Volume 1

A short treatise on the all-cleansing,--all-healing,--and all-invigorating qualities of the simple earth ... To which are added, a description of ... earth bathing, etc / [James Graham].

  • Graham, James, 1745-1794
Date:
1790
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short treatise on the all-cleansing,--all-healing,--and all-invigorating qualities of the simple earth ... To which are added, a description of ... earth bathing, etc / [James Graham]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vigour of conftitutionand whenever, in growing years, w£ defire to grow fairer, frefher, and very confiderably taller, and ftronger than we otherwise are, or could be, from the original organization and conftitution, which we received from our immediate Parents, and more remote Progenitors; or when at any period of our life we find ourfelves difeafed from whatever caufe ; or when, as I have already hinted ; we have either voluntarily, or through ignorant and fatal habits, examples, or accidents, ftripped ourfelves of life, to communicate it to our children, or by folitary and diabolical practices to Molech, or to the wind ; or, finally in old-age, when the Human Body is almoft quite worn out, and all the fprings, and principles of life, have loft their due tone,—are almoft diifipated,—become feeble, impervious, or rigid, and are no longer fufceptible of the concoCtions, and affimilations of its proper nourilhment; or, in other words, when our body is no longer fufceptible of the a&ion of thofe Jllmuli by which life is maintained, namely, of air, food, drink, exercife, and the various pafiions of the mind ; nor a fit manfion, or habitation for the Almighty and incompre- henfible Renovator, SLEEP ! the foft nurfe of Nature to repofe in,—then, I fay, when we are in any of the above circumftances, we muft either go down into the Earth, judicioufiy, repeatedly, and, in proper feafons, and fituations, to have all difeafednefs external, and iNternal, cleanfed and abftradted from us, and to be renovated, rejuvenated, and invigorated with all the genial vitality, lufty vigor, and foft rich blooming beauty of youth, and of the moil perfect health,— or, that derangement from the found and healthy ftate,—that difcord, decay, and difiolution of the animal machine, efpecially of the more vital parts, that are begun, muft infallibly and inevitably GO ox, till, in the dead corpfe ftate, the body be completely broken down, and all the conftituating atoms and principles of which it was compofed, be entirely feparated, difperfed, and afiimilated to the primary or conftituting elements from which Nature took them ; where, each fpecies being nourifhed in its native bed, or repofing in the great original mafs, they are all in due time re-animated, and made fit to be wrought up again, in the compofition of new bodies or living fyftems,—animal, vegetable, mineral, or mixed:—mixt, I fay, for in fa<ft each individual element compofing the three great dalles or kingdoms, is a mixture, tranfmutation, or afiimilation of all the three or four, and, indeed of other principles or elements, which muft for ever efcape the detections and analyzations of the clumfy fenfes of even the acuteft and moft accurate chemifts, phyficians, book-makers, and other pre¬ tending analyzers of firnple and fubtle, of vifible and invifible nature ! But I beg pardon of my gentle reader if he be an humble, yet ardent lover, and thankful follower of Nature!—for having trifled with, or infulted him by mentioning the words Chemljl, Modern Philofopber, or P hyp cl an ;—for Nature difowns them ALL and all without one exception. She will have nothing at all to do with thofe ignorant, proud, arrogant, and illiberal men, who confelfedly do, and order every thing to be done, not fecundum naturam, agreeable to nature, but fecundum arUm, or according to art; and who continually oppofe, difturb, and torment Nature in her fimple, innocent, filent, fufficiently-obvious, and all-blefling ways;—and who, notwit’nftanding their proteftations, and per¬ haps their belief to the contrary, go a whoring, after other miftreftes,—and after flrange—after very strange idols and idiots of their own, and of other men’s creating : whilft NATURE, fweet innocent maid ! lighing, fmgs, ox fays to them, of her baftard Sifter, Art,—“ But my Sifter, ah ! you’ve killed her ; and me you’ve part by ; I am jealous of thefe fellows bad tafte, and blind eye ” Than myfclf, there is not, perhaps, a man in the world who has a greater love, or more profound veneration for true fcience, and for the innocent, elegant, and ufeful Arts. And fo far as chemiftry, medicine, book-making, or any other trade or art, embelhfh human life—or make mankind more intimately, or more extenlively acquainted with Nature,—or fo far as they contribute to pre- ferve or to reftore eafe, health, or happinels to the bodies, or to the minds of our fellow creatures, of the brute, or of the human fpecies, I am an advocate for, and an admirer of them. But, when men—when ignorant or villainous m c n j