I02 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



by deftroying fome, and preventing ge- 

 neration in others. It is furprifing, that, 

 in this age, tenets of fuch a tendency 

 fliould be followed ; it being palpable 

 how deitrudive they are to the defign of 

 the creation and intcrefl: of princes, as 

 they forbid the propagation of the fpe- 

 cies to perhaps a fixth of the communi- 

 ty, and,, by ill judged abfurd rules with 

 regard to diet, caufe the deftrudlion of 

 many of the reft. I can affirm the latter 

 with fo much the more certainty, I mean 

 the bad efFeds of fuch rcftridlions in diet, 

 as I have obferved in my pra<flice, that 

 almoft all the chronic difeafes of the 

 papifts were contra(5led in their long ient. 

 The health of all the Italians is certainly 

 much hurt by this way of living ; for 

 they have not a rob u ft air in general, 

 numbers being wafted and enervated. 

 Their looks and difeafes ftruck me the 

 more, as I came from a country where 

 fobriety and a temperate ufe of every 

 thing fliow, by their falutary effedis, how 

 much fuch a diet conduces to the health 

 and ftrengthof the tcdyj^^for there arc 



but 



