DURATION or HUMAN LIFE. 53 
The winters, in our own country, { brace and invigo- 
rate the bodies of the people: and the genial warmth of 
our fummers increafes the* generative principle of animal 
nature :—the cold is accompanied with a pure andf elaftic 
atmofphere ; and, during the continuance of the greateft 
heats, the air is frequently { corrected by thunder-gufts 
and plentiful fhowers of refrefhing rain.—The face of the 
country, too, is of fuch a nature, as muft contribute to the 
falubrity of the climate—The United States are, in gene- 
ral, diverfified with hills and vallies, mountains and 
plains: and Ariftotle obferves, that people do not feel 
the effedts of age {fo foon, inhilly, as in flat countries. 
What has been premifed, concerning the longevity of 
the inhabitants of thefe ftates, will, I prefume, be an am- 
ple refutation of thofe writers, who, influenced by Euro- 
pean prejudices, or confidering the fubje&t in a fuperficial 
manner, have aflerted, that the Americans are not fo long- 
lived as the Europeans. 
On the whole I truft, that the points, which it was m 
principal defign to afcertain, have been fatisfactorily efta- 
blithed. With a view, however, to a further illuftration of 
this interefling fubje&, I have formed the tables (which 
are annexed hereto,) fhewing the numbers dying annually 
out 
¢ Zimmerman, treating of the effeds of a cold climate, fays--- “ Frigoris igitur perennitas, 
et artus, et integra corpora, comprimendo corroborat, efficitque ut naturam longé firmiorem, 
valentioremque induant.”’---Zool. Geograph. 
* Froma table of the baptifms, marriagesand deaths, at Paris, from 1745 to 1766 (both 
inclufive,) the Count de Buifon has fhewn,---that the months in which the greateft number of 
children were born, are March, January and February; and that thofe in which the feweft 
were born, are June, December and November: from which circumftance, he infers---that, 
in the climate of France, the heat of Summer contributes to the fuccefs of generation.---(Sup- 
plement to his nat hift.) : 
+ ‘The air in Pennfylvania, when dry, has a peculiar elafticity, which renders -the heat 
and cold lefs infupportable than the fame degrees of both are, in moifter climates. It is only 
in thofe cafes when {ummer-fhowers are‘not fucceeded by North-Weft winds, that the heat of 
the air becomes oppreflive and diftrefiing, from being combined with moifture.”” Dr. Ruth’s 
account of, &c. 
¢ ‘* Theheat of Summer feldom continues more than two or three days, without being fuc- 
ceeded by fhowersof rain, accompanied fometimes with thunder and lightning, and afterwards 
with a North- Weft wind,---which produces a coolnefs in the air that is high!y invigorating and 
agreeable” ‘* There are feldom more than three or four nights, in ajummer, in which 
the heat of the air is nearly the fame asin the preceding day. After the warmeit days, the 
evenings are generally agreeable, and often delightful.”---Dr. Rufh’s account of the climate 
ef Pennfylvania. 
