452 
ON THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF DISEASE. 
bated, and I was menaced by my surgical acquaintance with a rheu- 
matism about the joint. Indeed, it required much confidence to 
persist in my plan under the severe quizzing I daily experienced. 
However, I got well, and have never had the slightest rheumatic 
affection in the parts since. I tried it in inflammations of the 
brain, but it did no good, and, like all plans I know, though appli- 
cable in some instances, it will not do in all. In some local affec- 
tions unconnected with the system it is advantageous ; and, in 
gout, it has been beneficial in preventing violent attacks for many 
years, but it has more than once proved fatal. 
William Moorcroft. 
ON THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF DISEASE, AND THE 
CHANGES WHICH HAVE OCCURRED THEREIN. 
By W. Arthur Cherry, VS. 
The following observations on the change which has taken 
place in the characters of disease in general have more particu- 
larly engaged my attention, since of late there has been so much 
desire to claim an entirely new and more successful mode of treat- 
ment, as well as the assumption of its being founded on a more 
scientific and rational basis. Without any desire to throw the 
slightest discredit on any of the modes of treatment pursued, or of 
the opinions entertained, let us inquire how far such differences 
arise out of, or are dependent upon the peculiar conditions which 
modify the laws of disease in general : or, in other words, as the 
character of disease has changed, so has also, as a matter of ne- 
cessity, the treatment of such disease. A central point must be 
chosen from whence to take an equal period before and since, for 
the purpose of comparison. I shall take the year 1836 as the centre, 
therefore from 1826 to 1836 is one period, and from 1836 to 1846 
the other. I will briefly state the grounds upon which I take 1836 
as a centre. In the month of June in that year, the first instance 
of the change which has since so fully developed itself, occurred 
in my practice, and it was succeeded rapidly by other cases 
of a similar nature. Reflection upon those cases led me to the 
belief that a few isolated cases of anomalous character, some of 
which had occurred in the year before, belonged to the same class. 
That they were, in fact, the pioneers or forewarners of what was 
