been of longer duration, comprehending the greater portion of a century. The sketch he gives of this woman's strange history is accompanied also with etched portraits and engravings, illustrative of various interesting focalities connected with that history.

From this narrative it appears, "that Mary Thomas has existed between seventy and eighty years, almost without food; and certainly, according to evidence that does not appear in any way objectionable, for ten whole years, without the least particle of nutriment of any kind or form passing her lips, and without showing any sensibility or knowledge of external events; and has had, in that time, no excrementitious discharges from the intestines or urinary bladder. In 1812 this woman was still living; and, from the extraordinary tenacity to life which she evidently possesses, under circumstances that would have abridged the days of any other human creature, though now 80 years old, she may, perhaps, long enough survive to have her history more explicitly detailed, and the facts connected with her peculiar state decidedly unfolded.”

This expectation has, however, been defeated by the death of Mary Thomas this year.

On inquiring into the history of Mary Thomas, a fact has arisen of some importance. Mr. Pennant, whose reputation for every thing excellent is still fresh in our minds, saw Mary Thomas in the year 1770; and his relation agrees so much with Mr. Ward's, that they mutually support each other, and give a degree of credibility to an otherwise incredible case.

The extreme emaciation of Mary Thomas is happily shown in the etchings; and indeed nothing short of these fac-similies, as we are assured on the best authority they are, could distinctly point out the absolute loss of muscular fibre, and the diaphanous representation of a skeleton dimly seen through the shrivelled integument.

Prior to the public disclosure of Ann Moore's imposition, Mr. Ward seems to have entertained some degree of doubt respecting her veracity, as we judge from the concluding sentence of his work.

"But in whatever degree (he says) the case of Ann. Moore may be equivocal, the circumstances which have given rise to that equivocability do not apply to the case of Mary Thomas. She is emaciated, poor, friendless, and almost unknown. No licentiousness has disgraced her early life; no charge of former imposture is alleged against her; there are no objectors to her veracity; and her abstinence continues after the impressions excited by its novelty have long worn away. Forty years ago she was seen and examined by a gentleman

fully

fally competent to judge of her case, and he does not hint a doubt of its truth. When Mr. Pennant visited her in 1770, he found the neighbourhood convinced of her long and preternatural fasting: no suspicion had ever arisen of any fraud being practised; no motive for imposition offered: few persons saw her, the neighbors excepted, but those who, like Mr. Pennant, were seeking to elucidate the natural history of the county, or to develope its picturesque beauties."

Reluctant as we are to admit any of these extraordinary cases, as plain matters of fact, both on the ground of principle and on history, we cannot but allow a degree of credit to Mr. Ward's "unvarnished" account of Mary Thomas; and regret, with him, that her death should have prevented a minute investigation. But, whatever our opinions may be, we consider this to be a valuable document, as recording extraordinary aberrations of either body or mind; and as accompanied with etchings of the highest excellence, we unreservedly recommend it.

Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. Published by the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. Vol. III. 8vo. Lond.

1812.

THE rapid publication of the Transactions of this respectable Society, shows the fertility of its resources, and the attentive industry of the gentlemen concerned in the management of its affairs. The volume now before us, has not only the advantage of early publication, but the materials which compose it are of a class and character that entitles them to considerable approbation.

The first article is by Sir Gilbert Blane, bart, M.D. F.R.S. It consists of " Facts and Observations respecting Intermittent Fevers, and the Exhalations which occasion them."

In the autumn of 1809, Sir Gilbert Blane was sent to the island of Walcheren, for the purpose of ascertaining the nature and causes of the sickness and mortality prevailing in the British army on that island. In the autumn of 1810, he was employed by the admiralty to investigate the local peculiarities of Northfleet in Kent, with a view to decide whether any objection in point of unhealthiness would arise to the formation of a dock-yard, and other naval establishments, at that place.

During Sir Gilbert Blane's visit to those places, the facts detailed in this article were collected.

From the 30th of September to the 13th of October, 1809, this physician was in the island of Walcheren, and during this period he found so great a portion of the sick to consist of those affected with intermitting and remitting fevers pe

culiar to marshy countries, that no doubt remained that the sickness of the army was owing to that cause.

The history of the Walcheren remittent has been so often detailed, and its morbid phenomena are generally so well known, that instead of any description of the disease, our extracts will be confined to the facts that tend to exemplify the natural history and operation of marsh miasmata; an agent still remaining in great obscurity.

In some seasons marsh miasmata act with more violence than in others on the same spot. The year of the expedition to Walcheren, it was affirmed by the native inhabitants, was less sickly than usual; and they accounted for this from the unusual quantity of rain that had fallen in July and August; for it is considered by them as a fully established fact, that the most sickly years are those in which there had been great drought and heat in the latter end of the summer, and the early part of the autumn; owing probably to the more concentrated foulness of the stagnant waters. This is perfectly consonant to observations made in the fenny districts of this country. Marsh miasmata, when much diluted with aqueous exhalation, is nearly inert; it is when concentrated in the manner just stated, that its power of producing disease is so alarming.

The miasmata in Zealand are more noxious than the like exhalations are in England; the intermittents in the former being more violent, untractable, and fatal than those which occur in the fenny countries, in the eastern parts of our own country. Sir G. Blane founds this assertion on the high degree of febrile heat and delirium, on the excessive secretion of bile, on the want of distinct intermissions, and on the more frequent swellings of the liver and spleen, which take place in the Walcheren fever in a few weeks; while in England these (the swellings of the liver and spleen, we suppose, though the structure of the sentence makes the conclusion apply to febrile heat and delirium, &c. as well as to this particular state of the viscera) seldom occur but under a long continuance, or from frequent relapses of the disease.

