EPIDEMICS. 



IT is laid down as a general state of the earth's surface, 

 in relation to vital manifestations, that entire tracts or 

 areas on its surface are subject to waves and patches 

 of a limited and varied character which unfit it to 

 sustain in integrity the essential conditions required for 

 vital manifestation as a whole ; and this is shown alike, 

 in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and these again, in 

 their totality, tell upon man. For where vegetation is too 

 rank, or meagre, or there is much dampness, want of pure 

 air, and decay ; fostering malaria all these tend in them- 

 selves to create disease ; whilst scarcity of food and 

 clothing, on the other hand, tend to famine and depopula- 

 tion. 



Again, the evils of civilization, in the tenements used for 

 aggregation, have a given depressing effect upon vital 

 integrity or health, such, for instance, as relate to cleanli- 

 ness, ventilation, and their collateral sequences in air 

 respired, and food and drink appropriated, in an impure or 

 adulterated condition. 



