quarter might easily be prevented in private fanilies, by causing their servants to sleep in the spare beds, and resign them to strangers when they come. In inns where the beds are used almost every night, nothing else is necessary than to keep the rooms well seasoned by frequent fires, and the linen dry.

That baneful custom said to be practised in many inns, of damping sheets, and pressing them in order to save washing, and afterwards laying them on the beds, ought, when discovered, to be punished with the utmost severity. It is really a species of murder, and will often prove as fatal as poison or gun-shot. Indeed, no linen, especially if it has been washed in winter, ought to be used till it has been exposed for some time to the fire; nor is this operation less necessary for linen washed in summer, provided it has lain. by for any length of time. This caution is the more needful, as gentlemen are often exceedingly attentive to what they eat or drink at an inn, yet pay no regard to a circumstance of much more importance.*

*If a person suspects that his bed is damp, the simple precaution of taking off the sheets and lying in the blankets, with all, or most of his clothes on, will prevent all the danger. I have practised this for many years, and never have been hurt by damp beds, though no constitution, without care, is proof against their baneful influ

Damp Houses.

Damp houses frequently produce the like ill consequences; for this reason those who build should be careful to choose a dry situation. A house which stands on a damp marshy soil or deep clay, will never be thoroughly dry. All houses, unless where the ground is exceeding dry, should have the first floor a little raised.Servants and others, who are obliged to live in cellars and sunk stories, seldom continue long in health; masters ought surely to pay some regard to the health of their servants, as well as to their own.

Nothing is more common than for people, merely to avoid some trifling inconveniency, to hazard their lives, by inhabiting a house almost as soon as the masons, plasterers, &c. have done with it such houses are not only dangerous from their dampness, but likewise from the smell of lime, paint, &c. The asthmas, consumptions, and other diseases of the lungs, so incident to people who work in these articles, are sufficient proofs of their being unwholesome.

Rooms are often rendered damp by an unseasonable piece of cleanliness; I mean the pernici ous custom of washing them immediately before company is put into them. Most people catch sold, if they sit but a very short time in a roomthat has been lately washed; the delicate ought carefully to avoid such a situation, and even the

robust are not always proof against its influence.*

Sudden transitions from heat to cold.

THE perspiration is frequently obstructed by sudden transitions from beat to cold. Colds are seldom caught, unless when people have been too much heated. Heat rarifies the blood, quickens the circulation, and encreases the perspiration; but when these are suddenly checked, the consequences must be bad. It is indeed impossible for labourers not to be too hot upon some occasions; but it is generally in their power to let themselves cool gradually, to put on their clothes when they leave off work, to make choice of a dry place to rest themselves in, and to avoid sleeping in the open fields. These easy rules, if observed, would often prevent fevers and other fatal disorders.

It is very common for people, when hot, to drink freely of cold water, or small liquors. This conduct is extremely dangerous. Thirst indeed is hard to bear, and the inclination to gratify that appetite frequently gets the better of reason, and makes us do what our judgment disapproves. Every peasant, however, knows,

* People imagine if a good fire is made in a room after it has been washed, that there is no danger from sitting in it; but they must give me leave to say that this increases the danger. The

if his horse be permitted to drink his bellyful of cold water after violent exercise, and be imme. diately put into the stable, or suffered to remain at rest, that it will kill him. This they take the utmost care to prevent. It were well if they were equally attentive to their own safety.

Thirst may be quenched many ways without swallowing large quantities of cold liquor. The fields afford variety of acid fruits and plants, the very chewing of which would abate thirst. Water kept in the mouth for some time, and spit out again, if frequently repeated, will have the same effect. If a bit of bread be eaten along with a few mouthfuls of water, it will both quench thirst more effectually and make the danger less. When a person is extremely hot, a mouthful of brandy, or other spirits, if it can be obtained, ought to be preferred to any thing else. But if any one has been so foolish, when hot, as to drink freely of cold liquor, he ought to continue his exercise at least till what he drank be thoroughly warmed upon his stomach.

It would be tedious to enumerate all the bad effects which flow from drinking cold liquors when the body is hot. Sometimes this has occasioned immediate death. Hoarseness, quinseys, and fevers of various kinds, are its common consequences. Neither is it safe when warm to eat freely of raw fruits, sallads, or the like. These

evaporation excited by the fire generates cold, and renders the damp more active.

indeed have not so sudden an effect on the body as cold liquors, but they are notwithstanding dangerous, and ought to be avoided.

Sitting in a warm room, and drinking hot liquors till the pores are quite open, and immediately going into the cold air, is extremely dangerous. Colds, coughs, and inflammation of the breast, are the usual effects of this conduct: yet nothing is more common than for people, after they have drank warm liquors for several hours, to walk or ride a number of miles in the coldest night, or to ramble about in the streets*.

People are very apt, when a room is hot, to throw open a window, and to sit near it. This is a most dangerous practice. Any person had better sit without doors than in such a situation, as the courant of air is directed against one particular part of the body. Inflammatory fevers and consumptions have often been occasioned by sitting or standing thinly clothed near an open window. Nor is sleeping with open windows less to be dreaded. That ought never to be done,

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*The tap-rooms in London and other great towns, where such numbers of people spend their evenings, are highly pernicious. The breath of a number of people crowded into a low apartment, with the addition of fires, candles, the smoke of tobacco, and the fumes of hot liquor, &c. must not only render it hurtful to continue in such places, but dangerous to go out of them into a cold and chilly atmosphere.