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  X
vV           THOUGHTS
THE  TRUE  MODE
fmPKOVL\Ci THE  CONDITION OF  JlAN.
BY CHARLES CALDWELL. M. D.

            ■Hi!
ttEAD TO THE LEXINGTON MEDICAL SOCIETY,






         AND PRINTKD AT IT* RiaUXST.
•^W^r
           LEXINGTOX, KYi




PRINTED BT H. SAYART & CO. BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS.
1833. 
 
THOUGHTS,  Sec.
     improve in some way the condition of man, and thus
enlarge the general stock of  human happiness, is the pro-
fessed object of every one who appears in a public capacity.
A declaration to  that effect is a sort of standing preface to
all enterprises, in which the  interest of the community is
concerned.   Every one  who acts on a broad scale, whether
in civil or  military life—in church or state affairs,  in com-
merce, agriculture or the arts, in the conquest of  nations,
or in defence of their rights—endeavors to persuade others,
 as well  perhaps  as himself, that  his  design is to prove  a
 benefactor of his race.   Nor is this true of those alone who
more directly serve the public.  Others of humbler standing,
 and in narrower spheres, indulge  in the same philanthropic
 pretension.  Even the  day-labourer at his task, the  fisher-
 man at his  net, and  the solitary huntsman,  as he  strays
 through the forest, flatter themselves with the persuasion, that
 their toils have not an exclusive bearing on themselves; but
 that the condition of others will be in some shape amended
 by them.  Each one, moreover, if interrogated on  the  sub-
 ject, will offer a plausible reason for his belief.
   Such, I say, and so multiplied are the schemes and the modes
 of accomplishing them, that  have, from time immemorial,
 been devised and practised, with a view to the  improvement
 of the condition of man.  But has the success  of the exper-
 iment equalled the pomp and  parade  that have attended it,
 and the number and talents of those that have been engaged
 in it?   Has the condition of the human family  been actually
 improved, in proportion to the extent of the effort made to
To 
(1)
 that effect?   If history and observation furnish the reply, it
 will be decidedly negative.   I do not say that the state of
 society throughout the civilized world is not improving.   On
 the contrary. I admit that it is.  In its  extent  and depth
 neither misery  nor  crime  is comparable now to what it was
 at the commencement of the revival of letters.   But  it can-
 not be denied that the march of improvement is exceedingly
 Blow. In several countries, not excepting those that rank
 with the most enlightened  and the wisest, it would seem, for
 some time past, to have been, in certain respects, retrogade.
 Whole classes of their inhabitants are not a little deteriora-
 ted in both mind and body;  and,  among  no inconsiderable
 portion of them, misery appears as  deep, and prospects as
 disheartening, as adversity coupled with despair can render
 them.
   Since it is true, then, that the  improvement in the  condi-
 tion of man is greatly disproportioned to the united and long
 continued efforts of so many  millions of individuals for the
 promotion of it, the failure must be owing to some powerful
 and deep-rooted cause.  For,  that he is a being highly sus-
 ceptible of improvement, cannot be doubted.  To detect that
 cause, then,  and point out  the means, by which  it may be
 successfully counteracted  or removed,  would constitute a
 memorable, not  to call it  a glorious  epoch, in the history
 and progress  of human happiness.   While  philanthropy
 would rejoice at an event so auspicious, and a liberal philos-
 ophy hail it as a boon of peculiar value, even stoicism itself
 could scarcely fail to bid it welcome.  Let me invite your at'
 tention, then, to a few thoughts on this important subject.
  As respects the cause why the efforts hitherto made for the
 amelioration of the condition of man have proved unsuccess-
 ful, it may be easily rendered.   They have been  instituted
 on fallacious grounds.  Neither has science directed nor na-
ture sanctioned  them.  On the  contrary,  both  have  con-
 curred in  pronouncing them wrong, and in dissuading from
the prosecution of them.   That the end aimed at by them?
 then, should be attained, was impossible.   It is an axiom in 
(-">)
  philosophy, that nothing in opposition to nature, or apart
  from it, shall succeed.   The authors  of the efforts  referred
  to had not a correct knowledge  of the human system, the
  complicated machine which it was their object to improve.
  Of all earthly things that are highly  important, men would
  seem  to be least acquainted with themselves and their ex-
  ternal  relations.  Under such  circumstances, to look for
  human amendment as the result of their labours, is unrea-
  sonable; not  to use a more condemnatory term, and  pro-
  nouce it absurd.  That man should be deteriorated by the
  ignorance and mismanagement of those who attempt to bet-
  ter his condition, is much more probable.
    I have employed  the phrase "human system," as indica-
  ting the subject to be acted on,  in all attempts  at human
  amendment.   And I mean by it the material fabric of man,
  possessed of life and  its numerous attributes.  To improve
  that, in a suitable manner,  is all that can be done, and all
  that  is  requisite for the end contemplated.  Let  that be
  brought to the highest perfection of which it is susceptible,
  and the work will be complete.  The  condition of man will
  be as felicitous as the laws of his nature admit.  I allude to
 his earthly condition.  But the subject must be treated more
 circumstantially.
   The human  family is  made up  of individuals.   Its pros-
 perity therefore, in the aggregate, is composed of that of all
 its separate members.  The  greater the number of its mem-
 bers, and the more prosperous the condition of each, the high-
 er will be the prosperity and comfort of the whole.  These
 postulates will not be denied.   The  questions, therefore,
 to be solved in the present case are, "In what does individual
 prosperity consist?" and "In  what way can it be promoted
 most certainly,  and  in the highest degree?"  Satisfactory
 answers to these questions will be tantamount to directions
 for the best mode of improving the condition of the human
 race.   The first of them,  being simple and limited, can  be
briefly answered.  The latter is more complicated, and must
be answered in detail. 
(6)
  Apart from wealth, station, and other incidental considera-
tions, which cannot be embraced in the  present discussion,
individual prosperity, when as perfect as it can be made, con-
sists  in a capacity for the highest degree of personal efficien-
cy and rational enjoyment.  In plainer terms, it is a fitness
in man to be as happy in himself, and as useful  to others, as
the laws of his being admit.  And that fitness is the result of
a fair  developement and sound condition of  all the various
organs of  the system;  of that which constitutes man's great-
est good; a sound mind in  a sound  body.  And  to a certain
extent these are inseparable.  Let the corporeal condition be
as here set forth, and the intellectual will correspond with it
as certainly, as, in any other case, the effect harmonizes with
the cause.
   I have here again spoken of the organized system, as consti-
tuting the real subject of improvement. This I have done in-
tentionally and with a precise meaning, which  I wish to be dis-
tinctly understood.  It is as follows.  All that we practically
are, and  therefore all  that we  can do, in our present state
is the result of our organization.   If well organized and in
health, we are in a condition to be comfortable, prosperous,
and  useful; but if our organization be defective or unsound,
the  reverse is true.   To  this not  a single exception can be
adduced, in the realities of the present, or the history  of the
past.  Opposition to this assertion maybe safely challenged,
To our organization we are as  exclusively  indebted for the
 character and amount of our intellectual and moral facul-
 ties, as  our physical; as positively so for the strength and
 activity of our reason and virtue, as  of our muscles and
joints. However paradoxical  this may appear to some,  or
 perhaps heteradoxical  to others,   a thorough  knowledge of
 man as he it  testifies to  its truth.   None doubt it but those
 who  look at human nature through the perverting medium
 of theory, or prejudice, and endeavor to fashion it to ther own
 conceptions.  The brain is as truly and obviously the organ
 of  feeling, sentiment, and thought, as the glands are of se-
 cretion, and the muscles of  motion.  A lart-e.   healthy, well 
                           (O
toned, and  well formed brain,  therefore, gives strength of
intellect and soundness of virtue to the philosopher  and
statesman, as certainly and directly, as large, healthy, and
well formed muscles and nerves  do to the arm of the black-
smith or the leg  of  the  dancer.   The wisdom of  Ulysses
was no less the  result of organization  than the swiftness of
Achilles, and the morality of Seneca equally so  with the
strength  of Milo.   To  Homer  this truth appears to  have
been  familiar.    Hence  he has given a large and  finely
formed head  to the Prince of Ithica, and great volume and
symmetry of muscles to the son of  Peleus.   AH that  is re-*
quisite to be learnt, therefore, to insure the highest  improve-
ment of the human race, is, how to bestow on individuals the
 best organization.  It must not be forgotten  that I  mean the
 organization of every portion of the system.  On  this I say
 depend strength, activity,  elegance,  grace, beauty, genius,
 and moral worth, and every other  excellence corporeal and
 mental.   To the  truth of this, all times both ancient and
 modern, and every country on earth bear testimony.  Other
 things being equal,  that community whose individuals are
 best organized, is most powerful, prosperous, and happy.   In
 proof of this,  I refer,  in  ancient times, to the Greeks and
 Romans,  and  in modern, to the inhabitants of Great Brit-
 ain, France, and the United States.  To  the superior organ-
 ization of the  two ancient nations, every fact in history  re-
 lating to the subject, and numerous productions of sculpture
 and painting  amply testify; and they were indebted to it
 alike for their splendour in peace, and their glory in war.r
 And as to the latter,  the reference to them is equally correct,
 and equally calculated  to  sustain my position.   They  are
 the  best organized people in modern times.   A fair compari-
 son  of them with the natives of- other countries proves   the
 fact.  Some portions of  the  Germans,*  Spaniards and Ital-
    * Owing to the forms  of discipline  they pursue, there is reason to be-
 lieve, that certain orders of the Germans are at present improving more rap-
 idly in their organization,  than  any other people.  Should they persevere in
 this course of improvement,  for another half-century, with the same zeal and
 steadiness they have manife»ted during  the past,  they will be equal to the in-
 habitant? of any other natron, in all the higher qualities of man. 
(«)
   ians come nearest to them, but are still  inferior.   To thii
   superiority  of organization are the  British, French,  and
   Americans indebted for pre-eminence in their intellect and
   morals, prosperity and power.  In referring to these points, it
   must not be forgotten, that the power and efficiency of every
   description of organized matter are increased by the proper
   kind and degree of excitement and exercise.
