comes over those vast mountains and
lakes to the north-west, which are supposed to retain vast magazines of
ice, and snow, the weather is then very rigorous; yet in spring, summer
and autumn, such winds are only cool and pleasant breezes, which serve
to refresh the air, and correct those excesses of heat, which the
situation would otherwise make that country liable to.

CHAPTER XX.

OF THE DISEASES INCIDENT TO VIRGINIA.

Sec. 82. While we are upon the climate, and its accidents, it will not be
improper to mention the diseases incident to Virginia. Distempers come
not there by choaking up the spirits, with a foggy and thick air, as in
some northern climes; nor by a stifling heat, that exhales the vigor of
those that dwell in a more southerly latitude: but by a willful and
foolish indulging themselves in those pleasures, which in a warm and
fruitful country, nature lavishes upon mankind, for their happiness, and
not for their destruction.

Thus I have seen persons impatient of heat, lie almost naked upon the
cold grass in the shades, and there, often forgetting themselves, fall
asleep. Nay, many are so imprudent, as to do this in an evening, and
perhaps lie so all night; when between the clew from heaven, and the
damps from the earth, such impressions are made upon the humors of their
body, as occasion fatal distempers.

Thus also have I seen persons put into a great heat by excessive action,
and in the midst of that heat, strip off their clothes, and expose their
open pores to the air. Nay, I have known some mad enough in this hot
condition, to take huge draughts of cold water, or perhaps of milk and
water, which they esteem much more cold in operation than water alone.

And thus likewise have I seen several people, (especially new-comers,)
so intemperate in devouring the pleasant fruits, that they have fallen
into dangerous fluxes and surfeits. These, and such like disorders, are
the chief occasions of their diseases.

Sec. 83. The first sickness that any new-comer happens to have there, he
unfairly calls a seasoning, be it fever, ague, or any thing else, that
his own folly or excesses bring upon him.

Their intermitting fevers, as well as their agues, are very troublesome,
if a fit remedy be not applied; but of late the doctors there have made
use of the Cortex Peruviana with success, and find that it seldom or
never fails to remove the fits. The planters, too, have several roots
natural to the countr