when coolness of air was particularly necessary. When warmth was required, the apartments fixed upon were those which fronted the south, and were warmed by fires, and steams of aromatics. Even in modern times, the celebrated Boerhaave has recommended these practices in similar cases*.

It is to be hoped, that, in the present improved state of chemistry and of medicine, some useful discoveries will be made, in the art of improving the atmosphere of sick chambers. Some have proposed fumigations for that purpose, by artificial fires of rosemary, juniper, laurel, cypress; and perfumes made of aloes-wood, juniper-berries, and other aromatics; but the effects of any thing that loads the air with vapours, when a person is in a weak and sickly state, must be doubtful. The steams of vinegar are certainly refreshing; and, in the opinion of a respectable physician, the steams of aromatic vinegar may be introduced into every sick chamber with great advantaget. Others have proposed warming a room by steam; but the moisture there is an objection, by which the body might be softened and relaxed, and too violent a perspiration excited. Perhaps pipes, heated by steam, might be so contrived as to obviate these objections.

The last suggestion that has been made for improving the air in sick chambers, is by means of a machine, that would constantly keep in agitation a considerable quantity of water, which might be made on the principle of a showerbath. Cold water has certainly a great tendency to purify the air, more especially when agitated; nor can any thing be more refreshing or animating, than the air in the neighbourhood of a waterfall. If lime-water were made use of, it would imbibe the fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, besides cooling the apartment. This plan might be adopted, in cases where the modern practice of bathing in cold water for feverish complaints, could not be ventured on. The latter is certainly the most effectual, acting on the whole

Burton's Treatise on the Non-naturals, p. 91, 92. Boerhaave, Aph. de Morb. inter variis locis. Such physicians, by working on the imagina tion, and giving hopes, even, by an attention to trifles, might often be of singular service to their patients.

+Lynch's Guide to Health, p. 148.

Perhaps the best mode of using aromatic vinegar, is to deposit a few drops of it, either on linen or cotton, which will soon impregnate the air of a large room.

surface of the body; but the other might be of great service, as the cool air might be taken in by the lungs *.

To these, the following miscellaneous observations may be added.

It is remarked by Dr. Adair, that many persons, who labour under chronic diseases, are distressed by an irregular fever, which, from the impure air they breathe for many hours in bed, is most troublesome in the night. He knew from experience that it is much abated, and sometimes entirely removed, by the admission of cool air; and the slumbers of the invalid become less interrupted, and much more refreshing. To such as labour under catarrhal coughs, which often terminate in consumption; to such, also, as labour under this disease in an advanced state; and to the asthmatic, this plan has been found singularly beneficial.

When a person lives in the country, and is recovering from sickness, sitting out of doors, on a piece of floor-cloth to keep out damp, and a carpet to keep the feet warm, is a most salutary practice for valetudinary or delicate people.

Dr. Cheyne recommends, that tender people, on the setting in of the easterly and northerly winds, ought to change their bed-rooms, for others of westerly and southerly exposures, and the contrary in wet seasonst.

These suggestions may seem of little importance, more especially to persons in health; but if they be, when necessary, observed, by those who are in a sickly state, they must tend to promote their recovery: and even the occupation it furnishes to the mind, must be of service to the patient, hope being one of the most efficacious means of restoration.

5. Old Age.-Galen calls old age a natural distemper ‡ ; and persons in that state, must require a different treatment from those who are young and vigorous.

Warmth is certainly essential for old age, and cold highly injurious; the circulation of their blood being already too

• Struve's Asthenology, translated by Johnson, p. 413. It is said, that room hung with tapestry, or some woollen manufacture, must be wholesome, by imbibing the steams of animals, fires, and candles, and other noxious vapours; but, is there not a risk of the vapours being again emitted, if accumulated in very great quantities? Perhaps this might be one mode of improving the air of sick rooms; for screens made of cloth might be introduced, which, after they had imbibed the noxious particles in the apart ment, might be taken out and ventilated.—Arbuthnot on Air, p. 106. † Essay on Health and Long Life, p. 17.

Terence makes nearly the same observation: "Senectus ipsa est morbus."-Phormio, activ. scene 1.

languid, their fibres extremely stiff, and their humours sluggish, watery, glutinous, and cold.

Experience proves how useful warmth is to aged people; for their state of health is much better in summer than in winter, and fewer of them die when the weather is fine.

Though purity of air is certainly desirable, yet it may reasonably be doubted, whether men who are advanced in years, and who have long lived in a crowded city, may not derive more injury than benefit from retiring, when they quit business, into parts of the country, where they are exposed much to bleak air, and to more cold than they have been accustomed to in London. They ought to consider, that habit is a second nature; and that even bad things, to which an old man has been long accustomed, are better than sudden and total changes.

