of mental or moral stimulus), atrocious in that it 
 does not embrace helps to Nature in her extremity. 
 
 The fact of the matter is that not all who seek 
 entrance to the profession are by natural endow- 
 ment at all adapted to the calling. The average 
 boy goes to a medical school and takes his hourly 
 cramming on each of the various subjects, like a 
 Strasburg goose under treatment to produce a 
 fat liver ; and he must be a " goose," indeed, if he 
 gets " plucked " at last, for, as we all know, the 
 dear old Profs hate mortally to refuse a diploma to 
 even the biggest dunce in the class after he has 
 spent his money and time grinding through the 
 mill for the stipulated term. 
 
19 
 
 The author, while a freshman, wrote the vale- 
 dictory for the jolly good fellow who graduated 
 that year "with the honors of his class," at a first- 
 class medical school in New York City, the name 
 of which is withheld simply because it would 
 seem to imply a reflection upon, and would there- 
 fore be unjust to, this particular college. 
 
 He was a handsome man, of fine physique, and 
 a good reader ; and the advanced views he expressed, 
 as to the crying need of reform in medical practice, 
 and of the great value of a knowledge of the laws 
 of life in the treatment of disease, were well 
 received by the distinguished audience present, 
 but must have been somewhat staggering to the 
 faculty, as well as the rest of the class, for up to 
 that moment not a soul of us ever suspected him 
 of any knowledge of, or fondness for, hygiene. 
 On the contrary, it was his bete noire, and any trace 
 of it in our lectures was tiresome to this orator 
 and most of his confreres. 
 
 It is a matter of profound regret to those who 
 are at all advanced in this department, that, notwith- 
 standing the direct uses to which a knowledge of 
 the conditions which regulate the healthy action of 
 the bodily organs may be applied in the prevention, 
 detection, and treatment of disease, there is so 
 little attention paid to this most important branch 
 
20 
 
 of Study in any of our medica\ schools. It is 
 largely owing to this glaring defect that there is so 
 little progress in the healing art, from generation 
 to generation, so far as concerns the profession at 
 large ; for, among the vast throngs turned out 
 by the schools every year to " practise" upon the 
 people, there is only here and there an individual 
 capable of sifting the wheat from the chaff, and, 
 by independent thinking and out-spoken teaching, 
 of doing much to help elevate ''medicine" to 
 something like the high plane upon which surgery 
 is already solidly established. 
 
 Dr. Peabody describes the routine procedure in 
 hospital and private practice, and thus comments 
 upon it : — 
 
 "This method of treatment — if it be proper to 
 call that a method which seems to lack all true 
 system — is often dignified by its advocates by the 
 appellation rational. In fact, however, it would be 
 difficult to devise a more irrational method than 
 the symptomatic method, carried to its logical 
 issue." 
 
 Dr. Peabody then gives the history of 50 cases 
 treated by himself, "chiefly in the New York Hos- 
 pital and the Bellevue Hospital." 
 
 In 27 of these cases he tried a somewhat modi- 
 fied plan, which seemed to produce rather more 
 
21 
 
 favorable results, but still death resulted in 5 of 
 these cases — about 20 per cent. Dr. Peabody 
 says of this, " the results are certainly better than 
 those which have followed the expectant plan of 
 treatment in any year in this hospital." But 
 directly he says of it : — ■ 
 
 '*It would be a source of great regret to me to 
 give the impression that I consider even this 
 method of treatment as to be at all comparable 
 with the antipyretic effect of cold water applied 
 to the surface of tJie body. [The italics are 
 mine.] 
 
 "It seems to me," he continues, "that any one 
 at all open to conviction by statistics cannot but 
 admit that the recent statistics of Brand make 
 a marvellously good showing for the cold-water 
 treatment. After reading these statistics it would 
 seem as if all other plans were of insignificant 
 value when compared with this one." 
 
 In corroboration of the foregoing, Dr. Peabody 
 says : *' In the past few weeks I have subjected 
 eleven cases in Bellevue Hospital to treatment 
 by this method, and with very gratifying results. 
 These patients all got ivelL [The italics are mine.] 
 They were all adults, only one as young as twenty 
 years, and most of them made of the very poor 
 material which seeks admission to the public hos- 
 
22 
 
 pitals in this city. In most of them the tempera- 
 ture was persistently high, and they came under 
 treatment late in the disease, /. e., after it had 
 lasted between one and three weeks." 
 
 An article on the treatment of typhoid fever, 
 in the Medical News, says that Dr. J. C. 
 Wilson, one of the ablest students of fever in this 
 country, furnishes the results in 64 cases treated 
 at the German Hospital of Philadelphia since 
 Feb. I, 1890, by himself and Drs. Trau and Wolff, 
 by the cold bath according to Brand, without a 
 death. 
 
 He meets the objections against this method 
 as follows : — 
 
 First, the statistics are questioned. This can no 
 longer be sustained. A large number of indepen- 
 dent observers have fully confirmed the general 
 results obtained by Brand. 
 
