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&  SURGEON GENERAL'S OF FTC K  £
LIBRARY.
'•* /Section,
,Yo.  /WIL 
Ami; 
                         THE WHOLE SYSTEM.
15, The Lungs.  26, The Heart.  11, The Liver.  10, The Stomach.  5, 6. 8, 9, The
                        Intestines.  7, The Bladder. 
      A  MEDICAL  TREATISE

          ON THE CAUSES AND CURABILITY OF


  CONSUMPTION,


LARYNGITIS, CHRONIC CATARRH, AND DISEASES
           OF THE AIR-PASSAGES.

COMBINING THE TREATMENT BY INHALATION OF MEOIGATED VAPORS.
       ALSO, A NEW AND ACCURATE METHOD TOR THE


  DIAGNOSIS OF CONSUMPTION;

OR. HOW TO DETECT ITS SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS IN ITS VARIOUS STAGES.
                    ALSO,
  INCLUDING MANY CHRONIC AND NERVOUS DISEASES, HUMORS,
   FITS, &c.  WITH AN APPENDIX ON TOBACCO, Showing its in-
 jurious EFFECTS ON BOTH BODY AND MIND ; PHREJWJLOGY AND MESMERISM.
                       r'
    BY CHARLES R. BROADBENT, M. D._____

                  **---------,&**!$%




                BOSTON:     -^BRAP"

 DAMRELL & WELCH, PRINTERS, 22 COURT STREET.
                   18 62. 
    WFA







film A/o. l{£,<?tyy *Wo.ty 
INTRODUCTION.
  I now present to the public my new work, which is
A Treatise on  the  Causes  and Curability of Tubercu-
lar and  Bronchial  Consumption,  Laryngitis, Chronic
Catarrh, and Diseases of the Air-Passages, Health, &c.;
combining the  Treatment by Inhalation of Medicated
Vapors, designed both for the student of medicine as
well as the general  reader.  I at first intended to issue
a larger work, but, upon  more  mature reflection, I
deemed it best to publish it in its present form and size.
The price of a work as large and costly as I at first con-
templated, would have restricted  the sale considerably,
in placing it beyond the reach of those in limited  cir-
cumstances.  These objections, together with the great
labor and cost,  and also want of time to prepare such a
work, have induced me thus to issue it; and I think it
preferable, taking everything into consideration.  I have
labored to be brief, perspicuous and comprehensive,  and
at the same time, to give clear and full description of
the different subjects, so that I might impart instruction.
  The reader will  perceive that I have tried to adapt
this treatise to the capacity of the  popular  reader, as
well as the student  of medicine.   We must depend  for 
6
INTRODUCTION".
patronage for a work of this kind upon all classes of the
community; and indeed the success of our reformatory
course in  medicine, depends much upon disseminating
among them correct  views on  these subjects,  which
shows obviously the utility and importance of such a
work.  All classes are daily suffering from  the want of
more information on the laws which govern their organ-
ization, and which are constantly being violated through
ignorance.
  This fact ought to convince every one that there is a
necessity of studying those laws, both to prevent and
cure disease.
  Great truths are taught, which, if fully  understood,
implicitely believed, and  judiciously followed,  would
lead to an almost  total annihilation of Pulmonary Con-
sumption.
  The author has  had an opportunity  of  addressing
about fifty thousand persons in the principal cities of
New England, where he has given lectures for twelve
years, on  Physiology,  Health, &c, — and thus of per-
sonally presenting and  enforcing his views by direct ex-
amples, and prompt, practical  results and demonstra-
tions.
  In 1845 he discovered his mode of treatment  by Inha-
lation ; and, knowing the uses of the Lungs, he thereby
laid the foundation of a scientific,  rational, and certain
method of elucidating and treating their diseases. 
INTRODUCTION.
7
  For eighteen years, diseases of the chest  have been
his study.  To notice the effects of climate as a curative
or preventative agent, he has visited many of the States
of the American Union, England, and some parts even
of Europe, — seeking  for knowledge and light  on
the diseases of the Lungs ;  making himself everywhere
as fully  acquainted as possible with the peculiarities of
each locality, both in the nature and prevalence of Con-
sumption, and the  peculiar methods adopted for its pre-
vention  and  cure  by some of the  first physicians in.
Europe  and America.
  In conclusion, he would  say, that, in presenting this
work to the public,  and to consumptive invalids, he
makes no apologies, or statements of what wonders he
can perform ; but simply presents facts, which he asks
all to thoroughly read, and examine for themselves.
                            C.  R. BROADBENT, M. D. 
8
BACK VIEW OF A SKELETON. 
       CONSUMPTION:
ITS CAUSES AND  CURABILITY.
  The importance of an inquiry into the causes, and cor-
rect information as to the curability of Pulmonary Con-
sumption, cannot be over-estimated, especially when we
consider the very general prevalence of this disease and
the amount of mortality it occasions.
  There is no country in the known world where Con'
sumption  and  its kindred affections, immediately con-
nected with the thoracic organs,—laryngitis, inflamma-
tion and ulceration of the mucous follicles of the throat,
bronchitis, &c, — are  so  common  as in the United
States.
  From fifty to sixty thousand persons of all ages, from
childhood to advanced  age, are  annually extinguished
by this scourge alone.   More hearts are caused to bleed,
and the happiness of families blasted more by the sever-
ing of the dearest ties of life by this destroyer, than by
any  other .disease in the whole  catalogue of medical
nosology.  Besides this, what becomes more melancholy,
Consumption selects its victims,  not, like  some other 
10                 CONSUMPTION:

diseases, from the extremes of life, but from those who
are in the pride of youth, or in the prime and vigor of
life.   Although  this statement, as far as past general
statistics are concerned, is correct, it will now admit of
many and every-day exceptions, since the modes of liv-
ing, especially in. American cities, have become so arti-
ficial that children of tender years are daily becoming
its victims in some one of its Protean forms, — scrofula,
manifested by enlarged  tonsillary glands, hip-joint  and
spinal irritations, which  all belong to the one great class,
and proceed from the same cause; impure state of the
blood, from confined and vitiated air;  bad and insuffi-
cient fpod ; improper clothing and habits of dress ;  and
insufficient exercise in the open air.
  The profession, as well  as the community, have been
so strongly impressed with the  belief that the disease is
necessarily fatal, that  any  one  who would have  main-
tained the opposite opinion, would, until  within a very
short period of time, have been looked  upon only in the
light  of a boasting pretender.   So strongly  was  this
opinion, inherited from our ancestors, impressed upon
the minds of the faculty, that their  general  decided
opinion, in cases of symptoms that assumed the con-
sumptive character only, has resulted in  the premature
death  of thousands, by Tan abandonment of all timely
and proper aid ;  and, at the same time, this phantom of
prejudice or ignorance served as a stumbling-block in the 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.
11
way of scientific inquiry into the true pathology of Con-
sumption, which, by the energetic efforts of a few meri-
torious physicians, has demonstrated the fact that Con-
sumption is as curable as other diseases.
  The great obstacle to the  true progress of medical in-
quiry, and the developement of skill in  curing this in-
tricate and complicated  class of maladies, has been  a
professional oligarchy.  A combination of a clique, who
were too often supported in their power by the secret
springs of wealth,  and by certain established  rules of
government and etiquette for their own self-acquiring
power or patronage, have dared to pronounce a whole-
sale condemnation of irregularity upon every  one, or
class even, who had the courage to conscientiously ad-
vocate views at variance with  their received theories
and aristocratical regulations, in order thereby to bring
every one  into disrepute that dared to differ from them.
This system of professional  government, which origina-
ted in the  European schools, has assumed to execute the
same  conservative notions  by the leaders in America,
as  though the human  mind could be hindered  frftm in-
vestigation, and thought fettered or crushed by human
enactments or dogmas of faith,  especially when the ne-
cessity of such enquiry has its foundation in benevolence
and  duty  to suffering humanity.   To such  an unwise
extent has this prejudice of professional cliquism been
carried in the United States, even to the great injury  of
# 
12
CONSUMPTION :
the suffering of the community, who  can have  no in-
terest in professional dogmas, that the most  successful
and enlightened practitioners in this special clas of com-
plaints are found without the pale of the caste, and are
arrayed  as  so many  mountebanks.   Precisely under
such opposition  and  persecution has every great dis-
covery in the world of science been made, and triumphed.
Indeed it seems necessary for the progress and develop-
ment of truth for it to meet not only with opposition,
but oppression.  The masses of mankind will think and
reason and inquire for themselves, in  spite of  human
enactments or the  rigid rules of conservative bodies.
  Appropriately applying this  reasoning to the practi-
cal investigations into the causes and nature of tubercu-
losis and bronchial consumption, pathological investiga-
tions have shown, in the clearest manner, that recovery
from this disease often does take place, even  in many
instances where large caverns were found in the lungs,
from the softening or ulceration and discharge of the
tubercular matter  by expectoration ; and, ever since the
able investigations of Laennec, modern pathologists have
been diligent in accumulating and substantially proving
the correctness of his views and statements.
   The brilliant light  shed upon or steps by the know-
ledge of auscultation and percussion enables us to separ-
ate those diseases from  Consumption  which  were for-
merly so often confounded with it (and daily now are
• 
             ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.        13

by those physicians who do not avail themselves of the
only true guides of this science), and trace the succes-
sive  steps  of recovery in our  patients.   Sir  James
Clark, physician to Queen Victoria, remarks that path-
ological anatomy has perhaps never afforded more con-
clusive evidence in proof of the curability of a disease
than it has in that of Tubercular Consumption.  Dr.
J. Hughes Bennett, one of the ablest and most brilliant
pathologists of the present  day, says that  during five
years of his acting in that capacity to the Royal Infirm-
ary  of Edinburgh, during which  period he performed
and  recorded the  results of two  thousand cases, one
great fact became impressed upon his mind, — that in no
organic disease were appearances to be found, as in the
lungs, indicating a spontaneous cure by nature ; and he
gives his decided opinion, drawn  from experience, of the
perfect curability of Pulmonary Consumption.
  Drs. Forbes, Louis, and Trumbull, of the Hospital for
Consumptives, of Liverpool, and many other able phy-
sicians, both in Europe and America, now all concur in
the curability of Consumption.
  For my own part, I know Consumption to be curable ;
for I have often cured it. in hundreds of instances, and
in cases where patients had had abcesses and caverns in
the lungs of three years' standing.   No one need des-
pair of a cure.  If he seeks timely aid and follows my
directions as to the mode of treatment, his hopes will be
realized with crowning*uccess.
            2 
1-4                 CONSUMPTION:

  Tubercular Depositions are not, however, peculiar to
the lungs.   They are found  in  the  bowels and other
glandular parts of  the body, and not unfrequently in
the brain itself.  In those cases denominated Bronchial
Consumption, the deposition first takes  place  in  the
delicate mucous membrane  back of the throat,  the
larynx, and the glands  that line the throat, extend-
ing down to the branches of the trachea  or windpipe,
and so into the innumerable branches of air-tubes, which
alone can properly be called Bronchitis;  and when left
alone the chronic inflammation invariably terminates in
ulceration or disorganization, and death.
  The  complications of  Throat and Chest  affections
conclusively proves the necessity of a nice  discrimina-
tion in their character, by auscultation and other scien-
tific modes  of examination, before the basis  of a suc-
cessful treatment can be laid  or hoped for.
  In  a large  majority of instances, the foundation for
Consumption is laid in childhood and early life, — among
the causes of which may be recorded the constant inha-
lation of bad or impure air ; unwholesome and insufficient
food; the use of confectionery and pastries; keeping the
temperature of the body, particularly the extremities,
too low, from a deficiency of clothing; sedentary habits;
improper or late hours; and often, in the youth  of both
sexes,  wasting  habits  silently acquired, which insidi-
ously  enervates the  vital energies.  The  continued
                             * 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.
15
operation of these  causes  engenders that state of the
blood spoken of.  Debilitating excesses of all kinds are
sufficient, in  some of the most healthy, to cause Con-
sumption, especially in the youth of both sexes.
  As an evidence of the injurious effects of breathing
damp and unwholesome air, and its  agencies in  the
cause of scrofula and tubercles, it is worthy of notice
that tubercles may be produced at will in some of the
the lower animals, by confining them  in damp places,
and feeding them with  unwholesome food.   This  was
done with rabbits, by Drs. Barron, Jenner, and Cars-
well. It is a fact that cows, long confined, without exer-
cise, in dark or unhealthy sheds or stalls, die tuberculous.
  What, then, are  the general indications for the cure
of Consumption ?   It  has been clearly shown that  it is
not merely a disease of  the lungs, but  a  constitutional
condition also, in which there is  debility, an impaired
digestion and  assimilation, so that  the  blood, which
should nourish every part, becomes impure, and is ren-
dered insufficient to nourish and build up  the lungs.
We have, therefore, in treating this disease, not merely
to prevent the local state of irritation  or inflammation,
or tuberculization, from resulting in disorganization, but
to  cleanse the blood, and restore the energies of the
stomach and digestive organs; so that a healthy state of
the whole system may be produced, and the necessary
principals imparted to the blood, through  the only natu- 
10                 CONSUMPTION :

ral  channel—the  chyle,  and the performance of the
healthy functions  of assimilation  effected,— by which
means we can prevent the further formation of tuber-
cles, and remove those  already formed by the process
of absorption.
  The  important  plan of  treatment  adopted by the
author,  which has been so successful in his hands in
curing Pulmonary Consumption, is, in  the first place, to
restore  the stomach and  assimilative functions  to  a
health}', normal condition.   This is done by a judicious
and  very discriminate use of a course of the mildest
tonic and alterative vegetable agents, made most accept-
able to  the patient by a studied scientific  attention to
their preparation.    The  apetite becomes  invigorated,
and regulated to a healthy demand, and a relish is by
this means produced for the food not before  possessed ;
so that the patient instinctively looks to these auxiliary
agents as a necessary part of his dietetics.
  This end being  obtained, the most nutritious articles
of animal  food can be borne, such as beef and  pork
steaks, mutton chops, soft boiled eggs,  custards, oysters,
good milk cream,  and all  the most nutritive  and diges-
tive  articles of animal  food, so important to  produce
good blood, and raise the healing powers of nature, that
she may send the restorative energies to every minute
part of the vital organs.
  How widely different this tonic and nutritive course, 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.          17
the result of modern and scientific observation, when
contrasted with that debilitating routine system of drug-
ging with calomel, antimony, jalap, ipecac, and squills,
formerly, and even now, often pursued by some physicians,
whose energies are insufficient to their emergencies, and
who look discouragingly on, and see patients die by the
thousand of a malady every way curable!  Well may
the consumptive take courage, well may his hope revive,
at the assurance that we live in an age of progress and
improvement!
   To fulfill other very important indications, and which
are  looked  upon  by  the author  as  vitally indispen-
sable to the success of treatment, is the  regulations of
the  secretions; and the  chief are  those of  the lungs
themselves, the  liver,  skin, and- kidneys.    We have
 seen that  the digestive organs  are the inlet by which
 imperfectly elaborated particles obtain  access  to  the
 blood; and these, the lungs, liver, skin, and kidneys,
 are the excreting organs, by the healthful  activity of
 which they should be expelled.
   When we consider the fact that the lungs have a sur-
 face of twenty-four hundred cubic feet, provided  by
 nature to disengage carbonic acid  gas, in  thl shape of
 vapor, from  the blood,—which is  gathered by  three
 gallons of blood passing through the lungs every  three
 minutes for the purpose, after having carried the revi-
 vifying agent, oxygen, to every part of the body, and 
18
CONSUMPTION :
then, returning, throw off this carbon, and receive more
oxygen, — how vitally important to every consumptive
patient, and to every person, that they inhale the purest
air both day and night, that this healthy and necessary
secretion of the lungs shall be kept up! and how neces-
sary to  obtain this information from one who  devotes
the energies of his life to develop such important facts!
The liver, too, which is the largest  secretory gland in
the body, performs a wonderful function.  In  the ma-
jority of cases of consumptive diseases it is much  de-
ranged, and often  is the primary seat of future disease
to the lungs, through the nerves, and medium  of sym-
pathy to the stomach, duodenum, and to the pancreas,
and  so to the  diaphragm, and  so in turn to the lungs;
causing the phenomena  of  Dyspeptic  Consumption.
Thousands of  fatal cases are truly Dyspeptic Consump-
tion, and have tlueir first starting-point from the liver
and  digestive  organs being deranged ;  and, until  the
healthy function of the liver is  restored, the lungs  are
made to do  a double duty for both, which accounts for
its implication of irritation in various ways.
   Every person is aware, from the amount of secretion
daily carrfed off'by the bladder,  what an  immense labor
the kidneys have to perform; but few, however, of  the
popular readers who are not versed in physiology,  can
conceive how constantly dependent are our lives upon
the perfect integrity of these organs ; for, were they to
• 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.         19
fail in maintaining the necessary secretion of this allot-
ted function, a few hours alone often would be sufficient
to produce death, by the fact of the deleterious particles
being carried again into the blood, poisoning the brain,
and terminating in  coma and death.  It is but a year
since a lady well known to us was travelling, in the
care of a gentleman, in a stage coach, and, through dif-
fidence or modesty, neglected for a length  of time to
attend to the demands of nature upon the bladder, until
the mischief was so great that death, with untold agony
was the consequence. • And it is but a short time since
another fatal instance, somewhat similar, came to our
knowledge.  • A lady in pregnancy suffered  the gravid
uterus to press  long upon the neck of the bladder, pro-
 ducing such retention of the urine, that, the poisonous
 properties of urea being retained in the blood so long,
 the case terminated fatally, from a neglect to obtain re-
 lief in season, —just from undue modesty, or false deli-
 cacy in asking  medical assistance.
    The patient  will  then take into consideration, with
 us, the momentous  importance  of attending to  the
 healthy state■ of the kidneys in treating consumptive
 diseases;  and the gratitude that should be felt towards
 one who will step out of the pale of conservatism to en-
 lighten the community in regard to those organs, upon
 the healthy condition of which depends not only  health
 but lite itself, I need not stop here to consider. 
20
CONSUMPTION :
  The function of the skin is not  of minor importance
to that of the kidneys, or of other  organs mentioned, in
taking out  a wonderful  amount of worn out and effete
matter from the system.  But, as it would swell  the
pages of this popular treatise too full to go into a lengthy
dissertation of its merits, and the necessity of sustaining
its due healthy action, we must explain the matter to
our patients personally or by letter.


       SYMPTOMS OF CONSUMPTION.

  This disease often  commences  so  very insidiously,
especially in girls and females who have grown rapidly,
that it is  permitted to advance very far before the case
is brought  to the observation of the physician, — a cir-
cumstance much to be regetted.   Advice from the best
source, from one who has made the  causes  and cura-
bility of lung diseases  his special study and inquiry,
should be obtained  as early as any unfavorable symp-
toms are  manifested.   Cough is one of the early symp-
toms, usually  coming on slowly,  at  first  very slight,
occurring in the morning or in  making any  unusual
exertion, as going up stairs, &c.
  Oppression at the chest is a common symptom', accom-
panied with pain  at the top of the lungs, or under the
collar bones and under  the shoulder blades.  Pallor of 
            ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.         21*

the countenance ; a bluish and settled appearance under
the eyes;  coldness of the feet and hands; a morbid and
capricious appetite;  languor and debility;  and great
disinclination to active exertion, either bodily or mental,
— should warn the individual or friends that some mis-
chief is brewing, and of the necessity of help.  Now the
palms  of  the hands and soles of the feet begin  to .feel
dry at one period of the day, with  a feverish spell at
night, either preceeded or followed  with perspiration
and chill.   Sound sleep is hardly obtained.   Expector-
ation comes on in the second stage of the disease;  and
diarrhoea, alternating frd(fently with constipation of the
bowels, swelling  of the feet and ankles, dryness of the
lips, and  cankerous sores of the mouth, mark the third
stage of consumption, — also frequent expectoration or
spitting of blood.
   Shortness of breath, pain in the chest, hectic fever,
combined with night  sweats  and  chills, are among the
leading symptomsof appro aching Consumption. Hoarse-
ness of the voice, dryness of the throat and air-passages,
a disposition to " hem," and irritation about the larynx,
and soreness of the upper part of the chest,  are the
frequent  symptoms  and  attendants of Bronchial Con-
sumption.
   The menstrual function in many females becomes sup-
pressed during the  earher  stages of Consumption, and
in  others the disease advances far towards its termina-
 tion without this function being interrupted. 
22
CONSUMPTION :
  When skillful advice is not early sought, it is rarely
attributed to a correct cause, and irreparable injury is
often  produced to the constitution by the patient tak-
ing heating and  driving  medicines, which,  instead  of
effecting .its establishment, drives the  blood unduly to
the lungs,  producing  congestion, and  setting  up the
commencement of inflammation, and consequently ulcer*
ation.
  Strictly  connected  with this  subject  of periodical
derangement, as indicating a strong consumptive dispo-
sition, is a weH known and marked habit of some females,
especially at certain periods l^Life,—puberty — called
chlorosis.  The countenance puts On a peculiar sallow
or greenish appearance, the space immediately below
the eyes appears  dark or purple, the apetite is  morbid
or fastidious,  the  patient  is troubled  with frightful
dreams or disturbed sleep, great coldness of the extrem-
ities, the nervous system becomes morbidly sensitive or
irritable, and great languor or inability to physical ex-
ertion is manifested.   The whole cause of  morbid
sympathies in this  case proceeds from  an impure  and
unhealthy state of the blood, and should  excite the ut-
most apprehension for the integrity of the lungs before a
favorable opportunity of cure passes.  This class of fe-
male patients often meets with the inroads of Consump-
tion, as a sympathetic irritation, long continued from a
local inflammation and morbid irritability of the nerves 
ITS SYMPTOMS.
23
of the uterus and reproductive organs.  In this class of
cases, involving sympathetic or irritative Consumption,
the treatment must be especially directed to the restora-
tion of the integrity of those organs which play so con-
spicuous a part in the economy of health, and to insure
the future prospects  of a healthy conception, without
entailing misery upon offspring, by transmitting a per-
manent predisposition to constitutional Consumption.
  The complications  of Consumption are numerous : —
asthma; whooping-cough ; chronic and acute affections
of the pleura; dropsy, or water in the chest; diseases
of the heart, involving thickening of the valves, or en-
largement ; palpitation; suffocating sense of feeling on
going up a hill or ascending a flight of stairs, and a sense
of constriction.  Chronic diarrhoea or dysentery are also
among the complications of Consumption.  Among these
asthma, difficulty of breathing, palpitation, and diarrhoea
should require the earliest attention,
   Marasmus, or a 'Wasting habit in children, is Con-
sumption arising from a scrofulous or an impure state
of  the  blood, caused  by bad and insufficient clothing,
want of exercise in the open air, &c.; and should  ex-
cite the most serious apprehension on the part of parents
to  have  the causes  and the condition of  the system
 spedily removed, or else fatal Consumption will be the
 consequence.
   Many of the most fatal and melancholy instances of 
24
CONSUMPTION :
Bronchial Consumption are daily brought to the notice
of the observant physician, originating in a neglect to
attend to slight colds or catarrh.  This, at first, is only
confined to the mucous membrane of the nose and frontal
sinus.   A profuse secretion is  the  consequence of the
inflammatory action locally set up in the mucous glands^
—it is neglected; the  patient thinks it  will wear off,
using his own judgement; it silently but gradually ex-
tends  its  influence of  irritation downwards; it passes
the epiglottis of the larynx, and enters the  lungs and
larger bronchi: and then commences a renewed  irrita-
tion, when new and more troublesome symptoms begin to
be manifested.   In this stage of the case, it  comes to
the notice of the physician.
  Just so long as people, will more willingly pay their
money for the gratification of their vision, and the vari-
ous scenes of pleasure,  or for dissipation and  enervating
luxuries, than to be informed in regard  to the laws of
health and life, regarding the true conservator of human
health as a mercenary agent, just so long will the causes
be in operation which induce this disease and its melan-
choly results.   It is this last class of maladies, confined
to the mucous membrane and glands that line the air-
passages, that I have been very successful in  treating,
by the administration of Medicated Vapors  by Inhala-
tion.   V«ry many cases that had been pronounced as
incurable tubercular phthisis by the old school faculty, 
ITS SYMPTOMS.
25
where loss of voice,  hoarseness, and expectoration of
blood have been the long-attendant symptoms, I have
succeeded in restoring to perfect health; and the patients
ultimately recovered their natural voice.
   The soothing and quieting effects of these Vapors is
brought immediately to act upon the parts locally irri-
tated and diseased, by the gentle inhalation of the vapor
from a bottle arranged  expressly for the purpose, and is
used by the patient without the aid of the physician, in
his own room, sever^L^nes a day, according to the ur-
gency of the case.  B^Bringing the treatment immedi-
ately within the hands  of the patient in such a soothing
manner, hope is revived, much expense from the daily
visits of the physician is saved, and the stomach is not
taxed with medicines.  So successful  has this mode of
 treatment been in  my hands, which I had the honor of
 introducing in New England nearly eighteen years since,
 that I believe,  if seasonable  treatment  was  adopted,
 ninety-nine cases in the hundred  could  be  cured per-
 fectly.   In Tubercular Consumption, it is already work-
 ing wonders, in the ready mode of carrying  its healing,
 stimulating, and restorative action to every minute air-
 cell and branch of the air-tubes;  almost instantly put-
 ting a stop to the  cough, relieving pain,  calming irrita-
' tion, arousing the malignant and  ulcerated  cavities to
 put on a healing process, and stimulating the absorbents
 to take out of the lungs the tubercular deposits.
            3 
26
CONSUMPTION :  ITS  SYMPTOMS.
  It is a matter of great question in my mind if agents
in the form of vapor alone will cure Pulmonary Tuber-
culosis from an hereditary cause, without the aid of nu-
trition  and  tonics, carried into the blood through  the
medium of the assimilative functions, to correct a scrofu-
lous or bad state of the blood, the constitutional condi-
tion of which is the cause of deposition of tubercles in
the  lungs.   But  the inhalation  of  these  medicated
vapors  are  a powerful auxiliary means even in  this
form of  Consumption,       tf^ 
PRACTICAL  OBSERVATIONS
                       ON THB
CAUSES  AND  CURABILITY OF  TUBERCU-
   LAR AND BRONCHIAL CONSUMPTION.

  The plan of treatment so successfully instituted and
administered  by the  author is Medicated Vapors, car-
ried to the lungs and the seat of disease by breathing,
or inhaling, in an  easy, gentle, and soothing manner.
By this direct method, the virtues of the most benign
and healing medicinal agents are so happily prepared
and developed to such a perfect system, by the past ex-
perience of many years, as to be made to traverse every
air-cell and tube of the lungs speedily and readily, with-
out the very uncertain and indirect course of putting the
drugs into the stomach, where the disease is not.   Every
intelligent person, having any knowledge of the anatomy
of the respiratory organs, must see that  putting drugs
into the  stomach  cannot reach the lungs, unless in a
most indirect  manner, through the medium of the circu-
lation, which is so uncertain that weeks must be re-
quired to accomplish  what can be done in a few minutes
by inhalation.
   The lungs  and organs of respiration  are entirely
                                          27 
2H
CONSUMPTION :
separated from the stomach and  digestive organs  by a
partition, and  a  separate  passage  conveys air to the
lungs, beside the one that conveys food to the stomach.
Let it be distinctly kept in memory, that  not one well-
marked  case of Tubercular  Consumption can be pro-
duced, cured by putting medicines in the stomach, while
very  many can be by the author's system  of inhalation.
The human stomach was designed  for food and nutri-
ment only, for building up and sustaining  the waste of
the body, from the devastation of oxygen, or  chemical
action, so that  the vital  forces should  at all times pre-
dominate and maintain the  ascendency, otherwise disso-
lution would be the inevitable result.
   Let us consider  what is the effect of putting drugs
into the stomach:—Is it not nausea,  sickness, loss of
appetite, vomiting,  and consequent debility ?   Doctors,
for hundreds, thousands of years,  have  told you to  take
medicine  to  strengthen  the  system, and  the mass of
the community, who never think for themselves, take it
for granted it  is so, their  credulity captivated by the
marvellous secrecy of nostrums.  Thus the world  has
reasoned, or rather acted from adoption, until the whole
race have become so degenerate from the  preposterous
system of drugging with the most deadly poisons that a
fearful consideration presents itself,  whether the ability
of propagation shall be  continued; such is  the  sad
effeminacy. 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.
29
  Look  at  the  poor distressed' mortals that you see
around you on every side, in every house, and in every
street; the  pale, faded  and  wan countenances, the
shrunken muscles and withered features, all*show forth
a most melancholy truth, that they are the sad and more
melancholy  victims  of  some  painful  system of drug
poisoning, either in their own person or in their imme-
diate progenitors.  For the sins of the fathers are visited
upon their children, even  to the third and fourth gene-
rations.  Look at your children, afflicted  with catarrh,
scrofula, enlarged tonsils,  and swelled glands, ulcerated
throats, bronchitis, and that most distressing of  all dis-
orders, acute laryngitis, or membranous croup ; these,
with dropsical effusions,  either of the brain or  chest,
and a  general emaciation, are all  the results of  a long
series of drug medication  and poisoning, combined with
the concomitants of the luxuries of modern life ;  a mul-
tiform, complex  system of artful, suicidal destruction of
human life, so melancholy in its nature, that when duly
brought  home to our reflection, is sufficient to cause
humanity to shudder and stand aghast.
  Is it not time to look about you ?  Behold your young
children, the victims of spinal curvatures, hip-joint dis-
eases, scrofula, and pulmonary tubercular  consumption-
Look at your daughters, fading and going down to a
premature grave, just at the age when they should be
developing into mature physical strength !   Why is our
           3* 
30
CONSUMPTION :
race shortened down  to  thirty-three  years, instead of
three score and ten ? Why do we die as suicides, so that
not one natural death takes place in five hundred.  This
is an appaling fact which cannot be controverted.  Is
there no cause for all this ?  Is there not an awful res-
ponsibility resting upon  you to  know yourselves, and
understand the laws of your physical being ?  Return-
ing to the  all-important consideration of our subject, can
you not perceive that mercury, calomel, antimony, ar-
senic, and other deadly mineral  poisons, now  used by
the old school physicians, and which have been used for
centuries,  have come down to us  as the barbarous relics
of the darker ages of the  world, were never intended by
our Maker to be put into the human stomach ?  They
form no part of the elementary materials of our bodies.
The human  stomach was designed for the reception of
pure, healthy foodf and nutrition only.
  If you wish for a practical demonstration that there
is no such thing as strength or nourishment in drugs, as
you are told there  is, abstain from eating and taking
nourishment for  a few weeks; take calomel, and jalap,
and antimony, and instead of being sustained  and sus-
taining the full image of our Maker, we shall become
emaciated, but the wreck of matter, and  a shadow of
what we once were, a fit subject for the undertaker.
  Dear reader,  fathers  and parents,  throw  "physic
to the dogs," and provide for yourselves, your children, 
            ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.          31

and families, good  and healthy food ; five consistently
with the laws of hfe and health—laws which certainly
govern your being—or, if ye violate, ye must certainly
pay the penalty in sickness and premature death.
  Know, then, that it is your duty to study yourselves,
and recognize your responsibility to your Maker.   Live
consistently, and sickness will be banished ;  the goddess
of health will  once more return  to greet you, to cheer
your domestic circle, your homes and firesides ;  youth
will smile in perpetual virginity, and your end shall be
sweet and  as gentle as  the last  flickerings of an expir-
ing taper.
   Continue to violate those laws, and your now happy
 homes will be saddened by  the couch of sickness;  and
 though it may be  hidden beneath the display of fashion
 and pride,  come it will, in  the form of that Messenger
 that seals the fate of thousands of our beloved daugh-
 ters, and annually extinguishes  the lights of sixty thou-
 sand of our fellow-beings in the United States every
 year.
          " With step as noiseless as the summer airs,
            Who comes in beautiful decay — her eyes
            Dissolving with a feverish glow of light;
            And on her cheek a rosy tint, as if the tip
            Of beauty's finger pressed it there?
            Alas ! Consumption is her name."
   This  is  the point to which I call your attention.   It
 is a fact that  the above nmmber die annnally with con- 
32                 CONSUMPTION:

sumption  alone, aside from other diseases, in America,
and its mortality is fearfully on the increase ; it is a fact,
too, that not one case has ever been cured by giving
drugs by the stomach !   Will you, then, give your at-
tention to the claims that a true system of treatment by
inhalation has upon you  to cure  this insidious and fatal
disease ? whose terrible inflictions have rendered deso-
late so many thousands of happy homes ; have laid low
so many warm hearts and bright prospects ; banished
hope from our path and aim from  life ; a disease so all
prevailing that its shghtest symptoms is at once our first
dread ; such a disease, we say, forms so fearful a scourge
that you would be inaccessible to the dictates of com-
mon humanity, did  you  not  avail yourselves of every
opportunity to direct attention to any circumstances, or
remedial agent, offering the slightest probability of alle-
viating, in however  minute  a degree, its direful inflic-
tions.   It is highly  consolatory to know  that  the in-
fluence of Medicated Inhalations  at last bids fair to con-
quer its fatality.  It should be remembered that every
physician can give drugs by the stomach, but  all are
not equally alike successful;  so all can  give medicines
by vapors and inhalation, but success will only be the
reward of those who are meritorious, and whose powers
of judgement and discrimination have been matured by
years of hard study, close observation, and practical ex-
perience. 
The Air-Passages of the Right and Left Lung.
       . CONSUMPTION:
AND ITS  DIFFERENT  VARIETIES.

