Page images
PDF
EPUB

Dec. 11. agriculture, endeavours to point out to the community the means by which we could most readily and effectually derive advantage from our advanced state in society, particularly with respect to the regulation of domestic economy; and as one branch of this art, to suggest means of improvement in rural and city architecture.

One of the greatest advantages that mankind reaps from uniting in society, is the secure and steady supply of provisions; and next to that is the afsurance he enjoys of being always protected from the inclemencies of the weather. In regard to the first of these objects we are most amply provided for; and there is little danger that in this country famine should ever extend to such a degree as to occasion a very extensive distrefs.

In regard to the second object, we are not so well accommodated. Our houses are universally uncomfortable. This may seem an impudent afsertion; but it is true: and it is only owing to our unacquaintance with a better mode of heating them: to the power of prejudice in the old, and an affected hardinefs against cold in the young, that we are to impute our inattention to this inconveniency, and our consequent remifsnefs in removing it. To prove the truth of my remark, it is only necefsary that one fhould attend to his own sensations in cold weather, and observe the almost universal practice of all. A candid person will easily perceive, and be ready to confefs, that not only he, but every one else, endeavours in winter to get near the fire; and that even then, having warmed his face, he finds himself disposed to turn to the grate; when having in this posi

195 tion experienced the soothing effects of the fire, tries by a rotatory motion, to give every part its share of the friendly warmth, till at length overpowered by the heat, he is obliged to seek, in a distant part of the room, an opportunity of cooling his over-heated body.

The observation of such conduct proves two facts: that artificial heat is necefsary in winter, and that according to the present mode of exciting it, it cannot be obtained in the due degree; nay, as a further proof of the acknowledged necefsity of artificial heat, and of the imperfect mode in which our houses are supplied with it, we may remark that the place of honour is by the fire side; and politenefs obliges us, though sometimes reluctantly, to yield the warm corner to those whom age or station have made respec

table.

Any one considering this matter, and convinced of its reality by the undeniable proofs that his own sensations afford him, will be surprised that a nation justly esteemed, in what regards the art of living, as well as in other respects, the first in the world, fhould, towards the end of the eighteenth century, be still unacquainted with a mode of rendering their houses completely comfortable; while nations which they reckon, and which are indeed, comparatively barbarians, have, from time immemorial known the art of effectually defending their bodies from the rigour of the seasons, both without and within doors.

You, sir, from experience, well know how difficult it is to eradicate errors that have been sanctioned by the use of ages; and that such errors are more

difficultly removed when the practice of them seems consonant to reason, and when ill understood experience seems to support them. This is eminently the case in regard to the subject of this letter. Though rea

son and experience convince us of the necefsity and usefulness of artificial heat; yet the same reason and experience are said to prove that cold invigorates the body; and the more freely it is applied, the more capable is the body rendered to resist its effects. But as this statement of the matter, if taken without limitation, is evidently false; they who hold this doctrine are obliged to have recourse to an exception, and allow that this takes place only to a certain degree but as the degree has not yet been ascertained, until this fhall be done, we must reprobate a practice founded on the general theory, viz. the custom of starving people from their infancy, and the supposed advantage derived to health by sleeping in cold rooms, not only without fires, but with open windows in cold weather. In enabling us to understand the relation between our bodies and the objects that are applied to them, the observation of a few clear principles will very much afsist.

:

In examining the various forms of matter, we find that some bodies may be brought in contact without a change being produced in either; and that others have the effect of destroying the respective forms of each, and thereby producing a third body difsimilar to its two constituents. It is evident the human body is subjected to the same laws: That there are substances which when applied, decompose that form of mixt, which, by rendering it fit to be

animated, constitutes its existence; and that there are others which are capable of being so changed by its organs as to be made subservient to its support. But instead of giving us any intuitive knowledge of what is wholesome or what is hurtful to our bodies, nature has so adapted our organs and the substances fit for nourishment, that on coming in contact, they communicate an agreeable sensation to the soul. This

ence.

is the only test we are provided with in the first instance, to determine us in the choice of articles to be used as food; and by this we are uniformly guided till we be supplied with the surer directions of experiThis relation between the human body and the objects around it, does not take place only in regard to the food proper for its support, and the sense to which it is applied; it takes place also with regard to objects applied to the other senses, which are placed as centinels to give intimation of approaching danger: Nay so provident has nature been in guarding us against hurtful objects, that where these urtful objects so far coincide with the organization of our bodies as not to be productive of aversion, they are however productive of suspicion, and it is only by a cautiously repeated trial that we become convinced of the safety of their application.

To apply these principles to the present case, it is to be observed that heat and cold, among other powers, hurt our sensations: these are by some considered as relative terms, though here they are properly enough to be reckoned positive ones.

In respect to heat and cold, both learned and vulgar agree in afserting, that the more a person expos

es himself to cold, the more he becomes steeled against it. This is most undoubtedly true; but experience teaches us it is only so in a certain degree; and that even in this very moderate climate, we can scarcely live without artificial heat. If it were otherwise we should have no occasion for any fire but for culinary purposes; and the only use of our houses would be to defend us from wet, and secure our property. To render the doctrine of exposure to cold useful, or even practicable, it would be necefsary that the mode of life fhould be in every respect congruent to the exposure to cold; though even in this case, we may be afserted, from the practice of all northern nations in clothing themselves, that this is a notion, like many others, that has its foundation on observations ill understood,

To point out the degree of cold that may usefully be applied to the body, in a clear manner, it is necefsary to attend to the following facts: Mankind by descent, by their mode of life, and other circumstances, which, in civil society it is impofsible to avoid, are of what is called different constitutions; and therefore the degree of cold, useful or hurtful to them, cannot be regulated by a thermometer. The only other way of measurement, is by the sensations of the person to whom it is applied. Here, then, we have a criterion by which every person is to know how far he may with fafety expose himself to cold; viz. as far as it is agreeable to his sensations. For this reason, then, we must put the degree of cold, proper for the present condition of the person to whom it is applied, to be that which in him produces no uneasinefs.

« EelmineJätka »