Courage is above all necessary in pneumonia because the organs that are most affected and have most to do with his recovery are so much {189} under the control of the emotions. Any emotional disturbance will cause the heart to be affected to some extent and the respiration to be altered in some way. When a pneumonia patient has to lie for days watching his respirations at forty to the minute, though probably he has never noticed them before, and feels how his heart is laboring, no wonder that he gets scared, and yet his scare is the very worst thing that can happen to him. It will further disturb both his heart and his respiration and leave him with less energy to overcome the affection. He may be tempted to make conscious efforts to help his lungs in their work, though any such attempt will almost surely do more harm than good. He must just face the inevitable for some five to nine days, hope for the best all the time and keep up his courage so as not to disturb his heart. After middle life only the patients who are capable of doing that will survive the trial that pneumonia gives. The super-abounding energy of the young man will carry him through it much better; and besides, the young man usually has much less solicitude as to the future and much less depending on his recovery. A generation ago or even less, whiskey or {190} brandy or some form of strong, alcoholic stimulant, as it was called, was looked upon as the sheet anchor in pneumonia. For a generation or more at that time, the same remedy had been looked upon by a great many physicians as an extremely precious resource in the treatment of tuberculosis. The therapeutic theory behind the practice was that in affections of the lungs a particular strain was placed upon the heart and therefore this organ needed to be stimulated just as far as could be done with safety. As alcohol increases the rapidity of the heart beat, it was considered to be surely a stimulant and came to be looked upon as the safest of heart stimulants, because, except when used over very long periods, direct bad effects had not been noticed. In pneumonia, above all, the heart needed to be stimulated because it had to pump blood through the portion of the lungs unaffected by the pneumonia, usually congested and offering special hindrances to the circulation; besides, a much larger amount of blood than usual had to be pumped through these portions of the lungs in order to compensate for the solidified portions.