                CHAPTER  I.
  I shall notice only Febrile and Latent.   One of
the most remarkable features of Febrile Consumption
is the suddenness of the attack.  The patient feels that
he has taken a violent cold.  He has a severe chill, fol-
lowed by heat of the skin, quick pulse, and all the indi-
cations of a fever.  These symptoms generally continue
throughout the entire course of  the  disease,  and  are
      33 
34                consumption:
very liable to be mistaken for billious or catarrhal fever.
  From the commencement the respiration is more hur-
ried and  quick than in either of the other forms of the
disease.  Cough soon  appears, accompanied  with ex-
pectoration, at first colorless, but gradually assuming a
yellowish or greenish appearance, and occasionally we
find it streaked with blood.  We seldom find the mat-
ter  expectorated mixed with softened tubercule, as in
the last  stages of other forms of Consumption.  The
patient generally sinks before the tubercular deposits in
the lungs have become broken down. *  Such is many
times the continued severity of this fever from the com-
mencement of the disease  to its final  termination, that
the cough and other indications are liable to be regarded
as only symptomatic, and  consequently do not  receive
the  early  attention  that  their  importance  demands.
Patients  generally suffer more or less  from pain in one
or both sides, and not unfrequently an attack of diarrhoea
supervenes, under the exhausting influences of which
the strength  rapidly fails, and the poor sufferer sinks
down and dies in the space of a few weeks from the com-
mencement of his illness.
  Too often the attention of the medical man is diverted
from the true character of the disease  until it is far ad-
vanced.  He now applies  his  stethescope to the chest,
when he finds, alas!  to his great astonishment, that his
patient is in the last si ages of consumption, and  has but 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.          35
a few weeks at most to  live.   It  is proper to remark
that these  difficulties in  the way of forming a correct
opinion are not always to be attributed to the careless-
ness or inexperience of the physician, but are many
times owing in a great  degree to  the unwillingness  of
patients to believe that  their  lungs are diseased, or to
submit to a thorough and careful stethescopic examina-
tion of their chest.
  I have frequently seen  patients, though filled with
apprehension, go so far as  to  strive by every means  in
their power to disguise and miscolpr their worst symp-
toms, in order that they might derive from their medi-
cal  adviser a favorable  opinion.  Such instances  are
always to  be deprecated, and the consumptive  invalid
should  be  warned,  as he values life, never to  pursue
such a course.  The most  calamitous and  fatal  results
may grow out of one single error committed in this way.
Remember, my reader, if you have tubercles in your
lungs, and  they are not discovered until they are in their
second stage, your case from being manageable and
simple, becomes one of extreme doubt and peril.
   We come  now to notice in the last place one other
form of Consumption, more  insiduous in  its  advances
than either of those  already described.  This is ealled
" Latent Consumption" for  the reason  that  tubercles
exist in the lungs for a  long  time and even to a  con-
siderable extent, without giving rise to any of the usual 
36
CONSUMPTION :
 symptoms indicating their presence, such as pain, cough,
 expectoration, or hemorrhage;  nevertheless  it is silently
 effecting its work of destruction, with as much rapidity
 and certainty as in other forms of Consumption, where
 the symptoms are more manifest.
   As  there  is but  little derangement of the general
 health, and no local symptoms that point to the lungs as
 the seat of the disease, the physician is seldom called to
 investigate the  case until it has  made considerable
 progress.
   The physical signs and various symptoms relating to
 this form of disease are so obscure that the  most care-
 ful scrutiny and closest observation on  the part of the
 physician is required to detect its real character.  So
 far from being always indicated by a cough, Louis,  a
 French physician of great celebrity, has remarked that
 he  has known the disease to exist in  many instances
 from six months  to two years without the presence of
 this most common  and universally acknowledged symp-
 tom.  When,  however, the patient finds that he is de-
 clining in health, his countenance becomes pale or livid
 in appearance, and in addition to this he grows thinner
 and weaker day by day, and the food  he takes affords
him neither nourishment  nor support.   Though there
be no cough, fever nor expectoration, he has good  rea-
son to  be  apprehensive in regard  to his  safety.   The
great probability is that tubercles already exist in  his 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.
37
lungs, and, like the worm gnawing at the root of a tree,
are silently working his destruction.
  If, therefore, constitutional symptoms like the following:
fever,  emaciation,  night  sweats,  diarrhoea, &c,  do
occur, the attention should be at once directed to the
lungs as the probable seat of the mischief, since these
symptoms  cannot  exist unless  some local  cause  is
present.  And by instituting a proper inquiry  and by
making a careful  examination of the  chest, the scien-
tific  and experienced  physician  will  seldom  fail  to
detect the true state of the case.  He will find dullness
in  the  upper  part of one  or both  lungs,  generally
immediately below the  collar bone—a want  of the
natural resonance of the chest.  The  respiratory mur-
mur, if not entirely wanting, will be feeble and indis-
tinct.  These symptoms  when present point  unmis-
takino-ly to the existence of  tubercular deposits in the
lungs.
   In this connection there  is  still another  point de-
serving of special  attention.   Tubercular disease  of
the lungs is  very  liable  to be overlooked when com-
plicated with Dyspepsia, the dyspeptic symptoms being
more apparent  than  the  tubercular.    The  patient
having  a  pale and unhealthy  appearance, loses  his
 strength, and the  food he  takes, though sufficient  in
 quantity, is not appropriated  to  the  various wants of
the system.  These symptoms, in the absence of cough 
38
CONSUMPTION :
 and expectoration,  he very  naturally refers  to a  de-
 ranged state  of the  digestive organs.   His  family
 physician is called in, and prescribes the usual remedies
 for dyspepsia,  but  he finds  no relief; his symptoms
 continue to grow  worse; and while  this course  is
 persevered in,  the  tubercular disease is gradually ex-
 tending, intrenching itself firmly  in  the  system, and
 the patient learns  when  too late that he has  been
 deceived—that  he  has only been attending  to  the
 symptoms of the disea.-e,  while the  causes that have
 produced them have been suffered to go on undisturbed.
   Sir James Clark, physician  to the Queen of England,
 in  alluding to  mistakes of this character,  observes—
 " We have known more than  one example of extensive
 tubercular disease of the lungs  discovered on a post-
 mortem examination, when during life  the disease was
 looked for in the stomach or bowels."
  I have been thus explicit in pointing out the differ-
 ent varieties of Consumption,  because  I painfully feel
 almost daily the  pressing want of proper information
 on this subject.   Scarcely a day  passes  that I am not
 consulted by invalids suffering from some of the various
 forms of pulmonary disease, many of whom have been
 told by their physicians at home that their disease was
 simply one of debility, or that  their hacking cough and
hemorrhage only proceeded  from the throat, and that
a change of air and of scenery would  speedily restore 
ITS CAUSES AND CURABILITY.
39
them to health.  Such are the heedless assertions daily
made by physicians, either from ignorance or mistaken
kindness ; and such the thoughtless  advice  given  by
many to friends whom they most dearly love.
  In conclusion, I need scarcely say that a  " neglected
cold" and a "hacking cough," however trifling and
unimportant  they may seem, too often lead on by sure
gradations to an early grave. 
CHAPTER II.
HEMORRHAGE,  OR  BLEEDING  OF   THE
                     LUNGS.

  Spitting of blood  is not uncommonly a very early
symptom in phthisis.  It frequently occurs before any
of the  well  known   symptoms  of  consumption  are
noticed, and  when the individual by common observa-
tion would be regarded in a state of perfect health.  It is
sometimes very  trifling in amount,  a  few  specks  or
streaks are only  to be seen occasionally in the  matter
expectorated.  At other  times, when the  patient is
least  apprehensive of evil, a  sudden and unexpected
discharge  of blood takes  place from the lungs, even
alarming in quantity.
  Various opinions  have been expressed with regard
to the causes  of  hemorrhage ;  but from  careful  obser-
vation and inquiry into the history and symptoms of
these cases, we have the most  conclusive evidence in a
very large proportion of cases  that  it is the result of
tubercular deposits in the lungs.
                                           40 
HEMORRHAGE.                41
   The lamented and distinguished Dr. Swett very truly
 remarks, in his work on  Diseases of the Chest, that
 whenever he is called to  a patient who has bleeding at
 the lungs, he always marks him as a probable case of
 tuberculous  disease.   Persons under  these  circumstan-
 ces  are exceedingly liable to flatter themselves with the
 idea that the blood only comes from the throat; and I
 have ever known physicians  themselves,  from a mis-
 taken sympathy or a desire to retain their patient, to
 encourage this fatal delusion, and thus allow the disease
 to pursue its fearful work without an effort to stay its
 progress.  But let me say to  those  who have bled at
 the  lungs, however  small the quantity may have been,
 it speaks a terrible warning.  We  have strong reason
 already  to suspect  the  existence of tubercles  in  the
 lungs.   Beware then how you trifle with this important
 stage of the  disease.
  The reason why tubercular deposits  cause  bleeding
 from the lungs, is  simply this :  The pressure  of the
 tubercles upon  the  small vessels in  the lungs  causes
 more or  less  obstruction  of the  blood in its passage
 through  them, in consequence of which they become
 congested, and from over distention are ruptured, and
 a discharge of blood takes place.
  Hemorrhage  seldom proves fatal  in  its immediate
 effects.   When  this does occur, it is  always in  the
latter stage  of the disease,  and  then is the result of 
42                HEMORRHAGE,
ulceration  destroying  some  large  vessel,  causing a
sudden  gush of blood to flow out, and filling up the
lungs in a few minutes, when death is the inevitable
result.
  I have  already  said that hemorrhage  may  be the
first noticeable symptom of the disease.  Again it may
not occur until the disease is  far advanced; and in a
few instances it runs its entire course without a tinge
of blood in the expectoration.
  Andral, an eminent English pathologist, has given it
as his opinion that  hemorrhage  occurs in about five
cases  out  of six  of those who  die of consumption.
Louis, a no  less eminent  French physician, has found
it to take place in fifty-seven out of eighty-seven cases ;
Professor  Walshe, of the London Consumptive Hos-
pital,  in eighty-one cases out of a hundred.  It  will be
seen then that this is a very important symptom, and
should in no case be  disregarded.  It is a very common
occurrence, after an  attack of bleeding at the lungs, to
hear patients remark that they feel decidedly better, and
indeed we not uncommonly find  an  improvement in all
their symptoms.  When the lungs have relieved them-
selves from the increased  amount of blood which had
accumulated in them, the chest, as a matter of  course,
feels lighter and more comfortable, while the operation
of breathing is more  naturally performed.  This should
not however be regarded as a removal of the difficulty, 
OR  BLEEDING AT THE LUNGS.
43
as at most it will be found to afford but temporary
relief.  The same  causes  that produced a hemorrhage
in the first instances are still in operation, and will, if
not arrested and  removed by a careful and judicious
system of treatment, assuredly lead on to a fatal issue.
There is no time to be lost.  Whatever is done must be
done quickly.  As you value health or prize life, begin
now to resist the progress of this terrible disease.   Do
not wait, as is, alas! too often  the  case, until the grim
tyrant has usurped  his  devastating reign over  the
system, when he  may set at  defiance  every power to
save.
  The carelessness and reckless indifference with which
some persons afflicted with incipient  consumption have
gone on from year to year, simply because they have
not had all the symptoms which usually characterize
this disease, has frequently been to us a source of most
painful ccntemplation.
   Those  who  know themselves to  be  exposed to the
chances of pulmonary disease, cannot be too jealous in
the watch they keep over the earliest perceptible signs
of its  approach.  Let it not for a moment be forgotten
that it is  in  the earlier stages that  consumption  is
amenable  to treatment, and curable as other  forms of
disease.
   From this no one can  fail to see that it is a matter
 of infinite importance that  an  early and correct diag- 
44
HEMORRHAGE.
nosis  of the disease be made.  A few careless thumps
by an inexperienced  and unskillful practitioner  is not
sufficient to detect the hiding place of the secret foe
within.   It is only from a most careful and thorough
examination of the chest, taking into the  account all
the rational and physical signs  of the  disease, that
we can hope to derive any correct or reliable opinion.
  Sir James Clark, speaking of the many fatal blun-
ders made by physicians in their examinations, says
that he has known more than one example of  tuber-
cular disease of the lungs discovered  on a post mortem
examination, when during hfe the disease  was looked
for in the  stomach, fiver or  bowels. 
CHAPTER  III.
ASTHMA,  ITS  CAUSES,  SYMPTOMS,  AND
TREATMENT BY MEDICATED INHALATION.

  This  disease has  from time immemorial  been the
subject of an almost  endless controversy, but medical
men pretty much all agree at the present time, that it
is located in the mucous membrane  of the bronchial
tubes, and air cells of the lungs.
  It manifests itself in paroxysms.  These  paroxysms
generally come on  at night, during sleep.  The patient
suddenly experiences such a sense of oppression and
tightness across the chest as to  occasion  almost an
actual  state  of suffocation.   The lips become purple,
the eyes protrude, and the  countenance indicates the
most intense anxiety and  distress.  The operation of
breathing is performed with the utmost difficulty, and
attended with a wheezing noise ; the patient springs up
in bed, and  calls  for the  windows  and doors to be
thrown wide open.   In this condition he generally con-
tinues  until toward morning, when the more urgent and
distressing symptoms gradually abate ; the respiration
       45 
46
ASTHMA.
becomes more natural and easy, a copious mucous ex-
pectoration  takes  place,  and  " tired nature's  sweet
restorer,  balmy  sleep," comes  to  his relief.  Various
causes have been assigned for these sudden and mys-
sterious attacks.
  The one which to my view seems most rational and
conclusive is this :  The air tubes or pipes which convey
the air into the lungs are supplied with a muscular
coat which gives them the  power  of contracting and
expanding.  It follows that  when  any irritating cause
is applied to the nerves which go to supply this muscu-
lar coat, such as inhaling the fumes of arsenic, lead, or
exposure to a raw, damp atmosphere, an instantaneous
spasmodic contraction is produced, diminishing at once
the size of the tubes in such  a degree that it is impossi-
ble  to receive  through them  a due supply of  air to
purify the blood.
  It is wll known that most  asthmatic subjects are
peculiarly liable  to gastric derangements, indigestion,
flatulent colic, and various other morbid  conditions of
the  stomach.  This is easily  understood, when we bear
in  mind that the  Neumogastric Nerve presides over
and forms a sustaining link  of  sympathy between the
stomach  and the  lungs, so  that any derangement of
the former must produce a consequent derangement of
the  latter.  Most asthmatic  subjects bear a warm, dry
air, better than  a  cold, humid  atmosphere.  Patients 
ASTHMA.
47
residing upon the  seaboard are frequently much bene-
fited by  a removal into the interior or mountainous
regions, and occasionally the very reverse obtains.
  The benefits derived in either case seem to be owing
particularly to a change of atmosphere.   Asthma,  in
its early  development,  is rarely considered a disease  of
much danger, though it is  by no means uncommon,
where the disease has existed for a long time, for it  to
terminate in  dangerous pulmonary congestions, disease
of the heart,  dropsical  effusions of the chest, swelling of
the ankles, and other symptoms characteristic of total
exhaustion.  The gradual inroads which  it is sure  to
make upon the system during long years  of  suffering
and anxiety are quite sufficient to embitter all the en-
joyments of life, and make the poor  sufferer  look for-
ward to  the closing scene of his existence as the only
hope of relief.
                  TREATMENT.
  There is no disease more certainly under the control
of medicine, and none which yields more readily to the
action of remedies than that of Asthma.  That medical
men have failed  in the  use of the means hitherto em-
ployed for the cure of this disease, is to us not a matter
of surprise, and if the same principles were to  govern us 
48
ASTHMA.
in the administration of our remedies that have hitherto
directed them, we  too should have but little ground of
hope.  Their failure then is not so much to be attributed
to the choice of the remedies, as to • their mode of ad-
ministration.
  We contend that no remedy, or combination of reme-
dies, however potent, whether Allopatkically or Home-
opathetically administered through  the medium  of the
stomach, has ever, nor  can ever cure a single  case of
Asthma.  For the reason that  they  do not reach  the
seat of the disease, their principal  force  is spent upon
the general system, and long before  they find their way
to the lungs", their power is lost.
  It seems to us like the climax  of folly to attempt to
affect a disease in the lungs through the medium of the
stomach,  when by the simple  and  direct  process of
inhalation  we can  so  readily gain  access to the whole
mucous surface and remotest air cells  in the lungs, and
bring all the active and medicinal properties of the reme-
dy  employed, at once  upon the part diseased.   Who
that has observed the relief afforded to the suffering
asthmatic by the burning and breathing the fumes of
saltpetre, the smoking  of stramonium, &c, can doubt
the power and efficacy of inhaled remedies in the treat-
ment of this disease, particularly when  carefully selected
and administered  by the hand  of science and experi-
ence. 
ASTHMA.
49
  These are the measures we depend upon in all" Asth-
matic and Pulmonary diseases ; and we should just as
soon think of administering a suitable eye-wash  into
the stomach with a view  to cure chronic inflammation
and ulceration of the eyes, as to introduce remedies, how-
ever appropriate, into the same organ to cure a case of
Asthma ;  since both are diseases of the same membrane,
and depend alike on local causes.  I would not in these
remarks convey the idea that all cases can and will
be cured in  which the treatment  is used, but  what I
mean to say is this : that  when complete disorganization
does not already exist, and when the disease depends, as
it does in a very large majority of cases, upon  a morbid,
irritable condition  of the mucous  membrane of the
bronchial  tubes, attended by spasms of their muscular
coat,  we regard it perfectly under the control of medi-
cine administered by inhalation.  And  when the state
of the disease has been such as to afford no prospect of
a permanent cure, I have never known these remedies
to fail in giving the greatest comfort and  relief.
5 
The Right Lung and Air-Passages of the Left Lung.
                  CHAPTER  IV.


   THE  CAUSE,  SYMPTOMS,   PREVENTION,
         AND SPECIFIC TREATMENT OF
                  CONSUMPTION.

     There is no  disease which has  attracted so much
   attention as Consumption.  From  the earliest  ages of
   which we have authentic records, the symptoms of this
.  destructive malady have been remarked, and the causes
   producing it have been discussed.   Nor is  this to be
   wondered  at; for the characteristics of the  disease are
                                            60 
          CONSUMPTION:  ITS  TREATMENT.        51

so striking that they could not  fail to arrest  attention.
The peculiar look, the gradual  wasting of strength and
flesh,  the hopefulness of  the patient,  all tend to im-
press  the mind of the most casual observer.
  It is, however,  a melancholy  fact that, notwithstand-
ing all the study bestowed upon it  for so many ages,
Consumption still sweeps  oft' a greater portion of the
human race than any other  disease.   It is confined
neither to climate nor to race, and the inhabitants of the
warmest as well  as coldest regions, fall victims to its
ravages.
   When  we find a disease thus universally prevalent,
we naturally desire information as to its effects on the
human race.  Every one has known  some friend or
relation removed by this complaint,  but there  are few
who  will not be startled by  the announcement that
one-fifth of the population of  this country and Great
Britain is swept  off by its  means.
   Scrofula, Consumption, and some other diseases of
an equally fatal character, which arise from the same
causes, and are of the same nature,  may in  a majority
of cases, be prevented  by  a  steady  perseverance  in  a
proper course of treatment.    But,  if  diseases which
destroy so large  a portion of mankind, are so  difficult
of cure when once established,  and  are yet  capable of
prevention, how necessary it is  that their nature,  and
the means of avoiding them, should  be  understood by
the public at large. 
52
CONSUMPTION :
  It is now  the general opinion  of scientific men, that
Consumption,  in  the first  instance, depends  upon a
diseased  condition of the blood ;  and  that although
most of the  symptoms  which  characterize it  manifest
themselves in  affections  of the lungs, the difficulty of
removing them hitherto has, in most cases, been con-
nected with  our inability to restore a healthy condition
of the system at large, through a healthy action of the
blood.
  The blood, which is described in the Mosaic  writings
as The  Life,  perforins most  important offices in the
animal economy.   It affords the means whereby every
part of the body  is able to renovate  itself,  and at the
same time, it sweeps away those portions of the system
the continuance of which would prove fatal to existence.
  Every one knows, from daily experience, that food is
necessary for the  support of life ; but perhaps  few un-
derstand the  exact  manner  in  which  it sustains the
body.  In many  instances, we  are  but little, aware of
the beauty of the arrangements  that exist  even in the
most common  things around  us ; and this is  the  case
with respect to  food,  which  affords the material for
that wonderful process of Repair which is unceasingly
going on in  the animal frame.
  Many may,  perhaps, be startled by being told that
every particle  of their bodies is continually hastening
to decay, and will  probably be replaced  more  than 
ITS TREATMENT.
53
once during their present lifetime.  Life and death,
growth and decay, are constantly  going on in every
tissue of which  we  are  composed.  The skin, which
forms a covering to the body, in a healthy state, is
constantly  throwing off the  dead  particles  from its
surface ; the muscles of the arm or leg lose a portion of
their  substance  at every motion  of their fibres;  the
brain, upon whose healthful action depends not  only
our own, but the happiness of others, suffers decay, in
all probability, in every exercise of its power; and  even
the bones, hard and firm as they appear, are subject to
the same law.
  It is to supply new material  for this continual waste,
that food is taken into  the body ; and  being digested,
or converted into chyme by the gastric juice in the
stomach, is received into and becomes  a portion of the
blood, and passing into each structure, affords the means
of its renovation.
  If the destruction of the different parts of the body
is unceasing, so  also is their renewal.   Each particle,
before disappearing, has  its place supplied,  and its
functions  performed, by its successor; and the blood,
as it  sweeps away  the  aged  and worn-out portions,
leaves in their room the materials for a new supply.
  In order that the worn-out particles  yay be removed
from the system,  it is  evident  that they  must first be
reduced to a fluid or liquid form.   This is effected by
5» 
54
CONSUMPTION :
the oxygen contained in  the blood,  which by uniting
with  them, produces  a species  of  slow  combustioji.
Animal heat is caused by this process, and  a number of
substances are dissolved in the blood, which are after-
wards expelled  from the body by  the  lungs, kidneys
and skin.
  The tissues, or substance,  of the  body, for the most
part, appear to be formed from minute particles, which
are technically termed cells.  By tracing the growth of
these particles, or cells, we may comprehend the forma-
tion   of the  different  structures of  the body.   The
blood, when it  first issued from its  vessels, freighted
with  the elements necessary to supply nourishment to
any  part  of the body, was of course in a fluid state.
Part of it became solid, and the remainder was returned
into  the system  by  the veins.  From the solid portion
the  cells  arise,  the first  appearance of which  is  in
the form of a small body, called the nucleus; around
which a little bladder forms, filled  with  fluid, as in the
skin, or  as in the case of other structures, frequently
with solid matter.    In the structure of  the skin, as
the cell becomes older, other cells form  beneath it and
push it to the  surface, by their growth.  It becomes
at the same  time gradually  flatter, until it appears as
a thin scale,  which, having  accomplished  its  use, and
its period of existence having expired, falls off.   In the
formation  of what  is  called cellular tissues, of  which 
ITS TREATMENT.
55
many of the internal organs of the body are formed,
the cells, instead of becoming flatter, are elongated,  and
their ends uniting, eventually  form the  fine fibres of
which the structure  consists.
  By what power, it may be asked, does the blood pass
through these various changes ?  This  question can no
more be answered than  we can  explain by what process
the oak springs from the  acorn, or  seeds, which appear
to us similar, should produce plants differing in proper-
ties and color.
  Although  we are unable to explain why, from the
same blood, cells should arise which form tissues widely
different in their nature and uses, we are, nevertheless,
acquainted  with certain  conditions requisite for  their
development.    One of these is,  that there  should be
an  adequate  supply of blood ; and  another, that the
blood must be of a proper constitution.
   If the blood be so impoverished that the cells instead
of being developed, stop short in  the  early  stage of
the  process, it is perfectly evident  that disease must be
produced.   This is the  case in Scrofula and Consump-
tion.  And it is from this circumstance, apparently so
simple, that such a large portion  of the human race
is annually swept off by death.
   The structure of tubercle, in the  early  stage, is  very
simple.  It seems to consist of a number of cells, which
are  small, stunted,  and  angular,  and have often  no 
56  •
CONSUMPTION :
nucleus within them ; they are, in fact, cells  whose de-
velopment  has been arrested ; and they, consequently,
show a want of power in the blood itself.
  In almost every part of the body in which blood vessels
exist, there is also an extensive net-work of other vessels,
called  lymphatics, or absorbents; the smaller uniting
to form larger ones, until  a  few are  produced which
transmit the contents of  the net-work of a whole limb.
And again, these larger lymphatic trunks end  by uniting
in a single vessel called the  thoracic  duct, and which
opens into a vein near the heart.  The blood is supplied
to the body by  the heart, which forces it  through a
system of pipes attached to it, termed arteries.  These
pipes divide into very small  vessels named capillaries,
which again unite to form large tubes, called veins ; and
the veins, by being connected with the heart, return the
fluid into that organ.  As the blood is  forced from the
heart along the blood vessels,  as soon  as it  reaches the
small arteries, a  portion of the liquid part of  it oozes
through  their coats,  and supplies   the neighboring
structures  with nourishment (the  remainder  of the
blood being returned to the heart by the veins), whilst
the part not required for that purpose enters the small
lymphatics, and is  returned by them to the heart to  be
mixed again with the blood. There  is thus a double
circulation of the blood through the animal  frame, the
centre ot both being the  heart; in the  one case the circle 
ITS TREATMENT.                57
is formed by the blood vessels alone, in the other it is
composed partly of the  arteries  and  partly  of  the
lymphatics.
  In certain parts of their course, the larger lymphatic
trunks are twisted upon themselves, so as to form what
is termed a lymphatic gland.   These bodies are placed
in great numbers in the sides of the neck,  in the mem-
brane  near the  bowels, armpits, and  other concealed
situations.  We might naturally suppose  that  in  any
disease of the fluid circulating in the lymphatics, the
effects would  be first observed where the twisting of
the vessels afforded the greatest chance of  obstruction ;
and such is found  to be the case in the disease known
as  Scrofula,  or King's  Evil.   In this  disease,  the
tubercle,  instead of being formed in the  lungs, as in
Consumption, is deposited in the lymphatic glands, and
there  produces  the symptoms which characterize the
complaint.
  When  tubercles  affects the glands of  the lymphatics
leading from the bowels, a very formidable complaint is
the result.  Under such circumstances, there is usually
long-continued  diarrhoea ; and as a great portion of the
food  ordinarily  passes  through  the lymphatics of the
intestines before entering the blood,  in scrofula there
is (as when tubercle is  also deposited in the lungs)
 a rapid loss of strength.
   When any part  of the body  is inflamed, the greater 
58
CONSUMPTION :
portion of the swelling which  attracts the eye of an
observer arises from the liquid part of the blood which
has oozed from the over-distended blood vessels ;  and
in a healthy state of the system, certain changes take
place, which prepare this liquid for being taken up  into
the blood as soon as the inflammation  ceases.   But in
scrofulous constitutions, the  blood  has not sufficient
vitality  to  undergo the necessary changes;  and the
formation  of matter  is the  consequeuce.  In those
instances where the blood has not become  so greatly
impoverished, the scrofulous constitution displays itself
by causing long standing inflammation of the eyelids,
white specks upon the eye, inflammation of the nose or
ear, or troublesome eruptions of the skin.
  It has been  stated that,  in  the  destruction of the
particles of the human  frame,  which is  continually
going on, they were reduced either into the form of gas
or fluid, in order to be removed, or thrown off, from
the body.   The chief, if not the only gas thus formed,
is carbonic acid.                        «*
  All nature's works are fitted to perform the purposes
for which they were intended; and in   the  human
structure perhaps no organs display more beautiful
design than the lungs;  the perfect arrangement of their
parts admirably adapting them for the performance  of
their important functions.
  The lungs  are  two spongy bodies which,  together 
ITS TREATMENT.
59
with the heart, fill up the whole  of the hollow  of the
chest.   They communicate with air by means of a long
tube, named the trachea,  or windpipe.  This  lies  in
front of the neck, covered only by the skin and fat, and
reaches from below the tongue into  the  chest.   In  its
upper part, it is closed by a valve called the epiglottis,
which prevents /ood passing into the windpipe when in
the  act  of  swallowing.   Below the epiglottis is the
apparatus for speech, which consists of small cords,
that narrow or enlarge the opening of the windpipe, at
the will of the  individual, through  the  agency of
muscles attached to them.   It is very common  in Con-
sumption,  for  small sores to form in this  part of  the
windpipe ;  and a partial loss of voice is,  in such cases,
the result.   Slight colds, by inflaming the part sur-
rounding these cords, oftenjsrodnce the same effect.
   The  windpipe,  after its  entrance into  the  chest,
 divides into two tubes,  which  enter the  substance of
 the lungs.  Each tube  immediately divides again into
 two,  and  is surrounded  by the  air-cells ;  and  this
 method of division is continued until they attain a great
 degree  of  minuteness,  and are distributed  to  every
 portion of the organ.  These continuations of the  wind-
 pipe are called bronchial tubes, which are composed of
 a firm substance, and are provided with muscles  which
 can contract them ; whilst they are lined internally with
 a  membrane  somewhat similar in structure  to  that 
60                 CONSUMPTION :

