70 Dr Barnes’’s Account of Mr Robert Bowman, 
he had the measles ; the second was not many years ago, when 
he had the hooping-cough. One of his grandchildren slept with 
him^ and they both had the hooping-cough at the same time : 
he was then upwards of 100 years of age. He has occasionally 
met with severe accidents, but never had a medical attendant, 
and does not remember ever having taken a dose of medicine in 
his life. He was always strong and healthy : if he got wet, 
while working in the fields, he seldom changed his clothes, and 
would not unfrequently thrash in the barn, or use some other 
active employment until they became dry. He never took any 
tea or coffee, and was never intoxicated in his life but once, and 
that happened at a wedding. He says his friends deceived him, 
by putting something stronger than he expected into the liquor 
he was drinking. He very seldom drank any ale, spirits, or wine, 
except occasionally at the market, at a wedding, or a funeral, and 
then only a single glass. He gives two reasons for his not drink- 
ing ; one is, that he had no particular pleasure in taking intoxi- 
cating liquors ; the other, he liked his money much better than 
them. He confesses he was rather avaricious. His common drink 
is water. His food milk, hasty-pudding, broth, bread, potatoes, 
an egg, a small piece of animal food, or any thing that the fa- 
mily are taking. His clothing was always plain, but warm and 
comfortable. His appetite is good, and his bowels are generally 
_ moved every second day. He was never regular as to the time of 
taking his meals or going to sleep. He generally took three meals 
a day, and dined about mid-day. His breakfast and supper he 
took when opportunity permitted. Sometimes he omitted a 
meal, and at other times took four or five in a day, as his appe- 
tite prompted, or his occupation allowed him. He went to bed 
at different times of the night, and sometimes rose at one hour 
and sometimes at another in the morning. Some nights he was 
never in bed at all. When he went for lime or coal, which he 
had often occasion to do, he generally slept in the open air all 
night. Even at the advanced age of 80, during a part of the 
summer season, he wrought daily at a peat-moss, a few miles 
from Irthington, and being there late in the evening with his 
horse and cart, he would sometimes unyoke the horse, let it go 
loose upon the common, and take his repose for the night in the 
cart. This is a good instance of his great industry, as well as of 
the strength of his constitution : his principal object in remain- 
