OBSERVATIONS.

THE last stage of Consumption is certainly incurable, and the man who would dare to assert the contrary, might justly be suspected of dishonest motives, or of the grossest ignorance: but if we suppose the disease divided into three stages, I feel a confidence in asserting that two out of the three are as easily cured as any other complaint. This is not theory, but the sober and deliberate result of long experience, ardently devoted to a consideration of this destructive malady, and a minute investigation of all its symptoms and morbid characters. Many cases have come under my notice which had all the appearance of being irrecoverable, and which had in fact been pronounced as confirmed Consumption, but they were rapidly subdued by the adoption of efficient means, so that every symptom of pulmonary disease and irritation soon ceased, and sound health was again enjoyed. Now in these cases the substance itself of the Lungs could not be very extensively injured, although in appearance the Patients were in a hopeless condition, and they shew very forcibly the insidious nature of the disease, which requires the most careful consideration before we can pronounce with certainty on our hopes of success; at the same time, they give the greatest encou ragement both to the Practitioner and the invalid to

persevere in their endeavours, for although in such instances every symptom may wear a gloomy aspect, yet the most happy termination may reward our treatment when directed with judgment and discrimination. If, however, the substance of the Lungs has undergone deep and widely spread ulcerations, it is manifest that the healing art is unable to stem the torrent which is about to burst the flood-gates of life, and bring on the final catastrophe; but if it can be ascertained, with some degree of probability, that the disease has not made great inroads upon the pulmonary tissue, there is no reason to fear but a complete cure may be effected. It is on account of the vast numbers that die annually of this fearful scourge, notwithstanding the means that are usually employed to avert it, that the disease in all its stages has been regarded as incurable: but before this conclusion is drawn, we ought to satisfy ourselves whether or not every thing has been done in the general treatment which the resources of medicine can accomplish, and I am of opinion, if the enquiry were rigidly instituted, that we should find strong reason to doubt on that point. Although the science of medicine is not, and never will be, reduced to mathematical certainty, yet it has almost, when joined with a proper mode of regimen, unlimited power; and I would encourage consumptive patients to hope, that the means of arresting the progress of this direful disease are, in the majority of cases, within the reach of human art. The discoveries of modern chemistry have provided the medical world with remedies which were totally unknown thirty years ago, and which enable the Practitioner of the present day to oppose even this terrible scourge with almost a certainty of success.

Although a general opinion has for ages prevailed that Pulmonary Consumption is incurable, yet Laënnec in France, and Abernethy in England some time since proved the contrary. Under their hands the complaint,

even in cases that were apparently of the most critical description, often yielded to a judicious course of medicine; and so great has been the extension both of science and of art since their time, that the difficulties are now reduced to a degree that renders the task comparatively easy. Laennec indeed published to the world several cases of dissections of the lungs of persons who had many years before their dissolution been afflicted with pulmonary complaints, from which they had perfectly recovered, and had died from other causes. Now these cases satisfactorily prove, that ulcerations in the substance of the lungs will heal; and it is to be remarked that the cavities, with the surfaces healed, were witnessed in the lungs of those who had been afflicted with real organic consumption, (that is, the substance of their lungs was really diseased) many years previously to their death, which cavities were no doubt occasioned by the separation of putrefied tubercles.

There are unquestionably some cases that are so severe and complicated with other diseases, that their progress is too rapid to be arrested. They have very generally and very significantly obtained the name of a galloping consumption. They seem to unfold themselves all at once with acute fever, emaciation, and other symptoms of severity, so that a few weeks only are sufficient to carry off the sufferer, and permanent relief cannot reasonably be expected. All that medicine can effect in such extreme cases is to mitigate the sufferings of the patient and render the bed of death less gloomy.

There is also undoubtedly a certain stage of the disease in which disorganization of the lungs is so extensive, that the utmost efforts of human skill now practicable are quite powerless-the medical art of the present day is not sufficient to contend with the difficulty. Whether the discoveries of after ages will ever put mankind in possession of a means of cure for

so hopeless a state, I will not take upon myself to pro nounce. We have in our own time seen such unex pected strides in every art and science, that to some it might seem rash to deny the possibility of such an event, but at any rate our present knowledge of medi cine will not justify us in ever expecting it.

Again, it must be confessed that some patients are very apt to relapse upon an accession of cold or other causes that produce tubercular irritation, Such per sons must give unremitting attention to their healththey must lead a life of caution and temperance, Fresh tubercles may be produced by the predisposing tendency which there is in the affected constitution to engender them, or those which have hitherto existed in a quiescent state may break out into dangerous activity, so that constant vigilance is necessary to preserve the lungs in a state capable of resisting morbid influAbove all things they must avoid wet and cold, and a careless exposure, with iusufficient clothing, to the sudden variations of the weather.

ences.

Of all the plans that have ever been tried for the cure of Consumption, the inhaling of certain medicines by means of a proper glass apparatus, is beyond comparison the best. No other mode of treatment has ever produced such extraordinary results as this, for it has succeeded in numerous cases where the usual mode of proceeding would have consigned the sufferer to the grave, and it is not too much to declare that when inhalation is not employed, all other means will fail to complete a cure. By inhalation a curative agent is introduced into the chest itself, and made to act immediately on the seat of the disease; thus the great objection, that the part affected in Consumption cannot be reached, is completely done away with, for either a soothing or stimulating vapour can by this simple process be brought into immediate contact with