ADVERTISEMENT.
   The publishers  of the  Family Library have  again the
pleasure of inviting the notice of their readers and  the public
generally to  a number, which, as they are  assured  and be-
lieve,  will be  found not less  eminent  for  utility than for
interest.   Very  soon after the promulgation of Gall  and
Spurzheim's  phrenological  system, the  author, Dr.  Combe,
became  deeply  interested  in  the  new views   of  human
physiology to  which  that  system • was supposed  to   fur-
nish  a  guide;  and  devoted  himself with  great  ardour
for  many years to  the pursuit of experiments  and in-
vestigations having  the  establishment or  reputation of the
new system for their  object.  The  result was exceedingly
happy, without any reference to phrenology :  by  means of
the laborious, persevering,  and extensive  practical  studies
upon which  he  was so  long  engaged, Dr. Combe in  the
course of years became one of the most eminent, accurate,
and  well-informed physiologists of the age ; and qualified to
accomplish, what in the following pages he has accomplished,
the production of a work which for practical utility has prob-
ably no superior, and but very few equals,  in  the English,
or, indeed, in any other language.  It may, in fact, be called a
guide to  the most successful development of intellect, to the
preservation of health, and  the attainment of longevity.   It
treats  in plain, familiar,  and perfectly intelligible  language,
not of disease in its ten thousand painful or appalling forms,
but of the apparently trivial circumstances in which disease
has its unsuspected  origin ;  shows, for example,  how it is
that a wet foot produces  in  time an affection of the lungs ;
why cleanliness promotes and preserves the health  ; how ex-
ercise produces its beneficial,  and indolence its bad effect;
explains,  so far as can be  explained, the  mutual  action of
mind and body upon each other ; and tells us  how to avoid
disease by preventing or repairing the too  often unregarded 
ADVERTISEMENT.
imprudences and neglects which, trifling as they seem,  are
ye:, in almost every case, the real, though remote,  agents
in producing illness.   The excellence of the work is two-
fold :  first, in  the truth, the  wisdom, and  the  comprehen-
siveness  of its instruction;  secondly, in the total absence
of all technicality, and the straight-forward simplicity of  the
ideas as well as of the language in which they are conveyed.
The matters  set forth are of  paramount interest among all
worldly objects, to every  rational being, inasmuch as they re-
late to the greatest duration and highest enjoyment of life ;
and they are so exhibited that no medical knowledge, no  pe-
culiar strength of intellect, nothing more, in short, than plain
common sense,  is requisite for their complete appreciation.
  Before  determining upon the addition of this volume to
the Family Library, the publishers submitted it to a number
of literary, scientific, and medical gentlemen, each  of whom
was requested to give his  opinion, without communication
with either of the others  ; and nothing could illustrate more
forcibly the high merit of the work than the remarkable  co-
incidence of  the comments thus elicited.   One of the gen-
tlemen referred  to gave  it as  his  opinion that it would be
difficult to find  a book likely to prove more universally inter-
esting and instructive;  another, that it  was  decidedly  the
most  masterly production of the kind he had ever  seen ;  a
third, that its general dissemination would do more for  the
destruction of quackery in medicine than all the legislative
enactments that could be devised ;  a fourth, that if  health is
to be preserved by prudence and attention,  this is  the book
in which the way  to do it is to be found :  and all  strongly
urged its publication in the Family Library, as a measure of
great public benefit.  To the  public, therefore, it  is  offered
with confidence ;  the price at which it is put  is so very trifling
that its acquisition lies beyond the means of scarcely a single
individual in this country ; and even were its cost ten times
greater than it  is, the expense would  almost  inevitably be
saved in the course of a year, in comfort, at least, if not in
money.  It is recommended strongly and especially to parents,
guardians, and  teachers,  who have in charge the bodily health
and mental cultivation of others ; and generally to  every one
who knows the value of that ancient proverb, which  estimate*
an ounce of prevention more  highly than a  pound of  cure. 
7*/>
THE
PRINCIPLES OF  PHYSIOLOGY
APPLIED TO THE
PRESERVATION  OF HEALTH,
AND TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EDUCATION.
       BY ANDREW CgMBE, M.D.
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIAN8 OF EDINBURGH.
         NEW-YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS—82 CLIFF-STREET.

             18 34.
rrw.tc 

 
PREFACE.
   The object of the present volume  is to lay be-
fore  the public a plain  and intelligible description
of the structure and uses of some of the more im-
portant organs of the human body, and to show how
information of this  kind may be usefully applied
both to the preservation of health  and to the im-
provement of physical  and mental education.   In
selecting  the functions to be treated of, I have pre-
ferred to  examine  those which are at once  most
influential  in their  operation on  the  general  sys-
tem, and  at  the  same time least familiarly known.
Some, accordingly, whose sphere of action is  com-
paratively subordinate, I have not  even named ; and
to others  of essential consequence in the  animal
economy, such as that of digestion, I have  merely
alluded.   To include the  first would have added
to the difficulties of the reader, by the multiplicity
of unimportant details;  and to treat  of the  latter
would have been, in a great measure, a work of su-
pererogation, as treatises on  the  digestive  organs
are already in extensive circulation.
   In offering practical rules for the guidance of the
reader, it  has been my constant  endeavour to ex-
hibit the relation subsisting between them and the
                        A 
11
PREFACE.
particular  laws of the  organization,  according to
which their  influence is exerted,  that the recom-
mendation given  may rest, as far as possible,  on
the foundation of nature, and  not on the doubtful
authority of  any individual.   Many of the valuable
treatises  which have already appeared on the sub-
jects  of health and  of education seem to me to
have failed in  making  an adequate impression  on
the public mind, chiefly from this  basis not  having
been  brought  sufficiently  into view;  and thus not
only have the evils arising from defective education
been unjustly and invidiously charged against edu-
cation itself, but  the most opposite methods have
been  advocated and practised, with equal  earnest-
ness and  plausibility, whereat direct reference to
the laws of the organization  would  at once have
dissipated doubt and  placed truth in  its clearest
light.
   It is not uninstructive to remark, that, in the case
of the lower animals, the necessity of modifying the
method  of cultivation according to the peculiarities
of constitution which  they present, has  been long
perceived and consistently acted on, and with such
success as to afford us good reason for applying the
same rule to our own species, and  for regarding
every mode of education as erroneous and ineffi-
cient  which is not in harmony with the higher  na-
ture of man.   The extent, indeed, to which, by fol-
lowing this  plan, we can carry our influence over
the lower animals, and secure the development and
efficiency of almost every organ, has  often been the
theme of admiration and  surprise :  and there  can 
PREFACE.
iii
scarcely be  a doubt that were  the  same principle
followed in the cultivation of the physical,, moral,
and intellectual powers of man, and were  no rule
received which is not in  accordance with the  laws
of his constitution, a much higher degree of success
would reward our exertions than we have ever yet
experienced or anticipated.
   The  little regard which has hitherto been paid to
the laws of the human constitution, as the true basis
on which our attempts to improve the  condition  of
man ought to rest, will be obvious from the  fact,
that, notwithstanding  the  direct uses to  which  a
knowledge  of the conditions  which  regulate the
healthy  action of the bodily organs may be applied,
in the  prevention, detection, and treatment of dis-
ease, there  is scarcely a  medical  school  in this
country in which any special provision is  made for
teaching it; the pupil being  left to elaborate it for
himself from  amid information communicated to
him  for other purposes.   In some of the foreign
universities, cjiairs have been instituted for this pur-
pose ;  and, in France, a journal of Hygiene has ex-
isted for a short time.  But, in this country, with
the exception  of Sir John Sinclair's  elaborate Code
of Health, and one or two  other publications  of a
late date, the subject  has never been  treated  with
any  thing like the regard which  it assuredly de-
serves.   In one point of view, indeed, the omission
is not so extraordinary as it may  at first sight ap-         ,
pear.  The  prominent aim of medicine being to
discriminate and to cure disease,  both the  teacher
and the student naturally fix upon that as their chief 
IV
PREFACE.
object;  and are consequently apt to overlook  the
indirect but substantial aid which an acquaintance
with the laws  of health is calculated to affqrd in re-
storing the sick, as well as in preserving the healthy
from disease.
  It is true, that almost every medical  man, sooner
or later, works out this knowledge for himself; but,
in general, he  attains it later  than  he ought to  do,
and seldom so completely as he  would have  done
had it been made a part of his elementary education,
to which he saw others attach importance.  In  my
own instance,  it was only  when entering upon prac-
tice that I  had first occasion to feel and to observe
the evils arising from the  ignorance  which  prevails
in society  in  regard to it.    Impressed  afterward
more deeply than ever with the interest and utility of
the study, I contributed two  or three articles on the
subject  to one  of our periodical journals, and re-
solved to make them the basis, at some future time,
of a  more detailed and connected exposition.  This
I have now attempted ; and,  if the result prove use-
ful, in any degree, to the general  reader or profes-
sional student, my object will be attained.   The
volume being  of a purely  elementary character, and
admitted truths of a useful kind  being, in every in-
stance, preferred to  novelty  or  ingenious specula-
tion, the experienced practitioner will meet with lit-
tle to interest  him in the perusal; but for him it was
never intended.
   There is a  tendency in the minds of many, when
a new subject is  presented  to them, to  run  away
with  a part of a proposition, or with an  individual 
                     PREFACE.                   V

 illustration, and to condemn the principle to which it
 applies  as unsound, because  they happen to know
 facts  which are  at variance with the particular ex-
 ample brought forward.   In this way, there is per-
 haps no one rule which I have advanced to  which
 some individual  case may not be plausibly opposed.
 But it does not necessarily follow that the principle
 or rule  is thereby disproved.   An example may be
 badly chosen,  and yet the truth it is meant to con-
 vey may be as much a truth  as  before.   Instead,
 therefore, of at once condemning a proposition  on
 account of a  single apparent  exception, it will  be
 better to extend  the  inquiry, and  discover  whether
 any peculiarity of situation or constitution has inter-
 fered  to modify the result, and to condemn only
 when  evidence of inaccuracy  is  obtained.  Thus,
 because some  drunkards have enjoyed good health,
 and lived  to an  unusually old  age, we are by  no
 means entitled to infer that drinking was  the cause
 of the good health, and that if we would all drink as
 freely, we should all live as long.  An example  of
 this kind, far from disproving  the  principle that ar-
 dent spirits are prejudicial to the human frame, only
 establishes the fact that  individuals exist who, from
 some idiosyncrasy, are better able  than others to re-
 sist their bad effects ; and, in  like  manner, when I
 state, as a general proposition, that severe muscular
 exertion  is hurtful during rapid growth, I do not
 consider it as any argument against the fact to say,
 that A. B. underwent great exertion when growing
without being injured by it.  The general principle
obviously remains unaffected by any such instances.
                       A2 
VI
PREFACE.
   Various repetitions occur in  the  course of the
work, which  to some may seem unnecessary, and
for which I ought to  solicit the  indulgence of the
reader.   These have arisen chiefly  from the inti-
mate manner in which  the different  functions are
connected with each  other, rendering it impossible
to explain one without constantly referring to the
rest.   Occasionally,  also, the  novelty and  import-
ance of the subject have  led me  to risk  repetition,
in order to ensure attention; but I trust that these
faults, if felt as such,  will  be forgiven.
   Those who desire  to  obtain further information
of a popular nature in  regard  to the structure  of
man, will find  an  excellent  treatise  on  Animal
Physiology, in four of the earlier  numbers of the
Library of Useful  Knowledge.   It  is understood
to be from the pen of an  able physician in London,
with whose sentiments on the subject  now before us,
as expressed in the following extract from his con-
cluding page, I need hardly say I entirely concur :—
   " The obvious  and peculiar advantages of this
kind of knowledge  are,  that  it would  enable  its
possessor to take a more rational care of his health ;
to perceive why certain  circumstances  are  bene-
ficial or injurious ; to understand, in  some  degree,
the nature of disease, and the  operation as well of
the agents which  produce  it as of those which coun-
teract it; to observe the first beginnings of deranged
function in his own person ; to give to his physician
a more intelligible account of his train of morbid
sensations  as they arise; and,  above all, to co-
operate with him in removing the morbid state on 
PREFACE.                  vii
which they depend, instead of defeating, as  is now
through gross ignorance constantly done, the best
concerted plans for  the  renovation of  health.  It
would likewise lay the foundation for the attainment
of a more just,  accurate, and practical knowledge
of our intellectual and moral nature.   There is  a
physiology of the mind as well as of the body ;  both
are so  intimately united, that neither  can be  well
understood without the study of the other ; and the
physiology of  man comprehends both.   Were  even
what is already  known  of this  science, and  what
might be easily communicated, made a part of gen-
eral  education, how many evils would be avoided,
how much  light would be let in upon  the  under-
standing, and  how many aids would be  afforded to
the acquisition of a sound  body and  a  vigorous
mind ;—pre-requisites more important  than are com-
monly supposed to the attainment of wisdom and the
practice of virtue." 
 
CONTENTS.
                      CHAPTER I.

Physiology, vegetable, comparative, and human—Animate and
  inanimate Bodies — Objects of Physiology—Usefulness  of
  Physiological Knowledge—Illustrations—Evils of Ignorance
  —Error in separating Anatomy and Physiology from their
  practical Applications—Object of the present Publication   13

                      CHAPTER  II.

The Skin—Composed of three Layers—The Cuticle—Its Struc-
  ture and Uses—The mucous Coat—The Seat of Colour—The
  true Skin—Its Structure—The Seat of Perspiration—Its Na-
  ture—Consequences of suppressed Perspiration—Sympathy
  between the Skin and other Organs—The Skin a Regulator of
  Animal Heat—The Seat of Absorption—Touch and Sensation
  —Connexion between the Skin and Nervous System   -   30

                     CHAPTER III.

Mortality in Infancy  from  Cold—Animal Heat lowest at that
  Age—Too little and too  much Clothing equally bad—Rules
  for Dress—Advantages of Flannel, exemplified in H. M. S.
  Valorous—Ventilation of Beds and Clothing—Influence  of
  Light—Importance of Ablution and Bathing—Cold,  Tepid,
  and Warm Bath—Sponging with  diluted Vinegar—Friction
  of the Skin—Vapour-bath and Warm Bath useful in prevent-
  ing and  curing Nervous Diseases and Liability to Cold—Sail-
  ing and  Riding useful by acting on the Skin......62

                     CHAPTER IV.

Muscles—Their Structure, Attachments, and Conditions of Ac-
  tion—Necessity of Arterial Blood and of Nervous Influence—
  Illustrations—Muscles act by alternate Contraction and Re-
  laxation—Fatigue consequent on continuing the same Attitude
  explained—Injuries of Spine from Neglect of this Law, and
  from sedentary Occupations  in School—The Mind ought to be 
10
CONTENTS.
  engaged in Exercise as well  as the Body—Superiority of
  cheerful Play and  amusing Games—A dull Walk the least
  useful Exercise—Influence of Mental Stimulus illustrated by
  Examples—Exercise to be proportioned to Strength—Laws
  of Exercise................88

                     CHAPTER V.

Effects of Muscular Exercise on the principal Functions of the
  Body  explained—Shampooing  a Substitute  for Exercise—
  Evils of deficient Exercise—Best Time for taking Exercise—
  Always to be taken  in the  open  Air—Different  Kinds—
  Walking—Riding—Dancing — Gymnastics—Fencing—Shut-
  tlecock—Reading aloud—Case illustrative of the Principles
  of Exercise—Involuntary Muscles........121

                     CHAPTER VI.

The Bones essential to Motion, and to the Security of  the Vital
  Organs—The Skeleton—Bones are composed of Animal and
  of Earthy Matter—The Animal Part the Seat of their Vitality
  —The Proportions between these vary at different Periods of
  Life—Vessels, Nerves, Life, Growth, and Decay of Bones—
  Advantages of their Vitality and Insensibility—Their Adapta-
  tion to contained Parts—Conditions of Health—Necessity of
  Exercise.................140

                     CHAPTER VII.

Respiration—Arterial and Venous Blood—Nature of Respiration
  —Structure of the Lungs—Conditions required for Healthy
  Respiration—Sound original Constitution—Influence of He
  reditary Predisposition—Of wholesome Food, and good Diges-
  tion—Of the free expansion of the Lungs—Of exercise of the
  Muscles and Voice—Of Cheerfulness and Depression of Mind
  —Of Pure Air and Ventilation—Examples of the bad effects of
  Vitiated Air—Respiration the source of Animal Heat—Causes
  of deficient Generation of Heat—Removal of such Causes—
  Direct and Indirect Exercise of the Lungs—Beneficial Effects
  of, and Rules for, Exercise—Precautions  to  be observed in
  Diseases  of the Lungs, and in Persons  predisposed to Con-
  sumption   ................164

                    CHAPTER VIII.

Nervous  System—Structure  of  the  Brain—Its  Functions__
  Connexion between  the Mind  and Brain—Conditions of
  Health in  the Brain—Hereditary Predisposition—Influence
9 
CONTENTS.
II
  of the Blood on  the  Brain—Influence of Exercise  on the
  Brain—Effects of insufficient Exercise—Effects of excessive
  Exercise at different Ages—Case of Sir H. Davy—Rules for
  the proper Exercise of the  Brain—Best  Time for Mental
  Exertion—Regularity  essential—Repetition—Every Mental
  Power to be exercised directly on its own Objects—Illustra-
  tions—Influence  of the  Nervous  System on the  general
  Health—Examples  -   -  -..........206

                     CHAPTER IX.

Causes of Bad Health—Not always the  Result of moral or im-
  moral Conduct—Nor of Accident—But of the Infringement of
  the Laws of Organization—Proofs from past History—Dimin-
  ished Mortality from Increase of Knowledge, and better fulfil-
  ment of the Conditions of Health—The Expeditions of Anson
  and Cook contrasted—Gratifying Results of the Sanatory Ar-
  rangements of Ross, Parry, and Franklin—Pulmonary  Dis-
  eases in  the Channel Fleet, from Ignorance of Physiology—
  Rates of Mortality in different Ages and Countries—Causes
  of late Improvements—Condition  of Wealthier and Poorer
  Classes compared—Good done by the Apprehension of Chol-
  era—Influence of  Habit—Neglect of Organic Laws in  Re-
  cruiting Service—Examples—Conclusion.....264 
w
'•■■! 
THE
PRINCIPLES  OF  PHYSIOLOGY.
                  CHAPTER I.

Physiology, vegetable, comparative, and human—Animate and
  inanimate  Bodies — Objects of Physiology—Usefulness of
  Physiological Knowledge—Illustrations—Evils of Ignorance
  — Error in separating  Anatomy and Physiology from their
  practical Applications—Object of the present Publication.

  Physiology, from  *tw nature, and >.oyos discourse,
signifies literally a discourse about natural powers,
but, as  now used,  it  applies exclusively to the  doc-
trine of the uses or  functions of the  different  con-
stituent parts of beings endowed with the principle
of life.   As applied to the vegetable kingdom,  it is
called Vegetable Physiology ; to the lower animals,
Comparative Physiology;  and to man, Human Phy-
siology.  In all these instances, however, the objects
of physiology are  the  same, viz. the  exposition of
the mechanism and laws by which the various func-
tions which characterize living bodies  are carried
on, so  as to fit each  individual for the  particular
sphere in which the  Creator intended it to exist.
  The grand mark of distinction between animate
and inanimate  bodies is to be found in the different
relations in which they^snd to the ordinary laws
of the  material world.  Inanimate or unorganized
bodies  have no internal power of action,  and of
themselves  can effect  no  change.  Possessed of
                       B 
14     ANIMATE AND INANIMATE BODIES".
certain  fixed and invariable properties, they  stand
uniformly in the same  relation to  each other, and
act invariably according to the same general laws, so
that  what is once ascertained of them can be pre-
dicted with certainty to  hold  true for ever after;
and,  therefore, in conducting our investigations, we
know that  the same effects will always follow the
same causes  with mathematical precision.   But
when the  same  elementary material becomes part
of a  living body, this rule no longer holds :  the laws
of chymical and physical action are greatly modified,
or, for a time, counteracted, and the now organized
matter obeys the laws  of vegetable or animal life,
and  is not again subjected to those of chymical
action, either till eliminated from the  body, or till
life is extinct; and, in point of fact, the putrefaction
which instantly follows the extinction of the vital
principle is neither more nor less than the ordinary
laws of  inanimate matter resuming their dominion
when no longer opposed by a higher power.
  An example or two will render the difference more
apparent.   All bodies  gravitate towards the earth,
according to a well-known and invariable law.  But
animals  are able to resist this law, so far as to pre-
serve an attitude at  variance with its tendency, or
even to  rise, like the  eagle, many thousand feet in
the air in  opposition to their natural weight; but,
on the extinction of life, they lose this power, and
again become subject to the full influence of gravi-
tation.  In the same way,  many animals  preserve
an elevated and steady temperature, whether  ex-
posed to severe cold or to excessive heat; but  when
life ceases, rapidly assume  that of the  objects by
which they are surrounded.  A human being may,
for instance, be exposed to the intensest cold of  the
Polar Regions without  having his own internal tem-
perature reduced by a  single degree  so long as life
endures ; but from the moment he  ceases  to exist,
his body begins to part with its heat, and ere long it 
OBJECTS  OF PHYSIOLOGY.
15
 becomes frozen and stiff like the inanimate masses
 by which it is surrounded.
   Here, then, is a grand boundary-line dividing the
 organized from the inorganized, the animate  from
 the inanimate body.   Chymistry  and  natural phi-
 losophy investigate the laws and  conditions which
 regulate the action and movements of  inanimate or
 inorganized objects; but, from what we have seen
 of the  power of the vital principle in  modifying
 these, it will be manifest that, however extensive
 and accurate our knowledge of the properties of the
 elementary materials of living bodies may be, con-
 sidered separately, we can thence  infer nothing in
 regard to  the qualities of the animal compound when
 endowed  with life, but  must resort to observation
 and study for the discovery of the conditions by
 which life is characterized, and under which it is car-
 ried on.
   Physiology, or the history of the functions which
 characterize living beings, is thus a subject of pecu-
 liar interest;  and human physiology, or that which
 is about to engage our attention, is as  important in
 its practical consequences  as  it is attractive to
 rational curiosity.  In its widest  sense it compre-
 hends an exposition of the functions of the various
 organs of which the human frame  is composed; of
 the mechanism by which these are carried on ; of
 their mutual relations to each other; of the means
 of  improving  their  development  and action; of
 the purposes to which  they ought severally  to be
 directed;  and of the manner in which exercise ought
 to be conducted, so as to  secure for the  organ the
 best health, and for the function  the  highest effi-
 ciency.  A true system  of physiology comes  thus
 to be the proper basis, not only of a sound physical,
 but of a sound moral and intellectual education, and
of a rational hygiene; or, in other words, it is the
basis of  every  thing  having  for its   object the
physical and mental  health and  improvement of 
16
OBJECTS  OF PHYSIOLOGY.
 man ;  for, so long as life lasts, the mental and moral
 powers with which he is  endowed  manifest them-
 selves through the medium of organization, and no
 plan which he can devise for their cultivation, that
 is not in harmony with the laws which regulate that
 organization, can possibly be successful.
   But, besides the power  of resisting the operation
 of the ordinary chymical and physical laws, living
 bodies are distinguished by other properties peculiar
 to themselves.  Unlike inorganized matter, which
 exists in the same form from the beginning, bodies en-
 dowed with the principle of life derive their origin
 from previously existing living bodies of the same na-
 ture as themselves : these, in their turn, give birth to
 others, and in this way the succession is  kept up.
 Unlike the inert material which retains its proper-
 ties  unaltered throughout endless ages, the  living
 body is constantly undergoing changes from the first
 to the last moment of its  existence ; and these are
 exemplified, on the large scale, in the  great stages
 of youth,  maturity, old  age,  and  death.   Unlike
 inorganized matter, which neither grows  nor de-
 cays, living bodies require a  constant  supply of
 nourishment to admit of their growth in youth, and
 to replace the  worn-out particles which are regu-
 larly thrown off at every period of life ; and, unlike
 inanimate  objects, the relations  and properties of
 which  never  alter, living   bodies cease  at  last to
 exist, and their component elements, deprived of the
 principle of life, again become subject to the  ordi-
nary laws of matter, and  are speedily decomposed
 and scattered about as if life had never been.  These
properties, it may be observed, are common to vege-
table and  animal  life; but animals  possess others
peculiar to themselves.   Among the most remark-
able  of these  are  sensation,  thought,  voluntary
motion, and the faculty of communicating to  each
other their own thoughts  and feelings, through the
 medium of natural or  artificial language.   These 
       USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 17

    are great marks of distinction, and, considered in a
    general  point of view, amply suffice to divide the
e   two great  classes of animated beings; and  while
    some animals exhibit individual powers in greater
    perfection, man stands far their  superior, not only
    in combining  in his own body all the senses and
    faculties possessed among them, but in being en-
    dowed with moral and intellectual  powers which
    are denied  to them, and which place him at once at
    the head of the living creation, and constitute him
    a moral, religious, intelligent, and responsible being.
     So numerous and important are the various organs
    of which the human  frame is composed, and  so
    closely are they linked with each other  in  their
    action,  that, in treating of them, it is difficult, or
    rather impossible, to follow any arrangement which
    shall not involve considerable repetition.  On the
    present  occasion, however, a systematic mode of
    proceeding is  not essential, my object being merely
    to communicate a general knowledge of a few  of
    the more important functions, partly with a view to
    the direct practical purposes to which such informa-
    tion may be applied, and partly for the sake of rous-
    ing public  attention to the necessity  of including
    this branch of science in every plan of what is
    called a liberal education.
     Let it not be said that knowledge of this  descrip-
    tion is superfluous to the unprofessional reader; for
    society groans under the load of suffering inflicted
    by causes susceptible of removal, but left in opera-
    tion in consequence of our unacquaintance with our
    own structure, and of the relations of  the different
    parts of the system to  each other and to external
    objects.  Every medical man must have felt and
    lamented the  ignorance so generally  prevalent in
    regard to the simplest functions of the  animal  sys-
    tem, and the consequent  absence of judicious co-
    operation of  friends  in  the  care and  cure of the
   sick. From unacquaintance  with the commonest
                          B2 
 18  USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE.

 facts in physiology, or incapability of appreciating
 their importance, men, of much good sense in every
 other respect, not  only  subject themselves unwit-
 tingly to the active causes of disease, but give their
 sanction to laws and practices destructive equally
 to life and to morality, which, if they saw them in
 their  true  light, they would shrink  from counte-
 nancing in the slightest degree.
   For proof of this  1 need only refer to the evidence
 on the Factories Regulation Bill, which lately occu-
 pied so much of public  attention.*  The law then
 in operation authorized the working of children be-
 tween the  years of eight and sixteen, in the close,
 heated atmosphere of a cotton-mill, for twelve hours
 a day; and, as a great boon, the period has been,
 with much  difficulty, reduced from twelve to eight
 hours for the younger children.  Had our legislators
 been instructed in anatomy and physiology so far
 as to obtain even the most general notion of the con-
 stitution of the human body, and had they followed
 without bias the conclusions to which such knowledge
 would have led  every reflecting  mind, they would
 never have sanctioned such a law as that which for^
 merly disgraced the statute-book, nor would  they
 have shown any reluctance to modify its provisions
 when its unfitness was pointed out to them.   Had
 such knowledge been  familiar  to their minds, and
 morality been their aim, I doubt  whether, instead
 of objecting to the reduction when it was proposed,
 any  one would have been  found  hardy enough to
 affirm that even the present amount of labour is not
too much for ungrown children.   It may be that the
evidence in the printed report was partially got up;
but it contains a multitude of facts so  entirely in
accordance with the soundest and best understood
principles in physiology, which no counter-evidence
can rebut, that one can only lament the ignorance
* [In Great Britain.] 
    USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 19

 which prevented many able and benevolent but pre-
 judiced men from perceiving its true character, and
 yielding at once to the imperious  dictates of nature
 and of duty.  That there were great difficulties in
 the way of every alteration is quite true ; but surely
 no question of mere gain to any  or  to every class
 ought to be allowed to  stand for ever in the way,
 when the lives and happiness of  multitudes of our
 fellow-creatures are at stake ; and unless we begin
 somewhere, how can any improvement be accom-
 plished ]
   Another instance of the dangers of ignorance
 lately presented itself.  In the Edinburgh Advertiser
 of the 1st March, 1833, we are informed that " a dis-
 tressing occurrence was  discovered on Wednesday
 forenoon,  on board the Magnus Troil,  Shetland
 trader, Captain Ganson, lying at Leith.  The master
 and mate, who are brothers, went as  usual on Tues-
 day night to sleep in the cabin of the  vessel, but not
 appearing at the customary hour in the morning, the
 crew thought they had merely slept beyond their
 time.  A little time having elapsed,  they were re-
 peatedly called, but no answer being returned, one
 of the men went into the cabin, where he found the
 two brothers almost dead  through  suffocation.   It is
 thought that they had shut the companion and sky-
 lights so close, that they had during the night ex-
 hausted the whole of the  vital air necessary for respira-
 tion contained in their  confined situation.  Medical
 aid was procured, and hopes are entertained of their
 recovery.   Both were  much respected."  Captain
 Ganson, however, did not recover, but died convulsed
 on Thursday morning.
   Since the publication of the preceding statement,
 doubts have been entertained whether the catastro-
 phe resulted simply from confined air, or from the
 stove not having been extinguished, or from impure
 air proceeding from the  bilge-water.  The  cause,
however, to which it may be ascribed is not of much 
 20 USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE.

 consequence to our argument, for it is quite certain
 that had Captain Ganson and his brother possessed
 the slightest acquaintance with the nature of the at-
 mosphere, and the relationof its elements to the func-
 tion of respiration, neither of their lives would ever
 have been lost in such a way as that described.  A
 constant supply of  pure air is indispensable to the
 formation of proper blood in the  lungs, and conse-
 quently to the preservation of life and the well-being
 of the whole body: but formerly, when this  con-
 dition was as little known or regarded  as it was by
 Captain  Ganson, many persons were  shut  up to-
 gether in small ill-ventilated rooms in schools, jails,
 and  hospitals, and  the natural result was a degree
 of mortality from fevers and other diseases, which,
 now that the laws of respiration  are better known
 and more attended to, is never heard of.
  From the same hurtful absence of knowledge, a
 law  exists,  or  lately existed, in France, by which
 infants must be taken within a very short time after
 being born to the office of the Maire, if it is wished
 to have their births registered.  But there is another
 and  higher  law, made by the Creator, with which
 this enactment is at variance ; and that law renders
 the infant incapable of  bearing exposure to a low
 temperature without injury.  The consequence is,
 that  in winter, especially in places where the Maire
 resides at a  distance, and where consequently there
 is much  exposure, a greater mortality takes  place
 than is observed among infants placed  under  more
 favourable circumstances.  Had the nature of the
 living functions  been generally understood by the
 framers of such a  law, it is obvious that it could
 never have been enacted, for to have done so know-
 ingly would  have been in substance to legalize in-
 fanticide.
  One additional example may be given.  It is well
understood among professional men, that in speak-
ing singing, and playing  on wind-instruments, the 
   USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE.  21

 lungs are called into play as powerfully as in running
 or any other species  of severe muscular exercise.
 From not adverting to this fact, a strongly consti-
 tuted individual, who  brought on spitting of blood
 by bodily labour  to which he had  not been accus-
 tomed, conceived himself perfectly safe, and even
 cautious, when he  gave up the spade, and confined
 himself  to talking a great deal, which he did daily
 to numerous  visiters  in  explanation of favourite
 views  then occupying all his thoughts.   The con-
 sequence was, that the medical  treatment resorted
 to was without effect, and a fatal illness was brought
 on.  When the action of the lungs was subsequently
 explained to  this individual, he saw at once the
 error into which he  had fallen,  and lamented the
 ignorance which had led to it, but too late to derive
 any advantage from his knowledge.
  We  are constantly  meeting with anomalies in
 practical life, in the case of individuals little accus-
 tomed, when in  health, to observe or reflect on the
 influence of external  circumstances and modes of
 life in disturbing the action of the various  animal
 functions, but at  the  same time  easily and  deeply
 impressed by all extraordinary occurrences affecting
 them.  Thus, when any one is taken ill, his relatives
 or friends become  extremely anxious to have his
 room  properly  ventilated;  his  body-clothes  fre-
quently changed and carefully aired; his  food prop-
erly  regulated in quantity and   quality; his skin
cleaned and refreshed; his mind  amused and tran-
quillized  ; his sleep sound and undisturbed ; and his
body duly exercised;—and they state as the reason
for all this care, and most justly, that pure air, clean-
liness,  attention  to  diet, cheerfulness, regular ex-
ercise, and sound sleep are all highly conducive to
health.   And yet such is the inconsistency attendant
on ignorance, that the patient is no sooner restored,
than both he and his guardians  are often found to
become as careless and indifferent in regard to all 
22  USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE.

the laws of health, as if these were entirely without
influence,  and their  future breach  or observance
could in no way affect him \   Just as if it were not
better by a rational exercise of judgment to preserve
health when  we have it, than first to lose  it, and
then pay the  penalty in suffering and danger, as an
indispensable preliminary to its  subsequent  resto-
ration!
  One cause of such anomalous conduct is the  dan-
gerous and prevalent fallacy of supposing, that be-
cause glaring mischief does  not instantly  follow
every breach of an organic law, no harm has been
done.  Thus, what is more common than to  hear a
dyspeptic  invalid, who seeks to gratify his  palate,
say, that vegetables, for example, or pastry, or heavy
puddings, do not disagree with him, as he ate them
on such a day, and felt no inconvenience from  them t
and the same in regard to late hours, heated  rooms,
insufficient clothing,  and  all  other sources  of bad
health, every one of which will, in like manner, be
defended by some patient or other, on the ground
that he experienced no injury from them on a cer-
tain specified occasion; while all  will readily admit
the abstract fact, that such things are, and must be,
very hurtful to every one else.
  Happy would it often be for suffering man could
he  see  beforehand the  modicum  of  punishment
which his multiplied  aberrations from the laws of
physiology are sure to bring upon him.  But as,  in
the great majority of instances, the breach  of the
law is limited in extent, and becomes serious  by the
frequency of  its repetition rather than by a  single
act; so is the punishment gradual in  its infliction,
and slow in manifesting its accumulated effect; and
this very gradation, and the distance of time at which
the full effect is produced, are the reasons why man,
in his ignorance, so often  fails to trace the connex-
ion between  his conduct in  life and  his broken
health.  But the connexion subsists  although he 
ILLUSTRATIONS.
23
does  not  regard it, and the  accumulated  conse-
quences come upon him when  he least  expects
them.
  Thus, pure air is essential to the full enjoyment
of health; and reason says, that every degree  of
vitiation must necessarily be proportionally hurtful,
till we arrive at that degree at which, from its ex-
cess,  the  continuance of life  becomes impossible.
When we state this fact to  a delicately constituted
female, who  is fond of frequenting heated  rooms,
or crowded parties, theatres, or churches, and call
her attention to the hurtful consequences which she
must  inflict on herself by inhaling the vitiated air
of such assemblies, her answer  invariably is, that
the closeness and  heat  are very disagreeable, but
that  they rarely injure her:  by which she  can only
mean, that a single exposure to them does not always
cause an illness  serious enough to send her to bed,
or excite  acute pain ; although both results  are ad-
mitted sometimes to have followed.  An intelligent
observer,  however, has no  difficulty in perceiving
that  they  do hurt her, and that although the effect
of each exposure to their influence is so gradual as
not to arrest attention, it is not the less progressive
and influential in producing and  maintaining that
general delicacy of  health by which she is charac-
terized, and  from which  no  medical treatment can
relieve  her, so long as its active  causes are left in
operation.
  The debility so generally complained of in spring
by invalids and persons of a delicate  constitution,
and which renders that season of the year so formi-
dable  in prospect, and in reality so fatal, seems  to
result more  from  the accumulated effects  of the
preceding winter months than from any thing di-
rectly inherent in  the season itself.  At the com-
mencement of winter, such  persons feel compara-
tively strong from  the beneficial influence of expo-
sure  to the open air, light, and exercise, during the 
24
ILLUSTRATIONS.
 preceding months of summer and autumn.  But in
 proportion as they are deprived of these advantages
 by the advance of winter, and are subjected to the
 evil influence of confinement to  close rooms, defi-
 cient exercise, cold damp air, and deprivation of the
 stimulus of light, the stamina of the constitution
 become impaired, and debility and relaxation begin
 to be felt, and make progress from day to day, till
 on the arrival of spring they have  reached  their
 maximum, and either give rise to positive disease,
 or gradually disappear at the return of the invigo-
 rating influence of longer and warmer days.   This
 principle, however, will not apply where pulmonary
 or other disease pre-exists; for in such cases, the
 east winds prevalent in spring are directly injurious.
  If the above view be correct, it is obvious that the
 hurtful cause  is  not, as is commonly supposed, so
 much any positive quality of springas the accumulated
 mass of the  winter influences then reaching  their
 maximum ; and  this is not perceived, only because
 the operation of the cause from day to day, although
 perfectly real, is  too  small to attract notice, while
 the aggregate of the many days  composing winter
 is striking enough.   The fact that those who are
 sufficiently robust to  undergo the necessary expo-
 sure in winter suffer much less in spring, seems to
 corroborate the above explanation.
  We must not suppose, then, that because a single
 excess of any kind does not produce a direct attack
 of disease, it is, therefore,  necessarily  harmless;
 for it is only when  the noxious agent is very pow-
 erful indeed  that its deleterious  influence on the
 system becomes  instantly sensible.   In the great
 majority of situations to wh'-^i man is  exposed in
 social life, it is the continued Oi the reiterated appli-
 cation of less powerful causes which gradually, and
 often imperceptibly, unless  to  the  vigilant  eye,
 effects the change, and ruins the constitution before
danger is dreamed of.  And  yet this great  truth is 
               EVILS  OF IGNORANCE.            25

so little known, that, if no glaring mischief has fol-
lowed any particular practice, within at most twenty-
four hours, nine out of ten individuals will be found
to have come to the conclusion that it is perfectly
harmless, even where it is capable of demonstration
that the reverse is the fact.
  It is this apparent but unreal  separation of the
effect from its cause  which has given rise to the
variety of opinions entertained  in  regard to the
qualities of the same agents, and  which has, per-
haps, tended more than any thing  else to discourage
rational regard to the means of preserving health;
and  yet this very variety is  a proof at once of the
absence  of sound views of  our own nature, and of
the urgent necessity of possessing  them.  In soci-
ety, accordingly, nothing is more common than to
hear the most opposite opinions expressed in regard
to the evils  or advantages of particular kinds of
clothing, food, and exercise.   One person will affirm
with perfect sincerity that flannel is pernicious, be-
cause it irritates the skin, and uniformly causes an
eruption  over the whole body;  and that linen or
cotton is  an excellent article of dress, because it
produces no such consequences.  Another will tell
you with equal truth that flannel  is  a capital thing,
because  it is pleasant  to the feeling, and affords
protection  from cold  and rheumatism, which  linen
does not.   One will affirm that a long walk or vio-
lent muscular exercise is an excellent tonic, because
it gives a keen appetite, and a vivacity and alertness
which are delightful.  But another will declare that
a long wali; ff r severe exercise is exceedingly inju-
rious and debilitating, because it destroys his appe-
tite,  and  unfits him for exertion  of mind or body,
Vnd always gives him  headache.  One will, in like
,nanner,  praise  vegetables  as the  best diet, and
another animal food as infinitely superior, and so on
through the whole range of  physical objects which
act upon the human frame,  and the natural conse- 
26            EVILS OF IGNORANCE.
quence of these apparent anomalies  and contradic-
tions is, that when in health, we come practically to
look upon the effects of air, food, exercise, and dress
as very much matters of chance, subject to no fixed
rule, and therefore little worth attending to, except
when carried to palpable extremes, or in the cure of
disease ;  and in this way, man, instead of being able
to protect  his  children by the results of  his own
experience in his journey through life, goes on from
generation to generation, groping a little, then see-
ing a  little, and then groping  again, till he arrives,
often prematurely, at the end of his existence, when
he stumbles into his grave, leaving his posterity to
pass unaided through the same series of experiments,
and arrive at the same termination as himself.
  This unnatural result must  arise either from the
laws which regulate the animal functions and the
operations  of external  objects being variable and
ever changing, or from the conditions of the  living
body on which  they act  being different in different
persons, or in the same person at different ages or
seasons ; and it is not difficult to determine to  which
of these it is to be ascribed.  It cannot be  to the
first, for the laws of nature are  invariable and un-
bending.   The  food which to-day  nourishes  and
sustains the  body, and which  to-morrow,  when
sickness is present, raises the pulse and excites the
heart to febrile action, has not altered its qualities
or changed its  relation to the healthy body.   It is
the state of the body that has  changed  and caused
the apparent discrepancy  of effect.  In  judging,
therefore, of the  propriety, advantages, or evils of
exercise, food, and clothing, we must take into con-
sideration, not only the kind of exercise, the kind of
food,  and  the kind of clothing, but also the age,
health, and kind of constitution of the individual who
uses them, and  adapt each to the degree in which it
is required;  and then we  may rest assured that
many of our difficulties  will vanish, and  certainty
and consistency come proportionally into view. 
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.        27
   In cultivating, and especially in teaching, medical
 science, the different branches of which it is com-
 posed are habitually too much dissevered from each
 other, and from the practical consequences to which
 they lead.   The  anatomist teaches structure,  and
 structure only, and refers to the physiologist for an
 account of the uses to which it is subservient. The
 physiologist, on the other hand, expounds functions,
 but scarcely touches upon the instruments by which
 they are executed.   The consequence  is, that the
 student often becomes disgusted with what he con-
 siders the dry details of anatomical structure, when
 perhaps nothing would interest him more  deeply
 were the  purposes which  they fulfil in the animal
 economy taught to him  at the same time.   Many,
 in like manner, fail to take any pleasure in the study
 of physiology, who would be truly delighted to hear
 the truths of which it treats expounded  more gene-
 rally in connexion with  peculiarities of structure,
 and with more frequent reference to their practical
 applications.   The anatomist  and physiologist  err,
 in short, in limiting  themselves too exclusively to
 the objects of  their  respective  departments,  and
 devoting too  little  attention to the relations  which
 these bear  to each other and to the  great unit,—the
 living being, of which they form a part.
  The result of this system is, that  the young prac-
 titioner is  educated without having made  himself
 sufficiently familiar with  the  conditions on  which
 the healthy action of the  animal economy depends,
 or having even rightly appreciated  the importance
 of such  knowledge : and that, consequently, in com-
 mon with his patient, he  sometimes unwittingly
 allows   the operation of morbid  causes  to  go on
without interference, where, by a timely warning on
his part, serious illness might have been averted;
or unconsciously permits the  gradual ripening of
hereditary  tendencies into active  disease,  which
rational precautions, early resorted to, might have 
28         ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.
 kept in subjection throughout a  long period of ex-
 istence.
   The general diffusion of a knowledge of physiol-
 ogy among the intelligent classes of society will be
 attended with this great advantage, that more atten-
 tion will be paid to the preservation of health and
 the prevention of disease than is at present practica-
 ble.   The medical man will  then be able to advise
 with increased  effect, because he  will be propor-
 tionally well understood.  It  is  a very  different
 thing to comply blindly with the directions which
 come to us simply on  the authority of a man like
 ourselves,  and to  comply intelligently with  those
 which claim  our obedience on the authority of the
 Creator.
   It cannot be too constantly kept in view by medi-
 cal men, that their true province is to preserve as
 well as restore the health  of  those who intrust
 themselves and their families to their care ; and that
 it behooves them to turn their knowledge to account,
 in giving the greatest degree of security to  their
 employers  which their circumstances and  situation
 in life will admit  of, as well as in  prescribing for
 actual disease.  The day is, perhaps, not very far
 distant, when, in consequence of the improvements
 both in professional and in general education now in
 progress, a degree of importance will  become at-
 tached to this application of medical  science, far
 surpassing what those who have not reflected on the
 subject will be able to imagine as justly belonging
 to it, but by no means exceeding that which it truly
 deserves.
  Some professional men  are of opinion, that it is
best, in all cases, to leave the patient in ignorance
of his own structure and functions, and to assign no
reasons for any thing recommended; while others
maintain, that advice is never so willingly attended
to as when the  reason of the patient is addressed
and a general explanation of  the case given, so far 
OBJECT  IN VIEW.
29
 as it can be easily understood.  There are some per-
 sons, indeed, who prefer being simply  told what
 they are to do, and are more manageable when dic-
 tated to than  reasoned  with;  and there are also
 many  things  in  practice for which  it would  be
 puzzling to assign a valid  reason,  but, generally
 speaking,  those whose reason  is  enlightened will
 be found to co-operate more effectually in the mea-
 sures required for  their  recovery  than those  who
 are left in the dark.
  In  acute diseases, of course, explanation of any
 kind is often precluded.   Here the  professional man
 must act, and act  with  decision.  But  the great
 majority of ailments  are of a chronic character, in
 the  cure of which the steady co-operation of the
 patient is almost  indispensable.   And even when
 the malady is acute, a patient will  submit to severe
 measures much more readily when  ordered by an
 adviser who has been  in the  habit of addressing his
 reason when opportunity occurred, than when pre-
 scribed by one who has adopted an opposite course.
  My object,  accordingly, in  submitting the follow-
 ing pages to  the  public, is  not to  supersede the
 physician, by making " every man his own doctor,"
 or by recommending the  general perusal of profes-
 sional  treatises, for both practices induce many
 more ailments than they cure ; but simply to assist
 in diffusing such a general acquaintance with the
 structure and functions of the human body, as will
 enable individuals  to adopt the best means for de-
veloping their mental and bodily powers;  to  pro-
tect themselves from the  more  common causes  of
disease, and  to  co-operate with effect in the re-
covery of themselves or their friends when sick.
In endeavouring partially to fulfil this  object, I
have the general reador  alone  in view, and do not
pretend to offer anything new to the profession, for
the subjects  treated of must be familiar to every
practitioner.  At the  same time, I am not without
                       C2 
30
THE  SKIN.
hope that the method followed of connecting details
with practical applications may be  found useful to
the student, and help to direct him in his future in-
quiries.
                 CHAPTER II.

The Skin—Composed of three Layers—The Cuticle—Its Struc-
  ture and Uses—The mucous Coat—The Seat of Colour—The
  true Skin—Its Structure—The Seat  of Perspiration—Its Na-
  ture—Consequences of suppressed Perspiration—Sympathy
  between the Skin and other Organs—The Skin a Regulator of
  Animal Heat—The Seat of Absorption—Touch and Sensation
  —Connextion between the Skin and Nervous System.

  In selecting the subjects of the following essays,
I shall be  guided partly by the intrinsic importance
of the functions of which they treat to the well-being
of the animal economy ; and partly by the compara-
tive  ignorance which prevails  in regard to  them.
Hitherto the digestive functions have formed the
most prominent topic of popular disquisition, and a
great mass of information has, from time to time,
been laid before the  public, with a view to induce
greater attention to the regulation of  diet and regi-
men; and the action of digestive order in deranging
the general health  and  modifying the progress of
disease has also been  sedulously pointed out.  But
there are  other organs and functions, of nearly
equal interest, which have been much less attended
to than they deserve, and with which the general
reader  is  very little  familiar.   Among- these the
skin, the  muscles,  the bones,  the lungs, and the
nervous system may be mentioned as most worthy
of notice, and I shall accordingly endeavour to give
such an account of them in succession as will be 
STRUCTURE  OF THE SKIN.
31
 both intelligible and of direct  practical utility to
 every one.   I shall commence with an explanation
 of the structure and functions of the skin.

   The skin is that membranous covering which is
 spread over the whole surface of the body, and
 which serves to bind together, and to protect from
 injury, the subjacent and more delicate textures.  In
 different animals, and at different parts of the body,
 it assumes different appearances.  It is smooth, soft,
 and delicate in youth, and in females; firmer and
 more resisting in middle age, and in males; flabby and
 wrinkled in old  age, and after disease;  puckered or
 disposed in folds in places that admit of extensive
 flexion, as over  the finger-joints, and in the palm of
 the hand; and thick and horny where it is subjected
 to the influence of pressure, as in the  soles of the
 feet.
   The structure of the skin, like that of every other
 part of the animal frame, displays the most striking
 proofs of the transcendent wisdom and beneficence
 of its great  Creator.  Though simple in appearance
 and in design, it is a  compound of many elements,
 and the seat of as great a variety of functions. It is
 composed of three layers of membrane, viz. the thin
 scarf-skin  or cuticle, the mucous coat, and the thick
 true skin, as it is called, which immediately encom-
 passes the body.  These distinctions should be kept
 in view, for, as  it is  a general law of the animal
 economy that every  part  has  a use or  function
 peculiar to itself, the various uses of the compound
 can be understood only by attending to those of the
 simple elements.
  The epidermis, cuticle, or scarf-skin, is the  outer-
 most of the three layers, and is that which  is raised
 In blisters.   It is a thin continuous  and insensible
 membrane, has no perceptible blood-vessels or nerves,
 and consequently neither bleeds nor feels pain when
cut or abraded.  Being homogeneous in structure, 
32       STRUCTURE  OF THE CUTICLE.
it is supposed by many to be merely an exudation
of albuminous mucus ;  and although depressions are
obvious on its surface, and exhalation and absorp-
tion are proved to be  carried on  through its sub-
stance, it is still in dispute  whether  it be actually
porous or not.  Probability is in favour of the affirm-
ative, and the circumstance of  the pores  not being
visible is no proof to the contrary, for the cuticle is
so elastic that it may be perforated  by a needle,
and yet the hole not  be  discernible even under the
microscope.  The question is, however, one of little
moment, provided it be remembered that its texture,
whether perforated or not, is such as to admit of ex-
halation and absorption taking place through its sub-
stance.
  The structure of the cuticle  is in admirable har-
mony with its uses.  Placed  as an insensible inter-
medium between external objects and the delicate
nervous expansion on the surface of the  subjacent
true skin, it  serves  as a physical defence against
friction; and  while,  by impeding evaporation,  it
preserves the  true skin in that soft and moist state
which is essential to its utility, it also, by impeding
absorption, enables  man to expose himself without
injury to the action of numerous  agents, which, but
for its protection, would immediately be  absorbed,
and cause the speedy destruction of health and life.
This is remarkably  exemplified  in several trades,
where the  workman is unavoidably exposed to an
atmosphere  loaded with  metallic and poisonous
vapours, or obliged to handle  poisonous substances;
and where, without  the obstruction of the cuticle,
the evil to which  he is subjected  would be aggra-
vated a hundred fold.  Being destitute of nerves,
the cuticle is  not hurt by the direct contact of ex-
ternal bodies, and being very thin, it blunts without
impairing the distinctness of the  impression made
on the nerves of sensation.  The necessity of this
latter provision becomes very obvious when the 
USES OF  THE  CUTICLE.
33
 cuticle is abraded or removed by vesication.   The
 surface below is then  found to  be too tender and
 irritable for the exercise of touch, and  conveys to
 the mind scarcely any other sensation than that of
 pain.  For the same reason, those parts of the skin
 which are most exposed to pressure and friction,
 such as the palms of the hands and soles of the feet,
 are provided with a thicker cuticle to defend them
 from injury.
   The greater thickness of the cuticle in such situa-
 tions is manifestly the intentional work of the Cre-
 ator, for it is perceptible even at birth, before use
 can  have  exercised  any influence.  Indeed,  were
 the tender skin not so protected, every violent con-
 traction of the hand upon a rough and hard surface,
 and every step made on uneven ground, would cause
 pain, and disable us for  exertion.
   By another beneficent provision, calculated to af-
 ford increased protection according to the necessi-
 ties of the individual, it  happens that, when a part is
 much used, the cuticle covering it becomes  thicker
 and thicker within  certain limits, till in extreme
 cases it becomes as thick, hard, and resisting as
 horn.   It is this thickening of the epidermis on the
 lady's  finger  that alone enables her to wield with
 impunity  that  important  instrument the  needle.
 And it  is the same thickening that  fits the black-
 smith  and the mason,  the  stone-breaker and the
 boatman,  to ply  their trades, without that  painful
 blistering which the young  apprentice or unaccus-
 tomed  labourer so regularly undergoes, and which
 must have continued to  recur for ever, had the cuti-
 cle been organized with blood-vessels and nerves, or
not subjected to this law of becoming thicker wher-
 ever increased protection is required.
  Another modification of the cuticle to suit a modi-
fication of circumstances is that observed  in the
nails.   These belong to the scarf-skin, and separate
with it; and, like it, they have neither blood-vessels 
34 STRUCTURE AND USES OF THE MUCOUS COAT.

nor nerves, and may be cut or bruised without pain.
When the hand or foot is  macerated in water,  the
nails and the cuticle show their identity of organ-
ization, by separating together from the dermis or
true  skin below.   The nails, like the cuticle, serve
chiefly to protect the subjacent parts from injury;
and,  accordingly,  in  those lower  animals  whose
manner of life subjects their feet to continual pres-
sure, and requires no nice exercise of touch, Nature
has provided horny and resisting hoofs for their pro-
tection, instead of a merely thickened epidermis.
  To produce thickening of the cuticle, exercise
must  be gradual, and not too severe.  If, for  ex-
ample, a person takes a very long walk, rows a boat,
or makes  use of a heavy hammer for a few hours,
without having been accustomed to such an effort,
there is no  time for the cuticle to thicken, and de-
fend itself from  the  unusual  friction.  The parts
below, being inadequately protected, become irri-
tated and inflamed, and  throw  out a quantity of
watery fluid or serum on their surface, which raises
up the cuticle in blisters,  and by making it painful
to continue the pressure, obliges the person  to de-
sist from  an exercise which,  if  continued, would
evidently soon alter the  structure  of  the sentient
nervous filaments, and for ever unfit them for their
proper uses:  so that even in this result beneficence
and wisdom are prominently displayed.
  Immediately beneath the scarf-skin, and between
it and the true skin, is the mucous coat, rete mucosum,
or mucous network, which is remarkable chiefly as
being the seat of the colouring matter of the skin.
It  is  seen  with  difficulty on dissection except iii
Negroes, in whom it is  thick.   It  is exceedingly
attenuated in albinos, and is in fact thick in propor-
tion to the depth of colour.  It is destitute of blood-
vessels and  nerves, but, like the epidermis, is per-
meable by other bodies.  The colouring matter is
said to be the same as that of the blood ; Davy  and
Blumenbach, however, regard it as carbon. 
STRUCTURE  OF THE  TRUE  SKIN.      35
  From all that is known regarding the mucous coat,
it may be viewed generally as merely a thin soft
covering, placed between the outer  and  the inner
skin, to protect the nerves and vessels of the latter,
and give them their  requisite softness and pliancy.
Being of a dark  colour  in the Negro, it has been
supposed to diminish the heating influence  of the
sun's rays in tropical climates by the higher radia-
ting power which is possessed by a black than by a
light surface; but  there  is  reason to doubt  the
soundness of the theory at least, for black is well
known to excel in absorbing, as well as in radiating,
heat; and  late experiments  on the coast of Africa
seem to show, that the temperature of the Negro
is  actually about two degrees higher than that of
the European under the  same circumstances.
  The mucous coat is the seat of the beautiful and
variegated colouring observed in the  skins of many
fishes and other animals, in which it has often a high
and almost metallic splendour.
  The third or inmost layer, called the true skin, der-
mis, or corion, constitutes the chief thickness of the
skin, and is  by far the most important of the three,
both in structure and functions.  Unlike the  cuticle
and mucous coat, which are homogeneous in their
whole extent, and apparently without organization,
the true skin, or  simply,  as we shall call  it for
brevity's sake, the skin, is very delicately organized,
and endowed with the principle of life in a very high
degree.   Not only is it the beautiful and efficacious
protector of the  subjacent structures, but it is the
seat of sensation and of touch, and the instrument
of a very important exhalation, viz. perspiration, the
right condition or disturbance of which  is a most
powerful agent in the preservation or subversion of
the general health.   The dermis is a dense, firm, and
resistant tissue, possessed of great extensibility and
elasticity, and of a colour more or less red in pro-
portion to the quantity of blood it receives and con- 
 36      STRUCTURE OF  THE TRUE SKIN.

 tains.   Its looser internal surface, which is united
 to  the cellular membrane in which the fat is de-
 posited, presents a great number of cells or cavities,
 which  penetrate obliquely into the substance, and
 towards the external surface, of the skin, and also
 contain fatty  matter.  These areola?  or  cells are
 larger on some parts of  the body than on  others:
 they are very small on  the back  of the hand and
 foot, the  forehead, and  other places  where fat is
 never  deposited and the skin is very thin; while
 they are large in the palm of the hand and  sole of
 the foot, where the skin is consequently thicker and
 fat abounds.   These cells are traversed by innumer-
 able blood-vessels and filaments of nerves, which
 pass through to be ramified on the outer surface of
 the skin,  where they show themselves in the form
 of numerous small papillae or points, which are very
 visible  on the surface of the  tongue, and  on the
 fingers and palm of the  hand.  These papillae con-
 stitute the true organs of touch  and sensation, and
 are  therefore most thickly  planted  where these
 senses are most  acute.
  The true skin is so abundantly supplied with blood
 and nervous power, that, for  practical purposes, it
 may almost be regarded  as composed of vessels and
 nerves alone;  and it is important to notice this fact.
 The universal and equal redness of the skin in blush-
 ing is itself a proof of great vascularity; but a still
 stronger consists in  our  being unable to direct the
 point of the finest needle into any spot without
 puncturing a vessel and drawing blood.  The same
 test proves the equal abundance of nervous filaments
 in the skin, for not a point can be punctured without
 transfixing a nerve and causing pain; and it  is well
 known, that in  surgical  operations and accidental
 wounds, the chief pain is always  in the skin, be-
 cause it is profusely supplied  with nerves on pur-
pose to serve as  the  instrument of feeling.  From
these examples, the skin may be truly considered as 
USES OF THE TRUE SKIN.
37
a network of blood-vessels and nerves of the finest
conceivable texture ; and,,taking the vast extent of
its whole surface (estimated to exceed in a man of
average size 2500 square inches) into account, we
can easily understand how  these  minute ramifi-
cations may really constitute a larger mass of  ner-
vous matter than is contained in the original trunks
of the nerves from which they  are incorrectly said
to arise, and  also how so large a proportion of the
whole blood may be circulating through the skin at
one time.
  To understand the important purposes of the true
skin, we must distinguish between its constituent
parts, and consider it, in  virtue  of each of them,—
1st, As an exhalant of waste matter from the  sys-
tem ;  2d,  As a joint regulator  of  the  heat of the
body;  3d, As an agent of absorption;  and, 4th, As
the seat of sensation and  touch.

