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Domestic Medicine:
OR, A
TREATISE
ON THE
PREVENTION AND CURE
OF
DISEASES
BY
REGIMEN AND SIMPLE MEDICINES.
WITH
An APPENDIX, containing a DISPENSATORY for the Use of Private Practitioners.

By WILLIAM BUCHAN, M. D.

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.

THE TWELFTH EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed for A. Strahan; T. Cadell in the Strand; and J. Balfour, and W. Creech, at Edinburgh.

M DCC XCI.

Omnes homines artem medicam nôsse oportet.——Sapientiæ cognitionem medicinæ sororem ac contubernalem esse puto.

Hippocrates.

Primoque medendi scientia, sapientiæ pars habebatur.——Rationalem quidem puto medicinam esse debere.

Celsus.

Quemadmodum sanitas omnium rerum pretium excedit, omnisque felicitas fundamentum est, ita scientia vitæ ac sanitatis tuendæ omnium nobilissima, omnibusque hominibus commendatissima esse debet.

Hoffman.

TO
Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart.
PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

SIR,

The Domestic Medicine having been honoured, on its first appearance, with the patronage of your learned and worthy Predecessor, the late Sir John Pringle, I beg leave, in a more improved state, to dedicate it to you, as a small, but sincere, testimony of that veneration and esteem with which I have long beheld the Man who, born to ease and affluence, had resolution to encounter the dangers of unknown seas and distant climes, in pursuit of useful Science; and whose constant object has been to render that Science subservient to the happiness and civilization of Society,

I have the honour to be, with great respect,

SIR,

Your most obedient servant,

London,

Nov. 10, 1783.

W. BUCHAN.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Twenty years have now elapsed since the first Edition of this Book made its appearance. During this period, the Author, having been in constant practice, has taken occasion to improve several articles, which were with less accuracy inserted in the more early impressions. For this he has been censured by some, but the more candid and discerning must approve his conduct. It would be unpardonable in an Author to suffer an error in a book, on which health and life may depend, to stand uncorrected; nor would it be much less so to perceive an omission, and leave it unsupplied. His improvements, however, are not the result of mercenary views. The same principle which prompted the Author to write the Book, will ever induce him to improve it to the utmost of his power.

The Author has indeed to regret, that the limits of one volume preclude many interesting observations, and likewise deprive him of the pleasure of inserting a number of very useful remarks made by his learned and ingenious friend Doctor Duplanil, of Paris, who has done him the honour of publishing an elegant translation of this Work, in five volumes octavo, accompanied with an excellent commentary.

The improvements of the later editions are chiefly inserted in the form of notes. These are intended either to illustrate the text, or to put people on their guard in dangerous situations, and prevent fatal mistakes in the practice of medicine, which it is to be regretted are but too common.

Some attention has likewise been paid to the language. Where that was either inaccurate or obscure, as far as was practicable, it has been corrected. Indeed, the Author has all along endeavoured to observe such simplicity and perspicuity in his style as might enable the reader clearly to understand it: a circumstance of the utmost importance in a performance of this nature.

Although the Domestic Medicine was never intended to supercede the use of a physician, but to supply his place in situations where medical assistance could not easily be obtained; yet the Author is sorry to observe, that the jealousies and fears of the Faculty have prompted many of them to treat this Work in a manner altogether unbecoming the professors of a liberal science: notwithstanding their injurious treatment, he is determined to persist in his plan, being fully convinced of its utility; nor shall interest or prejudice ever deter him from exerting his best endeavours to render the Medical Art more extensively beneficial to Mankind.

But this illiberal treatment of the Faculty is not the only thing of which the Author has cause to complain. By some of them his Book has been served up mangled and mutilated, and its title, type, size, &c. so closely imitated, that purchasers are misled, and frequently buy these spurious productions instead of the real one. That a needy Author, incapable himself of producing an original work, should prey upon another, and that a mercenary Bookseller should vend such productions, knowing them to be stolen, are things not at all to be wondered at: but that all this can be done with impunity, shews that the laws of this country respecting literary property, are still in a very imperfect state, and stand much in need of amendment.

London,

Dec. 10, 1789.

PREFACE.

When I first signified my intention of publishing the following sheets, I was told by my friends it would draw on me the resentment of the whole Faculty. As I never could entertain such an unfavourable idea, I was resolved to make the experiment, which indeed came out pretty much as might have been expected. Many whose learning and liberality of sentiments do honour to medicine received the book in a manner which at once shewed their indulgence, and the falsity of the opinion that every physician wishes to conceal his art; while the more selfish and narrow-minded, generally the most numerous in every profession, have not failed to persecute both the book and its author.

The reception, however, which this work has met with from the Public merits my most grateful acknowledgments. As the best way of expressing these, I have endeavoured to render it more generally useful, by enlarging the prophylaxis, or that part which treats of preventing diseases; and by adding many articles which had been entirely omitted in the former impressions. It is needless to enumerate these additions; I shall only say, that I hope they will be found real improvements.

The observations relative to Nursing and the Management of Children, were chiefly suggested by an extensive practice among infants, in a large branch of the Foundling Hospital, where I had an opportunity not only of treating the diseases incident to childhood, but likewise of trying different plans of nursing, and observing their effects. Whenever I had it in my power to place the children under the care of proper nurses, to instruct these nurses in their duty, and to be satisfied that they performed it, very few of them died; but when, from distance of place, and other unavoidable circumstances, the children were left to the sole care of mercenary nurses, without any person to instruct or superintend them, scarce any of them lived.

This was so apparent, as with me to amount to a proof of the following melancholy fact: That almost one half of the human species perish in infancy, by improper management or neglect. This reflection has made me often wish to be the happy instrument of alleviating the miseries of those suffering innocents, or of rescuing them from an untimely grave. No one, who has not had an opportunity of observing them, can imagine what absurd and ridiculous practices still prevail in the nursing and management of infants, and what numbers of lives are by that means lost to society. As these practices are chiefly owing to ignorance, it is to be hoped, that when nurses are better informed, their conduct will be more proper.

The application of medicine to the various occupations of life has been in general the result of observation. An extensive practice for several years, in one of the largest manufacturing towns in England, afforded me sufficient opportunities of observing the injuries which those useful people sustain from their particular employments, and likewise of trying various methods of obviating such injuries. The success which attended these trials was sufficient to encourage this attempt, which I hope will be of use to those who are under the necessity of earning their bread by such employments as are unfavourable to health.

I do not mean to intimidate men, far less to insinuate that even those arts, the practice of which is attended with some degree of danger, should not be carried on; but to guard the less cautious and unwary against those dangers which they have it in their power to avoid, and which they often, through mere ignorance, incur. As every occupation in life disposes those who follow it to some particular diseases more than to others, it is certainly of importance to know these, in order that people may be upon their guard against them. It is always better to be warned of the approach of an enemy, than to be surprised by him, especially where there is a possibility of avoiding the danger.

The observations concerning Diet, Air, Exercise, &c. are of a more general nature, and have not escaped the attention of physicians in any age. They are subjects of too great importance, however, to be passed over in an attempt of this kind, and can never be sufficiently recommended. The man who pays a proper attention to these, will seldom need the physician; and he who does not, will seldom enjoy health, let him employ as many physicians as he pleases.

Though we have endeavoured to point out the causes of diseases, and to put people upon their guard against them, yet it must be acknowledged that they are often of such a nature as to admit of being removed only by the diligence and activity of the public magistrate. We are sorry, indeed, to observe, that the power of the magistrate is seldom exerted in this country for the preservation of health. The importance of a proper medical police is either not understood, or little regarded. Many things highly injurious to the public health are daily practiced with impunity, while others, absolutely necessary for its preservation, are entirely neglected.

Some of the public means of preserving health are mentioned in the general prophylaxis, as the inspection of provisions, widening the streets of great towns, keeping them clean, supplying the inhabitants with wholesome water, &c.; but they are passed over in a very cursory manner. A proper attention to these would have swelled this volume to too large a size; I have therefore reserved them for the subject of a future publication.

In the treatment of diseases, I have been peculiarly attentive to regimen. The generality of people lay too much stress upon Medicine, and trust too little to their own endeavours. It is always in the power of the patient, or of those about him, to do as much towards his recovery as can be effected by the physician. By not attending to this, the designs of Medicine are often frustrated; and the patient, by pursuing a wrong plan of regimen, not only defeats the Doctor’s endeavours, but renders them dangerous. I have often known patients killed by an error in regimen, when they were using very proper medicines. It will be said, the physician always orders the regimen when he prescribes a medicine. I wish it were so, both for the honour of the Faculty and the safety of their patients: but physicians, as well as other people, are too little attentive to this matter.

Though many reckon it doubtful whether physic is more beneficial or hurtful to mankind, yet all allow the necessity and importance of a proper regimen in diseases. Indeed the very appetites of the sick prove its propriety. No man in his senses ever imagined that a person in a fever, for example, could eat, drink, or conduct himself in the same manner as one in perfect health. This part of medicine, therefore, is evidently founded in Nature, and is every way consistent with reason and common sense. Had men been more attentive to it, and less solicitous in hunting after secret remedies, Medicine had never become an object of ridicule.

This seems to have been the first idea of Medicine. The ancient physicians acted chiefly in the capacity of nurses. They went very little beyond aliment in their prescriptions; and even this they generally administered themselves, attending the sick for that purpose through the whole course of the disease; which gave them an opportunity not only of marking the changes of diseases with great accuracy, but likewise of observing the effects of their different applications, and adapting them to the symptoms.

The learned Dr. Arbuthnot asserts, that by a proper attention to those things which are almost within the reach of every body, more good and less mischief will be done in acute diseases, than by medicines improperly and unseasonably administered; and that great cures may be effected in chronical distempers, by a proper regimen of the diet only. So entirely do the Doctor’s sentiments and mine agree, that I would advise every person, ignorant of physic, to confine his practice solely to diet, and the other parts of regimen; by which means he may often do much good, and can seldom do any hurt.

This seems also to have been the opinion of the ingenious Dr. Huxham, who observes, that we often seek from Art what all-bountiful Nature most readily, and as effectually, offers us, had we diligence and sagacity enough to observe and make use of them; that the dietetic part of Medicine is not so much studied as it ought to be; and that, though less pompous, yet it is the most natural method of curing diseases.

To render the book more generally useful, however, as well as more acceptable to the intelligent part of mankind, I have in most diseases, besides regimen, recommended some of the most simple and approved forms of medicine, and added such cautions and directions as seemed necessary for their safe administration, it would no doubt have been more acceptable to many, had it abounded with pompous prescriptions, and promised great cures in consequence of their use; but this was not my plan: I think the administration of medicines always doubtful, and often dangerous, and would much rather teach men how to avoid the necessity of using them, than how they should be used.

Several medicines, and those of considerable efficacy, may be administered with great freedom and safety. Physicians generally trifle a long time with medicines before they learn their proper use. Many peasants at present know better how to use some of the most important articles in the materia medica, than physicians did a century ago; and doubtless the same observation will hold with regard to others some time hence. Wherever I was convinced that medicine might be used with safety, or where the cure depended chiefly upon it, I have taken care to recommend it; but where it was either highly dangerous, or not very necessary, it is omitted.

I have not troubled the reader with an useless parade of quotations from different authors, but have in general adopted their observations where my own were either defective, or totally wanting. Those to whom I am most obliged are, Ramazini, Arbuthnot, and Tissot; the last of which, in his Avis au Peuple, comes the nearest to my views of any author which I have seen. Had the Doctor’s plan been as complete as the execution is masterly, we should have had no occasion for any new treatise of this kind soon; but by confining himself to the acute diseases, he has in my opinion omitted the most useful part of his subject. People in acute diseases may sometimes be their own physicians; but in the chronic, the cure must ever depend chiefly upon the patient’s own endeavours. The Doctor has also passed over the Prophylaxis, or preventive part of Medicine, very slightly, though it is certainly of the greatest importance in such a work. He had no doubt his reasons for so doing, and I am so far from finding fault with him, that I think his performance does great honour both to his head and to his heart.

Several other foreign physicians of eminence have written on nearly the same plan with Tissot, as the Baron Van Swieten, physician to their Imperial Majesties, M. Rosen, first physician of the kingdom of Sweden, &c.; but these gentlemen’s productions have never come to my hand. I cannot help wishing, however, that some of our distinguished countrymen would follow their example. There still remains much to be done on this subject, and it does not appear to me how any man could better employ his time or talents, than in eradicating hurtful prejudices, and diffusing useful knowledge among the people.

I know some of the Faculty disapprove of every attempt of this nature, imagining that it must totally destroy their influence. But this notion appears to me to be as absurd as it is illiberal. People in distress will always apply for relief to men of superior abilities, when they have it in their power; and they will do this with far greater confidence and readiness when they believe that Medicine is a rational science, than when they take it to be only a matter of mere conjecture.

Though I have endeavoured to render this Treatise plain and useful, yet I found it impossible to avoid some terms of art; but those are in general either explained, or are such as most people understand. In short, I have endeavoured to conform my style to the capacities of mankind in general; and, if my Readers do not flatter either themselves or me, with some degree of success. On a medical subject, this is not so easy a matter as some may imagine. To make a shew of learning is easier than to write plain sense, especially in a science which has been kept at such a distance from common observation. It would however be no difficult matter to prove, that every thing valuable in the practical part of Medicine is within the reach of common abilities.

