MORE OXYGEN AND LESS DRUGS.
THE use of eight thousand five hundred gallons of oxygen in saving the life of a pneumonia patient in New York the other day is an incident worthy of more than passing notice, considering the great and apparently increasing mortality from this disease. That doctors are less successful in coping with this disease than with almost any other ailment, save cancer and consumption, is evidenced by abundant statistics. During the seven days of last week there were one hundred and fifty-nine deaths from pneumonia in Chicago, while in other cities the mortality from this cause is proportionately large. It seems to be generally recognized by physicians and laymen that, when a sufferer from pneumonia reaches a certain crisis in the development of the malady, he is beyond medical aid, and all hope is abandoned. He simply suffocates while medical science stands by in helpless impotence. It is very clear, even to the layman, that medicine will not reach the inflamed lung tissue, and that pouring medicine into the stomach of a pneumonia patient simply impairs vitality, and retards the recuperative efforts of nature. Pure, life-giving oxygen is needed, not drugs. Aside from the mild medication necessary to reduce fever and stimulate heart action, the need of the patient is for a process that will impart oxygen to the blood, and enable nature to heal the inflamed tissues of the respiratory organs. The restorative efficacy of oxygen in the treatment of pneumonia has been demonstrated by physicians in such numberless instances that a failure to resort to it may be characterized as almost criminal. It is true that it has not always saved life, but how many physicians have used eight thousand five hundred gallons of oxygen in the treatment of one patient? In the New York case the number of cylinders of oxygen used each day increased rapidly as the disease developed. On the day when the crisis was reached and passed, twenty-two cylinders, each containing one hundred gallons of the gas, were used. In all, eighty-five cylinders of gas, costing four hundred and twenty-five dollars, were used, and the patient is now recovering. Is a life worth eight thousand five hundred gallons of oxygen? The earth is full of it; there is no limit to the supply. The New York experiment suggests the use of much greater quantities of it in each particular case than was ever before attempted by physicians.