[1] Now let those come to themselves who with difficulty admit, that
the aliments are capable of rendering some more temperate, others more
dissolute, some incontinent, some frugal, confident, timorous, mild,
modest, or quarrelsome; let them come to me and hear what it would be
proper for them to eat, and what to drink. They will find from hence a
great assistance in moral philosophy; they will likewise find from hence
a great accession to their intellectual faculties; they will become
more ingenious, have better memories, and be more studious and wise.
For besides the proper sort of food and liquors, I will instruct them
in the nature of air and climates, and point out to them what countries
they should chuse to reside in, what they should avoid. The book which
proves that manners are influenc’d by bodily constitutions, Cap. 9ᵒ.
Charterius, t. 5. p. 457. Observations of the like nature are to be found
in HIPPOCRATES, ARISTOTLE, and PLATO.
[2] Plato’s works, p. 648.
[3] ’Tis an admirable observation of MONTESQUIEU: All things fatigue us
at last, and above all great pleasures; the fibres, that were the organs
of it, stand in need of rest: we must employ others better adapted to
serve us, and thus, as it were, divide our labour. _Essay upon taste._
[4] LORRY _upon melancholy and melancholy disorders_. Tom. I.
[5] VAN SWIETEN’S _Comment. in_ BOERHAVII _aphor._ Tom. III. p. 413.
[6] _Traité du bon chyle_, tom. II. p. 647.
[7] Th. BORDEUX, _prix de l’academie de chir._ tom. VI. p. 199.
[8] Conf. FLEMING _Neuropathia, præf._
[9] _De morbis nervorum_, p. 456.
[10] _Traité des vapeurs hysteriques_, p. 248.
[11] _Epistol. lib. 2. ep. 9._
[12] _Epistol. ad_ HIPPOCRATEM. _Hipp. Fæsii._ tom. II. p. 1288.
[13] _De locis affectis, lib. 5. cap. 6. Charter._ tom. VII. p. 492.
[14] _Medicin. ration. de epilepsia._ § 19.
[15] _Felic._ PLATERI _observat._ p. 28.
[16] VAN SWIETEN, tom. IV. p. 305.
[17] _Gazette de France, Fevr. 25, 1763._
[18] _Epistol. L. 2, ep. 40._ Neither write back to me in prose or in
verse, lest you should bring your health, which is not yet confirm’d,
into new danger; for the spirits will be easily warm’d by attention:
hence blood, hence the habit of body.
[19] _De sedibus & causis morbonum. ep. 3._ § 13.
[20] _Prælect. ad instit._ t. 7. p. 145.
[21] _De sedib. & caus. ep._ 3. §. 17.
[22] HALLERI _Element. Physiologiæ_, t. 4. p. 317.
[23] _De locis affectis_, l. 3. c. 5.
[24] _Ad libellum_ HIPPOCRATIS _de humor_. p. 211.
[25] In studious men, who lead a sedentary life, whilst they grow pale
with poring over books, an apoplexy often arises from such a cause; but
it comes on slowly and gradually. For the first symptom is languor, and a
love of indolence; then the understanding begins to grow dull, the memory
to flag; they become sleepy, stupid, and often continue a long time in
that state before their death. I have seen, and not without the greatest
compassion, men of the most profound learning, and who had deserv’d
highly of the republick of letters, who, as it were, surviv’d themselves
above a twelvemonth in a state of total oblivion, and at last died of
apoplexy. VAN SWIETEN, tom. III. p. 263.
[26] ADAM _vitæ medicorum_, p. 372.
[27] We meet in the medicinal diary with an account, very well worth
reading, of a severe colick, attended with other bad symptoms, and
occasion’d by intense study and nocturnal lucubrations. Tom. I. p. 352.
[28] VAN SWIETEN, tom. III. p. 87. ex COLUMBO.
[29] Experience shews us that men of learning, though naturally of a
chearful disposition, become at last fix’d, silent, pale, emaciated,
and strangely troubled with the hypochondriac disorder, which generally
tyrannizes over sedentary people. _Ant._ FELICI _dissertazioni
epistolari_, p. 203.
