was noticed in this town, where it still continues to prevail very much amongst that branch of the population. I say branch of the population, because, of late years, the distresses in Ireland, and the comparative ease of procuring employment in Scotland, have filled with low Irish all the little offices and employments usually occupied by the Celtic part of our own population; and this change has been so sudden and so rapid, that twelve years ago, the sight of an Irish porter or lamp-lighter was considered as matter of curiosity. This I do not state upon my own authority or recollection, but upon that of a friend who has long watched the tide of population in Edinburgh, with its multifarious variations and bearings. The exertions, however, of the Society for the Suppression of Begging; of the Magistrates; and other public-spirited individuals, have prevented the wives of Irish labourers from doing much mischief in this town, by their practice of going out to beg while their husbands are at work; but, in some of the country districts, where absolute prevention is impossible, it is suspected that the fever has been propagated by their means. It is evident, however, that this mendicity can act only by transferring the contagious matter from one house to another, and therefore is only to be classed with the other innumerable ways of propagating contagion.

REVIEW

OF THE

TABLES.

THE HE foregoing general account has been drawn up from observation on nearly 2000 cases of the present epidemic, which I have had an opportunity of seeing either here, or at the Royal Infirmary within the last 15 or 16 months, and to upwards of 1000 of these it has been my particular duty to attend.

But a general description of a disease, however carefully drawn up, gives but a vague and unsatisfactory idea to the reader on many points connected with it. I have therefore, to obviate this as much as possible, thrown into a tabular view, a specimen of which will be seen Table No. 1, Appendix, No. II., the cases of 743 patients, either dismissed cured from, or who have died at this hospital, since it was opened on the 23d February 1818, up to the 1st January of the present year. These Tables I meant to have published at length; but as they would have been both expensive and volu

minous, I have thought it better to give the most interesting of the information contained in them condensed into smaller Tables. As it seems to be the opinion of some physicians, that many circumstances connected with fever vary considerably with the season of the year, I have generally drawn up the Tables, first by months, then by quarters, giving lastly the general average. The spring and winter quarters are of course incomplete, the first comprehending only the five last days of February, and the months of March and April; and the winter quarter, as I have called it, includes only November and December. I have thought it better to make this arrangement, in order that we might get the summer and autumn quarters complete, than to count by quarters from the opening of the house,-conceiving that what is given of the spring and winter seasons will be sufficient to satisfy most of my readers, who imagine that in these seasons the disease shews any peculiarities. Knowing that tables are, in general, very little consulted by many of the profession, I shall here give the sum of the information contained in them, in a form less artificial, refer. ring such as are more curious to the Appendix.

I have been induced to give these minute tabular views, more from a wish which several friends have expressed for such information, than from

any conviction of my own of their utility. Indeed, the modern fashion of throwing insulated facts into tables, in order to ascertain their relative frequency, ought not to be viewed without some share of distrust; for the predominance of this or that circumstance often depends on causes that have no natural or fixed relation to the points which these tables are meant to establish, The fact is, that an infinite number of causes operate in augmenting or diminishing the numbers in such tables, which do not act constantly or uniformly. Many of them indeed never act twice; and the numbers they produce, instead of being exponents of the state of the disease, are frequently nothing more than the expressions of the joint operations of causes naturally unconnected with it, on the peculiar situation of the writer or the patient. A good illustration of the truth of the above statement is, that it very often happened, that in those months in which we received the greatest number of mild cases into Queensberry House, and had fewest deaths, they had the greatest number of severe cases and most deaths in the Royal Infirmary, and vice versa; though the patients were carried indiscriminately to both, and the hospitals scarcely 800 yards distant from each other. Being aware of this circumstance, I have been very cautious in drawing any general conclu

sions respecting the variations of the present epi demic, from the numbers stated in the Tables, though my readers may observe considerable differences, in different months, as to age, sex, mor. tality, or particular trains of symptoms. I may however state, that since it came under my observation, its type has undergone little or no variation in either houses, and certainly no change has taken place to warrant a change of practice.

Without farther preface, I shall proceed to a review of the Tables, trusting that the importance of the subject we are treating of will be an excuse for any recapitulation I may make of what has already been noticed in the general description; and I have only to assure the reader, that the greatest attention has been paid to render the Tables I have given as accurate as possible; but it may easily be conceived how difficult it is to arrive at perfect precision in such an undertaking.

Of the 743 cases mentioned, and which are now before me, 319 were males and 424 females, nearly in the proportion of 4 females to 3 males *.

Their ages were as follows: There were 62 un

* I may state, that the fever patients admitted into the Royal Infirmary during the last year, bore nearly the same proportion as to males and females: For of 825 dismissed cured, or who died, 352 were males, and 473 females.