' 
 
 SEVEN LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
 
 BY C. W. GLEASON, M.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OP THE INSTITUTES OP MEDICINE AND SURGERY, ETC. 
 
 
 ; The first Physicians by debauch were made, 
 Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade : 
 By toil, our long-lived fathers earned their bread 
 Toil strung their nerves and purified their blood ; 
 But we, their sons, a pampered race of men, 
 Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten. 
 Better to hunt in fields for health unbought, 
 Than fee the doctors for a nauseous draught ; 
 The wife for health on exercise depend 
 God never made his works for man to mend." 
 
 DR. FRANKLIN. 
 
 Ddtomfc at tfje <&fo ^tedjaiKto' Stttfttttt in Gtaiftftail 
 
 AND 
 
 REPORTED BY E. P. STONE, 
 
 PHONOGRAPHER. 
 
 COLUMBUS: 
 PRINTED BY SCOTT & BASGOM. 
 
 1852. 
 
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1852. 
 
 BY E. P. STONE, 
 IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF OHIO. 
 
 

 / 
 
 TO 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE FEMALE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 AS A SLIGHT TESTIMONIAL OF REGARD 
 
 FOR HIS MANY VIRTUES 
 
 AND LONG CONTINUED EFFORTS TO AMELIORATE AND IMPROVE THE 
 CONDITION OF THE UNFORTUNATE AND FRIENDLESS, 
 
 ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 
 HIS FRIEND, 
 
 

LECTURE I, 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 rNnei SEATTON Know Thyself was inscribed upon 
 the oracle at Delphos by the ancient Sages and Phi- 
 losophers, for, adds the modern poet, " the proper study 
 of mankind is man." There is no object, Ladies and 
 Gentlemen, in a material point of view, which is more 
 worthy of our study and investigation than the struc- 
 ture, form and functions of the various organs of the 
 human body. The study of this wonderful system is 
 not only important, but it is intensely interesting ; for 
 as we advance in its investigation, we shall not fail to 
 observe that man is indeed fearfully and most wonder- 
 fully made ! 
 
 In view of the very great interest and immense 
 importance of the subject, is it not strange that its 
 investigation has so long been neglected by the great 
 mass of our fellow men I Go where you will into our 
 various institutions of learning, and you will there find 
 the pupils engaged in studies of comparatively little 
 importance, while that great and beautiful science 
 which teaches us the nature of ourselves, and our re- 
 lations to the external universe and the perfect system 
 of laws which govern it, is passed by unheeded ! 
 
LECTUEES ON THE 
 
 There are few objects, indeed, with which we are 
 less acquainted than with our own natures, and yet we 
 are continually acting as though we were acquainted 
 with ourselves, our capacities, our wants, and the means 
 of improving our moral, physical and intellectual con- 
 dition. Is it, then, possible for the blacksmith to mend 
 a watch, the machinery of which he is entirely unac- 
 quainted with, or for the statesman and philanthropist 
 to improve the moral, physical and intellectual condition 
 of mankind, without first rendering themselves per- 
 fectly familiar with the nature of that beautiful organ- 
 ization which enters into the formation of man, as well 
 as the laws which regulate its development and main- 
 tain its healthy action down to the latest period of time 
 which is assigned to man ? 
 
 If we turn our attention, my friends, to the consid- 
 eration of the various objects in the material universe 
 which pass in review before us, we shall be struck with 
 the wonderful order which is displayed in their devel- 
 opments, evincing design in their most beautiful adapta- 
 tion of means to ends, and showing the necessity of a 
 great superior and controlling Intelligence in their for- 
 mation. The movements of all these various objects/ 
 in the animate and inanimate worlds, are governed by 
 fixed and unchangeable laws, which were instituted by 
 the Creator for the preservation of the beauties and 
 harmony of nature. 
 
 The laws by which the winds blow, by which the tides 
 of the ocean measure with inimitable exactness the hours 
 of ever-flowing time the laws by which the planets 
 roll, and the sun vivifies plants the laws which pre- 
 side over the subtle combinations of chemistry, and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 9 
 
 which measure the amazing velocities of light and 
 electricity the laws which regulate the productions 
 of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, are all radiant 
 with eternal beauty ; and their contemplation fills us 
 with awe and admiration, as we behold, reflected in 
 their sublimity and grandeur, the wisdom and the power 
 of their Creator ! (Applause.) 
 
 " The inanimate worlds move and gravitate, and are 
 chemically changed from form to form. The animate 
 worlds live and reproduce their kind, and die, in obedi- 
 ence to fixed and unchangeable laws. These laws the 
 intellect of man can discover and understand, and thus 
 render his dominion coextensive with his knowledge. 
 So far as we understand the laws of nature, we can 
 bring all substances governed by them beneath their 
 action, and thus produce the results which we desire. 
 So far as we understand the Creator's laws, he invests 
 us with his power. When knowledge enables us to 
 speak as with the flaming tongue of lightning across a 
 continent, is it not the same as though we had power 
 to call down the swiftest angel from heaven and send 
 him abroad as the messenger of our thoughts ? When 
 a knowledge of the sciences of astronomy and naviga- 
 tion enables us to leave any port we please on this side 
 of the globe, and thread our labyrinthine way, among 
 contrary winds, and through the currents and counter- 
 currents of the ocean, and enter any port we please on 
 the opposite side of the globe, is it not the same as 
 though the Creator, for this purpose, had endowed 
 us with his all-seeing vision and enabled us to look 
 through clouds and darkness around the convex earth?" 
 
 To man was given dominion over the earth, and in 
 
10 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 it he discovers a vast and perfect apparatus, adapted 
 and designed to minister to his enjoyment and to ag- 
 grandize his power. The globe, with all of its dynamic 
 energies, its mineral treasures, its vegetable powers, its 
 life and action, is only a grand and divinely wrought 
 machine placed in his hands, and on the condition of 
 knowledge he may wield and use it as the artizan uses 
 his instruments and appliances. Knowledge inaugu- 
 rates us into the office of superintendent and director 
 of the elements and all of their powers. By means of 
 knowledge they may all be made ministering servants 
 to our pleasures and our profit ! 
 
 Such, my friends, is the true, philosophic relation 
 in which we stand to this earth to the perfect 
 system of laws which govern it, and to the mighty 
 and exhaustless energies with which its frame, and 
 every organ of its frame, is filled. Gravitation, repul- 
 sion, caloric, magnetism, air, water, light, lightning: 
 by means of knowledge we can control their powers 
 and render them ministering angels to our profit and 
 our pleasure. 
 
 The health and welfare of mankind also depend, to 
 a considerable extent, upon a knowledge of and obedi- 
 ence to the physical laws. If man violates the law of 
 gravitation, and leaps from the brink of the precipice 
 into the abyss, he is dashed in pieces upon the rocks 
 beneath, as a punishment for his temerity. If he thrusts 
 his hand into the boiling water, in violation of the laws 
 of heat, he burns and destroys his own beautiful organ- 
 ization. If he leaps from the deck of the vessel into 
 the ocean, he is drowned ; and if he violates the laws 
 which govern the movements of electricity, and neg- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 11 
 
 lects to rear the lightning rod upon his dwelling, the 
 subtle fluid descends, and he falls a victim to his own 
 ignorance and folly. The intelligent mechanic con- 
 structs his beautiful steam engine in accordance with 
 these principles ; every part is designed with a particu- 
 lar object in view, and is destined to occupy a particu- 
 lar place in the machine, and to move in accordance 
 v?\\h fixed laws. When directed by knowledge, it flies 
 along the iron rail with the speed of lightning, and the 
 power of steam. But when directed by ignorance 
 and presumption, it hurls its unworthy superintendent 
 to destruction ! (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 The constitution of the human being is composed of 
 a great number of organs, which were constructed upon 
 the most beautiful, chemical, mechanical, and dynamic 
 principles, and is governed by a system of organic laws^ 
 upon the proper observation of which, the health of 
 mankind depends. If we do not understand and obey 
 the organic laws which regulate the healthy action of 
 the nutritive system, we shall soon find disease mani- 
 festing itself in the stomach, the liver, or the intestinal 
 canal, as a penalty which is inflicted upon us as a pun- 
 ishment for their violation ! The circulation of the 
 blood is carried on through the heart, arteries, capilla- 
 ries, and veins, and if we do not comply with those 
 laws, which regulate the healthy action of this system, 
 we shall soon labor under the influence of weakness and 
 exhaustion ! If we do not comply with the laws of 
 respiration, we shall soon labor under the influence of 
 pulmonary consumption. The same is true in refer- 
 ence to the secreting, locomotive, and nervous systems. 
 Their functions are all governed by fixed and unchange- 
 
12 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 able laws, which man, in his intelligence, is capable of 
 appreciating, comprehending, and obeying. 
 
 Not only man's physical, but also his mental and his 
 moral natures, are governed by fixed and immutable 
 laws. If we comply with the mental laws, we shall 
 thereby secure the strength and perfection of our men- 
 tal powers; and if we obey the physical, organic, men- 
 tal, and moral laws, we shall not only secure health 
 and happiness in this world, but also in that world 
 which is to come. The social relations of man in all 
 civilized society, are also regulated and governed by 
 their own system of laws. Our various legislatures 
 meet, from year to year, and enact these civil laws, and 
 at the same time attach penalties to their disobedience. 
 The civil government publishes its system of laws in 
 the various towns and counties throughout each State, 
 in order that every good citizen may become acquaint- 
 ed with their nature and penalty, as well as the neces- 
 sity of their obedience. 
 
 But the natural laws differ from the civil laws in the 
 certainty of punishment which follows the disobedi- 
 ence of the former, and the possibility of escape from 
 the violation of the latter. If it appears in the evi- 
 dence upon trial, that man violates the laws of his fel- 
 low man, ignorantly or accidentally, it is considered a 
 mitigating circumstance, and not unfrequently his 
 offence is forgiven. But the Creator is no respecter of 
 persons. His " rain falls alike upon the just and the 
 unjust." He grants no indulgence to the ignorant and 
 foolish man. We are all, indeed, punished alike for 
 the violation of the same law. If the wise man and 
 the foolish man, the vicious and the moral, commit the 
 safety of their lives to the dangers of a tempestuous 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 13 
 
 sea in an unworthy vessel, they find one common 
 grave, 
 
 " In the deep bosom of the ocean buried !" 
 (Strong sensation.) 
 
 Now, God's natural laws cannot be obeyed, unless 
 they are understood ! We send our missionaries among 
 the heathen and barbarous races, in order to make 
 known to them the glorious truths of divine revelation ! 
 We build our temples of worship and employ teachers to 
 expound the moral law, so that none may perish through 
 ignorance, but come to the knowledge of the truth 
 which is revealed to us in the Sacred Scriptures ; while 
 hundreds and thousands of human beings annually 
 perish for want of that knowledge which the Creator 
 has alone revealed to them through the study of them- 
 selves ! (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 For ages, most of our attention has been directed to 
 the improvement of man's moral nature, independent 
 of his physical organization. Now the soul cannot 
 exist in this world independent of the body, and the 
 perfect system of laws which govern it; and it is 
 equally incumbent upon us as a Christian and a moral 
 duty, to preserve the one and obey the other. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 The Bible reveals to us a most perfect system of 
 laws for man's moral government, and those laws we 
 believe to be divine, because they harmonize with 
 man's nature, capacities, and wants. But it should not 
 be forgotten that the great Creator who made the Bi- 
 ble, also made man, and the perfect system of laws 
 which regulate his physical, as well as his mental and 
 his moral nature ; a knowledge of which he has only 
 
14 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 revealed through the study of our own organization. 
 The laws of nature are indeed the laws of God, and 
 execute themselves whenever their integrity is violated 
 either voluntarily or involuntarily, through ignorant 
 presumption, or willful disobedience. Nor is there 
 any difference in the sanctity of any of His laws ; 
 since they are all of them founded in justice, they are 
 equally divine, and He expects all of his children not 
 only to obey one but all of them, and if we do not, he 
 has provided the means of punishment, in the form of 
 pain and disease in this world, and anguish and des- 
 pair in the next. 
 
 How exceedingly important, then, it is, that we 
 should understand and obey these laws ; inasmuch as 
 we cannot hope to escape the penalty which is inflicted 
 upon us as a punishment for their disobedience ! You 
 would not entrust the safety of your lives to the care 
 of an ignorant engineer to the care of one who was 
 entirely unacquainted with the nature and power of 
 the steam engine, as well as the laws which regulate 
 its action. How foolish it is, then, for man to entrust 
 his life, his health, and his happiness, to the direction 
 of his own uninformed mind, to the guidance of one 
 who is entirely unacquainted with the structure, nature 
 and power of his own physical organization, as well as 
 the laws which regulate its movements. (Great ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Not long since, I was walking through your beau- 
 tiful park, when I saw painted upon a board, attached 
 to one of the trees, "all dogs caught within this park, 
 will be shot : " says a friend of mine, " Doctor, unless 
 dogs can read, they must be in great danger here." 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 15 
 
 Now God has not only written his laws upon the trees, 
 but in the stars and flowers, and upon the constitution 
 of L in, and if the human being is not able to read 
 them, he is even in greater danger than the dog, for 
 the dog has his master to read for him ; but man has 
 no master between himself and his God ! (Sensation.) 
 " Health, strength, and longevity, depend upon 
 fixed and unchangeable laws, and not upon chance or 
 accident. There is no arbitrary interference of higher 
 powers with them. Primarily our parents, and secon- 
 darily ourselves, are responsible for our diseases, pain, 
 and suffering. The Providence of God is no more 
 responsible, because the virulence of disease rises 
 above the ordinary powers of medicine, or because one- 
 fourth part of those who are born, die before they com- 
 plete the age of one year one seventieth part of the time 
 allotted to them by the Psalmist I say the Providence 
 of God is no more responsible for these things, than it 
 is for picking pockets, or stealing horses ! " Disease 
 and pain come not by chance or accident; but are 
 rather the penalties which are inflicted upon us, as a 
 punishment for our disobedience of the organic laws, 
 which we can only become acquainted with by the 
 study of ourselves. " There is, indeed, no effect pro- 
 duced without a cause," and to admit such an unphilo- 
 sophic assertion, would sap the very foundation upon 
 which the Christian religion depends for its support. 
 
 Even the lightning does not deviate from its course, 
 but moves in accordance with fixed and unchangeable 
 laws, a knowledge of which, has enabled man to call 
 down this swiftest angel of Heaven, and send him 
 abroad, as the messenger of our thoughts ! The mut- 
 
16 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 tarings of the thunder, are no longer regarded as an 
 evidence of the wrath of an offended Deity, nor is the 
 descent of electricity, in obedience to His unchange- 
 able laws, regarded as a special dispensation of Divine 
 Providence ! Since the days of our own immortal 
 Franklin, the Creator has revealed to man His laws, 
 for the government of the wonderful movements of 
 electricity, and the means of regulating its powers, of 
 chaining the lightning and bringing it harmless from 
 the clouds ; and if man avails himself of this revela- 
 tion which has been made known to him, and rears 
 the lightning rod upon his dwelling, he secures its cer- 
 tain protection, as the reward of his fidelity to nature's 
 laws. (Great applause.) 
 
 The miserable victim of intemperance, who blunts 
 his senses, and drowns his reason in the circean cup, 
 and then exposes his constitution to the frosty ele- 
 ments on a cold and dismal winter's night, as certainly 
 violates God's organic and physical laws, and commits 
 suicide, as he who voluntarily leaps from the brink of 
 the cataract into the abyss below 1 
 
 But a few years since, and small-pox was regarded 
 as a special dispensation of Providence, but the reve- 
 lations of God, in the discoveries of modern science, 
 have disclosed to us, in the principle of vaccination, 
 the means of robbing this fearful pestilence of all its 
 terrors ! (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 Many of our diseases, it is true, are hereditary, 
 though never the result of chance or accident. Our 
 parents may indulge their passions, appetites, and pro- 
 pensities to excess, and thus produce disease, pain, 
 and suffering in themselves, and afterwards transmit 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 17 
 
 disease and debility to their unfortunate offspring. 
 Color, form, features, scrofula, consumption, gout, 
 rheumatism, idiocy and insanity, are all hereditary. 
 " The sins of the fathers are visited upon their chil- 
 dren down even unto the third and fourth generation," 
 nor human law nor human device can break the 
 entailment. " In these hereditary inflictions, nature 
 abhors alike the primogeniture laws of England and 
 the saliac laws of France. All of the sons, and all of 
 the daughters are made inheritors, not in equal pro- 
 portions, but, by a kind of malignant multiplication of 
 the disease, each inherits the whole " ! 
 
 Now what are the sins of the fathers which are thus 
 visited upon their unfortunate offspring 1 " Sin " has 
 been defined as a " violation of the laws of God ; " and 
 the " sinner " is one who lives in the daily or habitual 
 violation of the physical, organic, mental, or moral 
 laws of the Creator ! Indeed, all pain, disease, and 
 premature death, not only in this world but in that 
 which is to come, result from the violation of the Cre- 
 ator's laws ! Verily, " the wages of sin is death"! 
 
 The annals of medicine demonstrate that nearly one- 
 third part of the diseases which afflict mankind are 
 hereditary, and have been handed down from parents 
 to progeny, in consequence of their violation of the 
 organic laws ! What an interesting fact is here re- 
 vealed to the philanthropist! The thought that at 
 least one-third part of the disease and suffering of 
 those who shall live in the next century depend upon 
 our conduct in this, is well calculated to fill our minds 
 with the awful responsibility which rests upon us. 
 
 Many uninformed, but well-meaning men and wo- 
 2 
 
18 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 men, have long thought that all pain and disease were 
 providential, and designed by the Creator for the 
 improvement of man's moral nature " to wean him 
 from the cares and anxieties of the world, and to ren- 
 der him more spiritual minded." They seem to have 
 forgotten that virtue is active^ and that good health is 
 indispensable for its proper cultivation. " Good health 
 is indispensable to almost every form of human enjoy- 
 ment. It is the grand auxiliary to all usefulness ; 
 and if it is the duty of man to love the Lord his 
 God, with all his heart, and soul, and strength, how 
 much more abundantly may he do so, in the vigor of 
 health, than under the palsy of disease." It is, indeed, 
 astonishing that we have so long assented to the truth 
 of such absurd ideas as these, in view of their direct 
 tendency to immorality, in rendering mankind irre- 
 sponsible for their conduct in eating, and in drink- 
 ing, and in the proper regulation of their appetites, 
 passions, and propensities. The organic laws hold 
 mankind strictly accountable for their own habits, in 
 eating and in drinking, and in all that relates to their 
 conduct in the affairs and pursuits of life; and a 
 knowledge of these sublime truths, and their practical 
 application would prove a most powerful means for the 
 regeneration of the world ! " Verily the man who is " 
 physiologically "wicked, shall not live out half his 
 days;" nor is this the worst of his punishment, for 
 he is more than half dead while he yet lives. 
 
 An honest deacon, living in the interior of the State 
 of Pennsylvania, frequently held a discussion with a 
 professional friend of mine, belonging to the same reli- 
 gious society the deacon declaring that all pains and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 19 
 
 disease were produced by the mysterious ways of 
 Divine 1 evidence, and the doctor as sturdily declaring 
 that they were produced by mankind themselves, by 
 violating the laws of health. One evening the deacon 
 ate very heartily of buckwheat cakes and sausages, 
 and was siezed during the night with a severe fit of 
 colic. Under such circumstances, he sent for my 
 friend, the doctor, who very promptly refused to go, 
 sending him word, that if God had thought proper to 
 afflict him, providentially, with the colic, it was his 
 duty to grin and bear it, and not complain ; at all 
 events, he thought it was not his place to give medi- 
 cine that would interfere with the operations of Provi- 
 dence ! In the course of an hour or two longer, the 
 servant returned again, declaring that his master could 
 live but for a short time if he did not obtain relief 
 from some source; and the physician knowing that 
 God's laws were just and inexorable, and that he 
 would not suspend them to relieve a thousand deacons, 
 thought his brother had been punished enough for his 
 folly, and concluded to try the effect of a little medi- 
 cine. As he entered the room, he saw, at a glance, 
 the nature and cause of the difficulty, and giving him 
 a small quantity of tartar emetic, the way he put up 
 the special buckwheat cakes and sausages, was a cau- 
 tion to all of the devotees of appetite ! (Great ap- 
 plause.) The worthy deacon learned, from sad expe- 
 rience, to recognize God's laws for man's physical, as 
 well as man's moral government! 
 
 Let it never be forgotten that for every offence 
 against the laws of health, nature will bring you 
 into judgment. That however graciously God may 
 
20 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 deal with the heart of man, all experience proves that 
 he never pardons the stomach, lungs, or brain. These 
 must expiate their offences un vicariously ! The human 
 being cannot eat and drink to excess, and when at last 
 overtaken with disease, lay all the blame upon Divine 
 Providence, without the greatest blasphemy! The 
 Creator never accomplishes his purposes by the suspen- 
 sion of his own laws. If he should suspend the law 
 of gravitation, it would be attended with the destruc- 
 tion of the universe which was created and formed 
 by his own Almighty power ! Have you ever observed 
 an instance of the suspension of this law ? Did you 
 ever know the madman that leaped from the brink of 
 a cataract into the abyss, to be suspended in mid-air, 
 contrary to the law of gravitation ] Did you ever 
 know a castle to rise as if by the influence of enchant- 
 ment, in a single night, without the aid of mortal 
 hands ? Have you ever known the mountain torrent 
 to change its course and run up hill] Certainly not. 
 Such a result would reverse the order of nature, and 
 annihilate the works of God himself! During the 
 prevalence of the terrible blast, the old Greek sailor 
 called upon Neptune, saying, " Oh ! God, thou canst 
 save or thou canst destroy, nevertheless I will steer my 
 rudder true." Says Cromwell to his army, " trust in 
 Providence, and keep your powder dry." Says Napo- 
 leon, " I have always observed that Providence favors 
 the heaviest battalions." 
 
 The philanthropist who shall convince the world that 
 health, strength, and usefulness depend upon fixed and 
 unchangeable laws, and not upon chance or accident, 
 will prevent more disease, pain, and suffering, than the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 21 
 
 v 
 
 art of me ^icine has relieved since its discovery. (Strong 
 sensation v 
 
 The injurious consequences arising from the general 
 neglect to study and obey the organic laws, may be 
 seen in the frequency of premature death. How few 
 there are at the present day, who live to attain the age 
 of three score and ten, the time allotted to them by 
 the Psalmist. The statistics of our country show that 
 more than one-fourth of those born annually, die before 
 they reach the age of one year, and more than half before 
 they complete the age of ten ! 
 
 Now, surely the all-wise and benevolent Creator nev- 
 er designed that this early mortality should be the lot 
 of man ; that more than half of his children should 
 die before they come to years when they can under- 
 stand and appreciate their own immortal nature and 
 high destiny. Premature death, so far as we can 
 understand it, defeats the great object which the Crea- 
 tor had in view, at the time when he created man, and 
 endowed him with immortal faculties, and sentiments 
 to cultivate and improve in this world, as a prepara- 
 tion for that higher and nobler sphere of action here- 
 after. 
 
 If we consult the annals of medicine, we shall dis- 
 cover that the causes of the premature death of count- 
 less millions, are within the control of human agency, 
 and left in operation only in consequence of our igno- 
 rance of ourselves, and our relations, to external ob- 
 jects. 
 
 If these statements of the ancient sages and philoso- 
 phers are truths, and that they are is abundantly 
 proved from the observations of their modern disciples, 
 
22 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 how exceedingly important it is that parents should 
 understand them, inasmuch as they regulate the con- 
 duct of their offspring before they arrive at the years 
 of discretion. They must minister to the wants of their 
 bodies, they must control their action, and regulate 
 their feeble powers and budding passions and propen- 
 sities. The parents are indeed the judges of the organ- 
 ic laws, and of their obedience by their children, as 
 much as the judges of our civil courts are of the civil 
 laws, and it is equally incumbent upon them both, that 
 they should understand the laws which they would 
 execute. (Strong sensation.) 
 
 It has often been said that much of our health and 
 strength in after life depends upon the treatment which 
 we received from our parents in infancy. How shall 
 parents discharge this high and important duty to pos- 
 terity, unless they are first prepared for it by under- 
 standing something of the constitution of man, and the 
 laws which regulate its action, together with the means 
 of developing and improving his moral, physical, and 
 intellectual condition] 
 
 The celebrity of the ancient Grecians and Romans, 
 their progress in arms, arts and science, depended upon 
 a knowledge of, and obedience to these laws and condi- 
 tions. Hence their schools for physical education, 
 their gymnasia, their Olympian games, chariot races, 
 and gladiatorial contests, which " knit their limbs and 
 purified their blood." 
 
 It was these schools for physical exercise and train- 
 ing that developed and strengthened their bodies, ena- 
 bling them to subjugate the whole of the then known 
 world, and in arms, arts and the sciences to win a fame 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 23 
 
 V 
 
 that has It ng been the theme of universal admiration 
 and envy. 
 
 The sons and daughters of Columbia, who com- 
 mitted their fortunes and their hopes to the wilds of 
 America, also educated their children in this Spartan 
 school. It was their early toils and privations, their 
 constant warring with the ruthless elements and their 
 more savage foes, which developed their constitutions 
 and invigorated their bodies, enabling them to carry 
 on, to a successful issue, that great and glorious con- 
 test for the rights of man and the freedom of a nation. 
 
 If we contrast the female constitution of the present 
 day with that of the mothers of the American Revo- 
 lution, we shall observe its vast inferiority. How pale, 
 weak and effeminate how utterly incapable of per- 
 forming those high and noble duties which nature and 
 nature's God has assigned her, as the mother, the 
 teacher and the companion of man ! Go visit your 
 neighboring cemeteries and inquire who it is that fills 
 those new made graves who sleep their last sleep 
 beneath the cold and silent marble and you will 
 learn the fate of many a fond mother and her dearly be- 
 loved offspring, leaving scarcely a vestige to tell the 
 melancholy tale of their sufferings. 
 
 How few females live to attain the full period of 
 life allotted to mankind ! Is it strange that old Dr. 
 Beecher, the distinguished New England divine, when 
 surveying the contrast of the past and present gene- 
 ration of females, exclaimed to the audience of young 
 men that he was addressing, " for God's sake, young 
 men, take good care of your old women, for you will 
 have few old ones long " I (Sensation and applause.) 
 
24 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The injurious consequences which result from our 
 neglect to study and obey the natural laws of the hu- 
 man constitution, may still further be seen from the 
 fact that we are fast becoming a " nation of invalids." 
 If you will station yourselves upon the corners of the 
 streets and observe the citizens of this city as they 
 move on before you, you will be astonished when you 
 discover that at least nine out of ten labor under the in- 
 fluence of some ache or complaint which embitters 
 life, and destroys the pleasures of existence. How 
 many narrow chests and flushed countenances indicate 
 incipient pulmonary consumption! How many anx- 
 ious countenances and glazed eyes indicate nervous 
 debility and mental imbecility ! How many red noses, 
 rheumed eyes and leprous countenances indicate that 
 they have " loaned their stomach for a vintner's 
 cess pool, or yielded it to the contaminating influence 
 of the poisons of distiller or tobacconist !" How many 
 devotees of appetite and victims of gout and rheuma- 
 tism, in whose distorted joints you can almost hear the 
 crack of the cork from th,e champagne bottle as they 
 hobble on before you ! How many distorted limbs and 
 pale and sallow countenances indicate the prevalence 
 of scrofula and humeral affections, produced from long 
 confinement in impure air! 
 
 The sedentary avocations to which large numbers 
 of delicate females are confined, in the principal cities 
 of this country, occasion sad havoc in human health 
 and no small deterioration in public morals. An in- 
 calculable number of females are confined at sedentary 
 employments, in impure air, from early morning until 
 dewy eve, and, indeed, too often from dewy eve until 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 25 
 
 early morning, ngendering disease in themselves, and 
 afterwards transmitting disease and debility to their 
 unfortunate offspring. But large as is this class to 
 which I have alluded, it is as a drop of water in the 
 ocean when compared with the countless myriads of 
 both sexes and of every age, pent up in the foul atmos- 
 phere of our countless factories throughout this coun- 
 try, inhaling alike the. moral and the physical poison, 
 which corrupts the mind while it enervates the body. 
 " Can it be possible that the individual deterioration 
 thus engendered, diffused, and perpetuated, shall not, 
 in the process of time, effect the great mass of society 
 at large] Unless these causes of deterioration shall 
 be arrested by the general diffusion of physiological 
 information, I think it is far from improbable, that 
 some ten or twelve centuries hence, when New Hol- 
 land shall have become a great and powerful empire, 
 and the Indies and Islands of the Ocean a swarm of 
 independent Republics, that some contemplative phi- 
 losopher shall stand on the banks of the Potomac, as 
 Gibbon stood on the tower of the capitol at Rome, 
 musing and meditating on the decline and fall of a 
 great and glorious Republic, and on the degeneracy of 
 a free people, whose commerce, arms, and arts, and sci- 
 ences, had long been the theme of universal admiration 
 and envy !" I know not why America may hope to 
 escape the fate of Greece and Rome, and of all the 
 great nations of antiquity, unless she profits by their 
 example, and avoids the cause of their decline. 
 
 " I fear that the same contemplative philosopher, 
 when surveying the stunted forms, and pale and feeble 
 constitutions of our unfortunate manufacturing popula- 
 tion, will be led to exclaim : 
 
26 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 " ' 'Twas not the sires of such as these, 
 That dared the elements and pathless seas 
 That made proud Briton's monarchs feel, 
 How weak their gold against Columbia's steel ; 
 But beings of another mould 
 Rough, hardy, manly, bold.' " 
 
 " I know that there may be, and I believe that there 
 is something in the soil, genius, and Republican Insti- 
 tutions of the Anglo American race, that will maintain 
 a most desperate resistance to these inevitable causes 
 of national deterioration ; but he must be blind, indeed, 
 who does not witness the onward working of these 
 causes in our own days !" 
 
 If we would then avoid the fate of the most illustri- 
 ous nations of antiquity, if we would prolong our own 
 individual existence, and increase our happiness, we 
 must study the nature of ourselves, and our relations 
 to external objects. 
 
 This is a duty which is equally incumbent upon the 
 healthy and robust, who would prolong life, as well as 
 the weak and the feeble, who would wish to regain 
 health. If you have a large and powerful horse, and 
 you wish that he should last a long time, you treat 
 him with the greatest kindness and attention; you do 
 not drive him too fast, and when he returns home cov- 
 ered with perspiration, you do not let him drink imme- 
 diately, but cause the groom to rub and blanket him, 
 in order that he may not take cold, and get rheuma- 
 tism or stiffness in the joints. If you have a valuable 
 watch, and you wish to preserve it for a long time, 
 you use the greatest care in winding it, and keep- 
 ing it from the dust and moisture, as experience has 
 demonstrated this to be necessary to effect your ob- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 27 
 
 ject. Now wh is it that man, with his boasted rea- 
 soning faculties, does not apply the same principles to 
 himself? If fortunately he has inherited from his 
 parents a sound and vigorous constitution, in the full- 
 ness of health he foolishly thinks that there is no end 
 to his strength and vigor, and often abuses his organs 
 by every species of excess, and when at last overtaken 
 by disease, and the grave yawns to receive its unwil- 
 ling victim, he sees the folly of his ways when too late, 
 and dying, shrieks " millions for a single moment of 
 life." (Great sensation.) How often I have met the 
 miserable victims of consumption or incurable disease, 
 who were born with vigorous constitutions, but who, 
 for a series of years, had violated every law of health, 
 to get gold, or to stimulate their unnatural appetites 
 and passions, with tears in their eyes, and a counten- 
 ance marked with the lines of despair, inquiring if 
 there was really no hope of relief, no possibility of 
 escape from the* impending penalty as a punishment 
 for the disobedience of the organic laws of the human 
 constitution, that they had so long set at defiance. If 
 it shall ever, in the process of time, be the fate of any 
 of those who are now within the sound of my voice, 
 to be placed in similar circumstances, they will then 
 realize the force and truth of the old aphorism, that 
 "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!" 
 Physiological information is the most important to 
 those who are in the enjoyment of good health, for 
 the prevention of disease. When the system has been 
 underTiined and prostrated by various excesses, it is 
 often too late to apply the proper remedy for the pres- 
 ervation of life. Thousands inconsiderately " wait until 
 
28 LECTUKES ON THE 
 
 the horse is stolen, before they think of locking the 
 stable!" 
 
 A knowledge of, and obedience to the natural laws of 
 the human constitution, is also indispensable to the 
 promotion of health and happiness, which are so in- 
 timately associated with each other. Do you labor 
 under the influence of any disease, as for instance a 
 felon upon your finger ] how utterly impossible it is 
 for you to enjoy yourself during its continuance ! 
 Does the young lady experience the pains of toothache ? 
 how nervous, irritable, and unhappy she becomes ! 
 Health is indeed the greatest of all earthly blessings. 
 It is indispensable for almost every form of usefulness ! 
 " Strike out health from the list of regal prerogatives, 
 and the imperial diadem becomes a crown of thorns ! 
 Without health, the armorial bearings and those glit- 
 tering symbols of ancestral pride, and pomp, and noble 
 birth, grow insipid, nay hateful to the eye of the pos- 
 sessor, as laughing in mockery at human suffering and 
 pointing to the grave as the only certain refuge from 
 human woes the only asylum which opens its gates 
 indiscriminately to the relief of the high and the low " 
 
 Without health, riches cannot procure ease, much 
 less happiness. It would have been a cruel dispensa- 
 tion of Providence, if gold had been permitted to pur- 
 chase that which is the poor man's chief wealth, and 
 the want of which reduces the affluent to worse than 
 indigence. The bed of sickness is indeed the greatest 
 of all levelers, on this side the grave. Can the em- 
 broidered pillow, or the purple canopy, still the fierce 
 throbbings of the fevered brain, or arrest the dire tor- 
 tures of lacerating gout and rheumatism ? Can fame 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 29 
 
 defy the stings of sickness 1 No, the plaudits of the 
 multitude can no more assuage the tortures of pain, 
 than can " flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death." 
 The renown of a thousand victories could not diffuse 
 an anodyne influence over the pillow of Napoleon. 
 The laurels of Marengo could not defend him from the 
 depressing influence of a Saint Helena. 
 
 Can power, the darling object of ambitious minds, 
 neutralize the stings of pain and compensate for the 
 loss of health I No, indeed ! A motion of that magic 
 wand, the scepter, can cause joy or sorrow, sickness or 
 health in the subject ; but neither the diadem nor the 
 purple can lull the aching head, or quiet the palpita- 
 ting heart of the prince. 
 
 Is beauty inaccessable to sickness 1 Of all the gifts 
 which Heaven can bestow, " the fortune of a face " is 
 the most doubtful in value. It is a mark at which 
 every malignant star directs its hostile influence a 
 light that leads both its bearer and its followers upon 
 rocks and quicksands oftener than into the haven of 
 repose. Between beauty and disease there is a perpet- 
 ual warfare. They cannot coexist for any length of 
 time, and the latter is sure to be the victor in the pro- 
 tracted contest." 
 
 Disease also impairs man's usefulness. Health is 
 often the poor man's only capital, upon which he must 
 depend for his daily support. What a difference, then, 
 there is in the prospects of the strong and vigorous young 
 man, and the poor, miserable invalid ? The one looks 
 forward to the future with high hopes and fond antici- 
 pations of success in life, while the other is conscious 
 of the exhausting influence of disease, and at most 
 
30 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 ''** 
 
 can only hope to linger out a miserable existence and 
 at last sink into a premature grave ! How important 
 it is, then, that a knowledge of the human system and 
 the means of preserving health should be taught in all 
 of our common schools that it should be made the 
 basis of the education of the rising generation. It is 
 the duty of every human being to preserve the health 
 of his body. The Creator has given us all the 
 charge of our constitution we must minister to its 
 wants, control its powers, and regulate its action ; and 
 hence, it is our first duty to acquire a knowledge of 
 the human system and the laws which govern it, as the 
 means of accomplishing these results, for before we 
 can make use of any other information, we must first 
 learn to live, move and breathe. But if we visit many 
 of our schools for the instruction of the rising genera- 
 tion, we shall observe that many of the younger pupils 
 of the ages of ten and twelve years, have a good knowl- 
 edge of Geography, and many of the kindred exercises. 
 They can describe the physical character, soil and pro- 
 ductions of the various parts of the earth, but not the 
 " nature of the house they live in." They can tell you 
 of the wonderful laws by which the planets roll in cease- 
 less harmony, but not of the laws of their own consti- 
 tution ! 
 
 Again, the study of science is far more interesting 
 than the study of literature. Literature, for the most 
 part, is mainl} descriptive of the works of man, while 
 physical science deals in the works of God ; and the 
 difference in their relative value is almost in proportion 
 to the difference in their origin Physical science ad- 
 dresses itself to the noble faculties of causality, and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 31 
 
 explains to us th natural relations between cause and 
 effect, and thus divests the human mind of that credu- 
 lity and superstition, which is so disgraceful to the age 
 we live in. 
 
 Look around you but for a single moment, and ob- 
 serve what foolish notions prevail among the great 
 masses of mankind, as to the causes of our diseases and 
 misfortunes, as well as their proper mode of relief. If 
 any one labors under inflammation of the eyes, produced 
 by scrofula or exposure to cold and damp air, it is often 
 cured by the quack doctor with the very philosophical 
 remedy of rubbing them with the end of a yellow cat's 
 tail. If a child has the nose bleed, caused by the rup- 
 ture of a very small blood vessel, he stops it by tying a 
 red string around the child's neck If the teeth cut 
 through the gums with difficulty, they are softened by 
 the use of a black string. If the teeth decay and ache, 
 the pain is arrested by touching the nerve with a 
 splint from a tree that has been struck with lightning. 
 Has the child any disease of the throat 1 he often cures 
 it by giving a little powder prepared by roasting a live 
 swallow. Has it any internal fever] he breaks it by 
 charms and spells. Is the man afflicted with paralysis 1 
 it may be cured, they say, by the king's touch, or by 
 magnetic rings, bands and belts. Does he labor under 
 an attack of diarrhoea or dysentery I he cures it by a 
 disgusting remedy, known as powdered horse warts. 
 If he unfortunately steps upon a nail, and it pierces 
 his foot, he cures it by greasing the nail and laying it 
 aside until the grease dries in. If his child is troubled 
 with worms, he sends away for the quack, who spreads 
 a little molasses along the child's spine, and when they 
 
32 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 come up to feed upon it, he cuts their heads off by scrap- 
 ing the back with an old dull razor. (Three rounds 
 of applause.) 
 
 But you will say that none but the most ignorant 
 could be duped and cheated by such absurd remedies 
 in the hands of the designing empiric. This is indeed 
 true, but unfortunately they make up a large class in 
 the community. Not many years since Dr. Chapman, 
 the distinguished Professor of the Theory and Practice 
 of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, accosted 
 Mr. Swaim, the maker of Swaim's Panacea, in the streets 
 of Philadelphia, asking him how it was that many of 
 the most distinguished and meritorious members of the 
 Profession in Philadelphia were starving in their gar- 
 rets, while all the quacks and venders of patent medi- 
 cine in the city were rolling in wealth and splendor. 
 Swaim replied to the Dr. by asking him another question: 
 " How many of those whom you have passed in the streets 
 this morning, in making your professional calls, do you 
 think know anything of the anatomy and physiology 
 of the human body or the causes of their diseases ? " 
 To which question he replied, " not more than one in a 
 hundred. " " Well," says Swaim, " you may doctor 
 that one, and I will doctor the ninety-nine with my in- 
 imitable panacea." (Applause.) 
 
 The better informed portion of the community, it is 
 true, do not make use of these charms, signs and in- 
 cantations or disgusting remedies, but the practice of 
 taking all kinds of quack nostrums for every ache and 
 pain, is equally absurd, and far more pernicious in its 
 results. If the more intelligent portion of the com- 
 munity get an ache or complaint, produced by some 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 33 
 
 excess, instead of revolutionizing their conduct or 
 changing their habits, they look immediately to the 
 columns of the daily journal for a sovereign remedy. 
 Here they will find long lists of vegetable pills, uni- 
 versal remedies, cod liver oil, and sarsaparillas, in infi- 
 nite variety, and certified to cure all sorts of complaints 
 by various respectable citizens, clergymen and others. 
 After trying the various vegetable elixirs, and finding 
 they do not answer, then they resort to cod liver oil or 
 sarsaparilla, only to be attended with a renewal of the 
 disappointment Now suppose you were to treat an 
 excellent watch, the machinery of which you were 
 entirely unacquainted with, in the same manner. If 
 it did not keep time, send out and get a bucket of wa- 
 ter and pour through it, to wash the dust out ; and 
 afterwards pour into it a bottle of oil to oil it would 
 you expect it to keep time? Certainly not. How 
 much less, then, may you expect your own beautiful 
 organization to keep time after drenching it with pan- 
 aceas, elixirs, bitters, and cod liver oil 1 (Applause.) 
 Even the intelligent physician says, " the public will 
 be doctored, and if I do not give them medicine, some 
 one else will." This is, indeed, unfortunately but too 
 true for the welfare and happiness of society. The 
 humane and intelligent physician, who would retain 
 public confidence and be successful in his calling, can 
 scarcely be honest to the dictates of conscience. If he 
 is not continually doseing the patient with various 
 remedies, the friends lose their confidence in his skill. 
 In this respect the mass of mankind are much like 
 the old Scotch woman, in her reply to the physician 
 who had given, through a mistake, an over cfttee of 
 3 
 
34 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 tartar emetic and killed her husband. When the doc- 
 tor called the next day to pay his customary visit, and 
 learned that it was all over with his patient, he ex- 
 pressed his regret, and the wife, sobbing with anguish, 
 exclaimed : " Oh, Doctor, it is no fault of yours or the 
 medicine either, for it wrought him powerfully to the 
 very last!" (Tremendous applause.) 
 
 A friend of mine in the city of Philadelphia, one of 
 our oldest and most conscientious physicians, was 
 sent for to visit a gentleman's wife who suffered from 
 dyspepsia produced by excessive eating and sedentary 
 habits. The doctor made very light of the case, telling 
 her that she did not require much medicine, and that 
 she must eat less and exercise more, or take medicine, 
 be sick, and probably die. Now such wholesome truths 
 were not pleasing to a sentimental female suffering from 
 indigestion. She wished to be thought very sick, and 
 she immediately sent for another physician, well known 
 in the same city for his quackish propensities. When 
 he arrived he examined her pulse, and, Avith great 
 gravity, sounded her lungs and listened to the pulsa- 
 tions of her heart, and, after asking her numerous 
 questions about her health, he shook his head and 
 asked why she did not send for him before, and declared 
 that she labored under a complication of diseases, and 
 that the case was one of the utmost gravity and de- 
 manded the most careful treatment. He thought that 
 with great care and the use of some fashionable nos- 
 trum, she might recover. Of course he was employed, 
 and after attending the case with the utmost assiduity 
 for six months, she finally died, and he sent in his bill 
 for $300, which the disconsolate husband thought was 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 35 
 
 quite reasonable, considering the number of visits which 
 the doctor had made. The patient was doubtless killed 
 by over medication ! 
 
 Many simple minded people are easily imposed upon 
 by high sounding terms, the meaning of which they do 
 not understand; but they suppose that all of those who 
 are capable of using them must necessarily be very 
 learned. No one understands better how to take the 
 advantage of this weakness than the empiric. If any 
 of his patients ask him what is the cause of their 
 complaint, he confounds them with a cloud of high 
 sounding words, saying that " the only true and legit- 
 imate manner of accounting for this rare disease is the 
 physiological defects in the membranous system. The 
 obtuseness of the abdominal abdicator causes the carti- 
 laginous compressor to coagulate into the diaphragm, 
 and depresses the duodenum into the flandango. Now if 
 the disease were caused by the vogation of the elec- 
 tricity from the extremities, the tympanum would also 
 dissolve into spiritual sinctum, and the olfactory ossifi- 
 cator would ferment and become identical with the 
 pigmentum. Now, as this is not the case, in order to 
 produce your disease, the spinal rotundum must be 
 elevated down to the spiritual spero. But, as I said 
 before, in order to produce this disease the inferior 
 ligaments must subtend over the digitorum sufficiently 
 to disorganize the stericoletum." (Rounds of applause.) 
 That is what I call an explanation as clear as mud ! 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Not long since a friend of mine was in company 
 with one of these boasting empirics one evening, when 
 he remarked that he had been recreating in the country 
 
36 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 for a week or two, in order to recruit, as he had been 
 quite exhausted with the cares of his extensive practice." 
 This friend remarked that he knew it, as he had seen it 
 announced in the papers. " In what terms, pray 1 ?" said 
 the quack. " Oh, I only saw it announced in the pa- 
 pers that there were about seventy less deaths than 
 usual during the last week ! " (Laughter and applause.) 
 Did the mass of mankind know that although fits of 
 ache and pain may be relieved by the use of medicine, 
 yet that the reestablishment of health depends upon 
 very different powers and principles, they would not 
 place so much reliance upon the efficacy of medicine 
 and neglect the natural powers of the human constitu- 
 tion as the means of curing its diseases. 
 
