PREVENTiOJV OF CONSUMPTION.

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furaceous matter, which, whether it be inspissated perspiration ad-hering to the surface, or particles of decaying cuticle, is certainlybetter away. This practice also removes every kind of roughnessand asperity from the surface of the skin, which becomes beauti-fully smooth and polished, so that even as a cosmetic, having notendency to impair health, cutaneous friction may be advantageous-ly employed. After exposure to wet, to strip and rub the surfaceof > the body till it glows, is unquestionably the best means to pre-vent taking cold.

I do not presume so strenuously to recommend friction of theskin as a means of supporting the healthy action of the externalsurface of the body, and of promoting cutaneous perspiration,without having witnessed remarkable changes for the better pro-duced in the constitution by adopting and persevering is this prac-tice. Indeed I am'disposed to attribute much of the benefit deriv-ed from exercise on horseback, as well as the good effects of a sea-voyage towards a mild climate, to the increase of perspiration pro-duced by these modes of gestation.

Every person suspicious of predisposition to pulmonary con-sumption ought at all times, but especially in cold weather, towear a quantity of woollen clothing sufficient to obviate any ap-jiroach to the perception of dullness ; independently however ofthe actual presence of obstinate hoarseness or cough, I am dispos-ed to think that the requisite quantity of flannel is more advanta-geously worn over the usual shirt, than in immediate contact withthe skin.

The possibility of communicating this disease by contagion is apoint that has been much agitated. As a measure of precaution,the delicate ought to decide this question for themselves in the af-firmative. Exhalation from the lungs is the mode by which infec-tious diseases are most generally propagated ; and from analogywe might infer that air impregnated with the effluvia of these organsin a state of ulceration, would have a tendency to excite diseasedaction of a similar kind if received into the lungs of a person pre-viously disposed to this complaint. I have seen more than oneinstance of a husband who appeared to have no previous disposi-tion to consumption, being affected with a distressing cough, whichcontinued to harass him for months while his wife was lingeringunder that disease. On one melancholy occasion I witnessed thesuccessive deaths of three young ladies, two of whom, in my opin-ion, decidedly caught the disease in consequence of their sedulousattention, during the progress of the indisposition, to her who wasfirst affected, who evidently was of a phthisical habit, which wasnot apparent in either of the others.

If the presence of the symptoms which have been already de-scribed as characterising this disease renders its existence no lon-ger equivocal, the person so affected ought without delay to mi-grate towards a warmer climate. Should circumstances renderthis expedient impracticable, the next best plan a phthisical per-son can adopt is to remove into a low and rather damp situa-tion. The fatal event of pulmonary consumption is uniformly ac-celerated by residing in an elevated region. There are even in-stances on record of phthisis making its appearance in families,