I 



RESPIRATION. 125 



inquiries made in Geneva by Dr. Lombard, he has found that the 

 average number of consumptive cases occurring in all the different 

 professions of that town, is 114 in the 1000. In some it rises 

 much above, while in others it falls greatly below, this average 

 number. Thus, among varnish-painters no less than 37 out of the 

 100 were found to have died of this complaint, while of gardeners 

 only 4 in the 100 fell a sacrifice to it. The causes which princi- 

 pally tend to produce consumption, Dr. Lombard finds, are, 1st, 



Jwreathing air in which mineral, vegetable, or animal powders are 



floating : among polishers, sculptors, stone-cutters, plasterers, 



(rSfeh -hand-makers, &c., the proportion of consumptive complaints 



^ffv7 in the 1000. 2d, Sedentary occupations seem to have a 

 great effect in producing this disease, the mortality among clerks, 

 printers, tailors, engravers, &c., being 141 in the 1000; while 

 among such active professions as carpenters, blacksmiths, slaters, 

 agriculturists, &c., the average proportion is 89 in the 1000. 3d, 

 Indigent persons seem about twice more liable to consumption than 

 those living in easy circumstances : annuitants in Geneva, who may 



Bfe reckoned as generally leading an easy, comfortable life, average 

 only 50 consumptive persons in the 1000. , 4th, The more or less 

 impure state of the air breathed, its temperature, dryness, &c., seem 

 to influence considerably the production of consumption. In pro- 

 fessions in which life is spent in shops or manufactories, the pro- 

 portion of cases is 138 in the 1000 ; while in those professions in 

 which life is spent principally in the open air, only 73 in the 1000 

 bme its victims. An atmosphere loaded with animal emana- 

 tes, such as is breathed by butchers, tanners, candlemakers, &c., 

 seems to act rathei* as a preventive to this complaint, the average 

 among these professions being only 60 in the 1000. Breathing a 

 moist air seems also a preventive circumstance, as weavers, dyers, 

 Meachers, watermen, &c., are found liable to it only in the propor- 

 tion of 53 in the 1000 ; while those who breathe a hot dry air, such 

 as toolmakers, enamellers, file-smiths, &c., have 127 in the 1000 

 affected. These deductions may be considered as, at least, approxi- 

 mations to the truth, and they in general agree with what might 

 have been expected, as we know that even in the lower animals 

 consumption can be produced at pleasure by general debilitating 

 causes, or by irritants applied directly to the lungs. A large pro- 

 portion of the monkeys brought from their own warm to this cold 

 and changeable climate, die of this scourge of our race ; and M. 

 Flourens, a French physiologist, has shown, that by keeping 



