THE THIRD EDITION, WHICH IS ALMOST ENTIRELY RE-WRITTEN. LONDON: PRINTED FOR A. CONSTABLE & Co. EDINBURGH; AND HURST, ROBINSON, & Co. CHEAPSIDE. _And sold also by all Booksellers in Town and Country._ 1821. THE ART OF INVIGORATING AND PROLONGING LIFE BY Diet and Regimen. "The choice and measure of the materials of which our Body is composed,--and what we take daily by POUNDS,--is at least of as much importance as what we take seldom, and only by _Grains_ and _Spoonsful_."--DR. ARBUTHNOT on _Aliment_, pref. p. iii. The Editor of the following pages had originally an extremely Delicate Constitution;--and at an early period devoted himself to the study of Physic, with the hope--of learning how to make the most of his small stock of Health. The System he adopted, succeeded, and he is arrived at his forty-third year, in tolerable good Health; and this without any uncomfortable abstinence:--his maxim has ever been, "_dum Vivimus, Vivamus_." He does not mean the Aguish existence of the votary of Fashion--whose Body is burning from voluptuous intemperance to-day, and freezing in miserable collapse to-morrow--not extravagantly consuming in a Day, the animal spirits which Nature intended for the animation of a Week--but keeping the expense of the machinery of Life within the income of Health,--which the Constitution can regularly and comfortably supply. This is the grand "arcanum duplicatum" for "Living all the days of your Life." The Art of Invigorating the Health, and improving the Strength of Man, has hitherto only been considered for the purpose of training[1] him for Athletic Exercises--but I have often thought that a similar plan might be adopted with considerable advantage, to animate and strengthen enfeebled Constitutions--prevent Gout--reduce Corpulency--cure Nervous and Chronic Weakness--Hypochondriac and Bilious Disorders, &c.--_to increase the Enjoyment, and prolong the duration of Feeble Life_--for which _Medicine_, unassisted by DIET AND REGIMEN,--affords but very trifling and temporary help. The universal desire of repairing, perfecting, and prolonging Life, has induced many ingenious men to try innumerable experiments on almost all the products of the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral kingdoms, with the hope of discovering Agents, that will not merely increase or diminish the force or frequency of the Pulse; but with an ardour as romantic as the search after the Philosopher's Stone, they have vainly hoped, that _Panaceas_ might be found possessing the power of curing "all the evils that flesh is heir to."