278 DIMINISHED MORTALItY FROM THE 



of cough and hemoptoes continually laid. The lungs 

 were now in a proper state for receiving the im- 

 pression of aerial vicissitudes ; and constant ex- 

 posure to night air, to rain, and every inclemency 

 of the season, soon evolved the long black catalogue 

 of pulmonic and phthisical maladies, which swept off 

 our men in vast numbers, to the no small surprise of the 

 officers, who could not divine the cause of this new and 

 destructive enemy. 



"But it was not the lungs alone that suffered 

 here. The central organ of circulation bore a part 

 of the onus, and a host of anomalous and otherwise 

 inexplicable symptoms were produced, which com- 

 pletely puzzled the naval practitioners, who rarely 

 suspected any lesion of the heart. These last 

 affections both aggravated, and were in their turn 

 aggravated by, the depressing passions engendered 

 during the long confinement on ship-board and sepa- 

 ration from friends and native home," 



I need hardly stop to point out to what extent the 

 fatal results above mentioned might have been pre- 

 vented, had the officers been possessed even of a 

 superficial acquaintance with the laws of respiration 

 and of muscular action. A perusal of the chapters 

 on these subjects will enable the reader to judge 

 for himself, and to determine whether the cause of 

 the destruction was really difficult to be divined. 

 Dr. Johnson, it may be mentioned, has the Channel 

 and North Sea fleets chiefly in view in his re- 

 marks. 



Increased attention to the organic laws has 

 greatly reduced the annual rate of mortality in 

 Europe, even within the last forty years, and it 

 cannot be supposed that farther improvement is im- 

 practicable. Dr. Hawkins, in his Medical Statistics, 

 states, that in 1780 the annual mortality in England 

 and Wales was 1 in 40 ; in 1790 it was 1 in 45 ; in 

 1801 it was 1 in 47 ; in 1811, 1 in 50 ; and in 1821 it 

 had sunk so low as 1 in 58. In cities, the diminution 



