Health for the million : including hints on the physical training of youth, and the treatment of invalids and old age, with observations on unhealthy employments

Front matter

C .T\ f

Med

HEALTH FOR THE MILirON.

Introduction

A proper regard for health essential — Necessity of hygienic rules — Galen’s advice— Instances of persons who have subjected themselves to self-imposed regulations — John Wesley — Jonas Hanway — Precepts for health in ancient and modern times — The rules of Plutarch — Instances of longevity — True enjoyment of health — Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia” — Dr. Johnson — Dr. Cheyne — Miss Martineau — Undue anxiety about health unwise — The drugging system — Misapplication of medical maxims — Danger of prescribing for ourselves — Hints to avoid impending disease — A knowledge of physiology important to all — Description of a frame probably destined for longevity — Keasons why life is shortened — Evils of artificial modes of living — Death from preventable causes — Elements of disease to which we are subjected — Measure^ for securing the public health — Sanitary requirements — Erroneous notions with regard to the mortality in cities — Preservation of health dependent on ourselves.

Chapter I. The Skin

Structuie of the skin — Necessity of constant ablutions — Soap — Towels— Flesh-brushes — Causes of affections of the skin — Impure air — Imperfect digestion — Nervous system — Cosmetics— Eruptions on the skin — Freckles — Chaps — Chafes — Chilblains —Precautions .... pp. 1 — 11

Vlll

CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Bathinq

Bathing highly valued by the ancients — Easy mode of taking chamber-baths— Directions for sponging the body — Coldbath — Cases in which it is useful — Instructions to invalids — Shower-bath — Testimony in its favour by Dr. Burke — Cold-air bath — Best mode of taking the shower-bath — Shower-bath for children— Tepid-bath — Its advantages, especially for children — Warm-bathing — Cases in which it is useful — Hot-bath — Should be used under medical advice — Effects of the hot-bath — Vapour and hot-air bath — Should be used with caution — Medicated baths — Cases in which they are useful — Scented baths — Anointing with oil — Sea-bathing — Its advantages— Directions to bather's — Advantages of swimming — Bathing machines — Ladies' bath costumes — Instructions to swimmers — Excess of bathing injurious— Eligibility of the bathing-place should be considered . . pp. 12 — 2')

Chapter III. Diet

Evils of luxurious living— Process of digestion — Quantity of food necessary for human support — Hours for eating — Effect of the mind on digestion — Change in mode of living injurious — Quality of food — Art of preparing aliment — Evils arising from eating too fast — Proper amount of food for the studious — Animal food and vegetable diet — Beef — Mutton — Bacon — Fish — Shell - fish — Salads — Potatoes — Bread — Rice— Cheese — Butter — Hygienic principles of cookery — Broiling — Stewing— Boiling — Frying — Roasting — Resolvent powers of fruit — Fruits in season ..... 26 — 50

Chapter IV. Drinks

Errors in legard to drink — Results of drunkenness — Fatal diseases produced — Anatomy of drunkenness — Alcoholic drinks — Why the poor indulge in vicious habits — Wines — Effect upon the system — New wines — Adulterations —

CONTENTS.

IX

Objectionable wines — Cases where wine is salutary— Home-made wines — Kecommendations to wine-drinkers — Beer — 111 efTects in some cases — Enormous consumption of beer — Water — Soft and hard — Medical testimonies in favour of water — Test of pure water — Iced fluids dangerous — Soda water — Pure and spurious — Effects on the system — Tea — Suggestions to tea-drinkers — Milk — Toast and water — Coffee — Mode of preparation — Chocolate — Cocoa — Barley water — Gruel . . . . . • PP- 51 —

Chapter V. Clothes

Dress considered with regard to health — Imprudence of yielding to absurd fashions — Clothing to be adapted to the seasons — Utility of flannel — Clothing of persons engaged in sedentary occupations — Cotton-cloth — Woollen — Silk — Linen — Stays of soft and warm material — Flannel waistcoats — Coats — Loose clothes — Danger of tight cravats — Evils arising from wet feet — Danger of sitting in wet clothing— Night dress and dressing-gown — Inutility of the common black hat — Dress of children — Danger of inefficient clothing of children — Silk a remarkable non-conductor of electricity— Inconsistencies of female dress — Influence of coloured clothes upon health — Head-covering for infants .... 71—83

Chapter VI. Exercise

Inaction and its consequences — Posture — Variety of active occupations essential — Effects of partial exercise — Amusements should bo adapted to the nature of employments during the day — Effects of indolence on the female character — Exercise for boys and girls— Proper mode of exercising the muscles — Choice of exercise for curing disease— Time for taking exercise— Advantages of walking— Proper disposition of the body in walking— Good effects of riding— Cautions to weakly persons — Carriage airing — Absurd notions — Only useful in cases of invalids — Running and leaping Precautions to be taken — Dancing — Skating — Rowing Mus-

cular exercise — Locke’s opinion on exercise — Suggestions to those who lead a sedentary life . . . gq oo

X

CONTENTS.

