ing their hitherto unchecked career, must be interesting to the public as well as the profession—it has been the wish of the Writer to show, in as clear and familiar a style as possible, intelligible alike to all classes of readers, the principles upon which the practice of inhalation is founded, as well as the various remedies employed, and the best mode of using them.

It is the Author's opinion, that a work intended for the advancement of any science should be so far professional as to be readable by the professions, and so far popular as to be interesting to the man of general intelligence; and he fully concurs with the late Dr. Currie, "that it were better for medicine, like other branches of natural knowledge, to be brought from its hiding-place, and exhibited in the simplicity of science, and the nakedness of truth." When a medical treatise, like the present, is freed from technicalities in its terminology, a benefit is conferred on society, by enabling a patient to become a critic in his own complaint; and thus, many persons are not only prevented from falling victims to error in the treatment, or placing themselves in improper hands, but are instructed how to take care of their health, and are rendered more observant of their own altered sensations, as indications of approaching disease; and also capable of giving accurate information, whether they consult personally or by letter, as to the seat and signs of disordered functions, and those leading facts which regulate professional opinion-which they could not satisfactorily communicate, without the previous knowledge that such writings impart. More especially has the Author been induced to make the public acquainted with the rationale of Inhalation, from the fact, that a great majority of his professional brethren have

refused, or neglected, to ascertain the truth of the assertions and experience of those practitioners who have adopted this important remedial agent,—and have remained content with denying, when it has been a duty they have owed to themselves and their patients to have examined.

It is not, however, to be expected that the generality of mankind, in the event of inactivity or supineness on the part of their medical advisers, should look on with indifference, and refrain from using their own individual exertions towards promoting the more common employment of a sanatory agent, by which, in some cases, if not universally, a chance may exist of staying the mighty havoc which complaints of the chest make in our domestic circles; and snatching from the tomb some at least of its annual victims.

But while divesting the Treatise, as far as practicable, of professional technicalities, it must be distinctly understood, that it is very far from the intention of the Author to recommend self or domestic treatment. No friend to his species would advise the uninitiated to treat those diseases which have hitherto baffled the skill of the physician. When the varied resources of the medical art have been found unavailing, the best devices of persons, ignorant of the principles and practice of medicine, are only likely to hasten a fatal termination.

The Author hopes, that any inaccuracies of style, or other defects, will be considered by the reader with indulgence; for, in the midst of those active and important duties which daily devolve upon him, he has but little leisure left for literary occupation, but it appeared to him better to attempt to do good-even though it be done in an imperfect manner— than not to do it at all.

In conclusion, the Author claims no merit beyond that of promoting and extending this invaluable means for the direct local application of remedies; and if his humble labours tend to prolong the life, or alleviate the sufferings, of one of his fellow-creatures, he will think them amply repaid.

56, Curzon Street,

Hyde Park, W.

PRE FACE

BY DR. GREEN,

EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN EDITION.

(ABRIDGED.)

WITH pleasure we introduce an American Edition of Dr. Maddock's celebrated work on the efficacy of Medicated Inhalations in Diseases of the Chest. We do it, we say, with pleasure, because whatever knowledge can be promulgated that will bear directly against these complaints, and especially against that most dreadful and fatal of them all-Pulmonary Consumption—should be freely and unhesitatingly tendered. In England the work has elicited universal praise, several large editions having been sold almost as soon as they were issued from the press; and it is presumed that the undeniable truths which the volume contains, if republished in this country, will not only meet the approval of all candid and inquiring minds, but also become eminently useful.

Dr. Maddock has had very extended experience, and the successful cases here reported by him-some fifty in numbermust present to any unprejudiced mind the most satisfactory evidence of the decided superiority of Inhalation over the ordinary mode of treatment.

Routine practice-aptly called by Dr. Elliotson the "old

jog-trot system"-it must be admitted, is utterly useless in a curative, and, generally speaking, in a palliative point of view, in diseases of the respiratory organs, as evidenced by the Report of the Committee to whom was referred the consideration of Tuberculous Complaints, before the American Medical Association which assembled in May, 1853, in New York. Dr. D. F. Condie, of Pennsylvania, reported that the committee "had considered the subject very attentively, and the more they did so, the more they doubted the generallyreceived opinions regarding Tuberculosis, both as to its causes and treatment." In the face of these facts can any liberalminded practitioner hesitate to give Inhalation an impartial trial?

It is not unknown to us that some physicians, having little or no practical knowledge of Inhalation, find a brief mode of avoiding inquiry or explanation, by condemning it in toto; but we are gratified in being enabled to report that numerous practitioners in this city, and throughout the Union, have extensively employed this great remedial agent, and have pronounced it to be a most efficient auxiliary-nay, a sine quâ non-in the treatment of all affections of the thorax.*

*The Editor of the 'New York Medical and Surgical Journal' (Jan. 1, 1856), to whom I am indebted for many pertinent and valuable observations, says: "The profession, almost as a body, now recognises the necessity for a radical change in the old treatment of diseases of the lungs, and we are convinced that the change must be an adoption of the direct application of medicines to the seat of disease, through the instrumentality of medicated inhalations. As an evidence that we do not over-estimate either the extent or the influence of these recent adhesions to our views and practice, we would mention among those who, to our knowledge, have of late prescribed inhalation-Dr. Sayre; Dr. Alex. B. Mott; Professor Horace Green, of the New York Medical College; Dr. Cammann, and Professor Alonzo Clark, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of this city; Professor Dixi Crosby, of the Vermont Medical College; and Dr. Bowditch, of Boston.

"These gentlemen all occupy a very high position in our profession, and