1823.] Medical 



sought by tlie lovers of Ihe drama ; bat 

 this liouse, like its rival, New Drury, 

 lias not been neglectful of another sort 

 of attraction than tiiose of excellent 

 acting and line singing. In the new 

 spectacle, called the Vision of the Sun, 

 all the aids of scenic disphiy are 

 brought to bear u))on tiie wondering 

 eye. Tlie scene cf this dazzling exhi- 

 bition of magic and enehaiitmcnt lies 

 in Peru. The hero and heroine are 

 two lovers, (Koran and Runac,) the 

 former of whom realizes his title to the 

 fair object of his aOection by his de- 

 struction of a mischievous giant, whose 

 surviving brother, though aided by his 

 attendant demons, fails in his attempt 



Report. 365 



to revenge the monster's dcaih by 

 thwarting the felicity of the youthful 

 pair. This is the main feature of the 

 story ; and a more glittering and 

 striking pageant has rarely, if ever, 

 been produce<l. But, though iis forte 

 lies more in the " pritie, pomp, and 

 circumstance" of show, than in any 

 other merit, it is so conspicuous in that 

 impressive attribute, as to reflect great 

 credit on the taste and spirit of t'le 

 management ; and has experienced a 

 degree of success, tiiat sanctions all the 

 green-room expectations with which its 

 appearance was announced to the 

 public. 



MEDICAL REPORT. 



Report ofDiSEAScs and Casualties occurring inthe public and private Practice 

 of the Physician who has the care of the Western District of the Vitif Dispensary. 



'1"'0 distinguish between the apoplexy 

 ■'■ of extravasation, and that of mere 

 torpor, is often a matter of the highest 

 moment ; and it is fmtlier necessary to 

 recollect, that, even when the percipient 

 faculty and muscular power are prevented 

 from due manifestation by pressure upon 

 the brain, still the practitioner has no 

 ability beyond a certain point of time to 

 relieve such pressure by Ihe pouring-out 

 of blood. You instinctively meet, as it 

 were, fulness of vessels, or extravasation, 

 by immediately bleeding your patient; 

 but, supposing the blood, or serum, or 

 pus, that may be thrown out upon the 

 brain, to have made good its lodgment 

 wpon the organ, and to have been pro- 

 ductive of permanent effects, what power 

 has the lancet, plunged into the arm, of 

 taking it off; or what good can blood- 

 letting do, beyond perhaps, when mode- 

 rately practised, exciting the absorbent 

 agency ? 



It is under the circumstances supposed, 

 that the present writer imagines he has 

 seen life abridged by profuse and reite- 

 rated blood-lettiuj;s, when it might have 

 been protracted by an opposite course : 

 and he has at this moment a patient lying 

 under lnt> care upon whose case two 

 Pliysicians besides himself have bi en con- 

 uilted, one of which said, take blood, 

 tile other, take time. The advice ot the 

 latter, bi-iii^ the advice of the majority, 

 has been a(;ted upon, and the individual 

 it now gradually recovering both sense 

 and moliun. In this instance, blood 

 having most probably been extravasated, 

 ill in the proi>rcss of being taken up 

 again by tlie absorbents ; and, when 

 <leaili shall occur, cither in c(inse(|ueiiee 

 of some 8ucct(tt8ive seizure, or from 



any other cause, an examination of the 

 brain would most piohably develope 

 that curious formation that has been 

 called an apoplectic cyst, lined by an 

 adventitious membrane, instituted appa- 

 rently for the express purpose of taking 

 up the depositeds matter. Galvanism i< 

 now daily employed in the case alluded 

 to; and it is probable that a double 

 agency is exercised by this stimulus, 

 the nervous and absorbent faculty being 

 both of them roused aud regulated by 

 its use. 



The peculiarities of the present month 

 have been those of the preceding one ; 

 via. a more than ordinary tendency to 

 death from common disease, and the 

 extreme prevalence of hooping-cough. 

 Ill driving through the streets of London, 

 the appearance of the houses aud shops 

 is that almost of a public mourning; aud, 

 enter what family you may, you find the 

 hooping-cough in it, unless to such family 

 the disorder had been a previous visitor, 



Wliich among us of medical men or 

 philosophical speculators, shall divine the 

 cause of these epidemic peculiarities ? or 

 who shall be able to say why a disease 

 apparently resulting from a particiilar 

 poison, should not be constantly present 

 in equal proportions? Is it the atmos- 

 plieie that causes these differences? take 

 the most accurate eudiometer that has 

 yet been constructed, with it analyze the 

 air in several parts of a district, aud you 

 Will find it chemically or apparently the 

 same when no particular malady is 

 reigning, as it is when death sh^dl be 

 mowing down the inhabitants of the 

 place by the scythe of lualignaiit distem- 

 per. Even the tnttlitiiii, that dreadful 

 bcourgc to the Southern aud Eastern 



parti 