  Besides  performing the mechanical  office  of a
shield  to  the parts beneath, the skin is admirably
fitted, by the great supply of blood which it receives,
for its use as a secreting and excreting organ.   The
whole  animal system is in a state of constant decay
and renovation; and while the stomach and ali-
mentary canal take in new materials, the skin forms
one of the principal outlets or channels by which
the old, altered,  or useless particles are eliminated
from  the  body.   Every one knows that  the  skin
perspires, and that checked perspiration is a power-
ful cause of disease and of death; but few have any
just notion of the real extent and influence of this
exhalation, such as we shall attempt to exhibit it.
When  the body  is overheated by exercise in warm
weather, a copious sweat soon  breaks out, which,
by carrying off the  superfluous heat, produces an
agreeable feeling of coolness and refreshment. This
is the higher and  more obvious degree of the function
of exhalation; but, in the ordinary state, the skin is
                       D 
38         INSENSIBLE PERSPIRATION.
constantly giving out a large quantity of waste ma-
terials by what  is called insensible perspiration, a
process which is of great importance to the preser-
vation of health, and which is called  insensible,
because the exhalation, being in the form of vapour,
and carried off by the surrounding air, is invisible to
the eye; but its presence may often be made mani-
fest even to sight by the near approach of a dry cool
mirror, on the surface of which it will soon be con-
densed so as to become visible.
  Many attempts have been made to estimate accu-
rately the amount of exhalation carried off through
the skin ; but so many difficulties stand in the way
of obtaining precise results, and the difference in
different constitutions and even in the same person
at different times is so great, that we must be satis-
fied with an approximation to the truth.  Sanctorius,
who carefully weighed himself, his food, and his ex-
cretions, in a balance, every day for thirty years,
came to the conclusion that five out  of every eight
pounds of substance taken into the system passed out
of it again by the skin, leaving only three to pass off by
the bowels,  the lungs, and the kidneys.  The cele-
brated Lavoisier and M.Seguin afterward entered
on the same field of  inquiry, and with greater suc-
cess, as they were the first to distinguish  between
the cutaneous and pulmonary exhalations.  M. Se-
guin shut himself up in a bag of glazed taffetas, which
was tied over his head and provided with a hole, the
edges of which were glued to his lips with a mixture
of turpentine and pitch, so that the pulmonary ex-
halation might be thrown outwards, and the cutane-
ous alone be retained in the bag.  He first weighed
himself and the bag in  a very nice balance, at the
beginning of the experiment; then at the end of it,
when he had become lighter in proportion to the
quantity of exhalation thrown out by the breathing;
and, lastly, he weighed  himself out  of the bag, to
ascertain how much weight he had lost in all; and 
INSENSIBLE PERSPIRATION.
39
by subtracting the loss occasioned by the lungs, the
remainder of  course exhibited the amount carried
off by the skin.  He attended  minutely also to the
collateral circumstances of diet, temperature, &c. ;
and allowance being made  for these, the results at
which he arrived were the following:—
  The largest quantity of insensible perspiration
from the lungs and skin together amounted to thirty-
two grains per minute ;  three  ounces and a quarter
per hour; or five pounds per day.   Of this the cu-
taneous  constituted two-thirds, or sixty ounces in
twenty-four hours.  The smallest quantity observed
amounted to eleven grains per minute, or one pound
eleven and a half ounces in  twenty-four hours, of
which the skin furnished about twenty ounces.  The
medium or average amount was eighteen  grains a
minute, of which eleven were from  the skin, making
in twenty-four hours about thirty-three ounces. When
the extent of surface which the skin presents is con-
sidered, these results do not seem extravagant.   But
even admitting that there may be some unperceived
source of fallacy in the experiments, and  that the
quantity is not so great as is here stated, still, after
making every allowance, enough remains to demon-
strate that exhalation is a very important  function
of the skin.   And although the  precise amount of
perspiration may be disputed, still the greater  num-
ber of observers agree that the cutaneous  exhala-
tion is more abundant than the united excretions
of both bowels and kidneys; and that, according as
the weather becomes warmer or  colder, the skin
and kidneys alternate in the proportions of work
which they severally perform ; most passing off by
the skin in  warm weather, and by the kidneys in
cold, and vice versa.  The quantity exhaled increases
after meals, during sleep, in dry warm weather, and
by friction or whatever stimulates the skin ; and di-
minishes when digestion is impaired, and in a moist
atmosphere. 
40          SENSIBLE  PERSPIRATION.

  What we have considered relates only to the in-
sensible  perspiration.   That  which is caused  by
great heat or severe exercise is evolved  in much  .
greater  quantity; and  by accumulation at the sur-
face, it becomes visible, and  forms sweat.  In this
way, a robust man may lose two or three pounds'
weight in the course of one hour's  severe exertion ;
and if this be suddenly checked, the consequences
in certain states of the system are often of the most
serious description.  When the surface of the body
is chilled by cold, the blood-vesesls of the skin be-
come contracted in their diameter, and hinder  the
free entrance of the red particles of the blood, which
are therefore of necessity collected and retained in
greater quantity in  the internal organs, where  the
heat varies very little.  The  skin  consequently be-
comes pale,  and its papillae contract, forming by
their  erection  what is  called the goose's  skin.
In this state it becomes less fit for  its  uses;  the
sense of touch can no longer nicely discriminate the
qualities of bodies,  and a cut or bruise may be re-
ceived with comparatively little pain.   From the op-
pression of too much blood, the internal organs, on
the other hand, work heavily : the mental faculties
are weakened, sleepiness is induced, respiration is
oppressed, the circulation languishes,  and digestion
ceases; and if  the  cold  be very intense, the vital
functions are at last extinguished without pain,  and
without  a struggle.  This  is a picture of the  ex-
tremes ;  but the same causes which in an aggravated
form occasion  death produce,  when  applied in a
minor degree, effects equally certain,  although  not
equally marked or speedy in their appearance.
  According  to Thenard, the cutaneous exhalation
is composed of a  large  quantity  of  water and a
small portion of acetic  acid, of muriates of soda  and
potass, of an earthy phosphate, a little  oxide of iron,
and some animal matter; but Berzelius  considers
the acid  as lactic, and  not the acetic. Some  car- 
           NATURE OF  PERSPIRATION.         41

bonic acid and oily matter also are excreted.  It is
probable, however, that the composition of the per-
spiration varies both at different ages and on differ-
ent parts of the skin, as is presumable from the pe-
culiarity of odour which it exhales in some situa-
tions.  The armpits, the groins, the forehead, the
hands, and the feet perspire most readily, in conse-
quence of their receiving a proportionally larger
supply of  blood.  Every thing tends to show that
perspiration is a direct product of a vital process,
and  not a mere  exudation of watery particles
through the pores of the skin.
  Taking even the lowest estimate  of Lavoisier, we
find the skin  endowed with the important charge
of removing  from the system about twenty ounces
of waste matter every twenty-four hours;  and when
we consider that the quantity not only is  great, but
is sent forth in so divided a state as to be invisible
to the eye, and that the whole of it is given out by
the very minute ramifications of the blood-vessels
of the skin, we perceive  at once why these are so
extremely numerous that a pin's point cannot touch
any  spot without piercing them;  and we see an
ample reason why  checked perspiration  should
prove so detrimental to health,—because  for every
twenty-four hours during which such  a state con-
tinues we must either have twenty ounces  of use-
less  and hurtful matter accumulating in the body,
or have  some of  the  other organs of  excretion
grievously overtasked,   which  obviously  cannot
happen without disturbing their regularity and well-
being. People know the fact and wonder that  it
should be so, that cold applied to the  skin, or con-
tinued exposure in  a cold  day,  often  produces  a
bowel complaint, a severe cold in the  chest, or in-
flammation of some internal organ; but were they
taught, as they ought to be, the  structure and uses
of their own bodies, they would rather wonder that
it did not always produce one of these effects. 
42   RECIPROCAL ACTION BETWEEN THE SKIN

  In tracing  the  connexion between suppressed
perspiration and the  production of individual dis-
eases, we shall find that those organs which possess
some similarity of function sympathize most closely
with each other.   Thus the skin, the bowels, the
iungs, the liver, and the kidneys sympathize readily,
because they have all the common office of throw-
ing waste matter out of the system, each in a way
peculiar to its own  structure ; so that if the exhala-
tion from the  skin,  for example, be stopped by longf
exposure to cold, the large quantity of waste which
it was charged to excrete,  and which in  itself is
hurtful to the  system, will most probably be thrown
upon one or other of the above-named organs, whose
function will consequently become excited ; and if
any of them, from constitutional or accidentalcauses,
be already weaker than the rest, as often  happens,
its health will naturally be the first to suffer.  In
this way, the bowels become irritated in one  indi-
vidual, and occasion bowel complaint; while in an-
other  it is the lungs which become affected, giving
rise to catarrh or common cold, or perhaps even to
inflammation.   When, on the other hand, all these
organs are in  a state of vigorous health, a tempo-
rary increase of function takes placo in them, and
relieves the system, without leading to any  local
disorder; and  the  skin itself speedily resumes its
activity, and restores the balance between them.
  One of the most obvious illustrations of this re-
ciprocity of action  is afforded by any convivial com-
pany  seated in a  warm room in a  cold  evening.
The heat of the room, the food and wine, and the
excitement of the moment, stimulate the skin, cause
an afflux of blood to its surface,  and increase in a
high degree the flow of the insensible perspiration;
which thus, while the heat continues, carries off an
undue share of the fluids of the body, and leaves the
kidneys almost at rest.   But the moment  the  com-
pany  goes into the cold external air, a sudden re- 
AND  OTHER ORGANS.
43
version of operations takes place; the cold chills
the surface, stops the perspiration, and directs the
current of the blood towards the internal organs,
which presently become excited,*—and, under this
excitation, the kidneys, for example, will  in a few
minutes secrete as much of their peculiar fluid as
they did in as many of the preceding  hours.  The
reverse of this, again, is  common in  diseases ob-
structing  the  secretion from the kidneys; for the
perspiration from the skin  is  then altered in quan-
tity and quality, and acquires much of  the peculiar
smell of the urinary fluid.
   When the lungs are the weak parts, and their
lining membrane is habitually relaxed, accompanied
by an unusual amount of mucous secretion from its
surface, cold applied to the  skin throws  the mass
of the  blood  previously circulating there  inward
upon the  lungs, and  increases that secretion to a
high degree.  Were  this  secretion to accumulate,
it would soon  fill up the air-cells of the lungs, and
cause suffocation; but to obviate this danger, the
Creator has so constituted the  lungs, that any for-
eign body coming in contact with them excites the
convulsive effort called coughing, by which a vio-
lent and rapid expiration takes place, with a force
sufficient  to hurry the foreign  body along with it,
just as peas-  are discharged by boys  with  much
force through short, tubes by  a sudden  effort  of
blowing.  Thus, a check given to perspiration, by
diminishing the quantity of blood previously circu-
lating on  the  surface, naturally leads very often to
increased  expectoration and cough,  or,  in  other
words, to common cold.
  The lungs excrete, «s we shall afterward see, a
large proportion of waste  materials from the sys-
tem :  and  the kidneys, the liver, and the bowels
have in so  far a similar office.  In consequence of
this alliance with the skin, these parts are more in-
timately connected with each other in healthy and 
44   RECIPROCAL ACTION BETWEEN THE SKIN

diseased action than with other organs.  But it is a
general law, that wherever an organ is  unusually
delicate, it will be more easily affected by any cause
of disease than those  which are sound.  So that, if
the nervous system, for example, be weaker  than
other parts, a chill will be more likely to disturb its
health than that of the lungs, which are supposed in
this instance to be  constitutionally stronger; Or, if
the muscular and fibrous organizations be unusually
susceptible of disturbance, either from previous ill-
ness or from natural predisposition, they will be the
first  to suffer, and rheumatism will ensue; and so
on.  And hence the utility to the  physician of an
intimate acquaintance with the previous habits and
constitutions of his patients, and  the  advantage of
adapting the remedies to  the nature of the cause,
when it can be discovered, as well as to the disease
itself.   A bowel complaint, for instance, may  arise
from over-eating as well as from a check to perspi-
ration; but  although  the  thing to be cured is the
same, the means of  cure ought obviously to be dif-
ferent.   In the one instance, an emetic or laxative
to carry off the offending cause, and in the other a
diaphoretic  to  open the skin, will be  the  most ra-
tional  and efficacious remedies.    Facts  like  this
well expose the glaring  ignorance and effrontery of
the quack,  who affirms that his one remedy will
cure every form of disease.   Were the public not
equally ignorant with himself, their credulity would
cease to afford to his  presumption the rich field in
which it now revels.
  In noticing this connexion between  the  suppres-
sion of perspiration and the appearance of internal
disease, I do not  mean  to  affirm, that the effect is
produced by the physical  transference of the sup-
pressed exhalation  to the  internal organ.   In many
instances, the  chief impression seems  to  be made
on the nervous system ; and the manner in which  it
gives rise to the resulting disease is often extremely 
AND  OTHER  ORGANS.
45
obscure.   Our knowledge of the animal functions is,
indeed, still so imperfect, that we daily meet with
many occurrences of which we can give no expla-
nation.  But it  is  nevertheless  of high utility to
make known the fact that a connexion does exist
between two orders of phenomena, as it calls atten-
tion to their more accurate observation, and leads
to the adoption of useful practical rules, even when
their  mode  of operation is not  understood.  No-
thing, indeed, can be more delusive than the rash
application of merely physical laws to the explana-
tion of the phenomena of living beings.  Vitality is
a  principle  superior to, and in  continual warfare
with, the laws which regulate the  actions of inani-
mate bodies; and it is  only after  life has become
extinct that these laws regain the mastery, and lead
to the rapid decomposition of the animal machine.
In studying the functions of the human body, there-
fore, we must be  careful not to hurry to conclusions,
before taking time to examine the influence of the
vital principle in  modifying the expected results.
  It is in consequence  of the sympathy and reci-
procity of action existing between the skin and the
internal organs, that burns and even scalds of no
very great extent prove fatal, by inducing internal,
generally intestinal, inflammation.  By disordering
or disorganizing  a large nervous and exhaling sur-
face, an extensive burn causes not only a  violent
nervous commotion, but a  continued partial  sus-
pension of an important excretion;  and when death
ensues at some distance of time, it is almost always
in consequence of inflammation being excited in the
bowels or  sympathizing organ.   So intimate,  in-
deed, is this connexion, that some surgeons of great
experience, such  as Baron Dupuytren of the Hotel
Dieu, while they point to internal inflammation as
in such cases the  general  cause  of  death, doubt
whether recovery ever takes place, when more than
one-eighth of the surface of the body is severely 
46  THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL nEAT.

burnt;  and whether this estimate be correct or not,
the facts  from  which it is drawn clearly demon-
strate the  importance of the relation subsisting be-
tween the skin and the other excreting organs.
  In some constitutions, a  singular enough  sym-
pathy subsists between the  skin  and the bowels.
Dr. A. T. Thomson, in his work on Materia Medica
(p. 42), mentions, that he is acquainted with a cler-
gyman  who cannot bear the skin to be sponged with
vinegar and water, or any diluted acid, without suf-
fering spasm and  violent griping of the bowels.
The reverse  operation of this sympathy is exem-
plified in the frequent production of nettle-rush and
other eruptions  on the skin, by shell-fish and other
substances taken into the stomach.  Dr. Thomson
tells us, that the late Dr. Gregory could not eat the
smallest portion of the white of an egg, without ex-
periencing an attack of an eruption like nettle-rush.
According  to the same  author, even strawberries
have been known  to cause fainting, followed by a
petechial efflorescence of the skin.
  We have seen that the insensible perspiration re-
moves from the system, without trouble and without
consciousness, a large quantity of useless materials,
and at the same time keeps the skin soft and moist,
and thereby  fits it for the performance of its func-
tions as the organ of an external sense. In addition to
these purposes, the Creator has, in his omniscience
and foresight, and with that  regard to  simplicity
of means which betokens a profoundness of thought
inconceivable to us, superadded another purpose
scarcely less important, and which is in some degree
implied in the former; I mean the proper regulation
of the  bodily heat.  It  is well known, that in the
polar regions and in the torrid zone, under  every
variety of circumstances, the human body retains
nearly the  same temperature, however different that
of the air may be by which it is surrounded.  This
is a property peculiar to life, and, in consequence of 
     THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT.  47

 It, even vegetables have a power of modifying their
 own temperature, though in a  much more limited
 degree.  Without this power of adaptation, it is ob-
 vious that man must have  been chained for life to
 the climate which gave him birth, and even then
 have  suffered constantly from  the change of sea-
 sons ; whereas, by possessing  it, he can enjoy life
 in a temperature sufficiently cold to freeze mercury,
 and is able, for a time, to sustain, unharmed, a heat
 more than sufficient to boil water, or even to bake
 meat.   Witness the wintering of Captain Parry and
 his companions in the Polar Regions;  and the  ex-
 periments of Blagden, Sir Joseph Banks, and others,
 who  remained for many minutes in a room heated
 to 260°, or about 50° above the  temperature of boil-
 ing water.   The  chief agents  in this wonderful
 adaptation of man to his external situation are  un-
 doubtedly the skin and  the lungs,  and  in  both  the
 power is intimately connected with the  condition of
 their  respective exhalations: but it is of the skin
 alone, as an agent in reducing animal heat, that we
 have at present to speak.
  The sources  of  animal heat  are not yet demon-
 strably ascertained; but that it  is constantly  gene-
 rated and constantly expended has been long known;
 and if any considerable disproportion  occurs  be-
 tween these processes, it is  at the immediate risk of
 health.   During repose, or passive exercise, the sur-
 plus heat is readily carried off by the insensible per-
 spiration from the lungs and skin, and by the contact
 of the colder air; but  when the  amount of heat
 generated is increased, as during active exercise, an
 increased  expenditure becomes  immediately neces-
sary : this is effected by the skin and lungs being
excited  to higher action; by the latter sending  out
the respired air loaded with vapour, and the former
exhaling its fluid so rapidly as to form sweat.  Ac-
cordingly, we find that in cold countries, and in frosty
weather, the superabundant heat being  rapidly car- 
48   THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT.

ried off by contact with a cooler air, the exhalation
from the skin is reduced to a very moderate amount;
and that, in  warm climates, where the heat is not
carried off in this way, the surface is constantly be-
dewed with perspiration, and a corresponding appe-
tite exists for liquids by which the perspiration may
be kept up to a sufficient degree.  Every one must
have  experienced the grateful effects of this pro-
vision, in passing from  the dry, restless, and burn-
ing heat, like that of fever, to the soft and pleasant
coolness  which  follows  the breaking out  of the
sweat.
  Attention to the order of events affords the requi-
site knowledge of the means employed for carrying
off the increased heat which is  produced, when a
person is exposed to a warm air and powerful sun,
or engaged in severe exercise.  At first the body is
actually felt to be warmer, the skin becomes dry and
hot, and the unpleasant sensation of heat is soon at
its maximum.  By-and-by, a slight moisture is per-
ceived on the surface, followed by an immediate in-
crease of comfort.   In a short time afterward, this
moisture passes  into free and copious  perspiration;
and if the heat or exertion be still kept up, the sweat
becomes profuse, and drops from the body, or wets
the clothes which envelop it.  A decrease of ani-
mal heat unavoidably accompanies this, because,
independently  of any vital action contributing  to
this effect, as  is most probable,  the mere physical
evaporation of so much fluid is  itself sufficient  to
carry off a large quantity of caloric.  The  curious
experiments of Edwards tend to show  that evapora-
tion is really the only means required  for reducing
animal heat to its proper degree; but the results
obtained by him require  to be confirmed, and the
experiments varied and carried  farther, before the
inquiry can be  considered as completed.  The saga-
city of Franklin led him to the first discovery of the
use of perspiration in reducing the heat of the body, 
     THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT.   49

and to point out the analogy subsisting between this
process and that of the evaporation of water from
a rough porous surface, so constantly resorted to in
the East and West Indies, and other warm countries,
as an efficacious means of reducing the temperature
of the air in rooms, and of wine and other drinks,
much below  that  of the surrounding atmosphere.
The quantity of fluid evaporated from the skin during
profuse sweat so far exceeds that given out during
the highest insensible perspiration, that two pounds
in weight have been lost by this means in a couple
of hours,—an amount evidently sufficient to carry
off the largest quantity of superfluous animal heat
which can ever be present.  In the performance of
this  function the skin is, indeed, assisted by the  ex-
halation from the lungs; but as both act on the same
principle, the explanation is not affected by this cir-
cumstance.
  Bearing in mind the preceding explanation of the
functions of the skin, the  following  remarks from
Dr. Thomson's work* will be read with  interest.
" Dr. Davy, in his Travels in Ceylon, states,  from
his personal observation, that, on first  landing in a
tropical climate, the standard heat of the body of a
European is raised two or three degrees, and febrile
symptoms occur,  which require temperance,  the
avoiding every cause of excitement of the vascular
system, and the use of aperient medicines.  All  au-
thors, and indeed every observing person who has
visited the torrid zone, agree that with the languor and
exhaustion resulting from the high temperature of
the atmosphere, there is a greatly increased mobility
of the nervous system.   The action of the cutaneous
vessels amounts to  disease, and  produces that ecze-
matous  or vesicular eruption  of the  skin, known
by the name of prickly heat, which occurs in Eu-
ropeans who visit the West Indies, on their first
» Page 66.
    E 
 50  THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT.

 landing.  On the  other  hand, this function  of the
 skin is so much weakened, almost paralyzed, when
 the climate frbm which  a person is passing is dry
 and bracing, and that into which he has passed  is
 humid and relaxing, that congestions of blood take
 place in the larger vessels, the  body becomes sus-
 ceptible of the least impression of marshy exhala-
 tions, and agues and similar diseases are produced."
   We  shall  now  be  able to  understand why  in
 summer we suffer most from heat in what  is called
 moist close weather, when no  air is stirring;  and
 why warm climates, which  are at the same time
 moist, are  proverbially the  most unwholesome.
 The chief reason is the diminished evaporation from
 the skin which such a condition of the atmosphere
 produces, partially shutting up the natural outlet of
 the superfluous heat of the body ; and as  it at the
 same time checks the exit of the  waste matter
 which ought to be thrown out, and which is known
 to be as injurious to the system  as an active poison
 taken into the body from without, the hurtful con-
 sequences  of such weather and climates, and  the
 fevers, dysenteries, and colds to which they give
 rise, are partly accounted for.  This is one powerful
 reason why night air is so unwholesome, particularly
 in malaria districts, which are loaded with moisture
 and miasma; for, when the air is dry as well as hot,
 and free  evaporation  takes place, little or  no in-
 convenience  is felt, and health oftener remains un-
 injured.  Delaroche has established this point con-
 clusively by experiment.  He exposed animals to a
 very high temperature in a dry air, and found them
 to sustain no mischief; but when he exposed them
 in an atmosphere saturated with moisture, to a heat
 only a few degrees above that of their own bodies,
 and greatly lower than in the former instance, they
 very soon died.  Here we see the reason also why,
 in ague and other fevers, the suffering, restlessness,
and excitement of the hot stage can never be abated 
CUTANEOUS  ABSORPTION.
51
 till the sweat begins to flow, after which they rapidly
 subside ; and why the remedies which, given in the
 hot stage, added to the excitement and distress, may
 now be productive of the best effects.

   The function next to be noticed, viz. Absorption, is,
 in some measure,  the opposite of the last.  By  its
 instrumentality, substances placed in contact with
 the skin are taken up and carried into the general cir-
 culation, either to  be appropriated to some new pur-
 pose, or to be subsequently thrown out of the body.
   In the vaccination of children to protect  them
 from  small-pox, we have a familiar example of the
 process of absorption.   A small quantity  of cow-
 pox matter is inserted under the cuticle on the sur-
 face  of the true skin,  and there left.  In a short
 time it is acted upon, and taken into the system,  by
 the absorbent vessels.   In like manner, mercurial
 preparations rubbed on the skin for the cure of liver
 complaint are absorbed, and affect the  constitution
 precisely as when received into the stomach.  Many
 even of the common laxatives, such as rhubarb and
 croton oil,  have of late been successfully  adminis-
 tered in the same way, and the rapid absorption  of
 poisons from bites of rabid animals and wounds  in
 dissection through the same channel, is familiar to
 every one.  It  is from  the active principle  of the
 Spanish flies used  in blisters being taken up by the
 cutaneous absorbents, that  irritation of the kidneys
 and urinary organs so often attends the employment
 of that remedy.
  The process of absorption is carried on by vessels
fitted  for  the  purpose,   which are thence named
absorbent vessels, or  simply absorbents.  In the skin
they are so  exceedingly small and numerous, that
 when injected with mercury the surface is said by
Dr. Gordon to resemble a sheet of silver.  In health
they are of  too  small a size to admit the red parti-
cles of  the blood,  and hence,  from their contents 
52          CUTANEOUS ABSORPTION.
being nearly transparent, they are sometimes named
lymphatics.
  Some ascribe great, and others very little, import-
ance to cutaneous  absorption.   In some diseases,
as in diabetes, in which,  occasionally for weeks  in
succession, the urinary discharge exceeds, by many
ounces daily, the whole quantity of food and drink,
without the  body losing  proportionably in  weight,
we can account for the system being sustained only
by supposing  moisture to be extensively absorbed
from the air by the skin  and lungs.  The ancients,
indeed, believed that, when food could not be retained
in the stomach, a  person might be nourished by
placing him in a bath of strong soup or  milk ; but
recent experiments serve to show that,  in such
circumstances, absorption is too trifling in  amount
for any such  result.  Some indeed deny that any
absorption  would take place at all, because it  is
observed as  a general fact  that the body does not
gain in weight by immersion in a warm bath.  But
the inference is not well  founded,  for occasionally
weight is gained ; and even when it is not, as much
water must have been absorbed as would make up
the loss sustained during immersion by perspiration,
which is believed to  go on more  rapidly in warm
water than in the open air.
  That animals absorb copiously when immersed  in
water has been amply proved by Dr. Edwards and
other physiologists.  Dr. Edwards selected lizards
as the subjects of experiment, because he regarded
their scaly  skins as unfavourable  for absorption.
After reducing the bulk of a lizard by several days'
exposure to a dry air, he  immersed its tail and hind
legs in water, and found  that absorption took place
to such an extent as to restore the  original plump-
ness of all parts of the body.   The same result at-
tended a variety of other  trials, so that the fact does
not admit of doubt.  In  man, absorption from the
surface is greatly retarded by the intervention of the 
CUTANEOUS  ABSORPTION.
53
   cuticle ;  and it is universally admitted that when this
   obstacle is removed, the process goes on with great
   vigour.  Thus arsenic applied to cancerous sores,
   and strong solutions of opium to extensive burns in
   children, have been absorbed in quantities sufficient
   to poison the patients.  Colic in its severest forms
   has followed similar  external applications of the
   salts of lead.  Mercury, also, in the form of fumiga-
   tion, has often been  used where  rapid action was
   required, because  in  the state of  vapour it is very
   speedily taken up by the cutaneous absorbents.
     It is quite certain, then, that the  skin does absorb.
   The only doubt is as to what extent the cuticle oper-
   ates in preventing or modifying that action.  When
   friction  accompanies  the external application, the
   cuticle, as we see  exemplified in the use of mercu-
   rial and  other liniments, is not an efficient obstacle.
   But when friction  is  not resorted to, and  the  sub-
   stance applied is of a  mild unirritating nature, such
   as oil,  it  may remain  in contact with the skin for a
   long time without  being taken into  the  system  in
   appreciable quantities.  If, however, it is irritating,
   like Spanish flies, absorption speedily begins, and is
   carried on through the cuticle, as is  proved by the
   effects produced on the urinary organs.
    When the  perspiration is brought to the surface
   of the  skin, and confined there either by injudicious
   clothing or by want of cleanliness,  there  is much
m reason to suppose that its residual parts are again
  absorbed, and act  on the system as a  poison of
  greater or less power, according to its quantity and
  degree of concentration, thereby producing fever,
  inflammation, and even death itself; for it is estab-
  lished  by observation, that concentrated  animal
  effluvia form a very energetic poison.  The fatal
  consequences which have repeatedly followed the
  use of  a  close water-proof dress by sportsmen  and
  others, and the heat and uneasy restlessness which
                         E 2 
'54          CUTANEOUS  ABSORPTION.
speedily ensue where proper ventilation is thus pre*
vented, seem explicable only on some such principle.
  It is believed by many, that marsh miasmata and
other poisons are absorbed by the skin, and Bichat
considered the fact as established in regard to the
effluvia of dissecting-rooms.  There are many rea-
sons for concurring in  this belief.  The plague, for
instance, is known to be much more readily commu-
nicated by contact than by any other means, and this
can happen only through the medium of absorption.
Again, it is certain that flannel  and warm clothing
are extremely useful  in preserving those who are
unavoidably exposed to the action of malaria and of
epidemic influences ; and these manifestly act chiefly
by protecting the skin.  A late writer on  the Mala-
ria  of Rome  strongly advocates this opinion, and
expresses his conviction  that the ancient Romans
suffered less from it,  chiefly because they were al-
ways  enveloped in warm woollen  dresses.  This
opinion, he says, is justified by the observation, that.
since the period at which the use of woollen cloth-
ing came again into vogue, intermittent fevers have
very sensibly  diminished in  Rome.   Even in the
warmest weather the  shepherds are now  clothed in
sheep-skins.   Brocchi, who experimented exten-
sively on the subject, obtained a notable quantity of
putrid matter from the unwholesome air,  and  came
to the conclusion, that it penetrated  by the pores of
the skin rather than by the lungs.  Brocchi ascribes
the immunity of the sheep and cattle, which pasture
night  and day in the  Campagna, to the protection
afforded them by their wool.*  These remarks de-
serve the  serious attention of observers,—particu-
larly as, according to Patissier, similar means have
been found effectual in preserving the health of la-
bourers digging and excavating drains and canals in
marshy grounds, where, previous to the employment
* Edin. Phil. Journ. January, 1833. 
CUTANEOUS  ABSORPTION.
55
 of these precautions, the mortality from fever was
 very considerable.
   It is a general law, that every organ acts with in-
 creased energy when excited by its own stimulus;
 and the application of this law to the different func-
 tions of  the skin may help to remove some of our
 difficulties.  The skin exhales most in a warm dry
 atmosphere, because the latter dissolves and carries
 off the secretion as fast as it is produced; and the
 same condition  is  unfavourable to absorption, be-
 cause nothing is present upon which the absorbents
 of the skin can act.  In a moist atmosphere, on the
 other hand, the absorbents" meet with their appropri-
 ate stimulus, and act powerfully;  while exhalation
 is greatly diminished, because the air  can no longer
 carry  off the perspiration so  freely.  Apparently
 from this extensive  absorption, we find the inhabit-
 ants of marshy and  humid districts remarkable for
 the predominance of the lymphatic system, as has
 long been remarked of the Dutch ; and as  malaria
 prevails  chiefly in situations  and seasons in which
 the air is loaded with moisture, and is most energetic
 at periods when absorption is most active and moist-
 ure is at  its maximum, the probability of its being
 received into the system chiefly by cutaneous ab-
 sorption  is greatly increased, and the propriety of
 endeavouring to protect ourselves from its influence
 by warm woollen clothing becomes more striking.
 In the army and navy, accordingly, where practical
 experience is most followed, the utmost attention is
 now  paid to enforcing the use of flannel and suffi-
 cient clothing, as a protection  against fever, dysen-
 tery, and other diseases, particularly  in unhealthy
 climates.  In the prevention of cholera, flannel was
 decidedly useful.

  From grouping all the constituent parts of the  skin
 into one whole, and perceiving so many operations
connected with that  tegument, some may be apt to 
56
TOUCH AND  SENSATION.
suppose it an exception to the principle laid down,
that no  single part can execute more than a single
direct function.   In reality, however, it is only by
taking the guidance of this principle that we can ex-
tricate ourselves from the apparent confusion.   We
have already seen that exhalation, and the regulation
of heat and absorption, are each connected with dis-
tinct textures in the skin.  On further examination,
we  shall find the office of Touch and Sensation in-
trusted exclusively to another constituent part, the
nervous; for, in serving as the instrument of feeling,
the skin acts in  no  other way than by affording a
suitable surface for the  distribution and protection
of the nerves which receive  and transmit to the
brain and mind the impressions made  on  them by
external bodies.  In  this respect the skin resembles
the other organs of sense ; in all of which the nerve
is the true instrument of the sense, and the eye, the
ear, the nose, and the skin are simply structures fitted
to bring the nerve into relation with the qualities of
colour, sound,  smell, roughness, or smoothness, by
which they are respectively  affected;—and  they
differ from each other, because  sound differs  from
colour, colour from smell, and smell from roughness
or smoothness ; and  because sound or colour can be
taken cognizance of by  its own nerve only when
the latter is provided with an apparatus fit to be
acted upon by  the vibrations of the air, or by the
rays of light.   In every instance, it is  the external
object acting upon a nerve which gives rise to the
impression received from the organs of sense.
  Every part of the skin, however remote,  is  pro-
vided with filaments from the nerves of sensation,
in order  that we may become immediately sensible
of the presence and  action of external bodies.  If
any part were destitute of this property, its texture
and vitality might be destroyed  without  our  con-
sciousness of the fact; whereas, in consequence of
this provision  of sensitive nerves, no  object can 
TOUCH AND  SENSATION,          57
 touch the  skin without  our being instantly made
 aware of its presence and properties.
   While,  however, sensation  is  common  to the
 whole surface of the body, there  are  parts of the
 skin more  immediately destined by Nature for the
 exercise of Touch, and for the better  appreciation
 of all the qualities of which it  is cognizant.  Such
 are the hands and tongue  in man, the  proboscis in
 the elephant, the tail in  some of the monkey tribe,
 and the tenticula in fishes. Now,  in accordance
 with the explanation given of the dependence of '
 sensation upon nervous  endowment, it is remark-
 able that all the parts  destined for this special ex-
 ercise of Touch receive the most  abundant  sup-
 ply of sensitive nerves.  Thus the nerves going to
 the hand and arm, the most perfect instruments of
 Touch  and Sensation in man,  are at  their dorsal
 roots five times larger than those which  are destined
 for its motion; and, in like manner, the nerve sup-
 plying the  tactile extremity of the  proboscis of the
 elephant exceeds in size the united volume of all
 its muscular nerves. On the other hand, in animals
 covered with  hair  or feathers,  whose Touch  and
 Sensation are comparatively defective, the muscular
 nerves far exceed in size those of Sensation;  and
 wherever Nature has endowed any particular part
 with high sensitive powers, she  is invariably found
 to have distributed  to that part, and to it alone, a
 proportionally higher nervous endowment.  In man,
 the innumerable  nervous papillae  destined for the
 exercise of Touch may be distinctly seen in parallel
irregular rows on the fingers and palm of the hand,
and everybody knows  how acute  the  sense  is in
these parts.  In fishes, on the other hand, no nervous
papillae  can be detected on the surface of the skin;
but many of them  have tentacula or  projections
generally about the mouth, for the special purpose
of exercising Touch, and these are always plentifully
supplied with branches from the fifth pair of nerves. 
58
TOUCH AND  SENSATION.
   The nervous tissue of the skin is thus not only an
 important instrument for receiving and conveying
 to the mind accurate impressions  in regard to the
 properties of external objects, but it is even essen-
 tial to our continued existence.  The pain which is
 caused by injuries is no doubt very disagreeable, but
 in its uses it is a positive blessing, in  warning us
 against the danger, and even certain destruction,
 which would speedily overtake us if we had no such
 monitor at hand.  If we had no nerves on  the  sur-
 face to communicate  to us a lively impression of
 cold, we  might  inadvertently remain inactive in a
 temperature which would not only suspend perspira-
 tion, but benumb the powers of life; or we might,
 on the other hand, approach so near the fire or boil-
 ing fluids as to have the organization destroyed be-
 fore we  knew: whereas, by the kind interposition
 of the nerves, we cannot, when perspiring freely, be
 exposed  to  the cold air without an unpleasant sen-
 sation being experienced, impelling us to  attend to
 our safety, and to keep up our heat either by addi-
 tional clothing or by  active exercise.  When the
 nervous  and vascular parts of the skin are both in
 healthy action, a pleasant  soft warmth is felt over
 the body, which is in itself a delight, and which gives
 to the mind a lightness and hilarity, or pleasant con-
 sciousness of active existence, the very opposite of
 the low and languid depression which so  generally
 accompanies continued defective action in the skin,
 and which forms a marked feature  in many nervous
 affections.
  For the  due  exercise  of Sensation, the nerves
 must be in a proper state of health.   If, for example,
the cuticle protecting the nervous papillae be abraded,
or removed  by vesication, the naked nerves are too
powerfully  stimulated  by the contact of  external
bodies, and instead of receiving and transmitting the
usual impressions of heat, cold, figure,  and hardness,
they communicate scarcely any  feeling except that 
TOUCH AND SENSATION.
59
 of pain; while, if the cuticle become thickened by
 hard labour, the impression made on the nerves is
 proportionally lessened, and little information is con-
 veyed by them to the mind.
   A due supply of arterial blood is  another requi-
 site for the action of the  nerves of sensation.  If
 they be deprived of this, as by exposing the body to
 a degree of cold sufficient to drive the  blood from
 the surface, the nerves become almost  insensible,
 and severe wounds  may be  received in this state
 without the individual being conscious of the acci-
 dent, or feeling the  slightest  pain.  For  the  same
 reason, severe cold, after a  certain time, ceases to
 be painful, and death ensues like deep sleep and
 without suffering.  But when a frozen limb is thawed,
 and the returning circulation begins to set the nerves
 in action, then suffering commences, and  the  over-
 action is in danger of leading to inflammation.  The
 same phenomena, in an inferior degree, must be fa-
 miliar to every one,  in the prickling and tingling so
 commonly complained of on heating cold  hands or
 feet too rapidly at a good fire, and which arise from
 the return  of the blood  stimulating the  nerves to
 undue action.
   It is the  nervous tissue of the skin which takes
 cognizance of the  temperature  of  the  bodies  by
 which we are surrounded, and imparts to  the  mind
 the sensation of warmth or coldness.  In the healthy
 state, the sensation  is a correct index of the real
 temperature ;  but, in disease, we often complain  of
 cold  and  shivering  when the  skin is  positively
 warmer than natural. In this way, those whose di-
 gestion is  weak, and whose  circulation is  feeble,
complain habitually of cold, and of cold feet, where
others, differently constituted, experience no  such
sensations.   Exercise dissipates this feeling and in-
creases heat,by exciting the circulation of the blood,
throwing more of it to  the surface, and thereby 
60         TOUCH AND SENSATION.

increasing the action of the cutaneous vessels and
nerves.
   Some mental emotions operate upon the skin, and
impair its functions much in the same way as cold.
Grief, fear, and the depressing passions, by dimin-
ishing the afflux of arterial blood, render the skin
pale, and at the same time diminish perspiration and
nervous action;  while rage, and other violent pas-
sions, by augmenting the afflux of blood, elevate the
temperature of  the :>kin, and give rise to the  red
flush, fulness, and  tension  so  characteristic of ex-
citement.  Facts like these  establish a connexion
between the brain  and the  nervous system and the
skin, which  it is important not to overlook.   The
brain is readily admitted, by reflecting minds, to ex-
ercise  much influence on  the general system, be-
cause  the  nervous substance of which it is com-
posed is collected into  one focus, and, thus  united,
is seen to constitute a large mass.  In reality, how-
ever, the nervous matter, spread out on the surface
of the body for the purposes of sensation, is so great
that many anatomists consider it as even exceeding
the mass of the brain, and hence its reverse influence
might be expected to be, as it actually is, of much im-
portance to health.
  We  see this  exemplified on exposure to intense
cold.   The first  sensation  of chill on  the nervous
surface of the skin is speedily succeeded  by that of
numbness and  insensibility.   The  impression is
thence communicated to the brain, which in its turn
becomes affected, as is shown first by confusion of
mind, as noticed by Captain Parry, and afterward
by the  total suspension of  the mental powers, and
the extinction of  life itself.   When, on  the other
hand, as in tropical climates, the surface is relaxed
by excessive heat, the brain speedily participates in
the relaxation, and the mind is unfitted for sustained
or vigorous action.
  Invalids and literary  men  often suffer  severely 
FOLLICLES OF THE  SKIN.          61
from excess of action in the brain, and deficiency of
activity in the nerves of the  skin and remoter or-
gans.  The nervous  stimulus, which is essential to
digestion and to the  health and warmth of the skin,
cannot be provided when the brain is too exclusively
exercised in thinking or feeling; and for want of this
stimulus, the tone of the digestive and cutaneous or-
gans is greatly  reduced,—the surface of the body
becomes cold, shrunk, and uncomfortable, and  the
individual subject to  annoyance  and painful sensa-
tions from  trifles which  formerly  gave pleasure.
Bad digestion and deficient warmth of surface are
thus proverbially complained of among literary and
sedentary persons, and can be removed only by ex-
citing the nervous and vascular functions of the skin,
and diminishing those of the brain.

  Such are  the  direct and important uses  of  the
skin.   But in addition to the  parts already noticed,
there are numerous small follicles contained in its
substance, more abundant where hairs are implanted,
and in the vicinity of the orifices of natural canals,
than in other regions, but existing in all parts  ex-
cept the palms  of the hands  and soles of the feet.
They are about  the  size of a millet seed, and  the
skin which contains them is thin, reflected on itself,
and very vascular.  Their cavities are  filled with
an  oily humour  susceptible of concretion and con-
sistence, and each opens by an orifice at the external
surface of the skin.   It is this  oily matter which
prevents water from penetrating easily and relaxing
the cuticle, and the absence of which, when it has
been removed by the soda used in washing, allows
the skin of the  hands and fingers to assume that
wrinkled and shrivelled appearance which is com-
mon among washerwomen.
                       F 
52    MORTALITY IN INFANCY FROM  COLD.
                 CHAPTER III.

Mortality in Infancy from Cold—Animal Heat lowest at that
  Age—Too little p.nd too much Clothing equally bad—Rules
  for Dress—Advantages of Flannel, exemplified in H. M. S.
  Valorous—Ventilation of  Beds  and Clothing—Influence of
  Light—Importance of Ablution  and Bathing—Cold, Tepid,
  and Warm Bath—Sponging with diluted Vinegar—Friction
  of the Skin—Vapour-bath and Warm Bath useful in prevent-
  ing and curing Nervous Diseases and Liability to Cold—Sail-
  ing and Riding useful by acting on the Skin.

i  As it  is only in its useful  applications to the im-
provement and  happiness of man that knowledge
truly becomes power^kve proceed,  in  accordance
with this principle, to point out some of the advan-
tages derivable from that which we have attempted
to communicate.
  It appears  from the  London Bills of Mortality,
that between a fourth and a  fifth of  all the infants
baptized die within  the first two years of their ex-
istence.   This extraordinary result is not a part of
the Creator's designs;  it does  not  occur in  the
lower  animals,  and must  therefore have causes
capable of removal.  One of these, to speak only
of what b related to the present inquiry, is unques-
tionably the inadequate protection afforded,  espe-
cially among the poorer classes, to the new-born in-
fant, against  the effects  of the great and sudden
transition which it makes in passing at once from
a high  and almost  unvarying temperature in  the
mother's  womb, to one  greatly inferior  and con-
stantly  liable  to change.  At birth, the  skin is deli-
cate, extremely vascular, and highly susceptible of
impressions;  so much  so, that cases have occurred 
       ANIMAL HEAT LOWEST IN INFANCY.     63

in which a leech-bite has caused a fatal hemorrhage.
The circulation is, in fact, cutaneous ; for the lungs,
the stomach, the liver, and the  kidneys are as  yet
new to life, and feeble in  their functions.  If the
infant, then, be rashly exposed to a cold atmosphere,
the mass of blood previously circulating on the sur-
face of the  body is immediately driven inwards by
the contraction of  the cutaneous vessels, and, by
over-stimulating the internal organs,  gives rise to
bowel complaints, inflammations, croup, or convul-
sions, which sooner or later extinguish life.  This
shows the inexpressible folly of those who bathe
infants daily in cold water even in winter, and freely
expose  them to the open  air, or to currents from
open  doors or windows, with  a  view to harden
their  constitutions ;  when it is quite certain that no
more  effectual means could  be resorted  to  in the
earlier months of  life to  undermine  the general
health and  entail  future disease on the  unhappy
subjects of the experiment.
  This hurtful practice has perhaps arisen in some
degree from the prevalent  error of supposing  that
infants have naturally  a great power of generating
heat and resisting cold.  That the very opposite is
the fact has been established by the  experiments
of Dr. Milne Edwards, which show that " the power
of producing heat in warm-blooded animals is at its
minimum at birth, and increases successively to adult
age," and that instead of young animals being warmer
than  adults, they are  generally a degree or  two
colder, and part with their  heat  more  readily.  In
ten healthy infants, from a few days to two hours
old, the mean temperature was observed by  Dr.
Edwards to be only  94°.55 Fahr., that  of adults be-
ing 97° or 98° ; and in  a seven months' child, three
hours after birth, he  found the temperature so low
as 89°.6, although the child was well  clothed and
near a good fire.  That exposure to cold is  really
so  injurious in infancy is  unhappily  proved by a 
64   TOO  LITTLE AND  TOO MUCH  CLOTHING.

multitude  of facts.  In France, as already alluded
to in the first chapter, it is the custom to carry every
infant, soon after birth, to the office of the maire,
that its birth may be  registered.   Suspecting that
the  exposure consequent upon such a practice must
be pernicious  to health, especially in winter, and
where the distance is great, Dr. Edwards made in-
quiry, and on consulting  the returns  made to the
Minister of the Interior, found that the proportion
of deaths  within a very  limited period after birth
was much greater in winter than in summer, and in
the  northern than in the southern departments ; and
on further inquiry he discovered that  the mortality
was greater in parishes where the inhabitants were
scattered at a distance  from the maire, than where
they were congregated near him ;  so that the num-
ber of deaths in infancy seemed to be  influenced by
the degree and duration of the exposure to the cold
air.  What, more striking proof than this can be re-
quired of trie evils arising from the ignorance of our
legislators in regard to the constitution of the human
body ?  No man who understood physiology could
ever have sanctioned a law, the  practical  effect of
which is to consign annually so many  victims to an
untimely grave.
  Many parents, from over-anxiety to avoid one
form of evil, run blindfold into another scarcely less
pernicious, and not only  envelop  infants in innu-
merable folds of warm clothing, but keep them con-
fined to very hot  and close rooms.  It would be well
for  them to recollect, however, that extremes  are
always hurtful, and  that  the constitution  may be
enfeebled, and disease induced, by too  much heat
and clothing and too close an atmosphere, as effec-
tually as by  cold and currents  of air.  The  skin
thus opened and  relaxed perspires too  easily, and is
readily affected by the slightest variations  of tem-
perature ;  whence arise colds and other ailments,
which it is the chief intention to guard against: and 
RULES  FOR DRESS.
65
 the internal organs, being at the same time deprived
 of their fair proportion of blood, become enfeebled,
 and  afford inadequate nourishment and support to
 the rest of the body.
   The insensible perspiration being composed  of a
 large quantity of water, which passes off in the form
 of vapour and is not seen, and of various  salts and
 animal matter, a portion of which remains adherent
 to the skin, the  removal  of this residue by washing
 becomes  an indispensable condition of health, the
 observance of which, particularly in early life, when
 waste and nutrition are both very active, prevents
 the  appearance of cutaneous and  other diseases
 common  in infancy.   Not only, therefore, is daily
 washing of the  body required at that age, but a fre-
 quent change of  clothing is essential, and every
 thing in the shape of dress  ought to be  loose and
 easy, both to allow  free  circulation through  the
 vessels, and to permit the insensible perspiration to
 have a free exit,  instead of being confined to and ab-
 sorbed by the clothes, and held in contact with the
 skin, as often happens, till it  gives rise to irritation.
   In youth, the  skin is still delicate in texture and
 the seat  of extensive  exhalation  and acute  sensa-
 tion, but  it is  at the  same time more  vigorous in
 constitution than it was in infancy ;  and the several
 animal functions being now more  equally balanced,
 it is  less susceptible of  disorder  from  external
 causes, and can endure with impunity changes of
 temperature which, at  either  an earlier or more ad-
 vanced  age, would have proved  highly  injurious.
 The  activity and restless energy of youth keep up
 a free and equal circulation  even in the remotest
 parts of the body, and this  free circulation in its
 turn maintains an equality of temperature in them
 all.   Cold bathing and  lighter clothing may now be
 resorted  to with a rational prospect of advantage;
 but when, from a  weak constitution or unusual suscepti-
bility, the skin  is  not endowed with sufficient vitality to 
66
RULES  FOR DRESS.
originate the  necessary reaction, which alone renders
these safe  and proper,—when they produce an abiding
sense  of chillness, however slight in degree,—we may
rest assured that  mischief will inevitably follow at a
greater or shorter distance of time.  Many ^oung per-
sons of both sexes are in the habit of going about in
winter and in cold weather with a dress light and
airy enough for a northern summer, and they think
it manly and becoming to do so ; but those who are
not very strongly constituted suffer a severe penalty
for their  folly.   The necessary effect  of deficient
circulation and vitality in the skin is to  throw a dis-
proportionate mass of blood inwards; and when this
condition exists, insufficient clothing perpetuates the
evil, until internal disease  is generated, and health
irrecoverably lost.   Insufficient clothing  not only
exposes the wearer to all the risk of sudden changes
of temperature, but  it is still more dangerous (be-
cause in a degree  less marked, and therefore less
apt to excite attention till the evil be incurred), in
that form  which, while  it is warm enough to guard
the body against extreme cold, is inadequate  to pre-
serving the skin at its natural heat.   Many youths,
particularly females and those whose  occupations
are sedentary, pass days,  and weeks,  and months
without ever experiencing the pleasing  glow and
warmth of a healthy skin, and are habitually com-
plaining of chillness of the surface, cold feet, and
other symptoms of deficient cutaneous circulation.
Their suffering, unfortunately, does not stop here,
for the unequal distribution of the blood oppresses
the internal organs, and too often, by insensible de-
grees, lays the foundation of tubercles in the lungs,
and other maladies, which show themselves only
when arrived at an incurable stage.  Young persons
of a consumptive habit will generally be found to
complain  of this increased sensibility to cold, even
before they become subject to those slight catarrhal
attacks which are so often the immediate precur- 
RULES  FOR DRESS.
67
 sors, or rather the first stages, of pulmonary con-
 sumption.  All who value health, and have common
 sense and resolution, will  therefore take warning
 from signs like these, and never rest till equilibrium
 of action be restored.  For  this purpose, warm
 clothing, exercise in the open air, sponging  with
 vinegar and water, the warm bath, regular friction
 with a flesh-brush  or hair-glove, and great cleanli-
 ness, are excellently adapted.
   But while sufficiency of clothing is attended to,
 excessive wrapping up must be as carefully avoided.
 Great differences in the power of generating  heat
 and resisting cold  exist in different individuals, and
 it would be absurd to apply the same rules to those
 who never feel cold  as to those who are peculiarly
 sensitive.   The  former may be benefited  by  cold
 bathing and degrees of exposure which would be
 fatal to the latter.   The rule is, therefore, not to
 dress in an invariable way in all cases, but to put on
 clothing in kind and quantity sufficient in the individ-
 ual case to protect the body effectually from an abiding
 sensation of cold, however slight.  Warmth, however,
 ought not to be sought  for in clothing alone.  The
 Creator has made exercise essential as a means;
 and if we neglect this, and seek it in clothing alone, it
 is at the risk or rather certainty of  weakening the
 body, relaxing the surface, and rendering  the  sys-
 tem extremely susceptible of injury from the slight-
 est accidental exposures, or variations of tempera-
 ture and  moisture.  Many good constitutions are
 thus ruined, and many nervous and pulmonary com-
 plaints brought on, to imbitter existence, and to re-
 duce the sufferer to the level of a hot-house plant.
   Female dress errs in one  important particular,
 even when well suited  in material and in quantity.
 From  the tightness with which it is  made to fit on
 the upper part of the body, not only is the insensible
 perspiration injudiciously and hurtfully confined, but
ihat free play between the dress and the skin which 
68
WET AND COLD  FEET.
 is  so beneficial in gently stimulating the latter by
 friction on  every movement  of the body is  alto-
 gether prevented, and the action of the cutaneous
 nerves and vessels, and consequently the heat gene-
 rated, rendered lower in  degree than would  result
 from the same dress worn more loosely.  P^very
 part and every function are thus linked so closely
 with the rest, that we can neither, act wrong as re-
 gards one organ without all suffering, nor act  right
 without all sharing in the benefit.
  We can now appreciate the manner in which wet
 and cold feet are so prolific of internal disease, and
 the cruelty of fitting up schools and similar places
 without  making adequate  provision for  the welfare
 of  their  young occupants.  The circumstances in
 which wet and cold feet are most apt to cause dis-
 ease are where  the person remains inactive, and
 where, Consequently, there is nothing to counter-
 balance the unequal flow of blood which then takes
 place towards the internal  parts:  for it is well
 known that a person in ordinary health may walk
 about or work in the open air with wet feet for hours
 together without injury, provided he  put on dry
 stockings and shoes immediately on coming home.
 It is therefore  not the mere state of wetness that
 causes the evil, but the check to perspiration and the
 unequal  distribution of blood  to which  the accom-
 panying  coldness gives rise.   Wet and damp are
 more unwholesome when applied to the feet  than
 when they affect other parts, chiefly because  they
 receive a large supply of  blood to carry on a  high
 degree of perspiration, and because their distance
 from the heart or centre of circulation  diminishes
 the force with  which this is carried on, and  thus
 leaves them  more susceptible  of injury from  ex-
 ternal causes.  They are also more exposed in situa-
 tion than other parts of the skin; but cold or wet
applied anywhere, as to the side for instance, either 
ADVANTAGES  OF FLANNEL.          63
 by a current of air or by rain, is well known to be
 pernicious.
   The advantages of wearing flannel next the skin
 are easily explicable on the above principles.  Being
 a bad conductor of heat, flannel prevents that of the
 animal economy from  being quickly dissipated, and
 protects the body in a  considerable degree from the
 injurious  influence  of sudden  external  changes.
 From its presenting a rough and uneven though soft
 surface to the skin, every movement of the body in
 labour or  in exercise gives, by the consequent fric-
 tion, a gentle stimulus to the cutaneous vessels and
 nerves, which assists their  action, and maintains
 their functions in health; and being at the same
 time of a loose and porous texture, flannel is capable
 of absorbing the  cutaneous exhalations to a larger
 extent than any other material in common use. In
 some very delicate  constitutions, it  proves even too
 irritating to the skin ; but, in such cases, fine fleecy
 hosiery will  in general be easily  borne, and will
 greatly conduce to the preservation of health.  Many
 are in the custom  of  waiting till winter has fairly
 set in before beginning to wear flannel.  This is a
 great error in a variable climate like  ours, especially
 when the constitution is  not robust.  It is during
 the sudden changes from heat to cold, which are so
 common in autumn, before the frame has got inured
 to the reduction of  temperature, that  protection  is
 most wanted, and flannel is most useful..
  The advantages of flannel as a preservative from
 disease  in  warm as well as in  cold climates are
 now so well understood, that in the army and navy
its use  is  cogently,  and  with great propriety, in-
 sisted on.  Captain Murray, late of H. M. S. Valo-
rous,  told me that  he was so  strongly impressed
from former experience with a sense of the efficacy
of the protection afforded by the constant use of
flannel next the skin, that when, on his arrival in
England in December, 1823,  after two years' ser- 
70
ADVANTAGES OF  FLANNEL.
vice amid the icebergs on the coast of Labrador, the
ship was ordered to sail immediately for the West
Indies, he ordered the  purser to draw two extra
flannel shirts and pairs of drawers for each man,
and instituted a regular daily inspection to see that
they were worn.  These precautions were followed
by  the  happiest results.  He proceeded  to his
station with a  crew of  150  men;  visited  almost
every island in the West Indies, and  many of the
ports in 4he Gulf of Mexico; and, notwithstanding
the sudden transition from extreme climates, re-
turned to England without the loss of a single man,
or having any sick on board on his arrival.  In the
letter in which Captain Murray communicates these
facts, he adds, that  every precaution was used, by
lighting  stoves  between decks and scrubbing with
hot sand, to ensure the most thorough dryness, and
every means put in practice to promote cheerfulness
among the men.  When in command of the Recruit
gun-brig,  which lay  abo,ut  nine  weeks at Vera
Cruz, the same means preserved the health  of his
crew, when the other ships of war anchored around
him lost from twenty to fifty men each.
  That the superior health enjoyed  by the crew of
the  Valorous was attributable chiefly to the means
employed by  their  humane  and intelligent com-
mander is shown by the analogy of the Recruit; for
although constant communication was kept up be-
tween the latter and the other ships in  which
sickness prevailed,  and all were exposed  to the
same external  causes  of disease, yet  no  case of
sickness occurred on board the Recruit.  Facts like
these are truly instructive, by proving how far man
possesses the power of protecting himself from
injury, when he  has  received necessary instruction,
and chooses to adapt his conduct to  his situation.
   The exhalation from the skin being so constant
and extensive, its bad effects, when confined, sug-
gest another rule of conduct, viz. that of frequently 
      VENTILATION OF  BEDS AND CLOTHING.   71

 changing and airing the clothes, so as to free them
 from every  impurity.  It  is an excellent plan, for
 instance, to wear two sets of  flannels, each being
 worn and aired  by turns, on alternate days.  The
 effect is  at  first  scarcely perceptible,  but  in  the
 course of time its advantages  and comfort become
 very manifest, as the writer has amply experienced.
 For the  same reason, a practice common in Italy
 merits universal adoption.  Instead  of beds being
 made up in the morning the moment they are va-
 cated, and while  still saturated with the nocturnal
 exhalations which, before morning, become sensible
 even to smell in a bed-room,  the bed-clothes are
 thrown  over  the backs of chairs, the  mattresses
 shaken up, and the window thrown open for the
 greater part  of the day, so as to  secure a thorough
 and cleansing ventilation.   This practice, so conso-
 nant to  reason, imparts a  freshness  which is pecu-
 liarly grateful and conducive to  sleep, and its real
 value may be inferred from the well-known fact, that
 the opposite practice, carriod to  an extreme, as in
 the dwellings of the poor, where  three or four beds
 are often huddled up with all their impurities in a
 small room, is a  fruitful source  of fever and bad
 health, even  where ventilation during the day and
 nourishment are not deficient.   In the abodes of the
 poor Irish residing in Edinburgh, I have seen bed-
 ding for fourteen persons spread over one floor not
 exceeding twelve feet square,  and when morning
 came, the beds were huddled above one another to
 make sitting-room during the day,  and at  night were
 again laid down, charged with accumulated exhala-
 tions.  If fever were not to appear in such circum-
 stances,  it would be  indeed marvellous; and  we
 ought to  learn from this, that if the extreme be so
 injurious, the lesser degree implied in the prevalent
 practice  cannot  be wholesome, and ought, there-
 fore, not to be retained when  it  can be so easily
done away with. 
72
INFLUENCE OF LIGHT.
  The salutary influence of the  solar light  as  a
stimulus to the skin has been much overlooked, and
yet it must be obvious to every one after a moment's
reflection.  Those who live in mines or dark caves,
and who are rarely exposed to the light of day, pre-
sent a pale relaxed sallowness  of skin, which con-
trasts with the ruddy freshness  of country people
and others living much in  the open air.  The in-
habitants of  towns may be  known by  the  light
colour and  delicacy of  skin  which  confinement
induces.  Part of the  effect is owing, no. doubt, to
the agency of the external air, in the constitution
of which the skin seems to produce changes analo-
gous to those which take place in the lungs during
respiration ; but much is also attributable to depri-
vation of the stimulus of light.  Even vegetables
become pale, watery, and feeble in the dark; and, in
like manner,  men who work during the night and
sleep during  the day never present  the vigorous
look of health, which  distinguishes well-fed day-
labourers.  The squalid paleness and depression of
the poor population, resident in the  dark lanes of
large and crowded cities, show  the necessity of
consulting the wants of nature  more  than is gene-
rally done, when erecting new streets and manufac-
tories, and providing play-ground for the young.
  When the saline and  animal elements left by the
perspiration are not duly removed by washing or
bathing, they at last obstruct the pores and irritate
the skin.   And  it is apparently for this reason that,
in the eastern and warmer countries, where perspi-
ration is very copious, ablution  and bathing  have
assumed the  rank and  importance of religious ob-
servances.. Those who are in the habit of using
the flesh-brush daily  are  at first  surprised at the
quantity of white dry scurf which it brings off; and
those who take a warm bath for half an hour at long
intervals cannot  fail  to have noticed the  great
amount of impurities which  it removed, and the 
     IMPORTANCE OF ABLUTION AND BATHING.   73

grateful feeling of comfort which its use imparts.
The warm, tepid, cold, or  shower bath, as a means
of preserving health, ought to be in as common use
as a change of apparel, for it is equally a measure
of necessary cleanliness.  Many, no doubt, neglect
this, and enjoy  health notwithstanding; but many,
very many,  suffer from its omission; and even the
former would be benefited by employing it.  The
perception of this truth is gradually extending, and
baths are now to be found in fifty places for one in
which they could be  obtained twenty years  ago.
Even  yet, however, we are far behind  our conti-
nental neighbours in this respect.   They justly con-
sider  the bath as a necessary of life, while we still
regard it as a luxury.
   When we consider the importance of the exhala-
tion performed by the skin, the extent  to which ab-
lution and bathing of every description are neglected
in charitable  institutions, in  seminaries for  the
young,  and even by  many persons who consider
themselves as patterns of cleanliness, is almost in-
credible.   Mr. Stuart, in  speaking of the North
Americans,  states  in  his remarks, that  "the prac-
tice of travellers washing at the  doors, or in the
porticoes or stoops, or at the wells  of taverns and
hotels once a day, is most prejudicial to health; the
ablution of the body, which ought never to be neg-
lected, at least twice a day, in a hot climate, being
altogether inconsistent with it.  In fact," he adds,
" I have  found it more difficult, in travelling in the
United States, to procure a liberal supply of water
at all  times of the day and night in my bedchamber
than to obtain any other necessary.  A  supply for
washing the face and hands once a day seems all that is
thought  requisite."*  But, bad as this is, I fear that
numbers of sensible  people may be  found much
nearer home, who limit their ablutions to the visible
* Thr^e Years in America, vol. n. p 440.
            G 
74        COLD, TEPID, AND WARM BATH.

