The preparation of mercury which was used was calomel. In conse. quence of the success which attended the use of this remedy in this disease, it was shortly after resorted to in other inflammatory complaints; and about the middle of the last century it was in common use, in this country, in pleurisy, pneumonia, rheumatism, and others of the phlegmasiæ. I am aware that the credit of this practice is claimed elsewhere; but there can be no doubt that in its origin it is exclusively American, and that to our colonial physicians the world is indebted for one of the greatest improvements ever made in practical medicine." The credit of this practice is generally awarded to Dr. Robert Hamilton of Lynn Regis, but Dr. Beck shows that, from Dr. Hamilton's own account, his attention was not called to the practice until the year 1764, and that it had been in very general use in this country many years before. The only fault of this address is, that it is too short, and this defect the author, we hope, will remedy by future contributions to the his tory of American Medicine. It is a subject which he seems to be peculiarly qualified by his studies to render interesting and instructive to his young countrymen. He closes his address in the following exulting language which every American will heartily adopt. "The revolution accomplished, and an independent government established, a new career was commenced. In common with every thing else, medicine felt the sacred impulse, and during the brief period of our independence, how has the scene changed! Instead of the feeble beginnings of one or two institutions, twenty-three well established medical colleges are now to be found in different parts of our country; every city has its hospitals; a thriving professional literature has sprung up among us, and we can now boast of authors whom we are not ashamed to mention along with those of European birth. What nation ever accomplished so much in an equal space of time, and under equal circumstances!" Y. MEDICAL SOCIETY OF TENNESSEE. The regular annual meeting of this society was held at Nashville on the first Monday in May, and was attended by about its average number of members. Dr. Buchanan, the Vice President, delivered the annual address, on the pathology of fever, which will be published soon among the proceedings of the Society. In the reading, it struck us as one of the most elaborate and logical papers that we have heard 34 定 for a good while, and we are a good deal mistaken if it does not enhance the reputation of the author as a sound thinker and a clear and learned writer. Dr. Richardson, of Rutherford, read a practical and judicious paper on the medical topography and diseases of that county, which has been promised us for publication in the Journal. Several of the cases reported possessed practical interest, some of which we expect to publish. Upon the whole, the meeting was characterised by as much spirit as has usually marked the meetings of the Society, and as the attendance has been reduced chiefly to the members who take part in the literary exercises, and believe that the beneficial influence of the association is to be derived from that source, it is probable that it will not decline below its present state, which, if not one of youthful vigor and hope, is yet one of respectable solidity and animation. The officers elected were, Dr. Buchanan, of Columbia, President; Dr. Geo. Thompson, of Jefferson, Vice President; Dr. R. Martin, of Nashville, Recording Secretary; Dr. Shelby, Treasurer, and Dr. Richardson, of Rutherford, Orator. The transactions of the Society are to be published shortly, when we shall be able to speak more at length of its proceedings. Y. DEATH OF DR. SAMUEL HOGG. Died, on the 28th of May, at his residence in Rutherford County, Tennessee, Dr. SAMUEL HOGG, one of the oldest and most eminent physicians of that State. The disease which terminated the life of this estimable man was pulmonary consumption, of which he had been the subject for a number of years. At one time in the summer of 1838 it was feared he would sink under the disease, but by the autuinn he had so far recovered as to be able to return to Natchez, where he then resided, and resume the practice of physic. With the return of warm weather, however, his malady grew more alarming, and he was obliged to fly again to the mineral springs of Tennessee, where the recuperative process went on so kindly, that he was found the next winter, in Nashville, laboring in his profession, and the next spring taking an active part in the business of the Medical Society of the State. At the meeting of the Society, in May of the following year, he delivered the annual address, as President, which was the last public effort of his life. The summer was passed, as usual, at the cidents in his own eventful life upon which to exert them to the highest advantage. Soon after his services in the army he was induced by the wishes of his countrymen to become a candidate for civic honors, and once he was chosen the Representative of his county in the Legislature of the State, and once was elected to Congress. It was while serving his country at Washington, in 1819, that the University of Maryland conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, which was followed, some years afterwards, by a similar acknowledgment of his high professional character from Transylvania University. Dr. Hogg's reputation was now in its zenith, and as he was of an active, inquisitive mind, that acquired with uncommon readiness and ease whatever circulated in any of the channels of the profession, he had only to direct his affairs with prudence, to render his circumstan ces in life as independent as he could have desired. At this time his services were in perpetual requisition. His connexion with the army during so many campaigns had extended a knowledge of his skill all over the State, and he was consulted by the sick from every portion of it. He almost lived on horse-back, and performed for several years an amount of professional service which has seldom been surpassed by the practitioner of medicine. But labors so arduous and unmitigated, began to produce their natural effects upon his health, and in order to lighten them he removed to Nashville, in 1828, where he secured at once an amount of