^
"NSUMPTION
A  CURABLE  DISEASE,
ILLUSTRATED IN THE TREATMENT OF
ONE HUNDRED  AND FIFTY  CASES:
j
BY D#. HALL, OF NEW ORLEANS.

X* ■ (o ^
 " It is adverse to the interests of Humanity to consider any dfc- -
ease incurable."               Sir Ciuhi.es Scubamork.
 " Consumption is clearly Scrofula, and admits of only one mode
of cure."                           John Hunter.
 '*' I'have no doubt but that there is a specific for Consumption."
                                  Dr. Stokls.
 " Its perfect cure is demonstrable."        Dr. Carsweil
      •PITTSBURGH:
PRINTED AT THE COMMERCIAL JOIRNAI. OFFICE,
              1845. 
 
PREFACE.
  The design of the following pages is to encourage such
as have  Consumption, or are threatened with it, to  use in
time those  means Avhich  have saved others, and may save
them.
  The Author, both before  and  since visiting Europe,  for
professional purposes,  has met  with the  most  gratifying
success,  and  hopes  to  place within the reach of many
whom he may never see, the means of cure.
  Difficult  terms are avoided, that the most  common reader
may easily  comprehend all  that  is  important to be under-
stood.
  Ji-ly 1st, 1845. 
 
CONSUMPTION A CURABLE  DISEASE.
              WHAT IS CONSUMPTION?
  Consumption,  commonly  called  a "Decline," and  by
Physicians "Phthisis,"  is a gradual  wasting away of  the
lun js, by which they become disorganized or rotten, and  are
spit out of the mouth in the  shape of yellow matter, which
usually sinks in water, and in three cases out of four, is, or
has been, more or less tinged with blood at various intervals.
              WHAT  ARE THE LUNGS?
  They are to man, what the "lights" are to animals,-  are
made in the same way, and look  like them, hanging in both
sides of the breast, and reaching down as  far as the sixth rib.
They are  divided  into  five bunches, called  lobes, three of
which are in the right, and two in ihe left side.   They may
be compared to many thousands of small  bladders, called air
cells, united in one great neck, the wind pipe.   They have
their root at the back-bone, between the shoulder blades, and
from that, they stick out forwards; not  entirely unlike the
extended wings of a bird.  These little air cells have  ex-
ceeding thin sides; and are of all sizes, from the twentieth
down to the hundredth  part of an inch in diameter.   They
are filled with air at every breath  we draw in; and are com-
paratively emptied at every outbreathing.   And this is their
employment, unceasingly, from the first  cry of infancy, till
the last effort of expiring nature.  The foundation for con-
sumption  is not  unfrequently laid by the sides of these  air-
cells thickening and sticking, or even growing together from
the want of full breathing enough to  keep  them  apart, or
from high mucous excitement, produced  by a cold, or other
causes.
  It is a part of  the treatment to remove  this  condition of
the parts  in  an  agreeable manner, beautifully rational, and
unknown until recently.
     WHAT CAUSES THE  LUNGS  TO CONSUME?
  Tubercles form on around and  among the air cells, which
constitute the lungs, ripen, rot, and eat them away.
                         1* 
6
               WHAT ARE  TUBERCLES?
  They  are small rounded masses, which, as they enlarge,
often acquire the  form  of a tuberous root, such as the pota-
toe, garlic, tulip, &c. and  hence called Tubercle   A single
tubercle is a small, clear, shining, grey substance, dotted about
among the lungs, usually roundish, but of all shapes; and in
size from a pea, down to invisibility.  In the course of time,
it begins  to ripen, by a little yellow spot appearing, usually
in the centre, and gradually widens to the edges.   The tu-
bercle now softens, spreads, meets its neighbor tubercle half
way; these join, and  meet others  which  have joined, and
all soften down  into one yellow mass together; this is spit
up by degrees,  and  the place it occupied  is empty, and is
called a cavity,  excavation, not unlike that  made by mice in
cheese; small, if it holds a hazle-nut; large, if it hold a wal-
nut;  and  very large, when a goose-egg may lay in it.   Tu-
bercles ripen at different times, as apples on a tree; and this
is the reason that consumptive persons have such frequent
changes in  their feelings; well to day, or this week, and ill
the next.   In process of time, other excavations  are made,
and communicate with older ones; and in this way, the lungs
are burrowed out to a mere shell; the man speaks in a sepul-
chral, grave like  voice, that  makes one shudder  to hear it,
and soon there are not lungs enough left to live upon, to
keep him warm^ and the fire  of life goes out—forever.

             WHAT CAUSES TUBERCLES?

  Some persons are born with them.   Weak,.sickly parents,.
those who are dyspeptic, drunken, effeminate, diseased, who
marry too young, almost always send tuberculous  children
into the world;  and leave them  the  woful heritage of a con-
stitution blasted at the root.   But even in cases of  this kind,
I can cause children  to grow out  of it, without  medioine;.
and in persons more advanced,.! have permanently arrested
the malady.
   When persons are not born consumptive, they may be-
come so, in many ways; for  whatever impairs the general
health is  capable of producing tubercles in a few weeks, by
impoverishing  the  blood.  Whatever can  impoverish  the
blood can  cause consumption; and whatever  enriches the
blood,  arrests and cures it.
   The causes  which  more commonly operate in  effecting
this  gradual and almost imperceptible  undermining of the 
7
health,  are, Insufficient or bad food:  scanty clothing:  living
in cellars or other damp situations:  injudicious use  of calo-
mel, quinine, or intoxicating  drinks: protracted  fever  and
ague:  suppressions:  profuse  discharges, long continued:
grief, disappointments, worldly care: intense and extended
mental effort:  neglected colds and coughs: frequent resort to
medicine for slight ailments: costiveness alone, or alternating
with loose bowels: breathing  impure air, or the heated at-
mosphere of  factories, engine  rooms,  printing offices: fre-
quent and sudden changes from heat to cold, or from  a cold
to a hot temperature,  such as Pilots, Engineers, and Clergy-
men are subject to: these and many others, by gradually un-
dermining the health, lay the foundation for that truly dread-
ful disease.
          HOW  ARE TUBERCLES PRODUCED?
   On  the sides of the air cells, already spoken of, many
little blood vessels spread themselves about in every direction,
as a vine spreads itself on the side of a wall; through these
all the blood  of the body passes many times a day, if there
is nothing to  hinder it  in  its progress  and choke them up.
When that is  the case, the extremely thin  sides of these blood
bearing vessels may yield a little, but the clogging still going
on, the thinnest part  of the  blood  is pressed through its
pores, or there is a vitiated secretion, which stands  there, in
the shape of a small, clear drop, with, possibly, the slightest
tinge of red;  this soon  enlarges, hardens, and is a young tu-
bercle, and this it is, which causes the dry, hacking  cough in
consumption, seeming  to come on of itself, yet gives a timely
and friendly warning; but gives it, most  frequently, in vain.
If the  means  employed by me were used now, they would
take these tubercles away, and effectually prevent spitting of
matter, night  sweats, and  emaciation, from ever coming on;
the proof of this isr  that in due lime,  the cough would be-
come easier, and at length disappear.
   It is  only  in  the lungs that tubercles exist alone; but if
they are in any other part of the body, it is absolutely certain
that they are in the lungs also, after  the age of fifteen.
   Tubercles,  Scrofula, Struma and Consumption, are one and
the same disease, differing only in the locality of tubercle.. 
8
WHAT CAUSES THE SMALL BLOOD VESSELS ON THE
  SIDES OF THE AIR CELLS TO BECOME CONGESTED
  IN THE MANNER DESCRIBED?

  The surface of the lungs exposed to the action of the air
at every  breath, is estimated  to be equal to  two thousand
times the surface of the  body, and  would cover a wall as
high as the head, and twenty-five feet long; being a surface
of more than twenty thousand square inches.
  A healthy  young  man aged eighteen, will, on an average,
take in six pints of air at every  breath.  The air goes into
the  lungs  pure and  sweet;  but, as all  know, comes out so
impure as lo  disgust, and so poisonous, that some have said
if it could be instantly breathed in again, unmixed with the
pure air around, it would  produce suffocation and death on
the  spot.  Bit the wise and kind Author of our being, more
mindful of us than we are  of ourselves, has so  arranged it,
that this poisonous breath  is so  light, that on leaving the
nostrils, it rises immediately above  us-—as all can see of a
clear, cold, Irosty  morning—passes into the clouds* is scat-
tered to the  four winds, purified and sent back  to  earth, to
give us life again.
  But while the air is drawn into  the air cells of the lungs,
so pure, jfnd leaves them so  impure, there is another process
going on, precisely  opposite.  The  heart at every beat,
drives the blood out of itself,  into the small vessels, which
are  spread out on the sides of  the air cells of the lungs;  but
this blood is  thick, sluggish, biack and  impure;  having just
returned  from  a  circuit through  the body, washing it out,
and has come back to the lungs to get clear of the filth which
it gathered up;  it however passes  immediately on and out of
the lungs, going in at one door and coming out of the other,
into another  part of the heart.  But although it made that
flying visit, not stopping an instant, it has changed its char-
acter altogether; it is now bright, red, lijiht, sparkling, life-
like, and life-giving,  and at the  beat of the heart, is driven
with electric speed, to the remotest part of the body, depos-
iting every where  in its  progress, renovation, and health, and
life.  The lungs  then  are  a market place,  an exchange,
where the rich pure air, and the  poor life-lost blood, meet.
The air gives its life to the blood,  and in exchange, the blood
gives back its  death.  Now if there be too much blood, or
too little air—or the air be  not pure  enough—the exchange
will not  be equal—will not be perfect; the blood will move 
9
glower, become thicker and clog up, pressing itself through
the pores in the. sides of the little stretched vessels, and the
hateful tubercle is thus, or by vitiated secretion, brought to
birth.   I prevent all this.
   Tubercles,  then,  are produced in two  ways, by a  defi-
ciency of pure air,  for a  length of time,  or by a sluggish
circulation of  the blood.  If then we  live  in  an impure air
long enough,  tubercles are  produced.   Have  you never read
of persons having consumption, who  lived in warm rooms,
factories, and  the like?
   But let the air be ever  so pure, if  we do not get enough
of it, tubercles are produced;  we do not get enough, if we
breathe too short or too seldom.  People who lace  tight,
breathe short.  Do  such persons ever die of consumption?
What causes a person to breathe seldom?  for  that also pro-
duces  tubercles and death.   Persons   who  sit  too  much,
stooping, the  back bent out, and  the breast bent in: or such
as lean their side habitually against a table, or the like—such
persons breathe seldom; so much so,  that they would  soon
die, but nature, like  a watchful parent, rouses us up, and we
stretch and take a full  long breath, which sends a pleasant
feeling all over us.   Did you  ever know shoe-makers die of
consumption?  or poor, but excellent young women? who to
make an honorable living,  perhaps  for  a feeble, helpless pa-
rent, tottering on  the grave's brink—bend over the needle,
nearly double sometimes, in their forgetfulness, and the clear
blue sky and beautiful sun-liiht, and all nature smiling and
glad without,  every body and every thing glad, but they are
not, for they have  not  time  t» enjoy, but sit and toil  on;
and dresry winter comes with  its long, dark, cheerless nights;
the sleet clicks upon the window; and the heavy wind moans
mournfully in the streets, or whirrs through the cracks of the
old crazy building, which  fairly creaks again;  but a mother
is there, and  they are  working for  her; and work on, and
disease approaches;  and for a while they suffer on, age and
disease together, till  at last and  together, the parent and the
child sink into the grave, side by side,  in the last long sleep
of death.  The remedies proposed, forcibly prevent such an
unfavorable position of the body, without  bands or cords of
any kind,  except those of nature's own make.   And here, as
in her other operations, she governs so gently, and her rule
is so pleasant, that we are aware of no constraint.
   But this sluggish motion of the blood in these small vessels
around the sides of the  air cells, is  brought  on in another 
10
way.   We breathe seldom, when we exercise but little, or
become low spirited, from any cause whatever;  from care, or
losses, or  disappointment in our calculations, whether they
have been reasonable or not; from the unkindness of kindred;
the ingratitude  of  those  whom  we have  benefited; or from
the infidelity of those who U3ed to love us, and we them; or
the unavailing thoughts of past  prosperity, with  its flowers
and its sunshine—these are the things which produce the in-
frequent long  drawn  breath, the deep and heavy sigh, and
sow the seeds  of certain death: are not these the people, who
pass off with that slow and stealthy paced disease?  It is the
slow circulation which these feelings produce, that is the
immediate cause of tubercles, and not the feeling3 themselves.
For those  who are blue to-day, but the brighter for it to-mor-
row, do not die of consumption.  As they can give advice
best, who are  farthest from needing it, I will not offer vio-
lence to the already wounded heart, and  bowed  spirit,  by
saying that it is not worth while to grieve for the past, and
that others are worse off  than they, although it is a fact; and
that the best possible thing to be done, is to forget the past,
be busy, look upward  and ahead, although  nothing is  more
true—for it is almost as difficult to get clear of such feelings, „
as to get well of consumption, unless properly treated.  And
those who can advise so well, when they come to sorrow's
hour themselves,  will feel it so.  To sum all up, long con-
tinued  ill health, is the great immediate cause of Tubercular
Consumption;  and whatever causes that protracted weak state
of health, causes consumption.  Such however is the weak-
ness of humanity, that naming the method to prevent disease-,
does the least  possible good;  we wake  not till the giant is
upon us.
   When enough fresh air does  not  get into the  lungs—or
when from weak health, they work in a sluggish manner—or
when from other causes, a thickish, sticky coat collects, is
secreted on the inside of the  air  cells, they not  being dis-
tended, by full breathing, are at length brought  into contact,
are inclined to be glued together, and we  have difficult breath-
ing; most consumptive persons have this.   It is  the part of
some of the means used to prevent  this, to wash  out  these
half filled and sticky air  cells, and thus  relieve the lungs of
this intruding  and disagreeable  tough  matter,  affording a
grateful relief  to the patient, as it  causes  in a short time, a
freer and more copious expectoration, until the accumulation
is removed,  when  the expectoration ceases altogether. 
11
  Such is the best theory of Consumption I have been able
to make up, from the numerous and conflicting  ones which
have appeared.  When a plainer,  and more  reasonable one
is presented, I will change.
  It has been  observed that  protracted  ill  health, is the im-
mediate cause of tubercular consumption, when not congeni-
tal.  But  it  may with propriety be  considered  the cause of
hereditary Phthisis;  for long continued disease in the parent,
very frequently originates a  tubercular  diathesis in  the off-
spring, although it may not be manifested in the stock.  It
will perhaps be of no service, beyond mere  information, to
speak  of  other causes of the disease, since it is but  too sel-
dom that  persons can be persuaded to make a timely use of
suitable means for the removal of palpable symptoms  of  a
decline, let alone taking precaution against the causes of those
symptoms,  however plainly stated.  Still, as  it may possibly
be  of some  service,  I will more distinctly name  some of the
secondary,  that  is, the more remote causes  of  the  disease,
commonly known as  consumption of the lungs.   In doing
this, I shall put down what  is the result of my own observa-
tion, rather  than a detail of causes  collected from books.  In
presenting  these,  I will, as  has been generally done  in these
pages, forego  the  pleasure  of expressing myself in the lan-
guage of the Faculty, although it is certainly the most elegant,
the most  concise,  the most scientific, used in  any profession.
This tract is designed to be  understood by the most common
reader, and medical  terms are studiously avoided. My desire
is to convey just  enough and no  more,  than to give to an
ordinary  reader such a view of the nature and symptoms of
the disease, as will lead him  to apply to me for a cure in time;
 to  do it at the very first appearance of suspicious symptoms.
 I have had^persons  -come to me,  who were hourly dying if
 the disease, hut seemed  quite convinced  that they did not
 have it, because they could   not see that they had ever done
 any thing to give  it to  them.  Such  should not rest in their
 inquiries, until they have established the fact, with great cer-
 tainty, ihat their  parents and  grand parents also have done
 nothing to  cause if.  For it  is known  to the informed, that
sometimes  the disease is  smothered up for a generation, for
an age, and then re-appears  in the grand-child, like madness
or  any other  transmissable  calamity.  By stating the causes
of the  disease at large, persons above referred to, may be
 able to arrive  at a more correct conclusion, and  more speed-
 ily too.   As soon as a man  asks me to undertake his case, I 
12
would, were  it in my power, cause him to forget all he ever
knew of the disease, and would  most certainly prevent him
from reading  any more on the subject.  It is peculiarly true,
that at least in this  case, ignorance  is advantageous, if not
blissful   Hence, the fewer books a patient reads on the sub-
ject of his malady, the better; for unless he have an extraor-
dinary capacity, which will enable  him to understand the
whole subject thoroughly, he will soon read himself to death.
  A surprisingly large number date their  attack from " The
Influenza."  Others sav, "I had fever and  ague for a great
while, when  it disappeared and left a cough, which has con-
tinued ever since."   Not long ago, I  had three applications
of this kind,  within a few days.
  Multitudes  fall victims to tubercular disease, who live in
cold,  damp places.   Criminals,  who were confined in damp
dungeons,  have their lungs in  a short  time  covered with
tubercles,  although  when  first imprisoned  they were in
robust health.   Animals, a dog, for example, if kept in a
wet cellar, will have his whole lungs dotted with tubercles m
a few weeks.  I know that a different opinion is  held  by
many.  I speak of what has fallen under my own observa-
tion,  and have no theory to support on the subject.
   Long continued dyspeptic symptoms,  often end  in con-
sumption.                                      .
   A  habit of taking medicine for trifling irregularities, leaves
great numbers in the last stages of the disease, before they are
aware that "any thing serious is the matter."   Losing rest at
night, night-watching, a wounded spirit, long continued grief
for the dead, want of occupation, incessant brooding over the
 past—these bring thousands yearly to the grave, through the
 powerful influence they have in producing Phthisis.
   The causes  of consumption  being so numerous,  and its
 being transmissible, when produced, through several genera-
 tions, why  is  it, that it  has not before now, become  the
 disease of the civilized world?   It has already become so.
 There is reason, and strong reason  too, for the truth of the
 estimate made by some, that already, one fourth of the people
 owe their death, more  or less  directly,  to the existence of
 tubercles.   At this  rate, the  globe would  be depopulated
 were it not for the principle of an overruling Benevolence, so
 frequently brought  into  requisition, which saves humanity
 from extinction, by making blessings out of the  very curses
 which it brings upon itself—thus,
    When  from any cause, whether it be the gratification of 
13
appetite, the indulgence of passions, or a wilful,  deliberate,
and  protracted violation  of any of the  wholesome laws of
our being;  the body is enfeebled, the mind, sooner or later,
inevitably  participates; these powerfully re-act on one an-
other, from parent to child, causing a rapid deterioration, both
physical and mental, until the being is  not half a man; but
at some point in this downward course, known only to Om-
niscience, nature steps in and takes away the power of repro-
duction, and the race is saved.   Hence, the extinction of the
names of whole families  once numerous, and bidding fair to
stock the country.
  Those who are of a Consumptive family, can shield the
system from death,  by this disease, by a timely and judicious
use of the remedies—and all who employ them thus, are left
in a condition, more capable than before,  of resisting any
ordinary exposure to weather, or sudden atmospheric change.
Palpitation—irregular  beating  of the heart—has frequently
disappeared, while  Chronic  Liver  affections,  and  habitual
Constipa'ion, have been removed.   They are as effectual in
Scrofula, as in Consumption,  while those who have a nar-
row Chtsl—and thirty inches in circumference under the
arms is quite narrow lor  a man—or sunken breast, are sur-
prisingly benefited  in a  very  short time—frequently after
one or two visits, the perfection of the  cure is entirely de-
pendant on the fidelity with which the patient adheres to the
directions given.   A few  require several weeks of daily and
careful attention,  to  bring their system to a state  of health
requisite for the  application  of the main, and more specific
remedies.  A steady and  permanent improvement is made, in
proportion as  the patient, with a cheerful determination and
resolute punctuality, makes it  his business to  give the rem-
edies a steady and judicious  trial, for a  length of time, pro-
portioned generally to  the coming  on  of the disease, or the
ravages made.
   These remedies  are most  advantageously employed amid
the  attentions and  comforts  of friends  and home.  Hence,
persons from  a distance  are  frequently not necessarily de-
I ined in the city beyond  a day or two.   I do not profess to
cure evrry case, or to  effect it in any  instance, in a day or
week—nor by any secret or inexplicable mode—but upon
rational principles,  easily  comprehended by the educated and
unprejudiced.   The cure is effectual,  in proportion to  the
smallness of the amount  of lungs actually destroyed.  Four
out of every five may be saved of those who make a timely
                             2 
14
 application, that  is, before the lungs are covered with tuber-
 cles, or before  suppuration has taken place.   The extent of
 either of these, can only be told  by seeing  the person, and
 making the necessary examinations, which  is done without
 the slightest pain in any instance.  If there  is a cavity, not
 large,  it is effectually and  permanently  healed, by  a lining
 membrane, or cicatrix, in a time proportioned to its size.
   Persons sometimes apply to me, " afraid that their lungs
 are affected."   Being under this  impression, they are  filled
 with the most gloomy forebodings, when on examination, it
 is immediately and perfectly apparent, that the lungs are en-
 tirely sound.   Such an  impression would produce  tubercles
 in a person of this temperament.  In a  case like  this, it is
 of priceless benefit to have the impression removed, by sub-
 mitting to  the examination of an experienced, skilful and
 candid physician.   Uncertainty and apprehension will waste
 away the strongest constitution.
   Clergyman,  and others,  in  different parts of the  United
 States, have given  a  willing testimony to  the  efficiency of
 some of the remedies  employed in removing affections of the
 throat, called  Bronchitis,  of several years  standing; not a
 partial and temporary, but a complete and permanent remo-
 val.  There can  be no good  reason  why  the same thing
 should not be  accomplished in others, by the  same  means.
 Some have been enabled to speak in public  with great  ease
 and comfort, who had been previously compelled to abandon
 their profession.

          WHAT DO TUBERCLES PRODUCE?
   Tubercles  produce various  diseases, according to the part
 of the body whieh they attack.
   Tubercle in the lungs, is Consumption.
  Tubercle in  the neck, is King's Evil.
  Tubercle in  the joint, is White  Swelling.
  Tubercle in  the back bone, induces Spinal Disease.
  Tubercle in the belly, is Negro Consumption.
  Tubercle in  the hip  joint, is  Hip Disease.
  Tubercle in  the loins, is Lumbar Abscess.
  Tubercle in  the lining of the nostrils of a horse, is called
 Glanders.
  Children are tuberculous, who  have  running sores about
the nose, ears, mouth, scalp, &c.
  Consumption, Scrofula, Struma,  and  Tubercles,  may be
considered one and the same malady. 
15
               SIGNS OF CONSUMPTION.
   They are various,  according to the  person, the constitu-
tion, the part affected, and the cause producing it.  There is
no one common symptom, which infallibly points out its ex-
istence.  Cough, spitting, and general weakness, are the
most invariable concomitant symptoms.  In any ten persons
who die of Phthisis, these three  symptoms will be oftener
found present, and together, than any other three that can be
named.  At the same time, some persons have never cough-
ed or spit at all, until within  a few days of death; and yet
on examination, the lungs would be found eaten almost half
away.  In  medical books, so many symptoms are enumerated
as accompanying the disease under consideration, that almost
any invalid will find himself to  have an alarming number  of
them.   In  forming an opinion of  a case, I  rely on  no one
symptom, or combination of symptoms; every thing a person
complains of, and every thing he does not complain of, must
be taken into account.  A man cannot judge  of himself,
whether he has consumption or not; nor can any physician
safely pronounce upon the question, unless he has for a great
while turned his whole attention to observations of this kind.
Persons have come to me, and  died within a few days, who
were  assured by their physician,  just before leaving home,
that their lungs were not affected;  and yet  in  examining
Hospital cases of this  kind, large portions of the lungs would
be found broken down into a mass of rotten matter.   But I
do not mean to say by all this, that there is no sure method
of indicating the disease; it can be  done with an almost mag-
net-like infallibility, in a very large number of cases; but it  is
by a method which books cannot  describe; personal obser-
vation and experience can teach it, and these only;  an expe-
rience daily repeated, extending through years of time and
continents  of space; and this I claim for myself.  I  am not
often mistaken as to the result of a case, although it be a long
time ahead; and any man of common observation, with equal
opportunities, could  say the same thing.
   A case.   A gentleman of a northern city, who had been
engaged in  business to the amount of more than a hundred
thousand dollars a year, wished me to give  an opinion of his
case.   " I have no idea," said  he, "that I have consumption,
or any thing of that  kind; I  only feel a little weak,  but I
want to know what it is; I do  not want medicine, for I am
not sick; I  am dining  out with  my friends, I  can cross the
mountains and return, my  appetite is perfectly good,  and all 
16
I want is  to  feel a little  stronger."  A weakness, slight
cough, and pain in the side, were all that he complained of;
and, in answer to many  questions variously put, he would
acknowledge  the existence of no other symptom, not the
slightest.   1 perceived that he  was determined to have it
"that nothing much was  the matter with him;"  and for the
sake of a  lovely family  of children, his position in society,
and  because  he was a finished gentleman, having  a  noble
manliness,  only equalled  by the kindness of his heart, which
extended to all around him, I determined to express my views
undisguisedly, without flattery,  and without exaggeration,
made  the  examination leisurely, and formed  my opinion
accordingly.   I directed  his  attention  to  three  apparent
trivial circumstances, which had not attracted his notice, and
traced out what I thought would  be the subsequent history
of each one of these, if they were each let alone; giving him
my reasons why this and that  and  the other thing would
occur;  in  order, that by  convincing, I  might save  him.
When  I closed, he admitted  that it was reasonable ;  but
thought that I had overrated the points named, and  was un-
willing to take any measures for  the recovery of his  health,
because he felt  well enough,  and was only a  little weak.
On parting a few days  afterwards,  I said to him, "Either
one of the things which I have named to you, would kill a
common man; and  with  the three  you will not live twelve
months."   I   left a note in  his  hands to the  same effect,
giving him direct'ons how he might avoid what I anticipated.
Eight  months afterwards I saw him  again for the first time;
he  had been  looking  for me for several days, with  great
anxiety.   "Ah,  Doctor," said he, as I met him  in his cham-
ber, his beautiful daughter leaning on his pillow,  "what you
told me has come true  o  a hair's  breadth,  but it is too late
now,"—and he died.
  Another.   A fine looking young man, aged 22, the son of
a southern  Planter, complained to me  one day  of  a cough,
and restlessness at night,  first observed a month before.  He
was about  to  travel  for  information, as  much  as any thing
else, and intended taking Havana in his  route; but before
starting, wished to  know whether his lungs were affected.
On examination, I found that he was in a worse  condition
than his external condition indicated; he had not fallen away
 any, was walking the streets, apparently as well  as others,
 and had a good appetite.   I told him that he had better aban-
 don his journey for the preser.t,  return home, and endeavor 
17
to get well;  if he did not,  he would die.   He  persisted in
going, and  I refused to prescribe.  This was  the  30th of
January.  Before the summer had closed, he died  of most
unmitigated consumption.
  In  a  particular  class  of persons who are consumptive,
there  is a combination of symptoms, which present them-
selves,  from six to twelve months  in advance, which, if let
alone, make death infinitely certain.  In a  long  experience,
I have never found them fail; and  do not believe I ever will.
They are symptoms which, in nine cases out often, entirely
escape the observation  of the patient;  and  yet  are  plain as
a sun beam, to  an observant practitioner.   They are compa-
rative,  not  of universal application, not  appreciated by the
multitude, and  are therefore not named.
   The  following are some combinations of symptoms, in
persons who have called on me, fearing they had already, or
were  threatened with consumption.

