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factories of the description referred to, that such epidemic
or disease should be dependent entirely on the pernicious
influence of such factories. But it would be equally absurd
to suppose that, in the event of an epidemic or any case of
illness occurring near these sources of effluvia, the smells and
gaseous products emanating from the works would not exert
a very injurious influence on and greatly aggravate such
diseases. It must be clear to every attentive observer that
every gaseous body, which does not actually assist in the formation
or composition of pure atmospheric air, must be a
pollution of that atmosphere. It therefore follows that an
atmosphere polluted to whatever trifling degree, and however
much that foreign gaseous body may be diluted before it
reaches the lungs, must exert an injurious influence on tbe
result of any particular case of disease. Unless, then, it can
be shown that the atmospheric air, contaminated by the
gaseous products arising from these manufactories, exerts a
beneficial influence, which, I believe, no one will attempt to
assert, and although the baneful effccts may not be immediately
shown, and may be slow in their operation, still, this
one fact must speak for itself, and must convince every
sceptic, "That the average age of human life is far greater
in a rural than in an urban population."
It has frequently been urged that men engaged in noxious
trades are generally strong and healthy, and in cases where
a prosecution has been directed against the owner, some of
the workmen have been brought forward to give evidence
that they have never suffered from the effects of the effluvia
arising from such trades, even though they have been inhaling
them in a more concentrated form than when disseminated
through the atmosphere. Such arguments, however,
will not prevail. The men engaged in such occupations
generally show a pale, sallow, and unhealthy aspect, and
although they may for years pursue such avocations without
being actually compelled to absent themselves from work,
still their constitutions do eventually suffer; they fall into
premature old age, and are frequently consigned to an early
grave. I would again compare the workman or labourer at