( 525 ) 

 DR. CLARK ON CONSUMPTION.* 



In a former number of the Monthly Magazine we gave a short no- 

 tice of Dr. Clark's work on Consumption and Scrofula. Since that 

 time our attention has been particularly attracted, and our interest 

 excited, by the new and important views contained in the chapters 

 on the Causes and Prevention of these diseases. We in some mea- 

 sure feel it our duty to communicate our impressions to the public, 

 and, if possible, awaken in it a perception and feeling of truths 

 which to us have not merely a medical but also in an eminent degree 

 a social interest. 



Volumes have been written, and in every age the philosopher, the 

 divine, and the poet, have disputed, preached, and sung of the folly 

 andmiseryof mankind, of the petty cares which distract their attention, 

 and the futile desires which absorb their energies. But with little 

 effect, as it would seem from the apparently undiminished amount of 

 human suffering and human folly. Yet we must not despond ; the 

 progress of knowledge is continually advancing, and its effects are 

 felt more and more every day. 



From time to time works appear which bring forth in their full 

 strength and importance truth* which have been long overlooked or 

 neglected. On their first promulgation they are, perhaps, unheeded 

 or despised ; but their progress, though slow, is certain, and their ef- 

 fects, after a time, often astonishing. The discovery of Jenner, 

 which in less than half a century has made one of the severest 

 scourges that ever afflicted humanity little more than the recollec- 

 tion of a name, was at first received with neglect and opposition. 



The heedless indifference to the insidious commencement of a dis- 

 ease (Consumption) much more destructive than ever small-pox was 

 may perhaps arise from causes similar to those which afffected the 

 first introduction of vaccination. Some are careless, others disbelieve 

 the necessity of early attention, till the fatal malady has advanced be- 

 yond the reach of art and the hope of recovery. Relatives and friends, 

 with helpless sympathy, see the sufferer yield to his destiny. They 

 mourn over his untimely death, but remain apparently ignorant that 

 a similar end may be preparing for themselves; or perhaps, strongly 

 impressed with a feeling of their danger, they think their fate inevi- 

 table, and, with an apathy bordering on despair, neglect the means 

 l)y which it might be averted. Both those who are unconscious of 

 their clanger and those who despair from a knowledge of it will be 

 roused from their indifference when they learn that consumption can 

 be prevented in those predisposed to it by a continued and strict ob- 



• A Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption, comprehending an Enquiry into- tlie 

 Causes, Nature, Prevention, and Treatment of Tuberculous and Scrofulous Digeasesi 

 in General. By James Clark. M. D., F.R.S. Sherwood and Co. 



M. M.— No. n. 2 Q 



