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 presented. Happily, it is in numerous instances a far less formidable disease, either from the original mildness of the attack, or from its being met by prompt and efficient medical treatment, and, so to speak, aborted at the outset. The membranous exudation is stayed in its fearful progress, and gradually exfoliates and is expectorated, while the subjacent mucous membrane begins to assume its natural colour and appearance, at the same time that the glandular swellings subside, and the pulse improves in volume and power. But it must be remembered that these favorable changes are often slow and uncertain even when fully established, and that many weeks sometimes elapse before the patient can be pronounced convalescent.

Before quitting the symptomatology of diphtheria, I may remark that a late writer on this subject has made the observation that the mine has been found to be albuminous in severe cases. To what degree this phenomenon is to be looked upon as an integral portion of the disease I am unable to say, but we may fairly assume that when it does appear it indicates not only a high degree of internal visceral congestion, but a congestion, as in scarlatina, typhus, and other blood-diseases, indicative of a dangerous physical degeneration of the vital fluid, and therefore of serious import as regards our prognosis.