§. 1.

AIR being one of the most ne­cessary Things towards the Subsistence and Health of all Animals; 'tis a Wonder to me, that here in Eng­land, where Luxury and all the Arts of living well, are cultivated even to a Vice, the Choice of Air should be so little considered.

§. 2.

From Observations on Bleeding in Rheumatisms, and after catching Cold, 'tis evident, that the Air with its diffe­rent Qualities, can alter and quite vitiate the whole Texture of the Blood and ani­mal Juices: From the Palsies, Vertigoes, Vapours, and other nervous Affections, caused by Damps, Mines, and working on some Minerals, ( ^†particularly Mer­cury [Page 7] and Antimony) 'tis plain Air so and so qualified, can relax and obstruct the whole nervous System. From the Cho­lics, Fluxes, Coughs, and Consumptions, produced by damp, moist and nitrous Air, 'tis manifest, that it can obstruct and spoil the noble Organs. The Air is at­tracted and received into our Habit, and mixed with our Fluids every Instant of our Lives; so that any ill Quality in the Air so continually introduced, must in Time produce fatal Effects on the a­nimal OEconomy: And therefore it will be of the utmost Consequence to every one, to take Care what kind of Air it is they sleep and watch, breath and live in, and are perpetually receiving into the most intimate Union with the Prin­ciples of Life. I shall only take Notice of three Conditions of Air.

§. 3.

The first is, That when Gentlemen build Seats, they ought never to place them upon any high Hill, very near any great Confluence of Water, in the Neigh­bourhood of any great Mines, or Beds of Minerals, nor on any swamp, marshy, or mossy Foundation; but either in a cham­paign Country, or on the Side of a small Eminence, sheltered from the North and [Page 8] East Winds, or upon a light gravelly Soil. The Nature of the Soil will be well known from the Plants and Herbs that grow on it, or rather more securely from the Nature of the Waters that spring out of it, which ought always to be sweet, clear, light, soft, and tastless. All high Mountains are damp, as Dr. Halley observed at St. Helena, a moun­tainous Place, where Damps fell so per­petually in the Night time, that he was obliged to be every Moment wiping his Glasses, in making his Astronomical Observations. And where the Moun­tains are high, the Inhabitants of them are forced to send their Furniture, in Winter, to the Valley, lest it should rot. And 'tis common to have it rain or snow on Mountains, when the Valleys below are clear, screne and dry. All great Hills are Nests of Minerals, and Covers (made of the prominent Earth) for Reservoirs of Rain-Water. The Clouds are but great Fleeces of rarified Water sailing in the Air, sometimes not many Yards above the champaign Country; and these high Hills intercepting them, they are com­pressed into Dew and Rain, and are per­petually drilling down the Crannies of [Page 9] the Mountains into these Basins. Hence the Origin of Rivers, and fresh Water Springs. Besides that, these mountain­ous Places, are always expos'd to high, and almost perpetual Winds. Where any great Concourse of Water is, the Air must needs be perpetually damp, because the Sun is perpetually straining from these Waters, moist Dews and Vapours thro' it. All great Nests of Minerals, or large Mines, must necessarily impregnate the Air, with their respective Qualities. And mossy Blackness, is some Degree of Pu­trefaction, as ^*Sir Isaac Newton ob­serves.

§ 4.

Secondly, the Winds that are most frequent, and most pernicious in Eng­land, are the Easterly, especially the North East Winds, which in the Win­ter are the most piercing cold, in Summer the most parching hot. In Win­ter they bring along with them, all the Nitre of the Northern and Scythian Snows, Mountains of Ice, and frozen Seas thro' which they come; and in [Page 10] Summer, blow with all the fiery Parti­cles of the perpetual Day they pass thro'. From the end of January, till towards the end of May, the Wind blows almost perpetually, from the Eastern and North­ern Points, if the Spring is dry; and from the Southern and Western Points, if the Spring is wet, (and generally from the setting in of the Winds, on a New­Moon, you may predict the Weather of the Spring) and our Bodies most certain­ly attracting, the circumambient Air, and the Fumes of those Bodies that are next to us, it will be very convenient for valetudinary, studious, and contem­plative Persons, in a dry Spring, or in Easterly Winds, to change their Bed­chambers into Rooms that have Western or Southern Lights, or to shut close up the Eastern and Northern Lights, or to have them but seldom opened; and in wet Seasons, to take the contrary Course. And if any such Person, has been much exposed, or long abroad, in a Northerly or bleakish Easterly Wind, it will be very proper for him to drink down, going to Bed, a large Draught of warm Wa­ter-gruel, or of warm small Mountain­wine Whey, as an Antidote against the [Page 11] nitrous Effluvia, suck'd into the Body, and to open the Obstructions of the Per­spiration made thereby.

§. 5.

Thirdly, from the beginning of November till towards the beginning of February, London is cover'd over with one universal nitrous and sulphurous Smoak, from the Multitude of Coal Fires, the Absence of that material Di­vinity the Sun, and the Consequence thereof, the falling of the Dews, and Vapours of the Night. In such a Sea­son, weak and tender People, and those that are subject to nervous or pulmonick Distempers, ought either to go into the Country, or to be at home soon after Sun-set, and to dispel the Damps with clear, warm Fires, and chearful Con­versation, go early to Bed, and rise pro­portionally sooner in the Morning; for, as the Sun's Removal suffers the Vapours to fall and condense, in the Evening, so his Approach dispels and raises them in the Morning. I need not add, that it will be very fit, for those that are va­letudinary, to have their Servants, Chil­dren, Bedfellows, and all those that ap­proach them, with whom they live con­stantly [Page 12] and mix Atmospheres, to be as heal­thy, sound and sweet as possibly they can; and, for their own sakes, to have them remov'd till they are made so, if they are otherwise. Nor shall I add any pressing instances, to avoid wet Rooms, damp Beds, and foul Linnen, or to re­move Ordure and Nusances; the Luxu­ry of England having run all these ra­ther into a Vice.

§. 6.

The Air is a Fluid, wherein Parts of all Kinds of Bodies swim as in Wa­ter. But Air differs from Water in this, that the first is compressible into a lesser Compass, and smaller Volume, like a Fleece of Wool, either by its own Weight, or any other Force, which Weight or Force being removed, the Air imme­diately recovers its former Bulk and Di­mensions again, whereas no Force what­ever can bring Water into narrower Bounds; that is, Air is extreamly ela­stick and springy, but Water is not at all so. Yet the Parts of Air would seem to be grosser than the Parts of Water: For Water will get through a Bladder, and may be forced through the Pores of Gold; but Air will pass through neither. By this its elastick Force, the Air insi­nuates [Page 13] itself into the patent Cavities of all animal Bodies; and the Infant, which never breathed before, assoon as it is exposed to this Element, has the little Bladders, whereof the Lungs consist, blown up into a perpendicular Erection on the Branches of the Wind-pipe; where­by the Obstruction, from the Pressure of these Vesicles (arising from their being compressed together, and lying upon one another) being in some Measure taken off, the muscular Action of the right Ventricle of the Heart is able to force the Blood through the Lungs into the left Ventricle. But these little Bladders, being thus inflated by an elastick Fluid, still press so far upon, and grind the grosser Particles of the Blood into more sizeable ones, that they may become small enough to circulate through the other capillary Vessels of the Body. This ela­stick Air, pressing equally every Way round, by its Weight and Spring, shuts close the Scales of the Scarf-skin of healthy and strong Persons; so that it denies all Entrance to the nitrous and watry Mixture, contained in it, and thus becomes a Kind of Cold Bath, to them, and defends them from catching Cold: But in sickly, studious, and sedentary Peo­ple, [Page 14] and those of weak Nerves, where the Spring of the Coverlets and Scales, that defend the Mouths of the perspira­tory Ducts is weak, the Perspiration lit­tle or next to none at all, and the Blood poor and sizey; the nitrous and watry Particles of the Air get a ready and free Entrance, by these Ducts into the Blood, and by breaking the Globules thereof, coagulating and fixing its Fluidity, quite stop the Perspiration, and obstruct all the capillary Vessels, the cutaneous Glands, and those of the Lungs and alimentary Passages, when such Bodies are long ex­posed to such an Air: And thus begets all these Disorders in the Body, that Air thus and thus poisoned, was shewn capa­ble to produce. So long as the Perspi­ration is strong, brisk, and full, 'tis im­possible any of these Disorders should hap­pen; because the Force of the perspira­tory Steams outward, is greater than the Force whereby these noxious Mixtures enter; unless the Body be indiscreetly too long exposed, or the Action of the nitrous and watry Mixtures be extreme­ly violent. Hence it comes to pass, that those who are very strong and healthy, and those who have drank strong Liquors so plentifully, as to have thereby a brisk [Page 15] Circulation and full Perspiration, seldom or never catch Cold. And this is the Reason why rich Foods and generous Wines, moderately used, become so ex­cellent an Antidote in infectious and e­pidemick Distempers; not only as they banish Fear and Terror, but as they make so full and free a Stream of Perspiration, and maintain so active and brisk an At­mosphere, as suffers no noxious Steams or Mixtures in the Air to come within it; but drives and beats off the Enemy to a Distance. But Persons of viscous, heavy Fluids, of poor and sizey Juices, of little or no Perspiration, such as ge­nerally all studious, sedentary and sickly Persons are, but especially those that are subject to nervous Disorders, must neces­sarily suffer under these poisonous Mixtures in the Air, if they do not cautiously and carefully fence against them, or take not a present Remedy and Antidote, when tainted. For besides the Air that gets through the perspiratory Ducts into the Blood, whenever we Eat, Drink, or Breath, we are taking into our Bodies, such Air as is about us. And when the concoctive Powers are weak, as in such Persons, and the Quantity of the Food is too great, or its Quality too strong for [Page 16] them, the Chyle is too gross, and the per­spiratory Matter is stopped, because too large for these small Ducts; and this whole Mass, which in common Health is more than double of the gross Evacua­tions, recoils in upon the Bowels, and becomes, as it were, Spears, and Darts, and Armour to the Air received from without; which being thus sharpened with the Salts of the unconcocted Food, to­gether with its own elastick Force, pierces the Sides of the Vessels, and gets into all the Cavities of the Body, and be­tween the Muscles and their Membranes, and there, in Time, brings forth hypo­chondriack, hysterick, nervous, and va­pourish Disorders, and all that black Train of Evils such Constitutions suffer under.

§. 1.

TO have our Food, that is, our Meat and Drink, as to Quan­tity and Quality duly regulated, and pre­cisely adjusted to our concoctive Powers, would be of the utmost Consequence to Health and Long Life. Our Bodies re­quire only a determinate Quantity there­of, to supply the Expences of living: and a just Proportion of that to these would very probably preserve us from acute, most certainly from chronical Distempers, and enable us to live, without much Sick­ness and Pain, so long as our Constitu­tions were originally made to last. The Sources of chronical Distempers are first Viscidity in the Juices, or the Over­largeness of their constituent Particles, which not being sufficiently broken by the concoctive Powers, stop or retard the Circulation; or, secondly, too great abun­dance of sharp and acrimonious Salts, [Page 20] whereby the Juices themselves are ren­dered so corrosive, as to burst or wear out the Solids; or, thirdly, a Relaxa­tion, or Want of a due Force and Sprin­giness, in the Solids themselves. An Ex­cess in Quantity begets the first, the ill Condition of our Meat and Drink the second, and both together, with Want of due Labour, the third.

§. 2.

The Meat of England is gene­rally animal Substances. The Animals themselves, from epidemick Causes, bad Food, Age, or other Infirmities, have their Diseases as well as human Crea­tures: and these diseased Animals can never be proper or sound Food for Men. Adult Animals abound more in urinous Salts than young ones: Their Parts are more closely compacted, because more forcibly united; and so harder of Dige­stion. 'Tis true, the great Distinction of the Fitness or Unfitness of the several Sorts of Animals and Vegetables for hu­man Food, depends upon their original Make, Frame, and Nature (and that can be found out only by Experience) as also upon the special Taste, Complexion, Tem­perament, and Habits of the Person that feeds on them. But by the Help of these [Page 21] Three Principles, viz. First, That the Strength or Weakness of Cohesion of the Particles of fluid Bodies, depends up­on their Bigness or Smallness; that is, the biggest Particles cohere more firmly, than the smaller, because more Parts come into Contact in large Bodies than small, and so their Union is greater. Secondly, That the greater the Force [ Momentum] is, with which two Bodies meet, the stronger is their Cohesion, and the more difficult their Separation. Thirdly, that Salts, being comprehended by plain Sur­faces, being hard, and in all Changes recovering their Figure, unite the most firmly of any Bodies whatsoever: Their plain Surfaces bring many Points into Contact and Union: Their Hardness and constant Figure make them durable and unalterable; and thereby the active Prin­ciples, and the Origin of the Qualities of Bodies; and when they approach with­in the Sphere of one another's Activity, they firmly unite in Clusters; all which make the Separation of their original Particles the more difficult. I say, from these three Principles, we may in gene­ral compare the Easiness or Difficulty of digesting (that is, breaking into small Parts) the several Sorts of Vegetables [Page 22] and Animals, one with another; and so discover their Fitness or Unfitness for becoming Food for tender and valetudi­nary Persons.

• 1. All other Things being supposed equal, those Vegetables and Animals, that come to Maturity the soonest, are lightest of Digestion. Thus the Spring Vegetables, as Asparagus, Straw-berries, and some Sorts of Sallading, are more easily digested than Pears, Apples, Pea­ches, and Nectarines; because they have less of the solar Fire in them; their Parts are united by a weaker Heat; that is, with less Velocity, and abound less in, nay scarce have any strong and fixed Salts. Among the Animals, the com­mon Poultry, Hares, Sheep, Kids, Rab­bets, &c. who in the same, or a few Years come to their Maturity (that is, to propagate their Species) are much more tender and readily digested than Cows, Horses, or Asses, (were these last in use for Food, as they have been in Famine) &c. for the Reason already given, be­cause their Parts cohere less firmly. And it is observable, of the Vegetables, which are longest a ripening, that is, whose Juices have most of the solar Rays [Page 23] in them, that their fermented Juices yield the strongest vinous Spirits; as Grapes, Elder-berries, and the like: and of the Animals that are longest in coming to Maturity, that their Juices yield the most rank and most foetid urinous Salts.
• 2. Other Things supposed equal, the larger and bigger the Vegetable or Ani­mal is, in its Kind, the stronger and the harder to digest is the Food made thereof. Thus a large Onion, Apple, or Pear, and large Beef and Mutton are harder to di­gest than the lesser ones, of the same Kind; not only, as their Vessels being stronger and more elastick, their Parts are brought together with a greater Force; but also, because the Qualities are pro­portionably more intense in great Bodies of the same Kind: Thus, other Things being equal, a greater Fire is proportion­ably more intensely hot, than a lesser one; and the Wine contained in a larger Vessel becomes stronger than that con­tained in a lesser; and consequently the Juices of larger Animals and Vegetables are more rank than the Juices of smaller ones of the same Kind.
• [Page 24]3. Other Things being equal, The pro­per Food appointed for Animals by Na­ture, is easier digested than the Animals themselves; those Animals that live on Vegetables, than those that live on Ani­mals; those that live on Vegetables or Animals, that soonest come to Maturi­ty, than those that live on such as are longer a ripening. Thus Milk and Eggs are lighter of Digestion than the Flesh of Beasts or Birds; Pullets and Turkies, than Ducks and Geese; and Partridge, and Pheasant are lighter than Woodcock or Snipe; because these last, being long-bil­led, suck only animal Juices; and for the Reasons already given, Grass Beef and Mutton are lighter than stall-fed Ox­en and Sheep.
• 4. All Things else being alike, Fish and Sea-Animals are harder to digest than Land-Animals; because universal­ly their Food is other Animals, and the Salt Element in which they live compacts their Parts more firmly; Salts having a stronger Power of Cohesion than other Bodies. And for the same Reason, Salt Water Fish is harder to digest than fresh Water. Thus the Sea Tortoise is harder [Page 25] to digest than the Land Tortoise; and Sturgeon and Turbit, than Trout or Perch.
• 5. Other Things being equal, Vegeta­bles and Animals that abound in an oily, fat, and glutinous Substance, are harder to digest, than those of a dry, fleshy, fibrous Substance; because oily and fat Substan­ces clude the Force and Action of the concoctive Powers; and their Parts at­tract one another, and unite more strong­ly than other Substances do, (except Salts) as Sir Isaac Newton ^* observes. Their Softness and Humidity relaxes and weak­ens the Force of the Stomach, and the Fat and Oil itself is shut up in little Bladders, that are with Difficulty broken. Thus Nuts of all kinds pass through the Guts, almost untouched: Olives are har­der to digest than Pease; fat flesh Meat, than the lean of the same. Carp, Tench, Salmon, Eel, and Turbit, are much harder to digest than Whiting, Perch, Trout, or Haddock.
• 6. Vegetables and Animals, all Things else being alike, whose Substance is white, [Page 26] or inclining to the lighter Colours, are lighter to digest, than those whose Substance is redder, browner, or inclining towards the more flaming Colours; not only be­cause the Parts that reflect white, and the lighter Colours are lesser in Bulk than those that reflect the more flaming Colours ^†; but also because those of the more flaming Colours abound more with urinious Salts. Thus Turnips, Parsnips, and Potatoes, are lighter than Carrots, Skirrets, and Beet-Raves. Pullet, Tur­key, Pheasant, and Rabbet, are lighter than Duck, Geese, Woodcock, and Snipe. Whiting, Flounder, Perch, and Soal, are lighter than Salmon, Sturgeon, Herring, and Mackarel. Veal and Lamb is lighter than Red or Fallow Deer.
• 7. Lastly, All other Things being e­qual, Vegetables and Animals of a strong, poignant, aromatick and hot Taste, are harder to digest than those of a milder, softer, and more insipid Taste. High Re­lish comes from abundance of Salts: A­bundance of Salts supposes adult Ani­mals, and such as are long a coming to [Page 27] Maturity; and where Salts abound, the Parts are more difficultly separated, and harder to be digested. Strong and aro­matick Plants imbibe and retain most of the solar Rays, and become solid Spirits, or fixed Flames. And they that deal much in them swallow so much live­Coals, which will at last inflame the Fluids and burn up the Solids.

§. 3.

There is nothing more certain, than that the greater Superiority the con­coctive Powers have, over the Food, or the stronger the concoctive Powers are, in regard of the Things to be concocted; the finer the Chyle will be, the Circula­tion the more free, and the Spirits more lightsome; that is, the better will the Health be. Now from these general Propositions, taking in their own parti­cular Complexion and Habits, vale­tudinary, studious, or contemplative Per­sons may easily fix upon these particular vegetable or animal Foods, that are fit­test for them. And if any Error should be committed, 'tis best to err on the safest Side, and rather chuse those Things that are under our concoctive Powers, than those that are above them. And in the Choice of Animals for our Food, we [Page 28] must not pass over the Manner of fatten­ing and fitting them up for the Table. About London we can scarce have any, but cramm'd Poultry, or stall-fed Butche­ry Meat. It were sufficient to disgust the stoutest Stomach, to see the foul, gross, and nasty Manner, in which, and the fetid, putrid and unwholesome Ma­terials, with which they are fed. Perpe­tual Foulness and Cramming, gross Food and Nastiness, we know, will putrify the Juices and mortify the muscular Substance of human Creatures; and sure they can do no less in Brute Animals, and thus make even our Food Poison. The same may be said of hot Beds, and forcing Plants and Vegetables. The only Way of having sound and healthful animal Food, is to leave them to their own na­tural Liberty, in the free Air, and their own proper Element, with Plenty of Food, and due Cleanness, and a Shelter from the Injuries of the Weather, when they have a Mind to retire to it. I add nothing about Cookery: Plain Roasting and Boiling is as high, as valetudinary, tender, studious, and contemplative Per­sons, or those who would preserve their Health, and lengthen out their Days, ought to presume on. Made Dishes, rich [Page 29] Soop, high Sauces, Baking, Smoaking, Salting, and Pickling, are the Inventions of Luxury, to force an unnatural Appe­tite, and encrease the Load, which Na­ture, without Incentives from ill Habits, and a vicious Palate, will of itself make more than sufficient for Health and long Life. Abstinence and proper Evacua­tions, due Labour and Exercise, will al­ways recover a decayed Appetite, so long as there is any Strength and Fund in Na­ture to go upon. And 'tis scarce allow­ble to provoke an Appetite, with medi­cinal Helps, but where the digestive Fa­culties have been spoiled and ruined by acute or tedious chronical Distempers. And as soon as 'tis recovered to any to­lerable Degree, Nature is to be left to its own Work, without any Spurs from Cookery or Physick.

§. 4.

The next Consideration is the Quantity of Food that is necessary to support Nature, without overloading it, in a due Plight: That is indeed various, according to the Age, Sex, Nature, Strength, and Country the Party is of, and the Exercise he uses. In these Nor­thern Countries, the Coldness of the Air, the Strength and large Stature of [Page 30] People, demand larger Supplies than in the Eastern and warmer Countries. Young growing Persons, and those of great Strength and large Stature, require more than the Aged, Weak, and Slender. But Persons of all Sorts will live more heal­thy and longer by universal Temperance, than otherwise. And some general Ob­servations on the Quantity Persons of different Nations and Conditions, have lived on, healthy, and to a great Age, may give some Assistance to valetudina­ry and tender Persons, to adjust the due Quantity necessary for them.

