The aetiology, prevention and treatment of chronic bronchitis.

No one can pretend that the treatment of chronic bronchitis at the present time is anything but profoundly unsatisfactory. No attempts are made at prevention, whilst treatment of the established case depends to a large extent upon the depth of the patient's purse, and consists of a bottle of cough mixture for the poor patient, and advice to winter in South Africa for his wealthier fellow-sufferer. It is therefore quite clear that a reconsideration of the whole problem is urgently indicated, especially as this disease is well known to be an extremely common condition in England, and one of great economic importance, extending in most cases over many years of the patient's working life, and rendering him year by year progressively less capable of following his occupation. The final result is likely to be a state of miserable invalidism, the patient himself crippled by prohibitive shortness of breath, and both he and his family irritated beyond endurance by his constant ineffectual coughing.