338 Monthly Medical Report. — [Sepr. 
constitution sympathizes. Such indeed is the variety both in the local and general 
symptoms, that a very extended field of observation is required’ to enable the practitioner 
to class them properly together, and to appreciate fully their close and intimate relation. . 
The following are the principal forms of abdominal disorder which the reporter has 
witnessed during the last month :—Bilious vomiting, bilious diarrhoea, their combination, 
called cholera mitis, bilious cholic, with incessant tenesmus, bilious fever, characterized 
by headache, languor, pains of the limbs, and oppression at the epigastrium, and, lastly, 
true yellow fever: 
In all such complaints as are now prevalent, much anxiety is usually manifested by the 
patient or his friends to determine accurately the exciting cause; and in one case, plumbs, 
in another’ nuts, and in a third oysters, or pickled salmon, are accused in their turn as 
having been the direct source of the mischief. To a certain extent this is true; that is 
to say, when the system is predisposed, the slightest accident will disturb the balance ; 
bad wine, excess in eating or drinking—any thing, in short, which offends the stomach ; 
but in the greater number of cases the exciting cause is of a more general kind—great 
fatigue of body, late hours, anxiety of mind, cold. The shortest and mildest eases are 
those which are ushered in by copious evacuations. The disease in this manner brings 
with it its own cure. The severest cases which have fallen under the reporter’s notice 
are those which assumed the form of bilious cholic, that is to say, where the secretions 
of the liver and upper bowels were locked up by spasmodie contractions of the alimentary 
tube. No particular difficulty has been experienced in the treatment of these affections. | 
When vomiting and diarrhoea mark their onset, it is desirable for a time to encourage the 
eyacuation, and subsequently to repair the loss of tone by aromatics and cordials. Where 
Janguor and feverishness become the urgent symptoms, au emetic of ipecacuanha followed 
by two or three doses of calomel and rhubard usually effect a cure. In cases of severe 
‘tormina and ‘tenesmus, approaching the character of dysentery, the reporter has pre- 
scribed, with excellent effect, a combination of calomel, James’s powder, ‘and opium. 
The most remarkable of all the cases which the Jast month has produced im the 
reporter’s practice is one of pure yellow fever, bearing all the characters of that formida- 
ble’ complaint which is the scourge of Walcheren, of the West-Indies, and of Sierra 
Leone. It originated in the most unhealthy part of the Essex coast, and was cha- 
racterized by the following combination of symptoms :—excessive excitement of the 
whole circulating system, determination of blood to the head’ and liver, deep jaundice, 
and at last, buffy and cupped blood. The pulse was full and bounding, and when:a vein 
was opened, the flow of blood was with great difficulty checked. It was the febris ardens 
biliosa of the old writers, the bilious remittent of modern times. The violence of the 
febrile symtoms unquestionably abated on the alternate days, but no shiverings were ever 
experienced, the only sure criterion of intermitting fever. ‘The reporter, therefore, is 
induced to prefer the more ancient appellation. The treatment pursued in this case, 
which happily proved successful, consisted in repeated blood-lettings, and a succession of 
the most active aperients. ‘The reporter is given to understand that fever of a similar 
character is frequently met with about this season of the year, at Sheerness, and the 
adjoining coasts of Kent and Esséx. 
Low fever, of a typhoid kind, is at present rather more prevalent than usual in the 
outskirts of London; but the central parts of the town do not afford more than the usual 
proportion of such cases. Small-pox is scarcely to be met with, and other eruptive 
disorders are of rare occurrence, 
GEORGE GREGORY, M.D. 
8, Upper John-street, Golden-square, August 23, 1826. 
ee 
3 
MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
So little corn or pulse is now remaining abroad, that we may very safely state, before 
this report shall have issued from the press, harvest will have been completed, throughout 
Britain and Ireland. We apprehend that an earlier or more expeditious harvest is not 
‘upon record in Europe. With us, the constancy and power of the solar heat and 
drought had such a quickening effect, as to ripen all kinds of grain and. pulse nearly at 
‘the same time ; even those between which, in, other seasons, there has bee more than 
a month of interval. Hay and corn harvest, also, were actually carried on together, by 
‘those who had deferred cutting their grass in the hope of a change of weather. This 
necessarily occasioned a great and sudden demand for labourers, and seme disappoint- 
ment, where they had not been timely provided and assembled. _ In some parts of Kent, 
we heard heavy complaints among the labourers, that the Irish in great numbers took 
the work out of their hands at an inferior price ; whilst in others, we saw ina long track 
of country extensive fields of wheat, the ears bending and nodding from ripeness, a-state 
in which much loss may he incurred, where only two men, or a man and woman,, were 
at work. On the whole, however,’ never was corn harvested, stacked, and housec y with 
greater expedition. Certain of our correspondents lament the necessity of using the 
