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 LIBRARY 
 
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 LECTURES TO LADIES 
 
 
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY; 
 
 MRS. MARY S. COVE. 
 
 " God is paid when man receives ; 
 T" enjoy is to obey." 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY SAXTQJSf & PEIRCE, 
 No. 133J Washington 
 
 1842. 

 
 t 
 t 
 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by 
 
 DAVID H. ELA, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 D. H. ELA, PRINTER.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE question has often been asked, why I should de- 
 viate so far from what is considered the appropriate 
 sphere of woman in our country, as to meddle with those 
 studies which form the subject of this little volume. 
 Firmly believing that all things are under the control of 
 the Divine Providence, I will mention a few of the cir- 
 cumstances which have induced me to give attention to 
 these studies. 
 
 From infancy I have never known health, and very 
 early in life the foundation of a pulmonary complaint was 
 laid, by close dressing, which must, before many years, 
 consign me to a premature grave. Under these circum- 
 stances, it is not strange that my attention was turned 
 toward medical works. 
 
 When about 18 years of age, I commenced reading 
 on Pathology, and continued for several years reading 
 Medical, Anatomical, Physiological, and Pathological 
 works, as they came in my way. I concealed my pen- 
 chant for this kind of books as mucffas possible, as I did
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 not like to be ridiculed and censured for reading works 
 which females seldom read, and I did not myself see 
 that much use could result from such a course of study. 
 
 In 1837 I attended several lectures given by Sylvester 
 Graham, in Lynn, Mass., the town where I then resided. 
 The knowledge I obtained from Mr. Graham gave vital- 
 ity and consequent usefulness to what I had before 
 acquired. It was comparatively unimportant for me to 
 know the mechanism of the human stomach, whilst I 
 knew nothing of the causes which deranged its func- 
 tions and produced disease. 
 
 Those who have heard my lectures know that I regard 
 Mr. Graham as one of the greatest benefactors the 
 world ever had. For most of what is practically valua- 
 ble in this work, I am indebted to his teachings directly, 
 or to principles upon which I have reasoned, which 
 have been derived from him. 
 
 To medical men I am under great obligation. They 
 have kindly assisted me in every way in their power. 
 They have loaned me books ; they have admitted me 
 to their museums ; they have permitted me to see dis- 
 sections. Besides, wherever I have lectured, they 
 have endeavored to correct the misapprehensions of the 
 people, and to encourage me to disseminate knowledge. 
 
 What I have learned through their kindness, I have 
 tried to make useful to the world. How far I have suc- 
 ceeded, I leave othys to determine.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 The Importance of the Study of Anatomy and Physiology, p. 9 
 
 LECTURE D. 
 
 The Formation of Bone. . . ' . . . . . . 28 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Number and Position of the Bones 47 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Muscles, Eye, Ear and .Nose. . . . : '.' . . 68 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Circulation, Respiration and Ventilation. . . . . 91 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Anatomy and Physiology of the Stomach. . . . 109 
 
 LECTURE VH. 
 
 Dietetics . . ' . . 131 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Dietetics, 148
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE DL 
 
 Dietetics 166 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 Fluids . . . 184 
 
 LECTURE XL 
 
 Nervous System 205 
 
 LECTURE XIL 
 
 Nervous System. 220 
 
 LECTURE Xffl. 
 
 Diseases of the Spine 238 
 
 LECTURE XIV. 
 
 Education. . 260
 
 LECTURES 
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 LECTURE L 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF ANATOMY 
 AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 WHOEVER shall convince mankind of the neces- 
 sity and importance of the study of Anatomy and 
 Physiology, and those laws which govern life and 
 health, will do more toward promoting the general 
 good and happiness of our species, than he would 
 if he gave us priceless gems and gold without 
 measure. Man came from the hand of his God a 
 noble being, made in the image of his Creator. 
 That he is not that godlike being now, we have 
 most of us a perception of some kind. I know 
 there are those who say man's tendencies are to 
 good, rather than to evil. Those who say this, 
 must nevertheless feel that he is weak, that he is 
 often turned aside. We may have faith in human- 
 ity, we may believe that man can be elevated 
 will be ; and we may labor in this blessed faith for 
 2
 
 10 LECTURES ON 
 
 the race ; still the crime, the wretchedness, that 
 exist on every hand, speak most truly, that man is 
 depraved, fallen, perverted. I care not by what 
 term men designate the moral and physical disor- 
 der with which our world is cursed. Man is here 
 in his degradation. We see it, feel it, in ourselves 
 and others, unless we have lost all of true humanity. 
 To Phrenologists and Physiologists, I need not 
 undertake to prove this doctrine. The first sees in 
 the organization of man a want of true balance 
 the last sees in it disease. 
 
 Says the Phrenologist, " If a man has a deficiency 
 of perceptive power, he cannot always judge of the 
 true. If he have too large acquisitiveness, he must 
 have large conscientiousness, or he will clutch his 
 neighbor's money, and so on of all the other 
 organs of the brain." According to Combe, a man 
 with deficient moral organs, and the organs of the 
 animal propensities large, needs a moral guardian, 
 as much as a man who wants the organ of number 
 needs a ready reckoner, in business transactions. 
 
 According to the Phrenologist and Physiologist, 
 the balance of healthy action is lost in our race ; 
 and according to these, hospitals should be erected 
 for the sinful, as for the sick. This is certainly 
 taking a benevolent view of poor erring humanity. 
 I come not so much to advocate this doctrine, 
 though I confess it has charms for me, as to lay it
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 11 
 
 before you. It will not hurt thinkers to think of 
 it ; to turn and examine it on every side ; dive into 
 its depths; sift it thoroughly; that if there be 
 any truth in it, they may find it. It is a contempt- 
 ible ignorance, nay, more, a hopeless ignorance, that 
 will not examine. 
 
 Let us for a moment take a view of the evils that 
 overspread our world, that are the legitimate conse- 
 quence of ignorance. We need not turn to the right 
 hand or to the left, to demonstrate the evils that 
 result from a want of knowledge. They cluster 
 around us in awful fruitfulness. They enter into 
 every ramification of civic life as it now is. It is 
 idle to attempt reformation by ordinary means, in 
 the present state of things. We must strike at the 
 root ; and I am so charitable to poor human nature, 
 poor as it is, that I believe a vast, an incalculable 
 amount of suffering is the result of ignorance, not 
 of wilful error ; consequently to remove this igno- 
 rance, is to strike at the root. I do not say that 
 knowledge, followed out in all its bearings, would 
 save the present generation. Many have been 
 born with feeble constitutions, in consequence of 
 the errors of their parents. They have been trained 
 in a manner most destructive to health. There are 
 many, who, let their course be ever so judicious, 
 could never attain a state of health, and cannot hold 
 on to life many years. Still their lives might be
 
 12 LECTURES ON 
 
 lengthened and rendered vastly more comfortable, 
 did they know the laws that govern life, and had 
 they moral courage to act in accordance with them. 
 And they would save their children a vast amount 
 of suffering ; for it is a fact, physically speaking, 
 that the errors of the parents are visited on the heads 
 of their children. When the mother's whole system 
 is diseased, and under a vitiating influence, we can- 
 not expect that she will give health to her child. I 
 need not attempt to demonstrate to you the truth of 
 this assertion ; your own good sense will lead you 
 to assent to its truth at once. In no case do the 
 effects of physiological ignorance appear more 
 lamentable, or more fatal, than in children. There 
 seems to be something more revolting, in destroying 
 the innocent, than in committing suicide. Infants 
 are committed to our care ; we are their natural 
 guardians. But thousands of these little innocents 
 are destroyed every year, literally "killed with 
 kindness ;" and it is a wise, a benevolent law of 
 Providence, that the poison should thus quickly do 
 its work ; for if they are spared, it is but to endure 
 protracted suffering. The miseries of infants com- 
 mence even before birth. They are born with 
 deteriorated constitutions, and predisposition to dis- 
 ease. Their hold on life is often so slight, that but 
 a breath will break the attenuated thread. O that 
 I could speak to the heart and the understanding
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 13 
 
 of every mother. I would persuade her to let the 
 life of her child be precious in her sight. But how 
 can this be, when she is all the time laying suicidal 
 hands on herself; and during the time she nurses 
 her child, it is a part of her being. What mother 
 does not know, if she is ill, her nursing infant will 
 
 / * o 
 
 be ill ? Milk is formed of such materials as are put 
 into the stomach. If good materials are wanting, 
 it is formed of such as there are. We know that 
 medicines affect the milk. When it was fashiona- 
 ble to drink wine and strong drink, the deadly 
 draught passed almost unaltered to the lips of the 
 little innocent who hung at its mother's breast, from 
 which nought but the pure streams of life should 
 ever flow. But alcohol is not the only deadly 
 substance, and when the food of the mother is 
 improper, it induces a train of evils, that have a 
 reciprocal influence in aggravating each other. The 
 stomach of the mother becomes diseased. The del- 
 icate lining membrane is inflamed, perhaps ulcer- 
 ated ; digestion is imperfectly performed ; the tem- 
 per of the mother is continually irritated by the 
 morbid condition of her system. A host of sym- 
 pathies are excited ; the unhappy, because unheal- 
 thy mother, has many cares beside her fretful child. 
 She thinks she has a " cross infant." People should 
 learn to call things by their right names : we should 
 say a diseased infant. My heart has long been
 
 14 LECTURES ON 
 
 pained at beholding the ignorance of mothers. I 
 rejoice that a spirit of inquiry is awakened, that the 
 laws of life and health are beginning to be investi- 
 gated and understood. I am persuaded that the 
 long night of error is about to be chased from our 
 land, by the glorious sunlight of truth. The con- 
 science should be awakened on the subject of health. 
 It has too long been lulled asleep by the opiate of 
 indulgence. The table has been made a snare ; 
 men have made a god of appetite, and received in 
 themselves that recompense of their error which 
 was meet. From the cradle, we have been taught 
 to go astray. The appetites of children are vitiated, 
 and their systems predisposed to disease. All this 
 is done through ignorance, which in many cases is 
 unavoidable. I have seen a mother muffle her new 
 born infant as closely from the air, as if some deadly 
 miasm were floating in every breath of the pure 
 element. Thus the poor infant is rendered suscep- 
 tible of disease from what should be its vital nour- 
 ishment. Mothers in their ignorance poison the 
 very fountains of life and health. The infant is 
 not only muffled closely when carried out, but its 
 nursery is often so contrived as to exclude pure 
 air. 
 
 Another contrivance to vitiate the air, is that mis- 
 chievous invention, a cradle with a head. It is 
 surprising that mothers will use these, apparently
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 15 
 
 without reflection, when they know that air once 
 breathed is unfit for respiration a second time ; and 
 that they will throw a piece of muslin, a silk hand- 
 kerchief, or a heavy cloth, over the open part of the 
 head, and thus keep the child, during the time 
 of sleep, immersed in poison, and at every breath 
 inhaling it ; at a time too when the powers of resist- 
 ance possessed by the system lie in a measure dor- 
 mant. I have uncovered an infant, who had two 
 or three blankets and a quilt over its face, in one of 
 these cradles. What would be the feelings of one 
 of these mothers, if she should see her child swal- 
 lowing corrosive sublimate ? And yet she pursues 
 a course as irrational, as wrong, as if she introduced 
 poison into the stomach of her child. The poison 
 may be more slow, but it is not the less deadly and 
 sure. The frequent occurrence of fits in children, 
 would prove it to the anxious mother, had she her 
 eyes but half open to the cause though impure 
 air is far from being the only cause of fits. " Dark- 
 ness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the 
 people," in natural as in spiritual things. The 
 mother looks upon the babe which her ignorance, 
 her mistaken kindness, have destroyed, as the victim 
 of some special providence. I admit it is a provi- 
 dence that takes her child away, and a merciful 
 dispensation that removes the little creature from 
 suffering ; but it is an effect that follows a cause, as
 
 16 LECTURES ON 
 
 much as hanging is a cause, and death an effect. I 
 am no advocate for hardening children by improper 
 exposure. I would have a judicious course pur- 
 sued by every mother, to invigorate her child ; then 
 no injurious consequences will result from an expo- 
 sure, that in other cases, under ordinary manage- 
 ment, would be death. What this judicious course 
 is, I shall endeavor to show hereafter. 
 
 The exclusion of pure air from the lungs and 
 bodies of children, is only one evil arising from 
 ignorance. 
 
 The ignorant mother says, " I always wean my 
 child when ' the sign comes right.' I feed it as soon 
 as I can make it swallow. I don't have to learn my 
 child to eat when I wean it. I always give it every 
 thing that I allow myself to eat. Then the child will 
 get used to it, and such food will not hurt it." This 
 is almost as bad as " getting used " to hanging. 
 Can the infant stomach, which has only the capaci- 
 ty to hold a glass, " get used " to hold half a pint, 
 without violence ? Can the delicate lining membrane 
 of the infant stomach, which is far more delicate and 
 susceptible than its external skin, bear the stimuli 
 of spice, pepper, flesh, &c., mingled in that very 
 injurious compound, " mince pie," without injury, 
 when it would produce a sore if applied to the 
 external skin ? Yet how many mothers give their 
 children " mince pie," and bring forward the plea
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 17 
 
 that " such food will not hurt children, if they are 
 only used with eating it." I have seen a mother 
 feed her child, whose age was four months, with 
 pork, hog's fat, and potatoes, when the little suf- 
 ferer had whooping cough. It was agonizing to 
 witness the convulsive throes of the poor child, as 
 the outraged stomach rejected, with loathing and 
 abhorrence, the deadly and unnatural injesta. 
 
 I would that I were not under the necessity of 
 sullying my pages with a notice of the abuses of 
 civic life. The necessity that these errors should be 
 brought to view and corrected, must constitute my 
 excuse for bringing subjects before my readers, disa- 
 greeable to them and to me. The child above 
 mentioned, after being fed in such an improper man- 
 ner, was enveloped in blankets, the head as closely 
 as the body. At the first stopping place, when 
 allowed again to breathe the pure air, the child's 
 face was discovered to be a deep purple, as if it 
 were in the last stage of strangulation. The mother, 
 though as sensible and accomplished as most women, 
 owing to the lamentable want of physiological infor- 
 mation at this day, had no idea that impure air caused 
 the deathly appearance of her child. She had cov- 
 ered it from the air, to prevent its taking cold. 
 
 In view of such abuses, it is cheering to re- 
 flect that light is beginning to break in upon us. 
 Many see that they have been steeped in error to
 
 18 LECTURES ON 
 
 the very lips, and are making praiseworthy efforts 
 to escape from the evil influence. Many people 
 seem to think that all diseases are immediate visita- 
 tions from the Almighty, arising from no cause but 
 his immediate dispensation. Many seem to have 
 no idea that there are established laws with respect 
 to life and health, and that the transgression of these 
 laws is followed by disease. In this sense disease 
 is a visitation from the Almighty. People complain 
 of being ill, and seem to think it no more necessary 
 to ascertain the cause of their illness, than to deter- 
 mine why the sun shines to-day, when it was cloudy 
 yesterday. Let any one suggest the idea that their 
 habits are wrong, and he is met at once with, " I 
 am no Grahamite, I eat and drink, as other folks 
 do. I take snuff, because rny physician recom- 
 mends it, for the catarrh, or weak eyes ; and I 
 smoke, because my food hurts me. I drink tea, be- 
 cause I have the sick headache. 1 drink coffee, 
 because I love it, and will drink it ; and I always 
 have the headache, when I don't drink coffee in the 
 morning." 
 
 It is in vain to attempt to get these persons to 
 adopt correct habits, without knowledge. They 
 will listen to you, and perhaps determine to adopt 
 what you tell them is right. But long habit has 
 depraved the appetite and the functions. These 
 cannot be corrected in a day, a month, or perhaps
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 19 
 
 a year, or years. They are impatient. They wish 
 for rapid results. They do not know the laws which 
 govern life. They are at the mercy of every wind 
 that blows. They must contend with their own 
 depraved appetites, the fears and solicitations of 
 friends, and often they have ah oracular warning 
 from some pretender to medical knowledge, who 
 may have intruded into the profession. And these 
 persons have a blind confidence in medicine, often 
 equal to the Arab's confidence in amulets and 
 charms. They may not have confidence in the 
 regular medical profession. No matter ; they place 
 a blind confidence somewhere ; perhaps in botanic 
 medicines, perhaps in calomel or lobelia, or in the 
 last advertised quack nostrum ; and if the practi- 
 tioner promises them indulgence, or in other words 
 that they may eat and drink what they choose, and 
 pay no attention to their habits, they will have so 
 much the more confidence. 
 
 With such people, habits are nothing, medicine 
 is all. They would willingly go through a course 
 of druggings, when they could hardly be persuaded 
 to relinquish one hurtful indulgence. Could they 
 be induced to give up dosing, and adopt correct 
 habits, they might add years to their lives. I am 
 far from decrying the regular and rational practice 
 of medicine. That physician who has sense and 
 science, who knows all that he can learn of human
 
 20 LECTURES ON 
 
 anatomy and physiology, who will enlighten people 
 with respect to hygienic laws, and administer medi- 
 cine judiciously, when it is a less evil to give than 
 to withhold it, is a blessing to society. 
 
 Physiology, were it understood, would make 
 people tremble at the idea of dosing continually, or 
 even occasionally, with purgatives and other medi- 
 cines. Did people know the danger of introducing 
 poisons at hap-hazard into the system, under the 
 name of medicine, they would beware. A little 
 reflection would convince you that medicines which 
 you have been accustomed to consider harmless, 
 are in reality poisons. Why should the system be 
 in such haste to reject these substances, by vomit- 
 ing, purging, and deathly perspiration, if they are 
 not poisonous. Terrible intestinal disease is induced 
 by this dosing with purgatives and other medicines. 
 Do not think you are safe, because you have a 
 vegetable medicine. There are active and deadly 
 poisons in the vegetable, as in the mineral kingdom. 
 You may say, " I do not poison myself or my family 
 with minerals." Prussic acid, henbane, cicuta, &,c. 
 are deadl) poisons, and yet they are vegetable pro- 
 ductions. 
 
 The end at which physiologists aim is prevention. 
 They do not make war upon this or that medical 
 school, which is honestly endeavoring to benefit the 
 race. But the general resort to quacks and their
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 21 
 
 nostrums, is a great evil. We should live in such 
 a manner as not to need medicine of any kind. 
 But if from past errors, or a vitiated constitution, 
 we need medicine, let us have the best possible 
 help, and let not our habits counteract all a physi- 
 cian's efforts. Who would think of resuscitating a 
 drowned man, whilst he was under water ? Just 
 as vain is the attempt to restore permanent health 
 to persons whilst they are indulging the very habits 
 that made them sick. 
 
 It is surprising, that people will trust their lives 
 in the care of those who are not even pretenders to 
 medical knowledge ; who denounce the study of 
 Anatomy and Physiology as useless, and who would 
 fain persuade us that they have found a shorter road 
 to the healing art than rational, laborious study. 
 
 Whilst I plead for the regular study and practice 
 of medicine, if mankind will so abuse themselves as 
 to need medicine, I detest ignorance and quackery, 
 when found in the medical profession, as much, or 
 more, than when found elsewhere. 
 
 The rage for quack medicines has become almost 
 as general as the demand for water. If ever Anat- 
 omy and Physiology, and those laws which govern 
 life and health, come to be generally understood in 
 the world, a vast amount of money will be saved, 
 and a vast amount of misery escaped. 
 
 I do not say how far men will be faithful to
 
 22 LECTURES ON 
 
 these laws, when understood. All history fur- 
 nishes lamentable proof that knowledge is not vir- 
 tue. Genius, knowledge, mental cultivation of the 
 highest order, have been disgraced by the commis- 
 sion of crime, the darkness of which was in propor- 
 tion to the blaze of intellectual light. But with 
 many in our land, knowledge of the laws of life is 
 alone wanting, to insure obedience to them ; and it 
 is to be hoped that when physiological knowledge 
 is generally diffused, quacks of all kinds will have 
 to seek some other employment than battening on 
 the life blood of the community. Lest any one 
 should misunderstand me, I will here state distinctly 
 what I mean by the term quack : " A boastful pre- 
 tender to knowledge he does not possess." Con- 
 sequently, being a member of a medical society, 
 does not hinder a man from being a quack. Knowl- 
 edge is what we want. It should be diffused, not 
 locked up in any profession. 
 
 It is much to the credit of the medical faculty, 
 that they are striving to diffuse knowledge. With 
 many, every thing in Physiology is to be learned ; 
 for nothing, or next to nothing, is known. Many 
 people who have much information about many 
 things and many books, appear to have less knowl- 
 edge on the subject of health, than a poor black 
 woman I once met, who came from Africa, and 
 had been deprived of most means of acquiring infor-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 23 
 
 raation. Said " Achaby," (that was her African 
 name,) " I thinks people disgests their food better, 
 when they chaws it well." Observation had taught 
 her this truth, and she was wiser than many of her 
 superiors in knowledge. Some people seem never 
 seriously to consider why their teeth were given 
 them. They do not use them properly, and they 
 are soon taken from them. Reason and Physiology 
 teach that the teeth might last to old age, as well 
 as the other bones, did we not abuse them by 
 neglect, through the medium of the stomach, and 
 other means. 
 
 The doctrine of sympathy between the different 
 parts of the system, needs to be better understood. 
 Many parents, for trifling ailments, dose themselves 
 or their children with powerful medicines, whilst 
 the most skilful physicians rely on abstinence, and 
 correct habits, for the cure of slight disorders, and 
 resort to medicine with caution for the cure of those 
 which are more serious. 1 am fully impressed with 
 the value of medicine in the hands of a skilful phy- 
 sician ; but I am as fully impressed with the value 
 of good habits, or in other words, of prevention. 
 Terrible evils result from the indiscreet use of med- 
 icines, especially purgatives and emetics. Medi- 
 cines often induce much more serious disorders than 
 those they are administered to cure. The frequent 
 use of drastic medicines causes inflammation of the
 
 24 LECTURES ON 
 
 mucous membrane that lines the stomach and intes- 
 tines, piles, and many other evils. 
 
 Think of this, ye mothers, who dose yourselves 
 .and children with salts, or with calomel, or with 
 you know not what, in the " Brandreth's pills," and 
 the thousand and one quack medicines with which 
 the ignorant are abused. That person who shall 
 enlighten people with regard to the indiscreet use 
 of purgatives alone, will deserve the thanks of the 
 community. I have seen parents who would boast 
 of curing their children of various disorders by the 
 use of powerful medicines, unaided by a physician. 
 The children had lived, notwithstanding they had 
 been most injudiciously treated. The parents little 
 knew the evils they were creating and perpetuating, 
 by these " cures." Should diseased action be estab- 
 lished in a part of the system not at first attacked, 
 they know nothing of the vital economy, they con- 
 sider it the consequence of the disorder, not of the 
 drugs they have ignorantly administered. Should 
 a child after passing through a period of illness, 
 and a course of domestic practice, appear as though 
 some deadly mildew or blight had struck it, the 
 disorder is uniformly considered the cause. " My 
 child," says the mother, " had the measles." or scar- 
 let fever, as the case may be, " and the disorder did 
 not leave him well, and he has been unwell ever 
 since." With all the abuses that surround us, is it
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 5 
 
 wonderful that the mortality among children is so 
 great ? Is it wonderful that there is so much disease 
 and imbecility of body and mind in after years ? Is 
 it wonderful that there is a precocious and unnatu- 
 ral development of animal instincts and passions, 
 and that ruin, in many instances, is the conse- 
 quence ? 
 
 I have glanced at a few only of the evils that 
 are the result of ignorance. I have not yet noticed 
 that fruitful source of death, tight lacing, upon which 
 so much has been said within the last few years. I 
 do not say knowledge would reform all who indulge 
 in this ruinous practice ; but let knowledge be dis- 
 seminated, and we have good reason to believe that 
 we have moral principle enough in our land, when 
 influenced by knowledge, to work wonders for our 
 race. Those who are not influenced by a sense of 
 duty, will fear and tremble, when made sensible of 
 the dreadful effects resulting from compression. 
 
 Mothers should teach their children to regard 
 tight lacing as dishonorable and criminal, and that 
 it is as much at variance with beauty and propor- 
 tion as it really is. But mothers not only neglect 
 to learn their own anatomy, and thus neglect to 
 teach their children, for the plain reason that they 
 cannot teach what they do not know, but they 
 lace themselves in a deadly manner, and make the 
 clothing of their children, frf)m infancy, so tight as 
 3
 
 26 LECTURES ON 
 
 to obstruct the circulation. Thus they commence 
 the work of death from the cradle. I have known 
 an ignorant, yet in many respects amiable mother, 
 who made the clothes of her little daughter, only 
 three years old, so tight that she could not bear to 
 have them hooked, only when in company. Think 
 ye this mother would wilfully murder her child ? 
 Far from it. But fashion was the mother's tyrant ; 
 and though this child was her darling, the object of 
 her unceasing care, yet she dared not do otherwise 
 than yield obedience to fashion. Let us not con- 
 demn her until we examine our own habits, and see 
 if we are not in some way the slaves of this unmer- 
 ciful deity that the world has exalted. 
 
 People should be awakened to a consciousness 
 that there are duties that they owe to themselves as 
 well as to those around them. Some of the more 
 obvious causes of injury are carefully avoided. We 
 would not stand in the way of a falling building ; 
 we would not swallow corrosive sublimate ; but we 
 see numbers drawing suicidal cords, till the blood 
 labors on its course with the greatest difficulty, so 
 imperfectly oxidyzed that the lips and face of the 
 victim are often purple. These are objects of pity 
 and blame to those who are producing not less fatal 
 results, by the use of deadly narcotics. They will 
 perhaps take the pipe or the cigar from the mouth, 
 to inveigh against tight lacing, whilst their prostrated
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 27 
 
 energies, their deathly weakness and trembling, 
 ought to warn them that they are as surely commit- 
 ting suicide, as the victim of vanity and fashion. 
 
 The evils of civic life cluster before me in such 
 a manner, that I can glance only at a few of them. 
 Females are more particularly victims than males, 
 as the customs of society deny them out door ex- 
 ercise, and make them in many instances mere dolls 
 and pretty things. During the day, and often a 
 large portion of the night, they are loaded with 
 clothing of a fashion the most absurd and ridiculous. 
 Weak and exhausted from the excess of clothing, 
 when they retire to rest, they sink in the enervating 
 feather bed, loaded with the absorbed miasm of 
 perhaps an hundred persons, who have before slept 
 on it. The insensible perspiration or transpiration, 
 which is continually thrown off from the human 
 body, loaded with waste and hurtful particles, is 
 thrown back upon us when we are sunk in a feather 
 bed ; and thus the body is immersed, through the 
 night, in a vapor bath, saturated with the health- 
 destroying effluvia of our own bodies. The system 
 is thus enervated, and rendered susceptible of injury 
 from changes. Those who are always fearful of 
 taking cold, almost always have a cold. Can the 
 delicate female, who loads herself with an excess 
 of clothing in hot weather, be aware that she is 
 weakening her whole system, laying herself open to
 
 28 LECTURES ON 
 
 disease, and even inviting it and all for fashion's 
 sake ? The belief that it is not moral obliquity, but 
 want of information, that causes the many abuses 
 we see in society, is a great consolation. 
 
 I have surveyed but a small part of the vast field 
 before us. The advantages of knowledge become 
 more apparent as we investigate, and the overwhelm- 
 ing woes, that are the consequences of ignorance, 
 are presented with awful definiteness to our minds. 
 
 LECTURE H. 
 
 THE FORMATION OF BONE. 
 
 THE first step to be taken in the pursuit of 
 science, is to discipline the mind. It is no child's 
 play, to learn and understand the wonderful mechan- 
 ism of the human system. When we consider the 
 importance of this knowledge, I trust we shall all 
 be willing to give the subject that patient attention 
 and investigation which insures reward. 
 
 I once saw a young lady whose beauty, accom- 
 plishments and general knowledge made her quite 
 fascinating ; and yet she was so ignorant of anato- 
 my, that speaking of one of her friends, who had
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 29 
 
 spinal disease, she said her friend was " dreadfully 
 afflicted with the spine in her bach bone.'" What 
 lady would not shut herself up and study anatomy 
 for months, rather than make such a ridiculous 
 blunder ! 
 
 The frame work of the body, that is, the bones, 
 will first claim our attention ; not because the bones 
 are independent of the other parts, but because we 
 must have a starting point. The bones form the 
 basis of the human system they support, defend, 
 and contain the more delicate organs. Some may 
 suppose the bones destitute of life, and hardly 
 organized, and not liable to disease and death ; but 
 anatomy explains to us the structure of the bones, 
 and shows their vessels. These vessels are full of 
 blood, which nourishes the bones. The bones grow 
 and decay, and are at times the subjects of terrible 
 disease. The formation of bone is a very curious 
 process. The bones of the infant, before birth, are 
 cartilaginous. The bones of young children are 
 soft and yielding ; and it is a wise provision, as they 
 meet with many falls that would endanger hard or 
 brittle bones. I once saw an Irish woman holding 
 her insensible babe in her arms, which had fallen 
 from the top to the bottom of a long flight of stairs. 
 The mother was comforted and relieved from her 
 fears of a fractured skull, when she was assured by 
 a physician, that her child's skull would bend an 
 inch before it would break.
 
 30 LECTURES ON 
 
 According to Bell and others, the cartilage that 
 supplies the place of bone in the infant is never har- 
 dened into bone. These cartilages have their blood 
 vessels, and the first mark of ossification is an artery 
 running into the centre of the jelly, in which the 
 bone is to be formed. By an artery is meant a 
 blood vessel, which carries blood, that is capable of 
 forming, nourishing and renovating the different parts 
 of the body. By ossification is meant the formation 
 of bone : os being the Latin for bone, and ossify 
 meaning to form bone. This artery, which runs 
 into the centre of the cartilage or jelly, carries par- 
 ticles of bony matter, which are deposited, and a 
 minute speck of bone appears first ; then particle 
 after particle is carried and deposited, the jelly 
 being carried away by another set of vessels to 
 make room for the bone. Thus the work goes 
 on, till the jelly or cartilage is carried away, and 
 bone laid in its place. Some anatomists have said 
 that the cartilage is not removed, but that the bony 
 matter is impacted into its interstices. This may be 
 true in some degree, but we have the best authority 
 for believing that most of the cartilage is removed. 
 You now see that bone is made from blood, as are all 
 parts of the body. This is the vital fluid, that nour- 
 ishes and renovates the body. You can now see why 
 a bad state of the blood should affect the bones. I 
 wish you to understand that there are organs whose 
 business it is to take from the blood those particles
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 31 
 
 that are to form or renovate any organ or part of the 
 body. Thus the organs select, with what seems 
 almost living instinct, those particles which are to 
 form bone, and they are deposited. This is regu- 
 larly done, in a healthy state of the organs ; and 
 what will form bone is not alone selected, but the 
 material for hair, skin, nails, muscles, and indeed 
 every part and particle of the human body. 
 
