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COMPARATIVE VIEW
OF THE
MORTALITY
OF THE
_HUMAN SPECIES,_
_&c. &c._
* * * * *
A
Comparative View
OF THE
MORTALITY
OF THE
HUMAN SPECIES,
AT ALL AGES;
AND OF THE
DISEASES AND CASUALTIES
By which they are destroyed or annoyed.
ILLUSTRATED WITH
_CHARTS AND TABLES_.
BY WILLIAM BLACK, _M.D._
ONE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS IN LONDON:
MEMBER OF SEVERAL LITERARY SOCIETIES, &C.
Published at the unanimous Request of the MEDICAL SOCIETY of London.
LONDON:
Printed for C. DILLY, in the Poultry.
1788.
DEDICATION.
TO
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
GEORGE Prince of Wales.
May it please your ROYAL HIGHNESS,
A Young and celebrated Prince, before his first Military Expedition,
interrogated one of his experienced Relations and Instructors, How he
should conduct himself to be respected and obeyed by his Army?—“To
know more of the Profession than any of your Soldiers,” was the sage
Reply; and to the renowned Cyrus, the Conqueror of the Babylonians.
This Maxim is, in some Degree, applicable and pertinent throughout
all the Gradations and Scale of Society. A Prince, born to the Throne
of a mighty Empire, pre-eminent in its Political Constitution, and in
the universal Range of the Arts and Sciences, is urged by his Personal
Dignity and Public Duty, to aspire to the intrinsick Qualifications of
Human Supremacy.
In the present small Tribute of Duty and Respect, I am not submitting
to your Royal Highness a dry, technical Analysis of Diseases. An
enlarged Survey of Medicine is intimately interwoven with most of the
sublime Objects, not only of Philosophy, but, in our original Chart
and Model, of Politicks also and Legislation, both in Peace and War.
It transcends the British Poet’s Limitation of Human Studies, the
Knowledge of Man: it embraces a Scope of Natural Knowledge far beyond
any other of the learned Professions; encompassing in its spacious
Orbit most of the grand Divisions of Science. A total Ignorance in
this, would leave a dreary Chasm in Literature; and, like the ancient
Geography, the Map and Globe of intellectual Discoveries would be half
unexplored.
In early Ages, when Medicine had not reached beyond the Merit of
a few Empirical Cures, the Consultation in consecrated Temples of
Medical Oracles was ingrafted with Divinity and Objects of Worship.
The Rays of Majesty were not then obstructed from cherishing this
tender Shoot. From the encouragement of Alexander, Aristotle’s Natural
History had its Origin. From the Patronage of his Successors to the
Egyptian Throne, the Ptolemys, first arose Human Anatomy, together
with the magnificent Alexandrian Library. Many of the first Miracles
of Christianity are a Display of Medical Omnipotence. By several
of the Asiatic and Roman Emperors, their Physicians were admitted
to a Familiarity, and to their Tables: their Archiaters, or Royal
Physicians, held the Second Rank in the Empire; and even, so late as
Constantine, were created Counts. The Arabians, Mahomet’s Successors,
were unbounded in their Rewards and Encouragement of Medicine. With
the Destruction of the Roman Empire, Science lay many Centuries buried
in its Ashes. But on the Recovery from Feudal Anarchy, and the Revival
of Literature after the Crusades, those raised to the Degree of Doctor
in any of the learned Professions, contended Precedence with the most
respectable then in any European State, with Military Knighthood.
In Britain, and most other Kingdoms of Europe, Italy excepted,
Literature of any Sort, of Native Growth, is but a modern Plant.
Medicine in this Island is an Exotic, until within the last Three
Centuries; and since that Period, seems to have scrambled into
Consequence and Emolument, from its own intrinsic Merit, and the public
Encouragement. For Truth compels me to observe, that the Favours and
Honours of Majesty have been measured out, even to the Benefactors of
Science and of Mankind, in this Profession, with a parsimonious and
partial Hand. I do not presume to arraign the Wisdom or Justice of
your Royal Ancestors, but of their Counsellors and Ministers; in whom
there seems a Sort of epidemical or entailed Infatuation and Bigotry to
lavish the first Honours of the State upon the Memory of dry Laws, and
the specious Accomplishments of Logick and Rhetorick.
Your Royal Highness is at present, through the bountiful Beneficence
of Nature, and the variegated Acquisitions of Education, endowed with
most of the preliminary Embellishments requisite in your exalted
Station, and to a Summit of Celebrity and Admiration. The Rudiments,
Difficulties, and Acclivities are surmounted, and leave you an
uninterrupted Range through Parnassus, in the Fruition of the luxurious
Feasts furnished by Apollo and the Muses. In a political View, and
in their public Administration throughout all the Professions, and
Medicine notoriously, there are numerous Defects and Abuses originating
from the Ignorance and Inexperience of former Ages, the Corruptions
and Innovations of Time, and from various other Causes. With thousands
of these remediable Diseases, the most enlightened Nations are yet
over-run and contaminated; and a Monarch who would emulate a Trajan or
an Aurelius, will find glorious Employment as a Political Physician.
He will have the divine Consolation and Reflection of circulating his
Knowledge through innumerable Channels, to the Benefit, Happiness,
Nurture, and Preservation of Millions of Mankind.
