HEALTH. 
“€ommodious form and bad expofition of their houfes, to the 
Seine of the an and to the fluttifhnefs within doors. 
«The floors,’? he fays, “ are commonly: of clay, ftrewed 
ments of fith, fpittle, the excrements of dogs and cats, and 
os thing that is nafty.” Even the floor of the prefence- 
c of queen Elizabeth in Gisecneiade 9 ace, was, ac- 
<ordicn to Hentzner, ¢ ftrewed with hay, a the Englith 
fathion.”? See Heberden loc. cit. Northouck’s and Mait- 
_ land’s Hiftory of London. 
We are enabled to form fome judgment of the effe& of 
this ftate of the metropolis upon the health of the inhabitants, 
by confidering the nature of the difeafes which were then 
prevalent, as well as the comparative mortality. of — and 
of our own times. In the early part of our hifto: eat 
from the e 3, when the regifter er till 1670 the 
bills of mortality exhibit only three years entirely e 
other difeafes, which were © frequen ntly epidemic in London 
nant fevers, ard dyfentery. Of the great —— 
we have already given ample evidence. See EpmpEmic. 
ether hand, the progreffive improvement in the 
public health, will be found to be not lefs manifeftly fyn- 
chronous sith the refinements in the arts of life, and the 
improvements in the economy gr the seecseulixy if we com- 
pare the in of the annual mortality, as exhibit- 
aoe Ma : 
Soon after the great fire of 1666, the plague sega 
ceafed, and has never fince recurred; but the other 
demics above mentioned, although Somewhat diminihed i in 
“numbers, ftill occurred to a great and fatal extent ; fo that, 
lity was excedingly great. _ this: will appear in ftrong i 
colours, when it is {tated that as greater 
at the beginning of the 18th — than at i end of it, 
notwithftanding the great increafe both in the number and 
extent of the out-parilhes, included in the bills of mortality. 
‘The annual average of deaths in the firft ten years of the -co 
century was teventy-one thoufand and = ; in the laft mer ha 
: The ; prince uidoak Sbdiocts in rahe health’ of the: metropolis 
however, feems to have been — oi emer ie _“ phe about 
within the laft fixty years. nearly 
17415, were poi jon (See = Bills. ‘orta- 
lity.) From this time mortality has 
' progreflive, si in ‘the paft year, $5 it amounted to 
16, 680 only, 
Be i recalled, that, although very confiderable 
were made in the city, when. it was rebuilt 
ste Meh "conflagration of - 1666, as it continued highly in- 
commodious, and retained many of its unfalutary pene 
for a century afterwards. = or it was not w 
1766, that the example of reform, which had “aa fet be 
the inhabitants of Weltmisiten was adopted by parliamentary 
fanétion in the city.” Fleet ditch was then firit covered in; 
the ftreets were paved with large fquared yeas ; the figns, 
gates, and bars were taken do own, and a free vert = 
admitted ; openings were made in the incommodious p 
of the | ftreets ; ; and the accumulation of filth and = 
fources of miafmata farther prevented by the more attive 
e 
&c. ; which fyftem has been purfued, and is {till continued, 
to the great ornament of the metropolis, as well as to the 
fubftantial benefié of its inhabitants. From this time, the 
remittent and intermittent fevers and- - eter rapidly di- 
‘minifhed in frequency and fatality ; o former now 
{carcely ever originating in Lon dons nd gs latter ‘bg 
. feldom m genera ral or e epidemic. Mali t fevers became 
ieee in gaols, and in the clofe lnbitatione of the poor; 
an ewgate is no longer vifited by its a typhus, 
which is now feldom found committing its para even in 
the abodes of poverty. 
iole, then, it mutt be infeved, from this detail 
of facts, ‘iat the health of the inhabitants of London (as 
well as of other large cities) is greatly dependent on its 
phyfical and moral condition; and that the pee ee 
civilization con at no lefs to the length an e of 
eu ings = the fee ftate. ‘To the public and external, 
ease in the condition of the metropolis, we are indebte 
for our prefent freedom from. the endemic ze epidemic, 
difeafes of ae viz. the intermittent ttent fevers, 
dyfentery, and the pl: lague : and to the pepe in me 
domettic sesiapse, in regard to fituation, reacts » an 
cleanlinefs, we owe our exemption from the ¢ ontagious 
difeafes of- gaols, and other crowded: and clofe fate 
viz. typhous and maligtiant fevers. 
as of the scenes on | Health. 
ftitutions ’’ of the peg It kas been bers vA 
ferved, that epidemic difeafes in. general have. only | 
curred during particular feafons ; and that in the various 
cs) 
cow, Montpelier, and other places. (See Eee 
The ancient pipiens all remarked the great. Beg ae 
of the fummer and autumn, and the comparative 
he nefs of the fpring. Celfus ‘has charaéterized the four fear 
~ fons in terms: “Igitur f. 
periculofior =fas, rT 1) 
we S Media: lib. cap; Ee 
fe ee 
the winter ; the : —— is se Maser = ee 
the autumn is far the -moft dan: bt Set 
obfervation is ftill in a meafure’ true in the 
climates of Europe, 
where the ancient ians 
ager id: fir John 
cient. maxim that held ¢ 
