Dr. Mac CuUoch on Fevers, 47 



regularly periodical hysteria, which we are now at length 

 convinced must have been the very disorder in question. 



A periodical spasmodic cough is one of the most singular 

 and deceptive forms under which the anomalous intermittent 

 appears ; while the cases given are not only supported by au- 

 thority, but are in themselves convincing, remote as the con* 

 nection between such a symptom and intermittent fever may 

 appear to those to whom this subject is new. And we may 

 liere make one general remark applicable to the whole, 

 which is this : that, however new, and possibly incredible, 

 all this may appear to the practitioners of our own country, 

 the separate facts seem to have been perfectly understood 

 by the ancient foreign physicians and systematic writers, 

 though they never had formed any generalization of the 

 subject ; so that we must now attribute to a want of 

 reading on the part of our fraternity, whatever hesitation or 

 incredulity they may display ; a want, we are sorry to remark, 

 which is much too general, and can perhaps scarcely be other- 

 wise, as medical education is now conducted, through lectures 

 and the attendance on shops and hospitals ; and a defect also, 

 of which we can see ample proofs, did we do no more than 

 examine the never-opened books that cumber the shelves of 

 medical libraries, replete with stores of knowledge, often 

 voluminous and ill arranged we cannot deny, yet wretchedly 

 replaced by the paltry modern copies and compilations which 

 have so ill superseded them in the reading of even those, the 

 few who do read on medicine. 



Asthma, or rather perhaps dyspnoea, is another of the 

 spasmodic disorders found among the simulating intermittents ; 

 and of this, at least, we can speak from our own experience; 

 having found it not uncommonly, though, in the cases which 

 we have seen, we should, perhaps, rather have designated it 

 by the term febrile anxiety. In the same catalogue, we find 

 affections of the bladder, termed irritability and strangury: 

 and here also, if we have foreign authorities as well as the 

 author's own experience, we have seen this disease under 

 such circumstances as to make us now suspect that it was 

 what we find here described. 



A more frequent and interesting anomaly appears to be the 

 palpitation of the heart, and on this the author is very full ; 

 while the proofs which he has adduced as to the reality of 

 this connection appear to be such as to admit of no dispute. 

 And as we have not yet noticed these, we may here remark 

 generally, as to this and all other analogous cases, that ihey 

 consist, briefly, in the following facts. There in an intermit-* 



