1287.] Monthly Medical Report. 437 



of atmosphere, which operates thus prejudicially upon the dead animal fibre, should produce 

 some corresponding effect upon the living body, is surely not an unreasonable supposition ; 

 and, although the term putrid, a. applied to diseases, involves a degree of theory which is 

 scarcely acknowledged as legitimate in modern times, still the facts that led to the opinion 

 of the prevalence of such maladies in the month of September, are undeniable. It cannot be 

 uninteresting to inquire what has been the extent, and what the kind of disorder which has 

 prevailed in London during the past month. The quantity of disease has been unusually 

 great. The applications for admission into the different hospitals and dispensaries, which 

 the reporter is occasionally in the habit of visiting, have considerably exceeded the general 

 average ; and with reference to severity, seldom has it occurred to him to witness so great 

 a variety of acute attacks. 



Disorders of the abdominal viscera have certainly taken the lead, assuming the several 

 forms of spasmodic cholera, bilious diarrhoea, gastrodynia, and pyrosis, jaundice, &c. Several 

 very severe cases of inflammation of the liver have also fallen under the reporter's observa- 

 tion. The second class of complaints, which have been witnessed during the period now 

 under review are those of the head. A determination of blood to the bead has been a pre- 

 vailing feature in many of the cases of general disorder. Head-ache has been a symptom 

 frequently complained of. The most marked proof, however, of this fact may be found in 

 the recent occurrence of several cases of palsy, one of which the reporter is induced to notice 

 somewhat in detail, as it exhibits some phenomena not generally met with. A lady, between 

 fifty and sixty years of age, was suddenly, and without any adequate source of mental 

 emotion, seized with palsy of the right side. The power of speech was lost at the same 

 moment. The mental faculties, however, were apparently but little affected. She was 

 perfectly conscious of the assiduities of the friends around her. She took her nourishment 

 and her medicine with the greatest readiness. She made many efforts to assist herself ; the 

 power of the left side continuing unimpaired. No progress, however, was made towards the 

 recovery of speech, and the pupil of the eye became permanently contracted. On the fifth 

 day from the attack she died. On examination of the body, the ventricle of the brain, on 

 the side opposite to that of the palsy, was found completely distended with grumous or half 

 coagulated blood. It must certainly be considered as a wonderful circumstance, that con- 

 sciousness could have been preserved, even to within three hours of death, under such a 

 condition of the brain. 



The third class of complaints which has lately prevailed, and which we can have no diffi- 

 culty in connecting with the hot and moist state of atmosphere, which has been present, more 

 or less, since the date of the last report, comprises the several varieties of rheumatism. Of all 

 the forms of this disorder, that which presses most heavily upon the patient, and gives the 

 most trouble to his medical attendant, is Sciatica, the rheumatism of the hip, and more 

 especially of the great sciatic nerve. A case of this kind, of more than common severity, is 

 still under the reporter's care ; and, as illustrating the danger of neglecting blood-letting in 

 the early stage of this disease, merits some notice. The subject of the case is an elderly 

 lady, who has always been much averse to the loss of blood, and who urgently entreated 

 that we should do the best we could for her without this resource. The progress of cure has 

 been exceedingly tedious, but it may serve to impress a salutary lesson. 



The reporter cannot conclude without some allusion to the great severity observable in 

 such cases of small-pox as the metropolis now affords. There is not, perhaps, more of 

 the disease than is usually met with ; but in intensity, it considerably exceeds the average 

 of the earlier months of the year. The reporter hears with much regret, that persons are 

 to be found in London who propagate small-pox by indiscriminate inoculation. Of the 

 danger and even cruelty .of this practice, so far as the public is concerned, he is so well 

 convinced, that he almost considers it incumbent on the legislature to interfere more 

 directly in the matte.r than has hitherto been done. It can be made clearly to appear, that 

 small-pox inoculation is one of the instances (probably one of the very few instances) 

 in which private benefits become positive public evils ; and legislative interference is surely 

 justifiable under such circumstances. 



GEORGE GREGORY, M.D, 

 8, Upper John Street, Golden Square, Sept. 24, 1S2T, 



MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



IN the highest and northernmost parts of the Island, there is, in course, corn abroad yet, 

 and may be for a week or two to come ; but in the southern and most forward, white corn 

 was generally carried by the middle of August, and the bean harvest finished by the latter 

 end or soon alter. The crops may be characterised as follows : the bulk of them being 

 secured, and their quality and probable quantity ascertained with sufficient accuracy. The 

 different scale of production on different soils, is in this season curiously observable. Great 

 crops on the best soils, on middle lumls a middling good crop, ami on the poor soils, a poor crop, 



