Extract of a Letter from W. Watson, M. D. F. R. S. to John Huxham, M. D. F. R. S. Containing Some Remarks upon the Catarrhal Disorder, Which Was Very Frequent at London and in Its Neighbourhood in May 1762. and upon the Dysentery, Which Prevailed the Following Autumn

meridian, to leave the observation in its original form, such reduction being easily made. I am, Sir, Your very humble, and obedient servant, Samuel Dunn. Chelsea, Oct. 17, 1762. Lat. 51° 29' 5". Long. 4° time W. of Greenwich. CV. Extract of a Letter from W. Watson, M.D. F.R.S. to John Huxham, M.D. F.R.S. containing some Remarks upon the Catarrhal Disorder, which was very frequent at London and in its Neighbourhood in May 1762. and upon the Dysentery, which prevailed the following Autumn. London 9th Dec. 1762. Read Dec. 23, 1762. In the beginning of May, there was at London and in its neighbourhood a disease, very epidemic, though not fatal, which had sometime before been very prevalent both in Italy and Germany. It continued during the course of the month, and some part of June. In it the breast was very much affected, and it was very frequently attended with a fever. It is nearly the same disease which was at London in April and May 1743, and and then called Influenza, the name applied to it in Italy. You have very well described it in your second volume *De Aere et morbis epidemicis*, pag. 101. Tho' of the same catarrhal kind, it was by no means so severe or so fatal as the disease of February 1733, of which you have likewise given us the history in your first volume, page 80. The disorder, though very general, seemed to attack the women more severely than the men. Much bleeding did harm: and where there was no fever, which was frequently the case, the patients recovered equally well without it. Even without bleeding, or other evacuations, some, more especially women and lax-fibred men, were much debilitated during its whole continuance. The blood in most was not sizey; but the crassamentum was tender, and the serum bilious. Where the heat was great, gentle emetics brought up much bile, and very much lessened the inflammatory state of the disease. The rest was to be left to blisters, if the cough was very troublesome and the stricture upon the breast severe, balsamic medicines, gentle opiates, and light broths; carefully avoiding cordials of every denomination and volatiles. Towards the end of the disorder, after gentle evacuations by stool, decoctions of Cort. Peruv. were of signal service, both in recruiting the strength, and carrying off the remaining cough. In the disorder of 1743, the skin was very frequently inflamed, when the fever ran high; and it afterwards peeled off in most parts of the body: but this was not observed to happen in the present disorder. We have had here this autumn a disease, which has not been in my remembrance epidemic at London. don. Very few of our physicians have seen this disorder as it has appeared of late. You mention it as frequent at Plymouth in the year 1743, in your treatise *de Morbis epidemicis* Vol. I. page 90. As you then observed, many of the children which fell under my care voided the *vermes teretes*. In the course of my practice I found many of your observations exceedingly well founded, and collected from them very useful remarks. Dr. Sydenham has left us an admirable history of this disease, as it appeared at London in the year 1669, and the three subsequent years. To this work, as well as to what you have given us upon this subject, I am very much obliged. As the dysentery is most frequently an autumnal disease, and as I have not seen any person afflicted with it this fortnight past, I flatter myself, that the late cold and frosty weather has put a stop to its progress. This disorder, though very general, most frequently attacked weak persons, and those recovering from other diseases, women during their lying in, and children. The dysentery in some was attended with a fever, in a high degree inflammatory; in others it was without any fever. When it was attended with a fever, bleeding and gentle evacuations by stool with liberal dilution did great service. When there was no fever, as well as in those whose fever had been relieved by the methods before mentioned, if the irritating pain in the bowels, bloody or mucous discharges with the tenesmus continued, after the excrementitious *Sordes* had been carried off, nothing relieved more than drinking large quantities of very small mutton broth, without without salt, so as to be discharged but little altered. This not only warmed and nourished the patient, but diluted the acrimony, and served as a most comfortable fomentation to the whole intestinal canal. Clysters of this with Tinct. Thebaica I directed to be given three, or even, if the symptoms were urgent, four times a day. When these symptoms were abated, as most persons were exceedingly debilitated, and their appetite almost gone, light decoctions of Cort. Peruvo greatly hastened the recovery. I had the misfortune to see three children die of four or five years old, after the severity of the disease was over. Their bowels had for a week or more been free from pain. They were without fever. Their discharges by stool both bloody and mucous were in a manner gone: nevertheless they were so much debilitated, and their stomachs so languid, that they obstinately refused every species of nourishment by the mouth; nor would they retain nutritious clysters: so that in the end they sunk from absolute inanition. In two of these, which by my direction were opened, I found their gall bladders turgid with high coloured viscid bile. In both the stomach and bowels were perfectly empty, and their bodies emaciated to a great degree. In one, neither the stomach nor bowels were in the least degree inflamed or discoloured; except that a very few of the veins were preternaturally enlarged upon the surface of the caecum and colon. In the other, there had been an inflammation upon about ten inches of the jejunum; but that had been resolved: as the bowel was almost restored to its natural colour, and was not in its texture, even after death, more tender than the rest. The other viscera had not the least change of their colour, but exhibited a sound and natural appearance. Another child, which I saw, was seized with a dysentery, attended with a very ardent fever; which, notwithstanding my utmost endeavours to relieve it, carried off the poor infant on the third day. Several, almost the whole, of this child's discharges by stool were nothing but blood. Upon opening the body after death, the whole of the intestines were in a very great degree inflamed, and of an intensely deep red colour, and the contents of the abdomen were inexpressibly fetid. Throughout the whole course of the disease, keeping the patient moderately warm and promoting his perspiration, was of great importance; and the not sufficiently attending to this, I more than once saw followed by fatal effects. CVI. Viro inclyto ac de Republica Literaria meritissimo D. C. Morton, Med. Doct. Societati Regiae Scientiarum Londinensi ab Actis S. P. D. Joannes Lulofs. Read Dec. 4, 1762. NISI morbo sic satis diuturno fuisset retentus, dudum, Vir spectatissime, ad te dedisset literas, gratias acturus, quod me quoque illustri societatis Regiae Praesidi ac reliquis ejusdem inembris ita commendare volueris, ut, quantum mihi