CONSUMPTION ITS EARLY AND REMEDIABLE STAGES BY EDWARD SMITH, M.D., LL.B., F.R.S. Assistant Physician to the Hospital of Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton; LONDON: WALTON AND MABERLY, UPPER GOWER STREET AND IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1862. [The Right of Translation is Reserved.] SIR JAMES CLARK, BART., M.D., F.R.S., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN, &c. &c. &c. DEAR SIR JAMES, On considering the Medical History of Consumption in our own time, it is impossible not to perceive in how great a degree the profession has been indebted to you for the enlightened views in reference to the early or predisposing conditions of Phthisis, which were propounded in your work published in 1835. But the obscurity which has long rested upon the disease has deterred from, rather than invited to, scientific investigation; and hence, whilst the disease is still as fatal as it was many years ago, and the necessity for a new line of practice universally admitted, there has not been that general attention to the remediable period which the importance of the subject has merited. It is with the view of again challenging professional inquiry in a direction somewhat similar to that which you pointed out, that the following work has been written; and, although the views to be advanced may not altogether accord with your own, I trust that they may meet with your general approval. To no one could a work on the early or remediable stages of Phthisis be so fitly inscribed, and I am gratified that you have done me the honour to accept this small tribute of my deep respect and esteem. I have the honour to be, Dear Sir James, Your most sincere and grateful servant, EDWARD SMITH. M351806 PREFACE. THE author, in writing the following work, has had four principal objects in view, viz., to take advantage of the growing belief of the day, that there is a stage of Phthisis in which the disease is as remediable as it is irremediable at a later period; to write a practical work in which may be faithfully represented the actual condition of these cases when regarded in the great numbers in which they have been brought before his observation; to treat the subject, as far as possible, on the inductive method, and on the improved physiology and pathology of the day; and to give practical effect to numerous series of special inquiries which have been made by him during the preceding seven years. It is not important, in reference to the first, that the views differ as to the limits, characteristics, and designation of the early stage, since, when the existence of the stage shall have been well established, an agreement as to its nature will certainly follow. Numerous authorities from distant ages, both as to Phthisis in |