Sea-Water in Tuberculosis and Other Diseases

E. C. Dalton
1908 Journal of the American Medical Association  
re the rarity of lacteal secretion in the male, recalls to my mind a case that may be of interest: A youth, 17 years of age, serving sentence for highway robbery, came under my care during my term of service at the Penitentiary Hospital, Blackwell's Island, N. Y. He was suffering from some minor pulmonary trouble\p=m-\bronchitis, as I remember it. He objected to being stripped for examination. When this was done, it was found that his sensitiveness was due to his humiliation over the possession
more » ... of two well-developed mamm\l=ae\, of about the size of the average virginal breast at puberty. From these breasts I freely expressed lacteal secretion in moderate quantity and of a quality which, as shown by chemical and microscopic examination, was fully equal to the average standard of female lacteal secretion. According to the history, the condition had existed for about a year. The cause was unknown and the subject otherwise normal, the sexual apparatus being well developed. As is true of most such institutional cases, the subject was lost sight of after he had served his term of punishment. Interne like, I regarded the case as a curio and did not recognize its scientific value, hence did not at that time re¬ port it. I have a hazy notion that I afterward did so, but if so, the journal in which it was reported is beyond my recollection. G. Frank Lydston. Sea-Water in Tuberculosis and Other Diseases. Valdez, Alaska, Nov. 20, 1908. To the Editor:\p=m-\Forthe past two years I have been experimenting with sea-water as a remedial agent in tuberculosis, anemia, chlorosis and dyspepsia, and the result has been so gratifying that I feel constrained to publish the facts. I have had over twelve cases of pulmonary tuberculosis; four of the patients were bed-ridden. One patient gained 35 pounds in three months, another 16 pounds in one month, and after the first quart of sea-water ceased to have night sweats. Another patient gained 12 pounds in six weeks. All these patients have retained their weight, are apparently well, and have normal temperature. I have had the same experience in cases of anemia, chlorosis and some forms of dyspepsia, and I urge that a thorough test be made of sea-water in these diseases. My method is to have the patients drink from I to 3 pints of sea-water each day, and I have found that after taking it a day or two, the patients not only do not object to it. but seem to like it. Dr. Charles, in the British Medical J an nm I. reports some very interesting experiments wdth seawater. He advocates diluting it with natural potable water, in the proportion of two parts to five; but I have found that there is very little objection to drinking it in its natural state. It is impossible, in the cities remote from the sea, to obtain the fresh sea-water, and I have had some carbon¬ ated, which renders it more palatable and equally efficacious.
doi:10.1001/jama.1908.02540240063015 fatcat:doxgv52oezc7vicxe3zgwz53yu