Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/278

 176 likewise been of frequent occurrence, and occasionally proved peculiarly painful and intractable." And, finally, in 1832—"Some cases of Rheumatism were of great severity, and appeared to take their origin in the early occupation of newly-erected houses. Although this disease did not, in any instance, prove fatal, I have reason to fear that, in some patients, organic disease of the heart has been established."

The chronic disease, however, including under this head all local pains of the joints not depending on diseased bones or cartilages, must, I think, be regarded as of not infrequent occurrence. In table A III. I have been obliged to unite, under one head, the acute and chronic forms of the disease, because they are so confounded in the reports of the majority of the years. In my own reports, and in the two years subsequent to my leaving the Dispensary, the distinction between the acute and chronic affection is noticed, and the proportion is 5 of the former to 69 of the latter—or 1 case of acute for every 14 of chronic rheumatism. This is a much greater disproportion between the two species, than is shewn by the Plymouth and London tables, or by Dr. Haygarth's reports; the following being the relative proportion of the two forms in reference to the total diseases observed:

The degree of prevalence of both forms of the disease, relatively with that observed in other places, is considerably less than at London and Plymouth,