Chapter VII. Sleep

Amount of sleep necessary — Experiment of the celebrated John Wesley— Dr. Franklin and others on early rising — Relapses from good habits — How to obtain refreshing sleep — Evils of reading in bed — Preventives to sleep — Nightmare— Advice to invalids respecting sleep — Circumstances that promote sleep — Posture in bed — Mental quietude essential — Bedrooms — Cleanliness and ventilation — Damp bedrooms — Proper temperature of bedrooms — Position for night-lights — Feather beds objectionable — Best bed for children — Warming beds — Curtains unwholesome — Proper position for beds . , . . • pp. 100—111

Chapter VIII. Sanitary Arrangements Of A Dr'elling. — Fresh Air And Ventilation

Construction of buildings with regard to health — Neglect of essential requirements — Signs where apartments are ill ventilated — Defects of position — Moisture — Drainage and sewerage — Cesspools — Precautions in taking a house — Water supply — Sitting-rooms — Dining-rooms — Gas in rooms unwholesome— Sir Humphrey Davy’s experiment with carburetted hydrogen — The Smoke Act — Greatest amount of smoke in the metropolis emitted from dwelling-houses — Necessity of fresh aii- — Process by which atmospheric air is received — Voluntary subdivision of air — Crowded assemblies — Influence of the night air — Precautions to be taken — Effect of burning candles — Fires — Close stoves — Ventilation of nurseries — Importance of a knowledge of the properties and uses of the atmosphere — Anecdote of Dr. Darwin — Vai’ious methods of ventilation — How to disinfect the apartments of the sick — Evil consequences of sitting in close rooms ...... 112 — 129

Chapter IX. Sight And Hearing

Sight. — Temperance essential to the preservation of sight — Moderate degree of light in rooms — Recommendations to the

CONTENTS.

XI long and short-sighted — Bathing the eyes — Cautions against fatiguing the sight — Most suitable apartment for the weaksighted— Best position of a desk for writing or reading — Care of the eyes in childhood — Causes of loss of sight — Diseases of the eyes — Flickering light injurious — Dressmakers— Best light for the eyes — Symptoms of overstrained sight in the studious — "When spectacles are necessary — Injurious consequences of single eye-glasses — Best mode of removing particles of dust, &o., from the eyes.

IThe Eab. — Instructions for the habitual care of the ear — Use of wool injurious — Suggestions to deaf persons — Ear-trumpets — Hints on tlie manner of speaking to the deaf — Advice of Dr. Joseph Williams on the treatment of the ear — Complaints from the ear — Treatment — Use of astringents dangerous— Quack specifics — Recommendations to patients — I Hardened wax in the ear — Bathing — Care in the use of j ear-syringes . . . . • PP- I'*!!* — 145

! CHAPTER X.

j TEETH. — VOICE.

I IThe Teeth. — Duty of due attention to the teeth — Vital properties I of the teeth — Description — Advice of Lord Bacon — Conse- ; quences of neglecting the teeth— Decay — Bad breath — Anij malcules — Caries — Hot aliments and intemperate habits ; injurious to the teeth — Effects of fermented liquors — Tooth- : ache — Remedies — Caution against quack applications —

Tooth-brushes — Mode of using them— Tooth-powder — Preparation for soft gums — Tooth-pick — Action of sugar upon ■ the teeth — Causes of the deterioration of teeth — Soft food — I Effect of irregular teeth upon the countenance — Artificial : teeth.

i 'The Voice. — A twofold function allotted to every organ in the human frame — Difference between the voice and speech — V Trachea — Larj-nx — Glottis — Vocal chords — Effect of the

;i teeth upon utterance — Rules for the preservation of the voice — Temperance indispensable — Management of tlie voice in youth — Suggestions to singers — Wai'm mucilaginous and diluting drinks beneficial — Treatment of the voice by the ancients — Mistake of players at rehearsal — Bodily exercise essential — Best mode of exercising the voice. 14C — 161

Xll

CONTENTS.

