The Fresh Air Cure for Consumption.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 233, 17 December 1887, Page 3

The Fresh Air Cure for Consumption.

In a paper read by him at the meeting of the Sanitary Congress at Bolton last week, DrRansome, of Manchester, set forth his belief that the chief cause of consumption is not hereditary tendency, privation, or exposure to cold or hardship, but simply the breathing of foul air ; and he naturally concludes that the best safeguard against the disease would bo found in the constant breathing of pure air. The idea upon which this theory is founded is undergoing a very practical test in Germany, where a regular course of treatment of consumptive patients by what may be described a& the " f refh air cure" has been established during the past summer. The scene of operations is the Hauthwalde, not far from Urn, a bathing resort which has long been regarded as an excellent place lor por&ond buffering from lung diseases. About 12 months ago Dr. Berka hit upon the idea of requiring his patients not only to be in the open air as much as possible during the clay, but to sleep in it as well ; and the results of experiments he ma:le were so satisfactory that he resolved upon the construction ot regular sleeping places in the forest for the use of sufferers from any sort of chest diseases. He enlisted the sympathy of Herr Arthur Petzold, proprietor of the pension villa, Schloss Rodberg, and the result was that in July of the pieaetit year some curious little tenements made their appeaiance in a forest not far from the Schloss. They were consti noted entirely of wood, and consisted of stout corner-posts supporting a roof, and one permanent side, the three others being arI ranged on the principle of iron shutters, so that they could be lowered partially or eni tirely, according to the wish of the occupant. The furniture of each comprised a small bedstead, a small chest of drawers and washstand, table, chair and hat-stand. Over the bed were coids by means of which the occupant could lower the three sides, or any one of them, at will, without getting out of bed ; but the patient was expected to make use of them only when dressing or undressing, or in case of wind, sunshine, or rain. He was to sleep all night practically in the open air. There were, altogether, 14 of these sleeping places, seven for ladies and seven for gentlemen, so arranged that those for each sex were kept quite distinct from the other. Here a succession of patients has been accommodated with the most satisfactory results. They speak in glowing terms of the greater comfort they have at night in their open-air rooms, as compared with what they had in ordinary bedrooms. They sleep far more soundly, they no longer have either feverishness or troublesome coughing, and they rise in the morning feeling thoroughly refreshed, and with a glow of life that seems to make fresh beings of them, Their comfort, too, is studied in every way. An electric bell puts them into direct communication with the attendant?, a man and a woman, who may be called at any hour of the night. Every patient is provided with a lantern, so as to allow of nocturnal walks in' the forest, and during the day the patients have the use of the dining,, reading, and billiard rooms of tjie Schloss Rodberg, to which they may retire altogether should the weather be too.stormy to allow of their remaining in the tqresfc. ' The charge for all this is twelve shillings a week, abdeighteenpence for attendance/ a, sum ridiculously small, and tiltogethei' put oi proportion to the .substantial beji6fi^ which not only consumptives, bu,t.3uffer,er;i from poorness of blopd, sleeplessness, and other ailments, derive from* this" latest form' of the treatment of disease by fresh air.