to be for a time exempt from certain taxes, or to have an univerfity founded in their town. They wifely chofe the latter, and have derived much profit from it. Such is the origin of the univerfity of Leyden. May it long continue the feat of freedom, and the nursery of every fentiment moft favourable to the interests of humanity! Curious REMARKS on the probable CAUSES of LONGEVITY. [From Medical Inquiries and Obfervations lately published by Dr. Rufh of Philadelphia.] N treating an account of the ftate with fome remarks on its difeafes, and their remedies, the doctor makes the following obfervations : Most of the facts which I fhall deliver upon this fubject are the refult of obfervations made during the laft five years, upon perfons of both fexes, who had paffed the 80th year of their lives. I intended to have given a detail of their names; manner of life; occupations; and other circumftances of each of them; but, upon a review of my notes, I found fo great a famenefs in the hiftory of moft of them, that I defpaired by detailing them, of anfwering the intention which I have propofed in the following effay. I fhall, therefore, only deliver the facts and principles which are the refult of enquiries and obfervations I have made upon this fubject. I. I fhall mention the circumstances which favour the attainment of longe vity: II. I fhall mention the phenomena of body and mind which attend it: knowledge of this fact may ferve, not called the chances of lives, but it may be made ufeful to a phyfician. He may learn from it to cherish hopes of his patients in chronic, and in some acute difeafes, in proportion to the capacity of life they have derived from their ancellors. 2. Temperance in eating and drinking. To this remark I found feveral exceptions. I met with one man of 84 years, who had been intemperate in eating; and four or five perfons who had been intemperate in drinking ardent fpirits. They had all been day-labourers, or had deferred drinking until they began to feel the languor of old age. I did not ineet with a fingle perfon who had not, for the lait 40 or 50 years of their lives, ufed tea, coffee, and bread and butter twice a day, as part of their diet. I am difpofed to believe that thofe articles of diet do not materially affect the duration of the human life, although they evidently impair the ftrength of their fyftem. The duration of life does not appear to depend fo much upon the ftrength of the body, or upon the quantity of its excitability, as upon the exact accommodation of ftimuli to each of them. A watch fpring will last as long as an anchor, provided the forces which are capable of destroying both are in an exact ratio to their ftrength. The ufe of tea and coffee in diet feems to be happily fuited to the change which has taken place in the human body, by fedentary occupations, by which means less nourishments and stimulus are required than formerly to fupport animal life. 3. The 3. The moderate Use of the Under ftanding. It has long been an established truth, that literary men (other circumftances being equal) are longer lived than other people. But it is not neceffary that the understanding fhould be employed upon philofophical fubjects to produce this influence upon human life. Bufinefs, politics, and religion, which are the objects of attention of men of all claffes, impart a vigour to the understanding, which, by being conveyed to every part of the body, tends to produce health and long life. 4. Equanimity of Temper. The violent and irregular actions of the paffions tend to wear away the fprings of life. Perfons who live upon annuities in Europe have been obferved to be longer lived, in equal circumftances, than other people. This is probably occafioned by their being exempted by the certainty of their fubfiftence from thofe fears of want which fo frequently distract the minds, and thereby weaken the bodies of all people. Life rents have been fuppofed to have the fame influence in prolonging life. Perhaps, the defire of life, in order to enjoy for as long as poffible that property which cannot be enjoyed a fecond time by a child or relation, may be another cause of the longevity of perfons who live upon certain incomes. It is a fact, that the defire of life is a very powerful ftimulus in prolonging it, especially when that defire is fupported by hope. This is obvious to phyficians every day. Defpair of recovery, is the beginning of death in all diseases. But obvious and reasonable as the In the course of my enquiries, I met with only one perfon beyond 80 years of age who had never been mar ried. I met with feveral women who had bore from ten to twenty children, and fuckled them all. I met with one woman, a native of Herefordshire in England, who is now in the 100th year of her age, who bore a child at 60, menftruated till So, and frequently fuckled two of her children (though born in fucceffion to each other) at the fame time. She had paffed the greateft part of her life over a washing-tub. I have not found fedentary employments to prevent long life, where they are not accompanied by intemperance in eating or drinking. This obfervation is not confined to literary men, nor to women only, in whom longevity without much exercife of body has been frequently obferved. I met with one inftance of a weaver; a fecond of a filversmith; and a third of a fhoemaker, among the number of old people, whofe hiftories have fuggefted thofe obfervations. 