MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART 
89 
perance. My conviction, then. Is that, at present at least, 
the vice is inherent in the country, and that this fatal ten¬ 
dency, or rather this precipitation to the use of alcoholic 
stimulants, arises, in great part, from (what has been seen to 
be the source of much evil; but what in the end will ap¬ 
pear to be thesourceofas much good) Physiological changes 
induced in the constitution of the Western European, 
through the influence of climate ; or to fall back on what 
1 have already stated, the tone of the system being lowered 
through climatic influences, naturally requires stimuli, 
either mental physical, or both, to raise it to something 
like its original standard. 
It is not intended to enter into any minute description 
of the different diseases; as many of them do not mate 
Hally differ, in relation, either to pathology or therapeu¬ 
tics, from those described by systematic writers, except in 
the characters 1 have already alluded to, and I shall, there¬ 
fore, confine my remarks to the two following dyscrases: — 
I. Typhoid, 
II. Tubercular. 
These being the great source of mortality, both in 
military and civil life, In New South Wales, as in most 
other countries, my remarks will be confined to them 
Typhoid Diseases. Although a case of true petechial 
Typhus has never been met with among the troops in 
Sydney, nor do I know of its having occurred among tha 
civil population, yet there is occasionally met with a form 
of continued fever, equally, if not more, fatal. This fever 
makes its appearance at irregular intervals, somewhat in 
the form of an epidemic, but It does not appear to be 
either infectious or contagious. It is very insidiouB in its 
attack, commencing in various ways sometimes preceded 
by diarrhoea, at other times beginning as a case of common 
continued fever, of a more or less sthenic, but in such 
cases rapidly assuming the typhoid type, and in every well 
marked case, proving fatal. The symptoms, duration 
aDd morbid appearances after death, arc greatly modified 
by the patient’s constitution and previous mode of life. 
The fever generally attacks those of dissipated habits, with 
one or more of the internal oTgans in different stages of 
disease. It not unfrequently happens that such men keep 
themselves up hrough the aid of stimulants, with exten¬ 
sive disorganisation of the lungs from tubercular deposi¬ 
tion, and a considerable amount structural derangement of 
the liver and other internal viscera. When the disease 
attacks sueh men they sometimes rapidly sink through 
typhoid prostration on the second day after admission, 
notwithstanding the bold exhibition of every form of stimu ¬ 
lants. When the fever attacks meh of a sound constitution 
the duration is somewhat longer, but the disease itself is 
very embarrassing to the physician, in being in no way 
amenable to treatment. There is an early tendency to en¬ 
gorgement of lower lobes of the lungs, and the internal 
organs generally. This stage, if not preceded, is suceeoded 
by diarrhoea, and in a few days delirium and vomiting su¬ 
pervene, when the patient rapidly sinks. 
They appear to die with all the internal organs, as it 
were, asphyriated,—but before any extensive organic lesi¬ 
ons have taken place, sueh as gangrene of the lungs, exten¬ 
sive ulceration and perforation of the intestines, and so 
forth. Where these diseases originate, whether in intes¬ 
tines, in the spleen* or neither, we are as yet entirely in 
the dark. Attempts have been made to localise typhus 
fever, and give it the appearanee of a well defined disease, 
sueh as that of the intestinal glands, an aff etion of the 
capillaries, and so forth; but it is absurd to expect that we 
can well understand the pathology of these diseases, when 
the structure and functions of many parts of thu human 
body are as yet but imperfectly understood. Here, then, 
it is absolutely no hyperbolic expression when I assert that 
from the very dawn of this febrile disturbance to the termi 
nation in death, there is a complete hiatus in pathology. 
Tubercular Df/scrosh. Pulmonary consumption is 
by far the greatest source of mortality, both among soldiers 
and civilians in Sydney, as well as elsewhere, and seeing 
that it yields so Uttlo to any form of treatment that has 
yet been devised, it is far from unlikely that it will con¬ 
tinue so for many a day. It mu-t, 1 fear, be admitted, 
notwithstanding the various theories that have been ad 
position, that our knowledge of the true pathology of 
phthises is equally incomplete as that of typhus ; and the 
remarks I am about to make will in little or no way tend 
to unravel the recondite combinations that constitute the 
tubercular dyscrasis, which, there cannot be a doubt, is the 
parent of pulmonary phthisU. There are, however, some 
features connected with phthisis in this country which I 
have thought well to Tocord. 
