doubled in the past five years, while there has been a slight increase
in the consumption of cigars, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco and
snuff, as shown in the following table:[56]

the right auricle by two large veins, called the superior and the
inferior _vena cava_,” and that returning from the lungs is poured into
the left auricle by the _pulmonary veins
The blood from the system in general, except the lungs, is poured into
the right auricle by two large veins, called the superior and the
inferior _vena cava_,” and that returning from the lungs is poured into
the left auricle by the _pulmonary veins._

exercise and repose; and, in physical endurance, it is subject to
general physiological laws
The brain, like all other organs of the body, requires alternate
exercise and repose; and, in physical endurance, it is subject to
general physiological laws. When exercised with moderation it acquires
strength, vigor, and an accelerated activity. Excessive mental exertion
is liable to result in softening of the brain, and various nervous
diseases, sometimes culminating in insanity, and in many instances
proving fatal to life. The mere votaries of pleasure who avoid all
effort of the mind, fall into the opposite error. In all cases of
intellectual activity, the exertions should be directed to some subject
interesting to the student. In this manner duty will become a pleasure,
which in turn will re-invigorate the mental functions.

_Symptoms._–Burning pain in mouth, throat, and gullet, strong acid,
metallic or alkaline taste; retching and vomiting, the discharged
matters containing shreds of mucus, blood, and the lining membrane of
the passages. Inside of mouth corroded. There are also dysphagia,
thirst, dyspnoea, small and frequent pulse, anxious expression, shock.
Death may result from shock, destruction of the parts–_e.g._,
perforation of stomach or duodenum, suffocation; or some weeks
subsequently death may be due to cicatricial contraction of the gullet,
stomach, or pylorus.

OPINIONS FROM HIGH AUTHORITIES.–In the statements and arguments
made in the above we have not relied upon our own opinions and
convictions, but have consulted the best authorities, and we hereby
quote some of the highest authorities upon this subject.

tissues of the body, and deficiency of any one of them, for any
considerable length of time, results in disease
_Sulphur, Iron, Soda_, and _Potash_ are all necessary in the various
tissues of the body, and deficiency of any one of them, for any
considerable length of time, results in disease. They are all supplied,
variously arranged and combined, in both animal and vegetable food; in
some articles they exist to a considerable extent, in others in much
smaller quantities. _Sulphur_ exists in eggs and in the flesh of
animals, and often in water. _Iron_ exists in the yolk of eggs, in
flesh, and in several vegetables. _Soda_ is supplied in nearly all food,
and largely in common salt, which is a composition of sodium and
hydrochloric acid, the latter entering into the gastric juice. _Potash_
exists, in some form or other, in sufficient quantities for health, in
both vegetable and animal food.

to take your treatment for that disease, I send you this certificate,
containing a synopsis of my case and cure of the same
_Gentlemen_–In the hope that some sufferer from hernia may be induced
to take your treatment for that disease, I send you this certificate,
containing a synopsis of my case and cure of the same. My life was a
living death for years. I had almost lost all hope of ever being cured,
and was plunged in despair, as I had tried so many trusses, appliances
and remedies, each one in successive repetition, a failure. In January
and February of the year “89, I entered your Institution for treatment,
my malady being an inguinal hernia on the right side, of twenty years”
standing–from childhood. I was then impressed with the feeling that it
was my last chance, and that it would be my last effort, and to be
candid I had very little hope that a cure would be effected. To me my
condition seemed appalling, as I dare not eat, drink, laugh, exercise or
perform any of the functions of life without having to reduce my
rupture, frequently as often as forty or fifty times _per diem_, while
on occasions the reduction would occupy hours of untold agony. No truss
or appliance that I could get would retain the rupture, and I had tried
all sorts as fast as they came to my knowledge. Marvelous as it may
appear to all sufferers from this distressing affliction, I was
discharged from your Institute in thirty days, a well and sound man, and
only from memory and the record do I know that I was ever ruptured. I
have at times since performed some of the hardest kinds of work for long
periods, but no sign of weakness has ever appeared. I do not consider
the necessary operation performed as attended with any danger; it is no
comparison to the chances a person takes who in the daily walks of life
is tortured with a rupture.

Even previously to Gordon, Mr. White, of Manchester, had said: ‘I
am acquainted with two gentlemen in another town, where the whole
business of midwifery is divided betwixt them, and it is very
remarkable that one of them loses several patients every year of
the puerperal fever, and the other never so much as meets with
the disorder’–a difference which he seems to attribute to their
various modes of treatment. [Footnote: On the Management of
Lying-in Women. p. 120.]

1. It is granted that all the forms of what is called puerperal
fever may not be, and probably are not, equally contagious or
infectious. I do not enter into the distinctions which have been
drawn by authors, because the facts do not appear to me
sufficient to establish any absolute line of demarcation between
such forms as may be propagated by contagion and those which are
never so propagated. This general result I shall only support by
the authority of Dr. Ramsbotham, who gives, as the result of his
experience, that the same symptoms belong to what he calls the
infectious and the sporadic forms of the disease, and the opinion
of Armstrong in his original Essay. If others can show any such
distinction, I leave it to them to do it. But there are cases
enough that show the prevalence of the disease among the patients
of a single practitioner when it was in no degree epidemic; in
the proper sense of the term. I may refer to those of Mr.
Roberton and of Dr. Peirson, hereafter to be cited, as examples.

CAUSES. Nothing definitely is known regarding their causation. They are
generally supposed to originate in some constitutional derangement,
impairing the nutrition of the mucous membranes. Other cases are closely
associated with chronic nasal catarrh, and frequent attacks of cold in
the head.