I might now proceed to give an abstract of what has been said of the power of climate in producing diseases on the Western Continent, and West India islands; but as this belongs more especially to the second part of this Treatise, I shall here pass it over, as well as what Dr. Smith has said of the climate of Greece, in the Medical Repository, and which he endeavours to prove to be similar to the climate of North America. But, before we proceed to consider what diseases may be produced by _climate_ alone, it is proper to discuss the question, how far man is naturally subject to diseases of any kind? Many, no doubt, will be apt to suppose this a very absurd question; for as man is now, by nature, subject to death, it seems to follow, that he is also naturally subject to disease, as the means of bringing on death. But, however plausible this may appear, experience shows, that disease and death are not always connected. Many people die of mere old age; the powers of life being exhausted, and the system so far decayed, that the various parts of it can no longer perform their offices. On the other hand, a disease destroys by attacking some particular organ, and either totally consuming or altering it in such a manner, that it disturbs the vital operations, while yet strong and vigorous. We may therefore compare the death of a person from mere old age to the natural extinction of a candle when the tallow is totally consumed; and death from disease, to the blowing out of a candle while a part of it remains, and might have burned for a considerably longer time. Thus I am inclined to consider all diseases as merely accidental; and this with the greater certainty, because, though, in common with other believers in revealed religion, I think that death is the consequence of Adam’s transgression, yet I do not find that disease of any kind was threatened except in cases of positive transgression, long after the days of Adam.