 Second, it is asserted, a priori, that the typhoid 
 of this country is not sufficiently severe to demand 
 such treatment. The statistics which I have pre- 
 sented sufficiently disprove this statement. 
 Furthermore, it is impossible to foresee the severity 
 of any particular case at the outset, but the Brand 
 treatment tends to make every case a curable one. 
 
 Third, it is not true that patients in this coun- 
 try do not bear cold-water treatment as well as the 
 
23 
 
 French and the Germans, and it is a matter of 
 surprise that this, even if true, could be seriously 
 urged as an objection to a treatment incontrover^ 
 tibly shown to be as efficient as the one under 
 discussion. 
 
 Fourth, it is inconvenient, and demands an 
 amount of experience and labor on the part of 
 physician and attendants not easily to be had in 
 private practice. Objections of this nature cannot 
 stand against the lowered rate of mortality. 
 
 Finally, the opposition of the patients them- 
 selves, and of their friends, may be urged as an 
 obstacle to any attempt on the part of medical 
 men to introduce the treatment into private prac- 
 tice. This is no real objection ; it is a mere diffi- 
 culty that will vanish so soon as the profession 
 generally recognizes in the method an efficient 
 means of saving many lives, and lends its weight 
 to the advocacy of the plan among the people. 
 
 " These remarks," concludes the editor of the 
 Medical News, ** are intended to contribute to that 
 desirable end." 
 
 The Paris edition of the New York Herald, Sept. 
 21, 1890, contains an article which refers to Brand's 
 method in acute diseases. The writer says : " Al- 
 though Brand's method had a hard time in gaining 
 the confidence of physicians in France, it is now 
 
24 
 
 giving satisfactory proof of what it can do, and is 
 destined to become the most efficient treatment 
 for the majority of infectious diseases with high 
 temperature and nervous symptoms." 
 
 This means, says Dr. Baruch in the Medical 
 Record, " that it is on the point of entering into 
 common practice ; for physicians will appreciate it 
 more and more when they try it regularly and 
 resolutely, without being hampered by precon- 
 ceived ideas." 
 
 Yet it is to be feared that the present generation 
 of doctors will furnish only here and there one 
 fully equipped in this regard. It is only the " born 
 physician," the man with a mind naturally con- 
 stituted for the work of observing nature, and, 
 withal, inclined to scepticism concerning unnatural 
 methods, who is likely to speedily appreciate so 
 radical an advance from the routine treatment. 
 
 An eminent Boston preacher, in a recent sermon 
 on *' Hero Worship," said that great men were, after 
 all, only the product of high ideals among the 
 people. I think it may with equal truth be said 
 that skilful physicians are the product of the intel- 
 ligence of their patients. It is, at all events, cer- 
 tain that the former cannot thrive without the 
 latter — that is, it requires unusual intelligence on 
 
25 
 
 the part of patients to accept radical innovations 
 in the mode of treatment. 
 
 It has been said, and not without reason, that 
 the myriads of patent medicines that load the 
 druggist's shelves and from whose sales he derives 
 the principal part of his income, and the fabulous 
 fortunes made by the proprietors of these nos- 
 trums, furnish a terrible arraignment of the medi- 
 cal profession, since only failure on our part to cure 
 our patients makes this mischievous traffic possible. 
 
 In the opening paragraph of this little " study," 
 I intimated that the subject, typhoid, was rather a 
 text for a sermon on the treatment of all the 
 zymotic diseases, than merely the one named 
 most prominently. 
 
 All that I have said against the treatment in 
 vogue for typhoid fever, and in favor of a radically 
 reformed method, applies with equal force in the 
 matter of scarlet fever, diphtheria, rheumatic fever, 
 influenza fever ("la grippe"), pneumonia, etc., — 
 in brief, all acute sicknesses accompanied with 
 high temperature. None of these is, generally 
 speaking, necessarily a dangerous disease, if recog- 
 nized in the incipient stage, and promptly treated in 
 a way to help Nature^ instead of embarrassing her. 
 
 For example, every " cold on the lungs," as it is 
 
26 
 
 erroneously called, is incipient pneumonia. It rep- 
 resents always the co7idition of the person, — what 
 he has acciumilated — not what he hdiS caught. If 
 his condition is sufficiently bad, and the disorder is 
 neglected or badly treated, the result is likely to be 
 full-fledged pneumonia. In this case, there is not 
 ovXy gefierali^vQr, as in typhoid fever, but there is 
 a terrible heal lesion in the lungs, which are 
 gorged with blood. The tissues of the blood- 
 vessels of the lungs being relaxed, these vessels are 
 stretched to abnormal size, and filled to a degree 
 that not only checks the onward flow of the blood, 
 but partially, sometimes completely, closes the 
 air-vessels ; and if this condition is not speedily 
 changed, life is extinguished for lack of the ex- 
 change between the used-up gases of the vital 
 system and the atmosphere. It is here that the 
 mustard plaster, or, worse still, the hot poultice, 
 does its deadly work. The latter, if applied to the 
 chest of the most robust man, confined in bed, in a 
 close room, would positively tend to produce, and if 
 continued indefinitely could hardly fail to produce, 
 this " lung fever/' Yet, strangely enough, this is a 
 prominent feature in the treatment of pneumonia 
 by most physicians. Such treatment may seem 
 rational from the stand-point of homoeopathy, but 
 its absurdity ought to be evident to the minds of 
 
27 
 
 all who oppose the doctrine of similia similibus 
 ciirantur. 
 