 Even the physician is often estimated by the amount 
 of medicine which he gives to his patients. A physi- 
 cian in the interior of Pennsylvania assured me that 
 during the past season he was requested to attend a gen- 
 tleman's daughter suffering from chronic inflammation of 
 the stomach, a disease which requires very little medi- 
 cine in its treatment. He attended her from time to 
 time, and she finally recovered, and at the end of six 
 months the doctor sent in his bill. The father refused 
 to pay it, saying that it was too high, as he had given 
 his daughter but little medicine. Now the physician 
 was not foolish enough to quarrel with this gentleman 
 and lose his practice, but received what he could get, 
 and remarked to me, with a shrewd expression of coun- 
 tenance, " I think that family will have to take some 
 medicine if any of them ever get sick again ! " He 
 was indeed obliged to give medicine in self defence. 
 Only the other day a farmer called at the office of a 
 
PHILOS .HY OF LIFE. 37 
 
 country physician in western Virginia, and asked for a 
 shilling's worth of tartar emetic. The physician gave 
 him a dose of it in a small paper. " What," says he, 
 " you don't charge 12 -j cents for that much, do youl" 
 " Yes," says the physician, " that is a large dose." 
 " Oh," says the farmer, " give me a shilling's worth 
 while you are about it. Come now, do n't be small." 
 He then gave him half a drachm, and told him to put 
 it into a tumbler full of warm water and after it had 
 dissolved, to give his wife a table-spoonful at a time, 
 every fifteen minutes, until it produced the desired effect. 
 He did so, and had only given two or three doses when 
 it vomited her powerfully. Now, as he surveyed the 
 remainder of the medicine, he thought it was too good 
 to be lost, and as he felt a little uneasiness at the pit of 
 his stomach, he swallowed the rest himself, and nar- 
 rowly escaped with his life. 
 
 Now, notwithstanding it is quite notorious that doc- 
 tors will not take their own medicine, is it not really 
 astonishing that the great mass of society will not profit 
 by their example ] Did you ever know a quack to 
 take his own medicine, or a physician his own prescrip- 
 tion 1 The influence of knowledge upon credulity and 
 superstition is here seen in a strong light. A knowl- 
 edge of the science of zoology has hunted krakens, 
 phenixes and vampires from the animal kingdom. A 
 knowledge of the science of astronomy has swept pes- 
 tilential and war-portending comets, and all the terrors 
 and follies of old astrology from the skies A knowledge 
 of chemistry has made the notion of charms, and uni- 
 versal remedies, and the philosopher's stone, ridiculous 
 and contemptible. And as a knowledge of the true 
 
38 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 God has dethroned hundreds and thousands of false 
 gods and cast them into utter oblivion, so will a better 
 knowledge of the truths of physiology bury in eternal 
 night many of the foolish notions which prevail among 
 the masses of mankind, as to the causes and proper 
 treatment of disease. 
 
 Scientific "truth is indeed mighty, and it will pre- 
 vail." a Amidst the marvelous truths which science 
 is yet to unfold, the wonders of Aladdin's lamp will lose 
 their splendor ; and posterity will look back upon those 
 whose minds could be satisfied with the Arabian Nights' 
 Entertainments, or stories of a fairy land, with as much 
 pity as we look upon the savage, whose highest idea of 
 regal adornment can be satisfied with beads of glass 
 and jewelry of tin. The tricks of the juggler, the 
 crafts of the sorcerer, and the deception of the empiric 
 shall die out, for the children of men shall seek for the 
 exhilarations of knowledge and amusement in the lab- 
 oratory of the chemist and the lecture room of the 
 philosopher, where nature, inspired by God, works mir- 
 acles with fire and water, with attraction and repulsion, 
 with light and lightning, at once kindling devotion and 
 dispensing knowledge." 
 


 LECTURE II, 
 
 
 THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 TTTE have assembled here this evening, Ladies and 
 ' * Gentlemen, for the purpose of taking into consid- 
 eration the nutrition, growth and development of the 
 human body to observe the changes which our food 
 undergoes during the process of digestion, and its final 
 conversion into the blood which nourishes all parts of 
 the system. 
 
 This subject is the more interesting to us inasmuch 
 as a large proportion of almost every community labor 
 under the influence of some disease or derangement of 
 this system, which is produced by causes susceptible of 
 removal, and left in operation only in consequence of 
 our ignorance of ourselves. In infancy we are required 
 to digest a large amount of food, for the purpose of 
 gradually increasing, perfecting and developing all parts 
 of our bodies, and at a later period to counteract that 
 wonderful change which is constantly going on in the 
 human system, displacing the old and worn out atoms 
 of bone, muscle and nerve, with new tissues, which are 
 developed out of the new material supplied by digestion, 
 and thus, in a great measure, counteracting the tendency 
 
42 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 to decay and exhaustion of our physical, mental and 
 moral powers. 
 
 The evidence of this wonderful change of tissues 
 may be seen in different parts of the body. If we ex- 
 amine the nails upon our fingers we shall often observe 
 small white spots upon them, which soon disappear from 
 off their ends as they grow and elongate. The scarf skin is 
 continually pealing off on the outside and forming upon 
 its under surface. While our hairs are continually 
 growing at one end and wearing off at the other, similar 
 changes are noticed in the bones and muscles, and it is 
 thus that the human system is continually renewing 
 itself, and preserving our mortal bodies unimpaired, in 
 a comparative state of vigor, down to the latest period 
 of time which is assigned to man ! 
 
 In order that you may fully understand the nature 
 of the nutritive system, it will be necessary for me, in 
 the first place, to explain to you the anatomy and phys- 
 iology of the apparatus which is concerned in its per- 
 formance. 
 
 The digestive apparatus consists of a long digestive 
 tube or canal, some thirty-two feet in length, and its 
 appendages, the teeth, the salivary glands, the liver, 
 and the pancreas ; all of which exert their appropriate 
 influence upon the process of digestion, and are well 
 represented in the accompanying engraving. 
 
 It will be perceived that the cavity of the nose and 
 the cavity of the mouth unite with each other behind 
 the soft palate. In this cavity you will observe a num- 
 ber of bones, which form beautiful scrolls or shelves 
 on each side, upon which the nerves concerned in the 
 production of the sense of smell are distributed. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 43 
 
 Through an opening behind these curved bones the 
 tears empty into the cavity of the nose. These numer- 
 ous partitions in the cavity of the nose have been 
 constructed for the purpose of affording the greatest 
 surface in the smallest compass for the distribution of 
 the greatest number of olfactory nerves, concerned in 
 the production of the sense of smell. These nerves, 
 which are distributed in such large numbers upon the 
 lining of this organ, are only useful for the purpose of 
 enabling us to judge of the odoriferous qualities of 
 various objects with which we are brought in contact. 
 They cannot receive and convey to the human brain or 
 sensorium any impression, productive of the sense of 
 sight, hearing, taste or tact, and touch. 
 
 Numerous small hairs protrude from the lining sur- 
 face of this membrane, for the purpose of arresting the 
 earthy particles which float in the atmospheric air, and 
 preventing them from penetrating through the air-tubes 
 into the lungs and thus producing disease. Many 
 persons, in different parts of this country, seem entirely 
 to have mistaken the nature and use of so important 
 an organ as the nose, and have turned it into a kind of 
 dust-hole, for the use of the tobacconist, and often fill 
 its cavity so full of snuff that it is impossible for them 
 to breathe through it, and are consequently compelled 
 to breathe through their mouth. The snuff-taker, 
 with his nose full of snuff, may be seen in almost 
 every community, with his mouth half open, and his 
 tongue a little protruded, to enable him to breathe 
 through it, like a turkey in the month of August. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Not long since 1 was requested to visit a lady, in 
 
44 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 the city of Philadelphia, who had not spoken distinctly 
 for the last thirty years, for the purpose of removing 
 what was supposed by her friends to be a polypus 
 from the nose. Upon examination I detected the na- 
 ture of the difficulty, and, with a small salir spoon, 
 speedily removed from the nasal cavity about a wine- 
 glass full of yellow matter, composed of snuff and the 
 secretions of the nose, which had been accumulating 
 for the last thirty years. (Sensation.) It was no 
 wonder that her nose " felt stopped up " and she could 
 not speak plain. When this lady saw the amount of 
 material which had been removed, she raised her hands 
 in astonishment and exclaimed, " Doctor, if you tell 
 any of my friends what you removed from my nose, I 
 will never forgive you as long as I live." (Continued 
 applause.) 
 
 Sometimes when the snuff accumulates in this way, 
 it produces an unpleasant fullness far back in the 
 nares, accompanied with coughing and sneezing for the 
 purpose of removing it. At such times considerable 
 quantities are detached from the posterior nares and 
 tumble back into the meat pipe, and are swallowed 
 into the stomach, destroying its functions. (Great 
 applause.) 
 
 You will observe, far back in the posterior nares, the 
 mouth of a tube about the size of a goose-quill, which 
 extends to the cavity of the ear, for the purpose of 
 conveying to the inner cavity of this organ atmospheric 
 air. If this is closed up during inflammation of the 
 throat, it induces partial or total deafness. This is the 
 reason why we hear with difficulty when laboring un- 
 der the influence of a common cold, when accompanied 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 45 
 
 with swelling of the throat. Sometimes in scarlet 
 fever, the disease of the throat extends along the lining 
 surface of this tube to the cavity of the tympanum, 
 occasioning offensive discharges from the ear. If the 
 ulceration causing these discharges is not arrested by 
 the use of appropriate remedies, it will often cause total 
 or partial deafness as the young child advances in life. 
 
 In the cavity of the mouth we find the teeth, thirty- 
 two in number, which are so useful for the purpose of 
 comminuting or reducing our food to the finest consis- 
 tence, and rendering it fit to be swallowed into the 
 stomach. These useful organs are the only portions 
 of the bony system which are brought in contact with 
 foreign substances, and for the purpose of protecting 
 them from the injurious influence of the atmospheric 
 air, or the friction resulting from chewing, they have 
 been surrounded with a dense coating known as the 
 enamel. If this coating is fractured by being brought 
 in contact with very warm or cold substances, which 
 suddenly expand or contract it, and the air is allowed 
 to come in contact with the ivory or bone beneath, it 
 immediately takes on the process of decay, which can 
 only be arrested by covering it with gold leaf or other 
 dense material, for the purpose of excluding the atmos- 
 pheric air. 
 
 If you value good teeth and would preserve them, 
 you must be careful and never bring in contact with 
 them any very warm or cold food. The practice of 
 sipping hot tea and coffee, or eating hot breads and 
 meat cannot be too severely condemned, inasmuch as 
 it invariably destroys the teeth in a short time. All 
 savages that drink from the bubbling fountain and sub- 
 
46 LECTUKES ON THE 
 
 sist upon the simplest fare, have excellent teeth even 
 when advanced in life. Such is the condition of the 
 African, and the slave upon our southern plantations ; 
 but when indulging in similar habits to the white races, 
 they soon lose their teeth. The cow and other domestic 
 animals, when feeding upon the blades of grass which 
 they crop from the hill-side, preserve their teeth for a 
 long series of years, but when fed with warm food in 
 fashionable life, in our large towns and cities, soon find 
 them dropping out. This natural law which seems so 
 plain, in reference to the teeth, is generally neglected 
 by the great mass of fashionable society, and with what 
 fearful consequences, may be seen by examining almost 
 any young lady's mouth. 
 
 "What pity, blooming girl, 
 
 That lips so tempting to the lover 
 
 Should not, beneath their ruby casket, cover 
 
 One tooth of pearl; but like the rose 
 
 Beside the church-yard stone, 
 
 Be doomed to blossom, over many a mouldering bone." 
 
 The tongue, which is situated in the mouth, is com- 
 posed of a number of muscles running in different 
 directions, and covered with a soft and delicate mucous 
 membrane, which is continuous with the whole of the 
 intestinal canal. This organ, as will be observed, is 
 far larger than is generally supposed, which accounts 
 for the well known fact that it is not easily fatigued, 
 but in some persons, moves like a kind of perpetual 
 motion, and is indeed " an unruly member." It is said 
 to be especially useful to the female, although I have 
 not noticed any increased development of this organ 
 in the opposite sex. (Applause.) 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 47 
 
 Near the base of the tongue, and on either side, be- 
 tween the two curtains or folds of the soft palate, you 
 will notice two small bodies known as the tonsils, 
 which sometimes become enlarged, rendering it neces- 
 sary that they should be excised and removed, to ena- 
 ble the person so affected to read and speak distinctly. 
 The operation is exceedingly simple and is not attend- 
 ed with any danger. 
 
 Beneath the skin, on either side of the face, in front 
 and below the ears, you will notice important glands 
 or bodies which secrete the saliva or spittle, which is 
 carried into the mouth through two tubes beneath the 
 skin on each side of the face. Other bodies of a simi- 
 lar character will be observed beneath the angle of the 
 lower jaw and the tongue. These glands secrete from 
 fourteen to sixteen ounces of spittle, and empty it into 
 the mouth during an ordinary repast, which softens 
 the food and renders it fit to be swallowed into the 
 stomach. 
 
 The meat pipe, or gullet, is a long, cylindrical and 
 elastic tube, which commences at the base of the 
 tongue, and passes down behind the windpipe and ter- 
 minates in the stomach. It is composed of numerous 
 elastic, muscular fibres, which run in different direc- 
 tions, enabling it to be distended and contracted with 
 the most extraordinary facility and down whose dark 
 and narrow channel, scores of fat oxen, sheep, fish, 
 and fowls, cart loads of bread, and potatoes, and veg- 
 etables, tons of beer, puncheons of brandy, barrels of 
 tea and coffee, and rivers of water, are continually 
 rushing to that abyss from which they shall never re- 
 turn. (Applause.) 
 
48 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The amount of food and drink introduced into the 
 human system through this canal, would, if gathered 
 together, exceed the bounds of human credibility, and 
 overwhelm us with amazement ! If a human being 
 should live to attain the age of threescore and ten, 
 and should eat two pounds of beef, only a moderate 
 dinner for a gourmand^ he would consume over fifty 
 oxen of a thousand pounds each ; and if he were to 
 eat at the same time, at least thirty-six ounces of dry 
 vegetable matter, he would consume nearly sixty cart 
 loads of a thousand pounds each. If he were to drink 
 six glasses of ale, three glasses of brandy and six cups 
 of tea and coffee, he would require one hundred and 
 fifty hogsheads of ale, twenty hogsheads of brandy 
 and more than one hundred and twenty-five hogsheads 
 of tea and coffee, besides cold water enough to float a 
 frigate. (Great sensation.) 
 
 The meat pipe or gullet terminates in the stomach, 
 which is the great central organ concerned in digestion. 
 It is situated in the upper portion of the abdominal 
 cavity and immediately beneath the lower ribs of the 
 left side, the greater portion of it being situated to the 
 left of that point known as the " pit of the stomach." 
 It is composed of three principal coats, and will hold 
 about three pints at a time, upon an average, and is 
 capable of being distended indefinitely by indulging in 
 excess in eating and drinking. 
 
 Indeed, were we to visit any of the well stocked 
 grocery stores along Market street, and observe the va- 
 riety of materials drawn from the animal and vegetable 
 kingdoms to pamper the appetite of man especially 
 in highly civilized life we should be lost and bewil- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 49 
 
 dered with amazement ! A single glance around these 
 shelves, groaning beneath the productions of every 
 clime, must compel us to admit that the powers and 
 capacity of the human stomach are immense ! These 
 pickles and preserves ; these spices and condiments ; 
 these Scandinavian tongues and Westphalian hams, 
 and above all, these sausages of Bologna and Ger- 
 many, are alone enough to poison the vulture, the 
 shark, and the jackal, and if they did not kill directly 
 these natural gourmands, they would most assuredly 
 people the air, the ocean, and the wild woods with as 
 exquisite dyspeptics, or perhaps hypochondriacs, as 
 ever paced Broadway, or ever made the grand tour of 
 our fashionable watering places, under the delightful 
 influence of that fashionable disease known as the 
 " blue devils. 1 ' (Applause.) 
 
 The outside coat of the stomach is a serous mem- 
 brane, and is reflected over the exterior surface of the 
 whole of the intestinal canal. It secretes a small 
 quantity of serum which lubricates the outside of the 
 bowels and prevents them from being injured. Some- 
 times this membrane takes on diseased action and 
 secretes large quantities of this fluid, producing dropsy 
 of the abdomen. 
 
 The middle coat of the stomach is composed of three 
 strong bands or strips of muscular fibres, which pass 
 around the stomach in different directions, some from 
 one end to the other, others are distributed around it 
 in a circular manner, while others again pass obliquely 
 from side to side. These bands of muscular fibres, 
 which cross each other in this manner like a net-work, 
 are enabled to contract during digestion, so as to cause 
 4 
 
50 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 the walls of the stomach to be brought in close con- 
 tact with the food which it contains. By contracting 
 alternately at one end of the organ, and then at the 
 other, the food is forced from one end of the stomach 
 to the other once in about two minutes and a half. 
 Immediately beneath the lining membrane of the stom- 
 ach, you will observe numerous minute follicles, which 
 secrete considerable quantities of gastric fluid, which 
 is slightly saltish and sour to the sense of taste, and 
 is known as the rennet in the inferior animals. It is 
 this fluid which possesses the most remarkable solvent 
 powers in the inferior animals, being capable, in some 
 instances, as in the ostrich, of dissolving pebble stones, 
 nails, buttons, &c. ; and in man, bone, gristle, and the 
 hardest animal and vegetable substances. If a small 
 quantity of this wonderful fluid is mixed with a little 
 water, dropped into milk, it soon curdles, and then 
 digests it. Liebig, and other distinguished chemists, 
 have proposed to prepare a fluid from the stomach of 
 the ox similar to the rennet diluted in wine and used 
 for culinary purposes, to be used in dyspepsia, and 
 various forms of difficult digestion. In the small 
 end, or pyloric extremity, the mucous membrane forms 
 a circular fold, like the ribbon in the mouth of the ladies' 
 work bag, which closes the stomach during digestion, 
 and prevents the crude food from passing out into the 
 small intestine, before it is dissolved or digested. This 
 pyloric valve is a kind of sentinel that watches the pro- 
 cess of digestion, and opens and allows the food to pass 
 into the small intestine, as soon as it is reduced to the 
 thickness and consistency of flour paste If we eat 
 anything that is difficult of digestion, as, for instance, 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 51 
 
 a piece of dried apple, it may remain in the stomach 
 for twenty- four hours without being dissolved ; and 
 still this faithful guard or sentinel will not allow it to 
 go down into the small intestine. Children have often 
 been known to retain in their stomachs small pieces of 
 orange peel, raisins, and other dried fruit, for eight or 
 nine days, producing much pain, and frequently con- 
 vulsions ; and at the end of that time vomit them up 
 as fresh as they were when first taken into the stom- 
 ach, or death relieves them from their sufferings ! 
 
 The next portion of the intestinal canal is called the 
 duodenum, or second stomach. It is about twelve 
 inches in length, and is chiefly interesting to us as 
 being that part of the digestive system which receives 
 the bile. It extends from the pyloric valve down be- 
 neath the liver, and terminates in the small intestine 
 in the centre of the abdominal cavity. The liver is 
 the largest gland in the human body, and is situated 
 beneath the ribs of the right side, opposite the stom- 
 ach. It is constantly engaged in secreting an alkaline 
 principle from the blood, known as the bile, which is 
 collected by means of numerous tubes, and emptied 
 into the gall bladder, where it is retained until such 
 times as it may be required to facilitate the process of 
 digestion. The biliary tube, which runs from the 
 gall-bladder to the intestinal canal, does not empty 
 into the stomach, as many persons suppose, but into 
 the duodenum, six or seven inches below the opening 
 of the pyloric valve. If this simple truth were general- 
 ly known, what an influence it would have upon the 
 price of tartar emetic ! (Applause.) How many thou- 
 sands of poor unfortunate invalids have had to 
 
52 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 for want of a little information. Not much more than 
 one-half of our old routine physicians themselves know 
 whether the bile is poured into the stomach or small 
 intestine ; and when their patients eat and drink too 
 much, they puke them, and tell them that their stomach 
 is bilious. (Great applause.) Such physicians are 
 generally afraid the people will learn too much from 
 listening to my lectures, and examining my models ; 
 but I think there is more danger of their learning 
 something else how much such physicians know 
 themselves. (Shouts of applause.) 
 
 No bile can be introduced into the stomach unless 
 the natural action of the intestinal canal becomes 
 inverted, and its contents pass upwards into the stom- 
 ach, instead of downwards into the small intestine ; 
 and consequently not one emetic is now given by the 
 intelligent physician for this purpose, where fifty were 
 given only twenty years ago ! If the stomach has been 
 overtaxed by excesses, instead of an emetic, low diet 
 and rest are enjoined, with the most decided success. 
 
 When the food has been thoroughly digested in the 
 stomach, and reduced to the finest consistence, the py- 
 loric valve opens, and it passes into the duodenum, 
 and at the same time the gall-bladder, being stimulated 
 to action by its presence, empties its contents into the 
 small intestine, where it unites with the digested food, 
 and immediately separates it into two principal parts. 
 The nutritious fluid is of a creamy consistency and 
 color, and floats on the upper surface, while the excre- 
 mentitious matter sinks beneath it. As soon as this 
 precipitation takes place, these two principles pass for- 
 ward into the small intestine, where the chyle, or nu- 
 tritious principle, is absorbed. The nutritious portions 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 63 
 
 of our food are not absorbed, as many suppose, by the 
 small veins of the intestine, but by a special system of 
 lacteal vessels, which arise in large numbers in the 
 mlli, or small conical elevations upon the lining sur- 
 face of the small intestine, and after forming nume- 
 rous unions with each other, finally terminate in a 
 long membranous sac, situated on the anterior surface 
 of the spinal column, and which communicates with 
 the large jugular vein in the neck by means of a long 
 cylindrical tube about the size of a goose quill, called 
 the thoracic duct. This portion of the small intestine, 
 where the nourishment of the food is absorbed by the 
 lacteals, is about twenty-five feet in length, and its in- 
 ner surface is thrown into numerous folds, rendering 
 it more than five times as long as the outside, so as to 
 afford the greatest possible surface in the smallest 
 space, for nutritive absorption to take place. If it 
 were not for this beautiful mechanical arrangement, the 
 lacteals would not be capable of absorbing more than 
 one-fifth of the nourishment of our food, and there 
 would be great want of economy in the expenditure 
 of material for the nutrition of the human body. The 
 all-wise and benevolent Creator foresaw all this, and 
 has most beautifully adapted this mechanical means to 
 ends, so as to secure the nutrition and development of 
 the human body, with the smallest possible expenditure 
 and loss of material. Indeed, if it were not for this 
 most curious mechanical contrivance, we should be 
 compelled to eat all the time in order to get enough, 
 and the gourmand must certainly die of starvation. 
 (A laugh.) 
 
 When the digestive system is in a healthy state, the 
 
54 . LECTURES ON THE 
 
 chyle or nourishment which is absorbed by the lacte- 
 als, is about the color and consistency of cream. It 
 is transmitted along the thoracic duct, which passes 
 up behind the heart, and finally empties into the large 
 vein in the neck, just at its junction with the jugular 
 vein. The chyle is here mixed with the dark, impure 
 or venous blood, and is transmitted by the heart to the 
 lungs, where it is cleared, purified, and colored a bright 
 red or scarlet color, and afterwards distributed through 
 the numerous arteries to all of the different parts of 
 the human body. It will be observed that the nour- 
 ishment of our food is finally converted into blood in 
 the lungs. It here has breathed into it the breath of 
 life, which renders it a vital, living fluid, capable of 
 nourishing all parts of our bodies ! 
 
 The remainder of the food, after the absorption of 
 its nourishment, passes into the large intestine, called 
 the colon, and is finally thrown out of the system. 
 
 Having thus rapidly examined the structure and 
 functions of the apparatus concerned in the digestion 
 of our food, it remains still further for us to investiate 
 the laws which regulate its action, in order that we may 
 understand and obey them. It has been often said 
 that " knowledge is power," but it is only truly so just 
 in proportion as we are capable of applying our infor- 
 mation to some useful purpose ; such, for instance, as 
 the improvement of the moral, physical and intellec- 
 tual condition of mankind. That knowledge is the 
 most useful which contributes most to the promotion of 
 our welfare and happiness ! What, then, are the laws 
 or conditions upon which the healthy action of this 
 system depends 1 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 55 
 
 1st. It is a natural law, that the wants of the system 
 limit the powers of digestion. 
 
 The gastric follicles secrete only enough fluid to 
 digest what food the human system requires, and if a 
 larger quantity is eaten, it will remain in the stomach 
 until such time as it may be required in the animal 
 economy to sustain its vital action. It becomes, then, 
 a matter of great importance for us to ascertain, if 
 possible, what circumstances determine the wants of 
 the system ; since by obeying them, we shall in a great 
 measure secure exemption from many of the pains and 
 sufferings of dyspepsia that disease which is the bane 
 and misery of countless millions ! Many observations 
 and experiments have recently been made by the Brit- 
 ish army and navy surgeons, with a view of determin- 
 ing, if possible, the amount of food required by man, 
 in order to secure the highest state of physical, moral 
 and mental perfection in these branches of the British 
 service. From numerous carefully conducted experi- 
 ments, it has been concluded that man, while in active 
 service or labor, requires about thirty-five ounces of 
 dry animal and vegetable food each day, in order to 
 attain his greatest efficiency. Of this amount, ten 
 ounces should be animal, and about twenty-five ounces 
 of vegetable matter, consisting of peas, beans, flour, 
 &c. The introduction of this diet scale into the Brit- 
 ish army and navy, is said to be attended with the 
 most remarkable success in diminishing the numbers 
 upon the sick list. 
 
 The training of men for pugilistic encounters, gladia- 
 torial contests, and for the display of great feats of 
 physical strength, shows that our ordinary diet scale 
 
56 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 may be reduced with great advantage on the score 
 of strength. Indeed, were it true that strength de- 
 pended upon the amount of food consumed, then the 
 vulture would be stronger than the eagle, the jackal 
 than the lion, and the gourmand than the temperate 
 and abstemious. Gluttony is synonymous with idle- 
 ness, indolence and stupidity ! When the vulture, the 
 jackal and their scarcely less human brother, the ine- 
 briate and debauchee, have engorged themselves, their 
 whole vital energies are, at least for a time, expended 
 in the digestion of their food. The vulture seeks his 
 mountain lair, the jackal his den, and the epicure, 
 drunk with wine, and stupid with feasting, seeks his 
 softly cushioned arm-chair, where, overcome with the 
 lethargy of sleep, he expends his immortal, mental 
 powers and sacred affections in stupid and inglori- 
 ous repose. Such persons live only in order that they 
 may eat and not eat in order that they may live, and 
 attain the highest objects of life. Their chief end is 
 to " glorify their stomach and enjoy it." Would you 
 appeal to the conscience of such a person I you must 
 appeal to their stomachs and not to their brains. (Ap- 
 plause.) And would you understand the means of 
 making the most eloquent and successful appeal 1 you 
 will find them in sparkling champagne, turtle soup, 
 and lobster salad. (Laughter and applause.) Few 
 legislators can withstand so righteous a petition, or 
 such a moving appeal to their consciences. If you 
 wish a bank chartered, or a divorce for convenience, 
 ply the members well with champagne and hot sup- 
 pers : these are the most persuasive arguments to 
 persons of such habits. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 57 
 
 Nor are the members of many of our Christian 
 churches less susceptible to such influences. Visit, if 
 you please, with me, the village church, on a pleasant 
 Sabbath afternoon observe the listening positions and 
 attentive aspect of the audience. What are so many 
 of the members doing with their eyes shut, and their 
 mouths wide open I swallowing the sermon ? No ; but 
 digesting the cold turkey, roast beef and plumb pud- 
 ding that they have eaten for dinner. (Applause.) I 
 have often thought that ministers addressing such an 
 audience were much like Napoleon in his efforts to re- 
 duce a huge mud fortress, which he encountered in 
 Egypt. If it had been constructed of stone, he could 
 have battered it down with his cannon ; and if it had 
 been made of wood, he could have burnt it with his 
 red-hot shot ; but there it stood before him a great 
 impassive mound of earth in which the balls of his 
 cannon were buried at every discharge, without pro- 
 ducing the least influence upon its garrison ! It is 
 easy for the preacher to address feeling and mind with 
 argument, but far more difficult to convince cold tur- 
 key and gristle with most persuasive eloquence ! Not 
 only must the preacher be prepared to sow, but his 
 hearers must be prepared to receive the good seed. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 It is frequently supposed by the great mass of man- 
 kind, that excessive fatness is indicative of high health. 
 The death of millions of young children may be traced 
 to this fatal mistake. How often do we observe moth- 
 ers feed their dear little children in order to " make 
 them grow fast," or until they become so fat that they 
 can scarcely see out of their eyes; and when such a one 
 
58 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 becomes, like the fat ox, a burden to itself, all of the 
 friends observe, " what a healthy child ! " and pinch its 
 cheeks and tickle its ribs to make it laugh Do such chil- 
 dren generally live to attain the age of manhood ] No 
 indeed ! By far the largest majority sicken under this 
 stuffing process and die. The greatest mortality in 
 infancy is to be found among this class of " fat, healthy 
 children." They die of cholera infantum, inflamma- 
 tory affections, and the effusion of water upon the 
 brain. When the child sickens and cries out under 
 this stuffing process, what does the mother do ? Why 
 she thinks it cries because it is hungry, and stuffs it 
 the more ; and when its little stomach becomes so full 
 that it runs over, and the food runs down the corners 
 of the child's mouth, the mother scrapes all up with 
 the spoon and crowds it down again. (Applause.) 
 
 This natural preparation (holding up an infant's 
 stomach,) shows you the size of the child's stomach at 
 birth. It will not contain, as you will observe, more 
 than about one table-spoonful of nourishment at a 
 time ; and yet the fond mother would think that her 
 young infant " would starve to death if it did not eat 
 at least half a tea-cup full of cracker-stuff," or other 
 food ! Is it strange, under such circumstances, that its 
 stomach is often out of order, and that " it wants a 
 little magnesia to sweeten it," &c. that it becomes 
 cross and irritable that it has fits and convulsions, 
 and infantile cholera, and scores of diseases that are 
 so destructive to human life I The only wonder is, 
 how such children live at all. If they had not prodi- 
 gious vital and recuperative powers, they must all fall 
 a sacrifice to this insane custom ! (Great sensation.) 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 59 
 
 When children sicken and die from such causes, pa- 
 rents console themselves and relieve their consciences 
 from all responsibility in preserving the health of their 
 own offspring, by laying all the blame upon the shoul- 
 ders of Divine Providence, when in reality they have 
 destroyed their children themselves ! It is high time 
 that parents should understand that the Creator holds 
 them strictly accountable for the preservation of the 
 health of their children. The position of a mother 
 necessarily involves the greatest responsibilities and 
 the highest and noblest duties, and if she is not qual- 
 ified, by thorough physical, moral and mental education 
 and training, to discharge them, hard indeed will be 
 the fate of her unfortunate offspring. 
 
 2d. All organs, when diseased, require rest, in order 
 that they may restore themselves. 
 
 The importance of observing this principle is gener- 
 ally recognized in reference to inflammatory affections 
 of the eye. No one afflicted with disease of the eyes, 
 would think of using them in reading, &c., because 
 they soon learn from experience that the use of them, 
 under such circumstances, is followed by increased 
 pain and inflammation. The same law holds good in 
 reference to all of the organs of the human body, when 
 diseased. Excessive action, under such circumstances, 
 increases the pain, inflammation and disease. If you 
 suffer from indigestion, produced by functional or or- 
 ganic derangement of the stomach, you should not 
 forget that this organ requires rest, in order to recover 
 its exhausted energies. The failure on the part of 
 the great mass of mankind to recognize the truth and 
 importance of this principle, is one of the reasons that 
 
 
60 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 dyspepsia proves so often incurable. If the dyspeptic 
 becomes diseased and exhausted from over-eating, so 
 that his stomach cannot digest even the smallest quan- 
 tity of the simplest food, without producing pain, he 
 foolishly imagines that it can only be strengthened by 
 giving it more labor to perform. " English factory 
 children have received the commiseration of the world 
 because they were scourged to work eighteen hours 
 out of twenty-four ; but there is many a theoretic re- 
 publican who is a harsher Pharaoh to his stomach than 
 this who allows it no more resting time than he does 
 his watch who gives it no Sunday, no holiday, no 
 vacation in any sense. (Applause.) 
 
 What would you think of the master who should 
 compel his slaves to labor after they were fatigued and 
 exhausted, in order that they might be refreshed and 
 restored ] You would certainly think that the only 
 suitable place for such a man, would be a lunatic 
 asylum ! Nor is the practice of eating large quanti- 
 ties of the simplest food when the stomach is diseased 
 and exhausted, more reasonable or less fatal in its 
 results ! 
 
 Last summer I was requested to visit a sturdy me- 
 chanic, laboring under chronic inflammation of the stom- 
 ach, brought on by excessive eating. I prescribed a 
 very low diet and rest, and some cooling mucilaginous 
 drinks, and in a few days he had so far recovered as 
 to be able to move about the house, and told his wife 
 that he thought if he could only eat something he 
 would soon get strong and well. She asked him what 
 he would prefer for his dinner; and he replied that he 
 could not think of anything that he thought he would 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 61 
 
 relish as well as apple dumplings. She cooked half a 
 dozen for dinner, and after they were carefully prepared, 
 he sat down to the table and began upon them, and in 
 a few moments managed to dispatch five, before he 
 had even time for thought or reflection. Upon look- 
 ing up he saw his little son sitting beside him, and 
 looking wishfully at the last dumpling. The father's 
 feelings were a little touched, but the impression pro- 
 duced by the remaining dumpling was a little the 
 strongest, and so patting his little son upon his head, 
 he observed, " poor papa is sick !" and quickly swal- 
 lowed the last one, and scarcely escaped with his life ! 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 If the physician could only sew up the mouth of 
 his patients, leaving only a small opening at one cor- 
 ner, there would be little trouble in curing the various 
 forms of indigestion ; and hence I say to you, that in 
 the cure of these affections much more depends upon 
 the patients themselves than upon the physician ! 
 
 3d. It is a natural law that the quality of the food 
 of man must be adapted to the nature of his stomach. 
 The food of man should be sufficiently coarse and stim- 
 ulating, in order to call the stomach and gastric folli- 
 cles into healthy action, and carry on the process of 
 digestion without the production of pain and disease. 
 If our diet is composed of fine material, such as oil, 
 sugar, starch, and fine flour, sweetmeats, &c., they will 
 not stimulate the stomach sufficiently to cause its fol- 
 licles to secrete the gastric fluid, or rennet, in sufficient 
 quantities to dissolve the food, and hence the Esqui- 
 maux and Greenlander, who subsist upon whale oil 
 and the fat of the polar bear, are compelled to mix 
 
62 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 them with earth, in order to adapt them to the powers 
 of the digestive system. 
 
 Observation and experience teach us that sweet and 
 oily substances are extremely difficult of digestion, and 
 the latter more especially when submitted to a high 
 temperature, as in the preparation of the various kinds 
 of cakes and pastry, &c. 
 
 The languid stomach 
 
 Curses e'en the pure, delicious fat, and all the race, of oil ; 
 Far more the oily aliment relaxes its feeble tone ; 
 The insoluble oil, so gentle late, and blandishing, 
 In floods of rancid bile o'erflows : what tumults hence, 
 What horrors rise, 'twere nauseous to relate. 
 
 Fresh butter, in moderate proportions, when com- 
 bined with wholesome vegetable matter, generally agrees 
 with the dyspeptic ; but when old, rancid, or melted 
 with food, should always be carefully avoided. Nor 
 can I condemn in too strong language, the practice of 
 giving young children large quantities of sweet food 
 inasmuch as it almost always induces weakness and 
 debility of the digestive organs ; if not in infancy, it 
 will lay the foundation of dyspepsia in after life. 
 
 The dyspeptic should also carefully avoid all kinds 
 of salt meat, fish, pork, cabbage, pickles, and pre- 
 serves, all fresh breads and cakes, if they would recover 
 from their disease. All fresh bread should undergo, a 
 chemical change, analogous to the process of fermen- 
 tation, after it cools in the pantry, before it becomes 
 fit to eat, or it will undergo a similar process in the 
 human stomach before it digests, producing flatulent 
 eructations, sourness of the stomach, &c. 
 
 The dyspeptic will do well to carefully examine the 
 following table, exhibiting the comparative digestibility 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 63 
 
 of the various kinds of food, and select his diet from 
 those which appear to be the most wholesome: 
 
 TABLE, 
 
 SHOWING THE MEAN TIME OF DIGESTION OF THE DIFFERENT ARTICLES 
 
 OF DIET. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 Preparation 
 
 Time. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 Preparation. 
 
 Time. 
 
 Apples, sour, hard, 
 
 Raw, 
 Raw, 
 Raw, 
 Broiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Roasted, 
 Roasted, 
 Broiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Fried, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Baked, 
 Baked, 
 Melted, 
 Raw, 
 Raw, 
 Boiled, 
 Baked, 
 Boiled, 
 Fried, 
 Raw, 
 Fricas'd, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Baked, 
 Baked, 
 Baked, 
 Boiled, 
 Roasted, 
 Roasted, 
 Boiled 
 hard, 
 Boiled 
 soft, 
 Fried, 
 Raw, 
 Fried, 
 Boiled, 
 Roasted, 
 Roasted, 
 Broiled, 
 Broiled, 
 
 h. m. 
 2 50 
 2 
 1 30 
 3 
 2 30 
 3 
 3 30 
 3 
 3 36 
 3 10 
 4 
 4 15 
 3 45 
 3 30 
 3 15 
 3 30 
 2 30 
 2 
 4 30 
 2 30 
 3 15 
 3 30 
 3 30 
 2 45 
 2 
 3 45 
 3 15 
 3 
 2 45 
 3 
 4 
 4 30 
 
 3 30 
 
 3 
 
 3 30 
 2 
 3 30 
 4 
 4 
 2 30 
 2 30 
 2 
 
 Meat hashed with / 
 vegetables, - } 
 Milk, - - 
 
 Mutton, fresh, - 
 
 Warm'd, 
 
 Boiled, 
 Raw, 
 Roasted, 
 Broiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Raw, 
 Roasted, 
 Stewed, 
 Boiled, 
 Roasted, 
 Boiled, 
 Roasted, 
 Boiled, 
 Fried, 
 Broiled, 
 Raw, 
 Broiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Baked, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Broiled, 
 
 Boiled, 
 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Boiled, 
 Fried, 
 
 Roasted, 
 
 Boiled, 
 Roasted, 
 Boiled, 
 Broiled, 
 Fried, 
 Broiled, 
 
 h. m. 
 230 
 
 2 
 2 15 
 3 15 
 3 
 3 
 2 55 
 3 15 
 3 30 
 2 30 
 2 30 
 1 
 5 15 
 4 30 
 4 15 
 3 15 
 3 
 3 15 
 3 30 
 2 30 
 1 
 1 45 
 4 
 3 20 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 3 30 
 3 30 
 5 30 
 4 30 
 2 
 1 
 1 30 
 1 30 
 
 2 30 
 
 2 25 
 2 18 
 3 30 
 4 
 4 30 
 1 35 
 
 , sweet, do., 
 Bass, striped, fresh, 
 Beans, pod, - 
 Beef, fresh, lean, rare, 
 
 j 
 
 5 dry, 
 steak, - 
 
 Oysters, fresh, - 
 
 
 ' 
 
 , fresh, lean, 
 , old, hard, salted, 
 Beets, - 
 Bread, wheat, fresh, 
 , corn, 
 Butter, 
 Cabbage head, 
 
 Parsnips, 
 Pig, sucking, 
 Pigs' feet, soused, 
 Pork, fat and lean, 
 , recently salted, 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 Cake, sponge, 
 Carrot, orange, 
 Catfish, 
 Cheese, old, strong, 
 Chicken, full-grown, 
 Codfish, cured, dry, 
 Corn, green, and beans, 
 bread, - 
 cake, 
 Custard, 
 Dumpling, apple, 
 Ducks, domesticated, 
 
 Potatoes, Irish, - 
 
 Rice, - ' - 
 Sago, 
 Salmon, salted, - 
 Sausage, fresh, - 
 Soup, beef, vegeta- j 
 bles, and bread, } 
 , chicken, 
 , mutton, 
 , oyster, 
 Suet, beef, fresh, 
 
 , wild, 
 Eggs, fresh, - 
 
 Tapioca, 
 Tripe, soused, 
 Trout, salmon, fresh, 
 
 
 Turkey, domestica- / 
 ted, - - j 
 
 ' TV! If) 
 
 5 
 
 Flounder, fresh, - 
 Fowl, domestic, - 
 
 Goose, 
 Lamb, fresh, 
 Liver, beef's, fresh, 
 
 Turnips, flat, 
 Veal, fresh, 
 
 Venison steak, - 
 
4 
 
 64 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 4th. Our food should be eaten with deliberation, and 
 thoroughly masticated and mixed with the saliva while 
 in the mouth, so as to adapt it to the capacity of the 
 stomach. 
 
 The stomach, as you will observe, (holding up a nat- 
 ural stomach,) is a thin membranous sac, and is not 
 adapted to digest large masses of coarse and crude food, 
 and consequently our food should be thoroughly chewed, 
 and reduced to the finest consistence while it is yet in 
 the mouth, before its introduction into so delicate an 
 organ as the stomach. 
 
 Those animals which do not chew, but swallow their 
 food, like the turkey and the ostrich, have large mem- 
 branous craws beneath the skin, in their breasts, which 
 receive the food, and after it has been softened by the 
 juices, it is carried into the gizzard, a kind of mill, 
 where it is ground to the finest consistence, and then 
 into the stomach. Unfortunately for the welfare and 
 happiness of the dyspeptic, no analogous mechanical 
 arrangement exists in the human system ; and if we 
 eat our food ostrich fashion, unless we have gizzards, 
 we shall be badly off for the means of digesting it. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 In the human being the digestive process commences 
 in the mouth, and terminates in the stomach ; and un- 
 less the teeth perform their part of the process in a 
 proper manner, the stomach has a double duty to per- 
 form, which not unfrequently exhausts its energies, 
 and finally induces incurable disease. My very exten- 
 sive experience and observations during the last ten 
 years, prove conclusively that more indigestion is pro- 
 duced by rapid eating than by all other causes com- 
 bined. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 65 
 
 There is perhaps no other country on the face of the 
 globe, where we find this protean malady of so fre- 
 quent occurrence ! The American people have often 
 been termed a " nation of dyspeptics !" And why 1 
 Simply because they are so active that they have not 
 even time to eat ! 
 
 The American people are distinguished as an active, 
 sanguine race, busily engaged in the great battle of 
 life, in the turmoil, toil and strife of trade and com- 
 merce, and in transferring the standard of civilization 
 from the frozen shores of the Atlantic to the golden 
 sands of the Pacific. They appear upon the stage of 
 life like a brilliant meteor, and disappear with the flash 
 of the comet ! " They go ahead !" as the saying is, 
 " and live like lightning and die like lightning." (Ap- 
 plause.) If they stop to eat, it is only when compelled 
 to do so, by the craving wants of nature, and then they 
 eat as though their lives depended upon the comple- 
 tion of the repast in about ten minutes ! 
 
 Go station yourselves in the spacious dining saloons 
 of some of those palaces that float upon our numerous 
 inland seas and rivers, in the fashionable summer sea- 
 son, and behold how the elitd eat their food, and you 
 will no longer be astonished that dyspepsia is marked 
 in indelible lines upon nine-tenths of their counte- 
 nances ! 
 