§ 5.

It is surprising, to what a great Age the eastern Christians, who retir'd from the Persecutions into the Desarts of Egypt and Arabia, lived healthful on a very little Food. We are inform'd by Cassian, that the common Measure in twenty four Hours, was about twelve Ounces or a Pound, (for the eastern Pound was but twelve Ounces) with mere Element for Drink. St. Antho­ny liv'd to 105 Years, on mere Bread and Water, adding only a few Herbs at last. James the Hermit, to 104. Arse­nius, the Tutor of the Emperor Arcadi­us, to 120: 65 in the world, and 55 in [Page 31] the Desart. St. Epiphanus, to 115. St. Je­rome, to about 100. Simeon Stylites, 109. And Romualdus, 120. And Lewis Corna­ro, a Venetian Nobleman, after he had u­sed all other Remedies in vain, so that his Life was despair'd of at 40, yet recover'd and liv'd, by the mere Force of his Tem­perance, near to 100 years.

§ 6.

Our Northern Climate, as I said from the Purity and Coldness of the Air, which bracing the Fibres, makes the Ap­petite keener, and the Action of Dige­stition stronger; and from the Labour and Strength of the People, which makes the Expences of living more, will neces­sarily require a greater Quantity of Food. Yet 'tis wonderful in what Sprightliness, Stength, Activity, and fredom of Spirits, a low Diet, even here, will preserve those that have habituated themselves to it. Buchanan informs us, of one Lau­rence who preserved himself to 140, by the mere Force of Temperance and La­bour. Spotswood mentions one Kenti­gern (afterwards called St. Mongah, or Mungo, from whom the Famous Well in Wales is named) who lived to 185 Years, tho' after he came to the Years of Understanding, he never tasted [Page 32] Wine nor strong Drink; and slept on the cold Ground. My worthy Friend Mr. Web, is still alive. He by the Quickness of the Faculties of the Mind, and the Activity of the Organs of his Body, shews the great Benefit of a low Diet, living altogether on vegetable Food and pure Element. The History of the Milk ^* Doctor of Croydon, who by living on Milk only, cured himself of an other­wise incurable Distemper, viz. the E­pilepsy, and liv'd in perfect Health for sixteen Years after, till an Accident cut him off, I have already narrated in my Treatise of the Gout. Henry Jenkins a Fisherman, liv'd 169 Years, his Diet was coarse and sower, as his Historian informs us, that is, plain and cooling, and the Air where he lived sharp and clear, viz. Allerton upon Swale in York­shire. Parr died sixteen Years younger, viz. at the age of 152 Years, 9 Months; his Diet was old Cheese, Milk, coarse Bread, small Beer, and Whey: And his Historian tells us, he might have lived a good while longer, if he had not changed his Diet and Air, coming out of a clear, thin, free Air, into the thick Air of London, and after a constant, plain, [Page 33] and homely country Diet, being taken into a spendid Family, where he fed high, and drank plentifully of the best Wines, whereby the natural Functions of the Parts were overcharged, and the Habit of the whole Body quite disordered; up­on which there could not but soon ensue a Dissolution. ^*Dr. Lister mentions eight Persons in the North of England, the youngest of which was above 100 Years, and the eldest 140. He says, 'tis to be observed, that the Food of all this moun­tainous Country is exceedingly coarse. And certainly there is no Place in the World more likely to lengthen out Life than England, especially those Parts of it, that have a free open Air, and a gra­velly and chalky Soil, if to due Exercise, Abstemiousness, and a plain simple Diet were added.

§. 7.

I have ^†elsewhere offered to determine the Quantity of Food, suffi­cient to keep a Man of an Ordinary Sta­ture, following no laborious Employ­ment, [Page 34] in due Plight, Health, and Vigour; to wit, 8 Ounces of Flesh Meat, 12 of Bread, or vegetable Food, and about a Pint of Wine, or other generous Liquor in 24 Hours. But the Valetudinary, and those employed in sedentary Professions, or intellectual Studies, must lessen this Quantity, if they would preserve their Health, and the Freedom of their Spirits long. Studious and sedentary Men must of Necessity eat and drink a great deal less, than those very same Men might do, were they engaged in an active Life. For as they want that Exercise that is necessary towards Concoction and Per­spiration, and that their Nerves are more worn out by intellectual Studies, than even bodily Labour would waste them; if, in any wise, they indulge Freedom of Living, their Juices must necessarily be­come viscid, and their Stomachs relaxed. He that would have a clear Head must have a clean Stomach. The Neglect of which is the Cause, why we see so many hy­pochondriacal, melancholy, and vapourish Gentlemen, among those of the long Robe; the only Remedy of which is La­bour and Abstinence.

§. 8.

Most of all the chronical Diseases, the Infirmities of old Age, and the short Periods of the Lives of Englishmen, are owing to Repletion. This is evident from hence; because Evacuation of one Kind or another is nine Parts of ten in their Remedy: For not only Cupping, Bleed­ing, Blistering, Issues, Purging, Vomit­ing, and Sweating, are manifest Evacua­tions, or Drains to draw out what has been superfluously taken down; but even Abstinence, Exercise, Alteratives, Cor­dials, Bitters, and Alexipharmicks, are but several means to dispose the gross Humours to be more readily evacuated by insensible Perspiration; that new and well concocted Chyle, and sweet com­minuted Juices, may take their Place to restore the Habit. And therefore it were much more easy, as well as more safe and effectual, to prevent than incur the Necessity of such Evacuations. And a­ny one may lose a Pound of Blood, take a Purge, or a Sweat; by dropping the great Meal, or abstaining from animal Food and strong Liquors, for four or five Days (in chronical Cases) as effectually as by opening a Vein, swallowing a Dose of Pills, or taking a sudorifick Bolus.

§. 9.

I advise therefore all Gentlemen of a sedentary Life, and of learned Pro­fessions, to use as much Abstinence as possibly they can, consistent with the Pre­servation of their Strength and Freedom of Spirits: Which ought to be done as soon as they find any Heaviness, Inquie­tudes, restless Nights, or Aversion to Ap­plication; either by lessening one half of their usual Quantity of animal Food and strong Liqours, 'till such Time as they regain their wonted Freedom and Indo­lence; or by living a due Time wholly upon vegetable Diet, such as Sago, Rice, Pudding, and the like, and drinking on­ly a little Wine and Water. And if they would preserve their Health and Consti­tution, and lengthen out their Days; they must either inviolably live low (or mai­gre, as the French call it) a Day or two in the Week; or once a Week, Fort­night, or Month at farthest, take some domestick Purge, which shall require nei­ther Diet, nor keeping at Home; but may at once strengthen the Bowels, and discharge superfluous Humours. Of this Kind are a Dose (6 or 7) of the Scotch Pills; half a Dram of the Pilulae Stoma­chicae cum Gummi, with three or four [Page 37] Grains of Diagryd, mixt; half a Dram of the Pilulae Ruffi; two Ounces of Hiera Piera, with one Dram of the Sy­rup of Buckthorn; two or three Ounces of Elixir Salutis; or (what I prefer be­fore all these) this Preparation of Rhu­barb:

Take the best Rhubarb in Powder two Ounces and a half; Salt of Worm­wood a Dram; Orange Peel half an Ounce; grated Nutmeg two Scru­ples; Cochineal, half a Dram. In­fusc 48 Hours by a warm Fire-side, in a Quart of true Arrack. Strain it off, and put it in a well corked Bottle for Use.

Of this two or three Spoonfuls may be taken, two or three Times a Week, or at Pleasure, with great Safety and Be­nefit, without Interruption of Business, or Studies, and continued even to ma­ture old Age, if found necessary. So true is old Verulam's Aphorism: ^* Nihil ma­gis conducit ad Sanitatem & Longaevi­tatem [Page 38] quam crebrae & domesticae purga­tiones. And the Gentlemen of the long Robe, those of learned Professions and contemplative Studies, must of Necessity at last take Sir Charles Scarborough's Ad­vice, as 'tis said, to the Dutchess of Ports­mouth: You must eat less, or use more Exercise, or take Physick, or be sick.

§. 10.

Those who have written about Health have given many Rules, where­by to know when any Person has exceed­ed at a Meal: I think, there needs but this short one, which is; If any Man has eat or drank so much, as renders him unfit for the Duties and Studies of his Profession (after an Hour's sitting quiet to carry on the Digestion;) he has over­done. I mean only of those of learned Professions and studious Lives; for those of mechanical Employments must take the Body, the other Part of the com­pound, into Consideration. If tender People, and those of learned Professions would go by this Rule, there would be little Use for Physick or Physicians in chronical Cases. Or if they would but eat only one Part of animal Food, at the great Meal, and make the other two of vegetable Food; and drink only Water [Page 39] with a Spoonful of Wine, or clear small Beer; their Appetites would be a suffi­cient Rule to determine the Quantity of their Meat and Drink. But Variety of Dishes, the luxurious Artfulness of Cook­ery, and swallowing rich Wine after eve­ry Bit of Meat, so lengthen out the Ap­petite; the Fondness of Mothers, and the Cramming of Nurses have so stretched the Capacities of Receiving, that there is no Security from the Appetite among the better Sort. 'Tis amazing to think how Men of Voluptuousness, Laziness, and poor Constitutions, should imagine themselves able to carry off Loads of high-seasoned Foods, and inflammatory Liquors, without Injury or Pain; when Men of mechanick Employments, and rubust Constitutions, are scarcely able to live healthy and in Vigour to any great Age, on a simple, low, and almost vege­table Diet.

§. 11.

Since then our Appetites are deceitful, and Weight and Measure trou­blesome and singular; we must have Re­course to a Rule independent of our Sen­sations, and free from unnecessary Trou­ble and Pain. To answer which, I know nothing but Eating and Drinking by our [Page 40] Eye. that is, determining first of all ei­ther by Weight or Measure, or by par­ticular Observation or Experiment, the Bulk, or Number of Mouthfuls of Flesh Meat, and the Number of Glasses of strong Liquors, under which we are best; and then by our Eye determining an equal Quantity at all Times for the future: Thus the two Wings of a middling Pul­let, or one Wing and both Legs; three Ribs of a middling Neck of Mutton, two middling Slices of a Leg or Shoulder, throwing away the Fat and the Skin; somewhat less of Beef, may be sufficient for Flesh Meat, at the great Meal. For we are so wisely contrived, that our Food need not be adjusted to mathematical Points: A little over or under will make no Difference in our Health. As for Pork, and all Kinds of Hog's Flesh, I think they ought to be forbidden vale­tudinary and studious People, as they were the Jews: They feed the foulest of any Creature, and their Juices are the rankest; their Substance the most sur­feiting, and they are the most subject to cutaneous Diseases and Putrefaction, of any Creature; insomuch, that in the Time of a Plague, or any epidemical Di­stemper, they are universally destroyed [Page 41] by all wise Nations, as the Southern Peo­ple do mad Dogs in the hot Months. The same Censure I should pàss upon all Fish. Most Fish live in a saltish Element, and come only into fresh Water Rivers, for the Quietness and Conveniency of bringing forth their young ones. This makes their Parts more closely united and harder of Digestion. Besides, as I have before observed, they feed upon one a­nother, and their Juices abound with a Salt that corrupts the Blood, and breeds chronical Diseases. And 'tis always ob­servable, that those who live much on Fish are infected with the Scurvy, cuta­neous Eruptions, and the other Diseases of a foul Blood. And every Body finds himself more thirsty and heavy than usual after a full Meal of Fish, let them be ever so fresh; and is generally forced to have Recourse to Spirits and distilled Liquors to carry them off: So that it is become a Proverb, among those that live much upon them, that Brandy is Latin for Fish. Besides, that after a full Meal of Fish, even at Noon, one never sleeps so sound the ensuing Night; as is certain from constant Observation. These few Hints may serve the valetudinary Person, in a gross Manner, to judge by [Page 42] the Eye the Quantity of solid Flesh Meat he takes or ought to take down: For I judge the mentioned Quantities to be ra­ther a little under than over eight Ounces. As to Broths, Soops, and Jellies, if they be strong, I account them equal in Nou­rishment and harder to digest than the same Weight of solid Flesh Meat; and three or four common Spoonfuls, atmost, make an Ounce in Weight in Liquids; and about double the Number of Bits commonly swallowed at once make the same Weight in solid Flesh Meat; for Exactness is not here requisite.

§. 12.

Drink is the other Part of our Food. The common Drink here in England is either Water, Malt-Liquor, or Wine, or Mixtures of these; for Cy­der and Perry are drank but in few Places, and rather for Pleasure and Variety than common Use. Without all peradven­ture, Water was the primitive, original Beverage, as it is the only Simple Fluid (for there are but three more in Nature, Mercury, Light, and Air, none of which is fit for human Drink) fitted for diluting, moistening and cooling; the Ends of Drink appointed by Nature. And happy had it been for the Race of Mankind other [Page 43] mixt and artificial Liquors had never been invented. It has been an agreea­ble Appearance to me to observe, with what Freshness and Vigour, those who, tho' eating freely of Flesh Meat, yet drank nothing but this Element, have lived in Health, Indolence, and Chearful­ness, to a great Age. Water alone is sufficient and effectual for all the Pur­poses of human Wants in Drink. Strong Liquors were never designed for com­mon Use: They were formerly kept (here in England) as other Medicines are, in Apothecaries Shops, and prescribed by Physicians, as they do Diascordium and Venice-Treacle; to refresh the Weary, to strengthen the Weak, to give Courage to the Faint-hearted, and raise the Low­spirited. And it were as just and reaso­nable to see Men (and if they go on, it is not impossible I may hear of it, since Laudanum is already taken into Feasts and Entertainments) sit down to a Dish of Venice-Treacle, or Sir Walter Raw­leigh's Confection, with a Bottle of Hy­sterick Cordial, as to a Dish of Craw­fish-Soop, an Ox-Cheek or Venison­Pasty, with a Bottle of Hermitage, or Tockay, or which some prefer to either of them, a Bowl of PUNCH. Wine [Page 44] is now become as common as Water; and the better Sort scarce ever dilute their Food with any other Liquor. And we see, by daily Experience, that (as na­tural Causes will always produce their proper Effects) their Blood becomes in­flammed into Gout, Stone, and Rheuma­matism, raging Fevers, Pleurisies, Small Pox, or Measles; their Passions are en­raged into Quarrels, Murder, and Blas­phemy; their Juices are dried up; and their Solids scorch'd and shrivel'd. Those whose Appetite and Digestion is good and entire, never want strong Liquors to supply Spirits: Such Spirits are too vo­latile and fugitive for any solid or useful Purposes in Life. Two Ounces of Flesh Meat, well digested, beget a greater Stock of more durable and useful Spirits, than ten Times as much strong Liquors, which nothing but Luxury and Concupiscence makes necessary. Happy those, whom their Parents, their natural Aversion to strong Liquors, or whom kind Provi­dence among the better Sort, has brought to the Age of Maturity and Discretion, without dealing in or desiring any great Quantity of strong Liquors: Their Pas­sions have been calmer, their Sensations [Page 45] more exquisite, their Appetites less unruly, and their Health more uninterrupted, than any other natural Cause could have pro­duced. And thrice happy they, who con­tinue this Course to their last Minutes. Nothing is more ridiculous than the com­mon Plea for continuing in drinking on, large Quantities of spirituous Liquors; viz. Because they have been accustomed so to do, and they think it dangerous to leave it off, all of a sudden. It were as reasonable for him that is fallen into the Fire or Water to lie there, because of the Danger of removing him suddenly. For neither Element will destroy him more certainly, before his Time, than wal­lowing in strong Liquors. If the Quan­tity of strong Liquors they have been ac­customed to, may be supposed prejudicial to their Health, or to introduce noxious Humours into the Habit; the sooner a Stop be put to it, the better. No Man is afraid to forbear strong Liquors in an acute Distemper, what Quantity soever he might have drank in his Health: And yet any sudden Change of the Humours would not only be more dangerous then, than at any other Time; but also would more readily happen and come to pass, in such critical Cases. For the whole System [Page 46] of the Fluids, being in a Fermentation, small Changes or Errors then, would not only be more fatal, but more plain and ob­vious. And if a Person be in Hazard by such a sudden Alteration, he cannot live long by taking down so much Poison. But the Matter of Fact is false and ground­less. For I have known and observed constant good Effects from leaving off suddenly great Quantities of Wine and Flesh Meats too, by those long accustom­ed to both, am ready to name the Per­sons, and never observed any ill Conse­quence from it in any Case whatsoever. Those whose Constitutions have been quite broken, and running into Dissolu­tion, have lived longer, and been less pained in Sickness by so doing: And those who have had a Fund in Nature to last longer, have grown better, and attained their End by it. I allow every Man, that has been accustomed to drink Wine, or strong Liquors, a Pint in 24 Hours: And I am well satisfied, that Quantity is sufficient for Health, let their Custom have been what it will. Their Spirits may indeed flag and sink a little at first, for Want of introduced Quick­lime and Fire. But Low-spiritedness, in such a Case, I count no Disease. And [Page 47] bearing it for some Time, is bountiful­ly recompenced by the Health, Indo­lence, and Freedom of Spirits, they after­wards enjoy: Not taking into Conside­ration their being rescued from the Ty­ranny of so immoral and mischievous a Habit. It may be sufficient for those who are tender, studious, or contempla­tive, to drink three Glasses of Water with a Spoonful of Wine at the great Meal. And as Sir W. Temple has it, One for your self, another for your Friends, a third for good Humour, and a fourth for your Enemies, are more than sufficient after it.

§. 13.

A great Mistake committed in this Affair is, that most People think the only Remedy for Gluttony is Drunken­ness, or that the Cure of a Surfeit of Meat is a Surfeit of Wine: Than which nothing can be more false, or contrary to Nature; for, 'tis lighting, as the Say­ing is, the Candle at both Ends. For, first of all, Wine and all other strong Li­quors are as hard to digest, and require as much Labour of the concoctive Powers, as strong Food itself. This is not only evident with Respect to People of weak Stomachs, but also from hence, that heal­thy [Page 48] People who drink only Water, or weak small Beer, shall be able to eat and digest almost double of what they could, did they drink strong Liquors at their Meals, as every one that pleases may ex­perience. Water is the only universal Dissolvent or Menstruum, and the most certain Diluter of all Bodies proper for Food; tho' there are a great many that spirituous Liquors not only will not dis­solve, but will harden, and make more undigestible; especially the Salts of Bo­dies, wherein their active Qualities, that is, those which can do most Harm to hu­man Constitutions, consist. And I have known Men of weak and tender Consti­tutions, who could neither eat nor di­gest upon drinking of Wine, who, by drinking at Meals common Water heat­ed, have recovered their Appetites and Digestion, have thriven and grown plump. 'Tis true strong Liquors, by their Heat and Stimulation on the Organs of Con­coction, by encreasing the Velocity of the Motion of the Fluids, and thereby quick­ening the other animal Functions, will carry off the Load that lies upon the Stomach, with more present Chearful­ness: Yet, besides the future Damages of such a Quantity of Wine, to the Stomach [Page 49] and to the Fluids, by its Heat and In­flammation, the Food is hurried into the Habit, unconcocted, and lays a Founda­tion for a Fever, a Fit of the Cholick, or some chronical Disease.

§. 14.

Another Mistake I shall ob­serve, is the extreme Fondness Persons of the better Sort here in England, have lately run into, for the strong and high Country Wines. I can think of no Reason for this, but the very ho­nest one the Vulgar give for drinking Brandy: that they get sooner drunk on it. For surely the middling lighter Wines, inflame the animal Juices less, go more easily off the Stomach, and afford more Room for long Conversation and Chearfulness. Excess in them, gives less Pain, and is sooner remedied. But there are Degrees in this Matter. ^* Ne­mo repente fuit turpissimus. They begin with the weaker Wines; these by Use and Habit will not do, they leave the Sto­mach sick and mawkish, they must fly to stronger Wine, and stronger still, and run the ^† Climax, through Brandy to Bar­badoes Waters, and double distill'd Spi­rits, 'till at last they can find nothing [Page 48] [...] [Page 49] [...] [Page 50] hot enough for them. People who have any Regard for their Health or Lives, ought to tremble at the first Cravings, for such poysonous Liquors. Strong Waters should never be taken but by the Direction of a Physician, or in the Agonies of Death. For when Per­sons arrive at that State, that they become necessary to their Ease and Freedom of Spirits; they may be justly reckoned a­mong the Dead, both as to the short Time they have to live, and the little Use they can be of either to themselves or Mankind. I speak not here of those who are under an actual Fit of the Gout, or Cholick in the Stomach. ( We must not die for fear of dying.) Nor am I recom­mending sour Verjuice or unripe Wines. But I cannot help being well satisfied, both from Reason and Experience, that the light Wines, of a moderate Strength, due Age and full Maturity, are much preferable for Chearfulness and Conver­sation, much more wholsome for human Constitutions, and much more proper for Digestion than the hot and strong Wines. The rich, strong, and heavy Wines ought never to be tasted without a sufficient Dilution of Water; at least they should be used, like Brandy or Spirits, for a Cor­dial ^*. [Page 51] Ad summum tria pocula sume. Whatsoever is more cometh of Sin, and must be diluted with the Waters of Repentance.

§. 15.

