'290 Medicine. 



ever, must be understood to be chiefly restricted" 

 to those parts of the world which, during that 

 period, have been making progress in civilization, 

 intelligence and refinement. In many parts of 

 Asia and Africa, and in European Turkey, it is 

 probable that little abatement of the ravages of 

 such diseases has actually taken place. The de- 

 graded state of man in most of the Mahometan 

 countries; the poverty, filth and wretchedness 

 which oppress the lower classes of people in their 

 crowded cities, and the inattention to cleanliness 

 and ventilation, even in the houses of the most 

 opulent, aided by the influence of their doctrine of 

 fatalism, seem to leave them little prospect of 

 emerging from their present condition into one 

 more respectable, and exempt from malignant dis- 

 eases. The contrast of health and disease, in the 

 Christian and Mahometan world, while it affords 

 to the pious mind a satisfactory confirmation of 

 his faith, furnishes also, to the philosopher and 

 physician, an instructive lesson, with regard ta 

 the comparative influence of the respective prin- 

 ciples and institutions of Christianity and Maho- 

 metanism. 



The comparative mildness and infrequency of 

 pestilential diseases in Christian Europe, during 

 the late century, are probably owing to a combi- 

 nation of many causes. Much may be safely as- 

 cribed to improvements in the cleanliness and 

 ventilation of houses, in diet, in apparel, in habits, 

 customs, and all the modes of life. Cities, which 

 are usually the great nurseries of pestilence, are- 

 no w less crowded than in former ages. The com- 

 forts, decencies, and elegances of life, from a va- 

 riety of causes, are now enjoyed by a greater por- 

 tion of the community, and in a much higher degree 

 than in preceding times. To the same causes^, 

 also, may be ascribed the almost entire banish- 