I have the Honour to remain,
with profound Respect and Esteem,
Your HIGHNESS’S
most humble and obedient Servant,
WILLIAM BLACK.
CONTENTS.
Page
_The station and rank of our planet amongst the celestial orbs,_ 1
_The solar system and stars,_ 3
_The earth’s figure, magnitude, motion,_ 4
_Of the moon,_ 7
_The investing elements of the earth,_
_Heat and light,_ 8
_Atmosphere and winds, &c._ 10
_Rain, snow, &c._ 11
_Electrical emanation,_ 12
_The earth’s division into land and water, and into continents,_ 13
_The situation of the human species upon the earth,_ 14
_The number of the human species,_ 15
_The multiplication of the human species,_ 19
_The distinction of the human species into classes,_ 21
_Mankind diversified by civilization,_ 22
_The inhabitants of cities, towns, and country,
constitute other groups of society,_ 24
_The human species diversified by their ages,_ 25
_The distinction of the sexes into male and female,
form two important groups,_ 27
_The comparative produce of marriages in city and country,_ 28
_The general proportion of births to the mortality
in various kingdoms,_ 30
_The comparative births of males and females,_ 32
_Of public registers, of births, burials, and diseases,_ 35
_The primary orders of medical architecture not yet established,_ 37
_The mortality of the human race in city and
country, and from birth to the extreme of existence,_ 38
_Of longevity,_ 43
_Comparative mortality of males and females,_ 44
_Comparative mortality of husband and wife,_ 45
_Comparative longevity in the married and single state,_ 47
_Comparative mortality of the seasons,_ 48
_A general abstract of human mortality in city
and country, and throughout the globe,_ 49
_The probabilities or expectation of life,_ 51
_A general chart of mortality in city and country,
and in different kingdoms,_ 54, 55
_The probable prospects or expectations of life at all ages,_ 55
_Of the mortality by different diseases,_ 56
_Of the London bills of mortality,_ 57
_The chart of London diseases may serve as a
general scale and index of diseases and casualties
to Britain and Ireland, or to the
whole globe; with exceptions: a sort of
medical geometry and trigonometry,_ 60
_The number and proportion of diseases not to
be estimated by the mortality of each,_ 63
_A medical catalogue of all the diseases and casualties
by which mankind are destroyed or annoyed,_ 65
_A_ chart of all the diseases and casualties in
London, _during 75 years,_ 64, 65
_Of diseases in general,_ 70
_Of the fatal epidemicks in England during
two centuries; and comparison of sickly
years in city and country,_ 72
_Of fevers,_ 75
_Intermittent fevers,_ 78
_Remittent fevers,_ 84
_Nervous and putrid fevers,_ 90
_Inflammatory fever,_ 97
_Small pox,_ 102
_Measles,_ 111
_Scarlet fever,_ 113
_Plague,_ 115
_Sweating sickness,_ 121
_Of the predisposing and occasional causes of all
the preceding fevers,_ 121
_Of general febrile prognosticks,_ 127
_Of the local phlogistic fevers,_ 133
_Inflammation of the brain,_ 134
_Angina, inflammatory and putrid,_ 136
_Pulmonic inflammation,_ 142
_Hepatic inflammation,_ 150
_Inflammation of the stomach,_ 152
_Erysipelas,_ 153
_Rheumatism, acute and chronic,_ 155
_Gout,_ 159
_Internal suppuration and gangrene in the thorax and abdomen,_ 166
_Diseases of the lungs and organs of respiration,_ 168
_Pulmonary hemorrhage,_ 172
_Pulmonary phthisis,_ 174
_Other species of consumption,_ 177
_Asthma,_ 183
_Dyspnœa and coughs,_ 190
_Catarrh,_ 192
_Hooping cough,_ 195
_Croup,_ 198
_Headach,_ 200
_Night mare,_ 202
_Apoplexy,_ 203
_Lethargy, coma, and carus,_ 207
_Vertigo,_ 209
_Palsy,_ 210
_Epilepsy,_ 212
_Tetanus,_ 217
_Spasms and cramps,_ 221
_St. Vitus’s dance,_ ibid.
_Catalepsy and extacy,_ 222
_Fainting and asphyxy,_ 223
_Palpitation of the heart,_ 226
_Polypus of the heart, internal aneurism, and ossification,_ 227
_Hypochondriasm,_ 229
_Insanity,_ 232
_Diseases of the external senses,_ 251
_Vision,_ 252
_Hearing,_ 257
_Smell,_ 258
_Taste,_ ibid.
_Voice and speech,_ 259
_Sterility of the sexes,_ ibid.