Chapter XI. Hair. — Hands. — Feet

The Hair. — Description of hair — Cleanline.ss — Comb and brash — How to use the comb — Strain on the roots of the hair injurious— Pomades and similar preparations should be used sparingly — Be.st mode of application — Quack specifics — Baldness — Causes — Mental excitement — Consequences of a due want of care — Excess of attention injurious — M. Cazenave’s mode of treatment — Exigencies of fashion injurious — Dress of the hair best adapted to females — Moistening tlie hair — Artificial curling injurious — Means of promoting growth — Advantage of short hair — Hair dyes — Covering for the head — Remark of Herodotus — Shaving— Best method.

The Feet — Influence of the modern shoe — Compressed and distorted feet — Description of the foot — Mode of measuring the feet — Corns — Bunions — Distorted toes — Remedy — Chilblains— Treatment.

The Hands — Description — Injuries to the nails — Absimd notions — Whitlows — Treatment . . . pp. 163 — 188

Advice of Professor Silliman — Evils engendered by bad habits — Charles Lamb — His “Confessions" — Tobacco — 111 effects — Objections to snuff-taking— Novel reading — Habits of dissipation— Evils of crowded assemblies — Over-zeal for music injurious — Consequences of an excess of labour — Depraved habits of the working classes — How occasioned . 180 — 202

CHAPTER XIII. BODILY deformities: their frevenxton and cure

Bodily deformities mostly traced to the period of childhood— Advantages of a well-proportioned body — Care of the spinal column— Danger of making “ a fine figure ’’—Evils of tight lacing — Cautions against backboards, education chairs, braces, <fcc. — Tight bauds — Evil consequence.s— Apathy of fashionable life disturbs the features- Few females exempt from bodily deformity — One-sidedness — Wrong positions

CONTENTS.

.Mil aiising from the improper employment of the muscles — Standing — Silting — Playing the piano — Music stools inefficient— Best mode of position at the piano — Writing — Proper position — Camper on artiiicial aids against distortion — Occupations tending to distort the spine — Remedies — Milkmaids — Rowing, etc. . . . . . pp. ‘-103 — ^15

Chapter XIV. Physical Training Of Youth

■Voundation of a healthy constitution laid in youth — Employments for children — Proper games and exercises — Hazardous experiments of skill or strength — Mechanical exercises — Awkward use of the hands and feet — Neglect of the physical education of children — Body of a child described — Stages of growth and development — Responsibility of parents — Sanitary arrangements of nurseries — Furniture — Beds — Early rising — Agreeable occupations for children on rising — Frequent change of air desirable — Evil effects of overcharging the infant mind— Sir William Ellis on the studies of the young — Influence of coloured walls of schools upon health — Sanitary state of schools — Pampering the appetites of children — Treatment in cases of weak lungs — Erroneous ideas respecting keeping the figures of the young erect — Physical education of girls— Bodily exercises of the two sexes in childhood might nearly assimilate — Sedentary life injurious to young females ...... 210 — 239

Chapter XV. Traveijjng As A Means Of Health

Travelling an antidote to many evils — Example of Cicero — Lord Bacon's opinions on travelling — Samuel Rogers— Advantages of travelling to the invalid — Often neutralised by neglect — Rules for travellers — Riding on horseback recommended — Excursions should not be too fatiguing — Night rest requisite — Rapid journeys injurious — Diet when travelling — Meals of an invalid traveller — Choice of food — Attention to bedrooms when travelling— Mode of testing whether beds are damp — Day’s journey should bo regulated — Cleanliness essential — Mode of sponging the body — Dr. Robertson on the sanitary

XIV

CONTENTS.

effects of travelling — Travelling abroad in many cases absurd — Recommendations to home travellers — ^Advantages of pedestrian travelling — Effect on the mind . pp. 240 — 2.53

Chapter XVI. Advice To The Invalid And The Aged

Long Ufe not necessarily connected with high health — Circumstances which contribute chiefly to longevity — Commencement of senility — Decay of physical power — Disorders incidental to old age— Diet for the aged and feeble— Sir A. Carlisle’s recommendation with regard to fluids — Wines best suited to the aged — Nervous temperament of invalids — Fruit — When best eaten — Caution against sudden exposure to heat — Effect of cold baths and bracing air upon old and delicate persons — Tepid baths— Fashionable watering-places to be avoided by invalids — Easterly winds — Change of air — Best time for taking exercise — Feet should be kept warm — Sir Henry Halford on “ sinking” in old age — Country air and employments recommended to the aged — Comforts of old age — Sir Thomas Bernard — Dr. Sancroft — Comaro — His mode of living and happy state of mind — Sir John Floyer — Bishop Gibson ..... 254 — 274

