4. Palsy and apoplexy.
5. The piles.
6. A difficulty in making water.
7. Quartan fever.
All the diseases of old people, both chronic and acute, originate in predisposing debility. The remedies for the former, where a feeble morbid action takes place in the system, are stimulants. The first of these is,
I. Heat. The ancient Romans prolonged life by retiring to Naples, as soon as they felt the infirmities of age coming upon them. The aged Portuguese imitate them, by approaching the warm sun of Brazil, in South-America. But heat may be applied to the torpid bodies of old people artificially. 1st. By means of the warm bath. Dr. Franklin owed much of the cheerfulness and general vigour of body and mind which characterised his old age, to his regular use of this remedy. It disposed him to sleep, and even produced a respite from the pain of the stone, with which he was afflicted during the last years of his life.
2. Heat may be applied to the bodies of old people by means of stove-rooms. The late Dr. Dewit, of Germantown, who lived to be near 100 years of age, seldom breathed an air below 72°, after he became an old man. He lived constantly in a stove-room.
3. Warm Clothing, more especially warm bed-clothes, are proper to preserve or increase the heat of old people. From the neglect of the latter, they are often found dead in their beds in the morning, after a cold night, in all cold countries. The late Dr. Chovet, of this city, who lived to be 85, slept in a baize night-gown, under eight blankets, and a coverlet, in a stove-room, many years before he died. The head should be defended in old people, by means of woollen, or fur caps, in the night, and by wigs and hats during the day, in cold weather. These artificial coverings will be the more necessary, where the head has been deprived of its natural covering. Great pains should be taken likewise to keep the feet dry and warm, by means of thick shoes[73]. To these modes of applying and confining heat to the bodies of old people, a young bed-fellow has been added; but I conceive the three artificial modes which have been recommended, will be sufficient without the use of one, which cannot be successfully employed without a breach of delicacy or humanity.
II. To keep up the action of the system, GENEROUS DIET and DRINKS should be given to old people. For a reason mentioned formerly, they should be indulged in eating between the ordinary meals of families. Wine should be given to them in moderation. It has been emphatically called the milk of old age.