Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/291

 Rh having been met with by any of the resident practitioners, except such rare spasmodic cases as are met with everywhere among painters.

Although not, strictly speaking, endemic diseases, yet as possessing some points analogous to these, particularly in the obscurity of their causes, and the variety of the degree of local prevalence, I shall notice, in the present section, two or three of the more important diseases to which mankind are liable, viz. scrofula, (including consumption, hydrocephalus, and epilepsy,) scirrhus, calculus and scorbutus.

Scrofula.—Under this head I propose to notice only those affections of an external kind, the nature of which is unequivocal, and which are commonly marked among surgical diseases, such as enlargement of the external glands, diseases of the joints, scrofulous ulcers, rickets, angular curvature of the spine, &c.

I am disposed to regard scrofulous diseases as of more frequent occurrence in this district, than in England generally: I am not, sure, however, if I am in possession of positive evidence sufficient to establish this position. Such an impression was made on my mind, during my residence in Cornwall, by the numerous cases that came under my notice in the Penzance Dispensary, and by the observations I had opportunities of making in private practice, and among the population generally; still, as I have just hinted, this general impression may not be in accordance with the actual facts. The point is one extremely difficult to be decided, and I am not sure that we at present. possess documents of sufficient extent and authenticity to determine it.