Such are, in brief, the views of the learned Drs. Johnson and Bell, whose works are very highly commended by their American editor to the notice of the profession. These views, coming as they do from the highest authority, fully sustain the doctrine that the earliest impression of the disease is made upon the blood, and hence it becomes altered and changed in its most essential life-sustaining principle; for its oxygen becomes diminished, its consistency augmented, and its flow through the lungs impeded. Through this channel the effect of the poison soon makes an impression on the ganglionic mechanism, and the nerve-power becomes correspondingly diminished, and the action of the ganglionic nerves essentially deranged. But this is not all: they exhibit in the clearest manner the congestive character of the disease, and show the necessity of prompt and decided means to arrest this tendency. Hence, they urge, in the strongest terms, the importance of observing carefully this essential feature, and endeavor to exhibit fully the condition of this vital fluid at a particular stage of the disease, when bleeding, as recommended in their practice, is required, and may be performed to the best advantage for the relief of the partially congested blood-vessels, and to stimulate and give freedom to the circulation. The passage of the blood, they affirm, is impeded, clogged, and partially suspended. To remove this obstruction, relieve spasm, and secure the prompt aeration of the blood, in hope of arresting the progress of this disease, is ostensibly the object. However, they seem studiously to avoid the most logical conclusions of their explanations, and justify a practice that can give no hope of permanent relief, while every fact and symptom is ominously suggestive of the wants of the system, which imperiously demands the aid of electrified oxygen, ozone, or free caloric, for the oxydation of the blood. Says Dr. Reid, "I believe the true explanation of the arrest of blood in the lungs to be this: The blood contains a poison, whose irritant action upon the muscular tissue is shown by the painful cramps which it occasions. The blood thus poisoned excites contraction of the muscular walls of the minute pulmonary arteries, the effect of which is to diminish, and, in fatal cases, entirely to arrest the flow of blood through the lungs." Says Dr. Wallis, "The phenomena which are exhibited when the deleterious air has been drawn into the lungs are these: the great gastro-pulmonary nerve is either wholly or partially paralyzed; the consequences are the cessation of all its functions, either wholly or partially. This great nerve is a nerve of function, and performs the functions of digestion and respiration, and influences all secretions."