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MEDICAL INQUIRIES
AND
OBSERVATIONS.
     BY BENJAMIN RUSH, M. D.
                    i» >
PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE
   AND OF CLINICAL PRACTICE, IN THE UNIVERSITY
             OF PENNSYLVANIA.
    IN FOUR VOLUMES.

          VOL. I.


     THE THIRD EDITION,
REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR-
              PHILADELPHIA,

Published by Mathew Carey, Hopkins and Earle, Johnson and Warner,
 Kimber and Conrad, Bradford and Inskeep, Thomas and William
 Bradford, Benjamin and Thomas Kite, and Bennett and Walton.
1809. 
 District of Pennsylvania, to wit:
       BE IT  REMEMBERED, that on the sixteenth day oi
 October, in the thirty-fourth year of the Independence  of the
 United States of America, A.  D. 1809,  Mathew Carey, Hop-
 kins and  Earle, Johnson  and Warner,  Kimber and Conrad,
 Bradford and Inskeep, Thomas and William Bradford,  Benja-
 min and Thomas Kite, and Bennett and Walton,  of the said
 District, have deposited in this office, the title of a book, the
 rji ht whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following
 to wit :

   " Medical Inquiries and  Observations.  By  Benjamin Rush,
 M.  D. Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine and of
 Clinical Practice,  in the University  of Pennsylvania.  In four
 volumes.  The third edition, revised and enlarged by the author."

  In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States,
entitled, " an act for the encouragement  of learning, by secur-
ing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors  and
 proprietors of such copies during tlietimes therein mentioned."
And also to the act, entitled " an act  supplementary to an act,
entitled, " an act for the encouragement  of learning, by secur-
 ing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors  and
proprietors of such copies during the time therein mentioned,"
and extending the  benefits thereof to the arts of designing, en-
graving, and  etching historical and other  prints."
                                    D. CALDWELL,
                       Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
                                         Page
An Inquiry into  the  Cause of Animal Life    1
An Inquiry into the Natural History of Me-
  dicine among the Indians of North Ame-
  rica, and a Comparative View of their
  Diseases and Remedies with those of Civil-
  ized Nations.      .     .     .     .     .101
An Inquiry into the Influence of Physical
   Causes upon the Moral Faculty    .     .169
An Account of the Influence of the Military
  and Political events of the American  Re-
  volution upon the Human Body.    .     . 227
An Inquiry into  the Relation of Tastes and
  Aliments to each other, and into the influ-
   ence  of this  relation  upon Health and
   Pleasure    ......  245
The result of Observations made  upon  the
   Diseases which occurred in the Military
   Hospitals of the United  States, during the
   revolutionary  war between Great Britain
   and the United States  .... 259 
IV                CONTENTS.
                                         Page
An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent  Spi-
   rits  upon the Human Body  and Mind,
   with an Account of the means of Prevent-
   ing,  and the Remedies for Curing them    269
Observations upon the Tetanus      .     .315
An Account of  the Disease occasioned by
   drinking Cold Water in warm weather,
   and of the means of curing it       .     . 339
An Account of the Cure of Several Diseases
   by the Extraction of Decayed Teeth    347
Observations upon Worms, and upon  Anthel-
   mintic Medicines   .     .     .     .     .355
An Account of the External use of Arsenic
   in the Cure of Cancers       .     .     . 315
An Inquiry into the Cause and  Cure  of Sore
   Legs  .         .....385
An Account of the state  of the Body and
   Mind in Old Age, with Observations on
   its Diseases and Remedies      .   .     .401
Observations upon the Duties of a Physician,
   and  the Methods of Improving Medicine,
   accommodated to the present stateof man-
   ners and society in  the United States     433 
PREFACE.
   THE author of the following edition of Medi-
cal  Inquiries and Observations has changed the
order in  which several of the subjects were ar-
ranged in the former editions.   He has given the
Lectures upon Animal Life the first place in the
first volume, and has arranged the Histories  of
Epidemics in succession  to  each other.  Some
facts have been added to several of the Inquiries,
particularly to the Lectures upon Animal  Life, to
the History  of the  Phsenomena of Fever, to the
 Observations upon the Gout,  and  to the Defence
of Blood-letting; but no alteration has been made
 in any of the medical principles of the author.   He
 has preferred the term of "phsenomena" to that of
 " theory" of fever, because he conceives the doc-
 trine he has aimed  to establish upon that subject,
 rests upon facts only, obvious not only to reason,
 but in most instances, to the senses. 
                   PREFACE.
   He has omitted the Lecture upon  Inoculation
 for the Small-pox, from a belief that the universal
 practice of Vaccination has rendered  it in  a great
 measure an unnecessary part of the education and
 knowledge of a physician.
   The Observations upon the  Cure of Obstinate
 Intermitting Fevers by means of Blood-letting,
 contained in the former editions, have been incor-
porated with the defence of that remedy.
   The author has added to this  edition an Account
of the Cure of Several Diseases by the Extraction
of Decayed Teeth, published originally in the New
York Medical Repository.
                        BENJAMIN RUSH.
    October 31, 1809. 
          AN INQUIRY



             INTO THE




CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.
     IN THREE LECTURES,




DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
VOL. I.           A 
 
AN INQUIRY, &c.
                LECTURE I.

Gentlemen,
      MY  business in this chair is to teach  the
institutes of medicine.   They have been divided
into physiology, pathology, and therapeutics.  The
objects of the first are, the laws of the human body
in its healthy state.  The second includes the his-
tory of the causes and seats of diseases.   The sub-
jects of the third are the remedies for those diseases.
In entering upon the first part of our course, I am
met  by a remark delivered by Dr. Hunter in his
introductory lectures to his course of anatomy.
" In our branch (says the doctor)  those teachers
who study to captivate young minds with ingeni-
ous speculations, will not leave  a  reputation  be-
hind them  that will outlive them half a century 
 4            INQJJIRY INTO THE
 When they cease from their labours, their labours
 will be buried along with them.   There  never
 was a man more followed and admired in physio-
 logy, than Dr. Boerhaave.  I remember the  ve-
 neration in which he was held.   And now, in the
 space  of forty years,  his  physiology  is-----it
 shocks me to think in what a light it appears."*
 Painful as this premonition may be to the teachers
 of physiology, it should not deter them from spe-
 culating upon physiological subjects.  Simple ana-
 tomony is a mass of dead matter.   It is physiology
 which infuses  life into it.  A knowledge of the
 structure of the human body occupies only the me-
 mory.  Physiology introduces it to the higher and
more noble faculties of the  mind.  The compo-
 nent parts  of the body  ma)'  be  compared to the
materials of a house, lying without order in a yard.
 It is physiology, like a skilful architect, which con-
nects them together, so as to form  from them an
elegant and useful  building.  The writers  against
physiology resemble, in  one particular, the  writers
 against luxury.  They  forget that the  functions
they know and describe belong to the science of
physiology ; just as the  declaimers against  luxury
forget that all the conveniences which they enjoy
beyond what  are  possessed  in  the most  simple
 stage of  society, belong to the luxuries of life.
* Lect. xi. p. 198. 
CAUSE  of animal  life.
5
The anatomist who describes the circulation of the
blood, acts  the part of a physiologist, as much
as he does, who attempts to explain the functions
of the brain.   In this respect Dr. Hunter  did  ho-
nour to our science ; for few  men ever explained
that subject, and  many others equally physiologi-
cal, with more perspicuity and eloquence, than that
illustrious  anatomist.  Upon  all  new and difficult
subjects there must  be pioneers.  It has been my
lot to be called to this office of hazard and drudge-
ry ;  and if in discharging its duties I should meet
the fate of my predecessors, in this branch of me-
dicine, I shall not perish in  vain.   My errors, like
the bodies of those  who fall in forcing a breach,
will serve to compose a bridge for those who shall
come after me, in our present difficult enterprise.
This consideration, aided by just views of the na-
ture and extent of moral obligation, will overba-
lance the  evils anticipated  by Dr.  Hunter,  from
the loss  of posthumous fame.   Had  a prophetic
voice whispered in the ear of Dr. Boerhaave in the
evening of his life, that in the short period of fort}
years, the memory of his physiological works would
perish from the earth,  I am satisfied, from the
knowledge we  have  of his  elevated genius  and
piety, he would  hove treated the prediction with
the same indifference that he would have done, had
he been told, that  in the  same time, his name 
 6            INQJJIRY  INTO  THE
should be erased from a pane of glass, in a noisy
and vulgar country tavern.

   The subjects of the lectures  I am about to deli-
ver, you will find in a syllabus which I have pre-
pared and published, for the purpose of giving you
a succinct  view of the  extent and  connection of
our course.  Some of these subjects will be new
in lectures upon the institutes of medicine, parti-
cularly those which relate to morals, metaphysics,
and theology.  However thorny these questions
may appear, we must approach and handle them;
for they are intimately connected with the history
of the faculties and operations of the  human mind ;
and these, form an essential  part of the animal eco-
nomy.  Perhaps it  is because  physicians have hi-
therto been restrained from  investigating,  and de-
ciding upon these subjects,  by  an erroneous belief
that they belong exclusively to another profession,
that physiology has so long been an obscure  and
conjectural science.

   In  beholding the human body,  the first thing
that strikes us, is its life.   This, of course, should
be the first object of our inquiries.  It is a most im-
portant subject; for the end of all the  studies of a
physician is  to preserve life; and this cannot  be
perfectly done, until we know  in what it  consists. 
          CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.          7
  I include in animal life, as applied to the human
body, motion, heat, sensation, and thought. These
four when united, compose  perfect life.   It may
exist without thought, sensation, or heat, but none
of them can exist without motion.   The lowest
grade of life, probably  exists in the absence  of
even motion, as I  shall mention  hereafter.  I have
preferred the term motion to those of oscillation and
vibration, which have been employed by Dr. Hart-
ley in explaining the laws of animal matter; because
I conceived it to be more simple, and better adapted
to common apprehension.

  In treating upon this subject, I shall first con-
sider animal life as it appears in the  waking and
sleeping states  in a healthy adult,  and shall  after-
wards inquire into the modification of its causes in
the foetal, infant, youthful, and middle states of life,
in certain diseases, in different states of society, in
different climates, and in different animals.

   Before I proceed any further,  I shall remark,
that there are certain grades of matter; and that in
all its forms it is necessarily quiescent, or in other
words,  possesses no self-moving power.  Every
form of it is moved by a force external to it, and
each form has  its appropriate or specific stimulus, 
8             INQUIRY  INTO  THE
or stimuli,  from the waves that are moved by the
wind, and  the sand upon the  sea shore which  is
moved by the waves, up to the human body  which
is moved by the stimuli to be mentioned presently.
From this view  of matter, I am  naturally led to
reject the common division  of it into  active and
passive,  or into substances that possess a power to
move themselves, and into such as require a power
to move them.   I  believe that animals, like water,
earth and air, nay  further, that the mind of  man
are  all moved only by their appropriate  stimuli;
and that water, earth and air do not become more
certainly quiescent from the  abstraction of the
causes that move them, than motion, heat,  sensa-
tion and thought cease from the abstraction of im-
pressions upon the  human body.  The only differ-
ence between what is called animated  and inani-
mate matter consists in the  stimuli which move
the former, acting  constantly, and in health, with
uniformity ;  whereas the  stimuli which act  upon
the latter, act occasionally and with intermissions.
However diversified the motions and effects of these
stimuli may be, the  causes of their motions are
exactly the same.

  I shall begin by  delivering a few general propo-
sitions. 
           CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.           »
  I. Every part of the human body (the nails and
hair excepted) is endowed with sensibility, or ex-
citability, or with both of them.   By sensibility is
meant the power of having sensation excited by the
action of impressions.   Excitability denotes that
property in the human body, by which motion is
excited  by means of impressions.  This property
has been called by several other names, such as ir-
ritability, contractibility, mobility, and stimulability.

   I shall make use of the term excitability, for the
most part,  in preference to  any  of them.   I mean
by it, a capacity of imperceptible, as well as. obvi-
ous motion.   It is of no consequence to our  pre-
sent inquiries, whether this excitability be a quality
of animal matter, or a substance.   The latter opi-
nion has been maintained  by Dr. Girtanner, and
has some probability in its favour.

   II. The whole human body is so formed and con-
nected, that impressions made in the healthy state
upon one part, excite motion, or sensation, or both,
in every other part of the body.   From this view,
it  appears to  be a unit, or a  simple and indi-
visible   substance.    Is  capacity  for receiving
motion, and sensation, is variously modified  by
means of what are called the senses. It is external,
   VOL.  I.               b 
10            INOJJIRY INTO THE
and internal.  The impressions which act upon it
shall be enumerated in order.

  III. Certain motions are voluntary, and others
are performed in an involuntary manner.

  IV. Different parts of the body possess different
degrees of what has been  called excitability, that
is, different degrees of susceptibility to the action of
the same stimuli upon them.

  V. Life is the effect of certain stimuli acting
upon the sensibility and excitability which are ex-
tended,  in different degrees, over every external
and internal part of the body.  These stimuli are
as necessary to its existence, as air is  to flame.
Animal life is truly (to use the words of Dr. Brown)
" a forced state."  I have said the words of Dr.
Brown; for the opinion was delivered by Dr. Cul-
len  in the university of Edinburgh, in the year
1766, and was detailed by me in this school, many
years before the name of Dr. Brown was known as
a teacher of medicine.   It is true, Dr. Cullen af-
terwards deserted it;  but  it is  equally true,  I
never did; and the belief of it has been  the foun-
dation of many of the principles  and modes  of
practice in medicine which I have since  adopted.
In a lecture which I delivered in the year 1771, I 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.
11
find the following words, which are taken from a
manuscript copy of lectures given by Dr. Cullen
upon the institutes of medicine.   " The human
body is not an automaton, or self-moving machine ;
but  is kept alive and in  motion, by the  constant
action of stimuli upon it."  In thus ascribing the
discovery of the cause of life which I shall endea-
vour to establish, to Dr. Cullen, let it not be  sup-
posed I mean to detract from the genius and merit
of Dr. Brown.  To his intrepidity in reviving and
propagating it, as well as for the many other truths
contained in his system of medicine, posterity, I
have no doubt, will do him ample justice, after the
errors  that  are  blended  with them  have  been
corrected, by their unsuccessful application to the
cure of diseases.

   Agreeably to our last proposition, I proceed to
remark, that the action of the brain, the diastole
 and systole of the heart,  the pulsation of the  arte-
 ries, the contraction of the muscles, the peristaltic
 motion of the bowels, the absorbing power of the
 lymphatics,  secretion, excretion, hearing,  seeing,
 smelling, taste, and the sense of touch, nay more,
 thought itself, are  all the effects of stimuli acting
 upon the organs of sense and motion.  These sti-
 muli have been divided into external and internal.
 The external are light, sound, odours, air, heat, 
12            INOJJIRY  INTO THE
exercise, and the pleasures of the senses.   The in-
ternal stimuli are food, drinks, chyle, the  blood, a
certain tension of the glands, which contain secret-
ed liquors, and the exercises of the faculties of the
mind ; each of which I shall  treat in the  order in
which they have been mentioned.

  I. Of external stimuli. The first of these is Air.
In support of this opinion,  I shall  produce  the
highest authority, and that is, the history of the
creation of man, as recorded in the second chapter
of the book of Genesis.  For this purpose, I  beg
you would accompany me in your imaginations to
the garden of Eden, the birth place of the great
progenitor of the human race.  In the midst of this
garden, behold a human figure !  Let us approach
it: How exquisitely formed are its head, its body,
and its limbs! All is symmetry and beauty  ! Let us
approach still nearer, and examine it by the aid of
all our senses.   It is motionless as the earth upon
which it stands.   Its external surface is cold, but'
soft.  Its well formed face  is  pale, and its eyes,
mouth, and nostrils are all closed.  But who is that
august figure that with slow and majestic steps ad-
vances towards it ? It  is its  Creator in a human
shape.   Let us retire a little to make room for him
to come nearer to the beautiful workmanship of his
divine  hands.   What  follows? Let  the  inspired 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL
LfFE.
13
historian tell us. " And the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nos-
trils the breath of life,  and man became a living
soul."*  The  common explanation of this passage
of Scripture is, that God, in this act, infused a soul
into the torpid, or lifeless body of Adam, and that
his soul became its principle  of life, or in other
words, that he thus changed a dead mass of ani-
malized matter, into an animated being. That this
was not the case, I infer, not  only from the exis-
tence of life in many persons in whom the soul is
in a dormant or torpid state from diseases in the
brain, but from a more liberal and correct transla-
tion of the above passage of scripture,  in which I
am warranted by several Hebrew scholars  in our
city, alike eminent for their learning and piety.  It
is as follows.   " And the Lord God breathed into
his nostrils, the air of lives, and he became a living
soul."  That  is, he dilated his nostrils, and there-
by inflated his lungs with air,  and thus excited in
him, animal, intellectual and spiritual life, in con-
sequence of which he  became  an animated human
creature.   From this view of the origin of life in
Adam, it appears that his soul and body were cast
in the same mould, and at the same time, and that
both  were animated by the same  act of Divine
* Verse 7. 
 14          IN*QJTIRY  INTO THE
rpower by means of the same stream of air.  The
 resuscitation of the body after appearing to be dead,
 by means of stimuli, more  especially  by the  sti-
 mulus of air, favours the explanation I have given
 of the beginning of life in man.  The air  thus in-
 fused into his lungs,  by expanding and stimulating
 them, communicated action, first to the heart, the
 heart moved the quiescent blood, the blood moved
 the quiescent brain, the brain moved the quiescent
 mind, the eyes and the mouth are now opened, the
 blood pervades the capillary vessels of the face,  and
 discharges a part of the paleness from it; his skin
 becomes warm; his will, the  great executive faculty
 of the mind, begins to act; other stimuli co-operate
 with the action of the air;   behold! he moves,  he
 walks, he is perfectly,  and universally animated.
 Thus gentlemen I believe began the life of man.

   That  the air, by exciting respiration,  gave the
 first impulse of life ttfthe fxxly and mind of Adam,
 and that it is essential to it, I infer from many pas-
 sages in the Old  and New Testaments,  besides
 the one I have mentioned.  I shall enumerate a few
 of them.

   1. The dry bones  seen by Ezekiel  in  a vision,
 when brought together, were devoid of life,  until
 trie winds are invoked to inflate their lungs with 
           CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.          15
 air.*   Immediately afterwards they became liv-
 ing and intelligent beings.

   2. Job places the life of the whole human race
 in their breath.  Hence he says, " In whose hand
 (meaning the Deity's)  is  the soul of every living
 creature, and the breath of all mankind."t  Again
 he says,  " The Spirit of the Lord hath made me,
 and the breath of the Almighty hath given me
 life.*

   3.  St.  Paul in his famous sermon preached  at
 Athens, makes life and breath synonimous ; hence
 he says,  " He (meaning the Creator of the world)
 giveth to all, life and breath."§

   The  intimate and indissoluble connection be-
 tween breath or air, and  life, is  established still
 further  by the  connection which the scriptures
 hold forth between the absence of breath, or air,
and the presence of death.

   4. The son of the widow of Zarephath is said to
die, when "  his sickness was so sore,  that there
was no breath left in him."[|

  * Chap, xxxvii.  f Chap. xiii. 10.   \  Chap, xxxiii. 4.
       § Acts xvii. 25.      || 1 Kings xyu.  17. 
 16            INQJJIRY INTO  THE
   5. The author of the 164di Psalm says, " Thou
 hidest thy  face, they are troubled; thou  takest
 away their  breath; they die, and return to their
 dust."*  Again, the author of the  146th Psalm, in
 speaking of the death of man,  says, " His breath
 goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that very
 day his thoughts perish."f

   Exactly in the same way  in which I have sup-
 posed life began in the first  man  in the garden of
 Eden, does it begin in every  child that comes into
 the  world.   The  first portion of air that rushes
 into its lungs,  sets  them in  motion.  They move
 the  heart....hence they have been called " cordis
 flabellum,"  or " ventilabrum," that is, the bellows
 of the heart....the heart moves the brain;  the brain
 gradually awakens and moves the mind ;  and both
 brain and  mind by  their  re-action, move  every
 other part of the body.  The  first impression of
 air upon the lungs of a new born infant is painful,
 and  hence its cries give the first notice of the pas-
 sage of its head into the world.   It is probable the
action of air  upon its body likewise excites pain,
and that the red colour of its skin, may be the effect
of it.  This sensation of pain is soon destroyed by
habit, and from the  operation of a  kind law in the
' Verse 29.             f Verse 4. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
17
animal economy, it is afterwards followed by a sense
of pleasure.   Respiration for a while in a new born
infant is at first altogether involuntary.  The heart
moves in like manner from the effects of respira-
tion  upon it.   After some time the will acquires,
from the  influence of habit, a partial  voluntary
power over the lungs, but the  heart continues to
move through every stage of life, only in conse-
quence of the perpetual impressions wrhich  are
made upon  it.  Its  action is therefore  very pro-
perly said to be altogether involuntary.

  That an action originally  involuntary- may  be-
come voluntary, and that actions originally volun-
tary may become involuntary, from habit, is obvi-
ous  from many facts.  The former  appears  not
only in respiration, but in the command which all
men acquire over their arms and legs  and over the
spincters  of the rectum  and bladder, and which
some men acquire over  their stomachs  and  dia-
phragms, so as to puke and hiccup at their plea-
sure, while  the latter  appears  in many diseases,
and, as I shall say hereafter, in the last hours of  life.
Convulsions in a  limb,  or muscle, are a  striking
proof of this change of a voluntary into an invo-
luntary action.  The  same things appear in the  tre-
mors in the limbs in old people, and in the fatal
 vol. i.                 c 
 IS             INQJJIRY INTO THE
 consequences which frequently attend their falling*
 down in walking. The whole weight of their heads
 and bodies generally strikes the ground,  and  that
 from the loss of the power of their wills over their
 arms, which by being protruded, break the  force
 of a fall  in early and middle life.

  I shall hereafter add a number of facts from the
 history of life in other animals, which will, I hope,
 support the important office I  have ascribed to the
air in imparting the first impulse to life in the hu-
 man species.

  2. Light appears to occupy the next grade to
air, in the production  of  animal  life.   It is re-
markable that  the progenitor of the human race
 was  not brought into existence  until all the lu-
minaries of heaven were created.   Light acts chief-
 ly through the medium of the organs of vision.
Its influence upon animal  life  is feeble, compared
 with some other stimuli to be mentioned hereafter;
but it has its proportion of force.   Sleep has been
 said to be a tendency to death ; now the absence of
 light we know invites to sleep, and the return of it
 excites  the  waking state.   The late Mr. Ritten-
 house informed me, that for  many  years he  had
 constantly awoke with the first dawn of the morn-
 ing light, both in summer  and winter.   Its influ- 
CAUSE  OF  ANIMAL LIFE.
19
ence upon the animal spirits strongly demonstrates
its connection with animal life, and hence we find
a cheerful and a depressed state of mind in many
people, and more especially in invalids, to be inti-
mately connected  with the presence or absence of
the rays of the  sun.   The well-known pedestrian
traveller,  Mr.  Stewart,  in one of his visits to this
city, informed  me, that he had spent a summer in
Lapland,  in the latitude of 69°, during the greatest
part of which time the sun was seldom out of sight.
He enjoyed, he said, during this  period, uncom-
mon health and spirits,  both of which he ascribed
to the long duration, and invigorating influence of
light.   These facts  will  surprise us less when we
attend to  the effects of light upon vegetables.  Some
of them lose their colour by being deprived of it;
many of them  discover a partiality to  it  in the di-
rection of their flowers;  and all of them discharge,
their pure air only while  they are exposed to it.*

  * Organization,  sensation, spontaneous motion, 'and life,
exist only at the surface of the earth, and in places exposed
to light. We might affirm the flame of Prometheus's torch
was the expression of a philosophical  truth that did not es-
cape the ancients.  Without light, nature was lifeless, ina-
nimate, and dead.  A benevolent God, by producing life, has
spread organization,  sensation, and thought over the surface
of the earth."—Lavoisier. 
20            INQUIRY  INTO  THE
  3. Sound has an extensive influence upon hu-
man life.  Its numerous artificial and natural sour-
ces need not be mentioned.   I shall only take no-
tice, that the currents  of winds,  the  passage  of
insects  through  the  air, and even the  growth of
vegetables, are all attended with  an  emission  of
sound;  and although they become imperceptible
from habit, yet there  is reason to  believe they  all
act upon the  body, through the medium of the
ears.  The existence of these sounds is established
by the reports of persons who have ascended two
or three miles from the earth in a  balloon.   They
tell us that the silence which prevails in those re-
gions of the air is so new and complete, as to pro-
duce an awful solemnity in their minds.  It is not
necessary that these sounds should  excite sensation
or perception, in order to their exerting a degree of
stimulus upon the body.   There  are a hundred
impressions daily made upon it,  which from habit
are not followed by sensation.  The stimulus of
aliment upon  the stomach, and of blood upon the
heart and arteries,  probably cease  to be felt, only
from the influence of habit.   The exercise of walk-
ing, which was originally the result of a deliberate
act of the will, is performed from habit without the
least degree of consciousness.  It is unfortunate for
this, and many other parts of physiology, that we* 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.
21
forget  what passed in our minds the first two or
three years of our lives.   Could we recollect the
manner in which we  acquired our first ideas, and
the progress of our knowledge with the evolution
of our senses and faculties, it  would  relieve us
from many difficulties and controversies upon this
subject.   Perhaps this forgetfulness by children,
of the origin and  progress of their  knowledge,
might be remedied by our attending more closely
to  the first effects of impressions,  sensation, and
perception upon them, as discovered by their little
actions; all of which probably have a meaning, as
determined as any of  the actions of men or women.

   The influence of sounds of a certain kind in pro-
ducing excitement,  and thereby increasing life,
cannot be denied.  Fear produces debility, which
is a tendency to death.  Sound obviates this debi-
lity, and thus restores the system to the natural and
healthy  grade of life.  The school-boy  and the
clown invigorate their feeble and trembling  limbs
by whistling or singing as they pass by a country
churcn-yard, and the soldier feels his departing life
recalled in the onset  of a battle by the noise  of the
fife, and of the poet's " spirit stirring drum."  In-
toxication is frequently attended with a higher de-
gree of life than is natural.  Now sound we know
will produce this  with a very moderate portion of 
 22            INQUIRY  INTO  THE
 fermented liquor;  hence  we find men are  more
 easily and highly excited by it at public entertain-
 ments where there is music, loud talking, and hal-
 looing, than in private companies where  there is no
 auxiliary stimulus  added to that of the wine.  I
 wish these effects of sound upon animal life to be
 remembered; for I shall mention  it hereafter as a
 remedy for the weak state of life in many diseases,
 and shall relate an instance in which a scream sud-
 denly extorted by grief, proved the means of re-
 suscitating a person who was supposed to be dead,
 and who had exhibited the usual ^recent marks of
 the extinction of life.

   I shaU conclude this head by remarking, that
 persons who are destitute  of hearing and seeing
 possess life, in a more languid state than  other peo-
 ple ; and hence arise the dulness and  want of spi-
 rits which they  discover in their intercourse with
 the world.

   4. Odours have a  sensible*effect in promoting
animal life.   The greater healthiness of the coun-
try, than cities, is derived in part from the effluvia
 of odoriferous plants, which float  in the atmosphere
 in the spring and summer months,  acting upon
the system, through  the medium of the sense of
smelling.   The effects of odours upon animal life 
           CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LI1 E.        23
 appear still more obvious in the  sudden revival of
 it, which they produce in cases of fainting.  Here
 the smell of a few drops of hartshorn, or even of
 a burnt feather, has frequently in a few minutes
 restored the system, from a state of weakness bor-
 dering upon death,  to an equable and regular  de-
 gree of excitement.

    5. Heat is a uniform and active stimulus in pro-
 moting life.  It is derived, in certain seasons and
 countries, in part from the sun; but  its principal
 source is from  that cause whatever it  may  be,
 which  produces animal  heat.   The  extensive
 influence  of heat upon animal life, is evident from
 its decay  and suspension during the winter in cer-
 tain animals, and from its revival upon the approach
 and action of the vernal sun.   It is true, life is di-
 minished  much less in man, from the distance and
 absence of the sun, than in other animals ; but this
 must be ascribed to his possessing reason in so high
 a degree,  as to enable him to supply the abstraction
 of  heat, by the action  of other  stimuli upon  his
 system.

   6.  Exercise acts as a stimulus upon the body in
various ways.  Its first impression is upon the  mus-
cles.   These act upon the blood-vessels, and they
upon  the nerves and brain.   The necessitv of ex- 
24            INQUIRY  INTO  THE
ercise to animal life is indicated, by its being kindly
imposed upon man in paradise.  The change which
the human body  underwent by the fall, rendered
the same salutary  stimulus necessary to its life, in
the more active form of labour.  But we are not to
suppose, that motion is excited in the body by ex-
ercise or labour alone.   It is constantly stimulated
by the positions of standing, sitting, and lying upon
the sides ; all of which a-,t more or less upon mus-
cular fibres,  and  by their means, upon every part
of the system.

   7. The pleasures we derive from our senses have
a  powerful  and extensive  influence upon human
life.   The  number of  these pleasures, and their
proximate cause, will form an agreeable subject for
two or three future lectures.

   We proceed next to consider the  internal stimuli
which produce animal life.   These are

   I. Food.   This acts in  the following ways.  1.
Upon the tongue.   Such are the sensibility and
excitability of this organ, and so intimate is its con-
 nection with every other part of the body, that the
 whole system is invigorated by aliment, as soon as
 it comes in -contact  with  it.  2.  By mastication.
 This moves a number of  muscles  and blood-ves- 
            CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.         25
 sels situated near the brain and heart, and of course
 imparts impressions to them.  3. By deglutition,
 which acts upon similar parts, and with the  same
 effect.  4. By  its  presence  in  the  stomach, in
 which it  acts by its quantity and quality.   Food,
 by distending the stomach, stimulates the contigu-
 ous parts of the body.  A moderate degree of dis-
 tention of the stomach and bowels is  essential to
 a healthy excitement of the system. Vegetable ali-
 ment and drinks, which contain less nourishment
 than animal food, serve this purpose in the human
 body.   Hay  acts in the same manner  in a horse.
 Sixteen pounds of this light food in a day are ne-
 cessary to keep up such a degree of distention in
 the stomach and bowels of this animal, as to impart
 to him his natural grade of strength and life.   The
 quality of food, when of a stimulating nature, sup-
 plies the  place of its distention from its quantity.
 A single onion will support a  lounging highlander
 on the hills of Scotland for four and twenty hours.
 A moderate quantity of salted meat, or a few ounces
 of sugar, have supplied the place of pounds of less
 stimulating food.   Even indigestible  substances,
 which remain for days,  or perhaps weeks in the
stomach, exert  a stimulus there which  has an in-
fluence upon  animal life.   It is in this way the tops
of briars, and the twigs of trees, devoid  not onlv
  VOL. I.               D 
26            INQUIRY  INTO THE
of nourishing  matter,  but of juices, support the
camel in his journies through  the deserts of the
eastern countries.  Chips of cedar posts moistened
with water have supported horses for two or three
weeks, during a long voyage from Boston to Suri-
nam ; and the indigestible cover of an old Bible pre-
served the life of a dog, accidentally confined in a
room at Newcastle upon Tyne, for  twenty days.
5. Food stimulates the whole body by means of the
process of digestion which goes forward in the sto-r
mach.  This animal function is carried  on  by a
process, in which there is probably an extrication of
heat and air. Now both these, it has been remark-
ed, exert a stimulus in promoting animal life.

   Drinks, when they consist of fermented or dis-
tilled liquors, stimulate  from  their  quality ; but
when they consist of water, either  in  its simple
state, or impregnated  with any  sapid  substance,
diey act principally by distention.

   II. The  chyle acts upon the lacteals, mesenteric
glands, and thoracic duct, in its  passage through
them ;  and it is highly probable, its  first mixture
with the blood in the subclavian vein, and its first
action on the heart, are attended with considerable
stimulating effects. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
2%
  III.  The blood is a very important internal sti-
mulus.   It has been disputed whether  it acts  by
its quality, or only by distending the blood-vessels.
It appears to act in both ways.  I believe with Dr.
Whytt, that the  blood stimulates the heart and ar-
teries by a specific action.   But if this  be not ad-
mitted, its influence in extending the blood-vessels
in every part of the body, and thereby imparting
extensive and uniform impressions to every animal
fibre, cannot be denied.   In support of this asser-
tion it has been  remarked,  that  in those persons
who die of hunger, there is no diminution of  the
quantity of blood in the large blood-vessels.

   IV. A certain tension of the glands, and of other
parts of the body, contributes  to support animal
life.  This is evident in the vigour which is im-
parted to the system, by the fulness of the seminal
vesicles and gall Hidder, and by the distention of
the  uterus in pregnancy.  This distention  is  so
great,  in some instances,  as to prevent sleep  for
many  days and even weeks before delivery.   It
serves the valuable purpose of rendering the female
system less liable to death during its continuance,
than at any other time.  By increasing the quantity
of life in the body, it often suspends the fatal issue
of pulmonary consumption; and ensures a tempo-
rary victory over the plague and other malignant 
28            INQUIRY INTO THE
fevers;  for  death,  from .those  diseases,  seldom
takes place,  until the stimulus, from the distention
of the uterus, is removed by parturition.

  V. The exercises of the faculties of the mind
have a wonderful influence in increasing the quan-
tity of human life. They all act by reflection only,
after having been previously excited  into  action
by impressions made upon the body.   This view
of the re-action of the mind upon the body accords
with the simplicity of other operations in the ani-
mal economy.   It is thus the  brain  repays  the
heart for the blood  it conveys to it, by re-acting
upon its muscular fibres.   The influence  of  the
different faculties of the mind is felt in the pulse,
in the stomach, and in the liver, and is seen in the
face, and other external parts of the body.   Those
which act most unequivocally in promoting life are
the  understanding, the imagination, and the  pas-
sions.  Thinking belongs to the understanding, and
is attended  with an  obvious influence upon  the de-
 gree and duration of life.  Intense study has often
 rendered the body insensible to the debilitating ef-
 fects of cold and hunger.  Men of great and active
 understandings, who blend with their studies tempe-
 rance and exercise,  are generally long lived.   In
 support of  this assertion, a hundred names might
 be  added to those of Newton and Franklin.  Its 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
29
truth will be  more fully established  by attending
to the state of human life in persons of an opposite
intellectual character. The Cretins, a race of idiots
in Valais, in Switzerland, travellers tell  us, are all
short lived.   Common language justifies the opi-
nion of the stimulus of the understanding upon the
brain : hence it is common to say of dull men, that
they have scarcely ideas enough to keep themselves
awake.

  The imagination acts with great force upon the
body, whether its i umerous associations  produce
pleasure or pain.   But the passions pour a constant
stream upon the wheels of life.   They  have been
subdivided into emotions and passions properly so
called.   The former have for their objects present,
the latter,  future good and evil.  All the objects
of the passions  are accompanied with desire or
aversion.  To the former belong chiefly, hope,
love,  ambition, and avarice; to the latter,  fear, ha-
tred, malice, envy, and the like.   Joy,  anger, and
terror, belong to  the class of emotions.   The pas-
sions and emotions have been further divided into
stimulating and sedative.   Our business at present
is to consider their first effect only upon the body.
In  the  original constitution of human nature,  we
were made to be stimulated by such passions and
emotions only as have moral good for their objects. 
 30            INQUIRY INTO THE
 Man was designed to be always under the influence
 of hope,  love, and joy.  By the loss of his inno-
 cence, he has subjected himself to the dominion of
 passions and emotions of a malignant nature ; but
 they possess, in common with such as are good, a
 stimulus  which renders  them subservient to the
 purpose of promoting animal life.  It is  true, they
 are like the stimulus of a dislocated  bone in their
 operation upon the body, compared with the action
 of antagonist muscles stretched over bones,  which
 gently move in their natural  sockets.   The  effects
 of the good passions and emotions, in promoting
 health and longevity, have been taken notice of by
 many writers.   They produce a  flame, gentle and
pleasant, like oil perfumed with frankincense, in the
lamp of life.  There are instances likewise of per-
sons who have derived  strength and long life from
the influence of the evil passions and emotions that
have been mentioned.    Dr. Darwin relates the
history of a man, who used to  overcome the fa-
tigue induced by  travelling,  by thinking of a per-
son whom he  hated.  The debility induced  bv
disease is often removed by a sudden change  in
the temper.  This is so common, that even nurses
predict a recovery in persons as soon as the}- be-
come peevish  and ill-natured, after  having been
patient during the worst  stage of their  sickness.
This  peevishness acts as a gentle stimulus  upon 
           CAUSE OF  ANIMAL LIFE.        31
tlje system in its languid state, and thus turns the
scale  in favour  of life and  health.  The famous
Benjamin Lay, of this state, who lived to be eighty
years of age, was of a very irascible temper.   Old
Elwes was a prodigy of avarice, and every court in
Europe furnishes instances  of men who have at-
tained to extreme old age, who have lived constantly
under the dominion of ambition. In the course of
a long inquiry which I instituted some years ago
into the state of the body and mind in old people,
I did not  find  a single person  above  eighty, who
had not possessed an active understanding, or active
passions.  Those different and opposite faculties of
the mind, when in excess, happily supply the place
of each other.   Where they  unite their forces, they
extinguish the flame of life, before the oil  which
feeds it is consumed.

   In another  place I shall resume the influence of
the faculties of the mind upon human life, as they
discover themselves in the different pursuits of men.

   I have  only to add here,  that I see no occasion
to admit,  with the followers of Dr.  Brown,  that
the mind  is active in sleep,  in  preserving the mo-
tions of life.   I hope  to establish  hereafter the
opinion of Mr. Locke, that the mind is always pas-
sive  in sound  sleep.  It is true it acts in dreams; 
 32           INQUIRY INTO THE
 but these depend upon a morbid state of the brain,
 and therefore do not belong to the present stage of
 our subject, for I am now considering animal  life
 only in the healthy state of the body.  I shall  say
 presently, that  dreams are intended to supply  the
 absence of some natural stimulus,  and hence  we
 find they occur in those persons most commonly,
 in whom there is a want of healthy action in  the
 system, induced by the excess or deficiency of cus-
 tomary stimuli.

   Life is in a languid state in the morning.  It  ac-
quires vigour by the gradual and successive appli-
cation of stimuli in the forenoon.  It is in its most
perfect state about mid-day, and remains stationary
for some hours.   From the diminution of the sen-
sibility and contractility of the system to the action
of impressions,  it  lessens in the evening, and be-
comes again languid at bed-time. These facts will
admit of an extensive application hereafter in our
lectures upon the practice of physic. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
33
               LECTURE II.


Gentlemen,
       THE stimuli which have been enumerated,
when they act collectively, and within certainbounds,
produce a healthy waking state.   But they do not
always act  collectively, nor in the determined and
regular manner that has been described.   There is,
in many states of the system, a deficiency of some
stimuli, and, in some of its states, an apparent ab-
sence of them all.  To  account for the continuance
of animal life under such circumstances, two things
must be premised, before we proceed to take no-
tice of the  diminution  or absence of the stimuli
which support it.

   1. The healthy actions of the body in the wak-
ing state consist in a proper  degree of  what  has
been called excitability and excitement.   The for-
mer is the medium on which stimuli act in pro-
ducing the  latter.   In an exact proportion, and  a
due relation of both, diffused uniformly throughout
every part of the body, consists good health.  Dis-
   VOL. I.              e 
34           INQUIRY INTO THE
ease is the reverse of this.   It depends in part up-
on a disproportion between excitement and excita-
bility, and in a partial distribution of each of them.
In thus distinguishing the different states of excite-
ment and excitability in health and sickness, you
see I dissent from Dr. Brown, who supposes them
to be (though disproportioned to each other) equa-
bly diffused in the morbid, as well as the healthy
state of the body.

  2. It is a law of the system, that the absence of
one natural stimulus is  generally supplied by the
increased action of others.  This is more certainly
the case where a natural stimulus is abstracted sud-
denly ;  for the excitability is thereby so  instantly
formed and accumulated, as to furnish a highly sen-
sible and moveable surface for the remaining sti-
muli to act upon.  Many proofs might be adduced
in support of this proposition.   The reduction of
the excitement  of the blood-vessels, by means of
cold, prepares the way  for a  full meal, or a warm
bed, to  excite in them  the morbid actions  which
take place in a pleurisy  or a rheumatism.  A horse
in a cold stable eats more than  in a warm one, and
 thus counteracts the debility which would other-
 wise be induced upon his system, by the abstrac-
 tion of the stimulus of warm  air. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
35
  These two propositions being admitted, I pro-
ceed next to inquire into the different degrees and
states of animal life.    The  first departure  from
its ordinary and perfect state which  strikes us.  is
in

  1. Sleep.   This  is either natural, or artificial.
Natural sleep is induced by a diminution of die ex-
citement and excitability of the system, by the con-
tinued application of the stimuli which act upon the
body in its waking state.  When these stimuli act
in a determined degree,  that is, when the same
number of stimuli act with the same force, and for
the  same time, upon the system,  sleep  will  be
brought  on at the same hour every night.  But
when they act with uncommon force, or for an un-
usual time, it  is  brought on  at an earlier hour.
Thus a long walk or ride, by persons accustomed
to a sedentary  life,  unusual exercise of the under-
standing, the  action  of strong passions or emo-
tions,  and  the continual application  of  unusual
sounds seldom fail of  inducing premature sleep.
It is recorded  of pope Ganganelli,  that he  slept
more soundly, and longer  than usual, the night
after he was raised to the  papal chair.  The effects
of unusual sounds in bringing on premature sleep,
is further demonstrated by that constant inclination
to retire to bed  at an  early hour, which  country 
36            INQUIRY INTO  THE
people discover  the  first and second days  they
spend in a city, exposed from morning  till night
to the noise of hammers, files,  and looms, or of
drays,  carts, waggons, and  coaches, rattling over
pavements of stone.   Sleep is furthur hastened by
the absence of light, the cessation of sounds and la-
bour, and the  recumbent posture of the body on
a soft bed.

  Artificial sleep may be induced at any time by
certain stimulating substances, particularly by opi-
um.  They act by carrying the system beyond the
healthy  grade  of excitement, to a degree of de-
pression, which Dr.  Brown  has happily called
the sleeping point.   The same point  may be in-
duced  in the  system  at any  time  by the artificial
abstraction of  the usual stimuli of life.  For exam-
ple, let  a person shut  himself up at mid-day  in a
dark room, remote from noise of all kinds, let him
lie down upon his back upon a soft bed in a tempe-
rate state of the  atmosphere, and let him cease to
think upon interesting subjects,  or  let  him  think
only upon one subject, and he will soon fall asleep.
Dr. Boerhaave relates an instance of a Dutch phy-
sician, who, having persuaded himself that waking
was a violent  state, and sleep the only natural one
of the system, contrived, by abstracting every kind
of stimulus in  the manner that has been mentioned. 
         CAUSE  OF ANIMAL LIFE.          37
to sleep away whole  days and  nights, until  at
length he  impaired his understanding, and finally
perished in a public hospital in a state of idiotism.

  In thus anticipating a view of the cause of sleep,
I have said nothing of the effects of diseases of the
brain  in inducing it.   These belong to  another
part of our course.  The short explanation I have
given of  its cause was necessary in order to ren-
der the history of animal  life, in  that state of the
system, more intelligible.

  At the  usual hour of sleep there is an abstraction
of the stimuli of light, sound, and muscular motion.
The stimuli which remain, and act with an increas-
ed force upon the body in sleep, are

  1.  The heat which is discharged from the body,
and confined by means of bed-clothes.  It is most
perceptible when exhaled from a bed-fellow. Heat
obtained in this way has sometimes been employed
to restore declining life to the bodies of old people.
Witness the damsel who lay for this purpose in the
bosom  of the king of Israel.   The  advantage of
this external heat will appear further, when we con-
sider  how impracticable or imperfect sleep is, when
we lie under too light covering in cold weather. 
38            INQUIRY  INTO  THE
  2.  The air which applied to the lungs during
sleep  probably acts  with more force than in the
waking state.  I am disposed to believe that more
air is  phlogisticated in sleep than at any other time,
for the smell of a close room in which a person has
slept one night, we know, is much more disagree-
able than that of a room, under equal circumstances,
in which half a dozen people have sat for the same
number of hours in the day time.  The action of
decomposed air on the lungs and heart was spoken
of in a former lecture.  An increase in its quantity
must  necessarily have a  powerful influence upon
animal life during the sleeping state.

  3. Respiration is performed  with a greater ex-
tension and contraction of the muscles of the breast
in sleep than in the waking state ; and this cannot
fail  of increasing the impetus of  the blood in its
passage through the heart and blood-vessels.  The
increase of the fulness and force  of the pulse in
sleep,  is probably owing in part to the action of
respiration upon it.   In  another  place  I  hope to
elevate the rank of the blood-vessels  in the animal
economy, by  showing that they are  the fountains
of power in the body.  They derive this pre-emi-
nence from the protection and support they afford
to every part of the system.  They are the perpe- 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
39
tual  centinels of health and life;  for they  never
partake in the repose which is enjoyed by the mus-
cles  and nerves.  During sleep,  their sensibility
seems to be converted into contractility, by which
means their muscular fibres are more easily moved
by the blood than in the waking state.   The dimi-
nution of sensibility in sleep  is proved by many
facts to be mentioned hereafter ; and the change of
sensibility into contractility will  appear, when we
come to consider the state of animal life in infancy
and old age.

   4. Aliment in the stomach acts more powerfully
in sleep than in  the waking state.   This is evident
from digestion going on more rapidly when we are
awake than when we  sleep.   The more slow the
digestion, the greater is the stimulus of the aliment
in the  stomach.  Of this we have many proofs
in daily life.   Labourers  object  to   milk as  a
breakfast,  because it digests too soon; and often
call for food in  a morning, which they  can feel all
day  in  their stomachs.   Sausages,  fat pork, and
onions are generally  preferred  by  them for this
purpose. A moderate supper is favourable to easy
and sound sleep  ; and the want of it, in persons who
are accustomed to that meal, is often followed by
a restless night.   The absence  of its stimulus  is
probably supplied by a full gall-bladder (which al- 
 40           INQUIRY INTO THE
 ways attends an empty stomach) in persons who
 are not in the habit of eating suppers.

   5.  The stimulus of the urine, accumulated in the
 bladder during sleep,  has  a perceptible influence
 upon animal life.   It is often so considerable as to
 interrupt sleep ;  and it is one of the causes of our
 waking at a regular hour in the  morning.  It is
 moreover a frequent cause of the activity of the un-
 derstanding and passions in dreams ; and hence we
 dream more  in our morning slumbers, when the
 bladder is full, than we do in the beginning or mid-
 dle of the night.

   6. The faeces exert a constant stimulus upon the
bowels in sleep.  This is so considerable as to ren-
der it less profound when they have been accumu-
 lated for two or three days, or when they have been
deposited in the extremity of the alimentary canal.

   7.  The partial and irregular exercises of the un-
derstanding and passions in dreams have an  occa-
 sional influence in promoting life.  They occur only
where there is a deficiency of other stimuli.    Such
is the force with which the mind acts upon the body
in dreams, that  Dr. Brambilla,  physician to the
 emperor of Germany,  informs us,  that he has seen
 instances of wounds in soldiers being inflamed, and 
CAUSE OF  ANIMAL LIFE.
41
putting on a gangrenous appearance in consequence
of the commotions excited in their bodies by irri-
tating dreams.*   The  stimulating passions act
through the medium of the will; and the exercises
of this faculty of the mind sometimes extend so far
as to produce actions in the muscles of the limbs,
and  occasionally in the whole  body, as  we  see  in
persons who walk in their sleep.  The stimulus of
lust  often awakens us with pleasure or pain, accord-
ing as we are disposed to respect  or disobey the
precepts of our  Maker. The angry and revengeful
passions often deliver us, in like manner, from the
imaginary guilt  of murder.  Even the  debilitating
passions of grief and fear produce an indirect ope-
ration upon the  system that is  favourable to life in
sleep, for they excite that  distressing disease called
the night-mare, which prompts us to speak,  or hal-
loo, and by thus invigorating respiration, overcomes
the languid circulation of the blood in the heart and
brain.  Do not complain  then,  gentlemen, when
you  are  bestrode by this  midnight hag.  She  is

   *  A fever was excited in Cinna the poet, in consequence
of his dreaming that he saw Csesar, the night after he was
assassinated, and was invited to accompany him to a dreary
place, to which he pointed, in order to sup with him. Con-
vulsions, and other diseases, I believe, are often excited  in
the night, by terrifying or distressing dreams.
                        Plutarch's Life of M. Brutus.
   VOL. I.               F 
42           INQUIRY  INTO THE
kindly sent to prevent your sudden death.   Per-
sons who go to bed in good health, and are found
dead the succeeding morning, are said most com-
monly to die of this disease.

  I proceed now to inquire into the state of animal
life  in its different stages.   I pass over for the pre-
sent its history in generation.  It will be sufficient
only to remark in this place, that its first motion is
produced by the stimulus of the male seed upon the
female ovum.  This opinion is not originally mine.
You will find it  in Dr. Haller.*  The pungent taste
which Mr.  John  Hunter  discovered in the male
seed renders it peculiarly fit for this purpose.  No
sooner is the female ovum  thus set in motion, and
the  foetus formed, than its capacity of life is sup-
ported,

  1.  By the stimulus of the heat which it derives
from its connection with its mother in the womb.

  2.  By the stimulus of its own circulating blood.  .

  3.  By its constant motion in the  womb after the
third month of pregnancy.   The absence of this

  * "Novum foetum a seminis masculi stimulo vitam conce-
pisse."—Elementa Physiologic, vol. viii. p. 177. 
CAUSE OF  ANIMAL LIFE.
43
  motion for a few days is always a sign of the indis-
  position or death of a foetus.   Considering how
  early a child is accustomed to it, it is strange that
  a cradle should ever have been denied to it after it
  comes into the world.

    II.  In infants there is an absence of many of the
  stimuli which  support life.  Their excretions are
  in a great measure deficient  in acrimony, and their
  mental faculties are too weak to exert much influ-
  ence upon their bodies. But the absence of stimu-
  lus  from those causes is amply supplied.

    1. By the very great excitability of their sys-
  tems to those of light,  sound,  heat,  and air.   So
  powerfully do  light and sound act upon them, that
  the  Author of nature has kindly defended their eyes
  and ears  from an excess of their impressions by
  imperfect vision  and hearing, for several weeks af-
  ter  birth.   The capacity of infants to be acted up-
  on by moderate degrees of heat is evident from their
  suffering less from cold than grown people.  This
  is so much the case, that we read, in Mr. Umfre-
'  ville's account of  Hudson's Bay, of a  child that
  was found alive  upon the back of its mother after
  she was frozen to  death.  I before  hinted  at the
  action of  the air upon the bodies of  new-born in-
  fants in producing the red colour of their skins. It 
44            INQUIRY  INTO  THE
is highly probable (from a fact formerly mentioned)
that the first impression of the  atmosphere which
produces this redness is accompanied with pain,
and this we know is a stimulus of a very active na-
ture.   By  a kind law of sensation, impressions,
that were originally painful, become pleasurable by
repetition or duration.  This is remarkably evident
in  the impression  now under  consideration,  and
hence we find infants at a certain age discover signs
of an increase of life  by  their delightful gestures,
when they  are carried into the open air.   Recollect
further, gentlemen, what  was said formerly of ex-
citability predominating over sensibility in infants.
We see it daily, not only in their patience of cold,
but in the short time in which they cease to com-
plain of the injuries they meet with from falls, cuts,
and even severe surgical  operations.

   2.  Animal life is  supported in infants by their
sucking, or feeding,  nearly every hour in the day
and night when they are  awake.   I explained for-
merly the manner in which food stimulated the sys-
tem.   The action of sucking supplies, by  the
muscles employed in it, the stimulus of mastication.

   3.  Laughing and crying, which are universal in
infancy, have a considerable influence in promoting
animal life,  by their  action upon respiration,  and 
           GAUSE  OF ANIMAL LIFE.        45
 the circulation of the blood.  Laughing exists un-
 der all circumstances, independently of education
 or imitation.   The child of the negro slave, born
 only to inherit the  toils and misery of its parents,
 receives its master  with a smile every time he en-
 ters his kitchen or a negro-quarter. But laughinp-
 exists in  infancy  under circumstances still more
 unfavourable to it;  an instance of which is related
 by Mr. Bruce. After a journey of several hundred
 miles across  the  sands of Nubia, he  came to a
 spring of water shaded by a few scrubby trees.
 Here he intended to have  rested during the nio-hty
 but he had not slept long before he was awakened
 by a noise which he perceived was made by a soli-
 tary Arab, equally  fatigued and half famished with
 himself, who was preparing to murder and plunder
 him.  Mr. Bruce rushed upon him, and made hint
 his prisoner.   The next morning he was joined by
 a half-starved female companion, with an infant of
 six months old in her arms.   In  passing  by this
 child, Mr. Bruce says, it  laughed and crowed in
 his face, and attempted to leap upon him.   From
 this fact it would seem as if laughing was not only
 characteristic of our species, but that it  was early
and intimately connected with  human life.   The
child  of these Arabs  had  probably never seen a
smile  upon the faces of its ferocious parents and 
 46            INQUIRY INTO  THE
 perhaps had never (before the sight of Mr. Bruce)
 beheld any other human creature.

   Crying has a considerable influence upon health
 and life in children.  I have seen so many instances
 of its salutary effects, that I have satisfied myself
 it is as possible for a child to " cry and be fat," as
 it is to " laugh and be fat."

   4.  As children advance in life, the constancy of
 their  appetites  for  food, and  their disposition to
 laugh and cry, lessen, but the diminution of these
 stimuli is  supplied by exercise.  The limbs* and
 tongues of children  are  always in motion.  They
 continue likewise to eat oftener than adults.  A
 crust of bread is commonly  the last thing they ask
 for at night, and the first thing they call for in the
 morning.  It is now they begin to  feel the energy
 of their mental faculties. This stimulus is assisted
 in its force by  the disposition to prattle, which  is
 so universal among children.  This habit of con-
 verting their ideas into words as fast as they  rise,
 follows them to their beds,  where we often hear

  * Niebuhr, in his Travels, says the children in Arabia are
taught to keep themselves constantly in motion by a kind of
vibratory exercise of  their bodies. This motion counteracts
the diminution of life produced by the heat of the climate qf
 Arabia. 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.
4T
them talk themselves to sleep in a whisper, or to
use less correct, but more striking terms, by think-
ing aloud.

  5. Dreams act at an early period upon the bodies
of children.  Their smiles, startings, and occasional
screams in their sleep appear to arise from them.
After the third or fourth year of their lives, ^they
sometimes confound them with things that are real.
From observing the effects of this mistake upon
the memory, a sensible woman whom I once knew,
forbad her children to telUtheir dreams,  lest they
should contract habits  of lying, by confounding
imaginary with real events.

   6.  New  objects,  whether natural  or artificial,
are never seen  by children without  emotions of
pleasure which  act  upon their capacity of  life.
The effects  of novelty  upon the tender bodies of
children may easily be  conceived,  by its friendly
influence  upon  the health of  invalids who  visit
foreign countries, and  who pass months or years
in a constant succession of new and agreeable im-
pressions.

  III. From the combination of all the stimuli that
have been enumerated,  human life is generally in
excess from fifteen to thirty-five. It is during this 
 48            INQUIRY INTO THE
 period the passions blow a perpetual storm.   The
 most predominating of them is the love of pleasure.
 No sooner does the system become insensible to
 this stimulus, than ambition succeeds it in,

   IV. The middle stage of life.  Here we behold
 man in the most perfect physical  state.  The  sti-
 muli  which now act upon him are so far regulated
 by prudence, that they are seldom excessive in their
 force.   The habits of order the system acquires in
 this period, continue  to produce good health for
 many years afterwards -t and hence bills  of mor-
 tality  prove that fewer persons die between forty
 and fifty-seven, than in  any other seventeen years
 of human life.

   V.  In old age, the senses of seeing, hearing, and
 touch  are impaired.   The  venereal appetite is
 weakened, or entirely extinguished.  The  pulse
 becomes  slow, and subject to frequent intermis-
 sions, from a decay in the force of the blood-ves-
sels. Exercise becomes  impracticable, or irksome,
and the operations of the understanding  are per-
formed with  languor and difficulty.   In this shat-
tered and declining^state  of the system, the absence
and diminution of all the stimuli which have been
mentioned are supplied, 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.
49
   1. By an  increase in the quantity, and by the
peculiar quality of the food, which is taken by old
people.  They generally eat twice as much as per-
sons in middle  life, and they bear with  pain the
usual intervals between meals.  They moreover
prefer that kind of food which is savoury and sti-
mulating.  The stomach of the celebrated  Parr,
who died  in the one hundred and fiftieth  year of
his age, was  found full of strong, nourishing ali-
ment.

   2. By the  stimulus of the faeces, which are fre-
quently retained for five or  six days in the bowels
of old people.

   3. By the stimulus of fluids rendered preterna-
turally acrid by age.  The  urine,  sweat, and even
the tears of old people,  possess a peculiar acrimo-
ny.  Their blood  likewise loses part of the mild-
ness which is natural to that fluid; and hence the
difficulty with which sores heal in old people; and
hence too the reason why cancers are more com-
mon in the decline, than in any other period of hu-
man life.

  4. By the uncommon activity of certain passions.
These are either good or evil.  To the former be-
long an increased vigour in the operations of those
  vol. i.               c 
50             INQUIRY INTO THE
passions which have for their objects  the Divine
Being, or the whole family of mankind, or  their
own offspring, particularly their  grand-children.
To die latter passions belong malice, a hatred of the
manners and fashions of the rising generation, and,
above all, avarice.  This passion knows no holi-
days. Its stimulus is constant, though  varied daily
by the numerous means which it has discovered of
increasing,  securing, and perpetuating property. It
has been observed that  weak  mental  impressions
produce much greater effects in old people than in
persons in  middle life.   A trifling indisposition in
a grand-child, an inadvertent act of unkindness from
a friend, or the fear of losing a few shillings, have,
in many instances, produced in them a degree of
wakefulness that has continued 4 for two or  three
nights.  It is  to  this highly excitable  state  of the
system that Solomon probably alludes, when he
describes the  grasshopper  as  burdensome to old
people.

  5. By the passion for talking, which is so com-
mon, as to be one of the characteristics of old age.
I mentioned formerly the influence of this stimulus
upon animal life.  Perhaps it is more necessary in
the female  constitution than in the  male ; for it has
long ago been remarked, that women who are very
taciturn are generally unhealthy. 
           CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.        51
  6. By their wearing warmer clothes, and prefer-
ring warmer rooms, than in the former periods of
their lives.  This practice is  so uniform, that  it
would not be difficult, in many cases, to tell a man's
age by his dress,  or by^nding out at what degree
of heat he found himself comfortable in  a  close
room.