which covers the  inner surface  of the  mouth and
throat.
  Each bronchial tube terminates abruptly, by coming-
continuous with  a membraneous  passage, into which
the air cells open on every side.   It is named the inter-
cellular passage, and  is not lined  by the membrane of
the tube.
  The greater part of the substance of the lungs con-
sists of small cavities called air-cells, which give it  its
spongy appearance.   Each of these cells is formed of
the same membrane as the inter-cellular passages, and
has no other lining.   They are of different shapes, and
communicate very freely with the neighboring passages,
but not with each other.  When  inflammation  occurs
in this part of the  structure of the lungs, it  is called
" pneumonia."   In breathing,  the air  first enters the
windpipe through the nose or  mouth,  passes through
the bronchial tubes into the inter-cellular passages, and
thence into the air-cells.
  Having  described  the manner  in  which  the air
obtains entrance  into the lungs, it will be proper to
direct attention to the method  by which  the  blood is
brought into contact with it.
  After the blood has traversed all parts of the body,
and  become loaded with carbonic acid gas and other
impurities, it is returned to the heart.
  By the contraction  of this organ it  is pumped into a 
ITS TREATMENT.
61
 a large blood-vessel, which, dividing into two, carries
 the impure blood into each lung.  The blood-vessels in
 the lungs, by continual divisions, attain a great degree
 of minuteness, and form a very  close net work between
 the air-cells.  By  these  smaller  vessels being placed
 between two  contiguous  air-cells the blood in them is
 freely exposed to the air,  by which a large quantity of
 oxygen is absorbed and the carbonic acid gas, produced
 by the slow combustion or union of the oxygen with
 the carbon of the decomposing particles is thrown off.
 After being thus purified by the expulsion of the car-
 bonic acid gas, the blood is returned by the veins of the
 lungs into another of the cavities of the heart, whence
 it again issues to be used for the nourishment of the body.
   The animal heat is kept up by this combustion of the
 decaying particles of the body, in union with the oxygen
 absorbed by the blood  as it  passes through  the lungs,
 aud carried along with  it  to every part of the system.
   The carbonic acid, dissolved in the blood, replaces
 the atmospheric air  which it before  contained, and is
 of course, as deadly a poison when allowed to remain in
 it as it is  when introduced from without.   The use of
 the lungs is, therefore, to free the blood of this noxious
 gas, which, if not thus thrown off, necessarily produces
 death, the same as by strangulation.
  It has been remarked that Consumption, as also many
other  complaints, originate in disease of the blood, and
      6 
62
CONSUMPTION :
that, from the unhealthy condition of this fluid, a deposit
of tuberculous matter takes places.  The'blood-vessels
surrounding  tubercular  matter become gorged  with
blood, or  in that  state which is  called inflammation.
The tubercle, not being capable of forming part of the
structure in which it is placed, excites the inflammatory
action, on the same principle that any other  dead sub-
stance— such as a thorn in  the finger—brings on in-
flammation around it.  The first effect of this condition
upon the tubercle itself, is to fit it for being expelled
from  its position ; and so  far, therefore, a  beneficial
change  is produced.   Its substance becomes softer, and
when examined under the microscope, its small cells are
found broken up into  granules.  Whilst this is  going
on, the  unhealthy inflammation is destroying  the neigh-
boring structures, so that when the tubercular matter is
expectorated, by means of coughing, a hole or cavity is
left in its place.  From large quantities of the substan-
ces of the organs being  thus got  rid  of, we often find
the upper part of the lungs completely  riddled with
holes, or  in other instances  the  cavities run together,
and a perforation of enormous size is the result.
   The important fact should be  understood, that Con-
 sumption is a general as well as a local disease, and that
 other organs besides the lungs are liable to  be affected
 during the progress of the malady.   Consequently we
 find deposits  of tubercle  taking  place in  the glands of 
ITS TREATMENT.
63
the bowels, in the membrane covering the intestines, in
the brain and in other parts.
  In more than half the cases of Consumption blood is
expectorated, varying in amount from a few streaks to
one or two pints.   This blood is furnished  by the ves-
sels surrounding the deposit of tubercles.  It is a symp-
tom that should never be treated lightly, more especially
if there be a predisposition to disease of the lungs.
   The difficulty of breathing, which proceeds from the
choking up of the air cells of the lungs with tubercle, is
a very general symptom in  Consumption.   It is usually
increased by the expectoration contained  in  the bron-
chial tubes, preventing the free passage of the air in and
out of the air-cells.  One of the  most  prominent and
 distressing  symptoms of Consumption is cough ; in the
 earlv stages of the disease the cough is short and with-
 out expectoration, and it often continues, without pro-
 ducing alarm, many months  before any other symptom
 manifests itself.  At this time it  generally arises from
 the  tubercle deposited in the air-cells  irritating  the
 nerves distributed to the  lungs,  but afterwards, when
 expectoration  is present, it is, to a certain extent, useful,
 both in clearing the bronchial tubes and increasing the
 forcible inspiration that  usually  follows the  act of
 couo-hin<)-.   Whenever a cough has continued more than
 a few weeks, especially if it has not been preceeded by
 discharge from  the nose,  or other symptoms of a com- 
64
CONSUMPTION :
mon cold, attention should be directed to it; and, if the
person so affected belong to a scrofulous or consumptive
family, the greater watchfulness should be used.
  Expectoration is usually not present in the commence-
ment of the disease, the cough  being dry and  hacking.
Afterwards, however, the cough is accompanied  by a
whitish, gluey matter, which chiefly occurs in the morn-
ing.   As the disease advances it becomes thicker, often
containing white particles, and  in the last stages,  it is
usually in the form of thick  yellow matter.  In the
earlier periods this matter is furnished by the bronchial
tubes, and even at the last the  greater portion is  from
this source.   During the softening of the tubercles and
when inflammation exists around them, the expectoration
necessarily contains portions  of the tubercle itself, and
of jhe fluids thrown out from the vessels, but the" greater
part is always produced by the inflammation of the bron-
chial tubes.
  One of the earliest symptoms of Consumption is the
loss of flesh; and perhaps no case goes through all the
various stages of the disease   without  it.   It varies
greatly in amount, in some instances being so  gradual
as to be  scarcely perceptible, whilst in  others it is  so
marked that it cannot fail to attract attention.   When-
ever a person  predisposed  to  Consumption,  becomes
much thinner without  evident  cause—even if without
cough  or expectoration—his condition  should not  be 
                  ITS TREATMENT.                65

neglected for  a moment.   At this period prevention  is
certain, saving much suffering and perhaps death.
  My Inhalants in Tubercular Consumption is working
wonders,  in the  ready mode of carrying its healing,
stimulating and restorative action to every minute air-
cell and branch of the air-tubes, relieving pain, calming
irritation,  arousing the malignant and ulcerated cavities
to put on a healing process, and the absorbents stimu-
lated to take  out of the lungs  the tubercular deposits.
   It is a matter  of great question to my mind if agents
 in the form of vapor alone will cure Pulmonary Tuber-
 culosis from  an hereditary cause, without the aid of
 nutrition and tonics, carried into the blood through the
 medium of the assimilative functions, to correct a scrof-
 ulous or  bad state of the  blood, the constitutional con-
 dition of which is the cause of the deposition of tubercles
 in the  lungs.  But the inhalation  of these  medicated
 vapors are a powerful auxiliary means even in this form
 of Consumption.
6* 
CHAPTER V.
    CONSUMPTION AND ITS SYMPTOMS.

  One of the most troublesome symptoms that occur in
the progress of Consumption, and one that tends more
than any other to weaken the sufferer, is diarrhoea.   It
often  arises from  weakness of the lining  membrane of
the bowels ; but, if long continued, it is generally con-
nected with deposits of tubercle and  subsequent ulcer-
ation of the glands of the intestines.  It is from  this
cause that this symptom is  so difficult of removal  and
so often bids defiance to the best medical skill.
   Hereditary  Transmission,  that is,  the transmission
from a parent to a child of a tendency to disease, is  un-
doubtedly the  most common predisposing cause  both of
Scrofula and  Consumption.  As these diseases arise*
from the same condition of the blood, it will be  readily
understood that they will both be produced by the same
circumstances.   This  must be borne in mind,  as from
ignorance of it many persons  deny that there is  any
tendency  to consumption in their  family.  Scrofula,
                                       66 
ITS SYMPTOMS.
67
Consumption, Gout, Rheumatism, and many other dis-
orders, appear to be regularly transmitted from parents
to children,  and with them pain,  misery,  and  often
poverty.
   A deficiency of proper food very often acts as an ex-
citing cause  to Scrofula or  Consumption.  When this
deficiency of nutritious food  is conjoined with a want of
fresh air these  diseases are exceedingly common.   Un-
like the  deficiency of food,  the want of air  creates no
craving or uneasiness in the frame, so that men forget its
necessity,  and bring  on disease by over-crowding  in
dwelling houses, factories, churches, and places of public
amusement.   No part  of the management of tubercu-
loses is of greater importance than that of Diet.  Patients
should live generously, indulging and cultivating  an ap-
petite for all the varied wholesome articles of food, with a
full proportion of meat.  A  free use of sugar is also re-
commended by  eminent medical authority.   Diffusible
 stimuli, as wine, beer  or Scotch ale, and even  spirits,
 given in moderate quantities, tend to render the digestive
 process  more  active and complete.   Patients affected
 with tuberculosis are often  able to take spirits in large
 quantities without experiencing  stimulating  or intoxi-
 cating effects.
      ©
   The hygienic influence of pure air cannot be over-
 estimated by the patient.   Frequent, or daily exercise,
 conjoined  with  agreeable  mental  occupation, exert a 
68
CONSUMPTION :
 beneficial effect on  the disease.  As the advantages to
                                              ©
 be derived from pure air arise from- its being taken  into
 the chest of the individual, it is evident that anv cause
 lessening the motion of the lungs"must produce injurious
 effects.   It is, perhaps, partially in this way that mental
 anxiety acts  in bringing on disease,  as  every one is
 aware of the feeling of  oppression accompanying  this
 state of mind.  The natural method of increasing the
                                               ©
 ordinary breathing is by exercise ; for when the muscles
 of the body are put into rapid or violent  motion  the
■blood is forced more quickly through the lungs,  and
 the air is more freely inspired for its purification.
  In order clearly to understand the effects  of the fore-
 going causes of Consumption, it will  be necessary to
 inquire  into  the nature  and healthy condition of  the
 blood.  AVhen a drop of blood is placed  beneath  the
 microscope, a  great  number of small bodies termed
 blood globules, are  observed  floating in a thickish  but
 transparent fluid.   Two  different kind of globules  can
 be  distinguished the most  numerous being of a  red
 color, and of a flattened  shape like a piece of money,
 varying in diameter from one three-thousandeth to  one
 four-thousandeth part of an  inch.  The other kind is
 much less numerous, there being in a state of health
 only one to fifty of the red globules; they being nearly
 round, and about one two-thousand-five-hundreth part
 of an inch in diameter. 
ITS SYMPTOMS.
69
  The exact  uses  performed by  these minute bodies
have  not been hitherto  accurately  known;  but it  is
probable that their office is to carry air—oxygen—to the
different parts of the body, and to  prepare the fluid part
of the blood for the nourishment of the various structures.
  Sufficient  is known  to prove that their presence  is
essential to the continuance of life ; and a redness of the
face and lips, arising from a large quantity of the red
blood-globules, is properly considered as a sign of robust
health; whereas the pale condition  of  the skin, which
may be observed where they  are deficient, is always
associated with  bodily weakness.
  As is the case with the solid parts of the body, there
is a continual destruction and reproduction of the blood.
The red globules after fulfilling their allotted period  of
existence gradually  disappear by  salution in the fluid
in which they  swim,  whilst  the white globules are
changed into the red ones.  These  white globules, which
are the immature red ones, are originally framed in the
lymphatic vessels before described as receiving the con-
tents  of the  blood-vessels, and their  change into red
globules appears to be chiefly produced by the action  of
the lungs.
  It will, therefore, be readily understood that the fluid
part  of the  blood  depends for the  continuance of its
proper constitution upon complete digestion and assimi-
lation ; and,  therefore, whatever impairs these indispen- 
70
CONSUMPTION :
sable requisites will be likely to derange the health and
so give rise to the formation of tubercle.
  There is nothing  in which the public take a deeper
interest than  in the  question, whether  Consumption
admits of a cure ?  The popular opinion is general, that
when the lungs are once affected, the case  of the patient
is hopeless;  and this  opinion, we  are pained to admit,
receives  too full a  corroboration  in the  almost  utter
failure of the medical profession hitherto, either to ascer-
tain the cause of tuberculosis, or to discover a specific
treatment for  it; but there  is really  no reason  why
nature should not repair  an injury to  the  respiratory
organs as she does to others less important for the carry-
ing on of life.
  It is admitted that ordinary inflammation of the lungs
is curable; although the air-cells in this complaint are
filled  with matter,  and cavities are not  unfrequently
produced.  There  is  no reason for supposing that  a
similar happy result may not take place in Consumption ;
if the  disease  in the blood which  gave rise to it, can
be removed.   However interesting it may be to prove
that tubercle is curable, it is more  important to the un-
professional public to  know whether the complaint can
be removed  after it  has reached to such an extent  as to
produce  cough, wasting of  flesh, and  the  other  well
known symptoms of Decline.  There is no doubt in my
mind that cure is possible, and that patients who present
every mark  of the complaint may be restored to health. 
CHAPTER  VI.
BRONCHITIS, —MINISTERS'  SORE THROAT.

  This very singular disease attacks a particular class
of persons, those  who are in the habit of speaking in
public, and in crowded and ill-ventilated rooms.  When
it gets a fair hold of its victim it is a constant (although
a very disagreeable) companion.
   There has been much written upon this disease,  and
many methods of cure advised, but most of them with-
out success.   It affects the palate, tonsils, larynx,- and
bronchial  tubes, and  generally the  digestive organs
suffer  more or less. Its progress at  first is slow  and
insidious, creeping on the person step by step, until the
whole phenomena of the malady are developed.  Symp-
toms :—the patient complains  of a constant tickling  in
the throat, as though something was lodged there, and
 he makes a great effort to dislodge it; but all his heming
 and coughing results  in nothing but raising a  small
 quantity of thick tenacious mucus.  He feels better for
 a moment, and  then the  same disagreeable  symptom
                                            71 
72
BRONCHITIS.
returns,  and the same hacking  cough  continues from
week to week,   hoarseness,  a  sensajtion of tightness
across ihe chest, slight dyspnoea, acute pains  darting
through  the upper portion of the  lungs supervenes.   On
examining  the throat you will  find elongated palate,
tumefied tonsils, and the whole mucous  membrane con-
gested and dry, the natural functions of the membrane
to secrete  healthy mucus destroyed.   If the disease
continues, the structure becomes thickened, mucous  fol-
licles enlarged,  and  the  disease  continues down  the
trachea into the  bronchial tubes,  and finally,  if  not
arrested, tubercular deposits take place, and consump-
tion terminates the patient's sufferings.
  The stomach is primarily or secondarily affected,  the
tongue is covered with a white coat slightly tinged with
yellow, and  there is considerable  nervous irritation,
palpitation  of the heart, disturbed sleep, and it is  im-
possible to bring the mind to  bear upon one subject for
any length of time.
  These and many other symptoms  develop themselves
from time to time as it progresses. 
CHAPTER VII.
LARYNGITIS, CLERGYMAN'S SORE THROAT.

  There is a modification of this form of Consumption
which is a  terror  to  the clergy and members of the
bar; and as the author believes he has discovered  a
remedy which is almost a specific for this dreadful  dis-
ease, he respectfully offers a few observations- upon it.
He means a disease of that part of the mucous mem-
brane lining the larynx, giving rise to the clergyman's
sore throat and consumption.
  The disease is often extremely insidious  at its com-
mencement, and its progress  is so tardy, that a great
deal, and often irreparable mischief is done before  any
alarm is taken by the patient, or he applies for relief.
  An uneasy sensation, and in some cases  pain, is felt
in the larynx, and extends over that organ, and at other
times is restricted  to  a  single spot;  usually  a tickling
sensation exists which provokes caution, attended with
a feeling in the throat as if there were something in the
throat that ought  to be removed, and feels raw.   The
pain is increased by coughing, speaking, inspiring  cold
       7 
74
LARYNGITIS.
air, or upon pressffre being made upon the larynx.   The
voice becoming altered is frequently the first symptom
that arrests the attention of the patient.   It is at first
weak, then becomes hoarse, and may suddenly or gradu-
ally be entirely lost,  amounting to complete  aphonia.
The cough, in the first instance, is dry, but is afterwards
accompanied  with the expectoration of mucous  mixed
occasionally with pus or blood ; often there are paroxyms
or difficulty of breathing.   The general health eventu-
ally begins to suffer.  Emaciation, hectic, night-sweats,
and often indications of tubercles, occur as the disease
advances,  and in  the later stages, dropsical swelling,
which increases until  death.

   Exciting  Causes.—Prolonged  action of the vocal
organs is generally the exciting causes of  this disease ;
hence the disease is nlost common among actors, singers,
lawyers, clergymen, &c.  It is often wondered why the
clergy are more liable to this disease than lawyers and
professors  are ?   The young clergyman,  often of  a
feeble and nervous constitution, not only preaches twice
or three times, or  even more in a week, but is exposed
to the night  air and inclemency of the weather.   He is
compelled to do so, while  the voice and  constitution of
 the lawyer have generally  full time for maturity before
 he need  employ  the one or expend  the  other,  in the
 duties of his profession. 
CHAPTER  VIII.
         BRONCHIAL CONSUMPTION.

   This variety  of consumption is  the consequence,
generally, of neglected cold.  At first the symptoms re-
semble those of an ordinary cold or catarrh, the expec-
toration being tough,  thick and opaque, but not yellow,
containing small grayish lumps, which sink in water.—
As the disease advances, the cough increases,  and this
tough mucous or phlegm becomes more and more mixed
with a yellowish fluid,  resembling pus or matter,  and
often slightly streaked with blood.  In many instances
the expectoration is of a whitish appearance, resembling
cream, and sometimes a greenish-yellow color, which
readily  sinks  in water.  At first, the  pulse becomes
slightly accelerated and tense towards  evening;  and
the heat of the surface of the body varies in the course
of the day, being sometimes above and sometimes below
the natural standard.  Partial sweats occur in the head
and breast at night.   The thirst is generally consider-
ably increased ; the urine is highly colored, and deposits
a copious  reddish sediment; a sense  of soreness in the
                                       75 
76
BRONCHIAL CONSUMPTION.
chest, with an  occasional transient stitch  in the side,
occurs in the majority of instances;  but there  is very
rarely any  fixed pain in the chest.   The cough is un-
usually severe,  particularly on rising out of bed in the
morning, at which time  the breathing is more or less
wheezing, and  attended  with  a feeling of tightness  in
the breast.
  If the disease continues unchecked in its  course the
expectoration becomes purulent and extremely copious.
Debility and emaciation increases rapidly, the difficulty
of breathing and a sense of weight and tightness across
the chest  become more  and more  distressing.  The
                                            ©
pulse  is  now generally  very  frequent, being seldom
under one  hundred  and  twenty in  a minute.  In the
early part of the day the face is usually pale, but a deep
flush of one or  both  cheeks is commonly observed  to-
wards the evening.   The tongue becomes clear and in
many instances it assumes an alarming appearance, and
is redder than in health.   There are generally  profuse
and exhausting night-sweats at this advanced stage of
the disease, and, unless relief is found, swelling of the
ankle* and diarrhoea supervene, and  death closes the
scene. 
CHAPTER  IX.
         PLEURETIC  CONSUMPTION.

   This variety of Consumption depends on an effusio"
 into the cavity of the chest, from inflammation of the
 pleura.  While the effusion into the cavity of the chest
 is going on, the lung becomes more and more separated
 from the surface of the thorax,  being gradually com-
 pressed by the accumulated fluid until it is reduced to
 a very small size, and  more or less disorganized in  its
 structure.  While this is going on, ulceration sometimes
 takes place in some part of the  pulmonary pleura and
 the corresponding substance of the lungs, and an open-
 ing  is thus made into the bronchial tubes, through
 which the effused sero  purulent  fluid is discharged,  by
 cough or expectoration.  When  this takes place,  irri-
 tative fever, with night sweats, frequent cough,  emaci-
 ation, and in short all the ordinary symptoms of Con-
 sumption supervene.
  This form of consumption is generally the consequence
of Pleurisy.   It is  characterized by a  sense of oppres-
7* 
78
PLEURETIC CONSUMPTION.
sion in the chest on lying  down, difficult  and hurried
breathing in  ascending stairs,  or  muscular  exertion,
short  disturbed sleep, short tickling cough, aggravated
on first lying down, spells of hurried and oppressed
breathing after  speaking,  and generally more or  less
soreness of the external surface of the affected side of
the chest.   The  patient is easiest  when  in  a sitting
posture ; and if requested  to take a deep breath while
in the erect position, he will generally do it with little
apparent difficulty; but when  he  lies flat down  and
draws a deep breath, he will complain of pain, tightness,
soreness, load,  or  some kind of inconvenience in the
chest.  Death often occurs suddenly, and is almost in-
variably proceeded by considerable swelling of the legs
and feet.   In some instances, after  the effused fluid  is
discharged through the lungs, the progress of the disease
becomes arrested, and the patient recovers to a tolerable
state  of health.   When this occurs the affected side  of
the chest contracts to a manifest degree, forming what
Laenec describes under the name of contracted chest.
Unless the progress of the disease  is arrested, the diffi-
culty of breathing becomes greater and greater, until at
length the patient cannot lie down at all,  and remains
in this state until he dies.
   For this form of Consumption, the effects of the in-
halants are often surprising.  Independent of its power- 
PLEURETIC CONSUMPTION.
79
ful  expectorant effects, it possesses  diaretic  properties
in an eminent degree, by healing and soothing the lungs
and pleura; and with it I always give a Kidney  Sana-
tive which promotes  the  secretion of urine causing its
copious flow, and the patient is rapidly cured. 
C H A P TtE R  X.
         DYSPEPTIC  CONSUMPTION.

  When Bronchial  Consumption  is  complicated with
hepatic diseases, (an occurrence by no  means uncom-
mon,) it forms what is termed Dyspeptic Consumption.
In this form of the disease we  have in addition  to the
ordinary phenomena of bronchial disease, various  symp-
toms indicative of hepatic disorders, such as tenderness
and tension of the right side,  irregularity of the bowels,
unnatural stools, a sallow hue of  the skin, and yellow-
ness of the white of the eye, flatulency, indigestion, with
variable appetite, increasing difficulty of breathing, and
cough  after  eating hearty meals, furred  and  brown
tongue, foul breath, nausea,  and sometimes vomiting.
In some instances of this form of the disease, no  symp-
toms indicative of the pulmonic affection occur  in the
commencement of  the malady,  the only manifestations
of disease being such as  are usually present in liver
complaints generally.  A dull pain or tenderness in the
right side,  with increased uneasiness on lying  on the
left side, irregularity of the  bowels, foul  tongue and
                                       80 
DYSPEPTIC CONSUMPTION.
81
     depression of the spirits, are in some  cases  the  first
^   symptoms complained of by the patient.   The  first
     warning of the disease in the bronchial membrane are
     slight.   There is a slight cough, unattended with pain.
     By degrees the cough becomes more troublesome,  and
     when it continues for some time a tough flem is expec-
     torated.  The breathing, too, is  in some degree affected,
      and the sufferer complains of weight and tightnes across
      the  chest.  The bronchial affection now advances, until
      a copious purulent expectoration and the usual symp-
      toms of hectic are fully established, which continues to
      increase till death ensues.
• 
*
                CHAPTER  XI.


             COUGHS AND  COLDS.

