cannot well bear long labour; yet such people, when their exercise
is suitable to their strength, do live longer than those of a robust
constitution, that think large feeding adds strength; especially such
as, being strong, use no exercise proportionable to it, to consume the
superfluities which a full feeding doth occasion: So that the only way
for those to live long, who have much wealth, and need not labour for a
livelihood, is to live temperately; and this temperance doth consist in
not letting the common custom of meals invite you to eat, except your
appetite concur with those times. We must not indulge the cravings of a
depraved appetite, as those do who eat to please their fancy, and not
the necessities of nature; and, when we do eat, we must not think that
the more plentifully we eat, we shall be the more strengthened; for it
will not prove so: A little well digested will make the body stronger
then the being glutted with superfluity, most of which will be turned
into a corrupt juice, and must be cast out by physic, or else sickness
will ensue. The easiest physic is that which the Germans call the
_Hunger-cure_, if continued a due time.
[Sidenote: _Children, when ill managed._]
It is the opinion of learned men, that the early distemper of the
bodies of children, called the rickets, proceeds from the faults of
their mothers, in making them gluttons from their cradles, gorging them
with food till they lothe it, out of a mistaken opinion, that this is
the way to make them thrive and grow strong: which excess is not only
the cause of this disease, but of the immature death of many; and in
others it lays the foundation of many distempers, which afflict those
afterwards who live to years of maturity. And as they gorge them with
food, so they vainly think to cherish them with strong drink, than
which nothing can be more pernicious to the health of children, whose
diet should be little and often, and their drink cooling. As it also
should be when men arrive at the time of becoming children again in
old age, that is, in an helpless state, which should be prevented as
much as can be, by a cooling, moistening diet, in opposition to the
hot, dry, and withered state of age; for it is heat and dryness that
are the cause of most old men’s miseries, especially the wasting of
the substance that fills the parts with moisture, and keeps the body
plump and smooth; they who stile wine the old man’s milk, being greatly
mistaken, for milk cools and wine heats.
[Sidenote: _Rules for sickness._]
It was the opinion of Dr Pitt, who was formerly physician to St.
Bartholomew’s hospital, that fasting, rest, and drinking water, would
cure most diseases. And there seemeth to be a great deal of reason in
what he asserts: for fasting will give time to the stomach to unload
itself of the cause of distempers, the cause of all diseases being
begun in that bowel only: to which cleansing, the drinking of water
plentifully will much contribute; which also will keep the action of
the stomach upon the hinges, by filling of it when empty, at which time
there will be need of rest, for thereby the body will be less fit for
business: Tho’ the mere drinking of water, which affords nourishment
sufficient for the growth and support of all vegetables, will, in some
measure, supply the want of food; as hath been shewn in the example
of two, who were supported a long time by nothing else. In short, the
best way for a sick man to recover, is to eat little or no food till he
finds an appetite, according to that saying,
_Spare diet will the most diseases cure,
If a due time the same you can endure._
And fasting from food may be continued long enough to be a remedy for
many diseases, with the assistance of common water; by the drinking of
which warm, in a due quantity, without a total fasting, two persons, I
am informed, were recovered out of consumptions, with which they were
extremely weakened, and that in about six weeks time; as another by
drinking milk and whey, equal parts, made blood hot, without using any
other diet, which is thought to be far more effectual than asses milk,
whose virtue consists in being thinner than other milk.
[Sidenote: _Air, its benefit._]
But, besides a spare diet, cool dry air is also very helpful to
preserve men in health, who are not sick; for it mixes with the
blood, and without it the motion of the blood and spirits can never
be preserved; as appears by diving vessels, in which men cannot live
when the air therein is made hot by their own body and breath: And is
proved also by an experiment of Dr. Croone’s, who stifled a chicken
till it seemed quite dead; and yet, by blowing cool air into the lungs
with a small pair of bellows, it revived. Hence it appears, that the
common custom of managing sick people is very pernicious, and so far
from helping them to recover, that it is sufficient to make a healthy
person sick: For were a person, who was not sick, confined for three
or four weeks in a room made hot like a stove, and kept in his bed,
with the curtains drawn, and all the windows close shut, and the room
made unpleasant with the nauseous fumes of physic and a close-stool,
which will almost make a healthy man sick when he enters into it; we
can never think that this is the way to recover one that really is
sick, and wants the fresh air and reviving scents to cherish his blood;
a fresh, open, sweet air being one principal means to strengthen the
body, make a good appetite and digestion, and render the spirits brisk
and lively: which advantage should be allowed to all but childbed
women, and those who are afflicted with the small pox: for the fresh
air can be prejudicial to no other, whose bodies are clothed warm,
either in bed, or sitting in a chair in their chamber.
