6q On Meteorological Ohfcrvatlons 



> 



^^ 



•wKen man Kas furvived the danger of infancy, and the body 

 hath acquired fome degree of firmnefs,.biit not its fall growth, 

 he is then but little liable to difeafes,, eipecially fuch as arlfe 



■^ 



from obflriKftion^ as the veflels are now foft and pliant, and 

 at the fame time enlarging every day, in diameter, fo tliat if 

 obflitK^ions fliould be formed, the natural and rapid growth 



hath a diredl tendency to prevent any mortal effe^fts from this 

 caufe. But between the ages of 20 and ^P (the 5th and 6th 

 periods) the mortality is greatly increafed • which occaiioned 

 me no fmall flirprife when I firfl attended to this circum- 

 flance, 7 or 8 years ago, when I firfl began to keep an account 



of deaths ; but which I believe muft be accounted for in this 

 way. It was obferved by Hippocrates, and the obfervation 

 has been confirmed by almoft every phyfician fince, who has 

 treated of the fubjedl, that pulmonary phthifis is by far the 

 mofl incident to pei'fons between 1% and 35 years old : now 

 this difeafe has oi late become much more frequent, both here 



■ 



and in Europe, than formerly, and makes up, I believe, at leafl 

 a icth, perhaps a 6th of our whole bill of mortality \ if thea 

 we take 489, i. e, about one loth of the deaths in your bill> 



and drftribute tliat number into the years which Hippocrates 

 and Qx^rnxaon obfervation t^\ us are moft obnoxious" to phthi- 

 fis, we fhall find it will amply account for the increafe of 

 deaths in thefe periods ; for 'we ^mA that from 20 to 55 the' 

 deaths amoxmt to 645, from which, if we deduct 489 for con- 

 fvimptive cafes, we have left but 156 for the whok mortality 



of thefe 15 years, £-om other caufcs \ to which we mufl add 



that 



