1806.] 
cafes, as in electrical explofions of the 
atmofphere, the degree of danger is not to 
be alcertained by the loudnefs of the found. 
Rubeola, or mealles, has been likewife 
prevalent. In the inftances of this difeafe 
which have recently occurred within the 
praétice of the Reporter, in confequence 
of the combination of catarrhal with ty- 
phoid fymptoms, he has not ventured to 
have recourfe to a remedy which in other 
febrile diforders may be regarded as almoft 
alone fufficient for their cure. Although, 
however, co/d bathing or affufion cannot 
fafely perhaps be adminiftered, the writer 
of this article has invariably found tepzd 
ablution to be of obvious and effential fer- 
Vice. 
One fubjeé&t attacked with enteritis, or 
inflammation of the bowels, has lately 
fallen under the Reporter’s notice, where 
incautious and too copious venefection 
had occafioned an extreme and irrecover- 
able debility. The treatment of this dif- 
eafe is attended with greater dificulty and 
delicacy than perhaps that of any other in“ 
the nofology, in confequence of a high 
degree of Jocal excitement being unfortu- 
nately combined with an extreme debility 
and depreflion of the general vigour of 
the frame. It is a fubjeét therefore on 
which it would not be right to exprefs an 
‘opinion with unqualified confidence. - But 
the reporter, both from hisexperience and 
theory, is inclined to believe, that if in 
the firit infance fomentations to the part 
more immediately affected, or, what he 
conceives would be fill better, a complete 
fubmeriion of the whole body in the warm 
bath, was had recourfe to, and in addi- 
tion to this, leeches to the abdomen, eze- 
mas, and fome other medicinal auxiliaries, 
they would in moft cafes fuperfede the 
dangerous neceflity of thofe extravagant 
evacuations from the arm, which, while 
they tend to remove the inflammatory ftate 
of the inteftines, too often induce, and 
that almoft immediately, an entire and ir- 
reparable exhaultion of the powers of life, 
It fhould be confidered, that though, by 
the bold application of the lancet, a pa- 
tient may be cured of his difeafe, yet he 
may die of the cure. 
The inftance in which the above com. 
plaint appeared with the grecteft {em- 
biance of danger, was in a patient of a 
previoufly healthy and almoit herculean 
conftitution. 
A diforder is for the moft part violent 
in proportion to the ftaminal vigour of 
the fubject which it attacks. The puny 
valetudinarian ‘eems to fufter lefs from in- 
difpofition, in confequence of his being 
more accuftomed to it. His lingering and 
almoft femivital exiftence is often pro- 
2 
Report of Difeafis. 
259 
trated beyond the period of the more ac- 
tive, vivacious, and robuft, 
Of the lamp of life it may be obferved, 
as of other artificial lights, that in pro- 
portion to the brilliancy of its flame is 
the thortnefs of its duration: the more 
flowly and flugeifhly we drag the chain. 
of exiftence, the longer willit be before 
we arrive at the end of cur journey. 
Nervous affeftions appear daily to in. 
creafe in number, as well as in degree, 
With an alarming rapidity they are gain- 
ing ground amongft the inhabitants of this 
ifland. * 
It could not be too frequently repeated, 
if a frequent repetition of the dottrine 
could more deeply imprefs its magnitude 
and truth, that it is the tendency to fuch 
diforders that ought to be anxioufly 
watched and vigoroufly refitted. When 
fully formed and rooted in the frame, too 
often is it out of the reach either of me- 
dical or moral art to eradicate or extract 
them.  Propenjities muft be checked, if at 
all, before they have grown into Aabits. 
Infanity is not, it is merely a predifpo- 
filion toit that 16 hereditary. It might 
not perhaps tranfgrefs the exaétnefs of 
truth to affert, that the external circum- 
{tances and accidents of a man’s life have 
a more powertul efficacy. than any latent 
feeds of difo:der in his original organiza= 
tion ; and that one who, from a frar of ra= 
dical predifpofition, fhould from early life. 
adopt a counteracting regimen, would be 
Tefs in danger of being affi€ted with men- 
tal malady than one who, confiding in a 
conftitutional immunity from this difeafe, 
fhould continually and carelefsly expofe 
himfelf to its predifpofing or ‘exciting 
-caufes.. Ina derangement of the human 
frame, more efpecially when the intellec- 
tual faculty is principally concerned, the 
firft moment of its appearance is perhaps 
the only one when it may be combated 
with any certainty of fuccels. The fmal- 
left {peck on the edge of the horizon 
ought to be regarded with awe, as por- 
tending, if not fperdily difperfed, an unte 
verfal and inipenetrable g'oom. 
J. Rep, 
Grenville-fircet, Brunfvick [quare, 
March 26, 1808. . 
* In this opinion the wiiter is confirmed 
by that of bis friend Mr. Haflam, of Beth- 
lehem, Hofpital, a. perfon who not only pof- 
fefles a wide field of experience in this clats of 
maladies, but likewife a degree of energy 
and perfpicacity of intelle&t that enables him 
to’ make ufe of experience. It is not the 
number of obje€ls that paffes under his eye 
that increafesa man’s wifdom, but the degree 
of: attention and fagacity with which he ob- 
ferves, Gifcriminates, and arranges them. 
STATE 