I have no Intention here to discourage the innocent Means of enliven­ing Conversation, promoting Friendship, comforting the sorrowful Heart, and rai­sing the drooping Spirits, by the cheer­ful Cup and the social Repast. Perhaps I may like the harmless Frolick, the warm Reception of a Friend, and even the ^† Dulce Furere itself, more than I ought: Persons sober in the main, will receive little Prejudice from such a Fillip, when the Occasions happen but seldom, and especially when they make it up, by a greater Degree of Abstinence afterwards. But a Sot is the lowest Character in Life. Did only the Profligate, the Scoundrel, the Abandon'd, run into these Excesses, it were in vain to endeavour to reclaim them, as it were, to stop a Tempest, or calm a Storm. But now that the Vice is be­come Epidemical, since it has got not only among Mechanicks and Tradesmen, but among Persons of the brightest Ge­nius, [Page 52] the finest Taste, and the most ac­complish'd Parts; and (oh that I could give my Conscience the Lye, in men­tioning them!) even among the first and least fallen Part of the Creation itself, and those of them too, of the most ele­gant Parts, and the strictest Virtue o­therwise; and which is still the most sur­prising of all, even those too, who are in all other Respects blameless. Since I say the Case is so, it will not be amiss to shew, to the Evidence of a Demon­stration, the Folly as well as the Fruit­lessness of such a Course. A Fit of the Colick, or of the Vapours, a Family­Misfortune, a casual Disappointment, the Death of a Child, or of a Friend, with the Assistance of the Nurse, the Midwife, and the next Neighbour, often give Rise and become the weighty Causes of so fatal an Effect. A little Lowness requires Drops, which pass readily down under the Notion of Physick; Drops beget Drams, and Drams beget more Drams, 'till they come to be without Weight and without Measure; so that at last the miserable Creature suffers a true. Mar­tyrdom, between its natural Modesty, the great Necessity of concealing its Crav­ings, and the still greater one of getting them satisfied some how. Higher and more [Page 53] severe Fits of Hystericks, Tremors, and Convulsions, begot by these, bring forth farther Necessity, upon Necessity, of Drops, Drams, and Gills, 'till at last a kind Dropsy, nervous Convulsions, a nervous Atrophy, or a colloquative Diarrhaea, if not a Fever, or a Frenzy, set the poor Soul free. It has very often raised in me the most melancholy Reflexions, to see even the Virtuous, and the Sensible, bound in such Chains and Fetters, as nothing less than omnipotent Grace, or the unrelenting Grave could release them: They were deaf to Reason and Medicine, to their own Experience, and even to the express Words of Scripture, that says, the Drunkard shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Did this bewitching Poison actually cure or relieve them, from Time to Time; something might be said to extenuate the Folly and Frenzy of such a Course. But, on the contrary, it heightens and enrages all their Symptoms and Sufferings, ever afterwards, excepting the few Moments immediately after taking it down; and every Dram begets the Necessity of two more, to cure the ill Effects of the first; and one Minutes Indolence they purchase with many Hours of greater Pain and Misery; besides the making the Ma­lady, [Page 54] more incurable. Low-spiritedness in itself is no Disease; besides that there are Remedies in Art that will always re­lieve it, so long as there is any Oil re­maining in the Lamp; and 'tis in vain to try to raise the Dead. Exercise, Ab­stinence, and proper Evacuations, with Time and Patience, will continually make it tolerable, very often they will persect­ly cure it. The running into Drams is giving up the whole at once; for nei­ther Laudanum nor Arsenick will kill more certainly, although more quickly. The Pretence of its being Physick, or a present Remedy, is trifling. Cordials of any Kind, even out of the Apothecaries Shops, are but Reprieves for a Time, to gain a Respite, 'till proper and extirpat­ing Remedies can take Place; and are never to be used twice, the one imme­diately after the other, but in the last Necessity. And I can honestly say, I ne­ver failed of relieving, so as to make Life tolerable, vapourish, hysterical, or hypochondriacal Persons, who would be governed in their Diet, by the Use of other proper Means, if their was a Fund in Life, and no incurable Disease, com­plicated with Lowness. Thus much the Weight of the Subject forced from one: [Page 55] more than this, its Disagreeableness hin­ders me to say.

§. 16.

Next to Drams, no Liquor de­serves more to be stigmatized and banish­ed the Repasts of the Tender, Valetudi­nary, and Studious, than PUNCH. 'Tis a Composition of such Parts, as not one of them is salutary, or kindly to such Constitutions, except the pure Element in it. The principal Ingredient is Rum, Arrack, Brandy, or Malt Spirits, as they are called, all of them raised by the Fire, from the fermented Juices of Plants, brought from Southern Coun­tries, or which have longest born the Heat of the Sun in our own Climate: And 'tis observable, that every Thing that has past the Fire, so that it has had due Time to divide and penetrate its Parts, as far as it possibly can, retains a caustick, corrosive, and burning Quality ever afterwards. This is evident from the fiery and burning Touch and Taste of new-drawn Spirits, as also from the burn­ing of Lime-stone, which, tho' extin­guish'd by Boiling Water, does ever after retain its heating and drying Quality, as appears from the great Use of Lime-Wa­ter, in drying up all humid Sores, when given inwardly by itself, or compounded [Page 56] with sudorific Woods and Roots, and from its Success in outward Applications for the same Purposes. And tho' Time may in some Measure get the better of this, in its sensible and obvious Operations; yet since Water is a grosser Body than Fire, or Flame, it never can penetrate it so far as quite to extinguish its inmost Heat; espe­cially if we consider, that Spirits are but an Accumulation of fine Salts and light Oil, compacted together into the smallest Vo­lume; the first whereof is so hard and solid, as naturally to retain their Heat the longest, into which Water cannot enter; the other, to wit the Oyle, is so inflamable, that it most readily receives Heat and Fire, and defends the Salts from the Power of the Water over them. And in the continued Distillation of Spi­rits, this Action of the Fire is so strong, as to reduce them to liquid Flames at last, which will of themselves evaporate in visible Flames and Fumes. The other principal Part of the Composition is the Juice of Oranges and Lemons. And if we consider, that a Lemon or Orange could never be transported half Seas over to us, without rotting or spoiling, if gather­ed when wholly ripe, we should have no great Opinion of their Juices. Eve­ry Spanish or Portugal Merchant can in­form [Page 57] us, that they must be gathered green, or at least a Month before they are ripe, else they are not fit to be sent beyond the Seas. The Sea-Air, and their being shut up close, gives them that gol­den yellow Colour, we so much admire. The Juice of a Crab Apple, of unripe Grapes, or Goose-berries, or even good Juice of Sorrel, would come up at least to their Virtue of extinguishing the Heat of Spirits, if not to their Flavour. And how kindly a Guest such Juices would be to the fine Fibres of weak Stomachs and Bowels, I leave every one to judge. The Truth is, all fermenting Juices, such as these eminently are, must be highly injurious to weak Constitutions; for meet­ing with the Crudities in the Bowels, they must raise a new Battle and Col­luctation there, and so must blow up the whole Cavities of the human Body, with acrid Fumes and Vapours, the great and sore Enemy of such Bowels. And in the West Indies, where from the Necessity of drinking much, because of the Vio­lence of the Heat, and from the Want of proper Liquors there, they are forced to drink much PUNCH, tho' Lemons and Oranges be in their full Perfection, they are universally afflicted with Ner­vous and Mortal dry-Belly-aches, Palsies, [Page 58] Cramps, and Convulsions; which cut them off in a few Days, entirely owing to this poisonous Mixture.

The Bath-Water, is the only Remedy in such Cases, whither they all hasten, if they can get thither alive. And here I have been inform'd of this Fact, by Men of the Profession, as well as their Patients, who universally ascrib'd them to their drinking of PUNCH and Spiri­tuous Liquors. If Acids must be had, without all peradventure, the Vinous ones, are the best and safest. The Ro­mans, tho' they had the vegetable Acids in perfection, made very little Use of them but in Cookery, where the Quan­tity of the Poison was so small, as not to do sufficient Harm, to forbid their using them for the Sake of the exquisite Relish they gave their Sauces; and the constant Drink of the lower Souldiery, was Vinegar and Water, which they found of excellent Use, both as it prevented Fevers, Plagues and Putre­faction, and also as it gave an Energy to the unactive Element, and hindered it from lodging in the Body. Hence also the great Use of Oxymel and Oxy­crate, (that is, of Vinegar with Honey and with Water) among all the antient Physicians. And indeed, whenever [Page 59] they prescrib'd an Acid, they very pru­dently join'd a Corrective with it, both to promote its good, and to prevent it's bad Effects. The two remaining In­gredients, are Sugar and Water; and these I will give up to the Punch­Drinkers, and allow them all the Be­nefit of them, they can bring to this Composition: Yet it will still have Ma­lignity sufficient remaining, to be held in Detestation, (at least for any great Use, or in any great Quantity, for some Poisons are so only by their Quantity) by those tender and valetudinary Persons, who value Health and Life. The Strong, the Voluptuous, and the Aban­doned, need no Advice, at least they will take none. I could never see any Temptation, for any one in their Senses, to indulge in this Heathenish Liquor, but that it makes it's Votaries the soon­est, and all of a sudden the deepest Drunk, holds them longest in the Fit, and de­prives them the most entirely of the Use of their Intellectual Faculties, and Bo­dily Organs, of any Liquor whatsoever. It is likest Opium, both in it's Nature, and in the Manner of its Operation, and nearest Arsenick in it's deleterious and poisonous Qualities: And so I leave it to them,

§ 17.

As to Malt Liquors, they are not much in Use, excepting small Beer, with any but Mechanicks and Fox-hunt­ers. The French very justly call them Barley-Soop. I am well satisfied, a weak Stomach can as readily and with less pain, digest Pork, and Pease-Soop, as York­shire or Nottingham Ale. They make excellent Birdlime, and when simmer'd some time over a gentle Fire, make the most sticking, and the best Plaister, for old Strains that can be contriv'd. Even the small-Beer that is commonly drank at London, if it be not well Boiled, ve­ry Clear, and of a due Age, must be hurtful to Persons of weak Nerves, and slow Digestion. For fermenting again in the alimentary Channels, it will fill the whole Cavities of the Body with Windy Fumes and Vapours, which will at Length play odd Pranks in a crasy Constitution. In Fine, the Valetudinary, Studious, and Contemplative, must be contented with a Pint of middling, light Wine a Day, one half with, and the other without Water.

§ 18.

Since the Time foreign Luxury has been brought to it's Perfection here, [Page 61] there are a kind of Liquors in Use among the better Sort, which some great Doc­tors have Condemn'd, by Bell, Book, and Candle, and others have as extra­vagantly commended: I mean, Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate. For my own Part, I take all their Virtue to consist in Cu­stom, and all their Harm in Excess. As to Coffee, it is a meer Calx, or a Kind of burnt Horse Bean, but lighter on the Stomach, and of somewhat a better Fla­vour. The Turks use it, and Opium in­stead of Brandy. But the Plea that some make for running into Excess in it, from this Mahometan Custom, is altogether weak and groundless; for those that do so there, suffer by it, as we do here: And those that Debauch in it, turn Stu­pid, Feeble, and Paralitick by it, espe­cially when they join Opium with it, as they frequently do, as those who wal­low in these, do here, and are as much Despis'd and Expos'd by serious Persons, as our Topers and Brandy-swillers are here. A Dish or two of Coffee, with a little Milk to soften it, in raw or damp Weather, or on a Waterish and Flegma­tick Stomach, is not only innocent, but a present Relief. But 'tis as ridiculous, and perhaps more hurtful, at least in thin and dry Habits, to dabble in it two or [Page 62] three Times every Day, as it would be for such to drink nothing but scalding Lime-Water. There are two Kinds of Tea in Use, Green and Bohea. Mr. Cuningham, who liv'd several Years in China, a very learned and accurate Per­son ^*informs us, that they are both ga­thered from the same Shrub, but at dif­ferent Seasons of the Year; and that the Bohea is Gather'd in the Spring, and is dried in the Sun, the Green at the Fire. But I suspect, and not without Autho­rity, that, besides these Differences in drying, some Infusion of another Plant or Earth (perhaps such a one as that of Japan Earth, or Catechu) must be pou­red on some sorts of Bohea Tea, to give it the Softness, Flavour, and Heaviness on the Stomach it has, whereby it be­comes a meer Drug, and wants the na­tural Simplicity of Green Tea, which when light, and drank neither too Strong nor too Hot, I take to be a very pro­per Diluent, when soften'd with a lit­tle Milk, to cleanse the alimentary Passages, and wash off the Scorbutick and Urinous Salts, for a Breakfast, to those who live full and free; as also it, or Tea made of a slic'd Orange or Lemon, is one of the best promoters of Digestion [Page 63] after a full Meal, or when one is adry between Meals, and much more safe and effectual than Drams or strong Cor­dials, which are commonly used for that Purpose. Some Persons of weak tender Nerves, fall into Lowness and Trem­bling upon using either of these Liquors with any Freedom, from their too great Quantity, or their Irritation on the ten­der, and delicate Fibres of the Stomach. Such ought carefully to avoid and ab­stain from them, as from Drams and Drops. But I can never be of their O­pinion who ascribe the Frequency of Scurvy, Vapours, Lowspiritedness, and nervous Distempers now, to what they were in the Days of our Forefathers, to the Custom of Drinking more frequent­ly and freely of these foreign Infusions. The Cause is not adequate to the Effect; nor indeed has any Analogy to, or Con­nexion with it. We know that warm Water, will most of any Thing promote and assist Digestion in weak Stomachs and tender Nerves. And by this alone I have seen several such Persons recover to a Miracle, when cold Mineral Waters, Bitters, Cordials and Drams, have done rather Hurt than Good. And Tea is but an Infusion in Water of an innocent Plant: Innocent, I say, because we find [Page 64] by its Taste it has neither poisonous, de­leterious nor acrimonious Qualities; and we are certain from it's Use in the Countries it comes from, (which are larg­er than most of Europe) that they receive no Damage from it, but on the contra­ry, that it promotes both Digestion and Perspiration. The Argument from its relaxing the Coats of the Stomach and Bowels by its Heat, is of no force. For unless it be drunk much hotter than the Blood itself, it can do no hurt that way: And we see the Bath Guides, who dabble in Water almost as hot as Tea is ever drunk, a great Part of the Day, and for one half of the Year at least, are no ways injured by it; except when they drink strong Liquors, too freely to quench the Thirst it raises. However, I should advise those who drink Tea plentifully, not to drink it much hotter than blood­warm; whereby they will receive all its Benefit, and be secure against all the Harm it can possibly do. As to Choco­late, I am of opinion, it is too hot and heavy, for valetudinary Persons; and those of weak Nerves. I have before observed, that Nuts pass through the alimentary Passages untouched; and tho' they may part with some of their more vo­latile Particles, yet, I doubt if they can afford [Page 65] much nourishment to Persons of weak Digestions. Some say, Chocolate gives them an Appetite; the meaning of which may be, that when they have a good Ap­petite for their Breakfast; it is not unlike­ly it may continue all the Day: But I am of opinion, 'tis a false and hysterical Appetite, such as sharp Wines, and sharp Humours in the Stomach give. For fat and oily Things, such as all Nuts are, are hard to digest, and lie long in the Sto­mach, for reasons I have already ex­plain'd: It may lubricate and sheath against the Irritation of salt and sharp Humours in the Bowels, and therefore may be good in the Colicks and Gravel of those of strong and stout Digestion; but can ne­ver be good Food for those of weak Nerves and poor Constitutions. Nothing is so light and easy to the Stomach, most certainly, as the Farinaceous or mealy Vegetables; such as Pease, Beans, Mil­let, Oats, Barly, Rye, Wheat, Sago, Rice, Potatoes, and the like; of some of which on Milk or Water, I should ever advise the Valetudinary, and those of weak Nerves, to make their two lesser or secondary Meals. Tobacco is another foreign Weed, much in use here in Bri­tain; though not among the best, yet among the middle and inferiour Ranks of the People: For those of gross and [Page 66] Phlegmatick Constitutions, who abound in serous and watry Humours, who are subject to Coughs, Catarrhs, and asthma­tick Indispositions; who labour under vio­lent Tooth-achs, or are troubled with Rheums in their Eyes; who have cold and waterish Stomachs, and live fully and freely, both Smoaking and Chewing is a very beneficial Evacuation, drawing off superfluous Humours, Crudities, and cold Phlegm, provided they carefully avoid swallowing the Smoak, or the Juice; and drink nothing, but rinse their Mouths with some watry Liquor after it, and spit it out. But to thin, meagre, and hectick Constitutions, it is highly pernicious, and destructive; heating their Blood, dry­ing their Solids, and defrauding the Food of that Saliva, which is so absolutely necessary towards Concoction. Snuffing the Leaves, or the grosser Cut in a Morning, will readily promote a Flux of Rheum by the Glands of the Nose; and will be of good use, to clear the Head and the Eyes. But the ridiculous Custom, of perpetually sucking in so­phisticated Powders, and other Foreign Drugs sold for Snuff, cannot but be prejudicial both to the Eyes, and even to the Stomach; at least, if we believe the Reports of those who say they have brought it up from thence.

§. 19.

I have endeavour'd to assist the Reader, with some Observations and Reflexions, to enable him towards de­termining the Quantity and Quality of his solid Food, necessary either to prevent or cure chronical Distempers. It may not be amiss, here to make some Refle­xions also on the fit Proportion of Drink proper for that purpose: As the Food is, so must that be, various and uncertain, with regard to the Age, Size, Labour, and Constitution of the Person, and the Season of the Year. I have of­fer'd to limit the Quantity of strong Li­quors, fittest to preserve Health and length­en out Life in general, to a Pound or Pint, and that of the middling Kind. But the Sickly, the Aged, and those who would cure a chronical Distemper, must even abate of this Quantity. The only remaining Question, is about the Quantity of Water, or watry Liquors, proper to be mix'd with this strong Li­quor, or drunk by itself: For in this also, though in itself harmless and innocent, yet there is a Choice and Preference; because, too much Water will only serve to distend and swell up the Vessels, and wash off some of the finer and more nutritious parts of the Chyle; and too little, will not be sufficient to dilute the solid Food, or to make the Chyle thin [Page 68] and fluid enough, to circulate through the fine and small Vessels. I will suppose my Patient to deal in no other Cookery, but Roasting and Boiling; and that he eats only fresh Meat. Boiling animal Food, draws more of the rank, strong, Juices from it, and leaves it less nutri­tive, more diluted, lighter and easier of Digestion. Roasting on the other hand, leaves it fuller of the strong nutri­tive Juices, harder to digest, and wanting more Dilution: Those therefore, who must have full grown and adult animal Food, ought to eat it boiled, and well boiled too; if their Digestion be but weak. They who can live on young animal Food, (which is best for weak Stomachs,) ought to eat it roasted, but must lessen the Quantity, in respect of the same Food boiled; but they must di­lute it more: For as roast Meat has a better Flavour, and more Nourishment, so it lies less flabby on the Stomach, and does not so readily slip from, or disap­point the Action of Grinding, which has some share in Digestions, both pri­mary and subsequent: But it will want more Dilution, with a watry Men­struum, to soften its more rigid and crisp Fibres. If therefore, the whole Weight of the solid Food, in twenty four Hours, be supposed a Pound and a Half, [Page 69] then three Pounds of Liquor, that is, one of strong Liquor, and two of some aqueous Fluid, will in a Medium, be sufficient to dilute it abundantly. For thus there will be two Particles of a Fluid, to one solid Particle; which abating the solid Parts thrown off by Siege, will suf­fice to make the Chyle abundantly thin, to circulate through all the fine Channels, whose Diameters are larger than that of the solid Particle, the principal End of its Thinness and Fluidity. More than this, would but distend the Vessels, and carry off the finer Parts of the Chyle by Water or Perspiration; for we constant­ly find both these encreased by an over­dose of Fluids: And less would not suf­ficiently dilute their Food. I should ad­vise those therefore, who have weak Sto­machs, or relaxed Nerves, to mix their Wine with the above-named quantity of boiled Water, with a burnt Crust, at least Blood-warm, and to drink it after their Meal is over, if they can do it with ease, rather than in the Time of Eating: For the more spirituous and most nourishing Parts of the Food, will readily run off, without much Dilution; and it will be the grosser and harder remaining Part, that will want it most. And if some time after their great Meal, they find their Stomach load­ed, the Food rising, hard Belching, [Page 70] Heart-burning, or much Yawning, to swill down and dilute it with milk-warm, light Green Tea, or warm Water, rather than to run to Drams and Cordials, the usual, but most pernicious Antidote in such Cases. And upon great and heavy Op­pression, much trouble and great struggle in the Digestion, to have recourse to Carduus or Camomile-Flower Tea, to bring it up, rather than to trespass in these poisonous and caustick Liquors; which, though they may at present les­sen the suffering, and hurry on the first­Concoction; yet make them dearly pay for it, when the unconcocted load of Crudities comes to pass by Siege or Per­spiration, either in Colicks, Gripes, Va­pours, and Oppression of Spirits; or by a general Disability and Rheumatick Stitches and Pains.

§. 20.

