most commonly caused by engorgement of the liver. The same disposition to hemorrhage from the mouth, nose, and intestinal canal, has been remarked in bilious remittents and yellow fever, by numerous writers. Besides these, there are other coincidences, chiefly in symptoms, that accompany these complaints, which are remarked to occur with peculiar aggravation and intensity, seeming to depend on some peculiarity of the morbid action, rather than on those circumstances that give rise to them in other diseases; we mean the unquenchable and tormenting thirst, the disordered and irregular state of the intestinal canal; and the mortal restlessness and agony frequently attendant, when the other symptoms do not indicate any particular danger.

Nor are the above diseases the only ones in which there is reason to believe the hepatic function is materially concerned, and which hitherto has been almost entirely overlooked in treating of them. Repeated autopsic examinations have convinced Portal, that many eruptive diseases, espe cially the herpetic, arise from hepatic derangement, and are only to be successfully treated by restoring the functions of the liver to their healthy condition. The wonderful influence the liver exerts over the mind and moral condition of man, has been observed from the earliest times; but it has not, it appears to us, attracted sufficient attention, as the cause of mental alienation. And, finally, almost every author who has paid particular attention to diseases of the liver, has become impressed with the belief that they are much more frequent than is commonly supposed, especially as complicated with other affections, by which they are disguised, and pass unsuspected. Boerhaave believed this organ to be in fault in almost every chronic affection, and the opinion of many others of great authority in medicine might be quoted to the same effect; but we have said enough to show, that the influence of hepatic derangements in the production of other diseases, is still imperfectly understood; and we sincerely hope, a subject so fraught

with interest, and rich in expectancy, will, ere long, find an abler investigator than the author of the book before us.

1. Report of the Committee of the Medical Society of the City and County of New-York, on the Causes and Character of the Epidemic Fever which prevailed in Bancker-Street, and its vicinity, in the Summer and Autumn of 1820. Published by order of the Society. New-York. pp. 38.

II. A Statement of Facts relative to the late Fever which appeared in Bancker-Street, and its vicinity. Published by

order of the Board of Health, &c. New-York. pp. 28.

III. An Account of the Yellow or Malignant Fever of Philadelphia, in 1820, by Samuel Jackson, M.D. President of the Board of Health.

IV. Report of the Joint Committee of Councils, relating to the Malignant or Pestilential Disease of 1820 in Philadelphia. pp. 55.

V. Report to the City Council of Savannah, on the Epidemic Disease of 1820, by Dr. Wm. R. Waring. Published by order of Council, Savannah. pp. 78.

VI. Report of the Committee of the Physico-Medical Society of New-Orleans, on the Epidemic of 1820. NewOrleans. Published by Order of the Society.

We have thought it our duty to sum up, for our distant readers, the great mass of evidence here adduced on a subject most intimately connected with the welfare of populous cities. Our zeal for promoting inquiries into the real causes of our summer epidemics, is still further stimulated by the desire we feel to diminish the distressing

shackles and unnecessary impositions of quarantine, to which the American commerce is subjected in European ports, in almost every season of the year. The French government, with a wisdom and spirit worthy to be imitated by other nations, have lately instituted an inquiry into the nature and origin of tropical fevers, in order to test by experiment and the suffrage of physicians practising in countries where these fevers prevail, the question of their contagious attribute; and from the results of such investigation to found a system of Health laws, which shall meet the actual state of things, without subjecting them to the necessity of guarding against imaginary dangers. And we confidently expect that results, thus legitimately deduced, will enlighten European governments on the true character of a disease, which they have, for the most part, viewed at the dim distance of three thousand miles; and which (it would seem still further to increase the terror and dismay attendant on uncertain and exaggerated reports) has been denominated the American plague. We regret to say, that some few are to be found, even in this country, who have preferred to minister to these fears, rather than put themselves to the trouble of a severe examination of facts, which would dissipate the delusion.

The above collection of papers are recommended to the serious perusal of the reader; for with one exception, they are divested of party feelings and prejudices; nor has the least breath of professional hostility endangered the truth of the facts they contain.

We are indeed arrived at a period of our controversies, in which much information is diffused, a greater range of observation has been obtained, and an analytical philosophy has been substituted in medicine, for problematical theories; the oftener, therefore, impartial reports on epidemics are submitted to the severe scrutiny of public opinion, the sooner must reason and the love of the public weal point out the effectual means to arrest their destructive

course. It is to that sound prevailing spirit, that the inhabitants of many of our large cities are indebted for the success with which the progress of yellow fever has been met and arrested in many instances of late years, soon after it had broken out with the most threatening aspect, and long before the change of season alone could warrant the expectation of such a result.

I. The first report was issued from the Medical Society of the City and County of New-York, after it had been ascertained that no information on the subject of a mortal disease, which ravaged a populous district during the summer and autumn, had been, or would be, furnished to the public, by the Board of Health. It is, indeed, in the recollection of every inhabitant, that during the period of its existence, no report was as usual published by municipal authority, that could give the least alarm; and to this day, no documentary evidence is to be found on this interesting subject, except that a greater mortality by 329 deaths than in the former season (when the yellow fever was declared to exist in Old Slip) occurred, during four months, from a serious fever in Bancker St. (vide City Inspector's Report, for 1820.)

The Medical Report offers two distinct subjects of inquiry; first, the nature and character of Bancker Street fever: secondly, the causes and their correction, especially in relation to the organization of the Board of Health. It is established in this Report:

1st. That the district of Bancker Street and its vicinity was, during the warm season, in a most deplorable state of filthiness, and that its inhabitants were in so wretched a condition, as to have attracted the attention of the Grand Jury, who most emphatically represented the neighbourhood to the Court of Sessions, as affording all possible materials calculated to kindle and keep alive pestilence.

2dly. That the large population in the Eastern part of that Street, of 1566, composed of blacks and whites, were VOL. VI.

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literally crowded together in various infected parts of the district; some houses and lots of which are designated as containing unusual numbers; as, for instance, 144 on two adjacent lots, and 81 on another.

3dly. That great quantities of fermenting and putrid materials were accumulated in the cellars and yards of many old decayed and ill ventilated buildings.

That

4thly. That the distemper was of short duration, of a remittent type, generally neither marked by torpor of the sensorium, nor by delirium of mental perceptions; marking great anxiety in epigastrio, excessive bilious vomitings, jaundice, and, in some instances,black vomit. That autopsic examinations uniformly confirmed a malignant determination to the stomach, liver, gall-bladder, and spleen. this fever bore no resemblance to any kind of typhus in its symptoms, nor by its circumstances of duration or of season; and that it was similar to the yellow fever. 5thly. That one-third of the inhabitants of Bancker Street experienced the epidemic in various degrees; the proportion of blacks to whites affected was as three to one. That 150 deaths are supposed to have taken place in this street, the hospitals, and other situations, to which they were removed. And that authentic,instances of this fever contracted in Bancker Street, had been ascertained to have existed at Powles Hook, and at Jamaica, L. I.

The report contains also several other interesting matters, which our present limits will not permit us to notice.

II. The second paper is an attempt to invalidate the facts contained in the preceding Report of the Medical Society, and contains a positive asseveration, that the disease in question was not yellow fever. It purports to have been drawn up by the medical members of the Board of Health, and we regret to say, has been laid before the public under the auspices of that honourable body for it is pervaded by a spirit unworthy the sanction of constituted authorities, whose duties we think can never