Part 55

=Congestion of Liver.=--Prognosis good.

=Conjunctivitis.=--Readily curable, unless part of a more general infection.

=Constipation.=--Prognosis usually good, but some cases which have paralyzed the intestines with drugs, or in which atony of the intestinal muscles exists from any cause, are very stubborn. One is led to believe that any case of chronic constipation would respond to proper adjustments in time, but sometimes the time is prolonged more than seems reasonable.

=Coryza.=--Some cases respond instantly, others persist and run their usual course. Chronic nasal catarrh recovers in favorable climates, and in unfavorable tends to become permanent, though less severe and annoying under adjustment.

=Croup.=--Always dangerous, but no fatalities reported under adjustments, which are powerfully effective. Croup requires constant attention until all symptoms subside, usually within an hour or two.

=Cystitis.=--Usually curable, but some chronic cases prove intractable for an unknown reason. There is no way of recognizing the curability of a case before the attempt.

=Deafness.=--Variable outlook. Deafness due to catarrhal occlusion of the Eustachian tubes is usually curable. That due to middle ear disease sometimes yields. That due to nerve disease is possibly--though not certainly--incurable.

=Diabetes Insipidus.=--Prognosis excellent. Few cases fail of cure, and no fatalities are reported.

=Diabetes Mellitus.=--Always necessitating grave and careful consideration, this metabolic disease is marvellously controlled by Chiropractic adjustment. Probably 90 per cent of all cases are curable, and only those presenting impossible problems of adjustment, or those in the very last stages, are hopeless.

=Diarrhoea.=--Prognosis depends largely upon secondary causes. Adjustments sometimes produce diarrhoea to cleanse the intestinal tract of waste or poisons. Such a diarrhoea, if instituted by Nature without aid, does not cease with adjustments until its purpose is accomplished. Nervous and infective diarrhoeas usually respond well.

=Dilatation of Heart.=--Compensatory hypertrophy and strengthening of the muscle usually follows adjustment.

=Diphtheria.=--Under adjustment the false membrane tends to exfoliate and to be coughed out entire within a few hours, with rapid recovery. In children, watch for possible strangulation from loosened membrane. Constant bedside attention is imperative until fever and membrane have disappeared. Convalescence, unless antitoxin has been used, is very rapid, and physicians watching the clinical course of diphtheria under adjustment customarily doubt the diagnosis unless culture is made. Antitoxin modifies the prognosis toward gravity, and in spite of adjustments persistent sequelae often follow its use.

=Dropsy.=--Cardiac or renal dropsy disappears with improvement in the diseased organ.

=Dysentery.=--In temperate climates death is extremely unlikely. Recovery is often quick and easy, but some cases persist. The tropical amoebic dysentery seems hardest to master and may not improve at all.

=Dyspepsia.=--Prognosis good.

=Endocarditis.=--If primary, recovery is the rule. Occurring in the course of some other disease, as rheumatic fever, it renders the prognosis less certain and may terminate fatally. Likely to leave chronic valve weakness or contraction.

=Enteritis.=--Prognosis generally fair. No figures available.

=Enuresis.=--The majority recover within a few weeks or months, with occasional exceptions. Failure to get results within a few weeks suggests a change of adjustment.

=Epilepsy.=--Doubtful. Less than half of all cases recover, and no case can be pronounced cured until all symptoms have been absent for a year. Cases with anterior cervicals offer the poorest chance. It is usually possible to restore consciousness and muscular control by an adjustment during the grande mal, in the instant between the tonic and clonic spasms, but such immediate response does not--unfortunately--always mean that a cure will eventually be effected.

=Epistaxis.=--Nose-bleed usually stops at once following proper adjustment.

=Erysipelas.=--Cases adjusted early show little spreading of the eruption with but slight constitutional symptoms. After eruption is fully developed it is more difficult to keep down the fever and recovery is slower, but none the less certain unless cardiac or other grave weakness is present.

=Exophthalmic Goitre.=--Like other forms of goitre this may be reduced, and with its reduction all other symptoms disappear. Many cures are on record.

=Friedrich’s Ataxia.=--In hereditary cerebellar ataxia (which is probably congenital, rather) cures are limited to 40 per cent or less. History of instrumental delivery, with marked upper cervical subluxation, argue for the natal origin of the disease and increase the probability of cure.

=Gallstones.=--Prognosis excellent. The calculi absorb under adjustment by a reversal of the chemical process by which their deposit was induced. When small they may pass through the ducts and escape, with slight pain. Adjustment during the painful passage of a gallstone may act upon the duct so as to lessen greatly the pain and hasten the passage.

=Gastralgia.=--Like other gastric neuroses, is easily curable but may sometimes require correction of a neurotic diathesis, which means time.

=Gastric Ulcer.=--Usually recovers, but occasionally leaves a fibrous cicatrix which cannot be affected by adjustment and which, if located at the pylorus, may produce stenosis, with consequent incurable dilatation of the stomach. Operation is required for such a condition, but the diagnosis is difficult, and it may be best to test with adjustments for some time.

=Gastritis.=--Prognosis good. To prevent recurrence adjustments should continue after symptoms subside.

=Goitre.=--Prognosis good. One large goitre under the author’s observation was reduced in one week so that the neck measurement decreased one inch. Most cases require several months for complete reduction.