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fourthly, the damp condition of their sleeping and eating apart

ments.

The authorities now remove the sick either into the Lazaretto or the fever hospital at Bush Hill, which was opened for the reception of patients on the ninth of July, under the charge of Drs. L. W. Knight and William Ashley; one hundred and eighty cases having been admitted from that time up to the eighteenth of August. Of that number thirteen have died, thirty have been discharged cured, and one hundred and thirty-seven remain under treatment.

Of the thirteen cases which terminated fatally, three were in a dying state when admitted, and three died of purpura hæmorrhagica, marasmus and phthisis pulmonalis, thus considerably reducing the number of deaths by fever, and showing that the mortality is small in comparison with the accounts received from Canada and New York..

The situation of the hospital is very favourable, being light, dry, and well ventilated. The only objection is the want of space, obliging them to crowd the wards, so that dysentery or diarrhoea occurring as a complication, it is apt to assume a malignant form.

The premonitory symptoms are as follows: Slight chill, skin hot and dry, nausea, and in some cases vomiting, muscular pains in the back and limbs, with intense pain in the frontal region, increasing from the first to the sixth day. Tongue of a whitish color over the surface, tip of bright red; pulse averaging from eightysix to one hundred and twenty, with bowels costive.

These symptoms continue for several days, when the skin becomes of a dusky red, the eyes are injected, tongue covered with a thick yellowish, brown, or black paste; teeth covered with sordes; acute pain over the epigastric region, with skin covered with a petechial eruption coming out from the sixth to the tenth day. lirium now supervenes, with congestion of the lungs, brain or bronchial tubes, generally accompanied by deafness, with spasmodic twitchings of the muscles, and in some cases dysentery and profuse sweats, not of a critical nature.

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These symptoms either increase or diminish towards the thirteenth or fourteenth day, or may terminate in death from the twentieth to the thirtieth day, the liability to relapse being very great in all

cases.

I have found the following symptoms favorable when occurring about the fourteenth or twenty-first day: tongue becoming moist, first at edges; slight salivation; pulse fuller and slower, with tongue not tremulous when protruded. Unfavorable symptoms: great muscular debility; decubitus, or gliding down to the bottom of the bed, picking at the clothes, or catching at imaginary objects.

Treatment. In the first stage a gentle aperient of oleum ricini or mild neutral salt. Second stage; to diminish the fever by freely

sponging the body with tepid water, with the free use of ice or neutral mixture. Thirdly; to subdue local inflammation by cups or leeches, and by applying cold by means of ice to the head, or blister to the nape of the neck, with small doses of hydrargyrum cum cretâ and pulvis rhei. Lastly; to give quiniæ sulphas in pills of one grain three times a day, with from fziv. to f3vi. of port wine.

By following the above course of treatment, bearing in mind ventilation and cleanliness, with a simple farinaceous diet, out of twentyone cases I have lost but two, and regretted much that in both instances there was no opportunity for a post mortem examination. 385 Spruce street, Philadelphia.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

The South-Western Medical Advocate. Edited by JAMES CONQUEST CROSS, M. D., Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence in the Memphis Medical College, assisted by his colleagues. No. 1. Vol. 1, for July 1847. Memphis, Tennessee.

It has ever been our wont to herald every new labourer in the arduous, responsible, and, too often unrequited and thankless field of medical journalism; and with sincerity have we welcomed them when ushered into existence under the banner of chivalry and honour, even although they may have attached themselves to some particular school or clique, whose interests they professedly watched over. The number of the Journal-if so it may be called-before us, by its very title indicates that it is not free from such bias; nor do we object to it on this account. To be the organ of the profession in the south-western portion of this extensive country would be an enviable position for the editor; but we feel assured, that if the forthcoming numbers are to be judged of by the present, the high-minded and liberal prac titioners of that region will eschew it, and deny that the unqualified and reckless assertions contained in it are participated in by any one of them. The advocacy of south-western medicine is, however, but an infinitesimal portion of its objects. The grand desideratum is "to establish a medium of communication be

tween the Memphis Medical College," [an institution established immediately after the editor left the Transylvania school]-" and the Medical Public of the south-west;" and a secondary-perhaps primary-object would seem to be, to enable the editor to rail against all who have in any manner interfered with his devious course, and especially against his former colleagues of the University of Transylvania, who, some time ago, published, under their own signatures, statements, which it would be difficult to believe were without foundation, and from which, unquestionably, it has not been an easy matter for the editor to exonerate himself. Of this controversy, notwithstanding the number of missives that have reached us, we have hitherto expressed no opinion. For the sake of the individual most deeply concerned, as well as of that of the profession to which he belongs, and of the respectable school of which all the controversialists had formed part, we were silent and we had hoped, that some discretion would have been exercised, and that if it had been deemed proper that such a discourse as the one that fills the first number of the "South-Western Medical Advocate" should be delivered, it most assuredly would never be published,-even although requested by a Board of Trustees, and by a medical-always indulgentclass.

