round in shape, firm in consistence, 
and, as I have seen them, when 
crushed, seemed of: a cheesy character. 
When a person thus situated takes 
cold, the, inflammation hardens these 
tubercles, and then they become a 
source of irritation. These tubercles 
are not deposited singly, and their 
numbers vary greatly in different 
cases, but are mostly deposited at the 
top of the lung. This plate will give 
a good idea of- the appearance of the 
lungs when the first stage of consump- : 
tion is formed. 
This constitutes a brief history of .the first 
stage of Pulmonary Consumption, a, condition 
difficult, and by many physicians believed to 
be impossible to ascertain, but with my ex- 
tended experience, and with the aid of my 
Respirometer, after a proper examination, I 
can always detect it, and it can easily be cured 
by iny medicines. 
After the tubercles have remained in this 
condition for a longer or shorter period, some- 
times but a few weeks and sometimes many 
months, causes occur, and they undergo im- 
portant changes : first a hardening process, and 
ultimately become softened. It has long been 
a matter of doubt in many minds, how these 
changes in the tubercles are effected, but to 
my mind the subject has always been clear. 
A slight cold produces inflammation of the 
tubercles and surrounding tissue, when they 
undergo the hardening process, which, if con- 
have often seen a quart of ripe yellow matter 
discharged at a time, and in my own case, 
after the matter ripened, I brought up over a 
quart before my lungs began to heal. The 
excavation or cavity often varies in size, some- 
times only a single large cavity, and at others 
several smaller ones breaking at the same 
time into the bronchial tubes. It is doubted 
by most physicians if these cavities are ever 
healed up sound, and hence consumption was 
considered an incurable disease, the oppro- 
brium of the medical profession. But when I 
first consulted the elder Dr. Joseph Parrish, 
of Philadelphia, forty years ago, the remark 
he made to me was, that he had had a cavity 
in one lung that had been healed sound, and 
the liangs were now doing him good service, 
the one lung especially ; but he feared my 
lungs were too far gone, the cavities too large 
ever to heal up. 
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