34 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
within the last twenty years the whole of the ague 
patients that have been treated at the infirmary amount 
to so large a number as ten. This beneficial result may 
fairly be traced to improved cultivation of the soil. 
Small-pox^ too^ has in a great measure been robbed 
of its terrors. It is true that we now and then meet 
with cases of small pox after vaccination^ but as far 
as my experience has gone^ they have been very 
mild ; and^ at any rate^ the mortality from small-pox 
in this county^ as compared with what formerly 
occurred, is very small indeed ; and if the inhabitants 
were more attentive to avail themselves of the pro- 
tecting powers of vaccination, the benefits resulting 
would be still more decisive. 
It would be inconsistent with my plan to enter, 
in this lecture, into any lengthened disquisition 
concerning the diseases ; having therefore, mentioned 
those which are usually most actively destructive 
of human life, I shall very cursorily notice others, 
which though not less formidable in their results, do 
not call for any particular description here. Scrofula, 
consumption, bronchitis, indigestion, and rheumatism 
are all in a degree endemic in the county, and all 
probably may be in some sort connected with the 
humidity, which prevails in its less elevated districts ; 
but instances of longevity are frequent in Worcester- 
shire, and the ratio of mortality with us is not so 
great as in many other parts of the kingdom. 
There are some diseases which are incident to the 
occupations of the people, as consumption to those 
employed in needle pointing, bronchitis to the leather 
