538 JAMAICA, 



headlong into venereal debauches, and a mercurial regunen ! ought 

 the premature fate of fuch men, to be charged on chmate? They 

 who follow fuch improper courfes, mufi: count on their natural 

 confequences; and unlefs, by the pervcriion of their intelletlual 

 faculties, they can be acquitted as lunatics or idiots, they mull 

 expe£l. In the award of divine juftice, to be deemed guilty of felf- 

 murder; having willfully, wickedly, and, I am fure, I may add 

 wantonly, put themfelves to death, by means as efre£tual, as if 

 they had ufcd arfenic, or a dat:ger. 



Earh-rifing, which has been fpoken of with the greateft enco- 

 miums by medical- writers, for its contributing very eminently to 

 the health, vigour, and aftivity of animal life, as well as rational, 

 is particularly neceflary in Jamaica ; and no man ever attained to 

 longevity iiere, who was not an early rifer ; nor are any fo liealthy, 

 as thofe who religioufly addiA themfelves to this practice. It is 

 neceflary here, becaufe nothing more relaxes the body than the 

 warmth of a bed, more efpecially if deep is indulged at a time 

 when the fun has afcended to fome height above the horizon, and 

 renewed the heat of the atmofphere [^'j. The morning air is here 

 delightfully cool ; and the moll: agreeable time for exercife is be- 

 fore, or juft about, fun-rife J they who exercife at this hour, feel 

 their bodies refrelhed and vigorous, fo as to I'ufFer no inconvenience 

 from heat during the remainder of the day. The bed (hould be 

 forfaken by fix o'clock at furthefi: ; many there are who rife at five ; 

 this fuppofes an early retreat to reft, the preceding evening; the 

 more common bed-time at night, is from ten to eleven. They 

 who lounge till eight or nine in the morning, and make it an ha- 

 bitual praicice, cannot be long free from diftcmper; it is not only, 



[jl] It is n curioiif, alihough not a new reiiiavk, that the inhabitants uithin the Tropics fleep 

 Icii- than thole who divcU in the colil, Northern tliinates; 1 believe, the tlitt'erence in this relpetV, 

 between a healthy perfon in Jamaica, and another in Britain, may, on a fair calculation, amount 

 at leaft to thirty days per annum. If an inhabitant of England fleeps eight hours a night, at 

 an average the year throughout, the inhabitant of Jamaica will be found to lleep not more than 

 feven; confequently, the latter pofielTes thirty days, or upwards, of confcious exiilence more 

 than the former; and, at the end of twelve years, may be faid to have outlived the other by a 

 full twelvemonth. How far this difference may tend to free ihc Well-Indian from fome dif- 

 teiiip'^rs, incident to Northern drowliiief?, or to irritate his animal fpirits, or enliven his facul- 

 ties, has not yet been examined ; but it is probable, that it may obviate, in fome degree, the re- 

 hixing efiefts ef a warni nlmofphere, and fweep away that gloom from the foul, which No- 

 ven^bet weather is fo apt to caft upon it ia England. 



that 



