Spitting Blood Not Sign of Consumption

1919

Most Tuberculosis Patients Never Have This Symptom.

There is no need to become alarmed if one spits blood. It is not, as so many think, a sure sign of consumption, for the overwhelming majority of tuberculosis patients never have this symptom, and the blood may come from the larynx, pharynx, teeth, stomach or even the small intestines.

Dr. H. Rabinowitsch of New York points out in the Medical Journal that when we consider the great size of the arteries that enter the lung and their minute ramifications on the surface of the delicate air cells we should not wonder if blood is sometimes coughed up from the lungs. Severe coughing or straining may easily break a small branch of one of these arteries.

Dr. Rabinowitsch says the hemorrhage itself is of slight moment. If it comes from aneurism, death is almost instantaneous; if it comes from a congested area and is limited, it is in some ways beneficial by relieving the congested area. It has another good effect — making a recalcitrant patient obey the doctor's orders.



Nail Illustrates Progress.

A common nail is an excellent illustration of the difference between old and new methods. Formerly the metal was cut into strips and then forged into shape with hammers. Today they are made of steel and are lighter and stronger. Strips are cut with steam shears and fed into automatic nail machines.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Nose Rings Desired by San Blas Indians

1919

Defy Police When Government Rules Out Ornament.

"Changing the style of wearing gold nose rings by government order has aroused dissatisfaction in social circles in the San Blas Indian country on the Atlantic coast of Panama," is a statement made by Everybody's. Police were called in when the ladies insisted upon wearing the facial decoration, despite the order, and several women were fined.

According to the authority on this secluded spot of the world: "The San Blas occupy the Atlantic coast and the adjacent islands near the Colombian border and are among the best natural sailors in the world, many of them going to sea on ships from the Panama canal. They are great fishermen, and their coast and islands are said to produce the best cocoanuts in the world. These natural seamen bring large loads of cocoanuts to Cristobal, piled high in their dugout sailboats, up the roughest bit of coast on the Caribbean, with the waves laving over the edge, and never lose a nut.

"Their blood is probably the purest of any of the American Indians, as no men in the world have guarded their women with more jealousy and efficiency than the San Bias. In a country everywhere touched with the blood of the West Indian negroes, the San Blas never show the slightest trace of any kind of mixture. Until a few years ago, and it is still often true, no men other than those of their own tribe were permitted to be ashore on their coasts or on their islands after sunset."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

The God of Murderers

1900

In a certain mountain village on the northwest frontier of Burma, is a sacred pool, in which is said to live a nat — i.e., a demon — called Shearpanial, who is the guardian spirit of murderers.

When a murder is committed anywhere in these hills, the water of this pool is reported to turn blood red.

Now, when this happens it is a warning sign to the villagers, who are the wardens of the pool, to be on their guard lest the murderer, whoever he may be and from whatever village he may come, unobserved, succeed in reaching the pool, for the Chin law or custom is that if a murderer manages to elude the "avengers of blood" (who are usually some near blood relations of the victim) and the vigilance of the guardians of the pool and succeeds in gaining it and washes his hands in its blood red water, which, as soon as this occurs, resumes its usual appearance, testifying that the god of murder is appeased, he is absolved from his blood guiltiness and is thereafter a free man, and no one may henceforth molest him.

On the other hand, if he were overtaken by his pursuers or were he prevented by the village guardians from reaching the well be would speedily pay the penalty of his crime with his life. — London Answers.

Drifted Together; Hogs Freeze Fast

1909

Sad Plight of Porkers Near Lake City During Blizzard.

LAKE CITY, Feb. 20. — Fred Fry, who lives north of town, relates a mighty interesting incident which occurred on his farm the night of the big storm.

The following day, Mr. Fry heard some hogs squealing and he went out to investigate. The sounds seemed to come from a snow drift and he went over to the drift and, lo and behold a couple of hogs emerged from that drift. The astonishing part was the fact that they had lived through the night in that drift, but that was not the most astonishing part. When those hogs came from that drift they were frozen together, frozen so hard that when they were separated the hide came off and the hogs bled profusely.

It certainly was a peculiar experience.

—Des Moines News, Des Moines, IA, Feb. 21, 1909, p. 3.

Nuxated Iron (Antique Advertisement, 1920*)

What Kind of Blood Have You?

