The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographersWeems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Philosophy
The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographers
Weems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography
ages contended that the sick should not be indulged with fresh air,
have at length discovered that it may do them good. It is therefore to
be hoped that it is not hurtful to those who are in health, and that
we may be then cured of the _acrophobia_ that at present distresses
weak minds, and makes them choose to be stifled and poisoned, rather
than leave open the windows of a bed chamber, or put down the glass of
a coach.
[3] In India, where out of 140 poor British prisoners shut
up in a close small room 120 of them perished in one night.
Confined air, when saturated with perspirable matter,[4] will not
receive more; and that matter must remain in our bodies, and occasions
diseases; but it gives some previous notice of its being about to be
hurtful, by producing certain uneasinesses which are difficult to
describe, and few that feel know the cause. But we may recollect, that
sometimes, on waking in the night, we have, if warmly covered, found
it difficult to get asleep again. We turn often without finding repose
in any position. This _fidgetiness_, to use a vulgar expression for
the want of a better, is occasioned wholly by an uneasiness in the
skin, owing to the retention of the perspirable matter, the
bed-clothes having received their quantity, and, being saturated,
refusing to take any more.
[4] What physicians call the perspirable matter, is that
vapour which passes off from our bodies, from the lungs, and
through the pores of the skin. The quantity of this is said
to be five-eighths of what we eat.
When you are awakened by this uneasiness, and find you cannot easily
sleep again, get out of bed, beat up and turn your pillow, shake the
bed-clothes well, with at least twenty shakes, then throw the bed
open, and leave it to cool; in the meanwhile, continuing undrest, walk
about your chamber, till your skin has had time to discharge its load,
which it will do sooner as the air may be drier and colder. When you
begin to feel the cool air unpleasant, then return to your bed, and
you will soon fall asleep, and your sleep will be sweet and pleasant.
All the scenes presented by your fancy, will be of the pleasing kind.
I am often as agreeably entertained with them, as by the scenery of an
opera. If you happen to be too indolent to get out of bed, you may
instead of it, lift up your bed-clothes so as to draw in a good deal
of fresh air, and, by letting them fall, force it out again. This,
repeated twenty times, will so clear them of the perspirable matter
they have imbibed, as to permit your sleeping well for some time
afterwards. But this latter method is not equal to the former.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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