lity. Every muscle steeped in a
heated medium, whether of air or water, loses much of its
contractibility. A heart kept in heated air, or put in hot water,
will not contract on the application of a stimulus; even the limb of
a frog, when heated in this manner, ceases to move on the application
of the galvanic exciters. Every nerve grows languid, and when it does
become excited, it acquires a disposition to throw the moving fibres,
with which it is connected, into starts, twitchings, and other
irregular convulsive motions. Though therefore nothing can more
contribute to the health of the body than a moderate and well
regulated temperature, about 48 or 50 degrees, sometimes for a short
interval a little lower, when exercise is taken at the same time, yet
when we consider the life led by persons of fashion, we should hope
that it proceeded from ignorance of these consequences; so
diametrically opposite is it to the dictates of nature and reason.

Instead of rising from table after dinner, and availing themselves of
the cooling and refreshing qualities of the air, even in the finest
seasons, when every thing which pure and simple nature can offer,
invites them abroad, they do every thing they can, as Dr. Beddoes
observes, to add to the overstimulating operation of a full and
hearty dinner. After taking strong wine with their food, they sit in
rooms rendered progressively warmer, all the afternoon, by the
presence of company, by the increase of fires, and for more than half
the year, by the early closing of the shutters, and letting down of
the window curtains. After a short interval, tea and coffee succeed;
liquors stimulating both by their inherent qualities, and by virtue
of the temperature at which they are often drank. And that nothing
may be wanting to their pernicious effect, they are frequently taken
in the very stew and squeeze of a fashionable mob. The season of
sleep succeeds, and to crown the adventures of the evening, the bed
room is fastened close, and made stifling by a fire: and though the
robust may not quickly feel the effects of this mode of life, with
the feeble it is quite otherwise. These, as they usually manage,
rarely pass a few hours of sleep without feverishness and uneasy
dreams; both of which contribute to their finding themselves by far
more spent and spiritless in the morning, than after their evening
fit of forced excitement, instead of having their spirits and
strength recruited by the "chief