  Every case  of consumption commences with cough,
excited from the individual having taken cold.
  The diseases of the air passages are of great interest
to every intelligent being.   The delicate organization of
the lungs—their constant activity, and their  being ex-
posed to the contact of air of such different temperature,
and which contains various irritating matters suspended
in it, renders them especially liable to diseases, and
those of a most serious character.         "
  Let me direct your attention to the symptoms an^
different  parts which are diseased when a person has st
common  cold.
  The mouth, nose, throat, organs of voice, and. lungs
are lined by a continuous mucous membrane, which, in
a state of health is constantly moist.  The secretion of
this moisture, to a certain amount, constitutes a neces-
sary part of its healthy function; but when an individual
gets a cold, a part of all this membrane becomes inflamed,
the first effects of which is to alter its secretion.
                                       82 
COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
83
  It is at  first dry—the secretion is suspended—it be-
comes swollen, and thicker than  before—it is  redder
than natural and its sensibility  is perceptibly  altered.
We can see a portion of this membrane, and by noticing
the  changes produced in it by inflammation,  we infer
those changes which are apt to take place in the parts
we cannot see.  Everybody has experienced, in their
owil person an inflammation of that part of the membrane
lining the nose, constituting a cold in the head.  At
first the nostril is dry  ; and thoughts dry, we cannot
breath through it—it is  stuffed up by the membrane
0fcing swelled—the sense  of smell is altered  or lost; the
part is red, tender, and irritable;  the  contact of  air a
little colder or less  pure than common excites sneezing.
   Sometimes,  when  the disease  is'severe, there is a
 slight  dullness, and   towards  evening a little fever.
 After the dryness,  the membrane secretes a thin, watery
 fluid, which by degrees becomes thicker ; the swelling
 of the membrane  diminishes ; and as  the inflammation
 subsides, it is less raw  ; the secretions resumes its natural
 quality, and is reduced in quantity, and the membrane
 again is in its natural  state.  Such is the general course
 of a cold in the head.
    When the inflammation goes down into the lungs, it is
 said to  be a cold  in  the  chest.  It  sometimes travels
 from one part of the membrane to another, beginning in
 the nose, and gradually creeping down into the windpipe 
84
COUGHS  AND  COLDS.
and lungs.  When a person has such a cold, there is a
dry cough—more or less difficulty of breathing—some-
times a degree of pain or  oppression across the chest,
slight fever and thirst, and a  thin white coat upon  the
tongue, which is not always the case.
  These  are  the  symptoms that usually occur in  the
milder forms of cold; none of which are- troublesome
but the cough.   It is tight and dry ; the membrane does
not secrete, and nothing is expectorated.   In this state,
if a stimulating affele is taken, how often does it drive
the inflammation to the substance of the lungs; when
tubercles rapidly form, and a person dies of the quic#
consumption.
  I need scarcely say that a "neglected  cold," and a
" hacking  cough,'r however trifling and unimportant
they may seem, too often lead on by sure gradations to
an early grave.
  In no  one point have mankind suffered more from the
thraldom of physicians, than in adherence to the notion
of poisoning  the stomach with deadly drugs in Pul-
monary  Consumption, which, every intelligent person
must know is a disease entirely  local,  situated in the
chest, where drugs or medicines, when given into  the
stomach, could never reach ;  and still nearly the whole
combined  fraternity will degrade  their  reason  and
judgement so low  as to pursue this course, so long as
the poor patient will suffer himself to take the medicines ;
<* 
COUGHS  AND COLDS.
8.1
and when about to die, he is greeted with the intelli-
gence from them that consumption is  incurable !  But
why prostitute reason and the noble science of medicine
so low as to drug patients so long as they can swallow,
and  then  show such inhumanity as  to tell them that
consumption is incurable ?
   Consumption is as curable as Dyspepsia, Liver Com-
plaint, Diarrhoea and fever ; only carry the medication
and remedies directly to the parts affected, by breathing
them, or inhaling them, in the  shape of VAPORS, com-
bining a nutritious diet, a due, rigid system of hygiene,
of exercising in the open air, and the breathing of pure
air at all times.   Keep  the patient buoyant with hope,
and above all keep poisonous drugs and minerals out of
the stomach.  Under this system of treatment, consump-
tion  becomes  as curable  in our hands as any other
disease ; and  we have  the unbounded  satisfaction of
referring to hundreds of cases, snatched as it were from
       ©
the jaws of  death, after the combined powers of xVllo-
pathy had  consigned them to  the tomb.   But we do
this on rational and scientific principles, in accordance
with tl^paws  of health, and by aiding nature by carry-
ing our medication where the disease is, and not by put-
ting it into the stomach, where it is not.
   D                   *
8 
CHAPTER  XII.
           A NEW AND ACCURATE METHOD FOR THE

  DIAGNOSIS OF CONSUMPTION;

OR, HOW TO DETECT ITS SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS IN ITS VARIOUS STAGES.
  We are well aware that the introduction of any thing
new in medical science, will be subjected to the most
severe  scrutiny,  especially if it  conflicts with time
honored notions, or individual interests; but we shall
here  give a treatise on the Faucal  Symptoms.  In
giving publicity to a discovery which we made more
than sixteen years ago, and one  which our experience
has fully confirmed, in practice during this long period,
we do not fear the severest scrutiny, coming  from what
source it may.  Being convinced not  only of 4£jl truth,
and immense practical value to suffering humanity ; but
ultimate triumph over any and  all  other  diagnostic
signs heretofore  discovered  for  detecting pulmonary
phthisis ; it will  fortify us against the sarcasms  of the
ignorant and  prejudiced that may censure  us, being
                                     86 
DIAGNOSIS OF CONSUMPTION.
87
based  upon  facts its  application is only required to
demonstrate its  utility.  All we ask is a candid inves-
tigation, and we are willing to leave it with an intelli-
gent public to pass their verdict, and abide its decision.
  While this method will enable any one with the most
limited knowledge to detect a disease  upon the  pul-
monary organs, it will,  nevertheless, require studious
application, and not a little  experience to describe their
true condition in every respect.
  There is no  means heretofore known whereby  pul-
monary phthisis could be detected in its incipient stages,
and this is the  principle reason why it has proved so
universally fatal.   There is no necessary reason  why
this disease should be attended with fatal results, any
more than a similar  disease upon any other organ in
the body—the  medical  profession have abundance of
means at their command which enables them to detect
phthisis  in its last stages ; but  at  this  stage,  were  a
similar disease  located upon any other organ it would
be equally incurable.  Hence  these means  are of no
practical value to the physicians, or their unfortunate
patients.  I do not wish to  be  understood as condemn-
ing, or entirely doing away with all other methods for
diagnosing the disease in qffestion, although they fail to
admonish us of the existence of consumption in its  inci-
pient  stages, they are  nevertheless useful monitors
assisting us in  our diagnosis so  far  as  they go.   The 
88
DIAGNOSIS OF
old and established symptoms are so well known, espe-
cially to the profession, as to render it not only unne-
cessary, but superfluous to append them here, my object
being rather to add to the facts  already collected, than
to supercede them.   I confidently believe that my dis-
covery is  of  more importance  and practical value to
mankind than any and all others of this age ; and when
once universally understood by  physicians and  people
generally, pulmonary consumption will be as rarely seen
as at any remote period in the world's history.
   My  discovery is based upon the altered appearance
of the mucous membrane, of the fauces or throat.   By
observation it will be seen that this membrane under-
goes various  changes, in color and  other appearances,
just in proportion to  the  extent and severity of chronic
irritation  upon the lungs.  It  seems that Providence
has wisely ordained  these symptoms  that we might be
able, by observation  and experience, to learn the actual
condition of the pulmonary  tissues.   It is unnecessary
for us to explain the  " whys and wherefores" of these
changes in this chapter—it  is well  known that certain
appearances of the tongue indicate the condition of the
stomach and other organs—at  some  remote period in
the history of medicine, cogbizance was taken of  this
fact, and the experience of after generations, confirmed
and perfected  these   once new  diagnostic signs.   My
notice was attracted to these  faucal symptoms more 
CONSUMPTION.
89
than sixteen years ago from  daily observations ; from
that time to the  present, I have  not  had occasion  to
ever doubt  its correctness.   I am well aware  that I
have  not by any  means reduced them to perfection in
every  respect, but enough  may be gleaned to enable
any one  to  detect a diseased  from  a healthy lung.
With regard to the various appearances this membrane
may assume in the different stages of pulmonary phthisis,
I am also aware that there is a field open for improve-
ment, and to render it perfect in every respect may re-
quire years of practical observation and experience—yet
by carefully observing the various changes pointed out
in this chapter, will enable the physician to satisfy him-
self sufficiently for all practical  purposes.  The physi-
cian will be  doubtless surprized  at the frequency with
which  he will encounter  these  symptoms among the
patients  under his charge, many  of  which  may  be
affected with other diseases,  that will  prove  to  be the
immediate cause oT their death.  Many persons afflicted
with pulmonary consumption often die with other acute
diseases.
  According to the late statistics, one  out of every six
that die—taking Europe and America  together—are
from diseased lungs alone ; therefore, if he should find
that one out of every six or eight of  his patients had
the symptoms herein described, he should not doubt the
existence of pulmonary derangement in some form.
       8» 
90
DIAGNOSIS OF
  For convenience of description pulmonary consump-
tion has been divided into three stages, between these
no line  of  demarcation  is accurately known,  and,  in
truth, does  not exist, and therefore  the various changes
which occur in  phthisis  is but one  continuous chain of
abnormal phenomena, modified only by the constitutional
condition, habits, climate, and the medical treatment
the invalid  receives.

              THE FIRST STAGE.

  The first  symptoms that indicate  pulmonary phthisis,
may  be  seen by examining the " Fauces," or back part
of the  throat, the mucous membrane  covering those
organs,  presents a peculiar whitened appearance, occu-
pying a space  above and below  the " uvula."  The
alteration at first is very  slight, resembling a kind  of
fog, through which a slight reddish appearance may  be
observed.   As the disease advances, the coating of this
membrane  becomes thicker,  and  presenting more of a
snow white aspect, and at the same time extends over a
greater  surface of the fauces.
  The above symptoms  indicates simply a chronic irri-
tation of the pulmonary  organs, and  is generally the
only symptom  that denotes any constitutional or local
derangement.
  These symptoms are present for weeks, or months, and 
                  CONSUMPTION.                 91

sometimes for years, before any others known to the
medical profession manifest themselves.
  At this stage of the complaint the recuperative powers
of nature, will often, no doubt, overcome the disease in
young and otherwise healthy subjects, as it does similar
diseases upon other organs in the body;  but to depend
entirely upon unassisted nature,  to say the least, would
be extremely  hazardous ; like the viper in the wall, it
might depart from your premises without leaving  its
deadly sting, but it would be much safer to destroy the
reptile while in your power.  In this stage of the disease
where there is no constitusional predispotition to con-
sumption, very little inhaling medicine would be required
to restore the patient to a healthy condition; and when
this is accomplished, the above symptoms will disappear,
and the thros^vill present a natural and healthy ap-
pearance.   But so long as the  fauces present  the ap-
pearance which  we have described, just so long is the
person in danger of Pulmonary Consumption and pre-
mature death.
   From this thin and snowy white appearance, peculiar
to the insipient stage  of  this complaint  as the  disease
progresses, the coating of the fauces becomes gradually
thicker, assumes a little darker appearance, and extends
 higher up towards the palate ;  and  in  some instances
 assumes rather of a redish color, in others tinged with
 yellow.  In short,  these  symptoms are  more plainly 
92                 DIAGNOSIS OF#

manifested in every respect, until the disease has reached
wl at we may term the Second Stage.
  The length of time occurring  between the  first  and
second stages,  will depend wholly upon the rapidity
with which the disease progresses, or runs  its course
when affecting  different individual^  In some persons
this disease proves fatal in a few weeks, in others it pro-
gresses so slow that months and  years elapse before it
terminates in death.   In this stage of the complaint the
fauces present, in  addition to  its peculiar color, a kind
of furred, and, if the disease is progressing rapidly, some-
times a darkish red or inflamed appearance.  Usually
at this stage  of the disease, the back part of the tongue
is more or less  coated, with large " pappillia" about its
roots, (yet the  appetite in a majority of cases is unim-
paired,) the fauces in most cases assume *Wslight cream-
colored aspect, and  as we before remarked, all the
symptoms are more plainly indicated in  every respect,
until the  third and last stage is fully developed.   In
most cases the  disease is curable  in the second stage if
proper treatment is applied.  Much will however depend
upon the perseverance of the  patient and his  or her
friends, and  the treatment  pursued by the physician.
Unassisted nature never will overcome the disease when
advanced to this state; and even the most judicious
treatment will sometimes  fail to restore  the patient to
health and strength.  Many patients arrive at this stage 
CONSUMPTION.
93
of phthisis without any of those harrassing symptoms so
familiar to almost every one who has witnessed the slow
and insidious progress of this dreadful disease:—such
as  coughs,  night sweats, pain  in  the  sides,  breast,
shoulders, &c.; and even the stethoscope, in the most
practical and skillful hands, may fail to reveal any disease
upon the lungs.   But whether the last mentioned symp-
toms are present or  otherwise, it  will  require every
possible effort of the physician and patient  to prevent a
fatal issue.   Let  no one  whose throat  presents the ap-
pearance described under the second stage, delay for a
moment, but procure  the best  medical  advice  within
their command; for without judicious advice,  appro-
priate and persevering treatment, pulmonary consump-
tion will put an end to your  earthly  existence.

           THIRD AND LAST STAGE.

   In this stage of the disease the fauces assume a peculiar
yellowish or cream-colored appearance, and at the same
time the coating  on the membrane is somewhat thicker
than in the second stage, and extending down the throat
 as far as the eye  can see, and up too, and  covering the
 palate ; or  in other words, the whole  back part of the
 mouth and throat presents a  slimy or glazed appearance
 of a light yellowish color.  Whenever the above men-
 tioned symptoms are  seen upon the fauces, no matter 
94                DIAGNOSIS  OF

how favorable the invalid's symptoms may be in every
other respect, they surely  indicate an incurable disease
upon the pulmonary organs. We have known thousands
of cases during the last eighteen years, where the above
described  symptoms were manifested, and have never
been able to effect a radical cure in any case,  neither
have we witnessed one performed  by any other physi-
cian, or with so much talked of improvement of the day.
Yet we have cured hundreds who were afflicted with a
racking cough,  and expectorated large quantities of
matter from the chest, and suffered more or less pain in
the sides, breast, and shoulders, and night sweats, swol-
len ankles, &c.; but in all these cases the fauces pre-
sented almost a natural appearance in  every respect.
It is,  however, proper  to remark that  in a majority
of cases, where the fauces present the appearance des-
cribed in the third stage of this complaint, most of the
other symptoms so familiar to  the  profession  are also
manifested.
   We have endeavored to point out the symptoms as
they appear in the progress of pulmonary phthisis, in a
manner that we might be correctly understood by all ;
and, although we may not have deliniated its  appear-
ance as it occurs in the different stages, so minutely and
accurately as would  be desirable,  yet enough may be
gleaned from the  description here presented,  together
with  personal observation, for all practical purposes ; 
CONSUMPTION.
95
and we will therefore conclude by saying  that a white
or coated appearance of the  fauces,  always indicates
pulmonary derangement; and as this  coating increases
in thickness and color, the desease advances, or in other
words the fauces is a kind  of  mirror by which  we can
accurately  judge of the condition of the pulmonary
tissues.

          MODE OF EXAMINATION.

  In order to examine a patient correctly, it should be
done in the day-time ; any other but a natural  light is
not to be depended upon.   We never pretend to ex-
amine a patient by candle or gas light, the reflection of
light is not  so natural.  It is true we might be able to
distinguish a healthy from a diseased condition, espe-
cially in a well marked *>ase; but to ascertain what con-
dition  the lungs were  in  would  be  a very doubtful
experiment.  We  endeavor to seat the patient  by the
side of the window, so that the fight will rest directly
upon  the  fauces, and press down the tongue with an
instrument, by which  means  we have a  good view of
those  organs.   As  soon as a person becomes  a little
familiar with these faucel symptoms, he will be able to
diagnose a case to his own satisfaction, almost instantly,
without any of the ceremony alluded to in this chapter. 
CHAPTER  XIII.
AN  INQUIRY  CONCERNING THE  NATURE
  OF DISEASE,  AND A RATIONAL  MODE
                    OF CURE.
  There are good grounds for believing that the great
mass of human diseases (except the strictly surgical),
in all their types  and phases, are caused  by morbid
matter — matter alien to the healthy tissues of our or-
ganisms, which has  either intruded itself through  the
skin, the air-passages, or  the alimentary tract, or  has
been formed in the body itself by pathological changes,
or physical decay.  Reason would seem to afford sup-
port to this belief.   Disease must have a material as
well as  an  immaterial cause ; that  our brains, blood, or
nerves are  ever directly disturbed  in their functions by
spiritual causes, we have  not the least proof.   True,
passions and mental emotions may cause disease, through
agency of the nervous system, but in all such cases there
is good reason to believe that some material change is
effected in some of the  elements  of the  body, which
change is the final cause of the perverted function.
                                       96 
CAUSE OF DISEASE.
97
  To illustrate.  It is well known that mental influences
will  cause defect,  excess or perversion of different se-
cretions.
  Excessive grief  is not  accompanied by tears; exces-
sive fear stops the  salivary secretion, and increases and
perverts that of the bowels —jealousy and melancholy
indulged, are supposed to vitiate the bile ;  Dr. Watson
mentions a case of a young friend of his, who brought
on himself " intense jaundice " from needless anxiety
about  an approaching examination in  the College of
Physicians, and adds scores of such cases are on record.
The proof is very striking in the perversion of the mam-
mary  secretion — thus  says  Sir  Astley  Cooper:  A
fretful temper lessens the  quantity of milk, renders  it
thin and serous, disturbing the child's bowels, produc-
ing intestinal fever and griping — this secretion may in
this manner be so  altered as to cause death ; the follow-
ing instances are of high  authority.   A carpenter fell
into a quarrel with a soldier in his own house; the latter
drew his sword upon him; the carpenter's  wife first
trembled from fear and terror,'then sprang furiously at
the  soldier, wrested away the sword and broke it into
pieces ;  after the  quarrel was ended, and  in  a state of
strong excitement, she took up her child from the cradle,
where it lay playing in  the most  perfect health, never
having had a moment's  illness; she gave it  the breast,
— in a few minutes the  infant  left off nursing, became
        9 
98
CAUSE OF DISEASE.
restless, panted, and sank dead upon its mother's breast.
An English  surgeon (Mr.  Wardrop)  mentions that
having removed a small tumor from behind the ear of a
mother, all went well until she fell into a violent passion
and .the child nursing soon  after, died in convulsions.
From these and similar illustrations, the inference seems
justified that mental influences act as causes of disease,
by inducing molecular changes in some of the elements
of the body.
  Further illustration and proof of the general materi-
ality of the causes of disease may be found in the fact
that several classes of disease are confessedly produced
by morbid matter, somehow  introduced into the body.
A large number of types of  fever are everywhere attri-
buted to miasms.   The cutaneous diseases known as the
exanthemata, among which are measles, scarlet fever,
and small-pox, are demonstrated by the common expe-
rience of mankind  to depend upon an aura or virus, or
substantive something  communicable from  person to
person.  In all epidemic and endemic diseases, the most
rational induction has produced a general  conviction
that in a subtle or gross material something, lay the
specific cause.  Isolated forms of disease are confidently
believed by good pathologists to fall into this category.
Dr. Watson mentions a kind of asthma which he ascribes
to some kind of emenation from certain of the grasses that
 are in flower about the time of hay-making.  Scrofula 
CAUSE OF DISEASE.
99
and the matter of tubercle  depend upon a malassimila-
tion of the fibrinous elements of the blood.   It is further
an undoubted fact that a large number of morbid con-
ditions of the body may arise from retention of the com-
mon excretions of the body in  the blood from disorder
of their separating glands.   Drs. Watson and Williams
speak of gout and rheumatism as dependent upon some
morbid matter retained in  the blood, and  Dr. Prout
seems  to consider this as  the lactic  and lithic acids
generated by imperfect  assimilation.  Bile  and urea
(secretions of the liver and kidneys,)  are positive poi-
sons, and when their elimination from the system is
entirely suppressed they cause "typhoid symptoms,"
extreme depression  and coma, which speedily  end in
death ; and in these cases, .and those  of  gradual sup-
pression ending in death, the same excrementitious mat-
ters, which ought to have  passed off by the liver  and
kidnevs, can be  detected in the solids  and fluids of the
body. 
CHAPTER  XIV.
              GENERAL DEBILITY.

 . The term general debility is a  convenient  covering
for a multitude of physiological transgressions.
  At a season, when  all animated creation save  man
is joyfully breathing from  the frost-bound  fetters of
winter, it is a sad reflection upon his good sense to hear
the almost universal complaint of general debility.   Why
should man be an exception in the united rejoicing ?
Endowed as he is with superior capacity for apprecia-
ting the natural changes, why do we hear murmurs in-
stead  of praises ?  Is it because the power Omnipotent
has done less for him than for the rest of organic creation ?
Xo one believes this.   Then let us look into the  cause
of this difficulty, and suggest a remedy therefor.
  Man, unlike the brute, makes instinct a subordinate
guide  in the  gratification of the  animal  propensities.
He  is continually committing  depredations upon  the
laws of health, which render him as unhappy phvsically
as violations of the moral law are  destructive  to his
happiness morally. This is a case wherein the old maxim, 
GENERAL DEBILITY.
101
that a little  knowledge is a dangerous thing, holds em-
phatically true.  Were man ignorant as the dumb beast,
his appetites would not be guided by  a perverted intel-
lect ;  or, were he learned in the science of health and
life, the voice of conscience would make him responsible
for his transgressions.  As the matter now stands, we
find a vast majority of mankind attributing their physical
sufferings to anything rather than their own ignorance
and folly.  Thus it will ever remain so long as parents
and teachers deem it of more importance that their chil-
dren become more familiar with the volcanoes and rivers
of the earth, than with the vicera and life-streams within
their own bodies.   But to return  to the causes which
produce the general debility of the  vernal season.
   The Ion"-  cold winters of our Nothern climate are anti-
cipated by nearly all as fitting seasons for relaxation
and social enjoyment.  Few rely upon this season for
pecuniary support.  The farmer quietly pockets the pay
for his previous labor, sends his children  to school, and
makes ready for the coming spring.  The  mechanic is
content with smaller income, and has  his long evenings
for domestic intercourse and mental improvement.  The
merchant examines his stock in trade, balances his ledger,
and hopes for a good " Spring business."
   Now man is a busy creature,  and it is  easy to per-
ceive why winter is chosen as the time for amusement.
There is not much else to attract his attention.   Social 
102
GENERAL DEBILITY.
visits, balls, and parties  arc followed with even greater
zeal than the plough, the plainc,  or the  sale of goods.
No one questions the right to rich dinners, or late sup-
pers ; but during  this '* social season " it  is downright
vulgarity to talk of temperance, reasonable hours, and a
healthful dress.  To be candid, it is useless to enumerate
the terrible violations of nature's law.  When properly
regulated, I do not by any means oppose the gratification
of the social faculties ; but as society now exists,  a ma-
jority of people go  on in this reckless manner, as though
human life were a game of chance, and he who risks the
most would be the greatest winner.
   The result of this course of dissipation is not always
immediately manifested.  Trouble may not follow lhc-c
excesses so long as the bracing or tonic effects of cold
weather continues; but  when the cool, oxygenated at-
mosphere of winter abates, and the  " thawing out" of
spring relaxes the system, there is nothing to sustain the
body against the upheaving oPmorbific humors which
have been assidiously deposited by the past few months'
career.
   There is loss of appetite, billiousness, universal weak-
ness, giddiness, sinking sensations, palpitation ; in a word,
general debility.
   These difficulties are not alone confined to the ranks   £
of dissipation.   All who labor less and eat more during
the  winter,  sleep  in  small ill-ventilated rooms,  upon 
GENERAL DEBILITY.             103
feather  beds, hazard  that good  health  which, other
things being equal, an opposite course would ensure.
  In the treatment of  these difficulties, it is customary
to use, first, cathartics, and then tonics. 
Il^ilthy.
Drop.-ical. 
CHAPTER  XV.
        THE SKIN AND ITS OFFICES.

  In  order to  insure perfect health, great attention
should be paid to the state of the skin.  The skin is
the external covering of the body, and is to man a natural
clothing.  There are yet some nations of the  earth
known to exist without wearing any  artificial clothing
whatever.  I mention this as merely showing the amount
of protection derived from the skin.   That it is a cover-
ino- or protection, we have Only to notice those parts of
our person that are exposed to the air, such as the hands
and face, which are usually uncovered ; these meet the
air with perfect impunity.  In addition to being a cloth-
ing, the skin is pierced with an innumerable number of
very small holes, through which constantly pass a vast
quantity of fluids from, the body ;  either in apparent or
invisible perspiration.  Sometimes we will see great
drops of perspiration standing on every part of the body;
at other times it is not visible to the eye, yet it is always
passing off in great quantities^when  in health.   Were
the clothing to be removed entirely from a man,«and his
                                        105 
106
THE SKIN.
body placed under a glass case, and the air pumped off,
he would  seem to be  covered entirely  with a cloud of
vapor.  This is the insensible perspiration.  The same
thing may be noticed on first entering a bath:  in  a
moment or two after the  person is under the water,
upon looking over the surface of the  body covered by •
the water, we will notice vast numbers of little air-bub-
bles, seeming to stick to the skin.   The minute openings
through the skin are called its pores, and through these
pores vast quantities of fluids, and even solids pass off.
It is perfectly indispensible to health, that the skin be
kept in a  healthy, vigorous condition, and that its pores
be  always entirely unobstructed.  It  is not  desirable
that the  skin have  too much clothing placed upon it ;
indeed, we should wear  as  little clothing as possible,
consistently with comfort.  This will depend upon each
person's experience and early habits.   It is well known
to every observer, that those children who go barefooted
through all the warm months of the  year, and  wear
little  more clothing than  a  linen or cotton shirt and
                  ©
trowsers  would be  upon boys, and continue this  light
clothing and bare feet for as  many months  as possible in
each year, and during all the years of  childhood, have
much better constitutions, and  enjoy far better health
in after-life, than those who are more delicately brought
up.   The same thing apples to the continued  preserva-
tion of health in adults.   The more the surface of the 
                     THE SKIN.                  107

body is exposed, and the lighter the clothing,  if they
can bear it, the more health they will have.
  It is well known what excellent health the American
Indians enjoy, and how impatient they are of clothing.
For nearly or quite eight months  of the year, in our
cold climate, they  wear very little clothing.   For this
reason, I think,  cotton next to the skin is better than
woollen.  I will, however, leave this subject to every
man's experience, fully believing  that the less clothing
we wear, consistently with comfort, is most conducive
to health.  I would particularly urge every man not to
increase his clothing,  unless  forced to do so  by actual
suffering. 
CHAPTER  XVI.
                       DIET.

  On no subject does medical philosophy fail more than
on the subject of diet.   This is so with the consumptive.
I believe the best rule is, to allow them to eat whatever
they  please,  without eating  so much  as  to load the
stomach or cause fever.   Well cooked meats, fish, stale
bread, vegetables, fruits, wine, beer, porter, &c., and in
fact, every thing in moderation that gives strength and
does not produce much fever ; slight fever  will soon go
off, and does little  hurt.   Coffee I usually find  to do
harm, and also acids.  L"se a  plenty of  salt, not much
pepper or spices.  Salt  provisions are not usually desi-
rable.   The food or  drkdc usually, may  be rather  cold
instead of very warm.   Pastry and all varieties of con-
fectionary, hashed, spiced, or sweet-meats, &c, should
be used very sparingly.  In all this the patient should
be  his  own doctor, study his case carefully, and eat
what he finds  to agree  with him, and not positively to
disagree.   Rigid rules  of diet I have seldom found of
much benefit.
                                       108 
Scrofulous Humor.
               CHAPTER  XVII.


      VARICOSE VEINS  AND HUMORS.

  Swelling of the  Veins, or what are called Varicose
 Veins.—The same causes that produce swelling in the
ancles, and feet, &c, will, in some ladies, though more
rarely, produce swelhngs, greater or less, of the veins of
the legs and feet.  The veins, in some  persons, in place
of being the size of a knitting-needle, or a little larger,
attain the size of a large  goose-quill, and  become hard,
and run together in knots, feeling to the fingers like
bunches of worms.   These  swellings are  disagreeable,
and at times dangerous.  Instances have been  known
                ©
of these vessels  bursting, and the persons bleeding to
death.
       10                              109 
110
HUMORS.
  Bad Sores on the Legs, fyc.—At times, very  large,
obstinate, running sores will occur on one or both ancles,
or feet or legs.  These sores arise from the same cause,
in a great many cases,—which is a stoppage of the blood
ascending through the abdomen.  These sores can al-
ways be cured by suitable remedies. 
CHAPTER  XVIII.
          HEMORRHOIDS,  OR PILES.

  The doctrine of nervous contractility explains many
mysteries in the human economy.   The  fact that all
functions are performed by the nervous energy, and that
deprivation of the functions is  the consequence of the
feebleness of this energy, whether it results from waste,
or is congenital, should be borne constantly in mind in
contemplating our  diseases.   Our blood circulates to
every tissue, and gives  healthy nourishment, so long as
the nervous energy in the coats  of the blood-vessels is
sufficient to contract the vessels,  and send on the vital
current.   When this  vital energy is lacking from birth,
or from waste, we have feebleness and imperfection of
function in different portions of the economy.  Matters
destined  for the different tissues,  or destined to be cast
out of the system as effete, or hurtful, are left in organs
where they do not belong—as  the lungs, the liver, the
spleen and kidneys—or they are left along the course
of the circulation.   So  great is the waste  of life, that
there are few dissections of persons who are forty years
                                        in 
112
HEMERRHOIDS.
of age, that do not reveal spicula of bone in the arteries.
The bony matter is not  carried as  far as the bones, be-
cause the nervous power that circulates the blood is too
feeble for  the  work.  Our lives are  so false, so filled
with over exertion, and want of exertion, so unbalanced,
so chained to the low and the  gross, that life or vital
energy is continually wasted, and imperfect performance
of functions is the  universal result.  One is afflicted
with dyspepsia, another has enlargement of the heart, or
tubercles and ulcers in the lungs, or disease of the liver,
or gravel, or piles ;  all these diseases come primarily
from a weak and deficient nervous  energy, which in-
duces imperfect  circulation.  In piles, the coats of the
blood-vessels, from the Avant of the nervous contractile
power, sinks  down  into enlarged  sacs.  They  become
what is termed aneurismal.  The blood of course moves
slowly at first, like the  water of a river where  the  bed
widens, and after a time  it becomes permanently lodged
in these sacs, or aneurismal enlargements.  A morbid
deposition and growth is the consequence,  and in  ex-
treme cases, no cure  is to be had without excision of the
morbid growth.   After excision, the same causes  will
procure the same results.
  The causes of piles are whatever exhausts the nervous
energy.   Some people say costiveness is a cause.   Me-
chanically it has a bad effect, but  piles  and costiveness
depend both on one cause : the  want of nervous energy. 
HEMERRHOIDS.
113
The use of drastic purgatives, of whatever kind, wastes
the vitality of the nerves, and brings on costiveness and
piles.   The abuse of the sexual passion  exhausts and
diseases in like  manner.  The anxious,  wearing life of
our men of business, with their utter inattention to the
laws which govern life and health, are fruitful causes of
this weakness and disease.   The  cure must be in the
use of means adapted to the condition of the patient.
Where an operation is necessary, it must first  be per-
formed, but  I believe it is  often decided upon  when
wholly unnecessary.
   The next thing is to give the patient a course of tonic
treatment, if there is general weakness.   If the patient
is full of blood and life, and the weakness and disease
are local,  a very spare, plain,  aperient diet, with morning
and evening enemas of tepid water, and the use of the
tepidsitz bath twice a day, and care not  to perpetuate
exhausting causes, will soon give relief. 
CHAPTER  XIX.
    MANNER OF  CURING COSTIVENESS.

  As costiveness exerts such a pernicious influence upon
the system and contributes so much to shorten life, it is
most  desirable to know how to prevent it.  The best
and most desirable mode of curing it, is by restoring the
habit.  Let the costive person, exactly at the same time
every day, solicit an evacuation,  and that most perse-
veringly for at least one  hour, should he  not  succeed
sooner, at the  same time leaving off all medicine.  So
much is  the  system influenced by  habit, aided by the
will, that  in nearly all cases  obstinate perseverance in
this course, and never omitting it afterwards, will en-
tirely cure their sluggish state, and the bowels become
as free as is desirable, and the calls of Nature become
as regular and urgent  as if they had never been inter-
rupted.   There are some  persons, however, who seem,
or pretend to believe, that they still require  further
assistance.  These will find themselves  greatly assisted
by eating rather coarse food, such as coarse bread, rye
                                      114 
COSTIVENESS.
115
and Indian bread, and bread made of wheat meal, or,
we might call it, unbolted flour, sometimes called bran
bread, and at other times Graham bread.  Some persons
derive great benefit from eating fruit.  Almost all the
summer fruits are found useful,—apples, &c,—through-
out the year.  Others derive great benefit from the free
use of vegetables,  &c.  All will be benefitted by avoid-
ing the use of very tough meat,  and very hard salted
meat.  I rarely recommend any other medicine to cor-
rect costiveness, than  the use of a very small quantity
of rhubarb.  That which should be selected, if practi-
cable, is the best Turkey rhubarb, either in the form of
the root, or powder ; the  root is apt  to be  the purest.
A few grains of this taken daily serves  to improve di-
gestion,  strengthen the bowels, and remove costiveness.
Rhubarb has the rare property over all other medicines
with which  I am acquainted, in a vast many  cases, of
never losing its effect.  A great many medicines taken
to open  the bowels soon  lose their effect, and require
the  dose to be very much increased ; until, finally, they
will  not act in any dose, and leave the bowels much
worse thau when the patient commenced taking them.
 But this is not  the  case with  rhubard, as a general
 thing.
   In  concluding this part of our subject, allow me to say
 to you, that to have the bowels in  perfect order, and
 acting freely and kindly  every day, is most desirable, 
116
COSTIVENESS.
and may be said to be indispensable to health and long
life, and with this the happiness, the delights, and  the
pleasures of existence.  A free, healthy  state of  the
bowels  is  truly  a pearl of great price,  and  a  con-
dition of inestimable value to the possessor.  It is true,
that some persons of costive habits live to old age, whilst
thousands  and tens of thousands are destroyed  by it.
The fact only proves under what disadvantages the sys-
tem will labor on, and continue its functions.  Let me
repeat that habit,  habit, is the great cure-all.   Assist
this, if necessary by regulating the diet, and, as a last
resort, use a little rhubarb,—but assist all  by habit. 
The Nervous System.—View of the Brain and Nerves 
CHAPTER  XX.
  CHRONIC DISEASES, ESPECIALLY  THE
      NERVOUS  DISEASES OF WOMEN.

