more interesting, and the narrator more consequential in proportion, as he is more skilful in tale-telling.'*

"It is not impossible that the system here described may take place in a greater or less degree in the hydropathic establishments in these kingdoms. Patients who have scarcely any real illness may be puffed off as having been released from grievous suffering; and if, perchance, any persons are just temporarily bettered by the aid of hope, imagination, and pure air, these cases may be magnified into important cures, and the future history of the invalid may be wholly lost sight of. Such, at least as far as I have had an opportunity of judging, has been the system pursued by the Malvern water-doctor. He has given to the world, through the medium of the press, as I am credibly informed, several important cures wrought at this salubrious village by the efficacy of the system of Priessnitz. One of these cures has happened to fall under my immediate observation, and, as I am desirous that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, should be published concerning hydropathy, I will narrate the history of it.

"Mr. Probert, aged sixty-five, called upon me on the 11th of February, 1843. He told me that he had been for several years subject to attacks of gout, but in the intervals had been in tolerable health. He further stated, that he was attacked severely with gout the beginning of January, 1842, and remained ill with it for several months; but that in the month of July he was slowly recovering, and was enabled to get about a little. Some time in that month the water-doctor, who had lately arrived at Malvern, called upon him, and said that he could cure him in a fortnight, and, if he did not succeed, he would forfeit one hundred pounds. The poor fellow was delighted with the prospect of restoration to health, which had been denied to him for so many years, and, after a little consideration, consented to submit to the treatment. He was accordingly put under the feather bed and blankets for an hour or two, and when the perspiration came on he jumped into a cold shallow bath, and remained in it five minutes, and then walked about and drank water. This he did every day for six weeks. After this the gout left him, and he has not had it since; but his breath, which had been indifferent for several months previously, has ever since been much worse, and within the last two months has been so bad that he can scarcely move about. Within the last week his legs have swollen, and he is not able to lie down at night.

"The action of the heart is much diffused, and the impulse is great, with a bruit.

"I directed him to have a dozen leeches applied to the region of the heart, and afterwards a blister to the same part. He had also to take a pill of calomel, digitalis, and squill, three times a-day.

"On the 20th of March I again saw him, and the dropsical symptoms had disappeared, and he was rather better. As, however, the disease did not materially decline, he was, early in April, received into the Worcester Infirmary, and was then affected with general anasarca, urgent dyspnea, and tumultuous action of the heart.

"He obtained some relief from active doses of elaterium, but did not on the whole derive much benefit, and, as it was evident that the mischief which had been produced in the chest could not be removed by medicines, he was discharged from the infirmary.

"After this he fell under the care of Mr. Addison, of Malvern, where he died in the month of June. Mr. Addison thus writes, in transmitting to me the report of the post-mortem examination :-

"I visited Probert several times before his death, and found him suffering

"Ed. Med. and Surg. Journ. Vol. XXV, p. 275."

greatly from general dropsy. His extremities were much swollen, and his respiration very difficult; he could not lie down, and during the last two or three days of his illness he was attacked with violent spasmodic paroxysms in the muscles of the arms, legs, and face, during which he cried out loudly from the acuteness of the pain. I do not remember to have ever witnessed so much suffering from spasms of this kind in cases of a similar description. I examined the body after death.

"The cellular membrane was everywhere distended with a yellow serous fluid.

"The lungs were crepitant, and the sections which I made, swam in water, still the tissue was at all points loaded with a serous fluid.

"The liver was not enlarged, but it was very pale and indurated. There was no great quantity of fluid in the abdomen, and the rest of the viscera in this region appeared healthy.

"The heart was nearly double the normal standard for persons of Probert's size, and the walls were in some degree hypertrophied. I examined this organ minutely, but I could not discover any ossific deposit in any portion of its structures, but there were several patches of coagulable lymph or fibrinous exudation, on the surface. The pericardium contained more than a pint and a half

of serum.

"June 28th, 1843.'

WILLIAM ADDISON.'

"Remarks. The cure of gout by the water system is not novel. It has been repeatedly tried at different epochs of medical science, but has never, for any length of time, been enabled to maintain its credit as a safe mode of treatment. Within our own time, Dr. Kinglake attempted to bring this treatment forward as eminently successful. Serious and even fatal results were found occasionally to follow its adoption, and his plan never received the sanction of the profession. Gout is a disease of so migratory nature, and yet so essentially constitutional, that you can never say, when it disappears in one part of the system, whether it may not show itself in some other organ. It is well known that, in some broken-down constitutions, gout is never altogether absent from the system; and experience has taught us that in such cases the functions of the vital organs are better performed whilst the gouty action is showing itself in the extremities, and there is nothing in such a state of system which a prudent physician so much dreads as the sudden and entire disappearance of gout from the extremities. Probert's was just such a case. He had been an ailing man for years, and had been occasionally subject to attacks of gout in the limbs, which he considered were always followed by an improved state of general health. What does the water-doctor do in such a case? He comes and proffers his assistance, and actually forces his nostrum on the poor, unhappy sufferer! The gout, in consequence, disappears from the joints, and from that time forward his breath becomes affected. The gouty action is driven from the extremities, but it fixes on the tissue of the heart and pericardium, from whence it cannot afterwards be dislodged, and death at length releases him from suffering.