The number before us is truly a "psychological phenomenon." It is wholly occupied with "An inaugural discourse on the policy of establishing a school of medicine in the city of Memphis, Tennessee." It is essentially the editor and the Memphis Medical School-Ego et rex meus !-A goodly portion treats of the editor; another portion of the Memphis Medical School; whilst no little space is devoted to the threadbare arguments on "sectional medicine," and to show, that a south-westeru physician must be educated in the south-west,--of course at Memphis, upon the same principle, we presume, as the old Joe Miller belief, that if a man be born in a stable he must necessarily be a horse;that northern schools are inadequate to teach southern students, -that northern pathology and therapeutics are not southern pathology and therapeutics;—and farther, that the respectable gentlemen who fill so well the different chairs in Louisville, and in Lexington,-where the editor himself taught so lately, and for which he was so long the energetic advocate,-are wholly unfit

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to teach those who are destined to be south-western practitioners. What will the veteran professor of the former school-who has been so long the ardent advocate of "sectional medicine,"—as it has been termed-say to this? when he finds his own arguments returned to him, and that he and his colleagues are deemed as unfit to prepare students for the south and southwest, as we of the north are?

But all these views, and the establishment of the Memphis Medical school itself, are-it would seem-the suggestions of the purest philanthropy, untainted by the slightest selfish motive!

"Is another school of medicine necessary? This we have alleged; but an unsupported and independent assertion upon so important a subject, would be justly treated with ridicule and contempt, and unless we shall be able to appeal to satisfactory reasons, flowing from public necessity, there will be ground to suspect, if not to believe, that the individual who now addresses you, as well as those with whom he is associated, have been induced to embark in the enterprise from exclusively selfish considerations. Than this, we are sure, no more unjust or injurious imputation could be cast, at least upon our colleagues." [A wise reservation!] "We hope, therefore, to receive a patient, if not an indulgent hearing, while an attempt is made to recount to you some of the leading considerations that have caused the present enterprise to be undertaken." p. 3.

One of these "leading considerations," to which the editor repeatedly refers, is, that "in the schools of the north, as well as in those of Kentucky and Ohio, not a single teacher is to be found, who, from personal observation and experience, is qualified to impart a correct knowledge of the nature and treatment of the diseases that prevail in the South. This fact, which is utterly incontestable, has failed to attract the attention to which it is entitled, and although there may be those disposed to overlook or underprize it, in my humble judgment, it is of very great if not paramount importance." p. 5.

And are these the views the editor has always maintained? We suspect not;-for we have a faint recollection of his having visited the northern cities, some years ago, for the purpose of procuring a Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, for the medical department of the University of Transylvania, when he most strenuously but unsuccessfully exerted himself there

for that purpose. He may reply, indeed, as did another professor of the west, on a different occasion, that he was then acting for his colleagues, not for himself. The professor alluded to had been a zealous teacher in a town of not more than eight thousand inhabitants, which then he thought, or maintained, possessed the necessary facilities for anatomical and clinical instruction. On being translated, however, to a town of thirty thousand inhabitants-colum et animum mutat-he now finds that the former position was totally devoid of the requisite facilities; and loudly proclaims the superior advantages, in these respects, of his new position. On being asked how he reconciled his past and his present views: he replied, that in the former case he was but expressing the views of his colleagues, in the latter his own!

The editor may say, that his agency for the Transylvania school, and the arguments which he adduced in its favour, were but the delegated views of others; but he certainly succeeded in impressing those with whom he came in contact, that they were as strongly his own.

But when did he first learn, that the schools of Kentucky and Ohio are liable to these same objections that have been imagined to apply to the northern? Only, we apprehend, since he quitted so summarily the one to which he was attached, and to which he alludes so bitterly in many parts of his "Discourse." He suffers, indeed, no opportunity to pass by for vilifying it, or some of its able teachers. Thus, when referring, in a note, to Dr. Condie's opinion, that the immense doses of sulphate of quinia given by many of the southern physicians are "certainly excessive and uncalled for," he exclaims:

"How does he [Dr. Condie] know? Has he ever seen a case of congestive remittent fever in the South? No. Then he knows nothing about it, and has no right to question the skill and judgment of those who are familiar with the subject. This is like the philippic which Dr. Dudley is in the annual habit of pronouncing against quinine and iodine; and yet he has the assurance to tell his classes he never employed them in his life." p. 6.

And again:

"The diseases of the northern part of Kentucky, and of the

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