parts of their persons,  and  would  even  express
surprise if told that more than this is necessary to
health.   Certain  it is,  that  many never wash their
bodies at all, unless they  happen to be at sea-bath-
ing quarters in summer, or are oppressed with heat,
when they will resort to bathing as a means of com-
fort, but without  thinking at all of its efficacy as a
means of  cleanliness in preserving  health.   In
many public  charities and schools, in like  manner,
bathing or ablution is never thought of as a proper
or  practicable thing, except for the sick;  and yet,
it is obviously of great  importance  to every one,
especially to the young.*
  For general use, the tepid or warm bath seems to
me much more suitable than  the  cold  bath, especi-
ally in winter, and for those who are not robust and
full of animal heat.  Where the constitution is not
sufficiently vigorous to  secure  reaction after the
cold  bath, as indicated by  a  warm glow over the
surface, its use inevitably does harm.   A vast num-
ber of persons are  in this condition; while, on the
contrary, there are few indeed who  do  not derive
evident advantage from the  regular use of the tepid
bath, and still fewer who are hurt by it.
  Where the health is good, and the bodily powers
are sufficiently vigorous, the cold bath during sum-
mer, and  the shower-bath in winter,  may serve
every purpose required  from them.   But it should
never b e forgotten, that they are too  powerful in

  * While revising these pages, a friend has mentioned to me
a case strikingly illustrative of the necessity of attending to the
condition of the skin, and of the  sympathy subsisting between
it and the bowels.  A lady, who is in other respects very cleanly
in her habits, has never been accustomed to the use of the bath
or to general ablution of any kind, and in consequence the skin
acts very imperfectly. As a substitute, however, for its exhala-
tion, she  has  all her life been affected with bowel complaint,
which no treatment directed to the bowels has been able to re-
move.  It is probable that the natural course of the exhalation
could not now be restored. 
          COLD, TEPID, AND WARM  BATH.       75

their  agency to be used  with safety by every one,
especially in cold weather.  In proportion as cold
bathing is  influential in  the  restoration of health
when judiciously used, it  is hurtful when resorted
to without  discrimination;  and invalids  therefore
ought never to have recourse to it without the sanc-
tion of their professional advisers.
  Even where cold bathing is likely to be of service
when judiciously employed,  much mischief often
results from prolonging the immersion too long, or
from resorting to it when  the vital powers are  too
languid to admit of the  necessary  reaction—before
breakfast, for example, or after fatigue.  For  this
reason, many persons  derive much benefit from
bathing  early in  the  forenoon, who, when they
bathe in the morning before taking any sustenance,
do not speedily recover their  natural heat and elas-
ticity of  feeling.
  For those who are not  robust, daily sponging of
the body with cold water and vinegar,  or salt water,
is the best substitute for the  cold bath, and may be
resorted to with safety and advantage in most states
of the system ;  especially when care  is taken to
excite in the  surface, by subsequent  friction with
the flesh-brush or hair-glove, the healthy glow of re-
action.   It then becomes  an  excellent preservative
from  the effects of changeable weather.   When,
however, a continued sensation of  coldness or chili
is perceptible over the body, sponging ought not to
be persisted in :  dry friction, aided by the tepid bath,
is then greatly preferable, and often proves highly
serviceable in keeping up the due action of the skin.
  For habitual use, the tepid or warm  bath is  cer-
tainly the safest  and most valuable, especially during
the autumn, winter, and spring, and for invalids.  A
temperature ranging from 85° to 98°,  according to
the state of  the individual, is the most suitable ;  and
the duration of the immersion may vary from fifteen
minutes to an hour, or more, according to circum- 
76       COLD, TEPID, AND WARM  BATH.

stances.  As a general rule, the water ought simply
to be warm enough to feel pleasant, without giving
a positive sensation  of heat: the degree at which
this  happens varies  a good  deal  according to the
constitution and state of health at the time.   Some-
times, when the generation of animal heat is great,
a bath at 95° will be  felt disagreeably warm and re-
laxing;  while,  at another time, when the  animal
heat is produced in deficient quantity, the same tem-
perature will cause  a chilly  sensation.   The  rule,
then, is to avoid equally the positive impressions of
heat and of  cold, and to seek the agreeable medium.
A bath of the latter  description is  the reverse of
relaxing; it gives a cheerful tone and activity to all
the functions, and may be  used every day, or on
alternate days, for fifteen  or twenty minutes, with
much advantage.
  A person in sound  health and strength may take
a bath at any time, except immediately after meals.
But the best time  for valetudinarians is in the fore-
noon or evening, two  or three hours after a moderate
meal, when the system is invigorated  by food, but
not oppressed by the labour  of digestion.   When
the bath is delayed till five or six hours after eating,
delicate  people sometimes become  faint under its
operation, and,  from the absence of reaction, are
rather  weakened by  the relaxation it then induces.
As a general rule, active exertion ought to be avoided
for an hour  or  two after using the  warm or tepid
bath; and, unless  we wish  to induce perspiration,
it ought to be  taken immediately before going to
bed; or, if it is, it ought to  be merely tepid,  and
not of too long duration.
  These rules apply  of course only to persons in an
ordinary state of health.  If organic disease, head-
ache, feverishness, constipation, or  other  ailment
exist, bathing ought  never to be employed without
medical advice.  But that it  is a safe and valuable
preservative of health in ordinary circumstances, and 
VAPOUR-BATH.
77
an active remedy in disease, is most certain.  Instead
of being dangerous by causing liability to cold, it is,
when well  managed, so much the reverse, that the
author of these pages  has used it much  and suc-
cessfully for the express purpose of  diminishing
such liability, both in himself and others with whom
the chest is delicate.  In his own instance, in par-
ticular, he is conscious of having derived much ad-
vantage from its regular employment, especially in
the colder months  of the year, during which he has
uniformly found himself most effectually strength-
ened  against the  impression  of cold, by repeating
the bath at shorter intervals than usual.
  In  many manufactories where  Avarm  water is
always obtainable, it would be a very great advan-
tage to have a few baths erected for the use of the
operatives.  Not only would these be useful in pro-
moting health  and cleanliness, but  they would, by
their refreshing and soothing influence, diminish the
craving for stimulus which leads so many to the gin-
shop ; and, at the same time, calm the irritability of
mind  so apt to be  induced by excessive labour.
Where the trade is  dirty, as many trades necessarily
are, it is needless  to say how conducive to health
and comfort a tepid bath would be on quitting it for
the day.
  On the Continent, the vapour  and hot air-baths
are had recourse to, both as  a  means of health and
in the cure of disease, to an infinitely greater extent
than they are in this country.   Their use is attended
by the very best effects, particularly in chronic ail-
ments, and there can be no question that their action
is chiefly on the skin, and through its medium on
the nervous system.  As a means of determining to
the surface, promoting cutaneous  exhalation, and
equalizing the  circulation, they are second  to no
remedy now in use; and consequently, in a variety
of affections which the encouragement  of  these
processes is calculated to relieve, they may be em- 
78
VAPOUR-BATH.
ployed with  every prospect of advantage.  The
prevalent fear of catching cold, which deters many
from using the vapour-bath, even more than from
warm bathing,  is  founded  on a false analogy be-
tween its effects and those of profuse perspiration
from exercise or  illness.  The latter weakens the
body, and, by diminishing the power of reaction,
renders it susceptible of injury from sudden changes
of temperature.   But the effect of the vapour-bath
properly administered is very different.  When not
too warm or too long continued, it increases instead
of exhausting the strength,  and, by exciting the
vital action of the skin, gives rise to a power of re-
action which enables it to  resist cold better than
before.  This I have heard many patients remark;
and the fact is well exemplified  in  Russia  and the
north of  Europe,  where, in the depth of winter, it is
not uncommon for the natives to rush out of a va-
pour-bath and roll themselves in the snow, and be
refreshed by doing so; whereas, were they to at-
tempt such a practice after severe perspiration from
exercise,  they would  inevitably suffer.  It is the
previous stimulus given to  the skin by the vapour-
bath which is the real safeguard against the cold-
ness of the snow.
   Common experience affords another illustration
of the same principle.  If, in a cold winter day, we
chance to sit for some time in a room imperfectly
warmed, and feel in consequence  a sensation of
chillness over the body, we are much more likely to
catch cold on going out than if we had been sitting
in a room comfortably warm.  In  the latter case,
the cutaneous circulation and  nervous action  go on
vigorously; heat is freely generated, and the vital
action of the skin is in its full force.  The change
to a lower temperature, if accompanied with exer-
cise to keep up this vitality, is then felt to be bracing
and stimulating rather than disagreeable.   But it is
widely different when the surface is already chilled 
VAPOUR BATH.
79
 before going out.  The  vitality of the skin being
 diminished, reaction cannot follow additional ex°
 posure ;  the circulation leaves the surface, and be-
 comes still more internal;  and, if weakness exists
 in the throat or chest, cold is the almost certain re-
 sult.  Many suffer from ignorance of this principle.
  The vapour-bath is thus calculated to be exten-
 sively useful, both as a preservative and as a reme-
 dial agent.  Many a  cold and many  a rheumatic
 attack arising from  checked perspiration or long
 exposure to the weather might be nipped in the bud
 by  its timely use.  In chronic affections, not only
 of the skin itself, but of the internal  organs with
 which the  skin sympathizes most closely, as the
 stomach and intestines, the judicious application of
 the vapour-bath is productive of great relief.  Even
 in chronic pulmonary complaints, it is, according to
 the  continental physicians, not only safe, but very
 serviceable; particularly in those affections of the
 mucous membrane which resemble consumption in
 so  many of their  symptoms.   Like all  powerful
 remedies, however, the vapour-bath must be admin-
 istered with careful regard to the condition and cir-
 cumstances of the individual.
  It happens occasionally, either from some pecu-
 liarity of constitution, or from  some unusual condi-
 tion of the skin, indicated by great dryness  and  a
 liability to erysipelatous and  scaly eruptions, that
 the moisture of the water or vapour-bath is at first
 rather prejudicial  and  unpleasant, and  becomes
 grateful only in proportion  as the skin regains its
 healthy state.   In such cases, the warm air-bath is
 said to  be  remarkably successful, and is gaining
ground very rapidly in the metropolis.
  Although the preceding remarks apply specially
to the skin considered as an exhalant,  yet most of
them  are equally applicable to it when viewed as the
seat of an important nervous function.  For so inti-
mately and beautifully are all the parts of the frame 
80
WARM BATH BENEFICIAL
connected with each other, that what is really good
for one rarely if ever fails  to  be beneficial lo  the
rest.   Thus while exercise, adequate clothing, the
bath, friction, and cleanliness  are very efficacious
in promoting the  insensible perspiration and equal-
izing the circulation, they are  almost  equally influ-
ential in promoting the vital action of the innumer-
able nervous filaments ramified on the skin, and the
tone of which is as essential as that  of the blood-
vessels to the  proper discharge of the cutaneous
functions.   In the large and afflicting class of ner-
vous and mental  diseases,  attention to the  skin be-
comes therefore almost a sine  qua non of successful
treatment.   As a preservative, too, it  is influential.
In most nervous  ailments, languor and inaction of
the skin show themselves  simultaneously with the
earliest dawn of mental uneasiness, and often attract
notice before the morbid feelings of the mind have
acquired either permanence or  strength.   At this
early  period, the use of the  bath  will frequently
prove very efficacious in  restoring health.
  Many imagine  the tepid and warm bath to  be
weakening, but experience shows  that they are so
only when abused.   When not  too warm,  and  not
prolonged beyond fifteen or  twenty  minutes,  the
tepid bath may be employed daily with perfect safety
and advantage by persons in health ; while  invalids,
whose condition requires its use, are often strength-
ened by a much longer and  equally frequent immer-
sion.   I have seen it resorted to for an hour daily,
for months  in succession, by nervous  invalids, with
much  benefit to health and  strength ; and in France
it is employed to an infinitely greater extent.   At
the immense hospital of Salpetriere  at Paris, and
also at Charenton, M. Esquirol has for many years
directed it to be extensively used  for two, three,
and even five or six hours a day, and with excellent
effect.  When I visited the hospital for the insane
at  Charenton, and M. Esquirol's admirable private 
TO  THE NERVOUS  SYSTEM.
81
asylum at  Ivry in September, 1831, that gentleman
spoke to me in very strong terms of the benefits re-
sulting from the practice,  and declared that he had
ever found it, when used with ordinary prudence, a
safe and valuable remedy;  and that,  in reality, it
failed to do good in some  cases more from the pa-
tient remaining in it too short a time, than from  its
want of power to relieve.
  In the Medico-Chirurgical Reviews for January
and April, 1833,avery interesting outline isgivenof an
article published in the Revue Medicate, illustrative of
the efficacy of the tepid bath and the affusion of cooler
water on the head during the last few minutes of im-
mersion, in the cure of a variety of nervous and head
affections of  considerable obstinacy  and severity.
Dr. Johnson, the  editor of the Review, adds his tes-
timony to the success of the  practice, and the re-
sults obtained agree entirely with my own  expe-
rience ; but,  as these  papers relate  to  the  treat-
ment of disease, it would be out of place to do more
here than recommend them  to the attention of the
professional reader.  I may  mention, however, that
Dr. Recamier frequently orders the bath to be re-
peated two, three, or even four times in a day.  So
little reality  is  there in  its supposed debilitating
effect.
  I mention these facts to show, that attention to
the health of the skin is really influential in preserv-
ing the tone of the nervous  system,  and in con-
tributing to mental and bodily comfort, and not for
the purpose of inducing persons in bad health to
have recourse to the  bath  of their  own  accord,
which they ought never to do, as they may chance
to suffer from  using  it  unseasonably.   No rules of
universal application can  be laid down, and this is
not the place for a professional disquisition.
  If the bath cannot be had  at all  places, soap and
water may be obtained everywhere, and leave no
apology for neglecting the skin; or, as already men- 
82      CONNEXION  BETWEEN  THE  SKIN

tioned, if the constitution be delicate, water and
vinegar, or water and salt, used daily, form an  ex-
cellent and  safe  means  of cleansing and  gently
stimulating the skin:  to the invalid, they are highly
beneficial, when the nature of the indisposition does
not render  them improper.  A rough and rather
coarse towel is a very useful auxiliary in such ablu-
tions.  Few of those who have steadiness enough
to keep up the action of the skin by the above means.
and to avoid  strong exciting causes, will ever suffer
from  colds,  sore throats,  or similar complaints;
while, as a means of restoring health, they are often
incalculably serviceable.  If one-tenth of  the perse-
vering attention and labour bestowed to  so much
purpose in rubbing  down and  currying  the skins
of horses, were bestowed by  the human race  in
keeping themselves in good condition, and a little
attention  were paid to diet and clothing,—colds,
nervous diseases, and  stomach complaints would
cease to form so large an  item  in the catalogue of
human miseries.   Man studies  the nature of other
animals, and adapts  his  conduct to their  constitu-
tion ;  himself alone he continues ignorant of, and
neglects.  He considers himself as a being of a su-
perior order, and not subject to  the laws of organi-
zation which regulate the functions of the inferior
animals; but this conclusion is the result of igno-
rance and pride, and not a just  inference  from the
premises on which it is ostensibly founded.

  The writer of these remarks  has, unfortunately
for himself,  had extensive  experience, in  his own
person, of the connexion between  the state of the
skin and the health of the lungs ; and  can therefore
speak with some confidence as  to the accuracy of
his observations, and the benefit to be derived from
attending to  the condition of the skin in chronic pul-
monary complaints.   Many affections of a consump-
tive character are preceded or begin by a deficiency 
AND  THE  LUNGS.
83
 of vital action in the skin and extremities, and a
 consequent feeling of coldness in the feet and on
 the surface, and susceptibility of catarrhal affections
 from apparently inadequate causes, often long before
 any pressing symptom, directly connected with the
 lungs, occurs to attract notice.   In this state, means
 systematically directed to restoring the cutaneous
 circulation will frequently be successful  in warding
 off consumption;  and even when  the  disease  is
 formed, the same means will help to prolong life and
 relieve suffering, while they will go far  to effect a
 cure  in those chronic affections of the bronchial
 membrane which  simulate  consumption and are
 sometimes undistinguishable  from it, and which,
 when mismanaged, arc equally fatal.
   The two remedies which  have the  oldest and
 most general reputation in the  successful treatment
 of pulmonary  and  consumptive disease  have this
 quality in  common, that  both  owe much of their
 influence to  their exciting the  cutaneous functions,
 and equalizing the  circulation.  I allude to sailing,
 and riding on  horseback.  Many authors speak of
 both  in the  highest  terms, and Sydenham is well
 known to  have considered the latter as almost  a
 specific.  Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia,  too, extols  it
 with  nearly equal force.   So far as my observation
 goes, these exercises are productive  of advantage,
 chiefly in proportion as they determine the blood to
 the surface, which squeamishness, sea-sickness, and
 riding all do in a powerful manner.  Riding seems
 to  have this  effect, partly from the bodily exercise
 giving general  vigour to the circulation, and partly
 from the continued gentle friction between the skin
 and the clothes stimulating the  cutaneous vessels
 and nerves.  This latter effect is of more import-
 ance than  many believe.   Those, accordingly, who
 are proof against sea-sickness, derive least benefit
from the voyage; while those  who suffer under it
long are compensated by the amelioration which it 
84      CONNEXION  BETWEEN THE SKIN

induces in the more serious malady.  The writer of
these remarks became ill in the month of January,
1820, and soon presented many of the symptoms of
pulmonary consumption.  In spite  of the best ad-
vice, he continued losing ground till the month of
July, when he went  by sea to London, on his way
to the south of France ; but, finding himself unable
for the journey, he was obliged to return from Lon-
don also by sea.   Being  extremely liable  to  sea-
sickness, he was squeamish or sick during the whole
of both voyages—so  much so as to be in a state of
gentle perspiration for a  great part of  the time.
After this he  became sensible for the first time of a
slight improvement in his health  and strength, and
of a diminution of febrile excitement.  Some weeks
afterward, he embarked for the Mediterranean, and
encountered a succession of storms for the first four
weeks, two of which were spent, in the  month of
November, in the Bay of Biscay, in a very heavy sea.
For more than three weeks he was generally very
sick, and always in a state of nausea; and during
the whole time,  although  his bed-was repeatedly
partially wetted by salt, water, and the weather cold,
the flow of blood towards the skin was so powerful
as to keep it generally warm, always moist,  and
often wet with perspiration, forced out by retching
and nausea.   The result was, that, on entering the
Mediterranean at the end of a month,  and there
meeting fine weather, he found himself, though still
more reduced in flesh and very weak, in every other
respect  decidedly improved; and on his arrival in
Italy at  the  end of  seven weeks,  recovery fairly
commenced, after about ten months' illness,  and by
great care it went on  with little interruption, till the
summer of 1821, when he returned home.
  To carry on what was so well begun, riding on
horseback in  the country was resorted to, and that
exercise was found to excite the skin so beneficially,
as to keep it always pleasantly warm, and generally 
AND  THE LUNGS.
85
bedewed with moisture, even to the extremities of
the toes; and in proportion to this effect was the
advantage derived  from it, in relieving the  chest,
increasing the strength, and improving the appetite.
A second winter was spent in the south with equal
benefit; and in the summer of 1822, riding was re-
sumed at home, and the health continued to improve.
The excitement given to the skin by riding was
sufficient to keep the feet warm, and to prevent even
considerable  changes of temperature  from  being
felt; and rain was not more regarded, although spe-
cial attention was of course paid to taking off damp
or wet clothes the moment the ride was at an end.
Strength increased so much under this plan, com-
bined with sponging, friction, and other means, that
it was persevered in through the very severe  winter
of 1822-3, and with the best effects.   For nine years
thereafter  the  health continued good, under the
usual exposures of professional life:  but in 1831 it
again gave way, and pulmonary symptoms of a sus-
picious character once more made their appearance.
The same system was pursued, and the same results
have again followed the invigoration of the cutane-
ous functions and of the general he*alth, by a sea-
voyage, horseback exercise,  and the regular  use of
the bath.   These, as formerly, have  proved bene-
ficial in proportion to  their influence in keeping up
the warmth and  moisture  of the surface  and ex-
tremities.
  In thus insisting upon the advantages of maintain-
ing the healthy action of  the skin, I  must not  be
supposed to ascribe the whole benefit  to that  cir-
cumstance alone.   So  beautifully is  the animal
economy constituted, that it is  impossible to  use
rational means for the invigoration of  one organ or
function, without  good being done to all; and so
closely are the various parts allied to each  other,
that, to describe fully the functions and sympathies
of any one, we would require to make the circle of 
66
SKIN NOT TO  BE
the whole.   From this appears the fallacy of those
who select the derangements of any one organ as
the origin and source of all existing diseases.   Some
functions are  no doubt  more important, and  their
disorders exercise a wider influence over the gene-
ral  health than others ; but no one who knows the
structure of the human body and the relations of its
parts, or has carefully observed the phenomena of
disease, can  be satisfied with such exclusive reason-
ing.  The stomach, the bowels, the liver, and the
nervous system have each had their patrons, and
the derangement of  each has been specially held
out as the grand fountain of human misery.   Each
doctrine, too, has been demonstrated, by cases and
cures, to be superior to all the rest, and each has
proved successful in  its turn, where the others had
been tried and failed. Far, however, from proving
the propriety of exclusiveness in favour of any one
organ, such facts,  rightly considered, demonstrate
the reverse, and show that successful  practice re-
quires views  and  remedies founded on a  careful
examination of every function; and  afford a strong
presumption  that the man who traces every illness
to the liver, the stomach, or  the nerves will be  at
least  as often strikingly wrong, as strikingly right.
  In saying, therefore, that attention to the state of
the skin is  influential in preserving and restoring
health, we wish to  represent it as an important, but
by  no means exclusive condition, and to ascribe to
the means used for invigorating its functions their
due share of action upon other organs and functions.
Sailing, for  example, is useful  in pulmonary com-
plaints,  not only because its accompanying nausea
causes a healthful flow of  blood from  the internal
parts to the  surface, but  because  the gentle and
constant exercise  occasioned by the movement of
the ship is admirably adapted to a debilitated state
of the system, when  other exercise cannot be taken
without hurrying the breathing or inducing fatigue; 
EXCLUSIVELY ATTENDED  TO.        87
and because pure, fresh, bracing air is  of infinite
importance in  all, and especially in pulmonary af-
fections.   Attention  to  the  skin  must,  therefore,
never be considered for a moment as superseding
attention to the other functions.  That were a per-
nicious  mistake.   It must be regarded  as  a part
only, though an important part, of a rational  and
consistent treatment, and its efficacy will often de-
pend, in no small degree, on the care which is taken
to support its  effects by a scrupulous attention to
the necessities of the rest of the system.
  When these pages were passing through the press
in the form in which their substance first appeared
in a periodical journal, I was surprised and gratified
on  seeing a work  advertised, on the same subject
and with almost  the same  title,  by Dr. Wood of
Newry.  On afterward  procuring the book, I was
much pleased  to perceive the extent to which our
views harmonized, and  to find that Dr. Wood, as
well as myself, had felt the want of popular informa-
tion on the functions of the animal economy, and
come to the  conclusion, that, even by medical men,
the influence of the skin on the general  health and
in the treatment of disease is too much overlooked. 
88  STRUCTURE AND ATTACHMENTS OF MUSCLES.
                 CHAPTER IV.

Muscles—Their Structure, Attachments, and Conditions of Ac-
  tion—Necessity of Arterial Blood and of IViervous Influence—
  Illustrations—Muscles act by alternate Contraction and Re-
  laxation—Fatigue consequent on continuing the same Attitude
  explained—Injuries of Spine from Neglect of this Law, and
  from sedentary Occupations in School—The Mind ought to be
  engaged in Exorcise as well as the Body—Superiority of
  cheerful Play  and amusing Games—A dull Walk, the  least
  useful Exercise—Influence of Mental Stimulus illustrated by
  Examples—Exercise to be proportioned to Strength—Laws
  of Exercise.

  Having examined the nature and uses of the skin,
we may next proceed to  consider  the  important
system  of  organs, lying almost  immediately under
it, viz. the Muscles; which, although in constant
activity during our waking hours, and  of indispen-
sable necessity to man in every movement which he
makes,  are perhaps less  familiarly known than
almost any other part of the body.  As the study of
the muscular  system involves an exposition of the
principles which  ought to regulate exercise, it can
scarcely fail to excite the attention  of the general
reader, and especially of  those who, as parents or
teachers, are interested  in the education  of the
young.
  The muscles are those distinct and compact bun-
dles of fleshy fibres which are found  in animals im-
mediately on  removing the skin and subjacent fat;
and which, although perhaps not known to all under
their generic or  scientific name, are familiar to
every one as constituting the red  fleshy part of
meat.
  Every muscle, or separate bundle of fleshy  sub-
stance, is composed of innumerable small fibres or 
   STRUCTURE AND ATTACHMENTS OF MUSCLES. 89

threads, each separated from, and at the same time
loosely connected  with, the others  by a sheath of
cellular membrane, enveloping it, but which is so
thin  as not  to obscure the  colour  of the  fibre, or
attract notice unless  specially looked for.  Each
muscle is in its turn separated  from the neighbour-
ing muscles by thicker layers or sheaths of the same
membrane, in some of  the cells of which fat is de-
posited, especially where the interval between the
muscles is considerable ; and  hence the elegantly
rounded form of the limbs, which without this fat
would present the rigid, sharp, and prominent out-
line which we see occasionally in strong persons of
a spare habit of body.   From  the loose texture of
the  connecting  cellular membrane,  the  muscles
enjoy perfect freedom  of motion  during life, and
admit of being easily separated  from each other after
death, either by the knife, or by simply tearing the
cellular tissue.
  Muscles, speaking generally, may be divided into
three parts, of which   the  middle  fleshy  portion,
called the  belly, is the  most conspicuous  and im-
portant.  The other two are  the  opposite ends,
commonly called  the  origin  and  insertion of the
muscle.  The belly is the bulky and fleshy part, by
the contraction or shortening of the fibres of which
the two ends are brought nearer to each other, while
the belly  itself swells  out  in  a lateral direction.
When we attempt to lift a heavy weight in the hand,
or to overcome any resistance, the  muscles which
bend the arm may be seen and felt to start out, rigid
and well defined  in their whole extent, while their
extremities tend powerfully to  approach each other,
and of course to carry along with them the bones
to which they are attached.  In consequence of this
tendency, if the  weight be  unexpectedly knocked
out of the hand before we have time to obviate the
result, the  muscles, having then no resistance to
overcome, will contract violently,  and throw the
                      H2 
00 STRUCTURE AND ATTACHMENTS OF MUSCLES.

hand up with  a sudden jerk.   Voluntary motion is,
in fact, effected by the contraction of muscles acting
upon and  changing  the  relative positions of  the
bones or solid support of the system, and therefore
almost all muscles are attached to one bone by their
origin, and to another by their insertion; the former
being merely the fixed extremity, towards which the
opposite and more moveable end, called the insertion,
is carried by the  shortening of the intervening belly
of the muscle.
  The figure represents the bones of the arm and hand, having
   all the soft parts dissected off except one muscle O B I, of
   which the function is to bend the arm.   O the origin of the
   muscle.  B the belly. I the insertion.  T T the tendons.
   S the shoulder-joint.  E the elbow. When the belly con-
   tracts, the lower extremity of the muscle, I, is brought
   nearer to the origin or fixed point O, and, by thus bending
   the arm at the elbow-joint, raises  up the weight W placed
   in the hand.

  If the muscles must be attached to bones, it  may
be asked,—how can the  bones,  which present com-
paratively  so  small a surface, afford space  enough
for the attachments of muscles, which are so much
larger, and which even appear  in successive layers
above  each other 1   This difficulty is obviated in
two ways.  In the first place,  the heads and other
parts of bones to which muscles are attached are 
           NATURE OF  THE  MUSCLES.         91

enlarged so as to present a greater surface than the
body of the bone, and form what are called processes,
for the obvious purpose of affording greater room ;
and,  secondly,  instead of all  the fleshy fibres of a
muscle being prolonged to its points of attachment
at the bone, they, with  few exceptions, terminate
gradually, as they proceed from the belly, in  a white
shining tendon, of a much smaller size  than the
muscle, but of great strength, which is inserted into
the bone.   These  tendons, or  sinews as they are^
occasionally named, conduce  greatly to symmetry,
elegance, and freedom of motion ; and.njay be traced
under the skin on the back of the hund], and-in^e
very powerful specimen at the heel, called 'the -ten-
don of Achilles.  The hamstrings are another ob-
vious example, and may be easily felt  becoming
tight  when  an effort is  made  to bend the knee.
There are a few muscles not attached to bones by
either extremity, and also a few which have no ten-
dons.  Those which surround the  eyebrows, the
mouth, the gullet, and some of the other  natural
passages are of the former description; as is also
the heart.   Some of the muscles of the trunk have
no tendons, but these are few in number, and may
at present be considered  exceptions to the  general
rule.
  In man, and in most of the animals with which
we are familiar, the muscles are of a red  colour.
This, however, depends entirely on the blood which
they contain;  for so far  is the colour from being
essential to  their constitution,  that it may be de-
stroyed by washing out the blood which produces
it, the muscular substance  remaining in  other re-
spects unchanged.   Hence the colour of the muscles
varies with that of  the blood,—is dark where it is
dark, pale where  it is pale, and white where it  is
white.  The  true characteristic of muscular fibre
is contractility, or the power of shortening its substance 
92
DIRECTION  OF MUSCLES.
 on the application of stimuli, and again relaxing when
 the stimulus is withdrawn.
  The direction in which the fleshy fibres run de-
 termines the  direction of the motion  effected by
 their contraction.  In some  muscles the  fibres are
 nearly parallel, and act consequently in a straight
 line.  In others they run obliquely, producing a cor-
 responding obliquity of motion ; while in others they
 are disposed like feathers in relation to a quill, and
 are, therefore, styled penniform.  A few are  cir-
 cularly  disposed  round  openings,   and   contract
 towards a common centre, like the mouth of a purse
 closed by its strings.  When the direction varies, it
 is always to effect a particular kind of action.   Re-
 markable contrivances appear for  this end:  one
 muscle of the lower jaw, for example, is divided into
 two distinct fleshy bellies by an intermediate thin
 strong tendon, which passes through and plays  in a
 pulley adapted for its reception;  its two  portions
 being by this means  enabled to  operate  with full
 effect almost at right angles to each other.  A sim-
 ilar arrangement is found in the trochlearis or pulley-
 muscle of the eyeball; and modifications of a dif-
 ferent kind occur in other muscles, as in those of
 the fingers and toes, wherever a particular object is
 to be accomplished.
  The chief purpose of the muscles is obviously to
 enable us to carry into effect the various resolutions
 and designs—or volitions, as they are termed by
philosophers—which have been formed by the mind.
 But while  fulfilling this grand object, their active
 exercise  is  at the same time highly conducive to
the well-being of many other  important  functions.
 By  muscular contraction, the blood is gently as-
sisted in its course through the smaller vessels and
more distant parts of the body, and its undue accu-
mulation in  the internal organs is prevented.  The
important processes of digestion, respiration, secre-
tion, absorption, and nutrition are promoted,  and 
       CONDITIONS OF MUSCULAR  ACTION.     93

the health of the whole  body immediately  influ-
enced.  The mind itself is exhilarated or depressed
by the proper or improper use of muscular exercise;
and it thus becomes a point of no slight importance
to establish general principles by which that exercise
may be regulated.
  The first requisite for healthy and vigorous mus-
cular  action is the possession of strong and healthy
muscular fibres.   In every part of the animal econ-
omy,  the  muscles  are proportionate in size and
structure  to the  efforts required from them; and it
is a law of nature, that whenever a muscle is called
into  frequent  use, its fibres increase in thickness
within certain limits,  and become capable of acting
with  greater force and readiness ;  and that, on the
other hand,  when a muscle is little  used, its volume
and power  decrease  in  a  corresponding degree.
When in a state  of activity, the quantity of blood
which muscles receive is considerably increased;
and, in consequence, those which  are much  exer-
cised  become of a deeper  red colour  than those
which are less used.   The  reason of this will be
evident, when we recollect  that to every organ of
the body arterial blood is an  indispensable stimulus,
and that its supply is,  during health, always propor-
tioned to the extent and energy of the action.  When
any part, therefore, is  stinted of its usual  quantity of
blood, it very soon becomes weakened,  and  at last
loses  the power of action, although  every other con-
dition required for its  performance may  remain un-
impaired.
  It is the infringement of this condition that entails
so much misery upon our young manufacturing popu-
lation, and even upon many of the inmates of our
boarding-schools.   Wasted  by excessive labour,
long confinement, and miserable diet, the muscular
system is  stinted in growth, and weakened in struc-
ture ;  and the blood, impoverished by insufficiency
of nourishing food and by a  vitiated atmosphere, is 
94     CONDITIONS  OF MUSCULAR  ACTION.

no longer capable of repairing the waste consequent
upon exercise, or of affording a healthy stimulus to
the vessels and nerves which animate the muscles.
Languor, debility, and exhaustion of mind necessa-
rily follow; and the individual  is left susceptible of
no stimulus but that of ardent  spirits or of excited
or reckless passion.
  In youth, not only must the waste of materials be
replaced, but an excess of  nourishment must be
provided, to  admit of the continued growth which
is the chief function of our earlier years.  If this be
denied, the development of the bodily organs often
receives a check which  no  subsequent treatment
can remedy, and a  foundation is laid  for diseases
of debility which afterward  imbitter and endanger
life.   From pretty extensive inquiry, I  am satisfied
that in boarding-schools, especially for females, this
important  principle is often disregarded ; wrhile the
conductors are at the same time without the  least
suspicion of the evil they are  producing, and  even
take credit to themselves for only checking sensual
appetites,  and  promoting temperance in eating as
well as in  drinking.  Youth  requires the best and
most  nutritious food, and such ought  regularly to
be provided.    Weak broth, twice-cooked hashes,
and quantities of vegetables and watery milk, are
not sufficient sustenance for  a  young and growing
frame.  Can we be surprised that, with such a diet,
worm-powders and stomachic medicines are in con-
stant  demand, and that, even  with the assistance
of these, the girl shoots up thin, pale, and fleshless 1
Let it not  be supposed that I wish  to  make a god
of the belly: my object is the reverse of this, and  I
am sure that no better means can be used to effect
it than to give  a sufficiency (not an excess) of whole-
some and  nourishing food, which alone will satisfy
the stomach,  and  obviate the  constant  craving
which is a frequent and painful concomitant of de-
ficiency of food. Let it be considered how soon, in 
       CONDITIONS  OF MUSCULAR ACTION.     95

cases of shipwreck for example, men previously
well fed  are wasted away by bodily labour when
deprived  of a full allowance of food, and it will not
be difficult to form some conception of the import-
ance of this condition  to the well-being of the mus-
cular system.

  Something more than mere muscle, however, is
required  for the production of regulated or volun-
tary motion.   The muscle itself, though  perfect in
strength  and in structure, would otherwise remain
inert.  A stimulus is required to put it into activity,
and to direct its contraction; and this stimulus is
conveyed to it  by  the  nerves.   As we  write, the
muscles which move the fingers and guide the  pen
obviously follow the commands of the will;  and the
moment the will is withdrawn they cease to oper-
ate.   If the will be feeble and undecided, the mus-
cular movements will  be equally weak and irreso-
lute ; whereas, if the  mind be powerfully  excited
and the will energetic, strength, rapidity, and deci-
sion will equally characterize all the movements
of the body.   Under the intense excitement  and
headlong fury of madness, the muscular action of an
otherwise feeble man acquires a force often  ex-
ceeding all our powers of control.
  It will  be at once  perceived from this description,
that, in effecting voluntary motion, we must have
in operation, first, The brain, or organ of mind, as
the source of the will; secondly, The nerves, which
convey the intimations of the  will to  the muscles;
and, thirdly, The muscles  themselves,  by whose
contractile powers  motion is produced.  It will be
understood, also, why the  number and size of the
nerves distributed to a  muscle  are in proportion, not
simply to its volume, but to the variety, frequency,
and  vivacity of the movements  required from it;
and why some  small  muscles employed in many
combinations are therefore  supplied with a  greater 
96
INFLUENCE OF NERVES
variety of nerves than others double their size, but
with more simple functions.
  Muscular power is (other  circumstances  being
equal) proportioned to the size of the muscle;  but
it often happens that great power is required where
bulk of  muscle would be inconvenient or cumber-
some.  In such  cases, it is supplied with  an  in-
creased  endowment  of  nervous filaments, which
make up by the strength of stimulus what the mus-
cle wants in bulk  of fibre.  Many birds, for example,
require great muscular  power to sustain them in
their long and rapid flights through the air, and owe
its possession chiefly to the strong  stimulus  im-
parted to moderate-sized muscles by large nerves,
which add nothing,  or  next to nothing, to their
weight; whereas, had the greater power been  ob-
tainable only from an augmentation of fleshy fibres,
the consequent addition  of weight would, from  the
greatly  increased difficulty  the animal  must have
felt in raising and sustaining itself in the air, have
gone far to counterbalance any advantage gained on
the side of power. But  in fishes, which float with-
out  effort in their own  element, size produces no
such inconvenience, and their strength, accordingly,
is made to depend more  on the volume of the mus-
cle  than on  its  nervous endowment,—showing  a
beautiful adaptation to the mode  of life  and wants
of the animal.
  As voluntary motion depends as much on nervous
stimulus as on muscular agency, it happens that
whatever interrupts the action of the nerves puts a
stopto motion as  effectually as if the muscular fibre
itself were divided.  Injuries and diseases of  the
brain, whence the will emanates, are well known to
be accompanied with  palsy, or want of power in the
muscles, although in their own structure the latter
remain sound.  Sleep and narcotics, too, suspend
voluntary motion, solely in  consequence of their
action on the  nervous system.  Ardent spirits, in 
ON MUSCULAR ACTION.
97
like manner, disturb the regularity of muscular ac-
tion, solely by previously disordering the brain; and
                              hence the unsteady
                              gait  and faltering
                              elocution of a se-
                              mi-intoxicated per-
                              son are sometimes
                              removed in  an in-
                              stant by some pow-
                              erful  mental  im-
                              pression being sud-
                              denly made,  suffi-
                              cient to restore the
                              brain to its natural
                              state, and thereby
                              to give unity and
                              steadiness  to  the
                              nervous   impulse
                              proceeding from it
                              to the muscles.—
                              For the same rea-
                              son, although the
                              brain  and muscles
                              be perfectly sound,
                              yet if the commu-
                              nication  between
                              them  be impaired
                              or  destroyed  by
                              the   compression
                              or division of the
                              nerves, the  mus-
                              cles cease to act.
                                The muscles of
                              the  human  body
                              are upwards of 400
                              in  number,  and
                              form  several lay-
                              ers lying over each
I 
98
INFLUENCE OF NERVES
other.  That some conception may be formed of
their arrangement and distribution, the superficial
layer, or that which  appears immediately on re-
moving  the skin, is represented in the annexed
woodcut, taken from a little volume entitled " The
Physician," published by the Society for the Diffu-
sion of Useful Knowledge.  To understand the uses
of the various muscles, the reader has only to bear
in mind that the object of muscular contraction is
simply to bring the two ends of the muscle and the
parts to which they are attached nearer to each
other, the more moveable being always carried to-
wards the more fixed point.  Thus, when the sterno-
mastoid muscle f g contracts, its extremities approx-
imate, and the head being the moveable point, it is
pulled down and turned to one side.   This may be
easily seen in the living subject, the muscle being
not less conspicuous than beautiful in its outline.
Again, when the powerful rectus or  straight  muscle
b on the front of the  thigh contracts with force, as
in the act of kicking, its lower end attached to the
knee-pan and leg tends to approximate to the upper
or more fixed point, and pulls the leg strongly for-
wards.   This occurs  in  walking.   But when the
sartorius or tailors' muscle c is  put in action,  its
course being oblique, the movement of the leg is no
longer in the straight line, but in a cross  direction
like that in which tailors sit, and hence the name
sartorius.
  Another variety of effect  occurs when,  as in the
rectus, or straight muscle of the belly i i, sometimes
one end and sometimes both are the fixed points.
When the lower end is fixed, the muscle bends the
body forward and pulls down the bones of the chest.
When, as more  rarely happens, the lower end is the
moveable point, the effect is to  bring  forward and
raise the pelvis and inferior extremities; and when
both ends are rendered immoveable, the contraction
of the muscle tends to compress and diminish the 
ON MUSCULAR  ACTION.
99
size of the cavity of the belly, and thus not only
assists the natural  evacuations, but co-operates in
the function of respiration.
  In contemplating this arrangement, it is impossi-
ble not to be struck with the consummate skill with
which every act of every organ is turned to account.
When the chest is expanded by a full inspiration, the
bowels are pushed downwards and forwards to make
way for the lungs;  when the air  is again expelled,
and the  cavity of the chest diminished, the very
muscles i i i, which effect this by pulling down the
ribs, contract upon the bowels also, and push them
upwards and inwards, as can be plainly perceived
by  any one who attends to his own breathing.  By
this contrivance, a gentle and constant impulse is
given to the stomach and bowels, which is of great
importance to them in  contributing to digestion and
in propelling their contents; and one cause of the
costiveness  with which sedentary people  are  so
habitually annoyed is the diminution of this natural
motion in consequence of bodily inactivity.
  From the preceding  exposition, the action of the
muscles  a, k, I, which  bend  the  arm and forearm,
will be easily understood, and some notion may be
formed of the innumerable combinations into which
a system composed of upwards of 400 pieces may
be thrown, in effecting all the movements required
from the human frame.  In some of the operations
in which we engage, nearly the whole, and in others
only a part, of the muscles  are thrown into  action
at one time.   The simultaneousness of action which
obtains in such  instances,  and  which  occurs in
almost every act of life, however simple, and with-
out which no dictate of the will could be  harmoni-
ously and successfully obeyed, depends solely  on
the distribution and connexions of the nerves which
animate  the  muscles.   Every individual  fibre  of
every muscle is supplied with nervous filaments, and
different  fibres of the same muscle  are indebted for 
 100         INFLUENCE  OF NERVES

 the simultaneousness of their excitement to the con-
 nexion established between each of them by these
 filaments.  Wherever  many  muscles combine to
 execute an important movement, they are uniformly
 found  to be  provided with, and  connected  by,
 branches from the same system of nerves ; as, with-
 out this means, simultaneousness of action could not
 be  ensured.  Thus the muscles which cover  the
 upper part of the chest co-operate in the voluntary
 movements of the arm, and at the same time in the
 respiratory movements of the chest; but these,
 being two distinct purposes, require different com-
 binations of the  muscles among themselves.  To
 effect these combinations, two sets of nerves are
 provided, as has been shown by Sir Charles Bell;
 the one regulating the respiratory, and the other the
 purely voluntary movements of  the muscles.  This
 is the true reason why the same muscle sometimes
 receives nerves from two or three different quarters;
 a circumstance  which, before the principle was  dis-
 covered, and when all nerves were considered alike,
 was altogether  inexplicable, and seemed a work of
 mere supererogation.
  The influence of the nervous  agency may be  still
 further illustrated.  When the trunk of a muscular
 nerve is irritated by the contact of an external body,
 or by the electric spark, the muscles which it supplies
 instantly contract, but without either harmony or
permanency of action: the contraction is  like the
violent and ill-regulated start  of convulsion.  It is
the influence of the brain and mind  in the equal dif-
fusion of the required stimulus  to each muscle, in
the exact proportion needful,  that  characterizes
healthy and sustained voluntary motion, as opposed
to the irregular convulsive start.  Nothing can be
more wonderful than  the  accuracy with which, in
the most delicate  movements, this  stimulus is ad-
justed and apportioned to such a variety of parts,
particularly where practice, or, in other words, edu- 
ON MUSCULAR ACTION.          101
cation, has  rendered the combination  of  powers
easy and certain.  Not to mention the more obvious
and graceful movements of  dancing, fencing, and
riding, we discover, in the management of the hand
and fingers  by engravers, sculptors, watchmakers,
jugglers, and other artists and mechanics, a minute
accuracy of muscular adjustment to effect  a given
end, which  is the more surprising the more  we
consider the  complicated means by which  it  is
effected.
  In consequence of the co-operation of both nerve
and muscular fibre  being required to effect motion,
excess of action in each is followed by results pecu-
liar to itself.   If the nerves preponderate, either
constitutionally or from over-exercise,—as they are
apt to do in highly nervous temperaments,—their
excessive irritability renders them liable to be un-
duly excited by ordinary stimuli; and hence, as in
hysteric and nervous females, a proneness to sudden
starts, cramps, and convulsions, from causes which
would scarcely affect an  individual differently con-
stituted.   Such persons have little muscular power,
except under excitement; they then become capable
of great  efforts, of short duration, but sink propor-
tionally low when the stimulus is past.   If, on the
other hand,  the muscles predominate, as in athletic
strong-built  men, the nervous system  is generally
dull  and little  susceptible of  excitement, and the
muscles which it animates are  consequently little
prone to the rapid  and vivacious action which ac-
companies the predominance  of the nervous func-
tions.  Great strength and capability of bodily labour
are then the characteristics.
  Great muscular power and intense nervous action
are rarely conjoined in  the  same individual; but
when they do happen to meet, they constitute a per-
fect  genius  for muscular exertion, and enable their
possessor to perform feats of strength and agility
which appear marvellous to those who are deficient 
102         INFLUENCE OF  NERVES
in either condition.  The most successful wrestlers
and gladiators among the ancients seem  to  have
owed their superiority chiefly to the possession of
both endowments in a high degree ; and among the
moderns, the  most remarkable combination of the
two qualities is exhibited by some of our harlequins,
clowns, rope-dancers, and equestrian performers,
and also by those who  display their strength and
power of equilibrium by balancing wheels, ladders,
or other heavy bodies, on the chin; and whose per-
formances require from the  small  muscles of the
jaw and neck a force of contraction which, when
reduced to calculation, almost exceeds belief.  Bel-
zoni combined both conditions in a high degree.
  From the general resemblance which  character-
izes the different nerves, a  similarity of  function
was long ascribed to them  all, and no explanation
could be given why one muscle sometimes received
filaments from a variety of nervous trunks.   Re-
cently,  however, the labours of Sir Charles Bell
and Magendie have clearly established,  that, in
such cases, each  nerve serves a distinct purpose, in
combining the movements of the particular muscle
with those of others necessary to effect a given end,
—and that without this additional nerve such a com-
bination could not have been produced.   The  mus-
cular nerves  must not  be confounded  with those
which we have seen ramified on the skin for the
purposes of  sensation.   The former are provided
for the purposes  of motion and not of feeling, and
hence muscles may be cut or injured with little pain,
compared to what is felt by the skin.  Weariness is
the  kind of sensation recognised by the muscular
nerves.
  So uniformly is a separate instrument provided
for  every additional function, that there is  every
reason to regard  the muscular nerves, although run-
ning in one sheath, as in reality double, and per-
forming distinct  functions.   Sir Charles Bell has 
ON MUSCULAR  ACTION.
103
the merit of this discovery, if such  it shall ulti-
mately prove to be.   In his  work on the Nervous
System, he  endeavours to show, that one set of
nervous fibres conveys the mandate from the brain
to the muscle, and excites the contraction; and that
another conveys from the muscle  to the brain the
peculiar sense of the state of the muscle, by which
we judge of  the fitness of the degree of contraction
which has been produced to accomplish the  end
desired, and which is obviously an indispensable
piece of information to the  mind in regulating the
movements of the body.  Sir Charles  has shown,
that many of the sensations supposed to be derived
from the sense of touch and the skin, arise from the
muscular  sense, and  are  wholly  imperceptible to
the skin, without the co-operation of muscular con-
traction.
  " The muscles have two nerves," says Sir Charles,
" which fact has not hitherto been noticed, because
they are commonly  bound up together.   But when-
ever the nerves, as about the head, go in a separate
course, we find that  there is a sensitive  nerve and a
motor nerve distributed to the muscular fibre, and
we have reason to conclude  that those branches of
the spinal  nerves which go to the muscles consist of
a motor and a sensitive filament.
  " It has  been supposed hitherto, that the office of
a muscular  nerve is only to carry out the mandate
of the will,  and to excite the muscle to action, but
this  betrays  a very inaccurate knowledge of the
action of the muscular system ; for, before the mus-
cular  system can be controlled under the influence
of the will, there must be a consciousness or know-
ledge of the  condition of the muscle.
  " When we admit that the various conditions of
the muscle must be estimated or perceived, in order
to be  under the due  control of the will, the natural
question arises, Is that nerve which  carries out the
mandate of  the will capable of conveying, at the 
104      NATURE  OF MUSCULAR  ACTiON.
 same  moment,  an impression retrograde  to  the
 course of that influence which is going from  the
 brain to the muscle 1  If we had no facts in anatomy
 to proceed  upon,  still reason would declare to us
 that the same filament of a nerve could not convey
 a motion, of whatever nature that motion may be,
 whether vibration  or  motion of spirits, in opposite
 directions at the same moment of time.
  " I find that, to the full operation of the muscular
 power, two distinct filaments of nerves are  neces-
 sary, and that a circle is established between  the
 sensorium  and the muscle; that one filament  or
 single nerve carries the influence of the will towards
 the muscle, which  nerve has no power to convey an
 impression back wards to the brain; and that another
 nerve  connects the muscle with the brain, and, act-
 ing as a sentient nerve, conveys  the  impression  of
 the condition of the muscle to the mind, but  has no
 operation in a direction outwards from the brain to-
 wards the muscle, and does not therefore excite the
 muscle, however irritated."*
  This consciousness of the state of the muscles, or
 muscular sense, as it may be truly called, is of great
 importance  both to man and to  animals, as it  is
 necessarily  by information  thence derived that
 every subsequent exertion is directed and  appor-
 tioned in intensity  to the effort required to be made.
 If  we  had  no such sense, the delicate  and well.
 directed touches of the engraver, painter, and sculp-
 tor, or of the ingenious mechanic, would be at the
 mercy of hazard; and a single disproportioned move-
 ment might ruin the  successful  labour of months,
supposing success  in reality to be  compatible with
chance.  Without this sense, man could not deliber-
 ately proportion the  muscular efforts  to  his real
wants; and, even in walking, his  gait would  be unT
steady and  insecure,  because there  would  be  no

      * Bell's Anatomy, seventh edition, vol. ii. p. 372. 
NATURE OF  MUSCULAR ACTION.      105
 harmony between effort and resistance.  The  loss
 of equilibrium, and the concussion and disturbance
 of the system consequent on taking a false step, as
 it is called, are a specimen of what we would always
 be subject to without the guidance of  the muscular
 sense.  When we imagine we have one step more of
 a stair to descend than really exists, we are placed
 nearly in the same circumstances as if we had no
 muscular sense to direct the extent of our  intended
 movement;  because the sense is then misled by an
 erroneous impression, and,  accordingly, we make
 an effort grievously unsuited to the occasion:  and
 yet, so habitually are we  protected from this error
 by  the assistance of the sense alluded to, and so
 little are we conscious of its operation, that it is only
 after mature reflection that we perceive the neces-
 sity of its existence.
  In chewing our food, in turning  the eyes towards
 an object looked at, in raising the hand to the mouth,
 and, in fact,  in every variety of muscular movement
 which we perform, we are guided  by the muscular
 sense in proportioning the effort to the resistance to
 be overcome ; and where  this harmony is destroyed
 by disease, the  extent  of the  service rendered us
 becomes more apparent.  The shake of the arm and
 hand which  we  see in drunkards, and their conse-
 quent incapability of carrying the morsel directly to
 the mouth, are examples of what would be of daily
 occurrence,  unless we were directed and assisted by
 a muscular sense.
  Life and  the nervous stimulus  are essential to
 muscular power. Separated from  the body,  and
deprived  of both, the muscle which formerly con-
tracted with a power equal to 100  pounds would be
torn asunder by a weight  of ten.  This fact is of
itself sufficient to give a tolerable notion of the ex-
tent to which  muscular  contraction  depends on
other causes than the mere  structure of the fleshy
fibres, for  these  continue  the same  after death, or 
 106   EVILS RESULTING FROM INACTIVITY

 after the  nervous communication has  been  sus-
 pended, as in recent paralysis; and yet how feeble
 is the power of resistance which the mnscle  then
 possesses!
   The required movement having been once effected
 by the nervous impulse stimulating the muscular fibre
 to contraction, relaxation speedily follows,  and is
-in its turn succeeded by a  fresh contraction pro-
 portioned  to the object in  view.  Muscular action,
 therefore, consists properly in alternate contraction and
 relaxation of the fleshy fibres.   A state of permanent
 contraction  is both unnatural and impossible ; and,
 accordingly, the most  fatiguing  muscular employ-
 ment to which a man can be subjected is that of
 remaining immoveable in any given attitude.  To
 an unreflecting person it may seem a very easy and
 pleasant service to stand for half a day in the attitude
 of an Apollo or a gladiator, as a model to a statuary;
 but, on trying it, he will find, to  his  astonishment,
 that stone-breaking or the tread-mill are pastimes in
 comparison:  in the  one  case, the muscles  which
 preserve the attitude are kept incessantly on the
 strain; while in the  other, they enjoy that play and
 variety of motion for which  they were destined by
 nature.  We may easily put  the fact  to the test, by
 attempting to hold the arm extended  at right angles
 to the body for the short space of ten minutes.  He
 whose muscles, if indeed capable of the exertion, do
 not  feel sore with fatigue at the end of  that time,
 may think himself peculiarly fortunate  in  being
 blessed with a powerful constitution.
   The principle just  stated explains very obviously
 the weariness, debility, and injury to health which
 invariably follow forced confinement to one position
 or to one limited variety of  movement, as is often
 witnessed in the  education of young females.  Al-
 ternate  contraction  and  relaxation, or,  in  other
 words, exercise of the muscles which  support the
 trunk of the body, are the only means  which, ac- 
OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM.        107
 cording  to the Creator's laws, are conducive to
 muscular development, and by which bodily strength
 and vigour can be secured.  Instead of promoting
 such  exercise, however, the prevailing system of
 female education places the muscles of the trunk, in
 particular, under the worst possible circumstances,
 and renders their exercise nearly impossible.  Left
 to its own weight, the body would fall to the ground,
 in obedience to the ordinary law of gravitation: in
 sitting and standing, therefore, as well as in walking,
 the position  is preserved only  by active muscular
 exertion.  But if we confine ourselves to one atti-
 tude, such as that of sitting erect upon a chair—or,
 what is still  worse, on benches without backs, as is
 the common practice in schools,—it is obvious that
 we place the muscles which support the spine and
 trunk in the very disadvantageous position  of per-
 manent instead of alternate contraction ; which we
 have seen to be in reality more fatiguing and debili-
 tating to them than  severe labour.   Girls thus re-
 strained daily for many successive hours invariably
 suffer—being deprived of the sports and exercise
 after  school-hours which strengthen the muscles
 of boys, and enable them to withstand the oppres-
 sion.   The  muscles  being thus enfeebled, they
 either  lean over insensibly to one  side, and thus
 contract curvature of the spine; or, their weakness
 being perceived, they are forthwith cased in stiffer
 and stronger  stays—that support being sought for in
 steel and whalebone  which Nature  intended they
 should obtain from the bones and muscles of their
 own bodies.  The patient, finding the maintenance
 of an erect carriage (the  grand object for which all
 the suffering  is inflicted) thus rendered  more easy,
 at first welcomes the stays, and, like her teacher,
 fancies  them highly  useful.   Speedily, however,
their effects show them to be the reverse of bene-
ficial.   The same want of varied  motion, which was
the prime cause of the muscular weakness,  is still 
108   EVILS RESULTING FROM INACTIVITY

further aggravated by the tight pressure of the stays
interrupting the play of the muscles, and rendering
them in a few months  more powerless  than ever.
In  spite, however, of  the weariness and mischief
which result from it, the same system is persevered
in;  and, during the short time allotted to that nomi-
nal  exercise, the formal walk, the body is left almost
as motionless as before, and only the legs are called
into activity.   The  natural consequences of this
treatment are, debility  of the body, curvature of the
spine, impaired digestion, and, from  the diminished
tone of all the animal and vital functions, general ill
health:—and yet, while we thus set Nature and her
laws at defiance, we  presume to express surprise at
the prevalence of female deformity and disease!
  It would be easy,  were it required, to prove that
the picture here drawn is not  over-charged.  A
single instance, from a  note appended by Dr. Forbes
to an excellent treatise on " Physical  Education,"
by Dr. Barlow of Bath, will suffice.   After  copying
the   programme of  a boarding-school  for young
ladies, which exhibits only one hour's exercise, con-
sisting of a walk, arm in arm, on the high road, and
that only when the weather is fine at the particular hour
allotted to it, in contrast with nine hours at school or
tasks, and  three and a half at  optional studies  or
works,—Dr. Forbes adds:—" That the practical re-
sults  of such an  astounding regimen  are by  no
means overdrawn in the preceding  pages  is  suffi-
ciently evinced by the  following fact, a fact which,
we  will venture  to say, may be verified by inspec-
tion of thousands of boarding-schools in  this coun-
try. We lately visited in a large town  a boarding-
school containing forty girls; and we learned  on close
and accurate inquiry, that there was not one of the girls
who had been at the school two years (and the  majority
had been  as long) that were not more or less crooked !
Our patient was in this predicament; and we could
perceive  (what all  may perceive who  meet that 
            OF THE MUSCULAR  SVSTEM.       109

 most melancholy of all processions,—a boarding-
 school of young ladies in their walk) that  all her
 companions were pallid, sallow, and  listless.  We
 can assert,  on the same authority of personal observa-
 tion, and on an extensive scale, that scarcely a single
 girl (more especially of the middle classes) that has been
 at a boarding-school for two  or  three  years,  returns
 home with unimpaired health; and  for the truth  of
 the assertion, we may appeal to every candid father,
 whose daughters have been placed in this situation."*
   Dr. Barlow justly remarks, that  the superintend-
 ents of such schools cannot generally be blamed for
 indifference about  the welfare of their pupils ; that
 most of them are  extremely  anxious to do their
 utmost to improve those under their charge; and
 that it is ignorance  alone which misleads them as to
 the proper means : he might have adverted  also to
 the ignorance of parents,  who insist on  so  many
 hours a day being dedicated to the study of accom-
 plishments  for which their  children  have neither
 taste, capacity, nor use.   From similar ignorance,
 the young girls in a public hospital in this country
 used to be shut up  in  the hall and school-room during
play-hours, from November till March, and no romping
 or noise, or, in other words, no real play, relaxation, or
 exercise allowed;  and in  1830-31, from fear of typhus
 fever, they  were seldom, if ever, out  of doors, ex-
 cept  at  church, from  November to  April—than
 which a more efficient method of infringing  all the
 laws of health could scarcely have been devised.
 Here, too, the object was unquestionably benevolent,
but the method  was  radically bad; and,  in conse-
quence, a great deal of sickness prevailed.
  The sedentary and unvaried  occupations  which
follow each  other for hours  in succession in many
of our schools have also been the cause of needless
suffering to thousands; and  it is high time that a
  * Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine, article Physical Educa-
tion ; Vol. l. p.  698. 
EVILS RESULTING FROM INACTIVITY.
  sound physiology should step in to root out all such
  erroneous  and hurtful  practices.  Taken in con-
  nexion  with the  long  confinement, the custom
  of  causing the young  to sit on benches without
  any support to the back, and without  any variety
  of  motion,  cannot  be  too  soon  exploded.   If
  the  muscles  of the spine were  strengthened  by
  the exercise  which they require, but which is so
  generally denied,—and  if the school employments
  were varied or  interrupted at reasonable intervals,
  to admit of change of position and of motion,—no-
  thing could be better adapted for giving an easy and
  erect carriage than seats without backs, because the
  play of  the muscles  necessary for  preserving the
  erect position would give them activity apd vigour •
 and, accordingly, the want is scarcely, if  at all, felt
 in infant-schools, for  the very reason that such va-
 riety of motion is, in them, carefully provided for.
 But it is a gross misconception to suppose that the
 same good result will follow the absence of support
 when the muscles are weakened by constant strain-
 ing and  want of play.  The  incessant and fidgety
 restlessness observable  after  the  second or third
 hour of  common  school confinement  shows the
 earnest  call of nature for a little  wholesome  exer-
 cise ; and the quiet that ensues when it is granted
 indicates clearly   enough  that  the  restlessness
 springs even  more from bodily than from mental
 weariness  It is, in fact, a degree of what we all
 feel when kept long standing on our feet, or sitting
 at a desk.  We  become  wearied  and uneasy from
 the continued strain on the same muscles, and feel
 at once relieved by a walk, a drive, or any change
 whatever.  The same principle explains the fatigue
 so often complained of, as  experienced in " shop-
 ping," or in an exhibition-room.  We saunter about
 till the muscles become  sore  from the fatigue of
being always in the same attitude, and we are re-
freshed by a walk  or a dance, or any thing which
alters the position.  The same languor of  the  mus- 
        MENTAL AND MUSCULAR EXERCISE.     Ill

 cles is  felt  after witnessing a pantomime, or other
 continuous  spectacle, by  which we are induced to
 keep the neck for a long time in a constrained and
 unvaried position.
   Instead, therefore, of so many successive hours
 being devoted  to  study and  to books, the employ-
 ments of the young ought to be varied and inter-
 rupted by proper intervals of cheerful and exhilarat-
 ing exercise, such as is derived from games of dex-
 terity, which require the  co-operation and society
 of companions. This is infinitely preferable to the
 solemn processions which are so often substituted
 for exercise, and  which  are hurtful, inasmuch as
 they delude parents and  teachers  into the  notion
 that they constitute in reality that which they only
 counterfeit and supersede. We  have already seen
 what an important part the  mental stimulus  and
 nervous impulse perform, in  exciting, sustaining,
 and  directing muscular activity;  and how  difficult
 and inefficient muscular contraction becomes, when
 the mind, which directs it, is languid, or absorbed by
 other employments.  The playful  gambolling  and
 varied movements which  are so characteristic of
 the young of all  animals, man not excepted,  and
 which are at once so pleasing and so beneficial, show
 that,  to render it beneficial in its fullest  extent,
 nature  requires amusement  and  sprightliness of
 mind to be  combined  with, and be the source of,
 muscular exercise; and that, when deprived  of this
 healthful  condition, it is a mere evasion of her law,
 and  is not followed by a tithe of  the advantages
 resulting from  its  real fulfilment.  The buoyancy
 of spirit and comparative independence enjoyed by
 boys when out of  school prevent  them suffering so
 much from  this cause  as  girls do; but the injury
 inflicted on  both is the more unpardonable, on ac-
 count of  the ease with which it  might be entirely
avoided.
  Facts illustrative of the influence of mental, co-
operating with  and aiding muscular, activity, must 
112    ADVANTAGE  OF COMBINING MENTAL

be familiar  to  every one; but as the principle on
which they  depend is not sufficiently attended to,
I shall add a few additional remarks.
  Everybody knows how wearisome and disagree-
able it is to saunter along, without having some ob-
ject to attain;  and how listless  and unprofitable a
walk taken against the inclination and merely for
exercise is, compared to the same exertion made in
pursuit of an object on which we are intent.   The
difference is simply, that, in the former case, the
muscles are  obliged to work without that full ner-
vous impulse which nature has decreed to be essen-
tial to their healthy and energetic action ; and  that,
in the latter, the nervous impulse is in full and har-
monious operation.   The great superiority of active
sports, as a means of exercise, over mere measured
movements,  is  referable  to  the same  principle.
Every kind  of  youthful play interests  and excites
the mind, as well as occupies the body; and by thus
placing the muscles in the best position for whole-
some and  beneficial exertion, enables them to act
without fatigue, for a length of time which, if occu-
pied in mere walking for exercise, would utterly ex-
haust their powers.
  The elastic spring, bright  eye, and cheerful glow
of beings  thus  excited form a perfect contrast to
the spiritless and inanimate aspect of many of our
boarding-school processions; and the results in
point of health and  activity  are  not less different.
So powerful, indeed,  is the  nervous  stimulus, that
examples  have  occurred of strong  mental emo-
tions having instantaneously given life and  vigour
to paralytic limbs.  This has happened in cases of
shipwrecks,  fires, and sea-fights,  and shows how in-
dispensable it is to have the mind engaged and inter-
ested along with the muscles.  Many a person who
feels ready to drop from fatigue,  after a merely me-
chanical walk,  would have  no difficulty in subse-
quently undergoing much continuous exertion in
active  play or  in dancing; and it is absurd, there- 
WITH MUSCULAR EXERCISE.      113
fore, to say that exercise is not beneficial when in
reality proper exercise has not been tried.
  The  amount of bodily exertion of which soldiers
are capable  is well known to be  prodigiously in-
creased by the mental stimulus of pursuit, of fight-
ing, or of victory.  In  the retreat of the French
from Moscow,  for example,  when no enemy  was
near, the soldiers became depressed in courage and
enfeebled in body,  and nearly sank  to the earth
through exhaustion and cold;  but no sooner did the
report  of the Russian guns sound  in  their ears, or
the gleam of their bayonets flash in their eyes, than
new life  seemed to pervade them, and they wielded
powerfully the  arms which, a few moments before,
they could  scarcely  drag along the  ground.  No
sooner, however,  was  the enemy repulsed, and the
nervous  stimulus which  animated their muscles
withdrawn,  than  their  feebleness  returned.   Dr.
Sparrman, in like manner, after describing the fatigue
and exhaustion which he and his  party endured in
their travels at the Cape, adds,—" yet, what even
now appears to me a matter  of wonder is, that as
soon as we got a glimpse of the game, all this languor
left us m an instant.''''   On the principle already men-
tioned, this result is perfectly natural, and in strict
harmony with what we observe in sportsmen, crick-
eters, golfers, skaters, and others, who, moved  by a
mental aim,  are able  to undergo  a much greater
amount of bodily labour than  men of stronger mus-
cular frames, actuated by no excitement of mind or
vigorous  nervous  impulse.  We have  heard an in-
telligent  engineer remark the astonishment often
felt by country people, at finding him and his town
companions, although  more slightly made, withstand
the fatigues  and exposure of a day's surveying better
than themselves ; but, said he, they overlooked the
fact, that our employment gives to the mind as well
as to the body a stimulus which they were entirely
without,  as their only  object-was to afford us bodily 
114    ADVANTAGE  OF COMBINING  MENTAL

aid, when required, in dragging the chains or carry-
ingour instruments.  The conversation of a friend
is, in the same way, a powerful alleviator of the
fatigue of .walking.
  The same important principle was implied in the
advice which the  Spectator tells us was given by a
physician tooneof the Eastern kings, whenhebrought
him a racket, and told him that the remedy was
concealed in the handle, and could act upon him only
by passing into the palms of his hands when engaged
in playing with it, and that as  soon as perspiration
was  induced, he might desist for the time, as that
would be a  proof of the medicine being received
into  the general system.  The effect, we are told,
was marvellous ; and, looking to the principle just
stated, to the  cheerful  nervous stimulus arising
from the confident expectation of a cure, and to the
consequent advantages of exercise thus judiciously
managed, we have no reason to doubt that the fable
is in perfect accordance with nature.
  The story of an Englishman who conceived him-
self so ill as to be unable to stir, but who was pre-
vailed upon by his medical advisers to go down from
London to  consult an eminent physician  at Inver-
ness who did not exist, may serve as another  illus-
tration.   The stimulus of expecting the means of
cure frpm the northern luminary was sufficient to
enable the  patient  not only to  bear, but to reap
benefit from, the  exertion of making the journey
down; and his wrath  at finding no such person at
Inverness, and perceiving that it was all a trick, sus-
tained hira  in returning, so that  on his arrival at
home he was nearly cured.  Hence also  the supe-
riority of battledore and  shuttlecock,  and similar
games,  which  require  society and  some mental
Stimulus, over mere listless exercise.  It is, in fact,
a positive misnomer to  call  a solemn procession
exercise.  Nature will not be cheated;  and the 
With muscular  exercise.       115
healthful results of complete cheerful exertion will
never be obtained where the nervous impulse which
animates the muscles is denied.
  It must not, however, be supposed that a  walk
simply for the sake of  exercise can never be bene-
ficial.  If a person be thoroughly satisfied that ex-
ercise is requisite, and perfectly willing, or rather
desirous, to obey the call which demands it, he  is
from that  very circumstance  in a  fit  state for de-
riving benefit  from  it,  because the desire then be-
comes  a sufficient  nervous  impulse, and one  in
perfect harmony with  the muscular  action.   It  is
only where a person goes to walk, either from a
sense  of duty or  at the  command  of another, but
against his own inclination, that exercise is com-
paratively useless.
  The  advantages of  thus combining harmonious
mental excitement with muscular activity have not
escaped the  sagacity of  the  late  Dr. Armstrong,
who thus  notices them  in his frequently reprinted
poem on the Art of  Preserving Health, but without
giving the physiological explanation:—

                      In whate,er you sweat
    Indulge your taste.  Some love the manly toils,
    The tennis some, and some the graceful dance;
    Others more hardy range the purple heath,
    Or naked stubble, where from field to field
    The sounding covies urge their lab'ring flight,
    Eager amid the rising cloud to pour
    The gun's unerring thunder; and there are
    Whom still  the meed of the green archer charms.
    He chutes best whose labour entertains
    His vacant fancy most; The TOIL YOU  HATE
    Fatigues you soon, and scarce improves your limbs.
                                         Book III.

