Review of the Weather in Philadelphia for September, 1853. The temperature for September, like that of the preceding month, was unusually high. On eight days, the heat at mid-day was above 80, and twice at and above 90 degrees. The mean heat of the month rose to 69 58; the average temperature of the month being, for the last 60 years, 65 71. Twice only, in this lengthened period, has it been higher, viz. : in 1793 and 1804, in each of which years the mean temperature of September is recorded at 70 degrees. No frost has been witnessed in the city, though, doubtless, it was felt on the morning of the 30th, in the low grounds of the neighbouring country. The range of the thermometer for the month was S. W. 1 S.W.3 N. W. 2 N. W. 3 S. S. W. 4 N. W. 1. from 91 at noon of the 6th, to 44 on the morning of the 30th, or 47 degrees. During the month, 20 days were without rain, and mostly clear; 3 were cloudy, or overcast; and on 7 days rain fell to the amount of 4.46 inches, as measured at the Pennsylvania Hospital. The north east storm which is expected about the time of the autumnal equinox, and which usually begins in the latitude of the West Indies, and travels bodily up the Atlantic coast at the rate of some twelve miles an hour, was not this year experienced, though a storm of similar character swept with disastrous force along the coast, from the 5th to the 9th of the month, and between to be certain that the thirty-three sick perthe parallels of 33 and 40 north latitude, sons landed at quarantine were all attacked and between 60 and 86 degrees west longi.by that disease. It is also said that about tude. Whoever reads the catalogue of one hundred cases of yellow fever have been marine disasters, as published in the daily treated at the quarantine hospital during papers for the two weeks following the the summer. storm, may have seen, by comparing time and place on his chart, the whole of this broad space of ocean dotted over by crip. pled ships, loss of cargo, loss of life, or other marine disasters. By a reference to our tabular record, it will be seen that the storm was not felt at Philadelphia. Again, on the 14th and 15th there was a heavy blow, causing several shipwrecks, and extending to the interior. In this city and vicinity, considerable damage was done to fruit and other trees, on the night of the 14th; and on the following day a "strong wind" (marked on our record 5) blew from the south-west, veering in the afternoon to north-west. Harvey Demonstrating to Charles the First his Theory of the Circulation of the Blood.-We have received from Messrs. C. J. PRICE & Co., No. 7 Hart's Buildings, a splendid engraving, by G. Bellamy, from a painting by R. Hannah, of Harvey de. monstrating to Charles the First his theory of the circulation of the blood from the heart of a deer. The object of this work is, by furnishing a pictorial record of an incident in the life of a great man, to extend a knowledge of one of the most important discoveries in science, and to keep alive in the hearts of all who admire genius, gratitude to the Among the other physical phenomena of memory of one of the greatest benefactors the month may be named a thunderstorm of mankind. The same services which on the afternoon of the 7th; an aurora Newton rendered to optics and astronomy, borealis on the evening of the 28th; and by his theories of light and gravitation, the shock of an earthquake on the night of Harvey conferred upon anatomy and medithe 7th, in the eastern part of Massachusetts.cine, by his true doctrine of the circulation There was an unusual prevalence of of the blood. westerly and southerly winds during the month, it being The picture represents Harvey's apartment in the palace. He is surrounded by From the W. a part or the whole of 27 days. the king and the young prince, courtiers, S. 66 46 20 66 and some of Harvey's opponents in the medical faculty. The likeness of Harvey is taken from an excellent portrait by Cornelius Jansen, in the College of Physicians, The price of the print is three dollars. Proofs after letter can be obtained for four dollars. and proofs before letter on India Mortality on Board Emigrant Vessels.-London. The mortality on board the emigrant vessels which have lately arrived at the New York Quarantine has been frightful, and should induce Congress to pass a law, in compli-paper for five dollars. ance with the memorial of the American The style in which this print is executed Medical Association, requiring every emi- is highly creditable to the publisher, Mr. grant ship to have a surgeon on board. Geo. S. Appleton, of New York. 1849, the line of temperature fluctuates during January, February, March, and April, but without any rise; and, during the same months, as the above table shows, the cholera declines, dipping as low as only 107 in all England in the month of April. Then the temperature and the cholera both stance the greatest amount of fatality in this September; after which period the storms, country has been soon after the harvest. having expended their fury, rapidly ceased. Without assuming any closer connection In the diagram, showing the relation of between the cholera and the wheat plant temperature to cholera from day to day, in than there is between the Goodwin Sands and Tenterden steeple, we cannot withhold the remarkable passage in the cholera report which points out a very curious analogy in the histories of the plant and the epidemic. The cholera in England kept pace in its development with the wheat plant, which took root in October, germi-rise until August, when the heat attains its nated in the winter, flowered in June, filled greatest height. Not so the cholera, which in July and August, was cut down by the continues to mount with rapidity until Sepreaper before