Chapter XVII. Ooveknment Of The Passions

Necessity of keeping the passions in complete subjection — Many serious disorders thus prevented — Anger — Fear— Depression of spirits — Consequences of a timorous disposition — More readily the subject of epidemical disorders — Lord Bacon on mental agitation — The passions and the nervous system — Contentment a fruitful source of health — General recommendations— Bishop Butler’s remaiks — Our enjoyments depend upon ourselves .... 275 — 2ft0

Chapter XVIII. Unhealthy Employments

indifference of the working classes — Unwholesome dwellings — Better education of females — Intemperance — Dress — Evil

CONTENTS.

XV effects of labour on children — Condition of workshops — Influence of certain occupations on consumption — Masons, sawyers, and others exposed to the inhalation of dust, »fec. — Grinders’ asthma — Remedies — Sorters of tea — Tobacco manufactories — Government inquiries at Leeds — Agricultural employments, out- door farm labour, hop -picking — Silk, cotton, linen, and woollen weavers — Dr. Ure on cotton-mills — Tailors — Boot and shoemakers — Bakers — Butchers — Tanners — Leather-dressers — Omnibus-drivers and cabmen — Needlewomen — Workmen exposed to poisonous exhalations — Glue-making — Brewers — Caoutchouc manufactories — Smelting — Candle and soap manufactories — Distortions of the body — School-stools— Nurses — ^Washerwomen — Writers’ cramp — Nail makers — Miners — Manufactories of percussion caps — Dangers in the building trades — Poisoning by lead — Printers — “Devonshire colic” — Shot factories— Remedies — Potteries — Copper colic — Injuries to the eyes from various employments — Remedies — Working by candlelight — Eyeball exposed to mechanical injury — Glass manufactories — Ophthalmia — Nailers — Iron founders — Coryza — Weavers of Spitalfields — Want of light — Excess of light — Sight of printers — Deafness of artillerymen, blacksmiths, and blasters in mines — Causes of Consumption among the labouring classes — Remedies — Proper employments for the consumptive— Liability of soldiers to consumption — Health of prisoners — Consumption among printers — Mental causes of disordered health — Waste of human life from preventable causes — Registrar-General’s statement — Concluding re marks . . . . . - pp- 281—324

INVOCATION TO HEALTH.

Hygeia, whose indulgent smile sustains The various race luxuriant Nature pours.

Thou cheerful guardian of the rolling year.

Or shak’st the rigid pinions of the north,

DifFuse.st life and vigour through the tracts Of air, through earth, and ocean’s deep domain. When through the blue serenity of heaven Thy power approaches, all the wasteful host Of Pain and Sickness, squalid and deform’d. Confounded sink into the loathsome gloom.

Where, in deep Erebus involved, the fiends Grow more profane. Whatever shapes of death. Shook from the hideous chambers of the globe,

Swarm through the shudd’ring air ; whatever plagues Or meagre famine breeds, or with slow wings Rise from the putrid wat’ry element,

The damp waste forest, motionless and rank,

That smothers earth and all the breathless winds.

Or the vile carnage of tli’ inhuman field ;

Whatever baneful breathes the rotten south ; Whatever ills th’ extremes or sudden change Of cold and hot, or moist and dry produce ;

They fly thy pure etfulgence — they and all The secret poisons of avenging heaven,

And all the pale tribes halting in the train Of Vice and heedless Pleasure ; or, if aught The comet’s glare amid the burning sky,

Mournful eclipse, or planets ill-combined,

Portend disastrous to the vital world,

Thy salutary power averts their rage.

Averts the general bane ; and but for thee Nature woidd sicken, nature soon would die.”

AtOlSXRONG.

INTRODUCTION.

“ Without health’s cheerful, active energy No rapture swells the breast, no poet sings,

No more the maids of Helicon delight.

’Tis this adorns the rich.

The want of health is poverty’s worst woe.”

Abmstbong.