 As the well known gong, in the hands of the sable 
 waiter, uc peals forth its thunder," announcing that 
 the dinner is ready, you had better stand aside, for 
 fear you may get run over ; while in they rush, like 
 a cloud of hungry vultures descending to their prey 
 every one casting an anxious glance down the long 
 
66 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 table that groans beneath the weight of viands spread 
 upon its ample surface ; and hastily seating themselves 
 opposite the largest turkey, brandish the knife, and 
 prepare for action. With an agitated and nervous 
 hand, each quickly helps himself to everything upon 
 the table within convenient distance, and then com- 
 mences the process of swallowing a feat of dexterity 
 that would do honor to the most adroit juggler of an- 
 cient or modern times. In the first place, he cuts a 
 large potato into four equal parts, so as to have them 
 ready, and then, after cutting a large piece of meat, 
 and placing it upon his knife, with a most skillful and 
 rapid movement it is deposited in his mouth, and be- 
 fore he shuts it, for fear of losing time, in flies a quar- 
 ter of potato ; and then he stretches up his neck, and 
 rolls his eyes in terror, for fear of suifocation, and with 
 a desperate and convulsive struggle, bolts the whole 
 mass into his stomach. (Shouts of applause.) This 
 practice is so common in this country, as to be desig- 
 nated by foreigners, "the American habit of bolting, 
 not eating, their food." 
 
 But some will say that they have not sufficient time 
 to eat their food like rational human beings, and so 
 they must eat it and run like a turkey. (Applause.) 
 It is certain that if we do not voluntarily find sufficient 
 time to eat our food in a proper manner, we shall be 
 compelled to find time to be sick, and perhaps die. If 
 you are so thronged with business and the cares of life 
 that you do not find time to eat your dinner in a 
 proper manner, you had better go without it until sup- 
 per time, or until you finish your employments; and 
 not insanely sacrifice your health merely for the pleas- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 67 
 
 ure of eating! A man who is too busy to take care of 
 his health is much like a mechanic who is too busy to 
 take care of his tools. 
 
 5th. After digesting our food the stomach requires 
 rest in order that it may recover its exhausted energies. 
 
 The observations of Dr. Beaumont upon Alexander 
 St. Martin, whose stomach was perforated by the dis- 
 charge of a gun loaded with slugs, while engaged in 
 military service on the north-western frontier, leaving 
 an opening so that he could see the food during diges- 
 tion, establish, among many other interesting facts, 
 that about three hours are required to digest an ordi- 
 nary repast. During all of this time the stomach is 
 in constant motion, moving the food from one end of 
 it to the other, and mixing it with the gastric fluid 
 until it is finally dissolved or digested. 
 
 Now it is a natural law that all action is attended 
 with a loss of power, if not followed by rest ; and in- 
 asmuch as the stomach cannot rest during digestion it 
 must be allowed to remain empty until it recovers its 
 exhausted energies ! The habit of frequent eating is 
 injurious in two ways ; first, it keeps the stomach in 
 constant employment, thereby preventing the necessary 
 rest ; and, second, it deranges the process of digestion 
 by mixing fresh, crude food with that which is nearly 
 digested. If you were engaged in making mortar for 
 building purposes, and after you had it nearly prepared 
 and fit for use, some stranger should rudely mix with 
 it a quantity of fresh clay, you would be compelled to 
 go through the same process again ; and so it is with 
 digestion. Hence the impropriety of eating oftener 
 than once in six hours. 
 
68 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 This law should be strictly observed in infancy as 
 well as in after life. Young infants, during the first 
 few days, should be allowed to nurse as often as once 
 in three hours during the day, but never during the 
 night, if the mother values her own happiness as well 
 as that of her offspring. Children acquire habits while 
 very young, and if the mother allows them to nurse 
 during the night they will always want to. 
 
 The practice of giving children pieces between whiles 
 is exceedingly pernicious, and not only destroys their 
 health, but also their appetite for their regular meals. 
 Fruit, nuts, raisins and candy should never be eaten 
 between whiles, and only moderately at the time of 
 the usual repast. 
 
 6th. The condition of the body and mind exert a 
 great influence upon the digestive powers ! 
 
 If you examine figure 1, fronting the title page, you 
 will observe that the two great cavities of the chest 
 and abdomen appear to be very closely filled with 
 the vital and nutritive organs, in constant motion. 
 Now if we bend forward, in sitting or standing, we 
 diminish the size of these two great cavities, and thus 
 compress the stomach and prevent it from acting! 
 
 You have often observed while engaged in any se- 
 dentary employment, and bending forward, what relief 
 would be afforded by straightening up once in a while. 
 How often the young lady who is engaged leaning for- 
 ward, sewing, is compelled to raise up, on account of 
 the pain and uneasiness in the side, produced by press- 
 ing these organs against each other ! 
 
 The erect position of the body will be carefully 
 maintained in sitting or standing, in proportion as you 
 value the blessing of good health. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 69 
 
 Again: the human brain is connected with the 
 stomach by means of two very large nerves, which run 
 down on each side of the neck, and then along the 
 meat pipe to the stomach, giving off numerous branches 
 to the heart and lungs, &c. If you fall and injure 
 your head, or jar the brain, how soon it makes you 
 sick at the stomach. Vomiting often follows the slight- 
 est concussion or injury of the brain ! Indigestion is 
 often caused by nervous debility, produced by strong 
 physical, mental, or moral excitement, and it should 
 be carefully avoided by the dyspeptic. Gentle exercise 
 of the feelings in pleasing, social conversation, will 
 equalize the circulation of the blood, and communicate 
 a healthy stimulus to the digestive functions; and 
 hence, when the husband and father has completed his 
 frugal repast, he should take his children upon his 
 knees and play with them, and converse with his wife, 
 if he would relieve the cares of life, and promote the 
 healthy action of the various organs of his body. It 
 is these little acts of kindness, which contribute more 
 powerfully than pills and panacseas, to promote the 
 health and the happiness of his family ! 
 
 7th. It is a natural law that the habitual use of all 
 stimulants which first excite and then debilitate the 
 vascular and nervous systems, impairs the vigor of the 
 digestive powers. 
 
 Strong coffee is much worse than black tea, for the 
 dyspeptic, and all others laboring under the influence 
 of weak digestion, and should be carefully avoided. 
 The experiments of Dr. Beaumont, before mentioned, 
 show that the habitual use of spirituous liquors, in- 
 flames the lining surface of the stomach, and injures 
 
70 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 its functions; and consequently, the inebriate is rarely 
 free from the pains of indigestion. 
 
 Nor is the habitual use of that nauseous Indian 
 weed, tobacco, less injurious in its tendency or fatal in 
 its results. Tobacco is a powerful sedative, emetic, 
 and narcotic, and has recently been declared by Orfila, 
 the President of the French Academy of Medicine at 
 Paris, to be the most subtle poison known to the chem- 
 ist, except the deadly prussic acid ! A piece of the 
 dried leaf of tobacco of the size of a dime, when given 
 to a child a few years old, will produce vomiting, and 
 the most alarming weakness and general prostration. 
 If the smoker, who smokes his half-dozen of the best 
 Spanish, would hold the clean, white surface of a sheet 
 of letter paper over the smoke of a single cigar, as it 
 curls up in majestic clouds from his mouth, and after- 
 wards scrape the yellow oil of tobacco from its polished 
 surface with the point of his penknife, and insert it 
 beneath the skin on the nose of a mouse, it would kill 
 it in a few moments ! A few grains of that dark sedi- 
 ment which may be obtained in any old German pipe, 
 when placed upon the end of a dog's tongue, is almost 
 immediately destructive of life. Its active principle, 
 nicotina, has recently been used in Germany by the 
 Count De Bocarme, for the purpose of committing one 
 of the most atrocious murders on record ! Indeed, no 
 chemical fact is better established than that the active 
 principle of tobacco is one of the most subtle and 
 deadly poisons known. It is even more fatal than 
 arsenic, opium, corrosive sublimate, or mercury. (Sen- 
 sation.) 
 
 But you will inquire, if these statements are chemi- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 71 
 
 cal facts, how is it that so many can use it without 
 immediately destroying life 1 The answer is, because 
 nature has benevolently given us great powers of physi- 
 cal endurance, and not because the poison is innoxious. 
 The law of toleration is of the greatest importance to 
 the miserable victim of appetite and passion. It ena- 
 bles us to gradually increase the quantity of opium, 
 day by day, from one grain on up to a single drachm 
 at a dose : to gradually increase the dose of tartar 
 emetic, from one grain to sixty, without producing 
 vomiting: to increase the amount of whisky, from 
 one table-spoonful, up to a gallon a day, without 
 producing great intoxication, and it also enables us to 
 begin with a small quantity of tobacco each day, and 
 gradually increase it, day by day, until at last we be- 
 come accomplished and fashionable chewers, and can 
 chew a plug a day ! (Great sensation.) 
 
 Now does this law of habitual accommodation, prove 
 that all of these virulent poisons are not injurious to 
 the constitution of man I Certainly not ! These in- 
 teresting facts prove that the vital powers are indeed 
 prodigious, and that they are constantly endeavoring 
 to overcome all morbid and injurious influences, from 
 whatever source they may come; and although the 
 habitual use of these well known poisons may not 
 prove suddenly destructive to human life, they do not 
 the less certainly produce their legitimate influence 
 upon the human system by producing dyspepsia, 
 rheumatism, epilepsy, apoplexy, paralysis, palsy, ner- 
 vous debility, idiocy and insanity. During the last six 
 years, I have prescribed for more than ten thousand 
 cases of chronic diseases in the United States ; and I 
 
72 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 am thoroughly convinced, from very extensive observa- 
 tion, that more cases of the above diseases are produced 
 by the habitual use of tobacco, than from any other 
 known cause. A physician in the town of Brighton 
 informs me that he has attended thirteen cases of pa- 
 ralysis, during the last six months, produced by it. It 
 exhausts and destroys all of the vital and nervous 
 energies, and is the more dangerous inasmuch as its 
 destructive influences are gradually and almost imper- 
 ceptibly developed. Dr. Howe, the superintendent of 
 the Massachusetts Blind and Deaf Asylum at South 
 Boston, says that the habitual use of tobacco paralyzes 
 the optic and auditory nerves, and is one of the most 
 common causes of blindness and deafness. . I have re- 
 peatedly met with cases of diseased eyes that had 
 resisted all ordinary treatment with success, which were 
 speedily restored by ceasing to chew and smoke. In 
 consequence of its peculiar influence upon the nervous 
 system, it blunts the moral sensibilities, and impairs 
 the nervous energies, and weakens the mental faculties. 
 Indomitable energy and success in life are closely associ- 
 ated with each other. Let the young man look around 
 him in society and mark well the habits of those whose 
 fortunes he would covet, or whose fate he would avoid. 
 Have you ever known a young lad that commenced to 
 chew tobacco at the age of ten or twelve, to attain great 
 eminence in society, by the aid of his own genius and 
 energy] (Sensation.) I have never known a single 
 instance of a young lad who had acquired this perni- 
 cious habit in early life who ever attained great physical, 
 mental or moral excellence who ever became distin- 
 guished far above the great mass of mankind. The 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 73 
 
 habitual use of tobacco in early life softens the bones, 
 weakens the muscles, and impairs all of those vital 
 energies which are so essential to success in after life. 
 Its active principle is taken up by the absorbents of 
 the mouth, and permeates all of the tissues of the hu- 
 man body, completely saturating the whole system 
 with its peculiar properties, so that we may detect its 
 odor in the breath, and its presence in all of the 
 secretions. 
 
 I knew a young clergyman in the interior of Penn- 
 sylvania, the sheets of whose bed were as yellow as 
 saffron every Saturday night, from the tobacco which 
 had exhaled through his skin during the week; indeed, 
 his bed was a perfect smoke-house, and his body was 
 perfectly smoked and dried until it was as yellow as 
 a smoked herring ! (Great applause.) 
 
 Dr. Lawson, the surgeon general of the United 
 States army, who accompanied Gen. Scott to Mexico, 
 informs us that the wolves, the buzzards, and the jack- 
 als would not eat the smoked flesh of the smoker, 
 until they had eaten up all of the fresh ones among 
 the slain. Now, I would ask all of those who persist 
 in smoking and chewing, how they can expect these 
 refined young ladies, or rather angels, as they call 
 them, to accept and cherish, love and obey, what even 
 the buzzards would reject as worthless ! (Tremendous 
 applause.) 
 
 The habitual use of tobacco also weakens the ner- 
 vous system, and renders one cross, morose and irritable, 
 and often produces delirium and insanity. One of the 
 worst cases of delirium tremens that ever I attended 
 in my life, was a member of the " Sons of Temperance," 
 
74 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 and his disease was produced by the inordinate use of 
 tobacco. This disease, which I call the " tobacco tre- 
 mens," is far more common than is generally supposed. 
 
 Dr. Woodward, of the Worcester Insane Asylum, 
 and Dr. Brigham, of the Utica Insane Asylum, both 
 inform us that tobacco is frequently a cause of insan- 
 ity and idiocy. Now, if these statements do not arrest 
 the attention of the tobacco chewer and smoker, let 
 him consult his own feelings, and he will, in a large 
 majority of instances, find enough to convince the most 
 incredulous as to its injurious influence upon his body 
 and mind. 
 
 But again, the influence of tobacco is not only in- 
 jurious, bat it is a useless and filthy practice, impairing 
 our self respect, and rendering us careless of all per- 
 sonal appearances in our social intercourse with the 
 world around us. If any of the consumers of this 
 vile Indian weed doubt the truth of this observation, 
 let them visit with me, if they please, the house of the 
 young lady for whom they have experienced " the ten- 
 der passion." Perhaps we shall find her engaged in 
 the ordinary duties of housewifery making pies, for 
 instance, with the allspice and other spices spread 
 over the fruit upon their upper surface, and, at the 
 same time, a little cinnamon which she has just taken 
 from another box carelessly left upon the surface of the 
 upper lip. (Applause.) Or, perhaps we shall find 
 her kneading up the bread, with the yellow drop hang- 
 ing in doubtful security at the end of the nose. (Ap- 
 plause.) Or you may be like a friend of mine, not 
 long since, in the city of Pittsburg, who was very fond 
 of apple dumplings. He persuaded his landlady one 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 75 
 
 day to prepare some for dinner, and he noticed while 
 she was engaged in helping him to a liberal allowance, 
 that there was a yellow drop hanging to the end of 
 her nose immediately over his plate. He says he looked 
 up when she handed it to him and found the drop was 
 gone, and he soon ascertained that all of his appetite 
 had gone with it. He was seized with a dreadful 
 rolling sensation at the pit of his stomach, and he was 
 compelled hastily to leave the table. (Rounds of ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Suppose you should call some fine evening very un- 
 expectedly, as I did the other day, upon a certain young 
 lady, and detect her "enjoying her comfort," as they 
 call it in some parts of the country; that is, rubbing 
 her teeth with an old snuff rag, with her sleeves rolled 
 up, until the saliva and snuff run down and drop off 
 from her elbow should we not think that she was 
 very lady-like and refined ? What would you give for 
 the matrimonial prospects of such a young lady 1 ? 
 Do n't all speak at once, for there are enough of the 
 same sort left! (Applause.) Now what think you 
 must be the feelings of these young ladies, could they 
 observe you in the village bar-room, leaning back in 
 your easy chair, with your feet cocked up at an angle 
 of about forty-five degrees, engaged in nursing an old 
 filthy long-nine cigar 1 ? Would they think "your mo- 
 ther knew you were out," or would they send you back 
 to the nursery until you were old enough to wean 1 
 (Rounds of applause.) 
 
 Not long since, a friend of mine in one of the most 
 pleasant villages of the sunny South, called one day 
 upon a young lady to whom he was engaged to be 
 
76 LECTUKES ON THE 
 
 married, for the purpose of paying his respects to her. 
 Having arrived at the lady's residence, on this occasion 
 he forgot his usual custom of depositing his quid of 
 tobacco at the foot of the door steps; and, having 
 rung the bell, the young lady attended the summons 
 herself, and as she opened the door her dear Charles 
 rushed forward to imprint the expected salutation; and 
 as smack went the kiss, squirt went the juice of tobacco 
 all over the side of the lady's face informing her, for 
 the first time, that he was in the habit of using it 
 merely " for the sake of his health." (Applause.) 
 
 When our fashionable chewers and smokers get a 
 little older they throw off all bashfulness become 
 extremely polite and refined in their way, and if you 
 have a good carpet on the floor, they will show you 
 how much at home they are in your house, by spitting 
 great mouthsful of foetid saliva upon the floor; and 
 then, as if to cap the climax, rub it in with the foot! 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 Again : see how economical these nice young men 
 are of this "health-invigorating" vegetable. How 
 careful the young man is to take his quid out of his 
 mouth before eating his dinner, and secretly deposit it 
 in the bottom of his vest pocket (a laugh) ; and, after 
 he has eaten his repast, see how anxiously he fumbles 
 his pocket for this most precious morsel, in order that 
 he may return it to his mouth again ! (Great applause.) 
 Some neat housewives provide large earthen spittoons 
 for their dear loving husbands to spit in, in order that 
 they may preserve the carpet. Did any of you ever 
 examine one of these American notions (for, indeed, 
 they are almost entirely unknown in foreign countries,) 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 77 
 
 the character of its contents those huge quids, "old 
 sodgers," &c., floating in their appropriate element] 
 Can you imagine anything more appropriately termed 
 the filth of filthmess 1 ? And who, pray tell us, wash and 
 cleanse these spittoons from time to time, for our gen- 
 teel and nice young men 1 Why, their dear little an- 
 gels, to be sure ! (Applause.) Now, if I was one of 
 these ladies, and had a husband that insisted upon his 
 right to chew tobacco, I would not provide for him a 
 clean spittoon, but I would get a large gourd, and cut 
 a hole in it, and tie a tow string to it, and suspend it 
 around his neck, so that he could be just as indepen- 
 dent as he pleased, and spit in it just when he pleased, 
 without the least inconvenience ; and when he wanted 
 an emetic, all that he would have to do would be, to 
 look in it, and see it reflect his own image! (Rounds 
 of applause.) 
 
 But some will say : Doctor, I chew for the benefit of 
 my health, or to preserve my teeth, or to keep me from 
 growing too fat, &c. Well, now, if you really believe 
 that tobacco is good for all of these things that you 
 say it is good for, why don't you teach your wives and 
 your daughters to smoke and chew too, so as to pre- 
 serve their health, &e.? (A laugh.) It strikes me 
 that your conduct is very inconsistent, inasmuch as 
 you very generally deny the ladies' right to preserve 
 their own valuable lives by the same means which you 
 make use of for the preservation of your own ! The 
 truth is, every tobacco consumer has a secret knowledge 
 that its use is injurious to his health, and hence his 
 opposition to its use on the part of his family ; and the 
 only reason why he does not break oif the habit is, 
 
78 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 because he has not sufficient independence and resolu- 
 tion to enable him to do so. He is a slave, bound for 
 life ! A slave to his appetites and passions having the 
 means of freedom, and yet he will not be free! (Great 
 sensation.) How often I have been amused in listening 
 to the half-cracked voices of some of our young law- 
 yers, delivering an oration on the fourth of July. 
 When they become a little warm in defending the 
 right of the United Colonies to freedom and indepen- 
 dence of Old England, I have often noticed the yel- 
 low juice stealing down the corners of their mouths; 
 and I have thought to myself young man, with 
 ali your patriotism, you scarcely know what free- 
 dom is. That man only is truly free who has conquer- 
 ed his appetites, passions, and propensities. As long 
 as his appetite subjects his reason and his moral sen- 
 timents, he is not a freeman, nor is he independent. 
 (Sensation.) Talk of independence ! Why he is not 
 even independent of his tobacco box, which subjects 
 him to the most abject slavery known in modern times! 
 Not the slavery of brute force, but a slavery that is 
 infinitely worse the slavery of the passions over the 
 human will and understanding ! 
 
 Oh let me entreat the younger portions of this audi- 
 ence, who are just commencing to form habits for life, 
 to pause and reflect ere they put on the yoke of this 
 modern tyrant, who enslaves the mind and all of the 
 highest feelings and attributes of humanity! Look 
 around you in society, and mark well the habits of 
 those whose fortunes you would desire, or whose fate 
 you would abhor ! 
 
 Even as we walk these beautiful streets, we behold 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 79 
 
 numerous examples of the results of a vicious and ill- 
 spent life, and a life of practical righteousness ! "Here, 
 behold the patriarch, whose stock of vigor three score 
 years and ten seem scarcely to have impaired. His 
 erect form, his firm step, and elastic limbs, and un- 
 dimmed senses, are so many certificates of good con- 
 duct; or, rather, so many jewels and orders of nobility, 
 with which nature has honored him for his fidelity to 
 her laws. His fair complexion shows that his blood 
 has never been corrupted; his pure breath, that he 
 has never yielded his digestive apparatus for a vintner's 
 cess-pool ; his exact language and keen apprehension, 
 that his brain has never been drugged or stupefied by 
 poisons of distiller or tobacconist. Enjoying his ap- 
 petites to the highest, he has preserved the power of 
 enjoying them. Despite the moral of the school boy's 
 story, he has eaten his cake, and still he has kept it ! 
 As he drains the cup of life, there are no lees at the 
 bottom. His organs will reach the goal of their ex- 
 istence together. Painlessly, and as a lamp burns 
 down in its socket, so will he make his exit. 
 
 " Like an old clock, worn out by eating time, 
 " The weary wheels of life at last stand still 
 
 and a little imagination would transform him into an- 
 other Enoch, translated from earth to a better world 
 without the sting of death ! 
 
 " But look again at an opposite extreme, where an 
 opposite history is recorded. What wreck so shocking 
 to behold as the wreck of a dissolute man ; the vigor 
 of life exhausted, and yet the first steps in an honor- 
 able career not taken ; dead, but, by a heathenish cus- 
 tom of society, not buried! Rogues have had the 
 
80 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 
 
 initial letter of their title burnt into the palms of their 
 hands : even for murder, Cain was only branded on his 
 forehead, but over the whole system of the debauchee 
 or the inebriate the signatures of infamy are written. 
 How indignant nature brands him with the stigma of 
 opprobrium ! How she hangs labels over his person, 
 to testify her disgust at his existence, and to admonish 
 others to beware of his habits and example ! How 
 she loosens all his joints, and sends tremors along his 
 muscles, and bends forward his frame, as if to bring 
 him upon all fours with kindred brutes, or to degrade 
 him to the reptile's crawling ! How she disfigures his 
 countenance, as if intent upon obliterating all traces 
 of her own image, so that she may swear she never 
 made him ! How she pours rheum over his eyes, sends 
 foul spirits to inhabit his breath, and shrieks as with a 
 trumpet, from every pore of his body, behold a beast! 
 Such examples may be seen in the streets of our cities 
 every day ; and, if rich enough, they may be found in 
 the saloons and at the tables of the " upper ten ; " but, 
 surely, to every man of purity and honor, to every 
 man whose wisdom as well as whose heart is unblem- 
 ished, the wretch who comes cropped and bleeding 
 from the pillory and redolent with its appropriate per- 
 fumes would be a guest far less offensive and disgusting. 
 " Now let the younger members of this audience, 
 rejoicing in the vigor of health, and in the manliness 
 of their proportions, look upon these two pictures, 
 and say after the likeness of which model they design 
 that their own erect statues and sublime countenances 
 shall be configured." 
 
LECTURE III, 
 
 CIRCULATION OF ^THE BLOOD. 
 
 TTOUB, attention is invited, Ladies and Gentlemen, 
 J- this evening, to the consideration of the circulation 
 of the blood, and the organic laws which regulate the 
 healthy action of the heart, arteries, capillaries and 
 veins. If we examine many of the lower animals, we 
 shall not find any special system or apparatus con- 
 cerned in the circulation of the nutritious fluids from 
 one portion of their bodies to the other. In the centi- 
 pede or caterpillar we observe two small pulsating 
 blood-vessels, which distribute their blood from one 
 end of the animal to the other, without the agency of 
 any heart or central organ ; and if we examine the 
 frog, a little higher in the scale of animal life, we 
 shall find a perfectly formed heart, which contains but 
 two chambers or cavities ; whereas in man and all of the 
 higher animals it is a double organ, containing four 
 cavities, of which the two upper ones are called the 
 auricles and the two lower ones the ventricles, and 
 connected with them two kinds of blood-vessels, 
 called the arteries and the veins, which contain two 
 kinds of blood, called the red and the black blood. 
 The human heart, which is the great central organ 
 
84 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 concerned in the circulation of the blood, is, as you 
 will observe, situated much higher in the cavity of the 
 chest than is generally supposed, from the fact that its 
 pulsations are felt on the left side. If you will open 
 your right hand and place the ends of your fingers 
 upon the left side of the chest, where you feel the pul- 
 sations of the heart, and then let your wrist point to- 
 wards your right shoulder, your hand will then cover 
 the position of your heart. It lies diagonally across 
 the chest, with its apex directed towards the left side 
 and its base towards the right shoulder. Through the 
 lamentable want of information which prevails in 
 reference to the proper location of this vital organ, 
 some most ludicrous mistakes are made by invalids. 
 Not long since one of the daughters of the Green Isle 
 called upon me, professionally, saying, as she entered 
 my office, " Och ! Doctor dear, I have got sich an im- 
 pression at my heart ! " and at the same time pressing 
 her left side with both her hands (A laugh.) Upon 
 inquiry, I soon learned that she had eaten too freely of 
 " cod-fish and praties." (Applause.) 
 
 You will not fail to observe the close connection be- 
 tween the heart and the stomach. The apex of the 
 heart is only separated from the stomach by the walls 
 of the diaphragm or midriff, and both organs are sup- 
 plied with branches from the same nerves ; and hence 
 the intimate sympathy which exists between the stom- 
 ach and the heart. When the stomach is diseased or 
 deranged, its disease is reflected along these nerves to 
 the heart, causing palpitation, determination of blood 
 to the head, apoplexy and sudden death. More dis- 
 ease of the heart is produced from derangements of 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 85 
 
 the stomach than from all other causes combined ; and 
 hence the necessity of persons predisposed to these 
 affections paying particular attention to their diet and 
 to the laws which regulate the healthy action of the 
 digestive system. The heart is invested with the peri- 
 cardium or heart-case, which serves the purpose of 
 fastening the base of the organ to the spinal column, 
 and maintaining its proper position, while at the same 
 time its lining surface secretes a serous fluid which 
 lubricates the exterior surface of the heart, and pre- 
 vents the occurrence of friction from its constant pul- 
 sations. 
 
 The heart is about six inches in length and four 
 inches in diameter. It is composed of numerous bands 
 of fleshy substance or muscular fibres, which are dis- 
 tributed in different directions, crossing each other in 
 such a manner as to enable them to contract with great 
 force and power upon the column of blood contained 
 in its chambers and vessels. 
 
 If we open this beautiful organ, we shall observe that 
 it contains four distinct chambers ; two of which are 
 situated in the right side and two in the left. The 
 right side of the heart is connected with the veins, and 
 contains the dark, impure and venous blood. Its walls 
 are much thinner than those of the left side, and it is con- 
 tinually engaged in forcing the blood into the lungs on 
 each side of the heart, while the left side is continually 
 forcing the blood upwards into the head and arms, and 
 downwards into the lower extremities. In this beautiful 
 mechanical arrangement we have displayed the most 
 beautiful adaptation of means to ends, showing the 
 necessity of a great superior and controlling intelli- 
 
86 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 gence in its formation. Nature, indeed, is always 
 economical of material, and in no part of the system 
 of man do we find organs, except we have the evidence 
 of design in the adaptation of these organs to their 
 functions, displaying the intelligence and power of the 
 divinity, and leading the human mind, as it investigates 
 and reflects upon them, almost imperceptibly, through 
 nature up to nature's God. If we examine the cham- 
 bers of the heart, we shall find a funnel-shaped open- 
 ing or valve situated between them, in such manner as 
 to open and shut when the blood is forced by the con- 
 tractions of the heart from one chamber to the other. 
 These valves are composed of thin, transparent and 
 flexible membranes of a silvery whiteness, and open 
 and shut every time the heart beats or contracts. 
 Sometimes, in old people, and especially those who 
 have had frequent attacks of muscular rheumatism, 
 these valves become ossified, or converted into bone, 
 inducing disease of the heart and great derangement 
 of the circulation of the blood. 
 
 Having called your attention to the nature of the 
 apparatus concerned in the circulation of the blood, it 
 remains still further for me to explain to you its func- 
 tions and mode of operation. The veins which arise 
 in the head and arms finally terminate in one large 
 vein, called the descending vena cava ; while the veins 
 from the feet and lower extremities terminate in an- 
 other large vein, situated in the abdominal cavity, 
 called the ascending vena cava. These two large veins, 
 containing all of the dark, impure, or venous blood, 
 terminate in the right upper chamber of the heart. 
 As the right upper chamber of the heart opens, it re- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 87 
 
 ceives two ounces of this dark blood at a time, and 
 forces it down through the valve into the lower cham- 
 ber. The valve then closes, and the right lower cham- 
 ber of the heart forces the black blood out, through 
 the pulmonary artery, into the lungs, where it is puri- 
 fied and changes its color. It will be seen, from 
 observation, that the right side of the heart is only 
 concerned in circulating and sending the dark blood 
 to the lungs. The left upper chamber of the heart 
 opens and receives the red arterial blood from the 
 lungs, through the pulmonary veins, and forces it 
 down, through the left valve, into the left lower cham- 
 ber, which, in turn, forces it out through the great 
 aorta and its numerous branches, to all parts of the 
 body. Thus you will observe -that the heart forces the 
 blood out through the arteries to the different parts of 
 the body, while it returns through the corresponding 
 veins to the heart again. The force or power of the 
 human heart is estimated to equal from forty to sixty 
 pounds. It may be compared to a kind of hydraulic 
 engine, continually forcing the blood out through the 
 main artery and its numerous branches; and if any 
 of these branches should be accidentally cut or divided, 
 all of the blood contained in the arteries would be 
 forced out through the opening, producing death. 
 Now, as such accidents are continually occurring in 
 different parts of this country, and as death frequently 
 takes place from the hemorrhage, it becomes a matter 
 of the highest interest and importance for us to acquire 
 a knowledge of the means of stopping bleeding, in 
 case of the accidental injury of our bodies. Igno- 
 rance upon this subject is the more inexcusable, inas- 
 
88 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 much as such knowledge is so easily acquired in a 
 short period of time ! If you examine the heart, you 
 will observe that it gives off only one large artery, 
 which bends around over the top of this organ, form- 
 ing a beautiful arch; and from this arch you will 
 observe two branches ascending the neck, towards the 
 head and face. These branches arise from this arch, 
 in front of the root of the neck, and wind around it 
 as they ascend towards the ear, where they divide into 
 two principal branches, one of which enters the crani- 
 um or skull, to nourish the brain, and the other 
 ascends just in front of the ear, and separates into 
 several branches, which are distributed to the parts on 
 each side of the head. Now if any of you have fully 
 come to the determination of cutting your own throats, 
 I hope you will not do it so clumsily as the great ma- 
 jority do, by cutting immediately under your chin, in 
 front, -for, as you see, it is a long distance back to the 
 ear, where the arteries are, and you would make an 
 ugly wound without doing yourself much harm ! Now 
 don't suppose for an instant that I want you to cut 
 your own throats merely for the sake of pleasing me, 
 but if you are determined to do such a disagreeable 
 and foolish act, you should cut lower down, and it 
 wont hurt near so bad. (Great laughter.) But don't 
 suppose for a moment that I am going to encourage 
 people to commit suicide ; on the contrary, I am 
 going to prevent it by diffusing anatomical informa- 
 tion. None but a foolish or an insane man would ever 
 think of destroying his existence by violence. Physi- 
 cians know too much, and not too little, to commit 
 suicide ! 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 89 
 
 If you wish to arrest the hemorrhage from any of 
 the small arterial branches above the ear, on each side 
 of the head, you must place your finger, or any hard 
 substance, upon the main artery, in front of the ear, 
 on the side that is injured, and press against the blood 
 vessel. In this way you will stop the circulation to 
 the parts above, and arrest the bleeding. 
 
 In the same way, bleeding may be stopped from 
 any of the small arteries below the eye, on each side of 
 the face. All of these small arteries that are distrib- 
 uted to the outside of the nose, the lips, and muscles 
 of the face, spring from one main artery, that passes 
 up over the under jaw, about half way from its angle 
 to the point of the chin. If you place a penny upon 
 the surface of the skin, over the jaw, as above indica- 
 ted, and press gently against it with your thumb and 
 finger, you will speedily arrest the circulation of the 
 blood through this artery, and, of course, control the 
 hemorrhage from the parts above. 
 
 If you examine the anatomy of the arm, you will 
 ascertain that all of the blood which is distributed to 
 the muscles of the fore-arm, the wrist, hands and 
 fingers, passes through one main artery, which curves 
 around beneath the collar bone, and makes its appear- 
 ance beneath the skin and cellular tissue, on the inside 
 of the arm, six inches below the external extremity of 
 the collar bone, where it may be felt pulsating like the 
 artery at the wrist. If you accidentally injure your 
 fingers, hand, or wrist, or any of the parts below the 
 elbow, you may stop the bleeding by pressing gently 
 against this main artery. 
 
 You will also observe that the large abdominal aorta 
 
90 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 divides into two large branches, which descend to the 
 lower extremities, where they divide and subdivide in- 
 to a great number of very small branches, which are 
 distributed to the toes, the instep, the ankle, &c. If 
 you cut your foot, or injure any of these numerous 
 arterial branches below the knee, the flow of blood 
 may be arrested by gentle pressure upon this large 
 artery, which may be felt immediately beneath the skin, 
 on the inside of the thigh, where it escapes from the 
 abdominal cavity. 
 
 It is a much easier task for the youngest boys and 
 girls in this audience to learn the positions of the 
 principal blood vessels in their systems, and thus be 
 enabled to control hemorrhage, in case of accident, 
 than it is for them to obtain a knowledge of the prin- 
 cipal rivers which run through the United States; 
 and which do you think would be of the greatest 
 practical importance to know one's self, or to know 
 all about the State of Ohio, or the various States of the 
 American Union ? Is it not passing strange that such 
 practical information, so easily obtained, should so 
 long have been neglected by the great mass of man- 
 kind; especially, when it is remembered that there is 
 no knowledge which adds so much dignity to the hu- 
 man mind and heart as self-knowledge! Not long 
 since, a young lad, the son of a poor widow woman, 
 residing in a distant part of the county of Philadelphia, 
 was returning to his home from the High School un- 
 der the charge of Professor Hart, where he had been 
 taught the principles of human physiology ; and as he 
 was walking along the road, his attention was attracted 
 by the cries of distress which came from a number of 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 91 
 
 Irishmen that were engaged in making an excavation 
 for building purposes. Upon inquiring what was the 
 cause of their distress, he soon learned that a large 
 stone had fallen down from above and cut off the ar- 
 teries in the wrist of one of their comrades, and he 
 was bleeding to death. Nothing daunted, this intrepid 
 young lad stepped forward and immediately grasped 
 his arm and pressed upon the main artery, and 
 stopped the bleeding from the wound immediately, 
 as if it had been touched by the magician's wand. 
 (Applause.) When they saw that the young man had 
 saved the life of their comrade, they were almost ready 
 to worship him, declaring that he was an angel sent 
 down from heaven ! Such, my friends, is the awe and 
 respect which the possession of true knowledge pro- 
 duces in the uninformed mind. Even the untutored 
 savage looks with wonder and amazement upon the 
 philosopher who, by means of superior knowledge, is 
 enabled to control the elements, and thus produce the 
 results which he desires. 
 
 If we examine the blood, by the agency of a micro- 
 scope, we shall find that it contains numerous small 
 circular disks, called blood corpuscles, which contain 
 a considerable quantity of iron in their centres, enabling 
 them to become the vehicles for the introduction of 
 oxygen and the expulsion of carbonic acid gas from the 
 system. It is a well known chemical fact, that iron has 
 a strong affinity for oxygen, which soon converts it 
 into the red oxide or rust of iron. Now when these 
 small bodies are sent out by the right side of the heart, 
 with the venous blood, to the lungs, and are brought 
 in contact with the air which we breathe, the iron 
 
92 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 which they contain unites with the oxygen of the 
 atmosphere, which changes its dark color to a bright 
 red ; and, upon returning again to the heart, these red 
 blood corpuscles are distributed through the arteries to 
 all of the different parts of the human body. The 
 vital air, which we respire, does not stop in the lungs, 
 but is carried by these small bodies, contained in the 
 blood, to all of the different tissues of the system, for 
 the purpose of consuming their old worn out particles, 
 and thus preventing their accumulation, and at the 
 same time producing the necessary supply of animal 
 heat. It will thus be seen that the human body is 
 a kind of volcano, continually on fire, and the lungs 
 and arteries are the ventilators and flues through which 
 the air is introduced for the purpose of fanning its 
 smouldering embers. But, you will say, if this is true, 
 why is it that the system does not explode and burn 
 up 1 The answer is, because the ventilators are not 
 large enough to let in sufficient air. If they were, 
 the body would ignite and burn up in a few moments. 
 If you kindle a fire in a furnace and close the damper, 
 the fire burns slowly; but if you attach the bel- 
 lows and blow in a steady stream of fresh air, the fire 
 burns brilliantly and produces the most intense heat ; 
 and so, also, with the human body. If you breathe 
 fast, and introduce great quantities of air through 
 your lungs, the heat of the body is increased in a cor- 
 responding ratio. All of the oily and sweet food which 
 we eat from time to time, is not used to make bone and 
 flesh, but simply as fuel to supply these vital fires. 
 Consequently, the more of such food we eat, and the 
 more exercise we take, the warmer the body will be- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 93 
 
 tome. The Esquimaux and the Greenlander are com- 
 pelled, from necessity, to subsist upon the oil of the 
 whale and the fat of the polar bear, in order to pre- 
 serve their lives in those cold regions ; while the same 
 food, if used in this country, will produce many inflam- 
 matory affections. During the winter season, our ap- 
 petites crave large quantities of fat meat, rich gravies, 
 butter, &c., and who has not noticed how the stomach 
 loathes the same kinds of food during the month of 
 August ] 
 
 " The moist cool viands, then, and the flowing bowl, 
 From the fresh dairy virgin's liberal hand, 
 Will save your head from ache or pain, 
 Though round the world the dreaded fever 
 Rolls his wasteful fires." 
 
 If you would, then, be free from fevers and various 
 affections accompanied with inflammation, which prove 
 so destructive to human life during the warm season 
 of the year, you must avoid all gross food of an oily 
 or saccharine character, as the use of such diet will in- 
 crease the temperature of the body and strongly pre- 
 dispose you to all such affections. And again, if you 
 labor under the influence of fever, accompanied with 
 increased heat of the body, you may diminish this in- 
 creased heat by eating only the smallest quantity of 
 bland food, like rice-water, or a little slippery-elm tea. 
 If you continue, under such circumstances, to eat the 
 usual quantity of various kinds of food, you will but 
 add fuel to the flames which already consume you, and 
 hasten the rapidity of the advance of this fatal disease. 
 If your house were on fire and you wished to put it 
 out, would you do so by pouring oil on the flames 1 
 
94 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Certainly not ; but you would rather remove all com- 
 bustible material, so as to dimmish the violence of the 
 conflagration, and, if possible, save the dwelling ; and 
 so also of the house we live in. When this fair fabric 
 is attacked with the flames of fever, all food but adds 
 fuel to the raging conflagration which burns within us, 
 and abstinence affords us the only true means of saving 
 the dwelling and curing the disease. 
 
 The human heart beats about seventy times each min- 
 ute, four thousand two hundred times an hour, and 
 about a hundred thousand times every twenty-four 
 hours, during the length of our lives. Every time that 
 the heart beats, it forces out of each of its cavities about 
 two ounces of blood, or one hundred and forty ounces 
 each minute, two hogsheads full an hour, and about 
 eight tons of blood every twenty-four hours. The 
 amount of blood contained in the human body, is esti- 
 mated to equal about twenty-eight pounds, and, conse- 
 quently, it all passes through the heart once in two 
 minutes and a half. 
 
 The heart is, in many respects, one of the most inter- 
 esting organs of the human body. The ingenuity and 
 skill displayed in its formation will excite the wonder 
 and admiration of the most profound philosopher. Its 
 untiring industry, and the amount of labor which it 
 performs during the period of three score years and ten, 
 will almost exceed the bounds of human credulity. 
 And yet, strange to say, it never stops to sleep or rest, 
 but labors both night and day. How vastly superior 
 in this respect it is to any machinery which is the re- 
 sult of mere human ingenuity! It is also frequently 
 in poetical language, spoken of as the seat of the aflec 
 
 V 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 95 
 
 tions, for the reason that many of our mental and moral 
 feelings and sympathies seem to expend their chief in- 
 fluence upon this organ. 
 
 The Bible speaks of the heart of man as being 
 " desperately wicked," &c., but this observation, in my 
 opinion, does not refer ,,to man's carnal, but to his spir- 
 itual heart. Our spiritual heart is the center of our 
 feelings, while our carnal heart is incapable of any 
 sensation whatever, and is only useful to circulate 
 the blood. Some of our mental emotions, or pas- 
 sions and sympathies, appear to expend their chief 
 influence upon one organ, and some upon the other 
 organs of the human body. We read of " the breath- 
 lessness of despair," and in the Sacred Scriptures of the 
 heart leaping for joy, and the bowels of compassion, 
 &c. Anger, jealousy and revenge, exhaust and depress 
 the action of the heart and arteries, and thus become 
 the cause of many fatal maladies ! 
 
 Observe but for a moment, the form and features of 
 him whose constitution is convulsed with all of the 
 fierce passions of those demons, anger and revenge ! 
 How his skin withers and his countenance pales, as 
 the blood recedes from the surface and sinks into the 
 deep seated organs, engorging the heart and lungs, 
 rupturing their delicate tissues, and frequently produc- 
 ing sudden death ; or by the frequent recurrence of 
 these passions, finally inducing chronic organic diseases 
 of a painful character, and fatal tendency ! Says Dr. 
 James Johnson : " The nature of many of the mala- 
 dies of the body, clearly illustrates the mental and 
 moral causes from which so many of them have sprung. 
 Thus the brain or organ of the mind being kept in a 
 
96 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 state of over-exertion or over-excitement, by emulation 
 competition, anger, anxiety, tribulation and sorrow, 
 naturally exhibits the effects of such a condition in 
 its own functions or in the functions of other organs 
 with which it is linked in the closest bonds of sympa- 
 thy. 
 
 The fury of politics, the hazards and anxieties of 
 commerce the jealousies, envies, and rivalries of the 
 professions the struggles and contentions of trade 
 the privations, discontents, and despair of poverty 
 to which might perhaps be added the terrors of super- 
 stition, and the hatred of sectarianism : these are the 
 chief foundations of our moral ills, and these mental 
 perturbations induce, directly and indirectly, a large 
 proportion of the diseases of the body ! 
 
 Diseases of the heart were so little attended to pre- 
 vious to the old French revolution, as to be scarcely 
 noticed by medical writers. The portentous scenes oi 
 that eventful period called forth such a multitude oi 
 examples of that fatal disease, that a volume was soon 
 written on the subject, by Corvisart ; and the menta] 
 excitation which has continued ever since, has perpet- 
 uated the tendency to affections of this organ, which 
 are now among the most prominent and dreadful oi 
 human afflictions ! In a democratic republic, so full oi 
 incentives to action, and rewards for achievement, the 
 emulation of youth gradually slides into the ambition 
 of manhood. That which was in early life only a laud- 
 able desire to excel in literature, the arts and sciences ; 
 if not carefully repressed, becomes in manhood a pas- 
 sion for outstripping and eclipsing our neighbors ir 
 rank, wealth, estimation, power, and all the thousand 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 97 
 
 objects and pursuits of ambition ! These passions and 
 feelings were, no doubt, wisely conferred upon man, 
 though too often unwisely exercised, and have been 
 differently viewed by different philosophers. By some, 
 they have been deduced from heaven itself, and repre- 
 sented as glowing in the breasts of kings and heroes. 
 These, however, were not the sentiments of a man who 
 climbed its giddy heights fathomed its treacherous 
 depths and tasted its dangerous sweets ! 
 
 " Cromwell ! I charge thee fling away ambition ! 
 By that sin the angels fell !" 
 
 The hero of Macedon found the reward of his ambi- 
 tion in the Granicus, Hannibal in exile, Caesar in the 
 senate, Sidney on the scaffold ! And Sweden's " mad 
 monarch " touched the goal of his ambition at Pulto- 
 wa Wolsey in disgrace, and Napoleon in captivity! 
 
 Ten thousand illustrious victims of ambition might 
 be cited, whose shades might possibly be soothed by 
 the celebrity of their fates ; but who could number the 
 myriads who have fallen sacrifices to passion, without 
 the consolation of sympathy from friends, or the honor 
 of a record in history ! In every gradation of society, 
 from the minister who steers the vessel of state, down 
 to the reckless driver of the cab or the omnibus, ambi- 
 tion, in one or another of its protean shapes, is the 
 ruling passion, which too often destroys the body, and 
 endangers the soul ! 
 
