130 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



blood back from their original channels to the internal organs of 

 the system. This consequently engorges or congests them, and 

 brings on inflammation, and perhaps ulceration, which may prove 

 fatal ; and especially so if there be any predisposition to scrofula or 

 tubercular state of the lungs. Nearly every complaint of the kind 

 can be traced to what is commonly called " colds."* 



It is also more to be regretted that notwithstanding all our re- 

 searches, we have not been able to discover a remedy for confirmed 

 tubercular consumption. I know that it is sometimes removed in 

 the incipient state, and even when apparently there has been no 

 prospect of recovery ; but this forms only exceptions to a general 

 rule. Every philanthropic physician then should exert all his 

 abilities to investigate the pathology or nature of this disease, and 

 find a cure. " Who knows," says Dr. Rush, " but there grows a 

 plant at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains that will prove a 

 remedy for consumption?" Notwithstanding the discouraging 

 aspect, much may be done both to prevent and to cure. To accom- 

 plish the first, avoid every exciting cause, and especially a check 

 of perspiration, which is the great and first cause of it. As pneuj 

 monia, or inflammation of the lungs, usually ushers in the corjH 

 plaint, it must be either reduced or moderated by attention to the 

 secretions and excretions of the system, counter-irritants, &c. 

 Bleeding must by no means be resorted to ; it only has a tendency 

 to exasperate the symptoms by abstracting that vital fluid on which 

 the restorative success depends. If the disease has become seated, 

 strong tonics, expectorants, and sedatives are indicated. Horseback 

 exercise is a powerful means of recovery. Bathe the surface daily 

 with cold weak ley-water, followed by friction. This is a valuable 

 auxiliary, especially to remove that predisposition to those frequent 

 coughs which precede the disease. The artificial asses' milk men- 

 tioned in my Medical Dictionary, under the head, I think, of Sea 

 Holly, has been highly extolled by a physician who used it very 

 extensively, and it is said was invariably successful in its treatment. 

 The diet should be nutritious ; milk, warm from the cow, is excel- 

 lent. A sea voyage and a change of climate sometimes is attended 



* The barbarous Chinese custom of contracting the feet of women, and the great 

 extent to which their irrational purpose is accomplished, are well known. While the 

 Europeans were expressing their surprise at such an absurdity, and pitying the suf- 

 ferers, they were constantly permitting under their own eyes the equally, if not more 

 pernicious practice of tight stays ; by which I have seen the figure of the thorax com- 

 pletely and permanently altered at its lower part a great cause of consumption, by 

 impeding the motion of the lungs. 





