BC History of the World. History of Medicine. BC History of the World.

279

History of Medicine.

Anatomist. -Xeno

theus.

der the hands of Lithotomists.

tes.

263

261

gamos.

king of Pontus.

mea.---Heron.-Gor- 117 Cleopatra, Queen

gias.-Glaucius, the

Egypt.

Empiric.-Ammonius 100 Marius and Sylla.

the Lithotomist. Plague at Rome. A Dictator drives a nail into the temple of Jupiter. Lycon of Troy.-Amyntas of Rhodes.-Apol

78

63 Pompey.

-Cæsar.

Cicero.

lonius of Memphis.- 62 Death of Mithridates.

Sylla dies of a lousy dis

ease.

Themison of Laodicea.

Plague at Rome. A Dic

tator drives a nail into the temple of Jupiter. Death of Zeno of Citi

um.

MEMORANDA.

Favoured Spots.-It is said, that neither Small Pox, Measles, Whooping Cough, nor Scarlet Fever, have ever been known in New South Wales, Van Diemen's land, or the Sandwich Islands.

Boston.-41 deaths from Sept. 10. to Sept. 17. Many sudden changes in the weather lately-in one 24 hours, a difference of 25°.

An individual was lately nearly killed by Stramonium, recommended by a brother carpenter.

New York.-94 deaths for the week ending Sept. 18.-Consumption 12, Dropsies 9, Dysentery &, Fevers 5, Flux Infantile 6, Hives 5, Small Pox 2.

Baltimore.-32 deaths for the week ending Sept. 20.-Fevers 5, Cholera Infantum 4, Still born 4, Infantile unknown 2! Consumption 3, Dyssentery 2, unknown 4.

Washington. The Medical Department of Columbia College is organized, and lectures are expected to be commenced in a few months.-Dr. J. Sewall, Anatoiny and Physiology; Dr. J. M. Staughton, Surgery and Chemistry; Dr. T. Henderson, Theory and Practice of Physic; Dr. M. W. Worthington, Materia Medica.

Richmond.-Four new cases of the Small Pox were reported last week.

Charleston.-Yellow Fever still prevailing. -Five new cases were reported Sept. 13.— Two on the 14th; two on the 15th; nine on the 16th! Ten on the 17th! Five on the 18th! Two on the 19th. There were 39 deaths from Sept. 5 to Sept. 12. Yellow Fever 21! other fevers 4; consumption 2; Diarrhea 3.

Thermometer, (3 P. M.) Sept. 5=85°: 6 81°: 7-82o: 8=79°; 9=71°: 10=71°: 11=730:

Nashville.-(Tenn.) An association has been formed for the purpose of establishing a course of medical instruction in this place. Drs. Roane, Overton, Ewing, and M'Nairy, and Rev. Wm. Hume, are to lecture on the different branches.

Mobile.-3 deaths from Aug. 16 to Aug: 23-UNUSUALLY healthy.

New Orleans.-The mortality from yellow fever is considerable! The number of deaths is said to increase, and many new cases are constantly reported! Those who are not acclimated are mostly leaving the city! There were 12 interments, Aug. 25, mostly of yellow fever; 11 on the 26th, of which 7 of yellow and 2 of malignant fever!

Havana.-Very sickly.

Kingston.-(Jam.) A malignant fever was prevailing here Aug. 10.

Valentia.-(Spain) A woman in the neighbourhood of this place was lately delivered of seven children.

Norfolk.-(Eng.) Dr. Fagerman asserts that the bites of rabid animals may be cured by the fluid extract of lead.

NECROLOGY.

Dr. William C. McMillan, New York.
Dr. J. B. Wilkinson, New Orleans.
Dr. Trumbull Dorrance, Pittsfield, (Mass.)

FOOD.

