Chapter 43

Before Going to Bed.--To avoid discomfort from a sensation of hunger during the night, the patient may take a meal of panada, or he may soak graham or bran crackers or biscuits in water and flavor the mess with salt and pepper. The reduction of the diet is generally best accomplished slowly and should be accompanied by measures devoted to the utilization of the fat present for the support of the body. Thus, the patient should not be too heavily clad, either day or night, should resort to exercise, daily becoming more severe, and should not drink freely of water, unless sweating is established sufficiently to prevent the accumulation of liquid in vessels and tissues. Baths of the proper kind, cold or Turkish, should be used, if the patient stands them well. The bowels should be kept active by laxative fruit or purges. Salts are useful if drinks are thrown off rapidly. If proper exercise is impossible the rest cure with massage, electricity, passive exertion and absolute skimmed milk diet may be resorted to, particularly in those persons known as "fat anemics," who have not enough red corpuscles in their blood to carry sufficient oxygen to the tissues to complete oxidation.

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CANCER.--(In the following article on cancer we quote in part from material issued by the Public Health Department of the State of Michigan).

Cancer is curable if it be operated upon in its early stages.--If it be left to grow and develop, cancer is always fatal. It may be partially removed when in an advanced stage, and relief may be had for some time after operation; but beyond the early stage, cancer cannot at present be permanently removed, nor permanently cured. Permanent cure of a cancer is possible if the afflicted person obtains an early diagnosis and receives early attention from a skilled surgeon. The only permanent cure for cancer known at the present time is early surgical operation.

Have Operations Failed to Cure?--Very few persons die from operations performed by skilled surgeons for the removal of cancer. Where cancer operation is done by experienced surgeons the fatality in America for the past fourteen years is less than one case out of a hundred, or in other words ninety-nine persons out of a hundred survive operation for cancer. Many persons have died from the return of the cancerous growth even after operation by a skilled surgeon, and this fact has led many persons to believe that operation for cancer is, therefore, unsuccessful, that it does not cure. This is not the fact. It is true that cancer often returns after operation, and that this method does not always effect a permanent cure; but it is not true that operations are, therefore, useless. The reason that operations do not remove cancers permanently in a great number of cases is that such cases do not submit to operation soon enough. The majority of persons suffering from cancer seek surgical aid too late. If a house is on fire and one refuses to turn in an alarm until the fire has spread from cellar to garret, neither blame nor disparagement must be placed upon the fire department if it failed to save the burning house. So with cancer; if the public refuses or neglects to operate for cancer at the time when it can be eradicated, the public cannot censure or belittle surgery. A cancer is like a green and ripe thistle. Pull up the green thistle and you have gotten rid of it. But if you wait until the thistle is ripe, and the winds have blown away the seeds, there is no use of pulling up that thistle. Early operations are successful. Late ones are not.

No reliable surgeon claims to save his patient or cure him of cancer if the disease be in an advanced stage. But experienced surgeons do recognize the fact that cancer in its early stage can be permanently removed and a permanent cure can be effected by surgical operation. No other means of permanent cure are known.

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Caustic pastes applied to cancerous growths or sera, are sometimes successful in obliterating the cancer for a time; but they are not reliable for effecting enduring cures, and usually are merely palliative, The fact that a cancer does not return for three years after removal is not sure proof that it will not return; the return of a cancerous growth depends upon its state of development and other conditions at the time of removal from the cancer. In Johns Hopkins' Hospital forty-seven per cent of all patients with cancers of the breast operated upon remained well for three years or more, and seventy-five per cent of this forty-seven per cent were cured, being in the most favorable condition for cure at the time of the operation. But where conditions are not favorable at the time of the operation, many patients have a return of the cancer even after the three years of apparent cure have elapsed.

