But, besides a spare diet, cool dry air is also very helpful to preserve men in health, who are not sick; for it mixes with the blood, and without it the motion of the blood and spirits can never be preserved; as appears by diving vessels, in which men cannot live when the air therein is made hot by their own body and breath: And is proved also by an experiment of Dr. Croone’s, who stifled a chicken till it seemed quite dead; and yet, by blowing cool air into the lungs with a small pair of bellows, it revived. Hence it appears, that the common custom of managing sick people is very pernicious, and so far from helping them to recover, that it is sufficient to make a healthy person sick: For were a person, who was not sick, confined for three or four weeks in a room made hot like a stove, and kept in his bed, with the curtains drawn, and all the windows close shut, and the room made unpleasant with the nauseous fumes of physic and a close-stool, which will almost make a healthy man sick when he enters into it; we can never think that this is the way to recover one that really is sick, and wants the fresh air and reviving scents to cherish his blood; a fresh, open, sweet air being one principal means to strengthen the body, make a good appetite and digestion, and render the spirits brisk and lively: which advantage should be allowed to all but childbed women, and those who are afflicted with the small pox: for the fresh air can be prejudicial to no other, whose bodies are clothed warm, either in bed, or sitting in a chair in their chamber. [Sidenote: _A fever suddenly cured._] Some years since, a neighbour became very feverish, and his wife persuaded him to go to bed; and hearing of it soon after, I gave him a visit where I found the windows close shut, the curtains of the bed drawn, and the room very hot, for it was in July: He was burning hot, and complained for want of breath. I drew open the curtains, covered him warm, and then opened the windows, and the wind blew into the room; upon which he soon told me, his shortness of breath had left him. I persuaded him to drink water, which he found did much refresh him; and, after I had taken my leave of him, he called for more water: and, while he had the cup in his hand, an apothecary came in, whom his wife had sent for, who, finding him about to drink the water, told him, if he did it, he was a dead man; but, instead of forbearing, he drank it up in his presence: upon which the other took his leave, and told him, he would say no more to him. However, before night, the person got up, went abroad, and was cured of his fever. Which is one instance, among many others that might be given, of the benefit of fresh air to a person who is kept warm in his bed; for thereby his body was cooled inwardly, and his breathing made more free, by the air which was drawn into his lungs to refresh and comfort the blood as it passed through them. [Sidenote: _A cool and low diet._]