Thin, Pale and Watery - Keeping You Weak, Nervous and Run-Down—Or Rich, Red, Healthy Blood With Plenty of Iron In It To Give You Strength, Energy, Power and Endurance

Physician Says Iron is Red Blood Food

Explains How Nuxated Iron — Master Strength Builder of The Blood — Helps Give Renewed Vim and Energy to Men and Puts Roses Into The Cheeks of Women.

If you tire easily, if you look pale, haggard and worn, if you feel generally weak, nervous and run-down it would probably astonish you to look at a drop of your own blood under a powerful microscope and compare it with a drop of pure, healthy blood—rich in iron. Actual blood tests show that a tremendously large number of people who are weak and ill lack iron in their blood and that they are ill for no other reason than lack of iron. Iron deficiency paralyzes healthy, energetic action, pulls down the whole organism and weakens the entire system.

There are thousands whose bodies are ageing and breaking down at a time when they should be enjoying that perfect bodily health which cries defiance to disease simply because they are not awake to the condition of their blood. By allowing it to remain thin, pale and watery they are not giving the natural life forces of the body a chance to do their work. Yet others go through life apparently possessing, year after year, the elasticity, the strength and the energy of earlier days. Through their bodies courses the energy and power that comes from plenty of red blood—filled with strength-giving iron. Iron is red blood food and physicians explain below why they prescribe organic iron — Nuxated Iron to build up the red blood corpuscles and give increased power and endurance.

Commenting on the use of Nuxated Iron as a tonic, strength and blood-builder by over three million people annually, Dr. James Francis Sullivan, formerly physician of Bellevue Hospital (Outdoor Dept.), New York and the Westchester County Hospital, said: "Modern methods of cooking and the rapid pace at which people of this century live has made such an alarming increase in iron deficiency in the blood of American men and women that I have often marveled at the large number of people who lack iron in the blood — and who never suspect the cause of their weak, nervous, run-down state. Lack of iron in the blood not only makes a man a physical weakling, nervous, irritable, easily fatigued, but it utterly robs him of that virile force, that stamina and strength of will which are so necessary to success and power — in every walk of life. It may also transform a beautiful, sweet-tempered woman into one who is cross, nervous and irritable. I have strongly emphasized the great necessity of physicians making blood examinations of their weak, anaemic, rundown patients. Thousands of persons go on year after year suffering from physical weakness and a highly nervous condition due to lack of sufficient iron in their blood corpuscles without ever realizing the real cause of the trouble. But in my opinion - you can't make these strong, vigorous, successful, sturdy iron men by feeding them on metallic iron. The old forms of metallic iron must go through a digestive process to transform them into organic iron — Nuxated Iron — before they are ready to be taken up and assimilated by the human system. Notwithstanding all that has been said and written on this subject by well-known physicians, thousands of people still insist in dosing themselves with metallic iron simply, I suppose, because it costs a few cents less. I strongly advise readers in all cases to get a physician's prescription for organic iron — Nuxated Iron — or if you don't want to go to this trouble then purchase only Nuxated Iron in its original packages and see that this particular name (Nuxated Iron) appears on the package. If you have taken preparations such as Nux and Iron and other similar iron products and failed to get results, remember that such products are an entirely different thing from Nuxated Iron.

Dr. H. B. Vail, formerly Physician in the Baltimore Hospital, and a Medical Examiner, says: "Throughout my experience on Hospital Staffs and as a Medical Examiner, I have been astonished at the number of patients who have vainly doctored for various diseases, when in reality their delicate, run-down state was simply the result of lack of iron in the blood. Time and again I have prescribed organic iron — Nuxated Iron — and surprised patients at the rapidity with which the weakness and general debility was replaced by a renewed feeling of strength and vitality. I took Nuxated Iron myself to build me up after a serious case of nervous exhaustion. The effects were apparent after a few days and within three weeks it had virtually revitalized my whole system and put me in a superb physical condition."

Dr. T. Alphonsus Wallace, a physician of many years' experience in this country and abroad, says: "I do not make a practice of recommending advertised medicinal products, but I have found Nuxated Iron so potent in nervous, run-down conditions, that I believe all should know it. The men and women of today need more iron in their blood than was the case twenty or thirty years ago. This because of the demineralized diet which now is served daily in thousands of homes and also because of the demand for greater resistance necessary to offset the greater number of health hazards to be met at every turn."

