I. BLOOD-LETTING. It may seem strange to recommend this debilitating remedy in a disease brought on by debility. Were it proper in this place, I could prove that there is no disease in which bleeding is prescribed, which is not induced by predisposing debility, in common with the pulmonary consumption. I shall only remark here, that in consequence of the exciting cause acting upon the system (rendered extremely excitable by debility) such a morbid and excessive excitement is produced in the arteries, as to render a diminution of the stimulus of the blood absolutely necessary to reduce it. I have used this remedy with great success, in every case of consumption attended by a hard pulse, or a pulse rendered weak by a laborious transmission of the blood through the lungs. In the months of February and March, in the year 1781, I bled a Methodist minister, who was affected by this state of consumption, fifteen times in the course of six weeks. The quantity of blood drawn at each bleeding was never less than eight ounces, and it was at all times covered with an inflammatory crust. By the addition of country air, and moderate exercise, to this copious evacuation, in the ensuing spring he recovered his health so perfectly, as to discharge all the duties of his profession for many years, nor was he ever afflicted afterwards with a disease in his breast. I have, in another instance, bled a citizen of Philadelphia eight times in two weeks, in this state of consumption, and with the happiest effects. The blood drawn at each bleeding was always sizy, and never less in quantity than ten ounces. Mr. Tracey of Connecticut informed me, in the spring of 1802, that he had been bled eighty-five times in six months, by order of his physician, Dr. Sheldon, in the inflammatory state of this disease. He ascribed his recovery chiefly to this frequent use of the lancet. To these cases I might add many others of consumptive persons who have been perfectly cured by frequent, and of many others whose lives have been prolonged by occasional bleedings. But I am sorry to add, that I could relate many more cases of consumptive patients, who have died martyrs to their prejudices against the use of this invaluable remedy. A common objection to it is, that it has been used without success in this disease. When this has been the case, I suspect that it has been used in one of the other two states of pulmonary consumption which have been mentioned, for it has unfortunately been too fashionable among physicians to prescribe the same remedies in every stage and form of the same disease, and this I take to be the reason why the same medicines, which, in the hands of some physicians, are either inert or instruments of mischief, are, in the hands of others, used with more or less success in every case in which they are prescribed. Another objection to bleeding in the inflammatory state of consumption, is derived from the apparent and even sensible weakness of the patient. The men who