JS21..] Medical Report. Z65 



Subject of Pluralities ; by T. Clialmers, Dewar, ll.d. niintster of the Tioii 

 iJ.n. With a Preface, by Stevenson Chiircli, Glasgow. Is. 6d. boards. 

 M'Oiil, u.u. 6d. An Appeal to all Classes, on the Siib- 



Tlie Failliful Ministry as connected ject of Church Patronage in Scotland j 

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MEDICAL REPORT. 



Report o/DiSEASES nnJ Casuat.ties occurring in the public or private Practice of the 

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



f^l^HAT man is the subject of an almos- 

 -* plicrical a;;ency, which is beyond the 

 present ascertainment of endionietrical 

 trial or chemical research, is proved by the 

 daily observation of every one familiar 

 with tiie modification of disease ; and even 

 when it is the least suspected, tiie invi- 

 sible somethiuf;, which follows us wiiere- 

 ever we go, and surrounds us vvlierever 

 ■we are, gives a ciiaracter to disorder, a 

 tendency to death, or a disposition to re- 

 covery. The Reporter lias often remark- 

 ed the prevalence for a time of morbid 

 states, which would not in general be 

 iDiagined referrihle to atmospheric vicissi- 

 tudes, but the epidemic visitation of which 

 cannot well have other reference. When, 

 for instance, it shall be found iii a given 

 period that intestinal worms are much 

 more common than they are at others, 

 who shall present any other explanation of 

 the fact, than that the air is for the time 

 laden with the seminia of these animalcula, 

 ' or lliat it is furnished with an unknown in- 

 gredient capable of vivifying these seminiaf 

 It is further, perhaps, owing to atmosphe- 

 ric peculiarities that medicines are at some 

 seasons more available than they are at 

 others ; and this, by the way, is a fact that 

 the records of medical observation are too 

 neglectful in recognising. We are told »f 

 flie virtnes of medicinals, which our own 

 experience fails to find out. We report 

 respecting (he efficacy of drugs that others 

 administer in vain. We fm<l such ample 

 success follow the exhibition of some the- 

 rapeutical materials, and that in a succes- 

 sion of instances, that the notion of specific 

 agency becomes in appearance well 

 founded ; but afier-lrials disapiioint our 

 hopes: and whence all this vexatious un- 

 certainty that is peculiar to the practice 

 of medicine i Does not an invisible power 

 add to, subtract from, or leave untouched, 

 Jlie potion that we have ordctred to be 

 prepared ? Does not a something in the 

 siirrounding atmosphere command a yea 

 or nay to our Hanaiive institutes with a re- 

 solute eilcnce, mid an inetistible spell? 



Of late, 8to:u:ich (complaints have been 

 more than usually rife, and the various 

 kliapeH of dy-iteplic disturbances li;tve 

 called upon the physician to biiii;: into 

 active exercise all im knowledge of the 

 <Iigt8tive ecoiioitiy. liismuth utill conti- 



nues a favourite remedy with the Re- 

 porter : it occasionally fails, as does every 

 thing else, in its analogical promise : but 

 it much oftener satisfactorily answers the 

 happiest anticipation of the prescriber. 

 The sulphuric and nitric acids, too, are 

 more efficacious in relieving dyspeptic ail- 

 ments than is commonly supposed. Dr. 

 Paris reports of the latter as an excellent 

 vermifuge ; and so it occasionally proves, 

 operating perhaps more as a tonic upon 

 the digestive organization than as an an- 

 thelmintic agent. Indeed this principle of 

 agency, in reference to the expulsion of 

 worms, deserves primary, rather than se- 

 condary, consideration. Medicines that 

 merely force out worms from their lodg- 

 ment among the bowels, very often create 

 more evil than they remove, by inducing 

 a disposition to their re-production ; while 

 a gradual and radical change effected upon 

 the intestinal secretions will, with less of 

 sanative show, bring more of its actual 

 substance. 



The prevalence of children's complaints 

 is at length a little upon the decline. Some 

 few weeks since they were distressingly 

 frequent in their number, and tremendously 

 formidable in aspect; beginning, perhaps, 

 with little of menace,but terminating in pre- 

 mature dissolution or protracted ailment ; 

 and here, perhaps, injustice to the general 

 practitioner, it ought to be remarked, that 

 the physician or referee prescriber often 

 possesses an advantage, of which he should 

 be careful against availing himself to the 

 detriment of the a|)oiht'c;iry, or the dis- 

 tress of the parent. To the qiiestion of the 

 anxious mother, " Should ijoii not, sir, 

 have from the first discovered the irreme- 

 diable disorder under which you say my 

 child labours, and have crushed its nascent 

 growth f" it may most senerally be replied, 

 " No ;■' at least the affirmative can seldom 

 be assumed, — for it is often, in fact, not 

 the disorder in the first instance which in 

 progress comes to develop itself; and 

 many of us get that credit for discernment 

 and tact at the expense of the primary 

 prescriber, which, had the times and turns 

 been reversed, would have proved the 

 other's award. D. UwiNS, M.u. 



IJulfonlroiv ; March VO. 



*,* To the many eii(|uirie8 which Dr. U. 

 is constantly receiving respecting the 



mode 