  7. By dreams.   These are universal among old
people.   They arise from their short and  imperfect
sleep.

  8. It  has been often said, that " We are once
men, and twice children." In speaking of the state
of animal life in infancy, I remarked that the con-
tractility of tlwrTinimal fibres predominated over
their sensibility in  that stage  of life.  The  same
thing takes place in old people,  and it is in conse-
quence  of the return of this infantile state of the
system,  that all the stimuli which have been men-
tioned act upon them with much more force than in
middle life.   This  sameness, in the predominance
of excitability over sensibility in children and old
people, will account for the similarity of their habits
with respect to eating, sleep, exercise, and the use
of  fermented  and distilled liquors.   It is from the
increase of excitability in old people, that so  small
a quantity of strong drink intoxicates them; and it 
 52           INQUIRY INTO THE
 is from an ignorance of this change in their consti*
 tutions, that many of them become drunkards, after
 passing the early and middle stages of life with
 sober characters.
                        t
   Life is  continued in a less imperfect state in old
 age  in  women  than  in men.  The former sew,
 and knit,  and spin, after they lose the use of their
 ears and eyes;  whereas the latter, after losing the
 use of those senses, frequently pass the evening of
 their lives in a torpid state in a chimney  corner.
 It is from the influence of moderate and gentle sti-
 mulating  employments upon the  female constitu-
 tion, that more women live  to be old than men,
 and that they rarely survive their  usefulness in do-
 mestic life.                    (Qb

   Hitherto the principles I  am  endeavouring to
 establish have been applied to explain the cause of
life in its more common forms.   Let us next in-
 quire, how far they will enable us to explain its
continuance in certain morbid states of the body, in
which there is a diminution of some, and an appa-
 rent abstraction of all the stimuli, which have been
 supposed to produce  animal life.

   I.  We observe some people to be blind, or deaf
and dumb, from their birth.  The  same defects 
«
            CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.        53
of  sight,  hearing,  and speech, are  sometimes
brought on by diseases.   Here animal life is de-
prived of  all those numerous stimuli, which arise
from light, colours, sounds, and speech,  But the
absence of these stimuli is supplied,

   1. By increased sensibility and excitability  in
their  remaining senses.  The ears, the nose, and
the fingers,  afford  a  surface  for impressions  in
blind people,  which frequently overbalances the
loss of their eye-sight. There are two blind young
men, brothers, in this city, of the name of Dutton,
who can tell when they approach a post in walking
across a  street,  by a peculiar sound which  the
ground under their feet emits in the neighbourhood
of the post.  Their sense of hearing is still more
exquisite  to sounds of another kind.  They can
tell the names of a number of  tame pigeons, with
which they  amuse themselves in a little garden,  by
only hearing them fly over their heads.  The cele-
brated blind philosopher, Dr. Moyse, can distinguish
a black dress on his friends,  by its smell; and we
read of many instances of blind persons who have
been able to perceive colours by rubbing their fin-
gers upon them.  One of these  persons, mentioned
by Mr. Boyle, has left upon record an account of
the specific  quality of each colour as it affected his
sense of touch.   He says black imparted the most, 
54           INQUIRY INTO THE
and blue the least, perceptible sense of asperity to
his fingers.

   2. By an increase of vigour in the exercises of
the mental faculties.   The poems of Homer, Mil-
ton, and Blacklock, and the attainments of Sander-
son in mathematical knowledge, all discover how
much the energy of the mind is increased by  the
absence of impressions upon the organs of vision.

   II.  We sometimes behold life in idiots, in whom
there  is not only an absence of the  stimuli  of  the
understanding and passions, but frequentiy, from
the weakness of their bodies, a deficiency  of  the
loco-motive  powers.  Here an inordinate appetite
for food, or venereal pleasures,  or a constant habit
of laughing,  or talking, or playing with their hands
and feet, supply the place of the stimulating opera-
tions of the mind,  and of general bodily  exercise.
Of the inordinate force of the venereal appetite in
idiots we have many proofs. The Cretins are much
addicted to venery; and Dr. Michaelis tells us that
the idiot whom he saw at the Passaic  falls in New
lersey, who had passed six and twenty years in a
cradle, acknowledged that he had venereal desires,
and wished to be married, for, the doctor adds, he
had a sense of religion upon his fragment of mind, 
•
            CAUSE  OF ANIMAL LIFE.          55
and of course did not wish to gratify* that appetite
in an unlawful manner.

  III. How is animal life supported in persons who
pass many days, and even weeks, without food, and
in some  instances  without drinks ? Long fasting
is usually the effect of disease, of necessity, or  of
a principle of religion.   When it arises from the
first cause, the actions of life are  kept up by  the
stimulus of disease.* The absence of  food, when
accidental, or submitted to as a means of producing
moral happiness, is supplied,

   I.  By the stimulus of a full gall bladder.   This
state of the receptacle of bile has  generally been
found to accompany an empty stomach.  The bile
is sometimes absorbed, and imparts a yellew colour
to the skin of persons who suffer or die of famine.

  * The stimulus of a disease sometimes supplies the place
of food in prolonging life.  Mr. C. S----, a gentleman well
known in Virginia, who was afflicted with a palsy, which
had resisted the skill of several  physicians,  determined to
destroy himself, by abstaining from food and drinks.  He
lived sixty days without eating any thing, and the greatest
part of that time without tasting even :. drop of water.  His
disease probably  protracted his life thus long beyond the
usual time in which  death is  induced by fasting.  See a
particular account of this case, in the  first number of the
second volume of Dr. Coxe's  Medical Museum. 
 56           INQUIRY  INTO THE
   2. By increased  acrimony  in all  the secretions
 and excretions of the body.   The saliva becomes
 so acrid by long fasting, as to excoriate the gums,
 and the breath acquires not  only  a foetor, but a
 pungency so active, as to draw tears from the eyes
 of persons who are exposed to it.

   3. By  increased sensibility and  excitability in
 the sense of touch.  The blind man mentioned by
 Mr. Boyle, who could distinguish  colours by his
 fingers, possessed  this talent  only after  fasting.
 Even a draught of any kind of liquor deprived him
 of it.   I have taken notice, in my account of the
 yellow  fever in Philadelphia,  in the year 1793, of
 the effects of a diet, bordering upon fasting for six
 weeks,  in producing a quickness and correctness
 in my perceptions of the state of the pulse, which
 I had never experienced before.

   4. By an increase of activity in the understand-
 ing and passions.  Gamesters often improve  the
 exercises of their minds, when they are about to
 play for a large sum of money, by living for a day
or two upon roasted apples and cold water.  Where
the passions  are excited into  preternatural action,
 the absence of the stimulus of food is scarcely felt.
 I shall hereafter mention the influence of the desire 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
57
 of life upon its  preservation,  under all  circum-
 stances.   It acts with peculiar force when fasting
 is accidental.   But when it  is submitted to as a
 religious duty, it is accompanied by sentiments and
 feelings which more than balance the abstraction
 of aliment.  The body  of Moses was sustained,
 probably without a miracle, during an  abstinence
 of forty days and forty nights, by  the pleasure he
 derived from conversing with his Maker " face to
 face, as a man speaking with his friend."*

   I remarked formerly, that the veins discover no
 deficiency of blood in persons who die of famine.
 Death from this cause seems to be less the effect
 of the want of food, than of the combined and ex-
 cessive operation of the  stimuli, which supply its
 place in the system.

   IV. We come now  to a difficult inquiry, and
 that is, how is  life  supported during the total ab-
straction of external and internal stimuli which takes
place in asphyxia, or in apparent death, from all its
numerous causes ?

  I took notice, in a former lecture, that ordinary
life consisted in the excitement and excitability of

           * Exodus xxxiii. 11. xxxiv. 28.
  VOL. I.              H 
58           INQUIRY INTO THE
the different parts of the body, and that they were
occasionally changed into each other.   In apparent
death from violent emotions of the mind, from the
sudden impression of miasmata, or from drowning,
there is a loss of excitement; but the excitability
of the system remains  for  minutes,  and, in some
instances, for hours afterwards  unimpaired,  pro-
vided the accident which produced the loss of ex-
citement has not been attended with such exertions
as are calculated to waste it.   If, for  example,  a
person should fall suddenlyinto the water, without
bruising  his body, and  sink before his fears or ex-
ertions had time to dissipate  his  excitability; his
recovery  from apparent death might be effected by
the gentle action of heat or frictions upon his body,
so as to convert his accumulated excitability gra-
dually into excitement.  The same  condition of
the system takes place  when apparent death occurs
from freezing, and a recovery is  accomplished by
the same gentle application of stimuli, provided the
organization of the body be not injured, or its ex-
citability wasted,  by  violent exertions previously
to its freezing.   This excitability is the vehicle of
motion, and motion, when continued long enough,
produces sensation, which is soon   followed by
thought; and in these, I  said  formerly, consists
perfect life in the human body. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
59
   For this explanation of the manner in which life
is suspended and revived,  in persons apparently
dead from cold, I am indebted to Mr.  John Hun-
ter, who supposes, if it Mere possible for the body
to be suddenly  frozen, by an instantaneous abstrac-
tion of its heat,, life might  be continued for many
years in a suspended state,  and revived at pleasure,
provided the body were  preserved constantly in a
temperature barely sufficient to prevent re-anima-
tion, and never  so great as to endanger the de-
struction of any  organic part.   The resuscitation
of insects; that have been in a torpid state for
months,  and perhaps years,  in substances that
have preserved their organization, should at least
defend this bold  proposition from being treated as
chimerical. The effusions even of the  imagination
of such men as Mr. Hunter, are entitled to respect.
They often become the germs of future discoveries,

   In that state of suspended animation which oc-
curs in acute  diseases, and which has sometimes
been denominated a trance, the system is nearly in
the same excitable state  that it is in apparent death
from  drowning and  freezing.  Resuscitation, in
these cases, is not the effect, as in those which have
been mentioned, of artificial applications made to
the body for that purpose.   It appears to be spon-
taneous ; but it is produced by  impressions made 
60            INQUIRY  INTO  THE
upon the ears,  and by the operations of the mind
in dreams.   Of the actions of these stimuli upon
the bod} in its  apparently lifeless state,  I have sa-
tisfied myself by  many facts.   I once attended a
citizen of Philadelphia, who died of a pulmonary
disease, in  the 80th year of his  age.   A few days
before his death, he begged that he might not be in-
terred until one week after the  usual signs of life
had left his body, and gave as a reason for this re-
quest, that  he had, when a young man, died to all
appearance of the yellow fever, in one of the West
India islands.   In this situation he distinctly heard
the persons who attended him,  fix  upon the time
and place of burying him.  The horror of being
put under ground alive, produced such distressing
emotions in his mind, as to diffuse motion through-
out his body, and finally excited in him all the usu-
al functions of life.  In Dr. Creighton's essay upon
mental  derangement, there is  a history of  a case
nearly of a similar nature.   " A young lady  (says
the doctor) an  attendant on the princess of-----,
after having heen confined  to her bed for a great
length of time, with a violent nervous disorder, was
at last, to  all appearance, deprived of life.   Her
lips were quite pale, her face resembled the coun-
tenance of a dead person, and her body grew cold.
She was removed from the room in which she died,
was laid in a coffin, and the day for her funeral was 
            CAUSE OF  ANIMAL  LIFE.         61
 hxed on.   The day  arrived,  and according to the
 custom of the country, funeral songs and hymns
 were sung before the door. Just as the people were
 about to nail on the lid  of the  coffin, a kind of per-
 spiration was observed  on the surface of her body.
 She recovered.   The following is the account she
 gave of her sensations : she said,  " It seemed to
 her as if in a dream, that she was really dead; yet
 she was perfectly conscious of all that  happened
 around her. She distinctly heard her friends speak-
 ing and lamenting her death at the side of her  cof-
 fin.  She felt them pull on the dead clothes,  and
 lay her in  it.   This feeling  produced  a mental
 anxiety which she could not describe.  She tried
 to  cry out,  but  her mind was  without power,
 and could not act on  her  body.   She  had  the
 contradictory feeling  as if she were  in  her own
 body,  and not in it,  at the same  time.  It was
 equally impossible for her to stretch out her arm
 or open her eyes, as to  cry, although she continu-
 ally endeavoured to do so.   The internal anguish
 of her mind was at its utmost  height when the  fu-
 neral hymns began to  be sung, and when the lid of
 the coffin was about to be nailed on.  The thought
that she was to be buried alive was the first which
gave activity to her mind,  and enabled it to ope-
rate on her corporeal frame." 
62            INQUIRY INTO THE
  Where the ears lose their capacity of being act-
ed upon by stimuli, the mind, by its operations in
dreams, becomes a source of impressions  which
again sets the wheels of life in motion.  There is
an account published by Dr. Arnold, in his  obser-
vations  upoa insanity,* of a certain John Engel-
breght,  a German, who was  believed to be dead,
and  who was evidently resuscitated by the exer-
cises of his  mind upon subjects which were of a
delightful or stimulating nature. This history shall
be taken from Mr. Engelbreght's words.  " It
was  on Thursday noon  (says he) about  twelve
o'clock, when I perceived that death  was making
his approaches upon me from the lower parts up-
wards, insomuch that my whole body  became stiff.
I had no feeling left  in my hands and feet, neither
in any other part of my whole body, nor was I at last
able to speak or see, for my mouth now becoming
very stiff, I  was no longer able to open it, nor did
I feel it any longer.   My eyes also broke  in my
head in such a manner that I distinctly felt it. For
all that, I  understood what they said, when they
 were praying by me, and I  distinctly heard them
say, feel his legs, how stiff and cold they  have be-
 come.   This I heard  distinctly, but I had no per-
 ception of their touch.  I heard the watchman cry
* Vol. ii. p. 298. 
CAUSE
OF ANIMAL LIFE.
63
11 o'clock, but at 12 o'clqck my hearing left me."
After relating his passage from the body to heaven
with the velocity of an arrow shot from a cross
bow, he proceeds,  and says, that as he was  twelve
hours in dying, so he was twelve hours in returning
to life.  " As  I died (says he) from beneath up-
wards, so I revived again the contrary way, from
above to beneath, or from top to toe.   Being con-
veyed back from the heavenly glory, I began to hear
something of what they were praying for me, in the
same room with me.  Thus was my hearing the
first sense I recovered.  After this  I began to have
a perception of my eyes, so that, by little and little,
my whole body became  strong and sprightly, and
no sooner  did I get a feeling of my legs and feet,
than I arose and stood firm upon them with a firm-
ness I had never enjoyed  before.   The heavenly
joy I had experienced, invigorated me to  such a
degree, that people  were astonished at my rapid,
and almost instantaneous recovery."

   The explanation I have given of the cause of re-
suscitation in  this man  will serve to refute  a belief
 in a supposed migration of the soul from the bod)-,
in cases of apparent death.   The imagination, it is
 true, usually conducts the whole mind to the abodes
 of happy or miserable spirits, but it acts here in the
 same way that it does when it transports it, in com- 
 64           INQUIRY  INTO THE

 mon dreams, to numerous and distant parts of the
 world.

   There is nothing supernatural  in Mr.  Engel-
breght being invigorated by his supposed flight to
heaven.  Pleasant dreams  always stimulate  and
strengthen the body, while dreams which are ac-
companied with distress or  labour debilitate and
fatigue it. 
C-AUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
65
                LECTURE III.

 Gentlemen,
      LET  us next take  a view of the state of
 animal life in the different inhabitants of our globe,
 as varied by the circumstances of civilization, diet,
 situation, and climate.

   I.  In  the Indians of the northern latitudes of
 America there is often a defect of the stimulus of
 aliment,  and  of  the  understanding and passions.
 Their vacant countenances,  and their  long  dis-
 gusting taciturnity, are the effects of the want of
 action in their brains from a deficiency  of ideas;
 and  their tranquillity under all the  common  cir-
 cumstances of irritation, pleasure, or grief, are the
 result of an absence of passion ;  for they hold it to
 be disgraceful to show any outward signs of anger,
joy,  or even of domestic affection.   This account
of the Indian character, I know,  is contrary to that
 which is given of it by Rousseau, and several other
writers, who have attempted to prove that man may
become perfect and happy without the aids of civil-
ization and religion.  This opinion is contradicted
VOL. I.
i 
                  vie*"  ' —rt-

66            INq^IIRY' INTO  THE
by the experience of all ages,  and is rendered ridi-
culous by the facts which are well ascertained in
the history of the customs and habits of our Ame-
rican savages.  In a cold climate they are the most
miserable beings upon the face  of the earth.  The
greatest part  of their time is spent in sleep, or un-
der the alternate influence of  hunger and gluttony.
They moreover indulge in vices  which are alike
contrary  to moral and physical happiness.   It is in
consequence  of these habits that they discover so
early the marks of old age, and  that so few of them
are long-lived.  The absence  and diminution of
many of the  stimuli of life in these people is sup-
plied in part  by the  violent exertions with which
they hunt and carry on war, and by the extravagant
manner with which they afterwards celebrate their
 exploits, in their savage dances and songs.

   II.  In the inhabitants of  the  torrid regions "of
 Africa there  is a deficiency of labour; for the earth
 produces spontaneously nearly all the sustenance
 diey require.  Their understandings and passions
 are moreover in a torpid state.   But the  absence
 of bodily and mental stimuli in these people is am-
 ply supplied  by the  constant heat of the sun, by the
 profuse  use  of spices in their diet, and by  the pas-
 sion for musical sounds which so universally cha-
 racterises the African nations. 
\
           CAUSE  OF ANIMAL LIFE.         $7
  III.  In Greenland the body is exposed during
a long winter to such a degree of cold as to reduce
the pulse to 40 or  50 strokes  in a minute.  But
the effects of this cold in lessening the quantity of
life are obviated in part by the heat of close stove
rooms, by warm  clothing, and  by the peculiar na-
ture of the aliment of the Greenlanders, which con-
sists chiefly of animal food, of dried fish, and of
whale  oil.  They prefer the last of those articles in
so rancid a state, that it  imparts a foetor to their
perspiration, which, Mr.  Crantz says, renders even
their churches offensive to strangers.  I need hardly
add, that a diet possessed of such diffusible quali-
ties cannot fail of being highly stimulating.  It is
remarkable that the food of all the northern nations
of Europe is composed  of stimulating animal or
vegetable matters, and that the use of spirituous li-
quors is universal among them.

   IV. Let us next turn our eyes to the miserable
inhabitants of those eastern countries which com-
pose the Turkish empire.  Here we behold life in
its most feeble state, not only from  the absence of
physical, but of other stimuli  which operate upon
the inhabitants of other parts of the world.  Among
the poor people of Turkey there is a general defi-
ciency of aliment.  Mr. Volney in his Travels tells
us, " That the diet of the Bedouins seldom exceeds 
68            INQUIRY INTO THE
six ounces a day, and that it consists of six or seven
dates soaked in butter-milk, and afterwards mixed
with a little sweet milk, or curds."   There is like-
wise a general deficiency among them of stimulus
from  the operations of  the mental faculties;  for
such  is the despotism of the  government in Tur-
key,  that it weakens not only the  understanding,
but it annihilates all that immense source of stimuli
which arises from the exercise of the domestic and
public affections. A Turk lives wholly to himself.
In point of time he occupies only the  moment  in
which he exists; for  his futurity,  as to life  and
property, belongs altogether to his  master.  Fear
is the  reigning principle of his actions, and hope
and joy seldom add a single pulsation to his heart.
Tyranny even imposes a restraint upon the stimu-
lus which  arises from  conversation, for  " They
speak  (says Mr. Volney) with a slow feeble voice,
as if the lungs wanted strength  to propel air enough
through the  glottis to  form distinct articulate
sounds."   The same traveller adds,  that  " They
are slow in all their motions,  that their bodies are
small, that they have small evacuations, and that
their blood  is so destitute of serocity, that nothing
but the greatest heat  can preserve its fluidity."
The deficiency of aliment, and the absence of men-
tal stimuli in these people is supplied, 
           CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.         69
  1. By the heat of their climate.

  2. By their passion for musical sounds and fine
clothes.  And

  3. By their general use of coffee,  garlic,* and
opium.

  The more debilitated the body is, the  more
forcibly these stimuli act upon it.  Hence, accord-
ing to Mr. Volney,  the Bedouins, whose slender
diet has been mentioned, enjoy  good health; for
this consists not in strength, but in an exact propor-
tion being kept up between the excitability of the
body,  and the  number and  force of the stimuli
which act upon it.

   V.  Many of the observations which have been
made  upon the  inhabitants  of Africa, and of the
Turkish  dominions, apply  to the inhabitants of
China and the East Indies.   They want, in many
instances, the  stimulus of animal  food.   Their
minds are, moreover, in a state too languid  to act
 with much force upon their bodies.  The absence
and deficiency of these stimuli are supplied by,
* Niebuhr's Travels. 
 70            INQUIRY INTO THE
   1. The heat of the climate in the southern parts
 of those countries.

   2. By  a vegetable diet abounding  in nourish-
 ment, particularly rice and beans.

   3. By the use of tea in China, and by a stimu-
 lating coffee made of the dried and toasted seeds of
 the  datura  stramonium,  in the neighbourhood of
 the Indian coast.   Some of these nations likewise
 chew stimulating substances, as too  many of  our
 citizens do tobacco.

   Among the poor and depressed subjects of  the
 governments of the middle and southern parts of
 Europe, the deficiency of the stimulus of whole-
 some food, of clothing, of fuel, and of liberty, .
 is supplied, in some countries, by the invigorating
 influence of the christian religion upon animal  life,
 and  in others by the  general use of  tea, coffee,
 garlic, onions, opium,  tobacco, malt  liquors,  and
 ardent spirits.  The use of each of these stimuli
 seems to be regulated by the circumstances of cli-
mate.   In cold countries, where the earth yields its
 increase with reluctance, and where vegetable  ali-
ment is  scarce, the want  of the stimulus of disten-
tion  which that species of food is principally calcu-
lated to produce  is sought  for in that of ardent 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.
71
spirits.  To the southward of 40°, a substitute for
the distention from mild vegetable food is sought
for in onions, garlic, and tobacco.  But further, a
uniform climate calls for more of these artificial sti-
muli than a climate that is  exposed to the alternate
action of heat and cold, winds and calms, and of wet
and dry weather.   Savages and ignorant people
likewise require  more of them than persons  of
civilized manners,  and cultivated understandings.
It would seem from these facts that man cannot ex-
ist without sensation of some kind, and that when
it is not derived from  natural means, it will always
be sought  for in such  as are artificial.

   In no part of the human species, is animal life in
a  more  perfect  state than  in the inhabitants of
Great Britain,* and the United States of America.
With all the natural stimuli that  have  been men-
tioned,  they are constantly  under  the  invigorat-
ing influence of liberty.   There  is an indissoluble
union between moral,  political, and physical happi-
ness j and  if it  be true, that elective and represen-
tative governments are most favourable to indivi-
dual, as well as  national prosperity, it follows of
course, that they are  most  favourable  to animal
life.  But this opinion does not rest upon an induc-

   * Haller's Elementa Physiologic, vol. viii. p. 2. p. 107. 
 72            INQUIRY  INTO THE
 tion derived from the relation,  which  truths up-
 on all  subjects bear to  each other.  Many facts
 prove animal life to exist in a larger quantity and
 for a longer time, in the enlightened  and happy
 state of Connecticut, in  which  republican  liberty
 has existed above one hundred and fifty years, than
 in any other country upon the surface of the globe.

   It remains now to mention certain mental stimuli
 which act nearly alike in the  production of animal
 life, upon the individuals of all  the  nations in the
 world.   They are,

   1.  The desire of life.  This principle, so deeply
 and  universally implanted in  human nature, acts
very powerfully in  supporting our existence.   It
has been observed to prolong  life.   Sickly tra-
vellers by sea and  land, often live under circum-
stances  of the  greatest weakness,  till  they reach
their native country, and then  expire  in the bo-
som of their friends. This desire of life often turns
the scale in favour of a recovery in acute diseases.
Its influence will appear,  from the difference in the
periods  in  which death was induced in two per-
sons, who were actuated by opposite passions with
respect to life.  Atticus, we are told, died of volun-
tary abstinence from food  in five  days.  In sir Wil-
liam Hamilton's account of the earthquake at Cala- 
          CAUSE OF  ANIMAL LIFE.         73
bria, we read of a girl who lived eleven days with-
out food before she expired.  In the former case,
life was shortened by an aversion from  it; in the
latter, it was protracted by the desire of it.   The
late Mr. Brissot, in his visit to  this city, informed
me, that the application of animal  magnetism  (in
which he was a believer) had in no instance  cured
a disease in a West India slave.  Perhaps  it was
rendered inert, by its not being accompanied by a
strong desire of life ;  for  this principle  exists in a
more feeble state in slaves than in freemen.   It is
possible likewise the wills and imaginations of these
degraded people may have become so paralytic, by
slavery, as to be incapable of being excited by  the
impression of this fanciful remedy.

   2.  The  love of money sets the  whole  animal
machine in  motion.   Hearts, which are insensible
to the stimuli of religion, patriotism, love, and even
of the domestic affections, are  excited  into action
by this passion.   The city of Philadelphia, between
the 10th and 15th of August,  1791, will long  be
remembered by contemplative men, for having fur-
nished the most extraordinary proofs of the stimu-
lus of the love of money upon the human body.  A
new  scene  of  speculation was  produced at that
time  by the scrip of the bank of the United States,
VOL.  I.
K 
 74             INQUIRY INTO THE
 It excited febrile diseases in three persons who be-
 came my patients.   In one of them, the acquisition
 of twc lve thousand  dollars in a few minutes,  by a
 lucky sale,  brought on madness, which terminated
 in death in a few days.*   The whole city felt the
 impulse of this paroxysm of avarice.  The  slow
 and ordinary means  of earning money were desert-
 ed, and men of every profession and trade were
 seen in all our streets hastening to the coffee-house,
 where the agitation of countenance, and the desul-
 tory manners, of all the persons who were interest-
 ed in this species of gaming, exhibited a truer pic-
 ture of a bedlam,  than of a place appropriated to
 the transaction  of mercantile business.   But fur-
 ther, the love of money discovers its stimulus up-
 on the body in a peculiar manner in the games of
 cards and dice.   I have heard  of a gentleman in
 Virginia who passed two whole days and nights in
 succession at a  card table ;  and it is related in the
 life of a noted gamester in Ireland, that when he
 was so  ill as to be unable to rise from his chair, he
 would suddenly revive when brought to the hazard
 table, by hearing the rattling of the dice.


  * Dr. Mead relates, upon the authority of Dr. Hales, that
 more of the successful speculators in the South-Sea scheme
of 1720 became insane, than of those who had been ruined
 by it. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
75
   3.  Public amusements of all  kinds, such as a
 horse race, a cockpit, a chase, the theatre, the cir-
 cus, masquerades, public dinners, and tea parties,
 all exert an artificial stimulus upon the system, and
 thus supply the defect  of the rational exercises of
 the mind.

   4.  The love of dress is not confined in its sti-
 mulating operation to persons in health.   It  acts
 perceptibly in  some cases upon invalids.   I have
 heard of a gentleman in South Carolina, who al-
 ways relieved himself of a fit of low spirits by chang-
 ing his dress;  and I believe there are few people,
 who do  not feel themselves  enlivened by putting
 on a new suit of clothes.

   5.  Novelty is an  immense source of agreeable
 stimuli.   Companions,  studies,  pleasures, modes
 of business, prospects, and situations, with respect
 to town and country, or to different countries,  that
 are new,  all  exert an invigorating influence upon
 health and life.

  6.  The love  of fame acts in various ways ;  but
 its stimulus is most sensible and durable in military
 life.   It counteractsjn many instances the debilitat-
 ing effects of hunger, cold, and labour. It has some-
times done more, by removing the weakness which 
76           INQUIRY INTO  THE
is connected with many diseases.  In several in-
stances, it has assisted the hardships of a camp life
in curing pulmonary consumption.

  7. The love of country is a deep seated principle
of action in the human breast. Its stimulus is some-
times so excessive, as to induce disease in  persons
who recently migrate, and settle in foreign coun-
tries.   It appears in various forms ; but exists most
frequently in the solicitude,  labours,  attachments,
and hatred of party spirit.   All these act  forcibly
in supporting animal life.   It  is because newspa-
pers are supposed to  contain  the measure of the
happiness or misery of our country,  that they are
so interesting to all classes of people.  Those vehi-
cles of intelligence, and of public pleasure  or pain,
are frequently desired  with the impatience  of a
meal, and they often produce the same stimulating
effects upon the body.*

   8.  The  different religions of the world, by the
activity they excite in the mind, have a sensible in-
fluence upon human life.   Atheism is the  worst of
sedatives to the understanding and passions.   It is
the abstraction of thought from the most sublime,

  * They have been very  happily  called by Mr. Green in
his poem entitled Spleen, " the manna of the day." 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.
77
and of love from the most perfect, of all  possible
objects.   Man is as naturally a religious, as he is
a social and domestic, animal;  and the same vio-
lence is done  to his mental faculties, by  robbing
him  of a belief in a God, that is done by dooming
him  to live in a cell,  deprived of the objects and
pleasures of social and domestic life.   The neces-
sary and immutable connection between the texture
of the human  mind, and the worship of an object
of some kind, has lately  been demonstrated by the
atheists of Europe, who, after  rejecting  the true
God, have instituted the worship of nature, of for-
tune, and of human reason; and, in some instances,
with ceremonies of the most expensive and splen-
did  kind.   Religions are friendly to animal life, in
proportion as  they elevate the  understanding, and
act upon  the passions of hope  and love.   It will
readily occur to you,  that Christianity, when believ-
ed and obeyed,  according to its  original  consis-
tency with itself, and with the divine attributes, is
more calculated to produce those  effects than any
other  religion in the  world.  Such is the  salutary
operation of its doctrines and precepts upon  health
and life, .that if its divine authority rested upon no
other argument, this  alone would be sufficient to
recommend it to our belief.   How long mankind
may continue to prefer substituted pursuits  and
pleasures  to this invigorating stimulus is uncer- 
78           INQUIRY  INTO THE
tain;  but the time, we are assured,  will come,
when the understanding shall be elevated  from its
present inferior objects, and the luxated passions
be reduced to their original order.   This change
in the mind of man, I believe, will be effected only
by the influence  of the christian religion,  after all
the efforts ofhuman reason to produce it, by means
of civilization, philosophy, liberty, and  govern-
ment, have been exhausted to no purpose.

   Thus far, gentlemen, we have considered animal
life as it respects the human species; but the prin-
ciples I am endeavouring to establish require that
we should  take a  view of  it in animals of every
species, in all of which we shall find it depends up-
on the same causes as in the human body.

   And  here  I shall  begin by remarking, that if
we should discover the stimuli which support life
in certain animals to be fewer in number, or weaker
in force,  than those which support it in our species,
we must resolve it  into  that attribute of the Deity,
which seems to have delighted in variety in all his
works.

  The following observations apply more or less to
all the animals upon our globe. 
            CAUSE OF ANIMAL  LIFE.         79
   1. They all possess either hearts, lungs, brains,
 nerves, or muscular fibres.   It is as yet a contro-
 versy among naturalists, whether animal life can ex-
 ist without a brain;  but no one has denied muscu-
 lar fibres, and of course contractility, or excitabi-
 lity, to belong to animal life, in all its shapes.

   2. They all require more  or less air  for their
 existence.  Even the snail inhales it for seven
 months under  ground through a pellicle,  which it
 weaves out of slime, as a covering for its body.
 If this  pellicle at any time become too thick  to
 admit the air, the snail opens a  passage  in it for
 that purpose.   Now air we know acts  powerfully
 in supporting animal life.

   3.  Many of them possess heat equal to that of
 the human body.  Birds possess several degrees
 beyond it.  Now heat, it was said formerly,  acts
 with great force in the production of animal life.

   4.  They all  feed upon  substances more or less
 stimulating to their bodies. Even water itself, che-
 mistry has taught us, affords an aliment, not only
 stimulating,  but nourishing to many animals.

  5. Many of them possess senses more acute  and
excitable, than  the  same  organs in  the  human 
  80           INQUIRY INTO THE
  species.   These expose surfaces for the action of
  external impressions, that supply the absence or de-
  ficiency of mental faculties.

    6.  Such of them as are devoid of sensibility pos-
  sess an uncommon portion of contractility, or sim-
 ple excitability.   This is most evident in the  poly-
 pus. . When cut to pieces, it appears to feel  little
 or no pain.

    7. They  all possess loco-motive  powers  in a
 greater or less degree, and of course are acted up-
 on by the stimulus of muscular motion.

   8. Most of them appear to feel a stimulus, from
 the gratification of their appetites for food, and for
 venereal pleasures,  far more  powerful than   that
 which is felt by our species from the same causes.
 I shall hereafter mention  some facts  from Spalan-
 zani upon the subject of generation, that will prove
 the stimulus, from venery, to  be strongest in those
 animals, in which other stimuli act with the least
 force.  Thus the male frog, during its long connec-
 tion with its female,  suffers its limbs  to be ampu-
 tated, without discovering the least mark of pain,
and without relaxing its hold  of the  object of its
 embraces. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
81
   9. In many animals we behold evident marks of
understanding and passion.   The elephant, the fox,
and the ant, exhibit strong proofs of thought; and
where is the school boy that caonot bear testimony
to the anger of the bee and the wasp ?

   10. But what shall we say  of those animals,
which  pass long winters in a state in, which there
is an apparent absence of the stimuli of heat, exer-
cise, and the motion of the blood.   Life in these
animals is probably supported,

   1. By such an accumulation  of excitability, as
to yield to  impressions, which to us are  impercep-
tible.

   2. By the stimulus of aliment in a state of di-
gestion in  the stomach, or by the stimulus of ail-
ment  restrained from digestion by means of cold;
for Mr. John Hunter has proved, by an experiment
on a frog, that cold below a certain degree, checks,
that animal process.

   3. By the constant action of  air upon their bo-
dies.

   It is possible life  may exist in  these animals, du-
ring their hybernation, in the total absence of im-
   VOL. i.               l 
82             INQUIRY INTO THE
pression and motion of every kind.   This may be
the case, where the torpor from cold has been sud-
denly brought upon their bodies.  Excitability here
is in an accumulated, but quiescent, state.

   11.  It remains only under this head to inquire,
in what manner is life  supported in those animals
which live in a cold element, and whose blood is
sometimes but a little above the freezing point?
It will be a sufficient answer to this question to re-
mark,  that heat and cold are relative terms, and that
different  animals, according  to their organization,
require very different degrees of heat for their ex-
istence.   Thirty-two degrees of it are probably as
stimulating to some of these cold  blooded animals,
(as they are called,) as  70°  or 80° are to the hu-
man body.

  It might afford additional support to the doctrine
of animal life which I have delivered, to point out
the manner in which life and growth  are produced
in vegetables of all kinds.  But this subject belongs
to the  professor of botany  and natural history,*
who is amply qualified to do it  justice.  I  shall
only remark, that vegetable life is as much the off-
spring of stimuli as animal, and that skill in  agri-
* Dr. Barton. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
83
culture consists chiefly in the proper application of
them.   The seed of a plant, like an animal body,
has no principle of life within itself.   If preserved
for many years in a drawer, or in earth, below the
stimulating  influence of heat, air, and water, it dis-
covers no sign of vegetation.  It grows,  like an
animal,  only in consequence of stimuli acting upon
its capacity of life.

   From a review of what has been said of animal
life, in all its numerous forms and modifications, we
see that it is as much an effect of impressions upon a
peculiar species of matter, as sound is of the stroke
of a hammer upon a bell, or music of the motion
of the bow upon the strings of a violin.  I exclude
therefore the intelligent  principle ofWhytt,  the
medical mind of Stahl, the healing powers of Cul-
len, and the vital principal of John Hunter, as much
from the body,  as I do an intelligent principle from
 air, fire, and  water.

   Upon the opinions of these different authors, I
 beg leave to add further, that they are all modifica-
 tions of two errors held by Pythagoras and Epicu-
 rus.   The  former believed and  taught  what  is
 called the transmigration of souls, that is, that the
 principle of life, rational and animal, was a kind  of 
84            INQUIRY  INTO THE
elementary body; that it never died; and that it pass-
ed from animals that perished, into other animal
matter, and thereby imparted to it a soul, or what
is called life.  This opinion accords with the vital
principle of Mr. Hunter and Dr. Girtanner, while
the anima medica of Stahl accords  with the doc-
trine taught by Epicurus, of the  globe being ani-
mated by a principle called anima  mundi.   Both
opinions substitute  an intelligent and self-moving
principle  to the agency  of a Supreme Being,  in
every  part of his works.   There is a third error
connected with this subject,  which it may  not be
improper to mention upon this occasion, and that is,
that man  consists of spirit, soul, and body....that
his spirit resides in his brain, and is concerned only
in intellectual and spiritual exercises....that his soul
is diffused  through every part of  his body, and
constitutes what is called his " soulish," or animal,
life.  This pagan opinion seems to have tinctured
some of the writings of St. Paul, who, though in-
spired by the Spirit of truth upon theological sub-
jects,  was left to follow the opinions of the world
in matters of human learning. The doctrine I have
delivered, obliges us to consider man as consisting
and of two parts only ; these are,  soul, or mind,
and body.  This view of the nature  of man is sim-
ple, and accords alike with reason and revelation. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
85
  The  speaking figures,  which are  conducted
thfough our  country  as  spectacles  to  amuse the
vulgar, afford a striking illustratjpn of the error of
animal life depending upon a self-moving principle
in the body. The voice is supposed to come from
within the  figure ; whereas, it is certain it is con-
veyed there by the reflection of words pronounced
by a person external to it.

  I have often been struck w ith the similarity of
the controversies upon the  origin of moral obliga-
tion, of power, and of animal life, and with the simi-
larity of their issue in a  simple elementary truth,
obvious to the most  humble  capacities.   They
were  all believed  to  depend upon  causes  within
themselves;  but  they are now rescued from an
internal  and  placed  upon  an  external  basis.
The origin of moral obligation, which was for-
merly  ascribed to  utility, to sympathy, and to
the fitness of things, is  now derived wholly from
the will of God.   The  origin of  power,  which
was derived  for ages  from divine  or hereditary
right,  now rests exclusively upon the  will  of the
people, while the origin of animal life, which has
been, time immemorial, derived  from a self-mov-
ing power, under the different names that have been
mentioned, now7 reposes, probably for  ever, upon 
    86            INQUIRY INTO THE
    external and internal impressions.  By means of
    this doctrine, revelation and reason embrace  each
    other, and  Moses  and the  prophets  shake hands
    with Dr. Brown, and  all  those  physicians, who
    maintain  the great and sublime truth which  he
    has promulgated.  Think of it, gentlemen, in your
    closets,  and in your beds, and talk of it in your
    walks, and by your fire-sides.   It is the active and
    wide-spreading  seminal principle of all truth in
    medicine.

      It is no uncommon thing for the simplicity of
    causes to be lost in  the  magnitude of their effects.
    By contemplating the wonderful functions  of life,
    we have strangely  overlooked the numerous and
    obscure  circumstances  which produce  it.  Thus
    the humble but true origin  of power in the people,
    is often forgotten in the splendour and pride of go-
    vernments.  It is not necessary  to be acquainted
    with  the precise nature of that  form  of matter,
    which is capable of producing life from impressions
    made upon it.   It is sufficient for our purpose to
    know the fact.   It is immaterial,  moreover, whe-
    ther  this matter derives its power of being acted
**^ upon .wholly from the brain, or  whether it be in
    part inherent in animal fibres.  The inferences are
    the same in favour of life being the effect of stimuli,
-** • 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL LIFE.
87
and of its being as truly mechanical, as the move-
ments of a clock from the pressure of its weights,
or the passage of a ship in the water from the im-
pulse of winds and tide.

   The infinity  of effects, from similar causes, has
often been  taken notice of in the works of the
Creator.  It would seem as if they  had all  been
made after one pattern.  The  late discovery of the
cause of combustion  has thrown  great light  upon
our subject.  Wood and coal are no longer believ-
ed to contain  a principle of fire.  The heat and
flame they emit are derived from an agent altoge-
their external to them.  They are produced by a
matter, which  is absorbed from the  air by means
of its decomposition.   This matter acts upon the
predisposition of the fuel to receive it, in the  same
way that stimuli act upon tye human body.  The
two agents differ only in their effects.  The former
produces the destruction of the bodies upon which
it acts, while the latter excites the more gentle and
durable  motions of life. Common language in ex-
pressing these effects is correct, as far as it relates
to their cause.  We speak of a coal  of fire being
alive, and of the fiame of life.

   The causes  of life which I  have delivered will
receive  considerable  support,  by contrasting them 
 88           INQUIRY INTO THE
 with the causes of death.  This  catastrophe of the
 body consists in such a change, induced on it by
 disease or old age, as to prevent its exhibiting the
 phenomena of life.   It is brought on,

   1. By the abstraction of all the stimuli  which
 support life.   Death  from  this cause is produced
 by the  same mechanical means, that the emission of
 sound  from a violin is prevented  by the abstraction
 of the  bow from its strings.

   2. By the excessive force of stimuli of all  kinds.
 No more occurs here, than happens from too much
 pressure upon the strings of a violin, preventing its
 emitting musical tones.

   3. By too much relaxation, or too weak  a tex-
 ture of the matter which composes the human body.
No more  occurs here, than  is observed in the ex-
 tinction of sound by the total relaxation or slender
 combination of the strings of a violin.

  4. By an error in the place of certain fluid or so-
lid parts of the body.  No more  occurs here, than
would  happen from fixing the strings of a  violin
upon its body, instead of elevating them upon its
bridge. 
CAUSE OF  ANIMAL LIFE.        89
  5. By the action of poisonous exhalations, or of
certain fluids vitiated in the body, upon parts which
emit most forcibly the motions of life.   No more
happens  here, than  occurs from  enveloping the
strings of a violin in a piece of wax.

  6. By the solution of continuity, by  means of
wounds in solid  parts of the body.  No more oc-
curs in  death from this  cause,  than  takes place
when the emission  of sound  from a violin is pre-
vented by a rupture of its strings.

  7. Death is produced by a preternatural rigidity,
and in  some instances by an ossification of the solid
parts of the body in old age, in consequence of
which  they are incapable of receiving and emitting
the motions of life.   No more occurs here, than
would happen if a stick or pipe-stem were placed,
in the  room of catgut, upon the bridges of  the
violin.  But death may take place in old age, with-
out a change in the texture of animal matter, from
the stimuli of life losing their effect by repetition,
just as opium, from the same cause, ceases to pro-
duce its usual effects upon the body.

   Should it be asked, what is that peculiar organi-
zation of matter, which enables it to emit life, when
acted  upon by stimuli, I answer, I do not know.
   VOL.  I.               m 
90            INQUIRY INTO THE
It is true, the  votaries of chemistry have lately at-
tempted  to imitate  it;  but no  arrangements  of
matter by their hands have ever produced a single
living fibre, nor have any of their compounds pro-
duced a substance endowed with the properties of
dead animal matter.   Lavoissier laboured in vain
to produce  that simple animal substance we call
bile.  That the human body is composed of certain
matters which belong to the objects of chemistry,
there can be no doubt;  but their proportions, and
manner of aggregation, are  unknown to us;  nor
are  the products,  when obtained by fire,  the same
in form, number, or proportion, which existed in
the  body in its living  state.   But admitting this
medico-chemical  theory  of animal life to be de-
monstrated, it  does not in the least  degree militate
against the doctrine which I have taught.   Let us
suppose a chemist to have discovered all the  mat-
ters which compose an animal  body, and to  have
arranged them in their exact order and propor-
tions, they cannot  in  this situation assume the
properties of life,  without  the impression of some
agent upon them.   A stimulus of some kind must
give them activity. Even the matter of phosphorus
torpid, when confined in a phial.   It requires the
stimulus of air to impart to it  its blazing life.  It
is remarkable, that some of the ancient philosophers
had more correct  ideas of the origin of animal life 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
91
than some of our modern chemists.  This is ele-
gantly illustrated in the fable of Prometheus.  He
was  unable, by any chemical combination, to ani-
mate his image of clay, until he stole fire, or an ex-
ternal stimulus from heaven, for that purpose. As
well might we suppose thinking to be a chemical
process,  as  motion and sensation.   They are all
alike the effects of impression. We think by force,
as well as live  by force.  If any man  doubt: the
truth of this  assertion, let  him suspend,  for a
moment, the operations of his mind, or,  in other
words, let him cease to think.   As well might he
attempt to stop  the pulsation of his heart, by the
action of his will, or to arrest the planets in their
course, by holding up his finger.   Here then let
us limit our inquiries, and remain  satisfied  with
facts which  are  obvious,  and capable of applica:
lion  to all the useful purposes of medicine.

   The great Creator has  kindly established a wit-
ness of his unsearchable  wisdom in every part of
his works,  in order to  prevent our forgetting him,
in the successful exercises of our reason.  Maho-
met  once said,  " that he should believe himself to
be a God, if he could bring down rain from the
clouds, or give life to an animal."  It belongs ex-
clusively to the true  God to endow matter with
those singular properties,  which enable it, under 
 92            INQJTIRY INTO  THE
 certain circumstances, to exhibit the appearances
 of life.

   I cannot conclude  this subject, without taking
 notice of its extensive application to medicine, me-
 taphysics, theology, and morals.

   The doctrine  of animal life  which  has  been
 taught  exhibits, in the

   First place, a new  view of the nervous system,
 by discovering its origin in the extremities of the
 nerves  on which impressions are made, and its
 termination in the brain.   This idea is extended in
 an ingenious  manner by Mr.  Valli, in his treatise
 upon animal electricity.

   2.  It discovers to us the true means of promot-
 ing health and longevity, by proportioning the num-
 ber and force of stimuli to the age, climate, situa-
 tion, habits, and temperament  of the human body.

   3. It leads us to a knowledge of the causes of all
 diseases.  These consist in excessive or preter-
natural excitement in certain parts,  of the  hu-
man body, accompanied generally with  irregular
motions, and induced by natural or artificial stimuli.
The latter have been called, very properly, by Mr. 
CAUSE OF ANIMAL LIFE.
93
Hunter, irritants.   The occasional absence of mo-
tion in acute diseases is the effect only of the ex-
cess of impetus in their remote causes.

  4. It discovers to us that the cure of all diseases
depends simply upon the abstraction of stimuli from
the whole,  or from  a part, of the body, when the
motions excited by them are in excess ; and in the
increase of their number and force, when motions
are of a moderate  nature.   For the  former pur-
pose, we employ a class of medicines known  by
the name of sedatives.  For the latter,  we make
use  of stimulants.   Under  these two  extensive
heads are included all the numerous articles of the
materia medica.

   5.  It enables  us to reject the doctrine of innate
ideas, and to ascribe all our knowledge of sensible
objects to impressions acting upon an innate capa-
city to receive ideas.   Were it possible for a child
to grow up to manhood without the use of any of
its senses,  it would not possess a single idea of a
material object; and  as  all  human knowledge is
compounded of simple ideas, this person would be
as destitute of  knowledge of every  kind,  as the
grossest portion of vegetable or fossil  matter. 
 94           INQUIRY INTO THE
   6. The account which has been given of animal
 life furnishes a striking illustration of the origin of
 human actions, by the impression of motives upon
 the  will.  As well might we admit an inherent
 principle of life  in animal matter, as a self-deter-
 mining power in this faculty  of the  mind.  Mo-
 tives are necessary, not only to constitute its free-
 dom, but its essence; for, without them, there could
 be no more a will, than there could be vision with-
 out  light, or hearing without sound.   It is true,
 they are often so obscure as  not to be perceived,
 and they sometimes become insensible from habit;
 but  the same things  have been remarked in the
 operation of stimuli, and yet we do not upon this
 account deny their agency in producing animal life.
 In thus deciding in favour of the  necessity  of mo-
 tives to produce actions, I cannot  help bearing a
 testimony against the gloomy misapplication of this
 doctrine by some modern writers.   When proper-
 ly understood, it is calculated to produce the most
 comfortable  views of the divine government,  and
 the most beneficial effects upon morals and human
 happiness.

   7. There  are errors of an impious nature, which
 sometimes obtain a currency, from being disguised
 by innocent names.   The doctrine of animal life
that  has been delivered is directly opposed  to an 
CAUSE  OF ANIMAL LIFE.
95
error of this kind, which has  had the most bane-
ful influence upon morals and religion.   To sup-
pose a principle to reside necessarily and constant-
ly in the human body, which  acted independendy
of external circumstances, is to ascribe to it an at-
tribute, which I shall not connect, even in language,
with  the  creature  man.   Self-existence belongs
only to God.

  The best criterion of the truth of a philosophical
opinion is, its tendency to produce exalted ideas of
the Divine Being, and humble views of ourselves.
The doctrine of  animal life which has been deli-
vered  is calculated to produce these effects in  an
eminent degree; for

  8.  It does homage to the Supreme Being, as the
governor of the universe, and establishes the cer-
tainty  of * his universal and particular providence.
Admit a principle of life in the human body, and
we  open a door  for  the  restoration of the old
Epicurean  or  atheistical  philosophy  which has
been  mentioned.   The doctrine I have  taught
cuts the sinews of that error;  for by rendering the
continuance of animal life, no  less than its com-
mencement, the effect of the constant operation of di-
vine power and goodness, it leads us to believe that
the whole creation is supported in the same manner. 
96             INQUIRY INTO THE
It leads us further to distinguish between the works
of the Creator of the universe, and the  works of a
common architect.   It has been supposed by some
men,  that the author of our world formed  all its
wonderful machinery as a man makes a clock, and,
having  wound it up, threw it out of his hands,
and afterwards retired to rest, or employed him-
self in other acts of creating  power,, or  if this
were not the  case,  that he  committed the  care
of his works to certain deputies, called nature  in
the  inanimate,  and  vital principle in the animated
parts of the globe.   This idea is contrary to the
whole tenor of revelation. The Being that created
our world never takes his hand, nor his eye, for a
single moment, from any part of it.  He constantly

  " Warms in the sun, refreshes in each breeze,
  " Glows in the stars, blossoms in the trees,
  " Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
  " Spreads undivided, operates unspent."

His providence is one  continued  act  of creating
power.  The sun rises (to use the words of a late
elegant writer*) only because he says every morning,
" let there be  light."  The moon and the stars sup-
ply the absence of the sun, only because he says
every evening, " let there be lights in the firmament
*  Mr. Fawcett. 
           CAUSE OF ANIMAL  LIFE.        97
of heaven, to divide the day from the night."   The
seasons of spring and autumn return, only because
he says,  " let the earth bring forth grass, the herb
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit accor-
ding to its kind;" and even man exists,only because
he breathes into his  nostrils the breath,  or  air, of
life,  not  only at his birth,  but every moment of
his existence.

   9.  The  view that  has been given of the depen-
dent state  of man for the blessing of life leads us
to contemplate, with very opposite and inexpressi-
ble feelings, the sublime idea which is given of the
Deity in the scriptures, as possessing life " within
himself."   This divine prerogative has never  been
imparted but to one Being,  and that is the Son of
God.  This appears from  the following declara-
tion.   " For as the Father  hath life in himself, so
hath he  given to the Son to have life within  him-
self."*  To this plenitude  of  independent life we
are to ascribe his  being called,  the "• life  of the
world,"  " the prince of life," and " life" itself, in
the New Testament. These divine epithets, which
are very properly founded upon the manner of our
Saviour's existence, exalt him infinitely above sim-

                * John v. verse 26.
   VOL.  I.               N 
98            INQUIRY  INTO  THE
pie humanity, and establish his divine nature upon
the basis of reason, as well as revelation.

  10. We have  heard that some of the stimuli,
which produce animal  life, are derived  from the
moral and physical evils of our world.  From be-
holding these  instruments of death thus converted
by divine skill into the means of life, we are led to
believe  goodness to be the supreme attribute of the
Deity, and that it will appear finally to predominate
in all his works.

  11. The doctrine which has  been delivered is
calculated  to humble the pride of man, by teach-
ing him his constant dependence upon his Maker
for his existence, and that he has no pre-eminence,
in his tenure of it, over the meanest insect that flut-
ters in  the air, or the humblest plant that grows
upon the earth.  What an inspired writer says of
the innumerable  animals which inhabit the ocean,
may with equal propriety be said of the  whole hu-
 man race.   " Thou sendest forth thy spirit, and
 they are created.  Thou takest awray their breath,
 —they die, and return to their dust."  Let us not
 complain  of this tenure  of our lives.   By taking
 their capital out  of our hands, and dealing it out to
 us according to our necessities,  our benevolent
 Creator prevents our squandering it away without 
           CAUSE  OF ANIMAL  LIFE.        99
judgment or prudence, and thus becoming bank-
rupts in life as soon as we began to exist.

   12. Melancholy  indeed would have been the is-
sue of all our inquiries, did we take a final leave of
the human body in  its state of decomposition in the
grave.   Revelation furnishes us with an elevating
and comfortable assurance that this will not be the
case.   The precise manner of its re-organization,
and the new means of its future existence, are un-
known to us.   It  is sufficient to believe the event
will take place, and that, after it, the soul and body
of man will be exalted, in one respect, to an equality
with their Creator.   They will be immortal.

   Here, gentlemen, we close the history of animal
life.   I feel as if I had waded  across a rapid and
dangerous stream.  Whether I have gained the op-
posite shore with my head clean, or  covered with
mud and weeds, I leave wholly to your determi
nation. 
 
              AN INQUIRY
                 INTO THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE

                 AMONG THE

     INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA:
                    AND

         A COMPARATIVE VIEW

                    OF

THEIR DISEASES AND REMEDIES WITH THOSE
           OF CIVILIZED NATIONS.
READ BEFORE THE AMERTCAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, HELD AT
    PHILADELPHIA, ON THE FOURTH OF FEBRUARY, 1774. 
 
AN INQUIRY,  &c.
Gentlemen,*

      I RISE with peculiar diffidence to address
you upon this occasion, when I reflect upon the
entertainment you proposed to yourselves from the
eloquence of that learned member, Mr. Charles
Thompson, whom your suffrages appointed to this
honour, after the  delivery of the last anniversary
oration. Unhappily for the interests of science, his
want of health  has  not permitted him to comply
with  your appointment.   1 beg,  therefore, that
you would forget,  for a  while, the abilities ne-
cessary to execute  this task with  propriety, and
listen with candour to the  efforts of a member,
whose attachment to the society was the only qua-

   * This Inquiry was the subject of an Anniversary Ora-
tion. The style of an oration is therefore preserved in many
parts of it. 
 104    NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
 lification that entitled him to the honour of your
 choice.

   The subject I  have chosen for this evening's
 entertainment is,  " An inquiry  into the  natural
 history of medicine among the Indians in North
 America,   and a  comparative  view of their dis-
 eases  and remedies with  those  of civilized na-
 tions."    You will  readily  anticipate  the  diffi-
 culty of doing justice to this subject.   How shall
 we distinguish between the original diseases of the
 Indians and  those  contracted from their inter-
 course  with  the Europeans? By  what arts  shall
 we persuade them  to discover  their remedies ?
 And, lastly, how shall  we come at the knowledge
 of facts, in that cloud  of errors in which the cre-
 dulity of the Europeans, and the superstition of the
Indians, have  involved both  their diseases and re-
medies? These difficulties serve  to increase the
 importance of our subject.   If I should  not  be
 able to solve them, perhaps I may lead the way to
 more successful endeavours for that purpose.

   I shall  first limit the tribes of Indians, who are
 to be the  objects of this inquiry,  to  those who in-
 habit that part of North-America which extends
 from the  30th to  the 60th  degree of latitude.
 When we exclude the Esquimaux, who  inhabit 
AMONC THE  INDIANS.
105
 the shores of Hudson's bay, we shall find a general
 resemblance in  the colour, manners, and state of
 society, among all the tribes of Indians, who inha-
 bit the extensive tract of country above-mentioned.

   Civilians  have divided nations into savage, bar^
 barous, and civilized.   The savage live by fishing
 and hunting; the barbarous, by pasturage or cattle;
 and the civilized, by agriculture.   Each of these
 is connected together in such a manner, that the
 whole appear to form different parts of a  circle.
 Even the manners of the most civilized nations
 partake of those of the savage.   It would seem as
 if liberty and indolence  were the highest pursuits
 of man; and these are enjoyed in  their greatest
 perfection by savages, or  in  the practice of cus-
 toms  which resemble those of savages.

   The  Indians  of North-America  partake chiefly
 of the manner of savages.   In the earliest accounts
 we have of  them, we find  them cultivating  a spot
 of ground.  The maize  is an original grain among
 them.   The different dishes of it which are in use
 among the white people still retain Indian names.

  It will be unnecessary to show that the Indians
live in a state of society adapted to all the exigen-
cies of their mode of life.  Those who look for
 vol.  i.              o 
106   NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE

the simplicity and perfection of the state of nature
must seek it in systems, as absurd in philosophy,
as they are delightful in poetry.

   Before we attempt to ascertain the number or
history of the diseases of the  Indians, it will be ne-
cessary to inquire into those customs among them,
which we know influence diseases.  For this pur-
pose I shall,

   First, Mention a few facts which relate  to the
birth and treatment of their children.

   Secondly, I shall speak of their diet.

   Thirdly, Of the customs  which are peculiar to
the sexes, and,

   Fourthly, Of those customs which are common
to them both.*

  * Many of the facts contained  in the Natural History of
Medicine among the Indians, in this Inquiry, are taken from
La Hontan and Charlevoix's histories of Canada;  but the
most material of them are taken from persons, who had
lived or travelled among the Indians.   The author acknow-
ledges himself indebted  in a particular manner to Mr. Ed-
ward  Hand,  surgeon in the 18th regiment,  afterwards
brigadier-general in the army of the United States,  who, 
              AMONG THE INDIANS.         107
   I. Of the birth and treatment of their children.

   Much of the future health of the body depends
upon its original stamina. A child bom of healthy
parents always  brings  into the  world a system
formed by nature to resist the causes of diseases.
The treatment  of children  among the  Indians
tends to secure this hereditary firmness of consti-
tution.   Their first food is their mother's  milk.
To  harden them against  the action of heat  and
cold (the  natural enemies of health and  life among
the Indians)  they are plunged every day into  cold
water.  In order to facilitate their being moved
from place to place, and at the same time to  pre-
serve their shape, they are tied to a board,  where
they lie on their backs for six,  ten, or eighteen
months.  A child generally sucks its mother till
it  is two  years old, and sometimes longer.    It is
easy to conceive how  much  vigour their bodies
must acquire from this simple, but wholesome  nou-
rishment.  The  appetite we sometimes observe in
children for flesh is altogether artificial.   The pe-
culiar  irritability of the system in  infancy forbids
stimulating aliment  of  all kinds.  Nature  never
calls for animal food, till she has provided the child
during several years' residence at Fort  Pitt, directed his in-
quiries into their customs, diseases, and remedies, with a
success that does equal honour to his ingenuity and diligence. 
108
NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
with those teeth which are necessary to divide it.
I  shall not undertake to  determine how far the
wholesome quality of the mother's milk is increas-
ed, by her refusing the embraces of her husband du-
ring the time of giving suck.

