The National Register.
London, England, 1816-03-18 00:00:00

mAncit 18.

*7, be t)3eD;cal monitor.

NU:lll;Lit V.

taxi's POPULI SUPREMA EST LZZ.

RHEUMATIC affections still occupy a prominent
station in the numerical list of complaints, which present
themselves to medical observation. The disease has not
only appeared in its distinct and proper term of acute
rheumatism, attended with swelling and rigidity of the
different joints of the body, but has also shown itself' in
various painfid affections of the muscular structure. The
facc-rzch has been universally prevalent; which, although
apparently a disease of no great importance, occasions,
nevertheless, a considerable degree of pain and distress. •
The surest means of relief consist in the application of
tlisters in the neighbourhood of the affected part ; which,
by promoting a copious discharge, take oil that tension of
the vessels which either causes or aggravates the mu-
plaint. The sensibility of the part appears also to 1)e
morbidly inere:aed to a considerable degree,—a circum-
stance which indicates the use of opium or other nar-
cotics, after due evacuations have been obtained from the
system by appoipriate medicines. The acute rheumatism,
when it exists with great severity, is very apt, after the
general constitutional affection has subsided, and the in-
creased action of the vessels has diminished, to be site-
ceded by chronic rheumatism, often a tedioas and pain-
ful complaint. This effect is also more likely to take
place, when the disease, during its acute state, has been
improperly treated. It has commonly a very great dis-
position to shift its points of attack, and oftentimes spon-
taneously quits its present residence, to take up its abode
in a new quarter. The relief, therefore, experienced
a pained limb, is often fallacious; and when obtained by
the local application of liniments and lotions, is sometimes
purchased at the hazard of repelling the disease, to some
internal, perhaps vital, part. An important fact has.
lately engaged the attention of pathologists, which seems
previously to have escaped observation. Several cases of
sudden death, attributed by ordinary lookers-on to apo-.
plexy, have been found to originate in a severe and sud-
den rheumatic affection of the heart ; the muscular fibres
of which, having been rendered incapable of performing
;heir due contraction, the circulation has been stopped,
and death consequently ensued. It is probable, that a
similar event would take place from an extensive affection
of the diaphragm, the muscle which divides the cavity of
the thorax or chest, from the abdomen ; as respiration
principally depends upon the motion of that muscle for
its regular pertbrmance ; 'and without respiration, we
know life could not Ion!, subsist. In all the fatal in-
stances of rheumatism of the heart, hitherto observed, the
patient had' previously been subject to the external dis-
ease, viz. the affection of the muscles or joints. This
tact, of the retrocession of the disease ought to make us
extremely cautious in the employment of topical reme-
dies; and shows the impropriety of seeking temporary
ease by the DEC of WHITEHEAD'S Essence of Mustard,
or other advertised nostrums, at the probable expense of
inducing an unlooked for and tidal termination. I can-
not be understood to forbid all topical applications in
rheumatic affections ; on the contrary, when judiciously
employed, especially in the latter stages of the chronic
complaint, they arc highly useful. It is the misappli-
cation of them only I would guard against ; and in many
cases I would recommend the suilerers under this corn.
plaint, rather

"'l'o bear those ills they have,
" Than Hy to others that they k.iow not of."

One consolation it is in my power to offer them : It not
unfrequently happens, that those persons, who are habi-
tually subject to rheumatic affections, enjoy, in other re-
spects, a good state of health ; the natural and vital time-
tions are regularly and duly perfonned ; and such persons
arc exempt from those stomach and bilious complaints
which so much annoy many others; an exemption proba-
bly purchased by the liability to rheumr.tism, and to con-
tinue no longer than the prevalence of that affection.
Among the curative means recommended in rheumatism,
one may be mentioned, which can, at least, be practised
wiCoout danger, and is said to have been eminently ser-
viceable. It was suggested, and adopted by a gentleman,
not of the medical profession, who, is consequence of
having, learned that a oelebrated rice-horse at Newmar-
ket had been cured of a disorder which had all the symp-
toms of rheumatism, by sweating in body-clothes, after
every other remedy had filled, attempted his own cure
by similar means. The method proved completely sue-
ccsdul : on the first attempt, this gentleman could, with
great difficulty, and in considerable pain, prweed
; every succeeding walk diminished his sufferings ;
and after the sixth, he was as free from pain as he had
ever been in his life. The recital of this case is interest.
'ing and curious, and will appear, in our next number,
in the patient's own words, as extracted from the 3d voL
of the Medico-Chiruruical Transactions.
'rite attention of the public, no less than that of the
facolty, is directed to the measures about to be adopted
by Parliament for the regulation of Mad-houses. This
is a serious and important question; and the desire shown
by the promoters of the plan, to ameliorate the lot of the
unfortunate tenants of these abodes, is highly laudable.
The few comforts which it is in the power of the mclan.
chub' vi‘thus of ins:Lai:l to enjoy, ought surely to be al.

