The stoechiological cure of consumption and diseases of the respiratory organs : From Letters to a patient.

  • John Francis Churchill
Date:
1893
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The stoechiological cure of consumption and diseases of the respiratory organs : From Letters to a patient. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    SOME OF THE OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON DR. CHURCHILL'S DISCOVERIES. That the introduction of these medicines has been a great gain to the better treatment of consumption IS a point we regard as fully established, and Dr. Churchill deserves well of mankind for what he has done.—The Practitioner. The Society sees that the results announcfd and obtained by Dr. Churchill go beyond anything which has hitherto been done in the treatment of this fatal disease.—Report to the Brussels Royal Society of Medical Sciences by Dr. Bougaed, Vice-President. After laying before tlie same Society reports of forty-two cases treated by himself, Dr. Tirifahy con- cluded as follows :—These facts establish the action of the hyj>ophosphite of lime in jihthisis. One thing is evident; it has given me a number of cures such as no doubt every other mode of treatment will look upon with envy. I therefore advise the use of this remedy against pulmonary tubei'culosis tre all striges of the complaint.—Keport by Dr. Tirifahy to the Brussels Royal Society of Medical Sciences. Dr. Churchill's woi'k records a body of no less than one hundred and thirty-three fully detailed cases of phthisis, the rexu/t of which, certainly appears amply to bear out hi,s views so fur as regards the efficacy vf tlie treatment.—LANCET. Tlie hj'jiophc.siihites burst suddenly on the world some few years ago as a panacea for the commonest of all diseases. They were hastily and scantily tried, found not in every case to be successful, and as hastily abandoned. We submit that the subject was far too soon put out of court, that some published experiments are painfully inconchisive, and tliat others look as if the observer had already judged the case unfavourably before he began. Facts of a positive cliaracter are coming to light which should correct our prima flicit views. One such may be cited in the communication of Dr. Tirifahy to the >Iedical Society of Brussels. He relates in detail, and with most convincing impartiality, the results of forty-two cases treated by himself, and freely admits that any formula hitherto in use may envy these results. This opinion will, we can state most positively, be contirmed by competent observers in England.—Medical Tlmes and Gazette. On my arri\-al in Paris to attend the Medical Congress, I was glad to accept Dr. Churchill's invitation and verify by personal investigation at his public dispensary the reality of the facts he had published. I examined by means of auscultation and percussion a large number of jiatients who had been ill for variable periods of time. After such proof I think there can be no absurdity in asserting, as I do most conscien- tiously, that at Dr. Churchill s dispensurt/ I saw patients entireli/ cured of tuberculosis, after having shown, in some cases for several years, all the progressive symptoms of the sfcw'l, and in some cases even of the liTst stage of phthixn:.—Dr. Fedeli (who published au iLaliau Translation of Dr. Churchill's French ■\Vork on Consumption). The reception of so important a discovery has not been encouraging, The hypophosphites h&ve been used not according to Dr. Churchill's rules, and he has then been biamed for the resulting failures! In other quarters his remedies have been used in secret, and the cures liave been attributed to other causes. ' This,' says Dr. ChurcliiU, ' is the last ordeal of the inventor before his apotheosis. Among artisans it is called rattetu'yij; in science it constitutes the well-known process which the French call the conspiracy of silence.' What inventor or discoverer cannot confirm this from his own experience?—Chemical News. There are few scientific men, in the true sense of the word, who will be able to read this book without pleasure and profit, and without recognizing the profundity, the acutcness, and the originality of tiio author.—The Quarterly Journal of Science (Edited by William Crookes, F.R.S.). Dr. Churchill declares pulmonary consumption can be successfully treated. Tliis opinion is sup- ported by physicians in all the principal cities of Europe, and copious extracts from their observations on the different cases are given, the cures always following closi ly upon tlie use of liypophospliites by the sufferers. One lias only to note the names of seveial well-known English physicians who attest the value of this remedy, to be convinced that the discovery of Dr. Churchill is an immense benefit to the world. Such a great benefaction is not sufficiently acknowledged.—The Echo. A book which explains to us in all its bearings the discovery of the cure for consumption made twenty yiars ago by Dr. Churchill, and explains it too in a manner so simple that any person of education may master its general bearings, and which furnislies not only every practitioner, but almost every liead of a family, with the means of battling successfully against one of the greatest foes of the human race, ought not to be neglected by the jmblic at large. 'The hypojihosiiliites are still far from being administered .scientifically in this country, and although known and constantly used by the leaders of the ]irofessi(ni— such men, for example, as l-hysicians of tlie London Hosiiital.s—their real merits are still unrecognized by the rank and file of the medical profession, the very men by whom the public at large are guided and attended in sickness.—Thk Hoor. Dr. Churcliill has )iublished a work which must take rank among the most imjiortant books of our time from the originality r)f its views, the vigour of its style, and the mass of information presented in it to thi', inil>lic, concerning a sutiject painfully familiar to almost every family in this country. In this work Dr. Churchill not only expounds the princiiilcs u]pon which he bases his method of curing, and, as he avers, of 'st:imi)iiig out' consumption; but he also states that, ]irocee(ling upon the same principles which carried him to the discovery of a 'scientifically conditioiieil sjiecillc for consumption,' he has arrived at the discovery of a .series of compounds wliich act as specifics for all the inflammatory diseases of tlie breathing apjiaratus, of which bronchitis, pleurisy, and diphtheria are the most fatal and the most common.—Thh Law Journal. I consider the treatment of consumption by liypophospliites as the most rational, the least disagree- able for tlie sufferer, and certainly, as far as concci iis the chance of recovery, the most to be reconinicnded. I could mention many cases in my own practice wliere their use has been followed by the most surprising results.—Dr. J. J. Kkkbisht, Ue I'ijdspiegel, The Hague.