CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



manifestation of this need in the eagerness with 

 which paupers generally desire allowances of tea 

 or tobacco, or, indeed, the least variation of their 

 diet. The craving for these luxuries is not so 

 much, what it is generally thought solely to be, 

 the result of bad habits long indulged in, as it is 

 the expression of a want in the personal economy 

 a want which, by one means or another, must 

 be supplied, or injurious consequences will ensue. 



EXEMPTION FROM HARASSING CARES. 



It is little more than a repetition of doctrines 

 already laid down, that, for the due preservation 

 of health, a human being requires an exemption 

 from acute distress of mind and harassing cares. 



Mental distress and anxiety operate through 

 the brain upon the condition of the whole body, 

 and, when long protracted, effectually undermine 

 the health. ' It is impossible,' says Dr S. Smith, 

 ' to maintain the physical processes in a natural 

 and vigorous condition, if the mind be in a state 

 of suffering. Every one must have observed the 

 altered appearance of persons who have sustained 

 calamity. A misfortune that struck to the heart 

 happened to a person a year ago ; observe him 

 some time afterwards he is wasted, worn, the 

 miserable shadow of himself ; inquire about him 

 at the distance of a few months he is no more.' 

 It is Dr Smith's opinion that the nearest cause 

 of many suicides is not strictly a desire to escape 

 from a state of suffering, but some disease, prob- 

 ably inflammation of the brain, brought on by 

 distress of mind. ' By a certain amount and 

 intensity of misery, life may be suddenly de- 

 stroyed ; by a smaller amount and intensity, it 

 may be slowly worn out and exhausted. The 

 state of the mind affects the physical condition ; 

 the continuance of life is wholly dependent on the 

 physical condition ; it follows that, in the degree 

 in which the state of the mind is capable of 

 affecting the physical condition, it is capable of 

 influencing the duration of life.' 



Depression of mind, besides its immediate effect 

 on the nervous system, deranges the respiration, 

 and mars the proper oxygenation and circulation 

 of the blood. A diminished vitality is the con- 

 sequence, often leading to pulmonary consump- 

 tion. An excessive agitation and alarm of the 

 selfish feelings, such as takes place in some minds 

 on the approach of an epidemic, affects the whole 

 system in such a way as to use an expressive 

 phrase of Dr Combe ' places it on the brink of 

 disease ; ' and hence the notoriously great liability 

 of persons in this state of alarm and apprehension 

 to fall victims to the malady when it comes. It 

 has been remarked that an army in a high state 

 of confidence and cheerfulness after a victory, has 

 a much smaller proportion of sick than in the 

 opposite circumstances, or even in its ordinary 

 condition. The usual proportion of sick in a 

 garrison quartered, during peace, in a healthy 

 country, is five per cent. ; during a campaign, 

 when there is more anxiety of mind, it is ten ; in 

 the event of defeat, although the circumstances 

 be otherwise not unfavourable, the proportion 

 rises to a much higher amount. It is a very 

 instructive fact, that in a large detachment of the 

 French army cantoned in Bavaria immediately 

 after the battle of Austerlitz, the proportion of sick 

 was little more than one per cent. 



731 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The fundamental principle of every effort to 

 improve and preserve health has been thus stated : 

 ' Man, as an organised being, is subject to organic 

 laws, as much as the inanimate bodies which sur- 

 round him are to laws mechanical and chemical ; 

 and we can as little escape the consequences of 

 neglect or violation of those natural laws, which 

 affect organic life through the air we breathe, the 

 food we eat, and the exercise we take, as a stone 

 projected from the hand, or a shot from the mouth 

 of a cannon, can place itself beyond the bounds 

 of gravitation.' To this it may be added, that 

 ' all human science, all the arts of civilised man, 

 consist of discoveries made by us of the laws 

 impressed upon nature by the Author of the 

 universe, and the applications of those laws to the 

 conditions which are laws also in which man 

 and the particular bodies and substances around 

 him are placed ; nor, it is manifest, should any 

 science concern us more than that which relates 

 to the conditions on which organic life is held by 

 each individual.' 



The preceding sections are but explanations, 

 such as we have been able to afford, of the condi- 

 tions under which the organic frame of man ex- 

 ists, and the agencies, internal and external, which 

 operate upon it, for the maintenance of health, or 

 the introduction of disease. It must be evident, 

 where there is a conviction of the truth of the 

 fundamental doctrine, that individuals and societies 

 have their health very much at their own disposal, 

 that a careful avoidance, on the one hand, of what 

 is noxious, and a judicious attention to what is 

 beneficial, are what are chiefly necessary for the 

 preservation of the human frame in health to old 

 age ; and that premature deaths, over and above 

 those which result from unforeseen casualties, 

 instead of being, as supposed by the untutored 

 mind, a mysterious and irreversible decree of 

 Providence, are simply the natural effect of our 

 own violation of laws which Providence has 

 appointed for our welfare. It might still be ob- 

 jected, that human nature is such, that the due 

 obedience and observance of those natural ordi- 

 nances are not to be expected ; so that the vast 

 quantity of disease, and the great number of 

 premature deaths, which afflict our present state 

 of being, are equally to be regarded as things im- 

 mutable, and therefore to be tranquilly submitted 

 to. But this view would not be less a mistaken 

 one ; for there is no fact more clearly ascertained, 

 than that disease and premature death are not, 

 and never have been, fixed at any given amount, 

 but yield constantly to the power of any new con 

 ditions which man may be able to introduce. 

 Regarding clear views on this subject as of gre; 

 importance, we shall here enter a little into detail. 



The object is, we apprehend, to shew that sick- 

 ness and mortality vary both in place and in time, 

 according to physical and organic conditions. 



Inquiries into these subjects were not made i 

 ancient times ; but during the last two hundred 

 years, such facts have been recorded as enable us 

 to ascertain that, in that space of time, with regard 

 to nearly the whole of Europe, there has bee 

 a gradual improvement in health and life, i 

 proportion to improved conditions. In Swede 

 for instance, between 1756 and 1763, the annu 



