164 TRINIDAD. 



ligious enthusiasm are the predisposing agents towards this ter- 

 rible malady ; in many instances, it terminates in confirmed 

 idiocy, as if the cerebral organ had given way and broken down, 

 under the pressure of too powerful a stimulus. 



There is in Trinidad to its shame be it said no lunatic 

 asylum, where a cure may be attempted of the unfortunate 

 sufferers ; they are confined in a separate building within the Gaol 

 court, and there kept prisoners with a view only to the prevention 

 of mischief ; this is necessary, undoubtedly but this is no cura- 

 tive, and is, under every respect, most cruel. 



I will conclude this notice of the principal diseases of the 

 island, by the following remark. Nearly all the diseases, in 

 Trinidad no matter what may be the nature of the complaint 

 have a tendency to assume the remittent or intermittent form, as 

 a complication. 



Intermittent sore-throat and dysentery are very common, 

 and remittent pneumonia is not rare. An individual accidently 

 confined to the sick room for instance, from a broken leg or any 

 other cause is almost certain to get an attack of intermittent 

 fever after having been laid up for two or three weeks. Quinine, 

 combined with some other co-efficient medicines, is a certain 

 cure. 



I may say, in addition, that sporadic cases of disease are the 

 exception, whilst the epidemic form the rule. It is evident that 

 the latter type is determined by the existence of certain conditions 

 which we cannot always discover or fully appreciate ; but which, 

 nevertheless, become apparent in the uniformity of their patho- 

 logical effects. These conditions may subsist for a shorter or longer 

 period ; but, during the whole time of their persistence, prevalent 

 diseases undergo some uniform modification, and also exhibit a 

 few characteristic and identical symptoms which cause them to 

 bear a sort of resemblance to each other, and for the cure of which 

 the same treatment is generally successful, although otherwise the 

 diseases may be of a different nature. And not only do these 

 conditions vary at long intervals, but sometimes more than once 

 in the same year; so that the treatment which has been most 

 successful against fever in the commencement of the year, will not 

 be so effectual at a later period. 



The pathological phenomena exhibited in Trinidad are highly 

 illustrative of the doctrine of medical constitutions, so admirably 



