raw; she had been four years suffering from these symp toms. The lungs measured full. Her case progressed favorably and readily yielded to treatment. Several years later she continued in good health. Since lost sight of.

It is perhaps not necessary to multiply cases. The point which they are designed to prove is, that however many of the common symptoms of Consumption a man may have, if the lungs measure to the full healthful standard for that man, those symptoms are capable of uniform removal, and restoration to good health is an ordinary event.

My decided opinion of all these cases was, that they were not cases of Consumption; others thought they were, and the inevitable inference is either that my opinion was correct in every case; or if it was not correct, Consumption is a very curable disease, if treated judiciously and promptly, when the common symptoms of its approach first present themselves. It is to secure this, that this book is mainly written. My whole desire is, not to insist that Consumption is curable in its advanced stages, or that it is easily cured in any stage, but that if the symptoms are properly attended to on their first appearance, a perfect and permanent cure is almost as certain as the cure of ordinary diseases.

In 1848 I made a publication of a hundred pages, detailing more at length observations on the lung measurement method, showing its practical bearing; giving statistics, to show the gradual increase of lung measurement in those who recover, and the inevitable death of those who decrease from week to week. The treatment of several cases is also given in detail. But enough copies were not sold to pay for the paper, no

person having been requested or paid to give a review or favorable notice. The whole edition therefore was given away with the exception of a few copies.*

But to show how unreliable all other modes of determining whether a person has Consumption or not, and how important it is that something more certain should be added, the following cases are given:

"A person had severe cough for some time, and was 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, expectoration 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 medicire got well.

"A gentleman had been ill two months, with all the ordinary symptoms of Consumption, such as cough, ex

*Sent p. p. by the author for one dollar.

pectoration of a yellowish substance with a little blood, night sweats, pain in side, falling away, &c., with hectic fever; but it was active inflammation of the lungs, and was cured accordingly in a few days, but by a very dif ferent mode of treatment from what Consumption would have required.

"A young gentleman was condemned by high medical authority to go to the island of Madeira, as "nothing else could save him;" but his business required his per`sonal attention, and besides, he was 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, waiting for a vessel to go abroad. A different course was recommended. In ten days his cough disappeared, and at the end of five years had not returned."

Dr. McDonnell, in the Lancet for April, 1844, gives a case which greatly perplexed the Dublin physicians. It had every prominent mark of consumption in its last stage. Its origin, its general symptoms and many of its physical signs were those of true tubercular phthisis. There were present emaciation, purulent expectoration, hectic fever and a blubbering of matter at every breath, at the top of the affected side of the chest, and various other signs, which would at once have led a superficial or ignorant investigator to pronounce it Consumption in its very last and most hopeless form. But a more experienced practitioner confidently declared that it was a very different disease, and treated it accordingly. The subsequent history and perfect cure of the case by means not applicable to Consumption, proved beyond all question, that it was not a case of phthisis. Other cases

might be given, having quick pulse, night sweats, emaciation, and other hectic symptoms, all of which got well as above. Had these cases come under the examination of a common physician, they would have been declared hopeless cases, having no special experience in Consumptive cases, and that the only possible chance of recovery would be to go to the South.

But whatever may have been the indifference manifested some years ago to lung measurement in reference to Consumption, I think that a change is occurring in public medical sentiment. The first instrument ever made in the United States, after the model, was made to my order, but I have never seen one in the office of an American physician, yet they are becoming so common in Great Britain, that their most eminent lecturers, in discoursing on Consumptive disease, give the capacity of a man's lungs for holding air as a matter of course, as much so as giving his pulse, and so will every reader of the standard current British medical publications find it, indicating that a change is taking place as to the points which are hereafter to determine, whether a man has Consumption or not, foreshadowing the comparative disuse of stethescopes, plessimeters and percussion, when the stripping of a man, turning him over and over, striking every inch of his breast, will be considered a useless labor and a useless infliction, when will become obsolete the words Ralé, soufflez, ronchus, sibilant, ægophony, &c.; when a world of professional perspicacity and hair-breadth discrimination, in determining the exact point where disease is located will be spared, for the simple reason, that it never made the slightest practical dif ference, whether the top or bottom, or side, or interior, or exterior of a lung was affected, the treatment being

the same, but rather an injury is done the patient in designating the exact locality of disease, by causing his mind to revert constantly to it, and producing more incessant and unavailing disquietude.

I here give two cases, practically illustrating the new method, which may be termed Spirometrical Diagnosis, that is, determining the condition of a consumptive person, by means of measuring the lungs; one showing a gradual increase of lung capacity, ending in permanent health, the other, a constant decrease, terminating in death.

656. W. B., a merchant from Kentucky, aged 33, pulse 96, taking in at a full breath 170 cubic inches of air, instead of 254, that is, one-third of his lungs were useless to him, either because they were hopelessly decayed away, or collapsed, infiltrated with mucus, &c. The instrument which I use for measuring to the fraction of one cubic inch, how much air a man's lungs hold at a full inspiration, does not indicate in any way the cause of inoperative lungs; it only shows the fact that they are inoperative, and the physician must determine by auscultation and other general symptoms, whether the lungs are decayed away or whether they are merely engorged, collapsed, infiltrated or the like; and this is a matter of vital importance, for if they are gone, their restoration is hopeless; if, however, they are within a man, and are merely rendered useless by the latter named class of causes, these causes of inaction may be removed; so that with the instrument which I employ for measuring the capacity of the lungs for common air, a man must be a finished auscultator, and must be most thoroughly acquainted with the whole catalogue of symptoms of diseases to which the human frame is liable. But before I give the opinion rendered in this man's