Technical advances are connected with Hunter's name, but his real scientific importance is as a pioneer in the making and order ing of museums. His monument is the Hunterian museum in London, based on his specimens of which many still survive. Natural history museums, as now constituted in all civilized countries, have been influenced, if they have not been derived, from that which he literally gave his life's blood to found.
Beginning of Vital Statistics.—The mathematical manner of the presenting of collective medical data was first appreciated by the versatile English physician and inventor, Sir William Petty (1623-87) (see PETTY), the "father of Political Economy." In 1662 and on many subsequent occasions he joined a friend, John Graunt, in issuing Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality of London. He endeavoured to deduce popula tion, death-rates, disease prevalence and other matters of vital statistics from the crude figures of the day.
In 1761, a Prussian clergyman, J. P. Siissmilch (1707-82), produced a theological work, The Divine Ordinance manifested in the Human Race through Birth, Death and Propagation. Its object was to exhibit God's design in the constant numerical relationships of vital statistics. The work is of great historic and scientific importance. It was based upon a vast mass of statistics and showed significant advance in method. From the time of its publication, statistical studies advanced rapidly.
Statistical science was placed on a firm foundation by the Belgian astronomer, Lambert Quetelet (1796-1874). His prin cipal work, On Man and on the Development of his Faculties, an Essay on Social Physics, contains his statistical researches on the development of the physical and intellectual qualities of man and on the "average man" both physically and intellectually consid ered. In his treatise of 1848 On the Social System and the Laws which govern it, he shows how the numbers representing the in dividual qualities of man may be grouped round the numbers referring to the average man in a way corresponding to the prin ciples of the theory of probabilities.
Military, Naval and Prison Medicine.—During the i8th century the only sick of whom statistics were available were soldiers, sailors and prisoners. Thus the most important move ments in preventive medicine, both in England and elsewhere, were initiated by naval and military surgeons.
The experience and position as chief medical officer of the British army of Sir John Pringle (1707-82) enabled him to get many of his reforms generally accepted. He was among the first to see the importance of ordinary putrefactive processes in the production of disease, and quite the first to apply these prin ciples in hospitals and camps. He identified the deadly "gaol fever" or typhus with "hospital fever," and laid down rules for the hygiene of camps.
The Scottish physician, James Lind (1716-94) had a long naval experience. In an important work on scurvy (1753), then a very common and fatal disease at sea, he demonstrated how it might be prevented by fresh fruit or lemon juice. Fresh water had always been difficult to obtain on sea voyages. Lind arranged for sea water to be distilled for the purpose. He introduced rules for the prevention of typhus on ships, and made great improvements in naval hygiene. His essay of 1757, On the most effectual means of preserving the Health of Seamen, is very important. He also wrote an Essay on Diseases of Europeans in Hot Climates, which opened the campaign for the conquest of the tropics for the white man. Captain James Cook (1728-79), the explorer, adopt ed Lind's principles and established a record in a voyage to the South Seas.
Public Health Improvements.—The advent of the new sys tem of labour in the i8th century had important reactions on public health. The system began and has been most pronounced in England, but it has now spread to all civilized countries. With the growth of towns and increased population there was an in creased demand for food. The country became better cultivated and better drained, and there were many improvements in agri culture. Certain diseases began to diminish, and notably malaria, essentially a disease of undrained and ill-cultivated lands.