282 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book VL 



I come now to fpeak of the Health of the people of Enj>land. 

 That there are more difeafes in Europe at prefent than there were in 

 antient times, feveral that were not fo much as known in thofe 

 times, I think, is evident. As difeafes are the natund confequences of 

 wealth, and as there is more wealth in England than in anyother coun- 

 try of Europe, I am perfuaded, that there are likewife more difeafes : 

 Nor do 1 know that there is any country in the world, where there 

 is fo much difeafe, unlefs it may be fome counrries into which we 

 have imported the fmall-pox and the ufe of fpiiituous liquors, as we 

 have done into fome parts of North America. In other countries 

 there may be fome particular difeafes more predominant than the 

 fame are in England ; but I do not believe that there is any country 

 where there are fo many difeafes, or where fo many people die of 

 difeafe. There is one difeafe in England which is more frequent 

 and more fatal than any other ; of which, as I have faid *, more die 

 than of any other two difeafes : This difeafe is what we call a con- 

 jMinption^ a difeafe very little known among the antients. And 

 not only in towns is it fo mortal a difeafe, but even in the 

 country, as I have fliown in the paflage above quoted. It is of this 

 difeafe chiefly that children and young people die. As to children, 

 it appears, by the bills of mortality of London, that not a half of 

 thofe that are born live to be two years old f. This may appear to 

 many incredible ; but what makes me think it not even improbable 

 is a fad concerning an hofpital in London for children, where, as I 

 was informed by one of the managers, out of 75 children, received 

 into it in one year, 71 died J. There was an inquiry made not 

 many years ago by a committee of the-Houfe of Commons, concern- 

 ing the death of children in St. Giles hofpital in London : And I 

 was tcld, by a member of the committee, that of 300, that had been 

 born there in three years before the inquiry was made, not one was 

 alive at the time of the inquiry. This is fuch a dcftrudion of the hu- 

 man 



* Page 85. t Ibid. X Vol. 3. p. 194. 