    Is any one  inclined to question the ground  I  have as-
  sumed,  and to ask me whether real human superiority doei
  not  depend more on superiority of mental constitution than
  of material organization ?  1 answer, no.   At least we have
  no good reason to think so.   Of "mental constitution,"  in
  the abstract, we know nothing.  We cannot  even affix to
  the expression an intelligible meaning.  To us, therefore, it
  has no meaning, and might as well have no existence.  Perhaps I
  better.   Its operation  on us is unfavorable to accuracy in I
  knowledge.   It palms on us sound  instead  of  sense,  and in-
  duces us to  pursue a fallacious process in our  efforts to im-
  prove ourselves.   To discuss the difference between the mind
  or spirit of one individual and that of another, is to toy*
  with words.   As well  might we attempt  to  ascertain the
 difference between the circumference  and weight  of one
 moon-beam and another.   Each inquiry would be alike fu-
 tile in its character and unsuccessful in its issue.  One per-
 son differs from  another in his intellect,  not because his
 spirit is different; but because he differs in his  organization.
 Nor do persons differ in figure or muscular power for any other
 reason.   Two men strike with the same weapon;  an  action
 which is directed by the intellect; or, if  the term  be prefer-
 red, by the will.   One strikes with great force, the other fee-
 bly.  To what is this difference attributable?  To a mere
 difference in the strength of the mind or will?   Assuredly
 not; but to a difference in the size and organization of bone,
 muscle,  and nerve.  The  truth of this no  one will contro-
 vert, because the organic  difference  is visible, while that o{
the will or spirit is not.  Again;  two men think and reason
on the same subject, one deeply and powerfully,  the other 
(9)
superficially and without power.  Why should this difference
be derived from a difference of mind or spirit, any more than
the other?  No one can  render even an intelligible  and
plausible, much less a solid reason for  thus deriving it.  No
difference of spirit is perceptible here, any more than in the
case of muscular action.   But a competent examination dis-
covers as real an organic difference between the two latter
individuals, as between the two former.   True; they do not
differ in the same parts of the body; nor is the difference so
palpable to the common eye.   But, to the practised eye, they
differ perceptibly, not to say strikingly, in a much more impor-
tant part; I mean the brain.  And, their training being alike,
to this difference alone can their difference in the power of
thought be ascribed.  Is the existing difference seated in any
other faculty  of the  intellect?   It can still  be traced  to a
difference  in organization.  Do two females  differ in grace
of attitude and motion,  beauty of feature,  animation and
loveliness of expression, or delicacy or brilliancy of complex-
ion?   This again can  be clearly shown to arise exclusively
from organic difference.   In fine, I repeat, that as organiza-
tion  makes man what he is, every difference that exists be-
tween one human being and another, arises from that alone.
It must still be borne in  mind, that tone or intensity makes
an important element in organic efficiency.  Improve organ-
ization, then, especially in certain  parts to be  hereafter de-
signated, and you improve the  race in every excellence; in
intellect and morality as well as in animal  power.  Carry
this improvement to the highest attainable pitch, and man is
as perfect  as he can be made.   But that it may be rendered
more  certainly intelligible, and the truth or  falsity of my
sentiments respecting  it  be the more  easily perceived, this
subject must be  considered in further detail.   I  shall pi: -
ceed, therefore, to state,  with as much succintness and per-
spicuity as I can, some of the means by which the organiza-'
tion of man may be so changed as to improve his condition,
   Is any one ready to allege that I am  about to engage in a
discussion  fanciful in its nature, and which can never eitl.er 
(  10)
 de«lope a truth, settle a principle, or lead to any practical
 good?   If so, he will permit me to ask him. why it should be
 deemed  more visionary  to believe in the practicability of
 improving the race of man, in all their attributes, mental as
 well as  corporeal, than in that of improving, to the same
 extent,  the breed of our domestic animals? and why an at-
 tempt  to  produce  the former result  should  be held  less
 useful in its object, than one to produce the latter?  Is there,
 in the nature of things, any impediment,  either physical or
 moral,  to render an effort to  the one effect more hopeless
 than an effort to the other?  No cultivated physiologist will
 reply affirmatively.  Nor would a reply from any other source
 be worth listening to.   The two cases are strictly analogous;
 the end the same, and the  means of attaining it precisely
 alike.   This is true, however reluctant false pride may ren-
 der the superficial and the unthinking to believe it.  We are,
 in the literal sense of  the expression, much more  assimilated
 to the worm, than  most  of us would be  willing  to admit.
 Our organization, consisting of similar materials united in a
 similar manner, is as susceptible of being changed, for either
 better or worse, as  that of the inferior animals; and it can
 be changed on the same principles.  We  have an  organiza-
 tion superior to theirs in degree,  but not in kind, a few por-
 tions of the brain  excepted;  and  even they can be  altered
 and  amended only  on the  same  ground.  Every enlight-
 ened and  practical  agriculturist knows that he can,  by
proper feeding,  exercise,  and training, ameliorate  his breed
 of horses and cows,  hogs, sheep, and dogs.  And he does so.
 He renders them not only larger and  better formed, strong-
 er and fleeter, but more  intellectual,  mild, and docile.  He
 improves them in all the attributes of their races.  But pre-
viously  to  suggesting  any  means  for  the attainment of
 the same end, as relates to man, I must offer  a brief physi-
 ological exposition.
  It has been already observed, that the  human  body is a
 very complicated apparatus.  It consists  of many different
 organs which are again made up of other organs,each perform- 
(11)
ing its specific functions.  But these organs, instead of acting,
every one for itself alone,  act also for each other, individ-
ually and collectively, and are united in a system, by function
and  sympathy.   The condition of  one organ,  therefore,
whether sound or unsound, influences and modifies that of
many others.   If it be a  principal organ it influences the
whole  machine.   There are three  great sets  of  organs,
which,  while they are  intimately and  indispensably con-
nected  with each other, control all the rest,  and assimilate
their condition, in no small degree, to  their own.  These
are the chylopoetic organs, the  blood-making and blood-cir-
culating organs, consisting of the lungs  and  the heart, and
the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, which, as already men-
tioned, are the instruments of intellect and feeling, and are
essential also to voluntary motion.   To the heart must be ad-
ded its appendages, the  bloodvessels.  These three sets of
organs have been said to control all the others; and this they
do chiefly, by mutually controlling themselves; by exercising,
I mean, such a reciprocal influence, as to be all, at the same
time, somewhat assimilated in condition.  They are as  ne-
cessary  to each other,  as they are to the  whole.  Is one of
them materially deranged in its action?  The  two others
suffer immediately, and all the rest of the system in its turn.
Is the brain diseased?   Its healthy influence, which is  in-
dispensable to the well-being of the two other sets of asso-
ciated organs, is withheld from them, a*nd they also fail in
their action; as well as in their sound and sustaining  sym-
pathies.   The  chyle  and blood are deteriorated.   This
proves a source of further injury to the brain, which, unless
it be supplied with well prepared blood,  is neither itself in
good condition, nor capable of  contributing  to the health
and efficiency of the other parts of the body.   It cannot pre-
pare, from a  scanty  and bad material, the  substance,  or
agent, of its own influence, whatever it may be, in sufficient
quantity, and of sound qualities.   The general mischief,
arising from a primary morbid affection of either of the two
other sets  of controlling  organs,  is equally demonstrable, 
I-J ■
 and depends on similar  principles.   But it is  needless  to
 dwell  longer  on this  subject.   To  every physiologist it
 i* already familiar.   It is known to him, that out of chyle of
 bad qualities, or deficient in quantity, a sufficient amount of
 good  blood  cannot  be  prepared; that if respiration be de-
 fective, the latter fluid cannot be duly vitalized; and that if
 the heart be enfeebled, it cannot throw the  blood with the
 requisite force into every part of the system.
   Of the three leading sets of organs, the functions of two
 are comparatively simple; the chylopoetic, and those that'
 prepare and circulate the blood.   But, as respects the brain,
 the reverse is true.  Its functions are as numerous and di-
 versified in kind, as they are  important in their bearing and
 character.  Besides  throwing its influence on every part of
 the system, to sustain it in a state of common fitness  for ac-
 tion, and performing the great work of voluntary motion, it
 is the immediate  seat  of every  form of sensation, and the
 instrument of every intellectual faculty.  The brain is not,
 therefore, a single organ.   In the necessity of things it can-
 not be so.  Throughout  nature no  single  organ  performs
 more than a single function.  Were the case otherwise, cre-
 ation would be a scene of confusion and chance, every thing
 future uncertain, and reason but a name.   The beauty, or-
 der, and harmony that now pervade the universe, and render
 it so suitable  and delightful  a dwelling to man, consist in
 that well adjusted, relation of things, according  to which
 every cause produces its own specific and single effect, and
 nothing more.  Destroy that  relation,  and chaos will have
 returned,  and the earth be uninhabitable, except by a new
 order of beings.
   But I must proceed  in  my preliminary analysis one step
 further.  And here  I am compelled to become the phrenolo-
 gist.  In no other capacity can I speak rationally of the hu-
 man intellect.   On that topic, every thing said apart from
 phrenology, or in opposition  to it, is to me but the language
• of conjecture or prejudice.  I leave it therefore to  the in-
 cumbents of schools  and cloisters, where much of it  origin-
 ated.                                                6 
(13)
  1 have represented the brain as the instrument of the in-
tellectual faculties.   These, besides the external senses and
the power  of voluntary  motion,  are thirty-five in number.
Nor are they  less  diversified  than numerous.  No two of
them bear  to each other any more  resemblance, than vision
does to hearing, or tasting to touch.  And they are all effects
or modes of action.   But it has been already observed, that
no two effects different from  each- other can proceed from
the same cause, nor two sorts of  action from the same piece
of machinery; a truth to which nature every where testifies.