1 take the following extract on '• Consumption” from 
the *« Annual Report” of 1819, so ably executed by Mr. 
Marshall, then Assistant Surgeon in 11 M. XI. Regiment, 
and in charge of the troops in Sydney. The extract is 
equally comprehensive as it is truthful; and the conclusion 
he then arrived at was the most legitimate; but, as will be 
seen, when more extensive vital statistics arc brought to 
play upon his opinion, it must necessarily undergo some 
modification. 
** Consumption* There is, H he says, *• no doubt that 
this disease does exist among the white native born popu¬ 
lation of New South Wales, but whether it is so prevalent 
with them as with Enropeans wo have not had any means 
of ascertaining ; but, from our experience among the 
troops, we are quite convinced that this climate is far from 
beneficial to consumptive persons On the contrary, we 
have never known a soldier in our Tegiment arrive in the 
colony, with well marked symptoms of tubercular disease 
in the lung, who has not quickly fallen a victim to the 
complaint. The disease appears to run through its stages 
more rapidly here than in England; and we seldom see 
any of those chronic cases characterised by profuse 
diarrhoea, and extensive ulceration of the colon in its last 
stage ; but death has usually been caused by rapid tuber¬ 
cular infiltration and complete disorganisation of the whole 
lung Out of 38 deaths which occurred in the military 
hospital, Sydhey, during the la'.tfour years, 13 were from 
phthisis; and out of 55 cases which occutred in our regi¬ 
ment in different parts of the colony in 3 years and a-half, 
9 were the result of accident, and 25 of consumption.” 
It will be seen, by reference to the tables of mor¬ 
tality, that the number of deaths from phthisis and acci¬ 
dents, during the past nine years, is in the same ratio as 
during the preceding three and a-half years, when the regi¬ 
ment was stationed in different parts of the Australian 
colonies, for out of 58 deaths which occured in the Regi¬ 
ment, since the arrival of the corps in Sydney, in August, 
1848, 22 have been from phthisis, and 11 from accidents. 
By reference to the tables I have alluded to, 
it will be seen, that the average number of deaths from 
phthisis, among the troops, since 1818. is somewhat less 
than duriDg the preceding three and a half years, but 
not so much so as would appear from the numbers 
themselves, as r the strength of the Regiment was about 
a ihird greater; three companies having been sent to 
England in 1851, in order to form a Dep t The num¬ 
ber of deaths then among the troops in Sydney, arising 
from pulmonay consumption, for 9 years past, is about 
one third of that among the Foot Guards in the English 
metropolis; and the number of deaths among the civil 
population registered during the past year, arising from 
the same cause, is somwhat smaller than among the mili¬ 
tary, as will be seen from the statistical tables J this is so 
f3r satisfactory. There is another circumstance connected 
with phthisis which Is still more so; the number of 
soldiers attacked here with phthisis is barely one half of 
that among the troops 4n the English metropolis, and the 
ratio of deaths to admissions from this disease in Sydney, 
it as four to si when compared wtth that in London; so 
that the intensity of phthisis in those attacked in Sydney, 
among the military, j<i only two third of that in the English 
metropolis, and the number of those attacked, in this coun¬ 
try, being only one half, makes the total number of deaths 
from consumption among the troops on this station, only 
one-third of that among the Foot Guards, in London; 
but this unfortunately does not appear to hold good among 
the civil population, to an qflual extent in both places, 
where, no doubt, some airive in the colony with tuoer- 
cular deposition already in the lungs. The sparseness of 
, Phthisical cases here must not however be attributed wholly 
to-climate. The spmptoms, duration, and morbid appear- 
vanced as to the grand or primary cause of tubercular de- i ances after death, in phthisis, do not differ materially from 
