Spit or swallow? What’s the best way to deal with phlegm?
- Written by Niall Johnston, Conjoint Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney

A spitting pot I consider as an essential part of the bed-room apparatus.
That’s what French physician René Laennec wrote in 1821. Laennec, who invented the stethoscope, spent his days gazing at his patients’ phlegm. In the days before x-rays and blood tests, phlegm was considered a valuable...
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