  Who does not know that there are diseases of which
almost every one in life  is suffering, more or less ; dis-
eases which follow many to their graves, diseases which,
because of their universality, attract little or no attention?
  Who is  not surprised at witnessing  the daily in-
crease of hospitals, medical colleges, men, and books, and
at the same time the frightful increase of human mala-
dies ?
  Whose heart is not filled with pity to see mankind
suffering under such a burden of distempers, when  he
reflects that man came from the hands of his Creator as
perfect and as healthful as the beast of the forest and the
bird of the  air ?
  Who has not often heard the assertion, that all these
evils  are  inseparably connected with  the  progress of
civilization, while their true cause is in the violation of
nature's laws ?  And who does not conclude that  the
judgment of civilized mankind must be erroneous, when 
CHRONIC DISEASES.
119
digression from the path of nature is entitled " The pro-
gress of civilization," while at the same time medicines
are resorted to, in order to correct the consequences of
their imprudence, and neutralize their follies ?
  True civilization must preserve  the health of man,
and make him happier; it must in every respect elevate
him above  the brute, and its progress must  not  bring
him incessantly nearer  to his dissolution,  as  has been
the case with all nations which history has seen emerged
from a state of  barbarism, and passing through one of
sickly refinement, into one of premature decay.
  The chronic diseases, and  especially those so called
nervous diseases of women, are so  various and so life-
embittering, as to have  always engaged a large share
of the attention  of  medical  practitioners ;  and  very
properly so, since we may safely say, that one half of
all human misery would be removed, could these be an-
nihilated, or even overcome.
  It is melancholy to contemplate those  terrible hys-
terical disorders, those  hydra-headed monsters, which
transform the dwellings of so many happy families into
the abodes of misery; those giants,  which have for cen-
turies withstood all the orthodoxy of the schools, and
not only withstood, but  grown more luxurious daily ;
and which, when overcome in one  form, assume ten
new ones for the emergency.   They are beyond descrip-
tion, and being so variously disguised are seldom recog- 
120
CHRONIC  DISEASES.
 nized, and thus exert an influence of incredible power.
   If  we knew  that  hysterics manifest themselves, ac-
 cording to  their violence and circumstances, in the form
 of  excessive tenderness,  false sensibility, fear,  pride,
jealousy, disposition to slander, discontentedness, quick
 temper, revenge, intolerance, hypocrisy, untruth, incon-
 sistency, weakness of mind, delirium, etc.; that they are
 accompanied by heat, congestion of blood in  the head,
 cramps convulsions, cold,  chills over the body, sleepless-
 ness at night and drowsiness by day, want of appetite,
 faintness, exhaustion,  palpitation of the heart, and an
 infinite chain of morbid symptoms—if we consider these
 facts, we shall have the key to those ridiculous scenes,
 peevishness, and discord which are so frequent in mar-
 ried life, and which  so  often sap  the foundations of
 domestic happiness ; and we shall ascertain that not the
 hysterical woman, but the one who is not so, forms  the
 exception to the rule.
   The wide-spread existence of these  affections, which
 are to be met with, more  or less, in every family,  makes
 a woman (physically speaking) always a mystery,  and
 produces those bitter disappointments which are so often
 the subject of regret, and lead us to imagine  that God
 has  constituted woman incapable of the  office  which
 nature has assigned her, as no collateral agents can avail
 in correcting their deleterious influences, no scholar  can
 explain their existence, and none of the countless trea-
 tises, which centuries have produced, can afford relief. 
The Brain, as it lies in the skull, exposed to view, the dura matter, which envelops
          the brain and lines the skull, being raised by a hook.

               CHAPTER  XXI.


               EPILEPSY, OR FITS.

   This is one of  the  most horrible  diseases that afflict
mankind, and it is not surprising that, in ignorant ages,
in Rome, in Egypt, and elsewhere,  epileptics were con-
sidered as having excited the ire of the  Divinity, or as
possessing supernatural powers, on account of  which
they were worshiped.  This was due to  the  violence
and  extraordinary force developed by the muscles in
epileptic convulsions ; the   screaming,  the changes  in
color, and the contortions of the face, the biting  of the
           11 
122
EPILEPSY.
tongue, followed by a comatose  state and afterward by
a degree of mental alienation  There are so many vari-
eties of epilepsy that it is impossible to give a definition
of the disease that will apply to them  all.   However,
in most cases, epilepsy is characterized by  convulsions
and loss of consciousness, occuring  at long  or short in-
tervals, during  which the  patient  is  almost in good
health.  The absence of fever in  epileptics serves to dis-
tinguish their affection from meningitis  and other infla-
mations accompanied by convulsions.  The loss of con-
sciousness also distinguishes epilepsy from hysteria.  As
in most nervous diseases, a hereditary tendency is among
the  most frequent  predisposing  causes of  epilepsy.
Leuret and Delasiauve endeavour to show that it is very
rarely inherited; but the testimony of many others leaves
no doubt about the frequency of this predisposing cause.
Epilepsy often appears in the offspring  of  persons  who
have had various other nervous complaints.  Bouchet
and Cazauviehl  say that out of 130 epileptics 30 were
descendants  of persons who had been  either epileptic,
insane, paralytic, apoplectic, or hysteric.   As regards
the predisposing influence of sex, there is no doubt that
women are much more frequently attacked by epilepsy
than men.  As regards the influence of age, we find by
a comparison of the statistics given  by several English
and French authorities, that the most frequent  periods
of life at which epilepsy begins are early infancy and 
EPILEPSY.
123
the age of puberty.  Epilepsy often appears also in very
old age ; Delasiauve remarked that out of 285 epileptics
the disease began in 10 when  they were from 60 to 80
years old.  In  fact, there is no age  that escapes.  As
regards climate, nothing very positive has been estab-
lished, but it seems probable  that the  disease is more
frequent in hot and in very  cold  than  in temperate
climates.   Although we have no scientific data to rely
upon, we think that the extreme variations of the climate
of the United States are among the causes of the greater
frequency of epilepsy in this country than in England,
France  and Germany.  Herpin, with others, states that
epilepsy is more common in persons  of low stature; but
even if this be true, Herpin is wrong in considering the
shortness of stature a predisposing cause of the disease,
as in many of the cases on which he grounds his view
it is partly the influence of epilepsy, already existing in
childhood, or in adolescence, that has prevented the de-
velopement of the body.  Various malformations of the
body, and especially of the cranium, are certainly among
the most frequent predisposing causes.  Weak constitu-
tions, as proved by Esquirol, and lately by Dr. C. B.
Radcliffe, are  favorable  to the production of epilepsy.
Among other predisposing causes are dentition, the  first
appearance and the cessation of menstruation, onanism,
and the abuse of alcoholic drinks.   Almost all kinds of
diseases may produce epilepsy, but among the principal 
124                 EPILEPSY.
we must place those affections in which the  blood be-
comes altered or diminished in its amount, and organic
affections of the membranes of the cerebro-spinal  axis
and of certain parts of this nervous centre.   Another
very powerful cause, the influence  of which has been
demonstrated by Marshall  Hall and recently by Kuss-
maul and Jenner,  and by Brown-Sdquard, is excessive
loss of blood.  Pregnancy, parturition, and menstruation,
frequently cause epilepsy.  A tumor on a nerve, or any
cause of irritation  on the trunk or the terminal part  of
any  sensitive nerve, and especially in  the skin  or a
mucous membrane, very often produces it.  A wound,
a burn, worms in the bowels or elsewhere, stone in the
bladder or in other places, a foreign body in the ear, &c,
are known to have caused epilepsy.  It  is quite certain
that great mental  excitement or emotion has originated
epilepsy in many cases, but it seems probable that the
disease was not produced by those causes, but has only
been brought to manifest itself by this  kind  of excite-
ment.   When a complete fit is about to take place, it
is usually preceeded by some sensation or some change
in the mind of the  patient.   If a sensation precedes the
fit, it comes more frequently from some part of the skin,
and especially from that of the fingers and toes.  This
sensation is well known under the name of aura epilep-
tica.  There is as much variety as regards the kind and
the intensity  of the sensation as there  is in respect  to 
EPILEPSY.
125
its point of starting.  Most frequently, however,  the
aura is a sensation of cold, of burning, or  that kind of
sensation produced by a draft of cold air on a limited
part of the  body.  Sometimes the aura starts  from the
eye or the ear, and then a flash of light or some  other
sensation comes  from the retina, or peculiar sounds are
heard.  Some epileptics become gay, others mournful,
when they are about to have a fit; in others the attack
is announced by some change in the digestive functions.
Whether preceded or not by an aura or by any change
in the functions  of the various organs, a complete attack
usually begins with an extreme paleness of the face, and
at the same time, or nearly so, there are contractions of
several muscles  of the face, the eye, and the neck.   Ob-
servers do  not  agree as regards the  first manifestation
of a fit, probably  because the seizure does not always
begin with the same phenomenon.   Not only have we
known the first  symptom not to be the same in different
epileptics, but in the same one we have seen differences
in this respect in three different attacks.
   Some epileptics certainly are exceptions  to the rule
advanced by  Dr. C. J. B. Williams, which is that the
first manifestation of an attack is a palpitation of the
heart.  Many physicians think the scream is the first
symptom.   It often  is, but paleness of the face usually
precedes it.  Some epileptics do not scream.  As soon
as these symptoms have appeared, a rigid  tetanic or at 
126
EPILEPSY.
least tonic spasm takes place in the limbs, and the pati-
ent falls.  Respiration  is suspended, and the face  be-
comes quite injected with black blood, and  assumes a
hideous aspect both from the spasms of its muscles and
the blackish or bluish  hue.   Sometimes  a momentary
relaxation is then observed in  the limbs; but almost at
once chronic convulsions occur everywhere in  the trunk,
the limbs, the face,  and often in the various internal
organs  of the bladder, the bowels, and  even in  the
uterus.   The mouth then ejects a  frothy saliva, often
reddened with blood from the  bitten tongue.  The res-
piratory muscles, after  the first spasms which produce
the scream and suffocation, causing a  gurgling or hiss-
ing sound, become relaxed,  and then those employed in
inspiration contract, and almost as soon as air has reached
the lungs the convulsions  cease or notably  diminish.
Ordinarily the fit is over in a few minutes ; but it is not
unfrequently the case that after  a general  relaxation
another seizure comes on, and sometimes many occur
with very short intermissions.   During the whole time
the fit lasts the patient is deprived of consciousness,  and
when he recovers he remembers nothing that has taken
place in the mean time.  In some cases  the  seizure is
followed by a prolonged coma, ending sometimes in death.
When the patient recovers from a fit, even if it has not
been a very severe one, he  usually feels extremely fati-
gued and suffers from headache. Fortunately, however, 
EPILEPSY.
127
he soon falls asleep, and ordinarily is almost as well as
usual when he wakes up, except that the headache and
the fatigue still exists, though much diminished.   When
many fits have taken  place, even at somewhat long in-
tervals, such as several weeks, mental derangement often
supervenes, and in this way epilepsy leads to insanity.
In some cases the fits recur at regular periods ; in others
they  return  with every  return of the circumstances
which seem to have caused the first, such as menstrua-
tion,  pregnancy, the influence of certain seasons,  &c.
There is seldom great regularity in the  length of  the
intervals  between the fits, and  they  come every day,
every week,  every  month, &c, at  irregular hours.
Many patients have very different intervals between
their successive fits.   Some have many fits a day, others
 one every six months, or  every year.   Delasiauve men-
tions a case in which the  number of fits was 2,500  in a
month.  But the greater the number of fits  the  less
violent they generally are.
   We have already said that the varieties of epilepsies are
numerous ;  and among them the two principal especially
require to be noticed.   In  a complete fit of epilepsy
there are two distinct features :  1, the loss of conscious-
 ness  ; 2, the muscular convulsions.  Each of these  may
 exist alone.  In the case of a seizure consisting only of
 a loss of consciousness without convulsions, we have the
 so-called epileptic vertigo, which is a form of epilepsy 
12*
EPILEPSY.
that frequently exists alone, and also co-exists often with
the form of the disease in which the attack is complete.
In this last case the patient sometimes has a complete
seizure, sometimes only a more or less prolonged attack
of vertigo.  Whether  vertigo exists alone or co-exists
with complete attacks, it  is a very dangerous affection,
not for the life of the patient, but  because  fits of simple
vertigo lead more frequently to insanity than complete
fits of epilepsy.   The cases of epileptiform convulsions
without loss  of consciousness are not so frequent as the
cases of simple vertigo. They are particularly produced
by injuries to the nerves or to the spinal cord.
   The nature of epilepsy, the material and dynamical
conditions of the parts which are affected in the animal
organism, have been greatly illustrated by the researches
of modern physiologists  and  practitioners.   Dr.  Mar-
shall Hall thought the seat of epilepsy to be chiefly in
the medula oblongita, and  that  its nature consisted in
an increased reflex power, at least in the beginning of
the  disease,  and  also that the  convulsions were  the
results of the asphyxia caused  by the closure of the
larynx (laryngismus}.   This theory is in opposition to
several facts.  In the first place, although laryngismus
almost  always  exists,  there  is one  kind  of  convul-
sions (the tonic) which precedes the asphyxia.   Be-
side, there are more powerful causes of asphyxia  in the
condition of circulation  in  the brain and  the spasm of 
EPILEPSY.
129
the muscles of the chest.  Then, as regards the increased
reflex power, Dr. Hall acknowledges that this power is
diminished in persons who have been epileptic for some
time.  We cannot admit, therefore, that the disease con-
sists in the increase of this power.  Another theory has
been recently proposed by Brown-Sdquard.  Guided by
experiments on animals, in which he produces epilepsy,
he has found that the reflex  power is composed of two
distinct powers, one of which he calls the reflex force
and the other the reflex excitability.  He has found that
the reflex force may be very much diminished while the
reflex  excitability  is very much increased.   This  last
power is the power of impressibility of the cerebro-spinal
axis ; in epileptics this impressibillity is very much aug-
mented.  The slightest  excitations may produce reflex
actions in them.  In  the beginning of epilepsy, usually
the other reflex power, which is  the force manifested in
the reflex actions of the cerebro-spinal axis, is increased ;
but after a time this force  diminishes, and in most cases
it becomes  less,  and even much less, than in  healthy
people.  Now the  nature of epilepsy seems to consist in
an increase of the  impressibility, or, in other  words, of
the  reflex excitability of certain parts of the cerebro-
spinal axis.  In  most cases of epilepsy these  parts are
the medulla oblongata and the neighboring parts of the
 encephalon and of the spinal cord. But the seat  is not con-
 stant, and may be sometimes limited to the oblong medulla
or extended to other parts of the cerebro-spinal axis. 
130
EPILEPSY.
  Dr. Brown-Sequard has tried to explain this mysterious
phenomenon of loss of consciousness.   It  seemed  very
strange that at  the same time that certain parts of the
encephalon were acting with great energy, another part
should be completely deprived of action.   This, accord-
ing to the above named writer, is very  simple.  The
blood vessels of that part of the brain which is the seat
of consciousness and of the mental  faculties, receive
nerves from the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord;
these blood vessels, Avhen they are excited, contract and
expel the blood they normally contain, and it  is known
that all the functions of that part of the brain cease when
they do not receive blood.  Now, when the excitation
that exists in the beginning of a fit acts upon the medulla
oblongata and its neighborhood, it produces at the same
time the contraction of the blood vessels and of that part
of the brain which we have mentioned, and a convulsive
contraction of the muscles of the face, the  eye, the neck,
the larynx, &c, all parts receiving nerves from the same
source as these blood vessels.   In this  way the loss of
consciousness is explained.
   The first thing to be done for  an epileptic is  to find
out the cause of the disease, and to try to get rid of that
cause if it still exists.  Very  often epilepsy depends
upon some external cause of irritation which may easily
be removed ; it is of the greatest importance to discover
if there is anywhere such an irritation, and as the patient 
EPILEPSY.
131
may not be aware of its existence, it is necessary to look
for it everywhere.   Of the various modes of treatment,
the most powerful  are  those means of exciting the skin
which most readily produce a change in the nutrition of
the encephalon and spinal cord.   All physicians know
what these  means are.   One of the  most efficacious
remedies is belladonna.  Physicians should not despair
of curing their patients,  and should not change a mode
of treatment until they  have  given it a fair trial; and
patients  and their families  should  remember that  the
rules of  hygiene must be followed  by epileptics much
more closely than by  those afflicted with almost any
other disease. 
The Internal Organs. 
CHAPTER  XXII.
                 THE STOMACH.

   I will remark that, the stomach has a good deal the
form of a hunter's horn, its larger portion being towards
the left side, at the upper part  of  the abdomen, and
separated from the heart and lungs by the midriff, or
diaphragm, which is a fleshy curtain that  divides the
abdomen from the chest.  (See D in plate of Internal
Organs.)   The inlet to  the stomach is on the top, at
its left side ;  the outlet is at its right end; much the
larger  portion of the  stomach hangs below its outlet.
This arrangement prevents the food  and liquids  from
passing out  of the stomach, by their  simple  weight
alone.   The stomach will  hold from one  pint  to two
quarts.  Its walls  are very  thin, generally, and are
capable of being very considerably stretched.  This is
one of the causes of its difference in size.   Those  who
eat and drink a great deal  at a time, are apt  to have
much larger stomachs than moderate eaters and drinkers.
The food remains in a healthy stomach from half an hour
to four hours.   As soon as food is swallowed, there com-
       12                              133 
134               THE STOMACH.

mences a process by which a considerable portion of  it
is eventually converted into blood.   This, considered in
all its steps, is one of the  most mysterious  processes
known to us.  How portions of a potatoc, for instance,
can be so modified and  changed as  to  become flesh,
is  very difficult of explanation.  We know  it takes
place, but exactly how, is difficult to determine.
  It is the purpose of the lungs to give us the power  of
action, whilst it is  the  duty of the stomach to make
such changes in the food, that  this  shall form the sub-
stance and  growth of the body, and serve to repair all
the waste of the body.   It is of vast  assistance to our
stomachs, that the food is well chewed  or ground up
before it is swallowed, so that when  it comes into the
stomach, it shall be in a state of fine, minute divison.
When the stomach is unhealthy, food  may remain in it
a great length  of time.  Thus in  weak stomachs the
food  may  remain a  long time without being much
changed ; or it may ferment and form a strong acid,  at
the same time generating air more or  less foul, at times
producing  an exceedingly unpleasant breath.  These
unnatural changes and decay of the food in the stomach,
attend the disease called dyspepsia.   This is occasioned
by various  causes, but chiefly in grown-up  persons it
arises from badly masticating the food, from  debility of
the  stomach itself, but above everything, and more than
 all  other causes combined, it arises from eating more 
THE STOMACH.
135
thaifthe waste of the system requires.  For we must
always bear in mind, that after the human frame is fully
formed, all the object and purpose of food is to repair
its  waste, or  the loss of its  substance  which  is daily
taking place.  Now, the  system, when not under  the
influence of disease, experiences the greatest waste and
loss of substance by hard and long-continued labor, such
as is experienced by all  the out-door laboring popula-
tion, and by many in-door laborers.   Hard and  long-
continued out-door labor, unless too excessive, greatly
invigorates  the  system,  improves  the  appetite, and
strengthens  the  stomach, at the same time producing
great waste of the substance of the body ;  the stomach,
now greatly invigorated, is called upon to furnish  the
supplies, to repair all this waste ; it is under these cir-
cumstances that the stomach is able to do its best per-
formances ;  it seizes upon any, even  the  plainest and
coarsest, food  and rapidly converts it into materials for
the healthiest  blood, so  that the waste of the person of
the laboring man is  promptly repaired.   So active is
his stomach, that he is obliged to eat coarse and hearty
food,  that it  may not pass off too rapidly.  Now, the
idle, the effeminate, and all those that pursue sedentary
occupations, experience but a  small share of the waste
of the body that is suffered by the laboring man.   Hence
it is, that they are called upon to eat vastly less food
and much fighter in its quality, and easier of digestion,
than the laboring man. 
136
THE STOMACH.
   The great secret of preventing dyspepsia is nev«r to
 eat any more than the waste of the body requires.   How
 much or how little this is, can only be determined by
 the  experience of each individual.   There is no laying
 down any positive rules on this subject.  Each indivi-
 dual will learn, that if he eats, even for a short period,
 more food than the waste of the  system requires,  or its
 growth demands, the stomach may at first digest this
 surplus food, but in  a short time, as if possessed  of an
 intuitive perception that  these extra surpluses are not
 wanted, it  will  refuse to prepare  them;  refusing, of
 course, to digest  this  surplus quantity  of food.
   Progress of the Food after leaving the Stomach.—
 The food, after remaining in a healthy stomach from half
 an hour to four hours, passes out of the right opening of
 the stomach.  The process of digestion having reduced
 the food to a homogeneous consistence, very much like
 cream in  its substance, after  leaving the stomach and
 going a short distance, it unites  with  bile.  A portion
 of stimulants and liquids go from the  stomach  into the
 blood.
  The bile is as bitter as soap, the object of which is to
produce still further change in the blood, and  facilitate
its passage through the bowels.   The presence of bile is
indispensable to  perfect digestion.   We presume it to
be of great  consequence in the  animal economy,  from
the immense size  of the organ, or machine employed to 
THE STOMACH.
137
prepare it.   It  is the duty of the liver to prepare the
bile.  The stomach is placed in  the  left  upper side of
the abdomen, and partly  under the short ribs.  The
liver occupies the right side of the top of the abdomen,
and is divided into several lobes or divisions, lying partly
under  the short ribs; and a flap of  it  extends on the
left side, considerably upon  the stomach.  The  liver
weighs a number of pounds, say  from five to ten times
as much as the  empty stomach ; it is  by far the heaviest
organ of the interior of  the body.
12* 
The Heart and its Blood Vessels.
             CHAPTER  XXIII.


                  THE  HEART.

  The heart and adjoining vessels are as follows :
  The heart is composed of two auricles and two ven-
tricles.  The right auricle is joined at  its posterior su-
perior angle  by the descending  vena cava, and at its
posterior inferior  angle  by the  ascending vena cava;
their columns of blood enter the auricle.   Between the
right  auricle and ventricle there is a round hole for the
passage of the blood, and this is called the ostium veno-
sum.   The ventriqularis dexter,  which  receives  the
blood from the right auricle, forms the anterior surface
of the heart; it is separated from the left ventricle by 
THE HEART.
139
a thick septum.   There is an opening for the pulmonary
artery above  the ostium  venosum.  The  pulmonary
artery goes upward and backwards under the curvature
of the aorta, and then divides into two trunks, one for
each  lung.  The left auricle auriculis sinister posterior
has an entrance into each of its  angles for two pulmon-
ary veins, two on each side, and, as in the right auricle,
there is  a hole about an inch in diameter, which com-
municates with the left ventricle.  The left ventrical re-
sembles  an oVidal or conical body;  the parieties, or
walls, of this  cavity are much thicker and stouter than
the others, as it has the most laborious work to perform,
but it decreases in thickness as  it  approaches the aorta.
The heart is encased in a sack  called the pericardium,
 and is covered on its sides by the placea or covering of
the lungs ;  the pericardium covers the aorta up as high
 as the vessels proceeding from  its arch.  The coronary
 arteries  arise from the trunk of the aorta.  Veins bear-
 ing the  same name follow in  the  course of the arteries.
 The  nerves of the heart come from the cervical ganglion
 of the sympathetic  nerve, and  follow in the course  of
 the arteries.  While the circulation goes on, both auri-
 cles contract at the same instant, and the blood is thrown
 into the ventricles — the ventricles then contract and
 throw the  blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery.
 From the  curvature of the aorta, while it is crossing,
 the trachea vessels arise called the arteria innominata, 
140                 THE HEART.

the left primitive carotid and the left subclavian ;  the
arteria innominata in ascending from right to left forms
the right subclavian and the right primitive  carotid;
the left primitive carotid arises from the aorta.  Just
above the sternum and clavicle ; the carotid is covered
by the sterno-hyoid  and thyroid muscles; th% carotid
having arrived as high as the os hyoides and thyroid
cartillage divides into two large  trunks: the internal
carotid, which goes  to the brain and the eye, and  the
external carotid,  which is distributed upon the superfi-
cial parts of the head and the neck;  the internal carotid
extends from  the larynx  to  the sella turnia, and ulti-
mately penetrates into the cranium, through the caro-
tid canal of the temporal bone, and sends off branches
to various  parts of the brain; the external  carotid
gives off branches to the superior thyroid and is dis-
tributed to the larynx and thyroid  gland ; the  lingual
artery also proceeds  from this vessel, supplying the ton-
sils, palate, and epiglottis; it also  communicates  with
the facial artery.
  I have before  referred to the fact, that consumption
is often caused by irregular action of the heart, and by
disease of the  heart.   The heart often has diseases of its
own, independently of association or  sympathy with any
other organs ; yet there is  no organ of the whole body
that is more influenced by the condition of other organs
than  the heart.  The condition of  the stomach power- 
                    THE HEART.                141

fully influences  the heart, and  so  does falling of the
bowels, before referred to, and falling of the womb, and
so does the  condition of the lungs.   The lungs, the
stomach, the bowels, and the brain, may produce what
seems to be heart disease when  the heart is not  at  all
diseased.   The  heart is often  greatly affected by the
condition of the  walls of the chest itself.  It is very often
noticed that by stooping and  leaning the shoulders
heavily upon the chest,  it is contracted at its base in
front, and  the breast-bone thrown  flat down upon the
heart,  in this way injuring the heart, and leading to the
opinion that there is disease of the  heart, when there is
no disease  of it; but the walls of the chest  have closed
around it,  and the heart cannot act.   After forty years
of age, and in a great many cases  at an earlier period,
the heart  begins to enlarge in  a multitude of persons,
and, if the chest enlarges also, all  is well; but if the
chest does not  enlarge, then the heart is  compressed,
and palpitation, suffocation of the heart, and apoplexy,
may take place.  From  this fact is  explained the reason
why we have little heart disease until  after the middle
periods of life.
  That heart diseases often  arise from consumptive in-
fluences, I  have verified  in a great many cases.   Know-
ing this, I  have often ascertained the presence of heart
disease in  one or both parents, when I have found the
children highly consumptive ; yet nothing of consump- 
142
THE HEART.
tion in any respect has shown itself in the parents.  The
treatment of heart disease, in a great many cases, is re-
quired to be the same as we find necessary in consump-
tion ;  in fact, with  a little  modification, I treat many
cases  of heart disease  the  same as I do  consumption,
and often  have the pleasure of entirely curing it, when
all hope of life had fled.  Of course, inhalants are not
required if no cough exists. 
An Unnatural Form and a Natural Form.
              CHAPTER  XXIV.


                 TIGHT  LACING.

  A great deal has been said and  written against the
habit of tight lacing, or confining the waist, so as to
make it very small.  You will notice, by recalling what
I have said, how pernicious and  destructive  lacing the
chest must be to the lungs, the heart, the liver, and
large bowels.  It produces a broken  constitution, and
almost certain death to any or all who practice it.  It
is utterly subversive of symmetry, and is, in every point
of view, decidedly vulgar.   No person is now known to
practice it, save the ignorant and the would-be fine and
o-enteel.   It  must not be practiced if you would have
health, elegance, or symmetry of person. 
                        KIDNEYS, URETERS, &c.

  A, the Midriff, or floor of the Lungs.  D D,-the Kidneys.  N N, the Ureters, or
pipes  that carry the water from  the Kidneys to the Bladder.  O O,  the Rectum.
K, the Bladder.  E F H I, the Aorta, &c. 
CHAPTER  XXV.
GRAVEL PRODUCED  BY FALLING OF THE
                  BOWELS, &c.

