VOL. LXXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Ijy 



Hence in J 735, at York it would require 21 4. years to bury a number equal 

 to that of its inhabitants; but in 1776, 28J- years would be required for the 

 same. One-third less die yearly now than in the former period; and we are 

 certainly advancing still higher, for in 1777 the births were more than in any 

 former year, being 5 1 6, the burials 464. As there is no settled manufactory 

 here, there is little increase or decrease of the people by acquisition or emigra- 

 tion, and probably what may happen in either case is nearly balanced by the other. 

 It appears from tab. 4, that the summer season is by much the healthiest at 

 York; autumn the next; then the spring; winter being by far the most fatal. 

 Dr. Percival found much the same to be the case at Manchester. At Chester 

 Dr. Haygarth says November was the most sickly month. It appears that our 

 diseases are chiefly of the inflammatory kind, which physicians know to be the 

 general attendants of the winter and spring months. The disorders of the 

 summer and autumn are more particularly such as arise from putrescency and 

 acrimony, such as slow and remitting fevers, dysenteries, choleras, and the like; 

 those then, being with us the healthiest seasons, show, that we are not subject 

 to putrid diseases. Dr. Wintringham has given an account of the weather and 

 the corresponding diseases at York for sixteen years successively, in his Com- 

 mentarium Nosologicum, to which learned work the curious reader is referred 

 for further satisfaction on this subject. 



Among the general causes of our increasing population and healthiness, we 

 may enumerate the introduction of inoculation, which has been the means of 

 saving a number of lives; improvements in the treatment and cure of several 

 disorders, the cool regimen in fevers, the admission of fresh air, the general 

 use of antiseptic medicines and diet, have doubtless had a salutary and extensive 

 influence on the health of mankind, and have much obviated the malignity of 

 some of our most dangerous diseases. To these may be added a general 

 improvement and greater attention to nature in the management of infants. 



After the general causes of healthiness, such as are particular, or of a more 

 local nature, come under consideration. In this respect the city of York has 

 been much improved within a few years past. The streets have been widened in 

 many places, by taking down a number of old houses built in such a manner as 

 almost to meet in the upper stories, by which the sun and air were almost ex- 

 cluded in the streets and inferior apartments. They have also been new paved, 

 additional drains made, and, by the present method of conducting the rain from 

 the houses, are become much drier and cleaner than formerly. The erection of 

 the locks, about 4 miles below the city, has been a great advantage to it: for, 

 before this, the river was frequently very low, leaving quantities of sludge and 

 dirt in the very heart of the city, also the filth of the common sewers which it 



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