  This constitution of Nature,  whereby a mental
impulse is  required to excite and  direct muscular
action, points to the propriety of teaching the young
to observe and examine the qualities  and arrange-
ments of external objects.  The most pleasing and 
116    ADVANTAGE  OF COMBINING MENTAL

healthful exercise may be thus secured, and every
step be made to add to useful knowledge and to in-
dividual enjoyment.   The  botanist,  the  geologist,
and  the natural  historian experience pleasures  in
their walks and  rambles of  which, from  disuse
of their eyes and observing powers, the multitude
is  deprived.  This  truth is acted upon  by many
teachers in Germany.  In our own country, too, it
is  beginning to be felt, and  one of  the  professed
objects  of infant  education is to correct the omis-
sion. It must not, however, be supposed that any
kind  of mental  activity will give the  necessary
stimulus to muscular action, and that, in walking, it
will do  equally well to read a book  or carry on a
train of abstract thinking, as  to seek the necessary
nervous stimulus  in  picking up  plants, hammering
rocks, or  engaging in games.  This were a great
mistake ; for in  such cases the nervous  impulse is
opposed rather than favourable to muscular action.
Wherever the mind is  absorbed in  reading or  in
abstract speculation,  the  active  will to set the
muscles in motion must necessarily be proportion-
ally weakened, and the action of the muscles be re-
duced to that inanimate kind I  have already con-
demned as almost useless.  For true and beneficial
exercise, there must be harmony of action between the
moving power and the part to be moved.  The will and
the muscle must be both directed to the same end and at
the same time, otherwise the effect will be imperfect.
The force exerted by strong  muscles, animated by
strong nervous  impulse or  will, is prodigiously
greater  than when the impulse  is weak; and  as
man was made not to do two  things at once, but to
direct his whole powers to the one thing he is per-
forming at the time, he has ever excelled most when
he followed  this law of his nature.
  When a physician urges the necessity of exercise,
it is very usual for him to be  told by persons of an
indolent or  sedentary habit, that even a short walk 
WITH MUSCULAR EXERCISE.         ] \7
fatigues them so much as  to render them unfit for
every thing for some days after, and  that they are
never so well as when allowed to remain in  the
house.  But if, in perfect reliance on the regularity
of the Creator's laws, we seek out the cause of this
apparent exception, we  shall almost uniformly find,
that, instead of beginning with a degree of exertion
proportioned to the weakened state of the  system,
such persons have (under the notion that it was not
worth while to go out for a short time) forced their
muscles, already weakened by inactivity and  con-
finement, to perform a walk to which only regularly
exercised  muscles  were  adequate.   The  amount
of exertion which is always followed by exhaustion
is thus, through  mere  impatience and ignorance,
substituted for  that  lesser degree which  always
gives strength ; and because the former is followed
by headache and debility, it is argued that the latter
also must  be  prejudicial!  Many sensible  people
delude themselves by such puerile plausibilities as
this;  and it is  only by the diffusion of a knowledge
of the laws of exercise as part of a useful educa-
tion that individuals can be  enabled to avoid such
mistakes.
  The effects of exercise upon the organs employed
are  very remarkable, and useful to be known.  When
any living part is called into activity, the processes
of  waste and renovation, which  are  incessantly
going on in every part of the body,  proceed  with
greater rapidity, and  in  due proportion to each
other.  To meet  this  condition, the vessels  and
nerves become excited to higher action,  and  the
supply of arterial or nutritive blood and of  nervous
energy becomes greater.   When the active exercise
ceases, the excitement thus given to  the vital func-
tions subsides, and the vessels and nerves return at
length to their original state.
  If the exercise be  resumed frequently,  and at
moderate intervals, the increased action of the blood* 
118    ADVANTAGE OF COMBINING MENTAL

vessels and nerves becomes more permanent, and
does not sink to the same low degree as formerly;
nutrition rather exceeds waste, and the part gains con-
sequently in size, vigour, and activity.  But if the ex-
ercise be resumed too often, or be carried too far,
so as to fatigue and exhaust the vital powers of the
part, the  results become  reversed:  waste then ex-
ceeds nutrition, and a loss  of volume and of power
takes place,  accompanied with a painful sense  of
weariness, fatigue, and exhaustion.   When, on the
other hand, exercise  is altogether refrained from,
the vital functions decay from  the  want of  their
requisite stimulus; little blood is sent to  the  part,
and nutrition and strength fail in equal proportion.
A limb which has been long in disuse becomes
weak and shrivelled from this cause, and its muscles
present an unusual paleness and flabbiness, strongly
contrasting with the florid redness and rigid fulness
of the muscles of a well-exercised limb.
  Even sensation gives a faithful notice of these
changes, and  therefore serves  as a guide to exer-
cise.  When  muscular employment  is  neglected,
the body becomes weak, dull, and unfit for powerful
efforts, and all the functions languish.  When exer-
cise  is taken  regularly  and in due  proportion, a
grateful sense of activity  and comfort  prevails, and
we feel ourselves fit for every duty, both  mental
and bodily.   Lastly, when we are subjected  to ex-
cessive exertion, a painful sense of  weariness and
exhaustion ensues, which is not relieved by rest,
and which for a long time prevents sleep.  A person
who has greatly over-fatigued himself in walking,
for example, is feeble and  restless;  and, on  lying
down, either cannot sleep at all, and rises in the
morning weak in body and languid in mind, or has
uneasy and disturbed sleep till the  exhaustion is
partially recovered from, after which he may  enjoy
sound and refreshing repose.
   From this exposition of the effects of exercise in 
            WITH  MUSCULAR EXERCISE.       119

its  different stages,  it  becomes easy to deduce
rules applicable to all, for promoting the healthy
development of the muscular system, and to trace
the errors by which indolent people are accustomed
to maintain that exercise is hurtful to their consti-
tutions.  The  second  stage of  exercise, or that in
which, by its frequency, moderation, and regularity,
nutrition and  vigour  are preserved at their highest
pitch, is  of course  to be aimed at; but  the quantity
of exercise which corresponds  to it must vary ac-
cording  to  the constitution and previous  habits of
the individual, as is well exemplified  in training for
pedestrian feats, for the ring and for racing.   The
assertion made by many, that exercise hurts them,
arises entirely from overlooking this circumstance.
  A person accustomed to daily activity  will feel
invigorated  by a walk of four or five miles in  the
open air; whereas the same  distance will weaken
another, who  has  not  been in the habit of walking
at all.   But instead of inferring from this, as is often
done, that  exercise in the open air is positively
hurtful to the latter, reason and experience coincide
in telling us, that  he has  erred only by exceeding
the  powers of  his system,  and that to acquire
strength and activity, he ought  to have begun with
one  mile, and to have  gradually extended  his walk
in proportion as the muscles became invigorated by
the increased nutrition consequent on  well-regulated
exercise.  A person recovering from fever begins
by walking  across his room perhaps ten times in a
day, and gradually extends to twenty  or thirty
times, till he gains strength to go into the open air.
On  going out, a walk of ten minutes proves  suffi-
cient for him at first, but by degrees his  strength
and flesh increase, and his exercise is prolonged till
he arrives at his usual  standard.  Such is the  order
of Nature;  but many  sedentary people  have  no
patience for such slow progress, and when urged to
take exercise, they grudge the trouble of going out 
120 BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR EXERCISE.

for a short  time, and think that, if a walk of half a
mile does them  good,  one of a whole mile will do
more; and when they suffer from the error, they
shelter their  ignorance  under the general assump-
tion that exercise does not agree with them !  And
the same  persons  who argue  thus  would think
themselves entitled  to laugh at the  Irishman who,
finding himself relieved by five pills taken at night,
inferred that he would necessarily be cured if he
took the whole  box full at  once, and on doing so,
narrowly escaped with his life.
  From these principles it follows, first, that, to be
beneficial, exercise ought always to be proportioned
to the strength and constitution, and not carried
beyond  the point, easily discoverable by experience,
at which waste begins  to succeed nutrition, and  ex-
haustion to take the place of  strength:  secondly, that
it ought to be regularly resumed after a sufficient
interval of  rest, in order to  ensure the permanence
of the healthy impulse given  to the  vital powers
of the muscular system : and, lastly, that it is of the
utmost consequence to join with it a mental and
nervous stimulus.  Those who go out only once in
four or five days are always at work but never advan-
cing ; for the increased action induced by the pre-
vious exercise has  fully subsided  long before  the
succeeding effort is begun: and so far as increased
nutrition and greater  aptitude for exertion are con-
cerned, no progress  whatever is made. 
EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR EXERCISE.    121
                  CHAPTER V.

Effects of Muscular Exercise on the principal Functions of the
  Body explained—Shampooing a Substitute for Exercise—
  Evils of deficient Exercise—Best Time for taking Exercise—
  Always to be  taken in the  open Air—Different Kinds—
  Walking—Riding—Dancing — Gymnastics—Fencing—Shut-
  tlecock—Reading aloud—Case illustrative of the Principles
  of Exercise—Involuntary Muscles.

  We have  seen  that exercise is necessary for de-
veloping and improving  the health of the muscular
system; but it still remains for us to explain how it
acts in imparting tone and strength to the rest of the
body, and  to mention the circumstances by which
its employment ought to be regulated.
  Man being intended for a life of activity, all his
functions are constituted by  Nature to fit him  for
this object, and they never go on so successfully as
when his external situation is such as to demand  the
regular exercise of all his organs.  It is, accordingly,
curious to  observe the admirable manner in which
each is linked in its action and sympathies with  the
rest.  When the  muscular system, for example, is
duly exercised, increased action in  its vessels  and
nerves takes place,  as already observed;  but  the
effect is not by any means limited to the mere organs
of motion.   The principal blood-vessels in all parts
of the body lie  imbedded among muscles, for both
the protection and aid which the latter afford them.
Every contraction of the  muscles compresses the
diameter of the vessels;  and as the blood contained
in them  cannot retrograde in its course, it is pro-
pelled in the arteries from the heart towards the ex- 
EFFECTS  OF MUSCULAR  EXERCISE.
treme parts, and in the veins from the latter towards
the heart, with greater force and velocity than before.
                 This will be better understood on
                 examining the annexed engraving
                 of the blood-vessels of the arm,
                 copied  from  Fyfe's  Anatomy.
                 The  letters A, B, C, D, E, repre-
                 sent the principal muscles  of the
                 arm; and F, G, H,  I, K,  M, N,
                 those of the forearm; but  as the
                 preparation is  dried, and the mus-
                 cles  consequently much shrunk,
                 they do not appear in their natural
                 situation.  The  letters in italics
                 refer to the humeral artery, which
                 is seen dividing at the elbow into
                 two  branches.  The one, called
                 the radial  artery, passes  on the
                 outer side of the forearm towards
                 the thumb,  and  is the branch in
                 which the pulse is generally felt;
                 the other, called the ulnar, passes
                 along the inner side of the fore-
                 arm.
                   In the natural state, these blood-
                 vessels are covered and protected
                 in almost their whole course by
                 the adjacent muscles.  In  conse-
                 quence of this position, the mus-
                 cles  cannot>acontracl without at
the same time compressing the blood-vessels, and
propelling their contents.  The  assistance afforded
to the circulation of the blood by this arrangement
is familiarly exemplified in the operation  of blood-
letting from the arm.   When the blood stops or
flows slowly, it is customary to put a ball or other
hard body into the hand of the patient, and desire him
to squeeze and roll it about.  The  success  of this
action depends simply on the muscles of the arm
 
        EFFECTS OF  MUSCULAR EXERCISE.     123

compressing the interjacent blood-vessels, and forc-
ing onwards the current  of the contained blood by
their successive contractions.  Muscular action is,
indeed, one  of the powers provided  for effecting a
regular circulation.  And hence when its assistance
is  neglected, as  it is  by those who take no active
exercise, the blood begins to flow less freely, till at
last it  finds some difficulty in returning against the
law of gravitation from the depending parts, which
then gradually swell. People engaged  for  years
in sedentary professions  are thus very  subject to
varicose or dilated veins and swelled feet.
  The chain of connexion among all the living func-
tions is nowhere more visible  than in this relation
between muscular exercise and the circulation of
the blood.   Action requires the presence of arterial
blood; and in the case of the muscles, the very cir-
cumstance of their being active favours the circula-
tion and increases the supply.  This  increase,  in its
turn, enables the parts to which it is sent to act with
greater energy and effect, and the augmented action
is  attended  by corresponding waste and exhalation.
To replenish the blood thus exhausted  of its  nutri-
tive principle, a greater quantity of food is required ;
and, to prompt us to attend  to this condition, the
appetite becomes keener and  more imperative, and
the powers of  digestion  proportionally  vigorous.
The food taken is more  speedily converted into
chyle, its absorption from the  surface of the  intes-
tines and  transmission into the circulating current
more rapid; and that the blood thus improved may
be properly and quickly animalized in the laboratory
of the  lungs, respiration  becomes  deeper and  more
frequent, thus admitting a larger quantity of air and
freer circulation through them than before ; and the
blood, thus renewed and re-endowed with the pabu-
lum of life,  imparts fresh nutriment and vigour to
all the organs of the body, and fits them for that
active exertion which the  proper  discharge of his 
 124  SHAMPOOING A SUBSTITUTE FOR EXERCISE.

 duties imperatively requires from every member of
 the human race.
   Considered  in this  point  of  view,  the  hurried
 breathing and quickened  circulation, of which we
 are so apt  to complain when engaged  in muscular
 exercise, instead of being evils, are,  in fact, the
 beneficent  means by which we become fitted to con-
 tinue the exertion.  Without a  more  than usually
 rapid flow of blood to the part in use, the necessary
 stimulus to its vessels and nerves could not take
 place, and  its action could not be sustained.  But
 were the blood-vessels not so situated among the
 muscles as to  have their contents propelled more
 quickly by the compression to which every muscular
 contraction necessarily subjects them, it is  obvious
 that no increase of circulation  could take place.
 And if respiration, on the other  hand,  were not  to
 become accelerated, so as to oxygenate the venous
 blood more quickly as  it arrived at the lungs, it is
 obvious, that the requisite  stimulus must again have
 failed, as, in that case, the blood must  either  have
 accumulated in the lungs and caused death, or  have
 passed through them imperfectly prepared, and ex-
 tinguished life more  slowly, but not less certainly.
   It is from this effect  of  muscular compression in
 promoting the flow of blood through the arteries and
 veins, that shampooing,  which consists in a kind  of
 kneading of the flesh, is so successfully resorted to
 in the warm climates  of the East, and among the
 richer class of invalids in our own country,  as a
 substitute for active exercise.  Shampooing fur-
 nishes from without  that impulse to the circulation
 which the Creator had  destined it  to receive  from
 active muscular exertion; and the principle  of its
 action being the same, we cannot wonder that it
should prove indisputably useful in promoting circu-
lation, strength, and nutrition, in cases where active
exercise cannot be enjoyed.
  It is a common observation, that sedentary persons 
EVILS OF  DEFICIENT EXERCISE.     125
are habitually subject to costiveness and its attend-
ant evils.  The reason is  the same. In the natural
state, the contents of the bowels are propelled partly
by the successive contractions of the muscles which
form the walls of the belly, and separate that cavity
from the chest;  and  partly by the contraction of the
muscular fibres, which constitute  an important part
of the structure of the intestinal canal.  If, however,
exercise be refrained from, and the same position be
preserved for many hours a day,  as in sitting at a
desk, the bowels are necessarily deprived  of one im-
portant source of power; and thus weakened, they
are unable to act upon  and propel their  contents
with the same  regularity as when assisted  by exer-
cise.  A slowness of action ensues, which no course
of medicine, and scarcely any modification of diet,
can overcome, so long as sedentary habits are  in-
dulged in; but which also may often be relieved by
daily pressing over the region  of  the abdomen with
a kind of kneading motion, imitating, though feebly,
the effects of muscular action.  Females suffer much
from intestinal debility caused by sedentary habits.
  The evils arising from deficiency of exercise to all
the functions of the mind and body will now be
equally evident and intelligible, for they are the con-
verse of what we have seen to be the advantages of
adequate  exercise.   The  circulation, from  want of
stimulus, becomes languid, especially in the  extreme
vessels; the feebleness  of action  occasions  little
waste of materials;  the appetite and digestion con-
sequently become weak ; respiration heavy and im-
perfect ; and the blood so  ill-conditioned, that, when
distributed through the body, it proves inadequate to
communicate the stimulus requisite for healthy and
vigorous action.  The concatenation of causes and
consequences thus  exhibited cannot fail, when the
principle connecting them is perceived,  to interest
and instruct every thinking mind.
   The  time  at which exercise ought to be taken is
                       L2 
126    BEST TIME FOR TAKING  EXERCISE.

of some consequence in obtaining from it beneficial
results.   Those who are in perfect health may en-
gage in it at almost any hour, except immediately
after a full meal; but those who are not  robust
ought to confine their hours of exercise within nar-
rower limits.   To  a person  in  full vigour, a good
walk in the country before breakfast may be highly
beneficial and exhilarating; while, to an  invalid or
delicate" person, it will prove more detrimental than
useful, and will induce a sense of weariness, which
will spoil the pleasure of the whole day.  Many are
deceived by the current poetical praises of the fresh-
ness of morning, and hurt themselves in summer by
seeking health in untimely promenades.
  In order to be beneficial, exercise must be resorted
to only when the system is  sufficiently vigorous to
be able to meet it.  This is  the case  after a lapse
of from  two  to  four or five hours after a moderate
meal, and, consequently, the forenoon is the best
time.  If exercise be delayed till some  degree of
exhaustion from the want of food has occurred, it
speedily dissipates instead of increases the strength
which remains, and impairs instead of promotes di-
gestion.  The result is quite natural; for exercise
of every kind  causes increased action and waste in
the organ; and if there be not materials and vigour
enough in the general  system to keep up that action
and supply the waste, nothing but increased debility
can reasonably be expected.
  For the same reason, exercise immediately before
meals, unless of a very gentle description, is injuri-
ous, and an interval of rest ought always to inter-
vene.  Muscular action causes an afflux of blood and
nervous energy to the surface and extremities, and
if food be swallowed whenever the activity  ceases,
and  before time  has  been allowed for a different
distribution of the vital powers to take  place, the
stomach is taken  at disadvantage, and, from  want
of the necessary action in its vessels and nerves, is 
        BEST  TIME FOR  TAKING  EXERCISE.    127

 Unable to carry on digestion with success.  This is
 very obviously the case where the exercise has been
 severe or protracted, and the consequence is so well
 known, that it is an  invariable rule in the manage-
 ment of horses, never to feed  them immediately
 after work, but always to allow them an interval of
 rest proportioned to the previous labour.  Even in-
 stinct would lead to this conduct, for appetite revives
 after repose.
   Exercise ought to be equally avoided immediately
 after a heavy meal. In such circumstances, the func-
 tions of the digestive organs are in their highest state
 of activity; and if the muscular system be then called
 into considerable action, the withdrawal of the vital
 stimuli  of the blood and nervous influence from the
 stomach to the extremities is sufficient  almost to
 stop the digestive process.  This is no supposition,
 but demonstrated fact; and accordingly, there is a
 natural and marked aversion to active pursuits after
 a full meal. In a dog, which had hunted for an hour
 or two directly after eating, digestion was found on
 dissection to have scarcely begun;  while in another
 dog, fed at the same time, and left at home, digestion
 was nearly completed.
   A mere stroll,  which  requires no  exertion,  and
 does not fatigue, will not be injurious before or after
 eating;  but exercise  beyond this limit is hurtful at
 such times.  All,  therefore, whose  object is to im-
 prove or preserve health, and whose occupations are
 in their own power, ought to arrange these, so as to
observe faithfully this important  law, for they will
otherwise deprive themselves of most of the benefits
 resulting from exercise.
  When we know that we shall be forced to exertion
 soon after eating, we ought to make a very moderate
 meal, to avoid setting the stomach  and muscles at
 variance with each other, and  exciting feverish dis-
turbance.   In travelling by a stage-coach, where no
repose is allowed, this precaution is invaluable.   If 
128    BEST TIME FOR  TAKING  EXKKCISE.

we eat heartily as appetite suggests, and then enter
the coach, restlessness, flushing, and fatigue are in-
evitable; whereas, by eating sparingly, the journey
may be continued for two or three days and nights,
with less weariness than is felt during one-fourth of
the time under full feeding.  I observed this when
travelling as an invalid on rather low diet, and was
surprised to find myself less fatigued at the  end of
seventy-two hours than I had previously been when
in health and living fully, with half the journey;  and
1 have heard the same remark made by others, also
from experience.
  It is the custom in many families  and schools,
apparently for the purpose of saving time, to take
young people out to walk about the close of the day,
because there is not light enough to do any thing in
the house.  Nothing  can be  more injudicious than
this plan, for, in the first place, exercise once a  day
is very insufficient for  the  young, and  even sup-
posing that it were enough,  the air is then more
loaded with moisture, colder,  and proportionably
more unhealthy than at any other time ; and the ab-
sence  of the  beneficial  stimulus of the solar light
diminishes  not a little its  invigorating influence.
For  those, consequently, who  are  so  little out of
doors as the inmates of boarding-schools and chil-
dren living in towns, and who  are all at the period
of growth, the very best times of the day ought to
be chosen for exercise, particularly as in-door occu-
pations are, after  nightfall, more in accordance with
the order of nature.
  By devoting part of the forenoon also to exercise,
another obvious advantage is gained.  If the weather
prove  unfavourable at an early  hour, it  may clear
up in time to admit  of going out  later in the day;
whereas, if the afternoon alone be allotted to exer-
cise, and the weather proves bad, the day is alto-
gether lost.  In winter, indeed, it is not unusual for
girls to be thus confined from Sunday to Sunday, 
        BEST  TIME FOR  TAKING  EXERCISE.    129

simply because the weather is rainy at the regular hour
of going out.  When the muscular system is duly ex-
ercised in the open air early in the day, the power of
mental application is considerably increased; while,
by delaying till late, the efficiency of the whole pre-
vious mental labour is diminished by the restless crav-
ing for motion which is evinced by the young of all
animals ; and which, when unsatisfied, distracts at-
tention, and leads to idleness in  school.  It would
be well to copy in this  respect the practice adopted
in the infant-schools, where the children are turned
out to play for a few minutes,  as soon as the wan-
dering of mind and restlessness of body indicate  that
the one has been too much and the other too little
exerted.   After  such  an  interval, work  goes  on
briskly again, and every one is  alive.
  To render  exercise as beneficial as possible, par-
ticularly in educating the young, it ought always to
be taken in the open  air,  and  to be of a  nature to
occupy the mind as  well as the body.  Social play
and active sports of every kind,  cricket, bowls, shut-
tlecock, the ball, archery, quoits, hide-and-seek, and
similar recreations well-known  to the young, are in-
finitely preferable to  regular and unmeaning walks,
and tend in a  much  higher degree  to develop  and
strengthen the bodily frame, and to secure a straight
spine and an erect and firm but easy and graceful
carriage.  A formal  walk  is odious and useless to
many girls, who  would be delighted  and  benefited
by spending two or  three  hours a day in spirited
exercise.
  Let those mothers  who are afraid to trust to
Nature for strengthening and developing the limbs
and spines of  their daughters attend  to facts,  and
their fears will vanish.   It  is notorious that a  ma-
jority of those girls who, in opposition to  the laws
of nature, are  encased  in stays, and get insufficient
exercise, become deformed;  an occurrence which
is, on the other hand,  comparatively  rare  in boys, 
130    DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE.

who are left, in conformity with the designs of na-
ture, to acquire strength and symmetry from free
and unrestricted muscular action.  In a seminary
for young ladies, for example,  containing forty
pupils, it  was discovered on examination, by  Dr.
Forbes, that only two out of those who had been resi-
dent in it  for two years had straight spines; while
out of an equal  number of boys, imperfect as their
exercise often is, it would be difficult to discover as
many whose spines were not straight.  Here, then,
is  ample proof that stays and absence of exercise,
so far from contributing to an elegant carriage, are
directly opposed to its acquisition;  and that  the
absence of stays and indulgence  in exercise, even
when not  carried so far as the wants of the system
require, so far from being hurtful to the spine, con-
tribute powerfully to its strength and security. Yet
such is the dominion of prejudice  and habit, that,
with these results meeting our observation in every
quarter, we continue to make as great a distinction
in the physical  education of the two sexes  in early
life, as if they belonged to different orders of beings,
and were  constructed on such opposite  principles,
that what was to benefit the one  must necessarily
hurt the other.

  Different kinds of exercise suit  different constitu-
tions.  The object, of course, is  to employ all the
muscles of the body, and to strengthen those es-
pecially which  are too weak;  and hence, exercise
ought to be often varied, and always adapted to the
peculiarities  of individuals.   Speaking  generally,
walking agrees well with everybody, but as it exer-
cises chiefly the lower limbs and the muscles of the
loins, and affords  little scope for the play of the
arms and  muscles of the chest, it is insufficient of
itself to constitute adequate exercise; and  hence
the advantage of combining with it movements per-
formed by the  upper half of the  body, as in many 
         DIFFERENT  KINDS OF EXERCISE.      131

useful sports, and in fishing.  Such exercises have
the additional advantage of animating the mind, and,
by increasing the nervous stimulus, making exertion
easy, pleasant, and invigorating.
  Pedestrian excursions, in pursuit of mineralogi-
cal or botanical specimens, or in search of scenery,
combine in  their results all the  advantages which
well-conducted exercise is capable of  yielding, and
are much resorted to in the German seminaries, for
the purpose of developing the  mental and  bodily
powers.  In  summer,  walking  excursions to  the
Highlands of Scotland are common among the youth
of our cities,  and when proportioned  in  extent to
the constitutions and previous habits of the individ-
uals, nothing can be more advantageous and delight-
ful.  But not a season passes in which health is not
sacrificed and life lost by young men imprudently
exceeding their natural powers,  and undertaking
journeys and excursions for which they are totally
unfitted. It  is no  unusual thing for youths  still
weak from rapid  growth, and perhaps accustomed
to the desk, to set out in high spirits at the rate of
twenty-five or thirty miles  a day, on a walking ex-
cursion,  and (in consequence of  carrying exercise,
for days in succession, to the third degree, or that
in which waste  exceeds nutrition) to  come home so
much worn  out and debilitated that they never re-
cover.  Young soldiers, whose growth is scarcely
finished, are well known  to die  in  great numbers,
when exposed to long and heavy marches, particu-
larly when food is at the same time scanty.   Even
a  single day of excessive  fatigue will sometimes
suffice to produce  permanent bad health;  and I
know one  instance  of  a strong  young man,  who
brought on a severe illness and permanent debility,
by a sudden return to hard exercise for a single day,
although some  years  before he had been  accus-
tomed to every species of muscular exertion in run-
ning, leaping, and  swimming.  Many young  men 
132     DIFFERENT  KINDS OF EXERCISE.
 hurry on  the premature development of consump-
 tion by excessive fatigue  during the shooting sea-
 son, in cases where, by prudent management, they
 might have escaped it for years, if not  altogether.
 The principle already laid down, of not exceeding
 the point  at which exercise promotes nutrition and in-
 creases strength, will serve as a safe guide on all oc-
 casions, and indicate the rate at  which it may be
 extended.   Old sportsmen know the rule by expe-
 rience,  and generally  prepare  themselves for the
 moors by several weeks of  previous training.
   Since writing the preceding remarks, I have been
 made acquainted  by a friend with a melancholy but
 instructive  proof of their  general accuracy.  He
 says, " A young gentleman,  whom  I  knew, was
 employed as  a clerk in one of the banks in Edin-
 burgh.  He was closely confined to his desk during
 the summer, and, towards the end  of July, had be-
 come weak and emaciated,  from deficient exercise
 in the open air.  His strength continued to decline
 till Friday  the 12th of August, when he went  to
 shoot on Falkirk Moor.  On Friday and Saturday he
 was much fatigued by excessive and unusual exer-
 tion, and on Sunday evening was feverish and heated,
 and perspired very much during the night.  In this
 condition he  rose about  three or  four o'clock on
 Monday morning, and returned to Edinburgh on the
 top of  a  coach.  When he reached home  he felt
?very unwell, but went to the bank.  At two o'clock
 he became so sick as to be unable to sit at his desk.
 He was then bled by a medical gentleman, but with-
 out much effect;  and after passing three months in
 a feverish and sleepless condition, he died in  the
 beginning of November.  He  was  previously of a
 healthy constitution."  It is  more than probable that
 this young man's life became a sacrifice  to his igno-
 rance of the structure  and functions of the human
 body.
   Riding is a most salubrious exercise, and,  where 
         DIFFERENT  KINDS OF EXERCISE.     133

the lungs are weak, possesses a great  advantage
over walking;  as it does not hurry the breathing.
It calls into more equal play all the muscles of the
body, and at the same time engages the mind in the
management of the  animal, and  exhilarates by the
free contact of the  air and more rapid change of
scene.  Even  at a walking pace, a gentle but uni-
versal and constant action of the muscles is required
to  preserve the seat,  and adapt the rider's position
to  the movements of the horse; and this kind of
muscular  action is  extremely favourable to the
proper and equal circulation  of the blood through
the extreme vessels, and  to  the  prevention of its
undue accumulation in the  central organs.  The
gentleness of the action admits of its being kept up
without accelerating respiration,  and enables a deli-
cate person to reap the combined advantages of the
open air and proper exercise,  for a much longer pe-
riod than would otherwise be  possible.
  From the  tendency of riding to equalize the cir-
culation, stimulate the skin, and promote the action
of the bowels, it is also excellently adapted as an
exercise for dyspeptic and nervous invalids.
  Dancing is a cheerful and useful exercise, but has
the disadvantage of being used within doors, in con-
fined air, often  in dusty rooms, and  at most unsea-
sonable hours.   Practised  in the open air, and in
the day-time, as is common  in France, dancing  is
certainly an invigorating  pastime ;  but in heated
rooms and at late hours it  is the reverse, and often
does more harm than good.
  Gymnastic and callisthenic exercises have been in
vogue for some years, for the purpose of promoting
muscular and general growth  and strength, but they
are now rather sinking in public estimation ; en-
tirely, I believe, from overlooking the necessity of
adapting the  kind and extent of them to the  indi-
vidual constitution; the  consequence of which has
been, that  some of  the  more weakly pupils have 
 134      DIFFERENT  KINDS OF EXERCISE.

 been injured by exertions beyond  their strength,
 and discredit has thus been brought upon the sys-
 tem.   It is certain, indeed, that many of the com-
 mon gymnastic exercises are fit only for robust and
 healthy boys, and not at all for improving those who
 are delicately constituted, and who stand most  in
 need of a well-planned training.   It is impossible to
 enter minutely into this subject at present, but again
 the general  principle comes  to  our assistance;—
 viz. carefully to  avoid great fatigue, and always to
 adapt the kind, degree,  and duration of every gym-
 nastic exercise, so as to produce the desired results
 of increased  nutrition and strength ; and  to  remem-
 ber that the  point at which these results are to  be
 obtained  is  not the same in  any two individuals,
 and can be discovered only by experience and care-
 ful observation.
  For giving strength to the chest, fencing is a good
 exercise for boys, but the  above  limit ought never
 to be exceeded,  as it often is, by  measuring the
 length of a lesson by the  hour-hand of a clock, in-
 stead of its effects on the constitution.   Shuttlecock,
 as an exercise which calls-into play the muscles of
 the chest, trunk, and arms, is also very beneficial,
 and would be still more so were it transferred to the
 open air.   After a  little practice, it can be played
 with the left as  easily as with the right hand, and
 is, therefore, very  useful in preventing curvature,
 and giving vigour to the  spine  in  females.   The
 play called the graces is also  well adapted  for ex-
 panding the chest, and giving  strength to the mus-
 cles of the back, and has the advantage of being
 practicable in the open air.
  Dumb-bells are less in repute  than they were some
years ago, but when they are not too heavy,  and the
various movements gone through are not  too eccen-
tric or  difficult, they are very useful.   They do
harm occasionally, from their  weight being  dispro-
portioned to the weak frames  which use  them; in 
         DIFFERENT  KINDS OF  EXERCISE.      135

which case they pull down the shoulders by dint of
mere dragging.  When this or any other exercise is
resorted to in the house, the windows  ought to be
thrown open, so as to make the nearest  possible ap-
proach to the external air.
  Reading aloud and recitation  are more useful  and
invigorating muscular exercises  than is generally
imagined, at least when managed with  due regard
to the  natural powers of the  individual, so as to
avoid  effort and fatigue.   Both require the varied
activity of most of the muscles of the trunk to a de-
gree of which few are conscious, till their attention
is turned to it.  In forming and undulating the voice,
not only the chest but also the diaphragm and ab-
dominal muscles are in  constant  action, and com-
municate to the stomach  and bowels a  healthy and
agreeable stimulus;  and,  consequently, where  the
voice is raised and elocution rapid, as in  many kinds
of public speaking, the muscular effort comes to be
even  more fatiguing than  the mental, especially to
those who are unaccustomed  to it, and hence  the
copious perspiration  and bodily exhaustion of popu-
lar  orators and preachers. When care is taken,
however, not to carry reading  aloud or reciting so
far  at one time as to excite the least sensation of
soreness  or fatigue  in the chest, and it is duly re-
peated, it is extremely useful  in  developing  and
giving tone to the  organs  of respiration, and to the
general system.  To the invigorating effects of  this
kind of exercise, the celebrated and lamented  Cu-
vier was in the habit of ascribing his own exemp-
tion from consumption, to which, at the  time of his
appointment to a  professorship, it was believed he
would otherwise have fallen a sacrifice.   The exer-
cise of lecturing gradually strengthened his lungs,
and improved his health so much that he was never
afterward threatened with any serious  pulmonary
disease.  But, of course, this happy result followed
only because  the exertion of lecturing was not too 
 136     DIFFERENT KINDS  OF EXERCISE.

 great for the then existing condition of his lungs.
 Had the delicacy of which he complained been fur-
 ther advanced, the fatigue of lecturing would only
 have accelerated his fate, and this must never be
 lost sight of in  practically applying the rules of  ex-
 ercise.
  It appears, then, from the foregoing remarks, that
 the most perfect of all exercises  are those sports
 which combine free play of all the muscles of the
 body, mental excitement, and  the  unrestrained  use
 of the voice; and to such sports,  accordingly,  are
 the  young  so instinctively  addicted,  that  nothing
 but the strictest  vigilance and fear of punishment
 can deter them  from engaging  in them the moment
 the restraint of school is  at an end.  Many parents,
 absorbed in their own pursuits, forgetful of their own
 former experience, and ignorant that  such are  the
 benevolent  dictates of Nature, abhor  these whole-
 some outpourings of the  juvenile voice, and lay re-
 strictions upon their children, which, by preventing
 the full development of the lungs and muscles, inflict
 permanent injury upon them in the very point where
 in this climate parents  are most anxious to protect
 them.  In accordance with this, we find that what
 are called wild romping boys or girls, or those who
 break through all such restrictions, often turn  out
 the strongest and healthiest; while those who sub-
 mit generally become  more delicate as they grow
 older.
  Enough has, I trust,  been said to enable any ra-
tional parent or teacher to determine  the fitness of
the different kinds of muscular exercise, and to adapt
 the time, manner, and degree of each to every indi-
vidual under his care : but before taking leave of the
 subject, and with  a view to impress the more deeply
upon the mind of the reader the practical importance
of the principles inculcated in the preceding pages,
I cannot refrain from subjoining a case which affords
an extremely apposite  illustration  of  almost every 
         DIFFERENT  KTNDS OF  EXERCISE.     137

one of them.  The particulars were furnished to me
by a young friend who was allowed  to  peruse the
manuscript of these pages, and who,  as himself the
subject of the case, was struck with  the perfect ac-
cordance between bis own experience and the  doc-
trines here expounded.  It is proper to keep in view
that at the time of this experiment,  my friend was
about seventeen years of age, and growing rapidly.
  After having  passed the winter, closely engaged in
a sedentary profession, and unaccustomed to much
exercise, he was induced by the beauty of returning
spring to  dedicate a day to seeking enjoyment in a
country excursion ; and for that purpose set off one
morning in the  month of May, without previous pre-
paration, to walk  to Haddington  by  way of North
Berwick,—a distance of thirty-four miles.  Being at
the time entirely unacquainted with physiology, he
was not aware that the power of exerting the muscles
depended in any degree upon the previous mode of
life, but thought that if a man was once able to walk
thirty miles, he  must necessarily continue to possess
the same  power,  under all circumstances, while
youth and health remained.  The nervous stimulus
arising from his escape from the desk, and from the
expected  delights of the excursion, carried  him
briskly and pleasantly over the ground for the  first
twelve miles, but then naturally began to decrease.
Unfortunately the  next part of the road lay through
a dull, monotonous and sandy tract,  presenting no
object of interest to the mind, and no  variety of any
description;  so that the mental stimulus,  already
greatly impaired in intensity, became still weaker.
Being alone, his intellect  and feelings could not be
excited by the pleasures of companionship and con-
versation : weariness consequently increased at every
step;  and  long  before his arrival at North Berwick
(twenty-five miles)," every vestige of enjoyment had
disappeared, time seemed to move at a  marvellous
tardypace.andevery mile appeared doubled inlength."
                      M2 
138      DIFFERENT KINDS OF  EXERCISE.
  Not being aware that excessive exercise without
a succeeding period of repose is equally unfavourable
to sleep and  digestion,  and having a lively recol-
lection of the pleasures and refreshment consequent
upon eating a good dinner with an appetite whetted
by a proper degree of bodily labour in the open air,
he looked forward with confidence to some recom-
pense and  consolation  for his  toils  when dinner
should make  its appearance.   In this, however, he
was doubly disappointed ; for from having started
with too light  a  breakfast, and  walked so far, his
digestive organs were, in common with every part
of his system,  so much impaired,  that he looked
upon the viands placed  before him  almost without
appetite ; and as  they were in themselves not re-
markably nutritive or digestible, he infringed still
further that condition of muscular action which con-
sists in  a full supply of nourishing arterial blood,
made  from plenty of nutritious  food,—a  condition
which I have stated to be especially important in
youth arid during  growth.
  After a rest of  two hours, and taking a moderate
allowance of wine, which, however, he says," seemed
to have lost its  ancient virtue of imparting cheerful-
ness to the  human heart," he set out to complete the
remaining  ten miles to  Haddington.  The country
was far more  beautiful and varied, but the charms of
nature had, by this time, lost all  attractions, for our
pedestrian  was  " now wholly occupied in counting
the tedious miles  yet to  be traversed, and in making
a pious vow that this pleasure-excursion, though not
the first, should  certainly be  the last in his  life."
Being reduced to  the utmost degree of exhaustion,
it required an  extraordinary  effort  to persevere ;
but at last  he arrived at Haddington, in a state of
exquisite misery.   Unable to read from fatigue, and
having nobody to converse with, he sought refuge
in bed at an early hour, in the expectation that " tired
Nature's sweet restorer,  balmy sleep," would visit 
INVOLUNTARY MUSCLES.
139
 his couch and bring him relief.  But in accordance
 with what is mentioned on page 118, he tossed and
 tumbled incessantly till four in the morning, a period
 of seven hours, after which sleep  came on.  Next
 day my youthful friend returned home in the stage-
 coach,  wiser, at least, if not the happier,  for his
 pleasure-excursion; and now makes the observation,
 that if he had been instructed in the least degree in
 the nature of the human constitution, he would never
 for a moment  have entertained an  expectation of
 enjoyment from a proceeding so utterly in defiance
 of all the laws of exercise, as that of which he reaped
 the unpalatable fruits.  He adds justly, that the num-
 ber of young men who suffer in a similar way is by
 no means small, and that he has reason to be thank-
 ful that  he has not, like some of his  companions,
 carried his transgression so far as permanently to
 injure health, or even sacrifice life.
   My aim being practical utility, I have said nothing
 in this place on the subject of what are called  the
 Involuntary  Muscles, or those over which the will
 has no power, in contradistinction to the Voluntary,
 or those which obey the direction of the will.  Most
 of the involuntary muscles are  the  agents of  im-
 portant vital functions, which are carried on by them
 unconsciously to ourselves, and which it would have
 been  dangerous to leave under  our  control.  The
 chief of them is  the heart,  which  goes on in one
 unvarying  round of alternate contraction  and  re-
 laxation from the commencement till the termination
 of existence.   The  next in importance are those
connected  with  respiration, which, like the heart,
 continue to act by night and by day for the whole
 period of a long life without weariness  and without
 interruption. The muscular fibres of the stomach,
 bowels, bladder,  and  other viscera  are  excellent
 examples of the same class; and the beneficence of
 Providence  in withdrawing  them from our control
cannot be sufficiently admired.—Had the action of 
140          STRUCTURE OF  B0NE9.
the heart and respiratory muscles depended on the
will, as that  of the muscles of locomotion do, the
circulation of the blood and the process of breathing
would both  have ceased whenever sleep or  any
other cause  overcame the power of attention, and
life would in consequence have been extinguished.
  From  the  different constitution of the voluntary
and involuntary muscles, it is clear that the former
were designed for alternate activity  and repose.
Had it so  pleased the Creator, He could as easily
have rendered the one set of muscles  incapable of
fatigue, as  he has actually rendered the other; but
then the powers of man would not have been  in
harmony with the purpose of his existence.   Inces-
sant  muscular activity would not only have been
incompatible with the  highest  human enjoyment,—
that arising from the gratification of the moral and
intellectual faculties,—but it would  have lacked ob-
jects on which to expend  itself usefully,  and, un-
guided by intellect, would only have served to over-
turn and destroy the best provisions of nature for our
happiness.
                 CHAPTER VI.

The Bones essential to Motion, and to the Security of the Vital
  Organs—The Skeleton—Bones are composed of Animal  and
  of Earthy Matter—The Animal Part the Seat of their Vitality
  —The Proportions between these vary at different Periods of
  Life—Vessels, Nerves, Life, Growth, and Decay of Bones—
  Advantages of their  Vitality and Insensibility—Their Adapta-
  tion to contained Parts—Conditions of Health—Necessity of
  Exercise.

  The hardness,  strength, and  insensibility  which
form the distinguishing properties of  healthy bones
fit them in  a remarkable degree for serving as a basis 
STRUCTURE OF  BONES.          J4J
 of support to the softer and more active textures of
 the body.   By their means, the human frame is ena-
 bled to unite the most finished symmetry of form
 with the most perfect freedom of motion and secu-
 rity to life.
   Some of the bones, such as those which compose
 the scull  and the socket for the eye, are designed
 exclusively for the protection of important organs
 contained within them.   But by far the greater
 number are constructed with a direct reference to
 voluntary motion, and only incidentally serve for the
 purposes of protection.
   In proportion to the variety of movements which
 any piece of mechanism is required  to perform, its
 component parts must be numerous and varied.
   Considered in this light, the animal frame is  the
 most wonderful of all combinations  of machinery.
 No  production of art can be compared  with it for
 the multiplicity and nicety of its evolutions, and  yet
 all these are executed simply by muscular power,
 acting upon the bones, and  changing their relative
 positions.
   The incalculable variety of  movements required
 from man  is the reason why the bones  composing
 the skeleton are  so numerous, and each so admira-
 bly connected with the others by articulations, con-
 structed  so as to admit of precisely that  kind of
 motion which the animal requires from it, and of no
 other.  The advantages of this arrangement are not
 less  obvious  than  admirable.   Had  the osseous
 framework consisted of one entire piece, not only
 would man and animals have been incapable of mo-
 tion, but every external shock  would have  been
 communicated undiminished to the whole system :
 whereas, by the division of  its parts, and by the  in-
 terposition of  the elastic cartilages and ligaments
 constituting the joints, free and extensive motion is
 secured, and the impetus of every external shock is
deadened in its force, and diffused over the body, in 
142     DESCRIPTION  OF THE  SKELETON.
   the same way as to a person riding in a carriage, the
   jolt of the wheel passing over a stone, is diminished
   by being diffused over the whole vehicle, in conse-
   quence of the elasticity of the springs.  The safety
   imparted by this arrangement  to  the delicate  and
   important vital organs is apt to be lost sight of, from
   the very smoothness with which  it enables us to
   move along; but it will be  perceived if we reflect on
   the shock given to the whole system by taking a
   single false  step in going up or down a stair.  The
   parts have then no time to adapt themselves to the
   exigencies of the moment,  and to put the proper
   springs in play for the equal distribution of the  im-
   petus.  Death has been occasioned by accidents of
   this kind.
     The  fabric  resulting from the  connexion of all
   these pieces in their natural order  of arrangement
   is called  the  Skeleton.  When the connexion is
   maintained by means of the  ligaments which bound
   the pieces together during life, the whole is called
   a natural skeleton ;  but if the place of the ligaments
   be supplied by wires, the skeleton is then said to be
   artificial.  The bones entering into the composition
   of the human skeleton exceed 200 in number.  Each
   is separate from, but intimately connected with, the
   rest;  and of a shape, size, and construction in ex-
   act harmony with the kind  and extent of  motion
   which it is destined to exercise.   Dry and uninviting
   as such a subject may seem  at first  sight, there are
   found, nevertheless, on closer examination, many
   points of inquiry both interesting and instructive, to
'/ which I shall briefly advert.
    The three great divisions  of the  skeleton recog-
   nised by anatomists are, the  head, trunk, and extrem-
   ities.   The first is well known ;  the second includes
   the two great cavities, the thorax or chest, and the
   abdomen or belly; and the third  comprises the arms
   and legs, or upper and lower extremities.          *
    Each of  these presents a structure  beautifully 
DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON.     143
adapted to  the purposes for which it is destined
The head consists of the scull and bones of the face.
The scull affords complete protection to the brain
 
144     DESCRIPTION  OF THE  SKELETON.

from all ordinary accidents, and also to the organs
of hearing, seeing, smelling, and tasting.  Protec-
tion and not motion being the sole object of its con-
struction, the numerous bones  of which it is  com-
posed are joined to each other, not by moveable
joints like other bones, but by a kind of dovetailing,
which  combines the  solidity of continuous  struc-
ture  with the  advantages which their separation
gives in facilitating growth, and interrupting the ex-
tension to all, of the injuries inflicted on one.
  The  trunk, as will be seen from the annexed cut,
consists of the spine a a, the ribs r r, the sternum x,
and the pelvis s s.  The spine, vertebral column, or
back-bone, a a, which supports all the  other parts,
is  a  very  remarkable piece  of mechanism.   It  is
composed in  all of  twenty-four  separate  bones
called vertebra, from the Latin word vertere to turn,
as the body turns  upon them as on a pivot.  Of
these,  seven, called  cervical  vertebrae, belong  to
the neck;  twelve, connected with  the  ribs  and
called  dorsal, to the back ; and five, called lumbar,
to  the loins.  The base  of the column rests on the
sacrum u, which is closely compacted between the
bones  of the pelvis s s.  The vertebrae are  firmly
bound  to each other  in such  a way as  to  admit
of flexion and  extension and  a certain degree of
rotation,  while by their solidity and firm attach-
ment to each other great strength is secured.  Some
conception of this strength may be formed when we
consider the enormous loads which  some athletic
men are able to carry on their shoulders, or raise in
their hands; the whole weight of which  is neces-
sarily borne by the vertebrae of the loins.  As the
space occupied by the abdomen gives large outward
dimensions to  this region of the body, it is only
upon reflection  that we perceive  that the whole
force exerted by the human frame in its  most stren-
uous efforts centres ultimately in the bony column
we are now examining 
DESCRIPTION  OF THE SKELETON.     145
   While the smooth or rounded forepart or body of
 the vertebrae affords support to  the superincumbent
 parts, the projecting ridge behind, and rugged pro-
 cesses at the sides, combine with it to form a large
 tube or canal, extending from the top to the bottom
 of the column in which the  spinal marrow is  con-
 tained and protected.   Between each of the verte-
 brae a thick compressible cushion of cartilage and
 ligament is interposed, which serves the triple pur-
 pose of uniting the bones  to each other, of dimin-
 ishing and diffusing the shock in walking or leaping,
 and of admitting a greater extent of  motion than if
 the bones were  in more immediate contact.
   The ribs rr, twelve in number on  each side, are
 attached by their heads to the spine, and  by their
 other (cartilaginous) extremities to the sternum or
 breast-bone x.   The seven uppermost are called true
 ribs, because each of them is connected directly with
 the sternum, by means of a separate cartilage.  The
 five lower ribs are called false, because one or  two
 of them are loose at one end, and the cartilages of
 the rest run into each other instead of being sepa-
 rately prolonged to the breast-bone.  The use of
 the ribs  is to form the cavity of the chest for the re-
 ception and protection of the lungs, heart, and great
 blood-vessels, and to assist in respiration by their
 alternate rising  and falling.  This action  enlarges
 and diminishes the size of the chest  and the capa-
 city of the lungs.
   The pelvis s s  is formed by the broad flat bones
 which support the bowels and serve for the articu-
 lation of the  thigh.   A  general notion of their ap-
 pearance and uses may be obtained from inspection
 of the cut, which, however, does  not with perfect
 accuracy represent the more minute structure.
   The bones  of the  upper extremities are, the scapula
 or shoulder-blade ; the clavicle or collar-bone y;  the
humerus or arm-bone b ; the radius d,  and ulna e, or
bones of the forearm; and the small carpal and meta-
                       N 
146    DESCRIPTION  OF THE  SKELETON.

