1 1814.] Dr. Burton's Proposed Infirmary for Asthma, &c. risies, often attended with fever, chronic Dr. HILLARY, in his "Observations on The diseases mentioned, as principally Occurring this year, are catarrhal fever, sore throat, pleurisy, slow nervous fever, putrid, bilious, or yellow fever, inflammatory fevers, inflammatory rheumatism, apoplexy and palsy, diarrhœa febrilis and dysentery,dry belly-ache, whooping cough, cholera morbus, inflamed eyes. Several other diseases are mentioned; but intermittents appear to be rare; and consumption and asthma I do not observe to be noticed throughout the whole book, although catarrhs and pleurisies are frequently occurring. The island of Jamaica is situated in about 18° north lat.: is very mountainous, and appears to vary in its temperature more than the two islands just spoken of. Lempriere, in his "Observations on the Diseases of the Army in Jamaica," says, "that the range of the thermome. ter, at its extremes, is from 92o to 68°, a difference of 24°; but it rarely differs more in twenty four hours than 10o, excepting in December, January, and February, when its variation is greater. He gives a table, in which are noticed all the Christians, whether soldiers or inhabitants, who died, together with the disorders by which their death was occa 49 801 sioned. In 1793, 94, 95, and 96, there were 579 deaths; of which, 41 proceed. ed from consumption, being one in fourteen of the whole number. No one died of asthma. The consumptions were principally among the negroes, and, in a portion of the army, people of colour. Not included in the above, during the years 1796 and 7, there were 61 deaths, of which one was from consumption. In the public hospital, from 1793 to 96, there were 546 deaths, of which nineteen were from consumption, and one from asthma, being together equal to one in twenty-seven deaths.—See the tables in the first volume. Dr. WINTERBOTTOM was physician to the colony of Sierra Leone. He wrote "Medical Directions for the Use of Navigators and Settlers in Hot Climates." These were originally composed at Freetown, on the coast of Africa; they must, of course, have been drawn chiefly from observations made on the spot where he resided. Sierra Leone is situated in about 9° north lat. on the coast of Afri. са. Dr. W. treats of intermitting fever, yellow fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, cho lera, dropsy, tetanus, colds and coughs. The two last disorders are spoken of as by no means unfrequent; but, by his description, evidently appear to be the ordinary catarrh, similar to that of this country. A variety of other disorders are introduced, but consumption and asth ma are not named throughout the book. "An Account of the Diseases of India, as they appeared in the English Fleet, and in the Naval Hospital at Madras, in 1782 and 1783;" was published by CHARLES CURTIS, formerly surgeon of the Medea frigate. This account relates the diseases which occurred among the soldiers and sailors during the passage from England, but principally speaks of those which happened on the Coroman del coast, from 9° to 18° north lat. The diseases of those parts were spasmodic cholera, diseased liver, bilious fever and flux. At page 157, the following observations are made, "Such cases," (that is, diseases of the thoracic viscera,) 66 were exceedingly rare, or rather never appeared at all under an idiopathic form, Pulmonary consumption was wholly unknown." 66 Only two cases of catarrh, with cough, and symptoms threatening pneumonia, by being neglected, were met with; and both of them were easily cured by blistering, and the common remedies for that affection." Mr. JAMES JOHNSON, in a treatise on "The Influence of Tropical Climates, more especially the Climate of India, on Euro402 pean 'pean Constitutions;" speaks of different fevers, diseases of the liver, dysentery, cholera morbus, and mort de chien; but does not at all refer to diseases of the lungs of any description whatever. Dr. MOSELY, in his "Treatise on Tropical Diseases," says, "In countries between the tropics the heat is nearly uniform, and seldom has been known to vary through the year, in any given spot, either by day or night, 16 degrees." Although he incidentally speaks of both consumption and asthma,he does not men. tion them as occurring in hot climates. Dr. LIND wrote An Essay on Dis eases incidental to Europeans in Hot Climales." He speaks of Barbadoes, (p. 57) as being peculiarly healthful, because "it is perfectly freed from trees, underwood, marshes, &c." and, on the contrary, all the places which are peculiarly unhealthy will be found to be so from the prevalence of marshes, trees, and under wood, generating marsh effluvia, and causing stagnation of the air. Batavia, and various other places, which might be mentioned, are instances of this kind. The remitting fever is the disorder which almost invariably prevails in tropical countries, in places remarkable for their unhealthiness. The disorders of which Dr. L. principally speaks, are fevers of different kinds, fluxes, diseases of the liver, dry belly-ache, tetanus and locked jaw, the barbiers, (a species of palsy.) At page 305 he observes, that " patients of a consumptive habit bear ill too sud. den a change from a hot to a cold cli• mate;" and therefore advises, that they should pass a winter in some climate more mild than that of England, before they proceed thither. But, although consumption is thus brought into notice, he does not speak of that complaint, or of asthma, as occurring in hot countries. It appears to me, that the following circumstances may be noticed in the quotations given above. 