OCR Text |
Show 4M " m ents. " aigu ' ding of the prece ' (onsz l 'clemtzon Consideration of the preceding arguments. 4:3 morbid affection (excitement) of the brain‘to leave either slender, or no marks of disease after death."----(Acc0mzt ofycllow fever ,1). 49-" Phi/ad. 1794.) Changes for the greater and the less happen according to the season and the nature of'the case, within atew hours after death, in a day, or not till later. These, if regarded by themselves, would sometimes denote too much and some- times too little. The solution of the stomach is an instance on one part; on the other, the observation of Biehat, (amply confirmed by others, and nearly the most interesting in pa- thological anatomy, since the discovery of Mr. Hunter relative to the stomach) that in»- r'i'a‘med serous 72252125,!‘(1225'5 soon [we their redness. L The laws of such alterations should be in- vestigated, and the average time in relation to circumstances, it' possible, estimated. ‘hJJUH Mum , The ne- eessity oi" recording symptoms along with dissections has been stated ; and a remark so very ohvimrs scarce requires to be repeated. But one may, without extravagance, go a step l'urthcr. lNot only the symptoms and treatment of the disorder immediately preceding, but the nature and degree ot'f'ormer disorders should be noted. Nor ought the temperament and habits ct tlIC deceased (and probably not those ot'thC parents, for l have often noticed nost mani- fest proofs of the transmission of moral and physical physical dispositions) to be overlooked. Will it not be allowed as at least very possible that certain habits are capable, on long continuance (and especrally it kept up through succeeding generations) of eflecting visible changes in the brain, as is notoriously the case with regard to other parts P Or shall we at once decide with l E out a scrutiny, that the sensorial follow a totally (liflei'ent law from the moving organs; and that while the limbs of the mechanic from exertion undergo changes, which are evident at the first glance, the head of the philosopher, though equally exerted in its kind, undergoes none that are discoverable by any possible examination P These subtleties I do not introduce to discourage such speculation on disease as we have before us, but partly to lead the way to the so much needed refinement of morbid ana- i‘ i tomy, and partly to shew, in reference to the present enquiry, that preliminaries must he more accurately settled, or that speculatists on fever must almost renounce the evidence from dissection. Our countryman, we have seen, 1 , , very properly lays less stress upon it t 1trill. llb‘ predecessor in the same doctrine. Something, even under this uncertainty, may perhaps be done towards settling or unsettling opinion. Among existing documents, our en-i quirers seem not to have known, or not sidered, some of the more decisive. com These in- , . ( l CU HT». V; .J .v "Y. . i won M0987 I |