carpal bones/ and phalanges g, forming the wrist,
hand, and fingers.
  The scapula is the broad flat bone  lying at the
upper part of the back, familiarly known as the
shoulder-blade, and so troublesome to  many young
ladies by  its  unseemly projection.   It serves to
connect the arm  with the trunk of the body, and
gives origin to many of  the  muscles  by which the
former is put in  motion.  The collar-bone y extends
from the breast-bone outwards to the  scapula.  Its
chief use  is  to  prevent the arms from falling for-
ward in front of  the body ; and  hence it is wanting
in the lower animals, whose superior extremities are
much closer to each other than those of man.
  The humerus or arm-bone b is adapted by a kind of
ball and socket joint to a corresponding surface in
the scapula, and  hence enjoys great latitude of mo-
tion, and is somewhat liable to dislocation.   The
radius and ulna de, constituting the forearm, are con-
nected with the humerus by a hinge-like joint, which
admits readily of flexion and extension, but not of
rotation; and  as the articulation is of a peculiar con-
struction, it is rarely dislocated.  The movements
of pronation  and supination, or turning round the
hand, are effected, not by the elbow-joint, but by the
radius d moving  upon the ulna e, by means of joints
formed  for this  purpose.  The wrist and  finger
joints are too complicated to admit of explanation
here.
  The lower  extremities consist of the osfemoris or
thigh-bone i, the  patella  or knee-pan /, the  tibia m,
and fibula n, or leg bones; and  the tarsal and  meta-
tarsalbones o, and phalanges p, composing the ankle,
foot, and toes.
  The thigh-bone i is articulated by means of a large
roundhead deeply sunk into a corresponding hollow
in the pelvis at  h, freedom  of  motion being thus
combined with great  security.   The thigh may be
moved backwards and forwards as in walking; and 
COMPOSITION  OF BONES.
147
 also  outwards and  inwards, as when  sitting  on
 horseback or  with the  legs  crossed.  The socket
 being much deeper than  that of the shoulder-joint,
 the thigh-bone has not the same range of motion as
 the humerus, but it has  proportionally greater secu-
 rity.
   The patella or knee-pan I is well known.   It is a
 small bone, constituting the projection of the knee.
 It increases the power of the muscles which extend
 the  leg, and protects  the front of the knee-joint.
 The tibia m is the principal bone of the leg, and is
 the only one articulated with that of the thigh.   Its
 lower end forms the projection  at the inner ankle.
 The fibula n is the long  slender bone at the outer
 side of the leg, the lower end of which  forms the
 outer ankle.   The tibia and fibula both contribute to
 the formation  of the ankle-joint, which, like that of
 the knee, is  almost limited to flexion and  extension.
   The tarsal bones constituting the foot display  an
 admirable mechanism,  but without plates  any de-
 scription of them would be unintelligible.   My pres-
 ent aim being practical utility, I shall therefore  pass
 over these details, and rather lay before  the reader
 several considerations of a more general and directly
 useful nature.
   Bones consist  of  two kinds  of  substances, viz.
 those of an animal and  those  of an earthy nature.
 To the former belongs every  thing connected  with
 the life  and growth of bones, and to the  latter the
 hardness and power of resistance by which they are
 characterized.
  The animal  portion of bones constitutes, accord-
ing to the analysis of Berzelius, about 32. J 7 per cent.
of their substance, and consists chiefly of albumen,
gelatine, cellular  membrane, blood-vessels, nerves,
and absorbents.  Of the remaining 67 per cent, of
earthy matter, nearly 52 parts consist of phosphate,
and 11 of carbonate, of lime.   The relative propor-
tions  of  the animal and earthy  constituents vary, 
148
GROWTH  OF BONES.
however, according to  the  period of life.  In in-
fancy, the animal portion greatly predominates, and
consequently the bones are at that  age compara-
tively soft, yielding, and elastic.  In middle life, the
proportions  are  more  equally balanced, and while
the bones thereby acquire great hardness and solid-
ity, they still preserve some elasticity.   In old age,
on the contrary, when the earthy constituents pre-
dominate, they become dry, brittle,  and compara-
tively lifeless.
  If a bone be subjected for a time to the action of
muriatic acid, the earthy portion is gradually de-
composed, and a cartilaginous-looking substance of
the exact shape  and size  of the bone is procured,
which is in reality its animal constituent.   If, on the
other hand, the bone be subjected to the action of
fire, which decomposes and dissipates  the  animal
elements but scarcely affects  the  earths, a white,
light, easily crumbled mass, of the exact shape and
appearance of the original bone, is procured, which
is simply the earthy  part of bone, deprived of its
connecting membrane.  The latter is called the an-
imal constituent  of  the  bone, because it is the pro-
duct of animal life, and does not exist in nature, ex-
cept in the system  of animals;  and the former is
called the earthy constituent,  because  it  may and
does exist in nature, without relation to life.
  A very important purpose is served by the differ-
ent proportions which the animal elements of bone
bear to the earthy, at different ages.  In early youth,
when much  strength is  not  wanted, as the body is
never exposed to severe efforts, but when a great
growth of bone is required to complete the develop-
ment of the human frame, the  animal or living part
of the bone  is observed to preponderate.  But in
middle life, when growth is finished, and the powers
of resistance are  at their maximum, and when  nu-
trition is required only to repair waste, a larger pro-
portion  of the solid or earthy, and a smaller propor- 
RENOVATION  OF BONES.
149
 tion  of the vital constituents, becomes necessary.
 In old age, again, when the wants of the system are
 reversed, and when positive diminution of existing
 masses is required to put the frame into harmony
 with the shrunk muscles and feebler powers of life,
 the absorbent vessels carry away more  of the vital
 matter, leaving chiefly the earth, which, being less
 susceptible of change, requires scarcely any support
 from within ;  and hence  the  brittle and compact
 hardness  of  the bones, and their little capability of
 uniting when fracture happens at an advanced pe-
 riod of life.
   At birth many  of the bones are, properly speak-
 ing, of a  cartilaginous nature.  As  ossification ad-
 vances, the cartilage is removed by  the  absorbents,
 and  its place supplied  by a kind  of cellular  mem-
 brane, in the  interstices of which the earthy parti-
 cles are deposited ; the two forming, by their union,
 the  homogeneous  whole called  Bone.   Although,
 therefore, it is to the softer material  alone that vital
 properties  essentially belong, it is usual to speak of
 the life, the vessels, and the nerves  of  bones, as if
 life belonged equally to the earthy and animal por-
 tions.  This  is  correct enough in reality, because
 the union between  the earthy  and animal tissues is
 always the product of life ; and the parts thus united
 are, to all intents and purposes, living parts.
   To carry on the processes of waste and renova-
 tion, by which every living structure is distinguished,
 all parts of the body are  provided, first,  with ar-
 teries, conveying to them red or nutritive blood;
 secondly, with exhalants, by which the new matter
 is deposited, and which are believed to be the minute
terminations  of the arteries;  thirdly,  with veins
by which the  blood is  carried back to  the heart;
 fourthly, with absorbent vessels, which take up and
carry away the waste particles  to be thrown out of
the system ;  and, lastly, with nerves to supply all
these vessels, and the organs on which they are dis-
                     N2 
150
CHANGES OF  BONES.
tributed, with that nervous energy which is essential
to their vitality and to their connexion with other
parts of the system.   The bones, insensible as they
may seem, possess all these attributes of living and
organized parts.   They are all  provided with blood-
vessels, with nerves, and with  exhaling and absorb-
ing vessels ; and they are constantly undergoing the
same  process of decay and renovation to which all
other living parts are subjected.
  That  bones are provided with blood-vessels  is
shown by the fact, that anatomists are able to trace
these  vessels into their substance,  and to  inject
those  of a young subject with  wax, so minutely as
to make the bones  appear of a lively red colour.
That they are provided also with nerves is evident,
both from dissection and  from the effects  of in-
juries and disease.  A healthy bone may be cut or
sawn  across without causing  pain, but when the
same bone becomes inflamed, the most excruciating
torture  is felt.  And  as  sensation is the exclusive
attribute of  the nervous system, this fact  alone
would authorize us to assume their existence, even
although nervous fibres could not be traced entering
the osseous substance.
  That  the substance of the bones  is continually
undergoing a change, and that, while the old  parti-
cles are withdrawn by absorbents, new particles are
constantly deposited by the nutrient or exhalant ves-
sels, is abundantly proved by the often repeated ex-
periments of Duhamel.  If madder  be mixed with
the food of fowls for a few days, and the fowls be
then killed, the  colouring matter deposited  by the
nutrient vessels will  invariably be found to have
died the bones of a deep red ; and if the madder be
withdrawn, the bones will then be found to be less
and less red in  proportion to  the  length of time
which has been alio wed to elapse—evidently showing
that waste and renovation are constantly going on.
  It may  be thought, that bones are, in their very 
INSENSIBILITY OF BONES.         151
 essence, so hard  and durable as to render any such
 supply  of nourishment and change  of  parts alto-
 gether unnecessary.  But if we  look for a moment
 to  the  advantages  consequent upon this order of
 things,  we  shall see abundant reason to abandon
 Buch an opinion.
   It  is  only by means of the processes  of growth  .
 and renewal that the  bones can adapt themselves
 to the wants and state of the system.  If the bones
 were not endowed with the principle of life, the stat-
 ure of the infant must have been that of the future
 man. Or even supposing the osseous system to have
 grown  to maturity, and then remained unchanged,
 the withered form of old age would necessarily have
 been oppressed and overcome by the large and mas-
 sive bones which the vigorous muscles of manhood
 alone could easily put in motion.   Had  the bones
 been created unsusceptible of internal change and
 unendowed with life, it is obvious, that when broken
 by  accident they must have remained for ever dis-
 united, and therefore an encumbrance instead of an
 assistance to the animal.  But from possessing blood-
 vessels  of their own to supply them with nourish-
 ment, and nerves to give power of action to those
 blood-vessels, the very irritation of the broken ends
 is made to serve the purpose of increasing the vital
 powers  of the  injured parts, and producing that ex-
 citement which is necessary for the formation of a
 new  bond of union, and  for filling  up the gap that
 would otherwise have remained.
  In  a state of health, the  bones are insensible to
 pain; and here, also, the most provident benevolence
 appears.  For,  surrounded as they are by  the softer
 and more sensitive parts, these afford them ample
 protection, while their insensibility enables them to
 act, for any length of  time, without weariness or
 pain.  But when a severe accident occurs to break
 them  asunder or destroy their texture, pain then be-
comes their kindest guardian, and the surest pro- 
152          SENSIBILITY  OF BONES
moter of their recovery.   In  such circumstances,
indeed, nothing can be more truly benevolent  than
pain.   It accompanies that inflammation and vascu-
lar activity without which the work of reunion of
the broken part cannot be accomplished ;  and is the
means of securing the repose and quietude which
are essential to the exact adaptation of the parts to
each other, and which can be effected only by caus-
ing great pain  to follow even the slightest motion.
Of such utility is  the inflammation on these occa-
sions, that when, as sometimes happens,  the requi-
site degree of  it, from want of  nervous sensibility in
the part, does  not take place, and the bone remains
disunited for many weeks, surgeons are in the habit
of using violence to produce the necessary stimulus.
In this case they either rub the broken ends rudely
against each other, or  introduce an instrument be-
tween them, by which pain and irritation may be ex-
cited ;  and then reunion  is accomplished.  On the
other hand, if  pain did not guard the limb from mo-
tion when the process of recovery was going on,
the union would be incessantly disturbed  by every
heedless and unavoidable start altering the relative
positions of the parts.  This,  also, is occasionally
exemplified in practice.  Looking at these facts, it
is impossible not to admire the wisdom and the be-
nevolence manifested in the adaptation of the struc-
ture of bones in every particular to the circumstances
and occurrences of life.
  Another advantage arising  from the vitality of
bones is their susceptibility of change without in-
jury to life.   Thus it  frequently happens, that, in
infancy, water collects within the head  in consider-
able quantity :  but, in consequence of the law, that
the form of the scull accommodates  itself to the
form and dimensions of its soft contents, the bones
yield  to the pressure from within, become larger,
and, by forming a larger cavity, enable the brain to
execute its functions, and life to go on; whereas, 
      INCREASE  AND DIMINUTION OF  BONES.   153

had the scull been incapable of undergoing change,
death would have to a certainty ensued.   The scull
owes this power of adaptation entirely to  its pos-
sessing vessels and nerves, and  to its undergoing a
constant decay and renewal, like the other  parts of
the system.
  The same phenomena are exhibited by the bones
of the chest.  When  tumours arise, or collections
of fluid take place within that  cavity, there is a
constant effort on the part of nature to take advan-
tage of this constitution of the bones, and to cause
them so to expand, as to save the lungs and heart
from hurtful pressure,  and allow  respiration and
circulation to go on unimpaired.
  In the opposite circumstances of  diminished vol-
ume of the soft contents of the  cavities, the same
law enables the bone to decrease in a correspond-
ing proportion, and  consequently to  continue the
protection which it affords to its contained organs.
Thus, were the bone to remain unaltered, when, in
cases of disease and in old age, the brain diminishes
in size,  the cavity of the scull would be  only
partially filled, and the brain, so far  from being pro-
tected, would be jolted backwards and forwards, up-
wards and downwards by every motion of the head
or body, till its structure should be utterly destroyed,
and life itself extinguished.
  To those who are unacquainted with the  laws of
nutrition of organized bodies, and who  are accus-
tomed to notice the hard and unyielding nature of
bone, without having any  adequate perception of
the particular uses of the adaptation of the hard
to the soft parts, this adaptation may seem  strange
and improbable; but a little consideration will satisfy
every one that it could not have been otherwise.
  In infancy, when the lungs are imperfectly devel-
oped, the chest is narrow, flat,  and confined, and the
ribs  almost in close juxtaposition.  In  youth and
in middle age, when force and activity require ful- 
154
ADAPTATION OF  BONES.
 ness and vigour of respiration, the lungs enlarge, and,
 to give them scope, the  chest becomes full, broad,
 and capacious.   In old age, again, when the season
 of active exertion is over, and the strength decays,
 the broad shoulders and capacious  chest of man-
 hood gradually disappear, and a totally different
 form occupies its place.  Now, at all these periods,
 the bones are the parts which, by their alteration,
 serve aS an  index of the changes going on within ;
 and on this large scale, the difference in their form
 is so great that it must be obvious to all.
  Where the whole of the soft contents of the bony
 cavity increase in size, as happens in the case of
 water in the head, the result is, as already mentioned,
 an expansion from interstitial growth of the osseous
 covering.   But  where the tumour  or pressure  is
 limited to a  small part, a process  of a different kind
 often takes place, which has also the preservation of
 life for itsobject, and which is accomplished by another
 of the natural actions,—absorption.  When a bone,
 say of four inches square, is required gradually to ex-
pand itself, so as to protect a surface of six inches
or of double the extent, this is accomplished by the
gradual removal  of the  old, and  the  deposition of
new and additional particles, on, as  it were, a new
 and enlarged mould.  But in  the  other case, where
the pressure is very limited—where, for instance, a
small tumour develops itself on the  surface of the
brain, which, if allowed to  grow  within unyielding
walls, would soon cause death by pressure on the
brain—the ordinary process of  absorption becomes
greatly excited, and gradually eats away the whole
thickness of the bone over the tumour, which then
protrudes  externally, and relieves the brain within
from pressure which would have been fatal to it.
  I have  already  stated, that besides  a large pro-
portion of earthy matter, which gives to them dry-
ness and  hardness, bones contain a large quantity
of animal matter, which is essential to their constitu- 
        ABSORBENT VESSELS OF BONES.      155

tion.  In early life, this cartilaginous  matter pre-
ponderates,  and the bones  are  consequently less
heavy, more pliable and elastic, and possessed of
greater vitality.  In old age, again, the  earthy parts
predominate, and with them fragility, insensibility,
and a lower degree of life.   It is from this difference
that bones broken in youth reunite in  one-third of
the time necessary for their reunion in advanced
life.
  In some unhealthy states of the  system, the pro-
portion of earthy matter is greatly diminished, and in
some parts it is even altogether removed. The bones
become soft, compressible, and incapable of affording
protection or support to other parts, to such a degree
that instances have occurred in which the lower
extremities  could be twisted behind, as if made of
wire.  A slighter  degree of the same affection is
common in  weak,  rickety children; and hence the
deformity of limbs so often occurring from absolute
insufficiency of the bones to support the weight of
the body.
  The practical application to be made of our know-
ledge of the constitution of the  bones, as parts of
our animal frame, and as governed by the ordinary
organic laws, will now be obvious.  Their  health
we have seen to depend on  the regular supply of
nourishment by the blood-vessels, on a due supply
of nervous  energy by  the  nerves, and on a due
balance between the action of the  nutrient  and ab-
sorbent or removing vessels.  To the steady obser-
vation of these conditions, therefore, we are bound
to attend.
  It is a common fault to consider the  study of an
organ or function complete, when we have  viewed
it on all sides as an isolated part, without regarding
its  external relations as constituting an essential
portion  of its history.  Thus, although  we examine
the  structure and  functions of  the heart,  and  see
that it is a muscle, and that its office is to contract; 
156
DISEASES OF  BONES.
our knowledge is incomplete if we do  not go  still
further, and see that  blood is the  stimulant which
causes its  contractile  power to act.  And in like
manner with the eye, whose  relations to light are
as essential a part of its constitution as the trans-
parency of its membranes  or the  convexity of its
lens.  Now in the case of the bones we are apt to
describe  their hardness, their  mobility, and other
qualities, without sufficiently adverting to  the fact
that,  being organs of resistance  and motion, the
frequent and regular performance of motion and re-
sistance is  as essential to their well-being  as blood
is to the heart, air to the lungs,  or light to the eyes.
And, accordingly, when that condition is not fulfilled,
the bones  become feeble, diseased,  and  unfit for
their functions, just as the softer parts of the  body
do.  In practice, it is of  the utmost importance to
be fully aware of  this fact.
  It is familiar to  the professional mind, that a  part
deprived of that  exercise or action which nature
destined it to fulfil becomes weakened, diminishes in
size, and at  last shrivels and alters so much in appear-
ance as not to be recognisable.  Thus, if an artery—
the large artery which supplies the arm with blood, for
example—be tied, and the flow  of blood  obstructed,
a change of structure immediately begins, and goes
on progressively,  till, at the  end of a few weeks,
what was formerly a hollow elastic tube presents
the appearance of a ligamentous inelastic cord.  A
muscle condemned to inaction loses half its bulk in a
comparatively short time ; and  if long unexercised,
at last loses entirely its power of contraction  and
muscular appearance.  The same  rule  holds  with
all other parts of the system,  and, in an  especial
manner, even with the hard and apparently  unalter-
able fabric of the  bones.  It is  ascertained by ex-
tensive experience, that complete inaction,  besides
diminishing the size, injures the structure  of bone
so much as to  deprive it  of its hardness,  and 
             EXERCISE  AND NUTRITION.       157

 render it  susceptible  of being cut with  a knife.
 Now, what is strongly marked in the extreme case
 is not less active, although it  may be less  palpably
 apparent in cases where there is great, though not
 total, deprivation of exercise : and hence one cause
 of the bad health, crooked spines, and  deformed
 figures, of which the habitual  restraint and condem-
 nation to attitude in modern education lay so wide-
 spreading  and so deep a foundation,—evils which
 could never stand for a moment before knowledge
 or reason.  The bones are the solid organs of mo-
 tion ; and unless they be duly  exercised in effecting
 motion, they, like the  muscles which move them,
 suffer and decay in virtue of  that  universal law
 which requires exercise as the condition of their
 well-being—as the stimulus necessary to their ex-
 istence.
   In early youth, in  particular, when every part
 teems with life and  activity, and is almost hourly
 acquiring an  increase  of dimensions, the nutrient
 system is in a state  of unceasing and  powerful
 action, and a rich and abundant supply of food is in-
 dispensable to health.   Nature points out this fact,
 in the keen and vigorous appetite and strong powers
 of digestion which every  healthy  child uniformly
 manifests.   To put ourselves in accordance with the
 intention of nature, at this period of life, it is, there-
 fore, absolutely necessary to  supply in abundance
 wholesome and  nourishing food.   The  non-fulfil-
 ment of this  condition, so often seen in times of
 distress among the labouring  classes, gives rise to
 that  tumid softness and consequent weakness of the
 bones and soft parts, which is  known by the name
 of rickets;  and which, if it continue till  maturity,
 i. e. during the years of active  nutrition, invariably
 leads to distortion and deformity.
  The next requisite for the development and health
 of the osseous  system is adequate exercise;  and
this  condition  cannot  be infringed  with  impunity
                      O 
 158   CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN BONES.

 any more than the former.  Wherever matter is the
 subject, action implies waste of materials, and unless
 this waste be  made up  by proportionate  supplies,
 exercise  leads to speedy decay, such as we see take
 place  where the exercise has  been carried beyond
 the limits of nature, and  beyond what any supply
 can compensate.  Inaction, on the contrary, implies
 almost stagnation, and is  always attended by dimi-
 nution of the vital functions;  as is exemplified, in
 the extreme degree, in hybernating animals, which
 pass months in sleep without food and almost with-
 out breathing,—and also  in  frogs found alive in
 stones and  trees; where they must have been dor-
 mant  for a great number of  years.  Inactive parts,
 then,  require little nutrition, because there is little
 expenditure ; and they require little force or energy,
 because it would be not only useless but detrimental
 to them.
  By  a law of the constitution, manifestly arranged
with relation to this principle, when any part of the
 system is active, it attracts to  itself, by the simple
stimulus  of that activity, an  increased supply of
blood and nervous energy.  The former enables it
to repair the waste  of substance which action pro-
 duces, and the latter gives an increased tone in har-
 mony with the greater call made on its powers.   If
 the exercise is momentary and is not repeated, the
 extraordinary  flow  of  blood  soon disappears,  and
 the nervous power falls to the usual standard: but
 if it is continued  for a time, and is recurred to at
regular intervals, a more active nutrition  is estab-
lished ;   a permanently  greater  supply of  blood
 enters the vessels, even during the intervals of in-
 action ; and an increase of development takes place,
 attended with increased  facility and force of func-
 tion.
  If, again, any part is  not duly exercised, there is
 no local  stimulus to attract a large supply of blood
 or abundant flow of the  nervous fluid; there is no 
CONDITIONS  OF HEALTH  IN  BONES.    159
 activity of nutrition, no perfection of development,
 and no force of function.  And hence, in partial ex-
 ercise, there is always predominance of some part
 over  others ;  the one  too  strong,  the  other  too
 feeble.  In the  muscular system, the  arms of  a
 blacksmith, contrasted with  those  of  a dancing-
 master, are a sufficient illustration.
   This  law of increased afflux of  fluids  and  in-
 creased nutrition to exercised parts, and of diminished
 afflux and  nutrition to inactive  parts, is not only
 highly important in its practical consequences,  but
 in exact and  obvious accordance with the  plainest
 principles  of reason.  By this benevolent arrange-
 ment, parts acting strongly receive large supplies,
 and parts   doing nothing are  left  in the  state of
 weakness  befitting the demands made upon them.
 To every one who sees the principle, it must appear
 the  height of folly to expect great nutrition and
 great energy to follow inaction, and vice  versd; and
 yet this is  what, in ignorance, is daily looked for by
 mankind at large.
  This law of exercise, as influencing nutrition and
 function, is universal in its  application, and applies
 to the osseous as much as to any other system.  If
 the bones are duly exercised in their function of ad-
 ministering to motion, then active nutrition goes on,
 and they acquire dimensions, strength, and solidity.
 If they are not exercised, the stimulus required for
 the supply  of blood to them  becomes insufficient;
 imperfect nutrition takes place; and debility, soft-
 ness, and  unfitness for their office follow in the
 train.   This cause of defective formation is  most
 active and most commonly seen in the bones of the
 spine in growing girls, who are denied free exercise
 in that part;  and the consequent weakness in the
 bones and cartilages, as well as in the muscles, is a
very frequent cause of the swollen joints and cur-
vature in the bones of the limbs in young people,
which no subsequent care can ever remove. 
160    CONDITIONS  OF HEALTH  IN  BONES.

  The beneficial effects of exercise and diet in im-
parting solidity to the bones have not escaped the
observation  of  trainers.   Sir John   Sinclair  ex-
pressly mentions  that the bones  become, in a re-
markable degree, harder and tougher, and less liable
to be injured by blows or accidents.   Testimony of
this  kind ought to be of great weight, as based, not
on theory, but on the  broad and well-marked ex-
perience of practical men.*
  It must  be observed, however,  that defective nu-
trition may arise from other causes than inadequate
exercise ; but even then, the consequences attending
it are analogous in their nature.  Among the  poor
it often arises from  deficiency of wholesome food,
and  from  damp dark habitations; among the  rich,
from feeble digestive and assimilating powers, and
pampering in diet; and also from errors in clothing,
and neglect of sufficient ventilation, and due expo-
sure to the open air.  Rickets, softness of the bones,
and white swelling are accordingly observed to be
almost confined to children belonging to one or other
of these classes.
  To understand more  clearly the relative uses of
bones  and muscles, we may be  allowed  to use  a
comparison, although, like all other comparisons, it
presents many points of difference.   The bones are
to the body what  the mast and spars are to a ship;
they give support and the power of resistance : and
the muscles are to the bones  what the  ropes are to
the masts  and spars.  It  is to the muscles that the
bones are  indebted for the power of preserving or
changing their relative position.  If the bones or
masts  are too feeble  in proportion to the weight
which they are required to sustain, then a deviation
from their shape  and position takes  place ; and on
the other hand, if the muscles or ropes are not suffi-
ciently strong and well  braced, then insufficiency of

       * Code of Health, 5th edit.  Appendix, p. 35. 
        CONDITIONS  OF HEALTH IN  BONES.     161

 support  must  necessarily  result.   Early infancy
 affords an instance of both imperfections; the bones
 being infirm, and the muscles small and destitute of
 true fleshy fibres.  The diseased state, called molli-
 ties  ossium, or  softness of the bones, is an instance
 of what may be called a weak mast of the body,
 which must yield if its muscles be strongly drawn.
 The state of muscular debility consequent "on fever
 and  many acute diseases,  or even on sudden fright,
 is, on the other hand, an instance of the inability of
 the bones  alone to preserve an attitude, or execute
 motion, when the muscular system is weakened by
 disease.   These differences merit attention.
   In the regular order of nature, the maturity and
 perfection of all organs and functions are attained
 at the  precise time  at which each is  required.  The
 bones  of the infant  are soft, vascular, cartilaginous,
 full of life, and vigorous in growth; but having no en-
 ergetic motions to perform, they possess little power
 of solid resistance.   In accordance with  this con-
 dition  of the bones, the muscles which move them
 are small, gelatinous, imperfectly fibrous, and little
 capable of powerful contraction.   If the bones had
 been made  solid and  heavy from  the beginning,
 they would  not only have been inert and cumbrous
 masses, destitute of muscles to put them in motion ;
 but,  from being less vascular and  less alive, they
 could not have grown with the rapidity necessary
 to adapt themselves to the growth of the other parts
 of the system.   If, on the other  hand, powerful
 muscles had existed from the first, they would have
 served only  to twist the soft and yielding bones into
 fantastic shapes.  Or, if both solid bones and strong
 muscles had been given from birth, then a complete
 power  of locomotion would have been the result,
 which from  the absence of intellect and of know-
ledge of the external world to direct it, would have
led to incessant evils, if not to speedy destruction.
But as  things are arranged, the most profound  wis-
                      O  2 
162    CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN  BONES.

dom and the purest benevolence  show themselves
in the beautiful adaptation of all the parts and func-
tions to each other and to one common end.
  Knowledge of the condition of the bones at dif-
ferent periods of. life is not without its  practical
uses—particularly in  regulating our treatment of
children.  Some fond parents, disregarding the fact
that the bones are comparatively soft and pliable in
infancy, and in their haste to see the little objects
walk without support, are continually soliciting at-
tempts at standing or walking, long before the bones
have acquired sufficient power of resistance, and the
muscles  sufficient power of contraction, to cope
with the laws of gravitation.  The natural conse-
quence is a curvature of the bone, which yields just
like an elastic stick bending under a weight.  The
two ends approach nearer to each other than they
ought to do ; and  to accommodate  themselves to the
change, the  muscles become shorter on  one side,
and perhaps longer on the other, each losing part of
its  efficacy  in the unnatural change which it  un-
dergoes.
  From this view, it will be seen  how hurtful lead-
ing-strings  must  be.   In the first  place, by their
mechanical force, they compress  the chest and  im-
pede respiration ;  and, in the second, by preventing
the body from falling to the ground, or  rather by
preserving an upright position, they cause the whole
weight to fall on  the bones of the spine and lower
extremities, which are not fitted by nature to bear
the burden.  From this  noxious  practice, flatness
of the chest, confined lungs, distorted spine, and de-
formed legs too often originate.
  The impropriety of an indiscriminate use of dumb-
bells, in early life, will  also be easily understood.
If the weight of these  be  disproportioned  to  the
strength of the bones, it is obvious that we must pro-
duce the same kind of evil as by premature attempts
to walk, viz. yielding of the bones, and stretching 
CONDITIONS  OF HEALTH  IN BONES.    163
and  relaxation of their  connecting ligaments.  If,
again, they  be disproportionate  to the  muscular
power, their effect will be to exhaust instead of in-
creasing the strength of the body.
  From the exposition I have given of the laws of
exercise, as affecting the muscular and osseous sys-
tems, the absurdity of expecting to strengthen either
the one or the other by the use of stays, or by lying
for hours on a horizontal or inclined plane, will be
abundantly  manifest.  There is no royal road to
health and strength, and no method by which, while
exercise is dispensed  with, its advantages can be
obtained.   In the intervals between exercise, reclining
on a plane is very useful in  delicate fast-growing
girls ; but it should  be  continued only till the feeling
of fatigue  goes off, and never be resorted to for
hours in succession, as it often is on the false notion
of its being conducive to strength.
  In this chapter, as well as in that  on the muscles,
I have dwelt perhaps too long on the principles by
which exercise ought  to be regulated; but as the
subject is little  understood  by those who have the
direction of youth, and as it is of paramount import-
ance, I am inclined  to hope that the tediousness of
repetition may be forgiven, if  clearness and convic-
tion  are obtained. 
164       ARTERIAL AND VENOUS BLOOD.
                  CHAPTER VII.

 Arterial and venous Blood—Nature of Respiration—Structure
  of the Lungs—Conditions required for healthy Respiration—
  Sound original Constitution—Influence of hereditary Predis-
  position—Of wholesome Food, and good Digestion—Of the
  free Expansion of the Lungs—Of Exercise of the Muscles and
  Voice—Of Cheerfulness and Depression of Mind—Of pure
  Air and Ventilation—Examples of the bad Effects of vitiated
  Air—Respiration the Source of Animal Heat—Causes of de-
  ficient Generation of Heat—Removal of such Causes—Direct
  and indirect Exercise of the Lungs—Beneficial Effects of,
  and Rules for Exercise—Precautions to be observed in Dis-
  eases of the Lungs,  and in Persons  predisposed to Con-
  sumption.

  We come next to  treat of the lungs  and of the
function of Respiration ;  but, in order to be clearly
understood,  I must  premise a  few observations on
the circulation of the blood.
  The blood circulating  through the body is of two
different  kinds; the  one red  or  arterial,  and the
other  dark or venous blood.   The former alone is
capable of affording nourishment and of supporting
life.   It is distributed from the left  side of the heart
all  over the body, by means  of a great  artery or
blood-vessel called the aorta, which subdivides in its
course, and ultimately terminates in myriads of very
minute ramifications, closely interwoven  with,  and
in reality constituting a large portion of, the texture
of every living part.  On reaching this extreme point
of its  course, the  blood passes  into equally minute
ramifications of  the  veins,  which, in  their turn,
gradually coalesce and form larger and larger trunks,
till  they at last terminate in  two large veins, by
which the whole current of the  venous blood is
brought back in a direction contrary to  that in the
• 
ARTERIAL AND VENOUS  BLOOD.      165
  arteries, and poured into the right side of the heart.
  On examining the quality of the blood in these two
  systems of vessels, it is found to have undergone a
  great  change  in its passage from  the  one  to the
  other.  The florid hue which distinguishes it in the
  arteries has disappeared, and given place to the dark
  colour characteristic  of venous blood.  Its proper-
  ties, too,  have changed, and it is  now no  longer
  capable of sustaining life.
    Two conditions are essential to the reconversion
  of venous  into arterial blood, and to the restoration
  of its vital properties.  The first is an adequate pro-
  vision of new materials from the food,  to  supply the
  place of those which have been expended in nutri-
  tion ;  and  the second is the free exposure of the venous
  blood to the atmospheric air.
    The first condition is fulfilled by the chyle or nu-
  trient principle of the food being regularly poured
tinto the venous blood, just before it reaches the
.  right side  of the heart;  and the second, by the very
  important  process  of  respiration, which  takes place
  in the air-cells of the  lungs, and which it  is our
  present object to explain.
    The venous blood, having arrived at the right side
  of the heart, is propelled by the contraction of that
  organ into a large artery, leading directly, by separ-
  ate branches, to the two lungs, and hence called the
  pulmonary artery.*  In  the innumerable branches
  of this artery expanding themselves throughout the
  substance  of the lungs, the dark  blood is  subjected
  to the contact of the air inhaled in breathing ;  and a
  change in  the composition botrflbf the blood and of

   * Taking the nature of the blood for our guide, the pulmonary
  artery ought to be named the pulmonary vein, for it contains
  venous blood: but from  its  structure  and office resembling
  those of the arteries,  it has been called an artery.  The pul-
  monary veins, on the other hand, contain arterial blood, although
  named veins.  To prevent confusion, it is necessary to advert to
  tliis source of ambiguity. 
166         NATURE OF RESPIRATION.

the inhaled air takes place, in consequence of which
the former is  found to have  assumed its florid  or
arterial hue, and to have regained its power of sup-
porting life.   The blood then enters minute venous
ramifications, which  gradually coalesce into larger
branches, and at last terminate in four large trunks
in the left side of the heart; whence the blood in  its
arterial form is  again distributed over the body, to
pursue the  same  course and undergo the  same
changes as before.
  There  are thus two distinct  circulations, each
carried on by its own system  of vessels: the  one,
from the left side of the heart to every part of the
body, and back to  the right side;  and the other,
from the  right side  of the heart to the two lungs,
and back to  the left.   The former has for its object
nutrition and the maintenance of life ; and the latter
the restoration  of the deteriorated blood,  and the
ardmalization or assimilation of the chyle from which
that fluid is formed.
  As the food cannot become  a part of the living
animal, or the venous blood regain its lost proper-
ties until they have undergone the requisite changes
in the air-cells of the lungs, the function of respira-
tion, by which these are effected, is one of pre-emi-
nent importance in  the animal  economy, and well
deserves the most careful examination.  The term
respiration is frequently restricted to the mere inha-
lation  and expiration of  air from the lungs; but
more generally it  is employed  to  designate  the
whole  series of  phenomena which occurs in these
organs.  The won# sanguification, and aeration  of
the blood are other forms of expression occasionally
used to denote that part of the process in which the
blood,  by exposure to the  action of the air, passes
from the venous to  the arterial state; and, as the
chyle  does  not become  assimilated to  the blood
until it has passed through the lungs, the term san-
guification, or blood-making, is not unaptly applied. 
           STRUCTURE OF THE  LUNGS.       167

  The quantity and quality of the blood have a most
direct and material influence upon the condition of
every part of the body.  If the quantity sent to the
arm, for example, be diminished by tying the artery
through which it is conveyed, the arm, being  then
imperfectly nourished, wastes away,  and does not
regain its plumpness till the full supply of blood be
restored.   In like manner, when the quality of that
fluid is impaired by deficiency of food, bad digestion,
impure air, or imperfect sanguification in the lungs,
the body and all its functions become more or less
disordered.   Thus,  in consumption, death  takes
place  chiefly  in consequence of  respiration  not
being sufficiently perfect to admit of the formation
of proper blood in the lungs.
  A knowledge of the structure and functions of the
lungs,  and of the conditions favourable to their
healthy action, is, therefore, very  important; for on
their welfare depends that of every organ of the
body.   And when we recollect that, in  the British
Isles alone, nearly fifty thousand persons fall vic-
tims annually to pulmonary consumption, and that
these are chiefly among the young and most gifted,
we cannot but feel  deeply interested in obtaining
some acquaintance with  the organization which is
the seat of that affection, and with the conditions
most conducive to the due performance  of its func-
tions and the preservation of its health.
  The  exposure of the blood to the  action of the
air  seems to be indispensable to every variety of
animated creatures.   In man and the more perfect
of the lower animals it is carried»on in the lungs, the
structure of which is admirably adapted for the pur-
pose.  In many animals,  however, the requisite ac-
tion is effected without the intervention of lungs.
In fish», for example, which live in a dense medium,
and do not breathe, the blood circulates through the
gills, which, being constantly and directly  in con-
tact with the water, are therefore more accessible 
168        STRUCTURE OF  THE  LUNGS.

to the action of the air which the water contains,
and much better adapted than  lungs  would be to
the medium in which  fish* live.  In worms, on
the other hand, and many similar animals, no dis-
tinct organ  is  set apart  for  the  purpose, but the
aeration  of the blood takes place at the surface of
the body by means of pores in the skin called spira-
cula, specially adapted to  this end, and which cannot
be shut up or  obstructed any more than the real
lungs  or gills without inducing death.  So neces-
sary, indeed, is  atmospheric air to the vitality of the
blood in all classes of animals, that its abstraction
inevitably induces death; and a fish can no  more
live in water deprived of  air than a man could do in.
an atmosphere devoid of oxygen.  And thus the
fish requires a renewal of air, and perishes  when if
is denied, exactly as man does in similar circum-
stances.
  In man, the lungs are  those  large,  light, spongy
bodies which, along with the heart, completely fill
the two  lateral cavities  of the chest.  They  vary
much in  size in different persons, and, as the chest
is formed for their protection, we find it either large
and capacious, or the reverse, according to the size
which the lungs have attained.   Their position re-
latively to the other viscera may be understood or*
reference to the subjoined  woodcut,  which repre-
sents the various organs  of the chest and  belly as
they appear on removing the integuments, breast-
bone, and part  of the ribs.   The  sketch is rather
rude, but it will serve the  purpose.   The letters R L
and L L  mark the right and  left lungs, with H the
heart lying  between them, but chiefly on  the left
side.   V is an inaccurate  representation of the
large  blood-vessels gping to the  head, neck, and
superior extremities.   Livr is  the liver, lying  in
the  abdomen   or belly,  and  separated from the
chest by the  arched fleshy  partition D D, called
the diaphragm or midriff.  The stomach appears on 
STRUCTURE  OF THE LUNGS.
the other side, marked Stm, but both it and the liver
are removed a little from their natural situation.  G
is the gall-bladder.  11 I are the various parts of the
intestinal canal through which the food is passed on
its "way from the stomach, by what is called the pe-
ristaltic or vermicular motion of the bowel, one circle
of fibres narrowing after another, so as to propel  its
contents slowly but steadily, and resembling in some
degree the contraction of a common worm.
P 
 170       STRUCTURE OF  THE  LUNGS.

  The substance of the lungs consists of bronchial
 tubes, air-cells,  blood-vessels, nerves, and  cellular
 membrane, or parenchyma.   The first are merely
 continuations and subdivisions of the windpipe, and
 serve to convey  the  external  air to the air-cells
 of the lungs.  The air-cells constitute the chief part
 of the pulmonary  tissue, and are in one sense the
 terminations  of the smaller branches of the bron-
 chial tubes.   When fully distended, they are so nu-
 merous as in appearance to constitute almost the
whole  lung.  They are of various sizes, from the
20th to the 100th of an inch in diameter, and are
lined with an exceedingly  fine  thin  membrane, on
 which the minute capillary branches of the pulmo-
nary arteries and veins are  copiously ramified ; and
it is while circulating in the small vessels of this
membrane, and there  exposed to the air, that the
blood undergoes the change from the venous to the
arterial state.   So prodigiously numerous are these
air-cells that the  aggregate extent of their lining
membrane in man has been computed to  exceed a
surface of 20,000 square inches.
  It may be thought that the interposition of such
a membrane must have the effect of preventing any
action  of the air  upon the blood.  But, in addition
to the proof to the contrary drawn from observa-
tion, it has been  ascertained by experiment that
even the thick and firm texture of bladder is insuf-
ficient  to prevent  the  occurrence of the change;
venous blood confined in a bladder speedily becom-
ing of a florid red, like arterial blood.
  Blood-vessels necessarily form a large constituent
portion of the substance of the lungs.   Besides the
arteries and veins which the lungs possess in com-
mon with other parts for the purposes of  nutrition,
they have, as we  have seen, the large pulmonary
arteries and  veins, dividing  everywhere through
their substance into innumerable branches, convey-
ing the whole blood of the body to and from the air- 
      PREDISPOSITION TO PULMONARY DISEASE.  171

 cells, and therefore of a magnitude proportioned to
 the quantity of  blood  which  is destined to pass
 through them.
   These two tissues, air-tubes and blood-vessels,
 together with  the loose cellular texture or net-
 work which binds  them  together, called  paren-
 chyma, form the whole of the structure peculiar to
 the lungs.   But, like all other living parts, they  are
 provided also with  nerves, without the active  co-
 operation  of which, in supplying the requisite ner-
 vous stimulus, the special functions of the lungs, and
 consequently life itself, would speedily cease.
   Every one must have remarked the copious exha-
 lation of moisture which takes place in breathing,
 and which  presents a striking analogy to the exha-
 lation from the surface of the skin.   In the  former
 as in the latter instance, the exhalation is carried on
 by the  innumerable minute capillary  vessels, in
 which the  small  arterial branches terminate in the
 air-cells.  This can be made evident after death, by
 injecting any of the arterial  branches with  water,
 turpentine, or quicksilver, when the injection will be
 seen to exude in minute points, on the surface of
 the lining membrane of the air-cells.   The pulmo-
 nary exhalation,  however, must not thence be sup-
 posed to be a mere  physical  or mechanical  exuda-
 tion.  It is the result of a vital process, and  is sub-
 ject to the ordinary laws of vital action.
   Absorption, in  like  manner, takes place from the
 lining membrane of the lungs, as we have seen it do
 in  the skin.  When  a  person breathes an  atmo-
 sphereloaded with fumes of spirits, of tobacco,  of
 turpentine,  or of any other volatile substance, a
 portion of the fumes is taken up by the absorbing
 vessels of  the lungs, and carried into the system,
 and there produces precisely the same effects as if
introduced  into the stomach.   It has occasionally
happened that a person has unwarily become  intox-
icated in this way;  and the lungs  thus become a 
 172        CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR

 ready inlet  to contagion, miasmata, and  other
 poisonous influences diffused through the air which
 we breathe.
   From this general explanation of the structure and
 uses of the lungs, it will be obvious,  that several
 conditions, which it is our interest specially to know
 and observe, are essential to the healthy perform-
 ance of the important function of respiration.   First
 among these we may rank a healthy original form-
 ation of  the lungs.  No fact in medicine is better
 established  than that which proves  the hereditary
 transmission from  parents to children of a constitu-
 tional liability to pulmonary disease, and  especially
 to consumption; yet no condition is less attended
 to  in forming  matrimonial engagements.   The
 children  of  scrofulous and consumptive parents are
 generally precocious, and their minds being early
 matured, they engage early in  the business of life,
 and often enter upon the married state before their
 bodily frame has had time to consolidate.  For a
 few years every thing seems to  go on prosperously,
 and a numerous family gathers  around them.   All
 at once, however, while still very young, their phys-
 ical powers begin to give way, and  they drop pre-
 maturely into the grave, exhausted by consumption,
 and leaving  children behind them, destined  in  all
 probability either  to be cut off  as  they approach
 maturity, or to run through the same delusive but
 fatal career as that  of the parents from whom they
 derived their existence.
  Many examples of this kind might be pointed out
 among the higher  classes of society, who are  not
 restrained from following their predominant incli-
 nations, by any necessity of seeking subsistence in
 professional pursuits.  And many instances might
 be referred to, in which no regard was shown to the
 manifest  existence  of the  same disposition  in  the
family of either parent, and in which, consequently,
the marriage state was imbittered either by barren- 
EFFICIENT RESPIRATION.
173
ness, which is then the  most favourable result, or
by the prevalence of disease and delicacy in the
progeny.  It may not be easy to enforce upon the
young and  inexperienced  the requisite degree of
attention to these circumstances; but surely educa-
tion, especially when backed by example, might do
much, if the young were properly instructed, at an
early period, in the leading facts and principles of the
human  constitution.  Where there  are hereditary
precocity and  delicacy of frame, marriage, instead
of being hastened, ought invariably to be delayed at
least till the fullest maturity and consolidation of the
system  : otherwise the consequences will be equally
unhappy for the individual and for his future progeny.
During  growth, and for  a  considerable time  after
growth  has ceased, the constitution is still imper-
fect, even in  healthy  subjects,  and wants the en-
during  strength which  it  afterward acquires in
mature  age, and the possession of which  marks the
period which nature has fixed for the exercise of
the functions of reproduction.  Many young people
of both  sexes fall sacrifices to early marriages, who
might have withstood the ordinary risks of life, and
lived together in happiness, if they had delayed their
union for a few years,  and allowed time for the
consolidation of their constitutions.
  I have urged this point strongly, because heredi-
tary predisposition is, avowedly and beyond all doubt,
the most frequent source of the more serious forms of
pulmonary disease, and it would be worse than folly to
allow past and painful experience to go for nothing.
Medical men have much in their power in prevent-
ing such violations  of  the  laws  of the Creator, at
least where they are regarded, as they always ought
to be, as the  friends as well as  the professional
advisers of the family.
  The second requisite to the well-being of the lungs,
and to the free and salutary exercise of respiration,
is a due supply of rich and healthy blood.   When,
                      P2 
174        CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR

from defective food, or impaired digestion, the blood
is  impoverished in quality and  rendered  unfit for
adequate nutrition, the lungs -speedily  suffer, and
that often to a fatal extent.  So certain is  this fact,
that, in  the  lower animals, tubercles (the cause  of
incurable consumption) can be produced in  the lungs
to  almost any extent, by withholding a sufficiency of
nourishing food.   The same circumstances operate
to  a lamentable extent among the poorly fed popu-
lation of our manufacturing towns; whereas it is pro-
verbial  that  butchers,—a  class  of  men  who eat
animal food twice or thrice a day, and live much in
the open air, are  almost  exempt from pulmonary
consumption.  Among the higher classes, again, the
blood is impoverished, and the lungs are injured, not
from want of food, but from want of the power of ade-
quately digesting it; and  hence we  find  in  every
treatise on consumption,  a section  devoted  espe-
cially to " dyspeptic phthisis," as it is called, or sim-
ply " consumption from bad  digestion."   The late
hours, heavy meals, and deficient exercise  which
are so generally complained of, but still so regularly
adhered to in society, are  the chief sources  of the
evils to which we are now alluding.
  Thirdly.—The  free and  easy expansion  of  the
chest is obviously indispensable to the full play and
dilatation of the lungs: whatever impedes it, either
in  dress or in position, is prejudicial to health; and,
on the  other hand, whatever favours the free ex-
pansion of the  chest equally promotes the healthy
fulfilment of the respiratory functions.  Stays, cor-
sets, and tight waist-bands operate most injuriously,
by compressing the thoracic cavity and impeding
the due dilatation of the  lungs;  and, in many in-
stances, they give rise to consumption.   I have seen
one case, in which the liver was actually indented
by the excessive  pressure, and long continued bad
health and ultimately death were the results.  In
allusion  to  this  subject,  Mr. Thackrah mentions, 
             EFFICIENT  RESPIRATION.         175

that men can exhale, at one effort, from six to ten
pints of air, whereas in women the average is only
from two to  four pints.   In ten females, free from
disease, whom he  examined, about the age of 18i,
the quantity of air thrown out averaged 3i pints;
while, in young men of  the same age, he found it
amount to six pints.  Some allowance is to be made
for natural differences in  the two sexes, but enough
remains to show   a  great diminution of capacity,
which can be ascribed to no other cause than the
use of stays.  But  having discussed  this matter
when treating of the muscular system, it is unne-
cessary to  enlarge  on  it  again, further than to
remark, that  the  constrained  motionless  attitudes
enforced upon young females in the course of educa-
tion are very unfavourable to the  play of the lungs
and to the full development of the chest.
  The  admirable harmony established by the Crea-
tor between the  various constituent parts of the
animal frame, renders it impossible to pay regard to
or infringe the conditions required for the health of
any one, without  all the rest  participating in the
benefit or injury.   Thus,  while cheerful exercise in
the open air and in the society of  equals is directly
and eminently conducive to the well-being of the
muscular  system, the advantage does not stop there;
the beneficent Creator having  kindly so ordered it,
that the same exercise shall be scarcelv less advan-
tageous to the proper performance of the important
function  of  respiration.  Active exercise  calls the
lungs into play, favours  their  expansion, promotes
the circulation of the blood through their substance,
and leads to their complete  and healthy develop-
ment.  The same end is greatly facilitated by that
free and vigorous exercise of the voice which so
uniformly accompanies and enlivens the  sports of
the young, and which doubles  the  benefits derived
from them considered as exercise.  The excitement
of  the social and moral feelings among  children 
176        CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR
 engaged in play is another powerful tonic, the influ-
 ence of which on the general health ought not to be
 overlooked; for the nervous influence is as indis-
 pensable to the right performance of respiration, as
 it is to the action of the muscles or to the digestion
 of food.
  This latter principle explains the reason why the
 depressing passions predispose to pulmonary  con-
 sumption, a fact which  has  been remarked from a
 very early period.   When the mind is in a state of
 depression,  the whole  nervous functions become
 enfeebled; and the  stimulus to the other  organs, on
 which so  much of their vital power depends, is im-
 paired,  and  a general  want of  tone pervades the
 system, rendering the principal organs of the body,
 and the lungs  among the rest, unusually susceptible
 of disease.  Here, again, we may perceive the beau-
 tiful adaptation of all the  functions to each other,
 and the exquisite harmony of design which has pre-
 sided  over the original construction of the body.
  It is curious indeed to trace the relations in which
 the animal functions stand to each  other.  Grief,
 sorrow, fear, and other  depressing passions of the
 mind, diminish the activity of the circulation, im-
 pair respiration, lower  vitality, and  consequently
 render the organization  more than  usually suscep-
 tible  of diseases arising  from diminished action.
 Anger, joy, and the other  exhilarating passions,  on
 the other hand, stimulate  the circulation, quicken
 respiration, increase the vital powers, and create a
 proneness to inflammatory or excited action.  At
 first sight, it may seem  strange that such should be
 the results of different kinds of mental emotion.   On
 examination, however, we perceive evident design
 in the arrangement.  The tendency of grief, despond-
 ency,  and  sorrow is to produce meditative inaction.
These emotions require no exertion of  the bodily
powers, and no unusual expenditure of vital energy :
but rather the reverse.  This, it will be  observed, 
EFFICIENT  RESPIRATION.        177
 is a condition incompatible with a quick supply of
 blood, or a high degree of respiration; for if these
 were  conjoined, they would only give rise  to  an
 amount  of bodily activity at variance with the ab-
 sorbed and inactive state of the mind.  The nature
 of the exciting passions, again, is to impel us vigor-
 ously to action ; but action cannot be sustained with-
 out a full supply of highly oxygenated blood, and hence
 a very manifest reason for the quick respiration and
 accelerated circulation which attend mental excite-
 ment.  Great depression of mind thus leads naturally
 to imperfect respiration, a more  sluggish flow  of
 blood, and the  various diseases of diminished vi-
 tality; while great excitement induces full respira-
 tion, quickened circulation, and the various diseases
 of exalted vitality.  These principles show the para-
 mount importance, in the  treatment of disease,  of
 carefully regulating the mental state of the patient,
 according to the object we have in view.
  A fourth  essential  condition of healthy respira-
 tion remains to be noticed, viz. a regular  supply  of
pure fresh air, without which the  requisite changes
 in the constitution of the blood, as it passes through
 the lungs, cannot be effected.  To  enable the reader
 to appreciate this condition, we must premise some
 remarks on the nature of the changes alluded to.
  Atmospheric air consists of nearly 79  per  cent.
 of nitrogen  or azotic  gas, 21 per  cent, of oxygen,
 and not  quite 1 per cent, of carbonic acid or fixed
 air:  and such is its  constitution  when taken into
 the lungs in  the act of breathing.   When it is ex-
 pelled from them, however, its composition is found
 to be greatly altered.  The quantity of nitrogen re-
 mains nearly the same, but 8 or 8£ per cent, of the
oxygen or vital  air has disappeared, and  been re-
placed by an equal amount of carbonic acid. In addi-
tion  to these changes, the expired air is loaded with
moisture.  Simultaneously with these occurrences,
the blood collected from the veins, which entered 
178       CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR
the lungs of a dark colour and unfit for the support
of life, assumes a florid red hue, and acquires the
power of supporting life.
  It is not easy to  offer a satisfactory explanation
of the processes by which these  changes are ef-
fected in  the  lungs.  According to  one view, the
carbonic acid  contained in expired air is formed by
the secretion of carbon from the venous blood  in its
passage through the lungs, which immediately unites
with the oxygen of the air, and forms carbonic acid,
in which shape it is then thrown out in expiration.
According to the other view, the carbonic acid exists
in, and is  separated from, the venous  blood in the
state  of acid,  and  the oxygen which disappears is
absorbed into  the circulating current.  The former
explanation was long  received, but Dr. Edwards has
lately advanced very  strong  grounds for adopting
the latter.  Whatever may be  the true  theory, all
physiologists are agreed as to the fact that the arte-
rialization of the blood in the  lungs is essentially
dependent on the supply of oxygen contained in the
air which  we  breathe, and that air is fit or unfit for
respiration in  exact proportion  as its quantity of
oxygen approaches to, or differs from, that  con-
tained in pure air.   If, consequently, we attempt to
breathe nitrogen,  hydrogen, or  any  other gas not
containing oxygen, the  result will be speedy suffo-
cation ; whereas, if we breathe air containing  a too
high  proportion of oxygen,  the vital  powers will
speedily suffer from excess of stimulus.   From oxy-
gen being thus essential to life and respiration, it is
often called vital air, in contradistinction to those
gases which are incapable of supporting life.
   We can now appreciate the importance of a due
supply of  fresh air wherever living beings are con-
gregated.   In man, the rate of vitiation produced by
breathing, and the relative  importance  of ventila-
tion,  may be easily  estimated.   An  individual  is
ascertained to breathe, on an average, from 14 to 20 
EFFICIENT  RESPIRATION.        179
 times in a minute, and to inhale from 15 to 40 cubic
 inches of air at each inspiration.  Sir H.  Davy and
 others  rate the quantity so low  as  from 13 to 17
 inches; but most observers agree with Dr. Menzies,
 who experimented with great care, in estimating it at
 40 inches.  The quantity, however, varies much in
 different individuals.
   Even taking the consumpt of air at 20  inches, as
 a very low medium, and rating the number of inspi-
 rations at 15, it appears  that, in the space of one
 minute, no less than 300 cubic  inches of air are re-
 quired  for the respiration of a single person.  In
 the same space of time, 24 cubic inches of oxygen
 disappear, and are replaced by an equal amount of
 carbonic acid ; so that in the course of an hour one
 pair of lungs will, at a low estimate, vitiate the  air
 by the subtraction of no less than 1440 cubic inches
 of oxygen, and the  addition of an equal number of
 carbonic acid, thus constituting a source of impurity
 which cannot be safely overlooked.
   The fatal effects of breathing highly vitiated air
 may easily be made the subject of experiment.
 When a mouse is confined in a  large and tight glass
 jar full of air, it seems for a short time to experience
 no inconvenience ; but in proportion as the  consump-
 tion of oxygen and  the exhalation of carbonic acid
 proceed, it begins to show symptoms of uneasiness,
 and to pant in its breathing, as if struggling for  air;
 and in a few hours it  dies, convulsed  exactly as if
 drowned or strangulated.  The same results follow
 the deprivation or vitiation of air in  man  and in all
 animated beings ; and  in hanging, death results not
 from dislocation of the neck, as is often supposed,
 but simply from the  interruption to breathing pre-
 venting the necessary changes taking place in the
 constitution of the blood.
  The horrible fate of the Englishmen who were
 shut up in the Black Hole of Calcutta in 1756
is strikingly illustrative  of the destructive conse- 
180   EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION.

quences of an  inadequate  supply of air.  146 in
number were  thrust into a confined place, 18 feet
square.  There were only two very small windows
by which air could be admitted,and as both of them
were on the same side, ventilation was utterly im-
possible.   Scarcely was the door shut  upon the
prisoners when their sufferings commenced, and in
a short time a delirious and mortal struggle ensued
to get near the windows.  Within four hours, those
who survived  lay in the silence of apoplectic stupor;
and at the end of six hours, ninety-six were relieved
by death!  In the morning when the door was opened,
23 only were  found alive, many of whom were sub-
sequently  cut off by putrid fever, caused by the dread-
ful effluvia and corruption of the air.
  This tremendous example ought not to be lost
upon us.   If the results arising  from the  vitiation
of the air  to an extreme degree be so appalling, we
may  rest  assured that those arising from  every
lesser degree, although they may be less obvious,
are not less certain in their operation.   It is, indeed,
readily admitted in the abstract, that a constant sup-
ply of pure air is indispensable to the healthy per-
formance of respiration; but if we inquire how far
this condition is attended to by mankind at large, we
shall have no reason to think the present warning
unnecessary.   I have already noticed (at p. 19) the
case of Captain Ganson who was suffocated in the
cabin  of the Magnus Troil  in Leith Harbour on 1st
March, 1833,.and whose brother was recovered with
great difficulty from a state of stupor, induced ap-
parently by an insufficient supply of respirable air.
To these instances another may be added from the
Globe newspaper of 1st  April, in  which it is men-
tioned, that the  captain  and  mate of the  French
Chasse maree Royaliste lost their  lives from suffo-
cation in the harbour of Jersey, in a precisely simi-
lar way.   In both vessels the cabin was very small,
and the door having been carefully shut, the access
of fresh ah was completely prevented. 
       BFFECTS  OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION.   181

   I do not mean to say, that in these cases the fatal
 results  were attributable exclusively to vitiation of
 the air by breathing.   Fixed air  may have been dis-
 engaged also from some other source; but the de-
 teriorating influence of respiration, where no venti-
 lation is perceptible, cannot be doubted.   According
 to Dr. Bostock's estimate, for example, an average
 sized man consumes about  45,000 cubic inches of
 oxygen, and gives out  about 40,000 of carbonic acid
 in 24 hours, or 18,750  of oxygen and 16,666 of car-
 bonic acid  in ten hours, which was nearly the time
 which the sufferers had remained in the cabin before
 they were found.  As they were  two in number, the
 quantity of oxygen which would  have been  required
 for their consumption  was of course equal to 37,500
 cubic  inches, while the  carbonic  acid  given  out
 would amount to upwards of 32,000 inches—a source
 of impurity  manifestly  quite equal to the production
 of serious consequences to those exposed to it;  and
 which no one, properly acquainted with the consti-
 tution of his  own body  and  with the conditions
 essential to healthy respiration, would ever have
 willingly encountered.   It is no argument to  say
 that  the cause of death must have been some dis-
 engagement of  gas  within the  vessel: for, even
 granting this to  have been the case, it is still certain
 that, had the means of ventilation  been adequately
 provided, this gas would have been so much diluted,
 and so quickly dispersed, that  it would have been
 comparatively innoxious.
  In  the construction  of our houses, the  laws of
 respiration are often glaringly infringed, especially
 in towns.  The public  rooms, which can be easily
 ventilated at any time,—which are in fact ventilated
 by the constant  opening and shutting of the door,
 and by the draught of  the chimney,—and in which,
 therefore, large dimensions are less  necessary  for
salubrity, are always the  most spacious and airy.
The bed-rooms, on the other hand, in which, from
                      Q 
182   EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT  VENTILATION.

the doors being shut, and from there being no current
of air in the whole seven or eight hours during which
they are occupied, the vitiation of  the air is the
greatest, and in  which, consequently, size is  most
required, are uniformly the smallest  and most con-
fined ; and, as  if this  source of impurity  were not
sufficient, we still farther reduce the  already too
limited  space, by surrounding the bed closely with
curtains, for the express purpose of preventing ven-
tilation, and  keeping  us enveloped in  the  same
heated  atmosphere.   Can any thing be  imagined
more directly at  variance than this with the funda-
mental  laws of respiration 1   Or could such prac-
tices ever have been resorted to, had the nature of
the human constitution been  regarded  before they
were adopted 1 In this respect we are more humane
towards the lower animals than towards our own
species; for, notwithstanding all the refinements of
civilization, we have not yet aggravated  the  want
of ventilation  in  the  stable or the  cow-house, by
adding  curtains  to the individual stalls of the in-
mates.
   So little, however, are we taught to think of the
nature and wants of the human constitution, that in
Edinburgh we have instances  of large public rooms,
capable of holding from 800  to  1000 persons, built
within these few years, without any means of ade-
quate ventilation being provided.  This  could not
have happened,  had either the architects or their
employers known any thing of the laws of the hu-
man constitution.  When these rooms are crowded,
and the meeting lasts for some hours, especially if
it be in winter,  the consequences are sufficiently
marked.  Either such a multitude must be subjected
to all the evils of a contaminated and unwholesome
atmosphere, or they must  be partially relieved by
opening the windows, and aUowixtg a  continued
stream  of cold air to pour down upon the heated
bodies of those who are near them, till the latter are 
      EFFECTS  OF DEFICIENT  VENTILATION.   183

thoroughly chilled, and perhaps fatal illness is in-
duced ; and, unfortunately, even at such a price, the
relief is only partial; for the windows being all on
one side of the room, and not extending much above
half-way to the ceiling, complete ventilation is im-
practicable.
  In dwelling-houses  lighted by  gas, the frequent
renewal of the air acquires increased importance.
A single gas-burner will consume  more oxygen, and
produce more carbonic acid to deteriorate the atmo-
sphere of a room, than six or eight candles.  If,
therefore, where  several burners  are used, no pro-
vision be made for the escape of  the corrupted air,
and  for the introduction of pure air  from without,
the  health  will necessarily  suffer.  A  ventilator
placed over the burners, like an inverted funnel, and
opening into the  chimney,  is an efficient and  easy
remedy for the former evil; and a small tube form-
ing a communication between the external air and
the room  would supply  fresh air,  where necessary.
The tube  might  be  made  to  pass, like a distiller's
worm, through a vessel containing  hot  water, by
which means the air  might be heated, in very cold
weather,  before being thrown into  the  room, and
thus the danger arising from cold draughts and in-
equalities of temperature be avoided.
  Many of our churches and schools are extremely
ill ventilated; and accordingly it is  observed, that
fainting and hysterics occur in churches much more
frequently in the afternoon  than in the forenoon, be-
cause the air is then in its maximum of vitiation.
Indeed, it is  impossible to look around us  in  a
crowded church,  towards the  close  of the service,
without perceiving the effects of deficient air in the
expression of the features of every one present.
Either a relaxed sallow paleness  of the surface, or
the hectic flush of fever, is observable ;  and, as the
necessary accompaniment, a sensation  of mental 
 184   EFFECTS OF  DEFICIENT VENTILATION.