_Morbid irritability of the genitals,_ 260
_Impediments in deglutition and manducation,_ 262
_Diseases of the stomach and intestines, and organs of digestion,_ 263
_Of the stomach,_ 268
_Cholera morbus,_ 272
_Dysentery,_ 274
_Diarrhœa,_ 275
_Colick,_ 277
_Gall stones,_ 282
_Jaundice,_ 284
_Worms,_ 286
_Hemorrhoides,_ 288
_Vomiting of blood,_ 291
_Poisons,_ 293
_Hydrophobia,_ 294
P. S. _Costiveness, and nasal hemorrhage,_ 297
_Diseases of the urinary organs,_ 298
_Inflammation, and calculi in the kidneys,_ 299
_Inflammation, and calculi in the bladder,_ 301
_Incontinence of urine, and diabetes,_ 305
_Ulcers in the kidneys and bladder, and bloody urine,_ 307
_Dropsy,_ 309
_Of the brain and spine,_ 311
_Thorax,_ 312
_Abdomen,_ 314
_Anasarca,_ 317
_Hydrocele,_ 318
_The predisposing and occasional causes of dropsy,_ 320
_Tympany,_ 322
_Excess of fat and corpulency,_ 323
_Female diseases,_ 324
_The proportion of menstrual obstruction and excess,
and of hystericks, to other diseases,_ 325
_Morbid and irregular menstruation, including
chlorosis, obstruction, suppression,_ 328
_Uterine relaxation, including excessive menstruation
and fluor albus,_ 330
_Final cessation of menstruation,_ 334
_Hystericks,_ 335
_Childbed, the proportion of mortality,_ 339
_Abortives and twins, the proportion,_ 340
_Conception and pregnancy,_ 343
_Parturition, natural, laborious, preternatural, and complex,_ 350
_The principal diseases in consequence of
pregnancy, and also after parturition,_ 362
_Abortion and uterine hemorrhage,_ 366
_Convulsions,_ 370
_Irregularity of the lochia, comprehending
excess, obstruction, and suppression,_ 371
_Inflammation of the womb,_ 373
_Puerperal fever,_ 375
_After-pains, weed, milk fever, inflammation of the breasts,_ 378
_Infant diseases,_ 380
_The general causes of infant diseases,_ 383
_Convulsions and inward spasms,_ 385
_Dentition,_ 387
_Rickets,_ 389
_Thrush,_ 391
N. B. _Their other diseases are before described,_ 392
_Venereal disease,_ 393
_Scurvy,_ 398
_Scrofula,_ 403
_Leprosy,_ 406
_To the_ Reader: _an apology for breaking off abruptly,_ 407
_Executed,_ 408
_Of the London bills of mortality; their defects;
easy and important improvements recommended,_ 414
A Comparative View, _&c._
INTRODUCTION.
_A Sketch of our Planet’s Station, Rotation, and Rank amongst the
other Celestial Orbs; and of its Investing Elements:—of the
Habitable Parts of our Planet: the Number of the Human Species,
and their Division into various Classes, Genera, Groups, and
Gradations: their Comparative Births._
There are two methods of promoting Medical Knowledge: one by negative
information, or criticisms on the numerous errors of preceding authors:
the other by direct instruction, and improvement on former models. The
first method is worn out in hackneyed chimes: the second is encumbered
with infinitely more difficulties; and its merits paramount in the
superlative degree. However unequal I have imposed upon myself the
latter task. But, previous to the discussion of the general theme,
it will conduce to order, and to the anticipation of explanatory
digression and illustration, to glance at the station, rotation,
and rank of our Parent Planet amongst the other celestial orbs; at
its investing elements; and at the number, groups, and recruit of
mankind. A navigator or historian, who undertakes the description of
any island, kingdom, or continent, commences with their geographical
outlines and climate, penetrating afterwards thorough a scrutiny of the
inhabitants. Upon a similar, but more majestic model, our Introductory
Preface is founded. Throughout the whole of this intricate, sublime,
and inexhaustible subject, if I do not delay sufficient time to fix,
I shall at least hope to start the reader’s attention to a variety of
grand objects, inseparable from a comprehensive knowledge of Medicine;
and of which I shall touch the fundamental keys and chords.
The Solar System consists of the Sun, of seven Planets surrounded
by ten or more Moons, and of the Comets. The other siderial lights
with which the vault of Heaven is studded, and which are denominated
Fixed Stars, have a very distant affinity with our planetary sphere:
they are infinitely too remote to be enlightened by our luminary; and
therefore astronomers, with good reason, imagine each star to be a
sun to encircling planets, though invisible to us; and to constitute
throughout boundless space thousands, or perhaps millions, of habitable
worlds. Numbers of those stars, most luminous and proximate, are
arranged into arbitrary clusters, called Constellations, or Signs; and
serve to mark the several stages of the rotating orbs in our system.
The Sun, whose magnitude far surpasses that of the seven planets
united, is placed in the center, suspended in the immense celestial
expansion and firmament. Surrounding him, at different distances, and
in the following order, are the planets Mercury, Venus, the Earth,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Georgium Sidus. These planets are incessantly
revolving from west-by-south to east, and within certain intervals
of time, make a complete circle round the Sun; which is the length of
each planet’s year; and is larger and longer in proportion to their
respective distances. The velocity of their revolution in their annual
orbits, together with their gradations of light and heat, are also
in proportion to their solar proximity. From the Sun, the Planets,
with their surrounding moons, derive heat and light; and when this is
intercepted by any planet, or its satellite, an eclipse or darkness
ensues. In what periods those tremendous celestial bodies, named
Comets, revolve round the Sun, is not yet exactly adjusted.