                    NUMBER ONE.  2.
   Pulse  95 a  minute,  white  tongue, some  head-ache,  pain
between  the shoulders, and along  the breast bone; running
pains through the breast, and in one side; great general  chil-
liness, a regular daily chill, bowels costive,  great restlessness
at night, cough very troublesome, and excites sickness at the
stomach,  white and frothy expectoration at first, then matter,
spitting of blood, frequent night sweats, great emaciation and
weakness, scarcely able to sit up while the bed was making.

                   NUMBER TWO.   3.
   Pulse  100 in a minute,  bitter taste, yellow tongue, consid-
erable pain between the shoulders, and some along the breast
bone; great pain under the ribs, much general chilliness,  irre-
gular appetite, but good  in general;  sleep  not  good,   very
great nervousness, some difficulty  in breathing, cough  very
troublesome, excites nausea  and  vomiting, yellow, thick,
heavy expectoration, had fallen away a good deal,  had  spit-
ting of  blood from the beginning.
                 NUMBER THREE.  16.
   Pulse 85, bitter taste, pains in  the  back, feet and hands
always cold, bowels costive,  some nervousness, cough very
troublesome and dry, expectorates mucous mixed with blood,
was taken with a bad cold eight months ago.
                           2* 
18
                  NUMBER FOUR.  17.
   Pulse 86 a  minute, bad taste indefinable, some  pain  be-
tween the shoulders, also in both sides,  now and then a gen-
eral  chillness,  troublesome cough in the morning,  expecto-
rates a small, round, pea-like matter,,  taken  with  spitting of
blood two years ago.
                   NUMBER FIVE.  Id.
   Pulse 80; bitter teste; tongue red and smooth;  some pain
in the small of the back,  and occasionally along the breast
bone; also in the left shoulder; chills  run over the body;
moderate appetite; bowels  costive; sleep good;  a slight diffi-
culty in breathing now  and then; eorrgh very  troublesome;
sometimes excites nausea and vomiting; expectorates several
table spoons of matter every day; some night sweats;  has
fallen away; sweats in the  coldest weather.
                   NUMBER SIX.  20.
   Pulse 100; an  indesc ribable, sweetish, watery  taste; pain
often in small of the back;  headache;  pains and soreness  be-
tween  the shoulders; decided  pain along  the  breast bone;
some in  the left side, and under the ribs;  darting  pains
through  the breast; chills  run  along  the back; has a chill
every day; heat in the palms of the  hands now  and  then;
voracious appetite; loose bowels; good sleep; great  nervous-
ness; occasional difficulty in breathing;  troublesome Cough;
sometimes excites  nausea;  expectorates  a yellowish, white
matter;  spitting  of  blood  once, six weeks before, night
sweats;  some falling away;  prefers sour food.
                 NUMBER SEVEN.  22.
   Pulse 130; bitter  taste;  red tongue; some pain  between
the shoulders  some time  ago; also in  the  right  side,  and
under the right ribs, and moveable; daily chill;  general chil-
liness;  heat in palms and soles; moderate appetite;  irregular
bowels; sleep not good;  great nervousness;  cough very Trou-
blesome on lying down; exciting nausea sometimes; expec-
torates several table spoonfuls of matter during the  twenty-
four hours; night sweats; falling away; was taken with spit-
ting of blood.
                 NUMBER EIGHT.  24.
   Pulse 112; very bad taste; tongue yellow and white; pain
between the shoulders; general chilliness; heat in  palms and
soles; expectorates a gill of yellow matter iu 24 hours; short- 
19
ness of  breath; quite weak;  was taken with spitting of
blood, twelve months before.
                  NUMBER NINK.  25.
   Pulse  90; bitter taste; tongue white and dry; sometimes
light headed; tightness along front part of the breast; a ful-
ness under the ribs on the left side; intolerable burning in
palms  and soles; good appetite; bowels costive;  does not
get to sleep until two o'clock in the morning;  expectoration
white and tough; sometimes yellow, and easier; cough very
troublesome in the morning; spits blood several times a day;
great emaciation and  weakness;  was taken with spitting of
blood at first.
                   NUMBER  TEN. 29.
   Pulse 84;  bad taste;  white tongue, and very dry in the
morning; pain in the lower part of the back; frequent head-
ache; soreness between the shoulders; chills along  the back;
general chilliness; heat in palms and soles;  costive bowels;
broken sleep;  very troublesome cough; pain in the side.
                 NUMBER ELEVEN.  31.
   Pulse 118;  bitter taste; tongue white  and dry;  red at the
edges; pain all along between the  shoulders; an  aching in
front of  the breast; pains in both sides, under the ribs, and
darting through the breast; soreness on pressure  at the pit
of the stomach; chills along the back and sides; some gen-
eral chilliness;  heat in palms  and soles; poor and variable
appetite; costive; sleep good; difficult breathing; cough very
troublesome on lying down at night; expectoration is frothy,
slimy, thick, frequently blood; relishes sour provisions.
                NUMBER  TWELVE.  56.
   Pulse 82;  bad taste;  can't describe  it;  yellow  tongue;
pain in small of the back; moving pains between the shoul-
ders, up and  down the breast bone;  in the right  side also;
chilly; bad appetite; bowels costive; sleep not good; expec-
toration is white, sometimes yellow; sinks in water; frequent
night  sweats;   when  a child,  had frequent  soreness  and
breaking out about the ears, and then the throat.
                NUMBER  TWELVE.  58.
   Pulse 84; red, moist  tongue; pain in the  small of the
back;  feeling  of  fullness in the  head; eyes ache; pretty
constant pain  between  the shoulders;  soreness  at pit of 
20
stomach, on  pressure;  chills  run  along the back, with a
good deal of general chilliness; cold feet; hands burn; rest-
less sleep; tightness across the breast; cough not very trou-
blesome; expectorates a yellow phlegm in the morning; a
whitish mucous to-day;  spitting of blood and severe night
sweats some  time ago; loves pickles.

               NUMBER THIRTEEN.  77.
   Rapid pulse; red tongue;  daily chill; heat in the  palms;
very poor appetite; irregular bowels;  sleep  tolerably good;
cough  very troublesome,  especially in  the  morning; some
spitting of blood; night sweats; whitish, frothy, thick  spittle.

                 NUMBER FOURTEEN.  80.
   Frequent pulse; pains in the back, head, and between the
shoulders,  frequently; also  in right side;  very chilly; cold
feet; costive bowels; some difficulty in breathing; cough is
troublesome,  mostly  on  lying down;  expectorates round
globules of yellow matter.
                  NUMBER  FIFTEEN.
   Bad taste;  yellow tongue; now  and then  a chilliness be-
tween  the shoulders; regularly every  day  once or twice;
generally in the. morning; pain under  the ribs; a gnawing
feeling  at the stomach, when fasts too long; cold feet and
hands  at one time; burning at another; bowels costive; sleep
good;  frequent clearing of throat; a great feeling of tight-
ness about the chest; flushing  about the  face, frequently
accompanied with a burning sensation.
   Whether any or all of  the  above cases died, or got well,
I will leave till some other time to communicate.
   Some persons, in  addition  to the ordinary symptoms of
consumption, have now and then a complaint almost pecu-
liar to themselves; and  probably the like would not  be  met
with again, in six months practice; such as a numbness in
the arm, leg, or thigh;  ;t coldness on the inside of the  foot,
within the space of a dollar;  pains about the lower edge of
the ribs, running round  towards the back bone; a fixed pain
covered  by the  hand, at the  bottom  of the breast bone;  a
sensation, as of th ■ heaviness  of lead, at a particular part of
the breast; then of a raw, burning  feeling; others refer to  a
particular part  of  the chest, as if  there was nothing there;
as if it were  perfectly vacant;  another has  pain at the end of
the breast bone, confined to a spot which a copper cent 
21
would cover; a drawing cord like feeling annoys some; one
man will have, with other symptoms, a constant dull pain,
or heavy uncomfortable feeling, at the back of the head, for
weeks and months together; while another is more troubled
with a frequent and sudden flushing  in one  particular part
of the body, under the chin, one side of the face, or neck,
top of the head or inner part of the thigh; pain  behind the
breast bone; great uneasiness in standing; a feeling of va-
cancy or  " gonenness" at the lower part of the breast;  a
small dry spot in the centre of the  hand  or foot; a sensa-
tion of coldness to some part of the lungs, on  drawing  a
breath;  one has an internal itching, within the lungs them-
selves, or an  impression  of an insupportable  weight, on
lying down at night,  on some part of  the  breast;  a daily
chilliness  between' the  shoulders;  sensation of heat along
the inner edge  of one foot; expectoration  occasionally, of
little pellicles, rounded, shot-like substances, more or less
clear.
   After all, the general reader will conclude, that consump-
tion must  be a very indefinite kind of disease; and it is true,
that there is scarcely a symptom to be named, which con-
sumptives have not complained of  at one  time  or another;
nevertheless, there are three  or four symptoms, either of
which, if let alone unchecked,  will infallibly end, sooner or
later, in unmistaken Phthisis.
   First: A spiteful dry cough, coming on without any appa-
rent cause, on going to bed or getting up in  the morning.
   Second: An occasional  mixture  of  blood with what is
expectorated.
   Third:  A frequently recurring or fixed pain  in any part
of the breast, with general debility.
   The worst of these is  the cough, which no cough syrup
ever sold  has removed longer than while using it, but  only
smothers, die more certainly and speedily to destroy.
   As to spitting of blood, it is often lightly thought of, as
persons do  it who seem  to be as hearty and well, and feel
as well as any body.  My uniform  observation  on this
point is simply this:  Inquire for  them a few years after-
wards, and  in four cases out of five, the answer  will be—
" he died  of consumption."  A man may persuade himself
that it comes from the stomach, or throat, or nose,  or any-
where else, but I tell you, Reader, let it come from  whence
it may, it  is most assuredly, in four cases out  of five, the 
22
certain herald of consumption and death, unless proper care
be taken; just let it alone, and you will inevitably die from
its effects.   Its appearance shows  one of two things, as a
very general rule, either  that the lung vessels  are danger-
ously weak, leaving a  person liable to death, from rupture,
within any hour of his existence, from sudden excitement,
jar or strain; or, which is scarcely less  comforting, it indi-
cates that a man's lungs are in process of being eaten away;
and that is  the last stage  of tubercular disease.   Yet I can,
and do more certainly, and permanently, cure such, than
where the spiteful dry  cough is the prevailing symptom.
   In opening at random a volume  of  one hundred and fifty
cases, of persons coming to me under apprehension of con-
sumption, beginning or begun, I find that to the question
What symptom- annoys you most?  Ten consecutive per-
sons answer   >cr-  ■*-"•
   1. Throat.     Q
   2. Cough.
         3. Short breathing.        *       i
    .    4. Throat. ^.-U  t^L  k"Ur<y
\feUevr5. Pairitin the breast,  v   V
i.
            6.  Spitting of blood.
            7.  Costiveness.
            8.  Weakness.
            9.  Chills. ^,  -€a*-Ct A
           10.  Weakness.   78.

                              ANOTHER TEN.   \><>\ 'vVvCt)
            1.  Throat.          .              .
            2.  Short breathing.  U.v j *1ca.-v i (>
            3.  Short breating.                      ^
            4.  Expectoration.
            5.  Throat.
            6.  Throat.
            7.  Expectoration.
            8.  Weakness in the breast.
            9.  Cough.
           10.  Cough.
    A                          ANOTHER TEN.
   .tyhjLtU 1.  Paintin the side.  42.    »             .      - T
\tjr VX-  2.  Throat.'- 'vv  <v   ' fL<  *  * jt -J* '"> • 4 4jtry4
            8. Expectoration.     ,     v      y
            4. Weakness.  Ov-^TtXx.  Vtvv i «J  ■ ' 
                          23

   5. Weakness.  O^j-yr^ljbu Xxjc^T^
   6. Gough.X-d/oouj—•|         V
   7. Throat. V* 1*^jjl "-.1 J-Lf
   8. Throat. t--CVC  <fcvt* ■- <^  ^
   9. Weakness. Cs^ ttj^ fK,<Ml£>0
  10. Cough. »-••-  (*~  vvonr«%*

   Principal inconvenience of ten consecutive persons who
did, or did not recover.
   1. Weakness.  46.
   2. Throat.
   3. Cough.
   4. Cough.
   5. Burning  breast.
   6. Oppression.
   7. Cough.
   8. Cough.
   9. Weakness.               ,
  10. Oppression, jk-u-ws,  4j^L.n  (Uvju^-O
   Principal  inconvenience of ten consecutive persons who
did or did not recover, opposite to the  preceding.     I)  li
   1. Cough.  48. ls/'"W<yw, fcvwM^iv,,*.K«**«.d/|L'WV\JU"VUi^
   2, cOTih.ewU;£7           *          /  '        j
   3. Cough. S^S^M8'. t
   4. Cough. **- *&e£*U>
   5. Cough.              I   .
   6. Pain 'twixt shoulders.  W-f0"11^
   7. Burning feet.  Ut,Vj£ P
   8. Pain in the breast. <*  '^I'O
   9. Weak  breast. -CmLJI<*  ■ ■**
  10. Cough.

   The best practical  use to be made of the five tables above
is this:  If you have  had any symptom named, longer than
two wfeftks, there is cause for  apprehension; do not sleep
until you make an effort for its removal, and spare no pains
to accomplish  the  object fully and completely.  Go to  a
careful physician, of  education and experience, and take no
internal remedy unless he prescribes or knows its contents.
I take  it  for granted, that  no practitioner,  who has any
respect for himself, would use  or recommend a remedy of
whose constituents he was ignorant.
   Some persons, and there are many,  who, instead of ask- 
24
mg their physician what to take, for fear of being "dosed to
death" by him, will turn upon their heel, and buy any syrup,
or drops, or pills, that any person happens  to recommend^
and swallow them for weeks together.  Patent medicines
kill every year, more than the Faculty of Christendom, in a
century.  When I have myself taken cold or feel  unwell,
I allow nothing to  pass my lips, not a particle of food or a
drop of liquid,  until I get well, which is always within for-
ty-eight hours.   In relation to colds especially, they can, if
they are not the cold of consumption, be almost always re-
moved within  thirty-six hours, if such a practice,  (eat any
thing, but take  a drop of no liquid, not even cold water,) is
idopted rigidly, the instant you find you have taken cold.
But if you have long taken cold, nothing that can be  swal-
lowed, will  do  it any  safe and permanent good; it  will in
spite of remedies, run its course of ten days or two weeks,
and then get well of itself.  This  is the secret of newspaper
certificates for cough and cold medicines; which, when they
are given, are given by weak-minded people, who mean well,
but never reflect.   Never take a particle or a drop, for a cold,
except from your physician; it stamps consumption on thou-
sands every  year.
   Can Consumption be cured?  If I  did not believe so—if
I did not believe that I could prevent, arrest, and effectually,
and permanently cure it, I would  abandon the  practice,  the
very next instant.
   Who says that it cannot be cured?   No great living phy-
sician,  who  has had extensive practice in diseases  of the
Lungs  says so.   The common people say so; but they know
nothing of disease,  and arc as ignorant of the nature, causes
and history of consumption, as they are of the  constituents
of the moon.  You cannot find one. great name in  modern
medicine, who has  devoted particular attention to diseases of
the Lungs, but  will assert, and has asserted  to this effect.
   "The perfect cure of consumption of the Lungs is demon-
strable !! "
   Such is the medical creed of M. Louis,  Laennee,  Mar-
shall Hall, John Hunter, and others, whose names will live
in honor, to  remote ages.  If the reader has  the disease, or
is threatened with it, and believes differently, his duty is ea-
sily performed, since he has only  to do nothing,  and die!
   Tubercles are removed from every  other part of the body,
and why not from the Lungs?   White swelling has been
perfectly cured; Curved Spine has been cured;  Lumber Ab- 
25
scess  has been cured; hip disease  has  been, cured; kings
evil has  been cured;  tabes  mesenterica has \»een cured—
and why not Consumption, which is only tuber^e in a dif-
ferent part of the body?  Every  one knows, who knows
any thing at all, and every physician of even common read-
ing knows, that if tubercles are in any part of  the hody,
they are  in the lungs at the same time; and when  that is vthe
case, a man  is in the first stages of Consumption—if, thfeq,
they are in the knee, or loins, or neck,  or belly,  producing
white swelling,  lumber abscess, kings evil or negro  con-
sumption, they are also in the lungs, but these diseases are
cured; hence the tubercle  must  be  arrested in its  progress,
or removed.
   Some  persons say that the lungs are  always moving, and
have  no chance to heal.   No physician of any intelligence
will  say so;  for many a man has had a dirk driven into his
side,  or  a bullet shot through  his lungs, and got well;—
scarcely any man that has ever  been a mile from  home, but
can call to mind instances of this kind within his own range
of observation, either  in  animals  or  men.  I deem it use-
less to offer any argument  on the subject, other than the bare
statement of  facts  just made; and this other one in addition,
that it is impossible to open the  bodies of ten persons, with-
out finding scars in the lungs, showing  that they  were once
sore or decayed or wounded, and that they afterwards per-
fectly healed, and the person  finally  died of some other
desease.  So far, then, from Consumption being incapable
of cure, it is perfectly and permanently cured every day.
   In corroboration of the  above sentiment, that the lungs
readily heal, an extract is here given from an article in a
late Edinburgh Med. and Surg.  Journal, from the  pen of Dr.
Bennet:  "Of  seventy-three  bodies examined,  since  last
 November, I found puckerings,  or concretions in the lungs,
 of twenty-eight.  These  observations, conjoined  with those
 of Roger and Boudet, serve  to establish, that the spontaneous
 cure  of pulmonary tubercle, occurs in the proportion of from
 one-third to one-half of  all who die after the age of forty.
 There  seems  to  be no  reason why cavities in  the lungs
 should not heal with  the same frequency as ulcerations or
 abscesses in other internal organs,  if the further deposition
 of tubercle could be arrested; and this  is only to be accom-
 plished  by overcoming the pathological conditions on which
 the deposition of tubercle depends."
                            3 
26
   How is it, then, that  every body says that it cannot be
cured?  I have only room to say in answer, that the intelli-
gence of that  which we call "Every body," is very limited
on this, as well as on all  other subjects; so limited indeed
that it amounts to just nothing at all;  and he who obtains
his knowledge from what "every  body says," must have
a  limited supply.   To form  a  correct  opinion  on  any
subject, you must  study  that  subject  yourself or  obtain
jit  from those who have given it their special study; and in
the absence  of your ability to study medicine in general, or
lung disease in particular, you must consult  those, who
have; and these are the  very Then who, navihg studied, and
read and investigated this  class of diseases, and none other,
for years, and scores of  years, these are the men who stand
up in the face of the world, and  fearlessly declare,—"Its
perfect  cure is demonstrable."   This  simple  declaration,
under the circumstances, carries to the mind of a man capa-
ble and accustomed to weigh moral evidence, more than the
force of mathematical confirmation.
   The man who declares, or gives countenance to the de-
claration, that "Consumption cannot be cured," commits  a
crime against humanity.   For if the sentiment prevails, the
practical effect is this:  as soon  as a particular case is de-
clared to be consumption, of course no effort is made to cure
it, and the person is abandoned  to die;  but suppose it was
an erroneous declaration, (for how often does it  happen that
a  case is declared consumptive, when it  is not,)  then the
man has  been allowed  to die,  when he  might have been
saved;—it amounts to almost homicide, practically.  It is
against  good morals to  utter  as a  fact,  that  which  you
do not know  to  be  true either  from your own investi-
gations, or from the investigations  of  others.   The dictate
of sound morality and true benevolence, should lead  you to
say at least, you "do not know."
   The tendency of such a sentiment is essentially bad in its
nature.  Make a man firmly believe that consumption cannot
be cured, the moment, then, he admits that he has the disease,
he must admit his death  is inevitable.  The only method
of avoiding this is to deny he has the  disease at all; conse-
quently he makes no effort to remove it; he will use means
for every thing else  but  Consumption, allowing  it all the
while to infix itself more immovably in the  system; and
at long last  makes the acknowledgment, that he has the dis-
I 
27
ease, just  as he is expiring; and this leads  to the universal
belief of the incurable nature of  Phthisis;—a certain  set of
symptoms are suspicioned to be consumption;  if the person
die, it  is declared Consumption; but if, with precisely the
same symptoms, another lives, it is pronounced "something
else."
   My  practice is this:—A man comes to me  and  says, or
sends  word,  "I am afraid that  I  have consumption;  my
friends tell me so; all my physicians say that my lungs are
affected, and they can do me no good; they  have been prac-
tising on me for years, and now I am sinking every day; I
cannot sit up an hour at a time; and here is my young wife
and  little babe to be thrown upon the world without money
and without a friend!  What shall I do?"  Just such  a case
occurred to me near two years ago.  I did what I  could, aad
the man now lives a public officer, weighing somehundred
and fifty or two hundred pounds.
   Another:  "Doctor, I  have brought you my child, all the
one  I  have  in the world; his father is  dead;  we  are very
poor; all  that I had has been paid away for medicines, and
the doctors now tell me that they do not know what  is the
matter with him, and can do him no good.  I see he is sink-
ing every day; I am old, and he is my only dependence; he
is as kind a child to his poor old mother as ever lived; can't
you do something to save him?" I examined and prescribed
for him, and  saw him but that once.  Passing by that way
a year afterwards, on inquiry, I found that my directions
had  been closely followed, and he was entirely well  in every
respect.
   An  old man and rich, was  supposed  by  himself and
friends to be  in a dying condition from an affection  of the
lungs,  and hearing that I practised  in diseases of that kind
exclusively, consulted  me.  Twelve months afterwards he
called  to tell me that he had not had better health for ten
years, and had no symptom of his former disease.
   Now all these cases occurred  within a few weeks of each
other;  suppose they re-occur in a  year's practice,  do I  not
do well to  continue the same.   I  only save  those  whom
others have adjudged to inevitable death. I think  I do  well if
I save only three in a thousand; but I frequently have several
such cases to occur in a single week; that  is,  they come to
 me abandoned to death by their physicians, remain with me
a while, and years after are living and doing well. 
28
  t proceed to give a few cases, all of which occurred in the
practice of a few weeks.  I merely give the more prominent
symptoms when  they came to  me, and their  unsolicited
statements in relation to themselves sometime after.  Names
are omitted, as  I do not communicate them even to private
ears.   My object is simply to show what kind of cases I
cure;  what kind of complications  of  disease  have been
removed,  by the mode of treatment  which I  have adopted;
and certainly it is no more than fair to  suppose, that I will
not be less successful in similar cases hereafter.
                        Case  1.
  A  young man  aged  twenty-two, dark hair  and eyes»
tall and  spare, principal  symptoms,  fixed  pain  in  the
left breast, emaciation, weakness, a  troublesome cough at
night  of many  months duration.   I  did  not see him after
giving him the prescriptions, but he called in two months to
say, that he felt and believed himself to  be perfectly well.
                        No.  2;
  Tall,  thin gentleman aged thirty-eight.  Taken  with  a
cough three years ago, which now excites nausea and vomit-
ing, with morning expectoration, left side fallen in.   Writes
in two months,  that he  believed with a little longer attention
to the remedies, "my disease would  be entirely  removed."
And with  the letter, sent me another patient. Saw him once
only.
                        No.  &
  A young lady about eighteen, dark hair and  eyes, well
made  and  beautiful.  Cold feet, pulse eighty-five.   A very
troublesome dry cough  of eight months' standing; expecto-
rating mucous  and  blood.  Reported  by letter in  a  few
weeks,—"My cough has  almost entirely left me," &c. And
more  recently,  from a disappearance of the  symptom, be-
lieves that nothing  is now the matter with her.  Have not
seen her since her first  visit.  Her friends had given her up
as lost.  She is now an accomplished and lovely woman.
                        No.  4.
  Merchant.   Aged thirty, middle size,  pulse  ninety-six,
pains  between the shoulders, up and down the centre of the
breast, and on  either side, loose bowels, great nervousness
and difficulty in breathing, night sweats, palpitation, great
falling away.   Mother died of Phthisis.  First symptoms
appeared  seven months ago.  Says at  the  end of four 
29
months,—"I believe you have entirely cured me."   I never
saw him but once.
                        No. 5.
  Teacher.   Aged twenty-two.  Cold feet, great chilliness,
nervous, costive, restless  sleep, difficult breathing,  hard
cough every night after lying down three or four hours; ex-
pectorates yellow bubbly matter, about a quarter of a  pint
in twenty-four hours;  pains in various  parts, and  night
sweats.  Symptoms appeared two years ago, writes,—"It is
now seven weeks since I saw you; (the first and only time,)
I feel a great deal better than I  did then.  I  have no pains
in any  part  of my  body*, little or no cough, am able  to
attend  to my business, have  no night sweats, was required
to use the remedy for it but one  night," &c.