Upon the Head of Cordials mentioned in one of the foregoing Ar­ticles, I cannot forbear setting down one, whose Virtues and Efficacy I have long tried, and have never found it fail, when any thing would succeed: And I recom­mend it (to be kept by them) to all those, who are liable to low Spirits, Faintings, Oppressions, Sickness at the Stomach, Head-achs, and Vapours; and also to those who wanting to exert themselves [Page 71] in any business of consequence, need a Flow of Spirits for some short time, for that purpose; or indeed upon any sudden accident arising of its own accord, out of the Habit itself; I think it a kind of an universal Remedy, but never to be used, but upon such occasions; because, Use may weaken it, if not extinguish its Vertue. 'Tis thus,

Take of simple Chamomile-Flower Wa­ter, six Ounces; Compound Gentian, and Wormwood Waters, each an Ounce and a Half; Compound Spi­rit of Lavender, sal Volatile, Tinc­ture of Castor, and Gum Ammoniack dissolved in some simple Water, each two Drams; Tincture of Snake­weed, and Tincture of the Species Diambrae, each a Dram; the Chy­mical Oils of Lavender, Juniper, and Nutmeg, each ten Drops, mix­ed with a Bit of the Yolk of an Egg, to make the whole uniform; Assa­fetida and Camphire in a Rag, each half a Dram: But these may be left out by those to whom they are dis­agreeable.

Two, three or four Spoonfuls of this is a present Help in such Cases. It will keep six Months good.

§. 1.

THE next general Head in order, is our Sleeping and Watching. All Bodies by their Actions upon one another, and by the Action of the circumambient Bodies, are liable to be impaired and wasted: And all animal Bodies, from an active and self-moving Principle within them, as well as from the Rubs of Bodies without them, are constantly throwing off some of their superfluous and decayed Parts; so that animal Bodies, are in a perpetual Flux. To restore this Decay and Wasting of animal Bodies, Nature has wisely made alternate Periods of Labour and Rest, Sleeping and Watching, necessary to our Being; the one for the active Employ­ments of Life, to provide for and take in the Materials of our Nourishment; the other, to apply those Materials to the proper wasted Parts, and to supply [Page 78] the Expences of Living. And it seems as improper in the Order of Nature, to disturb the animal Functions in the time of Sleep, by any other Employment, than that of the secondary Concoctions (as they are called;) i. e. the applying the Nou­rishment to the decayed Parts, to recruit the Blood, perfect the Secretions, and to lay up plenty of Spirits, or (to speak more Philosophically,) to restore the weakned Tone of nervous Fibres; that is in short, to restore the Decays of Watch­ing and Action: This I say, is as impro­per, as it would be (were it possible,) to eat or drink, or make provision for the Necessities of Life, in the time of Sleep­ing. From hence is evident, the Absur­dity of heavy, various and luxurious Suppers, or of going to Rest till many Hours after such a Meal; which must otherwise break in upon the Order of Nature and the due and appointed Times of Sleeping and Watching. Wherefore, I advise the Valetudinary, the Studious, and the Contemplative, either to make no Suppers, or only of vegetable Food; and to take a due Time for Watching after them.

§. 2.

There is nothing more certain, than that (abstracting from acute Cases) [Page 79] our Sleep is sound, sweet and refreshing, according as the alimentary Organs, are easy, quiet and clean. If any one not suffering under any disease, is disturbed in his Sleep, 'tis certain his Stomach is filled with Food, or Crudities; or his Guts filled with Wind, Choler, or super­fluous Chyle: And those restless Nights, and the difficulty of going to Sleep, which are generally ascribed to Vapours, are entirely owing to these Causes; though they be not so strong, as to become sen­sible; for then Pain is added to Watch­ing and they are felt. And upon com­plaints of such restless Nights, I never once failed, upon enquiry of finding the true Cause in the Diet, of the preceding Day, or of some few Days before; and constantly have discovered that some er­ror in Eating and Drinking, either in Quantity or Quality has produced them. I have been astonished to see hypochon­driacal and hysterical People, restless all Night, tossing and tumbling till towards Morning, then dropping asleep till late Hours, awake heavy, oppressed, and un­refreshed, complain of being hag-ridden, tired and wearied, as if they had been whip'd, spurr'd, lashed, and beaten thro' all the Watches of the Night; rise with foul Mouths, and white Tongue, Belchings, [Page 80] Yawnings, Coughing, Spitting, or Reach­ing and Heaving, without Appetite, Spi­rits or Life, all the Day-time; begin to live and breath, become cheerful and hun­gry, about ten, eleven, or twelve a clock at Night; eat a hearty, various, and luxurious Supper; drink a cheeruping Cup of the best, become as merry as Crickets, and long to sit up later; at last, tumble to Bed, and repeat the same Farce over again. The Reason of all this Com­plaint, is the Load on the Stomach, that will not suffer them to rest, till 'tis got off. The sharp and crude Humours, twitching and twinging the nervous Fi­bres, and Coats of the Bowels, become like so many Needles and Pins, constant­ly running through them; though not always with sensible pain: The uncon­cocted Chyle stopping or circulating slow­ly, first in the Bowels, then in the smal­lest Vessels, begets these Convulsions, Fla­tus, Night-Mares, and Oppressions of Spirits. So that the secondary Digesti­ons are not over till next Evening, (hence their want of Appetite:) And when these are finished their Stomachs come, and their Spirits flow; and thus the perpe­tual Round is carried on. Did they but follow the Dictates of Nature, go to Bed for some days with a light Vegetable, [Page 81] or no Supper at all, and bear the Incon­veniences thence arising; their Appetites would come in due season, and they would quickly find the Truth of the Aphorism of the Schola Salernitana.

§. 3.

The Seasons for Sleeping and Watching, which Nature seems to point out to us, at least in these our Climates near the Tropick, are the Vicissitudes of Day and Night. Those Damps, Vapours, and Exhalations, that are drawn up into the higher Regions, and are so rarified by the Heat and Action of the Sun, as to become innocent or very weak in the Day-time; are condensed, sink low, near the Surface of the Earth, and are perpe­tually dropping down in the Night Sea­son; and consequently must be injuri­ous to those tender Persons, that unna­turally watch in that Season; and must necessarily obstruct the Perspiration, which the Activity of Watching, and the Motion of Labour promotes. I have already shewn, that our Bodies suck and [Page 82] draw into them, the good or bad qua­lities of the circumambient Air, through the Mouths of all the perspiratory Ducts of the Skin. And if we were to view an animal Body with a proper Glass, it would appear with an Atmosphere quite round it, like the Steam of a boiling Pot. Now we may easily conceive, what injury a Constitution may receive, not only by stopping such a perpetual Dis­charge of Superfluities, but also by force­ing into the Habit, by the Air's Weight and Pressure, those noxious Fumes and Vapours, that are perpetually falling near the Surface of the Earth, in the Night­time. Your true Topers are so sensible of this, that by Observation they have gathered it to be more safe for their Health, and better for prolonging their Lives, to get drunk betimes and go to Bed, than to sit up and be sober.

§. 4.

On the contrary, the Heat of the Sun in the Day-time, by its Action on human Bodies, the very Light, and free Air, and the Motions of things about us, disturbing the Quiet of the Air, must necessarily disorder the equable Course of the Perspiration, the Tenour of the secondary Concoctions, and the Tranquil­lity of the Spirits so necessary to Rest and [Page 83] Quiet. So that nothing seems more di­rectly pointed out to us by Nature, than the Day for Labour, and the Night for Rest: And this without taking in the Consideration of the Necessity of the Sun's Light for the ends of Labour, and providing the Necessaries of Life. Some Animals that are exceeding tender, are directed by Nature to alternate Periods of Watching and Rest, not twice in 24 Hours, but twice in the Year, viz. Sum­mer and Winter; such as Swallows, Bats, and many sorts of Insects, who sleep all the Winter, and watch all the Summer. So consistent is Nature, in appointing the brightest and most enlightened Parts of our Lives for Action, and the darkest and most inclement for Rest. Not but that robust Constitutions (as well as Animals fitted by Nature for different ways of living) may by Custom, get the better of these natural Appointments: But I write for the Valetudinary, the Studious, and the Contemplative.

§. 5.

I advise all such, if they would preserve their Health and lengthen out their Days, to avoid as much as is possible evening Dews, nocturnal Studies, and unseasonable Watching; in Summer to go to Bed with the Sun, and in Winter to [Page 84] rise at least by Break of Day. Those who live temperately, will necessarily Sleep but little: But to recompence that, their Sleep will be much more sound, re­freshing, and fruitful of Cheerfulness and free Spirits, than that of those who live more freely. For as I have before said, the Quantity of Sleep will always be in proportion to the Quantity of Eat­ing and Drinking. Valetudinary, Stu­dious, and Contemplative People, ought to go to Bed by eight, nine, or ten at farthest, and rise by four, five, or six, by which they will have eight Hours a Bed; and that is sufficient for any Person, not under an acute, or the sharp Fits of à Chronical Distemper.

§. 6.

Nothing can be more prejudicial to tender Constitutions, studious and con­templative Persons, than lying long a Bed, or lolling and soaking in Sheets, any time after one is distinctly awake, or has slept a due and reasonable Time: It necessarily thickens the Juices, enervates the Solids, and weakens the Constitution. A free open Air is a kind of a cold Bath, especially after rising out of a warm Bed; and con­sequently makes the Circulation brisker and more compleat, and braces up the Solids, which lying a Bed dissolves and [Page 85] soaks in Moisture. The erect Posture, and the Activity of Watching, make the Perspiration more plentiful, and the gross Evacuations more readily thrown off. This is evident from the Appetite and Hunger, those that rise early feel, beyond that which they get by lying long a Bed. Add to all these the Influence of the fresh, benign, Morning Air, the retreating of all the noxious Damps and Vapours of the Night, together with the Clouds and Heaviness, that are thrown upon the Brain from Sleep; and lastly, that Cheer­fulness and Alacrity that is felt by the Approach or Presence, of that glorious Luminary the Sun, which adds a new Force to the Heart, and a Spur to the Spirits.

§. 7.

All Nations and Ages have agreed that the morning Season is the proper Time for speculative Studies, and those Employments that most require the Faculties of the Mind. For then the Stock of the Spirits is undiminished, and in its greatest Plenty, the Head is clear and serene, the Passions are quieted and for­got; the Anxiety and Inquietude that the Digestions beget in the nervous System, in most tender Constitutions and the Hurry the Spirits are under after the great [Page 86] Meal, are settled and wrought off. I should advise therefore those who are of a weak relaxed State of Nerves, who are subject to hypochondraical or hysterical Disorders, whose Professions lead them to much Use of their intellectual Facul­ties, or who would indulge speculative Studies, to go early to Bed, and to rise betimes; to employ their morning Hours in these Exercises till eleven a Clock, then to take some agreeable Breakfast of vegetable Food; to go on with their Studies and Professions till three, four, or five, as their Spirits will hold out, and then to take their great Meal of animal Food; all the rest of the Day to throw off all Study and Thought, divert themselves agreeably in some innocent Amusement, with some gentle bodily Exercise; and as soon as the Digestion is over, to retire and provide for going to Bed, without any farther supplies, except it be a Glass of fair Water, or warm Sack-Whey. But the Aged and Sickly must go sooner to Bed and lye longer, because Age and Sickness break rest, and the stiffen'd and hardened Limbs of the Antient become more pliant and relaxed by much Sleep, a supine Posture, and the Warmth of the Bed.

§. 1.

WE proceed; in the next Place, to the Consideration of Exer­cise and Quiet, the due Regulation of which, is almost as necessary to Health and Long Life, as Food itself. Whether we were so made before the Fall, as to live in intire Health, in a rigidly seden­tary and contemplative Life, is a Specula­tion of no great Consequence, nor easily determined in our present Situation; for there is no certain Analogy between Things as they now are, and as they might have been then. As there happen'd an intire Revolution in the Complexion and Qualities of the Minds of the First Pair; so, to me, there appear, to be evident Indications of a designed Change and Alteration of the material World, and the Nature of the Animals and Vegetables which subsist on this Globe, from what they were when GOD pronounced [Page 90] every Thing Good that he had made. Nor seem the Coelestial Bodies to have escaped, so far as they regard us. Whatever be in this, the Passage where God tells Adam, ^* That in the Sweat of his Brow he shall eat Bread, seems to be the Injunction of a salutary Penance; that is, Not merely a Punishment, but also a Remedy against the Disorders his Body would be liable to in this new State of the Creation, and against the poisonous Ef­fects of the Forbidden Tree he had eaten the Fruit of. I am the more confirmed in this Belief, that I observe, the absolute Necessity of Labour and Exercise, to pre­serve the Body any Time in due plight, to maintain Health, and lengthen out Life. For let whatsoever Diet be pur­sued, however adjusted both in Quan­tity and Quality, let whatever Evacua­tions be used to lessen the Malady, or any ^† Succedaneum be proposed, to pre­vent the ill Effects, our Bodies are so made, and the Animal Oeconomy now so contrived, that without due Labour and Exercise, the Juices will thicken, the [Page 91] Joints will stiffen, the Nerves will relax, and on these Disorders, Chronical Di­stempers, and a crazy old Age must ensue. Nor is this necessary only in the colder Climates, and where the Food is gross, but even in the warmest Climates, and where the Food is lightest. For though the Warmth of the Air may keep the Perspiration free and open, or rather, where it is very great, promote Sweat­ing; yet, at the same time, and by Con­sequence, it will thicken the Fluids, and relax the Fibres; to prevent both which, Exercise is absolutely necessary: but in such a Climate it ought to be gone about in the Cool of the Day. And tho' light Food may, in a great measure, prevent the Thickening of the Fluids, yet it cannot do it sufficiently without Exercise; nor can it at all keep the Fibres in due Tension; for to that purpose Exercise is absolutely necessary. Nay, the joint Power of warm Air and light Food cannot supply the Place of Exercise in keeping the Joints pliant and moveable, and preserv­ing them from growing resty and stiff.

§. 2.

I have sometimes also, indulg'd a Conjecture, that Animal Food, and Made or Artificial Liquors, in the Original [Page 92] Frame of our Nature, and Design of our Creation, were not intended for Human Creatures. They seem to me, neither to have these strong and fit Organs for dige­sting them (at least such as Birds and Beasts of Prey have, who live on Flesh); nor, naturally, to have those voracious and brutish. Appetites, that require Animal Food, and strong Liquors, to satisfy them; nor those cruel and hard Hearts, or those diabolical Passions, which could easily suffer them to tear and destroy their Fellow Creatures; at least, not in the first and early Ages, before every Man had corrupted his Way, and God was forced to exterminate the whole Race, by an universal Deluge, and was also obliged (that the Globe of the Earth might not, from the long Lives of its Inhabitants, become a Hell, and a Habitation for in­carnate Devils) to shorten their Lives from 900 or 1000 Years, to 70. He wisely foresaw, that Animal Food, and Artificial Liquors, would naturally con­tribute towards this End; and indulg'd, or permitted, the Generation that was to plant the Earth again after the Flood, the Use of these for Food, knowing that tho' it would shorten the Lives, and plate a Scourge of Thorns for the Backs [Page 93] of the Lazy and Voluptuous, it would be cautiously avoided by those who knew it was their Duty and Happiness to keep their Passions low, and their Appetites in Subjection. And this very Aera of the Flood, is that mentioned in Holy Writ, for the Indulgence of Animal Food and Artificial Liquors, after the Trial had been made, how insufficient alone, a Vegetable Diet (which was the first Food appointed for Human kind, immedi­ately after their Creation) was, in the long Lives of Men, to restrain their Wick­edness and Malice; and after finding, that nothing but shortning their Duration could possibly prevent the Evil. 'Tis true, there is scarce a Possibility of preventing the destroying of Animal Life, as Things are now constituted, since Insects breed and nestle in the very Vegetables them­selves, and we scarce ever devour a Plant or Root, wherein we do not de­stroy innumerable Animalcules. But be­sides what I have said, of Nature's being quite altered and changed from what was originally intended, there is a great Difference between destroying and extinguishing an Animal Life (which otherwise might subsist many Years) by Choice and Election, to gratify our Ap­petites, [Page 94] and indulge Concupiscence; and the Casual and Unavoidable crushing of those, who perhaps, otherwise, would die within the Day, or at most the Year, and obtain but an inferior kind of Existence and Life at best. Whatever be in this Conjecture, 'tis evident to those who understand the Animal Oeconomy, and the Frame of Human Bodies, together with the History, both of those who have lived Abstemiously, and of those who have lived Freely, that indulging in flesh Meats, and strong Liquors, inflames the Passions, and shortens Life, begets Chronical Distempers, and a Decrepit Age, as the History of the Life of Cornaro manifests to a Demonstration.

§. 3.

Of all the Exercises that are or may be used for Health (such as Walk­ing, Riding a Horseback or in a Coach, Fencing, Dancing, playing at Billiards, Bowls or Tennis, Digging, Working at a Pump, Ringing a dumb Bell, &c.) Walking is the most natural, as it would be also the most useful, if it did not spend too much of the Spirits of the Weakly. Riding is certainly the most Manly, the most Healthy, and the least laborious, and expensive of Spirits, of [Page 95] any; shaking the whole Machine, pro­moting an universal Perspiration and Secretion of all the Fluids (to which may be added, the various Changes of the Air, thro' which they so quickly pass, every Alteration of which, be­comes, as it were, a new Bath) and thereby, variously twitching the Nervous Fibres, to brace and contract them, as the new Scenes amuse the Mind. Those who cannot ride, must be carried in a Coach or Litter, which is the best Exer­cise for the Lame and Crazy, and the only one proper for Old and Decrepit Persons, as well as those that are so Young, that they are not able to manage their own Exercise. The Home Exer­cises, such as playing at Tennis and Bil­liards, Dancing, Fencing, and the like, ought to be follow'd only when the Season forbids being Abroad; for being in the Air, contributes much towards the Benefit of Exercise. 'Tis beautiful to observe that earnest Desire planted by Nature, in Young Persons, to romp, jump, wrestle and run, and constantly to be pursuing Exercises and Bodily Di­versions, that require Labour, even till they are ready to drop down; especially the healthier Sort of them: So that [Page 96] sitting or being confined, seems to be the greatest Punishment they can suffer, and imprisoning them for some time, will much more readily correct them than Whipping. This is a wise Contrivance of Nature; for thereby, their Joints are render'd pliable and strong; their Blood continues sweet, and proper for a full Circulation; their Perspiration is free, and their Organs stretched out, by due Degrees, to their proper Extension.

§. 4.

It is also very agreeable to ob­serve, how the several different Organs of Labouring Men are strengthen'd, and render'd Brawny and Nervous, as they happen to be most employ'd in their several Vocations, let them be otherwise ever so small or weakly. The Legs, Thighs and Feet of Chairmen; the Arms and Hands of Watermen; the Backs and Shoulders of Porters, grow thick, strong and brawny by Time. 'Tis certain, that speaking strong and loud, without over­straining, will strengthen the Voice, and give Force to the Lungs. Our Nails and Hair, the more they are cut and shaved, the more they grow. And we may pro­mote any one Evacuation so far, as to weaken and starve all the rest. Using [Page 97] any Organ frequently and forcibly, brings Blood and Spirits into it, and so makes it grow Plump and Brawny. And if due Pains were taken by the Labour proper to them, the Organs of all the Functions of the Animal Oeconomy might be strengthen'd and kept in due plight.

§. 5.

Therefore, to the Asthmatick, and those of weak Lungs, I should re­commend Talking much and loud, even by themselves, walking up an easy Ascent, and when any degree of Weariness warns them, to sit and rest, till they are easy, and then to return to their walking again, and so to increase it every Day, till they are able to walk a reasonable Distance, in a reasonable Time. To those who have weak Nerves and Digestion, and to those who are much troubled with Head-aches (most of all which arise from the ill State of the Stomach and Bowels) I should recommend riding on Horseback as much as possibly they could, in the clearest and driest Air, and to change the Air daily, if possible. To those who are troubled with the Stone or Gravel, to ride much over rough Causeways in a Coach. To those that have Rheumatick Pains, to play at Billiards, Tennis or Cricket, [Page 98] till they sweat plentifully, and then go immediately into a warm Bed, and drink liberally of some warm thin Liquor, with Ten Drops of Spirit of Sal Armo­niac or Harts horn in each Draught, to encourage the Sweating. To those who have weak Arms or Hams, playing two or three Hours at Tennis, or at Foot-Ball every Day. To those who have weak Backs or Breasts, ringing a Bell, or work­ing at a Pump. Walking thro' rough Roads, even to Lassitude, will soonest recover the Use of their Limbs to the Gouty; tho' Riding on Horseback or in a Coach will best prevent the Distem­per. But the Studious and the Contem­plative, the Valetudinary, and those of weak Nerves, if they aim at Health and Long Life, must make Exercise a Part of their Religion, as it is among some of the Eastern Nations, with whom Pilgrimages, at stated Times, are an in­dispensible Duty, and where Mechanical Trades are learned and practised by Men of all Ranks. Those who have their Time in their own Hands, ought to have stated Seasons for Riding or Walking in a good Air, as indispensable, as those for going to Dinner, to Bed, or to Church. Three Hours for Riding, or Two [Page 99] for Walking, the one hals before the great Meal, and the other before going to Bed, is the least that can be dispensed with: As the first Part begets an Appetite, the second helps on the Digestion. Those who are not Masters of their own Time, must take it when they can; but to be sure they ought to let no Opportunity of taking it slip.

§. 6.

