in the Medical (Economy of Skips t 7 



" In a ship of-the-line on the home station, I have been in 

 gales of wind during the winter when the decks were floated with 

 water for weeks together, without the possibility of drying them. 

 I have listened night after night to these torrents rushing and 

 roaring from one side of the lower deck to the other, as the ship 

 rolled, while five or six hundred men in hammocks were sus- 

 pended nightly over the moving current, in the most advantageous 

 manner possible for feeling its influence. And what was the con- 

 so(|uence ? Why, that there was not a man on the sick list." 



" But the scene changes; — the gales subside — the wind veers 

 round to the eastward — we regain our station off the coast of 

 France, where the sea is smooth, the air keen, and the decks per- 

 fectly dry. And what is the result ? Why, that half the ship's 

 company is laid up with pneumonias.^' 



Taking the truth of both these remarks and replies for granted, 

 — though I cannot but candidly confess they bear to my mind the 

 easy implication of a certain figure of speech — might not this gen- 

 tleman, with his usual sound reasoning, ascribe the former, should 

 it actually happen, to that certain capability of resistance, for a 

 limited time, in the powers of the healthy constitution to the 

 prejudicial influence of wet and confinement? and the latter, 

 should it actually follow, to that state of susceptibility induced 

 by this circumstance ? thereby particularly admitting the .subse- 

 quent agencies implied in the changes of the scene, when the or- 

 thodox doctrine of the ingenious and learned Dr. Brown can be 

 so easily referred to. 



Here it is very plainly intimated, that off the coast of France, 

 in winter, an easterly wind, though not strong, has alone been 

 productive of pneumonia, although the previous circumstances of 

 living for weeks together between wet decks, of blowing and wet 

 weather, and of a change of wind and weather, are at the same 

 time admitted. The east wind is notorious for its dispersion of 

 moisture; and moisture followed by a wind which disperses it, 

 has a particular influence on temperature. It is thus that the 

 human constitution is acted upon by an easterly wind, and that 

 the brute creation feels its influence. According to the laws of 

 the animal oeconomy, the system, from its reaction to the agencies 

 implied in these antecedent circumstances, becomes predisposed, 

 so as to be particularly susceptible of the subsequent agency of 

 the keen easterly wind and of the change of temperature. A 

 sharp easterly wind that has lasted anytime, abstractedly consi- 

 dered, without any reference to the weather preceding it, or to 

 the change itself, implies a comparative regularity of a low tem- 

 perature, which, though it may from its arid <|ualities aggravate, 

 cannot, in my humble opinion, i)e solely productive of pneumo- 



A 4 nia. 



