Spit or swallow? What’s the best way to deal with phlegm?

By Niall Johnston, Conjoint Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney
Phoebe Williams, Paediatrician & Infectious Diseases Physician; Senior Lecturer & NHMRC Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of 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 diagnostic tool.

Today, most of us don’t carry around a spitting pot. But a persistent question remains, especially during winter, when noses…

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