208 On Gravelly aad Caladous Conercitonyi 



From which period, down to seventy-eight, there occurs 

 but one "or two upon each year. From these, then, we 

 learn hnw much move subject the niale sex is to those com- 

 plainls than the female ; and the earlier periods of life, than 

 llie more advanced. For among the males in the sixth 

 year we find 147 (the greatest number), and among the fe- 

 males only five at eight. From these periods, in both sexes, 

 the numbers rapidly diminish. 



These facts would lead us to conclude that some physio- 

 logical cause, peculiar to the functions of this earlv stage, 

 may give rise to this difierence; and I will not pretend to 

 say but this may possibly exist : but when we consider that 

 in every country the infant poor are the greatest sufferer?, 

 we are induced to inquire further, and suspect the existence 

 of some general cause attecting and applicable to them all. 

 That a similarilv of diet (in the children of this class of so- 

 ciety, in particular) must every where nearlv take place, is 

 evident; and that this is, but loo often, of the kind most 

 prone to the acescent tendency, such as pap, gruel, sour 

 milk, &c.; all which it is not always in the power of the 

 parents to renew, or administer, in a recent and sound state; 

 an error not unfrcquently occurring from the negligence of 

 nurses even in the upper ranks, but irremediable in the 

 lower; where this acescent tendency cannot be corrected 

 by the seasonable admixture of broth, or other light animal 

 food; their unhappy situation confining them exclusively, 

 like their catlk, to the sole use of vegetables and the fari- 

 nacea. 



To pass on from infancy to the advanced periods of life, 

 and begin with our own island, we find that, considering 

 ihc extent of our population, the disease is of relative rare 

 occurrence: so much so, that the late Mr. Dease, (whose 

 premature denlh we have still to deplore, as a national cala- 

 njity,) with all his well deserved celebrity as a llt.hc)tomist, 

 never operated upoa uiure than sixty. A small number, 



indeedj 



