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taphysicien, elle est ordinairement toute systematique; chez un géomètre, elle est souvent toute de calcul." It is not, abstractedly, of much importance that the medical theory of the chemist be chemical, or of the mathematician mathematical. But the general principle so frequently and so far influences practice as to lead to the most dangerous errors. At one period stimulants and tonics were to be employed in all cases, at another evacuants; now an acid was to be encountered, now an alkali. All these hypothetical opinions have been acted upon as earnestly as if they had been erected on the foundation of immutable truth. When it was observed in the view of the progress of medical science in 1808, that the tide of opinion was strongly setting against the stimulating therapeutica of the Brunonian School, it was not expected that occasion would soon be given for lamenting the opposite and more dangerous extreme. John Brown reckoned the pure sthenic diseases to be few in number; and even these were pronounced prone to run into indirect debility, and then to fall into his great class, asthenia. Thus were his scholars taught to fear the sud denfailure of the vis vitæ, and to guard, even whilst the inordinate action continued, against the impending debility. It is, indeed, surprizing that this hypothesis, especially as indirect debility was a term in constant use and defined with accuracy, did not lead to different practice. It might have been presumed, as the pupils of this school were taught that the subsequent debility was proportioned to the previous increase of action, some means would always be taken to moderate that increased action: or, at least, that stimulants would seldom be employed, while it continued, to obviate the dreaded debility. But it was left to the practitioners of the present time to see the force of this inference and its application to practice. If any individual were to be fixed on as having been most instrumental in effecting this change, Dr. Hamilton, the author of the trea tise on the use of purgatives, would be the man. That treatise, full of practical knowledge, and of clear deductions, spoke conviction. Many other practitioners may, however, claim a share in this important change. Scarlatina, long thought to have a close affinity with the asthenia, had, for many years, when it assumed what has been called a malignant aspect, been treated with cinchona, wine, opium, alcohol, æther, &c. &c. Under this method its fatality was most serious. Families of children were swept away. In these instances the practice correctly quadrated with the principle: but the principle was, probably, erroneous. In the 25th volume of this Journal a history of the progress of Angina maligna in an eastern district of the kingdom has been recorded.

There

There it is shewn, on respectable authority, that nearly the whole of those who were treated with tonics and stimulants died; while those who were blooded, purged, and had other means employed to restrain excessive action, with few exceptions, recovered. If the facts stated are not sufficiently distinct, as to the phenomena and characteristic marks of the disease, or are not enough explicit as to the successful method of treatment, the practitioners of Ipswich, and other parts of the county of Suffolk, who have given the detail, are imperiously called upon to shew, beyond equivocation, what the disease was in which the stimulant treatment was so generally fatal, and where the contrary was so successful.

While a cautions and rational deviation from the stimulating system of Brown claims the fullest approbation, it cannot pass without remark, that many have employed the opposite method to an enormous extreme. Dr. Robert Jackson, an army physician of great experience and observation, but influenced, possibly, by some hypothesis, has, in the fevers of camps and military hospitals, employed the depleting fashion to a most extraordinary, if not extravagant extent. Under his immediate direction the bold abstraction of blood may have sometimes preserved life; but the employment of this remedy by a herd of imitators, who, without selection, subject their patients, en masse, to the lancet, must create alarm. It is against all reason and observation that every soldier, suffering by fever, whatever his age or temperament, whatever the period of his disease, or whatever peculiarity there may be in the symptoms, either as to degree or quality, should equally bear the loss of 20 or 40 ounces of blood at a time, and often with quick repetition. In cases of topical inflammation this may be right; but even then it will require a nice estimation of the forces of the system, to ascertain who can bear the loss of 200 or 300 ounces of blood in four days, or who would be destroyed by such an evacuation. But in cases of fever, without local inflammation, generally either typhus, or approaching to that type, such practice must be considered as hazardous, and, possibly, will often be fatal. If this practice should ever have been resorted to in the last stadium of these fevers, or should have gone into the period of convalescence, it will appear more rash, wild, and fatally extravagant.

Professing to give an "abstract and brief chronicle" of the progress of the healing art, to have passed over unnoticed, even a report of a practice which reduces science to the rude efforts of uninstructed barbarians, would have been a dereliction of principle. If, in our naval and military hospitals, this extraordinary practice has prevailed, it cannot long con

tinue. The majority of army and navy surgeons are known to be humane and scientific; to add a perfect knowledge of the structure, and a profound acquaintance with the functions of the frame, to cautious practice. If, for a period, many of these should have fallen into this irrational proceding from the influence of superiors, or from the imperfection of human nature, they will soon return to methods more consonant to common sense, and the true principles of medical science.

In the walks of private life the most absurd hypothesis has its poison confined within narrow bounds; its objects are, comparatively, few, and it is restrained by public opinion: but in fleets and armies, and in military hospitals, uncontrouled by fear of the world's censure, and even concealing, very generally, the rotine of practice, theory may be carried to the most destructive length. Then will human life be sacrificed in a ratio agreeing with the error of the hypothesis, and the extent of its application; and the physician must forego his claim to the sentiment of Cicero. HoMINES AD DEOS NULLA RES PROPIUS ACCEDUNT, QUAM

SALUTEM HOMINIBUS DANDO.

Princes Street, Cavendish Square, June 30th, 1811.

To the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal. Case of Polypus Vaginæ.

GENTLEMEN,

(With an Engraving.)

THE following very singular case of Polypus, in part attached to the posterior part of the vagina and os uteri, having lately occurred, I have taken the earliest opportunity of trans mitting it to you, accompanied with a drawing from the preparation itself, now in the possession of Dr. Clough, taken by his very ingenious pupil Mr. Andrews.

On Wednesday, the 17th of April, I was requested to attend Lydia Hendy, about thirty-five years of age, residing at the three compasses, Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, who, I was informed, had been in lingering labor from the Saturday previous to my being sent for. After waiting a short time, she had several very strong bearing down pains, and, upon an examination per vaginam, I discovered a large tumour of the sarcomatous kind, pending by a stem without the os externum, which, on making a strict enquiry, she in

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