158 
7 N T E M P 
merous offspring; while his pampered lord, funk in eafe 
and luxury, often languifhes without an heir to his ample 
fortunes. Dr. Reid “queltioned feveral dyl'peptic pa¬ 
tients, with regard to the origin of their complaints, 
which, by their ingenuous confefficn, appeared to arife 
front an habitual excels in eating. Their dinners were 
the fource of their difeafes. This fpecies of indulgence is, 
amcngft the fublfantial claffes of fociety, by no means an 
infrequent occafion of indifpofition. The more indigent 
orders of the community fortunately cannot afford to ruin 
their conffitution by the inordinate quantity and luxury 
of their ingelta. It is one of the unenviable privileges of 
the comparatively wealthy, to be able to gormandife to 
their own deltruilion. The appetite may be, and often 
is, increafed much beyond what is natural, by the artificial 
excitement of various and highly-leafoned dilhes. Falls 
ought from time to time to be oblerved, if not from piety, 
at lead from prudence ; though not regarded as religious 
inllitutions, they ought to be kept with a kind of reli¬ 
gious punctuality, as wholefome intervals of abltinence, 
which give the llomach an occafional holiday, and afford 
a temporary refpite from the daily drudgery of digellion. 
We are not in general aware of the degree of intellinal 
labour, which is neceffary to exonerate the body of the 
load which gluttony impofes. The inordinate devourer 
of food cuts out more work for his internal machinery, 
than it can either with eafe or impunity perform. It 
mull at length fall a facrifice to toils of fupereroga- 
tion.” 
Convuifive affeflions, or Jits, as they are called, of dif¬ 
ferent kinds and titles, although they all exhibit a certain 
community of fymptoms, prevail more in the prefent age 
than in earlier and lefs effeminate periods of our hiftory. 
Their attacks are in the firft inllance afcribable to a much 
more deftrutdive fort of excefs than that which we have 
juft had occafion to notice, to the exceffive ufe of ftimu- 
lating and inebriating liquors. In thele cafes, (continues 
Dr. Reid,) the intervals between the paroxyfms, which 
were often of confiderable length, were marked by a 
dejeClion approaching, in its degree, to an alienation of 
mind, unlel’s when the tbicknels of gloom was at times 
broken, or attenuated, by draughts from what might be 
regarded as the fatal fountain of the diforder. The temp¬ 
tation, under fuch circumllances, is almoll irrefiltible, to 
feek for oblivion of feeling in the lethe of intoxication, 
in that kind of lleep of the lenfibility, out of which, how¬ 
ever, the awakening cannot fail to be attended with an 
accumulated horror. Wine, and other phylical exhila- 
rants, during the treacherous truce to yvretchednefs which 
they afford, dilapidate the ftruflure, and undermine the 
very foundation of happinefs. No man, perhaps, was ever 
completely miferable, until after lie, had fled to alcohol 
for confolation. The habit of vinous indulgence is not 
more pernicious than it is obftinate and pertinacious in 
its hold, when it has once faftened itfelf upon the confti- 
tution. It is not to be conquered by half-meafures. No 
compromife with it is allowable. The victory over it, in 
order to be permanent, muff be perfect. As long as there 
lurks a relic of it in the frame, there is imminent danger 
of a relapfe of this moral malady, from which there lel- 
dom is, as from phyfical diforders, a gradual conva- 
lefcence. The cure, if at all, mull be effefted at once ; 
cutting and pruning will do no good, nothing will be of 
any avail fhort of abfolnte extirpation. The man who 
has been the Have of intemperance,, muff renounce her al¬ 
together, or ihe will ip.fenfi.bly re-affume her defpotic 
power. With fuch a miftrefs, if he feriouily mean to dif- 
card her, he fftould indulge himfelf in no dalliance or de¬ 
lay. He muff not allow his lips a talte of her former faf- 
cination. 
