Part 42 Curiosities of Medical Experience

Part 42

Average.

Moral philosophers united ages 1417 70 Sculptors and painters 1412 70 Authors on law and jurisprudence 1394 69 Medical authors united ages 1368 68 Authors on revealed religion 1350 67 Philologists 1323 66 Musical composers 1284 64 Novelists and miscellaneous authors 1257 62-1/2 Dramatists 1249 62 Authors on natural religion 1245 62 Poets 1144 57

This calculation was made most probably in Prussia.

Dr. Caspar's view of longevity are not only highly interesting but, if correct, may lead to many important conclusions. He maintains that--

1. The female s.e.x enjoys, at every period or epoch of life, except at p.u.b.erty, at which epoch the mortality is greater among young females--a greater longevity than the male s.e.x.

2. Pregnancy and labour occasion, indeed, a considerable loss of life, but this loss disappears or is lost in the general ma.s.s.

3. The so-called climacteric periods of life do not seem to have any influence on the longevity of either s.e.x.

4. The medium duration of life at this present time (1835), is in Russia, about 21 years; in Prussia, 29; in Switzerland, 34; in France, 35; in Belgium, 36; and in England, 38 years.

5. The medium duration of life has, in recent times, increased very greatly in most cities of Europe.

6. In reference to the influence of professional occupations in life, it seems that clergymen are on the whole, the longest, and medical men are the shortest livers. Military men are nearly between the two extremes, but yet, proportionably they more frequently than others reach very advanced years.

7. The mortality is very generally greater in manufacturing than in agricultural districts.

8. Marriage is decidedly favourable to longevity.

9. The mortality among the poor is always greater than among the wealthier cla.s.ses.

10. The mortality in a population appears to be always proportionate to its fecundity--as the number of births increases, so does the number of deaths at the same time.

If this last a.s.sertion be correct, Malthus's doctrine must have been idle.

It appears that in general more males are born than females--this difference has been attributed to the age of the parents; when the mother is older than the father the female offspring are more numerous--the same is observed when both parents have attained an advanced age--but when the father's age exceeds that of the mother's, sons are chiefly the result of their union, it has been also observed that widowers are most frequently blessed with daughters.

Quetelet has very justly observed that the laws which preside over the development of man, and modify all his actions, are in general the result of his organization, of his years, his state of independence, the surrounding inst.i.tutions, local influence, and an infinity of other causes, difficult to ascertain, and many of which, most probably, never can be known. Still if we admit the fact, our wellbeing, in a great measure, rests in our own hands, as the progress of our intellectual attainments may gradually enable us to improve our condition, in most of the points to which we have alluded; and Buffon has observed "that we know not to what extent man may perfect his nature, both in a moral and a physical point of view."

Still the laws of our organization, and which regulate life, appear to be beyond human speculation; and it has been observed that, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, we are ruled by a harmonizing system tending to equalize society despite its inst.i.tutions. Thus, births, marriages, and deaths, appear regulated on a certain scale in proportions singularly similar.

This circ.u.mstance is rendered obvious by the following tables of nativity at Amsterdam.

+-------+--------------------------------------------------+

Still-born.

Born alive.

-----------------------

-------------------------

Years.

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

-------

--------

------

-------

--------

1821

288

246

534

3742

3600

7342

1822

280

222

502

3887

3713

7600

1823

268

198

466

3734

3448

7182

1824

266

216

482

4011

3849

7860

1825

207

173

404

3802

3559

7352

1826

231

173

404

3803

3635

7438

1827

3524

3366

6890

1828

3699

3529

7208

1829

3785

3618

7403

1830

241

169

410

3727

3579

7306

1831

208

168

376

3843

3499

7342

1832

210

151

361

3351

3101

6452

+----------------------------------------------------------+

A statistical result much similar, was made also in Paris in the Bureau des Longitudes, as appears by the following return:

+------------------------------------------------------------+

Still-born.

Born alive.

-------------------------

Years.

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

--------

-------

--------

-------

--------

1823

847

662

1509

13752

13318

27070

1824

810

677

1487

14647

28812

1825

846

675

1521

14989

14264

29253

1826

810

737

1547

15187

14783

29970

1827

904

727

1631

15074

14732

29860

1828

883

743

1626

15117

14484

29601

1829

925

788

1713

14760

13961

28721

1830

943

784

1727

14488

14099

28587

1831

954

755

1709

15116

14414

29530

1832

994

726

1720

13494

12789

26283

+------------------------------------------------------------+

In these statements, of which many to the same effect might be produced, it is singular that the number of still-born infants bears such a regular proportion with the nativity of living ones.

