1891. | 
relief of thofe claffes of fociety which are 
moft expofed to its influence. It is the 
peculiar privilege of difpenfary-practice 
that, being conduéted upon a {cale of vaft 
extent, it prefents am immenfe multitude 
of facts, from which this conneétion may 
be eafily and fatisfaétorily traced. . To 
note the effects of climate on the human 
frame, anenquiry of no lefs importance in 
amoral than in a phyfical point of view, 
is therefore the efpecial province of the 
practitioner to whom this ample field of 
obfervation lies open. ‘The general con- 
clufion that will be found to refult from 
the enquiry is, that no ftate of weather is 
equally falutary to every variety of con- 
ftitution, or conducive to the relief of 
every fpecies of complaint. A mild win- 
ter, by removing many caufes of iflnefs to 
which the poor are) particularly expofed, 
is extenfively beneficial; while, om the 
other hand, it is injurious almoft to an 
equal extent, by impairing the vigour of 
the frame, and thus predifpofing to. the 
Jong train of difeafe of which debility is 
the fource. 
The extraordinary warmth of the prefent 
winter, which has in fome meafure dif- 
turbed the natural order of the feafons, 
has occafioned a correfponding deviation 
in the ufual courfe and fucceffion of dif- 
eafes.. As the protracted autumn had 
prolonged the difpofition to contagious 
fever, io the premature revival of fpring 
has diminifhed the frequency and foftened 
the feverity of pulmonary complaints. 
The late froft has fearcely been of fufi- 
cient continuance to arreft the progrefs 
of febrile infeétion. Seldom, indeed, 
does the fudden occurrence of great cold, 
after a fever has once taken full poffeffion 
of the conftitution, immediately tend to 
mitigate the violence of its fymptoms. 
This fa& may, perhaps, admit of expla- 
nation, when we confider the rooted pre- 
judice of the lower claffes in favour of 
accumulating warmth around a fick bed. 
Cold weather being always more feverely 
felt on its fudden arrival, than when a gras 
dual approach has prepared for the encoun- 
ter, will tend, in the former cafe, to in- 
{pire additional anxiety to obtain effectual 
protection againft its attacks. |The 
wretched patient, wafting under a burn- 
ing fever, will often be overwhelmed, by 
the too officious care of his relations, with 
a fuperfluous load of bed-cloaths, and de- 
fended, with ill-judged geal, from the 
falutary renewal of air. Heat, thus ar- 
tificially excited, expends in fruirlefs watte 
the laft remains of vitality; and an at- 
mofphere thus ftagnant and replete with 
poiloa move fatally malignant than the 
Lift of Difeafes. 
167 
difeafe, extinguifhes in filence the dimly 
glimmering flame of life. 
Pulmonary complaints have been more 
frequent fince the late alterations in the 
weather. Few difeafes require more faga- 
city in deteéting their nature, or greater 
accuracy in difcriminating their varieties, 
than thofe that affeét the organs of refpi- 
ration: in none is it of greater import- 
ance that the diagnofis fhould be juft. 
No miftake is more likely to be attended 
with fuch fatal confequence to the life of 
the patient than an error of judgment with 
regard to this particular. The fame re- 
medy, which will in one cafe fave, would, 
if applied in another, inevitably deftroy. 
Great attention is requifite to recognife 
the flow and infidious approach of peri- 
pneumonia notha; a difeafe, which, in this 
city, fo often {upervenes upon an ordinary 
catarrh. Hackney-coachmen are pecu- 
liarly liable to its attacks. Expofed toll 
the wiciflitudes of an inconftant climate, 
with little general exercife of body, and 
with none that tends to preferve the feet 
inadue degree of warmth, it frequently 
in them affumes the leading charaéters of 
the true pleurify. A phyfician, who 
were to have recourfe to the lancet, would 
learn too late, by the aggravation of 
every {ymptom, and jthe fpeedy death of 
his patient, the fatal and irretrievable 
error he had committed. Bleeding is a 
remedy feldom applicable to the difeafes 
which afflict the poor of the metropolis. 
Their general chara&ter has been for a 
long time paft complicated with fymptoms 
of debility. Of late, indeed, many caufes 
have confpired with the warmth of the 
feafon, to enervate the once robuft habits 
of our countrymen. Thofe circumftances 
which produced fuch ravages in former 
years, have, it is true, operated with 
inferior force. But little has it availed 
the poor that they have experienced lefs 
inclemency from the elements, while at 
the fame time they have wanted internal 
fupport, as well as exterior protection 
againft the viciffitudes of our atmofphere. 
They have had to ftruggle with an unpre- 
cedented degree of hunger, anxiety, and 
fatigue. Under the accumulated preffure 
of hardfhips like thefe, is it to be won- 
dered at, that difeafes have fpread fo wide 
ly, and yielded fo many vigtims to the 
grafp of death ? 
Thus we find that the mournful cata- 
logue of infirmities, which each fucceeding 
period oBtrudes upon our view, ip every 
feafon, and in every country, {till prefents 
the fame picture of calamity, ftill continues 
to rehearle the fame endle{s tale of human 
mifery? J. R. 
Red Lion Square, LIST 