                        KO, 6.
   Married  man aged twenty-six, pulse ninety-five, confined
to bed all the time, daily chill, irregular sleep, cough very
troublesome,  frequent night sweats, unable to sit  up.   At-
tacked with spitting of blood two  years before, repeated since;
found him lying on his back in bed,  asleep, heavy breathing,
pale as  a sheet,  eyes and mouth  open, waked up, looked
wildly  around and for sometime spoke incoherently, his case
had been given up  as utterly hopeless by several different
physicians in succession.  I prescribed for him.   The next
time I saw him, was on  the fifteenth day, was walking about,
in two weeks more, could walk a mile without much fatigue.
I saw him no more.  It was last year.  A few days ago, a
gentleman called  upon me to see his  wife,  who  was com-
plaining.  This  gentleman, who was a neighbor of the  pa-
tient, came to me in consequence of what he esteemed "the
perfectly miraculous raising up of the patient."  Not having
heard from him for several months, I asked  if he was well;
•«yes, and as fat  as a beef!" I prescribed  for this gentle-
man's  young wife, and they turned  their faces homeward, a
distance  of two  thousand  miles, in high  hope  of perfect
recovery.
   This case is of more importance than the space allotted to
it would indicate.  This gentleman had been suffering for
two years, He had been prescribed for as a consumptive by
physicians in diferent States, who had successively aban-
doned him as being in a hopeless condition.  The physician
who was in attendance when I was requested to visit him,
                           3* 
30
had  practised medicine in a large city for nineteen years
He also considered it a case of consumption impossible of
cure.   I believe the man would have died in two weeks.
                        No.  7.
  A gentleman aged  thirty-eight,  pulse ninety,  tightness
across  the breast, sensation of fullness  in the left side, heat,
sometimes  violent burning in the palms and soles, costive,
great nervousness, does not get to sleep usually until about
two o'clock in the morning, cough troublesome in the morn-
ing,  swelled  ankles, spits up a yellow matter, considerable
emaciation, great difficulty of breathing at the top of the breast.
  This gentleman came to the hotel in  a carriage with his
physician,  the exhaustion produced in coming  up one pair
of stairs to my office, was very great,  and  on being  seated
began  to  spit red blood  profusely.   He had three severe
attacks  of this  bloody vomiting, and many smaller attacks,
sometimes he was a month  without any, then again he would
have it every week or two, at other times every few days,
and occasionally, as to day, several attacks during the twenty-
four hours.  He had repeatedly discharged "pints at a time."
These   symptoms began ten years before.    For  several
years past  he had been  compelled  to  give up all business.
I saw  him almost daily for two weeks, and  then no more.
This took place last year.  In the spring of the present year,
1844, I received  a letter from him, saying,—"I am happy
to inform  you that my health is very much improved, have
had  no return  of bleeding since I saw you, and  have in-
creased fourteen pounds in weight," (within the last  three
months.)  And  further adds,—"All your patients with whom
I am acquainted, are doing well,  with  one exception."
                        No.  8.
   A man of fortune aged fifty, had been for some weeks un-
der the  medical treatment of a great practitioner, deservedly
distinguished.  Sent to know if I would  call  to see him.  I
refused the third time to go.
   "But, Doctor,  he  is  sinking every  day, and cannot last
long."
   Then he has less time to lose.  Bring  him here.
   "His physicians say the risk is  too great, and money is
no object with  him, you have only to  make  out your bill."
   I decline the visit.
   "But, Doctor, it is raining; would  you have the  man  to
risk his life?" 
31
  Put him in a carriage, and let it rain on.  I tell you it will
do him good, his physicians are mistaken.
  In the course of the day, he was brought to my room  from
the carriage at the door, by three  men.  He complained in
various  parts;  dizziness, cough,  yellow expectoration, nerv-
ousnesa, palpitation, binding across the breast, burning in the
palms, a frequent  sensation of "goneness," as he expressed
it; fixed pain in one side, &c.
  After a leisure examination, I  said to him,—" My friend,
I can cure you." „ He wept.   I required him to  occupy a
room adjoining  my office, and  saw him  many times a day
for two weeks.  Three months have now passed away.  He
has made a journey of a thousand miles by land and water,
does not cough once in a day, expectoration  has ceased, all
pains have disappeared, walks five miles a  day without  fa-
tigue, and  believes himself saved  from a speedy and certain
death,  by the means  employed.  I attended  him  but two
weeks.
                         No.  9.
   Hon. Judge J**** S * * * * drove to my office from the
hotel in an easy carriage,  a distance of two squares.   This
was last year.  He seemed fatigued; cnme to me as a last re-
sort; thought  he could only die  any how, and "would  try it
for a short time."  He had pains  between the shoulders;  a red
tongue;  a  frequent general chilliness;  sleep very imperfect;
great nervousness and difficulty in breathing; cough very trou-
blesome at night; expectorates a thick yellow matter bordering
on green, from  a half to one pint in  twenty-four hours, and
this had often  blood  in  it; night sweats, (and  this was in
the depth of winter;) good deal  of palpitation or fatigue, on
excitement of body; great emaciation; his clothes looked lost
upon him;  a  continual tickling in the throat when  in repose;
astonishing weakness on slight exercise; goes to bed at  ten
o'clock, coughs half an hour or an hour, then sleeps  until
one, has another  spell of violent  dry cough at first, then it
becomes free; if he drinks water, causes him to vomit water
and matter mixed together, then sleeps until daylight.  The
first symptoms were a dry cough  several years  previous to
this time, but two years before this  application,  he had a
blood vessel ruptured by the violence of the cough.  He was
unwilling to incur a greater expense than my first charge, and
almost  believed  he was  throwing that  away, the chances
against him were so numerous, and scarcely one for him; so 
32
he believed, and his friends also, but more confidently.  He
took with him a very small amount of remedies, with a pro-
mise to return in  a week or two, if they did him any good.
I heard nothing more of this case for some six weeks, when
two of his friends came early one morning into my office, for
a certificate of burial—as I supposed.  It appeared, however,
that  he was rapidly getting well, so much so as to want  to
know whether  it  was worth  while to  do any thing more.
Soon after that, he was appointed  by his fellow-citizens  to
welcome a distinguished visitor, which he did in a handsome
address, honorable to himself and worthy  of those for whom
the sentiments  were  expressed.   Subsequently he  came  to
the city as a delegate to some State convention, a journey of
a hundred  miles or more.   The conveyance being crowded,
he had not slept any the preceding night, but after breakfast,
joined  in a  public procession;  and after having been on his
feet, standing, walking, &c. until near three o'clock, walked
half  a mile or more to my  office, before  dinner, without spe-
cial fatigue, saying,—"I feel myself another man in mind and
body."   Three months have passed, and two days ago I  re-
ceived  a letter from him introducing me to the eighth patient,
in consequence of the benefit of my treatment in  his case.
The letter is as follows, omitting names:—

  Dear  Sir,—Having myself derived much  henefit from
your hands, and  knowing that your treatment is happily
influencing the health of others of my acquaintance, I feel it a
duty to introduce to you persons who are desirous of consult-
ing you, from no  idle curiosity, but from a hope of  securing
permanent benefits.  With this view, I take  the  liberty of
recommending  to  you  Captain -----, whose wife  is much
afflicted  with  a disease which I believe  to be under your
control.
  The confidence I have in your course, induces me to hope
that  as  many as  possible  may be placed  under your direc-
tions.  And at the risk of being troublesome, I cannot refrain
from recommending persons to visit you, who are suffering,
and who inquire  the  cause  of the sudden and remarkable
change in my own health.                  Yours, truly.

  In view of the  above cases, it may be asserted with great
safety, that there  can be no good reason why others  having
similar symptoms, may not, by the same treatment, experi-
ence in their own persons, the like happy results. 
33
   N. B.—It is now more than a year since the above cases
 were first published: and I have the gratification of knowing
 that every one of them is still living and  doing well.
   A case of this kind occurred  to me:—An  unmarried  man
 aged thirty, pulse one hundred, had a  bad  taste, dry white
 tongue, pain and  weakness  in  the  small  of the  back, dull
 heavy feeling in  the head,  can't stoop over or stir about
 quickly, occasional pain across the  upper part of the breast
 and shoulder, pain  under the edge of  the left ribs, a fall-
 ing away and weakness at  the pit of  the  stomach, when
 long without food, cold  feet, hands  always  dry and husky,
 costive, sleeps  very  uniform, but becomes restless before
 morning, difficulty  of  breathing and  fullness  at  the  top
 the  breast-bone  on   going  to  bed, a light  yellow  expec-
 toration,  father   and sister  died of Phthisis,  if  he  sits
 down  long, he  has pain around  under  the  ribs; if he
 walks a mile,, he fails about the stomach  and edge of the ribs;
 if he stands  still, he  fails about  the back;  has a violent dry
 cough, when he goes to  bed  and when he tets up, coughs  if
 he draws a  long  breath or drinks a glass of cold water, or
 presses his  hand on  his breast, or comes into a room, or be-
 gins to talk, or whistles, or even brushes his whiskers; some-
 times in entering my office, will cough incessantly, rapid,
 dry and hard, for fifteen  minutes or more.
   Was this a case of Consumption?  He  had taken divers
 medicines; had emploved different physicians; cut off the uvu-
 la, and did various other things, to no purpose. After he had
 been with me a  month,  I find the following memorandum in
 my note-book: "Every symptom abating; ran rub the chest
 or strike upon it with great force, or talk or whistle or brush
 whiskers, without exciting cough as formerly, breathes  free-
 er, can  sit or stand without  having pain or  restlessness or
 failings around  the loins, as  he had  for two  years together
 previous to  visiting me."
   In  another month  he  was  as  bad as  ever.  This change
 was produced by incidental circumstances  not important to
 be  named.   I  varied my plan  of treatment, gave him  full
 directions, and sent  him home, two thousand miles distant.
One year afterward* he wrote me thus:—
   "I go out in all weathers, have become a great deal stouter
and some heavier; I can walk  for miles and up the largest hills
we have, without minding it much;  enn  draw a full breath,
sing, whistle, and can talk longer* without its causing me to
cough; I am out the coldest  days in winter, without being 
34
near a fire, and scarcely cough once,"  More recently I was
told  by a gentleman who was  a particular friend of his, that
he was entirely well  in every respect.   Was this  a case of
Consumption or not?
  Within a few  months past, I have had several cases of in-
terest.  A merchant's lady aged thirty-six, had within a year
or two, several attacks of inflammation of the lungs; for five
years had severe dyspepsia, fluor albiis, and for four years,
falling of the womb,  which  last  had at length produced the
effect of incapacitating her to walk  but a few yards without
oreat inconvenience,  not even about the house.   She had fe-
vers, pains in the back  between the shoulders, in  the side,
and  a constant, painful, drawing feeling at the bottom of the
breastbone, chilliness, costiveness, copious and daily expec-
toration of large quantities of thick yellow matter, a frequent
hacking cough during  the day, but worse on lying down, or
immediately on  waking up  in the  morning, sometimes ex-
citing nausea and vomiting.
   I  prescribed  at once for  the Prolapsus, and  then for the
other symptoms.  In three  weeks,  cough had almost ceased
to trouble her; bowels, appetite  and sleep  all  rpgular, and
could walk a mile to  church  and  back, and attend to various
Sabbath  and Sunday-school duties, without special fatigue.
I consider this a most remarkable case of ihe happy effects
of a few simple  remedies judiciously applied.
   A number of cases of a combination of symptoms of a dys-
peptic character rapidly tending to  confirmed consumption,
I have been able to relieve,  with  a surprising and  gratifying
facility; and  those symptoms not having returned within a
year, may be considered as permanently removed.
   A man aged  thirty, complained of a pain of six months'
standing, immediately behind the breast-bone; within a week
I_ caused its removal, and it never returned; this was the prin-
cipal of many other symptoms, all of which disappeared.
   A gentleman of fortune, aged  twenty-six, unmarried, of a
consumptive family, had  spitting of blood  as  the  principal
symptom for two years;  it gradually increased  in  frequency
and quantity in  proportion to the  care he took to ward it off.
He  came into my office, the thermometer 78 degrees, muffled
up from head to foot, enveloped in  every  part with extra
flannels  and  handkerchiefs,- he  could not  walk a  hundred
yards without spitting blood;  he was almost afraid to move,
and never did do so, even to rise from  his chair, except in 
35
the most careful, measured  «nd deliberate  manner.  IQX&;
scribed.  In  three days the expectoration ceased;  in  a week
he could walk two miles without fatigue.  After a month, he
was still improving, and wrote to know if I would allow him
to take a journey overland  five hundred  miles, to marry a
beautiful  Carolinian  Heiress  of  seventeen; and  is   now
canvassing through  the country,  day  and  night,  through
all  kinds  of  weather,  for one  of the highest offices in the
State, with daily increasing health and strength,  and is  well
worthy of the place he aspires  to.

