1. The heat of the climate in the southern parts of those countries.
2. By a vegetable diet abounding in nourishment, particularly rice and beans.
3. By the use of tea in China, and by a stimulating coffee made of the dried and toasted seeds of the datura stramonium, in the neighbourhood of the Indian coast. Some of these nations likewise chew stimulating substances, as too many of our citizens do tobacco.
Among the poor and depressed subjects of the governments of the middle and southern parts of Europe, the deficiency of the stimulus of wholesome food, of clothing, of fuel, and of liberty, is supplied, in some countries, by the invigorating influence of the christian religion upon animal life, and in others by the general use of tea, coffee, garlic, onions, opium, tobacco, malt liquors, and ardent spirits. The use of each of these stimuli seems to be regulated by the circumstances of climate. In cold countries, where the earth yields its increase with reluctance, and where vegetable aliment is scarce, the want of the stimulus of distension which that species of food is principally calculated to produce is sought for in that of ardent spirits. To the southward of 40°, a substitute for the distension from mild vegetable food is sought for in onions, garlic, and tobacco. But further, a uniform climate calls for more of these artificial stimuli than a climate that is exposed to the alternate action of heat and cold, winds and calms, and of wet and dry weather. Savages and ignorant people likewise require more of them than persons of civilized manners, and cultivated understandings. It would seem from these facts that man cannot exist without sensation of some kind, and that when it is not derived from natural means, it will always be sought for in such as are artificial.
In no part of the human species, is animal life in a more perfect state than in the inhabitants of Great Britain[99], and the United States of America. With all the natural stimuli that have been mentioned, they are constantly under the invigorating influence of liberty. There is an indissoluble union between moral, political, and physical happiness; and if it be true, that elective and representative governments are most favourable to individual, as well as national prosperity, it follows of course, that they are most favourable to animal life. But this opinion does not rest upon an induction derived from the relation, which truths upon all subjects bear to each other. Many facts prove animal life to exist in a larger quantity and for a longer time, in the enlightened and happy state of Connecticut, in which republican liberty has existed above one hundred and fifty years, than in any other country upon the surface of the globe.
It remains now to mention certain mental stimuli which act nearly alike in the production of animal life, upon the individuals of all the nations in the world. They are,
1. The desire of life. This principle, so deeply and universally implanted in human nature, acts very powerfully in supporting our existence. It has been observed to prolong life. Sickly travellers by sea and land, often live under circumstances of the greatest weakness, till they reach their native country, and then expire in the bosom of their friends. This desire of life often turns the scale in favour of a recovery in acute diseases. Its influence will appear, from the difference in the periods in which death was induced in two persons, who were actuated by opposite passions with respect to life. Atticus, we are told, died of voluntary abstinence from food in five days. In sir William Hamilton's account of the earthquake at Calabria, we read of a girl who lived eleven days without food before she expired. In the former case, life was shortened by an aversion from it; in the latter, it was protracted by the desire of it. The late Mr. Brissot, in his visit to this city, informed me, that the application of animal magnetism (in which he was a believer) had in no instance cured a disease in a West-India slave. Perhaps it was rendered inert by its not being accompanied by a strong desire of life; for this principle exists in a more feeble state in slaves than in freemen. It is possible likewise the wills and imaginations of these degraded people may have become so paralytic by slavery, as to be incapable of being excited by the impression of this fanciful remedy.
2. The love of money sets the whole animal machine in motion. Hearts which are insensible to the stimuli of religion, patriotism, love, and even of the domestic affections, are excited into action by this passion. The city of Philadelphia, between the 10th and 15th of August, 1791, will long be remembered by contemplative men, for having furnished the most extraordinary proofs of the stimulus of the love of money upon the human body. A new scene of speculation was produced at that time by the scrip of the bank of the United States. It excited febrile diseases in three persons who became my patients. In one of them, the acquisition of twelve thousand dollars in a few minutes by a lucky sale, brought on madness which terminated in death in a few days[100]. The whole city felt the impulse of this paroxysm of avarice. The slow and ordinary means of earning money were deserted, and men of every profession and trade were seen in all our streets hastening to the coffee-house, where the agitation of countenance, and the desultory manners, of all the persons who were interested in this species of gaming, exhibited a truer picture of a bedlam, than of a place appropriated to the transaction of mercantile business. But further, the love of money discovers its stimulus upon the body in a peculiar manner in the games of cards and dice. I have heard of a gentleman in Virginia who passed two whole days and nights in succession at a card table, and it is related in the life of a noted gamester in Ireland, that when he was so ill as to be unable to rise from his chair, he would suddenly revive when brought to the hazard table, by hearing the rattling of the dice.