1824..] 



Medical Report. 



1 69 



Orlando Miss Patoii's Florttta, and sini, and his presence in London. He 



Miss F.'h. Kelly's Juliet, together with is neither a H:sndel, a Haydn, or a 



11-c attractions of the new farce of " the Mozart ; but he is the first composer ot 



I'oachers," and the recently-produced bis time, and his productions are dis- 



opcra of " Native Land," have varied tiuguished by their vivacity, and often 



the entertainments of the town. by their originality. His wife has sus- 



Eesides these great winter theatres, tained the part of Prima Donna, and 



four or five minor ones have been is ably seconded by that universal favou- 



equally active, and contrive to draw 

 crowded houses night after night. 



Tlic Opera, too, has this season been 

 rendered popular by the music of Ros- 



rite Vestris. Tlie corps de ballet is also 

 strong and attractive. Catalani will 

 render the season brilliant. 



MEDICAL REPORT. 



Report o/Diseases and Casualties occurring in the public and private Practice 

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



ciple of combination, as opposed to ab- 

 straction, in medicinals. On this subject 

 an interesting commiuiication has been re- 

 ceived, which the Reporter will take the 

 liberty to transcribe, merely premising, 

 that the good which resulted from the 

 change of physician and plan seems ra- 

 ther in harmony with, than iu opposition 

 to, the principle inculcated ; not to say 

 any thing respecting the warm-bathing, 

 and the confidence of the patient in the 

 last prescriber. The ailment appears to have 

 been a particular kind of inflammation, 

 seated on the membrane which lines the 

 external surface of the hones, and to have 

 constituted a species, if it may be so called, 

 of partial heniicrania. 



" I am nov/ fifty-four years old, and, 

 about ten or twelve years since, I was 

 afflicted with a violent intermitting pain 

 on the right side of the scalp, just above 

 the forehead. This pain used to come on 

 in the day-time, usually about twelve or 

 one o'clock, and to continue for two or 

 three hours with snch violence, tliat I can 

 compare it to nothing hut the idea we 

 should entertain of rats gnawing the bone; 

 for the bone itself was the seat of the com- 

 plaint, as is to this day palpable on touch- 

 ing the part, wliiuh appears to be depres- 

 sed and rugged, compared with the sur- 

 rounding bone. This complaint continued 

 for fifteen or eighteen months, notwith- 

 standing I was nnder the hands of one of 

 the most eminent medical surgeons in 

 London, without receiving the slightest 

 benefit from the many prescriptions which 

 he wrote for me. Till at last I was really 

 reduced to despair, and almost wished 

 myself dead. The medicine which I took 

 most of, and on which in the outset my 

 medical adviser seemed to place the ut- 

 mostconfidence, was sarsuparUla in ■powder, 

 combined with nation ; the copious use of 

 which for a long time had no more clfect 

 on the disease than if 1 had taken noiliing 

 at all. At this he soeiied vciy nnich dis- 

 appoiiitc<l 



EL ATERIUM is one of those medicinals 

 respecting the efficacy of which no 

 reasonable doubt can possibly be enter- 

 tained ; and, if in these papers repetition 

 be employed in advocating its powers, the 

 reiteration must be taken in proof of the 

 writer's conviction that its virtues, how- 

 ever highly, are not sufficiently, appre- 

 ciated. In rheumatism, in gout, and in 

 inflammatory affections of the brain, the 

 Reporter constantly employs this potent 

 drug with the happiest results; and drop- 

 sical effusion it meets and vanquishes with 

 gigantic expedition and ease. If this dis- 

 order (dropsy) returns to its strong holds, 

 after having been driven out by elate- 

 rium, it is because no power is any 

 longer available to efiect a nioie th.an 

 temporary good, Where visceral derange- 

 ment is not present, even advanced age 

 forms no iinpcdmient to its free and fall 

 employment. The Reporter has just 

 taken his leave of a lady who is seventy-six, 

 and upon whom a radical rure to all ap- 

 pearance has been operated by a combi- 

 nation of medicines, of which the one in 

 question constituted the master ingredient. 



Of the presence or absence of visceral 

 disorganization, it behoves the medical 

 watchman to take especial cognizance, in- 

 asmuch as both prognosis anJ practice re- 

 quire to be sedulously regulated accor- 

 dingly. In dyspeptic ailments, for instance, 

 how different ate remedial tlemands and 

 probable results from the moment mere 

 uiomach affection becomes structural de- 

 rangement. It is, however, the time and 

 mode of the actual transition with which 

 the physician must familiarize himself; for 

 it is only before the change becomes com- 

 {dete that an interposition of art can pro- 

 mise more than temporary alleviation of 

 pain. Medicine, after all, is rather pre- 

 ventive than curative. We cannot rege- 

 nerate or reorganize. 



In tlie paper immediately preceding the 

 present, reference was made to the priu- 

 3 