 In order to the formation of good blood, you will 
 at once see the necessity of good food. As every 
 part of the body depends on the blood for nutrition, 
 how important that this fluid be not only perfect in 
 its kind, but properly manufactured, without injury 
 to the vital organs. We know that a skilful work- 
 man will, by much labor, make a pretty good arti- 
 cle of poor materials. So it may be of the blood, 
 whilst the eliminating organs remain in a tolerably 
 healthy state. But it does not hence follow, that 
 good materials are not better than poor. And be- 
 sides, we should remember that this unnecessary 
 labor is wearing out the vital organs. 
 
 The blood may be bad from being made of bad 
 materials, or from a deranged state of the organs of 
 assimilation. A good workman may become, by 
 loss of power, either of body or mind, incapable of 
 making good work, even of good materials. It may 
 be said, we cannot detect any difference between 
 blood made from good materials and that made from
 
 32 LECTURES ON 
 
 poor. I answer, we can read an author through his 
 doings. The body is imperfectly nourished, and 
 becomes diseased, when the blood is not good. 
 
 It is a truth, that in order to have perfect bones, 
 and to keep them in a state of health, the organs 
 whose business it is to convey nourishment to the 
 bones, should be in a healthy state, and they should 
 have the best materials from which to extract this 
 nourishment. And it is certain, if the vital organs 
 are continually disturbed and troubled by improper 
 substances from which to eliminate nourishment, 
 they will become jaded and deranged, and finally 
 the whole regularity, harmony and economy of their 
 action will be broken up, and all will go wrong. 
 The assimilating organs cannot suffer alone. There 
 is a sympathy between all the organs of the body ; 
 however great, complex, or minute, " all are but 
 parts of one stupendous whole." If one wheel in 
 a clock is injured, all will go wrong, because all the 
 parts are dependent on each other. 
 
 You now perceive that all parts of the body are 
 formed from the blood, and that all parts are formed 
 by means of vessels, of organs whose business it is 
 to eliminate particles from the blood, that will form, 
 nourish or renovate the several tissues and organs. 
 
 If we take improper food, or food at improper 
 times, or in improper quantities, we cannot have 
 good blood formed, because there is not suitable
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 33 
 
 materials, or because the organs that make blood 
 are rendered capable of working only in a lame and 
 crippled manner. 
 
 Bone is formed of earthy matter phosphate of 
 lime and gelatine. Where these parts are duly 
 balanced, we have proper bone. 
 
 There is so much sympathy and relation between 
 the different parts of the body, that good habits, and 
 temperance in all things, are necessary to preserve 
 all parts in health. " If one member of the body 
 suffers, all suffer with it." It is not the due obser- 
 vance of one thing, or two things, that will make 
 us healthy or happy. 
 
 You see that bone is composed of earthy matter 
 (phosphate of lime) and gelatine. Now if there is 
 an undue proportion of gelatine, you will at once 
 perceive that the bones will be too soft, and here 
 comes to view that terrible disease called mollites 
 ossium, or softening of the bones. Instances have 
 occurred in this disease, where the bones of the 
 miserable sufferer might be bent so that the heels 
 would touch the back of the head. The bones are 
 at times so soft, in this disorder, that they may be 
 cut through with a knife. Numerous cases are on 
 record, of such softening of the bones. An eminent 
 writer, speaking of the cause, says, "It appears 
 frequently to consist in a morbid state of the diges- 
 tive organs ; but it is seated, perhaps, as often in
 
 34 LECTURES ON 
 
 the assimilating or secernent vessels, that is, the 
 vessels that separate and appropriate those parts 
 and particles that go to make up the bones." 
 
 Now if people will abuse themselves, their diges- 
 tive organs, or the other organs in the vital econo- 
 my that are laboring for parts of the great whole, 
 they must expect, as a consequence, the derange- 
 ment of the functions. They must expect disease. 
 It may be of this kind, it may be of some other. 
 
 Another disease of the bones is that familiar to 
 you under the denomination of rickets. Here let 
 me observe, as a proof of the degeneracy of man, of 
 his having left right habits, and come under the do- 
 minion of wrong habits, the fact that rickets and its 
 varieties are comparatively of modern date, and 
 cannot be traced back farther than the seventeenth 
 century. It is the opinion of the most eminent 
 pathologists, that rickets may be traced, in most 
 instances, and bating the predisposition inherited 
 from diseased parents, they might have said in all 
 instances, to the want of a pure air, a warm and dry 
 atmosphere, regular exercise, nutritious food, and 
 cleanliness ; and the severity of the symptoms is 
 very generally in proportion to the extent or multi- 
 plicity of these concurrent causes. 
 
 Proper exercise, a dry, pure and temperate at- 
 mosphere, plain, wholesome food, cleanliness, and 
 cold bathing, have often wrought a cure, without a
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 35 
 
 particle of medicine, though medicine may be neces- 
 sary at times. No mother or nurse should for a 
 moment admit the idea that she pays proper atten- 
 tion to cleanliness, without bathing the whole sur- 
 face of a child's body daily. 
 
 It is believed rickets is not as common now as it 
 was several years since, because people see that a 
 rational course will save them from the evil. Peo- 
 ple are beginning to be aware that a regimen that 
 will cause them to recover from illness, will preserve 
 them in health. They are beginning to learn that 
 they bring suffering and disease upon themselves 
 and their offspring, by indulgence in habits which 
 are only pleasant, or even tolerable, because we 
 are depraved, or because they are habits. People 
 suppose themselves the victims of some dire disease, 
 which has come upon them, they know not whence 
 or wherefore. They seem to have a kind of vague 
 idea that they are afflicted with sickness for their 
 sins ; but they have not the shadow of an idea that 
 it is for sin against the laws of life. I have heard 
 Christians gravely arguing about the origin of dis- 
 eases. I have heard them attribute sickness to the 
 fall of man ; but not one word was said about eat- 
 ing and drinking every thing nothing of unclean- 
 ness, and of the thousand and one abuses of civic life. 
 
 I will here give a brief notice of a terrible dis- 
 ease, in which the bones and brain seem to suffer
 
 36 LECTURES ON 
 
 most. I allude to the disorder called Cretinism, 
 found mostly in the valleys of Switzerland, among 
 the Alps, and also among the Pyrenees. This 
 disorder resembles rickets, though generally more 
 severe, and more to be dreaded, as the organs of 
 the brain share the fate of the diseased body ; and 
 there is an almost total obliteration of the mental 
 faculties. " In Cretinism, the body is stinted in its 
 growth, and the organs in their developement. The 
 abdomen swells, the skin is wrinkled, the muscles 
 are loose and flabby, the throat is often covered 
 , with a monstrous prominence, the complexion is 
 jvan, and the countenance vacant and stupid. The 
 cranium [skull] bulges out to an enormous size. 
 Their blunted sensibility renders them indifferent 
 to the action r pf cold or heat, and even to blows 
 and wounds. They are generally deaf and dumb. 
 Their organs of sight, smell, taste and feeling are 
 very limited htiheir operation, and of moral affec- 
 tions they seem wholly destitute." 
 
 The causes of this terrific malady, are, first, a 
 close, iiumid and oppressive atmosphere.-... Their 
 valleys a'ije' surrounded by high mountains, that 
 shield them from fresh currents of air. They are 
 thus continually steeped in a poisoned atmosphere, 
 as their natural situation makes them the victims of 
 the same contamination jhj^ people in civic life 
 bring about by means of "closed carriages, close,
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 37 
 
 unventilated rooms, crowded assemblies, where veils 
 are often drawn before the face to further contami- 
 nate the already poisoned air. Every young lady 
 ought to know that air once breathed is unfit for 
 respiration a second time. Though I shall speak 
 more particularly of air hereafter, I can hardly 
 avoid saying, here, that though veils are bad enough 
 in the open air, yet in a close room or crowded 
 assembly, they are so great an evil, that every lady 
 who wears one over her face, is verily guilty, 
 whether she knows it or not.* 
 
 Though Cretinism may not be the result of a 
 confined atmosphere, yet experience demonstrates 
 that disease and death are its legitimate fruits. Other 
 causes contribute to form Cretinism improper food, 
 indolence, uncleanliness, and hereditary taint, often 
 of many generations. In this disorder we see the 
 lamentable effects of many deleterious influences 
 combined. Each of these influences would sepa- 
 rately work an amount of mischief; but when com- 
 bined, their effects become apparent to all, even to 
 the most careless observer. If we would be free 
 from each and every disorder, we must avoid each 
 and every cause of disorder. The causes of disease 
 are not as obscure as many are disposed to believe, 
 
 * I by no means wish to condemn veils, when the severity of the 
 weather makes them necessary f but this was written when it was 
 the fashion to wear veils close drawn in church and other assemblies.
 
 38 LECTURES ON 
 
 and the causes of our many trials and difficulties in 
 this world, lie more at our own doors than people 
 are willing to acknowledge. 
 
 There is in the human system a continued waste 
 and renovation. One set of particles are continually 
 being thrown out of the system to give place to a 
 new set, so that the entire system is continually 
 being formed, wasted and renovated. There are 
 vessels or organs whose business it is to cast these 
 particles out of the system, that they may give their 
 place to fresh particles, just eliminated from the 
 blood. Now it is obvious that if there be a torpor 
 of the secernents, or those vessels which separate 
 particles from the blood to make any particular 
 part, whether it be bone or brain, or whatever it 
 may be, if there be disorder or torpor of these secer- 
 nents, the part will not be properly nourished ; and 
 if the excernents, or those vessels which separate 
 and throw out particles from the system, keep on 
 their work, the balance of healthy action will be 
 lost, and disease will ensue, and the reverse of 
 this is equally true. For instance, the bony matter 
 which the excernents should throw out of the sys- 
 tem, is at times left in the bones, and they become 
 impacted and brittle. There are cases of debility 
 and functional derangement of the excernents, where 
 the bones become brittle instead of soft. There 
 seems to be in these cases a deficiency not only of
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 39 
 
 gelatine, but of one or more of the constituents of 
 healthy earth of bones. I know an individual who 
 has twice broken the fibula (the smaller bone of the 
 leg) when walking deliberately along the street : 
 the bone snapped like a pipe-stem. The limb was 
 set, and in due time, by perfect rest, united. After 
 a few years, that bone, or the bone of the other leg, 
 (I do not recollect which,) broke short in precisely 
 the same manner. Be it remembered, this good 
 man was a free liver, and though he ate no more of 
 what are termed good things than many others, and 
 though his manner of living, perhaps, caused no 
 greater amount of suffering, in the aggregate, than 
 others endure, yet he received a part of his punish- 
 ment in a little different manner. I say a part, as 
 he had almost continual rheumatism ; and this is by 
 no means a novel complaint, and will not be, so 
 long as men tempt their appetites, and, as a natural 
 consequence, eat much more than they need, and 
 make all their habits fruitful sources of mischief. 
 
 There is sometimes a sluggishness or debility in 
 the vessels of the system, and hence their work is 
 often improperly done. Bony matter is sometimes 
 left to stagnate in the blood vessels, and they are 
 thus rendered rigid and even ossific. They are 
 even at times converted into bony tubes. As the 
 arteries carry bony matter, and are in fact the instru- 
 ments by which ossification is performed, there seems
 
 40 LECTURES ON 
 
 great danger, if their healthy action is disturbed, 
 that they will cause extensive mischief, either by 
 carrying and depositing bony matter where it does 
 not belong, or in consequence of debility and a de- 
 ficiency of action, the earthy particles are left to 
 stagnate in the sides of the vessels, and thus con- 
 vert them into bony tubes. Instances of this kind 
 have frequently occurred. 
 
 There is also at times a deranged and erratic 
 action of those vessels which carry bony matter. It 
 is thus often carried to, as well as left in, the wrong 
 place. Bony matter has thus been found in perhaps 
 every organ of the body in the brain, in the heart, 
 in the kidneys and glands ; and even the ball of the 
 eye has been found changed to bone, or, as we say, 
 ossified ; and in one comparatively recent instance, 
 the whole body was ossified or changed to bone. 
 It may be said, it will frighten people to know all 
 this : I would that they might be frightened out of 
 bad habits into good ones ; for sooner will the sun 
 again stand still, than any be thus afflicted, who 
 obey the laws of nature. But disease, and suffer- 
 ing, and unnatural death, will ever await those who 
 live in rebellion against these laws. 
 
 We have thus briefly noticed some of the diseases 
 of the bones, and it may here be remarked, that gen- 
 erally, those parts of the body that are the slowest 
 to become sensible of disease and distress, are sub-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 41 
 
 jects of the keenest anguish when aroused to dis- 
 eased action ; as those persons who bear a great 
 deal of maltreatment without having their anger 
 aroused, are usually very spirited when they are 
 provoked. 
 
 Every bone has, like the soft parts of the body, 
 its arteries, veins, and absorbent vessels ; and each 
 bone has nerves although the sensibility of bones, 
 unless diseased, is very slight. Bones have no feel- 
 ing, that is, they convey no sensation to the brain, 
 when cut in amputation ; yet no pains are more 
 severe than those of the joints and bones, when 
 they are diseased. The bones serve as the basis 
 of the soft parts. They also support and direct 
 motion, and some of the bones have even a higher 
 use, as the bones of the skull, which protect the 
 brain. The ribs and sternum, or breast bone, which 
 protect the lungs and heart, are often made the 
 instruments of mischief, by means of compression 
 upon the viscera within. I cannot now go out of my 
 way to speak of that worse than heathen abomina- 
 tion, tight lacing. Truly, it is far more to be depre- 
 cated than the hook with which the wretched in- 
 habitants of Hindostan pierce their flesh, and thus 
 suspend themselves and swing in the air, the victims 
 of a cruel superstition. The suffering and death 
 produced in this way, are not to be compared with 
 the misery and death which are the consequence of 
 4
 
 42 LECTURES ON 
 
 compression. Injuries to those bones which guard 
 the heart and lungs, are almost as fatal as injuries to 
 those which guard the brain. The breast bone may 
 be made to press inward upon the heart in such a 
 manner as to burst it. But more commonly the poor 
 sufferer dies a slow and miserable death, worn out 
 by anxiety and oppression, fainting, palpitations, 
 anxious breathings, quick and interrupted pulse, 
 still more frequent faintings, and death. I trust I 
 shall hereafter convince the most incredulous of the 
 truth of what I have just said : but one thing at a time. 
 
 It may be well here to speak of the teeth. There 
 are three periods in which dentition, or the breeding 
 and cutting of teeth, takes place uniformly in 
 infancy, in youth, and adult age ; and sometimes 
 teeth are produced in advanced life. 
 
 The teeth of man are composed of two distinct 
 sets, differing both in number and structure. The 
 first, or smaller set, consist of ten for each jaw. 
 These are usually cut between the ninth and twenty- 
 fourth month after birth, and are shed between the 
 seventh and fourteenth year. These are called 
 the milk teeth. The second, or larger set, con- 
 sist of fourteen, fifteen or sixteen for each jaw. 
 These, with the exception of the farther grinder, 
 are usually cut by the eighteenth year. This gen- 
 erally appears after the twentieth, and sometimes 
 as late as the thirtieth year ; and they are hence
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 43 
 
 called the wisdom teeth. The rudiments of the 
 teeth lie in the jaw bone, like little lumps of jelly. 
 They are surrounded by a peculiar membrane, and 
 a bony socket. This socket shoots up from the jaw 
 bone, as the teeth advance. It accompanies the 
 growth of the tooth, and at first entirely surrounds 
 it, in consequence of its being secreted and hardened 
 with more rapidity than the tooth. By this admi- 
 rable contrivance a firm support is given to the gums, 
 from the time of birth, and the infant is enabled to 
 make sufficient pressure to nurse, without interfering 
 with the form which the teeth are destined to re- 
 ceive. In due time, however, the socket yields its 
 upper surface, and the tooth is forced through, and 
 cuts not only the socket, but the gum. 
 
 When the first set of teeth has answered its tem- 
 porary purpose, it has its roots absorbed, and the 
 teeth are shed. The sockets also are absorbed, at 
 the same time, and disappear. This change is 
 wonderful, and shows us clearly the nice adapta- 
 tion the different parts of the body have to the con- 
 dition of the body. 
 
 The large, permanent teeth, with their appropri- 
 ate sockets, are produced when they are needed. 
 Before the first set of teeth are shed, there are two 
 sets in the jaws. With children there is often 
 much irritation and functional derangement during 
 the period of breeding and cutting teeth. To
 
 44 LECTURES ON 
 
 enable a cjhild to pass safely and comfortably through 
 this period, such a course should be pursued as will 
 invigorate the child, and render its health firm pre- 
 vious to this time of trial. The whole surface of 
 an infant's body should be bathed every day, from 
 its birth, with cold or slightly warm water. It 
 should not be kept from the air ; its nursery should 
 be thoroughly ventilated. I do not like the term 
 nursery ; it implies too much confinement. Chil- 
 dren and infants should not be confined ; they should 
 have air ; they should have exercise. Few people 
 are sufficiently sensible of the importance of air and 
 exercise. The blood will not be good, unless we 
 have pure air. This I shall fully demonstrate in 
 another place. But good blood will not circulate 
 freely without exercise. 
 
 Whatever renders the general health of the child 
 good and firm, in the first months of its existence, 
 will diminish its danger in the period of dentition. 
 Indeed, were children rationally managed, there 
 would be little trouble experienced at this season. 
 There is sometimes considerable inflammation, when 
 the teeth shoot upward rapidly, and the membrane 
 that surrounds them does not readily give way. 
 This can be immediately removed by cutting down 
 to the tooth. When the imprisoned tooth is thus 
 set at liberty, the inflammation ceases as by a charm. 
 Some object to cutting the gum, fearing that the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 45 
 
 tooth will not readily come forward, and that the cut 
 edges will unite, and form an indurated substance 
 above the tooth, and thus render it more difficult 
 for the tooth to protrude. Experience does not 
 justify these fears, but shows conclusively, that it is 
 best to set the tooth at liberty. Life has, no doubt, 
 often been saved by resolutely cutting the gums. 
 
 There is often much local irritation in teething. 
 The grand point to be gained is to moderate this 
 irritation. A diarrhoea, or excessive flow of saliva, 
 is nature's method of doing this ; but how many 
 mothers are excessively alarmed at the diarrhoea, as 
 if this were the disease, and not a relieving process. 
 
 And here comes in that dreadful practice of drug- 
 ging the little sufferer, often to death. Laudanum, 
 paregoric, "Godfrey's cordial," and many more 
 deadly mixtures, are in their turn resorted to. 
 Happy is the child who is hardy enough to live in 
 spite of these abuses. My heart aches when I see 
 innocent children thus abused by kind parents, who 
 would do them good, but who are ignorant. I can 
 hardly restrain my indignation, when I contemplate 
 the disease and misery and death which are caused 
 by quacks, and their detestable compounds, which 
 are sold by men whose only aim is to get money. 
 Many who will not give their children opium, will 
 not hesitate to give them cordials and elixirs, the 
 bases of which are opium.
 
 46 LECTURES ON 
 
 A most distressing circumstance came to my 
 knowledge, not long since. A young woman had 
 a lovely babe. This darling was slightly ill, and 
 of course demanded more care than ordinary. The 
 mother was told to give it paregoric to quiet it. She 
 did so ; but she gave it so large a quantity, that her 
 child slept the sleep of death. A friend of the mis- 
 erable mother told me that she often went to the 
 grave of her child, and threw herself upon its ashes, 
 to weep, and upbraid herself with its murder. 
 
 O may mothers be persuaded to let these deadly 
 drugs alone. What is poisonous hi large quantities, 
 is poisonous in small quantities. Its effects may be 
 less obvious, but though slow, they will be sure. 
 The practice of dosing children with narcotics, or 
 indeed any medicine, is a practice fraught with 
 danger. 
 
 Dentition is often attended with pain and function- 
 al derangement, in the adult. I recollect reading in 
 a medical work, of a lady who was extremely ill., 
 and who was thought to be far gone in a decline \ 
 and the cause was, all the while, one of the wisdom 
 teeth was struggling to cut through the membrane 
 and gum that bound it. A slight touch of the lancet 
 set the tooth free, and all the alarming symptoms of 
 disease and decline rapidly disappeared.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 47 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 NUMBER AND POSITION OF THE BONES. 
 
 THE bones of the head, which contain and de- 
 fend the brain, are eight in number. The frontal 
 bone forms the forehead and fore part of the head. 
 The parietal or wall bones, from parietes, the Latin 
 word for wall, form the sides and upper part of the 
 head. The os occipitis, or occipital bone, is named 
 from occiput, or back of the head, from its forming 
 the back part of the head. The ossa temporum, 
 or temporal bones, form the lower parts of the sides 
 of the cranium or skull. They are called temporal, 
 from tempora, the Latin word for times ; as the 
 hair first turns grey on these bones, denoting the 
 time of life. The ethmoid and spheroid bones are 
 hidden in the base of the skull. The ethmoid bone 
 is perforated with holes. Through these holes it 
 transmits the olfactory nerves. It takes its name 
 from these holes, ethmoid or sieve-like bone. It 
 forms an important part of the nose. The os sphe- 
 roid lies in between the occipital bone and the 
 ethmoid bone. It lies at the top of the throat, 
 forms the back of the nostrils, supports the centre 
 of the brain, and transmits several of its nerves. All
 
 48 LECTURES ON 
 
 these bones are joined together by seams, which 
 have indented edges, much like saw teeth, which 
 shut into each other. These seams are called by 
 anatomists sutures. 
 
 The spine, or back bone, which supports the 
 head, is a long line formed of twenty-four distinct 
 bones, named vertebrae, from the Latin vertere, to 
 turn. Each bone has a hole through its centre, 
 and when put together, they form a long tube, 
 which contains and protects the spinal marrow. 
 The bones of the spine are very free in their motions, 
 and yet very strong. The spine is flexible enough 
 to turn quickly in every direction, and yet it is 
 steady enough to protect the spinal marrow, the 
 most delicate part of the nervous system. The 
 atlas is the uppermost bone of the vertebral column, 
 so called because the head rests upon it. The 
 second is called dentatus, because it has a tooth-like 
 process, upon which the atlas turns. Where the 
 head is joined with the atlas, there is a hinge joint, 
 by means of which we can move the head backward 
 and forward, and up and down. The turning mo- 
 tion is obtained by means of the tooth-like process 
 of the dentatus. When we nod, you see we use 
 the hinge joint. When we turn the head, we 
 use the dentatus. This tooth-like process is sep- 
 arated by a broad flat ligament from the spinal 
 marrow. It is completely shut up from the spinal
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGf. 49 
 
 marrow by this ligament. All the vertebrae joined 
 together make a canal or tube of a somewhat trian- 
 gular shape, in which the spinal marrow is con- 
 tained, which appears to be a direct branch 
 of the brain. The whole course of this canal or 
 tube is rendered smooth by delicate lining mem- 
 branes. The spinal marrow lies safely there, mois- 
 tened by an exudation from the membranes. All 
 the way down the spine, this medulla, or spinal mar- 
 row, is giving off nerves to the different parts of the 
 body. There is a notch in each vertebra, and 
 when they are put together, two notches coming 
 together form a hole ; through these holes twenty- 
 four nerves are given off on each side of the spine. 
 Between every two bones of the spine a cushion of 
 a firm, elastic substance is interposed. It is called 
 intervertebral substance, and somewhat resembles 
 India rubber. This substance is powerfully elastic, 
 for though it yields easily to whichever side we in- 
 cline, it returns to its place again in a moment. 
 
 This elasticity is of very great importance ; it 
 enables us to perform all our bendings and turnings, 
 and in leaps, shocks and falls, its elasticity prevents 
 harm to the spine. During the day, these elastic 
 cushions yield by continual pressure, so that we are 
 a little shorter at night than in the morning. And 
 in old age people are shorter than in youth, and the 
 aged spine is also bent forward by the yielding of
 
 50 
 
 LECTURES OK 
 
 the intervertebral cushions. Any undue inclination 
 to either side will cause distortion of the spine from 
 the yielding of this elastic substance on one side, 
 whilst it rises on the other. At last the same change 
 happens to the bones, and the distortion becomes 
 fixed and not to be changed. 
 
 The importance of a knowledge of these facts 
 concerning the spine will soon be apparent. Just 
 think of a child sitting in a cramped and unnatural 
 posture during six hours of each day, in our ill-con- 
 structed school houses, allowed little time for relaxa- 
 tion or exercise, and obliged to hold the head down 
 and study, or pretend to study, when the body is 
 often in excruciating torment. 
 
 Is it wonderful that distortion of the spine, with 
 all the distress and anguish it brings in its train, 
 is so common ? The yielding bones of children are 
 more easily distorted than the bones of older persons. 
 When the frame is yielding, and the whole system 
 most susceptible of hurtful impressions, children are 
 cramped and confined, and exposed to moral and 
 physical influences eminently calculated to ensure 
 moral and physical destruction. 
 
 Such is the infatuation of many under the old 
 system of school government, that many parents 
 and teachers wish their children to sit perfectly still 
 during school hours, without a smile, a whisper, or 
 even an inclination to the right hand or left, to
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 51 
 
 obtain any thing like rest. 1 rejoice that this iron 
 system is giving way to the more rational, humane 
 and life-preserving social system. 
 
 Under the old method, little or no interval or 
 recess must be allowed. Children must be like 
 posts or blocks in school, and they must not relax 
 out of school. 1 have seen a good lady, who was 
 visiting a school, manifest great impatience toward 
 a little girl, because she moved her hands when 
 reading, and I have more than once had my dress 
 tugged by little hands, when company was present, 
 (who might have been a delight and a treat to the 
 school by unbending a little, as they would in a 
 family,) with " When will they go away ? " 
 
 Such unnatural constraint ought not to be im- 
 posed. It makes children unhealthy and unhappy. 
 They learn to hate, rather than love their teacher. 
 They hate school they hate often an amiable 
 teacher, merely because that teacher has not under- 
 standing or independence enough to pursue a right 
 course. Many have understanding enough ; but 
 they have not independence. They dare not face 
 public opinion. I would not counsel any one to go 
 against public opinion, unless it be wrong to go with 
 it. We all love the good opinion of our fellow 
 creatures ; but when we have a duty to perform, 
 public opinion will never exonerate us from blame, 
 if we are such slaves that we dare not discharge
 
 52 LECTURES OH 
 
 our duty. True, we should ever act with prudence, 
 and much may be done silently and without osten- 
 tation, which could not be done in a different man- 
 ner. 
 
 Exercise is by many considered romping, espe- 
 cially in schools. It is considered worse than lost 
 time, and if the teacher exercises with the scholars, 
 as every teacher will who regards the moral, physi- 
 cal and intellectual improvement of children and 
 youth for all these are closely connected such 
 a procedure is regarded by many as highly impro- 
 per and even vulgar. 
 
 An intelligent teacher once said to me, in refer- 
 ence to my joining in the exercises of my pupils, 
 "I don't love to see teachers romp with their 
 pupils." She was ignorant of anatomy and physi- 
 ology, and she revolted at the idea of mingling in 
 the sports of her pupils, not reflecting that it is 
 highly important in a moral as well as a physical 
 point of view. By mingling in the exercises of a 
 school, a teacher can control and direct them can 
 see that the exercise is neither too violent or too 
 long continued can by well-timed caution and 
 reproof keep unkindness and ill feeling in check 
 and by encouraging innocent mirth and cheerful- 
 ness, add greatly to the common stock of health and 
 happiness. And the love and respect children feel 
 for instructors who thus teach them how to exercise
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 53 
 
 and develops their bodies, as well as their minds, 
 are very great. And if a teacher is a Physiologist, 
 as every teacher ought to be, the pupils will thus 
 learn much of Anatomy and Physiology. 
 
 It will be evident to all, that when scholars, young 
 or old, are confined in school to uncomfortable 
 benches, the evil is greatly increased, if their clothes 
 are too tight : and how few dress sufficiently loose 
 for the purposes of health and comfort. More of 
 this, however, hereafter. But who that for one 
 moment contemplates the abuses to which our spe- 
 cies is subjected, would not exclaim, in bitterness of 
 spirit, Alas, for outraged humanity ! 
 
 There are many other methods for procuring dis- 
 tortion of the spine. One is to sit at embroidery. 
 Any steady, trying, sedentary labor may produce 
 distortion. Young people whose frames are hardly 
 developed, and whose bones are yielding, sit much 
 in this manner, with their dress fitted tightly to their 
 forms, or rather their forms fitted to their close dress, 
 in a manner most destructive to health. 
 
 O that the customs of society would let females 
 out of prison. O that they might be allowed to 
 rid themselves of the torment and torture of a 
 style of dress fit only for Egyptian mummies. 
 And will our countrywomen ever be such servile 
 slaves to customs they might reform ? Will they 
 always ape the wasp, when the freedom of grace
 
 54 LECTURES ON 
 
 and ease are within their reach ? The free, full 
 and swelling waist, the graceful folds of the floating 
 robe, with its true Roman elegance, must these 
 ever be mere ideal goods ? Will not American females 
 rise in the full vigor of intellectual majesty, and hunt 
 from society constraint and compression, and the 
 untold anguish they produce? 
 
 But what avails the Roman style of dress, if our 
 waists must be cramped beneath its swelling folds ? 
 I have no patience with the world : man, on whom 
 the noble gift of reason was bestowed to improve 
 his condition, makes himself more wretched, more 
 to be pitied than the lowest animal. Why is it so ? 
 It is because, though made " upright, he has sought 
 out many inventions." 
 
 The ribs are twenty-four in number twelve on 
 each side. They are joined to the vertebrae by 
 regular hinges, which allow of short motions. They 
 are joined to the sternum or breast bone, by carti- 
 lages. Seven of the ribs are called true ribs, be- 
 cause their cartilages join directly with the sternum ; 
 three are called false ribs, because they are joined 
 by cartilage with each other, and not directly with 
 the sternum. There are two called "floating ribs," 
 because they have no connection by cartilage or 
 otherwise with the sternum. The sternum is the 
 breast bone. It completes the cavity of the chest, 
 defends the heart, forms a place of attachment for
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 55 
 
 the ribs, and a fulcrum for the clavicle or collar 
 bone to roll on. The sternum in youth consists of 
 several pieces, which unite in after life, so as to 
 leave but three pieces, and one of these is a carti- 
 laginous point, called the ensiform cartilage. This 
 cartilage in youth is easily bent out of shape, and a 
 permanent displacement of it, with very injurious 
 results, may take place from leaning much against 
 the sharp edge of a bench or desk at school, lacing 
 the clothes too tightly, &tc. 
 
