558 Monthly Medical Report. [MAV, 



fever. Of the necessity of scrupulous attention to the purity of bark, when it is to be 

 employed as a febrifuge, all practitioners are agreed. Now, there is this great disadvantage 

 in the administration of the sulphate of quinine, that you are ignorant of the qualify of the 

 bark from which the preparation has been extracted. In all Revere cases, therefore, where 

 it is an object of importance to put a speedy check to the accession of fever, the powder 

 of bark should be preferred ; aud that which is now sold at Apothecaries' Hall is of a most 

 admirable quality. 



Bronchial affections have almost entirely disappeared ; and, in their stead, we have, as the 

 prevalent diseases of the season, affections of the head and of the stomach. With the 

 warm weather which suddenly set in early in April, might be noticed a strong determi- 

 nation of blood to the head. An unusual number of apoplectic and paralytic cases have 

 accurred in the reporter's practice. The dependance of these complaints upon a heated 

 state of the atmosphere was not unknown to the ancients. They attributed the fact to the 

 increased volume of the mass of blood, and gave to this pathological doctrine the name of 

 plethora ad spat mm. But, besides the instances of head affection which have been clearly 

 traceable to fulness of blood, very many have occurred, where headache and triddiness have 

 been the predominant sj'mptoms, without any proof of increased action of blood-vessels. 

 The reporter is well satisfied that a very large proportion of these cases have had their origin 

 in derangements of the biliary system. The first effect of the warm %veather was to increase 

 and vitiate the flow of bile, which was almost instantly succeeded by languor, lassitude, 

 total loss of appetite, headache, and giddiness, so urgent as to absorb all the anxieties of 

 the patient, sleepiness, and, in most case?, a confined state of the body. The pain of the 

 head was generally of the diffused kind. The pulse was seldom affected in any marked 

 degree, nor did the tongue indicate much consstitutional disturbance. Four or five days 

 usually sufficed to restore the patient to the enjoyments of health and activity. 



The treatment which proved so uniformly successful consisted in the administration of an 

 emetic, followed by two or three doses of rhubarb and calomel. The giddiness was con- 

 stantly relieved when the emetic succeeded in dislodging an acid secretion from the 

 stomach. In some cases, the repetition of an emetic was found necessary. Where list- 

 lessness and general weakness were the urgent symptoms, and where the head participated 

 but in a minor degree, the mercurial purgative proved eminently successful. In some in- 

 stances, diarrhoea prevailed, evidently owing to (he descent of acid matters formed in the 

 stomach. The operation of an emetic gave an immediate check to this symptom, and a 

 few doses of chalk mixture completed the cure. In an opposite state of the bowels, the 

 sulphate of magnesia, in small doses, was the appropriate remedy. It will generally be 

 remarked, that in the spring months, saline aperients are particularly serviceable. During 

 the cold season of the year, they often occasion considerable uneasiness, with frequent 

 tormina and teuesmus. 



Small-pox is again beeome very prevalent in almost all parts of the town. Hooping- 

 cough is also abundant. Upon the whole, the last monlh mav be characterized as one in 

 which sickness has prevailed extensively, but not of an aggravated kind. 



8, Upper John Street, Golden Square, GEORGE GREGORY, M.D. 



April 1$, 1827. 



MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Otm reports from every part of the island, so far as relates to the state of the lands, their 

 culture, the lenten-seed season, the crops on the ground, the fall of lambs, and the con- 

 dition of the live stock generally, are most satisfactory, warranting the most sanguine 

 expectations of ample produce of every kind. This, in course, will be understood cvm 

 grano salis, with allowance for the wretched state in which the cattle and sheep were, in 

 many or most parts, from defect of winter provision; through which danger however they 

 have passed, with infinitely less suffering and misfortune than was indeed rationally pre- 

 dicted. Such a fortunate escape may really be placed to the account of national pros- 

 perity. The season has produced a lull average of lambs, but it could not be expected 

 that the ewes should milk so abundantly us in seasons of plentiful keep. The Lent corn 

 and pulse have been got into the ground in the best style, the land working well in general, 

 in consequence of the pulverization caused by the frost, and the subsequent rains, which, fre- 

 quent and heavy, however, were not too much so to saturate the thirsty earth. Occasional 

 impediments to tillage, nevertheless, were experienced from the frequent rains; casualties, 

 always to be expected more or less. The crops indeed wea'r a variety of aspects, but the 

 general view is luxuriant and prosperous. Some of the early sown beans were killed by the 

 frost, and have b^en ploughed up, and the land re-planted with peas. The latter sown 

 pulse have planted well, and appear flourishing. The early and forward barley and oats, 

 on good lands especially, are strong and luxuriant, and those crops never wore a finer ap- 

 pearance at this season. The young clovers and other grasses, with winter tares, which 

 some time since appeared thin and weak, begin to spread ami improve ; and but for the 

 chilling easterly winds, would have been much forwarder. The present cannot be called a 

 forward spring. The wheats thus far are universally a promising crop, for, from the for- 

 tunate circumstance of the sub-soil being dry and wholesome, the roots received no damage 

 during the severity of the fro.st, the foliage only being affected. The very early sown 



