i7i the Natural Sciences, 369 



life, and finally, in some classes, the state of mind. The cir- 

 cumstances in which these are favourable, as well as those that 

 are unfavourable to health, are likewise pointed out, in order to 

 remove unfounded apprehensions, as well as to expose the real 

 agents of disease. 



The circumstances which are favourable to health, in the pre- 

 sent state of society, are of course very limited, and are appli- 

 cable only to persons whose employments are chiefly out of 

 doors, and to such professional men as are engaged in mental or 

 literary pursuits, conjoined with considerable exercise in the 

 open air. These two classes, however, form a very inconsider- 

 able portion of the community ; while the great majority, again, 

 of operatives, dealers, merchants, and manufacturers, together 

 with children at school, and many professional persons who have 

 much mental application, without ade(|uate exercise of the body, 

 are all exposed to the pernicious influence of impure atmo- 

 spheres, long continuance of labour, with constrained or unnatu- 

 ral positions of the body, of sudden changes of temperature, 

 and various other agents destructive to health and life. Intem- 

 perance and irregular habits are likewise, as is well known, power- 

 ful auxiliaries to the general catalogue of predisposing causes of 

 disease among all classes of men. 



The appalling rates of sickness and mortality, which have been 

 found to prevail among the different ranks of society, are, there- 

 fore, not at all surprising; but it must at the same time be obvious, 

 that the excess is owing to the agency of man, and not to the im- 

 mediate infliction of Providence. What have been called the Laws 

 of Sickness and Mortality are not invariable, but are merely, at 

 least before the period of old age, exceptions to the fundamental 

 laws of health and longevity. These exceptions are no doubt nu- 

 merous, but, in proportion as a knowledge of the works and laws 

 of Nature become more general, the causes of these exceptions will 

 be rendered more apparent, and means be speedily adopted for 

 their prevention and removal *. These means, too, will be found 



• Perhaps there are few if any works wherein the miseries of mankind 

 referable to infringements of the laws of nature, are more familiarly or more 

 forcibly illustrated, than in an Essay on the Constitution of Man, and its 

 relations to external objects, by Mr George Combe. 



JANUARY MARCH, 1832. B b 