It would be ungenerous not to express my warmest acknowledgments to those Gentlemen who have endeavoured to extend the usefulness of this Performance, by translating it into the language of their respective countries. Most of them have not only given elegant translations of the Book, but have also enriched it with many useful observations; by which it is rendered more complete, and better adapted to the climate and the constitutions of their countrymen. To the learned Dr. Duplanil of Paris, physician to the Count d’Artois, I lie under particular obligations; as this Gentleman has not only considerably enlarged my Treatise, but, by his very ingenious and useful notes, has rendered it so popular on the Continent, as to occasion its being translated into all the languages of modern Europe.

I have only to add, that the book has not more exceeded my expectations in its success, than in the effects it has produced. Some of the most pernicious practices, with regard to the treatment of the sick, have already given place to a more rational conduct; and many of the most hurtful prejudices, which seemed to be quite insurmountable, have in a great measure yielded to better information. Of this a stronger instance cannot be given than the inoculation of the small-pox. Few mothers, some years ago, would submit to have their children inoculated even by the hand of a Physician; yet nothing is more certain, than that of late many of them have performed this operation with their own hands; and as their success has been equal to that of the most dignified inoculators, there is little reason to doubt that the practice will become general. Whenever this shall be the case, more lives will be saved by inoculation alone, than are at present by all the endeavours of the Faculty.

INTRODUCTION.

The improvements in Medicine, since the revival of learning, have by no means kept pace with those of the other arts. The reason is obvious. Medicine has been studied by few, except those who intended to live by it as a trade. Such, either from a mistaken zeal for the honour of Medicine, or to raise their own importance, have endeavoured to disguise and conceal the art. Medical authors have generally written in a foreign language; and those who were unequal to this talk, have even valued themselves upon couching, at least, their prescriptions, in terms and characters unintelligible to the rest of mankind.

The contentions of the clergy, which happened soon after the restoration of learning, engaged the attention of mankind, and paved the way for that freedom of thought and inquiry, which has since prevailed in most parts of Europe with regard to religious matters. Every man took a side in those bloody disputes; and every gentleman, that he might distinguish himself on one side or other, was instructed in Divinity. This taught people to think and reason for themselves in matters of religion, and at last totally destroyed that complete and absolute dominion which the clergy had obtained over the minds of men.

The study of Law has likewise, in most civilized nations, been justly deemed a necessary part of the education of a gentleman. Every gentleman ought certainly to know at least the laws of his own country: and, if he were also acquainted with those of others, it might be more than barely an ornament to him.

The different branches of Philosophy have also of late been very universally studied by all who pretended to a liberal education. The advantages of this are manifest. It frees the mind from prejudice and superstition; fits it for the investigation of truth; induces habits of reasoning and judging properly; opens an inexhaustible source of entertainment; paves the way to the improvement of arts and agriculture; and qualifies men for acting with propriety in the most important stations of life.

Natural History is likewise become an object of general attention; and it well deserves to be so. It leads to discoveries of the greatest importance. Indeed agriculture, the most useful of all arts, is only a branch of Natural History, and can never arrive at a high degree of improvement where the study of that science is neglected.

Medicine however has not, as far as I know, in any country, been reckoned a necessary part of the education of a gentleman. But surely no sufficient reason can be assigned for this omission. No science lays open a more extensive field of useful knowledge, or affords more ample entertainment to an inquisitive mind. Anatomy, Botany, Chymistry, and the Materia Medica, are all branches of Natural History, and are fraught with such amusement and utility, that the man who entirely neglects them has but a sorry claim either to taste or learning. If a gentleman has a turn for observation, says an excellent and sensible writer[^[1]], surely the natural history of his own species is a more interesting subject, and presents a more ample field for the exertion of genius, than the natural history of spiders and cockle-shells.

We do not mean that every man should become a physician. This would be an attempt as ridiculous as it is impossible. All we plead for is, that men of sense and learning should be so far acquainted with the general principles of Medicine, as to be in a condition to derive from it some of those advantages with which it is fraught; and at the same time to guard themselves against the destructive influences of Ignorance, Superstition, and Quackery.

As matters stand at present, it is easier to cheat a man out of his life than of a shilling, and almost impossible either to detect or punish the offender. Notwithstanding this, people still shut their eyes, and take every thing upon trust that is administered by any Pretender to Medicine, without daring to ask him a reason for any part of his conduct. Implicit faith, every where else the object of ridicule, is still sacred here. Many of the faculty are no doubt worthy of all the confidence that can be reposed in them; but as this can never be the character of every individual in any profession, it would certainly be for the safety, as well as the honour, of mankind, to have some check upon the conduct of those to whom they entrust so valuable a treasure as health.

The veil of mystery, which still hangs over medicine, renders it not only a conjectural, but even a suspicious art. This has been long ago removed from the other sciences, which induces many to believe that Medicine is a mere trick, and that it will not bear a fair and candid examination. Medicine, however, needs only to be better known, in order to secure the general esteem of mankind. Its precepts are such as every wise man would chuse to observe, and it forbids nothing but what is incompatible with true happiness.

Disguising Medicine not only retards its improvement as a science, but exposes the profession to ridicule, and is injurious to the true interests of society. An art founded on observation never can arrive at any high degree of improvement, while it is confined to a few who make a trade of it. The united observations of all the ingenious and sensible part of mankind, would do more in a few years towards the improvement of Medicine, than those of the Faculty alone in a great many. Any man can tell when a medicine gives him ease as well as a physician; and if he only knows the name and dose of the medicine, and the name of the disease, it is sufficient to perpetuate the fact. Yet the man who adds one single fact to the stock of medical observations, does more real service to the art, than he who writes a volume in support of some favourable hypothesis.

Very few of the valuable discoveries in Medicine have been made by physicians. They have in general either been the effect of chance or of necessity, and have been usually opposed by the Faculty, till every one else was convinced of their importance. An implicit faith in the opinions of teachers, an attachment to systems and established forms, and the dread of reflections, will always operate upon those who follow Medicine as a trade. Few improvements are to be expected from a man who might ruin his character and family by even the smallest deviation from an established rule.

If men of letters, says the author of the performance quoted above, were to claim their right of inquiry into a matter that so nearly concerns them, the good effects on Medicine would soon appear. Such men would have no separate interest from that of the art. They would detect and expose assuming Ignorance under the mask of Gravity and Importance, and would be the judges and patrons of modest merit. Not having their understandings perverted in their youth by false theories, unawed by authority, and unbiassed by interest, they would canvass with freedom the most universally received principles in Medicine, and expose the uncertainty of many of those doctrines, of which a physician dares not so much as seem to doubt.

No argument, continues he, can be brought against laying open Medicine, which does not apply with equal, if not greater force, to religion; yet experience has shewn, that since the laity have asserted their right of inquiry into these subjects, Theology, considered as a science, has been improved, the interests of real religion have been promoted, and the clergy have become a more learned, a more useful, and a more respectable body of men, than they ever were in the days of their greatest power and splendour.

Had other medical writers been as honest as this gentleman, the art had been upon a very different footing at this day. Most of them extol the merit of those men who brought Philosophy out of the schools, and subjected it to the rules of common sense. But they never consider that Medicine, at present, is in nearly the same situation as Philosophy was at that time, and that it might be as much improved by being treated in the same manner. Indeed, no science can either be rendered rational or useful, without being submitted to the common sense and reason of mankind. These alone stamp a value upon science; and what will not bear the test of these ought to be rejected.

I know it will be said, that diffusing medical knowledge among the people might induce them to tamper with Medicine, and to trust to their own skill instead of calling a physician. The reverse of this however is true. Persons who have most knowledge in these matters, are commonly most ready both to ask and to follow advice, when it is necessary. The ignorant are always most apt to tamper with Medicine, and have the least confidence in physicians. Instances of this are daily to be met with among the ignorant peasants, who, while they absolutely refuse to take a medicine which has been prescribed by a physician, will swallow with greediness any thing that is recommended to them by their credulous neighbours. Where men will act even without knowledge, it is certainly more rational to afford them all the light we can, than to leave them entirely in the dark.

It may also be alleged, that laying Medicine more open to mankind would lessen their faith in it. This would indeed be the case with regard to some; but it would have a quite contrary effect upon others. I know many people who have the utmost dread and horror of every thing prescribed by a physician, but who will nevertheless very readily take a medicine which they know, and whose qualities they are in some measure acquainted with. Hence it is evident, that the dread arises from the doctor, not from the drug. Nothing ever can or will inspire mankind with an absolute confidence in physicians, but an open, frank, and undisguised behaviour. While the least shadow of mystery remains in the conduct of the Faculty, doubts, jealousies, and suspicions, will arise in the minds of men.

No doubt cases will sometimes occur, where a prudent physician may find it expedient to disguise a medicine. The whims and humours of men must be regarded by those who mean to do them service; but this can never affect the general argument in favour of candour and openness. A man might as well allege, because there are knaves and fools in the world, that he ought to take every one he meets for such, and to treat him accordingly. A sensible physician will always know where disguise is necessary; but it ought never to appear on the face of his general conduct.

The appearance of mystery in the conduct of physicians not only renders their art suspicious, but lays the foundations of Quackery, which is the disgrace of Medicine. No two characters can be more different than that of the honest physician and the quack; yet they have generally been very much confounded. The line between them is not sufficiently apparent; at least it is too fine for the general eye. Few persons are able to distinguish sufficiently between the conduct of that man who administers a secret medicine, and him who writes a prescription in mystical characters and an unknown tongue. Thus the conduct of the honest physician, which needs no disguise, gives a sanction to that of the villain, whose sole consequence depends upon secrecy.

No laws will ever be able to prevent quackery, while people believe that the quack is as honest a man, and as well qualified, as the physician. A very small degree of medical knowledge, however, would be sufficient to break this spell; and nothing else can effectually undeceive them. It is the ignorance and credulity of the multitude, with regard to medicine, which renders them such an easy prey to every one who has the hardiness to attack them on this quarter. Nor can the evil be remedied by any other means but by making them wiser.

The most effectual way to destroy quackery in any art or science, is to diffuse the knowledge of it among mankind. Did physicians write their prescriptions in the common language of the country, and explain their intentions to the patient, as far as he could understand them, it would enable him to know when the medicine had the desired effect; would inspire him with absolute confidence in the physician; and would make him dread and detest every man who pretended to cram a secret medicine down his throat.

Men in the different states of society, have very different views of the same object. Some time ago it was the practice of this country for every person to say his prayers in Latin, whether he knew any thing of that language or not. This conduct, though sacred in the eyes of our ancestors, appears ridiculous enough to us; and doubtless some parts of ours will seem as strange to posterity. Among these we may reckon the present mode of medical prescription, which, we venture to affirm, will sometime hence appear to have been completely ridiculous, and a very high burlesque upon the common sense of mankind.

But this practice is not only ridiculous, it is likewise dangerous. However capable physicians may be of writing Latin, I am certain apothecaries are not always in a condition to read it, and that dangerous mistakes, in consequence of this, often happen. But suppose the apothecary ever so able to read the physician’s prescription, he is generally otherwise employed, and the business of making up prescriptions is left entirely to the apprentice. By this means the greatest man in the kingdom, even when he employs a first-rate physician, in reality trusts his life in the hands of an idle boy, who has not only the chance of being very ignorant, but likewise giddy and careless. Mistakes will sometimes happen in spite of the greatest care; but, where human lives are concerned, all possible methods ought certainly to be taken to prevent them. For this reason, the prescriptions of physicians, instead of being couched in mystical characters and a foreign language, ought, in my humble opinion, to be conceived in the most plain and obvious terms imaginable.

Diffusing medical knowledge among the people would not only tend to improve the art, and to banish quackery, but likewise to render Medicine more universally useful, by extending its benefits to society. However long Medicine may have been known as a science, we will venture to say, that many of its most important purposes to society have either been overlooked, or very little attended to. The cure of diseases is doubtless a matter of great importance; but the preservation of health is of still greater. This is the concern of every man, and surely what relates to it ought to be rendered as plain and obvious to all as possible. It is not to be supposed, that men can be sufficiently upon their guard against diseases, who are totally ignorant of their causes. Neither can the legislature, in whose power it is to do much more for preserving the public health than can ever be done by the Faculty, exert that power with propriety, and to the greatest advantage, without some degree of medical knowledge.

Men of every occupation and condition in life might avail themselves of a degree of medical knowledge; as it would teach them to avoid the dangers peculiar to their respective stations; which is always easier than to remove their effects. Medical knowledge, instead of being a check upon the enjoyments of life, only teaches men how to make the most of them. It has indeed been said, that to live medically is to live miserably: but it might with equal propriety be said, that to live rationally is to live miserably. If physicians obtrude their own ridiculous whims upon mankind, or lay down rules inconsistent with reason or common sense, no doubt they will be despised. But this is not the fault of Medicine. It proposes no rules that I know, but such as are perfectly consistent with the true enjoyment of life, and every way conducive to the real happiness of mankind.

We are sorry indeed to observe, that Medicine has hitherto hardly been considered as a popular science, but as a branch of knowledge solely confined to a particular set of men, while all the rest have been taught not only to neglect, but even to dread and despise it. It will however appear, upon a more strict examination, that no science better deserves their attention, or is more capable of being rendered generally useful.