  By looking at the plate on the preceding page you
will see the position of the kidneys ; each side of the
spine, just above the point of the hips, and behind all the
other contents of the abdomen.   You will  notice, also,
two pipes that go, one from each kidney, forwards and
downwards, behind the floating bowels, and down into
the basket  of the hips, to the back of each side of the
bladder.  These pipes, five to eight inches long, carry
the water from the chamber of each kidney to the blad-
der.  Now, then, when the floating bowels roll down-
wards, they often fall upon the pipes, and close them,
more or less,  so that the water is prevented from passing
into the chambers of the bladder.   This throws it back
into the kidneys, and soon fills up  the  kidneys.  The
water usually has salts, and  earths, and acids, &c,
which it holds very  lightly in solution.   These salts,
when the Avater stands any length of time, soon separate
from it, and fall down.  This you can daily see in the
       13                                  1-15 
146
GRAVEL.
chamber vessels.  These earths, in a short time will
glue together, and form masses, more or less large, from
the size of grains of fine  sand, to lumps that weigh
several  ounces.  At times all the Avails of the chambers
of the kidneys, and the pipes that carry the water from
them to the bladder, are encrusted over with this sand.
When this earthy matter is in the form of fine sand, it
is called gravel.   If it cements into masses larger than
small peas, it is called stone.  The pipes that carry the
water from the  kidneys to  the bladder, are called the
ureters; they have no  popular name, that I have ever
heard of.   When the  ureters are obstructed, and the
water thrown back into the kidneys, its earliest effect is
to cause great heat in the small of the back, and, at times,
great soreness each side of the spine, just above the hip.
Sometimes almost feeling as if in the hip, and even lame-
ness in  the hip will at times take place.  If only one
pipe is  obstructed, one kidney only will be  affected.
Gravel  is  one of the most painful diseases to which we
are liable.   Sometimes pieces of stone will pass from the
kidneys along the water-pipes to the bladder, and, if
large, usually causing the most distressing and insuffer-
able pain of which we  are susceptible. 
CHAPTER  XX\I.
          AIR  AND  VENTILATION.
                    TO MOTHERS.
  We have only to contrast the blanched and feeble ap-
pearance of children inhabiting the dark  and narrow
streets of a crowded  city, with  the  rosy  freshness of
those of the same classes residing on the suburbs or in
the country, to obtain  a pretty correct notion of the im-
portance of a well  selected locality.   Considering the
susceptibility of the influence of cold in early infancy, I
need hardly add that a high and  bleak situation, or one
exposed to the full force of the north and east winds, is
equally unfavorable and ought to be carefully avoided.
  Cellars are damp and unhealthy.   In selecting rooms
for a nursery, those which have a southern  exposure
ought to be preferred.   That a nursery ought also to
be large, easily warmed,  and easily  ventilated, will,  I
think, be readily admitted; for, without  such conditions,
it is evidently impossible to surround an infant with that
pure and renovating atmosphere which  is indispensable
to health.
147 
14K
AIR AM)  VENTILATION.
   In one respect, pure air is even more essential to the
formation of good blood than  supplies of proper food.
 The influence of the air avc breathe never ceases for a
single moment of  our lices, Avhile that of food  recurs
only at intervals.  By night  and  by day, respiration
goes on without a pause ;  and, every time Ave breathe,
Ave take in an influence necessarily good or bad, accord-
ing to the quality  Avhich surrounds us.
   No wonder, then, that a cause, thus permanently in
operation, should,  after a lapse of time,  produce  great
changes on  the health ;  and no wonder that  attention
to the purity of the air  we breathe should amply and
snrelv reward the trouble Ave  may bestOAV in procuring
it.   Accordingly, of  all the  injurious  influences  by
Avhich childhood is surrounded, few, indeed, operate more
certainly or extensively than the constant breathing of
a corrupt and vitiated air  ; and, on  the contrary, few
things have such  an immediate and  extensive effect in
renovating the health of a feeble child, as change from a
vitiated to a purer atmosphere.
   Vitiated air and bad food are the tAvo grand sources
of that hydra-headed scourge of many countries—scrof-
ulous  diseases ; and either of them,  in a concentrated
state, is sufficient  to produce  it, Avithout the co-opera-
' tion of the other ;  but when both are combined, as they
often  are among  the  poor in our larger towns, then
scrofula in  its worst form  is  the result.  Accordingly, 
Q            AIR AND VENTILATION.           149

we can produce  scrofula in the lower  animals  at will,
simply by confining them in a vitiated atmosphere, and
restricting them to an impoverished diet.
   Scrofula, in one or other of its numerous forms, is
acknowledged  to be in Great Britain (and possibly in
the United  States) perhaps the most prevalent and fatal
disease Avhich afflicts the earlier years of life.   It is the
most usual cause  of  grandular obstructions, defective
nutrition, affections of the joints, and other morbid con-
ditions, which either  give rise to, or greatly aggravate
the danger  of many other diseases—such as consump-
tion, measles, hooping-cough, fever,  teething, and con-
vulsions ; and in this way it proves fearfully destructive
of life.  But  so powerful is the continued breathing of
a cold, damp,  and vitiated  atmosphere in producing it,
that where such a cause is alloAved to operate, the most
promising  combination of other conditions will often
prove insufficient to ward off  the evil.  Sir James Clark
expresses the conviction that living in an impure atmos-
phere is even more influential in  deteriorating health
than  defective food,  and that the  immense mortality
 amono- children reared in the work-houses, is ascribable
 even more  to the former than to the latter cause.
   So long ago  as 1810, Mr. Richard Carmichael, of
 Dublin, in  an excellent letter treatise on scrofula, drew
 the attention of the medical profession to this cause, and,
 on the strongest evidence, denounced the great impurity
            13* 
i:>(j
AIR AND  VENTILATION.
•
of the air in the Dublin house of industry as the grand
cause of the excessive prevalence of scrofula among the
children at the time he wrote.  In one ward, measuring
sixty feet by eighteen, and of very  moderate height,
there Avas thirty-eight beds, each containing three chil-
dren, or 114 children in all.  When the door Avas opened
in the morning, the matron found the air insupportable,
and, during the dav, the  children  Avcre either in the
same ward, or crowded to the number of several  hun-
dred in a school-room.  Keeping in mind the necessity
of pure air to the formation of healthy and nutritive
blood ; Ave can scarcely feel surprised that  scrofula was
extremely prevalent under circumstance so calculated for
its production.
   When  the weather is  cold  and damp,  the windoAvs
ought neArer be thrown open till  the children are  re-
moved, and the sun has been  for some time above the
horizon.  The bedclothes  ought to be turned  doAvn as
soon as the child is taken  up, and to be exposed to the
air  for several  hours, that they may be entirely freed
from the  effluvia collected  during  the  night.   This
point is, in general, too little attended  to ; the appear-
ance of order and neatness being generally preferred to
the  real welfare of the child.   While due  care is taken
to insure an adequate temperature,  every  approach to
overheating must be scrupulously avoided. 
CHAPTER  XXVII.
                      SLEEP.
                 TO  MOTHERS.

  When the stomach  is  distended, and  digestion just
beginning, sleep is generally uneasy and disturbed. The
infant, therefore, ought not to be put to rest immediately
after a full meal.   During the first month, it is true, he
goes to sleep immediately after having the breast, but
he sucks little at a time, and the milk is then so diluted
as scarcely  to require digestion ;  it is at a later period
that the  precaution becomes really important.
   So much  must always depend on individual constitu-
tion, health  and  management, that no fixed hours can
be named at Avhich the infant should be put tb rest.   If
he sleeps tranquilly,  and Avhen aAvake is active  and
cheerful, and his various bodily functions are executed
with regularity, Ave may rest assured that no great error
has been committed, and that it is  a matter of perfect
indifference whether he sleeps an hour more or an hour
less than another child of his own age.  AVI en,  on the
contrary, he sleeps heavily or uneasily, and when  awake
                                       151 
152
SLEEP.
is either stupid or fretful, and  his other  functions are
perverted, we may be certain that some error has been
committed, and that he is either rocked to sleep imme-
diately after a full meal, or otherwise mismanaged.
  There are few things which distress an anxious mother
or annoy an impatient nurse more than sleeplessness in
her infant child, and there is nothing which both are so
desirous  to remove by the readiest  means which pre-
sent themselves.   A healthy  child,  properly treated,
and not unduly excited, will always be ready for  sleep
at the usual time ; and, Avhen it appears excited or rest-
less, we may infer with certainty that some active cause
has made it so, and should  try to find  it.  If no ade-
quate external cause can be discovered, we may infer
with equal certainty that its health has  in  some way
suffered,  and that it is sleepless from being ill.  In this
case, the proper course is to seek professional advice,
and to employ the means  best  adapted  for the restora-
tion of health, after which sleep will return as before.
  From not attending to the true origin of the restless-
ness, however, and  regarding it merely  as  a  state
troublesome to all parties; many mothers and nurses are
in the habit of resorting immediately to laudanum, se-
dative  drops, poppy-syrup, spirits, and  other means of
forcing sleep, without regard to their effects on the dis-
ease and on the system ; and are quite satisfied if they
succeed in inducing the appearance of slumber, no mat- 
SLEEP.
1.53
ter whether  the  reality be  sleep, stupor  or  apoplectic
oppression.   The mischief done  in  this way is incon-
ceivably great, and astonishment would be excited if it
were generally known Avhat quantities of quack " cor-
dials,"  " anodynes," and even  spirits  are  recklessly
given with the view of producing quiet and sleep.   In
Germany, milk mixed with a decoction of poppy-heads
is in common use for this purpose;  Von Amnion men-
tions a  case of a child, six  months old, whose parents
Avere delighted Avith the  placid slumber  induced by it,
but in the morning were  horrified to find the body stiff,
and the extremities cold, the eyes turned up, and  the
surface  covered  with  a cold sweat.  Many an infant,
the true cause of whose death was not always suspected
even by the guilty person, has thus passed prematurely
to its grave.
   In infancy, as  in  adult age, it is highly conducive to
health and  sound sleep, that the night and  bed clothes
should be thoroughly purified by several hours exposure
to the  air  every day, before  the child is put to  bed.
The effect of perfectly fresh covering is soothing,  and
healthful in  a high degree.   The quantity of bedclothes
 ouo-ht to be quite sufficient to sustain the natural  heat
 of the body, without  being so great as to relax or ex-
 cite perspiration ; and for  this  reason  a soft, yielding
 feather-bed is very objectionable, particularly in summer
 or in a warm room.   In  infancy, there is a natural  ten- 
154
SLEEP.
dency of blood to the head, and, Avhere this is encour-
aged by warm caps, the consequences are often hurtful.
The head, therefore, ought only to  be slightly covered.
  When the infant is habitually restless, bathe the Avhole
surface with tepid water. 
•
           CHAPTER   XXVIII.


                  DYSPEPSIA.

  This is  known to exist  in some persons by a  sensa-
tion of weight  in the stomach  after eating;  in others,
by a sour  stomach; in others, heart-burn ; in others, by
great distress in the stomach  after eating, taking place
in a few minutes, or in one or two hours ; in others, by
a great deal of wind  in  the  stomach ; in others,  by
severe head-aches ; in others, by a chronic diarrhoea, the
food coming away unchanged;  in others, the effects are
chiefly evinced by pains in different parts of the body,
more often in  the left side,  or from the breast-bone
through to the back-bone, &c.  In  others, dyspepsia is
manifested by great palpitation  of the heart.  In a vast
many cases, true heart disease  begins with dyspepsia;
and in many others, what seems,  by the great palpata-
tion and stoppage of the heart,  and irregular breathing,
to be a genuine disease of the heart itself, is not so, but
is caused by indigestion.   Some,  or all of the foregoing
symptoms, and many more, such as cough, mentioned
in  another place, are  found to exist in dyspepsia.  I
                                          155 
156
DYM'EI'MA.
might mention sleeplessness, nciwousncss, beating  of
the heart on lying doAvn in bed  at night, often arise   £
from indigestion.  The effect of continued indigestion is,
to reduce the strength, to take the color from the face,
and, in many cases,  to  cause the face to become the
color of a talloAV candle.   At other times, it causes great
rushing of the  blood to  the  head  and face.  It is the
fruitful parent of skin diseases, or is intimately connected
with them.   If a good  deal of  bile  conies into the
stomach, it is apt to cause the skin of the neck, the fore-
head, ic, to become very thick and gross, and to break
out in red pimples, greatly disfiguring  the face, and
utterly destroying the beauty  of the complexion.  I
have only space to indicate  to you a few of the  articles
of food that incline to dyspepsia, without having time
to name  many  other cau.^es of this disease.  To have
good  digestion, the food should  be eaten slowly, and
well and perfectly chewed, or masticated.  If the teeth
of any one are bad, the food should be prepared in cook-
ing, so as to require but  little chewing, or mastication.
Good digestion depends very much on  our choice  01
food.   It is utterly impossible to lay down rules of diet
that do not find a great  many exceptions in their appli-
cation.  We have several  times had something like a
fanaticism start up  on the  subject of  diet.  In these
cases, it Avill be  found that one man attempts to apply his
experience to all mankind.   Should his experience hap- 
DYSPEPSIA.
157
pen to be contrary to universal  experience, he will be
greatly disappointed in its good  effects.   For example,
one has told us never  to eat meat.  On attempting to
apply the rule  of not eating meat to the general masses
of men, it is found to fail,  or, when attempted  to be
adopted, has produced the most  disastrous results.  It
is most true that, what agrees Avith one may not agree
with another.  One can live on very light food, one re-
quires very hearty food ; one can be abstemious, others
are destroyed by it; one can eat  meat, one can leave it
off.  In all this, you must be directed by your own ex-
perience.   In general, you should practice a wholesome
carelessness about your food, eating a little  of anything
you  please, unless you know it   injures you.   Eat
enough, but never indulge in excess.  I will mention one
or tAvo  articles often used, that most  generally have a
bad effect upon the complexion, and are most usually in-
jurious, especially if used before thirty years of age, or
even at any period of life.   Good fresh butter,  not at all
rancid,  and  eaten  without  being melted, is, in a vast
many cases,  and most usually, a very good article in the
composition  of our diet.  But all the grease that is pro-
cured from lard, rancid butter, or animal oils, or gravies,
is most injurious to the complexion.
  I Avill inform you how it  acts.   Oils or fats,  on being
throAvn into 'the  stomach,  cannot be digested by the
juices of the stomach,  as  these incline to  be acid, and
       u 
158                 DYSPEPSIA.

will  not digest  them  well.  In order to do this, it  is
necessary to call bile into the stomach, which is a kind
of soap; and grease, fats, &c, will not digest in the
stomach, until bile joins and  reduces them to a kind  of
soap, so that much greasy food  for ladies will  be found
to make them bilious, and produce more or less of dys-
pepsia, in one or other of its forms.   Noav, avc find that
grease or rancid butter, or at least melted butter,  enters
very largely into the composition of  pie-crust, and all
forms of pastry, and into some kinds of cake, &c.   These
injuriously affect  the stomach.   This is the case with
fat food, that is highly seasoned, as pork, sausages, &c.
So that a lady who would have a fine complexion, and
good digestion, must avoid fat meats, rich fat gravies,
highly  seasoned fat hashed  meats, pastry, and  every
species of diet where fat enters  largely into the prepara-
tion.  Again, new bread, and all hot bread, will be found
hard to digest, and, as a general rule, should be avoided.
Coffee is very generally used, and by some persons who
attain to considerable age, and  speak of it in raptures;
yet,  from the experience of many thousand dyspeptics,
who have consulted me, I find no article of diet more
generally injurious to the dyspeptic, than coffee.   Its
effects are almost universally, if much drank, to produce
dyspepsia, acidity, nervousness, palpitation of the heart,
head-aches, dizziness, costiveness, covering the face with
pimples, and making the skin of the face thick yellow, 
                     DYSPEPSIA.                 159

coarse, and repulsive, destroying both  rose and lily.
Its earliest effect is to destroy the complexion, produce
sallowness, and great biliousness, when no injury what-
ever is suspected.  It inclines to produce in those pre-
disposed to  them, bleeding  lungs,  and  to develope
scrofula and skin diseases.   Children should never taste
it, except at long intervals, say once a year or month.
Black tea in moderation, milk, and also water, or milk
and water, are good  articles for  drink.  Late suppers
should  be avoided.   Our  food  should never be taken
much, if any, warmer than new milk. 
CHAPTER   XXIX.
                  ERYSIPELAS.

  Erysipelas is known in  Scotland as St. Anthony's
Fire or Rose, an inflammation of the skin characterized
by  redness,  sAvelling, and  burning  pain, commonly
spreading from a central point, and sometimes affecting
the subcutaneous cellular tissue.   Idiopathic erysipelas
almost invariably attacks the face ; frequently it is pre-
ceded by loss of appetite, languor, headache, chilliness,
and  frequency of pulse ; a spot now makes its appear-
ance, commonly on one side of the nose, of a deep red
color, SAvollen, firm, and shining,  and  is  the seat of a
burning, tingling pain.   The disease gradually extends
often until  the whole of  the face and hairy scalp have
been affected, but it is  exceedingly rare  for it to pass
upon the trunk.  Often, while still advancing in  one
direction, the part  originally affected  is restored to its
normal condition.  Commonly large irregutar vesicles
filled Avith serum, precisely similar to those produced by
a scald, make their appearance on the inflamed skin.
The pulse  is frequent, there  is total  loss of appetite,
                                        160 
ERYSIPELAS.                  161
headache, prostration,  restlessness, and sleeplessness,
and commonly, particularry at night, more or less deli-
rium is present.   The complaint runs its course in about
a week, and the general symptoms  ordinarily abate
somewhat before any decline is noticed in the local in-
flammation.  In itself erysipelas of the face is ordinarily
unattended  with danger; but where it occurs in the
course of other  and exhausting diseases, it adds much
to the gravity of the prognosis.  In fatal cases the  deli-
rium is apt  gradually to lapse into coma.  Erysipelas is
subject to epidemic influences; in certain seasons it is
exceedingly prevalent, .while in others it is rarely seen.
The attack  is favored  by overcrowding and  deficient
ventilation.  Hospitals, particularly in the spring of the
year, are infested with it.  Certain unhealthy states of
the system  predispose  strongly to the disease, and an
unwholesome diet and the abuse of alcoholic stimulants
are commonly cited among its causes.   We  have seen
that  simple erysipelas is rarely fatal; consequently re-
coveries are common under a great variety of treatment.
Usually it requires nothing  more than to  move the
bowels by a mild laxative, and afterward to support the
 system by the administration of nutriment, and if neces-
 sary the use of simple  medicines.  Systematic writers
 make a separate variety of the erysipelas of new-born
 children ; it presents no peculiarity, hoAvever, except its
 o-reater gravity, in common with other diseases, in such
            14* 
162
ERYSIPELAS.
delicate organisms.  When erysipelas of the abdomen
occurs in neAv-born children,*it commonly has its point
of origin in the recently divided unbilical cord.   In some
cases erysipelas, arising generally from some injury or
excoriation, shows a tendency to  advance in one  direc-
tion while  it passes away in  another (erysipelas anibu-
lans*) ; in this manner it may pass in turn over almost
every part  of the surface.
  In phlegmonous erysipelas the precursory symptoms
are more constant and severe, the pain  more violent,
the  prostration  greater ;  the redness is most strongly
marked along the trunks of the lymphatic vessels,  and
the lymphatic glands are  swollen; the  swelling of the
skin is more  considerable, it  soon assumes a pasty con-
sistence, and pits strongly on pressure.   As the disease
advances, the pain subsides, the  redness  is diminished,
and fluctuation  becomes  evident; if left to  itself,  the
skin, gradually  thinned  and  distened,  sloughs over a
larger or smaller space, and pus mingled with shreds of
dead cellular tissue is discharged.  The disease indeed
seems often to be in the cellular tissue  rather than in the
skin, and sometimes the  cellular tissue  throughout a
limb appears to be affected.   It  is a disease of great
severity, and, when extensive, often proves fatal  under
the best treatment.  In its treatment, the same general
principles apply as in simple erysipelas.  The patient's
strength should be supported by a nutritious diet,  and 
ERYSIPELAS.                 168
tonics and stimulants must often be freely administered.
Early in  the disease the skin  should be freely divided
down into the cellular tissue, to relieve the  constric-
tion of the parts and afford an  early  opening to  the
discharges. 
CHAPTER  XXX.
                     DROPSY.

  Dropsy is a collection of serous fluid occurring in one
or more* of the closed cavities of the body or in the cell-
ular tissues, independent of inflammation.   Inflamma-
tions of serous membranes, pleurisy, pericarditis, peri-
tonitis, &c, are often attended with copious effusion;
but the effusion here depends immediately upon the in-
flammation, and consists of the liquor sanguinis, not of
serum alone.  Dropsy is a symptom and not a disease,
and is caused either by pressure exerted upon some part
or the whole of the  venous system, or  by an altered
state of the blood.   In the vast majority of cases dropsy
depends upon disease of the liver, the heart, or the kid-
neys.  From the peculiarity of the hepatic circulation,
when cirrhosis of the liver exists, the venous system of
all  the abdominal viscera becomes congested, and that
congestion finally relieves itself by an effusion of serum
into the sac of the peritoneum.  In this  way the swel-
ling in ascites, dependent upon cirrhosis, begins in the
abdomen, and the legs only become swollen secondarily.
                                       164 
DROPSY.
165
A scirrhus or other tumor by which the vena porta? is
compressed produces dropsy exactly in the same manner
as cirrhosis.   When there is disease of the heart, that
organ  has more or less difficulty in  emptying  itself of
the blood which is thrown into it;  the difficulty com-
monly commences at the left side of the heart, and con-
gestion of the lungs is a consequence; finally the right
side becomes affected, there is congestion of the general
venous system, and swelling takes  place  in  the more
dependent parts of the body; the great cavities, the ab-
domen and the chest,  are  aftenvard involved, and the
dropsy becomes general.   In Bright's  disease the cause
of the dropsy is probably to be sought in the deteriorated
character of the blood; in many cases disease  of the
heart  is added to the  affection of the  kidneys, and  in-
creases the tendency to dropsy.  Chlorosis, severe hem-
orrhages, any cachexia by which the  character  of the
blood is  greatly altered, are apt to be attended with
more or less serous effusion into the cellular tissue.
   (See illustration, pp. 104.) 
CHAPTER  XXXI.
SPINAL DISEASES;  PAIN  IN  THE SIDE;
     BEDS,  AND  LYING  IN  BEDS,  &c.

  Spinal diseases often  lead to diseased lungs, by the
great debility they produce.  This debility preventing
a full free exercise and expansion of the lungs.  The
ancient writers  on the lungs and consumption make a
consumption of the back or spine.   A vast  many per-
sons allow pain to continue  a long  time in  the spine,
between  the shoulders, in the neck, and particularly in
the lowest portions of the back-bone, hips, and extreme
end of the back-bone ; sometimes attended with heat, at
other times not; sometimes tender to the touch, at other
times a  cold spot, &c.; curvatures of the  spine, &c.
In  a vast many cases, and probably quite a  large ma-
jority of the cases, there is no actual disease of the spine ;
but those pains originate from humor, loss of symmetry,
rheumatism, &c.
   From whatever cause produced, the effect is very in-
jurious upon all the general functions of the system, and
should receive early attention.
                                          166 
PAIN  IN THE SIDE.
167
  Pain in the side, or its cause, often by organic changes,
or by producing inability or an indisposition to expand
the chest, will at last injure the lungs in many cases,
and should not be allowed but should be cured.

  Luxurious feather or down beds should be avoided,
as they greatly tend to effeminate the system and reduce
the strength.  For  this  reason beds should be elastic,
but rather firm and hard ;  straAV beds, hair mattresses,
these on a feather bed are  well ;  a most excellent mat-
tress is made  by combing out the husks or  shuck that
cover the ears of Indian  corn.
   Cold sleeping rooms are in general best, especially
for persons  in  health ; they should  never  be much
heated  for  any person,  but  all should be comfortably
warm in bed. 
CHAPTER  XXXI I.
                    CLIMATE.

  Many consumptives think they would enjoy perfect
exemption, if they could reside in a hot climate.   No
mistake is greater than this ; a hot climate, as a general
rule, is  not usually of much value; the effect of a  hot
climate is to debilitate and effeminate the system, and
to predispose to  consumption ;  hence, consumption is
common  in all the AVest Indies, and in all hot countries
amongst the natives, and long residents.   No climate is
worse to a consumptive  than where his  disease origi-
nated ; any change with  him is  for the  better; goino-
from the sea-board  to the Avestern country» avoiding a
residence on the shores of great bodies of Avater.   The
neAV inland countries  are the best; changing from  the
sea shores to the interior, even if not more than  forty
miles  back.  Removing from  the mountains  to  the
valleys, and from^te valleys to the mountains, especially
in summer, is «lost favorable; avoid locations where
there is great prevalence of damp changeable weather.
Consumption is as prevalent in any city of Cuba, as it is
at Archangel, on the frozen ocean. 
TREATMENT OF  DISEASE OF  THE LUNGS
  AND AIR PASSAGES, BY THE INHALA-
     TION OF  COLD AND WARM MEDI-
               CATED VAPORS.

  For the last eighteen  years, since I have been prac-
ticing as  a specialist,  for successfully treating  and
curing pulmonary consumption, and the various modern
diseases of more refined  and civilized life pertaining to
the  larynx, trachea and bronchia, I have been con-
sulted by many thousands of invalids ; many of whom
were induced to adopt my treatment, either from their
extreme suffering or their own good sense and moral
independence, for in every case it was in extreme oppo-
sition to their family  physician or medical attendants,
      15                                 169 
170
TREATMENT  P.Y
who,  after dosing  drugs into  the stomach  until  the
Avhole system revolted longer to receive such nauseating
potions, they avcre then greeted as the  last  consoling
hope—that their case was one of incurable consumption,
and it was folly to expect either relief or cure !  This
Avas the condition under which my patients applied and
adopted treatment—given up to an inevitable doom, in
one case even by five physicians.   At this present time
this very patient, thus consigned in the bloom of life to
an early grave, has recovered,  and being restored to
good health and strength, is noAV able to enjoy the society
of her family and friends, and mingle again in the plea-
sures of life.
  I mention this case as being a specimen only of nearly
all that daily  apply to me.  They have in  many in-
stances  been doctored for years by allopathic physicians,
who seem  insane on the one idea  that  God  made the
human  stomach for no  other purpose than for receiving
nauseous, poisonous and debilitating drugs, and after
the patient is  nearly worn out, the only consolation  is
that their case is hopelessly incurable, and when Inha-
lation has been suggested by the patient  as the  only ray
of hope, they have been confronted by their  physicians
that it was only a system of humbugery and quackery
__not having  magnanimity of soul sufficient to recom-
mend them to  test its efficacy by a fair trial.
   The  profession which I feel proud to make my calling 
INHALATION.
171
—to the study and investigation of which I have spent
the energies of my system, and the best portion of my
days—is too noble and humane to shield anything that is
narroAV, exclusive, ignoble, or intolerant.   I feel above
that grade that seek to elevate themselves at the expense
of calumny and persecution of a professional brother.
   To those who  will be pleased to call on me, profes-
sionally, they will  find that I do not conceal from an
honest and candid enquirer, any views pertaining  to
my peculiar mode of practice, and will extend to them
all the privileges and civilities that should characterize
the medical ethics of an enlightened  faculty and a free
republic.
   For my own part, I shall  feel secure in the high and
laudable position I have taken, in bringing to the rescue
of so  many lives as are  now going down to the grave,
without any means being offered  on the part of the old
"school physicians, so valuable a discovery as medicated
inhalations, which  bids fair to conquer its fatality, Avhile
its consolatory influence elicits from those subjects who
had but to look to futurity involved in gloom and dark-
ness, expressions of thankfulness and gratitude for their
recovery, which  will  serve to  cheer me  during my
earthly pilgrimage, and extend  its  cheering influence
beyond the portals of the tomb. 
CHAPTER   XXXIV.
                  INHALANTS.

  I use different Inhalants, which I prepare according
to the requirements of each patient, and which are made
from some of the following medicines, viz:
  Iodine, Conium,  Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Ni-
trous  Gas,  a great variety of Gums and  Balsamic
Resins, Vapor of boiling Tar, Hydrocyanic Acid, Cam-
phor,  Ammonia,  Balsam  Tolu,  Naphtha,  Chlorine,
Hyoscyamus, Lactuca, Belladonna, Digitalic, Colchicum
a great variety of Balsamic Herbs, Galbanum, Vapor
of Vinegar, Nitre, Strammonium, Lobelia, Inflata, Ipe-
cacuanha, Alcohol, Hydriodate of  Potassa, Storax,
Marshmallows, Rose Water, a great variety of Emolli-
ent  and Narcotic Herbs, &c.
                                         172 
Pages 173-176 missing 
 
PHRENOLOGY.
177
  6. Combativeness—Resistence, self-protection; spirit
of opposition, resolution; disposition to brave danger.
  7. Destructiveness — Executiveness, indignation, ir-
ritability,  a destroying and pain-causing disposition;
energy.
  8. Alimentativeness — Appetite,  desire of nutrition,
sense of hunger, and  capacity to enjoy food and drink.
  9. Acquisitiveness — Desire to acquire  and  possess
property, as such; its exercise  tends to  frugality and
industry.
  10.  Secretiveness — Sense of secresy,  concealment,
cunning, evasion; disguising one's real sentiments and
plans.
  11.  Cautiousness — Sense of danger ; apprehension,
delay, regard for present and future safety ; fear, dread
of results.
  12.  Approbativeness — Sense of character and appear-
ance ;  desire to please, love of praise and popularity;
vanity.
  13.  Self-Esteem— Self-regard;  pride, independence,
dignity ; love of power and distinction; self-reliance.
  14.  Firmness— Decision, will, perseverance, stability,
determination of purpose ;  unwillingness to yield.
  15.  Conscientiousness — Sense of  moral obligation ;
regard for truth  and justice;  contrition,  integrity,
honesty, &c.
  C.  Circumspection — Sense of discretion, consistency,
uniformity, and balancing power-[not fully established.] 
178
PHRENOLOGY.
  16. Hope— Sense of immortality, and of the future ;
anticipation,  expectation ; looking  forAvard for future
results.
  17. Marvelousness — Credulity;  sense of the spiri-
tual and supernatural; belief in invisible agency ; faith,
curiosity.
  18. Veneration — Sense of greatness,  adoration, re-
spect for superiority, authority, and deference to age or
antiquity.
  19. Benevolence — Munificence,   sympathy,   disin-
terestedness, and desire  to  promote the  happiness of
others.
  20. Constructiveness— Sense of mechanism, manual
dexterity, contrivance, ingenuity, and skill.
  21. Ideality — Sense  of  perfection; delicacy, taste,
refinement, appreciation of the  beautiful in nature and
art.
  B. Sublimity — Sense of the vast, the grand and the
sublime in nature ; love of the highest kinds of compo-
sition.
  22. Imitation — Powers of representation, imitation,
and adaptation ; versatility  of  action; and ability to
mimic others.
  23. Mirthfullness — Perception of the  absurd and
ridiculous; gaiety, levity, playfulness, and buffoonery.
  24. Individuality — Power to identify individual ob-
jects ; observation of details; desire to be an eye-witness. 
PHRENOLOGY.
179
  25. Form — Sense of shape, likeness, expression, and
outline ; memory of countenances and configuration.
  26. Size — Sense of proportion, magnitude, equality,
and relation of  outlines ; exactitude.
  27. Weight — Sense of gravity ; power to  balance,
and apply the laws of gravity in machinery and muscular
motion.
  28. Color — Sense of colors ; their beauty,  arrange-
ment, and harmony in  nature and painting.
  29.  Order — Sense  of, and desire for convenience
and   arrangement;  neatness,  perception of  general
economy.
  30.  Calculation — Perception of numbers, and their
relations ; numerical computations.
  31. Locality — Sense of place, position, and direction ;
memory of objects by location ;  desire to  travel, see
places, &c.
  32. Eventuality — Sense of action,  events, pheno-
mena, statistical knowledge ; memory of facts  ; love of
narrative.
  33.  Time — Sense  of chronology,  of duration,  of
passing time ; when, and how long ; equality in step and
beat in music.
   34.  Tune — Perception of sound, of melody, of pro-
per  emphasis,  and modulation of the voice ;  ability to
compose music.
   35. Language — Sense of words or signs to com- 
180
PHRENOLOGY.
municate ideas ; abiHty to talk ;  memory of names and
words.
  36. Causality — Sense  of cause  and effect; power
of abstract thought; penetration, planning, invention,
originality.
  37. Comparison—Sense of resemblance, of analogies,
similies, and  power of analysis ; association, compari-
son, &c. 
MESMERISM.
  A few remarks on that functional state of the nervous
system, termed Mesmerism, may not be irrevalent to add
in this treatise.  It is called by some animal or human
magnetism.  It  was  known  to the  ancients,  and has
been  revived  by the moderns,  particularly in  the last
century by Dr. Frederick Antony Mesmer, of France,
from whom it has derived its name.    Travellers in
eastern countries describe paintings found in the temples
of Thebes and other ancient cities which represent per-
sons in a sleeping posture, while others are making passes
over them.  The  priests  of  Chaldea,  of Nineveh,  of
Babylon, of Judea, and Jerusalem, and the priests and
physicians of ancient Greece and Rome practised  mag-
netism in their temples and in the healing art, long be-
fore the Christian era.   "Aristotle  informs  us  that
Thales, Avho  lived six hundred years before Christ,
ascribed the curative properties in the magnet to a soul
with which he supposed it to be endowed, and without
which he also supposed no kind of motion could take
place."  Pliny also affirms the magnet to be  useful in
curing diseases of the eyes, scalds, and burns ; and Celsus,
       16                                  "I 
182                 MESMERISM.