"Dr. James Johnson, in writing on this subject, justly observes, 'There are certain classes of maladies-for instance, gout, rheumatism, rheumatic gout, tic douloureux, &c.—which, though thoroughly constitutional, and whose causes have been years accumulating, are yet of a migratory nature, suddenly shifting their seat from a vital to an unimportant organ, and vice versa, from a foot or a wrist to the stomach or heart. Now, it is an undoubted fact, that when a translation or metastasis of a chronic or subacute affection, as of gout or rheumatism, suddenly takes place from the exterior of the body, whether spontaneously or from the force of medicine, the malady takes up its seat in some internal organ; but as the internal organs-as the heart, liver, brain, &c.—are not naturally sensitive of pain, the metastasis is very often taken for a cure, and the malady preys

for a long time on the vital part, without suspicion, until it reaches a certain height, when the disease reveals itself unequivocally, by pain and suffering, but is now totally beyond the power of art Nature will not be cozened by the ingenuity of man. For a long time she counteracts the deleterious effects of morbific causes, whether applied by ourselves, or unavoidably occurring, and guards vital organs by throwing the onus on external parts, as is familiarly exemplified by gout. But when we thwart these salutary efforts of Dame Nature, by violently repelling the pain, inflammation, stiffness, or swelling from the hands and feet, by cold applications, heroic doses of colchicum, &c., then we lay the foundation, directly or remotely, for serious or even fatal maladies of some of the internal viscera! In this drama HYDROPATHY is now playing an important part, and we are now almost in the daily habit of seeing the precious fruits of the water-cure' in the shapes of furuncles, carbuncles, dropsy, and hypertrophy of the heart,' &c.

"Further comment on the case of Probert seems unnecessary; but I may point out to the reader that this victim of the rash and absurd water-system had been known at Malvern as a gouty subject for several years, and there appeared, on the arrival of the water-doctor, no reason why he might not have continued in the same condition for as many more, if it had not, unfortunately for him, so turned out that the disciples of the Silesian peasant determined on making him one of their victims; but, instead of prolonging his days to upwards of one hundred years, which their system promised, they forced him to shuffle off his mortal coil in a few months, and made the grave his resting-place. Worcester, July 22, 1843."

AN ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS AND WEATHER ON SICKNESS AND MORTALITY. By WILLIAM AUGUSTUS GUY, M.B.*

This enquiry, Dr. Guy states, was suggested by a striking coincidence observed in the recently-published Report of the King's College for 1842, between the prevalence of sickness in the several seasons and the temperature.

"A desire to ascertain whether these were mere coincidences, or the general rule of sickness and mortality, prompted an examination of the records of sickness and mortality in past years; and the results of this examination are embodied in the present communication."

The enquiry consists of two parts. 1. As to the relation between the seasons and weather, and the sickness and mortality, during the year 1842; based upon the registrar-general's tables of mortality for the metropolis for that year, and the cases registered in the out-patients' books of the King's College Hospital for the same year. The standard of comparison employed is the meteorological table, deduced from observations made at the apartments of the Royal Society, and appended to the Registrar-general's report already mentioned. 2. A comparison of the results obtained for 1842 with those of former years. We have not space enough to go through the valuable and interesting series of tables, &c. given by Dr. Guy; the following, however, are the conclusions which he draws.

"1. The amount of sickness in the central districts of London during the year 1842 varied directly as the temperature, being a maximum in August, the hottest month in the year, and a mininum in January, the coldest month.

2. The diseases which determined the order of sickness were febrile and

* From the Quarterly Journal of the Statistical Society.

catarrhal affections, the contagious exanthemata, and the disorders of the digestive organs; to which may be added the mixed group, consisting of gout, scrofula, &c.

3. The diseases of the organs of respiration followed the inverse order of those already mentioned, and were inversely as the temperature, being most numerous in the colder, and fewest in the hotter months.

4. The temperature did not appear to exercise a marked influence on the other classes of disease.*

5. The hygrometric state of the air appeared to have little effect on disease, and if it produced any effect, it was on the diseases of the organs of respiration, which were in excess during the months in which the quantity of moisture in the air was the greatest; but these were also the coldest months.

6. The mortality for the metropolis during the year 1842, was greatest in the first quarter, and least in the second, and was inversely as the sickness, except that the mortality of the third quarter exceeded that of the fourth.

7. The diseases which chiefly influenced the order of the quarters in respect of mortality, were those of the chest, to which may be added, as following the same order, the decay of nature in the aged.

8. The order of the seasons in respect of sickness and mortality differs year by year, and does not admit of being reduced to any precise rule.

