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and committed frightful ravages. Dr. T. N. Love, Surgeon of the regiment, writes us as follows:-" Camp near Monterey, May 10th": "I have had a hard time with small pox-over a hundred cases, including varioloid. We are getting nearly through with it-only about 25 cases of it in hospital at this time, and nearly all of them convalescent. We have had only two new cases within six days. Vaccination has put a stop to it. The general health is improving. We have had two cases similar, in fact, the very same disease that troubled us at New Orleans. They were produced by exposure and imprudence-both proved fatal."

As to General Scott's division, we hear of nothing but the ordinary camp diseases, dysentery, diarrhoea, intermittent and typhoid fevers, beyond Vera Cruz. The main body is doubtless in a very healthy region on the table lands. Yellow fever appears to be raging pretty severely at Vera Cruz. We had the pleasure of conversing with Dr. Tudor, of this city, who has lately been in service at the latter place. He gave us an interesting account of the diseases, but we must content ourselves at present with the following communication, obligingly furnished by Dr. McCormick, who, from his position as medical purveyor of the army, has the best opportunities for obtaining information:

NEW ORLEANS, June 22, 1847. GENTLEMEN :-At your request I furnish the following information in relation to the sick and wounded of the army:

On the 16th inst. the steam ship Massachusetts arrived from Vera Cruz, having on board one hundred and sixty-three sick from the army. On the 21st, the steamer James L. Day arrived, having on board one hundred and twenty sick men, also from the army and Vera Cruz.

The military hospital at the barracks being nearly full as many of the men were received there as Surgeon R. C. Wood deemed it proper to take in, with a view to their proper comfort and accommodation. The balance were placed in Dr. Luzenberg's, and Stone, Kenneday & Carpenter's hospital, and after those two hospitals had been filled, about thirty-nine were sent to the Charity Hospital, where they were received and made as comfortable as possible.

In relation to the yellow fever at Vera Cruz, Dr. Laub, of the U. S. Army says: "We have a great many sick; and our list increasing among them some cases of yellow fever, though as yet it cannot be said to have become epidemic. No doubt, however, in a short time we shall have it in all its virulence, at least if the accounts given of it by many here are to be depended on.

Dr. Barton, U. S. A. says: "Vomito increasing-but exactly what we are accustomed to in New Orleans-its type in some instances severe."

Dr. Barnes, who was employed and went from this city to Vera Cruz to assist in the military hospital, says: "The yellow fever prevails to a considerable extent in Dr. Porter's hospital. There are about 350 in it and in Dr. Laub's, of the 1st infantry, and some 82 quartermaster's men. But it has not the malignancy I was led to expect it would present here. The most of the cases I have seen, present more the appearance of remittent than of yellow fever, and were it not for the brilliant and red appearance of the eye, and above all the termination

of the cases in black vomit, it would be thought, in the country, remittent fever. They either run their course with great rapidity of the symptoms, or improve. I have seen but few of that typhoid form which was seen last summer in nearly all of the patients suffering from it in the Charity Hospital, and in which it was almost universally fatal. The fever is very high for the first 24 or 36 hours; a remission then takes place of variable degree and duration, and mounts up again, and again remits, until the 5th or 8th day, when the patient either throws up black vomit, or is left in a state of great exhaustion, free of fever and convalesces slowly. The fatality has not been more than one in twenty. The treatment most successful, you will be pleased to learn, coincides with your ideas as regards fever. The favorite practice with Drs. Porter and Laub, has been quinine and mercurials, and their preference has determined their juniors to adopt the same plan, and I have no doubt has a great deal to do with the favorable termination of the disease. I have treated, myself, in the quarters of the 1st infantry, 8 or 10 cases, whom I did not send to hospital, as at that time I did not prescribe in it. I did this in order to observe the progress of the disease under my own treatment, and the result was that I lost but one case, and he had it supervening on an old dysentery. I used very careful bloodletting locally, with cups, &c., and but once generally, and placed my whole reliance on quinine to subdue the fever, which, under its use, was accomplished in 48, often in 24 hours. I have had now, however, a better opportunity of seeing its effects, and can speak more and more favorably of its use.