1. Changes of temperature are generally inconsiderable within the tropics, the thermometer rarely varying in any one place more than 16° in one year; and very frequently not varying so much. 2. The lowest degree of the thermometer, noticed above, is 68; a degree to which it is very rarely depressed. 3. Diseases of the chest are not of frequent occurrence; and, when met with, do not generally lead to consumption or asthma. 4. Yet in those places where the va riations of temperature are more considerable than usual, severe catarrhs and pleurisies are not unfrequent, It 5. Consumption and asthma very rarely occur, being mentioned by only one of the authors above quoted, (Lempriere;) who attributed one death to asthma. is remarkable, that these disorders are spoken of as having happened in Jamaica, an island where the variations of temperature are greater than are described in any other of the above instances within the tropics. 6. Whether the countries are moist or dry, marshy or the contrary, consumption and asthma appear to be equally rare. Grenada and Barbadoes may be given as examples of a moist and of a dry atmosphere, ISAAC BUXTON. New Broad Street. I To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SHALL esteem it a favour if you will insert in your Magazine the following case:-A neighbour of mine has something in his constitution different to what I have ever met with in any other han. When he works, he generally perspires on the right side; it just takes one half of his face and of his body, so that you may see the sweat pouring down in large drops on the right side, while the left is perfectly dry: and, when he eats, the perspiration changes to the left side, with as great a profusion as before, while the right side is dry. Thus it alternately changes, by working and eating, from right to left and left to right; but he never perspires all over the face and body at the same time. If any of your medical correspondents can account for this phenomenon in nature, it will much oblige your constant reader, Creaton, Northampton. J. WHITEHEAD. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, HAVE lately returned from an extensive Tour in France, and am able to state, that the price of living, all things the same, is in the northern pro-* vinces about a THIRD what it is in England, and in the southern about a FOURTH. At a table d'hôte, a dinner of three courses, a bottle of good wine, and a noble dessert, may be had for three francs, or 2s. 6d., such as at our inns in England would cost 15, or 18. It is computed that the English families now in that country are 8000, averaging five to a family, and that above 1200 have settled. J. WILSON. Wigmore street, Oct. 5. 1814.] Mr. Grant on Dr. English Grammar, lately published by the present writer. Had the critic modestly confined himself to the common and easy duties of allotting praise or blame, without officiously obtruding on public notice his own erroneous and extravagant notions; and had he, at the same time, abstained from exhibiting palpable instances of disingenuous mis representation, I should not have felt it necessary to devote a single moment to animadversion upon his meagre and jejune performance. The Reviewer commences his critique with remarking the abundance of English Grammars, and pronounces Wallis's to be one of the best. 66 Being written, however," he observes," in Latin, it is less adapted for the use of schools, than for that of grown gentlemen." He then tells us, that Wallis "knew the difference between an exception and a regular inflection: but many grammarians do not, and class as anomalous such plurals as feet, teeth, geese, lice, mice, which are remains of a Gothic rule." Wallis knew the difference between an exception and a regular inflection. Yes, Wallis was not the Monthly Reviewer, who, it appears, does not know the difference. Who would not infer, that Wailis considers such plurals as feet, teeth, &c. to be no exceptions? If this be not the inference to be drawn, the observation of the Reviewer has no meaning, and his remark, as calculated to mislead, is worse than trifling. Does Wallis then say, either directly or indirectly, that these plurals are not exceptions? Quite the reverse. Nay, his language is so plain and express, that he who runs may read it. Let us hear him. "Sunt et alia pauca irregularia; a mouse mus, a louse pediculus, a foot pes, a goose anser, a tooth dens; pluraliter, mice, lice, feet, gecse, teeth.” (Bowyer's Edit. 1765, p. 78) And in his Epistola ad Thomam Beverley, he repeats pauca irregularia; ut, man, men; foot, feet; tooth, teeth, &c." I leave it to the Reviewer, to shew how far his notion of exceptions accords with that of Dr. Wallis, to whose authority he has, to his own utter confusion, so pompously appealed. "L. Murray's Grammar imitates the method of Wallis; and that of Dr. Alex ander Crombie displays metaphysical more than glossological learning." False again; no two works, on the same subject, are, or can be, more dissimilar than those of Wallis and Murray. Wallis wrote in Latin; and I have reason to think that Murray never read a page of the work. But the critic may, perhaps, have ignorantly or unthinkingly adopted the word imitate, and may refer merely to accidental resemblance or similarity. Let us then trace it. Wallis writes "Nomina substantiva, apud nos, nullum vel generum vel casuum discrimen sortiuntur." Murray, "There are three genders. Substantives have three cases.' -Wallis considers our genitive as Adjec tivum Possessivum. Murray does not.Wallis, "Nomina adjectiva conparationem sortiuntur; gradus nempe adsciscunt comparativum et superlativum." Murray," There are commonly reckoned three degrees of comparison."