However safe, and even useful, the cordial medicines and diet that have been mentioned may appear, yet I am sorry to add, that we seldom see any other advantages from them than a mitigation of distressing symptoms, except when they have been followed by suitable and long continued exercise. Even under this favourable circumstance, they are often ineffectual; for there frequently occurs, in this state of consumption, such a destruction of the substance and functions of the lungs, as to preclude the possibility of a recovery by the use of any of the remedies which have been discovered. Perhaps, where this is not the case, their want of efficacy may be occasioned by their being given before the pulse is completely reduced to a typhus state. The weaker the pulse, the greater is the probability of benefit being derived from the use of cordial diet and medicines. I have said formerly, that the three states of consumption do not observe any regular course in succeeding each other. They are not only complicated in some instances, but they often appear and disappear half a dozen times in the course of the disease, according to the influence of the weather, dress, diet, and the passions upon the system. The great secret, therefore, of treating this disease consists in accommodating all the remedies that have been mentioned to the predominance of any of the three different states of the system, as manifested chiefly by the pulse. It is in consequence of having observed the evils which have resulted from the ignorance or neglect of this practice, that I have sometimes wished that it were possible to abolish the seducing nomenclature of diseases altogether, in order thereby to oblige physicians to conform exactly to the fluctuating state of the system in all their prescriptions; for it is not more certain, that, in all cultivated languages, every idea has its appropriate word, than that every state of a disease has its appropriate dose of medicine, the knowledge and application of which can alone constitute rational, or secure uniformly successful practice. I come now to say a few words upon those palliative remedies which are alike proper in every state of the pulmonary consumption. The first remedy under this head is a DRY SITUATION. A damp air, whether breathed in a room, or out of doors, is generally hurtful in every form of this disease. A kitchen, or a bed-room, below the level of the ground, has often produced, and never fails to increase, a pulmonary consumption. I have often observed a peculiar paleness (the first symptom of general debility) to show itself very early in the faces of persons who work or sleep in cellar kitchens or shops.