MANUFACTURER'S NOTE: Nuxated Iron which is prescribed and recommended above by physicians is not a secret remedy, but one which is well known to druggists everywhere. Unlike the older inorganic iron products it is easily assimilated and does not injure the teeth, make them black, nor upset the stomach. The manufacturers guarantee successful and entirely satisfactory results to every purchaser or they will refund your money. It is dispensed by all good druggists.

*Note: This advertisement is void, being from 1920 and of historical interest only.

Lord Brougham's Dream

1917

Lord Brougham was one of the stubborn believers to the "common sense" explanation of ghostly appearances as dreams. At Edinburgh university he and an intimate friend drew up an agreement written with their blood that whichever of them died first should appear to the survivor.

Years passed; the friend was in India, and Brougham had almost forgotten his existence. Arriving late one night at an inn in Sweden, Brougham had a hot bath and was going to get out of it when he looked toward the chair on which he had left his clothes and saw his friend sitting on it. Brougham seems then to have fainted.

On getting home be received a letter announcing that the other had died in India at the very time. Yet this incident, which most people would put down to telepathy at least, was dismissed by Brougham as a mere dream and pure coincidence.

Abhorrent Fad in Paris — Blood Drinking

1900

Parisians Now Have Taken to Drinking Blood

Paris has a new fad — blood drinking. In this country consumptives sometimes go to an abattoir and drink the warm blood of the slaughtered beeves, but in Paris blood drinking is a fashionable fad, and is done in fashionable cafes.

The jaded man about town, the nervous belle, who calls for a glass of this abhorrent drink, names it simply "beef juice." The method of its preparation, however, leaves no doubt in the mind of an ordinary observer as to the name it rightly owns. Every one is now allowed to see the process, which is simple, but ingenious. A block of raw, gory beef is put into a powerful hydraulic press, and jammed down until the last drop of moisture is extracted, leaving a hard white mass resembling a half-tanned leather and a glassful of scarlet blood. The latter is artfully flavored with cayenne and spices, darkened in color, and handed out to the consumer in the shop, who pays four or five francs for the drink, and goes away under the impression that he has swallowed the king of pick-me-ups.

Certainly the "beef juice cordial" is nourishing and stimulating, but it is doubtful whether it is really worth more as a food or fillip than the common and cheap beef tea.

Mrs. Humphrey's Strong Feelings About Fashion

1911

Editorial Zingers

The truth is that the love of dress is, next after drink and gambling, one of the curses of our country. -- Mrs. Humphrey.

The Boston young woman who worked eight years on her trousseau must have had unusual, though not well founded, faith in the stability of the styles.

A Montreal doctor recently contributed a pint of his own blood to save the life of a patient. Some doctors seem to be actuated by a sincere desire to cure.

The autocrats of fashion may succeed in making women wear the ugly Turkish "harem" stress, but no autocrat now living will ever succeed in shutting women up.

"I know not where I am," cried a poetess in one of the magazines. English critics of American literature will wonder why she did not say: "I know not where I am at."

An English paper announces that Americans lack the sense of humor. That sounds like the argument of the man who satisfies himself by exclaiming: "You're another!"

A Canadian highbrow tells us that the temperature seven and a half miles above the earth is 90 degrees below zero. Let this be a warning to builders of skyscrapers.

Dreaming He's Fighting Intruders, Hacks Brother With Ax

1902

MURDERS IN A DREAM.

NASHVILLE, Ind., June 28 — Dreaming he was fighting burglars, John Snyder, aged 18 years, the son of Newberry Snyder, living near Beck's grove, eight miles south of here, seized an ax and literally chopped to pieces his brother, Grover, aged 20 years.

The young men had attended an ice cream supper at the home of County Superintendent Manuels and on their return home they were told by their mother that she had heard someone prowling about the premises and she showed them where she had placed the ax which she intended to use to defend herself if she was attacked.

The young men retired, and a short time afterward Mrs. Snyder was aroused by the screams of her son and rushed into the bed room to find John standing horror-stricken beside his brother's bed with a bloody ax in his hands. The victim is terribly lacerated about the body and legs and his recovery is considered impossible. John claims he was dreaming burglars "were in the house and that he was beating them off when he seized the ax and attacked his brother.


