Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/282

 180 very rare, a case not being seen in the practice of one surgeon for many consecutive years. In the Dispensary tables 16 cases are recorded in fourteen years, being about 1 in 393 of the whole diseases of the period. Diarrhœa is far more common, but rarely becomes epidemic. All the surgeons agree in stating that these complaints are not more prevalent among miners, than among other classes of the inhabitants. The total number of cases of diarrhœa during fourteen years, in the Dispensary Reports, are 236, being 1 in 37 of the total diseases. It will be observed in the reports, that the proportion of cases of diarrhœa is much greater during the latter years of the period. This is accounted for by the fact, of the year 1833 being comprehended in the latter period. In this year the cholera made its appearance at Penzance, and, as usual in other places, was preceded and accompanied by an epidemic diarrhœa. In that year 105 cases of diarrhœa are entered on the Dispensary list, while only six more were recorded during the whole of the four preceding years. This must be kept in view, in estimating the general prevalence of diarrhœa, from the results given in the tables.

Cholera.—If this disease is not less frequent in this district than elsewhere, it certainly is not more so. My own opinion is, that it is rather less frequent. I only saw four cases of it during my residence at Penzance, among the dispensary patients, and only one or two more in private practice. Of the 67 cases recorded in the dispensary lists, from 1823 to 1833, no less than 33 occurred in the last mentioned year, and were instances of the epidemic