water adulterated with good rum, brandy, or something of that sort. "Water," said an inveterate spirit-drinker," rots bend-leather-look at the soles of my boots! what chance, then, would my stomach stand?" Piano, piano!

SECTION XXX

OBSERVATIONS ON THE EFFECTS OF ABSTINENCE, BOTH IN MAN AND BRUTE.

PHYSICIANS relate wonders of the effects of abstinence in the cure of many disorders, and protracting the term of life. Cornaro, the noble Venetian, after all imaginable means had proved vain, so that his life was despaired of at forty, recovered, and lived to near 100 years, by mere dint of abstinence, as he himself gives the account. His regular diet consisted of twelve ounces of solid food taken daily, which included bread, yolk of eggs, flesh, fish, &c., and fourteen ounces of liquids. He was also careful to avoid heat, cold, fatigue, grief, watchings, and every other excess that might hurt his health. "It is true," says he, "I could not always escape unlucky accidents; but I found, by experience, that they had no very bad effect where temperance in eating or drinking had been strictly observed."

It is indeed surprising to what a great age the primitive Christians of the East, who retired from the persecutions into the deserts of Arabia and Egypt, lived, healthful and cheerful, on very little food. Cassian assures us, that the common rate for twenty-four

hours was twelve ounces of bread, and mere water: with this St. Anthony lived 105 years; James the Hermit 104; Arsenius, tutor of the Emperor Arcadius, 120; St. Epiphanius 115; Simeon the Stylite 112; and Remauld 120. Indeed, we can match these instances of longevity at home. Buchanan writes that one Laurence preserved himself to 140 by dint of temperance and labour; and Spotswood mentions one Kentigern, afterwards called S. Mongan, or Mungo, who lived to 185 by the same means.

"Abstinence, however, is to be recommended only as it implies a proper regimen; for, in general, it must have bad consequences when observed without a due regard to constitution, age, strength, &c. According to' Dr. Cheyne, whose diet and mode of living we shall presently notice, most of the chronical diseases, the infirmities of old age, and the short lives of Englishmen, are owing to repletion; and may be either cured, prevented, or remedied, by abstinence; but then the kinds of abstinence which ought to obtain, either in sickness or health, are to be deduced from the laws of diet and regimen."*

DR. CHEYNE'S DIET, REGIMEN, AND MANNER

OF LIVING.

Dr. George Cheyne, who was distinguished as an eminent practitioner, and the author of several learned works, was descended from a respectable family in

* Forsyth, on Diet and Regimen, &c. 2d Edit.

Scotland, where he was born in 1671. He received a regular and liberal education, and was at first intended for the church; but that design was afterwards laid aside. He passed his youth in close study, and in almost continual application to the abstracted sciences; and in these pursuits his chief pleasure consisted. The general course of his life, therefore, at this time, was extremely temperate and sedentary; yet he admitted, occasionally, of some relaxation, diverting himself with works of imagination, and "rousing nature," as he himself expresses it, "by agreeable company and good cheer." But, upon the slightest excesses, he found such disagreeable effects, as led him to conclude that his glands were naturally lax, and his solids feeble: in which opinion he was confirmed, by an early shaking of his hands, and a disposition to be easily ruffled on a surprise. Having taken the degree of M. D. at Edinburgh, where he studied under Dr. Pitcairne, he repaired to London, when he was about thirty years of age, in order to practise as a physician. On his arrival in the metropolis, he soon quitted the regular and temperate manner of life to which he had been chiefly accustomed, partly from inclination, and partly from a view to promote his practice, he passed much of his time in company, and in taverns. Being of a cheerful temper, and having a lively imagination, with much acquired knowledge, he soon rendered himself very agreeable to those who lived and conversed freely. He was much caressed by them, and, to use his own expressions,

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grew daily in bulk, and in friendship with these gay

gentlemen, and their acquaintances." In a few years, however, he found this mode of living very injurious to his health: he grew excessively fat, short breathed, listless, and lethargic.

In consequence of his free mode of living, besides the ill consequences already mentioned, Dr. Cheyne brought on himself an autumnal intermitting fever; but this he removed in a few weeks by taking the bark. He went on afterwards tolerably well about a year, neither so clear in his faculties, nor so gay in his temper, as he had formerly been. But the following autumn he was suddenly seized with a vertiginous paroxysm, so alarming in its nature, as to approach nearly to a fit of apoplexy. By degrees, his disorder turned to a constant violent head-ach, giddiness, and lowness of spirits: upon which he entirely left off suppers, which he never resumed, and confined himself at dinner to a small quantity of animal food, drinking but very sparingly of fermented liquors. The decline of his health and spirits occasioned him to be deserted by many of his more airy and jovial companions. This circumstance contributed to the increase of his melancholy. "Even those," said he, "who had shared the best part of my profusions-who, in their necessities, had been assisted by my false generosity, and in their disorders relieved by my care, did now entirely relinquish and abandon me; so that I was forced to retire into the country quite alone, being reduced to the state of Cardinal Wolsey, when he said, that if he had served his Maker as faithfully and warmly as he had