MEMORANDA. New Port.-19 deaths for the month of September-7 of these together amounted to 580 years, averaging each 83 years. New York.-77 deaths for the week ending Oct. 9.-Consumption 15, Dropsies 6, Fevers 8, Hives 4, Small Pox 2. Reading.-A society has been recently formed here under the title of the "Medical Faculty of Berks County." Washington. The average height of the thermometer for the month of Sept;-690 Maximum 80°. Minimum 58°. Diminution of mean heat from last month=6o. Amount of rain-2.62 inch. Comparison with Sept. 1823-average heat 1° greater: Maximum 7 less: Minimum 16° greater. Rain-nearly 1-4 of an inch less. The month was characterized by a much greater equability of temperature than is usual. Norfolk-21 deaths for the month of Sept. -Bilious Fever 5, Consumption 2, Drowned 2, Tetanus 1. Richmond. A negro woman in this vicinity was lately delivered of 3 children, of different sexes and colours-making five within 13 months! The children and mother are all well, the mother nursing all. She and her husband are black. Charleston. The board of health not being able to obtain accurate accounts of the new cases, have ceased to publish any, and only report the deaths by yellow fever. Charleston. The yellow fever seems gradually to abate. Very few new cases are reported. Oct. 1, no new case was reported. Oct. 2, two; same day 5 deaths. Oct. 3, no new case; same day 2 deaths. Oct. 4, no new case; 3 deaths. Oct. 5, 2 deaths. Oct. 6, 4 deaths. Oct. 7, 7 deaths. Oct. 8, 1 death. From the 26th of Sept. to Oct. 3, there were 46 deaths, mostly of yellow fever. The thermometer was not very high; on the 26, Sept. and successive days, at 3 P. M. it was 70°. 68°. 72°. 73°. 71o 72. 73°. Kentucky. In a case of worms, after 700 or 1000 lumbrici were removed, a kind of bag, of the size of a finger was discharged, which when opened was full of small maggots supposed to be lumbrici. Savannah,- Still continues healthy; 8 deaths for the week ending Oct. 5. Fever 3. New Orleans.-The yellow fever still prevails pretty extensively. From the 13th, to the 16th of Sept. there were 58 deaths, mostly of yellow fever.-Eleven deaths Oct. 16. The thermometer, (2 P..M.) stood on the 5th of Sept. and succeeding days, as follows: 99o. 89° 88°. 86o. 78°. 83°. 82°. No rain! Key West.--Of 120 persons here on the 20th of Sept. 63 were sick. A physician had been sent for from Havanna. Limerick-A fever is here prevailing to an alarming extent. -158 patients were admitted into St. John's Fever Hospital during the month of August: 91 were there Aug. 1st, so that there were altogether 249 patients in a month! Paris. It has become quite fashionable here to destroy the stone in the bladder by triturating it to powder. It is done without pain or injury. NECROLOGY. Dr. Richardson, Bethsaida, (Geo.) A quack in France, some years ago, acquired great reputation for the cure of gout, by the use of a medicine he called "Tr. of the Moon," of which he administered some drops every morning, in a basin of broth; but it was never adopted by any but the very richest, for the price of a bottle full, not bigger than a common sized smelling bottle, was eighty louis d'ors.-Anced. Histor. & Literary, p. 27. PUBLISHED (EVERY THURSDAY) MENTAL ALIENATION.-No. 6. The next class treated of by M. Georget is Stupidity, but as there is nothing particularly interesting in his view of this subject, we pass on to the next,Imbecility or Fatuity, which we dismiss in the same way, for the consideration of the "Second Chapter," which treats of the causes of Insanity. 66 After observing, that M. Esquirol has only divided these into mental and physical, and showing by a table there given, that several are very different, and cannot be united together, he ranks in his first section, of Predisposing Causes," Inheritance, Sequels of Delivery, The Critical Age, and Progress of Age. The first, he says, is very frequent, and more among the rich than among the poor, but rarely provokes alone, the developement of insanity; it only renders the susceptible of receiving ill SO brain more effects from exciting causes. No. 20. hereditary disposition? Every organ is responsible for the exercise of the functions, with which it is charged; if it executes them irregularly, it is because its organization is vicious: in the same way that the disposition to Phthisis, exists in the lungs, or a bad conformation of the thorax, and the disposition to urinary calculi in a depraved secretion of urine; according to the way in which we have considered intelligence, it is to the brain that we should attribute the disposition to insanity." Under the head of the Critical Age, we have the following: "Miss R-68 years old, was, till an advanced age, very handsorne, and in great vogue. Since a short time only, her comeliness having disappeared, numberless wrinkles have furrowed her skin; she is so much affected by it, that she has entirely lost her reason, and wishes to destroy herself; her vanity leads her to attribute to scurvy, what is a mere natural effect of years: she is confined in an asylum of Paris. For fear of being considered minute and tiresome, we omit many things con tained in the second chapter, all of the 3d and 4th, and will hereafter extract a sentence here and there, as it