When the human frame is anatomically and physiologically considered, and particularly the masticating and digesting organs, we shall be forced to admit, that man is naturally more of a herbiverous than a carnivorous animal; and without adopting the Pythagorean doctrines, ancient or modern, there can be little doubt that a pre-disposition towards many of the most fatal of our diseases is generated by the use or abuse of animal food. The mischief however lies more in the quantity than quality of our diet. When we contemplate each varying tribe of mankind, from the turtle-eating Alderman to the earth devouring ottomaque, and see him subsist, exclusively or collectedly, on every thing which air, earth, or ocean can produce, with cæteris paribus, an equal degree of longevity, we are irresistibly led to the conclusion, that it is principally by excess that we convert food into poison.

PREMIUMS.

The Medical society of New York have of fered a premium of $50 for the best dissertation on the History, Causes and Treatment of Whooping Cough. A similar one also for the best dissertation on the Remote and Existing Causes of Phthisis Pulmonalis.-To be forwarded to the secretary at Albany on or before the first of January 1825.

NATURAL HISTORY.

The researches into natural history, have of late been so minute, extensive and suc cessful, that the results are quite astonishing. The writings of M. Straup on the May bug, have just shewn, that this little body, of an inch in length, has 306 hard pieces serving as envelopes, 494 muscles, 24 pair of nerves, and 48 pair of tracheœ.

PUBLISHED (EVERY THURSDAY) BY ROBERT DESILVER. At $3 per annum, payable in advance.

INTERMITTENT FEVER. The consideration of intermittent fever is so interesting in itself, and from its unusual prevalence among us for the last three years, has acquired so much additional interest, that a few remarks upon some circumstances connected with it will not, we trust, be unacceptable. These remarks will be directed principally to its treatment; and it is not with a view of offering any thing new upon the subject, that we have at this time entered upon it, for all that we may say has been generally known to physicians long since, and is perhaps coeval with our acquaintance with the disease itself: we do not then offer any thing that is new, but we have derived so much benefit from a particular plan of treatment, that we cannot forbear pressing it upon the attention of our medical brethren.

It is well known, and we state it as an admitted fact, that the more chills we prevent, or in other words the fewer

can

No. 17.

cold stages the patient has to undergo, the sooner will the disease be brought to a conclusion, and the less injury will be sustained by the constitution;-how to prevent or ward off these chills, beconies then a matter of some importance, and we will now state what we have found, after various trials, the most efficacious method of accomplishing this object. An emetic is directed to be taken half an hour or less before the chill comes or is expected to come on: this can be very accurately ascertained where the paroxysm is pretty regular, and even when the period of its access varies from day to day, the patient can always know when his chill is approaching-there are certain premonitory signs which cannot be mistaken. Should the emetic operate well, the chill is often, we were going to say generally, prevented for that time at least, and this alone is an important point gained; we have broken a morbid habit, we have roused the system and

effected a powerful change in it, we have saved to the patient a certain amount of suffering, and we can now advance with more confidence of success to the other parts of the treatment. We have also in this way completely checked in some instances the further progress of the disease, and the patient has not been again disturbed by this unwelcome and unpleasant visiter. In those cases in which the result was not so striking, the intervals between the paroxysms have been daily lengthened, and we have had the satisfaction of believing that we have brought the disease to a conclusion many days before we should have done it without the emetic.

So much for this plan of treatment, which we consider far superior to any other at this particular period, and which we are inclined to believe little practised, and far too much neglected. The plan of giving opium or laudanum before and during the chill is most valuable, inasmuch as in most cases, it seems to shorten the cold stage, and prepare the system to go through the others with more advantage; but it rarely produces such striking effects as those mentioned above as proceeding from the use of the emetic. In chronic cases too, more will be effected in this than in any other way.

With regard to the hot and sweating stages, we have at present no particular concern-the old and common plan requiring no alteration, accomplishing all that we then look for.

In the apyrexia we have succeeded better with a combination of some of the principal articles in use, than with any one singly-thus we have used arsenic and bark, or arsenic and quinine with success, in cases that had resisted the employment of those medicines singly. The cherry tree bark has also been of not a little advantage in some particular

cases.