One of the seven planets, the Earth, this small domain of restless
mortals, and to which all our future observations shall be directed,
is distant from the Sun 95,173,000 miles. In shape, it has more
resemblance to a turnip than to a globe. Its diameter is 7,970 miles:
its circumference 360 degrees; which amounts to 24,840 English miles.
Geographers divide the globe of our planet into two equal parts, or
hemispheres, the northern and southern, by an imaginary girdle, or
ring, named the Equator. Two other imaginary girdles surrounding the
earth, and distant from the equator on each side 23½ degrees, north
and south latitude, are named the Tropicks of Cancer and Capricorn;
comprehending between them the torrid zone. From these tropical circles
the zones, called Temperate, extend on each side 43 degrees: and at
their extreme boundaries, we reach the polar circles 23½ degrees
distant from each pole. The north and the south poles are in the middle
of each hemisphere of the earth; and the distance of each from the
equator is 90 degrees.
The earth has several incessant motions: one in which it turns, like a
suspended wheel upon its own axis, from west to east, every twenty-four
hours, which is the length of its day and night: the second, where it
is rolling progressively in its great annual circle, or journey round
the Sun: the third, the alternate inclination of its poles towards
the sun at different times of the year: the fourth, the small circle
which it describes monthly round the common center of gravity, or
balance, with its moon. The earth’s diurnal revolution upon its axis,
is at the rate of fifteen degrees, or 1,035 miles hourly. But the
rapidity with which it is whirled in its annual orbit, is, hourly,
68,243 miles: whereas the swiftness of a ball discharged from a cannon
is, in the same time, only 480 miles. Projected through the vacuity of
heaven with this amazing velocity, in the space of 365 days, 5 hours,
and 49 minutes, the earth completes its annual circle; which is the
length of our year. The earth’s rotation every twenty-four hours upon
its axis, is the cause of day and night, or of light and darkness. In
this successive rotation, one half of its globular surface is always
enlightened; the other half being then obscured in nocturnal gloom,
except when enlivened by the reflected rays of the moon, or of one
of the planets, or by the fainter glimmering of the fixed stars. The
alternate spiral inflection and declination of the earth’s poles
during its annual journey round the Sun, is the cause of the different
lengths of Days and Nights; of the Seasons; of Summer and Winter; of
the Equinoxes, and Solstices: and as each pole inclines or recedes, it
is summer and winter, alternately, in their respective hemispheres. The
effects of this compound terrestrial circumvolution on the animal and
vegetable creation, would alone be a magnificent theme for many volumes.
One Moon only is allotted to our earth; from which it is distant
240,000 miles. The moon’s diameter is nearly one fourth less than that
of the earth, which it obsequiously accompanies throughout its annual
circuit; and round which it makes a perpetual revolution, from west to
east, every lunar month. The constant agitation and periodical surges
of the ocean, are greatly influenced by the moon, assisted, however, by
the centrifugal force of the earth’s motion. It is also ascertained,
that in some diseases, the human body is considerably under the lunar
influence; and its energy is still more conspicuous at periodical
changes, during the month and the year. Many arguments might be
suggested to invalidate and overturn the ancient astrological systems,
and to prove that the celestial influences upon us are not, in any
considerable degree, derived from sources more remote than the solar
confines.
The first Element in pre-eminence and subtility, without which all
would be lifeless chaos in our system, is Heat and Light. Cold is a
negative quality, and merely a comparative diminution of heat. The
middle regions of the earth being repeatedly more exposed to the Sun’s
vertical rays, are consequently most heated and scorched. From the
equator to the poles, are all the gradations of heat and cold; but for
reasons too prolix to enumerate, these gradations are not in exact
measurement with the geographical distances from the equator; neither
in the same continent, nor in different continents. By the scale
of Farenheit’s thermometer, water boils at 212, freezes at 32; and
blood-heat, or that of the human body, is about 97. The most intense
heat of the tropical regions, as measured by the same thermometer,
is frequently many degrees above the human temperature; and the most
intense cold of the polar regions, often many degrees below 1 or 0
of the same scale. Neither of these noxious extremes of pestilential
heat, nor of deadning blasts from boreal snow, could be long endured
by the human species, were their bodies not protected and skreened by
fences of nature or of art. Atmospheric heat, equal even to that of
the human body, is felt intolerably scorching and suffocating. Every
one also knows, by personal experience, that in different latitudes,
and in summer and winter, the degrees of heat and cold, the duration,
recurrence, and changes, are extremely variable. But within the
equatorial limits, these variations are much less conspicuous, both
in the thermometer and barometer. From this main spring and soul of
animated nature, blessings and bounties are diffused, in thousands of
channels, to every order of the creation; and from its extremes and
vicissitudes, a multitude of evils and diseases are inflicted upon man.
