1823;] 



[ ^55 3 



MEDICAL REPORT. 



Report ©^Diseases ««rf Casualties occurring in the public and private Practice 

 of the Physician who, has the care of the Western District of the City Dispensary. 



"VXTHXT is Scrofula? Against an in- 

 '' dolent appeal to master terms lor 

 the explanation of particular phenomena, 

 the writer of these papers has once and 

 again protested. To say of a disease, 

 that it is stomaciiic, tiiat it is hepatic, 

 that it is puhnonary, that it is nervous, 

 is often at once to sever tlie string, with 

 which the industrious will not be satis- 

 fied, witliout, at least, endeavourin? to 

 unloose through all its ravellin§s. Tiiese 

 vague expressions do often worse than 

 merely conceal i;;norance. They foster 

 idleness, and facilitate error ; they 

 convey smuggled matter under the 

 seeming of a lawful sail ; they mislead the 

 pathologist, and betray the practitioner. 

 In politics, in religion, in morals, the 

 misapplication of sweeping terms, is, 

 In like manner, not seldom injurious to 

 the true interests of the respective sci- 

 ences, among which, like the evil spirit 

 among the sons of Heaven, they mix in 

 concert, to mar in counsel. Thus the 

 word, Methodist, frightens many from 

 the manifestations of correct feeling, 

 and restrictive conduct; and it is easier 

 to say Of a man, that he is a whig or a 

 tory, a radical, or a corrnptionist, than 

 it is to disprove his positions or condemn 

 hi) actions. 



On the other hand, however, there is a 

 certain consistency in registering under 

 one head, otherwise scattered and un- 

 connected particulars, and such a term 

 as that, with which the present page 

 commences, becomes legitimately ser- 

 viceable, when cautiously had recourse 

 to. Does inHammation affect an organ ? 

 It is of the highest moment, both as to 

 prognosis and practice, to endeavour at 

 ascertaining whether this inflammation 

 be of a general or particular kind. Is 

 debility present ? The indications of 

 treatment, and the inferences re8;;ecting 

 course and termination, will be mate- 

 rially varied, according as this debility 

 attaches itself, to one or another textaic, 

 or is of one or another species. Now, 

 there is a state of the system, more easily, 

 peihaps, understood, than delineated ; 

 to which the term scrofula, may be 

 applied in this way with safety and effect ; 

 it is a slate, however, rather of suscep- 

 tibility than of actual disease, but which 

 susceptibility serves materially to modify 

 the aspect of disease itself, anri even to 

 hasten its advances. Tlie lyui|ihatic 

 systeiu seems to be its especial residence: 

 its external signals are a tine and delicate 

 »km, through which iho blood-vesaels 

 may be seen meandering in beautiful 



windings ; light liair, and blue eyes, are 

 usually marked down as concomitants 

 of the scrofulous diathesis, but it is 

 occasionally connected with dark hair, 

 and dark eyes ; and in these cases, the 

 resulting disorder is often more fixed in 

 its nature, deep seated in its locality, 

 and difficult in its management. The 

 mental disposition of the scrofulous, 

 is, for the most part, mild and amiable; 

 they attain quickly, they feel strongly; 

 and what there is to dread and deplore, 

 and be ashamed of, in the constitutional 

 tendency, has otten appeared to the 

 writer of these essays strange in the 

 extreme; for it is not merely because 

 scrofula contains the seeds of destruc- 

 tive disorder, that individuals fear and 

 fly from the very name of it, but they 

 seem to feel as if abstractedly it were 

 something bad, and abominable ; and 

 not to be spoken about freely or openly. 

 In this, there is manifest absurdity. 

 Let our offspring be secured against 

 disease and death, and the more scroir 

 fulous, the more desirable. 



Is scrofula ever cured? Alas! for the 

 impotence of regular medicine, which is 

 not furnished with the means of regenera- 

 ting nature, or changing constitutions, 

 even after it has explored the happy 

 regions of sanative herbage, that are 

 found across the Atlantic. It is only 

 by the penetrating vision of empirical 

 perception, that these all-healing plants 

 are discoverable. Gout, we are con- 

 slantly being told is cured ; scrofula 

 is cured; and it is always by Aer6« that 

 these marvels are accomplished ; but, 

 if once the public could he brought to 

 understand, that very many herbs, 

 employed in medicine, are even more 

 potently poisonous than minerals; then 

 the language of our nostrum-mongers 

 would change sides; minerals would be 

 the order of the day ; minerals, and mine- 

 rals alone, the means of cure; and, in 

 that case, they would be saved a little, 

 on the score of conscience; for mercu- 

 lial and aiitimonial preparations, in a 

 concealed form, are the strong holds of 

 quackery. 



If, however, scrofula is not curable, 

 it is in a considerable degree manaue.ible ; 

 and, when irritations are implanted upon 

 this constitution, there are some mate- 

 rials that meet the requisites of the case, 

 with almost specific power, 'i'he writer 

 has, at this moment, several scrofulous 

 children under his care, whose disorders 

 are manifested by a mesenteric obstruc- 

 tion, who arc, iii other words, atrophic, 



with 



