1926.] Monthly Medical Report. 563 
longer become an object of public anxiety. But alas, it is doubtful whether this fond 
expectation will ever:be realizedz:, The experience of preceding years has been such as 
faust) necessarily ‘infuse great Caution into all our reasonings and conjectures concerning 
thé probable fate of smallpox. , We may, perhaps, live to see it/ again raising its head 
mong the dangerous epidemics of the day, and struggling with its great enemy, yacci- 
nation, for the.mastery of our features and our lives. 9 
_ A-few. cases.of bronchial inflammation have shewn themselves during the last month, 
o¢eurring chiefly in those who had strong predisposition to the complaint, from repeated 
prior attacks. , In all instanees,, however, which have fallen under the reporter’s obser- 
vation, the symptoms have speedily yielded to the loss of a few ounces of blood, and the 
employment of a, common expectorant of julap. A few cases of mild pleurisy have also 
been noticed. 
Among the chronic disorders of the past month, stomach complaints have been parti- 
cularly.prevalent.. The reporter has met with a succession of cases, in which the most 
distressing pain of the stomach has occurred, especially towards evening, preventing 
sleep, and creating no inconsiderable alarm in the patient’s mind. In some of these the 
reporter has obtained decided benefit from the application of leeches to the pit of the 
stomach ; but the greater number have been completely relieved by the use of internal 
remedies, calculated to dislodge offending matters from the stomach, and to lull the sen- 
sibility of the gastric nerves. A combination of blue pill, with extract of hemlock or 
henbane, followed by an occasional dose of rhubarb, and a steady perseverance in the 
use of a mixture containing ether and laudanum, has generally answered every expec- 
tation. One or two patients have experienced great relief from the use of the com- 
pound decoction of aloes (the baume de vie) ; and a’ few obstinate cases have yielded at 
jength to the subnitrate of bismuth—a remedy of most unquestionable efficacy in com- 
plaints of this nature. 
A singular case, which, though not under the reporter’s immediate care, was frequently 
seen by him in its progress, has at length terminated, and a short notice of it cannot be 
unacceptable. About the end of June: last, a boy twelve years of age, residing in May 
Fair, was eating some cherries, when, by an unlucky accident, the stone of one slipped 
into the windpipe; and occasioned the most incessant and violent fits of coughing. No 
effort, however, dislodged it, and twelve days afterwards, when he came under medical 
superintendance, it was clearly ascertained that the cherry-stone had imbedded itself in 
a portion of the upper lobe of the left lung, and that inflammation of a portion of that 
lung was taking place around it. The strictest antiphlogistic measures were pursued. 
Blood was taken from: the arm occasionally, as the symptoms demanded it, and the 
most perfect quiet of body was enforced. Under this system of management, the cherry- 
stone became the, centre of a smallabscess, which in about six weeks burst, the expecto- 
rated matter bringing up with it the cause of the mischief, to the complete relief of the 
young patient., ._In the course of another month the boy recovered his flesh and strength, 
and. he is now. restored:to his, former health. Similar cases are on record, but pro- 
bably there was meyer one. in which the exact condition of the patient was more accu- 
rately ascertained, nor the principles of treatment better known, or more vigorously 
followed up. 
Among the individual cases of interest which have occurred in the reporter’s practice 
during the preceding month, may be mentioned a case of active or acute dropsy, occurring 
in the person ofa stout labouring man, and very strongly marked in all its features, 
which gave way, in the most gratifying manner, to one full bleeding, with a succession of 
active aperients continued for the space of a week. 
Acase of that’ singular disease, shingles, is now under the reporter’s care, arising, as 
most cases of a like kind appear to do, from fatigue of body and anxiety of mind. It is 
Tunping the usual course, uninfluenced, indeed, by medical treatment, but at the same 
time | unaccompanied by any symptoms which would warrant the adoption of active 
measures. 
9 weaibeo GEORGE GREGORY, M.D. 
8; Upper John-street, Golden-square, October 23, 1826, 
SL noid 
oo), coq-lhvene MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
| Ov.general topics we have little to add to the information conveyed in our Jast month’s 
xeport.... The pith, of that little is, to caution the public against partial and anomalous 
accounts of the late crops, and of the stock of bread corn on hand. As well might be 
‘ cted, all country correspondents draw their intelligence from their own farms, the 
markets which they frequent, and the general appearances throughout that district or 
circle in. which they reside. The real state of the case, however, must be sought, and 
can gnly be, found, in a judicious average of those. There sis something magical in that 
term which reminds us of the system of averages (as we have long had reason to know) 
4C 2 
