A comparative history of the increase and decrease of mankind in England, and several countries abroad ... To which is added, a syllabus of the general states of health, air, seasons, and food for the last three hundred years; and also a meteorological discourse / By Thomas Short, M.D.

  • Short, Thomas, 1690?-1772.
Date:
1767
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A comparative history of the increase and decrease of mankind in England, and several countries abroad ... To which is added, a syllabus of the general states of health, air, seasons, and food for the last three hundred years; and also a meteorological discourse / By Thomas Short, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ! . ; [ 28 ] As mod People deiire healthy, ftrong Children, fuch being the vifible Support of themfelves and Families, and the riling Bulwarks and Guardi¬ ans of the State; and if Parents would hope for Comfort in them, it is their Duty, both by Example and Inftrudtion, early to inftill into them the Seeds of Virtue and Morality, and cultivate a Growth and Perfevere- ance therein: And it is the common Intereft both of Church and State heartily to join their Affiftance, by enacting and executing Laws to fup- prds the Firft-Buds and After-Growth of all Vice, efpecially thofe juftly condemned (but negledted to be executed) by the prefent Laws ; as Swear¬ ing, Drinking, Sabbath-breaking, Whoredom, Adultery, Pilfering and Stealing, and the unnatural Gratification of fenfual Pleafures; thefe open*^ ing the Way, and leading on to the moll criminal Practices, which often terminate in a fhameful, miferable, and untimely End : Befides all other Evils, thefe tend, diredtly or indirectly, to the Prevention of true, inno¬ cent, matrimonial Satisfaction, and Procreation of a ftrong, healthy Pro¬ geny., A NegleCt of this former Policy, and a manifeft Difregard to for¬ mer Laws and Methods appointed both by Church and State, has occa- fioned a lhameful, culpable Licentioufnefs, under a pretended, but falfe. Name of Liberty ; or a Liberty to live wickedly, in open Contempt of Laws both Divine and Human. ( ^ i Conception is often hindered by promifcuous Coitions; which is the Reafon of caftrating tame Brute Animals, to make the Females more fruitful; thro' Want of it the Wild are more barren. Where there is Propagation by Whoredom, it is moftly by one Man; not by feveral im¬ mediately before Conception. From a Mixture of feveral genital Liquors of the fame Species, or by exceffive Venery, both Male and Female be¬ come barren: Hence common Proftitutes (whilft fuch) rarely conceive; who yet, when married, and faithful to their Hufbands, breed and bear as well as other Women: But this is no Evidence of their former Virtue* If an unmarried Woman conceives, it is a ftrong Prefumption ffie had had to do only with one Man, fome little Time previous to her Concep¬ tion ; therefore fuch Conceptions are frequenter in the Country (in Pro¬ portion to the fmall Numbers of, and prefent Practice of Whoredom) than in Cities and great Towns, where That and other Vices are more preva¬ lent, and the wicked Arts of preventing Conception are more generally known and ufed: Hence Country Girls and kept Mifles have a better Chance for Children than common Proftitutes. Early or exceffive Ve¬ nery enervates, and almoft emaculates Youth; fo far, that if they have Children after, yet their Father’s Conftitution being weakened, his For¬ tune