The distance to which these noxious exhalations, or marsh miasmata, extend from their source in a sufficient proportion to produce disease, is a fact so desirable to ascertain, that the observations of Sir G. Blane, which tend to elucidate this circumstance, are peculiarly valuable.

"I had," he says, "in the course of this service, an opportunity of observing the extent to which the noxious exhalations extended, which was found to be less than is, I believe, generally known. Not only the crews of ships in the road of Flushing were entirely

free

free from this endemic, but also the guardships which were stationed in the narrow channel between this island and Beveland. The width of this channel is about 6000 feet; yet, though some of the ships lay much nearer to one shore than to the other, there was no instance of any of the men or officers being taken ill with the same disorder as that with which the troops on-shore were affected. The exhalations from the soil in tropical climates extend farther, and are still more malignant than those of Zealand. Ships at the distance of 3000 feet from swampy shores, (a distance to which it did not extend in Zealand,) and even farther, were affected by the noxious exhalations in the West Indies; and I have been credibly informed of the like fact, with regard to the India ships in the channel which leads to Calcutta."

Another law, governing the diffusion of marsh miasmata, seems also to have been ascertained; it is, that neighbouring heights are more certainly affected than flat lands nearer to the source of the miasmata, but which flats have not a marshy soil. The following facts go far toward proving this:

"The spot at Northfleet upon which it is intended to erect the dock-yard and arsenal, is a marsh of about 700 acres. On the banks of the river, both above and below it, there is a soil of a similar description, but not immediately adjoining it on either side; for above is the village of Greenhithe, which stands on a chalky bottom, rising to a few inches below the surface, and is a projecting point of the chalky hills which compose the adjacent country. Below it, on the banks of the river, there is a similar intersection of chalk, where the village of Northfleet stands. Both these are nearly on a level with the marsh; yet intermittent fevers are almost unknown at either of them, whereas they are extremely prevalent on the adjacent hills. In the neighbourhood of Weymouth, though there is stagnating water near the sea, producing intermittents, these disorders are not known in the dry districts on each side on a level with the water, but prevail on the adjacent hills. At St. Blazey, between St. Austle and Lestwithiel, agues prevail much on a hill adjoining to a marsh contiguous to the sea beach. In a district on the river Burrampooter, the waters of which overflow, and, upon retiring, leave an oozy flat, agues prevail to the very summit of the adjoining hills. Lancisi mentions a hill on which the same sickness prevails as in the marshy lands at the foot of it. (Lancisi de Noxiis Paludum Effluviis. Roma, 1717. p. 120.) At St. Lucia, one regiment, the 90th, on the Morne Fortunée, lost 271 men; the 91st, on the side of the hill, 318; the 89th, in the Grand Cul de Sac at the bottom, 486. The hill or Morne is above the level of the sea 872 feet."

Why this, so contrary to what, à priori, might have been expected, occurs, Sir G. Blane endeavors thus to explain :

"It is known to every one, ever so little acquainted with the operations of nature, and indeed the common phenomenon of clouds and rain render it obvious to the most ordinary observer, that water, reNo. 174.

Y

cently

cently exhaled from the surface of the earth, has a tendency to ascend, and being lifted over parts on the same level, impinges on the neigh bouring heights. There is reason to believe that impure and unwholesome particles in general are attracted by watery vapors; for it is remarkable, that, in case of fogs, offensive smells are perceived, which in a dry state of the air were fixed and quiescent. Though pure humidity, therefore, is innocuous, it may prove pernicious as a vehicle of unwholesome and volatile matter. In like manner, the poisonous principle of marshes, whatever it is, being engendered by moist soils, will naturally adhere to the watery vapors, and ascend with them."

This would go very far to explain why high lands in the neighbourhood of marshes are so commonly enveloped in a poisonous dose of the miasmata, did it not occur, as has been previously asserted, that these miasmata are in the most active state during dry and hot autumns. It remains, however, matter for future observation, and we hope it will not be lost sight of, whether the miasmata become more active after a thunder storm, sometimes occurring in a series of dry weather, or on the setting in of wet; or whether they are really more active in a dry than in a humid atmosphere. The fact of marshy effluvia being most pernicious in dry and hot autumns we consider to be fairly established; but we are not aware that a humid atmosphere is at all essential to their rapid and destructive diffusion.

Did our limits permit, we could add with much satisfaction many more extracts from this valuable paper; and, though we cannot compliment the baronet on the elegance or perspicuity of his style, we acknowledge the value of his materials. An appendix to this paper, containing "Remarks on the comparative Health and Population of England and Wales," though it goes but slightly into the subject, contains some interesting facts, which we may hereafter take occasion to present to our readers.

ART. II. History of a remarkable Case of Ovarian Dropsy. By THOMAS CHEVALIER, Esq. F.L.S.

This occurred to a woman 23 years of age; it was of six years standing when Mr. C first saw it: the abdomen enormously large, but unaccompanied with any alteration of the general health, except that the catamenial discharge had failed for two years, and there was a scanty secretion of urine. The circumference of the abdomen was 63 inches and a half; 38 inches from the point of the ensiform cartilage to the top of the pubis. The legs were ædematous, and a great part of the skin of the left leg was in a complete ichthyosis. The lower part of the belly was also œdematous, and the navel when she sat was on a line with the

knee,