How ridiculous would a Man seem, who, when his Physician had recommended some Medicine to be taken to the quantity of a Drachm, or half a Drachm, should go and take half an Ounce of it, and then exclaim against the Medicine, that it disturb’d him, and did him a great deal of Mischief, and that he would never take it more: Or if instead of taking a moderate Quantity twice a day, for a considerable time, he should take that moderate Quantity but once in two or three days, and then exclaim that the Medicine was ineffectual? He that should act thus, would be thought to be a very unreasonable Person; and yet after this manner most sick People set upon the Use of Exercise. You shall have a Man ride fifteen or twenty Mile, when he should ride seven or eight, come home very much tyr’d, resolve never to be so serv’d again; and so perfectly lay aside all hopes of any good from the more moderate Use of that Exercise: Another shall ride out five or six Mile once in two or three days, finds no great matter of Relief, despairs of any Success from that Course, thinks it a trivial Thing, a meer Phancy, when the Physician does not know what to do, and so he wholly leaves off too: Now allowing moderate Exercise to be a Medium for the Recovering our Health, this is a very unfair way of making use of it; for when once a Distemper will not be driven out by rough Means, by Purging and Vomits, but we must come to Alterative Physick, the Work must go on gradually, and that Physick must be us’d without Intermission. What is the difference between Aliment and a Medicament, but this? The first is chang’d into our Nature; the last changes our Nature. Now it would be as ridiculous for a Man to expect that gentle Drugs or gentle Means should alter his Constitution, if taken with great Intervals, as it would be for a Man to expect that the Bulk of his Body should keep up or encrease, tho’ he eat but once in two or three Days; and whatever Regard is due to internal Alterative Physick, the same is due to the moderate Use of Exercise; for if by it the Secretions are equally promoted, and the Subject-Matter of the Disease brought to despume slowly; it is highly requisite, that these Means should be closely repeated, with Moderation; that Nature may not be confounded and weakned, instead of being reliev’d; and without any irregular Intermission, lest the Springs should run down again; lest the Disease should have time to ruine faster than the Means of Cure can build up.
We see, by continual dropping, so soft a Body as Water can act upon a Stone; we see by incessantly following his Blow, the Smith can bring Heat into his Bar of Iron; so that where the Act it self, simply consider’d, is weak and trivial, yet the Habit is of the greatest Efficacy.
Neither ought this to discourage any, who will give themselves leave to consider, how slow, and yet how sure, some of the Despumations of general Secretions of Nature; are wherein, if the Certainty and Security will compensate for the Slowness of the Progress, they have Reason to acquiesce and submit, when there is no other Remedy left. How often has it been observ’d, that in some Paralytick Cases, after a considerable Use of the Hot Baths, the sick Person has gone away disconsolate, without any present sensible relief, and yet found himself cur’d in a Month or two after; the Morbifick Matter being just mov’d and brought to flow, when he left off Bathing, and yet not perceptible to himself; and if Nature can be enabled to make such real tho’ flow, and for a time, insensible Advances towards Health, in a Subject half dead; may not we, with a great deal more Reason, expect the same and much more in a Person who has his Nerves free, the Use of his Limbs; and who, notwithstanding his Decay, is able to set upon a Course of Exercise? If Men were not wanting to themselves in a Resolution to undergo with Patience the Fatigue of Reducing Nature indispos’d to its former State, by slow Measures, when violent are absolutely to be omitted; they would at last be really convinc’d, that Health, as well as Sickness, may approach insensibly; and that their tedious Struggles, and seemingly fruitless Endeavours did gain ground upon the secret and intimate Springs of the Oeconomy, before they come to be sensible of any the least Relief: for when once upon the use of such gradual Means, there appears a sensible Amendment, the Point is almost gain’d, and the Work more than half done: As we see that upon the Return of the Sun, after Winter, towards us, ’tis some Months before the Earth shews any great Signs of his Influence; yet when once it displays the Effects of it, we can very well discern, that they are such as must have been brooding long before we perceiv’d ’em. And why should not some Distempers go off leisurely, when we see so many come upon us so? There seems to be a Parity of Reason for it, tho’ it is no very comfortable Consideration. We know the Poison of a mad Dog encreases in the Body for a Month or more, before it displays its fatal Symptomes; and there is a great deal of Reason to believe, that a Cancerous Humour is some Years ripening, before it creates any Trouble to the Person in whose Body it is bred; Why should it seem strange then, that some Diseases require a gentle and gradual Conflict of two or three Months, when perhaps they have been a longer Time growing upon the Patient?