   II.  The diet of the Indians is of a mixed nature,
being partly animal,  and partly vegetable.   Their
animals are wild, and  therefore easy of digestion.
As the Indians are  naturally more disposed to the
indolent employment of fishing than hunting, in
summer,  so we find them living more  upon fish
than land  animals,  in  that season of  the  year.
Their  vegetables consist of roots and  fruits, mild
in themselves, or capable of being made so by the
action  of fire.   Although the  interior parts of our
continent  abound with salt springs, yet I cannot
find that the Indians used salt in their diet,  till they
were instructed to do so by the Europeans.   The
small quantity of fixed alkali contained in the ashes,
on which they roasted their meat,  could not add
much  to its stimulating quality.   They preserve
their meat from  putrefaction, by  cutting it into
small pieces, and exposing it in summer to the sun,
and in winter to the  frost.   In the one  case its
moisture is dissipated, and in  the other so frozen,
that it  cannot  undergo the putrefactive process. In
dressing their meat, they  are careful to preserve 
AMONG THE INDIANS.
109
its juices.   They generally prefer it in the form of
aoups.   Hence we find, that among them the use
of the spoon preceded that of the knife and fork.
They take the same pains to preserve the juice of
their meat when they roast it, by turning it often.
The efficacy of this animal juice, in dissolving meat
in the stomach, has not been equalled by any of
those sauces or liquors, which modern luxury has
mixed with it for that purpose.

   The  Indians have  no set time for eating, but
obey the gentle'appetites of nature as often as they
are called  by them.  After whole days spent  in
the chase, or in war, they often commit  those ex-
cesses in eating, to which long abstinence cannot
fail of prompting them.  It is common to see them
spend three or four hours in satisfying their hun-
ger.  This is occasioned,  not more by the quan-
tity they eat, than by  the pains they take in masti-
cating it.   They  carefully avoid drinking water in
their marches, from an opinion that it lessens their
ability to bear fatigue.

   III.  We now  come to speak  of those customs
which  are peculiar to the sexes.  And, first,  of
those  which belong to the women.   They  are
do< med by their husbands to such domestic labour
as gives a firmness to their bodies, bordering upon 
110  NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
the masculine. Their menses seldom begin to flow
before they are eighteen  or twenty years  of age,
and generally cease before they are forty.  They
have  them in  small quantities, but at  regular in-
tervals.   They seldom marry till  they are about
twenty.    The constitution has  now acquired a
vigour, which enables it the better to support  the
convulsions of child-bearing.  This custom like-
wise guards against a premature old age.   Doctor
Bancroft ascribes the haggard looks, the  loose
hanging breasts, and the  prominent bellies of  the
Indian women at Guiana,  entirety to  their  bear-
ing children  too early.*   Where marriages  are
unfruitful (which is seldom the case)  a separation
is obtained by means of an easy divorce ; so that
they are unacquainted with the disquietudes which
sometimes  arise from barrenness.   During  preg-
nancy, the women are exempted from the  more
laborious parts of their duty:  hence miscarriages
rarely happen among them.  Nature  is their only
midwife.  Their labours are short, and accompa-
nied  with little  pain.   Each woman  is delivered
in a private cabin, without so much as one of her
own  sex to attend her.   After  washing herself
in cold water,  she  returns in a few  days to  her
usual employments; so that she knows nothing of
' Natural History of Guiana. 
            AMONG  THE  INDIANS.         Ill
 those accidents, which proceed from the careless-
 ness or  ill  management of midwives;  or those
 weaknesses, which arise from  a  month's confine-
 ment in a warm room.  It is remarkable that there
 is hardly a period in the interval between the erup-
 tion and the ceasing of the menses, in  which they
 are not pregnant, or giving suck.   This is the most
 natural state of the  constitution during that in-
 terval ; and hence we often  find it connected with
 the best state of health in the women of civilized
 nations.

   The customs peculiar to the Indian  men con-
 sist chiefly in those employments which are neces-
 sary to preserve animal life,  and to defend their
 nation.  These employments are hunting and war,
 each of which is conducted in a manner that tends
 to call forth every  fibre into exercise, and to en-
 sure them the  possession of  the utmost possible
 health.   In  times of plenty and peace, we see them
 sometimes rising from their beloved indolence, and
 shaking off  its influence by the salutary exercises
 of dancing and  swimming.  The Indian men sel-
 dom marry  before they are thirty years of age :
 they no  doubt  derive  considerable vigour from
 this custom  ; for while they are secured by it from
the enervating effects  of the premature dalliance of
love, they may insure more certain fruitfulness to 
 112   NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE
 their wives, and entail more certain  health upon
 their children.  Tacitus  describes the same cus-
 tom among the Germans, and  attributes to it the
 same good effects.   " Sera juvenum venus, eoque
 " inexhausta pubertas;  nee virgines  festinantur;
 " eadem  juventa,  similis proceritas,  pares  vali-
 " dique miscentur;   ac  robora  parentum  liberi
 " referunt."*

   Among the Indian men, it is deemed a mark of
 heroism to bear the most exquisite pain  without
 complaining; upon this account they early inure
 themselves  to burning part  of their  bodies  with
 fire, or cutting them with sharp instruments.   No
 young man can be admitted to the honours of man-
 hood or war, who has  not acquitted himself well in
 these trials of patience and fortitude.   It is easy to
 conceive how much this contributes to give a tone
 to the  nervous system, which renders it less sub-
ject to the occasional causes  of diseases.

   IV.  We come now to speak of those customs
 which   are  common   to  both  sexes:  these are

  * Caesar, in his history of the Gallic war, gives the same
account of  the  ancient Germans.  His words  are,  " Qui
 " diutissimi impuberes permanserunt, maximam inter suos
" ferunt laudem : hoc ali siaturam, ali vires, nervasque con-
" firmari putant."  Lib. vi. xxi.
• 
AMONG THE  INDIANS.
113
painting, and the use of the cold bath.   The
practice of anointing the body with oil is common
to the savages of all countries; in warm climates
it is said to promote  longevity,  by checking ex-
cessive  perspiration.  The Indians generally use
bear's grease, mixed  with a clay  which bears the
greatest resemblance to the colour of their skins.
This pigment serves to lessen the sensibility of the
extremities of the  nerves; it moreover  fortifies
them against the action of those exhalations, which
we shall mention hereafter as a considerable source
of their diseases.   The  cold bath likewise forti-
fies the body, and renders it less subject  to those
diseases, which arise from the extremes and vicissi-
tudes of heat and cold.   We shall speak hereafter
of the Indian manner  of using it.

   It is a  practice among the  Indians never  to
drink before dinner,  when they work  or travel.
Experience teaches,  that filling the stomach with
cold water in the forenoon weakens the appetite,
and makes the system more sensible  of heat and
fatigue.

   The state of society among the Indians excludes
the influence of most of those passions which dis-
order the  body.  The  turbulent effects of anger
are concealed  in deep and  lasting  resentments.
   vol. r.                v 
114
NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
 Envy and ambition are excluded by their equality
 of power and property.   Nor is it necessary that
 the perfections of the whole sex should be ascribed
 to one,  to induce them to marry.  "  The weak-
 ness of love (says Dr. Adam Smith) which is so
 much indulged in ages of humanity and politeness,
 is regarded among savages as the most unpardon-
 able  effeminacy.   A  young man would  think
 himself disgraced for ever, if he showed the least
 preference of one woman above another, or did not
 express the most complete indifference, both about
 the time when,  and the person to whom, he was
 to be married."*  Thus are they exempted from
 those violent or  lasting diseases, which accompany
 the several stages of such  passions in  both  sexes
 among civilized  nations.

   It is remarkable that there are no deformed  In-
 dians.  Some have  suspected, from this circum.
 stance,  that they put  their deformed  children to
 death ;  but nature here acts the part of an unnatu-
 ral mother.  The severity of the Indian manners
 destroys them.-f

  * Theory of Moral Sentiments.
  t Since the intercourse of the white people  with the In-
dians, we find some of them detormed in their limbs. This
deformity, upon  inquiry, appears to be produced by those
• 
AMONG  THE  INDIANS.
115
   From a review of the customs of the Indians,
we need not be surprised at the stateliness, regula-
rity of features, and dignity  of aspect, by which
they are characterized.   Where we observe these
among ourselves, there is always a presumption of
their being accompanied with health, and a strong
constitution.  The circulation of the blood is more
languid in the Indians, than in persons who are in
the constant exercise of the habits of civilized life.
Out of eight Indian men, whose pulses I once ex-
amined at the  wrists, I did not  meet with one, in
whom the artery beat more than sixty  strokes in a
minute.

   The marks of old age appear more early among
Indian, than among civilized, nations.

   Having finished  our inquiry  into the physical
customs of the Indians, we  shall now proceed to
inquire into their diseases.

   A celebrated professor of anatomy has asserted,
that we could not tell, by reasoning a priori, that
the body was mortal,  so intimately woven with its
texture are the principles of life.   Lord  Bacon
declares that the only  cause of deadi, which is na-

accidents, quarrels, &c. which have been introduced among
them by spirituous liquors. 
116
NATURAL  HISTORY OF  MEDICINE
tural to man, is that from old age ;  and complains
of the imperfection of physic, in not being able to
guard  the principle of life until the whole of the
oil that feeds it is consumed.   We cannot as yet
admit this proposition of our noble philosopher.  In
the inventory of the grave, in every country, we
find more of the spoils of youth and manhood than
of age.   This must be attributed to moral as well
as physical causes.

  We need only recollect the custom  among the
Indians,  of sleeping in the open air in a variable
climate ;  the alternate action of heat and cold upon
their bodies, to which the warmth  of their cabins
exposes  them; their  long marches ;  their exces-
sive  exercise ; their  intemperance in  eating, to
which  their  long fasting and  their public feasts
naturally prompt them ; and, lastly,  the vicinity
of their  habitations to the  banks of rivers; in or-
der to discover the empire of diseases among them,
in every stage of their lives.  They  have in vain
attempted to elude  the general  laws of mortality,
while their mode of life subjects them to these re-
mote,  but certain, causes of diseases.

  From what we know of the action of these pow-
ers upon the human body,  it will hardly be neces-
sary to appeal to facts, to determine that fevers 
            AMONG THE  INDIANS.        117
 constitute  the  only diseases  among the Indians.
 These fevers are occasioned by the insensible quali-
 ties of the air.   Those which are produced by cold
 and heat are of the inflammatory kind, such as pleu-
 risies, peripneumonies,  and rheumatisms.  Those
 which  are  produced by the insensible qualities of
 the air, or by putrid exhalations, are intermitting,
 remitting, inflammatory, and malignant, according
 as the exhalations are combined with more or less
 heat or cold.   The dysentery (which is an In-
 dian disease) comes under the class of fevers.  It
 appears to be the febris introversa of Dr. Sydenham.

  The Indians are subject to animal and vege-
 table poisons.   The effects of these upon the
 body are, in some degree, analogous to the exhala-
 tions  we  have mentioned.  When  they do not
 bring on sudden death,  they produce, according to
 their force, either a common  inflammatory,  or a
 malignant, fever.

  The  small pox and the venereal disease
 were communicated to  the Indians of North Ame-
 rica by the Europeans.  Nor  can I  find that they
 were ever subject to the scurvy.  Whether this
was obviated by their method of preserving  their
flesh, or by their mixing it at  all times with vege-
tables, I shall not undertake to determine.  Their 
118
NATURAL HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE
peculiar customs and manners seem to have ex-
empted them from this,  as well as from the com-
mon diseases of the skin.

  I have heard of two or three cases of the gout
among the Indians, but it was only among those
who had learned the use of rum from the  white
people.   A  question naturally occurs here, and
that is, why does  not the gout appear more fre-
quently among that class of people, who consume
the greatest quantity  of rum among  ourselves ?
To this  I answer, that  the  effects of this liquor
upon those  enfeebled people are too sudden, and
violent,  to admit of their being thrown upon  the
extremities; as we know them to be among the
Indians.   They appear  only in visceral obstruc-
tions, and a complicated train of chronic diseases.
Thus putrid miasmata are sometimes too strong to
bring on a fever,  but produce instant debility and
death.  The gout is seldom heard of in Russia,
Denmark, or  Poland.   Is this occasioned by the
vigour of constitution peculiar to the inhabitants of
those northern countries ? or is it caused by their
excessive use  of spirituous liquors, which produce
the same chronic complaints among them,  which
we said were  common  among the lower class of
people in this country ?  The similarity of their
diseases  makes the last of these suppositions the 
AMONG THE  INDIANS.
119
most probable.  The effects of wine, like tyranny
in a well formed government,  are  felt first in the
extremities ;  while spirits,  like a bold  invader,
seize at once  upon the vitals of the constitution.

 After much inquiry, I have not been able to find
a single instance of fatuity among the Indians,
and but few instances of melancholy and mad-
 ness;  nor can I  find any accounts of diseases
from worms among them.  Worms are common
to most animals; they produce diseases only in
weak, or increase them in strong, constitutions.*
Hence they have no place in the  nosological sys-
tems of physic. Nor is dentition accompanied
by disease among the Indians.  The facility with
which the healthy children of healthy parents cut
their teeth, among civilized nations, gives us reason
to conclude that the  Indian children never  suffer
from this quarter.

   The Indians appear moreover to be strangers to
diseases and pains in the teeth.


  * Indian children are not exempted from worms. It is
common with the Indians, when a  fever in their children is
ascribed by the white people to worms (from their being
discharged occasionally in their stools)  to say, " the fever
makes the worms come, and not the worms the fever." 
120     natural history of medicine
  The employments of the Indians subject them
to many accidents ;  hence we sometimes read of
wounds, fractures, and luxations, among
them.

  Having thus pointed out the natural diseases of
the Indians, and shown what diseases are foreign
to them, we may venture to  conclude,  that fe-
vers, old age, casualties, and war, are die
only  natural outlets of human life.   War is no-
thing but  a disease; it is founded in the imper-
fection of political bodies,  just as fevers are found-
ed on the  weakness of the  animal body.  Provi-
dence in these diseases seems to act like a mild le-
gislature, which mitigates the severity of death, by
inflicting it in a manner the least painful,  upon the
whole, to the patient and the survivors.

  Let us now  inquire into the remedies of the
Indians.   These, like their diseases, are simple,
and few in number.   Among the first of  them, we
shall mention the powers of nature.   Fevers,
we said formerly, constituted  the chief of the dis-
eases among the Indians; they are likewise,  in the
hands of nature, the principal instruments to  re-
move the evils which threaten her dissolution; but
the  event of these efforts of nature, no doubt,
soon convinced the Indians of the danger of trust- 
AMONG THE  INDIANS.
121
ing her in all cases;  and hence, in the earliest ac-
counts we have of their manners,  we read of per-
sons who  were intrusted with  the office  of phy-
sicians.

  It will be difficult  to find out  the exact order in
which the Indian remedies were suggested by na-
ture, or discovered by art; nor will it be  easy to
arrange them in proper order.  I shall, however,
attempt it, by reducing them to natural and
 ARTIFICIAL.

  To  the class of* natural remedies  belongs
the  Indian practice,  of abstracting from their pa-
tients all kinds of stimulating aliment.   The com-
pliance of the Indians with* the dictates of nature,
in the early stage of a disease, no doubt, prevents,
in many  cases, their being  obliged to  use any
other remedy.   They follow nature still closer, in
allowing their patients to drink plentifully  of cold
water ;  this being the only  liquor a patient calls for
in a fever.

  Sweating is likewise a natural remedy.  It was
probably suggested by observing fevers to be ter-
minated by it.   I shall not inquire how far  these.
sweats are essential  to the  crisis of a fever.  The
Indian mode of procuring this evacuation is asfol-
 vol.  i.              o^ 
       122  NATURAL  HISTORY OF  MEDICINE
       lows:  the  patient is confined in a  close tent, or
       wigwam, over a hole in the earth, in which a red
       hot stone is placed ;  a quantity of water is thrown
       upon this stone, which instantly involves the pa-
       tient in a cloud of vapour and sweat; in this situ-
       ation he  rushes out,  and plunges himself into a ri-
ft      ver, from  whence he retires to his bed.   If the
       remedy has been used with success, he rises from
       his bed in four and twenty hours,  perfectly reco-
       vered from his indisposition.  This remedy is used
       not only to cure fevers, but remove  that uneasiness
       which arises from fatigue of body.

         A third natural remedy among the  Indians is,
       purging.   The fruits of the earth, the  flesh  of
       birds, and other animals feeding upon particular
       vegetables, and,  above all, the spontaneous efforts
       of nature,  early led the Indians to perceive the ne-
       cessity arid advantages of this evacuation.

          Vomits constitute their fourth natural  remedy.
       They were probably, like the former, suggested
       by nature, and accident.   The ipecacuanha is one
       of the many roots they employ for tiiat purpose.

          The  artificial remedies made use of by
       the Indians are,  bleeding,  caustics,  and as-
       tringent medicines.   They confine  bleeding 
            AMONC THE INDIANS.         123
entirely to the part affected.  To know that open-
ing a vein in the arm, or foot, would relieve a pain
in the head or side, supposes some knowledge of
the animal economy, and therefore marks an ad-
vanced period in the history of medicine.

  Sharp stones and thorns are the instruments they
use to procure a discharge of blood.

   We have an account of the Indians using some-
thing like  a  potential caustic, in obstinate
pains.   It consists of a  piece of rotten wood, called
punk, which they place upon the part affected, and
afterwards set it on fire: the fire gradually con-
sumes the wood, and its ashes burn a hole in  the
flesh.

   The undue efforts  of nature, in those fevers
which are  connected with a diarrhoea, or dysen-
tery,  together with those hemorrhages to which
their mode of life  exposed them, necessarily  led
them to an early  discovery of some astringent
vegetables.   I  am uncertain whether the In-
dians rely upon  astringent,  or any other vegeta-
bles, for the cure of the intermitting fever.  This
disease among them probably requires no other
remedies  than the cold  bath, or cold  air.  Its
greater obstinacy,  as  well  as  frequency, among 
124
NATURAL HISTORY OF  MEDICINE
ourselves, must be sought for in the greater fee-
bleness of  our constitutions, and in that change
which our country has undergone, from meadows,
mill-dams,  and the cutting down of woods; where-
by morbid exhalations have  been multiplied, and
their passage rendered more free, through  every
part of the  country.

   This is a short account of the  remedies  of the
Indians.  If they  are simple, they are, like their
eloquence,  full of strength; if they  are few in
number, they  are accommodated,  as  their lan-
guages are to their  ideas,  to the whole of their
diseases.

   We said, formerly, that the Indians were sub-
ject to accidents, such as wounds,  fractures, and
the like.  In these cases, nature performs the  of-
fice of a surgeon.  We  may judge of her qualifi-
cations for this office, by observing the marks of
wounds  and fractures which are  sometimes dis-
covered on wild animals.   But further, what is the
practice  of our modern surgeons in these cases ?
Is it not to lay aside plaisters and ointments, and
trust the whole to nature ? Those ulcers, which re-
quire the assistance of mercury, bark,  and   a par-
ticular regimen, are unknown to the  Indians. 
             AMONG THE  INDIANS.        125
    The  hemorrhages  which sometimes follow
 their  wounds  are restrained, by  plunging them-
 selves into cold water,  and thereby producing a
 constriction upon the bleeding vessels.

   Their practice of attempting to recover drown-
 EDPEoPLEis  irrational and unsuccessful.  It con-
 sists in  suspending the patient by  the heels, in or-
 der that the   water may flow from  his  mouth.
 This  practice  is founded on a belief, that  the pa-
 tient dies  from swallowing an excessive quantity
 of water.  But modern observations teach us, that
 drowned people die from  another  cause.   This
 discovery has suggested a method of cure, directly
 opposite to that in use among the Indians; and has
 shown us that  the practice of suspending  by the
 heels is hurtful.

   I do not find that the Indians ever suffer in their
 limbs from the  action of cold upon them.   Their
 mokasons,* by allowing their feet to move freely
 and  thereby promoting  the  circulation of the
 blood,  defend their lower extremities in  the  day-
time, and their  practice of sleeping with their feet
near a  fire defends them from the morbid  effects
of cold at night.  In those cases, where the motion
* Indian shoes. 
 126   NATURAL  HISTORY OF  MEDICINE
 of their feet in  their mokasons  is not sufficient to
 keep them warm,  they break the ice, and  restore
 their warmth, by exposing them for a short time
 to the action of cold water.*

   We have heard  much of their specific antidotes
 to the  venereal disease.   In the accounts of
 these   anti-venereal  medicines,  some abatement
 should be made for that love of the marvellous,
 and of novelty, which  are apt  to  creep into the
 writings of travellers and physicians.  How many
 medicines,  which  were once  thought infallible in
 this disease, are now  rejected from  the  materia
 medica!  I have  found  upon inquiry that  the In-
 dians always assist their medicines in this disease,
 by a regimen which promotes perspiration.  Should
 we allow that mercury acts as a specific in destroy-
 ing this disease, it  does not follow that it is proof
 against the efficacy of  medicines, which act more
 mechanically upon the  body.f

  * It was remarked in Canada, in the winter of the year
 1759, during the war  before last, that none of those soldiers
who wore mokasons were frost-bitten, while few of those
escaped that were much exposed to the cold who wore shoes.
  t I cannot help suspecting the anti-venereal qualities of
the lobelia, ceanothus and  ranunculus, spoken of by Mr.
Kalm, in the Memoirs of the Swedish Academy.  Mr Hand
informed me, that the Indians rely chiefly upon a plentiful 
AMONG THE INDIANS.
127
  There cannot be a stronger mark of the imper-
fect state of knowledge in medicine among the In-
dians, than their method of treating the  small-
pox.   We are told that they plunge themselves
in cold water in the beginning of the disease, and
that it often proves fatal to them.

  Travellers speak in high terms of the Indian
 antidotes to poisons.  We must  remember
that many things  have  been  thought  poisonous,
which later experience hath proved to  possess  no
 unwholesome quality.   Moreover, the uncertainty
and variety, in the operation of poisons, renders it
extremely difficult to fix the certainty of the anti-
dotes to them.  How many specifics have derived
their credit for preventing  the hydrophobia, from
persons being wounded by animals, who were not
in a situation to produce that disease !  If  we may
judge  of all the Indian  antidotes to poisons,  by
those which  have fallen into  our hands,  we have
litde reason to ascribe much to them in any cases
whatever.

   I have heard of their performing several remark-
able cures upon stiff joints,  by an  infusion of

use of the decoctions  «.( the  pine-trees for the cure of the
venereal disease.  He added, moreover, that he  had often
known this disease prove fatal to them. 
 128    NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
 certain herbs in  water.  The  mixture of several
Jierbs together in this infusion  calls in question the
specific efficacy of each of them.  I cannot  help
attributing the whole success of this remedy to the
great heat of the water in which  the herbs were
boiled, and to its being applied for a  long  time to
the part affected.   We find the same medicine to
vary frequently   in its success, according to its
strength, or to the continuance of its application.
De Haen attributes the good effects  of electricity
entirely to its being used for several months.

   I have met with one case upon record,  of their
aiding nature in  parturition.   Captain Carver
gives us an account of an Indian woman in a diffi-
cult  labour being suddenly delivered, in conse-
quence of a general  convulsion induced upon her
system by stopping,  for a  short time, her mouth
and nose, so as to obstruct her breathing.

   We are sometimes amused with accounts of In-
dian remedies for the dropsy, epilepsy, colic,
gravel, and gout.  If, with all the advantages
which modern physicians derive from their know-
ledge in  anatomy, chemistry, botany, and  phi-
losophy ;  if,  with  the   benefit of discoveries
communicated from abroad,  as well as  handed
down from our ancestors, by  more  certain  me- 
             AMONG THE  INDIANS.        129
 thods than tradition, we are still  ignorant of cer-
 tain remedies for these diseases; what can we ex-
 pect  from the Indians, who are not only deprived
 of these advantages, but want our chief motive,
 the sense of the  pain and danger of those diseases,
 to prompt  them to seek for such  remedies to re-
 lieve them?  There cannot be a stronger  proof
 of their ignorance of proper remedies for new or
 difficult diseases, than their having recourse to en-
 chantment.  But to  be more  particular;  I have
 taken pains to inquire into the success of some of
 these  Indian  specifics,  and have never heard of
 one  well attested case of their  efficacy.   I believe
 they derive all their credit from our being  igno-
 rant of their  composition.   The  influence of se-
 crecy  is well  known in establishing  the credit of
 a medicine.  The sal seignette  was supposed  to be
 an infallible medicine  for the intermitting fever,
 while the manufactory of it was confined to an apo-
 thecary at  Rochelle ;  but it lost its  virtues, as soon
 as it was found to be composed of the acid of tar-
 tar and the fossil alkali.   Dr. Ward's famous pill
 and  drop  ceased to  do  wonders  in  scrophulous
 cases, as soon as he  bequeathed to the world his
receipts for making them.

  I foresee an objection to what has been said con-
cerning the remedies of the Indians, drawn  from
  vol. I.               R 
 130  NATURAL HISTORY OF  MEDICINE
 that knowledge which experience gives to a  mind
 intent upon one subject.   We  have heard much
 of the perfection of their senses of seeing and hear-
 ing.  An Indian, we are told,  will discover, not
 only a particular tribe of Indians by their foot-
 steps, but the distance of time in which they were
 made.   In those branches of knowledge which
 relate to hunting and war, the Indians have ac-
 quired  a degree of  perfection, that has not been
 equalled by  civilized nations.   But we must re-
 member, that medicine among them does not pos-
 sess the  like advantages with the arts of war and
 hunting, of being the chief object of their atten-
 tion.  The  physician and the warrior are united
 in one character; to render him as able in the for-
 mer as he is in the latter  profession would require
 an  entire abstraction  from every other  employ-
 ment,  and  a familiarity  with  external   objects,
 which are incompatible with the wandering life of
 savages.

 . Thus have we finished our inquiry into  the dis-
 eases and remedies of the Indians in North Ame-
rica.  We come now to  inquire into the diseases
 and remedies of civilized nations.

  Nations  differ in  their degrees of civilization.
 We shall select one for the subject of our inquiries, 
AMONG THE INDIANS.
131
which is most familiar to us ; I mean the  British
nation.   Here we behold subordination and classes
of mankind established, by government, commerce,
manufactures, and certain  customs,  common to
most of the  civilized  nations of  Europe.   We
shall trace  the origin of their diseases through their
customs, in the  same manner as we did those of
the Indians.

   I.  It will  be  sufficient to name the degrees of
heat, the improper aliment,  the tight dresses, and
the premature studies, children are  exposed to, in
order to show the ample scope for diseases, which
is added to the original defect of  stamina they de-
rive from their ancestors.

  II. Civilization rises  in its demands  upon the
health of women.  Their  fashions;  their dress and
diet; their eager pursuits  and ardent enjoyment of
pleasure; their  indolence, and undue  evacuations
in pregnancy;  their cordials, hot regimen, and
neglect, or  use of art, in child-birth;  are all so many
inlets to disease.

  Humanity would fain be  silent,  while philoso-
phy  calls upon us to mention the effects of inte-
rested marriages, and of disappointments in  love,
increased by that concealment, which  the tvrannv 
132   NATURAL  HISTORY OF  MEDICINE
of custom has  imposed upon the sex.*  Each of
these exaggerates the natural,  and increases the
number of artificial, diseases among women.

   III. The diseases introduced  by civilization ex-
tend themselves through every class and profession
among men.  How fatal are the effects of idleness
and intemperance among the  rich, and of hard la-
bour and penury among the poor! What pallid
looks are  contracted by  the  votaries  of science,
from hanging  over  the  "sickly taper!"   How
many diseases are entailed upon manufacturers,$by
the materials in which they work, and the posture
of their  bodies! What monkish  diseases do  wc
observe,  from  monkish continence and monkish
vices! We pass over  the increase of accidents,
from building, sailing, riding, and the like.   War,
as if too  slow in destroying the  human species,

  * "Married  women are  more healthy and long-lived
" than single women.  The registers, examined by Mr. Mu-
" ret, confirm this observation ; and  show, particularly, that
" of equal numbers of single and  married women, between
"fifteen and  twenty-five years of age, more of the former
" died than of the latter, in  the proportion of two to one :
" the consequence, therefore,  of following nature must be
" favourable to health among the  female  sex."  Supple-
ment to Price's Observations on Reversionary Payments.
p. 357. 
AMONG THE INDIANS.
133
calls in a train of diseases peculiar to civilized na-
tions.    What  havoc  have the  corruption  and
monopoly of provisions, a damp soil,  and an un-
wholesome sky, made, in a few days, in an army !
The  achievements of British  valour, at the  Ha-
vannah,  in the last war, were  obtained at the ex-
pence of  9,000 men,  7,000  of  whom perished
with the West India fever.*   Even our modern
discoveries in geography, by extending the empire
of commerce, have likewise extended the empire
of diseases.   What desolation have  the East and
West Indies made of British subjects! It has been
found, upon a nice calculation, that only ten of a
hundred Europeans live above seven years  after
they arrive in the island of Jamaica.

   * The  modern writers  upon the diseases of armies won-
der that  the  Greek  and Roman  physicians  have left  us
nothing upon that subject.  But may not most of the dis-
eases of  armies be produced by the different manner in
which  wars are carried  on  by the  modern  nations?  The
discoveries in geography, by extending  the field of war,
expose soldiers to many diseases, from  long  voyages, and
a  sudden change of climate, which were unknown to the
armies of former ages.   Moreover, the form of the wea-
pons, and the variety  in the military exercises, ofithe Gre-
cian and Roman armies gave a vigour  to the constitution,
which can never be  acquired by the use of muskets and
artillery. 
134
NATURAL HISTORY OF
MEDICINE
   IV.  It would take up too much of our time to
 point out all the customs, both physical and moral,
 which influence diseases among both sexes.  The
 former  have engendered the seeds of diseases in
 the  human body itself:  hence the origin of ca-
 tarrhs, jail and military fevers,  with a long  train
 of  other diseases,  which  compose so  great  a
 part of our books of medicine.   The latter like-
 wise have a large share in  producing diseases.   I
 am  not  one of those  modern  philosophers, who
 derive the vices of mankind  from the influence of
 civilization ; but I am  safe in asserting, that their
 number  and malignity increase with the  refine-
 ments of polished life.  To prove this,  we need
 only survey a  scene too familar to affect us : it is
 a bedlam;  which injustice,  inhumanity,  avarice,
 pride, vanity, and ambition, have filled with inha-
 bitants.

   Thus have  I briefly pointed out the  customs,
which influence the  diseases of civilized nations.
 It remains now that we take notice of their dis-
 eases.   Without  naming the many- new  fevers,
fluxes, hemorrhages, swellings from water,  wind,
flesh, fat, pus, and blood;  foulness on the skin,
from cancers, leprosy,  yawes,  poxes, and itch;
and, lastly, the gout, the hysteria, and the hypo-
condriasis, in all their  variety of known and un- 
AMONG THE INDIANS.
135
known shapes; I shall sum up all that is necessa-
ry upon this subject, by adding, that the number
of diseases which  belong to civilized nations,  ac-
cording to Doctor Cullen's nosology, amounts to
1387 ; the single  class of nervous diseases form
612 of this number.

   Before we proceed to speak  of  the remedies of
civilized nations,  we shall examine into the  abi-
lities of  nature  in curing their diseases.   We
found her active and successful in curing the dis-
eases of the Indians.  Are her strength, wisdom,
or benignity, equal to the increase of those dangers,
which threaten her dissolution  among civilized na-
tions? In order to  answer this  question, it will
be necessary to explain the meaning of the  term
nature.

   By  nature, in  the  present  case, I understand
nothing  but physical necessity.  This at once ex-
cludes every thing like intelligence from her  ope-
rations :  these are all performed  in obedience to
the same laws, which govern vegetation in plants,
and the intestine motions of fossils.   They are as
truly mechanical as the laws of  gravitation,  elec-
tricity,  or magnetism.  A ship, when laid on her
broadside by a wave, or  a sudden blast of wind,
rises by the simple laws  of her mechanism ; but 
156
NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
suppose this  ship to be attacked by fire,  or a wa-
ter-spout, we are not to  call in question the skill
of the ship-builder, if she be consumed by the one,
or sunk by the other.   In like manner, the Author
of nature hath furnished the body with powers to
preserve itself from its natural enemies ;  but when
it is attacked by those civil foes, which are bred
by the peculiar customs  of civilization,  it resem-
bles a company of Indians, armed with  bows and
arrows,  against the complicated and deadly ma-
chinery of fire-arms.   To  place this subject in a
proper light,  I  shall deliver a history of the opera-
tions of nature in a  few of die diseases of civilized
nations.

  I. There are cases, in which nature is still suc-
cessful in curing diseases.

  In fevers, she still deprives us of our appetite for
animal food, and  imparts to us a desire for cool
air and cold water.

  In hemorrhages, she produces a faintness, which
occasions a coagulum in the open vessels; so that
the  further passage of blood through them is ob-
structed.
A 
AMONG THE INDIANS.
137
   In wounds of the flesh and bones she discharges
 foreign matter,  by exciting  an inflammation, and
 supplies the  waste  of both with new  flesh  and
 bone.

   II. There are cases, where the efforts of nature
 are too feeble to do service, as  in malignant and
 chronic fevers.

   III. There are cases, where the efforts of nature
 are over-proportioned to the strength of the  dis-
 ease, as in the cholera morbus and dysentery.

   IV.  There are cases, where nature is  idle, as in
 the atonic  stages of the gout, the cancer, the  epi-
 lepsy, the mania, the venereal  disease,  the apo-
 plexy, and the tetanus.*

   V. There are cases, in which nature  does mis-
 chief.   She  wastes  herself with an  unnecessary
fever jn a dropsy and consumption.   She throws
a plethora  upon the brain and lungs in  the apo-
plexy  and  peripneumonia  notha.   She ends  a
pleurisy and peripneumony in a vomica, or em-
pyema.  She creates  an unnatural  appetite  for
food in the hypochondriac  disease.   And,  lasdy,

  * Hoffman de  hypothesium medicarum damno, sect. xv.
  vol.  i.                ts 
138   NATURAL  HISTORY OF MEDICINE
she drives the melancholy  patient  to  solitude,
where, by brooding over the subject of his insani-
tv, he increases his disease.

  We are accustomed to hear of the salutary kind-
ness of nature in  alarming us with pain, to prompt
us to seek for a remedy.  But,

  VI. There are cases,  in  which she  refuses to
send  this harbinger  of the  evils  which threaten
her, as in the aneurism, scirrhus, and stone in the
bladder.

   VII.  There are  cases, where the pain is  not
proportioned to the danger, as in the tetanus, con-
sumption, and dropsy of the head.  And,

   VIII. There  are cases, where the pain is over-
 proportioned to  the danger, as in the paronychia
 and tooth-ache.

    This is a short account of the operations of na-
 ture  in the diseases of civilized nations.  A lu-
 natic might as well  plead against the sequestration
 of his estate, because he once enjoyed the full ex-
 ercise of his reason, or because he  still had lucid
 intervals, as nature be exempted from the charges
 we have brought against her.
 
            AMONG  THE INDIANS.         139
  But this subject will receive strength from con-
sidering the r e m e die s of civilized nations.  All
the products of the vegetable, fossil,  and animal
kingdoms, tortured, by heat and mixture, into an
almost infinite  variety of forms; bleeding, cup-
ping, artificial drains by setons, issues, and blisters;
exercise, active and passive ; voyages and journies;
baths, warm and cold;  waters, saline, aerial, and
mineral;  food, by weight and measure ; the royal
touch;  enchantment; miracles;  in  a word,  the
combined discoveries of natural history and philo-
sophy united into a system of materia medica all
show, that although physicians are in speculation
the servants, yet in practice they are the masters, of
nature.   The whole of their  remedies seem con-
trived on purpose  to arouse, assist,  restrain, and
controul her operations.

   There  are some truths,  like  certain  liquors,
which require strong heads to bear them.  I feel
myselL projected from  the  prejudices  of vulgar
minds,  when I reflect that I am delivering these
sentiments|jp a society of philosophers.
         * .
   Let us now  take a comparative  view of the
diseases and remedies of the Indians with those of
eivilized nations.   We shall begin with  their dis-
eases. 
140     NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
  In our account of the diseases of the  Indians we
beheld death executing his commission, it is true ;
but then his dart was hid in a mantle, under which
he concealed his shape.  But among civilized na-
tions we behold him multiplying his weapons, in
proportion to the number of organs and functions
in the body ; and pointing each of them in such a
manner, as to render his messengers more  terrible
than himself.

  We said formerly that fevers  constituted the
chief diseases of the Indians.  According  to Doc-
tor  Sydenham's computation,  above 66,000 out
of 100,000 died of fevers,  in London, about  100
years ago; but fevers now  constitute but a little
more than  one-tenth part of the diseases  of that
city.  Out of 21,780 persons who died in London,
between December, 1770, and December, 1771,
only 2273 died of simple fevers.   I have more
than once heard Doctor Huck complain, that he
could find no marks of epidemic fevers in London,
as described by Dr.  Sydenham.   London has un-
dergone  a revolution  in its manners a$d  customs
since Doctor Sydenham's time. New diseases, the
offspring of luxury, have supplanted fevers;  and
the few that are left are so complicated with other
diseases, that their connection can no longer  be
discovered with an  epidemic  constitution of the 
            AMONG THE  INDIANS.        141
year.   The pleurisy and peripneumony, those in-
flammatory fevers of strong constitutions, are now-
lost in catarrhs,  or  colds,  which, instead of chal-
lenging the powers  of nature or art to a  fair com-
bat,  insensibly undermine the  constitution, and
bring on an incurable consumption.  Out of 22,434
who died in London, between  December,  1769,
and the same month in 1770,  4594 perished with
that British  disease.  Our countryman, Doctor
Maclurg, has ventured to foretell that the gout will
be lost in a few years,  in a train of hypochondriac,
hysteric,  and bilious  diseases.   In like manner,
may we not look for a season, when fevers, the na-
tural diseases  of the  human body, will be lost in
an inundation of artificial  diseases, brought on by
the modish practices of civilization ?

  It may not  be improper to compare  the prog-
nosis of the Indians, in diseases, with that of
civilized nations, before we take a  comparative
view of their remedies.

  The Indians  are said to be successful in pre-
dicting the events of diseases.  While diseases are
simple, the marks which  distinguish them, or cha-
racterize  their several stages, are  generally uni-
form, and obvious to the most indifferent observer.
These marks afford so much certainty, that the In- 
 142  NATURAL HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE
 dians sometimes kill their  physicians  for  a false
 prognosis, charging the death of the  patient to
 their carelessness, or  ignorance.   They estimate
 the danger  of  their patients  by  the  degrees of
 appetite; while an  Indian is able to  eat, he  is
 looked upon as free from danger.   But when we
 consider the number  and variety  in the signs  of
diseases among civilized  nations, together  with
the shortness of life, the fallacy of memory, and
the uncertainty of observation, where shall we find
a physician willing to risk his reputation, much less
 his life, upon the prediction  of the  event  of our
 acute diseases ? We can derive no advantage from
 the simple  sign,  by which the Indians estimate
 the danger  of their patients;  for  we  daily see  a
 want of appetite for food in diseases which are at-
 tended with no danger ; and we sometimes observe
 an unusual degree  of  this appetite to precede the
 agonies of death.  I  honour the  name of  Hip-
 pocrates: but forgive  me, ye votaries of anti-
 quity, if I attempt  to pluck a few gray hairs from
 his venerable head.   I was once  an idolater at his
 altar, nor did I turn apostate from his worship, till
 I was taught,  that not a  tenth part of his  prog-
 nostics corresponded  with modern experience,  or
  observation.   The pulse,* urine, and sweats, from
   * Doctor Cullen used to inform his pupils, that, after forty
  vears' experience, he could find no relation between  his own
*- 
AMONG the
INDIANS.
143
which  the principal signs of life and  death have
been taken, are so variable, in most of the acute
diesases of civilized nations, that the wisest phy-
sicians have in some measure excluded the prog-
nosis from being a part of their profession.

   I am here insensibly led to make an apology for
the  instability  of the  theories and practice  of
physic.   The theory of physic  is founded upon
the laws  of the animal economy.  These (unlike
the laws of  the   mind, or the common laws of
matter)  do not appear at once, but are  gradually
brought  to light by  the phenomena of diseases.
 The success  of nature in curing the simple diseases
 of Saxony laid the foundation for the  anima me-
 dic a of Doctor Stahl.  The endemics of Hol-
 land* led  Doctor Boerhaave to seek for  the

observations on the pulse and those made by Doctor Solano.
 The climate and customs of the people in Spain being so
 different from  the climate and customs of the present inha-
 bitants of  Britain may account for the diversity of theii ob-
 servations.  Doctor Heberden's remarks upon the pulse, in
 the second volume of the Medical  Transactions, are calcu-
 lated to show how little the issue of diseases can be learned
 from it.

    * « The scurvy is very frequent in  Holland ; and draws
 its origin partly from their strong food, sea-fish, and smoked 
 144   natural history of mepicine
 causes of all  diseases in  the  fluids.   And the
 universal prevalence of diseases of the nerves, in
 Great Britain, led  Doctor Cullen to discover
 their peculiar  laws, and to found a system  upon
 them, a system,  which  will probably last  till
 some new diseases are let  loose upon the  human
 species, which shall unfold other laws of the ani
 mal economy.

   It is in consequence of this fluctuation in the
 principles and practice of physic being  so neces-
 sarily connected with  the changes in the customs
 of civilized nations, that old and young physicians
 so often  disagree in their  opinions and practices.
 And it is by attending to  the constant changes in
 these customs of civilized nations, that those phy-
 sicians have generally become the most eminent,
 who have  soonest emancipated  themselves  from
 the tyranny of the schools of physic;  and have
 occasionally accommodated  their  principles and

flesh, and  partly from their dense and moist air, together
 with their bad water."  Hoffman on Endemical Distempers.

  " We are now in North-Holland ; and I have never seen,
 among so few people, so many infected with the leprosy as
 here.  They  say the reason is, because they eat so much
 fish."  Howell's Familar Letters. 
AMONG  THE INDIANS.
145
 practice to the changes in diseases.*  This variety
 in diseases, which is produced by  the  changes in
 the customs  of civilized nations, will enable us to
 account for many of the contradictions which  are
 to be found in authors of equal candour and abili-
 ties, who have written upon the materia medica.

   In forming a comparative view of the re me die s
 of the Indians, with those of  civilized  nations, we
 shall remark, that the want of success in a medi-
 cine is occasioned by one of the following causes:

   First, our  ignorance of the disease.   Secondly,
 an ignorance  of a  suitable remedy.   Thirdly,  a
 want of efficacy in the remedy.

  * We may learn, from  these observations, the great im-
propriety of those  Egyptian laws, which oblige physicians
to adopt, in  all  cases, the  prescriptions which had  been col-
lected, and approved of, by the physicians of former ages.
Every change in the customs of civilized nations  produces
a change in their diseases, which calls for a change in their
remedies.  What havoc would plentiful bleeding,  purgjpg,
and small beer, formerly used with so much success by Dp.'
Sydenham in the  cure of fevers, now make upon the en-
feebled citizens of London ! The fevers  of the same, and
of more southern latitudes, still admit of such antiphlogistic
remedies.  In the room of these, bark, wine, and other cor-
dial medicines,  are prescribed in London in  almost every
kind of fever.
   VOL. I.                t 
146     natural history of medicine
  Considering the violence of the diseases of the
Indian's, it is probable their want of success is  al-
ways occasioned by a want of efficacy in their me-
dicines.  But the case is very different among the
civilized nations.   Dissections daily convince us
of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause
us to blush at our prescriptions.   How often  are
we disappointed in our expectation from the most
certain and powerful  of our remedies, by the ne-
gligence or  obstinacy of our patients!  What mis-
chief have we done under the belief of false facts
(if I may be allowed the expression) and false theo-
ries !  We have assisted in multiplying diseases.
We have done more—we have  increased their
mortality.

  I shall not pause to beg pardon  of the faculty,
for acknowledging, in this public manner, the weak-
nesses of our profession.  I am pursuing Truth,
and while I can keep my eye fixed upon my guide,
I am indifferent yhither I am led, provided she is
mj^ leader.

  But further,  the Indian submits to his disease,
without one fearful emotion from his doubtfulness
of its event;  and at last meets his fate, without an
anxious wish for futurity: except  it  is of being
admitted to an " equal sky," where 
AMONG THE
INDIANS.
147
  c< His faithful dog shall bear him company."

But  among civilized nations, the influence  of a
false religion in good, and of a true religion in bad,
men has converted even  the fear of  death into a
disease.  It is this original distemper of the ima-
gination which renders the plague most fatal, upon
its first appearance in a country.

   Under all these disadvantages in the state of me-
dicine, among civilized nations, do  more  in pro-
portion die of the diseases peculiar to them, than
of fevers,  casualties, and old age, among the  In-
dians ? If we 'take  our account  from the city of
London, we shall find this to be the case.   Near
a  twentieth part of its inhabitants perish one year
with another.  Nor does the natural increase  of
inhabitants supply this yearly waste.   If we judge
from the bills of mortality, the  city of London
contains fewer inhabitants, by several  thousands,
than it did forty years ago.   It  appears from this
fact, and many  others  of  a like nature,  which
might be adduced, that  although the  difficulty of
supporting  children, together with  some peculiar
customs  of the Indians, which we mentioned,
limit  their  number,  yet they multiply faster, and
die  in a smaller proportion,  than civilized nations,
under the circumstances we have described.  The 
148.  NATURAL  HISTORY OF  MEDICINE
Indians, we are told, were numerous in this coun-
try,  before  the  Europeans  settled among them.
Travellers agree likewise in describing numbers of
both sexes, who exhibited all the marks of extreme
old age.   It is remarkable that age seldom impairs
the faculties of their minds.

   The mortality  peculiar to  those Indian tribes
who  have mingled with the white people must be
ascribed  to the  extensive mischief of spirituous
liquors.   When these  have not acted, they have
suffered from having accommodated themselves too
suddenly to the European diet, dress, and manners.
It does not become us to pry  too much into fu-
turity ; but if we may judge from the fate  of the
original  natives of Hispaniola,  Jamaica,  and  the
provinces on the  continent, we may venture to
foretell,  that, in  proportion as  the white people
multiply,  the Indians will  diminish; so that in a
few centuries they will probably be entirely extir-
pated.*

   * Even the influence of christian principles has not been
able to put a stop to the mortality introduced among the
Indians, by  their intercourse with  the Europeans.  Dr.
Cotton Mather, in a letter to sir William Ashurst,  printed
in Boston, in the year 1705, says, " that about five years be-.
fore there were about thirty Indian congregations in the
 southern  parts of the province of Massachusetts-Bay."  The 
AMONG  THE INDIANS.
149
   It may be said, that health among the Indians,
like  insensibility  to  cold and  hunger, is propor-
tioned to their need of it; and that the less degrees,
or entire want  of health, are no interruption to the
ordinary business of civilized life.

   To obviate this supposition, we shall first attend
to  the effects of a single disease  in those  people,
who are the principal wheels  in the  machine  of
civil society.   Justice has stopt its current, victo-
ries have been lost, wars have been prolonged, and
embassies delayed, by the principal actors in these
departments of government being suddenly laid up
by a fit of the gout.   How many offences are daily
committed against the rules of good breeding, by
the tedious histories of  our  diseases,  which com-
pose so great a part of modem conversation! What
sums of money have been lavished in foreign coun-


same author, in his history of New-England, says, " That
in the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard there
were 3000 adult Indians,  1600 of whom professed the chris-
 tian religion." At present there is but one Indian congre-
 grationin the whole Massachusetts province.

   It may serve to extend our knowledge of diseases, to  re-
 mark, that epidemics were  often observed to prevail among
 the Indians in Nantucket, without affecting the white people. 
150    NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
 tries in pursuit of  health!* Families  have been
 ruined by the unavoidable expences  of medicines
 and  watering-places.  In  a word, the  swarms  of
 beggars, which  infest so  many of the European
 countries, urge  their petitions  for charity chiefly
 by  arguments  derived  from  real or  counterfeit
 diseases, which render them incapable of support-
 ing themselves.j

   But  may not civilization, while it  abates the
 violence of natural diseases, increase  the lenity  of
 those that are artificial, in the same manner that it
 lessens the strength of natural vices by multiplying
 them ?  To answer this question, it will only be ne-
 cessary to ask another :  Who would exchange the
 heat, thirst, and uneasiness of a fever, for one fit of
 the colic or stone ?

   The history  of the number, combination, and
fashions of the remedies we have given, may serve

  * It is said there are seldom less than 20,000 British sub-
jects in France and Italy ; one half of whom reside or travel
in those countries upon the account of their health.

  t Templeman computes, that Scotland contains 1,500,000
inhabitants ; 100,000 of  whom, according to Mr. Fletcher,
are supported at the public expence.  The proportion of
poor people is much greater in England, Ireland, France,
and Italy. 
AMONG THE INDIANS.
151
to humble the pride  of philosophy;  and to con-
vince us, that  with all the advantages of the whole
circle of sciences, we are still ignorant of antidotes
to many of the diseases of civilized nations.   We
sometimes sooth our ignorance, by reproaching our
idleness in not investigating the remedies peculiar
to this country.  We are  taught to believe that
every herb that grows in our woods is possessed of
some medicinal virtue, and that Heaven  would be
wanting in benignity, if our country did not pro-
duce remedies for all the different diseases of its
inhabitants.   It would be arrogating too  much, to
suppose that  man was the only creature  in  our
world for whom  vegetables grow.   The beasts,
birds, and insects, derive  their  sustenance either
directly or indirectly  from  them; while many  of
them were probably intended, from their variety in
figure,  foliage, and colour, only to serve as orna-
ments for our globe.   It would seem strange that
the  Author of nature should furnish every  spot  of
ground with  medicines adapted  to the diseases of
its inhabitants, and  at  the same time deny it the
more necessary articles of food and clothing.  I
know  not  whether Heaven  has provided every
country with  antidotes even to the natural diseases
of its inhabitants.   The intermitting fever is com-
mon in almost every corner of the globe ; but a
sovereign remedy for it has been discovered onh 
1 52   NATURAL HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE
 in South America. The combination of bitter and
 astringent substances, which serve as a succeda-
 neum to the Peruvian bark, is as much  a prepara-
 tion of art, as calomel or tartar emetic.   Societies
 stand in need of each other as much as individuals;
 and the goodness of the Deity remains unimpeach-
 ed, when we suppose that  he intended medicines
 to serve (with other articles) to promote that know-
 ledge, humanity and politeness, among the inhabi-
 tants of  the earth, which have been so justly attri-
 buted  to commerce.

   We have no discoveries in the materia medica
 to hope for from the Indians in North America.  It
 would be a reproach to  our schools of  physic,  if
 modern phycisians were not more successful than
 the Indians,  even  in the treatment of  their own
 diseases.

   Do the blessings of civilization  compensate  for
 the sacrifice we make of natural health,  as well  as
 of natural liberty ? This question must be answer-
 ed under some limitations.   When natural liberty
 is given up for laws which enslave instead of pro-
 tecting us, we are immense losers by the exchange.
 Thus, if we arm the whole elements against our
 health, and render every pore  in the body an ave- 
             AMONG THE  INDIANS.         153
 nue for a  disease, we pay too high a price for the
 blessings of civilization.

   In governments which have departed entirely
 from their simplicity, partial evils are to be cured
 by nothing but an entire renovation of their consti-
 tution.  Let the  world bear  with  the  professions
 of law, physic, and  divinity; and let  the lawyer,
 physician, and divine, yet learn to bear with each
 other.   They are all necessary,  in the present state
 of society.   In  like manner,  let the  woman  of
 fashion forget the delicacy of her sex,  and submit
 to be delivered by a man-midwife.* Let her snatch
 her offspring from her  breast, and send it to repair
 the weakness of  its  stamina,  with the  milk  of a
 ruddy  cottager, f Let art supply the place of nature

   * In the enervated age of Athens a law was  passed, which
 confined the practice of midwifery only to the men.  It was,
however, repealed, upon a  woman's dying  in childbirth, ra-
 ther than be delivered  by a man-midwife.   It appears from
 the bills of mortality in London and Dublin, that about one
 in seventy of  those  women die in childbirth, who are in  the
hands of midwives; but from the accounts of the lying-in
 hospitals in those cities,  which are under the care of man-
 midwives, only one in a hundred and forty perishes in child-
 birth.

   t  There  has  been much common-place declamation
 against the custom among the great,  of not suckling their
  VOL.  I.               U 
154   NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
in the preparation and digestion of all our aliment.
Let our fine ladies keep up their colour with car-
mine,  and  their spirits with  ratifia; and let our
fine gentlemen defend themselves from the excesses
of  heat and  cold  with  lavender and  hartshorn.
These customs have become  necessary  in the cor-
rupt stages of society.   We must imitate, in these
cases, the practice of those phycisians, who consult
the appetite only in diseases which do not admit of
a remedy.

   The state of a  country, in point  of  population,
temperance, and industry, is so connected with its
diseases,  that a tolerable idea  may be formed of it,

children.  Nurses were common in Rome, in the declension
of the empire: hence we find Cornelia commended as a
rare example of maternal virtue, as much  for  suckling her
sons, as for  teaching them eloquence.  That nurses were
common in Egypt, is probable from the contract which Pha-
raoh's daughter made with the unknown mother of Moses,
to allow her wages for suckling her own child.  The same
degrees of civilization require the same customs.  A woman,
whose  times for  eating and  sleeping are constantly inter-
rupted by the calls of enervating pleasures, must always af-
ford milk of an unwholesome nature.  It may truly be said
of a child doomed to  live on this aliment, that, as soon  as it
receives its
                               -------« breath,
       It sucks in " the lurking principles of death." 
                AMONG  THE INDIANS.         155

 by looking over its bills of mortality.  Hospitals,
 with  all  their boasted advantages, exhibit  at the
 same time monuments of the charity and depravity
 of a people.*  The opulence  of  physicians,  and


   *  " Aurengezebe, emperor of Persia, being asked, Why
 he did not build hospitals ? said, / trill make my empire *o
 rich, that there shall be no need of hospitals. He ought to have
 said, I will begin by rendering my subjects rich, and then I
 will  build hospitals.

   "  At Rome, the hospitals place every  one at his ease, ex-
 cept those who labour, those who are industrious, those who
 have lands, and those who are engaged in trade.

   "  I have observed, that wealthy nations have need of hos-
 pitals,  because fortune subjects  them to a  thousand  acci-
 dents; but it  is plain, that transient assistances are better
 than perpetual foundations.   The evil is momentary; it is
necessary,  therefore, that the  succour should be of the same
 nature, and that it be applied to  particular accidents." Spi-
 rit of Laws, b. xxiii. ch. 29.

   It was reserved for the present generation to substitute in
 the  room of public hospitals private dispensaries for the
 relief of the sick.   Philosophy and Christianity alike concur
 in deriving praise and  benefit from these excellent institu-
tions.  They exhibit something like  an application of the
 mechanical powers  to the purposes of benevolence; for in
what other charitable institutions do we perceive so great a
quantity of distress relieved by so small an expence ? 
156
NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
the divisions of their offices, into those of surgery,
pharmacy, and  midwifery, are likewise  proofs of
the declining state of a country.   In  the  infancy
of the  Roman empire,  the  priest performed the
office of a physician;  so simple were  the  prin-
ciples and practice of physic.   It was only in the
declension  of the  empire, that  physicians  vied
with  the emperors of Rome  in magnificence  and
splendour.*


  * The first regular practitioners of physic  in Rome were
women and slaVes.  The profession was confined to them
above six hundred  years.   The Romans, during this period,
lived chiefly upon vegetables, particularly upon pulse ; and
hence they were called,  by their  neighbours, pultifagi.
They  were likewise early inured  to the healthy employ-
ments of war and husbandry.  Their diseases, of course,
were too few and  simple, to render the cure of  them an ob-
ject of  liberal  profession.  When their diseases became
more  numerous and complicated, their  investigation and
cure required the aids of  philosophy.  The profession from
this time became liberal;  and maintained a rank with the
other professions which are founded upon the imperfection
and depravity  of human institutions.  Physicians are as
necessary in the advanced stages  of society as surgeons, al-
though their office is less ancient and certain.  There are
many artificial diseases,  in which they give  certain  relief;
and even where their art fails, their prescriptions are stiJl
necessary, in order to smooth the avenues of death. 
AMONG THE
INDIANS.
157
  I am sorry to add, in this place, that the number
of patients in the hospital, and incurables in the
almshouse of this city, show that we are treading
in the enervated  steps of our  fellow subjects in
Britain.  Our bills of mortality likewise show the
encroachments of British diseases upon us.   The
nervous fever has become so familiar to us, that
we look upon it as a natural disease.  Dr. Syden-
ham, so  faithful in  his history of fevers,  takes
no notice of it.   Dr. Cadwallader informed me,
that  it made its first appearance in  this  city about
five  and twenty years ago. It will be impossible to
name the consumption, without recalling to our
minds the memory of some friend or relation, who
has  perished within these few years by that dis-
ease.  Its rapid progress among us has been un-
justly attributed to the  growdng resemblance of
our climate to that of Great-Britain.   The hys-
teric  and  hypochondriac diseases,  once
peculiar to the chambers of the great, are now to
be found in our kitchens and workshops.   All
these diseases have been produced by our having
deserted the simple diet  and manners of our an-
cestors.

  The blessings of literature, commerce, and re-
ligion, were not originally purchased at the expencc
of health.  The complete enjoyment of health is 
158
NATURAL  HISTORY  OF
MEDICINE
 as compatible  with civilization, as the enjoyment
 of civil  liberty.   We read  of countries,  rich in
 every thing that  can  form  national  happiness and
 national grandeur, the diseases of which are nearly
 as few and simple as  those of the  Indians.  We
 hear of no diseases  among  the  Jews, while they
 were under their democratical  form of  govern-
 ment, except such as were inflicted by a superna-
 tural  power.*   We should be tempted to doubt

   *  The  principal employments of the Jews, like those of
the Romans in their simple ages, consisted in war and hus-
bandry.  Their diet was plain, consisting chiefly of vegeta-
bles.  Their  only remedies  were plaistersand  ointments;
which were calculated for those diseases which are produced
by accidents.  In  proportion  as  they  receded  from their
simple customs, we find artificial diseases  prevail among
them.  The leprosy made its appearance in their journey
through the wilderaess.   King Asa's pains in his feet were
probably brought on by a fit of the gout.   Saul and Nebu-
chadnezzar were afflicted with  a  melancholy.   In the time
of our  Saviour, we find  an account of all those  diseases in
ludea which mark the declension of a people; such as, the
palsy, epilepsy, mania, blindness, hemorrhagia uterina, &c.
It is unnecessary  to suppose that they were let loose at this
juncture, on purpose  to give our Saviour an opportunity of
making them the  chief subject of his miracles.   They had
been produced from natural causes, by the gradual depravity
of their manners.  It is remarkable, that our Saviour chose
those artificial diseases  for the subject of his miracles, in
preference to natural diseases.  The efforts of nature, and 
            AMONG THE  INDIANS.         159
the accounts given of the populousness  of that
people, did we not see the practice of their simple
customs producing nearly the  same populousness
in Egypt,  Rome,  and  other  countries  of anti-
quity.   The empire of China,  it is said, contains
more inhabitants than the whole of Europe.   The
political institutions of that country have exempted
its inhabitants from a large share of the diseases of
other civilized nations.   The inhabitants of  Swis-
serland, Denmark, Norway,*  and Sweden, enjoy
the chief advantages of civilization, without having
surrendered for them the blessings of natural health.
But it  is unnecessary  to  appeal to ancient  or re-
mote nations, to prove that health is not incompa-
tible with civilization.   The inhabitants of many
parts of New-England, particularly of the province
of Connecticut, are but little affected by artificial dis-
eases.  Some of you may remember the time, and

the operation of medicines, are too slow and uncertain in
these cases to detract in the least from the validity  of the
miracle. He cured Peter's  mother-in-law, it is true, of a
fever ; but to show that the cure was miraculous, the sacred
historian adds (contrary to what is common after a fever)
" that she arose immediately, and ministered unto them."