There are Three Conditions of Exercise to make it the most Beneficial that may be. First, That it be upon an empty Stomach (as, indeed, that is the proper Time for all Medicinal Evacuations) for thereby, the now concocted ^* Crudities, or those Super­stuities Nature would be rid of, and has fitted, by going through the proper Secretions, for being ejected, but cannot throw off without foreign Assistance, will be readiest discharged. For, on a full Stomach Exercise would be too tumul­tuous, precipitate the Secretions, and throw off the sound Juices with the cor­rupted Humours. Secondly, That it be not continued to down-right Lassitude, [Page 100] Depression of Spirits, or a melting Sweat. The First will wear out the Organs, the Second spend the Strength, and the Third will only do violence to the Natural Fun­ctions. Thirdly, Due Care is to be had after Exercise, to retreat to a warm Room and proper Shelter from the Injuries of the Weather, lest sucking into the wasted Body the nitrous Particles of the cir­cumambient Air, they should inflame the Blood, and produce a Rheumatism, Fever or Cold. I might add a Fourth Condition, Joining Temperance to Exercise, otherwise the Evil will be as broad one Way, as 'tis long the other. For since Exercise will create a greater Appetite, if it is indulg'd to the full, the con­coctive Powers will be as unequal to the Load, as they were before. But I pass that over, having sufficiently treated this Subject already.

§. 7.

Under this Head of Exercise, I cannot forbear recommending Cold­bathing; and I cannot sufficiently admire, how it should ever have come into such Disuse, especially among Christi­ans, when commanded by the great­est Lawgiver that ever was, under the Direction of God's Holy Spirit, [Page 101] to his Chosen People, and perpetu­ated to us in the Immersion at Bap­tism by the same Spirit, who, with infinite Wisdom in this, as in every Thing else that regards the Temporal and Eternal Felicity of his Creatures, combines their Duty with their eternal Happiness. First, The Necessity of a free Perspiration to the Preservation of Health is now known to every Body, and frequent washing the Body in Water, cleanses the Mouths of the Perspiratory Ducts from that Glutinous Foulness that is continually falling upon them, from their own condensed dewy Atmosphere, whereby the Perspi­ration would be soon obstructed, and the Party languish. Secondly, The hav­ing the Circulation, full, free and open, thro' all the Capillary Arteries, is of great Benefit towards Health and Long Life. Now nothing promotes that so much as Cold-bathing; for by the violent and sudden Shock it gives to the whole System of the Fluids, from the Circumference in­ward towards the Centre, and the Fluids (because Reaction is always equal and con­trary to Action) springing back again from the Centre to the Circumference, a Force is raised almost ever sufficient to break thro' all the Dams and Obstructions of the [Page 102] smallest Vessels, where they mostly hap­pen, and to carry the Circulation quite round. Thirdly, Nothing is so injurious, and so much prevents the Benefit of Exercise to weak and tender Constitu­tions, as sucking into their Bodies the Nitrous and Humid Particles of the Air, that is, Catching of Cold. Now nothing so effectually prevents this, as Cold­bathing; as the Nature of the Thing shews, and Experience confirms: For if Exercise, to attenuate the Juices and strengthen the Solids, be added to Cold­bathing, a new Spring and Force will be given to the Blood, both to drive out these foreign and noxious Mixtures, and to unite the Cuticular Scales, which form the Scarf-Skin, so as to strengthen it for the future against such violent Entries.

§. 8.

I should advise therefore, every one who can afford it, as regularly to have a Cold Bath at their House to wash their Bodies in, as a Bason to wash their Hands; and, constantly, two or three Times a Week, Summer and Win­ter, to go into it. And those that can­not afford such Conveniency, as often as they can, to go into a River or Living Pond, to wash their Bodies. But this [Page 103] ought never to be done under the actual Fits of a Chronical Distemper, with a quick Pulse, Head-ach, weak Lungs, or a foul Stomach; nor ought they to stay in till they are over-chill'd. And in Winter, they ought to pursue their Exercises im­mediately after they come out; and those of tender Nerves, ought to pour Basons of Cold Water on their Head, or wash it well with a dripping Spunge before they go in. I cannot approve the precipitant Way of jumping in, or throwing the Head foremost into a Cold Bath; it gives too violent a Shock to Nature, and risques too much the Bursting some of the smaller Vessels. The Natural Way is, holding by the Rope, to walk down the Steps as fast as one can, and when got to the Bottom, bending their Hams (as Women do when they Curt'sy low) to shorten their Length, so as to bring their Heads a good Way under Water, and then popping up again to take Breath; and thus alternately for two or three Times, and out again, rubbing and currying well before they are dress'd. And this brings me to say something of another kind of Exercise.

§. 9.

The Flesh Brush is an Exercise most useful for promoting a full and free Perspiration and Circulation; Almost every Body knows, what well Currying will do to Horses, in making them sleek and gay, lively and active; even so much, as to be worth half the Feeding. This it can no otherwise effectuate, than by assisting Nature to throw off by Perspi­ration, the ^* Recrements of the Juices which stop the full and free Circu­lation, and by constant Friction, Ir­ritation and Stimulation, to allicite Blood and Spirits, to the Parts most distant from the Seat of Heat and Mo­tion, and so to plump up the superficial Muscles. The same Effect it would pro­duce in other Animals, even Human Creatures themselves, if they were managed in the same Manner, with the same Care and Regularity. I should think it therefore, well worth the Pains of Persons of weak Nerves and Sedentary Lives, especially those threatned with Paralytick Disorders, to supply the Want of Exercise of other Kinds, with spending [Page 105] half an Hour, Morning and Night, in Currying and Rubbing their whole Body, more especially their Limbs, with a Flesh Brush. And 'tis a Wonder to me, that Luxury has not brought Cold-bathing and Currying in Use, upon the Animals (especially those of them upon whom they can be so readily made Use of, such as Oxen, Pigs, Veal, Lamb, and all Poultry, which naturally delight in Cold-bathing) which are brought to the Table. For certain it is, that Cleanness and due Ex­ercise (of which Currying is one Part) would much contribute, to make all Animals whatsoever, without Exception, heal­thier in themselves, fuller of Juice and Spirits, and, consequently, better Food for Human Creatures.

§ 1.

THE Three Principal Evacuati­ons are, By Siege, by Water, and by Perspiration. All these must be duly regulated, and in the Order of Nature, towards the Preservation of Health, and the prolonging of Life. The First ought to be of a due Consistence between both Extremes. ^* Oportet Sanorum Sedes esse figuratas. Those who are costive, have either over-heated their Bodies with strong Liquors; have eaten too sparingly; have too slow a Digestion, or the Peristaltick [Page 110] Motion of their Guts are too weak, whereby the Food staying too long a Time before the Mouths of the Lacteals, is over-drained of its Moisture. Those who have purging Stools, have eat too much, or of Things too strong for their concoctive Powers. For superfluous Nou­rishment leaves too much Chyle in the ^† Faeces, which fermenting in the Guts, stimulates them so as to become a Purge. I have often observed, That a full Meal of strong Meat, as Fish, Beef, Pork, Baked Meat, or made Dishes, in tender Persons, goes off with the Hurry and Irritation of a Purge, leaving the Bowels inflated, co­licked, or griped, and the Spirits sunk to the last Degree. The Food, by its va­rious Mixture, Weight, and Fermentation, stimulating all along from the Stomach to the Rectum, and being scarce ever drained of its Chyle, without affording any Nou­rishment to the Body, runs off thus crudely, and becomes equal to a total Abstinence from Food for a long Time. And hence we have a most infallible Rule, ^* à posteriori, to judge if we have [Page 111] governed ourselves in our Diet in Pro­portion to the Necessities of Nature, and the Forces of our concoctive Powers. This is the very Reason why the Bark over-dosed, and given to Persons of weak Digestion, so constantly purges them; and why Mercury, given either inwardly, or by Friction, runs off in violent purg­ing, and cannot be raised into a Saliva­tion; to wit, the not adjusting the Doses to the Strength of the Stomach and ner­vous Fibres. For the Bark naturally binds, and Mercury naturally rises to the most pervious Glands. And in this Sense, I myself have frequently observed in weak and scrofulous Bowels, even Dia­scordium, and Venice Treacle to purge: Whereas, had the Doses been duly pro­portioned, or had they begun by Under­dosing, and taken a little longer Time, their End might have been effectually answered; as I have often experienced without ever failing.

§. 2.

And here it may not be amiss to take Notice of a fatal Mistake those run into, who, being weakly, thin, and slender, aim, by all Means, and at any Price, to become plump and round, and in order to attain this, are perpetually [Page 112] devouring huge Quantities of high, strong Food, and swallowing proportionable Measures of generous Liquors, not know­ing, that by this very Method, they promote and confirm the Disease they would remedy; For in such Persons and Cases, the globular Part of the Blood is constantly of a small Quantity, and very glewy, and the serous Part, thin and watry (that is, The Blood is poor and weak) and the Solids or Nerves are loose and relaxed. And the concoctive Pow­ers being in Proportion to these Two, of Consequence, the Digestions must be weak and imperfect, and their Force un­able to dissolve and break any Quantity of such strong Meat or spirituous Liquors into a proper Chyle for Nourishment. And this great Load must either be hurried off intirely through the alimenta­ry Ducts in supernumerary Discharges, or the small Portion of Chyle drawn out of it, being too gross to unite and make a similar Fluid with the Mass of the Blood, must be precipitated through the other Drains of the Body; and thus the poor thin Creature must starve in Luxury, and waste amidst Superfluity. The Case is the same with Nurses and Parents in rearing up Young Children. The perpe­tual [Page 113] Gripes, Colicks, Loosenesses, hard Bel­lies, Choakings, Wind, and Convulsive Fits, which torment half the Children of England, are intirely owing to the too great Quantities of too strong Food, and too rank Milk, thrust down their Throats by their over-laying Mothers and Nurses. For what else do their slimy, their gray or chylous, their blackish and cholerick Dis­charges, the Noise and Motion in their Bowels, their Wind and Choakings, imply, but Crudities from superfluous Nourish­ment? This is so certain, that they are universally, and infallibly cured by te­staceous Powders, which only absorb sharp Crudities, by Rhubarb Purges, which at once evacuate and strengthen the Bowels, and by Milk- Clysters, Issues, and Blisters, which are still upon the Foot of Evacu­ation: by obstinately persisting in these, and the like (intended to evacuate and strengthen the alimentary Passages) and a thin, spare, and nutritive Diet. Nothing nourishes but Food duly concocted; and in the Course of Nature, we must first plump up and extend, and then harden and strengthen. This is the Way of Nature in Vegetation. And thus the Animal Creation, devoid of Reason, rear up their Young: And thus even [Page 114] the skilful Groom treats his wasted and decayed Horse: And (which is wonder­ful) you shall find a sagacious Horse­Doctor plump up and fatten a rotten, lean, broken-winded Jade, and make him look sleek, gay, and lively, so as to cheat not only the Esquire, but his Brother­Doctor, in fewer Weeks, than all the Man-Doctors in England could rear up their Fellow-Creature, in Years. 'Tis true, The Juices of Men are more variously, and more throughly corrupted, and their Solids intirely broken, which ne­ver happens to the Brute-Creation. But the greatest Mistake lies in the Neglect of duly observing, and religiously prose­cuting a proper Regimen. This must principally consist in a Diet of soft, light, tender, cool, and mucilaginous Foods, or such as are already become Chyle, either by Nature or Art, such are Milk, and Milk-Meats. Rice, Sago, Barley, Wheat, Eggs, Broths, light Soops, Jellies, white, young, tender, and well-fed Poultry, or Butchery Meat, eaten little at a Time, and often, never without an Appetite, nor to Satiety; joining to these, the other Helps and Assistances mentioned in this Treatise. When Flesh is once come, 'tis easy to make it strong and hardy, by [Page 115] due Exercise, and a gradual adventuring upon higher Foods, and more generous Liquors.

§. 3.

I have often heard valetudinary, and tender Persons, and those of seden­tary Lives and Learned Professions, com­plain of Head-aches, Sicknesses at the Sto­mach, Colicks and Gripes, Lowness of Spirits, Wind and Vapours, and yet pre­tend they were very moderate and ab­stemious in their Eating and Drinking; But, upon Enquiry, I constantly found these very Persons pursued with purging Stools, which was an evident Proof, to me, that they had taken down more than they wanted, or could digest. For 'tis universally certain, That those that do not exceed, must have either Costive, or, at least, Stools of a middle Consistence. There is nothing more ridi­culous, than to see tender, hysterical and vapourish People, perpetually complaining, and yet perpetually cramming; crying out, They are ready to sink into the Ground, and faint away, and yet gobbling down the richest and strongest Food, and highest Cordials, to oppress and overlay them quite. Fresh and generous Food, mixing with the sharp Humours of the Stomach [Page 116] and Bowels, may, for some short Time, qualify and abate their Irritation, and may give a Fillip to the sluggish Circulation, and become, as it were, a Cork to stop the perpetual Fuming up of these noxious Steams upon the Head and Brain: But this is (pardon the Similitude) as if one should go to quench the pestilential Steams of a Common-Shore, by throwing in greater Heaps of Ordure and Nuisance into it. The proper Remedy in this Case, is, First, To cleanse the fetid Abyss, and then to preserve it clean by cutting off all the Inlets of Putrefaction. This will require a little Courage, La­bour, and Pain; but the future Ease and Sweetness, will more than abun­dantly recompense them; for there is nothing more certain, than that of those born sound here in England, the Head­aches, Stomach-aches, Colicks, and nervous Pains and Disorders, universally proceed from Idleness and Fulness of Bread.

§. 4.

Those who eat but one mode­rate Flesh Meal a Day, will have regu­larly once a Day a Discharge of the Re­mains of their Food. And, generally speaking, those that go oftner, have exceeded some how. Those who pre­tend [Page 117] to cure themselves of nervous Dis­orders, or any other chronical Diseases, or preserve themselves from them, or lengthen out their Days, must under­dose themselves (and therefore can go but once in two Days) even though they should undergo the Pain of Costiveness. For 'tis impossible the Nerves of those who have slippery Bowels, should ever be braced or wound up; for there the Cure must begin, where the Evil be­gan; and must be communicated thence to the rest of the System, as a Rope­maker begins the Twist at one End of the Rope, and communicates it to all the other Parts. Our Access to the Nerves of the Stomach and Bowels, is obvious and open: To the rest, the Way is dif­ficult, and far about. And since a Re­laxation, Weakness, and want of Spring in the Fibres, is the Origin of all nervous Distempers, no Medicines, but such as contract, stiffen, wind up, and shorten them, can remedy this Evil; and they must necessarily contract and bind up the Fibres of the Stomach and Guts, as the Parts they first approach and exert their Virtue upon. And he, who with­out firm Bowels, thinks to cure a nervous Distemper, labours as much in vain as [Page 118] he who would keep a Fiddle-string soaking in Oil and Water, to make it vibrate or play off a fine Composition of Musick.

§. 5.

By Experience and Observation I have found, That in those who have one regular Discharge in Twenty-four Hours, the Time of the Progress of the Food from the Stomach, till its Remains are thrown off, is Three Natural Days. And in those who go but once in Two Days, the Time is Six Natural Days. The Curious may be satisfied in this, by swallowing an Almond or any other Nut, which passes without being broken or making any Irritation. The Rea­son is this, That a smaller Quantity of Food is retained longer, by their Suction, at the Mouths of the Lacteals, to drain it intirely of its Chyle, and its Weight being less, the Concoctive Powers have the greater Force upon it, and so it is retained till it is perfectly Digested, and drain'd of all its Humidity; whereby such People become Costive: Whereas in People that exceed, the contrary Causes precipitate the Course of the Aliment, and so leave the Bowels al­ways slippery. And nothing can more [Page 119] demonstratively shew an Excess, than the Lubricity of the Discharge; and I have often, observed in tender Persons, and those of weak Nerves, when a Meal (I mean only of those who eat Flesh Meat only once a Day) has been a little too hard for the Stomach, tho' the Spi­rits have been full and free, and the Health equal and good, by duly propor­tioned Meals for two preceding Days; the Third Day, when the gross Meal came off, they have been full of Wind and Vapours, their Eyes dim, and their Heads heavy, with flying Rheumatick Pains over the Body, and Colick-Gripes. From whence we may draw these three Corollaries.

§. 6.

There are some sorts of Food which may oppress and load the Stomach, and Alimentary Ducts in the first Con­coction, which may be very safe and benign in the subsequent ones. For in­stance, Cheese, Eggs, Milk-Meats, and Vegetable Food, tho' duly prepared, and justly proportioned in Quantity, may chance to lie heavy on the Stomach, or beget Wind in the Alimentary Passages of some Persons (and yet drinking of Water will always remedy this Incon­veniency): But these neither having their Parts strongly united, nor abound­ing in sharp Urinous Salts, when they become sufficiently diluted with a watry Menstruum, or dissolved into their Component Parts, and their Parts being still smaller than the smallest Vessels, and [Page 121] their Union constantly less, than the Force of the Concoctive Powers, in Persons who have any remaining Fund of Life in them; will thereby yield a sweet, thin, and easily Circulating Chyle, in the after Concoctions become benign and salutary, and afford no Materials for Chronical Distempers. And the Wind thence generated, not being pointed and armed with such sharp Salts, as those of Flesh Meats, or the Corrosive Juices of Spiri­tuous Liquors, will be as innocent and safe, as the Element we breathe in.

§. 7.

The Second Evacuation is by Water, whose Circumstances and Con­dition, tho' -little adverted to, may be of great Service to discover both the State of our Constitution, and the Proportion of our Diet. Some People are frightned when they find their Water turbid, bro­ken, and full of Brick-dust Sediment; whereas that is the best Symptom it can have. For tho' it supposes the Blood loaded with Urinous Salts and Cradities; yet 'tis still better they should pass off than continue in the Habit. On the contrary, when those that live freely, have Quantities of pale, limpid and sweet Water, 'tis a certain Sign that the Per­spiration [Page 122] is stopp'd; that neither the First nor the Secondary Concoctions have been duly perform'd; that the Chyle has not been sufficiently broken, nor the finer Secretions duly made by the lesser Drains; and that the Urinous Salts are still re­tained in the Habit. Upon which must needs ensue Oppression of Spirits, Chills upon the Extremities, flying Rheumatick Pains over the Body, Head-aches, Cholicks and Gripes. And here it may not be amiss, to take Notice of the Difference of the pale Water of Hypochondriacal and Hysterical Persons, from that of those who labour under a true Diabetes, the Apprehension of which terrifies so often the Low and Dispirited Persons of the First Class. The Water of both has the same Appearance, both in Quality and Quantity, at least, in the first Instance, they are both attended with the same Sinking and Dispiritedness. But in a true Diabetes, there is a constant Thirst, a low but quick Pulse, the Water is much sweeter, and continues longer to come off in profuse Quantities, insomuch, that sometimes it is so violent as to run down the Party in a few Days. In Hypochondriacal and Hysterical Persons, there is little or no Thirst, never a quick [Page 123] Pulse, but rather too low and slow a one, the Flux soon stops of itself, or by any little Diaphoretick Medicine, and they are cold upon the Extremities, which the others are not.

§. 8.

That bluish and variegated Film, which sometimes looks like Oil and Fat swimming on the Water of Scor­butick and Cachectick Persons, is nothing but the congregated Salts which are crowded so thick together, that they are ready to shoot into Clusters, much like the Film of a ^* Lixivium, when stand­ing for the Crystallization of fixed Salts. The Water which has a light Cloud hang­ing almost from the Top to the Bottom, is of a bright Amber Colour, and about three Quarters of the Liquor taken down, is best, and a certain Sign of a due Con­coction, a just Proportion of Food, and a total Absence of Repletion and Crudity. And those who live Temperately, use due Exercise, and enjoy a perfect State of Health, always make such Water.

§. 9.

Those who are subject to great Quantities of limpid and pale Water, ought to conclude, that their Food has been too heavy in Quality, or too much in Quantity for their Concoctive Powers, or their Labour too little; and that therefore, they ought to proportion both, for the future, with more Caution and Exactness, by living low for some Time, or using more Exercise. And to stop their Flux of pale Water, they ought to take a little Gascoign's Powder, Confection of Alkermes, or Sir Walter Raleigh's Cor­dial at Night, and drink liberally of small warm Sack Whey, with a few Drops of Spirit of Hartshorn, to set the Perspi­ration in order again. Those, on the other Hand, who make high-colour'd, foul, and very turbid Water in smaller Quantities, have either inflamed their Blood too much, with Spirituous Liquors, or loaded it with too great a Quantity of Animal Salts. To prevent therefore Disorders and Diseases, they must lessen the Quantity of their Flesh Meat, and temper the Heat of their Wine with Water. Else they will lay the Foun­dation of some Acute Inflammatory, or dangerous Chronical Distemper.

§. 10.

The worst kind of Water of all, is that of a dark Brown or dirty Red, in a small Quantity, and without any Sediment. This kind of Water, in Acute Diseases, always indicates insuperable Crudity, high Inflammation tending towards Mortification, and a dying Languor in Nature. And in Persons labouring under no visible Distemper at the Time, an almost total Debility of the Concoctive Powers, an inseparable Union of the Con­stituent Parts of the Blood, the highest De­gree of Crudity, and a Deadness in all the Animal Functions. And, if preceded by long continued Excesses, requires the Ad­vice of a Physician. I shall say nothing of Coffee-colour'd, Bloody, Wheyish, or Puru­lent Water, or that with white Gravel, Films, Rags, or Bits of broken Mem­branes. They are well known to be Nephritick, or Symptoms of an Ulcer somewhere in the Urinary Passages.

§. 11.

