General remarks on the health of English manufacturers : and on the need which exists for the establishment of convalescents' retreats as subservient to the medical charities of our large towns / by John Roberton.

Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General remarks on the health of English manufacturers : and on the need which exists for the establishment of convalescents' retreats as subservient to the medical charities of our large towns / by John Roberton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    i conclude that the ruder tribes of mankind, in compen- 11 sation for the want of intellectual happiness, and the refined enjoyments of civilization, possess a consider- , able and almost uniform degree of animal vigour ; and jithat though their duration of life is shorter than it is iiin Europe, a much smaller portion of their existence j is passed in bodily suffering, than is the lot of those ’ who compose our great manufacturing communities.^ Abipones riding or drinking, in full health, I could attribute it only to the strength of their constitutions.” Vol. ii. p. 36. See also Collins’s New South Wales, vol. i. p. 444, where facts of a still more incredible kind, illustrative of the unirritable constitutions of the New Hollanders, and their power of recovery from the se- verest wounds, are furnished by the eminent writer from personal observation. 1 I ’ In the form of a note I may mention a few facts in support of !l this position. It is well known that among savages who inhabit |! salubrious countries, the hair and teeth are retained to an advanced I age. TraveDers, who judge only by the physiognomy of the Indians, Humboldt tells us, are tempted to believe that it is rare to see old men among them ; which is a mistake : the head never becomes gray, and they are very little subject to wrinkles. The ! same is asserted by James of the Omawhaws, an Indian race, as yet little removed from their primitive condition. Baldness, he says, appears to be unknown, the hair being always retained, however 1 I advanced the age of the individual; and that decayed teeth are rare. ’ —Exped. to the Rocky Mountains, v. i. p. 238. Similar facts re- i! specting other races of savages, are stated by various travellers. That longevity among the Indian race throughout America, under jj favourable circumstances, is much the same as in Europe, we have ; I abundant testimony, especially that of Humboldt.—Polit. Essay on New Spain, vol. i. p. 151 & 256. See also Dobrizhoffer, v. ii. p. 40. ! It is customary in the present day, to represent savages as pos- 1