   *  In the city of Bergen, which consists of 30,000 inhabi-
tants, there is but one physician ;  who is supported at the
expense of the public.  Pontoppidan's Nat. Hist, of Norway 
 160   NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE
 our fathers have told those of us who do not, when
 the diseases of Pennsylvania were as few and
 as simple as those of  the Indians.   The food of
 the  inhabitants  was then simple; their only drink
 was water; their appetites were restrained by la-
 bour ; religion excluded the influence of sickening
 passions ;  private hospitality supplied the want of
 a public hospital; nature was their only nurse, and
 temperance their principal physician.   But I must
 not dwell upon this retrospect of primaeval manners;
 and I am too strongly impressed with a hope of a
 revival of such happy days, to pronounce them the
 golden age of our province.

   Our esteem  for the  customs of  our  savage
 neighbours will  be lessened, when we add, that
 civilization does  not preclude the honours of old
 age.   The proportion   of  old  people  is much
 greater among  civilized,  than  among savage na-
 tions.   It would be easy to  decide this  assertion
 in our favour, by appealing to facts in the natural
 histories of Britain, Norway, Sweden, North-Ame-
 rica,* and several of the West-India islands.

  * It has been urged  against  the state of longevity  in
 America, that the  Europeans, who settle  among us, gene-
rally arrive  to a greater at^e than the Americans.   This
is not occasioned so much by a peculiar firmness in their
 stamina, as by an  increase  of vigour which the constitu- 
               AMONG THE INDIANS.          161

    The  laws of decency and nature  are not ne-
 cessarily abolished by the customs of civilized na-
 tions.   In many of these we read of women, among
 whom  nature alone  still  performs  the office of a
 midwife,* and  who  feel  the  obligations of suck-
 ling their children to be equally binding with the
 common obligations of morality.

 tion acquires by a  change of climate.  A Frenchman (cse>
 teris  paribus) outlives an Englishman  in  England.   A
 Hollander prolongs his  fife  by  removing to the  Cape of
 Good Hope.  A Portuguese gains fifteen or  twenty years
 by removing to Brazil.   And there are good  reasons to
 believe that a North-American would derive the same ad-
vantages, in point of health and longevity, by removing to
 Europe, which  a  European  derives from coming to this
 eountry.

   From a calculation made by an  ingenious foreigner, it
appears, that a  greater proportion of old people are to be
found in Connecticut, than in any colony in North Ameri-
ca.  This colony contains 180,000 inhabitants.  They have
no public hospitals  or poor-houses;  nor is a beggar to be
seen among them.   There cannot be more striking proofs
than these facts of the simplicity of their manners.

  * Parturition, in the simple ages of all countries, is per-
formed by nature.  The  Israelitish  women were delivered
even without the help of the Egyptian midwives.  We read
of but two  women who  died in child-birth, in the whole
history of the Jews.   Dr. Bancroft says, that child-bearing
  VOL.  i.                  x 
162  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE

   Civilization does not render us  less fit  for the
necessary hardships of war.   We  read of armies
of civilized nations, who have endured degrees of
cold, hunger, and  fatigue,  which  have  not  been
exceeded by the savages of any country.*

   Civilization does not always  multiply the ave-
nues of death.   It appears from the bills of mor-
tality, of many  countries, that fewer in proportion
die among civilized, than among savage  nations.

is attended with so  little pain in Guiana, that the women
seem to be  exempted from the curse inflicted upon Eve.
These easy births are not confined to warm climates. They
are equally safe and easy in Norway and  Iceland,  according
to Pontoppidan and Anderson's histories of those countries.

   *  Civilized nations  have, in  the end, always conquered
savages as much  by their ability to  bear hardships, as by
their superior  military skill.  Soldiers are not to  be chosen
indiscriminately.  The greatest generals have looked upon
sound constitutions to be as essential to  soldiers,  as bravery
or military discipline.  Count Saxe refused soldiers born and
bred in large cities ; and sought for such only as were bred
in mountainous countries.  The king of Prussia calls young
soldiers only to the dangers and honours of the field, in his
 elegant poem, Sur l'Art de la Guerre,  chant  I.   Old sol-
 diers generally lose the  advantages cf their veteranism,  by
 their habits of idleness and debauchery.  An able general,
 and experienced  officers,  will always supply the defects of
 age in young soldiers. 
AMONG  THE INDIANS.
163
   Even the charms of beauty are heightened by
civilization.   We read  of stateliness,  proportion,
fine   teeth,*  and  complexions,  in both  sexes,
forming the principal  outlines  of national charac-
ters.

   The  danger  of many  diseases  is not  propor-
tioned to  their violence, but  to their duration.
America has advanced  but a few paces in luxury
and effeminacy.  There  is  yet strength  enough
in her vitals  to  give  life  to  those parts which are
decayed.   She  may  tread back her  steps.   For
this purpose,

   I.  Let  our children be educated in a  manner
more agreeable  to nature.


  * Bad teeth are observed  chiefly  in middle latitudes,
which are subject  to alternate heats and  colds.  The inha-
bitants of Norway  and Russia  are as  remarkable for their
fine teeth as the  inhabitants  of Africa.  We observe fine
teeth  to be universal likewise among  the inhabitants  of
France, who live in a variable climate.   These have been
ascribed to their protecting their  heads from the action  of
the night air by means  of woollen night-caps, and to  the
extraordinary attention to the teeth of their children.  These
precautions secure good teeth ;  and are absolutely necessary
in all variable climates, where people do not adopt  all the
customs of the savage life. 
 164   NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
   II. Let the common people (who constitute the
 wealth and strength of our country) be preserved
 from the effects of ardent spirits.  Had I a double
 portion of all that eloquence, which has been  em-
 ployed in describing the political evils that lately
 threatened our country, it would be too little to set
 forth the numerous and complicated physical and
 moral evils, which  these  liquors have introduced
 among us.  To encounter this hydra requires an
 arm accustomed, like that of Hercules, to vanquish
 monsters.  Sir William Temple tells  us, that for-
 merly in Spain no man could be admitted as an
 evidence in a court, who had once been convicted
 of drunkenness.  I do not call for so severe a law
 in this country.  Let us first  try the force of se-
 vere manners.  Lycurgus governed more by these,
 than by his laws.  " Boni mores, non bona? leges,"
 according to Tacitus,  were the  bulwarks  of virtue
 among the ancient Germans.

  III. I despair of being able to call the votaries
 of Bacchus  from their botde,  and shall  therefore
 leave them  to be roused  by the more  eloquent
 twinges of the gout.

  IV. Let us be cautious what kind of manufac-
tures we admit among us.   The rickets made their
first  appearance in the manufacturing  towns in 
AMONG THE
INDIANS.
165
England.   Dr. Fothergill informed me, that  he
had often observed, when a pupil, that the greatest
part of the chronic patients in the London Hospi-
tal were Spittal-field weavers.   I would  not  be
understood, from these facts, to discourage those
manufactures which employ women and children :
these  suffer few inconveniences  from a sedentary
life:  nor do I mean to offer the least restraint to
those manufactories  among men, which admit of
free air, and the exercise of all their limbs.  Per-
haps a pure air, and the abstraction of spirituous li-
quors, might  render sedentary employments less
unhealthy in America, even among men, than in
the populous towns of Great Britain.

   The population of a country is not to be accom-
plished by rewards and punishments.    And it is
happy for  America,  that the universal prevalence
of the protestant religion, the checks lately given
to negro slavery,  the general unwillingness among
us to acknowledge the usurpations  of  primogeni-
ture,  the  universal practice of inoculation for  the
small-pox, and the absence of the  plague, render
the interposition  of government for that purpose
unnecessary.

   These  advantages can only  be secured to  our
country by agriculture.  This is the tri 1 e basis 
166
NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  MEDICINE
 of national health, riches, and populousness.   Na-
 tions, like individuals, never rise higher than when
 they are  ignorant whither  they  are  tending.   It
 is impossible to tell, from  history, what will be
 the effects of agriculture,  industry,  temperance,
 and commerce, urged on by the  competition  of
 colonies united in the same general pursuits, in a
 country, which,  for extent, variety of soil, climate,
 and number of  navigable  rivers,  has never been
 equalled in any quarter of the  globe.   America is
 the theatre, where human  nature will  probably
 receive  her last and principal literary,  moral, and
 political honours.

   But I  recall myself from the  ages of futurity.
 The province of  Pennsylvania has  already shown,
 to her  sister  colonies, the influence of agriculture
 and commerce upon the number and happiness of
 a  people.  It is scarcely a hundred years  since
 our illustrious legislator,  with a handful  of men,
landed upon these shores.  Although the perfection
 of our government, the  healthiness  of our climate,
 and the fertility of our  soil,  seemed to ensure a
 rapid settlement  of the  province; yet  it would
 have  required a prescience  bordering upon divine
 to have foretold,  that in such a short  space of
 time the  province would contain  above 300,000
 inhabitants; and that nearly  30,000 of this number 
             AMONG THE INDIANS.         167
 should compose a city, which should be the third,
 if not the second, in commerce in the British em-
 pire.  The pursuits of literature require leisure,
 and a total  recess from clearing forests,  planting,
 building, and all the common  toils of settling a
 new  country;   but  before these arduous  works
 were accomplished, the  sciences, ever fond  of
 the company of liberty  and industry*  chose this
 spot for the seat of their empire in this new world.
 Our college,  so catholic  in its foundation, and
 extensive in its objects, already sees her sons exe-
 cuting offices in the highest departments of soci-
 ety.   I  have now the honour of speaking in the
 presence of a most respectable number of philoso-
 phers, physicians, astronomers, botanists, patriots,
 and legislators;  many of whom have already seized
 the prizes of honour,  which their  ancestors had
 allotted to a much later  posterity.   Our first offer-
 ing had  scarcely found  its way into  the temple of
 fame, when the oldest societies in Europe turned
 their eyes upon us,  expecting with  impatience to
 see the mighty fabric of science, which, like a well-
 built arch, can  only rest  upon the whole of its
 materials, completely finished from the treasure's
of this unexplored quarter of the globe.

  It reflects equal honour upon our society and
the honourable assembly  of  our  province, to ac 
 168  NATURAL HISTORY 01' MEDICINE, &C.
 knowledge, that we have always found  the latter
 willing to  encourage by their  patronage, and re-
 ward by their liberality, all our schemes for pro-
 moting useful knowledge.   What may we not ex-
 pect from  this harmony between the sciences and
 government!  Methinks I see canals  cut,  rivers
 once impassable rendered navigable, bridges erect-
 ed, and roads  improved, to facilitate  the expor-
 tation  of grain.  I  see the  banks of our  rivers
 vying  in fruitfulness with the  banks of the river
 of Egypt.   I  behold  our farmers nobles;  our
 merchants  princes.  But I forbear—imagination
 cannot swell with the subject.

  I beg leave to conclude,  by  deriving  an  argu-
ment from  our connection with the legislature, to
remind my auditors of the duty they owe to the
society.  Patriotism and literature are here  con-
 nected together; and a man cannot neglect the one,
 without being destitute of the other.   Nature and
our ancestors have completed their  works among
us; and have left us nothing to do, but to enlarge
and perpetuate our own happiness. 
             AN INQUIRY




                INTO THE





INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES





     UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.








             DELIVERED BEFORE




  THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,




            HELD AT PHILADELPHIA,




     ON THE TWEKTY-SEVEKTH OF FEBRUARY, 1786-
VOL. I.
Y 
 
AN  INQUIRY, &c.
Gentlemen,
     IT was for the laudable purpose of exciting
a spirit of emulation and inquiry among the mem-
bers of our body, that the founders of our society
instituted an annual oration.   The task of prepar-
ing, and delivering this exercise,  hath devolved,
once more, upon me.   I have submitted to it, not
because I thought myself capable of fulfiling your
intentions, but because I wished, by a testimony
of my obedience to your requests, to atone for my
long absence from the temple of science.

  The subject,  upon which I am to have the ho-
nour of addressing you this evening, is on the in-
fluence of physical causes upon the moral faculty. 
172   INFLUENCE  OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
  By the moral faculty I mean a capacity in the
human mind of distinguishing and choosing good
and evil, or, in other words, virtue and vice.   It is
a native principle, and though it be capable of im-
provement by experience and reflection, it is not
derived from either of them.   St. Paul and Cicero
give us  the most perfect account of it that is to be
found in modern or ancient authors.   " For when
the Gentiles (says St. Paul) which have not the
law, do  by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law unto them-
selves ;  which show the works of the law written
in their hearts,  their consciences also, bearing wit-
ness, and their  thoughts the mean while accusing,
or else excusing, another."*

   The  words of Cicero  are as follow: " Est igi-
tur haec, judices, non scripta, sed nata  lex, quam
non didicimus, accepimus, legimus, verum ex na-
tura ipsa arripuimus,  hausimus, expressimus,  ad
quam non docti, sed  facti, non instituti, sed im-
buti sumus."t  This faculty is often confounded
 with conscience, which is a distinct and indepen-
 dent capacity of the  mind.   This is evident from
 the passage quoted from the writings of St. Paul,
 in which conscience is said to be the witness that

    * Rom. i. 14, l£.           t Oratio pro Milone. 
UPON  THE  MORAL  FACULTY.
173
accuses or excuses us, of a breach of the law writ-
ten in our hearts.  The  moral faculty is what the
schoolmen call the " regula regulans;" the con-
science is their " regula regulata ;" or, to speak in
more modern terms, the moral  faculty performs
the office of a law-giver,  while the business of con-
science is to  perform the  duty of a judge.  The
moral  faculty is to the conscience, what taste is to
the  judgment, and sensation  to perception.   It is
quick in its operations, and, like the sensitive  plant,
acts without reflection,  while conscience follows
with deliberate steps, and measures all her actions
by the unerring square of right and wrong.   The
moral  faculty exercises  itself upon the  actions of
others.  It approves, even in books, of the virtues
of a Trajan, and disapproves of the vices of a Ma-
rius, while conscience confines its operations only
to its  own actions.   These two capacities  of the
mind  are generally in an exact ratio to each  other,
but  they  sometimes exist in different degrees in
the same  person.  Hence we often find conscience
in its  full vigour, with a diminished tone, or total
absence of the moral faculty.

   It has  long been a question among  metaphysi-
cians, whether the conscience be seated in the will
or in  the understanding.   The controversy  can
only be settled by admitting the will to be the  seat 
174     INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
of the moral faculty, and the understanding to be
the seat of the conscience.   The mysterious na-
ture of the union of those two moral principles with
the will and understanding is a subject foreign to
the business of the present inquiry.

  As I consider virtue and vice to consist in action,
and not in opinion, and as this action has its seat in
the will, and not in the conscience, I shall confine
my inquiries  chiefly to  the influence  of physical
causes upon that  moral power of the mind, which
is connected with volition, although many of these
causes act likewise upon  the conscience, as I shall
show hereafter.   The state  of the moral faculty is
visible in actions,  which affect the well-being of
society.   The state of the conscience is invisible,
and therefore  removed beyond our  investigation.

  The moral faculty has received different names
from different  authors.   It is the "  moral sense"
of Dr. Hutchison;  " the sympathy"  of Dr. Adam
Smith;  the " moral instinct" of Rousseau;  and
" the light tiiat lighteth every man that cometh in-
to the world" of  St. John.  I have adopted the
term of moral  faculty from Dr. Beattie, because I
conceive it conveys, with the most perspicuity, the
fdea of a capacity in the mind of choosing good and
evil. 
UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.
175
  Our books of medicine contain many records of
the effects of physical  causes  upon the memory^
the imagination, and the judgment.  In some in-
stances  we  behold their operation only on one,
in others on two, and, in many cases, upon the
whole of these  faculties.   Their derangement has
received different names, according to the number
or  nature of the faculties that are  affected.  The
loss of memory has been called " amnesia;" false
judgment upon one subject has been called " me-
lancholia ;"  false judgment upon all subjects has
been called  " mania;"  and a defect of all the three
intellectual faculties that have been mentioned has
received the name of " amentia."   Persons who
labour  under the derangement, or want, of these
faculties of  the mind, are considered,  very pro-
perly, as subjects of medicine; and there are many
cases upon record,  that prove  that  their diseases
have yielded to the healing art.

   In  order to  illustrate  the  effects of physical
causes upon the moral faculty, it will  be neces-
sary first to show their effects upon the memory,
the imagination,  and the judgment; and at the
same time to point  out the analogy between their
operation upon the intellectual faculties of the mind
and the moral faculty. 
 176. INFLUENCE  OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
   1. Do we  observe a  connection  between  the
 intellectual faculties and the degrees of consistency
 and firmness of the brain in infancy and childhood?
 The same connection has been observed between
the strength,  as well as the progress, of the moral
 faculty in children.

   2. Do we  observe a certain  size  of the brain,
and a peculiar cast of  features,  such  as the pro-
minent eye, and the aquiline nose, to  be connected
with extraordinary  portions of  genius? We ob-
serve a similar connection between the figure and
temperament of the body  and certain  moral quali-
ties.  Hence we  often  ascribe good  temper and
benevolence to corpulency, and  irascibility to san-
guineous habits.  Cassar thought  himself safe in
the friendship of the " sleek-headed" Anthony and
Dolabella, but was afraid to  trust to the profes-
sions of the slender Cassius.

   3.  Do we observe certain degrees  of the  intel-
lectual faculties to be hereditary in certain families?
The same observation  has been frequently extend-
ed to moral qualities.  Hence we often find certain
virtues and vices  as peculiar to  families,  through
all their degrees of consanguinity and duration, as
a peculiarity of voice, complexion, or  shape. 
         UPON THE MORAL  FACULTY.      177
  4. Do we observe instances of a total want of
memory, imagination, and judgment,  either from
an original defect in the stamina  of the brain, or
from the influence of physical causes ? The same
unnatural defect is sometimes observed, and proba-
bly from the same causes, of a moral faculty. The
celebrated Servin, whose character is drawn by the
duke  of Sully, in his Memoirs, appears to be an
instance of the total absence of the moral  faculty,
while the chasm, produced by this defect, seems to
have been filled up by a more than common ex-
tension of every other power of his mind.   I beg
leave  to repeat the  history  of this  prodigy of vice
and knowledge.  " Let the reader represent to
himself a man of a genius so lively, and of an
understanding  so  extensive,  as  rendered him
scarce  ignorant of any thing that could be known ;
of so  vast and ready  a comprehension,  that he
immediately  made  himself master  of  whatever
he  attempted; and of so prodigious a memory,
that he never forgot what  he once learned.  He
possessed all  parts of  philosophy, and the ma-
thematics, particularly fortification  and drawing.
Even in theology he was so well skilled, that
he  was an  excellent preacher, whenever he had
a mind to exert that talent,  and an  able dispu-
tant for and against the reformed religion, incUf-
ferendy.   He  not  only  understood Greek, He-
VOL. I.
7. 
178    INFLUENCE OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSES
brew,  and  all  the  languages  which we  call
learned,  but  also  all the  different  jargons,  or
modern dialects.  He accented  and pronounced
them so naturally, and so  perfectly  imitated the
gestures and manners both of the several  nations
of   Europe,  and   the  particular  provinces  of
France,  that  he might  have been taken for a
native of all, or any, of these countries :  and this
quality  he applied to counterfeit all sorts of per-
sons, wherein  he succeeded wonderfully.   He
was, moreover, the best comedian, and the great-
est droll  that perhaps ever appeared.  He had a
genius  for  poetry,  and had  wrote many  verses.
He  played upon  almost all instruments, was a
perfect  master of music,  and  sang most agree-
ably and justly.   He  likewise could say mass,
 for  he  was of  a  disposition  to do, as well as to
 know,  all  things.  His  body was perfectly well
 suited  to his mind.  He was light, nimble, and
 dexterous, and fit  for  all exercises.   He  could
 ride well,  and in  dancing, wrestling, and leap-
 ing, he  was  admired.   There are not  any  re-
 creative  games that he  did not know,   and he
 was skilled  in almost  all mechanic  arts.   But
 now for the reverse of the medal.   Here  it  ap-
 peared,  that he was treacherous, cruel, cowardly,
 deceitful,  a liar,  a cheat,  a drunkard, and a glut-
 ton, a sharper in play,  immersed in every species 
       UPON THE  MORAL  FACULTY.        179
of vice,  a blasphemer,  an  atheist.   In  a word,
in him might b.e found all the vices that are con-
trary to nature,  honour,  religion,  and society, the
truth of which he himself evinced with  his latest
breath; for he died  in  the  flower of his  age, in
a common  brothel,  perfectiy  corrupted  by his
debaucheries, and expired with  the  glass in his
hand, cursing and denying God."*

  It was probably a state of the human mind such
as has been described,  that our  Saviour  alluded
to in the disciple  who  was  about to betray him,
when he  called him " a devil."   Perhaps the es-
sence of depravity, in infernal  spirits, consists in
their being wholly devoid of a moral  faculty.   In
them the will has probably lost the power of choos-
ing, f  as  well as the capacity of  enjoying, moral
p-ood.   It is true, we read of their trembling in a
belief of the existence of a God, and of their antici-
pating future punishment, by asking  whether they
were to be tormented before their time : but this is

  *  Vol. iii. p. 216,217.
  t Milton seems to have been of this opinion.   Hence,
after ascribing repentance to Satan, he makes him declare,
  " Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost,
  " Evil, be thou my good."------
                         Paradise Lost, Book IV 
180     INFLUENCE  OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
the effect of conscience, and hence arises another
argument in favour of this judicial power of the
mind being distinct from the moral faculty.   It
would seem as if the Supreme Being had preserved
the moral faculty in man from the ruins of his fall,
on purpose to guide  him  back again to Paradise,
and at the same time had constituted the conscience,
both in men and fallen spirits, a kind of royalty in
his moral empire, on purpose to show his property
in all intelligent creatures, and their original resem-
blance to himself.  Perhaps the essence of moral
depravity in man consists in a total, but temporary,
suspension of the  power of conscience.   Persons
in this situation are emphatically said in the Scrip-
tures to " be past feeling,"  and to have their con-
sciences  seared with a " hot iron;" they are like-
wise said to be " twice dead," that is, the  same
torpor, or moral insensibility, has seized both the
moral faculty and the conscience.

   5. Do we ever observe instances of the existence
of only one of the three intellectual powers of the
mind that have been named, in the absence of the
other two ?  We  observe something of the same
kind with respect to the  moral faculty.   I  once
knew a man, who discovered no one mark of rea-
son, who possessed the moral sense or faculty in so
high a degree,  that he spent his whole life in acts 
UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.
181
of benevolence.   He was  not oniy inoffensive
(which is not always the case  with idiots) but he
was kind and affectionate to every body.  He had
no ideas of time, but what were suggested to  him
by the returns of the stated periods for public wor-
ship, in which he appeared to take great delight.
He spent several hours of every day  in devotion,
in which he was so careful to be private, that he
was once found in the most  improbable place in
the world for that purpose, viz. in an  oven.

   6. Do we observe  the  memory,  the imagina-
tion, and the judgment, to be affected by diseases,
particularly by madness? Where is the physician,
who has not seen the moral  faculty  affected from
the same causes ! How often do we  see the tem-
per wholly  changed by a fit of sickness! And
how often do we hear  persons of the most deli-
cate virtue utter speeches, in the delirium of a fe-
ver, that are offensive to decency or good manners!
I have heard a well-attested history of a clergyman
of the most exeftiplary moral  character, who spent
the last moments  of a  fever,  which deprived  him
both of his reason and his life, in profane cursing
and swearing.   I once attended a  young woman
in a nervous fever, who discovered, after her reco-
ver}, a loss of her former  habit of veracity.   Her
memory (a defect of which might be suspected of 
182
INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
 being the cause  of this vice) was in every respect
 as perfect as it was before the attack of the fever.*
 The instances of immorality in maniacs, who were
 formerly distinguished for the opposite character,
 are so numerous, and well known,  that it will not
 'be necessary  to  select any cases, to establish the
 truth of the proposition contained under this head.

   7.  Do we observe  any  of  the three intellectual
 faculties  that have been named enlarged  by  dis-
 eases ? Patients, in the delirium of a fever, often
 discover extraordinary flights  of imagination,  and
 madmen often  astonish  us with  their  wonderful
 acts of memory.   The same  enlargement,  some-
 times, appears in the operations of the moral  fa-
 culty. I have more than  once heard the most sub-
 lime discourses of morality in the cell of an hospi-
 tal, and  who has not  seen instances of patients in
 acute diseases discovering degrees of benevolence
 and  integrity, that were not natural to them in the
 ordinary course of their lives ?f

  * I have selected this case from many  others which have
come u v:er my notice, in which the moral faculty appeared
to be impaired by diseases, particularly by the typhus of Dr.
Cullen, and by those species of palsy which affect the brain.
  t Xenophon makes Cyrus declare, in  his last moments,
 u That the soul of man, at the  hour of death, appears most
 divine, and then foresees something of future events." 
         UPON  THE MORAL  FACULTY.      183
  8. Do we ever observe a partial insanity, or false
perception on one subject, while  the judgment is
sound and correct, upon all others ? We perceive,
in some instances, a similar defect in the moral fa-
culty.   There are persons who are moral, in the
highest degree, as to certain duties, who neverthe-
less live under the influence of some one vice.   I
knew an instance  of a woman,  who was exemplary
in her obedience  to every command of the moral
law, except one.   She could not refrain from steal-
ing.  What made this  vice the more remarkable
was, that she was in easy circumstances, and not
addicted to extravagance in any thing.  Such was
her propensity  to this vice, that  when she  could
lay  her hands  upon nothing  more  valuable, she
would often, at the table of a friend,  fill her pock-
ets  secretly with bread.   As a proof that her judg-
ment was not affected by this defect in her  mora
faculty, she would both  confess and lament her
crime, when detected in it.

   9. Do we observe the  imagination in many in
stances to be  affected with apprehensions of dan-
gers that have no existence ? In like  manner we
observe the moral faculty to discover a sensibility
to vice, that is by no means proportioned to  its de-
grees of depravity.  How often do we see persons
labouring under this morbid sensibility of the mo- 
184    INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
ral faculty refuse to give a direct answer to a plain
question, that related perhaps only to the weather,
or to the hour of the day, lest they should wound
the peace of their minds by telling a falsehood !

  10.  Do dreams affect the memory, the imagina-
tion, and the judgment ?  Dreams are nothing but
incoherent ideas, occasioned by partial or imperfect
sleep.  There is a variety in the suspension of the
faculties and operations of the mind in this state of
the system.   In some cases the imagination only is
deranged in dreams, in others the memory is affec-
ted,  and in others the judgment.   But there are
cases, in which the change that is produced in the
state of the  brain,  by means  of sleep,  affects the
moral faculty likewise ; hence we sometimes dream
of doing andfcsaying things, when asleep, which we
shudder at, as soon as we awake.  This supposed
defection from virtue  exists frequently in dreams,
where  the memory and judgment are scarcely im-
paired.   It cannot therefore be ascribed to an ab-
sence of the exercises of those two powers of the
mind.

  11.  Do we read, in the accounts of travellers,
of men, who, in respect of intellectual capacity and
enjoyments, are but a few degrees above brutes ?
We  read likewise of a similar degradation of our 
        UPON THE MORAL  FACULTY.        185
 species, in respect to  moral capacity and feeling.
 Here it will be necessary to remark, that the low
 degrees of moral perception, that have been  disco-
 vered in certain African and Russian tribes of men,
 no more invalidate our proposition of the universal
 and  essential existence  of a moral faculty  in the
 human mind, than the low state of their intellects
 jprove, that  reason is not  natural to man.   Their
 perceptions of good and evil are in an exact  pro-
 portion to their intellectual faculties.  But I will go
 further,  and  admit, with Mr.  Locke,* that some
 savage nations are totally devoid of the moral fa-
 culty, yet it will by  no means  follow, that this
 was  the original constitution of their minds.   The
 appetite for certain aliments is uniform among all
 mankind.   Where is the nation and the individual,
 in their primitive  state of health,  to whom bread
 is not  agreeable ? But if we should find savages,
 or individuals, whose stomachs have been so disor-
 dered by intemperance as to refuse this simple and
 wholesome  article of diet, shall we assert that this
 was  the original constitution of their appetites ? By
no means.    As well might we assert,  because sa-
vages destroy their beauty by  painting and cutting
 their faces, that the principles of taste  do not exist

  * Essay concerning the Human  Understanding,  book I.
 chap. 3.
  vol. i.             a  a 
        186     INFLUENCE  OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
        naturally in the human mind.  It is with virtue as
>^*fc*^"with  fire.   It exists in the mind, as fire does in
        certain bodies, in a latent or quiescent state.  As
        collision renders the  one - sensible,  so  education
        renders the other visible.   It  would  be  as absurd
        to maintain, because  olives become agreeable to
        many people from habit, that we have no natural
        appetites for any other  kind of food, as to assert
-;!       that any part of the human  species exist without a
        moral principle,  because in some  of them it has
        wanted causes to excite it into action, or has been
;        perverted  by example.   There  are  appetites that
\        are wholly artificial*   There are tastes so entirely
        vitiated, as to perceive beauty in  deformity. There
        are torpid  and unnatural passions.  Why, under
        certain unfavorable circumstances, may  there not
        exist also a moral faculty, in a state of sleep, or sub-
        ject to mistakes ?

          The only apology I shall make, for presuming to
        differ from that justly-celebrated oracle,* who first
        unfolded  to us  a map of the  intellectual world,
        shall be, that the  eagle eye  of  genius often darts
        its views beyond the notice of facts, which are ac-
        commodated to  the slender organs of perception
        of men, who  possess no other  talent than that of
        observation.
                          * Mr. Locke. 
          UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.      187
  It is not surprising, that  Mr.  Locke has eon,.
founded this moral principle with reason,  or that
lord  Shaftsbury   has confounded  it with taste,
since all three of these faculties agree in the objects
of their  approbation, notwithstanding  they exist
in the mind independently of each other.  The fa-
vourable influence, which the progress of science
and taste has had upon the morals, can be ascribed
to nothing else, but to the perfect union that  sub-
sists in nature between the dictates of reason,  of
taste, and of the moral faculty.   Why has the spi-
rit of humanity made such rapid progress for some
years past in the courts  of Europe ? It is because
kings  and their ministers have been taught to rea-
son upon philosophical subjects.  Why have  inde-
cency and profanity been banished from the stage
in  London and Paris ?  It  is because  immorality
is an offence  against the highly  cultivated taste of
the French and English nations.

   It must afford great pleasure to  the lovers of
 virtue, to behold  the depth and  extent of this mo-
 ral  principle in the human  mind.  Happily for  the
 human race, the intimations of  duty and the road
to happiness are  not left to the slow operations or
 doubtful inductions of reason, nor to the precarious
 decisions of taste.   Hence  we often find the moral
 faculty in a state of  vigour in persons, in whom 
188   INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
reason and taste exist in a  weak, or in an unculti-
vated state.  It is worthy of notice, likewise, that
while second thoughts are best in matters of judg-
ment, first thoughts are always to be preferred in
matters that relate to  morality.  Second thoughts,
in these cases, are generally parlies between duty
and corrupted inclinations.  Hence Rousseau has
justly said, that " a well regulated moral instinct is
the surest guide to happiness."

   It  must  afford equal pleasure  to the lovers of
virtue to behold, that our moral conduct and hap-
piness are not committed to the determination of a
single legislative power.   The conscience, like a
wise  and faithful legislative council, performs the
office of a check upon the moral faculty, and thus
prevents the fatal consequences of immoral actions.

   An objection, I foresee, will arise to  the  doc-
trine  of the influence of physical causes upon the
moral faculty, from  its being supposed to favour
the opinion of the materiality of the soul.   But I
do not see that this doctrine  obliges us to decide
upon  the  question of the nature of the soul, any
more than  the facts which prove the influence of
physical causes upon the memory, the imagination,
or the judgment.  I shall, however, remark upon
 this subject, that the writers in favour of the im- 
UPON THE MORAL  FACULTY.
189
mortality of the soul have done that truth  great
injury, by connecting it necessarily with its imma-
teriality.   The immortality of the soul depends
upon the will of the Deity, and not upon the sup-
posed properties of spirit.   Matter is in its own
nature as immortal as spirit.   It is resolvable by
heat and mixture  into a variety of forms; but it
requires the same  Almighty hand to annihilate it,
that it did to create it.  I know of no arguments to
prove the immortality of the soul, but such as are
derived from the Christian revelation.*   It  would
be  as reasonable  to  assert that the bason of  the
ocean is immortal, from the greatness of its capa-
city to hold  water;  or that we are to live for  ever
in this world, because we  are afraid of dying; as
to maintain the immortality of the soul, from the
greatness of its capacity for knowledge  and happi-
ness, or from its dread of annihilation.

   I remarked,  in the beginning of this discourse,
that persons who  are deprived of the just exercise
of memory, imagination, or judgment, were  proper
subjects of  medicine;  and that there are many
cases upon record which  prove, that the diseases
from the derangement of these faculties  have yield-
ed to the healing art.
  * " Life and immortality are brought to light only through
the gospel."   2 Tim. i.  10. 
190
INFLUENCE OF  PHYSICAL CAUSES
    It is  perhaps only because the diseases of the
 moral faculty have not been traced to a connection
 with physical causes, that medical writers have ne-
 glected to give them a place in their systems of no-
 sology, and that so few attempts have been hitherto
 made to lessen or remove them, by physical as well
 as  rational and moral remedies.

   I shall not attempt to derive any support to my
 opinions, from the analogy of the influence of phy-
 sical causes upon the temper and conduct of brute
 animals.   The facts which I shall produce in favour
 of  the action of these  causes  upon morals in the
 human  species, will,  I  hope,  render unnecessary
 the arguments that might be drawn from that quar-
 ter.

  I am aware, that in venturing upon^ this subject
 I step upon untrodden ground.   I feel as iEneas
 did, when he was about to enter the gates of Aver-
 nus, but  without a sybil to  instruct me in the mys-
 teries that are before me.   I forsee, that men who
have been educated in the mechanical habits of
adopting popular or established opinions will revolt
 at the doctrine I am about to deliver, while men of
 sense and genius will hear my propositions with
candour, and if they do not adopt them, will com 
        UPON  THE  MORAL  FACULTY.      191
mend that  boldness of inquiry,  that prompted me
to broach them.

  I  shall begin with an attempt to supply the de-
fects of nosological writers, by naming the partial
or weakened action of the moral faculty, micro no-
mi a.  The total absence of this faculty I shall call
anomia.  By the law,  referred to in these new
genera ofvesaniae, I mean the law of nature  writ-
ten in the human heart, and which I formerly quot-
ed from the writings of St. Paul.

   In treating of the effects of physical causes upon
the moral faculty, it might help to extend our ideas
upon this subject, to reduce virtues  and vices to
certain species, and to point out the effects of par-
ticular species of  virtue and vice ; but this would
lead us into a field too extensive for  the limits of
the  present inquiry.   I shall only hint at a few
 cases, and have no doubt but the ingenuity of my
 auditors will supply my silence, by applying the rest.

   It is immaterial, whether the physical causes that
 are to be enumerated act upon the  moral faculty
 through the medium  of the  senses,  the passions,
 the memory, or the imagination.  Their influence
 is equally certain, whether they act as remote, pre-
 disposing, or occasional causes. 
 192   INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
    1.  The  effects of  climate upon the moral
 faculty claim our first attention.  Not only indivi-
 duals, but  nations,  derive a considerable part of
 their moral, as well as  intellectual character, from
 the different portions they enjoy of the rays of the
 Sun.  Irascibility, levity, timidity, and indolence,
 tempered with occasional emotions of benevolence,
 are the moral qualities of the inhabitants of warm
 climates, while selfishness, tempered with sincerity
 and integrity, form the moral character of the inha-
 bitants of cold countries. The state of the weather,
 and the seasons of the  vear also, have a visible ef-,
 feet upon moral sensibility.  The  month of No-
 vember, in Great Britain, rendered gloomy by con-
 stant fogs and rains, has been thought to favour the
 perpetration of the worst species of murder, while
 the vernal sun, in middle latitudes, has been as  ge-
 nerally remarked for producing  gentleness and  be-
 nevolence.

   2. The effects of diet  upon the moral faculty
 are  more certain, though less  attended  to, than
the  effects of climate.   " Fulness of bread,"  we
are told, was one of the predisposing causes of the
vices of the  cities of the plain.   The fasts so often
inculcated among the Jews  were intended to les-
sen the incentives to vice; for pride, cruelty, and
sensuality, are as much  the  natural consequences 
UPON THE  MORAL  FACULTY.
193
of luxury, as apoplexies and  palsies.   But the
quality as well as  the quantity  of aliment  has an
influence upon morals; hence we  find the moral
diseases that have been mentioned are  most  fre-
quently the offspring of animal food.   The pro-
phet Isaiah seems to have been  sensible of this,
when he ascribes such salutary effects to a tempe-
rate and vegetable  diet.   " Butter and honey shall
he eat," says  he,  " that he  may  know  to refuse
the evil, and to choose the  good."  But we have
many facts which prove the efficacy of a vegetable
diet upon the passions.   Dr.  Arbuthnot assures
us, that he cured several patients of irascible tern--
pers, by nothing but' a prescription of this  simple
and temperate regimen.

   3.  The  effects of certain  drinks upon the
moral faculty are  not less observable, than  upon
the intellectual powers of the mind.   Fermented
liquors, of a good quality, and taken in a mode-
rate quantity, are favorable to  the virtues  of can-
dour, benevolence, and generosity; but when they
are taken in excess, or when they are of a bad
quality, and taken even in  a  moderate quantity,
they seldom fail of rousing every latent spark of
vice into action.  The last of these facts is so noto-
rious, that when a man is  observed to be  ill-na-
tured or quarrelsome in Portugal, after drinking,
   vol. i.               R b 
194     influence of  physical causes
it is common in that country to say, that " he has
drunken bad wine."  While occasional fits of in
toxication produce ill-temper in many people, ha-
bitual drunkenness (which is generally produced
by distilled spirits) never fails  to eradicate veracity
and  integrity  from the human mind.   Perhaps
this may be the reason why the Spaniards, in an-
cient  times, never admitted a man's evidence in a
court of justice, who had been convicted of drunk-
enness.   Water is the universal sedative of tur-
bulent passions;  it not only promotes a general
equanimity of temper,  but it  composes anger.   I
have heard several well-attested cases, of a draught
of cold  water having suddenly composed this via-
lent passion, after the usual remedies of reason had
been applied to no purpose.

   4. Extreme  hunger produces the most un-
friendly effects upon moral sensibility.   It is imma-
terial, whether it act  by inducing a relaxation of
the solids, or an acrimony of the fluids, or by the
 combined operations of both those physical causes.
 The Indians in this country  whet their appetites
 for  that savage species of war, which is peculiar
 to them, by  the stimulus of hunger; hence, we
 are told, they always return meagre and emaciated
 from their military excursions.   In civilized  life
 we  often behold  this  sensation  to  overbalance 
         UPON  THE  MORAL  FACULTV.     \yb
the restraints of moral feeling;  and perhaps this
may be the reason why poverty, which is the most
frequent parent of hunger, disposes so generally to
theft;  for the  character of hunger  is taken from
that vice ; it belongs to it " to break through stone
walls."  So much does  this sensation predomi-
nate over reason and  moral feeling, that Cardinal
de  Retz suggests to politicians, never to risk a
motion in  a popular assembly,  however  wise or
just it may be, immediately before  dinner.  That
temper must be uncommonly guarded, which is not
disturbed by long abstinence  from  food.  One of
the worthiest  men I ever knew, who made his
breakfast his principal meal, was peevish and disa-
greeable to  his  friends and family,  from the time
he left his bed till he sat  down to his morning re-
past,  after  which, cheerfulness  sparkled in  his
countenance, and he  became the delight  of all
around him.

   5,   I hinted  formerly,  in  proving the  analogy
between the effects of diseases upon the intel-
lects and upon the moral faculty,  that the latter
was frequently impaired by madness.   I beg leave
to add further  upon this  head, that  not only  mad-
ness, but the hysteria and hypochondriasis, as well
as all those states  of the  body, whether idiopadiic
pr symptomatic, which are accompanied with pre- 
196   INFLUENCE  OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSES
tematural  irritability, sensibility, torpor,  stupor,
or mobility of the nervous system, dispose to vice,
either of the body  or of the mind.   It is in vain
to attack these vices with  lectures upon morality.
They are only to be cured by medicine,  particu-
larly by exercise, the  cold bath, and by a cold or
warm atmosphere.   The  young woman, whose
case  I  mentioned formerly, that  lost her habit of
veracity by a nervous fever, recovered  this virtue,
as soon as her system recovered its  natural tone,
from the  cold weather which  happily succeeded
her fever.*


  + There is a morbid state of excitability in the body during
the convalescence from fever, which is intimately connected
with an undue propensity to venereal pleasures.  I have
met with several instances of it.  The marriage of the cele^
brated Mr.  Howard to a  woman who was twice  as old as
himself, and very sickly, has been ascribed, by his biogra-
pher,  Dr. Aiken, to gratitude for her great, attention to him
in a fit of sickness.  I am disposed to ascribe  it to a sudden
paroxysm of another passion, which, as a religious  man, he
could  not gratify in any other than in a lawful way.   I have
heard of two young clergymen who  married the women
who had nursed them in fits of sickness.  In both cases there
was great inequality in their  years, and  condition in life.
Their motive was, probably, the same  as that which 1 have
attributed to Mr. Howard.  Dr. Patrick Russel takes notice
of an  uncommon degree of venereal excitability which fol
lowed attacks of the plague at Messina, in 1743, in all ranks 
         UPON THE  MORAL  FACULTY.      197
   6\  Idleness  is the parent of every vice.   It is
mentioned in the Old Testament as another of the
predisposing causes of the vices of the cities of the
plain.   Labour, of  all  kinds,  favours and facili-
tates  the  practice  of virtue.   The country life is
happy,  chiefly because its laborious  employments
are favourable  to virtue, and unfriendly to  vice.
It is a common practice, I have been told, for the
planters, in the southern states, to consign a house
slave, who has become vicious from idleness, to
the drudgery of the field, in order to reform  him.
The  bridewells  and workhouses of all civilized
countries prove, that  labour is not only a very se-
vere,  but the most  benevolent of all punishments,
inasmuch as it is one of the  most suitable means
of reformation.   Mr. Howard tells us, in his His-
tory of Prisons, that  in  Holland it  is a common
saying, " Make  men work,  and you will make
them honest."   And over  the rasp and   spin-
house at Grceningen, this sentiment is  expressed
(he tells us) by a happy motto:

  " Vitiorum semina—otium—labore exhauriendum."

The effects of steady labour in early life, in creating

of people.  Marriages, he says, were more frequent after
it than usual, and virgins were, in some instances, violated,
who died of that disease, by persons who had just recovered
from it. 
 198    INFLtENCE OF  PHYSICAL CAUSES
 virtuous habits, is still more remarkable. The late
 Anthony Benezet,  of this city, whose benevolence
 was the centinel of the virtue, as  well as  of the
 happiness of his country, made it a constant rule,
 in binding out poor children, to avoid putting them
 into wealthy families,  but  always preferred mas-
 ters for them who  worked themselves, and who
* obliged these children to work in  their presence.
 If the  habits of virtue, contacted by means  of
 this apprenticeship to labour, are purely mechani-
 cal, their effects are, nevertheless,  the  same upon
 the happiness of society, as if they flowed from
 principle.   The mind, moreover, when preserved
 by these means from weeds, becomes a more mel-
 low soil, afterwards,  for moral and rational im-
 provement.

   7.  The effects of excessive sleep are inti-
 mately  connected widi the  effects of idleness upon
 the moral  faculty :  hence we find  that moderate,
 and even scanty portions of sleep, in every part of
 the  world, have been found  to be friendly, not
 only to health and long life, but in  many instances
 to morality.  The  practice of the monks, who of-
 ten sleep upon a floor, and who generally rise with
 the sun, for the sake  of mortifying their sensual
 appetites, is certainly founded in wisdom, and has
 often produced the  most salutary moral effects. 
         UPON THE  MORAL FACULTY.      199
   8.  The  effects of  bodily pain upon the moral
are not  less remarkable than upon the intellectual
powers  of the mind.   The late Dr. Gregory,  of
the university of Edinburgh, used to tell his pupils,
that he  always found  his perceptions quicker in a
fit of the gout, than at  any other time.   The pangs
which attend the dissolution of the body  are often
accompanied with conceptions and expressions, up-
on the  most  ordinary  subjects, that discover  an
uncommon elevation of the intellectual powers.
The effects of bodily  pain are exactly the same in
rousing and directing the moral faculty.  Bodily
pain, we find, was one of the remedies employed
in the Old Testament, for extirpating vice, and
promoting  virtue :  and Mr. Howard tells us, that
he saw  it employed successfully  as a means of re-
formation,  in  one of the prisons  which he visited.
If pain has a physical  tendency to cure vice, I sub-
mit it to the consideration of parents and legislators,
whether moderate degrees of corporal punishments,
inflicted for a great length of time, would not  be
more medicinal  in their effects than  the violent
 degrees of them, which are of short duration.

    9.  Too much  cannot  be said  in  favour of
 cleanliness, as a  physical means of promoting
 virtue.   The writings of Moses have been called,
 by military men, the best " orderly book" in the 
200
influence
of  physical  causes
world.  In every part of them we find cleanliness
inculcated with as much zeal, as if it  was part of
the moral, instead of the Levitical law.   Now it is
well known, that the principal design of every pre-
cept  and rite of  the ceremonial  parts of the  Jew-
ish religion  was, to prevent vice,  and to promote
virtue.  All writers upon the leprosy take notice
of its  connection with a certain vice.   To this dis-
ease  gross animal food, particularly swine's flesh,
and a dirty skin, have been thought to be predis-
posing causes:  hence the  reason, probably, why
pork  was  forbidden, and why ablutions  of  the
body and limbs  were so  frequently inculcated  by
the Jewish law.   Sir John Pringle's  remarks, in
his Oration  upon captain Cook's  voyage, deli-
vered before the Royal  Society,  in  London,  are
very pertinent to this part of our subject.  " Clean •
liness (says he)  is conducive to health,  but is  it
not  obvious that it also tends to good order  and
other virtues.   Such (meaning the  ship's  crew)
as were made more  cleanly, became  more  sober,
more orderly, and more  attentive to duty."  The
benefit to be derived by parents and school-masters
from attending to these facts is too obvious to be
mentioned.

   10. I hope I shall be excused in placing soli-
 tude among the physical causes which influence 
UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.
201
 the moral faculty, when I add,  that I confine its
 effects to persons who are  irreclaimable by rational
 or moral remedies.   Mr. Howard informs us, that
 the chaplain of the prison at  Liege, in Germany,
 assured him, " diat the most refractory and turbu-
 lent spirits became tractable  and submissive,  by
 being  closely confined for four or  five  days."
 In bodies that  are predisposed to vice, the stimulus
 of cheerful,  but much more of profane society and
 conversation upon the animal spirits  becomes  an
 exciting cause, and, like the stroke of the flint upon
 the steel, renders the sparks of vice both active and
 visible.  By removing men out of the reach of this
 exciting cause, they are often reformed, especially
 if they are confined long enough to  produce a suf-
. ficient chasm in their habits of vice.   Where the
 benefit of reflection and instruction from books can
 be added to solitude and confinement, their good
 effects are  still more certain.  To this philosophers
 and poets in'every age have assented, by describing
 the life of a hermit as a life of passive virtue.

   II. Connected with  solitude,  as  a mechanical
 means  of promoting virtue, silence  deserves to
be mentioned in this place.  The late Dr. Fother-
gill, in his plan of education  for that benevolent
institution  at Ackworth, which was the last care
of his useful life, says every thing that-can  be said
   vol. i.              c  c 
202     INFLUENCE  OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSES
in favour of this necessary discipline, in the follow-
ing words : "To habituate  children, from their
early infancy, to silence  and attention,  is of the
greatest advantage  to them, not only as  a prepa-
rative  to their advancement in  religious life, but
as the groundwork of a  well  cultivated under-
standing.   To have the active  minds of children
put  under a  kind of  restraint;  to be accustomed
to  turn their attention   from  external  objects,
and  habituated to  a degree  of abstracted quiet;
is a matter of great consequence, and lasting be-
nefit to them.  Although it cannot be  supposed,
that young and  active minds are always engaged
in silence as  they  ought to be, yet to be  accus-
tomed thus to quietness is no  small point gained
towards fixing a habit of patience, and recollec-
tion,  which  seldom forsakes  those,  who have
been  properly instructed in this entrance  of the
 school of wisdom,  during the residue  of their
 days."

   For the purpose of acquiring this branch of edu-
 cation, children  cannot  associate too early nor too
 often with their parents, or with their superiors in
 age, rank, and wisdom,

    12. The effects of music upon the moral faculty
 have  been  felt  and  recorded in  every country. 
        UPON  THE  MORAL FACULTY.       203
  Hence we are able to discover the virtues and vi-
  ces of different nations, by their tunes, as certainly
  as by their laws.   The effects of music, when sim-
  ply mechanical, upon the passions,  are  powerful
  and extensive.  But it remains yet  to  determine
  the degrees of moral ecstacy that may be produc-
  ed by an  attack upon the ear, the  reason, and the
  moral principle, at the same time, by the combined
  powers of music and eloquence.

    13. The eloqjjence of the pulpit  is  nearly
  allied to music in its effects upon the moral faculty.
  It is true, there can be no permanent change  in the
 temper and moral conduct of a man,  that is not
 derived from the understanding and the will; but
 we must  remember, that these two powers  of the
 mind  are most assailable,  when they are attacked
 through the avenue  of the passions; and these, we
 know, when agitated by the powers of eloquence,
 exert a mechanical action upon even- power  of the
 soul.  Hence  we find, in every age and country
 where Christianity has been propagated, the  most
 accomplished orators have generally been the most
 successful  reformers of mankind.  There must be
 a defect of eloquence in a preacher, who,  with the
 resources for oratory which are  contained in the
 Old and  New  Testaments, does not  produce in
every  man who hears him at least a  temporary
love of virtue.  I grant that the eloquence of the 
204     INFLUENCE OF  PHYSICAL CAUSES
pulpit alone cannot change men into christians, but
it certainly possesses the power of changing brutes
into  men.   Could the eloquence of the stage be
properly directed, it is impossible to conceive the
extent of its mechanical effects upon morals.   The
language and imagery of a Shakespeare, upon  mo-
ral and religious subjects, poured upon the passions
and the senses, in all the beauty and variety of dra-
matic  representation;  who could resist, or  des-
cribe their effects ?

   14.  Odours of various kinds have been observ-
ed to act in the most sensible manner upon the  mo-
ral faculty.  Brydone tells us, upon the authority
of a celebrated philosopher in Italy, that the pecu-
liar wickedness of the people who live in the neigh-
bourhood of  iEtna and  Vesuvius is occasioned
chiefly by the  smell of the sulphur, and of the hot
exhalations  which are constantly discharged from
those volcanoes.   Agreeable odours seldom fail to
inspire serenity, and to  compose the angry spirits.
Hence the pleasure, and one of the advantages, of
a flower garden.  The smoke of tobacco is likewise
of a composing nature, and tends not  only to  pro-
duce what  is  called a  train in perception, but to
hush the agitated  passions into silence and order.
Hence the practice of connecting the pipe or segar
and the bottle together, in public company. 
          UPON  THE MORAL FACULTY.     205
    15. It will be sufficient only to mention light
  and darkness, to suggest facts in favour of the
  influence of each of them upon moral sensibility.
  How often do the peevish complaints of the night,
  in sickness,  give  way  to the  composing rays of
  the light of the  morning ? Othello cannot murder
  Desdemona by candle-light, and  who has not felt
  the effects of a blazing fire upon the gentle pas-
  sions ?*

     16. It is to  be lamented, that no experiments
  have as yet  been made, to determine  the effects
  of all the different species of air s, which chemistry
  has lately  discovered,  upon the moral  faculty.   I
  have authority, from actual experiments, only  to
  declare, that dephlogisticated  air, when  taken in-
  to the lungs, produces cheerfulness, gentleness, and
, serenity of mind.

     17.   What shall we say of the effects of medi-
   cines  upon the moral  faculty? That many sub-
   stances in  the materia  medica  act  upon the in-
   tellects is well known to physicians.  Why should

    * The temperature of the air has a considerable influence
   upon moral feeling.  Henry the Third of France was always
   ill humoured, and sometimes cruel, in  cold weather.  There
   is a damp air which comes from the sea in Northumberland
   county in England which is known by the name of the Sea-
   fret ; from its inducing fretfulness in the temper. 
206
INFLUENCE
OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSES
 it be thought impossible for medicines to  act in
 like manner upon the moral faculty ?  May not the
 earth contain, in its bowels, or upon its surface, an-
 tidotes? But I  will not blend facts  with conjec-
 tures.   Cloulds and darkness still hang upon this
 part of my subject.

   fjet it not be suspected,  from any thing  that I
have delivered, that I suppose the influence of phy-
sical causes upon  the moral  faculty renders the
 agency of divine influence unnecessary to our mo-
ral happiness.   I  only  maintain,  that  the  opera-
tions of the divine  government  are carried  on in
the moral,  as in the natural  world, by the instru-
mentality of second causes.   I have  only trodden
in the footsteps of the inspired writers; for most
of the physical causes I have enumerated are con-
nected with moral precepts,  or have been used as
the means of reformation from  vice, in the Old
and New Testaments.   To the cases that have
been mentioned, I shall only add,  that Nebuchad-
nezzar was cured of his pride, by means of soli-
tude and a vegetable diet.   Saul was cured of his
evil spirit, by  means of David's harp, and St.  Paul
expressly says, " I keep my  body under, and bring
it into subjection,  lest that  by any means,  when
I have preached to others, I  myself should be a
cast-away."  But  I will go  one step further, and
add, in favour of divine influence  upon the  moral 
         UPON  TtfE MORAL  FACULTY.        21)7
principle, diat in those extraordinary cases,  where
bad men are  suddenly reformed,  without the in-
strumentality of physical, moral or rational causes,
I believe that the organization of those parts of the
body, in which the faculties of the mind are seated,
undergoes a physical change ;* and hence the ex-
pression of a " new creature," which is made use
of in the scriptures to denote  this  change, is pro-
per in a literal, as well as a figurative sense.   It is
probably the beginning of that perfect renovation
of the human body, which is predicted by St. Paul
in the  following words:  " For our conversation
is in  heaven, from whence we look for the Savi-
our, who shall change  our  vile  bodies, that they
may  be fashioned  according to his own glorious
botly."   I  shall not  pause to  defend  myself
against the charge of enthusiasm in  this place ; for
the age is at length arrived, so devoutly wished for
by Dr. Cheyne, in which men will not be deterred
in their researches after truth, by the terror of odi-
ous or unpopular names.

  * St. Paul was suddenly transformed from a persecutor in-
to a man of a gentle and amiable  spirit.  The manner in
which this change was effected  upon his  mind, he tells us
in the  following words:  " Neither circumcision availeth
any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.  From
henceforth let no man trouble me ; for I bear in my body
the marks of our Lord Jesus." Galatians vi. 15. 17. 
 208     INFLUENCE OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSES
   I cannot help remarking under this head, that if
 the conditions of those parts of the  human body
 which are connected with the human soul influence
 morals, the same reason may be given for a virtu-
 ous education, that has been admitted for teaching
 music, and the pronunciation of foreign languages,
 in the early and yielding state of those organs which
 form the  voice and speech.  Such is the effect of
 a moral education, that we often see its fruits ki
 advanced stages of life, after the  religious princi-
 ples which were connected with h have been re-
 nounced; just as we perceive the  same  care in a
 surgeon  in his attendance upon patients* after the
 sympathy which first produced this care has ceas-
 ed to operate upon his mind.  The boasted mora-
 lity of the deists is, I believe, in most  cases, the
 offspring of habits, produced originally by the prin-
 ciples and precepts of Christianity.   Hence appears
 the wisdom of Solomon's  advice,  " Train up a
 child in  the  way  he  sliould go, and when he is
 old he will not,"  I  had almost  said, he cannot,
 " depart from it."

  Thus  have I enumerated the  principal causes
which act mechanically upon morals.  If, from the
 combined action of physical powers that are oppos-
ed to each other,  the moral faculty should become
 stationary, or if the virtue or  vice produced by 
          UPON  THE MORAL  FACULTY.      209
 them shoiUd form a neutral quality, composed of
 both of them, I hope it will not call in question the
 truth of  our general propositions.   I have only
 mentioned the effects of physical causes in a simple
 state.*

   It might  help to  enlarge  our  ideas upon  this
 subject, to take notice of  the influence of the dif-
 ferent stages of society, of agriculture and com-
 merce, of soil and situation, of the  different degrees
 of cultivation of taste, and  of the intellectual pow-
 ers, of the different forms of government, and, last-
 ly, of the different professions and  occupations of
 mankind, upon the moral faculty ; but as these act
 indirectly only, and  by the intervention of causes
 that are unconnected with  matter, I conceive they
 are  foreign to the business of the present inquiry.
 If they should vary the action of the simple physi-
 cal causes in any degree, I hope it will not call in
 question the truth of our general propositions,  any-
 more than the compound action of physical powers
 that are opposed to each other.   There remain but
 a few more  causes which  are of a compound  na-

  * The doctrine of the  influence  of physical causes on mo-
rals is happily calculated to beget charity towards the fail-
ings of our fellow-creatures.  Our duty  to practise this vir-
tue is enforced by  motives drawn from science, as well as
from the precepts of Christianity.
 vol. I.                n d 
^10    INFLUENCE OF  PHYSICAL CAUSES
ture, but the)' are so nearly related to those which
are purely mechanical,  that  I shall beg leave to
trespass upon your  patience,  by  giving  them a
place in my oration.