Nor is the evidence she offers less decisive in the functions of
animals, than in the other departments of her works. The
 same nerve cannot be instrumental to. sensation and  muscular
 motion; nor can the same one minister to voluntary and in-
 voluntary  motion.   Each of  these modes of action requires
 a different nerve.   The same is  true of the  several func-
 tions of sense.   They also are the results of the action of dif-
 ferent kinds of organic matter.   The visual  nerve cannot
 perform the  function  of the auditory, the auditory of the
 olfactory, nor the  gustatory of  the tactual.  Each function
 requires a different nerve, precisely as  any  other specific
 form of action requires a specific cause.
    Of the intellectual faculties  the same is true,  else must
 they be anomalous and unintelligible.  But they are neither
  the one nor the other.  As respects the  point .1 am consid-
  ering, they are subject to the same principles that  govern all
  other earthly things, and therefore,  like them, susceptible of
  illustration.   They also are the result  of the action of or-
  ganic matter.   Being specifically different  from each other,
  the kinds of action producing them must be equally different.
  This  is common  sense, as well as philosophy, and cannot
  therefore be questioned.  It follows  necessarily,  that such
  differences of action must be  the product of instruments
   equally different.   By no law of nature  can the same instru-
   ment produce them all.   Each peculiar intellectual faculty,
   then, must have its own specific cerebral organ; and one of
   these organs can no more perform the function of another. 
(14)
  than the ear can see. or the tongue hear.  Hence the brain,
  instead of being single, consists of as  many organs as  the
  intellect possesses of faculties; and all these are as different
  from each other, as a,nerve of  sensation is from a nerve of
  motion, or a nerve of taste from one  of touch.   If  these
  positions are true, as a\i things seem to  testify they arc,  the
  inferences  deducible ftoxn them are peculiarly  important,
  and, as will presently appear, have a direct bearing on  the
 subject I am discussing.
   The organs which compose the brain, with the faculties
 dependent  on them, are divided into three classes; the ani-
 mal, the moral, and the intellectual strictly so  denominated.
 The latter  class  is subdivided  into the  knowing and the re-
fecting organs; or, as they are sometimes called,  the percep-
 tive  organs and those of relation.  For the comfort and hap-
 piness,  as well as for the efficiency of man, and  his useful-
 ness as a member of society, it is requisite that these three
 sets  of  organs be well  balanced in  power and action.  If
 one  or two of them preponderate, especially in a high degree,
 some deficiency, irregularity, or impropriety of  conduct will
 occur, to the inconvenience, injury,  or ruin of the individual.
 In proof of this many striking examples  might  be cited.
 But  the truth is already  so palpable, that it would scarcely
be extravagant to pronounce it self-evident.  In attempting
therefore to improve the condition of man, a point of pecul-
 iar moment is, to  produce and maintain, in his mentaljpowers,
the requisite balance.   Let each class of organs and its de-
pendent faculties have  a full measure-of power,  but suffer
neither  of them  greatly  to predominate over the other*.
Should the animal class  be too feeble, the individual will be
defective in practical energy; he will want general vigour
and activity of character;  and should it  be too strong, the
danger is great, that he will indulge in practices indecorous
and degrading, if not vicious.   He  will  be too  much of the
animal, in forgetfulness of the man.   If  the intellectual or-
gans be too feeble, the individual will want both knowledge
and the  power to  use it.   If any one, two, or more of them 
(15)
 be disproportionately strong, he will be likely to attach him-
 self inordinately to some favourite pursuit, to  the neglect
 of other requisite ones, or to engage in study with an ardour
 and intensity ruinous to health, and  perhaps productive of
 mental derangement.*  Excessive weakness in the moral or-
 gans is tantamount to too much strength in the animal, and
 may become a source of crime; while excessive strength and
 activity in some of them  produce a stern and inflexible res-
 olution, or an  ungovernable enthusiasm, in relation to the ob-
 jects of them,  which misleads  the judgement, subverts dis-
 cretion, and prevents usefulness.   An individual thus organ-
 ized, however virtuous and praiseworthy his intentions  may
 be,  can never be practically virtuous in a high degree; can
 never, I mean, do much good to his fellow men.   Should the
 bent of his character be in that direction, he will be a bigot,
 if not a fanatic in religion. And should it be toward philan-
 thropy, his schemes will be quixotic,  and his benefactions
 misapplied.   He will be ultra in every thing which conforms
 to his "ruling passion;" and he will be  the more irreclaima-
 ble, from fancying that he perseveres for-'conscience' sake."
   But  to establish the  balance of the intellect alone  is not
 sufficient to constitute the highest degree of  improvement,
 of which the  human condition is susceptible.  The whole
 man must be balanced;  the organs of his body in general, no
 less than  his cerebral organs.   Nor is this all.   The due bal-
 ance must be established between  the other parts of his
 system and his brain.   Neither  must inordinately prepon-
 derate.  Any striking defect of balance, whatever  may be
 its nature or seat, is  a constitutional evil,  and must necessa-
 rily do mischief.  To produce therefore the highest perfec-
 tion, of which man is susceptible, a fair equilibrium must be
 established in his system, and the whole rendered as powerful

   * It is now known that a great preponderance of one or more of the cere-
 bral organs constitutes a strong predisposition to madness.  An examination of
 the insane also testifies, that, in a large majority of casts, the mental faculties
first deranged, and which often continue to be alone deranged, are these belong-
 ing to organs inordinately developed—inordinately I mean, in proportion, to
 the other organs of the same brain. 
10 )
as ma\ be practicable.   Weak organs must be strengthened,
and too vigorous ones reduced, if not actually, at least com-
paratively until the requisite balance be attained.   In  one
point,  of great moment, the living body of man  resembles
not a little the body politic.  The stronger parts of it have
a  prevalent tendency  to  oppress and  injure the weaker.
Hence local debility, of whatever description, is an invita-
tion to disease,  or some  kind of discomfort.   In  every
scheme, therefore, for human improvement, to prevent or re-
move it should be a leading object.
   Is any one inclined to ask me how this  is to be done?—
by what means, and in what mode of employing them,  this
constitutional harmony is  to be established?   The question
is  a fair one; and, were it  proposed, I should be bound to
reply to it.  Without further preface, therefore, I shall  pro-
ceed to answer it, as if it were proposed.
   It is a law of nature that the offspring resemble their pa-
rents.   As  relates  to leading points, this  is a truism fa-
miliar to every one, and is uniformly and successfully acted
on, in the breeding of  inferior animals.  That all constitu-
tional  qualities are transmitted  from parents to their chil-
dren, admits not of  a doubt.  Apparent exceptions are only
apparent,  not real.   Are parents perfectly sound and vigor-
ous in body?  So are their children, when they first see the
light.  Is the reverse true?   Are the former constitutionally
unsound and  debilitated?   The evil  descends, in some de-
gree, to the latter.  Respecting  intellect, the same is true.
According as it is weak or strong, sound, unsound, or peculiar
in the parents, so are its character and condition in the chil-
dren.  I speak in general terms, and refer only to general
results, without meaning to entangle  myself in  the difficul-
ties  of  abnormal  cases.   And  thus far all testimony  con-
curs to sustain me.  The descendants of a community, sound,
vigorous, and hardy  in mind and body,  will be themselves a
community of the same description, unless they are changed
by adventitious causes.   To this,  neither does history con-
tain, nor can observation adduce, a single exception  Spar- 
(17)
tan children  were like their Spartan parents, and Bceotian
children like their Bceotian parents.   And, in our times, the
descendants of the hill-country and of the valley  are very
dissimilar.
   As relates to the standing and welfare of the human race,
this principle is much more extensively and powerfully ope-
rative than it is generally supposed  to be.  It is the reason
why children born at different periods of the lives of their pa-
rents, and under the influence of different  circumstances, es-
pecially different degrees of parental health and vigour, are
often  so unlike  each  other.  It is also the  most probable
source of the very frequent and strong resemblance of twins,
which receive the impress of exactly the same parental con-
dition.  Children partake  of the constitutional qualities of
their parents, for the time  being.  Years and circumstances
alter those qualities, and the offspring  produced  under the
influence of them thus modified, are correspondingly altered.
Even the present predominance  of any particular faculty of
the intellect in the parents,  would seem to transmit  that fa-
culty to the child in greater  vigour than it would be trans-
 mitted under the predominance of any other faculty.  To il-
 lustrate this subject  by examples.
    The first-born  children of  parents, who marry when very
 young, are rarely if ever equal, in either body or intellect, to
 those born at a subsequent period, provided the parents con-
 tinue healthy.  He*nce the  younger sons of noblemen so gen-
 erally surpass, in all the higher  attributes of our race, their
 elder brothers, whose only preeminence depends on the privi-
 leges attached to primogeniture.  I  know that an  attempt
 has been made to explain this on a different ground; that of
 education, expectancy,  and habit.  But I also know  that the
 attempt has failed.   The difference is too great to be thus
 accounted for.    It often  occurs, moreover, when the cause
 just referred to is wanting.   The following is believed to be
 the true explanation.
    Very young parents are, in  constitution, immature and
 comparatively  feeble:  and that  constitutional  imperfection 
                            (18)

 descends to their early offspring.   As years pass on, their be-
 ing ripens, and their  strength increases.   As a  natural ef-
 fect of this,the constitutions of their children become amelior-
 ated.   It  was  a  knowledge of this, derived from observa-
 tion, that induced the Spartans to prohibit marriage, until the
 parties had attained entire maturity;  the females the age  of
 twenty-two or twenty-five, and the males that of twenty-seven
 or thirty.   I need scarcely add, that they were personally the
 hardiest and most powerful people of Greece, and, as a  com-
 munity, the most warlike.
   For reasons well known to phrenologists, the animal or-
 gans and faculties predominate during early life.   Parent*,
 therefore, who marry, at that period, communicate in a high-
 er degree to their  first children the same  unfortunate pre-
 dominance, which renders them less intellectual and moral,
 and more sensual; less capable, as well  as  less ambitious of
 preeminence in knowledge and virtue, and  more inclined to
 animal indulgences.    If I am not mistaken, history and ob-
 servation sustain this view of the subject, and philosophy ex-
 pounds it.
