which is substantially true in all its parts, will see the erroneousness of the Reviewer's reasonings, the latter part of which are an odd compound of assertion and syllogism. Because the insurrection in Barbadoes was repressed by the activity of Colonel Codd of the 60th regiment, and by the decisive proclamation published by the commander-in-chief, immediately on his return to the island, the Reviewer infers that there is no danger of negro rebellion, and that the restoration of tranquillity is not to be ascribed to the parliamentary address, &c. The natural progress of the business was, as it would be stated by a candid mind, that the rebellion (for such it was) was suppressed with an energy that appalled the conspirators. Sir James Leith's declaration of the views of the British Government deprived them of all apology for their expectation of approaching freedom; and while matters were nearly settled, the royal proclamation, founded on the address of parliament, arrived, and convinced these poor misguided people that their hopes were vain, that their passions had been acted on by interested individuals, and that their best stay was in their own masters, whose interests were the same as their own. The Reviewer contends, that "the conduct of the West Indian Body themselves, not only in the mother country, but in the colonial assemblies, clearly evinces, both that there is no such ground of apprehension, and that they themselves know there is none." This is the mere reasoning of a pleader-of a pleader too who cares not by what means he gains his object, provided that it be secured. The West Indians may, in some instances, have been indiscreet in discussing the questions of the abolition and the registry bill before their slaves; but the discussions on the latter point, into which they have been forced, both in the British and colonial Parliaments, have been owing to the intemperance of some of its advocates. The important object of abolition has been obtained; the next duty of the abolitionists was to see that the law did not become a dead letter. If the African Institution act from an honest desire to guard against evil, they would suggest to the British Government all the schemes which might be recommended to the colonial legislatures, which would much more cheerfully meet such suggestions, than submit to charges made against them without even the means of defence. If, however, its object be to excite clamour without regard to consequences, they will pursue the same system which has already raised the standard of revolt. They will oblige the colonists to vindicate themselves: they will thus lead the negroes to a knowledge of what they may do; and when desolation shall mark our once happy and flourishing possessions, they will then learn how far their conduct has been consistent with their duty as men or as Christians. Before we conclude our comments on the general observations made by the Reviewer, we may remark, that his proposal of establishing " a duplicate registry for all the colonies in London," cannot be objected to by the planters, unless it be made a source of expense to them, which they ought not to bear. The statutory provision would require much consideration, and if resorted to, it should be made applicable to every possible contingency, otherwise it might be converted into an engine of gross oppression,-which might suit the inclinations of some West India consignees, but can never promote the ends of justice and humanity. The looseness of the statements made by the Reviewer, has necessarily introduced a certain want of connexion in the preceding remarks, which can only be obviated by a general summary, which, together with the second part of these observations, must be postponed for the present. use In the order proposed, we should now proceed to ascertain the made of Dr Williamson's Work by the Reviewer, in furtherance of his general statements. The testimony of this gentleman he considers valuable, "in support of the positions maintained by the abolitionists, more especially as regards the treatment of the slaves, notwithstanding the enforcement of the abolition laws, and the large professions of the West India body." We shall endeavour to determine, by a comparison of the Reviewer's statement with Dr Williamson himself, how far the former is entitled to the reputation of candour and fair dealing; but this we shall defer doing to the next Number. ELEGY BY THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD. [WE return our best thanks to the ETTRICK SHEPHERD for the following very beautiful lines, and will, at all times, be happy to receive his communications. He would be conferring upon us a signal favour, were he occasionally to enrich our Work with a few of his exquisite Songs; for, in our opinion, he is, in that department, little, if at all inferior to Burns himself. Why does not the Author of Kilmeny" show what might be made of a regular Pastoral Poem? There a delightful field lies open to his genius, peopled not with human life alone, but also with the aërial creatures whom he loves, and has described better than any other modern poet. We may quote the words of another Scottish bard. 66 weigh more with Mr Hogg than any thing we could say to him, and we hope that he will tune his harp to the themes thus wildly alluded to, in which, both by his habits and his native genius, he cannot fail to excel. EDITOR.] ELEGY. FAIR was thy blossom, tender flower, How oft thy mother heaved the sigh How oft above thy lowly bed, When all in silence slumbered low, The fond and filial tear was shed, Thou child of love, of shame, and woe! Her wronged, but gentle bosom burned With joy thy opening bloom to see, The only breast that o'er thee yearned, The only heart that cared for thee. Oft her young eye, with tear-drops bright, Pleaded with Heaven for her sweet child, When faded dreams of past delight O'er recollection wandered wild. Fair was thy blossom, bonny flower, Fair as the softest wreath of spring, Thy little feet across the lawn Scarce from the primrose pressed the dew, I thought the Spirit of the dawn Before me to the greenwood flew. Even then the shaft was on the wing, That twang'd and sealed thy doom for ever. I saw thee late the emblem fair "Twixt childhood and unstable youth: But now I see thee stretched at rest, To break that rest shall wake no morrow; Pale as the grave-flower on thy breast! Poor child of love, of shame, and sorrow! May thy long sleep be sound and sweet, Shall shed its earliest tear o'er thee. MEDICAL REPORT OF EDINBURGH. THE