People are told, that if they dip the least into medical knowledge, it will render them fanciful, and make them believe they have every disease of which they read. This I am satisfied will seldom be the case with sensible people; and, suppose it were, they must soon be undeceived. A short time will shew them their error, and a little more reading will infallibly correct it. A single instance will shew the absurdity of this notion. A sensible lady, rather than read a medical performance, which would instruct her in the management of her children, must leave them entirely to the care and conduct of the most ignorant, credulous, and superstitious part of the human species.

No part of Medicine is of more general importance than that which relates to the nursing and management of children. Yet few parents pay a proper attention to it. They leave the sole care of their tender offspring, at the very time when care and attention are most necessary, to hirelings, who are either too careless to do their duty, or too ignorant to know it. We will venture to affirm, that more human lives are lost by the carelessness and inattention of parents and nurses, than are saved by the Faculty; and that the joint and well-conducted endeavours, both of private persons and the public, for the preservation of infant lives, would be of more advantage to society, than the whole art of Medicine, upon its present footing.

The benefits of Medicine, as a trade, will ever be confined to those who are able to pay for them; and of course, the far greater part of mankind will be every where deprived of them. Physicians, like other people, must live by their employment, and the poor must either want advice altogether, or take up with that which is worse than none. There are not however any where wanting well-disposed people, of better sense, who are willing to supply the defect of medical advice to the poor, did not their fear of doing ill often suppress their inclination to do good. Such people are often deterred from the most noble and praise-worthy actions, by the foolish alarms sounded in their ears by a set of men who, to raise their own importance, magnify the difficulties of doing good, find fault with what is truly commendable, and fleer at every attempt to relieve the sick which is not conducted by the precise rules of Medicine. These gentlemen must however excuse me for saying, that I have often known such well-disposed persons do much good; and that their practice, which is generally the result of good sense and observation, assisted by a little medical reading, is frequently more rational than that of the ignorant retainer to physic, who despises both reason and observation, that he may go wrong by rule; and who, while he is dosing his patient with medicines, often neglects other things of far greater importance.

Many things are necessary for the sick besides medicine. Nor is the person who takes care to procure those for them, of less importance than a physician. The poor oftener perish in diseases for want of proper nursing than of medicine. They are frequently in want of even the necessaries of life, and still more so of what is proper for a sickbed. No one can imagine, who has not been a witness of these situations, how much good a well-disposed person may do, by only taking care to have such wants supplied. There certainly cannot be a more necessary, a more noble, or a more godlike action, than to administer to the wants of our fellow-creatures in distress. While virtue or religion are known among mankind, this conduct will be approved; and while Heaven is just, it must be rewarded!

Persons who do not chuse to administer medicine to the sick, may nevertheless direct their regimen. An eminent medical author has said, That by diet alone all the intentions of Medicine may be answered[^[2]]. No doubt a great many of them may; but there are other things beside diet, which ought by no means to be neglected. Many hurtful and destructive prejudices, with regard to the treatment of the sick, still prevail among the people, which persons of better sense and learning alone can eradicate. To guard the poor against the influence of these prejudices, and to instil into their minds some just ideas of the importance of proper food, fresh air, cleanliness, and other pieces of regimen necessary in diseases, would be a work of great merit, and productive of many happy consequences. A proper regimen, in most diseases, is at least equal to medicine, and in many of them it is greatly superior.

To assist the well-meant endeavours of the humane and benevolent in relieving distress; to eradicate dangerous and hurtful prejudices; to guard the ignorant and credulous against the frauds and impositions of quacks and impostors; and to shew men what is in their own power, both with regard to the prevention and cure of diseases, are certainly objects worthy of the physician’s attention. These were the leading views in composing and publishing the following sheets. They were suggested by an attention to the conduct of mankind, with regard to Medicine, in the course of a pretty long practice in different parts of this island, during which the author has often had occasion to wish that his patients, or those about them, had been possessed of some such plain directory for regulating their conduct. How far he has succeeded in his endeavours to supply this deficiency, must be left for others to determine; but if they be found to contribute in any measure towards alleviating the calamities of mankind, he will think his labour very well bestowed.

CONTENTS.

CONTENTS of the APPENDIX.

PART I.
OF THE
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASES.

CHAP. I.
OF CHILDREN.

The better to trace diseases from their original causes, we shall take a view of the common treatment of mankind in the state of infancy. In this period of our lives, the foundations of a good or bad constitution are generally laid; it is therefore of importance, that parents be well acquainted with the various causes which may injure the health of their offspring.

It appears from the annual registers of the dead, that almost one half of the children born in Great Britain die under twelve years of age. To many, indeed, this may appear a natural evil; but, on due examination, it will be found to be one of our own creating. Were the death of infants a natural evil, other animals would be as liable to die young as man; but this we find is by no means the case.

It may seem strange that man, notwithstanding his superior reason, should fall so far short of other animals in the management of his young: But our surprise will soon cease, if we consider that brutes, guided by instinct, never err in this respect; while man, trusting solely to art, is seldom right. Were a catalogue of those infants who perish annually by art alone exhibited to public view, it would astonish most people.

If parents are above taking care of their children, others must be employed for that purpose: these will always endeavour to recommend themselves by the appearance of extraordinary skill and address. By this means such a number of unnecessary and destructive articles have been introduced into the diet, clothing, &c. of infants, that it is no wonder so many of them perish.

Nothing can be more preposterous than a mother who thinks it below her to take care of her own child, or who is so ignorant as not to know what is proper to be done for it. If we search Nature throughout, we cannot find a parallel to this. Every other animal is the nurse of its own offspring, and they thrive accordingly. Were the brutes to bring up their young by proxy, they would share the same fate with those of the human species.

We mean not, however, to impose it as a task upon every mother to suckle her own child. This, whatever speculative writers may allege, is in some cases impracticable, and would inevitably prove destructive both to the mother and child. Women of delicate constitutions, subject to hysteric fits, or other nervous affections, make very bad nurses: and these complaints are now so common, that it is rare to find a woman of fashion free from them; such women, therefore, supposing them willing, are often unable to suckle their own children.

Almost every mother would be in a condition to give suck, did mankind live agreeably to Nature: but whoever considers how far many mothers deviate from her dictates, will not be surprised to find some of them unable to perform that necessary office. Mothers who do not eat a sufficient quantity of solid food, nor enjoy the benefit of free air and exercise, can neither have wholesome juices themselves, nor afford proper nourishment to an infant. Hence children who are suckled by delicate women, either die young, or continue weak and sickly all their lives.

When we say that mothers are not always in a condition to suckle their own children, we would not be understood as discouraging that practice. Every mother who can, ought certainly to perform so tender and agreeable an office[^[3]]. But, suppose it to be out of her power, she may, nevertheless, be of great service to her child. The business of nursing is by no means confined to giving suck. To a woman who abounds with milk, this is the easiest part of it. Numberless other offices are necessary for a child, which the mother ought at least to see done.

A mother who abandons the fruit of her womb, as soon as it is born, to the sole care of an hireling, hardly deserves that name. A child, by being brought up under the mother’s eye, not only secures her affection, but may reap all the advantages of a parent’s care, though it be suckled by another. How can a mother be better employed than in superintending the nursery? This is at once the most delightful and important office; yet the most trivial business or insipid amusements are often preferred to it! A strong proof both of the bad taste and wrong education of modern females.

It is indeed to be regretted, that more care is not bestowed in teaching the proper management of children to those whom Nature has designed for mothers. This, instead of being made the principal, is seldom considered as any part of female education. Is it any wonder, when females so educated come to be mothers, that they should be quite ignorant of the duties belonging to that character? However strange it may appear, it is certainly true, that many mothers, and those of fashion too, are as ignorant, when they have brought a child into the world, of what is to be done for it, as the infant itself. Indeed, the most ignorant of the sex are generally reckoned most knowing in the business of nursing. Hence, sensible people become the dupes of ignorance and superstition; and the nursing of children, instead of being conducted by reason, is the result of whim and caprice[^[4]].

Were the time that is generally spent by females in the acquisition of trifling accomplishments, employed in learning how to bring up their children; how to dress them so as not to hurt, cramp, or confine their motions; how to feed them with wholesome and nourishing food; how to exercise their tender bodies, so as best to promote their growth and strength: were these made the objects of female instruction, mankind would derive the greatest advantages from it. But while the education of females implies little more than what relates to dress and public shew, we have nothing to expect from them but ignorance even in the most important concerns.

Did mothers reflect on their own importance, and lay it to heart, they would embrace every opportunity of informing themselves of the duties which they owe to their infant offspring. It is their province, not only to form the body, but also to give the mind its most early bias. They have it very much in their power to make men healthy or valetudinary, useful in life, or the pests of society.

But the mother is not the only person concerned in the management of children. The father has an equal interest in their welfare, and ought to assist in every thing that respects either the improvement of the body or mind.

It is pity that the men should be so inattentive to this matter. Their negligence is one reason why females know so little of it. Women will ever be desirous to excel in such accomplishments as recommend them to the other sex. But men generally keep at such a distance from even the smallest acquaintance with the affairs of the nursery, that many would reckon it an affront, were they supposed to know any thing of them. Not so, however, with the kennel or the stables: a gentleman of the first rank is not ashamed to give directions concerning the management of his dogs or horses, yet would blush were he surprised in performing the same office for that being who derived its exigence from himself, who is the heir of his fortunes, and the future hope of his country.

Nor have physicians themselves been sufficiently attentive to the management of children: this has been generally considered as the sole province of old women, while men of the first character in physic have refused to visit infants even when sick. Such conduct in the faculty has not only caused this branch of medicine to be neglected, but has also encouraged the other sex to assume an absolute title to prescribe for children in the most dangerous diseases. The consequence is, that a physician is seldom called till the good women have exhausted all their skill; when his attendance can only serve to divide the blame, and appease the disconsolate parents.

Nurses should do all in their power to prevent diseases; but when a child is taken ill, some person of skill ought immediately to be consulted. The diseases of children are generally acute, and the least delay is dangerous.

Were physicians more attentive to the diseases of infants, they would not only be better qualified to treat them properly when sick, but likewise to give useful directions for their management when well. The diseases of children are by no means so difficult to be understood as many imagine. It is true, children cannot tell their complaints; but the causes of them may be pretty certainly discovered by observing the symptoms, and putting proper questions to the nurses. Besides, the diseases of infants being less complicated, are easier cured than those of adults[^[5]].

It is really astonishing, that so little attention should in general be paid to the preservation of infants. What labour and expence are daily bestowed to prop an old tottering carcase for a few years, while thousands of those who might be useful in life, perish without being regarded! Mankind are too apt to value things according to their present, not their future, usefulness. Though this is of all others the most erroneous method of estimation; yet upon no other principle is it possible to account for the general indifference with respect to the death of infants.

Of Diseased Parents.

One great source of the diseases of children is, the unhealthiness of Parents. It would be as reasonable to expect a rich crop from a barren soil, as that strong and healthy children should be born of parents whose constitutions have been worn out with intemperance or disease.

An ingenious writer[^[6]] observes, that on the constitution of mothers depends originally that of their offspring. No one who believes this, will be surprised, on a view of the female world, to find diseases and death so frequent among children. A delicate female, brought up within doors, an utter stranger to exercise and open air, who lives on tea and other slops, may bring a child into the world, but it will hardly be fit to live. The first blast of disease will nip the tender plant in the bud: or, should it struggle through a few years existence, its feeble frame, shaken with convulsions from every trivial cause, will be unable to perform the common functions of life, and prove a burden to society.

If to the delicacy of mothers, we add the irregular lives of fathers, we shall see further cause to believe that children are often hurt by the constitution of their parents. A sickly frame may be originally induced by hardships or intemperance, but chiefly by the latter. It is impossible that a course of vice should not spoil the best constitution: and, did the evil terminate here, it would be a just punishment for the folly of the sufferer; but when once a disease is contracted and riveted in the habit, it is entailed on posterity. What a dreadful inheritance is the gout, the scurvy, or the King’s evil, to transmit to our offspring! how happy had it been for the heir of many a great estate, had he been born a beggar, rather than to inherit his father’s fortunes at the expence of inheriting his diseases!

A person labouring under any incurable malady ought not to marry. He thereby not only shortens his own life, but transmits misery to others: but when both parties are deeply tainted with the scrophula, the scurvy, or the like, the effects must be still worse. If such have any issue, they must be miserable indeed. Want of attention to these things, in forming connexions for life, has rooted out more families than plague, famine, or the sword; and as long as these connexions are formed from mercenary views, the evil will be continued[^[7]].

In our matrimonial contracts, it is amazing so little regard is had to the health and form of the object. Our sportsmen know, that the generous courser cannot be bred out of the foundered jade, nor the sagacious spaniel out of the snarling cur. This is settled upon immutable laws. The man who marries a woman of a sickly constitution, and descended of unhealthy parents, whatever his views may be, cannot be said to act a prudent part. A diseased woman may prove fertile; should this be the case, the family must become an infirmary: what prospect of happiness the father of such a family has, we shall leave any one to judge[^[8]].

Such children as have the misfortune to be born of diseased parents, will require to be nursed with greater care than others. This is the only way to make amends for the defects of constitution; and it will often go a great length. A healthy nurse, wholesome air, and sufficient exercise, will do wonders. But when these are neglected, little is to be expected from any other quarter. The defects of constitution cannot be supplied by medicine.

