The National Register.
London, England, 1816-05-05 00:00:00

coicoi monitor.
"..N UMBER Nll.

RALUS POVULI BUPItV.MA err trx.

Pi rrrnit
in 11111,711er dontinntur rnorilitnis urbis.
-aura.aue grates cupiantar hiatn.

Or. MET. I. ?. v. 512.

THERE is no class of diseases more calculated to
strike the timid mind with dread and apprehension than
contagious fevers, nor any against which it is more diffi-
cult to guard, when the state of the atmosphere and other
circumstances am favourable to their propaation. The
chief of these maladies is the plague, of which, however,
we at present know nothing in this country more than
the name. Of its destructive ravages here in former times
we have abundant testimony, and it may be a curious
subject of enquiry, to, what is owing our long exemption
from its invasion. That the nature of the disease is un-
changed, and its virulence unabated, we have sufficient
proof, nut only adduced by those who have witnessed its
prevalence in other countries, but also contained in vari-
ous public documents. We must therefore attribute our
present safety either to a more strict vigilance employed
now, than in former times, to prevent the importation of
the infection, or to some change in the public or domestic
state of living in the inhabitants, which would render
the imported infection inefficient to prepagate the disease,
or calculated to prevent its origin here, should such for-
merly have been the source of the disease. That it is
owing to the former of these two causes, there is some
difficulty in believing. It is hardly to be imagined, that
the methods best adapted to prevent the importation of
infection should not have been enforced with the greatest
rigour by those generations who had suffered the most
severely froth' ire disease ; and it must be acknowledged
that there must have been a greater facility of doing so
in the confines' extent of commercial intercourse at that
time compared with the present ; yet all their efforts were
ineffectual to prevent the occasional introduction of the
disease. It is very, extraorditutry, that fur a considerably
longer period than a century, with such extensive com-
munications with all parts of the world as our increased
commercial transactions require, no accidental circum-
stance should ever have produced at least the introduction
of infected substances, in spite of the most rigid enact-
ments of quarantine laws. Our personal intercourse
with the regions most infected with plague, has of late
years been out of all proportion greater than at any for-
mer period, yet no interruption to our exemption from the
disease has ever taken place. 'When in Egypt, our troops
were attacked with the disease ; and although many hun-
dreds,perhaps thousands,returned from that country,by no
chance did it happen that either theirpersons, theirclothes,
or whatever articles they possessed, ever produced a com-
munication of the diseasa, notwithstanding the Egyptian
0 ph thuhnia,an infixtious complaint,was imported by them.
The immense increase of popult at also in the metro-
polis is to be taken into the account ; the largest cities
being always most liable to the attack and propagation of
contagious diseases. From these and similar facts has
originated an opinion, that the plague, even if imported
into this country, would not produce the destructive
mortality it formerly did, owing to the many improve-
ments which have taken place in the mode of building,
and in securing more free ventilation, as well as in the
domestic conveniences. of living, and that its propagation
might as easily be checked as that of an ordinary fever.
This opinion has been entertained by some of the most
eminent medical characters ; and a confirmation of it,
whilst it should not induce us to relax our precautionary
measures, would at least afford great satisfaction to the
philanthropist. An enumeration of some of those changes
which may be supposed to operate in this manner may
sot be superfluous. One of the most obvious certainly is,
the mode of building ; the streets of modern date being
much wider, so as to afford a more free ventilation, and
to prevent a stagnation of finil air. Another improve-
ment, perhaps still more important, is the universal intro-
duction ofdraias or common sewers, whichcarry off what-
ever filth might otherwise give rise to infection, or afford
facility to its propagation. A considerable source of
dampness or putrid moisture, so favourable to the produc-
tion of fevers, is entirely obviated by the practice of paving
the streets now generally adopted. There is reason also
to believe, that a greater regard is paid to domestic and
persarial cleanliness, than was the MSC a few back,
and this circumstance must claim a share in Trelcauses
likely to prevent the origin or propagation of disease.
A consideration of these various circumstances, whilst it
is highly interesting to the Medical Philosopher, will not
be permitted to influence the practitioner; nor would
any measure founded on the affirmative of the proposition
be recommended, unless it were possible to arrive at a
treater precision of inferniatiou than it is at present in
our power to attain. G.

Two fine whole-length portraits of the Dukes of
Sussex and Kent, painted for the Grand Lodge of Free-
masons, were placed on Monday in their Hnll, at the
Freemasons' Tavern; that of the Royal Gland Master
sprars in the costume cf rn Highland Chief, as Earl of
Inverness. Both these pictures are highly crcditable to
Cie rencil of Sir W. Beechcy.