"I think that the preferable plan of treating it is, to use extreme caution in bloodletting, and to give quinine and blue mass in the first 36 or 48 hours, and after that period the formula I use is generally quinine, grs. 30 or 40, blue mass, grs. x-this give immediately and continue, in the proportions of quinine grs. viij, mass hydrarg. grs. iv. every 5 hours. If a marked effect is not produced in the first 24 hours of this treatment, the doses are repeated for the next 24; but after 48 or 50 hours have elapsed, this treatment may as well be discontinued, particularly if the disease manifests its specific effects on the blood; nature, after that period, had better be trusted than so powerful a remedy as the one mentioned be continued. The only error I can detect (speaking correctingly with regard to my ideas of the pathology and treatment of this disease,) in the practice here, is that bloodletting is pushed too freely and quinine continued to be given, in too large doses, too long. I also think that calomel is contra indicated, and that if a mercurial is wanted, it should be the milder preparations of mercury."

Dr. Dashiell states a case of yellow fever that occurred previous to his departure from Vera Cruz, in a man of good health. who was geting shaved in the barber's shop, and who commenced at once to throw up the black vomit, expiring (as a matter of course) shortly afterwards. This comprises the latest medical information I have received from that portion of the army in the direction of Vera Cruz.

Very respectfully,

CHARLES MCCORMICK, Assistant Surgeon, United States Army.

By late advices from the army, we learn that on account of the sickness at Vera Cruz, General Scott has determined to make Tuspan the principal port of entry. He has also had the military stores removed from Jalapa to Puebla. The route will now be direct from Tuspan to Puebla. Our soldiers may thus shun the dangers of yellow fever.

HOSPITAL REPORTS.

As before stated in our remarks on the health of the city, every Hospital is crowded with invalids. Many interesting cases must occur among such a number, and we should be much pleased to receive reports of them.

CHARITY HOSPITAL.

So great has been the number of applicants for admission into this Hospital, that its accommodations have been extended as far as possible. The good Sisters of Charity, (twenty of whom reside in the Hospital,) with their accustomed readiness to sacrifice their personal comfort to the claims of suffering humanity, have given up three of their private apartments to be converted into wards for the sick. Several of the mess-rooms and even the space under the seats of the amphitheatre have also been converted into wards. On the 25th of June we were informed by the Clerk, that there were nearly 800 patients in this Hospital. At the present rate, the annual admissions will probably amount to between ten and twelve thousand. Where, on the face of the earth, can such another charity as this be found? As our space is exhausted, our remarks must be brief. The following are the only special reports with which we have been favoured.

SERVICE OF DR. T. M. LOGAN.-A due proportion of the numerous cases of Ship-Fever, received into the Hospital during the past month, have come under my care-of all ages and of both sexes-and the treatment has been chiefly addressed to the organs invaded, and modified according to their varied complications. Where no special tendency to interrupt the functions, or to destroy the structure of the vital organs was observable, the disease was permitted to run its definite course, and to terminate in health, as it generally does under such circumstances when not thwarted by the nimia cura medici. The ratio of deaths among those under my care was 5 per cent.

Into whatever opinion the mind of the medical community may settle down respecting the question of this disease being typhus or typhoid fever, there is one subject connected there with of deep interest, touching its contagiousness, as the four following cases attest, and which I deem worthy of record.

1. Mrs Bellar, the oldest nurse in the Institution, in which capacity she has been acting ever since the Hospital has been built, and whose good constitution had enabled her to resist all the malignant and epidemic forms of febrile and other diseases to which the inmates are exposed, was one of the earliest victims-the disease going through its regular well-known stages, and terminating in coma and death in about 20 days.

2. Mrs. Elizabeth Gullett, one of the most respectable nurses in the Hospital, where she has been assiduously engaged during the last eight years, was attacked in one of the usual forms-the nervous system manifesting its disorder by direct and great prostration. She is now in the convalescent stage, occasionally retarded by a diarrhoea, which is readily controlled by opium and calomel.

3. Schmidt, a robust man, whose occupation for a long time past consisted in carrying dirty clothes to the wash-house, also contracted the disease, but ultimately recovered.

4. Abnar Willis, a crippled inmate, also fell a victim to the prevail. ing fever.

Such facts prove, beyond a doubt, the introduction of the disease from abroad, and, so far as the contagiousness of typhus is as much reputed as the absence of this property in typhoid fever, tend to establish the differential point in the present instance, if they do not identify the two diseases.