a philosopher of the first century after Christ, speaks of
a physician by the name of Asclepiades, Avho soothed
the ravings of the insane by manipulations, and he adds
that his  manual  operations, when  continued for some
time, produce  a degree of sleep or lethargy.  Under
the name of " neurology," attempts  have been made in
this country to put a new  dress upon it, and to bring it
before the public with neAV features, and to connect with
it some  new discoveries ;  but it remains to be what it
has ever been, the principal difference being only differ-
ent modes of illustration.
  Of the nature of this mysterious  principle or agent,
we know but little, but of its effects on the system we
are quite familiar ; and it  can be practised and demon-
strated easily  by any one a little acquainted  with  the
method of operating upon those termed " impressible
subjects."  After repeated passes of the hand from the
head downwards  nearly in contact  with the body, the
subject  falls into a mesmeric sleep,  formerly called  the
crisis, in  which the outward  senses,  particularly  the
sight, are apparently closed, and the interior or inward
senses, are capable of seeing and describing objects not
otherwise visible—as internal  diseases,  reading  when
blindfolded, &c.  The body sometimes becomes fixed as
in a trance, and is insensible to pain,  so that even surgical
operations have been performed in a  magnetic sleep with-
out causing distress. 
MESMERISM.
183
  A limb having been mesmerized, becomes stiff and
almost immovable, and may be made to adhere firmly to
the head, so that it cannot be forced off until the fluid
has become withdrawn.   The will of the person magne-
tized appears to be completely under the direction of the
magnetizer.   In this  condition, if any of the phreno-
logical organs be magnetized, it developes their peculiar
character, and the subject involuntarily exercises them
preternaturally;  for  instance,  combativeness,  which
arouses the pugnacious or fighting propensities ; if ama-
tiveness, the subject make loves to the operator.  Some
who make extravagant if not visionary pretensions to
magnetism, asserts that by putting certain  agents into
the hand, such as Capsicum, Antimony, &c, their effects
will be left upon the system; and no doubt those who
have the organ of marvelousness largely developed sup-
pose that some such effect is produced, with other strange
fancies.
   The question naturally  arises,  how far is it  useful ?
This remains  yet  to be  shoAvn.   Some attach  great
remedial power to magnetism, and, no doubt, in some
cases,  it exerts an influence, and may have proved use-
ful ; but as yet nothing very definite or certain has been
established  that we can rely upon.   It would  appear
that those termed  "  clairvoyants " are able to detect
 diseases, but most of them are unable to prescribe suc-
 cessfully, as  I have  proved in my practice.  How far 
184
MESMERISM.
this agent  will be more fully developed remains to be
seen.   But probably much greater light will be thrown
upon it by future  investigations.   Without doubt  all
the phenomena are to be referred to natural causes, and
and not to superhuman or satanic agency, as  has been
supposed.
  Some err, if not degrade themselves, by the false and
visionary ideas they attach to magnetism.   They make
it their " hobby," and much of their ideality is associated
with its wonderful effects on the  system.   To listen to
them, we would suppose that their claims to discoveries
were superior to all others.  This manifests a peculiar
state of mind bordering on monomania, and the healing
art at  least will not be much indebted to such  for im-
provements.
  The  subject of animal magnetism now excites  consi-
derable interest in England and India, and some experi-
ments have been made which illustrate very clearly its
singular effects upon the system.   Institutions and peri-
odicals have been established to promote it,  particularly
among the poor, as a medical agent.   A  mesmeric  in-
firmary has been established for the poor in  Dublin, and
one in Madras, in India, called  the  Electic Mesmeric
Hospital.   The British  Government  has  appointed a
committee to investigate its merits.   The resident sur-
geon has reported several operations performed on native
patients for large tumors, which were removed without 
MERMERISM.
185
pain, in the mesmeric trance, weighing from thirty to a
hundred pounds.  Dr. Esdaile, one of the surgeons of
the Institutions in India, closes the report on the effects
of mesmerism in the following language:—
   " From the foregoing facts, I consider myself entitled
to say that it has been demonstrated that patients in the
mesmeric trance may be insensible to,
   1st,  The loudest  noises.
   2d, Painful picking and  pinching.
   3d, The cutting of inflamed parts.
   4th, The application of nitric acid to raw surfaces.
   5th, The racking of the electro-magnetic machine.
   6th, The most painful surgical operation ; and yet be
aroused into full consciousness by the exposure  of the
naked bodies for a few minutes to the cold air."
16* 
 
         APPENDIX.


TOBACCO; ITS ACTION  ON THE HEALTH,
  AND ITS INFLUENCE ON  THE  MORALS
      AND  INTELLIGENCE   OF  MAN.

  With tobacco the savage endures hunger, thirst, and
all  atmospheric  vicissitudes  more  courageously; the
slave  bears  more patiently servitude,   misery, &c.
Amono- men who call themselves civilized, its assistance
is  often  invoked against ennui  and melancholy;  it
relieves sometimes the torments of disappointment  of
hopes or ambition, and contributes to console, in certain
cases, the unfortunate  victims of injustice ; and enables
lazy people to while away a dull hour in mental vacancy.
  This is certainly a brilliant apology for the use of
tobacco ; but without comparing ourselves to those tribes
of savages, droves of  slaves,  and lazy people, to whom
this weed appears to render such  signal  services, will
we not be permitted to say to Dr.  Chamberet, that the
remedy he extols to us so highly, is often worse than
our complaints.
                                      187 
188
TOBACCO.
  That the plant  momentarily elevates the ideas, or at
least withdraws them for some instants from their ordi-
nary course, to be succeeded by a kind of stupidity, or
apathy, to Avhich  many individuals  are inclined, we do
not deny ; but also, like other errors and deplorable
habits, do not many disorders  and vicious inclinations
follow in their train ?
  Most assuredly.
  And when a person commences the use of it, is there
any guarantee that he will use it moderately ?
  Evidently not,  for unfortunately, he is as susceptible
of the abuse of it, as of  all joys by irritation ; of these
we  will enumerate the  game,  strong  liquors, the pas-
sions, &c.; and, as soon as a snuff-box is offered to him
or he smells  the  smoke of  a cigar or pipe, the  demon
tobacco, that never ceases  to tempt him, will not per-
mit him to rest until he has taken one pinch or smoked
one cigar.
  Suppose we admit — although we were tempted every
day, every hour, every instant—we possess sufficient self-
control and moral courage, as not to alloAv the  poison
time enough to produce its hurtful action ; we ask, how
many smokers, snuffers and chewers, despite the coun-
sels of hygiene  and of common  sense, do we  not  see
consume tobacco until  they have  fallen into a state of
stupor and imbecility ?
  Besides, if, as is commonly written, the action of to- 
TOBACCO.
189
bacco  depends  upon  constitutional  dispositions  and
hygienic conditions of the systems of the persons who
use it, and the different  quantities employed, hoAv can
you  dare say that you  do not dread  its hurtful  in-
fluence ?
  Behold that young and  handsome lady who has so
many admiring friends, and who, to drive away the ennui
that darkens her brow, or obscures her mind, makes, at
the instigation of her husband, the  acquisition of a snuff-
box, promising  herself to take only one or two pinches
of snuff daily.   Her sense  of smell is at first keenly ex-
cited,  and as the powder exercises a gentle and slight
titilation of the  mucous  membrane of the nose, as  the
mirror of her eyes glisten with silvery tears, and as she
feels the dreaded ennui  that .besets  her disappear, she
opens again, and again, the fatal  box; the habit of
snuffing has already taken root in her nose, and if  you
should meet her some time afterward, you easily recog-
nize her by the odor of tobacco that her breath spreads
around her, by  her dirty handkerchief and dress, by her
nasal voice, by her dejected spirits, by her gaping mouth,
by her nose plugged up with a black crust; and if she
gestures in your presence, it will only be  to cast her
fingers unceasingly into her snuff-box, as if she had only
preserved the instinct for that mechanical action.
   Behold, on the other hand, that young man who has
received, at birth, the most  precious gifts that Providence
accords to human nature, intelligence and health. 
190                  TOBACCO.
  During the happy days of his scholastic struggles, he
has gained the most beautiful victories, and  his profes-
sors, happy to crown him with the laurels he so justly
merits, applaud him  for his success, predicting  that he
will take a stand in the highest ranks of society.   Proud
of all these flattering omens, and of the beautiful prism
through which he beholds in such glittering colors the
happy future, his mind, in  which the germs of genius
have been soAvn  Avith the hand of God, expands every
instant  as it dives into the inexhaustible source of all the
human  sciences; but,  melancholy to  say, the day will
come also, when the door of the orgies will be opened
to him, and as nothing is more beautiful to the brilliant
imagination of  an impulsive youth,  in a night of de-
bauchery, than to see the sparkling gas of the champagne
unite with the clouds of smoke that curl above his head,
he will  seize, for the first  time in his life, a cigar; he will
dirty his lips with  its impure  juice without for once
thinking that a poison is concealed in the pleasure that
he partakes of—a pleasure always renewed by its ashes,
to lead continually to new desires and to new joys.
    Oh,  the poisonous weed !   Though it makes him sick
 and loathe it the first time, it tempts him again, and as
 he " never surrenders," the magnanimous youth resolves
 to try  and gain  another  victory.  He  smokes, and
 smokes again ; and if one or  two cigars surfice him to-
 day, in a month he will smoke  three, four, or half a 
                     TOBACCO.                  191

dozen per day, and in less than six months he sucks the
nauseous pipe ; a thousand emotions will come then to
lend him the charm  of their  seducing  and  deceitful
reveries; then, an epoch  will arrive  when  his soul,
which  had always been so calm and  so happy, will
awaken with a start—a  shudder, as if it felt the breath
of an ardent passion pass over it.  Yes, he is a confirmed
smoker.
   Follow now this young man into the world, and soon,
be well assured, you will see him trembling in a manner,
as his  mouth emits, like the crater of Vesuvius, those
streams of smoke which conceal the borders of the gulf
in which, sooner or later, his physical  forces and moral
faculties will be found to be extinguished.
   Though his temperament  may be bilious, nervous,
sanguineous, or phlegmatic, yet a multitude of general
disorders will not be  long in coming to be grafted upon
it by the deplorable  habit he has contracted.  At first,
he complains of a slight headache; he desires much to
study,  but the pain  is stronger than his will; then, as
his muscles have already lost a part of their power from
the secondary effects of the narcotic which has congested
his brain, he throAvs  himself carelessly and  lazily in an
arm-chair, whilst his  head, obeying  its own weight,
rolls like an  inert ball over his shoulders, and his heavy
eyelashes involuntarily close, and he in vain endeavors
 to open them; the poison that his system has absorbed 
192
TOBACCO.
paralyzes all his efforts.  Stretching, and yawning, and
sighs, spring blusteringly-irom the oppressed chest; his
automatic movements stiffen momentarily his body ; his
trembling hands are borne  upon  his eyes  to try and
raise the  thick  veil that obscures his  vision; finally,
fearing not to be able to escape the arms of Morpheus
open to receive him, he lays aside his book, to go and
ask of his idol tobacco for a little distraction.  Seizing
a fresh sugar, he exclaims, " I will study to-morrow ;" but
on to-morrow he is nauseated and desires to vomit, for
it is necessary to bear in mind that tobacco, in stupefy-
ing the brain, hinders it from reacting on the stomach ;
this  later organ not receiving its  natural  stimulus  as
usual, becomes inactive ; the vital energy of this organ
is soon destroyed, and the loss of appetite is manifested ;
and as, above all things, it is necessary to eat to enable
the mind to elaborate whatever is presented to it, this
young man, who closed his book yesterday, from drowsi-
ness, refuses to-day all kinds of food, in consequence of
the disgust which it creates.
  Here are, then, two important organs presiding essen-
tially over the fundamental acts of life,  which we sud-
denly found enchanged, or singularly modied by tobacco.
  Tobacco has  the property of diminishing hunger.
Ramazini says that many tnavellers have  assured him
that tobacco chewed or smoked drives away the  appe-
tite, and that one can travel  much longer without being
oppressed with hunger. 
TOBACCO.
193
  A7an Helmont says the same  thing;  he contended
that tobacco appeased hunger, not by satisfying it, but
by  destroying the sensation, and by diminishing the
activity of the other functions.
  Ramazini adds, he has often  observed smokers and
chewers  without an  appetite, as  well  as great wine-
drinkers, because their usage enervates the action of the
stomach.
  Plempius likeAvise remarks, that  tobacco diminishes
the  sense of hunger, but gives  another  reason  in ex-
planation of the phenomena ; he believes  that  by the
abundance of  serum  or  saliva  which  flows into the
stomach,  and fills  more or less this viscera, that the
sense of  hunger is  appeased in  consequence of its ab-
sorption, and not by its enervation or numbness.
  But this is nothing; the habit of smoking will become
so confirmed with him, that he will  come to experience
only a single pleasure, that of puffing and absorbing to-
bacco smoke every moment.
  But this estacy of the senses,  this continual  enerva-
tion, in discarding from his mind the ennui that besets
it, causes him almost to forget his duties.  Again, this
being an acquired habit, diverts  necessarily the desires
from  their direct course, and, as a  desire, as soon as
satisfied, calls up another, the habit of smoking engen-
ders a number of habits, the more unfortunate, too, in a
manner, as he advances in life.
       17 
194
TOBACCO.
  Do you not see already, there is no tobacco too strong
for him ?  What will he do ?  Ah ! my God !  Since
this poison has commenced  to brutalize him, why Avill
he go and drown his remorse, and exhaust the slight
strength  that remains  with him  with beer,  wine  or
alcohol ?   From this moment, the wisest counsels, and
the strongest arguments that can be produced, will not
turn him from his vicious inclinations; he will be  seen
day  and  night to abandon  his  studies, and leave his
family, to visit the smoking-rooms and drinking estab-
lishments, and swell  the crowd of  loafers, the best por-
tion of Avhose lives are spent in  contact with the cigar,
the pipe, and the glass.
  Let us  stop here  and close the picture.  However,
if after this young man has indulged  in  his favorite
habits of smoking and chewing, and drinking spirituous
liquors, for some years, we should chance  to obtain a
view of his exterior person,  and dive into the recesses
of his organization, what  disorders will we not behold
there ?   His face, with pallor and sadness confounded,
indicates  a state of suffering; his muscles,  formerly
so strong, and so vigorous, now flabby and shriveled,
are  effaced beneath a tarnished skin; his legs tremble
as he moves, for the marasmus, in devouring by  degrees
the mass of cellular  tissue Avhich  covers  his members,
has dried up many of the streams of his material life.
If we pass from his  physical to his intellectual faculties, 
TOBACCO.
195
to interrogate them, we will find in place of that intelli-
gence which was  so rich and brilliantly announced, a
short time previous, not idiocy, if you Avish, but a state
of vacancy and stupidity such that, if some day, in meet-
ing him, you take a fancy to ask him only to call your
name,  with whom he  has  been united in  the ties of
friendship from  his infancy, you will see him hesitate a
long while before pronouncing it.
   It is lamentable to relate, but  his memory, imitating
in this particular the smoke of the thousands of cigars
that he has  consumed, has finished, like their fumes, by
disappearing and vanishing in the air.
   Thus, grace to this unfortunate present,  which origi-
nating in the neAV world, has spread over the old Avorld,
here is a young man (and thousands can testify to the
same thing),  born to shine some day, at  the head of
literature, of the sciences, in the legislative halls,  or in
the army of his country, who has become  to celebrate
or acquire no other glory than that of having culotter
pipes !   He has sacrificed his health and beautiful pros-
pects at  the altar of his idol—the demon tobacco.   How
is it to be expected that an  organization, which has not
sufficient vigor to contend against the deteriorating in-
fluence of a weed so injurious to the human constitution,
can be developed, and gain the strength which it requires,
whilst habituating  itself daily  to the contact of such a
poison ? 
196
TOBACCO.
  Look at the people in the East, formerly so poAverful,
now so weak and extremely degraded, and tell us if they
do not owe a part of their ignorance and degradation to
this vice,—so fashionable among us!  Tobacco increases
the inclination that most men have to idleness, by des-
troying the  ideas of remorse, which complete inaction
or laziness never fails to  give rise.   It  dissolves family
circles, so much cherished by decent men, from Avhich
the men and young bucks escape, to go and smoke, and
chew, and spit.
  Just peep behind the curtains of the smoking-rooms
of the United States, England, Holland, Belgium, Spain,
France, Italy, &c.,  and see their inmates with shallow
heads, and vacant minds, happy  to be plunged in a  sea
of amber and liquor, and enveloped in a fog of smoke,
which seems to afford them  more solid joys than  the
pleasures of ladies'  society, and  the  sweets  of the  do-
mestic fireside.
   Is it  not most  astonishing, that civilized and decent
men should lead such lives ?  It  is well known, that
during the manufacture of tobacco, there arises from the
plant such strong and such unhealthy dust, as to  cause
great inconvenience to those engaged in the labor.
   All writers on the subject describe the laborers as
generally emaciated, tarnished, yellow,  asthmatic, sub-
ject to colics, looseness, bloody flux,  dyspepsia;  but
above  all, to  vertigo, headache, muscular twitchings, 
TOBACCO.                  197
cramps, and more or less acute diseases of the chest, as
we have frequent occasions  to  observe, either in  the
public walks, in the tobacco factories, or hospitals.
  Thus, a substance  so  useless produces innumerable
ills,  and death  even to  those charged to prepare for
others the most insignificant of pleasures.
  There arises, indeed,  particularly in summer, such
quantities of subtile particles — dust — in tobacco facto-
ries, that the neighbors of them are much incommoded,
and  are frequently made sick at the stomach.
  The horses employed turning the mills that grind and
powder the tobacco, manifest the hurtful effects of the
dust  which surrounds them, by frequently  agitating
their heads, coughing, and snorting.  The laborers suffer
much from headache, vertigo, nausea, and loss of appetite,
and  continual looseness.
  Those endemic  diseases  of which we have spoken,
have spread with such violence among the people resid-
ing  around  and near tobacco factories, that in  some
countries, the wise precaution is adopted of establishing
the factories outside of the towns ; this precaution is par-
ticularly observed, at present, in  France.
  Remember now, that diseases do not always manifest
themselves by phenomena—symptoms, so plain that it
suffices for the most inexperienced eye to recognize them.
There are poisons which, given in certain doses, and in
certain forms, will kill as dead as if we were struck Avith
           17* 
198
TOBACCO.
lightning.  Take noAv the same dose of this same medi-
 cs     D
cine ; but, before, study its action ; as you have been so
murderous, divide it into fiftieths and in hundredths of
grains; then, if you Avish to establish upon yourself a
scale of comparison, take it into your stomach  in the
least possible form ;  take it daily, being careful to aug-
ment gradually the dose, and at the end of two or three
months, you will be able to support a dose of poison,
that, taken all at once, before commencing its use, Avould
kill you instantaneously.
  Let  us go  a little further.  In graduating thus the
doses of this substance, that bears death with it, Avhen
we take not the Avise precaution to  divide its force, and
neutralize its effects, you may, perhaps, have experienced
no ill effects from it; but put yourself every day, for six
months, or a year, under the influence of the same pre-
paration, and the time will come, be well assured, Avhen
your health, though  good in appearance, will  suffer
seriously, and without your perceiving the hurtful blows
that you have directed against it. 
THE ORGANIC CHANGE  AVHICH TOBACCO
          PRODUCES  IN  THE NOSE.

  We believe that certain snuffers stuff their nose with
the vile poison until they blindly develop in that im-
portant  organ the germs of a multitude of diseases, such
as inflammatory affections, lachrymal fistulas, poly puses,
cancers, fyc.
  We will now proceed to take a rapid sketch of each
of these disorders.

       NASAL CATARRH, COLD IN THE  HEAD.

  All authors consider snuff as the first and  most fre-
quent cause of cold in the head.
  This  affection consists, in the beginning, of a dryness,
heat, redness, and swelling of  the pituitary membrane,
with  shivering, sneezing, a sense of weight at the root
of the nose, a dull, aching pain in the head, loss of smell,
sometime itching of the nasal fossas, with stopping up of
the nostrils, and a decided nasal voice; all the result of
congestion of the mucous membrane of the parts.  This
membrane once congested, inflammation succeeds, and
"does  not  remain dry long; it becomes  very soon the
                                       199 
200
TOBACCO.
seat of an abundant, aqueous, colorless, ratty secretion,
producing by its acrimony excoration of the upper lip,
and angles of the nose themselves.
  Most snuffers thus affected, fail not then to snuff more
freely.  Henceforth, the  thicker  the excreting matter
becomes, the more  they are led  to praise  the happy
benefits of their remedy ; they will refuse to renounce
their  remedy, without doubting,  if a  healthy person
were to employ the same means, it would produce in-
fallibly the same result — that is, the same purgation.
The inflammation is sometimes most violent; the  pain
seems to be seated in the frontal sinuses, and is  very
acute, the head is heavy, and the teguments of the nose
and cheeks become swollen,  &c.
  If, in spite of the  suffering that the snuffer experi-
ences, he continues  as usual to take snuff, the malady
progresses, and either forms abscesses in the maxillary
fossas, that  are very painful, but  generally burst  and
discharges the thick purulent matter through the  nos-
trils, or else  becomes a  true chronic  catarrh ; Avhich
consists in a very abundant nasal  discharge, differing
from the nasal mucous.  This matter sometimes remains
limpid, colorless, and without odor; sometimes it is thick,
yellow,  or green, and foetid ; sometimes, in  fact, it is
purulent; in this case there is ulceration of the pituitary
membrane, an ulceration  that  has received the name of
ozena.                                             , 
TOBACCO.                  201
                      OZENA.
  This name is  given to ulcers seated in the nostrils,
from which issues a foetid discharge, and persons affected
with this repulsive disease, pass under the generic name
ofpunais — one who has a stinking nose.
  This affection commences, sometimes, among snuffers,
with an intollerable stopping up of  the nose, which is
soon  accompanied, and principally at the time  the in-
flamed pituitary membrane passes to the state of ulcera-
tion, with  headache that is exasperated at night.  At
other times they experience a dull, heavy, deep, itching,
sensation;  the  nose  swells  and reMdens; the* voice
changes ;  and if the ulcers are visible to the eye, they
are seen covered with a grayish  scab, or thick, brown,
dry, muco-purulent crust, which falls off by degrees
each time that the patient blows  his nose hard, but fails
not to form again soon after.
   In fact it is unnecessary to say a loss of smell, or, at
least, a very sensible diminution in  this faculty of per-
ceiving odors,  is  constantly remarked  among those
snuffers attacked with this repulsive and disgusting dis-
ease, against which the surgeon possesses but slight
means to  relieve, unless the patient renounces the habit
of snuffing.
               FISTULA LACHRYMALIS.
   We have already remarked that  the tears flow into
the nasal  fossas through two small canals extending from 
202                  TOBACCO.
the inner angles of the eyelids and terminating  in the
nostrils, called lachrymal ducts ; and added, that these
tAvo canals, like  the nasal  fossas, are lined with  a mu-
cous membrane.
  These simple  anatomical facts being premised, sup-
pose the nostrils are highly inflamed for an  instant by
tobacco, what will happen ?   For however flat the nose
may be from congenital effect, or from any other cause,
the inflammation, in extending itself into these canals,
will terminate, very likely, in obliterating them; and
the tears, not being able  to pass through these ducts,
will accumulate  in a sac, the walls of Avhich will inflame
in turn, and fistula  lachrymalis, or false opening will
soon appear, which  will  giAre exit to the tears  and a
puriform matter, that  will run  down  the cheeks, and
spoil the prettiest  face.   They are very troublesome to
cure.
         POLYPUS OF THE  NASAL FOSSAS.

  According to some authors this name originated in the
fact that the polypus of the nose sends numerous roots
into all the cavities or infractuosities of the nasal fossas,
and constrains the respiration, in the same manner that
polypus of the sea annoys fishermen with their long arms.
  AA hatever may be the  origin of this name, we call
thus commonly, the fleshy, fibrous, fungous excresences,
which can be developed upon all the mucous membranes, 
TOBACCO.
203
but which  are more frequently observed in the interior
of the nose.
  The causes that produce polypus, says MM. Roche
and  Lanson, are  sometimes unknown.  Nevertheless,
add they, they are so often seen to attack persons who
are inveterate snuff-takers, that we are justified in con-
cluding that a continual irritation of the pituitary mem-
brane, is not, in many cases, foreign to their develop-
ment.
   A brief sketch of the symptoms of this frightful dis-
ease, we hope, will perhaps be the means of inducing
some sufferers to abandon forever their snuff-box.
   The  patient complains first of a stopping up  of the
nostril, he breathes  with difficulty  with  the affected
nostril, he  experiences the sensation of a soft foreign
body in the nostril, and endeavors, by frequent blowing
 and sneezing, to  get rid  of it.   The nostril soon be-
 comes completely obstructed.  The constraint occasioned
 to the respiration by the polypus  is  not  always the
 same, nor constant;  it is greater during humid than
 dry weather, and it sometimes happens that the patient
 feels completely relieved of it for sometime after having
 expelled  from  the nose  a  given quantity  of  limpid
 serum.
   In the first case, the polypus seems to absorb and re-
 turn its  humidity to the  air, like  a sponge.   In  the
 second, its  substance is torn, disgorged of serum, and 
204
TOBACCO.
contracts until the Avound is cicatrized;  it then retains
again the  serum it secretes.   AA hen polypuses  arise
near the posterior part of the nostril, they hang doAvn
in the throat; when they originate in the front part of
the nostril, they compress  the  inferior  orifice  of the
lrchrymal duct of Avhich we have spoken, and misdirect
the course of the tears, and  if not, they do not occasion
lachrymal fistulas, at least a continual Aoav of tears.
  As soon as they have advanced toward the anterior
and posterior openings of the nostrils, and  filled ihem
up, they  penetrate the maxillary sinuses, dilate them,
and perforate them to  project toward the cheek, or in
the mouth by the inferior wall  of the orbit, push the eye
from its cavity, and send, in fine, branches in the tem-
poral fossas, and sometimes, even, to within  the cavity
of the cranium, pushing aside or perforating the bone.
  Before  such a picture, many snuffers  may exclaim,
they have snuffed tobacco for  ten,  twenty, or  thirty
years without ever experiencing the least signs of the
affection we haAre described ; but if you are well to-day,
can you deny that you may not  be sick to-morrow ?
  In conclusion, gentle reader, if you have perused our
pages so far, you will perceive we have  considered to-
bacco in relation to the physiological and toxicological
phenomena which  manifest themselves  in those who
use and abuse it.  But its injurious action does not stop
there. 
TOBACCO.
205
  It is evident, indeed, that if this plant has sufficient
power to modify the intelligence, the sensibility, and
volition to the degree  to  occasion in them disorders
more or less serious, it must necessarily leave traces of
its passage upon the parts with which it comes in imme-
diate and almost continued contact.
  Of course, a plant so savory should be presented t©
its numerous consumers in many different forms, to suit
all their different tastes.
  Such is the fact, tobacco is introduced into the nose
in the form of powder, by snuffing ; into the mouth, in
powder by dipping, and in leaves by chewing; and more
frequently, in fumes by smoking.  It remains now to
study its irritating  action in the nose, and then in the
mouth.
              THE  ORGAN OF  SMELL.

