274 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



fatal effects on the Romans, caused similar results, and 

 the plague swept off its thousands and tens of thousands, 

 until that dreadful, but fortunate disaster, the great fire, 

 came in the place of knowledge, and by destroying a 

 great part of the city, and especially the crowded lanes, 

 and sources of impurity, which the people had shown so 

 little care to remedy, procured for the citizens, in conse- 

 quence of widening the streets, perpetual immunity from 

 the most terrific of pestilences. 



871. By this, the world, as well as the people of that 

 great city, were taught the grand practical truth that such 

 awful visitations are not the wanton inflictions of a venge- 

 ful Providence, but the direct consequence of the non- 

 observance of those conditions by which the various vital 

 functions are regulated, and by conforming to which 

 alone, health can surely be preserved. 



872. Small Pox. Small pox is another scourge which 

 annually carried off its thousands, and from which modern 

 science bids fair to protect us, although half a century 

 ago, any one who might have ventured to express such 

 an expectation, would have been ridiculed for his credu- 

 lity. Even before Jenner's immortal discovery of vac- 

 cination, the improvement of medical science consequent 

 on a better knowledge of the structure and functions of 

 the human body, had greatly mitigated the fatality of 

 small pox. 



873. Formerly the patients were shut up, loaded with 

 bedclothes, in heated rooms, from which every particle of 

 fresh air was excluded, and stimulants were administered, 

 as if on purpose to hasten the fate of the sick. But 

 sounder views of the wants of the animal economy at 

 last prevailed ; and by the admission of fresh air, the re- 

 moval of everything heating or stimulating, and the 

 administration of cooling drinks and other appropriate 

 remedies, thousands were preserved whose lives would 

 have been lost under the mistaken guidance of the older 

 physicians. 



874. Fever and Jlgue. As late as the middle of the 

 last century, ague was so prevalent in many parts of 

 Britain, where now it is rarely seen, that our ancestors 

 looked upon an attack of it as a kind of necessary evil, 

 from which they could never hope to be delivered. In 



