was no pain, no swelling, no spitting of blood; he seemed to enjoy the fullest health; yet the symptoms gradually grew worse until he died.

P. T. "slept on an ice-box one summer's day two years ago, and waked up with a sore throat, it has never since ceased to hurt me, and has been steadily getting worse."

835. "I worked in a damp cellar in winter, two years ago, in striking off a newspaper; a short, dry cough appeared, which has steadily got worse; the voice became hoarse and husky, until I cannot speak above a whisper without considerable effort. I now cough night and morning, an hour at a time often, and am weak and emaciated, chills, fevers, and night-sweats." He soon died.

A man had suffered a great deal from sick headache; he was advised to have cold water poured on the top of his head; he did so; he had headache no more. The throat became affected; had frequent swallowing, clearing of throat, falling of palate, voice soon failed in singing, large red splotches on the back part of the throat, and white lumps at either side; but the falling of the palate and interminable swallowing were the great symptoms, making and keeping him nervous, irritable, debilitated, and wretched. He was advised to take off the uvula, but would not do it. Had the nitrate of silver applied constantly for three months. Tried homœopathy. After suffering thus two years, he came to me, and on a subsequent visit, said, "It is wonderful, that for two years I have been troubled with this throat, and nothing would relieve it, and now it is disappearing in a few days." That was four months ago. I saw him in the street yesterday. He said his throat gave

him no more trouble; that he had no more chilliness, and had never taken a cold since he came under my care, although formerly "it was the easiest thing in the world to take cold."

A merchant (1002) slept in a steamboat state-room in December, with a glass broken out; woke up next morning with a hoarseness and sore throat; for several months did nothing, then applied to a physician. Counter-irritants were employed without any permanent effect. At the end of four years, he came to me with "a sort of uneasy feeling about the throat, more at times than others; not painful; sometimes a little hoarseness, with frequent inclination to swallow, or clear the throat. At the little hollow at the bottom of the neck, just above the top of the breast-bone, there was a feeling of pressure, stricture, or enlargement-no pain, but an unpleasant sensation, sometimes worse than at others. It is absent for days at a time, and then lasts for several hours a day."

A clergyman (1012) has a hoarse, cracked, weak voice, easily tired in speaking; a raw sensation in the throat; and in swallowing has "a fish-bony feeling." He had become over-heated in a public address, and immediately after its close started to ride across a prairie in a damp, cold wind in February. Had to abandon preaching altogether, and become a school teacher." This gentleman wrote to me for advice, and having followed it closely for eighteen days, reported himself as almost entirely well.

I greatly desire it to be remembered here, that in this, as in other cases of Throat-Ail, however perfectly a person may be cured, the disease will return as often as exposure to the causes of it in the first place is per

mitted to occur. No cure, however perfect, will allow a man to commit with impunity such a thoughtless and inexcusable act as above named, that of riding across a prairie in February, in a damp, cold wind, within a few minutes after having delivered an excited address in a warm room. None of us are made out of India rubber or iron, but of flesh and blood with a reasonable soul, subject to wise and benevolent conditions and restrictions; and it is not to the discredit of physic or physicians, that being once cured, the disease should return as often as the indiscretion that originated it in the first instance is re-committed.

Three weeks ago, one of our merchants came to me with a troublesome tickling in the throat. At first it was only a tickling; but for some weeks the tickling compels a frequent clearing of the throat; and without a cough, each clearing or hemming brings up half a teaspoonful of yellow matter, with some saliva. On looking into his throat, the whole back part of it was red, with still redder splotches here and there-epiglottis almost scarlet. On inquiry, I found he had for years been a chewer of tobacco; then began to smoke; would day after day smoke after each meal, but especially after tea would consume half a dozen cigars. In time, the other naturally consequent steps would have been taken-to consumption and the grave. Among other things, I advised him to abandon tobacco absolutely and at once. In two weeks he came again. Throat decidedly better; in every respect better, except that he, in his own opinion, "had taken a little cold," and had a constant slight cough-not by any means a trifling symptom. Let the reader learn a valuable lesson from this case. This gentleman had the causes of cough before;

he found that smoking modified the tickling, and taking this as an indication of cure, he smoked more vigorously, and thus suppressed the cough, while the cause of it was still burrowing in the system and widening its ravages. It will require months of steady effort to arrest the progress of the disease, and he may consider himself fortunate more so than in any mercantile speculation he ever made—if he gets well at all. If he does get well, and returns to the use of tobacco, the disease will certainly return, for the following reason.-Throat-Ail is inflammation; that is, too much heat in the parts. Tobacco smoke being warm, or even hot, is drawn directly back against the parts already too much heated, and very naturally increasing the heat, aggravates the disease. Again, any kind of smoke-that of common wood-is irritating, much more that of such a powerful poison as tobacco-soothing, indeed, in its first transient effects, like many other poisons, but leaving behind it consequences more remote, but more destructive and enduring.

A gentleman, just married, clerk in a Southern house, applied to me to be cured of a sore throat. He was permanently hoarse: swallowing food was often unendur ably painful, besides causing violent paroxysms of cough. He said he knew no cause for his complaint, except that he had smoked very freely. On inquiry, I found that for the last two years he had used, on an average, about a dozen cigars every day; perhaps more." He died in six weeks.

In several instances, persons have applied to me who had been advised to take brandy freely for a throat affection. Such advice is warranted by no one principle in medicine, reason, or common sense. Were I to

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