-Wallis assigns to personal pronouns two cases; "alterum ego rectum appello, alterum ob liquum." Murray, "Pronouns have three cases."-Wallis, like a genuine grammarian, wisely writes, "Nos duo tantum habemus Tempora in quovis verbo."" Murray, to perplex a very simple subject, assigns the verb, two voices, five moods, six tenses, &c. and so on, differing, toto cœlo, throughout Etymology. On Syntax and Prosody, two divisions of grammar which the Reviewer will allow to be of some little importance, Wallis says little or nothing. The fact is, that the Reviewer, notwithstanding all his idle canting about Dr. Wallis, is just as ignorant of the principles upon which Wallis's Grammar is written, as he is incompetent to characterise Dr. Crombie's; a work deservedly held in high estimation, and acknowledged by those who possess any species or degree of learning," to evince a very large por tion both of "metaphysical and glossological knowledge." Dr. Wallis's sinall Grammar, especially if we consider the period when it was written, possesses great merit; and, as "L. Murray imitates the method of Wallis," it follows, of course, that his too must be an excellent production. It is with this especially," observes the critic, "that the present author must expect a dangerous comparison." In one point of view this remark may be just. I need not tell the Reviewer, that, in reference to L. Mur ray's Grammar, mine has to contend with an influence far more "dangerous" than any that results from its intrinsic merits. Remove this in other words, place the two in precisely the same extrinsic circumstances, and I shall not entertain even the smallest apprehension as to the result. ana I do not wish to derogate from the merits of Murray's Grammar; but I not, like the Reviewer, blinded to its nu merous errors and defects. Having no desire desire to fatigue your readers with the Reviewer's hallucinations, or greatly to exceed the limits necessarily prescribed to an article like this, I pass over several minor fooleries, about "the analysis of the letters," "the theory of the division of syllables," "the number of the parts of speech," "a sweeping allotment of indeclinables, the first best resource of the classifier," &c. mere "leather or prunella," exhibiting, to say the least, not a little prejudice and much bad taste. J. GRANT. INCE my last, among other cases of Gout cured by Colchicum, five have occurred to me, which furnish evidence of the fact, that its curative power is quite 'unconnected with its purgative quality. I subjoin three of them, where the relief was either anterior to the purgative operation, or where no such effect was produced: CASE I.-Mr. Porter, of Leigh-street, Burton Crescent, applied to me on Wednesday evening, the 12th. He was then Jabouring under a severe fit of gout in the right hand. The medicine was taken in a very moderate dose, about nine in the evening, and directed to be repeated in eight hours. On the following morning the two doses had been taken, the pain was considerably abated, though no eyacuation had taken place from the bowels, and it gradually decreased towards evening. I had left directions to . repeat the medicine in the same quantity if it were deemed necessary; but, the pain being very trifling, only one dose was given in the evening. On the morrow the pain was gone, but the medicine had then produced sickness and purging; on Saturday he was quite free from gout. Mr. P. expressed to me his convictions that, had not the disease been attacked by this medicine, the paroxysms would have increased in severity, as he had been accustomed to experience on former at tacks. CASE II.-Mr. Dingell, landlord of the public-house at the corner of Tavistock place, Little Coram-street, sent to me on Tuesday evening. The pain was confin ed to the foot and ancle; he took the Colchicum immediately. On the following morning I called, but did not see him; I believe he was from home; but Mrs. D. assured me he was quite free from pain, and that no operation on the stomach or bowels had been occasioned by the medicine. CASE III-Ann Ellis, 23, Chapelplace, Little Coram-street, came under my care at the Northern Dispensary for a severe scald. She was unhappily labouring at the same time under gout, to which she has been these five years subject. The last time the was laid up with it, she took medicines without effect for the space of three months. I saw ber, and gave her the medicine, which she took at ten o'clock on Friday evening, the 14th. The pain was fixed in the hip and toe, had been in the elbow, and was coming on in the bands; in the toe and the elbow it was attended with great swelling: this is never seen in the hip, but the pain is excruciating there. At two o'clock, on getting out of bed, she found the toe was nearly well, and was able to stand; pain continued a little in the hip: in the morning, at ten, it was quite gone. At the time of noting this account (Sunday morning) she is quite well, and has walked to my house in the Crescent without any difficulty; the pain in the toe was considerably relieved before any evacuation from the bowels: she says, if it had not been so she could not have stood upon it. The only motion in the night was after the relief from pain in the toe, and she had no other till she took her break. fast at ten o'clock in the morning, when she had five more evacuations, which were watery. The operation of the mo dicine she considered to be mild. the JOHN