 and bodily lassitude is felt,  which is immediately
 relieved by getting into the open air.
  I have seen churches frequented by upwards of a
 thousand people, in which,  in winter, not only no
 means of ventilation are  employed during service,
 but even during the  interval  between the forenoon
 and afternoon  services,  the windows are kept as
 carefully closed as  if deadly contagion lay outside,
 watching for an opportunity to enter by the first open
 chink, and where,  consequently, the congregation
 must inhale, for two or three hours in the afternoon,
 an exceedingly corrupted air, and suffer the penalty
 in headaches, colds, bilious and nervous attacks.
  Few of our schools are well regulated in this re-
 spect.   It is now several years  since, on the occa-
 sion of a visit to one  of the  classes of a great
 public  seminary,  my  attention  was first  strongly
 attracted to the injury resulting  to the mental and
 bodily functions from  the  inhalation  of impure air.
 About  150 boys were  assembled  in one large room,
 where they had been already  confined nearly ah
 hour and  a half when  I entered.   The windows
 were  partly open; but, notwithstanding  this, the
 change from the  fresh  atmosphere  outside to the
 close contaminated air within was obvious  to every
 sense, and most certainly was not without its effect
 on  the mind itself, accompanied as  it was  with a
 sensation of fulness in the forehead, and slight head-
 ache.   The boys, with every motive to activity that
 an  excellent system  and an enthusiastic teacher
 could bestow, presented an aspect of weariness and
 fatigue which the  mental stimulus they were under
 could  not overcome,  and which recalled forcibly
 sensations long bygone, which I had experienced to
 a woful extent, when seated on the benches  of the
 same school.
  These observations stirred up a  train of reflec-
tions ;  and when I called to mind the freshness and
Blacrity with which, when at school, our morning 
      EFFECTS OF  DEFICIENT VENTILATION.  185

operations were carried on, the  gradual approach
to languor and yawning which took place as the day
advanced, and the almost instant resuscitation of the
whole energies of mind and body that ensued on
our dismissal, I could not help  thinking that, even
after making every necessary deduction for tUe men-
tal fatigue of the lessons, and the inaction of body,
a great  deal of the comparative listlessness  and in-
difference was owing to the continued inhalation of
an air  too much vitiated to be able  to afford the
requisite stimulus to the blood,  on which last  con-
dition the efficiency of the brain  so essentially de-
pends.  This became  the  more probable, on recol-
lecting the pleasing excitement occasionally expe-
rienced for a few moments, from the rush of fresh
air which took place  when the  door was opened to
admit some casual visiter.  Indeed, on referring to
the symptoms  induced  by breathing carbonic  acid
gas or fixed air, it is impossible not to  perceive that
the headache, languor, and debility consequent on
Confinement in an ill-ventilated  apartment, or in air
vitiated by many people, are nothing but minor de-
grees of the same process of poisoning which en-
sues on immersion in fixed air.  Of this latter state,
" great  heaviness  in the head, tingling in  the  ears,
troubled sight, a great  inclination  to sleep, diminution
of strength, and falling down," are stated by Orfila as
the chief symptoms,* and  every one  knows  how
closely these resemble what is felt in crowded halls.
  Another instance of the noxious influence of viti-
ated  air, which made  a very strong impression on
my mind, was during a three  hours'  service  in a
crowded country church, in a warm Sunday in July.
The  windows were all shut, and in  consequence
the open door was of little use in purifying the atmo-
sphere, which was unusually contaminated, not only
by the  respiration of so many  people, but  by the

               * Toxicologic, ii. 422.
                      Q2 
186   EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION.

very abundant perspiration from  the  skin excited
by the heat and confinement.  Few of the  lower
classes,  either  in  town or  country, extend  their
cleanliness beyond the  washing of the hands and
face.   Hence the cutaneous exudation,  in  such
persons,  is  characterized by a  strong  and nau-
seous smell, which, when concentrated, as it was on
this  occasion, becomes  absolutely overpowering.
Accordingly, at the conclusion of the service, there
was heard one  general buzz  of complaint of  head-
ache, sickness, and oppression ;  and  the reality of
the suffering was  amply testified  by the pale and
wearied appearance even of the  most robust.
  One of the evils of ignorance is, that we  often
sin and suffer the punishment, without being aware
that  we are  sinning, and that it  is in our power to
escape the suffering by avoiding the sin.  For many
generations, mankind have experienced the evil re-
sults of deficient ventilation, especially in towns,
and  suffered the penalty of delicate  health, head-
aches, fevers, consumptions, cutaneous and nervous
diseases ; and yet, from ignorance of the true nature
and importance of the function  of respiration, and
of the great consumption of air in its performance,
architects have gone  on planning  and  constructing
edifices and houses, without bestowing a thought on
the means of supplying them with fresh air, although
animal life  cannot be carried on without it: and
while ingenuity and science have been taxed  to the
uttermost to secure a proper supply  of water, the
admission of pure  air, though far more essential,
has  been left to steal in like a  thief in the  night,
through any hole it can  find open.  In  constructing
hospitals, indeed, ventilation has  been thought of,
because a notion is prevalent that the  sick require
fresh air, and  cannot recover  without  it;  but  it
seems not to have  been perceived, that what  is in-
dispensable for the recovery of the sick may be not
less  advantageous in preserving from  sickness those 
       EFFF.CTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION.   187

who are  well.  Were a general knowledge of the
structure  of man to  constitute a regular part of a
liberal education, such inconsistencies as this would
soon  disappear, and  the scientific  architect would
speedily devise the best means for  supplying  our
houses with pure air, as he has already supplied them
with pure water.
  That these remarks are not uncalled for, even as
regards hospitals, may be conceived  from the sub-
 joined quotations from the Lancet  of 29th  Decem-
ber, 1832.  After  narrating a case of a patient who
was carried off by pleurisy,  while  under treatment
by Dr. Elliotson, in St. Thomas's Hospital, for dis-
ease of pylorus, the reporter gives  his opinion, that
the pleurisy " was most likely occasioned by the ex-
treme draughts of this ward.   There is a great cur-
rent of air in the ward ; and I have seen many per-
sons in it suffer very much indeed."   In a note, it
is added, " The number of patients who are thus carried
off yearly forms a startling list to be  laid before the
eyes of the governors of this institution.   Such results
are shamefully  frequent."   I  fear there are many
other hospitals as much in need of  improvement in
this respect as that of St. Thomas's.
  As a contrast to the above case, it is  gratifying
to observe the  care which  has been taken to effect
a thorough and safe ventilation in fitting up the new
surgical wards of the Edinburgh Infirmary, which
may serve as a specimen of what ought to be done,
not only with all  public  institutions,  but I may add
with all private dwellings.  In these wards fresh air
is introduced by large circular openings in the floor,
and the vitiated air escapes  by  similar openings in
the roof.  The apparatus  is so  constructed as to
admit of the air being heated in winter before it
enters the ward, by which means  all danger from
cold currents is prevented.
  That the evils which  sound  physiology would
lead us to anticipate from frequently breathing im- 
188   EFFECTS  OF DEFICIENT  VENTILATION.

pure air  actually occur, is  not a  matter  of doubt.
Among other writers, Mr. Thackrah, in his excel-
lent little work on  the effects of trades and profes-
sions on  health, expresses himself strongly to this
effect, and specially notices that dyspeptic symptoms
are often the first  indications  of the  commencing
disease, and that the lungs suffer only after the di-
gestive system has been for a  time disordered.   It
may not  be easy to explain why  the  stomach and
bowels should suffer even  sooner than  the  lungs
themselves, from a cause which seems exclusively
directed to  the latter ; but observation  substantiates
the fact,  and it is one of much interest in enabling
us to trace  to their true  sources many of  the forms
of bad health prevalent in the middle ranks of life.
  Although, however, the first effects are so  often
referable to the stomach,  the lungs  and general
system sooner or later become implicated.  An in-
dividual possessing a strong constitution may indeed
withstand the bad consequences  of  occasionally
breathing an impure atmosphere, but  even he will
suffer for the time.  He will  not experience the
same amount of mischief from  it as the invalid, but
will be perfectly conscious  of a temporary feeling
of discomfort, the very purpose of which is, like
pain from a blow, to impel him to shun the danger,
and seek relief in a purer  air.   The comparative
harmlessness of a single exposure is  the circum-
stance which blinds us to the  magnitude  of the ul-
timate result, and makes us fancy ourselves safe and
prudent,  when every day is surely though imper-
ceptibly adding  to  the  sum of the mischief.   But
let any one who doubts the importance of this con-
dition of health watch the dyspeptic, the pulmonary,
or the nervous invalid through a season devoted to
attendance  on crowded parties and public amuse-
ments, and  he will  find the frequency of headaches,
colds, and other fits of illness increase  in exact pro-
portion to the accumulated exposure, till,  at the end 
       EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT  VENTILATION.   189

 of spring, a general debility has been induced, which
 imperatively demands a cessation of festivity and a
 change of scene and air.   This debility is often ig-
 norantly ascribed to  the unwholesome influence of
 spring,—a season extolled by the poet, not as a
 cause of relaxation  and feebleness, but as the dis-
 penser of renovated life  and vigour to all created
 beings.
   It  is in vain to warn  such  persons  beforehand
 that Nature is always consistent, and that if bad air
 be really unfit  for healthy respiration, it must be
 detrimentals them, and to all who breathe it; and
 that its ill effects are not less real because at  first
 gradual and unperceived in their approach.   They
 know too  little of the  animal economy and  of na-
 ture's laws, and are  too much devoted to their own
 object, to be impressed by cautions of this kind ; and,
 in looking forward  to the ball-room  or crowded
 evening-party, few of  them will believe that  any
 possible connexion can exist between breathing its
 vitiated atmosphere  and the headaches, indigestion,
 and cutaneous eruptions which so frequently follow,
 and to be delivered from which  they would sacrifice
 almost every other enjoyment.
   If it be said that nobody will be troubled with all
 this  trifling care, and that thousands who expose
 themselves in  every way nevertheless enjoy good
 health and a long life, I can only answer  that it is
 true ; but that an infinitely greater  proportion pass
 through life as habitual invalids, and scarcely know,
 from  experience, what a day of good health  really
 is.  The late discussions on the Factory Bill have
 demonstrated, by an  unassailable  mass of evidence,
 that  many circumstances, rarely considered as in-
 jurious, because they have no immediate  effect in
 suddenly destroying   life by  acute  diseases,  have
nevertheless  a marked influence in slowly under-
mining  health  and  shortening  human  existence.
There are trades, for example, at which workmen 
190   EFFECTS  OF DEFICIENT  VENTILATION.

may labour for fifteen or twenty years without hav-
ing been a month  confined by disease during all that
time, and which are therefore said  to be healthy
trades;  and yet, when the investigation is pursued
a little  farther, it is found that the general  health
is  so steadily, although imperceptibly, encroached
upon, that  scarcely a single workman survives his
fortieth or fiftieth year.
  It  is  this insidious influence of  impure  air to
which I am anxious to direct attention.  So long as
delicacy is the rule, and robust health the exception,
especially among females,  and so long as fifty or
sixty thousand persons  perish annually in Great
Britain  from  consumption alone, it will be difficult
to  persuade any rational and  instructed mind that
every cause of disease is already removed, and that
further care is superfluous.   My own conviction, on
the contrary, is, that by proper care, and a stricter
observance of the laws of the animal economy on
the part of the parents and guardians of the young,
the development of the disease might be prevented
in  a large  proportion of the  number, and that even
the robust would enjoy health in a higher degree,
and with increased security.   It is an instructive
proof of this, that  those who have directed their
chief attention to training either man or animals for
athletic exercises, or the race-course, have been led,
by observation, to attach the utmost importance to
pure air.   Sir John Sinclair has been at pains to
collect the rules followed by  Jackson, the celebrated
trainer, and others of the same profession; and he
tells us that, by all of them, the necessity of pure
air is uniformly insisted upon.  Sir John adds, that
the same condition was  deemed so essential by the
ancients, that  the Roman Athletae established their
principal schools at Capua and Ravenna,  as the
most pure and healthy air of all Italy; and that, in
the training of race-horses, and even of game-cocks, 
            80URCES OF  ANIMAL  HEAT.        191

the most sedulous attention is paid to the purity of
the air in which they live.
   The necessity for adequate ventilation is nowhere
more urgent than in many of our manufactories,
where, from the length of time (varying from 10 to
17 hours  a day) during  which the operatives are
exposed to the evils of impure air, a great sacrifice
of health and happiness is constantly going on.  The
dust floating in the air in cotton  manufactories and
spinning-mills, and produced in many trades, is a
very serious aggravation of their  situation, as  all
foreign bodies thus  inhaled into  the lungs produce
irritation in their structure, and sooner or later lead
to the development of fatal pulmonary disease.

   In the third  chapter, I pointed  out the  necessity
of protecting the skin by suitable  clothing, and men
tioned the intimate relation which subsists between
its function and those of the lungs.  We have now
to consider this subject a little further, as regards
the origin and regulation of the animal heat.
   The true  sources  of animal heat are still imper-
fectly known, and any discussion concerning them
would be too abstract for the present volume.  Its
regular production, however, is an essential condition
of life.   If the human body did not possess within
itself the power of generating heat, so as to maintain
nearly an equality of temperature in all climates, it
could not long exist.  In winter, and especially in
the northern regions, the blood would  speedily be
converted into a solid mass, and life be extinguished,
if no provision existed  for  replacing  the  caloric
withdrawn from the system by the surrounding cold.
In most parts of the globe, the  heat of the  atmo-
sphere is, even in summer, inferior to  that of the
human body, and consequently a loss of  caloric is
always going on, which must be  made up in some
way, otherwise disease and  death would speedily
ensue.  In cholera a very remarkable diminution of 
192     CONNEXION  BETWEEN RESPIRATION

heat occurs, and a return to the natural temperature
is an indispensable step towards recovery.
  The relation  between the production of animal
heat, and the  condition  of  the respiratory func-
tions, is the  most direct and remarkable.  In gene-
ral, other conditions being alike, heat is generated
more or less freely, in proportion  to  the size  and
vigour  of the lungs; and when  these are impaired,
the production of heat is diminished.   Hence many
persons with  imperfectly developed  lungs, and a
predisposition  to consumption, complain habitually
of coldness of the surface and feet ; and many who
were previously in good health become more  and
more sensible to cold, in proportion as the approach
of disease weakens  the functions of the lungs.  I
have noticed this  increased sensibility to cold, as a
precursor of chronic pulmonary disease, both in my-
self  and others, before any other very ostensible
symptom had  appeared, and think  I have  seen its
farther  progress  arrested by  the  timely  use  of
proper means, where much greater difficulty would
have been experienced had  the warning not been
attended to.
  The generation  of heat in the living system being
so immediately connected with the lungs, we  find
the temperature highest in those animals who pos-
sess  them in the greatest perfection, viz. birds.  In
many species, the  internal heat exceeds that of man
by twenty or thirty degrees ; while that of man ex-
ceeds, to as  great  an extent, the heat of such of the
inferior animals as are remarkable for imperfect or-
gans of respiration.
  The  next condition affecting the production of
animal heat  is the co-operation of the nervous sys-
tem.  If the mind be depressed  by  grief, tormented
by anxiety, or absorbed in sedentary meditation, all
the bodily functions become weakened, the circula-
tion  languishes, the breathing becomes slow and
scarcely perceptible, digestion  is ill performed, and 
AND  ANIMAL  HEAT.           193
coldness of the extremities ensues.  If, on the other
hand, the mind and  nervous system be  stimulated
by  cheerful  exertion  and  agreeable  emotions,  a
pleasant glow pervades the frame, and external cold
is much more easily resisted.
  The quantity and quality of the food and state of
the digestive  functions  are also important conditions.
This  will be readily assented to, when the reader
considers that a due supply of well-formed chyle is
required to restore the nourishing properties of the
blood, and that if, in consequence either of insuf-
ficient food or of weak  digestion, this be rendered
impossible, all the animal  functions, among others
the production of heat,  must necessarily be impaired.
This is  the reason why cold is felt most severely in
the morning  before breakfast, and why coldness of
the feet  and  chilliness of the  surface are so  gene-
rally complained of in  indigestion and bilious com-
plaints.
  Everybody knows that exercise favours, and in-
dolence obstructs, the development of animal heat.
Exercise produces its effect by the general stimulus
which it gives directly to the respiratory and circu-
lating systems, and indirectly to the nervous and di-
gestive  functions.
  In attempting,  therefore, to increase the power
of resistance  to cold in  the human  body, we ought
to take into account  all the conditions which favour
the generation of heat.   Observation proves that
the degree of cold required to overcome the internal
generating power, and to extinguish life, varies in
the same individual  at different times; and there-
fore our protecting measures also ought to be varied
according to  the state  of the constitution, the vig-
our of the respiratory  and digestive functions, the
kind of food, and the amount  of  exercise.  When
the food is inadequate, and the mind depressed, the
system resists the impression of cold with great dif-
ficulty ;  and even in Scotland, where the  tempera- 
194     CONNEXION BETWEEN RESPIRATION

ture  is rarely very low, scarcely a winter passes
without several instances  of death occurring from
exposure in ill-fed and ill-clothed individuals, even
when the thermometer is above the freezing point.
This happens usually when a high wind  aids the
rapid abstraction of heat.  Well-fed and well-clothed
guards of coaches, on  the other hand, are remark-
able  examples of the  power of withstanding low
temperatures in very exposed situations, where the
animal functions  are in a state of vigour.  The re-
cent  Arctic expeditions under Parry  and  Franklin
afford similar instances.
  Having already, when treating  of the skin, suffi-
ciently explained  the  principles on which clothing
ought to be adjusted, it is unnecessary to recur  to
its utility as a means of regulating the temperature
of the human body.  If the use of suitable clothing
is found insufficient to keep the body warm, we may
infer with certainty, although no other sign of bad
health has appeared, that some internal cause exists,
affecting and impairing one or other of the sources
of animal heat already mentioned, and that till the
special cause be  discovered and removed, the evil
itself will continue undiminished.
  In winter, young people  often  suffer from being
daily confined for many hours in succession, with-
out exercise, in rooms insufficiently heated.  This
is a  constant  subject  of complaint in large acad-
emies and boarding-schools, where economy in fuel
is carried to its utmost limits.  Nothing tends more
than this to lower the general standard of health,
and prepare the individual  for the future inroads of
insidious  diseases.  In scrofulous children espe-
cially, in whom the evolution of heat is rarely ener-
getic, the  evil is  one of great magnitude, for the
chilblains, colds, and headaches more immediately
complained of are often its least  important conse-
quences.  It is far from my wish to recommend
that the young of  either sex should be  brought up in 
AND  ANIMAL  HEAT.
195
the relaxing atmosphere of overheated rooms.   On
the contrary,  comfortable warmth ought, in every
instance, to be  drawn chiefly from  its legitimate
sources, free respiration in a pure air, abundant out-
door exercise, vigorous digestion, and an actively
employed mind.  If these conditions be observed,
little fire will  be required to supply warmth to the
young.  But if, as often happens, these be neg-
lected, and the generation of animal heat be thereby
reduced too low, we must either allow the mischief
to go on increasing, or afford adequate warmth from
without.  It is in vain to think of rendering young
creatures hardy by subjecting them to the continued
influence of a depressing temperature.  A few  may
escape, but the majority will certainly suffer.
  In the heating of rooms  and public  halls,  it is
proper to be on our guard against rendering the air
too dry, a condition which is hurtful  in causing  too
rapid  evaporation  from the whole line  of the air-
passages, as well as from the surface of the body,
and which is apt to produce considerable irritability
in the  general system.   On the Continent, where
stoves  are  much in use,  a vessel containing water
is commonly placed on a sand-bath on the top,  that
moisture may be generated quickly  or slowly, ac-
cording to the degree of heat, and diffused through
the atmosphere.  In such of our halls  as are warmed
by heated air or stoves, some such plan ought to be
adopted.
  Having thus examined  the chief conditions  re-
quired  for healthy respiration, it only remains  for
us to throw out a few practical hints in regard to
what may be called the education of the lungs, or
the means  by which their  development may be
favoured, and their functions improved in tone  and
extent.  Most of these  means  have  been already
noticed at some length, and the  only important  one
which still claims our attention is the exercise af the
lungs. 
196         EXERCISE OF  THE LUNGS.
  Judicious  exercise  of the lungs is one of the
most efficacious means which we  can employ  for
promoting their development and warding off their
diseases.  In this respect the organs of respiration
closely resemble the muscles and  all other organ-
ized parts.   They are made to be used, and if they
are left in  habitual inactivity their strength and
health are unavoidably impaired; while, if their ex-
ercise be ill-timed or excessive, disease will as cer-
tainly follow.
  The  lungs may be exercised indirectly by such
kinds of bodily or muscular exertion as  require
quicker and deeper breathing;  and directly by the
employment of the voice in speaking, reading aloud,
crying,  or singing.  In  general, both ought  to be
conjoined.   But where  the  chief  object  is to im-
prove the lungs, those kinds which have a tendency
to expand the chest, and call the organs of respira-
tion into  play, ought to  be especially preferred.
Rowing a boat, fencing, quoits, shuttlecock,  and the
proper use of dumb-bells and gymnastics are of this
description.   All of them employ actively the mus-
cles of  the  chest and trunk, and excite  the  lungs
themselves to freer and fuller expansion.  Climbing
up hill  is, for the same reason, an exercise  of high
utility in giving tone and freedom to the pulmonary
functions.
  Where, either from hereditary predisposition or
accidental causes,  the  chest is unusually weak,
every effort  should be made, from infancy upwards,
to favour the growth and strength  of the lungs by
the habitual  use of such of the above-mentioned ex-
ercises as can most easily be practised.   The  ear-
lier they are resorted to, and the more steadily they
are pursued, the more certainly will their  beneficial
results be experienced.   In their employment, the
principles explained in the chapter on the muscles
ought to be adhered to.
  Habitual exercise in a hilly country, and the fre- 
EXERCISE  OF THE LUNGS.        197
quent ascent of acclivities, especially in pursuit of
an object, are well known to have a powerful effect
in improving the wind and strengthening the lungs,
which is just  another  way of saying that they in-
crease the capacity of the chest, promote free cir-
culation through the pulmonary vessels, and lead to
the more  complete  oxygenation  of the  blood.
Hence the vigorous appetite, the increased  muscu-
lar power, and cheerfulness  of mind so commonly
felt by the invalid on his removal to the mountains
are not to be wondered at.  I was myself sensible
of advantage from this kind of exercise during a
Highland  excursion.   The  necessity  of  frequent
and deep inspirations, and the stimulus thus given
to the general and pulmonary circulation, had an
obvious effect  in  increasing  the  capacity of the
lungs, and the power  of bearing exertion without
fatigue.  Even when  I  was wearied, the fatigue
went  off much sooner than after a  walk of equal
length on a level road, and it was  unattended with
the languor which generally accompanied the latter.
In fact, the most agreeable feeling which 1 expe-
rienced during the whole time was on resting after
undergoing, in ascending a hill, a  degree of exer-
tion sufficient to accelerate the breathing, and bring
out a  considerable degree of perspiration.  A light-
ness  and activity of mind, and freedom about the
chest which I  never felt to the same extent at any
other time, followed such excursions, and made the
fatigue comparatively light.
  Before such practices, however, can be resorted
to with advantage, or  even with safety, there must
be nothing in the shape of active disease existing.
If there be, the adoption of such  exercise will, in
all probability, occasion the most serious injury.
This  also I experienced in my own case, as,  for
many months  at an earlier stage of convalescence,
going up a stair, ascending the most gentle acclivity,
or speaking aloud for a few minutes, was  equally 
198         EXERCISE  OF THE LUNGS.

fatiguing and hurtful, and often  brought on cough,
and occasionally a slight spitting of blood.  At that
time,  riding  on horseback,  which exercises the
body without hurrying the breathing, was especially
useful.  The advantage of these exercises in giving
tone and capacity to the lungs, where debility rather
than disease is complained  of, is shown in  their
being regularly resorted to  in preparing for the
race-course and for the field.   The true sportsman
puts himself in training as well  as his dog or his
horse, and fits himself for the moors by regular ex-
cursions previous  to the 12th of  August.  By so
doing he improves his wind and increases his mus-
cular strength to a remarkable extent in a very short
time.
  When no active pulmonary disease exists,  these
exercises may, with the best effects, be frequently
carried  so  far as to induce free perspiration ; only
great care ought to be taken  immediately after, to
rub the  surface of the body thoroughly dry, and to
change  the dress.  It is quite  ascertained, that with
these precautions perspiration from exercise is the
reverse of debilitating.  It  equalizes  and gently
stimulates the  circulation, relieves the internal or-
gans, improves digestion, and invigorates the skin.
Jackson testifies strongly to  these results when he
declares that the severe exercise  incurred in  train-
ing not  only improves the lungs, but always renders
the skin " quite clear, even though formerly subject to
eruptions."*  These assertions are, of course, to be
received  as the statements of a man partial  to his
own art;  but they are  in accordance with experi-
ence, and with the laws of the animal functions, so
far as these are known.  They therefore merit the
consideration of professional men, and of  those
whose  features are  often disfigured by eruptions

      * Code of Health, 5th edition.  Appendix, p. 37. 
EXERCISE  OF THE LUNGS.         199
 which they find it difficult to remove by any kind of
 medicine.
   I  need hardly say, that  when wishing to favour
 the development  of the lungs, we ought to be scru-
 pulous in avoiding such positions  of the  body as
 hinder their  full  expansion.  Tailors, shoemakers,
 -clerks at a writing-desk, and the like, are unfavour-
 ably situated in this respect, as their bent position
 -constrains the chest, and impedes the breathing and
 circulation.
   Direct exercise of the lungs, in speaking, reciting,
 singing,  and  playing on wind  instruments, is very
 influential for good or for evil, according as it  is in-
 dulged in with or without due reference to the con-
 stitution of the individual.   If it is, nothing tends
 more to expand and give tone and health to these
 important organs; but if either ill-timed or carried
 to excess, nothing can be more detrimental.
   The crying and  sobbing of children  contribute
 much to  their future health, unless  they are caused
 by disease, and carried to a very unusual  extent.
 The loud iaugh  and noisy exclamations attending
 the sports of the young have an evident relation to
 the same beneficial end ; and ought therefore to be
 encouraged instead of being repressed, as they are
 often sought  to be, by those who, having forgotten
 that they themselves were once  young,  seek in
 childhood the gravity and decorum of more advanced
 age.  I have already noticed, at page  109, an in-
 stance on a large  scale, in which the inmates of an
institution were, for the  purpose of preserving  their
health, shut up within the limits of their hall for six
months, and not allowed to indulge in any noisy and
romping  sports.   The aim of the directors was un-
doubtedly the purest benevolence,  but from their
want of knowledge, their  object  was  defeated,
and the arrangement itself became  the instrument
Of evil.
  Beneficial as the direct exercise  of the lungs is 
200        EXERCISE  OF THE LUNGS.
thus shown to be in strengthening the chest, its in-
fluence  extends  still farther.  If  we  examine the
position of the lungs as represented in the figure on
page  169, we shall see, that, when fully inflated,
they must necessarily push  downwards and flatten
the moveable arch of the diaphragm D D, by which
they are separated from the belly or abdomen.  This
alteration, however, cannot  take place without the
diaphragm  in its  turn pushing  down the  liver,
stomach, and bowels,  which it  accordingly  does,
causing them to project forwards  and outwards.
But no sooner are  the  lungs fully inflated  than the
contained air is again  thrown out.   The lungs di-
minish in size : the diaphragm rises, and with it all
the contents of the abdomen return to their former
position.  The whole  digestive apparatus is thus
subjected to  a continual pressure and change of
place, and the stimulus thence arising is, in truth,
essential to the healthy performance of the digestive
functions, and is one of the means arranged by the
Creator for the purpose.  Consequently, if the lungs
be rarely called into active exercise,  not only do
they suffer, but an important condition of digestion
being withdrawn, the stomach and bowels also become
weakened,  and indigestion  and costiveness make
their  appearance.   I have already alluded to this
subject  in the chapter  on  muscular exercise; but
the principle will now be better understood with the
aid of the figure.
  After this exposition, I need hardly say that the
loud and distinct speaking enforced  in many public
schools is productive of much good  to the young,
and that in this respect the occasional  songs in
which all are required to join in the Infant Schools,
and other institutions, are much to be commended.
Let any one who doubts their efficacy as exercises
of the lungs, attend to what passes in his own body
on reading aloud a single paragraph, and he  will
find, not only that deep inspirations and full expira- 
            EXERCISE  OF THE LUNGS.        201

tions are encouraged, but that a considerable  im-
pulse is  communicated to the bowels, affording a
marked contrast to the slight breathing and quies-
cent posture of those whose voices never rise above
a whisper.
  Reading aloud, public speaking, and lecturing are
excellent exercises for developing the lungs and the
chest. But, as they require  some  exertion, they
ought to  be indulged in with prudence, and with con-
stant reference to the constitution and health of the
individual.  When  early resorted to, and  steadily
persevered in, they are useful in warding off disease
and communicating strength  to an important func-
tion.   But when begun suddenly, and carried to ex-
cess  by  persons with weak  lungs, they are more
directly injurious than almost any other cause.  It
is  not uncommon  for young  divines to give them-
selves up to preaching, without any previous prepa-
ration for the effort which  it  requires, and to expe-
rience, in consequence, pains in the chest, spitting
of blood, and other  dangerous forms  of  disease,
which often extinguish their  brightest  prospects in
the morning of life.   Sacrifices of this kind are the
more to  be lamented, because it  is probable, that,
by a well-planned  system of gradual preparation,
many who fall victims might find in their profession
even a source of safety.
  The late  illustrious Cuvier, as was mentioned at
page 135, is considered to have been saved from an
early death  by his appointment to a professorship
leading him to the  moderate and regular exercise of
his lungs in teaching,—a practice which soon re-
moved the delicacy of chest  to which he was sub-
ject, and  enabled him to pass uninjured through a
long life of active usefulness.  Other examples of
the same kind  might  be mentioned.   But it is  im-
portant to observe, that in all of them the exercise
was, at all times, accurately proportioned to the ex-
isting  state of the  lungs.  Had active disease  ex- 
202         EXERCISE OF  THE LUNGS.
isted, or the exertion required been beyond what the
lungs were fully able to bear, the effect would have
been, not to improve health, but to destroy life ; and
this  condition of accurate  relation between the
amount of exercise and the state of the organization
must never for a moment be overlooked.   With a
little care, however, the  point at which direct exer-
cise of the lungs ought to stop may easily be deter-
mined by observing  its effects.
  The same principle leads to another obvious rule :
When disease of any kind exists in  the chest, the
exercise of the lungs in  speaking, reading, and sing-
ing,  and  also  in ordinary muscular exertion, ought
either to be entirely refrained from or strictly regu-
lated by professional advice.   When a joint is sore
or inflamed, we know that motion impedes its  re-
covery.  When the eye  is affected, we, for a similar
reason, shut out the light; and when the stomach is
disordered, we have  respect to its condition, and
become more careful about diet.  The lungs  demand
a treatment founded on the same general principle.
If they are inflamed,  they must not be exercised,
otherwise mischief  will  ensue.  Hence, in a com-
mon cold of any severity, silence, which is the  ab-
sence  of direct  pulmonary  exercise, ought to  be
preserved, and will  in truth be its own reward.  In
severe cases, and  in acute  inflammations of  the
chest, this rule is of the greatest importance. It is
common  to meet with  patients who cannot speak
three words without exciting a fit of coughing, and
who, notwithstanding,  cannot be persuaded that
speaking retards  their recovery.  In like manner,
in spitting of blood, and in the early stage of tuber-
cular consumption,  when the breathing cannot be
excited without direct mischief, it is often difficult
to convince the patient  of the necessity of  silence.
He perhaps  does not feel pain on  attempting to
speak, and says that " it merely raises a short tick-
ling cough, which is nothing."  But if he persists, 
      PREVENTION OF DISEA3E IN THE LUNGS.   203

 dearly-bought experience will teach him his error,
 and dispose him  to regret, as did a lamented friend
 of the author, that a few weeks of the  many years
 usually dedicated to  the  classics  had not been de-
 voted to communicating to him some knowledge of
 the structure and functions of his own body.  In
 the instance alluded  to, after spitting of blood had
 been induced by severe bodily  labour, the patient
 continued talking almost the whole day to the visit-
 ers and inmates of  a  large public establishment,
 and believed himself  all the time to be  very careful,
 as he said he was no longer exerting his body.
 When the error was pointed out, and the mechanism
 of the lungs explained to him,  he deeply bewailed
 the ignorance  which had allowed him to act  in a
 manner so pernicious.
   All violent exercise ought, for similar reasons, to
 be refrained from, during at least  the active stages
 of cold.   Every thing which hurries the breathing,
 whether  walking fast,  ascending  an  acclivity, or
 reading aloud, has the  same effect on  the diseased
 lungs that motion of the  bones  has on an inflamed
 joint.  It seems to me, that many people hurt them-
 selves much more by the  active exercise they take
 during a severe cold than by the mere exposure to
 the weather.  It is well known, that a  person when
 colded may go out for a short time, even in an open
 carriage more safely than on foot, and there is much
 reason to believe, that it is the absence of active ex-
 ertion of  the lungs in the former case which makes
<Hie exposure less hurtful.
   After all active disease has been subdued, or when
 nothing but delicacy remains, the adequate exercise
 of the lungs is one of the best means of promoting
 effectual  recovery.  Those parents, therefore, act
 most erroneously, who, in their apprehensive anx-
 iety for  the  protection of their delicate children,
 scrupulously prohibit them from  every kind of exer-
 cise which requires the least effort, and shut them 
  204  PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN THE LUNGS.

  up from the open air during winter, with the false
  hope of thereby warding off colds and protecting
  their lungs.  I  have seen the greatest delicacy of
  constitution thus engendered, especially where an
  undue quantity of warm clothing was at the same
  time employed.  When tested  by  the  principles
  above  explained, such conduct is  found to be as
  ill adapted as possible  to the end in view, and ut-
  terly at variance with  all the laws  of  the  animal
  economy.
    Perhaps the most important time in the life of a
  person born with a predisposition to consumption is
  that of puberty, comprising from the commencement
  of rapid growth to the full consolidation of the sys-
  tem about or after the twenty-first year.  In most
  young people,  the  transition from adolescence to
  maturity is so rapid, that for two or three years all
  the animal powers are tasked to  enable nutrition to
  keep pace with growth, and a corresponding debility
  of both body and mind is often observed to co-exist,
  indicating, in the clearest manner, the necessity of
  a temporary remission from such studies and occu-
  pations as require much  mental exertion  or confine-
  ment within  doors.  The development  and  health
  of the physical system ought then  to be almost ex-
  clusively attended to; and when the body has ac-
  quired its solidity, the mental faculties will again
  become  active.   I  have seen  instances where a
»knowledge of the  latter fact afforded  substantial
  consolation to  young men who, while their bodies
  were growing rapidly, were apt to become despond-
  ent, on  account of the  unusual sluggishness and
  inefficiency of their  intellectual powers.  In the
  course of a few years, when the growth and con-
  solidation were completed, the brain vigorously re-
  sumed its functions.
   In such circumstances, relaxation from  study,
 Residence in the country, exercise in the open air,
.Aenty of food, and no care, will often do immense 
      PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN THE LUNGS.   205

 good, if sufficiently persisted in, and go far to pro-
 tect the careful patient against the future invasion
 of consumption.   Whereas, if, under the mistaken
 notion that such precautionary measures are a waste
 of time, a delicate  growing youth is allowed to con-
 tinue at his studies or his desk till disease has actu-
 ally commenced, the disappointed parent will often
 discover that it is  too late to take alarm when health
 is gone.
  It is at the  approach of manhood, when both
 mind and body are in a state of  transition, that dis-
 sipation is most indulged in, and presses with its
 deadliest  force.   Many  delicate youths of  both
 sexes are carried off, who would have escaped with-
 out injury, if they  could have been persuaded to act
 with prudence during these two or three critical
 years.  Many, I am  constrained to say,  first learn
 the means of  their destruction in boarding-schools
 and places of public  resort, and  that often when no
 mischief is suspected by their respectable teachers.
 On  this topic, however, the non-professional char-
 acter of the present work precludes me from enter-
 ing into details.
  Before  quitting  this important subject, I may add
 another word of advice, in regard to those who are
 predisposed  to consumption  or weakness of chest.
 As  soon as  active growth commences, permanent
benefit  may be  derived from removal,  for a  few
 years, to a milder  and less variable climate.   Many
who are sent abroad only to die painfully in a foreign
land, in the  noonday of life, might have lived for
years in the  enjoyment of health and usefulness,
had  they been sent abroad before the appearance of
disease, instead of after its unequivocal commence-
 ment.   The previous delicacy, whence the suscep-
 tibility  to colds and pulmonary affections  arises,
 ought to  attract the earliest attention, and  excite
 the most persevering efforts for  its  removal.   If it
be allowed to  make  progress till consumption  has 
206        STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN.
commenced, medicine may  come armed with its
most  powerful remedies, and directed by the most
consummate skill, but it will  too often come in vain,
for the patient will be no longer within its reach.
                CHAPTER VIII.

Nervous System—Structure of the  Brain—Its Functions—
  Connexion between the Mind  and Brain—Conditions  of
  Health in the Brain—Hereditary Predisposition— Influence
  of the Blood on the Brain—Influence of Exercise on the
  Brain—Effects of insufficient Exercise—Effects of excessive
  Exercise at different Ages—Case of  Sir H. Davy—Rules  for
  the proper Exercise of the Brain—Best Time  for Mental
  Exertion—Regularity essential—Repetition—Every Mental
  Power to be exercised directly on its own Objects—Illustra-
  tions—Influence of  the Nervous  System  on the  general
  Health—Examples.

  In man and the higher order  of animals, the ner-
vous system is composed of, 1st, the brain; 2d, the
spinal  marrow; and, 3d, the nerves.   But, on the
present occasion, it will be necessary to confine our
remarks chiefly to the brain;  and, even regarding
it, to offer observations only on such  points  as  all
are agreed  upon, and the general reader can easily
comprehend.
  The brain is that large organized  mass which,
along with  its enveloping membranes, completely
fills the cavity of the scull.   It is the seat of thought,
of feeling, and of consciousness, and the centre to-
wards which all  impressions made on the nerves
distributed through the body are conveyed, and from
which  the commands of the will are transmitted to
put the various parts in motion.
  The structure of the brain is  so complicated, that
less is known of its true nature than of that of almost 
STRUCTURE  OF THE BRAIN.        207
 any other organ.  It would therefore be entirely
 out  of place to attempt to describe it here, further
 than by stating generally its  principal divisions.
 On sawing off the top of the scull, and removing the
 firm tough  membrane called dura mater (hard mo-
 ther), which adheres closely to its concave surface,
 the cerebrum, or brain proper, presents itself, marked
 on the  surface  with a great variety of undulating
 windings or convolutions,  and  extending from  the
 fore to the back part of the head, somewhat in the
 form of an ellipse.  In the middle line, a deep fissure
 is perceived, into  which  dips  a  fold of the dura
 mater, named the  falx, separating the  brain, in its
 whole length, into two  halves, or  hemispheres, as
 they are called.   Each hemisphere is, in its turn,
 divided,—but in a less marked way, as .the divisions
 are  observable  only on its  inferior  surface,—into
 three portions, called, from their situations, the an-
 terior, middle, and  posterior  lobes, each  occupying
 nearly a third of the whole length  of  the  brain.
 The anterior lobe occupies the forehead;  the middle
 is all the portion of brain lying above and a little in
 front of the  ears; and the posterior fills the back
 part of the head.
  Beneath the posterior lobe, a strong fold  of  the
 dura mater, called  the tentorium, is  extended hori-
 zontally  to support and separate it from the cerebel-
lum, or little brain lying below it.  The cerebellum
 forms the last great division of  the contents of  the
scull.  Its surface is marked by convolutions, differ-
ing, however, in size and appearance from those  ob-
served in the brain.
  Adhering  to the surface  of the convolutions, and
consequently dipping down into and lining the sulci
or furrows between them,  another membrane, of a
finer texture, and great vascularity, called the  pia
mater, is found.  The blood-vessels going to the brain
branch out  so extensively on  the pia mater, that,
when a little inflamed, it seems to constitute a per- 
208          FUNCTIONS  OF THE BRAIN.
 feet vascular net-work.  This minute subdivision is
 of use in preventing the blood from  being impelled
 with *oo great force against the delicate tissue of
 the brain.
   A third covering, called the arachnoid membrane,
 from its fineness resembling that of a spider's web,
 is interposed between the other two, and is frequently
 the seat of disease.
   On examining the convolutions in different brains,
 they are found to vary a good  deal  in size,  depth,
 and  general appearance.  In the various regions of
 the same brain they are also different, but preserve
 the  same general aspect.   Thus  they  are  always
 small and numerous  in the anterior lobe, larger and
 deeper in the middle, and still larger in the posterior
 lobe.
  The brain receives an unusually  large supply of
 blood, in comparison with the rest of the body ; but
 the nature of its circulation, although a very interest-
 ing  subject  of  study, being only  indirectly con-
 nected with  our present purpose, cannot now be dis-
 cussed.
  Most physiologists are agreed  that the different
 parts of the brain perform distinct functions, and that
 these functions are the highest and most important
 in the  animal economy ; but there is great discrep-
 ancy of opinion as to what the function of each part
 is, and as to the best mode of removing the  obscu-
 rity in  which the subject is  involved.  It would be
 useless to examine here the merits of the respective
 theories and modes of inquiry, as the attempt would
 lead  us  too far  from  the practical  aim of the  work.
 Suffice it to  say, that all physiologists and philoso-
phers regard the brain as the organ of  mind ; that
most of them consider it as  an  aggregate  of  parts,
each charged with a specific function;  and  that a
large majority, with Gall  and Cuvier at their head,
regard  the anterior lobe as  more  immediately  the 
FUNCTIONS  OF THE BRAIN.          209
seat of the intellectual faculties*  Further, by nearly
universal consent, the brain is held to be  also the
seat of the passions and  moral feelings of our na-
ture, as  well as of consciousness and every other
mental act, and to be the chief source of that ner-
vous influence which is indispensable to the vitality
and action of every organ of the body.   There are
so few exceptions to the general belief of these prop-
ositions, that I  consider myself fairly  entitled to
hold them as established.
  Many animals possess individual senses or instincts
in greater perfection than man, but there is not one
which can be compared with him in the number and
range  of its  faculties; and, as a necessary conse-
quence,  there is not one which approaches him in
the development  and perfection of its nervous sys-
tem.   No organ  can  execute more  than  a single
function ;  and, accordingly, even the Edinburgh Re-
view admits, that, in precise  proportion as  we as-
cend in  the scale of creation, and the animal ac-
quires a  sense, a power, or an instinct, do its nerves
multiply  and " its brain  improve in  structure  and
augment  in volume, each addition being  marked by
some addition or amplification of the powers of the ani-
mal, until in man we behold it possessing some parts of
which  animals are destitute, and wanting none which
they possess," so  that  "we are enabled  to associate
every faculty which gives superiority, with some addition
to the nervous mass, even from the smallest indications
of sensation and will, up to the highest degree  of sensi-
bility, judgment, and expression."^
  It is extremely important to bear in mind this con-

  * In speaking of the cerebral  lobes being the place " where
all the sensations take a distinct form and leave durable impres-
sions," Cuvier adds, " L'anatomie comparee en offre une autre
confirmation dans la proportion constante du volume de ces lobes avec
le degri d'intelligence des Animaux."—Vide Report to the Institute
an Flourens's Experiments in 1822.
  t Edinburgh Review, No. xciv. p. 442-3.
                        S3 
210       FUNCTIONS OF  THE BRAIN.

stant relation between mental power and develop-
ment of brain.   It not only explains why capacities
and dispositions are  so  different, but shows incon-
trovertibly that the cultivation of the moral and in-
tellectual  faculties can  be successfully carried on
only by acting in obedience to the laws of organiza-
tion, and  associating together those faculties,  the
organs of  which are  simultaneously progressive in
their growth.   It is  a law, for instance, that alter-
nate periods of activity  and  repose conduce to  the
strength and development of every organ, and to the
easy performance of  its  function, and that excess in
either is alike hurtful  in its  consequences.  If, there-
fore, in our  anxiety  for the advancement of a child
in a favourite  pursuit,  we urge  it to incessant  and
unvaried  exertion of the same kind for many hours
a day, we  violate this law  in neglecting the neces-
sary intervals of rest, and  thus run  the risk of injur-
ing the health of the brain, and entirely defeating
our object.  And, on  the other hand, if we withdraw
the child  altogether from the pursuit, for weeks or
months at a time, as happens during the vacation of
a school, we violate  the law again, in depriving the
faculties  of  their necessary exercise, and thus  run
the risk   of sacrificing the improvement  already
gained, and  of  diminishing the mental power.   In
neither case is the  brain exercised in conformity
with the organic laws, and consequently we look in
vain for  the same amount of improvement which
would  have followed  their fulfilment; and yet, so far
is the physiology of the  brain from  being considered
as the only  sound basis on which the science of
education can rest, that very few  teachers or moral-
ists are aware  that the  organic laws have any con-
nexion with the operations of mind, and still fewer
have ever thought of adapting their practice to the
dictates of these laws ;  although no truth in educa-
tion or philosophy can  be more clearly proved, or 
CONNEXION BETWEEN THE MIND AND BRAIN.  211
more beneficially applied, than that on which I am
now insisting.
  In thus treating of the brain as the indispensable
instrument or organ of the mental faculties, I  must
not be understood as representing mind and brain to
be one and the same thing.  I mean only that the
brain is  necessarily engaged  in every  intellectual
and  moral operation, exactly as the eye is in every
act of vision ; and that,  as the mind cannot  see with-
out the intervention of the eye, so  neither can  it
think or feel, during life, except through the instru-
mentality of the brain.  Consequently, it would be
as reasonable and logical to infer, from the former
proposition, that  the eye is the mind, or  the  mind
the eye, as to infer from the latter that the brain  is
the mind, or the mind  the brain.
  It requires, however, to be  distinctly understood,
that activity of mind  and activity of brain are in-
separable, and that every change  in the  one  is at-
tended by a corresponding change in the  condition
of the other.   If, by the excessive use of stimulants,
the  brain be highly excited, the mind will be dis-
turbed in an equal degree, as is exemplified every
day in the phenomena of intoxication ; and if, on the
other hand, the mind be suddenly  roused by violent
passions, the vessels of the brain will instantly take
on increased action, redness will suffuse the face,
and excitement of the  brain will show itself in char-
acters as legible as if produced by a physical cause.
   The mind and brain being thus  inseparably asso-
ciated during life, it becomes  an object of primary
importance  to discover  the  laws by  which their
healthy action is regulated, that we may yield them
willing obedience, and  escape  the numerous evils
 consequent on their violation.   To this inquiry the
 following pages shall be devoted.
   The brain being a part of the animal system, and
 subject to the same general laws as every other or-
 gan the reader will not be surprised that I should, 
212  HEREDITARY PREDISPOSITION TO DISEASE.

as in the  case  of the lungs, state a sound original
constitution as the first condition of its healthy ac-
tion.  If the brain possess from  birth a freedom
from all hereditary taints  and imperfections, and
have acquired no unusual susceptibility from  inju-
dicious treatment in infancy, it will withstand a great
deal  in  after-life before  its health will give way.
But if, on  the other hand, either it inherit deficien-
cies, or early mismanagement have subsequently
entailed upon it an unusual proneness to morbid ac-
tion, it will  give way under circumstances which
would otherwise have been perfectly innocuous;
and,  accordingly, it may be truly said, that the  most
powerful of all the causes which predispose to nervous
and mental disease is  the transmission of a heredi-
tary tendency from parents to children, producing in
the latter  an unusual  liability to the same maladies
under which the parents have laboured.
  Even where  the defect in the parent is merely
some peculiarity of disposition or  temper, amount-
ing perhaps  to  eccentricity, it is  astonishing how
clearly its influence on some  one or other of the
progeny may be traced, and how completely a con-
stitutional bias  of this  description may interfere
with a man's happiness or success in  life.  I have
seen instances in which it pervaded every member
of a family, and others in which it  affected only one
or two.  When  the original eccentricity is on the
mother's side, and she is gifted with much force of
character, the evil extends more widely among the
children than when it is on the father's side. Where
both parents are descended from  tainted families,
the progeny is of course more deeply affected than
where one of them is from a pure stock ; and, seem-
ingly for this reason,  hereditary predisposition is a
more usual cause  of nervous disease in the higher
classes, who intermarry much with each other, than
in the lower, who have a wider choice.
  Unhappily, it is not merely as a  cause of disease 
     HEREDITARY PREDISPOSITION TO DISEASE. 213

that hereditary predisposition is to be dreaded.  The
obstacles which it throws in the way of permanent
recovery are even more formidable, and  can never
be entirely removed.  Safety is to be found only in
avoiding the  perpetuation of the  mischief;  and,
therefore, if two persons, each naturally of an ex-
citable and  delicate  nervous temperament, choose
to unite for life, they have themselves to blame for
the concentrated influence of similar tendencies in
destroying the health of their offspring, and subject-
ing them  to all the miseries of nervous  disease,
madness, or melancholy.
  Even where no hereditary defect exists, continued
excitement of the nervous functions in the mother,
from  anxiety, grief,  or  other causes, during preg-
nancy, has often a striking effect on the future men-
tal health  and constitution of the offspring.  Many
authors testify to the truth  of this fact,  which has
not escaped the penetration of some mothers.  The
Margravine of Anspach observes justly, that " when
a female is likely to become  a mother, she ought to
be doubly careful of her temper ; and, in particular,
to indulge  no ideas  that are not cheerful,  and no
sentiments that  are not kind.  Such  is the con-
nexion between  the mind and body, that the features
of the face are  moulded commonly into an expres-
sion of the internal disposition;  and is it not natural
to think that  an infant, before it  is born,  may be
affected by the  temper  of its mother!"—Memoirs,
vol. ii. chap. viii.
  The second condition required for the health of
the brain  is a due supply of properly oxygenated
blood.   The effects of slight differences  in  the
quality of the blood  are not easily recognised,  but
when extreme they are too obvious to be over-
looked.  If  the  stimulus of  arterial blood  be alto-
gether withdrawn, the brain ceases to act, and sensi-
bility and  consciousness become extinct.  Thus,
when  fixed air  is inhaled,  the blood  circulating 
214   INFLUENCE OF THE BLOOD ON THE BRAIN.

through the lungs does not  undergo that process of
oxygenation which is essential to life; and as it is
in this state unfit to excite or support the action of
the brain, the mental functions become impaired,
and death speedily closes the scene.  If, on the
other hand, the blood be too highly oxygenated, as
by breathing oxygen gas instead of common air, the
brain is too much stimulated, and an intensity of ac-
tion, bordering on inflammation, takes place, which
also soon terminates in death.
  Such  are the consequences of the two extremes ;
but the  slighter variations in the state  of the blood
have  equally sure, although less palpable, effects.
If its vitality be impaired  by breathing an  atmo-
sphere  so much vitiated as to be insufficient to pro-
duce  the proper degree of oxygenation, the blood
then affords an imperfect stimulus to the brain ; and,
as a necessary consequence, languor and inactivity
of the mental and nervous functions ensue, and a
tendency to  headache, syncope, or hysteria makes
its appearance.  This is  seen every day in the list-
lessness and apathy prevalent in crowded and ill-
ventilated schools; and in the headaches and liability
to fainting which are so sure to attack persons of a
delicate habit in the contaminated atmosphere of
crowded theatres, churches, and assemblies.   It  is
seen  less strikingly, but more permanently, in the
irritable and sensitive condition of the inmates of
cotton-manufactories and public hospitals.  In these
instances, the operation of the principle cannot be
disputed, for the languor and nervous  debility con-
sequent on confinement  in ill-ventilated apartments,
or in  air vitiated by the  breath of many people, are
neither more  nor less  than minor degrees of the
same process of poisoning to which I have formerly
alluded. It  is not real debility which produces
them; for egress to  the open air almost instantly
restores activity and vigour to  both mind and body,
pnless the exposure has been very long, in which 
     INFLUENCE OF THE BLOOD ON THE BRAIN. 21S

case more time is required to re-establish the  ex-
hausted powers of the brain.  A good deal of ob-
servation has convinced  me, that the  transmission
of imperfectly  oxygenated blood  to  the brain is
greatly more influential in the production of nervous
disease and  delicacy  of  constitution than is com-
monly imagined;  and I am delighted to see the same
truth so  powerfully insisted on by Mr. Thackrah,
from extensive experience in the manufacturing dis-
trict about Leeds.  Having, however, dwelt on this
subject in the preceding chapter, I need not repeat
the observations already  made.*
  Although,  in' delicate constitutions, the health of
the brain and nervous system is  often  impaired by
inadequate nutrition, and  a sufficient supply of nour-
ishing food is therefore indispensable to their well-
being, yet, as this condition is implied in the pre-
ceding, and its  separate  consideration would  lead
us too far from  our  main object, I shall not dwell
upon it here.  I shall merely state, that starvation
often affects  the brain so much as to produce fero-
cious delirium, and that,  in the Milanese, a species
of insanity arising  from defective nourishment is
very prevalent, and is easily cured by the nourishing
diet  provided in the hospitals to which the patients
are sent.  I have seen the mental  functions weak-
ened, and the brain disordered, by the same cause—
inadequate nutrition—at the period of rapid growth.
This  defective  nutrition, however,  it must be ob-
served, does not always depend on want of proper

  * An  intelligent teacher in Edinburgh, to whom I communi-
cated the  above views, and who immediately set about acting
on them by turning his pupils out to play, and throwing open the
door and windows for  ten minutes at trafr«nd of  the first hour's
confinement, assures me that the difference between the languor
and little power of sustained attention exhibited under the old
system, and the activity shown under the new, is very marked,
and that the interval of relaxation is most profitably spent time
both  to his pupils and himself, as they return to work with
n*w life. 
216  INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE  ON THE BRAIN.

food.   On the contrary, it is often the result, among
the higher classes, of too  much  or too  stimulating
food over-exciting and ultimately impairing the di-
gestive powers.   The proneness to morbid excite-
ment in the  brain, induced by insufficient food, is
one cause  why, in times of public distress, the
lower orders  are so apt to resort to violence to re-
move  the sources of their discontent.
  The third  condition of health in the brain and
nervous system,  and that  to which it is the chief
object  of  these pages to direct attention, is the
regular  exercise of  their respective  functions, ac-
cording to  the laws already so  frequently referred
to, and so fully explained in one of the preceding
chapters.*
  The brain,  being an organized part, is subject, in so
far as regards its exercise, to precisely the same laws
as the other organs of the body.   If it be doomed to
inactivity, its functions  languish, and its health de-
cays.   If it be duly exercised, after regular inter-
vals of repose, its functions acquire readiness and
strength; and, lastly, if it be over-tasked, either in
the force  or duration of  its activity, its functions
become impaired, and irritability and disease take the
place of health and vigour.
  The consequences of  inadequate exercise may be
first explained.
  We have seen that, by disuse,  muscle becomes
emaciated, bone softens, blood-vessels are obliter-
ated, and nerves lose their characteristic structure.
The brain is no exception  to this general rule.  Of
it also the tone is impaired by permanent inactivity,
and it becomes less fit to manifest the mental powers
with readiness and energy.  Nor will this surprise
any reflecting person, who considers that the brain,
as a part of the same animal  system, is nourished
by the same  blood, and regulated by the same vital
laws, as the muscles, bones, and  nerves.
* See Chapter IV., and also p. 156. 
     INFLUENCE  OF EXERCISE  ON THE BRAIN. 217

   It is the weakening and depressing effect upon the
 brain of the withdrawal of the stimulus  necessary
 for its healthy exercise, which renders solitary con-
 finement  so  severe a punishment even to the most
 daring minds.  It is a  lower  degree  of  the  same
 cause  which renders  continuous  seclusion from
 society so injurious to both mental and bodily health,
 and which often renders  the  situation of govern-
 esses one of misery and bad  health, even where
 every kindness is meant to be shown towards them.
 In many families, especially in the higher ranks,
 the governess lives so secluded that she is as much
 out of society as if she were placed in solitary con-
 finement.  She is too much above the domestics to
 make companions of them, and too much  below her
 employers to be treated by them  either with confi-
 dence  or as an equal.   With feelings as  acute, in-
 terests as dear to her, and a judgment as sound as
 those of  any of the  persons who scarcely notice
 her  existence, she is denied every opportunity  of
 gratifying  the first or expressing the last, merely
 because she " is  only the governess;"  as  if govern-
 esses were not made of the same flesh and blood*
 and  sent into the world by the same  Creator,  as
 their more fortunate employers.   It is,  I  believe,
 beyond question, that  much unhappiness, and not
 unfrequently madness   itself,  are  unintentionally
 caused by this  cold and inconsiderate treatments
 For  the  same reason, those who  are  cut off from
 social  converse  by any bodily infirmity  often be-
 come discontented and morose in spite of every
 resolution to the contrary.  The feelings  and facul-
 ties  of the  mind, which had  formerly full  play  in
 their intercourse with their fellow-creatures, have
 no longer scope for  sufficient exercise, and the
 almost inevitable result  is  irritability and  weakness
 in the corresponding parts of the brain.
   This fact  is  particularly observed  among the
deaf and  blind, in whom, from  their being cut off
                       T 
216   INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE ON THE BRAIN.

food.   On the contrary, it is often the result, among
the higher classes, of too  much or too  stimulating
food  over-exciting and ultimately  impairing the di-
gestive powers.   The proneness to morbid excite-
ment in the brain, induced by insufficient food, is
one cause  why, in times of public distress, the
lower orders are so apt to resort to violence to re-
move the sources of their discontent.
  The third condition of health  in the brain and
nervous system,  and  that to which it is the chief
object,  of these pages to direct  attention, is the
regular  exercise of their respective  functions, ac-
cording to  the laws already so frequently referred
to, and so fully explained in one  of the preceding
chapters.*
  The brain, being an organized part, is subject, in so
far as regards its exercise, to precisely the same laws
as the other organs of the body.  If it be doomed to
inactivity, its  functions  languish, and its health de-
cays.   If it be duly exercised, after regular inter-
vals of repose, its functions acquire  readiness and
strength; and, lastly, if it be over-tasked, either in
the force or duration of its activity, its functions
become impaired, and irritability and disease take the
place of health and vigour.
  The consequences of  inadequate exercise may be
first explained.
  We have seen that, by disuse,  muscle becomes
emaciated, bone softens,  blood-vessels are obliter-
ated, and nerves lose their characteristic structure.
The brain is no exception to this general rule.  Of
it also the tone is impaired by permanent inactivity,
and it becomes less fit to manifest the mental powers
with readiness and energy.  Nor  will this surprise
any reflecting  person, who considers that the brain,
as a part of the same animal system, is nourished
by the same blood, and  regulated by the same vital
laws, as the muscles, bones, and nerves.
* See Chapter IV., and also p. 156. 
    INFLUENCE OF  EXERCISE ON THE  BRAIN.  217

  It is the weakening and depressing effect upon the
brain  of the withdrawal of the  stimulus necessary
for its healthy exercise, which renders solitary con-
finement so severe a punishment even to, the most
daring minds.   It is a lower degree of the same
cause  which  renders  continuous seclusion  from
society so injurious to both mental and bodily health,
and which often  renders  the situation of govern-
esses one of  misery and bad  health,  even where
every kindness is meant to be shown towards them.
In  many families, especially in the  higher ranks,
the governess  lives so secluded  that she is as much
out of society  as if she were placed in solitary con-
finement.  She is too much above the domestics to
make companions of them, and too much below her
employers to be treated by them  either with confi-
dence or as an equal.  With feelings as  acute, in-
terests as dear to her, and a judgment as sound as
those of any of the  persons who scarcely notice
her existence, she is denied every opportunity of
gratifying the first  or expressing the last, merely
because she " is only the  governess;" as if govern-
esses  were not made of the same flesh and bloody
and sent into  the world  by the same  Creator, as
their  more fortunate employers.   It is, I believe,
beyond question, that much unhappiness, and not
unfrequently madness  itself,  are unintentionally
caused by this cold and  inconsiderate treatments
For the same  reason, those who are cut off from
social converse by  any bodily  infirmity  often be-
come  discontented  and morose in spite of every
resolution to the contrary.  The feelings and facul-
ties of the  mind, which had formerly  full  play in
their  intercourse with their fellow-creatures,  have
no  longer  scope  for sufficient  exercise,  and  the
almost inevitable result is  irritability and weakness
in the corresponding parts of the-brain.
  This  fact is particularly observed  among  the
deaf and blind, in whom, from  their being cut off
                      T 
215    INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL  EXERCISE.