The proportion of deaths to births is also strangely regular, despite the difference of climate, and inst.i.tutions, and the state of medical science in various countries, as will appear manifest by the following scales:

+----------------------------------------------------------------+

Cities.

Proportion of inhabitants

to one death.

to one birth.

------------

-------------------------

London

46 0}

40 8}

Glasgow

46 8} 46 4

29 5} 35 2

Madrid

36 0}

26 0}

Leghorn

35 0}

25 5}

Lyons

32 2}

28 5}

Moscow

33 0}

27 5}

Palermo

32 0} 32 3

24 5} 27 0

Paris

31 4}

27 0}

Lisbon

31 1}

28 3}

Copenhagen

30 3}

30 0}

Hamburg

30 0}

25 5}

Barcelona

29 5}

27 0}

Berlin

29 0}

21 0}

Bordeaux

29 0}

24 0}

Naples

28 6}

23 8}

Dresden

27 7} 26 6

23 0}

Amsterdam

27 5}

26 0}

Brussels

25 8}

21 0} 24 2

Stockholm

24 6}

27 0}

Prague

24 5}

23 3}

Rome

24 4}

30 6}

20 0}

26 5}

20 0}

Vienna

22 5

20 0

Venice

19 4}

26 5}

Bergamo

18 0} 18 7

20 0} 23 2

+----------------------------------------------------------------+

While such a regular proportion prevails in births and deaths, a still more singular law seems to regulate the commission of crimes, of which the following registers of the cases brought to trial in France is a proof.

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

1826

1827

1828

1829

1830

1831

------

------+

Murder in general

241

234

227

231

205

266

With fire arms

Swords, daggers, &c.

Knives

Sticks, bludgeons, &c.

Stones, &c.

Cutting and contusing

instruments, tools, &c.

Strangulation

Drowning

Kicks, and blows with

the fist

Fire

...

Unknown means

...

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

The criminal statistics of France have produced the following calculation: From 7000 to 7300 criminals are tried every year, out of which number 61 out of 100 are found guilty; 170,000 offenders are charged with minor offences and misdemeanors, of whom 85 in the 100 are condemned to various punishments, and the greatest annual calculation which Quetelet remarks in an annual budget, paid much more regularly than taxes, is as follows:

Condemned to capital punishment 100 to 150 To hard labour for life 280 Hard labour for a period 1050 Imprisonment 1220

The following curious table has been drawn of the causes that excited to the commission of murder and the means resorted to:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

Apparent motives,

a.s.sa.s.si-

from 1826 to 1829.

Poison.

Murder.

nation.

Incendiary.

Total.

------------------

-------

---------

-----------

---------

Cupidity

237

362

Adultery

...

133

Domestic broils

120

131

333

Jealousy and

debauchery

115

220

Revenge, hatred,

and other motives

903

460

229

1615

------------------

-------

---------

-----------

---------

Total

149

1129

1019

366

2663[47]

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

To what are we to attribute this apparent regularity in the scale of births, deaths, and the commission of crimes? Are we ruled by _certain_ laws that are only changed in the manifestations of Providence, by peculiar visitations, such as war, famine, and pestilential maladies? What a vast and curious field of research and reflection! what an argument for the fatalist! Man no doubt possesses a moral power that to a certain extent subjugates the creation to his influence and his will. Plants and animals seem to obey certain natural laws, that are only disturbed by perturbative agents; and it is difficult to point out what are the human actions that arise from natural impulses, or from accidental circ.u.mstances, although experience would tend to show that they bear a singular proportion in the similarity of their results; and one must come although reluctantly to the conclusion, that this perturbative power exercises but a slender influence on the laws of nature, which seem to set at defiance the destructive efforts of man. Thus have we seen of late years, that the most fearful and long-protracted wars, which one might have imagined would have devastated the fairest parts of Europe, have not checked a surprising increase in its population, and the destructive effects of the most fatal pestilence have vanished with a promptness that seemed to keep pace with the preceding havoc. Bigotry and fanaticism are the only scourges which appear to dare the benevolent views of Providence, and when we traverse the desolate fields of most Roman Catholic countries, one would imagine that Heaven has abandoned their inhabitants to their own blind wills and evil ways. Spain at this period and at many epochs of her b.l.o.o.d.y history, seems to corroborate the fable of the t.i.tans who sought refuge in that ill-fated land from the anger of the G.o.ds.[48]