Between the earth and celestial vacuum is interposed an element, called
the Atmosphere, or Air. This invisible elastic fluid is floating
equally round our planet, to the distance of at least forty-five miles
perpendicular elevation. It has been compared by some philosophers, to
packs of wool heaped on each other: that nearest the ground is most
dense, compact, and ponderous; and as we ascend, it becomes gradually
more rare, light, and cold. The prodigious gravity, or pressure, of
this atmospherick column, appears incredible to those who are ignorant
of experimental philosophy, and of the air-pump and barometer. Upon a
man’s body, of middle stature, its weight is equal to thirty-two or
thirty-three thousand pounds: but in rainy and variable weather, and
especially on the summit of high mountains, there is a diminution in
its pressure of many thousand pounds. This great mass of air, as well
as the waters of the ocean and of rivers, is in constant agitation;
sometimes gliding in gentle calms; sometimes, with wild uproar, raging
in storms and hurricanes, and dispersed in a variety of currents,
over different parts of the earth and ocean in Winds, constant,
periodical, variable, and irregular. Without the concurrent support
of air, animal and vegetable life would soon be annihilated. On them
great and sensible effects are produced by the atmosphere and winds: by
the air’s noxious impregnation, stagnation, want of elasticity, heat,
cold, moisture, dryness; by the points from whence winds blow, their
constancy, irregularity, recurrence, velocity.
The earth is the cistern, and one principal fountain of another still
grosser element. From the Sun’s heat, and from the successive streams
of air and winds, a prodigious evaporation is carried on from the
surface of the ocean, from the land, and from vegetables. Whether part
of the atmospherick air is also converted into vapour, is a question
too intricate and diffuse for our present inquiry. The critical
analysis and history of a single element, would alone far exceed the
limits of this Dissertation. It is sufficient for us to observe, that
these vapours, terrestrial and aerial, are collected into clouds,
condensed, and again discharged upon the earth in Dews, Mists, Fogs,
Rains, Snow, and Hail. The precipitation likewise of this accumulated
vapour upon different parts of the globe, is periodical, regular, and
variable. In quantity, duration, recurrence, and extent, these aqueous
modifications are greatly diversified by the climate and soil, the
vicinity to mountains and sea-coasts; the points from whence winds
blow; and by many other causes, of which a detail cannot be here
expected. From this source also ensue salutary and baneful effects,
innumerable to animal and vegetable life.
Another subtile and active agent in the secret machinery of nature,
is the Electrical Emanation; which, somewhat perhaps analogous to the
aqueous evaporation and congestion before mentioned, is collected
into clouds, and, with loud explosion, again discharged and dispersed
into the air and earth: the fabulous thunderbolts and artillery of
Omnipotence.
We now alight upon that solid mass, Earth, the most fixed and
substantial of all the elements. The surface of our planet is composed
of dry land and water; of which the ocean, without including lakes
and rivers, occupies by much the largest extent. But the partition of
the dry land into four continents, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America,
is not well founded. Nature has in reality formed only three great
insulated continents, exclusive of the smaller islands. Europe and Asia
are contiguous, and cemented together as England and Scotland; or as
France and Germany; and their boundaries artificial: whereas Africa,
except the slender neck of land near Alexandria, is surrounded by sea.
Of these four continents, Europe is the most diminutive. Asia and
America stand dignified, above all the others, in superior magnitude.
The dry land in Europe, Asia, and America, stretches to a great
northern latitude, considerably within the arctick, or polar circles;
and, spreading also in that part to a wide extent, east and west, forms
nearly a complete bridge between Asia and America. Within the tropical
circles are included the belly and bulge of Africa, and of South
America, with a considerable portion of the broken southern extremities
of Asia; together with most of the principal islands in the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans. In all the hemisphere south of Capricorn, the
land is greatly disproportioned to the ocean. The conical south point
of America is but 55, and that of Africa only 35 degrees distant from
the equator. A vast orbicular segment of this extreme of our planet,
furnishes habitation for fishes only. The dry land is also diversified
by elevations and plains; but in no part of the earth’s circumference
do those stately monuments of nature’s workmanship ascend to five miles
perpendicular elevation.
The Creator has bountifully stored the earth and the ocean with animals
and vegetables. Our attention is here circumscribed to the most exalted
class, the Human Species; leaving to the naturalist a description of
quadrupeds, birds, fishes, insects, and vegetables. By far the largest
proportion of the human species are stationed to the north side of the
equator, and even to the north of the tropick of cancer. The populous
continents of Europe and Asia, comprehending most of the powerful
kingdoms in our planet, are in the northern hemisphere. Within the
tropical circles and furnace of the earth, are stationed the next
considerable hive of mankind. To the south of Capricorn there are few
inhabitants. Some wretched human beings are also scattered through
those dreary wastes of ice and snow within the northern polar circles.
Calculators differ enormously respecting the _number of the Human
Species_. Some sink the collected herd so low as three hundred million,
whilst others exaggerate them to treble and quadruple that amount. It
forms no part of my scheme to investigate the comparative population
of the earth, one, two, and three thousand years ago. Europe, in all
probability, since the era of Roman grandeur, has, together with
advancement in civilization, likewise added to the number of its
inhabitants. Those parental nurseries of the arts and sciences in Asia
and Africa, have no doubt undergone various revolutions in population.
