AND THE STUDIOUS.

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sufficiently, and answering the other important pur-poses of respiration. Hence proceed asthmas, coughs,and consumptions of the lungs, so incident to personswho follow these employments.

To prevent such consequences as far as possible, theplaces where these occupations are carried on ought tobe constructed in such a manner as to discharge thesmoke and other exhalations, and admit a free currentof fresh air. Such artists ought never to continue longat work; and, when they give over, they should sufferthemselves to cool gradually, and put on their clothesbefore they go into the open air. They ought never todrink large quantities of cold, weak, or watery liquors,while their bodies are hot, nor to indulge in raw fruits,salads, or any thing that is cold on the stomach.

Miners, and all who work under ground, are like-wise hurt by unwholesome air. The air, by its stagna-tion in deep mines, not only loses its proper spring andother qualities necessary for respiration, but is oftenloaded with such noxious exhalations as to become amost deadly poison.

The two kinds of air which prove most destructiveto miners, are what they call the fire damp and thechoke damp. In both cases the air becomes a poisonby its being loaded with phlogiston. The danger fromthe former may be obviated by making it explode be-fore it accumulates in too great quantities; and thelatter may be generally carried off by promoting a freecirculation of air in the mine.

Miners are not only hurt by unwholesome air, butlikewise by the particles of metal which adhere to theirskin, clothes, &c. These are absorbed, or taken upinto the body, and occasion palsies, vertigoes, andother nervous affections, which often prove fatal. Fal-lopius observes, that those who work in mines ofmercury seldom live above three or four years. Lead,and several other metals, are likewise very perniciousto the health.

Miners ought never to so to work fasting, nor tocontinue too long at work. Their food ought to be

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