[Sidenote: _A fever suddenly cured._]
Some years since, a neighbour became very feverish, and his wife
persuaded him to go to bed; and hearing of it soon after, I gave him
a visit where I found the windows close shut, the curtains of the bed
drawn, and the room very hot, for it was in July: He was burning hot,
and complained for want of breath. I drew open the curtains, covered
him warm, and then opened the windows, and the wind blew into the room;
upon which he soon told me, his shortness of breath had left him. I
persuaded him to drink water, which he found did much refresh him;
and, after I had taken my leave of him, he called for more water: and,
while he had the cup in his hand, an apothecary came in, whom his wife
had sent for, who, finding him about to drink the water, told him, if
he did it, he was a dead man; but, instead of forbearing, he drank it
up in his presence: upon which the other took his leave, and told him,
he would say no more to him. However, before night, the person got
up, went abroad, and was cured of his fever. Which is one instance,
among many others that might be given, of the benefit of fresh air to
a person who is kept warm in his bed; for thereby his body was cooled
inwardly, and his breathing made more free, by the air which was drawn
into his lungs to refresh and comfort the blood as it passed through
them.
[Sidenote: _A cool and low diet._]
I shall only add, that by keeping the blood cool as well as clean,
is to be understood, not only moderation in diet, but to feed most on
cooling food made of wheat, barley, oat-meal, rice, and ripe apples,
as also on milk, which, joined with oat-meal, is the chief food of
those lusty and strong men, the Highlanders of Scotland, who abound
in children, as Dr. Cheyne tells us in his _Treatise of the Gout_,
p. 108. edit. 4. which demonstrates milk and oat-meal to be a most
strengthening food, and such as keeps the blood in due order; so that
therewith men may subsist, tho’ they abstain from beef, pork and
venison, and all other meats hard to digest, and drink water as the
highlanders do: Of the efficacy of which cooling milk-diet the said Dr.
Cheyne gives a notable instance in a doctor that lived at Croyden, p.
103. who had long been afflicted with the falling-evil; for, by slow
observation, he found the lighter his meals were, the lighter were
his fits. At last he also cast off all liquids but water, and found
his fits weaker, and the intervals longer; and finding his disease
mend, as its fewel was withdrawn, he took to vegetable food, and water
only, which put an entire period to his fits without any relapse: But
finding that food windy to him, he took to milk, of which he drank a
pint for a breakfast, a quart at dinner, and a pint for supper, without
fish, flesh, bread, or any strong or spirituous liquor, or any drink
but water, with which he lived afterwards for fourteen years, without
the least interruption in his health, strength or vigour, but died
afterwards of a pleurisy. Which is a confirmation of what Dr. Cook did
affirm, of the possibility of curing diseases by a diet only, that
is temperate and cooling; of which milk is a part, as are also the
roots and seeds of vegetables, such as potatoes, turnips, wheat, rice,
barley, oat-meal, and full ripe fruit.
In short, temperance or a spare diet, void of dainties, never was
injurious to the strongest constitution; and, without it, such as are
weak and sickly cannot long subsist; for the more such persons eat and
drink, the more weak and disordered they will still find themselves
to be: so that if the strong despise temperance, yet the comfort
of weak, sickly and pining people, does depend entirely upon their
constantly observing it; which, when they are accustomed to it, will
be easy to do: So that they will deny all intemperate desires with as
great pleasure, as they before delighted in what is falsely stiled good
eating and drinking; for nothing of that is good, which is injurious
to health. It is custom only that makes men hanker after gluttony and
drunkenness, and a contrary custom will make men abhor it as much: And
therefore it is a wonder the rich do not strive to attain to it; for
_A fatal error ’tis in men of wealth,
To feed so high as will destroy their health._
Temperance being that which will enable them to live most at ease, and
enjoy their wealth the longest; this, and water-drinking, being the
surest way to bring men to old age, tho’ it hath not power to make
those young who are aged, yet it will make the aged more free from
decripedness, and die with most ease, if the deathbed hath been well
prepared for by a good life.
_FINIS._
_PRICE EIGHTPENCE._