vented for the preservation of health; and that the alchemists directed all their endeavours to discover a universal medicineone that would be equally applicable to any derangement of the human frame. During this dark period, the alchemist, astrolo and magician, vied with each other in exerting their skill for the discovery of means to prevent disease and prolong life; and numerous amulets, panaceas, and sympathies were proposed, which have gradually disappeared, but been resuscitated under new forms, until the present time. And thus, it is to be feared, will it ever be. No one can be indifferent to bodily comfort,"Without whose cheerful, active energy, No rapture swells the breast, no poet sings." Even he who is prepared to leave this world at any moment, when the author of his existence may call him, is anxious that the period allotted him should be spent in health and tranquillity still more he who is addicted to sensual gratificationswhose whole happiness consists in living whilst he does live. To him bodily comfort is felt to be of the highest value. Without it his enjoyments are vapid and null. It is the universal interest of hygiène, that occasions the avidity for essays on the subject, as well as on every thing appertaining to it. We can hence understand why works on digestion meet with the greatest sale, and why the subject should be chosen by many, whose motives have been mercenary rather than philanthropic, and who have discovered that to excite the alarms of mankind, may be converted to a profitable purpose. These remarks do not of course apply to all the works which have recently emanated from the press upon this topic, but they are strongly applicable to many. We could refer to some where the improvement of science has been the object of the authors; to others which have originated in the desire to turn to profit the natural credulity of mankind, by arousing them to a sense of danger which does not exist, and rendering their doctrines subservient to other and more selfish purposes. It is to this credulity that we owe many ephemeral and periodical productions which have fluttered for a while on the stage, and subsequently sunk into that insignificance, above which they ought never to have risen. All that is necessary is to excite the fears of the reader :-to conjure up a phantom, founded on the reputed baneful effects of this or that custom or article of dietetics, or on the dangerous character of this or that symptom :-to become, in other words, a medical terrorist. If the alarm excited be sufficient, the work or the individual, whichever it may be, will be certainly followed. Were such an essay to inform one of weak nerves that a certain catenation of symptoms in his person indicates a disease of the liver, it matters not that the whole may be grossly erroneous, the individual concerned will believe it, and have recourse to the prescribed remedies; notwithstanding he may be assured by those, in whom he should place confidence, that such disease does not exist: so much more ready are we to credit those who pronounce that a morbid condition is present, than those who assure us it is not. The whole history of the success of quack medicines rests upon this tendency of the mind of man-a tendency which no experience can obviate. Although we might suppose that the instances on record, in which remedies and appliances, high in vogue for a time, have subsequently sunk into utter neglect, might, in some measure, correct this disposition, it is too true that it has not; and that we are as ready to follow the hardy empiric, because he asserts that he can cure an affection under which we may labour, as ready to have recourse to "panaceas," as our ancestors were in the times of Von Helmont and Paracelsus. The celebrated remedy of Mrs. Stephens, for the stone, which excited so much attention as to be purchased by the British parliament for several thousand pounds, and which was found to consist of lime, produced by calcining the shells of eggs and snails, and made into pills with soap, has now "fallen from its high estate," and is scarcely even recorded in the dictionaries. But a still more remarkable and instructive case is of comparatively recent occurrence, and is familiar to all-that of the "metallic tractors" of Perkins; in testimony of whose efficacy hundreds, nay thousands, of cases were adduced, institutions established, and considerable sums of money expended. Yet tractors and institutions have disappeared, and every one engaged in the transaction has been anxious to wash his hands of the stigma justly attached to it. Still, mankind are ready to act the farce over again, should it appear under a new form :"The tractors, galvanism and gas, In turns appear to make the vulgar stare, At this very moment we have before us a late English newspaper, containing the details of an inquest, held