112 MEMOIR OF DR WRIGHT. 



he has resided in Edinburgh, (where he now fills the office of 

 President of the College of Physicians), and I have had the 

 advantage of his regular correspondence, and of his valuable 

 observations. He has been uniformly zealous in promoting 

 my medical pursuits, and to his kindness I owe the acquaint- 

 ance of Dr Macniel, Dr Robertson, and Mr Macgregor, 

 by whose communications I am so much obliged. 



" During his last residence in the West Indies, and while 

 Director of the Military Hospitals in Barbadoes, Dr Wright 

 drew up for the Medical Board in London, a report on the dis- 

 eases most common among the troops in the West Indies. In 

 speaking of the cure of the ship^fever, he says : ' In the begin- 

 ning of the ship-fever, the cold bath had the best effects ; and 

 through the day, when the sick were hot, washing the hands 

 and face suddenly in cold water and vinegar, was exceedingly 

 refreshing. 1 In like manner, in treating of the yellow fever, 

 he remarks, ' In the beginning of the yellow fever, the cold 

 bath succeeded admirably, but in the advanced stage much 

 caution is necessary. , I quote these sentences from a report, 

 the whole of which deserves the most careful attention of mi- 

 litary practitioners in warm climates, to shew that the expe- 

 rience of Dr Wright continued to justify his original re- 

 commendation of the cold bath in fever, and to justify in par- 

 ticular the mode in which I had recommended it, at a time 

 when my publication was equally unknown to him as his re- 

 port was to me. 



" In a few months after his visit to Liverpool, I received 

 from Dr Wright his remarks on the second edition of the 

 Medical Reports, much at large. In these, after support- 

 ing all the principal parts of my treatment of fever and con- 

 vulsive diseases, from original observations of his own, he 

 concludes by assuring me that my work has his unqualified 

 approbation. In subsequent communications from this vene- 

 rable physician, he informs me of the success attending his 



