Contributions to vital statistics, obtained by means of a pneumatic apparatus for valuing the respiratory powers with relation to health / by John Hutchinson.

  • Hutchinson, John, 1811-1861.
Date:
[1844]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to vital statistics, obtained by means of a pneumatic apparatus for valuing the respiratory powers with relation to health / by John Hutchinson. 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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    Contributions to Vital Statistics, obtained by means of a Pneumatic Apparatus for valuing the Respiratory Poioers with relation to Health. By John Hutchinson, Esq., Surgeon, F.S.S. I Read before the Statistical Society of London, June 17 th, 1844.] If in the present day there is one subject pre-eminently engaging the public mind, it appears to be, the best means of preserving the public health. And if any one among the various divisions of that subject can be ranked before another on the score of utility, it should seem to be, that regarding the effects produced on individual health by particular occupations. The earliest original contribution to this branch of knowledge which has come under my notice, is that by Ramazzini, of Padua, published in English in 1705, and which much redounds to the credit of the author. The only other book of which I am aware, is that written in the present time by our countryman Thackrah, whose labour in this cause has far surpassed that of all others. Many journals have bestowed praise on this author, but it appears to me they have all come short of the com- mendation which is due to his industry and accuracy. It is generally the custom to estimate the healthiness of a trade by the mortality among the individuals employed in it; but, however correct this system may be, it is an expensive method of coming to the conclu- sion ; since, in this way, we do not count the effect of a certain trade upon health until so many per cent, have fallen victims to it. Deducting from these a given number of cases as uncertain, this fatal list is still of little value until compared with other fatal lists. The object of the present paper is to make known some researches, the result of which induces me to venture a new method of determining the effect of trades upon health, by ascertaining the presence of disease, and the extent of deterioration in the health of a living individual. The pathologist, in the present day, not only weighs and measures the dead subject as a whole, but carefully weighs every internal organ, and often ascertains the cubic measurement of the heart also, that he may inform himself as to the seat of disease. Here we see that mea- surement is made one of his guides in thus inquiring into the seat of disease; for after he has determined by numerous observations the natu- ral weight or dimensions of an organ, he justly concludes that all similar organs, if differing from this standard, differ so on account of disease. Such is the grand harmony of our structure, that proportion and sym- metry are as much displayed amidst the internal organs as in the exter- nal form. And again, the physician, when inquiring into the state of his patient, a