284 Dr. Heberden Jun. on the Influence of Cold , &c. 
or fancy their health will be confirmed by imprudently ex- 
posing themselves. The stoutest man may meet with impe- 
diments to his recovery from accidents otherwise inconsider- 
able ; or may contract inflammations, or coughs, and lay the 
foundation of the severest ills. In a country where the pre- 
vailing complaints among all orders of people are colds, coughs, 
consumptions, and rheumatisms, no prudent man can surely 
suppose that unnecessary exposure to an inclement sky ; that 
priding oneself upon going without any additional clothing 
in the severest winter ; that inuring oneself to be hardy, at a 
time that demands our cherishing the firmest constitution lest 
it suffer ; that braving the winds, and challenging the rudest 
efforts of the season, can ever be generally useful to English- 
men. But if generally, and upon the whole, it be inexpedient, 
then ought every one for himself to take care that he be not 
the sufferer. F or many doctrines very importantly erroneous ; 
many remedies either vain, or even noxious, are daily imposed 
upon the world for want of attention to this great truth ; that 
it is from general effects only, and those founded upon exten- 
sive experience, that any maxim to which each individual may 
with confidence defer, can possibly be established. 
