dular swellings, while those on the other side are exempt, thongh both use the same food, and live in the same manner. The glandular swellings however in these instances seem to be the Derbyshire neck, or bronchocele, a disease confined to one particular gland low down in the neck, and nearly allied to scrophula, though persons affected by bronchocele have often no other scrophulous mark. Respecting the Derbyshire neck, accompanied, as it appears to me, with phænomena, in these cases, manifestly scrophulous, there is an authentic observation which deserves to be given entire, as it distinctly shews how glandular swellings may be produced in a short time by natural agents, operating constantly and with great intensity, though in general they take place slowly and imperceptibly, in consequence of the more gradual application of their exciting causes. "On occasion of tumours in the "neck, very prevalent in our military school," says the author of the observation, Dr. Lange of Cronstadt in Siebenburgen, "the com

manding officer desired me to examine "the children-- I actually found thirty"six among forty-eight affected. More"over, of seven adults in the house, two "had the same complaint. All looked very

"cachectic, pale, and bloated. Many had

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weeping eyes; the appetite was good in "all. The nature of the tumours was dif"ferent in the different patients. In some "there was but one. Others had two or "three distinct. In others, several had con"creted into a single cluster, which some"times had its seat in the middle, and "sometimes on one side of the neck. Some were of the size of a hazle nut, others of "that of a hen's egg. Some were spungy, "others fleshy, others cartilaginous to the "touch. On other parts of the body, even "in the belly, there was no hardness or en

largement to be observed. The affection "had been noticed in the school for the "first time since the last winter. The di"rector shewed me a child that had come "into the house in perfect health but three "weeks before, and he had already a tumour " of the size of a walnut."

"The officers seemed willing to seek the cause of this complaint in the water, which "the children used for drinking. The water, however, appeared to me perfectly inno"cent, because on a chemical examina

1

tion, it turned out the purest water in "Cronstadt; and also because the whole neighbourhood, where no such complaint

"existed, was supplied from the very same "well. The cause, therefore, must have been "confined to the house itself. I asked if the "children were made to wear their stock

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very tight? or if their scald heads were "treated with hazardous external means? "Both questions were answered in the negative. After the strictest enquiry, I con"cluded that the cause of this general seizure was twofold."

"The first cause appeared to me to be the low, confined, damp, and crowded apart66 ments. The whole forty-eight children "lived in four small apartments on the

ground floor. They mostly slept two in "a bed; and the building was close by the "foot of a hill, planted with fruit-trees. "Moreover, some of the rooms had been

stabling a few years before, in consequence "of which every thing on the ground was mouldy."

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"The second leading cause appeared to me to be the frequent use of leguminous fruits, and of other crude food. "these were the most probable causes of the

That

malady, I was farther led to conclude from two soldiers' children, in whose cases both "causes were very striking, and of whom "both were similarly affected. I advised

"therefore, above all other things, to provide "the children with a healthy and spacious "habitation, and to put them upon light

vegetable diet. But as it was not so easy "to provide fresh quarters at a moment's "warning, I proposed in the mean time to open the windows, to fumigate the apart"ments with juniper-berries, to omit sprinkling the floors when the rooms were swept out, to furnish them with vent-stoves, to "make air-holes opposite the windows, and to give the children some wine daily."

By help of these measures, which in the main appear judicious, though some are of very questionable propriety, and by burnt spunge, mercurial laxatives, by some other medicines, and an eventual change of dwelling, "all the children" says Dr. Lange, "soon

regained their natural colour, and in a few "weeks not a glandular tumour was to be "found among them.". After the perusal of such very striking facts, the friends of young people will need no farther inducement to examine whether there be any connection between their glandular ailments, and cold from moisture. I have known instances where these ailments appeared certainly to depend on the damp of a wall in the bedroom of a school, upon the same condition

of a miserable office where an attorney's clerk has been confined to his desk for a large portion of the day, and of ill-lighted, and ill-ventilated merchants' and bankers' compting-houses.

Concerning the treatment of scrophula, when it affects superficial parts, two opposite incorrect opinions seem to have been entertained. The one, that it is dangerous to disperse tumours or to heal ulcers, lest the scrophulous acrimony should migrate to more important organs, and excite fatal complaints: the second, that nothing further need be done than remove these local affections.

I have already noticed the great chance there is of giving mercury to the scrophulous, unawares, in the form of worm-medicines of secret composition. Mercury is known in very small quantity to bring on that state of the system, in which slight exposure will occasion mischief. Sometimes the injury is sudden and marked; more frequently, it is slighter and unnoticed. In all its degrees, it is more likely to fall to the share of the scrophulous, than of others. None suffering so much from inflammatory affections on the one hand, or from the severity of the elements on the other. And we know that medicines of the above description are usually