HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.

THE average of deaths for ten previous years, corrected for increase of population, is 1260, the deaths having ranged in that week from 929 in 1844 to 1457 in 1848, at which latter period the mortality was much increased by influenza, then on the decline. The deaths in the present return are, therefore, less than the average, by 195. The mortality from small-pox, though it shews a tendency to increase, is still less than half the average. Scarlatina and hooping-cough also cause less than the usual number of deaths, only 11 having occurred last week from the former epidemic, though the corrected average is 37; in the corresponding week of last year the deaths from scarlatina rose to 63. From typhus, which ranged in the same week of ten previous years from 22 to 83, the deaths returned last week were 33, or rather less than the average; but the mortality from measles is at present rather above it. The only complaint which is now fatal to a considerable extent is bronchitis, from which 25 children under 15 years, 31 persons between 15 and 60, and 64 at 60 years and upwards, died in the week; its increasing fatility during the last three weeks, in which the weekly mean temperature has been successively 33°, 35°, and 30°, is marked by the numbers returned, viz. 78, 103, and in last week 120. Of the 1065 deaths, 303 were those of persons of 60 years old or upwards.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

NOTICE.--All communications for the Editor must be addressed, pre-paid, to his house, No. 25, LLOYD SQUARE, PENTONVILLE. It is indispensable that letters requiring a private answer contain a postage stamp, or stamped envelope, whereon is written the address of the applicant. Invalids resident in the country, and others desiring the opinion of the Editor, who are unable to consult him personally, can have, on application, a series of questions proposed to them, and by attention on their part, in giving answers thereto, the necessity of a personal interview, in many instances, may be avoided without detriment to the successful issue of the required treatment. Notes of every case submitted to the Editor will be recorded in his private case-book, for the facility of reference at any future period. THE EDITOR is at home every day until one o'clock; and on the Evenings of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from Seven to Nine. He attends at MR. MILES'S MEDICAL AND SURGICAL ESTABLISHMENT, 78, Gracechurch Street, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from half-past One until Three o'clock. Surgical advice may be obtained at the above establishment, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings, from Six till Nine o'clock.

WE particularly request Correspondents who do not attach their proper names to their communications, to avoid all such signatures

as

a Subscriber" -"Constant Reader -"Well-Wisher," &c. Where the correct name is not given, it will insure the identity of the answer" to the query proposed to us, if our correspondents add the name of the town or street from which they write: thus O. P. Q. (Bath)-DELTA, (Manchester Square).

J. C. (Vicarage Place, Hunslet).-Take, extract of hyosciamus, two scruples; camphor, ten grains. Mix, and divide into ten pills. Take one every night.

T. B. S. (Chancery Lane).-Get a bandage at Mr. Smith's, High Holborn ; the cost will not be more than two shillings or half-a-crown.

A CLERK (Mark Lane).-The passions and affections possess a sad power of troubling our bodily functions, and deranging health. The power to subdue the former and control the latter is what you require, not drugs. Five minutes' conversation will do more for you than a bushel of pills. WILLIAM COOK (Catton), -We can only reply to your note privately. G. X. Y. (Nottingham).-First remove the cause; pay strict attention to the state of the evacuations; live temperately in all things; and as a temporary palliative, apply a mustard poultice. Your letter is too indefinite for us to advise more minutely. You must send your private address if you desire an opinion in detail.

A

EAST LONDON.-In our answer last week, for "professed," read proferred. A POOR PATIENT.-We do not profess to have interest sufficient with the weekly Board of the Hospital in question to cause an inquiry to be made into your complaint. We know there are more old women attached to Charing Cross Hospital than Nurse Mary. We sincerely hope you never may have occasion again to apply to charitable institutions. VICTIM.-We have received a most distressing note from the correspondent whose letter on Quack Consulting Surgeons we published in our Second Number. The "firm" in question, having seen his letter inserted in our journal, sent copies of "Victim's" correspondence with them to his father, and to his late employer, the consequence of which is, that he has lost his father's confidence and affection, and the zealous interest of an established merchant. We would insert his letter, but under a natural excitement he has employed epithets to the men, who certainly deserve the most severe phrases in our language, which we cannot condescend to apply even to the lowest of pretenders. We would, however, earnestly caution intending dupes not to place the least reliance on advertised "inviolable secrecy.'

