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16
not yet occupied, and few greater services could be
done to the community than erecting on these
spots elegant drinking fountains.
CONSUMPTION.
The most fatal of human diseases in civilised
countries is consumption. It carries off annually
a seventh part of those who die in this parish. It
is a disease of the lungs which when once it
commences is seldom arrested. There is no better
established fact in the history of the causes of
disease than that Phthisis is produced from want of
fresh air. It is only one of many forms of disease
known to medical men by the name of scrofula, that
are brought on from the same cause. It occurs
amongst the rich as well as the poor, and is everywhere
attributable to the want of fresh air. The
rich as well as the poor, the middle and the working
classes, are all liable to this disease. It is
popularly attributed to cold, hence the very efforts
that are made to keep it off are those which produce
it. That cold does not produce it is shewn by the
fact that those who are most exposed to cold by their
occupations suffer least from it. The sailor, the
butcher, the labourer, those who work in the open
air are least exposed to it, whilst the shopkeeper, the
milliner, the tailor, and those engaged in sedentary
occupations are most liable to it. There is no