266 
[Oct. 1, 
Medical and Agricultural Reports, 
MEDICAL REPORT. 
Report of Diseases and Casualties occurring in public and private Practice 
of the Physician who has the care of the Western District of the City Dispensary. 
B ILIOUS affections have lately been 
prevalent even beyond the ordinary 
proportion of the season, and in some cases 
have proved of so malignant a nature, and 
so severe in degree as to require more than 
common vigilance on the part ot the prac¬ 
titioner to preserve the vital principle from 
sudden extinction. 
The physician finds (in the treatment of 
disease generally) four species of debility 
to contend with, all demanding different 
management, and therefore calling for 
much care in respect of their recognition. 
The first kind of weakness is purely ner¬ 
vous ; it is a weakness of the will—that is, 
there exists actual power, but from a mor¬ 
bid condition of the voluntary faculty, the 
patient is reduced to the same state of im¬ 
potence as if the positive w’ant of power 
was the complaint to be combated. It 
scarcely needs be said, that much discern¬ 
ment is often demanded thoroughly to ap¬ 
preciate, and properly to manage this, in 
fact, mental malady, though presenting a 
bodily shape—but if the physician find the 
proper clue to the requisites of the case, 
and judiciously make use of his knowledge, 
he will sometimes successfully command 
his apparently feeble, fainting, and tor¬ 
pid patient, to become strong, courageous, 
and active. 
In the second case, there is an actual de¬ 
privation of power.—a positive exhaustion 
of the principle of strength ; and here 
physical tonics are loudly called for, and 
abundantly applicable; much action is 
compatible with this state of the animal 
fibre ; but then it is irregular and inordi¬ 
nate, not due and well-proportioned ; you 
may here often instantaneously still the 
excited commotion, by measures which, in 
a different state of things, would irritate 
and disturb, rather than calm and compose. 
Witness the astonishing quantities of opium 
that may be beneficially administered in 
instances of Tetanic spasm. 
We have, thirdly, smothered strength as¬ 
suming the semblance of essential weak¬ 
ness, without actually partaking of its 
nature. In these affections we have 
to unwind, as it were, for a considerable 
length, in order to replace the cord of 
strength around the bodies of our patients, 
iu a well-adjusted and unentangled man¬ 
ner. We are here to u do evil that good 
may come,” and to look to the point of the 
lancet (as a predecessor* of the reporter 
has happily expressed himself,) for the 
“ conveyance of a cordialmany fevers 
present illustrations of this sort of feeble¬ 
ness. 
Lastly, the practitioner will but too 
often meet with examples of much ge¬ 
neral weakness, so intimately united with 
topical and internal derangement, that 
unadvisedly to attempt the institution 
of a strengthening process, is to strength¬ 
en—not the subject of the disease, but 
the disease itself; and even to acce¬ 
lerate the fatal termination. The writer 
has just commanded a visit to the coast 
in the case of a functional malady—he has 
just condemned the same in the case of a 
structural disorder-—the one was an in¬ 
stance of pure unmixed debility, the other 
was an example of weakness complicated 
with, and even caused by, an inflammatory 
irritation of au important organ. 
D. Uwins, M.D. 
Bedford Bow, Sept. 20, 1821. 
* Dr. Sayer Walker. 
MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
A N unkindly and variable season has 
concluded in one of the most expen¬ 
sive and distressing harvests, to the majo¬ 
rity of our farmers, to which an uncertain 
climate subjects us. We have, however, 
experienced far worse seasons, in which 
cold, wet, and blighting weather has been 
more constant, the present having been re¬ 
lieved almost throughout by warm and ge¬ 
nial alternations. The Continent has not 
been more fortunate. With respect to the 
harvest in particular, Ireland has perhaps 
suffered more heavily than this country, in 
which the Western parts have been most 
hnfortuuate. In Scotland, and in the North 
generally, the wheats are said to have been 
harvested with most success. Lincoln¬ 
shire is named as one of the most fortunate 
districts. The plant of all the white corn 
w T as sufficiently strong and thick upon the 
land, unless oats be the exception ; but the 
atmospheric diseases took place early, and 
the rains which clouded the harvest have 
completed the misfortune of the crop, of 
which a fine sample will be a rarity. There 
will be a vast quantity of black and sprout¬ 
ed wheat, and of discoloured barley. The 
bulk, indeed, will be considerable ; and as 
to peas and beans, the crop was perhaps 
never greater, but the harvest of the 
latter 