What is Cancer?--A cancer is a growth of cancerous cells in a network of connective tissue. The cause of cancer is not known. It has not been proved to be communicable and the majority of investigators of this subject believe that it is not caused by a germ. Nor is it thought to be inherited. Out of 8,000 cases of cancer at Middlesex Hospital, London, no evidence of heredity was found. Until the cause of cancer is known, it cannot be prevented. The only safeguard lies in an early diagnosis of the condition and an immediate operation. Eminent investigators are carrying on extensive research and thousands of dollars are being spent annually to ascertain, if possible, what is the cause of this dread disease, and it is confidently believed that final success will crown this labor.

When to Suspect Cancer and What to Do.--External or Exposed Cancer.--Cancer of the exposed or surface parts of the body, such as the skin of the lip, nose, cheek, forehead, temples, etc., is more readily recognized than internal cancer, and is therefore more liable to early operation and prompt cure. One rarely sees these forms of cancer in an advanced stage, because such cases are readily seen and recognized by physicians in the early stage of development, when operation can be sufficiently early to effect a lasting cure.

The least malignant of all cancers is that kind which first exhibits itself by a hardening of the skin, forming a nodule looking pimple or a mole and having a dark red color, due to tortuous blood vessels, upon the sides of the nose near the eyes, upon the cheek bones, forehead or temples. This form of epithelioma is called rodent ulcer, flat epithelioma or cancroid and sometimes does little harm for many years, but should receive the attention of a physician familiar with cancer and its eradication.

Deep or squamous cancer occurs on the lip, the tongue or the forehead or wherever the mucous membrane joins the skin, and is characterized by a hard, deep-seated sore formed upon any such part, growing down into the flesh and having a dark red or purplish-red color.

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If such a cancer is suspected of being present, the patient should at once seek diagnosis from a competent physician. Cancer of the lip is more frequent in men than in women, occurring usually in the under lip and called "Smoker's Cancer." Any hard persistent nodule in the under lip should cause suspicion and should be taken to a skilled surgeon, as cancer of the under lip is easily removed when in its early stage of development.

CANCER OF THE STOMACH.--The beginning of cancer of the stomach is very difficult to recognize and it is far safer and wiser, upon the appearance of the first suspicious symptom, to seek the aid of some physician skilled in cancer diagnosis than to ignore and neglect these early warnings of the disease. Although cancer of the stomach may occur in younger persons, it is usually met with in persons after forty years of age. Therefore, any person at this age who suffers from continuous indigestion or characterized by retention and prolonged fermentation of food in the stomach, should at once consult a competent physician. In the early stages of the cancer of the stomach the patient loses weight, but in the later stages there is more or less pain.

Whenever a physician finds that a patient has a pappy, insipid taste with a furred, pale, rarely dry and red tongue, and is suffering from continuous, dull sensations or pain in the region of the stomach, periodically increasing to paroxysms, often induced by pressure or increased by it, together with a sensation of weight, drawing pains of varying character, and frequent pain in the shoulder, loss of appetite, frequent belching of fetid gas from the stomach, severe and frequent vomiting, often periodical, often occurring before partaking of a meal but more often afterwards with slight indigestion, but vomitus being more or less watery and containing mucus and blood, usually decomposed and recurring frequently, together with constipation of the bowels, the skin being sallow, yellowish, dry and flaccid, and losing weight and strength, he should suspect cancer of the stomach and where possible advise an immediate surgical operation for the removal of the cancer.

CANCER OF THE UTERUS.--What women should know regarding it. The menopause or change of life comes on gradually, rarely suddenly. It is not preceded by excessive flowing or discharge or pain in a healthy woman.

By cancer period is understood those years after forty, although rarely it may occur earlier. The first symptoms of uterine cancer are:

1. Profuse flowing, even if only a day more than usual. Flowing or spotting during the interval or after the use of a syringe or the movement of the bowels.

2. Whites or Leucorrhea, if not existing previously. If existing but getting more profuse, watery, irritating, or producing itching is a very suspicious symptom.

