No. 244.] 171 



The human species are obliged to repair by sleep and repose, the 

 fatigues of the body, every sixteen hours at least, so that even the 

 laborious pass more than a third of their lives in bed; the idle, fash- 

 ionable, luxurious and women, nearly half their time; and children in 

 health sleep most of their time. The Romans used to sleep in the 

 middle of the day, and had particular rooms distinct from their bed- 

 rooms, where they slept in the day; and in Italy, and in southern 

 countries, that practice is still continued. Therefor it is of the utmost 

 importance what kind of a bed we lie upon: the harder the bed in rea- 

 son, the healthier we are.- 



Wool Matresses give this hardness or firmness, at the same time 

 yield sufficiently from the pressure of our bodies to form a luxurious 

 and agreeable bed, and wool does not make marks on the skin, 

 or relax, as other bedding. In the old accounts of the court of Eng- 

 land, there is a charge on the journey for so many bundles of clean 

 straw for the Queen's bed. Then it was said, when men slept on 

 straw, with a log of wood for their pillow s, they were men of iron ; 

 and now they sleep on feather beds, and dow7i pillows, they are meji of 

 straw. All great men, warriors, heroes, &c., who have made a noise 

 in the world, have always selpt on a hard bed, from Charles the XII 

 down to Napoleon. 



Chemically, wool is the best for bedding; wool, flannel, and all sub- 

 stances made of wool, keep our bodies warm; they are composed of 

 a rare and spongy mass, the fibres of which touch each other so slight- 

 ly that the heat moves slowly through their interstices, and wool re- 

 tains its heat better than other materials, and does not strike so cold. 

 People may be convinced of the impropriety of lying too long in bed, 

 by knowing that a sound man, in one night of seven hours sleep, ge- 

 nerally perspires fifty ounces, or three pounds avoirdupois, or four 

 pounds Troy weight; and we cannot wonder at that, since there are 

 above three hundred thousand millions of pores in the body of a mid- 

 dle sized man, and that in the last hours of sleep we perspire most, 

 hence the impropriety and weakness occasioned by lying too long in 

 'bed, particularly a feather or soft bed, and the necessity of lying in a 

 comparative hard, elastic, flat bed; such is a Wool Mattress with a hair 

 mattress under, to lay on in summer. 



In France, Wool Matresses are generally adopted, consequently you 

 never meet with a bad bed there. I have travelled allover France, and 



