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inflammations of the joints, acute rheumatisms, dysentery, and inter- 

 mittent fevers. 



One essentially dangeroxis vice is, the habit of drinking wine or 

 brandy to excess, which is here and there to be seen among the vine- 

 dressers. These excesses sharpen and render inflammatory the 

 diseases that befal the young, and cause incurable dropsies in the old. 

 It is far from my thoughts to forbid that wine to the labourer which 

 he has toiled so hard to produce with the sweat of his brows j wine 

 is necessary to the labouring man to support his strength ; but it is 

 the abuse against which I speak ; it is so hard a sight to behold the 

 useful man dishonoured and degraded, and reduced to the level of the 

 dangerous and burthensome sluggard. 



But these arc general considerations ; let us look more closely to 

 those diseases inherent in the condition of the vine-dresser. 



In nearly every operation about the Vine, the labourer must keep 

 himself bent double, which causes such pains in the back, as with 

 the alternatives of heat, and cold, and wet, disposes him, with age, 

 to remain bowed, or round-shouldered ; 1 have seen very aged labour- 

 ers whose backs seemed bent at right angles, but they walked very 

 well with a stick. This may be prevented by the distribution of 

 labour, and the use of bathing ; but the vine-dresser too often prefers 

 to do as his fathers have done before him, and to march off to the 

 tavern from the vineyard, rather than to take care of himself. Tliese 

 pains in the back can be relieved by frictions of camomile, olive, or 

 nut oil, with one twelfth part of volatile alcali ; a woollen girdle or 

 sash, also, should be worn next the skin. 



The vine-dresser feels no inconvenience from the spring sun, but 

 in the summer., the heat upon the head sometimes induces violent 

 pains, turgidness of the bloodvessels, vertigo, bihous vomiting &c. 

 When the evil is violent enough to call for prompt remedies, the 

 physician should be sent for ; and in the mean time the patient should 

 be kept remote from the light and from noise ; water, acidulated with 

 vinegar, given him to drink ; his feet should be soaked in very warm 

 water saturated with salt or mustard, and emollient enemas be 

 administered. 



There is no labourer more subject to hernias than the vine-dresser. 

 From the moment of attack every precaution is necessary, if he 

 wishes to feel able to continue devoted to his usual tasks, or even to 

 any of the slightest severity. 



A silly notion of economy too often leads the sufferer to look to 

 some tailor or seamstress for a bandage ; but the use of a regular truss 

 applied by a physician of judgement and experience, is the only course 