  Again.   The sons  of soldiers and military leaders,  born
 during periods of war and peril, are believed to be  constitu-
 tionally  brave.   Under  such circumstances, a  coward has
 been rarely ushered into  the world.  The reason would seem
 plain.   In the parents,* the organs and faculties pertaining to

  * It is here  understood that the females must be intrepid, as wall  as the
males. The childrenof timid mothers, begotten and born in the midst of dan-
ger, where scenes of alarm are  of frequent occurrence,  are rarely, if ever,
possessed of firmness or constitutional vigour.   On the contrary, they
usually inherit an abundant share of the  nervous  and cerebral irritabil-
ity and weakness,  which their mothers experienced, during the time of  gesta-
tion. The reason is plain.  The organs of Cautiousness of the mothers,
which are large and powerful, being kept in  a state of preternatural and ex-
hausting excitement, created for the time a constitutional bias, or "ruling
passion," which was, therefore, in obedience to a law of nature, communicated
to their offspring. The medical annals of  the "reign of terror," in  Paris,
during the first French Revolution, are fruitful in facts corroborative of this.
The children of timid mothers became irresolute and feeble adults, and were
 in many instances subject to convulsive complaints. 
(19)
 war, excited to inordinate action by scenes congenial to them,
 predominate for the time, and bravery becomes the native in-
 heritance of their sons.   Hence  also the  phrase "soldier's
 daughter" means a heroic woman.   During the early and
 warlike age of our  frontier States, when  the rifle and  the
 tommahock were constantly employed in the work of havock,
 every child was born an Indian-fighter.  The cause, I say,
 is obvious.  In the whole population, which  was composed
 of warriors, the organs and faculties suited to  the occasion
 bore sway, and gave to the constitution of the  offspring of the
 community a corresponding character.   For the same reason
 children born in France, during the revolution,  were consti-
 tutionally soldiers.  The late spectacle  of heroism in Paris
 testifies strongly to this effect.   Those who defeated the  vet-
 erans of Charles X., and wrested from him the  sceptre and the
 sword,  were chiefly the sons of the preceding revolution.
 And never did  combatants  display valour more firm and re-
 splendent.
   Efforts  are again made  to explain these and all similar
 events, on the single ground of education and example.   But
 they are made in vain: or rather worse than in vain.  They in-
 culcate error.  That education  and example do much, is not
 denied.  And the principles of their operation will be stated
 hereafter. But they otmnot do everything.  Children born un-
 der the shade of the laurel become brave soldiers and heroic lea-
 ders more readily, than those who inhale, with their first breath,
 the perfume of the olive. This is in accordance with nature; and
 observation, as far as it has been directed to the  subject,  tes-
 tifies to its truth.  It is on similar ground, that  the superior
 bravery of the Spartans and Lacedemonians may be most ra-
 tionally explained,  I mean the active predominance of the
 warlike organs in their parents.
  On the same principle are we to explain the fact, that  the
children of Arabs and Tartars are born with propensities to
pillage and theft.  For centuries, their progenitors have been
a pilfering  and  a "robber-race."   The consequence  is obvi-
ous.  The  organs of the  brain inclining to those vices have 
(20)
b?en predominant.  They have formed the constitutional bi-
as and ruling passion of their possessors, and  have, no doubt,
been enlarged by perpetual  exercise.  For exercise  as cer-
tainly enlarges particular portions of the brain, as it does par-
ticular muscle?.   By alaw of natniv, therefore, their excess
in both size and action has descended to posterity.  And this
excess has been augmented by example and practice.  The
Arab and Tartar  character,  therefore, is  the product of the
combined influence of parentage and education.
  The first suggestion 1 shall offer as a means toward the im-
provement of our race,is the  prohibition  or voluntary aban-
donment of too early  marriages.  Before  the parties forma
compact fraught with  consequences  so infinitely weighty, let
the  constitution  and  education of both be matured.   They
will then ndtonly transmit to their offspring  a better organi-
zation,  but be themselves, from the knowledge and experi-
ence they  have attained,  better prepared to improve it by
cultivation.  For I shall endeavour to make it appear that
cultivation  can  improve  it.  When a skilful agriculturist
wishes to amend his breed of cattle,  he does  not employ, for
that purpose, immature animals.  On the  contrary, he care-
fully prevents their intercourse.  Experience moreover tea-
ches him not to expect fruit of the best  quality  from imma-
ture fruit-trees or vines.   The  product of such crudeness is
always defective.  In like manner, marriages between boar-
ding-school girls and striplings in, or just out of college, ought
to  be prohibited.  In such  cases,   prohibition is  a  duty, no
less to the parties themselves, than to their offspring and soci-
ety.  Marriages of the kind arc rarely productive of any thing
desirable.    Mischief and unhappiness of some sort are their
natural fruit. Patriotism, therefore, philanthropy, and every
feeling of kindness to human nature call for  their prevention.
Objections resting on ground, not altogether dissimilar  may
be justly urged against young women marrying men far ad-
vanced in years.  Old men  should  in no case contract mar-
 riages likely to prove  fruitful.  Age has  impaired their  con-
 stitutional qualities, which descending to  their offspring, the 
(21)
practice  tends to deteriorate our race.    It i3  rare for the
descendants of men far advanced in years to be distinguished
for high qualities of either body or mind.
   As respects persons seriously deformed, or in any way con-
stitutionally enfeebled—the rickety  and club-footed, for  in-
stance, and those with distorted spines, or who are predisposed
to insanity, scrophula, pulmonary consumption, gout, or epilep-
sy—all persons of this description should conscientiously ab-
stain from matrimony.  In a special manner, where both the
male and female labour under a  hereditary taint, they should
make it a part of their duty to God and their posterity, never
to be thus united.  Marriage in such individuals  cannot be
defended on moral ground, much  less  on that  of public  use-
 fulness.   It is selfish to an extent but little  short of crime.
 Its abandonment or prevention would tend, in  a high degree,
 to the improvement of mankind.
   As relates to the present, in common with all other subjects,
 facts alone are worthy of our attention.   A single one,  that
 may be here adduced, is  preferable to all the theories  that
 can be framed.  It confirms so  fully the principle I am  con-
 tending for, as to render opposition to it hopeless.
    In Turkey and Persia, men of rank and wealth marry none
 but well formed and beautiful women.   They procure many
 of their  wives from Georgia and Circassia, the Asiatic  para-
 dise of female beauty.   Such has been their practice for ages.
 The consequence  is what all enlightened individuals are pre-
 pared to expect.  As regards  their persons,  the  Turks  and
 Persians of the higher casts are  among the finest people on
 earth.   Compared to the lower orders  of their  countrymen,
  who marry without such selection, and for whose personal im-
  provement therefore no  provision is made, their superiority,
  in all points of elegance,  is as striking, as is that of the
  English hunter, contrasted with the cart-horse.  Through-
  out the world a similar custom would produce a similar effect.
  It is to  be lamented,  howevt r, that the practice in Turkey
  and Persia, of so secluding females as to prevent them from
  using the proper  amount of exercise,  operates as a barrier 
(•->•-»)
 to the improvement of mankind.   I need scarcely add, that
 it does this by debilitating the female  constitution, and en-
 tailing comparative  feebleness on  the  offspring.  Let it be
 borne in  mind that,  in speaking of  the  fine forms of  the
 Turks and  Persians, I allude to their "persons" only; by
 which I mean their limbs  and trunks.   In the developement
 and figure of their heads,  they are inferior to the Europeans,
 and the  inhabitants of the United States.  The reason is
 plain.  Being less  devoted to  intellectual  pursuits, their
 brains  experience  less excitement and  exercise, and  are
 therefore smaller, and probably also inferior in tone.
  To  illustrate this  subject  further,  and  fortify  the senti-
 ments just  advanced, the citation  of another practice of
 skilful agriculturists  may be useful.   It is that of selecting
 the largest,  best formed, and sprightliest of their domestic
animals, as breeders, when they wish to  improve their stock.
 The same is true of their  efforts to improve even their vege-
 table productions.  Whether they propagate by seeds, roots,
 or cuttings,  they select the  largest, best  looking, and best
 conditioned,  as the parent race.   This practice is founded
 on experience, and the end aimed at by it, except it be pre-
vented by sinister causes, is always attained.   Its relevancy
 to the subject I am considering is too plain to need any com-
ment.  The  practice  of  Frederick  II. of Prussia, on this
point, is well known.  He was  inordinately attached to a
gigantic stature in his grenadiers.   To form this corps there-
fore  he selected the largest men  in his kingdom.   Nor  did
his  solicitude on the subject suffer him to stop here.  That
the race might not degenerate, he also selected, as wives  for
his  grenadiers, the largest  women in  his kingdom.  The
consequence is, that Pottsdam and its neighborhood,  where
Frederick's grenadier-corps was stationed, furnish even now
a greater number of persons of gigantic  size,  than any other
place of the same amount of population  in Europe—perhaps  ,
in the world.
  In consequence of  an unfortunate  cerebral organization,
some persons who are reared in  virtuous society, under the 
(23)
influence of the best example, possess an incontrollable pro-
pensity to vice—to lying, treachery, theft, robbery, and even
murder.  Instances of this description are much more nu-
merous than they are  thought  to be.  In case of the mar-
riage of such  individuals, the probability is strong that their
offspring  will inherit their  constitutional infirmity.  The
issue indeed can scarcely be otherwise, unless it be prevented
by a better organization in the other parent, or counteracted
by  education, of whose influence in amending mankind I
shall speak  hereafter.   To refrain from marriage, therefore,
would  be,  in  those persons, a redeeming virtue.  Of indi-
viduals dwarfish in stature, the same is true.   All such acts
of self-denial  would be praiseworthy in them, in as much as
they would tend to ameliorate  the condition of man.
  Another source of human deterioration is a long series of
family intermarriages. Be the cause what it may, both history
and observation testify to the fact, that the issue of marriages
between parties related by consanguinity always degenerate.