7. I have not found that acute, nor that all chronic difeafes fhorten life. Dr. Franklin had two fucceffive vomicas in his lungs before he was fortyyears of age. I met with one man beyond eighty who had furvived a • Dr. Franklin, who died in his 84th year, was defcended from long-lived parents. His father died at 89, and his mother at 87. His father had feventeen children by two wives. The doctor informed me that he once fat down as one of eleven adult fons and daughters at his father's table. In an excurfion he once made to that part of Eng land from which his family migrated to America, he difcovered in a great grave yard the tomb-ftones of feveral perfons of his name, who had lived to be very old. These perfons he supposed to have been his ancestors. G moft molt violent attack of the yellow fever; a fecond who had had several of his bones fractured by falls and in frays, and many who had frequently been affected by intermittents. I met with one man of 86, who had all his life been fubject to fyncope: another who had been for fifty years occafronally affected with a cough † ; and two inftances of men who had been affected for forty years with obftinate head-achs. I met with only one perfon beyond eighty who had ever been affected by a diforder in the ftomach; and in him it arofe from an occafional rupture. Mr. John Strangeways Hutton, of Philadelphia, who died last year in the 100th year of his age, informed me that he never had puked in his life. This circumftance is the more remarkable as he paffed feveral years at fea when a young man §. These facts may ferve to extend our ideas of the importance of a healthful ftate of the ftomach in the animal economy, and thereby to add to our knowledge in the prognosis of diftafes and in the chances of human life. 8. I have not found the lofs of teeth to affect the duration of human life fo much as might be expected. Edward Drinker, who lived to be one hundred and three years old, loft his teeth thirty years before he died, from draw ing the hot fmoke of tobacco into his mouth through a fhort pipe. Dr. Sayre of New Jerfey, to whom I am indebted for several very valua ble hiftories of old perfons, mentions one man aged 81, whofe teeth began to decay at 16, and another of 90, who loft his teeth thirty years before he faw him. The gums, by becoming hard, perform, in part, the office of teeth. But may not the gastric juice of the ftomach, like the tears and urine, become acrid by age, and thereby fupply, by a more diffolving power, the defect of mastication from the lofs of teeth? Analogies might easily be adduced from feveral operations of nature that go forward in the animal economy, which renders this fuppofition highly probable. 9. I have not observed baldness, or grey hairs, occurring in early or middle life to prevent old age. In one of the hiftories furnished me by Dr. Sayre, I find an account of a man of 80, whofe hair began to affume a filver colour when he was only eleven years of age. I fhall conclude this head by the following remark Notwithstanding there appears in the human body a certain capacity of long life, which feems to difpofe of it to preferve its exiftence in every fituation, yet this capacity does not always protect it from premature deftruction; for among the old people whom I examined, I fcarcely met with one who had not loft brothers or fifters in early and middle life, and who were born under circumftances equally favourable to longevity with themselves. This man's only remedy for his cough was the fine powder of dry Indian turnip and honey. ‡ Dr. Thiery fays, he did not find the itch, or flight degrees of the leprofy, to prevent longevity. The venerable old mau, whofe history first fuggefted this remark, was born in New York in the year 1684. His grandfather lived to be 101, but was unable to walk for thirty years before he died, from an exceffive quantity of fat. His mother died at 91. His conftant drink was water, beer, and cider. He had a fixed diflike to fpirits of all kinds. His appetite was good, and he ate plentifully during the last years of his life. He feldom drank any thing between his meals. He was intoxicated but twice in his life, and that was when a boy, and at fea, where he remembered perfectly to have celebrated by a feu-de joye the birth-day of queen Anne. He was formerly afflicted with the head-ach, and giddiness, but never had a fever, except from the fmall-pox, m the courfe of his life. His pulfe was flow but regular. He had been twice married. By his first wife he had eight, and by.his fecond, feventeen children. One of them lived to be eighty-three years of age. He was about five feet ning inches in height, of a fender make, and carried an erect head to the last year of his life. - LON LONDON GAZETTE S. From the London Gazette, January 7. B Turin, December 18. Y accounts received from Barcelona, dated the 11th, it appears, that intelli gence had arrived there from the camp at Rouffillon, that the Spaniards and Portu guefe had obtained a complete victory in a general action over the French, in which the latter loft between 700 and 800 men killed or drowned in paffing the river Tec, above 600 taken prifoners, forty-fix pieces · of cannon, two howitzers, one mortar, a great number of mufkets, with tents, clothing, ammunition and stores. The lots of the Spaniards and Portuguefe amounts to 200 men. Leghorn, Dec. 22. The mafter of a Neapolitan brig, just arrived from Toulon, reports, that on the 17th, the French made a general attack on the advanced pofts and forts, and particularly on Fort Balaguer, of which they gained poffeffion: that on the morning of the 18th, the English fet fire to the arfenal and French fleet: that on the fame day the Neapolitan troops embarked, and immediately failed: that the English and Spaniards remained on fhore, and at that time in poffeffion of Fort La Malgue that the English and Spanish feets, with iome French fhips, had anchored out of reach of the cannon of the place; and that transports were preparing for the embarkation of the French royalifts. Bruffels, Jan. 4. Intelligence has been received here that the blockade of Landau is raised. It appears that the French had continued their attacks every day till the 26th ult. when they advanced