operations, when it is necessary to separate water from any mixture which will not bear evaporation by fire. Lon. Med. and Phys. Jour. On the Nature and Properties of the Marsh Poison. Royal Society of Edinburgh, January 17. DR. FERGUSON, Inspector of Hospitals, read a paper On Оп the Nature and Properties of the Marsh Poison, as known under the titles of Marsh Miasmata and Malaria. The author endeavoured to prove, from a reference to the medical topography of various places in the south of Europe and the West-Indies, that the universally-received opinions of aqueous and vegetable putrefaction, single or combined, being the sources of this poison, were unfounded; that putrefaction, under any shape, had no effect in producing it; that it never emanates from water in bulk, however putrid that water may be, nor is necessarily an exhalation from marshes: but some modification of the state of the atmosphere by heat and moisture, being the product of a highly-advanced stage of the drying process in absorbent soils that had previously and recently been saturated with water. The illustrations were principally taken from the countries where the author had served with the British armies during the last twenty-five years, and exhibited a great variety of observations in support of the opinions the paper professed to advocate. Other properties of the marsh poison, such as its particular adherence to, and attraction for, lofty umbrageous trees and rising grounds in the neighbourhood of swamps; its concentration in ravines, hollows, or leeward localities; its absorption from passing over water, and rarefaction or dissipation by the sun's heat, and regular currents of wind, were also pointed out and illustrated. In the course of the paper, the author, while treating of the effects of the marsh poi son, was led to consider its extreme and most baleful product, the yellow-fever of the tropics; and he endeavoured to show the non-contagious nature of that disease, by a series of forcible arguments. It concluded with some observations on the mode of reception of the marsh poison into the human constitution, whether by the lungs, the stomach, or the skin, which last the author seems to think the most probable channel; and he supported his opinion by some illustrations taken from the plague of the Levant,the peculiar idiosyncracy of the African or Creole negroes, Lon. Med. and Phys. Jour. &c. To Doctors WILLIAM GEDNEY, of Milton, GENTLEMEN, THOMAS COOPER, of Poughkeepsie, Physicians and Surgeons. The following precept is stated by Dr. Percival in the first chapter of his Medical Ethics, in relation to the professional conduct of Physicians and Surgeons, paragraph xii. "Should a case occur in which, ordinary modes of practice having been attempted without success, it would be advantageous to try new remedies, the accomplishment of this salutary purpose requires that we should be governed by sound reason, just analogies, and authentic facts, and by a previous consultation of physicians and surgeons," &c. It appears that you have observed this wise rule in the management of the case of Mary Tice, of Milton, (related in the Evening Post of New-York, August 26th, 1820,) supposed in your certificate to have been hydrophobia, in consequence of the bite of a mad dog; although you have thought proper to dispense with the usual surgical applica cations recommended for wounds inflicted by rabid animals. The wound of Mary Tice spontaneously suppurated, and continued to discharge, as late as a month after you commenced her treatment; and by your remedies, of which there was a great variety, her cure has happily been effected. So far, gentlemen, you have done well for the safety of the patient, who has been equally protected by professional precept, and professional attention: but, furthermore, if you wished to benefit the public by the publication of your observations on this case, it would have been highly meritorious, provided you had forborne to give your decided opinion of its nature, and of the value of one of the remedies, which, having been used with many others, rendered it difficult to say which was the most efficient. The smallest possible chance of error in your judgment, made it necessary that it should have been previously revised by some regular medical tribunal; for if one or two of you had before felt it necessary for the safety of one patient to be aided by a consultation of physicians and surgeons, you will readily admit, that in giving your opinion to the public on practical points and inferences of such momentous importance, a probable danger of error or misconception, deserved at least to be equipoised by as admissible and weighty authority, as that which you thought proper to exercise. Such a mode of proceeding is plainly marked out by the above rule, which has become fundamental in the code for the regulation of our professional conduct; instead of which, it is really unfortunate, that you should have submitted your case and certificate to an Editor, who, in the language of Percival, has so "often indulged in an affected and jocular scepticism concerning the utility of the healing art." We may add another aggravating circumstance, although it was no doubt incautiously overlooked by you, which is, that by a tacit compact, you, as members of a fraternity engaged to promote the honour of the association by all those means which are consistent with morality and the general good of mankind, have placed your professional acts under the auspices of a gentleman, who has neither professional responsibility to pledge, nor esprit de corps to cherish. There are three material circumstances in the case of Mary Tice, which we cannot reconcile with your belief of its having been a case of Canine Rabies. Permit us, gentlemen, to address you some remarks on this subject, with a view to explanation, rather than controversy. I. The uncommon duration of the disease, and its various and irregular symptoms. II. The late period at which your remedies were ap plied. III. The diagnosis of the disease, which resolves itself into Convulsive Hysteria. I. On the first point, we maintain, that the last stage of the supposed hydrophobia, at which you visited Mary Tice, is seldom of longer duration than five days. The numerous collection of cases related by Dr. Mosely, presents but one which continued ten days; but if this stage terminates by cure, we admit it might be of longer duration: yet the only one of this kind, according to the same author, perfectly recovered in fourteen days from the invasion of the last paroxysm; whereas we find that the last stage of Mary Tice's disease continued six weeks. Numerous facts also prove, that at this ultimate and violent crisis, the patient could not survive many days longer, from the impossibility of receiving either food or drink; from the dangers of suffocation; and from the repeated shocks of incessantly renewed convulsions, and raving madness; as was the case in the attack of James Cann, of this city, whom we had an opportunity of attentively observing in this horrible situation. The symptoms of your patient were also irregular and variable. From Saturday, in the morning, when she was taken, until Tuesday ensuing, she showed no signs of hydrophobia, which should have been the first evidence; at least you make no mention of them, and it is fair to infer Vol. 6. 13 from your silence on this point, that they did not exist. Again, after the disease was declared to be Canine Rabies, we are told "that she could drink warm teas without difficulty, but that cold water she could not venture to touch." If this is hydrophobia, it must be confessed that it is of a very extraordinary character; for before the Scutellaria had been procured for her, by the simple application of ether on her neck, Dr. Gedney restored the power of swallowing, and she took wine, &c. We must suppose that this pathognomic symptom of Canine Rabies, (Dyscatopsis,) was chargeable to the continuance of disease in your patient, and participated more of difficulty of swallowing, than of hor ror of water. II. The lateness of your specific treatment forms another objection against the existence of the disease; for your most efficient remedies were not used until the expiration of twelve or fourteen days from the invasion of the paroxysm. No No person will contend that such delay could occur with impunity in hydrophobia. In the instance of Mrs. Case, cured by Mosely in this stage, he tells us, that the loss of a few hours only, would have cut off all hope of recovery; and if Mary Tice survived by the help of venesection, mercury, cathartics, and scutellaria, exhibited after twelve days from the invasion; we cannot conceive that she laboured under Canine Rabies. III. If from the recital of her case we resume the diagnosis, we shall be led to conclude that it was a disease of a very different character. "She was bitten in March, a lit"tle above the elbow; the wound did not cicatrize till the "end of November; it continued a small running sore, re"sembling an issue, being occasionally covered by a little "scab, which would easily and often be rubbed off. Early "in December she felt an uneasiness in the stomach," &c. It is here remarked, that as soon as the wound had cicatrized, unusual symptoms appeared, such as pain from the arm to the neck, shoulder, and throat, and in the left side, attended with a glandular swelling in the armpit, fever and |