SERVICE OF DR. E. D. Fenner. Wards 10 and 12.-One of these wards (No. 12,) is the only pay ward in the hospital; consequently it presents both medical and surgical cases, and rather a better class of patients than are to be found in the other wards. My engagements have not allowed me time to draw out full reports of particular cases; I shall therefore only offer a few remarks on the general character of those which have occurred.

Surgical Cases. 1. Amputation of both arms at once. A young man was brought in at night with both arms horribly mutilated by a cannon which went off whilst he was in the act of loading it, on a late festive occasion in honor of the returning volunteers from Mexico. The case requiring immediate attention, the house surgeon, Dr. Wedderstrandt, promply amputated one arm below the elbow, and the other above. The patient never had a bad symptom, and is now nearly well. 2. Wound in the abdomen.-A robust Irishman, engaged in a fight, had a large knife plunged into his abdomen, (left hypochondriac region,) and went to a drug store several squares distant, with the knife sticking in the wound. On withdrawing it, the hemorrhage was very profuse, and the patient seemed like expiring very soon. The abdominal parietes were penetrated, and there was no telling what injury the viscera had received. The wound was closed with adhesive plaster, and the patient taken to the Charity Hospital, ward 12. On arriving there, then night, a dose of laudanum was administed, and he rested pretty well. When I saw him on the following morning, he was suffering from soreness in the wounded region, and distension of the abdomen.His pulse was good, however, and he retained considerable energy. A purgative enema, with quietude and abstinence were advised. As soon as the bowels were evacuated he was greatly relieved, and from that time recovered so rapidly as to be able to leave the hospital in four or five days.

3. Double Fracture of the Femur. 4.-Compound Fracture of the Tibia. 5.-Severe contusion of the thigh.-After the inflammatory symptoms subsided, these fractured limbs were put up in the starch bandage and are doing well.

Medical. 1. Ship Fever.—I have had a number of cases of this disease, but not so many as the other visiting physicians. But few deaths have occurred from it in my wards, and I have discovered nothing new in relation to its pathology. Several cases came into my wards a few days after their attack. I found them with flushed countenances, hot and dry skin, frequent pulse, soreness in the abdomen, pain in the head, pain and soreness of the muscles, especially the gastrocnemii, great thirst, with evening exacerbations. They were much relieved by cups and poultices over the abdomen, mild cathartics, sponging with vinegar and water, &c., to some I gave quinine in 10 grain doses during the remission, with good effect. Some required blisters to the abdomen. and nucha, and others were cured by drinking largely of cold water or flaxseed tea. In the latter stages of the disease, the most troublesome symptom I had to combat was an obstinate diarrhoea. This proceeded from ulceration of the large intestine, and was apt to prove fatal. of the cases presented very curious symptoms, but I have not space to notice them. I saw several cases among men belonging to the crews of emigrant ships. It would appear that they had contracted the disease from the emigrants.

Some

2. Diarrhea and Dysentery.-Numerous have been the cases with these affections. In the early stages they were easily relieved, but after running on for a long time, it is almost impossible to cure them. Post-mortem examinations have revealed ulceration throughout the whole extent of the colon and rectum. As to remedies, I think I have seen more benefit derived from the nitrate of silver and anodyne enemas than any thing else. Before the disease has become settled into the chronic stage, I have witnessed very happy effects from the combination of quinine and morphine.

3. Colica Pictonum.-Three cases were relieved by calomel and opium, croton oil, cups over the abdomen, and the warm bath. I like nothing so well as the croton oil as a purgative in this painful affection. 4. Hæmoptysis.-A very violent case under treatment. There have been numerous cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, phthisis, dropsy, jaundice, &c., but I cannot notice them at present.

IRISH IMMIGRANT SOCIETY.

(Since penning our remarks on the health of the city, in which we briefly alluded to this benevolent institution, we have been kindly furnished with the following notice of it by one of the Secretaries; which we deem worthy of insertion in our Journal. New Orleans has long been noted for its liberality and benevolence, though there has been so little sickness since 1841, as to offer no occasion for a display of these virWe are happy to see by the prompt establishment of this truly benevolent society, that the good old spirit is by no means extinct, but still reigns in the hearts of our citizens.)

tues.

"This society was organized on the 9th of May. 1347, and went immediately into operation.

The following gentlemen compose its officers:

DANIEL BYRNE, President.

MICHAL GERNON,

Secretaries.

J. P. KIRWAN, Treasurer.