Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/566

 mentioned; or in his admirable little book entitled Plain Instructions for the Management of Infants, with Practical Observations on the Disorders incident to Children; published in 1830; or in the observations appended to that work, on Several Forms of Spinal and Cerebral Irritation; or in the article on the Diseases of Artisans, in the Cyclopædia. Valuable cases, undoubtedly, occur, of almost every description, in his unpublished records, but, probably, only such as might be found in the case-books of most physicians of extensive practice. His remarks on bronchitis and phthisis, intended as the ground-work of a contribution to these Transactions, on the Curability of Phthisis, may, perhaps, be prepared to appear, although in an imperfect shape, in the next volume; and this may possibly be followed by some other selections.

The contemplation of the numerous practical memoranda accumulated by so industrious and able a physician, papers never, perhaps, after such inspection as I can afford time to give them, to occupy the careful regard of any human eye, suggests a melancholy commentary on the years of ardent exertion in which they were compiled, and on the faithful observations thus appearing to have been made, with great pains, only to be, when made, neglected. When it is considered, too, how many records of a similar kind must, at the death of each observant practitioner, share the same fate; how many designs are left unfinished; how many valuable thoughts pursued a little way