Webb, the noted walker,, who was remarkable for vi¬ 
gour both of body and mind, lived wholly upon water for 
liis drink. He was one day recommending his regimen 
to one of his friends who loved wine, and urged him, 
with great earneltnefs, to quit a epurfe of luxury, by 
E R A N C E. 
which his health and his intellects would equally be de« 
ftroyed. The gentleman appeared convinced; and told 
him, “that he would conform to his counfel, yet thought 
he could not change his courfe of life at once, but would 
leave oft' ftrong liquors by degrees.” “ By degrees ! (fays 
the other with indignation :) if you fhould unhappily fall 
into the fire, would you caution your fervants to pull you 
out only by degrees?” 
There is, perhaps, no fubjecl, on which Engliffmien in 
general entertain fo many unfounded prejudices, or liften 
to argument with fo little attention or convicil.ion, as that 
of temperance. It is conceived that phyficians, in incul¬ 
cating the advantages of it, only talk idly about it, in the 
way of their profeffion ; and that what is called good liv¬ 
ing, when not carried to a<ftual debauch, is favourable to 
the fupport and health of the body. It is, indeed, (o uni- 
verfally the praflice in this country, to indulge an arti¬ 
ficial appetite, beyond the aclual wants of nature, that 
temperance is a thing, as Dr. Cadogan obferves, of which 
an Englilhman can acquire no idea at home. It is, how¬ 
ever, altogether comparative with refpeft to individual 
conftitution ; for fome perfons will become plethoric to a 
morbid degree, upon diet which is barely fuflicient to fup¬ 
port life in others. Perhaps Dr. Cadogan’s tell is correct: 
“As long as a man eats and drinks no more than the fto- 
mach calls for,” (i. e. when unexcited by variety of diflies, 
by fauces and condiments, or by interpofing liquor of any 
kind,) “ and will bear without the lealt pain, detention, 
emulation, or uneafinefs of any kind, &c. he may be faid 
to live in a very prudent well-regulated ftate of tem¬ 
perance, that will probably preferve him in health and 
ipirits to great old age.” Cadogan on the Gout. 
We know too well, however, the general want of power 
or inclination to refill the pleasures of the table, with that 
degree of perfeverance and to the requifite extent, to ex¬ 
pert that many cures of the gout will be effected in this 
way; but this we may aflert, that the only inllances of 
the eradication of the difeafe, which are known, have been 
accomplifhed by rigid and perfevering temperance. Dr. 
James Gregory, the prefent profefi'or of medicine in the 
univerfity of Edinburgh, is a remarkable example of the 
perfect cure of the gout by fuch means. Born of gouty 
parents, he was attacked leverely when young, and fuf- 
fered feveral paroxyfms, which, after being banifhed by 
abftemious living, recurred, on a lhort indulgence, on re- 
vifiting Oxford ; but he has fince that time entirely kept 
the. foe at a diltance for about thirty years, by extreme 
temperance and much exercife, and is now hale and ftrong, 
though advanced feveral years beyond the age at which 
his father died broken down by the gout. This he re¬ 
peats annually to his pupils with no fmall exultation. 
His diet has been chiefly broth, or a fparing quantity of 
plain animal food, with little or no wine. Dr. Cadogan. 
affords another inftance of the benefit of rigid temperance 
in his own perfon, “ having not only got rid of the pout,” 
lie fays, “of which I had four fevere fits in my younger 
days, but all'o emerged from the loweft ebb of life that a 
man could poflibly be reduced to by colic, jaundice, and 
a complication of complaints, and recovered to perfect 
health, which I have now uninterruptedly enjoyed above 
ten years.” Dr. Heberden likewife obferves, that, although 
complete cures of the gout are extremely rare, yet he has 
feen more than one inftance in which, by a total absti¬ 
nence from animal, food and wine, the patients were re- 
ltored from a ftate of extreme debility and mifery, to fuch 
a degree of health and ftrength, as rendered their life no 
longer ufelefs to others, nor painful to themfelves. Comm. 
p. 44. 
It is intemperance, and not heat, that deftroys fo many 
young men upon their firft going to the Weil Indies. 
“B.y keeping the body quiet, and cool within as well as 
without,, the firft objeft of feafoning in hot climates will 
be attained ; which is to moderate the action of the let. 
lids, and todiminifh the volume and denftty of the fluids.” 
Mofelcy on Tropical Difeafes. Hence- the fame author fug- 
geftt. 