It is impossible always to find a situation without some inconveniences; but for a person advanced in years, a warm and dry exposure, must be preferable to a damp and cold one; and in regard to soil, a gravelly one is particutarly to be recommended. The best situation would be, towards the bottom of a gentle ascent; and if there be a running stream at that bottom, so much the better. In favourable seasons, old men may walk in the fields; but, for common or precarious weather, a gravel walk ought to be formed near the house, open to the south-west, and well defended from the more dangerous quarters. Let it be laid tolerably round, that the water may not lodge in it; and let it be well rolled, hard, and smooth. Such a walk must be highly useful, as a place for exercise. But any aged person should never come upon it till the dew is off the grass; and the setting sun, should be the last object he sees from it, even in the finest weather.

Some hours of the best part of each day, passed constantly on such a walk, would add many years to life; and what is much better, would give health with them.

4. Rules connected with a place of Residence, and the formation of an Artificial Climate.

1. Place of Residence.-In comparing the air of a populous city, and of an open country, it is obvious, that, in the former, there is an immense and speedy consumption of oxygen; and though it may be admitted, that much is also generated by different processes, yet it cannot be in equal proportion to what is destroyed. Besides, though we have no chemical tests for ascertaining the fact, and though it has been denied by some late philosophers,

it can hardly be doubted, that the air of cities must be con taminated by a mixture of various effluvia prejudicial to health. We know, from the miasma of marshes, that such matters can exist in the air, undiscoverable by any tests; and, from the mischievous effects of cities on delicate constitutions, it is reasonable to suppose, that they exist'in the air there. It is remarked, that erysipelas is more frequent in London than elsewhere, and that people coming from the country to reside there, are frequently seized with it. People in London, also, living in very close rooms, and thence going out into a stream of cold air, are more liable to colds, than in the country. When living in a town, it is desirable, not only to live in an open situation, but where trees and shrubs are planted; for, according to the admirable arrangement in the economy of nature, those gases which are most injurious to animal life, form the nutriment of vegetables, by whose absorbing vessels they are greedily imbibed, whilst, in return, they pour from their leaves, whilst they are under the influence of the sun's rays, streams of pure air, or oxygen *.

2. Artificial Climate.-It may be proper here to allude, to the plan of having houses built of a peculiar construction, for the aged and the sickly, in which the air should always be preserved at nearly the same temperature. In this way an artificial climate might be procured in a northern country, capable of answering the purposes of a warmer region. We are informed by Dr. Rush, that the late Dr. Dewit of Germantown, who reached nearly an 100 years of age, after he became an old man, lived constantly in a stove-room, and seldom breathed an air below 70°. In Sweden and Russia, by means of stoves, they always keep their chambers in the same temperature, notwithstanding the severity of the climate. In Britain, on the other hand, the aged generally die in winter; and many individuals, in a weak and consumptive state, are obliged to fly to warmer climates, as the only means of safety. Might it not then be of the greatest service, both to the aged and to the consumptive, to have houses erected, of such a peculiar construction, that the air could always be preserved, not only warm, but nearly of the same, and of rather an elevated tem perature; so that the invalids, who resided in them, should never be affected by the vicissitudes of the seasons? Such an idea, it must be admitted, cannot be a general remedy

• Buchan on Sea Bathing, p. 157,

CHAP. II.

OF LIQUID FOOD.

NEXT to air, liquid food is the article the most essential for the support of life. Without it, there is scarcely an instance of any individual having existed for any length of time, though some persons have lived long with but little solid sustenance. Indeed, though the frame of man outwardly appears to be a solid body, yet the fluids greatly exceed the solids, in point of weight. The quantity of blood and other fluids in a man, weighing 160 lib. is at least 100 lib. whilst the solids are not above 60 lib.t; and even in the solids, a considerable proportion of fluids is contained. Hence it is, that without carrying the rule to excess, we ought to take a greater proportion of liquid than of solid nourishment.

In general, however, too little attention is paid, not only to the quantity, but to the quality of our liquid diet ‡. The wine we take is often adulterated, and hence becomes the source of disease. Our malt liquors are frequently mixed with unwholesome ingredients, or improperly fermented; and our ardent spirits rendered more destructive to health than otherwise they would be, by bad materials, and too rapid distillation. Yet the liquid part of our food goes into our finer vessels, the purity and salubrity of whose contents, are of the most essential consequence to health.

There is one circumstance which greatly tends to deteriorate our liquid food, which is, that it is much more frequently the object of taxation, than our solid diet. The consequence is, that its quality is frequently injured. The taxes upon wine tempt the smuggler, or the wine-merchant, to make it of other articles than the juice of the grape, and

Almost the only instance known, of any person living without liquid food for any length of time, is in the case of Wood, the miller of Billericay, in Essex; but this he was enabled to do, from his eating no salt, and the great quantity of superfluous fluid he had from his immense corpulency. + Keil's Essay on Animal Economy, p. 62.

The ancients were much more attentive to this important branch of regimen, than the moderns are. See Barry's Observations on the Wines of the Ancients, where that subject is very fully and ably explained.