CONFESSION OF BOY ROBBERS.

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind., June 28. — Eleven boys, aged from 8 to 13 years, have been arrested and jailed in this city for numerous robberies at the junction. For several weeks the cars and stores in that neighborhood have been looted and much valuable goods taken. To-day the police bagged the entire organized gang of juvenile robbers, who confessed.

—Fort Wayne News, Fort Wayne, IN, June 28, 1902, p. 8.

'A Man of Spirit' – The Language of Vital Function in Galen's Time

1914

ANIMAL SPIRITS.

Our Vital Functions as They Were Known In Galen's Time.

"Few persons even stop to consider when they speak of 'a man of spirit' that they are unwittingly employing the language of the days of Galen," says the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Yet this is evidently the survival of the old doctrine of spirits. We may believe that Galen had a conception of the nerve trunks as conductors of something — he called it spirits — to and from the brain and spinal cord.

"The natural spirits were that undefined property which gave to blood the capacity of nourishing the tissues of the body. The vital spirits were acquired in the heart, and when at last the blood with its vital spirits went to the brain and experienced a sort of refinement for the last time the animal spirits were separated from it and carried to the body by the nerve trunks."

Such was the idea of the vital functions in the second century. Today, after 1,800 years, we know that there are no "spirits" in our blood or nerves, but we still speak of being in "high spirits" or "low spirits," of being full of "animal spirits," of a "spirited answer" or a "spirited horse."

The Thirsty Leech – Old-Time Aid to Blood-Letting

1890

THE THIRSTY LEECH.

AN OLD-TIME AID TO BLOOD LETTING.

An Industry that is Now but the Shadow of What it Once Was.

According to the psalmist "The daughters of the horse-leech cry continually, "Give, give." According to the natural history neither the horse-leech nor his daughters do anything of the sort, the appetite of this variety of the once popular worm being quite easily satisfied. Neither has it the blood-sucking tastes of the ordinary leech, for it is well established that it will not attack man, while it is equally well known that the leech of the medical world will. It is doubtful whether it ever attaches itself to horse or other animals and it is content to make a meal off another worm, which it does by swallowing it whole after the fashion of that other worm, the snake. The horse-leech, it is true, is big and looks fierce, but, as in the case of the big black ant and the little red one, it is the little one that is to be avoided. Lastly, although this objection may be considered hypercritical, the horse-leech never had any daughters, all of its children being bi-sexed, true hermaphrodites.

Possibly what the erudite translators of the Old Testament set down in Saxon as the horse-leech was not the horse-leech at all in the original, or perhaps what was meant was the leech which is gathered by horses. In the great leech ponds and streams of Europe and Asia, a big haul of the worm used to be made by driving horses in the infected localities. The little bloodsuckers would then fasten themselves to the poor animal's legs and body, from which, when the worms were saturated, the gatherers would pick them off. Leeches have to be gathered with a little more care, the sources of supply having become much more limited than they were fifty years ago. They formerly inhabited in great numbers the marshes and streams of most countries of Europe, but now they are successfully cultivated only in France and Hungary, although they come from Turkey, Wallachia, Russia, Egypt and Algeria. The best leeches were long supposed to come from Sweden, but the supplies have run short. Paris is now the center of the European export trade, many of the leeches that come from there being labeled as Swedish.

Prior to 1839 there was no regular import trade of leeches into this country, the supply being kept up by sea captains who occasionally brought them over in small numbers on private speculation. Leechers were, therefore, obliged to depend largely on the native leech for drawing blood, the native species being in considerable demand during the early part of the present century. It was found that there were many American species, its habitat being quite widely distributed, but the best came from Eastern Pennsylvania, especially Berks and Bucks counties. The European species is generally conceded to be superior to the American, but during the earlier period of importation the prices charged for the European blood-sucker was so high that the American leech held its ground for a time. Gradually, however, prices fell, until now, although the European leech is still a trifle more expensive than the native. Its cost is so slight that it is almost universally employed, excepting in special cases, and in a few localities where the American leech is preferred. No American leeches, it is believed, are now used in any American city except Philadelphia, where they are still in slight demand. In fact, the latter city appears to have held to the old custom of leeching more than any other American city of which there is any information. Now, perhaps, scarcely more than 1,000 American leeches are used in a year, although more than that number are sold to the druggist, the supply coming from one person who collects them in the Pennsylvania counties mentioned and in the ponds about Trenton, N. J.

