ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF THE BODY AND MIND IN OLD AGE, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON ITS DISEASES, AND THEIR REMEDIES. FROM THE SECOND VOLUME OF MEDICAL INQUIRIES AND OBSERVATIONS; JUST PUBLISHED. BY DR RUSH, OF PHILADELPHIA. MOST of the facts which I fhall deliver upon this fubject are the refult of obfervations made during the laft five years, upon perfons of both fexes, who have paffed the eighticth year of their lives. I intended to have given a detail of their names, manner of life, occupations and other circumftances of each of them; but, upon a review of my notes, I found fo great a famenefs in the hif. tory of most of them, that I defpaired, by detailing them, of anfwering the intention which I have propofed in the following effay. I fhall, therefore, only deliver the facts and principles which are the refult of inquiries and obfervations I have made upon this fubject. I. I fhall mention the circumftances which favour the attainment of longevity. II. I shall mention the phenomena of body and mind which attend it'; and, III. I fhall enumerate its peculiar difeafes, and the remedies which are inoft proper to remove or moderate them. The circumftances which favour longevity are, 1. Defcent from long-lived Ancestors.1 of a perfon, who has lived to be I have not found a fingle inftance not the cafe. In fome inftances, I eighty years old, in whom this was found the defcent was only from one, but, in general, it was from both parents. The knowledge of this fact may lating what are called the chances of ferve, not only to affift in calculives, but it may be made useful to a phyfician. He may learn from it to cherish hopes of his patients in chronic, and in fome acute diseases, in proportion to the capacity of life they have derived from their ancestors. 2. Temperance in eating and drinking. To this remark I found several exceptions:-I met with one of been intemperate in eating; and four eighty-four years of age, who had or five perfons who had been intemperate in drinking ardent fpirits. They had all been day-labourers, or had deferred drinking until they began to feel the languors of old age. I did not meet one who had not, for Anat. of Melanch. p. 213. the 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 difpofed to believe, that thofe articles of diet do not materially af fect the duration of human life, although they evidently impair the ftrength of the fyftem. The duration of life does not appear to depend fo much upon the strength of the body, or upon the quantity of its excitability, as upon exact accommodation of ftimuli to each of them. A watchfpring will last as long as an anchor, provided the forces which are capable of defroying both are in an exact ratio to their strength. The use of tea and coffee in diet feems to be happily fuited to the change which has taken place in the human body, by fedentary occupation; by which means lefs nourishment and ftimulus are required than formerly to fupport animal life. 3. The moderate Ufe of the Underftand ing. It has long been an established truth, that literary men (other circumftances being equal) are longer lived than other people. But it is not neceffary that the understanding should be employed upon philofophical fubjects, to produce this influence upon human life. Bufinefs, politics, and religion, which are the objects of attention of men of all claffes, 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 irregular action of the paffions tends to wear away the fprings of life. occafioned by their being exempted, by the certainty of their fubfiftence from thofe fears of want which fo frequently distract the minds, and thereby weaken the bodies of all people. Liferents have been fuppofed to have the fame influence in prolonging life. Perhaps the defire of life, in order to enjoy, for as long as poffi ble, that property which cannot be enjoyed a fecond time by a child or relation, may be another cause of the longevity of perfons who live upon certain incomes. It is fact, that the defire of life is a very powerful ftimulus in prolonging it, efpecially when that defire is fupported by hope. This is obvious to phyficians every day. Defpair of recovery is the beginning of death in all difeafes. But obvious and reasonable as the effects of equanimity of temper are upon human life, there are fome exceptions in favour of paffionate men and women, having attained to a great age. The morbid ftimulus of anger, in thefe cafes, was probably obviated by lefs degrees, or less active exercifes of the understanding, or by the defect or weakness of fome of the other ftimuli which kept up the motions of life, 5. Matrimony. In the course of my inquiries, I met with only one perfon beyond eighty years of age who had never been married. I met with feveral women, who had born from ten to twenty children, and fuckled them all: I met with one woman, a native of Herefordshire in England, who is now in the hundredth year of her age, who bore a child at fixty, and frequently fuckled two of her children (though born in fucceffion to each other) at the fame time. She had paffed the greatest part of her life over a washing tub. Perfons who live upon annuities in Europe, have been obferved to be 6. I have not found fedentary emlonger lived, in equal circumftances, ployments to prevent long life, where than other people. This is probably they are not accompanied by intem perance perance in eating or drinking. This arofe from occafional rupture. Mr. obfervation is not confined to literary men, nor to women only, in whom longevity, without much exercise of body, has been frequently obferved. I met with one infiance of a weaver, a fecond of a filver-fmith, and a third of a fhoemaker, among the number of old people, whofe hiftories have fuggefted thefe obfervations. 