 The clavicle or collar bone is placed at the root of 
 the neck, above the breast. It extends from the tip 
 of the shoulder to the upper part of the sternum. It 
 is named clavicle, from its resemblance to an old 
 fashioned key. It is useful as an arch or brace, to 
 keep the shoulders from falling in. The scapula or 
 shoulder blade is a very curious bone. This bone 
 is merely laid upon the chest, connected to the clav- 
 icle by its acromial process, and by a capsular liga- 
 ment with the humerus. It is bedded in the flesh and 
 moves and plays freely by means of muscles. The 
 socket where the head of the humerus or upper 
 bone of the arm fits in, is quite shallow and allows 
 of free motion. The whole scapula is covered with 
 broad flat muscles, [by muscles you will understand 
 flesh,] which move the shoulder in various direc- 
 tions. This freedom of motion depends on a con- 
 struction of the joint, which renders the shoulder
 
 56 LECTURES ON 
 
 more liable to dislocations than the other joints. 
 The joint of the shoulder slips out more easily than 
 the other joints, yet it is often very difficult to be 
 set, and it sometimes requires much skill and great 
 strength to set the shoulder when dislocated. 
 
 Were people fully aware of the wonderful and 
 intricate machinery of all parts of the human frame, 
 they would be cautious, they would be more than 
 cautious, they would revolt from the idea of em- 
 ploying quacks and " natural bonesetters " to wrench 
 their limbs, even though by a happy accident these 
 should at times succeed in getting a bone into place. 
 Who ever heard of a natural watch-maker, or even 
 a natural basket-maker 1 These trades require 
 practice. Men must be educated in them, before 
 they can become skilful. Yet such is the gullibility 
 of mankind, that people will submit to have their 
 bones operated upon by men who know not their 
 number or position, any more than the quack who 
 attempted to set an old lady's shoulder. I have for- 
 gotten whether it was or was not dislocated. Be 
 that as it may, he undertook to set it. After sun- 
 dry severe wrenchings he told her he had succeeded 
 in getting three of the bones into place, and he 
 thought he should soon set the remainder. Now 
 if this woman had known the number and position 
 of the bones, she would have told the quack that he 
 might have the care of all the bones in her shoulder
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 57 
 
 over three, but of no others. But so people are gulled 
 and abused, because they have not knowledge. 
 With what pleasing and joyous anticipations do the 
 friends of science look forward to that period when 
 this black night of ignorance shall be chased from 
 our beloved land, and light be poured in, even to 
 every dark corner. 
 
 How can the dawn of this day be hastened ? I 
 answer, by the efforts of woman : let woman use 
 her energies, let her attain that moral and intellect- 
 ual elevation which is her right. Let her attain 
 that height where men cannot look down upon her, 
 if they would. Let her repudiate at once and for- 
 ever those sickly tales of fiction that enervate the 
 mind, without informing or improving. Let her 
 nobly resolve that she will have science, that she 
 will be no longer a plaything, a bauble. When 
 woman thus arises in the greatness of her intellectual 
 strength, then there will be a new era iXtbe history 
 of our world. 
 
 The bones of the arm are threein number. The 
 upper or os humeri, or humerus as it is commonly 
 called, has at its upper end a round knob or head, 
 which fits into the socket of the scapula or shoulder 
 bone. Though this socket is shallow, yet the acro- 
 mion and coracoid processes keep the arm bone or 
 humerus in its place. These two processes alone 
 must impress the mind with the idea that wisdom 
 5
 
 58 LECTURES OS 
 
 and design made us what we are. Between the 
 elbow and the wrist are two bones, the radius and 
 the ulna. The radius is so called from its resem- 
 blance to the spoke of a wheel, and the ulna from 
 its having been used as a measure. 
 
 The radius is connected with the wrist, and turns 
 along with it, in all its rotatory motions. The ulna 
 belongs more especially to the elbow joint. So you 
 see that the bending motion of the arm is provided 
 for by the ulna, as that forms a hinge joint at the 
 elbow, and the turning motion by means of the 
 radius, which is joined at the wrist and then is laid 
 on the ulna, where it turns. The radius belongs 
 entirely to the wrist, and the ulna entirely to the 
 elbow, yet they have never been known to be sep- 
 arated in the living frame by any accidental force, 
 however great. 
 
 The carpus, or wrist, consists of eight bones, all 
 movable, yet closely packed in. The metacarpus, 
 or bones of the hand, are five ; the remaining bones 
 of the hand are fourteen. Much has been said of 
 the importance of the human hand. Little do we 
 ordinarily realize of its immense value. Man is born 
 naked, yet capable of clothing himself. But how 
 would he clothe and feed himself without hands ? 
 It is difficult to conceive, at once, how superlatively 
 wretched the human race would be without hands, 
 and how soon the race would become extinct.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 59 
 
 What a blessing is the human hand ! Let us real- 
 ize the greatness of the gift, and never employ our 
 hands in any evil or useless work ; but let the works 
 of our hands ever be such, that the great Giver of 
 every good can look upon them with approbation. 
 
 We now come to speak of the bones of the pel- 
 vis. It is a circle of large and strong bones stand- 
 ing between the trunk and the lower extremities. It 
 is called pelvis, perhaps, from its general shape, 
 which somewhat resembles a dish pelvis being 
 the Latin word for vessel. Perhaps it may be from 
 its containing so much in its cavity, that it is called 
 pelvis or vessel. It is formed of four large bones, 
 the os sacrum behind, the os coccyges below, and the 
 ossa innominata at the sides. The ossa innominata,, 
 or nameless bones, have sockets to receive the hip. 
 The sacrum forms the lowest point of the back bone. 
 It is perforated with holes : through these holes are 
 transmitted a bunch of nerves. 
 
 The tfr'gh bone, or femur as it is called, is the 
 largest bone of the body ; it supports the whole 
 weignt of the body. The body is seldom so placed 
 as to rest equally on both the thigh bones. Com- 
 monly it is so inclined as to throw the whole weight 
 on one side. You see then the necessity that this 
 bone should be very strong. It may well be said 
 that the human frame, as a whole, and in all its 
 parts, is a masterpiece of design and contrivance.
 
 60 LECTURES ON 
 
 The head of the thigh bone or femur is the most 
 perfect in the human body. It is completely re- 
 ceived into a deep socket in the ossa innominata. 
 It is naturally, without the help of ligaments, the 
 strongest joint in the body. But, as a farther secu- 
 rity, there is a very strong ligament attached to the 
 round head of the femur, and this grows fast to the 
 bottom of the socket, and thus so firmly secures the 
 joint that it is seldom dislocated. You see how this 
 joint might be slipped out of its place, by some of 
 our varied movements, were it not tied in. 
 
 In the leg, between the knee and ankle, are two 
 bones called the tibia and fibula. The knee joint 
 is very curious. It is not a ball and socket joint, 
 neither is it a proper hinge joint, guarded on either 
 side with projecting points, like the ankle. The 
 bones at the knee are merely put together and then 
 secured by means of ligaments. These constitute 
 its strength, and by means of these it is the strong- 
 est joint in the whole body. In those who abuse 
 themselves by improper living and habits, thess liga- 
 ments are diseased. You are aware how ten\ble 
 diseases of the knee are, and by preventing exercise, 
 they cause many other truly distressing disorders. 
 
 The tibia is a very large bone, and needs to be, 
 as it bears the whole weight of the body ; ihejlbu- 
 la being placed by its side, to strengthen the leg 
 and form the ankle joint.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 61 
 
 The patella, or knee pan, is a curious little bone, 
 which is a kind of pulley, that enables the muscles 
 to act with great power. 
 
 There are seven bones in the ankle, five in the 
 metatarsus, and fourteen phalanges in the foot. 
 The bones of the foot are fastened together very 
 strongly, by means of a gristle. This gristle yields 
 so as to enable us to tread with equal ease on level 
 or uneven surfaces. The arching of the foot has 
 been regarded as a very curious contrivance, and it 
 is indeed curious. For a moment let us suppose 
 our feet made of one piece of bone, or that we had 
 wooden feet. How very difficult we should find it 
 to walk ! And how very difficult many do find 
 walking, from the fancy they have taken to im- 
 itate the Chinese ladies ! Why do our females 
 wish to be heathen?, while living in what is called 
 a Christian land ? Why mar the fairest and most 
 useful part of Heaven's grand mechanism, by such 
 ridiculous fashions ? 
 
 A great physician once said that " snuff would 
 never injure any one's brains, because any one who 
 had brains would not take it." But we know bet- 
 ter than this ; we know that sensible people are as 
 often the slaves of bad habits as those who are de- 
 ficient in sense. Sensible ladies will pinch their 
 feet, under the false notion that it is genteel to have 
 small feet. Genteel ! Is it genteel to have corns,
 
 62 LECTURES ON 
 
 to have a shapeless mass of a foot, that would 
 frighten an anatomist, or that he would at least set 
 down as a nondescript ? Is it genteel to have im- 
 peded circulation, and all its train of horrors? Oh, 
 when will ladies of sense " come to their senses," 
 and leave off tight shoes, and the thousand torments 
 which they inflict upon themselves, at fashion's bid- 
 ding ? In the present mode of dressing, or rather 
 compressing feet, we have something very anala- 
 gous to wooden feet. Ladies who wear fashionable 
 shoes, would be very unwilling to have wooden 
 feet. They would decide at once, that there would 
 be no elasticity in such feet. 
 
 Then, in the name of common sense and common 
 humanity, why squeeze the feet till they are well 
 nigh as inefficient as the foot of a Chinese, or a 
 wooden foot ? Ladies, think me not too severe 
 upon this wicked fashion ; I realize at least a part 
 of its evils. I know something, to say the least, of 
 the injurious effects of impeded circulation, and you 
 would know, if you would tie a cord round a limb 
 so tight as wholly to stop the circulation of the 
 blood. You would be satisfied that the death of 
 the limb would be the consequence. Now by com- 
 pressing the feet, we produce bad effects in propor- 
 tion to the pressure applied. But you will under- 
 stand this more fully, when you have become ac- 
 quainted with the blood and its circulation. But
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 63 
 
 trust me, ladies, this fashion of pinching the feet is 
 cruel, unnatural and dangerous ; besides, it destroys 
 elegance in the walk, and makes our ladies totter 
 and hobble along like a cripple, or a fettered crim- 
 inal. Let us have more room in this world. 
 
 All parts of the human system bear marks of 
 wonder-working power and design. You will recol- 
 lect that in speaking of the joints, I have often 
 spoken of the ligaments which help to form the 
 joints. These ligaments are of different kinds. 
 There are tendons, which are short, strong cords, 
 fastened to the ends of the muscles, and then to the 
 bones. Had the muscles been continued and fas- 
 tened to the bones, our joints would have been un- 
 seemly and misshapen masses, and would not have 
 had the strength they now have. There are other 
 ligaments which arise from the membrane which 
 surrounds the bones, which is called the periosteum. 
 These ligaments form bags, which completely shut 
 up the joints. These, from a peculiar fluid which 
 they exude, and which lubricates the tendons, 
 muscles and bones, are called bur SOB. mucosa or 
 mucous bags. 
 
 The bursa or bags and the capsules of the joint 
 are much the same thing. They pour out a fluid 
 called synovia upon their inner surface, which not 
 only keeps them moist and supple, but as it were 
 oils the joints, and prevents their wearing out. It
 
 64 LECTURES ON 
 
 is very evident dry bones would soon wear out ; 
 but such wonderful provision is made for our nu- 
 merous motions, that our joints last as long as we 
 last to use them unless people abuse themselves 
 by taking improper food and drink, - and by other 
 improper habits, so as to bring upon themselves 
 that disease which is characterized by a deficiency 
 of this synovia or lubricating fluid. In this disorder 
 the bones grate as the heads of the joints rub togeth- 
 er, and those who thus suffer resort perhaps to doc- 
 tors, perhaps to quack medicines, to get cured of 
 what they should have known how to prevent. 
 But it is to be feared that some will not try to pre- 
 vent these evils, even when taught. I once saw a 
 man climb with much difficulty into a stage coach. 
 He had the gout, and could with difficulty get up 
 the steps of the coach. But as soon as he was 
 seated he commenced a tirade against plain food. 
 He declared himself temperate with regard to drink. 
 By this he probably meant that he drank no ardent 
 spirits. But he had managed to get the gout, with- 
 out ardent spirits. He declaimed against a plain 
 way of living, talked of Grahamism, saw-dust bread, 
 &tc. A lady who sat next him, cast a significant 
 glance at his swollen limbs, and remarked, in sub- 
 stance, that plain food was excellent for lameness. 
 He replied that he would not live on such food, if 
 he knew it would prolong his days. He was for a
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 65 
 
 " short life and a merry one." 1 confess I thought 
 I could not be very merry if I had been afflicted 
 with gout as badly as he was. But it is a solemn 
 thing that men should think they have a right to 
 squander life because it is theirs. They would 
 think it wrong to commit suicide, by hanging, 
 or drowning, or severing the jugular vein ; but they 
 seem to have no idea that they are as verily guilty 
 when they indulge in those habits and that manner 
 of living that will assuredly shorten life. When 
 will people be aroused to view these subjects as 
 they ought ? When will they consider that as 
 great an amount of guilt is attached to the man 
 who gluts or poisons himself to death, as to one who 
 cuts his throat or hangs himself? I need not to go 
 into a labored argument to prove that temperance 
 is a virtue. You all believe it it is no new doc- 
 trine. It is inculcated in the Holy Scriptures ; it 
 has been recommended by great men in different 
 ages of the world. The greatest medical writers 
 have insisted on temperance. I do not use the 
 word temperance in its popular or technical sense. 
 I mean moderation in eating as well as in drinking 
 and in all things. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton, when he applied himself to 
 the study, investigation and analysis of the theory 
 of light and colors, to quicken his faculties and fix 
 his attention confined himself to a small quantity
 
 66 LECTURES ON 
 
 of bread, during all the time, with a little sack and 
 water. Many instances might be given of great 
 men who have thus lived. 
 
 But let us return again for a few moments to the 
 bones. The long bones are hollow, and their cav- 
 ities contain marrow, which is solid oil. Authors 
 have differed about the use of this. Some have 
 thought it intended to lubricate the bones. One 
 eminent anatomist seems to think it more of an 
 accidental deposition than others allow. Some 
 think it intended to support the body in seasons of 
 privation, when no food can be obtained, or in sick- 
 ness, when no food can be taken. I have heard it 
 called by an excellent anatomist, " a granary for 
 the support of the body in seasons of sickness and 
 privation." 
 
 We have abundant reason to believe, that whether 
 we understand its uses or not, it is indeed a wise 
 provision, and answers a valuable end. It consists 
 of bunches of globules arranged on a kind of stock, 
 and when shaken out resembles a cluster of grapes 
 on the stem. These globules, when seen by a 
 microscope, are round and white, seeming like little 
 pearls. Each stalk is an artery, and a twig of the 
 artery goes to each little globule. Each artery 
 secretes and fills the cell of its globule with marrow. 
 
 It may now, perhaps, be well to review a little 
 what we have learned. We have considered, first,
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 67 
 
 the formation of bone. We have seen how it is 
 deposited at 6rst, particle by particle, by means of 
 arteries. We have attended to the shape and uses 
 of many of the bones, and have seen how they 
 may become diseased, and what are the causes of 
 disease in them. The whole head above the neck 
 consists of sixty-three bones. The spine or back 
 bone, contains twenty-four separate bones ; these 
 are called vertebrae. At the bottom of the spine 
 are four more. There are twenty-four ribs twelve 
 on each side. Then there is the breast bone or 
 sternum. A complete human skeleton contains 
 two hundred and forty bones. The study of the 
 nature and structure of bones is called osteology. 
 The study of the muscles only is called myology. 
 The study of all parts of the body, bones, muscles, 
 tendons, nerves, brain, blood vessels, heart, lungs, 
 skin, &ic., is called anatomy. Physiology is the 
 study of the living animal, and the uses of all these 
 parts, and how they act.
 
 68 LECTURES ON 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 MUSCLES, EYE, EAR AND NOSE. 
 
 WE now come to speak of muscles. Muscles 
 are the lean part of flesh what is often called lean 
 meat. They are red, owing to the blood that cir- 
 culates through them. You can soak or boil the 
 blood out, so as to leave the muscles nearly white. 
 The muscles are the instruments of motion. Per- 
 haps many of you are not aware that your bones 
 are clothed with flesh or muscles, to enable you to 
 move. You could not move a finger, a hand, or 
 even open your eyes, without the help of muscles. 
 Sometimes the muscles grow into the bones directly. 
 They seem to be glued on, by means of the perios- 
 teum, but generally they end in short tendons, which 
 grow to the bone, and thus fasten the muscles. 
 These tendons are short, strong straps, and you are 
 familiar with them in flesh, though not by this name. 
 They are sometimes called "whit-leather," or 
 " packwax." The tendons in a turkey's leg above 
 the knee have hardly escaped your attention, for 
 they are almost as tough as leather. I once saw a 
 lady offended for life, with a gentleman, because he 
 helped her to a turkey's leg. She thought the offer
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 69 
 
 of such a bundle of tendons an insult. The mus- 
 cles usually terminate in these tendons, and these 
 grow on to the bones ; but sometimes the muscles 
 grow directly to the bones. Motion is performed 
 by the contracting or shrinking of the muscles. 
 
 Being fastened to the bones at each end, if they 
 shrink, you will at once perceive that they will draw 
 one bone up towards the other. Thus the biceps
 
 70 LECTURES ON 
 
 muscle, as it is called, is fastened to the shoulder 
 and one of the bones of the forearm, and you can see 
 how it must by shrinking draw up the arm toward the 
 shoulder. So it is with the muscles of the leg. We 
 wish to lift our feet, and the muscles shrink, and we 
 are enabled to do it. So it is with every motion ; we 
 are enabled to perform it by means of muscles 
 even to raising the eyelash, or contracting the brow. 
 There is a story in that excellent little work on 
 anatomy, called the " House 1 Live in," which so 
 admirably illustrates the action of muscles, that I 
 cannot forbear repeating it, even though familiar to 
 many of you. " In front of St. Peter's church at 
 Rome, stands an obelisk of red Egyptian granite, 
 124 feet high. It was brought from Egypt to Rome, 
 by order of the Roman Emperor Caligula. How- 
 ever, it lay partly buried in the earth, where it was 
 laid down, till about 250 years ago, when Pope 
 Sixtus V., by the help of forty-one strong machines, 
 eight hundred men, and one hundred and sixty 
 horses, succeeded, in eight days, in getting it out of 
 the ground. But it took four months more to re- 
 move it fifty or sixty rods farther, to its present sit- 
 uation. When they reached the spot, the grand 
 point was to raise it. They erected a pedestal, or 
 foot piece for it to stand on, shaped like four lions ; 
 by means of powerful machines, strong ropes and 
 tackle, they succeeded in placing the bottom on the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 71 
 
 pedestal. Then they began with their machinery 
 to raise it. But when it was nearly up, so that it 
 would almost stand, the ropes, it is said, had stretch- 
 ed so much more than the master workman had ex- 
 pected, that it would go no farther. What was to 
 be done ? Fontana, the master workman, had for- 
 bidden all talking, and they now stood holding upon 
 the tackles, so silently, you might have heard a 
 whisper. Suddenly an English sailor cried out, 
 'Wet the ropes.' This was no sooner said than 
 done ; when, to the joy and surprise of every one, 
 the ropes shrunk just enough to raise the obelisk to 
 its present place, where it has stood nearly 250 
 years." 
 
 At first thought, this story may not seem to you 
 to have any thmg to do with the action of the 
 muscles. But the muscles shrink to draw up or 
 move a limb, or any part of the body, much as 
 these wet ropes did, to move the obelisk upward, 
 so that it stood upright on its pedestal. Muscles 
 contribute much to beauty. They clothe the bones, 
 which without the muscles seem unshapely and 
 almost frightful. 
 
 It is thought by some that fat contributes to beauty. 
 Some fat may round the form, and make it look bet- 
 ter ; but much fat is a sign of disease. The ideas 
 of ill health and fat are so associated in my mind, 
 that I dislike very much to see fat people. A strange
 
 72 LECTURES ON 
 
 ignorance pervades community upon this subject. 
 
 People are not aware that fat in excess, is a disease, 
 
 as much as dropsy ; and that it is ranked among 
 
 diseases by medical men. 
 
 I am not prepared to say how much fat belongs 
 
 naturally to the system in a state of health; 
 
 but I believe the quantity which 'is usually taken 
 
 as the standard of health, is very far from it. 
 
 A child may be fed on improper food so that an 
 excess of fat may be generated. At the same time 
 proper exercise may be neglected ; this will increase 
 the deposition of fat. Bathing the whole surface of 
 the body may also be neglected. The pores thus 
 become closed, and the dissolved oil, or fat, has no 
 chance to pass off with the perspiration. Thus the 
 child becomes diseased, loaded with fat, and is re- 
 garded by thflse around as a "very healthy child, 
 else how could it be so fat ? " The child may have 
 very ill turns, and even at times be dangerously ill, 
 but the friends console themselves with the idea 
 that it is natural for children to have ill turns. 
 " Why," say they, " all children have sick spells." 
 And then the child looks so fat and healthy, this is 
 surely a comfort. It may be a friend who is a physi- 
 ologist, and consequently a plain liver, has a very 
 healthy child, but it is not fat. Plain vegetable 
 food will not make much fat. " What a miserable 
 looking child ! " says one, " How poor the little
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 73 
 
 creature is ! " says another, sorrowfully. " Starva- 
 tion, Grahamism ! " says a third, in no very gentle 
 tones. 
 
 Fat often concretes on the surface of the skin, 
 becomes mixed with hardened rnucus, and forms 
 those little pimples so common on the face. A 
 plain, simple diet, and frequent ablutions, will in 
 time wholly cure this disagreeable eruption. I 
 knew a young man, who was a very gross liver, f 
 whose face was one continued cluster of these pim- 
 ples, with their disgusting yellow heads. He was 
 so proud, he could not endure the sight of his face, 
 and he determined to abjure his gluttony, to im- 
 prove his countenance. He succeeded, by plain 
 
 diet, and bathing the whole surface of his body, 
 
 j i 
 
 in getting quite a smooth, handsome face. But in the 
 mean time, he lost a large amount of fat, and be- 
 came quite lean. But the best of the story remains 
 to be told. He had very little mind previous to this 
 alteration ; or rather, such was the state of his body, 
 that his mind was weighed down and cumbered, 
 and had no chance for action. He was a dull, 
 poor scholar, and his friends despaired of his ever 
 becoming useful to himself or others. But after 
 this change in his habits, he became as studious 
 as he had before been dull and idle. He made 
 rapid progress in study, and his whole being and 
 character seemed altered. 
 6 

 
 74 LECTURES ON 
 
 Fat is a bad conductor of heat. It keeps the 
 body warm. Those who have much fat perspire 
 easily, and are almost always too warm. Where 
 the secretion of fat is beyond a moderate quantity, 
 say about one-twentieth part of the whole frame, 
 the play of the different organs is impeded ; the 
 size of the blood vessels is diminished ; the pulse is 
 oppressed ; the breathing becomes hard and diffi- 
 cult. There is an accumulation of blood in the 
 head and heart, because it is with difficulty that the 
 blood can flow through the oppressed and compress- 
 ed vessels. There is a general tendency to drow- 
 siness and palpitation, and there is always danger of 
 apoplexy. Fat sometimes overloads one organ, 
 sometimes another, and sometimes the whole system. 
 It is regarded by medical men as a dropsy of oil 
 instead of water. 
 
 John Mason Good, the justly celebrated author 
 of " The Study of Medicine," Book of Nature," 
 Sic., says, with regard to the cure of obesity, or fat, 
 " that as a life of indolence and indulgence in eat- 
 ing and drinking is highly contributory to obesity, 
 the remedial treatment should consist in the use of 
 severe, regular and habitual exercise, a hard bed, 
 little sleep, and dry and scanty food, derived from 
 vegetables alone." 
 
 11 Generally speaking," says the same great 
 author, " the diet and regimen just recommended,
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 75 
 
 with a spare allowance of water, will be sufficient 
 to bring down the highest degree of adipose corpu- 
 lency." " Of this," says Good, " we have a 
 striking example in the case of Wood, of Billerica, 
 in Essex. Born of intemperate parents, he was 
 accustomed to indulge himself in excessive eating, 
 drinking and indolence, till in the forty-fourth year 
 of his age, he became unwieldy from his bulk, was 
 almost suffocated, labored under very ill health from 
 indigestion, and was subject to fits of gout and epi- 
 lepsy. One would think all these enough for one 
 person to bear. Fortunately a friend pointed out to 
 him the life of Cornaro. He instantly resolved to 
 take Cornaro for his model, and, if necessary, to 
 surpass his abridgements. With great prudence he 
 made his change from a highly superfluous to a very 
 spare diet, gradually first diminishing his ale to a 
 pint a day, and using much less animal food, till at 
 length finding the plan work wonders, in his renewed 
 vigor of mind as of body, he limited himself to a 
 simple pudding made of sea biscuit, flour, and 
 skimmed milk, of which he allowed himself about 
 one and a half pounds, about four or five o'clock, 
 for his breakfast, and the same quantity for his din- 
 ner. Besides this he took nothing, either solid or 
 fluid, for he had at length brought himself to abstain 
 even from water, and found himself easier without 
 it. He went to bed about eight or nine o'clock,
 
 76 LECTURES ON 
 
 rarely slept for more than five or six hours, and 
 hence usually rose at two o'clock in the morning, 
 and employed himself in laborious exercise of some 
 kind or other, till his breakfast. By this regimen, 
 he reduced himself to a middle-sized man of firm 
 flesh, well colored complexion, and sound health." 
 
 This course, or something analagous to it, Dr. 
 Good recommended to the famous Lambert, of 
 London, of whom it was facetiously said, that he 
 was the greatest man in England. He Weighed 
 seven hundred and thirty-nine pounds. But Lam- 
 bert did not try the experiment of curing himself 
 by this simple, self-denying course, and he died in 
 about three years after consulting Dr. Good. 
 
 It is presumed those who wish to become lean 
 will not despair of accomplishing their object, after 
 hearing the case of Wood of B llerica. If they will 
 add bathing to their abstinence, they may be sure 
 of success in time. Bathing keeps open the pores, 
 and gives the dissolved oil a chance to pass off \\ ith 
 the perspiration. Many people seem to suppose 
 fat people and fat children are healthy. I have 
 heard the remark made of fat persons, " They 
 complain a great deal, but they look well ;" and 
 children, too, who are fat, are called " pictures of 
 health." People ought to be better informed on 
 this subject. I would have no one get the idea 
 that all fat people are gluttons, or that all gluttons
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 77 
 
 are fat. Some people have a peculiar tendency to 
 grow fat, even on a very small quantity of poor 
 food. Let such bathe the whole surface of the 
 body often, and use active exercise. Others will 
 remain poor, when they take large quantities of 
 food. When food is taken in excess, it breaks 
 down the powers of the stomach, and disables it 
 from assimilating nourishment sufficient for the body. 
 Hence great eaters are sometimes very poor and 
 thin. 
 
 We now come to consider the skin. This is 
 compressed cellular substance. By cellular sub- 
 stance I mean a membrane composed of little cells. 
 The skin consists of several layers. The outermost 
 is the cuticle, or epidermis. It is a dry thin mem- 
 brane, a little like gauze, and is, as far as we know, 
 insensible. This is the thin skin that is raised by a 
 blister, only it is very much thickened by the in- 
 flammation. This outer layer is a protection to 
 what is beneath. It is described by physiologists 
 as full of pores for the passage of hairs, and for the 
 orifices of exhalent and absorbent vessels. 
 
 The rete mucosum, or mucous web, is next be- 
 neath the scarf skin. In this the coloring matter 
 seems to be placed. It is white in the European, 
 and black in the African, &c. It is seen through 
 the cuticle, as easily as a red cheek is seen through 
 a white veil. Beneath this is the corpus papillare.
 
 78 LECTURES ON 
 
 This is formed by the extremities of nerves and 
 blood vessels. Innermost of all is the corium, or 
 true skin. This forms a firm layer, and makes the 
 whole of the necessary solidity. If this true skin 
 is destroyed by any means, such as a burn or an 
 injury, it never grows again. So should any of you 
 hear of an ointment that will heal a burn, without a 
 scar, you may be sure it will be of no use, if the 
 true skin is burned through ; and if it is not destroy- 
 ed, the burn will of course heal without a scar, 
 whether you apply the ointment or not. Many 
 people believe that an ointment made of white 
 clover blossoms will heal a burn, however deep, 
 without a scar. But this belief shows their igno- 
 rance. 
 
 Some people are much troubled by slight scratches 
 and cutaneous Injuries. " I have a dreadful humor," 
 says one ; "my flesh will not heal." Now it is a 
 fact tnat is independent of any human testimony for 
 or against it, that plain temperate living, with bath- 
 ing, has a tendency to cure the very worst of what 
 are called "humors." There may be a constitu- 
 tional taint, which it may be difficult to eradicate, 
 but this, if taken early enough, may be eradicated 
 by proper regimen. Those who are thoroughly 
 temperate in their food and drink, as to quality and 
 quantity, who daily bathe the whole surface of the 
 body, and who take proper exercise, need not fear
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 79 
 
 " humors." They will not long have a " terrible 
 humor " to prevent their flesh from healing, when 
 injured. But those who indulge in warm slops of 
 whatever kind, whether poisonous or otherwise, 
 take much animal food, oil and butter, fee., and 
 allow their pores to become closed, by neglect of 
 bathing, must expect humors, and they will have 
 them, whether they expect them or not. I once 
 saw a gentleman who was terribly afflicted with a 
 cutaneous eruption, which rendered his life extreme- 
 ly disagreeable. He was a gross liver, and at one 
 time it was aggravated to such a degree as to be- 
 come intolerable, by the use of dough nuts. He 
 was quite fond of this very objectionable kind of 
 food, and took them freely at almost every meal. 
 But his " humor " became so troublesome and dis- 
 tressing, that he was obliged to pay attention to it. 
 He was induced to try the Graham system of liv- 
 ing. He left the use of greasy food, and practised 
 bathing daily. He confined himself, with very little 
 exception, to plain vegetable food, and in less than 
 a year the cutaneous eruptions disappeared, and his 
 skin was as soft and fair almost as that of a babe. 
 This gentleman has since returned occasionally to 
 his former manner of living, but the use of oily food 
 always induces a return of his humor. 
 