To return: we find in the preceding _resumes_ of longevity that poets are the shortest-lived; next to them, authors on natural religion, dramatists, and novelists. May not this circ.u.mstance be attributed to the fervour of their imagination and to their unequal mode of living? A species of madness is the attribute of genius. Many authors on natural religion may come under the denomination of monomaniacs. The jealous irritability of poets and dramatists,--and next to them in the scale of vanity we find musicians,--may also contribute to wear them out, and bring on various chronic diseases, by digestive derangements; more especially as their habits of living are seldom regular, fits of sobriety alternating with bouts of merry-making. Moral philosophers, painters, and sculptors, whose average life appears the longest, follow more sedentary pursuits; and, although artists in general cannot boast of remarkable discretion in their mode of living, the nature of their profession requires much steadiness.

It is moreover to be observed that, in the preceding calculation, historical painters have chiefly been noticed. Would the same calculation apply to the lighter branches of the art? It has been remarked that actors generally attain old age, notwithstanding the fatiguing and hara.s.sing nature of their profession. This may be attributed to the constant excitement of a similar nature to which they are subject, as well as to their continued exposure to the sudden transitions from heat to cold, which renders them less susceptible of the variations of temperature that affect those who can avoid these vicissitudes. Any person who would expose himself to the constant checked perspirations to which dancers are liable, would infallibly pay dear for the experiment; and those who have had occasion to witness the fatigues of their exercises, marvel at their not being constantly attacked with pulmonary inflammation, and the many maladies that result from similar exposures. On the very same principle, troops when engaged upon active service do not suffer from the inclemency of the weather, although saturated with wet by day, and sleeping under torrents of rain by night. So long as they are marching with an object in view, this excitement supports them, even against hunger; but the moment this excitement ceases, let them halt, in tranquil cantonments, or commence a retreat under unfavourable circ.u.mstances, that moment the invasion of disease is observed. The chief source of health and long life is an equilibrious state of the circulation. This condition a moderate mental excitement tends to maintain. Depression, on the contrary, will produce a languid flow of the vital stream, congestion, and chronic diseases.

On the same principle, good temper and hilarity are also necessary to prolong life. Violent pa.s.sions must tend to occasion dangerous determinations, while the inward gnawings of offended vanity and pride corrode every viscus, and lay the seeds of future mental and bodily sufferings. Apathy and insensibility are, unfortunately, the best sources of peace of mind, and as Fontenelle observed, a good stomach and a bad heart are essential to happiness. Perhaps the best maxim to prolong our days, and render them as tolerable as possible, is the "_Bene vivere et laetari_."

I have just observed that conformation materially affects our existence; and this circ.u.mstance may in a great measure be referred to temper, and the wear and tear that it occasions in ill-conditioned individuals. Little people seldom attain the longevity of stronger individuals; and it is also a well-known fact that diminutive persons are generally spiteful and malicious. As Providence has bestowed destructive venoms on reptiles, so has it gifted these insignificant members of society with obnoxious qualities, to make amends for their want of physical power in the strategies of attack and defence. The same observation holds good with the deformed; but here we have a moral cause for this sourness of disposition.

They too frequently are objects of ridicule, contempt, or pity, sentiments the most humiliating to mankind. In childhood they are not able to partake of the boisterous and active sports of their companions; they have not the power to resent an injury, and the more powerless we are, the greater is our thirst of revenge. Hence does tyranny degrade, and renders its victims cruel and vindictive. The deformed, moreover, find it necessary to improve their intellectual faculties, which in aftertimes fill their quivers with keen shafts of retaliation. In this study they also have more leisure, and they apply to their books while their comrades are at play. This very study adds to their sense of inferiority; they can never hope to share the warrior's laurels, or, what is perhaps still more painful, the myrtle of successful love. Their only chance of success in either of these careers is by kindling wars by their intrigues, or winning a woman's heart by intellectual superiority,--two very improbable events. Thus they gradually envy men who are looked upon by the world as their superiors, and hate women for the preference they show to those privileged individuals. In general we find these ill-shaped beings bitterly sarcastic whenever woman's name is mentioned. Pope, perhaps from these very reasons, was inexhaustible in his abuse of the s.e.x: and Boileau abhorred them, since he had been emasculated by a turkey-c.o.c.k.

