MORTALITY BY TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS, in St. Louis, 1854. August seems to have been the most fatal month, and from twenty to thirty by far the most fatal ages from Typhus and Typhoid Fevers. This result is somewhat different from that of former years, in which the winter months have been the most prolific from these diseases. MORTALITY BY ERUPTIVE FEVERS, in St. Louis, 1854. 60 y'rs & over 42 13 4 1 0 1 1 49 The mortality of the above diseases was principally confined to the week in June and July, when Cholera was at its maximum. Note by Dr. REYBURN :-An analysis, showing particularly the result in the table below, would be very interesting, but we have time only to notice one or two points. It will be observed that eight of the diseases mentioned in the series, increase in each successive week, until they attain their greatest weekly mortality, in the week ending July 2d, the maximum week of the Cholera mortality; subsequently, their weekly variations in fatality corresponds very much with the mortality of Chol era. The entire mortality of subjects of five years and unde, is, in every succeeding week from April 1st to July 2d, more and more observed in the 13 tabulated mortuary causes, so that in this final week the aggregate 209, is made up of 200 subjects dying of these thirteen causes, leaving therefore, but nine to be accounted for, by the accidental or rarer causes of infant mortality. The augmentation of general mortality, as a result of the presence of the "Cholera cause," is strikingly manifest, in the instance of the Eruptive Fevers which were not generally prevalent, yet, the mortality in the city, the usual sporadic cases only occuring, yet the mortality by these fevers was so much increased in the week ending July 2d, as to imply an epidemic prevalence of them. WEEKLY MORTALITY OF SUBJECTS OF FIVE YEARS OF AGE AND UNDER, in St. Louis, in the Spring and Summer of 1854; showing prevalence of Epidemic Cholera. the chief causes of Infantile mortality, during the 2218 5 10 282 338 104 126 128 124 254 140 87 20 46 4878 By Cholera.....TOON-2---2-2 gate of deaths of Weekly aggre 5 years & Week end ing Sunday under. 34 April 66 16 36 66 23 38 66 30 32 May 7 38 66 14 42 41 6 པ་ (C 28 June 4 66 11 66 18 75 2 219 66 9 212 (6 16 140 28 34 7 66 23 139 66 30 138 14 ARTICLE II. Life. By J. H. WATTERS, M. D., of St. Louis. [Continued from page 221, Vol. xiii. ] No. VII.-The Conditions of Life.-It is no inconsiderable step toward the discovery of the principle of a general process of action, to have well ascertained the general conditions of its existence. By "principle of action," I mean the modus operandi of these conditions in bringing about the special effect. If we imagine a man altogether unacquainted with the principle of a steam engine,-ignorant of the development of heat by oxydation and of the expansibility of water by heat, as well as of the principle according to which the action is modified by the machinery--if we imagine such a man with an engine before him, studying its principle of action, we can understand that he will have made considerable advancement when he discovers the general conditions to be heat, fuel, oxygen, water, and a special machinery. Still more, when he discovers that fuel is but a condition for the development of heat, that heat is but a condition to steam, and steam but a condition to the motion of the piston. With the human organism constantly under observation, the principle of action in our own bodies remains a problem yet unsolved. But many and important preliminary steps towards the solution of this problem have been taken in the rapid advancement of science in the last few years. We now know that the general conditions of life are oxygen, heat, a fluid plasma, and a special organism. The question sub judice is, what is the modus operandi of these conditions in giving origin to vital phenomena. And, I imagine, whether correctly or not, that enough facts are now known upon which a correct answer to this question might be based. I would not be surprised either if the most important of these facts-those bearing more particularly upon the question, are such as have been long known and generally understood, in the abstract. But we are so overawed when we approach vital phenomena, that we scarcely suppose these to have any thing to do with the question, and at once either fly off into wild speculation, or deny that finite intelligence can ever understand the principle of life. The fact that an apple will fall to the earth when unsupported, had been known perhaps since the time of Adam, but the relation between this and the motions of the planets was unthought of till the last century. Who, therefore, has the authority to predicate that there is not an analogous relation between the vital phenomena and those of the simplest chemical action? What is the modus operandi of heat, oxygen and moisture, in giving origin to vital phenomena in a seed? This is the plain question. If the propositions advocated in the previous articles be true, we will have but little difficulty in answering this question. If the organization is all that is peculiar to the seed, these conditions cannot excite the "vital principle" into action. Neither can these conditions excite any power, as no physical force can be stimulated. And it has been shown, I think, that the heat cannot be metamorphosed into a "peculiar vital force," as maintained by Dr. Carpenter. Now, you say, if there be no peculiar power in the seed, excited into action by these conditions, and if the heat cannot be transformed into such a peculiar power, and if the seed be really nothing more than a special arrangement of physical agents, why do not the heat, oxygen and moisture occasion the oxydation of this compound, and reduce it to inorganic matter as in other organic compounds? The simple answer to this question is, they do occasion the oxydation of the germ and reduce it to inorganic matter, just as they affect any other organic compound. But you may smile and say this is absurd, for do we not see that they produce action directly opposite-life, nutrition and growth? Life, nutrition, and growth are not the primary actions produced by these conditions, but secondary and reciprocal with a primary action which results as a natural and necessary consequence of the influence of the external conditions of life upon organic matter. True, there is a vast difference between the actions of an organism and those of unorganized organic matter when under the influence of the external conditions of life, but this difference is not in the primary action but in those secondary and consequent actions, which are peculiar to organized matter. There is a vast difference between the actions of a steam engine and the eleva tion of the lid of a common tea kettle, but this difference is not in the primary action of steam, but in the secondary and consequent actions, the peculiarity of which is due to speciality of machinery. Now we have maintained by a process of reasoning entirely independent of the present proposition, that there is nothing whatever in the living organism to which the vital phenomena can be ascribed except the special arrangement of the physical agents in that organism. It has also been maintained, that absolute or efficient power does not exist as a property, quality, or attribute of any physical agent whatever. If this be true, and it must be true, we must refer physical action to an equivalent antecedent as the direct cause, and the direction of action to mechanism, and not to assumed efficient forces, such as affinity, attraction, vital force, &c. Oxydation is the "natural tendency" in all organic matter when under the influence of the external conditions of life; the organism is a special arrangement of physical agents by which action, thus originating in the machinery, is so directed as to constitute vital phenomena. Action may seem to begin here and end there, but this is all an illusion; and under this illusion, we have assumed certain absolute, efficient physical forces as the direct cause, which we fancy give origin to these actions immediately by an internal effort or energy. But action, or a disequilibrium of the physical agents, exists as a fact, and, if these physical agents be inert, must continue in its endless chain of reactions through the vast machinery of the universe, till it shall reverberate back to the Absolute and Eternal, in whom is all power and might. The universal machinery of nature is in action; change and modification in direction is the law, but this change and this modification is due to the machinery. There is no reversal of the laws of matter in a living organism. But if the speciality of the vital actions be due to the physical arrangement in the organism, these actions must be reciprocal with somewhat anterior. If I can show reason to believe that the vital actions are reciprocal with oxydation through the organic machinery, I obviate the necessity of assuming a peculiar force, to reverse the natural laws of matter, and to counteract the "destructive tendency to decay." I start with oxydation as one link in VOL. XIII-20 |