Heat, when applied to clothes which are impregnated with specific contagious matter, or merely impurities or condensed effluvia, is calculated to be highly useful, and where washing cannot be adopted, should never be neglected. Clothes which are thus tainted will be deprived in a great measure of their power of doing mischief, by placing them before a fire for a considerable time, for there is good reason to think that specific contagious poisons will be decomposed, and it is ascertained that condensed effluvia may be dissipated by the application of a smart heat.

The following experiment will at once illustrate the property which some bodies possess of absorbing effluvia from the atmosphere, and prove the influence of heat in again expelling and dissipating them. Pure sand, exposed to a red heat to drive off impurities, was put amidst tainted air. Put into a glass tube and exposed to a spirit lamp, it yielded ammonia or hartshorn,—a product of putrefaction which the sand had undoubtedly absorbed from the tainted atmosphere. Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, gases which are evolved during the putrefaction of animal materials.

The investigation of the means by which persons, merchandize, clothes, letters, &c., may be most speedily and most effectually freed from effluvia, contagion, and other unwholesome impurities, is a most important point, for it relates to the most vital interests of society, commerce, freedom of intercourse, personal liberty, and the safety and health of the community. But from the very important considerations with which the investigation is connected, the merits of the respective means employed for the purpose will not be treated of here, as they deserve a more extended consideration than can be given. In the mean time it would be highly dangerous and impolitic, to adopt any great and rash change in a system so important as quarantine, until the most full and sound inquiry has been made upon the subject. Public safety demands the utmost caution.

There may exist great diversity of opinion respecting the nature of the impurities with which merchandize and clothes are sometimes impregnated, on the period during which they retain their activity, and on the means of purification; but it has been often clearly demonstrated, that specific contagious matter, or virus, and effluvia, may be conveyed by these bodies, may be retained for a considerable time, and, on a favourable opportunity, produce very hurtful effects.

The impurities may be variously designated, yet their unwholesome tendency is much the same, and it is necessary to adopt provisions to counteract it.

In the Chapters which have been dedicated to the subject of Vitiated Air, its sources were pointed out in a general manner, and it is intended to consider those usages in society, certain conditions of towns and houses, and some other circumstances, which favour the production of an impure and unwholesome atmosphere, and this will be done with the hope that a knowledge of their hurtful tendency may lead to their correction.

The disposal of the dead will be first considered.

As soon as the life of man is extinct, his body becomes the seat of chemical decomposition or putrefaction, and effluvia are exhaled from the putrid corpse, varying in some degree, in amount, rapidity, and activity, according as the circumstances in which it is placed are more or less favourable to putrefaction.

The effluvia which are exhaled are deleterious, and an atmosphere in which they are evolved, if close, small, and confined, often becomes so contaminated and vitiated as to be calculated to produce death by suffocation and disease.

The body of man after death is thus a centre of putrefaction, and the source of agencies prejudicial to the living, and on that account alone, it is wise so to dispose of the dead that they may not prove hurtful to the surviving, which has been done with more or less efficiency from the very earliest epochs of time, by various forms of burial.

But solicitude for the safety of the living has not been the only motive for the burial of the dead, for the destiny of man after death is clearly pointed out, and his doom to the earth is amply shewn by various expressions contained in the Holy Writings, and his burial or interment has been performed in obedience to the original or divine plan.

The interment or burial of the dead has likewise been considered as a rite due to the memory of the deceased, and a mark of respect which the friends and relatives were bound by every sacred obligation, to perform with all becoming solemnity.

To neglect the sacred office of interment, or any of the solemnities usually in practice, was, even among the earliest Greeks and Romans, to treat the memory of the departed with the grossest disrespect and indignity.

The denial of burial, with all its formalities, was esteemed by the Greeks as a mark of infamy due only to villains, traitors to their country, and those who died in debt, and the bodies of such characters were accordingly decreed unfit for ordinary interment.

The Jews interred the bodies of the dead for the most part contiguous to the high ways, in gardens, and on hills.

The Greeks and Romans interred their dead in the ground which surrounded their sacred buildings, and at the gates and porticoes of their temples.

The Saxons, Danes, and other Scandinavian nations, enclosed the bodies of the deceased in stone coffins, which were placed or built at the distance of two or three feet from the surface of the earth.

At this day, these stone coffins are occasionally discovered at a little depth from the surface. Some such coffins were lately discovered in the parish of Gladsmuir, in East Lothian, by the coulter of the plough coming in contact with them. On examination, the coffins were found to be only a foot and a half below the earth’s surface:—they were about five feet long, and were composed of several stones fitted together, or built up. Within were found human bones of the adult size, quite entire in figure, but so friable, as to fall to powder along with the clay in which they were imbedded, on being handled. The vertebræ or bones of the spine, which are at present in my possession, present the same accuracy of outline to be found in the recent skeleton.

