remedy and no plan of treatment yet proposed could be depended on in cases of consumption, it was obvious to the Author that if the process employed by nature could be discovered, and then imitated by art, we might ultimately arrive at the true principle of cure. Whenever, therefore, decided and unmistakable evidence of a spontaneous cure came before him, he carefully studied the circumstances which preceded it; and connecting these with the numerous observations which were simultaneously going on, as to the good effects of Cod-liver Oil, he was gradually led to the rules of treatment which are developed in the following pages. These he has tested on a large scale in hospital and private practice. They have also been extensively tried by others who have followed his suggestions, so that he can now confidently recommend them to his professional brethren.

It may happen, however, that the practical rules and the principles on which they are founded are no longer new to some who may read the following pages. This will be accounted for if it be remembered that during the last twelve years the Author has published various papers in connection with Tubercle and Pulmonary Tuberculosis, the substance of which is embodied in the present work. For the last eleven years, also, he has been constantly

1 The Author is not disposed to enter into controversy with regard to a mere question of priority; but with the object of regulating any discussion on this point, should it arise, he appends a list of his contributions to the pathology and treatment of tuberculosis, with the dates of their publication.

1. Treatise on the Oleum Jecoris Aselli, or Cod-liver Oil, as a Therapeutic Agent in certain forms of Gout, Rheumatism, and Scrofula, with Cases. London and Edinburgh. 1 vol. 8vo. 1841.

2. Description of a Cryptogamic Plant found Growing in the Sputa and Lungs of a Man who laboured under Pneumothorax.-"Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh." 1842.

3. On the frequent Spontaneous Cure of Pulmonary Consumption, and the indications furnished by Pathology for its Rational Treatment—“Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal." 1845.

engaged in giving lectures, both on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, systematically and clinically, and has naturally communicated to his pupils the various facts and views now set forth, as they were gradually arrived at or reached maturity in his own. mind. Further, it may be observed in some places that the language and ideas are similar to those long since published in certain Reviews, which have appeared in the Monthly Journal of Medical Science, and, whenever these are identical, it may be assumed with truth that he is the writer of those Reviews.

4. On the Minute Structure and Chemical Composition of Tubercular Deposits. 6 woodcuts." Northern Journal of Medicine." 1846.

5. On the Elementary Forms of Disease. Wood-cuts.-"Monthly Journal of Medical Science."

1846.

6. On the Structural Relation of Oil and Albumen in the Animal Economy, etc."Read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh," 19th of April, 1847; "Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1846-7;" and "Monthly Journal of Medical Science," September, 1847.

7. Appendix to the Treatise on the Oleum Jecoris Aselli. 8vo. November, 1847.

8. On Cancerous and Cancroid Growths.

1 vol. 8vo. Numerous wood-cuts. Edin

burgh. 1849. See pp. 195-7, and

pp.

204-6.

9. On the Course of Tubercle in the Lungs.-"Monthly Journal of Medical Science." 1849.

10. On Simple Tubercular and Cancerous Exudations-their Pathology and General Treatment.—“ Monthly Journal of Medical Science," February, 1850.

11. On the Treatment of Phthisis Pulmonalis. 2 Coloured Plates.-"Monthly Journal of Medical Science." 1850.

12. Report on the Cases of Pulmonary Diseases treated in the Clinical Wards of the Royal Infirmary, during the latter half of the Summer Session 1851.-"Monthly Journal of Medical Science," December, January, and February Nos. 1851-2.

13. Illustrations of Laryngeal and Pharyngeal Diseases, which are frequently mistaken for, or associated with Phthisis Pulmonalis.-"Monthly Journal of Medical Science." December, 1852.

In 1849, Dr. C. T. B. Williams, of London, published a paper on the treatment of Phthisis Pulmonalis by Cod-liver Oil, in which he confirmed all that the Author had stated eight years previously as to the therapeutic effects of that remedy. Dr. Williams also adopted the molecular theory of its action which the Author published in November, 1847. Unfortunately, in adopting his theory as well as practice, Dr. Williams seems to have imagined that he had arrived at something new-a conclusion which, as it has been very ably dealt with by a critic in the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, for May, 1850, demands no further notice. There can be no doubt, however, that Dr. Williams's confirmation of the Author's experience (although tardy), still further supported by an able Report of the Medical Officers of the Brompton Consumptive Hospital in 1851, and the concurrent testimony of several Hospital Physicians, tended to extend the confidence of the profession in its use, which has since become as general in England as it had long previously been in Scotland.

Any well-informed medical practitioner who looks back on the treatment of Phthisis as it existed ten years ago, and compares it with the practice recommended in this work, must come to the conclusion that the one is essentially different from the other. The Author has attempted to show: 1. That tubercular diseases will heal of themselves, if the faulty nutrition of the system can be removed; 2. That, with this object, our efforts should be directed to the digestive rather than to the respiratory system; and 3. That the kind of abnormal nutrition which exists is dependent on increased assimilation of the albuminous, and diminished assimilation of the fatty portions of the food. Hence, he recommends that the general plan of treatment should be to cause the reception of the deficient elements of nutrition; and is, therefore, not tonic or stimulating, but analeptic (from avanauẞavo, to restore). With regard to the symptomatology, morbid anatomy, and diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, he has nothing to add to the many masterly works which treat of those parts of the subject, and consequently he has

not entered into them further than was necessary to evolve the principles on which he considers a correct treatment should be based. But, if he has been fortunate enough to show that such treatment is founded on a true pathology, and that a class of diseases which destroys one-sixth of the population in this country may in any way be alleviated, he leaves to the candour of his medical brethren the question of how far he has been instrumental in effecting it.

EDINBURGH, 1 GLENFINLAS STREET,

September 22, 1853.

JOHN HUGHES BENNETT.