decency of the metropolis, that all, or at least the majority of
the burying grounds, were ordered to be formed in some dry spots
of ground at the different extremities of the city; and that the
dead were more detached from the living. No one whose curiosity for
information has led him to these melancholy wrecks of human vanity,
and to behold the yawning mouths of sepulchres, can reflect without
pain and astonishment, on the manner in which between twenty and thirty
thousand corpses are annually crammed into various holes, corners,
public thoroughfares, and churches of this city: a feeling mind must
shudder at, and shrink from the description. Nor can these cadaverous
exhalations fail to pollute the air, and to engender diseases. Let
the clerical revenue arising from graves be transferred to the new
cemeteries.
We shall conclude, by pointing out the most celebrated treatises on
human propagation, existence, mortality, and morbid devastation, by
several philosophers. This is the epoch of a new science in politicks,
philosophy, and medicine. Meritorious and successful efforts have been
made to calculate the prospects of life and death, as the chances on
dice, or the blanks and prizes in a lottery wheel. Graunt, somewhat
later than the middle of the last century, first wrote a treatise
on the London bills of births and mortality, and was followed soon
after by Petty, King, and Davenant. The present century has produced
several treatises on this subject; of which the most celebrated
are Dr. Halley’s; De Moivre’s Treatises on Annuities and Chances;
Susmilch’s Calculations; Simpson’s Select Exercises; some essays in
the Philosophical Transactions; Dr. Jurin on the Small Pox _only_;
Dr. Short’s Observations on various Bills of Mortality; M. Messance;
Dr. Price’s Essays, the Archimedes in annuitant and reversionary
calculation; Birch’s Collection of the London Bills of Mortality to
1759; Dr. Percival’s Essays; Dr. Millar’s Calculations respecting the
Diseases of Great Britain, and Military Diseases; and Dr. Robinson’s,
respecting Maritime Diseases.
Our curtain being now ready to fall, we shall address a few words to
the Reader.—The present Publication had its origin in so short a time
from the following circumstance. About six months ago, the President
of the Medical Society of London called upon the author, at the desire
of the Society, to request that he would deliver the annual oration,
which was then fixed at four months distance only from that period:
to which, with some reluctance, he consented. Indeed, he considered
the solicitation both as a compliment, and a literary challenge:
because, by the rules of the Society, one year’s previous notice to
the orator had been the invariable practice. In the execution of this
arduous and unprecedented attempt, the author is not ashamed to boast
of industry and zeal. Were he to enumerate, in narrative and detail,
the difficulties and fatigue which he had to encounter in collecting
merely the materials of new information, he is persuaded that most
gentlemen would have considered that alone sufficient exercise for
their industry, patience, and perseverance during many months. Had he
chosen to have followed the rhetorical path of the London College, his
talk would have been far less onerous. But notwithstanding the eminent
talents scattered throughout that learned body, from Linacre down to
Hulse, Wintringham, Baker, Warren, Turton, &c. their united catalogue
of public declarations, however classical, have not much contributed to
medical edification, or public utility.
FINIS.
_ERRATA._
Page 9, line 15, personl, _read_ personal; p. 37, l. 21, science,
_read_ sciences; p. 42, l. 26, coctaneous, _read_ cœtaneous; p. 48,
l. 17, Rocherches, _read_ recherches; p. 71, l. 3, and extravasated,
_read_ by extravasated; p. 114, l. 8, the face is overspread, _read_
overspreading the face; p. 124, l. 20, pressing, _read_ depressing;
p. 198, l. 16, lactation, _read_ ablactation; p. 224, l. 8, _read_
sounds are scarcely audible; and there is confused noise in the ears;
p. 220, l. 25 and 6, eyes, pharynx, tongue, _read_ the eyes, the
pharynx, the tongue; p. 229, l. 17, lucubrious, _read_ lugubrious; p.
233, l. 20, remnant amongst, _read_ remnant sunk amongst; p. 258, l.
5, its deficiency and excess, _read_ deficiency and excess of its; p.
260, l. 7, Epididymis, _read_ Epididymidis; p. 262, l. 9, scirrhous,
_read_ scirrhus; p. 279, l. 24, manbile, _read_ morbile; p. 283, l. 12,
consistence and size, _read_ consistence, size, and number; p. 286,
l. 13, lactation, _read_ ablactation; p. 326, l. 13, muliri, _read_
mulieri; p. 329, l. 9, debility with, _read_ with debility.
[Transcriber’s Note. As well as correcting the errata above, the
following changes have been made to the text:
Page 12: analagous to analogous—“perhaps analogous”.
Page 41: adoloscence to adolescence—“years of adolescence”.
Page 67: diarrhæa to diarrhœa—“dysentery, diarrhœa, cholick”.
Page 67: locheal to lochial—“lochial excess”.
Page 68: “befored escribed” to “before described”.
Page 68: spinaventosa to “spina ventosa”.
Page 72: peripneumenies to peripneumonies—“contagious peripneumonies”.
Page 89: diarrhea to diarrhœa—“diarrhœa or dysentery”.
Page 98: peripnuemonies to peripneumonies—“and peripneumonies are”.
Page 110: symtoms to symptoms—“Additional symptoms”.
Page 123: harships to hardships—“fatigue, hardships”.
Page 131: candaverous to cadaverous—“fetid cadaverous”.
Page 172: deletirious to deleterious—“superlatively deleterious”.
Page 191: cattarh to catarrh—“angina and catarrh”.
Page 221: idopathick to idiopathick—“are idiopathick as well”.
Page 269: dyspnæa to dyspnœa—“abdomen, dyspnœa”.
Page 279: mombile to mobile—“pain being mobile”. This change is instead
of the erratum noted above for page 279.
Page 373: iritation to irritation—“irritation to urine”.]