INFLUENCE OF HABIT. 283 



clothing, and the whitewashing-, cleaning, and ven- 

 tilating of the houses of the poor classes, before and 

 during the epidemic, a much greater number would 

 have fallen victims to its ravages. And it is conso- 

 ling to know, that even those who regard such visi- 

 tations as direct inflictions of a vengeful Providence, 

 and as nowise connected with mere neglect of the 

 laws of health, were, nevertheless, not the least 

 active in enforcing and superintending the removal 

 of every external cause of disease, and promoting 

 the comforts and supplying the wants of the needy 

 and destitute ; so that, whatever differences in mere 

 belief there might be, all parties were content to act 

 as if the Creator had intended the health of the 

 race to depend, in a very high degree, on the care 

 which was taken to fulfil the conditions which he 

 has decreed to be essential to the due action and 

 preservation of the various bodily organs. 



Many individuals exist who, from hereditary de- 

 ficiencies, can scarcely attain tolerable health, even 

 with the best care ; and many more are to be met 

 with, who are exposed to bad health from the hurt- 

 ful nature of the professions in which they are en- 

 gaged. Many suffer, also, from vicissitudes of wea- 

 ther and other causes, which we may never be able 

 entirely to guard against ; but all these united are 

 few, when compared to the number of those whose 

 health is ruined by causes capable of removal or 

 of modification, and to which they are now exposed 

 from ignorance of their nature, from apathy, or from 

 the want of the comforts and necessaries of life. 

 If I have succeeded in calling attention to this im- 

 portant truth, the great object of these pages will 

 be accomplished ; and I cannot help repeating the 

 remark already made more than once, that health ?> 

 more frequently undermined by the gradual operation 

 of constant though unperceived causes, than by any 

 great and marked exposures of an accidental kind, and 

 is, consequently, more effectually to be preserve^- 



