[38]. This madness seems to have pervaded the minds of mothers in every age and country. Terence, in his Comedy of the Eunuch, ridicules the Roman matrons for attempting to mend the shape of their daughters.
[39]. We often see persons, who are rendered quite lame by the nails of their toes having grown into the flesh, and frequently hear of mortifications proceeding from this cause. All these, and many other inconveniences attending the feet, must be imputed solely to the use of short and strait shoes.
[40]. The celebrated Boerhaave used to say, that no body suffered by cold save fools and beggars; the latter not being able to procure clothes, and the former not having sense to wear them. Be this as it may, I can with the strictest truth declare, that in many cases where the powers of medicine had been tried in vain, I have cured the patient by recommending thick shoes, a flannel waistcoat and drawers, a pair of under stockings, or a flannel petticoat, to be worn during the cold season at least.
[41]. Rousseau.
[42]. Addison.
[43]. We may form some notion of the immense quantity of ardent spirits consumed in Great Britain from this circumstance, that in the city of Edinburgh and its environs, besides the great quantity of foreign spirits duly entered, and the still greater quantity which is supposed to be smuggled, it is computed that above two thousand private stills are constantly employed in preparing a poisonous liquor called Molasses. The common people have got so universally into the habit of drinking this base spirit, that when a porter or labourer is seen reeling along the streets, they say, he has got molassed.
[44]. It is amazing that our improvements in arts, learning, and politeness, have not put the barbarous custom of drinking to excess out of fashion. It is indeed less common in South Britain than it was formerly; but it still prevails very much in the North, where this relic of barbarity is mistaken for hospitality. There no man is supposed to entertain his guests well, who does not make them drunk. Forcing people to drink, is certainly the greatest piece of rudeness that any man can be guilty of. Manliness, complaisance, or mere good-nature, may induce a man to take his glass, if urged to it, at a time when he might as well take poison. The custom of drinking to excess has long been out of fashion in France; and, as it begins to lose ground among the politer part of the English, we hope it will soon be banished from every part of this island.
[45]. Mr. Pot, in his surgical observations, mentions a disease which he calls the chimney-sweeper’s cancer, as it is almost peculiar to that unhappy set of people. This he attributes to neglect of cleanliness, and with great justice. I am convinced, that if that part of the body which is the seat of this cruel disease was kept clean by frequent walking, it would never happen. The climbing boys, as they are called, are certainly the most miserable wretches on the face of the earth; yet, for cleaning chimnies, no such persons are necessary.
[46]. In ancient Rome the greatest men did not think cleanliness an object unworthy of their attention. Pliny says, the Cloacæ, or common sewers for the conveyance of filth and nastiness from the city, were the greatest of all the public works; and bestows higher encomiums upon Tarquinius, Agrippa, and others who made and improved them, than on those who achieved the greatest conquests.
How truly great does the emperor Trajan appear, when giving directions to Pliny his proconsul, concerning the making of a common sewer for the health and convenience of a conquered city?