A DUE regard to health is one of the mo.st essential ingredients to happiness. ” Sana mens in corpore sano " is the prayer of all; but how few endeavour, by their principles and conduct, to secure these blessings ! To such individuds hygeiau rules are troublesome; any restraint upon old and irregular habits is irksome ; the practice of even tlie most simple observances of health is considered superfluous ; and when nature at length remonstrates in a debilitated constitution, it is found, when frequently too late, that a due attention to mere ordinary precautions would have averted the consequences resulting from sloth and folly.

The attainment of health and happiness depends chiefly on the attention and forbearance we give to certain hygeian principles, which experience and reason declare to be essential. It has been justly remarked that habits, such as will stand firm under difficulties and temptations, can be created only by taking up the means of securing health as a study.

Beddoes well observes, “ To bear in the mouth that health is the first of blessings not only answers no good purpose, but tends to create that sort of hypocrisy and self-deceit which substitutes the repetition of a maxim for its observance.” Habits, such as will stand firm under difficulties and temptations, can be created only by taking up the moans of securing this blessing as a study ; that is, by fixing the attention severally upon the modes in which it is forfeited, on the advantages that accompany its possession, and the consequences of its loss. If ever the Homan address of congratulation, “Happy is he who learns caution from the danger of others,” be appropriate, it may with the

b

INTRODCCTIOX.

xviii

greatest right be claimed by those who learn caution with regard to their own health, from observing what brings infirmity upon others.

Galen, who lived to the age of one hundred and forty years, is an example of close attention to a system which, owing to an infirm constitution in youth, he adopted and practised with success.

“ I beseech all persons,” he says in his advice to the readers of his Treatise upon Health, “ who shall read this work not to degrade themselves to a level with the brutes or the ralible by gratifying their sloth, or hy eating and drinking promiscuously whatever pleases their palates, or by indulging their habits of every kind. But, whether they understand physic or not, let them consult their reason, and observe what agrees and what does not agree with them, that like wise men they may adhere to the use of such things as conduce to their health, and forbear everything which, by their own experience, they find to do them hurt ; and let them be assured that, by a diligent observation and practice of this rule, they may enjoy a good share of health, and seldom stand in need of physio or physicians.”

In modern times we have a striking instance of the effects produced by salutary habits in the person of that remarkable man, John Wesley, who, although of a tveakly constitution in his earlier years, prolonged his existence to nearly ninety by rigid temperance and exercise.

Another remarkable example of self-imposed hygienic regulations conducing, under adverse circumstances, to secure health, is recorded in the excellent Jonas Hanway. When this worthy went first to Kussia, at the age of thirty, we are infonned by his biographer that “ his face was full and comely, and his person altogether such as obtained for him the appellation of the ‘ handsome Englishman.’ But the shock which his health received during his residence abroad made him much thinner, and though he subsequently recovered his health, so as to live in England twenty successive years without any material illness, he never recovered his plumpness.”

The precarious state of his health on his return to England — for he was then labouring under all the premonitory symptoms of consumption — rendered it necessary for him to use the utmost caution in his diet and regimen. He never drank spirituous liquors in any form, nor wine undiluted with water. He knew that exercise was necessary to him, and he loved it. “ He was not one of those who had rather take a dose than a walk ; and though he had commonly his carriage with him when he went abroad, he yet walked nearly twice as much as he rode, and at such a pace that he used to say he was always more incommoded in the streets by those he passed than by the persons who overtook him.”

INTHODVCTIOX.

XIX

Hy rigid attention and care Hanway re-esta>ilis1iod his liealth ; liis lungs acquired strength and elasticity, aiid builhr a disorder, accidentally contracted, there is reason to belit ve that he ntighi have survived beyond the ordinary term of niortaiii.\ We might multiply instances of similar obedience to ilie dictates of nature, but they cannot be needed to induce persons to have a due regard to their own bodies, or to the first principles of self-preservation implanted in us by the' benevolent Creator.

Precepts for the maintenance of health abound both in ancient and in modem times. The codes of laws of various nations have incorporated sanitary regulations. The minute instructions respecting diet, ablutions, &c., among the Hindoos, the Egyptians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks, directed ostensibly to the performance of certain religious duties, were dictated by a prudential regard for health.

According to Xenophon, the discipline of (ho Persian youth in the time of Cyrus was severe, consisting of coarse bread and herbs for their diet, although they were undergoing the fatigues of military exercise; while their beds were the earth, with the canopy of heaven for their curtains.

