Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/272

 170 the nature of which has been well understood since the publication of Dr. Bretonneau's work on Diphterite. Nothing can be clearer or more accurate than Dr. Starr's account, as far as regards the phenomena of the disease, which was precisely that described by the French physician, viz. a peculiar inflammation of the mucous membrane of the fauces and air passages, throwing out a continuous fibrinous membranous exudation on the surface of the affected parts; although Dr. Starr regarded the exuded membrane as an actual separation of the natural mucous tunic of the affected parts, produced by gangrene. The old practitioners had formerly met with cases of this sort in the Landsend district, though none of them described it with the same precision and horror as Dr. Starr, who regarded it as, "in its consequences, frightful, even shocking to the imagination."

Measles.—This disease, like the last, would appear, from the tables, to have been rather less common in Penzance, than in other parts of the country; but being an epidemic affection of uncertain recurrence, such results can hardly be admitted as satisfactory evidence of the general fact. During the period of my abode there, it prevailed frequently over the whole district, in different places at different times; and the testimony of the older practitioners was decidedly in favour of the opinion that measles had become more prevalent and more fatal of late years. One of my informants