1801.) 
Diarrheeas and Dy(enteries have’ pre- 
vailed in an unufual degree during the laft 
two or three months; but nothing wor- 
thy of remark has occurred either in the 
'fymptoms of thefe difeafes, or in the 
mode'‘of treating them. Typhus has 
likewife been widely propagated, but has 
by oo means fhewn that alarming viru- 
dence and malignity which committed fuch 
frightful ravages for a confiderable pericd 
previous to the publication of the lat re- 
port from the Finfbury Difpenfary. It is 
to be hoped, from the alrcady ameliorated 
and ftill ameliorating condition of the 
poor, that this fever will long continue 
more innocent, as well as contracted in its 
influence, 
A large proportion of the difeafes in- 
ferted in the above catalogue were gra- 
dually induced by habits of fpirituous in- 
temperance, Punifhment, in fome cafes, 
treads inftantly on~ the heels: of tranf- 
greffion ; in others, with more tardy, al- 
though equally certain, fteps, it purfues 
the commiffion of moral irregularity. 
During the courfe of a long-protra&ted 
career of intemperance, ‘the nialignant 
power of alkohol, flow and infidious in 
its operation, is gnawing inceflantly at 
the root, and often, without {poiling the 
bloom, or feeming to impair the vigour 
of the frame, is filently haftening the pe- 
riod of its inevitable deftruction. 
In conne&tion with this remark it may 
not appear unfeafonable to fuggeft an ob- 
jection againft the too general employment 
of Tindfures in cales of difeafe.. They 
have adireét tendency todefiroy the powers 
of digeftion, and to induce the future ne- 
ceffity of artificial ftimulation. ; 
Tin&tures are medical drams—the ha- 
bitual ufe of them can be regarded only as 
a more /pecious and decorous mode of de- 
bauchery. A lady of fafhion and delicacy 
may in this way moft effectually ruin her 
health, without in the flighteft degree 
impairing her reputation, She may quell 
the gualms of the ftomach, without the 
inconvenience of inducing any qualms cf 
confcience. 5 
Howeyer, it fhould be remarked, that 
there are inftances in which, ftimuli may 
be uleful in dedu&ting from the operation 
of caufes {till more injurious aid more 
rapidly fatal in their effects. 
When, for inftance, pain, either cor- 
poreal or mental, has arrived at a certain 
pitch, ‘wine, brandy, “or Jaudanum, al- 
though they fhould always with caution, 
may fometimes with propriety be pre- 
feribed; as, by affording temporary 
selief, they fpare, for a time at leaft, 
% 
Lift of Difeafes. 
445 
the wear and tear that is voccafioned 
by too acute and violent emotion, 
Such afeafonable afe of them may perhaps, 
upon the whole, be regarded as a /awing 
to the conftitution. Likewife it is a thing 
that cannot too deeply be impreffed upon 
the mind of the medical practitioner, that 
whenever a patient exprefies an exceffively 
violent appetite, which, from his never 
having experienced it before, appears 
clearly to have been created by the dileafe, 
it ought univerfally to be regarded as indi- 
cating what is fubfervient to his .cure,. 
As in the lower animals, which are con- 
ftitutionally deficient in reafon, inftin& 
fupplies its place ; fo during the time that 
the mental power in man is in fome mea= 
fure impaired by difeafe, Nature uniform. 
ly provides him alfo with a temporary 
inftinét, {till more fure in its digtate than 
the yeafoning faculty. 
Owing toa neglect, as there was every 
reafon to fuppofe, of this important me- 
dical maxim, the reporter has recently 
lo{ta young patient, whofe character gave 
to her life an almoft incalculable value, 
Her youth made her death more deeply 
forrowful and affecting. me 
The pale and yellow leaf may fall in 
autumn unnoticed upon the ground, but 
it is not without feniation that we recard 
the yernal flower torn up by the roots or 
its early bloffom withered by the blaft. 
A perfon, for fome time paft, has been 
under the care of the Difpenfary, who, 
from a morbid vifceral affection, has, for 
upwards of four years, been liable, with 
{hort intervals, to fits of the moft exceflive | 
agony. 
The manner in which this poor creature’ 
fpeaks of his excruciating feelings excites 
_horror, without giving any reafon to 
doubt the fidelity and rigid accuracy of 
his reprefentation. _ 
No limit can be affigned to the poffible 
exacerbation of fuffering.—As, by the ap- 
plication of a certain force, all the matter of 
this vait globe might be compreffed within 
the compa(s of a nutthell; fo.it is not out 
of the reach of poffibility that the fenfa- 
tions of a thoufand years may in fome 
cafes be condenfed even into the {pace of 
a fingle initant. © / ; 
In a report publifhed about two years ~ 
ago, the cafe of a young woman * was 
a aN Ti ee 
~.™ Mr. Bartlett, the apothecary of the Finf- 
bury Difpenfary, from having repeatedly at- 
tended the patient, would, if required, be 
able to give amore fatistaCtory and particular 
account of this very curioys and fingular 
cafe, x 
mentioned, 