from a full participation in the same sources of in-
terest as their more  favoured brethren, irritability,
weakness of mind,  and idiocy  are known to  be
much more prevalent  than among other classes
of people.  In the Dictionnaire de Medicine (vol. XX.
p. 87),  Andral gives  a  description of the  deaf and
dumb, every word of which bears a direct reference
to the above principle ;  and a nearly similar account
has been lately given of the blind  by an equally in-
telligent observer.^" The  deaf and dumb,"  says
Andral, " presents, in  his intelligence, character,
and the development of his passions, certain modifi-
cations which  depend  on his  state of isolation in
the midst of society.   He  remains habitually in a
state  of half-childishness, is very credulous, but,
like  the savage, remains  free  from many of the
prejudices acquired in society.  In him the tender
feelings are not deep; he appears susceptible neither
of strong attachment nor  of lively gratitude; pity
moves him feebly;  he  has little emulation, few en-
joyments, and  few desires.  This  is what is  com-
monly  observed in  the  deaf and dumb, but the
picture is far from being of universal application;
some,  more  happily endowed,  are remarkable  for
the great  development  of their   intellectual and
moral  nature, but others, on the  contrary, remain
immersed in complete  idiocy."   Andral adds, that
we must not infer from this that the deaf and  dumb
are therefore constitutionally inferior  in mind to
Other men.   " Their powers are not developed, because
they live isolated from  society:  place them, by some
means or other, in relation with their fellow-men, and
they will  become their  equals."   This is the  cause
of the rapid brightening up of both mind and fea-
tures, which is so often observed in blind or deaf
children, when  transferred  from home to public in-
stitutions, and there taught the  means of converse
with their fellows.   In these instructive instances,
the  whole  change is  from a  state of  inactivity

            /-'...         ■   ■    ... 
        INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE.    219

 of the mind and  brain to that of their wholesome
 and regular exercise.
  Keeping the above principle in view, we shaH not
 be surprised to find, that non-exercise of the brain
 and nervous system, or, in other words, inactivity
 of intellect and  of feeling, is a very frequent pre-
 disposing cause  of every form of nervous disease.
 For  demonstrative evidence  of this position, we
 have  only to look at the numerous victims to be
 found among females of the middle and higher ranks,
 who have no call  to exertion in gaining the means
 of subsistence, and no objects of interest on which
 to exercise their  mental faculties, and who conse-
 quently sink into  a state of mental sloth and nervous
 weakness, which not only deprives them of much
 enjoyment, but lays them open to suffering, both
 of mind and body, from  the slightest causes.
  If we look abroad upon society, we shall  find in-
 numerable examples of  mental and nervous debility
 from this cause.   When a person of  some  mental
 capacity is confined for a long time to an unvarying
 round of employment, which affords neither scope
 nor stimulus for one-half of his faculties, and from
 want  of education or society has no external re-
 sources, his mental powers,  for want of exercise
 to keep up due vitality in their cerebral organs, be-
 come blunted, and his  perceptions  slow and  dull,
 and he feels any unusual subjects of thought as dis-
 agreeable and painful intrusions.  The intellect and
 feelings, not being provided with interests external
 to themselves,  must  either  become  inactive and
 weak, or work upon themselves, and become dis-
 eased.   In the former case, the mind becomes apa-
 thetic, and possesses no ground of  sympathy with
 its fellow-creatures;  in the  latter,  it becomes un-
duly sensitive,  and shrinks  within  itself  and its
own limited circle, as  its only protection against
every trifling occurrence or  mode of action which
has not  relation to  itself.  A desire to continue an 
220     INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE.

unvaried round of life takes strong possession of
the mind; because to come forth into society re-
quires an exertion of faculties which have been long
dormant, and  cannot be awakened without pain,
and which are felt to be feeble  when  called  into
action.   In  such a state, home and its immediate
interests become not  only the centre  which they
ought to be,  but also the boundary of life ; and the
mind  originally  constituted  to  embrace  a much
wider sphere is  thus shorn of its powers, and the
tone of mental and bodily health is lowered, till a
total inaptitude for the business of life and the ordi-
nary intercourse of society comes on, and often in-
creases till it becomes a positive malady.
  But let the situation of such persons be changed;
bring them, for instance, from the listlessness of re-
tirement to the business and bustle of a town,—give
them  a variety  of imperative employments,—and
place them in society so as to supply to their cere-
bral organs that extent of exercise which gives them
health and vivacity of action,—and, in a few months,
the change  produced  will  be  surprising.  Health,
animation, and acuteness will take  the   place of
former insipidity and dulness.  In such instances it
would be absurd to suppose that it is the mind itself
which becomes heavy and feeble, and again revives
into energy  by these changes in external circum-
stances : the effects arise entirely from changes in
the state of the brain; and the  mental manifesta-
tions  and the bodily  health  have been  improved
solely by the improvement of its condition.
  Examples  of this kind are not rare among retired
officers, annuitants, merchants, and other persons
living on certain  incomes, without fixed occupations
to interest them ; and a curious enough instance oc-
curred lately in a young military  officer, who spent
three years in Canada, commanding a small detach-
ment, in a remote station, where he was completely
separated from all society of his own rank. During 
        rNSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE.   221

all that period he spent his time in sauntering, shoot-
ing, or fishing, without that excitement to his vari-
ous faculties which is  afforded by the society of
equals.  The consequence of this compulsory mental
apathy, and the corresponding inactivity of  brain,
was, that on returning to England  his nervous sys-
tem had become so weak and irritable, that, although
by nature fond of  society, he  feared to meet even
with the members  of his own family, and for many
weeks would  never venture  to walk  out to take
necessary exercise, except in the dark.   And it was
only at the end of  several months that the renewed
stimulus of society and employment restored  the
tone of his nervous system so  far as to allow him to
regain his natural character  of mind, and to return
to his usual habits of life. In  this predisposed state
of the system, a very slight cause would obviously
have sufficed to convert the depression into absolute
derangement.
  But, as mentioned at  first, the most frequent vic-
tims of this kind of predisposition are females of the
middle and higher ranks, especially those of a ner-
vous constitution and good natural abilities;  but
who,  from ill-directed  education,  possess nothing
more solid than mere accomplishments, and have no
materials of thought or feeling, and  no regular or
imperative occupations,  to excite interest or demand
attention.   Such persons have literally nothing on
which to expend half the nervous energy which na-
ture  has bestowed on  them  for better purposes.
They have nothing  to excite and exercise the brain,
—nothing to elicit  activity; their own feelings and
personal relations  necessarily constitute the grand
objects of their contemplations ; these are brooded
over till the mental energies become impaired, false
ideas  of existence  and  of Providence spring up in
the mind, the  fancy is haunted by strange  impres-
sions, and every trifle which relates to self is  exag-
gerated into an object of immense importance.  The
                     T2 
222    INSUFFICIENT  CEREBRAL EXERCISE,

brain, having almost no employment, becomes weak,
and the mental manifestations are enfeebled in pro-
portion ; so that a person of good endowments, thus
treated, will often not only exhibit somewhat of the
imbecility of a fool, but gradually become  irritable,
peevish, and discontented, and open to the attack of
every form of nervous disease and of derangement
from causes which, under different circumstances,
would  never have disturbed her for a moment.
  That the liability of such persons to melancholy,
hysteria, hypochondriasis, and other varieties of
mental disease, really depends on  a state  of irrita-
bility of brain, induced  by  imperfect  exercise, is
proved by the vast and rapid improvement we often
witness from  the sudden supervention of  occur-
rences which excite and employ the mental powers
and their cerebral organs.  Nothing  is more usual
than to see a nervous  young lady, who for years had
been unfit for any thing, while  ease  and indolence
were  her portion, deriving  the utmost advantage
from apparent misfortunes, which throw her upon
her own resources, and force her to exert her ut-
most energies to maintain a respectable station in
society.   Where, as in such  circumstances,  the
mental faculties and brain, the  intellect and  moral
and social feelings, are blessed with a stimulus to
act,—the weakness, the tremors, and the apprehen-
sions, which formerly seemed an inborn part of her-
self, disappear as if by enchantment, and  strength,
vigour, and happiness take their place; solely be-
cause now God's law  is fulfilled, and  the brain with
which  He has connected the mind is supplied with
that healthful  stimulus and exercise which He or-
dained to be indispensable to its healthy existence.
  An additional illustration,  and I venture upon it
because the principle is an important one in the pro-
duction of many distressing forms of disease, will be
found  in the  case of  a man of mature age and of
active  habits, who has devoted  his life to the toils 
INSUFFICIENT  CEREBRAL EXERCISE.    223
 of business, and whose  hours of enjoyment have
 been few and short.   Suppose such  a person to re-
 tire to the country in search of repose, and to have
 no deep moral, religious, or philosophical pursuits to
 occupy his attention, and keep up the active exer-
 cise of his brain,—the latter will lose its health, and
 the invariable result will  be ennui, weariness of life,
 despondency, or some other variety of nervous dis-
 ease.*
   One great evil attending the absence of some im-
 perative employment or object of interest to exer-
 cise the mind and brain, is the tendency which it
 generates to waste  the  mental energies on every
 trifling occurrence which presents itself, and to seek
 relief in the momentary excitement of any sensa-
 tion, however unworthy.  Not only  does painful
 instability of purpose and interest  arise  from  this
 cause,  especially among  females, but,  by degrees,
 enjoyment is sought for more  from  the indulgence
 of the sensual appetites of eating and drinking than
 from any higher occupation; till, at last, the habit
 is established, and quantities of food and wine are
 daily swallowed, which add disease to indolence,
 and oppress both mind and body.  Patients labour-
 ing under this form of indisposition complain much
 of debility, and of the exhaustion left by every exer-
 tion.   It is common to hear them defending the ex-
 cesses which they commit, by affirming that with
 less support they would  die of weakness; but the
 plea, though plausible, is not less groundless than
 injurious.  No doubt, they may feel  stronger after
 a  good dinner and a few glasses of wine, but the
 strength is that of feverish excitement, and the sub-
 sequent languor is proportionally great.  Ere long,

  * It maybe proper to state, that several of the preceding pages
 have been taken, with little alteration, from  my " Observations
on Mental Derangement," published some time  ago. But as that
work is designed for the profession, and not for the general
reader, I have thought it necessary to repeat them here. 
 824    EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF  THE BRAIN.

 too, the power of mental application gives way;  the
 digestive organs fail  under the task imposed upon
 them; and  headache, flushing, sickness, and bilious
 attacks ensue in such rapid  succession, that life at
 last becomes a state of habitual indisposition.
   The best remedy for these evils is to create occu-
 pation to interest the mind, and give that wholesome
 exercise to the brain which its constitution requires.
 Unless this can be done, the services  of the phy-
 sician will be  available only so long as their novelty
 continues a source of excitement;  and then, in all
 probability,  he will be discharged to make way for
 another, who  will, in  his turn, be  dismissed  to give
 place to a third.  The principle on which this is
 done is perfectly sound, and, in such cases, no sen-
 sible physician will take it amiss that his assistance
 is declined.   The  error lies in the patient seeking
 the necessary mental stimulus in a change of  at-
 tendant, instead of in a change of occupation.   But
 there cannot be  a doubt, that where the patient is
 either unable  or unwilling to  seek recovery from
 engaging  in proper employment, the mere  change
 of physician is often of temporary service.

  The evils  arising from excessive or ill-timed exer-
 cise of the brain or  any of its parts, are numerous
 and  equally in accordance with  the ordinary laws
 of physiology.   When we use the eye  too long, or
 in too bright a light, it becomes bloodshot, and the
 increased action of its vessels and nerves gives rise
 to a sensation  of fatigue and  pain  requiring us to
 desist.  If we turn  away the eye, the irritation
gradually subsides, and  the  healthy state returns;
but if we continue to look  intently, or resume our
employment before the eye has regained its natural
state by repose, the irritation at last becomes perma-
nent, and disease, followed by weakness of sight or
even blindness,  may  ensue ;  as often happens  to 
       EXCESSIVE  exercise of THE  BRAIN.  225

glass-blowers, smiths, and others, who  are  obliged
to work in an intense light.
  Precisely analogous phenomena occur when, from
intense mental excitement, the brain is kept long in
a state of excessive activity.   The only difference
is, that we can always see what happens in the eye,
but rarely what takes place in the brain.  Occasion-
ally, however, cases of fracture of the  scull occur,
in which, from part of the bone being removed, we
can see the quickened circulation in the vessels of
the brain as easily as in those of  the eye.   Sir Ast-
ley Cooper had a young gentleman brought to him
who had lost a portion of his scull just above the
eyebrow.  " On examining the head," says Sir Ast-
ley, " I distinctly saw the pulsation of the brain was
regular and slow; but at  this time he was agitated
by some opposition  to his wishes, and  directly  the
blood was sent with increased force to the brain, the pul-
sation became frequent and violent;  if, therefore," con-
tinues Sir Astley, "you omit to keep  the mind free
from agitation, your other means will be unavailing'''' in
the treatment of injuries of the brain.*  We are con-
scious, indeed, of a flow of blood to the head when
we think intently, or are roused by passion;  and the
distension of the small vessels of the brain is not the
less real or influential on account of its being hidden
from our view.  Too often it  reveals itself by its
effects when least expected, and  leaves traces after
death which are but too legible.  How many public
men, like  Whitbread,  Romilly,  Castlereagh, and
Canning, urged on by ambition or natural eagerness
of mind, have been suddenly arrested in  their career
by the inordinate action of the  brain induced by in-
cessant toil!  And how many more have  had their
mental power for  ever impaired by similar excess!
When tasked beyond its strength, the eye becomes

  * See Sir A. Cooper's Lecture on Surgery, by Tyrrel, voL i.
p. 279. 
226   EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF  THE  BRAIN.

insensible to light, and no longer conveys any im-
pressions to  the  mind.  In like manner, the brain,
when much exhausted, becomes incapable of thought,
and consciousness is almost lost in a feeling of utter
confusion.
  At  any time of life, excessive and continued
mental exertion is hurtful;  but in infancy and early
youth, when the structure of the  brain is still imma-
ture and  delicate, permanent mischief is  more easily
inflicted by injudicious treatment than at any subse-
quent period; and, in  this  respect, the analogy is
complete between the brain and  the other parts of
the body, as  we  have already seen exemplified in
the injurious effects of premature  exercise of the
bones and muscles.  Scrofulous and rickety children
are the most  usual sufferers in this way. They are
generally remarkable for large heads, great precocity
of understanding, and  small delicate  bodies.   But,
in such instances, the great size of the brain and the
acuteness of mind are the results of morbid growth ;
and, even with the best management, the child passes
the first years of its life constantly on the brink of
active disease.  Instead, however, of trying to re-
press  its activity, the  fond parents, misled by the
early  promise of genius, too  often excite  it  still
farther, by unceasing cultivation  and the never-fail-
ing stimulus of praise and emulation; and, finding its
progress for a time equal to their warmest wishes,
they look forward with ecstasy to the day when its
talents will break forth, and shed  a  lustre  on its
name.  But, in  exact proportion  as  the  picture  be-
comes brighter  to their fancy, the probability of its
being  realized becomes less; as the brain, worn out
by premature exertion, either becomes diseased or
loses its  tone, leaving the mental powers slow  and
depressed for the  remainder of life.  The expected
prodigy is thus ultimately and easily outstripped in
the social race  by many whose apparently dull out-
set promised him an easy victory. 
       EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF  THE  BRAIN.    227

   Taking for our guide the necessities of the consti-
 tution, it will be obvious that the modes of treatment
 commonly resorted to ought to be  reversed, and
 that, instead of straining to the uttermost the already
 irritable powers of the precocious child, and leaving
 his dull  competitor to ripen at leisure, a systematic
 attempt ought to be made, from  early infancy, to
 rouse to action the languid faculties  of the latter;
 while no pains ought to be spared to moderate and
 give tone to the activity of the former.  Instead of
 this, however, the prematurely intelligent child is
 generally sent to school, and tasked with lessons at
 an unusually early age ; while the healthy but more
 backward boy, who  requires to be  stimulated, is
 kept at home in idleness, perhaps for two or three
 years longer, merely on  account of his backward-
 ness.  A double error is  here committed, and the
 consequence to the clever boy is frequently the per-
 manent loss both of health and of his envied supe-
 riority of intellect.
  In youth, too, much  mischief is done by the long
 school-hours,  and continued application  of  mind,
 which  the present  system  of education  requires.
 The law of exercise, that long-sustained action ex-
 hausts the vital powers of an organ, applies equally
 to the brain as to the muscles; and hence the neces-
 sity of varying the occupations  of the young, and
 allowing frequent intervals  of active exercise in the
 open air, instead of enforcing the continued confine-
 ment now so common.  This exclusive attention to
 mental  culture fails, as might be expected, even in
 its essential object; for experience shows that, with
 a rational distribution of employment and exercise,
 a child will make greater progress  than in double
 the time employed in  continuous mental exertion.
If the human being were made up of  nothing but a
brain and nervous system, it would be very well to
content ourselves  with sedentary  pursuits, and to
confine  education entirely to the mind.  But when 
228   EXCESSIVE EXERCISE  OF THE BRAIN.

observation tells us that we have numerous other
important organs of motions, sanguification, diges-
tion, circulation, and nutrition, all demanding exer-
cise and the open air as essential both to their own
health and to that of the nervous system, it is worse
than folly to shut our eyes to the fact, and to act as
if we could, by denying it, alter the constitution of
nature, and thereby escape the consequences of our
misconduct.
  Reason and experience being thus set at naught
both by parents  and teachers, in  the management
of the  young, the latter naturally grow up with the
notion that no such influences as the laws of organi-
zation  exist, and that they may follow any course
of life which inclination leads them to prefer, with-
out injury to health, provided  they avoid what is
called dissipation.  It is owing to  this ignorance,
that we find young men of a studious or  literary
habit  enter heedlessly upon an amount of mental
exertion, unalleviated by bodily exercise or intervals
of repose, which is quite incompatible with the con-
tinued  enjoyment of a sound mind in a sound body.
Such, however, is the effect of  the total neglect of
all instruction in the laws of the organization during
early education, that it becomes almost impossible
to warn  an ardent  student against  the dangers to
which he is exposing himself, and nothing but actual
experience will convince him of the truth.
  In the  first number of the " American Annals of
Education," the reader will find an instructive article
on the  necessity  of combining bodily with mental
exercise.  " For twenty years and more," says the
writer, "the  unnatural union  of  sedentary with
studious habits, contracted by the monastic system,
has been killing in the  middle age.  The  Register
of Education shows, in one year, 120 deaths.  Ex-
amine into the particular cases, and these will be found
the undoubted effects of sedentary habits.   Look at
one name there.  He had valuable gifts, perfected 
       EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF  THE  BRAIN.   229

by two years' academic, four years' collegiate, and
three years'  theological studies.  He preached, gave
much promise, and then died of a stomach disease.   He
contracted it  when a  student.  He did  not alternate
bodily with mental labour, or he had lived and been
a blessing to the church.  When he entered on  his
studies, he was growing into full size and strength.
He sat down  till  his  muscles dwindled,  his digestion
became disordered, his chest contracted, his  lungs con-
gested, and his head liable to periodical pains.  He  sat
four years in college, and three years in theological
application.   Look at him now.   He has gained much
useful knowledge, and has improved his talents; he
has lost  his  health.   The  duties of his  mind and
heart were done, and faithfully so; but those of  his
body were left undone.  Three hundred and seventy-
five muscles, organs of motion, have been robbed of their
appropriate action for nine or ten years, and now they have
become, alike with  the rest of his frame, the prey of near
one hundred and fifty diseased and  irritable nerves."
•—" Lookat another case.  Exposure incident to the
parson or missionary has developed the  disease in
his chest, planted there  while  fitting himself  for
usefulness.   He  contracted a sedentary, while  he
was  gaining a studious  habit.  That which he sows,
that  also shall he reap.  The east winds give him
colds ; a pulpit effort causes hoarseness and cough,
oppression and  pain.   He  becomes  alarmed  and
nervous.   His views   of  usefulness  begin to  be
limited.  He  must now go by direction, and not so much
to  labour  where  otherwise he would have  been  most
wanted, as to  nurse his  broken constitution.   He  soon
adds to the number of mysterious providences, to the
number of innocent victims, rather, of cultivating
the mind and heart, at the unnecessary  and sinful
expense of the body,—to the number  of loud  calls
to alternate mental  and corporeal  action daily,  for
the reciprocal sanity and vigour of both  mind and
body." 
230   EXCESSIVE  EXERCISE  OF THE BRAIN.

  To remedy these evils, and introduce a  better
system of training, so as to make bodily health and
mental and rational cultivation go hand  in hand, an
establishment called the Manual  Labour Academy
was opened  near Philadelphia in  182!), and has
already proved the soundness  of its principles by
the success of its  results.  The usual branches of
study in classical schools, with the  addition  of the
Bible, are pursued ; and " the hours of recreation
are employed in useful bodily labour, such  as will
exercise their skill, make them dexterous, establish
their health and  strength, enable each to defray his
own  expenses,  and  fit him for the  vicissitudes
of life."    From  this systematic  union of  bodily
labour in gardening, farming, carpentry, and  other
work,  with  the usual  academic   studies,  many
comforts are said  to  have arisen.   The health of
the  inmates  has  been  uninterrupted, except in a
few who  were  ill  when  received; and,  at the
date of the report, in 1830, " every invalid remaining
there had been restored to  health."  Young men thus
trained to practical obedience to the organic laws
are much less likely to run into excess in after-life,
than those who have been left in ignorance of the
constitution of theirownbodies.  " When thought shall
need no brain,"  the report continues, "and  nearly
four hundred organs of motion  shall cease  to constitute
the principal portion of the human body, then may the
student dispense with muscular exertion;" but, till then,
let him beware what he does, and look  to the laws
which the Creator has established for his guidance,
and seek his happiness,  not in denying  their exist-
ence, but in yielding them willing and cheerful obe-
dience.
  In early and middle  life, fever, with an unusual
degree of  cerebral disorder, is a common conse-
quence of the excessive and  continued excitement
of the brain, which is brought on by severe  study,
unremitting mental exertion, anxiety, and watching. 
        EXCESSIVE  EXERCISE OF THE  BRAIN.   231

 Some very  marked  cases  of  this kind have  come
 under  my observation, but that  of  Sir  Humphry
 Davy is so strikingly illustrative of the dangers al-
 luded to, that 1 cannot do better than lay it before
 the reader.  In November, 1807, Sir Humphry  Davy
 was seized with very severe fever, in consequence
 of the excitement  and fatigue which  he underwent
 when engaged in his splendid discovery of the  alka-
 line metals.   " The laboratory of the institution was
 crowded with persons of every rank and description;
 and Davy, as may  be readily supposed, was  kept in
 a continued state of excitement throughout the day.
 This circumstance, co-operating with the  effects of
 the fatigue he had previously undergone,  produced
 a most severe fit of illness, which, for a time, caused
 an awful pause in his  researches, broke the thread
 of his pursuits, and  turned his reflections into dif-
 ferent channels."  Davy ascribed his illness to con-
 tagion caught in experimenting on the fumigation
 of hospitals.   " Upon conversing, however, with Dr.
 Babington,  who, with  Dr.  Frank,  attended Davy
 throughout this illness, he  assured me that there
 was not the slightest ground  for this  opinion, and
 that the fever was evidently the effect of fatigue and
 an over-exciled brain.  The reader will not feel much
 hesitation  in believing  this statement, when he is
 made acquainted with  the  habits of Davy  at  this
 period.  His intellectual exertions were of the most in-
 jurious kind, and yet, unlike the philosophers of old,
 he sought not to fortify himself by habits of  tem-
 perance."  " Such  was his  great  celebrity  at  this
 period of his career, that persons of the highest  rank
 contended for the honour of his company at dinner,
 and he did not possess sufficient resolution to resist
 the gratification thus  afforded, although it generally
 happened that his pursuits in the laboratory were not
suspended until  the appointed dinner hour had passed.
 On his return in the  evening,  he  resumed his  chymical
labours, and commonly continued  them till three  or four 
 232   EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF  THE  BRAIN.

 o'clock in the morning, and yet the servants of the estab-
 lishment not unfrequently found that he had risen before
 them."  Such was the alarming state  of Davy, that
 for many weeks his physicians regularly visited him
 four times in the day; and the housekeeper, Mrs.
 Greenwood, never retired to bed, except one night,
 during eleven weeks.  In the latter part of his illness,
 " he was  reduced to the extreme of weakness, and
 his mind participated in the debility of his body."*.
  Instances occasionally occur of persons exhausted
 by  anxiety and long attendance on  others, being
 themselves attacked by fever, and dying, more from
 the unfavourable state to which previous exhaustion
 had  reduced  them, than from the intensity  of the
 fever itself.
  Nervous disease from excessive mental labour and
 exaltation  of feeling sometimes  shows itself in an-
 other form.  From neglecting proper intervals of
 rest, the vascular excitement of the brain,  which
 always accompanies activity of mind, has never time
 to subside, and a restless irritability of temper and
 disposition comes on, attended with  sleeplessness
 and  anxiety,  for which no external cause can be
 assigned.   The symptoms  gradually become  aggra-
 vated, the digestive functions give way,  nutrition is
 impaired, and a sense of wretchedness is constantly
 present, which often leads to attempts at suicide.
 While all this is going on, however, the patient will
 talk or transact business with perfect propriety and
 accuracy, and no stranger could  tell that  any thing
 ails him.  But in his  intercourse with his intimate
friends or physician, the havoc made upon the mind
becomes apparent;  and, if not speedily arrested, it
soon terminates, according to the constitution and
circumstances of the individual  case, in derange-
ment, palsy, apoplexy, fever, suicide,  or permanent
weakness.
* Paris's Life of Sir H. Davy, p. 183. 
      EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF  THE  BRAIN.    233

  As age advances, moderation  in mental  exertion
becomes still more necessary than  in early or ma-
ture years.  Scipion Pinel, in adverting to the evil
consequences of excessive moral or intellectual ex-
citement, acutely remarks, that while in youth and
manhood the wear of the brain thus induced maybe
repaired, no such salutary result follows  over-exer-
tion in the decline of life : " what is lost then is lost
for ever.  At that  period we  must  learn to wait for
what the brain is  willing to give,  and  allow it to
work at its own time ;  to attempt  to force it, is to
weaken  it to no purpose; it  becomes excited and
quickly exhausted  when  forced to vigorous  think-
ing."—" Men  of exalted intellect  perish  by  their
brains,  and  such is the  noble end  of those whose
genius procures for them that immortality which so
many ardently desire."*
  Who can peruse these lines without the fate of
Scott instantly occurring to his mind, as a practical
illustration of their truth ?   In the vigour of  man-
hood few ever wrote so much, or with greater ease.
But when, on the verge of old age, adversity forced
him  to unparalleled  exertion,  the  organic  waste
could no longer be repaired, and perseverance only
" weakened the brain to no purpose," till morbid
irritability became the substitute of healthy power,
and he perished by that brain which had served him
so faithfully and so efficiently, but which could no
longer withstand the gigantic efforts which he con-
tinued to demand from it.
  Where  a predisposition to insanity  exists, the
cerebral excitement induced by excessive activity
of mind often  leads to disease.  Examples of this
kind abound in the works of authors.  Pinel men-
tions several.   One of them was the case of a young
man, distinguished for his talents and his profound
knowledge of chymistry, who was occupied with a

         * Physiologie de l'Homme Aliened p. 177;
                      U 2 
234   EXCESSIVE EXERCISE  OF THE BRAIN.

discovery which he hoped would lead him to for-
tune and  distinction.   To  effect it the sooner, he
resolved to shut himself up  in his  laboratory for
several  successive days; and, the better to banish
sleep and  to raise himself to the level of his  la-
bours, he prepared a variety of stimulants.  A sing-
ing girl shared his retreat; he drank spirits, smelled
frequently odoriferous substances, and sprinkled the
room with eau de Cologne.   The combined  action
of all these means, added to the heat of his furnace,
caused such a degree of cerebral excitement that,
at the end of eight  days, the  most furious  delirium
took place, followed by a regular attack of mania
If any thing can demonstrate  the mutual influence
of mind and brain, it is surely a case  like this,—a
case which it is impossible to read without perceiv-
ing how easily  the  cerebral  affection might have
been of the violent inflammatory character, which
terminates, in a few days, in life or  in death; or
of the febrile character, that lasts for one or two
months, and leaves the mind for ever reduced in
tone and vigour.
  It is well remarked by Tissot, that the disorders
produced  by  the efforts of the mind fall soonest
upon such as are incessantly engaged in the contem-
 filation of the same object.  In this case, he adds,
 here is only one part of the sensorium (brain) acted
upon, and that is kept always on the stretch; it  is not
relieved  by the action of the other parts,  and  therefore
is sooner fatigued and injured; the same rule holding
with the brain as with the muscles,  that the  exer-
cise which, if divided among the different  parts of
which it is composed, will strengthen them, will, if
confined to a few, exhaust and impair them.   Boer-
haave himself, after a long period of intense think-
ing, suffered for six weeks from excitement of the
brain, bordering  on madness,  and  characterized by
that want  of sleep, irritability, and  indifference to 
/
EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF  THE BRAIN.    235
 ordinary  interests, which so often appear as the
 harbingers of insanity.
   The number of literary and public men, students,
 and persons in business, who do themselves irrepa-
 rable injury in this way, is so great, that few of my
 readers who have  had experience of the world will
 be at a loss for examples even among their own ac-
 quaintances.  In addition to Davy, Scott, and others,
 already mentioned, Sir Isaac Newton may be re-
 ferred to ; as it is now certain that his mind was for
 a time disordered by excessive application, and
 there is much reason to believe that he never alto-
 gether recovered  the shock.  The premature ex-
 tinction of early " prodigies" of genius is also gene-
 rally  traceable to the operation of the same cause.
 The wonder excited by  their performances stimu-
 lates  them to incessant and  severe exertion, unre-
 lieved either by adequate repose or by variety of
 pursuit; and the exhausted brain either sinks at the
 period of growth,  or becomes so much weakened
 as to  be unfit for the same splendour of manifesta-
 tions.  The more  limited the sphere of talent, the
 greater the danger of its  being over-exercised ; and
 hence the frequency df nervous affections in musi-
 cians, and others who dedicate  their  lives to the
 exclusive  cultivation  of  their arts.   It is  said that
 Gretry not only ruined  his own health, but lost
 three highly-gifted and beautiful daughters in suc-
 cession, from over-excitement of the nervous sys-
 tem thus induced; and there can be no doubt that
 the melancholy fate of Weber was greatly  hastened
 by intense application.   He  continued deeply en-
gaged in musical composition long  after his health
was undermined; and, even when the hand of death
was almost upon  him, his  avocations  pressed so
heavily that he could not help exclaiming,  "Would
that I were a tailor, for then I should have a  Sunday's
holyday.'"  The  philanthropic physician will rather
be inclined to exclaim, " Would that mankind would 
236    RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE

study their bodily structure and functions, and thus
learn to preserve longer the health and existence of
those whose genius is the source of so many plea-
sures to the world at large !"

  Having thus pointed out the evils arising both from
inadequate and  from  excessive  mental exertion, it
remains for me  to direct  attention to some of the
conditions required for the proper exercise of the
brain.
  It seems to be a  law of the  animal economy, that
two classes of functions cannot be called into vigo-
rous action at the same time,  without one or other,
or both, sooner or later  sustaining injury. Hence
the important rule, never to  enter upon  continued
mental exertion, or  to  rouse deep feeling, imme-
diately after a full  meal, as the activity of the brain
is  sure to interfere with  that of the stomach, and
disorder its functions.  Even  in a perfectly healthy
person, unwelcome news, sudden anxiety, or  men-
tal excitement, occurring after eating, will put an
entire stop to digestion, and  cause the stomach to
loathe at  the sight  of food.   In accordance with
this, we learn by experience, that  the worst forms
of indigestion  and nervous  depression  are  those
which arise from excessive application of mind, or
turmoil  of feeling, conjoined  with unrestrained in-
dulgence in the pleasures of the table.  In such cir-
cumstances, the stomach and brain react upon and
disturb each  other, till all the  horrors of nervous
disease make their  unwelcome appearance, and ren-
der life miserable.  Literary men and hard students
know this fact from sad experience ; but as they are
not aware  of the incompatibility of the two processes
of active thinking and active  digestion going on at
the same time, it is extremely difficult to give them
a sense of their danger, and to convince them that
an hour, or an hour and a half, after a meal is more
profitably  spent in  easy relaxation  than in  the 
OF THE BRAIN AND MTOD.        237
 labour of composition.  As regards the lower ani-
 mals, indeed, we are careful enough to observe this
 organic law ;  for we do not allow our horses  or
 dogs to be actively exercised till digestion is in some
 degree completed.
  It may be  said  that mechanics, labourers, and
 others hurry away to work immediately after meals,
 and that, in the United States, the practice of hastily
 swallowing dinner  and  instantly returning  to busi-
 ness is proverbially common.  My answer to this
 objection is simply, that experience proves the fact,
 that digestion goes  on better when exertion is re-
 frained from  and repose  is enjoyed, and that the
 tendency to sleep and inactivity  which besets most
 animals after a full meal shows repose to be, in such
 circumstances, the intention of nature.  It  must be
 observed also, that the bad effects of immediate ex-
 ertion  are not of that description which ensue in-
 stantly, or are felt from day to day.   These may
 show  themselves only  at  the  end of  months or
 years, when the influence has, as it were, accumu-
 lated by repetition.  Although, therefore, the sys-
 tem possesses a certain power  of resistance, and
 many persons  seem  to escape  even  for years, it
 cannot be doubted that opposition to the law of na-
 ture will eventually prove injurious.  The extreme
prevalence of  dyspeptic  complaints and  of insanity
 among the Americans is, in  all probability, partly
 owing  to the very practice which is  supposed by
 some to be harmless to them.
  The  time best adapted for mental exertion falls
next to  be  considered.  Nature has allotted the
darkness of night for repose, and the restoration by
 sleep of the exhausted energies of mind and body.
 If study or composition be ardently engaged in to-
 wards that period of the day, the increased action
 in the brain which always accompanies  activity of
 mind requires a long time  to subside;  and, if the
 individual be at all of an irritable habit of body, he 
240    RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE

been understood.   To induce  facility of action in
the organs of the mind, practice is as essential as it
is  in  the  organs of motion.   The idea or feeling
must not only be communicated, but it must be re-
produced and represented, in different forms, till all
the faculties concerned in  understanding it come to
work efficiently together in the conception of it.  We
often  blame servants  for  not  doing  a thing  every
day,'because they were  once  told to do so.  The
organic laws, however, teach  us that we are pre-
sumptuous in expecting  the  formation of a habit
from a single act, and that we must  reproduce the
associated activity of the requisite faculties  many
times before the result will certainly follow.   We
find, on turning to a new subject, that however well
we may understand  it by one perusal,  we do not
fully master it, except by dwelling upon it again and
again.
  Repetition is thus necessary to make a durable im-
pression on  the brain; and, according to this  prin-
ciple,  it follows that, in  learning a language - or
science, six successive months of application will
be more effectual in fixing it in the mind, and making
it  a part of its furniture,  than  double or triple the
time,  if interrupted by long intervals.  Hence it is
a great error to begin  any study, and then  break off
to finish at a later period.   The ennui  is thus doubled
and the success greatly diminished.  The  best way
is to begin at the proper age,  and to persevere till
the end is attained.   This accustoms the mind to
sound exertion, and not to fits of attention.  Hence
the mischief of long vacations, and  hence the evil
of beginning studies before the age at which they
can be understood, as  in teaching  the abstract rules
of grammar to children;  to succeed in which im-
plies  in them a power of thinking, and an amount
of general knowledge, which they cannot possess.
  In physical education, we are quite alive to the
advantages of repetition  and practice.  We  know 
OF THE BRAIN  AND  MIND.
241
that if practice in dancing,  fencing, skating,  and
riding be persevered in for a sufficient length of time
to give  the  muscles the requisite  promptitude  and
harmony of action, the power will be ever afterward
retained, although little called into use.  Whereas,
if we stop short of this point, we may reiterate prac-
tice by fits  and  starts, without any proportionate
advancement.  The same principle  applies equally
to the moral and  intellectual powers, because these
operate by means of material organs.
  The necessity  of being in  private what we wish
to appear in public  springs from the same rule.  If
we wish to  be polite, just, kind,  and  sociable, we
must habitually act under the influence of the  cor-
responding sentiments in the domestic  circle and in
every-day life, as well as in the company of strangers
and on great occasions.   It  is the daily  practice
which gives  ready activity to the sentiments,  and
marks the character.  If we indulge in vulgarities of
speech and behaviour at home, and  put on politeness
merely  for the reception of strangers, the former
will shine through  the  mask which is intended to
hide them ; because the habitual association to which
the organs and faculties have been accustomed can-
not be thus controlled.  As well may we  hope to
excel in elegant and graceful  dancing  by the daily
practice  of  every awkward attitude.  In the  one
case, as in the other, the organs must not only be
associated in action by the command of the will, but
they must be  habituated to the  association by the
frequency of the practice ; a fact which exposes the
ignorant folly of those  parents who habitually act
with rudeness  and  caprice towards  their  children,
and then chide the  latter for unpolite behaviour to-
wards strangers.
  The same principle, of repetition being necessary
to make a durable impression on the brain and con-
stitute a mental habit, also explains the manner in
which natural endowments are modified by external
                        X 
242    RULES  FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE
situation.  Taking the average of mankind, the limits
to which this modification may be carried are not
narrow.  Place a child, for example, of average pro-
pensities,  sentiments, and intellect, among a class
of people—thieves—in whom the selfish  faculties
are exclusively exercised; by whom gain is  wor-
shipped as the end of life, and cunning and cheating
as the  means, and  among whom  it never hears one
word of disapprobation or moral indignation against
either  crime  or sentiment;  and  its lower faculties
will be exclusively exercised and increase in strength,
while the higher will be left unemployed and become
weak.   A child so situated  will consequently not
only act as those around  do, but insensibly grow up
resembling them  in disposition and  character, be-
cause,  by the law of repetition, the organs of the
selfish faculties will have  acquired  proportionally
greater aptitude and vigour,  just as the muscles of
the fencer or dancer.  But suppose the same indi-
vidual  placed from infancy in the society of a supe-
riorly  endowed moral  and intellectual  people ; the
moral  faculties will then be  habitually excited and
their organs  invigorated  by  repetition, till a greater
aptitude,  or,  in  other words, a higher moral  char-
acter, will be formed.  There are, of course, limits
set to this modification by the natural endowments
of the  individual; but where the original dispositions
are not strongly marked,  the range is still a wide one.
   From this source arise many differences, not only
of individual  but of national  character, and such dif-
ferences as we observe take  place from changes of
fortune and  condition.   The Negro  free in Africa
differs  widely from the Negro subjected to  the
scourge of the colonist.
   The  truth  of these  remarks is  confirmed by M.
Arago, in his account  of Freycinet's Voyage  round
the World in 1818-19-20.   In  speaking of the dif-
ferent results of the same education in the  Isle of
France and in the mother country, he observes, that 
            OF  THE  BRAIN AND  MIND.         243

 the professors, the methods, and the subjects taught
 are quite on  a  par with those of Paris; but that,
 nevertheless,  from the very early maturity of the
 human being in  that climate, the pupils are removed
 from school so  soon that the  impression made on
 their minds is  speedily obliterated; on which ac-
 count, he adds,  the only really educated and  well-
 informed men whom he met with are those who had
 been sent to France very young, and retained there
 till a later  age  and more  thorough grounding had
 been attained, after which the risk of  losing  their
 acquirements was greatly diminished.

   The next rule to be observed in the cultivation
 of the brain and mental faculties, is founded on that
 law of our constitution, which  directs each organ  to
 be exercised directly upon  its own  objects,  and not
 merely roused or addressed through the medium of
 another organ.  We have  said, that when we wish,
 for example, to teach the graceful and rapid evolu-
 tions of fencing, we do not content ourselves with
 merely giving directions, but our chief  attention  is
 employed in making the  muscles  themselves go
 through the evolutions,  till, by frequent repetition
 and correction, they acquire the requisite quickness
 and precision of action ;  or when we wish to teach
 music, we do not merely address the understanding
 and explain the qualities of sounds, but we train the
 ear to their attentive discrimination, and the  hand
 to the reproduction of the motions which call them
 into  existence.  We  follow this  plan,  because the
 laws of organization require direct practice, and we
 feel instinctively that we can succeed only by obey-
 ing them.  Now, the purely mental faculties, being
 connected during life with material  organs, are sub-
 jected to precisely the same law; and therefore  if
 we wish to improve the reasoning powers, we must
 exercise them regularly in tracing the  causes  and
relations of things.   And, in like manner, if our aim 
244    RULES FOR  THE PROPER EXERCISE
is to develop the sentiments of Attachment, Bene-
volence,  Justice,  or Devotion, we must exercise
each of them directly and for its own sake, other-
wise neither it nor its organ will ever acquire prompti-
tude or strength.
  It ought  never to be forgotten, that in education
it is the brain, or organ of mind, and not the abstract
immaterial  principle, which requires cultivation, and
that hence  education operates invariably in subjection
to  the laws of organization.   In  improving the ex-
ternal senses, we admit this principle readily enough;
but whenever we  come  to the internal faculties of
thought and feeling, it is either denied or neglected.
With gross inconsistency, we admit that the superior
quickness of touch, sight, and hearing, consequent
upon judicious  exercise, is always  referable to in-
creased facility of action in their appropriate organs;
but when we  explain, on the same  principle, the
superior development of the reasoning powers, or
the greater warmth of feeling produced by similar
exercise in these and other internal  faculties, few
are inclined to listen to our proposition, or allow to
it half the weight or attention which its importance
requires, although every fact in philosophy and ex-
perience concurs in supporting it. We see the  men-
tal powers of feeling and of thought unfolding them-
selves  in infancy and youth in  exact  accordance
with the progress  of the organization,—we see  them
perverted or suspended by the sudden inroad of dis-
ease, and as suddenly restored : nay, we sometimes
observe every previous acquirement obliterated from
the adult mind by fever or by accident, leave edu-
cation  to be commenced anew, as if it had never
been ; and yet, with all these evidences of the organic
influence, it is  still a novelty in education to propose
that the established laws of physiology, as applied
to the brain, should be considered as our best and
surest  guide;  and scarcely a volume can be pointed
out in which it is  even hinted that these laws have 
OF THE BRAIN  AND MIND.         245
the slightest influence over  mental or moral  im-
provement.
  Were a  general acquaintance with the laws of
organization to be held as an indispensable part of
a liberal education, we would then be able to incul-
cate, with tenfold force and  success, the necessity
of actively exercising every faculty,  whether of
thought,  feeling, or motion, directly on its own ob-
jects, and  at once to explode the mistake of sup-
posing that any organ or function may be efficiently
exercised through the medium of another, and that,
to produce  high moral feeling, it is sufficient  to ad-
dress ourselves to the intellect alone.  The  merest
savage, following the footsteps of nature, would pity
the philosopher who would  seriously assure him
that, to cultivate acuteness of hearing or of vision,
it was sufficient to be told how to listen or to look.
The savage goes  more directly and surely to  work.
If he wants physical strength, agility, and swiftness
of foot, he  sets himself to develop the muscular
system of his child by ample muscular exercise, by
constant  repetition of the movements and acts he
wishes him to perform, and by causing him to run,
to leap, or to swim; and he rests in well-founded
hope of accomplishing his purpose.   Following the
same rule when he seeks acuteness  of hearing, he
does not merely tell his child how to listen, but he
lays him with his ear to the ground, and teaches him,
by practice, to  distinguish the qualities of sounds.
If he wishes him to excel in  hunting, in fishing, in
lying  in ambush, or in scenting the  approach of an
enemy, he expects to be  successful  only in propor-
tion as he finds occasion to employ him in the prac-
tice of these pursuits.  If he wishes  to inculcate
courage in  battle, contempt  of pain, endurance of
fatigue, obedience to  chiefs,  or revenge upon ene-
mies, he chooses the sure way, and cultivates each
of these qualities by calling it into direct action on
its own objects ; and we all know the success which 
246   RULES FOR  THE PROPER EXERCISE

the savage meets with in the education which he
bestows.
  With this experience before our eyes,  then, let
us, who pretend to superior wisdom and civilization,
show ourselves also consistent, and ready to receive
instruction from whatever quarter it may come.  As
God has given us bones,  and muscles, and blood-
vessels, and nerves, for the purpose of being used,
let  us not despise the gift, but consent at once  to
turn them to account,  and to reap health and vigour
as the reward which He has associated with moder-
ate labour.  As he  has given us lungs to breathe
with, and blood to circulate, let us  give up our folly
of shutting ourselves  up with so little  intermission
in rooms in inactive  study and  sedentary occupa-
tions, and consent  to inhale copiously and freely
that wholesome atmosphere which His benevolence
has spread around us.  As He has given  us appe-
tites and organs of digestion, let  us  profit  by His
bounty, and earn their enjoyment by healthful exer-
cise.   As He has given us a moral  and a social
nature, which is  invigorated by activity, and im-
paired by solitude and  restraint, let us cultivate good
feeling, and act towards each other on principles of
kindness, justice, forbearance, and mutual assist-
ance ; and as He has given us intellect, let us exer-
cise it in seeking a knowledge of His  works and of
His laws, and in tracing out the relation  in which
we stand towards Him, towards our fellow-men, and
towards the various objects of the external world;
and, in perfect faith and  sincerity, let us rely upon
His promise,  that,  in so  doing, we shall have a
rich reward—a reward a thousand times more pure,
more permanent, and  more delightful, than we can
ever hope to experience in following our own blind
devices,  regardless  of His  will   and intentions
towards us.
  So little, however, are even educated men familiar
with the influence and  laws of the organization, that, 
            OF  THE  BRAIN AND MIND.        247

even in our best directed establishments, as well as in
private families, cultivation is still in a great measure
confined to intellect alone ; and the direct exercise
and training of the moral and religious sentiments
and  affections upon  their own objects are rarely
thought  of as essential to their full and vigorous
development.   Moral precepts are no doubt offered
in abundance ; but these address themselves chiefly
to the intellect.  We must not be satisfied with
merely exclaiming, "Be kind, just, and affectionate,"
when  perhaps at the very moment we are counter-
acting the effect of the advice  by our own opposite
conduct.  Parents  and teachers too  often forget
that the sentiments feel, and do not reason, and that,
consequently, a mere child  may, by the instinctive
operation of its moral nature,  at once detect and be
revolted at the immorality of practices, the true
character of which its reason is unable to penetrate
or expose.   What kind of moral  education is that,
for instance, which, while the instructress vilifies
the physical   appetites of hunger and thirst,  and
preaches disregard of their cravings and of the grati-
fications of taste, leads her to set down a meal to
her boarders, from partaking in which  she betrays
the strongest  desire  to  escape, on  account of its
inferiority to that which is provided for herself and
the few at the head of the establishment 1  What
advances in morality  and religion can be expected
under the charge of one, who  says, " Do unto others
as you would be done by," and then leaves his depend-
ants to suffer pain, chilblains, and  disease,  from
want of fire to warm the room in which they sit, he
himself coming  into  it with features flushed by the
heat of the blazing fire, which, for weeks, has been
provided for  his comfort in  his own  apartment]
What generosity of feeling can arise from the super-
intendence of  a  teacher, who, though liberally paid
for the food of her pupils, and with moral precepts
on her lips, satisfies  the cravings of nature in the 
248    RULES FOR  THE PROPER EXERCISE

long intervals between meals, only at the expense
of the pence constituting the pocket-money of the
scholar 1—the food  in this case being denied, not
because it  is considered improper,—for were that
the case, it would be a dereliction of duty to give it
on any terms,—but from  sheer  meanness and cu-
pidity. What kind of moral duties does the parent
encourage, who, recommending kindness, openness,
and justice, tricks the child  into the confession of
faults, and then basely  punishes it, having previ-
ously promised  forgiveness ?  And how is openness
best  encouraged,—by practising it in conduct, or by
neglecting  it in  practice, but praising  it in words ]
Is it to be  cultivated by thrusting suspicions in the
face  of honest intentions 1  And how is justice to be
cultivated by a guardian who speaks about it, recom-
mends it, and in practice charges  each of four pupils
the whole fare of a hackney-coach 1   Or what kind
of moral education is that which says, "Do as I bid
you,  and I will give you sweetmeats or money, or I will
tell your mamma how good you were;"  holding out the
lowest and most selfish propensities as the motives
to moral conduct!  Did  space  permit, I might  in-
deed pursue the whole round of moral and religious
duties, and ask  similiar  questions at each.  But it
is needless.  These examples will suffice; and I give
them, not  as applicable  generally either to parents
or teachers, but simply as  individual instances from
among both, which have come within the sphere
of my own knowledge,  and which bear directly
upon the principle under discussion.
  The moral sentiments, it may be observed, are so
many determinate impulses given us by the Creator
to act in a certain way towards those around us, and
it is not  necessary that some extraordinary situa-
tion  should be waited for to give them full employ-
ment.  Benevolence, no doubt, is strongly excited
by the aspect of misery and unhappiness, and im.
pels  strongly to the relief of the suffering object; 
OF  THE BRAIN AND  MIND.        249
but this is not its  most common or its most useful
field-  In ordinary life, it finds ample scope in charity
to our neighbours, and in contributing to the happi-
ness of our family circle and of our  associates and
dependants.  Benevolence is much better occupied
in adding a gleam of enjoyment, in removing  little
sources of irritation, in promoting concord among
relatives, and in other kind offices of a similar nature,
than in giving alms indiscriminately  to all who de-
mand them, or even in relieving occasional distress,
where this is held to dispense, as it too often is,
with all obligation to habitual forbearance and Chris-
tian good-will in the private relations Of life.   But
how little  is this most  important faculty directly
attended to or  cultivated, in the way we see done
with the  faculties necessary for the practice of
drawing or music, which,  by incessant  exercise
procured at a great sacrifice of time, money, and
labour, are brought into such a state of activity as
ever after to  enable their possessors to derive de-
light from their  exercise,  where the  talents are
possessed in any considerable degree !  And what
might we not expect from the systematic training of
the higher sentiments on a  similar plan, in improv-
ing society and exalting the happiness  of the race •
But it is  evident, that the  objects of  benevolence
are our fellow-creatures; and consequently, if we
restrict our intercourse and our  sympathies to the
limits of our own drawing-rooms, and take  no in-
terest in the progress of the race, or of the individ-
uals composing it, we  leave  our best faculties in
abeyance, and reap the reward of bodily debility and
mental weakness and monotony.
   Conscientiousness  is another  principle  of the
mind that requires direct cultivation, and that rarely
receives it.   It holds  the balance between man and
man, and is excited by the presentment of any dif-
ference of right between individuals, of any injus-
tice, of any temptation offered by the other faculties, 
250     RULES FOR  THE  PROPER  EXERCISE

which may lead us to encroach on others.   It gives
a strong sense of duty, with which it is  agreeable
to act in conformity, but which it is painful and inju-
rious to oppose.  It gives weight and force to the
impulses of the other  sentiments, and, joined with
intellect and the sentiment of devotion, gives that
faith in the beneficence  and equity of the Deity,
and in the immutability of all his  laws, that forms
the strongest encouragement to virtuous  conduct
and temporary self-denial.  And here  again, living
in society, engaging in  the active duties of  life, and
acting justly amid the conflicting interests of others,
and not seclusion and privacy, are manifestly in-
tended by the Creator as our proper sphere.
  I need  not follow out  this exposition in detail.
The above illustrations will  suffice to explain the
principle;  and to exceed this  limit  would withdraw
attention too much from the matters more directly
before us.
  P'or the  same reason that every  faculty ought to
be exercised directly  upon  its own  objects,  the
exclusive use of book-education as a means of con-
veying instruction, is manifestly unnatural as well
as inefficient.  If allowed to  handle and examine a
new object, a child  will  pursue the investigation
with pleasure, and in five minutes will acquire more
correct  knowledge than by a whole hour's reading
about its qualities  without seeing it.  In  the  one
instance its perceptive powers are stimulated by the
direct presence of the  qualities of  which they are
destined to  take cognizance; while, in  the other,
they are roused only through  the imperfect medium
of artificial language, and the  child has to create the
object in his own mind before he can take notice of
its qualities.  When we recollect the different ideas
which the same written language suggests to differ-
ent mature minds, we may  form some conception of
the impossibility of a child making  progress in this
way,  and of the weariness and ennui which the 
OF THE BRAIN AND  MIND.        251
thankless effort must always induce; and yet, at the
present day, in nineteen out of twenty schools, all
the knowledge that is offered is through the medium
of books and language alone !
  Adequate exercise of the perceptive powers would
require a certain amount of" muscular exertion, and
of daily exposure to the open  air, in going about
to collect and examine the varied objects of interest
with which creation abounds.   In other words, the
perceptive faculties cannot be successfully cultivated,
without at the same time benefiting the muscular
system, and  the organs of  respiration, circulation,
and digestion; and  this grand recommendation in
the eye of reason, viz. pursuing study in the field of
nature instead of in books, is actually, though not
avowedly, the circumstance which retards its adop-
tion in ordinary education.
  What, therefore, is wanted is a system of education
in harmony with the constitution of the  human mind,
and a mode of life and of occupation which shall give,
not only full play to the intellectual powers, but also
healthy excitement and activity, and a right direction, to
the moral, religious, and effective feelings.
  The details of such a system do not fall under the
scope of a treatise like this; and I must,  for the
present, content myself with the exposition of the
general principle.   A serious obstacle to entering
upon  the regular  exertion here  recommended re-
quires to be noticed, as it arises from a feeling in the
patient against which he cannot be too much on his
guard.  Where  the  nervous system is weak, and
where it, of course, requires most to be strengthened,
there is often a retiring sensitiveness of disposition,
leading its possessor rather to avoid than to seek
intercourse with society.  Feeling the irksomeness
of present  exertion, the nervous invalid is apt to
form the secret resolution to live in solitude till the
mind shall become stronger, and then to seek society
when  it will no  longer  be a burden.  Unhappily, 
252              PHRENOLOGY.

however, this feeling leads only to delusion, and the
wished-for result becomes  every day more distant,
the longer  retirement and indolence are persevered
in.  It is by activity, and not by repose, that strength
is to be acquired.   We do  not  expect to  increase
bodily strength by lying in bed, but by stirring about;
and, in like  manner,  we  shall never succeed in
strengthening the  nervous system  by indulging in
mental indolence.  Many are led astray by the false
expectation of acquiring  strength without using the
natural means  from which alone strength can be
procured.
  It may be remarked, that in the preceding pages I
have made no allusion  to the doctrines of  Phre-
nology.  My reasons are simply, that, for the  object
I had in view, a special  reference to them was not
necessary, and  that,  in a  work written for the
general reader, and  for  practical purposes,  I was
naturally  anxious  to avoid every contested  point.
Accordingly,  in  limiting myself to the  statement
that different  parts  of  the  brain  perform  differ-
ent functions, without specifying those  connected
with any particular part,  farther than that they are
all concerned in the mental  operations, I am not
venturing  beyond  what  most  eminent anatomists
and physiologists in  the  past or present times have
taught  before me.  My own sentiments on the sub-
ject are already before the  public ;*  and I am  bound
to say that every day's experience increases my
conviction of the truth of Phrenology, and deepens
my sense  of its practical value.   Those who  desire
to prosecute the inquiry will  find ample  assistance
in the  numerous works already published, both in
England and  in France.  The splendid work  of Vi-
mont would do honour to any age or country.