ALEXIS.-Relate the cause; -we may then probably be enabled to direct you. J. F. W.-Apply to Mr. Smartt, he will effectually stop the decayed tooth. Some dentists stop one tooth, and drill holes through two. If you wish to know to whom we allude, walk from St. Paul's to Temple Bar, and read all the little hand-bills you receive in your journey.

B.

J.

W. J. (Somers Town).-Have two; one to wear during the night, the other during the day. Never sleep in your day linen.

O. G. (Accrington).-We do not possess a divining rod. We can do nothing for you without you relate more of your symptoms than you have hitherto done.

E. E. E.-Your cough, in a very great degree is sympathetic with deranged digestion, and is the natural result of former irregularity. A prescription is left for you at 78 Gracechurch-street, together with a note, instructing you as to diet and regimen.

SAMUEL T. (Bolton).-Your note is not sufficiently explicit. DELTA (Holborn).-To your first query:-Yes, under proper treatment and guidance.-2nd, There are two, both of bad repute.-3rd, Yes. A. B. (Watling Street)-We would do much to save you from falling into the hands of the ignorant advertising consulting surgeons, but we cannot print the information you ask for. Could a mother or sister read it? Our journal is a Family Journal. Communicate privately.

INQUIRER. He is only known as a clever speculator in hot water, and as the writer of prurient books.

A

MOTHER (Bishopstoke).-Keep the bowels gently moved by castor oil: drink plentifully of barley water, to a pint of which add about ten grains of saltpetre; avoid animal food for a few days, and keep perfectly quiet. JASPER. (Alnwick)-Send your address.

W. J. (Barnsbury Road).-Both are proper; when there is much relaxation of the tonsils, alum is preferable: the proportions will be about ten graius CLERK. (Eagle Street).-Sarsaparilla is an expensive and useless remedy to a six-ounce gargle.

-don't touch it.

We have left a prescription and private note for you at 78, Gracechurch Street, according to your request. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL JOURNAL, although bearing date Saturday, is published in London on the preceding Wednesday: the journal is printed on Tuesday; consequently letters arriving after 10 o'clock on Monday morning cannot be noticed in the current number.-This to many correspondents. PRESCRIPTIONS are left with THE DISPENSER, 78, Gracechurch Street, for the following correspondents:-N. D. (Deptford), also a private note. MIGHT, also a private note. E. C. R. (Stamford Street). A HOUSEMAID. D. E. (Norton Folgate). Mrs. B- N (Walworth Road). A MECHANIC, also a private note. MISERY, also a private note. MR. G-D (Hatton Garden). MARY, (Brick Lane). L. S. D. ANNETTE. A HATTER (Bermondsey Street). W. B. (St. Martin's Lane), also a private note. WOLSEY (Plaistow). JOHN (Westminster), also a private note.

of St. James's, Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex; and published, for the Proprietors, by GEORGE VICKERS, Strand, in the Parish of St. Clement Danes, in the said County of Middlesex.

DISEASES OF THE CHEST.

BY T. H. YEOMAN, M.D. NO. V.

THE INFLUENZA, OR EPIDEMIC CATARRH.

(Continued from page 28.)

THE term influenza, which may be fairly considered an English word, is derived from the Italian, and had its origin in the supposition that the disease which it serves to denote was caused, or ruled by the influence of the stars. From the earliest period of medical literature, this epidemic has engaged the attention of medical writers: and the history of the disorder, handed down to us by Sydenham, accurately corresponds with its character in the present day; its invasion, however, is more frequent than formerly, and it has occurred not only in the autumn, but in every season of the year, whether hot, cold, damp, or temperate, and of all epidemics is now the most universal.

