Page:Food and cookery for the sick and convalescent.djvu/366

262 riums are largely due to the fact that these important considerations have not been overlooked.

At Rutland, Massachusetts, where many patients have derived much benefit, the open-air treatment is used, and all alcoholic stimulants are withheld unless especially ordered by the physician. It must be mentioned, however, that only such patients are admitted as are suffering from the first stages of the disease.

The patients are warmly clad both night and day. During the day most of the time is spent out of doors, and some patients even sleep out of doors, and when not out of doors in a cold room constantly supplied with fresh air. Hoods, mittens, and moccasins are necessary as a protection in such an out-of-door life, and blankets are supplied almost without number.

Patients are allowed a warm room for the cold-water baths, which are recommended, and also for dressing, after which time the heat is turned off, not to be turned on again until time to heat the rooms for undressing.

Under this treatment a weekly gain of weight always is looked for, and patients are weighed at regular intervals that the increase may be recorded. The exercise is limited, to assist in accomplishing this gain, while the food supply is greatly in excess of that furnished for a person in health.

Many physicians are wont to send patients to the far West (Colorado or California), and while some have derived benefit from the change, alas, the greater number have been too wasted by the disease to receive permanent good.

Consumption being an infectious disease, it is never wise to have a large number of cases in a single colony. Where large numbers have flocked to localities where the disease has been unknown, the cases have so multiplied that the error of the plan has been made apparent.

Many patients who make a change of climate (selecting a spot where the elevation is high and the air dry) during the early stages of the disease, are so benefited