236 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV, 



too, and other ftrong liquors, and even fpirlts, which are fuel for fire. Is 

 not his natural life, I have clearly, I think, proved in the preceding 

 part of this volume*; where I have Ihown, that, by the ufe of houfes 

 and clothes, he has not the free communication he ought to have with 

 that element, in which and by which he lives; I mean the air: For he 

 does not take it in, as he ought to do, by the abforbent veiTels in his 

 j[kin; and even what he takes in by his mouth, is corrupted by the 

 ufe of culinary fire, and particularly by that fire of which the fuel 

 is coal, which poifons the aif by a fulphurous vapour, and fo makes 

 it more or lefs unwholefome. And the warmth of houfes, of clothes, 

 and of fire, not only hinders us from taking in, by our fkin and by 

 our breath, the pure atmofphere, but it hinders us from throwing out, 

 by perfpiration, the filth of our bodies. For, as I have obferved, 

 in the third volume of this workf, it is difcovered by experiment, 

 that a man naked perfpires more in the fame time, than when he is 

 v>^rapped up in blankets and in the warmeft bed. This has been 

 proved by accurately weighing a man after he had fit fo long 

 naked in the open air, and comparing his weight then with his 

 weight after having lain the fame time in a warm bed. This, as I 

 have faid in the paflage above quoted, is contrary to the opinion of 

 the generality of men ; but the error arifes from confounding fweat- 

 ing with perfpiration ; for by wrapping a man up, and keeping 

 him very warm, we make him fweat, but he perfpires lefs J. Now, 

 what hinders thofe two natural operations, of both taking in and 

 throwing out by the pores of our Ikin, muft needs be hurtful to the 

 human bodv. 



This is the efiecl of houfes and clothes in the civilifed life: And as 



to 

 * Book I. Chap. 3. and 4. 

 t Vol. 3. p. 85. 



\ See what is faid upon this fubjefl by a French Academician, M. Dolomieu, entit- 

 led, Voyage atix lies Liparis, p. 184. 



