206 
XXXI. 
ANIMADVERSIONS ON THE DANGEROUS PRACTICE OF SLEEPING 
+. ON THE DAMP GROUND AND OF EXPOSURE TO THE NIGHT - 
AIR, PARTICULARLY WHERE THE ANIMAL POWERS “ 
ARE DIMINISHED ; ILLUSTRATED ON PHI- 
LOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES ; 
Inclosed with a letter to Aaron Dexter, M.p. F.A.A. and Wil- 
liam Spooner, M.D. F.A.A. 
By A. FOTHERGILL, ™. p. F.R.s. 
Of the Royal College of physicians, London, honorary member — the: 
Medical Societies of London, Edinburg,.and Paris—of the 
Philosophical Societies of Bath, Manchester. Phila- 
delplua, and of several Agricultural Societies. 
tse AT QUE Ete PATET ATRI JANA DITIS. VIRG. AN. LIB. VI. 
ee 2S 
_{T is the office of the physician to endeavour. not only to cure, 
but to prevent diseases ; and though the latter may sometimes seem 
to clash with his immediate interest, yet duty and humanity neverthe- 
less demand it. Among the lower orders of people, ignofance is the 
frequent source of many of their calamities. Though few can be 
so ignorant, as not to know that dangerous and fatal maladies have 
, been contracted from damp rooms, damp linen, or damp clothes, ye 
many may still be. unaware, that the earth’s surface, however dy! it 
may appear, is constantly exhaling moisture ; that the human body 
after being heated (or, to use a modern term, preternaturally excited) 
by a hot sun, hard labour, or intemperate drinking, is rendered mes 
more susceptible of injury, from cold thus partially applied ; and itt 
ly, that the danger is materially increased by inactivity, and the relax 
ing influence of sleep. For preternatural excitement, from whatevet 
cause, constantly produces a proportionate collapse, or diminution 3 
the animal powers. Certain late writers indeed, fond of singular iY 