 Cutaneous eruptions sometimes appear, when 
 bathing is first commenced, where they have not
 
 80 
 
 LECTURES ON 
 
 before existed. The person may be frightened at 
 the idea that bathing causes humors. I have no 
 doubt but the bathing produces the eruption, by 
 opening the long closed pores, and causing a deter- 
 mination toward the surface of hurtful particles that 
 had been festering in the system, or seeking an 
 outlet some other way. But the eruption will not 
 long continue. Healthy and natural action will 
 soon ensue, and the humor will disappear. I know 
 very well that physicians have been found ignorant 
 enough to say that animal food, oil, butter, &c., 
 should be eaten by those afflicted with scrofula and 
 other humors ; but this doctrine is so repugnant to 
 common sense and common observation, that it does 
 not need a serious refutation. 
 
 A word upon the use and abuse of the hair. 
 The skull is clothed with hair, which serves a very 
 important purpose in shielding the head, by dead- 
 ening the force of blows. The skull consists of 
 two tables, with a net work of vessels interposed. 
 This cancelli, or net work, serves to nourish the 
 bones, and at the same time keeps the inner table 
 of bone from feeling the full force of a blow on the 
 outer. The outer table of the skull is more yield- 
 ing than the inner, more tough and fibrous. The 
 helmet of the Roman soldier was made of steel, and 
 lined with leather, and had hair on the outside ; 
 without this lining on the inner side, and the pro-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 81 
 
 tection of hair on the outer, the blow of a sword 
 on the helmet would have brought the wearer to 
 the ground, by the mere force of percussion extend- 
 ing to" the brain. Now the skull is so contrived ; it 
 is lined with a soft material, and the outside is pro- 
 tected with hair. 
 
 The hair needs much attention, to keep it clean 
 and soft. It is much influenced by the health of 
 the body. You know that after a severe fit of ill- 
 ness, fever, &c., the hair falls off. 
 
 People are often led to try this thing and that 
 thing, to keep the hair from falling off, and to make 
 it grow, after it has fallen off. Doubtless there are 
 many thousand pounds of hog's fat sold every year, 
 as bear's grease, &c., to cause the hair to grow. 
 Correct habits, and daily washing the head with 
 cold water, and combing it with a fine comb, are 
 the best preservatives and restoratives of hair. 
 
 If any one's hair should grow whilst putting on 
 these quack ointments, which after all are only 
 common oil and fat disguised, they may rest assured 
 that it would have grown equally well without 
 them. 
 
 It is extremely desirable that the head should be 
 as thoroughly washed as any part of the body, and 
 that, too, every day. When the hair is very thick, 
 the roots can be washed without wetting the entire 
 length of the hair. The outside of the head has
 
 82 LECTURES ON 
 
 much to do with the inside, whether we know 
 it or not ; and serious mischief often results from 
 suppressed perspiration in the head. Much evil 
 results from loading the head with caps and hoods. 
 We should dress the head as light and cool as 
 we can, and be comfortable. It is of vast impor- 
 tance, and those who pursue a contrary course may 
 have ague, tic doloreux, and even inflamma- 
 tion of the brain, as a reward for following ab- 
 surd fashions. But may we not hope yet to see 
 fashions in accordance with the physiological laws 
 of our nature? A majority of the present fashions 
 are an outrage on humanity, and many of them as 
 repugnant to health as they could well be contrived, 
 even had the contrivers sought after the most dele- 
 terious mode. 
 
 Let us for a moment take a view of some of the 
 " comforts " of a martyr to fashion. See her head 
 loaded with hair, natural and artificial, and over 
 this a cap heavy with ornaments, and under it ex- 
 halations, and foreign mixtures, in the shape of hair 
 oil, perfumes, &c. Over all is a large, heavy, hot 
 bonnet ; and drawn closely over the face is the veil, 
 to keep out the vital air from the poor compressed 
 lungs. 
 
 This is a sad picture to a physiologist ; for he is 
 thinking of the evils that result from these fashions. 
 But let us travel downward. The upper portion
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 83 
 
 of the arm is often squeezed, so as almost to stop 
 the circulation of the blood, and make the hands 
 purple. Then there is the waist screwed as in a 
 vice. The lungs compressed, the circulation of the 
 blood impeded, the vessels of the lungs collapsed, 
 and all the internal viscera displaced, tortured by 
 compression, and thrown into confusion. Add to 
 this the enormous load of clothes worn by almost 
 all our ladies, and the pain of tight shoes, and we 
 have an amount of tortures that would move a heart 
 of stone. Should a missionary describe such cruel- 
 ties as existing among heathens, we should pity 
 them most sincerely, though we should feel that it 
 was a disgrace, even to the darkened daughters of 
 Hindostan. Let no one suppose I have now done 
 with tight lacing : by no means ; I intend to por- 
 tray its horrors far more fully and particularly. I 
 mean to show the evil in all its bearings, as plainly 
 as 1 am capable of doing it, hereafter. 
 
 We now come to the examination of the eye. 
 The eye is a bag, or sack, containing a clear, thick 
 liquid, somewhat like the white of an egg. The 
 outer coat of the eye, that which is exposed to the 
 contact of the air, is the conjunctiva, a mucous 
 membrane. The outside of the eye is called the 
 sclerotic coat. This is a thin, white membrane. 
 It is strong and firm, and as dense as tanned lea- 
 ther. It is what we call the white of the eye.
 
 84 LECTURES ON 
 
 There is an opening in the centre, where the cornea 
 is set. It is placed here much like a watch crystal, 
 and is as transparent. 
 
 The cornea is so hard and firm, as sometimes to 
 bend the point of the operator's knife, when ex- 
 tracting cataract. Beneath the cornea is the cho- 
 roid coat, which is the medium for the blood ves- 
 sels. Beneath the choroids is the pigmentum ni- 
 grum, or black paint ; this substance closely re- 
 sembles black paint, and is deposited on the inner 
 side of the choroid. It can easily be washed off. 
 The iris is the colored circle which surrounds the 
 pupil of the eye. It is a membrane hung before 
 the crystalline lens. The iris divides the liquid or 
 humor, as it is called, into two parts ; the part 
 which is before the iris is called aqueous, or watery 
 humor, and the part back of the iris is called vitre- 
 ous or glassy humor. The crystalline lens is a 
 small body, convex on both sides, clear like the 
 humor, though much harder, and lies directly back 
 of the iris, and swims as it were in the liquid or 
 humor. 
 
 Lastly, the optic nerve is spread out at the back 
 part of the eye. The rays of light pass through 
 the cornea, aqueous humor, crystalline lens, and 
 vitreous humor, and fall on the retina, which is the 
 expansion of the optic nerve, at the back of the eye. 
 
 I have thus briefly given the anatomy of that
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 85 
 
 " world of wonders," the eye. The eyes may be 
 injured in various ways. They suffer much from 
 sympathy with a diseased body. They suffer from 
 over exertion, and from being exerted in too strong 
 or too weak light, and from sudden alternations of 
 light. Going suddenly from bright light into dark- 
 ness, or from darkness into light, injures the eyes. 
 They make ereat exertion to accommodate them- 
 selves to the different degrees of light, and this 
 violent exertion injures them. Light is the proper 
 stimulus of the eye, but when too much stimulus of 
 any kind is taken, it is an injury. 
 
 Though we may bring ourselves to bear an ex- 
 cess of light, and also to see with very little, still it 
 is better ever to keep in a medium. " It is record- 
 ed of the Emperor Tiberius, that he could see in 
 the dark. LeCat tells us of a young woman, who 
 could see at midnight, as well as at noon. Persons 
 shut in dark prisons, learn to distinguish the mi- 
 nutest objects, the absence of the stimulus of light 
 causing an expansion of the pupil of the eye. In 
 the Journal des Scavans, for 1677, we find the 
 case of a musician who had one of his eyes struck 
 with a lute string rebounding when it broke from 
 being screwed too intensely. The eye inflamed, 
 and the patient found, to his astonishment, that with 
 his disorder he had acquired the power of seeing in 
 the dark, so as to be able to read. He could only
 
 86 LECTURES ON 
 
 see in the dark with the inflamed eye, and not with 
 the other eye." 
 
 These examples show the force of education and 
 habit, for even the eye may be educated to see 
 with very little light. 
 
 Looking into a fire is very injurious to the eyes, 
 particularly a coal fire. The stimulus of light and 
 heat united, soon destroys the eyes. Looking at 
 molten iron will soon destroy the sight. Reading 
 in the twilight is very injurious to the eyes, as 
 they are obliged to make great exertion. Reading 
 or sewing with a side light, injures the eyes, as both 
 eyes should be exposed to an equal degree of light. 
 The reason is, the sympathy between the eyes is so 
 great, that if the pupil of one is dilated by being 
 kept partially in the shade, the one that is most 
 exposed cannot contract itself sufficiently for pro- 
 tection, and will ultimately be injured. 
 
 Those who wish to preserve their sight, should 
 preserve their general health by correct habits, and 
 give the eyes just work enough, with a due degree 
 of light. 
 
 The eyes of infants should be guarded from strong 
 light in the night, whether from a lamp or fire. 
 They are fond of a light, but they should not be 
 indulged. People are generally sufficiently careful 
 in guarding infants from light and air in the day time. 
 
 The eyelids guard the eyes, in a degree, from the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 87 
 
 effects of light ; the eyebrows catch a part of the 
 dust that would fall in the eye, and the tears wash 
 out what does get in, and the dirty water is ordina- 
 rily conducted off through the nose. 
 
 We will now pay a little attention to the ear. 
 The ear consists of two parts, the external and in- 
 ternal ear. The external ear is concave for the 
 collection of sound, or rather those vibrations of air 
 which strike on the tympanum, or drum of the ear. 
 The tympanum is a thin film, or membrane, drawn 
 tightly across the passage into the ear, like a drum 
 head. It is about three-fourths of an inch from the 
 external opening. This is called tympanum, be- 
 cause this is the Latin word for drum. The air, 
 when struck by a sonorous body, vibrates, something 
 like the vibrations of water when a pebble is thrown 
 into it. You have seen wave succeed wave, till 
 they spread to considerable distance, when a peb- 
 ble was thrown into water. These vibrations of 
 air strike on the drum of the ear, and produce 
 sound. The opening into the ear is guarded by a 
 bitter substance, called ear wax. This is supposed 
 to keep out insects. No insect can get farther into 
 the ear than the tympanum, unless there is a hole 
 through that. People should wash their ears, and 
 prevent accumulations of ear wai, for these will 
 sometimes cause partial deafness. I once saw a 
 lump of ear wax taken from a gentleman's ear, as
 
 88 LECTURES ON 
 
 large as a bean, and almost as hard. This had 
 been very troublesome to him and partially deprived 
 him of hearing. 
 
 Many people have great fear that insects will 
 get into their ears, especially earwigs. But as no 
 insect can get further than the tympanum, in a nat- 
 ural state of that organ, and as that is only three- 
 fourths of an inch from the external orifice, if they 
 will wash, or syringe their ears with weak soap 
 suds, often, they need not fear insects of any kind. 
 
 The anatomy of the nose is very curious. It has 
 cavities to collect odors, as the ear has a cavity to 
 collect the vibrations of air. The organ of smell 
 is a mucous membrane, which lines the cavities of 
 the nose. It is called the schnciderian membrane. 
 It is highly probable that in a natural state of the 
 organ of smell, we could detect what would be in- 
 jurious to us. In a natural state this sense is vastly 
 more acute, than in the depraved state almost uni- 
 versal amongst us. The more simple people live, 
 the more in accordance with the laws of our nature, 
 the more acute will be the sense of smell. 
 
 Some people are fond of scents, that are disagree- 
 able to others. This does not prove that there is a 
 natural difference in noses. It merely proves that 
 the force of habit is great. Some abuse the nose, 
 and through that the stomach and whole system, 
 by taking snuff. This practice not only destroys
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 89 
 
 the sensibility of the olfactory nerve, but produces 
 many evils. I can speak feelingly on this subject, 
 having been in this hurtful, filthy and wicked habit 
 seven years ; and it is now ten years since I became 
 emancipated. Snuff has a powerful effect upon the 
 nervous system, owing to its deadly narcotic prop- 
 erties. It very much 'injures digestion, by being 
 conveyed into the stomach, with the saliva. The 
 stomach also suffers from sympathy with other 
 parts, which the snuff more immediately affects. 
 Dizziness, weakness, nervous prostration, trem- 
 bling, sickness at the stomach, are all consequences 
 of snuff-taking, with numerous other evils, that I 
 have no time to enumerate. I believe snuff-takers 
 are well aware of the injurious effects of snuff. But 
 they will not own even to themselves the mischief 
 it is doing them. They excuse themselves for in- 
 dulging in the practice in various ways. One has 
 a humor, and a physician has recommended snuff. 
 Such a physician ought to be I will not say in 
 the state prison, but more honest or better informed. 
 Another has the catarrh, and takes snuff for that. 
 The very thing to perpetuate and aggravate any 
 disorder of the head is snuff. Another has weak 
 eyes, and she tries to think, and make others think, 
 that she takes snuff to improve her eyesight. Half 
 the time these excuses do not satisfy those who 
 make them. But they feel so guilty for indulging 
 7
 
 90 LECTURES ON 
 
 in the habit, that they want an excuse. I believe 
 my excuse was weak eyes, but the real reason was 
 I had got imperceptibly into this wretched habit, 
 and had learned to love snuff. I suffered all the 
 evils I have enumerated, from its use, and many 
 more. I knew it was killing me, and yet, like the 
 poor enslaved drunkard, I kept on. And knowing 
 this, was I scarcely less guilty ? I know the cases 
 are not parallel, because the drunkard abuses others 
 beside himself. The snuff-taker does not, except 
 it be by peevishness, and restlessness, induced by 
 the use of snuff. But have we a right to squander 
 and throw away life, by indulgence in such habits ? 
 If we shorten life, and the habitual snuff-taker will 
 very much shorten life, even though all her other 
 habits are correct, I say if we thu? shorten life, are 
 we not verily guilty in the sight of the Almighty ? 
 
 The sickness, the misery that result from its use 
 are very hard to bear, and very much abridge our 
 usefulness. To say the least of snuff-taking, it is 
 a horrid waste of health, of comfort, of usefulness, 
 and life ; and beside the legitimate effects of the 
 tobacco, there are other sources of mischief to be 
 found in snuff. It is said that one species of mag- 
 got fly lays its eggs in snuff. Should these eggs 
 hatch in the head, the consequence must be terrible. 
 
 Pungent odors, of any kind, have a tendency to 
 injure the delicate lining membrane of the nose.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 91 
 
 Smelling bottles stimulate this membrane very 
 greatly ; and excess of stimulation is very hurtful, 
 as it exhausts vital power. Smelling bottles proba- 
 bly cause one to take cold in the head, because the 
 schneiderian membrane is over stimulated, and 
 there is a consequent relaxation, a falling below the 
 natural tone of the organ, and it is thus deprived 
 of its power of resistance ; and thus those who use 
 smelling bottles have colds and inflammation of the 
 mucous membrane, that lines the cavities of the 
 nose. J have no doubt thousands use smellin^ bot- 
 
 O 
 
 ties with no conception of their injurious effects. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 CIRCULATION, RESPIRATION AND VENTILATION. 
 
 WITHOUT a regular and proper circulation of the 
 blood, we fade, wither, and die, as hundreds do 
 on every hand, in consequence of impeded circula- 
 tion. This I shall demonstrate to you, in describing 
 the circulation of the blood, and its uses. The for- 
 mation of blood should first claim our attention, for 
 a few moments.
 
 92 LECTURES ON 
 
 7 . A 
 
 A DRAWING OF THE HUMAN HEART. 
 
 q, the descending vena cava, returning black blood from the head 
 and upper extremities. 
 
 o, the ascending vena cava, returning the same kind of blood from 
 the lower parts of the body. 
 
 n, the right auricle of the heart, where both veins meet. 
 
 p, and x, veins from the liver, spleen and bowels, uniting with the 
 interior cava. 
 
 The auricle being filled, contracts and forces the blood into b, the 
 ventricle ; next the ventricle contracts and sends it to k, the pulmo- 
 nary artery, which branches into I, I, to supply the lungs in both 
 sides of the chest. From the lungs, where a scarkt color has been 
 given it, four veins of the lungs gather it together, and deposit it in 
 the left auricle, r ; that contracts, and the blood is driven into the 
 left ventricle, a ; lastly, the ventricle contracts' and throws it into c, 
 the aorta, which conducts it over and' through every bone, muscle 
 and organ.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 93 
 
 You are aware that food is reduced by the action 
 of the stomach, and its solvents, to a pulpy, porra- 
 ceous mass, called chyme ; that the nutritive part 
 of this chyme is taken up by the absorbents, and 
 is a milk-like fluid called chyle. The vessels which 
 take up this chyle, gradually unite, until they termi- 
 nate in one large vessel, called the thoracic duct ; 
 this runs in direct line up the spine, and is emptied 
 into the left subclavian vein. It is thus carried 
 across to the right side of the heart, where it is 
 poured into the heart, and thus mixed with the 
 venous blood. The heart contracts and throws 
 this mass of venous blood and chyle into the lungs, 
 to be vitalized. 
 
 The lungs are a delicate, sponge-like tissue, con- 
 sisting of innumerable air cells. The membrane 
 that composes these cells is much more delicate 
 than the finest gauze. As the air is inhaled into 
 the lungs, the blood by means of these gauze-like 
 air cells comes in contact with it and unites with its 
 oxygen, one of the constituent parts of the air we 
 breathe. You are aware that the lungs are situated 
 in the lateral portions of the chest, each side of the 
 heart. They are surrounded by the pleura, a deli- 
 cate membrane, and a duplicature of the pleura also 
 covers the heart. Adhesions of the pleura to the 
 ribs and lungs cause irritation, and great uneasiness, 
 pain in the side, &tc. You know that in the pres-
 
 94 LECTURES ON 
 
 ent mode of dressing, or rather compressing the 
 chest, pain in the side is so common, that it is con- 
 sidered something incident to humanity. A young 
 lady once said to me, " I thought all persons had 
 pain in the side, when they took much exercise." 
 
 Those of you who are acquainted with chem- 
 istry, know that the air we breathe is composed of 
 two gases, oxygen and nitrogen. 
 
 Oxygen is the vital portion of the air, and is 
 mixed with the nitrogen to temper, or dilute it, as 
 it seems. As I before remarked, the heart con- 
 tracts, and throws the blood into the lungs ; it there 
 comes in contact with the air, imbibes oxygen from 
 the air, and thus becomes vitalized. It gives off 
 carbon, with which it has become loaded, in its pas- 
 sage through the body, and becomes of a florid red 
 color, by its union with oxygen. From the lungs 
 it is carried back into the left side of the heart. 
 The heart contracts, and throws this revitalized 
 blood into the arteries. By these it is carried all 
 over the body, and gives nourishment to every part. 
 After it has thus travelled all over the body, in the 
 arteries, it is carried back by the veins, to the right 
 side of the heart, where it is poured into the heart, 
 mixed with the chyle, vitalized in the lungs, and 
 thus prepared again to go the round of the circula- 
 tion and give nourishment to every portion of the 
 body. It is of the highest knportance that the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 95 
 
 blood should be freed from the carbon, with which 
 it has become loaded in its progress over the body, 
 and that it be united with oxygen. No blood is 
 fit for the nourishment of the body, unless it has 
 passed through these changes ; nay, more, it is a poi- 
 eon, which stagnates rather than circulates in the 
 vessels when it is pent, for there is no regular cir- 
 culation. All the blood in the body, which amounts 
 to several gallons, passes through the heart, on its 
 way to and from the lungs, once in four minutes. 
 Ladies, I cannot answer for your blood, but this 
 should be the fact. My object is to make you 
 understand the mischiefs that arise from the ruinous 
 practice of compressing the chest. You are aware 
 that the system is nourished by the blood ; that this 
 vital fluid, when left at liberty, traverses every tis- 
 sue of the body, and gives nourishment to every 
 part. In order that the system be properly nour- 
 ished, the blood must not only circulate freely, to 
 every part of the body, but it must be proper blood. 
 Yet what proper nourishment can there be in a 
 mass of impurities called blood, which for hours 
 does not come in contact with the air, and which 
 consequently cannot give off carbon, or imbibe oxy- 
 gen. If these pent up, poisoned streams were not 
 set at liberty during the hours devoted to sleep, the 
 poor sufferer would be much sooner released from 
 bodily suffering. It is not my province to follow
 
 96 LECTURES ON 
 
 the immortal spirit, and shall I say the immortal 
 spirit of a suicide ? I am at a loss to conceive how- 
 American women have become thus deeply involved 
 in this absurd and ruinous fashion, a fashion a thou- 
 sand times more hurtful, and more to be deprecated 
 than that of the Chinese, who compress the feet of 
 their females. It is vain to say it is the stupid or 
 weak-minded alone, who are the victims of this 
 fashion. Women of the finest minds, the deepest 
 and tenderest sympathies, formed to love, to be be- 
 loved and to diffuse happiness to those around them, 
 and often to thousands, who dwell with intense in- 
 terest on their productions, go down to a premature 
 grave destroyed by this fashion ; and not only 
 themselves the victims, but their corset-broken con- 
 stitutions descend to their children, and thus suffer- 
 ing is perpetuated. 
 
 It is a melancholy error, to suppose that we can 
 give away what we do not possess. We cannot 
 give perfect health to our children, unless we our- 
 selves possess it. Were the desolations of tight 
 lacing confined to its immediate victims, I could be 
 better content to remain silent. But when I see 
 the race sinking beneath the evil, it seems time that 
 a warning voice should be raised, and raised in such 
 a manner as to startle the gifted from their slumber 
 of security ; for the gifted are no less the victims 
 than the ignorant. I, who have at least sense
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 97 
 
 enough to understand a part of the evils that result 
 from compression, was, at the age of fourteen, well 
 nigh destroyed by it. And though by great care, 
 and a sedulous employment of all the means calcu- 
 lated to remedy the evil, my life is made tolerably 
 comfortable, still I am a wreck the grasp of death 
 is upon my vitals, placed there by the murderous 
 corset, at the early age of fourteen. I know that I 
 am doomed, that I can live but a short time at the 
 longest. I would be of the greatest use while I 
 remain. I would awaken females every where. I 
 would loosen the death grasp of the corset, and 
 send the now imprisoned and poisoned blood re-' 
 joicing through the veins of woman. 
 
 If 1 can do this, may I not be willing to sacri- 
 fice myself to misrepresentation and abuse? 
 What is an individual, compared with the whole 
 race ? What is the comfort of one, compared with 
 the health and happiness of thousands ? 
 
 I am satisfied that information alone is wanting. 
 Let woman once know her own organization, and 
 she will tremble at the thought of sacrificing her- 
 self, for she will know that she is doing it. Many 
 have no idea that the consequences of compression 
 extend farther than present discomfort and incon- 
 venience ; and many have so paralyzed the muscles 
 that hold the body upright, that they cannot sup- 
 port themselves in an erect posture, without corsets.
 
 yH LECTURES ON 
 
 Hence the universal exclamation, "I could not 
 live without corsets : I should fall in pieces." Such 
 must take measures to restore the contractile power 
 of the muscles. A variety of gymnastic and vocal 
 exercises, suited to this end, I have taught in my 
 vocal philosophy classes. These exercises enabled 
 me to become erect, after I had been, for fifteen 
 years, so much bent as to suppose that I had per- 
 manent distortion of the spine. 
 
 I have said that knowledge alone is wanting. 
 Of a certain class of minds this is true. I know 
 very well, that there are melancholy exceptions. I 
 have an instance in my mind's eye. A young lady 
 was my pupil, a few years since, when I was en- 
 gaged in school keeping. She attended to the 
 study of anatomy with the class. She laced very 
 tightly in the morning, and in the afternoon she 
 drew the cords of death still tighter, all the while 
 averring she was not tight. 1 warned, entreated, 
 demonstrated but all availed not she seemed 
 bent upon destroying herself, though in other re- 
 spects amiable. The work was soon completed ; 
 she was seized with a fever ; her lungs were pro- 
 nounced " much affected," by her physician. A 
 few days, and she was a corpse, as much mur- 
 dered as if she had drawn the cords about her 
 neck. 
 
 And this state of things is on every hand. So gen-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 99 
 
 eral is the distortion of the female form, and death 
 from this cause, that when I asked a physician in 
 Philadelphia, if he had a female skeleton, distorted 
 by tight lacing, " No," said he, " we have no need 
 to save them ; we can get one when it is wanted, 
 at a week's notice." Is there not terror enough 
 in this answer, to send woman out of what is called 
 her sphere, if she can by any means draw atten- 
 tion to such tremendous evils ? 
 
 When I have been constrained to speak to ladies 
 of the inevitable destruction they were bringing 
 upon themselves they would reply, "Mrs. Gove, I 
 don't lace, I wish you could see Julia, A., or Mary 
 B. ; they dress tight ; but I am always loose. I 
 cannot bear any thing close." And they said this, 
 when the delicate air cells of the lungs were col- 
 lapsed in such a manner as to produce inflamma- 
 tion ; all the internal viscera deranged, the blood, re- 
 fused a passage through its proper channels, was 
 forcing its way through other vessels, and rendering 
 them aneurismal. Physicians think there is great 
 danger when they are obliged to tie one important 
 blood vessel, in. consequence of the distention the 
 other vessels must necessarily suffer, from the in- 
 creased quantity of blood they are obliged to trans- 
 mit. But what must be the danger, when numbers 
 of blood vessels, especially the superficial ones, are ob- 
 structed, and almost entirely collapsed, and the blood,
 
 100 LECTURES ON 
 
 diverted from its proper channels, is thrown into 
 other and deeper seated vessels. These vessels 
 must of necessity become aneurismal. The regular 
 pulsation of the heart and arteries is broken up, 
 and palpitations, difficulty of breathing, and faint- 
 ness, and at times even suspended animation, are 
 the consequence. Many persons suppose that 
 moderate compression about the chest is admissible, 
 and even useful. If this* be true, why not com- 
 press the throat, on the same principle ? The lungs 
 should be fully inflated at every breath. But how 
 few fully inflate the lungs during the day. I hesi- 
 tate not to say, that not one in fifty, I fear not one 
 in five hundred, fully inflates the lungs during the 
 day. If the blood cannot come in contact with 
 the air, as it is evident it cannot, if the lungs are 
 not inflated, then it is utterly unfit to nourish the 
 body, even if it could circulate, which it is evident 
 it cannot. 
 
 There is a darkness of complexion, a bilious hue, 
 as it is often termed, about those who lace tightly, 
 that has no alliance with beauty. The blood, 
 loaded with carbon, and other impurities, and des- 
 titute of the oxygen, the vital principle, imparts a 
 livid, purple hue to the lips, and a sallowness to 
 the complexion. I have known a lady of clear, 
 brilliant complexion, by tight lacing, to become 
 dark, and to have a cadaverous look that was almost
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 101 
 
 frightful. She was induced to attend to the study 
 of anatomy. The consequence was, she laid aside 
 the corsets at once, and for ever. In a short time 
 her brilliancy of complexion returned ; she had the 
 glow and animation of health, and seemed like an 
 emancipated slave. She was truly an emancipated 
 victim of fashion. 
 
 The effect of compression in paralyzing the mus- 
 cles of the chest, is not understood as it should be. 
 It is a law of our nature, that if an organ is not 
 used, we lose the use of that organ. The muscles 
 of the chest are not employed in holding the chest 
 upright, but they are so compressed that they cannot 
 be properly nourished by the blood. They lose 
 their healthy contractile power ; they are incapable 
 of supporting the body ; hence the need of mechan- 
 ical support. Hence, too, one cause of distortion 
 of the spine, from irregular and deficient action of 
 the muscles. It is owing to this paralysis of the 
 muscles, that ladies think they cannot give up me- 
 chanical support. If they wish to perpetuate the 
 evil, and never to remove it, they should continue 
 their present course. They may be sure that they 
 have greatly injured themselves, if they find they 
 cannot keep erect without mechanical support. 
 
 In view of the delicate organization of the lungs, 
 their proneness to rupture, when unduly compress- 
 ed, and the exceeding commonness of bleeding at
 
 102 LECTURES ON 
 
 the lungs, induced by compression, who would not 
 wish corsets banished from our world ? I have 
 myself bled at the lungs, till I fell apparently as 
 dead as I will ever be. Certainly, if I cannot speak 
 scientifically upon this subject, I can at least speak 
 feelingly. More evils to the lungs result from 
 paralysis of the muscles, than we are aware of. 
 The effort to speak is not made in accordance with 
 truth and nature ; unnatural labor is put upon the 
 lungs in speaking ; hence the developement of pul- 
 monary consumption is hastened. The nervous 
 evils attendant upon tight lacing need an abler pen 
 to delineate. Youth is the time for brilliant hopes, 
 and aspirations after the true, the beautiful. But 
 the hopes of our race are cut off, the buds of 
 genius often are nipped ere they have blossomed ; 
 and to brightness and beauty succeed the gloom of 
 the pall, or at best a blasted existence. The buoy- 
 ancy of youth, the excitement of pleasure, hopes 
 that spring in the young heart in spite of misery, 
 often keep our ladies from sinking under their self- 
 imposed torture, and even make them gay and 
 cheerful. The length of time they support life 
 shows the power of endurance possessed by the 
 human system ; but they must fail as surely as 
 results follow causes. I have not the shadow of 
 a doubt that much of that nervous irritability, that 
 ennui, that hangs over the finest minds, shrouding
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 103 
 
 their fairest prospects in gloom, may be traced to 
 the influence of lacing, before or after marriage, 
 or both. The miserable victim of an absurd fash- 
 ion has destroyed herself! See her attenuated 
 form ; hear her hollow cough ; see her hand placed 
 instinctively upon her side, to ease the piercing 
 pain ; see her hanging over her poor babe, to 
 whom she has been able to give but half an ex- 
 istence. Often she cannot nourish her infant. The 
 fountains of life are for ever sealed by compression. 
 The babe must be committed to hirelings, or brought 
 up in an unhealthy and unnatural manner at home. 
 The unhappy mother lives on, a prey to disease, 
 perhaps to those moral aberrations, which are its 
 consequence ; and often she sinks with consumption, 
 that fell destroyer, that riots, gorged to the full, 
 with half the loveliness of earth. Terrible reflec- 
 tions these ! 
 
 In view of all these facts, in view, too, of the 
 fact that numbers of the best educated females in 
 England and America have discarded corsets, 
 will our ladies continue slaves of a fashion as absurd 
 as it is ruinous ? Let all those who have the least 
 love for science, for philanthropy, or Christianity, 
 answer, No : resolutely, and firmly, No. 
 