   The  effects of imitation, habit, and association,
upon morals would furnish ample matter for in-
vestigation.   Considering how much  the shape,
texture, and  conditions of  the human  body influ-
ence morals, I submit it to the consideration of the
ingenious, whether,  in  our endeavours to imitate
moral examples, some  advantage may not be de-
rived, from  our copying the features and external
manners of the originals.  What  makes the  suc-
cess of this experiment probable is, that we gene-
rally find men,  whose  faces resemble.each other,
have the  same  manners and dispositions.   I infer
the possibility of success in an attempt to imitate
originals in a  manner  that has been  mentioned,
from the facility with which  domestics acquire a
resemblance to  their masters  and mistresses, not
only in manners, but in countenance, in  those cases
where  they are tied to them by respect and affec-
tion. Husbands  and wives also,  where they pos-
sess the same species of face, under circumstances
of mutual attachment often acquire a resemblance
to each other. 
UPON  THE  MORAL FACULTY.
211
  From the general detestation in which hypocrisy
is held, both by good and bad men, the  mechani-
cal effects of habit upon virtue have not been suf-
ficiently explored.  There are,  I am persuaded,
many instances, where virtues have been assumed
by accident, or necessity, which  have become real
from  habit, and afterwards derived their nourish-
ment from the  heart.  Hence  the  propriety  of
Hamlet's advice to his mother :

       " Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
       That monster, Custom, who all sense doth eat
       Of habits evil, is angel yet in  this,
       That to the use of actions fair and good
       He likewise gives a frock or livery,
       That aptly is put on.  Refrain  to-night,
       And that shall lend a kind of easiness
       To the next abstinence ; the next more easy :
       For Use can almost change the stamp of nature,
       And master even the devil, or  throw him out,
       With wondrous potency."

  The influence of   association  upon morals
opens an ample field for  inquiry.   It is from this
principle,  that we explain  the  reformation  from
theft and drunkenness in servants, which we some-
times see produced by a draught of spirits, in which
tartar  emetic had been secretly dissolved.   The
recollection of the pain and sickness excited by
the emetic naturally associates itself with the spi- 
212   INFLUENCE of physical  CAUSES
rits, so as to render them both equally the objects
of aversion.  It is by calling in this principle only,
that  we  can account for the conduct  of Moses,
in grinding  the  golden calf into  a powder,  and
afterwards dissolving it (probably by means of
hepar sulphuris)  in water,  and  compelling the
children of Israel to drink of it, as a punishment
for their idolatry.  This mixture is bitter and  nau-
seating in the highest  degree.  An  inclination to
 idolatry, therefore, could not be  felt, without be-
 ing associated with the remembrance of this  disa-
 greeable mixture, and  of course being rejected,
 with equal abhorrence.  The benefit of corporal
 punishments,  when they are of a short duration,
 depends in part  upon their being connected, by
 time and place,  with  the crimes for  which they
 are  inflicted.  Quick  as the thunder follows the
 lightning,  if it were possible, should punishments
 follow the crimes, and the advantage of association
 would  be more certain,  if the  spot where they
  were committed  were made the theatre of their
  expiation.  It is from the effects of this association,
  probably, that the  change of place  and company,
  produced by exile and transportation, has so often
  reclaimed  bad  men,  after moral,  rational,  and
  physical means of reformation had been used to no
   purpose. 
          UPON  THE MORAL FACULTY.      21o
  As sensibility is the avenue to the moral fa-
culty, every thing which tends to diminish it tends
also  to injure morals.   The Romans owed much
of their corruption to the sights  of the contests of
their gladiators, and of criminals, with wild beasts.
For these reasons, executions should never be pub-
lic.  Indeed, I believe there are  no public punish-
ments of any kind, that do not  harden the hearts
of spectators, and thereby lessen the natural horror
which all crimes at first excite in the human mind.

   Cruelty to  brute animals is another means of
destroying moral sensibility.  The ferocity of sa-
vages has been  ascribed in part to their peculiar
mode of subsistence.  Mr. Hogarth  points out, in
his ingenious prints, the connection between cru-
elty to brute animals in youth, and murder in man-
hood.  The emperor Domitian prepared his mind,
by  the  amusement of killing flies,  for  all those
bloody  crimes  which  afterwards  disgraced  his
reign.   I am so perfectly satisfied of the truth of
a connection between morals and  humanity  to
brutes, that I shall  find it difficult to restrain  my
idolatry for that legislature, that shall first establish
a system of laws to defend them from outrage and
oppression. 
 214     INFLUENCE  OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
   In order to preserve the  vigour of the moral
 faculty,  it is  of the utmost  consequence to keep
 young people as ignorant as possible of those crimes
 that are generally thought most disgraceful to hu-
 man nature.  Suicide,  I believe,  is often propa-
 gated by means of newspapers.  For this  reason,
 I should  be glad to see  the proceedings  of our
 courts kept from the public eye, when they expose
 or punish monstrous vices„\

   The last mechanical  method of promoting mo-
 rality that I shall  mention, is  to  keep sensibility
 alive, by a familiarity with scenes of distress from
 poverty and disease.  Compassion never awakens
 in the human  bosom, without being accompanied
 by a train of sister  virtues.   Hence the wise man
justly remarks, that " By the sadness of the coun-
 tenance, the heart is made better."

   A late French writer, in his prediction of events
 that are to happen in the year 4000, says,  " That
 mankind in that aera shall be so far improved by
 religion and government,  that the  sick and the
 dying  shall no longer  be thrown, together with
 the dead,  into splendid houses, but shall be re-
lieved  and  protected in a connection  with their
.families and society."   For the honour of huma- 
         UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.      215
 iiity,  an institution,* destined for that distant pe-
 riod,  has lately been founded in this city, that shalL
 perpetuate the year 1786 in the  history of Penn-
 sylvania.  Here the feeling heart, the tearful eye,
 and the charitable hand, may always be connected
 together, and the  flame of sympathy, instead of
 being extinguished in taxes, or expiring in a soli-
 tary blaze by a single contribution, may  be kept
 alive  by constant exercise.   There is a necessary
 connection between animal sympathy and  good
 morals.  The priest  and the Levite, in the New
 Testament, would probably have relieved the poor
 man who fell among thieves, had accident brought
 them near enough to his wounds.  The unfortunate
 Mrs. Bellamy was rescued from the dreadful pur-
 pose of drowning  herself, by nothing but the dis-
 tress of a child,  rending the air with its cries for
 bread.  It is  probably owing, in some measure, to
 the connection between good morals and sympathy,
 that the fair sex, in every age and  country, have
 been  more distinguished for virtue than men;
for how seldom do we hear of a woman devoid of
humanity ?

  Lastly, ATTRACTION,  composition, and DE-
COMPOSITION, belong to  the passions as  wrell as
* A public dispensary. 
216     INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
to matter.   Vices of the same species attract each
other with the most force : hence the bad  conse-
quences of crowding young men, whose propensi-
ties are generally the same, under one roof, in our
modern plans of education.  The effects of com-
position and decomposition upon vices appear,  in
the meanness of the school-boy being often cured
by the prodigality of a military life, and by the pre-
cipitation of avarice, which is often  produced by
ambition and love.

  If physical causes influence morals in  the man-
ner we have described, may they not also influence
religious principles and  opinions?   I answer  in
the affirmative ;  and I have  authority,  from  the
records of physic, as well as from my own obser-
vations, to declare,  that religious melancholy and
madness,  in all their variety of species,  yield with
more facility to medicine, than simply to polemical
discourses, or to casuistical advice.   But this sub-
ject is foreign to the business  of the present in-
quiry.

   From a  review  of  our subject,  we are led to
contemplate, with admiration, the curious structure
of the human mind.   How distinct are the num-
ber, and  yet how  united! How subordinate, and
 yet  how co-equal,  are all its faculties!  How won- 
UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.
217
 derful is the action of the mind upon the body!
 of the  body upon the  mind!  and of the Divine
 Spirit upon both!  What a mystery is  the mind
 of man to itself!----O I Nature !----or, to speak
 more properly, O !  thou God of Nature ! in
 vain do we attempt to scan thy immensity, or to
 comprehend thy various modes of existence, when
 a single particle of light, issued from  thyself,
 and kindled into intelligence in  the bosom of man,
 thus dazzles and confounds our understandings !

   The extent  of the moral powers and habits iii
 man is unknown.  It is not improbable but the
 human  mind contains principles of virtue, which
 have never yet  been excited into action.   We be-
 hold with  surprise the  versatility of the  human
 body in the exploits of tumblers and rope dancers.
 Even the agility of a wild beast has been demon-
 strated in a girl of France, and an amphibious na-
 ture has been discovered in the  human species in
 a young man in Spain.   We listen with astonish-
 ment to the accounts of the memories of Mithri-
 dates, Cyrus, and Servin.  We feel a veneration,
 bordering upon divine homage, in contemplating
 the stupendous understandings of lord  Verulam
 and sir  Isaac Newton;  and  our eyes grow dim,
in attempting to pursue Shakespeare and Milton in
their immeasurable flights of imagination.  And if
  vol.  i.            e  e 
218    INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CAUSES
the history of mankind does not furnish similar in-
stances of the versatility and perfection of our spe-
cies in virtue, it is because the moral faculty has
been the subject of less  culture and fewer experi-
ments than the body,  and the intellectual powers
of the mind.   From what has been said,  the rea-
son of this  is obvious.   Hitherto  the  cultivation
of the moral faculty has been the business of pa-
rents, schoolmasters,  and  divines.*  But  if the
principles,  we have laid down,  be just, the im-
 provement and extension of this principle should
 be equally the business  of the legislator, the na-
 tural  plnlosopher, and the physician;  and a phy-
 sical regimen should  as necessarily accompany a
 moral precept,  as directions with respect to the
 air, exercise, and diet,  generally accompany  pre-
 scriptions for the consumption, and the gout.  To
 encourage  us to undertake experiments for the

   * The people commonly called Quakers, and the Metho-
 dists, make use of the greatest number of physical remedies
 in their religious and moral discipline, of any sects of Chris-
 tians ; and hence we find them  every where distinguished
 for their good morals.  There are several excellent physical
 institutions in other churches ; and if they do  not produce
  the same moral effects that we observe from physical insti-
  tutions  among those two modern sects, it must be ascribed
  to their being more neglected  by the  members of those
  churches. 
       UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.       219
improvement of morals, let us recollect the suc-
cess of philosophy in lessening  the  number, and
mitigating the violence of incurable diseases.   The
intermitting fever, which proved  fatal  u> two i»f
the monarchs of Britain, is  now  under  absolute
subjection to  medicine.  Continual  fevers arc
much less fatal than  formerly.   The small-pox is
disarmed of its mortality by inoculation, and even
the tetanus and  the cancer have lately received a
check in their ravages upon mankind.   But medi-
cine has  done more.  It has penetrated the deep
and gloomy abyss of death, and acquired fresh ho-
nours  in  his cold embraces.   Witness the many
hundred people who have lately been  brought back
to life by the successful  efforts of the humane so-
cieties, which are now established in many parts of
Europe, and in some parts of America.  Should
the same industry and ingenuity, which  have pro-
duced these triumphs  of medicine over  diseases
and death, be  applied to die moral science, it is
highly probable that  most of those baneful  vices,
which deform the human breast, and convulse the
nations of the earth, might be banished from the
world.   I am not so sanguine as to  suppose, that
it is possible for man to acquire so much  perfection
from science, religion, liberty, and good  govern.
ment,  as to cease to be  mortal; but I am fully
persuaded, that from  the combined action of causes, 
220   INFLUENCE  OF PHYSICAL  CAUSES
which operate at once upon the reason,  the moral
faculty, the passions, the senses,  die brain, the
nerves, the blood, and the heart, it is possible to
pnulucc such a change in his  moral character, as
shall raise him to a resemblance of angels; nay,
more, to the likeness of God himself.   The state
of Pennsylvania still deplores the loss of a man, in
whom not only reason and revelation, but many of
the physical causes that  have been enumerated,
concurred to produce such attainments in moral
excellency, as have seldom appeared in a human
being. This amiable citizen considered his fellow-
creature,  man, as  God's extract,  from his own
works ;  and whether this image of  himself was cut
out from ebony or copper;  whether he spoke his
own,  or a foreign language; or whether he wor-
shipped his Maker with ceremonies,  or. without
them, he  still considered him as  a brother, and
equally the object of his benevolence.   Poets and
historians, who are to live hereafter, to you  I com-
mit his panegyric;  and when you hear of a law for
abolishing slavery in each of the American states,
such  as was passed in  Pennsylvania in the year
1780; when you hear of  the kings and queens of
Europe publishing edicts  for abolishing the trade
in human souls; and,  lasdy,  when you hear of
schools and churches, with all the  arts of civilized
■life, being established among the nations of Africa, 
UPON
THE  MORAL  FACULTY.
221
then remember and record,  that this revolution in
favour of human happiness  was the effect  of the
labours,  the publications, the private letters,  and
the prayers, of  Anthony Benezet.*

   I return  from  this  digression,  to address  my-
self in a particular manner  to you,  venerable


   * This  worthy  man was descended from an ancient and
honourable family that flourished in the court of Louis XIV.
With liberal  prospects in life, he early devoted himself to
teaching an English school ; in which, for industry, capacity,
and attention to the morals and principles of the youth com-
mitted to his  care, he was without an equal.  He published
many excellent tracts against the African trade, against war,
and the use of spirituous liquors, and one in;favour of civilizing
and christianizing the Indians.  He  wrote to the queen of
Great Britain, and the queen of Portugal,  to use their influ-
ence in their  respective courts to abolish the African trade.
He also wrote an affectionate letter to  the king of Prussia,
to dissuade him from making war.  The  history of his life
 affords a remarkable instance, how much it  is possible for
an individual to accomplish in the  world ;  and that the most
humble  stations do not preclude good  men from  the most
extensive usefulness.  He  bequeathed his estate (after the
 death of  his  widow) to the support of  a school for the edu-
 cation of negro children,  which he had founded and taughs
 for several years before he died.  He departed this life in
 May, 1T84,  in the seventy-first  year of his age, in the meri-
 dian of his usefulness, universally  lamented by persons of all
 ranks and denominations. 
  -^2  INFLUENCE  OF PHYSICAL  CAUSES
  sages and fellow citizens in  the republic
  of  letters.  The influence of philosophy, we
 have been  told, has  already been felt in courts,
 To increase, and complete,  this influence, there is
 nothing more necessary, than for  the numerous
 literary societies in Europe and  America to add
 the  science of morals to their experiments and
 inquiries.  The godlike scheme of Henry IV. of
 France, and of the illustrious queen Elizabeth, of
 England, for establishing a perpetual peace in Eu-
 rope, may be accomplished  without a system of
jurisprudence, by a confederation of learned  men
 and learned societies.  It is in their power, by mul-
 tiplying the objects of human reason, to bring the
 monarchs and rulers of the world under their sub-
jection, and thereby to extirpate war, slavery, and
capital punishments, from the list of human evils.
 Let  it not be suspected that I detract, by this de-
claration, from the honour of the Christian religion.
It is true, Christianity was propagated without the
aid of human learning; but this was one of those
miracles, which was necessary to establish it, and
which, by repetition, would  cease to be a miracle.
They misrepresent the Christian religion, who sup-
pose it to be wholly an internal revelation, and ad-
dressed only to the moral faculties of the mind.
The truths of Christianity afford the greatest scope
for the human understanding, and they will become; 
      UPON  THE MORAL FACULTY.       223
intelligible to us, only in proportion as the human
genius is stretched, by means of philosophy, to  its
utmost dimensions.   Errors  may be opposed to
errors; but  truths,  upon  all subjects,  mutually
support each odier.   And perhaps one reason why
some parts of the Christian revelation are still in-
volved in obscurity,  may  be occasioned  by our
imperfect knowledge of the phenomena and laws of
nature.  The truths of philosophy and Christianity
dwell alike in  the mind of the  Deity,  and reason
and religion are equally the offspring of his  good-
ness.  They must, therefore, stand  and fall toge-
ther.  By reason, in the  present instance, I mean
the power of judging of truth, as well as the power
of comprehending  it.  Happy  aera! when the di-
vine and the philosopher shall embrace each other,
 and unite their labours for the reformation and hap-
piness of mankind!

   Illustrious counsellors  and  senators
 of Pennsylvania*! I anticipate  your candid recep-
 tion of this feeble effort to increase the quantity  of
 virtue in our republic.  It is not my business  to

   * The president and  supreme executive council, and the
 members of the general assembly of Pennsylvania, attended
 the delivery  of the oration, in the hall of the university, by
 invitation from the Philosophical Society. 
224
INFLUENCE
OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSLS
 remind you of the  immense resources for great-
 ness, ;,which nature and Providence have bestowed
 upon our state.  Every advantage which France
 has derived from being placed  in the  centre of
 Europe, and which Britian has derived from her
 mixture of nations, Pennsylvania has opened to her.
 But my business,  at present, is to suggest the
 means of promoting the  happiness, not the great-
 ness, of the state.   For this purpose, it is abso-
 lutely necessary that our government, which unites
 into one all the minds of the state, should possess,
 in an eminent degree, not only the understanding,
 the passions, and the will, but, above all, the moral
 faculty and the conscience of an individual.  No-
 thing can be  politically right,  that is  morally
 wrong; and no necessity can ever sanctify a law,
 that is contrary to equity.   Virtue is the soul of
 a republic.   To promote this, laws  for the sup-
 pression of  vice and immorality will be as ineffec-
 tual,  as the increase and  enlargement  of jails.
 There is  but one method of preventing crimes,
 and of rendering a republican form of government
 durable, and that is, by disseminating the seeds of
 virtue and knowledge through every part of the
 state, by means of proper modes and places of edu-
 cation, and this can be done effectually only by the
 interference  and aid of the  legislature.   I am  so
deeply impressed with the truth of this  opinion, 
UPON THE MORAL FACULTY.
225
that were thi6 evening to be the last of my life, I
would not only say to the asylum of my ancestors,
and my beloved native country, with the patriot of
Venice,  " Esto perpetua,"  but I  would add, as
the last proof of my affection for her,  my parting
advice to the guardians of her liberties, " To esta-
blish and support public schools in every part
of the  state."
VOL.  i.              f f 
 
          AN ACCOUNT




               OF THE




INFLUENCE OF THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL EVENTS




               or THE





    AMERICAN REVOLUTION




               VTOSS




          THE HUMAN BODY 
 
AN ACCOUNT,  &c.
      THERE were several circumstances pecu-
liar to the American  revolution, which should be
mentioned previously to an account of the influence
of the events which accompanied it upon the hu-
man body.

   1.  The revolution interested  every  inhabitant
of the country of both sexes, and of every rank and
age that was capable of reflection.   An indifferent,
or neutral, spectator of the controversy was scarcely
to be found in any of the states.

   2.  The scenes of war and government which it
introduced were new to the greatest part of the
inhabitants of the United States, and operated with
all the force of novelty upon the human mind. 
230  INFLUENCE OF  THE  REVOLUTION
  3. The controversy was conceived to be  the.
most important of any that had ever engaged  the
attention of mankind.  It was generally believed,
by the friends of the revolution, that the very ex-
istence of freedom, upon our globe,  was involved
in the issue of the contest in favour of the United
States.

  4. The American revolution included in it  the
cares of government,  as well as the toils and dan-
gers of war.   The American mind was, therefore,
frequently occupied, at the same time, by the diffi-
cult and complicated duties  of political and military
life.

  5. The revolution was conducted by men who
had been born free, and whose sense of the blessings
of liberty was of course more exquisite than if they
had just emerged from a state of slavery.

  6. The greatest part of the soldiers in the armies
of the United States  had family  connections and
property in the country.

  7. The war was carried on by the Americans
against a nation, to whom they had  long been tied
by the numerous obligations of consanguinity, laws,
religion, commerce, language, interest, and a mu- 
            UPON  THE HUMAN BODY.       231
 tual sense of national glory.  The resentments of
 the Americans of course  rose,  as is  usual in all
 disputes,  in proportion to the number and force of
 these ancient bonds of affection and union.

   8.  A predilection  to a limited  monarchy, as an
 essential part of a free and safe government, and an
 attachment to the reigning king of Great Britain
 (with a  very  few exceptions) were  universal in
 every part of the United States.

   9.  There wras at one time a sudden dissolution
 of civil  government  in all,  and  of ecclesiastical
 establishments in several, of the states.

   10. The  expences of the war were supported
 by means of a paper currency, which was continu-
 ally depreciating.

   From the action  of each  of these  causes,  and
 frequentiy from their combination in the same per-
 sons,  effects might reasonably be  expected, both
 upon  the mind and body, which have  seldom oc-
 curred ;  or  if they have, I believe were never fully
 recorded in any age or country.

  It might afford some useful instruction,  to point
out the influence of the military and political events 
232   INFLUENCE  OF  THE REVOLUTION.
of the revolution upon the understandings, passions,
and morals of the citizens  of the United States;
but my business in the present inquiry is only to
take notice of the influence  of those  events  upon
the human body, through the medium of the mind.

  I shall first mention the effects  of the military,
and, secondly, of the political  events of the revolu-
tion.   The last  must be considered in a two-fold
view, accordingly as they affected the friends, or
the enemies, of the revolution.

   I.  In treating of the effects of the military events,
I shall take notice, first, of  the influence of actual
war,  and, secondly,  of the influence of the military
life.

   In the beginning  of a battle, I have observed
thirst to be  a very common sensation among both
officers and  soldiers.   It occurred where  no exer-
cise, or action of the body, could have excited it.

   Many officers have informed me,  that after the
 first  onset in a battle they felt a glow of heat, so
 universal as to be perceptible in  both their  ears.
 This was the case, in a particular manner, in the
 battle of Princeton, on the  third of January, in the 
           UPON  THE  HUMAN BODY.       233
year 1777, on which day the weather was remark-
ably cold.

 A veteran colonel of a New England regiment,
whom I visited at Princeton, and who was wound-
ed in the hand at the battle of  Monmouth, on the
28di of June, 1778 (a day in which the mercury
stood at 90° of Fahrenheit's thermometer) after de-
scribing his situation at the time  he received his
wound, concluded  his story  by remarking, that
fighting Mas  hot work on a cold day,  but much
more so on a warm day."  The many instances
which  appeared after that memorable battie,  of
soldiers who  were found among the slain  without
any marks of wounds or violence upon their bo-
dies, were probably occasioned by the heat excited
in the body,  by the emotions of the mind, being
added to that of the atmosphere.

   Soldiers bore operations of every kind, immedi-
ately after  a battle, with much more fortitude than
they did at any time afterwards.

   The effects of the military life upon the  human
body come next to be considered under this head.

   In another  place  I have mentioned three cases
   vol. I              g % 
234   INFLUENCE OF THE REVOLUTION
of pulmonary consumption being perfectly  cured
by the diet and hardships of a camp life.

  Doctor Blane,  in  his  valuable observations on
the diseases incident to seamen, ascribes the ex-
traordinary healthiness of the British  fleet  in the
month of April, 1732, to the effects produced on
the spirit of the soldiers  and seamen, by the vic-
tory  obtained  over the French  fleet on the  12th
of that month ; and  relates, upon the authority  of
Mr.  Ives, an instance, in the war between  Great-
Britian and the combined powers of France and
Spain, in 1744, in which the scurvy, as well  as
other diseases,  were  checked by the prospect of a
naval engagement

   The American army  furnished an  instance of
the effects of victory upon the human mind, which
may serve to establish the inferences from the facts
related by Doctor Blane.   The Philadelphia mi-
litia who joined the  remains of General Washing-
ton's army, in December, 1776, and shared with
them  a  few days afterwards  in the  capture of a
large  body of Hessians at Trenton,  consisted of
 1500  men, most  of whom had  been  accustomed
 to the habits  of a city life.  These men slept in
tents  and barns, and  sometimes in the open air,
 during the usual colds of December and January; 
           UPON THE  HUMAN BODY.      235
and  yet  there were but two instances of sickness,
•and only one of death, in that  body of men in the
course of nearly six weeks, in those winter months.
This extraordinary  healthiness of  so great a num-
ber of men, under such trying circumstances, can
only be  ascribed to  the vigour infused into the
human body  by the victory   of Trenton having
produced insensibility to all the usual remote causes
of diseases.

   Militia officers and soldiers, who enjoyed good
health during a campaign, were often affected  by
fevers and other diseases, as soon as they return-
ed to their respective homes.  I knew one instance
of a militia captain, who was seized with convul-
sions the first night he  lay on a feather  bed, after
sleeping several months on a mattrass, or upon the
ground.   These affections of the body appeared
to be  produced only by the sudden abstraction of
that tone in the system,  which was excited by  a
sense of danger, and the other invigorating objects
of a military life.

   The  nostalgia of Doctor  Cullen,  or the
home-sickness, was a frequent disease in the Ame-
rican army, more especially among the soldiers of
the  New  England states.  But  this  disease was
suspended by the superior action of the mind, un 
 236    INFLUENCE OF  THE  REVOLUTION
 der the influence of the principles which governed
 common soldiers in the American army.  Of this
 General Gates furnished me with a remarkable in-
 stance  in  1776, soon after  his return from the
 command of a large  body of regular  troops  and
 militia at Ticonderoga.   From the effects of the
 nostalgia,   and the  feebleness of the discipline
 which was exercised over the militia, desertions
 were very  frequent and numerous in his army, in
 the latter  part of the campaign; and yet during
 the three weeks in which the general expected every
 hour  an attack to be made upon him  by  General
 Burgoyne, there was not  a single desertion from
 his army, which  consisted at that time of 10,000*
 men.

   The patience, firmness  and magnanimity, with
 which the  officers and  soldiers of the  American
 army endured the complicated evils  of  hunger,
 cold and nakedness, can only be  ascribed to an
 insensibility of body..produced  by an  uncommon
 tone of mind, exciteoNby the love of  liberty  and
 their  country.

   Before I proceed to the second  general  division
of this subject, I shall take notice, that more in-
 stances of apoplexies occurred in  the city  of Phi-
ladelphia, in tiie winter of 1774-5,  than had been 
UPON THE HUMAN BODY.
237
known in former  years.  I should have  hesitated
in recording this fact, had I not found the obser-
vation supported  by a  fact of the same kind, and
produced by a nearly similar cause, in the appen-
dix to the practical works of Doctor Baglivi, pro-
fessor of physic and anatomy  at Rome.   After a
very wet season in the winter of 1694-5, he in-
forms us, that " apoplexies displayed their rage;
and perhaps  (adds  our author) some  part  of
this epidemic illness was owing to  the  universal
grief and domestic care, occasioned by all Europe
.being engaged in a war.  All commerce was dis-
turbed, and all the avenues of peace blocked up,
so that the strongest heart could scarcely bear the
thoughts of it"   The  winter of 1774-5  was a
period of uncommon anxiety among the citizens
of America.  Every countenance wore the marks
of painful solicitude for the event of  a petition to
the throne of Britain, which was to determine whe-
 ther  reconciliation, or a civil war, with all its terri-
ble  and distressing consequences,  were to take
place.   The apoplectic  fit,  which deprived  the
 world of the  talents and virtues of Peyton Ran-
dolph, while he filled the chair of congress, in 1775,
appeared to be occasioned in part by the pressure
 of the uncertainty of  those great events  upon  his
 mind.   To the  name of this  illustrious patriot,
 several others might be  added, who were affected 
238    INFLUENCE OF  THE REVOLUTION
by the apoplexy in the same memorable year.   At
this time a difference of opinion upon the subject
of the contest  with  Great  Britain  had scarcely
taken place  among the  citizens of America.

  II. The political  events of the revolution pro-
duced different effects upon   the human body,
through  the medium of  the mind,  according as
they acted upon the friends or enemies of the re-
volution.

   I shall first describe its effects upon the  former
class of citizens of the United States.

   Manv  persons, of infirm and delicate habits,
 were restored to perfect health, by  the change  of
 place, or occupation,  to  which the war exposed
 them.  This was the case in a more  especial man-
 ner  with hysterical women, who were much inter-
 ested in the successful issue of the contest.   The
 same effects of a civil war upon the  hysteria,  were
 observed by Doctor  Cullen  in  Scotland, in the
 years 1745 and 1746.   It may perhaps  help  to
 extend our ideas of the influence of the passions
 upon diseases, to add, that when either love, jea-
 lousy, grief, or even devotion, wholly engross the
 female mind,  they seldom  fail, in like  manner, to
 cure or to suspend hysterical complaints. 
            UPON THE  HUMAN BODY.       239
   An  uncommon  cheerfulness prevailed  every
 where, among the friends of the revolution.   De-
 feats,  and even the loss of relations and property,
 were  soon forgotten  in the  great objects of die
 war.

   The population in the United States  was more
 rapid  from births during the war,  than it had ever
 been in the same number of years  since the settle-
 ment  of the country.

   I am disposed to ascribe this increase of births
 chiefiy to the quantity and extensive circulation of
 money,  and to the facility of procuring  the means
 of subsistence  during  the war,  which  favoured
 marriages  among  the  labouring  part of the peo-
 ple.*  But I have sufficient  documents to prove,
 that marriages were  more fruitful than  in former
 years, and that a considerable  number of unfruit-
 ful marriages became fruitful during the war.   In
 1783,  the  year of  the  peace,  there were several


   * Wheat, which was sold before the  war for seven shil-
lings and six pence, was sold  for several years during the war
for four, and in some places for two and six pence Pennsyl-
vania currency  per bushel.   Beggars of every description
disappeared in  the  year 1776, and were seldom seen till
near the close of the war. 
 240   INFLUENCE OF  THE  REVOLUTION
 children born of parents who had lived many years
 together without issue.

   Mr. Hume informs us,  in his History of Eng-
 land, that some old people,  upon hearing the news
 of the restoration of Charles II.  died suddenly
 of joy.   There was a time when I doubted the
 truth of this assertion ; but I am now disposed to
 believe it,  from having heard of a similar effect
 from an agreeable political event, in the course of
 the  American  revolution.  The door-keeper of
 congress, an aged man, died  suddenly,  immedi-
 ately after hearing of the capture  of lord  Corn-
 wallis's army.  His death was  universally ascribed
 to a  violent emotion of political joy.  This species
 of joy appears to be one of the strongest emotions
 that  can agitate the human mind.

  Perhaps  the  influence  of that ardour  in trade
 and speculation, which seised  many of the friends
of the revolution, and which  was excited by the
fallacious nominal amount of the paper money,
 should rather be considered as a disease, than as a
passion.  It unhinged the judgment,  deposed the
moral faculty, and filled the imagination, in many
 people,  with airy  and impracticable schemes of
 wealth and grandeur.   Desultory manners, and a
peculiar species of extempore conduct, were among 
            UPON THE HUMAN  BODY.       241
 its characteristic symptoms.   It produce dinsensi-
 bility to cold, hunger, and danger.   The  trading
 towns,  and in some instances the extremities of
 the United States, were frequently visited in a few
 hours or days by persons affected by this disease ;
 and hence  " to travel with the speed of a specu-
 lator," became a  common saying  in many parts
 of the country.  This species of insanity (if I may
 be allowed to  call it by that name) did not  require
 the confinement of a bedlam to cure it, like the
 South-Sea madness described by Doctor  Mead.
 Its remedies were  the  depreciation of  the paper
 money,  and the events of the peace.

  The political events of the  revolution produced
 upon its enemies very different effects from those
 which have been mentioned.

  The hypochondriasis of Doctor  Cullen  occur-
 red, in many instances, in persons of this descrip-
 tion.  In some of them, the terror and distress of
 the revolution  brought on a true  melancholia.*
 The causes which produced these diseases may be
 reduced  to  four  heads.   1.  The loss of  former
power or influence in  government  2. The des-
 truction of the hierarchy of the Engiish church in

  *  Insania partialis sine dyspepsia, of Doctor Cullen.
  VOL.  I.            H h 
242   INFLUENCE OF  THE  REVOLUTION
America.   3.  The change in the  habits of diet,
and  company,  and  manners,  produced  by  the
annihilation of just debts by means of depreciated
paper money.   And 4.  The  neglect, insults, and
oppression, to which the loyalists were exposed,
from individuals,  and, in  several  instances, from
the laws of some of the states.

   It was observed in South Carolina, that several
gentlemen,  who  had  protected their estates  by
swearing allegiance to the British government, died
soon after the evacuation of Charleston by the Bri-
tish  army.  Their deaths  were  ascribed to the
neglect with which they were treated by their an-
cient friends, who had adhered to  the government
of the United States.  The disease was called, by
the common people, the protection fever.

   From the causes which produced this hypochon-
driasis, I have taken the liberty of  distinguishing it
by the name of revolutiana.

   In some cases, this  disease was rendered  fatal
by exile and  confinement;  and,  in  others,  by
those persons who were  afflicted  with  it seeking
relief from spirituous liquors. 
UPON THE HUMAN"  BODY.
243
    The termination of the war  by the peace in
 1783  did  not terminate the American revolution.
 The minds of  the citizens of the United  States
 were wholly unprepared  for their  new  situation.
 The excess of the passion for liberty, inflamed- by
 the successful issue of the war, produced, in many
 people, opinions and conduct, which could not be
 removed by reason nor restrained by government.
 For a while, they threatened  to render  abortive
 the goodness of Heaven  to the United States, in
 delivering them from the  evils of slavery and war.
 The extensive influence which these opinions  had
 upon the understandings,  passions,  and morals of
 many of the citizens of the United States, consti-
 tuted a form of insanity,  which  I  shall take the
 liberty of distinguishing by the  name of anarchia.

   I hope no offence will be given by the freedom
 of any of these remarks.  An inquirer after philo-
 sophical truth should consider the passions of men
 in the same light that he does  the  laws of matter
 or motion.   The friends and enemies of the Ame-
 rican revolution must have been more, or less, than
 men, if they could have sustained the  magnitude
and  rapidity of the events that  characterised it,
without discovering some  marks  of human weak-
ness, both in body and mind.  Perhaps these weak-
nesses  were permitted, that human nature might 
214  INFLUENCE OF  THE REVOLUTION, &C.
receive fresh honours in America, by the contend-
ing parties (whether  produced by  the controver-
sies about independence or the national govern-
ment) mutually forgiving each other, and uniting
in plans of general order and happiness. 
          AN INQUIRY




              INTO THE




RELATION OF TASTES AND ALIMENTS




          TO EACH OTHER,




              AND INTO




   THE INFLUENCE OF THIS RELATION



               UPON




      HEALTH AND PLEASURE. 
 
AN  INQUIRY,  &c.
         IN entering upon this subject, I feel like
 the clown, who, after several unsuccessful attempts
 to play upon  a violin, threw it hastily from him,
 exclaiming at  the same time, that " there was mu-
 sic in it,"  but that he could not bring it out.

   I shall endeavour, by a few brief remarks, to lay
 a  foundation  for more  successful inquiries upon
 this difficult subject.              *

   Attraction and repulsion seem  to be the active
 principles of the universe.   They  pervade not only
 the greatest, but the  minutest, works  of nature.
 Salts, earths, inflammable bodies, metals,  and ve-
 getables, have  all their respective relations to each
other.   The order of these relations is so  uniform,
that it has  been ascribed by some philosophers to 
 248   THE RELATION  OF TASTES  AND
 a latent principle of intelligence pervading each of
 them.

   Colours, odours, and sounds, have likewise their
 respective relations to each other.  They become
 agreeable and  disagreeable, only in proportion  to
 the natural or unnatural combination which takes
 place between each of their different species.

   It is remarkable,  that  the number  of  original
 colours and notes in music is exactly the same. All
 the variety in both proceeds from the difference of
 combination.   An  arbitrary combination of them
 is by no means productive of pleasure.  The rela-
 tion which every colour and sound bear to each
 other, was as immutably established at the creation,
 as the order of the heavenly bodies, or as the rela-
 tion of the objects of chemistry to each other.

  But this relation is  not confined to colours and
sounds  alone.  It probably extends to the objects
 of human aliment.  For example, bread and meat,
 meat and salt, the alkalescent meats and acescent
 vegetables,  all harmonize with each other upon the
 tongue  ; while fish and flesh, butter and raw onions,
 fish and milk, when combined, are all offensive to
 a pure  and healthy  taste. 
           ALIMENTS  TO EACH  OTHER.     249
    It would be agreeable to trace the analogy  of
  sounds and tastes.  They have both their flats and
  their sharps.  They are both improved by the con-
  trast of discords.   Thus pepper, and other condi-
  ments (which are disagreeable when taken by them-
  selves)  enhance  the relish of many of our aliments,
  and they  are both delightful in proportion as they
  are  simple in  their  composition.   To  illustrate
  this analogy by more examples from music would
  lead us  from the subject of the present inquiry.

   It is observable that the tongue  and the stomach,
 like instinct and  reason, are, by nature,  in  unison
 with each other.  One of those organs must always
 be disordered, when they disagree in a single arti-
 cle of aliment.   When they both  unite  in  articles
 of diet that were  originally disagreeable, it is owing
 to a  perversion  in each  of them, similar to that
 which takes place in the human mind,  when both
 the moral faculty and the conscience lose their na-
 tural sensibility to virtue and vice.

   Unfortunately for this part of science, the taste
and the stomach  are so much perverted in infancy
and childhood by heterogeneous aliment, that it is
difficult to tell what kinds and mixtures of food are
natural,   and what  are artificial.   It is true, the
system possesses a power of accommodating itself 
250    THE  RELATION OF  TASTES  AND
both to artificial food,  and to the most discordant
mixtures of that which  is natural;  but may we
not reasonably suppose, that the system would pre-
serve its natural strength and order much  longer,
if no such violence had been offered to it ?

  If the  relation of aliments to each other  follows
the analogy of the objects of chemistry, then their
union will be influenced by many external circum-
stances, such as heat and cold, dilution, concen-
tration, rest, motion, and the addition of substances
which promote unnatural, or destroy natural mix-
tures.  This idea enlarges the  field of inquiry be-
fore  us, and leads us  still  further from  facts and
certainty upon this subject,  but at the same time
it does not preclude us from the hope of obtaining
both; for every  difficulty that arises  out  of this
viewr of the subject may be removed by observa-
tion  and experiment.

  I come now to apply these remarks  to health
and pleasure.   I shall  select only a few cases for
this  purpose; for if my principles be  true, my
readers cannot avoid discovering  many other illus-
trations of them.

   1.  When  an article of diet is grateful  to the
taste, and afterwards disagrees  with  the  stomach, 
           ALIMENTS TO  EACH OTHER.     251
 may it  not be occasioned by some other kind of
 food,  or by some drink being  taken  into the sto-
 mach,  which  refuses to unite  with the offending
 article of diet ?

   2. May not the uneasiness which many persons
 feel, after a moderate meal, arise from its having
 consisted of articles of aliment which were not re-
 lated to each other ?

   3. May not the delicacy of stomach which some-
 times occurs after the fortieth or forty-fith year of
 human life be occasioned by  nature recovering
 her empire in the stomach, so as to require simpli-
 city in diet, or such articles only of aliment as are
 related ?  May not  this be the  reason why most
 people, who have passed those  periods of life, are
 unable to retain or to digest fish and  flesh at the
 same time, and why  they generally dine only upon
 one kind of food ?

   4. Is  not the  language  of nature in favour of
 simplicity in diet discovered, by the  avidity with
 which  the luxurious and  intemperate often seek
 relief from  variety and satiety, by retreating to
spring  water for drink, and to bread and milk for
aliment ? 
252    THE RELATION  OF TASTES AND
  5. May  not the reason why plentiful meals of
fish, venison, oysters, beef, or mutton, when eaten
alone,  lie so easily in the stomach, and digest so
speedily, be occasioned by no other  food being
taken with them ?   A pound,  and even more, of
the above  articles, frequently  oppress  the  system
much less than half the quantity of heterogeneous
aliments.

   6. Does not the facility with which a due mix-
ture of vegetable and animal food digests in the
 stomach indicate the certainty of their relation to
each other ?

   7. May not the peculiar good  effects of a diet
wholly vegetable, or animal, be occasioned by the
more frequent and intimate relation of the  articles
of the same kingdoms to each other ?  And may
 not this be the reason why so  few inconveniences
 are felt from the mixture of a variety of vegetables
 in the stomach ?

 *  8. May not the numerous acute and chronic dis-
 eases of the rich and luxurious arise  from hetero-
 geneous aliments being distributed in a diffused,
 instead of a mixed state, through every part of the
 body. 
          ALIMENTS TO EACH OTHER.      253
  9. May not the many cures which are ascribed
to certain articles of diet  be occasioned more by
their  being taken alone, than to  any medicinal
quality inherent in them ? A diet of oysters in one
instance, of strawberries in  another, and of sugar
of roses in many  instances, has cured violent and
dangerous diseases of the breast.*  Grapes, ac-
cording to Doctor Moore,  when  eaten in  large
quantities, have produced the same salutary effect
A milk  diet, persisted in  for several years, has
cured the gout and epilepsy.  I have seen many
cases of dyspepsia cured by a simple diet of beef
and mutton, and have heard of a  well-attested case
of a diet of veal  alone having removed  the  same
disease.   Squashes, and  turnips . likewise, when
taken by  themselves, have  cured that distressing
complaint in the  stomach.  It has been removed
even by milk, when taken by itself in a  moderate
quantity.!  The  further the body,  and more espe-
cially the stomach, recede from  health,  the  more
this  simplicity of diet becomes  necessary.  The
appetite in these  cases does  not speak the language
of uncorrupted nature.   It frequently calls for va-

  *  Vansweiten, 1209. 3.

  t  Medical Observations  and  Inquiries, vol.  vi. p. 3io,
319. 
 254    THE RELATION  OF TASTES AND
 rious and improper aliment; but this is the effect
 of intemperance having produced an  early breach
 between the taste and the stomach.

   Perhaps the extraordinsry cures of obstinate dis-
 eases, which are sometimes performed by persons
 not regularly educated  in  physic, may be  occa-
 sioned by a long and steady perseverance in the use
 of a single  article of the materia  medica.   Those
 chemical medicines which  decompose each  other,
 are not the only substances which defeat the  inten-
tion of the  prescriber.   Galenical  medicines,  by
Combination, I believe,  frequently produce effects
that are of a compound and contrary nature to their
original and simple qualities.  This remark  is ca-
pable  of extensive application, but I  quit it as a di-
gression from the subject of this inquiry.

   10.  I wish it to be observed,  that I have con-
 demned the mixture  of different aliments in the
stomach only in a few cases, and under certain cir-
cumstances.  It remains yet to determine by ex-
 periments, what changes  are produced upon ali-
 ments by heat, dilution,  addition,  concentration,
 motion, rest, and the addition of uniting substances,
 before we can decide upon the relation of aliments
 to each other, and the influence  of that  relation
 upon  health.  The olla podrida  of Spain is said 
          ALIMENTS TO  EACH OTHER.      255
 to be a pleasant and wholesome dish.   It is proba-
 bly  rendered so, by a previous tendency of all its
 ingredients to  putrefaction, or by  means  of heat
 producing a new  arrangement, or  additional new
 relations of all its parts.  I suspect heat  to be a
 powerful agent in disposing heterogeneous aliments
 to unite with each other; and hence the mixture
 of aliments is probably less unhealthy in France and
 Spain, than in England, where so much less fire is
 used in preparing them, than in the former coun-
 tries.

   As too great a mixture of glaring colours, which
 are related to  each other, becomes painful to the
 eye, so too great a mixture  of related aliments op-
 presses the stomach, and debilitates the powers of
 the system.  The original colours of the sky,  and
 of the  surface of the globe,  have ever been found
 the  most permanendy agreeable  to the eye.   In
 like manner, I am disposed to believe that there
 arc certain simple aliments which  correspond, in
 their sensible  qualities, with the intermediate co-
 lours of blue and green, that are most permanently
 agreeable  to the tongue and stomach, and that
 every deviation from them is a departure from the
simplicity of health and  nature. 
 256    THE  RELATION OF  TASTES AND
    11.   While nature seems to have limited us to
 simplicity in  aliment, is not this restriction abun-
 dantly compensated by  the variety of tastes which
 she allows us to impart  to it,  in order to diversify
 and increase the pleasure of eating ?  It  is remark-
 able that salt, sugar, mustard, horse-radish, capers,
 and spices of all kinds,  according to Mr. Gosse's
 experiments,  related by Abbe  Spallanzani,*  all
 contribute not only to render aliments savoury, but
 to promote their digestion.

   12. When we consider, that part of the  art of
 cookery consists in rendering the taste of aliments
 agreeable, is  it not probable that the pleasure of
 eating  might be increased beyond our present
 knowledge upon that subject, by certain  new ar-
 rangements or mixtures  of the substances which
 are  used, to  impart  a pleasant  taste to our ali-
 ment?

  13.  Should philosophers ever stoop to this sub-
ject, may they not discover and ascertain a table of
the relations  of sapid bodies to each other,  with
the same accuracy that  they have ascertained the
relation of the numerous objects of chemistry to
each other ?
* Dissertations, vol. I. p. 326. 
ALIMENTS  TO EACH
OTHER.
257
   14.  When the tongue and stomach agree in the
same kinds of aliment, may not the increase of the
pleasure of eating be accompanied with an increase
of health and prolongation of life ?

   15.  Upon the pleasure of eating, I shall add the
following remarks.  In order to render it truly ex-
quisite, it is  necessary that all the senses, except
that of taste, should  be  as quiescent as possible.
Those persons mistake the nature  of the appetite
for food, who attempt to, whet it by accompanying
a dinner by a band of music, or by connecting the
dining table with an extensive and delightful pros-
pect.   The undue excitement of one sense  always
produces weakness in another.  Even conversa-
tion sometimes detracts  from the pleasure of eat-
ing ; hence great feeders love to eat  in silence, or
alone; and hence the speech of a passionate French-
man, while dining in a talkative company, was not
so improper as might be at first imagined.  " Hold
your tongues (said he) I cannot taste my dinner."
I know a physician, who, upon the same principle,
always shuts  his eyes, and requests silence in a sick
chamber, when he wishes to determine by the pulse
the propriety of blood-letting, in cases where its
indication is  doubtful.  His  perceptions  become
more distinct, by confining his whole attention to
the sense of feeling.
   VOL. i.              k k 
258     THE  RELATION  OF TASTES, &C.
  It is impossible to mention the  circumstance  of
the senses acting only in  succession to each other
in the enjoyment of pleasure, without being struck
with,the impartial goodness of Heaven, in placing
the rich and the poor so much upon a level in the
pleasures of the table.   Could the numerous ob-
jects of pleasure, which are addressed to the ears
and the eyes, have been possessed  at the same time
with the pleasure of eating, the  rich would have
commanded three times  as much pleasure in that
enjoyment as the poor; but this is so far from be-
ing the case, that a  king has no  advantage over a
beggar, in eating die same kind of aliment. 
THE RESULT OF OBSERVATIONS
     UPON THE DISEASES

           WHICH OCCURRED

   IN THE MILITARY HOSPITALS

        OF THE UNITED STATES,

DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN
          AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
RESULT OF OBSERVATIONS, &c.
        1. THE army, when in tents, was always
 more sickly than in the open air.  It was likewise
 more healthy  when it was kept in motion, than
 when it lay in an encampment.

   2.  Young men under twenty years of age were
 subject to the greatest number of camp diseases.

   3.  The southern troops were more sickly than
 the northern or eastern troops.

   4. The native Americans were more sickly than
 the natives of Europe who served in the Ameri;
 can army.

   5. Men above thirty and five and thirty years
of age  were the hardiest soldiers in  the army.
Perhaps the  reason why  the natives  of  Europe 
262
OBSERVATIONS UTON THE
were more healthy than the native Americans was,
they were more advanced in life.

   6. The southern troops sickened from the want
of salt provisions.   Their strength and spirits were
restored  only by means  of salted meat.  I once
saw a private in a Virginia regiment throw away
his ration of choice fresh beef, and  give a  dollar
for a pound of salted bacon.

   7. Those officers who  wore  flannel  shirts  or
xvaistcoats next to their skins,  in  general, escaped
fevers and diseases of all kinds.

   8. The principal diseases in the hospitals were
the typhus gravior and mitior of Doctor Cullen.
Men who came into the hospitals with pleurisies
or rheumatisms soon lost the types  of their ori-
ginal diseases, and suffered, or died, by the above-
mentioned states of fever.

   9. The typhus mitior always prevailed most, and
with the  worst symptoms, in winter.  A free air,
which could only be obtained in  summer, always
prevented,  or mitigated it.

   10.  In  all  those cases,  where the  contagion
was received,  cold seldom failed to render  it ac- 
      DISEASES OF MILITARY HOSPITALS.   263
 tive.  Whenever an hospital was removed in win-
 ter, one half of the patients generally sickened on
 the way, or soon after their arrival at the place to
 which they were sent.

    11. Drunken soldiers and  convalescents were
 most subject to this fever.

    12. Those patients in this fever, who had large
 ulcers on their backs or  limbs, generally recover-
 ed.

   13. I met with several instances of buboes,  also
 of ulcers in  the throat, as described by  Doctor
 Donald Monro.  They were mistaken by some of
 the junior surgeons for  venereal  sores,  but they
 yielded  to the  common  remedies of the hospital
 fever.

   14.  There were many instances  of patients in
 this fever, who suddenly fell  down dead, upon
 being moved, without  any previous symptoms of
 approaching dissolution.  This was more especially
 the case, when they arose to go to stool.

   15.  The contagion of this fever was frequently
conveyed from the hospital to the camp, by means
of blankets and clothes. 
264      OBSERVATIONS UPON THE
   16. Those black  soldiers  who had been  pre-
viously slaves died in a greater proportion by this
fever, or had a much slower recovery from it,  than
the same number of white soldiers^.,

   17. The  remedies which  appeared to do most
service in this disease were vomits of tartar eme-
tic, gende dozes of laxative salts, bark, wine, vola-
tile salt, opium, and blisters.

   18. An emetic seldom failed  of checking this
fever, if  exhibited while it was in a forming state,
and before the patient was confined to his bed.

   19. Many causes concurred  to produce, and
increase this fever ; such as the want of cleanliness,
excessive fatigue, the ignorance or negligence  of
officers in providing suitable diet and accommo-
dations  for  their  men,  the  general use of  linen
instead of woollen clothes in the summer months,
and the  crowding too many patients  together in
one hospital, with such other inconveniences and
abuses, as  usually follow  the  union of the  pur-
veying and directing departments of hospitals in the
same persons. But there is one more cause of this
fever which remains to be mentioned, and  that  is,
the sudden  assembling of a  great number of per-
 sons together of different habits and manners, such 
DISEASES
OF MILITARY  HOSPITALS.
265
 as the soldiers of the American army were in the
 years 1776 and 1777.  Doctor Blane informs us,
 in his observations upon  the diseases of seamen,
 "that it sometimes happens that a  ship  with a
 long established crew shall be  very  healthy,  yet
 if strangers  are  introduced among them, who
 are also healthy,  sickness will  be mutually pro-
 duced."   The history of diseases furnishes many
 proofs of die truth of this assertion.*  It is very
 remarkable,  that  while the American army  at
 Cambridge, in  the year  1775,  consisted  only  of
 New Englandmen (whose habits and manners were
 the same) there was scarcely any sickness among
 them.  It was  not till the troops of the  eastern,
 middle, and southern states met at New York and
 Ticonderoga, in the  year 1776, that the  typhus
 became  universal,  and spread  with such peculiar
 mortality in the armies of the United States.

   20. The dysentery prevailed, in the summer of
 1777, in the military hospitals of New Jersey, but

  * « Cleanliness is founded on a natural aversion to what
is unseemly and offensive in the persons of others:  and there
seems also to be an instinctive horror at strangers implanted
in human nature for the same purpose, as is visible in youn<*
children, and uncultivated people.   In  the early ages of
Rome, the same word  signified both a stranger and an ene-
my."  Dr. Blane, p. 225.
   VOL. I.               L 1 
266       OBSERVATIONS UPON  THE
with very few instances of mortality.  This dysen-
tery was frequently followed by an  obstinate diarr-
hoea, in which the warm bath was  found in many
cases to be an effectual remedy.

  21. I saw several instances of fevers occasioned
by the use of the common ointment made of the
flour of sulphur and hog's lard, for the cure of the
itch.  The fevers were  probably  brought on by
the exposure of the body  to the cold air, in the
usual method in which that ointment is applied.   I
have since learned, that the itch may be cured as
speedily by rubbing the parts affected, two or three
times, with the dry flour of sulphur, and that no
inconvenience, and scarcely any smell, follow this
mode of using it.

  22.  In gun-shot  wounds  of the joints,  Mr.
Ranby's advice of amputating  the limb  was fol-
lowed with success. I saw two cases of death where
this advice was neglected.

  23. There was one instance of a soldier  who
lost his hearing,  and another of a soldier who had
been deaf who recovered his hearing, by the noise
of artillery in battle. 
      DISEASES OF MILITARY HOSPITALS.    267
   24. Those soldiers who were billetted in private
 houses  generally escaped  the hospital fever,  and
 recovered soonest from all their diseases.

   25. Hospitals built of coarse logs,  with ground
 floors, with fire-places in the middle  of them, and
 a  hole  in the roof,  for the discharge of smoke,
 were found to be very  conducive to the recovery
 of the soldiers from the hospital fever.  This  form
 of a military hospital was introduced  into the army
 by Dr. Tilton, of the state of Delaware.*

   26. In fevers and dysenteries, those soldiers re-
 covered most certainly,  and most speedily, who lay
 at the greatest distance  from the walls  of the hos-
 pitals.   This important fact was communicated to
 me by the late Dr. Beardsley, of Connecticut.

   27. Soldiers  are but  little  more than adult chil- „
 dren.   That officer, therefore,  will  best perform
 his duty to his men, who obliges them to take the
 most care of their health.

  * " It is proved, in  innumerable instances, that sick men
 recover health sooner  and better in sheds, huts, and barns,
 exposed  occasionally to wind,  and sometimes to rain, than
 in the most superb hospitals  in Europe."   Jackson's Re-
 marks on the Constitution of the Medical  Department of
the British Army,  p. 340. 
268     OBSERVATIONS UPON THE, &C.
  28. Hospitals are the sinks of human life  in an
army.   They robbed the United States of more
citizens than the sword.   Humanity,  economy,
and philosophy, all  concur in giving a preference
to the conveniences and wholesome air of private
houses ; and should war continue to be the absurd
and unchristian mode of deciding national disputes,
it is to be hoped that  the progress of science will
so far mitigate one  of its greatest calamities, as to
produce an abolition of hospitals for acute diseases.
Perhaps there are no  cases  of sickness,  in which
reason and religion do not forbid the seclusion of
our fellow creatures from the offices of humanity in
private families, except  where they labour under
the calamities of madness and the venereal disease,
or where they are the subjects of some of the ope-
rations of surgery. 
          AN INQUIRY






             INTO THE






EFFECTS OF ARDENT SPIRITS






              UPON THE






      HUMAN BODY AND MIND.





              WITH





 \X ACCOUNT OF THE MEANS OF PREVENTING,





              AND OF





       THE REMEDIES FOR CURING THEM. 
 
AN INQUIRY, &c.
      BY ardent spirits, I mean those liquors only
which are obtained  by distillation from fermented
substances of any kind.   To their effects upon the
bodies and minds of men, the following  inquiry
shall be exclusively confined.  Fermented liquors
contain so little spirit, and that so intimately com-
bined with other matters, that they can seldom be
drunken in sufficient quantities to produce intoxi-
cation, and its subsequent effects, without exciting
a disrelish to their taste, or pain, from their distend-
ing the stomach.   They are moreover, when taken
in a moderate quantity, generally  innocent,  and
often have a friendly influence upon health and life.

   The effects of ardent spirits divide themselves
into such as are of a prompt, and such as are  of a 
 272         ON THE EFFECTS OF
 chronic nature.   The former discover themselves
 in drunkenness,  and the latter, in a numerous train
 of diseases and vices of the body and mind.

  I.  I shall  begin  by briefly describing  their
 prompt, or immediate effects, in a fit of  drunken-
 ness.

  This odious disease (for by that name it should
 be called) appears with more or less of the follow-
 ing symptoms, and most commonly in  the order
 in which I shall  enumerate  them.

  1. Unusual garrulity.

  2. Unusual silence.

  3. Captiousness, and a disposition to quarrel.

  4. Uncommon good  humour,  and an  insipid
simpering, or laugh.

  5. Profane swearing, and cursing.

  6. A disclosure of their own, or other people's
 secrets.

  7. A rude disposition to tell those persons in
 company, whom they  know, their faults. 
              ARDENT SPIRITS.           273
  8. Certain immodest actions.   I  am  sorry  to
say, this sign of the first stage of drunkenness some-
times appears in women, who,  when sober,  are
uniformly remarkable for chaste and decent man-
ners.

  9. A clipping of words.

  10. Fighting;  a black  eye, or a swelled nose,
often mark this grade of drunkenness.

  11. Certain extravagant acts, which indicate a
temporary fit of madness.   These are singing, hal-
looing, roaring, imitating the noises  of brute ani-
mals, jumping, tearing off clothes,•.dancing naked,
breaking glasses and china,  and dashing other ar-
ticles of household  furniture upon the ground,  or
floor.   After a while the paroxysm of drunkenness
is completely  formed.  The  face now  becomes
flushed; the eyes project, and are somewhat watery;
winking is less frequent than is natural; the under
lip is protruded; the head inclines a little  to one
shoulder; the jaw falls; belchings and hiccup take
place ; the limbs totter; the whole body  staggers.
The unfortunate subject of this histoiy next falls on
his seat; he looks around him  with a vacant coun-
tenance, and mutters inarticulate sounds to himself.
  vol.  i.               Mm 
274           ON  THE  EFFECTS Ot
He attempts to rise and walk ; in this attempt, he
falls upon his side, from which he gradually turns
upon his back.  He now closes his eyes, and falls
into a profound sleep,  frequently  attended  with
snoring, and profuse sweats,;, and sometimes  with
such a relaxation of the muscles which confine the
bladder  and the lower  bowels, as to produce  a
symptom which delicacy forbids me to mention.
In this condition,  he often  lies from ten,  twelve,
and twenty-four hours, to two, three, four, and five
days,  an  object of pity and disgust to his family
and friends.  His recovery from this fit of intoxi-
cation is marked with several peculiar appearances.
He  opens  his eyes, and closes them again;  he
gapes, and  stretches his limbs; he then coughs and
pukes; his  voice  is hoarse; he rises with  difficul-
ty, and  staggers to a  chair; his eyes resemble
 balls  of  fire; his hands tremble; he loathes  the
 sight of food; he calls for a glass of spirits  to com-
 pose his stomach; now and then he emits a deep.
 fetched sigh, or groan,  from a transient twinge of
 conscience, but he more  frequently  scolds, and
 curses every  thing  around him.  In this  state of
 languor and stupidity he remains for  two or three
 days, before he is able to resume his former habits
 of business and conversation. 
ARDENT SPIRITS
275
   Pythagoras we are told maintained that the souls
of men, after death, expiated the crimes commit-
ted by them in  this  world, by animating certain
brute animals; and that the souls of those animals,
in their turns, entered into men, and carried with
them all their peculiar qualities and vices.   This
doctrine of one of the wisest and best of the Greek
philosophers, was probably intended only to con-
vey a lively idea of the changes which are induced
in the body and mind of man by a fit of drunken-
ness.  In folly, it causes him to resemble a calf;
in stupidity, an ass; in roaring, a mad bull;  in
quarrelling, and fighting, a dog; in cruelty, a tiger;
m fetor, a skunk ; in filthiness, a hog ;  and in ob-
scenity, a he-goat.

