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diseases themselves. In other words, with the
former class we are able to check the occurrence
of the disease itself, but in the latter it is by
promoting the general well-being of the individual
and maintaining his vital powers, that disease
is to be stayed. Sanitation cannot prevent the
occurrence of, say, heart affections, but if the
conditions predisposing to rheumatic fever be eradicated,
or if the worker be so placed that his health
is not prejudiced, his vital powers fully maintained,
and his heart saved from undue and unnecessary
strain, such affections will become less frequent.
Pulmonary affections, like bronchitis and pneumonia,
are largely dependent on climatic conditions,
but by keeping the habitation dry, by preventing
overcrowding, and by avoiding all conditions likely
to vitiate the air breathed, the lungs will be preserved
in such a state that they will be able to
withstand the ill effects of the variable climate
of this country. Having regard to these considerations,
it seems well to deal with the changes in the
mortalities from these diseases somewhat more briefly
than has been done with those already considered.
Apoplexy.—In a certain sense this cause of death
is a measure of the tension of life in the present
day. The term is hardly a scientific one, as
"apoplexy" is more a symptom than a disease,
yet it is a very common mode of death. Some
degeneration of the walls of the blood vessels of the