vii WEATHER AND DISEASE 73 



accurate meteorological records and truer pathology have 

 not enabled us to advance very much further. We know 

 that pneumonia, measles, hooping-cough and scarlatina 

 have an epidemic prevalence at certain seasons of the year, 

 and that some of these occur in periodic cycles, but this is 

 about as far as present knowledge has attained, and such 

 obscure phrases as " Epidemic constitution of the Air " and 

 " Pandemic influence " are still sometimes made use of. 1 



" RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH " 



This account of Fother gill's medical papers may be closed 

 with an allusion to an imposture a little book, ' ' Rules for the 

 Preservation of Health, by J. Forthergell" which, greatly to 

 Fothergill's annoyance, was issued by an enterprising book- 

 seller. The work was compiled from Dr. Mackenzie's Rules 

 of Health and from other sources, and it traded on Fothergill's 

 high reputation as the supposed author, so that it passed 

 through many editions and attained a large circulation. He 

 informed the public in vain, time after time, of its spurious 

 origin. 2 



1 On Weather and Diseases, Works, i. 145-240 ; Annual Med. Review and 

 Register, 1808, p. .37 ; Dr. A. Ransome, in Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. iv. Epidem. 

 Sect. p. 185. The notification of Infectious Diseases which commenced in 

 England about 1890 will in time supply further and more reliable data. 



2 There were not less than fourteen editions, of the title-page at any rate. 

 Med. Obs. & Inq. vi. 135. 



