A
Comparative View
OF THE
MORTALITY
OF THE
HUMAN SPECIES,
AT ALL AGES;
AND OF THE
DISEASES AND CASUALTIES
By which they are destroyed or annoyed.
ILLUSTRATED WITH
CHARTS AND TABLES.
By WILLIAM BLACK, M.D.
ONE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS IN LONDON:
MEMBER OF SEVERAL LITERARY SOCIETIES, &C.
Published at the unanimous Request of the Medical Society of London.
LONDON:
Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry.
1788.
TO
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
George Prince of Wales.
May it please your Royal Highness,
A Young and celebrated Prince, before his firstMilitary Expedition, interrogated one of hisexperienced Relations and Instructors, How he shouldconduct himself to be respected and obeyed by hisArmy?—“To know more of the Profession than anyof your Soldiers,” was the sage Reply; and to therenowned Cyrus, the Conqueror of the Babylonians.This Maxim is, in some Degree, applicable and pertinentthroughout all the Gradations and Scale of Society.A Prince, born to the Throne of a mightyEmpire, pre-eminent in its Political Constitution, andin the universal Range of the Arts and Sciences, isurged by his Personal Dignity and Public Duty, toaspire to the intrinsick Qualifications of Human Supremacy.
In the present small Tribute of Duty and Respect, Iam not submitting to your Royal Highness a dry,technical Analysis of Diseases. An enlarged Surveyof Medicine is intimately interwoven with most ofthe sublime Objects, not only of Philosophy, but, inour original Chart and Model, of Politicks also andLegislation, both in Peace and War. It transcends theBritish Poet’s Limitation of Human Studies, theKnowledge of Man: it embraces a Scope of NaturalKnowledge far beyond any other of the learned Professions;encompassing in its spacious Orbit most ofthe grand Divisions of Science. A total Ignorance inthis, would leave a dreary Chasm in Literature; and,like the ancient Geography, the Map and Globe ofintellectual Discoveries would be half unexplored.
In early Ages, when Medicine had not reached beyondthe Merit of a few Empirical Cures, the Consultationin consecrated Temples of Medical Oracleswas ingrafted with Divinity and Objects of Worship.The Rays of Majesty were not then obstructed fromcherishing this tender Shoot. From the encouragementof Alexander, Aristotle’s Natural History had itsOrigin. From the Patronage of his Successors tothe Egyptian Throne, the Ptolemys, first arose HumanAnatomy, together with the magnificent AlexandrianLibrary. Many of the first Miracles of Christianityare a Display of Medical Omnipotence. By several