They  become enfeebled in  time  both  mentally and cor-
poreally.  This practice,  which is fostered  chiefly by the
false prj/e of rank, has reduced almost to dwarfishness the
nobility of several  nations, especially of Portugal.   It has
likewise aided not a little in not only deteriorating, but
nearly extinguishing most of the royal families of Europe.
This case is strengthened and rendered the more  impress^e
by  the fact, that the ancestors of those families were the real
proceres or natural nobles of the land; men peculiarly distin-
guished in their day, as well  for corporeal stature, strength,
and comeliness, as for mental excellence.   Yet, I repeat, that
a long line of family intermarriages has contributed much to
reduce  below the  average of mankind  the  descendants of
those ancient  nobles,  whose high qualities alone gave them
station  and influence.  In this the human race  are analo-
gous to our domestic animals,  which are deteriorated  by
breeding constantly from the same  stock.   Even  among the
people of certain sects in religion, much mischief is done by
the continued intermarriages of the members with each other. 
                         (■-}!)

The condition of the Jews and the Quakers affords proof of
this.   Those two societies are more afflicted with some form
of mental derangement, in proportion to their numbers, than
any others in Christendom.   They are also unusually defi-
ficient in distinguished men.   This is no doubt attributable,
in no small degree, to their so seldom marrying out of their
own seels.
  The last source of degeneracy I shall specify, under this
head, is the marriage of the  indigent; of those, 1 mean, who
are destitute  of a competent supply of wholesome food for
themselves and their children.   This is a fearful cause of
deterioration.   Reason assures  us that it must  be so.   A
sound and powerful  machine  cannot be constructed out of a
scanty stock of damaged  materials.   And to the decision of
reason, observation unites its testimony.  A glance at the in-
digent of all nations furnishes incontestible proof of the fact.
Monuments  of far-gone  degeneracy  every  where present
themselves.  Witness the large manufacturing  towns of Eu-
rope.  Stinted and unwholesome fare acts on  mankind as it
does  on other forms of living matter.  It injures-organiza-
tion  and checks developement.   Both the  vegetables  of a
barren soil, and the animals scantily nourished by them are
diminutive and feeble, as well  as unsightly.   So is  man,
when pinched  and dispirited by poverty and its concomit-
ants.   Even the  United  States  furnish many examples con-
firmatory of this, while  other countries furnish   a hundred-
fold more.  Such are a few of the most prominent and fruit-
ful sources of human degeneracy.  The lemedy  for the  evil
is, abstinence from marriage in the cases referred to.
   But, in no country, perhaps, and  least of all  in our own,
are we to look for the speedy adoption, to any useful extent,
of this  preventive  measure.  People  will marry and have
issue, whether their figures and developments be good of
 bad, whether they are poor  or rich,  akin  or aliens in blood,
 and whether their constitutions be sound or otherwise.  They
 will also continue to marry, in many instances, at  too early a
 period of life, as long  as  subsistence for a  family can be 
("25)
easily procured.  Our only practicable  remedy, therefore,
consists in removing, as far as possible, the evils of improper
parentage and other causes, by subsequent treatment.  And
this can be done by education alone, judiciously adapted, in
its principles  and administration, to the  constitution of man.
  But by the term education  I  would indicate a process ex-
ceedingly different from that which is usually so denomina-
ted.   I do not limit it to the mere attainments made by the
youthful  in  seats  of instruction, whether they be  primary
schools or academies, colleges or universities.  I mean by it
 the training of the whole man, by  a suitable course  of dis-
 cipline, during the greater portion of his life.   It must begin
 in infancy and terminate only in advanced age, when the con-
 stitution has become  so rigid and the habits  so confirmed as
 to be no longer improveable.   And even  then great  care is
 necessary to preserve the amount of good that has been gain-
 ed.   A process of education short  of this is  defective in its
 nature, and must prove alike defective in its  issue.
    As all men are formed on the same plan,  and possess, in
 different degrees, the same faculties, susceptibilities, and pow-
 ers of action* the proper training of one will serve as a  mo-
 del for the  training  of the race.   The  principles being in
 every case  the same, the slight modifications requisite to suit
  individual peculiarities can be  easily made, and constitute no
  exception to the  general rule.  I  shall endeavour therefore
  tp sketch a mere outline of the process, as the limits to which
  I must confine myself forbid the accomplishment of  a finish-
  ed picture.
    Education, I say, must begin in infancy,  and be adminis-
  tered by means  of suitable impressions made on certain rul-
  ing  organs of the  system:  The  corporeal  effects resulting
  from these, and the  corresponding habits established by  their
  continuance,  constitute the only improvement to be attained,
  and therefore the only one to be aimed at.  They  form in-
   deed the only one we should desire;  because it is sufficient
   for all our purposes. It is  moreover the only one  we can
   conceive of, and must therefore satisfy us as reasonable be-
                                4 
(26)
 ings.  To talk of operating immediately on or  exclusively
 with the  mind or spirit, and improving  it, is an  abuse of
 words.   When speaking thus, no  one understands himself,
 and, of course, is understood by nobody else.  We  might as
 well talk of operating, by our schemes of education, on the
 inhabitants  of  the  planet   Jupiter.   As  already  mention-
 ed, the organs to be chiefly acted on are, the chylopoetic vis-
 cera-—-the lungs and heart as the arbiters of the blood—and
 the  nerves and  brain.   To  these  may be added, the mus-
 cles and skin,  which,  although subordinate in standing, are
 nevertheless instruments of  great influence in a system of
 general discipline.  In the proper management of these por-
 tions of the body does education chiefly consist.
  The skin is to be kept free from impurity, and in a state of
 healthy excitement and action, by bathing, a well regulated
 temperature, and suitable clothing.   Let no one deem light-
 ly of this measure, or think the practice it is intended to es-
 tablish unworthy to constitute an element of education.  Be-
 sides being a source of health and vigour,  it  contributes to
 mental purity as certainly as  to corporeal.  To be voluntari-
 ly covered with external filth is not  only unseemly, and  inju-
 rious to health;  it testifies that all  is  not right within, and
 tends to make it worse.   Cleanliness is of great importance
 at every period of life, but more  especially during  infancy.
 Without it neither can health be promoted, nor organization
 improved, or even maintained in  a sound  condition.    The
sympathetic connexion of the skin with all  the other parts of
 the body, and the powerful influence it exercises  over them,
 are familiar to physiologists,  and might be illustrated by nu-
merous and striking examples.  That organ, being the great
out-post of the  system, receives first, from the external world,
several classes of strong impressions, both salutary  and dele*
terious.   It is indispensable, therefore,  that it  be in a condi-
tion to receive them with due sensibility, to maintain its har-
 mony with them  as well as with the body it covers, to resist
 them if they tend to mischief, and to act, in all respects, a*
 a suitable medium between them and the parts within. 
(27)
  But, as relates to the subject under consideration, the chy-
lopoetic viscera are of still higher moment, because their con-
trol  over the other parts  of the system is more powerful.
They are  impressed chiefly  by food  and drink.   Nothing
else  can directly reach them; and, to the welfare and per-
fection of the individual,  it  is of infinite importance that
they be impressed suitably.  No violence of any kind must
be done to them.  To irritate them by improper articles of
diet or drink, or exhaust them  by excessive action of any
sort, is highly pernicious.   Unless a strict regard be paid to
this, organization and vigour will be inevitably deficient, and
the general  condition of health always feeble and precari-
ous, and  often deranged.   It would be scarcely extravagant
to call the chylopoetic  viscera  the arbiters of man's  being.
If they be in any way diseased, they injure the system on a
twofold ground.  They supply it with chyle unwholesome in
quality, as well perhaps as  deficient in quantity, and derange
it by means  of morbid sympathy.  These causes will soon
transfer disease to other organs, and fix it there.    The brain
is apt to be a primary and  principal sufferer from this condi-
tion  of things, and to be be thus converted into a powerful
source of constitutional injury.  To a  certain extent, there-
fore,  the individual  must  wither, like a plant,  whose sap-
juice is  poisoned,  and its  roots  enfeebled in their nutritive
functions.
  It is through the medium  of the organs I am  considering
that children are most frequently and seriously injured, and
the foundation of constitutional feebleness in them laid. This
is effected in several ways; by  giving them aliment delete-
rious in its qualities, and  excessive quantities of that which
is wholesome.   In either case the stomach is unsuitably im-
pressed, and morbid action necessarily ensues.  Add to this,
the feeding of them at improper hours, and administering to
them irritating or  anodyne  potions, under the character of
medicines, to remove or palliate complaints induced by pre-
vious improprieties in food.  Do infants exhibit  any degree
of uneasiness?  It  is attributed  to hunger; and the supposed 
( cs \
remedy is instantly  administered.  Their mouths are closed
up, their fretting silenced, and their stomachs  gorged to sa-
tiety with food.  By these causes the chylopoetic \ iscera arc
often  so  deeply crippled in their powers, and deranged in
their  functions, as to be unfitted to contribute their part to-
ward  the perfect organization and vigour of the body.   Per-
haps there exists not an individual in our country who has not,
on  some occasion,  suffered from them.   Excess  and im-
propriety in eating, and  feeding children, are among the
most pernicious evils of the land.  No one, I repeat, is en-
tirely exempt from their mischievous influence.  The indis-
cretions  practised in supplying  them with  food is  the chief
reason why  infants are  less healthy than the young of the in-
ferior  animals.   We  call ourselves rational beings, and yet
take our food, an  act on which so much of our comfort and
efficiency depends,  like beings of  mere appetite.  In com-
mon with many of the  animals below us, we swallow  food as
long as we  can, pass a few hours in dreamy dullness, and
then  shake  off our torpor to surfeit ourselves again.   Such
is the constant practice of  millions of the human  race; and
it is the occasional practice of almost every one.