 But again: it affords me the greatest pleasure, as a 
 physician, to be able to testify to you that the habitual 
 exercise of all of the moral sentiments, exerts a benign 
 and soothing influence upon the physical constitution 
 of man, and tends to prolong his existence to a green 
 7 
 
98 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 old age. Under the influence of the habitual exercise 
 of these kindly emotions, the heart leaps for joy, and 
 sends the blood with a thrill of rapture into all of the 
 minute blood-vessels of the system. Who, indeed, has 
 not felt that glow of pleasure and satisfaction which 
 follows the act of charity 1 It is such a spirit and con- 
 duct as this, which blesses the giver as well as the 
 receiver! Cultivate, then, the sentiments of venera- 
 tion, benevolence, love, hope, charity, and the kindest 
 feelings towards all mankind. 
 
 The vigorous and healthy action of the organs con- 
 cerned in the circulation of the blood, is indispensable 
 to the maintenance of our highest physical, mental, 
 and moral powers. The blood is the vital and nutri- 
 tive fluid which stimulates all of the different organs 
 to perform their appropriate functions. If we com- 
 press the main artery which carries the blood into the 
 arm and hand, these parts wither and decay. If we 
 diminish the amount of blood sent to the brain, this 
 organ dries and withers, and the mental and moral 
 powers decline in a corresponding ratio ! And hence 
 it becomes a matter of the greatest interest and impor- 
 tance for us to understand the laws which regulate its 
 healthy action. 
 
 1st. It is a natural law, that compression of the 
 chest diminishes the action of the heart, and impedes 
 the circulation of the blood ! If you will examine the 
 bony frame-work of the chest, you will observe its great 
 delicacy and susceptibility of compression. Now the 
 heart and lungs, as you will observe, are so arranged 
 as accurately and closely to fill every part of its inter- 
 nal cavity ; and if the dress fits closely to the ribs, and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 99 
 
 is lined with inelastic brown linen, and filled with 
 pieces of whalebone or hickory wood, it forces the ribs 
 in against the lungs, diminishing the size of the cavity 
 of the chest, and impeding the freedom of the motions 
 of the heart. If the great majority of our fashionable 
 belles and beaux, could look down beneath this mass 
 of bones and buckram forming the waist of a dress 
 made in the latest style, and witness the struggles of 
 the heart to perform its appropriate functions, it would 
 fill them with well-founded alarm for its fatal conse- 
 quences ! 
 
 Observe, if you please, for a moment, the ribs of this 
 natural chest, while I press with my hands against 
 them, in imitation of the influence which is produced 
 by the close-fitting garment. What, think you, must 
 be the awful consequences of diminishing the size of 
 the cavity of the chest, which is filled with your vital 
 organs ? Can it be possible that such habits should 
 fail to produce pulmonary engorgements, consumption, 
 and premature death 1 ? 
 
 The amount of pain, disease, and human suffering 
 which is produced by this foolish fashion, can scarcely 
 be imagined except by those whose calling renders it 
 necessary for them to be familiar with diseases and 
 their causes. The heart dilates and contracts, or opens 
 and shuts, every time it beats or pulsates ; and if the 
 ribs are forced inwards against it, the effect must be to 
 enfeeble its powers of action, and diminish the vitality 
 of all of the different organs of the body. 
 
 How often you have noticed its blighting and with- 
 ering influence upon the vital functions and voluntary 
 powers, in churches and fashionable assemblies, where 
 
100 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 the chests of the fairer portion of humanity were clad, 
 not in steel armor, but in the habiliments and trappings 
 of fashion, depressing and diminishing the action of the 
 heart to such a degree as to render it incapable of trans- 
 mitting a sufficient amount of blood upwards to the base 
 of the brain, to maintain the voluntary powers; causing 
 them, in many instances, to faint and fall upon the floor! 
 Now, all of the good old ladies in this assembly under- 
 stand the cause of this fainting as well as I do; and you 
 will generally see them, when such accidents occur, 
 seize the young lady under each arm, and hurry her out 
 of the meeting-house, at the same time glancing around 
 slyly, to see if any of the young men are watching them 
 to ascertain what is the matter ; and the moment they 
 get behind the door, the way the strings and the hooks 
 and eyes fly (tumultuous applause.) These fash- 
 ionable ladies that dress too tightly may always be 
 known in any church, because it makes them so weak 
 that they cannot stand up until the prayers are through 
 without fainting, and consequently they are compelled 
 to sit down, as they become exhausted. Now, is it not 
 monstrous blasphemy, that human beings should go up 
 to the temple of worship of the living God, with chests 
 dressed so tightly that their eyes stick out like cups 
 and saucers, from the danger of suffocation] (Great 
 applause and sensation.) What, think you, must be 
 the influence of this habit, when long continued, upon 
 the moral, physical, and intellectual powers of woman? 
 The mind and the moral sentiments are not independent 
 of matter, during this life, and until they become so, 
 we must beware of all those fashions and habits which 
 enslave but to destroy this beautiful temple of the living 
 soul! 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 101 
 
 It is a fact not well understood by the votary of 
 fashion and folly, that whatever diminishes the powers 
 of the human heart, also diminishes the amount of 
 blood sent up to the base of the brain, and consequent- 
 ly, that small waists and small brains are most inti- 
 mately associated with each other ! (Sensation and 
 applause.) Examine the long catalogue of female poets, 
 philanthropists, and scholars those who have written 
 works that have rendered their names illustrious, and 
 have twined around the brow of woman the halo of 
 glory such as the works of a Madame de Stael, Mrs 
 Cook, Lady Blessington, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney, 
 and others equally distinguished works that shall 
 live so long as time shall last, as proud monuments to 
 the genius, beauty, and goodness of woman. If you 
 will examine the busts and portraits of these illustrious 
 women, you will find nothing of that delicate imbecility 
 and beautiful weakness so characteristic of the daugh- 
 ters of modern fashion and folly! They all had large 
 hearts, and " great coarse waists " to contain them ! 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Oh, I tell you, my young friends, however lightly 
 we may think of this subject, we are all deeply inter- 
 ested in the improvement of the condition of woman ; 
 for it is woman that determines the condition of the 
 race. Color, form, features, consumption, gout, rheu- 
 matism, scrofula, idiocy and insanity are all hereditary. 
 They descend from the mother to her oifspring nor 
 human law nor human device can break the entailment ! 
 Thank Heaven ! man, in his selfishness and power, 
 cannot degrade woman without degrading himself! 
 
102 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 " The woman's cause is man's ; 
 They rise or sink together, dwarfed or god-like, 
 Bond or free. If she be slight, ill-formed, miserable, 
 How shall men grow ? We aid them both 
 In aiding her : * * 
 
 * * * the parasitic forms 
 
 That seem to keep her up, but drag her down. 
 
 Leave her to bloom 
 
 From all within her make herself her own ; 
 To give or keep, to do and be all that not harms 
 Distinctive womanhood." 
 
 The mothers of America must determine the sons of 
 America. If they be mere creatures of sentiment arid 
 fashion, their children will be corresponding men ! 
 
 2d. It is a natural law, that the habitual exercise of 
 all of our physical, moral and mental powers, stimulates 
 the heart and arteries, and promotes the healthy circu- 
 lation of the blood. 
 
 If we recline in a horizontal position upon a mattress, 
 the heart beats slowly ; and hence this is the proper 
 position for all of us to assume in febrile affections, 
 attended with vascular excitement. If we sit or stand, 
 the heart beats faster, and if we walk, run, or labor, 
 the number of its pulsations is increased in proportion 
 to the activity of the body. 
 
 The habitual exercise of all of our intellectual facul- 
 ties and moral sentiments, determines the blood towards 
 . the head, which stimulates and develops the brain, and 
 promotes the healthy action of the nervous system. 
 Observe but for a moment the influence of feeling, 
 thought, sensation, and passion, as you comtemplate 
 the orator and poet, who*, 
 
 " With lips tipped with the fires of Heaven," 
 pours forth his thoughts in words of burning eloquence! 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 103 
 
 How the large blood-vessels upon his forehead and 
 temples are distended with hot and generous blood, 
 stimulating and arousing all the dormant energies of 
 the human mind ! 
 
 Man is indeed the creature of action. From the 
 period of his birth until he disappears from the stage 
 of life, the various organs of his body exhibit one con- 
 tinuous round of busy employment, and however un- 
 pleasant it may be to the indolent, still they must learn 
 that there is no excellence which can be secured, 
 either physical, moral or mental, but by unceasing ex- 
 ertion ! Who, indeed, discovered this vast continent 
 who spread beneath these western forests, the peace- 
 ful hamlet of the husbandman, but the hardy and ad- 
 venturous ] Who rear these western cities as if by 
 the influence of enchantment ] Who have constructed 
 these magnificent temples of worship, and caused these 
 western wilds to flourish and blossom like the rose ? 
 Who have covered the surface of our numerous inland 
 seas and rivers, with whitening sails of busy commerce, 
 but the active and industrious ] Again, look around 
 you, but for a moment, and observe who fill with credit, 
 your public offices of honor and profit I Many of your 
 most illustrious citizens were but yesterday the sons 
 of poverty and toil ! By their own ceaseless exertions 
 they have mounted, step by step, until they have 
 reached the uppermost round upon the ladder of fame. 
 By trimming again and again the midnight lamp, they 
 have ascended the steep and rugged declivities of the 
 mount of science, and are now reaping the rich reward 
 of their industry in the honor and applause of their 
 countrymen ! What they have done can also be ac- 
 complished by you. 
 
104 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 "In the lexicon of youth, 
 
 Which fate has reserved for a bright and glorious manhood, 
 There is no such word as fail! " 
 
 Idleness and indolence, are indeed, the greatest 
 physical, mental and moral curses. They are the pale 
 and withering pestilence which dries up the fountain 
 of life and envelops the noblest sentiments and facul- 
 ties of man in an impenetrable cloud of darkness ! 
 
 Poets and metaphysicians may talk of genius and 
 the innate powers of the human mind ; but that quali- 
 ty which renders one man more successful than anoth- 
 er, is the genius of industry which overcomes all obsta- 
 cles and accomplishes all results ! (Applause.) 
 
 3d. It is a natural law, that the purification of the 
 blood depends upon the healthy action of the skin, 
 lungs and various secreting organs ! 
 
 It is the prevailing opinion, among the great masses 
 of mankind, that many of the diseases which humani- 
 ty is heir to, are produced by impurities of the blood, 
 for the removal of which, immense quantities of medi- 
 cine are taken in this country, producing a vast 
 amount of human suffering. So extensively prevalent 
 is this foolish idea, that the blood is cleansed and puri- 
 fied by means of roots and herbs, that a swarm of 
 hungry wolves, in sheep's clothing, have not scrupled 
 to avail themselves of it in order to deceive and rob 
 the uninformed. Indeed the aggregate amount of 
 patent medicines, all purporting to cleanse and purify 
 the blood, which are made in our principal cities and 
 distributed throughout the land by means of numer- 
 ous agents, would, if collected together, exceed the 
 bounds of human credibility ! From the shores of the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 105 
 
 Atlantic to the golden sands of the Pacific, these 
 numerous agents may be seen busily wending their 
 way, some in splendid equipages, stopping only at the 
 principal towns to deposit their loathsome poisons, 
 falsely labeled Balsams and Elixirs of Life, Indian 
 Vegetable Pills, and Panaceas, &c., while others, in 
 more humble circumstances, walk basket in hand, 
 calling upon the inhabitants from house to house, 
 leaving, whenever they can get permission to do so, 
 their infernal preparations, requesting the people to 
 try them, and if they don't like them they will call and 
 get them again, during the next year. They dont say 
 who will bury the dead if the medicines happen to kill 
 them! (a laugh) or perhaps they think, as "dead 
 men tell no tales," there is no danger. If one of the 
 children gets an ache or pain, from eating too much, 
 the mother is sure to remember the Doctor's pills ; and 
 if the child recovers after taking them, the medicine 
 is sure to get the credit of performing the cure. One 
 of these traveling pill peddlers assurred me, not long 
 since, that he should clear over ten thousand dollars a 
 year in this way. 
 
 Now the profession themselves are responsible for 
 the prevalence of many of these notions, and for the 
 spread of this quackery, imposition and deception. 
 Indeed they have long taught the people that their 
 blood was too thick and impure, and that it must be 
 thinned and cleansed by bleeding and taking physic, 
 especially in the spring of the year. I remember very 
 well, when I was a young rogue, how my parents used 
 to hold my nose to make me take molasses and sulphur 
 every spring, because " the Doctor said it was good 
 
106 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 for the blood!" (Applause.) But somehow or other, 
 those children who took the most medicine were always 
 unwell ! Now if we undertake to inform these medi- 
 cal wiseacres of the danger of following such advice, 
 they cry out, like the high priests of old, that the craft 
 is in danger, by the spread of information which teaches 
 the public how much many of these old medical gran- 
 nies know ! (Applause.) 
 
 The reason why those children who are constantly 
 taking medicine are always delicate and sickly, will 
 not appear so strange, when I explain the influence of 
 these agents upon the human system. 
 
 Emetics, when taken into the stomach, do not purify 
 the blood, as many suppose, but act as mechanical 
 irritants, often inducing inflammation and a long train 
 of gastric derangements, which are fatal in their results ! 
 At first, an emetic appears to stimulate the lining sur- 
 face of the stomach, increasing its peristaltic or rolling 
 motions ; second, it secretes large quantities of ropy 
 mucus, to protect its lining surface from the irritating 
 and injurious effects of the emetic ; thirdly, if the dose 
 is sufficiently large, the stomach collects all its ener- 
 gies, and contracts spasmodically for the purpose of 
 expelling it from the system ! 
 
 The use of an emetic, then, must, under any and all 
 circumstances, be considered a serious evil, and only 
 justifiable to remove a greater evil as for instance, 
 when you eat and drink enough to produce serious dis- 
 ease, or when you swallow poison, or anything which 
 would endanger your life ! The same is true of all 
 cathartic pills, and panaceas, and bitters. When taken 
 into the stomach, they exert an influence upon its lining 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 107 
 
 surface analogous to that produced by a blister when 
 applied to the skin, irritating and inflaming it, and 
 causing it to secrete large quantities of ropy mucus, 
 for the purpose of protecting it from its injurious influ- 
 ences. It is in this way that the system is relaxed or 
 debilitated. In all this confusion and turmoil, pro- 
 duced by the use of physic, there is no purifying influ- 
 ence exerted upon the blood. That wonderful fluid 
 is purified, as you shall see in my next lecture, by the 
 skin and lungs, and not by the bowels. What, then, 
 shall we say of the trade of these pill peddlers and em- 
 pirics, who, by means of specious representations, and 
 the publication of lying certificates, succeed so well in 
 robbing the credulous and unsuspecting invalid of 
 the scanty earnings of many a hard day's toil beneath 
 the burning rays of a summer's sun I What shall we 
 say of the wretch who deliberately bottles up his poi- 
 sons, knowing them to be such, and sends them out 
 into the community, who are entirely ignorant of their 
 nature and influence, merely for the sake of amassing 
 a princely fortune, to build palaces, and riot in the 
 splendors of affluence ! Is it not infamous enough to 
 deal out to healthy and strong-minded men, that which 
 will despoil them of their reason, and blunt their moral 
 sensibilities ? And how much more so is the conduct 
 of the empiric, who would avail himself of the weak- 
 ness of the uninformed, and of the great mental anxiety 
 of the diseased and distressed, to raise fond hopes by 
 his false and flattering advertisements, in order that he 
 may the more successfully deceive and destroy ! 
 
 The great mass of mankind are unacquainted with 
 the restorative powers of the human constitution, and 
 
108 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 hence their superstitious reliance upon medicine for the 
 relief of every ache and complaint ! It is an old apho- 
 rism, that " Physicians will not take their own reme- 
 dies." And why? Simply because they are better 
 acquainted with themselves, and the nature and causes 
 of disease. It is almost an invariable rule, that the 
 physicians who take the least medicine, give the least 
 to their patients. Ask these Dr. Moffats, Townsends, 
 Brandreths, Jaynes, &c., if they take their own medi- 
 cines, and you will be astonished at their reply. When 
 physicians get sick, they stop eating, and rest until the 
 vital powers recover their exhausted energies, and the 
 wheels of weary life move on ! (Sensation.) 
 
 Medicine has been termed by Dr. Johnson, "the art 
 of amusing the patient, while nature cures the disease." 
 (Applause.) Physicians must prescribe a little medi- 
 cine, in order to retain the confidence of the patient 
 and his friends, and give nature time and opportunity 
 to perform the cure! The mind and moral nature 
 exert a great influence over disease. Faith, indeed, 
 in medicine, " will remove mountains " of disease ! And 
 confidence, when assisted by exercise, diet, fresh air, 
 cleanliness, and proper regimen, has enabled all sys- 
 tems of medicine to perform marvelous cures ! The 
 use of medicine also renders the patient more careful 
 to follow the proper regimen or course of diet and ex- 
 ercise essential to effect a cure of his disease, and it 
 also satisfies the mind. Whenever I have occasion to 
 prescribe a rigid system of diet and abstinence on the 
 part of the patient, to cure any disease, and I think 
 there is any danger of the patient's failing to follow 
 the directions, I usually prepare a little burnt flour 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 109 
 
 or sugar, and tell them to be sure and take it just three 
 times a day, half an hour before eating, and to be care- 
 ful and not eat any buckwheat cakes and sausages 
 afterwards ; as this powerful medicine is incompatible 
 with grease, and I do n't know what it might do to 
 them. (Great applause.) In this way 1 have often 
 succeeded in performing most wonderful cures, when 
 all other systems of medicine had failed in the hands 
 of others ! Nature cured my patient, and I got all the 
 credit. 
 
 Again : there is another very prevalent idea in almost 
 every community. And that is, that Indian Doctors 
 know a great deal about medicines, and consequently 
 are enabled to perform some most wonderful cures; 
 and hence the public have arranged, to attract their 
 notice and gain their confidence, numerous advertise- 
 ments of quack nostrums, representing some poor un- 
 fortunate invalid, with at least one foot in the grave, 
 and an Indian medicine man, holding an herb in one 
 hand, and extending to him a bottle in the other ; con- 
 veying the idea that this wonderful medicine was orig- 
 inally prepared by the Indians, who first discovered 
 its great virtues, &c. Now Washington Irving, Hum- 
 bolt, Catlin, and other Indian travelers, tell us that 
 the Indians know little or nothing of the virtues of 
 vegetable remedies. They have no " Indian Doctors," 
 but prophets^ who do not cure disease with " Indian 
 vegetables," as they are called, but by the magician's 
 spells, charms, incantations, amulets, &c., which they 
 wear next their persons, or suspend around their necks ! 
 
 But so extensively prevalent is the opposite idea, that 
 we have even now, in many of our chief cities and 
 
110 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 towns, numerous spurious Indian doctors, who profess 
 to have studied among the Indians, and to have learned 
 from them the art of curing disease. If you observe 
 these gentry carefully, you will discover that they dis- 
 play much more brass than copper in their composition. 
 They generally understand very well the weak points of 
 the community, and deliberately plan and study how 
 to impose most successfully upon their blindness, credu- 
 lity and superstition. By preserving the most profound 
 secrecy and mystery in all of their movements, they 
 soon acquire, among a certain class, a reputation for 
 knowledge and wisdom. Now, let me observe to you, 
 that wherever you discover much secrecy and mystery, 
 there you will be sure to discover some fraud and 
 humbug. Truth dreads not, but rather seeks the light, 
 in order that it may display its beauty and perfection ; 
 while, on the contrary, error, deception and fraud sur- 
 vive and flourish only in secrecy and darkness ! 
 
 These Indian doctors gather their medicines only 
 when the sign is right, because they know, from the 
 unprecedented success of Dr. Roback, Madame Adol- 
 phe, and others of fortune-telling notoriety, that many 
 people still believe in that barbarous relic of old astrol- 
 ogy. Indeed, in some parts of the State of Pennsylva- 
 nia, so extensively prevalent is this vulgar idea, that 
 many of the inhabitants, only a few years ago, before 
 " the common school master came abroad," would not 
 put a roof on their houses when the sign was up, for 
 fear that the moon would draw all the nails out of the 
 shingles (applause) ; nor would they plant their corn 
 when the sign was down, for fear the moon would draw 
 the young sprouts down through, and they might come 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. Ill 
 
 out on some other person's farm on the other side. 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 When these wonderful doctors gather the bark from 
 the forest trees, to prepare their emetics, they are care- 
 ful to strip the bark upwards towards the limbs, or 
 " agin natur," as they call it ; and when they wish to 
 prepare their cathartic remedies, they strip the bark 
 downwards, or " with natur," so that it may operate as 
 physic ! (Applause.) I don't know what it would do 
 if they should strip the bark around the tree, but judg- 
 ing from experience, I should think it would be highly 
 dangerous. (Great laughter.) 
 
 Is not the boasted success of such quackery, decep- 
 tion and nonsense a humiliating commentary upon the 
 intelligence of the age in which we live ? 
 
 " The world is generally averse 
 To all the truth it sees and hears ; 
 But swallows nonsense and a lie 
 With greediness and gluttony. 
 Surely the pleasure is as great 
 Of being cheated as to cheat." 
 
 Is it not humiliating that we, who boast of the progress 
 of ideas, and of the improvement of the age, must, 
 to-day, in the noon of the nineteenth century, forget the 
 teachings of our Baldwins, our Bartons, our Marshals, 
 and our Darlingtons, and other distinguished botanists, 
 and go back to the North American savages to become 
 acquainted with the virtues of the vegetable kingdom? 
 But some will say, Doctor, I know that these remedies 
 are useful, and that they cured my complaint. Now, 
 all that such a person knows is, that he has taken the 
 remedy and is well. Perhaps his disease was cured 
 
112 LECTUEES ON THE 
 
 by the recuperative action of the vital powers, in spite 
 of the remedy and in spite of the disease. Experience 
 is often false and credulity blind. Says Prof. Jackson : 
 " Fifty medical facts are often forty-nine medical lies." 
 Experience alone can never be trusted, when unaided 
 by extensive observation and correct physiological infor- 
 mation. A large proportion of every community must 
 have seen the danger of entrusting their lives to the 
 care of an unskillful, experimenting physician; and yet, 
 without the least physiological information, they will 
 not hesitate a moment to experiment upon themselves, 
 by trying every medicine which they can hear of, or 
 find advertised in any of the public journals. 
 
 " Man first creates, and then he fears the elf 
 Thus others cheat him not, but he himself : 
 He hates realities, and hugs the cheat, 
 And still the only pleasure is in the deceit." 
 
 The pernicious habit of taking medicines in this way, 
 for every imaginary ache and complaint, without any 
 knowledge as to the nature of the difficulty, or the 
 proper mode of relief, often reminds me very forcibly 
 of the anecdote, related by the Chevalier d'Alembert, 
 of a man who had accidentally fallen into a deep well, 
 and whose friends thought of getting him out by filling 
 the well up. Some ran and brought huge stones, and 
 others blocks of wood, which they cast down into the 
 well, greatly endangering the life of their friend. And 
 so it is in this indiscriminate use of medicine. If any 
 of you feel a little unwell, your friends tumble down 
 into you, first a box of pills, then a bottle of sarsapa- 
 rilla, then cod-liver oil enough to kill a well man. 
 If, under this very philosophical treatment, you happen 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 113 
 
 to get well, they say what a marvelous cure! what a 
 wonderful remedy ! But if one of these remedies hap- 
 pens to kill you, they fold their hands and draw on a 
 long face, and declare that it is a visitation of Divine 
 Providence. (Great applause.) 
 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, what shall be the great 
 remedy for the dispersion of this blind credulity and 
 superstition, but the diffusion of correct scientific 
 knowledge ? It is the study of science which unfolds 
 the reasoning faculties of the human mind; and an 
 improved knowledge of the operations of nature around 
 us, will banish fairies, and ghosts, and witches, and 
 a belief in dreams and signs from all respectable society. 
 If we would not have the ivy creep upon the ground, 
 we must erect a trellis for it to embrace, and by embra- 
 cing, ascend : and if we would detach the human mind 
 and heart of man from the superstition and folly of the 
 age, we must unfold to them higher and nobler objects, 
 and by the diffusion of universal knowledge, show 
 
 them that 
 
 " The only amaranthine flower on earth 
 Is virtue : the only lasting treasure, truth." 
 
LECTURE IY 
 
 RESPIRATION. 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : 
 
 LAST evening I had the pleasure of calling your 
 attention to the nature and functions of the appara- 
 tus concerned in the circulation of the blood; and 
 this evening I propose to examine the Eespiratory Or- 
 gans, their structure, nature and uses, as well as their 
 diseases causes, means of prevention, and cure. 
 
 If we examine many of the lower series of animals, 
 we shall observe that they do not appear to possess any 
 special organs which are subservient to the purposes 
 of respiration, but their skins are so soft and porous 
 that they do not appear to afford any impediment to 
 the free absorption of air, and the exhalation of the 
 impurities of the blood. 
 
 In the lizard, we observe the simplest form of respi- 
 ratory organs, consisting of simple membranous sacs 
 or air bags, which open and shut during respira- 
 tion, introducing and expelling the atmospheric air. 
 In the turtle, we find that these membranous sacs are 
 divided by means of numerous thin and delicate parti- 
 tions, into many distinct chambers or cells, each cell 
 
116 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 having its distinct air-tube communicating with the 
 windpipe. 
 
 In man and all of the higher animals, you will ob- 
 serve that these air-cells are increased in number and 
 are smaller than a millet seed, each one of which is 
 attached to its air-tube, enabling it to receive its por- 
 tion of air during respiration. 
 
 The lungs of the lower animals, which are so ex- 
 ceedingly simple, are caused to move by the stimulus 
 which is communicated to them by the atmospheric 
 air ; but as they become larger and more complicated 
 in their structure, they are moved by the agency of the 
 diaphragm and the bones and muscles of the chest 
 which are thrown around them. 
 
 In order that you may fully understand the nature 
 and the importance of the functions of respiration as 
 well as the laws or conditions which regulate their 
 healthy action, it will be necessary for me to explain to 
 you the anatomy of the chest, in whose cavity the 
 lungs are placed. 
 
 The chest is composed of the breast bone or sternum 
 which is situated in front, and the ribs upon each 
 side, with twelve curiously shaped bones, called the 
 dorsal vertebra, situated behind the chest and forming 
 a portion of the spinal column. The breast-bone, as 
 you will observe by examining this skeleton of the hu- 
 man being, at birth is composed of several pieces of 
 bone united together by means of cartilaginous or 
 gristly matter, which is very transparent and elastic. 
 As the young child advances in life, these several pieces 
 of bone unite, forming the sternum, which is united 
 with the ribs on either side by the intervention of sev- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 117 
 
 eral pieces of cartilage, rendering their anterior ex- 
 tremities exceedingly elastic and movable during life, 
 and capable of yielding upon application of the slight- 
 est pressure. 
 
 The ribs, as you will observe, do not appear to pass 
 directly around the chest like the hoops of a barrel, 
 but they descend downwards and forwards, at an angle 
 of sixty or seventy degrees. So that a little pressure 
 upon their anterior extremities will arrest their mo- 
 tions, and greatly interfere with the functions of respi- 
 ration. 
 
 As this skeleton is that of a male, you will not fail to 
 observe that there are twelve ribs on each side, and if 
 one was taken out of the left side of old Father Adam 
 to make Mother Eve, it has been restored again in all 
 of his dear children. (Applause.) 
 
 The cavity of the chest, in which the vital organs 
 are placed, is separated from the cavity of the abdo- 
 men by means of the midriif or diaphragm, which is a 
 kind of movable partition. The diaphragm contracts 
 and descends downwards against the stomach and liver, 
 to the extent of about three inches, during each full 
 inspiration, thereby increasing the size of the cavity of 
 the chest to a corresponding degree, and causing the 
 air to rush in through the nostrils, distending the lungs, 
 which move in the vacuum which is thus created. 
 
 The air-tube, which transmits the air into the air- 
 cells of the lungs, is composed of a large number of 
 cartilaginous rings, connected together by means of 
 fibrous matter, and lined with a soft and delicate mucus 
 membrane, which secretes a considerable quantity of 
 mucus, lubricating its lining surface, and preventing 
 
118 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 \ 
 
 the inhalation and exhalation of the air from producing 
 friction and irritation. The commencement of the air- 
 tube in the throat, which is larger in the male than in 
 the female, is called the larynx or Adam's apple, from 
 the general prevalence of the vulgar idea that Adam 
 swallowed the apple whole, which Eve gave him, down 
 as far as this point, where, in consequence of his wick- 
 edness, it stuck fast in his throat, and in the throats 
 of all of his sons, down even to the present day ! (Great 
 applause.) 
 
 The windpipe terminates, as you will observe, behind 
 the breast-bone, in two principal branches, which soon 
 divide and subdivide into a great number of bronchial 
 tubes, which traverse all parts of the lungs, and finally 
 terminate in the air-cells ! 
 
 You will observe that the bronchial tubes are not 
 situated, as many persons suppose, in the throat, but 
 in the lungs ! They are the seat of that disease known 
 as bronchitis, which depends upon irritation and in- 
 flammation of its lining surface, produced by checked 
 perspiration, reacting upon the bronchial mucus mem- 
 brane, predisposed to disease from its peculiar morbid 
 irritability, and by all of the causes in general, which 
 tend to produce irritation and inflammation. 
 
 These small bronchial tubes and air-cells, are also 
 the seat of that disease which is known as asthma, 
 depending upon the spasmodic closing of the air-cells 
 and tubes, so as to exclude for a time the atmospheric 
 air, and causing laborious and difficult respiration. 
 Many persons are predisposed to frequent attacks of 
 this distressing disease ; and this predisposition depends 
 upon general debility of the nervous system, accom- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 119 
 
 panied with peculiar irritability of the pulmonary sys- 
 tem. In many instances the peculiar predisposition 
 to this affection is hereditary, and in other instances it 
 is engendered by a false or neglected system of physi- 
 ical education in infancy ! 
 
 Tubercular or pulmonary consumption, that pale 
 and withering pestilence, which is estimated to destroy 
 at least seventy thousand victims in this country every 
 year, is located in these delicate pulmonary air-cells. 
 It depends upon the deposit of large quantities of gray- 
 ish material in the air cells, called tubercular matter, 
 which is quite firm and consistent at first, and in the 
 course of time it is softened by the process of inflam- 
 mation, and coughed up and expectorated, leaving a 
 cavity which heals, or ulcerates, and causes the death 
 of the person so affected. This tubercular matter is 
 also found deposited in the necks, and other parts of 
 the bodies of scrofulous children, and these lumps are 
 known as kernels in the neck, and by others as scrofula, 
 or king's evil. Indeed tuberculosis, or consumption, 
 and scrofulosis or scrofula, are regarded by the best 
 modern authors, as identical. And it is generally 
 believed that true pulmonary consumption can only 
 exist in a peculiar strumous or scrofulous habit. Such 
 persons are always strongly predisposed to this fatal 
 disease ! 
 
 Consumption is not produced, then, as many suppose, 
 by taking cold, but by all of those causes which pro- 
 duce humeral affections and impurities of the blood. 
 You have often observed that during a single inclem- 
 ent season, several persons will contract severe colds 
 and some of those affected will soon recover, while the 
 
120 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 others sink into a gradual decline and finally die of 
 extreme exhaustion. The lungs of those who recover 
 are free from all tubercular matter, and those who 
 decline and die of pulmonary consumption had tuber- 
 cular matter in their lungs, predisposing them to the 
 active or acute form of the disease whose rapid pro- 
 gress was hastened by the cough and inflammation. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as it is a well known fact, that the 
 second and third stages of pulmonary consumption are 
 beyond the reach of remedies, it becomes important for 
 us to detect this disease long before the cough and 
 hectic flush and night sweats manifest themselves, so 
 that the appropriate hygienic remedies may be applied 
 before it is too late. This may be easily done by a 
 thorough physical examination of the chest. 
 
 Healthy lungs are empty, or like a barrel that con- 
 tains nothing but air. Now any good mechanic can 
 tell whether a barrel is full or empty, by gently strik- 
 ing the end of it with his fingers, and so also, upon the 
 same principle and by similar means, can a good physi- 
 cian tell whether the lungs are empty or not. If they 
 are empty and contain nothing but air, there is produ- 
 ced the hollow sound by gently striking with the ends 
 of the fingers the exterior of the chest ! Again, these 
 physical explorations of the chest may be rendered 
 still more certain by listening to the respiratory mur- 
 mur produced by the passage of the air along the air- 
 tubes. If these tubes are closed or filled by the de- 
 posit of tuberculous matter, of course there will not 
 be any sound produced. If the natural sounds can be 
 distinguished, it is an evidence that the lungs are in a 
 sound and healthy condition. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 121 
 
 If you examine these healthy, natural lungs, you 
 will find that they are as soft as velvet and exceeding- 
 ly elastic, (here the Doctor exhibited the lungs.) They 
 appear very small, because they contain no air ; but if 
 I apply this brass tube to my mouth and blow them 
 up, you will observe the immense amount of air which 
 they are capable of containing. Now when the air- 
 tubes and minute cells are filled with tubercular mat- 
 ter, the lungs become solid and heavy, and are ren- 
 dered incapable of containing air, as you will observe 
 in this natural preparation of diseased lungs, which I 
 removed from a person who died of pulmonary con- 
 sumption. In some parts of these lungs you will find 
 this tubercular matter almost as hard as burnt lime- 
 stone, and in other parts, of a cheesey consistence ; in 
 other parts you will find large cavities produced by the 
 softening and expectoration of the tubercular matter. 
 When the disease has extended even thus far, if the 
 constitution is strong, the vital powers may cause ad- 
 hesions to take place, and the patient may recover, but 
 these instances are extremely rare. 
 
 The great objects of respiration are to stimulate, 
 cleanse and purify the blood. The atmospheric ,air 
 which we breathe, is composed of oxygen or vital air, 
 united with nitrogen and carbonic acid gases. The 
 oxygen of the atmosphere is exhaled by the leaves of 
 the vegetable kingdom, while the carbonic acid gas is 
 exhaled by the lungs of animals. The lungs of the 
 animal kingdom are continually absorbing oxygen, 
 which changes the dark, venous blood to a bright scar- 
 let red, while the leaves of plants are continually 
 inhaling carbonic acid gas ! Thus these two kingdoms 
 
122 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 seem wisely to have been constituted by the Creator to 
 balance and sustain each other, not only supplying 
 food, but also air for each other to breathe ! 
 
 If we exhale pure oxygen gas it produces a degree 
 of stimulation amounting almost to intoxication, and 
 hence it is diluted with nitrogen in the atmospheric 
 air, adapting it to all the purposes of respiration. 
 
 During respiration, the anterior ends of the ribs are 
 raised up by the action of the intercostal muscles, and 
 at the same time the central portion of the diaphragm 
 drops down to the extent of about three inches, caus- 
 ing the air to rush in through the air-tube, distending 
 all of the little air-cells in the lungs to their utmost 
 capacity. The right lower chamber of the heart then 
 contracts, and forces the black, impure and venous 
 blood out into the small net-work of blood vessels on 
 the outside surface of the air-cells, when it throws off 
 its black material or carbonic acid gas into the air-cells, 
 and at the same time absorbs the oxygen of the atmos- 
 pheric air, instantaneously changing its color from the 
 darkest venous hue to the brightest scarlet red. The 
 aggregate extent of surface afforded by these numer- 
 ous, air-cells for the purification of the blood, is said to 
 exceed twenty thousand square inches ! Over this 
 vast surface, all of the blood which is contained in the 
 human body passes every two minutes and twenty-eight 
 seconds, and is completely cleansed and purified, and 
 has " breathed into it the breath of life," which renders 
 it warm and stimulating to all of the different organs 
 of the human body ! 
 
 In all of the inferior animals, where little or no pro- 
 vision is made for respiration, the blood is cold, and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 123 
 
 their motions are torpid and inactive ; as in the earth- 
 worm, snail, and many of the reptile series. Many of 
 the superior animals also hibernate or secrete themselves 
 in dens, during the winter season, and become torpid 
 and inactive, for want of fresh air and active respiration. 
 Indeed, there is the most intimate relation between the 
 capacity for respiration and the activity of all the infe- 
 rior as well as the superior animals. If we examine 
 the little humming-bird whose delicate, gossamer 
 wings move with a velocity scarcely distinguishable, as 
 it sips the nectar from flower to flower we shall find 
 that it possesses immense lungs, in proportion to the 
 size of its body. These lungs, which move with the 
 most extraordinary activity, enable it to inhale large 
 quantities of air, which warms and stimulates its blood, 
 and infuses the most astonishing energy and power into 
 its delicate system. 
 
 Again: look at the noblest bird of Columbia, the 
 grey forest eagle, who laughs with scorn at the power 
 that is displayed by the steam engine, as he mounts to 
 the clouds, amidst the lightning and whirlwind ! 
 
 The grey forest eagle oh ! where has he fled ? 
 
 Does he shrink to his eyrie, shivering with dread ? 
 
 Does the lightning blind his eye ? has the terrible blast 
 
 O'er the wing of the sky-king a fear-fetter cast? 
 
 Ah ! no ; no ; the brave eagle thinks not of fright : 
 
 The wrath of the tempest but rouses delight. 
 
 To the flash of the lightning his eye casts a gleam ; 
 
 To the shriek of the wild blast he echoes his scream 
 
 With front like a warrior spread to the fray, 
 
 With clapping of pinions, is up and away. 
 
 Aye, away ! away soars the fearless and free ; 
 
 Reckless of the sky-strife, its monarch is he. 
 
 The lightning darts round him undaunted his flight : 
 
124 LE'CTURES ON THE 
 
 Still upward, high upward he wheels, till his form 
 Is lost in the black, scowling gloom of the storm ! 
 
 If we examine the anatomy of the eagle, we shall 
 observe that its lungs are enormous, in proportion to 
 the size of its body. They not only are adapted to 
 receive vast quantities of air, but their larger extrem- 
 ities are pervious ; so that the air not only passes into, 
 but through them, into all of the tissues, and even into 
 tlie bones and ends of the quills of the animal ; so that 
 its whole system may be said to be subservient to the 
 purposes of respiration. 
 
 The same law also prevails in reference to man, as 
 well as all of the inferior animals. Those that have 
 the largest capacities for respiration, are always the 
 strongest and the most active. Among the domestic 
 animals, the horse affords a remarkable example to 
 illustrate the truth of this observation. Observation 
 and experience have taught the farmer, that the one 
 who possesses a deep and broad chest is always the 
 strongest, and the most capable of performing great 
 feats of physical strength. If he is asked to purchase 
 one of these animals with a narrow, wedge-shaped 
 chest, he says, at once, " Sir, your horse is foundered, 
 and he is good for nothing ! " Well, now, there are 
 thousands of our fashionable young ladies and gentle- 
 men who are also foundered, and, according to the same 
 rule, you can easily estimate their value for any useful 
 purpose. (Applause.) 
 
 Experience has taught man to look with respect upon 
 the broad chest and manly proportions of his fellow- 
 man, while, on the contrary, the narrow chest and 
 stooping figure are associated with weakness and effem- 
 inacy. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 125 
 
 Again : longevity, or the length of life, also depends 
 upon the size and capacity of the lungs, both in man 
 and the inferior animals. Thousands of insects live but 
 to attain an ephemeral existence of a few moments ; 
 others live only for a few short months, while the eagle 
 almost bids defiance to the influence of time and its 
 changes ! 
 
 Ah ! that eagle of freedom ! age dims not his eye : 
 He has seen earth's mortality spring, bloom and die ; 
 He has seen proud nations rise, flourish and fall, 
 But mocks at time's changes, and triumphs o'er all. 
 His presence ever shall bless his own native clime, 
 Till the foot of the archangel is placed on time ! 
 
 Nor is man, indeed, any exception to this general 
 law of nature ; and although few live to attain the age 
 of the patriarchs of old, it is not because nature is less 
 kind, or because nature's God has changed, but rather 
 because our present highly artificial and fashionable 
 mode of living is at war with principles of longevity. 
 
 Now then, inasmuch as it is clearly demonstrated, 
 that whatever injures and weakens the lungs, also 
 weakens and destroys the body, and prostrates the 
 mental and moral powers, which depend upon it for 
 their healthy manifestations, it becomes a subject of 
 the greatest interest and importance for us to under- 
 stand the laws which govern the development of these 
 organs laws which are generally disobeyed, because 
 imperfectly understood. 
 
 1st. The stooping or bent position in sitting and 
 standing, diminishes the size of the chest, and impedes 
 the movements of the respiratory organs ! 
 
 If you examine the trunk of the human body, (fig. 
 1,) you will observe that its two great cavities are filled 
 
126 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 to repletion with the vital and nutritive organs. Now 
 if we bend forward, the effect is to diminish the size 
 of these cavities, and of course to compress the pulmo- 
 nary organs, and impede the freedom of their motions. 
 The truth and importance of this proposition may be 
 seen from a simple experiment which you may at any 
 time try upon yourselves. If you wish to inhale a 
 deep and full inspiration, you involuntarily place your 
 body in the erect position, throwing the anterior walls 
 of the chest outwards and upwards, so that you may 
 distend the lungs to their utmost capacity. 
 
 Again : the shoulder blades are imbedded in the mus- 
 cles upon the posterior walls of the chest, and move 
 freely backwards and forwards, as we change the posi- 
 tion of our bodies in sitting and standing. When we 
 bend forward, the shoulder blades and shoulder joints 
 slide forward upon the upper portions of the sides of 
 the chest, throwing their whole weight upon the ribs, 
 and diminishing the freedom of their movements. 
 The attention of females, and others engaged in seden- 
 tary and inactive employments, is particularly directed 
 to the nature and importance of this law. From much 
 observation upon this subject, both in this country and 
 in Europe, I am of the opinion that much nervous de- 
 bility, and* many cases of indigestion and pulmonary 
 consumption, are produced by this pernicious and vul- 
 gar habit of stooping or bending forward, while follow- 
 ing various mechanical employments, as in writing, 
 sewing, &c. Parents who value the health and wel- 
 fare of their children in after life, cannot be too par- 
 ticular in correcting this pernicious habit in infancy. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 127 
 
 2d. It is a natural law, that the dress worn by the 
 human being should not be so tight as to diminish the 
 size of the chest ! 
 
 If you examine this natural chest, in which the 
 lungs are located, you will observe that it is as elastic 
 and compressible as a willow basket. Now, if a small 
 or tight dress is applied to this chest, it will force the 
 ribs inwards, decreasing the size of the cavity, and 
 producing corresponding weakness of body, and decay 
 of mind ! If you would witness the truth of this ob- 
 servation for yourselves, ask the young lady who is dressed 
 in the most approved fashion, to attend an evening 
 party, ball, or levee, if she will romp and play with 
 you, or engage in any innocent amusement requiring 
 active exercise. How soon she is out of breath, fa- 
 tigued, and exhausted. Indeed all active exercise at 
 such parties is considered vulgar and coarse. And 
 why] Simply because fashionable young ladies' waists, 
 compressed in bones and buckram, are not capable of 
 enduring the fatigue and exertion ! The chests of 
 many of them are compressed into so small a space, 
 that they gasp for breath, and their eyes stick out like 
 cups and saucers, even while they sit still ! (Applause 
 and sensation.) It is hard work for them to live 
 and do anything more than fan themselves, and con- 
 verse about the last sickly novel that has emanated 
 from the press ! 
 
 And why is it, young gentlemen, that the fairest, 
 and in many respects the most interesting portion of 
 humanity, are so ready to sacrifice their strength and 
 happiness to the dictates of this custom and fashion? 
 Some cruel young knight of the mustache has de- 
 
128 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 clared, it is because they love to be squeezed ! (Laugh- 
 ter and applause.) 
 
 But no, gentlemen ! it is because the Creator has 
 strongly implanted in their hearts the desire to please 
 those gentlemen of the opposite sex, whose most mo- 
 mentous thought is to determine in their minds wheth- 
 er the locks of their hair shall hang lower before or 
 behind whether they shall curl or hang straight 
 whether the whiskers shall come down under the 
 chin or stop half-way. The most perfect character for 
 a woman, in the estimation of these " nice young men," 
 is to be characterless fine by defect, beautifully 
 weak, so that they shall be compelled to lean upon 
 them for support. (Applause.) Very few young gen- 
 tlemen would dare to outrage and insult the feelings of 
 fashionable young ladies, by telling them they were the 
 very pictures of health ! It is so coarse and vulgar 
 for a woman to be healthy, in the estimation of these 
 would-be " lords of creation " ! 
 
