76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In Geneva, Switzerland, the expectation of life from birth 

 in the sixteenth century was 21.21 years ; in the seventeenth 

 century, 25.67 years ; in the eighteenth century, 32.62 years ; 

 while to-day it is about 40 years. 



The Massachusetts Board of Health says that as large a 

 proportion of the population now live to seventy as lived to 

 forty-three three hundred years ago. 



These dry figures show us that there has been progress in 

 the length of life during the past few centuries. And as a 

 large majority of persons die of disease, rather than by vio- 

 lence, accident, calamity, or starvation, it must be that this 

 increased longevity is because man has learned the laws of 

 disease and the means and methods of resisting it. Man, in 

 the struggle for existence, has been watching his worst and 

 ever active enemy, and is evidently getting the start of him 

 again and again. 



But let it not be understood that this gain is entirely in 

 the art of medicine, — of healing disease, of restoring dis- 

 ordered parts, — though we cannot give too much praise 

 to the men who have made the great discoveries in these 

 directions, and are daily and hourly making them of immense 

 benefit to us. One great excellence of a good general with 

 his army is, not merely to be able to do the best fighting, 

 but to have and keep his army in such condition, position, 

 and surroundings, that he can strike heavy blows when it is 

 necessary. He must know the strong and weak points of 

 his enemy, must have his reserves ready and strong enough, 

 all through and through, to meet reverses, surprises, and 

 other unforeseen events. It requires profound research and 

 diligent labor to know how to heal the wounded or diseased 

 body; but a great study for magistrates, benefactors, educa- 

 tors, and the church, is to learn how to prevent disease or 

 pestilence, how to secure healthy stock, how to keep seeds of 

 disease from being sown, how to promise a fair inheritance 

 to the child as it is thrust into this world where is so much 

 of danger, peril, and hardship. 



This knowledge requires research and investigation by 

 the best of minds, and by means which must be furnished 

 by the State as much as must its methods of collecting taxes 

 and revenue, or its post-office department. Experiments 

 and investigations must be carried on, in such a way and 