Those who inherit any family disease ought to be very circumspect in their manner of living. They should consider well the nature of such disease, and guard against it by a proper regimen. It is certain, that family diseases have often, by proper care, been kept off for one generation; and there is reason to believe, that, by persisting in the same course, such diseases might at length be wholly eradicated. This is a subject very little regarded, though of the greatest importance. Family constitutions are as capable of improvement as family estates; and the libertine, who impairs the one, does greater injury to his posterity, than the prodigal who squanders away the other.

Of the Clothing of Children.

The clothing of an infant is so simple a matter, that it is surprising how any person should err in it; yet many children lose their lives, and others are deformed, by inattention to this article.

Nature knows no use of clothes to an infant, but to keep it warm. All that is necessary for this purpose, is to wrap it in a soft loose covering. Were a mother left to the dictates of Nature alone, she would certainly pursue this course. But the business of dressing an infant has long been out of the hands of mothers, and has at last become a secret which none but adepts pretend to understand.

From the most early ages it has been thought necessary, that a woman in labour should have some person to attend her. This in time became a business; and, as in all others, those who were employed in it strove to outdo one another in the different branches of their profession. The dressing of a child came of course to be considered as the midwife’s province, who no doubt imagined, that the more dexterity she could shew in this article, the more her skill would be admired. Her attempts were seconded by the vanity of parents, who, too often desirous of making a shew of the infant as soon as it was born, were ambitious to have as much finery heaped upon it as possible. Thus it came to be thought as necessary for a midwife to excel in bracing and dressing an infant, as for a surgeon to be expert in applying bandages to a broken limb; and the poor child, as soon as it came into the world, had as many rollers and wrappers applied to its body, as if every bone had been fractured in the birth; while these were often so tight, as not only to gall and wound its tender frame, but even to obstruct the motion of the heart, lungs, and other organs necessary for life.

In most parts of Britain, the practice of rolling children with so many bandages is now, in some measure, laid aside; but it would still be a difficult task to persuade the generality of mankind, that the shape of an infant does not entirely depend on the care of the midwife. So far, however, are all her endeavours to mend the shape from being successful, that they constantly operate the contrary way, and mankind become deformed in proportion to the means used to prevent it. How little deformity of body is to be found among uncivilized nations? So little indeed, that it is vulgarly believed they put all their deformed children to death. The truth is, they hardly know such a thing as a deformed child. Neither should we, if we followed their example. Savage nations never think of manacling their children. They allow them the full use of every organ, carry them abroad in the open air, wash their bodies daily in cold water, &c. By this management, their children become so strong and hardy, that, by the time our puny infants get out of the nurse’s arms, theirs are able to shift for themselves[^[9]].

Among brute animals, no art is necessary to procure a fine shape. Though many of them are extremely delicate when they come into the world, yet we never find them grow crooked for want of swaddling bands. Is nature less generous to the human kind? No: but we take the business out of Nature’s hands.

Not only the analogy of other animals, but the very feelings of infants tell us, they ought to be kept easy and free from all pressure. They cannot indeed tell their complaints; but they can shew signs of pain; and this they never fail to do, by crying when hurt by their clothes. No sooner are they freed from their bracings, than they seem pleased and happy; yet, strange infatuation! the moment they hold their peace, they are again committed to their chains.

If we consider the body of an infant as a bundle of soft pipes, replenished with fluids in continual motion, the danger of pressure will appear in the strongest light. Nature, in order to make way for the growth of children, has formed their bodies soft and flexible; and lest they should receive any injury from pressure in the womb, has surrounded the fœtus every where with fluids. This shews the care which Nature takes to prevent all unequal pressure on the bodies of infants, and to defend them against every thing that might in the least cramp or confine their motions.

Even the bones of an infant are so soft and cartilaginous, that they readily yield to the slightest pressure, and easily assume a bad shape, which can never after be remedied. Hence it is, that so many people appear with high shoulders, crooked spines, and flat breasts, who were as well proportioned at their birth as others, but had the misfortune to be squeezed out of shape by the application of stays and bandages.

Pressure, by obstructing the circulation, likewise prevents the equal distribution of nourishment to the different parts of the body, by which means the growth becomes unequal. One part grows too large, while another remains too small; and thus in time the whole frame becomes disproportioned and misshapen. To this we must add, that when a child is cramped in its clothes, it naturally shrinks from the part that is hurt; and, by putting its body into unnatural postures it becomes deformed by habit.

Deformity of body may indeed proceed from weakness or disease; but, in general, it is the effect of improper clothing. Nine-tenths, at least, of the deformity among mankind, must be imputed to this cause. A deformed body is not only disagreeable to the eye, but by a bad figure both the animal and vital functions must be impeded, and of course health impaired. Hence few people remarkably mishapen are strong or healthy.

The new motions which commence at the birth, as the circulation of the whole mass of blood through the lungs, respiration, the peristaltic motion, &c. afford another strong argument for keeping the body of an infant free from all pressure. These organs, not having been accustomed to move, are easily stopped; but when this happens, death must ensue. Hardly any method could be devised more effectually to stop these motions, than bracing the body too tight with rollers[^[10]] and bandages. Were these to be applied in the same manner to the body of an adult for an equal length of time, they would hardly fail to hurt the digestion and make him sick. How much more hurtful they must prove to the tender bodies of infants, we shall leave any one to judge.

Whoever considers these things will not be surprised, that so many children die of convulsions soon after the birth. These fits are generally attributed to some inward cause; but in fact, they oftener proceed from our own imprudent conduct. I have known a child seized with convulsion-fits soon after the midwife had done swaddling it, who, upon taking off the rollers and bandages, was immediately relieved, and never had the disease afterwards. Numerous examples of this might be given, were they necessary.

It would be safer to fasten the cloths of an infant with strings than pins, as these often gall and irritate their tender skins, and occasion disorders. Pins have been found sticking above half an inch into the body of a child, after it had died of convulsion fits, which, in all probability, proceeded from that cause.

Children are not only hurt by the tightness of their clothes, but also by the quantity. Every child has some degree of fever after the birth; and if it be loaded with too many clothes, the fever must be increased. But this is not all; the child is generally laid in bed with the mother, who is often likewise feverish; to which we may add the heat of the bed-chamber, the wines, and other heating things, too frequently given to children immediately after the birth. When all these are combined, which does not seldom happen, they must increase the fever to such a degree as will endanger the life of the infant.

The danger of keeping infants too hot will further appear, if we consider that, after they have been for some time in the situation mentioned above, they are often sent into the country to be nursed in a cold house. Is it any wonder, if a child, from such a transition, catches a mortal cold, or contracts some other fatal disease? When an infant is kept too hot, its lungs, not being sufficiently expanded, are apt to remain weak and flaccid for life; hence proceed coughs, consumptions, and other diseases of the breast.

It would answer little purpose to specify the particular species of dress proper for an infant. These will always vary in different countries, according to custom and the humour of parents. The great rule to be observed is, That a child have no more clothes than are necessary to keep it warm, and that they be quite easy for its body.

Stays are the very bane of infants. A volume would not suffice to point out all the bad effects of this ridiculous piece of dress both on children and adults. The madness in favour of stays seems, however, to be somewhat abated; and it is to be hoped the world will, in time, become wise enough to know, that the human shape does not solely depend upon whale-bone and bend-leather[^[11]].

I shall only add with respect to the clothes of children, that they ought to be kept thoroughly clean. Children perspire more than adults; and if their clothes be not frequently changed, they become very hurtful. Dirty clothes not only gall and fret the tender skins of infants, but likewise occasion ill smells; and, what is worse, tend to produce vermin and cutaneous diseases.

Cleanliness is not only agreeable to the eye, but tends greatly to preserve the health of children. It promotes the perspiration, and, by that means, frees the body from superfluous humours, which, if retained, could not fail to occasion diseases. No mother or nurse can have any excuse for allowing a child to be dirty. Poverty may oblige her to give it coarse clothes; but if she does not keep them clean, it must be her own fault.

Of the Food of Children.

Nature not only points out the food proper for an infant, but actually prepares it. This, however, is not sufficient to prevent some who think themselves wiser than Nature, from attempting to bring up their children without her provision. Nothing can shew the disposition which mankind have to depart from Nature, more than their endeavouring to bring up children without the breast. The mother’s milk, or that of a healthy nurse, is unquestionably the best food for an infant. Neither art nor nature can afford a proper substitute for it. Children may seem to thrive for a few months without the breast; but, when teething, the small-pox, and other diseases incident to childhood, come on, they generally perish.

A child, soon after the birth, shews an inclination to suck; and there is no reason why it should not be gratified. It is true, the mother’s milk does not always come immediately after the birth; but this is the way to bring it: besides, the first milk that the child can squeeze out of the breast answers the purpose of cleansing, better than all the drugs in the apothecary’s shop, and at the same time prevents inflammations of the breast, fevers, and other diseases incident to mothers.

It is strange how people came to think that the first thing given to a child should be drugs. This is beginning with medicine by times, and no wonder if they generally ended with it. It sometimes happens, indeed, that a child does not discharge the meconium so soon as could be wished; this has induced physicians, in such cases, to give something of an opening nature to cleanse the first passages. Midwives have improved upon this hint, and never fail to give syrups, oils, &c. whether they be necessary or not. Cramming an infant with such indigestible stuff as soon as it is born, can hardly fail to make it sick, and is more likely to occasion diseases, than to prevent them. Children are seldom long after the birth without having passage both by stool and urine; though these evacuations may be wanting for some time without any danger. But if children must have something before they be allowed the breast, let it be a little thin water-pap, to which may be added an equal quantity of new milk; or rather water alone, with the addition of a little raw sugar. If this be given without any wines or spiceries, it will neither heat the blood, load the stomach, nor occasion gripes.

Upon the first sight of an infant, almost every person is struck with the idea of its being weak, feeble, and wanting support. This naturally suggests the need of cordials. Accordingly wines are universally mixed with the first food of children. Nothing can be more fallacious than this way of reasoning, or more hurtful to infants than the conduct founded upon it. Children require very little food for some time after the birth; and what they receive should be thin, weak, light, and of a cooling quality. A very small quantity of wine is sufficient to heat and inflame the blood of an infant; but every person conversant in these matters must know, that most of the diseases of infants proceed from the heat of their humours.

If the mother or nurse has enough of milk, the child will need little or no other food before the third or four month. It will then be proper to give it, once or twice a day, a little of some food that is easy of digestion, as water-pap, milk-pottage, weak broth with bread in it, and such like. This will ease the mother, will accustom the child by degrees to take food, and will render the weaning both less difficult and less dangerous. All great and sudden transitions are to be avoided in nursing. For this purpose, the food of children ought not only to be simple, but to resemble, as nearly as possible, the properties of milk. Indeed milk itself should make a principal part of their food, not only before they are weaned, but for some time after.

Next to milk, we would recommend good light bread. Bread may be given to a child as soon as it shews an inclination to chew; and it may at all times be allowed as much plain bread as it will eat. The very chewing of bread will promote the cutting of the teeth, and the discharge of saliva, while, by mixing with the nurse’s milk in the stomach, it will afford an excellent nourishment. Children discover an early inclination to chew whatever is put into their hands. Parents observe the inclination, but generally mistake the object. Instead of giving the child something which may at once exercise its gums and afford it nourishment, they commonly put into its hands a piece of hard metal, or impenetrable coral. A crust of bread is the best gum-stick. It not only answers the purpose better than any thing else, but has the additional properties of nourishing the child and carrying the saliva down to the stomach, which is too valuable a liquor to be lost.

Bread, besides being used dry, may be many ways prepared into food for children. One of the best methods is to boil it in water, afterwards pouring the water off, and mixing with the bread a proper quantity of new milk unboiled. Milk is both more wholesome and nourishing this way than boiled, and is less apt to occasion costiveness. For a child farther advanced, bread may be mixed in veal or chicken broth, made into puddings, or the like. Bread is a proper food for children at all times, provided it be plain, made of wholesome grain, and well fermented; but when enriched with fruits, sugars, or such things, it becomes very unwholesome.

It is soon enough to allow children animal food when they have got teeth to eat it. They should never taste it till after they are weaned, and even then they ought to use it sparingly. Indeed, when children live wholly on vegetable food, it is apt to sour on their stomachs; but, on the other hand, too much flesh heats the body, and occasions fevers and other inflammatory diseases. This plainly points out a due mixture of animal and vegetable food as most proper for children.

Few things prove more hurtful to infants, than the common method of sweetening their food. It entices them to take more than they ought to do, which makes them grow fat and bloated. It is pretty certain, if the food of children were quite plain, that they would never take more than enough. Their excesses are entirely owing to nurses. If a child be gorged with food at all hours, and enticed to take it, by making it sweet and agreeable to the palate, is it any wonder that such a child should in time be induced to crave more food than it ought to have?

Children may be hurt by too little as well as too much food. After a child is weaned, it ought to be fed four or five times a day; but should never be accustomed to eat in the night; neither should it have too much at a time. Children thrive best with small quantities of food frequently given. This neither overloads the stomach nor hurts the digestion, and is certainly most agreeable to Nature.

Writers on nursing have inveighed with such vehemence against giving children too much food, that many parents, by endeavouring to shun that error, have run into the opposite extreme, and ruined the constitutions of their children. But the error of pinching children in their food is more hurtful than the other extreme. Nature has many ways of relieving herself when overcharged; but a child, who is pinched with hunger, will never become a strong or healthy man. That errors are frequently committed on both sides, we are ready to acknowledge; but where one child is hurt by the quantity of its food, ten suffer from the quality. This is the principal evil, and claims our strictest attention.