may happen to illustrate or confirm any of the author's peculiar views. We pass now, therefore, to Chapter 5, " Of the Treatment of Mental Alienation." "Blind empiricism has so encumbered us with pretended specifics, that it is no easy task to separate the true from the false; the useful from the useless; what may be dangerous for the patient and the disease, from what will do them neither good nor harm. It is not long since the best method consisted in doing nothing: if nature was thus sometimes left in embarassment, at least we did not place her there. "Methodically to treat a disease, we must, 1st, know its seat and its nature; 2d, consider the nature and mode of action of its causes; 3d, attend to certain individual dispositions, relative to sex, age, temperament, &c. That treatment by which we endeavour first to modify the action of the intellectual faculties, I shall call, direct empirical cerebral, or moral and intellectual. Most authors have called it simply, moral; I hardly like this expression, because it tends to exclude the idea of an action upon the organization, and indicates only a part of intelligence: I will however, make use of it, to avoid repetitions, or long circumlocutions. And that treatment which comprehends the employment of the means which exercise first their action upon organs distant from the brain, I shall call indirect or rational. "The first of these is entirely physiological: no physical agent can exercise its action upon the brain, as a remedy for insanity; and besides, whatever might effect this organ in this manner, would always cause more serious derangements, than those wished to be destroyed; such as blows, falls on the head. Even if such accidents had by chance effected a cure, it would not follow that we should methodically employ them. "To fulfil the different indications that present themselves, we may act upon the mind of the insane in two ways: passively, by separation, the manner of conducting them; and actively by what I shall call medical edu cation. "To separate the insane from the objects which surround them, to withdraw them from the hands of their relations or friends, is the first condition, a condition almost indispensable to their cure; and with very few exceptions, we may say, that they never recover at home. There are three ways of accomplishing this: by making the patients travel; by placing them in a private house, prepared ad lic, or private institution, destined to receive hoc, and for one individual only; or in a puba certain number of these patients. "To give an idea of what these last should be, I will say a word of La Salpêtrière. Containing about 1200 individuals, it is formed into two separate sections; one is for the idiots, the imbecile, and the insane in fatuity, to the number of 400; the other contains the maniacs, monomaniacs, and the stupid insane, incurable and under treatment. I shall only speak of this section, it alone having been built for the purpose it fulfills. It is composed, 1st, of two grand dormitories, each fitted to contain 100 patients, destined, one for convalescents, the other for the tranquil monomaniacs; 2d, of many small dormitories, containing each 10 or 15 beds, which serve to lodge peaceable patients, who should live far from tumult; 3d, of a number of cells, with one or two beds, for the furious insane, or for those whose quarrelsome character cannot bear company. These habitations, constructed on the ground floor, except the dormitories of the monomaniacs, which is on the first floor, circumscribe more or less spacious courts, planted mostly with trees, with fountains, yielding abundance of water. The windows are large, but grated and barred. The cells have a door, and little window-the beds are firmly fixed in the wall. Various kinds of baths are in the establishments. A gården for walking is provided for the quiet patients; and a shop for those who wish to work. Many improvements might be made, but this esta blishment, in spite of its defects, is one of the best in Europe." For further details, respecting it—vide the article, "Hospital for the Insane," by M. Esquirol, in the Dictionary of Medical Sci ences. LONGEVITY. Without pretending to affirm or deny the truth of the following list of longivity, we shall merely state that it is taken from the Dublin Mag. 3. p. 299.-We may hereafter enlarge the list from other sources. It is well to preserve them, in a work rather more devoted to medical pursuits, than that from which it is copied. "Dr. Hufeland, in his Treatise on the Art of Prolonging Life, after noticing the ages at 1752 Margaret Annesley tained by Jenkins, Parr, Drakenberg, Effing. ham, and eight or ten others of less note, and who but little exceeded an hundred years, says these are the instances of great age in modern times with which he is acquainted. It is rather surprising, as he informs us the subject had engaged his attention for eight years, he should not have known that such instances of great longevity have been much more numerous, of which the following list will furnish abundant proof. The instance of persons exceeding 100 years are so frequent, that I have not included any who did not attain to the 120th year; the design being chiefly to shew the utmost period to which the