   It belongs to the history of drunkenness to  re-
mark, that its paroxysms  occur, like the parox-
ysms of many  diseases,  at certain periods, and
after longer or shorter intervals.    They  often
begin with annual, and gradually increase in their
frequency, until the}- appear in quarterly, monthly,
weekly, and quotidian  or daily periods.  Finally,
they afford scarcely any marks of remission, either
during the day or the night.  There was a citizen
of Philadelphia, many years ago, in whom drunk-
enness appeared in this protracted form. In speak-
ing  of  him to  one  of his neighbours, I  said, 
276
ON  THE EFFECTS OF
" Does he  not  sometimes get drunk ?"  " You
mean," said his  neighbour, " is he not sometimes
sober?"

  It is further remarkable,  that drunkenness re-
sembles certain  hereditary,  family,  and contagi-
ous  diseases.  I have once known  it to descend
from a father  to four out of five of his  children.
I have seen three, and once four brothers, who were
born of sober ancestors, affected by it, and I have
heard of its  spreading through  a whole  family
composed  of members not originally  related to
each other.   These facts are important, and should
not  be overlooked by parents, in deciding upon
the matrimonial connections of their children.

  Let  us next attend to the chronic  effects of ar-
dent spirits upon the body and mind.  In the bo-
dy,  they dispose to  every form of acute disease ;
they moreover excite fevers in persons predisposed
to them, from other causes.   This has been re-
marked in  all the  yellow fevers which have visit-
ed the cities of the United States.  Hard drinkers
seldom escape,  and rarely recover  from  them.
The following diseases are the usual consequences
of the  habitual use of ardent  spirits, viz. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
277
   1. A decay of appetite,  sickness  at  stomach,
and a puking  of bile,  or a  discharge of a frothy
and viscid phlegm by hawking, in the  morning.

   2.  Obstructions of the  liver.   The fable of
Prometheus, on whose liver a vulture was said to
prey constantly, as a punishment for his stealing fire
from heaven,  was intended to illustrate the painful
effects  of ardent  spirits upon that organ  of the
body.

   3. Jaundice and dropsy of the belly and limbs,
and finally of every cavity in the body.  A swell-
ing in the feet and legs is so characteristic  a mark
of habits of intemperance, that the merchants in
Charleston,  I  have been  told, cease to trust the
planters of South  Carolina, as soon as they perceive
it.  They very naturally  conclude industry  and
virtue  to  be  extinct in that  man, in whom  that
symptom of disease has been produced by  the in-
temperate use of distilled spirits.

   4. Hoarseness, and a husky cough, which often
terminate in  consumption,  and sometimes in an
acute and fatal disease of die lungs.

 "_ 5. Diabetes, that is, a frequent and weakening
discharge of pale, or sweetish urine. 
 278          ON THE EFFECTS QF
   6.  Redness and eruptions on different parts of
 the body.  They generally begin on the nose, and
 after gradually extending all over the face, some-
 times descend to the limbs in the form of leprosy.
 They have been called " rum-buds," when they
 appear in the face.   In persons who have  occa-
 sionally survived these  effects of ardent  spirits on
 the skin, the  face after  a  while  becomes bloated,
 and its  redness  is succeeded by a death-like pale-
 ness.   Thus the same  fire which produces a red
 colour in iron,  when urged to a more intense de-
 gree,  produces  what has been called a white heat.

 7. A fetid breath,  composed of every thing that
 is offensive in putrid animal matter.

  8. Frequent  and  disgusting  belchings.    Dr.
 Haller relates the case of a notorious drunkard
 having been suddenly destroyed, in consequence of
 the vapour dicharged from his stomach by belch-
 ing accidentally taking fire, by coming in contact
 with the flame of a candle.

  9. Epilepsy.

  10. Gout,  in all  its various forms of swelled
limbs, colic, palsy, and  apoplexy. 
ARDENT SPIRITS
279
  Lastly, 11.  Madness.  The late Dr.  Waters,
while he acted as house pupil and apothecary of
the Pennsylvania hospital, assured me, that in one-
third of the patients confined by this terrible dis-
ease it had been induced by ardent spirits.

  Most of the diseases which have been enume-
rated are of a  mortal nature.   They are more cer-
tainly induced, and terminate more speedily in
death,  when spirits are  taken in such quantities,
and  at such times,  as to produce frequent intoxi-
cation :  but it may serve to remove an error with
which some intemperate people console themselves,
to remark, that ardent spirits often bring on fatal
diseases without producing drunkenness.   I  have
known  many  persons  destroyed  by them, who
were never completely intoxicated during the whole
course of their lives.   The  solitary  instances of
longevity  which  are  now  and then met with in
hard drinkers, no more disprove the deadly effects
of ardent spirits, than die solitary instances of re-
coveries from  apparent death by drowning,  prove
that  there is no danger to life from a human body
lying an hour  or two under water.

  The bod}' after its death, from  the  use of dis-
tilled spirits, exhibits by dissection certain appear-
ances which are of a peculiar nature.   The  fibres 
280          ON  THE  EFFECTS OF
 of the  stomach and bowels are contracted;  ab-
 scesses, gangrene, and  schirri, are  found in the
 viscera ; the bronchial vessels are contracted ; the
 blood-vessels  and tendons,  in  many parts of the
 body, are more or less ossified; and even the hair
 of the head possesses a crispness, which renders it
 less valuable to wig-makers than the hair of sober
 people.

   Not less destructive are the effects of ardent spi-
 rits  upon  the human  mind.   They impair the
 memory, debilitate  the  understanding,  and per-
 vert  the moral faculties.  It was probably  from
 observing these  effects of intemperance in drink-
 ing upon the mind, that  a law  was formerly pass-
ed in Spain, which excluded drunkards from being
witnesses in a court of justice.   But the demoral-
izing effects of distilled  spirits do not stop here.
 They produce not only falsehood, but fraud, theft,
 uncleanliness, and  murder.   Like  the demoniac
 mentioned in the  New Testament,  their name  is
 " legion," for they convey  into the  soul a host of
 vices and crimes.

   A  more affecting spectacle cannot be exhibited,
 than  a person into whom this infernal spirit, gene-
 rated by habits of intemperance, has entered.   It
 is more or less affecting, according  to the station 
ARDENT
SPIRITS.
281
the person  fills in a family, or in society, who is
possessed by it.   Is he a husband ? How deep the
anguish which rends the  bosom  of his wife! Is
she a wife ? Who  can measure  the shame  and
aversion which she excites in her husband!  Is he
the father, or is  she the  mother of a family of
children ? See  their averted  faces from their pa-
rent, and  their blushing  looks at each other! Is
he a magistrate ?  or has he  been  chosen to fill a
high and respectable station in the councils of his
country?   What  humiliating fears  of curruption
in the administration of  the laws, and of the sub-
version  of public order and  happiness, appear in
the countenances  of all who  see him!  Is  he a
minister of the gospel ?   Here  language fails  me.
-----If angels weep,—it is at such a sight.

   In  pointing out the  evils produced by ardent
spirits, let us not  pass by their effects upon the
estates of the persons who are addicted to  them.
Are they inhabitants of cities ? Behold their houses
stripped gradually of their furniture, and pawned,
or sold  by a constable,  to  pay  tavern debts!  See
their names upon  record in  the dockets of every
court, and whole pages  of newspapers  filled with
advertisements of their estates for public sale!  Are
they inhabitants of country places ?  Behold their
houses with shattered windows! their barns with
   vol.  i.              n n 
282          ON  THE  EFFECTS OF
leaky roofs!  their gardens over-run with weeds!
their fields with broken fences ! their hogs without
yokes !  their sheep without wool! their cattle and
horses without  fat! and their children filthy, and
half clad, without manners, principles, and morals !
This picture of agricultural wretchedness is seldom
of long duration.   The farms  and property thus
neglected, and depreciated, are seized and sold for
the benefit of a groupe of creditors.  The children
that were  born with the prospect  of inheriting
them are  bound out to service in the  neighbour-
hood ; while their parents, the unworthy authors
of their misfortunes, ramble into new and distant
settlements, alternately fed on their way by the hand
of charity, or a little casual labour.

   Thus we  see poverty  and misery,  crimes and
infamy, diseases and death, are all the natural and
usual consequences of the  intemperate use of ar-
dent spirits.

   I have classed death among the consequences of
hard drinking.   But it is not death from the imme-
diate hand of the Deity, nor from any of the instru-
ments  of it which  were  created by  him. It is
death from  suicide.  Yes! thou poor degraded
creature,  who art daily  lifting the poisoned bowl
to  thy lips, cease to avoid the unhallowed ground 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
283
in which the self-murderer is interred, and Wonder
no longer that the sun should shine, and  the rain
fall,  and the grass  look  green, upon his grave.
Thou art perpetrating gradually, by the use of ar-
dent spirits, what he has  effected suddenly, by
opium or a halter.  Considering how many  cir-
cumstances, from a sudden gust of passion, or
from derangement,  may palliate  his guilt, or that
(unlike yours) it was not  preceded and accompa-
nied by  any other crime, it is probable his con-
demnation will be less than  yours at the day of
judgment.

   I shall now take notice  of the occasions and cir-
cumstances which are supposed to render the use
of ardent spirits necessary, and endeavour to show
that the arguments in favour of their use in such
cases  are founded in error, and that in  each of
them, ardent spirits, instead of affording  strength
to the body, increase the evils they are intended to
relieve.

   1. They are said to be necessary  in very  cold
weather.  * This  is far  from  being  true; for the
temporary  warmth they produce is  always  suc-
ceeded by a greater disposition in the body  to be
affected by cold.   Warm dresses, a plentiful meal
just before exposure to the cold, and eating occa- 
 284         ON THE  EFFECTS OF
 sionally  a little gingerbread, or any other cordial
 food, is a much more durable method of preserve
 ing the heat of the body in cold weather.

   2.  They are said to be necessary in very warm
 weather.   Experience proves that they increase
 instead of lessening the effects of heat upon the
 body, and thereby dispose to diseases of all kinds.
 Even in the warm climate of the West Indies,
 Dr. Bell asserts this to be true.   " Rum (says this
 author) whether used habitually, moderately,  or
 in excessive quantities, in the West Indies, always
 diminishes the strength of the body, and  renders
 men more susceptible of disease, and unfit for any
 service in which vigour or activity is required."*
 As well  might  we throw oil into a house, the roof
 of which was on fire, in order to prevent the flames
 from extending to its inside, as pour ardent spirits
 into the  stomach, to lessen the effects of a hot sun
 upon the skin.

   3.  Nor  do ardent spirits lessen the  effects of
 hard labour upon the body.  Look at the horse:
 with every muscle of his body  swelled from morn-
 ing till night in the  plough, or  a team, does  he
  * Inquiry into the causes which produce, and the means
of preventing diseases among British officers, soldiers, and
others, in the West Indies. 
               ARDENT  SPIRITS.           ^»i>
make signs for  a  draught of toddy or a glass of
spirits, to enable him to cleave the ground, or to
climb a hill ?  No ;  he requires nothing but cool
water, and substantial food.  There is no nourish-
ment in ardent spirits.   The strength they pro-
duce in labour is  of a transient  nature, and is al- }
ways followed by  a sense of weakness and fatigue.

   But are there no conditions of the  human body
 in which ardent spirits may be given ?   I  answer,
 there are.   1st. When the body has been suddenly
 exhausted of its strength, and a disposition to faint -
 ness has been induced.   Here a few  spoonsful, or
 a wine-glassful of spirits, with or without water,
 may be  administered with  safety and advantage.
 In this case we comply strictly  with  the advice of
 Solomon, who restricts  the  use of " strong drink"
 only  " to him who is ready to perish."  2dly.
 When the body has been exposed for a long time
 to wet weather, more especially if it be combined
 with cold.  Here a moderate quantity of spirits is
 not only safe, but highly proper to obviate debility,
 and to prevent a  fever.   They  will more  certainly
 have those salutary effects, if  the feet are at the
 same time bathed with them, or a half pint of them
 poured into the shoes or boots.  These I believe
 are the only two cases, in which distilled spirits are
  useful or necessary to persons in health.
itv' 
286
ON  THE  EFFECTS OF
   But  it may be said, if we reject spirits from
 being a part of our drinks, what liquors shall we
 substitute in their room ?  I  answer, in the first
 place,

   1.  Simple water.  I have known many in-
 stances  of persons, who have followed the  most
 laborious employments  for  many  years in the
 open  air, and in warm  and  cold weather, who
 never drank  any  thing  but  water,  and enjoyed
 uninterrupted  good  health.  Dr.  Moseley, who
 resided many years in the West Indies, confirms
 this remark.   " I aver  (says the Doctor)  from
my own knowledge and custom, as well as the
custom  and observations  of  many other people,
that those who drink nothing  but water, or make
it their principal drink, are but little affected by
the climate, and can undergo the greatest fatigue
without inconvenience, and are  never  subject to
troublesome or dangerous diseases."

  Persons who are unable to relish this  simple be-
verage of nature, may drink  some one, or of all
the following liquors,  in preference to ardent spi-
rits.

  2.  Cyder.  This excellent liquor  contains a
small quantity of spirit, but so diluted,  and biting 
                ARDENT  SPIRITS.          287
 ed, by being combined with a large quantity of sac-
 charine  matter, and  water,  as  to be  perfectly
 wholesome.   It sometimes disagrees with persons
 subject to the rheumatism, but it may  be made
 inoffensive to such people, by extinguishing a red
 hot iron in it, or by mixing it with water.   It is
 to  be lamented, that the  late  frosts in the spring
 so  often deprive us of the fruit which affords this
 liquor.  The effects of these  frosts have been in
 some measure  obviated by giving an orchard  a
 north-west exposure, so as to check too  early ve-
 getation,  and  by kindling  two  or three large
 fires of brush or straw, to the  windward of the or-
 chard,  the  evening before we expect a night of
 frost.   This last expedient has in many instances
 preserved the  fruit  of an orchard, to  the great
 joy and emolument of the ingenious husbandman.

   3.  Malt  liojtors.  The grain from which
 these liquors are obtained is not liable,  like  the
 apple, to  be affected by frost, and therefore they
 can be procured  at all times, and at  a  mode-
 rate price.  They contain a  good deal of nou-
 rishment ; hence we find  many of the poor peo-
 ple in Great Britian endure hard labour with no
other food than a quart or three pints  of beer,
with a few pounds of bread in a day.  As it will
be  difficult to prevent  small beer  from becoming
                                             to 
288
ON  THE EFFECTS  OF
 sour in warm weather, an excellent substitute may
 be made for it by mixing  bottled porter, ale, or
 strong beer, with an equal quantity of water ; or a
 pleasant beer may be made by adding to a botde
 of porter, ten  quarts of water,  and a  pound  of
 brown sugar, or a pint of molasses.  After they
 have been well mixed, pour  the liquor into bot-
 tles, and place them, loosely corked, in a cool cel-
 lar.   In  two or three days, it will be fit for use.
 A spoonful of ginger added to the mixture renders
 it more lively, and agreeable to the taste.

   3. Wines.  These fermented liquors are  com-
 posed of the same ingredients as cyder, and are
 both cordial and  nourishing.   The peasants of
 France, who drink them in  large  quantities, are
a sober and healthy body of  people.  Unlike ar-
dent  spirits, which  render  the  temper irritable,
wines generally inspire cheerfulness and good hu-
mour.   It is  to be lamented that the  grape has
not as yet been sufficiently cultivated in our coun-
try, to afford wine to our citizens;  but many ex-
cellent substitutes may be made for it,  from the
native fruits of all the states.;  If  two barrels of
cyder, fresh from  the press, are boiled  into one,
and  afterwards  fermented,  and  kept for two or
three years in a  dry cellar,  it  affords  a  liquor,
which, according  to the quality of  the apple  from 
              ARDENT  SPIRITS.           -soJ
which the cyder is made, has the taste of Mala-
ga, or Rhenish wine. It affords, when mixed with
water, a most agreeable drink in summer.   I  have
taken the liberty of calling it Pomona  wine.
There  is  another  method  of  making a  pleasant
wine from the apple,  by adding four  and twenty
gallons  of new cyder  to three gallons of syrup
made from the expressed juice of  sweet apples.
When thoroughly fermented,  and kept for a few
years,  it  becomes fit  for use.  The blackberry
of our  fields, and the  raspberry and  currant  of
our  gardens,  afford  likewise  an  agreeable and
wholesome wine,  when pressed and mixed with
certain proportions of sugar and water, and  a lit-
tle spirit, to counteract their disposition to an ex-
cessive  fermentation.   It is no objection to  these
cheap and home-made wines, that  they are  unfit
for use until they are two or three years old.  The
foreign  wines  in common use  in our  country re-
quire not only a much longer time to bring  them
to perfection,  but to prevent their being disagreea-
ble, even to the taste.

   4. Molasses and water, also  vinegar and
wat er, sweetened with sugar  or molasses, form an
agreeable drink in warm weather.  It is pleasant
and cooling, and tends to keep up those gentle and
uniform sweats, on which health and life  often de~
   vol.  i.            o <*> 
290          ON THE  EFFECTS OF
   • • •  :"          **
pend.'  .Vinegar and water constituted the only
drink of the soldiers of the Roman republic, and it
is well known they marched and fought in a warm
climate, and beneath a load of arms which weighed
sixty  pounds.; Boaz,  a wealthy farmer in Pales-
tine, we find  treated his reapers w;th  nothing but
bread dipped in vinegar.   To such persons as ob-
ject to the  taste of vinegar, sour  milk, or butter-
milk, or sweet milk diluted with water,  may be
given in its stead.   I  have known  the labour of
the longest and hottest days in summer supported,
by means of these pleasant  and  wholesome drinks,
with  great firmness, and  ended, with scarcely  a
complaint of  fatigue.

   5. The sugar maple affords a thin juice, which
has long been used by the farmers, in  Connecticutj
as a cool and refreshing drink, in the time of har-
vest.   The settlers in the  western counties of the
middle states will do well  to let a few of the trees
which yield this pleasant juice  remain in all their
fields.  They may  prove  the  means, not only of
saving their  children and grand-children  many
hundred pounds,  but of saving their bodies from
disease and death, and their souls from misery be-
yond the grave.

   6.  Coffee possesses agreeable and exhilarating
qualities, and might be used with great advantage 
ardent spirits.           291
to obviate the painful erTects of heat, cold, and fa-
tigue upon the body.  I once knew a country phy-
sician, who made it a practice to drink  a pint of
strong coffee previously to his taking a long or cold
ride.  It was more cordial to  him than spirits, in
any of the forms in which they are commonly used.

  :The use of the  cold bath in the  morning,  and
of the warm bath in the evening, are happily cal-
culated to strengthen the body in the former part
of the day, and to restore it in  the latter,  from  the
languor and  fatigue  which  are induced  by heat
and labour. •

   Let it not  be said, ardent spirits  have become
necessary from habit in harvest, and in other sea-
sons of uncommon and arduous labour.   The ha-
bit is a bad one, and may be easily  broken.  Let
but half a dozen farmers in a neighbourhood com-
bine to allow higher wages to  their  labourers than
are common,  and a  sufficient  quantity of any of
the pleasant and wholesome liquors  I have recom-
mended, and  they may  soon, by their example,
abolish  the practice  of giving  them spirits.  In a
little while they will be delighted with the good
effects of their association.  Their grain  and hay
will be gathered into their barns in  less time, and
in a better condition, than formerly,  and of course 
292*
ON  THE EFFECTS OF
at a less ex pence,  and a  hundred disagreeable,
scenes from sickness,  contention, and accidents,
will be avoided, all of which follow in a greater or
less degree the use of ardent spirits.

  Nearly all diseases have their predisposing caus-
es.   The same thing may  be said of the intem-
perate use of distilled  spirits.  It will, therefore,
be useful to point out  the  different employments,
situations, and  conditions of the  body  and mind,
which predispose to  the love of those liquors, and
to accompany them with directions to prevent per-
sons being  ignorantly  and  undesignedly  seduced
into the habitual and destructive  use of them.

  1.  Labourers bear with great difficulty long in-
tervals between their meals.  To enable them to
support the waste of their strength, their stomachs
should be constantly, but moderately,  stimulated
by aliment, and this is best done by their eating
four or five times in a  day  during the seasons of
great bodily exertion. The food at this time should
be solid, consisting  chiefly  of salted  meat.   The
vegetables used with it should possess some acti-
vity, or they should be made savoury by a mixture
of spices.   Onions and garlic are of a most cordial
nature.   They composed a part of the diet which
enabled the Iraelites to endure, in a warm climate, 
ARDENT
SPIRITS.
293
the heavy tasks imposed upon them by their Egyp-
tian  masters;  and they were  eaten, Horace and
Virgil tell us, by the Roman farmers, to repair the
waste of their  strength  by the toils of harvest.
There are likewise certain sweet substances, which
support the body under the  pressure of labour.
The  negroes  in the West Indies become strong,
and even fat, by drinking the  juice  of  the  sugar
cane, in  the season of grinding it.  The Jewish
soldiers  were invigorated by occasionally eating
raisins and figs.  A  bread composed of wheat
flour, molasses, and ginger (commonly called gin-
gerbread) taken in small  quantities during the day,
is happily calculated to obviate the debility induced
upon the body by constant labour.  All  these sub-
stances, whether of an animal or vegetable nature,
lessen the desire, as well as the necessity, for cor-
dial drinks, and impart equable and durable strength
to every part of the system.

   2.  Valetudinarians, especially  those who are
afflicted with diseases  of the stomach and bowels,
are very apt to seek relief from ardent spirits.  Let
such people be cautious how they make use of this
dangerous remedy.  I have known many men and
women of excellent characters and principles, who
have been betrayed, by occasional doses of gin and
brandy, into a love of those liquors, and have after- 
294
ON  THE EFFECTS  OF
 wards fallen sacrifices to  their fatal effects.  The
 different preparations of opium are much more safe
 and efficacious than distilled  cordials of any kind,
 in flatulent or spasmodic affections of the stomach
 and bowels.  So great is the danger of contracting
 a love for distilled liquors, by accustoming the sto-
 mach  to  their  stimulus, that  as few medicines as
 possible should be given in spirituous vehicles, in
 chronic diseases.  A physician, of great eminence
 and uncommon worth, who died towards the close
 of the  last century, in London, in taking leave of a
 young physician of this city* who had finished his
 studies under his patronage, impressed this caution
 with peculiar force upon  him,  and lamented at the
 same time, in pathetic terms, that he had innocent-
 ly made many sots, by prescribing brandy and wa-
 ter in stomach complaints.   It is difficult to tell
 hov(r many persons have been destroyed by those
 physicians who hare adopted Dr. Brown's indiscri-
 minate practice in the use of stimulating remedies,
 the most  popular of  which is ardent spirits, but,
 it is well known, several of them have died of in-
temperance in this city since the year 1790.  They
were probably  led to  it,  by drinking brandy and
water,  to relieve  themselves from the frequent at-
tacks of debility and indisposition, to which the la-
bours of a physician expose him,  and  for  which
 rest, fasting,,-a gentle purge,: o-  weak  diluting 
                J.KDENT  SPIRITS.            295
 drinks, would have been safe  and more certain
 cures.

   None of these remarks arc intended to preclude
 the use of spirits in the low state of short, or what
 are called acute  diseases, for, in such cases, they
 produce their effects too soon to create a habitual
 desire for them.

   3.  Some people, from living in countries subject
 to intermitting fevers, endeavour to fortify  them-
 selves against them, by taking two or three wine-
 glasses of bitters, made with spirits,  every day.
 There is great danger of  contracting habits of in-
 temperance  from this practice.   Besides,  this
 mode of preventing intermittens is  far from being
 a certain one.  A much better security against
 them,  is a tea-spoonful of the Jesuits bark, taken
 every  morning during a sickly season.  If this
 safe and excellent medicine cannot be had, a  cill or
 half a pint of a strong watery infusion of centaury,
 camomile, wormwood, or rue, mixed with a little
 of the calamus of our meadows, may be taken eve-
 ry morning, widi nearly the  same advantage as the
Jesuits bark.   Those persons who live i:i a sicklv
 country, and cannot procure any  of the preventives
of autumnal fevers which have been mentioned,
should avoid the morning and evening air; should 
296
ON THE EFFECTS OF
 kindle fires in their houses, on damp days, and in
 cool evenings, throughout the whole summer ; and
 put on winter clothes about the first week in Sep-
 tember.   The last part  of these  directions  applies
 only to the inhabitants of the middle states.

   4. Men who follow professions,  which require
 constant exercise of the faculties of their  minds,
 are very apt to seek relief,  by the use of ardent spi-
 rits, from the fatigue which succeeds great  mental
 exertions.   To such persons, it may be a discover)'
 to know, that  tea  is a much better remedy  for
 that purpose.   By its grateful and gentle stimulus,
 it removes fatigue, restores the excitement of the
 mind,  and invigorates the whole system.   I am
 no advocate for the excessive use of tea.   When
 taken too strong, it is hurtful, especially to the fe-
 male constitution;  but when  taken of a moderate
 degree of strength, and in moderate quantities with
 sugar and cream, or milk,  I believe it is, in gene-
 ral, innoxious, and at all times to be preferred  to
 ardent spirits, as a cordial for studious men.  The
 late Anthony  Benezet, one of the most laborious
 schoolmasters  I ever knew, informed me, he had
 been prevented from the love  of spirituous liquors
 by acquiring a love for tea in early life.   Three or
 four cups,  taken in an afternoon, carried off the
fatigue of a whole day's labour  in his school.  This 
ardent spirits.
297
 worthy man lived to be seventy-one years of age;,
 and died of an acute disease, with the full exercise
 of all the faculties of his mind.   But the use of tea
 counteracts a desire for distilled  spirits, during
 great bodily, as well as mental exertions.  Of this,
 captain Forest has furnished us with a  recent and
 remarkable proof, in his History of a Voyage from
 Calcutta to the  Marqui  Archipelago,    " I have
 always observed (says this ingenious mariner) when
 sailors drink te a, it weans them from the thoughts
 of  drinking strong liquors,  and pernicious grog;
 and with  this they are  soon contented.   Not so
 with whatever will intoxicate,  be it what it will.
 This has  always been  my remark.  I therefore
 always encourage it, without their knowing why."

- 5. Women have sometimes been led to seek re-
 lief from  what is called breeding sickness, by the
 use of ardent spirits.    A little gingerbread, or
 biscuit, taken occasionally,  so as  to prevent the
 stomach being empty, is a much better remedy for
 that disease..

  6. Persons  under the pressure of debt, disap-
pointments in worldly pursuits, and guilt,  have
sometimes sought to drown their sorrows in strong
drink.  The  only  radical cure for those evils is
to be found in religion; but where its  support is
  vol. i.                p p 
298
ON  THE  EFFECTS  OF
not resorted to, wine and opium should always be
preferred to ardent spirits.   They are far less inju-
rious to  the body and mind than spirits,  and the
habits  of attachment  to them are easily  broken,
after time and repentance have  removed the evils
they were taken to relieve.

   7. The sociable and  imitative nature  of  man
often disposes him to adopt the most odious and
destructive practices from  his  companions. The
French soldiers who  conquered  Holland,  in the
year 1794, brought back with them the love and
use of brandy, and thereby corrupted the inhabi-
tants of several of the  departments of France,  who
had been previously distinguished for their tempe
rate and  sober manners.  Many other facts might
be mentioned, to show how important it is to avoid
the company of persons addicted to the use of ar-
dent spirits.

   8. Smoking and chewing tobacco, by rendering
water and simple liquors insipid to the taste, dis-
pose very much to the stronger stimulus of ardent
spirits.   The practice of smoking segars has, in
every part of our country,  been more followed by
a general use of  brandy and water as a common
drink, more especially by that class of citizens who
have not been in the habit of drinking wine,  or 
ardent
SPIRITS.
299
malt liquors.   The less, therefore, tobacco is used
in the above ways, the better.

  9. No man ever became suddenly a drunkard.
It is by gradually accustoming the taste and sto-
mach to ardent spirits, in the  forms of grog and
toddy,  that men have been led to love them in
their more destructive mixtures, and in their sim-
ple  state.   Under the  impression of this  truth,
were it possible for me to speak  with  a voice  so
loud as to be heard from the river St. Croix to the
remotest shores  of the Mississippi, which bound
the  territory of  the United  States, I would say,
Friends and fellow-citizens, avoid the habitual use
of those  two  seducing  liquors, whether they  be
made with brandy, rum, gin, Jamaica spirits, whis-
key, or what is called cherry  bounce.  It is true,
some men, by limiting the strength of those drinks
by  measuring the spirit and water, have drunken
them for many years, and even during a long life,
without acquiring habits  of intemperance or in-
toxication, but  many more have  been  insensibly
led, by drinking weak toddy and grog first at their
meals, to take them for their constant drink,  in the
intervals of their  meals ; afterwards to take them,
of an increased  strength,  before  breakfast in the
morning; and finally to  destroy  themselves by
drinking undiluted spirits, during  every  hour of 
300          ON  the  effects of
the day and  night  I am not singular in this re-
mark.   " The consequences of drinking rum and
water,  or grog,  as it is called (says Dr. Moseley)
is, that habit increases the desire of more  spirits,
and decreases its effects;  and there are  very few
grog-drinkers who long survive the practice of de-
bauching with it, without acquiring, the odious nui-
sance of dram-drinkers breath, and down right stu-
pidity  and impotence."* ". To enforce the caution
against the use  of those two apparently innocent
and popular liquors still further, I shall select one
instance, from among many, to show the ordinary
manner in  which  they beguile and  destroy  their
votaries.   A citizen of Philadelphia, once of a fair
and sober character, drank toddy for many years,
as his constant drink.   From this he proceeded to
drink grog.  After a while  nothing would satisfy
him but slings made of equal parts of rum and wa-
ter, with a little sugar.  From slings  he advanced^
to raw rum,  and from common  rum to Jamaica
spirits.  Here he rested for a few months, but at
length, finding even Jamaica spirits were not strong
enough to warm his stomach, he made it a constant
practice to throw a table-spoonful of ground pep-
per in  each glass of his spirits, in order, to use  his
own words, " to take off their coldness. " He soon
after died a martyr to his intemperance..
* Treatise on Tropical Diseases. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
301
  Ministers of the gospel, of every denomination,
in the  United States! aid me with all the  weight
you possess in society, from the dignity and useful-
ness of your sacred office, to save our fellow men
from being destroyed by the  great  destroyer of
their lives and souls.  In  order more successfully
to effect this purpose, permit me to suggest to you
to  employ the  same wise modes of instruction,
which you use  in your attempts to prevent their
destruction by other vices.  You expose the evils
ofcovetousness,  in order to  prevent theft; you
point out the sinfulness of impure desires, in order
to  prevent adultery; and you dissuade from an-
ger, and malice,  in order to prevent murder.   In
like manner,  denounce, by your  preaching, con-
versation, and examples, the seducing influence of
toddy and grog,  when you aim to prevent all the
crimes and miseries  which  are  the  offspring of
strong drink.

  We have hitherto considered the effects of ar-
dent spirits upon individuals,  and the means of
preventing  them.  I shall close this  head of our
inquiry, by a few remarks upon their effects upon
the population and welfare of our  country, and the
means of obviating them.

   It  is highly probable not less than  4000 people
die annually, from the use of ardent spirits,  in the 
302         on  the  effects o*
United States.  Should they continue to exert this
deadly influence upon our population, where will
their evils terminate ?  This question may be an-
swered, by asking, where are all the Indian tribes,
whose numbers and arms formerly spread terror
among their civilized neighbours ? I answer, in the
words of the famous Mingo chief, " the blood of
many of them flows not in the veins of any human
creature."   They have  perished, not by pesti-
lence, nor  war,  but by  a greater foe to human
life than either of them—ardent spirits.   The
loss of 4000 American citizens, by the yellow  fe-
ver, in a sino^e year, awakened general sympathy
and terror,  and called forth all  the strength and
ingenuity of laws, to prevent its recurrence.  Why
is not the same zeal manifested in protecting our
citizens from the more general and consuming ra-
vages of distilled spirits ?  Should the customs of
civilized life preserve our nation from extinction,
and even from  an increase of mortality, by those
liquors;  they cannot prevent our country being
governed  by men,  chosen by intemperate and
corrupted  voters.   From  such legislators,  the
republic would  soon be  in danger.  To avert
this evil,  let good men  of every class unite, and
besiege the general and state  governments with
petitions to limit the number of taverns; to impose
heavy duties upon ardent spirits; to inflict a mark
of disgrace, or a  temporary abridgment of some 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
303
civil right, upon every man convicted of drunken-
ness ; and finally to secure the property of habitual
drunkards, for  the  benefit of  their families,  by
placing it in the hands  of trustees, appointed for
that purpose by a court of justice.

   To aid  the  operation of these  laws,  would it
not  be extremely  useful for the rulers of the dif-
ferent denominations of christian churches to unite,
and render  the, sale  and consumption of ardent
spirits a subject  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction ?
The methodists, and society of friends, have, for
some time  past, viewed them as  contraband arti-
cles to the pure laws of the gospel, and have borne
many public and private testimonies against mak-
ing them the objects of commerce.  Their success,
in this benevolent enterprise, affords ample encou-
ragement for all other religious societies to follow
their example.

   We come now to the third part of this inquiry,
that is, to mention the remedies for the evils wliich
are brought on by the excessive use of distilled spi-
rits.

   These remedies  divide  themselves  into  two
kinds. 
304          ON THE  EFFECTS OF
  I.  Such as are proper to cure a fit of drunken-
ness, and

  II. Such as are proper to prevent its recurrence^
and to destroy a desire for ardent spirits.

  I.  I am aware that the efforts of science and hu-
manity,  in applying their resources to the cure of
a disease induced by an act of vice,  will meet with
a cold reception from many people.   But let such
people remember,  the subjects of our remedies are
their fellow creatures, and that the miseries brought
upon human nature, by its crimes, are as much the
objects of divine compassion (which we are bound
to imitate)  as  the distresses  which are brought
upon men by the crimes of other people, or which
they bring upon themselves by ignorance or acci
dents.   Let us not then pass by the prostrate suf-
ferer from strong drink, but administer to him the
same relief we would afford to a fellow creature,  in
a similar  state, from an accidental, and innocent
cause.

   1.  The first thing  to be  done to cure  a fit  of
 drunkenness, is to open the collar, if in a man, and
 remove all  tight ligatures from every other part of
 the  body.  The head and shoulders should at the 
              ARDENT  spirits.             305
 same time be elevated, so as to favour a more feeble
 determination of the blood to the brain.

   2. The contents of the  stomach should be dis-
 charged, by thrusting a feather down  the throat.  It
 often restores the patient immediately to his senses
 and feet.  Should it fail of exciting a puking,

   3. A napkin should be wrapped round the head,
 and wetted for an hour or two with cold  water,
 or cold water should be poured in a stream upon
 tiie head.  In the latter way I have sometimes seen
 it used, when a boy, in the city of  Philadelphia.
 It was applied,  by dragging  the  patient,  when
 found drunk in the street, to a pump, and pump-
 ing water upon his head for ten or fifteen minutes.
 The patient generally rose, and walked off,  sober
 and sullen, after the use of this remedy.

   Other  remedies, less common,  but not less ef-
 fectual for a fit of drunkenness, are,

   4.  Plunging the whole  body into cold water.
 A number of gentlemen who had drunken to in-
 toxication, on board a ship in the stream, near
 Fell's point,  at Baltimore,  in consequence of their
 reeling  in a small boat, on their way to the shore,
in the evening, overset it, and fell into the  water.
  vol.  r.               ^ q 
306           ON THE EFFECTS OF
Several boats from the shore hurried to their relief.
They were all  picked up, and went home, perfectly
sober, to their families.

   5.  Terror.  A number of young merchants, who
had  drunken  together,  in  a compting-house,  on
James river, above thirty years ago, until they were
intoxicated, were carried away by a sudden  rise
of the river, from an immense  fall of rain.  They
floated several miles with the current, in their little
cabin, half filled with water. An island in the river
arrested  it. When they reached the shore  that
saved their lives, they were all sober.   It is proba-
ble terror assisted in the cure of the persons who
fell into the water at Baltimore.

   6.  The  excitement of a fit of anger.   The  late
Dr.  Witherspoon used to tell a story of a man in
Scotland, who was  always cured of a fit of drunk-
enness by being made angry.   The  means chosen
for that purpose was a  singular one.   It was talk-
ing against religion.

   7. A severe whipping.   This remedy acts by
exciting a revulsion of the blood from  the brain to
the external parts of the body.

   8. Profuse  sweats.   By  means of this evacua-
tion, nature sometimes  cures a fit of drunkenness. 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
307
 Their good effects are obvious in labourers, whom
 quarts of spirits taken in a day will seldom intoxi-
 cate while they  sweat  freely.   If the patient be
 unable to swallow warm drinks, in order to produce
 sweats, they  may be excited by putting him in a
 warm bath, or wrapping his body in  blankets, un-
 der which should be placed half a dozen hot bricks,
 or bottles filled with hot water.

   9.  Bleeding.  This  remedy  should always  be
 used, when the former ones have been prescribed
 to no purpose, or where there is reason to fear, from
 the long duration of the disease,  a material injury
 may be done to the brain.

  It is  hardly necessary to add, that  each of the
above remedies should be regulated by the grade
 of drunkenness, and the greater or less degree  in
 which the intellects are affected in it.

  II. The remedies which are proper to prevent the
 recurrence of fits of drunkenness, and to destroy the
desire for ardent spirits, are religious, metaphysical,
and medical.   I shall briefly mention them.

  1. Many hundred drunkards have been cured of
their desire for ardent spirits, by a practical belief in
the doctrines of the christian  religion.  Examples 
308
ON  THE  EFFECTS OF
 of the divine efficacy of Christianity for this purpose
 have  lately occurred in many  parts of the United
 States.

   2.  A sudden sense of the  guilt contracted by
 drunkenness, and  of its punishment in  a future
 world.   It once cured a gentlement in  Philadel-
 phia,  who, in a fit of drunkenness,  attempted to
 murder a wife whom he loved.  Upon being told
 of it when he was sober, he was so struck with the
 enormity of the crime  he had nearly committed,
 that he never tasted spirituous  liquors afterwards,

   3.  A sudden sense of shame.  Of the efficacy
 of this deep seated principle in the human bosom,
 in curing drunkenness, I shall  relate three remark-
 able instances.

   A farmer in England, who had been many years
 in the practice of coming home intoxicated, from
 a market town, one day observed appearances of
 rain,  while he was  in market.   His hay  was  cut,
 and ready to be housed.   To  save it, he  returned
 in haste  to his  farm, before he had taken his cus-
 tomary  dose of grog.  Upon coming  into   his
 house, one of his children, a boy of six years  old,
ran to his mother, and cried out, " O,  mother!
 father is come home, and he is not drunk."   The 
ARDENT SPIRITS.
309
father,  who heard this  exclamation,  was so se-
verely rebuked by it,  that he suddenly became a
sober man.

  A noted drunkard was once followed by a favour-
ite goat to a tavern, into which he was invited by
his master, and drenched with some of his liquor.
The poor animal staggered home with his master, a
good deal intoxicated.   The next day he followed
him to  his accustomed  tavern.   When  the goat
came to the door, he paused : his master made signs
to him to follow  him into the house.  The goat
stood still.   An attempt was made to thrust him
into the tavern.   He resisted, as if struck with the
recollection of what he suffered from being intoxi-
cated the night before.   His master was so much
affected by a sense of shame, in observing the con-
duct of his goat to be so much more rational than
his own, that he ceased from  that time to drink spi-
rituous liquors.

   A gendeman, in one of the southern states, who
had nearly destroyed himself by strong drink, was
remarkable  for exhibiting the grossest marks  of
folly in his fits of intoxication.   One evening, sit
ting in his parlour, he heard an uncommon noise
in his kitchen.   He went to the  door, and peeped
through  the key  hole, from  whence he saw one of 
310
ON THE EFFECTS OF
his  negroes diverting his fellow  servants, by mi-
micking  his master's gestures and  conversation
when he  was drunk.  The sight overwelmed him
with shame and  distress, and instantly became the
means of his reformation.

  4. The association of the  idea of ardent spirits
with a painful or disagreeable impression upon some
part of the body, has sometimes cured the love of
strong drink.   I  once tempted a negro man,  who
was habitually fond of ardent spirits, to drink  some
rum (which I placed in his way) and in which I
had put a few grains of tartar emetic.  The tartar
sickened and puked him to such a degree, that he
supposed himself to be poisoned.  I was much gra-
tified by observing he could not bear the sight, nor
smell, of spirits for two years afterwards.

  I have heard of a man who was cured of the love
of spirits, by working off a puke by large draughts
of brandy and water, and I know a gentleman, who
in consequence of being affected with a rheumatism*,
immediately after drinking some toddy, when over-
come with fatigue and  exposure to the rain, has
ever since loathed that liquor, only because it was
accidentally associated in his memory with the re-
collection of the  pain he suffered from his disease. 
ARDENT
SPIRITS.
311
  This appeal to that operation of the human mind,
which obliges it to associate ideas, accidentally or
otherwise combined, for the cure of vice, is very
ancient.  It  was resorted to by Moses, when he
compelled the children of Israel to drink the solu-
tion of the golden calf ( which they had idolized) in
water.  This solution, if made, as it most probably
was, by means of what is called heparsulphuris, was
extremely bitter, and nauseous, and could never be
recollected afterwards, without bringing into equal
detestation the sin  which subjected  them to the
necessity of drinking it.   Our knowledge of this
principle of assocition upon the minds and conduct
of men should lead us to destroy, by means of other
impressions,  the influence of ali those circumstan-
ces, with which the recollection and desire of spirits
are combined.   Some men drink only in the morn-
ing, some at noon, and some only at night.   Some
men drink only on a market day, some at one tavern
only, and some only in one kind of company.  Now
by finding a  new and interesting employment or
subject of conversation for  drunkards, at the usual
times in which they have been accustomed to drink,
and by restraining them  by the same means from
those places and companions, which  suggested to
them the idea of ardent  spirits, their habits of in-
temperance may be completely destroyed.   In the
same  way the periodical  returns of appetite, and a 
312
ON THE EFFECTS OF
 desire of sleep, have been destroyed in a hundred
 instances.  The desire for strong drink differs from
 each of them, in  being of an artificial nature, and
 therefore not disposed to return, after being chased
 for a few weeks from the system.

   5. The love of ardent spirits has sometimes been
 subdued, by exciting a counter passion in the mind.
 A citizen of Philadelphia had made many unsuc-
 cessful attempts to cure his  wife of drunkenness.
 At length,  despairing of her reformation, he pur-
 chased a hogshead of rum,  and, after tapping it,
left the key in the door of the room in which it was
placed, as if he had forgotten it   His design was
to give his wife an opportunity of drinking herself
to death.  She suspected this to be his motive, in
 what he had done, and suddenly left off drinking.
 Resentment here became the  antidote to intemper-
 ance.

   6. A diet consisting wholly of vegetables cured
 a physician in Maryland of drunkenness, probably
by lessening that thirst, which is always  more or
less excited by animal food.

   7.  Blisters to the ankles, which were followed by
an unusual degree of inflammation, once suspended
the love of ardent spirits, for one month, in a lady 
              ARDENT SPIRITS.             313
in this city.  The degrees of her intemperance may
be conceived of, when I add, that her grocer's ac-
count for brandy alone amounted, annually, to one
hundred pounds, Pennsylvania currency, for seve-
ral years.

  8. A violent attack of an acute disease has some^
times destroyed a habit of drinking distilled liquors.
I attended a notorious drunkard, in the yellow fe-
ver in  the year 1798, who recovered, with the  loss
of his  relish for spirits, which has, I believe, con-
tinued ever  since.

  9. A salivation has lately  performed a cure of
drunkenness, in  a person  of  Virginia.   The new
disease excited in the mouth and throat, while it
rendered the action of the smallest quantity of spi-
rits upon  them painful, was  happily  calculated to
destroy the disease  in the stomach which prompts
to drinking, as well as to render the recollection of
them disagreeable,  by the laws of association for-
merly  mentioned.

  10.  I have known an oath, taken before a magis-
trate, to  drink no more spirits, produce a perfect
cure of drunkenness.   It  is  sometimes cured in
this  way in Ireland.   Persons who take oaths for
this purpose are called affidavit men.
   vol. j.              r r 
 314       ON THE EFFECTS  OF, fcXC.
   11. An advantage would probably arise  from
 frequent representations being made to drunkards,
 not only of the certainty, but of the suddenness  of
 death, from habits of intemperance.  I have  heard
 of two persons being cured of the love of ardent
 spirits, by seeing death suddenly induced by fits of
 intoxication;  in the one case, in a stranger, and in
 the other, in an intimate friend.

   12. It  has  been  said,  that the disuse of spirits
 should be  gradual, but my observations authorise
 me to say, that persons who have been addicted to
 them should abstain from them suddenly, and en-
 tirely. " Taste not, handle not, touch not," should
 be inscribed upon every vessel that contains spirits,
 in the house of a man who wishes to be cured  of
habits of intemperance.   To obviate, for awhile,
the debility which arises from the sudden abstrac-
tion  of the stimulus of spirits, laudanum,  or bit-
ters  infused in water, should be taken, and perhaps
a larger quantity of beer or wine, than is consistent
 with the  strict rules of temperate living.   By the
 temporary  use of these  substitutes for  spirits, I
have never known the transition to  sober habits to
be attended with any bad effects, but often  wkh
 permanent health of body, and peace of mind. 
OBSERVATIONS UPON THE TETANUS, 
 
OBSERVATIONS.  &c.
       FOR a history of the different names and
symptoms of this disease, I beg leave to refer  the
reader to practical  books, particularly to Doctor
Cullen's First  Lines.  My only design in this in-
quiry is, to deliver such a theory of the disease, as
may  lead to a new and successful use of old and
common remedies for it.

   All the remote and predisposing causes  of the
tetanus act by inducing preternatural debility, and
 irritability in the muscular parts of the body.  In
 many cases, the remote causes act alone, but they
 more frequentiy require the co-operation of an ex-
 citing cause.   I shall briefly enumerate, without
 discriminating them, or pointing  out when  thef
 act singly, or when in conjunction with each other. 
 318  OBSERVATIONS ON  THE TETANUS.
   I. Wounds on different parts of the body are
 the most frequent causes of this disease.   It was
 formerly supposed it was the effect only of a wound,
 which partially divided a tendon, or a nerve ; but
 we now know it is often the consequence of laesions
 which affect the body in a superficial manner.  The
 following is a list of such wounds  and  leesions  as
 have been known to  induce the disease :

   1.  Wounds in the soles  of the  feet, in the
 palms of the hands, and under the nails, by  means
 ■}f nails or splinters of wood.

   2. Amputations, and fractures of limbs.

   3. Gun-shot wounds.

   4. Venesection.

   5. The extraction of a tooth,  and the insertion
of new teeth.

   6. The extirpation of a schirrus.

   7. Castration.
8.  A wound on the tongue. 
    OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  TETANUS.    319
  9. The injury which is done to the feet by frost.

  10. The injury which is sometimes done to one
of the toes, by stumping it (as  it  is called) in
walking.

  11. Cutting a nail too closely.   Also,

  12.  Cutting a corn too closely.

   13.  Wearing a shoe so tight as to abrade  the
skin of one of the toes.

   14. A wound, not more than an eighth part of an
inch, upon the forehead.

   15.  The stroke of a whip upon the arm, whioh
only broke the skin.

   16. Walking too soon upon a broken limb.

   17. The sting of a wasp upon the glands penis.

   18. A fish bone sticking in the throat.

   19. Cutting the naval string in new-born in-
fants. 
 320    OBSERVATIONS ON THE TETANUS.
   Between the  time  in which the body is thus
 wounded or injured,  and the time in which  the
 disease makes its appearance, there is an interval,
 which extends from one day to six weeks.   In  the
 person  who injured  his toe  by stumping it in
 walking, the disease appeared the next day.  The
 trifling wound on the forehead which I have men-
 tioned,  produced both tetanus and death, the day
 after it was received.   I have known two instances
 of tetanus, from running nails in the feet,  which
 did not appear until six weeks afterwards.  In most
of the cases of this disease from  wounds, which I
have seen, there was  a total  absence of pain and
inflammation, or but  very moderate  degrees  of
them, and in some of them the wounds had entirely
healed, before any of the symptoms of the disease
had made their appearance.   Wounds and laesions
 are most apt to produce tetanus, after the long con-
 tinued application of heat to  the body ; hence its
 greater frequency, from these  causes, in warm than
 in cold climates, and  in  warm than in cold wea-
 ther, in northern countries.

  II. Cold applied suddenly to  the body, after it
 has been ^exposed to intense  heat.   Of this Dr.
Girdlestone mentions many instances, in his Trea-
 tise upon Spasmodic Affections in India.   It was
 most commonly induced by sleeping upon  the 
      OBSERVATIONS ON  THE  TETANUS.   321
ground, after a warm  day.  Such is the dampness
and unwholesome nature of the  ground,  in some
parts  of that  country, that " fowls (the Doctor
says)  put into coops at night, in  the sickly season
of the year, and on the same soil that the men slept,
were  always  found dead  the  next morning,  if
the coop was not placed at a certain height above
the surface of the earth."*   It was brought on by
sleeping on & damp pavement  in a servant girl of
Mr. Alexander Todd, of Philadelphia, in the even-
ing of a day in which the mercury in Fahrenheit's
thermometer stood at 90°.   Dr. Chalmers relates
an instance of its having been induced by a person's
sleeping without a nightcap, after shaving his head.
The  late Dr.  Bartram informed me, that he  had
known a draught  of  cold water produce it in a
man  who was in a preternaturally heated state.
The cold air more certainly brings on this disease,
if it be applied to the body in the form of a current
The stiff neck, which is sometimes felt after expo-
sure to a stream of cool air from an open window,
is a tendency to a locked jaw, or a feeble and par-
tial tetanus.

  III. Worms and certain  acrid matters in  the
alimentary canal.   Morgagni relates an  instance of
VOL.  I.
* Page 55.
     S s 
 322  OBSERVATIONS ON  THE  TETANUS.
 the former, and I shall hereafter mention instances
 of the latter in new-born infants.

  IV. Certain poisonous vegetables.   There are
 several cases upon record of its being induced by
 the hemlock dropwort, and the datura stramonium,
 or Jamestown weed, of our country.

  V. It is  sometimes a symptom of the bilious
 remitting and intermitting fever.   It is said to oc-
 cur more frequently in those states of fever hi the
 island of Malta, than in any other part of the world.

  VI. It is  likewise a symptom of that malignant
 state of fever which is brought on by the bite of a
rabid animal, also of hysteria and gout.

  VII.  The grating  noise produced  by  cutting
 with a knife upon a  pewter plate excited it in a
servant, while he was waiting upon his  master's
 table in London.   It proved fatal in three days.

  VIII.  The sight of food, after long fasting.

  IX. Drunkenness.

  X. Certain emotions  'and passions of the mind.
 Terror brought it on a brewer in this city.  He 
OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  TETANUS
323
had been previously debilitated by great labour, in
warm weather.  I have heard of its having  been
induced in a man by agitation of mind, occasioned
by seeing a girl  tread upon a nail.  Fear excited
it in a soldier who kneeled down to be shot.  Upon
being pardoned he was unable to rise, from a sud-
den attack  of tetanus.   Grief produced it in  a
case mentioned by Dr. Willan.

  XI.  Parturition.

  AH  these remote and exciting  causes act with
more  or less certainty and force, in proportion to
the  greater or less degrees of fatigue which have
preceded them.

  It has  been customary with authors  to call all
those cases  of tetanus, which are not brought on
by wounds, symptomatic.  They are no more so
than those which are said to be idiopathic.   They
all depend alike upon irritating impressions made
upon one part of the  body, producing morbid ex-
citement, or disease in another.   It is  immaterial,
whether the  impression be made upon the intes-
tines by  a worm, upon the ear by  an ungrateful
noise, upon the mind by a strong emotion, or upon
the  sole of the foot by a  nail; it  is alike commu-
nicated to the muscles, which, from their previous 
 324   OBSERVATIONS ON  THE TETANUS.
 debility and irritability, are thrown into commo-
 tions by it.  In yielding to the impression of irri-
 tants, they follow  in their contractions the order of
 their predisposing debility.   The muscles which
 move the lower jaw  are affected more early, and
 more obstinately, than  any of the other external
 muscles of the body, only because  they are more
 constantly in a relaxed, or idle, state.

   The negroes in the West Indies are more sub-
 ject to this disease than white  people.  This has
 been ascribed to the greater irritability  of  their
 muscular systems, which constitutes a part of its
 predisposing cause.  It is remarkable that their sen-
 sibility lessens with the increase of their irritability ;
 and hence, Dr. Moseley says, they  bear surgical
 operations much better than white people.

   The new-born infants of the negroes in the West
 Indies are often affected with this disease,  among ,
 whom it  is known by  the name of the jaw-fall.
 Dr. Dazille says,  that during a residence of thirty
 years in the islands, and chiefly at St.  Domingo, he
 saw but one instance of it in a white child.   It is
 said one-tenth of all the negro children that are born
 in the West Indies, die of it.  Local circumstances
influence  its mortality.  Nineteen out  of twenty
black children, Dr.  Gordon informed  me, in his
visit to Philadephia in the summer of 1806, died 
      OBSERVATIONS ON THE  TETANUS.   325
 upon a plantation in Berbice, while upon a neigh-
 bouring  plantation  not a single  instance of death
 had ever occurred from it.  Dr.  Cleghorn informs
 us that  it is a common disease among  the white
 children in Minorca.*  I have seen a few cases of
 it in the children of white persons in Philadelphia.
 Its  causes are,

   1.  The cutting  of the navel-string.  This is
 often done with a pair of dull scissars, by which
 means the cord is bruised.

   2. The acrimony of the meconium retained in
 the bowels.

   3. Cold air acting upon the body, after it has
 been heated by the air of a hot room.

   4.  Smoke is supposed to excite it in the negro
 quarters  in the West Indies.  Perhaps this,  and
 the preceeding cause induced the great mortality
 of the disease upon the plantation in Berbice, men-
 tioned by Dr. Gordon.

  It is unknown, Dr. Winterbottom informs us,
among the native Africans in the neighbourhood of
Sierra Leone.

 * Diseases of Minorca, p. 46. Philadelphia Edition. 
 326   OBSERVATIONS ON THE  TETANUS.
   I am aware that it is ascribed by  many  physi-
 cians to only one of the above causes; but I see
 no reason why it should not be induced by more
 than one  cause in infants, when we see it brought
 on by so many different causes in grown people.

   The tetanus is not confined to the human species.
It often affects horses in the West Indies. I have
 seen several cases  of it in  Philadelphia.  I have
 likewise seen it appear in the form of opisthotinos
 in a pidgeon, brought on by a  wound in one of its
 wings.

   The want of uniform success in the treatment of
 this  disease has  long  been a subject of  regret
among physicians.   It may be  ascribed to the use
of the same remedies,  without any respect  to the
 nature of the causes  which produce it,  and to an
 undue reliance upon some one remedy, under a
 belief of its specific efficacy.    Opium has been
 considered as its antidote, without recollecting that
 it was one only,  of a numerous class of medicines,
 that are all alike  useful in it.

   Tetanus, from all its causes,  has nearly the same
 premonitory symptoms. These  are, a stiffness in the
 neck, a disposition to  bend forward, in order to 
    OBSERVATIONS  ON THE  TETANUS.    327
relieve a pain in the back, costiveness, a pain about
the external region of the stomach, and a disposi-
tion to start in  sleep.   In this feeble state of the
disease, an emetic, a strong dose of laudanum, the
warm bath, or a few doses of bark, have often pre*
vented its being completely formed.  When it has
arisen from a wound,  dilating it, if small or healed,
and afterwards inflaming it, by applying to it tur-
pentine, common salt, corrosive sublimate, or Spa-
nish flies, have, in many hundred instances, been
attended with the same salutary effects.

   The disease I have said is seated in the muscles,
and,  while they  are  ppeternaturaUy excited,  the
blood-vessels are in a state of reduced excitement.
This is evident  from the feebleness and slowness
of the pulse, and the feeble coherence, or total disso-
lution, of the bloocj.   The pulse sometimes beats,
according to Dr.  Lining, but forty strokes in a mi-
nute. By stimulating the wound, we not only restore
the natural excitement of the blood-vessels, but wc
produce an inflammatory diathesis in them, which
abstracts morbid excitement from the muscular
system, and, by  equalizing  it,  cures  the disease.
This remedy, I acknowledge, has not been as suc-
cessfully employed in the  West-Indies as in the
United  States, and  that for an obvious  reason.
The blood-vessels in  a warm climate refuse to as- 
 328    OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE TETANUS.
 sume an  inflammatory  action.   Stimuli  hurry
 them on suddenly to torpor or gangrene.  This is
 so uniformly the case, that  Dr.  Dazille not only
 forbids their application to recent wounds, but ad-
 vises the most lenient applications to them.*  But
 widely different is the nature of wounds, and of the
 tension of the blood-vessels, in the inhabitants of
 northern countries.  While Dr. Dallas deplores the
 loss  of 49 out of 50  affected with tetanus  from
 wounds, in  the West  India islands,  I am sure I
 could mention many hundred  instances of the dis-
 ease being prevented, and a very different propor-
 tion of cures being  performed,  by inflaming the
 wounds, and exciting  a  counter morbid action in
 the blood-vessels.

   This disease like many others  has its anomalies.
I have seen  it attended with a complete intermis-
 sion of spasms, and a total relaxation of all the
muscles which are usually  affected by it, and in
one instance I have  observed the  spasms to be con-
fined exclusively to one side of the body.  I  have
likewise met with a case in a black girl, in whom
all the symptoms of the disease occurred, except a
trismus or a contraction of the jaw.  The force of

       * Observations sur le Tetanos, p. 326. 
      OBSERVATIONS ON THE TETANUS.    329
the disease in that  part of her body spent itself
upon  her tongue.  She lost the power of speech.
The disease was brought on by a wound in her
hand.   She was cured by tonic remedies.

  When  the  disease is the effect of fever, the
same  remedies should be given, as are  employed
in the cure of that fever.  I have once  unlocked
the jaw of a woman, who was seized at  the same
time with a remitting fever, by an emetic, and I
have heard of its being cured in a company of sur-
veyors, in whom it was the effect of an intermit-
tent, by large doses of bark.   When it  accompa-
nies malignant fever, hysteria,  or gout, the reme-
dies for those forms of disease  should be employ-
ed.   Bleeding was highly useful in it, in a case of
yellow fever which occured in  Philadelphia in the
year 1794.

