1812.] 
[ 599 ] 
REPORT OF DISEASES, 
Under the Care of the late Senior Physician cf the Finsbury Dispensary', from the 
SOM of November to the 9,0th of December, 
T he Reporter has, upon more.tlian 
one recent occasion, been ques¬ 
tioned as to his opinion with re|i,ard to 
the supposed contagious nature of Phthy- 
sis Puimonalis, From all that he has 
seen and learnt from authenticated 
sources, he is by no means inclined to 
adopt the doctrine of those who repre¬ 
sent this disease as communicable by in¬ 
fection. XVhathas, perhaps, most given 
countenance to this idea is, that a wife 
or a husband shall sometimes speedily 
follow the fate of the partner for life. 
Tiiis circumstance, when it occurs, is of 
a kind calculated to excite observation. 
But it is obvious that such coincidencies 
must occasionally take place, merely 
from the frequency and extensive preva¬ 
lence of the disorder in question. And, 
that the fact may, in other instances, be 
sufficiently accounted for by the degree 
of exposure, anxiety, and fatigue, which 
the lingering and painful illness of a be¬ 
loved object never fails to exact from an 
alliance of duty and attachment. Self 
neglect is necessarily attendant upon 
alfections of a high order, and the con¬ 
sequences of such neglect, upon a con¬ 
stitution naturally feeble or predisposed 
to disease, will often become irreparable 
before their progress is perceptible to a 
person whose mind, under circumstances 
of deep interest, is too much occupied 
to be aware, lor a time, of the impressions, 
and perhaps fata! depredations, W’hich 
are made upon the corporeal frame. 
Many, no doubt, more especially of 
the more delicate sex, have in this way 
fallen the inadvertent or voluntary vic¬ 
tims of conjugal tenderness and devotion. 
What may most console us for the base, 
and selfish alloy in our nature, is the 
aifection we find subsisting between per¬ 
sons that have been long united. Where 
neither dislike nor indifierence has fol¬ 
lowed intimacy, this sentiment, which 
in ordinary situations retires from view, 
bursts tortli in the hour ot danger, strong 
and undisguised as it shewed itself in 
ages, where the sincere expression ofthe 
feelings stood in the place of that circum¬ 
spect and disciplined demeanor, whiclr 
looks round ainuugat the by-standers 
before it dares listen to the voice 
within r* 
It is now twelve years since these me¬ 
dical Reports were commenced by 
the present writer. After having conti¬ 
nued them, with runall interruption for 
so long a period, it will scarcely excite 
surprise, that the Reporter should be at 
length disposed to desist from the prose¬ 
cution of his monthly task. It must ra¬ 
ther be matter of wonder that he has 
persevered thus far. Upon subjects so* 
little varied and so much worn, he has 
for some time past fotmd it almost im¬ 
possible to make any remark which did 
not involve the wearisorneness of repe¬ 
tition. The many llatLering and profita¬ 
ble testimonies of respect which these 
periodical communications have pro¬ 
duced, have, he confesses, been the 
principal motive for their continuance. 
The author of these reports, in taking 
his farewel of the public in that parti¬ 
cular capacity, expresses his wish, that 
his present self may not be considered 
as responsible for ail the opinions wiiicii 
may have been advanced, or expressions 
which may have been made use of, in some 
of the earlier passages of the ser' s. To 
renounce the errors of immature expe¬ 
rience is, at a more advanced age, no 
unworthy or disreputable recantation. 
The human mind is, or ought to be, pro¬ 
gressive. At tiie close, tlierefore, of a 
period of twelve years of much observa¬ 
tion and reflection, the writer of this ar¬ 
ticle may be allowed to hope, that he i^, 
in no inconsiderable degree, wiser than 
he was at its commencement. 
J. Reid„ 
Grenville-street, Brunswick--square, 
December 1811. 
* Dr. Seddoes’s Hygeia. 
ALPHA SETICAI* 