 During the terrible epidemic of the " grippe," as 
 it was called, last year, there were one hundred and 
 eight deaths from pneumonia in one week. The 
 afitipyrine and hot-poultice treatment was re- 
 sponsible for the greater part of all this mor- 
 tality. 
 
 Not a single death occurred^ so far as I am aware, 
 in any case treated by hydrotherapy. I had quite a 
 number of severe cases under treatment, all the 
 way along ( besides several scores of cases " nipped 
 in the bud " ), and every one recovered. I am cer- 
 tain that among them there were quite a number 
 who would necessarily have succumbed to the 
 treatment that proved fatal in so many hundreds 
 of cases during that terrible epidemic. 
 
 I wish most emphatically to remind my brethren 
 in the medical profession of the part played by the 
 new drug, antipyrine,* in last year's carnival of 
 death. As often as the temperature went up, anti- 
 pyrine went down. It lowered the temperature 
 every time, but, alas, it also lowered the patient's 
 vitality. It was followed, moreover, by a dan 
 gerous "reaction," that is, the fever heat (until 
 
 * The deadly nature of this drug was so well appreciated in 
 France that the government prohibited its use. 
 
28 
 
 the capacity for reaction was annihilated) arose 
 higher than before, and the patient's chances 
 of life were correspondingly lessened. That any 
 one escaped death under this treatment is the only 
 remarkable thing, except the persistency with 
 which this deadly drug was continued in use, in 
 spite of the fearful death-rate during those terrible 
 weeks. 
 
 Again I quote Dr. Baruch, who gives his views 
 as follows : — 
 
 *' Antipyrine and its congeners [that is, all drugs 
 prescribed for. the purpose of lowering the body 
 temperature] have not only failed as cures of fever, 
 but even when used as symptomatics their effect 
 is, as I have repeatedly argued, detrimental (not so 
 much as heart depressors, but) by interfering with 
 the elimination of excrementitious material from the 
 kidneys, etc., and as Cantani has said (on anti- 
 pyresis), before the recent International Congress, 
 because they suppress the capacity of a reaction of 
 which the fever process is a manifestation, and 
 which is a potent factor in the elimination of the 
 disease-producing element." 
 
 How different are the results following hydro- 
 therapy, which has to do with the removal of 
 disease-producing conditions, and embraces — a 
 point that cannot be over-emphasized — every 
 
29 
 
 measure, medical and hygienicy for assisting the 
 organism^ in its efforts to regain that just balance 
 which we call health. And this demands that 
 the physician must not only be competent to 
 direct every important detail in the management of 
 the patient, but that he shall so direct, as to the 
 ventilation of the sick-room, food and feeding, 
 bathing, and the use of hot or cold water internally 
 and externally, etc., etc., leaving as little as possible 
 to the discretion of the nurse. 
 
 As the free internal use of cold water is delight- 
 ful to the parched throat and stomach of the fever 
 patient, and aids in eliminating the poisons that 
 are the cause of the disease, so its skilful use, exter- 
 nally, is most grateful to the burning brain and the 
 feverish skin, and while controlling the temperature 
 in the most happy manner, restores the capacity of 
 the skin, in all its great surface, for doing its part 
 normally in the needed work of eliminating the 
 disease-producing matters. 
 
 And even in cases, such as will, however rarely, 
 come in the practice of every physician, where the 
 patient's vitality is so nearly exhausted that no 
 human skill will avail to avert a fatal issue, life 
 would still be somewhat prolonged, and a vast deal 
 of suffering prevented, by this method. 
 
 It is not so very long since the internal use of 
 
30 
 
 cold water in fever was strictly forbidden by med- 
 ical men. It was forced upon them of the past 
 generation from outside, to our chagrin be it ad- 
 mitted. Shall we now, I ask my brother physicians, 
 for want of learning how to apply what I may call 
 the hydrotherapeutic method, continue to allow 
 a large percentage of all our patients to die need- 
 lessly, until, finally, we lose this class of patients, 
 as we ought, into the hands of physicians who have 
 the wisdom to adopt correct methods ? Upon the 
 correct solution of this problem, and prompt 
 action on the part of educated physicians, de- 
 pends the justice of our claim upon the confidence 
 of those who employ us in times of peril. 
 
Ten Consecutive Numbers Free by Mail on Receipt ot $1.00. 
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 " No water is pure that is not at the same time soft and clear. Your Cold 
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the 
 expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as 
 provided by the library rules or by special arrangement with 
 the Librarian in charge. 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C28 (449) MOO 
 
 
 
 

 1 
 
 
 RC77i P14 
 
 1891 
 
 Page 
 
 Pneumonia and typhoid fevers a 
 study 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rcn 
 
 1 PN 
 
 IBSI