It has appeared in the preceding part of this work, that the diseases most prevalent among seamen are fevers, fluxes, and the scurvy. These are indeed some of the most fatal that can attack the human body; but there is a numerous tribe of complaints, which are also some of the most severe scourges of human nature, from which they are in a manner entirely exempt.--These are the diseases to which the indolent and luxurious are subject, and which so far embitter their life as to render their portion of worldly enjoyment nearly on a level with that of the poor and laborious. The diseases alluded to are chiefly the gout, stomach complaints, hypochondriac and other nervous disorders. In all countries it is the better sort of people that are most subject to these; for they are owing to the want of bodily exercise, to the great indulgence of the senses, and a greater keenness and delicacy in the passions and sentiments of the mind. Man being formed by nature for active life, it is necessary to his enjoying health that his muscular powers should be exercised, and that his senses should be habituated to a certain strength of impression. Animal and vegetable nature may be aptly enough compared to each other in this respect; for a tree or plant brought up in a greater degree of shelter and shade than what is suitable to its nature, will be puny and sickly; it will neither attain its natural growth nor strength of fibre, nor will it be able to bear the influence of the weather, nor the natural vicissitudes of heat and cold to which it may be exposed. It is to be remarked, however, that exercise and temperance may be carried to excess, and that in these there is a certain salutary medium; for when labour and abstinence amount to hardship, they are equally pernicious as indulgence and indolence. This is strongly exemplified in seamen; for, in consequence of what they undergo, they are in general short lived, and have their constitutions worn out ten years before the rest of the laborious part of mankind. A seaman, at the age of forty-five, if shewn to a person not accustomed to be among them, would be taken by his looks to be fifty-five, or even on the borders of sixty[38]. The most common chronic complaints which a long course of fatigue, exposure to the weather, and other hardships, tend to bring on, are pulmonary consumptions, rheumatisms, and dropsies. It is also to be considered, that these complaints, particularly the last, are farther fomented by hard drinking, which is a common vice among this class of men, and they are led to indulge in it by the rigorous and irregular course of duty incident to their mode of life.