Sydenham regarded the disease, in 1675, as a general cough, produced by cold and moist weather, grafted upon the autumnal epidemy, and varying its symptoms; whence the fever, which had hitherto chiefly attacked the head or bowels, now transferred its violence to the chest, and excited symptoms which had often a semblance to those of genuine pleurisy.

During late years it has invariably followed the bilious cholera, which prevails in the months of September and October. Its most virulent appearance was in 1837, in January and February, and in the winter months of 1847 and the commencement of 1848, since which time, indeed, England, especially the metropolis, has not been free from the malady.

It has been observed that influenza seems to bear the same relation to ordinary catarrh, that epidemic cholera bears to the common English cholera that happens every year, and that it appears to be dependent on some peculiar condition of the atmosphere. Sydenham ascribes its existence to "some occult and inexplicable changes wrought in the bowels of the earth itself, by which the atmosphere becomes contaminated with certain effluvia, which predispose the bodies of men to some form or other of the disease." As it is well known that a specific miasm, or morbid principle of the atmosphere, is the cause of intermittent and remittent fever, we may readily allow that some specific ærial influence is the primary cause of influenza. Corroborating this opinion is the fact that many domestic animals, as horses and dogs, have been attacked simultaneously with

[ONE PENNY.

vember and December, when the prevailing winds were southwest or south-south-west.

There is much diversity of opinion as to the contagious or non-contagious character of the disorder; and although the popular feeling is in favour of its being non-contagious, it must be remarked, that it has seldom appeared in any one country of Europe, without appearing successively in every other part; that it sometimes affects every member of a family at the same time, and sometimes it affects them in succession, and that it attacks indiscriminately persons out of doors and in doors. On the other hand, I have heard of the crews of vessels on the open sea having suffered severely, when there could be no possible communion with infected individuals.

Persons of all ages, the healthy and robust, are liable to its attack, but children less than others; in 1837 the fatality among elderly people was considerable; in 1847 it overcame the youthful, the middle-aged, and the aged.

Influenza, although lightly treated-(" Oh, it's only a touch of the influenza!")—is a most formidable disorder; less so, however, on account of its immediate symptoms than by its power to excite and perpetuate other diseases. The general symptoms bear a close resemblance to those of common catarrh, considerably aggravated in degree; it may be readily distinguished from the latter complaint by the extreme debility that attends and follows it. At the onset there is universal chilliness, or rigors, succeeded by sudden flushes of heat; the skin is at first hot and dry, afterwards covered with perspiration; great pain is felt in the head, which seems as if bound and tightened, there is also considerable confusion or noise in the ears; constant flying pains are experienced in the limbs and back, especially the loins, and the entire body feels sore and bruised, as if beaten with a stick; the strength is suddenly prostrated, there is entire loss of energy, and the patient is overcome with fatigue and lassitude; the spirits are depressed, and he is borne down by mental as well as bodily debility. There is pain and constriction across the chest, particularly at the lower margin of the ribs, accompanied at first with a dry teazing cough and hurried respiration, which causes much anxiety and distress; there is a tingling sensation at the nose, frequent sneezing, and watery eyes, and, as in coryza, a profuse secretion from the nostrils; the face feels stiff and uncomfortable, the lips are frequently covered with an irritable, smarting eruption, and the temples and cheek bones are sore and painful. The throat seldom escapes, the tonsils become inflamed and relaxed, and the soreness is severe and burning the windpipe is dry and irritated, and the voice hoarse or entirely lost; there is loss of appetite, aversion to food, and sometimes nausea or sickness; the tongue is furred and parched, or covered with a ropy, unpleasant mucus, like cream; the thirst is considerable: the bowels irregular, and the urine scanty, thick, and turbid.

:

ON THE USE OF STAYS AND CORSETS.

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.