   The reformers  of these  unrighteous  times have waged a
crusade  against the Saracen, intemperance in drinking;, and
they  have done it from correct motives, and, to a certain ex-
tent, wisely.  If  they  have committed a few errors  and ex-
travagances, it is what all men do,  when they engage in new
 and  difficult enterprises.   But  those knights of the water-
 cup have as yet broken no lance with the  modern Briareus,
 Intemperance in eating.   On  the  contrary,  many of them
 might pass  for his covenanted votaries, doing homage to him
 with a  degree of zeal that would be honorable to pilgrims,-
 whether of the Cross or  the Crescent.  Yet he does tenfold
 as much mischief to frail humanity, as his  kinsman and ally,
 Intemperance in drinking. To drop the metaphor.   Before
 man can attain to the highest and  happiest condition of
  which he is susceptible, this fountain of evil, excess and im-
  propriety in eating, must be dried up.  Of all single causes, 
( 29 )
it is perhaps the most powerful in retarding our improvement.
Yet we make no serious efforts to remove it.  We confine
our young domestic animals to simple fare, and supply them
with  it in  measured quantities; and they remain healthy,
thrive on it, and attain perfection.  But we allow, and even
entice  our children to eat every thing; and the only limit
imposed, as to quantity, is the extent of their craving.  Nor
 do we even fail to augment that,by giving them provocatives;
 stomachics,  to  re-excite  their sated appetites.   Such at
 least is the procedure of millions, in every quarter of Chris-
 tendom where food is abundant.  The practice can scarcely
 be called less than criminal; and the record of its effects, in
 the  history of our race, is appalling to humanity.  Feeble
 health, severe  and often loathsome disease, vacant  idiocy,
  raving madness, death, and degeneracy make but a part of
  the  account.  All acknowledge that humari beings die in
  myriads,  from improper feeding; but it does not seem to be
  understood, that the race degenerate from  the same cause.
  Yet the latter result is as certain as the former.   That which
  kills many, and sickens a still larger number, must take from
  the perfection of  all who indulge in it.
    An excessive devotion to the pleasures of the table, con-
  tinued through a line of several  generations,  never fails to
  produce  degeneracy.   It gives to animality  a preponderance
  in the constitution.   Hence  the descendants  of royal and
  imperial houses, accustomed  from the cradle to luxurious liv-
   ing,  lose in time all the higher attributes of humanity, and
   become  pampered animals.  The reason is plain.  They are
   exercised chieflv in animal  practices,  eating and drinking
    being one of them.  Hence their animal organs gain an as-
    cendency over those of a nobler order.
      Even  female  beauty, one of the  boons of  Heaven most
    highly  valued, is recklessly sacrificed  on  the altar  of ap-
    petite.    However harshly and  ungallantly  this  assertion
    may sound, it is  notwithstanding true.   Neither red eyes  a
    fiery complexion, nor  a pimpled  nose  are elements in the
    composition of a queen of romance.  Yet they are the pro- 
(30)
 ducts of intemperance  in  eating,  no less certainly than of
 intemperance in drinking.
    The enlightened agriculturist,  I repeat,  never forgets
 the propriety, nor neglects the practice of feeding the young
 of his domestic animals, according to rules derived from ex-
 perience; experience, I  mean, of their suitability and use-
 fulness.  This he does, because  he knows it will contribute
 to the health and perfection of the objects  of his care, and
 gratify  his love  of  gain, by improving his  stock,  and aug-
 menting their value.  Were he to watch with equal solici-
 tude over the diet of his children,  his attention would be
 equally  beneficial to them.  Their organization would be
 better, their powers generally of a higher  order, and their
 condition happier.  But,  instead of doing this, he often con-
 signs them to the feeding of nurses, to whose  skill  and care
 he would not entrust a pig or a calf.  The issue is, that man
 remains  stationary, if  he  does not  degenerate;  while the
 breed of our domestic  animals is  improved.   Let the pro-
 ceeding  be reversed, and so will the result.  Man  will im-
 prove, and cattle  degenerate.  Let all receive the requisite
 attention, and amendment will be general.   Let  the chylo-
 poetic organs, then,  be skilfully attended to, as an essential
 ingredient in a  sound education.  The measure, by giving
 health to them,  will contribute to the perfection of the en-
 tire system.
   The lungs are  another  viscus, whose influence is  great in
 the organization,  developement, and strength of the body.  In
 the rearing and training of the  individual, therefore, to give
 healthy organization and  vigor to them, should be a leading
 object.   They bestow character on  the blood, by preparing
 it, and communicating life to it, while it again, in its round
 of circulation, gives  character to the whole  system, by im-
 parting  to it nourishment,  life and  energy.  According to
their perfection and vigour will be the extent and excellence
of their work, in forming the blood, and conferring on it vi-
tality.  But, unless supplied with  blood suitably vitalized,
and possessing all other requisite qualities, no organ of the 
                         (31 )
body can either attain its most perfect condition, or perform
its duty with soundness and competency.  This is as true of
the brain, as of a  common gland  or muscle.  Deprive  it of
arterial blood, its functions cease, and intellect is supended.
Asphyxia from unrespirable gases and from  hagmorrhagy tes-
tifies to this.  Supply it  again with that fluid, and  intellect
returns.  And, other things being alike, the more perfect the
blood, the brighter is perception, and the more vigorous every
mental operation.  These assertions are susceptible of proof.
Shall I be told, in opposition  to this  sentiment, that men of
the most brilliant and  powerful minds, have often very feeble
and shattered health, and that therefore their brains are not
supplied with well prepared blood?  I reply that the objection
has no weight.   The  intellects of the individuals referred to
are always  in the best condition* and work most powerfully
when  corporeal  health  and  vigour are least impaired.  In.
other  words, the more perfect the  blood that goes to the
brain, and the better that organ is sustained by the sound sym-
pathies of other  parts, the more healthfully and vigorously
does it perform its functions.    Though on account of their
cerebral  organization, such men  are great without very  good
 blood, they would be  greater with it.
   That which is intended and peculiarly suited to impress
 the lungs, and maintain them in  a healthy and  efficient con-
 dition, is atmospherical  air.  But that it may do this fully,
 two things  are necessary.  It must be free from pollution,
 and in a state of motion.  At least it must be in a condition
 to move.  Stagnation injures air as certainly as water.  In
 what  way it does this is not  now the question.  The fact is
 sufficient for my present purpose,  and that is indubitable.
 The atmosphere may be adulterated by various substances.
 The most common and  deleterious are secreted exhalations
 from living, and chemical ones from  dead organic matter.
 The first prove highly injurious to  children that are compell-
 ed to breathe the atmosphere of close and crowded apart-
 ments   And such is  too often the condition of school-rooms,
 ^Lfactort,  foundling  and" other charitable institute, 
                         1  32  )
and even of domestic nurseries   Children long confined in
such places are destitute of well arterialized blood.   Their
circulation is also defective, because blood not thus arterial-
ized is unfit to awaken the heart  to vigorous  action.   They
are therefore pale,  languid, and spiritless.   That their or-
ganization is faulty, appears from the unnatural softness of
their flesh.  And this laxness pervades every portion of their
systems.   That their brain is not in a healthy tone, but pro-
bably partakes of the general flaccid!ty, is manifested by the
dulness and feebleness of their  intellects.   Their appetites
are also defective  or unnatural,  in  common with the func-
tions of  the digestive organs generally, an evidence that
they are deranged  by sympathy.  For  the  systems  of such
children  to  attain perfection,  or for  even a single organ to
become perfect in them,  is.impossible.  Their entire char-
acter, mental and corporeal, must be enfeebled and deterior-
ated.  To other evils is here also added a want of exercise,
which is  itself a source  of infinite mischief.  For children
thus shut up are  necessarily debarred from sufficient action.
When they are compelled  to pass the  night also in apart-
ments crowded  by  their  number, two or perhaps three of
them occupying the same bed, with the doors and windows
closed, the evil is greatly increased.  The  human system  is
more easily injured by deleterious agents in the atmosphere    I
during the inaction of sleep,  than in the hours of wakeful-    1
ness.  Nor is this all.  Persons when asleep, adulterate, in
 a given  time,  a  larger volume of air,  than they do when
 they are awake.  During  the  former condition, therefore,
 they are more liable to injury on  a twofold ground;  they are
 more susceptible of it; and the matter producing it is more
 abundant in the atmosphere around them.
    The remedy for these  evils is  plain.   It  consists in large
 and well ventilated apartments,  perfectly clean  and not
 crowded, short periods  of confinement in  them, and much
 exercise and free respiration  in the open air.  Children en-
 joying these privileges have  blood well arterialized, abun-
 dant in life, and in high  circulation.   And  every manifesta- 
                         ( 33)

toon in their aspects and deportment demonstrates the fact.
Their complexions  are ruddy, their flesh  firm, their spirits
buoyant, their eyes sparkling,  their appetites keen, their
movements elastic,  and their  intellects sprightly and vigor-
ous.   Such beings may attain, under suitable training, a fine
organization,  with a high  intellectual  and moral standing.
Theirs may be mens Sana in corpore sano, the summum bonum
of human existence.   And much of the precious boon is de-
rived from the health and vigour of the lungs and heart.
  The pollution of the air produced by exhalation from dead
matter, can be avoided only by  a choice of situation.   It is
in vain to look for perfection in  man, in marshy and alluvial
districts not thoroughly cultivated, or in any districts abound-
ing in vegetable and animal matter in a state of dissolution.
This truth rests alike on reason and observation.  Proofs of
it may be derived abundantly from many portions of Italy,
France, Spain, Portugal,  and England.   The  same is true
of certain districts  of the United  States.   The inhabitants
of those places show clearly, in  their whole aspect and char-
acter, that man cannot, at present, attain there the perfec-
tion of his nature.  Nor will he ever be able to do it, until
the sources of deleterious  exhalation shall have been dried
up.  All this enjoins the maintenance of strict cleanliness in
places where  human beings  reside.  It even raises cleanli-
ness above mere neatness and  convenience, and enrols it
among the virtues.   Whatever ministers to the improvement
of man is worthy of such a station.
