CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.
CONSUMPTION is a perpetual "topic of the day." There is no hour of the week when it is not coming fatally" home to the bo- soms of men." Seventy thousand victims are annually offered up in this country on the shrine of the dire goddess Phthisis Pulmo- nalis. Every discovery or supposed discovery which gives hopes of a cure of this dreadful disorder deserves at least attention. So many have been suggested and failed, that the world, and especially the medical world, has become incredulous, and perhaps somewhat inattentive to new claims.
The discoveries of Mr. MURRAY, coming as they do from an eminent chemist, and one who has established a high reputation, will, however, assuredly receive a due examination and trial. Mr. MURRAY was the first who suggested the inhaling of chlorine ; which, though attended with great partial benefit, was found to possess irritating properties, that materially interfered with its efficiency. A gas was wanted, possessing the sanative virtues of chlorine, without its irritating qualities. -Mr. MURRAY has found this desideratum—it is nitrous acid gas ; and, when duly administered, the most surprising and gratifying results have taken place. Mr. MURRAY, in his recently published work on Consumption, has deserved the gratitude of his countrymen. He has examined the disease and its remedies chemically ; and appears to us to have taken new and original views of both. His work is moreover full of very interesting and curious facts, of a nature to escape the unscientific observer.
This author is a man who has spent his life in scientific investi- gations, with a view to the benefit of his fellow creatures : and he has been treated in the manner truly British as respects science— he has been suffered to injure his circumstances, and he would be absurd if he looked to the Government or the public for any reward.
"The pecuniary sacrifices which I have made from time to time in the cause of philanthropy, by instituting experiments interesting to suffering humanity, have been considerable; and I am not ashamed to confess, have even sometimes involved me in temporary difficulties. It is my anxious hope, it may be ultimately found, that neither my time has been unprofitably spent, nor that I have altogether lived in vain; only regret- ting that my limited means have circumscribed the power of doing good."
—Preface, p. vii.
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