12 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



caries, and all forts of drugs and medicines, but by erecting hofpi- 

 tals, more, I am perfuaded, than are to be found in any other coun- 

 try. Yet difeafe, in England, ftill continues to increafe; and it is fur- 

 prifmg how many of thofe, that are put into hofpitals, die there, and 

 particularly children. Of this I have given an example in the third 

 volume of this work*, where I have mentioned an hofpital for chil- 

 dren in London, in which, out of 74, there died 7 1 in a year. But the 

 people of England have not been fo attentive to the preferving health, 

 a thing of much more value than the reftoring it after it is loft. One 

 of the things that preferves health, more than any thing elfe I know, 

 is the daily ufe of the cold bath, by which, as I have faid, we are pre- 

 vented from living in the filth of our own bodies, and having that filth 

 again taken in by our fkins. This preventive of difeafe is particu- 

 larly necefTary among the common people, who cannot afford a clean 

 Ihirt every day, and wear the fame fliirt, not only for days, but 

 for weeks together. There is a part of the Highlands of Scotland, 

 where as I was informed by a clergyman, who was a native there, 

 the country people wear their fhirts, without fhifting, till they 

 are in rags; the confequence of which is, that they are all overrun 

 with the itch, and mufl be liable to many more difeafes. Now, 

 this mifchief might be in a great meafure prevented by the frequent 

 ufe of the cold bath; and, I think, it is worth the attention of Go- 

 vernment, to give the people of Scotland, and particularly thofe of 

 the Highlands, an opportunity of ufmg it, by ereding public baths, 

 fuch as they have in the fouth of France, and which, I am perfuad- 

 ed contributes very much to the health of the people there. The 

 baths might be erected and kept going at a very fmall expence, which 

 might be furnilbed by a trifling tax on the people of the feveral dif- 

 trids where the baths are ere<Sted. 



CHAP. 



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