Open-air Cure for Consumption: Sanatorium Life.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 64

Open-air Cure for Consumption: Sanatorium Life.

Sanatorium life has changed vastly 6ince the treatment of corisumptiox. 'ceased to be empirical. In Jie old days a patient merely went t. a health resort, lived there like the rest of the world as 'ong » he was able to, took has od liver oil, and took his chance. Nowadays he fighte the enemy as systematically as if he were beleaguring a fortress. Our patient may hope to expel him if he wiH do three things — breathe pure air and plenty of it, feed himself uj like Christmas ox. and be ac careful not to hurt his damaged lung as he would be not tc hurt a sanwoed, abU,«. gr. broken test Ru xJv^q

life must be subsidiary to this triple purpose. The duty of heavy feeddnjj 'a that which the neweomei generally finds the hardest. He is acousfcomedi to take only a little d(ry toas a with his tea in the morning, and he finds four eggs placed in front of him as a ration to be goi through. His dinner has lately consisted of a sweet-bread or the wing of a ohicken 1 , and here are four mutton chops, and * peremptory gentleman looking on tc see tha>t he eats them. He would like to help his apetite with a whisky and soda or a glass of sherry. Instead of doiiifc so, he has to wash down his mutton chops with a quart of milk — hot milk, too, a beverage for which the taste has to be laboriously acquired. The aask is the harder should he be .n one of the Swiss sanatorium^, because the meat of the high Alps is tough, and the delicate alternatives to the chops or -the out from the jodnt are not allowed, because they xmtain less nutriment to the ounce.

The keen air helps, of course, but, even 60, few patients find themselves really hungry. "You find that you can cat the things," ■they protest, " but you never feel S3 if you really wanted them." After the meal, partaken of in a room with wide-open windows, the patient's duty is to lio about out of doors* in a lounge chair for as long as the doctor tells him to. After a rest he may be allowed to walk for an hour or so, and his temperature will be carefully taken' on his return to ascertain whether the exertion has hurt ham. If it has, he will have to rest instead of walking for the next few days. And, in any case, the remainder of the day must be spent on a lounge in the oper. air. —Graphic.