weather, in the first part of June, and during the greater part of September, has been warm and dry. During the rest of the summer, much rain has fallen; but, although, from the Meteorological Reports, the temperature does not appear to have been higher, there has been more sun, and the weather has felt warmer than during the same period of last year. A considerable diminution has accordingly taken place since our last Report,* in the number of catarrhs, rheumatic complaints, and the diseases which are usually produced by exposure to cold. The weather may be considered as having been favourable for the production of complaints of the bowels; and these have been of frequent occurrence during the summer, among all classes of the community. A bilious diarrhoea coming on suddenly, and continuing for a few days, has been the most frequent form of attack; but this has been occasionally accompanied with bilious vomiting, and severe pain of the stomach and bowels, and sometimes, after the purging had continued for some time, slight dysenteric symptoms have supervened. In general, the exhibition of mild laxatives, with diluents, has been sufficient for the cure; but when the pain or straining have been severe, great relief has been obtained by alternating these with moderate doses of opium. Scarlet fever has become rather more frequent, and various instances of its occurrence, in different parts of the town, have come under our observation. The disease has occasionally passed through different individuals of families, but it cannot be said to be epidemic. In three instances in which it has appeared in families, where there were several children liable to receive the infection, we have seen it prevented from spreading, by confining the individual attacked to one room, and preventing intercourse with those who had not undergone the disease, for ten days after the fever had abated; although the separation did not take place till the eruption had been out at least for a day, and in one instance for two days. During the summer, the contagious See No IV. * fever, alluded to in our former Report, has been less generally prevalent, but many cases of it have come under our observation, among the poor in certain districts of the town, and in a few instances, as must always happen from the intercourse which necessarily subsists between the different classes of the community, we have seen the disease in the families of the richer inhabitants. There is some reason to apprehend, also, unless measures be taken to prevent it, that the number of cases of fever may increase, as is usual when the cold weather shall have set in, and when the population shall have become more dense, as it always does at the beginning of winter. Happily, however, this fever is not in general violent or dangerous. The mortality from it has been exceedingly small; indeed no case has come under our observation during the summer, in which death has been the consequence of the disease. The following instances, which have fallen under our notice, shew the manner in which the progressive communication of the disease goes on, and the extent to which it proceeds, even within narrow limits, and from individual cases : In February 1816, a family, consisting of a man and his wife, and four children, came to a lodging-house in Hastie's Close, Grassmarket, from Glasgow, where they had been exposed to the contagion of fever. Almost immediately after their arrival, the man and woman were successively attacked with fever; and, after remaining a few days, were conveyed to the Infirmary. During their absence their four children were seized with the fever, and before they had recovered, a neighbouring woman who attended them during their illness, and afterwards two other women who came to lodge in the same house, were attacked. The disease then extended itself to the story above, the inhabitants of which, a man and wife, and their four chil dren, all took it. So that in the course of about seven weeks, the fever, from In the practice of the New Town Dispensary, seventy-seven cases of fever, apparently contagious, occurred from June 1st to September 1st. See Report of New Town Dispensary, in the Medical and Surgical Journal for October 1817. this origin, had communicated itself to fifteen individuals in this small tenement, consisting only of three rooms. Another lodging-house, equally crowded and dirty, within a few yards of this, remained perfectly free from fever. The proprietor of the rooms in which the fever had been, had them cleaned and whitewashed, and the furniture purified; after which, they were let to other families, who have continued perfectly free from the disease. It was not ascertained whether the contagion extended itself from this source to any other part of the town. 2. About the end of February 1817, a young woman, who had been visiting a friend lying ill of a fever, was seized, in a house containing six persons, in the garret story of a large and populous land in Skinner's Close. She was removed to the Infirmary about a week after she was taken ill, but not before she had infected her father, who died of the disease, and one of her sisters, by whom the fever was communicated to two others of the family (the mother only escaping), and to eight out of ten other individuals inhabiting the same floor. About the same time that the disease appeared in the second family in the garret story, a girl was taken ill in the next story, and seven out of sixteen inhabitants of this flat were successively attacked, of whom five were removed to the Infirmary. On the story beneath, only two were affected, and the disease did not spread further. In the garret story, the rooms were crowded and ill aired; and from the constant intercourse with each other, the inhabitants were much exposed to the contagion; and it will be observed, that of sixteen persons inhabiting this flat, only three escaped the fever. In the other flats, the fever did not spread so extensively, which may be explained, partly by the people having been persuaded, by the time it arrived at them, to send a considerable proportion of the sick to the Infirmary, and to keep up a ventilation of the rooms, and partly by the circumstance of the condition of the inhabitants of these flats being better, and their rooms larger, and more commodious than those of their neighbours in the garrets. No fewer, however, than twenty-two inhabitants of this building were infected from one individual, besides two others, residing in other parts of the town, who caught the