An History of Birmingham (1783) | Page 7

congregated body of fifty thousand people; also from the smoke of
an extraordinary number of fires used in business; and perhaps, more
from the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not
uncommon to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his
constant employment in brass; if he reads, the green vestiges of his
occupation remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The inside of
his body, no doubt, receives the same tincture, but is kept clean by
being often washed with ale. Some of the fair sex, likewise are subject
to the same inconvenience, but find relief in the same remedy.

LONGEVITY.
Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops for
ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and perceive in
his face the uses of intelligence. His external appearance will inform us
whether he is old-fashioned, in which case, he is less valuable upon
every gambling calculation. His face also will generally inform us
whether all is right within. This curious machine is filled with a
complication of movements, very unfit to be regulated by the rough
hand of ignorance, which sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated
even by the hand of an artist. If the works are directed by violence,
destruction is not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it will give
an additional vigor, but in the end, clog and impede the motion. But if
the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will guide it with
an even, and a delicate hand, and perhaps the piece may move on 'till it
is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore years.
There are a set of people who expect to find that health in medicine,
which possibly might be found in regimen, in air, exercise, or serenity
of mind.
There is another class amongst us, and that rather numerous, whose
employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular. Their time is
divided between hard working, and hard drinking, and both by a fire. It

is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at forty, wear the aspect of
sixty, and finish a life of violence at fifty, which the hand of prudence
would have directed to eighty.
The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its inhabitants;
success in trade depends upon the manufacturer; the support and
direction of a family, upon the head of it. When this useful part of
mankind, therefore, are cut off in the active part of life, the community
sustains a loss, whether we take the matter in a national, a commercial,
or a private view.
We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last fall, but
wreck upon another; they run upon scylla though they have missed
charybdis; they escape the liquid destruction, but split upon the solid.
These are proficients in good eating; adepts in culling of delicacies, and
the modes of dressing them. Matters of the whole art of cookery; each
carries a kitchen in his head. Thus an excellent constitution may be
stabbed by the spit. Nature never designed us to live well, and continue
well; the stomach is too weak a vessel to be richly and deeply laden.
Perhaps more injury is done by eating than by drinking; one is a secret,
the other an open enemy: the secret is always supposed the most
dangerous. Drinking attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is
seldom visited by old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this
kind of slow poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air,
and water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and
effluvia on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.
We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the clock. If this
valuable machine comes finished from the hand of nature; if the rough
blasts of fortune only attack the outward case, without affecting the
internal works, and if reason conduces the piece, it may move on, with
a calm, steady, and uninterrupted pace to a great extent of years, 'till
time only annihilates the motion.
I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90; George
Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all between 80
and and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury, 84; Thomas
Rutter, 88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his wife, one 86,
the other 88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88; Sarah Aston, 98;
Isaac Spooner, Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all at this day, January 9,
1780, I believe enjoy health and capacity. This is not designed as a

complete list of the aged, but of such only