  * Vide Observations on Mental Derangement; being an appli-
cation of the Principles of Phrenology to the elucidation of the
Causes,  Symptoms, Nature, and Treatment of Insanity. 1 vol.
post 8vo, 1831.         , 
     INFLUENCE OF  THE  BRAIN ON HEALTH.  253

  I have already had frequent occasion to notice the
direct influence exercised by  the  mind and  brain
over all the  bodily functions, and  over the general
health.  As the subject is an important one, and has
not received all the attention which it deserves, it
may be proper,  before  concluding, to offer a few
remarks on it.
  The nervous  fluid or influence presents many
phenomena allied to those of electricity, but its real
nature is not yet known.   All that can be said is, that
it is an influence of a peculiar kind, originating in the
brain and nervous system ; and that, like the blood,
it is essential to the vital action  of  every animal
organ.  When  I move the  hand in writing, the
muscles of the arm are called into play by an influ-
ence transmitted to them from  the brain, by means
of the soft  white cords called nerves.   This stimu-
lus  is so indispensable, that if the  communication
between the  brain and  the  muscles  be cut off, by
dividing or tying the nerve, no effort  of the mind
will longer suffice to  excite them to action.  In like
manner, if  the nerve3 of the lungs and stomach be
cut through, so as to interrupt the flow of nervous in-
fluence, respiration and digestion will cease, although
in every other respect their respective organs re-
main uninjured.
  Changes in the quality or  amount of the  nervous
influence transmitted from the brain  to any organ
have thus a direct power of  modifying its function.
If, from a peculiar state of the brain, the  nervous
influence sent to the stomach be impaired, the tone
of that organ will be also impaired, and digestion
become imperfect; whereas if, in  consequence of
pleasing excitement,  the  nervous  stimulus be in-
creased, a corresponding  activity will be  com-
municated  to the  stomach,  and digestion  will be
facilitated,  as is  experienced  after  a dinner  in
pleasant society.   But if,  by a violent burst of pas-
sion or grief, the brain be inordinately excited, so 
254 INFLUENCE OF THE  BRAIN ON  HEALTH.

as to send forth a  stimulus vitiated in quality, the
stomach which receives it will  partake in the dis-
order, and hence the sudden loathing and sickness
so often induced by unexpected bad news, vexation,
or alarm.
  Something analogous to this is still more visibly
exhibited in the case of the muscles.  If the mind
be  active and decided, the muscles,  receiving a
strong stimulus, move with readiness and force ; but
if the cerebral activity be impaired  by bilious de-
pression, muscular action becomes slow, infirm, and
indolent: whereas, if the brain be excited by strong
passion, and the  stimulus  be impetuous,  the move-
ments instantly become energetic and decided; and,
if the excitement be carried still farther, the regulated
muscular contraction passes the limits of health, and
becomes involuntary and convulsive.
  As the quality of the nervous influence depends
on the condition of the brain,  that which springs
from a brain of which all the parts are in  sound and
vigorous action is  the best.  Mental  indolence and
high mental excitement are alike inimical to bodily
health; and consequently our great aim ought to be
to secure for every mental power, moral as well as
intellectual, that equal  and regular  exercise from
which alone the proper nervous stimulus can spring.
  It is indeed interesting to observe  the various
effects of the nervous influence, according to the
faculties in predominant action at the time it is pro-
duced.   If the higher feelings have the ascendency,
and the more selfish propensities  be merely suffi-
ciently active to give force to the character, without
exciting contention in the mind  itself, the nervous
influence is the most grateful and efficient  which
can be imagined for sustaining  the healthy co-ope-
ration of the whole  body.  This result follows,
because the Creator evidently designed such a state
of mind to be  the best and happiest for man himself,
and therefore took care to surround him with  every
motive to induce him to enter into it. 
     INFLUENCE OF  THE BRAIN ON HEALTH.  255

  If, however, the lower feelings be in great activ-
ity, and  the  mind be  at variance with itself, and
filled with designs and  emotions repulsive to our
moral sentiments;  or if it be oppressed with grief,
anxiety, or remorse, the stimulus which it commu-
nicates is far from  beneficial, being no longer in
accordance with the conditions  designed  by the
Creator.   It is in such circumstances, accordingly,
that bad health is so often  seen to arise from the
state of the mind, and  that suffering is produced
which no art can relieve till the primary cause be
removed.
  The same result follows over-exercise of intellect,
and the non-activity of the feelings.  From the con-
centration of vital action in one part of the brain,
the stomach and other  organs are unprovided with
the requisite nervous stimulus, and become impaired
in their functions; and hence the dyspeptic  and
hypochondriacal symptoms which so often render
life a burden to literary  men.   Persons so situated,
when advised to attend to diet, often answer that it
is in vain, and that, while at times nothing can be
digested, at other times, perhaps within a few hours
or days, nothing comes  amiss,—the power of diges-
tion varying thus quickly, according to their mental
condition.  Whereas, when indigestion arises from
a primary affection of the stomach, the least devia-
tion in the way of  indulgence proves injurious.  In
both instances, attention to diet is beneficial, but in
the one it is less rigidly important than in the other.
  The influence of the brain on the digestive organs
is so direct, that sickness and vomiting are among
the earliest symptoms  of many affections of the
head, and of wounds  and injuries  of the brain;
while violent  emotions, intense  grief,  or  sudden
bad news sometimes arrest at once the progress
of digestion, and produce squeamishness or loathing
of food, although an instant before the appetite was 
258  INFLUENCE  OF THE  BRAIN ON  HEALTH.

keen.  Narcotics, the direct action of which is on
the brain, have a similar effect on the stomach.
  The influence of the mind  and brain over the
action of the heart and lungs  is familiar to every
one.  The sighing, palpitation, and fainting, so often
witnessed as consequences of emotions of the mind,
are evidences which nobody can resist. Death itself
is not a rare result of such excitement in delicately
organized persons.
  This law of our constitution, whereby the regu-
lated activity of both intellect and feeling is made
essential to sound bodily  health, seems to  me one
of the most  beautiful  arrangements  of  an all-wise
and beneficent Creator.  If we shun the society of
our fellow-creatures, and shrink from  taking a share
in the active duties of life, mental indolence and
physical debility beset  our path.  Whereas if, by
engaging in the business of life and taking an active
interest in  the  advancement of society, we duly
exercise our various powers of perception, thought,
and feeling; we promote  the health of the whole
corporeal system, invigorate the  mind itself, and at
the same time experience  the highest mental gratir
fixation of which  a human being is susceptible, viz.
that of having fulfilled  the end and object of our
being, in the active discharge of our duties  to God,
to our fellow-men, and  to ourselves.   If we  neglect
our faculties or deprive them of their objects, we
weaken the organization,  give  rise to  distressing
diseases, and at the same  time experience the bit-
terest feelings that can afflict humanity—ennui and
melancholy.  The harmony thus shown to exist
between the moral and physical world is but another
example of the numerous inducements to that right
conduct and activity, in pursuing which the Creator
has evidently destined  us  to find terrestrial happi-
ness.
  The reader will now  understand why the state of
the mind is so influential in the production and pro- 
     INFLUENCE  OF THE BRAIN  ON HEALTH.  257

gress of disease.   In  the  army this principle has
often been exemplified in  a very striking manner,
and on so large a scale as to put its influence beyond
a doubt.  Sir George  Ballingall mentions, in his
excellent lectures  on  Military Surgery, that the
proportion of sick in garrison in a healthy country,
and  under favourable  circumstances, is about five
per cent.;  but that, during a campaign,  the usual
average is nearer ten  per cent.  So marked, how-
ever, are the preservative effects of cheerfulness and
the excitement of success, that, according to Vaidy,
the French army cantoned in Bavaria, after the bat-
tle of Austerlitz, had only 109 sick in a division of
■8000 men, being little more than one in the hundred.
When, on the other hand, an army is subjected to
privations, or " is discouraged by defeat or want of
confidence in its  chiefs" the proportion  of sick  is
" of ten fearfully increased."*
  The same principle  explains why it  is so import-
ant for the physician  to carry the feelings of the
patient along with him in his curative measures.  It
is well  known, for example, that those who live  in
constant apprehension of  fever, cholera, or other
ailment are generally  among its first victims when
exposed to its cause.  The  reason is obvious.   The
depressing nervous influence resulting from the pain-
ful activity of  the selfish feelings affects all the
functions of the body,  and  places them on the brink
of disease, even before any external cause is in ope-
ration ; and hence the  easy inroad the latter  makes
when it comes into play.
  So efficacious, on the other hand, is a more  cheer-
ful state of mind, from the more healthful nervous
influence which it diffuses through the frame, that
surprising  recoveries  occasionally happen,  which
<can be  ascribed to no other cause but this.  A sin-
gular but instructive instance fell under the observa-

      * Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. xxxvi. p. 430.
                     Y2 
258  INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH,

tion of Sir Humphry Davy, when, early in  life, he
was  assisting  Dr. Beddoes  in his  experiments  on
the inhalation of nitrous oxide.  Dr. Beddoes having
inferred that the oxide must be a specific for palsy,
a patient was selected for trial, and placed under the
care of Davy.   Previously to administering the gas,
Davy inserted a small thermometer under the tongue
of the patient to ascertain the temperature.  The
paralytic man,  wholly  ignorant of the process to
which he  was  to submit, but deeply impressed by
Dr. Beddoes with the certainty of its success,  no
sooner felt the thermometer between his teeth than
he concluded the talisman was in  operation, and in
a burst of  enthusiasm declared that he had already
experienced the  effects of  its benign  influence
throughout his  whole body.   The  opportunity was
too tempting to be lost.  Davy did nothing more,
but desired his patient to return  on the following
day.  The same ceremony was repeated, the same
result followed ; and at the end of a fortnight he was
dismissed cured, no remedy of any kind, except the
thermometer,  having ever been  used.*  Quacks
profit largely by taking advantage of this principle
of our nature; and regular practitioners would do
well to bestow more pains than they do in assisting
their treatment by  well-directed  moral influence.
Baglivi was deeply impressed with this sentiment
when he said, " I can scarcely express how much
the conversation of the physician influences eveu
the life of his patient, and modifies his complaints.
For a physician powerful in speech, and skilled in
addressing the feelings of a patient, adds so much
to the power of his remedies, and  excites so much
confidence in his treatment, as  frequently to over-
come dangerous diseases with very feeble remedies,
which more learned doctors, languid and indifferent
* Paris's Life of Davy, p. 51 
      INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN  ON HEALTH.  259

 In speech, could not have cured with the best reme-
 dies that man could produce."
   Every one, indeed, who has either attended in-
 valids, or been an invalid himself, must often have
 remarked, that the visit of a kind and intelligent
 friend is  highly useful  in dispelling uneasy  sensa-
 tions, and in promoting recovery by increased cheer-
 fulness and hope.   The true reason of this is simply,
 that  such  intercourse  interests  the  feelings, and
 affords  an  agreeable stimulus  to several  of the
 largest organs in the  brain, and thereby conduces
 to the diffusion of a healthier and more  abundant
 nervous energy over the whole system.  The extent
 of good which a man of kindly feelings and a ready
 command of his ideas and  language may do  in this
 way, is much beyond  what is generally believed;
 and  if  this holds in debility arising  from general
 causes, in which the nervous system is affected, not
 exclusively, but only as a part of the  body, it must
 hold infinitely more in nervous debility and in ner-
 vous disease ;  for  then, indeed, the moral manage-
 ment is truly the medical remedy, and differs from
 the latter only in this, that its administration depends
 on the physician, and not on the apothecary,—on the
 friend, and not on the indifferent attendant.
  The powerfully stimulating effect of mental ex-
 citement on the bodily functions is familiar to every
 one, and is duly noticed in the works of the novelist
 and  poet.  In nine cases out of ten, a visit to a
 watering-place, or a journey through an interesting
 country, does  more good by the  beneficial excite-
 ment which it gives to  the mind and brain, than by
 all the  other  circumstances put  together.   It is
 indeed greatly to the  credit of the medical depart-
 ments of both army and  navy, that the influence of
 the mind in preserving and restoring health is more
 correctly  appreciated and  provided for than it is
even in private practice.  In the late expeditions of
discovery  to  the  Northern  Regions, the utmost 
2130  INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN  ON HEALTHi

attention was bestowed  by the  enlightened com-
manders to keep up a healthful vivacity of intellect
and feeling among their men, by constant occupation,
intellectual instruction, the representation of plays,
masquerades, and other amusing and exciting exer-
tions ;  and there cannot be a doubt, that their re-
markable immunity from disease was in no small
degree owing to these admirable arrangements:  and
hence  the immense importance which attaches to
the selection of a humane and considerate as well
as scientific  commander.
  In the second volume of Captain Basil Hall's first
series  of Fragments  of Voyages and Travels, the
reader will find a chapter  on " The Effects of being
well commanded" which illustrates, very amusingly,
many of the  principles explained in the preceding
pages. " People," he says, " who have no acquaint-
ance  with the  intricacies of naval discipline  can
scarcely comprehend how vast a difference is made
in the efficiency of a man-of-war by the  character
of the commander."—" Early in the year 1805, we
were made abundantly sensible of the  truth of this
remark, by an important  change  which took place
in the highest office on board.  From a state of lan-
guid inefficiency, we  started in a single moment
into  the most  vigorous  activity, and  from being
almost the laughing-stock of the fleet,  for the clum-
siness of our gait, and the want  of success  which
attended our cumbrous  exertions,  we  soon out-
stripped them all, not only in the activity, but in the
useful result of  our services."—(p. 2.)
  The new captain was a man who knew his pro-
fession, and  possessed that decision  of  character
which makes its weight instinctively felt.  Between
certain disgrace and punishment to offenders, and
" high favour to those who took pains to do right,
the ship  was speedily brought into proper trim.
Every thing now seemed alive, and moved smartly;
no time ran to waste ; even the indolent and the ill- 
    INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN  ON HEALTH.   261

disposed found their best  interest in working well.
The decks became cleaner than they had ever been
before ;  the people dressed themselves more tidily ;
the sails  looked better  furled;  the  yards better
squared ; the complaints of inattention and drunkenness
grew daily less frequent, and an  air of general happi-
ness, as  well as new-born energy, spread, itself over the
whole ship."—" So magical indeed was the effect of
this change, that I dare swear we should then have
engaged and beaten an enemy,  whom it  might not
have been considered by any means prudent to have
brought to action a week before."—(p.  17.)
  Captain Hall  gives other examples  of the same
principle, and  remarks, that in  this way the simple
fact of Nelson joining the fleet off Trafalgar was al-
most equivalent  to double manning every ship in the
line.  The explanation which he gives of the " mys-
terious agency"  by which the genius of a command-
ing officer imparts a portion of its spirit to every one
under his orders  is perfectly philosophical.  "When
a person of talents is placed under  an able com-
mander, he feels confident  that nothing he does will
be passed without notice, and consequently that his
exertions must tell to his advantage, exactly in pro-
portion  as their utility makes itself felt  This con-
sciousness will, of course, stimulate  him to  fresh
endeavours to  excel; and, from  thus  feeling sure
that his conduct is duly appreciated, he has an im-
mediate  motive to bring  his whole strength  into
play—an exercise  which must  ever produce good
results."
  But " suppose the  case differently put, and let the
superior in station be the inferior in abilities or ex-
perience, or not  so zealous in the execution of his
duty as  the men he  commands.  The  situation of
the inferior is now far from being so independent, or
bo well  calculated to draw forth his powers, as it
was in the first case.  The subordinate officer has
no longer the same animated stimulus to exertion; 
262   INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN  ON HEALTH.

for, his labours being generally  unnoticed, or their
results unappreciated, he is left  without  much en-
couragement to  proceed in fresh endeavours to
excel; while his faculties, instead of improving, through
generous exercise, are often deteriorated by the languid
manner in which they are brought into play."—(p. 6.)
  Captain JIall justly observes, that the influence of
the commander on men of moderate talents is still
more striking, as they stand more in need of a stim-
ulus to duty.  " If a commander has skill enough to
enlist the sympathies of those placed under his or-
ders, they will feel insensibly drawn on  to  make
common cause with him, and will afterward  exert
themselves  strenuously to maintain that degree of
importance derived from this implied companionship
in ability which they could hardly hope to  reach
single-handed."—" The invariable  effect  of these
efforts is to  improve the character.  Such training
will certainly not make a  clever man out of a  stupid
one ; but it may often render a discontented or use-
less man of service to himself and the state  ; and,
instead of his continuing a wretched  and hopeless
being, may convert him into one who  is happy and
confident of success."
  " I suspect, however, that no one who has not been
an eye-witness of the condition of a ship under the
command of an ignorant, trifling, or otherwise inef-
ficient captain, can have any notion of the mischiev-
ous effects of his  misrule, or rather of his  no rule.
Perhaps, in the long-run, almost every degree of con-
sistent  severity is  preferable to the uncertain, hig-
gledy-piggledy kind of discipline on board a man-of-
war in what is called slack-order.  The moderately
gifted persons feeling that, in these circumstances,
they have no chance of notice by any exertions of
their own, speedily degenerate into a sort  of vege-
tables, so incapable of any useful exertion  that they
infest  the ship like the  fungus called  the dry-rot.
This chaotic period is the holyday season of the 
    INFLUENCE  OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH.   263

scamps and skulkers, who then fancy their game the
surest.  These fellows certainly succeed in working
as little as possible, and in making those about them
unhappy ; but, after all, without any great accession
to their own comfort."
  " This  system,"  continues Captain Hall,  " dis-
courages  the cheerful and willing workers by the
oppression of its injustice—a feeling which speedily
takes away or deadens some  of the best motives to
improvement.  Such a  captain,  unwilling to  see
that he himself  is  in  fault, ascribes  the  evil  to
others ; and, " by his unfair censure of those who, in
fact, are the  most  deserving of commendation, he
scatters  the seeds of discouragement over all the dif-
ferent classes exposed to his unskilful handling, and
every thing falls  into confusion worse confounded."—
(p.  10.)    The loss of the French frigate Medusa, on
the coast  of Africa, in 1817, and the tremendous suf-
fering which instantly  ensued from the state of an-
archy and uproar which took place among the crew,
are well known to have arisen entirely from the in-
sufficiency and headstrong conceit of a weak and ig-
norant commander, and afford a  strong contrast to
the admirable coolness and high-toned moral feeling
displayed  on the  similar occasion of the wreck of
the Alceste, on her return from  China with Lord
Amherst,  and which also made a deep impression,
but of a widely different description, on the public
mind.
  From the above quotations, the influence which
the qualities of the commander  may exert on the
health, as well as the discipline, of those under his
orders, may easily  be  inferred.   So important, in-
deed, are  cheerfulness and confidence, as conditions
of health,  that if two ships were  to  be  sent out  to
circumnavigate the globe, each equal to the other in
every respect, except the one being under the di-
rection of a humane, vivacious, and considerate man,
and the other of a lymphatic, selfish, and tyrannical 
264
SOURCES OF BAD HEALTH.
commander, though both were equal in talent, it  is
quite certain  that  the fate  of the crews would be
widely  different, and  that sickness  would  prevail
much more in the one than in the other.
                 CHAPTER IX.

Causes of bad Health—Not always the Result of moral or im-
  moral Conduct—Nor of Accident—But of the Infringement
  of the Laws  of Organization—Proofs  from past History—
  Diminished Mortality from Increase of Knowledge, and better
  Fulfilment of the Conditions of Health—The Expeditions of
  Anson and Cook contrasted—Gratifying Results of the Sana-
  tory Arrangements of Ross, Parry, and Franklin—Pulmonary
  Diseases in the Channel Fleet, from Ignorance of Physiology
  —Rates of Mortality  in different Ages and Countries—Causes
  of late  Improvements—Condition of wealthier and poorer
  Classes  compared—Good done by the Apprehension of Chol-
  era—Influence of Habit—Neglect  of organic Laws in Re-
  cruiting Service—Examples—Conclusion.

  The reader will now be prepared to take a correct
view  of  a question on  which it especially interests
us to  have true and precise notions.   I allude to the
real origin of bad health.  On this point very vague
and contradictory  opinions are prevalent; and, as
our conduct  in life must necessarily be closely de-
pendent  on our views in regard  to  this subject, I
cannot do better,  before concluding, than devote a
chapter to its consideration.
  Setting aside, for the present, hereditary tenden-
cies to disease (which must have begun at first with
some progenitor, from ordinary causes, and which,
therefore, are not  really unconnected with  the in-
quiry), bad health maybe regarded in three different
lights: First,  As  having no  necessary  connexion
with our conduct, but as being the result of circum- 
            SOURCES  OF BAD  HEALTH.        265

stances entirely beyond our knowledge and control,
and sent by a superintending Providence, not to urge
us to more rational care, but  to soften our hearts,
and warn  us from sin ;  Secondly, As the result of
accident alone, or of external influences which we
can appreciate,  but from which  it is  impossible to
withdraw ourselves ;  and, Thirdly, As, in every in-
stance, the result of the direct infringement of one or
more of the laws or conditions decreed by the Creator
to be essential to the well-being and activity of every
bodily organ, and the knowledge and observance of
which are  to a great extent within our own power.
  According as one or other of those views shall be
adopted, the most opposite  practical results will
follow.  If the first be received as the truth, and
health and sickness be viewed as dispensed without
reference  to our  bodily  conduct,  but  solely as a
means of reclaiming us  from  sin,  attention to  our
moral  and religious improvement alone will be our
best protection, and any  attempt to avert bad health,
by studying and obeying  the  laws which regulate
the bodily functions,  will  be  entirely useless.   If,
again, the  second principle be correct, and disease
arise from  accident and  from  influences  beyond our
control, then neither our moral nor our bodily con-
duct will avail us as a protection, and our only re-
source will be humble resignation to the will of God.
But if the third be true, and  the human frame  be
constructed by the Creator on principles calculated
to carry on life for seventy years, and if de facto a
large proportion of the race perish  before attaining
ten years of age, chiefly from infringing the conditions
on which  the due performance of the various vital
functions depends, it then becomes an object of great
interest to us to study the structure of our organs,
to discover the laws which regulate their functions,
and to yield  to those laws that  implicit obedience
from which alone health can spring.
  That the strictest observance  of  the moral laws,
                     Z 
286         BAD HEALTH  CAUSED BY

and the purest devotion of which human nature is
capable, are insufficient to secure health to the body,
without a simultaneous observance of the organic
laws, is too clearly proved by the instances already
adduced, and  by the history of mankind, to require
any demonstration here.  The biographies of the
pious and excellent furnish abundant examples to the
contrary ;  while the annals of crime afford numerous
instances of men of the most  depraved  characters
enjoying  unbroken health.  If, indeed, the organic
conditions be  fulfilled, the upright man will enjoy a
serenity of health which  the criminal  can  never
know ; but the moral observance alone will not avail
him, if he at the same time neglect the organic laws.
  In regard to the second proposition, a little reflec-
tion will  satisfy every intelligent mind  that it is
equally untenable, and that disease is not always the
result of accident or circumstances which cannot be
modified.  There  are causes of bad health against
which  even the most  stupid  and prejudiced take
some precautions, and with success ;  and the whole
art of medicine would be a grosser delusion than ever
romancer believed it to be, if  health were not  in-
fluenced  by circumstances within our control.  All
our remedies, and all the  effects of diet, clothing,
and regimen, are indications of the contrary per-
suasion.  There are, indeed, agencies from which
we  shall probably never be able entirely to protect
ourselves.  Such are variations in  the state  of the
atmosphere,  epidemic  and contagious causes, and
necessary exposure,  in pursuance of higher duties,
to known unhealthy influences  ; but, allowing for all
these, ample  scope remains, within which man may,
by  an extension of his knowledge and industry,
provide himself with safe-guards far  beyond what
he  has ever  yet done, or  has ever dreamed of  ac-
complishing.
  The third view, or that which ascribes bad health to
the infringement of some one or more of the organic 
      INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS.   267

laws, thus presents itself as the only one in accord-
ance with observation  and  past  experience; and,
after the full exposition  I have already given of the
conditions of health of various important organs, I
trust little further proof will be  required.   At the
same time, as the principle is full of practical value,
I will take a short review of some facts which  go
far to establish its accuracy.
  Considering that  the  human frame is constructed
to endure, in  many cases,  for sixty, seventy,  or
eighty  years, it must seem extraordinary to a re-
flecting mind  that, in some situations, one-half of
all who  are born should die  before  attaining ma-
turity ; and that, of 1000 infants born  and reared in
London, G50 die before the age of ten years.  It is
impossible to suppose that such a rate of mortality
was  designed by the Creator as the unavoidable fate
of man ; for, by the gradual improvement of society
and a closer observance of the organic laws, the pro-
portion of deaths in early life has already been greatly
reduced.  A hundred years ago, when the pauper in-
fants of London were received and  brought up in
the workhouses, amid  impure air, crowding, and
want of  proper  food,  not  above one  in  twenty-
four  lived to  be a  year old; so that out of 2800
received  into  them, 2690 died yearly.   But when
the conditions of health came to be  a  little better
understood, and an  act  of Parliament was obtained
obliging  the parish officers  to send the infants to
nurse in  the country, this frightful mortality was
reduced  to 450,  instead  of upwards of 2600 !  Can
evidence  stronger than  this be required to  prove
that bad health frequently arises from causes which
man may often be able to discover and remove, and
which, therefore, it is his bounden duty to investigate
and  avoid by  every means which Providence  has
placed within his reach *
  The  different rates of mortality in crowded cities
and country villages equally demonstrate the influ- 
268  KNOWLEDGE HAS DIMINISHED  DISEASE.

ence of bad air, crowding, and imperfect food, in
abridging life.   Even in the best-managed  commu-
nities, the number, not only of the sick of all ages,
but of those who are  cut off in early youth, is so
prodigious as to show that we are far from having
arrived at the maximum of health of which the race
is susceptible ; while the  advance we have already
made gives  us every reason to hope  that, by per-
severance and the extension of our  knowledge,  we
may continue to  improve  for many  centuries to
come.
  The progress  of knowledge, and  the  increasing
ascendency  of reason, have already  delivered us
from many scourges which  were  regarded by our
forefathers as unavoidable  dispensations of an in-
scrutable Providence.  In the days of the ancient
Romans, their capital and territories were frequently
almost depopulated by visitations  of plague  and
pestilence, from which the present generation is,
by a stricter observance of the conditions of health,
entirely exempted.  In London, in like manner, the
same contempt of cleanliness, ventilation, and com-
fort which was so fatal to the Romans produced simi-
lar results, and swept off  its thousands and tens of
thousands, till a fortunate disaster—the  great fire—
came in the place of knowledge, and, by destroying
the crowded lanes and other sources  of impurity,
which man had shown himself so little solicitous to
remove,procured for its inhabitants a perfect and per-
manent immunity from one of the deadliest forms of
disease,—and taught them the grand practical truth,
that such awful visitations are not wanton inflictions
of a vengeful Providence, but the direct consequences
of our non-observance of those conditions by which
the various vital  functions are regulated, and  by
conforming to which alone health can be preserved.
Accordingly, by greater attention to proper food,
cleanliness, and pure air,  London, with its gigantic
population, now flourishes in comparative security, 
     KNOWLEDGE  HAS DIMINISHED DISEASE.    269

and scarcely feels the ravages of an epidemic which
has inflicted a blow on some less fortunate cities,
the effects of which will be long remembered.
   Small-pox  is  another  scourge which - annually
carried off its  thousands, and from which modern
science bids fair to protect us; although half a cen-
tury ago, any one who might  have ventured  to ex-
press such an expectation would have been ridiculed
for his credulity.   Even before Jenner's  immortal
discovery of vaccination, the improvement of medi-
cal science consequent on a better knowledge of the
structure and  functions of the human  body  had
greatly mitigated the  fatality of small-pox.   For-
merly the patients were shut up, loaded with bed-
clothes, in heated rooms, from which every particle
of fresh air was excluded, and stimulants were ad-
ministered, as if on purpose to hasten the fate of the
sick.  But sounder views of the wants of the animal
economy at last prevailed; and, by the  admission of
fresh air,  the  removal of every thing heating or
stimulating, and the administration of cooling drinks
and  other appropriate remedies, thousands were
preserved whose lives would  have been lost under
the mistaken guidance of the older physicians.
  As late as the middle of the last century, ague was
so prevalent in many parts of Britain, where it is now
never seen, that our ancestors looked upon an attack
of it as a  kind of necessary evil, from which they
could never hope  to be delivered.   In  this instance
also, farther experience has shown that Providence
was  not in fault.   By draining the  land,  removing
dunghills, building better houses  in better situations,
and obtaining  better food  and warmer clothing, it
appears that generations now succeed each  other,
living on the very same soil,  without  a single case
of ague ever occurring, where, a century ago, every
man, woman, and child was almost sure  to  suffer
from it at one time or other of their lives; thus
again showing how much man may do  for the pres- 
270  CONTRAST BETWEEN  THE EXPEDITIONS

ervation of his health and the improvement of his
condition, when his conduct is directed by knowledge
and sound principles.
  If we wish for a still more admirable proof of the
same practical truth, we have only to compare the
condition of our seamen, in maritime expeditions
undertaken a century ago, with their lot  in the
present day,—the expedition  against  Carthagena,
or that of Anson,  for instance, with those of Cook,
Parry, and Ross ; or the health enjoyed by the crew
of the Valorous,  with that of the  seamen  in the
other vessels lying in the same harbour.*
  Anson set sail from England, on 13th September,
1740,  in  the  Centurion,  of  60 guns and 400 men,
accompanied  by the Gloucester, of 50 guns and 300
men; the Pearl, of 40 guns and 250 men; the Wager,
of 28 guns and 160 men ; the Tryal sloop, of 8 guns
and 100 men, and two victuallers, one of 400, and
the other of 200 tons. They had a long run to Ma-
deira, and thence  to the coast of Brafcil, where they
arrived on the 18th  December; but, by this time,
the crews were remarkably sickly, so that many
died, and great numbers were confined to their ham-
mocks.  The commodore  now ordered " six air-
scuttles  to be cut in each  ship, to admit  more air
between the decks," and took other measures to cor-
rect the  " noisome stench on board," and destroy
the vermin,  which nuisances  had become " very
loathsome ;" " and, besides being most intolerably of-
fensive, they  were doubtless, in some sort, productive
of the  sickness under  which we  had laboured."
Such is the mild language used by the chaplain, Mr.
Walter, in communicating  these appalling  truths!
On anchoring at  St. Catharine's, 80 patients were
sent  on shore from  the Centurion alone, of whom
28 soon died, and the number of sick increased to 96.
Although this was nothing  compared to what took
* Vide, p. 69. 
OP ANSON AND COOK.          271
 place afterward, it is nevertheless worthy of remark,
 for as yet they had suffered no privations or unusual
 hardships, except from contrary winds.   The causes
 of disease lay entirely within themselves.
   After  a stormy and tedious navigation of three
 months round Cape Horn, scurvy carried off 43 more
 in the month of April, and double that number in
 May, 1711.   Those who remained alive now became
 more dispirited and melancholy than ever; which
 " general dejection added to the virulence of the disease,
 and the mortality increased to a frightful degree"  On
 9th June, when in sight of Juan Fernandez, the de-
 bility of the people was  so great that, 200 being
 already dead, the lieutenant could muster only two
 ■quarter-masters and six foremast men able for duty
 in the middle watch; so that, had it not been for the
 assistance of the officers,  servants, &c. they would
 have  been unable to  reach  the island,—to such  a
•condition was a crew of 400 men reduced in  the
course of a few months !
   I have noticed the cutting of holes for the admis-
sion of air between decks, and the dejection of the
 men.  The narrative proceeds to say, that the com-
 modore's principal attention was now devoted to get-
 ting the sick on shore, as they were dying fast on
board, "  the distemper being doubtless considerably
 augmented by the stench and fillhiness in which they lay,
for few could, be spared to look after them, which ren-
 dered the ship extremely loathsome  between decks."
 The officers suffered least, as being the best fed and
best lodged.  Within a year, out of upwards of 1200
 men, composing the crews of the squadron who had
 sailed from England,  335 alone remained.
   The fate of the Spanish  squadron which sailed
nearly at the same time was still more horrible. The
 Esperanza, of 50 guns, lost 392 out of 450 men, and
the other ships almost as large a proportion.  It is
true that, in doubling Cape Horn, they encountered
the severest weather and the  greatest privations, 
 272   EXCELLENT HEALTH IN COOK's VOYAGES.

 and that their deplorable  fate was aggravated by
 these causes.  But when we look to the conduct of
 later navigators, in circumstances  equally trying, it
 is impossible to resist the gratifying conviction, that
 mortality like this forms no part of the designs of a
 beneficent Providence, and that, for the best of pur-
 poses, our safety is placed,  to a great extent, within
 the limits of our own power.   The late memorable
 expeditions of Parry, of Franklin, and more espe-
 cially of Ross, who, with few resources, spent up-
 wards  of four years  in the  desolate regions of the
 north,  with scarcely any loss of life, are examples
 pregnant with meaning to  all who are interested in
 the future progress of man.
   It may be said that the climate and situation of
 the two parties were  dissimilar.  In some respects
 the objection is well founded; but Cook's second
 voyage round the world, in 1772, affords a parallel
 presenting so many points of resemblance to that
 of Anson, that no one can reasonably object to their
 comparison.   On this occasion, the vessels selected
 were  the Resolution, carrying 112 men, and  the
 Adventure, with a crew of 81.  Enlightened by for-
 mer experience, Cook spared no pains to effect his
 equipment in the completest manner, and  to lay in
 such stores  of clothing and provisions as he knew
 to be useful in preserving the health of those under
 his command.'  Among these were malt, sour krout,
 portable broth, sugar,  and wheat.   Care was taken
 to expose the men to wet  as little as possible, to
 make them shift themselves after being wet, and to
 keep their persons, hammocks, bedding, and clothes per-
fectly clean and dry.  Equal attention was paid to
keep the ship clean and dry between decks ; once or
 twice a week it was aired with fires; and a fire was
 also frequently made at  the bottom  of the  well
 which was of great use in purifying the air in the
 lower parts of the ship.  To the last precaution too
 great attention cannot be paid; as the least neglect 
     EXCELLENT HEALTH IN COOK'S VOYAGES.  273
             k
occasions a  putrid and disagreeable smell below,
which nothing but fires can remove.  Fresh water,
vegetables, and fresh provisions were also eagerly
sought for at every opportunity;  and these it was
Captain Cook's practice to oblige his people to make
use of by his own example  and authority.  The re-
sults of these measures we  shall now see.
  The two  ships  sailed  on 13th  July,  1772.   To-
wards the end of August, when advancing towards
the south, the rain " poured down, not in drops but
in streams;  and the wind  at the same  time being
variable and rough, the people were obliged to attend
so  constantly upon the deck, that few of them
escaped  being  completely  soaked;" but although
rain is a great  promoter of sickness in warm cli-
mates, the  airing by fires between decks,  and the
other precautions, were so  effectual, that, on arriv-
ing at the Cape of Good Hope, only one man was on
the  sick-list;  whereas we have seen that, after a
similar voyage, the Centurion arrived on the coast
of Brazil with 80 sick, of whom 28 soon died.  As
we  proceed, the contrast becomes still more strik-
ing.   On 22d November, Cook sailed from the Cape
in search of a southern continent.   On the 29th, a
violent storm, attended with hail and rain, came on,
and caused the loss of most  of their live-stock ;  and
a sudden transition took place from warm and mild
to extremely cold and wet weather, which  was se-
verely felt by the people.  On 10th December they
met with islands of ice ;  and, from that time till the
middle of March,  continued their search for land
with  unremitting diligence, amid cold,  hardships,
and dangers, such as we can form a very imperfect
idea of; and, at last, on 26th March, after being 117
days at  sea,  during which  they  had  sailed  3660
leagues, they came to anchor in Dusky Bay, New-
Zealand.  " After so long a voyage," says Dr. Kip-
pis, from whose Life of Cook these  particulars are
taken, " in a high southern latitude, it might cer* 
274  EXCELLENT HEALTH IN COOK'S VOYAGES.

tainly have  been expected that many of Captain
Cook's people would be ill of scurvy.   This, how-
ever, was not the case.  So salutary were the effects
of the sweetwort and several articles of provision,
and especially of the frequent  airings and sweetening
of the ship, that there was only one man on board
who could be said to be much afflicted with the dis-
ease ; and even in that man it was chiefly  occa-
sioned by a bad habit of body, and a complication
of other disorders."
  Can any thing be conceived more demonstrative
of the advantages to be derived from investigating
and obeying the laws of health, than these splendid
results, when contrasted with those on  board of the
Centurion 1  In the  Resolution, cheerful  activity,
cleanliness, dry pure air, adequate  clothing,  and a
suitable regimen were found to carry man unscathed
through hardships and exposure, which, in the Cen-
turion, from neglect of the same protective means,
were severe enough to sweep off a large proportion
of her crew.  And, as if on purpose to place the
efficacy  of these measures beyond a doubt,  it ap-
pears, that, in  the month of July, 1773, the Adven-
ture had many sick, and twenty of her best men in-
capable  of duty from  scurvy and flux, when the
Resolution, with a larger crew, had only three men
sick, and only one of them from scurvy.  This dif-
ference in the state of health of the two ships was
distinctly traced to the crew of the Adventure having
eaten few or no vegetables when in Queen  Char-
lotte's  Sound, while, on board of  the Resolution,
Cook was most particular in  enforcing attention to
this part of their dietetic regimen.
  By this  admirable  care and unwearied watchful-
ness on the part of Cook and his officers, the Reso-
lution performed a voyage of three years and eigh-
teen days, through all climates, from 52° north to 71°
south, with the loss of only one man by disease out
of  112!  And in his last voyage, so  efficaciously 
   RESULTS  IN  THE  NORTHERN EXPEDITIONS. 275

 were the same  means  put  in practice, that his ship
 was brought home, after an absence of  four years,
 without the loss of a single man by disease !
   Similar results  were obtained by the able com-
 manders of our more recent expeditions  to  the
 Northern Regions.  The Fury and Hecla were, at
 one time, no less  than twenty-seven months entirely
 dependent on their own resources, before scurvy began
 to  make  its appearance;  and at  the end of  28£
 months, both ships returned home (in  September,
 1823) .with  the loss of only five  men,—a  result
 which, a century ago,  could hardly have occurred,
 and.which, even at  the present day, is a remark-
 able indication of the  talent and humanity of  the
 officers by whom it was effected.
   Nothing, in fact, could have been better  devised
 than the means practised  in these expeditions to
 preserve the health of the people ; and did my limits
 permit it, I might  illustrate almost  every principle
 in this volume  by a  reference to its actual efficacy
 as displayed in these voyages.  Not only were  the
 conditions of health attended to as  regarded  the
 skin, the  muscles, the bones, the  lungs, and  the
 digestive organs; but the health of the all-import-
 ant nervous system was sedulously provided for by
 the constant and cheerful occupation  of the people
 in  their  various duties and amusements; and so
 judiciously were these  planned, that a spirit of  life
 and activity extremely favourable to the preserva-
 tion of health was constantly kept  up, and  had, no
doubt,  great influence  in producing  that concord
 and unity of feeling among  them  which were so
conspicuous amid all their privations.
  In looking forward to a still greater diminution of
disease in the human  family, it is  cheering to  fix
attention to what has  been thus  already  accom-
plished by  the  hand of authority.   Had the  same
individuals who circumnavigated  the globe with
Cook, or braved the northern winters  with Ross 
276    DISEASE IN CHANNEL FLEET FROM

and Parry, been left for the  same number of years
to undergo the ordinary vicissitudes of life at home,
unrestrained in their  inclinations and conduct by
the  constantly  operating and beneficent influence
of a superior mind, it  is morally certain that dis-
ease and death would have made  greater havoc
among them than actually occurred amid physical
privations and sufferings much greater  than they
were likely to have  encountered at  home.  Hence
the  obvious and pressing necessity which exists of
diffusing widely among society that species of know-
ledge which has proved beneficial in the hands of
those who are fortunate enough to  possess it.  If
human health and happiness  maybe  thus effectually
promoted by increased attention to  the conditions
which  regulate the vital and animal functions, no-
thing can be  more useful than to communicate to
every  intelligent  being such a measure of know-
ledge as will enable him  to do that for his  own
safety and improvement which  government  now
does for those whose services it requires.
  With these successful  and cheering  results of
knowledge, it will  be instructive to  contrast the
fatal influence of ignorance  in a situation where
knowledge might  have been effectual in preserving
life and sparing suffering.  I shall take the example
from  an early work of Dr. James  Johnson,* who
has devoted much attention to the subject of health
and the causes by which it is  affected, and whose
work contains much valuable matter connected with
hygiene, as well as with the  history  and cure of dis-
ease.  In treating of exercise,  and  the evils  of its
excess. Dr. Johnson says, " I shall exemplify this
reasoning by an instructive lesson.  During the late
war, it was observed, that in its earlier periods fever,
fluxes, and scurvy made the  greatest havoc ; while,
in its  middle  and ulterior periods, these diseases
  *  On the Influence of the Atmosphere on the Health and
Functions of the Human Frame, &c.  8vo, 2d edition, p. 19&, 
        IGNORANCE  OF THE HUMAN BODV.    277

almost  disappeared, and pneumonia (inflammation
of the lungs),  with its too frequent  consequence,
phthisis, became infinitely more prevalent and fatal.
The facts were apparent to all, but the  causes few
could divine.   Some of our chymical wiseacres at-
tributed the  pneumonic diathesis to the lime-juice
served out; but this hypothesis need not detain us,
for I think a more rational explanation can be offered.
As the  period  of warfare  was lengthened out, dis-
cipline gradually became more perfect, and, at length,
attained its acme.  Every evolution was now per-
formed  with a rapidity and precision that seemed
the effect almost of magic.  All machinery and ap-
paratus were not only so arranged as to give human
power its greatest force and facility of application,
but human strength was put to its ultimatum of ex-
ertion, and every muscular fibre of the frame called
into furious action, during each manoeuvre of navi-
gation or war.  Thus, in exercising great guns, the
heaviest pieces of artillery were made to fly out and
in, or wheel round, with almost the  celerity of a
musket in the hands of a fugleman.  The most pon-
derous anchors were  torn  from their  beds with
astonishing velocity ; while the men were often seen
lying about the decks breathless and exhausted after
such ultra-human exertions!"
  " But reefing and furling sails were still worse.
Here, as in all other operations, there was a constant
struggle against time.  The instant that the word
"aloft" was given, the men flew up the shrouds with
such agility,  that,  by the time they were on the
yards, the respirations were nearer fifty than fifteen
in a minute!  In this state  of anhelation they bent
across the yards, and exerted every atom of mus-
cular energy  in dragging up the sails  and  securing
the reef-lines, while the thorax was  strained and
compressed up  against the unyielding wood! What
were the  consequences ?   The air-cells were fre-
quently torn; blood extravasated; and the origins 
278    DIMINISHED MORTALITY FROM THE

of cough and hemoptoes continually laid. The lungs
were  now in a proper state  for receiving the im-
pression  of aerial vicissitudes ; and constant ex-
posure to night air, to rain, and every inclemency
of the season, soon evolved the long black catalogue
of pulmonic and phthisical maladies, which swept 'off
our men in vast numbers, to the no small surprise of the
officers, who could  not divine the cause  of this new and
destructive enemy.
  "But it was not the lungs alone that  suffered
here.   The central organ of circulation bore a part
of the onus, and a host of anomalous  and otherwise
inexplicable symptoms were produced, which com-
pletely puzzled the  naval  practitioners, who rarely
suspected any  lesion  of  the heart.  These  last
affections both aggravated, and were in their turn
aggravated by, the  depressing passions engendered
during the long confinement on ship-board  and sepa-
ration from friends and native home."
  I need  hardly stop to point out to what extent the
fatal results above mentioned might have been pre-
vented, had the officers been possessed even of a
superficial acquaintance with the laws of respiration
and of muscular action.  A perusal of the chapters
on these subjects will enable the reader  to  judge
for himself, and to determine whether the cause of
the destruction was really difficult to be  divined.
Dr. Johnson, it may be mentioned, has  the Channel
and North Sea  fleets chiefly  in view in his re-
marks.
  Increased  attention to the  organic  laws  has
greatly reduced  the  annual rate of mortality in
Europe,  even within the last  forty years, and  it
cannot be supposed that farther improvement is im-
practicable.  Dr.  Hawkins, in his Medical Statistics,
states, that in 1780 the annual mortality in England
and Wales was 1 in 40;  in  1790 it was 1  in 45; in
1801 it was 1 in 47 ; in 1811, 1 in 50 ; and  in 1821 it
had sunk so low as 1 in 58.  In cities, the diminution 
            PROGRESS  OF KNOWLEDGE.       279

is still more remarkable.  In London, 80 years ago,
the annual mortality was 1  in 20;  it is now as 1 in
40.  In Manchester, Glasgow, and other  places, a
similar improvement has taken place;  but, in some
instances, the decrement in the rate  of mortality
has been so much exaggerated that  the deaths  are
stated at only 1 in 71—a proportion which is alto-
gether incredible as occurring in any community.
   In France, the average mortality is 1 in 40; in
Austria,  1  in 38;  in Russia,  1 in 41; and in  the
United States, 1 in 40; whereas it  is rated by Hum-
boldt as 1 in 30 in South America.  In Paris  it is
rated  1 in 3-2.
   From the greater accuracy with  which statistical
returns are  obtained and preserved  in France and
on the Continent, and the inadequate means which
we have in this country of procuring correct tables,
as well as the great disparity between the results
obtained  here and abroad, there is every reason to
suspect, that in England, sources of error have been
overlooked, and that  the rates are consequently too
favourable.  It is difficult to believe, for example,
that with us the  rate of mortality should be so low
as 1 in 58;  when in France, Russia, and Austria it
is ascertained to be so high as 1 in  40, 1 in  41, and 1
in 38.  Still, however, the returns,  such as  they are,
show  a manifest improvement in  the value of life
within the last forty years, which  can be  ascribed
only to a greater degree of comfort among the
people, and  a more  skilful treatment of their dis-
eases.
  The principle which I am advocating is established
even by many of the continental returns, which are
more  trust-worthy than our own.   In  France, the
annual deaths in 1781 were 1 in 29; in 1802, 1 in 30;
and in 1823, 1 in 40; and in  Paris the mortality has
diminished,  in seventy years, from  1 in 25 to 1 in
32 ; so that, though we neglect  altogether the more
than doubtful statements as to Manchester and other 
280     COMPARATIVE HEALTH IN THH

places, with an annual mortality of only 1 in 60 or
70, evidence enough exists to prove the proposition
that health is intimately connected with, and de-
pendent on, man's own conduct; and that when the
conditions of health  shall be better understood, we
may reasonably look forward to still brighter re-
sults.
  It was very common at one time to  eulogize the
simple food and hardy habits of the poor and labour-
ing classes as eminently conducive to health, when
contrasted with the debilitating effects of the cares
and luxuries of the rich.  Experience unfortunately
reverses the picture, and shows, by arithmetical
arguments, that the excess of work and the priva-
tions to which the poor are habitually exposed,  pro-
duce a much higher rate of mortality among them,
especially in seasons  of scarcity or commercial de-
pression, than among the  richer classes of society ;
and the same thing is  farther proved by the fact, that
in the army and navy the  officers almost invariably
suffer less than  the men  from changes of climate,
and  from the fatigues and calamities of war.  In
France,  the  mortality among  the infants of the
poorer classes is said to  be  nearly double that oc-
curring among those in more affluent circumstances;
while, in the wealthier departments, the average of
life is twelve  years greater than in those which are
poor. In London, according to Dr. Granville's tables,
only 542 infants out of every 1000 births among the
poor survive their second year; and in Paris, also,
the mortality in the quarter inhabited by the work-
ing  classes  is  nearly double  that which occurs
among the more wealthy.
  If, as seems to be the case, a corresponding dis-
proportion occur between the rates of mortality in
the different classes of society in Great Britain, it sug-
gests some most important considerations, the'first of
which is the simple question, Whether that condition
of the lower orders  can  be  regarded as eminently 
         DIFFERENT CLASSES OF SOCIETY.     281

 prosperous or natural, which subjects them to  be
 cut off by death so many  years before the term
 allotted to those by whom  they are employed 1  It
 also illustrates,  strikingly, what I have said about
 bad health being more frequently the result of grad-
 ual causes long in unperceived operation, than  of any
 sudden or accidental exposure; and proves that a
 mode Of life or degree of labour is not to be rashly
 pronounced harmless, merely because its injurious
 effects are not immediately seen, and because years
 may elapse  before it breaks down the constitution.
 It is blindness to the perception of  this principle
 which still misleads mankind, and renders them  in-
 sensible to the agency of numerous hurtful influences
 from which, by a little  exertion,  they might easily
 be relieved.
   Much angry discussion lately took place as to the
 reality  of the mischief inflicted by the long hours
 and unremitting exertion required in  our factories
 and  spinning-mills, where  an unerring test might
 easily  have been found.  If those  who contended
 that the hours of labour were not too long, either
 for the  children or adults, could have produced evi-
 dence to show that, among operatives, the  average
 of life  was  equally high as' among the apparently
 more favoured classes, there would have been, at
 once and  for ever, an  end of the  argument; while,
 had the result proved different, the system of labour
 might justly have been deemed oppressive in the
' precise ratio in which the mortality among the ope-
 ratives  exceeded that among their wealthier coun-
 trymen.  No criterion could be so  infallible as the
 one  now proposed; and if government, possessed
 the means of obtaining accurate returns, it seems to
 me that the expense of procuring them would  be
 well bestowed, as, whatever might  be the result, it
 could not fail to produce greater harmony of views
 and  purpose than now unhappily prevails between
 the different classes of society.
                         Aa2 
282  GOOD DONE BY APPREHENSION OF CHOLERA.

  Every thing which tends strongly to call atten-
tion  to the conditions which influence  public and
individual  health is  calculated to do great good  to
the community.   In this point of view I am dis-
 Sosed to consider the visitation of cholera to the
 iritish Isles rather  as one  of those remarkable in-
stances  in which a beneficent  Providence  brings
good out of evil,  and converts an apparent calamity
into a positive blessing, than as the public scourge
which it has been generally proclaimed.  True it
is, that many individuals have perished, and others
suffered by it in their affections,  and in their worldly
circumstances ; but I question if anjr thing short of
the dread  which  cholera produced, could have com-
bined all classes  so efficiently and ardently in their
efforts to  discover and  remove every thing in the
condition  of the  poor and labouring portions of the
community, which could prove detrimental to health.
In the season of  apparent danger, the importance  of
cleanliness, ventilation, warmth, clothing, and nour-
ishment as preservatives of health, not only became
manifest to minds on which nothing else could have
made an impression, but their experienced efficacy
gave an impetus  to the exertions of the lower orders
in their  own behalf, which  will continue to be pro-
ductive of good,  long after  the cause from which it
sprung shall be forgotten.
  The  comparative  exemption of  the  wealthier
classes from cholera is itself sufficient to show how
much it is in the power of man, by the proper exer-
cise  of reason in the application of  his knowledge,
to obviate the dangers to which his health is ex-
posed ; how closely his bodily welfare is dependent
on his own conduct and external situation; and how
very little, comparatively, it is the result of circum-
stances which he cannot  control or  modify.  In
fact, every one  who  has investigated the subject
with attention will readily  testify, that, but for the
establishment of soup-kitchens, the supplies of warm 
INFLUENCE OF HABIT.
283
clothing, and the whitewashing, cleaning, and ven-
tilating of the houses of the poor classes, before and
during the epidemic, a much greater number would
have fallen victims to its ravages.  And it is conso-
ling to know, that even those who regard such visi-
tations as direct inflictions of a vengeful Providence,
and as nowise connected with mere neglect of the
laws of  health, were, nevertheless, not the least
active in enforcing and superintending the removal
of every external cause  of disease, and promoting
the comforts and supplying the wants of the needy
and destitute ; so that, whatever differences in mere
belief there  might be, all parties were content to act
as if the Creator had intended the health of the
race to depend,  in a very high degree, on the care
which was taken to fulfil the conditions which he
has decreed to  be essential  to  the due action and
preservation of the various bodily organs.
  Many individuals exist who, from hereditary de-
ficiencies, can scarcely attain tolerable health, even
with the best care ;  and  many more are to  be met
with, who are exposed to bad health from the hurt-
ful nature of the professions  in which they are en-
gaged.   Many suffer, also, from vicissitudes of wea-
ther and other causes, which we may never be able
entirely to guard against; but all  these united are
few, when compared to the number of those whose
health is ruined by  causes capable of  removal or
of modification,  and to which they are now exposed
from ignorance of their nature, from apathy, or from
the want of the comforts and necessaries  of life.
If I have succeeded in calling attention to this im-
 Sortant truth, the great  object of these pages will
 e accomplished; and  I  cannot  help  repeating the
remark already made more than once, that health is
more frequently undermined by the  gradual operation
of constant  though unperceived causes, than  by  any
great and marked exposures of an accidental kind, and
Is, consequently, more effectually to be preserved 
284
INFLUENCE OF  HABIT.
by a judicious and steady observance of the organic
laws  in daily life, than by exclusive  attention to
any particular  function to  the neglect of all  the
rest.
  It may be  said that  I  allow nothing for the in-
fluence of habit in rendering situations and  causes
comparatively innocuous, which were at first dan-
gerous.  It is quite true that the human constitution
possesses a power of adapting itself, within certain
limits, to a change of circumstances; but it is  not
less true,  that sudden  and  extreme changes often
destroy health and life  before the  system can adapt
itself  to the  exigency, and that  after making  the
most ample allowance for this source of safety, the
protection which it affords against the active causes
of disease is  comparatively trifling.
  Where the change is sudden, as in passing from
a temperate to a tropical climate, or even from very
fine to very inconstant weather, the consequences to
health are well known  to be highly injurious.   But
where it is gradual and not  extreme in degree, as in
passing from  winter to  summer, health is not much
endangered, because the system has time to accom-
modate itself to its  new circumstances.   Different
organs predominate in  activity in  different climates
and seasons,  and time  is thus required to admit of
the requisite  changes taking place, without disturb-
ing the general balance of the circulation.  In hot
countries, for example, the skin predominates greatly
in activity in comparison with the kidneys ; whereas,
in a cold country the case is precisely reversed.   If,
therefore, a sudden transition be made from the one
to the other without  due  preparation,  the rapid
change in the distribution of the blood from the sur-
face to the internal organs, or from the latter to the
surface, consequent on such change, is likely to be
attended with danger; although  the same change
gradually effected would be unattended with anv in-
jurious results. 
INFLUENCE OF  HABIT.
285
  If, again, the change be from a healthy situation
to one only a little less favourable, the consequences
to the system will be also  gradual and progressive.
No immediate injury to health  may be  apparent,
and the body may be said  to adapt itself to the cir-
cumstances, but, in reality, health will be lowered in
tone, and life  shortened, in exact proportion  to the
amount of the injurious  exposure, and the state of
the system at the time.   Individuals of a peculiar
constitution may live long, but the average of health
and life will  be  positively lowered,—a fact  which
shows that the apparent exception is more a fallacy
than  a reality, and that, cateris paribus, the  highest
health and greatest vigour will always be on the side of
those who make the nearest approach to the fulfilment of
the organic laws.
  It is, therefore, a glaring perversion of logic and
reason to infer  that  we may  safely rest satisfied
with a limited portion of evil, on the plea that the
constitution will adapt itself to its presence.  The
argument ought to be turned in exactly the opposite
direction.  If the constitution possesses this power
of adaptation to the  extent  supposed, it becomes
doubly incumbent on us to have it always surrounded
with beneficial influences, seeing that, when the laws
of health shall be fulfilled, the same tendency to
adaptation will then  operate with equal force in
permanently   ameliorating  the  constitution.   In
every point of view it is, therefore, an object of
much consequence  to  us to  become  acquainted
with and to obey  all the laws which regulate the
functions of the human body.
  It  would be easy, were it consistent  with the
limits and purpose of the present volume, to show
that  although great  advances have been  made of
late years, both in physiological knowledge  and in
its applications to the advancement of human hap-
piness, many of the  usages current  in society, and
many of the practices resorted to in education, are 
 286       NEGLECT  OF ORGANIC LAWS

 still far from being in harmony with the laws of the
 human constitution,  and that  much  good may be
 done by diffusing among the reflecting portion of
 mankind more accurate notions of the structure and
 uses  of the  various  bodily organs, and of the con-
 ditions required for their healthy action.  Illustra-
 tions in proof of this position,  drawn from individ-
 ual cases, may be cavilled at as incomplete, or re-
 garded as accidental coincidences;  but when the
 principle is exhibited in active operation on a large
 scale, minor  qualifications fall into the shade, and
 leave the evidence absolutely unassailable.  On this
 account I prefer selecting an example from the rec-
 ords  of the army, both as being  striking in its fea-
 tures, and as being one in which the public interest
 is deeply involved.
   A few years  ago, young growing lads were uni-
 formly selected  for the army in preference to men
 of a mature  age, on  the supposition  that, because
 their  habits were not formed,  they could be  more
 easily converted into good soldiers than if taken a
 few years later.  Many officers still  entertain and
 act on this opinion, and  the period at which, by law,
 liability to military service commences in this coun-
 try, remains fixed at eighteen years of age, although
 it has been raised to twenty by most of the conti-
 nental governments.
   Examined  physiologically, the  practice of enlist-
ing juvenile  recruits seems peculiarly  irrational.
 During  growth, the  conditions  required  for the
 healthy development of the body are,  moderate and
 regular exercise, plenty of nourishing food,  abun-
 dance of sleep, and a cheerful state  of mind.  In
 making the transition from boyhood to maturity, the
 equilibrium of action between the different part's of
 the system is so much disturbed, that, even under
the most favourable circumstances, an unusual sus-
 ceptibility of disease  prevails,  which renders that
period of life particularly dangerous.   By consult- 
IN SELECTING RECRUITS.         287
 ing the statistical tables prepared by Mr. Finlayson,
 it will be seen, that in all classes of society, the rate
 of mortality suddenly increases from the age of four-
 teen, when rapid growth may be said to commence,
 to that of twenty-three, when it is nearly completed.
 In Paris, for example, the tables  for the year 1820
 exhibit only 395 deaths as  occurring between the
 ages  of 10 and 15; whereas those between 15 and
 20 amount to no  less than 703, being nearly double ;
 while in the five years immediately subsequent they
 rise to 1339, and afterward begin again to decrease.
   Viewing these results in connexion with the laws
 of the animal  economy, and bearing in  mind that,
 even  in peace, military service implies broken sleep,
 separation from friends, and occasional exposure to
 fatigue and privation, we must consider it almost
 self-evident, that an army composed of young lads
 belonging to this hazardous  period of life must  be
 sickly and inefficient, and that a large portion of the
 expense and trouble bestowed in enlisting and train-
 ing them must be entirely thrown away.   That such
 is actually the  fact has unfortunately been  proved
 too often by fatal experience.  Mr. Marshall, Dep-
 uty Inspector  of Hospitals, in his late excellent
 work " On the Enlisting,  the  Discharging,  and the
 Pensioning  of Soldiers," adduces an irresistible mass
 of evidence to show, that till the growth  is com-
 pleted, it is impossible to form any correct estimate
 of the probable efficiency of a recruit, as numbers
 of apparently promising young men are cut off by
 affections of the chest, and other acute diseases, be-
fore attaining maturity, and before being exposed to
any unusual privations or fatigue.   So literally ac-
 curate is this statement, that  Coche, a high French
 authority quoted by  Mr.  Marshall, mentions dis-
tinctly, that even in time  of peace, when no great
hardships are to be encountered, volunteers received
 into the army at the age of eighteen or twenty pass
 two, three, or four years of their-period  of service 
288       NEGLECT OF ORGANIC  LAWS

(eight years) in hospital, solely from inability to bear
up under difficulties which scarcely affect those who
are a few years older.
  If such be the result  during peace, I need hardly
say, that in  time of war the practice of enlisting
very young men is  not less fatal  to  the individual
than costly to the country.  It appears, accordingly,
that in the army in Spain, sickness and inefficiency
prevailed almost in proportion to  the youth and re-
cent arrival of  the soldiers.  Sir  James Macgrigor
cites the 7th regiment  as  an illustration, and adds,
that between 9th August, 1811, and 20th May, 1812, it
lost 246 men, of whom 169 were recruits landed in
the preceding June ; while only 77  were old soldiers.
The original number of this detachment of recruits
was 353, so that more  than one-half died within the
first eleven months.  The total number of old soldiers,
on the other hand, was 1143, and of them only 77
perished in the same time !   So convinced, indeed,
is Sir James of growing " lads being unequal to the
harassing duties of the service," that in making cal-
culations for measures in the field, he thinks  that
300 men who had served five years  would be found
more effective  than 1000 newly arrived, not simply
from their greater experience, but chiefly from the
additional stamina proceeding from  maturity.*
   In a note  subjoined  to the preceding opinion of
Sir James  Macgrigor,  Mr. Marshall says, " numer-
ous examples might be quoted to show that young
lads are much less able to endure  the fatigue of
marching than men a little more  advanced in life.
During the winter of 1805, a French army, which
was stationed on the coast in the  neighbourhood of
Boulogne,  marched about  400  leagues  to join the
grand army before the battle  of Austerlitz, which  it
effected without leaving almost any sick in the hospitals
on the route.  The men of this army had served two
» Marshall, lib. cif., p. 5. 
IN SELECTING RECRUITS.         289
years, and were not under twenty-two years of age.
The result of the march of this army may be com-
pared with that of  another under  different circum-
stances.  In the campaign of the  summer of 1809,
the  troops  cantoned in  the  north  of  Germany
marched to Vienna, but by the time they arrived at
the place of their destination, all the hospitals on the
road were filled with sick.  More  than one-half of the
men composing this army were under twenty years
of age, the usual levy of conscripts having been an-
ticipated.  After the battle  of Leipsic, Napoleon
made great exertions to recruit his army, and called
upon the legislative senate to give him their assist-
ance,  to  which  they  showed  some  reluctance.
' Shame on you !' cried the emperor * * *, ' I demand
a levy of 300,000 men,  but i" must  have  grown  men,
BOYS  SERVE ONLY TO  ENCUMBER THE HOSPITALS AND
ROAD-SIDES.' "
  In similar defiance of the laws of physiology, half-
grown lads were at one  time  preferred for the East
India service, on the false supposition that their un-
consolidated constitutions would more easily adapt
themselves to the climate than those of men already
arrived at maturity,—a  proposition  very nearly
equivalent to saying, that because a  person is al-
ready enfeebled, exposure to  the causes of disease
will therefore have less effect oh him than after his
strength shall be restored!   Palpably fallacious  as
this kind of logic now appears to be, it nevertheless
reigned for years with undisputed sway, and it was
only in  September, 1829, that an order  was issued
from the Horse Guards that no recruits under twenty
should be received for regiments serving in tropical
climates; and so late as  the year 1826, nearly  15
per cent, of the king's troops in Bengal were under
that age.
  In touching upon this  question also, Mr. Marshall
supports his  positions by a reference to facts of a
very conclusive kind, and to authors whose opinions 
290       NEGLECT  OF ORGANIC  LAWS

ought to have great weight.  Among other evidence,
he  quotes  the  register of a regiment employed  in
the Burmese territory in  1824-5,  from which "it
appears that, in 1824, the  ratio of mortality among
the young men who went out with  the  corps was
38  per  cent., or 1 in every  2i;  while, among the
volunteers who were considerably older, the  mor-
tality was  17 per cent., or only 1  in  6.  In  1825, it
was 30.5 per cent., or 1 in 3i, among the younger
class, and only 6 percent., or 1 in 16, among the older."
—(p. 10.)*
  Some other  instances  might be quoted in proof
of  the  greatest mortality being always among the
youngest men;  and  I might  refer  to a regiment
mentioned by  Dr. Davies, in which, when it was
sent out to Bombay in 1808, there was not a single
private above 22 years of age, and in which, out  of
550 men,  nearly  300 required  medical  assistance
within  six weeks after he joined it;  but it is un-
necessary, as, although individual officers still prefer
young men,  government is at last awakened to their
unfitness.   A  vague  opinion  that  growing  lads  do
not bear  fatigue is  indeed prevalent enough; but I
venture to say, that  if those by whom  the age  of
enlistment was first determined had been thoroughly
acquainted with the  laws of physiology, and had
possessed a clear perception of  the conditions  of

  * In availing myself of Mr. Marshall's labours, I may be allowed
to express my opinion of the benefit he is  conferring by his  sta-
tistical researches, not  only on the service with which he  has
been so long and honourably connected, but also on the public
at large.  There  are many practical questions deeply concern-
ing public health, which can  only be fully elucidated by such
masses of facts being grouped together as shall destroy all minor
inequalities, and  place the operation of principles prominently
in view.  But to effect this object with due regard to accuracy
requires an  acquaintance with details, an acuteness of observa-
tion, and a power of successful generalization, which are rarely
found in combination with adequate zeal and industry.  It would
 be very useful if similar researches were instituted in regard to
 the occurrences in our public hospitals. 
             IN  SELECTING RECRUITS.         291

healthy growth, the practice of receiving recruits
at 17 or 18 years of age would never have been
sanctioned, and the country would have been saved
the pain and  the expense of sending thousands of
young men  to " encumber the  hospitals and the
road-sides" of the  Peninsula, or to perish under the
exhausting influence of a tropical climate.
  I have dwelt at some length on this subject, both
because the practice which I  condemn was lately
in full operation, and is  even  yet  not  entirely ex-
ploded, and  because, from the magnitude of its re-
sults, and the clearness with which they  can be
traced to a direct violation of  a natural law of the
constitution, it affords an instructive example of the
evils arising  from  ignorance  of  the structure and
functions of the  human  body, and of the aid which
might be derived from a general  acquaintance with
physiology in preserving health,  and promoting the
happiness of the  race.
  It was my intention to analyze, in the same way,
various othet practices  in which public or private
health is concerned, and  to offer some  suggestions
for improving the treatment of the insane, by a more
extensive observation of the conditions  required for
the healthy exercise of the mental functions ; but I
have  already so  far exceeded the  limits originally
proposed, that I must now draw to a conclusion, and
judge, by the reception of the present volume, how
far I am right in believing that information  of the
kind now communicated will be acceptable or use-
ful to the public.
THE END. 
1 
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