Page images
PDF
EPUB

more common in the newspapers, than inftances of people, who, after eating a hearty fupper, are found dead a-bed in the morning.

[ocr errors]

Another means of preferving health, to be attended to, is the having a conftant fupply of fresh air in your bed-chamber. It has been a great miftake, the fleeping in rooms exactly clofed, and in beds furrounded by curtains. No outward air, that may come unto you, is fo unwholfome as the unchanged air, often breathed, of a clofe chamber. As boiling water does not grow hotter by longer boiling, if the particles that receive greater heat can efcape; fo living bodies do not putrify, if the particles as faft as they become putrid, can be thrown off. Nature expels them by the pores of the fkin and lungs, and in a free open air, they are carried off; but, in a clofe room, we receive them again and again, though they become more and more corrupt. A number of perfons crowded. into a small room, thus fpoil the air in a few mi nutes, and even render it mortal, as in the Black Hole at Calcutta. A fingle perfon is faid to spoil only a gallon of air per minute, and therefore requires a longer time to fpoil a chamber full; but i is done, however, in proportion, and many putridt diforders hence have their origin. It is recorded of Methufalem, who, being the longest liver, may be fuppofed to have beit preferved his health, that he flept always in the open air; for, when he had lived five hundred years, an angel faid to him:

Arife, Methufalem; and build thee an house, "for thou fhalt live yet five hundred years longer." But Methufalem anfwered and faid: "If I am to ""live but five hundred years longer, it is not worth while to build me an houfe-I will fleep

"in the air as I have been used to do." Phyfici ans, after having for ages contended that the fick fhould not be indulged with fresh air, have at length discovered that it may do them good. It is therefore to be hoped that they may in time discover likewife that it is not hurtful to thofe who are in health; and that we may be then cured of the aerophobia that at prefent diftreffes weak minds, and make them choose to be flifled and poifoned, rather than leave open the windows of a bed-chamber, or put down the glafs of a coach.

Confined air, when faturated with perfpirable matter*, will not receive more; and that matter must remain in our bodies, and occafion diseases: but it gives fome previous notice of its being about to be hurtful, by producing certain uneafineffès, flight indeed at firft, fuch as, with regard to the lungs, is a trifling fenfation, and to the pores of the fkin a kind of reftleffnefs which is dif ficult to defcribe, and few that feel it know the caufe of it. But we may recollect, that fometimes, on waking in the night, we have, if warmly covered, found it difficult to get afleep again. We turn often without finding repofe in any pofition This figgettinefs, to ufe a vulgar expreflion for want of a bettter, is occafioned wholly by an uneafinefs in the skin, owing to the retention of the perfpirable matter--the bed clothes having received their quantity, and, being faturated, refuf ing to take any more. To become fenfible of this

* What phyficians call the perfpirable matter, is that va tpour which paffes off from our bodies, from the lungs, and hrough the pores of the fkiu. The quantity of this isfa o be five eights of what we eat.

by an experiment, let a perfon keep his pofition in the bed, but throw off the bed-clothes, and fuffèr fresh air to approach the part uncovered of his body; he will then feel that part fuddenly refreshed; for the air will immediately relieve the fkin, by receiving, licking up, and carrying off, the load of perfpirable matter that incommoded it. For every portion of cool air that approaches the warm skin, in receiving its part of that vapour, receives therewith a degree of heat, that rarefies and ren ders it lighter, when it will be pushed away, with its burthen, by cooler, and therefore heavier frefl air; which, for a moment fupplies its place, and then, being likewife changed, and warmed, gives way to a fucceeding quantity. This is the order of nature, to prevent animals being infected by their own perfpiration. He will now be fenfible of the difference between the part exposed to the air, and that which, remaining funk in the bed, denies the air accefs: for this part now manifefts its uneafinefs more diftinctly by the comparison, and the feat of the uneafinefs is more plainly perceived, than when the whole furface of the body was affected by it.

Here, then, is one great and general caufe of unpleafing dreams. For when the body is uneafy, the mind will be difturbed by it, and difagreeable ideas of various kinds, will, in fleep, be the natutal confequences. The remedies, preventative and curative, follow:

1. By eating moderately, (as before advised for health's fake) lefs perfpirable matter is produced in given time; hence the bed-clothes receive it onger before they are faturated; and we may,

therefore, fleep longer, before we are made uncafy by their refufing to receive any more.

2. By using thinner and more porous bed-clothes, which will fuffer the perfpirable matter more eafily to pass through them, we are lefs incommoded, fuch being longer tolerable.

3. When you are awakened by this uneafiness, and find you cannot eafily fleep again, get out of bed, beat up and turn your pillow, fhake the bedclothes well, with at least twenty fhakes, then throw the bed open, and leave it to cool; in the mean while, continuing undreft, walk about your chamber, till your skin has had time to discharge its load, which it will do fooner as the air may be drier and colder. When you begin to feel the cold air unpleasant, then return to your bed; and you will foon fall asleep, and your fleep will be fweet and pleafant. All the fcenes prefented to your fancy, will be of the pleasant kind,

I am

often as agreeably entertained with them, as by the fcenery of an opera. If you happen to be too indolent to get out of bed, you may, instead of it, lift up your bed-clothes with one arm and leg, fo as to draw in a good deal of fresh air, and, by letting them fall, force it out again. This, repeated twenty times, will fo clear them of the perfpirable matter they have imbibed, as to permit your fleeping well for fome time afterwards. But this latter method is not equal to the former.

Thofe who do not love trouble, and can afford to have two beds, will find great luxury in rifing, when they wake in a hot bed, and going into the cool one. Such fhiftings of beds would alfo be of great fervice to perfons ill in a fever, as in refrefhes and frequently procures feep. A very large

bed, that will admit a removal fo diftant from the firft fituation as to be cool and fweet, may in a degree answer the fame end..

One or two obfervations more will conclude this. little piece. Care must be taken, when you lie down, to dispose your pillow fo as to fuit your manner of placing your head, and to be perfectly eafy; then place your limbs fo as not to bear inconveni ently hard upon one another, as for inftance, the joints of your ancles: for though a bad position may at first give but little pain, and be hardly noticed, yet a continuance will render it less tolerable, and the uneafiness may come on while you are afleep and disturb your imagination.

Thefe are the rules of the art. But though they will generally prove effectual in producing the end intended, there is a cafe in which the most punctual obfervance of them will be totally fruitlefs. I need not mention the cafe to you, my dear friend: but my account of the art would be imperfect without it. The cafe is, when the perfon who defires to have pleasant dreams has not taken care to preferve, what is neceffary above all things,

A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

« PreviousContinue »