Mr. Attorney General.—“The few sentences that your lordship has pronounced now, are of the last importance to the community.”
Mr. Justice Bayley.—“Mr. Taunton should intimate that he is ready to attend those persons at their own houses.”
Mr. Pollock.—“I understand that is part of the notice, that he is willing to attend such patients at their own houses.”
[147]. The rise, progress, decline, and cessation, of particular diseases, forms a curious and useful study to the medical jurist: since the laws and habits of mankind will thereby be found to possess more considerable influence on the health and physical strength of a people, than is generally supposed. See Observations on the Increase and Decrease of different Diseases, by W. Heberden, jun. M.D. F.R.S. London 1801. The gradual decline of the Dysentery in this country is a remarkable proof of the benefits which have ensued from our improvements with respect to diet, cleanliness, and ventilation.
The long list of chronic diseases with which our nosology abounds is totally unknown to barbarous nations, and seem to be the natural consequences of arts and civilization; as these again shoot up into luxury and intemperance, their effects may well be expected to become proportionally more conspicuous. Dr. Rush of Philadelphia has reported, with respect to the uncultivated nations of North America, that Fevers, Inflammations, and Dysenteries make up the sum of their complaints, and he remarks, in particular, that after much inquiry, he had not been able to find a single instance of madness, melancholy, or fatuity among them. (Medical Enquiries and Observations by B. M. Rush, vol. 1. p. 25.) In a subsequent part of his work, the same author, speaking of the pulmonary consumption, declares it to be unknown among the Indians of North America (vol. 1. p. 159). Mr. Park, in his account of the interior of Africa, says, that notwithstanding longevity is uncommon among the Negroes, their diseases appear to be but few; fever and fluxes being the most common, and the most fatal.
[148]. The curious reader will not be at a loss to trace the ancient patronage and jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester; suppressed among other ecclesiastical establishments, by Henry the 8th.
[149]. See part 3. No sufficient provision is yet made for the speedy removal of prisoners from infected jails; the case hereafter quoted shows that the Crown has an authority on this subject.
[150]. During the progress of this work we have seen a fatal instance of a child sacrificed to the dirty and penurious system of one of the very cheap schools of the north of England. The author was called in to his assistance on the child’s arrival in town, but he expired a few hours afterwards.
[151]. Case of the Salt Duties with proofs and illustrations, by Sir Thomas Bernard, Bart. London, 1817.
[152]. In examining the history of Burial in remote ages, we shall find that both among the Jews and Heathens, the place of interment was usually without the city. Such was the case with the Athenians, the Smyrnæans, the Sicyonians, the Corinthians, and the Syracusans. The examples of Numa and Servius Tullus prove, that the Romans deposited their dead without the city before the introduction of the twelve tables, which prohibited burning as well as burial within its precincts. The Lacedæmonians afford an exception to this general custom; it had been a notion universally prevalent, that the touch of a dead body conveyed pollution; and Lycurgus, the legislator of Sparta, being anxious to remove the prejudice, introduced the custom of burial within the city. Among the primitive Christians, burying in cities and churches was not allowed for several centuries, and Theodosius, after the triumph and establishment of Christianity, renewed the prohibition upon the old and reasonable ground that graves within the city were detrimental to the health of the living, and it was ordered that any person who should disobey this law was to forfeit the third part of his patrimony; and that the undertaker who directed a funeral contrary to the prohibition was to be fined forty pounds in gold. The learned Bingham, in his Antiquities of the Church, has traced the gradual introduction the odious custom of burying in churches. It was from the idea of the protection which would be afforded by consecrated ground, baptized bells, and relics, that bodies were first interred in the vicinity of the church: to this superstition we may ascribe the origin of church-yards, which took place in the eighth century. The reason alleged by Gregory the Great for burying in churches, or in places adjoining to them, was that their relations and friends, remembering those whose sepulchres they beheld, might thereby be led to offer up prayers for them; and this reason was afterwards transferred into the body of the canon law. The practice thus introduced into the Romish church by Gregory, was brought over here by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 750: and the practice of erecting vaults in chancels and under the altars was begun by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, when he had rebuilt the cathedral about 1075. Since this period many enactments have been made in different countries to abolish so foul a custom.