Two lectures on the conditions of health and wealth educationally considered / by W.B. Hodgson.
- William Ballantyne Hodgson
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Two lectures on the conditions of health and wealth educationally considered / by W.B. Hodgson. 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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![obstacles to overcome, which it always experiences from the had organiza- tion of its companion. Johnson says, ‘ Every man is a rascal when he is sick,’—meaning, I suppose, that lie has no benevolent dispositions at that period towards his fellow-creatures, hut that his notions assume a cha- racter of greater affinity to his bodily feelings, and that, feeling pain, he becomes malevolent; and if this he true of great diseases, it is true in a less degree of the smaller ailments of the body.” * On longevity, Dr. Soutkwoocl Smith thus writes :— “ Were the physical condition always perfect, and the mental state al- ways that of enjoyment, the duration of life would always he extended to the utmost limit compatible with that of the organization of the body. But, as this fortunate occurrence seldom or never happens, human life seldom or never numbers the full measure of its days. Uniform experi- ence shows, however, that, provided no accident occurs to interrupt the usual course, in proportion as body and mind approximate to this state, life is long ; and as they recede from it, it is short. Improvement of the physical condition affords a foundation for the improvement of the mental state ; improvement of the mental state improves, up to a certain point, the physical condition ; and in the ratio in which this twofold improve- ment is effected the duration of life increases. Longevity then, is a good, in the first place, because it is a sign and a consequence of the possession of a certain amount of enjoyment; and, in the second place, because, this being the case, of course in proportion as the term of life is extended the sum of enjoyment must be augmented. And this view of longevity assigns the cause and shows the reasonableness of that desire for long life which is so universal and constant as to be commonly considered instinc- tive. Longevity and happiness, if not invariably, are generally coincident. If there may be happiness without longevity, the converse is not possible ; there cannot be longevity without happiness. Unless the state of the body be that of tolerable health, and the state of the mind that of toler- able enjoyment, long life is unattainable ; these physical and mental con- ditions no longer existing, nor capable of existing, the desire of life and the pleasure of retaining it cease together.”! But to a sane, much more to an intelligent audience, it is superfluous to expatiate on the importance of health for the attainment of any of the ends, whether the lowest or the highest, for which we believe that life was given. Gan it, then, be said that health is abundantly possessed by this or by any other people, and that its indispensable condi- tions are everywhere, or even anywhere, sufficiently fulfilled ? It is not easy even to enumerate the daily and hourly viola- tions of those conditions, and the lamentable results of those violations. In truth, when we look around us, we may well * Memoir, &c., vol. i. p. ]25. 1856. t Philosophy of Health, c. iv. p. 110.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22311300_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
