9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



As soon as the patient has risen, lie should at once leave his bed- 

 room ; and, if the morning be fine, he should go into the open air. 

 On this point Mr. Bodington, in a short essay " On the Treatment and 

 Cure of Pulmonary Consumption," published in 1840, dwells with great 

 force. " The profuse nocturnal perspirations are soon subdued," says 

 Mr. Bodington, " by this method of treatment, and the debility they 

 occasion avoided. The skin assumes a healthier action in proportion 

 to the extent of exposure to the external atmosphere, particularly to 

 the morning air." 



In large towns the practicability of this last suggestion is less than 

 in the country ; but, even in London life, an early morning walk should 

 be made a matter of strict business by the consumptive. On a fine 

 summer morning, between four and five o'clock, a walk through the 

 streets and squares of London is, indeed, a treat which few London- 

 ers understand. The air is free of smoke ; the thoroughfares are royal 

 unimpeded highways ; and, while the great population sleeps, the mag- 

 nitude of its residence is best seen and understood. 



Rule VI. The Occupation of the Consumptive Patient should he 

 suspended if it is in-door or sedentary ; but a certain Amount of Out- 

 door Occupation may be advantageous. — This rule is often difficult to 

 carry out. At the same time it is second to none in importance, as 

 there is, in a word, no exciting cause of consumption so general as in- 

 door occupation. I remarked that about two out of every three pa- 

 tients with consumption, who presented themselves before me at the 

 Royal Infirmary, were employed in some in-door business. This was 

 confirmed accurately by reference to the Infirmary books, the figures 

 of which were very carefully analyzed for me by Mr. Pring, a student 

 and assistant at the institution. 



Out of five hundred and fifteen cases of consumption, not less thau 

 68*34 per cent, or rather more than two thirds, were persons follow- 

 ing in-door occupations. Possibly the percentage was even higher, for 

 all who called themselves laborers were presumed to be Out-door work- 

 ers. Among the in-door occupations which presented the largest num- 

 ber of cases in this list, boot- and shoe-makers ranked first; needlewomen, 

 second ; watch- and clock- makers, third ; domestic servants, fourth ; 

 painters, fifth ; tailors, sixth ; printers, of whom the majority were com- 

 positors, seventh ; bookbinders, eighth ; French polishers, ninth ; cigar- 

 makers, tenth ; writers, eleventh ; smiths, twelfth ; tinmen, thirteenth ; 

 and cabinet-makers, fourteenth. There were, altogether, in the list 

 one hundred and forty trades specified, but the above-named fourteen 

 yielded rather more than forty-four and a half per cent of the whole. 



In the case of parents having children of a consumptive tendency, 

 the greatest care should be taken to obtain for them out-door employ- 

 ment. But here a serious delusion commonly comes into play. If the 

 child is weakly, the anxious parent urges that it is unfit for hard labor 

 and for out-door vicissitudes ; so it is sent to a place where it will not 