business proportionate to his high reputation. But, having been unfortunate in his connexion with a drug store, he was tempted by the representations of friends to try his fortunes in a field promising still higher pecuniary rewards, and accordingly, in 1836, he settled in Natchez. Here, as before in Nashville, his business became at once large and profitable, and, could his health have been prolonged, it is probable he would have amassed riches. But unfortunately that failed him after a few months, and he was compelled to give up his cherished schemes, only to return to them for a little while once more, and then abandon them forever. In 1838, an invalid ourself, we passed him at Tyree's Springs, where it was apprehended he was about to finish his course. It was during his illness that season that he professed religion, and was received into the Baptist church, in the faith of which he died. We had the satisfaction of seeing him promoted to the first office in the Medical Society of the State which he had honored by his services, at its meeting in May, 1840, and in 1841 listened with mournful interest to his address as the retiring President, assured by his emaciated frame and feeble voice, that we should hear him from that place no more. When next we saw him he was on his death-bed. A year had passed away, and in that time he had lost a third son, an amiable young man, the second who had prepared him- · self for the profession of the father. His earthly hopes had all faded, and he spoke of his dissolution as just at hand; but he spoke of it with the calm resignation of a Christian. In three weeks the end, which had been threatened long, came, and he died without a struggle. He was buried at Nashville, a large concourse of citizens attending his remains to the grave. Resolutions respectful to his memory were passed by the physicians of Murfreesborough and Rutherford County, by one of which a memoir of his life and character is requested to be read at the next annual meeting of the State Medical Society, of which he was one of the founders and most active and zealous members. One of the medical pioneers of Tennessee, Dr. Hogg was too ambitious and too proud a man to lag behind those whose superior opportunities had enabled them to store their minds with the last improvements in the profession. He was, therefore, a reading man. He kept up with the discoveries in medicine, and with the changes in medical doctrine. He loved medical speculation, and spake and wrote fluently concerning his favorite theories, which, if never profound, were generally plausible and ingenious. He possessed a large share of energy and enthusiasm, which he carried into his profession, and these qualities gave him confidence and boldness as a practitioner, and, added to his powers of conversation, rendered him a fascinating teacher. If the character of his intellect was rather showy than solid, it will be conceded that few men, with as limited advantages of early professional learning, have maintained a more undisputed empire in their profession, than Dr. Hogg long exercised in his comparatively limited sphere. As a writer, he was not wholly unknown to the profession; but he was too sensible of the defects of his early education, to be a willing contributor to the press. As a member of society he was greatly beloved, his warm and benevolent heart attaching men to him by the strongest ties. It was late in life that he united to the gen. erous qualities of the man the high and ennobling graces of the Christian; but it is the richest of all the sources of consolation left to his friends and above all, to his bereaved family-that he was supported under the sufferings of his last lingering illness by the Christian's hopes. Y. NOTICES OF THE WEATHER AND DISEASES IN THE WINTER OF 1841-2, "In order to fill my sheet I will give you a synopsis of the character of our past winter and its attendant diseases. As to the former, suffice it to say that it was somewhat remarkable for variableness-much rain, litttle snow, no sleighing, and the lake not frozen over. The prevailing winds were from the east and north east, and have continued during the spring months, and up to the present moment. Vegetation commenced nearly two weeks earlier than usual, but for the last four or five weeks the weather has been (frequently at least) disagreeably cool. Agricultural prospects are, however, quite promising. Ours is ordinarily a very healthy region, there being few sources of miasm, and the face of the country generally somewhat undulating, with an abundance of pure running water-the spring and wells somewhat impregnated with lime. Our diseases, then, are generally such as are engendered by sudden vicissitudes of weather, which are fre quent and sudden, owing in part to our position, in common with most of the northern part of the state, in a region where the influences of the northern lakes, the Allegheny mountains and the Mississippi valley react. These diseases consist of pneumonias, and other inflam matory affections, with now and then an epidemic of typhoid pneu. monia, scarlatina, dysentery, &c. Bilious fevers are not prevalent to a great extent, or of a severe grade among us, excepting on the Ohio canal. But to the epidemic of the last winter. The season was as healthy as usual till the month of December, when more than the usual number of cases of pneumonitis and acute hepatitis occurred, with other inflammatory affections, the result of exposure or the sudden changes which began to visit us thick and fast. About the first of January the scarlet fever made its appearance both in this and in several of the adjoining counties at the same time. Its appearance and spread were evidently independent of contagion, no precaution or remoteness affording any security. As far as my observations extended it was generally of the congestive or congesto-inflammatory grade, and proved peculiarly unmanageable. A number of cases, evidently the result of the same great epidemic constitution or influence, occurred, in which the little patients were taken off in from 16 to 24 hours after the first appearance of indisposition. In these cases the nervous system, and particularly, the brain, sustained the burden of the shock. seas ubt o pred them eed dle av sina cata to ther es un benef to th abo |