CLINICAL LECTURES ON PULMONARY CONSUMPTION. BY THEOPHILUS THOMPSON, M. D., F. R. S., FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, LONDON; PHYSICIAN TO THE HOSPITAL FOR PREFACE. THESE Lectures were originally delivered at the Brompton Hospital for Consumption during the Spring of 1851, and were published with slight alterations in the second volume of "the Lancet" for that year. The favourable reception which they obtained exceeded my anticipations: and, at the recommendation of some of my professional brethren, whose judgment I highly esteem, they are now incorporated in a volume, with such modifications as further reflection has suggested. Clinical lectures afford an advantageous medium for communicating medical information. The short but faithful sketches of individual instances of disease, thus presented, are more readily available than detailed and elaborate descriptions; and better adapted to instruct the student respecting the proportionate value of different symptoms. Whilst avoiding tediousness, it has been my constant aim to impress the points of chief importance; and it is doubtless practicable to be brief without being superficial, although simplicity is more difficult than complexity. The facts recorded were not chosen in order to support previous theories; on the contrary, the first step in the preparation of each lecture was to collect and tabulate all the facts which the wards might happen to supply for the illustration of the particular topic under consideration; and the comments were usually such as seemed to spring naturally from the examples presented. The subject of a lecture was sometimes determined by the incidental presence in the hospital of numerous or remarkable instances, illustrative of some particular truth. This circumstance may occasionally, as for example, in reference to the gingival margin, and the influence of posture on the pulse, have given a more than ordinary preponderance of statistical evidence in one direction; but will not be found to have led to any conclusions which are not essentially in harmony with ordinary experience. Further observation, since the Lectures were delivered, has for the most part strengthened my conviction respecting the accuracy of the opinions which they convey, with one important exception, having reference to the asserted inefficiency of vegetable oils; since it will be noticed that I have been induced, in con * * See Lecture VI., p. 128. |