                WHAT  IS  BRONCHITIS?
   The wind-pipe divides at  the bottom of the neck in front,
and  sends a branch  to  each  side of the  chest;  these  two
branches, as  they dive further down,  send off other branches,
becoming continually smaller and more numerous, until  they
can scarcely  be distinguished, ending in  a bulb or small blad-
der, and these small bladders are the lungs themselves, the
small branches  of the  windpipe which terminate  in these
bladders, are called Bronchii.   The word "i7ts," at  the end
of a term  in medicine, always means  inflammation; which
is, more blood in the minute vessels of a part, than is natural,
producing redness, heat, pain and swelling. Bronchitis, then,
is inflammation, an increase of  blood in the smaller branches
of  the windpipe.
   Bronchitis, Catarrh and a common Cold are one and the
same thing essentially.  Many  persons who have a cough or
sore throat for some time, feel quite relieved when told that it
is Bronchitis; taking  it for granted, that if it is Bronchitis, as
a matter of course it cannot be Consumption.  Bronchitis is
a general term, embracing any inflammatory affection of the
wind-pipe and its branches, from the slightest possible  com-
mon cold, to the last  gasp of Consumption.  A  common
cold, or inflammation in the throat, begins Consumption, and
inflammation in the throat ends it.  The general meaning at-
tached  to Bronchitis, is  an affection  of  the throat which has
fixed itself there; that is, an inflammation which is of longer
duration  than  a simple cold.   A great facility in catching
cold  and a great facility in  having a slight sore throat, are to
me the great heralds of Consumption fixing itself in the sys-
tem.  And if men would but take the kind and timely warn-
ing, Consumption could be indefinitely warded off in millions
of instances, and in  the large majority  of cases, without 
36
medicine of any description internally.   And I here declare,
from an unwavering conviction of its almost unqualified truth,
that  the expression, "almost  any  thing  gives me a cold,  or
sore  throat," is a fatal  harbinger of a consumptive's death;
and  taking cough medicines  to remove them, only hastens
the consummation, by lul ing the victim in  treacherous se-
curity; and a cough of several weeks' standing, that becomes
easier, or disappears while the remedy is taking, and  re-ap-
pears when the remedy  is discontinued, ought to be set down
as Consumption already begun.   But let Bronchitis  be what
it may, in the language of Dr, Stokes, "it has a most import-
ant share in almost all diseases of the lungs."
               SYMPTOMS OF BRONCHITIS.
   It is usually accompanied  with irritation in some part of
the throat, a  harsh, dry  cough, then considerable expectora-
tion, sometimes an incredible amount is raised, by spells of
coughing.  The  matter thus expectorated is  various, sticky,
tough, thick, dark, yellow, green, bloody, &c.  according to
circumstances.   There  is usually  no  decided  pain,  but a
soreness or tightness in the breast,  difficulty in  breathing on
slight  exertion,  weakness,  Sic.   The voice   is variously
affected.  Sometimes the patient  can only speak in a hoarse
whisper.
   If Bronchitis is recent, it can  be cured in a few days: if,
however, it be  of week? or months duration, it is more diffi-
cult of removal,  and  requires a  more  protracted effort.   It
may be found, on investigation, that the immediate cause of
this disease,  is  always the application  of cold  in  some way
or other; damp  clothes, damp houses, abrupt exposure  to
raw air,  especially  after a free  employment  of the  vocal
organs.   I do not believe that the use of these organs in any
way,  whether  in singing, or public speaking, or reading, is
ever of itself the  cause of Bronchitis.   Bronchitis is  the ma-
nifestation of a consumptive constitution previously existing,
and ought to be regarded as a herald of an approaching and
 deadly enemy.  It  is  merely a  breaking  forth of  hidden
fires from exposure to the causes just named.   I  believe
that a man  must have a consumptive constitution, before he
 can have Bronchitis,  according to the  general acceptation of
 the word, and that whatever doubts he may entertain of his
 having the  disease  before, when Bronchitis is added to the
 other symptoms, there  remains  not  the shadow of doubt.
 The reader will  perceive that I merely make assertions here. 
37
1 do so, because years of painful observation  have made
them facts, and they need no  reasoning to confirm them.   I
will only add,  that  there is  nothing lost by acting upon
them practically, while by neglecting them, you loose life.
  A very  large proportion  of cases of  Bronchitis, called
" Clergyman's  sore throat,"  could be cured, if taken in the
beginning; and what is much better, can be effectually pre-
vented by the following precautions:   Instead of the uncouth
and inappropriate military stock, or the broad and cumbrous
cravat, wear around the neck a piece of riband,  or some taste-
ful substitute, loosely tied.  This would be sufficient, even
in winter.  The change should be gradually made;  and the
habit should be adopted of rubbing the neck and throat well
every night and morning, with a coarse cloth dipped in a tea
cup of salt water on getting up; but using common cold water
on retiring.  This operation should be continued five or six
minutes rapidly, and sufficiently hard to redden but not abrade
the  surface.  It is  in default  of such simple,  precautiouary
measures, that many of our loveliest and most efficient minis-
ters are  incapacitated for life, or go down to a premature
grave in the morning of their usefulness.   Let those who are
following on take  warning in time, and  look with serious
alarm  on any unusual tendency to "clear the throat," or to
"have  a sore throat," or any  burning feeling there, however
slight; and in addition to what has been named,  to  chew a
piece of white paper during the day, until  the feeling is most
thoroughly  and effectually removed.  The salivary glands
are  thus excited to pour out their secretions, and lubricate the
passages, with  nature's own preparation, which is infinitely
better adapted to the purpose  than any mendicament of man,
In this, as in every other ailment, the practice of every re-
flecting man ought to be, never to take a particle of any thing
that could be considered in the way of medicine, if he can pos-
sibly get well without it, even though it may require a longer
time.   There is no medicine  that is not a poison, by which I
mean, that all medicines are poisonous in larger quantities, and
the  less  of them is taken  the better.   I do not wish to be
understood as being opposed to the use of medicine, but, I
wish  to discountenance the  blind, hap-hazard and  ruinous
practice  of taking  any thing for  any thing.   Medicine is
essential to recovery from many diseases,  but  it ought only
to be taken as prescribed  by a careful and  experienced phy-
sician.   Many  persons are tempted to "save a  doctor's fee,"
bv taking some medicine  which is represented as having this
                            4 
38
great advantage over all  others, it can do no harm even if it
does no good.  The experience of every observant man, in mat-
ters of this kind, is simply this: that which is taken as a med-
icine can do no harm, will certainly do no good, and instead of
being money saved, it is money thrown away, at the expense
of being  made a fool of.   A good constitution is worth all
the world beside, and  yet how  many are hopelessly ruined
every  year by unwise delays, or the  penny-wise policy of
saving a doctor's fee, and swallowing the poisons of quacke-
ry.  The first great and  best method of having a good con-
stitution is to take care of it; the next  is to take immediate
advice from a respectable  physician  when  it is  the least
threatened with disease; if nothing serious is  the matter he
will  prescribe no medicine,' and if there  is a single  pill or
a  few  drops,  promptly  administered, may prevent  what
gallons cannot cure.   But I will just  here make a remark,
founded on a long, and  to  some extent painful observation,
of that most curious  of  all  things, commonly denominated
"Human Nature."   If you want good advice, before you ask
it, place in the hands of your physician one, or five, or ten,
or twenty dollars, according to your estimation of the  value of
your health, and not according to your supposed ability, or
your own opinion of the slightness of your ailment.   There
can be no more reason for obtaining advice from a Physician
for nothing, than from a lawyer.  Any one who will reflect
on the subject will see at once that it is reasonable and just;
the good policy of it is most undeniable.   If you value your
health as much as your estate, fee  your physician as liberally
as your lawyer, in money, not in promises.
  I mentioned a while ago the subject of Dyspepsia as lead-
ing to Phthisis.
  A lady  had troublesome Dyspepsia for several years, end-
ing in obstinate constipation;  frequently three or  four days
would  pass,  and  medicine failing, she was getting into the
habit of using injections, and this condition of the system
was gradually dragging  down the constitution, weakening
her every day, with dry cough.   A few weeks attention to
my directions caused a daily regularity,  strength gradually
increased, appetite improved, and dry cough  entirely disap-
peared.   I  used no  medicines and no injections; neither for
this, or for any of the symptoms of consumption, do I use
Blisters, Issues, Seatons, or other painful remedies.
   Having for  many years  declined the general practice of
medicine, and having confined my attention to the treatment 
39
of Consumption, and those diseases connected with or pro-
ducing  it,  such as Scrofula, Bronchitis, Constipation,
Suppressions, Fluor Albus,  Falling of  the Womb, Di-
seased Liver,  Dyspepsia, and  long-continued ill  health
from whatever cause, it will be apparent  that I have many
opportunities of  making examinations, and witnessing every
possible variety and complication of this dreaded disease, its
history, its progress, its end.  In any given case, I  am able
to decide with great certainty,  whether the person has Con-
sumption or not; and I am not often very far deceived as  to
the time an individual may live, if nothing  is done for him.
There  are certain  signs  which present themselves,  in the
great majority of cases, months beforehand, and when not
attended to, death  is the inevitable consequence; in no one
instance have I ever known them fail.   I  have known them
to appear ten months in advance.  Books do  not communi-
cate them; they  are only to be learned  from study, observa-
tion of actual cases, and comparison.   It has several times
occurred to  me  that persons were declared to  be  in Con-
sumption, and beyond  all hope of recovery, when in two
minutes' examination,  it was  quite  apparent that the dis-
ease was entirely  absent from the system, as subsequently
evidenced  by a perfect and continued restoration to health,
by  means which otherwise could not have made such  an im-
pression on the system.
  To be relieved from such a  heavy and gloomy apprehen-
sion, when there is no  rational ground for its existence, is
worth far more  to any individual, than the amount elsewhere
named for an examination;  and although that examination is
made in a  few minutes, and without inconvenience  to the
person, or much trouble to myself, I choose that the com-
pensation I receive, shall bear at least some proportion to the
benefits which I am able to confer; especially as I have spent
many of the best years of my  life in  preparations necessary
to my calling, and selected so hopeless a branch of medicine,
that few dare attempt it under any circumstances.  To Con-
sumption I confine my investigations, my reading and my
study, by day and  by night, at home and abroad; and as I
always  have cases on hand in every stage of the disease, I
know precisely every step that is  taken, the result of every
new symptom, and whether it  be for life or death.  In say-
ing these  things, I do not wish to assume to myself any
exclusive ability beyond what any common  capacity may
acquire, whose  facilities of observation have  been equal  to 
40
my own; for the indications are  so  distinct, so striking, so
uniform in the great particulars, that it is impossible, under
certain conditions, to be mistaken.
  I do not claim to myself an exclusive ability to cure Con-
sumption; nor do I choose to speak against the  plans of prac-
tice which other gentlemen of the Faculty may have adopted
to master the disease; I never will designedly throw an ob-
stacle in the way of another.  I am  doing well enough, and
the pure satisfaction my own success gives me, and repeated
as often as I meet, months and years afterwards in health and
gladness, those whom I have saved, leaves me  no time or in-
clination to mar it for an instant, in speaking unkindly or dis-
paragingly of the mode of practice adopted by others.  But this
I will say, that there are certain general principles of practice
to be observed, without  which, up to this hour, Consumption
never has been cured by any man; and by these alone it may
be cured in many instances, but in addition to these, there
are several  things peculiar  to my  own mode  of  practice
which others have never known, which leaves their chances
of success, in any given  case, immeasureably behind me; ar.d
the instant  it can be reduced to such a system, and  be pre-
sented in such a manner  that an improper application of it
cannot be made, it shall  be presented  to the world free for all;
for many a system or invention, fraught with blessings to mil-
lions, has been retarded  for a century, or  crushed forever, by
presenting  it to the public before it  has been fully matured,
in consequence of the opprobium thrown upon  it by igno-
rance, prejudice or envy.  Even now a man who professes
to cure Consumption, is regarded with an ominous shrug, or
an incredulous smile; but Gallileo was chlined  in a dungeon,
because he declared that the earth moved in  an  orbit; and
Harvey lost a practice worth twenty thousand dollars a year,
in London, for saying  that  the  blood  circulated,—but" not-
withstanding, the  world does move round, and  blood still
courses through human  veins. And so  it is in relation to the
system of practice proposed by me;  it is safe and effectual,
although the multitude, from prejudice or incredulity, may
refuse its trial,  or procrastinate even its  examination.  Every
body  believes that Consumption cannot be cured,  because
every body else believes it; and until this impression is  su-
perceded by a  wiser and  more humane sentiment, the great
multitude will continue to court, by their inactivity, a weary,
wasting, wretched death;  while only here and  there one can
be found, possessing the moral courage and energy of charac- 
41
 ter, sufficient to breast the prejudices of the many, and make
 a determined and steady effort of weeks, and even months, if
 need  be, to master the enemy, and live, and be young again.
   My patients  are  mainly of two classes.   The  first, are
 those who apply to me in consequence of the benefit which
 some one of their friends or neighbors, derived from my plan
 of treatment:  these  come without prejudice, cheerfully  and
 confidently.   The second class are those who, having  tried
 every body and every thing they could hear of, without any
 permanent advantage, are determined to keep on trying, feel-
 ing perfectly convinced  they will certainly die, unless  they
 do something, and seeing at once that my method of treat-
 ment is neither  painful nor dangerous,  they are satisfied that
 at all events, there is no risk  to run, nothing  to lose; while
 on the other hand, they may gain life;  and that inasmuch as
 I propose to cure the disease, and attend to nothing else, I am
 more likely to succeed, than those" who do not believe it can
 be cured at all, and  consequently make no effort to accom-
 plish  it.
                    TO  PHYSICIANS.
  I have some ambition to  maintain at the highest standard
 the true dignity  of the medical profession.  It  was my privi-
 lege to graduate many years ago in one of the two first medi-
 cal  schools in the  Union,  after  having received a second
 Collegiate degree.  The Faculty at that time was composed
 of men who possessed to an unusual extent the "pride of
 profession;" and no small  portion of their teachings were
 directed  to the inculcation of an open, friendly and dignified
 professional intercommunion,  liberality of opinions, and "a
 spirit of  inquiry, always anxious to learn, and willing to re-
 ceive  information from any  source."  Such teachings make
 a ready and lasting impression on the  minds of young men,
 because such principles are rational and manly.  In carrying
 out these principles,  1  have  made it a uniform  practice never
 to disparage the profession in general, or the practice of any
 one physician in particular, in any instance.  My success does
 not depend on the depreciation of another.  If in any particu-
 lar case, the plan of  treatment has not been such  as to meet
 with my approval, I  am satisfied to believe, that there might
 have  been conditions at  the  time of  prescribing, not now
 appreciable, which rendered the course pursued not only  un-
hurtful, but absolutely  necessary^  And I have  uniformly
found, that he is destitute of any solid  merit,  who, in order
to gain the confidence of the family, makes the first step by
                           4* 
42
depreciating the practice of his  predecessor, whether by a
shrug, a hem or a direct assertion.
  I have been led to make these  remarks, because many per-
sons have applied to me after having been discouraged from
doing so by their physician, who not only knew nothing of my
plan of treatment in general, but could not know what would
be my course in relation  to any particular case; for every
person requires, in some particular  or another, a modification
of treatment; no two are  ever cured  in precisely the same
way.   Now this is not a generous course, for he does  not
know what  I will  do in any particular case, and of course
cannot tell whether it would be proper or not.   He acknow-
ledges himself unable  to cure the disease, beeause he does
net believe it  curable.  But it  must be evident  to any  one
who will ieflect for a moment, that as I make it my whole
study, and  have for years, at home and abroad,  I am more
likely to know something  about  it, and be  able  to cure it,
than one  who knows little or nothing, and does  not attempt a
cure.  I cannot but think that many of those who so readily as-
sert the incurablity of Phthisis, are those who feel very sure
that  they themselves have no symptoms of the disease,  and
have no life to lose by doing nothing.  I have no objection to
a man's declaring his inability to effect a given object, but I
have an objection to his declaring  that no  body else can; it
indicates a very striking want of a virtue which all who are
truly great largely possess.
  My uniform  custom, and  one  which  affords me a great
deal of satisfaction, is to speak  disparagingly of no system
or practice, which I have not had the opportunity of delibe-
rately investigating for myself.   It requires a previous mar-
shalling of  belligerent and angry elements,  to speak  or write
against a man or system;  and I  do not choose that my own
quiet flow of happiness shall be interrupted in any such way.
I could not under any circumstannces, bring myself to abuse
any given system, when I knew nothing about it; that is,
when I had not an opportunity of examining it carefully  and
fairly for myself; for there might be a great deal of  good in
it, and I should be sorry to stop the smallest flow  of good to
a world so full of ill as ours.  Besides, I do not  see how I
could  be honest, and abuse or  depreciate  a thing which I
knew  nothing  about, whether  in  Medicine, Religion,  the
Arts or any thing else.  If on investigation  I find no good in
a system, I choose to let it alone, for there might be good in
it, which my want of enthusiasm or perspicacity, prevented 
43
me from discovering.  And more, my time is more agreeably
and fully occupied in endeavoring to extend  the  benefits of
my practice, or in contemplating the good it has bestowed on
others,  who placed their lives in my hands.
   In order to give a  general  idea of the  kind of  complaints
for which  persons  apply to me for cure, I  will present a
number of cases  from  my note-book, all of which occurred
within a few days, and consecutively.  I  do not mean to say
that these persons believed that they actually had Consump-
tion, very far from it, not one  in  an hundred believes any
such thing—until he is dying; they very readily admit that
they may  have some symptoms which might end  in  Con-
sumption, unless  something is  done to remove them; but as
for having actual  Consumption, a man would  as  soon admit
that he  was dead  already; indeed persons  frequently exclaim,
"Doctor, you don't think that I have Consumption, do  you?
I'd rather be dead at once, than to be wasting  and wearing
away for weeks  and months together, and die by inches."
Such is the just horror which prevails in relation to this
malady; and I freely confess it is  a terrible mode of putting
off mortality. Nor have I found it in general to be that quiet,
painless sinking into the tomb as frequently described; but it
H to be perfectly conscious of every thing passing  around
you, except of the fact that you are dying; the man is too weak
to turn  upon the  side, or scarce  raise the hand: he seems
as if he wanted strength to die; the feeblest whisper requires
a painful effort; large masses of  putrid lungs are forced up into
the throat, and there gurgle and rattle and  accumulate, until
the air-passages are elosed and threaten suffocation; one deathly
effort to cough, and  it is cleared away, and he breathes once
more, but so exhausted with the exertion, as to be almost un-
conscious of life; and  no sooner does he begin to live again,
than there  is another accumulation, and another suffocation
threatened;  this alternate labor and short repose is continued
the live long day, and through  the wearying  hours of night,
until at length the exhaustion is so complete, he cannot cough;
a faint effort to do so, only brings it up far enough to fall over
into the throat, and descend into the stomach a putrifying
mass, whole pints of it together,  in a short time! even this
method of riddance is cutoff, for there is not the strengh  to
make even  the preparatory effort at a cough; and the wind-
pipe fills up, less and  less air passes along it. and  the poor
wretch in his blindness, (for exhaustion and congestion have
taken away his sight,) makes convulsive but fruitless efforts 
44
to raise his hands to his throat, as if to tear away something
there  which was strangling him  to death; a pressure of a
million pounds seems to be upon his heaving breast, and he
implores you  with  a look to take  him  from the bed, to
carry  him to the window, to lay him upon  the floor, to let
him stretch his  limbs, as if he thought to  run  away from
such terrible sufferings, but it is all in vain;  he sees it now,
feels it, gives up, falls back, gasps and dies!
  This is the  death of Consumption, this the fruit of pro-
crastination, of  a palliative treatment of cough drops and
patent remedies.   Under such circumstances, I counsel  the
reader; if you have any one symptom of the disease, which
has lasted several weeks, go to a physician;  you need  not
come  to me; go  to any careful, judicious and experienced
physician,  and obtain relief.  But to  delay from week to
week, persuading yourself that  it is not consumption, that
it is something else, that it may go off of itself after a whde,
is unwise, is unsafe,  it is  perfect folly.   It is very true, if
may be something else, and it may go off of itself; but it
this be not the case, is not the disease eating out  your vitals
every  hour, and  the possibility  of cure every  moment
diminishing?   If it be something else, apply to your physi-
cian, have it removed at once, and be done with it; but if
on the other hand it is not thus readily removed, you are in
terrible danger, especially if any of your immediate relatives
have died of the disease; for any symptom, even the very
slightest  of a  lung affection, in persons  of  a consumptive
family, is the  herald of death, unless removed; whereas,
under  other circumstances, it would  scarcely  deserve a
passing notice.

                     Case  1.  133.
  Rapid pulse; bad taste in the mouth on getting up; pain
in head sometimes; good deal between the shoulders;  also
in the  side; occasional soreness at the  pit of  the stomach;
frequent  chilliness; burning in hands  and feet often; diffi-
culty  in breathing sometimes;  severe cough every morning
on  getting up; coughs on exercising;  exciting nausea and
vomiting often;  expectorates several  table  spoonfuls of a
thick, hard or  heavy, dark colored matter in a day; has had
very exhausting night sweats; considerable palpitation of the
heart;  was attacked with bleeding of the lungs, several pints
at a time; of a consumptive family. 
45
                         Case 2.
  Frequent pains in the head  and side; soreness and hot
burning in the breast; chilliness; hands  and feet burn; bad
appetite; bowels costive; sleep is restless and unrefreshing;
cough; weakness in the limbs;  general debility;  fair com-
plexion; light hair and blue eyes.
                         Case 3.
  Married lady, aged 36; pulse very rapid; has had good
deal of pain between the shoulders;,  also along breast bone;
expresses a feeling of "goneness" at breast; coughing, espe-
cially after a night's perspiration; pains through the breast;
general chilliness, cold hands, bowels constipated, very poor
appetite, sleep interrupted, very  nervous, great and frequent
oppression, cough very troublesome on lying down or get-
ting up, often exciting vomiting, expectorates several spoon-
fuls of a yellow, dark greenish thick heavy stuff every day,
frequent  spitting of blood, night sweats all the time,  fre-
quent palpitations.
                         Case 4.
  Burning feeling within the breast; great  chilliness; varia-
ble  appetite; irregular bowels; sleep is restless; considerable
nervousness; troublesome cough; has had spitting of blood
several times; great debility about the  breast.
                         Case 5.
  Law Student, aged 26.  Pains in the back, head and be-
tween the  shoulders; feeling of a weight  pressing on the
breast, on lying down at night; pain in the  side; coughs, if
lays on that side; pain in drawing a long breath;  pains
through the breast; chilliness; burning in the palms on going
to bed; cough is very troublesome on  lying down and get-
ting up; wakes up in the night to cough;  spits up several
tablespoons of yellow matter in twenty-four hours; palpita-
tion for several years; was taken with influenza, sore throat
at first, then cough,  then spitting of blood  and great  weak-
ness in the chest; brought  on by  sitting  in a cold damp
room all  day.
                        Case  6.
  Married gentleman,  aged  28,  an  Exchange  Broker.
Quick pulse; an indescribable taste in the mouth of a morn-
ing; weakness in the back; pain in hinder part o€ the head;.
sometimes a sharp, shooting pain  between the shoulders; 
46
feeling of tightness, binding, heaviness, along  the  fore part
of the breast; pain in the side and through the breast fre-
quently; a settled pain at the lower part of the breast bone,
accompanied with a feeling of heaviness; chilliness; heat in
palms and soles; appetite variable;  irregular bowels;  sleep
always  restless;  exceedingly  nervous, restless,  fidgetty;
cough;  great tickling at the bottom  of the throat.

                         Case 7.
   Rapid pulse; dry white tongue;  very frequent  pain be-
tween the shoulders, in the side, and along the breast bone;
and  occasionally through the  breast;  chilly;  feet always
cold; burning in the hands; cough  very troublesome  in the
morning, exciting vomiting;  expectorates a bad yellow mat-
ter;  has had several  attacks of spitting of  blood; frequent
night sweats; weakness  about the  legs and knees;   can't
walk much without weariness.
                         Case 8.
   Pain and weakness  between the shoulders;  fullness in
the breast; great chilliness;  heat and dryness in the  hands
and  feet;  appetite changeable; bowels irregular; sleep inter-
rupted  by cough; cannot rest on  the side; shortness of
breath;  very troublesome, tickling  cough,  exciting nausea
and  vomiting; expectorates  several  table  spoons  of  thick,
yellow matter every day; frequent spitting of blood; brought
on by exposure to rain  and cold.
                         Case 9.
   Principal ailment a fixed pain in  the  side of long  stand-
ing,  and very troublesome cough, with weakness.
                        Case  10.
   Rapid pulse; pain between the shoulders, and very much
along the breast bone; pains in both sides; always chilly;
very troublesome  cough; spitting of blood; night sweats;
difficult breathing.

                        Case  11.
   Pain in the head and back; great oppression, and  draw-
ing  in feeling at the breast bone;  pains in  the left side and
through the breast; cough is very  troublesome, excited by
drinking  water; spitting  of blood  several times; difficulty
on lying  on one side. 
47
                       Case 12.
  Principal ailments pain in the side, cough, and spitting of
blood.
                       Case 13.
  Pain between the shoulders, and through the breast; full-
ness along the breast bone;  cold  feet;  irregular appetite;
bowels costive;  shortness of breath; night sweats;  distress-
ing dry cough for  half an hour in the morning, on getting
up; great weakness.
                       Case 14.
  Much  as above.
  The preceding are fourteen consecutive cases from my note
book, opened at random, and show better than could be done
in any other way, the nature of that class of disease, which
falls under my care.  No one can read them without being
impressed with their general similarity, and a remarkable
tendency to the lungs, as the centering point of almost every
symptom.  Every man of  intelligence must acknowledge
that these are the symptoms which, with great uniformity,
precede and accompany consumption; which, if unchecked,
end in consumption.   Now it so happens, that nearly every
one of the above cases remained with me but a day or two,
or  three at  farthest, and after various intervals they write
thus:
   Dear Sir—I am glad to write you, that I have improved
very fast; and  hope to  keep on; have ceased to spit blood
since the 20th of May;  I feel strong, have a good appetite,
and sleep well; my breast is without pain, and  I am in
great hopes that I  will soon be sound and well.
   Your  most thankful and obedient              T. H.
   Dear Sir—I feel pleasure in informing  you, that I am
much better since  I commenced your treatment.   I do not
feel the  pain in my  breast near so much; and then  it is
transient, as also the pain in my side.
   I am,  &c.                                   M. G.
   Dear Sir—I commenced using your remedies according
to  your directions, as soon as I reached home; and in two
 or  three days found the pains leaving  me.  The severest
pain was in my left side; I am  clear of that; and  the pain
 in  my back is but slight; my bowels have  become regular,
 my cough is less troublesome, night and morning, and I am
 not so weak in my breast.
    With my best wishes, &c.                    H.-M. 
48
  Dr. H.—Sir:  I have the pleasure of writing  you,  that
my health is improving very fast, notwithstanding the length
of time I was without some of the remedies; 1 have observ-
ed your directions punctually in every particular; the cough
is less frequent; expectoration easy;  the  fever has  left my
hands; I have  a good appetite  and feel well.  I have no
doubt of getting  well, by perseverance and strict attention
to the directions given me.
  I remain yours, &c.                          H. K.
  Dr. H.—Dear Sir:  On my arrival home,  I commenced
following your directions.  My habits have become regu-
lar; I have scarcely any pain in my left side; that heavy
pressure in my breast I  feel but little, and that, only occa-
sionally; the tickling in my throat  I  feel only once  in  a
while; can sleep much better than formerly, &c.
                                             J. H. A.

  Dear Sir—My cough is a great deal better than when at
your  office;  I am entirely clear of pains and fever; I cough
but very little,  expectorate but little;  have no night sweats,
and am improving very much in strength; the tickling  feel-
ing in my breast has entirely left me.
  I remain, &c.                                 J. H.
  Dear Sir—I continued your prescriptions with manifest
improvement, until one evening while it was  raining, I was
attacked with  a chill and  subsequent  fever, but since my
recovery from  that attack, I have resumed the use of your
remedies, and shall continue them until no longer necessary.
I believe I  would  now  have been nearly well,  had it not
been  for that most unfortunate  attack.  1 still have some
cough and expectoration, though my cough is  neither vio-
lent nor frequent.   I have no pain in  the  side or breast;
sometimes feel a little sense of oppression in the  chest, and
occasional soreness in the upper part of the throat.
   Very respectfully.                         G. P.  JcUiu '

   Dear Sir—I commenced on Monday the use of  your
remedies according to your  directions; I have had no pain
in my side, breast or shoulder since, excepting two or three
times, I felt a little of it; nor have I had that indescribable
and miserable  feeling in the  back part of my left side, run-
ning  up to the  top of the shoulder.   I have scarcely felt any
sensations of  fullness in the Bronchial Tubes and Lungs, 
49
that I have been so much subject  to.  I can attend to my
business with but little inconvenience, and can  lie on my
left side with nearly the same comfort as the other.  I sleep
well,  appetite is good and digestion also.
   Most respectfully, yours, &c.                S. A. P.
   The  preceding extracts,  with one exception, are from
letters written by those whose symptoms were last detailed,
and within a month after  the commencement of my  treat-
ment.   It so happened that none of them remained with
rne but  a day or two; the cases were taken at random and
successively, the letters were written casually, in compliance
with  my standing  requisition, that my  patients keep me
.nformed of their condition.   These things together, clearly
and correctly show, the class of patients who apply to me,
and demonstrate  how soon and how readily those symp-
toms  yield to my treatment, which, when left  unchecked,
go on to confirmed consumption; and when I think of this,
together with the terrible nature of the disease, I am utterly
amazed that so many will carelessly allow their ailments to
be untreated, and fix themselves in the system immoveably,
and that, too,  when  a small amount of  time and money,
judiciously employed, would place  them beyond danger.  It
seems to me, that were I threatened with so dire a calamity.
I would walk the world on foot, and live upon the  roots
which I could dig from the earth with my worn and lace-
rated  fingers, even were there a small hope of escape.  And
yet, when I with a painless  treatment, and a few half hours
of daily expenditure,  do so  often  and so perfectly remove
the danger, men are held back by their prejudices, by their
avarice, by  their want of moral courage to admit the pre-
sence of the danger and meet it at the threshold;  but delay
and delay in the random reflection  that it may be something
else, and pass  of itself away,  forgetting  that if it be not
something else, that every hour the fell disease is fixing its
talons more deeply in the vitals to drag them  out with a
more  deadly certainty.
   There exists in  my own mind not the slightest doubt,
that if taken in  time, Consumption is as easily, as certainly
and as  often cured,  perfectly  and permanently  cured, as
bilious  fever.   I  mean  by " taking  it in time," before the
lungs  arc extensively  covered xi ith tubercles, or before they
begin  to give way; this last is generally told  by yellow,
dark,  or green,  thick, heavy  expectoration; but inasmuch as
                           5 
50
sometimes half a lung has  been eaten out without any ob-
served expectoration  at  all, the  only safe plan is to apply
for examination.   When certain signs exist, I can ascertain
this point infallibly, and not ask the  patient a single ques-
tion.   If, on the other hand, tubercles have been extensively
deposited, I can as certainly ascertain "that point  also, as
that I can see  the cloud, or  the sun shine.   It is impossible
for nature to conceal  the fact, from  a practiced observer;  it
is  a matter of sensible ascertainment.   If there are tubercles,
or if the lungs have begun to decay, and left running sores
or excavations, I cause the  tubercles to disappear,  and the
cavities to heal up perfectly, (if small,) but if those cavities
are large, their progress and increase is arrested indefinitely,
and  the person may still  enjoy a considerable degree  of
health for years.  Dr. Combe assured me of his unqualified
belief  of this  fact,  in his own house  in  Edinburgh, in the
case of a brother, who writes me in a letter of recent date,
that fifteen years ago, a large portion, almost the whole  01
one side of  his  lungs, was lost; but that the decay was ar-
rested,, and by proper means, has been kept in check up  to
the  present time.   Marshall Hall  declared to me, at his
office in Manchester  Square, London,  his unalterable  con-
viction of a similar truth; as also M. Louis, at Paris, Stokes,
in Dublin, and others not necessary to be named.  Evidence
like this, and  from  such great minds, should  carry with it
an irrepressible conviction of the unqualified truth, that  in
the last stage  of consumption, when the lungs are actually
in a state of hourly decay, the progress of the disease  may
be arrested, and health be enjoyed for scores of years.
   This is encouragement for all to make an effort, as  they
do not know to what happy result  it may lead.   Dr.  C.
was confined  to his bed, and assured by the first practition-
ers in Scotland, that he  must certainly die in  a few weeks,
because his lungs were  gone;—twenty years have passed.
 and he still lives, and I sincerely hope that there  are many
more years before him, during which he will continue, by his
 writings, to enlighten and happify the race.  A distinguished
 Judge, who did not expect to live a month, whose lungs were
 a mere shell, applied to me for aid,  hopeless of being benefit-
 ted;  I arrested the decay, caused the remainder of his lungs
 to be  brought into requisition, to do double  duly; years
 have  passed, and he yet lives, enjoying a state  of health
 and happiness which he has not known for  many years. 
51
While I mention this to show, that in extreme cases,  there
is often rational ground for a hopeful effort, I desire to afford
not the slightest encouragement to any one  to delay a single
hour,  if he have protracted cough, pain in  the breast, side,
or between the shoulders, sore throat, chilliness  or general
debility, for  if he  had  either  one  of  these  long,  it  is
infinitely certain that consumption has begun, and a violent
cold or  indiscretion may hurry him off in a few weeks be-
yond all remedy.