The situation at which these coffins were found, is the very summit of Seton Hill, a point which commands a view of the surrounding country to a very great extent, and of the Forth, from its mouth to its meanderings in Stirlingshire, and which there is much reason to think, may have been at a very early time, a Danish or Saxon encampment.

The Hindoos dispose of their dead or dying by throwing them into the Ganges, where they rot and decompose.

In this country the dead are interred at a much greater distance from the surface than was practised by the Scandinavian nations, generally at the depth of five, six, or eight feet, and sometimes even more.

After death, corpses are usually kept several days before interment, and as the temperature of this climate is seldom very great, bad effects are very seldom experienced, and in that respect, Britain is very unlike some tropical regions, where, almost as soon as death has taken place, it becomes necessary to bury the bodies of the deceased in order to avoid the noxious vapours, which are immediately emitted.

During the time the corpse is kept before interment, attention should be paid to secure a full and frequent change of air, which is best obtained by keeping the windows partly open, by volatilizing vinegar, or by sprinkling the apartment occasionally with the solution of chloride of lime.

The mode of burial of the present time, which is practised in this country, is, partly from accidental circumstances, a great improvement upon that which was in use by our ancestors; for there is much reason to think that effluvia, proceeding from dead bodies, may percolate or be strained through a covering of soil of only two or three feet, which may be completely confined by one of earth and stones of five or six feet in depth. The great depth to which graves are now dug, originated not so much with the view of preventing the percolation of effluvia, as with the intention of embarrassing the operations of the bodysnatcher, whose violation of tombs is now happily at an end. But though there now remains no occasion for adopting measures for that purpose, the good practice of deep burial to which that evil gave rise should not be allowed to go into desuetude from the absence of those circumstances which called it into existence.

It is agreeable to information which has been gathered from various sources, to state, that effluvia may and do penetrate through the loose soil and other materials of churchyards, when the body is placed within three feet of the surface of the earth.

With that covering, effluvia do not escape in large quantities at a time, so as to produce very serious and instantaneous effects; yet a small amount may percolate from time to time, which, by acting constantly, without intermission, may be the mean of deteriorating or undermining the health of those persons who live in their immediate neighbourhood, and more especially if the situation be one which is not readily accessible to winds and currents.

It is stated by grave-diggers, that when a body is interred in a grave five or six feet deep, the effluvia do not reach the surface; so that it is evident that deep graves are much less dangerous to the living, and should be adopted in preference to those which are shallow. It is much to be desired, that no more burying-grounds should be opened or formed in the heart of towns, and that those which are at present in use, in such situations, be entirely closed against the admission of more bodies, and that cemeteries be opened at some distance from the habitations of men.

Every good purpose which is at present obtained from the burial-grounds situated in towns, might be also procured from cemeteries placed at a little distance in the country; and many disadvantages might be avoided in the latter situation, which attend burial-grounds in densely populated situations.

One great advantage to be obtained from exurban cemeteries, is the freedom which the population would enjoy from those exhalations which must ever arise, in a greater or less degree, from overcrowded burial-grounds which have, for any considerable time, received the remains of the dead, and a consequent improved state of health.

Deep graves may for a time prove a security against effluvia, but a day must come when these graves will be opened, and when their contents, perhaps not yet totally assimilated with the surrounding clay,—not yet completely deanimalized,—will be thrown to the surface, and mingled with the soil, there to finish the process of decomposition, and there to vitiate the atmosphere.

The burial-grounds of our densely populated towns are actually supersaturated, if such an expression can be used, with the partially decomposed remains of mortality, which have not yet had time to be assimilated with the earth, or to be “ripe,” as the grave-digger would say.

In general, also, those burial-grounds are so small and ill-proportioned to the wants of the population, that it is necessary to open graves, and heap body upon body, until they reach to within a very short distance of the surface, or to clear the ground of its contents while they are yet green, in order to procure a place of rest for other bodies.

Such is occasionally the scarcity of ground, small though that space be which will suffice for any one individual, that ere a few short years have rolled away, the intrusive spade of the indifferent sexton disturbs the grave, perhaps of a friend,—that place where peace was promised and through life expected;—his ashes are rudely handled, and his bones, not yet denuded of their flesh, are cast without remorse amidst the rubbish;—and thus the best feelings of humanity are outraged, and the human heart, already wrung with anguish, is crushed or cruelly lacerated.