Many people imagine, that the food which they themselves love cannot be bad for their children: but this notion is very absurd. In the more advanced periods of life we often acquire an inclination for food, which when children we could not endure. Besides, there are many things that by habit may agree very well with the stomach of a grown person, which would be hurtful to a child; as high-seasoned, salted, and smoke-dried provisions, &c. It would also be improper to feed children with fat meat, strong broths, rich soups, or the like.

All strong liquors are hurtful to children. Some parents teach their children to guzzle ale, and other fermented liquors, at every meal. Such a practice cannot fail to do mischief. These children seldom escape the violence of the small-pox, measles, hooping cough, or some inflammatory disorder. Milk, water, butter-milk, or whey, are the most proper for children to drink. If they have any thing stronger, it may be fine small beer, or a little wine mixed with water. The stomachs of children can digest well enough without the assistance of warm stimulants: besides, being naturally hot, they are easily hurt by every thing of a heating quality.

Few things are more hurtful to children than unripe fruits. They weaken the powers of digestion, and sour and relax the stomach, by which means it becomes a proper nest for insects. Children indeed shew a great inclination for fruit, and I am apt to believe, that if good ripe fruit were allowed them in proper quantity, it would have no bad effects. We never find a natural inclination wrong, if properly regulated. Fruits are generally of a cooling nature, and correct the heat and acrimony of the humours. This is what most children require; only care should be taken lest they exceed. Indeed the best way to prevent children from going to excess in the use of fruit, or eating that which is bad, is to allow them a proper quantity of what is good[^[12]].

Roots which contain a crude viscid juice should be sparingly given to children. They fill the body with gross humours, and tend to produce eruptive diseases. This caution is peculiarly necessary for the poor; glad to obtain at a small price what will fill the bellies of their children, they stuff them two or three times a day with greasy potatoes, or other crude vegetables. Children had better eat a smaller quantity of food which yields a wholesome nourishment, than be crammed with what their digestive powers are unable properly to assimilate.

Butter ought likewise to be sparingly given to children. It both relaxes the stomach, and produces gross humours. Indeed, most things that are fat or oily, have this effect. Butter, when salted, becomes still more hurtful. Instead of butter, so liberally given to children in most parts of Britain, we would recommend honey. Honey is not only wholesome, but cooling, cleansing, and tends to sweeten the humours. Children who eat honey are seldom troubled with worms: they are also less subject to cutaneous diseases, as itch, scabbed head, &c.

Many people err in thinking that the diet of children ought to be altogether moist. When children live entirely upon slops, it relaxes their solids, renders them weak, and disposes them to the rickets, the scrophula, and other glandular disorders. Relaxation is one of the most general causes of the diseases of children. Every thing therefore which tends to unbrace their solids, ought to be carefully avoided.

We would not be understood by these observations as confining children to any particular kind of food. Their diet may be frequently varied, provided always that sufficient regard be had to simplicity.

Of the Exercise of Children.

Of all the causes which conspire to render the life of man short and miserable, none has greater influence than the want of proper EXERCISE: healthy parents, wholesome food, and proper clothing, will avail little, where exercise is neglected. Sufficient exercise will make up for several defects in nursing; but nothing can supply the want of it. It is absolutely necessary to the health, the growth, and the strength of children.

The desire of exercise is coëval with life itself. Were this principle attended to, many diseases might be prevented. But, while indolence and sedentary employments prevent two-thirds of mankind from either taking sufficient exercise themselves, or giving it to their children, what have we to expect but diseases and deformity among their offspring? The rickets, so destructive to children, never appeared in Britain till manufactures began to flourish, and people, attracted by the love of gain, left the country to follow sedentary employments in great towns. It is amongst these people that this disease chiefly prevails, and not only deforms, but kills many of their offspring.

The conduct of other young animals shews the propriety of giving exercise to children. Every other animal makes use of its organs of motion as soon as it can, and many of them, even when under no necessity of moving in quest of food, cannot be restrained without force. This is evidently the case with the calf, the lamb, and most other young animals. If these creatures were not permitted to frisk about and take exercise, they would soon die or become diseased. The same inclination appears very early in the human species; but as they are not able to take exercise themselves, it is the business of their parents and nurses to assist them.

Children may be exercised various ways. The best method, while they are light, is to carry them about in the nurse’s arms[^[13]]. This gives the nurse an opportunity of talking to the child, and of pointing out every thing that may please and delight its fancy. Besides, it is much safer than swinging an infant in a machine, or leaving it to the care of such as are not fit to take care of themselves. Nothing can be more absurd than to set one child to keep another: this conduct has proved fatal to many infants, and has rendered others miserable for life.

When children begin to walk, the safest and best method of leading them about, is by the hands. The common way, of swinging them in leading-strings fixed to their backs, has several bad consequences. It makes them throw their bodies forward, and press with their whole weight upon the stomach and breast; by this means the breathing is obstructed, the breast flattened, and the bowels compressed; which must hurt the digestion, and occasion consumptions of the lungs, and other diseases.

It is a common notion, that if children are set upon their feet too soon, their legs will become crooked. There is reason to believe, that the very reverse of this is true. Every member acquires strength in proportion as it is exercised. The limbs of children are weak indeed, but their bodies are proportionally light; and had they skill to direct themselves, they would soon be able to support their own weight. Who ever heard of any other animal that became crooked by using its legs too soon? Indeed, if a child is not permitted to make any use of its legs till a considerable time after the birth, and be then set upon them with its whole weight at once, there may be some danger; but this proceeds entirely from the child’s not having been accustomed to use its legs from the beginning.

Mothers of the poorer sort think they are great gainers by making their children lie or sit while they themselves work. In this they are greatly mistaken. By neglecting to give their children exercise, they are obliged to keep them a long time before they can do any thing for themselves, and to spend more on medicine than would have paid for proper care.

To take care of their children, is the most useful business in which even the poor can be employed: but, alas! it is not always in their power. Poverty often obliges them to neglect their offspring, in order to procure the necessaries of life. When this is the case, it becomes the interest as well as the duty of the public to assist them. Ten thousand times more benefit would accrue to the State, by enabling the poor to bring up their own children, than from all the hospitals[^[14]] that ever can be erected for that purpose.

Whoever considers the structure of the human body will soon be convinced of the necessity of exercise for the health of children. The body is composed of an infinite number of tubes, whose fluids cannot be pushed on without the action and pressure of the muscles. But, if the fluids remain inactive, obstructions must happen, and the humours will of course be vitiated, which cannot fail to occasion diseases. Nature has furnished both the vessels which carry the blood and lymph with numerous valves, in order that the action of every muscle might push forward their contents; but without action, this admirable contrivance can have no effect. This part of the animal œconomy proves to a demonstration the necessity of exercise for the preservation of health.

Arguments to shew the importance of exercise might be drawn from every part of the animal œconomy; without exercise, the circulation of the blood cannot be properly carried on, nor the different secretions duly performed; without exercise, the fluids cannot be properly prepared, nor the solids rendered strong or firm. The action of the heart, the motion of the lungs, and all the vital functions, are greatly assisted by exercise. But to point out the manner in which these effects are produced, would lead us farther into the œconomy of the human body, than most of those for whom this treatise is intended would be able to follow. We shall therefore only add, that, where exercise is neglected, none of the animal functions can be duly performed; and when that is the case, the whole constitution must go to wreck.

A good constitution ought certainly to be our first object in the management of children. It lays a foundation for their being useful and happy in life; and whoever neglects it, not only fails in his duty to his offspring, but to society.

One very common error of parents, by which they hurt the constitutions of their children, is the sending them too young to school. This is often done solely to prevent trouble. When the child is at school, he needs no keeper. Thus the schoolmaster is made the nurse; and the poor child is fixed to a seat seven or eight hours a day, which time ought to be spent in exercise and diversions. Sitting so long cannot fail to produce the worst effects upon the body; nor is the mind less injured. Early application weakens the faculties, and often fixes in the mind an aversion to books, which continues for life[^[15]].

But, suppose this were the way to make children scholars, it certainly ought not to be done at the expence of their constitutions. Our ancestors, who seldom went to school very young, were not less learned than we. But we imagine the boy’s education will be quite marred, unless he be carried to school in his nurse’s arms. No wonder if such hotbed plants seldom become either scholars or men!

Not only the confinement of children in public schools, but their number, often proves hurtful. Children are much injured by being kept in crowds within doors; their breathing not only renders the place unwholesome, but if any one of them happens to be diseased, the rest catch the infection. A single child has been often known to communicate the bloody flux, the hooping-cough, the itch, or other diseases, to almost every individual in a numerous school.

But, if fashion must prevail, and infants are to be sent to school, we would recommend it to teachers, as they value the interests of society, not to confine them too long at a time, but allow them to run about and play at such active diversions as may promote their growth, and strengthen their constitutions. Were boys, instead of being whipped for stealing an hour to run, ride, swim, or the like, encouraged to employ a proper part of their time in these manly and useful exercises, it would have many excellent effects.

It would be of great service to boys, if, at a proper age, they were taught the military exercise. This would increase their strength, inspire them with courage, and when their country called for their assistance, would enable them to act in her defence, without being obliged to undergo a tedious and troublesome course of instructions, at a time when they are less fit to learn new motions, gestures, &c.[^[16]]

An effeminate education will infallibly spoil the best natural constitution; and if boys are brought up in a more delicate manner than even girls ought to be, they never will be men.

Nor is the common education of girls less hurtful to the constitution than that of boys. Miss is set down to her frame before she can put on her clothes; and is taught to believe, that to excel at the needle is the only thing that can entitle her to general esteem. It is unnecessary here to insist upon the dangerous consequences of obliging girls to sit too much. They are pretty well known, and are too often felt at a certain time of life. But supposing this critical period to be got over, greater dangers still await them when they come to be mothers. Women who have been early accustomed to a sedentary life, generally run great hazard in child-bed; while those who have been used to romp about, and take sufficient exercise, are seldom in any danger.

One hardly meets with a girl who can at the same time boast of early performances by the needle, and a good constitution. Close and early confinement generally occasions indigestions, head-achs, pale complexions, pain of the stomach, loss of appetite, coughs, consumptions of the lungs, and deformity of body. The last of these indeed is not to be wondered at, considering the awkward postures in which girls sit at many kinds of needle-work, and the delicate flexible state of their bodies in the early periods of life.

Would mothers, instead of having their daughters instructed in many trifling accomplishments, employ them in plain work and housewifery, and allow them sufficient exercise in the open air, they would both make them more healthy mothers, and more useful members of society. I am no enemy to genteel accomplishments, but would have them only considered as secondary, and always disregarded when they impair health.

Many people imagine it a great advantage for children to be early taught to earn their bread. This opinion is certainly right, provided they were so employed as not to hurt their health or growth; but, when these suffer, society, instead of being benefited, is a real loser by their labour. There are few employments, except sedentary ones, by which children can earn a livelihood; and if they be set to these too soon, it ruins their constitutions. Thus, by gaining a few years from childhood, we generally lose twice as many in the latter period of life, and even render the person less useful while he does live.

In order to be satisfied of the truth of this observation, we need only look into the great manufacturing towns, where we shall find a puny degenerate race of people, weak and sickly all their lives, seldom exceeding the middle period of life; or if they do, being unfit for business, they become a burden to society. Thus arts and manufactures, though they may increase the riches of a country, are by no means favourable to the health of its inhabitants. Good policy would therefore require, that such people as labour during life, should not be set too early to work. Every person conversant in the breed of horses, or other working animals, knows, that if they be set to hard labour too soon, they never will turn out to advantage. This is equally true with respect to the human species.

There are nevertheless various ways of employing young people without hurting their health. The easier parts of gardening, husbandry, or any business carried on without doors, are most proper. These are employments which most young people are fond of, and some parts of them may always be adapted to their age, taste, and strength[^[17]].

Such parents, however, as are under the necessity of employing their children within doors, ought to allow them sufficient time for active diversions without. This would both encourage them to do more work, and prevent their constitutions from being hurt.

Some imagine, that exercise within doors is sufficient; but they are greatly mistaken. One hour spent in running, or any other exercise without doors, is worth ten within. When children cannot go abroad, they may indeed be exercised at home. The best method of doing this, is to make them run about in a long room, or dance. This last kind of exercise, if not carried to excess, is of excellent service to young people. It cheers the spirits, promotes perspiration, strengthens the limbs, &c. I know an eminent physician who used to say, that he made his children dance, instead of giving them physic. It were well if more people followed his example.

The COLD BATH may be considered as an aid to exercise. By it the body is braced and strengthened, the circulation and secretions promoted, and, were it conducted with prudence, many diseases, as the rickets, scrophula, &c. might thereby be prevented. The ancients, who took every method to render children hardy and robust, were no strangers to the use of the cold bath; and, if we may credit report, the practice of immersing children daily in cold water must have been very common among our ancestors.

