Imatges de pàgina
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ing thought needlessly inclined to detail, and derogating in some measure from my professional character, I will suggest, that individuals of my own sex, who cannot command such letters of introduction as will insure them a warm reception as inmates during the whole period of their sojourn in some friend's house, had better at once take up their residence in a boarding-house; and that, unless they can bring with them a steady, sober (for it is a land of wine) servant, who has lived with them for years, and is in every respect to be depended upon, they will find such an appendage a very useless burden; for not one English man-servant in ten is worth his salt after a week's residence here. Ladies, unaccompanied by a gentleman, will find an English woman-servant almost indispensable, (they are not to be hired here), and at one of the boarding-houses at least can insure privacy, without the annoyance of house-keeping. A family in a furnished house will be subjected to greater inconvenience and trouble, than any other description of visitors; for they cannot do either entirely with or entirely without, native servants, and few such are to be procured who speak our language, or conform sufficiently to our modes and customs; but by bringing with them a man and woman-servant with the requisite qualifications, and obtaining here as many additional Portugueze as may be necessary, the difficulties will be in some degree surmounted; and if, bearing in mind that they are about to occupy a house furnished after a foreign mode, and in a warm climate, they provide themselves with those minutia which their habits may suggest, they will in other respects experience comparatively few privations.

After it has been determined by his medical advisers that a change of climate is necessary and likely to be attended with adequate advantage, that this deserves the preference, and that he can here obtain all which can render a residence in a foreign land, at least, tolerable to an invalid; the remaining question seems

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to be, to what period of time it ought to be extended. I am decidedly of opinion, that as a preventive alone where symptoms of consumption, and especially in a consumptive family, have threatened, it would be well worth the sacrifice to spend a winter or two in Madeira -that in the most incipient stages of disease, several ought to be passed here—that in what goes under the general term of "incipient phthisis" in the profession, nothing short of a residence for some years, (the winters in town, and the summers in the country,) can be of any permanent avail—that in the more advanced stages, the sufferer must submit to total expatriation, and that only with the expectation of prolonging life-and that in the still more advanced steps of the malady, he will be as well, or perhaps much better, in his own home and surrounded by his friends.

In conclusion I will recapitulate, that provided such cases only are submitted to the test, as are within the pale of benefit from any climate, they will probably derive greater advantage from this than from any other; and that with proper and prudent precaution, a residence here may be rendered as little irksome to an invalid as in any other foreign country. Whether Madeira as a summer residence, and one of the West India islands during the winter, would not hold out a fairer prospect of success than any other plan which has hitherto been tried, I am unprepared by experience to say; I think that it would; but it would at best be a harassing, perhaps a hazardous experiment, and few have either the means or the inclination to make it. As a permanent abode, Madeira is superior to any other; for a winter's sojourn, it excels, in my belief, every part of the continent, but in the latter point of view a tropical climate might probably surpass it.

Funchal, Nov. 1826.

C. H.

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As both illustrating and confirming the above remarks of Dr. Heineken, we are tempted to add an extract from a paper which another able practitioner in the island, Dr. Renton, has lately communicated to the Edinburgh Medical Journal. It contains the results of the memoranda of his own practice respecting this class of patients during the last eight years; but exclusive of the present winter, 1826-7.

Cases of confirmed Phthisis

Of these there died here within six months after
their arrival

47

32

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Of these there left the island much improved in
health, and of whom we have had good accounts 26

not since heard of

also improved, but

and have since died

15

Other diseases

Dr. Renton adds, "Of the cases marked Confirmed Phthisis there were copious purulent expectoration, diarrhoea, &c. and I examined the bodies of fifteen of them after death, and in every instance the lungs were found almost completely disorganized. Some of those marked Incipient Phthisis were probably not fully entitled to an appellation so ominous. Their general character was young people who were said to have overgrown themselves,' and who had been subject in England to inflammatory attacks, having cough, &c. Others had suffered from neglected or mistreated inflammation, and in many there was a

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strong family predisposition to pulmonary disease. Most of them, I have little doubt, would have been in their graves but for the precautionary measure which was adopted. The other diseases were, asthma, scrofu→ * lous glandular enlargements, and rheumatism, all of which were benefited by a residence here."

APPENDIX III.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES OF THE GOVERNMENT, REVENUE, AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE ISLAND.

ALMOST every Portugueze historian, except Barros, commences his account of the discovery of Madeira by the story of the English lovers, Robert a Machim and Anne d'Arfet, whose vessel is said to have been driven upon this island in 1344. What, perhaps, as much as any thing tends to throw doubt on this tradition is the fact, that the information supposed to have been derived from Machim's surviving companions was not made use of till nearly eighty years after. The earliest date assigned to the discovery of Porto Santo is 1417, and that of Madeira did not take place till a year or two after.

The king Don John I. dedicated or gave the new discovery to the order of Christ, of which Don Henry was grand-master. It was then divided into two captaincyo, or districts, and these were given to the two discoverers. Machico, comprehending the north of the island as far as Porto Monis, to Tristaô Vas Teixeira, and Funchal, including the south and west parts, to Joâo Gonzalves Zargo, and by these the island was first colonized.

The two donatorios or captains returned to Machico, where Tristaô remained, and built the first church in the

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