on a young lady, previously in perfect health, who had been destroyed by an ulcer on the back, instituted by an unprincipled and uneducated empiric, who has been for some time professing to prevent and to cure consumption by a new method; and who, by dint of advertisements and effrontery, has succeeded in attracting the sick of all classes. The respectable medical gentlemen who examined the body, declared "that it was a perfectly healthful subject, beautiful in form, and free from all disease, save that occasioned by the wound in the back." Yet, notwithstanding this conclusive evidence, a lady of high rank declared, at the same inquest, that she had faith enough still to send her children to the ignorant pretender, and "hoped that her eldest daughter would go to him on the following day." It would be obviously impracticable for us to give a view of all the matters connected with the subject of the works at the head of this article. Public and private hygiène embrace a multitude of subjects, and each has occupied volumes. There are some topics, however, touched upon in them, and some doctrines contained, especially in the last of them, which, as they seem to us to be neither philosophical in theory, nor accurate in fact, we shall, amongst other matters, briefly canvass. If we leave out of the calculation the antediluvian periods, respecting the chronology of which, the most reflecting and orthodox historians have differed, we have the strongest evidence that the duration of life is much the same as it has ever been. Of the ordinary longevity, 4000 years ago, we have undisputed testimony in the oldest historian whose works are extant. Moses writes: "The days of our years are threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Ps. xc. David lived 500 years later than Moses. When Barzillai excused himself for not visiting the royal palace at Jerusalem, he observed to the king: "I am this day fourscore years old, and can I discern between good and evil? Can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Wherefore, then, should thy servant be yet a burden unto my Lord the King?" A more accurate autographic representation of the feelings of an octogenarian of the present day, could scarcely have been presented. Hufeland, in the work before us, has collected, from Lucian and various other sources, a catalogue of cases of longevity in both ancient and modern times, from which we learn, that with the Greeks, Solon lived 80 years, Epimenides of Crete 157, Anacreon, Sophocles, and Pindar 80, Gorgias of Leontium 108, Protagoras of Abdera 90, Socrates 90, Zeno 100, Democritus 109, Diogenes 90; and, with the Romans, Valerius Corvinus 100, Orbilius 100, Fabius, surnamed the Temporizer, 90, Cato 90, Terentia, wife of Cicero, 103, and the Empress Livia 90 years, &c. &c. pp. 89, 90. Pliny affords some valuable statistical information, if accurate, regarding the period at which he lived, obtained from an official, and, apparently, authentic source-the census directed by the Emperor Vespasian, in the year of 76 of the Christian From this we learn, that at the time of the computation, there were, in the part of Italy comprised between the Apen nines and the Po, 124 individuals aged 100 years and upwards, viz. 54 of 100 years, 57 of 110, 2 of 125, 4 of 130, 4 of 135 to 137, and 3 of 140. At Parma, a man was living aged 120, and two aged 130; at Faenza, a female aged 132; and, at a small town near Placentia, called Velleiacium, lived 6 persons aged 110 each, and 4 aged 120. These estimates, however, by no means accord with those of Ulpian, who seems to have taken especial pains to become ac-> quainted with the facts of the case. His researches prove, that the expectation of life in Rome at that time, was much less than it now is in London, or in any of our cities. Hufeland, indeed, asserts, that the tables of Ulpian agree perfectly with those af *forded by the great cities of Europe, and that they exhibit the probabilities of life in ancient Rome to have been like those of modern London, (p. 91,) but, in opposition to his opinion, we may quote some extremely pertinent and satisfactory remarks, by Dr. F. Bisset Hawkins, in a work on "Medical Statistics," published in the course of the past year.