  When it is produced by the suppression of per-
spiration by means of cold, the warm  bath and
sweating medicines have been  found  most useful
in it.   Nature has in one instance pointed out the
use of this remedy, by curing the disease by a mi-
liary eruption on the skin.*
VOL.  I.
* Burserus.
    T t 
330    OBSERVATIONS  ON THE  TETANUS.
  If it be the effect of poisonous substances taken
into the stomach, or of worms in the bowels, the
cure should be begun by emetics, purges, and an-
thelmintic medicines.

  Where patients are unable to swallow, from the
teeth  of the upper and lower jaw pressing  upon
each other, a tooth or two should  be extracted,
to open a passage for our medicines into the throat.
 If this be impracticable, or objected to, they should
be injected by way of glyster.

  In  the locked jaw which arises from the extrac-
tion of a tooth, an instrument should be introduced
to depress  the jaw.   This has been done  by a
noted English dentist in London, with success.

  As the habit of diseased action often continues
after the removal of its causes, and as some of the
remote causes of this disease are beyond the reach
of medicine, such remedies should be given as are
calculated, by their stimulating power, to overcome
the morbid or spasmodic action of the muscles.
These are:

   1.  Opium.  It  should be given  in large and
frequent doses.  Dr.  Streltz  says  he has  found
from  one to two drachms of an alkali, taken in the 
     OBSERVATIONS ON THE TETANUS.    331

course of a day, greatiy to aid the  action of tl^e
opium in this disease.

  Dr. Dazille  advises the exhibition of opium in
glysters,  and speaks in high terms of the efficacy
of a plaister composed of three drachms of opium
and a dram of camphor finely powdered, and applied
to the sole of each foot, in the tejanus of the West-
Indies.*

  2.  Wine.   This should be given in quarts, and
even  gallons, daily. Dr.  Currie relates a case of a
man in the infirmary of Liverpool, who was cured
of tetanus, by  drinking nearly a quarter cask of
Madeira wine.   Dr. Hosack speaks  in high terms
of it, in  a letter to Dr. Duncan, and advises its
being given  without any other stimulating medi-
cine.

   3.  Ardent spirits.  A quack in New-Eng-
land has lately  cured tetanus, by giving ardent spi-
rits in such quantities  as to produce intoxication.
Upon being asked his reason for this strange prac-
tice, he said he  had always observed the jaw to fall
in drunken men, and any thing that would produce
that effect, he supposed to be proper in the locked
jaw.
  * Observations sur Ie Tetanus, p. 286 and "-00 
332    OBSERVATIONS ON  THE TETANUS.
   4. The bare: has of late years been used in this
disease with success.   I had the pleasure of first
seeing its good effects  in the case of colonel Stone,
in whom a severe tetanus followed a wound in the
foot, received at the battle of Germantown, in Oc-
tober, 1777.

   5. The  cold bath.  This  remedy has been
revived by Dr. Wright of Jamaica, and has in many
instances performed cures of this disease.   In one
of two cases in which I have used it with  success,
the patient's jaw opened in a few minutes  after the
affusion of a single  bucket of water upon her body.
The disease was occasioned by a slight injury done
to one of her toes,  by wearing a tight shoe.   The
signals for continuing the use of the cold bath are,
its being followed by  a slight degree of fever, and
a general  warmth  of  the  skin.  Where these  do
not occur, there is reason to believe it will do  no
service, or  perhaps do harm.  We have  many
proofs of the difference  in the same disease, and in
the operation of the same medicine, in different and
opposite climates.  Dr. Girdlestone  has mentioned
the result of the use of the cold  bath in tetanus in
the East Indies, which furnishes a striking addition
to the numerous facts that have been collected upon
that subject.  He  tells  us the cold bath uniformly
destroyed life, in every case in which it was used. 
OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  TETANUS.
333
The reason is obvious.  In that  extremely debili-
tating climate, the system in tetanus was prostrated
too low, to re-act under the sedative operation of
tfae cold water.

   6. The warm bath has often  been used with
success in this clisease.   Its temperature should be
regulated by our wishes to promote swreats, or to
produce excitement in the blood-vessels.  In  the
latter case it should rise above the heat of the hu-
man body.

   7. The  oil  of amber acts powerfully  upon
the muscular system.   I have seen the  happiest
effects  from the exhibition of six or eight drops of
it, every two hours, in this disease.

   8. Asalivation has been often recommended
for the cure of tetanus, but unfortunately it  can
seldom be excited in time to do service.   I once
saw it complete the cure of a sailor in the Pennsyl-
vania* hospital,  whose life was prolonged by  the
alternate use of bark and wine.  The disease was
brought on  him by a mortification of his feet, in
consequence of their being frost-bitten.

   9.  Dr.  Girdlestone commends blisters in
high terms in this disease.  He says he never saw 
 334    OBSERVATIONS ON THE  TETANUS.
 it prove fatal,  even where  they only produced a
 redness on the skin.

   10. I have heard of electricity having been
 used with advantage in tetanus, but I can say no-
 thing in its favour from my own experience.

   In order to ensure the utmost benefit from the
 use of the above remedies, it will be necessary for
 a physician always to recollect, that the disease  is
 attended  with great morbid action, and of course
 each  of the stimulating medicines  that has  been
 mentioned should be  given, 1st, in  large doses;
 2dly, in succession ; 3dly, in rotation ; and 4thly,
 by way of glyster, as well as by the mouth.

  The jaw-fall in new-born infants is, I believe,
 always fatal.   Purging off the meconium from the
bowels immediately  after birth has often prevented
it from one of its causes;  and applying a rag wet-
ted with spirit of turpentine to the navel-string, im-
mediately after it is  cut, Dr. Chisholm  says,  pre-
vents it from another of its causes which has been
mentioned.  Dr. Dazille says it is prevented by the
Indians,  in  the neighbourhood  of Cayenne, by
anointing their children daily, for nine  days after
their birth, with sweet oil. 
      OBSERVATIONS ON THE TETANUS.    335
  This disease,  I have said,  sometimes  affects
horses. I have twice seen it cured by  applying a
potential caustic to the neck, under the mane, by
large doses of the oil of amber, and by plunging
one of them into  a river, and throwing buckets of
cold water upon the other.  It was cured  in the
pidgeon  formerly mentioned, by  two grains of
opium administered in the form of a pill.

   I shall conclude my observations upon the teta
nus with the following queries:

   I.  What would be the effects of copious blood-
letting in this disease ?  There is a case  upon re-
cord of its efficacy, in the Medical Journal of Paris,
and I have now in my possession a letter from the
late Dr. Hopkins of Connecticut, "gbntaining the
history of a cure performed by it.  Where tetanus
is the effect of primary gout, hysteria, or fever, at-
tended with highly inflammatory symptoms, bleed-
ing is  certainly  indicated, in order to prevent the
blood-vessels opposing their force  to the action of
tonics, and to place them in a minus or craving
state  of excitement.   By means  of  this remedy
employed once in the case of Mrs.  Coates, at Ken-
sington, and twice in the case of Miss Germon, in
Swanson street, I was enabled to cure the  disease
in both of them.   It was brought  on  by a corn in 
 336   OBSERVATIONS  ON THE  TETANUS.
 the former, and by a wound in the latter instance.
 The  blood of Miss Germon  was very sizy.  In
 general, however,  the disease is so completely
 insulated in the muscles, and the arteries are so far
 below their par  of excitement in frequency  and
 force, that little benefit  can be  expected from that
 remedy.   The disease, in these  cases, seems to
 call for an elevation, instead of a diminution, of
 the excitement  of  the  blood-vessels.   Perhaps
 bleeding ad delirium  animi  might  so far relax
 the muscles,  as  to  enable  the blood-vessels and
 other  parts of the body to abstract  from  them
 their agreeable and natural portions of excitement.
 It is certain the  muscles of a horse in a tetanus
 become relaxed the instant he dies.   By inducing
this relaxation, in the manner that has been men-
tioned, before the relations of the different  sys-
 tems of the body to each other are weakened and
 dissolved, it is possible the disease might be cured.

   2.  What would be the effect of extreme cold in
 this disease?  Mr. John Hunter used  to  say, in
 his lectures, " Were he to be attacked by it, he
 would, if possible, fly to Nova-Zembla, or throw
himself into an ice-house."   I have no doubt of
the efficacy of  intense cold, in subduing the inordi-
 nate morbid actions which occur in the muscular
 system; but  it  offers so much  violence 'to the 
     OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  TETANUS.    337
fears and prejudices of sick people, or their friends,
that it can seldom be applied in such a manner as
to derive much benefit from h.   Perhaps the seda-
tive effects of cold might be obtained with less
difficulty,  by  wrapping the body in  sheets, and
wetting them occasionally  for an hour or two with
cold water.

  3. What would be the effect of exciting a strong
counter-action in the stomach  and bowels in this
disease ? Dr. Brown of Kentucky cured a tetanus
by  inflaming the stomach, by means of the tincture
of  cantharides.  It has likewise been cured by a
severe cholera morbus, induced by a large dose of
corrosive sublimate.  The stomach and bowels, and
the external muscles of the  body, discover strong
associations in many diseases.   A sick stomach is
always followed by general weakness, and the dry
gripes often paralyse the muscles of the arms and
limbs.  But further,  one of the remote causes of
tetanus, viz. cold air, often shows the near relation-
ship of the muscles to the bowels, and the vicarious
nature of disease in each of them.  It often pro-
duces in the latter, in the West Indies,  what the
French Physicians  call a " crampe  seche," or, in
other words, if I may be allowed the expression, a
tetanus in the bowels.
   vol.  i.              u  u 
338   OBSERVATIONS ON THE TETANUS.
   4.  A sameness has been pointed out between
many of the symptoms of hydrophobia and te-
tanus.   A  similar difficulty of  swallowing, and
similar convulsions after it, have been remarked in
both diseases.   Death often takes place suddenly
in tetanus, as it does in hydrophobia, without pro-
ducing marks of fatal disorganization in any of the
internal parts of the body.  Dr. Physick  supposes
death in these cases to be the effect  of suffocation,
from  a sudden spasm and closure of the glottis,
and proposes to prevent it in the same manner that
he has proposed to prevent death from hydropho-
bia, that is,  by laryngotomy.*    The prospect of
success from it appears alike  reasonable in both
cases.
Medical Repository. 
        AN ACCOUNT




             OF




     THE DISEASE OCCASIONED




             BY





DRINKING COLD WATER,




      IN WARM WEATHER,




    AND THE METHOD OF CURING IT. 
 
AN ACCOUNT, &c.
        FEW summers elapse in Philadelphia, in
which there are not instances of many persons be-
ing diseased by drinking cold water.  In some sea-
sons, four or five persons have died suddenly from
this cause in one day.  This mortality falls chiefly
upon the labouring part of the community, who
seek to allay their thirst by drinking the water from
the pumps in the streets, and who are too impatient,
or too ignorant,  to use the necessary precautions
for preventing its  morbid or deadly effects upon
them.   These accidents seldom happen, except
when the mercury rises above 85° in Fahrenheit's
thermometer.

   Three circumstances generally  concur to pro-
duce  disease or death, from drinking cold water.
1.  The patient is extremely warm.   2. The water
is extremely cold.  And 3.  A large quantity of
it is suddenly taken into the  body.   The danger
from drinking the cold water is always in propor- 
 342   OF THE  DISEASE OCCASIONED  BY
 tion to the degrees of combination which occur in
 the three circumstances that have been mentioned.*

   The following symptoms generally.follow, where
 cold water has  been taken, under  the above cir-
 cumstances, into the body:

   In a few minutes after the patient has swallowed
 the  water, he is  affected by a dimness of sight; he
 staggers, in attempting to walk, and unless sup-
 ported, falls to the ground; he breathes with diffi-
 culty ;  a rattling is heard in his throat;  his nos-
 trils and cheeks expand and contract  in every  act
 of respiration; his face appears suffused with blood,
 and of a livid colour; his extremities become cold,
and his pulse imperceptible; and, unless relief be
 speedily obtained, the disease terminates  in death,
 in four or five minutes.

   This description includes only the less common
 cases of the effects of drinking a large quantity of

  * Dr. Currie has supposed, in his Medical Reports, that the
persons who are thus affected by drinking cold water  are in
a state of debility, from the long continued action of heat upon
their bodies ; but this is not the case.   They are generally
in a state of very high excitement.  The Doctor's mistake
is founded upon an erroneous belief, that the skin and the
stomach possess a similar susceptibility to the action of cold
water. 
DRINKING COLD WATER.
343
 cold water, when the body is preternaturally heat-
 ed.   More frequently,  patients are seized with
 acute spasms in the breast  and stomach.  These
 spasms are so painful as  to produce syncope, and
 even asphyxia.   They are sometimes of the tonic,
 but more frequently of the clonic  kind.   In the-
 intervals  of the spasms, the patient appears to  be
 perfectly  well.  The intervals between each spasm
 become longer or shorter, according as the disease
 tends to life or death.

   It may not be  improper to take notice, that
 punch, beer, and even toddy, when drunken under
 the  same circumstances  as cold water, have  all
 been known to produce the same morbid and fatal
 effects.

   I know of but  one certain remedy  for this dis-
 ease, and that is  liojuid  laudanum. The doses
 of it, as in other cases of spasm, should be propor-
 tioned to the violence of the  disease.   From a tea-
 spoonful to  near  a table-spoonful have been given
 in some instances, before  relief has been obtained.
 Where the  powers of life appear to be suddenly
 suspended,  the same remedies should be  used,
 which have been so successfully employed  in re-
 covering persons supposed to be dead from drown-
ing. 
 344  ON THE DISEASE OCCASIONED BY
   Care should be taken in every case of disease, or
 apparent death, from drinking cold water, to pre-
 vent the patient's suffering from being surrounded,
 or even attended, by too many people.

   Persons who have been recovered from the im-
 mediate  danger  which  attends  this  disease  are
 sometimes affected, after it, by inflammations and
 obstructions in the breast or liver.  These  gene-
 rally yield to the usual remedies which are admi-
nistered in those complaints, when they arise from
 other causes.

  If neither the voice of reason, nor the fatal ex-
 amples of those who have perished from this cause,
 are  sufficient  to  produce restraint  in drinking  a
 large quantity of cold liquors,  when the body is
preternaturally heated, then let me advise to

   1. Grasp the vessel out of which you are  about
 to drink for a minute or longer, with both your
hands.  This will abstract a portion of  heat fiom
 the body, and impart it at the same  time to  the
 cold liquor, provided the vessel be made of metd,
 glass, or earth, for heat  follows the same laws, in
many instances, in passing through bodies, with
 regard to its relative  velocity, which we observe to
 take place in electricity. 
           DRINKING COLD WATER.       j45
   2.  If you are not furnished with a cup, and are
obliged to drink by bringing your mouth in con-
tact with the stream which issues from a pump, or
a spring, always wash your hands and face, previ-
ously to  your  drinking,  with  a little of the cold
water.  By receiving the shock of the water first
upon those parts of the body, a portion of its heat
is conveyed away, and the vital parts are  thereby
defended from the action of the cold.

  By the  use  of these preventives,  inculcated by
advertisements pasted upon pumps by the Humane
Society, death  from drinking cold water has be-
come a rare  occurrence^for many  years  past in
Philadelphia.
vol.  i.            xx
t 
 
         AN ACCOUNT




            OF THE





CURE OF SEVERAL DISEASES,




            BY THE




   EXTRACTION OF DECAYED TEETH. 
 
AN  ACCOUNT,  &c.
    SOME time in the month of October,  1801,
I attended Miss A. C. with a rheumatism  in her
hip joint, which yielded, for awhile, to the  several
remedies for that disease.   In the month of No-
vember it returned with great violence, accompa-
nied with a severe tooth-ache.   Suspecting the
rheumatic affection was excited  by the pain in
her tooth, which was decayed,  I directed it to be
extracted.   The rheumatism immediately left her
hip, and she recovered in a  few days.  She has
continued ever since to be free from  it.

   Soon after this I  was consulted by Mrs. J. R.
 who had been affected for several weeks with dys-
pepsia and tooth-ache. Her  tooth, though no mark
of decay appeared in it, was drawn by my advice.
 The next day she was relieved  from her distress-
 ing stomach complaints, and has continued ever
 since to enjoy good health.    From the soundness
of the external part of the tooth, and the adjoining 
 350   o:; the cure or several diseases,
 gum, there was no  reason  to suspect a  discharge
 of matter from it had produced the disease in her
 stomach.

  Some time in the year 1801 I was consulted by
 the father of a young gentleman in Baltimore, who
 had been affected with epilepsy. I inquired into the
 state of his teeth, and was informed that  several
 of them in his upper jaw were  much decayed.   I
 directed them to to be extracted, and advised him
 afterwards to lose a few ounces of blood, at any time
 when he felt the premonitory symptoms of a recur-
 rence of his  fits.   He followed my advice,  in
 consequence of which I had lately the  pleasure of
hearing from  his brother that he was perfectly
 cured.

  I have been  made happy by discovering that I
 have only  added  to the observations  of other
 physicians, in pointing out a connexion between
the extraction of decayed and diseased  teeth and
 the cure  of general diseases.  Several cases of the
 efficacy of that remedy in relieving head-ache  and
 vertigo are mentioned by Dr. Darwin. Dr.  Gater
 relates that Mr. Pettit, a celebrated  French sur-
 geon, had often cured intermitting fevers,  which
 had resisted  the bark for months,  and even years,
by this prescription; and he quotes from his works 
      by extracting decayed teeth.  351
two cases, the one of consumption,  the other of
vertigo, both of long continuance, which were
suddenly cured by the extraction of two decayed
teeth  in  the  former, and of two supernumerary
teeth in the latter case.*

  In  the second number of a late work, entitled,
"Bibliotheque Germanique Medico Chirurgicale,"
published in Paris, by Dr. Bluver and Dr. Dela-
roche, there is an  account, by  Dr. Siebold, of a
young woman who had been affected for  several
months with  greatinflammation, pain and ulcers, in
her right upper and  lower jaws, at the usual time
of the appearance of the catamenia, which at that
period were  always deficient in quantity. Upon
inspecting  the seats of those  morbid affections,
the Doctor discovered several of the molares in
both jaws to be decayed.  He directed them to be
drawn, in consequence of which the woman was
relieved of the monthly disease in her mouth, and
afterwards had  a  regular discharge of her cata-
menia.

   These facts, though but little attended to, should
 not surprise  us, when we recollect how often the

  * Recherches sur differens points de Physiologie de Pa
thologie et de Therapeutique, p. S53, 354 
 352  ON  the cure of several diseases,
 most distressing general diseases  are brought on
 by very inconsiderable inlets of morbid excitement
 into the system.   A small tumour, concealed in a
 fleshy part of the leg, has been known to bring on
 epilepsy.   A trifling wound  with a splinter or a
 nail, even  after it has healed,  has often induced a
 fatal tetanus.  Worms in  the bowels have produced
 internal dropsy of the brain, and a stone in the kid-
 ney has excited the  most violent commotions in
 every part of the system.  Many hundred facts of
 a similar nature are to be met with in the records
 of medicine.

   When we consider  how  often the teeth,  when
 decayed, are exposed  to irritation  from hot and
 cold drinks and aliments,  from pressure by masti-
 cation, and from  the  cold  air, and how intimate
 the connection of the mouth is with the whole sys-
 tem,  I am  disposed to believe they are  often  the
 unsuspected causes of general,  and particularly of
 nervous diseases.  When  we  add  to  the  list  of
 those diseases the  morbid effects of the acrid and
 putrid matters which  are sometimes discharged
 from caries teeth, or from ulcers in the gums crea-
ted by them, also the influence which both have in
preventing  perfect mastication, and the connection
of that animal  function with good health, I cannot
help  thinking that our success in  the treatment of
i 
       BY  EXTRACTING DECAYED TEETH.   353
all  chronic diseases  would be  very  much pro-
moted, by  directing our inquiries into the state of
the teeth in sick people, and by advising their ex-
traction in every case in which they are decayed.
It is not necessary  that they  should  be attended
with pain, in orderto produce diseases, for splinters,
tumours, and other irritants before mentioned, often
bring on disease and death,  when they give  no
pain, and are unsuspected as causes of them. This
translation of sensation and motion to parts remote
from the place where impressions are made  ap-
pears in many instances, and seems to depend upon
an original  law of the  animal economy.
VOL. I.
Y y 
 
           OBSERVATIONS





               UPON





WORMS IN THE ALIMENTARY CANALS,





              AND UPON





      ANTHELMINTIC MEDICINES. 
 
OBSERVATIONS,  &e.
      WITH great diffidence I venture to lay be-
fore the public  my  opinions upon worms;  nor
should I have presumed to do it, had I not enter-
tained a hope of thereby exciting further inquiries
upon this subject.

  When we consider how universally worms are
found  in all young  animals,  and how frequently
they exist in the human body, without producing
disease of any kind,  it is natural  to conclude, that
they serve some useful and necessary purposes in
the animal economy.   Do  they consume the super-
fluous aliment which all young  animals are dis-
posed to take, before they have been taught, by ex-
perience  or reason,  the bad  consequences which
arise from it ?  It is no objection to this opinion,
that worms are unknown in the human body in 
 358      OBSERVATIONS  UPON  WORMS
some countries.   The  laws of nature  are  diversi-
fied, and often suspended under peculiar circum-
stances in many cases,  where the departure from
uniformity is still more unaccountable than in the
present  instance.   Do worms  produce  diseases
from an excess in their number,  and  an error  in
their place,  in the same  manner  that  blood, bile,
and  air produce  diseases  from an error  in their
place, or from excess in their quantities ?   Before
these questions are decided, L shall mention a few
facts, which have been the result of my own obser-
vations upon this subject.

   1. In many instances, I have  seen worms dis-
charged in the small-pox and measles, from chil-
dren who were in perfect health previously to their
being attacked by those diseases, and who never
 before discovered a single symptom of worms.   I
shall say nothing here of the  swarms of  worms
which are discharged in fevers of all kinds, until I
attempt to prove that an idiopathic fever is never
produced by worms.

   2. Nine out of ten  of the cases which  I have
seen of worms, have been in children of the gross-
est habits and most vigorous constitutions.  This
is more especially the  case, where the worms are
dislodged by the  small-pox and measles.  Doctor 
       AND ANTHELMINTIC  MEDICINES.   359
Capelle of Wilmington, in a letter which I received
from him, informed me, that in the livers of six-
teen, out of eighteen rats which he dissected,  he
found a number  of the taenia worms.    The rats
were fat, and appeared in other respects to have
been in perfect health.   The two rats in which he
found no worms, he says," were very lean, and
" their livers smaller in proportion than the others."

   3. In weakly children, I  have often known the
most powerful anthelmintics given without bring-
ing away a single worm.  If these medicines have
afforded any relief,  it has been by their tonic qua-
lity.   From tliis fact, is it not probable—the con-
jecture, I am afraid, is too bold, but I will risk  it:
—is it not probable, I say, that children are some-
times disordered  from the want of worms?  Per-
haps the tonic medicines which have been men-
tioned render the bowels a  more quiet and com-
fortable asylum for them, and thereby  provide the
system with the  means of obviating the effects of
crapulas, to which  ail children are disposed.  It is
 in this way  that nature,  in many instances, cures
evil by evil.  I confine the salutary office of worms
only to that species of them which is known  by
the  name of the  round worm,  and which occurs
most frequently in  children. 
360
OBSERVATIONS  UPON WORMS
  Is there any such disease as an idiopathic worm-
fever? The Indians in this country say theie is
not, and ascribe the discharge of worms to a fever,
and not a fever to the worms.*

  By adopting this  opinion, I am  aware that I
contradict the observations of  many eminent and
respectable physicians.

  Doctor Huxham describes an epidemic pleurisy,
in the month of March, in  the year 1740,  which
he supposes was produced by  his patients feeding
upon some corn that  had been injured by the rain
the  August before, t  He likewise mentions that a
number of people,  and those  too of the elderly
sort, J were  afflicted at one time with  worms, in
the  month of April, in the year 1743.

  Lieuteaud'gives an account of an epidemic worm
fever from  Velchius, an Italian  physician ;|| and
Sauvages describes, from Vandermonde, an epide-
mic dysentery from  worms, which yielded finally
only, to worm medicines.$  Sir John Pringle, and


  *  See the Inquiry into the Diseases of the Indians.,
  t  Vol. ii. of his Epidemics, p. 56.
  t  P. 136.               Vol.  i. p. 76.
  §  Vol. ii. p. 329. 
       AND ANTHELMINTIC MEDICINES.  361
Doctor Monro, likewise, frequently mention wonns
as accompanying the dysentery and remitting fever,
and recommend the use of calomel as an antidote
to them.

  I grant that worms appear more frequently in
some epidemic diseases than in others, and oftener
in some years than in others.  But may not the
same heat, moisture, and diet, which produced the
diseases, have produced the worms ? And may not
their  discharge  from the bowels have been  occa-
sioned in those epidemics, as in the small-pox and
measles, by the increased heat of the body, by the
want of nourishment, or by an anthelmintic quality
 being accidentally combined with some of the me*
 dicines that are usually given in fevers ?

   In answer to this, we are told that  we often see
 the crisis of a fever brought on by the discharge
 of worms from the bowels by means of a purge,
 or by an anthelmintic medicine.  Whenever this
 is the case, I believe it is occasioned  by  offending
 bile  being dislodged by means of the  purge, at the
 same time with the worms, or by the anthelmintic
 medicine (if not a purge) having been given on, or
 near, one of the usual critical days  of  the fever.
 What makes the latter supposition  probable  is,
 that worms are seldom suspected in the beginning
VOL.  I.
z z 
362
OBSERVATIONS  UPON WORMS
of fevers, and anthelmintic medicines seldom given,
till every other remedy has failed of success; and
this  generally  happens about  the  usual  time  in
which fevers terminate in life or death.

  It is very remarkable, that since the discovery
and description of the hydrocephalus internus we
hear and read much less  than  formerly of worm-
fevers.  I suspect that disease of the brain has laid
the foundation for the principal part of the cases of
worm-fevers, which are  upon record in books  of
medicine.  I grant that worms sometimes increase
the danger from fevers, and  often confound the
diagnosis and prognosis of them, by a number  of
new  and anomalous symptoms.  But here we see
nothing more than that complication of symptoms,
which often occurs  in diseases of a very different
and Opposite nature.

  Having rejected worms as the cause of fevers, I
proceed to remark, that  the diseases most com-
monly produced by them belong to Dr.  Cullen's
class of neuroses.   And here I might add, that
there is scarcely a disease, or symptom of a disease,
belonging to this class, which is not produced  by
worms.   It would be only publishing extracts from
books, to describe them. 
      AND  ANTHELMINTIC MEDICINES.   363
  The chronic and nervous diseases of children,
which are so numerous, and frequently fatal, are, I
believe, frequently occasioned by  worms.   There
is no great danger, therefore, of doing mischief, by
prescribing anthelmintic medicines in all our first
attempts to cure their chronic and nervous diseases.

  I have been much  gratified by finding myself
supported in the above theory of worm-fevers, by
the late Dr. William Hunter, and by Dr. Butter,
in his excellent treatise  upoh the infantile remitting
fever.

  I have taken  great  pains to find out,  whether
the presence of the different species of worms might
not be discovered by  certain peculiar  symptoms :
but all  to no  purpose.  I once attended a girl of
twelve years of age in a fever, who discharged four
yards of a taenia, and who was so far from having
discovered any peculiar symptom of this  species
of worms, that  she  had never complained of any
other indisposition, than  now  and then  a slight
pain in the stomach, which often occurs in young
girls from a sedentary life, or from errors in  their
diet.   I beg leave to add further, that there is not
a symptom which has  been said  to  indicate the
presence of worms of any kind,  as the cause  of a
disease, that has not deceived me  ; and none oftener 
364
OBSERVATIONS  UPON  WORMS
than the one that has been so  much depended
upon, viz. the picking of the nose.  A discharge
of worms from  the bowels  is, perhaps, the only
symptom that is pathognomonic of their presence
in the intestines.

   I shall now make a few remarks upon anthel-
mintic remedies.

  But I shall first give an account of some experi-
ments which I made in the year  1771, upon the
common earth-worm,  in order to  ascertain the an-
thelmintic virtues of a variety of substances.   I
made choice of the earth-worm for  this purpose,
as it is,  according to naturalists,  nearly the same
in its structure, manner of subsistence, and  mode
ofpropagating its species,  with the round worm of
the human body.

  In the first column I shall  set down, under dis-
tinct heads,  the substances in which worms were
placed;  and in  the second and third columns the
time of their death, from the action of these  sub-
stances upon them, 
AND ANTHELMINTIC MEDICINES.
365
I. Biter and astringent	Hours,	Minutes.
SUBSTANCES. Watery infusion of aloes	2 1 1	48 30 30
II. Purges. Watery infusion of Jalap ■ ■ ■ bear's-foot	1 1 1	17
		
III. Salts.		
1. Acids, Vinegar Lime juice Diluted nitrous acid	—	\\ convulsed. 1
2. Alkali. A watery solution of salt of tartar		2 convulsed, throw-
3. Neutral Salts. In a watery solution of com-mon salt —— of nitre —— of sal diuretic ——— of sal ammoniac ——— of common salt and su-	—	ing up a mucus on the surface of the water. 1 convulsed, ditto. ditto.
gar	—	4
4. Earthy and metallic salts. In a watery solution of Epsom salt —— of rock alum ----of corrosive sublimate ■ of calomel ----of turpeth mineral ----of sugar of lead —— of green vitriol ----of blue vitriol ——. of white vitriol	—	10 l£ convulsed, 49 1 convulsed-3 1 10 30
 
366     OBSERVATIONS UPON WORMS
 IV. Metals.
   Filings of steel
   Filings of tin

  V. Calcareous earth.
   Chalk.

VI. Narcotic  substances.
   Watery infusion of opium
   ----of Carolina pink-root
   —.—-of tobacco

 VII. Essential  oils.
   Oil of Wormwood
    — of mint
    — of caraway seed
   — of amber
    — of anniseed
    —of turpentine

 VIII. Arsenic.
    A watery  solution of white
      arsenic

 IX.  Fermented liquors.
    In Madeira wine
    Claret

 X. Distilled spirits.
    Common rum

  XI. The fresh juices os
        ripe fruits.
   The juice of red cherries
   ,i   ----of black do.
   .        of red currants
   --------. of gooseberries
   .--------of wortleberries
    ----— of blackberries
    --------of raspberries
    ---------of plums
    --------of peaches
Hours.

   1
Minutes.
  251
near
  2
11^
33
14
convulsed.
3 convulsed,
3
3
u
44
 3 convulsed.
10
1 convulsed.
 54.
 5
 H
 H
12
 7
 H
13
25 
AND  ANTHELMINTIC  MEDICINES.
The juice of water-melons, no Hours. Minutes.
  effect
XII. Saccharine substances.
  Honey
  Molasses
  Brown sugar
  Manna

XIII. In aromatic substances.
  Camphor
  Pimento
  Black pepper

XIV. Foetid substances.
  Juice of onions
  Watery infusion of assafoetida
  ■■      Santonicum, or worm
    seed

XV. Miscellaneous substan-
            ces.
  Sulphur mixed with oil
  .fithiops mineral
  Sulphur
  Solution of gunpowder
       —— of soap
  Oxymel of squills
  Sweet oil
 7
 7
30
 2'
 5
 H
45
27
19
 H
30
  In the application of these  experiments to  the
human body, an allowance must always be  made
for the alteration which the  several anthelmintic
substances that have been mentioned may undergo,
from  mixture and diffusion,  in the  stomach  and
bowels.
In order to derive any benefit from these expe- 
 368     OBSERVATIONS  UPON WORMS
 riments, as well as from the observations that have
 been made upon anthelmintic medicines, it will be
 necessary to divide them into such as act,

   1.  Mechanically,

   2.  Chemically, upon worms; and,

   3.  Into  those which possess a power composed
 of chemical and mechanical qualities.

   1.  The mechanical medicines act indirectly and
 directly upon the worms.

   Those which act indirectly are, vomits, purges,
 bitter and astringent substances, particularly aloes,
 rhubarb, bark, bear's-foot, and worm seed.   Sweet
 oil acts indirectly and very feebly upon worms.  It
 was introduced into  medicine from its efficacy in
 destroying the  botts in horses ; but the worms
 which infest  the human bowels are of a different
 nature, and possess very different organs of life^
from  those which are  found in the stomach of a
horse.

  Those mechanical medicines  which act directly
upon the worms,  are cowhage* and powder of tin.

           * Dolichos Pruriens, of Linnaeus. 
      AND  ANTHELMINTIC MEDICINES.  369
The last of these medicines has  been supposed to
act chemically upon the worms, from the arsenic
which adheres to it; but from the length of time
a worm lived in a  solution of white arsenic,  it is
probable trie tin acts altogether mechanically upon
them.

   2. The medicines which act chemically  upon
worms appear,  from our experiments,  to be very
numerous.

   Nature has wisely guarded children against  the
morbid effects  of worms, by implanting in  them
an early appetite for'common salt, ripe fruits, and
saccharine substances; all of which  appear to be
among the most speedy and effectual poisons for
worms.

   Let it not be said, that nature here counteracts
her own purposes.  Her conduct in this business
 is conformable to many of her operations in the
 human body, as well as throughout all her works.
 The bile is a  necessary part of the animal fluids,
 and yet an appetite for ripe  fruits seems to be im-
 planted, chiefly to obviate the  consequences of its
 excess, or acrimony, in the summer and autumnal
 months.
    vol. i.               3  A 
370     OBSERVATIONS  UPON WORMS
   The use of common salt as an anthelmintic me-
dicine is both ancient and universal.  Celsus re-
commends it.   In  Ireland it is a common practice
to feed children, who are afflicted by worms, for a
week or two upon a salt sea-weed, and when the
bowels are well charged  with it, to give a purge of
wort in order to carry off the worms, after they are
debilitated by the salt diet.

   I have  administered many pounds  of common
salt coloured  with cochineal,  in doses of  half a
drachm, upon an empty stomach in the  morning,
with great success in destroying worms.

   Ever since I observed the effects of sugar and
other sweet substances upon worms, I have recom-
mended the liberal  use of all of them in the diet of
children, with the happiest effects.   The sweet sub-
stances probably act in preventing the diseases from
worms in the stomach only, into which they often
insinuate  themselves, especially in the  morning.
When we wish to dislodge  worms from the bowels
by sugar  or molasses,  we  must give these sub-
stances in  large quantities, so that they may escape
in part the action of the stomach upon them.

   I can say nothing from my  own experience of
the efficacy of the mineral ^'s, composed of cop- 
AND ANTHELMINTIC
MEDICINES.
371
per,  iron, and zinc, combined with vitriolic acid,
in destroying worms in the bowels.  Nor have I
ever used the corrosive sublimate in small doses as
an anthelmintic.

  I have'heard of well-attested cases of the efficacy
of the oil of turpentine in destroying worms.

  The expressed juices of onions and of garlic are
very common remedies for worms.  From one of
the experiments, it appears that  the onion juice
possesses strong anthelmintic virtues.

  I  have often prescribed a tea-spoonful  of gun-
powder in the morning, upon an  empty stomach,
with obvious advantage.    The  active medicine
here is probably the nitre.

   I have found a syrup  made of the bark of the
Jamaica cabbage-tree* to be a powerful, as well as
a most agreeable anthelmintic medicine.   It some-
times purges and vomits,  but its good effects may
be  obtained, without  giving it in  such doses as to
produce these evacuations.
* Geoffrea, of Linnaeus. 
372     OBSERVATIONS UPON  WORMS
   There  is not a more  certain anthelmintic than
Carolina pink-root.*   But as there have been in-
stances of death having followed excessive doses of
it, imprudently administered, and  as children are
often affected by giddiness, stupor, and a redness
and pain in the eyes, after taking it, I acknowledge
that  I  have generally preferred to it less certain,
but more safe, medicines for destroying worms.

   3. Of the medicines whose action is  compound-
ed of mechanical and chemical qualities, calomel,
jalap, and the powder of steel, are the principal.

   Calomel, in order to be effectual, must be given
in ktrge doses.  It is a  safe and powerful anthel-
mintic.   Combined  with jalap,  it often  brings
away worms when given for other purposes.

   Of all the medicines that  I have administered,
I  know of none more safe  and certain than the
simple preparations of iron, whether they be given
in the  form of steel-filings, or of the rust of iron.
If ever  they fail of success, it is because they are
given in too small doses.   I generally prescribe
from five  to thirty  grains,  every morning, to chil-
dren between one year and ten years old;  and  I
Spigelia Marylandica, of Linnaeus. 
AND ANTHELMINTIC  MEDICINES.
373
have been taught by  an old sea-captain, who was
cured of a taenia by this  medicine,  to  give from
two drachms to half an ounce of it, every morning,
for three or  four days, not only with safety,  but
with success.

   I shall  conclude this essay  with  the following
remarks:

   1. Where the action of medicines upon worms
in the  bowels does  not agree  exactly with their
action  upon the earth-worms, in the experiments
that have been related, it  must be ascribed to the
medicines being more or less altered by the action
of the  stomach upon them.   I conceive  that the
superior anthelmintic qualities  of pink-root, steel-
filings, and calomel  (all of which acted but slowly
upon the earth-worms compared with many other
substances) are in a  great degree occasioned by
their escaping the digestive powers unchanged,  and
acting in a concentrated state upon the worms.

   2. In fevers attended with anomalous symptoms,
which  are supposed to  arise from worms, I have
constantly refused to yield to the solicitations of
my patients, to abandon the indications of cure in
the fever, and to pursue  worms as  the principal
cause of the disease.  While I have adhered stea- 
374    OBSERVATIONS UPON  WORMS, &C.
ally to the usual remedies for the different states of
fever, in all their stages, I have at the same time
blended those  remedies occasionally  with  anthel-
mintic  medicines.   In this I have  imitated  the
practice of physicians in many  other  diseases, in
which troublesome and dangerous symptoms are
pursued, without seducing the attention from the
original disease.   The anthelmintic medicines pre.
 scribed in these cases should not be the  rust of
 iron, and common salt, which  are so very useful
 in chronic diseases from worms, but calomel and
 jalap, and such other medicines as aid in the cure
 of fevers. 
         AN ACCOUNT



            OF THE





EXTERNAL  USE OF ARSENIC,




            IN THE




       CURE  OF CANCERS. 
 
AN ACCOUNT, &c.
      A FEW years ago, a certain Doctor Hugh
Martin, a surgeon of one of the Pennsylvania regi-
ments stationed at Pittsburg, during the latter part
of the late war, came to this city,  and advertised
to cure cancers with a medicine which he said he
had discovered in the woods, in the neighbourhood
of the garrison.   As Dr.  Martin had once been
my pupil, I took the liberty of waiting upon him,
and asked him some questions respecting his dis-
covery.  His answers were calculated to make me
believe, that his  medicine  was of a vegetable na-
ture,  and  that it was originally an Indian remedy.
He showed me some of the  medicine, which ap-
peared to  be the  powder of  a  well-dried root  of
some  kind.  Anxious  to  see the success of this
medicine in cancerous  sores, I prevailed upon the
Doctor to admit me to  see him apply it in two or
   vol. i.              3 b 
378  ACCOUNT  OF THE USE  Ol ARSENIC
three  cases.  I observed, in some  instances,  he
applied a powder to the parts affected, and in others
only touched them with a feather dipped in a liquid
which had a white sediment, and which he made
me believe  was  the  vegetable  root  diffused  in
water.   It gave me great pleasure to witness the
efficacy  of the  Doctor's applications.  In several
cancerous ulcers,  the cures he performed  were
complete.   Where the  cancers were much con-
nected with the lymphatic system, or  accompanied
with a scrophulous habit of body, his medicine
always failed,  and, in some instances, did  evident
mischief.

   Anxious to  discover a medicine that promised
relief in even a few  cases of cancers,  and sup-
posing that all  the caustic vegetables were nearly
alike, I applied the  phytolacca or poke-root, the
stramonium, the arum,  and one or two others, to
foul ulcers, in hopes of seeing the same effects
from them which I had seen from  Doctor Mar-
tin's  powder;  but in these I was  disappointed.
They gave  some pain, but performed no cures.
At length I was furnished  by a gentleman from
Pittsburg with a powder  wliich I had no doubt,
from a variety of circumstances, was of the same
kind as that used by Dr. Martin.  I applied it to
a fungous ulcer,  but without producing the de- 
IN  THE  CURE OF  CANCERS.
379
grees of pain, inflammation, or discharge,  which
I had been accustomed to see from the application
of Dr.  Martin's powder.   After this, I  should
have suspected that  the powder was not a simple
root,  had not the D octor continued upon all occa-
sions to assure me, that it was wholly  a vegetable
preparation.

  In the beginning  of the year 1784,  the Doctor
died, and it was generally believed that his medi-
cine had died with  him.   A  few weeks after his
death I procured,  from one of his administrators,
a few ounces of the  Doctor's powder,  partly with
a view  of applying it to a cancerous sore which
then offered, and partly with a view of examining
it more minutely than I had been able  to do dur-
ing  the Doctor's life.  Upon  throwing the pow-
der, which was  of a brown colour,  upon a piece
of white paper, I perceived distinctly a number of
white particles scattered through it.   I suspected
at first that they were corrosive sublimate, but the
usual tests of that metallic salt soon convinced me
that I  was mistaken.   Recollecting that  arsenic
was the basis  of most of the  celebrated cancer
powders that have been used in the world, I had
recourse to the tests  for detecting it.  Upon sprink-
ling a  small quantity of the powder upon some
coals of fire, it  emitted the garlick smell so per- 
380  ACCOUNT OF THE USE OF  ARSENIC
ceptibly as to be known by several persons whom
I called into the room where I made the experi-
ment,  and who knew nothing of the object of my
inquiries.  After this, with some difficulty, I picked
out about three or four grains  of the white pow-
der, and bound them between two  pieces of cop-
per, which  I threw into the fire.   After the cop-
per pieces became red hot,  I  took them out of
the fire, and when they had cooled, discovered an
evident whiteness imparted to both  of them.  One
of the pieces afterwards  looked like  dull silver.
These two  tests have generally been thought suffi-
cient  to distinguish the presence of arsenic in any
bodies; but  I made use of a third, which has
lately  been communicated to the  world by Mr.
Bergman, and which is supposed to be in all cases
infallible.

   I infused a small quantity of the powder in a
solution of a vegetable alkali in water for a few
hours, and  then poured it upon a  solution of blue
 vitriol in water.   The colour of  the vitriol was
 immediately changed to a beautiful green, and af-
 terwards precipitated.

   I shall close this paper with a few remarks upon
 this powder, and upon the cure of cancers and foul
 ulcers of all kinds. 
IN  THE  CURE OF  CANCERS.      381
  X. The use of caustics in cancers and foul ul-
cers is very ancient, and universal.   But I believe
arsenic to be the most efficacious of any that has
ever been used.   It is  the  basis of Plunket's and
probably of Guy's well-known  cancer  powders.
The great art of applying it successfully, is to di-
lute and mix it in such a manner  as to mitigate the
violence of its action.   Doctor Martin's  composi-
tion was happily  calculated for  this purpose.  It
gave  less pain  than the common or lunar caustic.
It  excited a moderate inflammation, which sepa-
rated  the morbid from the sound parts, and pro-
moted a plentiful afflux  of humours to the sore
during its application.   It seldom produced an
 escar; hence  it insinuated itself into the deepest
recesses of the cancers,  and frequently separated
 those fibres in an unbroken state, which are gene-
rally  called the  roots of the  cancer.   Upon this
 account, I think, in some ulcerated cancers it is to
 be preferred to the knife.  It has  no action upon the
 sound skin.   This Doctor  Hall proved, by confin-
 ing a small quantity of it upon his arm for many'
 hours.   In those cases where Doctor Martin used
 it to extract cancerous or  schirrous tumours that
 were  not ulcerated,  I have reason to believe that
 he always broke  the skin with Spanish  flies. 
 382   ACCOUNT OF THE USE  OF ARSENIC
   2. The arsenic used by the Doctor was the pure
 white arsenic.  I should suppose from the exami-
 nation I made of the  powder with the  eye, that
 the proportion of arsenic to the vegetable powder,
 could not be more than one-fortieth part of the
 whole compound.   I have reason to think that the
 Doctor employed different vegetable substances at
 different times.  The vegetable matter with which
 the arsenic was combined in the powder which I
 used  in  my experiments, was probably  nothing
 more than the powder of the root and berries of the
 solanum lethale,  or deadly nightshade.   As  the
 principal, and perhaps the only design of the vege-
 table addition was to blunt the activity of the arse-
 nic, I should suppose that the same proportion of
 common wheat flour as the Doctor used of  his
 caustic vegetables, would answer nearly the  same
 purpose. In those cases where the Doctor applied
 a feather dipped in  a liquid  to the sore of his  pa-
 tient,  I have no doubt but his  phial  contained
nothing but a weak solution of arsenic in water.
 This is no new method of applying arsenic to foul
 ulcers.  Doctor Way, of Wilmington, has spoken
 in the highest terms to me of a wash for foulnesses
on the skin, as well  as old ulcers, prepared by boil-
 ing an ounce of white arsenic in two  quarts of
 water to three pints, and applying it once or twice
 a day 
IN  THE  CURE OF  CANCERS.      383
   3. I mentioned,  formerly,  that Doctor Martin
was often unsuccessful in the application of his
powder.   This was occasioned by his using it in-
discriminately in  all cases.  In schirrous and can-
cerous tumours, the knife should always be  pre-
ferred to the caustic. In cancerous ulcers attended
with a scrophulous or a bad habit of body, such
particularly as have their seat in the neck,  in the
breasts of  females, and in the axiliary glands,  it
can only protract the patient's  misery.  Most of
the cancerous sores cured by Doctor Martin were
seated on the nose, or cheeks, or upon the surface
or extremities of the body.   It remains yet to dis-
cover a cure  for cancers that taint  the fluids,  or
infect the whole  lymphatic system.   This  cure I
apprehend must be sought for  in dietV or in the
long use of some internal medicine.

    To pronounce a disease  incurable, is often to
 render it  so.  The intermitting fever,  if  left to
 itself, would probably  prove frequently, and per-
 haps more  speedily fatal than cancers.  And as
 cancerous tumours and sores are often neglected,
 or treated improperly  by injudicious people, from
 an apprehension that they are incurable  (to which
 the frequent advice of  physicians " to let  them
 alone,"  lias no doubt contributed)  perhaps  the
 introduction of arsenic  into regular practice as a 
384   ACCOUNT OF THE USE OF ARSENIC.
remedy for cancers, may invite to a more early ap-
plication to physicians, and  thereby prevent the
deplorable cases that have been mentioned, which
are often rendered so by delay  or  unskilful ma-
nagement

   4. It is not in cancerous sores only that Doctor
Martin's powder has been found to do service.  In
sores of all kinds, and from a variety of causes,
where they have been attended with fungous flesh
or callous edges, I have used the Doctor's powder
with advantage.

   I flatter myself that I shall be excused in giving
this detail  of a quack medicine, when  we reflect
that  it  was from the  inventions and temerity of
quacks, that  physicians have derived some of their
most active and useful medicines. 
           AN INQUIRY




              INTO THE




CAUSE AND CURE OF SORE LEGS.
VOL. I.         3 c 
 
AN  INQUIRY,  &c.
      HOWEVER trifling these complaints may
appear, they compose a large class of the diseases
of a numerous body of people.  Hitherto, the per-
sons afflicted by them have been too generally aban-
doned to the  care of empirics, either  because the
disease was considered as  beneath the notice of
physicians, or because they were unable to cure it.
I would rather ascribe it to the latter, than to the
former cause, for pride has no natural fellowship
with the profession of medicine.

   The difficulty of curing sore legs has been con-
fessed by physicians in every country.  As far as
my observations have extended, I am disposed to
ascribe this difficulty  to the uniform and indiscri-
minate mode of treating them, occasioned by the
want  of a theory which shall explain  their proxi- 
388
ON  SORE  LECS.
 mate cause.   I shall attempt in a few pages to de-
 liver one, which, however  imperfect, will, I hope,
 lay a foundation for more successful inquiries upon
 this subject hereafter.

   I shall begin my observations upon this disease,
 by delivering  and supporting the following propo-
 sitions.

   I.  Sore  legs are induced by general debility.
 This I infer from the occupations and habits of the
 persons who are most subject to them.   They are
 day-labourers, and sailors,  who are  in the habit of
 lifting great weights ; also washer-women, and all
 other persons, who pass the greatest part of their
 time upon their feet.   The blood-vessels and mus-
 cular fibres  of the legs are thus overstretched, by
 which means  either a rupture, or such a languid
 action in the vessels,  is induced, as that an acciden-
 tal wound from any  cause, even from the  scratch
 of a pin, or the bite  of a mosquito,  will not easily
 heal.  But  labourers, sailors, and washer-women,
 are  not the only persons  who  are  afflicted with
 sore legs.   Hard drinkers of every  rank and de-
 scription  are  likewise  subject to them.  Where
 strong drink, labour, and standing long on the  feet
 are united, they more certainly dispose to sore legs,
than when they act separately.  In China,  where 
ON  SORE  LEGS.
389
the labour which is performed by brutes in other
countries is performed by men, varices on the legs
are very common  among the labouring people.
Perhaps, the reason why the debility induced in
the legs produces varices instead of ulcers in these
people, may be owing to their not adding the de-
bilitating stimulus of strong drink to that of exces-
sive labour.

   It is not extraordinary that the debility produced
by intemperance in drinking ardent  spirits should
appear first  in the  lower extremities.   The debi-
lity produced by intemperance in the use of wine
makes its  first appearance in the form  of gout, in
the same  part of the body.  The gout, it is true,
discovers itself most  frequently in pain only, but
there are cases in which it has terminated in ulcers,
and even mortifications on the legs.

   II.  Sore legs are connected with a morbid state
of the whole system.   This I infer,

   1. From the causes which induce them,  all of
 which act more or  less upon every part of the body.

   2. From their following or preceding diseases,
 which obviously  belong to the whole system:  Fe-
 vers and  dysenteries often terminate critically in 
390
ON  SORE  LEGS.
 this disease ;  and the pulmonary consumption and
 apoplexy have often  been preceded by the sup-
 pression of a  habitual discharge  from a sore leg.
 The two latter diseases have been ascribed to the
 translation of  a morbific  matter to  the  lungs or
 brain:  but it is more rational  to ascribe them to
 a  previous debility in those  organs by  which
 means their vessels were more easily excited into
 action and effusion by the stimulus of the plethora,
 induced upon the system  in consequence  of the
 confinement of the fluids formerly discharged from
 the leg, in the form of pus.   This plethora can do
 harm only where there is previous debility; for  I
 maintain that the system (when the solids are ex-
 actly  toned) will always relieve itself of a sudden
preternatural accumulation of fluids by means  of
some natural emunctory.   This has been often ob-
served in  the  menorrhagia, which accompanies
plentiful living in women,  and in the copious dis-
charges from the bowels and kidneys, which follow
a suppression of the perspiration.

   3. I infer it,  from their appearing almost uni-
versally in one disease, which is evidently a disease
of the whole system, viz. the scurvy.

   4. From their becoming in some cases the out-
lets of menstrual blood, which is discharged in con- 
ON  SORE  LEGS.
391
sequence of a plethora, which affects more or less
every part of the female system.

  5. I infer it from  the symptoms of sore legs,
which are in some cases febrile, and affect the pulse
in every part of the  body with preternatural fre-
quency or force. These symptoms were witnessed,
in an eminent  degree, in two of the patients who
furnished subjects for clinical remarks in the Penn-
sylvania hospital some years ago.

   6.  I  infer  that sore legs are  a disease of the
 whole system, from the manner in which they are
 sometimes cured by nature and art.  They often
 prove the  outlets of many general diseases, and all
  the remedies which cure them  act more or  less
  upon the  whole  system.

    In all cases of sore legs there is a tonic and atonic
  state of the whole system.  The same state of ex-
  cessive or weak morbid action  takes place in the
  parts which are affected by the sores.   The reme-
 dies to cure them, therefore, should be general and
 local.

    In cases where the arterial  system is affected by
 too much tone,  the  general remedies should be, 
392
ON  SORE  LEGS.
   I.  Blood-letting. Of the efficacy of this re-
 medy in disposing ulcers suddenly to heal, the two
 clinical patients before-mentioned exhibited remark-
 able proofs, in the presence of all the students of
 medicine in the university.   The blood drawn was
 sizy in both cases.   I have not the merit of having
 introduced this remedy into practice in the cure of
 ulcers.   I learned it from Sir John Pringle. I have
 known it to be used with equal success in a  sore
 breast, attended by pain and inflammation, after all
 the usual remedies in that disease had been used to
 no purpose.

  II.  Gentle  purges.

  III. Nitre.  From  fifteen to twenty  grains of
this medicine should be given three times a-day.

  IV. A temperate  diet, and  a  total absti-
 nence from fermented and distilled liquors.

  V.  Cool and  pure  air.

  VI. Rest, in a recumbent posture of the body.

  The local remedies in this state of the system
should be, 
ON  SORE  LEGS.
393
  I.  Cold water.  Dr. Rigby has written largely
in favour of this remedy, when applied to local in-
flammations. From its good effects in allaying the
inflammation, which sometimes follows ,the punc-
ture which is made in the arm in communicating
the small-pox, and from the sudden relief it affords
in the inflammatory state of the ophthalmia and in
the piles, no one can doubt of its efficacy in sore
legs, accompanied by inflammation in those vessels
which are the immediate seat of the disease.

   II.  Soft poultices of bread and milk, or of bread
moistened  with*:lead water.   Dr.  Underwood's
method of making a poultice of bread and milk
 should be preferred in this case.  He directs us first
 to boil the milk, then to powder the bread, and
 throw it into the milk, and  after they have been
 intimately mixed, by being well stirred and boiled
 together, they should be poured out and  spread
 upon a rag, and a knife dipped in sweet oil or lard
 should be run  over them.  The solidity and con-
 sistence of the poultice is hereby better preserved,
 than when the oil or lard is mixed with the bread
  and milk over the fire.

     III. When  the inflammation subsides, adhesive
  plaisters so applied as to draw the sound edges of
  the sores together.  This  remedy has been used
     vol.  i.              2d 
394           ON SORE LEGS.
with  great success by  Dr.  Physic, in the Penn*
sylvania hospital, and in his private practice.

   IV.  Above all, rest, and a horizontal posture
of the leg.  Too  much cannot be said in favour
of this remedy in this species of sore legs.  Nan-
noni,  the famous Italian surgeon, sums up the cure
of sore  legs in three words,  viz. " Tempo, riposo,
e pazienza;" that is, in time, rest, and patience.
A friend of mine, who was cured by this surgeon
of a sore  leg, many years ago, informed  me, that
he confined him to his bed during the greatest part
of the time that he was under his  care.

  In  sore  legs, attended by too  little general and
local action, the following remedies are proper.

  I.  Bark.   It  should be used plentifully,  but
with a constant reference to the state of the  system;
for the changes in the weather, and other  acciden-
tal circumstances,  often produce  such changes in
the system, as to render its disuse for a short time
frequently necessary.

  II. Mercury. This remedy has been suppos-
ed to act by altering the fluids, or by discharging a
morbid  matter from them, in curing sore legs.  But
this is by no means the  case.  It  appears to act as 
ON  SORE  LECS.
395
a universal stimulant;  and if it prove most useful
when it  excites a salivation, it is only because  in
this way  it excites the most general action in the
system.

  III.  Mineral tonics,  such as the different
preparations of iron, copper, and zinc.

  IV.  Gentle  exercise. Rest,  and a recum-
bent posture  of the body, so proper in  the tonic,
are both  hurtful in this species of sore legs.   The
efficacy of exercise, even of the active kind, in the
cure of sore legs,  accompanied  by deficient ac-
tion  in the vessels, may easily be conceived from
its good effects  after (gun-shot  wounds, which are
mentioned by Dr.  Jackson.*  He tells us, that
those British soldiers who had been  wounded  at
the   battle of Guilford,  in  North Carolina,  who
were turned  out of the military hospitals and fol-
lowed the army, soonest recovered of their wounds.
It was remarkable,  that if they delayed only a few
days on  the road, their wounds grew worse,  or
ceased to heal.

  In the  use of the different species of exercise,
the  same regard should  be had to the state  of
* Medical Journal, 1790. 
396
ON  SORE  LEGS.
the system, which has been recommended  in other
diseases.

   V. A nutritious and moderately stimulating diet,
consisting of milk, saccarhine  vegetables, animal
food, malt liquors, and wine.

   Wort has done great service  in sore legs.  The
manner in which I have directed it to be prepared
and taken is as follows :  To three or four heaped
table-spoonsful of the malt,  finely  powdered and
sifted, add two table-spoonsful of brown sugar, and
three or four of Madeira, sherry, or Lisbon wine,
and a quart of boiling water.  After they have stood
a few hours, it may be drunken liberally by the pa-
tient, stirring it each time before he takes it, so that
the whole substance of the malt may be conveyed
into the stomach.  A little lime-juice may be add-
ed, if the patient requires it, to make it more plea-
sant.  The above quantity  may be taken once,
twice, or three times a-day,  at the pleasure of the
patient,  or according to  the  indication of his dis-
ease.

   VI.  Opium. This remedy is not only useful
in easing the  pain of a  sore leg, but co-operates
with other cordial medicines  in invigorating the
whole system. 
                ON  SORE  LEGS.             397
  VII. Baglivi says that in Rome,  and Dr. Cleg-
horn tells us that in Minorca,  ulcers of the  legs
are "  almost  incurable."  It is  probable there
are many parts of the world in which the air has the
same unfriendly influence  upon this  disease.   In
such cases it will be proper to advise a change of
climate.

  The local applications  should  consist of such
substances as are gently escarotic, and which excite
an action in the torpid vessels  of the affected part.
Arsenic, precipitate, and blue vitriol, have all been
employed with success for this purpose. Dr. Grif-
fitts informed me,  that he has  frequently accom-
plished the  same thing in the dispensary by ap-
plications of tartar emetic.   They should all be
used, if necessary, in succession to each other ; for
there is often the same idiosyncrasy in a sore leg to
certain topical applications, that there is in the sto-
mach  to certain aliments.  After the use  of these
remedies, astringents and tonics should be applied,
such as an infusion of Peruvian, or white-oak bark,
the water in which the smiths extinguish their irons,
lime-water, bread dipped in a weak solution of green
vitriol (so much commended  by Dr.  Underwood)
compresses  wetted with brandy, or  ardent spirits
of any kind, and, above all, the adhesive plaisters
formerly mentioned. 
 398            ON  SORE LEGS.
    Tight bandages are likewise highly proper here.
 The laced stocking has been much used.   It  is
 made of strong coarse linen.  Dr. Underwood gives
 several  good reasons for preferring a flannel rol-
 ler to the linen stocking.  It  sets easier on the
 leg, and yields to  the  swelling of the muscles in
 walking.