It will perhaps be urged in reply, that the vicinity of burial-grounds in the large towns of Great Britain are not more unhealthy than other quarters.

But the answer to this is, that no extended and minute inquiry has been instituted on the subject; that though the absolute amount of disease may not be increased (which, however, has not been shewn), still, a part of the disease which does occur, may arise from the operation of the emanation from the burial-grounds; and, lastly, it must be obvious to all who are sensible of the advantage of a pure atmosphere, that the effluvia which necessarily prevail in those situations, must be prejudicial to health, whether it be in an amount, or intensity, or mode, to admit of the detection of the relation between them, as cause and effect.

If, perchance, in some instances, no prejudicial influence is exerted upon the health of persons inhabiting the neighbourhood of burial-grounds, that fortunate immunity from the ordinary effects of effluvia arising from decomposing animal remains, accumulated in large quantities, is to be attributed, not to the innocence or innocuous nature of the emanations, but to the wholesome influence of winds and currents, in securing a constant supply of pure air, and which prevent the accumulation of these gaseous poisons in quantities sufficient to produce the bad effects which are commonly experienced in situations where they are much concentrated. It is almost impossible to adopt measures which will completely prevent the admission of effluvia from burial-grounds into the atmosphere, and it were therefore wise that the evil, a necessary one as it would appear to be, should be made to exist where it is least likely to do harm,—and that situation is certainly in the country, in the open fields, where there are few or no houses.

It is to be hoped that the subject of exurban cemeteries will shortly obtain the consideration of the government of this country, and of the magistrates of the various towns,—as it involves interests of the most important nature.

Several large towns have already cemeteries at a little distance in the fields; and among others, Glasgow has its City of the Dead, or Necropolis, as it is styled, which is situated on a height adjoining the town.

Paris, the capital of that country which has produced many of the most eminent chemists, has not been tardy to avail itself of the light which their philosophers have thrown upon the composition of animal bodies, and the chemical constitution of the atmosphere. That capital boasts a magnificent cemetery, called Pere la Chaise, which is situated at a little distance in the open country.

Pere la Chaise is becoming, as the Place of Rest of the dead, worthy to hold the ashes of departed mortality. There the bodies of men can in no way be hurtful to the health of those who survive; there, now incapable of being useful, they are at least harmless to that community of which they lately formed a part. There the silence—the proper silence—of the tomb is maintained; there a serenity of aspect exists, which comports well with the solemn, the quiescent state of its inhabitants; and there is a cheerfulness, and a beauty, aye a brightness, of a softened, and a mellowed kind, which seem to refer to the pure enjoyments of the promised land. There, as in the burial-grounds situated in our thickly populated towns, there is no obvious and striking unwholesomeness, no offensive and humiliating appearance of mortal remains, to deter from a casual glance, or from entrance on the part of the friends and relatives of the departed. On the contrary, in Pere la Chaise, they are invited and allured by the softened and chastened beauty of the place, and there, without endangering their health from close and vitiated air, they linger by the ashes of the dead, and revolve those solemn thoughts, so wholesome and so heavenward bending to the soul;—there the bereft parent is seen giving the reins to his feelings, fondly recalling cherished associations, and there he is learning to hear unappalled that he must share a like fate with that of the object whose grave he now regards;—there may be seen the orphan, come to shed the tear of filial love over the manes of his departed parents, reviving ties and affections which are too liable to be entirely worn away by youthful enjoyment, and the various unsubstantial fascinations of the world;—and there he learns that most useful and wholesome lesson, to look with complacence, if not with prospective joy, on death and its silent abode,—to divest himself of that dread and horror often excited by these ideas, and which, alas, too frequently drive the young from such considerations altogether.

In Pere la Chaise, a murmur is heard proceeding from the town, and the impression made upon the mind is, that the world is receding, that the noise, mirth, and tumult of man is vanishing away, and that, in short, the reign of death has commenced,—the reign of death, solemn but not terrific.

How different is the abode of the dead in the bustling commercial towns of Britain. Here, solemnity is incongruously enough and offensively mixed up with the noise and bustle of every-day concerns of men bent on business or pleasure. Reflections on eternity are here interrupted, perhaps by the music, or rather the ungrateful noise, of a musical instrument being played in an adjoining street, the rolling of carriages, the trampling of horses, the smacking of whips, and the indecent oaths of waggoners;—while in another street, or fashionable promenade, which the eyes of the mournful visitor of the abode of death cannot possibly avoid, the ill comporting sight is seen, fine ladies and still finer gentlemen laughing and tittering, busied with fantastic displays. ’Tis an ill-assorted scene, ’tis Nature burlesqued beside humanity defunct.

