The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe.

Date:
1852
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    inexi)lical)lc symptoms were produced, which completely puzzled the naval practitioners, who rarely sus2)ected any lesion of tlie heart. Tlicse last affec- tions both aggravated, and were in their turn aggravated by, the depress- ing passions engendered during the long confinemeut on ship-board, and separation from friends and native home. I hardly need to point out how much the fatal results above mentioned miglit have been prevented, had the officers possessed even a superficial acquaint- ance with the laws of I'cspiration and of muscular action. A perusal of the chapters on these subjects will enable the reader to judge for himself, and to determine whether the cause of the destruction was really difficult to be divined. It is impossible indeed to read such details considerately, with- out coming to the conclusion that a general acquaintance with the consti- tution of the human body ought to be rendered imperative on every one who is entrusted in any way with the direc- tion of, or command over, any of his fellow-creatures. Where so much is necessarily left to individual discre- tion, the possession of Ivnowledge in aid of sound sense is the only attainable security against abuses. In many situations, some knowledge of the laws of the aniuial economy would be of the greatest use, not only to the instructors of youth and the guardians of public institutions, but also to the officers of the army and navy. Independently of all other considerations, it would open to them a field of interesting study and observation iu every country and under every climate, which could not fail to procure for them a large amount of pleasure and instruction. Dr.Jolin- son, it should be mentioned, had the Channel and North Sea fleets chiefly in view in his remarks. It was at one time very common to eulogize the simple food and hardy habits of the poor and labouring classes as eminently conducive to health, when contrasted with the debilitating effects of the cares and lu.xuries of the rich ; and to a certain extent the fashion had some foundation in truth. Thus if we institute a comijarison between the ages at death of the superior portions of the working-classes (such, for in- i stance, as are members of benefit- j societies), and those of the aristocracy, [ tlie result appears to be in favour of j the former. Mr Neison's tables, which are constructed from the experience i of benefit-societies, shew, for example, ; that an agricultural labourer at the age of thirty, has an expectation of , life greater by nine and a half years, t than a peer of tlie same age.* Here j simple food and hardy habits' give [ a decided advantage over •' cares and i luxuries;' but the case becomes widely | different when the comparison is ex- | tended to the rich and poor as great classes of the community. Theavcrage period of life among the poor is, in the first place, greatly reduced by the frightful mortality among thechildren, who, in consequence of their more deli- cate constitution, suffer more readily than adults from injurious influences, and who may, on this account, be re- garded as a sort of sanitary barometer. In the second place, the adults, al- tliough less susceptible than children, are unable to resist without injury the debilitating effects of ovcr-ci'ovvding and defective ventilation, and of ex- cessive labour in conjunction with defi- cient or innutritious food. Accord- ingly it may be shewn by arithmetical arguments, that the excess of work j and the privations to w hich the poor | are habitually exposed, produce a much higher rate of mortality among them, especially in seasons of scarcity or com- mercial depression, than among the richer classes of society. In evidence of this fiict, I may refer to a table j published by Dr Casper of Berlin, shewing the influence of wealth and poverty upon the duration of human life, lie takes from the register of | deaths in the Almanack of Gotha a I thousand names belonging to the faini- ] lies of princes and dukes, and from j I * Brit, and For. Mcd.-Chir. Rev., January I 1848, p. 1!). Ste also Caipcnter's Essay on ' Alcoholic Liquors, p. 8G, for tlie mortality ; of the membei-s of Friendly and Temper- ance Societies.
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