THE FARMER AT HOME. 



383 



way to the attack of some of the most serious diseases, especially of 

 the chest. Happy may they esteem themselves whose means forbid 

 an indulgence in this species of luxury. 



A person accustomed to undress in a room without fire, and to 

 seek repose in a cold bed, will not experience the least inconvenience, 

 even in the severest weather. The natural heat of his body will very 

 speedily render him even more comfortably warm, than the individual 

 who sleeps in a heated apartment, and in a bed thus artificially 

 warmed, and who will be extremely liable to a sensation of chilliness 

 as soon as the artificial heat is dissipated. But this is not all the 

 constitution of the former, will be rendered more robust, and far less 

 susceptible to the influence of atmospherical vicissitudes, than that of 

 the latter. 



All must be aware, that in the coldest weather, a fire in the bed- 

 chamber can only be necessary during the periods occupied in dress- 

 ing and undressing. When the individual is in bed, it is not only 

 altogether useless, but to a certain extent injurious. It might be 

 supposed, however, that bad effects would result from rising out of a 

 warm bed, of a morning, in a cold chamber. We are assured, how- 

 ever, that if the business of dressing be performed with rapidity, and 

 brisk exercise be taken previously to entering a warm apartment, they 

 who would pursue this plan would render themselves less dependent 

 for comfort upon external warmth a circumstance of very great 

 importance as a means of guarding against colds, coughs and con- 

 sumptions. 



SMELL. To the use of discerning prejudicial food, the sense of 

 smelling is subservient ; by which we both, perceive their noxious 

 nature, before they be tasted, which might be dangerous ; and espe- 

 cially avoid putridity in our victuals, which to us is exceedingly 

 hurtful ; and discover what is grateful and wholesome ; although, by 

 habit, this advantage of smell is more conspicuous in animals than in 

 man. But men who have been left to themselves, and whose sense 

 of smell has not been corrupted by variety, have been observed most 

 certainly to retain that sagacious faculty in distinguishing food in an 

 eminent degree. The powers of medicinal plants are hardly to be 

 estimated better than by the simple testimonies of taste and smell. 

 Hence in all animals the organ of smell is placed near the mouth ; 

 and hence the smell is stronger, and the organs larger, in those ani- 

 mals which have to seek their prey at a considerable distance, or to 

 reject deleterious plants from among their food. 



The actions of smell is strong, but of short continuance ; because 

 particles in a very minute state are applied to naked nerves, in the 

 immediate vicinity of the brain. Hence the deleterious and refreshing 

 actions of odors, by which people are resuscitated from faintings, and 

 even from drowning. Hence the violent sneezing, excited by acrid 

 particles, the evacuation ^of the bowels by the smell of purgatives, and 



