318 
from the equality of its climate, fertility 
of its soil, and proximity to the port of 
Maracaibo, being only five days’ jour- 
ney from Merida. . A little trouble 
would make the Chama, which washes 
the town, navigable to the lake of Ma- 
racaibo: this is. the entrepot for the 
commerce of the Lanos. Perhaps there 
is not in, the world a happier spot, as 
the clergy knew, having immense. ha- 
ciendas here :, there were three Domini-- 
can friars and two convents,—verifying 
the remark of the learned gentleman 
who said, 
No jesuit ever took in hand 
To build a church in barren land. 
And, indeed, the holy fathers were so 
well aware of the delights of this little 
paradise, that they very charitably ex- 
cluded every person who was nota well- 
known benefactor to their community. 
But there are at present but a few radical 
monks in our convent, and a few nuns 
of the same denomination. Here are a 
greater number of flowers and exotics 
than are to be found in any colléction ; 
and Iam persuaded, that the place will 
become an European. settlement, com- 
bining all those advantages to the quan- 
tity. of neglected estate in its vicinity, 
and the mildness of the laws. 
—— 
To the Editor'of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
HAVE long been of opinion, that 
the. general treatment of cuta- 
neous diseases in this country is found- 
ed on irrational principles—an  opi- 
nion not so much deduced from phy- 
siological speculations, as from obser- 
vation of the general mode of treat- 
ing this class of diseases practised by 
the continental physicians. But I have 
been deterred from communicating my 
tdeas on the subject to any of the medi- 
cal publications of the day, under the 
impression, that as it might possibly be 
construed into an indirect censure on 
the usual practice of the regular prac- 
titioners, it would not probably have 
gained insertion, 
As your pages however appear to be 
open to all parties, if you think the fol- 
lowing remarks sufficiently important for 
your miscellany, they are much at your 
service. ‘ 
The climate of Great Britain is pro- 
verbially: said to: be more subject to 
vicissitudes than that of any other coun- 
try in Europe, which is doubtless owing 
to our insular situation. . But it is not 
only the rapid change of temperature 
(amounting frequently to 30° or 40° 
On the Treatment of Cutaneous Diseases. 
[Nov. I, 
between the day and night, and often 
15° or 20° between two successive days), 
which, is, alone injurious to health; the 
hygrometric changes, which so tapily 
succeed each other, more especially 
durimg the autumnal months, are per- 
haps no less-instrumental in producing 
derangement in the animal functions, 
more particularly by means of the biliary 
secretions, And as the effect of either 
a humid or a dry atmosphere, must. be 
exerted principally, if not wholly, 
through the medium of the skin, we 
shall find, on a slight examination, suf- 
ficient data to account for the origin 
and prevalence of most of the disorders 
called cutaneous ; and probably of many 
others, more deeply seated in the sys- 
tem, classed under the heads of glan- 
dular and chronic. 
It has been justly observed, that the 
discharge of feculent matter by the 
emunetories of the skin, is of more im- 
portance in the preservation of health 
than any, or all the other excretions of 
the body united: And, it may be added, 
whenever the action of the skin ceases 
or becomes obstructed—if the other 
excretory functions be not stimulated in 
an equal proportion,—the system inya- 
riably feels its effects within twenty-four 
hours. 
But will stimuli, applied internally 
in all cases (or even in the majority of 
cases), Operate as a compensation for 
the eaternal obstruction of the skin ? 
Both obseryation and analogy would 
make us decide in the negative ; yet 
the general practice of this country is to 
resort to internal application, by means 
of the stomach and its auxiliaries, in 
order to get rid of external or local ob- 
struction. It would perhaps savour too 
much of empiricism to say, that-a// cu- 
taneous disease arose from injudicious 
treatment of obstructed perspiration. 
But when it is considered that this co- 
pious excretion is not merely aqueous 
vapour, but the feculent residuum of 
the vessels of the skin also in a state of 
solution; it is easy to conceive that if 
such morbific matter be locked up ‘in 
the pores through any external impedi- 
ment, instead of being expelled, that it 
must have a rapid tendency to putrefac- 
tion, or the formation of pus, which will 
be in proportion to the animal heat’ of 
the patient, and to the vitiated state of 
the fluids generally. qed 
The late researches of a few accurate 
observers* respecting the actual nature 
Cage 
* Plwmbe, and others, on diseases of the 
skin. 
