CHAPTER XIII.

A SPECIFIC FOR WHOOPING AND OTHER COUGHS.

For years eminent scientists have been spending much valuable time and money in seeking a cure for whooping cough. Still the whoop persists. The distress, the after effects on the bronchial tubes, and the weakening influence--frequently leading to the later development of tuberculosis--remains uninfluenced. The disease runs its course, irrespective of any or all treatments.

Yet whooping cough is one of the simplest and most easily-cured diseases with which zone therapy has to contend. An ordinary case of whooping cough, which has persisted for weeks, can sometimes be cured in from three to five minutes. Rarely are more than four or five treatments necessary. Case after case is recalled in which, after the application of a cotton-tipped probe--held down firmly on the back of the throat (the post-pharyngeal wall), little patients who had whooped themselves into a state of nervous and physical exhaustion, never had another paroxysm of coughing.

If the savants of the various research institutions throughout the country are really sincere in attempting to discover a cure for whooping cough, asthma, goitre, and a score of other conditions--conditions successfully treated by zone therapy--it will be easy to put this method to the test.

If they do not themselves care to make the experiment, I will come to New York and demonstrate the method on one or one hundred cases, and show that, in from one to a half dozen treatments with a steel probe, whooping cough can be effectively and permanently overcome. This may or may not be worth the attention of these gentlemen. I can do no more than make the offer, which, I emphasize, is made in perfect good faith and in the interest of humanity and science.

The most remarkable feature of a brand-new discovery is very frequently its hoary-headedness. For this reason, when we come to think about this matter of the mechanical relief of cough, we are struck with its antiquity. From time antedating the memory of man, humanity has pressed its second finger in its pharynx (that space which spreads out from the back part of the mouth and throat up into the nose) or the larynx (a continuation of the pharynx), for the purpose of loosening a dry cough or to facilitate expectoration.

All grandmothers, ever since there were grandmothers, have put their fingers in babies’ throats to give them relief in croup. Some of the wisest of these grandmothers used to press the handle of a spoon on the back part of the tongue, in order to abort a beginning cold, or cause a profuse secretion of mucus in conditions associated with a dry, metallic cough.

Our old-time cure for hiccoughs has the same reason for its existence. For, when we grasp the tongue of a hiccougher, and with a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together, haul the offending member to tongue’s length--and hold it there--we cure the spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm (the cause of hiccough) by influencing the zone in which the trouble originates. This is the principle by which we cure whooping cough, or indeed any cough that originates in any portion of the respiratory tube. But, we have found in these cases that spots in the vault or wall of the pharnyx, if pressed firmly with a cotton-wrapped probe, as large as can be comfortably passed through the nostrils, gives the quickest and most definite results.

For the “reflex”--the sensation of pain, tingling, or cold, which is transmitted along the nerve zones by this contact,--can be definitely traced by the patient to the exact spot where the irritation seems to originate.

By slightly raising the handle of the probe, and thereby altering its point of contact on the business end, this influence can be directed with almost mathematical precision to the area we desire to influence.

When the exact “spot” is pressed--and a little practice will soon make the finding of this almost automatic--the pressure should be firmly held for several minutes. The throat may feel slightly “lame” afterwards--but this soon passes off. If it does not, pressure brought to bear upon the appropriate thumb or finger will relieve the “lameness.”

In an experience with several hundred cases of whooping cough we have not yet seen a failure from the proper application of zone therapy. This, I believe, is more than can be truly said of any other form of treatment.

A very few treatments only are necessary to relieve even the most aggravated case of whooping cough--or any cough which originates in the respiratory passage in that zone.

In other words, a tubercular cough, which has its cause in a lesion on the extreme right or left of the lung would not respond to pressures in the middle zones. Likewise a cough which was reflected from a congested liver, or from some other organ not in the first and second zones, would fail to respond to pressures made as here described. Any intelligent man or woman can apply these pressures--and with almost the same success as would attend the effort of the most famous specialist.

It sometimes assists very materially if the tongue, for about a third way back, is thoroly painted above and below with tincture of iodin. The mild irritation from the iodin tends to stimulate the normal function of all those zones interested in keeping up the cough.

If the use of the probe through the nostrils seems too much like a surgical operation, very good--though not so rapid and effective results--will follow the application of firm pressures on the front part of the tongue, and on the floor of the mouth directly under the tongue.

Also moderately tight rubber bands should be worn on the thumbs and first fingers of both hands for five or ten minute intervals, several times a day. This might be supplemented also with strong pressure with the finger and thumb over the bridge of the cougher’s nose.

If there should be a frontal headache associated with the cough--a very frequent symptom if the cough has persisted for any length of time--the finger and thumb should be moved up to the very root of the nose. This shall be pinched gently for several minutes, right at the place where the nose ends and the eyes begin.

One of the most remarkable things zone therapy has yet done (although I am not surprised at anything it may do) was to cure a forty-year-old cough, originating in a tracheal (or wind pipe) irritation. The patient received one treatment with a probe (Fig. 9) on the back wall of the pharynx.

She experienced relief after the second treatment, and continued to improve until, at the expiration of three weeks, she was discharged as cured. Now, after 15 months, there has been no return of the cough.

Another patient with bronchial cough associated with lagrippe, under my instruction, relieved herself by pressures made with the finger and thumb over the bridge of the nose, and by the wearing of rubber bands around the thumbs and first fingers of both hands.

This lady reported the following morning that she had enjoyed the first night’s sleep she had had in more than five nights, and that a persistent and most annoying headache had also cleared up.

These results are quite uniform, and can be duplicated by any one who will try patiently and painstakingly to duplicate them.

Indeed, so simple is the procedure that I have repeatedly seen bronchial and other coughs, resulting from irritation or congestion at some point in the air passages, completely cured, merely by pressure on the tongue with the handle of a tablespoon or a toothbrush. And many of these had persisted for a long time.

I believe the time is not far distant when every one will be his own cough doctor; when mothers, instead of doping their children with dangerous opiates or stomach-destroying nostrums will, with a tongue depressor, or a probe, do successfully in a few hours what now (to perpetrate an Irish bull) is done inadequately or not at all in many days.

Here is the knowledge. There are no patents or restrictions upon it. Every one is free to use it to the fullest and most helpful possible extent.