fields, some seasons would be more healthy than others; and, while the cause of disease was unsuspected, this would confirm them in the notion that health and sickness were dispensed by an overruling Providence on inscrutable principles. But the moment the cause was known, it would be found that the most healthy seasons were those which were cold and dry, and the most sickly those which were warm and moist. They would then discover, that the salubrity of one year and the unwholesomeness of another were clearly referrible to one principle; and after perceiving this truth, they would be more strongly prompted to apply the remedy, and also rendered morally and intellectually more capable of doing so. If some intelligent friend had merely advised them to drain their fields and remove their dunghills, they probably would not have complied; but whenever their intellects were led to the perception that nature was so constituted that the evil would continue until they acted in this manner, the improvement would be promptly effected. A young gentleman of Glasgow, whom I knew, went out as a merchant to North America. Business required him to sail from New York to St Domingo. The weather was hot, and he, being very sick, found the confinement below deck intolerable; that is, it was, for the moment, more painful than the course which he followed, of laying himself down at full length on the deck, in the open air. He was warned by his fellow-passengers and the officers of the ship that he would inevitably induce fever by this proceeding; but he was utterly ignorant of the physical and organic laws. His intellect had been trained to regard only wealth and present pleasure as objects of real importance; it could perceive no necessary connection between exposure to the mild grateful sea-breeze of a warm climate, and fever; and he obstinately refused to quit his position. The consequence was, that he was soon taken ill, and died the day after arriving at St Domingo. Knowledge of chemistry and physiology would have enabled him in an instant to understand, that the sea air in warm climates holds a great quantity of water in solution, and that damp and heat, operating together on the human organs, tend to derange their healthy action, and ultimately to destroy them entirely; and if his sentiments had been deeply imbued with a feeling of the duty of compliance with the institutions of the Creator, he would have actually enjoyed not only a greater desire, but a greater power, of supporting the temporary inconvenience of the heated cabin, and would probably have escaped unharmed. The late Dr Robert Macnish of Glasgow favoured me with the following communication, suggested by a perusal of the second edition of the present work:-" On four several occasions, I have nearly lost my life from infringing the organic laws. When a lad of fifteen, I brought on, by excessive study, a brain-fever which nearly killed me; at the age of nineteen I had an attack of peritonitis,* occasioned by violent efforts in wrestling and leaping; while in France, nine years ago, I was laid up with pneumonia,† brought on by dissecting in the great galleries of La Pitié with my coat and hat off in the month of December, the windows next to me being constantly open; and in 1829 I had a dreadful fever, occasioned by walking home from a party at which I had been dancing, in an exceedingly cold morning, without a cloak or greatcoat. I was for four months on my back, and did not recover perfectly for more than eighteen months. All these evils were entirely of my own creating, and arose from a foolish violation of laws which every sensible man ought to observe and regulate himself by. Indeed, I have always thought--and your book confirms me more fully in the sentiment-that by proper attention, crime and disease and misery of every sort could, in a much greater measure than is generally believed, be banished from the earth, and that the true method of doing so is to instruct people in the laws which govern their own frame." In 1837, Dr Macnish was cut off by typhus fever in the prime of life. Captain Murray, R.N., mentioned to Dr A. Combe, that, in his opinion, most of the bad effects of the climate of the West Indies might be avoided by care and attention to clothing; and that so satisfied was he on this point, that he had petitioned to be sent thither in preference to the North American station, and had no reason to regret the change. The measures which he employed, and their effects, are detailed in the following interesting and instructive letter: "ASSYNT, April 22, 1827. "MY DEAR SIR,-I should have written to you before this, had I not been anxious to refer to some memorandums, which I could not do before my return home from Coul. Í * Inflammation of the lining membrane of the abdomen. attribute the great good health enjoyed by the crew of His Majesty's ship Valorous, when on the West India station, during the period I had the honour of commanding her, to the following causes-1st, To the keeping the ship perfectly dry and clean; 2d, To habituating the men to the wearing of flannel next the skin; 3d, To the precaution I adopted, of giving each man a proportion of his allowance of cocoa before he left the ship in the morning, either for the purpose of watering, or any other duty he might be sent upon; and 4th, To the cheerfulness of the crew. "The Valorous sailed from Plymouth on the 24th December 1823, having just returned from the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, where she had been stationed two years; the crew, including officers, amounting to 150 men. I had ordered the purser to draw two pairs of flannel drawers and two shirts extra for each man, as soon as I knew that our destination was the West Indies; and, on our sailing, I issued two of each to every man and boy in the ship, making the officers of each division responsible for the men of their respective divisions wearing these flannels during the day and night; and at the regular morning nine o'clock musters, I inspected the crew personally; for you can hardly