Sect. XXXVII. 5. 1. SECRETION, Sec. 365 



a fecond time, becaufe it is not fucceeded by fenfation. Sec 

 Se£t. XII. 3. 6. And hence, owing to the want of the gener- 

 al pleaiurable fenfation, which ought to attend digeftion and 

 glandular fecretion, an irkfomenefs of life enfues ; and, where 

 this is in greater excefs, the melancholy of old age occurs, with 

 torpor or debility. 



/From hence I conclude, that it is probable that the fibrillas, 

 ,or moving filaments at the extremities of the nerves of fenfe, and 

 the .fibres which conllitute the mufcles (which are perhaps the 

 only parts of the fyftem that are endued with contractile life) 

 are not changed, as we advance in years, like the other parts of 

 the body ; bat only enlarged or elongated with our growth 5 

 and in confequence they become lefs and lefs excitable into ac- 

 tion. Whence, inftead of gradually changing the old animal, 

 the generation of a totally new one becomes necefiary with un- 

 diminiihed excitability ; which many years will continue to ac- 

 quire new parts, or new folidity, and then lofing its excitability 

 in time, periih like its parent. 



V. From this idea the art of preferving long health and life 

 maybe deduced; which muft confift in ufing no greater ftimu- 

 lus, whether of the quantity or kind of our food and drink, or 

 of external circum (lances, fuch as heat, and exercife, and wake- 

 fulnefs, than is fufficient to preferve us in vigour ; and gradual- 

 ly, as we grow old to increafe the ftimulus of our aliment, as 

 the inirritability of our fyftem increafes. 



The debilitating effects afcribed by the poet Martial to the 

 .•excefiive ufe of warm bathing in Italy, may with equal propriety 

 be applied to the warm rooms of England ; which, with the 

 general excefiive ftimulus of fpirituous or fermented liquors, 

 and in fome inftances of immoderate venery, contribute to 

 fhorttn our lives. 



Balnea, win a, Venus > corrumpunt corpora nojfra: 

 At faciunt <vitam balnea, <vina, Venus i 



Wine, women, warmth, againft our lives combine ; 

 But what is life, without warmth, women, wine ! 



SECT. 



