Excerpt from To Consumptives: Information Respecting the Practice of F. H. Ramadge; Containing an Account of Several Cases in Relation to This Practice, in Which It Has Been Beneficial in This Country, With Other Corroborative Testimony

M. Lebeau, physician to the King of the Belgians, and principal physician to the military hospital at Brussels, in the preface to his translation of Dr. Ramadge's work on consumption, mentions, that having long devoted his attention to this disease, he has been himself struck with the conviction that asthma has the power Of arresting, as well as preventing it, and that he could cite a considerable number of facts to illustrate this statement, but confines himself to one of recent date, and complete in its details. M. Aged forty-eight, a cap. Tain of an infantry regiment, presented himself, April 26, 1836, at the military hospital at Brussels, with a view to obtain acertificate to exempt him from active service, in consequence of habitual dyspnoea. He complained Of no other ailment, and was of full habit; his chest of remarkable amplitude, respiration wheezing, the sibilant rale was heard throughout, the heart's action regular and moderate, the pulse calm and natural, and the face exhibiting no signs of venous conges tion. He gave the following account of his case, in the presence of Dr. Coonrbe, of Edinburgh, who happened to be there at the time, Drs. Limaugue and Biefve, of Brussels, and several pupils In 1816, after severe fatigue, I was attacked with cough and copious expectoration, wasted away rapidly, and was subject to shiverings in the daytime, and perspirations at night, with wandering pains below the collar bones. My medical attendants repeatedly assured me I was consumptive, and could not long survive. While matters were in this state, I was seized with a difficulty of breathing, to such a degree that I was obliged to get' out of bed at night, and repair to the window to breathe fresh air. From this period my strength began to return, the perspirations ceased, and I soon became of as full habit as you now see me. My chest, which was flat and contracted, enlarged in an extraordinary manner, and I was completely cured, save the difliculty of breathing, for which I could obtain no remedy.'

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