 Fashion is determined by a foolish and idiotic pub- 
 lic opinion, and not upon principles of morality, health 
 and beauty. The Chinese mother causes her infant to 
 endure all of the pain and agony produced by a tight 
 fitting shoe, in order that the feet of her offspring may 
 be small and beautiful as they advance in life ! When 
 a Christian or civilized people contemplate the Chinese 
 women's small, deformed, and decrepid feet, which are 
 so destructive of all freedom, grace and beauty of 
 movement, they are astonished and disgusted ! 
 
 Among certain tribes of North American Indians, it 
 is fashionable to have flat heads ; and the cruel Indian 
 mother, in order to secure so desirable, because fash- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 129 
 
 ionable an end, binds up the head of her infant, while 
 the bones are yet soft and elastic, between splints of 
 wood, until she produces, in our estimation, the most 
 hideous deformity ! 
 
 In Algeria, among some of the barbarous tribes, it 
 is fashionable to be fat and fleshy, and the mother feeds 
 her daughter upon a certain fattening diet, and if, at 
 the age of eight or nine, she weighs three hundred 
 pounds a whole camel load she is considered the 
 very climax of beauty, fashion, and perfection, and 
 brings the highest price in the market, as a wife for 
 some "love-sick young swain!" (Applause and laugh- 
 ter.) 
 
 Among certain Asiatic tribes, it is considered a great 
 mark of beauty to have a very long nose ; and in early 
 life, while this organ is yet soft and gristly, the anxious 
 mother pulls it several times a day, until it is half a 
 foot long ! Again, among other tribes it is considered 
 fashionable, and beautiful, to have very long chins. 
 And the mother, by dint of daily manipulations, like 
 those of our fashionable young exquisites with their 
 whiskers, succeeds in stretching them out until they 
 might possibly hang their breakfast upon them ! (Great 
 applause.) 
 
 Now, you may think that it will do very well for us 
 to laugh at the fashionable folly of these poor ignorant 
 barbarous races, who thus deform and destroy their 
 own beautiful organizations. But what shall we say 
 of enlightened, Christian, and civilized ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, who are guilty of a fashionable custom of de- 
 forming the beautiful image of the Creator, by squeez- 
 ing it until it looks like an hour-glass or rather like a 
 9 
 
130 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 meal-sack with a string tied around the middle ! (Ap- 
 plause.) We read that man is created in the image 
 of God himself, and poets and painters have imprinted 
 upon the ideal form of angels, woman's form and fea 
 tures ; and yet will it be credited in some future or 
 purer age? they are ashamed of the image of the 
 God they worship, and would render it a little more 
 fashionable by the use of strings and whalebones ! 
 (Great sensation.) 
 
 But, says the votary of fashion, small waists are beau- 
 tiful ! And says the savage, small flat heads are beau- 
 tiful. What, then, is the standard of beauty I If 
 you will read Hogarth's works, or Sir Joshua Reynolds' 
 chaste and classical lectures upon "the art divine," 
 you will discover that nature is the standard of beauty, 
 and that all of those beautiful creations of genius, 
 which almost speak from the canvass, are but the suc- 
 cessful combination of the most beautiful principles of 
 nature. 
 
 All of those objects whose outlines combine the 
 greatest number of curvilinear lines are regarded as 
 the most beautiful. The surface of the earth is beau- 
 tifully diversified with hill and dale. The U^tte&m 
 meanders over the meadow the ivy creeps upon the 
 ground the oak sends forth its sturdy branches, not 
 at sharp angles, but in graceful curves. In the ' human 
 form divine," we behold the greatest number of these 
 graceful curvilinear outlines, clearly demonstrating 
 that it is by far the most beautiful object in external 
 nature. 
 
 That paragon of artistic excellence and female beau- 
 ty, the Venus de Medicis, which has long excited the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 131 
 
 admiration of the world, is replete with these graceful 
 lines. 
 
 ' ' So stands the statue which enchants the world, 
 So bending, strives to conceal the matchless form, 
 The boasted beauties of exulting Greece " ! 
 
 It is this celebrated statue which is considered by 
 all living artists, as the ne plus ultra of female perfec- 
 tion and loveliness, which artists visit from all parts of 
 the world in order that their hearts and minds may be 
 inspired with the enthusiasm which fired the ancient 
 masters ! 
 
 " Here, too, the goddess lives in stone, 
 And fills the air around with beauty. 
 "Within the pale I stand, and in that form and face behold 
 What mind can make, when nature's self would fail ; 
 And to the fond idolaters of old, envy the innate soul 
 Which such a form could mould." 
 
 If you visit the gallery at the Louvre, or the Vatican 
 at Rome, you will there behold the master works of a 
 Raphael, Guido, Michael Angelo, and Rubens, the 
 greatest artists that the world has ever known. As 
 you contemplate their matchless forms, that seem al- 
 most to speak from the canvass, your eye will seek in 
 vain for the waist of the modern fashionable belle ! 
 They painted for posterity, and they knew that their 
 pictures and works of art would live far down in future 
 ages, as time should roll on, only in proportion as they 
 were the faithful transcribers of the eternal principles 
 of nature ! 
 
 Who, then, are responsible for this false but fashion- 
 able public opinion, so inimical to the health and wel- 
 fare of the race, so opposed to the spirit of progress 
 and improvement, but its authors, these foolish young 
 
132 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 men, who fill the giddy heads of young ladies with the 
 most extravagant adulation and fashionable nonsense 1 
 If the modern female exercises in the open air, or 
 gymnasium; if she runs, leaps, jumps and plays, in 
 accordance with her instincts ; and secures, as the legit- 
 imate result of this exercise, rosy cheeks, and a healthy, 
 robust and well-formed body, this false and idiotic 
 public opinion esteems her too coarse and vulgar ! 
 Our fashionable young men say, that " she is as large 
 as an elephant," or that " she looks like a great, coarse, 
 stupid, country girl," or some other equally stupid and 
 insulting remark. These gentlemen call upon these 
 fashionable young ladies, and tell them that they have 
 a great compliment for them, from a gentleman. Of 
 course they are all expectation to hear it, and at last, 
 after a little persuasion on the part of the ladies, they 
 are induced to tell it : " Charles Webster says that 
 cousin Sarah has the smallest and most lovely waist 
 that he ever saw in his life." " Oh, what a compli- 
 ment ! " says cousin Sarah, and she surveys herself in 
 the mirror, to ascertain if it is really so. I think the 
 strings will get a double pull after that ! (Applause.) 
 In the saloon, or upon the promenade, the pale and 
 sickly, with the broken backs and deformed waists, 
 engross the whole attention of our fashionable young 
 men; while the noble woman who has dared to let 
 the rays of the summer sun kiss her rosy cheek who 
 has lived in accordance with her own nature and wants, 
 is passed by on the other side ! 
 
 Is it strange that, failing to receive the countenance 
 of those whose good opinion she most highly values, 
 she should become discouraged, and say to herself, "All 
 
 \ 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 138 
 
 of the gentleman say that I am too healthy and coarse. 
 Well, I guess I willput on the strings, and hooks and 
 eyes, and eat pickles, drink vinegar, and pull away, 
 until I get so weak that I can faint at the sight of a 
 spider, or go into fits at the sight of a mouse ; then all 
 of the nice young men will protect and flatter me." 
 (Rounds of applause.) 
 
 You see, gentlemen, that all such waists are made 
 to order, merely to suit the market, and because we 
 will not have any other. If gentlemen should say to 
 the ladies, " natural waists or no wives," the way the 
 strings, and hooks and eyes would fly (great laugh- 
 ter,) and if the ladies would only say, " no tobacco or 
 no husbands," what would become of the trade of the 
 tobacconist ? (Sensation.) 
 
 But you need not be alarmed ; there is really no 
 danger ; for when a young gentleman goes out at the 
 present day, to select himself a companion or partner 
 for life, he does not stop to ask what is the size of her 
 lungs, or heart, or brains, but how large her papa's 
 purse is. If it contains fifty or one hundred thousand 
 dollars it covers up a multitude of defects ! (Applause.) 
 And yet if they were about to purchase a cow, a horse, 
 or even a pig, they would wish to know whether they 
 were of good stock, whether they had fine lungs, were 
 healthy, &c. Here the purse is concerned ; but there 
 the best interests of posterity ! We improve the races 
 of the domestic animals, we cultivate flowers, and 
 plants, and take much credit to ourselves for holding 
 agricultural fairs, for the purpose of displaying our 
 success in these departments ; while we leave our lean, 
 pale, and scrofulous children, " that are scarcely worth 
 
134 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 raising," at home, in cruel neglect ! (Sensation and 
 applause.) When I have visited these numerous exhi- 
 bitions, and have beheld these fine fat oxen and horses, 
 this beautiful display of fruit, flowers, and vegetables, 
 and have remembered that all of these treasures were 
 the result of careful cultivation, I have wondered if 
 the time ever would come when man would bestow the 
 same care and attention on the cultivation of his fellow- 
 man, that he does now upon the beasts and brutes of 
 creation ! If that day ever shall come, it will witness 
 a rapidity of progress and human improvement which 
 will seek in vain in history for an example ! 
 
 3d. It is a natural law that all constriction by means 
 of dress, or otherwise, which interferes with the upward 
 and outward movement of the libs, also induces debil- 
 ity of the respiratory organs! 
 
 It is not only necessary that the dress should not be 
 worn so tightly as to decrease the size of the chest, 
 but it should be sufficiently loose to admit of the free 
 and easy movement of the ribs. If the dress is com- 
 posed of inelastic material, and filled with pieces of 
 whalebone to make it set smooth, and is then closely 
 fitted to the ribs, it would impede their motions, 
 although it does not decrease the size of the chest. 
 The chest increases and decreases in size at each inspi- 
 ration and expiration, and if the garments fit too closely 
 to the chest, and are composed of inelastic material, 
 they as effectually destroy the purposes of respiration 
 as though they decreased its size. There is, then, the 
 same danger in wearing a dress of this description, 
 which is securely fastened with numerous hooks and 
 eyes, that there was in wearing the old fashioned boned 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 135 
 
 and stringed instrument of fashionable torture, which 
 has been hunted from all reasoning and reflecting soci- 
 ety! 
 
 At the close of my lectures in different parts of this 
 country, ladies often assure me that they do not dress 
 too tightly, but that they know of several that do dress 
 in this improper manner; that their waists are natu- 
 rally very small, &c. And, as if to confirm the truth 
 of the assertion, they place their fingers under the 
 point of the waist of the dress, and raise it up a little, 
 and say, " Doctor, see how loose it is." Now, unfor- 
 tunately, this is no criterion to judge by at all. Your 
 lungs are not, unfortunately for the success of this 
 experiment, situated in the cavity of the abdomen, 
 beneath the point of the bodice of the dress, (laughter) ; 
 but they are situated high up in each side of the cav- 
 ity of the chest ! If you would ascertain how far your 
 lungs extend downwards on each side, you may easily 
 do so by measuring downwards six inches from the 
 middle of the collar bone. You will observe that the 
 lungs are not much more than half as long as is gene- 
 rally supposed, and that they do not extend much 
 below the point where you feel the heart pulsating. 
 
 The only safe criterion which will enable you to deter- 
 mine whether the dress which you wear is too tight or 
 not, is the following experiment. Now, ladies, I do not 
 wish you to try this experiment here this evening, in 
 the presence of so large a number of young gentlemen, 
 for fear of what might happen ! Indeed I know that 
 the trial of this experiment is often attended with an 
 explosion that is extremely dangerous, unless you are 
 concealed behind the door ! (Laughter.) When you 
 
136 LECTURES ON THE PHILO SOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 go home this evening, and wish to ascertain the influ- 
 ence of your dress in checking the freedom of respira- 
 tion, stand upon your feet in the middle of the room 
 and raise your hands from your sides until they are 
 higher than your shoulders ; and while you maintain 
 them in this position, if you can draw in a deep and 
 full inspiration without feeling that the dress constricts 
 the chest a little along the ribs, under the arms, you 
 can safely pass this natural ordeal and have the pleas- 
 ure of knowing that you are not, by the indulgence of 
 a foolish fashion, producing for yourselves, inexpressi- 
 ble pain and anguish, and perhaps premature death ! 
 It is perhaps proper for me to say, in connection with 
 this subject, that there is not one fashionably dressed 
 female in one hundred, that can successfully pass this 
 ordeal ! 
 
 The annexed outline of the celebrated Greek Slave, by 
 Powers, the distinguished American artist, represents 
 the ne plus ultra of female perfection and beauty of 
 physical development. This statue has been exhibit- 
 ed in the chief cities of Europe and the United States, 
 and has been visited by thousands of ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, and drew the first prize at the recent World's 
 Fair, where it was regarded by thousands with very 
 great interest, on account of its singular beauty and 
 perfection. Many of our tight-waisted fair friends, 
 would do well to model their chests after this beau 
 ideal of female perfection. 
 
Powers' Greek Slave. 
 
138 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 While lecturing in a neighboring town upon this 
 subject, only the other day, a gentleman, having an 
 only daughter at home, observed to her after listening 
 to my lecture one evening : " My daughter, let me see 
 if you can pass the Doctor's ordeal safely ! " " Oh l^ 
 yes," says she, " papa, I can." And she raised up her 
 hands and drew in a full breath ; and such an explo- 
 sion, as she burst off the whole of the hooks and eyes 
 from her dress ! (Applause.) So be careful, ladies, 
 and not try any of these experiments in the presence 
 of gentlemen ! In reference to dress, the female would 
 do well to follow the directions of the poet to the 
 painter. 
 
 " Free o'er the limbs the graceful vesture cast, 
 The light, broad folds in grace majestic place, 
 And as each figure moves a different way, 
 Give the broad plaits their corresponding play, 
 Yet devious oft, and swelling from the part, 
 The flowing robe, with ease should seem to start ; 
 Not on the chest in stiff adhesion laid, 
 But well relieved by gentle light and shade. 
 
 4th. It is a natural law that the exercise of the 
 lungs, within certain limits, increases their size and 
 power ! 
 
 The lungs, when subjected to the power of the human 
 mind and moral sentiments, are much like the clay in 
 the hands of the potter, capable of being moulded into 
 the beautiful vessel so faultless in its proportions ! 
 At birth, we possess but the rudiments of these or- 
 gans, and by exercise, as we advance in life, they are 
 capable of being unfolded and developed, until they 
 become large, strong, and powerful ! And so also of 
 the rudiments of the human mind and feelings ; they 
 
* 
 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 139 
 
 are innate or Heaven-born; but the transcendant pow- 
 ers of the statesman, poet, and scholar, as well as the 
 sacred sentiments and affections of the philanthropist, 
 depend upon the education or cultivation which we 
 have received in infancy ! Strike out common schools ; 
 shut up our religious temples and seminaries of learn- 
 ing, and rapid will be the march of man back to a 
 state of mental and moral imbecility and barbarism ! 
 What is true of our mental and moral, is, also true of 
 our physical nature. Close the play-grounds and the 
 gymnasium, and deny access to the green hills and rich 
 valleys to the youth of our land, for physical education 
 and manly exercise, for the development of the young 
 and feeble powers of their physical organization, and 
 rapid will be the decline of the health, strength and 
 beauty of the American race ! 
 
 The lungs may be called into action directly and in- 
 directly, by physical exercise. If the young lady sits 
 or reclines upon the sofa, her lungs move slowly, and 
 the number of inspirations is diminished. If on the 
 contrary she runs, romps and plays, her lungs are far 
 more active, and a larger quantity of air is introduced 
 into the system. Idleness and indolence are often the 
 parents of pulmonary consumption; and this is the 
 reason why this disease is so often the scourge of the 
 wealthy and the affluent. They frequently neglect the 
 development of their chests, and the education of their 
 lungs, by wholesome exercise in the open air. 
 
 If your sons and daughters have weak lungs, remove 
 the debility by well-regulated physical exercise. En- 
 courage your daughters to play the graces, or drive the 
 hoop and jump the rope, in the open air. Such exer- 
 
140 
 
 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 else calls into action the muscles of the arms and chest, 
 increasing the size of its cavity, and developing the 
 lungs and vital organs. If this kind of physical train- 
 ing were better attended to in infancy and youth, there 
 would be comparatively little danger of consumption, 
 as we advance in life ! 
 
 Many of the most learned and distinguished mem- 
 bers of the medical profession have arrested a strong 
 predisposition to this disease not by shutting them- 
 selves up in warm rooms at a temperature of sixty or 
 seventy degrees, and taking sarsaparilla and cod liver 
 oil but by taking their staff in hand, with a knap- 
 sack thrown over their shoulder and wending their 
 way across the broad Alps or Alleghanies. As they 
 ascend the steep and rugged declivities of these moun- 
 tain ranges, they will be compelled to arrest their 
 steps frequently in order to inhale the fresh breezes ; 
 and as they wipe the perspiration from their brows 
 they will feel a freedom from that uncomfortable tight- 
 ness across the chest, which they had not experienced 
 for many months ! The celebrated Dr. Liston, the dis- 
 tinguished British Surgeon of London, was, during his 
 lifetime, in the habit of rowing a boat upon the Thames 
 one hour every morning for the purpose of improving 
 his chest and developing his lungs, and, as he often 
 declared, with the most astonishing success. When 
 Dr. Parrish, of Philadelphia, was attacked with pul- 
 monary consumption many years since, he did not shut 
 himself up in the house, and begin to take various 
 quack nostrums. No; he had seen the results of that 
 practice long enough, and knew that it was death! 
 He went out upon his farm in the open air and worked 
 

 Ne- *- 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OE LIFE. 141 
 
 it off in a few months ; and dying several years after- 
 wards, his medical friends found upon examining his 
 chest, the large cicatrix or scar produced by the heal- 
 ing of the ulcerated cavity, demonstrating that they 
 were not mistaken in the nature of his disease ! 
 
 If we would then preserve the health and strength 
 of our lungs as we advance in life, we must daily ex- 
 ercise them in the open air. And especially will this 
 be the more necessary among those who are engaged 
 in sedentary and inactive employments. The retired 
 merchant, after having secured wealth as the result of 
 his toil and close attention to business, erects for him- 
 self his country mansion and determines to enjoy the 
 remainder of his life in ease and affluence, and is often 
 disappointed in his expectation, by the premature de- 
 velopment of pulmonary disease. 
 
 5th. It is a natural law, that grief, melancholy, and 
 despair depress the mind, and decrease the action of 
 the lungs. 
 
 If you observe the long, infrequent, and fitful respi- 
 ration induced by grief and despair, you cannot fail to 
 understand what must be the exhausting and debilita- 
 ting influence of such emotions ! " The breathlessness 
 of despair," which we read of in the poets, often causes 
 the most complete and perfect exhaustion, terminating 
 in fits and convulsions ! Can it be possible that such 
 powerful mental shocks, expending their chief influence 
 upon the pulmonary organs, shall not, in the process 
 of time, develop disease of a fatal character] The 
 disappointments of ambition, and the despair and mel- 
 ancholy produced by misfortune, together with the 
 disagreements and jealousies of domestic life, I fear, 
 but too often induce this fatal disease. 
 
142 LECTUEES ON THE 
 
 
 The ingratitude which woman experiences from man, 
 is a subject on which I have often meditated with 
 painful feelings. 
 
 Says Dr. Johnson, in his work on the " Economy of 
 Health," " Had not the God of nature added instinct 
 to reason, in the human female heart, the race of man 
 would long since have ceased to exist! The pains, 
 the penalties, the toils, the cares and the anxieties of 
 our mothers, on our account, are not repaid by any 
 thing like an adequate degree of gratitude, on the part 
 of their offspring. Nothing, indeed, can compensate 
 the female parent for what she undergoes, on the part 
 of her children ; and boasted reason would sink under 
 the task, or shrink from the duty, had not the omnis- 
 cient Creator infused into the mother's heart the irre- 
 sistible instinct of the lioness, which prompts the savage 
 animal to die in defence of its progeny ! In the savage 
 beast, the instinctive feeling soon ceases, and reason 
 being absent, all sympathy between parent and progeny 
 ceases also. But not so with the human female parent. 
 The primary instinct is never entirely obliterated, but 
 cherished by the nobler gift of reason. Is it not strange 
 that the ancient poets, when deifying so many of the 
 meaner attributes of human nature, forgot maternal 
 affection 1 They have clothed in the robes of divinity 
 the barbarous monster who slaughtered the children of 
 Niobe, when they ought to have deified the paternal 
 agony which the mother felt, and which even the mar- 
 ble yet breathes forth ! " The immortal poet, Campbell, 
 has personified this same maternal love of offspring, in 
 one of the most beautiful forms, under which he delin- 
 eates his " angel of life," his favorite hope. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 143 
 
 " Lo ! at the couch, where infant beauty sleeps, 
 Her silent watch the mournful mother keeps ; 
 And weaves a song of melancholy joy 
 ' Sleep, image of thy father ; sleep, my boy ! 
 Thy fame, thy worth, thy filial love, at last, 
 Shall soothe this aching heart for all the past ; 
 With many a smile my solitude repay, 
 And chase the world's ungenerous scorn away.' ' 
 
 That it is the instinctive love of offspring, rather 
 than the hope of a return of love and filial duty, which 
 fills the mother's breast with the musings so beautifully 
 described by the poet, I firmly believe. Indeed, I 
 think that the poet himself has proved it ; for soon 
 afterwards he breaks forth thus : 
 
 " So speaks affection, ere the infant eye 
 Can look regard, or brighten in reply." 
 
 There is another train of reflection which the poet 
 causes to pass through the mind of the mother, while 
 gazing on her unconscious babe, and which I believe 
 to be more natural certainly more sublime and disin- 
 terested than that which he has already portrayed. 
 
 " And say, when summoned from the world and thee, 
 I lay my head beneath the willow tree, 
 Wilt thou, sweet mourner, at my stone appear, 
 And soothe my parted spirit lingering near ? 
 Oh ! wilt thou come, at evening hour, to shed 
 The tear of memory o'er my narrow bed 
 Breathe a deep sigh to winds that murmur low, 
 And think on all my love and all my wo ? " 
 
 In that passage, ladies and gentlemen, there is a 
 thought worthy of an immortal being, and in itself 
 indicative of immortality ! Oh, let us cherish the vir- 
 tues and the love of woman ; for, indeed, she cannot 
 receive sufficient gratitude for what she has suffered 
 on account of her offspring ! 
 
144 LECTUEES ON THE 
 
 6th. It is a natural law that pure, fresh, atmospheric 
 air is essential to support healthy respiration. 
 
 The lungs of the human being will contain about 
 one gallon of air at a time, about one-half of which is 
 inhaled and exhaled every inspiration and expiration. 
 We breathe about twenty times each minute, and every 
 time we breathe, we introduce and discharge from the 
 lungs about two quarts of air, or ten gallons per min- 
 ute. We breathe 1200 times per hour, and inhale 600 
 gallons of fresh air. We breathe over 28,000 times in 
 twenty-four hours, and inhale more than 14,000 gallons, 
 or 50 hhds. of fresh air in the same length of time. 
 We exhale or breathe out of the lungs about 26 cubic 
 inches of carbonic acid gas, or impure air, per minute, 
 or 1460 cubic inches per hour, and more than 17,000 
 cubic inches every twenty-four hours of our lives. 
 
 From these statistics, you can form some opinion of 
 the immense importance of the perfect ventilation of 
 all sleeping apartments, public buildings, and dwellings 
 occupied by human beings. If this room were closed 
 so as to be air-tight, a room large enough to seat a 
 thousand persons, we should all suffocate and die in a 
 few hours ! Catch, if you please, a fly from the window, 
 and enclose it in this small glass phial, and then seal 
 it with a little sealing wax, so that its mouth shall be 
 air-tight, as I now do this one, and you will see that 
 the fly will die in two or three minutes ! Again : catch 
 a beautiful humming-bird, an animal whose lungs ex- 
 haust large quantities of air, and inclose it in this small 
 glass jar, which is air-tight, and as soon as it has ex 
 hausted or breathed all of the vital air, which takes, 
 as you will see, but a few moments, it droops and dies ! 
 (Great sensation produced by these experiments.) 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 145 
 
 Now what, think you, must be the influence of the 
 same conditions upon the human constitution ? Some 
 two years since a steamer left the port of Dublin for 
 Liverpool, with a large number of emigrants and pas- 
 sengers ; and a storm coming on during the night, in 
 the noise and confusion usually attendant upon such 
 occasions, the hatches were closed down, and more 
 than seventy passengers were suffocated, and perished 
 for want of fresh air during the night ! Their cries of 
 distress, and screams of despair, were not heard, owing 
 to the prevalence of the storm ! The melancholy con- 
 sequences of violating this natural law, were remarkably 
 exemplified by the confinement of the English priso- 
 ners in the Black Hole, or dungeon of Calcutta, a large 
 number of whom perished for want of fresh air during 
 the night; and those who survived until morning, 
 were soon seized with malignant and putrid diseases, 
 which proved fatal in a few days ! Carbonic acid gas, 
 or impure air, is heavier than the atmosphere, and 
 sinks into the valleys, caves, old wells, grottos, cellars. 
 &c. It is often dangerous, for this reason, for persons 
 to descend into wells or caves, without first throwing 
 down a bundle of lighted straw or faggots, which warms 
 the poisonous air, and renders it lighter, so that it as- 
 cends and is expelled ! When we first breathe out, or 
 exhale this gas, it is lighter than the surrounding 
 atmosphere, but as soon as its temperature is equalized, 
 it sinks again to its natural position. Those emigrants 
 who select the lower berths on board our packets, are 
 for this reason much more liable to nervous or ship 
 fever, than those who occupy the upper berths, because 
 they are continually, during the night, inhaling the 
 10 
 
146 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 impure air that has been exhaled by their more fortu- 
 nate friends above them ! In many instances, the phy- 
 sician is startled from his slumbers during the night, 
 by the calls of some neighbor in distress. He hurries 
 on his clothes in great haste, and then inquires what 
 is the matter 1 ? and is informed that his neighbor's 
 child is attacked with the croup ! After walking a 
 few squares, he enters the house ; and the moment the 
 door of the sick room is thrown open to receive him, 
 his nostrils are saluted with an odor which explains to 
 him at once, the cause of the mischief! He looks 
 around the sleeping apartment, in many instances 
 nothing but a little box about eight or ten feet square, 
 and he soon discovers that the mother has filled all the 
 cracks and crevices about the windows with pieces of 
 paper, for fear a little of the fresh air should get in, 
 and give the children a bad cold, &c. If he stops for 
 a moment to enumerate the inhabitants of such a room, 
 he will find, in many instances, first, a large bed for the 
 parents and a young infant; and from beneath this 
 large bed there is drawn every night, a trundle bed, 
 and into that there are crowded two or three children 
 six persons in all, in a room of that size, whose door 
 and windows are shut almost air-tight! (Sensation.) 
 The father and the mother first breathe over all of the 
 fresh air up above and then send it down for their 
 weak and rickety children to breathe after them! 
 Is it a wonder, under such circumstances, that the 
 younger and more feeble ones have croup and scrofula 
 that they are lean, lank, and sickly, and always want 
 purifying vegetable pills, and sarsaparilla, cod liver oil, 
 &C.? (Sensation and applause.) If you contrast these 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 147 
 
 children with those that live in the open log cabin, 
 through whose open roof they can 
 
 "Behold the broad canopy of Heaven, 
 Thickly inlaid with stars of bright gold" 
 
 you will discover in their red and rosy cheeks and 
 blooming health, some of the benefits of breathing fresh 
 air ! " The symptoms of breathing impure air, or car- 
 bonic acid gas," says Orfila, the President of the French 
 Academy, " are, first, dryness of the throat ; second, 
 ringing in the ears ; and third, a feeling of oppression 
 or weight through the temples !" Now, how many of 
 this audience suffer more or less from these feelings 
 every day 1 Many ladies and gentlemen often ask me 
 what is the cause of the formation of this tough mucus 
 in their throats, and this want of appetite in the morn- 
 ing. All of it is produced by inhaling air that is 
 loaded with noxious vapors ! 
 
 But, says some one in this audience, you would not 
 surely advise us to breathe the damp night air, would 
 you I Damp night air 1 Why, the air in your close 
 and ill-ventilated sleeping apartment, which is loaded 
 with the poisonous vapours exhaled from your lungs is 
 much damper than the atmosphere, as may be shown 
 from some very simple philosophical experiments, and 
 it is not only damp, but it is poisonous and fatal to life 
 and health ! 
 
 You need not be afraid then to let in a little fresh 
 air during the night, for, rest assured, the all-wise and 
 benevolent Creator made it to be breathed, and it 
 won't hurt you half as much as you may think it will ! 
 (A laugh.) At all events, be sure that you raise the 
 window a little before you catch cold, and not be 
 
148 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 like the lady at Lewistown, whose husband heard my 
 lecture upon this subject, and then went home and 
 raised up the window in his children's sleeping room. 
 His wife, who was down stairs, hearing him raise the 
 window, supposed that it was in her room that he was 
 raising the window ; and upon retiring soon after, found 
 much fault with her husband, as she was sure that 
 they would all catch their death of cold. But the 
 husband said nothing, remarking to me afterwards that 
 he thought he would see what conceit would do for 
 once. After retiring, the wife supposing that the win- 
 dow was up, was seized with cold chills, and kept 
 nudging her husband with her elbow, declaring that her 
 young infant was getting the croup, until finally after 
 daylight in the morning she looked down to the foot of 
 the bed, and found that the window was closed, just 
 as it always had been before ! She said nothing, but 
 drew her head down beneath the quilt and soon slept 
 soundly. Her husband soon after arose and dressed 
 the little boys, who flew around the house as lively as 
 young crickets, and as hungry as wolves, while he pre- 
 pared their breakfast for them. By and by the mother 
 came slowly down, and the husband greeting her with 
 a smile, asked her, "How is your cough this morning'?" 
 "Do you think the baby has got the croup ? " " Had 
 I better go after the Doctor? " &c. ! (Great applause.) 
 Now, I advise all of these old croakers to be sure and 
 get the window up before they catch cold, or they may 
 be laughed at ! 
 
 As for myself, I may be excused for saying that six 
 years since, I weighed about 135 pounds, and was sub- 
 ject to indigestion, nervous debility, palpitation and all 
 the fashionable aches and complaints ! Since that time 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 149 
 
 I have slept with my window up both summer and 
 winter, in clear and in stormy weather, and I now 
 weigh about 212 pounds, and am so fat and fleshy that 
 I can scarcely get my boots on in the morning. (Ap- 
 plause.) I could not sleep at all with the window 
 down. I should feel as though I would suffocate ! 
 When Kit Carson and Col. Fremont returned to Fort 
 Leavenworth from their long tour to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains they were invited to sleep in one of the well fur- 
 nished houses appropriated to the United States officers. 
 During the night they found it impossible for them to 
 sleep in fashionable quarters, and were compelled to 
 get up, and go out into the neighboring field and throw 
 themselves down upon their blankets. They had slept 
 so long in the open air, that they could not endure the 
 close, suffocating atmosphere of a modern sleeping 
 apartment ! The Indians sleep in open air, or in open 
 huts, and wigwams ; and they do not take cold, nor are 
 they subject to that fell disease, pulmonary consump- 
 tion, which is estimated to destroy at least its seventy 
 thousand victims in the United States, annually ! Con- 
 trast the physical condition of the Indian who roams 
 freely over the western prairie and through the western 
 forests with the thousands of unfortunate operatives 
 who are pent up in our countless factories throughout 
 this land, and what a wide difference you will behold 
 in their physical condition ! 
 
 Ye who would wear a body free from pain, 
 Of cares a mind, fly the rank city ; 
 The rural wilds invite, the mountains call ye, 
 The wood, the vale, the stream, the ambrosial breeze 
 That fans an ever undulating sky, a kindly sky, 
 Whose fostering care regales man, beast, and all the vegetable reign. 
 
LECTURE V, 
 
 THE SKIN. 
 
 YOUR attention is respectfully invited this evening, 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, to the consideration of the 
 Human Skin, and its appendages, the hair and the 
 nails. 
 
 The skin is generally regarded by the great majori- 
 ty of mankind as that membrane which is thrown 
 around the outside surface of the human body for the 
 purpose of protecting the more important organs, 
 which are placed immediately beneath it. But this is 
 indeed but a limited view of the nature, extent, and 
 usefulness of the functions of this important mem- 
 brane. The skin is not only thrown around the out- 
 side surface of the human body for the above purposes, 
 but it is also reflected inwards, forming the lining sur- 
 face of the lungs, and the intestinal canal, where it is 
 called the mucous membrane. It also invests the brain 
 and the lungs, and is thrown over the bowels, and lines 
 the inner surface of the abdominal cavity. If you 
 examine many of the inferior animals, as for instance 
 the hydra, you will observe the intimate relation 
 which exists between the skin on the outside sur- 
 
LECTURES ON THE PHILO S OPH Y OF LIFE. 151 
 
 face of the body and that which lines its inner cavi- 
 ties. In the center of this animal, you will observe its 
 stomach, formed by a simple reflexion of the skin in- 
 wards, leaving a single opening at its mouth which 
 communicates with the atmospheric air. If you pass 
 a needle, armed with a thread of silk, through this 
 cavity, you may invert it or turn the animal wrong 
 side out without appearing to injure its digestive func- 
 tions. The skin, under such circumstances, forms a 
 new stomach, which is capable of performing all of the 
 functions of the original, in a short period of time. It 
 is only by examining and experimenting upon some of 
 the more simply constituted animals, that we can dis- 
 cover the nature and the use of certain parts in the 
 more complicated organization and structure of the 
 human body. 
 
 A knowledge of the similarity of structure and func- 
 tions of these various mettibranous surfaces, is of the 
 highest practical importance ; since it is a well known 
 physiological law, that like organs having like func- 
 tions, sympathise with each other; and impressions 
 produced upon one organ, frequently produce disease 
 in another organ, of similar anatomical structure and 
 functions. Thus : it will be seen that the eyes resemble 
 each other in structure and functions. If you get a 
 mote or grain of sand in one eye, not unfrequently 
 both eyes shed copious quantities of tears. If the skin 
 on the outside surface of the child's neck and chest 
 is exposed to the " rude and chilling zephyr," it pro- 
 duces inflammation of the mucous membrane lining 
 the throat, or bronchial tubes of the lungs ; and if one 
 fifth part of the skin on the surface of the human body 
 
152 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 is burned or scalded, death inevitably takes place not 
 in consequence of the burn on the outside of the body, 
 but from its influence upon the surfaces of the deeply- 
 seated vital organs, causing, in many instances, inflam- 
 mation and mortification ! 
 
 If we remove a part of the skin from the arm, and 
 digest it for a short time in water, we shall be able to 
 separate it into three principal layers, known as the 
 cuticle, or scarf skin, the rete mucosum, or colored 
 layer, and the cutis vera, or true skin, all of which have 
 different functions assigned to them, a knowledge of 
 which is necessary to enable us to understand the in- 
 fluence of the skin upon health. 
 
 The texture of the skin, as you will perceive, varies 
 at different periods of life, being soft and delicate in 
 infancy, and coarser and thrown into numerous folds, 
 by reason of the absorption of the fat situated in the 
 cellular tissue beneath, as we advance in life. It is 
 also much softer and finer in its texture in the female 
 than in the male. It varies from one-eighth to one- 
 fourth of an inch in thickness, and in general appear- 
 ance resembles so strikingly the skin of a certain 
 domestic animal, raised very abundantly in the State of 
 Ohio, as not to require me to give the characteristic 
 grunt, to designate the name more clearly. (Laughter 
 and applause.) In early life, the interstices of the 
 muscles are filled up by the deposit of fat, which dis- 
 tends the skin, and gives to its outside surface that 
 smooth, round and graceful appearance which is so 
 characteristic of health and beauty, in the human 
 form ! 
 
 The outside layer of the skin differs from all of the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 153 
 
 other layers, in its general want of organization. If 
 you cut it with a knife, or prick it with a pin, it does 
 not bleed, nor does it appear to possess any sensibility 
 productive of the sense of pain. It appears, in fact, to 
 be a simple, inorganized, or dead layer of albuminous 
 matter, spread over the outside surface of the human 
 body, for the purpose of protecting its delicate blood- 
 vessels and nerves from injury. It diminishes the 
 intensity of the impressions made by external agents 
 upon the sensitive nerves ; and yet its walls are so thin, 
 that they do not impair the accuracy and delicacy of 
 the sense of tact and touch. 
 
 Many of our ordinary impressions would be produc- 
 tive of painful sensations, were it not for the protective 
 influence of this important membrane. Even the cool- 
 ing zephyr, which produces such a grateful impression, 
 as it fans the brow of the weary traveler, upon a warm, 
 summer day, would produce the most exquisite agony, 
 if it were not for the intervention of its delicate layers. 
 Its protective influence is again remarkably exempli- 
 fied in its increased thickness, under certain circum- 
 stances, where the parts beneath require additional pro- 
 tection. If the mechanic diligently plies his hammer, 
 the delicate nerves on the palms of his hands are pre- 
 served from injury by the increased thickness of the 
 cuticle, which, in many instances, rises up in hard 
 knots or ridges, for that purpose. 
 
 The cuticle is composed of dried albumen, a sub- 
 stance which resembles the dried white of an egg the 
 same material which enters into the formation of the 
 hair and the nails, which are its appendages. If you 
 
154 
 
 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 examine this microscopic diagram of the three layers of 
 the skin, you observe that the cuticle is composed of 
 
 numerous layers, which are constantly forming by the 
 deposit of the albuminous principle from the blood, 
 upon its under surface ; while the outside layers are 
 constantly peeling off, in the form of dandruff or scurf. 
 This layer assumes many different forms in the inferior 
 animals, constituting the scales of fishes, and the shell 
 of the turtle ; and even in man, sometimes it takes on 
 a diseased action, and becomes remarkably thickened, 
 over the entire surface of the human body ! 
 
 The rete mucosum or mucous net-work, is an ex- 
 ceedingly soft and delicate membrane, and is the seat 
 of color in the skin. It is extremely difficult to find 
 this layer in the Albino, less difficult in the Anglo Sax- 
 on, and easy of detection in the African. The color of 
 this layer depends upon the amount of dark pigmen- 
 tary granules which are deposited in the meshes of its 
 net-work. It is the same layer which gives the beau- 
 tiful red and yellow spots noticed upon the sides of the 
 mountain trout and which bestows such variegated and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 155 
 
 beautiful hues upon the skin of the dolphin. The 
 depth and intensity of the color of this layer of the 
 skin always depends, in a great degree, upon the activi- 
 ty of its functions, which are governed, to a great ex- 
 tent, by the temperature of the surrounding atmos- 
 phere ! The dark pigmentary granules are secreted 
 from the blood, and all of those circumstances or condi- 
 tions which determine additional quantities of this 
 fluid to the skin, will tend to increase the depth of its 
 hues. If the inhabitants of temperate regions leave 
 northern latitudes and visit the tropics, the increased 
 warmth of the atmosphere stimulates all the functions 
 of the skin, increasing perspiration, and also the amount 
 of dark granules which regulate the hues of this layer ! 
 The same general law holds true in reference to the 
 hairs and plumage of the inferior animals, which are 
 composed of the same material, and are indeed, appen- 
 dages of the two outside layers of the skin ! The furs 
 of tropical animals are darker and more brilliant, and 
 the plumage of the feathered songster is of the hue of 
 the raven's wing, or of the darkest green, or the deep- 
 est scarlet red! 
 
 Beneath the rete mucosum you will discover the 
 cutis vera or true skin, which is the seat of some of the 
 most important functions of animal life. Upon its up- 
 per surface you will observe a most beautiful net- work 
 of arteries and veins, which contain the blood of the 
 skin and which bestow upon it that red and rosy color 
 so indicative of health. From the blood contained 
 in these numerous blood vessels, are secreted the perspi- 
 ration and other impurities, by means of numerous fol- 
 licles, the nature of which will be fully explained here- 
 
156 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 after. The immense number of arteries and veins 
 which the true skin contains, may be inferred from the 
 well known fact that we cannot penetrate its surface 
 on any part of the human body with the finest cam- 
 bric needle, without wounding some one or more of 
 them and causing the blood to flow from the opening. 
 These blood vessels are so exceedingly minute that 
 they cannot be seen with the naked eye, and yet when 
 we take into consideration their immense number in 
 the whole skin of the human body, it will be found 
 that their aggregate capacity enables them to contain 
 more blood than the larger blood vessels of the heart, 
 and deeper seated organs ! 
 
 In this beautiful net-work, and in contact with these 
 blood vessels, we discover numerous sensitive nerves 
 which arise from the posterior column of the spinal 
 marrow and terminate in numerous loops beneath the 
 cuticle. These nerves serve the purpose of transmit- 
 ting impressions made upon the skin, to the brain, 
 and thus enabling us to judge, through the agency 
 of the sense of tact and touch, of the qualities of vari- 
 ous objects which surround us. 
 
 The vast number, and the importance of these sensi- 
 tive nerves, may be demonstrated by a simple experi- 
 ment conducted with the finest cambric needle. Not 
 the smallest point can we discover on any part of the 
 skin of the human body, which is not fully protected 
 from injury, by their numerous sensitive loops. We 
 cannot even pierce the skin with so delicate an instru- 
 ment, without wounding some one or more of these 
 minute nervous filaments and producing a sense of pain, 
 warning us of our danger ! How wonderfully perfect 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 157 
 
 are the means which the Creator has established for 
 the protection of the human body ? Not the smallest 
 point of our bodies can be assailed without a friendly 
 impression being conveyed from the point of attack 
 along the sensitive nerves to the brain, with the speed 
 of lightning, enabling us to perceive our danger, and 
 by a simple act of the human will to avoid its conse- 
 quences. (Sensation. ) The same beautiful adaptation 
 of means to ends, is also applied to the internal surfaces 
 of the human body, which are brought in contact with 
 external agents. If it were not for this beautiful 
 adaptation of means to ends in the sensitive nerves of 
 the stomach, we never should perceive when we had 
 eaten enough, and we might go on eating until we 
 killed ourselves ! (Applause.) So you will observe 
 that pain is not a misfortune, as many suppose, but it 
 manifests in a remarkable degree, the wisdom and be- 
 nevolence of the Divine Architect, in rendering us 
 conscious of our relations with various objects of the 
 external universe ! 
 
 It is a common opinion among the masses of man- 
 kind, in this country, that the muscles and the bones, 
 and particularly the latter, are extremely susceptible 
 of impressions productive of pain. But this idea only 
 shows the foolishness of the wisdom of man, when 
 contrasted with the forethought of the Divine Archi- 
 tect ! The skin is exquisitely sensitive, while the 
 bones and muscles beneath it are scarcely susceptible 
 of the least impression when cut with a knife, and con- 
 sequently, in all operations performed upon the human 
 system, the greatest pain is produced by the division of 
 the skin and trunks of the sensitive nerves ! The 
 
 
158 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Creator could have had no object in rendering the 
 bones sensitive, since they were never designed to be 
 brought in contact with external objects, and conse- 
 quently could never be useful, as the organs of sense I 
 How often have I amused myself at the folly and igno- 
 rance of many of our old physiological wiseacres, as 
 they were relating to the rising generation, who stood 
 by with eyes and mouths wide open, and ready to swal- 
 low every word of their nonsense, as even the air rushes 
 in to fill the vacuum, (a laugh,) some surgical exploit 
 that they had seen performed. They say the operation 
 did not hurt much until the surgeon sawed through the 
 bone, and when he got down to the marrow, that made 
 him jump ! (Laughter, and applause.) Now there 
 is no more sensibility in the bones or the marrow either, 
 than there is in a piece of wood. If the Divine Archi- 
 tect had been endowed with only ordinary human fore- 
 thought, we should not behold such nice adaptation of 
 means to ends, as unfold themselves at every step as we 
 advance in the investigation of his greatest and noblest 
 work the constitution of man ! (Sensation, and ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 In the structure of the skin we also discover impor- 
 tant organs which are subservient to purposes of secre- 
 tion and absorption. If you will examine the diagram, 
 you will observe numerous perspiratory glands, con- 
 sisting of a simple follicle, and its spiral tube, which 
 terminates upon the surface of the cuticle. Around 
 the walls of these follicles, there is a beautiful arrange- 
 ment of blood-vessels, along which the blood is distrib- 
 uted in order that it may be cleansed and purified! 
 
