Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/313

 Rh treatment. I fancy that if I had now to treat such cases, and I now hardly ever see such, I could produce results much more satisfactory, by the better regulation of even the bad diet then in my power, and by the cautious and regulated use of medicines having a tonic effect on the digestive organs and the system at large. I was then more skilled in subduing the enemy by a coup de main, than in expelling him by systematic manoeuvres, and keeping him at bay when expelled: like that of most young physicians, my practice was more of the heroic than philosophic cast.

I consider the cases marked in the Dispensary list, under the heads of gastritis and gastric irritation, gastrodynia, pyrosis, constipation and vomiting, as coming essentially under the same class of observations, and, indeed, all these, except the two last, have been included under this head, in estimating the relative prevalence of diseases.

During my residence at Penzance, I met with numerous cases of pyrosis, but never recorded it as a distinct disease. It, however, seems to have more attracted the notice of my very intelligent successor, Dr. Barham. In one of his reports (for 1825) I find the following striking remark:—"Another complaint which makes some figure on the list, and which we suspect to be of more than usually frequent occurrence in this part of the kingdom, is pyrosis or water-brash. This complaint, which destroys the comfort and debilitates the constitutions of many of our poor neighbours, especially among females, is commonly attributed to the effects of