the first week in September,tember, when it shoots up to its highest when cholera was most rife, and would point, after which it as rapidly descends. have been dead ripe in October and in No- It would be wrong to infer, from this devember, when cholera ceased." No de-parture from the parallel between the temscriptive observations will enable the reader {perature and the epidemic, that supposed so clearly to perceive the relation between relations were disproved. The radiating the months of the year and the fluctuations power of the sun in relation to us is greatof the epidemic as the inspection of the est at midsummer, but our maximum heat following table of is not reached until August; and we see a perfectly analogous case in the fact that Deaths from Cholera in England during each month the cholera reaches its culminating point that the Epidemic reigned. some time after the temperature has made a corresponding advance. Our experience hitherto shows a relation between the seasons in England and the intensity of the epidemic, which is more accurately represented by the Table than it could be described by any verbal expression. It would be no argument against this position, that, in other places, instances could be shown in which cholera raged in the cold season. We know that in St. Petersburg it has raged with great violence in the winter; and that in Scotland it existed during intense frost in January. Exceptional instances of this kind may perhaps be accounted for by local conditions, and may only assist to prove the rule, as perhaps is already done in the case of St. Petersburg, where the system of heating the dwellings may create, by artificial means, a condition perfectly analogous to our natural cholera harvest. During the intense season of the last cholera invasion, much attention was directed to the atmospheric changes which were supposed to precede or accompany In each of the years presented in the table, there was a gradual increase in the number of deaths from the period of the commencement of the epidemic. In 183132, this progress continued for five months, and then sunk down, so as to encourage the hope that it was dying away. In 1848-the various outbreaks. A discovery of the 49, there was a similar gradual progress for four months. In the former case, the lowest point was reached in May; in the latter, in April. Then came the fresh eruptions, reaching their high numbers in August and genesis of the epidemic was anticipated from observations on the electrical state of the atmosphere at St. Petersburg, where, indeed, the electricity appears to have been disturbed during the whole course of the epidemic, being "so much diminished that the old hands, that it was regular" cholera the machines could not be charged." To weather." The Report of the Board of make these phenomena available for the Health, whence this account is extracted, purpose they were intended, they should adds, that "it is important to bear in mind have been accompanied by evidence that that these physical conditions of the atmosuch disturbance in the neighbourhood of sphere which thus oppress the vital powers, St. Petersburg had not taken place before are the very conditions under which noxor since, and that similar phenomena were ious animal and vegetable refuse decomobserved in many other places while the pose with the greatest rapidity, and in cholera was present. These phenomena which the products are carried in greatest were not general. There was no loss of quantity into the blood by the respiratory power in the magnet at Hamburg, or at organs." Berlin, where observations were made. In The inquiry which has been made into London, "the cholera quarter," the mag- the mortality of cholera in England has, in nets were seldom disturbed, and, "the the most satisfactory manner, shown that, amount of electricity, though less than cæteris paribus, there is a close and conusual, seems to have diminished only instant relationship of the epidemic to elevaproportion to the less amount of humiditytion. It has been observed, in a former in the air." paper in this series, that there is a close connection between the general health of this country and the distribution of cholera. Now, the tables of mortality in England show that, as a general rule, the mortality declines as we ascend rivers, and that the majority of healthy districts are at certain elevations above the sea. There is, however, one observation in reference to the state of the atmosphere during the choleraic eras which is of great importance, and which corroborates the views we have taken of the agencies preva lent during these seasons. Mr. Glaisher, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, states that the horizontal movement of the air during the whole of this period was only one-half of the usual amount; that the period was distinguished by a thick, stagnant atmosphere; that the air was, for the most part, very close and oppressive; and that, on some days, when there was a strong breeze blowing at the top of the Observa-fied according to their elevation above the tory, and over Blackheath, there was not the slightest motion in the air on the banks of the Thames. The relation between the level of places and the strength of the cholera has been most carefully tested in the case of London, and the result has been the discovery of the mathematical correspondence between these two elements under consideration. The districts of London have been classi level of the Thames. They are divided into those the elevation of which is not on an average above 20 feet, and at this level {the deaths from cholera were 102 in every 10 000. In the second group, at from 20 to 40 feet elevation, the deaths in the same number were reduced to 65. In the third group, from 40 