7. I have not found that acute, nor that all chronic difeafes fhorten life. Dr Franklin had two fucceffive vomicas in his lungs before he was forty years of I met with one age. man beyond eighty, who had furvived a moft violent attack of the yellow fever; a fecond who had feveral of his bones fractured by falls, and in frays, and many who had frequently been affected by intermittents. I met with one man of eightyfix, who had all his life been fubject to fyncope; another who had been for fifty years occafionally affected by a cough, and two inftances of men who had been affected for forty years with obftinate head-achs. I met with only one perfon beyond eighty, who had ever been affected by a diforder in the stomach; and in him it John Strangeways Hutton, of Philadelphia, who died in the hundreth year of his age, informed me that he had never puked in his life. This circumftance is the more remarkable, as he paffed feveral years at fea when a young man. These facts may serve to extend our ideas of the importance of a healthful state of the ftomach in the animal oeconomy, and thereby to add to our knowledge in the prognois of difeafes, and in the chances of human life. 8. I have not found the lofs of teeth to affect the duration of human life, fo much as might be expećted. Edward Drinker, who li ved to be one hundred and three years old, loft his teeth thirty years before he died, from drawing the hot fmoke of tobacco into his mouth through a short pipe. In 9. I have not obferved baldness, or grey hairs, occurring in early or middle life, to prevent old age. one of the hiftories furnished me by Le Sayre, I find an account of a man of eighty, whofe hair began to affume a filver colour when he was only ele ven years of age. ACCOUNT OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, OSHUA REYNOLDS was born at Plympton, a fmall town in Devonhire, July 16, 1723. His father kept a grammar-school there, and was beloved and refpected for his learning, variety of knowledge, and philanthrophy. He had a very numerous family, which, though a heavy tax on his flender income, never depreffed his fpirits; he was affiduous in the cultivation of the minds of his children, amidst whom hisfon Joshua fhone confpicuous, discovering a happy knowledge of his author, a genius for writing, and a natural propenfity to drawing, much applauded by his friends and intimates. Emulation was a diftinguishing feature in the mind of young Reynolds: this his father perceived with the delight natural to a parent; but, having no better profpect in view, intended him for the church, and fent him to one of our univerfities. Soon after this period he grew paffionately fond of painting; but he did not determine on this life as a profeffion, till he met with Jonathan Richardfon's " Theory of Painting," which coveyed to his tender mind that genial influence neceffary to awaken and call forth the dormant feeds of infpiration. At his own particular request, therefore, he was fent to London, and became a pupil (about the year 1742) to the late Mr Hudson, who, though not himself eminent as a painter, produced fome good mafters, the principal of whom was undoubtedly Sir Joshua Reynolds.— Soon after Mr Reynolds had left Mr Hudfon, which was about the year 1749, he went to Italy, under the aufpices, and in the company, of the late Lord (then Commodore) Keppel, who was going to take the command in the Mediterranean. In this garden of the world, this magic feat of the arts, he failed not to vifit the schools of the great mafters, and to study their productions with the most ardent zeal. Here he contemplated with untired attention the various beauties which marked the manner of different mafters and different ages. He looked for truth, taste and beauty, at the fountain head; it was with no common eye that he beheld the productions of the great artifts. His labour here (as Mr Cumberland obferves of Juan B. Juanes, the painter of Valencia,) was the labour of love, not the task of the hireling. Having remained about two years in Italy (where he cultivated, with great attention, the Italian language, he returned, in the year 1752, improved by travel, and refined by education, to England. The first thing that diftinguished him after his return to his native country, was a whole length portrait of his patron Commodore Keppel (well known by the print engraved by Fisher), which was spoken of in the polite circles in the higheft ftrain of encomium. This teftified to what a degree of elegance he arrived in his profeffion. This was followed by Lord Edgecombe's portrait (who was a liberal patron to young Reynolds,) and by a few others, which introduced him at once into the first bufinefs in portrait painting, to which he particularly applied himfelf, and which will eftablish his fame, in this