I have very briefly to notice the conclusion of Professor Hamilton's discreditable letter ; it ends thus: "Having pointed out, that by means of interpolations and substitution of words, and by garbled quotations of sentences and paragraphs, Dr. Collins has contrived to render plausible his various misstatements and misrepresentations of my opinions and practice,* I have only to add, that it is impossible for me ever to have any future communication with that individual."

I do not think my professional brethren will credit the Professor's rigmarole story of misrepresentations. Dr. Hamilton"may" make such statements, but Dr. Johnson could not define such "to be possible." I allege the "untoward circumstances" in which the Professor is placed, to be the "necessary effects" of his "deviations ;" and I have most particularly declared such to be my opinion; thus the word "necessary" has not been inserted "by mistake!!" therefore, I hope Dr. Hamilton will not "protest most solemnly" against my using it in the present instance.

As to Dr. Hamilton's declining any future communication with me, the loss of so kind, generous, and valued a correspondent "may be" great; but "I allege not the necessary effects." I forewarned Dr. Hamilton, in my last communication, that the unworthy language he made use of was in every respect calculated to prohibit friendly intercourse; and I rather think, from what has been shown of his conduct since, he is not the man, as is said in Ireland, "we would borrow money to spend in his company;" therefore, "I shall believe after trial, and judge before friendship;" always thinking content the true philosopher's stone, and that a false friend is worse than an

open enemy.

Dr. Murphy justly states, "such has been the ambiguity in Dr. Hamilton's language, and so often has his meaning been misunderstood, so loud has been his protest against misinterpretations, misrepresentations, and mistakes, that though the words seem plain, and the sense apparently clear, I almost doubt whether the work itself may not be a misrepresentation of his opinions on the subject of labour, at least in the sense in which it would be most usually understood."

I shall not, however, follow Dr. Hamilton's harsh example, and abandon him altogether, and he may rest assured whenever he advances doctrines similarly fraught with danger, I shall ever feel it my duty to correct their evil tendency as far as in my power.

ART. III. Observations on the Exhibition of Remedies, in the Form of Vapour, in Pulmonary Diseases; with Description of a Diffuser of the Administration of Iodine, Chlorine, &c. By D. J. CORRIGAN, M.D., Lecturer on the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Dublin School of Anatomy, Surgery, and Medicine, Physician to Jervisstreet Hospital, and to the Cork-street Fever Hospital, &c. [Read at the Evening Meeting of the College of Physicians in the College Hall, on the 18th of February, 1839.]

A GREAT obstacle to the successful treatment of pulmonary diseases has always existed in the difficulty of applying remedies, which should exercise a topical action in those diseases. The superiority of remedies applied in a topical form, over those acting through the medium of absorption, or constitutional sympathy, is manifest in a host of diseases: ulceration in the eye, the mouth, the throat, or the rectum, diseased secretion from the skin or mucous surfaces, which can be reached by topical applications, are generally speedily arrested and cured; while diseased actions or secretions of no greater intensity, but which, from their situation, may be beyond the reach of local applications, are too often, either of tedious cure, or run their progress unchecked.

In no class of diseases is the difficulty of applying topical remedies more to be deplored than in diseases of the lungs ; for, from this difficulty, diseased actions, which in other parts are under our ready control, are in the lungs often incurable.

The impossibility of applying topical applications, in their ordinary forms, to diseased structure in the lungs, has naturally

DOCTOR CORRIGAN'S Diffuser for the administration of

lodine, Chlorine &in the form of vapour.

led to the employment of remedies in the form of vapour; which, mixed with, or dissolved in the air we breathe, might be thus made to reach disease of structure or secretion, and exercise upon it a local and curative action.

From the days of Darwin and Beddoes to the present, the profession have at various times recommended the administration of remedies in the form of vapour; and the effects of inhalation have been as enthusiastically lauded by some, as they have been contemptuously derided by others. Two dif ficulties had existed in the way of arriving at a fair estimate of the conflicting opinions. The first, arose from the obscurity in which the pathology and diagnosis of affections of the lungs were involved, so that it was frequently impossible to pronounce with certainty on the exact nature of the disease under treatment. Such uncertainty entailed bad results; it enabled the ignorant or rash innovator to make assertions of cures of diseases which had never existed; while, on the other hand, it permitted the dogged opponent of all improvement, to deny whatever he disliked in the pathology or diagnosis of his adversary. This difficulty no longer exists: the knowledge of pathology and diagnosis possessed by the physician of the present day is sufficient, in most instances of pulmonary affections, to enable him to pronounce with certainty on the exact nature of any case under treatment, and to estimate the real merits of any curative process.

Of the powerful influence, which, various vapours, and even changes in the air itself, as to heat, moisture, constitution of the atmosphere, &c., exercise as local agents on the lungs, there cannot be a doubt. Every day's observation shows it every one in his own person feels it. Even allowing most fully for the exaggerated encomiums of some of the older advocates of inhalation, enough remains in the attestations of such men as Darwin, Beddoes, Withering, and their contemporaries, to forbid us to abandon this plan of treatment. As we approach the present day, we meet with fresh encouragement to follow up its pursuit.