64, 



DB. B. ANGUS SMITH ON ANCIENT AND 



In this hasty sketch of opinion, I have chosen quotations not 

 perhaps the best, — medical literature may be able to put them 

 to shame by greater fulness; but chiefly because I thought 

 them interesting, and also little if at all quoted. 



We have seen that the notion of sanitary law has had its 

 origin in the earliest history of nations, — that it is founded on 

 simple, material truths, which it is easy to recognise by ordi- 

 nary powers of observation, — and that it is supported in its 

 conclusions by the more elaborated reasonings of scientific 

 times. In itself it is not a science: we see in parts only, a distinct 

 claim to logical sequence, uniting the beginning and the end ; 

 but it must receive the aid of many other sciences, and adopt 

 their results. It may become a science: at present it includes 

 the knowledge of many valuable arts. We can suppose it 

 struggling through years of great darkness, groping onwards 

 by mere instinct, and at last arriving at a state, if not of 

 great power, at least of self-consciousness, although perhaps 

 it will be disputed as to when that period was attained. 

 At the time of plague it seems everywhere suddenly to have 

 reared its head, and we may observe that it keeps its head 

 erect continuously, whenever it finds that a continuous state 

 of plague exists, or continuous causes operating against 

 health. I am not encroaching on the province of medicine 

 in speaking of this subject ; the subject is a separate branch, 

 it may be, of medicine, but equally a branch of chemistry, 

 which certainly claims a right, as it has a power, of examining 

 and explaining to some extent the action of the elements on 

 man, and the means of rendering them serviceable instead 

 of deleterious. It is a worthy study, because it enables us to 

 remove many evils easily dealt with ; it is also an ennobling 

 study, as are all studies which shew that man i3 not of neces- 

 sity degraded, and which give him hope even in this world of 

 a higher and happier future. 



I fear to go beyond the allowed bounds of the Society, and 

 can scarcely therefore link, otherwise than abruptly, the 

 foregone part of my subject with that which is to come. 



