During the ravages of cholera, many thousands perished, from not knowing what were the predisposing causes, and what the premonitory symptoms of that terrible malady. Other thousands now living, owe it to the fact, that they were well informed as to what these first symptoms were, and promptly acted up to such knowledge.

The physician of a dozen years experience does not live, who cannot point to a little army of the prematurely dead, from ailments of the throat and lungs, simply, because they came too late! They "did not think it was any thing more than a common cold." And millions of others are destined to perish from the same want of definite information as to the difference between the symptoms of bronchitis, that is, a common cold, and the symptoms of beginning consumption.

This publication is intended to describe these symptoms, and to illustrate them in a manner so plain, so clear, that the most common reader may easily comprehend and remember, all that is important to be understood. These pages are not designed to propose any thing new to medical men; they are not even offered for their perusal, unless they have the diseases treated. of, or are threatened with them; they are for the practical instruction of the great mass of the community; not as to where they can go to purchase a contrivance, or a balsam, or syrup, or tonic, or by whatever name any other such things are called, by which they may be able to cure themselves: nor is it wished to make the impression that the writer will cure those who apply to him by some extraordinary secret, which he locks up in his own bosom. Having such a secret, he would think himself the meanest of his kind, were he not to publish

it speedily, on the wings of the wind, that the suffering children of humanity, of every country and every clime, might derive from it all its advantages, at the earliest moment practicable. It is impossible for any book to be written which would be a safe and efficient guide to a common reader in the treatment of his own case: first, because no one plan can by any possibility be applicable, and second, the combination of symptoms is not the same in scarcely any two individuals in a thousand, therefore, it is not designed to recommend a medicinal preventive, or a patented cure for the diseases named on the title page; nor will this book afford aid or comfort to those who hope by its perusal to save a medical fee by blindly tampering with their constitution and their lives; nor is it desired to make the reader believe that if he applies to the Author, he will certainly be cured, but to make him first understand the nature of any symptoms which he may have, and then apply for advice to some regularly educated practitioner, who has done nothing to justly forfeit his honorable standing among his brethren by the recommendation of secret medicines, or patented contrivances, or travelling lecturers for the cure of certain diseases.

The Author has spoken in these pages of persons who had specified symptoms, and coming to him, were permanently cured, yet he may not be able to do the reader, having similar symptoms, any good. He has sometimes failed to cure persons who had no symptoms at all. In other cases where but a single symptom was present, and that apparently a trivial one, the malady has progressed to a fatal termination, in spite of every effort to the contrary. The object of these statements, is to have it expressly understood that there is no en

gagement to cure anything or anybody. The wish is to enable the reader to understand properly any symptoms he may have which point towards diseases of the lungs; and, when he has done so, to persuade him not to waste his time, and money, and health, in blind efforts to remove them, by taking stuff of which he knows little, into a body of which he knows less! but to go to a man of respectability, of standing and experience-one in whom he has confidence-one who depends on the practice of his profession for a living-place health and life in his hands, and be assured that thus he and millions of others will stand the highest chance of attaining a prosperous, cheerful, and green old age.

The rule should be universal, and among all classes, not only never to take an atom of medicine for anything, but not to take anything as a MEDICINE-not even a teaspoon of common syrup or French brandy, or a cup of red pepper tea, unless by the previous advice of a physician; because a spoonful of the purest, simplest syrup, taken several times a day, will eventually destroy the tone of the healthiest stomach: and yet any person almost would suppose that a little syrup "could do no harm, if it did no good." A tablespoon of good brandy, now and then, is simple enough, and yet it has made a wreck and ruin of the health, and happiness, and hope, of multitudes. If these simple, that is, well-known things, in their purity, are used to such results, it requires but little intelligence to understand, that more speedy injuries must follow their daily employment, morning, noon, and night, when swallowed in the shape of "syrups," and "bitters," and "tonics," with other ingredients, however "simple" they, too, are represented to be.

Within a few days, a gentleman of this city was ad

vised, for a slight pimple on the shoulder of an interesting child of three years of age, to apply a little croton oil, he did so, it was absorbed, and in forty-eight hours the little sufferer died in convulsions.

In a late medical periodical, an account is given of a person who was advised to rub a little tallow from a candle on a scratch on the breast, he did so, and died in consequence in a few days. Similar cases have been before reported. Whether the tallow had derived some poisonous property from the metallic candlestick, or whether the arsenic which is put in candles to harden and whiten them was the cause, is not known, but these incidents serve to show that life may be lost, from what to a common observer might appear a remedy so simple that "it could'nt do any harm, if it did no good." Children are poisoned every year by eating colored candies. Banana, pear, jargonette, and perhaps all other drops (candies) are flavored with the hydrated oxide of Arnyle, known as Fusel oil, so poisonous that the odor of it causes headache, coughing, and other symptoms. Only the white candies can be safely eaten. Some of the colors in the other kinds are made by the most concentrated poisons. There can be no doubt that several years would be added to the average of human life, if the rule were universal to swallow nothing which is not wholly an aliment, unless by the advice of a physician. The taking of medicine on our own responsibility is the weakness of the age; with many it has become almost a mania, for the slightest ailment, they think they "must take something." Those who are always taking medicine are always sick. I have carefully avoided saying anything in these pages calculated to encourage so destructive a

habit.

Medical books for the million have occasioned irreparable mischief by encouraging self-treatment. As far as they tend to give instruction as to the best mode of preserving health, and as to the symptoms of dangerous diseases they do well, but beyond that no countenance should be given either to the books or their authors. To the diffusion of general knowledge as to the best methods of preserving health, by teachings as to the general laws of our being in relation to air, exercise, food, personal habits, clothing, the locality, and construction of houses, and the management of infants, educated and honorable physicians have devoted their energies with increasing success, and to them the world owes a debt of gratitude not easily computed. From the best means in our power for ascertaining the facts of the case, Professor Joseph R. Buchanan states, that “in the latter part of the sixteenth century, one-half of all that were born died under five years of age, and the average longevity of the whole population was but eighteen years. In the 17th century, one-half of the population lived over twenty-seven years. In the latter forty years, one-half exceeded thirty-two years of age. At the beginning of the present century, one-half exceeded forty years, and from 1838 to 1845 one-half exceeded forty-three.

The common-sense reader will perhaps, from the statements which have been made, think it a very laudable desire to diffuse information among the people as to the symptoms of dangerous, insidious, and wide-spreading diseases. Countless multitudes have paid the forfeit of their lives by ignorance or neglect of the early symptoms of Consumptive disease. Perhaps the reader's own