fewer of these convulsive movements, and, in a few weeks, they ceased entirely, and a rapid amendment in health and strength ensued. I have often seen the same gratifying effects in the children of the poor, after removal from a damp and unwholesome abode, to a dry and airy situation. Nor can it be doubted that, for want of this, the tendency to convulsive diseases of all kinds, in children, is increased, and many lives annually lost, which, under other circumstances, might have been spared. We need look no further for an illustration of this fact, than by comparing the health of those nursed in great towns, with that of those reared in the country. Before the Act of Parliament was passed, which obliged the parish officers of London and Westminster to send their infant poor to be nursed in the country, not above one in twenty-four of the poor children received into the work-houses, lived to be a year old; so that, out of two thousand eight hundred, (the average annual number admitted) 2690 died; whereas, since this measure was adopted, only 450, out of the whole number, died, and the greater part of those deaths occurred during the three weeks that the children were kept in the work-houses.* And it is gratifying to find, every where, that the increased attention of the profession to the effects of management, and of medicine, on the manifold circumstances of children in health and disease, has already reaped a rich harvest of reward, in the decreased mortality at that tender age. I have already extended these desultory observations to a greater length than I had originally designed, and I shall therefore defer, to a future

* Examination of Dr. Price's Essay on Population.

occasion, the insertion of some interesting cases of infantile disease, intended to confirm the opinions broached in this paper. I cannot conclude, however, without calling the attention of the profession to the treatment of infantile diseases, by the introduction of remedial agents, through the medium of the cutaneous absorbents, rather than by the mouth. In the diseases of adults, we see how powerfully certain very useful remedies act when absorbed by the skin; and many substances, which are quite inert, when applied to the skin of an adult, are not only partially absorbed, in the case of infants, but exhibit very marked effects. Liniments, ointments, fomentations and poultices, may be made the vehicle of medicines, which cannot always be introduced by the mouth. It is quite manifest, as has been observed by an able writer on the diseases of infants, from the innumerable ramifications of the capillary vessels which penetrate the cutaneous texture, and the multitude of nervous filaments which give them sensibility, that poultices, in their simple or medicated forms, can be made remarkably efficient in counteracting the impressions of disease in many of the living structures. They may, occasionally, be employed as the vehicle of opiates, aperients, diuretics, stimulants, and other active remedies. If the mother's milk is not efficacious enough to counteract a tendency to sluggishness in the bowels of her infant, and the aid of medicine is required, some aperient powder, sprinkled, or, in some instances, a little castor oil, rubbed on the abdomen, and the subsequent application of a warm poultice, will often suffice. In former days, great reliance was placed on strong decoctions of herbs, applied externally, in

the diseases of children; and I have, myself, witnessed very singular effects, from the continued use of such medicated fomentations to the abdomen, where some enlargement existed, and when there was ground to suspect mesenteric disease. Where the infant cannot be made to swallow, it is of vital importance to have it in our power to apply external agents. An anodyne liniment to the spine has sometimes appeared to arrest the most violent spasms. A very slight application of the nitro-muriatic acid lotion to the extremities, will, in some instances, shew its effects on the stools in a few hours; the same may be said of many other powerful medicines. But it is unnecessary to multiply examples of this kind. Every one's own experience will point out to him the substances most likely to be absorbed, and to answer a specific purpose. It only remains for me to observe, that it is the duty of every practitioner to acquaint himself with the causes which cut off so many of the human race, at so early a period of their existence, and, as far as possible, also, with the best means of remedying the evil. It is a subject not unbecoming the highest attainments, to increase the stock of medical knowledge in that branch of our art. So important, indeed, to society, is the successful treatment of infantile diseases, that happy shall I be, if any effort of mine shall awaken attention to this hitherto neglected department of medicine. There is no brighter reward, that is in the power of this world to bestow, than to be made the instrument of relief to these helpless little ones, and of saving the lives of these engaging beings, to be a blessing to their parents, and, perhaps, the future ornaments of society.

UPON THE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE

OF

THE MIND AND BODY OF MAN,

IN HEALTH AND DISEASE.

BY JONAS MALDEN, M.D.

Senior Physician to the Worcester General Infirmary.

To how great an extent the preservation of health and the cure of disease may depend upon the proper management of the mind, has not, I think, been sufficiently insisted upon by medical writers. The consideration of the reciprocal influence of the mind and body of man, both in health and disease, and an induction of particulars relating to this subject, so as to establish some general laws, and to lead to some practical results, would, I think, be a labour of great utility.

The physiology of the human mind, studied and elucidated by a practical physician, would be inquired into, and treated, very differently, to the manner in which the same subject has been discussed by purely metaphysical writers.

Abstract metaphysicians, in treating of the intellectual powers, disjoin, in a manner, the laws of body and mind, as if they were not, in nature, in

separably conjoined and co-operating; and when they have confined our mental relations with the external world, to the limited number of our five external senses, they have concluded that they have traced the origin of all our perceptions, and have pointed out the source of all the phenomena of the mind, or of the intellectual principle within us. But this, in fact, is far from being the case. It may appear, at first sight, a paradox; but it is true that, as far as our minds are concerned, our bodies are outside of ourselves. Some of the bodily instruments with which we are endowed, have to be learnt themselves first, before they can teach us anything. The newly-born infant has no more idea of the form of his own bodily frame, or of the different situation of its external organs, than he has of the world exterior to it. His body is, literally, outside of himself. He gradually learns that he has hands and feet, by bringing them within the sphere of his vision; and he acquaints himself, through the medium of the sense of touch, residing in those very hands, with the various localities, and relative situations, of other parts of his body. Yet, from the body thus distinct, there arises a modification of the states of the mind, from a variety of causes not duly appreciated.

There are other feelings, besides those ascribed to certain distinct organs of perception, which are, strictly speaking, sensations, are perceived by the mind, and modify its state: for instance, there are muscular feelings. There is a particular feeling, which attends the action of voluntary muscles, which acquaints the mind with their power, and informs