But the improvement in burial-grounds is urged, not on the plea of feelings and sentiments, but on that of public utility and general health.

Until within a comparatively short period, the large towns of this country were kept in a very unclean condition, from the accumulation of impurities; and the consequence was, that there prevailed a vitiated and most offensive atmosphere, which often proved hurtful to the health of the inhabitants.

Habits of cleanliness, and proper notions of domestic comfort have made rapid progress of late years, and fortunately all classes of the community enjoy clean and wholesome apartments and streets, compared with those occupied by their ancestors of a century back; and families at the present day, who belong to the middle class of society, have the advantage of greater cleanliness, both of house and locality, than was then enjoyed by persons of the higher classes.

In many large towns an admirable system of cleansing is maintained, by which the removal of impurities is insured, which might taint the atmosphere. The laudable endeavours of the magistrates for this purpose, have uniformly met that ready cooperation from the more respectable portion of the inhabitants which they so well merit; but with the lowest classes, whose ideas are too coarse to permit their recognising danger in such things as uncleanliness and impure air, the suggestions of philanthropic individuals, and the exertions of authority, have failed, in a great degree, to produce that wholesome condition of houses and localities which is so desirable.

Much uncleanliness still prevails in some streets in those quarters of towns occupied by the labouring population, which proves the source of many effluvia, which again, it is probable, assist much in the production of the great amount of disease which is wont to prevail in those parts.

There is reason to fear that a considerable proportion of the lowest classes in all large towns is too much degraded to give themselves any concern about lessening the tendencies to disease, or to put themselves to any trouble to remove impurities, further than is absolutely necessary for their own convenience; but, in such instances, the authority of the law should interfere, and compel compliance with regulations for that purpose, the infringement of which is calculated to produce consequences prejudicial to the public health.

Many, nay most, of the villages of Scotland are kept in a most offensive and unwholesome state of filthiness; large heaps of corrupting animal and vegetable materials being allowed to accumulate, in many instances, in the public thoroughfares, and before the very doors and windows of the houses, proving the source of the most abominable effluvia, offensive to the senses of those who are accustomed to a pure atmosphere, and injurious to the health of all who inhale them. Trenches or hollows are, in many instances, to be found before the doors, where water is collected, and forms a nidus for the putrefaction of the materials above mentioned, and whence issue effluvia which are often to be recognised in the houses.

In these hollows or cavities are thrown all sorts of impurities, and they are allowed to remain till a cart-load or two have accumulated, when, if sufficiently decomposed, they are sold as manure to farmers and others, at the rate of about a shilling the cart-load.

The collection of impurities is in this case not the result of apathy and laziness, as in the purlieus in large towns, but of the desire of gain, or of a trifling advantage, such, for instance, as getting a small piece of ground, rent free, for the growth of potatoes, which is a common practice.

Very bad consequences attend the unwholesome condition of the atmosphere always found in these situations, and more especially in warm and close weather.

The quarter of Tranent in which typhus fever prevails most is that called Dow’s Bounds, and a more filthy part is not to be met with in Scotland; a large area in front of the houses being completely occupied with the cavities afore-mentioned, with their putrefying contents, and the place being ill adapted for ventilation, forming three sides of a square, and the ground having no declivity, nor efficient sewers to carry off the rain, the most favourable circumstances exist for putrefaction, and for the contamination of the atmosphere.

In the construction of future towns, and in additions to the old, the utmost attention should be given to promote the free agitation of the atmosphere, if it is proposed that they should be salubrious. Where health is to be protected, the streets should be made wide, open, and occasionally terminating in squares or other open places.

Where circumstances will permit a choice, towns should be built in wholesome situations and dry soils; and the same holds with additions making to old towns.

The health of a community is much influenced by the situation in which they live, and by the nature of the ground on which their houses are built.

In many towns there are some particular districts in which disease is more particularly prevalent, and the result of careful inquiry is, that the excessive disease is owing to unwholesomeness of situation. Persons in all other respects similarly situated, enjoy a better state of health, or suffer less disease, who inhabit a more wholesome or less prejudicial situation or locality.

SEWERS.

A point next in importance to a proper construction of streets, and the selection of good situations, is an efficient system of drains or sewers for the removal of impurities, and the formation of water-courses.

Of the importance of sewers it is unnecessary to enlarge, that being sufficiently understood.

