Catarrh, or Cold, a disease arising generally from a sudden diminution of insensible per-spiration, by exposing the body to a damp, or cold air, after having been, for some time, under the influence of a warmer temperature. It is at first attended with an increased secretion of mucus, from the glands and membranes of the nose, eyes, throat, windpipe, etc. : hence a defluxion of a thin, acrid humor, which irritates those glands and membranes, occasions some difficulty of breathing through the nose, with a sense of fulness and sooner, or later, produces all the usual symptoms of a common cold. - Contrary to the prevailing opinion, we are convinced that bleeding is seldom, if ever, neces sary in these, and similar affections. As, however, catarrhs are sometimes attended with a slight degree of inflammation, and fever, their treatment must be regulated accordingly: but, if unaccompanied with febrile symptoms, there is no danger to be apprehended. In the latter case, only, we shall suggest a few directions for managing those frequent complaints, which are generally neglected at their commencement.

It was formerly maintained, that all colds may be cured by sudorific remedies; but experience has proved that this method, though sometimes successful, has often been productive of injury. In modern times, the opposite treatment has been adopted, and both the internal use, and external application of cold water, have been indiscriminately recommended. The true and proper plan, however, appears to be the medium between these extremes ; for it cannot be doubted, that keeping the body too warm, and excessive indulgence in hot, diluent drink, predispose it to catarrhs ; as, on the other hand, the internal and external use of cold water tends to strengthen the whole animal frame, and renders it less susceptible of the impressions of air and cold. But, unfortunately, the preservative means have, in this instance, been confounded with the curative, or those intended for effecting the cure. - Hence, in the beginning of every catarrh, the following particulars deserve attention :

1. To dilute and weaken the acrid humor, secreted by the glands: this purpose may be attained by inhaling the steam of water, and drinking proper quantities of warm diluents.

2. To prevent too great a de-fluxion of humors, or to render the mucus itself milder, and facilitate its excretion, it will be of great advantage to apply vesi-catories contiguous to the parts most affected by the cold. (See Blister.)

3. To evacuate the concocted, or digested matter: this salutary effect is accomplished either by spontaneous defluxion, or by the pores and urine. Both must be principally intrusted to Nature; as we should assist, and direct, her operations only in the mildest, and most Cautious manner.

Dr. Mudge, in a treatise on this disease, recommends the steam of hot water, as a most efficacious and safe remedy, and which indeed he considers as almost infal-lible. The method of inhaling these steams is very simple; but he observes that, for healthy persons, who may accidentally see his machine, great precaution is ne-cessary, not to make the experi-ment of respiring through cold water; as thus they would be almost certain of contracting a severe cold. For those troubled with a catarrh, he directs as follows : In the evening, a little before bed-time, the patient, if an adult, is to take three drams, or as many tea-spoonfuls of paregoric elixir, in a glass of water : but, if a child under five years of age, one tea-spoonful; or, from five to ten years old, two. About three. quarters of an hour after, the patient should go to bed, and, being covered warm, the inhaler three parts filled with water, nearly at the boiling point (which from the coldness of the metal, and the time it ordinarily requires before it is used, will be of a proper temperature), and being wrapped up in a napkin, but so as not to obstruct the valve in the cover, which is to be placed at the arm-pit, and the bed-clothes being drawn up, and over it, close to the throat, the tube is to be applied to the mouth, and the patient should inspire and expire through it, for about twenty minutes, or half an hour.

It is very evident, says Dr. Mudge, as the whole act of res-piration is performed through the machine, that by inspiration the lungs will be filled with air, which will be hot, and loaded with vapour, by passing through the body of water; and in expiration, all that was contained in the lungs will, by mixing with the steam on the surface of the water, be forced through the valve in the cover, and settle on the surface of the body, while under the bed-clothes. The great use of this particular construction of the inhaler is, l. As there is no necessity, at the end of every inspiration, to remove the tube from the mouth, in order to expire from the lungs the vapour which had been received into them, this machine, may, therefore, , be vised with equal facility, by children and adults. 2. As febrile symptoms frequently accompany the disorder, the valve, in that respect, is also of the utmost importance: for a sweat, or, at least, a tree perspiration, not only relieves the patient from the restless anxiety of a hot, dry, and, sometimes, parched skin, but is, of all evacuations, the most eligible for removing the fever; and it will be generally found, that, after the inhaler has been used a few minutes, the warm vapour under the clothes will, by settling upon the trunk, produce a sensible perspiration, which will gradually extend itself to the legs and feet.