The intellectual superiority of hunchbacks has also been attributed to their physical condition; and it is generally believed that with them the circulation of blood in the brain is more rapid than in well-conformed subjects, and this increased action is supposed to contribute materially to the vivacity of the imagination, and the quickness of apprehension.

Another circ.u.mstance is said to increase their mental powers, and that is, their continence, considered both by the ancients and the moderns as a source of intellectual energies. Minerva and the Muses were virgins; and in this and other fabulous traditions, we find the ancients ill.u.s.trating in their mythologic allegories many physical facts and observations. Our Bacon had made the same remark; and Newton, and many other great men, considered the pa.s.sion of love beneath the dignity of science. Continence and abstinence were deemed by Horace as indispensable privations in the cultivation of genius. In the deformed both are to a certain degree natural, or at least cannot be lost sight of without endangering life. The digestive powers of the deformed are generally weak; and this debility has ever been looked upon as a concomitant of superior intellects. Thus in Celsus, "_Imbecilli stomacho pene omnes cupidi litterarum sunt_;" while on the contrary, "_Obesus venter non parit subtilem intellectum_."

The common expression of a child being too clever to live, is unfortunately founded on observation. Scrofulous and sickly children are in general remarkable for the quickness of their intellects; and Rousseau maintained that a man who could meditate was a depraved animal. It is a fact that the perfection of one faculty can seldom be attained but at the expense of others. The more our faculties are generally called into action, the less perfect will they be individually;--"_Pluribus intentus, minor est ad singula_." Thus, the singing of birds is improved by depriving them of sight.

The influence of the mind upon our health is as evident as the influence of our health in the duration of existence. This corollary explains the shortness of life of the diminutive and the deformed, unconnected with such physical defects of organization as might impede the due exercise of their organs.

The fable of Prometheus is a strong ill.u.s.tration of the pernicious effects of intemperance; and by Darwin, and other physiologists, has been considered as comparing the celestial fire that he purloined, to the artificial inspirations of excitement that ultimately preys upon the liver and the other viscera like a voracious vulture. A much deeper philosophy is concealed in this theogenic allegory. Prometheus was the son of j.a.petus; brother to Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus, who all surpa.s.sed mankind in fraud and in guilt. Prometheus himself scoffed the G.o.ds, and violated their shrine. Heaven and Earth had formed his father, who had united his destinies with Clymene, one of the Oceanides. Thus Prometheus and Epimetheus arose from the very cradle of the universe; and their very names, [Greek: Promandanein] and [Greek: Epimandanein], signify foresight and improvidence,--_praediscere et postea discere_,--the prevalent characteristics of all mortals, that either tend to promote or r.e.t.a.r.d the progress of human reason and human happiness. Prometheus strove impiously to possess himself of Divine knowledge, and created man with a base amalgam of earth and the bones of animals, vivified by the celestial fire he had obtained. Jupiter, indignant at his audacity, commanded Vulcan to create a beauteous tempter in the form of woman, on whom every attractive gift might be conferred; and Pandora was sent upon earth with the fatal present of the father of the G.o.ds, the box that contained all the evils and distempers that were destined for mankind. The foresight of Prometheus resisted her charms; his improvident brother opened the dreaded casket.

Have we not here an ill.u.s.tration of the vanity of science, that aims even at Divine attributes, and whose votaries, like Prometheus, would endeavour, if possible, to deprive wisdom of her power, and break down the boundaries of human intellects? His punishment describes in energetic language the endless and consuming studies of the learned, whose very viscera are corroded in lucubrations too often fruitless, and not unfrequently injurious to themselves and others. Hercules alone could relieve him from his torments:--and does not Hercules in this allegory typify the power of reason, that enables us to release the mind from the trammels both of ignorance and vanity, separated from each other by a gossamer part.i.tion? Prometheus, who could resist the most powerful of temptations,--beauty and talent combined,--dared Olympus to seek for that wisdom which would have doomed him to everlasting sufferings, had not strength of mind and the powers of reflection destroyed his merciless tormentor. Can we be surprised that the ancients consecrated games to this beautiful allegory?--games that are still carried on in our days; but, alas! where every vain compet.i.tor pretends that he has reached the goal with an unextinguished torch!

CRETINISM.

