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Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
in this matter, and know how much he can do for himself, and which another cannot do
for him. " It is the individual man, the individual conscience, the individual character,
on which mainly depends human happiness or human misery." or human health, or human
sickness. There remains to be reached by mankind a greater length of days than has yet
fallen to their lot; and a length of days that shall include continued vigour of mind, and a
death like unto the falling asleep of the weary man.
A distinguished writer has said, that he has heard it argued, whether lawyers have not as
great an interest in the ill-health of mankind as doctors. It would be difficult to compute the
number of disasters, great and small, which have left their mark deep and ineffaceable in
this world's history, that have taken their origin from this cause alone. Yet, is not the fresh
countenance, the firm and compact body, " the iron joint and supple sinew," looked upon
as coarse and vulgar, not to be tolerated in the ball-room, or the drawing-room, or
the assembly-room ? Only the languid frame, the pallid countenance, the feeble gait, are
deemed compatible with refinement and delicate sensibility. He was a wise man, " who
instead of doffing off his hat to the high-born, the rich, the well-dressed, only showed that
honour to the healthy: coroneted carriages with pale faces in them passed by as failures,
miserable and lamentable, while trucks with ruddy-cheeked strength dragging at them
were greeted as successful and venerable." It has been said that a soul in right health is
the most blessed thing that earth receives of heaven. And wherein to shrine this precious
gift, an healthy body is imperative. The men in this great City who enjoy good,
sound, intellectual and physical vigour might be easily numbered ; whilst those who are
neither well nor ill, who can neither fully perform their duties, nor enjoy life, are innumerable.
And when we reflect that all the vast and multifarious concerns, legislative and
commercial, are carried on by men in this condition, the conclusion at which we are compelled
to arrive is far from satisfactory. A diseased body will warp the judgment, enfeeble
the will, and affect every faculty of the mind. What an unregistered catalogue of human
woe and sorrow may be attributed to this source alone.
Our civilization thus far,has by no means proved an unexceptionable blessing. Whilst
it has been the means of evoking great and wide good, evil as its shadow has followed hard
behind. Highly favoured as our position is at this moment, there are many points where
we stand at a disadvantage compared with the savage. New diseases have been created,
and old diseases intensified. The blessings common to man, air, earth, and water have been
changed into curses. Growth of civilization necessarily means growth of towns, and growth
of towns involves aggregation, and as a result the generation and spread of epidemicB, with
degeneracy of race. Waterton in his wanderings, tells us that amongst the South American
Indians, diseases are few, and that the chief cause of man's removal from this world into
another, is old age. Whilst amongst them he never met with a single idiot, nor a deformed
child. Death in childbed was unknown. What a contrast is this with our Idiot Asylums,
and Lunatic Asylums, casting their dismal shadows over some of the fairest portions of
the land ; and with our Orthopœic Hospitals crowded with the crippled and deformed in
such variety, that imagination fails to conceive of what is not there represented. Brain |
diseases and insanity are upon the increase, and with them " a spectral troup of shadowy
nervous diseases." In England there are over 48,000 insane persons who are receiving