conceive the difficulty I have had in forcing some of the men to use flannel at first, although I never yet knew one who did not from choice adhere to it when once fairly adopted. The only precaution after this was to see that in bad weather the watch, when relieved, did not turn in in their wet clothes, which the young hands were apt to do, if not looked after; and their flannels were shifted every Sunday. "Whenever fresh beef and vegetables could be procured at the contract price, they were always issued in preference to salt provisions. Lime juice was issued whenever the men had been fourteen days on ship's provisions; and the crew took all their meals on the main-deck, except in very bad weather. "The quarter and main decks were scrubbed with sand and water, and wet holystones, every morning at daylight. The lower deck, cockpit, and storerooms were scrubbed every day after breakfast, with dry holystones and hot sand, until quite white, the sand being carefully swept up, and thrown overboard. The pump-well was also swabbed out dry, and then scrubbed with holystones and hot sand; and here, as well as in every part of the ship which was liable to damp, Brodie-stoves were constantly used, until every appearance of humidity vanished. The lower-deck and cockpit were washed once every week in dry weather; but Brodie-stoves were constantly kept burning in them, until they were quite dry again. "The hammocks were piped up and in the nettings from 7 A.M. till dusk, when the men of each watch took down their hammocks alternately; by which means, only one-half of the hammocks being down at a time, the 'tween decks were not so crowded, and the watch relieved were sure of turning into a dry bed on going below. The bedding was aired every week once at least. The men were not permitted to go on shore in the heat of the sun, or where there was a probability of their getting spirituous liquors; but all hands were indulged with a run on shore, when out of reach of such temptation. "I was employed on the coast of Caraccas, the West India Islands, and Gulf of Mexico; and, in course of service, I visited Trinidad, Margarita, Cocho, Cumana, Nueva Barcelona, La Guayra, Porto Cabello, and Maracaybo, on the coast of Caraccas; all the West India Islands from Tobago to Cuba, both inclusive; as also Cura oa and Oruba, and several of these places repeatedly; also Vera Cruz and Tampico, in the Gulf of Mexico; which you will admit must have given a trial to the constitutions of my men, after two years among the icebergs of Labrador, without an intervening summer between that icy coast and the coast of Caraccas: yet I arrived in England on 24th June without having buried a single man or officer belonging to the ship, or indeed having a single man on the sick list; from which I am satisfied that a dry ship will always be a healthy one in any climate. When in command of the Recruit, of 18 guns, in the year 1809, I was sent to Vera Cruz, where I found the 46, the the- 18, and gun-brig; we were joined by the and the 18. During the period we remained at anchor (from 8 to 10 weeks), the three frigates lost from 30 to 50 men each, the brigs 16 to 18, the most of her crew, with two different commanders; yet the Recruit, although moored in the middle of the squadron, and constant intercourse held with the other ships, did not lose a man, and had none sick. Now, as some of these ships had been as long in the West Indies as the Recruit, we cannot attribute her singularly healthy state to seasoning; nor can I to superior cleanliness, because even the breeches of the carronades, and all the pins, were polished bright in both the and 42, - 36, which was not the case with the Recruit. Perhaps her healthy state may be attributed to cheerfulness in the men; to my never allowing them to go on shore in the morning on an empty stomach; to the use of dry sand and holystone for the ship; to never working them in the sun; perhaps to accident. Were I asked my opinion, I would say that I firmly believe that cheerfulness contributes more to keep a ship's company healthy than any precaution that can be adopted; and that, with this attainment, combined with the precautions I have mentioned, I should sail for the West Indies with as little anxiety as I would for any other station. My Valorous fellows were as cheerful a set as I ever saw collected together." Suppose that two gentlemen were to ascend one of the Scottish mountains in a hot summer's day, and to arrive at the top bathed in perspiration and exhausted with fatigue; that one of them knew intimately the physical and organic laws, and that, all hot and wearied as he was, he should button up his coat closer about his body, wrap a handkerchief round his neck, and continue walking, at a quick pace, round the summit, in the full blaze of the sun;-but that the other, ignorant of these laws, should eagerly run to the base of a projecting cliff, stretch himself at full length on the turf under its refreshing shade, open his vest to the grateful breeze, and give himself up entirely to the present luxuries of coolness and repose:-the former, by warding off the rapid chill of the cold mountain air, would descend with health unimpaired; while the latter would most probably carry with him the seeds of rheumatism, consumption, or fever, from allowing perspiration to be instantaneously checked, and the surface of the body to be cooled with an injurious rapidity. The death of the young Duke of Leuchtenberg, husband of Donna Maria, Queen of Portugal, was the consequence of imprudence like this. On Monday, the 23d of March 1835, being in perfect health, he went out to shoot. On returning to the palace he threw off his coat and waistcoat, while in a state of profuse perspiration. This brought on a cold, slight at first, but which soon began to assume a serious character. On Friday the 27th, inflammation appeared; and on Saturday the 28th he expired. The following case, also illustrative of the points under consideration, is one which I had too good an opportunity of observing in all its stages. |