line, with all defcriptions of refined fociety; and having painted fome of the first-rate beauties, the polite world flocked to fee the graces and the charms of his pencil, and he foon became the most fashionable painter, not only in England, but in all Europe. He has preferved the refemblance of fo many illuftrious characters of the age in which he lived, that we feel the lefs regret for his having left behind him fo few hiftorical paintings. The principal historical pieces which he produced were the following: Hope nurfing Love ;-Venus chaftifing Cupid for having learned to caft accounts;-Count Ugolino in the dungeon;-The calling of Samuel;-Ariadne ;-a Captain of banditti;-Beggar Boy ;-a lady in the character of St. Agnes ;-Thais ;Dionyfius the Areopagite ;-an infant Jupiter ;-Mafter Crewe in the character of Henry VIII.;-the death of Dido;-a Child afleep;—Cupid fleeping;-Covent Garden Capid;-Cupid in the Clouds ;-Cupids painting;-Boy laughing;-Mafter Herbert in the character of Bacchus; -Hebe`; Mifs Meyer in the character of Hebe ;--Madona, a head ;— the Black-guard Mercury;— a little Boy (Samuel) praying;-an old man reading;-Love loofing the zone of Beauty;-the Children in the Wood; Cleopatra diffolving the Pearl ;Garrick in the character of Kitely ;Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy;-Mrs Abingdon in character of Comedy;-a Child furrounded by Guardian Angels;-Mifs Beauclerc in the character of Spencer's Una ;— Refignation;-the Duchefs of Manchefter in the character of Diana ;Lady Blake in the character of Juno; Mrs Sheridan in the character of St Cecilia;-Edwin, from Beattie's Miniftrel;-the Nativity, Four Cardinal Virtues, and Faith, Hope, and Charity, for the window of New College Chapel, Oxford;-the Studious Boy--a Bacchante-a Daughter of Lord W. Gordon, as an Angel; the the Holy Family ;-the Cottagers, from Thomfon;-the Veftal;-the Careful Shepherdefs;-a Gipfey telling Fortunes the infant Hercules ftrangling the Serpent ;--the Moufe, trap Girl;-Venus;-Cornelia and her Children;-the Bird;-Melancholy;-Mrs Siddons in Tragedy; -Head of Lear ;-Mrs Talmath in the character of Miranda, with Prof. pero and Caliban;-Robin Goodfellow;-Death of Cardinal Beaufort; -Macbeth, with the caldron of the Witches. In the exhibition of the Society for promoting Painting and Defign, in Liverpool, in the year 1784, is, " A landscape, being a view on the Thames from Richmond, painted by Sir Jofhua Reynolds." This is perhaps the only landscape he ever painted, except those chaste and beautiful ones which compofe the back grounds of many of his portraits. In 1764, Mr Reynolds had the merit of being the first promoter of that club which long exited without a name, but which, at Mr Garrick's funeral, became diftinguished by the name of the Literary Club. In 1769, the king founded an academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, under the name of the Royal Academy of Arts, and appointed Mr Reynolds (in confideration of his profeffional excellence) the prefident, and, to add dignity to the academy, conferred the honour of knighthood on him. Sir Joshua delivered his firft difcourfe at the opening of the Royal Academy, on Jan. 2, 1769. Each fucceeding year, on the diftribution of the prizes, Sir Jofhua delivered a difcourfe to the ftudents. In the fummer of 1784, every lover of the fine arts received a great fatisfaction in Sir Joshua's coming into poffeffion of an invaluable portrait of Milton, that had eluded a fearch of more than fixty years. He bequeathed this picture to the Rev. Mr Mason. In the autumn of 1785, Sir Joshua made a very pleafing excurfion to the Netherlands, and (as did numbers of English gentlemen, remarkable for their taste in the fine arts) attended the grand fale of pictures at Bruffels. Thefe paintings were taken from the different monafteries and religious houfes in Flanders and Germany by command of the Emperor Jofeph, and were chiefly upon fubjects from the fcriptures and popih legends. Sir Joshua, in this country (fo much vifited by the curious and lovers of the arts), laid out about one thousand pounds. In 1788, he gave one fitting to his diftinguished rival Gainsborough! but the unexpected death of the latter prevented all further progrefs. The admirers of the art have to regret, that the engagement between thefe two artists for the painting of each other's portrait was not carried into execution, the canvas being stretched for both. Sir Joshua poffeffed great literary abilities, and was, through life, a very brilliant companion. He was one of that felect party of affociated geniufes fo admirably characterized by Dr Goldsmith in his Rataliation. Sterne, David Garrick, Goldfmith, Dr Johnson, Mr Burke, the two Wartons, Dr Beattie, Mr Mafon, Mr Malone, all cultivated the converfation, and enjoyed the friendship, of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Mr Garrick never had a warmer advocate than Sir Joshua Reynolds. The circle of his acquaintance, owing to the celebrity of his name, was very extended. Many illuftrious foreigners were perfonally intimate with Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was reforted to by perfons of the higheft quality, who revered his genius as much as they refpected the excellence of his private character. His houfe was long the refort of excel lence |