feVOL. II, ver by communicating with those sick in this house. Twelve of the infected were carried to the Infirmary, and there can be no doubt that this had a material effect in checking the progress of the fever; but several of these were not removed till the disease had considerably advanced. The poverty and distress of the people, aggravated as these were by the illness pervading their families, and by the fatigue undergone by those who remained free from actual sickness, rendered it impossible, in this and the following instance, to accomplish the desirable cleaning and purification; and there was reason to think that the infected clothes and furniture had as much share in propagating the disease, as any effluvia from the bodies of those affected with it. 3. In May 1817, a girl, who had lately been discharged from Bridewell, fell ill of fever when living with her father in the second floor of a miserably dirty and crowded common stair in Bell's Wynd. After remaining some days, she was taken to the Infirmary. Her father was taken ill immediately after; but as he died in a few days, without having been seen by any medical man, it is impossible to say whether his disease was fever. There are three other rooms, each containing an entire family, on the same floor with that on which the disease thus began. In the course of a fortnight the fever had broken out in each of these rooms, and it successively affected three individuals in each,-in all ten, perhaps eleven, persons out of fifteen who resided on this flat. then appeared in a family of nine persons, who inhabit the ground-floor of the house, every one of whom, except the father, went through the disease. Before the middle of June, it had also appeared in the third floor of the house, and has since that time affected four out of five persons residing in one room, and one out of these residing in another, on that floor. It Besides attacking in this manner, within three months, twenty-three individuals in this one stair, the disease has now extended itself to eleven other families in the same wynd, most of whom have certainly had intercourse with the sick, and all of whom may be supposed to have been exposed to the contagion, either by going into the houses, or by meeting the conva G lescent patients in the narrow wynd; and in this manner it has affected twenty-three more individuals in this small district, besides two others who were fully exposed to the contagion in Bell's Wynd, but who fell sick in their own residences in distant parts of the town, whence they might have diffused the contagion in a similar manner, if they had not been prevailed on to go to the Infirmary at a very early period of the disease. In this manner it has been distinctly ascertained that fifteen cases of fever in one instance, twenty-four in another, and forty-eight in a third, have proceeded from single individuals affected with the disease. In Bell's Wynd the fever still continues to prevail in several houses; and it is consistent with our knowledge, that it at present exists in families among the poor in different parts of the town. These three instances, which we have adduced, sufficiently illustrate the certainty with which fever spreads among those who are exposed to its contagion, in circumstances favourable to its communication, and shew the probability there is of its extending itself, from the sources of infection which at present exist, unless some means be taken to check its progress. From these instances, also, the case with which a contagious fever may be prevented and checked in its progress, may be readily understood. For, according to the principles that regulate the communication of infection, which we have shortly stated in our former Report, if the three patients with whom the disease, in these three instances, originated, had been removed into the Infirmary by the fourth day of their respective illnesses, the fever would probably have extended no farther. Even if they had remained at home so long as to infect the persons in attendance on them, and the clothes, &c. in which they had lain,-yet if the former had been removed immediately on their seizure, and the latter had been cleansed and purified, the progress of the disease would equally have been stopped. As these principles have been deduced from numerous and accurate observations made on the same discase, generally in a much more malignant form than that in which it has lately prevailed in Edinburgh, it may fairly be said that this truth is experimentally known. And there is likewise ample experience in the history of other large towns, of the application of these principles to the prevention of fever.-We shall select the following examples :— con The first well-regulated feverwards, accompanied with regulations to prevent the diffusion of tagion among the poor, were established in Chester in the year 1784; and, in 1796, Dr Haygarth, to whom we are indebted for much accurate and original information with regard to contagion, wrote concerning them as follows:-" During the war, Chester has been unusually exposed to the danger of putrid infectious fevers. Many new-raised regiments coming from Ireland, with numerous recruits taken out of jails, remained in Chester a few weeks after their voyage. Great numbers of these soldiers, and their women, were ill of putrid fevers, and were immediately received into the fever-wards of our Infirmary. If such contagious patients had been distributed in the small public houses and poor lodging-houses through the city, the consequences to many ofour inhabitants must have been dreadful. By taking out of a house the first person who sickens of a fever, we preserve the rest of the family from infection, together with an indefinite number of their neighbours, who would otherwise catch the infection. At this very time, when the inhabitants of Manchester and many other places are afflicted with a fatal contagious epidemic, only two patients are in our fever-wards, both convalescent; and the apothecary to the Infirmary, who attends the outpoor of the whole city, informs me that he has not now a single fever-patient under his care."* The success of the Manchester House of Recovery, which was established in imitation of the Chester fever-wards, may be judged of from the following documents: The number of patients ill of fever in the streets in the neighbourhood of the House of Recovery in Manchester, to which the benefits of that institution were in the first instance confined, from September 1793 to May 1796, was 1256, giving more than |