 I hesitate not to say, that tight lacing is doing an 
 amount of mischief in our land, fully equal to that 
 wrought by alcohol. Then let public sentiment be
 
 104 LECTURES ON 
 
 equally aroused against it. To do this we must 
 enlighten, which depends on woman. But woman, 
 unaided, can never accomplish this great work. 
 There is a unity in the race, and unless they act in 
 unison, little can be done on any great question. 
 Would our own loved land have been discovered, 
 had not the energies of Columbus been assisted by 
 Isabella. Would our independence have been 
 achieved, had there not been many mothers beside 
 the mother of Washington ? We may strive to be 
 good or great alone, but we strive against fearful 
 odds, and it will only be in isolated cases that we 
 shall succeed. Masses will never be elevated in 
 this way. Men should every where express their 
 disapprobation of this cruel fashion. What avails 
 a woman's reason, or her determination to consult 
 health and comfort, if she is sure of being called a 
 " dowdy," by the man she admires ? I grant some 
 women have independence enough to survive even 
 such a remark : but most of the sex would choose 
 to be sacrificed. I know many men of worth, and 
 science, have raised a warning voice, and that with 
 many tight lacing is considered as vulgar, and as 
 much opposed to true elegance of form, as it really 
 is. Still, it is little more than three years, since I 
 heard a lady called a " dowdy," who had given up 
 corsets, and that too by a gentleman who has lec- 
 tured on Anatomy. I would fain believe that all
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 105 
 
 gentlemen have correct taste as respects the female 
 form. But I know many who are fine scholars, 
 who are exceedingly ignorant of anatomy. They 
 learn to admire what they see daily, and they see 
 every day, what should make them tremble and 
 grow sick at heart. 
 
 COMPRESSED CHEST. 
 
 NATURAL FEMALE CHEST. 
 
 Perhaps these two drawings might with propriety 
 be left to speak for themselves. But we would ask 
 attention to the free, full and natural outline of the 
 one, and the cramped, contracted, unnatural angles 
 of the other. [Tiie illustrations accompanying this 
 lecture are from that excellent work, " The Class 
 Book of Anatomy," by Dr. J. V. C. Smith, a 
 book that ought to be in every family.] 
 
 Works of fiction, sickly tales that make clay wasps 
 of their heroines, foster the false taste of the com- 
 8
 
 106 LECTUKES ON 
 
 munity. Not long since, I took up a newspaper 
 and cast my eyes over the first page, which con- 
 tained a story. I read this sentence, " Rising, she 
 displayed a delicately slender waist, rather smaller 
 than ordinary." Let the dissecting knife display 
 the ulcers in the lungs, within that waist, and it 
 would not seem desirable, to the most vain and 
 sickly sentimentalist. 
 
 " Oh ! my Nora's gown for me, 
 That floats as wild as mountain breezes, 
 Leaving every beauty free 
 
 - To sink or swell as heaven pleases." 
 
 I have now demonstrated the importance of 
 breathing freely. Next in importance is the quality 
 of the air we breathe. You are aware that we are 
 continually throwing out carbonic acid gas, from 
 the lungs, and taking up oxygen. I believe it is 
 estimated that we render a gallon of air unfit for 
 respiration, every minute. Ventilation must be in 
 proportion to this expense. No one is safe, unless 
 it is. You are aware that carbonic acid gas de- 
 stroys life suddenly, when we are exposed to it in 
 its undiluted state. We ought to know that when 
 mixed with the air we breathe it destroys as surely, 
 though more slowly. I need not call your attention 
 to cases where this gas has proved fatal, such as 
 wells, cellars, and rooms where charcoal is burned. 
 You are familiar with these examples. You know
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 107 
 
 that this gas is produced by combustion, as well as 
 by breathing. And knowing this, we act as if we 
 had no knowledge on the subject. Our rooms are 
 heated, and seldom aired. Our schools, our lecture 
 rooms, our steamboats, cars, coaches, and other 
 means of conveyance, even our churches, are so 
 many manufactories of death, from the fact that 
 pure air is excluded, and what remains is robbed of 
 its oxygen, loaded with carbonic acid gas, and the 
 impure exhalations continually arising from the 
 human body. The lungs are forced to receive the 
 poison. The consequences must be obvious, if we 
 will but reflect for a moment. The amount of in- 
 jury done by impure air, in our schools and churches 
 alone, is enough to make us tremble, if we were 
 but alive to it. But how greatly is the injury in- 
 creased when the lungs are compressed in the man- 
 ner we see at church, and at school. 
 
 The manner in which ventilation is neglected at 
 schools, is more painful from the fact that the young 
 creatures who are there confined six hours in a day, 
 without any regular and systematic exercise, are 
 less capable of resisting hurtful impressions, than 
 those who are older. Children fail often at school 
 and sink under illness, or the seeds of consumption 
 are sown there, to be developed in after years. 
 Yet few parents ever suspect that the impure air of 
 the school room has any thing to do with the ill-
 
 108 LECTURES ON 
 
 ness of their child. Few inquire whether the 
 school room is ventilated or not. I know that other 
 causes are continually undermining the health of 
 our youth. The process of educating our children 
 by steam, if I may be allowed the expression, does 
 them great injury. Bad air is only one cause of 
 evil. Compression is only one cause. Still the 
 evils to which they give rise, may well be called 
 "Legion," for they are many. I have a school- 
 room now in my mind's eye, where for many years 
 about one hundred scholars attended. I never 
 knew it ventilated but once. Then I went into it 
 to make preparation for a lecture. The air was so 
 bad, that 1 found it difficult to remain till the win- 
 dows could be raised. Had not the room been 
 wanted for use, it would have remained close shut 
 till the next day, when the children and teacher 
 would have again inhaled the poisonous air. 
 The teacher was a friend of mine, and an intelli- 
 gent lady. I called on her to warn her of the fatal 
 consequences of breathing such an atmosphere. I 
 found her with her large school immersed in poison. 
 Her little son, some four years old. appeared as if 
 some deadly blight had struck him. I told the 
 mother he must die, unless removed from that school 
 room. He sat on a low bench, and as you know 
 carbonic acid gas is heavier than air, consequently 
 he was more exposed to its influence, than the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 109 
 
 larger scholars. To my earnest warning, the 
 mother returned this answer, " I suppose he would 
 be better out of school." My words seemed to 
 fall on her ear, " like drops of rain upon a glossy 
 leaf." I however solemnly repeated the warn- 
 ing. The lady was herself very strong. In about 
 two months, the child died, and in a very short 
 time after, the mother sunk and died also. But no 
 alteration is made in the treatment of that school. 
 No one inquired the cause of the teacher's death, 
 or that of her child, or why their own children 
 were like drooping or withered lilies in consequence 
 of disease. 
 
 LECTURE VL 
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE STOMACH. 
 
 \THIS world is emphatically a world of change^ 
 This truth has been beautifully commented on by 
 various writer!} But as a truth with which we have 
 much to do in the present lecture, I introduce it 
 here. Every thing is continually changing. Not 
 a leaf, not a plant, not a flower, not even a blade 
 of grass is the same to-day, that it was yesterday.
 
 110 LECTURES ON 
 
 They are changed. They are giving off one set of 
 particles, and assimilating or taking up other parti- 
 cles. These plants must have nourishment. They 
 must have earth, they must have water, to supply 
 the place of these particles that are thrown off. 
 Deprive them of this support, and they wither and 
 die. So it is with man ; our bodies are continually 
 changing. With man there is constant waste and 
 renovation. One set of particles are thrown out of 
 the system, and another set is at the same lime 
 supplied by that vital fluid that nourishes all parts 
 of the body. I mean the blood. Now the great 
 laboratory for the elimination of particles that go to 
 make up the blood is the stomach. You know 
 that you put food into the stomach, and that it is 
 reduced by the action of the stomach and its pecu- 
 liar solvents, to a pulpy mass, and that from this 
 mass the materials that go to make up the blood 
 are eliminated. But more of this, by and by. I 
 am desirous that you should first understand the 
 anatomy of the stomach and organs immediately 
 connected with it. 
 
 The stomach of man is a membraneous, muscu- 
 lar bag, lying on the left side, under the ribs. It 
 reaches toward the rrj:ht side, a little beyond what 
 we call the pit of the stomach. 
 
 The stomach consists of three membraneous 
 layers or coats. It has numerous glands, blood 
 vessels and nerves.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The outside of the stomach is a tough, shining 
 membrane, which lines the abdomen, and consti- 
 tutes the outer covering of all the intestines. This 
 membrane strengthens the stomach, and binds down 
 the intestines and other organs in their places. 
 
 THE STOMACH. 
 
 The human stomach somewhat resembles, in sliape, the bag of 
 the Scottish instrument of music called the bagpipe. It lies directly 
 across the body, just under the edge of the ribs, and in such close 
 contact with the diaphragm or floor of the apartment which contains 
 the lungs, that the latter seem to rest directly upon it. The place 
 where the food pipe enters it is called the cardiac ^orifice, and the 
 termination or outlet of this spacious saloon is called the pylorus or 
 pyloric orifice. House 1 Live In, bij Dr. Wm. A. Alcott. 
 
 a, sesophagus. b, cardiac portion, c, great or left extremity. 
 d, small extremity, e, stomach tied at the pylorus. /, great ante- 
 rior curvature. g,g, omenlum or caul.
 
 112 LECTURES ON 
 
 The middle and muscular coat of the stomach con- 
 sists of a layer of fibres. These traverse the stomach 
 longitudinally. The internal layer of this middle 
 coat consists of circular fibres. The uses of the 
 muscular coat have a distinct reference to the function 
 of digestion. By the joint action of the longitudinal 
 and circular fibres the stomach is enabled to con- 
 tract and lessen its size, so as to adapt its capacity 
 to the volume of its contents. 
 
 By the successive action of these layers of fibres, 
 running as they do in different directions, a kind of 
 churning motion is produced in the stomach. This 
 motion of the stomach agitates the food and con- 
 tributes both to break it down, and to mix it with 
 the peculiar fluid which has such an important part 
 in the process of digestion. I mean the gastric 
 juice, of which I shall tell you more presently. 
 
 The internal coat of the stomach is called the 
 mucous or villous coat. It is a velvet-like mem- 
 brane, of a pale pink color. The extent of this 
 layer is greater than the others, and it is conse- 
 quently wrinkled. 
 
 The upper aperture of the stomach is called the 
 cardiac orifice, from cardia, heart, because it lies 
 near the heart. The lower orifice is called pyloric, 
 or pylorus, from door-keeper, because when any 
 thing improper has been admitted into the stomach, 
 this orifice is closed upon it and refuses to let it pass 
 into the intestines, thus acting as a door-keeper to 

 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 113 
 
 prevent what is improper from passing. These 
 improper substances are either ejected from the 
 stomach by vomiting, or after repeated trials they 
 are at last allowed to pass through the pyrolic orifice. 
 
 The stomach is nourished by numerous blood 
 vessels. It also has nerves, of which I shall speak 
 by and by. Many curious facts respecting the 
 stomach and its functions have been made known 
 through the medium of an accident that happened 
 to the person of Alexis St. Martin, in the year 1822. 
 
 " At the age of eighteen he was accidentally 
 wounded in the stomach by the discharge of a mus- 
 ket. The charge, consisting of powder and duck 
 shot, entered the left side of the youth, he being at 
 a distance of not more than one yard from the muz- 
 zle of the gun. The contents entered posteriorly 
 and in an oblique direction, forward and inward, 
 literally blowing off integuments and muscles of the 
 size of a man's hand, fracturing and carrying away 
 the anterior half of the sixth rib, fracturing the fifth, 
 lacerating the lower portion of the left lobe of the 
 lungs, the diaphragm, and perforating the stomach. 
 The whole mass of materials forced from the mus- 
 ket, together with the fragments of clothing and 
 pieces of fractured ribs, were driven into the mus- 
 cles and cavity of the chest. 
 
 " Dr. Beaumont saw him twenty-five or thirty 
 minutes after the accident occurred, and on exam-
 
 114 LECTURES ON 
 
 ination found a portion of the lung as large as a tur- 
 key's egg protruding through the external wound, 
 lacerated and burnt, and immediately below this 
 another protrusion, which on further examination 
 proved to be a portion of the stomach, lacerated 
 through all its coats, and pouring out the food he 
 had eaten for his breakfast, through an orifice large 
 enough to admit the forefinger. Subsequently the 
 integuments sloughed off, and left the opening into 
 the stomach much larger. The coats of the stomach 
 protruded through the aperture, and finally adhered 
 to the pleura costalis and external wound. In one 
 year from the time of the accident, the injured parts 
 were all sound, with the exception of the aperture. 
 The perforation was about two and a half inches in 
 circumference, and the food and drinks constantly 
 exuded, unless prevented by tent compress and band- 
 age. In 1825, Dr. Beaumont commenced a series 
 of experiments with him at Fort Mackinaw, Michi- 
 gan. From that time till 1833, Dr. B. at different 
 intervals continued to experiment upon this man. 
 It appears that during that time, he was possessed 
 of considerable health and vigor." 
 
 Dr. Beaumont says that he enjoyed general good 
 health. But directly afterward he says, " For the 
 last four months he [St. M.j has been unusually 
 plethoric and robust." 
 
 Now plethora, or inordinate fulness of the ves-
 
 ANATOiMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 115 
 
 sels, is disease, and though very many have this 
 habit of body, who have perhaps much vigor, still 
 it is disease. I know many persons think a full 
 red face indicative of health. But I have learned 
 to look upon such a countenance with pain. I 
 know that there is plethora, or congestion ; that the 
 blood is unduly accelerated ; that it is driven on 
 its course in a manner, to borrow the simile of 
 another, very analagous to the high pressure steam 
 engines. To carry out this borrowed simile, for I 
 know of nothing that will so aptly illustrate the 
 case, we may take pleasure in seeing the proud 
 boat cut her way, amid sheets of foam, through the 
 waves ; but we see not her danger. Every inch of 
 her boiler is strained to bursting, and anon, tim- 
 bers, planks, and all parts of the fair fabric are fly- 
 ing in fragments through the air, and mangled limbs 
 and dead bodies are mingled in the dreadful ruin. 
 Now that person who is stimulated till his whole 
 system is on the verge of acute disease and death, 
 though he may have the appearance of health, and 
 like the over-worked steam engine, may have vast 
 power, has this accession of power at a like risk. 
 
 But to Alexis St. M. The belief that he was 
 in a degree diseased, does not affect many of the 
 facts observed by Dr. Beaumont ; it only renders 
 us cautious about receiving all his deductions as 
 facts and true scientific conclusions. It is doubtless
 
 116 LECTURES ON 
 
 true that Dr. B.'s observations and conclusions re- 
 specting the gastric juice, are of more value than 
 those of any other physiologist, because no one ever 
 had such an opportunity for observation as Dr. B. 
 Though a few cases have occurred in which direct 
 access has been had to the interior of the stomach, 
 and though Richerand, and other physiologists have 
 availed themselves of these opportunities to get in- 
 formation respecting the digestive process, yet the 
 patients generally have been but a short time under 
 the care of these observers, and have never had 
 that degree of health that St. M. had. In this case 
 the patient was a series of years under Dr. B.'s 
 care, and there was consequently ample time and 
 opportunity for a very great variety of experiments. 
 Dr. B. also carried on his experiments with much 
 judgment and care. One point that is of immense 
 importance is completely settled by the experiments 
 of Dr. B. It is, that the " gastric juice does not 
 continue to be secreted between the intervals of di- 
 gestion, and does not accumulate to be ready to act 
 upon the next meal." You are doubtless aware 
 that the gastric juice is that fluid that is secreted 
 and poured into the stomach to digest our food. 
 
 This gastric fluid is a powerful solvent, and will 
 digest food out of the stomach by keeping it warm, 
 that is if the food is first finely divided. 
 
 In the aperture of St. Martin's stomach a valve
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 117 
 
 formed, which shut up the opening. By pushing 
 aside this valve the cavity within became visible to 
 a considerable extent. When St. M. lay for a 
 time on his left side a portion of the internal villous 
 or velvetty coat of the stomach was protruded 
 through the aperture. Owing to this circumstance 
 Dr. B. could see what changes occurred, both when 
 food was swallowed, and when it was introduced 
 into the opening. On examining this internal coat 
 of the stomach with a magnifying glass, he perceived 
 an immediate change of appearance ensue, when- 
 ever food of any kind was brought in contact with 
 it, very fine nervous and vascular papilla? could be 
 seen arising from this villous or velvetty internal 
 coat of the stomach, from which distilled a pure, 
 colorless and slightly viscid fluid, which collected 
 in drops on the points of the papillae, and trickled 
 down into the stomach, and mingled with the food. 
 This fluid was the gastric juice, which was mingled 
 with the food by the peculiar churning motion of 
 the stomach, till every part of the food was brought 
 in contact with it, and was dissolved by it. 
 
 It is recognized as a law of nature that all things 
 are continually undergoing change. Well has it 
 been said, " Not even a breath of wind can pass 
 along the surface of the earth without altering in 
 some degree the proportions of the bodies with 
 which it comes in contact ; and not a drop of rain
 
 118 LECTURES ON 
 
 can fall upon a stone without carrying away some 
 portion of its substance." 
 
 Now though every one is aware that change is 
 continually going on amongst dead and inanimate 
 matter, yet perhaps comparatively few reflect, that 
 still greater changes are going on in the vegetable 
 and animal kingdoms. We know that a dress will 
 wear out, though the process of removing particle 
 after particle of it is slow and imperceptible. We 
 know that furniture and dwellings are continually 
 changing, and wearing out. But are we equally 
 aware that far greater changes are going on in living 
 bodies, and that every exertion we make, every 
 breath we draw is attended with waste of the par- 
 ticles that go to make up our bodies, so that the 
 same particles that make up the body to-day will 
 not all be present in it to-morrow, and so on, till 
 the whole body is changed ? Now if this waste 
 goes on without renovation, we shall soon be en- 
 tirely wasted, or so far as not to be able to sustain 
 life. This principle is seen in those who are de- 
 prived of food, and thus are starved. One great 
 distinguishing characteristic between living bodies 
 and inanimate matter is this: though in the living 
 animal a continual waste of substance is kept up, 
 by exhalations from the lungs, the skin, the bowels, 
 and the kidneys, and though not a movement can 
 be made without increasing the circulation, and thus
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 119 
 
 adding to the general waste, yet there are organs 
 whose business it is to supply all the demand thus 
 made. This is one great distinguishing character- 
 istic between- dead and living bodies. When dead 
 bodies undergo changes there is no renovating 
 power. The human system throws out each day 
 several pounds oi substance by the ordinary organs 
 of excretion. This waste, without the power of 
 repairing the loss, would soon reduce us so low that 
 the system would be incapable of supporting life. 
 Three quarters of the substance of the body have 
 been lost before death ensued. Now the stomach 
 is the storehouse where are put materials for repair- 
 ing the waste of the body. And the Creator has 
 given us hunger and thirst as watchful monitors to 
 inform us when we need food to repair the waste 
 of the body. The intention of taking food is to 
 support the body, to supply the waste induced by 
 action. We should eat in order to live. But how 
 few do this. How many live to eat instead of eat- 
 ing to live. Sensual gratification in eating, in 
 drinking, in every thing, seems to be the ruling 
 motive with very many in our perverted and de- 
 praved world. " These things ought not so to be." 
 We should come to that state, where, " whether 
 we eat or drink or whatever we do we should do 
 all to the glory of God." People should not in- 
 quire what will best please a depraved and perverted
 
 120 LECTURES ON 
 
 appetite, but what will be best for them. They 
 should inform themselves on these subjects, learn 
 their organization and what is best for them, and 
 then resolutely do what appears to be duty. How- 
 ever unpleasant it may be at first, it will become 
 pleasant by habit. I know people think they can- 
 not live on plain food. They say they have no 
 appetite for it. They want something that will 
 " relish." But if a person by habit can get so as 
 to love the taste of tobacco, that nauseous weed, or 
 the smell and taste of rum, that " liquid fire," as it 
 has been often and aptly denominated, I ask, need 
 we despair of being able yet to relish plain food. 
 
 Hunger and thirst are given us to notify us that 
 the system wants a supply of nourishment. That 
 is, true hunger and thirst advertise us of this fact. 
 But there are in this world, and especially in this 
 age, a vast number of counterfeits and perhaps a 
 natural appetite is as rare as almost any thing. An 
 old dietetic writer defines a natural appetite thus 
 " The natural appetite which is as well stimulated, 
 and satisfied, with the most simple dish, as with 
 the most palatable." How many such appetites 
 think ye there are ? How many of you would be 
 satisfied to make a meal of bread, of fruit, of rice, 
 of potatoes, and nothing else ? I do not say that it 
 is right, or proper that any of you should come, at 
 once, to such diet as this. But 1 do say, were the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 121 
 
 appetite natural and unperverted, you would be 
 perfectly satisfied with such food. The same writer 
 who thus defines a natural appetite, speaks of arti- 
 ficial and habitual appetite in this manner. " The 
 artificial appetite, is that excited by stomachic elix- 
 irs, cordials, pickles, digestive salts, &c., which re- 
 mains only as long as the operation of these stimu- 
 lants continues." " The habitual appetite, or that 
 by which we accustom ourselves to take victuals at 
 certain hours, and frequently without an appetite." 
 Now I have a terrible fact in reserve for those who 
 eat too much, either from habit or from an artificial 
 appetite, induced by the use of stimulants. 
 
 When the stomach is excited, it pours out the 
 gastric fluid, much as the salivary secretions are 
 poured into the mouth. We know that by chew- 
 ing cloves, or other stimulating substances, we ex- 
 cite the secretory organs of the mouth, and that 
 afterwards there is dryness and inflammation of the 
 mouth, and thirst. So it is with the stomach. It 
 may be unduly stimulated, and the gastric fluid 
 secreted and poured into the stomach till the se- 
 creting organs are exhausted, and no gastric fluid 
 can be obtained by applying the usual stimulus of 
 food. In such a state food cannot be digested ; it 
 putrefies or turns acid, and irritates and distresses 
 and deranges the stomach and its functions, and by 
 sympathy all other parts of the system. In disease 
 9
 
 122 LECTURES ON 
 
 the gastric juice and the internal coat of the stomach 
 undergo great changes from a state of health. Dr. 
 Beaumont had ocular demonstration of these facts; 
 for, unlike others, he had the opportunity of seeing 
 what was going on in the stomach. Whilst attend- 
 ing St. Martin, he found that when a feverish state 
 was induced, whether from obstructed perspiration, 
 from overloading the stomach, or from fear, anger, 
 or other mental emotions depressing or disturbing 
 the nervous system, the internal or villous coat of 
 the stomach became sometimes red and dry, and 
 at other times pale and moist, and lost altogetl er its 
 smooth and healthy appearance. As a necessary 
 consequence, the usual secretions became vitiated, 
 impaired, or entirely suppressed. When these dis- 
 eased appearances were considerable, the system 
 sympathized. The mouth became dry, and there 
 was thirst, quickened pulse, and other bad symp- 
 toms, and " no gastric juice could be procured or 
 extracted, even on applying the usual stimulus of 
 food." 
 
 We see, from this statement of facts, how very 
 important it is that no food be taken, when these 
 symptoms are present. Some people have an idea 
 that a patient who has fever should have food to 
 support the strength. No food can be digested in 
 such a state, and of course it is the height of folly, 
 . not to say rr.a Iness, to give food. It was once said
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 123 
 
 by a skilful physician, that one might as well at- 
 tempt to build up a house in flames, as sustain a 
 patient's strength by food, who had fever; and I 
 have heard a physician say tha^ he believed he 
 could cure fever with no other medicine than cold 
 water, externally and internally applied. 
 
 Now many people err by taking food when the 
 stomach is not in a situation to digest it. If a 
 child falls, and is hurt, or is frightened, or is 
 crossed, and cries, how many mothers give food, or 
 nurse the child, to quiet it. My heart is pained for 
 mothers, because in their ignorance they destroy 
 their children. It is often the case that children 
 who have nothing to do, contract a habit of eating. 
 They have a morbid, counterfeit appetite, ami v'^ 
 teaze, and the mother, with many cares, kno\ , + ji 
 how to quiet them. Thus she is induced to give 
 them food when she knows they do not need it. 
 But she does not know the tremendous conse- 
 quences of such indulgence ; she does not know 
 that she is inducing disease, that she is in fact de- 
 stroying her child by the course she pursues. 
 
 In the present state of society, employment is 
 regular. Waste is consequently regular, and of 
 course the supply should be regular. This is one 
 reason why we should take our meals regularly. 
 But there is another reason besides this ; the stomach 
 is a muscular organ. All muscles that act, need
 
 124 LECTURES ON 
 
 
 
 rest after action. After the stomach has digested a 
 meal, it should rest ; but when we, or our children, 
 are continually taking luncheons, what time has the 
 stomach for rest ? Besides, we introduce a great 
 deal more into the stomach, than the system de- 
 mands. 
 
 Many persons, and especially children, habitually 
 take confectionary between their meals. This prac- 
 tice is a fruitful source of disease and death. The 
 confectionary is hurtful, because it is taken when no 
 food ought to be taken, and would produce disease, 
 and very much shorten life, if it had no hurtful qual- 
 ity. Human life is doubtless much abridged by 
 taking wholesome food, when none should be taken ; 
 bu& -confectionary is more to be dreaded, because it 
 i?sef] itself unhealthy food, and because much essen- 
 tial oil, and even alcohol, are imprisoned in it, and 
 because the coloring matter is often a deadly poi- 
 son. The effect of the stimulating substances min- 
 gled with the sugar in confectionary, is more inju- 
 rious than people suppose. Indeed, many who 
 have a conscience against taking ardent spirits, do 
 not scruple to take confectionary. 
 
 They may suppose that the alcohol is in so small 
 quantities, that it cannot be hurtful. But let such 
 contemplate the effects of ardent spirits in small 
 quantities upon the stomach of Alexis St. Martin, 
 as detailed by Dr. Beaumont. The evil attending
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 125 
 
 ' * 
 
 the use of alcohol may not be felt directly, but it 
 is there, nevertheless. On examining St. M.'s 
 stomach, after he had used ardent spirits, Dr. B. 
 found its mucous membrane covered with erythe- 
 matic (inflammatory) and aphthous (ulcerated) 
 patches, the secretions vitiated, and the gastric 
 juice diminished in quantity, viscid and unhealthy ; 
 although St. M. complained of nothing, not even of 
 impaired appetite. "Two days later, the inner 
 membrane of the stomach was unusually morbid, 
 the erythematic (inflammatory) appearance more 
 extensive, the spots more livid than usual ; from the 
 surface of some of them exuded small drops of 
 grumous blood, the aphthous (ulcerated) patches 
 were larger and more numerous, the mucous cover- 
 ing thicker than common, and the gastric secretions 
 much more vitiated. The gastric fluids extracted 
 were mixed with a large proportion of thick ropy 
 mucus, and a considerable muco-purulent dis- 
 charge, slightly tinged with blood, resembling the 
 discharge from the bowels in some cases of dysente- 
 ry." Notwithstanding this diseased appearance of 
 the stomach, no very essential aberration of its 
 functions was manifested. " St. M. complained of 
 no symptoms indicating any general derangement 
 of the system, except an uneasy sensation at the 
 pit of the stomach, and some vertigo, with dimness 
 and yellowness of vision, on stooping down and
 
 126 LECTURES ON 
 
 rising again ; had a thin yellowish brown coating 
 on his tongue, and his countenance was rather sal- 
 low, pulse uniform and regular, appetite good, 
 rests quietly, and sleeps as usual." 
 
 Notwithstanding all this disease, this man wou?d 
 probably have called himself " pretty well." He 
 had a good appetite, or rather, Dr. B. says he had a 
 good appetite. We can hardly suppose a healthy 
 appetite, where there was such extensive disease. 
 But people who eat confectionary, have not only 
 those evils which arise from the alcohol mixed with 
 it, but the evils resulting from taking food at impro- 
 per times, taking too much food, and of a very un- 
 healthy kind. Besides, the coloring matter is often 
 a deadly poison. I know many good people eat 
 confectionary because they are ignorant. They 
 would not eat it. did they know the mischiefs that 
 result from its use. But I have yet hardly begun 
 to tell its injurious effects. By unduly stimulating 
 the system, it excites unholy passions, and the young 
 and inexperienced, and unsettled, are often as 
 effectually stimulated, and led to licentiousness by 
 confectionary, as by ardent spirits. 
 
 Every one now acknowledges the degrading and 
 sensualizing influence of ardent spirits. When peo- 
 ple are once convinced that confectionary also is 
 doing a great amount of mischief, though in a more 
 concealed manner, Christians will no more use it.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 127 
 
 These things need but to be understood in our land. 
 I would as soon use, or sell ardent spirits, as confec- 
 tionary. Its baneful effects upon children are not 
 understood. Were they made known to parents, 
 they would be shocked inexpressibly, that they had 
 ever indulged children with the tempting poison. 
 
 It is painful to see children indulged as they are 
 in forms of food that are doing such indescribable 
 injury. Will not mothers be warned and entreated 
 not to indulge their children with confectionary. 
 It is far easier and better to prevent the evils arising 
 from its use, than to cure them. The habit, when 
 once formed, is hard to be broken up. Still mothers 
 should spare no pains. Above all, never give chil- 
 dren presents of confectionary. It is horrid ! Make 
 them intellectual, not sensual beings. 
 
 It is very necessary that children, as well as 
 grown people, take their food regularly. They 
 may need a lunch when small, as their rapid growth 
 makes them need more nutrition than adults. But 
 to deprave their appetites, to lead them astray, from 
 the cradle, by giving them improper food, and food 
 at improper times, is cruelly wronging the helpless, 
 who look to us for protection. I know a family, 
 and who does not know such a family ? who have 
 lost several children, and these children were lost 
 by improper indulgence, by wrong management. 
 Yet the parents do not dream of this. They think
 
 128 LECTUKES OW 
 
 they did all for their children that they could do. 
 They did, with the little knowledge they possessed, 
 do all they could, and much more than they should 
 have done. They had the best medical attendance, 
 and did all the doctor told them to do. But their 
 children were taken away. 
 
