“In the city of New York alone there are 150,000 people living
to-day who would be dead if the mortality of fifty years
ago still prevailed,” says a writer in _The Booklover’s
Magazine_. “Popular opinion has scarcely yet come to realize
what medical science has been doing in late years. People sicken
and die, think the laity, and the efforts of the physician are
just as futile as before the recent discoveries about which so
much is said. This idea is, however, erroneous. I will venture
to say there is scarcely an adult living to-day who has not
experienced or will not experience an actual prolongation of
life due to discoveries of the last fifty years.”
(1806)