Statistics of the British Empire : mortality of the metropolis : a statistical view of the number of persons reported to have died, of each of more than 100 kinds of disease, and casualties, within the bills of mortality, in each of the two hundred and four years, 1629-1831 ... / by J. Marshall.

  • John Marshall
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistics of the British Empire : mortality of the metropolis : a statistical view of the number of persons reported to have died, of each of more than 100 kinds of disease, and casualties, within the bills of mortality, in each of the two hundred and four years, 1629-1831 ... / by J. Marshall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of bruised grains, i. e. cardamom seeds, of the best treacle a spoonful, and give the patient to drink of it two or three spoonfuls pretty often, with a draught of Malmsey wine after it, and so let him sweat, if it agree with him, and it stay with him, he is out of danger ; if he vomit it up repeat it again and another, as characteristic of the temper and tone of the period, I hope to be pardoned for inserting.—In 1603 it is stated that “ a citizen was whipped for venturing to appear at Court from a district in which Pestilence was raging.” 42. Milan, in 1575, Marseilles, with its neighbouring cities Aix, Aries, &c., in 1720, and Messina, in 1745, all suffered severely by Pestilence; but the accounts which have been published of the ravages of the Disease at each place are equally inconclusive with all that preceded them in regard to the cause that produced it, and the means of its prevention and cure. In short, down to the present day [March 1, 1832] the only safe conclusion that can be arrived at is, that Nature, in reference to certain maladies, has hitherto, baffled all the efforts of man, to discover their cause. What has happened once may happen again; so that there is as much reprehension due o the indulgence of an over sanguine confidence in the efficacy of medical skill and energy, and eleemosynary aid, in preventing or allaying the threatened prevalence of Spasmodic disease, as there is in implicitly yielding to fearful anticipations of its direful consequences. The Austrian government have published a seemingly circumstantial account of the extent of the ravages of Spasmodic Cholera in 1831, in the metropolitan city of Vienna, and the Austro-Polish province of Galicia. In the former in 18 Weeks 411 Deaths occurred out of 690 cases within the city, and 1547 out of 3000 attacked in the suburbs. In Galicia 77,770 are reported to have died out of 260,944 attacked: but all this, it will be seen, proves nothing useful: numbers are interesting only in reference to relation and proportion—and, for the above information to have been either useful or interesting, the whole population, and the average rate of current mortality of the respective places, should have been given; then it wrould have shown how far the spasmodic di sease in question had been an increase of malady, or how far it had only superseded other diseases. In like manner all the reports that have been, published in England in reference to the fatal effects of Spasm, are unsatisfactory. 44. A distinguished speculatist has advanced the hypothesis “That, liowrever much medical skill and energy may alter the form and pressure of Disease, Death will have, its quota; that the stream of Mortality is uniform, and that the Totality will ahvays prove pretty much the same. The Statistical Display of the Diseases and Mortality of the Metropolis herewith exhibited seems to support this hypothesis; and should it prove true, on a more diligent and minute investigation, the introduction of new forms of Disease will at all times be liable to less fearful apprehensions than under the absence of correct information on the subject. On this ground it has been that I have ventured to submit to legislative, executive, and professional wisdom, and the prevailing acumen and intelligence of the age, the facts and suggestions which the accompanying pages contain, in the hope that whatever imperfections and faults may be detected, I shall escape the charge of presumption, inasmuch as I imposed upon myself the task under the fond expectation that, if I failed in establishing any new principles, the large mass of facts which I proposed to myself to collate, and have now brought into a focus, would suffice to enable future inquirers to arrive at just conclusions, and develope causes which shall lead to the adoption of measures to promote alike the physical, the social, and the moral improvement of my species. London, March 1, 1832. J. MARSHALL.