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3. Loss of weight, if no other cause is apparent. Pain in the region of the womb, back or side.

If any of the above symptoms occur after the age of thirty-five or forty, a woman should seek relief and insist on thorough investigation of the cause and prompt treatment.

Cancer is always at first a local disease and can be removed if early recognized and an absolute, permanent cure brought about.

CANCER OF THE BREAST.--Eighty-one per cent of an tumors of the breast are cancer or become so. Whenever a woman feels a lump in her breast, particularly if she be at the cancerous age, she should consult a skilled physician at once and keep that breast under medical observation. If so advised by her physician or by a skilled surgeon, she should have an operation for the removal of the cancer, as it can be completely eradicated when operated upon in its early stages. If left to grow and develop it will get beyond the aid of even the most skillful surgeon. Early diagnosis plus surgery is the only hope for a cancerous person. Operation offers a most hopeful outlook for those afflicted with cancer. It is more important to make an early diagnosis in cancer of the breast than it is in appendicitis.

CANCER (CARCINOMA).--This is very malignant. This kind is divided into two classes, Scirrhus and Epithelial.

1. Scirrhus cancer. This is a hard, irregular growth of moderate size. Its special seat is the breast, the pyloric (smaller) end of the stomach and in few instances the glands of the skin.

Soft Medullary or Encephaloid cancer. This type resembles brain tissue both in appearance and consistence. It appears quite soft and may be mistaken for an abscess. In form, it differs according to the organ attacked. Special seats: The testicle, liver, bladder, kidney, ovary, the eye and more rarely the breast.

Colloid cancer; jelly-like substance.--The cancer cells have undergone a degeneration in one of the preceding varieties. The material it contains is a semi-translucent, glistening, jelly-like substance. Its special seats are the stomach, bowel, omentum, ovary and, occasionally, the breast.

Diagnosis.--This kind is very rare before thirty years of age and common after forty. They involve the gland early, contrary to what the sarcoma variety does. Innocent growths occur, as a rule, in younger patients, do not grow so rapidly, do not become adherent to neighboring parts and do not ulcerate.

2. The Epithelial Cancer (Carcinoma).--These always spring from free epithelium-clad surfaces, as the skin, and mucous membranes or from the glands of the same. These growths appear with great frequency at the points of junction of mucous membranes and skin surfaces, probably because these parts are subjected to more frequent and varied forms of mechanical and chemical irritation, Special seats: Skin surfaces, the nose, the lower lip, the penis and scrotum, the vulva, the anus (mucous surfaces), tongue, palate, gums, tonsils, larynx, pharynx, gullet, bladder, womb.

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MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--l. Cancer, Simple Remedy for.--"Give a teaspoonful of sarsaparilla tea four times daily, made with two ounces of sarsaparilla root and quart of water boiled to one pint and apply to cancer growth a poultice made of carrots scraped or mashed cranberries." These simple remedies will relieve and often cure growths taken for cancers, but if it is really a cancerous growth no medicine will help and a physician should be consulted at once.

2. Cancer, Nettles and Laudanum Will Help.--"Take the juice of common nettles inwardly and mix a little laudanum with the juice and rub the parts outwardly. Cancer has often yielded to this treatment." This remedy will no doubt help an ugly looking ulcer, repeatedly taken for cancer, by the patients themselves and frequently the doctor. It is always well to give this simple home remedy a trial, at least, for it is frequently admitted by the medical fraternity to-day that ugly ulcers are often treated in this way as cancers, sometimes to the lasting detriment of the sufferer. Then why not try some efficient home remedy like the above until you are certain that it is a cancer?

TUMORS.--A tumor is a new growth which produces a localized enlargement of a part, or an organ, has no tendency to a spontaneous cure, has no useful function, in most cases tends to grow during the whole of the individual's life. Clinically, tumors are divided into the benign and the malignant.

A benign tumor is usually composed of tissues, resembling those in which it originates.