           CAUSES OF FAILURE HITHERTO.
   Why does it happen that physicians so universally fail in
their attempts to cure consumption?
   The great reason is, they have neglected to make applica-
tions to the Lungs themselves, where  the disease is seated.
They have relied on introducing medicines into the stomach
and applying blisters to the  skin, using seatons, and issues;
tartar emetic ointments and  such  like expedients ; these de-
bilitate the  system, and in proportion as they do this, aggra-
vate the disease and drive it deeper into the constitution.  1
have a painless mode of reaching the l.ungs themselves, not
attended with the slightest danger, or even inconvenience, by
which  the matter of a cavity is emptied out, and the opposite
sides of that  cavity brought, and kept  in contact, until they
heal, on the same principle, that an external wound is healed ;
and as any medical man knows, in order to make such a pro-
cess go on speedily and safely, the general health must be
kept up at the  highest possible point.  I have a remedy of
recent  discovery, scarcely obtained in this country, which in
a tubercular diat1 esds acts with admirable certainty, and which
in case of King's Evil, incipient white swelling, general scro-
fula, and other tubercular affections, is more  nearly a specific
than any remedy ever known, but as  it requires great deli-
cacy in preparation, and watchfulness in exhibition, it is per-
sonally prepared, and ordy afforded to my patients.  Under
no circumstances can any of my remedies be obtained except
by those who are wholly my patients, as they are only most ap-
plicable when this character of disease is present,  and almost
every case demands a modified  preparation,  adapted  to its
particular requisitions.  This announcement may save per
sons the trouble of writing to me  for remedies,  who,  in
order to avoid the expense of an examination, to see whether
they are applicable or not, are willing to employ  them hap-
hazard.  I must first know  what is the matter with a person 
52
before I will allow any preparation to pass from my hands to
them.  I may and have been induced  to examine, and cure
persons for nothing, and  at my own expense, but to furnish
any remedies without first knowing for myself what is the
matter, never.
  The following extract from a French author, who has had
extensive opportunities of making observations in diseases of
the Lungs, and who for a number of years  has given them
special attention, is worthy of all consideration :
  Curability of Phthisis.—M. Fournet alludes to his hav-
ing met with, in the course of  one year,  no fewer than 14
cases of confirmed phthisis that were cured; besides 10 other
cases, in which dissection revealed the traces of caverns that
had become perfectly healed.
  He goes on to remark, that "these 14 cases of phthisis
cured in the living subject, have proved to me—
  " 1. That certain persons, who have exhibited the most
decided symptoms of the disease, in its most advanced stage,
may yet be restored to excellent health.
  "3. That even hereditary phthisis, in its most advanced
stage, is susceptible of cure; although such  an occurrence is
certainly much more rare than in cases of the accidental disease.
  " 5. The capital fact which seems to spring from these in-
quiries is, that  tuberculous disease is not, like cancer,  es-
sentially incurable; on the contrary, that it is often curable,
imd that its extreme and  most disheartening fatality is refer-
rible rather to the circumstance of its being  sealed in one of
the vital organs of the system, and to its tendency to frequent
relapses, than to  its primary and essential nature."—Idem.
   In corroboration of the first statement, I must say, that the
rather contradictory fact has repeatedly forced itself  on  my
mind, that under certain circumstances, not  necessary to  be
enumerated here, consumption is more  easily cured in its last
stage, that is, when there is free expectoration, and a cavity,
than in the first stage, when the  prominent and almost only
noticeable symptom is a constant, distressing, dry cough.
   The fifth observation contains a most truthful cause of fail-
 ure, and merits the most mature and encouraging reflection.
   Another  cause is, that persons are  so loath to admit  that
they have  the disease,  and consequently  to  do  anything
for it, that  their condition becomes  desperate, before  any
 proper attempt is made  to save.   It  should be remembered
 that not even Bilious Fever is cured, if you wait till the pa-
 tient is dying, before you do anything. 
53
  Why is it that persons so pertinaceously refuse to acknow-
ledge that they have consumption?   Simply because phy-
sicians  and  friends believe  that  it cannot  be  cured; and
his  assenting that he has the disease, would be the signal lor
their remitting all efforts to do him good, to abandon him to
death by letting him alone, or recommending  him to take a
long journey somewhere, to perish  away  from  home and
among strangers, forgetting the beautiful orison of the Orien-
tals at parting with friends,  "May you die among your kind-
red!"
                USEFUL OBSERVATIONS.
  I  sometimes fail to be of any essential and permanent ad-
vantage to a  patient, but from a cause which is rather gratify-
ing.  A man applies to me in alarm.   He feels the necessity
of a serious  effort.   In a day or two, the remedies begin  to
take effect, and he steadily improves, until most of the symp-
toms have disappeared; he feels now, that the danger is past,
becomes remiss in  the means which he is  convinced  were
saving  him,  employs the  increased health and  vigor given
him, in the indulgence of pleasures, appetites, &c, falls back
in discouragement, despairs, and dies.  Doubtless the reader
feels "such  a man onght to die."   May the sentiment not
condemn  you.
   It not unfrequently happens, that those who are most dan-
 gerously affected, get well most speedily and  certainly; and
 simply because they adhere more closely, to all the directions
 triven.  Those who have least the matter with them, are  the
 most troublesome, and most difficult < f cure.
   As a general rule, those who  see me  but once, and go im-
 mediately home, to carry out the prescriptions given, do best
 in  the  end.   And  for this reason, they >teadily pursue  the
 course  marked out, without deviation, without allowing their
 attention to be diverted to accidental, but temporary ailments.
 On the other hand, those who have nothir.g to do, but to brood
 over their complaints, want a  prescription  for every trifling
 irregularity.  If a man cannot come to my office, because he
 is too weak  to walk or ride there, he  had, as a general thing,
 better stay at home; for I promise him no  permmient relief.
 A case to be sure, occurs to me  while writing this,  where the
 patient was sick two years, confined to the  house for  six
 months and  to bed for several weeks, could not sit up beyond
 one hour in the  twenty-four, constant night sweats—pulse
 like a rice horse, and abandoned to die of Phthisis by a can-
 did and intelligent physician of thirty years constant practice,
                            5* 
54
was seen but once, and in two  weeks, was able to ride some
eight or ten miles to see me in my office without the slightest
iujury.   But  such is only an exception, not a rule, owing
perhaps to peculiarities which might render its recurrence only
a possibility in the practice of years.
  It is not designed, at present,  to communicate the  means
employed.   It will perhaps be conceded,  that for the gener-
al practice  of medicine,  calomel and quinine are the best
remedial agents now known, when judiciously employed in
proper cases.  Yet, who does not know, that they have fallen
into disuse in some  places; and  by many are proscribed, as
unfit for employment in disease,  and actually poisonous.   It
is true, mercury  may kill in consumption and is injurious in
some other diseases; its unpopularity, and that of other great
known remedies, arises from the circumstance of their indis-
criminate employment by the  ignorant, the unpractised  and
the uneducated.  No valuable remedy can be applicable in
every stage of one disease; nor can any one remedy cure
every malady; and more—there is no one remedy which will
always cure any one disease: quackery only teaches otherwise.
None but a charlatan would pretend to an ability to remove
a single malady infallibly, not  even the scratch of a pin, or
the shake of an ague.  As soon as a remedy is made known,
as something like a specific  for any given disease, it is not
only used without discrimination  in  every stage of that  dis-
ease, but in scores  of others, in the hope that it may do good
in them  too;  of  course, in  both instances, there arc frequent
and inevitable failures;  and the remedy, however good in
reality, is decried, consigned to oblivion, to be exhumed again
perhaps in the next century.
  Heat is generated in proportion to the size and vigor of the
lungs.   Many persons with imperfectly developed lungs  and
a predisposition  to  consumption,  complain habitually of a
coldness of the surface and feet.  And  many who were in
previously good  health, become  more and more sensible to
cold,  in  proportion as the  approach of the disease weakens
the functions of the lungs.  I have noticed this, both in my-
self and others, before any other evident symptom  had ap-
peared.  And I have seen its further progress  arrested, by
a timely use of the proper means, where  much  greater diffi-
culty would have been experienced, had the warning not been
attended to.                    Dr. Combe, of Scotland.
  It has then, perhaps, already occurred to the thinking
reader, that the presence of scars in the lungs, demonstrates 
55
the cure of consumption in its last, that is, its  suppurating
stage, for there cannot  be a  scar without there  had been a
cavity, and a cavity is a consequence of suppuration.
   Attention is called to the  fact, thai  the  cicatrices, so fre-
quently found in the  lungs, as proven by the testimony of dis-
tinguished men, notonly indicate butdemonstrate three things:
that there must have  been a cavity; that it was entirely emp-
tied; that it perfectly healed.