early in the morning, in force against the duke of Brunswick, who was at Bergzabern, with his van guard commanded by prince Hohenloe that the grenadier battalion of Kleift, and two companies of chaffeurs, advanced to meet the French; that they were at first repulfed, but that prince Hohenloe then marched forward to their fupport with fome artillery, and that the enemy was at lalt completely routed; that toward midday, however, the attack was renewed on the right of general Wurmfer's pofition, who was compelled to retreat, and has fince re-crofled the Rhine in two columns. The duke of Brunswick takes a pofition to cover Mayence. A garrifon is left in Fort Louis. From the London Gazette Extraordinary, Whitehall, Jan. 15. Captain Hill, aid-de-camp to major-general Dundas, arrived on the 13th inftant, at the office of the right hon. Henry Dundas, his majefty's principal fecretary of state for the home department, with dispatches from vice-admiral lord Hood and the majorgeneral; of which the following are copies and extracts: Victory, Toulon Road, Dec. 13, 1793. Nothing very material has happened here fince the 30th of latt month, when I had the honour of writing to you, except that the enemy has made approaches nearer to us by fome new-erected batteries; one against Malbouquet, another against Le Bun, and a third against the Hauteur de Graffe. The fhells from two of them did us fome mifchief on the 9th and roth, fince which they have been perfectly filent. The enemy is reported to be 50,000, but I cannot credit their being much be yond half that number. By various deferters that have come in, who in this refpect perfectly agree, we are foon to be attacked on all fides at once. From the numerous and important pofts we have to occupy, the troops are at very hard duty, and without relief fome way or other, we hall foon have more men in the hospital than are fit for fervice. I am, &c. Right hon. Henry Dundas, &c. Sir, HOOD. Toulon, Dec. 12, 1793. Since the affair of the 30th ult. no confiderable event has taken place. By the repeated accounts of deferters, the enemy are very much increased in numbers : none ftate them lower than 30 or 40,000 men. They have fired of late little from the battery we were in possession of. Four of its guns were certainly difabled. They have increafed the number of their motars, which have much annoyed our two polts of Cape Brun and Fort Mulgrave, on the heights of Balaguier. We have loft fome men at each, from the effect of fhells, which, in fuch temporary expofed fituations, cannot be fufficiently guarded from. Against each of thefe poits they have G 2 opened, opened a new battery of cannon and mortars, but at the other points they have worked little. We continue ftrengthening our pofition, though we cannot expect to give it any much more fubftantial form. We have in all near 11,000 men bearing muskets, and 4000 fick. Deferters all report the intention of a speedy general attack. This will be delivered by captain Hill, a very deferving young man, who has been aide-de-camp to lord Mulgrave, fieutenant-general O'Hara, and myself. The opportunity of his departure is fudden, and therefore I am to beg you will excule the fhortnefs of this letter. I am, &c. DAVID DUNDAS. Right hon. Henry Dundas, &c. Whitehall, January 15, 1794. This morning, fir Sydney Smith and major Moncrief arrived at the office of the right hon. Henry Dundas, his majesty's principal fecretary of state for the home de[artment, with dispatches from vice-admiral lord Hood, and major-general David Dundas, of which the following are copies and extracts. Victory, Hieres Bay, Dec. 20, 1793. It is my duty to acquaint you, that I have been obliged to evacuate Toulon, and to retire trom the harbour to this anchorage. It became unavoidably neceffary that the retreat fhould not be deferred beyond that night, as the enemy commanded the town and fhips by their fhot and thells; I therefore, agreeable to the governor's plan, directed the boats of the fleet to affemble by eleven o'clock, near Fort la Malgue, and am happy to fay the whole of the troops were brought off to the number of near 8,000, without the lofs of a man; and in the execution of this fervice I have infinite pleafure in acknowledging my very great obligations to captain Elphinstone for his unremitting zeal and exertion, who faw the last man off; and it is a very comfortable fatisfaction to me that feveral thoufands of the meritorious inhabitants of Toulon were sheltered in his majesty's thips. I propofe fending the vice admirals Hotham and Colby, with fome other ships, to Leghorn or Porto Ferrara, to complete their wine and provifions, which run very hort, having many mouths to feed; and to remain with the reit to block up the ports of Toulon and Marseilles. Cir- Don Langara undertook to destroy the fhips in the bafon, but, I am informed, found it was not practicable; and as the Spanish troops had the guarding the pow der-veffels, which contained the powder of the fhips I ordered into the bafon and arfenal on my coming here, as well as that from the diftant magazines, within the enemy's reach, I requested the Spanish admiral would be pleased to give orders for their being fcuttled and funk; but, instead of doing that, the officer to whom that duty was entrusted, blew them up, by which two fine gun-boats which I had ordered to attend fir Sydney Smith, were fhook to pieces. The lieutenant commanding one of them was killed, and fe veral feamen badly wounded. I am forry to add, that lieutenant Goddard, of the Victory, who commanded the feamen upon the Heights of Graffe, was wounded, but I hope and truit not dangerously. I beg to refer you for further particulars to general Dundas, respecting the evacuation of Touion, aud to fir Sydney Smith as to the burning the enemy's hips, &c. on which fervice he very much diftinguish ed |