A malignant tumor usually consists of tissues widely different from those in which it originates; its growth is rapid and therefore often painful; it infiltrates all the surrounding tissues, however resistant, even bone, because it is never encapsulated; it thus early becomes immovable; the overlying skin is apt to become adherent, especially when the breast is involved. Sooner or later it usually infects the group of lymphatic glands intervening between it and the venous circulation and from these new centres, or directly through the veins, gives rise to secondary deposits in the internal organs.

Some varieties. 1. Fibrous tumors; these consist of fibrous tissues. 2. Fatty tumors (or lipomata); these consist of normal fat tissue. 3. Cartilaginous tumors; consist of cartilage. 4. Osseous (bony) tumors. 5. Mucous tumors (myxomata). 6. Muscular tumors (myomata). 7. Vascular tumors (Angeiomata). 8. Nerve tumors (Neuromata).

Malignant Sarcoma (Sarcomata).--These are a variety of tumors. The result of these varies with the location of the tumor. If located in the jaw, an operation may cure it. If in the tonsil or lymphatic gland, it destroys life rapidly. If in the sub-cutaneous tissue, it may be repeatedly removed, the system remaining free, or the amputation of the limb involved will probably cure the disease.

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TUMORS.--Diagnosis. It is uncommon under thirty, quite common after. Epithelioma of the lower lip is limited almost entirely to men. If, then, a man of from forty to seventy develops a small tumor in the lower lip which ulcerates early, it is likely to be the cancer. The same applies to some extent to the tongue. These growths and sores need attention early.

Treatment.--The best treatment is early free removal of the entire growth before the glands are involved.

DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM

HEART DISEASE, Emergency Treatment.--For collapse or fainting, loosen clothing, lie down, rub camphor on forehead, and keep quiet.

To Revive When Fainting.--Smell of camphor or aromatic spirits of ammonia. Put one to two teaspoonfuls of whisky or brandy in eight teaspoonfuls of hot water, and give one or two teaspoonfuls at a time and repeat often. Some are not accustomed to stimulants and it may strangle them, so give it slowly. Pulse is weak in such cases, calling for stimulants.

2. Pearls of Amylnitrite. Break one in a handkerchief and put the handkerchief to the patient's nose so that he may inhale the fumes.

Stimulant.--A person with heart valvular trouble should always carry pearls of amylnitrite. Inhale slowly so as not to get too much of it at once.

HEART FAILURE.--The pulse may be slow and weak or fast and weak.

Digitalis.--Give five drops of the tincture in a little water. Another dose can be given in fifteen minutes. Then another in an hour, if necessary.

PALPITATION OF THE HEART.--Irregular or forcible heart beat action usually perceived by the person troubled.

Causes.--Hysteria, nervous exhaustion, violent emotions or sexual excesses; overdose of tea and coffee: alcohol or tobacco.

Symptoms.--There may be only a sensation of fluttering with that of distention or emptiness of the heart. There may be flushing of the skin, violent beating of the superficial arteries, with rapid pulse, difficult breathing and nervousness. Attack lasts from a few minutes to several hours.

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MOTHERS' REMEDIES.-l. Palpitation of the Heart, Tea of Geranium Root for.--"Make an infusion of geranium root, half an ounce in pint of boiling water, strain, cool, and give wine glass full three or four times a day." The geranium root will be found to be an excellent remedy where female weakness has caused the palpitation of the heart.

2. Palpitation of the Heart, Hot Foot Bath and Camphor for.--"Place the feet in hot mustard water and give two grains camphor every two or three hours, or two drops aconite every hour. This remedy is very good and is sure to give relief."

3. Palpitation of the Heart, Valuable Herb Tea for.--"All excitement must be avoided. Where there is organic disease, all that can be done is to mitigate the severity of the symptoms. For this take the following herb tea: One ounce each of marigold flowers, mugwort, motherworth, century dandelion root, put in, two quarts of water and boil down to three pints; pour boiling hot upon one-half ounce of valerian, and one-half ounce of skullcap. Take a wineglassful three times a day. Let the bowels be kept moderately open and live principally upon vegetable diet, with plenty of outdoor exercise."