9. As a general rule, but one admitting of many exceptions, it may be stated, that the amount of sickness tends to vary directly, and the amount of mortality inversely as the temperature."

These results, though probably not very far from the truth, are based on too few facts to be certainly depended upon. In the course of the enquiry the following is the hypothesis which Dr. Guy was led to form.

The causes of sickness are two-fold, consisting of atmospheric changes which may be submitted to measurement, and of certain more subtle changes in the composition of the air, which at present can neither be analysed nor estimated. To the former class belong the temperature, moisture, and pressure of the air; to the latter those emanations from the earth or from human beings themselves, which give rise to the majority of epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases. As the number of cases of sickness produced by these latter causes is generally considerable, the influence of the pressure, temperature, and hygrometric state of the air will not be observed in those years in which these causes are in operation; but in the absence of epidemics, the temperature will be found to be the most influential cause of sickness. When the temperature of the Summer is high, there will be such an amount of sickness in the Summer-months as to cause a large return of sickness for the entire year; so, on the other hand, a severe Winter will swell the total sickness of the year, by producing a great excess of affections of the organs of respiration. A Summer or Winter of unusual length, beginning early and ending late, will also cause an increase of sickness on the entire year, but the nature of the sickness will be different as the temperature is higher or lower than usual. The order of the seasons in respect of sickness will also be mainly determined by the degree in which the temperature of these seasons exceeds, or falls short of, the average temperature.

The mortality in like manner, in non-epidemic years, will be chiefly dependent upon the temperature, varying in the several seasons inversely as the tem

With the exception perhaps of those which form a measure of the activity of the sexual passion, which were in excess during the hottest months of the year-a fact which corresponds with, and corroborates our experience of the influence of the seasons on crimes against the person, &c.

↑ It is well known that the most common cause of death in the aged, is an affection of the lungs, called “bronchitis senilis."

perature, except in those years in which the Summer is unusually warm, when the mortality of the Summer may even exceed that of the Winter season. In other instances the mortality of the Summer months will rank next to that of the Winter or Autumn.

ROYAL INSTITUTION-ELECTRICITY OF STEAM.

At the last evening meeting for the season, Professor Faraday communicated the result of his recent investigations connected with the electricity of steam. He stated, that attention was first directed to this subject in consequence of a mechanic, engaged in attending on a high-pressure steam-engine, having observed a spark to pass from the boiler to his hand while doing something to the valve. The man, with much alarm, reported that the boiler was full of fire; it was found, however, to be highly charged with electricity. Since then, several papers had been published on the subject by Mr. Armstrong, of Newcastle, in the Philosophical Magazine. It had been thought probable that it would afford some explanation of the origin of thunder-storms, the electricity being supposed to be produced, in both cases, by the evaporation of water. In confirmation of this view, the fact, which had been long observed, was adduced, that electricity was produced on the sudden evolution of steam caused by dropping water into a crucible heated nearly to redness. Mr. Faraday showed, however, that this effect resulted only under peculiar circumstances, and he said the experiments he was about to perform, entirely overthrew the supposed connexion between the electricity of steam and that of the atmosphere. His experiments were made with a small, high-pressure steam-engine, isolated from the ground by blocks of shellac. From this boiler the steam issued through a pipe, at the end of which was a spherical enlargement or globe, and beyond this a wooden tube with a small perforation. The pipe was furnished with a stop-cock between the globe and the boiler; and water was put into the globe up to the level of the pipe and wooden exit tube. On turning the stop-cock, the steam, passing over the surface of the water contained in the globe, escaped through the wooden tube, and the development of electricity was immediately manifested by a goldleaf electroscope, connected with the boiler by means of a wire. The boiler was now found to be sufficiently charged with electricity to ignite hydrogen gas or gunpowder; and Mr. Faraday said, that Mr. Armstrong, in experimenting with a large and powerful boiler at a very high pressure, had obtained sparks through a space of twelve inches, the intensity being much greater than they could produce with the most powerful electrical machine belonging to that institution. The wooden exit-tube being now removed, and the steam allowed to escape immediately from the globe, through a large opening, no indication of electricity was afforded by the electroscope, although in other respects the arrangements remained the same as before; thus affording evidence that the phenomenon did not arise merely from the evaporation of water. The question then arosedid it depend upon the friction of the steam against the exit tube? This question was answered by the facts, that if the water was removed from the globe, and the whole course of the pipe allowed to become so hot that no water was deposited from condensation, the steam might be allowed to escape through the wooden exit-tube as before, without the development of any electricity. It thus became evident that neither the evaporation of water, nor the friction of steam, was the cause of the phenomenon in question; but that it arose from the friction of water carried with force through the wooden tube during the exit of the steam. It further appeared that the water, to produce the effect, must be in a state of purity; its contamination with a very small quantity of a salt, such as sulphate of soda, or chloride of sodium, entirely prevented the production of