The rules of Plutarch on the subject of health are excellent, rfnd by a faithful observance of them he lived to an advanced age with unimpaired faculties. J3y a similar regard to self-imposed regulations old Parr attained the nue of one hundred and fifty-two years. His advice is worth remembering; “ Keep your head cool by temperance, your feet warm by exercise, rise early, and go soon to bed; and, if you are inclined to get fat, keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.”

Cardinal de Salis, who died in 1765, after reaching his hundred and tenth year, when asked what system he observed to keep his health, would reply, “ By being old when J was young 1 find myself young now 1 am old.”

It is the imperative duty of every member of God’s community upon earth to fulfil the design of the Creator in making the wonderful machinery of our mortal frame, and, by the exercise of virtuous principles, to sustain it in the strenglb and beauty for which it was intended, rendering it a fitting temple for gratitude and praise to the benevolent Giver of life.

One of tlie most striking passages we have met with on the real enjoyments of health will be found in the “Utopia" of Sir Thomas More, After describing in this work the towns, trades, manner of life, and travelling of the Utopians, the author goes on to sja-ak of their education, philosophical views, and pleasures. Of these liust “some belong to the body, and others to the mind. The pleasures of the mind lie in knowledge, and in that deliglit whioli the contemplation of truth carries with it, to which they add the joyful reflections on a well-spent life, and the assured hopes of a future happiness.”

XX

INTRODUCTION,

Music, which is classed among the bodily pleasures, by an “ unseen virtue affects the senses, raises the passions, and strikes the mind with generous impressions.

“ Another kind of bodily pleasure is that which results from an undisturbed and vigorous constitution of body, when life and active spirits seem to actuate every part. This lively health, when entirely free from all mixture of pain, of itself gives an inward pleasure, independently of all external objects of delight; and though this pleasure does not so powerfully affect us, nor act so strongly on the senses as some of the others, yet it may be esteemed the greatest of all pleasures, and almost all the Utopians reckon it the foundation and basis of all the other joys of life, since this alone makes the state of life easy and desirable ; and when this is wanting a man is really capable of no other pleasure. They look upon freedom from pain, if it does not rise from perfect health, to be a state of stupidity rather than of pleasure. This subject has been very narrowly canvassed among them, and it has been debated whether a firm and entire health could be called pleasure or not. Some liave thought that there was no pleasure but what was excited by some sensible motion of the body ; but this opinion has been long ago excluded from among them, so that now tlifey almost universally agree that health is the greatest of all bodily pleasures, and that as there is a pain in sickness, which is as opposite in its nature to pleasure as sickness itself to health, so they hold that health is accompanied with pleasure,

“ It is said that health cannot be felt. They absolutely deny it ; for what man is in health that does not perceive it when he is awake? Is there any man that is so dull and stupid as not to acknowledge that he feels a delight in health? And what is delight but another name for pleasure ?

“But of all pleasures they esteem those to be most valuable that lie in the mind, the chief of which arise out of true virtue and the witness of a good conscience. Tliey account health the chief pleasure that belongs to the body, for they think that the pleasure of eating and drinking, and all the other delights of sense, are only so far desirable as they give or maintain health ; but they are not pleasant in themselves otherwise than as they resist those impressions that our natural infirmities are making upon us. For as a wise man desires rather to avoid diseases than to take physic, and to be freed from pain rather than to find ease by remedies ; so it is more desirable not to need this sort of pleasure than be obliged to indulge it. If any man imagines that there is a real happiness in these enjoyments, he must then confess that he would be the happiest ol all men if he were to lead his life in perpetual hunger, thirst, and itching, and, by consequence, in perpetual eating, drinking, and scratching himself, which any one may easily see would be not

INTRODUCTION.

XXI

0 1 a bare, but a miserable state of life. These are, indeed, the low est of pleasures, and the least pure ; for we can never relish iliem but when they are mixed with the contrary pains. The pain of hunger must give us the pleasure of eating, and here the pain outbalances the pleasure; and as the pain is more vehement, so it lasts much longer ; for as it begins before the pleasure, so it does not cease but with the pleasure that extinguishes it, and both expire together. They think, therefore, that none of those pleasures are to be valued any further than as they are necessary ; yet they rejoice in them, and with due gratitude acknowledge the tenderness of the great Author of nature, who has planted in us appetites, by which those things that are necessary for our preservation are likewise made pleasant to us. For how miserable a thing would life be if those daily diseases of hunger and thirst were to be carried off by such bitter drugs as we must use for those diseases that return seldomer upon us! And thus these pleasant as well as proper gifts of nature maintain the strength and sprightliness of our bodies."