IS PHTHISIS HEREDITARY ? 801 



25 per cent, of all who die in Paris, from birth to 

 puberty, are affected with tuberculous disease, 

 which is most prevalent during the third, fourth, 

 fifth, and sixth years, but is extremely rare in the 

 first year of infancy. We are also informed by 

 Sir James Clark, that in all the numerous exami- 

 nations of Velpeau and Breschet, they found no 

 tubercles in the foetal state; and that M. Guizot 

 discovered none while dissecting 400 new born in- 

 fants, but that after the second year, they were 

 found by M. Guersent, to be extremely prevalent 

 in the Hopital des Enfans Malades, in Paris. 

 (Cyclop, of Pract. Medicine, No. 22, pp. 307-8.) 

 From which it would appear, that the disease is 

 seldom hereditary, but acquired after birth, by 

 exposure to the various predisposing and exciting 

 causes that bring it on at all periods of life. 



It is frightful to contemplate the aggregate 

 amount of disease, suffering, and mortality, that 

 arise in temperate climates, from ignorance or 

 inattention in regard to the danger of simple 

 exposure to cold, currents of air, and getting wet, 

 especially when the body is fatigued by over- 

 exertion ; and the irreparable loss to the public 

 of individuals in the prime of life, distinguished 

 for ability and usefulness.* We have seen that, 



* The last illness of General Washington was brought on by 

 exposure to a very slight rain, which produced inflammation of 

 the larynx, that very soon destroyed life by suffocation. That 

 of General Harrison was also induced by exposure to a cold misty 



