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Paralyfis |. o:.)4 
Apoplexia .... 
| OAT 5 ro 3a Vs oi MP LA Doe uO RNR cen AA aN 
A fhort time fince, occurred a cafe in the 
private practice of the Reporter, of a perfon 
in'a fuperior rank of life, who complained of 
the various and anomalous indications of dyf- 
peptia, fymptoms which he hinfelf thought, 
and there was every reafon to believe, arofe, 
in a great meafure, from the habitual fea-~ 
ficktnefs to which, in his earlier youth, he had 
been fubje&, in confequence of his profeffion 
as afailor, Such a faét illuftrates and corro- 
borates.an opinion, which the writer of this 
article has already endeavoured to imprefs, 
that the cuftom in dyfpeptic, or what are 
called bilious compiaints, of taking emetics 
whenever the ftomacn is difordered, is ex- 
tremely injurious, and muft ultimately prove 
fatal to the exiftence of the frame, 
The ftomach, confideting the delicacy of 
its internal texture, and the high and effen- 
tial confequence of its office, is in general 
treated with too little tendernefs and refpedct. 
It is the prime organ of the human fyftem, 
upon the ftate of which, all the powers and 
feelings of the individual principally depend. 
Bilious complaints, which at prefent are fo 
fafhionable, and to medical men fo profitable, 
almoft without exception, arife either from an 
Original relaxation, or a gradually impaired 
tone of thisimportant vifcus. Itis not, there- 
fore, by mercurial preparations, although fo 
high in vogue, but by the ufe merely of 
tonics and temperance, that fuch difeafes are 
to be eradicated or relieved. 
Nothing, furely, can be more abfurd, than 
the variety of jarring or neutralizing ele- 
ments which enter into the compofition for 
the cure of thefe as well as other compiaints. 
Simplicity is in general an index, or a pre- 
fumption of truth and utility. Into no for- 
mula, perhaps, ought to enter more than one 
active and efficient ingredient. By mixing a 
multiplicity of drugs, it is fcarcely poffible to 
afcertain the precife efficacy of any feparate 
article ; befides that a combination of articles, 
each of which in its feparate operation mighf 
be falutary, muft have a very different effe& 
when they are confounded together. In a 
{tate of exhauttion, there is a number of cor- 
roborants which would conduce to a recovery 
of ftrength, but a mixture of thefe could not 
fail to produce a very different refult. Bark, 
for inftance, or wine, or porter, is each cal- 
culated to refrefh and reftore, in a cafe of 
temporary debility or fatigue; but a compofition 
of bark, wine, and porter, would tend to dif- 
order rather than to invigorate, if in fuch 
inftances it were injudicioafly applied. 
The diarrheas recorded appear principally 
to have arifen from a want of tone in the fibres 
of the inteftinal canal, without any undue in- 
Creafe of biliary fecretion. The cafes of ana- 
farca were evidently produced by a general 
misislelniniate) Lek 
Report of Difeafes. 
69 
debility, originating either from age or from 
intemperance. It may not here be unfeafon~ 
-able to obferve, that the fwellings about the 
feet and ankles, to which perfons advanced 
in years are fo frequently liable, are oedemae 
tous, not dropfical, of courfe ought noc to be 
treated by fquills, calomel, or digitalis, but 
by thofe remedies, on the contrary, which 
are calculated to give ftrength, or to renovate 
the impaired tone of the conftitution. 
A cafe of menorrhagia that has lately been 
placed under the management of the Reporter, 
was with an alarming rapidity urged towards 
a fatal termination by the adminiftration of 
fox-glove, which was employed under the 
influence of an idea, that by retarding the 
circulation, it would diminifh the inorainate 
difcharge: the previous psaétitioner not ob- 
ferving that the inordinate djfcharge arofe 
merely from a relaxation of the veflels, which 
this remedy was calculated to increafe, and 
of courfe to aggravate the fymptoms and dan- 
ger entuing from the difeafe. 
A tingular and ftriking inftance has lately 
occurred of a young woman whoie power of 
utterance, although for many vears it had been 
almoft fufpenced, appears to have been gra 
dually reftored by the adminittrat’on of chalye 
beate remedies. The falutary efficacy or ftcel 
has not unfrequently in this article been the 
fubjeét of panegyric. There is no medicine 
of {uch tried and important utility, but it is 
of confequence what particular preparations 
of it may be employed; and it is likewife 
deferving of mention, that in re-eftablifhing 
a dilapidated frame, very fmall dofes conti- 
nued for a confiderable period, are more fafe 
and ferviceable than a larger mafs of the drug 
adminiftered during a ihorter time. Perhaps 
it is on this account that the drinking of 
chalybeate waters, which contain fo fcanty 
a proportion of iron, is in many inftances of 
More permanent and eflential advantage, than 
the exhibition of it in a pharmaceutical fhape. 
With this obfervation it is not at all incon- 
fiftent to remark, that medicines in a folid 
form, as they remain longer in the interior 
of the frame, have in general a more permae 
nent, and in confequence a more efficacious 
Operation. If, for inftance, it be wifhed to 
procure repofe, or releale from pain fora cer- 
tain number of hours, a pill of opium would 
be more likely to fecure a continuance of 
that ftate, than any of the tinétures in which 
Opium is an ingredient, 
Tinctures, except in cafes where the fto- 
mach can bear no other formula, are invari- 
ably unadvifable. Whey at veft are only more 
plaufible drams, difguifed under the name of 
drugs, and fan¢tioned by the authority of a 
phyfician. 
The inftances of rheumatifm were obfti- 
mate, but in many cafes yielded to the appli- 
cation of corroborant remedies. There is in 
fact a confanguinity between chronic rheu- 
matifm and paralyfis; and of courfe both 
ought to be treated in a fimilar manner. 
The 
