1826.} Monthly Medical Report. . 105. 
venture to form a judgment, for the suddenness of seizure, and the urgency of the symp- 
toms induce all parties to apply instantly for assistance. But he is convinced that with 
common attention, it is a perfectly mild disorder. It runs its course with the aid of 
medicine, in about five or six days, and appears to leave no dregs behind it. The con- 
valescence is as rapid as the attack was unexpected ; and this indeed may be laid down as 
a rule of very general application in the practice of medicine. The disease itself appears 
to consist ina disturbed condition of the functions of the upper bowels, particularly the 
stomach and liver. Insome cases, the disorder spreads upwards, so as to interfere with 
the offices of the diaphragm and lungs. In other cases the inferior portions of the ali- 
mentary canal participate in the derangement. The reporter is inclined to believe that 
distension of the gall bladder is, under common circumstances, the immediate cause of 
many of the most urgent gastric, or bilious symptoms as they are called. Hitherto, it 
does not appear that the quality of the bile, as secreted by the liver, is materially affected. 
By aceumulation, it is probably rendered somewhat more viscid and irritating, but it is 
areasonable supposition, that while the brain and nervous system continue unaffected, 
the secretim of bile will not be seriously interfered with. At amore advanced period of 
the season, especially if the same heated condition of the atmosphere continues which 
has been remarked since the present month began, there is every reason to expect that 
the fever will assume a more formidable character, and be the occasion perhaps of no 
inconsiderable mortality. ; 
The reporter has continued to experience the beneficial effects of calomel in this 
disease. He looks upon it as the chief weapon in the physician’s hands in this particular 
epidemic. The most useful auxiliaries have proved to be ipecacuanha; and castor oil. 
The former in small and frequently repeated doses, given in combination with the calomel ; 
. the latter exhibited occasionally, so as to ensure the effect of the former remedies. Other 
symptoms must be met, as they arise, by the employment of saline effervescing draughts, 
cretacerous mixture with laudanum, or the camphorated mixture with ether. Within the 
last few days, the reporter has observed inflammatory symptoms making their appearance. 
In one or two instances he has taken blood from the arm, and yesterday afternoon he 
found it expedient, in one case, to cover the epigastrium with leeches. These cases may 
perhaps prove the forerunners of some general and important change in the character of 
the epidemic. The great dryness of the atmosphere, so unusual in this climate, which 
has been lately perceptible, is perhaps sufficient to account for the phenomenon, 
The last ten days of the month of May revived the bronchial affections which had been 
dormant for some time previous. They did not however prove either severe or tedious, 
and now they may be considered as almost entirely eradicated from the catalogue of 
prevailing diseases. Measles and scarlet fever have been very geuerally met with during 
the last month, but not shewing any particular degree of violence or malignity. .The 
reporter has had under his care a considerable number of cases of fever attended with that 
kind of eruption, called by Dr. William erythema. They have all been females, and the 
principal though not the only seat of eruption has been the fore part of the legs. In one 
of these cases the febrile symptoms ran so high as to make it necessary to take blood from 
the arm. 
» Small-pox appears now to be somewhat upon the increase. Insulated cases of it are to. 
be met with in all parts of the town, but happily of a mild character ;—most happily in-— 
deed, for painful as it is at all times, to witness this disease, none but those who are 
daily conversant with it can form an idea of its horrors during the summer months: es- 
pecially when to the confluence which copious perspiration contributes to produce is . 
superadded that malignant condition of the blood and humours which long continued heat , 
has such a tendency to generate. ; 
_Among the chronic disorders to which the last month has given birth may be ranked, . 
__ those affections of the head which arise from preternatural determination of blood to the * 
* vessels of the brain. Of these one of the most frequent and most distressing has been 
_ giddiness. Few sensations are more dreaded than this, and it is seldom allowed therefore 
to continue long without an attempt at medical aid. In some cases it will yield to the 
free operation of an ipecacuanha vomit, but the reporter has more generally found it . 
necessary to direct the application of cupping glasses to the back of the neck. The 
relief afforded by them is often instantaneous, and the dexterity with which they are 
applied in the metropolis by professed cuppers renders them a most potent auxiliary in 
the treatment of disease. 
- Leprous affections of the skin have been very common since the hot weather set in. | 
ese complaints appear to depend principally upon some peculiarity in the structure of 
_ skin in certain individuals, and they consequently admit of little or no relief from . 
edicinal treatment. y 
_ Before concluding, the reporter would wish to call the attention of the aoe to the 
Necessity of great attention to the state of the bowels, at this period of the year. The 
remark may be thought ¢rifling, but it has a more extended bearing than might at first be 
eM 1 It is not that the mere confinement of the bowels i is capt of any arene 
M.M. New Series—Vou. II. No.7. rire ee ive 
