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146 CHANNEL i s l a n d s ;
And lastly, as they are found to influence the
British residents.
Did the limits of this inquiry permit, much that is
interesting to the general as well as the scientific
reader, might doubtless be said on each of these subjects;
and I shall have occasion, as I proceed, continually
to refer to each; but my design demands
that I should more particularly insist upon the last
heads; and detail, with some precision, the effects
which the climate of this island exerts upon the health
and diseases of the residents of St. Helier.
My inquiry naturally divides itself into two parts.
The first comprehends the enumeration of those diseases
which are more frequently the objects of medical
practice here than in England. The second includes
a specification of such as are of less frequent occurrence
; or which are marked by a less degree of severity.
The investigation of the probable causes of
these differences also falls within my limits. The
general pathology or the particular treatment of these
diseases forms no part of my design ; from which, only
in one instance, have I been tempted to depart.
In entering upon my subject, I must begin by
claiming the indulgence of the general reader. It
will be my endeavour to make myself throughout as
perspicuous and intelligible as possible, by resorting
to general terms and phrases, wherever I can do so
without injury to my subject: for I am well aware,
that although, in the science of medicine, a distinct
nomenclature is indispensable, in order to confer upon
it that precision of language and of ideas, necessary to
be observed among those who propose to advance its
interests, by advancing it certainly,—yet, with the
technical phraseology of our art, the mere gentleman,
or even the accomplished scholar cannot reasonably
be supposed to be very familiar; while it is to such
readers, as well as to the more scientific, that these
pages will be submitted.
s e c t io n II.
The diseases then, of the most frequent occurrence
in Jersey, or which are marked by some peculiarities
of character, are the following :—rheumatism, chiefly
chronic: hsepatitis, or liver disease; also, for the most
part, chronic; and generally functional, rather than
structural: hypochondriasis, or melancholy: dyspepsia:
dropsy: and, in the class of fevers, the milder forms
of the remittent, the slow typhoid, and the intermittent.
Besides these diseases, the physician, who has examined,
with a critical and scrutinizing eye, the
influence, in both countries, excited by the epidemics
arising in different seasons, upon the phazes and character
of the diseases of common occurrence, cannot
fail to have remarked, that not only are those epidemics
more prevalent here than in the counties of
England, but that they also exercise a more marked
influence upon the contemporaneous diseases. So
true indeed is this remark, that among the class of
febrile and inflammatory diseases, it is seldom we
meet with an isolated case; such diseases generally
occurring in groups; or, at least, such as are met with
in the vicinity of a case of highly marked character,
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