Is Consumption Ever Contagious, or Communicated by One Person to Another in Any Manner?

This question may seem one of very little importance, because we all may be of one opinion, viz., in favor of the negative of the pro- position.Yot it is ono about which I have been interested, in consequence of some cases that have fallen under my notice during the last ten or fifteen years.These cases I shall relate to the Society; but before doing so, let mo refer briefly to the views of the medical profession on this topic, historically considered.In all that relates to medical opinion previous to the present century, I shall depend on the learned work by Dr. Young.*It would seem, from Dr. Young's statements, that all the chief authors who, previously to the last quarter of the last century, treated of the subject, were full be- lievers in the contagiousness of consumption.It is also well known, that public opinion, which is always the reflection of a preceding med- ical opinion, sustained that view, at least in the southern portions of Europe.The Italians, until a very recent date, have had certain quarantine and other regulations relative to those dying of this dis- ease, as are common now in smallpox cases.Aristotle, accord- ing to Dr. Mason Good, states that this belief in the contagiousness of the disease was common among the Greeks.Galen regarded it as unwise to pass even a Jaj with a consumptive.Mortont, 1619,