 Still these parents have followed precisely the 
 same course with each succeeding child, the 
 course of indulgence. Had those children been 
 rightly managed in all things, I have not the shadow 
 of a doubt, they might now have been living. But 
 they were not rightly managed. They were al- 
 lowed to eat every thing usually eaten, among what 
 are termed good livers. They were doubtless much 
 injured during the first months of their lives by the 
 improper food, and habits of the mother, by impure 
 air, &c. But as soon as the little innocents could 
 eat, they were fed with hurtful food, at improper 
 times, and in improper quantities. The skin was- 
 neglected. Perhaps they were never bathed a 
 dozen times during their lives. And when, in con- 
 sequence of all the abuses to which they were sub- 
 jected, disease attacked them, the afflicted parents 
 wondered why their child was the victim of disease. 
 They did not know that the penalty of violated 
 laws was visited upon their child. That its sick- 
 ness was an effect that follows a cause. 
 
 What is past cannot be recalled ; and what was
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 129 
 
 done in the days of ignorance we should not recall 
 to harrow the mind, but as a warning. In the 
 future there is a redeeming power. That parent 
 who knows not the anatomy and physiology of the 
 stomach, should obtain information. Knowledge 
 is more needful for the mother than gold, or silver, 
 or precious stones. What mother who knows not 
 the anatomy and physiology of the skin, will neg- 
 lect it, both as respects herself, and her children. 
 But if she has that information she ought to have, 
 she will feel that it is as important to bathe the 
 whole surface of the body, and thus keep the pores 
 open for the transmission of waste and hurtful par- 
 ticles, as to take her meals and give her children 
 theirs. Nor am I digressing here, for if the skin is 
 not thus attended to, the hurtful particles are thrown 
 back upon the intestines, and disease is the conse- 
 quence. Many diarrhoeas and bowel complaints are 
 to be referred to this cause. 
 
 I have seen a pale sickly child indulged with 
 fruit and confectionary, and then suffered to sleep 
 directly, when its stomach was in such a state that 
 all its energies were imperatively demanded, and 
 even then the result would be bad enough ; and 
 when the child awoke with a degree of fever, and 
 languor and restless anguish, which no language can 
 express, it was scolded, and perhaps whipped for 
 being cross. And this was done by an affectionate
 
 130 LECTURES ON 
 
 mother, who would have revolted with horror from 
 the deed, had she known what was the true situa- 
 tion of her child, and its danger. But in her igno- 
 rance she has caused the mischief, and we cannot 
 expect her to cure or alleviate it. 
 
 The excessive use of stimulants in food is a very 
 great evil. It lays the foundation for many more 
 evils. There is no nutriment in these stimuli. The 
 whole family of spices could not keep us from 
 starving. They unduly excite the stomach, cause 
 an artificial appetite, thus causing us to eat too 
 much. They produce disease in the stomach. I 
 knew a gentleman who lived in the usual manner, 
 and besides took tobacco and a great many cloves. 
 His stomach became diseased to such an extent 
 that for several years before his death, the exercise 
 of washing his hands " wrenched his stomach," as 
 he expressed it, and gave him great pain. The 
 coats of the stomach became thickened, and finally 
 the pyloric orifice grew up, and for thirty-six days 
 prior to his death, nothing passed out of the stomach.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 131 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 DIETETICS. 
 
 IN the last lecture I demonstrated to you that 
 the system was continually wasted and renovated. 
 Appetite is placed as a watchful sentinel to warn 
 us when the stomach needs materials to supply, 
 through the medium of the blood, the waste of the 
 system. We have reason to believe that if men 
 lived as they ought, they would have a natural and 
 healthy appetite, and that they might with safety 
 follow its dictates. But people have so long erred 
 physically, mentally, and morally, that they can 
 place little confidence in themselves. There is a 
 very great degree of sympathy between the stomach 
 and all other parts of the body. All the organs 
 accompany the stomach in its departure from health, 
 and the derangement of the other organs produces 
 a corresponding derangement of the digestive func- 
 tions. I recollect the case of a gentleman who had 
 dyspepsia. At times he was tormented with dis- 
 tressing pain in his head. The pain was intolerable. 
 By bathing his head, literally plunging it in cold 
 water, the pain would entirely leave his head, and 
 then he had the most excruciating distress in his
 
 132 LECTURES ON 
 
 stomach. Thus he was continually agonized be- 
 tween the two. If this man could have been made 
 sensible that medicine could never reach his case, 
 without a change of habits, what an amount of suf- 
 fering he might have escaped. But people who 
 have by wrong habits brought themselves into such 
 a state, or one analogous to it, seldom think much 
 of their habits. Indeed, they are often like spoiled 
 children, they indulge themselves, and are indulged 
 by their friends, more, because they are sick. If 
 an abstemious course is recommended by a physi- 
 cian, it is not always that his advice is followed. 
 And too many physicians place too much confidence 
 in a course of drugging, and very many, it is to be 
 feared, give medicine more to satisfy the patient, 
 than in accordance with their best judgment. Many 
 people think if they are ill, they must take a great 
 deal of medicine, and if they are very sick, they 
 must take a very great deal of medicine. I once 
 heard two ladies conversing about a certain physi- 
 cian whose charges for medicine were considered 
 high ; one remarked, " If I had to pay so much, I 
 should want a good parcel of medicine." The cir- 
 cumstance reminded me of an anecdote I heard of 
 Prof. Smith, of New Haven. A certain man wished 
 to buy an emetic. The doctor took out the usual 
 quantity and charged the usual price, which was 
 one dollar for advice and medicine, I believe.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 133 
 
 " What ! " said the man, " so little medicine for 
 so much money. 1 want my money's worth, sir." 
 The doctor shook a little more from the phial. 
 Still it was not enough to satisfy the patient. He 
 remarked again that " he wanted the worth of his 
 money." The doctor shook pretty liberally this 
 time, probably gave him as much as he dared give 
 him. The man went away tolerably well satisfied 
 with the quantity. The doctor requested him to 
 call after the medicine had operated, and let him 
 know how he felt. After a few days the poor man 
 came, weak and haggard enough ; he was probably 
 satisfied that the doctor had given him the worth of 
 his money. 
 
 The stomach is supplied with a profusion of ner- 
 vous filaments, which form a kind of net work in 
 its immediate neighborhood. The abundance of 
 these nerves accounts for the severe and often 
 fatal results of a blow on the pit of the stomach. 
 A distinguished writer says, " the co-operation of 
 the nervous system is necessary for the production 
 of appetite," and there is a direct sympathy between 
 the stomach and the rest of the body, " by means of 
 which the stimulus of hunger becomes unusually 
 urgent where the bodily waste has been great." 
 
 We find in children a keen appetite, as they 
 have to repair waste, and carry on growth at the 
 same time ; consequently, a greater supply of nour-
 
 134 LECTURES ON 
 
 ishment is required by children, than grown people. 
 But here a serious mistake may be committed pa- 
 rents may think children need much, to repair waste 
 and assist growth, and they indulge them with too 
 great quantities, and with food of an improper qual- 
 ity. 
 
 Another great error is committed, by people who 
 have attained their growth, and whose occupations 
 are sedentary, or who do not labor or exercise much, 
 and consequently their waste is slight. These per- 
 sons often indulge as much, and perhaps more in 
 the pleasures of the table, than those whose occu- 
 pations are laborious, or who use much active exer- 
 cise. Dyspepsia is a necessary consequence of such 
 a course. 
 
 The remarks of a distinguished physician upon 
 this subject are so much to the point, that I cannot 
 forbear introducing a quotation from his work. H 
 says, " There are numerous persons, especially in 
 towns, and among females, who having their time 
 and employments entirely at their own disposal, 
 carefully avoid every thing that requires an effort of 
 mind or body, and pass their lives in a state of in- 
 action entirely incompatible with the healthy per- 
 formance of the various animal functions. Having 
 no bodily exertion to excite waste, promote circula- 
 tion, or stimulate nutrition, they experience little 
 keenness of appetite, have weak powers of diges-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 135 
 
 tion, and require but a limited supply of food. If, 
 while inactive and expending little, such persons 
 would be contented to follow nature, so far as not 
 to provoke appetite by stimulants and cookery, and 
 to eat and drink only in proportion to the wants of 
 the system^ they would fare comparatively well. 
 But having no imperative occupation, and no enjoy- 
 ment from active and useful exertion, their time 
 hangs heavily on their hands, and they are apt to 
 have recourse to eating, as the only avenue to pleas- 
 ure still open to them ; and, forgetful or ignorant of 
 the relation subsisting between waste and nutrition, 
 they endeavor to renew, in the present indulgence 
 of appetite, the real enjoyment which its legitimate 
 gratification afforded, under different circumstances. 
 Pursuing the pleasures of the table, with the same 
 ardor as before, they eat and drink freely and abun- 
 dantly, and instead of trying to acquire a healthy 
 desire for food, and increased powers of digestion, 
 by exercise, they resort to tonics, spices, \\ine and 
 other stimuli, which certainly excite for the mo- 
 ment, but eventually aggravate the mischief. 
 
 " The natural result of this mode of proceeding is, 
 that the stomach becomes oppressed by excess of 
 exertion, healthy appetite gives way, and morbid 
 craving takes its place ; sickness, headache, and 
 bilious attacks become frequent ; the bowels are 
 habitually disordered, the feet cold, and the circula-
 
 136 LECTURES ON 
 
 tion irregular ; and a state of bodily weakness and 
 mental irritability is induced, which constitutes a 
 heavy penalty for the previous indulgence. 
 
 " So far, however, is the true cause of all these 
 phenomena from being perceived, even then, that a 
 cure is sought, not in a better regulated diet and 
 regimen, but from bitters to strengthen the stomach, 
 laxations to carry off the redundant materials from 
 the system, wine to overcome the sense of sinking, 
 and heavy lunches to satisfy the morbid craving, 
 which they only silence for a little." 
 
 I have introduced this long quotation, contrary to 
 my usual practice, because the language here used 
 exactly expressed what I wished to present to 
 you. 
 
 I am astonished that a well educated physician 
 can be other than a temperance man ; I use the 
 term temperance here, not in its technical applica- 
 tion, but in its broad sense, as applied to eating, as 
 well as drinking. How astonishing it is, that people 
 should overtask, stimulate, and jade their stomachs, 
 till they are sick, and then resort to more stimulating 
 food, condiments, and even wine and bitters, to 
 create an artificial appetite, to enable them farther 
 to abuse their already abused stomachs, and through 
 these the whole system ? How many persons eat 
 without a healthy appetite ! They have something 
 to please the palate, and entice them to eat, when
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 137 
 
 they need nothing so much as rest for their tired 
 stomachs and assimilating organs. 
 
 In my last lecture, you will recollect, I spoke 
 particularly of the gastric fluid, and its agency in 
 digesting our food. You are aware, that in order 
 to have our food properly digested, it should be 
 properly masticated. Professor Hitchcock says 
 that a physician of distinction, whom he once con- 
 sulted, said to him, " Have you ever thought for 
 what purpose Providence gave you teeth ? " If all 
 physicians should put the same question to dyspep- 
 tic patients, they would do much good. The truth 
 is, many people seem never to have thought why 
 their teeth were given them. They do not use 
 them properly, and they are soon taken from 
 them. 
 
 It is a fact that ought to be understood more 
 generally than it is, that if any part of the system 
 is not used, the use of that part or organ is taken 
 from us. We have need of every organ we 
 should not wantonly throw away any. When food 
 is " bolted," as the saying is, a la boa constrictor, 
 instead of being properly masticated and swallowed, 
 two serious evils are produced. One is, the food is 
 not divided finely, and the gastric juice cannot act 
 upon food in masses, or it can only act upon the 
 surface of the mass, and owing to the heat of the 
 stomach, a very different process may be going on 
 10
 
 138 LECTURES OJT 
 
 in the centre of the mass. Another evil is, proper 
 insalivation of the food is prevented. The. saliva 
 has a very important part to perform in the process 
 of digestion. Those persons who lose the saliva, 
 from whatever cause, experience much trouble in 
 consequence of it. Those of you who are acquaint- 
 ed with the manner in which linen is spun in many 
 parts of our country, know the truth of this state- 
 ment. Those who spin the linen, cannot wet it 
 with their saliva but a short time, without rinding 
 their health give way ; while those who wet their 
 thread with water, experience no inconvenience. 
 You are aware, that after the food is introduced 
 into the stomach, it is converted, by the action of 
 the stomach and the gastric fluid, into a pulpy, por- 
 raceous mass, called chyme. It is highly important 
 that chyme, from which the blood is made, should 
 be good. But if food is eaten, which is wholly 
 unfit for the human stomach, or if proper food be 
 eaten in an improper manner, without attention to 
 mastication, how can the chyme formed be good ? 
 In order that chymification be properly performed, 
 and good chyme be the result, we must eat proper 
 food in a proper manner. We must not load the 
 stomach with an excess of food more than the 
 system needs to supply waste ; if we do, the gas- 
 tric fluid will be exhausted, and all the horrors of 
 dyspepsia will be upon us.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 139 
 
 When the chyme is formed, it is forced by the 
 contractile power of the stomach into the duode- 
 num. Duodenum is derived from duodenus, con- 
 sisting of twelve ; because this first portion of the 
 intestines is supposed to be about twelve inches long. 
 It there meets with the bile from the liver, and also 
 with the pancreatic juice, a fluid much resembling the 
 saliva. This pancreatic juice comes from the pan- 
 creas, or sweet bread. The name is derived from 
 the Greek pas, all, and creas, flesh, it being a fleshy 
 substance. The pancreas is a large gland that lies 
 across the spine, a little below the stomach. 
 
 The chyle is taken up by absorbents called lac- 
 teals, and carried and mixed with the blood, and 
 forms nutriment for the system. What is left is a 
 yellowish mass, of more consistency, and is the 
 indigestible or excrementitious remains of the food. 
 This mass traverses the whole length of the intes- 
 tinal canal, and is mixed with waste matter from 
 the blood, &c., which is also thrown off through 
 the same channel. 
 
 It would give me great pleasure to tell you more 
 of the process of digestion, and those organs partic- 
 ularly concerned in it. But I cannot do this in so 
 limited a course as this is. I can only tell you some 
 facts, I can only glance at subjects as we glance 
 at objects on a rail-road. I can take no leisurely 
 surveys of the ground over which we pass. But it 
 is better to learn something than nothing j and here-
 
 140 LECTURES ON 
 
 after we may have opportunity for more particular 
 and scientific inquiry into these subjects. 
 
 I would urge upon all those who wish accurate 
 and extended knowledge on these subjects, to study 
 Graham's " Lectures on the Science of Human 
 Life," a work which no one should neglect to read, 
 who wishes to know himself; a work which is 
 probably greater, and destined to be of more use, 
 than any uninspired work ever written. 
 
 In structure, the intestines much resemble the 
 stomach. They consist, like the stomach, of three 
 coats, the outer, or peritoneal ; the middle, or 
 muscular; and the internal mucous or villous, or 
 velvetty coat. The peritoneal is a white, smooth, 
 firm membrane. It serves as a support, a medium 
 of attachment, to fix the intestines in their places. 
 Its smooth moist surface admits readily of the mo- 
 tion of the intestines, their gliding over each other, 
 and their change of place, when we breathe, or 
 when the stomach is distended. The motion com- 
 municated to the intestines, when we breathe, facil- 
 itates their action. You will recollect that muscles 
 are the instruments of motion. The middle coat of 
 the intestines, like that of the stomach, is composed 
 of transverse and longitudinal fibres. By the alter- 
 nate contraction of these two kinds of muscular 
 fibres, the excrementitious matter in the intestines is 
 propelled downward, and thus cast off. 
 
 It is important that the food should consist of
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 141 
 
 nutritious and innutritious matter. When thus duly 
 balanced, the nutritious matter is separated and goes 
 into the blood, and the innutritious matter passes off 
 through the intestines, and keeps up the peristaltic 
 or worm-like action or motion of the bowels. If 
 there is no innutritious matter in the food, this mo- 
 tion cannot be kept up in the intestines; and, you 
 will remember, if an organ is not used, we lose the 
 use of it ; and if there is nothing to keep up the 
 action of the intestines, costiveness and disease are 
 the sure results. Many take too nutritious food, 
 and consequently the action of the bowels ceases. 
 They resort to drastic medicine " physic," as they 
 term it " to restore the action of the bowels." 
 They do indeed stimulate the bowels to action. 
 These substances, usually known by the name dras- 
 tic or purgative medicines, are in fact poisonous. 
 The system, by its various organs, goes to work 
 immediately to expel them, when they are taken. 
 By applying the term poisonous to such medicines, 
 I do not wish you to understand that 1 consider 
 them like arsenic or prussic acid but that they 
 are poisonous, that they are inimical to the best in- 
 terests of the system, is plain, by the labor that 
 ensues for their expulsion, when taken into the sys- 
 tem. We may need such medicines at times, per- 
 haps. When something wrong is in the system, we 
 can get it thrown off by introducing something that
 
 142 LECTURES OW 
 
 the system will expel, because the recent mischief 
 and the prior one are thus expelled or thrown out 
 of the system together. Great judgment is neces- 
 sary, to enable an individual to determine when to 
 take medicine. 
 
 In common with the skin, the internal mucous 
 or velvetty coat of the stomach has to perform two 
 functions, that of excretion, or throwing out, and 
 that of absorption, or taking in. It has a great num- 
 ber of minute vessels on its surface, from the ex- 
 tremities of which excretion takes place. By these 
 vessels much of the waste matter that ought to be 
 thrown out of the system, is removed. This waste 
 matter is poured into the intestines, mixes with the 
 excrementitious matter, and is thus cast out. 
 
 Drastic or purgative medicines greatly excite 
 the excretory vessels of the intestines. They secrete 
 or excrete fluid with great rapidity, when these 
 medicines are taken ; they excite the excretory 
 vessels, and these vessels pour out fluid into the 
 intestines, often in large quantities. Those who 
 take purgatives, think that there must be much 
 that needs to be " physicked off," as it is vulgarly 
 termed, merely, from the fact, that the excretory 
 vessels are excited to undue action, and thus rapidly 
 secrete and pour forth fluids that did not before 
 exist in the intestines. You will see at once, that 
 when these vessels are thus unduly excited, much
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 143 
 
 relaxation, want of tone, and often dryness, and 
 inflammation will be likely to follow. The excre- 
 tories cannot act to throw off waste matter, nor to 
 secrete a lubricating fluid, to assist the intestines in 
 keeping up the peristaltic action, even when the 
 food has a sufficiency of innutritious matter. Much 
 of that troublesome costiveness, that prevails amongst 
 almost all classes, but particularly the sedentary, 
 may be remedied by taking proper food, where nu- 
 trition, and innutrition are properly balanced, and 
 by attention to exercise. I think I have plainly 
 shown that purgative medicines aggravate the evil. 
 
 I by no means wish you to understand that these 
 medicines are never necessary. But no one should 
 take them without the best advice. This tamper- 
 ing with medicines, purgative especially, is doing 
 an amount of mischief hardly to be calculated. I 
 have known an individual to take purgatives for in- 
 flammation of the lungs. Many do not know where 
 the stomach is situated. They merely know they 
 have a stomach, and if there is distress any where 
 in the cavity of the chest, they take it for grapted 
 it is in the stomach, and forthwith take a dose of 
 
 II physic." It is truly lamentable, and yet some- 
 times laughable, to see the mistakes they make. 
 Some medicines stimulate the mucous membrane 
 of the intestines to such a degree, that they are as 
 it were burned up. The spirituous liquors distilled
 
 144 LECTURES ON 
 
 from rye infected with the ergot, or " spurred rye," 
 has this effect. A portion of the intestines of those 
 who have died from drinking this double poison, 
 have been found so acted upon by the poison, that 
 they would crumble to ashes under the mere pres- 
 sure of the finger of the dissector. 
 
 The regular and due action of these excretory 
 vessels should be kept up by taking food in which 
 nutrition and innutrition are properly blended. 
 Magendie found by experiment, that animals fed 
 on substances purely nutritious, did not live much 
 beyond forty days. If at the end of forty days 
 their food was changed, and those substances given 
 which contain nutritious and innutritious matter, it 
 made no difference. Though they devoured the 
 new food with greediness, still they fell off and 
 soon died. 
 
 We here see how Providence has adapted the 
 food of man to the structure of man. But when 
 we separate the purely nutritious parts of food from 
 those parts the Creator has designed to be used 
 with the nutrition, we do ourselves great injury. 
 Magendie found that a dog fed at discretion on 
 pure wheaten bread and water, does not live be- 
 yond fifty days ; whilst one fed on the coarse mili- 
 tary bread, seems in no respect to suffer. Animal 
 oil, one of the most difficult substances in the world 
 to digest, is eaten by the Greenlanders mixed with
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 145 
 
 saw-dust, and by means of this purely innutritions 
 matter, a quantity is assimmilated, we can hardly 
 say digested, sufficient to sustain life; though it 
 is indeed a miserable existence, that is thus sus- 
 tained. In some parts of the world poultry are fed 
 on charcoal and fat. They are thus fatted, ren- 
 dered greasy, by the assimilation of oil. The char- 
 coal enables them to live, by keeping up the action 
 of the intestines, and the fat answers the purpose of 
 nutrition. The appetite mankind have for grease, 
 is truly astonishing. A substance so nearly taste- 
 less, and that subjects us to so much distress, when 
 taken into the stomach, one would suppose would 
 be little used. 
 
 The importance of the due admixture of nutri- 
 tious and innutritious matter in our food, may be fur- 
 ther demonstrated by an experiment of Magendie. 
 
 " He fed a dog three years old, and in good con- 
 dition, solely on pure white sugar and distilled 
 water. For seven or eight days the animal ap- 
 peared to thrive well, was lively, and ate and drank 
 with avidity. In the second week he began to fall 
 off, though his appetite continued good, and he ate 
 six or eight ounces of sugar in twenty-four hours. 
 The emaciation went on progressing as well as the 
 loss of strength. He died on the thirty-second day 
 from the commencement of the experiment." 
 
 Other dogs were submitted to the same experi-
 
 146 LECTURES ON 
 
 ments, and with the same results. He tried also 
 olive oil, and gum arabic, with similar results. 
 
 A distinguished physician of Philadelphia after- 
 ward fed dogs on sugar mixed with saw-dust, and 
 they continued in good case. 
 
 Another set of vessels are spread over the inter- 
 nal or velvetty coat of the intestines. These are 
 the lacteals or absorbents, that take up the chyle 
 from the chyme. The chyle is carried in a direct 
 line up the spine by the thoracic duct. It is 
 emptied into the left subclavian vein, and is thence 
 carried across to the right side of the heart. It is 
 gradually introduced, and then it is carried into the 
 lungs, and comes in contact with the air, and 
 undergoes those changes essential to its vitality. 
 Breathing is considered, and justly too, the com- 
 pletion of the process of digestion. 
 
 Proper food may be introduced into the stomach, 
 at proper times, and digestion may go on regularly ; 
 good chyme may be formed, and good chyle, but 
 the chyle must come in contact with the air, or it 
 cannot be made good blood. And if we have not 
 good blood, the body cannot be properly nourished, 
 the whole system will become diseased, and very 
 soon digestion will be disturbed, and the whole 
 machinery will go wrong. People commit a hun- 
 dred mistakes, through ignorance of anatomy and 
 physiology. I have explained to you the nature
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 147 
 
 of the mistake people make when they take purga- 
 tive medicines to throw off what the medicine in 
 reality creates. A similar mistake is made with 
 emetics. People take emetics to clear the stomach 
 of bile that is not there, but which is thrown up 
 from the gall bladder and duodenum, by the invert- 
 ed action of the stomach and intestines. At first, 
 the contents of the stomach are thrown up, but this 
 does not satisfy the patients. They want to see the 
 bile, that is not in the stomach, but which they 
 think is there. It is true, at times there may be 
 bile in the stomach, nauseating the sufferer, but 
 probably in nine cases out of ten, it is brought into 
 the stomach, and thrown up, by the action of the 
 emetic. 
 
 I have now shown you that digestion and assim- 
 ilation take place in the stomach and intestines ; 
 that neither the stomach or intestines are adapted 
 to very concentrated aliment. Many people are 
 troubled with costiveness, and habitually pay much 
 for medicine, merely because their food is too nutri- 
 tious. There is no waste or excrementitious mat- 
 ter to keep up the peristaltic action of the bowels. 
 There is, in fact, nothing to cast out of the system. 
 All, or nearly all, is nutrition, and is consequently 
 all absorbed. 
 
 A lady may think she lives very simple, and in 
 a manner conducive to health, when she lives on
 
 148 LECTURES ON 
 
 rice and milk, or flour bread and milk. But pre- 
 sently she finds herself under the necessity, as she 
 supposes, of taking aperient or purgative medicines 
 to excite the action of the bowels. She supposes, 
 in her ignorance, that much stuff is lodged in the 
 bowels, because little has passed off. But the truth 
 is, the rice, milk and flour bread are so purely nutri- 
 tious, that they are nearly all absorbed, and there is 
 next to nothing to cast off. Now if this person 
 resorts to purgative medicines, they will excite the 
 excretories to undue action ; disease, inflammation, 
 and derangement of the internal organs, will be the 
 inevitable consequence. Dreadful mistakes of this 
 kind are committed every day. Oh, that a knowl- 
 edge of physiology could be spread all over our 
 beloved land, and that men and women might no 
 longer be the dupes of quacks and impostors, and 
 the slaves of ignorance 1 
 
 LECTURE VIH. 
 
 DIETETICS. 
 
 IN my last lecture 1 explained the process of 
 chymification and chylification. We now come to 
 a consideration of that kind of aliment which is best
 
 __ 
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 149 
 
 suited to the constitution of man. Various opinions 
 have been entertained and advanced, by different 
 physiologists, with regard to what was intended as 
 the food of man. Some consider that his organiza- 
 tion indicates that he should feed on vegetables 
 alone. Others consider that a mixed diet is indi- 
 cated by his organization. We know life can be 
 sustained on grain, fruits, or flesh. 
 
 We have reason to believe, as I shall show here- 
 after, that the health of flesh eaters is not as perfect 
 as that of vegetable eaters, nor their lives as long. 
 Still travellers in North or South America have been 
 sustained in what they considered perfect health, 
 exclusively on the flesh of wild animals. It should 
 be remembered, however, that such flesh is not to 
 be compared with the flesh of those animals which 
 are diseased, corrupted and perverted by man. 
 
 Some people seem to think that they may neglect 
 their habits, and eat any thing and every thing, if 
 they eat no flesh. " Why," say they, " I am very 
 temperate. I live on the ' Graham system.' I 
 don't eat any meat." It is vain, it is useless, and 
 worse than useless, for people to leave animal food, 
 and run into far greater abuses than the moderate 
 use of plain, healthy flesh meat. It is true, I do 
 not eat animal food ; but I am sure I might eat 
 what would be much worse for me. And the 
 excessive use of good vegetables, in many instances,
 
 
 150 LECTURES ON 
 
 does more injury than the moderate use of flesh 
 would do. I am far from pleading for the use of 
 animal food, by animal food I mean what has 
 had life, but I would have people rational. I be- 
 lieve, with that father in medicine, Dr. Cullen : 
 " Vegetable aliment," says Cullen, "as never over- 
 distending the vessels, or loading the system, never 
 interrupts the stronger emotions of the mind ; while 
 the heat, fulness, and weight of animal food is an 
 enemy to its vigorous efforts." 
 
 Again, he says, "I am firmly persuaded that any 
 man, who early in life will enter upon the constant 
 practice of bodily labor, and of abstinence from ani- 
 mal food, will be preserved entirely from disease." 
 
 I can bring quotation upon quotation from old 
 and established writers on medicine and health, to 
 prove that in their opinion vegetable diet was most 
 conducive to health. 1 am not about to say man 
 cannot live on this thing or that thing. We know 
 man can live upon almost any thing; experience 
 has abundantly demonstrated this fact. The poor 
 inhabitant of the frozen regions can live, upon train 
 oil and saw-dust : but this does not prove it is best 
 for him. Our object is to become convinced what 
 diet is best for us, what is most conducive to make 
 us, physically, mentally and morally, what we should 
 be. I know it is not admitted, or even thought of, 
 by many good people, that diet has any effect upon
 
 --^ 
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 151 
 
 the morals of a people. I once saw a paper that 
 advocated the doctrine that the animal propensities 
 were unduly stimulated by stimulating food, such as 
 highly seasoned meats, Sic. " Away with such 
 nonsense," said a good man, to whom I gave the 
 paper. He would not even look at the sentiment, 
 much less examine it, and condemn it afterward. 
 From the concurrent testimony of the greatest med- 
 ical writers, from the testimony of numerous indi- 
 viduals who have made experiments to determine 
 the effects of animal food, we are led to conclude, 
 that animal food is more stimulating than vegetable ; 
 that it increases vascular action ; and that it is, hence, 
 very ill suited for people of consumptive habits. 
 But it is not to be denied, that many of the ill effects 
 attributed to animal food, are occasioned by the con- 
 diments and oils used with it. Flesh is, I allow, 
 more stimulating than vegetables, and 1 am satisfied 
 that the animal propensities are much influenced by 
 a stimulating diet. This sentiment may appear, to 
 those who have not examined the subject, ultra. 
 Dr. Cullen says, " it is animal food that especially 
 predisposes to the plethoric and inflammatory state, 
 and that food is therefore to be especially avoided." 
 We may not conclude from this, that Dr. C. used 
 no animal food ; but if honest in his sentiments, we 
 must be led to conclude that he was sparing and 
 temperate in its use. I know a physician of emi-
 
 152 LECTURES ON 
 
 . 
 
 nence in his profession, who for about twelve years 
 almost entirely left the use of animal food. I heard 
 him remark, " I have eaten very little flesh since I 
 studied medicine." 
 
 Dr. William Lambe, of London, a distinguished 
 physician and scholar, a prominent member of the 
 college of physicians, and author of several valuable 
 works, is now about seventy-six years of age, and 
 has lived upon vegetable food thirty-four years. 
 The following quotations are from a work entitled 
 " Additional Reports on the effects of a peculiar 
 regimen in cases of cancer, scrofula, consumption, 
 asthma, and other chronic diseases." " We see 
 daily examples of young persons becoming con- 
 sumptive, who never went without animal food a 
 day of their lives. If the use of animal food were 
 necessary to prevent consumption, we should expect 
 where people lived almost exclusively upon such a 
 diet, that the disease would be unknown. Now 
 the Indian tribes visited by Hearne lived in this 
 manner. They do not cultivate the earth. They 
 subsist by hunting and the scanty produce of spon- 
 taneous vegetation. But among these tribes con- 
 sumption is common. Their diseases according to 
 Hearne are fluxes, scurvy, and consumption." 
 
 Dr. Lambe further says, " In the last four years 
 several cases of glandular swellings have occurred 
 to me, at the general dispensary, and I have made
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 153 
 
 particular inquiries into the mode of living of such 
 children. In the majority of cases they had animal 
 food. 
 
