ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
History Societies shall be formed for the purpose of 
ascertaining the circumstances in all localities which 
are productive of disease or conducive to health.^ 
This enlightened proposal^ made by Dr. Conolly, 
has been universally approved^ and I have reason to 
believe will be very extensively acted upon throughout 
the kingdom at large^ and I rejoice exceedingly that 
this my native county should be among the first to 
step forward to institute a society which, as a part of 
its plan, embraces the objects proposed by this 
talented physician. There are, I apprehend, unre- 
corded circumstances of much interest in natural 
history and medicine, daily occurring in the British 
Islands ; as well as local peculiarities connected with 
these circumstances, either unnoted or not understood ; 
and it will be admitted that the origin and course of 
disease often bears a close relation to these local 
peculiarities. Influences of the atmosphere gra- 
tuitously assumed without understanding their pro- 
perties, are said to affect, very extensively, the health 
of mankind. Exhalations from the earth, or waters ; 
mineral eflluvia ; vegetable aroma and miasms ; 
direction and degree of winds ; accumulations of 
electricity, whether silently operating or bursting in 
storms ; modes of life in towns or in the country ; 
effects produced on health in societies pressed together 
in manufactories, or separated in agricultural em- 
ployments ; the indigenous origin or importation of 
contagion ; the causes of epidemics ; the properties, 
* Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, vol. 1, page 180. 
