Copy 1, Volume 1

The code of health and longevity; or, a concise view of the principles calculated for the preservation of health, and the attainment of long life / By Sir John Sinclair.

  • Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet
Date:
1807
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The code of health and longevity; or, a concise view of the principles calculated for the preservation of health, and the attainment of long life / By Sir John Sinclair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    643/650 (page 13)
    Ld out the proper period for renouncing such gratifications. If indulged in before the body is fully formed, it stints the growth, and brings on langour, debility, and various other disorders ; and if in old age, it is at all given way to, it soon hastens the unfortunate victim of vain desires to the grave. Manhood is the proper period of life for these gratifications, which are then natural and useful, but even then, they ought not to be indulged in to excess, for, according to the old maxim, Rara Venus juvat, frequens debilitat *. 2. The nature and uses of the saliva have been already explained. It is certainly a most useful animal secretion, and ought not to be unnecessarily wasted by frequent spit- ting. ‘The custom of smoking tobacco also, would appear to be extremely prejudicial, at the same time, it must be admitted, that among the pensioners of Greenwich Hospital, who have exceeded 80 years of age, there are but few who have not been in the habit of taking tobacco in some shape or other, very freely, and yet they do not seem to have suf- fered from it+. Nature, therefore, seems to accommodate itself to bear such discharges, when they are regular] y per- severed in, without any material injury. 3. The mucus of the nose, is intended by nature to pro- tect the olfactory nerves ; hence, every artificial means of increasing that secretion is preposterous, unless required -by some particular indisposition of the body. The taking of snuff, therefore, is in general reprehensible; and the indulgence * There are many works in which this subject is very fully discussed, as, in Willich’s Lectures on Diet and Regimen, 2d edit. chap. 9. p- 539.—Hufeland on the Art of Prolonging Life, Vol. II. book 2d. chap. 4. p. 165.—Valangin on Diet, chap. 5. p. 190.—Fothergill’s Rules for the Preservation of Health, p. 96.—Anderson’s Medical Remarks on Natural, Spontaneous, and Artificial Evacuation, p. 97—Lynch’s Guide to Health, p. 305, 306.—See Medicin des Hommes, p. 133.—Turn- bull’s Medical Works, p- 155; and many others, too numerous to men- t10n. + See Code of Longevity, Vol. Il. Appendix, p. 117; also, p. 186 and 189. In all about 300 persons above 80, who use tobacco in some shape or other, without having been injured by that practice. At the same time, though it may be of some use to those, who, like the sailors, are accustomed to a cold and moist atmosphere, yet the remonstrances of Dr Waterhouse against serars, as detrimental to youth, are certainly well