What I have said would make the greater Impression, could we but have a History of the fatal Miscarriages which have hapned upon preposterous Methods of Cure; an History, which, I doubt, would prove a very Voluminous one; that Rashness being too usual in both Acute and Chronical cases; In the first, Many are apt to force an Indication, rather than wait for one. In the latter, The World abounds with Examples of the Folly and Impatience of Mankind. To instance but in the Dropsie; Who is there almost, who cannot furnish you with the Story of one, who, from a hopeful Condition in the use of Diureticks, and Corroborative Things, cast himself into the Grave, by violent Purgatives, recommended by some compassionate Friend or other, to carry off the Waters at once, with a Beadroll of Stories to vouch its Success; when the other Method, with a little Patience, had certainly brought him to his former Health, and perhaps in much less time than his Disease was contracted. So difficult it is for unhappy Man to bear the Penalty of some Months, for the Demerits of some Years; and by Manly Consideration to keep from entangling himself in his Chain, instead of getting out of it.
I am not unaware here, how hard it is to frame Arguments that can have Force enough to prevail against the Apprehensions of the Pain and Trouble to be undergone in the first Attempt of Exercise, which most sick People have conceiv’d; and which are oftentimes so strong, as to blind the Mind, or bribe the Will and there is no way to deal with those People, but by Precedents; by shewing ’em, that those Difficulties have in many Cases been easily overcome: And here the Cold Bath offers it self, a severe Method of Cure taken up lately among us, and which upon the first Consideration carries Terrour enough in it; which if anyone had presum’d to recommend some Years ago, he would have been thought one of the most Wild and Barbarous of Men; and yet we see now the tenderest of the fair Sex dares commit her self to that terrible Element; and upon the first Experiment the Fears and Amusements vanish. How severe is the Sickness upon a Man’s first going to Sea; equal seemingly to the Effects of any strong Poison; and yet Nature soon accustomes her self to that Motion which is the Cause of it, and the Sailor quickly grows well! And here it must not be suppos’d, that any salt Vapours arising from the Sun, do contribute to this Vomiting, for it is now well known to every one, who had but the least smattering in Distillations, That Salt will not rise with a much greater Heat than that of the Sun; besides it is observable that the oldest or most accustomed Sailors shall Vomit in bad Weather, when the Ship is put into an unusual and irregular Motion; so that it is plain, that the Motion of the Ship is the only cause of that Sea-sickness: if therefore Nature can so soon suit her self to a Motion that can cause such terrible Symptomes, how unreasonable, how Childish it is for any one to object against the Use of Exercise, because of the common and (in comparison of Sea-sickness) trivial inconveniencies which must be born in the first Tryals! Some strong People shall be confounded with a very few Glasses of Wine; and yet if those very People fall to keeping of Company, and addict themselves to Wine but a little while, they shall drink vast quantities without any Disorder. The first Pipe of Tabacco disturbs Nature to the utmost, but after two or three more, she becomes pleas’d with that, which before disturb’d her. In the Animal Oeconomy, every thing is so wonderfully contriv’d, and made to conspire for the Preservation of Life, that Nature can adapt her self to all Circumstances; she can expand her self to bear the Luxury of a Palace, and contract her self to the short Allowance, the Bread and Water of a Prison; she can be easie under a Bloated Habit of Body, and she can make a shift to suit her self to the Expence of Fluxes and other Evacuations; accustoming her self so to bear ’em, that the longer they last, they may be in some Proportion the more familiar. But above all, she, with the most Ease, accustoms her self to the Use of Exercise; she may be said to delight her self in that, it being in a manner, de Essentiâ Naturiæ, and therefore it is in vain, when Exercise is really necessary, for a Person to complain after the first Tryal, and say, I’m tyr’d, my Bones are sore, my Head akes, I’m ready to faint, or the like; for all this must be endur’d, and upon patiently repeating the Motion, tho’ no Abatement appear for some Days, yet the Reward will come At last: and as these Symptomes go off, the strength of the sick Person will encrease.
From these Considerations I think it sufficiently appears, that what I have before hinted, is not at all unlikely, viz. That in some Cases, a distemper’d Person may acquire, by suitable Exercise habitually us’d, a degree of Strength, as much greater, than that of other sick People in the same Circumstances, who wholly neglect all Exercise, as the Strength and Agility of Robust Men, bred up to Violent Motions, is greater than the Strength of other People, who tho’ Healthy, yet are not us’d to such Things, and therefore incomparably Weaker.
Having thus Explain’d the Power of Motion, both on the Solids and Fluids, and having shew’d how necessary it is, that such Motion or Exercise should be continued to a Habit, that it may be render’d sufficient to procure those Ends it is directed to; I hope after these Considerations, it will appear pretty plain, that Exercise may deserve to be taken as a common Aid to Physick, (to use the Term which Asclepiades gave it) and ’tis under that Notion, that I propose it as so Beneficial a Medium in the Art of Curing; so that Exercise in this Sence is to Physick, as Bandage is to Surgery, an Assistance or Medium, without which, many other Administrations, tho’ ever so Noble, will not succeed. It is a kind of Reserve, but yet of that Efficacy, that the thing you most depend upon, and tho’ in it self very powerful, may yet receive its Derniere Puissance from this Reserve. And to this it is that we most undoubtedly attribute the wonderful Success which the Antients had in their Curing with such indifferent Materials, as their Pharmacy afforded ’em.
This will prove an Aid in a double Respect, viz. both of the Distemper, and of the Medicine.