The greatest objection to the use of the cold bath arises from the superstitious prejudices of nurses. These are often so strong, that it is impossible to bring them to make a proper use of it. I have known some of them who would not dry a child’s skin after bathing it, lest it should destroy the effect of the water. Others will even put cloths dipt in the water upon the child, and either put it to bed, or suffer it to go about in that condition. Some believe, that the whole virtue of the water depends upon its being dedicated to a particular saint: while others place their confidence in a certain number of dips, as three, seven, nine, or the like; and the world could not persuade them, if these do not succeed, to try it a little longer. Thus, by the whims of nurses, children lose the benefit of the cold bath, and the hopes of the physician from that medicine are often frustrated.

We ought not, however, entirely to set aside the cold bath, because some nurses make a wrong use of it. Every child, when in health, should at least have its extremities daily washed in cold water. This is a partial use of the cold bath, and is better than none. In winter this may suffice; but, in the warm season, if a child be relaxed, or seem to have a tendency to the rickets or scrophula, its whole body ought to be frequently immersed in cold water. Care however must be taken not to do this when the body is hot, or the stomach full. The child should be dipt only once at a time, should be taken out immediately, and have its skin well rubbed with a dry cloth.

The bad Effects of unwholesome Air upon Children.

Few things prove more destructive to children than confined or unwholesome air. This is one reason why so few of those infants, who are put into hospitals, or parish workhouses, live. These places are generally crowded with old, sickly, and infirm people; by which means the air is rendered so extremely pernicious, that it becomes a poison to infants.

Want of wholesome air is likewise destructive to many of the children born in great towns. There the poorer sort of inhabitants live in low, dirty, confined houses, to which the fresh air has hardly any access. Though grown people, who are hardy and robust, may live in such situations, yet they generally prove fatal to their offspring, few of whom arrive at maturity, and those who do are weak and deformed. As such people are not in a condition to carry their children abroad into the open air, we must lay our account with losing the greater part of them. But the rich have not this excuse. It is their business to see that their children be daily carried abroad, and that they be kept in the open air for a sufficient time. This will always succeed better if the mother goes along with them. Servants are often negligent in these matters, and allow a child to sit or lie on the damp ground, instead of leading or carrying it about. The mother surely needs air as well as her children; and how can she be better employed than in attending them?

A very bad custom prevails, of making children sleep in small apartments, or crowding two or three beds into one chamber. Instead of this, the nursery ought always to be the largest and best aired room in the house. When children are confined in small apartments, the air not only becomes unwholesome, but the heat relaxes their solids, renders them delicate, and disposes them to colds and many other disorders. Nor is the custom of wrapping them up too close in cradles less pernicious. One would think that nurses were afraid lest children should suffer by breathing free air, as many of them actually cover the child’s face while asleep, and others wrap a covering over the whole cradle, by which means the child is forced to breathe the same air over and over all the time it sleeps. Cradles indeed are on many accounts hurtful to children, and it would be better if the use of them were totally laid aside[^[18]].

A child is generally laid to sleep with all its clothes on; and if a number of others are heaped above them, it must be overheated; by which means it cannot fail to catch cold on being taken out of the cradle, and exposed to the open air with only its usual clothing, which is too frequently the case.

Children who are kept within doors all day, and sleep all night in warm close apartments, may, with great propriety, be compared to plants, nursed in a hot-house, instead of the open air. Though such plants may by this means be kept alive for some time, they will never arrive at that degree of strength, vigour, and magnitude, which they would have acquired in the open air, nor would they be able to bear it afterwards, should they be exposed to it.

Children brought up in the country, who have been accustomed to open air, should not be too early sent to great towns, where it is confined and unwholesome. This is frequently done with a view to forward their education, but proves very hurtful to their health. All schools and seminaries of learning ought, if possible, to be so situated as to have fresh, dry, wholesome air, and should never be too much crowded.

Without entering into a detail of the particular advantages of wholesome air to children, or of the bad consequences which proceed from the want of it, I shall only observe, that, of several thousands of children which have been under my care, I do not remember one instance of a single child who continued healthy in a close confined situation; but have often known the most obstinate diseases cured by removing them from such a situation to an open free air.

Of Nurses.

It is not here intended to lay down rules for the choice of nurses. This would be wasting time. Common sense will direct every one to chuse a woman who is healthy, and has plenty of milk[^[19]]. If she be at the same time cleanly, careful, and goodnatured, she can hardly fail to make a proper nurse. After all, however, the only certain proof of a good nurse, is a healthy child upon her breast. But, as the misconduct of nurses often proves fatal to children, it will be of importance to point out a few of their most baneful errors, in order to rouse the attention of parents, and to make them look more strictly into the conduct of those to whom they commit the care of their infant offspring.

Though it admits of some exceptions, yet we may lay it down as a general rule, that every woman who nurses for hire should be carefully looked after, otherwise she will not do her duty. For this reason parents ought always to have their children nursed under their own eye, if possible; and where this cannot be done, they should be extremely circumspect in the choice of those persons to whom they entrust them. It is folly to imagine that any woman, who abandons her own child to suckle another for the sake of gain, should feel all the affections of a parent towards her nursing; yet so necessary are these affections in a nurse, that, but for them, the human race would soon be extinct.

One of the most common faults of those who nurse for hire, is to dose children with stupefactives, or such things as lull them asleep. An indolent nurse, who does not give a child sufficient exercise in the open air to make it sleep, and does not chuse to be disturbed by it in the night, will seldom fail to procure for it a dose of laudanum, diacodium, saffron, or what answers the same purpose, a dose of spirits, or other strong liquors. These, though they be certain poison to infants, are every day administered by many who bear the character of very good nurses[^[20]].

A nurse who has not milk enough is apt to imagine that this defect may be supplied by giving the child wines, cordial waters, or other strong liquors. This is an egregious mistake. The only thing that has any chance to supply the place of the nurse’s milk, must be somewhat nearly of the same quality, as cow’s milk, ass’s milk, or beef tea, with good bread. It never can be done by the help of strong liquors. These, instead of nourishing an infant, never fail to produce the contrary effect.

Children are often hurt by nurses suffering them to cry long and vehemently. This strains their tender bodies, and frequently occasions ruptures, inflammations of the throat, lungs, &c. A child never continues to cry long without some cause, which might always be discovered by proper attention; and the nurse who can hear an infant cry till it has almost spent itself, without endeavouring to please it, must be cruel indeed, and is unworthy to be intrusted with the care of an human creature.

Nurses who deal much in medicine are always to be suspected. They trust to it, and neglect their duty. I never knew a good nurse who had her Godfrey’s cordials, Daffy’s elixirs, &c. at hand. Such generally imagine, that a dose of medicine will make up for all defects in food, air, exercise, and cleanliness. By errors of this kind, I will venture to say, that one half the children who die annually in London lose their lives.

Allowing children to continue long wet, is another very pernicious custom of indolent nurses. This is not only disagreeable, but it galls and frets the infant, and by relaxing the solids, occasions scrophulas, rickets, and other diseases. A dirty nurse is always to be suspected.

Nature often attempts to free the bodies of children from bad humours, by throwing them upon the skin: by this means fevers and other diseases are prevented. Nurses are apt to mistake such critical eruptions for an itch, or some other infectious disorder. Accordingly they take every method to drive them in. In this way many children lose their lives; and no wonder, as Nature is opposed in the very method she takes to relieve them. It ought to be a rule, which every nurse should observe, never to stop any eruption without proper advice, or being well assured that it is not of a critical nature. At any rate, it is never to be done without previous evacuations.

Loose stools is another method by which Nature often prevents or carries off the diseases of infants. If these proceed too far, no doubt they ought to be checked; but this is never to be done without the greatest caution. Nurses, upon the first appearance of loose stools, frequently fly to the use of astringents, or such things as bind the body. Hence inflammatory fevers, and other fatal diseases, are occasioned. A dose of rhubarb, a gentle vomit, or some other evacuation, should always precede the use of astringent medicines.

One of the greatest faults of nurses is, concealing the diseases of children from their parents. This they are extremely ready to do, especially when the disease is the effect of their own negligence. Many instances might be given of persons who have been rendered lame for life by a fall from their nurse’s arms, which she, through fear, concealed till the misfortune was past cure. Every parent who intrusts a nurse with the care of a child, ought to give her the strictest charge not to conceal the most trifling disorder or misfortune that may befal it.

We can see no reason why a nurse, who conceals any misfortune which happens to a child under her care, till it loses its life or limbs, should not be punished. A few examples of this would save the lives of many infants; but as there is little reason to expect that it ever will be the case, we would earnestly recommend it to all parents to look carefully after their children, and not to trust so valuable a treasure entirely in the hands of an hireling.

No person ought to imagine these things unworthy of his attention. On the proper management of children depend not only their health and usefulness in life, but likewise the safety and prosperity of the state to which they belong. Effeminacy ever will prove the ruin of any state where it prevails; and, when its foundations are laid in infancy, it can never afterwards be wholly eradicated. Parents who love their offspring, and wish well to their country, ought therefore, in the management of their children, to avoid every thing that may have a tendency to make them weak or effeminate, and to take every method in their power to render their constitutions strong and hardy.

——By arts like these

Laconia nurs’d of old her hardy sons;

And Rome’s unconquer’d legions urg’d their way,

Unhurt, thro’ every toil in every clime[^[21]].

CHAP. II.
OF THE LABORIOUS, THE SEDENTARY, AND THE STUDIOUS.

That men are exposed to particular diseases from the occupations which they follow, is a fact well known; but to remedy this evil is a matter of some difficulty. Most people are under the necessity of following those employments to which they have been bred, whether they be favourable to health or not. For this reason, instead of inveighing, in a general way, as some authors have done, against those occupations which are hurtful to health, we shall endeavour to point out the circumstances in each of them from which the danger chiefly arises, and to propose the most rational methods of preventing it.

Chymists, founders, forgers, glass-makers, and several other artists, are hurt by the unwholesome air which they are obliged to breathe. This air is not only loaded with the noxious exhalations arising from metals and minerals, but is so charged with phlogiston as to be rendered unfit for expanding the lungs sufficiently, and answering the other important purposes of respiration. Hence proceed asthmas, coughs, and consumptions of the lungs, so incident to persons who follow these employments.

To prevent such consequences, as far as possible, the places where these occupations are carried on, ought to be constructed in such a manner as to discharge the smoke and other exhalations, and admit a free current of fresh air. Such artists ought never to continue too long at work; and when they give over, they should suffer themselves to cool gradually, and put on their clothes before they go into the open air. They ought never to drink large quantities of cold, weak, or watery liquors, while their bodies are hot, nor to indulge in raw fruits, sallads, or any thing that is cold on the stomach[^[22]].

Miners, and all who work under ground, are likewise hurt by unwholesome air. The air, by its stagnation in deep mines, not only loses its proper spring and other qualities necessary for respiration, but is often loaded with such noxious exhalations as to become a most deadly poison.

The two kinds of air which prove most destructive to miners, are what they call the fire damp, and the choke damp. In both cases the air becomes a poison, by its being loaded with phlogiston. The danger from the former may be obviated by making it explode before it accumulates in too great quantities; and the latter may be generally carried off by promoting a free circulation of air in the mine.

Miners are not only hurt by unwholesome air, but likewise by the particles of metal which adhere to their skin, clothes, &c. These are absorbed, or taken up into the body, and occasion palsies, vertigoes, and other nervous affections, which often prove fatal. Fallopius observes, that those who work in mines of mercury seldom live above three or four years. Lead, and several other metals, are likewise very pernicious to the health.

Miners ought never to go to work fasting, nor to continue too long at work. Their food ought to be nourishing, and their liquor generous: nothing more certainly hurts them than living too low. They should by all means avoid costiveness. This may either be done by chewing a little rhubarb, or taking a sufficient quantity of sallad oil. Oil not only opens the body, but sheaths and defends the intestines from the ill effects of the metals. All who work in mines or metals ought to wash carefully, and to change their clothes as soon as they give over working. Nothing would tend more to preserve the health of such people than a strict, and almost religious regard to cleanliness.

Plumbers, painters, gilders, smelters, makers of white lead, and many others who work in metals, are liable to the same diseases as miners, and ought to observe the same directions for avoiding them.

Tallow-chandlers, boilers of oil, and all who work in putrid animal substances, are likewise liable to suffer from the unwholesome smells or effluvia of these bodies. They ought to pay the same regard to cleanliness as miners; and when they are affected with nausea, sickness, or indigestion, we would advise them to take a vomit or a gentle purge. Such substances ought always to be manufactured as soon as possible. When long kept, they not only become unwholesome to those who manufacture them, but likewise to people who live in the neighbourhood.

It would greatly exceed the limits of this part of our subject, to specify the diseases peculiar to persons of every occupation; we shall therefore consider mankind under the general classes of Laborious, Sedentary, and Studious.

THE LABORIOUS.

Though those who follow laborious employments are in general the most healthy of mankind, yet the nature of their occupations, and the places where they are carried on, expose them more particularly to some diseases. Husbandmen, for example, are exposed to all the vicissitudes of the weather, which, in this country, are often very great and sudden, and occasion colds, coughs, quinsies, rheumatisms, fevers, and other acute disorders. They are likewise forced to work hard, and often to carry burdens above their strength, which, by overstraining the vessels, occasion asthmas, ruptures, pleurisies, &c.

Those who labour without doors are often afflicted with intermitting fevers or agues, occasioned by the frequent vicissitudes of heat and cold, poor living, bad water, sitting or lying on the damp ground, evening dews, night air, &c. to which they are frequently exposed.