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Heartburn, Home Remedy for.--"A few grains of table salt allowed to dissolve in the mouth and frequently repeated will sometimes give relief." People who have too little acid in the stomach will be much benefited by this remedy.

2. Heartburn, Soda a Popular Remedy for.--"One-half teaspoonful soda in glass of water. Everybody uses this in the neighborhood."

3. Heartburn, Excellent Remedy for.--

"Powdered Rhubarb 1/2 ounce Spirits of Peppermint. 2 drams Water 4 ounces Bicarbonate of Soda 1/2 ounce

Dose--One Tablespoonful after meals."

The bicarbonate of soda relieves the gas and swelling of the stomach, while the rhubarb has a tonic action and relieves the bowels. The spirits of peppermint stimulates the mucous membrane.

4. Poor Circulation, Remedy for Stout Person.--"Ten cents worth of salts, five cents worth of cream of tartar; mix and keep in a closed jar. Take one teaspoonful for three nights, then skip three nights." This is an old-time remedy known to be especially good, as the salts move the bowels and the cream of tartar acts on the kidneys, carrying off the impurities that should be thrown off from these organs.

PHYSICIAN'S TREATMENT FOR PALPITATION.--When caused by valvular trouble, digitalis can be given as above directed under heart failure.

When Caused by the Stomach.--From gas or too much food, take salts to move the bowels. Hot whisky is good when caused by gas; or soda, one teaspoonful in hot water is also good when gas causes palpitation.

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Difficult Breathing.--If caused by gas, soda, hot whisky or brandy will relieve. If caused by too fast beating of the heart, give digitalis as above directed. If caused by dropsy, the regular remedies for dropsy. If the dropsy is due to scanty urine you can use infusion of digitalis, dose one to four drams; or cream of tartar and epsom salts, equal parts, to keep the bowels open freely.

PHYSICIAN'S CAUTIONS:--Quiet the patient's mind and assure him there is no actual danger; moderate exercise should be taken as a rule with advantage. Regular hours should be kept and at least ten hours out of twenty-four should be spent in lying down. A tepid bath may be taken in the morning, or if the patient is weakly and nervous, in the evening, followed by a thorough rubbing. No hot baths or Turkish bath. Tea, coffee and alcohol are prohibited. Diet should be light, and the patient should avoid overeating at any meals. Foods that cause gas should not be used. If a smoker the patient must give up tobacco. Sexual excitement is very pernicious, and the patient should be warned especially on this point. Absolute rest for the distressing attacks of palpitation which occur with nervous exhaustion. In these cases we find the most distressing throbbing in the abdomen, which is apt to come after meals, and is very much aggravated by the accumulation of gas.

Diet.--A person with heart disease should not bring on palpitation from over-eating or eating the wrong kind of food. Such a person dare not be a glutton. The diet must be simple, nutritious, but food that is easily digested. Any food that causes trouble must be avoided; starchy foods, spiced foods, rich greasy foods, are not healthy for such a person. The stomach must be carefully treated by such a patient. The bowels should move daily. The kidneys should always do good work and pass enough urine and of the right color and consistency. Stimulants like alcohol, tea and coffee are not to be used. Weak cocoa is all right in most cases. Hot water, if any drink must be taken, at meals. Such a patient in order to live and live comfortably, must take life easy. He cannot afford to run, to over lift, or over exert, to walk fast upstairs, hurry or to "catch the car." He must not get angry or excited. Games of all kinds that have a tendency to make him nervous must be avoided. The same caution applies to exciting literature. In short, a patient with organic heart disease must be a drone in the hum of this busy, fast-rushing life, if he would hope to keep the spark of life for many years. Sleep, rest and quiet is a better motto for you than the strenuous life.

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