Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/279

 Rh but more than that recorded in the tables of Dr. Haygarth, who practised in the North of England. The relative proportions are the following:

The evidence supplied by the practitioners of the district, as to the relative prevalence of rheumatism among the different classes of the community, is somewhat contradictory, but the weight of testimony is decidedly in favour of the opinion that the disease is not more prevalent among miners, than among other labourers; and this is the conclusion to which my own observation leads. It must be owned that this is rather a singular circumstance, according to the commonly received etiology of the disease, when we refer to what was stated in a former part of this paper respecting the extreme dampness, or rather wetness, of some of the mines. Would it, therefore seem probable that the effect of the moisture was counteracted by the warmth of the locality, and the immunity from currents of air in the bottom of the mines?

Pneumonia and Pleurisy.—I class these two diseases together, because it was impossible to separate them in drawing out the tables, and because they so commonly recognise similar causes. I trust that henceforward there will be found less difficulty in distinguishing these two diseases in practice and treatment, however much they may continue to acknowledge like causes. It will appear, from table A VIII., that inflammatory affections of the chest are of uncommon frequency at Penzance; much more frequent, indeed, than either at Plymouth