Elements of medical statistics : containing the substance of the Gulstonian lectures delivered at the Royal college of physicians: with numerous additions, illustrative of the comparative salubrity, longevity, mortality, and prevalence of diseases in the principal countries and cities of the civilized world / By F. Bisset Hawkins.

Francis Bisset Hawkins

Date:: 1829

Credit: Elements of medical statistics : containing the substance of the Gulstonian lectures delivered at the Royal college of physicians: with numerous additions, illustrative of the comparative salubrity, longevity, mortality, and prevalence of diseases in the principal countries and cities of the civilized world / By F. Bisset Hawkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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reversed this ancient order: they did not transfer disease from one season to another, but removed the evils of the unhealthy periods, without the addition of any new source of mischief to the others. We can hardly find a happier illus- tration of the practical benefits of progressive knowledge in promoting the general interests of mankind, nor a better example of the mutual dependence of all arts, sciences, and professions, on each other. Villerme believes that in healthy districts winter and spring are most fatal, and that winter is more fatal in the north than in the south. In marshy countries he finds July, August, September, and October the most fatal months, and that the evaporation of the marshes is most fatal from 1 to 6 years of age. When we speak of a healthy climate, it is gratifying to reflect that in most instances it is man himself who has in a great measure created these climates of health. Twenty centuries ago, England, France, and Germany, resembled Ca- nada, and Chinese Tartary, countries situated like Europe, at a mean distance between the equator and the pole. Macchiavelli, in his early age, seems to have anticipated this truth : he remarks, in his quaint language, Unhealthy countries become wholesome by the multitude of men who inhabit them j who at the same time are occupied in cultivating the earth, and who

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