VOL. LXXXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 3 



has, I know not how, arisen a prejudice concerning putrid diseases, which seems to 

 have made people more and more apprehensive of them, as the danger has been 

 getting less. It must in great measure be attributed to this, that the consumption 

 of Peruvian bark in this country has, within the last 50 years, increased from 14,000 

 to above 100,000 lb. annually. And the same cause has probably contributed, 

 from a mistaken mode of reasoning, to prepossess people with the idea of the 

 wholesomeness of a hard frost. But it has in another place * been very ably de- 

 monstrated, that a long frost is eventually productive of the worst putrid fevers 

 that are at this time known in London ; and that heat does in fact, prove a real pre- 

 ventive against that disease. And though this may be said to be a very remote 

 effect of the cold, it is not therefore the less real in its influence on the mortality 

 of London. Accordingly a comparison of the numbers in the foregoing table will 

 show that very nearly twice as many persons died of fevers in Jan. 17Q5, as did in 

 the corresponding month of this year. I might go on to observe that the true 

 scurvy was last year generated in the metropolis from the same causes extended to 

 an unusual length. But these are by no means the only ways, nor indeed do 

 they seem to be the principal ways, in which a frost operates to the destruction of 

 great numbers of people. The poor, as they are worse protected from the wea- 

 ther, so are they of course the greatest sufferers by its inclemency. But every 

 physician in London, and every apothecary, can add his testimony, that their busi- 

 ness among all ranks of people never fails to increase, and to decrease, with the 

 frost. For if there be any whose lungs are tender, any whose constitution has 

 been impaired either by age, or by intemperance, or by disease; he will be very 

 liable to have all his complaints increased, and all his infirmities aggravated by such 

 a season. Nor must the young and active think themselves quite secure, or fancy 

 their health will be confirmed by imprudently exposing themselves. The stoutest 

 man may meet with impediments to his recovery from accidents otherwise incon- 

 siderable; or may contract inflammations, or coughs, and lay the foundation of the 

 severest ills. In a country where the prevailing complaints among all orders of 

 people are colds, coughs, consumptions, and rheumatisms, no prudent man can 

 surely suppose that unnecessary exposure to an inclement sky; that priding one-self 

 on going without any additional clothing in the severest winter; that inuring one- 

 self to be hardy, at a time that demands our cherishing the firmest constitution 

 lest it suffer; that braving the winds, and challenging the rudest efforts of the 

 season, can ever be generally useful to Englishmen. But if generally, and on the 

 whole, it be inexpedient, then ought every one for himself to take care that he be 

 not the sufferer. For many doctrines very importantly erroneous; many remedies 

 either vain, or even noxious, are daily imposed on the world for want of attention 

 to this great truth ; that it is from general effects only, and those founded on ex- 

 tensive experience, that any maxim, to which each individual may with confidence 

 defer, can possibly be established. 



* Observations on the Jail Fever, by Dr. Hunter, Med. Trans, vol. 3. — Orig, 



B 1 



