BOOK SIXTH ANO LAST. 



BRIEF HL^'TS OS THE DISEASES LXCIDEA'TJL TO THE 

 VLYE-DRESSER. 



Ill general, our vine-dressers toil laboriously and fare poorly ; and if 

 excessive exertion occasions diseases, bad nourishment weakens and 

 deranges the vital functions. Undoubtedly the necessity of doing 

 with promptitude the labours requisite about the Vine, is the reason 

 why such extraordinary and zealous activity is indispensable in the. 

 labourer ; but if amid this driving of work, poverty or what is worse, 

 cupidity, refuses to afford the necessary and nourishing aliments, 

 serious and complicated debilities are the consequence. The labour- 

 ing countryman requires healthy food : he requires four meals a day, 

 and five during the vintage, but these should be frugal. Frugality 

 sustains and strengthens the native powers of the digestive organs, 

 and bestows a robustness of health, to which toil seems light, and rest 

 after fatigue a luxury. I have seen men, who had lived the greater 

 part of their lives on no other nourishment during the better half of 

 the year than bread, cheese and water, able to work with an unremit- 

 ting ardour, and retaining their strength at an age which the inhabit- 

 ant of cities rarely reaches without being overwhelmed with infirm- 

 ities. The activity of the digestive organs in the rustic labourer 

 is a proof of the justness of the remark of Tissot, that we are supported 

 not by what is eaten, but bv what is assimilated. 



Cleanliness in clothing and salubrious dwellings are points of great 

 importance to the vine-dresser ; the looseness and size of his vest- 

 ments is all extremely proper, but the vine-dresser is too frequently 

 incautious in not resuming them when he rests from hia exertions. 

 By this want of foresight inflammatory diseB^ses are very frequent ;. 



