Note 1 — Front matter

This diminished mortality of young children is, like that of fevers and fluxes, owing chiefly to the improvements in ventilation and cleanliness, but greatly also to laying aside the custom of exposing them to the open air in winter and early in spring; either from inadvertency, or from the false notion of rendering them hardy, whereas they thereby catch inflammations of the lungs. Nothing tends more to the health, strength, and growth of children, than genial warmth. It seems chiefly owing to the great plenty and cheapness of fuel, that the race of people in Lancashire are so superior in their form and size. In Buckinghamshire, on the contrary, where fuel is extremely scanty and dear, the race of people is small and puny, insomuch that it is provided by Act of Parliament that men shall be admitted into the militia of a smaller stature in this than other counties.