 Erasmus Wilson, the distinguished British anatomist, 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 159 
 
 in his great work on the skin, says that by means of 
 a powerful microscope, he has been enabled to count 
 as many as three thousand five hundred of these sweat- 
 ing follicles in a single square inch of the skin on the 
 palm of the hand. Now, it is estimated that there 
 are as many as two thousand eight hundred square 
 inches of the skin on an average, covering the whole 
 human body ; and consequently there must be nearly 
 seven millions of perspiratory glands and pores in the 
 skin. The spiral tubes, which convey their secretions 
 out of the body, are about one-fourth part of an inch 
 long, or measured collectively, they would reach one 
 hundred and forty-five thousand feet, or twenty-eight 
 miles. This immense system of drainage, as we shall 
 see, has been established for the wisest and most im- 
 portant purposes for the purification of the blood, 
 and for the regulation of the temperature of the human 
 body! 
 
 The amount of sweat or perspiration which is thrown 
 off through this system daily, seems almost incredible 
 it being estimated, by carefully conducted experiments, 
 to exude from forty to sixty ounces, according to the 
 habits and activity of the person ! For every seven 
 pounds of food and drink taken into the system, five 
 corresponding pounds pass out through the skin ! 
 
 " Through the small, arterial tubes that pierce, 
 In endless millions, the close-woven skin, 
 The "baser fluids in a constant stream escape, 
 And, viewless, melt into the winds. 
 While this eternal, this most copious waste 
 Of flesh and blood degenerated into rapid brine, 
 Maintains its wonted measure, all the wheels of life 
 With ease and pleasure move ; 
 
160 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 All the powers of health befriend you. 
 
 But this restrained, or more or less, 
 
 So, more or less you feel the vital functions labor. 
 
 From this source what woes descend, 
 
 Are never to be sung ! " 
 
 If we examine the secretions of the skin by the 
 agency of chemical analysis, we shall find that they are 
 composed of various chemical salts, animal matter, and 
 other impurities, which are dissolved in water, produ- 
 cing the briny secretions so beautifully described by 
 the poet. 
 
 The evaporation of the fluid or watery portion of the 
 sweat, is attended by the absorption of the heat from 
 the surface of the skin, thereby regulating, to a great 
 extent, the temperature of the human body. Exercise 
 in the open air, as you have before seen, in my remarks 
 upon the circulation of the blood, increases the num- 
 ber of respirations, and promotes the production of 
 animal heat. To counteract the injurious consequences 
 of the excessive production of this vital stimulus, the 
 perspiratory glands pour out large quatities of perspi- 
 ration upon the surface of the skin, the watery portion 
 of which evaporates, and absorbs the excessive heat of 
 the human body, and prevents the development of fever 
 and inflammation. If this important secretion is sus- 
 pended, and the skin becomes harsh and dry, there is 
 generally an increase of febrile heat, which, in turn, is 
 diminished by the reappearance of healthy perspiration. 
 
 These physiological truths are of the highest practical 
 importance, inasmuch as so many of the great human 
 family frequently labor under the influence of disease, 
 accompanied or produced by checked perspiration and 
 increased temperature of the body. How many unfor- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 161 
 
 tunate invalids languish upon beds of sickness, and are 
 consumed with the flames of fever, who might be spee- 
 dily relieved by the judicious use of the sponge bath, 
 applied frequently to the surface of the skin ! Nothing, 
 indeed, so speedily allays nervous excitement and irri- 
 tability, or arrests the fatal tendency of excessive fever 
 and inflammation, as the use of the bath, and the con- 
 sequent establishment of artificial perspiration and 
 evaporation from the surface of the skin. Have you 
 a cross, peevish and irritable child, whose cries and 
 screams, like the sleepless owl, render midnight hideous 
 with its doleful music? Soak him thoroughly in a tub 
 of water, and take my word for it, there will be no 
 more crying that night. (Laughter and applause.) 
 Has the kind and indulgent husband one of those lean, 
 lank, delicate and sickly ribs, who gets the hysterics 
 and the sulks two or three times a day 1 ? He had better 
 not scold and rave like a madman, but soak her in a 
 good bath ! (Great applause.) And 1 would say the 
 same to the enduring, kind and faithful wife 
 
 " Beware of that lean Cassius ! " 
 
 But if she heeds not the admonition of the bard of 
 Avon, and her husband prove irritable, peevish, fault- 
 finding and unsocial, she may not tame him with a 
 broomstick ; but when he indulges in his fits of pas- 
 sion and folly, she-should say to him, "Now, my dear, 
 you had better take a bath, and then you will feel bet- 
 ter "! (Great applause.) 
 
 A few evenings since, a gentleman attended one of 
 my lectures, who had one of these nervous and irrita- 
 ble children, and when he returned home after the 
 
 lecture, of course he found the child crying ; says he, 
 11 
 
162 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 " Wife, you must soak him ; " (laughter) and they 
 prepared a warm bath in a common tub, and put him 
 in. The husband says that when he was let down into 
 the water, he almost sizzled like a hot iron, he was so 
 full of heat and nervous excitement; (applause) and 
 that as soon as he came out of the bath he fell into a 
 sweet sleep, and slept until morning. He played 
 around the room all the next day until near night, 
 when he became cross again, and they treated him in 
 the same manner, and with similar results ! 
 
 There are also situated in the tissues of the skin a 
 large number of sebaceous follicles or oil glands (see 
 figure*) which secrete an oily substance from the blood 
 and pour it out upon the skin, for the purpose of lubri- 
 cating its surface and diminishing the friction and irri- 
 tation consequent upon the frequent motion of the 
 joints and contact of the folds and surfaces of this 
 important membrane. 
 
 The structure and nature of these follicles, are very 
 well illustrated in the diagram. They are distributed 
 in greater numbers in the skin about the flexions of 
 the joints, along the cartilages of the eye, and in the 
 meatus of the ear, where they secrete a large quantity 
 of unctuous matter, which preserves the softness and 
 flexibility of these parts. The skin around the flexures 
 of the joints, requires oiling like all other machinery, 
 when in motion. The farmer greases the axle of his 
 carriage to prevent the wheel from wearing it away, 
 and producing that disagreeable noise sometimes en- 
 countered in the streets when the careless driver of 
 the carriage has been negligent in this respect ! 
 
 The oily material which is secreted by these glands 
 
 * At the close of this Lecture. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 163 
 
 about the flexures of the joints, and more especially in 
 the arm-pits, if allowed to accumulate, becomes rancid, 
 irritating, and extremely offensive, rendering it neces- 
 sary to use large quantities of cologne, musk, burga- 
 mot, pachoula, and oil de mille fleur, to conceal its 
 offensive odor ! (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 Sometimes the oil which accumulates in the mouths 
 of the tubes of these follicles, is covered up by the 
 small particles of earthy matter which float in the at- 
 mospheric air, giving the skin a dark, mottled, or dingy 
 appearance upon the surface of the face and neck, so 
 destructive of the delicacy, elasticity, and beauty of the 
 complexion ! If you do not wash this part of the skin 
 frequently with soap and water soap being required 
 to dissolve and remove the oily secretions you will 
 find that these earthy particles will accumulate in such 
 quantities as to completely seal up the mouths of these 
 tubes, and prevent the escape of the oil. Under such 
 circumstances the skin loses its softness and elasticity, 
 and becomes harsh and dry ; the oil accumulates and 
 hardens in the mouths of these follicles, causing inflam- 
 mation of their walls, and the formation of numerous 
 pustules or pimples on the neck and face, which are so 
 annoying to the ladies, and for whose removal I am 
 frequently solicited to prescribe a remedy ! (Laugh- 
 ter.) 
 
 The practice so common among vulgar people, of 
 covering up these dark spots with a coating of exter- 
 nal matter, usually, I believe, a little pearl powder or 
 common flour, only adds fuel to the fire, and is sure to 
 increase the difficulty that it was innocently designed 
 to obviate, by choking up the mouths of these tubes, 
 
164 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 and in the process of time utterly ruining the complex- 
 ion. But perhaps those who use such preparations 
 will say, " no matter, since it has answered its pur- 
 pose, and enabled me to get a'good husband !" (Laugh- 
 ter.) Not long since an acquaintance of mine, who 
 was a little short-sighted, was walking with a young 
 lady in this city, and they met a young lady acquaint- 
 ance. After they had spoken with her and passed on, 
 this young man remarked to the lady, " what a charm- 
 ing girl is Miss ! "What a divine complexion." 
 
 " Pooh," says the lady in reply, " divine complexion, 
 indeed ! its nothing but flour." (Great applause.) I 
 have often laughed when I have met ladies in the 
 streets with eyebrows and faces looking as though they 
 had stuck them in a flour barrel before they left home ! 
 (Great laughter.) Only think of a young gentleman 
 kissing such a lady, and finding his mouth full of flour, 
 and her complexion growing darker under the opera- 
 tion! (Continued applause.) Not, long since I was 
 engaged in lecturing in the interior of Pennsylvania, 
 and putting up at the village hotel, I noticed when 
 the landlord's daughters came down in the morning, 
 that their complexions were as white as lilies; but 
 after they had been engaged for a time over a hot fire, 
 preparing the buckwheat cakes, and sausages, and 
 doughnuts, for breakfast, I observed that the oil which 
 had been poured out by the sebaceous follicles in the 
 skin on the surface of their faces, had united with the 
 whitening of their complexions, and rolled down into 
 the wrinkles and crevices, producing the most laugh- 
 able expression of countenance. I thought to myself, 
 as I saw them mixing the flour and butter to form the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 165 
 
 doughnuts, what a needless expenditure of material. 
 All that these ladies have to do, is just to gather up 
 the dough on their faces, and give it a twist or two 
 with their fingers, and drop it into the hot fat, and the 
 whole process is accomplished ! (Eenewed applause.) 
 
 It is scarcely necessary for me to remark, after what 
 has been said, that the use of all pigments is extremely 
 injurious to the complexion; and that although the 
 skin may appear to be improved in color by their use 
 for a time, yet the final results are exceedingly disas- 
 trous to beauty ! 
 
 1st. It is a natural law that the temperature of the 
 skin regulates its functions ! 
 
 If we examine the skin, particularly in infancy, we 
 shall find that it is exceedingly vascular, and that its 
 blood vessels contain a large amount of blood which is 
 distributed to the skin for the purpose of stimulating 
 its important functions to healthy action. If the skin 
 is subjected to the sedative influence of cold, its blood 
 vessels and follicles contract, producing numerous coni- 
 cal elevations upon its surface, and diminishing the 
 amount of its secretions. Cold applications are, for 
 this reason, often applied by the most distinguished 
 surgeons to diminish or prevent inflammation of the 
 skin, and with very great success ! Such applications 
 seem to act beneficially, by diminishing the activity of 
 the capillary circulation in the inflamed part, and 
 thereby preventing congestion and irritation. 
 
 How different is this treatment from that pursued 
 only a few years ago, and still pursued by some old 
 " medical grannies," in different parts of this country, 
 of applying to an inflamed part hot poultices, and thus 
 
166 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 increasing the inflammation instead of allaying it. Cold 
 is a most powerful sedative, diminishing the activity of 
 all of the vital powers, and may be used successfully as 
 a remedy in the treatment of all diseased conditions of 
 the various organs of the human body, accompanied 
 with increased heat and febrile excitement. 
 
 The amount of clothing required by the human being, 
 to preserve the proper temperature of the skin, which 
 is necessary to the healthy action of all of its functions, 
 must be determined by the age and habits of the person. 
 The young child requires more clothing than the grown 
 person, because its body, contrary to the general opin- 
 ion of mankind, is colder. The cruel neglect of many 
 mothers to study and obey this law, in reference to the 
 dress of their children, occasions sad mortality in infan- 
 cy. As I have before intimated, about one-fourth of 
 those born, die before they complete the age of one 
 year and die, too, of diseases caused by the suppres- 
 sion of the functions of the skin ; such as cholera in- 
 fantum, infantile diarrhoea, and inflammation of the 
 membranes of the brain, and dropsical effusions. 
 
 Now, look, but for a single moment, at the dress of 
 a fashionable lady's children, and see how inadequate 
 it is to protect even the warmer body of a healthy 
 grown person from the various changes and vicissitudes 
 of our climate. In reference to the dress of her chil- 
 dren, vanity and fashion rule, as in almost everything 
 else. The child's tiny white arms must not be covered 
 up with comfortable clothing, but the short sleeve of a 
 very thin muslin frock must be gathered up at the 
 shoulder, with a pink or blue ribbon ; and then, its 
 beautiful, snowy white bosom must not be covered, but 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 167 
 
 it must wear a very low-necked dress, because it " looks 
 so pretty ! " Now, no sensible person can fail to see 
 that such a dress would not be comfortable and safe 
 for a grown person, and much less so for an infant, 
 whose vital powers are feeble, and utterly incompetent 
 to resist the shocks produced upon its sensitive and 
 feeble constitution. It is no wonder, indeed, that so 
 many thousand children die annually, (providentially, 
 as it is said by many,) by this fashionable but criminal 
 neglect on the part of parents ! (Sensation.) The 
 number of these dispensations of a cruel and unrelent- 
 ing Providence will be greatly diminished by a little 
 more clothing, and attention to the organic laws ! 
 (Applause.) 
 
 The vital heat of the human body is produced through 
 the agency of the respiratory organs, and the clothing 
 which is worn by the human being should be composed 
 of such materials and worn in such a manner, as to 
 prevent the undue escape of this vital principle ; while, 
 at the same time, its texture should not be so close as 
 to afford any impediment to the free escape of the se- 
 cretions of the skin. Flannel is admirably adapted to 
 the nature and wants of the skin, and, as an article of 
 clothing, it is probably superior to any thing which 
 can be worn next the person. It is a good non-con- 
 ductor of heat, and thereby prevents the injurious con- 
 sequences resulting from the contact of the warm sur- 
 face of the body with cold air ; and at the same time, 
 it is so open and porous in its nature, that it affords no 
 impediment to the free escape of the perspiratory mat- 
 ter ; and by absorbing the secretions of the skin, it 
 preserves its surface in a healthy state. Owing to its 
 
168 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 non-conductive properties, it is not only the warmest, 
 but it is the coolest article of clothing which can be 
 worn next the person. When the surrounding tem- 
 perature is lower than that of the human body, it pre- 
 vents the escape of its heat ; and when the temperature 
 of the atmosphere is higher, it prevents its excessive 
 heat from coming directly in contact with the surface 
 of the body, and drying up the sources of perspiration, 
 producing heat and fevers. If you wish to keep your 
 flowers from freezing, you cover them up, in the fall, 
 with a flannel blanket ; and if you have a piece of ice 
 which you wish to keep from melting, in the month of 
 August, you cover it with two or three layers of flan- 
 nel! 
 
 And so also with your own persons; if you would be 
 cool and comfortable during the summer as well as 
 during the winter, and above all if you would be free 
 from dysentery and diarrhoea and fevers, wear flannel 
 next your skin. I have had much personal experience 
 and extensive observation, for a number of years past, 
 in some of the warmest countries on this Continent, as 
 to the beneficial influence of flannel when worn next 
 the skin during the summer as well as winter, and I 
 believe that it is universally admitted by the most ex- 
 perienced surgeons in the British Army and Navy as 
 well as in our own military service, that even in the 
 warmest countries, and during the warmest seasons of 
 the year, the health and efficiency of the army and 
 naval forces, is attributable to a great extent to the 
 flannel which is now universally worn next the skin by 
 the sailors and soldiers upon the East and West India 
 Military stations. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 169 
 
 But it is not necessary, for the promotion of health, 
 as many persons appear to have supposed, for the human 
 being to wear one of these woollen garments next the 
 skin from one year's end to another, without changing 
 and ventilating it or until it fulls up with the dirt 
 and secretions of the skin, and becomes as tight as the 
 shirt of Narcissus, or until it drops off by its own 
 increased weight and decay, in the spring. (Great 
 applause.) 
 
 The amount of the secretions of the skin renders it 
 necessary to frequently change and ventilate the cloth- 
 ing worn next its surface. From forty to sixty ounces 
 of perspiratory matter is poured out upon this surface 
 daily. The watery portion of this secretion evaporates 
 and unites with the surrounding atmosphere, while its 
 oily and unctuous matter remains in contact with the 
 skin and clothing! 
 
 How soon the socks worn next the feet become com- 
 pletely saturated or filled with these secretions. Now 
 be careful that you change them often or at least be- 
 fore you call on the young ladies, as a gentleman once 
 did that I heard of; and who, during the evening, as 
 his feet were cold, was induced to put them upon the 
 fender before the fire to warm them, causing an odor 
 to arise in the room that could not be imitated by all 
 of the ingenuity of a Roussell or a Farina ! (Laughter 
 and applause.) 
 
 Indeed I know from extensive observation that an 
 exterior of silks and satins and broadcloths does not 
 always indicate the condition or quality of the garments 
 worn next the person! (Laughter.) 
 
 Visit, if you please, any of our fashionable thorough- 
 
170 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 fares, or promenades, and you will there behold these 
 silks and satins, dragging in the dirt and filth of the 
 pavements, sweeping the old cigar stumps and quids 
 of tobacco into the gutter, and absorbing all of their 
 nectareous juices. Now fashionable opinion says that 
 it would never do to cut off or raise up a little, the 
 skirts of this dress, for fear the lady would show her 
 ankles ; and yet you are alarmed as she sweeps on past 
 you, lest the dress drop off her shoulders. (Applause.) 
 This, indeed, is a specimen of fashionable modesty 
 " straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel !" (Re- 
 newed applause.) Sure I am, indeed, that the virtue 
 and purity of woman would lose nothing of its charms 
 and perfection, if our fair friends should lose at least 
 six inches of the lower portions of their robes, which 
 hang so gracefully about their heels, especially in 
 muddy streets on a wet day, after a long and fatigu- 
 ing walk ! 
 
 2d. It is a natural law that if the secretions of the 
 skin are not removed by frequent ablution, they will 
 choke up its pores! 
 
 It is scarcely possible for those whose attention has 
 not been directed to the investigation of the structure 
 and functions of the skin, to appreciate the extent and 
 importance of this secreting surface. These secretions 
 which are thrown off through its numerous pores, if 
 not removed by frequent bathing, will accumulate upon 
 its outside surface, forming a varnish-like layer of 
 unctuous matter, which seals up the mouths of the 
 sweating pores and follicles, checking perspiration and 
 engendering disease ! 
 
 In many of the inferior animals, the skin serves the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 171 
 
 same purpose as the lungs do in the human being. It 
 is not only a secreting, but also a respiratory or breath- 
 ing surface, and if you cover their skins with a coating 
 of varnish, which is imperious to the atmospheric air, 
 they die in a very short time. From recent experiments 
 conducted in the city of Paris by a distinguished phys- 
 iologist, it is concluded that the human skin respires 
 and exhales one-sixth as much as the lungs. If you 
 observe the skin after you immerse yourselves in a 
 bath of warm water, you see numerous bubbles of air 
 arising from its surface through the water -demon- 
 strating to us its great importance, especially to those 
 of weak lungs and delicate scrofulous constitutions ! 
 The secretions of the skin cannot be removed from its 
 surface except by the free use of soap and water, inas- 
 much as water alone is incapable of dissolving or 
 removing any oily or waxy substance. The alkaline 
 principle of the soap dissolves the dried albumen of 
 the cuticle or scarf skin, and removes the layers of 
 dandruff, and with them all foreign matter of an oleagi- 
 nous or unctuous character. . It also cleanses and removes 
 the scales and foreign matter from the hair and nails, 
 and causes them to grow and flourish in the vigor of 
 perpetual youth. Hence, previous to the use of all 
 baths which are taken for the purpose of cleanliness s 
 the skin should be carefully rubbed with some mild, 
 bland, vegetable soap, so as to dissolve the outside 
 layers and scales of the cuticle, and remove its secre- 
 tions in the form of an emulsion, and thus cleansing 
 and purifying the system in the most thorough and 
 efficient manner ! 
 
172 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 " With us, the man of no complaint demands 
 The warm ablution ; just enough to open the sluices 
 Of the skin, to cleanse the body from indecent soil ! 
 Still to be pure, even did it not conduce, as much 
 It does, to health, were worth your daily pains. 
 'Tis this adorns the rich ; the want of it 
 Is poverty's worst woe : with this external virtue, 
 Age maintains a decent grace ; without it 
 Youth and charms are loathsome " ! 
 
 Is it not indeed humiliating, to observe how willing 
 the great majority of mankind are to take all kinds of 
 quack nostrums and reputed remedies for purifying the 
 blood, while they entirely neglect this great natural 
 provision which has been established by a wise Creator 
 for their protection and restoration ! 
 
 When I examine cases of scrofula and humeral 
 affections almost every day, and observe the sad and 
 neglected conditions of the skin, and perceive the 
 peculiar odor which arises from its accumulated secre- 
 tions, I cannot help inquiring how much cod liver oil 
 and sarsaparilla it will take to purify them at one dol- 
 lar a bottle ! (Laughter and applause.) Look around 
 you and observe who it is that labor under the influ- 
 ence of these humeral affections, and you will ascertain, 
 that as a general rule, it is those who almost entirely 
 neglect the functions of the skin ! 
 
 Not long since a friend of mine, a young and intel- 
 ligent physician, was walking down Fourth street on 
 a cold frosty morning, when a lady, just before him, 
 slipped and fell upon the pavement, injuring her foot 
 so that she could not walk. The Doctor assisted her 
 into a neighboring drug store, where she reclined up- 
 on a mattress, while he examined it to ascertain the 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 173 
 
 nature and extent of the injury. He soon found that 
 there were no bones broken and that her foot was only 
 very badly sprained ; while she was continually cry- 
 ing out, " oh ! my poor foot, I am sure it is all smashed 
 to pieces." And as it was so painful that she could 
 not walk upon it, she desired to be raised up so that 
 she could see it. The moment her eyes fell upon its 
 surface she threw herself back upon the mattress in 
 the agony of despair, saying; " Oh! Doctor, I knew 
 it was all smashed to pieces, just see how black and 
 blue it is." "Ah!" says the Doctor, "nevermind 
 that. It will all come off with a little soap and water " ! 
 (Great applause.) I have often thought how many of 
 us would be caught in the same predicament, if we 
 should only happen to fall and injure ourselves in the 
 same way. (Great laughter.) 
 
 Bathing is of the greatest importance to the labor- 
 ing classes, on account of the increased secretions of 
 their skins, produced by their active employments ! 
 As the farmer returns from his harvest field, or the 
 mechanic from his workshop, at the close of a warm 
 summer's day, spent in active toil, he feels that the 
 waxy exhalations of the skin, cause the under gar- 
 ments to adhere to its surface, producing an uncom- 
 fortable and disagreeable sensation. If he could only 
 be induced to bathe himself in soap and water before 
 retiring for the night, he would be astonished at the 
 change produced in his strength and feelings. The 
 exhaustion of the moment before, would give place 
 to renewed strength and increased mental and moral 
 vigor ! 
 
 A few months since, I induced a well known editor 
 
174 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 in Western Pennsylvania, who attended my lectures, to 
 try the influence of the bath upon his feeble constitu- 
 tution. He informed me the next day that he had a 
 large tub of warm water brought to his room, and 
 after rubbing himself thoroughly with soap, he step- 
 ped into the tub of water and washed it off, but did 
 not notice that his skin was dirty by the color of the 
 Water. He then commenced rubbing himself dry with 
 a crash towel, and after a while, on looking down upon 
 the carpet which he stood upon, he discovered a com- 
 plete circle of softened cuticle which he had rubbed 
 off, surrounding him, and when he stepped out of that 
 magic ring he says he felt at least ten pounds lighter. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 But the bath may not only be used for the purpose 
 of cleanliness, but also to stimulate the healthy action 
 of the vital organs, and allay the morbid excitement of 
 the nervous system. An incalculable number of ladies 
 and gentlemen labor under the influence of nervous ir- 
 ritability produced by the accumulation of the nervous 
 energies, which is indeed the bane and misery of count- 
 less millions. This nervous excitement causing hyste- 
 ria, and all the protean forms of nervous diseases, may 
 be effectually removed by the use of the bath. But 
 perhaps some hysterical old ladies, or some nervous old 
 bachelors will say, " Doctor, I am afraid I will take 
 cold if I batne." (A laugh.) Indeed they are about 
 as fearful of cold water as an animal afflicted with hy- 
 drophobia ! and really there is some similarity in their 
 afflictions, or at least in their symptoms ! (Applause.) 
 During the last winter I was called upon in Philadel- 
 phia to attend a carpenter, laboring under the influence 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 175 
 
 of a periodical attack of rheumatism, and after he had 
 recovered, he inquired of me what he should do to pre- 
 vent an attack of the disease the next season, as he 
 usually suffered every spring and fall. I told him that 
 he must bathe every day in a tepid bath. Said he 
 "Oh! Doctor! 
 
 " ' Take any shape but that ! ' 
 
 "I bathed once about twenty-six years since, and I 
 caught the most awful cold that I ever had in my life!" 
 Said I to him, " Had you ever bathed before that timer' 
 "No!" said he; "never, never before nor since!" 
 (Laughter.) " Well then," I replied, " do you know 
 the reason why you took such a severe cold I " " No ! " 
 he answered, " I do n't ; what was it 1 " " Why you 
 took off too much at a time, and let the cold air in too 
 suddenly ! (Great laughter and applause.) 
 
 Again ; many persons take cold who bathe in a cold 
 room, and go through the operation too slowly. If you 
 would not take cold you must bathe in a warm room, 
 and rub the skin thoroughly. The exercise of rubbing 
 will warm the system and prevent the suppression of 
 the secretions of the skin ! A well-contrived bath tub 
 is the cheapest and most economical medicine chest 
 which you could purchase, and its daily use would soon 
 become a luxury not easily dispensed with by any of 
 the members of your family ! 
 
 There has been much difference of opinion prevailing 
 in the community in reference to the merits of va- 
 rious kinds of baths which have been proposed by dif- 
 ferent authors, and some have hesitated in procuring 
 them on account of the supposed expense. The best 
 bath for the purpose of cleanliness is undoubtedly that 
 
176 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 of immersion in warm water, but inasmuch as this is 
 somewhat inconvenient to those especially who are 
 traveling from place to place, they may secure all of 
 its advantages by providing themselves with an oil cloth 
 about four feet square, and placing a large hoop beneath 
 it, forming a kind of basin in which they can stand 
 while bathing and preserve the carpet dry. After rub- 
 bing the surface with soap, then sponge it off with a 
 soft sponge and water, and as the water collects in the 
 oil cloth basin beneath, it may be poured into the wash 
 bucket and thrown away ! 
 
 In the great majority of cases the warm or tepid bath 
 is perhaps the best, especially in weak and debilitated 
 cases, inasmuch as it stimulates the vital powers, and 
 invites the blood from the deep-seated organs to the 
 surface, relieving local congestions and promoting the 
 equality of the circulation. After bathing in warm or 
 tepid water, it is always well to rinse the surface of the 
 skin with a towel dipped in cold water. This braces 
 the capillaries, and diminishes the liability to take cold 
 from sudden changes of temperature! 
 
 In a sound and vigorous constitution, where there is 
 sufficient vitality ; or in inflammatory affections accom- 
 panied with increased heat and febrile excitement, the 
 cold bath may be used with success. 
 
 " Against the rigors of the cold, damp earth, 
 To fortify their bodies, some frequent the frozen cistern ; 
 And where naught forbids, I praise their dauntless hearts. 
 A frame so steeled, dreads not the cough, 
 Nor the ungenial blast that breathes the tertian ; 
 Nor fell rheumatism. A frame so steeled, 
 Never quits its tone ; nor chronic langours 
 Haunt such hardy breasts ! " 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 177 
 
 Bathing is not only useful for the prevention of skin 
 diseases, but it is also useful for their relief. In the 
 hospital San Louis, at Paris, perhaps the largest hos- 
 pital in the world, for the treatment of skin diseases, 
 much reliance is placed upon the use of plain and 
 medicated baths. They operate beneficially by cleans- 
 ing the skin and removing the outside layers of the 
 cuticle, and promoting the healthy action of its secre- 
 tions. They are also useful in fevers, for the purpose of 
 diminishing the excessive heat, and regulating the 
 temperature of the body. You have often observed 
 that in all febrile affections, as long as the skin is hot 
 and dry, the fever rages higher ; but the moment per- 
 spiration breaks out, and the surface of the skin be- 
 comes moist, then the fever decreases in violence. If 
 the large majority of mankind, when attacked with 
 slight febrile affections, would stop eating, take a bath, 
 and rest for a day or two, instead of loading their 
 stomachs with vegetable pills, there would be hard 
 times for the medical profession. (Applause.) 
 
 The great advantage of the use of the bath for the 
 relief of worn out and broken down constitutions, may 
 'be seen in its influence upon thousands of our citizens, 
 who, after spending the winter season in one continued 
 round of balls, concerts, theaters and fashionable dissi- 
 pation, come out in the spring completely exhausted 
 and broken down in spirits and in health. They then 
 visit our fashionable watering places during the summer 
 season, in the pursuit of health and renewed energies. 
 How much more consistent it would be for such per- 
 sons to provide, in their own sumptuous dwellings, the 
 
 12 
 
 
178 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 means of bathing, and thus prevent this enormous 
 sacrifice of health and happiness ! 
 
 Not long since, Dr. Hartshorne, of Philadelphia, was 
 attending the children of one of these votaries of fash- 
 ion, whose time was mainly occupied, not in attending 
 to her children and superintending her domestic affairs, 
 but in making and receiving morning calls, taking 
 fashionable walks, examining the ribbons in the shop 
 windows, and ascertaining what color fashion was going 
 to compel her to wear, &c. ; while her children at home 
 were entirely neglected, or intrusted to the cold sym- 
 pathy of the nurse, who knew little or nothing of her 
 business. One day, as the doctor called to make his 
 customary visit, he met this lady and mother at the 
 door, and she said to him, " Doctor, I don't see that 
 our children are getting much better. Don't you think 
 we had better take them to the springs'?" "Ah, yes!" 
 said the doctor, "I approve of that." "You doT' says 
 she, " well, what springs do you think we had better 
 visit*?" "As to that, madam," said he, "it makes no 
 difference only take along with you plenty of soap!" 
 (Applause.) The health and cleanliness of her children 
 had been sadly neglected by the fashionable mother, 
 who foolishly thought that the old doctor could act as 
 nurse, mother and physician, all combined in one person! 
 
 There are many accidental injuries of the skin, such 
 as cuts, burns and scalds, which require the attention 
 of the mother ; and it is desirable that she should treat 
 accidents in a skillful and appropriate manner. When- 
 ever the skin is cut but slightly, the lips of the wound 
 may be brought together by means of some strips of 
 sticking plaster, and covered with a little lint, which 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 179 
 
 must be wet every now and then with cold water. 
 This treatment is far preferable to the use of any kind 
 of salve or ointment, and is generally made use of in 
 the largest and best hospitals, at the present day, 
 throughout the world. Burns and scalds of the skin, 
 which raise up or remove the cuticle, allowing the air 
 to come in contact with the nerves, and producing 
 great pain, will always be effectually relieved by the 
 use of any substance as a dressing, which excludes the 
 atmosphere, while nature pours out the healing mate- 
 rial which heals up or unites the parts. It is found, 
 from large experience in the public hospitals of this 
 country, that dry starch is the very best dressing to 
 answer these indications. Cover over the burned sur- 
 face with this material, and the pain ceases almost 
 instantaneously. It operates like a charm, upon the 
 principle of atmospherical exclusion, in all burns, scalds, 
 chilblains, &c. This dressing should be put on thick, 
 and covered with a linen cloth or bandage, which must 
 not be removed until the part heals beneath. If the 
 surface is dressed every day, the air will stimulate the 
 parts, often producing deep ulcerations, and very un- 
 sightly scars and deformity, which might otherwise 
 have been prevented. 
 
 "But," say some of the good old ladies, " Doctor, I 
 know how to make a salve or an ointment, that is so 
 healing that it will heal up any sore or ulcer in a day 
 or two." If you inquire about the composition of these 
 all-healing ointments, you will generally find that they 
 have been compounded, by superstitious minds, out of 
 rattle-snake's grease, or mud worms, or spider's webs, 
 or black cats, or something in which the horrible and 
 
180 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 marvelous are largely combined. (A laugh.) Now, 
 let me inform you that there is no ointment which heals 
 or develops a granule of flesh or blood. The innate 
 vital powers heal and repair all injuries of the human 
 organization, while ointments, like many other medi- 
 cines, do all they can to prevent nature from performing 
 the cure. (Applause.) 
 
 While lecturing in Western Virginia not long since, 
 I was informed by a professional friend, that the people 
 in that country had accidentally discovered an ointment, 
 which was a remedy of very great value ; and upon 
 inquiry, I learned that, not long since, as he was riding 
 past the house of a lady, whose son had been severely 
 burned not long before, his attention was arrested by 
 the well known call, " Doctor, doctor, do tell me what 
 you think of black cat's grease I Is it very healing "? " 
 " Yes," says the doctor, " I believe it is," and rode on 
 as fast as he could. The doctor was no sooner out of 
 sight than the old lady rallied all of the children, with 
 the brooms and shovels, and they soon ran down the 
 old black cat ; and one of the boys skinned him, and 
 they tied a string to his foot and hung him up before 
 the fire, to roast the grease out of him. As soon as 
 the ointment was prepared, they put some of it on 
 William's burn, and strange to say, it healed up in a 
 very short time ; and now, this physician informs me, 
 that all through that region of country, there is nothing 
 so healing as black cat's grease ! (Rounds of applause.) 
 Many people believe that there is a witch in every 
 black cat, and would not shoot one ; because they say 
 " the gun never would shoot straight again afterwards, 
 because they had killed a witch with it." (Great 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 
 
 181 
 
 laughter.) If I tell you an anecdote occasionally, it is 
 only to make you hear me out ; for the subject is of the 
 greatest interest and of the highest importance. 
 
 Sebaceous Follicles of the Skin. (See page 162.) 
 
LECTURE VI 
 
 MUSCULAR SYSTEM 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
 
 TN my last lecture, which I had the pleasure of deliv- 
 -L ering before you, I endeavored to explain to you 
 the structure and nature of the skin, and the influence of 
 its functions upon health ; and this evening I propose 
 to call your attention to the consideration of the mus- 
 cular system, or the organs of voluntary motion. 
 
 The locomotive system of the human being is divided 
 into two hundred and eight bones, and about four hun- 
 dred and seventy muscles, or strips of lean meat, which 
 are so attached to the bones, at both extremities, as to 
 be able, by shortening or contracting themselves, to 
 move the bones upon each other, at the joints, and thus 
 produce a great variety of movements, so essential to 
 enable us to prosecute all of our various avocations in 
 life. The muscles are arranged on both sides of the 
 bones, so as to act alternately, producing flexion or 
 bending, and then extension or straightening, as may 
 be seen in the figure on the next page, where one of the 
 
184 LECTUKES ON THE 
 
 muscles is arranged in front of the arm, to bend the 
 elbow by shortening itself, and another muscle is 
 arranged behind the arm, so as to extend or straighten 
 the arm at the elbow joint. The same mechanical 
 
 arrangement is seen for the flexion and extension of the 
 fingers, and, indeed, for all of the different parts of the 
 body. 
 
 In the human being, and in many of the higher 
 animals, the muscles are of that red color which is 
 characteristic of the lean meat or muscle of the ox ; 
 and when they are thoroughly developed by physical 
 education or training, they confer upon the human form 
 all of those graceful curves which are so characteristic 
 of strength and beauty. 
 
 The interstices or furrows between the muscles, 
 beneath the skin, are filled up by the deposit of adipose 
 matter, forming numerous soft cushions for the muscles 
 to move upon, and facilitating their action. If we 
 remove one of these muscles, for the purpose of exam- 
 ining it, we shall find that it is composed of a bundle 
 of parallel strips or fibres, which terminate in the 
 tendons or cords. Each one of these distinct strips, 
 which is only about one-sixteenth of an inch in diam- 
 eter, appears to be surrounded with a delicate sheath of 
 cellular membrane. If we place one of these small 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 185 
 
 fibres, which compose the muscles, beneath a microscope 
 of great power, we shall observe that it is also composed 
 of a great number of still smaller strips, only the one- 
 forty-thousandth part of an inch in diameter, and which, 
 on account of their diminutive size, are called the 
 fibrilla. 
 
 The tendons which are appended to the ends of the 
 muscles, are composed of the sheaths of the fibres and 
 fibrilla, and are not endowed with that peculiar proper- 
 ty of muscular contractility. They serve the purpose 
 of increasing the distance from the point where the 
 power is applied, to the point to be acted upon, and at 
 the same time fastening the muscles to the bones. 
 
 As I have before intimated to you, the muscles and 
 the bones are simply the organs of locomotion, and as 
 such, are entirely incapable of movement of them 
 selves. In this respect, they resemble the steam engine 
 placed upon the railroad, which requires the applica- 
 tion of the power of steam to set its machinery in 
 motion ; so also, the locomotive system of the human 
 body requires the powers of the nervous system to set 
 its machinery the bones and muscles, in motion ! 
 
 The spinal marrow, as I have before observed, is 
 composed of two parts, the anterior and posterior 
 columns, each of which sends off two kinds of nerves. 
 The anterior column sends off the nerves of motion to 
 the muscles, while the posterior column sends off the 
 nerves of sensation, or feeling to the skin. 
 
 The stimulus or power which calls each of these 
 four hundred and seventy muscles into action, is develo- 
 ped in the cerebro-spinal axis, or the brain and spinal 
 marrow, which, indeed, are the source of all power, as 
 
186 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 well as all sensation or feeling, in the animal economy ! 
 If you divide at the shoulder, the large nerves which 
 are distributed to the muscles of the arm, it becomes 
 paralyzed and cleaves to your side in consequence of 
 the interruption of the means of transmitting the stimu 
 lus of the brain to the muscles for the purpose of call- 
 ing them into action ! 
 
 The muscles are called the organs of voluntary 
 motion, because their action is limited or controlled by 
 the human will, or volition, enabling us by a mental 
 act to regulate and direct their various motions so 
 essential in the prosecution of the various pleasures 
 and pursuits of life ! 
 
 The rudiments of these bones and muscles exist at 
 birth ; but their size and strength in after life, will 
 depend upon physical education ! 
 
 Like the operations of the human mind, their move- 
 ments, during the first few months of our existence, 
 are feeble and irregular, but they are susceptible of a 
 high degree of development and cultivation, by means 
 of physical education or training rendering them ca- 
 pable of performing feats of the most astonishing 
 strength, or movements of the most wonderful delicacy 
 and precision ! 
 
 Look at the artizan and behold with what sturdy 
 strokes he plies his hammer upon the anvil ! with 
 what wonderful delicacy and skill the magic lines and 
 rosy tints flow from the pencil of the painter with 
 what wonderful accuracy the sculptor conveys the last 
 faint touches to the almost speaking statue ! 
 
 The action of these muscles is indispensable to all 
 of the pleasures and pursuits of man ! Not even a 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 187 
 
 single motion, or expression, however insignificant, can 
 take place, except through their agency ! " By their 
 action the farmer pursues his plow the mechanic plies 
 his hammer upon the anvil the statesman wields his 
 pen, and the orator pours forth his thoughts in words 
 of burning eloquence ! " 
 
 It will not be possible for me to remove and explain 
 to you in detail, the nature and the use of each of the 
 several muscular organs, this evening, in the small 
 space of time which has been allotted to me by your 
 kindness ; but I shall endeavor to remove a sufficient 
 number of them from the figure to give you a general 
 idea of their mechanical arrangement, and then pro- 
 ceed to the consideration of the more important practi- 
 cal ideas connected with physical education ! 
 
 The first muscle to which I call your attention, is 
 situated beneath the scalp and runs from the back 
 part of the head or occiput, to the forehead. It is 
 called the occipito frontalis, and is useful to raise up 
 the skin of the forehead, and scalp, causing the expres- 
 sion of wonder ! Immediately beneath the skin over 
 the eyebrows, you will observe two muscles, called the 
 corrugator super cillii, which corrugate or wrinkle the 
 skin between the eyebrows, causing the expression of 
 scorn, contempt, anger, revenge, &c. This muscle is 
 very largely developed in the habitual scold or virago, 
 so that she may be known even when she attempts to 
 assume a sickly smile, to captivate the beaux a smile 
 which is soon chased away by the frowns of anger, so 
 long and so frequently indulged in, that their expres- 
 sion becomes natural and habitual ! (Laughter and 
 applause.) 
 
188 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The expression of anger is also facilitated by other 
 muscles running up from the corners of the mouth to 
 the side of the nose, called the levator labii superioris 
 alique nasi. If any of our young gentlemen find a 
 young lady with these muscles large, and two promi- 
 nent lines or wrinkles between the eyebrows, he had 
 better avoid the storm, while he views the gleam of the 
 lightning at a distance, for such a countenance marks 
 the virago ! (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 On each side of the corners of the mouth, you will 
 observe several muscles which run towards the outward 
 corners of the eye, and which the feelings call into 
 action in the expression of smiles and laughter. When 
 these muscles are called into daily and habitual action, 
 by the exercise of corresponding feelings, they will give 
 tone to the expression of the human countenance; 
 and hence it is, that the character of the expression of 
 the muscles of the face, is but a reflection of the habit- 
 ual action of the human mind and feelings. The mus- 
 cles of the face are organs for the expression of our 
 mental faculties, moral sentiments, and passions. If 
 the mental faculties are not called into frequent action, 
 the countenance becomes blank, leaden, and expres- 
 sionless, or idiotic so different from the sparkling 
 expression of intellect, and the gleams of intelligence. 
 If the passions and propensities are daily exercised, 
 they will be expressed in the muscles of the human face, 
 and the expression will give caste to the countenance ! 
 And so also of the moral sentiments. Their daily and 
 habitual exercise bestows upon the human face and 
 features, an expression which is almost divine, in its 
 tone and character an expression so different from 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 189 
 
 that of the victim of all of the fell passions of anger, 
 revenge, remorse, envy, jealousy, &c. that it is even 
 instantly recognized by the untutored savage ! 
 
 If, then, our fair friends would have beautiful and 
 expressive countenances, they must cultivate their minds 
 and moral sentiments, and repress their passions, appe- 
 tites, and propensities. The countenance of such a 
 person glows with the fires of a cultivated intellect, 
 and is radiant with the smiles of joy, and hope, and 
 love; which invest it with charms and beauties far 
 beyond that which can be communicated by genius, 
 to the cold and impassive marble ! (Applause.) 
 
 If you observe the anterior and upper portion of the 
 chest, you will discover on each side two large fan- 
 shaped muscles, which are attached to the arms on 
 either side, and which serve the purpose of drawing 
 the shoulders forward upon the sides of the chest. 
 These muscles are large in carpenters, and others whose 
 occupation requires their frequent use. 
 
 The anterior walls of the abdomen are, as you will 
 observe, composed of several planes of muscles, which 
 are distributed in different directions, and serve the 
 purpose of assisting in respiration, and to protect the 
 contents of the abdomen. If I turn this figure a little, 
 you will observe several layers of spinal muscles, which 
 are firmly attached to the bones of the spinal column, 
 bestowing upon it, when they are well developed by 
 physical education, the most astonishing elasticity and 
 power. These muscles are the seat of that disease 
 known as lumbago, or spinal rheumatism, produced 
 by exhausting habits ; and for the cure of which, vari- 
 ous old plasters, and liniments, made out of numerous 
 
190 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 f 
 
 roots and yarbs^ are often applied in vain, as long as 
 the cause remains unmoved ! 
 
 Back of the shoulders, on each side, you will observe 
 large muscles, which draw back the shoulder from the 
 chest, and prevent the formation of a stooping figure, 
 which is so destructive of health and beauty ! If we 
 remove the arm from its connection with the body, you 
 will observe that its muscles are divided into those 
 which flex, and those which extend the various parts 
 of this useful limb. Those which are situated in front 
 of the arm bend it at the elbow, the wrist, and the 
 fingers, at all of their numerous joints; and those 
 which are attached to the bones on the back part of 
 the arm, extend or straighten it at the several joints. 
 The movements of these muscles may be distinguished 
 on the bones of the arm below the shoulder, (see fig- 
 ure on page 184,) if we grasp them firmly with the 
 hand, and then move the arm at the elbow. 
 
 If you examine the muscles upon the lower extrem- 
 ity, you will find that they are arranged upon the same 
 principle as those of the arm, and with the same view 
 of securing alternate flexion and extension. These 
 muscles may be dissected and removed, one after 
 another, in a few moments ; but a perfect description 
 of their attachments, relations, and uses, would require 
 hours to explain, and would be of little practical value, 
 except to the surgeon and anatomist. 
 
