Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/276

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MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY


Otitis and Otalgia.—A few cases of this affection were met with, but they presented nothing remarkable in their history or character.

Cynanche tonsillaris et pharyngea.—Inflamnatory sore throat was regarded by the surgeons as a rather common disease; and I think I noticed it as frequently as I have done elsewhere. It affected no locality, or class of persons, more than others. I may notice a remark made by one of the old surgeons, which I have often seen verified elsewhere, that the disease as affected particular families more than others.

Rheumatism.—From my own observation, and the result of my inquiries while in Cornwall, I was led to regard the acute rheumatism as comparatively of rare occurrence among any class of the community in this district. At least, I may safely say, that it was, during my residence, considerably less frequent than in the more northern parts of the island. One of the older practitioners assured me, that he had met with a few cases only, in a practice of forty years. The whole cases seen by me, in four years and a half, were four in number, viz. two in 1817, and two in 1821, not one case having been met with in the three intermediate years. In the Dispensary Report for 1821, I stated, "During the whole of the last two years, not one case of acute rheumatism has been entered in the books; and I cannot help thinking that the total absence of the disease among so large a body of individuals, for so long a period, is a circumstance that would be reckoned very singular in the northern, or even central parts of our island. It is, at all events, I