Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/380

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328
THE SPIRIT

Book XIV.
Chap. 11.
a drunken man both for the fault he committed, and a for his drunkenness, were applicable only to a personal, and not to a national, ebriety. A German drunks through custom, and a Spaniard by choice.

In warm countries the relaxing of the fibres produces a great evacuation of the liquids, but the solid parts are less transpired. The fibres which act but weakly and have very little elasticity, are not much worn; a small quantity of nutritious juice is sufficient to repair them; for which reason they eat very little.

It is the difference of wants in different climates, that first formed a difference in the manner of living, and this difference of living gave rise to that of laws. Where people are very communicative, there must be particular laws; and others among people where there is but little communication.


CHAP. XI.
Of the Laws relative to the Distempers of the Climate.

HERODOTUS[1] informs us, that the Jewish laws concerning the leprosy, were borrow'd from the practice of the Ægyptians. In fact, the same distemper required the same remedies. The Greeks and the primitive Romans were strangers to these laws, as well as to the disease. The climate of Ægypt and Palestine rendered them necessary; and the facility with which this disease is spread, is sufficient to make us sensible of the wisdom and sagacity of those laws.

Even we ourselves have felt the effects of them. The crusades had brought the leprosy amongst us;

  1. Book 2.
but