             IS IT  A PERMANENT  CURE?
   How  is it known, that this  system  of treatment effects a
permanent cure of the dise-se, since it  has been but recently
adopted?  As a  whole,  the [dan proposed  is only of two or
three  years standing—but it has  been maturing  for many
years, during which time, there have been various changes,
modifications and improvements.  Some of the means, while
yet in their infancy,  and of course  imperfect, were remarka-
bly successful.   There are cases on reeoid, of persons cured
in eighteen hundred and thirty-three, who are still living, and
ready at any  time to give  a cheerful testimony to the efficacy
of the treatment..  These  published cases can be referred to
at the reader's leisure.  But  efficacious as the  means used
were at  that  distant" day, they are tenfold  more so now, in
consequence of the discovery of new remedies, the advance-
ment of chemistry, and the unequalled improvement in every
thing connected with the medical profession.   With these ad-
vantages, perfect cures are more easily, and much oftener ef-
fected; and in numerous instances, can be  promised with a
great deal more certainty, even when to ordinary observers,
all human interference would  seem  to be unavailing.   Cases
of this kind, and others, are given to show, that the plan of
treatment demands undiminished confidence, and that evi-
dences of its permanent value are daily accumulating.
   In general, it  is easier for a person who  has taken cold
once, to  take  it again, this disposition  continually  increases,
until the facility of taking on that inflammation is so great, that
it is produced by the slightest cause, and the subject of it ut-
ters the  truth  in expressive language, " The least thing in the
world gives me  a cold."  On inquiry, it will be found, that
this cold contir.ues longer  and longer, and becomes more and
more difficult of removal.   This is the great premonitory
symptom of tubercular  consumption, though  not  always
given.   And  as  in Asiatic cholera,  nothing was easier than
to subdue it, when the premonitory  symptoms were attended 
56
to, so in this other not less terrible disease, it is not less man-
arreable if properly prescribed  for, on the  first notice of its
premonitory symptom,  a remarkable  facility in " catching
cold."
  I consider one of the surest signs  of consumption already
begun, to be a listless feeling, gradually creeping over a per-
son, an increasing slowness  in all  the bodily movements,
ending in a  disposition not to move about at all; weakness—
easily made  tired  or put out of breath—with narrow chest or
from a consumptive family.  Such a person may have little
or no cough, spitting or pain, while the bowels, appetite and
sleep are more or less sound, yet unless such a state of things
is arrested, he will most certainly die of consumption by an
under current, sil nt but steady—imperceptible, but  terribly
sure, with scarcely any violent  symptoms to the last  hour.
  When I say that consumption is curable, I mean that it is a
manageable  disease.   That it is  under the physician's con-
trol, when a timely and judicious use is made of appropriate
remedial means.   All know  what is meant when it is said
that Bilious  Fever is curable;  which is, that there is a remedy
for  it, if that remedy is  used in  time.   And yet  every day-
many die  of Bilious  Fever.   I assert that consumption is
curable, with a similar meaning; that  I possess a remedy for
it, which will be successful when applied  in time; but with
this difference in  its  favor, under equal conditions, it is by
very  far, more certunly and  more frequently successful.  It
must be remembered th;it in this, as in every other disease,
without a single exception in the long catalogue of ills which
afflict humanity,  there is a point, which, when reached, re-
covery is hopeless.  That  point is usually arrived at in con-
sumption, when a man takes  to his bed for  a great part of the
twenty-four hours.
  There is an absolutely astounding disposition in men, to
procrastinate  anything like  a business attempt  to relieve
themselves of threatening symptoms, on the mere probability
that they may perhnps not be consumption begun, and may
pass  off, of themselves.   Such persons risk hfe, on a " per-
haps," en  which  they would  not buy a farm at a cent per
acre.  But  suppose they are  the veritahle symptoms of the
disease, is  not  the  death worm working ceaselessly, and
noiselessly  on ?
   Many who come to me, represent themselves as having
taken every thing they could hear of; and sometimes in in-
credible quantities, without  any permanent benefit.  I can 
57
only say, that the practice  of taking medicine, without
knowing its composition and  its nature, except it be from a
Physician, is  daily and irrecoverably ruining the health of
thousands in every section of the country.  Medicine, how-
ever simple it  is represented  to  be, ought not to be taken,
unless a person is  really ill, and does not get better by eating
little or nothing  for a  day or two, by  frictions,  ablutions,
cessation from business, fresh air, cheerful company, and a
quiet conscience.  Probably three-fourths of all our tempo-
rary ailments  could  be happily removed in  this way, and
without  any  violence  being  offered  to  the constitution.
When a man does not  improve in a few days, from a course
of this kind, he ought at once to take advice from a regular,
practising physician.   The incalculable mischief induced
by the opposite method, of taking physic for every thing,
can  only  be  imagined by medical men who have  daily
opportunities  of witnessing  the painful  fact.   The well
informed, among all classes,  owe a  duty to humanity, to
abolish, by their example  in society, and by  precepts to
their children, so hurtful a  practice.
   I have repeatedly found it a most difficult matter to keep
from yielding to the solicitations of patients  to administer
medicine  for  trifling  and   momentary annoyances.   Such
should remember, that it is of not less importance to know
when to let medicine alone, than when to take it.  I always
consider it a great object  gained, to restore  the patient to
health with the least possible amount of physic.   It is  not
only useless, but it is injurious to take remedies for ailments,
nine in ten of which would go away of themselves, as soon
without medicine  as with it.
   It is an almost daily occurrence, especially in extensive
hospitals,  for persons  to deny steadily ever having  had  a
pain in the breast or  side, and yet, on examination after
death, half of a lung is eaten away.   A painless consump-
tion is  the most deadly.  It kills while it lures.
   In the cases which  I have given,  only those  symptoms
are  named which were sensible to the patient, or common
observer.   Those ascertained by the  professional method of
inquiry, have not been referred to, as it could be of no gene-
ral interest to do so.   Nor have I given the symptoms on
which I rely in forming my own opinion of a case.  But
no judicious person will form an opinion from any one class
of symptoms, much less from a single symptom.   In form- 
58
ing an opinion to be relied on, every  circumstance which
has a  slight bearing in the case ought  to be  taken into
account.
  Those cases are most easily cured, which are more purely
consumptive; and the disease is difficult of mastery, in pro-
portion  as  it is  accompanied with other  serious ailments.
And this last is the case much oftener than is  imagined by
medical men even.   The most prominent of these are, en-
largement of the heart, inflammation, obstruction, closing or
hardening of its valves, vessels or other parts, rheumatism
changing from the joints  to  the  heart, fistula, gravel, &c.
Hence, great discrimination is necessary, especially as there
are certain affections of the heart which are speedily render-
ed fatal by lung remedies, among which may be prominently
named inhalations, and mechanical agency, which persons
do not hesitate ignorantly and blindly  to  use.    It will not,
cannot be denied, that there are chest affections, in which
inhalations, freely employed for some days, would produce
a speedy, certain and sudden  death.
   The free and indiscriminate use of Quinine has given me
a number of cases of confirmed consumption, where it has
been employed in subduing fevers.  It  is a great remedy in
good hands; yet the  habit is most pernicious, of administer-
ing it without first taking the  necessary precaution of reliev-
ing the system of the  more immediate cause  of the febrile
condition.
   I would have taken more pains, in the  preceding pages,
to point out the manner in which a greater variety of causes
operate in producing the  more remote symptoms of con-
sumption, but for the conviction of its  uselessness.  There
are very few cases, in  which threatened, or even beginning
consumption, could  not be most effectually prevented, with
comparatively little trouble.  In many thousands of instances,
little children and youth, the  only hope of their parents, are
permitted  to  pine  and dwindle  and  wither away,  like  a
blighted flower, and  go down to an uncomplaining and pain-
less death, the victims  of a  tuberculous constitution, who,
by a little proper care, and almost without medicine, might
have lived to gladden and happify parental age.   But so far
from taking the disease in time, in its forming  stage,  men
will procrastinate, till  the jarring, tearing cough, takes away
 half the rest of  night,  and growing weakness of the limbs,
and the shrunken chest and  stooping shoulder, have placed 
59
them on the verge of the tomb.   And  even then, for the
want of courage to engage  with the deadly enemy, the
slightest circumstance is permitted to operate as an excuse
for still further delay.
   But  in the hope of saving at least some one fellow creature
from falling a victim to the great destroyer, some only son
of a widowed mother, whose only hope and tie to life he is;
or some only parent to a family of little  ones, who, if that
parent  die, would, with all their helplessness and  innocence,
be cast abroad homeless and friendless on  an iron hearted
world;   in the faint hope of saving one such, I will name a
few symptoms, either one of which alone, should be regard-
ed as the alarm bell of death; and I state  them, from a fixed
conviction of their truth, founded on  repeated observation.
   A pulse habitually accelerated beyond the natural standard.
   An occasional slight hack  or cough, on  lying down  at
night, without apparent cause, as  if a particle of dust had
got into the throat.
   A  frequent feeling as if you wanted to  do something with
the arms, seeking some kind of support for them.
   A striking, remarkable weakness,  or giving way of  the
knees and legs on going up stairs, or ascending a hill.
   An unnatural acceleration of the pulse,  between the sitting
and standing position.
   To  be  in a  condition in which "the least thing in the
world  gives you a cold."
   When coldness of the feet strikes on the throat, and pro-
duces  a slight burning or sore feeling.
   To  be very easy to have a chilly feeling run over  you,
on going out of doors when it is a little cold.
   To  feel chilly when you get up from  your meals.
   To  be restless, and "cant go  to sleep,"  when  you first
retire  to bed.
   Spitting blood in  any quantity, from a drop to a gallon,
once in a few days, or weeks, or years.
   A feeling of weakness, that has crept on you so gradually.
 you do not know  when  it began;  and yet,  without apparent
 cause, it seems to be increasing.
   No special relish for food, yet no uneasiness amounting
 to actual pain any  where, together with  a want of interest
 in what is going on around you,  a  growing indifference to
 every  thing.
   It frequently occurring that one, two  and three days will 
60
pass without a passage from the bowels, unless medicine is
used.
  Frequently recurring, although slight pains in the breast,
side, or between the shoulders.
  These are  the  far off friendly monitors of danger,  the
faint beginnings of disease.  They do  not  constitute con-
sumption.  In some instances they mean nothing, for they
pass off in a few days;  but  when weeks go by, and any
single  one of them still sticks to you, there  is  reason for
alarm; and not a day should be permitted to pass, until you
'iave  commenced  measures,  under the advice of  a careful
physician, for its  removal.   A drop  of water  may check
the  spark that would lay the fairest city in ruins, and the
unmoved  avalanche be kept in its place by an infant's arm.
but, a moment's delay, and how resistless!
  It may  save the lives of some by remarking  here, that
swellings  in the neck;  certain affections of the joints called
"rheumatic,"  from their  likeness to  rheumatism;  white
swelling;  fistula in ano, and  some running sores,  are often
connected with a  tuberculous constitution, and if suddenly
driven in by external  applications,  or otherwise, without
using  constitutional  remedies,  will settle at once on the
lungs, and in a very few weeks develop themselves in con-
sumption  in its last stages.
   Since the preceding pages were sent to the printer, I have
derived sincere satisfaction  in meeting  with the  strongest
confirmation of some of the more important sentiments ad-
vanced.   The following are  quotations from a late number
of the London Lancet, a "Journal which has long  been cele-
brated as  the most valuable periodical for medical practition-
ers  ever  published,  while  an uninterrupted existence  of
more  than twenty years has long produced for  it  a most
elevated standing and character."
   The Editor, Mr. VVakely,  a member of the British Par-
liament, says in relation to consumption, "We have never
had a doubt of its curability.   In a former volume, this
important question was considered, and the experience which
we have  since had, fully confirms the truth then expressed,
that "Physical diagnosis and pathological research show  us
that recovery takes place in  many cases of true  tubercular
deposite  in  the  lungs.  One fact is  worth a cart  load of
opinions.  What then must be the value of the hundreds of
accumulated facts which support this view?   Thus M. Bou- 
61
 det states, that in the post mortem examination of forty-five
 subjects, between three and fifteen years old, he had observ-
 ed the cure of consumption in twelve cases.
   In  one hundred  and sixteen  individuals,  aged between
 fifteen and seventy-six years, tubercles  in the  lungs or bron-
 chial  glands had become  innocuous in ninety-seven cases,
 and had wholly  disappeared in sixty-one.
   In one hundred and ninety-seven autopsies, promiscuously
 taken, he found ten instances in which, at least, one cavern
 completely cicatrized existed in the lung; and in eight cases
 one or more cavities were found in different stages  of cica-
 trization.
   There can be, therefore, no question as to  the  curability
 of Consumption!! "
   " The most eminent pathologists of  the present day con-
 cur  in the opinion, that  pulmonary consumption  is  most
 certainly curable, even in the  last and  worst  stages of the
 disease."                      Amer. Med. Bulletin.
   The  belief  in the  curability of   Phthisis  is  gaining
 ground every day, on both sides of the Atlantic,  because the
 facts presented are absolutely incontrovertible; no sane man,
 (I mean  medical  man,) can resist  them, who  will acquaint
 himself with them.  And 1 have not the shadow of a doubt,
 that, in a few years, a disease which now  destroys  one in
 six of the inhabitants of  New York, Philadelphia, Boston,
 Baltimore, Washington, and of other large cities, and per-
 haps not a less proportion in the  country, will be as  often
 and  as perfectly  cured,  as Bilious  Fever.   It is  true, that
 the mode and  means  of cure may be various  in different
 hands, just as any  other  one  disease;  fever  and  ague, for
 example, is cured by different remedies, but the principles
 of cure must be forever the same, which in Phthisis  are—
   To secure the  highest possible general health.
   To relieve the  system of the slightest febrile condition.
   To secure a  free,  regular, daily  action of the chylopoietie;
viscera, without medicine.
   To obtain  the absorption of Tubercles.
   To evacuate abscesses,  and cause their immediate and
 permanent healing.
   To  bring  about, promptly,  an   immediate  reduction
and banishment of all inflammatory action, and at  the same
time, add to the strength of the patient, discarding absolutely 
62
the employment of any debilitating remedies, even for a
single day.                      _  , .            .
   To bring into the fullest requisition  the  complete  and
healthy action of every  line of lung substance,  so as to
secure,  day and night,  without intermission, the  largest
supply, reception, and consumption, of pure,  fresh, bracing
air, that it is possible to obtain.  These are the points that
in every instance I labor to attain,  and  without which, no
case of Tubercular Consumption ever  has been cured or
ever will be.   These objects are to be reached by no routine
practice, but by adapting the nature, and  strength, and  con-
stituents of the remedies, to the particular and varying con-
dition of each individual patient, taking into minute account,
in every case, the previous history,  size, age, sex, strength,
constitution, temperament, occupation, habits and hereditary
influences, as far as it is  possible to ascertain these facts.
   The grand and essential points in  any case of Phthisis
cured are these:
   To subdue entirely congestion or inflammation, and build
up the strength of the constitution at the same time.
   To promote absorption of Tubercles.
   To evacuate abscesses, and bring their opposite sides in
contact.
   These  I can  do, and the admirable adaptedness of my
remedies to secure these points,  has met with the warmest
approval  by every physician for whom I have ever pre-
scribed, or who has superintended a case for me; and I can,
without fear of contradiction, say the same of every intelli-
 gent gentleman  (patient) who felt interested enough to re-
quest  an explanation  of the remedies and their mode of
 operation.  A Case:   I was called to  see a gentleman in
 October,  1843,  who had at the time  two physicians in
 attendance.  He had been taken sick more than two  years
 before in or near Louisville, Kentucky, where he had seve-
 ral physicians, who at length pronounced him consumptive,
 and beyond their reach to save.   He was sent home to die,
 lingered on for eighteen months, and was at last confined to
 the house, growing weaker and worse every day, with cough,
 pain in the breast and night sweats; he finally took  to his
 bed, and sat in a chair  with difficulty, while  the attendants
 could make it up.  The physicians had ceased to give him
 any thing.  After  I had  examined him, and expressed my 
63
conviction that I could do him some good, the elder physi-
cian, who had practised many years, declared that if I raised
him to  his feet again, he would give me a thousand dollars!
   In two months, my patient was working out in the  corn
field, no longer needing my attendance, and is, at this pre-
sent yvriting, a stout, hearty man.   The promising physi-
cian offered  to give me any  amount, if  I would tell  him
what I did to procure such a change.  I replied that I would
communicate all in my power for  nothing.   But so great
is the  unwillingness of  men  to admit the disease can  be
cured, so firmly are people wedded to their prejudices and
old opinions, that it may be  said of this, as well as other
cases, that it was not consumption.   Well; suppose it were
not, still I saved the man; and I presume he did not  care
what it  was, so he was cured; and if he had died, it would
have been all the same thing to him by this time, whether
consumption or any other disease had killed  him.  #Truly
has it been  remarked, yvhen the patient  dies, no body dis-
putes  he had consumption, but when he gets well, every
body does.  If you will not admit that  it is consumption,
until a man is dead and buried, then I confess that consump-
tion cannot  be cured.   What do  you  acknowledge  con-
sumption to  be?  Is it that  a part  of a man's lungs  have
already  rotted away,  and  the process  is still going on?
And can that decay  be  arrested, and the place perfectly heal
up with a scar, just as a cut finger heals with a scar?  "Odd,
bless me," said Mr. Abernethy, "that's  a question that a
man who had lived  in the dissecting room would laugh at:"
its a thing to be observed every day of the world, and ad-
mits of no reasoning any  more than you could argue and  go.
about proving that snow is white.
   Others may say "it is not a perfect cure, it will break out
again."   How do you know that?  But  suppose  it does;
suppose I only suspend the progress of the disease for one,
tyvo or ten years, is it no advantage to live a year or two?
Voltaire is said to have offered his physician half his estate,
if he would  save his life six months.  But I would not have
noticed such objections, except to show yvhat utterly trifling
things persons speak, when pressed by hard  telling facts.
   Among the greatest names of the present century are
B.  F., J. C, A. C. and A. J., each of whom lost  a  large
portion  of one entire  lung,  and lived twenty years or  more
afterwards;  these, and cases under my own hand, are given 
64
 to encourage persons in every stage of the disease, to1 make
 an effort, for there is reason  to hope,  as  long as they can
 walk or ride about; at the same time, that  men may not pre-
 sume too much,  and foolishly delay, on  the vague ground
 that it may be something else; it must be recollected  that
 there is a stage in every disease, when a  cure becomes im-
 possible, and that some cases which appear susceptible of
 cure, go on to a fatal termination, in spite  of every effort to
 save; for we all are finite, and man is born to die.  This is
 true of all diseases, but it is  perhaps less  true of Phthisis,
 according to the mode of treatment adopted  by me, than of
 any  other malady; because the plan of cure is not wholly
 dependent on chemical action.  But failures will sometimes
 occur in consequence of circumstances over which we have
 no  control,  and  which  in many  instances counteract all
 remedial  means, such as an unsuitable (damp) location, fam-
 ily  diahonor, impending bankruptcy, blasted reputation,
 apprehended  disclosures, pent up griefs, brooding over ima-
gined slights; if the mind of the  patient abandons  itself  to
 such  distresses, and will not, or cannot be diverted, then
 there is small hope of  recovery,  however  susceptible the
 disease might otherwise be, of prompt arrest and  perfect
 cure. On the other hand, if a  man resolutely determines
 with a cheerful courage  that he will not "give up," but will
 live above the disease, and in  spite of it, he  will, with pros-
 per treatment, in  numerous cases, succeed  in living many
years in comparative health, although he may have already
lost a large portion of his lungs.
  As to the nature and effects of the remedies employed by
 me,  I may state  in  illustration, that a merchant of New
 York applied to me in New Orleans for cough, pain in the
 side, general weakness, restlessness at night, and unrefresh-
 ing sleep; at the  end of two weeks, the application of the
 remedies had such an agreeable effect on the whole system,
 that  he assured me, not only of his conviction that he would
 certainly recover, but that he  should continue a part  of the
 directions as long as he lived,  because  they produced a
 freshness and liveliness  of feeling to which he had long been
 ;\ stranger.   In a  year afterwards, he closes a business letter
 by saying, "I continue to be well."
  Those of  my patients whom  I  have cured, have always
 at hand, without  expense or  much trouble, the means  of
 removing any of the symptoms of cold, or  stuffing up of the 
65
 breast,  or  pains in the chest, or shortness of breathing,
 which may arise from accidental causes;  and that too with
 the most perfect safety.  Mr. M.,  a  merchant in Pennsyl-
 vania, who had visited me but once, eighteen months before,
 for serious symptoms of consumption, says: "I have nothing
 to complain of; I have never had better health in my life;
 I occasionally catch cold, but find immediate and gratifying
 relief in applying the means obtained from you."
   In relation to the cases given in the preceding pages, it is
 not necessary for me  to say whether they were consump-
 tion or not;  the  mere name of a thing is nothing;  it is
 immaterial to the patient what  you call his disease, so it is
 cured.  I have told you what symptoms people complained
 of  when they came to me, and under my treatment those
 symptoms disappeared, and weeks, and months, and years
 have passed, and  they  have not returned.   What more can
 any reasonable person require !
  In great kindness, then, I advise the reader, if you have
 had for several weeks any of the symptoms yvhich have
been named as the usual attendants of consumption,  do not
distress yourself about deciding what name to give them;
call them any thing you please, that is a matter of no  con-
sequence; your great anxiety should be to get rid of them
 as soon as possible, by the  proper application of judicious
 remedies, and let the mind  be at rest.  For although you
 may succeed, in general,  in persuading  yourself that it is
 nothing serious, or only Bronchitis at most, yet the suspi-
 cion will now and then flit  across the mind,  at most impor-
tune times,  in the  gay assembly, the crowded street, the
throng of successful business, or amid the loved family cir-
 cle,  "it may be consumption, how happy if I could only
get clear of it!"  A single tickling in the throat, or heck of
a cough, or momentary pain in the breast, or a speck of blood
in the expectoration, will excite these unwelcome  thoughts,
 and amid circumstances of  the highest and purest delights,
 will mar all your joys.  Surely it can be nothing short of a
 species of infatuation, that leads men  to live on, with such a
 tyrant check to their happiest hours,  when in a few days or
 weeks, they might be released from the boding spectre, only
 from the fear of calling certain symptoms by a certain name,
 which is groundlessly associated in their imaginations  with
 the same thing, "as being doomed to death." 
66
  There can be no doubt,  that those who do not practice
exclusively in consumptive diseases, do frequently pronounce
persons to  have consumption,  which  there  is no  hope of
curing,  unless by  removal  to a  milder  climate, however
inconvenient or impossible such a removal  may be,  when,
upon  examination  by  a  more  competent and experienced
practitioner, no proper foundation for such an opinion existed,
as subsequent and  speedy restoration to  perfect  health, by
me ins not intended to reach the lungs, most conclusively
demonstrated.  The mischievous and cruel effects  of an
opinion 30 erroneously formed, can scarcely be imagined; and
doubtless, by its despairing influences on  the mind, has  hur-
ried many a one to the  grave, yvho else might  have lived in
happiness many years.  I will illustrate by a few cases  from
different sources.
   A person had severe cough for some time, and yvas  treated
without benefit by  several physicians; on  examination it was
found that a large amount of "wax"  had  collected in  the ear
and become hardened;  it was taken out, and speedy recovery
followed.   A straw, or the end  of the finger introduced into
the ear, produces an active dry cough.
   Common Hysteria  often  produces cough,  expectoration
and spitting of blood, giving rise to  alarming apprehensions
of consumption.
   Disease  of the Liver sometimes occasions cough, expecto-
ration and  hectic, and  is  pronounced, with  great confidence,
to be "Consumption;"  when even a superficial examination
might have shown the contrary.
   Dry cough, pain in  the back and difficulty of breathing,
are sometimes caused by  hardening of the Liver.
   "A lady had a cough and  loss of voice; and for two years
was shut up in  the house, for fear of catching cold, and of
course got weaker and worse every day.   She was made to
abandon her room, go out of doors, eat and drink substantial
aliment, and with  a little simple medicine got yvell.1
   A gentleman had been ill two months,  with all the  ordi-
nary symptoms of consumption, such as cough, expectoration
 of a yellowish substance with a little blood, night sweats, pain
 in the side, falling away, &c,  with hectic fever;  but it yvas
 active inflammation of the lungs,  and was cured accordingly
 in a few days, but by a very different mode of treatment from
 what consumption yvould have  required.
   A young gentleman  was  condemned  by high  medical
 authority  to go to the  island  of Madeira, as 'nothing else 
67
could save him;' but his business required his personal atten-
tion, and besides, he yvas going to be married.  On seeking
new advice,  he was  counselled differently,  got  well  in a
month, and is now the father of a family.
  Another  person had consumptive symptoms;  was  shut
up in a warm  room, dieted and physicked, wailing for a vessel
to go abroad.   A di'erent course  was recommended.  In
ten days his cough disappeared, and at ihe end of  five  years
had not returned."
  Indeed, it is a very  easy thing to say that a man has Con-
sumption, and in order to get clear of a troublesome case, that
is not understood, send him away from  all  the endearments
of home and kindred,  as the only possible chance  for him to
get well; but when people from a distance come to me, and I
find their lungs are affected, if I send  them any where, I send
them back home; it is the  best place to die at, if one must
die.   It is a terrible thing to die among strangers; in the suf-
ferings of weary days and dreadful nights, to have no friendly
look, no kindly smile, no tone  of tenderness to go down  with
you into the darkness  of the  tomb.  Instead of a mother's
anael ministerings,  to extract from  voracious hirelings their
impatient attentions; no sleepless anticipations of a thousand
little wants, nor look,  nor tear  of sympathy.  I have sat by
the bed side of the "stranger"  alone, in the weary hours of
midnight, and closed his eyes in the long sleep which knows
no  awaking, for no  one seemed to care how or yvhen he
entered on the unending journey.   "Can I  live  to see my
mother once more?"  said a young  gentleman of wealth and
promise, on his way to one  of the West India Islands.   "No,
my friend,"  said I, "it will require until Tuesday  for a letter
to reach her, and you cannot live till  then."  "Well, it is
hard, I did not think  I was so near  the verge."  And  yet he
had left mother and sister, and a home that commanded every
comfort,  many hundred miles behind him.  He died on
 Monday.
   A yvorthy and respectable gentleman from Ohio arrived in
  New Orleans, on his way to  one of the islands of the Gulf,
 for the benefit of his health, having left behind a  young wife
 and child.   He consulted me merely for the purpose of ena-
 bling him to continue his journey.  "My dear sir," said I,
  "you are not able to  leave your room, and probably will not
 be."   " Write to my wife, doctor, and tell  her  to come to
 me and bring  our child along."   "My  good friend," I re-
 plied, "it would afford me great pleasure to do any thing you 
68
may desire, but you  are in a worse condition than you are
aware of, and under the circumstances, I feel compelled to be
candid with you, you cannot possibly live but a few hours."
He died that night.   These cases are  given  to impress the
reader with this fact,  that if you are  so far  gone with the.
general symptoms of consumption, that  your physician can
do no more than advise  you to go to sea, or  to a milder cli-
mate, you are too far  gone to recover your health by any such
indefinite  and hap-hazard  prescription.   And  under such
circumstances, the only possible chance of your getting bet-
ter, is to remain at home, where you can have every comfort
and every attention which affection can bestow.   If with all
these little but essential aids you do not improve, how can
you expect to be restored, when subject to the innumerable
discomforts and exposures inseparable from invalid journey-
ing, to say nothing of the  hourly and irritating annoyances
which always accompany  hired attentions,  yvhile the only
counteracting influence to all these,  is a milder climate.   I
will here state one fact, of a thousand like it occurring year-
ly, which every consumptive, by which I mean any  person
yvho has had for some time  any one serious symptom of con-
sumption, should give the most candid and mature considera-
tion before he decides leaving home and friends and country.
Several years ago, yvhile at Matanzas de Cuba, on a visit from
Havana,  I frequently went doyvn to  the yvharf early in the
morning and in the cool of  the afternoon, but seldom yvent at
any hour, without seeing a young man at the farthest extre-
mity of one of the piers intently gazing seayvard; he seemed
to notice  nothing of all the  busy bustle and merry song of
the workmen about him.  I sometimes  endeavored to catch
a  glimpse of some object on the distant sea, but whether I
observed any thing or not,  he appeared to feast on the very
uothingness with so fixed a look, and  yet so mild and gentle,
so full of melancholy, that I at  length became interested in
his history;  it was this,  he  was from Boston, had had a bad
cough for some time, which had begun  to undermine his
health before he left home.   He had heard a great deal of the
refreshing breezes of Cuba, its orange grqves and its flowers,
its spicy  odors and its eternal spring, and felt assured that if
he could only get there, his return to health would be  speedy
and perfect.  But after a few days he began to discover that
there was no charmed influence in a Cuban atmosphere, that
he  was not perceptibly better, but rather growing  yveaker,
and was reluctantly releasing his hold on the last cherished 
69
hopes of life.  His only expectation now, his highest wish
was,  that he might see home once more, and have his mother
beside him when he died.   "I am willing to die," he used
to say to me, "if  I could only die at home!"  He was ex-
pecting a vessel every day, and as day after day passed ,by.
and it did not arrive, he used to beguile  his  yveary hours by
looking in  the direction of  his own loved Boston—it was all
that he could do.  Whether he  ever saw it again I  never
learned.   And it cannot be denied that such is the history of
three-fourths of those who visit the islands in  the hope of
removing consumptive  symptoms.   They  indulge in  the
most  extravagant  anticipations of rapidly regaining health,
and soon returning to  the loved behind them, with the  rosy
cheeks and the freshness and strength of youth, and  begin
in advance, to drink in  the  fond congratulations which they
will  receive  from  kind  hearts  at home.   But when day
passes day, yet brings to them no life-giving influences; and
one by one their fond  imaginings fade in the distance; when
the unwelcome reality forces itself upon  their attention that
they are homeless, friendless, sick and sinking, among stran-
gers  in  a strange  land, hope sinks  within them, and all is
over—when such is the history of yvhole ship loads every
winter, I cannot conceive  of  any  adequate cause for that
infatuation which repeats ceaselessly from year to year in
reference to consumption, "you must go to a milder climate."
  When a person is determined that he  will go from home
if he can possibly get  away, my advice is "go  north."  I
know very  well  that nobody will take the advice, and hence
the giving it will not interfere with my practice  in  a South-
ern city; it requires  a generation to dislodge what "every
body  believes."  But if an observant physician will  think
awhile, without prejudice, he will discover that  cold  air is
purer than a warmer one, that under equal circumstances the
more  pure  air a man  consumes, the better health he will en-
joy; that the larger amount of  lungs a man has, the more air
he can  consume;  much more then has  the consumptive,
whose disease is a deficiency, in quantity and action, of lung
substance,  an urgent need for the largest amount of pure air.
If you shut a consumptive man up in a w^rm room, he never
will get well.  A  uniform, cool, dry atmosphere, away from
pieroing winds,  is infinitely preferable to Cuba, or  any other
latitude south of the  thirtieth  parallel.   A consumptive will
sooner get well in Greenland,  qualified as above, than  in the
South.   But if  you cannot get to a cold, dry, uniform and 
70
still climate, it is better to go South to a dry locality, than to
live in Kentucky, Ohio and other States,  where the winters
are wet, cold, yvindy and changeable.  But wUh.my mode of
treatment, persons may safely reside in these States, especi-
ally if they remain with me a week or two,  and learn how
to carry out my principles of practice.  In fact, I frequently
write to persons with a particular class of symptoms, not to
come to me at all; that I can cure them better where they are;
and  subsequent success has shown  the correctness  of  my
advice.
   Two lawyers visited New Orleans several  years ago, both
had consumption unquestionably; one aged twenty-two,  the
other about thirty-five.   The younger was able to walk about
very conveniently ; had a full face with no particular symp-
tom, except an unfavorable pulse, frequent fevers, and a con-
stant, distressing dry  cough ; these he had been troubled with
for several months;  both parents remarkably healthy and
well made.  The elder had been an invalid for several years,
cough vomitings, night sweats, spitting blood;  sometimes
blood and  matter together; at other times  a heavy yellow
matter, to the amount of a quarter of a pint  in twenty-four
hours ; his clothes hung on him like bags, and he was  too
weak to walk an hundred yards.   They being friends, held a
consultation whether  to apply to me or not.   It was at length
decided that the younger, as he was stronger and better, should
go to Havana, especially as he wanted to see the country ;  the
elder came to me, remained a few days, returned home, close-
ly followed my directions for three months, and has not  had
better health for many  years,  than he enjoys at this present
writing.   The younger went to Cuba, remained three months,
returned home and died.  I know that one fact proves nothing
in medicine,  but similar cases are constantly occurring,  and
force upon the most unwilling mind, the conviction of the ad-
vantages of my mode of treatment, under every view that can
be taken of it.
   One year  ago to-day, a merchant, M. M., Esq., from a
Northern  city, applied to me;  his general symptoms were
pains between the  shoulders,  oppression  in  the breast, diffi-
culty of breathing, considerable emaciation, pains in the side,
great chilliness, tickling cough,  and of a consumptive family.
I  heard nothing of him for twelve months, when I received a
letter from him saying, "I used the remedies you gave me  as
directed;  my general health and appetite are good, and I be-
lieve every  thing like a tendency to  consumption, is re- 
71
moved."   This was a case where the symptoms had been
gradually becoming more aggravated for two years, and when
in addition to this, it is remembered that several members
of his family had died of the disease, it should be regarded as
a beautiful  illustration of the facility with which persons may
relieve themselves of  suspicious and  threatening symptoms,
even though of a hereditary character.  And it is in the con-
templation  of cases like these, in which the happy effects of
my plan  of treatment are seen in restoring the health or pro-
tracting the lives of those vyho have applied to me, that I still
propose  with a cheerful  confidence,  to do all that is in  my
power to  bestow upon those who may come hereafter,  the like
great advantages.
  T.  Y.  P., of A., a youijg gentleman of great moral worth
and personal accomplishments, consulted me for pains in the
breast, and  about the shoulder blades, oppression in breathing,
a troublesome morning cough, daily expectoration of several
spoonfuls of yellow matter,  arrd  repeated attacks of spitting
blood; several large mouthfuls at a time, and quite red.   I have
not seen him since  the first week.  At the end of six months,
he was no  better;  on  inquiry, I  found that for a short time
he had faithfully observed my directions, and was "apparent-
ly  much  improved, most of the unpleasant  symptoms to a
great extent disappeared, but the cough was never entirely re-
moved ;  there still being a slight tickling during the day."
And strange to say, that although doing so yvell, he remitted
his exertions at the end  of a few weeks,  and the symptoms
returned ; he became  dispirited, and might have died, but I
encouraged him to try  again and  make  a more  determined
and protracted effort;  he did so, and in the course of a year
writes :
