but little to float away in the atmosphere of the room; but as plants are sometimes managed, it is probable that they do, to some extent, impart moisture to the atmosphere of the room in which they are kept; and even allowing this to be the case, still this sweeping objection remains without foundation. Facts, as they appear from the statistics of different localities, disprove this position. In England and Wales there exists a higher degree of physical health and energy, than obtains in our own country, yet it is well known that the moisture of the atmosphere exceeds that of ours at all seasons of the year.

For the healthy function of respiration it is essential that the lungs be kept properly lubricated. In the construction of those organs the author of our existence has made wise provisions for the hygrometrical changes of the atmosphere; they are excreting organs, and when the air is imparting but little moisture to them they pour out an abundance of the proper lubricating fluid to supply the deficiency; but when it is moist, the excretions of the lungs will be diminished, making a lighter drain upon the fluids of the body. It is therefore a rational inference that persons laboring under the influence of different diseases might be differently affected by the moisture of the atmosphere, depending upon the nature of the disease. In continued or typhus fever there is uniformly a dry, parched state of the myderian membrane, lips, mouth and fauces, and even of the trachia and bronchia; the fluids of the whole body seem to be diminished. In this condition a superabundance of moisture in the atmosphere, we might suppose, would be, instead of injurious, decidedly beneficial; it would prove salutary by moistening and softening these dry sur faces, and invigorating the whole man. But it might be prejudicial in cases of general debility where there is an entire absence of febrile action, by relaxing the fiber, and increasing the general languor of the system. From the foregoing it appears that the vegetable and animal kingdom exert a mutual benefit, each upon the other, when the physical laws by which each are governed are properly regarded. The carbonic acid that is generated in animal respiration is no less essential to vegetable growth, than is oxygen to animal existence. In this is exhibited one of the many examples of adaptation of the different portions of creation each to the other, which is eminently calculated to inspire us with elevated views of the wisdom of Providence, that is so strikingly exhibited in the wonderful harmony that exists in all the works of nature.

20. The Registration of Diseases. By WILLIAM C. ROGERS, M. D., Green Island, Albany Co., N. Y.

[Communicated by the Medical Society, Albany.]

"If the different sciences offer to us a varying degree of precision, it is from no want of certainty in themselves, but in our mastery of their phenomena. -Auguste Comte.

Investigations into any department of inquiry, to be successful, must be conducted according to a method specifically adapted to attain the end in view, and sufficiently simple and practicable to assist in the greatest, and embarrass in the least possible degree in the attainment of that end. The instrument should be no heavier than the hand can wield, or the eye direct with ease, certainty and effect. In metaphysical philosophy the methods are as numerous as the philosophers themselves, and the results attained satisfactory to no two students of the same school. In positive philosophy the study of phenomena and their laws is daily overcoming obstacles utterly insurmountable by any previous method, and producing results more commensurate with human wants. The application of the same method to the study of disease, made within the present century, certainly within the memory of many members of our profession now living, has produced and is daily producing results as satisfactory and as promising for the future as has the application of the same method to the study of celestial and terrestrial physics.

In the latter departments of investigation, positive science has been the result; and in the department of practical medicine it simply remains for the profession at large, for each member of the profession in the daily discharge of his duties, to understand and apply this method in order to increase our knowledge of the natural history of disease and its treatment, and to answer affirmatively and satisfactorily the oft-reiterated question, "Is there certainty in medicine ?"

In order to apply the positive method of investigation to the solution of the problems of disease, the first step is to accumulate facts as to the occurrence, the topography, the meteorology, the phenomena, the duration, the terminations, the concomitants and

the sequelae of disease; the modifying influences of age, sex, occupation, and of habits of life; and the great means by which these facts are to be accumulated is REGISTRATION.

In order to substantiate this assertion, let us examine into the manner in which the use of a complete system of registration will enable us to attain some few of the above-mentioned results.

The greater the number engaged in registration the more impor tant the results, since a greater number of facts will be recorded, and if some plan be adopted by which these isolated facts can be collected and grouped according to their affinities, important results will unqestionably be obtained. The practical working of the plan now adopted by the State Society will eventually furnish us with an accurate medical topography of the State, but this result can be more speedily and more satisfactorily attained by the adoption of this system of registration by each County Medical Society in the State.

The medical topography of each country will thus be determined accurately by the facts and figures of the physicians of that county, and the tabulated results of these figures, and not the vast mass of undigested figures themselves, transmitted to the proper officers of the State Society, accompanied by a full meteorological record, will doubtless lead to the early discovery of striking and important coincidences, and, in time, lead to the discovery of laws which will throw a flood of light upon many obscure points in theoretical and practical medicine; and espe cially is this true in reference to those epidemics and contagious diseases which one year rage with virulence in one portion of the State, and in a year or two thereafter, suddenly break out with renewed virulence in another and perhaps distant part, and destroy many valuable lives before the causes, the pathology and the treatment thereof are clearly understood by the physicians who are called to combat this, to them, untried foe.