By water-courses is meant channels for the immediate passage of rainwater from off the streets. They are easily formed, and where the ground is level, the advantage is very great. In streets having a slope or declivity, the water is soon dispersed; but where they are level, it is apt to collect, and there create dampness, which is communicated to the houses, and a favourable nidus for putrefaction, where impurities are permitted to accumulate.

In some parts, principally the suburbs of large towns, and in many of the villages of Scotland, perhaps more especially those along the coasts, inhabited by fishermen, no means being adopted to expedite the removal of rainwater, and there being no natural water-run or course, the rain collects, and animal and vegetable materials mixing therewith, green putrefying ditches are formed, plentifully evolving gaseous products, and supporting a luxuriant vegetation on their surface.

CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES.

So much attention is now paid to health and comfort in the construction of the houses of the wealthy, that it is unnecessary to say a word respecting these points, in connection with the higher classes.

But the circumstances being so very different in relation to the houses of the poor or the labouring class, some notice is required here.

It too often happens that the house of the labouring man in the country is, in almost every respect, little better than a shed, and calculated to produce disease. The walls are frequently the only substantial part of the tenement, the roof of tiles being often pervious to the rain and wind, and there being no other covering either of lath or lime; the door opens directly into the body of the house, and the floor is generally either below or on a level with the ground outside.

When floors of houses are below the level of the ground outside, they must necessarily be damp, and cause the house to be unwholesome.

The floors even of cottages should be situated about a foot or more above the level of the adjacent ground, and the interval between them and the soil should be filled up with small stones, or such materials, and then the houses might possibly be free of damp, and the rain would not run in off the streets, and form ditches before the very fire-place, as it does in many houses in this village.

The necessity of the floors of their houses being at a little distance above the ground is well known to the natives of Manilla. To avoid the dampness and the unwholesome emanations of the soil, the poor natives build their bamboo houses upon a foundation of wooden piles, by which contrivance a considerable space is left to permit the winds to enter, and to dissipate the damp and exhalations. In like manner, the rich inhabitants of Manilla build on piles of brick. Could our working population, or rather their landlords, not take a hint from these less refined people, and form some security against that unwholesomeness inseparable from damp houses?

It is unnecessary to detail at length instances of the greater prevalence of disease among the inhabitants of low-lying, confined, damp, ill ventilated, and filthy towns, over the populace of cities more favourably situated in these respects.

It will suffice to say, that typhus fever prevails more in the Old Town, where there are many local causes of disease, than in the New Town of Edinburgh, where the streets are clean, wide, and well drained;—and that the plague prevails more in the Jews’ quarter, remarkable for the filth and closeness of the streets, than in any other part of Constantinople.

The bad effects of despondency and apprehension have been already stated, and they were found to be very important and highly favourable to the invasion of disease. Instances have already been given of disease and general decline of health following depression of mind and long continued apprehension, and it now remains to point out the salutary action of an active and cheerful state of mind.

An active and cheerful state of mind imparts an activity to the various organs of the body, whereby their functions are more perfectly performed; it spreads a kindly glow over the entire system, and tends to dispel any sluggishness of action present in any part which perhaps would, under other circumstances, increase, and lead to the development of disease.

On some occasions a cheerful state of mind, induced by sudden improvement of prospects, or by the unexpected receipt of good intelligence, has been the efficient instrument in dispelling the first symptoms of disease which had been induced by depressing causes.

It has been often observed among soldiers and sailors, who, losing their health and beginning to suffer from disease, under no other apparent unwholesome cause than the distrust with which they regarded an insufficient and unskilful commander, that their health has suddenly improved, and disease has rapidly diminished when they have been put under an able chief in whom they reposed confidence, and with whom they were willing and ready to place the safety of their lives.

Soldiers and sailors suffering many privations, mortified with defeat, failing in their energies, and beginning to drop under the influence of disease, have, on the sudden and unexpected brightening of their prospects, regained their lost strength, cast out the seeds of disease, thrown off their despondency, and have achieved worlds of enterprise. The following interesting case, which illustrates well the powerful influence of hope, and a cheerful state of mind, is taken from Paris’s Pharmacologia.

“In the celebrated siege of Breda in 1625 by Spinola, the garrison suffered extreme distress from the ravages of scurvy, and the Prince of Orange being unable to relieve the place, sent in, by a confidential messenger, a preparation which was directed to be added to a very large quantity of water, and to be given as a specific for the epidemic; the remedy was administered, and the garrison recovered its health; when it was afterwards acknowledged that the substance in question was no other than a little colouring matter.”

