Page 7 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5634, 6 December 1879, Page 7

CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.

Tiie New York bun has printed a report of a conversation in a horse-car between the Hon. Ellis B. Schnabel and a consumptive. Schnabel told the coughing man that rock candy and rye whiskey would cure any pulmonary comblaint, and referred him to several wellknown persons who have regained their health by the use of the mixture. His theory was that tho direct cause of hereditary consumption was a chronic ulceration of the lungs. It was a scrofulous affection, and cauie down from father to soil the same as scrofula. A chronic inflammation would not heal; but if it could be turned into an acute inflammation, it might be cured. "Inninetynine cases out of a hundred," said Mr. Schnabel, " if you could get into the lungs with a stick of caustic, by cauterization you might produce the necessary acute inflammation, and the patient would recover." He claimed that a cordial of rock candy aud rye whiskey takes tho place of the caustic. Its use produces a semi-acute inflammation of the surface of the lung, thus putting tint organ in a curable condition. Tli ■ moment alcohol touches the stomach, it flashes into circulation by opening and expanding the capillary vessels or porrs of the stomach. As the saccharine matter combines with tho alcohol, bath are transmitted into the blood and sent to the lungs. When thr air you breathe strikes the blood in the lungs the alcohol produces the acute inflammation, and it is the only thing that will produce it. The acute inflammation draws the blood to the weak point, and the saccharine matter, taking advantage of theinflimmation, buiMs up and strengthens the weakened organ. The membrane is thickened and healed, and after a few weeks can bear all chanres of weather with impuni'y. Such was Mr. Schnabel's theory. His recipe was live pounds of pure white reck candy dissolved in a gallon of old rye whiskey—the ! older the better. The whiskey must be distilled iu the old-fashioned way with a copper worm. Steam distillation develops the latent poison of tho berry, and fills the syjtcm with fusel and other deadly oils. Coloured rock candy is poisonous. The yellow tinge shows the presence of an insoluble earth deleterious to tho stomach and dangerous. The clear white rock is pure crystallized sugar, the most nourishing of all substances. The five pounds of candy shoul Ibe put into a gallon of whiskey. The demijohn should be well shaken three or four times a day, and the mixture is not to be used until the candy is dissolved. The patient may take a sherry wine glass full on going to bed, and two thirds as much on an empty f-tomach iii tho morning. He can carry a tlaok in his pocket and take a spoonful half a dozen times a day. Night sweats will disappear, and the patient will get a long refreshing sleep. Lung fever wi'l go, and he will feel no more pain in his chest. While taking this cordial the patient must limit his diet. He must keep his stomach employed in taking up rich an 1 nourishing matter. ' All vinegars, pickles, sour wines, malt drinks and salt provisions must be avoided. Touch no fresh pork, for it promotes ulceration. Do away with coffee, for it fevers the blood. Drink black tea. Eat roast beel rare, broiled steaks, mutton chops well done, toasted bread, and all kinds of v<getables. The great object is to c rich tho blood. One of the best articles of food is a rum omelette made exclusively of the yolk of eggs. In the Southern States, rock candy and corn whiskey has been a favourite driuk for years, taking the place of the old Georgia peaclibrandy and honey. The Southerners say that corn whiskey is a-'good for consumptives as rye, but til's is denied by Mr. Schnabel.