  With most people the nose is  nothing  more than that
triangular and pyramidal projection situated in the mid-
dle of the  face, between the eyes and mouth, without
their doubting the least in the  world, the beauty and
delicacy of the texture which lines its exterior.
  Perhaps it may not be inappropriate to remark, that
we  shall be well paid, for the labor that writing this ap-
pendix cost us, if, after having sketched this short ana-
tomical picture, we should see some snuffers renounce
their detestable habit, in just fear of  what we shall be
       18 
206
TOBACCO.
able to inspire them, of destroying one of the five senses
which procures us the sAveetest and most agreeable sen-
sations, except,  understand  me, that of  the  powder
which we are now combating.
  The nostrils are the tAvo cavities of the nose, hollowed
out of the thickness of the face, which extend backAvard
and terminate in other cavities called frontal sinuses, fyc.
  A mucous membrane, quite thick and always humid,
in the tissue of which the olfactory nerves, as  well  as
a great  number of other nerves,  and blood-vessels are
spread, line  their  interior surface, and is prolonged  in
the sinuses Avhich joins them, andcoArers the projections
and depressions of their Avails.  This soft and spongy mem-
brane, called pituitary, when healthy, secretes mucus.
  AVe should have added, the  eyes communicate with
the nostrils by the aid of tAvo canals which conduct  in
them, constantly,  a part of the tears which have served
to moisten the  eyeballs.
  We should  not omit to  state, that the nasal fossas,
or nostrils,  communicate by sympathy Avith the brain
and stomach, &c.; and that they are the special seat of
the sense of smell, the uses of  which are to inform  us
immediately of the odoriferous particles suspended  in
the atmosphere, from which information tAvo secondary
properties are deduced, viz.:—
  1st, To watch the qualities of the air ; and
  2nd, To control the quality of certain aliments. 
TOBACCO.
207
  Indeed, one Avould suppose that the sense of smell
procured man too many joys for him to make it a sport
to abuse it.
  Man  derives  great pleasure at  first in smelling the
enervating perfume which the chalice of sweet and beau-
tiful flowers  exhale ;  then, he  happens, by degrees, to
love the odor of certain emanations, which the dirtiest
animal refuses to smell.   A most astonishing creature is
man!
   All confirmed chewers are more or less subject to long
standing diseases of the stomach  and liver.  I might
cite here many cases to prove this fact from the writings
of others, and from my own observation and experience,
but I refrain, and deem it unnecessary to say more than
that self-respect—respect for our relations and friends,
and for strangers—should induce tobacco chewers  to
practise more decency in the consumption of the weed,
and not spit here, there, and everywhere, irrespective of
persons and places.
   It is not agreeable to  gentlemen  chewers to  be impo-
lite in any other respect, except in the use of tobacco ;
and they do carry their impoliteness to extremes some-
times, and then expect people to bear it in silence. They
are generally treated with silent contempt, and allowed
to indulge their barbarous habits to  their hearts' content.
They only injure themselves, and sometimes the property
of others ; but, as they injure themselves more than the 
208
TOBACCO.
property of others, the oAvners of the latter, in the depths
of their sympathy for the unfortunate authors of the in-
jury, are generally polite enough to pass it  over un-
noticed.   However, as  we have  many laws to correct
nuisances, and as the use of tobacco is one of the greatest
nuisances that stalks abroad, there should be laws en-
enacted, regulating it, and not allow men to make bar-
barians and beasts of themselves, to the great annoyance
of decent people.
   You often hear smokers and chewers remark how dis-
gusting and filthy snuffing is ; and the knight of the snuff-
box has an equal horror  of the habit of smoking or chew-
ing, and considers his habit as the gentleman's delight.
   What nonsensical contradictions tobacco consumers
are.  They all admit, if put to the test, that it is a beastly,
unhealthy, and  filthy habit, and excuse themselves on
the grounds that they used it to  preserve their teeth, or
to keep them from becoming too fleshy, or  perhaps to
kill them, and keep the blue devils away.
   I hope these pages may convince all such persons that
they  labor under a great error,  and that the weed will
produce the very ills they wish to escape.
          Gentlemen, votaries of the weed, think —
         " If then tobacconing be good, how is't
         That lewdest, loosest, basest, most foolish,
         The most unthrifty, most intemperate,
         Most vicious, most debauched, most desperate, _
         Pursue it most ?   The wisest and the  best
         Abhor it, shun it, flee it as the pest!" 
TOBACCO.
209
  The  German  physiologists  affirm,  that  of twenty
deaths of men between eighteen  and  twenty years  of
age in Germany, ten orginate in the waste of the con-
stitution by smoking tobacco.
  The great prevalence of consumption in the United
States is due in part to the general and excessive use of
tobacco.
              A RAILROAD  DREAM.

                   BY MRS. F. D.  GAGE.

" Corrupting the air with noisome smells," is  an actionable nuisance. See Black-
              stone, " Trespass," or " Private Wrongs."


    Sitting in a rail-car, flying on by steam,
    Head against the casement, dreamed a curious dream;
    Yet I could not think it all a thing ideal,
    For, though very monstrous, it was very real.


    First there came a gentleman in his patent leather,
    Collar, bosom, wristbands, overcoat for weather,
    In the height of fashion, watch-key, hat and glove,
    And, with air professional, — spit upon the stove.


    Near him sat a parson, telling how the Lord
    Sent the great revivals, blessed the preached word;
    But my dream discovered he was not above
    Honey-dew or fine-cut —• spitting on the stove.
            18* 
210
TOBACCO.
Next came a trader, pockets full of cash,
Talked about the country going all to smash ;
" War and abolition did the thing, by Jove,"
Tipped his wicker-bottle — spit upon the stove.

Then a jolly farmer, bragging of his wheat,
Thought his hogs and horses no where could be beat;
" Like to sell his Durhams, by the head or drove,"
Kept his jaws a wagging — spit upon the stove.

Paddy thought 'twas " quare " like, to be sitting still,
All the whilst a goin', over bog and hill,
'Twas a glorious counthra, sure, as he could prove —
Equal to his betters — spitting on the stove.

Witless, perfumed dandy, putting on his air,
Flourished diamond breast-pin, smoked in  forward car;
Talked about our army, " 'Twas too slow,  by Jove,"
Twirled a carrot moustache — spit upon the stove.

Little boy in short-coat, wants to be a man,
Following example as the surest plan ;
Watches gent and parson — copies every  move,
And with Pat and trader — spits  upon the stove.

 Soon the flying rail-car reeks with nauseous steam ;
Ladies almost fainting, children in a scream ;
Husband asking lady : " What's the matter, love ?
 Have a  glass of water ?" — spits upon the stove.

 On we go, still flying,  not a breath of air
 Fit for Christian people, in the crowded car ;
 Sickening, fainting, dying, ladies make a move,
 Gent throws up the window — spits upon the stove.

 Now, perchance this dreaming was not all a dream;
  Think I've had a steaming travelling by steam;
 'Tis a public nuisance, any one can prove,
 " All the air corrupting — spitting on the stove." 
TOBACCO.                     211
Talk of ladies flounces, ribbons, jewels, flowers,
Crinolines and perfumes, gossip, idle hours;
Put all faults together, which men can't approve,
And they're not a match for — spitting on the stove.

Men will call us angels, wonder if they think
Such a nauseous vapor, angel meat and drink f
Wonder if they'll do so when they get " above ?"
Below it would be handier — spitting on the stove. 
CONSULTATION.
  In treating pulmonary disease, a personal examination
of the patient is desirable, but not absolutely essential.
An intimate acquaintance with the symptoms which at-
tend the various stages of the disease, enables the physi-
cian to determine with great accuracy, from a full and
minute statement of any case, the condition of the pati-
ent, so as  to enable him to prescribe  adequately and
with success.  A letter replying to the questions which
will be found on pages 214  to 219 of this volume, will
meet with prompt attention.
  We would earnestly advise  the patient to consult us
personally at our office, when convenient to do so.   The
facilities  for a minute  investigation and discrimination
of every feature of  the case are so much greater, that
a perfect diagnosis, so requisite to form  the basis of a
successful treatment, is sure to be  made.   Our treat-
ment is prepared, accordingly, in strict relation to the
features of the case and the demands of the patient; and,
what  is still an important consideration  in aiding the
cure, the personal encouragement and favorable impres-
sion made upon the mind of the patient has a wonderful
effect in arousing and  supporting the energies of the
                                           212 
CONCLUSION.
213
nervous system, and elevating hope, which causes the
medicinal remedies to do a double good.  But patients
at a distance, who cannot find it convenient, will  do
well to consult us by letter (which must always enclose
a  stamp), describing their case in  every minute parti-
cular ; as  to cause, seat, local or general, constitutional
or hereditary, degree of suffering, appetite, state of the
bowels and digestive organs, and the complication with
other organs, as the kidneys, or urinary complaints, or
affections of the reproductive organs,—as these all have
a sympathy of action, and must  be treated  to  insure
success. 
QUESTIONS FOR INVALIDS.
  As I have had the happiness of relieving very many
consumptive and other invalids Avhom I have never
seen, I subjoin a number of questions, of which the in-
valid, wishing to consult me by letter, will please answer
such as may concern him, adding any further remarks
that may be necessary to a clear description of his case.
I can then give my advice almost as successfully as
though the patient were himself present; still, if conve-
nient, it is better that I should see him.
  Address, Dr.  Charles R.  Broadbent,  99 Court
Street, Boston.
               TO INVALID LADIES.
  AYhat is your name, age, occupation, residence, so
that a letter may reach you ?  Where born and brought
up ? Delicate or good constitution ?  Height ? Slender
or broad figure ?  Fleshy or lean ?  Erect or stooping ?
Chest full and straight, or contracted, flat and stooping ?
AArhat is the color of your hair, eyes,  and  complexion ?
To  what diseases are your family subject ?   Any died
of Asthma, Scrofula, Heart Diseases, Dropsy, Cancer,
or Consumption ?  Are you subject to Asthma or short
                                          214 
             QUESTIONS OT INVALIDS.          215

breathing ?  Any humor, salt rheum, or skin diseases ?
Any head-ache, or pain in the chest, neck, spine, shoul-
ders, back, stomach, bowels, sides, or limbs ?  Any sore
throat, swelled tonsils, heat or dryness in the throat,
weak voice, loss of voice, hoarseness, catarrh in head,
nose,  or throat?  Any  cough?  How  long had it?
Do you cough up anything ? How much ?  What kind,
&c. ?  When cough most ?  When raise most ?  Ever
raise  blood?   How many times?   How much?   On
which side lay  best, if either ?  On full breathing, do
your ribs rise equally all over your chest, or do the ribs
rise better on one  side or part than another ?  Have
you daily  chills, or  fever, or night-sweats ?   Are you
confined to your bed or room, or the house, or do you
o-o out daily ?   Any palpitation or distress at the heart,
or stoppage of circulation ?  Are you nervous or para-
lytic, or have fits ?   Any bad dreams, and their effects ?
 Any dyspepsia, sore stomach, or distress, or pressure at
the stomach ?   After eating, does food rise ?  Ever sick
stomach to vomit ?  Ever any sinking, exhausted, all-
gone feeling  at top of chest, pit of stomach, or sides, or
bowels, or across you ?   Appetite  good, bad, or caprici-
 ous ?  Bowels regular, costive, or diarrhoea ?   Any ex-
 ternal or bleeding or blind piles, or fistula, weak  back,
 heat in your back  or  any part, hot flashes ?  Have a
 rupture?  Suspect having worms ?  What kind?  Any
 gravel or kidney complaints ?  Water stoppage, or free, 
 216          QUESTIONS TO  INVALIDS.

 or too much, scanty or scalding, or settlings ?  Cold or
 burning  feet ?   Bloating anywhere ?  Much  wind in
 stomach  or bowels ?  Rheumatism or neuralgia ?  Any
 deformity ?   Ever any wounds ?  Long fevers ?  Took
 much  medicine or  mercury ?  Fever sores ?   Bilious
 habitually ?   Married or single, or widow ?  Had  any
 children?  Suffered miscarriages or floodings?  Ever
 rise from bed feeling  quite  smart, but, on exercising,
 soon obliged  to sit or  lay doAvn all exhausted, or  dis-
 couraged with head-ache ?   Natural periods easy, pain-
 ful, regular or irregular, or stopped ?  If so, how long,
 and why ?  In the family-way ?   Any bearing down or
 female complaints ?  What have you done for these
 complaints ?  Can you read aloud, or talk long, or walk
 well, or do little work, without usual fatigue ?   Are you
 in indigent or  easy circumstances ?   Have you good
 teeth ?  Do you work hard, go out much, or reverse ?

             TO INVALID GENTLEMEN.
  What is your name, occupation, or profession ? Resi-
dence, so that a letter will reach you ?  Where born
and  brought up ?   Delicate   or good  constitution ?
Height ?   Slender or broad figure ?  Fleshy, or lean ?
Person erect  or stooping ?  Chest full and  straight, or
stooping  and contracted ?   Constitution  delicate or
robust ?  AAThat is the color of your hair, whiskers, eyes,
and complexion?  To what diseases  are your family 
             QUESTIONS TO INVALIDS.          217

subject ?  Any died of Asthma,  Scrofula, Heart Dis-
ease, or Consumption ?  Are you subject to Asthma or
short breathing ?  Any humor, scrofula, salt rheum, or
skin  diseases ?  Any head-ache,  or pain  in the chest,
neck, spine, shoulders, back, stomach, bowels, sides, or
limbs ?   Any sore throat, swelled tonsils, heat or dry-
ness in the throat, weak voice, loss of voice, hoarseness,
catarrh in head, nose, or throat ?  Any cough ?   How
long had it ?  Do you cough up anything ?   How much ?
What kind, &c. ?   When cough most ?   When raise
most ?   Ever raise  blood ?   How many times ?   How
much ?  On which  side lay best, if either ?  On  full
breathing, do your ribs rise equally all over your chest,
or do the ribs rise better on one side or part than another ?
Have you daily chills, or fever, or night-sweats ? short
breathing or asthma ?  Are you confined  to your  bed
or room, or the house,  or do you go out  daily ?  Any
palpitation or distress at the heart, or stoppage of circu-
 lation ?   Are you nervous  or paralytic, or have fits ?
 Any bad dreams, and their effects ?  Any dyspepsia, sore
 stomach, or distress, or  pressure at the stomach,  after
 eating ? or ever sick stomach to vomit, or food rise after
 eating ?  Ever any sinking, exhausted, all-gone feeling
 at top of chest,  pit of stomach, or in  the  stomach or
 sides, or bowels, or across the bowels ?  Appetite good,
 bad, or capricious ?  Bowels regular, costive, or  diar-
 rhoea ?   Any external or bleeding  or blind piles, weak
        19 
218
QUESTIONS TO  INVALIDS.
 back ?   Have a rupture ?   Suspect having worms ?
 AVhat kind ?  Any gravel or kidney complaints ?  Water
 stoppage, or free, settling, scanty, or scalding, or too
 much ?   Any heat in your  back or any part ?  Cold
 or burning feet ?  Bloating anywhere ?  Much wind in
 stomach or bowels ?  Pains in your limbs ?  Rheumatism
 or neuralgia ?   Any  deformity ?  Ever any wounds ?
 Long fevers ?   Took  much  medicine  or mercury ?
 Fever sores ?   Bilious ?   Clear  complexion ?   What
 done  for these complaints ?   How  long ?  Are  you
 married or single ?  Can you read aloud, or talk long,
 or walk actively, or do work  without unusual fatigue ?
 In indigent or easy circumstances ?  Do you work hard,
 or take  active exercise, or the reverse ?   Dropsy or
 cancers ?  Have you  good teeth 1
  Hundreds of cases are successfully treated every year
 abroad that are never seen by Dr. Broadbent, so  per-
fect is this system of treatment.
  Dr. Broadbent has, between  March, 1847, and the
 corresponding month of 1857, delivered nine hundred
lectures  to large audiences, on Physiology, Health, &c,
in all the principal cities and large towns of New Eng-
land, and has, in the same time, been consulted by fifteen
 or twenty thousand invalids of all descriptions. 
IMPORTANT TESTIMONY FROM PATIENTS.


                          Chelsea, Sept. 15, 1858.
Dr. C. R. Broadbent,
  Dear Sir: — I am aware how little importance is
usually attached to the various advertisements and cer-
tificates of cures which make their appearance in  the
newspapers of the day, and yet I feel that it is but an
act of justice to you, as well as to the multitude suffer-
ing from pulmonary diseases which have heretofore been
regarded incurable, that I should make a simple state-
ment of my own case, and the benefit I have received
from your mode of treatment.
  Six  months ago I had every symptom of confirmed
and deep-seated consumption — a severe cough, chills
and fever, with cold night-sweats, and daily expectora-
tion of thick heavy  matter.  For months I had  not
known the pleasure of a comfortable night's rest.   I
availed myself of the best medical advice, and was under
the care  of several very respectable  physicians, but
with no lasting beneficial results.
  At length a neighbor of mine, who had been cured 
220                  LETTERS.
under your treatment, urged me to consult  you, and
finally lent me your pamphlet on Inhalation.  From a
careful perusal of its contents, I became fully convinced
that Inhalation was my only hope, and resolved at once
to give it a thorough and faithful trial.
  I called upon you about the 15th of last March, and,
after you had made a careful examination of my case,
you encouraged me to hope, and thought you might be
able to cure me.
  From the daily use of your inhalants, I soon  found
sensible relief.   My rest, which had been disturbed and
broken,  now became easy, and, in a word, I could sleep
comfortably all night.  My spells of coughing were less
frequent,  the  expectoration gradually  diminished,  I
gained in  flesh and strength, and, at  the  present time,
regard myself perfectly cured, being  able to endure as
much hardship as ever I could.
  I have made this statement of my case more  to en-
courage others,  similarly afflicted,  to hope  for  relief,
knowing that your practice is too well established to re-
quire any additional testimony from me.
             Very respectfully yours,
                            MRS. MOSES A.  ILSLEY.
                     West Roxbury,  Oct. 15, 1801.
Dr. C. R. Broadbent,
  Dear Sir: — I called at your office last spring, stated
my case, ascertained your mode  of treatment, and so 
LETTERS.
221
entirely convinced  did  I feel that this  was the  long
sought remedy which was to restore me  to health, that
I resolved to commence at once.  I used your Inhalents
every morning  and evening, the effect seemed truly
wonderful.   The  soreness gradually  left my  lungs ;
the expectoration, which was very copious and purulent,
diminished from day to day, while the irritation in my
lungs and throat entirely subsided.  I now discontinued
the use of the inhaler, except at intervals, when I felt
any slight return  of the irritation in my throat.  By
strictly following your  directions, the soreness and in-
flammation of my lungs rapidly disappeared, and I once
more lie down and sleep comfortably all  night,  and sel-
dom feel any inclination to cough.  By  your advice, I
keep  your remedies constantly on hand, and whenever
I feel any irritation in my throat, I  immediately seek
the magic inhaler, and soon find myself all right again.
  I feel under deep obligations to you, sir, for the relief
I have obtained both in body and mind, and you may
be assured that I shall do all in my power to repay you,
in some measure, for your kindness and attention to me,
by  inducing  all who are afflicted with pulmonary affec-
tions to seek what I believe to be the most sure and ef-
fectualy means on earth for the cure of  this most fatal
disease. -
               Yours, very truly,
                              MISS  EMILY A. LANG.
       19* 
222                  LETTERS.
  Remarks. — I will add, by way of explanation, that
the above cases were unmistakable, genuine Tubercular
Consumption, in a somewhat advanced state.   Their
disease was pronounced hopeless, and all further means
for their recovery, by physicians and friends, had been
abandoned.  Under these circumstances, I had but little
confidence that anything  beyond mere temporary relief
could be hoped for.  The  results stand out in bold relief,
and I can but feel that the perfect success with which
the treatment of these important cases  has been at-
tended, affords us great  encouragement in the future
management of this formidable malady.
  This case was nearly as bad as the last two, and her
husband writes as follows :—
                     Natick, Mass., Jan. 20, 1862.
Dr. Broadbent,
  Dear Sir: — Will you please send my wife one bottle
more, each, of the Electrical Medicine, and one of the
Sanative.   She thinks she ought  to take one bottle more
of each kind, to feel perfectly well again; and that will
be, I think, all the medicine she will require.
  I think you have  saved my wife from an early grave,
for which I shall be your grateful friend.
                        Yours  truly,
                                   JOHN  CARTER. 
LETTERS.
223
  This lady was only under my treatment about three
months before she got well.
  I could fill a book much larger that this, with similar
letters to the above, which I have received from different
patients during the past eighteen years ; but for want of
space in this little book, I will give only the names and
residences of the persons who have received my medical
treatment, and who have been cured by the same.
   Any person who disbelieves  the correctness or truth
of my statements can  satisfy him or herself, by writing
to, or calling on, any of the following persons :—
William R. Swan,    117 Central Ave., Chelsea, Mass.
Miss M. A. Edwards,
Mr. Augustus Beneford,
Mrs. E. A. Cobb,
Mr. John Walter, Commission  Merchant,
      (heart disease),     Head of Long Wharf, Boston.
 Mr. Albert Patch,                  Waltham, Mass.
 Mr. Benjamin F. Brown,
 Mrs. A. W. Darling,                  Exeter, N. H.
 Mrs. Charles A. Marsh,              Medford, Mass.
 Miss Merriam Glidden,             Dorchester,   "
 Mrs. Cynthia Chevalier,            Charleston,   "
 Miss Jennett Dickie,            W. Cambridge,  "
 Mr.  Isaac Gale,                        Natick,  «
 Mrs. Cornelious L. White,           Randolph,  «
 Mr.  Elijah E. Lummus, Postmaster, N. Beverly,  " 
224
REFERENCES.
Mr. Nathaniel S. Gould,
 "  C. G. Otis,
 "  T. P. Brown,
 "  and Mrs. Henry Parkhurst,
 "  and Mrs. John J. Merrill,
 "  Beckworth,
Mrs. Benjamin O. Hibbard,
  "  Robert Humphrey,
Wenham, Mass.
   Bath, Maine.
AArenham, Mass.
Roxbury, Mass.
    a       u
  Natick,   "
S. Boston,   "
 AArebster,   "
L. S. Chandler, 30 Austin St., Charlestown,
  "  Joseph W. Delano,
Miss A. Maria Bunker,
Mr. E. P. Palmer,
Mrs. Ephraim B. Lewis,
  "  M. W. Manning,
  "  Harvey D. Chapin,
  "  M. Prentice,
  "  Mary A. Vibert,
Mr. J. W. Darby,
Mrs. Wm. H. Bowman,
  "  J. S. Clark,
Mr. Edward James,
Mrs. Joshua A. Rich,
  "  G. W. Lang,
  "  Mrs. Susan Junio,
  "  Horace Walker,
    Boston,   "

 Gardner, Maine.
   Lowell, Mass.
Springfield,   "

  Pittsfield,   "
Albany, N. Y.
                                   Harwich, Mass.
                                     Boston,  "
                                Charlestown,  "
                                    Medford,  "
  I will not weary your patience by giving any more
names.  The  above, with thousands of  others, I have,
with the blessing of Providence, been instrumental in
restoring to pretty good health and strength  by my
mode of treatment. 
 
CONTENTS.
INDEX  TO  SUBJECTS.
Introduction.............................................Page  5
Consumption; its Cause and Curability,.........................  9
Symptoms of Consumption,................................... 20
Practical Observations on the Causes and Curability of Tubercular
    and Bronchial Consumption,.............................. 27
Consumption, and its different varieties,.......................... 33
Hemorrage, or Bleeding of the Lungs,.......................... 40
Asthma; Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment by Medicated Inhalation, 45
    "   its Treatment,........................................47
Consumption; Cause, Symptoms, Prevention and Specific Treatment, 50
     "      its  Symptoms,...................................66
Bronchitis ; Ministers' Sore Throat,............................. 71
Laryngitis; Clergyman's Sore Throat,.......................... 73
Bronchial  Consumption,........................................ 75
Pleuretic Consumption,......................................... 77
Dyspeptic  Consumption,........................................ 80
Couglis and Colds,............................................ 82
Consumption; A New and Accurate Method for the Diagnosis of...  86
An inquiry concerning  the nature of Disease, and a Rational Mode
    of Cure,..................................................  96
General Debility,.............................................100
The Skin and its  Offices,.......................................105 
                             INDEX.                        227

Diet,........................................................108
Varicose Veins and Humors,....................................109
Hemorrhoids, or Piles,.........................................Ill
Costiveness ; Manner of Curing,................................114
Chronic Diseases, especially the Nervous Diseases of Women,......118
Epilepsy, or Fits,.............................................121
The Stomach,................................................133
The Heart...................................................138
Tight Lacing,................................................143
Gravel, produced by Falling of the Bowels, &c...................145
Air and Ventilation,..........................................147
Sleep,.......................................................151
Dyspepsia,...................................................l->5
Erysipelas,...................................................160
Dropsy,......................................................164
Spinal Diseases; Pain in the Side; B ds, and Lying in Beds.......166
Climate,.....................................................168
Treatment of Diseases of the Lungs and Air-Passages, by the Inha-
     lation of Cold and Warm Medicated Vapors,................169
Inhalants, what made of,......................................172
Conclusion,..................................................*73
Phrenology,.................................................^5
Mesmerism,.................................................181
Tobacco :  its action on the Health, and its influence on the Morals
            and Intelligence of Man,...........................187
          The organic changes which Tobacco produces in the nose, 199
          A Railroad Prea n, (Gage,)..........................209
                                                              Ol o
Consultation,................................................^
Questions  tor Invalids,........................................214
Important Testimony from Patients,...........................219 
INDEX TO ENGRAVINGS.
The Whole System,...............................Opposite title.
Back View of a Skeleton,................................Page  8
The Air-Passages of the Right and Left Lung,.................. 33
The Right Lung and Air-Passsages of the Left Lung,............. 50
The Human Form—Healthy and Dropsical,.....................104
Scrofulous Humor,...........................................109
Sole  Leg,..................................................110
The Nervous System—View of the Brain and Nerves,............117
The Brain,..................................................121
The Internal Organs,.........................................132
The Heart and its Blood Vessels,..............................138
Tight Lacing, &c,............................................143
Kidneys, Ureters, &c,.........................................144
Inhalation,..................................................169
Phrenological Cut,............................................175 
DR.   BROADBENT'S    MEDICINES,
PREPARED ONLY BY  HIMSELF.
                    DR. BROADBENT'S


Medicated   Inhaling    Balm   Vapor.

  For curing Laryngitis, Acute and Chronic Catarrh of-the Air-Passages, Bronchial
and Tubercular Consumption.
  This preparation is one of the most certain agents ever yet discovered, for sooth-
ing, mitigating and  curing inflamed  surfaces, Cough, Hoarseness, Loss of Voice,
Asthma, Difficulty of Breathing, Shortness of Breath, Pain in the Lungs and Chest.
It readily enters every minute part of the lungs, the air-tubes and cells;  reduces
large bronchial glands, stimulating ulcerated surfaces to a  healthy and  healing
action; dissolves tubercles, which press upon the blood-vessels, and cause bleeding ;
and causes the absorbents to take out  tubercular deposits from the lungs.
  Directions. —Put from one to three  teaspoonfuls of this Balm into a cup half full
of warm water; then inhale the steam from five to twenty minutes at a time, every
night and morning, from an inhaler.
  Boston Long Institute, Boston, Mass.


                 DK. C. It.  BROADBENT'S



  EXPECTORANT     INHALANT.

  This Vapor is to be used with the BALM, at such times as the Lungs are confined,
or when it is hard to expectorate the  matter or mucus from the Lungs. It greatly
loosens or thins the matter secreted, and enables the patient to expectorate, or
raise it up, with greater  facility, and freedom, without the coughing or rasping
effort, whi h, if allowed, would irritate the lungs, and exhaust the patient.
  Directions. — One teaspoonful or more is to be mixed with Balm Vapor, and in-
haled, as usual. In severe cases of stuffing, or confined state of the air-passages,
use it freely ; and in all sudden attacks of Asthma it can be used in large doses
until relief is obtained.                  *
  N .B. — Shake the bottle well from the bottom.
      Dr.   Broadbent's  Embrocation.

  This Embrocation affords immediate and certain relief for all pains and aches
and soreness, either acute, chronic or dull; pleuretic pains ;  rheumatic, neuralgic,
or spasmodic, — either in the chest, side, joints, back, head, or any part of the body.
  Directions. — Saturate a small piece of flannel cloth with the Embrocation, using
from a teaspoonful to a tiiblespoouful, according to the emergency of the pain or
disease to be overcome; then rub the part smartly from five to fifteen minutes
every night, and oftener if required.
                   Dli.   BKOADBENTS


  ANTI-BILIOUS   POWDERS.

  These Powders are mild, yet efficient, and occasion no sickness, pain, or uneasi-
ness.  They have one most important quality, not found in any other cathartic in
use, viz : they do not leave the bowels weakened or costive, and may be used any
length of time witiout loosing  th>ir efficiency.
  They have tonic  properties, which strengthen the stomach and sustain the vigor
of the system while a cathartic effect is being produced. In all cases  of habitual 
 costiveness, too full a habit, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, torpid liver, pres
 sure in the head, wind in the stomach or bowels, biliousness, jaundice, all imp   -
 ties of the blood, skin disease, salt rheum, spots on the face, and whenever ac;'tnar^
 tic is desired, these powders are so compounded as to meet the exigency. Lne "
 delicate uiav take them without being weakened or made sick, and upon the
 robust, by increasing the dose, they act with efficiency.   No family once using me
 powders will ever abandon them for any other.                        .  . put
  Directions. —Take one of these Powders every other week, as follows, vi*■
 one of them into a cupful of hot water, sweeten it, and let it stand until coia  oeiuie
 you drink it; then drink, grounds and all.


                       DR.  BROADBENT'S


 Sanative   for  Kidney  and  Urinary  Diseases.

  The Sanative is a sure and permanent remedy for Gravel and Stone, Inflammations
 of the  Bladder  and  Kidnev, Scalding or Burning heat of  the  Water, Diabetes,
 Offensive condition of the Urine, Difficulty of Urinating, and  inability to retain the
 water in consequence of relaxation and debility.  Ulcerations  of the Bladder; Mor-
 bid  Discharges indicated by deposits of  sediments and  phosphates in the water;
 Cancers and Fatty Degenerations; and Bright's Disease  of the Kidney ;  and Dropsi-
 cal Effusion in any part of the body, — are all cured by a proper use of this Sanative.
  Directions. — One teaspoonful is to be taken three times a day.




   Dr.   Broadbent's   Heart   Sanative.

  This will be confessed, by all who may make a trial of it, a  most magical remedy-
in all cases of palpitation  of the heart, or any form of heart disease.  This complaint
is usually considered a very'dangerous and fatal one, and, unless properly treated,
it is so.  It is, ai all events, a most distressing one.
  This Sanative, in cases of heart difficulty, gives the most delightful relief, soothes
and calms the throbbings of the heart,  tranquilizes the arterial excitement, and
equalizes the circulation.  In recent cases no other remedy is  needed to cure.
  Directions. —One teaspoonful to be taken every night and  morning.



                  DR.  C.  R.  BROADBENT'S


   TWO  ELECTRICAL   MEDICINES.

  For disturbed bilious  action—torpid, congested, or otherwise deranged liver—for
all forms of biliousness—for headache of any kind, costiveness, sick stomach, flatu-
lence, diarrhoea, indigestion, piles, determination  of bl> od to  the head, and for ma-
larial fevers, &.c, this medicine is a specific, quite doing away with theuseof calomel,
possessing as it does the  alterative and useful, without any of the hurtful proper-
ties of that drug.
  Directions. —Take one teaspoonful of these every morning  and night.



                      DR.  BROADBENT'S


    Medicine  for   Nervous  Debility.

  This is a truly happy and fortunate preparation, combining the concentrated active
 princples of a recently discovered nervine: its action upon, th  nrostrateJenemies
 of the nervous system is  wonderful, and it will cure every kind of «„™-f,^ i S?rf
  Directions. - Take one teaspooniul of this every nfeh7w£2 you gTto bedI  '"

  Price from  two  to,three dollars per bottle for any  of these  medicines

 according to size; and one dollar extra for the Inhaler.   Sent  to any per-
 son safely by  Express.                                        '  * 
 
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