Postural treatment, though recognized as decidedly valuable in pulmonary suppurative conditions, has not received the attention it deserves. Considering its importance, it is surprising that not only clinicians, but also bronchoscopists and thoracic surgeons have not taken advantage of and put into more general use a procedure having merited value.
Considering the possession of the knowledge by primitive peoples of the value of the use of the upside-down position for emptying the lungs of inspired water in cases of drowning, as well as the more modern methods of Marshall Hall, Sylvester, Howard and Schaefer, it is surprising that the scientific and practical value of posture for evacuating purulent accumulations in the lungs was not commonly recognized until about twenty-five years ago. It is difficult to understand that it was not until the decade just passed that the principle of postural drainage for lung suppuration began to find advocates and the