Part 8

De locis affectis, l. 3. c. 5.

Ad libellum HIPPOCRATIS de humor. p. 211.

In studious men, who lead a sedentary life, whilst they grow pale with poring over books, an apoplexy often arises from such a cause; but it comes on slowly and gradually. For the first symptom is languor, and a love of indolence; then the understanding begins to grow dull, the memory to flag; they become sleepy, stupid, and often continue a long time in that state before their death. I have seen, and not without the greatest compassion, men of the most profound learning, and who had deserv’d highly of the republick of letters, who, as it were, surviv’d themselves above a twelvemonth in a state of total oblivion, and at last died of apoplexy. VAN SWIETEN, tom. III. p. 263.

ADAM vitæ medicorum, p. 372.

We meet in the medicinal diary with an account, very well worth reading, of a severe colick, attended with other bad symptoms, and occasion’d by intense study and nocturnal lucubrations. Tom. I. p. 352.

VAN SWIETEN, tom. III. p. 87. ex COLUMBO.

Experience shews us that men of learning, though naturally of a chearful disposition, become at last fix’d, silent, pale, emaciated, and strangely troubled with the hypochondriac disorder, which generally tyrannizes over sedentary people. Ant. FELICI dissertazioni epistolari, p. 203.

BOERHAAV. ad institut. §. 896, tom. VII. p. 275.

LANCISUS de mortu subit. l. 1. c. 22.

MARKII Oratio funebris in obitum TRIGLANDII. Leyden, 1705.

The famous ROUSSEAU; but he has since quitted the British asylum, and returned to France.

JOH. ALPH. ROSSET, theologiæ professor, & academiæ, hoc tempore, rector.

The disorders of orators and singers are the same; but the bodies of these being open’d, have often shewn inflammations, suppurations, ulcers in the lungs; nay, the illustrious MORGAGNI saw a young man that had an excellent voice, whose wind-pipe and throat being affected, could swallow nothing, and, whilst he attempted to suck down the yolk of an egg, was suffocated and died. De sedib. & caus. tom. 1. p. 228.

It often proves hurtful to men of learning themselves, when in an advanc’d age they pursue a new study; for this gives rise to a new order of ideas, which receives no assistance from all the traces before left upon the brain: new fibres must receive new motions, a laborious work to the organ already debilitated, and which often throws men of first-rate capacities into lingering disorders.

SUETONIUS in vita OCT. AUG. cap. 82.

VALERIUS MAXIMUS, lib. 3. c. 6. p. 140.

De education. pueror. cap. 12.

De motu opt. corpor. medicin. § 9.

De methodo, No. 6: There is likewise a remarkable passage in MOSES MAIMONIDES, one of the most ancient of the Arabian physicians. As life and health, says he, contribute greatly to the worship and knowledge of God; but a man in an ill state of health is unable to contemplate the works of God as he should do; a man ought to take particular care to avoid whatever is hurtful to his body, and should endeavour to procure whatever contributes to keep the body in health and strengthen it. De sanit. tuend. init.

It must be acknowledged, that a man of learning, indefatigable in his studies, if he observes an exact regimen, innocent and moderate, will find the disadvantages attending his way of life more supportable than another. FELICI dissertazioni, p. 203.

Prælect. in instit. § 1036, tom. VII. p. 337.

Many plants fit for use, and perhaps most such, and many others, by means of an easy art, give out a great quantity of excellent sugar, not much inferior to that of sugar-canes. Eight ounces of the fresh juice of the skirret yield an ounce of the best sugar. MARGRAFF Mem. de l’Acad. de Berlin.

Many phænomena prove this plethora; and it is evinced by a simple observation, and one that occurs daily, viz. by those convulsions of the lower jaw-bone which cause a collision of the teeth in sleep, and that more strongly in boys when they have eat a hearty supper.

It was justly observed by THEOPHRASTUS, that to eat much, and to live upon flesh, deprives men of the use of their reason, blunts the faculties of their minds, and renders them dull and stupid.

BOERHAAVE prælect. tom. VII. p. 340.

The goddess, says PLATO, chose a place which was to give birth to the wisest men. Init. Timæi. And do not forget this with regard to places, that they are of great consequence in giving birth to men of superior genius, or the reverse. De leg. lib. 5.

By the excessive heat, which is not so much as allayed by an Etesian gale, I have entirely lost the power of philosophising, and am deterred from writing. LANCISI ad COCCHI, p. 47.

Qui ita ut vestitus calceatusque erat, retectis pedibus, paulisper conquiescebat opposita ad oculos manu. SUETONIUS in vit. C. O. Aug. cap. 82. I enlarged upon the ill consequences of sleeping after dinner, in an epistle which I inscribed a few years ago to the illustrious HALLER.