→→ "This earliest authority (Domitius Ulpianus), on the subject of longevity, was a lawyer, in the reign of Alexander Severus, of whom he became the secretary and principal minister. From the want of hospitals among the Romans, from the humble condition of their medical attendants, from their gross sensuality, inactive habits, abuse of the bath, and manner of dress, as well as from the unhealthy state of their situation, (which even then appears to have been a source of alarm,) we might have anticipated that longevity would not become common, and the authority of Ulpian corroborates the opinion. According to him, registers of population, puberty, age, sex, disease, and death, were kept with exactness by the censors, from the time of Servius Tullius to Justinian, and comprehend a period of ten consecutive centuries. But, unfortunately, these registers embrace the citizens of Rome alone, and not that large part of the population composed of slaves. The inferences to be drawn from them relate, accordingly, to select or picked lives, and not to the mass of society. From observations formed on 1000 years, the expectation, or mean term of Roman life, has been fixed at 30 years. To make a just comparison of the value of life in Rome and in England, we must select subjects in England similarly circumstanced, of a condition relatively easy, and the result discloses an extension of life remarkably in our favour. Mr. Finlayson has ascertained, from very extensive observation on the decrement of life prevailing among the nominees of the Tontines, and other life annuities granted by the authority of parliament, during the last forty years, that the expectation of life is above 50 years, for persons thus situated, which affords our easy classes a superiority of 20 years above the Roman citizen. The expectation of life, for the whole mass of Britain, is at least 1 in 45, which affords to all our classes a superiority of 15 years above even the easy classes of the Romans. The mean term of life among the easy classes of Paris, is at present 42, which gives them an advantage of 12 years above the Romans." In the third century of the Christian era, the expectation of life in Rome was as follows: --From birth to 20, there was a probability of 30 years; from 20 to 25, of 28 years; from 25 to 30, 25 years; from 30 to 35, Elements of Medical Statistics, containing the substance of the Gulstonian Lectures, &c. &c. Lond. 1829. p. 7. 22 years, from 35 to 40, 20 years; from 40 to 45, 18 years; from 45 to 50, 13 years; from 50 to 55, 9 years; from 55 to 60, 7 years; from 60 to 65, 5 years. Farther than this the computation did not extend. We shall see afterwards, from a table drawn up by Mr. FinJayson, who is designated by Sir Gilbert Blane as "one of the most able calculators of this age," how decidedly superior the value of life at those ages is at the present time. The truth is, that on many points of chronology and statistics, connected with remote ages, we cannot place much reliance; and this remark applies forcibly to the estimates of the ages of individuals. In many cases, no two writers are in accordance, and we are frequently forced to the conclusion, that no dependence can be placed upon either.. In elucidation of this, we may quote the following passage from a recent number of the "Journal of Health," which we ⚫ adduce for the further purpose of showing the blunders that may be perpetuated by faulty typography, if we may admit so favourable an apology, as well as the sophistry and misrepresentation, sometimes adopted, when the object is to inculcate a cherished opinion: "Longevity of the Ancients. The following list of long-lived persons among the ancients is introduced by Lucian, with the remark, that it may be useful, by showing that they who took the most care of their bodies and their minds, enjoyed the longest lives, accompanied with the best health.' Hippocrates lived 109 years; Empedocles, 109; Georgius, (Gorgias?) 107; Xenophilus, 105; Pythagoras, who, it is stated, never knew satiety, reached the age of 100; Zeno lived to 98, a stranger to disease, and never incommoded by a real indisposition; his life, we are told, was an example of sobriety and moderation; his manners were austere; and to his temperance and regularity he was indebted for the continual flow of health which he enjoyed. Laertius, when he lost his life, was 90; and Diogenes died when in his 90th year; Phyrrho, (Pyrrho?) remarkable for the command which he held over all his passions and his feelings, lived also 90 years. Josephus informs, that the age of the Jewish Recluses was almost invariably prolonged to 100 years; and this he accounts for, from their simple diet and mode of living."-Vol. ii. No. 2. for September, 1830. It will scarcely be credited, that this list, said to be from Lucian, is an entire fiction-a creature of the imagination. Luciant does introduce a list of those of various professions, who had attained long life amongst his predecessors, and with the remark ascribed to him; but the list itself in nowise resembles the one quoted. Neither Hippocrates, nor Empedocles, nor Pythagoras, nor Laertius, nor Pyrrho, nor Josephus, is once mentioned. The age of Gorgias is given as 108, and the Diogenes referred to by him, is not the Cynic of Sinope, but the Stoic, a native of Seleuceia.‡ Select Dissertations on several subjects of Medical Science. + Macrobii, 2, 3, &c. Η Διογένης ο Σελευκους απο Τίγριος, Στοικος φιλοσοφος. |