 After having glanced as rapidly as possible at the 
 nature, mode of action, and philosophy of the muscu- 
 lar system, it remains still further for me to call your 
 attention to the laws of physical education, and mus- 
 cular development, in order that, by complying with 
 

 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 191 
 
 M 
 
 them, you may secure health, strength, and beauty, and 
 not labor under the influence of that exhaustion, debil- 
 ity, and deformity, which are so common at the pres- 
 ent day especially among those who have neglected 
 to comply with its great and important truths! 
 
 1st. It is a natural law that action, alternating with 
 rest, educates, strengthens and develops the muscles. 
 
 In the earlier phases of human life, exercise is a 
 positive pleasure, and the want of it is little less than 
 actual pain. The muscles of early youth are so imbued 
 with an exuberance of vitality that a state of inactivity 
 is irksome, and this exuberance is joyfully as well as 
 profitably expended in active exertion ! The Creator 
 seems to have implanted in the breast of youth the in- 
 stinctive desire to run, leap, jump and play, for the 
 purpose of educating and developing their muscles to 
 perform their appropriate duties in after life ! 
 
 At birth the muscles are small, and the young child's 
 movements are feeble and imperfect, but as they are 
 more and more used in frequent attempts at locomotion 
 they become larger and more powerful ! It is a sad 
 mistake to suppose that the size and power of the mus- 
 cles depend upon the natural growth of the body, inde- 
 pendent of physical education ! 
 
 Indeed it is as impossible for the human being to be 
 distinguished for physical strength and beauty without 
 the aid of physical education and training, as it is for 
 a Shakespear, a Milton, or a Bacon to arise without 
 previous intellectual cultivation and mental discipline ! 
 Exercise stimulates the heart and arteries, and causes 
 the blood to circulate with greater rapidity by means 
 of the pressure produced by the alternate contraction 
 
192 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 and relaxation of the muscles, thereby increasing the 
 powers of nutrition and rapidly developing and increas- 
 ing the size and power of all of the various organs of 
 the human body. If you examine the right arm of 
 the smith, who has long been engaged in wielding his 
 hammer upon the anvil, you will observe the influence 
 of action in the increased development and strength of 
 its muscles. The votary of Terpsichore, or the dancing 
 master, often displays to you the influence of physical 
 education, upon the lower extremities, and so also of 
 pedestrians and others whose trades and pursuits in life 
 require the daily exercise of certain muscles of the* 
 human body, while on the contrary those of sedentary 
 habits or stupid inactivity afford illustrations of the 
 manner in which nature punishes the violators of all 
 her laws ! 
 
 " Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work," 
 says the commandment, " but the seventh day is the 
 Sabbath ; in it thou shalt do no work." If you will 
 fasten your arm across your chest so as to render it 
 impossible for you to use it for two or three months, you 
 will discover the consequences of violating the Creator's 
 natural laws and what he has commanded you so clearly 
 to observe! If you remove the fastenings from your 
 arm after two or three months' continuous disuse, you 
 will be surprised to discover that its muscles have dried, 
 withered and shriveled so as to render it incapable of 
 raising a tumbler of water to quench your parched 
 thirst ! (Sensation.) 
 
 How often the command, " Six days shalt thou labor 
 and do all thy work," is broken by idle, indolent and 
 lazy Christians, may be inferred from their pale and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. . 193 
 
 sallow countenances and imperfectly developed bodies! 
 They not only " rest the seventh day which is the Sab- 
 bath," but they rest all of the time, and still foolishly 
 think they serve God and keep His commandments ! 
 (Sensation and applause.) Now nothing can be plainer 
 than that all Christians who do not engage in some 
 honorable and useful employment "six days" in seven, 
 live in habitual violation of this Divine injunction ; and 
 its consequences, in a physiological point of view, have 
 been clearly pointed out! 
 
 " Toil and be strong ! 
 
 By toil our long-lived fathers earned their food : 
 Toil knit their limbs and purified their blood." 
 
 The disastrous influence of muscular inactivity has 
 often been seen in its effects upon those who have been 
 confined in the prisons of Europe for political offences ! 
 The illustrious Lafayette, when confined in an Austrian 
 dungeon, came near falling a victim to the exhaustion 
 and debility consequent upon such confinement and 
 inactivity ! The thousands of miserable victims who 
 issued from the old Bastile after long confinement in 
 its dungeons, with their distorted limbs and deformed 
 bodies, excited a thrill of indignation throughout the 
 world ! It was indeed no wonder that the heart of the 
 Parisian mob beat with indignation when they beheld 
 what cruelty and oppression had been inflicted upon 
 their brothers for mere disbelief in the Divine right of 
 Kings and Princes ! It was no wonder that they arose 
 in their majesty and might, and hurled with violence 
 this system of barbarous and inhuman torture to the 
 ground, and erected upon its foundation the sacred 
 column to glorious Liberty, Equality and Fraternity ! 
 13 
 
194 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 (Applause.) Those who would live by the sword of 
 tyranny and oppression, shall perish by the sword of 
 truth and justice! (Renewed applause.) 
 
 The influence of a want of exercise is often noticed 
 in reference to the domestic animals. If the gentleman 
 wishes his horse should be fleet in the race, he causes 
 him to practice for a long time, before engaging in the 
 final contest. Not long since, an old friend of mine, 
 who lived in Frankford, near the city of Philadelphia, 
 purchased a valuable horse from a gentleman from 
 Ohio, and not being able to use him at all times him- 
 self, he would not allow any one else to use him for 
 him, but had him well fed, and allowed him to stand 
 in the stable. Finally, the old gentleman was taken 
 sick and died. In the course of time the horse was 
 sold, when it was found that he had stood so long idle 
 in the stable, that he was foundered and good for 
 nothing ! 
 
 Now, there are thousands of ladies and gentlemen, 
 at the present day, that have become foundered and 
 good for nothing, in the same way ; (laughter and ap- 
 plause;) who have stood idle in the parlor, until they 
 have become ring-boned and spavined, so that a decent 
 trot throws them all out of breath ! (Rounds of ap- 
 plause.) How many thousands of ladies and gentlemen 
 in this country, linger out a miserable existence of 
 idleness and physical ignorance and imbecility, who 
 might, through the means of physical education, become 
 strong, useful, and happy, while engaged at some useful 
 employment. Thousands of pale, feeble and emaciated 
 females scarcely pass the threshold of the door, during 
 the long winter season ; and their pale and withered 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 195 
 
 countenances and lustreless eyes tell us of the misery 
 and the suffering which they endure. 
 
 I was called upon the other day to prescribe for the 
 daughter of one of these mothers, who could not appre- 
 ciate the necessity and advantage of physical education. 
 After making some remarks upon the subject of physical 
 training, the mother raised up her spectacles on her 
 nose, and exclaimed, " ' Physical education ! ' why, la 
 me, I am sure it does not do our William any good, 
 for he has lived upon nothing on arth, for the last 
 twenty years, but vegetable pills ! " (Laughter and 
 applause.) Now, unfortunately too many human beings 
 have tried this kind of physical education, with no 
 better success. Giving an invalid physic to strengthen 
 him, is like turning a rock over for an argument, and 
 using a crow-bar to convince a man. (Applause.) 
 
 Would you think of educating the feeble mental 
 powers and moral sentiments of your children by means 
 of pills, and powders, and panaceas, and plasters ap- 
 plied to their heads, for the purpose of strengthening 
 them'? (Renewed applause.) Certainly not; and yet 
 you are continually taking strengthening remedies, and 
 using strengthening plasters, for the purpose of educa- 
 ting, developing and strengthening your feeble muscular 
 powers, induced by physical ignorance, idleness and 
 inactivity ! (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 Physical education was held in high estimation by 
 the ancient Grecians and Romans, as a means of se- 
 curing superiority of physical strength, health and 
 beauty. They erected their gymnasia and schools for 
 physical exercise, which were thrown open to both 
 sexes. They established their Olympian games their 
 chariot races, and gladiatorial contests, which " knit 
 
196 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 their limbs and purified their blood," and the physical 
 superiority which they thus acquired, enabled the 
 Grecian and Roman youth to plant their victorious 
 eagles on distant plains ; and in arms, arts and sciences, 
 to win a fame which shall endure so long as time shall 
 last! (Applause.) 
 
 But let the most enthusiastic admirer of the great- 
 ness of the Roman State, and of the glories of Sparta, 
 linger beneath the shade of the laurel and the olive of 
 modern Greece and Italy, and witness the thriftless 
 idleness and physical imbecility of the modern Grecian 
 and Italian, and he will require no Gibbon to inform 
 him of the " cause of the decline and fall of a great and 
 glorious empire." 
 
 The ancients desired great physical power, not to 
 combat error with truth, and to overcome evil with 
 good, but to conquer the world by brute force alone ; 
 and hence their final decline and fall after they had 
 attained their ignoble object. 
 
 " Strengthen and fortify your bodies, 
 
 Not to strike or slay, unless the audible voice of Heaven 
 
 Call thee to that dire office, but to shed on ears 
 
 Abused by falsehood, truths of power, in words immortal ! 
 
 Not the words which flash from the fierce demagogue's 
 
 Unthinking rage, to madden for a moment and expire, 
 
 Nor such as the wrapt orator imbues with the warmth 
 
 Of facile sympathy and moulds to mirrors radiant 
 
 With fair forms to grace the noble fervor of an hour ; 
 
 But words which bear the spirits of great deeds, winged 
 
 For the future, which the dying breath of freedom 
 
 Shapes as it exhales, and to the most enduring 
 
 Forms of earth commits, to linger in the craggy shade 
 
 'Neath the eagle's home, or in the sea-cave, where the tempest sleeps 
 
 Till some heroic leader bids them wake 
 
 To thrill the world with echoes " ! (Applause.) 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 197 
 
 But the modern idea of health, is so associated with 
 coarseness and vulgarity in fashionable society, that 
 few females pay any attention whatever to physical 
 education. Indeed most of our fashionable young 
 ladies do not study and practice the means of acquir- 
 ing good health and strength, but rather the means of 
 weakness, imbecility and lady-like delicacy, and why I 
 Simply because they know that gentlemen love to have 
 them weak so that they can protect and support them ! 
 (Great applause.) Only think of a refined and delicate 
 lady being strong and healthy enough to take care of 
 herself! (Applause) there is something so coarse 
 and vulgar in the very idea ! (Laughter.) Our nice 
 and fashionable young men wish that the ladies should 
 be so weak, and delicate that they will scream at the 
 very sight of a spider, and go into a fit of hysterics at 
 the presence of a mouse ; so that they may courageous- 
 ly step in, with their mustaches, and broad-swords, 
 and defend them from such monsters ! (Rounds of 
 applause.) 
 
 In infancy the foolish mother rather tries to check 
 the natural exuberance of her daughters the dispo- 
 sition to run, jump and play over the hills and through 
 the green valleys causing them to resound with the 
 merry music of their happy voices. If the daughter 
 steals away into the garden, and is there discovered by 
 her cruel mother, romping and playing catching the 
 butterflies and culling the flowers, with sparkling eyes 
 and red and rosy cheeks, the mother is seized with 
 alarm lest " she should grow up a great coarse, romp- 
 ing, healthy, tomboy!" (Sensation and applause.) 
 And she immediately raps on the window for her to 
 
198 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 come in, and says to her, " Why, my daughter, ain't 
 you ashamed to be out there, playing with the boys 1 
 Why, how coarse you look ! Come into the house and 
 sit down by the side of your mother, with your nice 
 little sewing, on this nice little stool," and grow up 
 such a nice, little, lean, lank, weakly, hystericky, 
 delicate lady ! (Rounds of applause.) The mother 
 knows how to please the gentlemen, and to get a good 
 husband for her ring-boned, spavined, crooked-backed 
 and foundered daughter! (Great laughter and ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Now why is it that the foolish mother does not 
 require her sons to be educated like her daughters'? 
 They are entirely unrestricted in the amount of exer- 
 cise they can play ball take long walks climb 
 a mountain, or engage in all of the pastimes and sports 
 of infancy. Have not their daughters the same physi- 
 ological organization to educate, cultivate and develop I 
 and why is it that this distinction is made'? Is it 
 because a rational public opinion, founded upon a great 
 principle, and in accordance with the dictates of com- 
 mon sense, demands that it should be so for the highest 
 and best interests of society? Certainly not. But 
 rather because it is in accordance with the mere sickly, 
 sentimental and heterogeneous and inconsistent dictates 
 of custom and fashion, that woman should be pale, 
 feeble and delicate, in order to please us gentlemen, 
 and get a good husband. (Applause.) 
 
 This indeed is the reason why such a large number 
 of fashionably educated females labor under the influ- 
 ence of spinal complaint. It has been said by a recent 
 author, that more than nine-tenths of those females 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 199 
 
 who have been educated in our fashionable boarding 
 schools labor under the influence of more or less cur- 
 vature of the spinal column a deformity which is 
 almost entirely unknown among boys and young men, 
 who are allowed to exercise abundantly in the open air. 
 Now let me ask you, who is responsible for all this 
 weakness, debility and deformity I Rest assured that 
 these diseases and misfortunes are produced by causes 
 which are within the control of human agency and are 
 left in operation only in consequence of our ignorance 
 of ourselves. If the physical education of woman 
 received the same attention that is bestowed upon the 
 opposite sex, there would be few spinal diseases, and 
 comparatively little muscular weakness and debility. 
 
 Woman is not weak by reason of sex, as many sup- 
 pose, but rather by reason of habit, custom and fashion. 
 Among many savage tribes the female is the stronger 
 of the sexes. And even in our own country, you may 
 find young females with cheeks as red as roses, on the 
 Alleghany mountains, in old Pennsylvania, who would 
 make our young knights of the yard-stick and imperial 
 fly round like a top in the hands of a school boy. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 A few months since, I had the pleasure of lecturing 
 at Hollidaysburg, and during the few days which I 
 spent there, very agreeably, I was invited to an after- 
 noon party ; and during the evening, while romping 
 with some of the young ladies, I undertook to catch 
 one of them in blind man's buff. It took me a long 
 time, I can assure you, to do so ; and when I did catch 
 her, I could not hold on to her, she was so strong ? 
 (Applause.) Why the muscles of her arm were as 
 
200 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 hard as a bar of iron ! (Renewed applause.) I asked 
 her afterwards, if she ever had the hysterics, or the 
 blues felt nervous or weak and she only laughed 
 at me ! (Rounds of applause.) I only hope that some 
 of our nice young men, who think that all females are 
 the weaker vessels, may not fall into the hands of some 
 of these mountain girls ; if they do, they may as well 
 yield at once, for I can assure them there will be no 
 need of any broomstick, to make them behave them- 
 selves ! (Applause.) 
 
 But again : the style of dress which has long been 
 adopted by fashionable females, is well calculated to 
 restrain all freedom of locomotion, and produce great 
 effeminacy, weakness, and debility, on account of the 
 length of the skirts, and the nature of the waist, preclu- 
 ding the possibility of free exercise in the open air. 
 The following extract from a recent article in the West- 
 minster Review, is so appropriate to this subject, that 
 I shall be excused for quoting it : 
 
 " The great object of clothing should be first, to 
 guard against cold ; secondly, that it may be put on 
 and removed with the least possible trouble ; thirdly, 
 that it may possess the most graceful form consistent 
 with unrestricted freedom of motion; and fourthly, 
 that the material be of the best kind to accomplish 
 these conditions with the greatest facility for cleanli- 
 ness ! For those who may be born to consume the 
 fruits of others' industry, if such there may be, such 
 integuments may be used as will express their helpless 
 dependence and uselessness. The idle and indolent 
 may have long flowing draperies like the Turk in the 
 harem, or the pumps, and silk stockings and breeches 
 
PHILOSOPHY Otf LIFE. 201 
 
 of the last age, indicating that they are to be carried 
 with care, like glass, " this side uppermost," and not 
 to be exposed to winter and rough weather ; that they 
 are things to be carried like babies in long clothes, de- 
 pendent on nurses and servants!" (Applause.) 
 
 Now no sensible or well-informed lady or gentleman 
 of enlarged experience and observation, can fail to dis- 
 cover that such absurdities in dress, are opposed to all 
 freedom of movement, and healthful exercise, especially 
 among females, and in a country like ours, where there 
 is great alternation of seasons ! "Were our fair coun- 
 trywomen mermaids., the long flowing skirts would be 
 mechanically right ; but inasmuch as they have two 
 lower extremities instead of one, they require separate 
 integuments, just as much as a glove requires its sepa- 
 rate fingers, in order to be convenient and useful !" 
 
 Physical education is not only useful for the purpose 
 of strengthening and developing our physical powers, 
 but it also contributes, in no small degree, to cultivate 
 and unfold our mental powers, and our moral senti- 
 ments ! Exercise stimulates the heart and arteries, 
 and quickens the circulation of the blood, not only to 
 the muscles, nourishing, and increasing their size; but 
 also to the brain, developing and increasing its size, 
 and unfolding its most wonderful powers ! It is thus 
 that labor or manly exercise, dignifies and improves 
 the nature of man. It promotes the health, strength, 
 and beauty of his physical form ! It disciplines his 
 passions, refines his taste, exalts his feelings, and con- 
 tributes to unfold his immortal moral sentiments, and 
 mental faculties ! Motion, action, progress these are 
 the words which now fill the blue vault of heaven with 
 
202 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 their stirring demands, and make humanity's heart pul- 
 sate with a stronger bound ! (Applause.) These are 
 the talismanic words which thrill the world with echoes, 
 and lead on our noble youth to fortune and fame ! 
 
 Who, indeed, have made the most splendid discov- 
 eries of ancient and modern times ? Who discovered 
 and explained the laws of gravitation ] Who caught 
 the sparkling flame from heaven, and chained it harm- 
 less upon the ground] Who has enabled us, by his 
 laborious investigation, to transmit our thoughts with 
 the speed of lightning, and the powers of steam ? En- 
 ergy, motion, action ; by the aid of their magic influ- 
 ence, we have the key which unlocks the treasures of 
 knowledge, of fame, and power, and affluence ! (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 " The longer I live," says the poet Goethe, " the 
 more certain I am that the great difference between 
 men the great and the insignificant is energy, in- 
 vincible determination, an honest purpose once fixed, 
 and then victory. This quality will do anything that 
 can be done in the world ; and no talents, no circum- 
 stances, no opportunity, will make a two-legged crea- 
 ture a man without it !" (Applause.) 
 
 " Mind is immortal ! Mind is imperial ! It bears 
 no mark of high or low of rich or poor. It heeds no 
 bound of time, or place, or rank, or circumstances. It 
 asks but freedom. It requires but action. It is Heav- 
 en-born, and it aspires to Heaven. Weakness does 
 not enfeeble it. Poverty cannot repress it. Difficul- 
 ties do but stimulate its vigor. And the poor tallow- 
 chandler s son, that sits up all night to read a book 
 which an apprentice has loaned him, lest the master's 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 203 
 
 eye should miss it in the morning, shall stand and 
 treat with kings, shall add new provinces to the domain 
 of science, shall bind the lightning with a hempen 
 cord, and bring it harmless to the ground !" Yes, my 
 friends, on that kite when the city away yonder upon 
 the Delaware, upon which it that day looked down, 
 shall be known only by its ruins will be read by pos- 
 terity, as it waves high up in mid-air, in blazing 
 colossal letters, the name of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ! 
 (Applause.) It was his early industry, economy, and 
 frugality, which developed his noble and manly phys- 
 ical proportions, and in after life enabled him to stand 
 and treat with kings, in favor of noble principles and 
 the dearest rights of a great and a free people ! 
 
 It has often been said of this distinguished Ameri- 
 can philosopher, that in early life, wlien a printer in 
 Philadelphia, he was not ashamed to wheel his paper 
 along the principal streets of that city on a wheelbar- 
 row. Now let me ask you how many Benjamin Frank- 
 lins we have among our editorial friends at the present 
 day, who are not ashamed to do likewise? If they 
 have a load of wood left at their doors, they dare not 
 saw and split it, for fear of what Mrs. Grundy will say ! 
 (Applause.) If Miss Grundy should happen to pass 
 along the street and see them engaged at any such 
 menial employment, she would not invite them to her 
 soiree upon the next occasion ! And yet if they can 
 only get the wood down cellar out of sight, they may 
 saw and split away as long as they please ! (Laughter 
 and applause.) 
 
 " Now is it not one of the most unaccountable of 
 contradictions, that society should look backwards upon 
 
204 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 examples of industry and frugality, with feelings so 
 different from those with which they contemplate the 
 same virtues when exhibited before their eyes 1 Who 
 does not feel honored by his relationship to Doctor 
 Franklin, whether as a townsman or as a countryman, 
 or as belonging to the same race ] Who does not feel 
 a sort of personal complacency in that industry and 
 frugality of his youth, which laid the foundation of 
 so much generosity and kindness in after life 1 And 
 yet how few there are among us who would not dis- 
 parage, nay ridicule and contemn a young printer who 
 should follow Franklin's example ! (Sensation and 
 applause.) Is not this the strangest of weaknesses, 
 a s well as the most inconsistent of inconsistencies 1 for 
 when we take to ourselves credit for commending a 
 virtue, why should we disdain to practice it 1 Do you 
 then ask me why there are no old Benjamin Franklins 
 in the coming generation of adults ? I answer, only 
 because there are no young Benjamin Franklins in the 
 rising generation of youth ; none who will feed his 
 body upon a roll of bread, in order that he may regale 
 his mind upon sacred and divine philosophy " ! (Re- 
 newed applause.) 
 
 Now is it not strange, in view of the great truth 
 that all excellence, either physical, mental, or moral, 
 is derived from exertion , that in a democratic and a re- 
 publican country like this, the laborer is not respected 
 as he ought to be 1 The great masses of society have 
 been taught to believe that exertion, in accordance 
 with the divine command that man should " be dilli- 
 gent in business," is degrading to humanity, and this 
 wicked idea has been handed down from father to son, 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 205 
 
 until life has become a great struggle for the acquisi- 
 tion of wealth, because it insures respectability and 
 gentility. 
 
 Look if you please, at our census tables, and you 
 will there find a description of the character and pur- 
 suits of a gentleman. Under its various headings, for 
 this city you will observe the names of many who are 
 enumerated as mechanics, artizans, lawyers, clergymen, 
 physicians, &c., all of whom follow some pursuit or 
 calling while under still another heading, the title of 
 gentlemen occurs, and beneath this title you will find 
 the names of all the " dead heads " or " gentlemen 
 loafers," the only genteel occupation in these modern 
 times ! (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 Formerly, " mind made the man and the want of it 
 the fellow " but now, " money makes the man and 
 the want of it the poor fellow that is good for noth- 
 ing ! (Laughter and applause.) If the child playing 
 at the window, sees a gentleman passing in the street 
 and inquires of its mother who he is, it is informed in 
 reply, that he is the richest man in the village, and is 
 worth just two hundred thousand dollars. Now the child 
 is taught by her foolish mother that he is worth more 
 than any other citizen because he has more dollars, 
 and not because he is the most learned and moral mem- 
 ber of the community. (Applause.) 
 
 In this age, paleness, indolence, and imbecility means 
 gentility. They are made by fashionable public opin- 
 ion, to go hand and hand with each other, and the 
 young man who can practice them, is sure to be invi- 
 ted to the saloons, and to be feasted at the tables of the 
 " upper ten " ! It is of little consequence how the 
 
206 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 young man obtains the means of a livelihood, provided 
 he obtains them by his wits, rather than by his 
 hands. (Applause.) He may cheat his shoemaker 
 defraud his tailor and ruin his market-man, by 
 never paying them ; but still if his hands do not bear 
 the imprint of the laborer's degrading toil, he is often 
 caressed, fed, and flattered, by the very elit& of our 
 fashionable and highly cultivated aristocracy ! (Sensa- 
 tion and applause.) 
 
 Now is it at all strange, under the influence of 
 such a state of public opinion in this country, that the 
 young lady should be ashamed to work at any honest 
 employment for the means of a livelihood 1 No matter 
 how pure her heart, how spotless her character, how 
 cultivated and refined her mental powers, the moment 
 she grasps in her lily white hands the scrubbing brush, 
 her respectability vanishes as by the influence of enchant- 
 ment. She will no longer be invited to the levees, balls, 
 and parties of " Mrs. Grundy," because her daughters 
 say, "she works" for an honest livelihood. (Sensation 
 and applause.) 
 
 Not long since I was engaged lecturing in one of the 
 strongest democratic counties in the United States I 
 allude of course to old Berks county, Pennsylvania 
 and while there, was invited to visit a lady laboring 
 under the influence of consumption, by her family phy- 
 sician. As we entered the house rather unceremoni- 
 ously, we encountered her only daughter, with a broom 
 in her hand, engaged sweeping out the entry. At first 
 she attempted to run and hide the broom behind the 
 door, but finding there was no escape, she then attempt- 
 ed an apology, and with a countenance suffused with 
 
t 
 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 207 
 
 the blushes of shame, she declared that " the servant 
 had left them the day before, and she was obliged to 
 sweep ! " and at the same time, judging from her con- 
 fusion, feeling more ashamed than she would if she had 
 been caught stealing sheep. (Rounds of applause.) 
 
 Now Dr. March says, in a recent lecture, that the 
 best cure for hysterics, is to discharge the servant girl. 
 In his opinion there is nothing like " flying around " 
 to keep the nerves from becoming unstrung. Some 
 women think they want a physician, he says, when 
 they only need a scrubbing brush. (Laughter and ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 I was invited out, a few afternoons since, while lec- 
 turing at Wheeling, Virginia, by a widow lady, living 
 in the country, and after conversing with her fashiona- 
 ble daughters about Dickens' last novel, the fashions, 
 and a few such trifles as generally make up the con- 
 versation of fashionable young ladies, I wished to 
 satisfy myself what kind of wives they would all make, 
 and I commenced a conversation about straining the 
 milk, and making butter and cheese, &c., when their 
 mother, entering the room, exclaimed, "Why! Doctor, 
 I don't believe our Arabella knows what a strainer is. 
 I don't, really!" Now, gentlemen, only think of a 
 fashionable young lady knowing what a strainer is, 
 and straining milk, and making butter and cheese ! 
 Why they can hardly eat such vulgar things, let alone 
 making them. (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 Such young ladies often let themselves out for life, 
 to some of our foolish young men as helpmeets that 
 is, they help to spend money., and help their husbands 
 to be miserable like themselves. (Applause.) 
 
208 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 Oh ! I can assure you that there is nothing in any 
 employment which ministers unto the welfare and 
 happiness of the human race, which is vulgar or 
 degrading. " It is the spirit which is carried into 
 an employment which elevates or degrades it. The 
 ploughman that turns the clod may be a Cincinnatus 
 or a Washington, or he may be a brother to the clod- 
 he turns. It is every way creditable for a young man 
 to handle a yard-stick and measure tape; the only dis- 
 credit consists in having a soul whose range of thought 
 is as short as the stick, and as narrow as the tape ! " 
 (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 "No matter what may be the fortune or the expec- 
 tations of a man, or woman, they have no right to a life 
 of idleness. In a world so full as this of incitements 
 to exertion, and rewards for achievement, idleness is 
 the most absurd of absurdities and shameful of shames. 
 In a world like ours, the idler is not so much a biped 
 as a bivalve a sort of human oyster, that opens and 
 shuts." (Applause.) 
 
 2d. It is a natural law that the muscular powers are 
 limited, and continuous action exhausts and destroys 
 them. 
 
 The injurious consequences resulting from excessive 
 exer.cise may be seen in many of the avocations and 
 employments of life. If you stand erect for a long 
 time, listening to an eloquent address, the muscles of 
 the spinal column and lower extremities become ex- 
 hausted, painful and weak. If you engage in any 
 mechanical employment requiring the continuous exer- 
 cise^ of certain muscles for several hours, those muscles 
 become painful and exhausted. The causes of lumbago, 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 209 
 
 rheumatism, spinal weakness and debility may generally 
 be traced to exhaustion of certain muscles, produced 
 by excessive exercise. The blacksmith, who works 
 bent forward at a very low anvil, soon complains of 
 spinal weakness, and so, also, of various other trades, 
 for the cure of which they generally wear two or three 
 plasters. Now, if you can tell me how many plasters 
 it will take to do a day's work for the blacksmith, in 
 this improper position at a low anvil, I will be able 
 to tell you how many it will take to cure him ! (Laugh- 
 ter.) 
 
 If you are not accustomed to the exercise of walking, 
 and you ramble over the hills and mountains, in pur- 
 suit of amusement, you will experience* at night the 
 painful exhaustion, cramps, and restlessness consequent 
 upon such excessive muscular exercise. The amount 
 of disease and debility which is produced by the unequal 
 distribution of labor, can scarcely be appreciated by 
 those whose attention has not been particularly directed 
 to the consideration of the subject. Thousands annu- 
 ally die from excessive toil, while myriads languish in 
 inglorious ease and helpless imbecility ! 
 
 But many people will aver that they have no time 
 for relaxation and rest. The Coon sage begins his 
 aphorisms with this remarkable expression : " Ars Ion- 
 ga, vita brevis ;" which virtually means, "our labors 
 are many, but our days are few." The aphorism is 
 correct, but the inference drawn from it is often wrong. 
 It is not by dedicating all our hours to labor that we 
 shall effect most achievements whether intellectual 
 or mechanical consistent, at least, with health. Par- 
 
 14 
 
210 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 simony is not always economy, and he who abstracts a 
 certain portion of time from his mental or corporeal 
 avocations, and dedicates it to simple relaxation and 
 amusement in the open air, will reach the goal of his 
 ambition sooner, or, at least, more safely, than he who 
 considers all time lost which is not spent in the specific 
 avocation or pursuit in which he is engaged. I am 
 well aware that, in the present organization of society, 
 thousands, nay, millions, are so circumstanced, that 
 their daily wants demand the daily waste of their health 
 and strength. This is particularly the case with fe- 
 males, and affords an additional reason for our sympa- 
 thy and kindness to the more amiable as well as the 
 more industrious and oppressed half of the human race. 
 Is it not, indeed, unfortunate that the toils and the 
 exertions of poor, suffering woman are so ill repaid, 
 that they are, in many instances, compelled to sacrifice 
 their health and happiness, to secure the means of pro- 
 curing the merest necessaries of existence, while hun- 
 dreds revel in wealth and affluence 1 
 
 Franklin long since observed that, if every human 
 being worked at some useful employment four hours 
 each working day, their combined productions would 
 be sufficient to procure all of the necessaries of life, in 
 great abundance, and leave sufficient time for the neces- 
 sary intellectual and moral cultivation. But, unfortu- 
 nately, men are utterly selfish and divided by individual 
 and separate interests ; and they are educated to believe 
 that the providence of God has designed one-half of the 
 human race merely to consume the fruits of the indus- 
 try of the other half that they were born to riot in 
 luxury, and thus doom the other half of humanity to a 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 211 
 
 life of excessive toil and sorrow ! The physical, men- 
 tal, and moral deterioration produced by the sufferings 
 and privations of our over-worked manufacturing pop- 
 ulation, may well excite the attention and commisera- 
 tion of the statesman and philanthropist. 
 
 -3d. Again: it is a natural law that compression 
 stimulates the absorbents and diminishes the size and 
 power of the muscles. 
 
 The principle of compression has long been made 
 use of by distinguished surgeons, for the purpose of 
 removing tumors, and morbid growths from different 
 parts of the body. The influence of the application 
 of the same principle is often observed in the treatment 
 of fractures or broken bones. If, for instance, the 
 bones of the fore-arm should be broken half way 
 between the elbow and the wrist, and the surgeon 
 should adjust them by the application of splints which 
 press against the muscles, and allow this dressing to 
 remain upon the arm for thirty days, upon its removal 
 you would be astonished to discover that the arm had 
 diminished nearly one-third in size, and had become 
 almost powerless. What is true of the muscles of the 
 arm, is also true of all the muscles of the human body. 
 If you apply to the muscles of the spinal column the 
 close fitting bodice lined with inelastic brown linen, 
 and filled with pieces of whalebone or hickory wood, 
 as is common in some parts of the country, and then 
 hook it tightly around the waist, the pressure will be 
 so great upon the spinal muscles as to diminish their 
 growth, and size, and power, producing deformity, 
 weakness and debility. 
 
 Nor is this all. The dress which fits closely to the 
 
212 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 chest and spinal muscles prevents their action, and 
 destroys that natural grace and harmony of movement 
 between the various members of the human body so 
 characteristic of woman. 
 
 *' Nor can such forms with force or beauty shine, 
 Save when the head and hands in common action join, 
 Each air constrained or forced, each gesture rude, 
 Whatever strains or cramps the attitude, 
 With scorn discard." 
 
 If a fashionable lady drops her handkerchief, it is 
 polite for a gentleman to raise it and return it to her 
 again. Now this custom is not only polite, but it is 
 even necessary on the part of the lady, for she is 
 bound so tightly with hoops and staves or " hooks 
 and stays" that it is the next thing to an utter 
 impossibility for her to pick it up herself without the 
 rupture of a blood vessel, or the explosion of her 
 dress. (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 The only comparatively easy and safe position for 
 such a person is the erect one. If they stoop, it must 
 be without bending the body, but by bending the 
 lower extremities ; and even then it makes their eyes 
 stick out like cups and saucers. (Renewed applause.) 
 Now suppose that such a dress were applied to any 
 laboring man, previous to entering the harvest field, or 
 the shop of the artizan, and he was requested to labor 
 industriously at his employment, he would reply to 
 such a request, that he was laboring already ; and if 
 asked at what employment, he would say that he was 
 laboring for breath ! (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 This is the reason why, when any of our fair friends 
 wish to engage in any useful employments, they put on 
 a loose robe or dress " en dishabille" They find from 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 213 
 
 experience that it is impossible for them to use the 
 muscles of the body when they are thus cramped and 
 compressed. 
 
 4th. The stimulus of hope, joy, and the sympathy of 
 friends sweeten toil, and promote the vigorous and 
 healthy action of the muscular system. 
 
 The exercise of our moral sentiments and mental 
 faculties determines larger quantities of blood to the 
 brain, and develops its wonderful power which is in 
 turn expended upon the muscles, calling them into 
 healthy action. Its beneficent eifects may be witnessed 
 upon almost all of the employments and pursuits of 
 man. The hope of pecuniary rewards, of fame, and 
 of power, stimulates the exertions of the artist, and 
 nerves the arm of the mechanic and agriculturist, and 
 causes the hum of busy industry to be heard in our 
 fields and workshops. 
 
 If we engage in the pursuits of pleasure, its zest is 
 heightened by amusement. The pleasures of the pur- 
 suits of the sportsmen are regulated by their success. 
 If we eagerly tempt the finny tribe along the banks of 
 some neighboring stream, the fatigue consequent upon 
 this employment is greatly diminished by the mental 
 excitement, or amusement of success. If, after angling 
 for several hours, we have no success, the employment 
 becomes irksome and painful, and we begin to think 
 with Dr. Johnson, that we have got a worm at one end 
 of the fishing apparatus, and a fool tied to the other, 
 (a laugh) but if we draw trout after trout from the 
 crystal element, the stimulus of success precludes all 
 fatigue from the amusement. If we climb the moun- 
 tain cliff in pursuit of the flying deer, or the swift- 
 
214 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 * 
 
 footed antelope, the amount of fatigue resulting from 
 the excursion depends very much upon the excitement 
 of success. If we do not succeed in capturing the 
 game, we return towards our mansion at night, ex- 
 hausted and overcome with fatigue. 
 
 If .we go back to the darkest period of the history 
 of the American revolution, we observe Washington 
 with the remnant of a scattered army, exhausted and 
 dispirited, hastily retreating across the plains of New 
 Jersey, in the face of a successful and relentless foe, 
 until at length an opportunity was offered to clip their 
 wings at Trenton and Princeton, which revived the 
 drooping spirits of this little band of patriots, and 
 nerved their arms with that hope and confidence, which 
 enabled them to carry on to a successful issue that 
 great and glorious contest for freedom and the rights 
 of man. 
 
 All exercise and labor which is designed to contrib- 
 ute to the health and happiness of man, should be 
 combined with rational amusement ! Joy, hope and 
 friendly sympathy exalt the vital powers and strength- 
 en and invigorate the system, and hence it is the duty 
 of teachers, parents, guardians, and masters to provide 
 for the young, rational amusement, inasmuch as the 
 Creator has rendered its use so necessary for the devel- 
 opment of their health and happiness. 
 
 " 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 laboring flight, 
 Eager amid the rising cloud to pour 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 215 
 
 The gun's unerring thunder ; and there are 
 Whom still the mead of the green archer charms. 
 He chooses best whose labor entertains 
 His vacant fancy most : the toil you hate 
 Fatigues you soon, and scarce improves your limbs." 
 
 The benefit to be derived from exercise will be very 
 much increased if the invalid has an object which en- 
 lists his earnest attention and stimulates his feelings. 
 Who has not noticed the different expression which 
 the countenance assumes under the influence of exer- 
 cise combined with amusement, from that derived from 
 exercise, alone I " Laugh and grow fat," is an old 
 aphorism. Be sorrowful, and grow lean and melan- 
 choly, is equally true. 
 
 Look around you in society and observe who it is 
 that is the most constantly afflicted, and who it is that 
 dies earliest ! In this beautiful city there are many 
 young ladies who are called patterns and examples for 
 the imitation of others! If they attend school, they 
 are never known to laugh or smile, or if they do, they 
 immediately blush to show their shame for such levity. 
 They always wear countenances so demure, and expres- 
 sions so angelic and ethereal as to appear scarcely fit 
 to inhabit this rude, cold earth, and they consequently 
 sicken fade and die ; when all of the well-meaning, but 
 uninformed old men and women say, that they are all 
 too good for this world, and that they have gone to 
 another and a better one! (Laughter.) Again, in this 
 community there is an opposite illustration, where an 
 opposite history is recorded. A young lady presents 
 herself to your view, with a countenance whose expres- 
 sion is the very picture of health and happiness ! Fill- 
 ed with the exuberance of joy and animation, which 
 
216 LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 dances in the sunshine of her expression, and sparkles 
 in her eye she can scarcely sit still for a single mo- 
 ment she runs, romps and plays, with her mouth 
 stretched from ear to ear with convulsions of laughter. 
 At school she is always known as the greatest rogue, 
 and is constantly whispering, or sticking a pin into 
 some of her companions, or perhaps pinning a piece of 
 paper to the teacher's coat-tail constantly moving and 
 jumping about, she has really no time to sit or stand 
 still long enough for pain and disease and death to 
 overtake her. (Applause.) As she advances in life, 
 she still maintains her happy temperament and be- 
 comes the pride and the ornament of society and the 
 idol of the family circle. 
 
 Cultivate, then, these kindly feelings towards all of 
 those surrounding you! If you employ servants, be 
 generous and kind towards them, for you can w r ell 
 afford to be. Rest assured that a kind word or expres- 
 sion, now and then, will not lessen your dignity in the 
 estimation of any but fools, and it will contribute inex- 
 pressibly, not only to the promotion of their health, 
 but of your welfare and happiness ! (Applause.) 
 

 LECTURE Y I I 
 
 THE BRAIN AND NERVES. 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
 
 LAST evening, I had the pleasure of explaining to 
 you the nature, mechanism, and philosophy of the 
 muscular system, and the laws which govern its devel- 
 opment and maintain its healthy action ; and this eve- 
 ning, I propose to conclude this brief series of lectures, 
 with an examination of the Brain and Nervous System. 
 The brain is, in many respects, the most important 
 and wonderful organ of the human body. It is the 
 common center of the nervous system, towards which 
 all of our impressions flow. It is the seat of conscious- 
 ness and perception, from which emanates the will and 
 power which moves all of the subordinate organs in the 
 animal economy. It is also, during life, the seat of the 
 mind the immortal reasoning faculties and moral 
 sentiments, which elevate and ennoble man to an equal 
 with the angels as well as the passions and the 
 appetites of a brute, which, when unrestrained, degrade 
 him to a level with the savage, or the beast that 
 roams the forest. 
 
220 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 The nervous system of the human being is divided 
 into the cerebrum or the superior or intellectual brain, 
 the cerebellum or lesser brain, and the spinal marrow. 
 The brain sends off twelve pairs of nerves within the 
 head, called the cranial nerves, which are distributed 
 to the nose, the eye, the ear, tongue, teeth, face, and 
 the organs of the chest and abdomen ; while the spinal 
 marrow gives off thirty-one pairs of nerves, which are 
 chiefly distributed to the muscles and the skin. (See 
 figure.) 
 
 The cerebrum, or upper brain, is divided into two 
 hemispheres of equal size, which give off the same 
 number of nerves, and have similar functions. They 
 are about six inches long, and three inches and a half 
 or four inches wide. At birth, the brain is very soft 
 and vascular, and weighs only sixteen ounces. It 
 gradually increases in size and weight up to the age 
 of about thirty-two, when it weighs, in the male, on 
 an average, three pounds and eight ounces ; and in the 
 female, three pounds and four ounces. So you will 
 observe that the male brain weighs four ounces more 
 than that of the 'female ; but anatomists say that the 
 female brain is much finer in its texture, and that it 
 makes up in quality all it wants in quantity. (Laugh- 
 ter and applause.) In this respect, it is like a dime 
 among ten pennies equal in value, but not as large 
 in size. (Renewed applause.) 
 
 The outside surface of the brain is covered, as you 
 will observe, with numerous convolutions, or ridges, 
 whose size is found to correspond with the susceptibil- 
 ity of cultivation displayed by the animal. In the 
 lower animals, the- brain is quite smooth, and these 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 221 
 
 convolutions are quite indistinct ; while in the human 
 being, they are small at birth, and larger as we advance 
 in life, and exercise the brain upon its legitimate 
 objects. 
 
 The brain is composed of two kinds of material, 
 called the grey, outside, or vesicular matter, and the 
 white, central, or marrow-like portion, which is fibrous 
 in its nature. From numerous experiments conducted 
 upon the lower animals, it is believed that the mani- 
 festation of instinct is intimately connected with the 
 outside or vesicular part of the brain, and with reason, 
 reflection, and the moral sentiments. 
 
 In the center of the brain, we have located two great 
 cavities, called the great lateral ventricles, in which we 
 observe several important bodies, which are common 
 to the brains of many of the inferior animals, called the 
 corpora striata^ and the optic thalami, and which are 
 supposed to be subservient to the purposes of sensation. 
 
 There are many dry anatomical descriptions and 
 details connected with these portions of the nervous 
 system, which are of no great practical utility to the 
 masses of mankind, inasmuch as the true functions of 
 many of the parts of the brain have not yet been deter- 
 mined by physiologists themselves ; and you will excuse 
 me, if I do not weary your attention by describing them 
 in detail. 
 
 It was supposed by many of the ancient anatomists, 
 who examined the brain only after death, that it was 
 of little or no importance in the animal economy that 
 the Creator, when he formed man, like the potter ma- 
 king his earthen vessels, had a little clay left over, and 
 put the lump into his head, to balance his system and 
 
222 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 keep him from becoming light-headed! (Laughter 
 and applause.) Other anatomists, a very little wiser, 
 supposed that the human brain secreted a kind of cool- 
 ing, nervous fluid, which was transmitted along the 
 nerves to the different parts of the body, for the pur- 
 pose of keeping us cool during the heat of political 
 discussion, and " the excitement of love affairs," &c. 
 (Applause.) At a still later period, it was discovered 
 that injuries of the head often impaired the perfection 
 of the mental powers and moral sentiments ; and, hence, 
 it was naturally concluded that the healthy condition 
 of the brain was essential to their proper manifestation. 
 Further observation and numerous experiments leave 
 little doubt in the minds of the best anatomists and 
 physiologists that the brain is a compound organ, and 
 that some parts of it are concerned in the manifestation 
 of perception, other parts, reason, reflection and the 
 moral sentiments, &c. 
 
