Chap.III. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 2r 



they opened the pores of it, and gave a free paflage both to what 

 was taken in and thrown out. That the Egyptians pradifed thcfe 

 two things, there is no author that I know who has afErmed : But, 

 as they w^ere fo learned in the fcience of heahh, I think it is higlily 

 probable that they did fo ; and Herodotus has exprefsly told us that 

 they ufed oil ; nor, indeed, does it appear to me, that there was 

 any antient nation that did not anoint. — And thus much may fuf- 

 fice for what we throw out by our veifels of perfpiration. 



But ;t is as neceffary that the fkin foould take in, as that it fhould 

 throw out; and the air, if taken in, auft be good air, as well as 

 the air we take in by the mouth. Ki > ^nat cannot be, if we are 

 to take in the air kept about us by our ^= ^, which muft neccifa- 

 rily be fouled by the exhalations of our ow dy. It muft, there- 



fore, be the pure circumambient air. This the .: ked favage is con- 

 tinually taking in; but the clothed man cannot take m, exci-pt when 

 he ftrlps. And here the Greeks and Rcnnans had a great advantage 

 over us; for they performed all their exercifcs naked; and the Egyp- 

 tians, too, by ftriping and bathing 4 times in the 24 hours, muft 

 have taken in a great deal of good air. 



If thefe propofuions, which 1 have mentioned, of the neceiTity of 

 not keeping about us the excremens, as they may be called, of our 

 bodies, and of taking in, by the i ores of our fkin, the frelh air, as 

 well as by our mouth, be well founded, what Ihall we fav of thofc 

 millions of people, in Great Britain, wiio never bathe, but live con- 

 ftantly in the filth of their own bodies ; and who never ftrip unlefs 

 to put on a clean Ihirt, in a clofe room, and very often, before a fire. 



The people of England have been at more pains, and more ex- 

 pence, than, I believe, any other people of the world, to reftoro 

 health after it is loft, not only by phyficians, furgeons, and apothe- 

 caries. 



