III. The diseases introduced by civilization extend themselves through every class and profession among men. How fatal are the effects of idleness and intemperance among the rich, and of hard labour and penury among the poor! What pallid looks are contracted by the votaries of science from hanging over the "sickly taper!" How many diseases are entailed upon manufacturers, by the materials in which they work, and the posture of their bodies! What monkish diseases do we observe from monkish continence and monkish vices! We pass over the increase of accidents from building, sailing, riding, and the like. War, as if too slow in destroying the human species, calls in a train of diseases peculiar to civilized nations. What havoc have the corruption and monopoly of provisions, a damp soil, and an unwholesome sky, made, in a few days, in an army! The achievements of British valour, at the Havannah, in the last war, were obtained at the expence of 9,000 men, 7,000 of whom perished with the West-India fever[12]. Even our modern discoveries in geography, by extending the empire of commerce, have likewise extended the empire of diseases. What desolation have the East and West-Indies made of British subjects! It has been found, upon a nice calculation, than only ten of a hundred Europeans, live above seven years after they arrive in the island of Jamaica. [12] The modern writers upon the diseases of armies, wonder that the Greek and Roman physicians have left us nothing upon that subject. But may not _most_ of the diseases of armies be produced by the different manner in which wars are carried on by the modern nations? The discoveries in geography, by extending the field of war, expose soldiers to many diseases from long voyages, and a _sudden_ change of climate, which were unknown to the armies of former ages. Moreover, the form of the weapons, and the variety in the military exercises of the Grecian and Roman armies, gave a vigour to the constitution, which can never be acquired by the use of muskets and artillery. IV. It would take up too much of our time to point out all the customs, both _physical_ and _moral_, which influence diseases among both sexes. The former have engendered the seeds of diseases in the human body itself: hence the origin of catarrhs, jail and miliary fevers, with a long train of other diseases, which compose so great a part of our books of medicine. The latter likewise have a large share in producing diseases. I am not one of those modern philosophers, who derive the vices of mankind from the influence of civilization; but I am safe in asserting, that their number and malignity increase with the refinements of polished life. To prove this, we need only survey a scene too familiar to affect us: it is a bedlam; which injustice, inhumanity, avarice, pride, vanity, and ambition, have filled with inhabitants.