In any feverish habit attending this cough, it would be proper to take a draught of warm, thin whey, a few minutes before the inhaler is used; and after the process is over, the sweat which it has occasioned, may be promoted by drinking small draughts of weak, warm whey, or barley-water. The sweating is by no means so essential to the cure of a catarrhous cough, as that the success of the inhaler at all depends upon it; yet the Doctor observes, that its advantages are very important, when the disease is accompanied by febrile symptoms.

After this respiratory process is performed, the patient generally passes the night without the least interruption by the cough, and feels no farther attack than, perhaps, once, or twice, in the following morning, to throw off the trifling leakage, which, unperceiv-ed, had fallen into the bronchia; and vesicles, during the night; the thinner parts of which, being evacuated, the remainder is easily expe6iorated.

However, continues Dr Muoge, if the patient hopes not to be disappointed in the success of this process, it is essentially necessary that he strictly attend to the following rules :

1. As valetudinarians are but too well acquainted with the first symptoms of this disorder, the remedy must be used the same evening; which will, in an ordinary attack, be attended with an immediate cure : but, if the soreness of the respiratory organs, or the petulance of the cough, indi cate the severity of the cold, the inhaler, without the opiate, should be repeated the next morning.

2. If the use of this apparatus, etc. be delayed till the second night, it will be always proper to repeat the process the following morning, without the opiate, except where the attack has been violent.

3. Should the cough be neglect-ed for some days, it will always be necessary to employ both parts of the process at night, and the succeeding morning, as the first simple inflammatory mischief is now most probably aggravated by BO additional disease, of a chronic nature. But, if this should be omitted, and the cough continue to harass the patient, it is of the utmost consequence, particularly in delicate and tender individuals, to attempt the removal of it as soon as possible, before any floating acrimony in the constitution (from the perpetual irritation) receives an habitual determination to an organ so essential to life as the lungs.

If the patient, with ease and freedom, expectorates a thick, and well digested, inoffensive phlegm, there is generally but little doubt of his throwing off the disorder, with common care, in a few days ; and till that be accomplished, a proper dose of paregoric elixir, for a few successive nights, will be found very useful, in suppressing the fatiguing irritation, and ineffectual cough, occasioned by a matter which, in the early stage of the disease, flows into the bronchia?, during the night, and is generally too thin to be discharged by those convulsive efforts. But, should the cough still continue, notwithstanding a free and copious expectoration, and the discharge, instead of removing the complaint, become a disease greater than the constitution can support, it is possible that a tender patient, possessed of weak and relaxed lungs, may do himself irreparable injury, without the least appearance of purulence, or any suspicion of suppuration. In those cases, besides increasing the general perspiration, by the salutary friction of a flannel waistcoat, change of situation, especially long journeys on horseback, conducted as much as possible, through a thin, sharp, dry air, will seldom fail to remove the complaint. On the contrary, if the cough should continue dry, husky, without expectoration, and fatiguing to the breast, provided there be no apprehension of tubercles, either forming, or already formed, there is not, perhaps, a more efficacious remedy for it than half a dram of gum ammoniac, with eighteen, or twenty drops of liquid laudanum, made into pills, taken at bed-time, and occasionally repeated. This excellent remedy was recommended by Sir John Pringle, and Dr. Mudge observes, that he has, in many instances, found it to be very successful, and generally expeditions ; for it almost uniformly produced an expectoration, and abated the distressing fatigue of the cough. The latter practitioner has, likewise, in many instances, known a salutary revulsion made from the lungs, by the simple application of a large plaster, about five or six inches in diameter, of burgundy pitch between the shoulders; as the perspirable matter, which is pent up under it, becomes so sharp and acrid, that it generally produces, in a few days, a very considerable itching, some little .tendency to inflammation, and frequently a great number of boils. This application should be continued (the plaster being occasionally changed), for three weeks, a month, or longer, if necessary.

Although seemingly a trifling precaution, yet it is by no means a useless one, to the patient, not to expose his shoulders to the cold air, while in bed, during the night; but to take care that they be kept warm, by drawing the bed-clothes up to his neck, when he reposes.

If, notwithstanding these, and other means, the cough should continue dry, or be unattended with a proper expectoration, and together with a soreness, produce shooting pains through the breast, and between the shoulders, accompanied with difficulty of breathing, flushes of the cheeks after meals, a burning sensation in the hands and feet, and other symptoms of a hectic fever, no time must be lost, as there is the greatest reason to apprehend, that some acrimony in the habit is determined to the tender substance of the lungs, and that consequently tubercular suppurations will follow. In this critical and dangerous situation, the Doctor observes, from long experience, that the patient will derive the greatest benefit from a change of air, and by strictly adhering to a diet, consisting of asses' milk and vegetables. - His advice concerning large bleedings, appears to us liable to many objections.