24 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 



Generally fpeaking, experience, the beft inftru&or, mews 

 the air in moft places of Norway to be pure and falubrious, 

 and even more fo than in many other countries, as perfons of re- 

 gular lives, all circumftances duly confidered, arrive in thefe parts 

 to the utmoft extent of the -age of man, I mall produce many 

 memorable inftances of this hereafter, when I mail particularly 

 treat of the inhabitants of the country ; and the fame is evident 

 from the yearly bills of births and burials, which, by his majefty' s 

 order, I tranfmit to Copenhagen. I mail here only mention, that 

 next to their plain and fimple food, the Norwegians owe their 

 permanent health and longevity more to their air, than to medi- 

 cinal arts and precautions ; for medicine is very little underftood 

 here; the little we know of it is learnt from foreigners ; and 

 whilft the lawyers are never at a lofs for clients, practitioners in 

 phyfic meet with very few patients. 



It is only in the chief towns that phyficians are commonly to be 

 found, and there they are eftablifhed with a public falary, as Pro- 

 vincial phyficians, and in general have but very little employment ; 

 even in this populous city of Bergen, among thirty thoufand fouls, 

 (fome indeed carry the number higher, but I believe they are mif- 

 taken) there is but one, or at the moft two phyficians, and thefe 

 are found fufficient; whereas in a German city of the fame ex- 

 tent, fuch as Lubeck, or Roftock, ten or more may find an am- 

 ple fupport. Norway, indeed, cannot be faid to be entirely ex- 

 empt from peftilential diftempers, for the Black-death, known 

 all over Europe by its terrible ravages, from the years 1348 to 50, 

 was felt here as in other parts, and to the great diminution of 

 the number of the inhabitants, I likewife find accounts of great 

 numbers of people of all ranks, fwept away in the years 1 6 1 8, 

 1630, and 1654. But the piercing colds of winter, and the 

 ftorms feem to be a divine difpofition for purifying the air, and 

 flopping the progrefs of an epidemical difeafe. The like good 

 erTecl is produced by thunder and lightning, which diflipate the 

 fulphureous and nitrous particles in the air. It is a general no- 

 tion, that ftorms and tempefts are more violent here than elfe- 



much of the inward moifture. The moft robuft perfons fuffer fometimes by this ex- 

 treme ficcity of the air. The people of the eaftern coaft of the Red-fea are fome- 

 times obliged to fprinkle water up the air to moiften it, and when they breath, hold 

 a wet cloth to their mouths. Hamburg Magazine, B. 11. page 38. 



where. 



