In estimating the value of oxygen in these cases of phthisis we must bear in mind the mechanical effect of deep and steady inspiration through a long tube; this, _per se_, has a tendency to expand the lung vesicles and to hasten the healing of cavities, as has been fairly shown by Ramadge, in spite of his absurdities. Footnote 11: Cf. Birch on “Action, &c. of Oxygen,” 2d edit. p. 33. Footnote 12: Our own experience is very favourable to petroleum.—EDS. PRACT. Footnote 13: The Editors, being desirous of making this department a useful medium of communication between practitioners, will be glad to receive short notes on theoretical or practical points in therapeutics,—brief jottings on those numerous queries which suggest themselves from time to time to a medical man as he “goes his rounds,” but which he has neither the time nor, in some cases, the opportunity of answering. The Editors do not pledge themselves to reply to every question addressed to them, but they hope to make the “department” the means of supplying the information required; and this they can only effect by the hearty assistance of their readers. Footnote 14: Any of the foreign works may be procured by application to Messrs. Dulau, of Soho Square, W.C.; or Williams & Norgate, of Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Practitioner. May, 1869., by Various