There happens also an Evacu­ation both by Siege and Urine, to some weak Persons of relaxed Nerves, that ex­tremely alarms the Patient, and is not [Page 126] so readily accounted for in common ^* Aetiology. It is when either a white transparent, viscid Substance, like Gelly, is constantly voided by the Bowels, more or less; or when a white, milk, glewy Substance, like Cream or laudable Mat­ter, settles in the Water: Both these Ap­pearances are commonly ascribed to an Ulcer in the Guts, or in the Kidneys, the very Apprehension of which is almost sufficient, in some low Persons, to bring on the Distemper feared: And yet I am very certain there is neither Ulcer nor true Matter in either Case, as I propose them. For where there is violent and acute Pain, or Matter of different Colours or Mixtures, there, very possibly, may be, nay, certainly there is, an Ulcer. But in the Case I here intend, there is very little or no Pain, no Hectical Paroxysms, which always attend an inward Ulcer; no bloody or sanious Mixtures, which always betray the inward Sore; no fetid Smell to imply Corruption. For the Cases I put at present, happen to [Page 127] Persons the least capable of Inflammation or Imposthumation, viz. to paralytick Per­sons, or those of a Natural Tendency that Way, to cold, vapourish Persons of low Spirits and weak Nerves, whose Pulse is low and slow, and their na­tural Functions weak and languid; all which evidently shew, that these Dis­charges cannot come from an Ulcer. The first Case I take to be either an Obstruction of some of the Lacteals, whereby the Chyle cannot be carried off in any sufficient Quantity, but passing through the Guts, and its more Watry Part being evaporated, it be­comes thick and gelatinous, and is thrown off at last with the Remains of the Food. Else it must be an Obstru­ction of those Glands of the Guts, by which a viscid Matter for lubricating of them, is commonly secerned; by the Imprisonment and Evaporation of which Matter, it thickens and turns like a Gelly (as it does by Cold, or Overfeeding, in the Glands of the Mouth, Throat and Windpipe) and at last, by the Squeezing of the Guts, is thrown off. And in the same Manner, I take that Milky Sub­stance subsiding in the Water, in such a Case as I have mentioned, to arise from [Page 128] a Relaxation of the Glands of the Kidneys and Bladder, and other Urinary Passages; and that both are to be cured the same Way other Nervous Distempers are cured, viz. by a proper Regimen of Diet, and a Course of contracting, strengthen­ing, and volatile Medicines.

§. 12.

The insensible Perspiration is the Third Evacuation to be considered. The Statical Chair invented by Sanctorius, for examining the Quantity of the Per­spiration, however ingenious and delight­ful in Speculation, is too cumbersome and laborious to be of any great Use in Com­mon Life. 'Tis certain, however, that the free and full flowing of this Evacuation, is as necessary to Health as any of the grosser, since in Quantity it is at least equal to both the forementioned; and an Obstruction thereof, is generally the Source of all acute Diseases, as it is a Consequence of all Chronical ones. And therefore, I have advised those who are much abroad in Easterly and Northerly Winds (which most of any obstruct Perspiration) and have Fluxes of white and pale Water, to a ready An­tidote to prevent the Beginnings of these Obstructions.

§. 13.

Dr. ^*JAMES KEILL has made it out, beyond all possibility of doubting, that catching of Cold is no­thing but sucking in, by the Passages of Perspiration, large Quantities of moist Air and nitrous Salts, which by thickening the Blood and Juices (as is evident from Bleeding after catching Cold) and thereby obstructing, not only the Per­spiration, but also all the other finer Se­cretions, raises immediately a small Fever and a Tumult in the whole Animal Oeconomy; and, neglected, lays a Foun­dation for Consumptions, Obstructions of the great Viscera, and universal Cachexies. The Tender therefore, and Valetudinary ought cautiously to avoid all Occasions of catching Cold, and if they have been so unfortunate as to get one, to set about its Cure immediately, before it has taken too deep Root in the Habit. From the Nature of the Disorder thus described, the Remedy is obvious; To wit, Lying much abed, Drinking plen­tifully of small warm Sack Whey, with a few Drops of Spirit of Hartshorn, Posset-Drink, Water-Gruel, or any other warm small Liquors, a Scruple of Gascoign's Powder Morning and Night, Living [Page 130] low upon Spoon-Meats, Pudding and Chicken, and drinking every thing warm: In a Word, treating it at first as a small Fever, with gentle Diaphoreticks; and afterward, if any Cough or Spitting should remain (which this Method generally prevents) by softening the Breast with a little Sugar-Candy, and Oil of Sweet Almonds, or a Solution of Gum Ammoniac, an Ounce to a Quart of Barley Water, to make the Expectoration easy; and going cautiously and well cloathed into the Air afterwards. This is a much more natural, easy and effectual Method, than the Practice by Balsams, Linctus's, Pectorals, and the like Trum­pery in common Use, which serve only to spoil the Stomach, oppress the Spirits, and hurt the Constitution.

§. 14.

The surest Way of maintaining and promoting a due Perspiration, is, To take down no more Food than what the Concoctive Powers are sufficient to reduce into a due Fluidity, and the Expences of Living require, to prose­cute necessary Exercise, and use the other Assistances advised in the foregoing Chapters. Want of due Rest and the Refreshment that follows upon it, start­ing, [Page 131] tossing, and tumbling abed, are certain Signs that the Perspiration is not duly carried on in the Night Season. And therefore, in order to remedy this, a greater Proportion of Exercise, a greater Degree of Abstinence, or some gentle domestick Purge, must be had recourse to the next Day. Colical Pains, Gripes and Purging, much Eructa­tion and Belching of Wind, Low Spirited­ness, Yawning and Stretching, are infalli­ble Signs that the Perspiration flows not freely and plentifully then. And therefore the same Remedies ought to be prosecuted, as soon as an Oppor­tunity offers; else the Party will suffer at last. Wind, as Sanctorius observes and demonstrates, is nothing but ob­structed Perspiration: And Yawning and Stretching, are but Convulsions of the proper Muscles and Organs appointed by Nature, the one for Pumping up Wind from the Bowels, the other for pressing upon the Excretory Ducts in the Skin, to force out the sluggish perspirable Mat­ter. And 'tis beautiful to observe, how wisely Nature has contrived the Sposms, Cramps and Convulsions of the proper Organs, to expel every noxious and ex­traneous Body out of the Habit. Thus [Page 132] Coughing is a Convulsion of the Diaphragm and Muscles of the Breast, to throw out viscid Phlegm; Vomiting, of the Stomach, (assisted by the Diaphragm and Muscles of the Abdomen) to throw up its Cru­dities, and those of the Bowels; or to expel Sand or Stones from the Kidneys. The Throws of Labouring Women, are to bring off the Burden. Sneezing is an Effort of the proper Muscles, to eject some noxious Particles from the Organs of Smelling. Shivering and Stretching to assist Perspiration; and Yawning to pump up noxious Wind. And even Laughing itself, is an Effort of the Muscles of the whole Trunk, to throw off some­thing that its delicate Membranes can­not bear. And, Lastly, Hysterical Fits and Convulsions, both in Infants and Persons come to Maturity, are but violent Efforts, Struggles, Workings, Cramps and Spasms of all the Muscles of the whole Body together, to expel, squeeze, and press out the sharp Acri­monious Wind. Fumes and Vapours from the Cavities of the whole Machine.

§. 15.

There is an Evacuation in­cident to Persons of weak Nerves, which could not conveniently come in [Page 133] under the general Division, because it happens too seldom to make a new Member of it. It is a Discharge of thin Rheum from the Glands of the Mouth, Throat and Stomach, and is called by some, A Nervous or Scorbutick Spitting. It rises sometimes to the Heighth of a petit Flux de Bouche, as the French call it, and threatens some tender Persons, as they apprehend, with a Consumption, though it imply nothing less. We may observe some, who are struck with a deep Palsey, to flow at the Mouth, and drivel down their Breasts; insomuch, that the Afflicted of this Sort, who are advanced in Years, can scarce speak intelligibly for the Flux, till they have first emptied and cleaned their Mouths. And this arises to so great a Heighth, in some much broken paralytick Persons, that upon the slightest Occasions, either of Joy or Grief, they are apt to run into a Profusion of Tears, Sighs and Sobbings. And some sorts of Ideots, and those Hysterically mop'd, and most of those who suffer from relaxed and weak Nerves, are more or less subject to these Salival Discharges, especially after Excesses in Diet. Hence the first Sort receive the Appellation of Snivellers or Drivellers. [Page 134] And the Difficulty of the Cure of all the Diseases of weak Nerves, depends much on the Quantity and Constitution of this Flux. For much and long Spitting and Running off of this Rheum, implies a total Relaxation of the whole Nervous System, and shews neither the first nor second Concoctions have been duly performed. I have frequently had Occasion to shew, how Excesses in the Quantity or Quality of the Food, in Persons of relaxed and weak Nerves, begot a viscid and gross Chyle, of which that Part, which could not get through the Lacteals, lay fermenting and putri­fying in the Alimentary Passages, begot Wind, Gripes and Colicks, and at last wrought itself off like a Purge; and that that Part, which got through the Lacteals, and was received within the Limits of the Circulation, being too gross and glewy to be mixed with the old Mass of the Fluids, to circulate through the smallest Vessels, and to enter the fine Perspiratory Glands, would neces­sarily be thrown into the wider, more spongy and loose Salivary Glands, which are appointed by Nature to secern the more Glutinous Parts of the Fluids. And from thence this Salivary Inunda­tion [Page 135] proceeds. The Fact is, When those of weak Nerves, commit habitual Ex­cesses in their Diet, the Glands and small Vessels of all the Body are tumified, swelled and obstructed thereby, as they needs must be. And 'tis from the Pressure of these inlarged Glands, and the obstructed capillary Vessels on the Nerves, and patent Blood Vessels, that most of the Evils they suffer under proceed. But more especially, are the Glands appointed to draw off the more viscid serous Part of the Blood, obstructed and tumified thereby. Upon which Ac­count, as Baglivi advises to enquire well into the State of the Tongue and Mouth, in order to discover the Con­dition of the Stomach, Guts and Bowels; so I think 'tis highly reasonable in a Chronical Case, to have great regard to the Condition of the Eyes; and if a dead, cold Languor be observed in the Hue or Water of them (as Jewellers speak of Diamonds) and more especially if the lachrymal Gland in the Corner next the Nose, which I always narrowly inspect; if, I say, this Gland be found harder, or larger than ordinary, swelled and tumified, it must certainly be con­cluded, whatever else be in the Case, [Page 136] there must be a relaxed State of Nerves, much Vapours, weak natural Functions, and a mismanaged Regimen. And it is from the Obstruction and Swelling of this and the other Glands, in and about the Eyes, and their Pressure upon the Optical Nerves, and fine Blood Vessels, that those Spots, Flies, Atoms, Dimness, Darkness, and Confusion of Sight, in Vapourish and Hysterical People proceed. For this Gland shews, that the whole serous Glands in the upper Regions of the Body are, in Proportion, tumified and swelled with viscid Humours through Excess of Diet; unless the Person have suffered there by Accident, or labours under some natural Disorders of the Eyes. From the Obstruction and Swel­ling of the Salivary Glands in the Mouth, Throat and Gullet, proceed also those Choakings, Gulping and Strangling, that Hysterick Persons so often complain of. The Wind and Crudities lodged in their Stomach and Guts, and the rest of the Cavities of the Body pressing to get vent upwards, are resisted and stopp'd in their Passage by the Diaphragm, where­by the Inspiration is streightned, and by the Bulk of these Glands throughout the Gullet, the Way is intirely stopp'd; [Page 137] which raises such a Tumult and Struggle, as produces the mentioned Symptoms; which I have not Leisure to detail here more minutely. Now this Salivation or Discharge of the thinner Rheum, and that Coughing and Hawking of more viscid Flegm, commonly called a nervous Cough, as also the Chincough of Children, and all such Discharges of sharp Serum in Persons of weak and relaxed Nerves, is an Effort of Nature to relieve them. And, if discreetly managed, and duly heeded, would prove a Crise to their Disorders, and quite free them from their present ^* Paroxysms, and set the Circulation and Perspiration, and conse­quently the Spirits, at Freedom and Liberty again. Some Persons most distractedly run to Drams and Cordials to remedy this Evil, to stop the Violence of this Deluge, and to raise their drooping Spirits. But it serves only to thicken the Flegm, shut up the Mouths of the Salivary Glands closer, and so to perpetuate the Evil they mean to cure. Others devour large Quantities of high and generous Foods, because they find a [Page 138] little Relief to their Spirits, from the first Run of the sweet, thin, and spirituous Chyle: But this is only adding Fewel to the Fire, and running on in a perpetual Round of Lowness and Slavering. Where­as, would they suffer Nature to act her own Way, to carry on this critical Discharge as far as it will go, without offering in the least either to check or promote it; but by thin, light Food, and cool Liquors, in moderate, or rather under dosed Quantities, support her in the manner the Concoctive Powers are sufficient for; after she had dis­charged all the Crudities from the Mass of the Fluids, by these Emunctory Glands, and thereby given a free Passage to the Wind to escape the Way it tends, the Salivation would lessen gradually, and at last stop of itself. And if then towards the Decline, a gentle Vomit, to pump up the slow and viscid Remains of the Wind and Flegm in the Upper Part of the Alimentary Passages, and afterwards a gentle Stomachick warm Purge, to scour the Lower Part of these Tubes, were carefully administred; the Patient would soon find a clear Head, lightsome Spirits, Ease and Freedom from Pain and Oppression; the Circulation and Perspi­ration [Page 139] would be soon brought to their natural and sound State, and Health and Cheerfulness restored together; unless a mortal or habitual ^* Ptyalism was the Case, which I have sometimes obser­ved, as fatal and incurable as a true Dropsy, or inveterate Diabetes; all which owe their Being to a deep Scurvy, whereby the Globular Part of the Blood is intirely broken, and the Serum made a meer Lixivium or Lye.

§. 1.

I Come now, in the Order of my first proposed Method, to treat of the Passions; which have a greater In­fluence on Health and Long Life, than most People are aware of. And that I may propose my Scheme with the great­est Clearness I can, I will lay down some Propositions or Axioms, as the Ground-work on which it is founded.

§. 2.

In relation to the Organical In­struments of the Body, and the Effects wrought on them, or the Disorders [Page 153] brought upon them, the Passions may be divided into Acute and Chronical, after the same Manner, and for the same Reason, as Diseases are. The acute Passions, whether pleasurable or painful, have much the same Effect, and work much after the same Manner as Acute Diseases do. They effect a brisk and lively Circulation of the Fluids, crisp up and constrict the Solids for some short Time. Thus sudden Gusts of Joy or Grief, Pleasure or Pain, stimulate and spur the Nervous Fibres, and the Coats of the Animal Tubes, and thereby give a Celerity and brisker Motion to their included Fluids, for the same Time. And the Functions of the Heart and Lungs being involuntary, they have their more immediate Effects upon them. Thus both sudden Joy and Grief, make us breath short and quick, and make our Pulse small and frequent. The retaining our Breath for some Time (for so far our Breathing is volun­tary) to reflect more intensely upon the painful Object, forces at last a strong Exspiration, which becomes a Sigh. Thus a sudden painful Idea, makes a quicker Circulation of the Blood, and thereby throwing a greater [Page 154] Quantity thereof upwards, through the proportionally larger Branch of the Aorta, makes it appear in the superficial Vessels of the Face, Neck and Breast, and so produces a Blush; which, when longer continued, and being very strong, is dispersed over the whole Surface of the Body. Hence the Observation of Blushing at the Back of one's Hand; and the Reasons why we sigh upon some Occasions, and blush upon others, de­pend upon the different Structure of the Organs of Pulsation and Respiration. A quick surprizing Pain of Mind acts upon the Heart, because the Motion of the Heart is altogether involuntary: So that a sudden Constriction takes place there immediately to increase the Pulse. Whereas we have some Power over the Breathing; we can stop or suspend it for a Time; and when we are think­ing intensely, our Attention partly makes us hold our Breath, and hence ensues Sighing rather than Blushing. For the Pain being slow, quickens the Pulse more gradually: But if it continues long, both Actions of both Organs are respectively produced; and hence it comes to pass, that upon Anxiety, Concern and earnest Expectation, the [Page 155] Pulse is found quick and small, and the Breath thick and difficult, as Experience shews. The same Principles will account for the Effects of Fear and Anger, which make us change Colour, and look red or pale, as the Blood is accelerated or re­tarded in its Course. The sudden Gusts of these Passions being thus ac­counted for, when they become ex­treme, they drive about the Blood with such a Hurricane, that Nature is over­set, like a Mill by a Flood: So that what drove it only quicker round before, now intirely stops it, and renders the Countenance pale and ghastly. Sudden and great Fear or Grief, do so convulse the Nervous System, that sometimes they alter the Position of the Parts, and fix them in a new one. Thus the Hair stands on end in a Fright, and the whole System of the Nerves becomes so rigid and stiff, as to lose their Elasticity; whereby the Animal Functions are stopp'd at once; and Fainting, and sometimes Death, ensues.

§. 3.

The Chronical Passions, like Chronical Diseases, wear out, waste and destroy the Nervous System gradually. Those Nerves which are necessary for [Page 156] considering, brooding over, and fixing such a Set of Ideas on the Imagination, being constantly employ'd, are worn out, broken and impaired. The rest by Disuse, become resty and unactive, lifeless and destitute of a sufficient Flux of warm Blood and due Nourishment. And thus the whole System languishes and runs into Decay. Thus slow and long Grief, dark Melancholy, hopeless natural Love, and overweening Pride, (which is an outragious Degree of Self­love) impair the Habit, by making the proper Seasons of necessary Food and due Labour be neglected, and thereby depriving the natural Functions of their wonted Supplies, overworking some Part of the Nervous System, and leaving the other to rust, and become resty for want of Use. Some of these Passions, as Love, Grief and Pride, when very intense and long indulg'd, terminate even in Madness. The Reason is, as I have been saying, because long and constant Habits, of fixing one Thing on the Imagination, begets a ready Dispositi­on in the Nerves to produce again the same Image, till the Thought of it become spontaneous and natural, like breathing, or the Motion of the Heart, which the Machine [Page 157] performs without the Consent of the Will; and also a Disability or ^* Tetanus ensues on the other Parts, just as the Faquiers in India, fix one or both Hands by long holding them up, so as that they cannot bring them down again. There is a kind of Melancholy, which is called Religious, because 'tis conversant about Matters of Religion; although, often the Persons so distempered, have little solid Piety. And this is merely a Bodily Disease, produced by an ill Habit or Constitution, wherein the Nervous System is broken and disordered, and the Juices are become viscid and glewy. This Melancholy arises generally from a Disgust or Disrelish of worldly Amuse­ments and Creature-Comforts, whereupon the Mind turns to Religion for Consola­tion and Peace. But as the Person is in a very imperfect and unmortified State, not duly instructed and disciplined, and ignorant how to govern himself, there ensues Fluctuation and Indocility, Scru­pulosity, Horror and Despair.

§. 4.

Since the Mind resides, as has been said, in the common Sensory, like [Page 158] a skilful Musician by a well-tuned Instru­ment; if the Organ be sound, duly tem­pered, and exactly adjusted, answering and corresponding with the Actions of the Musician, the Musick will be distinct, agreeable and harmonious. But if the Organ be spoiled and broken, neither duly tuned, nor justly fitted up, it will not answer the Intention of the Musician, nor yield any distinct Sound, or true Harmony. Those therefore who are tender and valetudinary, lead sedentary Lives, or indulge contemplative Stu­dies, ought to avoid Excesses of the Passions, as they would Excesses in high Food, or Spirituous Liquors, if they have any Regard to Health, to the Preservation or Integrity of their In­tellectual Faculties, or the bodily Organs of them. As the Passions, when slow and continued, relax, unbend, and dissolve the Nervous Fibres; so the sudden and violent ones screw up, stretch and bend them, whereby the Blood and Juices are hurried about with a violent Impe­tuosity, and all the Secretions are either stopp'd by the Constrictions, Cramps and Convulsions begot by them, or are precipitated, crude and uncon­cocted, and so beget, or at least dis­pose [Page 159] toward Inflammations, Fevers or Mortifications. Hatred, for Example, Anger and Malice, are but Degrees of a Frenzy, and a Frenzy is one kind of a raging Fever. From all which 'tis plain, the violent and sudden Passions, are more dangerous to Health, than the slow and continued, as acute Diseases are more destructive than chronical.

§. 5.

To shew yet farther, the In­fluence of the Passions on the Animal Oeconomy, let us consider the different Constitutions of Men. Those who have very springy, lively, and elastick Fibres, have the quickest Sensations, a weaker Impulse producing a stronger Sensation in them. These generally excel in the Animal Faculty of Imagination. Hence the Poet,

And therefore, your Men of Imagination are generally given to sensual Pleasure, because the Objects of Sense yield them a more delicate Touch, and a livelier Sensation, than they do others. But if they happen to live so long (which is [Page 160] hardly possible) in the Decline of Life they pay dearly for the greater bodily Pleasures they enjoyed in the Youthful Days of their Vanity. Those of rigid, stiff and unyielding Fibres, have less vivid Sensations, because it requires a greater Degree of Force to overcome a greater Resistance. Those excel most in the Labours of the Understanding, or the In­tellectual Faculties, retain their Impres­sions longest, and pursue them farthest; and are most susceptible of the slow and lasting Passions, which secretly consume them as chronical Diseases do. And Lastly, Those whose Organs of Sensation are (if I may speak so) un-elastick, or intirely callous, resty for want of Ex­ercise, or any way obstructed, or na­turally ill-formed, as they have scarce any Passions at all, or any lively Sen­sations, and are incapable of lasting Impressions; so they enjoy the firmest Health, and are subject to the fewest Diseases: such are Ideots, Peasants and Mechanicks, and all those we call In­dolent People.