MANY young females, from the use or rather abuse of stays, grow up to be sickly women, scarcely ever enjoying health for a week together. They become unhealthy mothers, producing unhealthy offspring, often with the forfeit of their lives. All physiologists and medical practitioners are agreed as to the injury and deformity caused by the pressure of stays. Woman how ever waspish she may sometimes be in disposition, was never intended to appear to the eyes of mankind in the form of a wasp. A free expansion of the chest is requisite for the purposes of life, and this cannot be accomplished with a supernaturally small waist, squeezed into minute dimensions by the pressure of stays. Whenever a small waist is seen in a woman it is a deformity, and bespeaks, as plainly as tongue can do, an unnatural condition of the body, and therefore an imperfect state of health. In the most ruddy and blooming females such a form of waist is incompatible with health; and the judgment must not be cheated by the appearance of a pair of rosy cheeks or sparkling eyes, frequently arising from a determination of blood to the head, brought on by the pressure of stays on the chest and stomach; the pressure on the latter organ, when distended with food, occasionally produces, even in very young persons, fainting, and sometimes sanguineous apoplexy and instantaneous death.

Stays are commonly put upon children of six or seven years old, with a view to control their growth and give them good figures; -as if nature were apt to err, and required correction! This controlling of the growth of children is like the practice of those who, by pruning timber trees, pretend to correct and improve nature's works, whilst they inflict incurable injuries upon, and diminish the life of the tree, deteriorating, at the same time, from the quality of the timber. In like manner, the mother impedes the growth, by encircling with whalebone or steel the body of her child, who will thus grow up to be a sickly and deformed woman. Take fifty of our countrywomen of the middle classes, and we shall find thirty at least afflicted with curvature of the spine; and this disfiguration and malformation may be referred to the use of stays, and to the absence of proper muscular exercise. Weakness of the loins and back is invariably increased by the use of steel and other contrivances made to sell and to cure. I once knew an establishment in which there were fifty young ladies, forty-nine had curvature of the spine, and the right shoulder of each had grown considerably out of its place. This was caused by the girls being compelled to write for hours together on a flat table, upon which the left elbow rested, whilst the position of the arm raised the right shoulder, and caused a lateral depression of the spine.

When a girl goes to school, if she has never worn stays before, she is now made to do so, and the poor child is taught to look with a feeling of gratified vanity on what causes her great inconvenience, and very often great pain. If straight before, she will now perhaps begin to grow crooked, and her spine gradually swerves from the perpendicular line, whilst the chest, especially in a weak and delicate girl, will be forced to contract. Can any person wonder that, at the adult age, indigestion and stomach complaints should result from such a system of physical education? Stays having been worn from infancy, and the support of the body made dependent upon them, by the destruction of all power of action in most of the muscles of the back, abdomen, and chest, they become indispensable to those by whom they have been constantly used. The busk and bones might, however, be left off gradually with excellent effect. I need not dwell on the evil of tight-lacing further than to state what cannot be too often repeated, that it often leads to sudden death by apoplexy. There was an instance in London, a very short time since, of the sudden death of a healthy young woman twenty years of age, who died of apoplexy about an hour and a half after she had eaten a hearty dinner, the action of the stomach being paralysed by the pres sure of the stays, and the blood driven to the brain. There is, however, a point, connected with the lacing of stays, to which Í would fain call the attention of every woman in the land, as it is a matter of great importance to all. Ever since the existence of long stays it has been the practice to lace them from the top to the bottom, whereby a downward pressure is given, that forces down the bosom, the stomach, and the intestines; and besides the lamentable accidents that frequently occur, the form of youth is destroyed, to be replaced by the appearance of age at the mere outset of adult life. The pressure of the busk bears heavily and painfully on the sternum or breastbone, producing a permanent bruise on the skin, and ultimately disease of the bone itself. There is scarcely one female received in any of our hospitals, that does not bear this mark upon her chest. And what is the consequence ?-constant pain, and very frequently the breaking out of a torturing disease, which sometimes attends the sufferer to the grave. Ladies of rank frequently wear French corsets, laced upwards, and though they inflict the same injury on the muscles of the body that every kind of stays will do, they do not so frequently cause curvature of the spine and deformed waist.

