secretion of bile. In other cases the symptoms are exceedingly mild; and I have had frequent opportunities of seeing instances, in which general lassitude, with inaptitude for exertion of the body or mind, impaired appetite, slightly foul tongue, and disturbed sleep, were the only symptoms of the disease, the pulse continuing little if at all above, sometimes even below, the natural standard; and the patients, while lying in bed, feeling so easy in every respect, that it was difficult to persuade them or their friends of the propriety and necessity of confinement to bed, and of their observing an abstemious diet. In these cases the fever has been generally long continued, and its abatement almost imperceptible; no very distinct amendment having taken place till after a period of several weeks. Besides this fever, there generally exists in Edinburgh, though usually to a very limited degree, a continued fever of a contagious nature, commonly denominated Typhus or Nervous Fever. During the earlier months of last year, a considerable number of cases of this fever appeared in town; but these were chiefly confined to particular situations of the town and suburbs, which are close and ill aired. Indeed the greater proportion of cases which came under my observation occurred in a house in a close in the Grassmarket, occupied as a beggars' lodginghouse, where, in two small and confined rooms, there were no fewer than seven beds, generally completely filled by the families of vagrants or stranger poor, who had no permanent residence in the town. Into this habitation, so well adapted for the reception and spreading of contagion, a man came from Glasgow affected with fever, and speedily communicated it to others of his fellow-lodgers; and though as many of the sick as possible were sent to the Infirmary, and, in consequence of the fever, several of the lodgers left the house, and others were deterred from coming into it, yet the disease spread through fourteen of the inhabitants of this miserable place. The house was at length left nearly empty; and ventilation and cleaning having been promoted as much as possible, the contagion appeared to have been destroyed, as I believe fever did not afterwards recur among those who resided in it. The number of fevers diminish ed very considerably during the summer; but during this last winter it has again increased, and typhus fever has been diffused among the poor in the different quarters of the town, and several persons in the better ranks of life have been attacked by it. During its prevalence, this fever has however generally been mild, and few cases have occurred in which I have learnt of its having been attended by the severe or putrid symptoms which distinguish malignant typhus. In a great number of the cases, there can hardly be said to have been any symptom peculiar to typhus fever; and had it not been from their apparently contagious nature, it would have been impossible to have distinguished them from common continued fever. In the severer cases, however, the symptoms of typhus were more distinct, as shewn by the early delirium, the suffusion of the eyes, the involuntary discharge of the excretions, and the black and incrusted fur on the mouth and tongue. In a conconsiderable number also of these, an eruption of a red colour, not unlike measles in its appearance, but of a paler hue, without being elevated, appeared during the earlier days of the fever, and faded during its progress. No instances have fallen under my own observation, of the occurrence of the small black or dark purple points, commonly called petechiae, which are apparently formed by blood thrown out in the skin, and usually considered as a mark of putrescency; but I have been informed of several cases in which they appeared. In one of these cases, the petechia were preceded, for some days, by the red eruption already noticed. In a very violent case of the fever, which proved fatal, gangrenous vesications were formed, about the eleventh day, on the back and loins, from the irritation produced by the involuntary discharge of the secretions; and various instances of the mortification of the parts of the body which are compressed in lying have taken place. In two instances, I have seen the disease accompanied by an aphthous state of the throat and back part of the nose. In one of these, the fever went on till the twenty-first day, when, under the cooling treatment and antiphlogistic regimen, an abatement took place, and, after a long convalescence, the patient completely recovered. In the other, which occurred in a brother of the first, after two relapses, in each of which the fever was more severe than in the preceding attack, notwithstanding the very liberal and apparently beneficial uses of wine, the strength was completely exhausted, the functions of the stomach failed completely, vomiting of a black matter like coffee grounds (very similar to what is described under the name of the black vomit in fevers of tropical climates) came on, and the patient died at the end of the eleventh week. In both these cases, the aphthous state of the throat went off during the progress of the fever, and no other symptom of putrescency appeared. In a great proportion of cases, an abatement of the fever has taken place by the fourteenth day; and in many instances, particularly in children, much earlier. In some cases, however, the change did not happen till the twenty-first day. In those in whom the fever proved fatal, death has, as far as I can learn, very rarely taken place at an early period of the disease, but generally at some time after the fourteenth day of its continuance. It is not easy to form any conjecture with regard to the causes of the different degrees of severity of the fever in different individuals, for among a number affected, placed in the same circumstances, and apparently having derived it from the same contagion, it has been seen to exist in very various states. The disease