We are strongly inclined to
suspect that the latter is the true explanation of the fact. The notion
was originally thrown out by the late ingenious physician, Dr. Wells,
who even went so far as to advise the removal of consumptive patients
to the heart of the Cambridgeshire fens, rather than to Hastings or
Sidmouth.
The author goes on to remark, "that the decline in the mortality is
even more striking in our cities than in our rural districts. While the
metropolis has extended itself in all directions, and multiplied its
inhabitants to an enormous amount,--in other words, while the seeming
sources of its unhealthiness have been largely augmented, it has
actually become more friendly to health." In the middle of the last
century, the annual mortality was about 1 in 20. By the census of 1821,
it appeared as 1 in 40: so that in the space of seventy years, the
chances of existence are exactly _doubled_ in London,--a progress
and final result, adds the author, without a parallel in the history of
any other age or country. The high rate of mortality in London about the
year 1750, exceeding considerably that of former years, has been
attributed to the great, abuse of spirituous liquors, which were then
sold without the very necessary check of high duties.
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