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THE
OLD MAN’s GUIDE
TO
Health and Longer Life.
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THE
OLD MAN’s GUIDE
TO
Health and Longer Life:
With RULES for
DIET, EXERCISE, and PHYSIC;
FOR
Preserving a good Constitution,
AND
Preventing Disorders in a bad one.
By J. HILL, M. D.
MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY.
THE SIXTH EDITION,
CORRECTED AND ENLARGED.
LONDON:
Printed for E. and C. Dilly, in the Poultry.
M.DCC.LXXI.
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THE
OLD MAN’s GUIDE.
Healthful old age is the most valuable period of human life: Experiencehas rendered the antient more able than those who have seen less, andfelt less, to conduct themselves, and their descendants: and beingfreed from the empire of the passions, they enjoy quiet.
Philosophy pretends to this condition; but age gives it truly: Whateverour heirs may think, it is worth preserving; and in that sense I writethe present Treatise.
A hundred are cut off by disorders which a regular course of life mightprevent; for one who dies of age, or its unavoidable effects: Many fallby accidents; to one who is fairly called away by nature. The purposeof this Treatise is to direct the means, by which these accidents maybe avoided, and those disorders timely obviated.
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Old mens diseases are hard to cure; but they are easy to prevent. Itmust be a good natural fabric which has preserved itself so long; andthe same strength may keep it much longer well, under good regulation.
Moderate diet, and due exercise, are the best guardians of health inall: but in the advanced period here considered there are two greatpreservatives besides; these are Ease, and Cheerfulness: both are thenatural offspring of health; and they will continue the blessing towhich they owe their birth.
It may be expected, I should now say, at what period of Life the stateof it that we call aged, begins: but nature has herself left thisundeterminable. The weakness and infirmities of age come at differentyears, in different constitutions: I could at this hour point out avery young man of eighty-seven: and the purlieus of Covent-Gardenabound with very old men at seven-and-twenty: but to speak in generalterms, it may be said, that the period o