122 



ORDER BIMANA.— GENUS HOMO. 



14,749; Small-pox, 12,534; Dropsy, 8023; 

 5472; Apoplexy, 2995; Childbirth, 1942; 

 Miscarriage, 24. Total, 113,601. 



Measles, 5780 ; Asthma, 

 Palsy, 1165; Gout, 808; 



The principal fatal disea-es which occurred among the inhabitants of 

 London, consisting of a population of 1,178,374 persons, included within 

 the Bills of Mortality during the year 1831, are indicated in the following 

 Table :_ 









TOTII, DEATHS 





CLASSES OF DISEASES. 



SPECIFIC DISEASES. 



DIED. 



BY EACH CLASS 

 OF DISEASES. 



RATE PER 

 CENT. 



f 

 1 



Consumption, 

 Inflammation of ) 

 lungs and pleura, i 



4807 

 16 



~\ 





1 







Pectoral Complaints, . . . < 



Asthma, . . . 

 Hooping-cough, . 



1061 

 1732 



► 7865 



.667 





Disease of heart, . 



127 





• 



I 



Hydrothorax, . . 



122 







( 



Inflammation, . . 



2812 





.278 



Inflammation, < 



Abscess, . . . 



161 



3280 



I 



Mortification, . . 



307 



) 





Convulsion<!. . .... 





29,-^0 



2677 



2980 

 2677 



.233 



.227 



Age and Debility, 





Miscellaneous Diseases, . . 



...... 



2439 



2439 



.207 





Apoplexy, . . . 



485 



T 







Paralysis, . . . 



246 







Diseases of the Brain, . . . < 



Insanity, . . . 



226 



1864 



.138 





Epilepsy, . . . 



54 









Dropsy in brain, . 



853 









Scarlet fever, . 



143 



"\ 





Eruptive Fevers - 



Small-pox, . . . 

 Measles, . . . 



.563 

 750 



k 1544 



.132 



( 



Erysipelas, . . . 

 Intermittent, . . 



B8 

 36 



) 





Fevers, < 



Typhus, . . . 

 Common, . . . 



223 

 965 



V 1224 



.104 



Still-born 



. ..... 



898 



898 



.076 



Diseases of Liver, . . . • 



Disease of liver, . 

 Jaundice, . . . 



296 

 44 



1 340 



.029 





Dysentery, 

 Diarrhoea, . . . 



11 

 33 



" 





Diseases of Bowels, . . . < 



Inflammation of ' 

 bowels & stomach. 



138 



I 230 



.019 











Cholera, 



48 



- 





TOTAL, 



23,. 341 



25,341 



2.150 



Every country has its local maladies, which select their victims, and serve 

 to diminish the probabilities of life. In the metropolis nearly one-fifth of 

 the annual deaths are occasioned by consumption. Scurvy and diseases 

 of the lungs are common in the North of Europe ; in the Southern parts, 

 acute fevers areprevalent. Under the tropics, pestilential fevers prevail 

 during the periods of greatest heat, and dysentery in the rainy season. We 

 find the plague in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, the yellow fever in America. 

 The nature of the soil and climate, the food used by the inhabitants, the qua- 

 lities of the air which they habitually respire, customs more or less injurious 

 to health, and other circumstances not fully understood, are the exciting 

 causes of certain morbid states of the body. 



Diseases are termed Endemic, when they belong to a particular coun- 

 try, as the Cholera on the Banks of the Ganges. Endemics again may 

 be either Sporadic or Epidemic. In the former case, they attack only 

 a few individuals here and there at a time, as the Asiatic Cholera has 

 done in this country since 1832; — in the latter, they attack a very great 

 number of the inhabitants of any country at the same time, as the Cholera 

 of 1832, or the Influenza of the winter of 1836-7. An epidemic is some- 

 times nothing more than an ordinary sporadic disease, which has become 

 general in its attacks, such as the common continued fever of this country, 

 and thus any sporadic disease may become epidemic. Sometimes it is a 

 foreign malady supposed to be introduced by contagion, or produced in 

 the country by some unknown influence, as the plague, and more recently 

 the Asiatic Cholera ; or it may be a new disease altogether, as happened 

 in Paris during 1828-1829, and of which the cause remains unknown. 



In many cases, the local circumstances of a country appear to be the 

 evident causes of certain endemic maladies ; but others result from a com- 

 plication of different causes, such as the Plica Polonica, a disease of the 

 hair, by which it becomes long and coarse, matted and glued in inextricable 

 tangles, and peculiar to Poland, Tartary, and Lithuania, towards the 

 autumn. Baldness and epilepsy are frequent in the islands of the .lEgsean 

 Archipelago ; St Vitus' dance ( Chorea) in the territory of Suabia ; and 

 Tarantulism, a kind of spasmodic affection, common in Italy, where it was 

 erroneously attributed to the bite of the Tarantula Spider. It seems 

 difl5cult to assign any satisfactory reason why Dogs scarcely ever go mad in 

 Mexico and Manilla, although hydrophobia is common on the Coroman- 

 del Coast, according to Legentil ; or why the plague does not spread from 

 Egypt towards the East Indies, Tonquin, and thence to China, while it 



tends continually towards the west. St Petersburg and the Faroe Islands 

 are almost exempted from intermittent fevers ; and quartan agues are 

 scarcely to be found in Scotland, peculiarities which are probably owing 

 to the dryness and keenness of the air. 



When the climate of a country is affected by the general cultivation of 

 the soil, there results a corresponding change in the endemic maladies of 

 the locality. In proportion as the ancient forests of Pennsylvania were 

 cut down, the inflammatory fevers, then very common, disappeared, and 

 were replaced by bilious agues, according to Dr Rush. The climate of 

 France and Germany was formerly much colder and moister than at pre- 

 sent, owing to the dense forests with which the country was covered, as 

 well as the pastoral and almost savage lives of the inhabitants ; and gave 

 rise to other endemical affections than those observed at the present day. 



The inhabitants of all marshy situations, without exception, where the 

 standing waters continually give rise to putrid exhalations, are subject to 

 intermittent fevers, especially to tertian and quartan agues. These mala- 

 dies are more or less dangerous, according to the heat of the climate and 

 the season of the year. Tertian agues, which may be mild in the spring, 

 often become continuous in summer, malignant towards the autumnal 

 equinox, while winter again renders them chronic, and deprives them of 

 their virulence. The simple tertian ague of Amsterdam assumes, under 

 the burning sun of Batavia, the aspect of an intermittent of the most dan- 

 gerous character. 



Endemics may also be attributed to the nature of the food and drink. 

 Nearly all maritime nations, who live continually on fish, appear to be sub- 

 ject to frequent diseases of the skin. These affections prevail in the In- 

 dian Archipelago, in the Antilles, as well as in the Western Isles, Iceland, 

 and especially round the Baltic Sea ; likewise in Friesland, Scotland, Ire- 

 land, Brittany, and generally among all classes whose occupations are 

 chiefly those of fishing and the coasting trade. Certain fishes, such as 

 the Sharks (^Sqnalus), Skate {Eaia), and others, especially towards the 

 spawning season, actually induce the cutaneous eruptions. On the Indian 

 Seas, a great number of tliese maladies are produced by several Branchios- 

 tegous Fishes, such as Diodons and Tetradons ; also, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Caspian Sea, and the rivers of Northern Asia, from the abuse 

 of Caviar and other unhealthy preparations of Fish. 



Some kinds of vegetable diet are also the, cause of endemical maladies. 

 The coarse bread used by the inhabitants of Westphalia, and the Sarra- 



