om common ascites, by the want of
evident fluctuation. It is common to both sexes. It does not admit of
a cure either by tapping or by medicine.

HYDROCEPHALUS.

Sec. 17. This disease, which has of late so much attracted the attention
of the medical world, I believe, originates in inflammation; and that
the water found in the ventricles of the brain after death, is the
consequence, and not the cause of the illness.

It has seldom happened to me to be called upon in the earlier stages
of this complaint, and the symptoms are at first so similar to those
usually attendant upon dentition and worms, that it is very difficult
to pronounce decidedly upon the real nature of the disease; and it is
rather from the failure of the usual modes of relief, than from any
other more decided observation, that we at length dare to give it a
name.

At first, the febrile symptoms are sometimes so unsteady, that I have
known them mistaken for the symptoms of an intermittent, and the cure
attempted by the bark.

In the more advanced stages, the diagnostics obtrude themselves upon
our notice, and put the situation of the patient beyond a doubt. But
this does not always happen. The variations of the pulse, so
accurately described by the late Dr. Whytt, do not always ensue. The
dilatation of the pupils, the squinting, and the aversion to light, do
not universally exist. The screaming upon raising the head from the
pillow or the lap, and the flushing of the cheeks, I once considered
as affording indubitable marks of the disease; but in a child which I
sometime since attended with Dr. Ash, the pulse was uniformly about
85, (except during the first week, before we had the care of the
patient.) The child never shewed any aversion to the light; never had
dilated pupils, never squinted, never screamed when raised from the
lap or taken out of the bed, nor did we observe any remarkable
flushing of the cheeks; and the sleep was quiet, but sometimes
moaning.

Frequent vomiting existed from the first, but ceased for several days
towards the conclusion. One or two worms came away during the illness,
and it was all along difficult to purge the child. Three days before
death, the right side became slightly paralytic, and the pupil of that
eye somewhat dilated.

After death, about two ounces and a half of water were found in the
ventricles of the brain, and the vessels of the dura mater were turgid
with blood.

If I am