Did the Transactions of the State Society present each year all the facts and figures of the epidemics of the preceding year, the experience of those who had been called to combat these diseases would become the common property of the profession, which would thus be more completely armed for the emergency which may arise at any season.

In confirmation of this opinion, I would state that Dr. Hart, of Waterford, Saratoga county, N. Y., expressed himself under great obligation to articles Nos. 6, 7 and 13, in the last volume of the Transactions of the State Society, on the subject of Cerebro-Spi

nal-Meningitis, for information as to the nature and treatment of this terrible disease, which prevailed as an epidemic at Waterford during the winter and spring of the present year, 1858. Article No. 6, by Dr. Thomas, is valuable for its brief history of the disease, a statement of its pathology and treatment in this country and in Europe, and analalysis of its diagnostic signs and symptoms. Article No. 7, by Dr. Kendall, is valuable for its faithful history of cases and their treatment, while Dr. Squires' article, No. 13, is valuable for its history of forty-three cases, and the post mortem appearances presented by three cases, tables. showing the duration of the disease and a statement of its various terminations. These papers are of very great value, both to those who may be called upon to combat an epidemic of this fearful disease, and to the future historian of epidemics.

Papers and addresses on the history of medicine, on the code, and on kindred topics, are all valuable in their place; but histories of epidemics, their supposed causes, signs, symptoms, terminations, sequelæ and treatment, are doubly valuable, and their publication in the Transactions of the State and county societies, would increase their value, add to the reputation of the profession, and serve to re-establish the regular practice of medicine in the confidence of the public.

The necessity for a system of registration has long been felt, but how it was to be obtained was unknown. Great dependence was placed upon hospital reports, of in and out patients, and upon the Medical and Surgical reports of the armies of various countries. Says the editor of the Brit. & For. Med. Chi. Rev. Jan'y, 1837, p. 262:

"It is only by the contribution of particular facts and of general results that much good can be done to medicine. The time has arrived when a general and a well arranged system of hospital reporting must begin to attract serious attention." P. 262.

Says the editor of the British Medical Almanac for 1837: "The first step in medical statistics, after having determined the mortality, is to ascertain the number of attacks of sickness at different ages, to which a population is liable, and the numbers constantly ill. Hospitals throw no light on these questions or on the absolute mortality or duration of cases." Quoted in B. & F. Med. Ch. R. 1837, p. 263.

The same editor recommends "the stating with accuracy the duration of the disease; the number of days the patient has been ill before admission; the number of days he continues under

treatment. Accuracy is above all things to be desired, and next to accuracy comes method. It is clear that the time is arriving when the medical officers of hospitals will find their best interest in rendering the facts which occur in those institutions as extensively useful as possible to the profession. System will enable them to offer those facts in the best form, at the least trouble." Tet. supra, p. 265.

The want of a system for accumulating facts in medicine and surgery is here clearly presented, and hospitals, though evidently inadequate to furnish solutions for all the problems which statistics can alone furnish, are relied upon in the want of facts and figures from other sources, and their officers urged to present reports and cases. So earnest was the editor of the Med. Chir. Rev. on this point, that he begged of the medical attendants of the hospitals to present their figures, no matter how many or how dull, so long as accurate, and they should have a place; but he is compelled to add in another paragraph, in alluding to the indolence of hospital physicians:

“Four out of five of the medical officers of our present institutions do not publish reports of their practice or their cases, simply because it is not an integral part of their duties and is not volunteered." Op. Citat., Oct. '35, p. 558.

Convinced that the hospitals were not to be relied upon, he recommends that the facts presented by such hospital reports as were published, be united with the reports published by the private practitioner, and that statistics thus obtained form the basis of calculations. On this subject he says:

"We would suggest the combination of statistical reports, that is, summaries of facts, and individual cases. For the purposes of general utility we should say that statistical records and collections of cases calculated to display the general laws of disease or treatment, are preferable to individual instances of rare complaints. The latter are too often chosen because they excite curiosity and interest. The accomplished physician or surgeon is too apt to measure the attainments, the appetites and the wants of his profession by his own. Things familiar to him he too readily concludes to be equally familiar to all and hence the prevalence of transcendental pathological papers in our journals and transactions. One sound and universal induction is worth much more, in a useful point of view, than the most extraordinary fact or the most imposing theory. Such should be the aim of those who write for the real instruction of the public-of our clinical reporters It