$46 
moft inftances, the fat. In cafes of 
a€tual difeafe, what the patient wifhes for, 
the phyfician ought, in general, to pre- 
fceribe. Im fuch circumftances, the im- 
pulfe of inclination, when it has not been 
perverted by prejudi¢e, or debauched by 
previous habit, is rarely calculated to mif- 
conduct or betray. 
The fubfequent remark of a claffical 
and philofophical phyfician, although it re- 
fer to a patticular difeafe, may, with fome 
alteration, be applied to difeafes in gene- 
yal. © How fruitlefs and how perverted 
are the efforts by which learning and 
{cience have in general attempted to com- 
bat this fatal difeafe (plague). The re- 
medies were not to be traced in the pre- 
vailing fyftems of medicine, or in the 
pharmacy of the fhops; but it is probable 
they might have been found in the refrefh- 
ment of the breeze, in the dews of night, 
and in the waters of the Nile.’’* 
Southampton-row, 
Rufell-quare. O@. 23, 1804. 
Had it not been for the able and fufficient 
anfwer of Dr. Uwins’ to an attack in a late 
number of the Monthly Magazine, on an ob- 
fervation of the Reporter, he might perhaps 
be difpofed to have replied to it ina full and 
formal manner. The effential miftake of the 
animadverter appears to confift in not under- 
ftanding what is meant by theory. Theory 
he feems to regard as preceding and oppofing 
actual obfervation : whereas, theory is mere- 
ly a generalization and explanation of facts. 
No fpeculation in medicine, or in any other 
fcience, can be folid and fecure, that is not 
founded upon the found and fubftantial bafis 
of experience. 
The following letter, by the refpectable 
writer of the preceding Report, printed 
and diftributed by the Colonel of the 
Clerkenwell! Corps of Volunteers, will, 
we doubt not, prove interefting to our 
readers at the prefent period. Edit. 
Jo F. MAGNIAC, Ef. 
Lieut. Colonel Commandant of the C. L.V.I. 
SIR, 
Havinc had the honour to be appoint- 
ed phyfician to the corps under your com- 
mand, I think it incumbent upon me to 
tugegeft a few hints, with regard to the 
health of its members, and the beft means 
of preventing the attack of thofe difeafes 
to which military men in general, and 
volunteers more elpecially, are Hable in 
times of afiual fervice. 
Thefe difeafes confift principally of 
rheumatic or catarrhal affections, and the 
J. Reip. 
* Currie’s Medical Reports, 
Report of Difeafes. 
[Nov. 1, 
diforders of the inteftinal canal, whick 
appear in the various fhapes of cholera, 
Giarrhoea, and dyfentery. 
Againit fuch complaints, the fir and 
effential prefervative is a complete enve- 
lope, from head to foot, of woellen cloath- 
ing; of every article of which each fol- 
dier ought to carry a duplicate, as a fre- 
quent change will be of material utility 
and importance. 
In cafe of encampment, or of being » 
expofed to the inclemencies or viciffitudes 
ct the weather, in the open and perhaps 
nocturnal air, or on the damp and naked 
ground, diluent liquors, if warm, are 
decidedly improper, having a direét ten. 
dency to relax the veffels which open up- 
on the furface of the body, and thus to 
render it much more liable, than it other- 
wife would be, to the claffes of difeafe 
above mentioned. ‘This remark applies 
particularly to thofe who have not before 
known the perils and inconveniences of 
military life. a 
In fimilar circumfances, a ftri& abfti- 
nence ought likewife to be inculeated from 
the taking of raw fruit, from the drinking” 
of cyder, perry, and alfo every kind of malt 
liquor, with the exception perhaps of por= 
ter, which, from the tonic ingredients it 
contains, is the leaft objeétionable. All 
of them, ‘however, are apt, more efpe- 
cially in the autumnal months, to give 
rife to diforders of the bowels. | 
In inftances where cordials may be 
deemed neceflary, a mixture of f{pirit’ and 
water, weak, cold, and without fugar, 
or any other ingrediert, will anfwer more 
effectually the defied purpofe, and, in 
various refpects, be accompanied with a 
lefs degree of inconvenience and objection. 
No one, Sir, is more deeply penetrated 
then I am, not merely with the moral, 
but likewife with what I have peculiar 
and extenfive opportunities of obferving, 
the phyfical injury that arifes from inor- 
dinate ftimulation. But, at the fame time, 
I venture to give it as my opinion, that 
there are occafions and emergencies, when 
fuch ftimulants, as in the ordinary tenor 
of life are unadvifeable and deftructive, 
may be turned to temporary advantage. 
Wine, for inftance, taken every day in 
any confiderable quantity, impairs the 
tone of the ftomach, and cannot fail gra- 
dually to diforganize the firu@ure of the 
frame.—But in cafes of low fever or ex- 
treme debility, arifing from other caufes, 
even twice the quantity might net only 
be fafe, but neceflary, in order to abridge 
the continuance of difeafe, or to arreft it ~ 
in its progiels towards a fatal terminations 
