1825.) vital! 
73 | 
MEDICAL REPORT. 
a 
OMPARATIVELY speaking, the 
metropolis has, during the last month, 
been healthy. Diseases, it is true, of every 
kind and character that occurin the climate 
of Britain, are, in a population so concen- 
trated as that of London, continually pre- 
senting themselves to the attention of. the 
practitioner. The. extraordinary heat of 
the weather,* during the month, . produced 
disorders, which owe their development to 
atmospheric heat. Cases of cholera have 
occurred, but most of them have been of a 
mild and manageable character. The high 
temperature of the air, concurring with 
influences, which are abundantly furnished 
in crowded cities, will, itis presumed, ren- 
der cases of fever more numerous ; at pre- 
sent, the number of such cases has not 
exceeded the ratio of the preceding month. 
The remote causes of fevers being still 
a question sub judice, the immediate causes 
of their increase and diminution are, neces- 
sarily, matters of doubt and mystery. 
_ The war between the contagionists and 
non-contagionists still rages ; the reporter, 
however, with the majority of pathologists 
in this country, subscribes to the doctrine of 
contingent. contagion ; that is to say, that 
ordinary epidemic or endemic fevers do not 
arise from specific contagion, but thatthey do 
occasionally, and under particular cireum- 
stances, diffuse a something which produces 
a similar disease in the individual who may 
happen to come within its range.. No de- 
partment of the study of medicine is more 
important than the Etiology of Epidemics. 
The present contagion controversy— the 
investigations which are connected with it, 
and the philosophical spirit of research 
which characterizes the medical inquiries of 
the present day, may at length effect such 
precision.in the knowledge of the causes of 
fevers, as may enable.us to institute rational 
and efficient measures.for their counter- 
action and removal. The late Dr. Bate- 
man shewed that, for nearly one thousand 
years, small-pox, measles and_ scarlet fever 
were universally deemed varieties of the 
same disease, and that “it was not till to- 
wards the age of enlightened observation, 
that the distinct character and independent 
origin of these three contagious disorders, 
were universally perceived and acknow- 
. Several cases of vascular fulness in the 
Pm gtr in the language of the 
is called ‘‘ determination of blood 
tothe head,” have occurred; chiefly in indi- 
* The thermometer, from the 10th tothe 2lst of 
the month, stood as follows:— 
July 10th. -- --.639 July 16th..-.. -83° 
. eo a + +82 
— 18. 87 
ees 193 avai vl 87 
ae A 9 
nese Mca hnnrs 72 
viduals of an apoplectic diathesis: some of 
these cases have been caused by an incau- 
tious, or unavoidable exposure to the intense 
heat of the sun, and have been good exam- 
ples of the disease known by the name 
“ coup de soleil.” A prompt and decided 
depletory mode of treatment is, in such 
cases, called for; and a rigid attention to 
dietetic rules must afterwards be enforced, 
Amongst children, measles and scarla- 
tina have been prevalent. It has happened 
to the Reporter to witness Rubeola occur- 
ring rather extensively in a large establish- 
ment of boys, at the distance of a few miles 
from the metropolis. The discipline of a 
well-managed school, in a properly chosen 
locality, is as favourable to the physical as 
to the moral condition of the scholar ; and 
in the instances in question, it might almost 
be said, that a community of habits had en- 
gendered a community of temperament—a 
healthful bearing of the body, fayourable to 
the quick subsidence of disease. It is 
certain, however, that the mildness of the 
symptoms, and the success of the reme- 
dical measures in all of them were circum- 
stances as satisfactory to the Reporter, as to 
the parties to whom the youths were en- 
trusted. 
JaMEs FIELD. 
Bolt Court, Fleet-street, 
July 21, 1825, 
— 
| As supplementary to our medical report 
of the preceding month, we transcribe the 
following details, though we cannot vouch 
for the. authorities on which they have 
been stated.—Epir. } 
“ During the month of June, disease in 
the metropolis assumed rather a serious 
aspect. Of the three principal disorders 
that are usually prevalent here, there died 
of fever fifty-two, of measles forty-five, 
and of casual small-pox, ninety-six; to 
which eight are to be added who died at the 
Small-pox Hospital, out of ‘ninety-two 
patients admitted, of whom fifty-three were 
discharged well, and thirty-one still remain 
oncure. Vdccination has been resorted to 
by five hundred and seventy-six out- 
patients ; which, added to one thousand nine 
hundred and eighty since the commence- 
ment of the present year, amounts to two. 
thousand five hundred and fifty-six in the 
first six months; and this we’ mention, as it 
shows an increase of one thousand one 
hundréd and eighty beyond the number at 
this period of the last year. It is remarka- 
ble, that during the month of June, deaths 
by fever increased from four to twenty-four ; 
in the last week, measles from. eleyen to 
seventeen, and small-pox from twenty-one 
to twenty-six; which had been, during the 
four weeks of the month, twenty-six, 
twenty-three, twenty-one and twenty-six,” 
L MONTHLY 