 The* cerebellum, or lesser brain, is situated beneath 
 the cerebrum, and is about one-eighth of its size and 
 weight. It is also divided into two hemispheres, 
 which are composed of grey and white matter, so ar- 
 ranged internally as to produce a beautiful arborescent 
 appearance, called by anatomists the arbor vitee, or the 
 tree of life. The convolutions of the cerebellum are 
 more regular in their distribution than those of the 
 cerebrum. From numerous experiments upon the lower 
 animals, it is concluded by most physiologists that the 
 functions of the cerebellum are to generate and supply 
 the nervous stimulus which calls the muscles into 
 action. It is said to be larger in muscular and labor- 
 ing men than in those of sedentary and inactive habits. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 223 
 
 The brain gives off, within the head, twelve pairs of 
 cranial nerves, which are called, first, the olfactory 
 nerves, which are distributed to the nose ; second, the 
 optic nerves, which are distributed to the center of the 
 eyes ; third, the motores oculorum, which are sent to 
 the muscles of the eyes ; fourth, the patheticus, which 
 are distributed to the superior oblique muscles of the 
 eyes ; fifth, the trifacial, which are distributed to the 
 eyes and to the upper and lower jaws ; sixth, the abdu- 
 centes, which are sent to the muscles of the eyes ; 
 seventh, the portio dura is distributed to the muscles 
 of the face ; eighth, the portio mollis, which is distrib- 
 uted to the internal ear ; ninth, the glossapharangeal, 
 which is distributed to the mucous membrane of the 
 tongue and throat ; tenth, the pneumogastric nerves, 
 which are distibuted to the larynx, gullet, windpipe, 
 lungs, heart, spleen, stomach, liver, and large and small 
 intestines ; eleventh, the spinal accessory, which is dis- 
 tributed to the muscles of the neck ; and, twelfth, the 
 hypoglossal nerves, which are distributed to the mus- 
 cles of the tongue, for the purpose of stimulating the 
 muscles of this organ to action ; and it is said to be 
 particularly useful to the ladies, although I have not 
 noticed that this nerve is larger in one sex than in the 
 other. (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 You will observe that all of these twelve pairs of 
 cranial nerves, except the tenth pair, are distributed to 
 the parts about the head and neck, and that many or- 
 gans appear to receive several pairs, as for instance, the 
 eye. This mechanical arrangement is necessary, for 
 the simple reason that the several nerves, although 
 they resemble each other in color, yet they differ from 
 
224 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 each other in their functions ; and when any organ is 
 required to perform several functions as for instance, 
 the eye, in sight, motion, feeling, &c. it must have a 
 variety of different nerves adapted to its variety of func- 
 tions. The optic nerve, which is distributed to the 
 retina, or the Internal membrane of the eye, is only 
 useful to transmit the impression produced upon its 
 minute branches, to the brain. If it is cut with a 
 knife, or pricked with a pin, it has not the least sensi- 
 bility ; and so also of the motores oculorum, which are 
 distributed to the muscles of the eye ! The pneumo- 
 gastric, or tenth pair of nerves, pass down along the 
 sides of the neck, sending branches to the windpipe, 
 heart, lungs, &c., and then run down the meat tube, 
 terminating in numerous branches the majority of 
 which are distributed to the stomach. The union 
 which is seen to exist between the stomach and brain, 
 by means of these large nerves, is of the most extraor- 
 dinary and perfect character which explains the rea- 
 son why dyspepsia causes pain along the center of the 
 breast, accompanied with shortness of breath, sick 
 headache, irritability of the feelings, &c. The im- 
 pression produced by a slight blow upon the head, is 
 not unfrequently reflected from the brain along these 
 nerves, with the speed of lightning, to the stomach* 
 producing sickness of the stomach, and vomiting ! And 
 so also of slight mental emotions. The contemplation 
 of some painful or disagreeable scene, will often cause 
 nausea and vomiting. Melancholy and despair pro- 
 duced from the loss of friends, or misfortune, often 
 cause dyspepsia, and the various forms of disease re- 
 sulting from indigestion ! 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 225 
 
 
 
 Again: The irritability of the stomach, resulting 
 from the various forms of indigestion, is reflected along 
 these large nerves to the brain, producing nervous de- 
 bility, and irritability of the feelings. If we hamper 
 the digestive organs, or stimulate their nerves by over 
 exercise, in eating and in drinking, they become 
 exquisitely sensitive rendering digestion extremely 
 painful ! 
 
 " When the stomach has thus acquired additional 
 sensibility through excess, the owner of the stomach 
 has incurred a penalty which will require months or 
 years for exoneration ! Under such circumstances, 
 the stomach not only reflects back on the organ of the 
 mind, a large share of its afflictions, but in consequence 
 of its extensive chain of sympathies with various other 
 organs as for instance, the liver, lungs, kidneys, bow- 
 els, and heart, in short the whole of those organs sup- 
 plied with these nerves it weaves a tissue of disorders 
 which no human skill can unravel it constructs a 
 labyrinth of infirmities through which no clue can 
 guide us it fills an Augean stable with evils which 
 few rivers, except those of Lethe, can cleanse away !" 
 
 For the sensations of body and mind springing from 
 this source, there is no vocabulary. The patient is in 
 many instances unable to describe them, or the practi- 
 tioner to understand them ; and thus a whole class of 
 them have received the appellations of " vapors," " hy- 
 pochondriasis," " maladies imaginaries," &c., &c. Few 
 moral natures are entirely exempt from the injurious 
 influence of such causes. The peevishness and irrita- 
 bility of feeling manifested by the dyspeptic and hypo- 
 chondriac, are familiar illustrations of the influence of 
 15 
 
226 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 our corporeal conditions upon our mental and moral 
 feelings ! The disposition of the child is often entirely 
 changed by physical disease and suffering. Sour tem- 
 pers are more frequently sweetened by sweetening the 
 stomach, than by the use of the rod upon the skin. 
 (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 Again : the digestive apparatus is the nutritive sys- 
 tem of the human body, and if its functions are impaired, 
 the nutrition of the brain becomes defective, and it 
 dries, withers, and shrivels, for the want of a due sup- 
 ply of healthy nutritious blood. And hence the dys- 
 peptic becomes not only nervous from the irritation 
 generated in the stomach, but also from inanition and 
 consequent debility ! Nor do the injurious influences 
 of indigestion cease with impaired physical energies. 
 The mental faculties and moral sentiments, are also 
 involved in the general ruin ! If you inquire of the 
 dyspeptic if his mental faculties are unimpaired, he 
 will generally reply that he is weak, exhausted, and 
 nervous, and that for some reason, not well understood 
 by him, his memory, his reasoning, and reflective fac- 
 ulties, seem to fail him, or be lost in inextricable con- 
 fusion often clasping his forehead with his hand, as 
 if -to collect his scattered ideas, while he replies to your 
 question ! 
 
 If you consult the annals of many of our insane 
 asylums, you will readily ascertain that the most com- 
 mon cause of mental imbecility and insanity, is to be 
 traced to the general exhaustion consequent upon long- 
 continued indigestion, or defective nutrition, origina- 
 ting, it is true, in many instances, in mental and moral 
 causes. The physical, mental, and moral relations 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 227 
 
 which exist between the stomach and the brain, cannot, 
 indeed, be too highly estimated ! The immortal spirit 
 called the soul, cannot manifest itself in this world 
 independent of the body, and the perfect system of 
 laws which the Creator has established for the promo- 
 tion of its health. And the Christian who violates the 
 laws of his physical organization, will lose the strength, 
 clearness, and perfection of his moral sentiments, in 
 the general wreck and decay consequent upon the loss 
 of health ! How often have we seen the Christian who 
 had up to that moment, led a correct and a blameless 
 life, under the influence of monomania, hypochondria, 
 and insanity, draw the knife from the scabbard, and 
 sheathe it in his own breast ! Such instances of death 
 by violence, even among the most upright and moral, 
 produced by long continued disease of the digestive 
 apparatus, and the exhaustion consequent upon it, must 
 be within the knowledge, of all ! 
 
 The stomach cannot digest our food independent of 
 the stimulus of the brain, which is transmitted to it 
 by the pneumogastric nerves ; and when the brain 
 becomes exhausted under the influence of indigestion, 
 it is consequently rendered incapable of stimulating this 
 important organ to healthy action, thereby augment- 
 ing and increasing our afflictions and sufferings ! 
 
 There can be but little doubt that the unrestrained 
 indulgence of our appetites in eating and drinking, is 
 one of the greatest impediments to mental and moral 
 improvement; inasmuch as the whole of the energies of 
 the nervous system are required, under such circum- 
 stances, to digest our food, and cannot, therefore, be 
 expended upon intellectual and moral pursuits ! The 
 
228 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 brain generates a limited amount of stimulus, which the 
 demands of health and happiness require should be 
 expended in the performance of all of our bodily func- 
 tions, and in the cultivation of our reasoning faculties 
 and moral sentiments ! If the whole of the nervous 
 energies, or the stimulus of the brain, is expended in 
 the digestion of excessive quantities of food, they can- 
 not be expended in the exercise of our intellectual facul- 
 ties and moral feelings ! 
 
 Now is it not humiliating that man, because he has 
 a few animal wants which must be gratified to preserve 
 his health, and promote his mental and moral welfare, 
 should become all animal an epicure, an inebriate and 
 make it the chief end of his existence, the great aim 
 of his life, to glorify his stomach, and enjoy the brutish 
 pleasures of his appetite, his passions, and his propen- 
 sities'? (Sensation and applause.) Within mankind 
 are the attributes of a God, and the appetites of a brute, 
 and when these meet in council to make up the roll of 
 his destiny, and to seal his fate for immortality, shall 
 the beast drive out the divinity I Shall man wed the 
 low animal passions and ambitions of the world, and 
 seek, with their emptiness, to fill his immortal desires'? 
 
 If we visit our religious churches on the first day of 
 the week, how many persons we shall discover during 
 the service whose whole nervous energies are engaged, 
 not in digesting the sermon, but in digesting the corned 
 beef and cabbage, and cold ham that they have eaten 
 for dinner! (Laughter and applause.) Dead to all 
 moral appeals and external impressions, because all of 
 their nervous and vital energies are being expended 
 upon the functions of digestion alone. Like the ana- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 229 
 
 conda, they have gorged themselves to repletion, and 
 perched themselves in an easy church pew, not to wor- 
 ship the eternal God, but " to sleep it off." (Sensation 
 and applause.) 
 
 The brain terminates in the spinal marrow, which is 
 a long fibrous cord, situated in the spinal canal or cavity 
 of the spinal column. If we carefully examine the 
 spinal marrow we shall observe that like the brain, it 
 is divided into two parts or columns corresponding to 
 the two sides or hemispheres of the brain. These col- 
 umns are composed of grey and white matter, the latter 
 being arranged on the outside of the spinal cord, and 
 situated, as you will remember, on the inside of the 
 brain. 
 
 The spinal marrow gives off thirty-one pairs of spinal 
 nerves, which are composed of numerous fibres from its 
 anterior and posterior columns. Those fibres which 
 arise from the anterior column are distributed to the 
 muscles, for the purpose of transmitting the power of 
 the will to those organs and stimulating them to action, 
 and are called the motor branches ; while those which 
 arise from the posterior column, are distributed to the 
 skin, and are called the sensitive nerves, which receive 
 impressions made upon the skin, and transmit them to 
 the brain, which is the center of all consciousness and 
 feeling. 
 
 If you should separate the posterior column of the 
 spinal marrow from the brain in the neck, its sensitive 
 nerves could not transmit any impressions received 
 upon the skin to the brain, and the sense of feeling 
 from that moment would be entirely destroyed. Again, 
 if we divide the anterior column of the spinal marrow 
 
230 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 in the neck, the muscles become instantly paralyzed, 
 and refuse to perform their motions by the exercise of 
 volition. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the brain, or rather the 
 immortal principle called mind, which acts through the 
 instrumentality of the brain, perceives through the 
 agency of numerous sensitive nerves, which are distri- 
 buted from the brain to all of the external and internal 
 surfaces of the human body, and the mind becomes 
 cognizant of their qualities, and regulates our move- 
 ments and conduct accordingly. 
 
 If then we are brought in contact with any external 
 agent capable of injuring us, the mind is informed of 
 it through the agency of the nerves of sensation; and 
 the mind, through the agency of volition, calls the bones 
 and muscles into action, which move the body away 
 from the danger. 
 
 You will thus perceive that all pain and feeling are 
 essentially benevolent in their agency, and that if it were 
 not for the sense of feeling and pain, ye could not 
 know good from evil, or when we were doing right 
 or wrong. Pain warns us of danger, and tells us when 
 we have done something which is wrong, for our benefit, 
 and preserves us from the evil which results from vio- 
 lating the laws upon which happiness and pleasure 
 depend. Our reasoning faculties and moral sentiments, 
 operating through the instrumentality of the human 
 brain, are thus informed of what is good and what is 
 evil, by the amount of positive happiness or misery 
 which they are capable of bestowing upon us, even in 
 this world. (Sensation.) Consequently, all of our 
 conduct which necessarily involves the sacrifice of 
 
PHILOSOPHY 0V LIFE. 231 
 
 health, and causes pain and misery even in this world, 
 is essentially sinful, and at war with the true principles 
 of Christianity, which create rather than require the 
 sacrifice of happiness. (Applause.) But how often 
 we see long-faced, pharisaical Christians laboring under 
 the influence of dyspepsia, gout and rheumatism, who 
 think they do God service by enduring all of His 
 chastisements in this world, in the hope of happiness 
 in the next. Now I never could understand that kind 
 of theology which teaches mankind to suppose that the 
 wine-bibber and the glutton, who are justly tormented 
 with disease and pain, will be rewarded in the next 
 world for enduring these pains in this. (Renewed 
 applause.) 
 
 If we desire to give ourselves up to the excessive 
 indulgence of our selfish appetites, passions and pro- 
 pensities, and eat to excess, endangering our health 
 and happiness, a friendly pain warns us of the conse- 
 quences of our transgression, and tells us to stop eat- 
 ing. Indeed I do not know what would become of 
 our modern epicures, were it not for this benevolent 
 provision of nature. It seems probable, at least, that 
 if many of them were guided by the dictates of appe- 
 tite alone, they would eat until they would kill them- 
 selves, and "get their money's worth." (Laughter 
 and applause.) 
 
 If we inhale the poisonous fumes of tobacco, or 
 the atmosphere of a close arid ill-ventilated room or 
 sleeping apartment, the impression produced by it on 
 the lining membrane of the air-tube is transmitted by 
 the sensitive nerves to the brain and mind, which cause 
 a sense of irritation and coughing, rendering it neces- 
 
232 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 sary for us to remove or change our position. Were 
 it not for this benevolent provision of nature, we should 
 inhale noxious and poisonous gases, without being 
 cognizant of their evil effects ! If we use our eyes 
 excessively r , the stimulus of the light produces a smart- 
 ing impression upon their delicate nerves which is 
 transmitted to the brain, causing us to desist from 
 using them. The same law holds true in reference to 
 all the other organs of the human body ! 
 
 The natural action of all our different organs is 
 attended with an impression upon the nervous system, 
 productive of a positive sense of pleasure, which may 
 be defined in the word health, which is the result of 
 the implicit obedience of the natural laws ; while on 
 the contrary, pain and suffering are entirely benevolent 
 in their character, and are intended to warn us of our 
 danger and to preserve us from destruction. The same 
 nerves which transmit impressions to the human brain 
 productive of all the enjoyments of sense, can also 
 vibrate with a thrill of pain and anguish whenever the 
 laws of their natural and healthy action are violated! 
 
 After thus rapidly glancing at the structure and 
 nature of the nervous system of the human being, we 
 can comprehend the immense importance of the healthy 
 action of its functions upon our moral, physical, and in- 
 tellectual condition. If the brain and nerves are dis- 
 eased and impaired, the various subordinate organs are 
 thereby deprived of their customary stimulus, and be- 
 come weak and exhausted. Digestion is impaired- the 
 circulation becomes feeble and irregular respiration 
 laborious and difficult the muscular energies weaken- 
 ed and exhausted, and the whole constitution impaired 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 233 
 
 and shattered! The amount of disease and human 
 suffering which are produced through the deranged 
 action of these organs, would indeed exceed the bounds 
 of human credulity, were they gathered before us in 
 their naked deformity! 
 
 1st. It is a natural law that the demands of health 
 require that the stimulus of the brain should be expen- 
 ded upon our various physical organs, mental faculties 
 and moral sentiments. The brain generates the stimu- 
 lus which calls into action all the organs of motion ; 
 and if it is not expended upon these organs they decline 
 and decay, while the nervous stimulus which should 
 be expended upon this system, accumulates, producing 
 nervous irritability and excitement, which is the bane 
 and misery of countless millions! At birth, the brain 
 weights but about sixteen ounces, and is only capable 
 of manifesting a few feeble animal powers and feelings, 
 among which muscular motion is quite conspicuous, 
 and manifests itself long before the feeblest powers of 
 intellect. The health of the young child demands that 
 its limbs and body should not be so tightly confined 
 during the first few weeks of its feeble existence that 
 it cannot expend its nervous energies upon its muscles, 
 calling them into frequent motion. 
 
 The natural exuberance of feeling common to youth, 
 seems to have been wisely implanted in the breasts of 
 the young by a benevolent Creator, to cause them to 
 exercise this system and expend their nervous irritabil- 
 ity upon their muscles, thereby developing their brain 
 and nerves, and promoting their health and strength. 
 In after life, this necessity of our nature becomes still 
 more conspicuously displayed. If we are riding in a 
 
234 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 stage coach, with our arms folded upon our chests, and 
 our feet beneath the seat for several hours without 
 using them, they become painful, causing us to feel 
 fidgety and irritable; and we would gladly exchange our 
 sedentary position for one that would be more active 
 walking. Exercise, under such circumstances, is at- 
 tended with a feeling of positive pleasure. It con- 
 sumes the excess of nervous irritability generated by 
 the brain, and relieves our feelings from much of that 
 heat and excitement peculiar to those of sedentary and 
 inactive habits. Well regulated, physical exercise, 
 daily, in the open air, is indispensable to the preservation 
 of the health of the nervous system. The cerebro- 
 spinal axis, or the brain and spinal marrow, is in this 
 respect like a steam engine, constantly engaged in gene- 
 rating steam. If we do not open the safety valve, or 
 set the machinery in motion, so as to consume its steam, 
 it will explode ; and so also, of the human brain ; if we 
 do not set the bones and muscles in motion, and " fly 
 around," the nerves will become unstrung and the heat 
 and excitement of our feelings will explode in anger. 
 Physical exercise also exhausts the irritability of the 
 nervous system, and disciplines the passions , diminishing 
 licentiousness, intemperance and all manner of evil! 
 The abodes of idleness, are also the dens of intemper- 
 ance, of licentiousness and of crime ; for if our ner- 
 vous energies are not expended upon their own legiti- 
 mate objects, they must and will be expended in 
 another calling ! 
 
 Visit your streets on a pleasant Sabbath afternoon, 
 and you will behold congregated in your fashionable 
 drinking establishments, and in front of the engine- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 235 
 
 houses, numerous young men thrown temporarily out 
 of employment. They will not attend divine service, 
 because the community in which they have been reared, 
 have not given them an appetite for such food, by sup- 
 porting a generous system of education for the rising 
 generation. A child without a physical constitution 
 to supply, cannot experience the longings of hunger ; 
 neither can a human being without a moral constitu- 
 tion, desire the stimulus of moral excitement. These 
 young men that congregate in the drinking establish- 
 ments, on the Sabbath day, when thrown out of tem- 
 porary employment, seek for other sources of amuse- 
 ment adapted to their education, which has been of a 
 mechanical rather than of an intellectual character. 
 Hence, they drown their reason and blunt their senses 
 in the Circean cup, for amusement to expend their 
 superabundant nervous energies. They drink whisky, 
 smoke cigars, chew tobacco and swear a little, just to 
 season this kind of amusement ; and if they do not 
 become fatigued at these kinds of employments, towards 
 evening if they have any more nervous energy which 
 is unexpended they get up a fight, or set some one's 
 house on fire, to " get up a muss," and have a run with 
 the engine. They become restive, nervous, irritable, 
 excitable, mad for the want of employment which will 
 consume their pent-up energies ! 
 
 The injurious influence of want of physical employ- 
 ment upon the nervous system, may be seen among 
 females, who are denied by a fashionable but foolish 
 public opinion all opportunity of engaging in useful 
 employment. The great mass of society look with 
 envy upon the lady whose wealth enables her to ride 
 
236 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 in her carriage, with a servant mounted up before and 
 one behind, to sustain her lazy dignity, and to express 
 her helpless uselessness and imbecility ; but they know 
 not the anguish and pain which is generated by her 
 life of idleness. Could they experience her sleepless 
 nights, her shattered nerves, and irritable feelings, 
 which embitter every moment of her life, they would 
 not exchange their condition of toil and its sweet sleep, 
 their health and its enjoyments, for all her wealth and 
 all her misery, which it has engendered. 
 
 Under the benign and exhilarating influence of exer- 
 cise, friendship opens her heart, the miser his purse ; 
 bigotry widens the circle of its charity, and what is 
 stranger still, the crusty old bachelor forgets his fidgets, 
 and becomes possessed of at least momentary generosity; 
 and the most obdurate and cruel-hearted young lady 
 melts and yields to its kind and gentle influences. If 
 you wish to procure money for the purpose of renewing 
 your Sabbath-school library, and approach the miser 
 while engaged in his counting-room, poring over his 
 musty ledger, he will only growl, and scarcely raise 
 his head to notice your presence. But if you encoun- 
 ter him returning from the survey of his broad lands, 
 and demand a portion of the contents of his well-filled 
 purse, he can scarcely resist you. 
 
 If any of these young gentlemen should conclude, 
 some fine afternoon, to visit a certain young lady, for 
 the purpose of asking her whether he shall hang him- 
 self or not ; and if, as he enters the room, he discovers 
 her at the piano, where she has remained chained for 
 six mortal hours, he had better hold on, or look out for 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 237 
 
 " breakers ahead." But if, on the contrary, he encoun- 
 ters her in the garden, 
 
 " Stirring amidst the roses, where of old 
 Love shook the dew-drops from his glancing hair," 
 
 she will be so full of the exuberance of joy and happi- 
 ness, that it would really be almost cruel to take 
 advantage of her defenceless condition ! (Applause.) 
 
 More than half of mankind are dying for the want 
 of something better to do for the want of a laudable 
 pursuit or occupation for the want of an object, which 
 shall call forth their dormant energies, and expend 
 their immortal powers, which have no doubt been 
 bestowed upon them by the Creator for the highest 
 and noblest of purposes. Those of you who have 
 experienced the nervous restlessness, depression of 
 spirits, and painful ennui produced by the confinement 
 incident to a rainy day, will know very well how to 
 appreciate the condition and feelings of those who have 
 no occupation, either in fair or in foul weather, upon 
 which they can expend their accumulated energies ; but 
 who are condemned by the trammels of wealth and 
 fashion, to a life of indolence and inglorious ease. 
 
 How many instances, especially among females, so- 
 ciety presents, of noble energies, and powers of mind 
 and body, which have been wasted upon trivial occu- 
 pations, or frittered away upon the most unworthy ob- 
 jects in adorning their persons in discussing various 
 objects of fashion and folly in village gossip, and in 
 traducing the character of their neighbors ! When it 
 is remembered that thousands of females are denied, by 
 fashionable public opinion, an opportunity to expend 
 their energies in the various professions and useful 
 
238 LECTUKES ON THE 
 
 avocations of life, will it be thought strange that we 
 have a large class of those called "busy bodies" luck- 
 less old bachelors and maidens, a kind of "preserved" 
 men and women, who, since they have no " little respon- 
 sibilities " and useful occupations in life who, since 
 they are allowed nothing else to do, make it their busi- 
 ness to distribute the " news !" (Applause.) They 
 must do something, or else their health would suifer ; 
 and since they must not do anything that is useful, 
 because that is work, and all kinds of useful work are 
 extremely unfashionable and unlady-like employment, 
 perhaps gossipping is as innocent as almost any other 
 pursuit they could engage in ; at all events it has one 
 recommendation it is fashionable ; and to be in fashion 
 is to be right in the estimation of a large majority. 
 
 But again : the preservation of the health of females, 
 demands more physical employment than that of males ; 
 for the reason that their intellectual, or higher facul- 
 ties, have not, as a general rule, been unfolded and 
 developed by a thorough course of instruction; and 
 consequently they cannot expend their nervous ener- 
 gies upon the habitual exercise of their moral senti- 
 ments and intellectual faculties, in any professional 
 avocation or calling ! Public opinion declares that the 
 education of a portion of the human race, shall be con- 
 fined to the mere accomplishments of life, and perhaps 
 some slight knowledge of the rudiments of literature 
 and the sciences; while it has utterly denied them all 
 opportunity of expending their physical, mental and 
 moral energies, in the various occupations and callings 
 which have been created by the necessities of society ! 
 
 A woman may possess strong moral sentiments, and 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 239 
 
 yet she may not cultivate and exercise them to the 
 highest, by preaching and prophesying, as did the He- 
 brew women of old ! She may no longer practice med- 
 icine, and attend upon the diseases and trials peculiar 
 to her own sex ; although the Bible and history inform 
 us she did do so, with remarkable success, for more 
 than four thousand years ; and yet she may nurse a man, 
 in all of the diseases which human nature is heir to; 
 that is, she may do the menial service, for which, as a 
 general thing, she is paid nothing ; but when she rises 
 to the dignity of taking the fee, oh ! says her protector, 
 she is getting out of her appropriate sphere, as many 
 of them call it ! (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 A woman may be a Queen of Spain, and of the Brit- 
 ish Empire, and as such, sway the scepter over domin- 
 ions upon which the sun has never set ; and yet, in a 
 democratic republic, she may not even quietly deposit 
 her vote in the ballot box. She may appear upon the 
 stage in a theatre, in a short frock, and after kicking 
 up her heels in the most approved, artistic, and fash- 
 ionable manner, kings will confer upon her orders of 
 nobility, and our fashionable young men will harness 
 themselves like beasts into her carriage, and draw her 
 home to her lodgings, as they did the " Divine Fanny," 
 at Baltimore! (Sensation.) A woman, as we have 
 recently seen, may perform the grand tour of the Union, 
 and appear upon the stage of every theatre in a low- 
 necked dress, and after singing at the very top of her 
 voice, excite the most enthusiastic applause, and yet 
 she may not appear in the pulpit, or as the president 
 of a benevolent society ! She may read Shakspeare to 
 large and fashionable audiences, but not her own com- 
 
240 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 position. She may contribute to found theological 
 seminaries and colleges of learning, but she must not 
 claim an equal right to their benefits in a good educa- 
 tion. She may make shirts and coats at sixpence a 
 piece, but some man must sell them, and pocket the 
 receipts ! (Sensation and applause.) 
 
 Now, no sensible or well informed man or woman, 
 can fail to observe that such distinctions between what 
 a woman may or may not do, or be, are not parts of a 
 great and harmonious system, founded upon a principle, 
 and in accordance with the constitution and wants of 
 woman, but they are the mere heterogeneous dictates 
 of custom and fashion ! (Applause. ) The eternal God 
 has bestowed upon every human being the same tal- 
 ents though they may not be equal in all cases ; and 
 He has given us the right to cultivate them to the high- 
 est, and to use them in His service, and no mexeman 
 shall take upon himself the right to deny a human 
 being an opportunity to do so ! For my part, I ac- 
 knowledge but one master, whose counsels I would 
 strive to follow, and 1 allow no man or woman to stand 
 between me and Him, to determine what are or what 
 are not my rights ! (Renewed applause.) 
 
 The deprivation of an opportunity of engaging in all 
 the active duties of life, is the chief cause of many 
 of those nervous diseases so common among females, 
 and which in many instances render life almost intol- 
 erable. The headaches, nervous irritability and weak- 
 ness, the loss of memory, ^mental confusion, and giddi- 
 ness, &c., are but the legitimate results of sedentary 
 habits, and physical, mental and moral inactivity ; and 
 nothing can prove a complete and perfect antidote for 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 241 
 
 them but exercise and employment, which equalize 
 the circulation of the blood, as well as the excitability 
 of the nervous system ! 
 
 2d. It is a natural law that the amount and kind 
 of employment demanded by good health, depend upon 
 age and temperament. 
 
 " The temper," says Dr. Johnson, " is by most peo- 
 ple looked upon as a quality of the mind, whereas it is 
 solely one of the body." Metaphysicians have not always 
 been the best versed in a knowledge of human nature, 
 and how could they be, since they only studied half 
 the subject the mind and not the body] and many 
 qualities, dispositions and propensities were conse- 
 quently assigned by them to the mind, which belong to 
 the body, and only effect the mind secondarily. Tem- 
 per is in fact the offspring of temperament, which is 
 material and not mental. If this were not true, how 
 is it that a man's temper is entirely changed by severe 
 illness I Does the mind or soul change thus I Not at 
 all. But the physical constitution, the health of the 
 body changes, and the temper or temperament with it. 
 Nor does this view of the subject offer any apology for 
 the non-restraint, or change of our tempers, appetites, 
 passions and propensities, by means of reason and the 
 moral sentiments; but on the contrary, it holds out the 
 strongest incentives to employ our moral and mental 
 powers for the purpose of coercing and removing these 
 physical evils. If tempers and passions were exclu- 
 sively mental the mind could not control them any 
 more than it can its own operations, or the body itself 
 could control its own temperament. As the temper 
 and passions, then, are the attributes of the grosser part 
 16 
 
242 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 of our nature, it is for the immaterial agent to quell, or 
 at least to restrain and check them. 
 
 Physiologists have usually divided the temperaments 
 into four namely, the nervous, the bilious, the lym- 
 phatic, and the sanguine. It is however rarely the case 
 that we meet these temperaments in their purity in any 
 one person. As a general rule, we find them more or 
 less mixed with each other, producing a combination of 
 the peculiarity of feeling and mental and moral quali- 
 ties of the original. A knowledge of the nature and 
 peculiarities of these various temperaments is of great 
 practical importance, especially to parents, since they 
 may be changed into each other, and their evil qualities 
 and fatal tendencies be changed and averted by the 
 appropriate adaptation of means to ends on the part of 
 their children. 
 
 The nervous temperament differs from all of the 
 others, in the predominant development of the nervous 
 system, rendering the constitution exquisitely suscepti- 
 ble to all mental, moral and physical impressions, and 
 capable of the highest enjoyment or the most exquisite 
 misery. The brain is large and well developed, while 
 the vital and nutritive systems are small and feeble, 
 giving them a thin and sharp countenance and weak 
 and feeble muscles. To a person so constituted, if suc- 
 cessful in his various avocations and employments, 
 there is no limit to his pleasures and enjoyments ; but 
 if, on the other hand, he is unsuccessful, there is no end 
 to his sufferings and torments. In the morning, he 
 will be full of hope and joy, and in the evening often 
 overcome with gloom and despair. 
 
 Such persons take great delight in literary employ- 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 243 
 
 ments in books and lectures in study and in 
 intellectual excitement and abhor all physical em- 
 ployment and bodily exercise, even for the purpose of 
 improving their physical constitution. If this tem- 
 perament is developed by continued mental excitement, 
 the nervous system will become, in time, so exquisitely 
 sensitive, that the constitution will be like a barometer, 
 susceptible of the slightest impression produced by the 
 most trivial causes, rendering them morose, peevish, 
 cross and irritable and extremely unhappy. As might 
 be expected, a child of this temperament requires the 
 most careful treatment on the part of its parents. 
 Such children very often display extraordinary preco- 
 city and development of intellectual faculties, which 
 may be seized upon by the parents as an evidence of 
 great genius, and no opportunity spared to stimulate 
 an already diseased, nervous system, by books and intel- 
 lectual excitement, until inflammation of the membranes 
 of the brain takes place, and the child is lost. This 
 precocity, as we have seen, depends upon the extraor- 
 dinary, the unnatural development of its nervous sys- 
 tem, while the other organs are feeble and imperfectly 
 formed. At best, such a child stands, during the first 
 few years of its feeble life, with one foot already in the 
 grave ; and if all nervous and intellectual excitement 
 is not carefully avoided, its life will be sacrificed, and 
 the very precocity of its genius will only increase the 
 agony which the parents will feel at the parting. 
 Those who are so constituted either in youth or in after 
 life, should avoid all mental excitement, as far as possi- 
 ble they should lay aside books and intellectual 
 pursuits and employments and earnestly engage in the 
 
244 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 pursuits of the agriculturist and the fanner, in all of 
 the out-door employments and avocations which will 
 strengthen and develop their vital and their muscular 
 powers, while their nervous system remains dormant 
 and at rest. By this means they will change their 
 constitutional peculiarities, and with them their tem- 
 peraments also. 
 
 In the bilious temperament, the development of the 
 muscular system predominates, giving to those so con- 
 stituted, great capacities for physical endurance. In 
 early life, such children are known as those who are 
 called stupid or inactive, on account of the small size 
 of their brains, in comparison with those of the ner- 
 vous and sanguine temperaments. Persons so consti- 
 tuted, take great delight in labor upon the farm or 
 in the mechanic's workshop they are indeed the 
 hewers of wood and the drawers of water, and have 
 little or no taste for literary or scientific pursuits. If 
 they attend church, they will generally fall asleep be- 
 fore the sermon is half delivered! They generally 
 have a mulish or sulky temper, which, when once ex- 
 cited, is not easily overcome by reason or by the moral 
 sentiments, but is easily worked off through the agency 
 of muscular exertion. If any of these ladies happen 
 to have a husband of this description and they should 
 unfortunately offend him, they should not attempt to 
 reason or dispute with him, for he is as contrary as a 
 mule ; but stand clear and give him plenty of room, and 
 he will work his anger off, and feel much better satis- 
 fied with himself than he would if you had attempted 
 to coax him with smiles and gentle persuasions, which 
 are only thrown away upon such a nature ! (Laugh- 
 ter and applause.) 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 245 
 
 The lymphatic temperament may be recognized by 
 the prominent development of the nutritive system, and 
 the general torpor which is manifested in the move- 
 ments of all of the physical organs, and mental and 
 moral powers. The heart is small and beats slowly, 
 the pulse is feeble, and the vital powers seem to per- 
 form their functions with difficulty. The skin is 
 covered with a cold, clammy perspiration. If a human 
 being so constituted, indulges in excessive eating and 
 becomes an epicure, cultivating his appetite to the 
 highest, and at the same time leads a sedentary and in- 
 active life, he soon acquires the sumptuous proportions 
 of the Alderman and keeper of the " White Bear," or 
 " Turk's Head," and is always in good humor, but 
 more especially so just after dinner. Persons of this 
 temperament are famous pot-house politicians, and gen- 
 erally contrive to fill all of the good offices in the gift 
 of the people, of " My Lord Mayor " and the Alderman, 
 " with his well stuffed capon," whose stomach is his 
 God and the seat of all his sensibility. If you would 
 find your way to the heart and conscience of such a 
 man, it must always be through the stomach and not 
 the brain. He abhors all thought, as it makes his 
 head ache. Give him a gallon of ale and two quarts 
 of turtle soup, and he will be your friend for life, and 
 if found as a representative at Columbus, will vote well 
 on that side of the question whose friends give the best 
 oyster suppers. (Laughter and applause.) He eats 
 enormously, and after the pleasures of the table, his 
 greatest source of enjoyment is a good sleep in his easy 
 arm-chair, where he can " snore like a porpoise." His 
 friends ask him when he rises from his slumbers in the 
 
246 LECTUKBS ON THE 
 
 morning, if he heard the thunder last night I and he 
 replies, "no indeed, I never knows nothing after I go to 
 sleep, until the next morning." It would take at least 
 forty earthquakes to make him wink once; he is so 
 phlegmatic, cold and insensible. (Laughter and ap- 
 plause.) This temperament is unfavorable for great 
 length of life, or mental and moral activity; but it may 
 be changed, corrected and improved, by restricting the 
 diet to a few of the necessaries of life, and engaging in 
 active out-door employments, which will stimulate and 
 develop the heart and arteries, and reduce the deposit 
 of adipose matter, and develop the muscular system! 
 Great advantage will also be derived from intellectual 
 pursuits, which will strengthen and develop the ner- 
 vous system, and restore the equilibrium of the consti- 
 tution. 
 
 The sanguine temperament may be recognized from 
 the remarkable development of the vascular system 
 which accompanies it, such persons having large hearts 
 and arteries, giving them red and rosy cheeks, and all 
 of the indications of good health and long life. A 
 person so constituted, is full of vital energies, and in- 
 clined to active employments. They seem never to 
 enjoy themselves except when engaged in some kind 
 of employment, and if disappointed in its results, they 
 are no sooner down than their natural elasticity buoys 
 them up again. They may be disappointed often in 
 business, because too sanguine in their expectations, 
 but they are never discouraged. Boys of this temper- 
 ament, if not employed in worthy and benevolent occu- 
 pations, will become restless and extremely unhappy 
 often incline to mischievous and vicious employments. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 247 
 
 To remain entirely quiet and do absolutely nothing, 
 with their sanguine temperaments and active energies, 
 seems almost an impossibility ; and fortunate will it be 
 for such youths if they have parents, teachers, and 
 guardians who recognize their constitutional predispo- 
 sition, and skillfully provide for them the means of 
 rational employment and mental and moral improve- 
 ment. They long for employment and pant for exertion, 
 and if their parents do not provide for them good books, 
 and subscribe for the best newspapers and literary 
 magazines, they will frequent the theater, the tavern, 
 and the gambling-house in pursuit of amusement, as it 
 has been termed. In school they will often be detected 
 in their mischievous tricks, such as snapping paper 
 balls at the other scholars, or sticking them with a pin 
 fastened in a bench, or, perhaps, pinning a piece of 
 paper to the teacher's coat-tail, (a laugh,) all designed 
 for amusement, and not desiring to do anything wrong, 
 or produce the least harm or disturbance in the school. 
 They are so full of the natural exuberance of joy and 
 activity, that it is impossible for them to control them- 
 selves, or sit still for a single moment. 
 
 Horace Mann, in one of his most excellent reports 
 upon the common school system of Massachusetts, 
 relates an amusing anecdote, which illustrates the 
 peculiarities of this temperament. In visiting one of 
 the schools in the neighborhood of Boston, his attention 
 was attracted to the movements of a little, rosy-cheeked 
 boy, who sat on a bench near the door. It seems that 
 it was past the usual hour to close the school, and this 
 young lad had put away his books, and procured his 
 cap and held it in his hand, ready to jump and scream 
 
248 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 the moment that the teacher had dismissed them. 
 This evening the teacher was busily engaged solving a 
 difficult problem for some of the larger scholars, and 
 did not notice that it was past the usual hour to close 
 the session of his school. The young lad became very 
 restless and impatient, casting an anxious glance first 
 at the teacher, and then at the door, until at last for- 
 getting himself in his great anxiety to escape, he 
 whistled so loud that the teacher heard him. " John," 
 says he, " was that you who whistled "? " " No," says 
 he, " master, it was not me." " Yes it was," continued 
 the teacher. " What did you tell me that wrong story 
 for V "I did not, master ; I did not whistle," contin- 
 ued John, beginning to cry ; " it whistled itself, and I 
 could not help it." (Laughter and applause.) Many 
 young lads of this temperament, like John, require em- 
 ployment ; and if their parents wisely provide for them 
 that which will contribute to ennoble and improve them, 
 they will gladly avail themselves of it ; but if they do 
 not, they will become vicious and mischievous, because 
 their untiring energies must be expended. 
 
 3d. It is a natural law that impure blood injures 
 the brain, paralyzes the nerves, and produces numerous 
 diseases of the nervous system. 
 
 The health of the nervous system not only requires 
 that the blood should be nutritious, but that it should 
 be pure, and free from all hereditary taint. If you ob- 
 serve those persons whose employments require them 
 to spend the greater part of their time in the close and 
 ill-ventilated apartments of our various manufactur- 
 ing establishments, you will notice the pernicious influ- 
 ence of carbonic acid gas, not only upon the respiratory 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 249 
 
 organs, but also upon the nervous system, in the head- 
 aches, nervous debility, mental confusion, weakness 
 and exhaustion with which they are afflicted. The 
 poor unfortunate female who pursues her lonely occu- 
 pation from early morning until the approach of even- 
 ing and too often from evening until morning in 
 close and impure air, necessarily becomes nervous, and 
 subject to fits of hysteria, nervous debility, and melan- 
 choly ; not because she is a woman, but rather because 
 her sedentary and inactive employment, in impure air, 
 destroys her health and strength ; and this affords us 
 a strong reason why we should sympathize with her, 
 rather than ridicule these exhibitions of her feebleness 
 and exhaustion! 
 
 Hysteria is no disease of the imagination, as many 
 vulgar persons have supposed, but is really an indica- 
 tion of a complicated derangement of the nutritive and 
 vital systems, most difficult to understand, and still 
 more difficult to remove ; and its miserable victim is 
 often more to be pitied than she who labors under the 
 influence of fever, or any of the various forms of inflam- 
 mation ! 
 
 If you visit our numerous public charitable institu- 
 tions, you will soon ascertain the dreadful inroads 
 which confinement in impure air, causes upon our 
 physical, mental and moral constitution. How many 
 thousands of poor unfortunate emigrants, who have 
 sought the peaceful and happy shores of America, 
 have found an untimely grave beneath the blue waves 
 of the ocean, or have lingered out a miserable exist- 
 ence, and finally sink and die of nervous or ship fever, 
 contracted by respiring the impure air in the narrow 
 
250 LECTURES ON THE 
 
 space allotted to them by the mercenary owners of 
 many emigrant vessels ! We rejoice that the subject 
 has recently attracted the attention of Congress, and 
 that an appropriate remedy is likely to be applied. In 
 our numerous jails and public prisons, nervous or jail 
 fevers, of a similar character, frequently occur, and 
 during their progress, carry oif large numbers of their 
 unfortunate inmates. These, and similar occurrences, 
 demonstrate to us the great importance of ventilation 
 in our sleeping apartments and dwellings, school houses, 
 and churches. In many of our churches, the air be- 
 comes so confined and impure during the services, and 
 the nervous systems of the audience so weak and ex- 
 hausted under its influence, that nearly one-half of the 
 congregation sleep, instead of listening to the sermon ! 
 If you visit our school houses for the education of the 
 rising generation, you will generally observe that they 
 have been constructed without any regard to the prin- 
 ciples of ventilation ; and consequently, that the air 
 which these young and tender children breathe for six 
 hours, is, in many instances, so impure as to be offen- 
 sive even to the sense of smell ! 
 
 During the past season, several of our first class col- 
 leges and seminaries were closed, on account of the 
 fatal prevalence of nervous or typhoid and typhus 
 fevers, produced by neglecting these principles in the 
 construction of their dormitories or sleeping 'apart- 
 ments. A young lady or gentleman may accustom 
 themselves to retire for the night and sleep in a small 
 room, with the windows closed and the door shut air- 
 tight ; and when they rise in the morning, they will 
 complain of nervous and sick head-ache of the want 
 
PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. 251 
 
 of the refreshing influence of sleep from the previous 
 night's repose ; and in a short time they will become 
 dyspeptic, nervous and irritable ; and if they still per- 
 sist in inhaling impure air, they may be seized with 
 nervous or ship fever, which is contagious, and may 
 destroy many members of the same family. Such inci- 
 dents in relation to this most fatal malady may be met 
 with frequently. 
 
 But the injurious consequence arising to the physical 
 health of the human being, is not the only evil resulting 
 from the neglect of the principles of ventilation, in the 
 erection of our dwellings. The injurious effects upon 
 our mental and moral natures are equally disastrous. 
 If we visit large manufacturing towns, where thousands 
 of males and females are pent up in impure air, during 
 the greater part of the day, we shall there behold its 
 injurious influence in the state of public morals. Con- 
 trast, if you please, the inhabitants of mountainous 
 regions with those who live in the valleys beneath them, 
 and you will often observe the great mental and moral 
 superiority of the former over the latter. Down in the 
 deep mountain gorges and valleys of Switzerland, where 
 the air is scarcely agitated by the currents and counter- 
 currents of the mountain breezes, we behold hundreds 
 and thousands of poor miserable Cretans, who are re- 
 duced so low in the scale of animal life, by the general 
 prevalence of the causes of cretanism or scrofula, as to 
 be scarcely recognizable as human beings ; while upon 
 the crests of the bleak mountains, we shall observe a 
 race of men as hardy and as free as ever the sun has 
 shone upon ! 
 
 " Ye mountains, crags, and peaks ! 
 
 I am with you once again ; I hold to you these hands 
 
252 LECTUEES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. 
 
 Ye first beheld, to show they still are free. 
 Methinks I hear a spirit in your echoes answer me, 
 And bid your truant welcome to his home again." 
 
 Here, amidst these fastnesses of the mountains, flour- 
 ished the principles of the reformation ; while the low- 
 lands of Holland and Italy are cursed with ignorance, 
 vice and superstition, even until this day ! Here, too, 
 was the cradle of liberty ! These hardy sons of Swit- 
 zerland are as free as the eagle which makes its home 
 in the cliffs of their own native mountains. They have 
 withstood the craft of the wily Austrian, and the power 
 of the French monarchy, for ages, and offered to the 
 wounded and bleeding patriot an asylum sacred from 
 the approach of the agents and spies of despotism ! 
 
 
The above outline of the celebrated statue of 
 Hercules, (which was intended to face page 192,) 
 represents the influence of muscular exercise up- 
 on the education and development of this system. 
 Such a development of physical power cannot be 
 secured by the use of pills, and plasters, and 
 strengthening remedies, but by physical education. 
 

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