490 
Religion, natural and revealed, to the Con- 
stitution and Course of Nature. By the Rev. 
Joseph Wilson, A.B. 4s. 6d. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
The Natural History of British Insects 3, 
together with the History of such Minute 
Insects- as require Investigation by ‘the 
= 
Report of Diseases. 
[June }, 
Microscope: the whole illustrated by colours 
ed figures, designed and executed from living 
specimens. By E. Donovan. Vol. XIV. 
it. 11s. 
Mr. Crossfield desires us to state, that the 
price of the Calendar of Flora, is 1s. 6d. ine 
- stead of 3s. 6d. 
a a SE 
REPORT OF DISEASES, 
Under the Care of the late Senior Physician of the Finsbury Dispensary, from the 
20th of April to the 20th of May, 1810. : 
2 
WHE alternate smiles and frowns of 
our fitful and coquetish climate, 
have recently appeared to prodvce in 
more than usual abundance, rheumatic, 
catarrhal, and the more strictly pulino- 
nary, affections. 
Two of the most important cases, in 
the treatment of which the reporter has 
been concerned during the last month, 
were instances of pleuritic inflammation. 
Pleurisy is one of the few diseases in 
which bleeding is imperiously demanded ; 
more especially when it occurs in the 
unimpaired constitution of early youth. 
Even at an age farther advanced, and 
when the springs of life have been 
somewhat worn, venesection may and 
ought to be had recourse to, altheugh 
in a more cautious and sparing manner. 
But in most of the other derangements 
of the frame in which it is usual to em- 
ploy the lancet, the writer of this article 
still adheres to an opinion which he has 
so repeatedly expressed, that it cannot 
fail to prove often a cause of the even- 
tual, sometimes of the almost immediate, 
extinction of vitality. In the different in- 
terruptions, for instance, of nervous ener- 
gy, which are exhibited in apoplectic 
and paralytic paroxysms, the first thing 
which is generally thought of, .1s to open 
a vein; as if we should most effectually 
relieve actual exhaustion by substracting 
the vital fluid, or as ifthe hest mode of 
restoring impaired or suspended powers, 
were tO have recourse to that evacuation 
which of ail ethers seems best calcalated 
to produce the extreme of debility! The 
immediate administration of brandy, or 
some other poweriul stimulus, is, in 
the majority of such emergencies, more 
obviously indicated than depletion of 
any kind, more especially of blood. To 
-use.a metaphor which has been almost 
worn out in thé service of these reports, 
we ought to blow the nearly extinguished 
fire, instead of scattering with a careless 
extravagance, the fuel which supports it. 
In cases likewise of contirmed pthysis, 
there can be little doubt that bleeding 
proves generally injurious, by the weak- 
ness which it aggravates or occasions, 
In instances even of hopeless consump- 
tion, it hastens the march of an ineyitably 
fatal malady, it hurries those steps which 
are unalterably pointed towards destruc- 
tion. By no dexterous management of 
the reins, can we turn this disorder out of 
its course, but we may restrain, in some 
degree, the rapidity of its progress, and 
cause it to move at a more leisurely and 
easy pace to the grave. 
Several recent cases have demonstrated, 
or rather illustrated to the reporter, the 
inexpediency of mothers who are sickly 
and consumptive suckling their children, 
Without considering whether the taint or 
germ of any specific disease can be cominu= 
nicated through such a medium, there can 
be little doubt that the milk of a healthy 
cow is preferable to that which is secreted 
by the breast of an unhealthy woman, — 
Many female parents are apt in this 
way, to inflict upon themselves as well as 
their infant offspring, serious and irre- 
parable mischief, from a mistaken sense 
of maternal obligation. Violations of 
duty are sometimes not more injurious — 
than erroneous conceptions, with regard ~ 
to its dictates and its limits. . 
The only other case which the re- 
porter means at present to notice, is 
that of an unfortunate man who became 
a victim to the disastrous issue of a vas — 
riety of commercial speculations. The 
same blow which deranged his affairs, 
produced a disorder of his reason. His 
finances and his faculties fell together. — 
The phantoms of imagination indeed — 
survived, and seemed to hover over the — 
ashes of his understanding. The demon — 
of speculation, which had before misled — 
