Notices respecting New Booh. 1 79 



up in detail what that learned and ingenious physician has 

 in several places only slightly touched upon, fearFul perhaps 

 of making his wotk too voluminous, and reserving himself 

 more particularly to what related IJ disease, where doctor 

 Thornton is sutficientlv in detail and full, and which seemed 

 most to demand the attention of a physician. The Code of 

 Health opens with preliminary ob?ervatii)ns " On the 

 advantaires to be derived from arranging and condensing the 

 knowledge already accumulated." The author here judi- 

 ciously observes, *' That, in the present state of literature, 

 kno^vledge may be compared to a small portion of gold, 

 dispersed throughout a great quantity of ore. In its rude 

 condition, the strongest man cannot bear its weight, or 

 convey it to a distance ; but when the pur- metal i> sepa- 

 rated from the drosS, even a rhiid may carry it without 

 difficulty." 



The baronet then states what particularly led him to 

 form onHhis plan a work on Health. The following apo- 

 logy is given : — 



" Though naturally possessed of a sound constitution, un- 

 tainted by any hereditary dist-ase, vet, about six or seven 

 years ago, the author had fallen into a weak and t-nervated 

 state, and found himself unecpial to the ia?k of managing his 

 own private concerns, of prosecuting useful inquiries, or of 

 applying his mind to political pursuits, with his former 

 energy and zeal. 



" As age advanced, he found many of his contemporaries 

 either getting into a declined stale, or sinking into the 

 grave, much sooner than he had expected. The causes of 

 these events he naturally wished to ascertain, am to deter- 

 mine whether so premature a decay might not have bjcn 

 prevented. 



*' In carrying on his Statistical Inquiries, (a branch of 

 which, namely, the effects of climaie, was necesrarily con- 

 nected with the points in question,) it wa:? a matter of as- 

 tonishment to him to find, how few of the human species, 

 in proportion to the numbers born, attained any contiidei able 

 ■extent of years, even in the healthiest countries. 



" Above all, it was a matter of rej^ret (and the longer or>c 

 M S livcj 



