476] 
noxious, are daily imposed upon 
the world for want of attention to 
this great truth; that it is from ge- 
neral effects only, and those founded 
upon extensive experience, that any 
maxim to which each individual 
may with confidence refer, can pos- 
sibly be established. 
The Dimiphobia, or dread of Home. 
From the Monthly Megaxine. 
Sir, 
I very much approve of your al- 
lotting a particular part of your 
magazine to the valuable purposes 
of medical improvement; and 
what has been already done, will, 
I hope, lay the foundation of a 
series of communications, from 
which physicians may derive great 
advantage. From entertaining so 
high an opinion of this part of your 
magazine, I am induced to offer 
my miie, by contributing a few 
remarks gna disease, net yet touch- 
ed upon by your medical correspon- 
dents, but which, by the time this 
communication will appear, must 
be pretty well known in most fa- 
milies. Itis very prevalent in the 
months of June and July, is at the 
height in August, begins to de. 
cline in September, and abour the 
end of Odtober generally disap- 
pears, though much will depend 
upon the weather. 
I am somewhat at a foss to de- 
scribe this disorder, because being 
of very recent appearence in this 
country, it has escaped the atten- 
tion of Sauvages, Vogel, Cullen, 
and all our late Nosologists. It 
has some symptoms peculiar to the 
class of fevers, and some to that of 
inflammations, but itis a discase, if 
¥ may use the phrase, so original, 
eo much fer se, that we must be 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
content to let it be the root of a 
peculiar class, which may horeaf- 
ter be divided into species, when 
the faculty shall have made it more 
their study. 
I call it, merely for distincion’s 
sake, the Domiphobia, or dread of 
home, which is the principal 
symptom ; it begins, as I said be. 
fore, about the month of June, or 
earlier, for I have at this moment 
a family under my care, who are 
dreadfully affli€ted with it. The 
mother, a remarkably healthy. 
looking, and indced a very hand. 
some woman, complains of a wast- 
ing of the flesh, want of appetite, 
listlessness, and deje¢tion. ‘The 
two daughters, though passessed of 
the finest bloom of complexion, are 
inclined to consumption, have also 
lost their appetites, and are, to 
use their mother’s expression, in a 
very alarming situation. ‘The sons 
have various pulmonic symptoms, 
shortness of breath, cough, and 
complain that the smoke of London 
entirely disorders them. ‘The hus- 
band is the only person who has 
escaped the disorder, although he 
seems so much distressed at the 
sight of his family, that I should 
not wonder if he caught it from 
them. Every medicine I have pre- 
scribed, has failed in its operation, 
Indeed, I must> confess, that thts 
is one of those disorders, in which 
we are not to expect a cure from 
chemicals or Galenicals. ~ On the 
contrary, if we leave nature to 
perform her work, a cure is imme- 
diately found, for nature suggests 
to the patients, from the very first © 
attack of the disease, that it can | 
be relieved only by a jaunt to a 
watering place. 
And hence a 
very expert pra@titioner in my — 
neighbourhood, cheoses to call it | 
the 
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