LECTUEE II. 



It would, doubtless, have added to the interest of the subject, 

 had the limits of my topic allowed me to include, however 

 briefly, some notice of those occupations which we are accus- 

 tomed to speak of as the " professions." It could not fail to 

 interest, as well as instruct you, to know why our Divines, by 

 which I mean the clergy generally, pre-eminent by their learning, 

 eloquence, piety, active benevolence and public spirit, should add 

 the further distinction of being the longest lived; or why 

 the legal profession, in its different branches, certainly, not 

 less eminent in this metropolis, by their great talents, 

 learning, literary tastes, solidity of judgment, forensic skill, 

 and unique business capacity, should rank only second in the 

 enviable possession of longevity. Or again, curiosity, if no 

 other motive, might prompt in you the wish to know why the 

 average life of the medical man should fall so considerably short 

 of that of the preceding. But these professions and other 

 interesting occupations do 'not come under the designation of 

 "unhealthy," to which category I am restricted. But let me 

 say, that, apart from them, I find that my theme is sufficiently 

 if, indeed, not too ample. And there is this further drawback, 

 that the subject has not hitherto received, at least in this 

 country, the attention to which its importance entitles it. 



We are, accordingly, almost without any reliable statistical 

 data or facts.* I am therefore obliged to seek for them else- 



* Thackrah's work, published in 1833, is not based on statistical data. 