[30] BOERHAAV. _ad institut._ §. 896, tom. VII. p. 275.
[31] LANCISUS _de mortu subit._ l. 1. c. 22.
[32] MARKII _Oratio funebris in obitum_ TRIGLANDII. Leyden, 1705.
[33] The famous ROUSSEAU; but he has since quitted the British asylum,
and returned to France.
[34] JOH. ALPH. ROSSET, theologiæ professor, & academiæ, hoc tempore,
rector.
[35] The disorders of orators and singers are the same; but the bodies of
these being open’d, have often shewn inflammations, suppurations, ulcers
in the lungs; nay, the illustrious MORGAGNI saw a young man that had an
excellent voice, whose wind-pipe and throat being affected, could swallow
nothing, and, whilst he attempted to suck down the yolk of an egg, was
suffocated and died. _De sedib. & caus._ tom. 1. p. 228.
[36] It often proves hurtful to men of learning themselves, when in an
advanc’d age they pursue a new study; for this gives rise to a new order
of ideas, which receives no assistance from all the traces before left
upon the brain: new fibres must receive new motions, a laborious work to
the organ already debilitated, and which often throws men of first-rate
capacities into lingering disorders.
[37] SUETONIUS _in vita_ OCT. AUG. _cap._ 82.
[38] VALERIUS MAXIMUS, lib. 3. c. 6. p. 140.
[39] _De education. pueror._ cap. 12.
[40] _De motu opt. corpor. medicin._ § 9.
[41] _De methodo_, _No. 6_: There is likewise a remarkable passage in
MOSES MAIMONIDES, one of the most ancient of the Arabian physicians. As
life and health, says he, contribute greatly to the worship and knowledge
of God; but a man in an ill state of health is unable to contemplate the
works of God as he should do; a man ought to take particular care to
avoid whatever is hurtful to his body, and should endeavour to procure
whatever contributes to keep the body in health and strengthen it. _De
sanit. tuend. init._
[42] It must be acknowledged, that a man of learning, indefatigable in
his studies, if he observes an exact regimen, innocent and moderate, will
find the disadvantages attending his way of life more supportable than
another. FELICI _dissertazioni_, p. 203.
[43] _Prælect. in instit._ § 1036, tom. VII. p. 337.
[44] Many plants fit for use, and perhaps most such, and many others, by
means of an easy art, give out a great quantity of excellent sugar, not
much inferior to that of sugar-canes. Eight ounces of the fresh juice of
the skirret yield an ounce of the best sugar. MARGRAFF _Mem. de l’Acad.
de Berlin_.
[45] Many phænomena prove this plethora; and it is evinced by a simple
observation, and one that occurs daily, _viz._ by those convulsions of
the lower jaw-bone which cause a collision of the teeth in sleep, and
that more strongly in boys when they have eat a hearty supper.
[46] It was justly observed by THEOPHRASTUS, that to eat much, and to
live upon flesh, deprives men of the use of their reason, blunts the
faculties of their minds, and renders them dull and stupid.
[47] BOERHAAVE _prælect._ tom. VII. p. 340.
[48] The goddess, says PLATO, chose a place which was to give birth to
the wisest men. _Init. Timæi._ And do not forget this with regard to
places, that they are of great consequence in giving birth to men of
superior genius, or the reverse. _De leg._ lib. 5.
[49] By the excessive heat, which is not so much as allayed by an Etesian
gale, I have entirely lost the power of philosophising, and am deterred
from writing. LANCISI _ad_ COCCHI, p. 47.
[50] _Qui ita ut vestitus calceatusque erat, retectis pedibus, paulisper
conquiescebat opposita ad oculos manu._ SUETONIUS _in vit. C. O. Aug._
cap. 82. I enlarged upon the ill consequences of sleeping after dinner,
in an epistle which I inscribed a few years ago to the illustrious HALLER.
[51] _Adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant,
adversis solatium prebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris,
pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur._ CICERO _Oratione pro
Archiâ_.
[52] QUINTILIANUS _de Instit. Orator, lib. i. cap. i._