A contribution to the climatological study of phthisis in Pennsylvania.
- William Pepper
- Date:
- 1887
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A contribution to the climatological study of phthisis in Pennsylvania. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![800 feet above sea-level, with a population of about four hundred, and is protected on the north and west by the foot-hills of South Mountain. I have ])racticed here since 1850. My practice takes in a scope of ten or fifteen miles in Adams, York, and Cumberland Counties, and includes both mountain and valley. Forty years ago the country was heavily tim- bered. Since then much of the timber has been cleared away, land and buildings improved, and inhabitants live much more comfortably than years ago. And, as a result of these improvements, diseases of all kinds have diminished. Although not more subject to consumption than other localities, I have found it to prevail alike in mountain and val- ley. Our population is mainly native-born, descendants of German and Scotch-Irish, so that I have had no opportunity of observing the disease in diflFerent race or nationality, but do not think there would be any ma- terial difference. “I can hardly say that consumption is a prevalent disease. Yet it is seldom that there are no cases in the country. I have not found it to prevail in any particular house or any particular locality, but affecting the poor and atfiuent alike in mountain and vale. The great majority of cases are undoubtedly hereditary. I have known whole families carried off by it. “ Hereditary cases are generally considered chronic, and run their course wery slowly, while cases not hereditary are acute, and are called by country people ‘galloping consumption.’ One prolific cause of the disease when not hereditary is neglected amenorrhcea among young females. “I have met with no case of prevention of the disease when heredi- tary ; it may be baffled, and life and health prolonged, but will almost invariably make its appearance at some time, and such cases are gener- ally rapid in their course. “I have found the most satisfactory results as a prevention in the young from the use of the hypophosphites, with cod-liver oil, malt, and like remedies. “I have not met with any reliable evidence of the disease being con- tagious or infectious. Oases have occurred where, the husband or wife having died of consumption, the survivor soon followed from the same cause. But in these cases there was as much probability of a hereditary tendency as of contagion. “ I have not found malaria to have much influence on the disease, but, our country not being a malarial one, 1 have not had much opportunity to determine. “I have known of no cases that were benefited by coming into or leaving this locality. “ Rheumatism is not very prevalent, but prevails to some extent in damp or very changeable seasons. “Pneumonia prevails to some extent during winter and spring, is mostly caused by exposure and sudden changes of temperature from](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28270538_0047.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
