and shortness of the lives, of the inhabitants of
Hindostan, and other tropical climates.

M. Buffon made a curious experiment to shew this circumstance. He took a
numerous brood of the butterflies of silkworms, some hundreds of which left
their eggs on the same day and hour; these he divided into two parcels; and
placing one parcel in the south window, and the other in the north window
of his house, he observed, that those in the colder situation lived many
days longer than those in the warmer one. From these observations it
appears, that the wearing of flannel clothing next the skin, which is now
so much in fashion, however useful it may be in the winter to those, who
have cold extremities, bad digestions, or habitual coughs, must greatly
debilitate them, if worn in the warm months, producing fevers, eruptions,
and premature old age. See Sect. XXXVII. 5. Class I. 1. 2. 14. Art. III. 2.
1.

4. _Urina uberior colorata._ Copious coloured urine. Towards the end of
fever-fits a large quantity of high coloured urine is voided, the kidneys
continuing to act strongly, after the increased action of the absorbents of
the bladder is somewhat diminished. If the absorbents continue also to act
strongly, the urine is higher coloured, and so loaded as to deposit, when
cool, an earthy sediment, erroneously thought to be the material cause of
the disease; but is simply owing to the secretion of the kidnies being
great from their increased action; and the thinner parts of it being
absorbed by the increased action of the lymphatics, which are spread very
thick on the neck of the bladder; for the urine, as well as perhaps all the
other secreted fluids, is produced from the kidnies in a very dilute state;
as appears in those, who from the stimulus of a stone, or other cause,
evacuate their urine too frequently; which is then pale from its not having
remained in the bladder long enough for the more aqueous part to have been
reabsorbed. The general use of this urinary absorption to the animal
oeconomy is evinced from the urinary bladders of fish, which would
otherwise be unnecessary. High coloured urine in large quantity shews only,
that the secreting vessels of the kidnies, and the absorbents of the
bladder, have acted with greater energy. When there is much earthy
sediment, it shews, that the absorbents have acted proportionally stronger,
and have consequently left the urine in a less dilute state. In this urine
the transparent sediment o