ie a gat 
Dr, Fothergill on the practice of sleeping on the wet ground. 209 
tainly a more ready means of procuring some obstinate, acute, or chro- 
nic disease could scarcely be devised. As if the avenues to pain, 
misery, and death, were not already sufficiently numerous without 
wantonly increasing them by temerity or fool-hardiness. 
Can we wonder then at the frequency of rheumatisms, palsies, fe- 
vers of different kinds, coughs, and consumptions, which prevail in the 
finest and serenest weather? Or that the weekly bills of mortality 
should so often increase at that season of the ass when this impru- 
dent practice is most frequent? Of its. pernicious effects our hos- 
pitals and dispensaries could doubtless afford too many sad examples. 
és are well known to medical Pea HODeT yk. the ye SpeeaTE 
isceemrd 
a pr te 
dec. the abuse will, e. course, oe ecetiaed 0 § the. no maak 
detriment of individuals and of the state. 
Labouring people have indeed been repeatedly cautioned, by 
the Humane Society, and very properly, against drinking cold wa- 
ter, when. the body is heated; the practice being considered in this 
climate, as the frequent cause of sudden death. In Great Britain | how- 
ever it rarely proves fatal, but often produces obstinate cutaneous. 
eruptions. It may indeed be fairly presumed, that where certain in- 
dividuals, from a peculiar debility, or idiosyncrasy, fall victims to the 
cause,a still greater number contract dangerous diseases by unguardedly 
sleeping on the damp ground, wet clothes, or damp beds. The ordi- 
nary temperature of the springs and pump-waters in this city has 
been stated at about 53°, and that of the hydrant, conveyed from the 
river Schuylkill, is allowed to be in summer several degrees: warmer. * 
* September 15, 1807. The water of two pumps, one in Walnut street, , the 
other in Fifth street, fresh drawn, are found by experiment this day to be 58°. 
While that of a neighbouring hydrant - Sqbogikill water marks . tf the eal 
heat of the atmosphere, 