ON THE TEETH:

THEIR USES, DISEASES, AND MANAGEMENT.

BY CHARLES SMARTT, ESQ., SURGEON DENTIST.

his words when deprived of his front teeth, and suffers from indigestion, and all its attendant evils, in consequence of the loss of his molars or grinding teeth. To aid in explaining the cause, and to point out the method to be adopted in averting this afflic tion, is the purpose of the following contributions.

The teeth of the infant are twenty in number-ten in each jaw; and in the adult or full-grown person, the number is increased to thirty-two, being an addition of twelve molar or grinding teeth. These teeth are distributed as follows,-sixteen in the upper or superior jaw, and the same number in the lower or inferior maxilla. The anterior or front four are termed the incisors, their use, as their name implies, being to make an incision or cut; on each side of the jaw there is a canine tooth, for lacerating or tearing the food; and beyond the canine are found five molars or grinding teeth. Thus formed it will readily be perceived how indispensable they are to the perfect mastication of food, the first step towards proper digestion, without which the whole human fabric soon becomes diseased. During the performance of mastication the teeth minister materially to the sense of taste. These beautiful, though frequently neglected, little organs are, however, essentially necessary for other pur poses besides those of mastication and taste. From time almost immemorial, and by all tribes of people, the teeth have been regarded as one of the most important essentials to beauty. Our daily observation teaches us the disagreeable effect produced by decayed front teeth, and how perceptibly the character and symmetry of the face is altered by their loss. From their effect on the features they call for particular attention from those who consider a good countenance a good letter of recommendation. There is a quaint saying, that no woman can be beautiful in spite of her teeth." The hearty and kindly laugh is deprived of half its joy by the deformity presented. We must not term it ugliness; for if the mind be charitable and well stored, its diamonds will yet sparkle around, undamaged by the ruined pearls. The removal of these " pearls" reduces the length of the visage by one inch and a half. Their loss will also painfully remind us of their value as aids to articulation. If the great and preeminent prerogative of man is the possession of speech, that speech can never be perfect or complete unless the teeth modulate the sound, and give proper utterance to the voice. Observe, for instance, how one deprived of teeth would pronounce the letters t, d, s, z, and the diphthong th. This remark is verified by the fact of the infant making but little attempt to speak until the teeth begin to protrude through the gums.

66

[To be continued in our next.]

GRIEF.

TIME has two characters: it is a healer and a destroyer. The gnawing of a feeling such as grief is not like the eternal voracity of the vulture which fed on the entrails of Prometheus. The load is gradually lifted; and, as the most brawling stream runs on the most shallow bed, the most violent sorrow is commonly the most readily exhausted. In some minds, indeed, the traces left by grief are surprisingly transient. Every active temperament, however it may feel stricken when the blow falls, however it may resolve to nourish its grief as a sacred inmate of the bosom, from its very nature rises elastic from the weight. Bitter days pass over, and these may be lengthened into weeks and even months; but the voice will soon regain its full-throated ease, the face its unbidden smile, and the step its careless tread. This may be predicated of the majority of people. Those on whom sorrow sinks down with a leaden weight are the subjects of intense contemplative sentiment, disappointed hopes, or the flatterers of a morbid melancholy, which, the more causeless it is, is cherished the more, and appears to communicate sensations of singular satisfaction. The more pains that are taken to study the annals of psychology, the more certain will be the inference, that in the soundest minds grief finds its most transitory home.

AN ANTIDOTE FOR ARSENIC has been discovered by Dr. Bunsen, in the hydrated peroxide of iron, a simple preparation, and one which ought to have a place on the shelves of every druggist in the kingdom. In Germany, if we are rightly informed, every druggist and apothecary who sells the poison is bound by law also to sell the antidote.