has, however, been in general much milder among children than in adults, or in those who had passed the age of puberty; and what appears rather remarkable, it has been in general more severe in those of the better classes whom it has attacked than among the poor. It has been among individuals in the better ranks of life, who had every advantage in their accommodation and treatment, and who previously enjoyed a high state of health, that I have seen and heard of the most violent and malignant cases of the fever. The typhus which has prevailed, has not appeared to have been of a very actively contagious nature; for though in some few families and situations, in circumstances peculiarly well adapted for the propagation of contagion, it spread very generally,-yet, in other instances, where but very imperfect means of prevention could be adopted, it affected only a small part of those exposed to it, and fre quently did not proceed further than the individual first attacked. During the last month, the number affected with it has considerably decreased; and there seems reason to hope, that a further abatement will take place with the continuance of the fine weather. The unusual circumstances, however, of the prevalence of a contagious fever, though to an extent which must appear exceedingly trifling when compared with what takes place in other large towns, or even with what formerly existed in Edinburgh, and of its having attacked several individuals in the better ranks of life, to some of whom it proved fatal, have excited a considerable degree of anxiety in the minds of the public,-and most unfounded alarms, and exaggerated reports, have spread abroad with regard to the extent and danger of the disease. The discussion which these have occasioned may not be without its use, as it leads to the consideration of the causes which produce the fever, and of the means to be employed for arresting its progress. U Among the various causes to which the prevalence of the fever has been attributed, the one which has excited most attention, is the great accumulation of the soil from the town, in the dunghills in its immediate neighbourhood. It is true, that it is by no means sufficiently determined, what the cir cumstances are under which typhus fever is generated, or whether, any more than small-pox or measles, it is ever excited except by a specific contagion: but, as far as is known, there seems no reason to believe that a contagious fever is ever produced by the putrefaction of dead animal or vegetable matter; and, in the present instance, I am aware of no facts which can tend to shew, that the effluvium from the dunghills has had any share in the production or spreading of the fever which has prevailed, while there are many circumstances which go far to establish that it has had no such effect. Besides, when it is considered, that it is universally acknowledged that close and ill ventilated houses, crowded with inhabitants, who, from poverty and want of employment, are debilitated in their bodies, and depressed in their minds, are situations most favourable to the propagation of contagious fever,-that contagious fe ver is never entirely absent from Edinburgh and that infection may be imbibed and communicated by the clothes of a person affected with fever, or who has been for a continued period exposed to an atmosphere strongly impregnated with its contagion,-it does not appear difficult to explain the prevalence of typhus among the poor during last winter, or its occasional communication to their richer neighbours. It would scem, therefore, that little benefit can be expected, in so far as relates to the prevention or diminution of this fever, from the removal of the dunghills. It is, however, completely ascertained, that when patients affected with ty phus are laid in well ventilated apart ments, and proper attention is paid to the cleanliness of their persons, and to the removal and washing of their bed ding and clothes, the risk of contagion is incalculably diminished: and so much is this the case, that even in fever-wards in hospitals, where a num ber of patients with bad fevers are often collected together, the communication of contagion to other parts of the house is unknown, and those whose duties require their presence among the sick, unless from imprudent exposure in remaining too long close to the patients, or upon their beds, are very rarely infected. Among the rich, all risk of the spreading of contagion is in general completely prevented, by the removal of the infected person into a separate room, into which the air is freely admitted, while unnecessary communication with the rest of the family is prohibited, and due attention is paid to the removal and cleaning of the clothes which are used about the sick. But among the poor, whose families are generally obliged to occupy one apartment, and often only one bed, into which the free air is seldom, if ever, allowed to have access, and whose poverty and apathy are serious obstacles to their making any effort to rid themselves of the evil, it becomes much more difficult to arrest the progress of contagion. The fever-wards of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, the first of the kind, I believe, which were established in Britain, have been productive of many advantages, not only in promoting the recovery of those who VOL. I. have been received into them, but in materially diminishing, since their establishment, the number of conta gious fevers in the city. The dislike, however, which exists among the poor to avail themselves of the advan tages of an hospital, some of the mo tives of which must excite our sympathy rather than our blame, frequently prevents altogether the removal of the sick into this institution, and, in cases of fever, almost always till after the disease has considerably advanced; and when the removal has been effected, the remainder of the family continue to live in the room, or even to sleep in the bed, from