408 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



useful to a physician. He may 

 learn from it, to cherish hopes of 

 his patients in chronic, and in 

 some diseases, in proportion to the 

 capacity of hfe they have derived 

 from their ancestors. 



2. Temperance in eating and drink- 

 ing. 



To this remark, I found several 

 exceptions. I met with one man 

 of eighty-four years of age, who 

 had been intemperate in eating ; 

 and four or five persons who had 

 been intemperate in drinking ar- 

 dent spirits. They had all been 

 day-labourers, or had deferred drink- 

 ing until they began to feel the 

 languor of old age. I did not meet 

 with a single person who had not, 

 for 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 disposed 

 to believe, that those articles of diet 

 do not materially affect the dura- 

 tion of human life, although they 

 evidently impair the strength of the 

 system. The duration or life does 

 not appear to depend so much upon 

 the strength of the body, or upon 

 the quantity of its excitability, as 

 upon exact accommodation of sti- 

 muli to each of them. A watch- 

 spring will last as long as an an- 

 chor, provided the forces, which are 

 capable of destroying both, are in 

 an exact ratio to their strength. — 

 The use of tea and coffee in diet 

 seems to be happily suited to the 

 change which has taken place in 

 the human body, by sedentary oc- 

 cupations, by which means, less 

 nourishment and stimulus are re- 

 quired than formerly ' to support 

 animal life. 



3. The moderate use oj the under- 

 standing. 



It has long been an estabhshed 

 truth, that literary men (other cir- 

 cumstances being equal) are longer- 

 lived than other people. But it is 

 not necessary that the understand- 

 ing should be employed upon phi- 

 losophical subjects, to produce this 

 influence upon human life. Busi- 

 ness, pohtics, and rehgion, which 

 are the objects of attention of men 

 of all classes, impart a vigour to the 

 understanding, which, by being con- 

 veyed to every part of the body, 

 tends to produce health and long: 

 life. ^ 



4. Equanimity of temper. 



The violent and irregular actions 

 of the passions tend to bear away 

 the springs of life. 



Persons who live upon annuities, 

 in Europe, have been observed to 

 be longer-lived, in equal circum- 

 stances, than other people. This 

 is probably occasioned by their be- 

 ing exempted, by the certainty of 

 their subsistence, from those fears 

 of want which so frequently dis- 

 tract the minds, and thereby weak- 

 en the bodies of all people. Life- 

 rents have been supposed to have 

 the same influence in prolonging 

 hfe. Perhaps the desire of hfe, in 

 order to enjoy, as long as possible, 

 that property which cannot be en- 

 joyed a second time by a child or 

 relation^ may be anotlier cause of 

 the longevity of persons who live 

 upon certain incomes. Ifis a fact, 

 that the desire of life is a very pow- 

 erful stimulus in prolonging it, espe- 

 cially when thiit desire is supported 

 by hope. This is obvious to physi- 

 cians 