to 60 feet high, the numbers sank to 34 in 10,000. In the fifth group, This observation acquires increased importance from a comparison with the description given by Mr. Thom, of the atmosphere of Kurrachee some time before the dreadful outbreak of cholera in that town, when the temperature was unusually high, the quantity of moisture in the atmo-with an elevation of from 80 to 100 feet, sphere was greater than he had ever seen it the deaths were but 22 in 10,000. In a before in any part of the world, and light, district 100 feet high the mortality was 17; weak, and unsteady winds, or calms, had while at Hampstead, about 350 feet above prevailed in the early part of June, instead the level of the Thames, the deaths were of the strong, steady winds, and the over-only 8. of which 1 resulted from infection cast sky, for which June and July are re brought from Wandsworth. markable in Kurrachee; and finally, there It was found, on farther examination of had been excessive rains. The people, as these facts, that the mortality from cholera the result, suffered from languor and op. on ground under 20 feet high being reprepression, and inability to undergo the slight-sented by 1; the relative mortality on each est fatigue without extreme exhaustion. successive terrace is represented by oneFor ten days before the outbreak of the half, one-third, one-fourth, one-fifth, oneepidemic, it was a common remark among sixth; so that the mortality from cholera, at each successive elevation, is one-half, {curred last week in the Edinburgh Infirmone third, one fourth, one-fifth, one-sixth {ary. Thanks to Heaven, it happened in of the mortality in the terrace immediately the broad daylight of a public institutionbelow it. where these things cannot be hid in a corner-and not in the private sick-room of a parturient lady, nor in the operating-cham To do justice to Mr. Farr, by whom this law was discovered, and for the guidance of scientific inquirers, who may wish far-bers of some practising surgeon, in either ther to understand and test it, it is neces of which cases it would doubtless have been sary to add the following paragraph from smothered in oblivion. his Report: The professor of clinical surgery would "The elevation of the five terraces may not cut a fistula in ano, however small the be represented by 10, 30, 50, 70, 90 feet. incision; would not apply the actual cauThe elevations of the two higher districtstery, although he stoutly maintains the pain are 100 and 350 feet. It will be observed, is so momentary it becomes inappreciable; that the mortality at 100 feet is 17; at 50 nay, I fancy now, would not think of thrustfeet, 34 in 10,000; consequently, at half ing a bistoury into an abscess-and any one the elevation the mortality is doubled. who has followed his practice knows how The half of 50 is 25, and the double of frequently these things occur-without first the mortality 34 is 68. Now, observation requesting a handkerchief and a phial of gives 65 in 10,000 as the mortality at 30 chloroform. feet of elevation. As the processes of dividing the elevation, and of multiplying the mortality by 2 may be carried on ad infini- { tum, it is evident that the mortality is not strictly in the inverse ratio of the heights of the soil." The Edinburgh medical press has done all in its power to proclaim the complete safety of chloroform; and if any fatal cases have occurred in this city, it has known also to bury them in silence, and has strained every nerve to invent some strange hypothesis, such as the adulteration of the drug, faulty mode of administration, etc., to account for the deaths from its employment that have happened in other places and countries, events which were quite to be anticipated in the natural course of things. Sometimes, however, unpleasant truthssimply because they are truths-become known in spite of all attempts to conceal them. Thus, in a late number of the recently deceased Monthly Journal, we have read a long account of some experiments We may add, however, that this inverse ratio is maintained as accurately as is requisite for the theory, bearing in mind the various modifying circumstances which must produce some little deviation from strict mathematical accuracy. For example, the advantages which are afforded to Hampstead by its elevation are somewhat diminished by the deficiency in the supply of good water; and the disadvantage of some lower levels is compensated by the better supply of water, and by the means and appliances secured by the wealth of {with chloroform, written by a gentleman the inhabitants. death chloroform has led its victims. who had excellent opportunities of witnessIn considering the law which is thus an- ing the private practice of Mr. Syme. If nounced, it is scarcely necessary to observe that paper has served no other good purthat it must be always viewed in connec- pose, it has at least effected one-it has untion with the circumstances which may imdeniably shown how very near the gates of pede its operation. It is quite possible to convert the most elevated spots into un Now for the facts of the actually fatal healthy places, and render them sources of case: A stout, healthy young man, whose pestilence to the surrounding districts. Sa- chances of a long life an insurance company lisbury, Merthyr, Tydvil, Bilston, New-would have been but too happy to accept, castle-under Lyme, and St. Giles's, are on { entered the operating theatre of the Royal levels favourable to a healthy state, and Infirmary to have a stricture of the urethra have suffered purely from causes which it was within human power to prevent.-Med. Times and Gaz. Oct. 15, 1853. Death from Chloroform -A case of death from the administration of chloroform oc The dealt with according to the manner of Mr. |