ROFULA.

Much is said in these days about scrofula, and much indeed should be
said about it; for it has become a most frequent, not to say fatal,
disease. For, if few die of it, immediately, it leads to, or renders
more severe, numerous other diseases, which are more directly fatal. In
truth, a scrofulous constitution not only prepares us for many other
diseases, but renders them, when they assail us, much more severe than
they otherwise would have been. Colds, fevers, and consumption, in
particular, are not only more frequent in scrofulous people than in
others, but also more intense or severe, as well as less manageable by
medical skill.

This disease itself, though often inherited, may, on the one hand, be
greatly aggravated by improper treatment; or, by a proper course of
living, may, on the other hand, be postponed many years, if not
indefinitely. Living much in the open air, cheerfulness of mind, plain
food and drink, and a proper regard to the skin, will do a vast deal
towards arresting its progress, and in some instances will wholly
prevent its doing us any harm. For though five millions of the
inhabitants of the United States were probably born with a tendency to
this formidable disease, and the same proportion--if not a greater--of
each generation to come will be likely to have the same tendency, I do
not believe it to be indispensably necessary that one-half of this
number should die, as now they do, of consumption. I have not a doubt
that two-thirds of them might, by proper management, be made to last
many years, and some of them to what is usually called old age.

It has been my lot to have a very great number of scrofulous patients,
daring the last twenty-five years, from almost every part of the United
States. One of the worst cases I ever had was that of Mrs. ----, of New
Hampshire. Her history, prior to the period when she came to me, is very
briefly as follows.

She was born of parents, who, at the time of her birth, were very near
their dotage; in consequence of which, as it was believed, she held her
existence by a very feeble tenure. At two and a half years of age, she
was nearly destroyed by dysentery, or by the medicine given to arrest
her disease, or by both. In addition to this and almost before she
recovered, she had an attack of scarlet fever, which was very severe,
and which was also probably treated freely by medicine. By this time
there is no doubt that scrofula, at first slightly inh