Fresh Air and Pneumonia.
By Editor
THE advanced physicians are learning slowly that the very best remedies we have are the common things which God gives us. Pure water, simple living, fresh air, a clean life, are blessings within the reach of all. Consumption has been called the great white plague, the disease which above all others is sweeping away humanity; but the last year or so has shown that the death-ratio of pneumonia is greater than that of its rival, tuberculosis. So much is it feared that eminent physicians from all parts of the country are engaged in endeavoring in some way to meet its dread ravages. This is especially true among eminent physicians in New York City. They have learned this regarding the pneumonia germ, that it works in the dark. The germ will die in an hour if exposed to fresh air, and surely this reveals the remedy, and that is to give the patient all the fresh air possible. One physician remarks: "Formerly when a patient had pneumonia, the room was closed, and the temperature kept up. Now they are treating them in the open air, with the thermometer sometimes at zero." Personally we have known cases where every symptom indicated a severe attack of pneumonia, in which the one affected literally killed the disease by breathing. It was a very painful process. The germs multiply at an astounding rate, filling and congesting the air passages. It takes tremendous courage and endurance to do much deep breathing on such an occasion, when sometimes every breath pierces like a lance. But the fresh air inhaled is death to the germs. And it seems to us that the lesson ought to be learned for common every-day life that in proper breathing there is life. Among the curses of civilization are closed rooms, vitiated air, shallow breathing, dark living rooms. Let all our readers join in the cry for fresh air and plenty of sunlight. In these are life and health for the body. It seems to us a horrible thing which the Western Watchman suggests to mitigate the evil of drinking. It says: "Keep men from behind the bar. Women cook and serve food to the hungry in boarding-houses; they should dispense drink to the thirsty in the barrooms. Boys might help them, but no boy should be allowed behind a bar after he is old enough to work. This would eliminate the bloated, hideous, vulgar brute that now mixes insanity and serves murder drops to the unwary. Women serve liquor all over Europe, where it is dispensed in conjunction with food, and their presence is a guarantee against vulgarity and excess. Women obey the law. They keep orderly houses and make the liquor business as respectable as it can be made." We wish that were true, but our observation is that serving at the bar degrades women, lowers the standard until it is not an infrequent thing to find women brawling, swearing, and acting as indecently as men ever do. Thus far the greatest degradation of the results of liquor-drinking has been confined to the men. By all means let it go no farther than that. Among women let it be the exception, and not the rule. But the best way to mitigate the evil is to abolish it altogether. The leading journal of Methodism in the United States has this note regarding its utterances to its own denomination: "The Christian Advocate did not receive during the past winter so many reports of accessions as might reasonably be expected. We do not hear from any source of information of marked manifestations of divine power and human effort, and have therefore directed the attention of the churches and the pastors to the fact that God never intended His servants to wait for special outpourings, that the apostles never did so, that the founders of our special communion never did so." This is about the news that we receive from every source in these days of overwhelming commercialism, greed, and pleasure. Spirituality is at low ebb; even so Christ said it would be in the days just prior to His coming. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold." The reformed spelling seems to be making fairly good progress. It is not scientific by any means. It comes by pieces. If the whole scholastic English world could but once come to the conclusion that we would make our spelling scientific, it certainly would be a wonderful help. Some of our letters are utterly useless, as "c" for instance, always taking the place of "k" or "s" except in the combination of "ch," for which it could well be used. There are those, especially in England, who object to spelling honor, "honor," and yet Shakespeare spelled it in various ways, among which was "honor;" and so with most of the reforms thus far suggested, precedence can be found for them all thru the centuries. A few of these suggestions the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has adopted. It follows the reform which has taken place among medical men in dropping the final "e" in "bromide," "sulfide," "iodine," etc., the "ugh" in "though," and writing "thru" for "through," altho it seems to us that "throo" would be preferable. We write "lost" instead of "lossed," why should we not write "crost" instead of "crossed"? We write blest, "blest," why not write pressed "prest," and dressed, "drest"? While everything in the world, nearly, is striving toward economy of time, it would seem as tho reformed spelling would commend itself to the majority of people. There seems, however, to be as much prejudice against it as against the American Standard Revised Version Bible. A contemporary mentions one person who declares that the Saint James Version is good enough for him. He seemed to suppose that it was a holy man who gave us our so-called "authorized" version. Our "authorized" version is like our "authorized" spelling; neither has ever been authorized by any authority which should affect people of ordinary common sense, yet it does.