This singular disorder was first discovered and noticed by Plater, about the middle of the seventeenth century, among the poor inhabitants of Carinthia and the Valais, where, as in the valleys of the Lower Alps and the Pyrenees, it is also found to be an endemic affection. According to Sir George Staunton, it is also observed in Chinese Tartary. It has been erroneously confounded by some writers with bronchocele and rachitis, from both of which it is totally distinct.

Cretinism presents various modifications in kind, and every intermediate grade between that extreme degree of physical and mental debas.e.m.e.nt which is characterized by the utmost deformity, and entire absence of mental manifestation, the organic and vegetative functions only being performed.

There are certain circ.u.mstances that distinguish cretins from idiots; and their infirmities appear to depend upon endemic or local causes, regarding which much diversity of opinion has prevailed both amongst medical men and travellers.

The cretins were also called _Cagots_ and _Capots_. In Navarre these unfortunates go by the name of _Gaffos_ and _Ganets_; and in various valleys of the Pyrenees they are called _Gezits_ or _Gezitains_. Near La Roch.e.l.le, some of them are also found, and there they are known by the appellation of _Coliberts_; and in Britanny _Cacons_ and _Cagneux_. The derivation of these names shows the contempt and disgust that they excited,--_Cagot_, according to Scaliger, being derived from _Canis Gottus_, or _Dog of a Goth_; _Colibert_ is traced to _quasi libertus_, or slave. The Spaniards call them _Gavachos_, a term of reproach, which they also applied to the French during the Peninsular struggle.

The body of these poor creatures is stunted, their height not exceeding four feet. There is a total want of due proportion between it and the other parts, the height of the head with reference to the body being from one-fourth to one-fifth, instead of one-eighth, the natural proportion; the neck is strong, and bent downwards; the upper limbs reach below the knees, and the arm is shorter than the fore-arm; the chest narrow, the abdomen hemispherical, and of a length not exceeding the height of the head; the thighs, with the haunches, of greater width than the shoulders, and shorter than the legs, the calves of which are wanting; the feet and toes distorted. In the head, the masticating organs, the lower jaw, and the nose, preponderate considerably over the organs of sense and intelligence; the skull is depressed, and forms a lengthened and angular ellipsis; the receding forehead presents internally large frontal sinuses, to which the brain has yielded part of its place; the top of the head is flattened, instead of being vaulted; the occiput projects but slightly, and runs almost even with the nape of the neck, as in ruminating animals.

The face is neither oval nor round, but spread out in width; the eyes are far apart, slightly diverging, small, and deep-seated in their orbits; the pupil contracted, and not very sensitive to light; the eyelids, except when morbidly swollen, are flaccid and pendent. Their look is an unmeaning stare, and turns with indifference from every thing that is not eatable.

The elongated form of the lower jaw, the thick and puffed lips, give them a greater resemblance to ruminating creatures than to man. The tongue is rather cylindrical than flat, and the saliva is constantly running from the angles of their mouth. Enlargement of the thyroid glands generally prevails, sometimes to an enormous extent. Indeed, this appearance is commonly considered as a distinguishing sign of cretinism. The other glands of the throat are also obstructed. Many of these poor wretches are both deaf and dumb; yet do they appear unconscious of their miserable existence. Stretched out or gathered up under the solar rays, their head drooping in idiotic apathy, they are only roused from their torpor when food is presented to them.

This endemic malady is supposed to arise from the use of snow-water, or of water impregnated with calcareous earth. Both of these opinions are without foundation. All the inhabitants of districts near the glaciers, drink snow and ice waters without being subject to the disorder; and the common waters of Switzerland, strongly impregnated with calcareous substances, are most salubrious. At Berne, the waters are extremely pure, yet Haller observed that swellings of the throat are not uncommon. De Saussure has a.s.signed another cause, and refers the disorder to the physical features of the mountainous districts in which it prevails. The valleys, he tells us, are surrounded with very high mountains, sheltered from currents of fresh air, and exposed to the direct, and what is worse, the reflected rays of the sun. They are marshy, and hence the atmosphere is humid, close, and oppressive. When to these chorographical causes, he further says, we add the domestic ones, which are also well known to prevail among the poor of these regions,--such as innutritious food, indolence, and uncleanliness, with a predisposition to the disease from an hereditary taint of many generations,--we can sufficiently account for the prevalence of cretinism in such places, and for the most humiliating characters it is ever found to a.s.sume.

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