OF THE, LABORIOUS, THE SEDENTARY, &c. 91

id tne management of their children, to avoid every tiling that mayiiave a tendency to make them weak or effeminate, and to take everymethod in their power U> render their constitutions strong and hardy.

-------By arts like these,

Laconia nurs'd of old her hardy sons ;

And Rome's unconquer'd legions urg'd their way,

Unhurt, thro' every toil in every clime. Armstrong.

CHAP. II.

Of the Laborious, the Sedentary, and the Studious.

THAT men are exposed to particular diseases from the occupationswhich they follow, is a fact well known; but to remedy this evil is amatter of some difficulty. Most people are under the necessity offollowing those employments to which they have been bred, whetherthey be favourable to health or not. For this reason, instead of in-veighing in a general way, as some authors have done, against thoseoccupations which are hurtful to healtti, we shall endeavour to pointout the circumstances in each of them from which the danger chieflyarises, and to propose the moit rational methods of preventing it.

Chemists, founders, forgers,glass-makers,andseveralotherartistsare hurt by the unwholesome air which they are obliged to breathe'This air is not only loaded with the noxious exhalations arising frommetals and minerals, but is so charged with phlogiston as to be ren-dered unfit for expanding the lungs sufficiently, and answering theother important purposes of respiration. Hence proceed asthmascoughs, and consumptions of the lungs, so incident to persons whofollow these employments.

To prevent such consequences, as far as possible, the places wherethese occupations are carried on ought to be constructed in such amanner as to discharge the smokeand other exhalations, and admit afree current of fresh air. Such artists ojght never to continue longat work; and when they give over, they should suffer themselves tocool gradually, and put on their clothes before thev go into the openair. They ought never to drink large quantities of cold, weak orwatery liquors, while their bodies are hot, nor to indulge in raw fruitssalads, or any thing that is eold on the stomach. Yet when personsheated with labour have drunk cold liquor, they ought to continueat work for some time after.

Miners, and all who work under ground, are likewise hurt by un-wholesome air. The air by its stagnation in deep mines, not onlyfoses its proper spring, and other qualities necessary for respiration,but is often loaded with such noxious exl alations as to become amost deadly poison.

The two kinds of air which prove most destructive to mines, arewhat they call the fire-damp and the choke-damp, in bothcases, theair becomes a poison by its being loaded with phlogiston. The dan-ger irom the former may be obviated by making it explodft before i*