  Under this  head I might, without  an inadmissible depar-
ture from my  subject,  speak of the  muscles, the close alli-
ance of their  condition with the perfection of man, and the
importance of training them, as a part of education.  By
their action they minister  materially to general health.   In
a particular manner, they contribute much  to the vigorous
and thorough  circulation of the  blood, which is no less essen-
tial to human  perfection than its arterialization.  But, when
in free exercise, they assist also  to arterialize it, by quicken-
ing its motion, and making it pass  more frequently  through 
( 34 )
the lungs in  a given time.   This increases also the frequen-
c\ of respiration, which always bears a certain ratio to the
pulsations of the heart, strengthens the lungs, and thus in a
twofold way promotes sanguification.  Hence the fine florid
appearance which the blood derives from competent exercise,
and the darker hue it receives from inaction.  Add to these
considerations, that  much of the practical efficiency and use-
fulness of man arises from  that personal force and dexterity,
which are attained only by the training of the muscles.   No
one, then, whose muscular system is neglected, receives the
education calculated to bestow on him his highest perfection.
Nor does any one doubt that the  entire advantage derived
from bodily  exercise consists exclusively in the improvement
it produces in organization. These  remarks apply to females,
as well as to males.   The  degree of confinement imposed on
the former, in the course of their education, enfeebles their
constitutions, and renders them, in afterlife, the mothers of a
less robust and  vigorous race, than they would be, under an
improved scheme of training.  That their intellects also suf-
fer from the same cause, cannot be doubted.  Whatever im-
pairs the bodily constitution cannot fail to injure the mind.
   But the most important organ of the human system remains
to be considered.   It is the brain, of which it may be said
that it makes man what he is, whether for good or evil.  If
well developed and correspondingly trained, it confers on him
knowledge and virtue; and, under circumstances the reverse
of these, it  entails on him ignorance, and gives him aprone-
ness to  vice.  According  therefore to its  native character
and cultivation, it is the source  of human  exaltation or de-
basement.
   I have already spoken of the control of the brain over the
condition and destiny of the other parts of the system.   And
 I need scarcely repeat,  that it is universal  and absolute.
 Facts familiar to all physiologists prove it so.   To the per-
 formance of every  function and movement of the body cere-
 bral influence is essential.   In evidence of this, destroy the
 connexion between the brain and any  other organ or  part 
(35 )
of the system, by dividing the nerves, and  the  action of
the separated portion ceases.  Are the lungs thus separated?
Respiration is suspended.  The stomach?  Digestion is paral-
yzed,  and the food remains in the viscus unchanged.   The
liver, or any other gland?  Its fluid is no longer secreted.
The heart, or any  other muscle,  voluntary or involuntary?
Its action is arrested.  And the more powerful and cultiva-
ted the brain is, in  all its compartments, the more abundant-
ly will it send out its  influence, and the more steadily and
effectually aid in maintaining  the healthy  condition of the
entire system.  It is with the brain, then, as  with the lungs,
stomach, and heart.  Exercise gives  it strength and habits of
 ready and dexterous action, not merely for the purposes of its
 own economy, but  to subserve the economy  of the parts with
 which it is  connected.  I know that the ganglionic system
 may be said to lie between the brain and some of the organs
 here specified, and to be the  immediate source of their in-
 nervation.   But I also know that that system itself depends
 on the brain for  its influence and efficiency.   In proof of this,
 let it be detached, by a division  of the nervous cords which
 form its  cerebro-spinal  connexions,  and  its power  is de-
 stroyed.  By inaction the organic condition of the brain suf-
 fers, and its energy and adroitness are lessened, as certainly,
 as a muscle is weakened  by the same cause.   It is a law of
 nature, from which  no portion of living matter is absolved,
 that a want of action enfeebles it.   The converse is equally
 true.   Appropriate action strengthens every portion of liv-
 ing matter.  That the brain, then, may be healthy and vigor-
 ous throughout, and be instrumental in imparting a similar con-
 dition to the other parts of the system,  it should be suitably
 exercised in each  of its organs.   Inaction in any one of them,
  except its native  vigour be excessive, is  prejudicial  to the
  others. And a brain thoroughly disciplined and active in
  every portion of  it, is  more favourable, in  its functions, to
  general health, than one  that  is disciplined only in part.
  The healthiest men,  and those  that  attain most frequently
  *n advanced age, have well balanced systems and  active 
( 36
 brains.  Such, moreover, is the  connexion between the ce-
 rebral organs, that their health and fitness for action are, to
 a certain citent, in common to them; and the reverse;  the
 condition of one or more  of them being  communicated to
 the others by the laws of sympathy.  That the  brain, then,
 may be rendered powerful in all its organs, every  one of them
 should be duly exercised.
   It has been already stated that  the human brain consists of
 three compartments, the animal, the moral, and the intellect-
 ual; and that to raise  the mental character to  the highest
 perfection, each of these must be large, well organized and
 healthy, and that a correct balance  must subsist between
 them.   To a solid and infallible foundation for strength and
 activity of intellect, sound  morality,  and energy of charac-
 ter, nothing else is necessary.  Skilful training, by turning
 to the proper account these high gifts of nature, and in that
 way engrafting improvement on capacity, will finish the
 work.   Were the whole human race thus happily tempered,
 the condition of man would  be as perfect as it could be ren-
 dered, and the state of society correspondingly  prosperous.
 Talent and knowledge would prevail  and be respected, mo-
 rality and active virtue  would predominate over profligacy
and vice, and that every  one should be happy in himself and
 useful to others, would be the  ambition and earnest endeav-
our of all.   This would be a millennium, brought into exis-
tence by means of education, and in conformity  to the con-
stitution  of  human  nature.  And let that state of improved
being occur when  it may, the perfect organization of  man,
more especially of his  brain, will constitute its  basis.   Let
me not be misunderstood in this assertion; in a special  man-
ner, let it not be imagined that I intend by it any irreverence
toward the christian religion.  Far from it.  My  meaning is,
that whatever agency,  divine or human, may bring about, in
man, the change productive of a millennial condition, that
change will consist in an improved organization—an organi-
zation made perfect—by influence from above, if  it be so or-
dained, and if that be the only source from which such in- 
(  37)
fluence can proceed—or by  means of education,  perfect in
its principles, and suitably administered.  To me the  latter
appears most probable;  because it is most in accordance with
the grounds of other changes and improvements in the great
dispensation, under which we live.   It is the amendment of
man's earthly condition by his own  exertions;  and there is
no reason to believe  that it is amended at present, or intend-
ed to be hereafter, in any other way.   Nor ought it to be.
If, possessing, as he does, the  capacity and the means, man
will not labour for the improvement of his  nature, he is un-
worthy of it; nor, as 1  confidently believe, will he ever re-
ceive it as a gratuity.   But, come the amending power from
what quarter it may, men, to be fit members of the millenni-
um, must have the fine organization  of John,  the beloved
disciple, rather than that of Judas, which rendered him no
less unsightly than  treacherous.   If all men signalized by
virtue are fully developed in their moral organs now, there
is good reason to  believe that the same  law will be in force,
during that more felicitous  period, when peace and concord
shall  every where prevail, and righteousness and piety cover
the earth.  In the mean time, it will not be denied,  that it
is our duty, both  as moralists and christians, to make,  by hu-
man means, as near an approach as practicable to millennial
perfection.   And an approach of great value to our race can
be made, by  a well concerted and well administered scheme
of education.  Progress in  virtue and morality  is as much
the result of practical and proper  training, as dexterous
horsemanship, or skill in arms.  By suitable measures, the
former is as easily and certainly attainable as the latter.
   Is any one inclined to propose the  question,  "Can the
organs  of the  brain be increased in  size, as  well as ren-
dered more  adroit and vigorous  in  action, by any process
of training?"   I answer, yes, with as much certainty  as the
muscles of the extremities  can be increased in size, provid-
ed the process be commenced in childhood.   On this princi-
ple depends the perfectibility of man; I mean his susceptibil-
ity of the highest improvement  compatible  with the laws 
(  38 )
imposed on hi> nature.  Abrogate the principle, and his chic
is hopeless.
  Take two children of the same sex and age, formed and or-
ganized as nearly alike as po>sible.   Educate one skilfully,
and the other unskilfully;  or do not educate the latter at all,
and, by the time of  their maturity, they will differ in figure,
size, organization,  and faculties.   And each point of differ-
ence will prove the  power and the advantage of education.
Have the lower extremities of the one been exercised by
walking, running, and leaping, much more than those of  the
other?  They  will  be larger and more powerful, and  much
less easily exhausted by fatigue.  Have  the hands and arms
been the subjects of training? They will surpass the untrain-
ed ones in bulk and strength.   Has the brain of one of  the
individuals been exercised more than that of the other?  The
same  will be true of it.  Its size, figure, and force  will be
augmented.  Has the animal compartment of one party been
highly excited  and fed by  vicious indulgences, and the moral
compartment of the other  been equally trained in sentiments
leading to practical virtue?  Here will  be  ground for an-
other difference.  In the latter, the moral organs will be en-
larged,  and the animal diminished, at  least  comparatively;
while, in the former, the reverse will occur; the animal com-
partment will  be  augmented at  the expense of the moral.
Cultivate the knowing and reflecting  compartment, to the
neglect of the other two, and in it will be the increase in  size
and vigour. Thus, as relates to augmentation and diminution,
power and weakness, the brain is governed by the same laws
with other portions  of organic matter.  1 do not say that it
can be increased in bulk, by exercise, as much as muscles; but
it can as certainly.
   Another principle of great  importance invites our atten-
tion.  Other things being equal, in proportion to the size of ei-
ther compartment of the brain, is its proneness to action, and
the gratification which that action bestows on the individual.
Does the animal compartment preponderate?   The taste for
animal  indulgences is keen, the pleasure derived from thei* 
(  39)
Intense, and the danger of lawless devotion to  them great.
Does the moral compartment  surpass  in  size?  A  wish to
comply with moral obligation constitutes the ruling  passion
of the party thus organized, and his chief delight is to do his
duly.  To  him each act  of well doing is  its own  reward.
He "follows virtue even  for virtue's sake."  This  he does
from moral  instinct, without the influence of human laws,
or any positive divine command. The  law he  obeys is that
of his own constitution.  He has a law in himself.  The per-
son whose intellectual department predominates, is devoted to
inquiry, if not to study.  He delights  in knowledge, deems
it a valuable possession, and devises and practises  some mode
of attaining it.  The kind of knowledge most agreeable to
 him is determined by the  intellectual organs most developed.