Up to 1878 New York was the only port that was in the leech-import business, but in that year New Orleans also began their importation, while San Francisco has long been the third importer. In San Francisco the business is in the hands of a French woman Madame Patural. They are imported during most of the year, but only to a slight extent in summer, as they are easily killed by an excess of heat. In June, July and August the mortality in the East sometimes reaches as high as 25 per cent. They are brought here packed in swamp earth in air and water-tight wooden cases, holding 1,500 leeches each. These cases are made rather light, and are about twenty-one inches long, fifteen inches wide, and thirteen inches high. In shipping leeches from place to place in this country the same cases are used for sending large quantities, and tight wooden pails for smaller numbers, the packing of swamp earth being also employed. American leeches, on the contrary, are kept best in water, in earthen or glass jars in a cool place. In the case of very large quantities storage ponds are employed, the principal being on Long Island, between Winfield and Newtown.

Though but slightly used now, there are few people who do not know that the leech is used as a blood-letting machine, its use dating back to Galen, and the process by which it fills itself with blood being graphically described by naturalists who lived contemporaneously with Pliny and Herodotus. Cupping and leeching were the curative methods employed in all febrile disorders, and indeed for almost any ill. They were applied to any part of the skin, as well as to the mouth and other available inlets. When the distinct locality was to be attacked the leech was applied in a thimble or leech glass, the latter being a small tube with a slightly contracted opening, and sometimes provided with a glass piston for pushing master leech on. In the case of brain fever or concussion of the brain the leeches were simply laid on by the doctor, sometimes as many as two dozen hanging on at the same time. So prominent a part of the doctor's practice, indeed, was this application of leeches that the doctor himself was often called "a leech" or a "learned leech" as by any other title. — San Francisco Chronicle.

Engineer Dies Awful Death, Blood Drawn From Body

1907

EVERY DROP OF BLOOD DRAWN FROM HIS BODY

Engineer Dies Awful Death From Contact With Suction Pipe.

Chicago, May 11 — By having almost every drop of blood drawn from his body when his leg was caught in a suction pipe, Walter Hunter, an engineer employed by Armour & Company, was killed today while repairing the power plant.

The post mortem examination showed that Hunter's heart was shriveled up, his lungs were flat and empty and there was scarcely any trace of blood in the organs of the upper part of the body. Several of the arteries in Hunter's leg were broken by the suction.

Divine Healer Stops Flow of Blood Following Fight

Indianapolis, 1917
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A divine healer demonstrated to Sergt. Thomas and a squad of police Saturday night his power when he stopped the flow of blood from a number of stab wounds which Mattie Brown, colored, 715 West Thirteenth street, suffered. It is said the stabbing was done by Grant Lightfoot, colored, of the same address, who alleged the woman owed him 50 cents. The Brown woman ran to 416 Cora street where the police were called. Lightfoot escaped.

The woman was lying on a bed bleeding profusely from the wounds. The police said a young negro approached and asked to be permitted to see her. The crowd that had gathered around the woman was ordered back by the police and the negro approached and waved his hands over the wounded woman while he mumbled strange words. The police said the bleeding stopped in about a minute. When questioned by the police all the man would say was that he was a "divine healer." The woman was sent to the City Hospital, where it is said her condition is serious.

--The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, November 12, 1917, page 8.

Women Puts Blood in Man's Coffee

Pittsburgh, 1909
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LOVE PHILTER ADMINISTERED

Woman Who Surrendered to Pittsburgh Police Says She Killed North East Man.

Pittsburgh, April 17. - Declaring that she caused the death of William Anderson, at North East, Pa., about ten months ago, by administering a love philter to him in a cup of coffee, a woman who gave the name of Emma Baker and her home as North East, today asked the police to place her under arrest. She is being held to await an answer from the North East police. The woman told Police Captain Murray that she inflicted a wound in her breast and extracted a drop of blood which she put in a cup of coffee, unknown to Anderson and gave it to him to drink.

--The Evening Observer, Dunkirk, New York, April 17, 1909, page 1.

Comment: Obviously that wouldn't kill you, so there must be something more to it.