expressive a phrase on so solemn a subject,--is kept as nearly as
possible in its proper or natural place in the scheme of life.



HEALTH AND CIVILISATION.


Before I proceed to this task, it is right I should ask of the past
what hope there is of any such advancement of human progress. For, as
my Lord of Verulam quaintly teaches, 'the past ever deserves that men
should stand upon it for awhile to see which way they should go, but
when they have made up their minds they should hesitate no longer, but
proceed with cheerfulness,' For a moment, then, we will stand on the
past.

From this vantage-ground we gather the fact, that onward with the
simple progress of true civilisation the value of life has increased.
Ere yet the words 'Sanitary Science' had been written; ere yet
the heralds of that science (some of whom, in the persons of our
illustrious colleagues, Edwin Chadwick and William Fair, are with us
in this place at this moment), ere yet these heralds had summoned the
world to answer for its profligacy of life, the health and strength of
mankind was undergoing improvement. One or two striking facts must
be sufficient in the brief space at my disposal to demonstrate this
truth. In England, from 1790 to 1810, Heberden calculated that the
general mortality diminished one-fourth. In France, during the same
period, the same favourable returns were made. The deaths in France,
Berard calculated, were 1 in 30 in the year 1780, and during the eight
years, from 1817 to 1828, 1 in 40, or a fourth less. In 1780, out of