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was reduced by the subsequent arrival of very extensive consignments. Towards the close of this month the demand for coffee was very animated, and the prices for some time improved considerably the market had been previously in a very fluctuating and unsettled state. Soon after, the price declined to the former rate. In August, both at London and the outports, the demand for cotton was brisk and extensive. Very considerable sales, for home consumption, were effected both at Glasgow and Liverpool. The a mount of cotton imported from the beginning of the year till September, has been, Bengal 58,479 bales, Surat, 27,549; Madras, 4599; Bourbon, 515; Brazil, 9028; American, 2599; West India islands, 3775; and Smyrna, 298. The accounts from the East Indies state British goods to be in considerable demand in Bengal.

In the course of the two last months of the year, a considerable rise took place in the prices of sugars, caused, no doubt, in part, if not altogether, by recent intelligence of a destructive hurricane in the West Indies. The demand for cotton, previously on the rise, continued to augment in consequence of the news of the failure of the cotton crop in the East Indies. The result has been that prices have risen considerably. The price of rum continued unaltered.

The check given to the issues of paper by the resolutions adopted by the House of Lords on the 21st of May, and which subsequently led to the epactment of what has been called Mr Peel's bill, gave rise to much needless and ignorant clamour; for although that measure could not fail to have a powerful effect upon prices, to give a severe blow to speculation, and to advantage greatly the public creditor, it was forced upon Parlia

ment by the necessity of the case, no less than by every principle of economical science. Had the system of 1797 been much longer adhered to, there can be no doubt that every thing like a measure of value would have gradually vanished. The depreciation of paper would have progressively increased; prices would have continued to rise; one class of the community would have been enriched, and all others ruined; contracts would have been only so many pieces of waste paper; gold and silver would have completely disappeared from circulation; and the Bank of England would have in a little time absorbed into itself the whole wealth and property of the kingdom. This state of things was not to be endured; and a return to the old standard had therefore become indispensable. But the malignant effects ascribed to this measure could not, even if real, be sensibly felt during the year the history of which we have to record. In December 1818, the bank issues, which a year before had amounted to L. 29,210,035, were reduced to L.26,487,859; which is somewhat more than the quantity of paper in circulation in June 1816; and the resolutions of the Lords expressly provided, that the operations of the bank, in calling in a portion of their paper currency, should be gradual, not violent. The effect of these operations, therefore, could not be very sensibly felt at the period of which we write, except by speculators, and persons without capital, to whose projects, we grant, the measure necessarily proved fatal. All this is proved by the state of our exports and imports for the year 1819.

The following account of the total real, or declared value of the produce and manufactures of the united kingdom, exported from Great Britain, during each of the three years ending on the 5th of January 1819,

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Total and Official Value of Foreign and Commercial Merchandise exported from Great Britain to all parts of the world.

1817.

L. 14,545,256.

1818. L.11,534,616.

1819. L. 12,287,274.

An Account of the Total Value of all Articles imported into Great Britain during each of the three years ending on the 5th of January 1819, as calculated at the official rates of valuation.

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We subjoin a Table, shewing the Prices of Bullion per ounce during

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MEDICAL REPORT.

Under this head we mean to confine ourselves to a simple detail of a few of the more prominent facts, relative to public health, furnished by the different medical reporters for the year, without indulging in any speculative remarks on a subject which professional men are alone competent to handle in a proper

manner.

A Committee of the House of Commons were lately engaged in an investigation of the causes and cure of insanity, a malady which has, for some time past, been on the increase in this country; but no satisfactory information, we regret to say, was elicited by a long and arduous inquiry. Of the practitioners and other persons connected with the receptacles for persons labouring under mental infirmity, scarcely two were agreed, either in their mode of accounting for the disease, or in the treatment proper to be prescribed; one recommending purgatives, another vomiting, a third tonics, a fourth phlebotomy, and a fifth mercurials and alteratives. With one class, the cold, and with another, the hot bath was the favourite remedy: and while a few derided all medical interference in cases of mental sickness, by far the greater number held, that, in propitious circumstances, no disease what ever can resist the powers of medicine, properly applied. Amidst such a number of conflicting statements and opinions, it was hardly to be expected that the Committee could arrive at any definite or very important conclusions. It would seem, however, from the documents published relative to the course of regi men pursued at the Retreat at York, and other places conducted upon the same enlightened principles, that sc

clusion in some cases, air, exercise, and society in others, with mild and humane treatment in all, afford the only prospect of eradicating this, the greatest, evil with which human na ture is afflicted. Every separate case should in fact be made a separate study, and the regimen judiciously and carefully adapted to the condition, habits, and previous life of each individual patient. Experience has happily proved, that there are comparatively few cases so settled and malignant in their character as not in time to yield to the constant and unwearied observance of this, the only system, which reason, religion and humanity alike unite to recommend.

In the course of the month of March, scarlatina, in every variety of form, and in every degree of virulence, was epidemically prevalent in London and its vicinity. It would also appear, by the Report of the Dispensary of the New Town of Edinburgh, for the quarter ending on the 1st of this month, that fevers were as prevalent as in the quarter ending on the 1st of December preceding; while the whole number of cases had been increased by 374. The proportion of fevers to other complaints had therefore diminished.