Such as bear heavy burdens, as porters, labourers, &c. are obliged to draw in the air with much greater force, and also to keep their lungs distended with more violence than is necessary for common respiration: by this means the tender vessels of the lungs are overstretched, and often burst, insomuch that a spitting of blood or fever ensues. Hippocrates mentions an instance to this purpose, of a man, who, upon a wager, carried an ass; but was soon after seized with a fever, a vomiting of blood, and a rupture.

Carrying heavy burdens is generally the effect of mere laziness, which prompts people to do at once what should be done at twice. Sometimes it proceeds from vanity or emulation. Hence it is, that the strongest men are most commonly hurt by heavy burdens, hard labour, or feats of activity. It is rare to find one who boasts of his strength without a rupture, a spitting of blood, or some other disease, which he reaps as the fruit of his folly. One would imagine, the daily instances we have, of the fatal effects of carrying great weights, running, wrestling, and the like, would be sufficient to prevent such practices.

There are indeed some employments which necessarily require a great exertion of strength, as porters, blacksmiths, carpenters, &c. None ought to follow these but men of strong body; and they should never exert their strength to the utmost, nor work too long. When the muscles are violently strained, frequent rest is necessary, in order that they may recover their tone; without this, the strength and constitution will soon be worn out, and a premature old age be induced.

The erysipelas, or St. Anthony’s fire, is a disease very incident to the laborious. It is occasioned by whatever gives a sudden check to the perspiration, as drinking cold water when the body is warm, wet feet, keeping on wet clothes, sitting or lying on the damp ground, &c. It is impossible for those who labour without doors always to guard against these inconveniences; but it is known from experience, that their ill consequences might often be prevented by proper care.

The iliac passion, the cholic, and other complaints of the bowels, are often occasioned by the same causes as the erysipelas; but they may likewise proceed from flatulent and indigestible food. Labourers generally eat unfermented bread, made of peas, beans, rye, and other windy ingredients. They also devour great quantities of unripe fruits, baked, stewed, or raw, with various kinds of roots and herbs, upon which they often drink sour milk, stale small beer, or the like. Such a mixture cannot fail to fill the bowels with wind, and occasion diseases of those parts.

Inflammations, whitloes, and other diseases of the extremities, are likewise common among those who labour without doors. These diseases are often attributed to venom, or some kind of poison; but they generally proceed either from sudden heat after cold, or the contrary. When labourers, milk-maids, &c. come from the field, cold or wet, they run to the fire, and often plunge their hands in warm water, by which means the blood and other humours in those parts are suddenly expanded, and, the vessels not yielding so quickly, a strangulation happens, and an inflammation or a mortification ensues.

When such persons come home cold, they ought to keep at a distance from the fire for some time, to wash their hands in cold water, and to rub them well with a dry cloth. It sometimes happens, that people are so benumbed with cold, as to be quite deprived of the use of their limbs. In this case, the only remedy is to rub the parts affected with snow, or, where it cannot be had, with cold water. If they be held near the fire, or plunged into warm water, a mortification will generally ensue.

Labourers in the hot season are apt to lie down, and sleep in the sun. This practice is so dangerous, that they often wake in a burning fever. These ardent fevers, which prove so fatal about the end of summer and beginning of autumn, are frequently occasioned by this means. When labourers leave off work, which they ought always to do during the heat of the day, they should go home, or, at least, get under some cover, where they may repose themselves in safety.

Many people follow their employments in the fields from morning till night, without eating any thing. This cannot fail to hurt their health. However homely their fare be, they ought to have it at regular times; and the harder they work, the more frequently they should eat. If the humours be not frequently replenished with fresh nourishment, they soon become putrid, and produce fevers of the very worst kind.

Many peasants are extremely careless with respect to what they eat or drink, and often, through mere indolence, use unwholesome food, when they might for the same expence have that which is wholesome. In some parts of Britain, the peasants are too careless even to take the trouble of dressing their own victuals. Such people would live upon one meal a day in indolence, rather than labour, though it were to procure them the greatest affluence.

Fevers of a very bad kind are often occasioned among labourers by poor living. When the body is not sufficiently nourished, the humours become vitiated, and the solids weak; from whence the most fatal consequences ensue. Poor living is likewise productive of many of those cutaneous diseases so frequent among the lower class of people. It is remarkable that cattle, when pinched in their food, are generally affected with diseases of the skin, which seldom fail to disappear, when they are put upon a good pasture. This shews how much a good state of the humours depends upon a sufficient quantity of proper nourishment.

Poverty not only occasions, but aggravates, many of the diseases of the laborious. Few of them have much foresight; and, if they had, it is seldom in their power to save any thing. They are glad to make a shift to live from day to day; and, when any disease overtakes them, they are miserable indeed. Here the godlike virtue of charity ought always to exert itself. To relieve the industrious poor in distress, is surely the most exalted act of religion and humanity. They alone, who are witnesses of those scenes of calamity, can form a notion of what numbers perish in diseases, for want of proper assistance, and even for want of the necessaries of life.

Labourers are often hurt by a foolish emulation, which prompts them to vie with one another, till they overheat themselves to such a degree as to occasion a fever, or even to drop down dead. Such as wantonly throw away their lives in this manner, deserve to be looked upon in no better light than self-murderers.

The office of a soldier, in time of war, may be ranked among the laborious employments. Soldiers suffer many hardships from the inclemency of seasons, long marches, bad provisions, hunger, watching, unwholesome climates, bad water, &c. These occasion fevers, fluxes, rheumatisms, and other fatal diseases, which generally do greater execution than the sword, especially when campaigns are continued too late in the season. A few weeks of cold rainy weather will often prove more fatal than an engagement.

Those who have the command of armies should take care that their soldiers be well clothed and well fed. They ought also to finish their campaigns in due season, and to provide their men with dry and well-aired winter quarters. These rules, taking care, at the same time, to keep the sick at a proper distance from those in health, would tend greatly to preserve the lives of the soldiery[^[23]].

Sailors may also be numbered among the laborious. They undergo great hardships from change of climate, the violence of weather, hard labour, bad provisions, &c. Sailors are of so great importance both to the trade and safety of this kingdom, that too much pains can never be bestowed in pointing out the means of preserving their lives.

One great source of the diseases of sea-faring people is excess. When they get on shore, after having been long at sea, without regard to the climate, or their own constitutions, they plunge headlong into all manner of riot, and often persist till a fever puts an end to their lives. Thus intemperance, and not the climate, is often the cause why so many of our brave sailors die on foreign coasts. Such people ought not to live too low; but they will find moderation the best defence against fevers, and many other maladies.

Sailors, when on duty, cannot avoid sometimes getting wet. When this happens, they should change their clothes as soon as they are relieved, and take every method to restore the perspiration. They should not, in this case, make too free with spirits or other strong liquors, but should rather drink them diluted with warm water, and go immediately to bed, where a sound sleep and a gentle sweat would set all to rights.

But the health of sailors suffers most from unwholesome food. The constant use of salted provisions vitiates their humours, and occasions the scurvy, and other obstinate maladies. It is no easy matter to prevent this disease in long voyages; yet we cannot help thinking, that much might be done towards effecting so desirable an end, were due pains bestowed for that purpose. For example, various roots, greens, and fruits, might be kept a long time at sea, as onions, potatoes, cabbages, lemons, oranges, tamarinds, apples, &c. When fruits cannot be kept, the juices of them, either fresh or fermented, may. With these all the drink, and even the food of the ship’s company, ought to be acidulated in long voyages.

Stale bread and beer likewise contribute to vitiate the humours. Flour will keep for a long time on board, of which fresh bread might frequently be made. Malt too might be kept, and infused with boiling water at any time. This liquor, when drank even in form of wort, is very wholesome, and is found to be an antidote against the scurvy. Small wines and cyder might likewise be plentifully laid in; and should they turn sour, they would still be useful as vinegar. Vinegar is a great antidote against diseases, and should be used by all travellers, especially at sea. It may either be mixed with the water they drink, or taken in their food.

Such animals as can be kept alive, ought likewise to be carried on board, as hens, ducks, pigs, &c. Fresh broths made of portable soup, and puddings made of peas, or other vegetables, ought to be used plentifully. Many other things will readily occur to people conversant in these matters, which would tend to preserve the health of that brave and useful set of men[^[24]].

We have reason to believe, if due attention were paid to the diet, air, clothing, and above all things to the cleanliness of sea-faring people, they would be the most healthy set of men in the world; but when these are neglected, the very reverse will happen.

The best medical antidote that we can recommend to sailors or soldiers, on foreign coasts, especially where dampness prevails, is the Peruvian bark. This will often prevent fevers, and other fatal diseases. About a drachm of it may be chewed every day; or if this should prove disagreeable, an ounce of bark, with half an ounce of orange peel, and two drachms of snake-root coarsely powdered, may be infused for two or three days in an English quart of brandy, and half a wine glass of it taken twice or thrice a-day, when the stomach is empty. This has been found to be an excellent antidote against fluxes, putrid, intermitting, and other fevers, in unhealthy climates. It is not material in what form this medicine is taken. It may either be infused in water, wine, or spirits, as recommended above, or made into an electuary with syrup of lemons, oranges, or the like.

THE SEDENTARY.

Though nothing can be more contrary to the nature of man than a sedentary life, yet this class comprehends by far the greater part of the species. Almost the whole female world, and in manufacturing countries, the major part of the males, may be reckoned sedentary[^[25]].

Agriculture, the first and most healthful of all employments, is now followed by few who are able to carry on any other business. But those who imagine that the culture of the earth is not sufficient to employ all its inhabitants are greatly mistaken. An ancient Roman, we are told, could maintain his family from the produce of one acre of ground. So might a modern Briton, if he would be contented to live like a Roman. This shews what an immense increase of inhabitants Britain might admit of, and all of them live by the culture of the ground.

Agriculture is the great source of domestic riches. Where it is neglected, whatever wealth may be imported from abroad, poverty and misery will abound at home. Such is, and ever will be, the fluctuating state of trade and manufactures, that thousands of people may be in full employment to-day, and in beggary to-morrow. This can never happen to those who cultivate the ground. They can eat the fruit of their labour, and can always by industry obtain, at least, the necessaries of life.

Though sedentary employments are necessary, yet there seems to be no reason why any person should be confined for life to these alone. Were such employments intermixed with the more active and laborious, they would never do hurt. It is constant confinement that ruins the health. A man may not be hurt by sitting five or six hours a-day; but if he is obliged to sit ten or twelve, he will soon become diseased.

But it is not want of exercise alone which hurts sedentary people; they likewise suffer from the confined air which they breathe. It is very common to see ten or a dozen taylors[^[26]], or staymakers, for example, crowded into one small apartment, where there is hardly room for one person to breathe freely. In this situation they generally continue for many hours at a time, often with the addition of several candles, which tend likewise to waste the air, and render it less fit for respiration. Air that is breathed repeatedly becomes unfit for expanding the lungs. This is one cause of the phthisical coughs, and other complaints of the breath, so incident to sedentary artificers.

Even the perspiration from a great number of persons pent up together, renders the air unwholesome. The danger from this quarter will be greatly increased, if any one of them happens to have bad lungs, or to be otherwise diseased. Those who sit near him, being forced to breathe the same air, can hardly fail to be infected. It would be a rare thing, however, to find a dozen of sedentary people all in good health. The danger of crowding them together must therefore be evident to every one.

Many of those who follow sedentary employments are constantly in a bending posture, as shoemakers, taylors, cutlers, &c. Such a situation is extremely hurtful. A bending posture obstructs all the vital motions, and of course must destroy the health. Accordingly we find such artificers generally complaining of indigestions, flatulencies, head-achs, pains of the breast, &c.

The aliment in sedentary people, instead of being pushed forwards by an erect posture, and the action of the muscles, is in a manner confined in the bowels. Hence indigestions, costiveness, wind, and other hypochondriacal affections, the constant companions of the sedentary. Indeed none of the excretions can be duly performed where exercise is wanting; and when the matter which ought to be discharged in this way is retained too long in the body, it must have bad effects, as it is again taken up into the mass of humours.

A bending posture is likewise hurtful to the lungs. When this organ is compressed, the air cannot have free access into all its parts, so as to expand them properly. Hence tubercles, adhesions, &c. are formed, which often end in consumptions. Besides, the proper action of the lungs being absolutely necessary for making good blood, when that organ fails, the humours soon become universally depraved, and the whole constitution goes to wreck.

Sedentary artificers are not only hurt by pressure on the bowels, but also on the inferior extremities, which obstructs the circulation in these parts, and renders them weak and feeble. Thus taylors, shoemakers, &c. frequently lose the use of their legs altogether: besides, the blood and humours are, by stagnation, vitiated, and the perspiration is obstructed: from whence proceed the scab, ulcerous sores, foul blotches, and other cutaneous diseases, so common among sedentary artificers.

A bad figure of body is a very common consequence of close application to sedentary employments. The spine, for example, by being continually bent, puts on a crooked shape, and generally remains so ever after. But a bad figure of body has already been observed to be hurtful to health, as the vital functions are thereby impeded.

A sedentary life seldom fails to occasion an universal relaxation of the solids. This is the great source from whence most of the diseases of sedentary people flow. The scrophula, consumption, hysterics, and nervous diseases, now so common, were very little known in this country before sedentary artificers became so numerous: and they are very little known still among such of our people as follow active employments without doors, though in great towns at least two-thirds of the inhabitants are afflicted with them.