  "Dear Sir—Your kind favor was duly received.   Accept
my thanks for your continued interest in  my welfare, permit
me,  Sic.   My health continues comparatively good, and I
am surprised at it  myself, considering my long continued and
close  confinement at  so unsuitable an occupation; scarcely
any pain in my breast or side, no bleeding, Sic."
   But I presume it is scarcely necessary  to give other cases,
or present  other extracts; the  design I have had  in view in
offering  so many, yvas simply  to show what kind of com-
plaints those have who apply to me,  and the frequency and
ease with  which they are removed ;  and if it will be instru-
mental in leading  but a few to make an effort to save them-
selves from a terrible disease,  and an untimely death, and 
72
thereby secure long years of pleasure and of gladness yet to
come,  then  shall it be my  happiness to believe that I have
not altogether lived in vain.
  Persons inquire frequently, if I would advise a sea voyage
in cases of actual consumption.  I do not, because it oftener
aids to kill,  than cure.   Those who have tried it for the re-
moval  of consumptive symptoms, have  so often assured me
of its inadequacy, that although once an advocate for it, I have
been compelled  to abandon it from the  multitude  of strong
facts against the practice.   Many seem surprised that I should
not be  in favor of breathing the fresh air as it came from the
ocean,  and begin yvith great energy to reason  about its purity,
and to theorize about its freshness and bracing nature.  Now
I do not argue with people; it is  troublesome, and  seldom
does good.  Those who love argument,  seek for victory and
not information; and I have generally  found that men are
oftener reasoned into their opinions than out of them.  As
for theories, I am afraid of them.  They all appear plausible
enough, until you come to look at the items  which compose
them.  It constantly happens that a theory is proposed, criti-
cised, abused, pruned, trimmed,  embraced, defended, fought
and died .for;  when  some new  fact is brought to light,
sweeping  away  its broad foundations, and  in a few years
afterwards, we can scarcely persHade ourselves to believe so
great an absurdity  ever had  an  advocate.  Revolutions like
these are constantly going on in every department of human
knowledge, and he perhaps is the wisest, who keeps himself
unwedded, and follows without reluctance, wherever well au-
thenticated whole facts may lead him.
  But  to return to  the benefit of the pure ocean air in Tuber-
cular disease.   I have elsewhere  declared with  sufficient
plainness, that  yvithout a large and frequent  supply of fresh
air, no  consumptive person ever did get  well—nor ever will.
But I have travelled many thousands of miles, in all kinds of
sea craft, for months at a time, and have never ret found fresh
air on any ship that ever floated, unless in the main top, and
invalids do not often  mount  such places.  I do not  mean to
say that there is no pure  air at sea ; but I do assert,  that in-
valid passengers never get enough of it to do them any mate-
rial good.   Let any ship traveller look at the items of a
voyage.  You are in the cabin while you eat and sleep and
lounge, yvhich, at the very lowest calculation,  is twelve hours,
supposing the weather, ever so favorable.  But how many days
in a month is it suitable weather for an invalid to be on deck 
73
 in any latitude?  Three-fourths of the time it is too hot, or
 loo cold, or windy, or rainy, and were  it neither of these,
 every morning, as  regular as the morning comes, the decks
 are  too  damp  for  an  invalid  to stand  or walk on,  until
 a long  time  after breakfast;   and  thus the  freshest and
 loveliest  part  of  every  day is lost.  As for  taking  exer-
 cise,  it  is a thing almost  impracticable; for in  the  first
 place, there is no time; and if there  were, there is no place;
 and  were there both time and place, you can't do it to any
 serviceable extent;  for if  the weather is fine, the greater part
 of the deck i^ occupied by the men repairing the  sails or other
 ligging}  and if the weather is foul,  you do not want to be
 there.  It is true that passengers  have the privilege of the
 quarter deck, but I do not  consider that much better than
 walking around a tub, bottom upwards.   There is only one
 conceivable yvay by  which a consumptive person can be bene-
 fitted by a sea voyage, and that is by performing sailor's duty,
 and living on sailor's fare, regardless of weather, taking it as
 it comes; making it however an indispensable consideration,
 to have full, regular, uninterrupted sleep,  dry and yvarm, and
 never go  below decks.  But as not one consumptive in a mil-
lion would have energy enough to undertake such a means of
cure, it is not yvorth while to recommend it.  Nor is a resi-
 dence on the coast any better, because all  coast situations are
subject to sudden and piercing cold winds,  producing chills,
 colds and pleurisies—counteracting in an  hour, the benefit of
 a whole  week's judicious  nursing.  A cold, dry, uniform,
 fresh, still atmosphere,  is  the grand desideratum for a con-
sumptive, and to secure thi-i, should be his only inducement
 to leave home for any length of time ; and when by suitable
 remedies,  in careful and experienced hands, the system is
 first placed, and then kept in a condition to derive the greatest
 advantages from the-e circumstances, the  restoration to health
 and life and friends, will  be yvith  great uniformity, speedy,
 regular, perfect and permanent, under suitable modifications.
  A revolution must necessarily take place both in  the theo-
 ry and practice, in relation to consumption of the lungs.   Me-
 dical men must admit its curability, and then have energy and
 ambition enough to attempt its  accomplishment.  He is not
 worthy the name of a man  who says of  any  thing  desirable
 under the circumstances, "it can't be done;" it is the motto of
 ignorance and  idleness.   Suppose consumption never had
 been cured, that surely is no reason why it should not be at-
 tempted,  and if one plan  or remedy, or system of treatment
                            7 
74
fails, common sense dictates "try another."   But what  is
the infatuated  practice  of the times?—blistering and bleed-
ing, and  leeching  and  seatons  and  issues,  have  been
tried, and failed for hundreds of years,  men  know it has
failed, declare  it incurable, and yet when  they  have once  in
five years a case, if they do any thing at all, it is to bleed
and blister as before; it seems almost incredible, that rational
men should pursue such a course, and at the same time abuse
and decry and defame others who propose a different treat-
ment; not only abuse them  for endeavoring to find a better
path, but even for asserting that  it can be done at all.   It
really requires forbearance  to  write respecting  such.   It
seems  to me, that the yviser and  more  humane course
would be, to  be  anxious for  some  mode of  cure to be
discovered,  to give every  countenance and  encourage-
ment to  those who  were attempting the  discovery, and be
delighted with every advance that was made.  But the com-
mon practice is yvidely different.   If a man in ten  or twenty
year's practice, acquires a skill in the use of a remedy yvhich
only years of  practice  can give,  and  publishes his success,
the remedy  and the mode of using it; in less than a month
perhaps, he is set down  and published as an ignorant  pre-
tender ;  and if he does  not publish the remedy, he is called
a quack or a charlatan, selfish, inhuman,  and by other like
epithets.  Under such circumstances, a  man who has any
regard for public opinion, scarcely knows  yvhat to do.  If he
be a humane man, and  has a remedy, he  is desirous of pub-
lishing it to  the world ; but if he tells its name, it is laughed
at as absurd, and if he  does  not tell the name, he is called a
brute.   The fact is, the medicines of a physician may be
compared to the tools of  a workman,  efficacious in propor-
tion as they are skilfully used.   A good mechanic can make
several neat articles of furniture with a single chisel, yvhich a
botch could  not do  yvith  a whole chest  of tools;  and there
are physicians yvho can  cure half of the ordinary ailments
yvith tartar emetic, or calomel, or quinine, yvhile others yvith
the yvhole materia medica fail in the simplest  diseases.  I
have not the shadoyv of a doubt that many  cases  of decided
consumption may have been perfectly cured  by  emetics; I
believe there are other individual remedies yvhich have ac-
complished the same thing, on the very same principle, that a
finished workman can put one tool to a hundred  good uses,
that a mere apprentice would never  dream of.   A soldier
handles a frail syvord with more execution in battle, than a 
75
butcher would yvith cleaver,  axe and carbine.   It is the ge-
nius and skill with which a remedy is used, that accomplishes
the  wonder, and hence  it is, that  not a month passes but
what some simple  remedy is  proposed as having effected
wonders in the hands of the yvriter, and in the very next
month perhaps, this man and that and the other, yvrites that
he has tried it without the slightest  possible advantage, and
forthwith  the remedy dies  for fifty or a hundred years.
There is scarcely a single article on the apothecaries' shelf,
that  has not in a similar manner, had its day of glory and its
death ; and such will be  the case, until'men learn the appli-
cation of remedies  on principle, and  not dictum.   Every
physician must know that there is scarcely an indication to
be named,  which may not be accomplished in more ways
than one,  perhaps a score of them,  as there is in all  men,
more or less of idiosyncracy, as to the remedial influences
of any particular drug.   The true mode then, of practising
medicine yvith safety and success, is, first to  ascertain the
indication,  and then to effect it in whatever yvay, and with
whatever remedy the practitioner can most skillfully use.
  In my practice in the treatment of consumption, the indi-
cations are
  1.  To  equalize  the  circulation  without  reducing the
strength for an instant.
  2.  To secure the free regular daily action of the chylo-
poietic viscera, without debilitating remedies.
  3.  To raise the general health and strength to the highest
possible standard, and by  these three, securing first,, an  ar-
rest  of the  progress of the disease ;  second, an absorption of
all foreign  nocuous matter in the lungs;  and third, by ap-
proximating divided parts, hasten union by first intention.
  Now there is no educated physician that lives,  but will
agree  with me, that the three things named, are precisely
what are  wanted to be done in consumption, and that who-
ever, or yvhatever accomplishes these, effectually  cures the
disease.   So far then, we agree; but here yve differ—he says
he cannot  do it, nor can any body  else.   I say that I have
done it; but as to what  other people can do, or cannot  do,
is no particular business of mine.   I believe not merely that
any thing can be done that ought to be done,  but that there
are  more  ways than one of doing what ought to be effected,
especially  in reference to the points above named.  And  I
certainly  think that any observing,  unprejudiced physician,
who will  make  consumptive diseases his yvhole study  for
years, will  succeed in arresting and curing many cases ;  the 
76
greatest and almost the only serious draw back, being, that
considering it insurable, men will not open their eyes to it»
existence in time ;  just as a man will not admit he is a bank-
rupt until the officer turns the key on his door, and his estate
is a perfect wreck.
  Tubercles of themselves  are  not necessarily fatal, as \x
proven by their being found every  day, in the  lungs of old
men, yvho had died of some other disease, and yet the lungs
performed  their functions  properly to the last.  To make
tubercles fatal, there  must be the application  of some other
cause ;  and that is abnormal action of the capillaries, from
the effects of a yriolent cold, or long  continued  ill health ;
these not only cause  tubercles to soften in persons born with
them, but originate them in the lungs of those  who never had
them before.  Continued ill health then, originates tubercles
in a few yveeks,  and in  a few weeks more, causes them to
soften, thus bringing  on the last stage of the disease.  When
they are already in existence, a violent cold may bring about
their softening in a very few days, hence one origin of yvhai
the common people call  "gallopping consumption;"  a  per-
son with weak general health, yvithout any actual  disease, or
special complaint, gets "caught in a rain," or "sat in a draft
of air," or "slept  yvith the yvindow up," or had  "hooping-
cough," or "the measles struck  in," and in a feyv weeks is
dead from  true  Phthisis,  yvhile another,  of more  robust
health, remains perfectly uninjured by tyventy times the ex-
posure.   To  prevent then,  arrest, or cure the disease, ap-
pliances of a constitutional character must  be  made,  and
yvithout this, one step of progress toyvards renovation, never
can be taken, and no mode of treatment can possibly be  suc-
cessful, except in  proportion as  it involves this principle of
cure.   These hints are throyvu  out for the benefit of medical
men, that  they  may be induced to look at the subject  in a
different light, and by patient study, observation and trial,
acquire such a skill  in the employment of proper remedies,
as  yvill secure them  the same success, which  has  attended
the efforts of others.  At  the same time, I  invite attention
to a declaration of that great and remarkable man, Mr. Aber-
nethy, "can consumption be cured ? that's a  question yvhich
a man yvho had lived in a dissecting room, yvould  laugh at.
How many people do you examine yvho have lungs tubercu-
lar, yvhich  are otherwise  sound?   What is consumption!
It is tubercle of the lungs—then if those tubercles are healed,
 and the lungs otherwise sound, the patient must get better. 
77
  But if the inquirer shift his ground and say  'it was the case
  I meant,  of tubercles over  the yvhole lungs,' why then he
  shifts his grounds to no purpose, for there is no case of any
  disease which, yvhen it has proceeded to a certain extent,
  can be cured."
    But after all, I scarcely  expect a revolution on this great
  question to  begin yvith physicians,  especially leading ones,
  such as Professors in Medical Schools;  they are already too
  strongly committed, and it is too humbling  to confess to  an
  error in opinion.  We must look to the common people to
  begin the  change.   The following  curious items, strung
  together by an  anonymous  writer, but beyond all doubt au-
  thentic, are  apt illustrations of some of the  sentiments just
  proposed,  showing that leading  men, not only do not begin
  reforms, but have in all ages of the yvorld been its bitterest
  opposers,  more especially in medicine :  .
   "Surgery  once staunched  the blood, by applying boiling
  pitch to a  yvounded artery.   Ambrose Pare  introduced the
  practice of tying the artery  with a ligature ;  and for this, the
  Faculty hissed him to scorn, as one yvho would hang human
  life  upon a thread.
   Antimony, which was introduced by Paracelsus, as a me-
  dicine, and is now generally regarded as a potent remediate
  agent, yvas at first  proscribed by the French Parliament, at
  the  instigation of the College, and to prescribe it was  made
* a penal offence.
   Protestant England originally regarded Peruvian Bark as
  the  invention of the Devil, because introduced by  Jesuits.
   Dr.  Groenvelt, who, in  1693, discovered the curative vir-
  tues of cantharides in dropsy, was committed to Newgate by
  warrant of the President of the  College of Physicians 'for
  prescribing cantharides internally.'
   Lady Mary Montague, who introduced the practice of in-
  oculation,  was hooted at by the Doctors, and denounced from
  the  pulpit  by the Ministers, as presumptuously taking events
  out  of the  hands of Providence.
   Jenner, the discoveror of Vaccination, one of the greatest
  benefactors of the human race, was run down by  the Royal
  College of Physicians, at  London, for  what they chose to
  consider his monstrous quackery;  and one  Errham,  of
  Frankfort, undertook to prove from the Holy Scriptures and
  the  Fathers, that vaccination was the real Anti-Christ!
   Harvey lost  his practice  at first, and was proscribed from
  the  consultations of his fellow-physicians,  because he pro-
                            7* 
78
claimed the circulation of the blood.  They yvould not believe
that  a theory which had descended from the wise men of
Greeee and Rome, could be false."
  What has been, will be  again, and  yve must expect  for
years to come, that leading  men in the community will be
the  most obstinate opposers of the doctrine, that consump-
tion can be cured ;  and they,  xvith  those whom they influ-
ence, yvill be the last to derive  any benefit from  my princi-
ples of practice.
  I do not desire to be understood as offering a specific for
Phthisis ;  a mode of treatment, which will cure every case,
in every stage of the disease;  nor  any given case, in any
given stage.  It is only imposters, who "never fail."  I mere-
ly mean to say, that a very  large number of those who  arc
in the first stages of the disease can be permanently restored
to health ; and that persons in  the last  stage of the malady,
have  been sufficiently often saved by  the general plan of
treatment  which I have adopted, as  to make it well yvorth
the trial.  I wish to excite no  extravagant expectations.   It
is a painful task, when the young and trusting  come, with
excited hopes  from what I have done for their friends, to be
compelled to say to them, through the distance of months, it
may be, "my friend, you must die!"   When the lungs  are
all gone, I propose no miracle ; I offer no recreations ;  for
there are certain  combinations of symptoms, as connected
with  a  particular temperament,  or phase of constitution,
which make death inevitably certain ; and as I have else-
yvhere said, these sometimes present themselves long months
before hand, and  one yvho has seen them often, can never
mistake them.
  It yvas not designed, in the  publication of these pages, to
offer a recipe  for the arrest and cure of consumption;  but
simply to give the  reader a general idea of the nature  and
symptoms of  the disease, that he might be able to perceive
its  coming at a great distance ahead,  and  wisely apply,
without delay, for the proper  means of health and life.  I
most sincerely deprecate the publication of "useful receipts"
for the cure of any species of sickness or  disease.  Every
intelligent  physician yvill  feel the  truth of the expression
when I say it is the  cause of infinite ill.   Rules,  Recipes
and  Regulations, too numerous,  for the prevention of dis-
eases, cannot be published ;  the great  misfortune is:  that
there  are  too few books on  that  most important subject,
"The prevention of Disease,"  and the maintenance of a good 
79
constitution.   General Hygeienic principles ought  to  be
made a fundamental part of the education of every girl in the
land.   The physical destiny of the child is moulded by the
female, from the moment of birth, and even before, upwards.
And who, that ever thought at all, is not impressed yvith a
feeling of the all-controlling influence, yvhich  the  physical
has over  the moral, the eternal destiny of man !   My  mo-
ther, and honored be the thought of her, has seven  children,
the youngest nearly grown ; and although herself, of a deli-
cate frame, those seven do not average an hour's sickness in
a year; her three practical mottoes for their physical educa-
tion were, "eat and sleep my children,  whenever you want,
and as much as  you want, let your dress  a little more than
fully protect  you from  the weather at all seasons, and  ex-
pose yourself to heat or cold, or over-fatigue, for nothing or
nobody."  These children, are scattered in different quar-
ters of the globe, one of them, a world's wanderer,  has been
in every  variety of latitude, from  the  tropics  to the poles,
has strayed alone  over desolate and dreary places, at noon
and at midnight, under burning sun and chilling rains, not
sleeping  once under a roof for three  months together;  ly-
ing on the ground at night, yvading by day from ancle to
waist in mud and  yvater,  blown up, captured at sea, ship-
wrecked, and yet not sick an hour ; always ready for eating,
sleeping, or a hearty laugh;  and though  repeatedly away
from  kith, kin  and country, hundreds and  thousands of
miles, among people of a strange tongue, yvithout a friend,
without an acquaintance,  without a dollar,  without one sin-
gle shilling, yet always high in health  and hope, his spirits
never for an hour flagged, never knew  zero.  The secret of
all this,  is good health;  obtaining a good constitution,  by
avoiding all kinds  of exposure when growing up ;  and tak-
ing care of it afterwards, by not exposing it uselessly or vo-
luntarily.  And I  have found myself,  that the best way of
hardening a constitution, is, to take good care of it; it is no
more bettered, by  being  banged about, than an old hat.  If
you want  it to last long, treat it as you yvould an elegant
garment, do not expose it to wind or weather, to surfeits of
food or drink, of appetite or passion ; and  then,  yvhen the
Saturday night of life comes round, it will look and  feel
"almost as yvell as new !"
   But to return:  yve yvere speaking of the injurious effects
of publishing "cures," for the multitude.   One among many
good reasons which will suggest themselves for discounte- 
80
 nancing it, is the liability to mistake the malady ;  even skill-
 ful physicians, of forty years'  practice, sometimes do this,
 and not unfrequently,  a mistake is a murder!    To illus-
 trate hoyv easily one malady might be taken for another, I
 will give a case :   A well dressed  man called at my office
 to consult me  for consumption.   He had  a troublesome
 cough ;  yellow expectoration; great debility ; considerable
 emaciation ;  a weak pulse, of one hundred and twenty in  a
 minute ; liable to cough and throw up his food ; shortness
 of breath; easily fatigued in going up stairs, or up a hill;
 difficulty of breathing ; stoop shoulders ; breast bent in, and
 contracted ; frequent night sweats ; bowels alternately cos-
 tive and loose;  sleep  restless ; appetite irregular; some-
 times felt well, and sometimes yvorse.  In short, I never,  in
 all my  practice,  had a case which presented together, so
 many of the decided  symptoms of consumption.   After  a
 leisure  examination, I came to  the conclusion he was too
 consumptive; that it  yvas consumption exaggerated; and
 must be something  else, and consequently, refused to pre-
 scribe for him, telling him at the same time, that a consump-
 tive's treatment yvould kill him in a  month.   He went away
 yvith a heavy heart, and yvith the most utterly "give up" ex-
 pression of countenance, I remember to have seen.  But he
 evidently did not  believe me.   He had been in good cir-
 cumstances, and had a large family to  support;  but having
 been sick, and unable to make any thing for two years, and
 on expenses all the time,  he was almost reduced to actual
 want.   These  circumstances he had frankly communicated
 to me,  as also his utter inability to pay me a single cent,
 for my trouble or remedies.  He thought I turned him ayvay
 because he yvas poor.   I cordially invited him to call on me
 at any time, saying that I should be pleased to see him, and
 do him  any good in  my power;  but I never sayv him after-
wards.
   The reader will doubtless yvant to know yvhy I pronoun-
ced it clearly, not a case of consumption, and yvhat became
of the man.   Within two months, he got as yvell as he ever
was, and as far as I know, so continues, as I have not heard
of him,  since eight  months after he was at my office.  I
perceived that the slightest mental shock, or the least bodily
exertion, even rapid walking, almost took away his breath,
and would cause  him  to sink yvith sheer weakness.  The
physician will at once name his  malady,  obstruction of one
of the vital  tubes:  and so I pronounced  it  at the time; 
SI
warning him, that he was in consequence, liable to die in any
two minutes.   A few yveeks afterwards,  "something went
down the wrong way," and threw him into a most violent fit
of coughing, which  brought up a piece of limey substance,
described to me, "as large as the end of the finger," aud he
got well.
  There is another objection to persons yvho are sick, taking
medicines, however harmless they arc solemly affirmed to
be, unless by the direction of an educated, and experienced
physician ;  there are stages, or conditions, in almost every
disease, when the patient is no kind of a judge whether he is
better or worse; consequently,  while he is taking some un-
known mixture, and fondly supposing that he is improving
hourly, and imagines himself almost well, the disease may
only be lulling for an instant,  to  gather  fresh strength, to
sweep  its victim to the tomb !   How many thousands are
there, who  have said of some  particular day or hour,  "1
never felt better in my life," and the very  next day or hour,
are racked by disease, or dying or dead ; and on the other
hand, persons may feel worse than they ever felt before, and
yet the physician be perfectly  aware that  it is the  certain
herald of immediate and permanent convalescence.   I will
give two or three cases of this kind, occurring" in my own
practice.
   An American city physician, educated in Europe, of thirty-
two years medical practice, brought his friend, whom he had
been attending for some time,  and requested my opinion of
his case ; and if I thought I  could do him any good, to un-
dertake it, provided such remedies were given, as  could bo
approved of.   "Doctor," said I, "I think I  can be of some
service to your friend, but he must implicitly follow every
direction 1 give ; and take every medicine I prescribe ;  but
vour approval, cannot be considered as a part of the prescrip-
tion."  Such  directions  were given,  as  the case seemed to
require, and  they left.   Several days after, they returned ;
as soon as the door opened, I  saw  something was  wrong;
that they were both, not angry, but mad ;  and as several
persons were  in the office at the time, waiting for an exami-
nation, I requested  them to step into an adjoining parlor, for
a few  moments, and when ready, calhed on them.
   Any better ?
   "No, worse!"
   On examination, I replied:  You are  better, very much
better ; to-morrow, you will feel convinced of  it  yourself; 
82
if you are not,  the  amount paid me, is subject  to your
order.
  I gave directions,  and nothing more passed.  The next
day, they came to make an apology.
  When that patient came to me, he could not descend from
the  carriage without support.  Some ten months afterwards,
I sayv him walking the streets as other men, yvithout even
the aid of a cane ;  he had improved fifteen or tyventy pounds
in yveight—yvas able to sit as a grand juror eight hours every-
day, and that without special inconvenience or fatigue.
  An  accomplished, and well  made  young yvoman, called    ,
on  me for a lung affection.   She had been attended by seve-   J
rai  physicians for  some months, but the  cough,  expectora-
tion,  weakness,  irregularity  and pains,  grew  worse  and
worse.   The  assurance  that I might  do  her some material
benefit, was "news too good to be true, but would try it for
a yvhile. at all events."   In a short time, all pains left her.
She became alarmed, lest they yvere lulled,  but to break out
with perhaps fatal violence, and thought of declining further
treatment.   I persuaded her to "wait a while and see."   She
did so, and continued to  improve.  After some  time  how-
ever, she  began to grow weaker, seemed  to herself,  to be   j
 worse than she ever had been before ; felt  all the  time like
 lying down on the floor, and staying there ;  yvould as leave   !
 die as not;  didn't believe any good had been done her ; yvas
 falling off every day, and-----asmad people generally  run
 out soon, if  no  reply  is made, so  my fair friend came
 forthwith to a stand still.   I  then handed her some pre-
 scriptions, yvhich  were preparing yvhile she yvas talking, and
 opening the door said to her,  if you  do not improve in health    ,
 and strength from this day forward, I yvill give you-----.  For   i
 a long time, I neither saw or heard of her, when one day
 she came into my office, bringing with her one of the pret-
 tiest young children I had lately seen.  I was certainly very
 glad to see her looking so well, and  inquired why,she had
 not called to see me before.
    "O I don't know sir ;  there's nothing the matter yvith me    I
 noyv, I feel well enough, and didn't think it yvorth yvhile to
 trouble you any more.  I only called to-day to know how
 you yvere."         *
    Another case of an opposite character.   A man who had  _
 several cavities in the lungs, with the most marked symp-
 toms of the last stages of consumption,  used the remedies,
  and rapidly improved;  yvas soon able to walk about, and at 
83
length believed himself out of all danger.  He was warned
that it was too soon to abandon the treatment, but to no pur-
pose ; he left the city, in a few months got yvorse, and being
out of the reach of medical aid, only returned in  time to die.
On examining his  lungs after death,  I found all  the smaller
cavities perfectly healed with the most beautiful healthy ci-
catrices, the one large cavity was healed, and healing at the
extremities with a scar, but an extensive portion about the
centre  yvas unhealed and full of matter.  It must be appa-
rent to the reader, that a little longer attention to the reme-
dies, would have completed the cure.   I consider this case,
under the circumstances, one of the  strongest that could pos-
sibly be offered, it is nothing less than a demonstrative  evi-
dence of the efficacy of the treatment, greatly stronger than
if the man had perfectly recovered; for if he had recovered,
it  would have been declared  "not consumption, but some-
thing else."
   The three  preceding  cases  are  given, to show that the
patient should not trust his own  feelings as  to the  fact
whether he is  improving or  not, or as to  the propriety of
remitting the use  of the remedies prescribed.   The  physi-
cian's judgment should be relied on.   If then the patient is
not the proper judge of his own actual condition, but is lia-
ble, as the above  cases  conclusively  show, to' the  most
palpable deception, how most unwise is it, to rely upon his'
mere feelings, as  to his improvement, yvhile taking unknown
compounds,  or as to  the  safety of  omitting the remedies
prescribed, until his physician expressly authorizes the same.
   I will here reneyv an  intimation elsewhere given,  in the
hope  that its repetition may attract the attention of those
most deeply interested, and secure  a practical application.
   If any one member of a family,  a child  or parent for ex-
ample,  has  died of consumption,  the appearance  of the
slightest symptoms of the disease in any of the other mem-
bers, should be regarded with lively apprehension, and seri-
 ous  alarm ; and instant  measures should be  taken  for  its
 utter eradication, and the prevention of its return ;  not per-
 haps  by taking  medicine, but  by the prudent adoption  of
 such  prophylactic measures, as  experience and the circum-
 stances of the case may indicate.   Many a child of promise,
 perhaps the last of a numerous family, could thus be easily
 saved.  It is  most unwise to delay until there is absolute
 certainty  that it is consumption, and  can be  nothing else.
 In a consumptive family, almost any symptom  of debilita- 
84
tinf disease, of three  weeks duration, means consumption
begun, and should at once be treated as such ;  not by a blind
and credulous resort to the use of unknown mixtures, but
by seeking advice from a careful and experienced physician.
  Consumption of the lungs is a disease becoming so com-
mon,  especially in the South  and South-West,  that I con-
ceive  medical men are loudly  called upon to direct their at-
tention to the special study of its nature, its causes, its pre-
vention and its cure.   Unless  there is a check presented to
its progress in some  yvay, it will soon be impossible to find
in a thousand persons one yvell  developed  man or woman.
We yvill become, as a nation, a puny breed of Lilliputs.  It
is a great mistake, that the South  is favorable to consump-
tive constitutions ; the climate  is too yvet,  damp and foggy;
it is too  debilitating; and I had almost said, too cold, for
the  universal dampness of the atmosphere, continued more
or less,  throughout  the twenty-four hours, abstracts more
vital heat from the system, than a temperature many degrees
lower, yvithout imparting the bracing  and life giving influ-
ences of a clear, dry, still  and  frosty locality;  and if he
leaves home at all,  to such a place, a consumptive should
repair.   Caution has already been given about leaving home ;
and if it needs corroboration, I cannot do  better  than quote
the  sentiments  of one of the most honored of British physi-
cians  now living, who says, in yvriting of the effects of the
atmosphere on  the lungs,  that  the advantage of breathing
warm air, in consumption, is very much overrated,  as it
runs its course rapidly in Italy  or any warmer climat; ;  such
also,  is the experience of Andral and others; that a decep-
tion  has  arisen, in consequence of persons not  really con-
sumptive, having been sent to  yvarm climates, yvho from the
comparatively trifling nature of their ailment, have  returned
cured, or at least not worse.   In some of these cases,  erro-
neously  called consumption,  the progress of the disease is
said to have been checked by  the influence of the milder
climate; this popular prejudice has still, however,  a strong
hold  on the minds of men.   But for  all that, it is  generally
unnecessary, and yvorse than useless, to send patients away
from  their friends, and often at an enormous  inconvenience.
"If they are consumptive, they yvill thus die in exile ; and if
nojt, they may be cured at home."   Of  this, there  are many
marble  records in the West Indies, Madeira, Leghorn, the
South of France and Paris.  Dr. Chavasse very pertinently
asks,  can any thing  be more absurd or cruel?   If there be 
85
 any disease that requires the comforts of home and good nur-
 sing more than another, it is consumption.
   While my plan of treatment calls into requisition  those
 aids, which only home can afford, it does not require in most
 instances my personal supervision,  as the cases which have
 already been given, fully prove.  It is very true,  that a visit
 to me for a few days is preferable ;  but in a number of cases
 it is useless, and in others entirely unnecessary.   I will give
 a case  yvhere benefit has been derived without a visit, by
 merely  writing.  There is no miracle about it, nothing very
 remarkable, I merely present it  as an ordinary case of benefit
 derived by written prescriptions.   A distinguished lawyer,
 a thousand miles away,  writes May 10th.  "Age 30; mar-
 ried ; three children,  mother, sister, uncle, aunt, died of con-
 sumption; caught  cold several  years ago,  followed by a se-
 vere cough; continued  to the present  time; a few  months
 ago, had spitting of blood; it  came mixed with phlegm at
 first, but in a day or two I coughed up three or four  mouth-
 fuls  of  pure blood, and  have had a return of it;  fixed pain
 along the breast bone ;  threw up phlegm every day.  Stools
 costive;  have a narrow chest; walking fast or far, wearies me
 more than formerly ;  pains in the side, breast, under the ribs,
 and between the shoulders, appetite irregular, soreness in the
 lungs, Sic.    Repectfully yours,               N.  E. S.
  I prescribed for  him,  and in a few weeks he writes:
     Dear Dr:—My expectoration is easier;  I have been re-
 lieved of the pain in  my  breast, there is however a remnant
 left; my lungs are not so sore ; my bowels are regular with-
 out medicine ; I have had no return of spitting of blood ; no
 night sweats, or cough in the night at all.  1 am a little ner-
 vous at  times, but on the whole I think I am improving.
          I am very truly, your friend,         N.  E, S.
  Although prescriptions may be safely and advantageously
 made, without my ever having seen the patient, and although,
 as a general rule, it may be best to  write first, yet, if a man
 has plenty of money and leisure, it is strongly recommended
 lo visit  me at once, without the delay of a single hour unne-
 cessarily, as the excitement of travel, the change of air and
scene, and other circumstances, will benefit both body and
 mind, and in a few days he  can return to his friends, and in
the bosom of  his family, enter upon the adoption of those
measures which offer the most rational promise of a safe and
permanent restoration to former health.
                           8    ' 
86
  The general  prejudice which  exists in  the minds of the
community against the disease being cured at all, will hinder
many from making application for relief; others will hesitate,
not because they consider their case hopeless; nor because of
the expense, for that would be accounted  as nothing in the
scale, if health could be regained, but from the fear that this
new mode of treatment is only one of the  thousand preced-
ing it, which have been held up in their turn as perfectly suc-
cessful,  after all other means had utterly failed.   I knoyv
there is  ground  for the objection, and can only reply in rela-
tion to it, that it is one of the evils of the times, and the reader
must decide for himself; the question is life, and the responsi-
bility must be all his own.
  It was not until I bad saved several valuable  lives, that I
could be persuaded myself, that consumption could be cured
at all; but as several years have passed away,  and those per-
sons are still living  and doing well, notwithstanding that at
the time they applied to me,  their condition was considered
desperate by all around them, and they were not expected to
live  beyond a few  days, I am compelled to think that much
more can be done in the way  of removing, certainly, effectu-
ally  and permanently, consumptive symptoms, than one edu-
cated physician  in a thousand believes.  And now, leaving
pecuniary considerations out of view, I have been induced to
publish, thinking that if thereby, the attention of a single in-
dividual could be drawn to the subject, yvho otherwise would
not have heard of  my mode  of treatment, and such an one
should  be  restored to life and health and friends  again, I
yvould be doing that person more good, than any risk of caste
among  the faculty by advertising, can do me harm.   And
since I  turn all  away whose lungs  are not effected or threat-
ened, and  devote  my whole attention to  these  exclusively,
even were I to  save only one in ten of such, I  think I  add a
larger share of happiness to the world, than those who aban-
don them as hopelessly gone, make no effort to save, and worse
than all, send them away from home and all its endearments,
to die unwept among strangers, and  be laid in an unvisited
tomb, not yvhere the bones of their fathers He.
   I have repeatedly turned persons away, because I did not
think I  could save  them, and  was unwilling to receive money
without a "reasonable prospect of conferring a corresponding
benefit. I fear that some of these have died, who might have
been saved,  as 1 have several times  since, undertaken as a
charity, and with success, cases which appeared to be equally 
87
hopeless.   Perhaps a more correct view of the value of hu-
man life, as well as proper considerations of humanity, dictate
a different course, and require at least an  effort to  save,
however hopeless the prospect; and I have found, that a re-
fusal  to attempt any thing, has  induced a feeling of utter
helplessness and  despair, and cut short a life, which might
have been protracted for months.   In all such cases too,  the
feelings of the patient are deeply wounded, for he cannot but
lay it to the account of "man's inhumanity to  man."  There
exists also in most of men, a jealousy of reputation; and in
my own practice, yvhile success in any case is credited to the
account of its being  "something  else,"  a failure, is allowed
its utmost weight; no one enquiring how desperate the case;
and even if death followed the next hour, still it is bruited as
a failure.  Perhaps the fear of these things, has led me  to re-
fuse, when I might have saved.   I therefore purpose hereaf-
ter to endeavor in all cases to do what I can, even if it is but
to alleviate, and shall feei myself rewarded, even if but  occa-
sionally, I thereby originate in  the hearts of others, feelings
similar to  those which dictated the two following letters; one
of the cases proving fatal within four days after being called in.