MARCH 1&

lowed to them ; and it affords a consolatory prospect, that
the severe and lamb treatment, to which, in general,
they have been hitherto subject, will in future be dis-
continued. The facility also of shutting up in those re-
ceptacles, persons not really insane, will be diminished
by the measures of strict visitation about to be adopted.
There is reason to think that these establishments have
sometimes been perverted to the most iniquitous pur-
roses. G.

OFFICIAL COPY OF MR, WESTERN'S PROPOSED RE-
SOLUTIONS FOR THE RELIEF OF AGRICULTURAL
DISTRESS.

1. That the portion of the community, whose capitals cm engaged in
agri,mlutre, as well as those nurmrous clas :es whose cmplovment de-
rmas theroon, are at present sutfering wider the pressure of unexam-
l•led distress.
2. That the continuance of such distress is fraught with extreme
danger to the most important interests of the country.
3. That the demand tin the extended proeuce of our agriculture is,
at C.is time, insulieLnt to produce that price wideli is necessary to
cover the ',wavy shargss and borthens upon it.
4. That the demand for barley has been very materially reduced, by
the excessive duties to which it is subjected, in the course of die various
operations which adapt it to the use of the ceusumer.
5. That the exteinuance of those duties. during pease, when the fa-
cility of smuggling is so much increased, cannot fail to injure tit...
home mhnuiacture of spirits, which must still further diminish the de-
m:a-LI for buley.
tl. T.iat it is therefore necessary to reduce the duties on malt, beer,
and spirits.
7. Chat in order to equalize the supply of grain, and promote its cul-
tiVAtiOtl, it is desiraVe that an appropnation should lie inade oni the
extra rroduce of abundant harvests, to supply the deficiency of s•_•asons
less f.:••curable.

ts. That the admission of foreign corn to be warehoused prevents null
application of our own occasional abundance, seal woigns to foragn
aoCulture the formation of e.ose stores, which might otherwise be
created from the produce of cur own.
That it is therefore expedient to repeil so notch of an act of last
session for the regulation of the corn trade, as permits the warehousing
of foreign torn, at 011 timai, duty fr e.
10. That 'n order further to promote the appropriation of a part of
our present abundance, and reserve it for futur: consumption, it is ex-
pedicnt to aid the means of those individuals who may be disriwed so
to employ their capitals, by an advance of Exchequer bills to a limitod
amount.

t. That excessive taxation renders it necessary to give protection to
all articles, t'ae piosluce of ou- own soil, against similar ;alleles, the
growth of fovi,fn countries, nut sqh;cct to the same burthens, and, in
oinformity with that policy, which Wu been unitUrmly o!werved, of
protecting by (bales, and cncour:ging by bounties or drawbacks, all
our other manufactures! . .

12. That it is therefore expedient to impose neditional duties :Lod
restrictions on the ini-dortation of 811 articles the produce of foreign agri.
culture..

......
15. That it is expedient, under due limitation, is encourage, by
bounty or drawback, the exportation of the redundant product ut the
agriculture of the united kingdom
14. That the tithe end the poor rates, to the payment cf which those
whope capitals are en_raged in agriculture arc almost exclusively sub-
yrted, have nrendy been felt with increasing and unexampled severity,
and that it is therefore necassary to relieve them, as far as possible, from
the operation of other burdens.