The Code of Health and Longevity

ON ATHLET I C EXERC I SES . I 2 3 that condition of the body moll confillent with perma» nent health, or with duration of life, yet 1 think you have great merit in drawing the attention of the public to the efFefts of air, exercife, and diet on the human frame, and demonftrating by fuch irrefragable examples, the extraordinary alteration which thefe powerful agents, under due management, are capable of operating on the body of man. The ancients were by no means unacquainted with, or inattentive to thefe inftrumentsof medicine, although modern praftitioners appear to have no idea of removing difeafe or reftoring health, but by pouring drugs into the ftomach. Herodicus is faid to have been the firft who applied the exercifes and regimen of the gymnalium to the removal of difeafe or the maintenance of health. Among the Romans, Afclepiades carried this fo far, that he is faid by Gelfus almoft to have baniftied the ufc of internal remedies from his praftice. r He was the in­ ventor of penfile beds, which were ufed to induce fleep, and of various other modes of exercife and geftation, and rofe to great eminence as a phylician at Rome. In his own perfon he afforded an excellent example of the wif^ dom of his rules and the propriety of his regimen. Pliny tells us that in early life, hemade a public profeffion that he would agree to forfeit all pretenfions tothe name of a phyfician, Ihould he ever fuffer from licknefs, or die but of old age ; and what is more extraordinary he ful­ filled his promife, for he lived upwards of a century, and at laft was killed by a fall down ftairs. As fomeof your queries feem intended to obtain in­ formation concerning the effefks of regimen in removing certain difeafed ftates of the conftitution, I beg leave to point out a few examples which havebeen fanftioned by experience. Several