ken the attention of the most pre judiced admirers of a frofty winter. And though I have only ftated the evidence of two years, the fame conclufion may univerfally be drawn; as I have learned from a careful examination of the weekly bills of mortality for many years. Thefe two feafons were chosen as being each of them very remarkable, and in immediate fucceffion one to the other, and in every body's recollection. It may not be impertinent to the objects of this fociety, without entering too much into the province of medicine, to confider a little more particularly the feveral ways in which this effect may be fuppofed to be produced; and to point out fome of the principal injuries which people are liable to fuftain in their health from a fevere froft. And one of the first things that muft ftrike every mind engaged in this investigation, is its effect on old people. It is curious to obferve among those who are faid in the bills to die above 60 years of age, how regularly the tide of mortality follows the influence of this pre vailing caufe: fo that a person ufed to fuch inquiries, may form no contemptible judgment of the feverity of any of our winter months, merely by attending to this circumftance. Thus their number laft January was not much above th of what it had been in the fame month the year before. The article of afthma, as might be expected, is prodigiously increased, and perhaps includes no inconfiderable part of the mortality of the aged. After these come apoplexies and palfies, fevers, confumptions, and dropfies. Under the two laft of which are contained a large proportion of the chronical diseases of this country: all which feem to be hurried on to a premature termination. The whole will most readily be feen at one view in the following table. Notwithstanding the plague, the remittent fever, the dyfentery, and the fcurvy, have fo decreased, that their very name is almoft unknown in London; yet there has, I know not how, arifen a prejudice concerning putrid difeafes, which feems to have made people more and more apprehenfive of them, as the danger has been growing lefs. It must in great imeasure be attributed to this, that the confumption of Peruvian bark in this country has, within the laft fifty years, increafed from 14,000 to above 100,000 pounds annually. And the fame caufe has probably contributed, from a miftaken mode of reafoning, to prepoffefs people with the idea of the wholefomenefs of a hard froft. But it has in another place been very ably demonftrated that a long froft is eventually productive of the worst putrid fevers that are at this time known in London; and that heat does in fact prove a real preventive against that difeafe. And although this may be faid to be a very remote effect of the cold, it is not therefore the lefs real in its influence upon the mortality of London. Accordingly a comparison of the numbers in the foregoing table will thew that very nearly twice as many perfons died of fevers in January 1795, as did in the corresponding month of this year. I might go on to obferve that the true fcurvy was last year generated in the metropolis from the fame caufes extended to an unufual length. But thefe are by no means the only ways, nor indeed do they feem to be the principal ways, in which a froft operates to the deftruction of great numbers of people. The poor, as they are worfe protected from the where the prevailing complaints Obervations on the jail fever, by Dr. Hunter, Med. Trans. Vol. III. I very much approve of your allotting a particular part of your magazine to the valuable purposes of medical improvement; and what has been already done, will, I hope, lay the foundation of a feries of communications, from which phyficians may derive great advantage. From entertaining fo high an opinion of this part of your magazine, I am induced to offer my mite, by contributing a few remarks on a disease, not yet touched upon by your medical correfpondents, but which, by the time this communication will appear, muft be pretty well known in moft families. It is very prevalent in the months of June and July, is at the height in Auguft, begins to decline in September, and about the end of October generally difappears, though much will depend upon the weather. 1 am fomewhat at a lofs to defcribe this diforder, because being of very recent appearance in this country, it has escaped the attention of Sauvages, Vogel, Cullen, and all our late Nofologifts. It has fome fymptoms peculiar to the clafs of fevers, and fome to that of inflammations, but it is a difeafe, if I may use the phrafe, fo original, fo much per fe, that we must be content to let it be the root of a peculiar clafs, which may hereaf ter be divided into fpecies, when the faculty fhall have made it more their ftudy. I call it, merely for diftinction's fake, the Domiphobia, or dread of home, which is the principal fymptom; it begins, as I faid before, about the month of June, or earlier, for I have at this moment a family under my care, who are dreadfully afflicted with it. The mother, a remarkably healthylooking, and indeed a very handfome woman, complains of a wasting of the flesh, want of appetite, liftleffnefs, and dejection. The two daughters, though poffeffed of the finest bloom of complexion, are inclined to confumption, have alfo loft their appetites, and are, to ufe their mother's expreffion, in a very alarming fituation. The fons have various pulmonic fymptoms, fhortnefs of breath, cough, and complain that the smoke of London entirely diforders them. The hufband is the only perfon who has efcaped the diforder, although he feems fo much diftreffed at the fight of his family, that I fhould not wonder if he caught it from them. Every medicine I have prefcribed, has failed in its operation. Indeed, I must confefs, that this is one of those disorders, in which we are not to expect a cure from chemicals or Galenicals. On the contrary, if we leave nature to perform her work, a cure is immediately found, for nature fuggefts to the patients, from the very first attack of the disease, that it can be relieved only by a jaunt to a Watering Place. And hence a very expert practitioner in my neighbourhood, chooses to call it the Hydro-mania; but I apprehend he is mistaken, for I never knew a patient more attached to water when abroad, than when at home. There certainly, however, are fymptoms, which indicate a mania of fome kind or other; but fo imperfect is our knowledge of maniacal cafes, that I can derive no information from books. Arnold does not mention it in his laft edition, although probably he may in the next, for which I am told he is preparing materials. Befides, I confefs, that I am not very partial to increasing our catalogue of manias. So many things might be brought under this title, that a general history of madness would, I am afraid, be as comprehenfive as the Annual Register, or any other work which profeffed to record the actions of man; but this is a digreffion. It is peculiar to the diforder I am now fpeaking of, that the fymptoms of it never appear, when the patients are by themfelves: the prefence, however, of a ftranger, or a party of strangers, never fails to bring on the cough, dyspnoea, and other concomitants. But above all other occafions, they are most exafperated in the presence of the head of the family, whether a father, an uncle, or a guardian. Now, as this is as much a disease of the mind as of the body, it ftrikes me, that the paffion of envy, or jealousy, is ftrongly excited by the fight of perfons who are not afflicted with the diforder, which is generally the cafe with fathers, uncles, and guardians; and that the patient, from a defire of communicating the disease, is impelled to throw out those miafmata, contagious particles, which will affect all prefent, That this is often done without producing the effect, I well know, but I muft fay, that, in general, where the diforder is of long continuance (a month or fix weeks, for example) it seldom fails to impart fuch a degree of its virulence, as to affect the father, and then, I obferve, the cure is as good as performed. From the few remarks I have thrown out, you will perceive, fir, that although we cannot refer this disorder to any clafs hitherto mentioned by nonfologifts, yet we may rank it among endemics, or those diforders which affect the inhabitants of a certain diftrict. This is moft prevalent in the city of London, and extends a little way into the fuburbs. I have met with a few cafes of the kind in the borough of Southwark; but the small villages near town are, I think, generally pretty free from it. As to the Borough, it is rather fingular, that fome of the patients, after returning from Margate or Brighton, apparently perfectly cured, take lodgings nevertheless in a large building in St. George's fields, whether this confirms the cure, I know not, but I apprehend it may prevent a relapfe, and I am doubtful whether any thing will fo effectually answer this purpose, The tendency of the disorder to return, is one of the worst circumftances belonging to it, and sufficiently convinces me, that there is a radical error in the mode of treatment. I am not ashamed to confefs, that I have often failed. If we phyficians are not as free in acknowledging our errors, as proud in announcing our cures. the medical art, as to practical usefulness, must stand still, With respect to the caufes of the |