Hepatic Disease the Cause of Hypochondriasis, [Aug. U 
ifr.ch person should become an actual 
partner in the undertaking, and that no 
transfers should be made except under 
certain conditions, U'ir.’i* their approba¬ 
tion; which amounted for the most part 
to a prohibition of so doing. Thus was 
I compelled to retain my stake at the 
peril of my w'hole fortune, subject to all 
the inconveniences and dangers of a 
partnership, and have now'been com¬ 
pelled, after a variety ol attempts to 
extricate myself, to accept, according to 
the proposition of the committee, of sixty 
pounds a share, instead of one hundred 
pound? (the original cost). I must con¬ 
fess, I'would readily have sacrificed the 
whole stake, rather than be again placed 
in such a dangei'ous situation; at the 
same time I cannot help thinking, the 
subject deserves the serious attention of 
the legislature, as innocent persons are 
constantly liable to become the victims 
of a few interested individuals, consist¬ 
ing generally of petty dealers, who elect 
one another on the committee, and thus 
establish a price for the sale of the ar¬ 
ticle in which they deal, entirely suitable 
to their ovyn purposes, and thus indeat- 
rity themselves for any sacrifice they 
may make on their shares, in case they 
are compelled to dispose of them, while 
the innocent person who is not a dealer, 
sustains the loss. There is another strong 
reason why such institutions ought to be 
crushed; I mean,it being the established 
law of the land that no individual can 
bring an action against Ins own partner j 
and even in the case of filing a bill in 
Chancery, or a common action brought 
for violation of agreement, il the Chris¬ 
tian and Surname of every individual is 
not correctly stated, the action falls to 
tlie ground. Anotlier objection is, that 
these persons vote themselves large al¬ 
lowances, and, from their interest with 
the general proprietors, Irerpiently get it 
confirmed; or in the case of a refusal, 
make such excessive charges for ma¬ 
nagement, under the liead ot expenses, 
as to prevent the possibility of any profit 
being derived from the concern, by per¬ 
sons in the situation of those I have de¬ 
scribed. Mercator. 
Londorif July 9, 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE remark of your correspondent 
Dr. J. Reid,(vol. 31. p. 568, col. 2.) 
that hypochondriasis is a disorder which 
il every day exl&uding wider (he circle of 
its dominions, has induced me to request 
your insertion of the following observa¬ 
tions, which may perhaps excite addi¬ 
tional attention to a subject which I 
cannot help regarding as of considerable 
importance. 
Dr. Reid seems to consider the only 
bodily disease, under which his hypo¬ 
chondriacal patient appeared to labour, 
as consisting in a disordered state of the 
stomach. That the stomach is generally 
disordered in such cases I have no doubt, 
indeed it seems probable that no one 
of the digestive organs could be mate¬ 
rially disordered without the others par¬ 
ticipating; but lam inclined to think 
when hypochondriasis occurs, the liver is 
the viscus, whose functions are princi¬ 
pally deranged. Before I became ac¬ 
quainted with Mr. Abernethy's excellent 
“ Observations on the Constitutional 
Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases,’^ 
I had thought that there must be some 
striking peculiarity iu the disorder of the 
digestive viscera, when those remarkable 
and distressing feelings occurred which 
have been called liypochondriasis and 
melancholia; but it never occurred to me 
till I read that work, that such pecu¬ 
liarity might consist in a derangement of 
the hepatic functions in particular. This 
seems an important thing to know, be¬ 
cause many of those medicines which in 
other cases would strengthen and eva¬ 
cuate the stomach and bowels, would 
not restore those organs to a h’ealtiiy 
state, while the liver remained the prin¬ 
cipal seat of the disorder, which inight 
subside after the administration of small 
doses of Pil. Hydi'arg.* Mr. Aber- 
nethy justly reminds his readers, that the 
terms used by the antients to express a 
dejected and irrational state of mind, 
had all a reference to hepatic disorder. 
Melancholia from fx-uXag and hypo¬ 
chondriasis from t-sTo and as well 
as the terms atrahiliua and mani't 
atrubiliairef all signify disorder of the 
Jiver.f Indeed the subsisting connection 
between the state of this organ and that 
of the mind, was so generally known to 
the antients, that it was frequently alluded 
to by their poets, and metaphorical allu¬ 
sions to l)epatic disorders were made use 
See Surgical Observations on the Con¬ 
stitutional Origin and Treatment of Local 
Diseases, See. p. 213. 
+ Some more modern writers-have ab¬ 
surdly called this disorder the spleen^ while 
others, influenced by the whimsical numeral 
pathology, have denomicatsd it the vapours. 
of 
