DEFINITION OF THROAT-AIL, BRONCHITIS, ETC. 59

ment of these most fearful and fatal diseases of the air passages; and can also so clearly understand their nature as never to forget. Hitherto, the terms employed have not conveyed to common minds any clear, definite, distinctive idea; but have left an impression, illdefined, mysterious, unsatisfactory and obscure.

Throat-Ail, (Chronic Laryngitis, Clergyman's Sore Throat, all mean the same thing,) is a disease at the top of the windpipe, where the voice organs are.

Croup or Tracheitis, (because trachea is the Latin name for windpipe) is a disease of the windpipe itself. Bronchitis is a disease of the branches of the wind

pipe.

Consumption is a disease of the air cells or lugs themselves, which are at the ends of the branches of the windpipe, as leaves are at the ends of the branches of a tree.

This appears to the Author, to be the plainest and most satisfactory, as well as the most rational theory of these diseases; he has entertained them for twenty years; when a better one is presented, he will change. Young physicians, and some older ones, may not accord with these views, but when these older ones have fallen into the slumber that wakes no more, and the juniors have had a quarter of a century's more experience and observation, the Author believes that the above theory will be generally entertained; most certainly, the extraordinary physiological developments of Carpenter and Liebig, and others, within five years, are strongly confirmatory of these views.

PARALLELS.

Throat-Ail is characterized by hawking, hemming, frequent swallowing away of something that appears to stick in the throat, and when swallowed away, rises back again; by inconvenience, if not actual pain in swallowing, by pain sometimes running up to the ear; by hoarseness or huskiness of voice, without cough necessarily, at first, or much expectoration.

Bronchitis never exists without distressing, exhausting cough, and with copious and weakening expectora

tion.

Consumption is a gradual wasting of breath, flesh and strength, sometimes without any cough or expectora tion, until within two or three weeks of death.

Throat-Ail has the uniform symptom of impaired voice, or some unnatural, troublesome sensation about the "swallow."

Bronchitis is always attended with watering of the eyes or nose, or both, a binding sensation across the breast, a stuffed up feeling, large expectoration.

Consumption has a short, dry, hacking, tickling cough at first of mornings on getting out of bed, then on going to bed, quick pulse, short breath, easily fatigued in ascending a pair of stairs, or walking up a hill or even gently rising ground.

Throat-Ail is at one end of the breathing organs.
Consumption is at the other end.

Bronchitis is between the two.

In Throat-Ail, there is constant forebodings and apprehension of ill; the patient lounges and mopes about,

and when he sits down, feels as if he would never want to get up again.

In Bronchitis, the cough is so exhausting and distressing, the invalid often feels as if death would be a welcome event.

In Consumption, the spirits are usually good; the patient is full of hope, busy in laying out plans for the future; how he is going to manage his business, and take care of his health hereafter, whatever else may suffer; and to every inquiry as to the state of his health, the ready answer is, "I'm better."

PHTHISIS-SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION.

CONSUMPTION IS THE OXYDATION OF THE EXUDATION CORPUSCLE. This corpuscle, this little body, this tubercle, this seed of consumption, is an albuminous exudation, as minutely described on a preceding page, and being deficient in fatty matter, its elementary molecules cannot constitute nuclei, capable of cell development; therefore, these nuclei remain abortive, are foreign bodies in the lungs, and like all other foreign bodies there, cause irritation, tickling. This tickling is a cause of cough, as itching is a cause of scratching, both being instinctive efforts of nature to remove the cause of the difficulty. The oxydation, that is, the burning, the softening of this corpuscle or tubercle, gives yellow matter as a product, just as the burning, that is, the oxydation of wood, gives ashes as a product. Thus the yellow matter expectorated in consumption is a sign infallible, that a destructive, consuming process is going on in the lungs, just as the sight of ashes is an infallible sign that wood or some other solid substance has been burned, that is, destroyed.

But why is it that this albuminous exudation, this tubercle, this exudation corpuscle, should lack this fatty matter, this oil, this carbon, which, did it have, would make it a healthy product, instead of being a foreign body and a seed of death?

Consumption is an error of nutrition. The patient has soliloquized a thousand times, "I sleep pretty well, bowels regular, and I relish my food, but somehow or other it does not seem to do me the good it used to. I do not get strong." The reason of this is, that the food is imperfectly digested, and when that is the case, acidity is the result, which is the distinguishing feature of consumptive disease. This excess of acid in the alimentary canal dissolves the albumen of the food, and carries it off into the blood in its dissolved state, making the whole mass of blood imperfect, impure, thick, sluggish, damming up in the lungs, that is, congesting them, instead of flowing out to the surface, and keeping the skin of a soft feel and a healthful warmth. Thus it is that the skin of all consumptives has either a dry, hot feel, or a cold, clammy dampness; at one time having cold chills creeping over them, causing them to shiver in the sun or hover over the fire; at another time, by the reaction, burning hot, the cheek a glowing red, the mouth parched with thirst. Another effect of the excess of acidity dissolving the albumen and carrying it into the blood is, that the blood is deficient in the fat, or oil, or carbon, which would have been made by the union of this albumen with alkaline secretions; the blood then wanting the fat or fuel which is necessary to keep the body warm, that which was already in the body, in the shape of what we call flesh, is used instead, and the man wastes away, just as when steamboat men,

when out of wood, split up the doors, partitions, and other parts of the boat, to keep her going; she moves by consuming herself. So the consumptive lives on, is kept warm by the burning up, the oxydation of his own flesh every day and every hour; this same wasting away being the invariable, the inseparable attendant of every case of true consumption. He lives upon himself until there is no more fuel to burn, no more fat or flesh, and he dies" nothing but skin and bone." What, then, must be done to cure a man of consumptive disease? He must be made more, as it is called, 'fleshy;" that is, he must have more fuel, fat, to keep him warm. The acidity of the alimentary canal must be removed, in order that the food may be perfectly digested, so as to make pure blood, such as will flow healthfully and actively through every part of the system, and become congested, sluggish, stagnant nowhere.

To remove this acidity, the stomach must be made strong, and healthfully active; but no more than healthfully active, so as to convert the food into a substance fit for the manufacture of pure blood.

To make the stomach thus capable of forming a good blood material from the aliment introduced into it, as a perfect mill converts the grain into good flour or meal, there is behind the mill a power to turn it, there are behind the stomach powers to be exerted. These are those of the glandular system, the liver being the main one of all. This must be kept in healthful, operating order; if it acts too much or too little, the food is badly manufac tured, and the blood, which is made out of the food, and of the food alone, is imperfect and impure.

After all this is done, there is one more operation, which is the finishing touch, and the one by which pure life