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here peculiarly apposite. I must, however, make an
observation that still further elucidates this point: it
IS, that pure cellular or serous inflammation is less
frequent in Jersey than that affecting the mucous and
fibrous membranes. The bearing of this remark upon
the present subject will be at once understood by the
scientific reader. However, it must be confessed that
the cause of this singularity is to be in part explained
upon the well known pathological principle, “ that the
severity of acute inflammation is proportional to the
constitutional vigour of the sick: ” and I believe that,
both among the natives and residents of Jersey, we
should look in vain for the hale and robust bodily
stamina that distinguish the rural population of
England.
But as, in the ordinations of Providence, every evil
IS counterbalanced by its opposing good, so here, that
less vigorous enjoyment of rude and boisterous healtl),
IS periiaps more than compensated to the Jerseyman,
by his comparative immunity from the sanguine diathesis
that lays the foundation of inflammatory diseases
in their most acute and painful forms; and that
leads so often elsewhere to permanent lesions in the
moving powers by attacks of paralvsis; or to the
sudden extinction of life by fits of apoplexy.
On the subject of vesaniie or mental diseases, it is
difficult to arrive at very accurate comparative results.
I believe however, that here again the advantage K
greatly in favour of Jersey. In the year 1823, I
visited the great asylum for the pauper lunatics of the
West Riding of the county of York; and comparing
the number of inmates (in proportion to the populations)
with the lunatics among the corresponding class
of persons in Jersey (as far as that number can be ascertained
in a country devoid of all public registration
of disease) I have good ground for asserting that the
difference in favour of Jersey, is in the proportion of
not less than five to two.
For this, many causes contribute,—but especially
the uniform and unbroken tranquillity in the life of
the Jerseyman,—guarded by the laws, the privileges,
and the position of his country, as well against the
sudden surprises of fortune, as against the depressing
influence of her frowns : such a life, by affording little
room for hope, and as little still for despair, limits
within their proper sphere, many of the fiercer passions
of onr nature, which, under gratification, not less
than under disappointment, are most dangerous to our
tranquillity. The lot of the Jerseyman has been cast
in the middle sphere of life ; and he is comparatively
removed from the operation of those causea that induce
pride, ambition, and vanity,— those followers in the
train of wealth ;—or despair, that seldom fails to wait
upon the loss of it.
In the softer passions too, a less perfect state of refinement,
proves to the Jerseyman, a protection
against the inroads of those tumultuous and ungovernable
emotions that have their more powerful sway in
a country where the graces, the fine arts, and the
lighter sciences, have been all made to bear upon the
developement of the human form and character, in
shedding over it the last degree of polish and refinement.
It has long been a prevalent opinion among patho-
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