It is very difficult to remedy those evils, because many who have been accustomed to a sedentary life, like rickety children, lose all inclination for exercise; we shall, however, throw out a few hints with respect to the most likely means for preserving the health of this useful set of people, which some of them, we hope, will be wise enough to take.

It has been already observed, that sedentary artificers are often hurt by their bending posture. They ought therefore to stand or sit as erect as the nature of their employments will permit. They should likewise change their posture frequently, and should never sit too long at a time, but leave off work, and walk, ride, run, or do any thing that will promote the vital functions.

Sedentary artificers are generally allowed too little time for exercise; yet, short as it is, they seldom employ it properly. A journeyman taylor or weaver, for example, instead of walking abroad for exercise and fresh air, at his hours of leisure, chuses often to spend them in a public-house, or in playing at some sedentary game, by which he generally loses both his time and his money.

The awkward postures in which many sedentary artificers work, seem rather to be the effect of custom than necessity. For example, a table might surely be contrived for ten or a dozen taylors to sit round, with liberty for their legs either to hang down, or rest upon a foot-board, as they should chuse. A place might likewise be cut out for each person, in such a manner that he might sit as conveniently for working as in the present mode of sitting cross-legged.

All sedentary artificers ought to pay the most religious regard to cleanliness. Both their situation and occupations render this highly necessary. Nothing would contribute more to preserve their health, than a strict attention to it; and such of them as neglect it, not only run the hazard of losing health, but of becoming a nuisance to their neighbours.

Sedentary people ought to avoid food that is windy, or hard of digestion, and should pay the strictest regard to sobriety. A person who works hard without doors will soon throw off a debauch; but one who sits has by no means an equal chance. Hence it often happens, that sedentary people are seized with fevers after hard drinking. When such persons feel their spirits low, instead of running to the tavern for relief, they should ride, or walk in the fields. This would remove the complaint more effectually than strong liquor, and would never hurt the constitution.

Instead of multiplying rules for preserving the health of the sedentary, we shall recommend to them the following general plan, viz. That every person who follows a sedentary employment should cultivate a piece of ground with his own hands. This he might dig, plant, sow, and weed at leisure hours, so as to make it both an exercise and amusement, while it produced many of the necessaries of life. After working an hour in a garden, a man will return with more keenness to his employment within doors, than if he had been all the while idle.

Labouring the ground is every way conducive to health. It not only gives exercise to every part of the body, but the very smell of the earth and fresh herbs revives and cheers the spirits, whilst the perpetual prospect of something coming to maturity, delights and entertains the mind. We are so formed as to be always pleased with somewhat in prospect, however distant or however trivial. Hence the happiness that most men feel in planting, sowing, building, &c. These seem to have been the chief employments of the more early ages: and, when kings and conquerors cultivated the ground, there is reason to believe that they knew as well wherein true happiness consisted as we do.

It may seem romantic to recommend gardening to manufacturers in great towns; but observation proves that the plan is very practicable. In the town of Sheffield, in Yorkshire, where the great iron manufacture is carried on, there is hardly a journeyman cutler who does not possess a piece of ground, which he cultivates as a garden. This practice has many salutary effects. It not only induces these people to take exercise without doors, but also to eat many greens, roots, &c. of their own growth, which they would never think of purchasing. There can be no reason why manufacturers in any other town in Great Britain should not follow the same plan. It is indeed to be regretted, that in such a place as London a plan of this kind is not practicable; yet even there sedentary artificers may find opportunities of taking air and exercise, if they chuse to embrace them.

Mechanics are too much inclined to crowd into great towns. The situation may have some advantages; but it has likewise many disadvantages. All mechanics who live in the country have it in their power to cultivate a piece of ground; which indeed most of them do. This not only gives them exercise, but enables them to live more comfortably. So far at least as my observation extends, mechanics who live in the country are far more happy than those in great towns. They enjoy better health, live in greater affluence, and seldom fail to rear a healthy and numerous offspring.

In a word, exercise without doors, in one shape or another, is absolutely necessary to health. Those who neglect it, though they may for a while drag out life, can hardly be said to enjoy it. Weak and effeminate, they languish for a few years, and soon drop into an untimely grave.

THE STUDIOUS.

Intense thinking is so destructive to health, that few instances can be produced of studious persons who are strong and healthy. Hard study always implies a sedentary life; and when intense thinking is joined to the want of exercise, the consequences must be bad. We have frequently known even a few months of close application to study ruin an excellent constitution, by inducing a train of nervous complaints which could never be removed. Man is evidently not formed for continual thought more than for perpetual action, and would be as soon worn out by the one as by the other.

So great is the power of the mind over the body, that, by its influence, the whole vital motions may be accelerated or retarded, to almost any degree. Thus cheerfulness and mirth quicken the circulation, and promote all the secretions; whereas sadness and profound thought never fail to retard them. Hence it would appear, that even a degree of thoughtlessness is necessary to health. Indeed, the perpetual thinker seldom enjoys either health or spirits; while the person, who can hardly be said to think at all, generally enjoys both.

Perpetual thinkers, as they are called, seldom think long. In a few years they generally become quite stupid, and exhibit a melancholy proof how readily the greatest blessings may be abused. Thinking, like every thing else, when carried to extreme, becomes a vice: nor can any thing afford a greater proof of wisdom, than for a man frequently and reasonably to unbend his mind. This may generally be done by mixing in cheerful company, active diversions, or the like.

Instead of attempting to investigate the nature of that connection which subsists between the mind and body, or to inquire into the manner in which they mutually affect each other, we shall only mention those diseases to which the learned are more peculiarly liable, and endeavour to point out the means of avoiding them.

Studious persons are very subject to the gout. This painful disease in a great measure proceeds from indigestion, and an obstructed perspiration. It is impossible that the man who sits from morning till night should either digest his food, or have any of the secretions in due quantity. But when that matter, which should be thrown off by the skin, is retained in the body, and the humours are not duly prepared, diseases must ensue.

The studious are likewise very liable to the stone and gravel. Exercise greatly promotes both the secretion and discharge of urine; consequently a sedentary life must have the contrary effect. Any one may be satisfied of this by observing, that he passes much more urine by day than in the night, and also when he walks or rides, than when he sits.

The circulation in the liver being flow, obstructions in that organ can hardly fail to be the consequence of inactivity. Hence sedentary people are frequently afflicted with schirrous livers. But the proper secretion and discharge of the bile is so necessary a part of the animal œconomy, that where these are not duly performed, the health must soon be impaired. Jaundice, indigestion, loss of appetite, and a wasting of the whole body, seldom fail to be the consequences of a vitiated state of the liver, or obstructions of the bile.

Few diseases prove more fatal to the studious than consumptions of the lungs. It has already been observed, that this organ cannot be duly expanded in those who do not take proper exercise; and where that is the case, obstructions and adhesions will ensue. Not only want of exercise, but the posture in which studious persons generally sit, is very hurtful to the lungs. Those who read or write much are ready to contract a habit of bending forwards, and often press with their breast upon a table or bench. This posture cannot fail to hurt the lungs.

The functions of the heart may likewise by this means be injured. I remember to have seen a man opened, whose pericardium adhered to the breast-bone in such a manner as to obstruct the motion of the heart, and occasion his death. The only probable cause that could be assigned for this singular symptom was, that the man, whose business was writing, used constantly to sit in a bending posture, with his breast pressing upon the edge of a plain table.

No person can enjoy health who does not properly digest his food. But intense thinking and inactivity never fail to weaken the powers of digestion. Hence the humours become crude and vitiated, the solids weak and relaxed, and the whole constitution goes to ruin.

Long and intense thinking often occasions grievous head-achs, which bring on vertigoes, apoplexies, palsies, and other fatal disorders. The best way to prevent these is, never to study too long at one time, and to keep the body regular, either by proper food, or taking frequently a little of some opening medicine.

Those who read or write much are often afflicted with sore eyes. Studying by candle-light is peculiarly hurtful to the sight. This ought to be practised as seldom as possible. When it is unavoidable, the eyes should be shaded, and the head should not be held too low. When the eyes are weak or painful, they should be bathed every night and morning in cold water, to which a little brandy may be added.

It has already been observed, that the excretions are very defective in the studious. The dropsy is often occasioned by the retention of those humours which ought to be carried off in this way. Any person may observe, that sitting makes his legs swell, and that this goes off by exercise; which clearly points out the method of prevention.

Fevers, especially of the nervous kind, are often the effect of study. Nothing affects the nerves so much as intense thought. It in a manner unhinges the whole human frame, and not only hurts the vital motions, but disorders the mind itself. Hence a delirium, melancholy, and even madness, are often the effect of close application to study. In fine, there is no disease which can proceed either from a bad state of the humours, a defect of the usual secretions, or a debility of the nervous system, which may not be induced by intense thinking.

But the most afflicting of all the diseases which attack the studious is the hypochondriac. This disease seldom fails to be the companion of deep thought. It may rather be called a complication of maladies than a single one. To what a wretched condition are the best of men often reduced by it! Their strength and appetite fail; a perpetual gloom hangs over their minds; they live in the constant dread of death, and are continually in search of relief from medicine, where, alas! it is not to be found. Those who labour under this disorder, though they are often made the subject of ridicule, justly claim our highest sympathy and compassion.

Hardly any thing can be more preposterous than for a person to make study his sole business. A mere student is seldom an useful member of society. He often neglects the most important duties of life, in order to pursue studies of a very trifling nature. Indeed it rarely happens, that any useful invention is the effect of mere study. The farther men dive into profound researches, they generally deviate the more from common sense, and too often lose sight of it altogether. Profound speculations, instead of making men wiser or better, generally render them absolute sceptics, and overwhelm them with doubt and uncertainty. All that is necessary for man to know, in order to be happy, is easily obtained; and the rest, like the forbidden fruit, serves only to increase his misery.

Studious persons, in order to relieve their minds, must not only discontinue to read and write, but engage in some employment or diversion, that will so far occupy the thought as to make them forget the business of the closet. A solitary ride or walk are so far from relaxing the mind, that they rather encourage thought. Nothing can divert the mind, when it gets into a train of serious thinking, but attention to subjects of a more trivial nature. These prove a kind of play to the mind, and consequently relieve it.

Learned men often contract a contempt for what they call trifling company. They are ashamed to be seen with any but philosophers. This however is no proof of their being philosophers themselves. No man deserves that name who is ashamed to unbend his mind, by associating with the cheerful and gay. Even the society of children will relieve the mind, and expel the gloom which application to study is too apt to occasion.

As studious people are necessarily much within doors, they should make choice of a large and well-aired place for study. This would not only prevent the bad effects which attend confined air, but would cheer the spirits, and have a most happy influence both on the body and mind. It is said of Euripides the tragedian, that he used to retire to a dark cave to compose his tragedies, and of Demosthenes the Grecian orator, that he chose a place for study where nothing could be either heard or seen. With all deference to such venerable names, we cannot help condemning their taste. A man may surely think to as good purpose in an elegant apartment as in a cave; and may have as happy conceptions where the all-cheering rays of the sun render the air wholesome, as in places where they never enter.

Those who read or write much should be very attentive to their posture. They ought to sit and stand by turns, always keeping as nearly in an erect posture as possible. Those who dictate, may do it walking. It has an excellent effect frequently to read or speak aloud. This not only exercises the lungs, but almost the whole body. Hence studious people are greatly benefited by delivering discourses in public. Public speakers, indeed, sometimes hurt themselves by overacting their part; but this is their own fault. The martyr to mere vociferation merits not our sympathy.

The morning has, by all medical writers, been reckoned the best time for study. It is so. But it is also the most proper season for exercise, while the stomach is empty, and the spirits refreshed with sleep. Studious people should therefore sometimes spend the morning in walking, riding, or some manly diversions without doors. This would make them return to study with greater alacrity, and would be of more service than twice the time after their spirits are worn out with fatigue. It is not sufficient to take diversion only when we can think no longer. Every studious person should make it a part of his business, and should let nothing interrupt his hours of recreation more than those of study.

Music has a very happy effect in relieving the mind when fatigued with study. It would be well if every studious person were so far acquainted with that science as to amuse himself after severe thought, by playing such airs as have a tendency to raise the spirits, and inspire cheerfulness and good humour.

It is a reproach to Learning, that any of her votaries, to relieve the mind after study, should betake themselves to the use of strong liquors. This indeed is a remedy; but it is a desperate one, and always proves destructive. Would such persons, when their spirits are low, get on horseback, and ride ten or a dozen miles, they would find it a more effectual remedy than any cordial medicine in the apothecary’s shop, or all the strong liquors in the world.

The following is my plan, and I cannot recommend a better to others. When my mind is fatigued with study, or other serious business, I mount my horse, and ride ten or twelve miles into the country, where I spend a day, and sometimes two, with a cheerful friend; after which I never fail to return to town with new vigour, and to pursue my studies or business with fresh alacrity.

It is much to be regretted, that learned men, while in health, pay so little regard to these things! There is not any thing more common than to see a miserable object over-run with nervous diseases, bathing, walking, riding, and, in a word, doing every thing for health after it is gone; yet, if any one had recommended these things to him by way of prevention, the advice would, in all probability, have been treated with contempt, or, at least, with neglect. Such is the weakness and folly of mankind, and such the want of foresight, even in those who ought to be wiser than others!