PREFACE. V 



notion of the laws respecting their property ; and it 

 seems to me astonishing that there should not be 

 one, calculated to inform them concerning those 

 infinitely more important laws which concern their 

 health. Every gentleman is supposed to know 

 something the general principles, at least of all 

 the liberal sciences, excepting that particular one in 

 which alone he has any really great and personal 

 interest. I do think that such a work as I have 

 attempted to describe (providing it were well and 

 plainly written, and all technicalities and unneces- 

 sary minutiae carefully avoided) would be read with 

 great attention and interest, and, I trust, profit, by 

 all classes. It would also be read, I think, by 

 invalids, in order to acquire some notion as to 

 their own maladies, and so be better qualified to 

 understand and practise the rules of regimen pre- 

 scribed by their medical advisers : and it would 

 occasionally be consulted, perhaps, by those who 

 were not invalids, to acquaint themselves with the 

 best manner of preserving the blessing, of which 

 they were then in possession. I believe, also, that 

 such a work would tend more than any other 

 to induce men to practise those rules of conduct 

 which are best calculated to preserve and promote 

 health; because men are ever more ready to do 



