266 ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, &C. 



temperate habits that prevail through all ranks of 

 society, to the entire disappearance and mitigated 

 severity of many diseases, and to the substitution of 

 vaccination for the small-pox. 



Dr. Young allows that of late years, whether from 

 vaccination, increase of comforts, temperance, or im- 

 provements in medicine and surgery, a decided in- 

 crease in the mean duration of life has taken place 

 throughout Europe.* 



The Nosology of Brutes. 



A monkey at Amsterdam contracted a local ulcer 

 from the small-pox, but had no fever. 



A very great proportion of diseases, and all men- 

 tal affections, may be considered as peculiar to man, 

 brutes being exempted from their influence. 



Leprosy. 



The leprosy and land-scurvy became gradually 

 extinct in England, when the reformation in religion, 

 and improvements in agriculture, had removed the 

 necessity of eating salt fish and salted meat during a 

 great portion of the year. 



Contagion. 



Although the matter of contagion is a chemical* 

 compound, which may be preserved for a great length 

 of time unchanged, no method of subjecting it to 

 chemical analysis has yet been discovered. 



Embalming. 



The antiseptic powder used in this process appears 

 to have been composed of two parts camphor, one of 



* What has been the result of this increase, which many su- 

 perficial writers appear to think an unmixed good ? we are now 

 suffering all the miseries incident to a redundant and starving 

 population ; all the calamities of (what is called) prosperity. 