 " It seems certain that animal food, predisposes 
 to disease. Timoric in his account of the plague 
 at Constantinople asserts, that the Armenians, who 
 live chiefly on vegetable food, were far less disposed 
 to the disease, than other people. Contagions act 
 with great virulence upon bodies prepared by a 
 full diet of animal food." 
 
 The same great man says further, " The use of 
 animal food hurries on life with an unnatural and 
 unhealthy rapidity. We arrive at puberty too 
 soon, the passions are developed too early, in the 
 male they acquire an impetuosity approaching to 
 madness ; females become mothers too early ; and 
 too frequently, and finally, the system becomes pre- 
 maturely exhausted, and destroyed, and we become 
 diseased and old, when we ought to be in middle 
 life." Professor Lawrence, author of Lectures on 
 Physiology, member of the Royal College of Sur- 
 geons, London, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery 
 to the college, and surgeon to several hospitals, has 
 the following remarks respecting the indications 
 afforded by our anatomical character, which are, 
 as you will perceive, decisive in favor of vegetable 
 diet. 
 
 " Physiologists have usually represented that our 
 11
 
 154 LECTURES ON 
 
 species holds a middle rank, in the masticatory and 
 digestive apparatus, between the flesh eating and 
 herbivorous animals, a statement which seems rather 
 to have been deduced from what we have learned 
 by experience on the subject than to result from an 
 actual comparison between men and animals. The 
 teeth and jaws of men are in all respects much 
 more similar to those of monkeys, than any other 
 animal. Thus we find that whether we consider 
 the teeth, the jaws, or the immediate instruments of 
 digestion, the human structure closely resembles 
 that of the simiae, (monkey race,) all of which in 
 their natural state are completely herbivorous." 
 
 Many things are to be considered, if we would 
 preserve health and life, beside diet. We should 
 not neglect any thing which will preserve health 
 and life. We have no right to throw away a par- 
 ticle of either. If we can, by pursuing a particular 
 course, have more of bodily and mental vigor, and 
 have our passions more under our control, are we 
 not bound to adopt this course ? That a course 
 of temperance will secure us against many evils, I 
 think none are prepared to deny. But the ques- 
 tion is, what is temperance? I answer, what I 
 consider temperance, is plain food, in moderate 
 quantities. A person may be strictly temperate, 
 and yet eat animal food. But no person can in 
 my estimation be considered temperate who in-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 155 
 
 dulges in large quantities of animal food, with the 
 usual accompaniments of such food. It is surely a 
 much greater waste of life to take animal than 
 vegetable food, because animal food is more exci- 
 ting, more stimulating; it increases vascular action. 
 A temporary fever is the consequence of a full meal 
 of flesh, what the old medical writers used to 
 call the fever of digestion. They were accustomed 
 to see people who ate meat have this state of fever, 
 and as probably all ate meat who came under their 
 notice, they concluded that this fever of digestion, 
 as they called it, was a natural state. But those 
 who live on vegetable food have none of this " fever 
 of digestion." I have tried both methods, and know 
 what it is to be thirsty, and feverish, after my meals 
 of flesh, and other stimulating and healing food, and 
 I know what it is not to be thirsty, and not to take 
 fluid, or even think of taking it, for weeks, except 
 the fruits that I ate with my meals, and a cup of 
 milk, perhaps, with two of my meals in the day. 
 Now this stimulating diet makes the vital current 
 hurry on its course, and there is a waste of life in 
 proportion to this excess of action. Whatever in- 
 creases vascular action, in other words the circula- 
 tion of the blood, wears out the vital powers, faster 
 than they would otherwise wear out. The manner 
 in which stimulating food, condiments, &c., wear 
 out our vital powers, is very analogous to the effect
 
 156 LECTURES ON 
 
 of ardent spirits, only it is a more gradual work, 
 The aromatic condiments stimulate the stomach 
 and digestive organs, and they furnish a temporary 
 assistance to digestion, just as wine or brandy may 
 do this ; but it is at a great expense to the stomach, 
 and, through the stomach, to the rest of the system ; 
 for the connection and sympathy is very intimate 
 between the stomach and all parts of the system, 
 as all parts derive their nourishment from the stomach. 
 All these stimuli, whether condiments or ardent 
 spirits, prematurely wear out the powers of the 
 system, and the individual who uses them dies be- 
 fore the time. If any live to old age, who use them, 
 it dees not prove that they are useful ; it only proves 
 that " mankind are tough," and will live long, in 
 spite of abuses. If they can live so long with such 
 abuses, how long might they live, were their habits 
 what they should be ? 
 
 Speaking of condiments, Professor Hitchcock 
 says, those who do not use them, " will not expe- 
 rience that temporary glow and excitement of one 
 whose system is braced up by a tonic diet, but he 
 will enjoy comfort and serenity of mind, long after 
 the other is in his grave." 
 
 The same writer, speaking of milk diet, says, 
 " A diet chiefly of milk produces a most happy 
 serenity, vigor and cheerfulness of mind, very differ- 
 ent from the gloomy, crabbed and irritable temper
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 157 
 
 and foggy intellect of the man who devours flesh, 
 fish and fowl, with ravenous appetite, and adds pud- 
 ding, pies and cakes to the load." 
 
 I agree with this truly great man, with respect to 
 milk, where the habit of the individual is such that 
 milk agrees with him or her. Those who have a 
 tendency to fat, will do well to abstain from milk, 
 and those who take milk, should take it in small 
 quantities. People err much, by thinking milk light 
 food, and taking too much at a time. They thus 
 overload the stomach, and produce headache and 
 other evils, which might be avoided by taking a small 
 quantity. Another error to be guarded against is, 
 eating fine bread with milk. There is hardly any 
 innutritious matter in fine bread and milk ; and, as 
 I have already told you, the nutriment is conveyed 
 into the blood, and there is no innutritious matter to 
 keep up the peristaltic action of the intestines ; and 
 where the diet is wholly of fine bread and milk, 
 costiveness, and often inflammation and serious dis- 
 ease are the consequence. 
 
 If such bland and apparently innocuous food as 
 flour bread and milk, will produce such results, 
 what are we to think will be the effect of the various 
 kinds of high seasoned food, taken hot ? We are 
 to remember that the stomach is lined with an ex- 
 ceedingly delicate membrane, and that this mem- 
 brane is continued through the intestines. In post
 
 LECTURES ON 
 
 mortem examinations, this membrane is found dis- 
 eased, covered with eruptions of various kinds. 
 
 Animal food is of itself very stimulating; but 
 this is a slight evil, compared with the compounds 
 that are taken into the stomach. The basis may 
 be flesh ; it may be healthy, it may be diseased ; 
 but of all the flesh brought into the market, \ve may 
 safely conclude that but a small portion is healthy. 
 In speaking of what enters the stomach, we will 
 begin with the flesh ; then there is red and black 
 pepper, mustard, horse-radish, catsup, vinegar, 
 pickles, peppers, and pepper-sauce. At times spirits 
 are taken with such a dinner; but we will leave 
 them out, as we have reason to hope that remarks 
 on spirits will touch no one who reads these lectures. 
 But hot coffee is taken, so hot that it would scald, 
 almost, the external skin. Here is this mixture, 
 lying in contact with the delicate lining membrane 
 of the stomach, at a high temperature ! What must 
 be the inevitable consequence ? for fever is im- 
 mediately induced by such a meal. 
 
 If people doubt that these mixtures would produce 
 a blister, applied to the external skin, just let them 
 try it. Perhaps some of you have tried mustard 
 or pepper, in case of ague or toothache. Such will 
 not need to try it again. And I can assure you, 
 that the mucous membrane of the stomach is far 
 more delicate and tender than the external skin.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 159 
 
 What then must be the situation of the stomach ? 
 Can it be healthy ? No it cannot. We are not 
 left without proof positive on this subject. Post 
 mortem examinations reveal tremendous facts, and 
 show, that in cases where people called themselves 
 well, there was internal disease disease of the mu- 
 cous membrane of the stomach and intestines, 
 which must have been of long standing. The 
 stomach of Alexis St. Martin presented proof posi- 
 tive of the hurtful effects of food in common use. 
 After dining on oysters, the internal membrane of 
 the stomach was found to have ulcerated patches, 
 and other diseased appearances presented them- 
 selves. After eating broiled veal, fried sausages, 
 &c., (very common articles of food, and by many 
 not even suspected to be unhealthy,) St. M.'s 
 stomach presented diseased appearances of a for- 
 midable character. But he complained of no sense 
 of pain, symptoms of indisposition, or even of im- 
 paired appetite, when the mucous membrane of the 
 stomach was inflamed, ulcerated, and even bleeding. 
 The following is an extract from Dr. Beaumont 
 on gastric fluid : " August 3d, inner membrane 
 of the stomach unusually morbid. The erythema- 
 tous (inflammatory) appearance more extensive, and 
 spots more livid than usual, from the surface of 
 which exuded small drops of grumous blood ; the 
 aphthous (ulcerated) patches, larger and more nu-
 
 160 LECTURES ON 
 
 merous, the mucous covering thicker than common, 
 and the gastric secretions much more vitiated. The 
 gastric fluids extracted at this time, were mixed with 
 a large proportion of thick, ropy mucus, and consid- 
 erable muco-purulent matter, slightly tinged with 
 blood, resembling the discharge from the bowels, in 
 some cases of chronic dysentery." 
 
 Notwithstanding all these diseased appearances, 
 St. M. complained of little distress. To be sure, 
 he bad an uneasy sensation and tenderness, at 
 the pit of the stomach ; he had some dizziness 
 and dimness of vision, when he stooped and rose 
 again. 
 
 Now how many would call themselves well, when 
 they had such troubles as these ? St. M.'s course, 
 to produce these diseased appearances, had been 
 precisely similar to the course of a great many who 
 do not dream that they are doing any thing wrong. 
 True, they have ill turns, but then they are " sub- 
 ject to ill turns" So they tell us, and many seem 
 to have no idea that by pursuing a different course, 
 they might get rid of this slavish subjection. 
 When I hear people say, " I have a dreadful sick 
 headache, once a week, or once a month," as the 
 case may be ; ' and I don't expect to get rid of it, 
 all our family were subject to sick headache," I 
 think she who complains, and " all her family," 
 were wrong in their habits. Let one who has sick
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 161 
 
 head-ache take a moderate quantity of plain food 
 in the morning, say a slice of good bread, not made 
 of fine flour, an apple, a pear, or any good fruit. 
 If milk agree with her habit, let her take a small 
 cup of milk, or she may take some gruel, or rice 
 broth made without flesh, if she must have fluid 
 to supply the place of coffee, which by the way 
 does more to produce headache than almost any 
 one thing. 
 
 Let this sufferer take such a breakfast at six or 
 seven o'clock, (six is the best hour for summer, and 
 seven for winter,) and let her take nothing except 
 good cold water into her stomach till noon ; then let 
 her take a plain dinner. She may eat boiled vege- 
 tables, peas or beans, but she must not eat " pork " 
 with these vegetables, for the oil is so difficult of 
 digestion, that she will surely find herself in trouble 
 if she does. There are many forms of plain food ; 
 there is an almost endless variety, instead of the 
 starvation which many imagine, where no animal 
 food and no oil is taken. Good bread is the main 
 article, then boiled vegetables, peas, beans, rice, 
 rice pudding, sago, tapioca, and fruits, baked, and 
 cooked in other ways. O, the world is full of good 
 things, without eating the dead ! Let the sufferer 
 from periodical headache, or indeed from any ache, 
 make a selection from these good things, and not 
 take too much variety, be guarded on this point, and
 
 162 LECTURES ON 
 
 leave tea and coffee, take her meals at regular inter- 
 vals, about six hours apart, and take no luncheons. 
 Let her take exercise enough, and not too much, 
 let her retire to bed at nine or ten, and rise at four, 
 five, or six ; five is the best for most people, six will 
 do, and four for those who can receive it ; let 
 her bathe the whole surface of the body daily, either 
 in warm or cold water, and rub the skin dry with 
 a hard crash towel ; let her regularly do this, and 
 she may expect improved health, if there is any 
 vital energy left to improve. Let mothers pursue 
 this course with themselves, and with their chil- 
 dren, with this variation ; children have to support 
 the continual waste of the system, and growth 
 also, and they must have food oftener than those 
 who have got their growth. But a great mistake 
 is committed by giving children food too often. 
 Small children should have a lunch, midway be- 
 tween their meals, forenoon and afternoon, and at 
 no other time ; larger children should have a lunch 
 only in the forenoon. It is an error to feed children, 
 and put them directly to bed. How many poor 
 children are fed with, or allowed to eat, hot fine 
 flour bread and butler, mince pie, or some other 
 rich pie, and rich cake, and then put to bed ; and 
 they are blamed for being " cross," as it is called, 
 after being allowed to eat such improper food. 
 The mother knows the child is sick often, and rest-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 163 
 
 less and uneasy nearly all the time. But she 
 makes no alteration in its food, or in her manage- 
 ment of it. She may have lost several children at 
 two or three years of age, but she seems to think it 
 was a special dispensation of Providence, and not 
 in the least to be set to the account of her manage- 
 ment of her child. She does not reflect that her 
 rooms were perhaps improperly aired, and that bad 
 air did its part toward diseasing her infant. She 
 does not know that it is of the highest importance, 
 in order that the functions of the skin be properly 
 performed, that her child should be bathed daily. 
 She does not know that very often diarrhoeas are 
 produced to carry off waste and hurtful particles 
 from the body, that ought to be thrown off through 
 the pores of the skin. She is frightened at the 
 diarrhoea, and gives the poor infant some astringent, 
 or supposed astringent, to stop it, perhaps boiled 
 milk, or flour boiled in milk. You know how this 
 operates ; as there is no innutritions matter in the 
 flour and milk, there is little to pass off through the 
 intestines. But perhaps the poor child does not 
 get off so easily. It must be subjected to a course 
 of domestic practice. It must take tincture of rhu- 
 barb, or some quack medicine, and if the mother 
 is bold enough, even calomel. I have known a 
 mother give her infant calomel, dose after dose. 
 O ! that some one could speak on this subject, with
 
 164 LECTURES ON 
 
 a voice that might be heard from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific ! O ! that mothers could be taught, 
 not two or three hundred, but thousands and tens 
 of thousands, to let deadly mixtures alone, to sub- 
 stitute a warm bath for a dose of poison. When 
 children are thus disordered, often nothing is neces- 
 sary, but a rational course with respect to food, 
 bathing, clothing, and air. 
 
 I would not have you understand that I think 
 medicine always unnecessary, even though I con- 
 sider it poisonous. But if children must be so man- 
 aged, or rather mismanaged, as to be sick, let the 
 parents have the best advice. Let there be no 
 resort to regular or irregular quackery. That mother 
 who gives her child a dose of quack medicine, or 
 opium, or paregoric, or " Godfrey's cordial," or any 
 of any of the numerous deadly mixtures now in the 
 market, goes far toward putting a knife to its throat ; 
 and often the consequence is more to be lamented, 
 as the poor little sufferer lingers along and suffers 
 almost a thousand deaths. 
 
 The premature developement of the passions, 
 under a stimulating diet, is well worthy our serious 
 consideration. I know there are many good people 
 who are not prepared to think eating and drinking 
 have any thing to do with licentiousness. Though 
 I shall follow out this subject hereafter, I must 
 glance at it now. The day has gone by, in which
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 165 
 
 it is necessary to prove that ardent spirits, even in 
 small quantities, degrade and sensualize. But many 
 take as hurtful injesta as ardent spirits. We can 
 look at this subject, I mean the sensualizing 
 effects of rich, stimulating food. It will do no harm 
 to examine ; " truth and oil will come uppermost ! " 
 "Prove all things, and hold fast that which is 
 good." 
 
 I once read, in a medical work, of a young tiger 
 who was reared in a family, and was perfectly 
 gentle whilst he was kept on vegetable food. His 
 master was taken ill, and bled. After being bled, 
 he slept, and his arm bled again, by a displacement 
 of the bandage. The tiger was on the bed with 
 his master, and licked the blood from his arm ; he 
 became furious immediately. No measures could 
 tame him, and they were obliged to shoot him. 
 
 The following is the testimony of Dr. Dick, 
 author of the " Philosophy of Religion," and sev- 
 eral other works deservedly popular : " To take 
 the life of any sensitive being, and to feed on its 
 flesh, appears incompatible with a state of inno- 
 cence, and therefore no such grant was given to 
 Adam in Paradise, nor to the antediluvians. It 
 appears to have been a grant suited only to the 
 degraded state of man after the deluge, and it is 
 probable that as he advances in the scale of moral 
 perfection, in the future ages of the world, the use
 
 166 LECTURES ON 
 
 of animal food will be gradually laid aside, and he 
 will return again to the productions of the vegetable 
 kingdom, as the original food of man ; as that which 
 is best suited to the rank of rational and moral intel- 
 ligence. And perhaps it may have an influence, 
 in combination with other favorable circumstances, 
 in promoting health and longevity." 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 DIETETICS. 
 
 1 HAVE spoken, in a former lecture, of the injurious 
 effects of grease, of any oily substance or compound, 
 when taken into the stomach. The more I study, 
 the more I observe, the more satisfied I am that 
 grease or oil, in whatever form it may be taken, is 
 one of the most powerful agents in producing cuta- 
 neous eruptions, and what are termed " humors." 
 Understand me, I do not think this one article alone 
 produces all the humors and cutaneous eruptions, 
 but that it exerts a powerful influence in producing 
 them. Abernethy says, " The great cause of all 
 variations in the skin is to be met with in the diges- 
 tive organs." 
 
 Some time since I gave advice in the case of a
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 167 
 
 child, who was a most loathsome spectacle, having 
 been " afflicted with a humor," as its parents said, 
 from about the time it began to feed freely. One 
 eye seemed nearly destroyed, and, on the whole, I 
 hardly ever saw a more pitiable object. " What is 
 the child's food ? " I asked immediately. It is 
 worthy of note, that people almost universally know 
 that grease, butter, &tc., are bad for what are termed 
 " humors." The mother replied, " My child craves 
 every thing she ought not to eat, and the doctor did 
 not tell us to make any difference in the child's 
 diet." The fact was, the child was very sick, 
 most of the time ; it was, of course, indulged in 
 what was improper for it, what was killing it, 
 merely because it was ill, or because it was being 
 killed. " The doctor " was drugging the child, 
 without paying any attention to its habits. The 
 parents had spent almost every thing they possessed 
 on physicians, and the child was nothing benefitted, 
 but rather grew worse. I confess I had little con- 
 fidence that any thing could save the pitiable object 
 before me. Poor little suffering innocent my 
 heart ached for it. I gave the mother some ad- 
 vice ; the most important part of which was, to 
 bathe the whole surface of the child's body in warm 
 water thoroughly every day, and to exclude oils of 
 every kind from its food. The consequence was, 
 that in less than three months the child was nearly
 
 168 LECTURES ON 
 
 well, and I presume that in a few months more 
 it became perfectly well, if they continued to fol- 
 low the directions. By pursuing a simple and 
 rational course like this, how many thousands might 
 be saved every year, that are now paid for regular 
 and irregular quackery. 
 
 Let no one for a moment suppose that I denounce 
 the regular and rational practice of medicine. Far 
 from it. I honor the regular and rational profession. 
 I respect, I revere, I prize most highly, those truly 
 scientific and noble minded men who are an orna- 
 ment to the profession. But quackery I detest, 
 let it be found where it may, either in the medical 
 profession, or out of it. This dosing continually 
 with medicine, to please a patient, or line the pock- 
 ets of a practitioner, deserves the severest reproba- 
 tion. Medicine is a necessary evil. 1 have much 
 confidence in medicine, judiciously administered. 
 But 1 have learned enough of the wonderful mechan- 
 ism of " the house I live in " to dread, worse than 
 disease, the unskilful use of medicine. It is indeed 
 " playing with edge tools," to give medicines at 
 random. People take Brandreth's pills, and other 
 quack medicines, at hap-hazard, for whatever diffi- 
 culty they may have. It may be disorder of the 
 heart, or inflammation of the lungs, or the stomach 
 may have been overworked, till it refuses to work 
 longer. No matter what may be the trouble, down
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 169 
 
 goes a dose of Brandreth's pills, or Indian Purgative, 
 or whatever happens to be in fashion. A few years 
 since the " celebrated Hygeian " pills were curing 
 every thing; at least so said its unprincipled or 
 ignorant advertisers. Now Brandreth's pills, or 
 Indian Purgative, and lastly, if I have kept the track 
 rightly, of which, by the way, I am by no means 
 sure, lastly, comes the " Tomcttinc" a new con- 
 trivance to gull people out of money and probably 
 health,* for 1 have no belief that the inventors of 
 the " tomatine " will content themselves with as 
 harmless articles as tomatoes, or seed cucumbers, of 
 which to manufacture quack pills, or drops, as the 
 case may be. 
 
 But many are determined to be gulled and im- 
 posed upon. They must have medicine of some 
 kind, and unless the physician is inflexible, they 
 will have it. If the physician will not dose them 
 sufficiently, they will make up the difference by 
 taking quack medicines. Thus physicians often 
 feel obliged to keep up the delusion by giving some 
 harmless article called medicine, to keep the patient 
 from taking some deadly mixture. But knowledge 
 cannot advance in this way. To give such harm- 
 
 * Since this was written, quack doctors and nostrum makers have 
 ' by no means rested from their labors. They have rather " doubled 
 their diligence." If any one wishes for a medicine which will infal- 
 libly cure every ill which flesh is heir to, he has only to take up the 
 nearest paper, and he will assuredly find it advertised. 
 
 12
 
 170 LECTURES ON 
 
 less articles, is acknowledging ihe principle that 
 medicine is necessary, when it is not necessary. 
 This mode of procedure may save a life now and 
 then, for a little while, but it is fastening down the 
 veil of ignorance, and will eventually produce much 
 evil. It is better, far better, to enlighten, even 
 though it can be done but slowly. Let people de- 
 stroy themselves if they will with medicines, but let 
 not physicians aid them in the work of death. A 
 physician may do as Professor Muzzey did, give a 
 good lady pills made of brown bread, because she 
 was determined to have medicine. I am not about 
 to say Prof. M. did wrong, for after the lady had 
 recovered, and was praising his pills, he told her 
 what they were made of. 
 
 A physician of my acquaintance, whose mother 
 was obliged always to take calomel pills, at a cer- 
 tain season of the year, substituted bread pills, and 
 his mother assured him they had a very powerful 
 effect, and relieved her immediately. 
 
 But circumstances might prevent a physician 
 froai telling a patient of the imposition, and they 
 might want, or think they wanted more pills, and 
 they would not often be able to get those that were 
 as harmless as Prof. M.'s. After all, "honesty is 
 the best policy," and if a patient needs advice, let 
 him have it ; if he needs medicine, let him have it. 
 But let him be sure he needs it. Let him be sure
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 171 
 
 all is right with his habits. A skilful physician may 
 do all that can be done, and a patient may undo, 
 faster than the physician can do, by improper habits. 
 In a medical work of much value, I find the 
 following : " Errors in diet are the great source of 
 disease ; amendment of diet is the great basis of 
 recovery. Medicines may relieve or suspend the 
 majority of diseases, but medicines can never cure, 
 without the aid of regimen." And Abernethy says, 
 " I say it is horribly absurd, and I have no patience 
 to hear and see what I do, as if medicine could 
 cure a disease. They are the means which we 
 employ to correct faulty action in the various func- 
 tions of the body." Now what are we to think of 
 those empirics, who pay no attention to the hab- 
 its of those to whom they sell medicine. " O ! " 
 say they, "you may eat and drink what you please, 
 if you will take the medicine. We lay no restric- 
 tion with regard to diet." And many would rather 
 give hundreds of dollars, than deny themselves their 
 favorite indulgences. The effect of grease, of oil of 
 every kind, upon the stomach and system, are very 
 far from being understood. There is no question 
 but some oil is digested, especially in cold climates, 
 by aid of the bile, by being made with the bile into 
 a kind of soap ; but all medical and physiological 
 testimony shows that it is very difficult of digestion, 
 even after being mixed with the bile. When di
 
 172 LECTURES ON 
 
 gested, it is by an unnatural and unhealthy process. 
 What is not carried through this kind of difficult 
 and unhealthy digestion, is left to fester in the sys- 
 tem. Often the organs carry it as far as the sur- 
 face, and it there forms the basis of a cutaneous 
 eruption. If there is not strength enough in the 
 system to carry it thus far, we have assurance of 
 some internal difficulty, eruption, or trouble of some 
 kind. Many people seem to have no idea, that 
 they lay themselves open to disease, and invite it, 
 by a rich, stimulating and oily diet. If the small 
 pox were at their doors, and they had never been 
 vaccinated, they would feel the necessity of using 
 plain, wholesome food. They would not dare load 
 and irritate the system with oils, salt, &tc. Yet 
 they seem wholly unconscious, that a regimen that 
 will enable them to pass with safety through small 
 pox, will enable them to pass with safety through 
 any other disease, or to resist its attacks altogether. 
 Yet this is the fact. All the disorders incident to 
 childhood have been divested of their terrors to my 
 child, merely because she has been reared in a 
 degree of temperance. I say a degree, for her 
 habits have been far from right. It is a sad thing 
 to have friends, sometimes, especially when they 
 influence us or our children to do wrong. 
 
 I have seen a child struck down, as it were, in a 
 moment, with scarlet fever, with a lunch of rich
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 173 
 
 cake in its hand. The child had been reared on 
 rich, stimulating food. That fever might be de- 
 scribed in one word. It was death. Whilst another 
 child, who had been kept in a good degree of tem- 
 perance, and bathed occasionally, was violently 
 seized with this same fever, and by rational treat- 
 ment passed with safety through it, never refraining 
 entirely from play on any day of its illness, and only 
 remaining five days in the house. 
 
 In many cases of scarlet fever, all that seems 
 necessary is abstinence from food, pure air, cleanli- 
 ness, and bathing with cold water, when the heat 
 is great, and with warm water when the patient is 
 chilly. 
 
 I know some children, who have not been reared 
 in temperance, may pass with safety through this 
 and similar disorders ; but the chances are greatly 
 against them, and their getting through with safety 
 does not prove that temperance is of no value. It 
 merely proves that the child is tough. Some years 
 since the small pox raged in the north part of Ver- 
 mont and Canada. Many families were inoculated 
 with it. All who did not have the disorder the 
 natural way, were inoculated. I passed some time 
 there, some years after this. Those whose families 
 were inoculated lived very temperately and ration- 
 ally, for a time before they were inoculated. They 
 said the disorder was stripped of all its terrors by
 
 174 LECTURES ON 
 
 this course, and they dreaded it no more than mea- 
 sles, and they would as willingly have their families 
 pass through it, as through measles. Yet they 
 never seemed to think for a moment that refraining 
 from salt, grease, fee., would give them a similar 
 immunity in measles and other disorders, or save 
 them entirely from many diseases. If by temporary 
 abstinence from rich food people can gain such 
 advantages, what may they gain by temperance 
 for years, joined with perfect cleanliness ? Bathing 
 the whole surface of the body, thus keeping up the 
 action of the skin, and enabling it to throw off waste 
 and hurtful particles, that would otherwise fester in 
 the system, and cause disease, though of such im- 
 mense importance, was not thought of by those who 
 adopted a course of temperance in order to pass 
 through the small pox with safety. 
 
 I have known several individuals who had small 
 pox after living on the Graham system for a few 
 years, and they did not suffer nearly as much as in 
 ordinary cases of measles. Some were not confined 
 to the house on any day of their illness. 
 
 It is singular that people will not reason, and 
 and conclude rationally, with such facts before them. 
 Because stimulating food excites, and gives present 
 power, they conclude that it gives strength. They 
 cannot see the analogy between stimulating food 
 and stimulating drink. They think that animal
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 175 
 
 food gives more strength than vegetable food because 
 it excites more, and quickens the circulation, thus 
 hurrying on the vital current, and wearing out, by 
 this undue excitement and stimulation, as surely as 
 ardent spirits, though not so rapidly. " O ! " say 
 the defenders of this course of living, " our grand- 
 fathers lived in this manner, and they enjoyed good 
 health, and lived till they were sixty or seventy 
 years of age." Very true, they might have enjoyed 
 a good degree of health, though their grand-children 
 may not know at this day exactly how many " aches 
 and pains " they had. But the question is, not how 
 long did they live, or how much health did they 
 enjoy ; but how long might they have lived, and 
 how much health might they have enjoyed, had 
 their habits been exactly right ; and how much vigor 
 might we have inherited from them that we do not 
 now possess. Besides, their habits were really much 
 better than the habits of their children's children. 
 They were active ; they did not turn night into 
 day ; nor did they take tobacco from infancy, as it 
 were, as many do now. A child of seven years 
 may now be found telling how sick it made him 
 when he first began to smoke. So did not our 
 grandfathers. 
 
 But the question is not, what may we eat and 
 live ? but what is best for us, physically, mentally, 
 and morally ? The physical argument is powerful 

 
 176 LECTURES ON 
 
 to my mind. A vegetable aliment, I am satisfied 
 from experience, from observation, from the testi- 
 mony of the great and good in different ages, is far 
 better suited to sustain man in health, and enable 
 him to be fully what he was intended, than animal 
 food or a mixed diet. 
 
 "Those Brahmins who abstain most scrupulously 
 from the flesh of animals attain to the greatest lon- 
 gevity." Dr. Lambe says, " Life is prolonged, in 
 incurable diseases, about one tenth, by vegetable 
 diet." He farther says, " It affords no trifling 
 ground of suspicion against animal food that it so 
 obviously inclines us to corpulency. Corpulency 
 itself is a species of disease, and a still surer harbin- 
 ger of other diseases. It is so even in animals. 
 When a sheep has become fat, the butcher knows 
 it must be killed, or it will rot and decline. It is 
 rare indeed for the corpulent to be long lived. They 
 are at the same time sleepy, lethargic, and short- 
 breathed. Even Hippocrates, (that father of medi- 
 cine,) says those who are uncommonly fat, die more 
 quickly than the lean." 
 
 Dr. Lambe farther says : " I have observed no 
 ill consequences from the relinquishment of animal 
 food. The apprehended danger of the change, 
 with which men scare themselves and their neigh- 
 bors, is a mere phantom of the imagination. The 
 danger, in truth, lies wholly on the other side." Be
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 177 
 
 it remembered, Dr. L. had lived thirty-one years 
 on vegetable diet, when he wrote this. 
 
 The Bible Christians of Philadelphia have lived 
 many years, some of them between thirty and 
 forty years, upon a vegetable diet. They have 
 reared families of children, who have now families 
 in their turn, and neither children or grandchildren 
 have ever tasted flesh, fish or fowl. With the ex- 
 ception of abstinence from animal food and intoxi- 
 cating drinks, their habits are no better than those 
 around them ; yet they have an ordinary share of 
 health, and I never heard of a case of scrofula 
 amongst them ; yet many believe that scrofula is a 
 result of a vegetable diet. 
 