duration of life, under the circumstances most conducive to its prolongation, has extended; and I have no doubt that many more might be added to the number by those who have better opportunities for collecting such accounts. Year 1765 Dominick Joyce 1765 Mrs. Moore 1766 John Mackay 1768 Sir Fleetwood Sheppard John Ryder Mrs. Adams 1769 John Chump 1770 Mrs, Sands Patrick Blewet 1771 Richard Gilshenan 11772 Barbara Wilson 1774 Sieur de la Haye 1778 H. d'Arcary de Beaucovoy 1780 Monuela, a Negress 1792 William Marshall Flora Gale 1760 Elizabeth Hilton 1769 Francis Bons 1770 Mrs. Gray William Farr 1771 Owen Tudor Year 1760 Thomas Wishart 1762 Catharine Brebner 1774 Andrew Vidal 1790 Abraham Vanverts 1774 John Tice 1780 Mr. Gernon 1785 Mr. Froome 1670 Robert Montgomery 1706 John Bales 1758 Davie Grant 1758 Mrs. Bampton 1769 William Hughes 1772 Madame Girodolle 1775 Daniel Mullecry 1776 Martha Jackson 1761 John Newell 1755 Edglebert Hoff Mary John 1771 Mr. Fleming 120 1774 William Beaty 120 1778 John Watson Age 1767 John Taylor 130 130 130 1771 Mrs. Carman 1791 Archibald Cameron 1758 Catharine Giles 1774 Andrew Brizin Debra 1785 Mrs. Neale 1769 Martha Preston 1779 Jean Arragus 1757 William Sharpley 138 1792 Mathew Taite 1708 Thomas Bright 1725 Elizabeth Stewart 124 1753 Andrew Bueno 1757 Robert Parr 1782 Evan Williams 124 1766 Thomas Winsloe 124 1772 J. C. Draakenberg 123 1770 James Sands 973 Swarling, a Monk 140 142 The date affixed to each person's name is the year they died in, except in five or six instances, in which the time of their decease not being ascertained, the latest year is given in which they were known to be living. Of other accounts, which for different reasons have not been included in the list, the following may deserve to be mentioned: John Dance of Virginia, who died at 125; Rice, a cooper in Southwark, 125; John Jacob, of Mount Jura, who died a few years since, aged 128; Jeremy Gilbert, who died at Lutton, Northamptonshire,aged 132; Nicholas Petours, canon and treasurer of the Cathedral of Coutance in Normandy, aged 137; a man named Fairbrother, living in 1770 at Wigan in Lancashire, aged 138; the Countess of Desmond, who died in Ireland at 140; Henry West, of Upton in Gloucestershire, who lived to 152. a peasant in Poland, who died in 1762, in the 157th year of his age; and a Mulatto man who died in Fredericktown in 1797, said to have been 180 years old. Of the above number only 33 are females, which strongly confirms the remark of Dr. Hufeland, that the equilibrium and pliability of the female body seems, for a certain time, to give it more durability, and to render it less susceptible of injury from destructive influences than that of men; but that male strength is, without doubt, necessary to arrive at a very great age. More women, therefore, become old, but fewer very old; and if the registers of mortality, from which tables of the probability of the duration of human life are formed, were more extensive, and comprehended a greater number of years, so as to include these instances of great longevity, the difference between the value of male and female lives, would appear less than it is supposed to be, and probably the sum of life of the whole of each sex approaches very nearly to equality. The great proportion of inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland, though perhaps arising in some measure from instances of great age not being so generally noticed and recorded in other places, at least shows that those countries are not unfavourable to longevity, and there can be little doubt that the usual duration of life is greater in temperate climes than in the extremes of heat or cold. ELATERIUM. This medicine has gained no small repute within the last few years in the treatment of dropsy; and at the time it was first announced, it was peculiarly acceptable, as physicians were often completely at a nonplus in this frequently obstinate and unyielding complaint. It resisted the common purgatives, that are as it were dedicated to this disease, diuretics, diaphoretics, and other internal as well as external remedies, and marched unchecked to that point at which relief is expected only from the operation of tapping. The elaterium was said to be not only beneficial in every stage of the disease, but peculiarly so at this particular juncture, when the surgeon's trochar was about to be put in requisition. A few grains of this substance would in a few days reduce an immensely distended abdomen to near the common dimensions, and impart to the patient a degree of relief and comparative comfort that had been long unknown. As was to be supposed, accounts of this nature, coming to us upon unquestionable authority, were not long in being acted upon by American practitioners. Accordingly, a series of experiments was instituted some years ago in the AlmsHouse of this city, to test the accuracy of these statements, and ascertain whether on this side of the Atlantic the remedy would prove of such essential service. The success was, in general, so i striking, that a case of dropsy was now 1 approached with almost as much confi1 dence, as one of pleurisy, or hepatitis; The 104 persons in the above list were, at the time of their decease, inhabitants of the following countries; 1 |