That impaired state of health, and much of the disease, especially of the digestive organs, which is so much experienced by persons who are suddenly deprived of much occupation of the mind in business, and find themselves totally unemployed, and who, from their previous habits, are unable to derive enjoyment from literary and scientific pursuits, as some retired tradesmen, have been suddenly removed, and health has been fully re-established on the individuals being again immersed in business, either from choice or by a happy reverse in their circumstances rendering that step unavoidable.

During epidemics, that confident assurance which some persons are known to entertain, that they will escape the prevalent distempers, there is much reason to think, has on many occasions been a complete prophylactic or preventive.

Instances are not uncommon where an assurance or settled conviction on the part of the patient has gone far to promote, if not to produce, recovery from very dangerous disease, when physicians have despaired of life, and even when that opinion has been communicated to the unmoved and still confident sufferer.

The history of amulets or charms and of the cures performed by the royal touch, affords much amusing and interesting detail illustrative of confidence and hope, in the prevention and cure of disease. Instances are also familiar of naval and military officers who have lost their health from the long continued suffering of “hope deferred” in respect to promotion, and of neglect of meritorious services, where advancement and the grant of their longing and earnest wishes has at length acted as a charm upon every bodily ailment, and where a rapid succession of cheerfulness and health has been the immediate consequence, to the joy of anxious and apprehensive friends.

The beneficial effects of activity and cheerfulness of mind in warding off the attack of disease, and in promoting recovery therefrom, having been so strikingly illustrated in the above examples, there remains no occasion to say more than to recommend them strongly for adoption, both among those in health and in sickness.

CLOTHING.

The want of sufficient clothing as productive of disease has been already noticed.

Clothing in this climate is used for the purpose of retaining the body warm. Now this is an important purpose, and the means by which it is attained are highly deserving of notice, and they exert a very powerful influence upon health.

The temperature of the human body is generally about 98° Fahrenheit, and that of the surrounding atmosphere being in this climate always below, sometimes in severe winters, as for instance the last, being near zero.

Now, all bodies possess a property by which they are disposed to maintain an equilibrium of temperature, that is, to be of the same amount of heat, and the temperature of the human body being above that of the surrounding atmosphere, in an amount varying at different times, it parts with a portion of its heat, or caloric, as it is called by chemists, which is communicated to the atmosphere and surrounding bodies.

A portion of the heat of the body is constantly, and under all circumstances, being abstracted by the atmosphere and other surrounding bodies which are at a lower temperature, and were it not that the loss of heat, which the body is thus constantly sustaining, is supplied by the formation of heat in the system, which is ever going on, the body would soon become so very cold as to be incapable of performing its functions, and death would consequently ensue.

The amount of heat which the body loses, and the rapidity with which it is abstracted, is proportionate to the coldness of the atmosphere and surrounding bodies.

But the rapid and great abstraction of heat from the human body, which is apt to take place when it is immersed in a very cold atmosphere, is very hurtful, and often induces disease, especially fevers, colds, coughs, and inflammations.

It is for the purpose of checking the rapid abstraction of heat from the body, that the warm clothing used in these latitudes is adopted. It is a bad conductor of heat, and the consequence is, that the temperature of the body is not reduced so rapidly as it would be were it exposed without any covering to the atmosphere, which, more especially when damp, is a superior conductor of heat.

Clothing of a sufficient nature is useful in the preservation of health, by preserving in its integrity the circulation of the blood on the surface of the body, by maintaining the constant flow of the secretion from the skin, or perspiration as it is commonly called, which is so useful to the system in many different ways, and by preventing any deviation from that balance in the distribution of the fluids of the body which that process goes so far to maintain, much to the comfort and freedom from disease of the individual.

Many instances of a very striking nature are known, where such inveterate and mortal disease has supervened in consequence of the privation, total and partial, of clothing, and from that being of a texture and nature inadequate to meet the exigencies of the case. Some have been referred to in this work where the want of sufficient clothing has been one of many concurrent potent circumstances, the attendants and consequences of poverty and destitution which have given rise to epidemics. On occasions of great distress and destitution, the disease which is then so very prevalent is not the product of one circumstance merely, such as want of food, but is induced by the many concurrent powerful and unwholesome influences to which poverty is ever sure to give rise. One of the chief circumstances on which the wide prevalence of disease depends on those occasions, there can be little doubt, is insufficiency of clothing among the poorer classes. But it is the advantages which are to be derived from sufficient clothing which should here occupy attention. Of late years, it has been the practice in some towns in this country, on occasions of fever and other diseases prevailing during the cold and inclemency of winter, for funds to be collected for the purchase and distribution of clothes among the poor and ill-clad portion of the population.

