Chronic Hepatitis. His Majesty's ship Albion, on her late return from India, having touched at the Cape, sent a number of people to the hospital, affiicted with chronic bowel and liver complaints. By the time of her departure for England, however, several of these had died, and all the others returned in a worse state than when they went on shore. This fact is worth attending to; and deserves to be kept in mind by the valetudinarian. The climate of St. Helena approximates more to that of Europe, than the climate of any other intertropical situation. A rock, only twentyseven miles in circumference, surrounded by an immense equatorial ocean, above the level of which it projects 3000 feet; whose summit is covered with perpetual verdure, and cooled by perennial breezes, must enjoy a serenity of air, and evenness of temperature, far beyond any part either of the Indies or Europe. The medium height of the thermometer is 64°, and atmospherical vicissitudes by no means great or sudden. At Plantation-House, the mercury does not rise higher than 72o in summer, nor fall lower than 55° in winter. A temporary stay at this island would probably be attended with a salutary seasoning, preparatory to exposing the debilitated frame to the rude inclemencies and transitions of northern regions. The scenery, too, of the interior, is as beautifully romantic, as that of the exterior is stupendously dreary and barren. The society, however, is confined; and forms a striking contrast with. the social ease and unbounded hospitality of the Mental and Hepatic Functions, &c. East. But alas! it is a melancholy truth, that in the complaint I have been describing, a surprising mental despondency, or propensity to brood over our misfortunes, pursues us through every clime! Scandit æratas vitiosa naves Cura!-Quid terras alio calentes SYMPATHETIC CONNECTION BETWEEN THE MENTAL AND HEPATIC FUNCTIONS. The manner in which this mental depression becomes connected with derangement in the hepatic function, is a subject of curious inquiry. It is not a little singular, that two of the most important organs in the human body-the lungs and the liver, when in a disordered state, should exhibit a striking contrast in their effects on the mind. Thus, even in the last stage of phthisis, "Hope springs eternal in the hectic breast ;" and the final catastrophe stands a long time revealed to every eye but that of the patient,who "Never tastes of death but once." Mental and Hepatic Functions In hepatic diseases, on the other haud, like Shakspeare's cowards, we "Die many times before our death." It is a curious fact, that syphilis, a disease which can only be cured by that medicine, on which we place our principal dependence in Hepatitis, is likewise attended with a similar despondency, but in a much less degree. There certainly is a greater connexion, or reciprocal influence, between the mental and hepatic functions, than is generally known or suspected. I was first led to direct my attention to this interesting subject by a train of circumstances, which it may not be quite irrelevant to relate. Previously to my visiting a tropical climate, and for some time after leaving the schools of medicine, I had prided myself on a remarkably steady hand, and a certain adroitness in wielding the dissecting knife, which not a few young gentlemen consider as almost the only requisites for advancing them to future celebrity, especially in the army and navy. In addition to these, however, the Nosology of Cullen, which I had at my fingers' ends, enabled me to divide, subdivide, and discriminate the minutest shades of diseases without even seeing them; while the systems of Brown and Darwin made all smooth and easy, in regard to the treatment. In short, I had so many cures for every ill which "flesh is heir to," that I considered any failure as attributable to negligence alone on my part. Thus equipped, I commenced my medical Sympathise. career; but a very few years' experience convinced me, that I had made rather a hasty estimate of the facility with which THEORY and the METHODUS MEDENDI are reduced to practice. Still, however, I consoled myself with the reflection, that although my success in physic was not, at first, quite equal to my too sanguine expectations, yet, my anatomical knowledge, and manual dexterity, would amply compensate for these discouragements, should fortune throw in my way an opportunity of exhibiting in this department of my profession. My chagrin may be easily conceived, when, after a short residence between the tropics, I perceived a train of symptoms advance, which bade fair to demolish these airy structures, erected by my imagi nation! Without the slightest propensity to intemperance, I found my mind become clouded and less cheerful; my temper more irritable; my judgment less clear aud decided, accompanied by agitation and tremor at every unexpected event. In short, I found myself assailed by a whole tribe of those morbid feelings and sensibilities, those "miseries of human life," which we usually designate by the terms, nervous or hypochondriacal. Under these circumstances, instead of courting difficulties, as formerly, I dreaded their occurrence. If a man, for instance, fell down a ladder, or was wounded, the report threw me into such a state of perturbation and alarm, as rendered me incapable, for soine minutes, of giving the necessary directions; and by continually brooding over and reflecting on these Y 1 Mental and Hepatic Functions ailments, I aggravated them every hour, until I became a complete hypochondriac! "Vulnus alit venis, et ceco carpitur igni. With all the terror, though none of the guilt of Macbeth, I have repeatedly exclaimed "How is't with me, when ev'ry sound alarms me?” · During this gloomy period, I was threatened with a dysenteric complaint; and as I had severely suffered from this before, I anxiously and speedily excited a ptyalism, which ran to a much greater height than I reckoned on, and kept me for some weeks in considerable distress and pain, from ulcerations of my mouth and tongue. The complaint entirely disappeared, and my appetite returned; but, for obvious reasons, I was unable to take any thing but liquids for food, while my mouth was in the state described. Nevertheless, after sustaining the pressure of the disease, as well as of the remedy, and the long abstinence that succeeded both, I was most agreeably surprised to find my hand once more steady; my mind firm, and capable of pursuing my usual studies: in short, the whole tribe of "blue devils" dispersed, and both my mind and body restored to their wonted energy, and equal to every emergency! "The gloom dissolves In empty air!-Elysium opens round; |