If we were to draw any inferences from the numerous Asiatic armies,
during the successive despotism of Assyrian, Babylonian, Medean, and
Persian monarchies, we should conclude that, in remote ages, the south
of Asia abounded in men. The extensive empire of China, at this day,
resembles an industrious beehive, and is gorged with mankind. We have
still more aversion to plunge into the mysterious archives of Africa,
and with critical affectation to pronounce upon the population of that
quarter before the decay of its political, commercial, and literary
fame with Thebes, Carthage, and Alexandria. That modern-discovered
transatlantic continent, from the cruelties and desolation of its
first conquerors, and of a loathsome infectious disease exchanged for
another, has probably suffered considerable diminution of its original
feeble hive, notwithstanding the recruit from Europe; and in the scale
of population, as yet ascends to a very subordinate rank amongst the
other continents. The most probable calculations estimate the whole
human race at eight hundred million: of which number, Europe boasts
of little more than one hundred million. The great swarm is in Asia;
amounting to between four and five hundred million. Africa is supposed
to contain one third or fourth of the latter number. Over the fertile
wilderness of America are scattered not altogether twenty million.
But if in London alone, where registers of various kinds may be
consulted, calculators are, notwithstanding, at variance respecting its
population upwards of one hundred thousand, and in the whole island
more than a million; it may be reasonably suspected, that in forming
a gross estimate of the aggregate terrestrial inhabitants, we may
err perhaps, one, two, or even three hundred million. As well might
we expect a correct list of the lions, crocodiles, and monkies of
Africa, as of the outcast human race in those burning and illiterate
regions. To determine the exact amount of inhabitants in any civilized
kingdom, the most certain method would be, to make an universal and
arithmetical numeration throughout every dwelling. This is often
done in several kingdoms; and in none more culpably neglected than
in this island. English calculators, therefore, have been under the
necessity, by other laborious processes, to form at least plausible
conjectures of the national population. One of their methods is, by
collecting the number of houses, and allotting five, or four and a half
inhabitants to each house; which, at a general medium, was found near
the standard of truth, in a multitude of large towns and open districts
in England, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; as may be seen
recorded in the writings of Short, Susmilch, Price, and many others.
In some particular cities, however, such as Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and
Edinburgh, where several families are crowded into one house, this
rule would lead into error. Besides, in ours, and many other large
kingdoms, we are not yet supplied with an authentick register of all
the dwellings. And in Asia and Africa, whose political institutions
and customs are so different from us, this scale of mensuration may
be still more erroneous. Another method, but still more complex and
uncertain, of computing the population is, by the annual christenings
and burials. When these are equal, and consequently there is no
increase or decrease of the inhabitants, we are directed to multiply
the usual prospect or decrement of life, or in the mathematical phrase,
the expectation of an infant at birth in that city, town, or district,
by the general medium of christenings; which will be the total local
amount of the inhabitants. But as the christenings and burials are
rarely equal, or a correct list of either can be ascertained from the
imperfect registers, this process is very defective.
The Multiplication of the human species depends greatly on society.
There are more inhabitants concentrated into one large metropolis of
Asia or Europe, than could be collected in many thousand miles of
the North-American wilderness on its first discovery. The population
of the earth is by no means regulated by the extent of country. If,
on the one hand, high refinement and large cities are obstacles to
population, a wild state of nature is still more detrimental. A few
tribes of North American natives, prowling like hungry wolves, can
scarce find precarious subsistence in a wide extent of uncultivated
desarts. Their infants, from necessity, are suckled several years;
and after rearing two or three, the period of propagation is nearly
over. A medium state between the vicious extremes of refinement and
rude savageness; or the middle stages between the iron and golden ages
of the ancient philosophers, is most favourable to the increase of
our species. But the causes conducive to population and depopulation,
are of infinite compass; and are of a compound nature, medical and
political. They are connected with the state of government, religion,
climate, genius, industry, riches, poverty, taxes, luxury, refinement,
wars, colonization, emigration, commerce, agriculture, the unequal
distribution and monopoly of property and farms, the plenty, scarcity,
and cheapness of food; and, with many other causes, closely allied to
our future medicinal investigation. Under governments and nurture,
directed with political and moral, together with medical prudence
and circumspection, the earth and ocean would probably afford ample
nutriment, and their population might be multiplied to three times
eight hundred million.
Extending our views over the surface of the globe, we perceive
striking distinctions between the human species; not only in the four
great continents, but also in different parts of the same continent.
These differences are principally manifest in the colour of the
skin; in the complexion, countenance, physiognomy, hair, form, and
stature. We attend here merely to corporeal distinction, without
including the intellectual. These great Classes of mankind may be
divided into the Laplander, the Tartar, the Chinese, the European,
the African-negro, and the native American. The modern-discovered
inhabitants in the islands of the Pacific ocean, seem to have no
remarkable cast of countenance or figure to sever them into a separate
class. But throughout a considerable extent of the globe, from
conquest, emigration, colonization, and commercial intercourse, many
nations are now blended and assimilated into one; and their elementary
characteristic features more faintly imprinted. Besides, every one’s
experience and observation will instruct him, that in populous
kingdoms those classes branch out into innumerable intermixtures,
orders, and genera; and that the species and varieties are as numerous
as the individuals of the human race. Amongst the ab-origines, and
stationary inhabitants of most kingdoms, there are indeed some
prominent features peculiar to each community; which are, in some
degree, conspicuous in the corporeal, and still more in the mental
outlines. Mankind, exclusive of their original mould, as issued from
the mint of the Creator, are afterwards diversified by climate, soil,
diet, government, religion, association, occupation, and habit.