The motives and feelings with which this form of charity has been adopted, must of themselves be a sufficient and highly delightful return for the liberality and exertions of its benevolent projectors and supporters, but it must afford them much gratification and much encouragement in their laudable and christian endeavours, to know that the clothing which they have dispensed has had a powerful influence in preserving many from becoming the victims of the prevalent distempers, and of preventing the relapse of the convalescent.

The late Sir John Pringle, a distinguished army surgeon, states that “the best clothed were generally among the most healthy regiments.”

The quantity of clothing should of course vary with the season, more being used in winter than in summer. A minute account of the outer clothing is unnecessary here, but a word may not be thrown away; the body should at all times have that quantity of clothing which will secure it from unpleasant feelings of cold and chilliness, and it would be wise to be influenced more by comfort and a regard to health, and less by fashion and caprice in the choice of clothing, which is so intimately connected with the preservation of health and its unspeakable comforts and enjoyments.

The clothing which is next the skin is more important, and will here obtain some consideration. It may be laid down as a general rule that flannel or some such woollen cloth should be used next the skin throughout the entire year. It will be well to vary the cloth or flannel in different seasons, perhaps using a thick flannel during winter, and a material of lighter and less close texture during summer and autumn. A fabric of fine flannel, or what is called “stocking,” answers very well for the summer, when the flannel which is commonly used is felt to be too warm and irritating to the skin. In the summer it is common for many persons who use flannel during winter to discontinue its use, but it is safer, merely to exchange the thick flannel which has been used during winter for one of a finer fabric or some such equally fine material.

During winter when the weather is always cold, and in spring when it is generally chilly, flannel or some such material should form an essential portion of the clothing of every inhabitant of these islands.

It is safe to say that hundreds in this country are at present alive and enjoy excellent health who, but for the use of flannel and such like fabrics next the skin, would have been, ere this, numbered with the dead; and it is not too much to say that thousands are at this moment in perfect health through the kindly action of the same clothing, whose lives were threatened with constant coughs, periodical colds, quinseys, rheumatisms, and incipient disease of lungs, and other organs of the chest, before this efficient guardian of health was adopted.

Flannel and fabrics of the same or like nature go far to preserve an equable temperature at the surface of the body, promote the perspiration of the skin, which they readily absorb when copiously secreted, and are specially useful in preserving the balance of the secretions on the surface and in the interior of the body. Now all these most important conditions, which the use of flannel goes so far to maintain, are ever liable to be subverted and disturbed, whenever the body is thinly or inadequately covered, by changes in the ever varying temperature of the atmosphere, and by the prevalence of winds and currents.

Most of the important constitutional diseases which occur in this country, begin with a sensation of coldness with shivering and trembling; now it is the usual property of flannel, and such fabrics, when worn next the skin, and indeed of warm and general good clothing, to obviate and prevent these conditions of the body, and thus disease may be met at its very onset, and perhaps baffled ere it has time to establish its dominion.

“In some situations my personal experience enables me to vouch for the utility of flannel. Of this we had a very striking proof in the second battalion of the Royals, while suffering from a most aggravated form of dysentery in India. General Conran, the late Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, who at that time commanded the Royals, was so fully persuaded of the benefits likely to accrue from the general use of flannel, that he went down from Wallajahabbad, where the regiment was then stationed, to Madras, on purpose to represent to the government the distress of his men, and to suggest the expediency of a supply of flannel shirts. This he did with so much effect, backed by the late Dr Anderson, the Physician-General, that the flannels were immediately ordered, and, in my opinion, contributed much to check the alarming progress of the disease.”^[11]

It is usual with many individuals to wear flannel only over the chest, but it is wise to envelope the whole body in that most useful article of clothing.

The poor or labouring man should endeavour to procure thick soled shoes, in good repair, and substantial worsted stockings.

The latter are generally esteemed stronger and more durable when made at home, and will form excellent work for his wife or daughter in the winter nights.

The working man will find, that though clothing substantially, as has been above recommended, takes a considerable proportion of his money immediately out of his pocket, he will be a certain gainer in the end, aye, probably in the course of a few years or months, by consequent immunity from disease, and from continued capacity for labour.

FOOD.

It has been already shewn in this work, that the want of sufficient and wholesome food is frequently attended and followed by disease. It is now proposed to shew how important food and drink, of good quality, are to the preservation of health; but the fact is so well known, and so undoubted, that it is almost unnecessary to say that they are essential to the preservation of the body in its strength and dimensions.