On the 1st of December it was as 1 to 9; on the 1st of March it was as 1 to 10.9. The greatest exertions have been made by the Managers of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, to accommodate all the fever patients who applied there, and we understand that the number of such patients who applied there and at Queensberry House averaged above 160 in the month, for several months prior to March. Contagion has been stated to be the exciting

cause of by far the greater number of the cases of fever existing in Edinburgh. For the unusual prevalence of scarlatina in London, and its immediate neighbourhood, we have heard no specific cause assigned. In adopting both remedial and prophylactic measures, the practitioner must always look for much assistance from the beneficent provisions of nature; but as to the general efficacy of these measures, when early resorted to, the experience even of a single Dispensary seems to furnish conclusive evidence. The misfortune often is, that many cases become utterly hopeless before medical advice or assistance is sought for; and hence the remedies that might be expedient, or absolutely save life, at the commencement of the disease, cease to be available in its more advanced stages, or, if resorted to, might be attended by the most fatal consequences.

Small-pox has been more prevalent in Edinburgh than usual, and six of the cases are marked as variola post vacciniam. A few cases of a similar description occurred in the western district of the city of Lon

Substances.

Concentrated acids : the vitriolic, nitric, oxalic, &c.

Alkalies: soda, monia, lime.

Symptoms.

don Dispensary. But these instances were extremely mild in their character; none of the patients, whose constitutions had been previously fortified by vaccination, died; and only in a few individuals, with whom this was not the case, has the contagion of small-pox produced symp. toms answering to the descriptions of chicken-pox, as given by Dr Heberden, and by Dr Thomson in his paper on the Varioloid Disease. Measles, however, have been extensively prevalent among the poorer classes; but the mortality has chiefly been among children of feeble constitutions, and among those who had previously suffered from hooping-cough, or long continued catarrhs.

Many cases of death by poison having occurred in the course of the year, we think we cannot do better than exhibit, in a tabular form, for speedy reference, when individuals qualified to administer antidotes can not be suddenly called in, the substance of M. Orfila's valuable and ingenious work on poisons.

Correctives.

Calcined magnesia: one ounce to a pint of warm or cold water. Burning pain, vomiting. A glassful to be taken every two. Matter thrown up efferves-minutes, so as to excite vomiting. ces with chalk, or salt of tar, lime, or magnesia.

Nearly the same: the e

Soap, or chalk and water; mucilaginous drinks afterwards, such as linseed tea, or gum arabic and waLter.

Vinegar and lemon juice: a

am-jected matter does not effer-spoonful or two in a glass of water vesce with alkalies, but with

Mercurial prepara

Cacids.

Sense of constriction in tions: corrosive subli- the throat matter vomited mate, &c. sometimes mixed with blood,

Extreme irritation, pain,

very frequently; simple warm wa

ter.

:

White of eggs twelve or fifteen eggs beat up and mixed with a quart of cold water. A glassful every three minutes. Milk, gum water, linseed tea.

Warm water with sugar, in large

prepara-sickness, and speedy death,quantities to excite vomiting. Lime

Arsenical

tions: white arsenic, &c.

if the poison be not soon
counteracted.

water, soap and water, pearl-ash Cand water, mucilaginous drinks.

Substances.

Preparations of copper, brass, &c. verdigris, halfpence, pins, &c.

Preparations of antimony: emetic tartar, &c.

Nitre.

Phosphorus.

Symptoms.

Symptoms nearly the same as from mercury.

Extreme sickness, with other symptoms of poison, as above stated.

Correctives.

White of eggs: (See under mercury,) mucilaginous drinks.

Warm water, or sugar and water; afterwards a grain of opium, or fifteen drops of laudanum every quarter of an hour, for two or three times.

Obstinate vomiting, some- S Same as for arsenic, with the extimes of blood, &c. ception of lime water and alkalies.

1

Like mineral acids.

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In and about London, affections of the parotid and submaxillary glands constituted one of the epidemics of June. In a few cases these proceeded to suppuration; but for the most part the swellings subsided after a few days' continuance, and were succeeded by no unpleasant consequences. In the Report of Diseases treated at the Dispensary of the New Town of Edinburgh, it appears, that during the quarter which ended at the commencement of June, cases of fever had been as numerous as in the preceding, although the epidemic was visibly on the decline. Of the 203 cases enumerated, less than a fourth had occurred in the previous month of May. Instances of epidemic catarrh or in fluenza also made their appearance, but not to any extent; it had the ordinary symptoms of pyrexia, and in some cases was with difficulty distinguished from continued fever. In general, however, the tongue was less furred, the sensorial functions less disturbed, and but little pain felt in

Same treatment.

Large doses of Glauber's, or Epsom salts, in warm water.

Four or five grains of tartar emetic in a glass of water; if this does not succeed, four grains of blue vitriol, as an emetic. No large quantities of water. After the poison has been ejected, give vinegar, lemon juice, or cream of tartar. Strong coffee also is useful.

the back. This distemper is contagious, as appears from many members of the same family being afflicted with it. Considerable debility and mental depression accompanied this disease, and rendered convalescence frequently very slow: hence it is easily distinguishable from common catarrh or ephemera.

The two following months were not, as far as we have learned, remarkable for the prevalence of any particular malady; but towards the middle of September, affections of the stomach and bowels became common. Several obstinate cases of convulsive asthma also occurred, but were speedily subdued by half-grain doses of the extract of stramonium, repeated every four hours, as recommended by Dr Kirby in his "Cases in Surgery." The following month ushered in numerous instances of catarrhal, rheumatic, and inflammatory disorders, as well as affections in the bowels; which probably proceeded from the violent alternations of temperature which took place about this

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