In spite however of all our efforts, intermittent fever, after being once cured has a strong tendency to recur at the end of a week, a fortnight or a month, and this too, when quantities of bark,

quinine or arsenic, are daily consumed and continued for some time. We have observed this particularly in the cases among the poor, who will not take the proper precautions, how strongly soever we may urge them upon them. Under these circumstances, we have generally directed a few grains of calomel or the blue pill, to be daily taken for some time in conjunction with the remedies abovementioned, and even continued after these have been left off-and in this way in most cases have completely eradicated the complaint. A ptyalism does not seem to be necessary, and we have rarely induced it; the mercury seems silently to work its way into the system, and there remain to guard against any subsequent attack from the persevering enemy. Whether it is owing to this, or the free evacuation we have made use of during the continuance of the disorder, or both, we know not, but certain it is, comparatively few cases have recurred; and we are disposed to think, that if practitioners generally were to trustless to the specific and all powerful virtues of quinine, &c. and direct their attention more to the general state of the system, with vigorous treatment in the commencement and copious evacuation throughout, the stamp of intermittent fever would not be so conspicuous, as it is now generally among its convales

Hor arguments are wanting to render the common opinion, at least problematical. It is not my intention to dwell on this point, however worthy of pursuit. I wish merely to attach my remarks to a question of no little interest, and which has never yet received a satisfactory reply.

Among the "hints of some desiderata in the doctrine of vision, light, and colours," by Dr. Priestley in his very excellent work, on light, is the following quere, and one, which has undoubtedly often been asked by every person who has felt the slightest interest in this subject, viz.-" To whatever cause it be owing that light is stopped in bodies, the question is, WHAT BECOMES OF IT?—The light that is again emitted by phosphorical substances is trifling compared with that amazing quantity which is received and absorbed by all terrestrial bodies from the light of the sun."

As I do not believe, according to common opinion, that light emanates from the sun, so neither do I credit its absorption by the bodies on which it may impinge.In impinging on perfectly transparent colourless bodies, as glass rock crystal, &c. it passes through, unchanged, diverging only slightly from its former course.-But if passing through the same bodies, of different colours, then a complete refraction of the ray ensues, by which the white light is broken up, and a coloured ray is reflected to our eye from the surface, similar to that, by which the body is denominated-thus blue, red, violet or yellow glass, will impart to the eye, a sensation of their respective colours.-But how? surely not by any thing emanating from the glass itself!--It must therefore arise from a refraction of the ray of white light impinging upon it, in consequence of some peculiarity in the glass itself, by which it differs from perfectly white glass.-Now this refraction taking place at the surface, the red or other coloured ray, is reflected back on the eye of the observer, whilst the other rays pass through, conveying no further sensation

to the eye.

In like manner, in opaque bodies, through which the rays of light do not pass, as in the numerous and diversified petals of flowers, and all the various objects either of nature or art, that are not transparent, as clothes, walls, &c. that colour, by which they are respectively named, cannot arise from any emanation from the body itself. Here, in like manner, it must be produced by the reflection of that particular coloured ray, after the whole ray of white light is broken up, by impinging on its surface; and it necessarily follows, that all these bodies must have certain peculiarities (qualities) annexed to their constitution, by which one coloured ray, rather than another, shall be thus reflected, whilst all the others are lost to our view!-What then becomes of those residuary rays?

་

It is impossible to imagine them annihilated; neither can we suppose they become perpetually fixed by absorption in those bodies on which they impinge.

Among the distinctive properties of light, one of the chief, is the repulsion of its particles:-now this repulsion exists as I conceive solely between the particles of actual white light, and in no degree between those, which as coloured particles, collectively constitute the white light; in other words, a strong affinity exists between all the coloured or prismatic particles, so as to keep them united

under common circumstances as white light, or whenever separated by the laws of refraction, to induce an immediate reunion, so as again to constitute that important intermedium of sensation in its perfect form.-Amidst the vast assemblage of bodies throughout nature, the rays of light continually impinging, are as perpetually refracted, either partially, or in toto; and diffused around, conjoin with equal rapidity with others thus equally disunited, until the affinity is complete, and a perfect ray or particle of white light is again constructed, once more to become obedient to its former laws.

It is by such an opinion only, that we can explain why our atmosphere is not perpetually filled with the prismatic par