dies; yet it is to be lamented, that the former has ever had a powerful influence on the administration of the latter. Whenever a theory of fever has been founded on some plausible train of symptoms occurring in that disease, and has been dressed up in elegant and imposing language, with a due proportion of analogies, possessing an apparent share of probability, it has been in vain that all the common sense and plain observation of the day has been opposed to it; the delusion has uniformly proceeded till opposed by some other bubble equally empty and fragile, but rendered more captivating by the additional charm of novelty. Notwithstanding all the caution and scepticism supposed to be instilled into the mind of the modern physician along with the first principles of the inductive philosophy, there can be little doubt that a theory of fever, squared to our present notions of the animal economy, and not liable to any very manifest objection, would be received with as great applause at the present moment as were in their times the theories of Boerhaave and Cullen. Human nature, as well as continued fever, is at all times the same; and the pleasure of being able to predict, reason and explain à priori, will ever be found too high a temptation for its weakness. How much more powerful the fancy than the understanding! As long as this

is the nature of man, it is vain to look for an explanation of the changes that have taken place in the descriptions of fever, in the atmosphere, introduction of certain articles of diet, or trifling and gradual improvements in cleanliness and ventilation introduced into civil society. We shall afterwards see how readily the character of the PESTIS BELLICA of the late war varied according to the views entertained in Germany of its proximate cause; and a slight inspection of the works of Sydenham will demonstrate how effectually his theory of epidemic constitutions served to conjure up varieties of epidemic fever, which were quite unobservable to any one but himself and followers. Huxham seems to have been very willing to earn the praise which Sydenham held out to any one who should farther cultivate this subject, but has left it in still greater obscurity than his illustrious predecessor. The other theories that have been advanced respecting fever, though less generally received, and indeed less fallacious than this, have each had their share in giving rise to much fancied variety in epidemics. The biliary theorists, much like the present gastrists on the Continent, saw nothing but bile in the skin, stomach and fæces; a phenomenon which we might see to-day also, if we chose to consider a trifling occurrence as the most remarkable event in the disease. The late

supporters of debility observed if the tongue trembled, or was not readily pushed out of the mouth; and a tremor of the hands was to Pringle a diagnostic symptom of the worst typhus gravior or jail fever. Whoever shall hunt for such puerilities will find them as abundant in the present fever as they will in any other disease, where much weakness or perturbation of the nervous energy exists. The believers in putridity find a host of indications of their favourite ideas. Fetid discharges, darkcoloured fur in the mouth and on the teeth, vibices, petechiæ, gangrene, carbuncle, and abscesses, have all been occasionally met with, though, as they never were productive of much alarm, we have not dwelt upon them particularly, nor suffered them to disturb our other indications.

After all, the dissimilarity of this fever to others, and particularly its possessing a more inflammatory character, may be matter of parental affection to some of our readers; and as it is an opinion that can hardly produce any mischief in their practice, we shall not further insist on their relinquishing it, but rather proceed to deliver our sentiments as to the identity of the epidemic of Edinburgh with that of other places.

The fever of Ireland has been admirably described by Drs Kidd and Cheyne, the former in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, the

pre

latter in the Dublin Medical Reports. The excellent little work of Dr Bateman likewise affords a clear and accurate delineation of the form it assumes in England. These I have read with attention, and have besides seen histories of the sent epidemic from different parts of the empire, -one very ably drawn up by Dr Adam Hunter, physician to the House of Recovery, Leeds, a gentleman whose professional acquirements and correct judgment eminently qualify him for that situation. The picture which he delineates of the disease, answers trait for trait with the one we have above delineated, and forms no exception to my general conclusion from the other descriptions, that it is the same epidemic which rages every where over the empire, and that the trifling variations which may be noticed in these authors, are entirely to be attributed to local or other circumstances quite unconnected with the fever. We shall afterwards have occasion to state our reasons for considering it the same as has always prevailed, particularly during the winter months in this kingdom; and to refer, with Professor Hufeland, its supposed diversity rather to the mental revolutions of practitioners, than the actual revolution of disease.

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE

CAUSES OF THE EPIDEMIC.

ALL epidemics in this climate seem to be propa gated by a contagious effluvium arising from the bodies of the sick, or other matters named fomites, which they have infected in the course of the disease. These substances are generally bad conductors of caloric, and from this property are mostly such as are employed about the beds and persons of the sick, though it must be confessed that other substances, of a very different nature, seem frequently to become the medium of communication. Of the contagious nature of the disease under consideration, abundant evidence was afforded every day. When acting as clerk to Dr Hamilton in the Royal Infirmary, in the course of four months, my three co