The natural Constitution, or even that Constitution, which has been formed from long Custom and Habit, make a very great Difference between the Effects of solar Heat on different Persons. People insensibly accustom themselves to the Impressions of it, as they do to those of all the other Bodies and Elements, which are continually acting upon us; and by Degrees we arrive at a Power of sustaining his violent Heat with Impunity: just as others arrive at the Hardiness of bearing the most rigid Colds, with very little Complaint or Inconvenience. The human Body is capable of supporting many more Violences and Extremes, than it commonly does. Its natural Force is scarcely ever ascertained among civilized Nations; because their Education generally tends to impair and lessen it, and always succeeds in this Respect. If we were inclined to consider a purely natural, a simply physical Man, we must look for him among savage Nations; where only we can discover what we are able to be, and to bear. We certainly could not fail of being Gainers, by adopting their corporal Education; neither does it seem as yet to have been infallibly demonstrated, that we should be great Losers in commuting our moral Education for theirs. [39] [39] As some may think an Apology necessary for a Translation of this Chapter on a Disease, which never, or very seldom, exists in this or the adjacent Island, I shall observe here, that, abstracted from the Immorality of a narrow and local Solicitude only for ourselves, we are politically interested as a Nation always in Trade, and often at War (and whose Subjects are extended into very distant and different Climates) to provide against a sudden and acute Distemper, to which our Armies, our Sailors and Colonies are certainly often exposed. A Fatality from this Cause is not restrained to our Islands within the Tropic, where several Instances of it have occurred during the late War: but it has also been known to prevail as far Northward as _Pensylvania_, in their Summers, and even in their Harvests. I once received a sensible Scald on the Back of my Thumb, from the Sun suddenly darting out through a clear Hole, as it were, in a Cloud, after a short and impetuous Shower in Summer; which Scald manifestly blistered within some Minutes after. Had this concentrated Ray been darted on my bare Head, the Consequence might have been more dangerous; or perhaps as fatal as some of the Cases recorded by Dr. _Tissot_, in this Chapter. _K._ __Chapter XI.__ _Of the Rheumatism._ __Sect.__ 163.