To promote sleep, the bed-room should be well ventilated, and rather cool than unduly warm; the bed should be somewhat hard; the head should be somewhat elevated; the feet should be kept warm; the bed-clothes should be sufficient to maintain the bodily heat, without unduly confining it; and the bed-room should be darkened, and the surrounding silence should be perfect.

In the words of Dr. Gregory,—and they are a fit conclusion to the subject, and convey an important lesson to the gourmand, the intemperate, and the slothful,—“ Light and perfect sleep is the reward and the solace of labour, virtue, and temperance, and it is not readily granted to the undeserving."

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CHAPTER IX.

On the Effect of Occupations upon Health.-Sanatory Influences of Locality, Ventilation, Drainage, Temperance, &c.— Effect of Confinement, Sedentary Habits, Constrained Positions, OverExertion, Prolonged Labour, Undue Use of the Voice, Undue Use of the Eyes, Damp Places of Work, Hot Places of Work, The Inhalation of Dust, Exposure to Weather, Loss of Sleep at Night, The Mineral Poisons, &c., on the Healths of Handicraftsmen, Miners, Labourers, Seamen, &c. - Importance of Manly Sports, Public Pleasure-Grounds, &c., to the Health of the Sedentary and Operative Classes of the People.

THE influence of the employment or occupation on the health, and consequent probabilities of life, and on the nature of the diseases by which the duration of life proves to be eventually affected, is unquestionably very great; although it may not be so great as appears to be commonly supposed. What is observed by M. Louis, in his so deservedly distinguished "Researches on Phthisis," in regard to the effect of trade and occupation in the development of that disease, may be applied, with much truth, to the general question of the influence of occupation on disease and mortality. "The truth is, that it is necessary to take a multitude of circumstances into consideration, in the attempt to determine the influence of professions in the development of the disease, -circumstances so important that, without them,

the closest analysis of cases could not lead to other than erroneous conclusions. The artisan does not live only in a dry or moist, cold or hot atmosphere; he does not breathe only inoffensive or deleterious vapours; he does not follow only a sedentary or active trade, &c.; his trade further requires a great outlay of strength, and a vigorous constitution, or those who pursue it are weakly, and constitutions of this stamp suffice for its duties; again, the wages of the artisan allow him, or do not allow him, to procure good food, and a healthful lodging, &c. &c." There can be no longer any doubt, that such several circumstances as are involved in the condition of a heathful lodging, a regular supply of good food, and habits of temperance, have much more to do with the probabilities of life in almost every occupation, however otherwise reputed unhealthy, than such occupation inseparably involves. The shoemaker, or the tailor, or the weaver, is infinitely more likely to suffer in health and life-expectancy, from the deficient ventilation of the workshop, and the defective drainage and sewerage and ventilation of his dwelling, than from the sedentary nature of his employment, or the constrained position in which he is obliged to sit during so many hours of the day. The glass-blower, whose occupation exposes him to such extreme alternations of temperature, and the remark applies equally to many other trades and occupations, is more commonly found to suffer from his own habits of intemperance, than from the consequences of such alternately heated and cool air, interfering with the

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balance of the circulation, and the just condition of the several emulging tissues and organs. Habits of excess, and the neglect of a strict attention to personal cleanliness, have probably more to do with the unhealthy condition, and the shortened lives, of those who follow the different trades in which lead or mercury are extensively used, than the poisonous influences of those metals would otherwise be enabled to exercise.

Before the effect of occupation on human life can be rightly estimated, it is needful, then, to deduct those differences between the value of life in the more largely acting social circumstances of locality, ventilation, drainage, temperance, &c. If the expectation of life among artisans and their families, is less by one-third than that among the tradesmen and their families in the worst districts of the larger towns, and considerably less than half that of the families of the gentry; and if a somewhat less difference, but still a very large difference, as to the expectation of life, exists among the different classes of inhabitants of rural districts;-the causes of such difference are found to be in operation from the earliest ages of the children, long before the specific occupation could have exerted any directly deleterious influence. Thus, we find the largest difference in the respective mortality of the three great classes of the population, to obtain under five years of age; the differences in the respective mortality of the classes, becoming necessarily less and less as life advances, although continuing to be so considerable, that the expectation

of life in a labourer's family in the county of Wilts or of Rutland, is not nearly so great as that of the families of the gentry or professional persons in Manchester, Leeds, or London. All this is greatly due to larger and better houses, a better house-ventilation and street-ventilation, better drainage, more temperate habits, and a fuller exercise, and more equable exercise, of all the faculties of body and mind. "An impression is often prevalent," writes Mr. Chadwick, "that a heavy mortality is an unavoidable condition of all large towns, and of a town population in general. It has, however, been shown that groups of cottages on a high hill, exposed to the most salubrious breezes, when cleanliness is neglected, are often the nests of fever and disease, as intense as the most crowded districts." In the city of Geneva, although the population has doubled in the course of two centuries and a half, the expectation of life to every individual born, is increased by more than five times; the probabilities of life to every individual born having been, according to the public registers, about eight years and a half, towards the end of the sixteenth century, and about forty-five years between 1814 and 1833. The rapidly diminished and diminishing mortality, and the greater healthiness as well as expectation of life, which obtain in all countries, and in every one of the towns and districts of this country, where drainage, ventilation, and cleanliness, have been in any efficient degree attended to, afford irresistible proof of the importance of carrying out these great means of increasing the life,