By Civilization, mankind are arranged and connected into an infinite
series of descending and dependent links. In a state of nature there
are few gradations in society; few professions or mechanical arts. Mr.
Voltaire makes two great divisions of mankind; the oppressors, and
the oppressed. Descending the mole-hill and ladder from the throne
to the cottage, we may trace a multitude of gradations in the scale
of polished communities. We descend thro’ nobility and gentry of
independent fortunes, in lands or money; through literary professions,
including divinity, medicine, law, and various other branches of active
or speculative science: all of which united, constitute, even in the
most opulent nations, but a small portion of the community. We next
descend to a fertile hive of husbandmen and artizans, laborious drudges
in mechanical trades, arts, manufactories, and commerce: to a numerous
class of retailers or venders of merchandize, and of the necessaries of
life: to soldiers, sailors, domestick servants: to no inconsiderable
multitude buried under ground, and occupied in digging metals and fuel
from the bowels of the earth: to infirm, cripples, diseased, puerperal,
aged; and to many other links and gradations, which must be greatly
diversified by the variety in governments, religion, climate, national
genius, and other causes which will occur to philosophers, and to
gentlemen of reflection. It is of essential importance, not only in an
enlarged political, but also in a medicinal view, to contemplate these
constituent portions of a community.
The inhabitants crowded into Cities and towns, and those dispersed
in small villages, and in the Country, constitute other large groups
of society. If the result of Susmilch’s researches and materials,
collected throughout Germany can be depended upon as a criterion for
other European nations, the inhabitants in the country are to those
in cities and towns as 3½ to 1. Great cities, if we except Rome and
Constantinople, are of modern date in most kingdoms of Europe. In
the ninth century, a few towns had been built in Germany; but in
England, corporations and considerable towns are posterior to the
Norman invasion. Cities, associated communities, and towns, during
the religious frenzy of crusading, and after the termination of this
epidemical distemper, were asylums from aristocratic tyranny; and when
of moderate size, are seats of politeness, refinement, emulation,
arts, and society; but when overgrown, they check population; they are
drains of the human species, the graves of infants, and nurseries of
vices. Unfortunately also for succeeding generations, numerous cities,
towns, and harbours, have been founded upon low, unhealthy situations,
surrounded by morasses and hills. Most cities seem to have grown to
maturity by accident and time: their streets are narrow, irregular, not
sufficiently ventilated; and the inhabitants absurdly and perniciously
thronged together. There are moderate-sized towns, and even country
districts, whose situations are so noxious, as to make the burials
exceed the births. We need not travel to new uncultivated continents
and islands, nor to rank tropical climates for proofs: we have only to
consult Dr. Short’s Registers of several parts in this kingdom.
The assemblages of the human race are greatly diversified by their
Ages. During nine months only of uterine incubation, and from the
most minute tadpole, an infant at birth has grown to between sixteen
inches and two feet; and from five to ten pounds in weight. After
birth, the increase is slower; and it proceeds to shoot upwards a
few inches annually, but not always in successive progression, and
to make additions to its weight and dimensions. Between puberty and
twenty-one years of age, man has generally attained to the summit of
his altitude; females, rather earlier; and those still earlier who
inhabit warm climates. Excluding that fragment of pigmy mortals, the
Laplanders, between five and six feet in height is the most universal
and mean standard of the human race; and their gravity in various
gradations, from eight to twenty stone; in both which respects,
females usually fall short of males. Nature, however, is not limited
to one model of altitude or gravity; she sometimes deviates into
extravagancies, producing human giants, from nine, down to diminutive
dwarfs of two feet; together with shapeless monsters wallowing in fat,
and weighing upwards of forty stone. Let us next endeavour to form
arithmetical estimates of the human race, at different ages. Davenant
calculates the inhabitants of England (not including Scotland) at five
million and a half; and their sundry ages as follows:—Under one year
of age, 170,000; under five years of age, 820,000; under ten years of
age, 1,500,000; under sixteen years of age, 2,240,000: from sixteen
years of age to the extreme of existence, 3,260,000; of which number
he estimates 600,000, or about one ninth part of the whole community,
to have passed sixty years of age; and of which veteran group the males
constitute 270,000; the females, 330,000. Dr. Price supposes nearly
an equal proportion living under 16, and above that age; but that the
latter are the most numerous class: Davenant states the medium at 20.
Dr. Halley supposed the number living under 16, to comprize about one
third of the community; and also, that those living between 20 and
42, were about one third of the whole. The preceding analysis of the
numbers living at different ages in one kingdom, may with facility be
applied to any numerical extent. If we wish to calculate the proportion
living at similar ages amongst one hundred million, we have only to
multiply by 18 each of the preceding groups composing five million and
an half of inhabitants.
Two large and important classes are formed in society, by the
distinction of the Sexes into male and female. So soon as the organs
of generation are completely evolved; that is, when the two sexes
arrive at puberty, they are inflamed with a new passion and pleasing
sense. In most warm climates, this generative period is somewhat
earlier than in northern latitudes; and in the former also, women are
said to be more prolifick. We shall therefore devote a few words to
the union of the sexes, from whence ensue procreation and births. Some
calculators have computed, that amongst five million and an half of
inhabitants in England, there are annually about forty-one thousand
legal marriages: of which one sixth part are widows and widowers; about
one marriage to every one hundred and four inhabitants; and the annual
marriages to the births, as 1 to 4, or 4½. The mean ages at which
marriages in this island commence, is computed from 32 to 35 on the
side of the man, and 25 on that of the woman; but in this estimate,
second and third marriages are included.