which the sick person has been taken, and which continue loaded with the seeds of the disease. In order to arrest the progress of contagion among the poor, the co-operation of the richer part of the community is essentially necessary. This may be afforded, and can be effectually afforded only, by steps being taken to encourage, among the poor, the early separation of the diseased from the healthy,-to enable them, by contributing towards the expense, and by furnishing a temporary supply of clothing, to clean the infected clothing and furniture, and to fumigate and white-wash their houses,and, above all, to ensure that these measures are carefully carried into effect, by providing for the superintendance of them when they are necessary. In London, Manchester, Liverpool, and other large towns, associations for the prevention of contagious fevers among the poor have, by adopting these means, produced an immediate and great diminution of the number of fevers in these towns; and in Edinburgh, the formation of some plan for the same purpose, which might be effected at a very small expense, and could not fail greatly to diminish the prevalence of fever, if not wholly to remove it from the town, seems dictated to those enjoying the advantages of affluence, not only by humanity towards the poor, but also by a regard to the safety and comfort of themselves and their families. None of the contagious diseases to which children are liable prevail at present in Edinburgh. A few straggling cases of measles still occasionally occur among those who escaped that 3 E general of Edinburgh, and the practice of vaccination is very generally dopted by all classes of the communi ty; in consequence of which, the town enjoys an exemption from small-pox to an extent, I believe, unknown in any town of equal magnitude in Bri tain. After very considerable oppor tunities of observation with regard to this subject, I can myself affirm, that I have seen hitherto nothing to shake, and much to confirm, my belief in the preservative powers of the cows pox against the small-pox. ed eve The variable climate, and exposed situation of Edinburgh, render its inhabitants, perhaps in a peculiar de gree, liable to catarrhs and pectoral complaints; but the dry and steady weather of last spring has occasioned remarkable diminution in the usual number of these diseases during that season of the year. The wet weather however, at the end of May, had an immediate effect in increasing the pres valence of colds, and in aggravating the complaints of those who laboured under diseases of the chest, and gave rise to several cases of well-marked croup.rs JW. Troff Edin. June 1st, 1817. to driw bad Broms arrgist ved noitessefa ent mont ANTIQUARIAN REPERTORY.TM MEMORIAL, ADDRESSED TO HIS MA- MR EDITOR,' BELIEVING that the following Memorial of Lord Lovat to George 1. has never been published, and that it may interest the readers of your Magazine, I submit it to your consideration. It is dated twenty-one years before the rebellion, for his activity in which Lord Lovat was brought to the scaffold. Whether, at the period when the memorial was written, he was loyal at bottom, I have no means of determining, nor do I know whether the memorial was actually presented to the king. It shows clearly, however, that Lovat was at that period dissatisfied. The account given of the state of the Highlands is quite correct. What a wonderful change seventy years have effect ed & Indeed, the change from barbarism to civilization was brought about in a much ataroq sit vir 4 THE Highlands of Scotland being a country very mountainous, and almost inaccessible to any but the inhabitants thereof, whose language and dress are entirely different from those of the low country, do remain to this day much less civilized than the other parts of Scotland, from whence many inconveniences arise to his Majesty's subjects, and even to the government itself. ren and unimproven; has little or no That part of Scotland is very bard trade, and not much intercourse withi the low country; the product is most confined to the cattle which feed in the mountains. The people wear H sa ai 1617.] These circumstances have, in all times, produced many evills, which have been frequently considered, and many remedies attempted, as it appears from the Scots acts of parliament. Their living among themselves, unmixt with the other part of the country, has been one of the causes that many of their families have continued in the same possessions during many ages, and very little alterations happen in the property of land; there are few purchases, and securities for debts are very uncertain, where power hap pens to be wanting to support the legal right.odel odw The names of the inhabitants are confined to a small number, partly from the little intercourse they have had with other people, and partly from the affectation that reigns among them, to annex themselves to some tribe or family, and thereby to put themselves under the protection of the head or chief thereof.OT These several names of families are respectively associated together in friendship and interest, each name under such person as is, or is reputed to be, the head of the family, who has very great authority over them, quite independent of any legal power, and has, in severall instances, continued great numbers of years after that the lands where they live has been alienated from the chiefs whom they serve. There happened two surprising instances of this at the late rebellion; the one was concerning the Frasers, who, upon the Lord Lovat's arrival in Scotland, though he had been ane exile for many years, another family, viz. Alexander Mackenzie of Fraser dale, in possession of the estate, who had marched a number of them, formed into a regiment, to Perth, where the rebel army then lay. Yet not withstanding all this, the moment they heard that their chief was assembling the rest of his friends and name in the Highlands, they got together, |