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give it, I should feel myself justly liable to the charge of being an ignorant man or a drunkard. The throat is inflamed; inflammation is excitement; brandy and to bacco both excite, inflame the whole body; that is why they are used at all. The throat partakes of its portion of the excitement, when the throat, body, and the man, all the more speedily go to ruin together. I have in my mind, while writing these lines, the melancholy history of two young men-one from Kentucky, the other from Missouri-who were advised "to drink brandy freely, three times a day, for throat complaint." One of these became a drunkard, and lost his property, and within another year he will leave an interesting family in penury, disgrace, and want. The other was one of the most high-minded, honorable young men I have lately known. He was the only son of a widow, and she was rich. He came to see me three or four times, and then stated that he had concluded to try the effects of a little brandy at each meal. A few weeks afterwards he informed me, that as he was constantly improving, he thought that the brandy would certainly effect a cure. Within seven months after his application to me, he had become a regular toper; that is, he had increased the original quantity allowed, of a tablespoon at each meal, to such an amount, that he was all the time under the influence of liquor. His business declined; he spent all his money; secretly left for California, many thousand dollars in debt, and soon after died. The person who advised him is also now a confirmed drunkard; but in his wreck and ruin, still a great man.

A gentleman from a distant State wrote to me some months ago for advice as to a throat affection. He is a lawyer of note already, and of still higher promise, not

yet having reached the prime of life. By earnest efforts as a temperance advocate, in addition to being a popular pleader at the bar, his voice became impaired, with cough, spitting of blood, matter expectoration, diarrhœa, debility, and general wasting. He was induced to drink brandy with iron, but soon left off the iron and took the brandy pure. The habit grew upon him; he sometimes stimulated to excess, according to his own acknowledgment; his friends thought there was no interval, and gave him up as a lost man to themselves, his family, and his country; but in time, the virulence of the disease rose above the stimulus of the brandy, and in occasional desperation he resorted to opium. He subsequently visited the water cure, gained in flesh and strength, and was hopeful of a speedy restoration; but he took "an occasional cigar"-the dryness in the throat, hoarseness, pain on pressure, and soreness still remained! He left the water cure, and in a few months wrote to me, having, in addition to the above throat symptoms, a recent hæmorrhage, constipation, pains in the breast, nervousness, debility, variable appetite, and daily cough. Within two months, he has become an almost entirely new man, requiring no further advice.

Further illustration of the manner in which persons get Throat-Ail, may be more conveniently given in the letters of some who have applied to me, with the additional advantage of having the symptoms described in language not professional, consequently more generally understood.

A PRESBYTERIAN CLERGYMAN.

(1059.) “I have had for three years past a troublesome affection of the thorax, which manifests itself by

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frequent and prolonged hemming or clearing the throat, and swallowing: both more frequent in damp weather, or after slight cold. General health very feeble, sleeplessness, waste of flesh, low spirits. Visited a water cure, remained two months, but my hemming and swallowing were not a whit improved. Touching with the nitrate of silver slightly makes the larynx sore. I have been always able to preach. It has never affected my voice until very recently. Two weeks ago I preached two long sermons, in a loud and excited voice, in one day. During the last discourse my voice became hoarse, and my hemming has become very bad; and there has been a slight break in my voice ever since. Hem, hem, hem, is the order of the day; clearing the throat is incessant, swallowing often, and a slight soreness of the larynx, particularly after a slight cold, or after several days' use of nitrate of silver, with a scarce perceptible break in the voice. These are my principal symptoms."

A LAWYER.

(1016.) "Aged thirty-seven. Have been liable, for several years past, in the fall, winter, and spring, to severe attacks of fever, accompanied with great debility, loss of flesh, appearing to myself and friends to be in the last stages of Consumption; in fact, the dread of it has been an incubus on me, paralyzing my energies and weighing down my spirits. In the summers, too, I have been subject to attacks of bilious fever and bilious colic. A year ago, I attended court soon after one of these attacks, and exerted myself a great deal. My throat became very sore, and I had hæmorrhage-two teaspoons of blood and matter. My health continued feeble. I went last summer to a water cure, and regained my

flesh and strength, but the weakness in my throat and occasional hoarseness continued all the time. Afterwards, by cold and exposure, I became worse, continued to have chills and fever and night sweats, accompanied by violent cough and soreness of the throat. I got worse; was reduced to a perfect skeleton, and had another hæmorrhage. Mucus would collect in the top of the throat, and was expectorated freely. I am still liable to colds. The seat of the disease seems to be at the little hollow in front at the bottom of the neck, just above the top of the breast-bone. At my last bleeding, the pain seemed to be in the region of Adam's-Apple. The principal present symptoms are soreness in throat, dryness, pain on pressing it, and hoarseness; pulse from eighty to ninety in a minute; irregular appetite. These symptoms, together with my fear of Consumption, serve to keep me unhappy. I find myself constantly liable to attacks of cold, sneezing, running at the nose even in the summer time. My mother and sister have died of Consumption, as also two of my mother's sis ters. Feet always cold; daily cough."

OPINION OF THE CASE.

There is no Consumptive disease: it is impossible. No personal examination is needed to tell that. The foundation of all your ailments is a torpid liver and a weak stomach. If you are not cured, it will be your own fault.

The treatment of this case was conducted by correspondence, as he lived six hundred miles away, and therefore I had not the opportunity of a personal examination. Within a month he writes:- —“I am gradually improving; feet warm; all pain has disappeared from

the breast; appetite strong, regular, and good; pulse seventy-two; breathing eighteen; all cough has disappeared." At the end of two and a half months, no further advice was needed, as he wrote-“I have not written to you for a month, being absent on the circuit. I have not enjoyed better health for years than I have for the month. Weight increasing; no uneasiness or pain about my breast; pulse seventy-five; less in the morning. The only trouble I have is costiveness, from being so confined in court, and being away from home deprived of my regular diet. We were two weeks holding court, last of November, in a miserable room, the court-house having been recently burned; kept over-heated all the time. I made four or five speeches, and suffered no inconvenience whatever. I have no cough. I now weigh about as much as I ever did, and my average health was never better, I have no ailment whatever except slight constipation."

A CLERGYMAN

(1024) called over two months ago, having had at first an ailment at the top of the throat, apparently above or near the palate. It soon descended to the region of Adam's-apple, and within a month it seemed to have located itself lower down the neck, giving a feeling as if there were an ulcer there, with a sense of fullness about the throat, hoarse after public speaking, lasting a day or two, with attacks every few weeks of distressing sick headache. As the disease seemed to be rapidly descending towards the lungs, a rigid, energetic treatment was proposed, and at the end of ten weeks he writes "I take pleasure in introducing my friend, to you. He has suffered many things, from many

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