DYSPEPSIA-INDIGESTION. NERVOUSNESS, &c.

BY THE EDITOR. No. V.

THE TREATMENT OF INDIGESTION. (Continued from page 26.)

INDIGESTION arising from a solitary error in diet will, in many cases, subside so soon as the cause is removed, and the injury thereby incurred has been repaired; thus, if, by an unwholesome meal the stomach is irritated, and the bowels confined, we may expect to find the symptoms abate after we have ejected the offending matter from the stomach, and freely purged the bowels, and the probability is that the disturbance will then cease. An accidental attack of dyspepsia usually presents itself, and may be treated, in the following manner:-After a hearty undigestible meal, pain and weight is felt in and around the stomach, attended with nausea, sickness, and giddiness; we may then give an emetic of zinc, or infusion of mustard seeds, or antimony, to cleanse throughly the stomach; and after the emetic effect has ceased, some simple soothing draught, containing a little warm cordial tincture, or a small quantity of brandy and water may be taken to allay the uneasiness of the stomach; we must direct the patient to abstain from all solid food during the next four-and-twenty hours, and to restrict himself to gruel, made with oatmeal or arrow-root, or dry toast and weak green tea, without much milk or sugar. When the stomach is not so irritable as to cause nausea or vomiting, or when the attack has continued so long as te preclude the hope of relief by the aid of the sympathy existing between different parts of the alimentary canal, frequently restore the function of the stomach by exciting that of the bowels. The purgatives to be preferred in such cases are those which act quickly, and are warm in their nature; those persons who require a powerful remedy to move the bowels, may take the compound extract of colocynth: but, in the majority of cases, rhubarb probably is the best; it may be taken in the form of the compound rhubarb pill, or combined with magnesia or carbonate of soda ; the following formula will be found useful:-Take powder of rhubarb, fifteen to twenty grains; tartrate of potash, two scruples to a drachm; compound tincture or cardamoms, one drachm; cinnamon water, one ounce and half. Saline purgatives, as Epsom salts, or seidlitz powders, should never be used alone; neither is it prudent to give mercurials in large doses. After the bowels have been freely moved, we may expect to find the state of the stomach materially improved, so much so, as to induce a desire in the patient for solid and savory food; this, of course, should be prohibited, in order to allow the lately irritated organ to regain its healthy function by repose, and freedom from everything capable of disturbing its present quiet; a small quantity of beef tea, or light pure broth, without vegetables, may be allowed, together with stale bread, dry toast, or biscuit. As the stomach acquires its natural tone and sensibility, a moderate quantity of animal food that is palatable and easy of digestion may be permitted; and a broiled lean mutton chop affords both these properties in a greater degree than any other kind of food. The too common practice of stimulating a stomach weakened by an accidental attack of indigestion, with brandy, wine, and even medicinal bitters, cannot be too much reprobated; its action ought never to be hurried or forced, and until the natural tone be recovered, they are not only directly injurious, but may tend to fix and perpetuate the disease. As well as the absence of all discomfort, the state of the tongue is the best indicator of the proper quality and quantity of food; so long as it remains dry and foul, we have still disease to contend with; when, however, it is clean and moist, the patient may gradually return to his accustomed diet, avoiding all seasoned dishes, soups, sauces, pastry, and other articles, which his former experience has proved to be hurtful. It will be necessary to continue for a few days the action of the purgative, by some gentle aperient, taken early in the morning.

emetics alone, we must then have recourse to purgatives, which, by virtue of

Should the attack be not so simple in its effects as we have presumed in the foregoing remarks, but attended with other sympathetic derangements, as flatulence, heartburn, nausea, &c., we must then resort to the means detailed in the essay treating on those symptoms in the fourth Number.

We have now to speak of the treatment of continued or chronic indigestion and the manner in which we are to endeavour to attain the second indication of cure-namely, preventing a recurrence of the paroxysm.

In order to accomplish this, the patient must be convinced of the imperative necessity of abandoning whatever may have been the cause of his indis