1825. ] Medical Report. 453 
Temperature of London, for October 1825: 9 a.m. North Aspect, in the Shade. 
° ° ° ° 
1, Wet 60 BO oka, oto'si «)5.5) 17 Showery 55 25 Fine 51 
2. Cloudy 63 10 Cloudy 61 18), Do.) 52 26 Do. 46 
SRA RR 11 Fine’ 62 19)... Do.) 54 24>) DOD 1 48 
4 Fine 63 Iie DO.. 60 20 Cloudy 49 Sui DO; wie ene 
oa Do....62 13 Showery 62 Lie ADO) BE 29 Showery — 
6 Cloudy 63 14 Fine 59 22 Fine 48 30). Hines = 
(hs ae eetie On Te pniavatars, te 57 23. Foggy . = 31 Cloudy — 
8 Cloudy 38 16 Fine 55 24 Cloudy 51 
Bruton-street, Nov. 7, 1825, 
QIN THE CoRNER. 
MEDICAL REPORT. . 
—_ 
T has been usual to prefix to Medical 
Reports a list of the diseases which 
have occurred during stated periods of time. 
From this circumstance, it might be infer- 
red that diagnosis, or the designation of dis- 
ease, was a thing pf no difficulty; that all 
maladies might be cognizable by names ; 
that a comparison of the frequency of each 
of them might be clearly estimated, and put 
onrecord. But this is a view of the mat- 
ter very far from the truth. It is true that 
many diseases are marked by symptoms so 
remarkable in themselves, and so invariable 
in their occurrence, that the primary affec- 
tions cannot be mistaken for or confounded 
with any other disorders; but there are 
hourly occurring diseases to which no noso- 
logical terms can be usefully applied. This 
class of complaints is a very numerous one, 
and the term anomalous has by the common 
consent of medical men, been chosen to 
designate the diseases which it includes. 
But when a practitioner is called upon to 
prepare a catalogue of the diseases which 
have fallen under his observation, he is 
often strongly tempted to give names of 
diseases of doubtful or of very rare occur- 
rence, the diagnosis of which has not been 
sufficiently fixed to entitle them to “a 
name :” he is also often induced to give 
prominence to affections of organs, which he 
finds, of supposes he finds, to be oftener 
than others the seats of morbid actions. 
One fact, perhaps, more than any reasoning 
upon the subject, teaches how much cau- 
tion is necessary in giving credence to nu- 
merical statements of diseases; it is this, 
that no two medical men would, if called 
upon to subject the disorders which they 
had witnessed together in a given ‘period, 
to a nosological arrangement, present lists 
corresponding in their nomenclature.— 
But there is another fact, for the accuracy 
of which the writer can vouch, that has: 
induced him to look with jealousy on 
tables of diseases; and this is, that some 
reports of diseases which have been 
yot up for the public eye, have been, for 
J 
the most part, the pure inventions 
of the authors. In these specious mor- 
ceaux, fevers of every grade, and acute 
diseases of the most formidable kind, have 
been brought on the field for the purpose of 
adorning the list of cures. The names of 
some disorders have been inserted, in order 
to shew the discriminating tact of the author; 
while many diseases of small account have, 
with an unsparing hand, been thrown in to 
give a respectable appearance to the 
“cured” side of the account. It is well 
for the community that the successful treat- 
ment of disease depends in a very inconsi- 
derable degree upon a scientific medical 
nomenclature: not however that this de- 
partment of medical science does not de- 
serye a most assiduous cultivation on the 
part of the practical physician. A careful 
investigation of the phenomena of disease, 
and a philosophic attention to the effect of 
remedies, are indispensable requisites in the 
successful practitioner. So instructed, he 
will sometimes conduct to a favourable ter- 
mination the most obscure and untractable 
ailments, even when no satisfactory theory 
of the symptoms can be framed, nor the no-" 
sological positions of the maladies deter- 
mined. 
Agreeable to the prediction of the re- 
porter, the past month has not been 
passed idly by the medical practitioner. 
The most prominent complaint has been 
catarrh ;. catarrh may be said to have been 
epidemic. In many cases some active de- 
pletion has been called for ; in all cases ab- 
stinence from a stimulating diet has been 
beneficial. Some children, who have been 
the subjects of catarrhal affections, have 
been threatened with tracheal inflammation ; 
but the writer has not met with one case 
which required blood-letting, Cases of fe- 
ver have been as frequent as during the 
summer months. The medical schools are 
still agitated with discussions on the nature 
and treatment of fever. There are, amongst 
us, pathologists, who maintain that fever de- 
pends, essentially, upon inflammation, re 
0 
