mon sailors, and have no right to the captain's provisions, except to such part of them as is used for feeding the crew. These passengers are sometimes sick, melancholy, and dejected, and there are often women and children among them, neither of whom have any opportunity of procuring those things already mentioned, and of which, perhaps, they have the greatest need. By distributing amongst them a part of your superfluity, you may be of the greatest assistance to them; you may restore their health, save their lives, and, in short, render them happy, which always affords the liveliest pleasure to a feeling mind.

6

"The most disagreeable thing at sea is the cookery, for there is not, properly speaking, any professed cook on board. The worst sailor is generally chosen for that purpose, who, for the most part, is equally dirty and unskilful; hence comes the proverb used among the English sailors, God sends meat, but the Devil sends cooks.' Those, however, who have a better opinion of Providence, will think otherwise knowing that seaair, and the exercise or motion, which is communicated by the rolling of the ship, have a wouderful effect in whetting the appetite, they will say that Providence has given sailors bad cooks, to prevent them from eating too much; or, that knowing they would have bad cooks, he has given them a good appetite, to prevent them from dying with hunger. However, if you have no confidence in these succours of Providence, you may yourself, with a lamp and a burner, by the help of a little spirits of wine, prepare some food, such as soup,

hash, tea, coffee, &c. A small oven made of tin plate is not a bad piece of furniture; your servant may roast in it a piece of mutton or pork. If you are ever tempted to eat salt beef, which is often very good, you will find that cider is the best liquor to quench the thirst generally caused by salt meat, or salt fish. Seabiscuit, which is too hard for the teeth of some persons, may be softened by steeping it; but bread double baked is the best, for being made of good loaf-bread cut into slices, and baked a second time, it readily imbibes water, becomes soft, and is easily digested: it consequently forms excellent nourishment, much superior to that of biscuit which has not been fermented.

"I must here observe, that this double-baked bread was originally the real biscuit prepared to keep at sea; for the word biscuit in French signifies twice baked. Pease often boil badly, and do not become soft; in such a case, by putting a two pound shot into the kettle, the rolling of the vessel, by means of this bullet, will convert the pease into a kind of porridge like mustard."

Previous to going a sea-voyage, some gentle aperient medicine should be occasionally used, and for this purpose the Imperial Marine Pills' are certainly the best. These may be assisted with a tea-spoonful or two of Epsom or Cheltenham salts. Also, on changing climate, the same preparations are held advisable. The diet ought to be simple and nutritious. Light meals are best. Spirits, freely diluted, for common drink, are better than lemon juice, or vinegar and

water, although these acids, from their antiseptic properties, come in well with salted meats.

"On ship board," says Dr. Stevenson,* "there are many little considerations as regards position of the body, as well as locality, that are worth attending to, inasmuch as they tend to lessen, if not prevent, much of the inconvenience arising from sea-sickness; and persons subject to sea-sickness ought to lie with their head somewhat raised, towards the stern, and as near the middle of the vessel, that is, half way between the stem and stern, as possible; for here there is considerably less motion than at either of the extremities of the vessel. When out of bed, or on deck, people subject to sea-sickness should either sit or stand, and look the way the vessel is sailing, supporting the head with the hand, gradually accustoming themselves to dispense with this aid. It is unquestionably an oversight, and which still prevails, especially in our packets and other smaller vessels, which carry a number of passengers, viz. that of locating the females in the aftercabin, and the males in the midships. The very reverse of this, indeed, ought to be the case; for females, whose constitutions are independently more delicate, are most liable to severe and long continued attacks of sea-sickness, and, doubtless, they will always experience some alleviation where the motion of the vessel is least felt."

It is to the zeal and observation of this eminent physician the world is indebted for the only medical preparation ever known to have any effect over sea-sickness.

SECTION XVII.

LIGHTS AND SHADES OF HEALTH, NATURAL MARKS OF LONG LIFE, AND MEANS OF ATTAINING IT.

THE means of invigorating health and prolonging life are subjects at all times entitled to the peculiar attention of every thinking man.

As regards the former, or that health may be invigorated, there is no question. The pleasure that arises from the possession of health, and the distress which sickness occasions, are perpetual mementos that health cannot be neglected. But the propriety of aspiring to long life has been doubted; and it is said, that after a person has lived for fifty or sixty years, and has followed his duties as a man, that he had better retire and make way for others, and that the sooner he quits these sublunary scenes the better. Such sentiments, however, ought not to be indulged. If persons live only for themselves, and for the gratification of their own passions, and to promote their own interests alone, this might be the case. But if we live as we ought to do, to promote the happiness of others as well as that of our own, and if by living long we can be of more service, from the knowledge which greater experience, and longer observation must necessarily fur

nish, the result is, we ought to live as long as we have health and strength to perform good actions to others, and that the power of doing good ought to be the proper limit by which our wishes for existence ought to be bounded: nor ought it to be omitted, that there is an evident and necessary connexion between good health and long life, as it is impossible to possess the one, without its contributing to the enjoyment of the other.

But

Long life is the first and chief earthly blessing mortals can enjoy; because life and health are necessary to every other enjoyment: and this is the reason why there are few men who have lived so long as not to wish their existence extended yet a little longer. Where they are found to relinquish so natural a desire, it is generally because premature infirmities destroy all relish for life, and render them burthensome to themselves, as well as troublesome to all about them. though health and life be so desirable, the means of their preservation prove too severe a task for a great part of mankind. Whatever they may think or say on the subject of health, it is plain by their practice, that they despise it, in comparison with the present gratification of their palates, or the riotous excesses of their convivial associations: seldom thinking what they are doing, till forced to an unavailing recollection by the inability of proceeding.

Intemperance loads the vessels, those fine and delicate tubes and fibres of which the body is composed, with a redundancy of juices, increases the rapidity of