, 1868-09-04
NUMBER 3S.

One valuable witness on this branch Of
inquiry is the late Theodore Parker. A year
or Two before his lamented death, when he
was already struggling with the disease that
terminated his existence, he wrote for his
friend, DIR. Bowditch, the csnsumptive his
tory of his family from 1884, when his stall
wart English ancestor settled in New Eng.
land. The son Of that ancestor built house.
in 1864, upon the slope of hill which ter
minated in great fresh meadow of spougy
peat, which was always wet all the year
through, aud from which 'fogs could be seen
gathering towards night of clear day. In
the third generation of the occupants of this
house consumption was developed, and car
ried of eight children out of eleven, all be-
tween the ages of sixteen aud nineteen.
From that time consumption was the bane
of the race, and spared not the offspring of
parents who had removed from the family
seat into localities free from malaria One Of
the daughters of the house who married a
man Of giant stature and great strength be-
came the mother of four sons. Three OF these
sons, though settled in healthy place and
in an innoxious business, died of consump-
tion, between twenty and twenty-five. But
the fourth son became perate-drank
great quantities of New England rum. He
did not die of the disease, but was SIS years
Of age when the account was written, and
then exhibited no consumplive tendency
To this fact Mr. Parker added others -
81. know Of consumptive family living
IN situation like that | have mentioned
for, perhaps, the same length of time, who
had four sens. Two of them were often
drunk, and always intemperate-one Of them
as long as l can remember; both consump>
tive in early life, but now both hearty moi
from sixty to seventy. The two others were
temperate, one drinking moderately, the
other but occasionally. They both died Of
consumption, the eldest not over forty five.
"2. Another consumptive family 10 such
a situation as has been already described had
many sons and several daughters. The
daughters were all temperate, married, set
tied. elsewhere, had children, died of con-
sumption, bequeat&ing it also to their pos.
terity. But FIVE of the s0as, whom knew,
were drunkards-sOme, of the EXTREMIST de-
scription; they all had the consumptive build,
and in earl life showed signs of the disease
but none of them died OF it some of them
are still burning in rum. There was one
brother temperate, farmer, living in the
healthiest situation. But was told he died
To these facts must be added one more
woeful than thousand such-that Theodore
Parker himself, one Of the most valuable
lives on the Western Continent, died Of con.
sumption in his filtieth year. The inference
which Mr.. Parker drew from the family
bistorias oivan wos tho f,llowior. &c Intopns
perate HABITS (where the man drinks a pure.
though coarse and fiery, liquor, like New
England RUM tend to check the consumptive
tendency, though the drunkard, who himself
escapes the consequences, may transmit the
fatal seed to his children"
There is not much comfort in this for to-
pers but the facts are interesting, and have
their value. A similar instance is related by
Mr.. Charles Knight; although in this case
the poisoned air was more deadly, and more
swift to destroy. Mr.. Knight speaks, in his
Popular History of England, of the care
less and avariciOus employers Of London,
among whom, he says, the master-tailors were
the most Notorious. Some of them would
" huddle sixty or eighty workmen close to-
gether, nearly knee to knee, in a room fifty
feet long by twenty feet broad, lighted from
above, where the temperature in summer was
thirty degrees higher than the temperature
outside. Young men from the country
tainted when they were first confined in such
a life destroying prison the matu-er ones
sustained themselves By gin, till they perished
of consumption, or typhus, or delrlum tre-
mems. ."-Ahantic Monthly, August.