   As relates to education and  the improvement it produces,
 these views are important and encouraging.  They point out
 a plain and easy process by which the condition of man may
 be improved.  If the  moral  and intellectual compartments
 of a child be small, they may be enlarged by  training; and,
 in proportion as they grow, will its taste for knowledge and
 virtue increase.  By maturity in years this taste will be con-
 firmed, and, in organization and its effects, the amended con-
 dition  of the adult will surpass not  a little  the promise of
 the child.  By the law of inheritance heretofore referred to,
 the children  of this  individual, resembling   himself in his
 mature condition, will be better organized than  he was in
 his childhood.  Train  them and their descendants as he was
 trained, and organic improvement will go on in them, until
  in time,  the highest  perfection of their nature shall be at-
  tained.   Extend this  treatment to  the  whole human race,
  and universal improvement in organization will be the issue.
  Then will be completed, on grounds that nothing can shake,
  the triumph of the intellectual and moral over the animal
  character of man.
    Am I asked in what way  the  moral compartment ot  the
  brain is to be cultivated, strengthened, and enlarged?  I an-
  swer  by all  sorts of moral  excitement; inculcating moral 
(  40 )
  precepts, presenting moral  examples, eliciting moral senti-
  ments, but  more especially by associating with companions
  strictly moral, and  engaging  eairly in the moral practice of
  doing good.   Reading the  biographies of men remarkable
  for high and practical  morality,  and well written works of
  moral fiction, contributes materially to the same end.  This
  course,  skilfully and   inflexibly  pursued,  will  infallibly
  strengthen and enlarge the  moral organs, and confirm those
  persons subjected to its influence in habits of virtue,
   The advantages of the mode of training the brain, to which'
  1 have referred, do not consist alone in its improving the taste
  and capacity of the individual for morality and knowledge.
  That  viscus, as already stated, is improved also in its  fitness
 for  superintending  generally  the  functions of the system.
 Its powers in the aggregate are increased by the judicious
 and salutary exercise it sustains.  No portion  of it is suffer-
 ed to be idle; nor is any one exhausted by excessive labour.
 Each does its work, to a fair and reasonable extent, and thus,
 by directly strengthening and  benefitting itself, does the
 same, by sympathy, to the  entire organ. But, other things be-
 ing equal, the more healthy and vigorous the brain is the high-
 er is the  health, and the greater the efficiency of the whole
 system.   In a special manner, great advantage, on the score
 of general  health,  is  derived from  the  cultivation and
 strengthening of  the moral  portion of the brain.  The ex-
 citement  produced on the  system by that compartment is
 comparatively mild, and its influence in a corresponding de-
 gree benignant and salutary.   When sufficiently powerful
 it controls the animal compartment,  and moderates that ve-
 hemence  of propensity and storminess  of passion, which,
 like all other excesses, are injurious to health.   It is like the
cool Etesian winds mitigating the fervours of a southern sky,
and restoring health  and  strength  to the exhausted inhabi-
 tants.  Hence, as a very general  rule, those who enjoy the
greatest exemption from disease, and attain the most advanc-
ed age, are men whose moral deportment is correct.  Fre-
quent and boisterous  paroxisms of  animal feeling are almost 
                         (41 )
as bad as fits of inebriety.  They tend, by their intensity, U
debilitate the system, invite sickness,  and deteriorate^ the
race.   By the mode of training here indicated, then, man is
improved in his whole nature.
  But may not the brain, by suitable discipline, be amended
in another very important  point?  May  not such  a happy
change be produced in  it, as  to  efface  its tendency, when it
exists, to hereditary madness?  From  this question no phy-
siologist will  be likely  to withhold an affirmative answer.
And, although he may be unwilling to speak confidently, be-
cause the experiment has never yet been fairly made, he will
not deny that all analogy favours the belief.   Individually, I
verily believe it will  be made, and prove successful.  A pre-
disposition to madness consists in faulty organization; at least
in a condition of  the brain  destitute of soundness.   But the
fault has not existed  through all generations.  It had a be-
 ginning; and that beginning  was the product of a series of
 deleterious impressions.  Another series of counter-impres-
 sions, therefore, may remove the mischief.  Changes thus pro-
 duced, may thus be done away.   Of this no reasonable doubt
 can be entertained.   Daily occurrences convince  us of its
 truth.   Every  thing indeed that bears on it testifies to that
 effect.  No one has  ever yet  been predisposed to madness
 in every organ of his brain.   The mischief is always local:
 often, perhaps  generally, confined at first to a single organ.
 Let its seat be ascertained (and the ascertainment is practi-
  cable) and proper training will  in time remove it.   But the
  process must be commenced in  childhood.  Should it fail to
  eradicate entirely the predisposition from the son or daugh-
  ter of the insane, it will at  least weaken it.  In  his grand-
  children it will further weaken it, and in a future generation
  completely efface it.   But to attain  the end, the means must
  be skilfully and  steadily applied.  Am  I asked for a recital
  of them?  I reply, that they  must differ in different cases;
  and time does not permit me to refer  to any of them.   The
  enlightened phrenologist will have  no difficulty in discover-
  ing and employing them.  And none but a phrenologist can 
                          ( •«)
 have  a just conception  of the philosophy,  prevention, <u
 treatment of madness.   Nor ought any othfr to pretend to
 them.   As well may a tyro, who never witnessed a dissec-
 tion, or listened to a lecture  on anatomy, attempt the most
 difficult operation in surgery.
   Kut if the brain can be thus changed and amended by ed-
 ucation,  may not similar benefits be  extended, on similar
 principles, to other organs?—to the lungs and the chylopoet-
 ic viscera?   Unquestionably they may; and thus may pre-
 disposition to pulmonary consumption, gout, dyspepsia, scrof-
 ula, and all other maladies  transmitted by ancestors, be re-
 moved from posterity.  The enfeebled  organ may be strength-
 ened and placed on a par with the others, and thus the bal-
 ance of the system be restored.  But  here again the  preven-
 tive treatment must begin in  childhood, and be steadily per-
 severed in, if not to the close of life,  at least to an advanced
 period  in its decline.   In a few generations  such procedure
 carrtnot fail to eradicate the evil.   It is believed that, if skil-
 fully and perseveringly applied, the remedy is competent to
 the end contemplated.  Thus may hereditary disease be ef-
 faced.  The vices,  follies, and misfortunes of ancestors will
 be no longer visited on an amended posterity.               «
  Such are my views, briefly, but,  I trust, intelligibly sketch*  i
 ed. of the true mode of permanently improving the condition
 pf man.  The scheme has in it nothing that is either abstract,
 visionary, or obscure.  Or if it has,  I am unable, by the
 strictest scrutiny, to detect it.  It is  founded, if 1 mistake
 not,  on well known laws of the human constitution.  Nor is
 it in  any degree  impracticable.  It requires  but resolution,
perseverance, and self-control, connected with intelligence
 in the use of means that are accessible, and the work is done.
 Its essence consists in this; let man be  so reared, that his
health may be sound, and so cultivated that his higher powd-
ers may have due supremacy over his lower; in other words,    (
that  he may be less of an animal, and more of a human be-
ing;  and his standing will then be  as high, and his condition
as happy, as his situation and the laws of his being admit. 
(43)
  Does the position, that man, with all his attributes, animal,
moral, and intellectual, is the result of organization, seem,
on a first view of the subject, to  be unfounded?  Let it be
thoroughly examined, and it will be found to be sustained by
every consideration that bears on  it, whether it be fact or
analogy.   Derange the organization in  any part  of the hu-
man system, and the  function  of the part  is also deranged,
in direct proportion to the injury received.  16 it in a muscle?
Its power of motion is lessened or destroyed. A gland?  Se-
cretion ceases  or  is  vitiated.  The lungs?  Respiration is
impeded or  arrested.  The eye?  Vision is obscured or ex-
tinguished.  The brain?   The  faculty  connected with the
injured organ is disturbed,  suspended,  or  annihilated.  In
every case, the  laesion of organization is the measure of mis-
chief done to the function  or faculty of the part.  In other
words, according to the perfection or imperfection of organi-
zation, is that of the  action performed.  These are positions
 which no physiologist will think of controverting.  And their
language is plain and irresistible.  Practically speaking, man,
 as he  is, is the result of organization.  To improve his con-
dition, therefore, you must  improve that on which it depends.
   Shall I  be told that this is materialism?  I reply, that it is
 not.   I have not denied, nor do I deny the existence of an
 indestructible and ruling principle, as the spring of  action of
 our organized matter.   On the  contrary, I acknowledge it,
 and have  always  done so.   But I repeat that I know nothing
 of that principle, as  a subject of philosophy.  Nor does any
 body else.   To speak of it in the abstract, therefore, is to
 deal  in  conjecture.  Separate it from organized matter,
 and we  can form no  conception of its, nature  or  powers.
 Those who deny this consult their fancy,  to the neglect of
 observation, and   the perversion of judgment.  An  attempt
 to philosophize on abstract spirituality  has been productive
 of an immensity of error and mischief.  It has misdirected
 the efforts of the human intellect, substituted hypothesis and
 conjecture for fact and induction, narrowed the sphere of in-
 quiry and retarded the progress of knowledge,-and deeply 
                         (41)
disturbed the harmony of society.   Those  who pursue  tliis
course, and  zealously endeavour  to give currency  to their
notions, are virtually the enemies  of  human improvement.
In the present condition of man, his spiritual principle mani-
fests itself only in its connexion with his organized matter.
Nor cars, any one, consistently with truth  deny,  that the bet-
ter  the organization is, the more perfectly does  the machine
work.  By improving  organization, then,  you  improve at
once the machinery and its performance.   Improve it to the
highest pitch, and you have done all you can in  aid of mind.
That principle you cannot alter for better or worse.   To be
immortal and continue identical, it must be immutable. 

K.f
CALDWELL
ON
ft               THE TRUE MODE
OF
IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF MAN. 
'T Ml 0 I C I N I
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