Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/327

 Rh afford an ample field for a Laennec farther to illustrate and confirm his opinions, provided leave could generally be obtained for post-mortem investigations. I am sorry, however, to say, that on this point the common people are extremely prejudiced, insomuch that I have found it almost impossible to obtain permission to open a body."

Second extract.—"Miners are, unquestionably, more liable to disease than the agricultural labourers of the same district. Their appearance is more unhealthy, and they are also shorter lived. They are very subject to diseases of the chest, much more so than other labourers; and I may say, to every variety of disease of the chest, both acute and chronic, but especially the latter. I can hardly say they are subject to any peculiar disease of the chest, and which we do not witness in others. The prevalent affection is chronic bronchitis, attended with different degrees of dyspnœa, and more or less expectoration of a decidedly short, purulent character, and frequently offensive. The patient lingers on from one to four or five years, or even longer, and at last sinks, worn down to skin and bone. The pulse, during the first two-thirds of the illness, is slow, and often irregular, and invariably quickens some months before death. This chronic bronchitis may be called the miners' consumption, inasmuch as miners are more liable to it than others; but it differs much from the tubercular disease frequently termed consumption. In this last the progress is more rapid— the hectic more decided the pulse more quick from the first-the expectoration more muco-purulent, more tenacious and less offensive. Miners often die