732 
sand are not sufficient for its production. 
‘The author considers it as having a‘com- 
mon origin with the plague and dysen-. 
tery, and as arising with them from a 
putrid virus, diffused in the atmosphere, 
and produced by the union of putrid exha- 
lations from animal and vegetable mat- 
ter, with the various earthy and saline 
substances with which the air abounds. 
These circumstances are favoured by 
that state of corporeal debility which is 
so commonly observed among the inha- 
bitants of Egypt, and so soon appears in 
Furopeans in some degree. When they 
operate upon a system peculiarly debili- 
tated and unable to resist them, they 
produce, according to the author, 
«that highly putrid fever called plague 
In a patient less relaxed, as the habit of body 
determines the disease either to the surface 
of the skin, or to the intestines, an eruptive 
fever or dysentery is produced. And when 
the putrid virus is but partially applied, to 
the eves for instance, or to the mouth, or 
even on the surface of the body, ophthalmia, 
MEDICINE, SURGERY, ANATOMY, &e, 
ulcerated fauces, or ichorous blotches on thc 
skin ensue.” 
: 
7 
7 
. 
The hypothetical view of the subject ~ 
which the author here communicates, is 
not very likely to prejudice the reader 
in favour of his philosophical. powers, 
The circumstances stated as: producing 
so long a train of diseases must be sup- 
posed to exist in an equal degree wher- 
ever the plague originates; and yet the 
ophthalmia, so prevalent in Egypt, does 
not appear as an epidemic in any other 
country. Much of this reasoning is upon 
data which are, assumed, and we have 
yet to be informed of any experiments 
which justify him in his conclusion, that 
argillaceous and calcareous earthsabound 
in the atmosphere, either in a séparate 
state, or combined with sulphuric or car- 
bonic acid. 
The author gives an accurate account 
of the symptoms of the Egyptian oph- 
thalmia, and mentions the practice which 
is usually, though, as he informs us, un- 
successfully adopted in its treatment. 
Agr. XV. Observations on Diarrhea and Dysentery, as those Diseases appeared in the 
British, Army during the Campaign in Egypt, 1801. 
To which are prefixed a Description 
v the Climate of Egypt, and a Sketch of the Medical History of the Camnipaign. By 
enry Dewar, date dssistant Surgeon to the Cambridgeshire Regiment of _ Foot. 
pP- 161. { 
THE introduction to this work is oc- 
cupied with a general account of the cli- 
mate of Egypt, and various paiticnlars 
relating to the medical history of the 
late. campaign. To the many circum- 
stances which were capable of affecting 
the health of the army in that country, 
the author thinks may with great /pro- 
“priety be added, the particular kind of 
tent employed, which universally consist- 
ed of a single covering, and was there- 
fore a very ineffectual defence from the 
rays of the sun. . 
A few general remarks on bowel com- 
plaints precede the account which is 
given of diarrhea. The author divides 
them into diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, 
colica, and enteritis, and considers all of 
them, but particularly the two former, 
as demanding the peculiar attention of 
the army medical practitioner. 
. The symptoms of diarrhea often went 
‘so imperceptibly into dysentery, that it 
was not easy to draw a proper line of 
distinction between them. The predis- 
posing causes of this disease were the 
debility which follows acute diseases, 
hard drinking, fatigue, and change of 
dict from salt to fiesh meat; but more 
’ 
particularly the high temperature of the 
atmosphere, ‘The exciting causes were 
cold, eating and drinking acrimonious 
and putrid substances, inhalation of pu- 
trid effluvia, intemperance in eating, and 
drinking cold water in immoderate quan- 
tities. The author had occasion to ob- 
serve a remarkable connexion between 
all the diseases which were produced by 
‘cold, 
<A rheumatism in’ the arm or back, often 
alternates with diarrhoea and pain in the bows 
els. [tis also very common for pains in the 
bowels sensibly to move backwards, and 
settle in the muscles of the loins, in the form 
of lumbago. ‘These faets evince that a rer 
semblance cvists betwixt the two diseases ; or 
rather, that they differ only in the part af 
fected.” This is more particularly to be re- 
marked in such forms of these diseases as owe 
their origin to cold. When rhepmatism is 
the effect of overstrained muscular exertion, 
or when diarrhoea is the effect of acrisponious 
or spoiled feod, they do not alternate in the 
same manner. The disease is not then cou- 
nected witha general diathesis in the animal 
system. ft is more properly local in its na- 
ture, and therelore less easily shifted to, di% 
ferent parts of the body. T have observed in 
some cases 2 similar connexion betwist howe} 