               FROM  A PHYSICIAN.
  Sir—Yours was received.  The information you gave in
relation to  the particulars of the  illness of our dear relative,
was gratifying indeed, and in behalf of his wife, as "well as
for myself, I return you sincere thanks for your kindness to
Mr.  N. during his last illness; and also for your attention in
sending us  the information which  your letter  contained.
Hoping that  these lines  will find you enjoying health and
happiness, allow me in conclusion, to renew the expression
of thanks and obligations, for the  kindness which you have
shown both to the dead and the living.
                                ' Respectfully Yours.

                     ANOTHER.

  My Dear Sir—Permit me to make to you, the only return
in my power, for your kind attentions  and great solicitude for
my son.  My wife and daughter join  me in saying, that if it
is out of our power to pay in person, the debt of gratitude
we owe you in this world, our constant desire shall be, that
you may be rewarded here and  hereafter.
           Believe rue to be truly, your obedient servant. 
88
   This last, refers to the case of a young gentleman, of great
 moral  worth, and of brilliant prospects,, who applied to me,
 far away from friends; sick and sinking;.dispirited and broken
 hearted;  when all thai could be  done,  was to endeavc r in
 some small degree to act as the  substitute  for the  loved at
 home; when all that was expected, was to regain  strength
 enough to "go back home and die."
   When life cannot be saved, and only a few days more re-
 main to bear its bufledngs, when all that is- possible, is by
 those expedients which long experience only can command',
 lo alleviate  distresses which cannot be avoided,, and  subdue
 those terrible  sufferings  which cluster  around the  closing
 scene, and by a hundred little kindnesses, endeavos to mingle
 a few drops of sweetness in the last bitter dregs of  death—
 then it is, that the smallest  attentions are worth more than
 all worlds, to the stranger sufferer.
   The following case merits the mature and serious delibe-
 ration of every invalid:  An interesting young  lady, just  in
 the dawn of womanhood, was pronounced by her family phy-
 sician, an educated city practitioner,  "a hopeless consump^
 tive, and could not live."   She proposed visiting me.  He
 objected,  saying that no one could cure her.  These  delibe-
 rations continued for  some two months; during which time,
 he cdministeied very dUigently,  cod liver oil, on the faith of
 a recent recommendation from across the water; having, how-
 ever, no experience as to its use, or effects.  She daily be-
 came  weaker  and  worse,  and  wrote  to me, among other
 things:  "If you think Doctor, that  the  prospect of getting
 well under your directions will be fairer, I will come, for life
 is so sweet  to me, I wish to improve all the chances."
   She came to  the city, but her yveakness was such, that she
 did  not attempt to walk two squares  to my office.  The
 following symptoms were presented :  Pulse 120; very fre-
 quent pains between the shoulders; great sense  of weakness
 in the breast, with wandering pains; general chilliness; after-
 ternoon hectic; great deal of burning in the hands and feet; bad
 appetite; very loose bowels; sleep  restless and unrefreshing;
 great difficulty in breathing, especially during the daily fevers;
 cough very  annoying, causing frequent nausea and vomiting;
 yellow expectoration;, had  spit blood; frequent and exhaust-
ing high sweats? had become emaciated; occasioned by taking
cold from riding in the rain, two years before.  The most dis-
tressing symptoms were cough and fevers,«every day.  The
general features of the case were too hopeless for me to give 
89
any assurance of restoration.  Still, I thought proper to pre-
scribe; and as it was inconvenient for her to remain in town,
1 communicated my views to her physician, with a request,
that he would superintend the case, as it was of so critical a
nature, as to  require almost hourly supervision;  and in four
or five weeks, received from the young lady, the following
tetter:
   Dear Sir—I received yours, dated the 1st inst., on yes-
terday.  I think  if you  were  to  see me now,  you would
scarcely  recognise your long faced patient,  I have improved
so fast, in such a short time; and if I continue at this rate, I
almost know, I shall get well.  I have really gained flesh;
every one tells me of the improvement; I know it myself, and
of course  am the  best judge  of my feelings.  I feel  like
another person altogether; and  even should I get worse, 1
 know 1 am a great deal better now, than when you first saw
me.   I follow your directions implicitly in  every thing; and
 particularly, I will not suffer myself to get the blues.  I used
 to have them "terribly bad."   But one  cause yvas, that my
 physician was as blue as I was; and  never  gave me the least
 encouragement, but altogether the reverse;  and you know it
 was hardly possible to be cheerful under those circumstances,
 although  I yvas naturally of a lively disposition.  On my re-
 turn, he refused to attend me,  or mix any  medicine for me;
 and what do you  think was  his apology ?   why, that "if it
 did  not have the desired  effect,  people would say he put
 something in to  prevent its having the influence it should
 have had; and that he did not wish to take any responsibility
 on himself,  for if I should get well, he would have none of
 the  credit of curing me."  I designed spending the winter in
 the  South, but as you do not approve of it, I have abandoned
 the  idea.  I talk at "rail road speed" I assure you, for since
 I come back, I have  so many questions to  answer; for all are
 very inquisitive about your manner of treating my case.   The
 reason I  asked you about talking much, was, that a physician
 told me since I came back,  that it was injurious to me, and
 that I talked entirely too much.  But I intend to follow your
 advice, for that suits me best.  Please write to me:   Your
 Friend.                                       ANNA.
   Most  sincerely  will the reader desire  with me, that the
 fondest wishes of this amiable and lovely correspondent may
 be realized;  and  that when the  time for removal hence does
 come, she may  be a flower transplanted  in  the gardens of -
 Paradise, where  the fragrance fails not,  and the  bloom is
                            8* 
90
eternal!   I have not in the preceding pages  made use of
cases cured by me, which  were supposed  by others to be
consumption, but which I knew were  not.  I desire no aid
but that which fairly belongs to  me.  A case :
   Several years ago, Miss  M. called at  my  office, firmly
believing herself to be in a decline; a wide and devoted circle
of friends, were under the same apprehensions.   She was of
an elegant figure, and well proportioned; long dark hair, and
black eyes; her cheeks were thin, her lips colorless, and her
features sharp.   She complained chiefly of  pains about the
shoulders, and in the sides; great general chilliness; cold hands
and feet; flushing in the cheek; great torpidity of the digestive
functions;  restlessness  at night; occasional  burning in the
palms and soles; cough troublesome; expectoration tough,
and hard to come up; subject to frequent bleedings.  Several
relatives, both on the father  and mother's side, had died of
consumption.   On examination it was  at once apparent, that
however unfavorable were the symptoms, the  lungs performed
their  functions healthily, and  yvere unaffected by disease.
But I could not get her to believe it, and had  to treat her case.
In due season, 1 dismissed her, as not requiring farther treat-
ment.   One yveek  ago to-day, she called  on me,  after a
year's interval, and  assured me, that her health continued to
improve; that it was now better than it had been for years;
that she had no occasion  for  medicine of any  description; and
the freshness of her looks, the brightness of her eyes, and the
liveliness  and elasticity  observed iu alt her bodily move-
ments,  were sufficient conoborations of the truth  of her
statements, if indeed, the words of one so young, so innocent,
so loveable, needed confirmation.
   A clergyman once came  into my office,  up one  pair of
stairs, panting as would an ordinary man  after running a
mile.  His case appeared desperate; but it was thought bet-
ter to attempt something, as  he  seemed to be  much in request
and  loved his yvork.   I  wrote  an  opinion of his  case, yvith
directions.,  and he  left.  About eleven o'clock at night, a
gentleman  called;on me to say—that one expression in my
opinion had been interpreted by the minister very unfavora-
bly, and the more he thought of it, the more nervous he be-
came, until he could neither sit, lie or stand  still, nor do any
thing else  two minutes at a time.   I quieted the apprehen-
sions.  In a month, a stranger  called upon  me, and to my
surprise, it was the minister; but so improved, that I did not
know, him, having seen him but twice before.   He felt him- 
91
self authorised to lay out his  winter's campaign.   After an
explanation, I told him it would not do.  He seemed to think
that there was so much need for preaching, that he could not
see how it was possible to spend several months in exclusive
efforts to  get perfectly restored.  1 urged upon him, that  I
did not think it probable that  the Almighty was so pressed
for means to advance religion, as to require any man's life:
or even to risk his health; that a man's wife  and children had
prior claims to the church; that he was probably among those
who were saying "It  is Corban;"  that by  properly  hus-
banding a few months now, it  might add several years to his
life; and thus as a mater of economy to the church, he was
called upon to alter his plan; that a good Being could never
approve of a man's injury or even exposing his health for
the sake of doing  good, and that a sick man could not serve
God, or do any thing else as advantageously, as if in health.
He thought however,-he would get well any  how.  I. told
him he would die  before the winter was over; and so he did.
   Many useful men reason  as this poor man  did, and  with
similar results.  Thousands of young men at College, act on
the same principles; and when they have spent all  their pa-
trimony, with the best years of their existence, in preparation
for "their work, they enter on the wide outspreading and in-
viting field, but wither in death,  long before the heat of the
day comes on.
   In the cases previously given, only those combinations of
symptoms w.^re presented, yvhich existed  at  one particular
time;  it may be useful to give the ordinary historv of a case
of consumption from the  commencement to the'close.  A
description given  by  Dr. Weatherhead, of London, a man of
deserved  celebrity,  will answer  the purpose, as 1 think  it
hardly probable, that a more truthful one can be written.
   Consumption very commonly begins as a cold, yet it often
happens that patients are unable to attribute its origin to any
precise period, or  any particular circumstance,  whatever
One of the first  symptoms is the extreme liability of the
patient to the  frequent recurrence of a short dry cough, on
the slightest occasions.  At  first there is no  expectoration
except  perhaps a little frothy phlegm.  The  breathing  is
slightly impeded, a sense of tightness is felt across  the chest
and the pulse is somewhat accelerated.  If the cough becomes
more troublesome on every successive attack, we have strong
reason to conclude,  especially if the. disease be hereditary 
92
that these apparently slight  attacks of cold, are in fact, the
incipient symptoms of consumption.   The disease may go
on in this way for some time, without making much appa-
rent progress—but it ought not to be neglected—for while it
may sometimes be protracted for years, it yvill at others run
through all its stages in the course of a very few weeks.  As
the disease progresses, the cough becomes more troublesome,
especially at night or in the morning.   The  expectoration
increases in quantity,  and  alters  its  character by degrees,
qecomes more protracted, tough and less  clear, frequently
streaked with blood, and  finally assumes a greenish  matter-
like  appearance.   Emaciation,  and difficuity  of breathing
increase with  the languor and debility.  The cough  is now
no longer short and hicking, but strong  and  violent, because
the inflammation of the lining membrane of the lungs pervades
die whole extent of the air tubes.  But the part whore the
greatest uneasiness is felt, is from the  top of the breast bone
upwards, along  the  throat.   Sometimes blood is   spit  in
abundance.   Pain is  felt  under  the breast  bone—increased
by coughing or lying on one side.  Sometimes there is no
pain, only an inability to lie on the  affected side.  The pulse
gets full, hard and frequent; the palms and soles have a burn-
ing heat; fever comes on in the afternoon, and soon assumes
a hectic character.  The urine deposites a copious red sedi-
ment, on standing, yet the  tongue may continue clear and the
appetite good.
  But  as the disease advances, the inroads it makes  on the
constitution, become  every day  more  apparent, the eye as-
sumes  a pearly lustre and sinks deep into the head, the  cheeks
are hollow and their  bones prominent.   As the substance of
the lungs is expectorated,  the chest falls  in.  There  is now
a flush on the cheek in the afternoon, and after a feverish,
restless night,  profuse  perspirations  break  out towards
morning,  when  the exhausted patient usually  falls to sleep.
Soreness of the bowels comes on, the  hair falls off, the nails
become curved,, the extremities become cold, the pulse ceases
to beat, and death ends the scene.
   I began with the intention of preparing some thirty pages,
and perhaps in exceeding  it so far, I have written more than
will  be read; for  many  there are,  who, if they can only be
cured, do not care to know any thing  else.   But I desire the
invalid reader to notice  the few following statements:  That
no one symptom constitutes consumption; and that  there is
no one symptom which may not be absent, and consumption 
93
still exist; that it is  scarcely possible to find any one ease,
that in every particular, will precisely answer  to his own;
that there is in the minds of all, in reading any description
of the disease, a remarkable disposition to fix an eager eye
upon any one  named symptom, which they do not  possess;
and if in any six named symptoms, they have five, but the
sixth is clearly absent, to settle down in the firm conviction
that they have not consumption.  It is utterly impossible for
any man, however well informed, to be a proper judge of
the fact,  whether he has consumption in his own person or
not, unless it be in  the very last stages  of the  malady,  and
simply because that there is no  one symptom cognizable to
his own  senses,  which infallibly determines its presence; nor
can any other man determine it for him, unless  he be a prac-
tised percutionist and auscultator; and there can be  no ques-
tion,  that many die  every year,  in  consequence  of being
ignorantly pronounced upon.  How  many thereby  are tor-
tured  with causeless  fears ?  how  many  lulled in  deceitful
security, and become  not conscious of their error, until  they
knock for entrance at  the gate of death !
   On page  twenty-three, the ten last cases were all saved,
and are still living.
   In  conclusion, from the gn at  unwillingness of  men to
admit that they have consumption, and from the very genpral
belief that it cannot be cured, it cannot be otherwise, but that
the sentiments advocated will gain a tardy admission to the
credence of men, and to the better  informed, last;  yet I have
observed so frequently and in such various ways the strikingly
beneficial effects of the general plan of  treatment that I feel
well assured that if but one tenth of the evidence  which I
possess of its efficacy could be presented  to the community
in its fair and unexaggerated  light it would excite a confi-
dence which  yvould gladden every bosom, and fill  every
heart with gratitude, for who, by this  disease,  has not lost a
friend ?  and who can  boast exemption from it I 
94
   Since the preceding pages  were printed, the  following
letter in part, has appeared, written by a correspondent of a
New York paper, and doubtless  will command wide atten-
tion.   The writer recommends Carthagena, a city containing
a population of 30,000.

                          Matanzas, August 28, 1845.

Important Suggestions to Invalids—Is  Cuba the place
  for Consumption ?—Let us see.
   The great migration of individuals from the United States
to this Island  yearly, whose delicate state of health obliges
them to seek more genial climes than their native land offers
during the winter season, and the persuasion under which I
labor of being of service to suffering humanity, and the in-
strument, perhaps, of snatching from eternity  many of my
fellow-creatures, has determined me to offer to them and you,
the following  remarks  on  a  subject which has  frequently
struck me forcibly since my residence  in this island, which
bo other motive but philanthropy  induces, and which con-
sequently will, I trust, find room in a corner of your valuable
paper, the object being,  I hope,  a sufficient recommendation,
though set forth in familiar  language and  unaccompanied by
any personal knowledge of  their author.
   I have'opened this article  by allusion to the fact that a great
number of persons annually visit Cuba  in hopes of finding a
cure  in its comparatively  mild climate,  for the pulmonary
diseases  under yvhich they all  suffer more or less, or other-
wise to pass a season of the year, yvhich, did they remain at
home, yvould cause imminent risk to their lives.  Many,  it
is true, find alleviation in these visits, and some, but alas ! of
this number very  few, ever  return to their desponding family
and  friends.   But though  this  climate, compared with the
winter of the North, is  of course mild, it possesses unfortu-
nately qualities which make it far from being a desirable abode
for invalids:  namely,  the  raw, penetrating,  cutting,  cold
Northers, and  the  general humidity of  the atmosphere—
qualities, which but for  the rare cases of effected cures,  and
the hope  which  never  deserts  humanity  of prolonged life,
joined to the proximity  of this Island to  the United States,
and  the having friends  or  acquaintances, or the facility of
making them in almost all  its large cities, would, I am con-
vinced, deter  the multitude from venturing.    The  tide,
however, running this yvay, (a consequence of the above cir- 
95
cumstances,) and no other spot having been, to my know-
 ledge, pointed out for the salvation  of the yvorn  out invalid,
none other is now ever thought of;  though the  undeniable
and  melancholy fact that hundreds, nay thousands, of the
natives of Cuba, annually succumb to the  fatal disease of
consumption in all  its  ramifications, and that it is the night-
mare which haunts all  classes,  were it, perhaps, known on
the other  side, would detract much from the confidence with
which lost health is sought after here, and speak? volumes in
favor of my object.  But I am not so cruel as to dissipate the
illusion which constitutes that confidence, without indicating
where it may be revived  in a tenfold degree, and I most un-
hesitatingly  give it as my intimate conviction, that whoever
will hearken to my advice, founded not on medicine,  but on
physical facts which I have closely observed, and  from which
I have  drawn my  conclusions, having the great  book of
nature for my master, will bless the memory of him on whose
suggestions he acted. 
98
              TERMS OF  TREATMENT.

   For the convenience of such as may apply to me, the
 terms of treatment are here distinctly stated;  there are no
 extras, and no deductions.
   For examination and opinion of a  case, Twenty Dollars.
   For prescription and remedies for two  weeks, Ten Dol-
 lars in addition, paid at the time of examination.
   The majority of  cases  do not require special attention
 for a longer time;  then, the only additional  expense is for
 remedies which may be needed after that, in no case amount-
 ing to two dollars a week, generally not one.
   If by reason of the critical condition of a person, or com-
 plication  with other  diseases, a longer special attention is
 needed, the charge is the balance of a hundred dollars for the
 remainder of five weeks, from the day of examination, reme-
 dies included.
   Persons yvho apply to  me by letter, or who remain with
 me  but  a few days,  may  consult me  by letter for three
 months, if needed, for Thirty Dollars; any remedies needed
 after the first two yveeks, additional.
   If I am requested  to visit a person within the limits  of
 town,  there is  an  additional charge of  Five  Dollars  for
 the first visit, and Two Dollars for every subsequent visit,
 especially desired.
   For visits which I appoint to make myself, or make yvith-
 out solicitation, I never charge any thing, as there are cases
 yvhich I consider it to be my own advantage,  to see several
 times during the twenty-four hours.
   All charges must be paid in the office.  I neither receive
 or pay visits  on Sundays,  except  in cases of  emergency.
 Nor are any visits paid out of the office, except under pecu-
 liar circumstances.
   Post-paid letters are answered the day on which they are
 received, when any answer is necessary.
   Any person writing to  me for the first  time,  desiring  an
 answer, must accompany the same with Five Dollars, free of
postage.
   I leave New Orleans for Cincinnati, on the tenth day of
 May; and  leave Cincinnati for New  Orleans,  on the first
day of November,  of each year.  My office being closed
the day previous, I am thus particular in  stating the times
of my departure, as persons have come  hundreds of miles
at great inconvenience, and expense of time and money, in 
                           97                  ^<5^

 the  expedition that I might not leave on the day  named,
 but were, as others will be, disappointed.
   My office in New Orleans, as for several years past, is
 at No.  127 Canal street, corner of Baronne street; entrance
 No. 2 Baronne street, opposite the State House; and  is open
 every day,  except on Sundays, from Nine o'clock in the
 Morning, until Three in the Afternoon, Only.
   My office in Cincinnati, is in Vine street, corner of  Baker,
 between Third and Fourth streets, opposite Shires' Gardens;
 and is open daily, except on Sundays, from Eight o'clock in
 the Morning, until Two in  the Afternoon, Only.
  In case of removal to another part  of either city, my resi-
dence may be known  by consulting the Weekly Picayune,
or Daily Bulletin, New Orleans;  and the Cincinnati Adver-
tiser, or Gazette. 
   |C7*The Printer, in behalf of the Author yvho is several
hundred miles from the publication office, requests the reader
to excuse and correct any observed errors.
   10° The Postage on this for any distance is three and
A HALF CENTS.
   10°" As  it is sometimes of great importance  that letters
should piomptly come to hand, persons are requested to ad-
dress "Dr. Hall, H. 63, New Orleans, or  Cincinnati,"  as
I have a private box at each place,  and  the respective Post-
masters are familiar with my address.   The commonnes? of
the name  and similarity of initials, make  this precaution
necessary.
   WBT Sold at the Journal Office,  Pittsburgh; Robinson Si
Jones,'  109 Main street, Cincinnati;  127 Canal street, and
Post Office Buildings, New Orleans. 
        TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.

Preface, .
What is Consumption?
What are the Lungs?
What causes the  Lungs to consume?
What are Tubercles?
What causes Tubercles?
How are Tubercles produced?
What  do  Tubercles  produce?
Kings Evil, White Swelling, Spinal Disease,
Lumber Abscess, Hip Disease,
Negro Consumption,   .
Glanders, Sore Throat, Mouth, Scalp,
Signs of  Consumption,
Melancholy case of Neglect,  .
General Combination  of Symptoms,
Fifteen Cases of Same,      .            i
Peculiar Symptoms,   .            •
Infallible Syny^ms,                    ;
Spitting Bloodj       •
Most common and annoying Symptoms-^-
     Ten Cases of
     Ten   do.
     Ten   do,
 Ten Consecutive Cases, fatal or not,
 Ten '   do.       do.  opposite,
 Cure for Common Cold,
 Cure  for Transient Complaints,
 Newspaper Certificates mischievous,
 Can Consumption be cured?
 Why believed incurable?
 Fatal and cruel tendencies of  such an opinion,
 Cases of Permanent Cure,
 What is Bronchitis?
 Symptoms of Bronchitis,
 Prevention and Alleviation,
 How to consult Physicians,  .
 Suppressions, Prolapsus, Whites,
 Dyspepsia, 
                            100

Galileo, Harvey,                                           4U
To Physicians,                                             41
A Consumptive's Death,                 *                   43
The kind of Cases applying,  .             .            .44
Various Letters,      ...           47
Conversations with Louis, Stokes, Combe, Marshall.Hall,     50
Causes of Failure Hitherto,  .             .            .51
Curability  of Phthisis,             .            .           ,r>2
Useful Observations,        .                        .53
Is it a Permanent Cure?             .             .           55
■Far off Friendly Monitors, •   .                        .59
Testimony  of London Lancet,       .            .           60
Indications in Phthisis,       .            .           .61
Abernethy's Opinion,  .  jfcf*r-      .                        63
Dangerous  Symptoms,     '   .                         .      6
Consumption Simulated,           .             .66
Affecting Cases,             .                        .67
Going to the  South,    .            ••                 69 and 84
Sea Voyages,   .           .            .            .72
Revolution of Opinion needed,       .   .          .           73
To all in Delicate Health,         g|        ___■          76
Curious Items,                              /wVC •       77
Author's Meaning,  -        t                tHt  . •     78
How to preserve a Good  Constitution,          ™f         ^gf
A Remarkable Case,         .                              80'
Advice to Parents,    . .            .             .           33
Terms of Treatment,                                 .96
Location of Office,     .           .    •       .           97.
Opinions of Great Men,                       (Cover,) Page  4