s 
ep 374 7: 
Under the care of the late senior Physician of the Finsbury Dispensary, frem the 
Jrom the 20th of September to the 20th of October. cys 
E{YPOCHONDRIASIS,......4..++.. 5 day setms:to expand more broadly, and 
. ROHCUMAtISIMUS sf hse sesdedecs ou-- with a deeper darkness, the shadow of 
Catarrhus .---------+-+-0---+----+++ 6 its wings. ’ 
Phchisis pulmonalis.......+..---.---- 8 © More people are mad than are suppos- 
‘Ophthalmia -.--2++4---+--4-+--+++ 1 ed tobe so, There are atoms, or specks 
Searlatind: - 2:3 ho. sinloipieleidle oseift a! Sele Seta 
Morbi Gntanei) ido): «acolo aividies eWitorviaeey S 
‘Morbi Infantiles .- 1.0 iesceeaceeseme 5 
-Amenortha@a::+++qertere eter nen eee 
“Menorrhagia  ~..- @y-n-n-- seen nee 
Colica . Sorat 
Epilepsia ..--. ; ‘ ; 
'  Atter so long a series of years, during 
which, with little interruption these 
‘monthly reports have been regularly con- 
tinued, by the rational and candid reader 
the freshness of novelty cannet any longer 
be expected. . 
The writer is compeiled to work upon 
the old materials ; he may alter the shape, 
er endeavour to polish the surface, but 
the substance must remain essentially 
the same. Each annual period repre- 
sents the image of the preceding. Suc- 
‘cessive seasons have their appropriate 
crops of diseases, as well as of agricul 
tural productions. 
«¢ Sic rerum volvitur orbis.”’ 
This remark; however, should not be 
made without considerable limit and mo- 
\dification. 
In this nervous and consumptive 
island, affections of either the one or the 
other character are unfortunately stand- 
ing complaints, which, during every sec- 
tion of the year, and vicissitude of the 
‘weather, continue their distressing and 
destructive influence, 
Consumption and insanity are not the 
epidemics of winter, or of summer, of 
autumi, or-of ‘spring. +The dark month 
of November has been proverbially, but 
not justly, regarded as peculiarly predis- 
posing to melancholy, and the favourite 
season of suicide. The clouds which ob- 
secure the mind, are not in general re- 
flected from the sky; and the preternatu- 
» rally exalted excitement of mania, whe- 
-ther of a gloomy or lively cast, soars 
above ativospheric influence, or miasma, 
Phthisis, far from declining, apparently 
continues to enlarge the boundaries of 
its empire. It is a subject to which no 
individual can be indifferent, on account 
* either of his personal security, or of some 
social or domestic interest, 
Bat a still more soleian object of hor- 
. xgoris the demon of Madness; which every 
eee ee ey 
of insanity, which cannot be discerned 
by the naked or umeducated eye. The 
most important requisite in the cha- 
racter of a physician, is the capacity of» 
detecting with a rapid and penetrat- 
ing glance the earliest rudiments, and the 
scarcely formed filaments, of disease ; 
and by timely care, and well adapted 
means, preventing it from gathering into 
a more visible and substantial form. 
That equivocal ‘state between actual 
health and acknowledged disease, which 
seldom excites alarm, or even compassion 
for the subject of it, is often the most 
truly calamitous condition of human life, 
“ [pine,”’ says Johnson, in one of his let- 
ters, “ in the solitude of sickness, not bad 
enough to be pitied, and not well enough 
to be endured.”* Such is the feeling of 
a ENeIRS 
REPORT QF DISEASES, ia. 
Ps) 
many anhypochondriac, who labours un- ~ 
der the radical wretchedness ofa distem- 
pered understanding. Jobnson was'ne- 
ver so great as when he was gloomy. 
Ilis forte was the expression of melan- 
choly ; a feature which alike exhibited 
the energy, and betrayed the imbecility 
of his mind. Richness of imagination, 
as well as of external circumstances, 
makes a man feel more_ poignantly the 
vacancy of life, and the tedium of all 
earthly interest and occupations. 
Bb. *‘ Inopem me copia fecit.” 
It is somewhat remarkable that three 
out of the five cases of hypochondriasis 
and dispepsia, in the list, svere, from 
amongst the humbler classes of the com- 
munity, who have called, to complain 
of their nerves. The poor have nerves 
as well as their nominal superiors, liable 
to uncomfortable vibrations; did the im- 
perious call of their physical wants, 
allow them time, to feel  fancifully mix, 
serable, 
One of the cases of melancholy allu- 
ded to in the catalogue, appeared to 
have originated from the suggestions of 
* All the writings of Johnson develope 
the opulence and gigantic energy.of his in- 
tellect; but his private correspondence more 
completely than any other recorded produc- 
tion of his pen,unveils the tenderness,and dise 
close thg secret scusibilities, of his heart.” 
a fearfu} 