WANT,* To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. A SIR, S your pages have been frequently devoted with effect to the inves tigation of subjects which intimately con cern the public welfare, I trust this now under review, will not be undeserving of insertion. That 50,000 females living in London by a state of prostitution is an evil of first-rate magnitude, will be generally admitted: that it is not only highly prejudicial to the morals and habits of the rising generation in general, but its injurious effects on the health of the community are so extensive, as hardly to be ascertained; that it is also one of the 1814.] Causes of the Increase of Prostitution. greatest incentives to theft, public and domestic, and to every species of fraud. With such a mass of evil in view, how few and inadequate have been the attempts to diminish or remove it! How superficial the inquiry into the merits of the case! If I shall succeed in putting this interesting subject in a new and just point of view, or throw light as it were on an unexplored theme, I am persuaded I shall not have taken up the pen in vain, The recent agitation of this subject in the common council has more especially induced the expression of my thoughts upon it. There we see the evil is on all hands seemingly deplored, and some efforts attempted to be made for its diminution; the principal of which is, appropriating Bridewell to the reception of these unfortunate females. But a similar attempt was made not long since by the corporation, and resisted by the governors of Bridewell Hospital, and why? Not because it was not congenial with the object of that great endowment, but because such appropriation would too much interfere with the existing interests of certain persons in that place. It was also alleged by the governors, that the part which could be appropriated to this purpose, would accommodate so few, as not to be of material service in the reedy of so extensive an evil. I am far from wishing to discourage the common council of London, in the prosecution of so meritorious an endeavour. I wish they were oftener so well engaged; but, from what I know of their past conduct, I am entitled to ask, have they ever been sincere and zealous in this cause? Did not the late worthy and ever-to-be-respected GRANVILLE SHARP, ESQ. above twenty years ago, offer to the Corpora. tion of London, to leave them a consi. derable freehold estate at his death, if they would lend him the *London workhouse, in Bishopsgate-street, for the purpose of employing females who had been prostitutes? Did not the corporation refuse this most benevolent offer, where by they have lost the intended estate, Mr. Sharp having died about twelve months ago; which, had they accepted, would have been an endowment for these deserted outcasts? And, supposing such * This large building is an old establish ment, intended for the reception of destitute children, somewhat similar to the Foundling Hospital. It contained between 2 and 500 children in the reign of Queen Ann, but for many years has not main tained above 20 boys. A principal part is now let off for warehouses. It might accommodate 200 women.` 305 an excellent institution to have been in existence for the last twenty years, is it. probable that prostitution in the metropolis would have arisen to its present alarming height? It is certain at least, that an infinite quantum of good would have been done, which has not been done; perhaps many thousands of deserted women of the town restored to rectitude, to industrious habits, and to their friends. The cor Has not the corporation thus become. responsible in the eye of justice for not preventing the evil, as they might have done, in due time, and consequently an assisting cause of its having arisen to its present frightful size? These are home. truths, and home questions, deserving their serious consideration. poration can evidently spend with glee 20,0001. after 20,0001. upon feasts and pageants, in which their wives and daughters and themselves eat, drink, and carouse, at the expense of the city purse, and not at their own; and they can grumble at giving a solitary 100l. to a drooping charity, in which the public welfare is intimately concerned. The opulent city companies can invite Royal Dukes to dine with them, impoverishing their funds designed for the relief and comfort of their poor members, and can plead poverty when applied to by those who have a claim, and I may say a right to their bounty. We may justly exclaim on seeing such things, O tempora! () mores! But it may not be long ere a closer scrutiny is made into such proceedings, than come expect. Having thus far cleared the way, let us further inquire into the merits of the subject under discussion. It is a very easy thing for the corporation to denounce the evil of prostitution on paper, to commission constables to apprehend women of the town; but this will do little or no good in removing the evil. Religious bigots before them have recommended this sort of severity, with more zeal than knowledge, and just ended where they began. This mode of proceeding too much resembles the priest and Levite passing by the wounded man on the road; but to do any thing effectual in this case, they must become the good Samaritan who did something to help him in reality. It may be asked, what then should be done? A physician cannot prescribe with effect to his patient, without ascertaining the causes of his disorder. So with prostitution,-the first step is to investigate how these poor forlorn creatures becaine prostitutes. But who does this? Is there any |