[ 642 ] [June, 



MONTHLY MEDICAL REPORT. 



The periodical communications to this journal on medical subjects having so frequently 

 commenced by a notice of the prior state of the weather, and it being very probable 

 that the same thing may happen hereafter, the reporter is anxious to express his senti- 

 ments on the subject of the influence of tiie atmosphere on our bodies. Dr. Johnson, 

 it is well known, held in contempt, at least till very near his death, the notion that the 

 weather affects the human frame. His impatience, when the conversation turned on 

 that subject, «-as constantly shewing itself. Such a topic, he used to saj', could be 

 interesting only to men in a mine or in a dungeon. He advised Boswell to keep a 

 journal, but not to mention whether the weather was fair or rainy ; and this advice he 

 gave upon principle, believing that the supposed effect of atmospheric changes was 

 mere irnagination, encouraged by physicians. He ridiculed his friend for complaining 

 that moisture in the air depressed the spirits and relaxed the nerves ; — and added, " some 

 very delicate frames indeed may be affected by wet weather, but not common cojistitu- 

 tions." Dr. Johnson in these remarks, does not apjiear to his usual advantage. He 

 might fairly have presumed that an im])ression so general in the world as that of the 

 morbific influence of atmos])heric variations must have had some foundation in nature ; 

 and if any one had directed his powerfid mind to the detail of facts, and to the reason- 

 ableness of the princi])le, it is probable he would have confessed his eiTor. The reporter, 

 at least, is fain to indulge this hope, while he expresses the firm connction of his own 

 mind, not only that the world is correct in its commonly received opinions, but that the 

 principle in nature on which these opinions are founded is one of much more extensive 

 application in the ])henomena of disease than is generally imagined. He would go so far 

 as to say, that of all the causes of disease, it is that which operates most widely — that 

 the permanent character of the air (or climate) is what mainly contributes to produce 

 in our bodies predisposition to disease;— that sudden changes in the qualities of the air 

 are among the principal circumstances, which, in a state of predisposition, excite disease ; 

 and that to the very same princi])le may be traced the acknowledged good effects which 

 are frequently witnessed from change of air, when the body is labouring under disease, 

 and the occasional bad effects of change of climate, (in the shape of seasoning fevers) 

 the system being pre^ously healthy. It is a generally received opinion, and a perfectly 

 correct one, that a person is never so liable to take small pox as when he first comes 

 from the country to reside in London. Although physicians are constantly in the habit 

 of sending consumptive patients to the sea-side, they well know that delicate persons, 

 not actually labouring under disease, frequently spit blood after a journey. 



When from the facts of the case, we turn oiu- attention to the theoretical principle, 

 little ground will be left for scepticism. We see the air made indispensable to our very 

 existence. An apparatus is expressly provided by which every particle of blood in the 

 body is successively ex|)osed to the chemical influence of tlie air many thousand times 

 in the course of each day. The mechanical qualities of the air must necessarily affect 

 that important and extensive membrane, the skin, the functions of which are so inti- 

 mately connected with those of internal organs. Upon the whole, then, it may be 

 stated, that mankind, and especially the inhabitants of this island, are fully justified, 

 both by fact and theor)-, in the invariable custom of testifying their friendship by con- 

 gratulations on the fineness, or condolences on the moisture and closeness of the 

 atmosphere. With this impression, the reporter proceeds to offer a few remarks on 

 the state of the weather during the last month, and the degree to which it has influenced 

 the prevalent diseases of that period. 



The last week of April, and the two first weeks of 3Iay in London were particularly 

 cold and dreary. North and north-easterly winds prevailed almost uniformly. Vegeta- 

 tion was repressed, and a good deal of rain fell, especially during the night. About the 

 14th IMay the weather underwent a change. The wuids, indeed, contmued to blo\v from 

 the same imfavourable quarter, but the sun acquired more jjower, the atmosphere became 

 heated, and summer to all appearance set in. The influence of all this upon the practice 

 of the physicians was strongly marked. During the first part of the period referred to, no 

 peculiar epidemic was to be traced. The weather was not cold enough to engender cough 

 or thoracic disease to any extent ; but in its stead there was abundance of rheumatism, 

 indigestion, and of that general loss of tone throughout the whole body, to which the 

 term yiervoiis debility may Droperly be applied. When the warm weather began, fever 

 made its appearance, and fever is now decidedly the prevalent disease of the metropolis. 

 It has been attended for the most part with gastric symptoms, that is to say, nausea, 

 sickness, extreme irritability of stomach, and in many cases, irritable bowels, and 

 diarrheea. The attack has been generally very sudden. Sufficient time has not yet 

 clasped to enable the reporter to speak of the usual duration of the disorder. It appears, 

 Iiowever, from what he has observed, to be a mild kind of fever, without inflammatory 

 tendency. Blood letting has not hitherto been required. Calomel and jalap are use- 

 fully employed where the irritability of the stomach does not forbid a trial of them. A 

 blister to the pit of the stomach, with the internal administration of chalk and opium, 



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