That sense of sinking and languor, which is so commonly experienced upon long fasting, would soon be exchanged for the actual pains of disease, were it not to be removed shortly by the taking of food.

When the body is exhausted from the want of food for some hours, a good and ample repast imparts strength to the body, and cheerfulness to the mind, and goes far to prevent the evasion of some forms of disease.

An individual who is well fed, is generally more secure against the invasion of disease of a low character, than another who is only scantily and occasionally supplied with food.

It is generally believed that individuals who have lately partaken of food, are less subject to the operation of vitiated air, or as it is commonly termed, “contagious air;” and it was commonly reported during the late prevalence of cholera, that persons who took breakfast before going out, suffered less from that disease than those who followed a contrary course.

Many well authenticated instances are recorded of the health of armies undergoing very great improvement, and of disease in these bodies being greatly checked by the distribution of ample wholesome food, and by the privation which they had suffered for some time previous, being ended, by some accidental circumstances, as the gaining the enemy’s magazines, or the reduction of a siege. Sir George Ballingall relates in his work on Military Surgery, that “during the prevalence of a malignant fever in this regiment (33d), then stationed in the garrison of Hull, in the autumn of 1817, amongst other measures calculated to check the rapid extension of the disease, I recommended the regular supply of breakfast to the men. This was immediately ordered by the commanding officer, and nothing appeared either to the officers, to the soldiers, or to myself, to have so much effect in obviating attacks of the fever.”

The institution of soup kitchens in this country, for the distribution of wholesome and nourishing food to the perishing poor, there is no doubt, has a most salutary influence in the prevention of disease, by, in short, so fortifying individuals, otherwise incapable of resistance, as to render them proof against the influence of many causes of pestilence.

There can be little doubt that the liberal distribution of nutritious food, which of late years has happily taken place from these charitable institutions, has gone far to check the ravages of fever, which is so prevalent in this climate, during winter, when the labouring classes are subject in so great a degree to cold, and the privation of food and other necessaries of life.

It is stated on good medical authority, that no measure which was instituted for the purpose of stopping the progress of typhus fever in Glasgow, in the winter of 1837–8, then very prevalent and mortal, was so useful, and so immediately and obviously efficient, as the establishment of soup kitchens in that city.

Among the arrangements in Edinburgh in 1832, which tended apparently to render cholera less extensive than in other large towns, a soup kitchen formed one.

Fever has been much less prevalent in Tranent during the present, than for many winters past, and this is to be attributed partly to a soup kitchen which has been instituted in that village, and which has been in operation for about two months (16th March 1839).

The excellent tendency of such establishments must be obvious to all who are at all conversant with the nature of disease, and the animal economy, and it can form no valid objection to that proposition, that fever is still known to have raged where soup kitchens have been established; for, though the pestilence may not have been extinguished, still it may have been abated, and though the malignant character and mortality may not have been reduced, still these excellent institutions may have been the means of preventing their being increased.

Let not, therefore, those who are willing and able to support whatever is calculated to reduce the sufferings and privations of the poor, be driven from extending their support to soup kitchens, because they have only diminished the number of the victims of disease, and made the stage of convalescence more sure and less liable to relapse.

It would indeed be vain to expect, that the distribution of food would act as an entire preventive of fever and disease, which is the result not of scanty food only, but of that and many other circumstances of a very different nature, whose operation, the supply of soup, in any quantity, can go a very short way only, to remedy.

Some of the circumstances which exert the most important influence in the production of pestilential disease, and the measures which are best calculated to counteract their pestiferous tendencies, have now been detailed.

It is hoped the enforcement of the hurtful operation of many circumstances, erroneously thought to be innocent, may lead to their being remedied in future, and it is expected, that if the suggestions which have been thrown out in the latter part of this work, are duly acted upon, or if others of a like nature, which may, at a future period, emanate from another better qualified for the task, should meet with the attention, which this object so well demands, the amount of disease will be diminished, human suffering will be abated, and human life extended nearer to that point of maturity which the Divinity has decreed, and which the organization of the human body proclaims was meant to be attained by one and all of the members of the human family.

By avoiding the causes of disease which have been detailed in this work, and by attending to the rules which have been laid down here and elsewhere for the preservation of health, disease will be greatly abated, but a mighty revolution must be accomplished in the habits, the dispositions, and minds of men, ere mankind will enjoy that course of health, and all that greater freedom from pain and disease, of which their lot is capable:—but far from the consideration of the manifold changes and long course of time which will be required to make a very great improvement in the health of the human race, leading to apathy and inaction, it should serve to stimulate to powerful attempts, and persevering and reiterated efforts for amelioration.