750 
equal frequency; it hardly ever happens that 
the patient recovers from the disease. In 
hike manner, the skin having been dry and 
contracted at the beginning, if a proftse 
sweat afterward takes place, and continue for 
some time without any diminution of the 
other symptoms of the disease; that is, if 
there should be no lateritious sediment in the 
urine; if the costiveness and the head-ach 
should continue; instead of being favourable 
appearances of the disease, we are to expect 
that it will prove fatal. Independently of the 
mischief arising from inequality of the dis- 
€ase, any evacuation will weaken the patient, 
and render him incapable of supporting the 
further progress of it, if there be not at the 
same time an alleviation of the other appear- 
ances of the disease.” _ 
When such irregularities as have now 
been described exist, the author knows 
of no means by which we are able to in- 
crease the appearances of fever in those 
cases where they are wanting. Another 
irregularity mentioned in this work is, 
when the fever instead of going on to its 
acme, and then gradually declining, has 
alternate exacerbations and remissions 
of two or three days duration, which in 
time wear out the patient. In those 
cases we should employ such means 
as tend to produce an artificial cri- 
sis; but if those are ineffectual before 
the tenth day, they should not be 
persisted in, but the disease left to wear 
Art. XXVI. Essays on the Diseases of Children, with Cases and Dissections. Essay 2d. 
On the Bowel Complaints more immediately connceted with the Biliary Secretion, and par- 
ticularly of Atrophia Ablactatorum, or Weaning Brash. By Jouxn Creyne, 
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. pp. 80. 
IN our last volume we gave an ac- 
count of the first of the author’s essays 
on the diseases of children, that on the 
subject of cynanche trachealis or croup. 
The second essay, which we are now to 
notice, is prefaced by a few observations 
on the importance of the hepatic system 
in the animal ceconomy, and by a state- 
ment of the change which takes place in 
the circulation connected with the liver, 
after birth. During the fetal state na- 
ture seems to have prepared for the 
functions which were afterwards to be 
exercised, by the large size and maturity 
to which the liver was brought. Whe- 
ther, however, the secretion of bile, im- 
mediately after birth, is established in 
the way in which it is intended by na- 
ture that it should continue, may admit 
of doubt; for though the author consi- 
ders the evacuation of the meconium as 
the natural consequence of the stimulus 
' applied to the intestines, yet nature seems 
MEDICINE, SURGERY, ANATOMY, &c. 
! 
itself out ; the practitioner taking care to 
keep up the strength of the patient, to 7 
‘bear him through the complaint. 
Cin-— 
chona has sometimes had a good effect — 
when given in large doses during the re- 
Mirssions. 
Hysteric symptoms, and an imperfect 7 
crisis, are mentioned by the author as © 
forming irregularities which are occa 
sionally observed in continued fevers. 
The first are very alarming to the pa- 
tient and his friends ; but are no other- 
wise prejudicial, than as they often pre- 
vent the disease from subsiding in its or- 
dinary course. ‘An imperfect crisis, such 
as occurs when the delirium does not 
subside, or the pulse remains very fre- 
quent, the sleep continues unrefreshing, 
and the appetite is bad, though there is 
in other respects a concurrence of criti- 
cal symptoms, generally indicates an uan- 
favourable termination. Where hysteric 
symptoms make their appearance, the 
atient should be supported by nourish- 
ing food, and should have oceasional 
doses of laudanum, with some antispas- 
modic, as Russian castor. 
To the present dissertation is annexed 
a general summary of the opinions which 
the author has advanced in his essays on | 
fever, and a reply to some objections 
which have been made against them. 
DD. 
to have aimed at more effectually se- 
curing this in another way, by the pur- 
gative effects of the milk first secreted 
by the mother. 
The first of the complaints connected 
with the biliary secretion, which the au- 
thor takes into consideration, is the jaun- 
dice, which occasionally attacks children 
a few days after birth. This disease has 
been supposed to arise from the ducts 
being obstructed by meconium, mucus, 
or viscid matter; or from pressure on 
the common duct by milk coagulated in 
the stomach or duodenum. Such causes, — 
the author is of opinion, may give rise 
to these slighter species of the complaint, — 
which disappear in a few days, but are 
insufficient to produce the jaundice, 
which sometimes terminates fatally. This — 
species is attended ‘ with languor, flatu- — 
lence, and bilious urine,’ and continues 
many days, or even weeks, sometimes 
going away gradually, but generaily 
