TENDENCY TO CALCULOUS DISEASES. 
59 
district. But if we further remove the cases which occur in London and the 
adjacent counties, with the respective population connected with them, we 
shall have not more than 49 examples of calculus attaching to the whole re- 
maining population of England and Wales, or 1 case only, for every 188,000 
inhabitants, which is little more than one fifth of the proportion of London, 
and of the Norfolk district excluding Norwich ; and only about one ninth of 
the proportion of Norwich itself. 
The tendency of any particular class of persons to be affected with calculous 
complaints, in the kingdom at large, must therefore be exceedingly small. But 
if we take individuals between 14 and 50, (which is the most extended period 
of active exertion in adult age,) the calculous cases will be still further re- 
duced ; for though it appears by the population returns, that nearly one half 
of the whole population of the kingdom, consists of persons between those ages, 
yet the calculous cases belonging to this period of life, as inferred from the 
Norwich register, are not quite a third of the total number. Under these 
considerations, I feel some degree of difficulty in completely assenting to the 
opinion which Mr. Copland Hutchison so ably supports*, of a sea-faring life 
being remarkable for the comparative infrequency of urinary calculi ■f-. 
In the Norwich as well as the London Hospital, the liability to calculous 
* On the Comparative Infrequency of Urinary Calculi among Sea-faring People. Medico-Chi- 
rurgical Transactions, vol. ix. p. 443. 
t By the register of the London Hospital it appears, that of 265 cases of calculus, which have 
occurred between the years 1761 and 1821, averaging 4^ per annum, 12 were of sea-faring persons, 
making 1 in 22 of this class of persons, in the wdiole admissions. Of these, 2 were under 14 ; 4 be- 
tween 14 and 20 ; 3 between 20 and 40 ; and 3 above 40. Mr. Borrett, an eminent surgeon of 
1 armouth, some years ago operated on a lad of 12 years of age, who was on his fishing voyage at 
Yarmouth, from the North of England; and the same gentleman assisted Dr. Tait, of the Naval 
Hospital there, about the year 1809, in an unsuccessful operation on a sailor, who was brought on 
shore, under great suffering, from a ship of war at that time lying in the roads. These are all the 
instances with which I am acquainted, of the occurrence of calculus in sea-faring persons ; for the 
register of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital does not afford any evidence on the subject, as it is 
only of late years, that the occupations of patients have been inserted in it. Without such an aid, I 
should feel it to be impossible to speak from recollection, as to the occupations of public patients, 
even if they had been known at the time of admission, which could be very seldom, and only inci- 
dentally the case. Ihe occurrence, according to Mr. Hutchison’s interesting paper, of 6 cases of 
lithotomy in 15 years, in a naval population of 160,000, will be in the proportion of .4 per annum, 
or 1 in 400,000 persons. But if we put aside the London and Norfolk districts, as being more 
than ordinarily liable to the complaint ; and comprise Scotland and Ireland in the calculation, which 
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