§. 6.

We have before shewn, that weak Limbs, and all the bodily Organs, may be strengthened and re­paired [Page 161] by proper Exercise. And there is no doubt to be made, but the Organs of Sensation, and those the Mind uses in its intellectual Operations, may be like­wise improved, strengthened and perfected by constant Use, and proper Application. And if by Excesses, an original bad Con­formation, or any Accident, these Organs come to be spoiled, or by the bad State of the Juices, they be weakned in their Functions; then the Medicinal and Chirurgical Arts may take place, and come in play. But if the Passions be raging and tumultuous, and constantly fuelled, nothing less than He, who has the Hearts of Men in His Hands, and forms them as a Potter does his Clay, who stills the Raging of the Seas, and calms the Tempests of the Air, can settle and quiet such tumultuous, overbearing Hurri­canes in the Mind, and Animal Oeconomy. Without such a Miracle, since the Soul and Body act mutually upon one another, and the Tabernacle of Clay is the weakest Part of the Compound, it must at last be overborn and thrown down.

§. 7.

In such a wretched Case I know no Remedy, but to drown all other Passions in that Spiritual one of the [Page 162] Love of God. The Reasonableness and Justness of which Proceeding, and (what may seem a Paradox) the Useful­ness of it to Health, and its benign In­fluence on the Animal Oeconomy, I shall endeavour to demonstrate. Spiritual Love is that Principle analogous to Attraction, spoken of in Prop. IV. 'Tis the Ten­dency, Byass or Impulse of the Minds of Men and other Spirits, toward the most amiable Objects, communicated by their Creator in their original Formation, by virtue of which, they constantly tend, press and urge to unite (and, if Obstacles were removed, would unite) with one another, and be all united with their Origin. This Principle indeed, in this lapsed Estate of Man (where 'tis over­laid and buried under Rubbish, involved in so many other Attractions, and stifled with such Letts and Contrarieties, that its Action is felt but just enough to know that it is, and wants to be a waked with Labour, and excited with Violence, as the Scripture mentions, the taking the Kingdom of Heaven by Force) on its first Developement and Expansion, and in its first Exercises, may be called a Spiritual Passion, as 'tis the first Motions, En­deavours and Velleities toward the Love [Page 163] of God or Charity. But in its Advances, and final Perfection and Consummation, it discovers itself to be a Faculty, Quality, or inherent Power in the Soul, whereby it will act without Solicitation, Motive or Direction. As a Stone in a Wall, fastened with Mortar, compressed by surrounding Stones, and involved in a Million of other Attractions, cannot fall to the Earth, nor sensibly exert its na­tural Gravity, no, not so much as to discover there is such a Principle in it; just so, the intelligent Soul, in this her lapsed Estate, being drowned in Sense, chained and fettered by Ignorance and Perverseness, drawn and hurried away by the Devil, the World and the Flesh, is disabled from exerting this inherent and innate Principle of Re-union, and wants sufficient Light on the Under­standing, and a right Turn of the Will, to be put in a Capacity of exercising it. But in its proper Vacuity, and being freed from these Letts and Impediments, it would mount towards its Original, like an Eagle toward the Sun. Amiabi­lity, Pulchritude or Beauty, is as much the peculiar and proper Object of this Affection of the Mind, as Light or a luminous Body is of Vision; for Deformity, [Page 164] as such, can never be loved. And Beauty or Perfection, is, in Reality and just Philosophy, nothing but Analogy, Order, or just Proportion. From hence it necessarily follows, that in the Scale of Beings, all Objects ought to be loved in proportion to their Degree of Beauty, Symmetry or Perfection. And conse­quently, the highest Perfection ought to be loved with the highest Degree of Love, and the several subordinate De­grees of Perfection, with proportionate Degrees of this Affection of the Mind. And since Finite, when compared with Infinite, evanishes quite, or becomes nothing; it follows necessarily (since there is, and can be, but one Object that is Infinite, Good and Perfect, and all others are but Created, and Finite Goods; that is, in Comparison they are nothing) that, according to the eternal and immutable Laws of Analogy, the One supreme Good, endued with Infinite Perfection, ought to be loved with a Love infinitely superior to our Affecti­ons for other Things, or (which is the same Thing in other Words) that, in Comparison, our Love to the Author of our Being, ought to be infinite; and that to ourselves and other Objects, as [Page 165] being finite Creatures, none at all. This is the true Philosophy of this Matter, and as much a Demonstration, as any thing in Numbers or Geometry possibly can be; however it may be received by Men of Self-Love and Carnal Minds.

§. 8.

Yet I would not be so under­stood, as if I condemned all subordinate and duly proportioned Regards for our­selves and other Objects about us, that are necessary for our Support and Ac­commodation in our present State. No! There is a just and laudable Self-love, as well as a false and vitious one. If we love Ourselves, as we love our Neighbours; if we love Ourselves as God loves us; if we love Ourselves as we deserve to be loved by the infinitely perfect Being; if we love Ourselves with a justly proportioned, and duly sub­ordinate Love: that is, if we love Our­selves with a Finite, and Him with an Infinite Love, or a Love increasing, and going on in infinitum, that has neither Limits nor End: Then we love Our­selves as we ought; this Self-love is just and laudable, and has its due and pro­per Degree of Reality and Existence, in the Nature of Things. Perfection, or [Page 166] an Object perfect in its kind, or one that we think so, is the proper Object of our Love. And as in due Analogy, Proportion and Order, infinite Per­fection, requires infinite Love, or the highest Degree of Love we can give it; so all other Objects are to be loved with a Degree of Love proportioned to their Perfection. And since a Being of in­finite Perfection can be but one, and all other Beings can have but a finite De­gree of Perfection, we must love them but with a finite Love; or, the Propor­tion of our Love to Him and them, ought to be, as Infinite is to Finite. That is, comparatively we ought to love them with no Love at all; but absolutely (or without comparing created Things, to the infinitely perfect Being) with their proper Degree of finite Love, according to their Rank in the Scale of Beings.

§. 9.

As to the second Thing proposed, concerning Spiritual Love, however foreign these metaphysical Speculations con­cerning it may seem, to a Discourse about Health and Long Life; yet, if steadily believed, and their natural Consequences reduced to Practice, they would not only become the most ef­fectual Means to prevent Diseases, but also, the most of any Thing, promote Health and Long Life. For, first, Were our Love proportioned to the Order and [Page 169] Analogy of Things; were our Love to the Supreme Good infinite, and that to others, in Comparison, none at all; we should have but one single View in all our Thoughts, Words and Actions viz. The Promoting and Raising that supreme Love, to its due Degree and Elevation: whereby all Anxiety, carking Care, and Solicitude about other Things (the Source of all our Miseries, and of many Bodily Diseases) would be cut off all at once. Secondly, Since Love always be­gets Resemblance of Manners; since the Object of this Love is infinitely perfect; if we loved him in the supreme Degree, we should infinitely endeavour to resemble him: whereby Hatred and Malice, Luxury and Lewdness, Laziness, and all the other Seeds of Bodily Diseases, would be altogether destroyed. Thirdly, Since Spiritual Love is not only the noblest, but also the most joyful and pleasant Affection of the Mind; since the Ob­ject of our supreme Love (as an inspired Poet expresses it) has Fulness of Joy in his Presence, and Rivers of Pleasures at his Right Hand for ever; and since our Joy and Happiness will always rise in pro­portion to our Love; the placing our supreme Love on the supreme Good, [Page 170] would render us infinitely joyful, serene, calm and pleased; than which, certainly, no Man can imagine a more effectual Mean of Health and Long Life.

§. 1.

MENTION having been so often made of Chronical, and some­times of Acute Distempers, it may be con­venient here, to suggest to the Readers, as clear an Account of their Nature and Difference, as I possibly can. Acute Distempers, then, are understood, Such as within some short limited Time have their Periods, either of a perfect Crise, and subsequent Recovery, or of putting an End to the Distemper and Life both together; and are therefore called [Page 173] quick, sharp or acute Distempers, whose Symptoms are more violent, their Dura­tion shorter, and their Periods more quick, either of sudden Death, or a glorious Victory over the Disease. These are generally limited within Forty Days. And those that run out longer, turn into chronical Distempers, whose Periods are more slow, their Symptoms less severe, and their Duration longer. They too (if new Fuel were not ad­ministred to them) would, by the Course of Nature, and the Animal Oeconomy, have their Periods, and ter­minate at the last. The Viscidity of the Juices, and the Flaccidity of the Fibres, would, in a great measure, and to some very tolerable Degree, by proper Reme­dies, and a due Regimen, be removed, and the Party recover in these, as well as acute Cases. But this requiring long Time, much Care, and great Caution, unwearied Patience and Perseverance, and so long a Course of Self-denial, as few People are willing to undergo, it is become the Reproach of Physick and Physicians, that acute Cases cure them­selves (or rather Nature cures them) and chronical Cases are never cured. But both the Branches of the Reflexion [Page 174] are equally false. In the First, Art and Care, judiciously applied, will al­ways alleviate the Symptoms and Suffer­ing, will help on Nature to the Relief she points out, and quicken the Crise, which it will constantly bring about, if the Distemper is not too strong for the Constitution. And even then it will mitigate the Pain, and lay the Patient gently and easily down. But in the last Case, if due Care be had, to follow time­ously the Advice of an honest and expe­rienced Physician, a Period certainly may be brought about to most chronical Di­stempers, where the great Viscera are not spoiled and destroyed. The Fail­ing is in the Patient himself, who will not, or cannot, deny himself for a Time sufficient to bring about the Cure. Some chronical Distempers indeed are such, either by having gone too far, or by being Hereditary, and interwoven with the Principles of Life, as never to be totally overcome. And then 'tis a Piece of great Wisdom, to know how far their Constitution will go, and sit down contented with that measure of Health their original Frame will admit of. But of this I am morally certain, If the Rules and Cautions laid down in this Treatise, [Page 175] be carefully, steadily, and constantly ob­served, few chronical Distempers but will receive such Relief and Alleviation by them, as to make Life tolerably easy, and free from grievous Sufferings: And in the mentioned Case, that is all that is left for Art to do. But in other chronical Distempers taken in due Time, where the Viscera are not quite spoiled, they would infallibly bring about a final Period, and perfect Cure. The most certain distinguishing Mark of an acute Distemper, is, To have a quick Pulse; that of a Chronical, To have a slow one. The first will exhaust the Fluids, and wear out the Solids in a short Time; whereas the last will require a longer Time to produce the same Effect. Some chronical Distempers, especially towards the last and fatal Period, turn acute. And some acute ones terminate in chro­nical Distempers. But this Mark will not only keep them distinct; but also point out, when acute Distempers have chronical Remissions or Intermissions, and when chronical Distempers have acute Fits or Paroxysms.

§. 2.

Some Persons, who are ex­tremely healthy and sound during [Page 176] their younger Days, about, or soon after the Meridian of Life (that is, about Thirty-five or Thirty-six, ac­cording to the Observation of an inspired King) fall into chronical Distempers, which cut them off in few Years, or make them miserable all the rest of their Lives. Thus Consumptions prove mortal to some about that Time. Thus Stone and Gravel, Gout and Rheumatism, Scurvy and Dropsy, King's-Evil and Skin­Diseases, either make their first Appear­ances, or shew themselves in their true Type about this Time of Life. The Reason is, While the Juices are sweet, sufficiently thin and fluid, but espe­cially while the solid Organs, the Mem­branes and Fibres, are yet but unfolding; stretching and drawing out to their full Dimensions; any Acrimony, Sharpness, or corroding Humour, can affect them no other Way, than by making them vi­brate, and so extend themselves farther and farther. For as Pain, so these sharp Salts by their Twitching and Irri­tation on the tender Fibres, make them only contract, and so draw at both Extremities, and thereby unfold and extend themselves farther. So while the original Foldings and Complications of [Page 177] the Solids are not yet quite extended, this Irritation serves only to draw them out, and does not hurt them, till they are arrived at their full Extent, which generally happens about Five-and­twenty. It takes a due Time after that for these sharp Humours to exalt them­selves to their utmost Acrimony, to cor­rupt and putrify the Juices, and also some more Time to wear out, to ob­struct and break the great Organs, and their smaller capillary Vessels. The Sum of all which, brings the Periods of the great Attacks of these Distempers to the mentioned Time of Life. Those in whom the original Taint is deeper and more radicated, and the natural Con­stitution weaker, suffer under these At­tacks sooner. And those in whom it is slighter and more superficial, and whose Complexion is stronger and more hardy, hold out longer. But the Generality suffer first, eminently, about the Meridian of Life. Hence the common Observa­tion of those that die of a genuine Con­sumption, that they begin to feel it first before Thirty-six.

§. 4.

There is no chronical Distemper whatsoever, more universal, more ob­stinate, [Page 178] and more fatal in Britain, than the Scurvy, taken in its general Extent. Scarce any one chronical Distemper but owes its Origin to a Scorbutick Cachexie, or is so complicated with it, that it fur­nishes its most cruel and most obstinate Symptoms. To it we owe all the Dropsies that happen after the Meridian of Life, all Diabetes, Asthma's, Consumptions of several kinds, many sorts of Colicks and Diarrhaea's, some kinds of Gouts and Rheumatisms, all Palsies, various kinds of Ulcers, and, possibly, the Cancer itself, and most cutaneous Foulnesses, weakly Constitutions, and bad Digestions, Vapours, Melancholy, and almost all ner­vous Distempers whatsoever. And what a plentiful Source of Miseries these last are, the Afflicted best can tell. And scarce any one chronical Distemper whatsoever, but has some Degree of this Evil faithfully attending it. The Reason why the Scurvy is so ^* endemick a Distemper, and so fruitful of Miseries, is, that it is produced by Causes mostly special and particular to this Island; to wit, The indulging so much in animal Food, and strong fermenting Liquors, in contemplative Studies, and sedentary Pro­fessions [Page 179] and Employments (and thence the Want of due Labour and Exercise) together with the nitrous Moisture of an Island, and the Inconstancy and Inclemency of the Seasons thence arising. I have had many Occasions to shew, how such Causes must necessarily and naturally produce such Effects. I will here only touch the Matter slightly, to point out the Connexion. Animal Foods and strong Liquors to Excess, and with Continuance, must load and charge the Fluids with their Salts. Want of due Exercise must suffer these to unite in Clusters, and in­crease their Bulk in the small Vessels. Their larger Bulk, and greater Acrimony, thence arising, must increase the Viscidity of the Fluids, by breaking the Blood Globules, and so coagulating the Mass, and at last obstruct the finer Pipes, and all the smaller Glands: Whereby the Tone of all the elastick Fibres must be interrupted and broken, and their Vibrations stopt at every obstructed Gland and capillary Vessel, and an uni­versal Disorder produced in the whole animal Oeconomy. And this Disorder will operate, and shew it self in Symp­toms special and particular, according to the special and particular Make and [Page 180] Conformation of the Parts, the Weak­ness or the Strength of the Organs, the particular Mismanagements, and pre­cise State of the Air the Party lives in. And the Detail of these general Causes applied to particular Persons, must pro­duce the respective Diseases mentioned. In a Word, The Scurvy is a kind of Catholick Distemper here in Britain, arising from constant and general Causes, from the Customs of the People, and from the Nature of the Climate, which renders the serous Part of the Blood too thick and glewy, breaks and divides the Union of the globulous Parts, ob­structs the small Vessels, and destroys the Springiness and Elasticity of the Fibres. So that most chronical Distempers, can be little else, but Branches and Cions from this Root, which (like Pandora's Box) is so fruitful of Variety of Mis­chiefs. And its arising from the Climate and Customs of the People, is the Rea­son why chronical Distempers are so fre­quent in Britain, to what they are in warmer Climates (which, by a freer Per­spiration and lighter Diet, not only pre­vent those Diseases in their own Inhabi­tants, but universally cure those of our Island who are afflicted with them, [Page 181] if they flee to those Regions any reason­able Time before Nature be quite worn out.) For though the Inhabitants of Britain, live, for the most part, as long, or rather longer than those of warmer Climates; yet scarce any one, espe­cially those of the better Sort, but be­comes crasy, and suffers under some chronical Distemper or other, before they arrive at old Age. The same Rea­son is to be assigned for the Frequency of Self-murders here, in England espe­cially, beyond any other Country. For few have Grace and Resignation enough, to suffer patiently the lasting Pains of a chronical Distemper, or the yet more torturing and crucifying Anguish of a perpetual Dispiritedness; though I have observed generally, and have good Reason to conclude universally, That all Self-murderers are first distracted and distempered in their intellectual Faculties. Notwithstanding the Diffusiveness and Universality of this Disease, so that scarce a single Individual of the better Sort is altogether free from it; yet I never once in my Life, saw it totally extirpated in those who had it to any Degree, so as to be intirely free from it all the rest of their Lives after; but that it still ap­peared, [Page 182] and sprang up again in some Symp­tom or other, and at last brought forth that grand one, which put a final Period to all their Sufferings. One good Reason for this is, That it requires a Regimen and Conduct so intirely contrary and op­posite to the natural Habits and Customs, and the universal Bent and Appetites of the Inhabitants of this Island, that it be­comes a kind of perpetual Self-denial to them; which the British Nation, in general, does not mightily admire. Another Reason is, That fine Folks use their Physicians, as they do their Laun­dresses, send their Linen to them to be cleaned, in order only to be dirtied again. Nothing less than a very mo­derate Use of animal Food, and that of the Kind which abounds least in urinous Salts (as most certainly the young and the lighter-coloured do) and a more moderate use of Spirituous Liquors, due Labour and Exercise, and a careful guarding against the Inconstancy and Inclemency of the Seasons, can keep this Hydra under. And nothing else than a total Abstinence from animal Foods, and strong fermented Liquors, can totally ex­tirpate it. And that, too, must be be­gun [Page 183] early; before, or soon after the Meridian of Life; or else there will re­main too little Oil in the Lamp, the Spirits will sink too far, ever to be re­covered again; and the remaining Part of Life, will be too short for so total a Change as must be made. So that those who suffer greatly under this British Distemper, must be contented to bear and forbear, a little, and must expect no greater Degree of Health, than their Time of Life, the Nature of their Disease, and the State of their Constitu­tion will admit of. But still a great Moderation in animal Foods, and spiritu­ous and fermented Liquors, due Exercise, and a Care to fence against the Injuries of the Weather, will make Life tolera­bly easy; especially if some gentle domestick Purges be interspersed. The Seeds and young Sprouts of Vegetables, have scarce any gross, fix'd, or essential Salts at all in them. This is not only evident from the Reasons formerly given (because they are young, or the Nourishment appointed by Nature for young Vegetables; for the Earth is only a proper Nest or Matrix for them; and the Sun's Heat serves them in­stead [Page 184] of Incubation) but upon ^* Trial and Examination, they yield none, being too light and thin to calcine and in­cinerate, and the Salts too volatile (and consequently, small and fit to pass by Perspiration, and thereby can be no way injurious to Human Constitutions) to en­dure the Fire; which full-grown Plants, their Stalks and Wood, readily do. And in unfermented Liquors, the Salts are so enveloped, that they cannot unite to form a Spirit, and are so sheathed, by particular Coats of the Materials of the Vegetable, that they can scarce do any harm (except when they exceedingly abound) to animal Bodies. Hence it comes to pass, that a vegetable Diet for a few Weeks or Months, together with drinking Water or unfermented Liquors (such as Tea, Coffee, Barley-Water, Liquorice-Water, Teas made of Oranges, or other Seeds and Plants) will fasten the Teeth when dropping out, from a Consumption of the Gums by scorbutick Salts, cure any cutaneous Foulnesses or Eruptions, and even any spreading Ulcer, if it is not Scrofulous, when no [Page 185] Medicine on the Face of the Earth will touch it. Hence the grand Maxim in the Cure of all Ulcers is, by Diet to bring them to the State of a Wound, and then they will cure of them­selves. And, as I have elsewhere ob­served, there is scarce a thin, consump­tive, hysterick or hypochondriack, and weakly Constitution in England, which has not for its Parent, a latent or manifest scorbutick Cachexy, excepting that which arises from a Scrofula. From the whole we may gather, how much a proper Regimen of Diet and due Exercise, with the other Helps and Remedies already mentioned in this Treatise, is able to do in most British chronical Distempers.

§. 4.