   In scorbutic sores  on the  legs, navy surgeons
 have spoken in high  terms of an application of a
 mixture of lime-juice  and molasses.  Mr. Gillespie
 commends the use of lime or lemon-juice alone, and
 ascribes many cures to it in the British navy during
 the late war, after every common application had
 been used to no purpose.*

   It is of the utmost consequence, in the treatment
 of sore legs, to keep them clean, by frequent dress-
 ings and washings. The success of old women is
 oftener derived from their great attention to cleanli-
ness, in the management of sore legs, than to any
 specifics they possess  which are unknown to physi-
cians.

  When sore legs are kept from healing by affec-
tions of the bone, the treatment should be such as
is recommended by practical writers on surgery.
* Medical Journal, vol. vi. 
                ON  SORE LEGS.            399
  I shall conclude this inquiry by four observa-
tions, which are naturally  suggested by what has
been delivered upon this disease.

  1. If it has been proved that sore legs are con-
nected with a morbid state of the whole system, is
it not proper to inquire, whether many other dis-
eases, supposed to be local,  are not in like manner
connected with the whole system;  and if sore legs
have been cured by  general remedies, is it not pro-
per to use them more frequently in local diseases ?

   2.  If there be two states  of action in the arteries
in sore  legs, it becomes us to inquire, whether the
same opposite states of action do not take place in
many diseases, in which they are not suspected. It
would be easy to  prove, that they exist in several
other local diseases.

   3. If the efficacy of the  remedies  for sore legs,
 which  have  been mentioned, depend upon their
 being accommodated exactly to the state of the ar-
 terial system, and if this system be liable to  fre-
 quent changes, does it not become us to be more
 attentive to the state  of the pulse in this  disease,
 than is commonly supposed to be necessary by phy-
 sicians ? 
400            ON SORii LEGS.
  4. It has been a misfortune in medicine, as well
as in other sciences, for  men to ascribe effects to
one cause, which should be  ascribed  to  many.
Hence diseases have been attributed exclusively to
morbid affections of the fluids by some, and of the
muscles and nerves by others.  Unfortunately, the
morbid states of the arterial system, and the influ-
ence of those states upon  the brain, the nerves, the
muscles, the lymphatics, the glands, the viscera, the
alimentary canal,  and the skin, as well as the reci-
procal  influence of the morbid states of each of
those parts of the  body upon the arteries, and upon
each other, have been too much neglected in most
of our systems of physic.  I consider the pathology
of the arterial system  as a mine.  It was first dis-
covered by Dr. Cullen. The man who attempts to
explore it will probably impoverish himself by his
researches ; but the men who come after him will
certainly obtain from it a treasure, which cannot fail
of adding greatly to the riches of medicine. 
            AN ACCOUNT




                OF THE




STATE  OF THE BODY AND MIND




            IN OLD AGE;




                 WITH




     OBSERVATIONS ON ITS DISEASES,



            AND THEIR REMEDIES.
VOL. I.           3 E 
 
AN  ACCOUNT, &c.
       MOST of the facts  which I shall deliver
upon  this subject are the result of observations,
made during the term of five years, upon persons of
both sexes, who had passed the 80th year of their
lives.   I intended to  have given a detail of the
names, manner of life, occupations,  and other cir-
cumstances of each of them;  but, upon a review
of my notes, I found so  great a sameness in the
history  of most of them, that I despaired, by de-
tailing them, of answering the intention which  I
have  purposed in the following essay.  I shall,
therefore,  only deliver the facts  and principles,
which are the result of the inquiries and observa-
tions I have made upon this subject.

  I. I,shall mention  the circumstances which fa
vour the attainment of longevity. 
404             ON  OLD AGE.
   II. I shall mention the phenomena of body and
mind which attend it; and,

   III. I shall enumerate its peculiar diseases, and
the remedies which are most proper to remove, or
moderate them.

   I.  The circumstances which favour  longevity
are,

   1.  Descent from long-lived ancestors.   1 have
not  found a single instance of a person who  has
lived to be 80 years old, in whom this was not the
case.  In  some instances  I found the descent was
only from  one, but, in general, it  was from both
parents.   The knowledge of this fact may  serve,
not only  to assist in calculating what are  called the
chances  of lives, but it may  be made useful to a
physician.   He may learn from it to cherish hopes
of his patients in  chronic,  and in some  acute dis-
eases, in proportion to the  capacity  of life they
have derived from their ancestors*.

  * Dr. Franklin, who died in  his 84th year, was descend-
ed from long-lived parents. His  father died at 89, and his
mother at 87.  His father had  17 children by two wives.
The doctor informed  me, that he once sat  down as one of 11
adult sons and daughters at his  father's table.  In an excur-
sion he once made to that part of England from  whence his 
ON  OLD AGE.
405
   2.  Temperance in eating and drinking.   To
this  remark  I found several exceptions.  I met
with one man of 84 years of age, who had been in-
temperate in  eating; and four or five persons, who
had  been intemperate in drinking ardent spirits.
They had all been day-labourers, or had deferred
drinking until they began to feel the languor of old
age.  I did not meet with a single person, who had
not, for the last forty or fifty years of their lives,
used tea, coffee, and bread and butter, twice  a day
as part of their diet.   I am disposed to believe that
those articles of diet do not materially affect the
duration of  human life, although they evidently
impair the strength of the system.  The duration
of life does not appear to depend so much upon the
strength of the body,  or upon  the quantity of its
excitability, as upon an  exact  accommodation of
stimuli to each of them.  A watch spring will last
as long as an anchor, provided the  forces which
are  capable  of destroying both are always  in an
exact ratio to their  strength.   The use of tea and
coffee in diet seems to be happily  suited to the
change which has taken place in the human body
by sedentary occupations, by  which  means  less

family migrated to America, he discovered, in a grave-yard,
the tomb-stones of several persons of his name, who had liv-
ed to be very old.  These persons he supposed to have been
his ancestors.
i 
406             ON OLD  AGE.
nourishment  and stimulus are required than for-
merly, to support animal life.

   3.  The moderate exercise of the understanding.
It has long been an established truth,  that literary
men (other circumstances being eqiuil) are longer
lived than other people.  But it is not necessary
that the  understanding should be employed upon
philosophical subjects, to produce this influence up-
on human life.  Business, politics, and  religion,
which are the objects of attention of men of all
classes,  impart a vigour  to  the understanding,
which, by being conveyed to every part of the body,
tends to produce health and long life.

   4. Equanimity of temper.   The violent and ir-
 regular  action of the passions tends to wear away
 the  springs of life.

   Persons who live upon annuities in Europe have
 been observed to be longer lived, in equal circum-
 stances, than other people.  This is probably occa-
 sioned by their being exempted, by the certainty of
 their subsistence, from those fears of want, which
 so  frequently  distract  the minds,  and thereby
 weaken the bodies, of old people.  Liferents have
 been supposed to have the same influence in  pro-
 longing life.   Perhaps the desire of life, in order to 
ON  OLD AGE.             40/
enjoy for as long a time as possible that property,
which cannot be enjoyed a second time by a child
or relation,  may be another cause of the longevity
of persons who live upon certain incomes.   It is a
fact, that the desire of life is a very powerful stimu-
lus in prolonging it,  especially when that desire is
supported by hope.  This is obvious to physicians'
every day.  Despair of recovery  is the  beginning
of death in all diseases.

   But  obvious and reasonable  as the effects of
equanimity of  temper  are upon human life,  there
are some exceptions in favour of passionate men
and women having attained to a great age.  The
 morbid stimulus of anger, in these cases, was pro-
 bably obviated by less degrees, or less active exer-
 cises, of the understanding, or by the  defect or
 weakness of some of the other stimuli which keep
 up the motions of life.

    5. Matrimony.  In the  course of my inquiries,
 I met with only one  person beyond eighty  years
 of age who had never been married.  I  met with
 several women who had  borne from ten to twenty
 children, and  suckled them all.  I met  with  one
 woman, a native of Herefordshire, in England, who
 was in the 100th year of her age, who  had borne
 a child at  60, menstruated till  80,  and frequently 
408
ON  OLD  AGE.
suckled two of her children (though born in succes-
sion to each other) at the same  time.   She had
passed the greatest part of her life over a washing-
tub.  Of forty persons who died in different parts
of the world, above 80 years of age, in the year
1806, there  was  but  one of them that  had not
been married.  A majority of them were women.

  6. Emigration. I have observed many instances
of Europeans who have arrived in  America in the
decline of life,  who  have acquired fresh vigour
from the impression of our climate, and of new ob-
jects, upon theirbodies and minds; and whose lives,
in consequence thereof, appeared to have been pro-
longed for many years.  This influence of climate
upon longevity is not confined to the United States.
Of  100  European Spaniards,  who emigrate  to
South-America in early life, 18 live to be above
50, whereas but  8 or  9 native Spaniards, and but
7 Indians, of the same number, exceed the 50th
year of human life.

  7. I have  not found sedentary employments to
prevent long life,  where they are not accompanied
by intemperance in eating or drinking.  This ob-
servation is  not confined to literary men, nor  to
women only, in whom longevity,  without much
exercise of body, has been frequently observed.   I
*■ 
ON  OLD  AGE.              409
met with one instance of a weaver; a second of a
silver-smith ; and a third of a shoe-maker; among
the number of old people, whose histories have
suggested these observations.

   8. I have not found that acute, nor that all chro-
nic diseases shorten human life.  Dr.  Franklin had
two successive vomicas in his lungs before he was
40 years  old.   I met with one man beyond 80,
who had survived a most violent attack of the yeK
low fever ; a second, who had had several of his
bones fractured by falls, and in frays : and  many,
who had been frequently affected by intermittents.
I met with one man of 86, who had all his life been
subject to syncope; another, who had for 50 years
been occasionally affected by a cough;* and two
instances  of men, who had been afflicted for forty
years with obstinate head-aches, f  I met with only
one person beyond 80, who had ever been affected
by a disease in the stomach ; and in him it arose
from an occasional rupture.   Mr. lohn Strange -

  • This man's only remedy for his cough was the fine
powder of dry Indian turnip and honey.

  t Dr. Thiery says, that he did not find the itch, or slight
degrees of the leprosy, to prevent longevity.  Observations
de Physique, et de Medecine faites en differens lieux ie
L'Espagne. Vol. ii. p. 171.
   VOL. I.             3  E 
410              ON  OLD  AGE.
ways Hutton, of this  city,  who died in 1793, in
the 109th year  of his age,  informed  me,  mat he
had never puked in his life.  This circumstance is
the more remarkable,  as he passed several years at
sea when a young man.*   These facts may serve
to extend our ideas of the importance of a healthy
state of the stomach in  the animal economy ;  and
thereby to add to our knowledge in the prognosis
of diseases, and in the chances of human life.


  * The venerable old man, whose history first suggested
this remark, was born in New York in the year 1684.   His
grandfather lived to be  101, but was unable to walk for thirty
years  before he died, from an excessive quantity of fat.  His
mother died at 91.  His constant drinks  were  water,  beer,
and cyder.  He had a fixed dislike to spirits of  all kinds.
His appetite was good ; and he ate plentifully during the last
years of his life.   He seldom drank any thing between his
meals.  He was never intoxicated but twice in his life, and
that was when a boy, an*l at sejt, where he remembers per-
fectly well to have celebrated, by a feu de joye, the birth-day
of queen Anr.e.'   He was formerly afflicted with the  head-
 ache and  giddiness, but never had a fever, except from the
small-pox, in the course of his life. His pulse was slow, but
regular.  He had been twice married.   By his first wife he
had eight, and by his  second seventeen children.  One of
them lived to be 83 years of age.  He was about five feet
nine inches in height, of a slender make, and carried an
erect  head, to the last year of his life. 
ON  OLD  AGE.
411
  9. I have not found the loss of teeth to affect the
duration of human life, so much as might be ex
pected.   Edward  Drinker, who lived to be 103
years old, lost his teeth thirty years before he died,
from drawing the hot smoke  of tobacco into his
mouth through a short pipe.

  Dr. Say re, of New-Jersey, to whom I  am in
debted  for several very valuable  histories  of old
persons, mentions one man, aged 81, whose teeth
began to decay at 16, and another of 90, who lost
his teeth thirty  years before he saw him.   The
gums,  by becoming hard, perform, in part, the
office of teeth.   But may not  the gastric juice of
the stomach, like the tears and urine, become acrid
by age, and thereby supply, by a more dissolving
power,  the defect of mastication from the  loss of
teeth?  Analogies might easily be adduced  from
several operations of nature, which go forward in
the animal economy, which render this supposition
highly probable.

    10. I have not observed baldness, or gray hairs,
 occurring :in early or middle life, to prevent old
 age.  In one of the histories furnished me  by Dr.
 Sayre,  I  find an account of a man  of 81, whose
 hair began to assume a silver colour when he was
 but one and twenty years of age. 
412
ON OLD AGE.
  11. More women  live to be old  than men,  but
more men live to be very old than women.

  I shall conclude this head by the following re-
mark:

  Notwithstanding there  appears  in the human
body a certain capacity of long life, which seems
to dispose it to preserve its existence in every situa-
tion ;  yet this capacity does not always protect it
from premature destruction; for among the old
people whom I examined,  I scarcely met with one
who had not  lost  brothers or sisters in early  and
middle life, and  who  were born under circum-
stances equally favourable to longevity with them-
selves,

  II.  I now come to mention some of the pheno-
mena of the body and mind which occur in old age.

  1. There is a great sensibility  to cold in all old
people.  I met with an old woman of 84, who slept
constantly under three blankets and a coverlet du-
ring the hottest summer months.   The servant of
prince  de Beaufremont, who came from Mount
Jura to Paris, at the age of  121, to pay his respects
to the first national assembly of France, shivered
with cold in the middle of the dog-days, when he 
ON  OLD  AGE.
413
was not near a good a fire.  The national assembly
directed him to sit with his hat on, in order to de-
fend his head from the cold.

  2. Impressions made upon the ears of old peo-
ple excite sensation and reflection much quicker
than when they are made upon their  eyes.  Mr.
Hutton informed  me, that he had frequently met
his sons in the street without knowing them, until
they had spoken to him.   Dr. Franklin informed
me, that he recognized his friends, after a long ab-
sence from them,  first by their voices.  This fact
does not contradict the common  opinion upon the
subject of memory, for the recollection, in these in-
stances, is the effect of what is called reminiscence,
which differs  from memory, in being excited only
by the  renewal of the impression which at first pro-
duced the idea which is revived.

   3. The appetite for food is generally increased in
 old age.  The famous Parr, who died at 152, ate
 heartily in the last week of his life.  The kindness
 of nature, in providing this last portion  of earthly
 enjoyments for old people, deserves to be noticed.
 It is remarkable,  that they have, like children, a
 frequent  recurrence of appetite,  and sustain with
 great  uneasiness  the intervals of regular  meals.
 The observation,  therefore, made by Hippocrates,, 
414             ON OLD  AGE.
 that middle-aged people are more affected by ab-
 stinence than those who are old, is not true.   This
 might eaily be proved by many appeals to the re-
 cords of medicine;  but old  people  differ from
 children,  in preferring  solid  to  liquid  aliment.
 From inattention to this fact, Dr. Mead has done
 great mischief by advising old people, as their teeth
 decayed or perished, to lessen  the  quantity of
 their solid, and to increase the quantity of their
 liquid food.  This advice is contrary to  nature
 and experience, and I have heard of two old per-
 sons who destroyed themselves  by  following it.
 The circulation of the blood  is supported in old
people chiefly by  the stimulus of aliment.   The
 action of liquids of all kinds  upon the system is
 weak and  of short continuance, compared with the
 durable  stimulus of solid food.  There is a grada-
 tion  in  the action of this  food  upon the  body.
 Animal matters are  preferred to vegetable, the
 fat of meat to the  lean, and salted meat to fresh,
 by most old people.   I have met  with but few old
 people who retained an appetite  for  milk.   It  is
 remarkable, that  a less quantity of strong drink
 produces  intoxication in old people than in persons
 in the middle of life.  This depends upon the re-
 currence  of the  same state of the system,  with
 respect to excitability, which  takes place in child-
 hood.   Many old people,  from an  ignorance of 
ON  OLD  AGE.              415
this fact, have made shipwreck of characters, which
have commanded respect in every previous stage
of their lives.   From the same recurrence of the
excitability  of childhood  in their systems, they
commonly drink their tea and coffee much weaker
than in early or middle life.

   4.  The pulse  is generally full, and frequently
affected by pauses in its pulsations, when felt in the
wrists of old people.  A regular pulse in such per-
sons indicates a disease,  as it shows the  system to
be under the impression  of a preternatural stimulus
of some kind.  This observation was suggested to
me above thirty years ago  by Morgagni, and I
have  often  profited by it in attending old people.
The pulse in such patients is an uncertain mark of
the nature,  or degree, of an acute disease.  It sel-
dom partakes of the quickness or convulsive action
of the arterial system, which attends fever in young
or middle-aged people.   I once attended a man of
 77 in a fever of the bilious kind, which confined
him for eight days to his bed, in whom I could not
perceive the least quickness or morbid action in his
pulse until four and twenty hours before he died.

   5. The marks of old age appear earlier, and are
 more numerous, in persons who have  combined
with hard  labour a vegetable or scanty diet, than 
416             ON  OLD  ACE.
 in persons who have lived under opposite circum-
 stances.  I think I have observed these marks of
 old age to occur sooner, and to be more numerous,
 in the German, than in the  English or Irish citi-
 zens  of  Pennsylvania.   They are likewise  more
 common among the inhabitants of country places,
 than of cities, and still more so among the Indians
 of North America,  than among the  inhabitants of
 civilized countries.

   6.  Old men tread upon the whole base of their
 feet at once in walking.   This is perhaps one rea-
 son why they wear out fewer shoes, under the same
 circumstances of constant use, than young people,
 who,  by treading on the  posterior, and rising on
the anterior part of  their feet, expose their shoes
 to more  unequal pressure and friction.  The ad-
vantage derived to old people from  this  mode of
 walking is very obvious.  It lessens that disposi-
 tion to totter, which is always connected with weak-
 ness : hence we find the  same mode of walking is
 adopted  by habitual drunkards,  and is sometimes
 from habit practised by them, when they  are not
 under the influence  of strong drink.

   7.  The breath and  perspiration  of old people
 have a peculiar acrimony, and their urine, in some
 instances, emits a foetor of an offensive nature. 
ON  OLD  AGE.             417
   8. The eyes of very old people sometimes change
 rom a dark and blue to a light colour,

   9. The memory is the first faculty of the mind
which fails in the decline  of life.   While recent
events pass through the mind without  leaving an
impression upon it, it is remarkable that the long
forgotten events of childhood and youth are recalled
and distinctly remembered.

   I met with a singular instance of a German wo-
man, who had learned to speak the language of our
country after she was forty years of age, who had
forgotten every word of it after she had  passed her
80th year, but spoke the German language as flu-
ently as ever she had done.  The memory decays
soonest in hard drinkers.   I have observed some
studious men to  suffer a decay of their memories,
but never of their understandings.   Among these
was the late Anthony Benezet, of this  city.   But
even this infirmity did not abate the cheerfulness,
nor lessen the happiness of this pious philosopher,
for he once told me, when I was a young man,
that he had a consolation in  the decay  of his me-
mory, which  gave him a great advantage over me.
" You can read a good book (said  he) with plea-
sure but  once, but  when I read a  good book,  I
so soon forget the  contents  of it, that  I have  the
   vol. i.             3  G 
418
ON  OLD AGE.
pleasure  of reading it over and  over; and every
time I read it,  it is alike new and delightful to
me."  The celebrated  Dr.  Swift  was one of
those few studious men, who have exhibited marks
of a decay  of understanding in old age ; but it is
judiciously ascribed by Dr. Johnson to two causes,
which rescue books, and the exercise of the think-
ing faculties, from having had any share in inducing
that disease upon his mind.   These causes were,
a rash vow which he made  when a young  man,
never to  use spectacles, and a sordid seclusion of
himself from company, by which means he was cut
off from  the use of books, and the benefits of con-
versation, the absence of which left his mind with-
out  its usual stimulus: hence it collapsed into a
state of fatuity.   It is probably owing to the con-
stant exercise of the understanding, that literary
men possess that faculty of the mind in a vigorous
state in extreme old age. The same cause accounts
for old people preserving their intellects longer in
cities than  in country places.   They enjoy society
upon such easy terms in the former situation, that
their minds are kept more constantly in an excited
state, by the acquisition of new,  or the renovation
of old ideas, by means of conveisation.

   10. I  did not meet  with a single instance, in
which the moral or religious faculties were impair- 
ON  OLD
AGE.
419
ed in old people.   I do not believe  that these fa-
culties of the mind are preserved by any supernatu-
ral power, but wholly by the constant and increasing
exercise of them in the evening  of  life.  In the
course of my inquiries, I heard of a man of  101
years of age,  who declared that he  had forgotten
every thing he had ever known, except his God..
I found the moral faculty,  or a disposition to  do
kind offices, to be exquisitely sensible in several old
people, in whom there was scarcely a trace left of
memory or understanding.

   11.  Dreaming is  universal among old people.
It appears to be brought on by their imperfect sleep,
of which I shall say more hereafter.

   12.  I mentioned formerly the sign of a second
childhood, in the increase of the appetite in old peo-
ple.  It appears further,  1. In a recurrence of the
appetite for those articles of food which were most
grateful in childhood,  particularly  sweet substan-
ces.   The late Dr. Redman, who  died in March,
1808,  in the 86th year of his age,  became so fond
of sweet  cake, for several years before his death,
that he seldom passed a day without  eating  more
or less of it.   2.  In the marks which slight con-
tusions or  impressions leave  upon  their skins.
3. In their being soon fatigued by  walking or ex- 
420              ON  OLD  AGE.
 ercise, and in being as soon refreshed by rest.   4.
 In their loss of the command over their limbs, so as
 to be unable to protect themselves from the conse-
 quences of a fall by protruding their arms. 5. In the
 loss of their command over the spincters of the rec-
 tum  nd bladder, in consequence of which they dis-
 charge their fasces in an involuntary manner, and
 wi'.h the same frequency which we observe in in-
 fancy and childhood. I took notice in the lectures
 upon animal life, of this return of  involuntary mo-
 tions in parts  that had become voluntary  from  the
 influence  of  habit.  6. In their  inability to rest,
 except  in  a recumbent posture.   7.  In the  ab-
 sence of teeth.  8. In a disposition to nearly con-
 stant sleep.   Dr.  Haller mentions an  instance of a
 very old man, who slept twenty out of every twenty-
 four hours of the last years of his life. 9. In their dis-
 position, like children, to detail  immediately every
 thing they see and hear.  10.  In  their aptitude to
 shed tears ;  hence they are unable to tell a story,
 that is in any  degree distressing, without weeping.
 Dr. Moore takes notice of this peculiarity in Vol-
 taire, after he had  passed his 80th  year.   He wept
constantly  at  the recital of  his  own  tragedies.
 This feature in old age did  not escape  Homer.
 Old Menelaus wept ten years after he returned from
 the destruction of Troy, when he  spoke of  the
death of the heroes who perished  before that city. 
ON OLD  AGE.               421
The famous duke of Malborough discovered the
same disposition to weep in the close of his life.
11. In the absence of memory, and finally, in the ex-
tinction of every  other faculty of the mind.   The
reader will  perceive here, that not only the marks
of a second childhood, but of a second infancy, are
exhibited in old age, when it is protracted to its ex-
treme point.

   13. The disposition in the system to renew cer-
tain parts in extreme old age  has been mentioned
by several authors.  Many instances are to be met
with  in the records of medicine of the sight* and

  * There is a remarkable instance of the sight having been
restored, after it had been totally destroyed, in an old man
near Reading, in Pennsylvania.  My brother, Judge Rush,
furnished me with the following account of him , in a letter
from Reading, dated June 23, 1792.

  " An old  man, of 84 years of age, of the name of Adam
Riffle, near this  town, gradually lost his sight in the 68th
year of his age, and condnued entirely blind for the space of
twelve years. About four years ago his sight returned, with-
out making use of any  means for the purpose, and without
any visible change in the appearance of the eyes, and  he now
sees as well as ever he did.   I have seen the man, and have
no doubt of the fact.  He is at  this time so  hearty, as to be
able to walk from his house to  Reading (about three miles)
which he frequently does in order to attend church. I should 
422
ON  OLD  AGE.
 hearing having been restored, and even of the teeth
 having been renewed in old people a few years be-
 fore death.  These phenomena have led me to sus-
 pect that the antediluvian age was attained by  the
 frequent renovation of different parts of the body,
 and that when they occur, they are an effort of the
 causes which support animal life  to produce ante-
 diluvian longevity, by acting upon the revived ex-
 citability of the system.

   14. The fear of death appears to be much less
 in old age, than in early or middle life.   I  met
 with  many old people who spoke of their dissolu-
 tion with composure,  and with some who expres-
 sed earnest desires to  lie down in the grave.  This
 indifference to life, and desire  for death (whether
they arise  from a satiety  in worldly pursuits  and
 pleasures, or from a desire of being relieved from
 pain) appear to be a wise law in the animal econo-
 my, and  worthy of being classed with those laws
 which accommodate the body and mind of man to
 all the natural  evils, to which, in the  common or-
 der of things, they are necessarily exposed.

observe, that, during both the gradual loss and recovery of
his sight, he was no  ways affected by sickness, but, on the
contrary, enjoyed his usual health. I have this account from
his daughter and son-in-law, who live  within a  few doors
of me." 
                 ON  OLD  AGE.             4^0
  III.,I come now briefly to enumerate the dis-
eases of old age, and the remedies which are most
proper to remove, or to mitigate them.

   The diseases are chronic and acute.  The chro-
 nic are,

   I. Weakness of the knees and ancles, a lessened
 ability to walk, and tremors in the head and limbs.

   2.  Pains in the bones, known among nosologi-
 cal writers by the name of rheumatalgia.

   3.  Involuntary flow of tears, and of mucus from
 the nose.

    4. Difficulty of breathing, and a short cough,
 with copious expectoration.   A weak or hoarse
  voice generally attends this cough.

     5.  Costiveness.

     6.  An  inability to retain the urine as long as in
  early or middle life.  Few persons beyond 60 pass
  a  whole night, without being obliged to discharge
  their urine.*  Perhaps the stimulus of this liquor

    * I met with an old man, who informed me, that if from
  any accident he retained his urine after he felt an inclination 
424              ON  OLD  AGE.
 in the bladder may be one cause of the universality
 of dreaming among old people.  It is  certainly a
 frequent cause of dreaming in persons in early and
 middle life: this I infer, from its occuring chiefly
 in the morning, when the bladder is most distended
 with urine.  There is  likewise an inability in old
 people to discharge their urine as  quickly  as in
 early life.  I think 1 have observed this to be among
 the first symptoms of the declension of the strength
 of the body by age.

   7.  Wakefulness.  This is probably produced in
 part by the action of the urine upon the bladder;
 but  such  is the excitability of the  system in the
 first stages of old age, that there is no pain so light,
 no anxiety so trifling, and no sound so small, as not
 to produce wakefulness in old people.  It is owing
 to their imperfect sleep, that they are sometimes as
 unconscious of the moment of their passing from a
 sleeping to a waking state, as  young and middle-
 aged  people are of the moment in which they pass
 from the waking to a sleeping state.  Hence we so
 often hear them complain of passing sleepless nights.
 This  is no doubt frequently the case, but I am sa-
 tisfied, from the result of an inquiry made upon this
 subject, that they often  sleep without knowing it,

to discharge it, he was affected by a numbness, accompanied
by an uneasy sensation in the palms of his hands. 
ON  OLD  AGE.
425
and that their complaints in the morning, of the
want of sleep, arise  from ignorance, without the
least intention to deceive.

  8. Giddiness.

  9. Deafness.

   10.  Imperfect vision.

  The acute diseases most  common among old
people are,

   1. Inflammation of the eyes.

   2. The pneumonia notha,  or bastard  peripneu-
mony.

   3. The colic,

   4.  Palsy and apoplexy.

   5.  The piles.

   6.  A difficulty in  making water.

   1.  Quartan fever.
VflL.  I.
3 H 
426             ON  OLD  AGE.
  All the diseases of old people, both chronic and
acute,  originate in predisposing debility. The re-
medies for  the former, where a feeble morbid ac-
tion takes place in the system, are stimulants. The
first of these is,

   I. Heat.  The ancient Romans prolonged life
by retiring to Naples, as soon as they felt the infir-
mities of age  coming upon  them.   The aged
Portuguese imitate them, by approaching the warm
 sun of Brazil,  in South America.  But heat may
be applied to the torpid bodies of old people artifi-
 cially.  1. By means of  the warm  bath.  Dr.
 Franklin owed much of the cheerfulness and gene-
 ral vigour of body and mind, which characterised
 his old age, to his regular use of this remedy.  It
 disposed him to sleep, and even produced a respite
 from  the pain of the stone, with  which he was
 afflicted during the last years of his life,

    2.  Heat may be applied to the bodies of old peo-
 ple by means of stove rooms. The late Dr. Dewit,
 of Germantown, who lived to be near  100 years of
 age,  seldom breathed an  air  below 72°, after he
 became an old man.   He lived  constantly in a
  stove-room. 
ON  OLD AGE.             427
   3.  Warm clothing, more especially warm
bed clothes, are proper to preserve or increase the
heat of old people.   From the neglect of the latter,
they are often found dead in their beds in the morn*
ing, after a cold night, in all cold countries.   The
late Dr. Chovet, of this city,  who lived to be 85,
slept in a baize night  gown, under eight blankets
and a coverlet, in a stove-room, many years before
he died.  The head should be defended in old peo-
ple, by means of woollen or fur caps, in the night,
and by wigs and hats during the day, in cold  wea-
ther.  These artificial coverings will be the more ne-
cessary, where the head has  been deprived of its
natural covering. Great pains should be taken  like-
wise to keep  the feet dry and warm, by means of
thick shoes.*   To these modes of applying and
confining heat to the bodies of old people, a young
bed-fellow has been added; but  I conceive the
three artificial modes which have been recommend-
ed will be sufficient, without the use of one, which
cannot be successfully employed without a breach
of delicacy or humanity.

  * I met with one man above 80, who  defended his feet
from moisture  by covering his shoes in wet weather with
melted wax ; and another, who, for the same purpose, co-
vered his shoes every morning with a mixture composed of
the following ingredients melted together: lintseed oil a 
428
ON  OLD AGE.
   II.  To keep up the action of the system, gene-
 rous  diet and drinks  should be given to old
 people.   Their food should partake largely  of the
 fire, and  it should be so cooked as to retain all its
 juices.  By this means it is more easily divided by
 their gums, and more easily digested.  Broiled fish,
 and what are commonly called stews  of butchers
 meat,  form excellent articles of diet for old people.
 For a reason mentioned formerly, they should be
 indulged in eating between the ordinary meals of
 families.  Wine should be given to them in mode-
 ration.   It has  been emphatically called the milk
 of old  age.

   III. Young company should  be  preferred by
 old people to the company  of persons of their own
 age.   I think I have observed old people to enjoy
 better  health and spirits, when they  have passed

pound, mutton suet eight ounces, bees-wax six ounces, and
rosin four  ounces.  This  mixture should  be moderately
warmed, and then applied not  only to  the upper leather,
but to the soles  of the shoes.  This composition, the old
gentleman informed me, was extracted from a book, entitled
" The Complete  Fisherman," published in England, in the
reign of queen Elizabeth.  He had used it for twenty years
in cold and wet weather, with great benefit, and several of
his friends, who had tried it, spoke of its efficacy in keeping
the feet dry in high terms. 
ON  OLD  AGE.             429
the evening of their lives in the families of their
children, where they have  been surrounded  by
grand-children, than  when  they lived by  them-
selves.  Even the solicitude they feel for the wel-
fare of their descendants contributes to invigorate
the circulation of the blood, and thereby to add fuel
to the lamp of life.

   IV. Gentle   exercise.   This is  of great
consequence in promoting the health of old people.
It should be moderate, regular, and always  in fair
weather.                          ,

   V. Cleanliness.   This should by no means
 be neglected.  The dress of old people should not
 only be clean, but more elegant than in youth, or
 middle life.   It  serves to divert the eye of specta-
 tors from observing the decay and deformity of the
 body, to view and admire that which is always
 agreeable to it.

   VI. To abate  the pains  of the chronic rheuma-
 tism, and the uneasiness of the old  man's cough (as
 it is called;) also to remove wakefulness,  and  to
 restrain, during the night,  a troublesome inclina
 tion to make water, opium may be given  with
 great advantage.  Chardin informs  us,  that this
 medicine is frequently used in the eastern countries, 
430             ON OLD  AGE.
to abate the pains and weaknesses of old age, by
those people who are  debarred the use of wine by
the religion of Mahomet.

   I have nothing to say upon the acute diseases of
old people, but what is to be found in most of our
books of medicine, except to  recommend bleed-
ing in those of them which are attended with ple-
thora, and an  inflammatory action in the  pulse.
The degrees of appetite which belong to old  age,
the quality of  the food taken, and the  sedentary
life which is generally connected with it, all  con-
cur to produce that state of the system, which re-
quires the above evacuation. I am sure that  I have
seen many  of the chronic complaints of old people
mitigated by it, and I have more than once  seen it
used with obvious advantage in their inflammatory
diseases.  These affections I have observed to be
more fatal among old  people than is generaly  sup-
posed.   An inflammation of the lungs, which ter-
minated in an  abscess, deprived the world  of Dr.
Franklin. Dr.  Chovet died of an inflammation in
his liver. The  blood drawn from him a few days
before his death was sizy, and  such was the  heat
of his body, produced by his  fever, that  he could
not bear more covering (notwithstanding his  for-
mer habits of  warm clothing) than a sheet, in the
month of January. 
ON  OLD AGE.
431
  Death from old age is  the  effect  of  a gradual
palsy.   It shows itself first in the eyes and ears, in
the decay of sight and hearing; it appears next in
the urinary bladder, in the limbs and trunk of the
body ;  then in the sphincters of the bladder and
rectum; and finally in the nerves and  brain,  de-
stroying, in the last, the exercise of all the faculties
of the mind.

   Few persons appear  to die of old age.   Some
 one of  the  diseases which  have  been  mentioned
 generally cuts the last thread of life. 
 
              OBSERVATIONS


                    ON THE


   DUTIES  OF  A PHYSICIAN,


                    AND THE

     METHODS OF IMPROVING MEDICINE.

ACCOMMODATED TO THE PRESENT STATE OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS
               IN THE UNITED STATES.
DeliTMed in the UnWerrity of Pennsylvania, February 7, 1789, at the conclusion oJ a
       course of lectures upon chemistry and the practice of phytic.


       PUBLISHED At fHB REQUEST OF VHE CLASS.
VOL. I.
3 T 
 
OBSERVATIONS,  &e.
GENTLEMEN,

      I SHALL conclude our course of lecture'..
by delivering to you a few directions for the regu-
lation of your future  conduct and studies, in the
line of your profession.

  I  shall, first, suggest the most probable  means
of establishing yourselves in business, and of be-
coming acceptable to your patients, and respectable
in life.

   Secondly,  1 shall mention a few thoughts which
have occurred to me on the mode to be pursued,
in the further prosecution of your studies, and for
the improvement of medicine. 
436
OBSERVATIONS ON T#E
   I. Permit me, in the first place, to recommend
to such of you as intend to settle in the  country,
to establish yourselves as early as possible upon
farms.  My reasons for this advice are as follow:

   1. It will reconcile the country people to the
liberality and dignity of your profession, by show-
ing them that you assume no superiority over them
from your education, and that you intend to share
with them in those toils, which were imposed upon
man in consequence of the  loss of his innocence.
This will prevent envy, and render you acceptable
to your patients as men, as well as physicians.

   2. By living on a farm  you may  serve your
country, by promoting  improvements  in agricul-
ture.   Chemistry  (which  is  now an  important
branch of medical  education) and agriculture are
closely allied to each other.  Hence some  of the
most  useful books  upon agriculture  have been
written by physicians.   Witness the essays of Dr.
Home of Edinburgh, and of Dr. Hunter of York-
shire,  in England.

   3.  The business of a farm will  furnish you  with
 employment in the healthy seasons of the year, and
 thereby deliver you from the taedium vitae, or,  what
 is worse, from retreating to low or improper com- 
DUTIES  OF A  PHYSICIAN.
437
pany.  Perhaps one cause of the prevalence of dram
or grog drinking, with which country practitioners
are sometimes charged, is owing to their having
no regular or profitable business to employ them,
in the intervals of their attendance upon their pa-
tients.

   4. The resources of a farm will create such an
independence, as will enable you to practice with
more dignity, and at the same time screen you from
the trouble of performing unnecessary services to
your patients.  It  will change the nature of  the
obligation between you and them.   While money
is the only means of  your  subsistence, your  pa-
tients will feel that they are the channels  of your
daily bread;  but while your farm  furnishes you
with the necessaries of life, your patients will feel,
more sensibly, that the obligation is on their side,
for health and life.
                                   *
   5. The exigencies and wants of a farm,  in stock
and labour of all kinds, will enable you to obtain
from your patients a  compensation for your ser-
vices in  those articles.  They  all  possess them,
and men  part with that of which money is only
 the sign  much  more  readily than they do with
 money itself. 
 438        OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE
    6. The resources of a farm will prevent your
 cherishing, for a moment, an  impious wish for the
 prevalence of sickness in your neighbourhood.   A
 healthy season will enable you to add to the pro-
 duce of your farm, while the rewards of an un-
 healthy season will enable you to repair the incon-
 venience  of your necessary absence from it.   B)
 these means your pursuits will be  marked by that
 variety and  integrity, in which true happiness is
 said to  consist.

   7.  Let your farms be small, and let your prin-
 cipalattention be directed to grass and horticulture.
 These afford most amusement, require only mode-
 rate labour,  and will interfere  least with your du-
 ties to your  profession.

   II. Avoid singularities of every kind in  your
 manners,  dress, and  general  conduct.   Sir Isaac
 Newton, it is said, could not be distinguished in
 company, by any peculiarity, from a common  well-
 bred  gentleman.   Singularity, in  any thing, is a
 substitute for such great or useful qualities as com-
 mand respect; and hence we find it chiefly in little
 minds.  The profane  and indelicate combination
of extravagant ideas, improperly  called  wit,  and
 the formal and pompous manner, whether accom-
 panied by a wig, a cane, or a ring,  should be all 
            DUTIES OF A PHYSICIAN.       439
avoided, as* incompatible with the simplicity of sci-
ence, and the real dignity of physic.  There is
more than one way of playing the  quack.   It is
not necessary, for this purpose, that a man should
advertise his skill, or his cures, or that he should
mount a phaeton, and display his dexterity in ope-
rating to an  ignorant and gaping multitude.  A
physician  acts  the same  part in a different way,
who assumes the character of a madman or a brute
in  his manners, or who conceals his fallibility by
an affected gravity and taciturnity in his intercourse
with his patients. Both  characters, like the quack,
impose upon the  public.   It is true, they deceive
different ranks of people ;  but we must remember
that there  are  two kinds of vulgar,  viz. the rich
and the  poor; and that the rich vulgar  are often
upon a footing with the poor, in ignorance and cre-
 dulity.

    III. It lias been objected to our profession,  that
 many eminent physicians have been unfriendly to
 Christianity.  If this be  true, I cannot help ascrib-
 ing it in  part  to  that neglect  of public  worship,
 with which the duties of our profession  are often
 incompatible; for it has been justly observed,  that
 the neglect of this religious  and social duty gene-
 rally  produces a relaxation, either in principles or
 morals.   Let this fact lead you, in setting out in 
 440         OBSERVATIONS ON THE
 business, to acquire such habits of punctuality in
 visiting your patients,  as shall  not interfere with
 acts of public homage to the Supreme Being.  Dr.
 Gregory has observed,  that a  cold  heart  is the
 most frequent cause of deism. Where this occurs
 in a physician, it affords a  presumption that he is
 deficient  in humanity.  But  I cannot admit  that
 infidelity  is peculiar to our  profession.   On  the
 contrary, I  believe Christianity  places among its
 friends more men of extensive abilities and learning
 in medicine, than in any other secular employment.
 Stahl,  Hoffman, Boerhaave,  Sydenham,  Haller,
 and Fothergill, were all christians.  These  enlight-
 ened physicians  were  considered as the ornaments
 of the ages in which they lived,  and posterity has
justly ranked them among the greatest benefactors
 of mankind.

  IV.  Permit me  to recommend to you a regard
 to all the  interests of your country.  The  educa-
 tion of a physician gives  him  a peculiar  insight
 in the principles  of many useful arts, and the prac-
 tice of physic favours his opportunities of  doing
 good, by diffusing knowledge  of all kinds.  It
 was in Rome, when medicine was practised only
 by slaves, that physicians were condemned by their
 profession " mutam exercere artem."  But  in mo-
 dern  times, and in free goverments,  they should 
          DUTIES  OF A  PHYSICIAN.       441
disdain an ignoble silence upon public subjects.
The American revolution has rescued physic from
its former slavish rank in society.  For the honour
of our profession it should be recorded, that some
of the  most intelligent and useful characters, both
in the  cabinet and  the field, during the late war,
have been physicians.   The illustrious Dr.  Fo-
thergill opposed faction and tyranny, and took the
lead in all public improvements  in his native coun-
try, without suffering thereby the least diminution
of that reputation, or business, in which, for forty
years, he flourished almost without a rival in the
city of London.

   V.  Let me advise you, in  your visits to the
sick,  never  to appear in a hurry, nor to talk  of
 indifferent matters, before you have made the ne-
 cessary  inquiries into the symptoms of your pa-
 tient's disease.

    VI. Avoid making light of any case.  " Respice
 finem"  should be the motto of  every indisposition.
 There is scarcely a disease so trifling, that has not,
 directly or  indirectly, proved an outiet to human
 life.  .This consideration should make you anxious
 and punctual in your attendance upon every acute
 disease, and keep you from risking your reputation
 by an improper or hasty prognosis.
    vol i.            3  k 
44-2         OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE
   VII. Do not condemn,  or oppose, unnecessarily,
the simple prescriptions of your patients.  Yield
to them in matters of little consequence, but main-
tain  an inflexible authority over them in matters
that  are essential to life.

   VIII. Preserve, upon all occasions, a composed
or cheerful  countenance in the  room of your pa-
tients,  and inspire as much hope of a recovery as
you  can, consistent with truth, especially in acute
diseases.  The extent of the influence of the will
over the human body has not yet been fully ascer-
tained.  I reject the futile pretensions of Mr. Mes-
mer  to  the cure of diseases, by what he has ab-
surdly called animal magnetism. But I am willing
to derive the same advantages from his deceptions,
which the chemists have derived from the delusions
of the alchemists.  The facts which he has estab-
lished  clearly prove the influence of the imagina-
tion, and will,  upon diseases.   Let us avail our-
selves  of the handle which those faculties of the
mind present to us,  in the strife between life and
death.   I have frequently prescribed remedies of
doubtful efficacy in the critical stage of acute dis-
eases, but never till I had worked up my patients
into  a confidence,  bordering upon certainty, of
their probable good effects.   The success of this
measure has much oftener answered, than disap- 
DUTIES OF A PHYSICIAN.       41 .J
pointed my expectations; and while my patients
have commended the vomit, the purge, or the blis-
ter, which was prescribed, I have been disposed to
attribute their recovery to the vigorous concur-
rence of the  -will in the action  of  the  medicine.
Does the will beget insensibility to cold, heat, hun-
ger, and danger ? Does it suspend pain, and raise
the body above feeling  the  pangs of Indian tor-
tures ? Let us not then be surprised that it should
enable the system to resolve a spasm, to open an
obstruction, or to discharge an offending humour.
I have only time to  hint at this subject.  Perhaps
it would lead us, if we could  trace it fully, to
some  very important discoveries in  the cure of
diseases.

   IX. Permit me to advise you, in your intercourse
with your patients,  to attend to  that principle in
the human mind, which constitutes  the  association
of ideas.  A chamber,  a chair, a curtain, or even
a cup, all belong to  the  means of life or death,
 accordingly as they are associated with cheerful or
 distressing ideas, in the mind of a patient.   But
 this  principle is of more immediate application in
 those  chronic  diseases which  affect  the  mind.
 Nothing can be accomplished here, till  we pro-
 duce a new association of ideas.   For this purpose
 a change  of place and company are absolutely ne- 
444         OBSERVATIONS ON  THE
cessary.  But we must sometimes proceed much
further.   I have heard of a gentleman in South
Carolina, who cured his fits of low spirits by chang-
ing his clothes.  The  remedy was  a rational one.
It produced at once a new train of ideas, and thus
removed the paroxysm of his disease.

   X. Make  it a rule  never to be  angry at any
thing a sick man says  or does to you.   Sickness
often adds to the natural irritability of the  temper.
We are, therefore, to bear the reproaches of our
patients  with meekness and silence.  It is folly to
resent injuries at any time, but it is cowardice to
resent an injury from a sick man, since, from his
weakness and dependence upon us, he is unable to
contend with us upon equal terms.   You will find
it difficult to attach your patients to you by the ob-
ligations of  friendship or gratitude.   You will
sometimes have the mortification of being deserted
by those patients,  who owe most to your skill and
humanity.  This led Dr. Turner  to  advise physi-
cians never to choose  their friends from among
their patients.  But this advice can  never be fol-
lowed by a heart that  has been taught to love true
excellency, wherever it finds it.   I would  rather
advise you to give the benevolent feelings of your
hearts full scope, and  to forget the unkind returns 
          DUTIES OF  A PHYSICIAN.       445
they will often meet with, by giving to human na-
ture-----a tear.

   XI. Avoid giving a patient over in an acute dis-
ease.   It is impossible to tell in such cases  where
life ends,  and where  death begins.   Hundreds of
patients  have  recovered,  who  have been pro-
nounced incurable, to  the  great  disgrace of our
profession.   I know that the practice of predicting
danger and  death, upon every occasion, is  some-
times  made use  of by physicians, in order to
enhance the credit of their prescriptions, if their
patients  recover,  and'  to  secure a retreat from
blame, if they should die.   But this mode of act-
ing is  mean and illiberal.  It is not necessary that
we should decide with confidence, at any time, up
on the issue of a disease.

   XII. A  physician in sickness is always a wel-
come visitor in a family ; hence he is often solicited
to partake of the usual sign of hospitality  in this
country, by  taking a draught of some  strong li-
quor,  every time he enters into the house of a pa-
tient.  Let me charge you to lay an early restraint
upon  yourselves,  by  refusing  to yield to this
practice, especially in the forenoon.  Many phy-
sicians have been innocently  led by it into  habits
of drunkenness.   You will be in  the more danger 
446         OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE
of falling into this vice, from the great fatigue and
inclemency  of the weather to which you will be
exposed in country  practice.   But you have been
taught that strong drink affords only a temporary
relief from those evils, and that it afterwards ren-
ders the body more sensible of them*

   XIII.  I shall now give  some directions  with
respect to the method of charging for your services
to your patients.

   When we consider the expence of a medical
education, and the sacrifices a physician  is obliged
to make of ease, society,  and even health, to his
profession;  and when we add to  these, the con-
stant and painful anxiety which is connected with
the important charge of the lives of our fellow-
creatures, and, above all,  the inestimable value of
that blessing which is the object  of his services, I
hardly know how it is possible for a patient suffi-
ciently and justly to reward his  physician.   But
when we consider,  on the other  hand, that  sick-
ness  deprives  men of  the means of  acquiring
money ; that it increases all the expences of living;
and that high charges  often drive patients  from
regular-bred physicians to  quacks; I say, when
we attend to these considerations, we should jnake 
DUTIES OF A  PHYSICIAN.
447
our charges as moderate as possible, and conform
them to the following state of things.

   Avoid measuring your services to your patients
by scruples, drachms, and ounces.  It is an illiberal
mode of charging.   On the contrary, let the num-
ber  and time of your  visits, the nature of your
patient's disease, and his rank in his family or so-
ciety,  determine the figures  in your accounts.   It
■is certainly just, to charge more for curing an apo-
plexy,  than  an intermitting fever.   It is equally
just, to demand more for risking your life by visit-
ing a patient in a contagious fever, than for curing
a pleurisy.  You have likewise a right to be paid
for your anxiety.  Charge the same services, there-
fore, higher, to the master or mistress of a family,
or to an only son or daughter,  who call forth all
your feelings and industry, than  to less  important
members of a family  and of society.  If a rich
man demand  more frequent  visits than are neces-
sary, and if he impose the restraints of keeping to
hours, by calling in other physicians to consult with
you upon every trifling occasion, it will be just to
make him pay accordingly for it.  As this mode
of charging is strictly agreeable to reason and equi-
ty, it seldom fails of according with the reason and
sense of equity of our  patients.  Accounts made
out  upon these principles arc seldom complained 
448        OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE
of by them.  I shall only remark further upon this
subject, that the sooner you send in your accounts
after your patients recover, the better.  It is the
duty of a  physician to inform his  patient of the
amount of his  obligation  to him at least once a
year.   But there are times when a departure from
this rule may be necessary.   An unexpected mis-
fortune in  business, and a variety of other acci-
dents,  may deprive a patient of the money he had
allotted to pay his physician.   In this case, delica-
cy and humanity require, that he should not know
the amount of his debt to his physician, till time
had bettered his circumstances.

  I shall only add,  under this head, that the poor
of every description should be the objects of your
peculiar care.  Dr. Boerhaave used  to say, " they
were  his best patients, because  God was their
paymaster."  The  first  physicians that I have
known have found  the poor  the  steps,  by which
they have  ascended to  business  and reputation.
Diseases among the lower class of people are gene-
rally simple,  and exhibit to a physician  the best
cases of all epidemics,  which cannot fail of adding
to his ability of curing the complicated diseases of
the rich and intemperate. There is an inseparable
connection between a man's duty and his interest.
Whenever you are called, therefore, to visit a poor 
           DUTIES OF  A PHYSICIAN.       449
patient, imagine you hear the voice of the good
Samaritan sounding  in  your ears, " Take care of
him, and I will repay thee."

   I come now to the second part of this address,
which was to  point out the best mode  to be pur-
sued, in the further  prosecution of your studies,
and the improvement of medicine.

   I. Give me leave to recommend to you, to open
all the dead bodies you can, without doing violence
to the feelings of your patients, or the prejudices
of the common people.  Preserve a register of the
weather, and of its influence upon the vegetable
productions of the year.  Above all, record  the
epidemics of every season; their times of appear-
ing and  disappearing, and the connection  of the
weather  with  each of them.   Such  records, if
published, will be useful to foreigners, and a trea-
sure to posterity.   Preserve, likewise, an account
of chronic  cases.   Record the name, age, and  oc-
cupation of your patient; describe his disease  ac-
curately, and  the changes produced in it by your
remedies;  mention the  doses of every medicine
you administer to him. It is impossible to tell how
much improvement  and facility  in practice you
will find from following these directions.   It has
been remarked, that  physicians seldom remember
   vol. i.             3i
4 
450        OBSERVATIONS ON  THE
more than the two or three last years of their prac-
tice.   The records which  have been mentioned
will  supply  this deficiency of memory, especially
in that advanced stage of life,  when the advice of
physicians is supposed to be most valuable.

  II. Permit me to recommend to you further,
the study of the anatomy (if I may be allowed the
expression) of the human mind,  commonly called
metaphysics.  The reciprocal influence of the body
and  mind  upon  each other can only be  ascer-
tained by an accurate knowledge of the faculties of
the mind, and of their  various modes of combina-
tion  and action.  It is the duty of physicians to
assert  their prerogative,  and to rescue the  mental
science from  the usurpations of  schoolmen  and
divines.  It can only be perfected by the aid  and
discoveries  of medicine. The  authors  I  would
recommend to you upon metaphysics are,  Butler,
Locke,  Hartley, Reid, and Beattie.  These inge-
nious writers have cleared this sublime science of
its technical rubbish, and rendered it both intelli-
gible and useful.

   III. Let me remind you, that  improvement in   »
 medicine is not to be derived only from colleges
 and universities.  Systems of physic are the  pro-
 ductions of men of genius and learning; but those
 Jacts  which constitute real knowledge are to be 
DUTIES OF  A PHYSICIAN.       451
met with in every walk of life.  Remember how
many of our most useful remedies have been dis-
covered by quacks.  Do not be afraid, therefore,
of conversing with them, and of profiting by their
ignorance and temerity in the practice of physic.
Medicine has its Pharisees, as well as religion.
But the spirit of this sect is as unfriendly  to  the
advancement of medicine, as it is to christian cha-
rity.   By conversing with quacks, we may convey
instruction to them, and thereby  lessen the  mis-
chief they might otherwise  do to society.  But
further.   In the pursuit  of medical knowledge,
let me advise you to converse with nurses and old
women.  They  will often suggest facts in the his-
tory and cure of diseases, which have escaped the
most sagacious  observers of nature.   Even Ne-
groes and Indians have sometimes stumbled upon
discoveries in medicine.  Be not ashamed to in-
quire  into them.   There is yet one  more means
of information in medicine  which should not be
neglected, and  that is, to converse with persons
who have recovered from indispositions  without
the aid of physicians.   Examine the strength and
exertions of nature in these  cases, and mark the
plain and home-made remedy to which they ascribe
their recovery.  I have found this to be a  fruitful
source of  instruction,  and have been led  to  con-
clude, that if every man in a city, or a district, could 
452        OBSERVATIONS ON THE
be called upon to relate, to persons appointed to re-
ceive and publish his narrative, an exact account of
the effects  of those remedies which accident  or
whim has suggested to him, it would furnish a very
useful book in medicine..  To preserve the facts
thus obtained, let me advise you to record them in
a book to be kept for that purpose.   There is one
more advantage that will probably attend the  in-
quiries that have been mentioned;  you may dis-
cover diseases, or symptoms of diseases, or even
laws of the animal economy, which have no place
in our systems of nosology, or  in our theories  of
physic.

  IV. Study simplicity in the  preparation of your
medicines,   My  reasons for  this  advice are  as
follow:

  1. Active medicines produce  the most certain
effects in a simple state.

  2. Medicines   when mixed  frequently destroy
the efficacy of each other.   I do not include che-
mical medicines alone in this remark.  It applies
likewise to  Galenical medicines.  I do not say that
all,these medicines are impaired by mixture, but
we can only determine when they are not, by actual
experiments and observations. 
DUTIES OF  A PHYSICIAN.
453
   3* When medicines of the same class, or even
 of different classes, are given together, the strong-
 est only produces an effect.  But what are we to sav
 to a compound of two medicines, which give ex-
 actly the same impression to the system ? Probably,
 if we are to judge from analogy, the effect of them
 will be such, as would have been produced by nei-
 ther in a simple state.

   4.  By observing simplicity in your prescriptions,
 you will always have the command of a greater
 number of medicines of the same class,  which may
 be used in succession to each other, in  proportion
 as habit renders the system insensible of their action.

   5.  By using medicines in a simple state, you will
 obtain an  exact knowledge  of their virtues and
 doses, and thereby be able to decide upon the nu-
 merous and contradictory accounts which exist in
 our books, of the character of the same medicines.

   Under this head, I cannot help adding two more
 directions.

   1.  Avoid sacrificing too :much  to the taste  of
your patients in the preparation  of your medicines.
The nature of a medicine may be wholly changed,
by being mixed with swecj substances.  The  Au- 
 454        OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE
 thor of Nature seems to have had a design, in ren-
 dering medicines unpalatable.   Had  they been
 more argreeable to the taste, they would probably
 have yielded long ago to the unbouritled appetite
 of man, and by becoming articles of diet, or con-
 diments, have lost their efficacy in diseases.

   2.  Give as few medicines as possible in tinctures
 made with distilled spirits.   Perhaps there are few
 cases, in which it is safe to exhibit medicines pre-
 pared in spirits in any  other form than in  drops.
 Many people have been innocently seduced into a
 love of strong drink, from taking large or  frequent
 doses  of bitters infused in spirits.    Let  not our
 profession be reproached, in a single instance, with
 adding to the calamities that have been  entailed
upon mankind by this dreadful species of intempe-
rance.

   V. Let me recommend to your  particular at-
tention the indigenous  medicines of our  country.
Cultivate or prepare as many of them as possible,
and endeavour to enlarge the materia medica* by
exploring the  untrodden fields and forests of the
United States.   The Ipecacuanha, the Seneka and
Virginia snake-roots, the  Carolina pink-root, the
spice-wood, the sassafras, the butter-nut,  the tho-
roughwort, the  poke, and the  stramonium,  are 
           DUTIES  OF PHYSICIAN.        455

but a  small  part of the medical productions  of
America.   I  have no doubt  but there are many
hundred other plants, which now exhale invaluable
medicinal virtues in  the  desert  air.   Examine,
likewise, the  mineral waters,  which are so various
in their impregnation, and so common in all parts
of our  country.  Let not the  properties  of  the
insects of America escape your investigation. We
have already discovered among some of them a fly,
equal  in its blistering qualities  to  the famous fly
of Spain.  Who knows but it may be reserved for
America  to furnish  the  world,  from her produc-
tions,  with cures for sbme of those diseases which
 now elude the power of medicine ?  Who knows
but that,  at the foot of the Allegany  mountain,
 there blooms a flower, that is an infalliable  cure for.
the .epilepsy?  Perhaps on  the  Monongahela, or
 the Potowmac, there, may grow a root, that shall
 supply, by its tonic powers, the invigorating effects
 of the  savage or military life in the  cure  of con-
 sumptions.  Human misery ^of every kind is evi
 dently on the decline.   Happiness,  like truth,  is
 a  unit.  While the  world, from  the progress  of
 intellectual, moral, and political  truth, is becoming
 a more safe and agreeable abode for  man, the vo
 taries  of  medicine  should not  be idle.   All tht
 doors and windows  of the temple of nature have
 bern  thrown open,  by the convulsions of the lat< 
456    *      OBSERVATIONS, &C.
American revolution.  This is the time, therefore,,
to press upon her altars.  We  have already drawn
from them discoveries in morals, philosophy, and
government; all of which have human happiness
for their object.  Let us  preserve  the  unity  of
truth and  happiness, by  drawing from  the same
source, in the  present critical moment,  a know-
ledge of antidotes to those diseases which are sup-
posed to be incurable.

   I  have now,  gentlemen, only to thank you  fbr
the attention, with which you have honoured the
course of lectures which has been delivered to you,
and to assure you, that I  shall be happy in render-
ing you all the services that lie in my power,  in
any way you are pleased to command me.   Accept
of my best  wishes for your happiness,  and may
the blessings of hundreds and thousands, that were
ready to perish, be your portion in life, your com-
fort  in death,  and your  reward  in  the  world  to
come.

          THE END OF VOLUME I.
BROWN AND MERRITT, PRINTERS. 
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