In cities, not only fewer enter into the matrimonial state, but the
product also of city and country-marriages is observed to differ.
Marriages in cities, one with another, seldom produce above four;
generally between three and four, and sometimes not three children:
whereas country-marriages seldom produce less than four, and generally
between four and five. Whether this disparity between the product
of city and country-marriages is to be imputed to dissipation,
libertinism, and incontinence, both in the single and married state;
to the cloudy apprehensions and fears of overstocking their house;
to later, fewer, and less frequent unions in the matrimonial bond;
or to all these and other causes combined, I submit to the reader’s
consideration. From authentick registers of a variety of small towns
and country parishes in England, Dr. Short found, that each marriage
produced four and a half children, at a medium; for some married
pairs have only one or two: others six, eight, twelve, or more; and
a small remnant are unprolifick. Natural, or illegitimate children,
are enrolled in the public records of christenings, and swell their
proportion to the registered weddings somewhat greater than they would
appear without this extraneous addition. In some German registers, Dr.
Short found, that of 333,655 births, the illegitimate amounted to one
thirty-seventh part; and in an inland town of England, that of 10,337
births, 284, or about one thirtieth part, were illegitimate.
If the number of inhabitants in any kingdom, city, or village,
continues the same without increase or decrease, and supported by their
own procreation only, it is evident, that there the annual births and
burials will be equal, and the supply proportioned to the waste; and in
equal numbers, as many will die at all ages as are born in the year, on
a general average; and the numbers dying any year at one, two, three
years of age, and so on to the extreme of existence, will be just equal
with the numbers who successively attain to those different ages at
which the others die. The total annual births amongst five million
and an half of inhabitants in England, are calculated by Davenant at
190,000; which is about one birth to every twenty-five inhabitants;
and amongst nine million of inhabitants in Britain and Ireland, the
annual procreation will considerably exceed three hundred thousand;
and the annual mortality should be somewhat inferior. In the kingdom
of Prussia, from the year 1715 to 18, there were christened, at an
annual medium, 78,826; buried, 55,852. In the kingdom of Sweden, the
annual average of births during nine years, ending in 1763, was 90,240;
burials, 69,125. In Norway, in 1761, the christenings were 11,024;
burials, 6,926. In France, during three years, ending in 1772, the
annual average of births was 920,918; burials, 780,040. In the county
district of Vaux, in Switzerland, during ten years, the births were
3,155; burials, 2,504. The country, says Graunt, has 6,339 births for
5,280 burials. In that little fertile atlantic island Madeira, the
inhabitants have been computed to double themselves in eighty-four
years; so great is the difference between the births and burials. In
some provinces of North America, if Dr. Franklin’s calculations are
correct, the inhabitants double themselves in the short space of
twenty-five, twenty-two, and even in fifteen years. On the other hand,
in all the large cities of Europe: in Paris, Vienna, Rome, Dresden,
Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and in almost all towns
of considerable magnitude and population, the total annual births are
inferior to the burials. It is calculated, that in London, within
the last 150 years, near a million more of the human species have
been wasted, beyond what were reared by its own original growth and
procreation. But in small villages and country districts, the annual
births exceed the burials; and it is from this redundance that a supply
is furnished for the extraordinary consumption of armies, navies, war,
colonization, emigration; exclusive of sickness, and other morbid
casualties: the country and village surplus prevents depopulation.
Providence has also wisely ordained, that throughout those European
kingdoms, of which we have any registers, a few more Males should be
born than Females; and indeed such a surplus is rendered necessary
from the waste by wars, emigration, intemperance, mechanical arts, and
trades, the inclemency and vicissitudes of the weather and seasons, the
vices and misfortunes to which political punishments are annexed; with
various other noxious casualties, to all which the male sex are most
exposed. In Dr. Arbuthnot’s Table, printed in the _London Philosophical
Transactions_, of the proportion between the births of the sexes; in
forty-six years were baptized of males, 329,742; of females, 308,644:
excess of males only, 21,098. By the London bills, from 1657 to 1776, I
find that there have been christened of males, 1,041,149; of females,
983,061, or as 18 to 17: and therefore, that in this long interval of
120 years, and comprehending two million of births, there is only a
trifling excess of males, amounting to 58,088: a number which would
scarce recruit the consumption of a few active campaigns. The excess
of male beyond female births, is not so considerable as books of
calculation have represented. In volume the 7th of the _Philosophical
Transactions abridged_, there is an account of the annual births
during several years at Vienna, Breslaw, Dresden, Leipsic, and
Ratisbon: and in those cities, male and female births were as nineteen
to eighteen. Amongst the abortives and stillborn, we also find the
plurality of males. Lastly, if the registers can be depended upon, it
appears that there are more births in Winter than in Summer, both in
town and country. But although the fruit of the human womb may not have
arrived at maturity before winter, it is no proof against the general
law of the spring and summer influence on animals and vegetables, in
contributing to fecundity and generation.
CHAPTER I.