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have that effect in a much greater degree than any cause external to the human body itself, is a fact confirmed by the experience of all physicians who have seen much of the disease.' Then, again, there was the evidence of Dr. Grattan, in Ireland, whom he found writing as follows:—'Next to contagion, I consider a distressed state of the general population of any particular district the most common and extensive source of typhoid fever. The present epidemic (that of Ireland in 1818) is principally to be referred to the miserable condition of the poorer classes in this kingdom; and so long as their state shall continue unimproved, so long fever will prevail, probably not to its present extent, but certainly to an extent sufficient to render it at all times a national affliction.' He had lately applied to a medical gentleman, practising in a populous district of London, Dr. Hunter, of Bloomsbury, whose experience quite confirmed all the information he had received upon the point. This gentleman wrote as follows:—'An extensive practice for more than twenty years, almost in the very focus of typhus localities, has given me an opportunity of seeing that disease in all its various degrees of malignity. There are numerous predisposing causes; such as impure air, crowded neighbourhoods, want of cleanliness, and so on; but all these sink into insignificance and unimportance when compared with the great monster predisposing agent I mean a scarcity of nutritious food. And it may be said, if other causes have slain their thousands, this alone has slain its tens of thousands. My experience justifies and warrants me in affirming that, where the people have insufficient nourishment, there typhus fever manifests itself with all the horrors of a depopulating plague. Witness Ireland. No sooner does a year of scarcity appear but this fell destroyer of the human race shows itself, carrying off thousands; and this affirmation will, I am sure, be confirmed by any medical practitioner who has had the misfortune to see, as I have, whole families carried to their weary bourne by this scourge of the human family, brought into existence and activity by the physical wants of the people. I happened to know a family of nine persons, seven of whom died in one short month, and all by the fell destroyer, typhus; and this too in an agricultural district, where the air was as pure as the morning breath of heaven, and where contagion was impossible, as the farm houses were at a considerable distance from each other. But in the same district, where the families had sufficient food, and of a good quality, fever was wholly unknown.' He had a great amount of evidence of the same kind, relating to France, Belgium, and Germany. All medical men seemed to come to the unanimous conclusion that the well-being of the people varied with the quantity of food with which they were supplied. (Hear.) Now, he might be asked, what all this had to do with the Corn Laws. They would say that these laws were intended to protect native