Having had so often Occasion to speak of weak and relaxed Nerves, it will not be amiss to suggest, some of the outward and most sensible Signs and Characters, whereby it may be manifest, whether one's self, or any particular Per­son he is concerned for, be of this Make and Constitution, before some chronical Distemper, or other dismal Symptom has made it plain; in order to prevent these as far as possible. To which purpose we must observe, that the Nerves are [Page 186] Bundles of solid, springy, and elastick Threads or Filaments (like twisted Cat­Guts or Hairs) whose one Extremity is terminated at the common Sensory in the Brain, where the Soul is supposed to reside; the other is interwoven into every Point of the Scarf-skin, the Mem­branes, the Coats of the Vessels, the Muscles and the other sensible Solids of the Body, in order to convey the Motions, Actions, Vibrations or Impulses of out­ward Objects to the Soul. These Threads or Filaments are highly elastick or springy, as we may see from their hardned Sub­stances, such as Whalebone, Ivory, Horn and Cartileges, which are more eminently so than any other Bodies known. Some Persons have their Fibres very quick, readily vibrating, highly springy and elastick, so as to tremble and shake violent­ly, by the least Impulse. Others have more rigid, firm, and stretched Fibres, which yield not but to strong Impres­sions, and move slowly, but move for a long Time. Lastly, There are those who have weak, loose, slender and relaxed Fibres, which though easily moved, and yielding to the weakest Impulse, yet communicate only imperfect, languid and faint Impressions and Vibrations to [Page 187] the Soul, and have all their other Animal Functions of the same languishing Nature. And 'tis of these last, I have been all along speaking. And we may readily discover them, by these out­ward Characters and Signs. 1. Those who have naturally soft, thin, small and short Hair, are of a loose, flabby, and relaxed State of Nerves. For the Hair seems to be some of the fleshy Fibres, only lengthen'd outwards and harden'd. At least, like the Fibres, they consist of a great many lesser Filaments con­tained in a common Membrane, are solid, transparent and elastick: And as these Hairs are in Strength and Bulk, so generally the Fibres of the Body are. 2. Those of the fairest Hair, are of the loosest Fibres (other Things being equal) because the Fairest are more rare, porous and fungous; And because Bodies of the lighter Colours, consist of smaller Parts, than those of the more flaming Colours; as has been formerly obser­ved. 3. Those of large or (as they are called) mastiff Muscles. and of big Bones, are generally of a firmer State of Nerves, than those of little Muscles and Bones. Because the Muscles and Bones being similar to their Fibres, as is highly [Page 188] probable, and these being bigger, and consequently stronger, so must those be; and on the contrary. 4. Soft, yielding, pappy Flesh, is a sure Symptom of loose Fibres; whereas hard, firm and un­yielding Muscles, are the constant Sign of firm Fibres. 5. A white, fair, blanch'd or ashen-coloured Complexion or Skin, constantly indicates a weaker and more relaxed State of Fibres, than a ruddy, fresh, dark sallow or black Hue; for Reasons already given. 6. A fat, cor­pulent and flegmatick Constitution, is al­ways attended with loose, flabby and re­laxed Fibres, by their being dissolved and oversoaked in Moisture and Humidity. And, on the contrary, those of a dry, clean and firm Make, have strong, firm and tense Fibres. 7. Those who are subject to Evacuations of any kind, in any Degree greater than what is na­tural; and those who by any Accident, have suffered long by any preternatural Evacuation whatsoever, are, or become of loose, relaxed Fibres and Nerves. Thus those who frequently run into Purging, or Floods of pale Water, flow at the Mouth or Nose, or melt into profuse Sweats, those who any Way have lost much Blood, have had a Diarrhoea, have recovered of [Page 189] a Fever, and those of the Sex who have purified longer or more than is usual; all of these, are originally, or become acci­dentally, of weak and relaxed Nerves and Fibres. 8. Lastly, Those who are of a cold Constitution, are apt to run into Coldnesses on their Extremities, or ready to catch Cold, are also of weak and loose Fibres and Nerves: because these are Signs of a slow and interrupted Circulation and Perspiration; which manifests a weak Spring in the Fibres of the Coats of the Vessels, the Fibres of the Muscles, and a Weakness of the Spring of the Scales of the Scarf-skin.

§. 5.

On this Occasion of rehearsing the Signs of weak Nerves, I cannot omit apprising those of the breeding Part of the Sex, and those who are concerned in them, of their Readiness of Miscarrying, unless duly tended and ma­naged, especially those of them of tender and weak Nerves, or of too delicate a Con­stitution. The Signs I have now laid down, will always make it evident, if any particular Person is so or not. And if upon Examination they be found to be such, they will be apt, upon the slightest Occasion, to run into frequent [Page 190] Miscarriages; whereby a great Part of their Posterity will be destroyed, and they themselves exposed to Dropsies or Con­sumptions, or (which is worse than either) perpetual Lowness of Spirits, Vapours and other Hysterick Disorders. And by this Misfortune alone, a considerable Part of the better Sort here in England, perish and are lost. Nature has formed the Generality of the Sex, of a soft, slender, and delicate Make. Want of due Exer­cise, a full Table, indiscreet Nurses, over­fond Mothers, and Hereditary Sharp­nesses, make them much more so. And if by Neglect or Accident, they once begin to miscarry, every first Miscarriage paves the Way for a second, and a third, and so on, till the poor, pretty Creature, has neither Blood nor Spirits, Appetite nor Digestion left. For one Miscarriage weakens the Constitution, breaks and tears the nervous System more, than two ma­ture Births. If ever this is to be secured or prevented effectually, 'tis to be done, at least attempted, in the first Instance, if possible, at least as soon as may be, before a total Relaxation and Dissolution of the nervous System is brought on. The Giddiness, Romping, and Gadding about of the young Crea­ture [Page 191] herself, is often the Cause of her Miscarriage. But oftner the Forwardness and Indiscretion of Surgeons and Midwives, by bleeding on every little threatning Symptom, without considering the Con­stitution. Bleeding may do well enough in sanguine, robust, and plethorick Consti­tutions: But 'tis Death and certain Rain to those of slender and weak Nerves, and the surest Way to cause the Miscarriage 'tis designed to prevent, by relaxing the Nervous Fibres; which Bleeding does as certainly, as it lessens the Quantity of the Blood. The most effectual Method I have ever found to prevent such Misfortunes, is, To order those in such Circumstances, to drink plentifully Bristol Water, with a very little red Wine, for their constant Drink; to lay the Plaister ad Herniam, with Oil of Cinnamon, and London Laudanum, in a due Proportion, to their Reins; to keep them to a low, light, easily digested Diet, especially of the farinaceous Vegetables, and milk Meats; to strengthen their Bowels, with Diascordium and toasted Rhubarb, if they become too slippery; to air them once or twice a Day, in a Coach or Chair, and to keep them cheer­ful, and in good Humour, as much as [Page 192] may be. This Method will scarce ever fail, unless a latent Scrofula, or some other Hereditary Sharpnesses in their Juices, destroy the Birth.

§. 6.

The Tender, Sickly, and those of weak Nerves, ought to have a Regard in the Conduct of their Health, to the different Seasons of the Year. I have elsewhere ^* observed, that such Con­stitutions begin to sink, droop and languish, about Christmas or Mid-winter, go on from worse to worse till the Spring is over, get up a little, as the Sun grows higher and stronger, arrive at their Meridian Altitude of Health and Strength about Midsummer, and hold it out so long as the Sun warms them, or the Strength they have acquired lasts. Those who have very weak Nerves, fail sooner, even about the Autamnal Equinox: But they get up sooner, because their weaker Nerves make less Resistance. The Sun new ferments, rarifies, and exalts their viscid Juices: So that the Circula­tion is better performed, more full, free and universal. The Perspiration is also thereby much increased and pro­moted: [Page 193] And the Load being drawn off, by the Force of the Sun's Heat; their Appetite is sharpen'd, and their Di­gestion mended: To which the serene, warm and clear Air, and the greater Liberty of Exercise and Business con­tributes. I should advise such there­fore, religiously to follow the Indications of Nature, and to take these Benefits it offers then, as a certain Sign of their being best and fittest for them. After Christmas, and in the Beginning of the Spring, Milk, Eggs, and Spring-Herbs, as Asparagus, Spinach, and Sprouts come in first: Of which I advise them, to make the greatest Part of their Diet then. As the Spring advances, Lamb and Veal, Green Pease and Sallading abound. After the vernal Equinox, Chicken and Rabbit, young Turkies, and early Fruit come in Season. About Midsummer, Mutton and Partridge, Colliflower and Artichoak may be had. And Autumn brings in Beef and Venison, Turnip and Carrot. And it will be found, the con­coctive Powers of weak Persons, and those of relaxed Nerves, rise and fortify gradually, as these stronger Foods come in Season. By Season, I mean not, those earlier Days, that Luxury in the [Page 194] Buyers, and Avarice in the Sellers about London, have forced the several kinds of Vegetables, and Animals in. But by Season I mean, that Time of the Year, in which by Nature, common Culture, and the mere Operation of the Sun and Climate, they are in most Plenty and Perfection in this Country. But the principal Point I would urge is, That such Persons, would regularly begin to correspond with Nature, in both lessening the Quantity, and lowering the Quality of their Food, as the Seasons indicate, and Providence provides the proper Food in greatest Plenty and Perfection. By which they will pre­serve the Ballance of their Health pretty near equal all the Year round, have the lightest and least Food, when their concoctive Powers are least, and their nervous Fibres weakest, and rise in the Food, in proportion as these rise. Add to these, That as Winter is best for Home Exercises, Summer is fittest for those without Doors. And as the Day lengthens, their Labour and Exercises abroad ought to be lengthened out. Neither Sydenham nor Fuller, have been able to tell the Half of what obstinate [Page 195] Exercise will do, in low, cachectick, consumptive Cases.

§. 7.

The Germans have a Proverb, That wise Men ought to put on their Winter Cloaths early in Autumn, and put them off late in the Spring. By which they would insinuate, that People ought always to go well-cloathed. Whatever may be in this, as to Per­sons that drink hard, and require a plentiful Discharge by the Skin, those who are sober, or who would render them­selves hardy, ought to accustom them­selves to as few Cloaths, both in Sum­mer and Winter, as is possible. Besides the general Rule, of having as few Ne­cessaries as may be; much and heavy Cloaths, attract and draw too much by Perspiration; as Dr. Keill proves, in his Med. Static. Britann. tender and debilitate the Habit, and weaken the Strength. The Custom of wearing Flanel, is al­most as bad as a Diabetes. Nothing [Page 196] can enfeeble and drain, weak and tender Persons more. To make this clear, we must distinguish between Perspira­tion and Sweating; which differ as widely, as the daily natural Emptying our Bowels, and a Looseness or Diarrhaea. And as no Body in their Senses, much less the Tender and Weakly, would endeavour to encourage this last; no more ought they that other of Sweating. For as promoting slippery Bowels, would always keep the Fibres of the alimentary Passages relaxed; so would perpetual Sweating, those of the Skin. And as the Moisture and Damps that Flanel perpetually keeps the Skin in, and its growing so readily dirty, shews what a Flux of Perspiration it promotes there; so the perpetual Fri­ction produced by it, gives the Reason. If one lays on a superfluous Load of strong Liquors, 'tis happy for him Nature dis­charges the Ocean any how; for he had better sweat, than burn in a Fever. But for temperate, tender and sickly Persons, the more firm and tight all the Organs of their Evacuations be (if they be not totally obstructed) the better it will be for them, the more it will strengthen their Nerves, and harden their Constitu­tion. [Page 197] Nothing but Superfluity in Food or strong Liquors, requires Sweating: And that is the Reason, the Germans run so much upon it. So far, that ^* Tschirnhaus, a very learned and ingenious Gentleman otherwise, resolves the Cure of almost all Distempers into Sweating, upon observing its Success in their Bottle-Fevers. They drink much thin sharp Wine, which passes every way; and when it comes through the Skin, both the Conflict and the Danger is over. But for those Inhabitants of our Islands, who are sober because they are tender, or would preserve their Health; the lighter and fewer their Cloaths are, both by Night and by Day, in Summer and Winter, the hardier they will grow. The more open the whole Body is to the Air, provided it be benign; the more fluid, and the more active, will the Animal Juices be; and, by consequence, the more full, and free will the Perspi­ration be. For right tempered Air, is beneficial and medicinal to the Animal Juices: And a great Heap of Cloaths, only condenses our own excrementitious [Page 198] Atmosphere about us, and stops the kindly Influence of this beneficial Ele­ment. As to catching Cold, he that lives soberly, and avoids nitrous, that is, moist or frosty Air, will either not readily catch Cold, or if he does, will soon get rid of it. It is only Air thus conditioned, that thickens and coagulates our Juices, and gives painful and dangerous Colds. It is inward Heat only, which destroys us. No sober Persons ever suffered by Cold, unless it were extreme, or that they expose themselves obstinately to it, against Sense and Reason.

§. 8.

Another Mean of Health, to the Tender, Studious and Sedentary, is much and often shaving Head and Face, and washing, scraping and paring their Feet and Toes. The great Benefit (besides the Pleasure) to the Head, Eyes and Ears, by often shaving the Head and Face, and washing them Daily in cold Water, with a few Drops of the Compound Spirit of Lavender, or Hungary Water, is best understood by those that have felt it. The Cutting off the Hair, and shaving the Head, will, in the first Instance, scarce fail to cure a Head-ach, a Fluxion, or even a nervous Weakness of the Eyes. [Page 199] Any one Evacuation, will not only lessen the whole Mass; but, if encouraged, will make that Evacuation more ample and full. The more and oftner the Hair is shaved, the faster and thicker it will grow. So that thus shaving the Head and Face frequently, will be like an Issue, or per­petual Blister on these Parts. Besides the Washing with warm Water and Soap, and scraping the Skin with a Razor, will cleanse the Mouths of the Perspiratory Ducts, from that Morphew and Scurf that adheres to them, and will extremely encourage the Perspiration from these Parts, and give a full and free Vent, to the Fumes on the Head and Brain. And washing well, and dipping in cold Water afterwards, will shut the Scales of the Scarf-skin, and secure against catching Cold in the Head, which is fre­quently a heavy Grievance, to tender, studious and sedentary Persons. There­fore I should advise such, to shave both Head and Face every Day, or every other Day, or as often as they possibly can, and wash them well in cold Water afterwards. What shaving does to the upper Parts, the same do washing and scraping the Feet, and paring their Nails to the lower. We know by the Tick­lishness [Page 200] of the Soles, what a multitude of fine nervous Fibres terminate in them. Walking, Standing and Treading, render them callous, and the Skin thick and hard; which much injures the Perspira­tion, and hinders the Derivation of the Blood and Spirits into them. And 'tis a common Observation, That nothing is a surer Sign of strong and rank Health, than a kindly Heat, and a profuse Perspi­ration on the Feet. It shews a full and free Circulation in the small Vessels, at the greatest Distance from the Source of Heat and Motion; than which nothing can more plainly indicate great and good Health. On the contrary, weak and tender Per­sons, are always cold in the Legs and Feet, and first of all feel Cold there in frosty Weather. Let the Tender there­fore, and the Weakly, duly once a Week, wash in warm Water, rub, scrape and pare their Feet and Nails. Which will likewise prevent Corns, Hardnesses, and the unnatural Tendency of their Nails into the Flesh. These are, 'tis true, but low and seemingly trifling Obser­vations towards Health; but 'tis in this Case, as 'tis in a more momentous one; He that despiseth little Things, shall perish by little and little.

§. 9.

Those tender and valetadinary People, whose Studies or Profession oblige them to read or write much, ought, as far as they possibly can, to stand in an erect Posture, bending their Head and Breast as little as may be, leaning only on a sloping Desk, and con­tinuing their Exercises in that Posture, 'till they grow weary; then rest, and be at it again. Custom and Practice, ob­stinately persisted in, will at length render the Posture easy to them. And 'tis inconceivable, how many and great Advantages it will bring to the Constitu­tion. Sitting, Bending and Leaning low, compress some, if not many of the Vessels of the Body; and so stop and retard the Circulation of the Blood and Juices thro' them; which makes a more ready Flux through the other more patent and pervious ones. Whence that Sleepi­ness and Disability to Motion in the Limbs, till the Blood and Spirits, by a proper Posture, get a free Admittance into them. From this also, there en­sues an unequable and subsultory Circulation of the Juices, and an unequable Secre­tion in the Glands; and, consequently, an unequal Growth, Strength and Vigour, [Page 202] of the Organs and Parts. Which is the Cause of Rickets in Children; careless Nurses, neglecting to rock, dandle and toss them sufficiently, that the Circula­tion of the Juices and Spirits may be equally promoted every where. And to avoid this Inconveniency, seems to be the Reason why the Romans and the Eastern Nations, lay along, at their great Meals and Feasts, and when they were obliged to continue long in one Posture. Besides, that in Writing or Reading, if one sits, there is a constant Pressure on the Cavity of the Breast and Stomach, which must necessarily weaken their Functions; and these are com­monly the Organs, which first decay in Clerks and Under Secretaries. And hanging down the Head, is the ready Way to raise Fumes and Vapours to it: Whereby such will be exposed to Lowness of Spirits, and perhaps Consumptions; all which are, in a great measure, avoided by an erect Posture: For thereby all the Organs will be in their natural Situation. Many of the Muscles will be in Action, and so press on the Blood Vessels, to facilitate the Circulation. But chiesly, by this erect Posture, the Juices will have the Advantage of their own Gavity, to [Page 203] descend with the greater Velocity, to warm and cherish the lower Parts, which are remotest from the Source of Motion; and the grosser Evacuations will be more readily promoted, and thereby preserve the upper Regions clear and serene: Which will bring great Ad­vantages towards Health and Long Life. But this Practice will never become easy, unless to those who begin young. Those who dictate or consult, ought to do them standing or walking; which would relieve both Body and Mind.

§. 10.

The Unwieldy, Fat and Over­grown, besides the Rules already laid down, I advise, in particular, as much as is possible for them, to abstain from Drink of all kinds. No one Rule or Condition, ever was contrived, or can be, of so great Use, to preserve and lengthen the Lives of such, as an obstinate and universal Astinence from all kinds of Liquors. If the Doctrine be true (as 'tis highly probable) that the Mass of all the Bodies of Vegetables and Animals, is only Pipes and vascular Tubes, formed all at once, in their first Rudiments and Seeds; then Growth and Increase of Bulk, is only filling and plumping up, diluting [Page 204] and unfolding these Pipes with Liquors. We know from Kircher's and Dr. Woodward's Experiments, to what Bulk Vegetables will thrive, by mere Element alone. Two Pigs of the same Litter, were fed upon an equal Quantity of Milk; only, to one of them, the Milk was mixt with the same Quantity of Water. After a Month's feeding, they were both killed, and that which had the Water, was found much larger and fatter than the other. Dropsies (at least Ana­sarca's) have been cured by an obstinate Forbearance of Drink. And Lethargies proceed from the Moisture of the Brain. And these are the two Distempers, Un­wieldy, Fat and Overgrown Persons are most subject to. Therefore, such ought to avoid Drink, as those do, who have the ^* Hydrophobia, or are bit by a mad Dog. Which they may easily bring about, if they feed only on young animal, and moist and cool vegetable Food. But whenever I speak of vegetable Food, I mean that which is dressed by Fire.

§. 11.

To the Aged, and those who are passing off the Stage of Life, I have only two Things to recommend, if they would make the last Hour, as easy, in­dolent and free from Pain as may be. The first is, That they would avoid the Injuries of the Weather, as much as ever they can. The Blood of the Aged is ever most certainly poor and viscid. Their Perspiration little or none at all; and their concoctive Powers weak. And consequently, they must be subjected to, and suffer by the weakest Injuries of the Weather. Therefore I advise such, to keep Home, provide warm Rooms and Beds, and good Fires, whenever the Sky lowrs, Winds blow, or the Air is sharp. Such are not to expect to raise, improve, or exalt their Constitutions or Health. Freedom from Pain, to prevent the vital Flame's being extinguished by Accidents, and to have it burn as clear, and as long as Nature, at their Age, has designed it should, is all they ought to aim at. Exercise is only to purge off Superfluities. If these therefore, be care­ful not to exceed, they will want none, nor would it much contribute to their Ease. For in old Men the Bones petrify; [Page 206] the Cartilages and Tendons turn into Bones; and the Muscles and Nerves, into Cartilages and Tendons. And all the Solids lose their Elasticity, and turn, in a great measure, into that Earth they are going to be dissolved into. So that the Solids wanting Elasticity, Exercise can do but little to shake off the Load. It will therefore be enough for such, to air themselves when the Sun lights them, and the Summer Breezes can refresh them. Or, if they would lengthen out their Days, to remove to a warmer Climate, by which they may live as long as the Crow. The second Thing I would advise such, is, To lessen their Diet gradually, as they grow older, before Nature has forced this Diminution upon them. This is a powerful Mean to make their old Age green and indolent, and to preserve the Remains of their Senses to the very last. By this alone, Cornaro length­ned out his Days, and preserved his Senses, in a great measure, intire to a hundred Years. He gradually lessened his Diet so far, that, as his Historian informs us, he came at last to live on the Yolk of an Egg three Days. I will not take upon me to advise others, [Page 207] in what Measure, either of Time or Quantity of Food, they ought to diminish. But this, I think, they ought to con­sider, That since 'tis certain aged Per­sons become Children, as to the Weakness of their Digestions, they ought to di­minish, as Children increase in their Food, from weaker to weaker, and from less to less. For as their Solids are unela­stick, their concoctive Powers weak, their Perspiration little, and the Expences of Living scarce any, their Repairs (not to overlay the Spark of Life remaining) ought to lessen proportionally. And 'tis to the Neglect of this, in aged Persons, that those Rheums, Catarrhs, Wind and Colicks, Loss of Memory and Senses, those Aches and Pains, and all that dismal and black Train of Miseries, that wait on Long Life, is mostly owing. Which, by a discreet and timeous lessening their Diet, might, in a great measure, be pre­vented.