The Code of Health and Longevity

APPEND I X . produced on the public mind by the exhibitions of hu­ man prowefs, difplajed in the practice of boxing, well difcriminated from the confequences of committing a6ls pf cruelty on the inferior animals, fuch as bull-baiting, throwing at cocks, and other execrable practices of a fimilar kind, which have been moft improperly denomi­ nated fports. Ferocity qfmanners, and brutality of con- duft, are the invariable confequences qf indulging a pro- penfity to witnefs fuch exhibitions. In England, where the art of boxing is particularly exercifed, the number of perfons who fall facrifices to perfonalquarrels, or become the viftims of refentmeuc, are few indeed; whereas, it has been calculated, that atRome a thoufand perfons are annually murdered by the ftiletto of the aflaffin, and the proportion is probably not lefs in Spain and Portugal. In the fouthern counties of England, where the mode of deciding private quarrels among the common people, by an appeal to manual combat, is peculiarly prevalent, in- llances of their terminating in death arc very rare. In the northern counties, on the contrary, where, Whenmen iight, they take every unfair advantage, the lofs of life is by nomeans uncQir^rnqn, and the verdi^ls of manflaugh- ter occur fq frequently, as to have repeatedly excited the indignation of the judges. It is even ftated, that fince the praftice qf fair boxing has been in fome meafure in­ troduced intq the northern parts of this country, by the example of the itinerant teachers of the pugiliftic art, iaftances of murder have become lefs frequent. The pain inflifted and fuffered by the perfons engaged in thefe contefts, have caufed them to be ftigmatifed by many humane perfons, as cruel. But to judge of the feelings of the combatants by thofe of the fpe^la.tors, is a very inadequate criterion. It is an acknowledged phy- ftplogical truth, that the fimultaneous anions of volun- tary