 " Socrates, Plato, Zeno, Epicurus, and others of 
 the masters of ancient wisdom, adhered to the 
 Pythagorean diet, (vegetable diet,) and are known 
 to have arrived at old age with uninterrupted 
 health." 
 
 It has been truly said, by one far wiser than I 
 am, that " that animal food is unfavorable to the 
 intellectual powers." I know many people have 
 much intellectual power, who use animal food. 
 This does not prove that they would not have more, 
 if they used only vegetable aliment. All the senses 
 are improved by vegetable diet. 
 
 But most especially should the consumptive ab- 
 stain from animal food. The heat, the increase of
 
 178 LECTURES ON 
 
 vascular action, induced by animal food, makes it 
 very improper that such persons should take it. 
 
 Milk and vegetables are most proper for the con- 
 sumptive, even if they were proper for no one else. 
 
 But to consider animal food in its influence on 
 the mind. The mind sympathizes with the body. 
 Whatever clogs and impedes proper action in the 
 system ; whatever raises an undue excitement, and 
 sends a vitiated fluid careering through our veins, 
 or brings on congestion in the brain, or elsewhere, 
 injures the operations of the mind. It cannot be 
 otherwise. The sympathy between body and mind 
 is very great, and must be, so long as they are 
 united. We cannot abuse or neglect the one, with- 
 out neglecting or abusing the other. 
 
 But the moral part of our argument lies still nearer 
 my heart. And here I would remark, that it is not 
 against a small quantity of lean, healthy flesh, taken 
 once a day, that 1 bring my argument. It is against 
 a flesh diet, with all its stimulating accompaniments, 
 such as spices, pepper, heating condiments of every 
 kind, fat meats, oil, butter, Sic. This kind of diet 
 induces disease. It hurries on life with an unnatu- 
 ral speed. It produces a premature developement 
 of the passions ; and where they are already devel- 
 oped, urges continually to their gratification. Thus 
 are men and women unduly stimulated, and conse- 
 quently worn out, long before the time.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 179 
 
 In order to indulge in animal food, man must take 
 life, unless he does like the Abyssinian, cut out a 
 junk from the living animal, and eat it all quivering 
 with life. But we kill animals before we eat them. 
 Has not this practice a direct tendency to blunt the 
 finer feelings of our natures ? What lady would 
 kill a lamb, a calf, or a fowl, for the sake of its 
 flesh ? Few, I apprehend, would do this, unless in 
 a case of stern necessity, and then, surely, we should 
 be justified both in killing and eating animals. 
 
 Sir Everard Home, a distinguished philosopher 
 and medical man, has the following: "In the 
 history of man in the Bible, we are told that do- 
 minion, over the animal world was bestowed upon 
 him at his creation ; but the divine permission to 
 indulge in animal food was not given until after the 
 flood. While mankind remained in a state of inno- 
 cence, there is ground for belief that their only food 
 was the produce of the vegetable kingdom." 
 
 I cannot forbear quoting a sentence from Plautus, 
 a distinguished Roman writer, who flourished about 
 two thousand years ago: "That man is not by 
 nature destined to devour animal food, is evident 
 from the constitution of the human frame, which 
 bears no resemblance to wild beasts or birds of 
 prey. Man is not provided with claws, or talons, 
 with sharpness of fang, or tusk, so well adapted to 
 tear and lacerate."
 
 180 LECTURES ON 
 
 Plutarch, the beauty of whose writings has charm- 
 ed and even enraptured so many thousands, says : 
 " It is best to accustom ourselves to eat no meat at 
 all ; for the earth affords plenty enough of things 
 not only fit for nourishment, but for enjoyment and 
 delight, some of which may be eaten without 
 much preparation, and others may be made pleas- 
 ant by adding divers other things to them. 
 
 " You ask me," continues Plutarch, " for what 
 reason Pythagoras abstained from eating the flesh 
 of brutes. For my part I am astonished to think, 
 on the contrary, what appetite first induced man to 
 taste of a dead carcass." 
 
 I am free to admit that man has a perfect right 
 to eat flesh, if he cannot get better food. Nor do 
 I half as much object to healthy flesh, as to the 
 manner in which it is cooked. But I want to be 
 sure the flesh is healthy. If I must eat a piece of 
 a dead animal, I want one that has not a pint of 
 corruption in its liver, scattered about in some half 
 dozen or dozen ulcers. I have myself seen an ani- 
 mal killed, that was supposed to be in health, and 
 its liver was studded with ulcers of various sizes, 
 filled with corruption. A lady whose husband was 
 in the habit of eating broiled liver, told me he often 
 bought those that were filled with ulcers. The flesh 
 of the animal had not these marks of disease, but it 
 was just as much diseased. And think ye all the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 181 
 
 cookery in the world could tame such an abomina- 
 ble mass, and make it healthful food ? It is dis- 
 eased, and however stuffed, spiced, peppered, or 
 buttered, it is still the same loathsome lump. 
 
 Professor Hitchcock gives numerous instances of 
 the effects of temperance in lengthening life. " Old 
 Parr," says Prof. H., " who died at the age of one 
 hundred and fifty-three years, was a farmer of ex- 
 tremely abstemious habits ; his diet being solely 
 milk, cheese, coarse bread, small beer, and whey. 
 How much longer than one hundred and fifty-three 
 years he might have lived, we are not able to tell. 
 His physicians testified, after his dissection, that he 
 died in consequence of a change from a parsimoni- 
 ous to a plentiful diet." Lord Kaimes says, " The 
 island of Otaheite is healthy ; the people tall and 
 well made ; and by temperance, vegetables and 
 fish being their chief nourishment, they live to a 
 good old age. In many places, Indian corn is the 
 chief nourishment." He says, also, that decayed 
 teeth are unknown amongst them. 
 
 Fresh fish is comparatively good food ; those 
 kinds that are not oily or poisonous, may be eaten 
 with safety. Still the objection against taking life 
 to support life, when we have such abundance of 
 good vegetables, comes in here. Fish are not fat- 
 tened and diseased by man, before they are eaten. 
 Hence they are much safer food.
 
 182 LECTURES ON 
 
 People may think they can eat the flesh and 
 milk of diseased animals with impunity ; but they 
 labor under a great mistake. Sir R. Phillips says 
 that in 1599, the Venetian government, to stop a 
 fatal disease among the people, prohibited the sale 
 of meat, butter, or cheese, on pain of death. 
 
 Who has not heard of the milk sickness of our 
 own country, and the dreadful sufferings that result 
 from taking the flesh or milk of those animals affect- 
 ed with the poison that causes the milk sickness ? 
 
 The habit of taking much salt with our food is 
 very injurious. There is much prejudice through- 
 out community in favor of salt. People have been 
 taught to believe that they could not eat too much 
 salt. But salt is a source of mischief, when much 
 is taken, and we have abundant evidence that per- 
 sons can abstain from its use with perfect safety, if 
 not with benefit. Salt produces a feverish state, 
 often causes strangury, and, without a shadow of 
 doubt, aggravates cutaneous eruptions. 
 
 Those who are not prepared to admit that salt is 
 detrimental, would do well to look at scurvy, and 
 see if they cannot admit, whilst contemplating this 
 disease, that salt can be injurious. Salt produces 
 thirst. A tax is thus laid upon the absorbent sys- 
 tem, to carry off fluid that we should not need were 
 it not for the salt. People have too much thirst in 
 the common way of living. Fever is induced,
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 183 
 
 what is termed by physiologists the fever of diges- 
 tion, and we are obliged to take much fluid to 
 quench the flame. This is wearing out the vital 
 powers unnecessarily ; for if we live temperately, 
 and our food is sufficiently succulent, and free from 
 heating condiments, and an excess of salt, we seldom 
 need drink. Some go without drinking for months, 
 and yet enjoy good health, much better health 
 than those who light up a fever in the system three 
 times, and perhaps oftener. in the twenty-four hours. 
 Those who thus induce fever three times or more in 
 the day, are obliged to quench the flames they kin- 
 dle by some liquid, and often water is too insipid to 
 satisfy them ; they resort to tea and coflee, if to 
 nothing worse. 
 
 If people take much more food and drink than 
 they need, and of a kind, too, that never ought to be 
 taken, they must expect corpulency, plethora, hu- 
 mors, and perhaps apoplexy. I know a lady who 
 has long indulged in what are termed the good 
 things of this life. She has the means of indul- 
 gence in abundance. She knows nothing of her 
 own organization, except " that somehow she came, 
 and here she is." She has become exceedingly cor- 
 pulent, and not long since she gave birth to a child, 
 which lived but a little time ; and the poor mother, 
 whose system was corrupted by long abuse, had 
 broken breasts, and after lying between life and
 
 184 LECTURES ON 
 
 death, throwing off corruption from her surcharged 
 system, she was enabled, by the powers of endu- 
 rance possessed by her system, just to live. But she 
 is still ignorant, still transgressing the laws of life, 
 and must wear out before many years. 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 FLUIDS. 
 
 I SHALL in the present lecture say much in favor 
 of cold water. I am very happy that I am under 
 no necessity to speak of alcohol, as a drink, in any 
 form. I rejoice that this baneful poison is banished 
 by common consent, from our catalogue of drinks. 
 But take care, ladies, that you do not eat alcohol. 
 A certain shopkeeper once told me that he " wet 
 down his wedding cake with brandy." I suppose 
 this was done to keep the cake sufficiently moist. 
 I shall not attempt to determine which was worse, 
 the cake or the brandy. 
 
 I rejoice that in an assembly of ladies, at this 
 day, there is no necessity to be eloquent in con- 
 demning alcohol, and persuading them to disuse it, 
 whether it be found in the shape of wine, gin, or 
 cordial. So much has been written upon this sub-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 185 
 
 ject, that " he who runs may read." Still I cannot 
 but feel a disposition to go out of my path a little 
 to follow these deleterious fluids to their hiding 
 place in solids, in the shape of " wedding cake," 
 " mince pie," &c. 
 
 I know a lady does not drink brandy, when she 
 eats it in mince pie, or cake, and a drunkard does 
 not drink rum when he soaks a brick-loaf in it, and 
 eats it, congratulating himself on an unbroken tem- 
 perance pledge. But is there any difference in the 
 guilt of these two individuals ? 1 hope all present 
 are fully sensible of the injurious effects of ardent 
 spirits in all its fluid forms. But it comes in so 
 many shapes, that there is much danger of our being 
 deceived, and putting the enemy in our mouths. 
 It is not only to be found in cake, and pie, but in 
 numerous forms of medicine, which are recom- 
 mended by quacks, and others, for ourselves and 
 our children. There is the cordial, the tincture, 
 the elixir, and the hot-drops. These gain access, 
 where ardent spirits, undisguised, could never come. 
 1 have myself heard a good lady say, who was a 
 strong advocate for temperance, in its technical ap- 
 plication, " I take hot-drops when I am sick, and I 
 always give them to my children if they complain." 
 " Hot-drops " was this lady's " cure-all." If a 
 child was ill from repletion, which often happened, 
 for the children had almost every thing they ought 
 13
 
 186 LECTURES ON 
 
 not to have, besides " hot-drops," they must take a 
 dose of this medicine. li one of them fell and was 
 hurt, a dose of hot-drops was given, and another 
 dose was rubbed on the bruise. 
 
 The effect of these stimulating substances on the 
 mucous membrane of the stomach, I have shown 
 you in a former lecture. The mere circumstance 
 that alcohol is called medicine will not save the 
 mucous membrane of the stomach from inflamma- 
 tion and ulceration. Alcohol is alcohol, whether it 
 be hid in cake, or pie, or disguised in elixirs, tinc- 
 tures, or hot-drops. Fire is fire, and will burn our 
 flesh equally, whether it be a kitchen fire, or the 
 consecrated flame of the poor deluded idolater. 
 Fluids, after passing into the stomach, are taken 
 up, and conveyed into the blood, by appropriate 
 vessels, called absorbents, and these fluids are just 
 as much taken up by the absorbents, if they are 
 taken mixed with solid food, as if they are drank. 
 The serum, or watery part of the blood, needs to be 
 supplied by fluids taken into the system. There is 
 a waste of fluid matter in the system, as well as 
 solid. Hence a supply of fluid is needed, as much 
 as a supply of solid matter. The questions to be 
 answered are, when should this fluid be taken, of 
 what kind should it be, and in what quantities 
 should it be taken ? It is conceded at all points, 
 now, where respectable people choose to look for
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 187 
 
 testimony, that this fluid should not be alcohol, in 
 any of its forms. Wine, cider, and malt liquors, 
 are all highly injurious. The excitement they create, 
 in illness, and in health, their apparent tonic effects, 
 in recovery from illness, are all artificial. They 
 should be disused entirely. If they had no other 
 ill effects, they increase vascular action, thus hurry- 
 ing the circulation of the blood, and wearing out 
 the vital powers, unnecessarily. I know it has 
 long been the practice of our most skilful physi- 
 cians, to give wine on recovery from illness. It 
 has been the practice of the great, and the good ; 
 and I have tried to think it was right, for this rea- 
 son. But the more I study, the more I observe, 
 and the more I think, the more I am satisfied of the 
 truth of a sentiment advanced in a recent medical 
 work of much merit. " Nothing can give strength 
 to the system, but plain, wholesome food." " Other 
 things may appear to give strength, but it is only 
 excitement. Medicine may correct faulty action 
 in the system, but food alone gives strength." 
 
 I have watched the action of wine upon my own 
 system, in recovery from illness, and I was at no 
 time satisfied that it was well for me, though ordered 
 by one of the most skilful physicians. I am accus- 
 tomed to follow a physician's directions, in every 
 thing, if I put myself under his care ; and though 
 satisfied the wine was not well for me, in other
 
 188 LECTURES ON 
 
 words, that it was decidedly injurious, I took it, be- 
 cause I would obey my physician ; and I got well 
 in spite of the wine, and I suppose he thought I got 
 well by the aid of it. This physician was a tem- 
 perance man in the strictest sense of the word, as 
 it respects ardent spirits. 
 
 Strange that sick people should be condemned 
 to bear the excitement of ardent spirits, or wine, 
 (for at present they are nearly synonymous,) when 
 well people cannot bear it without injury ! But I 
 must hasten to take leave of a subject, which, at 
 this day, ought not to demand a passing notice. 
 But let all remember that they cannot take alcohol 
 in any form, with safety, or give it to their children. 
 No matter whether it be concealed in medicine, 
 cake, pie, or confectionary, it is every where a 
 deadly substance. " Alcohol does violence to the 
 absorbents, and passes into the circulation un- 
 changed." So testifies Magendie the great French 
 experimenter. But among the deleterious fluids I 
 must not omit to mention the deadly laudanum and 
 paregoric, and solution of morphine. Though opium 
 is a solid, these are fluids, and I am very willing to 
 have this opportunity to speak of them. I can 
 hardly think that those who take laudanum or mor- 
 phine, or give their children paregoric, have the 
 slightest conception of the mischiefs they are causing. 
 If they wish to commit murder, or suicide, why not
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 189 
 
 do it deliberately, and not " by inches 1 " But I 
 will not be severe. These persons know not what 
 they do. They have brought themselves into a 
 state of misery, by wrong habits, and they seek 
 relief from their misery. Thirteen years since I 
 took laudanum, and thought I could have no rest 
 from my misery without it. Had I continued the 
 practice much longer, I should have had repose 
 from bodily sufferings. The fact was, my habits 
 were wrong ; I had deranged my nervous system by 
 the excessive use of tea, and by almost continual 
 study, night and day, till my life was disease. 
 My excruciating pain was relieved for the time 
 being, by laudanum, but it was only for the time 
 being. I was perfectly sensible that it made me 
 worse ultimately. 
 
 I have wrecked my constitution by these means. 
 I owe what little of vitality I now possess to tem- 
 perance and regularity, and I can sympathize most 
 feelingly with those who are destroying health in 
 the manner I destroyed mine. Let those who 
 do not wish to commit suicide, avoid opium in all 
 its forms unless prescribed by a skilful physi- 
 cian. 
 
 I now come to speak of tea, coffee, &c. Here 
 I shall give you my opinion and my experience : 
 
 In the first place, tea and coffee are taken when 
 there is no natural thirst. A quantity of fluid is
 
 190 LECTURES ON 
 
 necessary, to supply the waste of the fluid parts of 
 the system ; if we are in a healthy state, natural 
 thirst informs us when fluids should be taken. But 
 very few, who live in the usual manner, are in a 
 state of health. The abundant use of condiments, 
 and of flesh, and other stimulating articles of food, 
 induces a state of fever, and very many drink only 
 to quench the flame they have thus kindled. Others, 
 whose diet is more as it should be, drink from habit. 
 They are accustomed to drink so many cups of tea, 
 or coffee or cocoa, or so many glasses of water, and 
 they do not stop to consider whether they need 
 this quantity of fluid. Others drink with their 
 meals, and they drink because it is the custom. 
 Some think that " they may as well be out of the 
 world, as out of the fashion ;" and they want a cup 
 of tea and a tea-spoon, or a cup of water, to keep 
 themselves in countenance. 
 
 Now all this would do very well, if the stomach 
 were a bottle, or any thing but a stomach. As it 
 is, it imposes unnecessary labor upon the system in 
 every way. 
 
 Nursing mothers think they must drink large quan- 
 tities of some kind of fluid, to make milk for their 
 infants. By persevering in this course, they bring on 
 indigestion, and not only defeat the end at which they 
 aimed, but cause much suffering for themselves and 
 their little ones ; for we know that the health of
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 191 
 
 the child depends very much on the health of the 
 mother. 
 
 If we take food too stimulating, and thus create 
 fever, which produces thirst, we thus waste life ; and 
 all of us will find it short enough, at best. If we 
 take fluid from habit, and not because we need it, 
 we thus impose a heavy tax upon the absorbent 
 system, to take up and carry off this fluid. When 
 we drink with our meals, the absorbent vessels take 
 up and carry away the fluid before the process of 
 digestion begins. After putting this amount of un- 
 necessary labor upon the absorbents for a time, they 
 fail, just as any other organ would, that had to per- 
 form too much labor, and then indigestion is the re- 
 sult, and often diarrhoea a diarrhoea of indigestion, 
 in which the food passes off with hardly any alter- 
 ation : no alteration that approximates toward diges- 
 tion. It is true, vegetable food may turn acid, and 
 animal food may putrefy ; but neither of these 
 constitute any thing like digestion. 
 
 You will perceive that I am now speaking of the 
 effect of innocent fluids, when taken in too large 
 quantities. But all these mischiefs are aggravated, 
 and others produced, by the use of improper fluids. 
 We have abundant evidence to prove that tea is a 
 narcotic, and therefore poisonous. Dr. Hooper 
 says, in his Medical Dictionary, " In its natural 
 state tea is a narcotic plant, on which account the
 
 192 LECTURES OPT 
 
 Chinese refrain from its use till it has been divested 
 of this property by keeping it at least twelve 
 months." Now I am very sure, from this passage, 
 that Dr. H. was a tea-drinker ; for though he says 
 tea is a narcotic plant, he says also, the Chinese 
 keep it till it is divested of this property. I am 
 very sure, also, that the Chinese would have to 
 steep it, as well as keep it, before it would be 
 divested of this property. What evidence Dr. 
 Hooper could have that it was divested of this 
 property, I cannot see, when directly after, he says, 
 " When taken too copiously, it is apt to occasion 
 weakness, tremor, palsies, and various other symp- 
 toms arising from narcotic plants." Dr. H. speaks 
 of taking tea too copiously. Every one who takes 
 tea will judge for himself or herself when they take 
 it " too copiously." 
 
 The good lady who has taken tea till every 
 nerve trembles, and till she cannot hold her cup and 
 saucer steadily, will not of course think she takes it 
 too copiously, if she takes two, three, or even five 
 cups, just to steady her nerves. The good lady 
 who drinks tea to cure the headache, forgetting that 
 those who do not drink tea are not so apt to have 
 the headache to cure, will not think she takes tea 
 too copiously, so long as she does not take enough 
 to cure her head. 
 
 But to be serious, let us see what Dr. Cullen
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 193 
 
 says of tea. He says that scientific experiments 
 prove that an infusion of green tea (as we have it 
 in America) has the effect of destroying the sensi- 
 bility of the nerves and the irritability of the mus- 
 cles." He adds, from these considerations, we con- 
 clude, firmly, that tea is a narcotic and sedative sub- 
 stance. Dr. Cullen farther says, " It is very pos- 
 sible it may, like other narcotics, in a moderate 
 dose, prove exhilarating;" and he thinks, also, it may 
 operate medicinally, like some other narcotics. But 
 what do well folks want of narcotic medicines ? 
 and if they are sick, they ought not to take medicine 
 at hap-hazard, every day. They ought to have 
 advice, and take what is best for them. 
 
 But what is a narcotic ? some may ask. Dr. 
 Cullen says, " As their power and operation may 
 be extended so far as to extinguish the vital principle 
 altogether, they form that set of substances which 
 properly and strictly may be called poisonous." 
 
 I^know many people do not think tea is poison, 
 though they acknowledge if drunk strong it is hurt- 
 ful. But is a pound of arsenic poisonous, and is not 
 a grain poisnnnns ? Some say tea cannot be poi- 
 sonous, for some of their relatives used it, and lived 
 to be old. " My grandfather," said a young man 
 in my hearing, " is eighty years of age, and he 
 always used tobacco from his youth." Because 
 this good old man had lived to a good old age, in
 
 194 LECTURES ON 
 
 spite of tobacco, it was proof positive to the young 
 man, that tobacco was not poisonous. So it is with 
 tea, and even with ardent spirits because they do 
 not kill outright, or make people " down sick," they 
 try to persuade themselves that they are not injuri- 
 ous. If they are sick once in a while, they con- 
 clude that they must be sick occasionally that 
 sickness comes or is sent or perhaps, like a gen- 
 tleman I once met, they charge it upon their ances- 
 tors. " I am," said he, " convinced of the truth of 
 your temperance principles ; but I enjoy perfect 
 health, and do not feel the necessity of making any 
 change." A gentleman present inquired if he never 
 had the headache. " O yes," said he, " but then 
 that is hereditary ; my grandmother had the head- 
 ache, father had the headache, and I expect to 
 have it." He thought it a matter of course, that he 
 must have the headache, because his grandmother 
 and father had it. He lived in the usual manner, 
 and took tobacco freely. 
 
 I know people say they cannot give up tea, and 
 I know habit is very powerful. I know all this by 
 experience. Ladies say, and good ladies too, and 
 they believe what they say, that tea cures the head- 
 ache. Now I have no question that tea alleviates 
 their headache ; but I also believe it had much 
 agency in causing it first. Ardent spirits derange 
 the nervous system, and produce sickness, violent
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 195 
 
 tremors, &c. ; but ardent spirits will relieve, for the 
 time being, these symptoms. It will stimulate the 
 deranged and jaded nervous system for a short time, 
 as the whip will stimulate a jaded, worn-out horse 
 to momentary exertion. So it is with tea. Tea 
 has deranged and disordered the nervous system ; 
 it has produced headache and other troubles ; yet 
 by its momentary stimulus, it makes the sufferer 
 feel better, rouses and exhilarates long enough to 
 deceive. Why should a person whose habits are 
 correct, have the headache, any more than the hand 
 ache or the foot ache ? I confess I cannot see. I 
 look upon all disease as an effect following a cause. 
 I do not consider that it comes, or is sent, without 
 a cause, any more than I consider that a watch or 
 any thing else could make itself, without a maker 
 " could just happen so." I see no reason why one 
 thing should "just happen so," any more than an- 
 other. I know people are born diseased, and with 
 sus^ptibility to disease ; but in most cases, were 
 theji properly brought up, and did they live right, 
 after they are " brought up," we should hear less 
 of hereditary disease. 
 
 The following remarks from Prof. Hitchcock are 
 so exactly to the point that I introduce them here : 
 "If. the intemperate man abandon his cups for a 
 time, he is bqset with that terrific set of feelings 
 called the ' horrors ;' but at length they pass away, 

 
 196 LECTURES ON 
 
 and nature moves on regularly and calmly, and 
 peace and health and happiness return. Just so, if 
 the tea-drinker gives up his beverage, he will find 
 for a time that dulness, debility and headache are 
 the consequences. Many, in such circumstances, 
 conclude that this is certain evidence that tea is 
 necessary for them, or very salutary, and they 
 therefore return to its use. But were they to per- 
 severe in their abstinence for a few weeks, or a few 
 months, their morbid feelings would disappear, and 
 probably their headache would be permanently 
 cured." He also says that whilst he drank tea he 
 found dull, nervous headache no uncommon com- 
 panion ; but upon leaving it he was afflicted with 
 almost constant headache and heaviness. He per- 
 severed, however; his headache gradually disap- 
 peared, and after a few months, " headache," he 
 says, " was one of his rarest trials." 
 
 If the opinions of eminent physicians are worth 
 any thing, then they ought to be brought tq|the 
 remembrance of those who take tea and coffee. 
 Some may ask which does greatest injury, tea or 
 coffee. I for one must answer, I cannot tell. A 
 great man has said, " that is worst of which we 
 drink the most ;" and I believe it. 
 
 Dr. Londe says of coffee " Coffee accelerates 
 the functions only by shortening their duration. It 
 doubles the energy of the organs only by doubling
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 197 
 
 the debility which follows when the excitement is 
 over. Coffee produces, in irritable individuals, a 
 remarkable agitation, an inclination for some kind 
 of motion which they cannot resist, often a trem- 
 bling of the muscles, spasmodic cramps, anxiety 
 and palpitations. Nothing is more calculated to 
 increase the emaciation, the paleness, and to hasten 
 the exhaustion of the organs, in persons of an irrita- 
 ble habit, than this beverage, which is altogether 
 stimulating and not in the least nutritive." 
 
 Dr. Beddoes' experiments go to establish, beyond 
 the reach of controversy, the deleterious qualities 
 of tea. " It was first ascertained, by a number of 
 trials, with a variety of preparations from vegetables, 
 that laurel water, infusion of opium, of digitalis and 
 green tea, bear equal proportion, with regard to 
 their destructive effects upon the hearts of toads and 
 frogs, all rendering them instantaneously incapable 
 of pulsation. In all the experiments tea proved as 
 quickly poisonous as laurel water, opium, or digita- 
 lis, and in some more so." 
 
 Some suppose that the habitual use of strong tea 
 creates a distaste for ardent spirits. I have tried to 
 reclaim a drunkard by giving him strong tea, till I 
 was tired of trying, and now believe I might as 
 well have reformed him by giving him wine or 
 cider. I have yet to learn that the use of a mild 
 stimulant produces a distaste for a stronger.
 
 198 LECTURES ON 
 
 I believe that a large proportion of the nervous- 
 ness, hypochondria and hysteria that hang over the 
 finest minds among us like a thick black cloud, 
 shrouding their brightest prospects in gloom, is to be 
 traced directly to the use of tea and coffee. I have 
 myself suffered much from nervousness, in my coffee 
 and tea drinking days, and I know a worthy gen- 
 tleman whose nervous system became so deranged 
 by the excessive use of coffee, that he hardly saw a 
 lucid interval. He was completely miserable him- 
 self, and made his friends very miserable. His 
 hobby seemed to be that he must come to want. 
 His wife often feared he would take his own life. 
 He was so enslaved to coffee, that if he dispensed 
 with it one morning, he would have a terrible head- 
 ache, and would even be incapable of business till 
 he had a bowl of strong coffee made. While the 
 stimulus of the coffee lasted he could attend to his 
 business. He was induced, by the entreaties of 
 friends, to abandon the use of coffee for a time. 
 
 After much suffering from the absence of his long 
 used stimulus, his nerves became settled, his fits of 
 hypo left him, and he became a cheerful, happy 
 man, and rejoiced in his emancipation. In a letter 
 which I received from a Congregational minister with 
 whom 1 correspond, I find some facts with regard 
 to coffee, worthy your attention. This gentleman 
 is as eminent for his piety, as his scholarship, and
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 199 
 
 cannot therefore be suspected of slandering this bev- 
 erage. His chum, while in college, was much ad- 
 dicted to coffee, and was tormented with a dreadful 
 headache, much of the time during his college course. 
 But he used to say he knew it was not coffee that 
 made his head ache. After he left college, his 
 health became so much impaired that he was obliged 
 to seek medical advice. He was induced to lay 
 aside coffee. The consequence was, his head got 
 well. Another gentleman who was a near relative 
 of the writer, was a slave to coffee, and fancied that 
 his wife was his enemy, though she was one of the 
 best women in the world. He could not believe 
 that she loved him, or that any thing was right with 
 him. He thought that not only his wife, but his 
 children and neighbors, were conspiring to work his 
 ruin. He was persuaded to leave the use of coffee ; 
 in a few weeks, his system became regulated, and 
 he wondered, wondered ! he could indulge in such 
 groundless suspicions, that made himself, and all 
 around him, miserable. When he was relating the 
 circumstances to the writer, a few months afterward, 
 he said, " He had not a single doubt coffee was the 
 principal agent in the matter. But," said he, " I 
 would not believe it, or hear to a word of advice on 
 the subject, till I was driven to the last extremity, 
 and felt obliged to do any thing, and every thing, 
 that was possible for relief; for," continued he, " I
 
 200 LECTURES ON 
 
 was tempted strongly to run, away and leave my 
 family, and I was afraid I should take my own life 
 in some frantic moment." He was a professor of 
 religion, a respectable and influential citizen, and 
 worth several thousand dollars, and between forty 
 and fifty years of age." Let not tea drinkers think 
 their favorite beverage innocent of producing such 
 results, for I have known a lady, who was a slave 
 to tea, and seldom took coffee, who had such fits 
 of depression, that she would weep hours without 
 knowing the cause. She often thought all her 
 friends had forsaken her, and at one time she even 
 attempted to take her own life. She acknowledged 
 that she was often tempted to destroy herself. She 
 left tea, and became calm, cheerful, and happy. 
 
 I have promised to give you my own experience 
 with respect to tea and coffee. From a child, I 
 drank tea. My parents were great tea drinkers. 
 I became so attached to tea, that I was not willing 
 to make a meal without it, and I must have it very 
 strong. At length I was not satisfied with it at my 
 meals. I chewed it, and often put a handful in a 
 cup, poured boiling water on it, let it cool, and then 
 drank the infusion, and ate the tea. I became a most 
 wretched being. I had never had firm health, from 
 a child, owing to improper management in rearing 
 me. Severe nervous prostration, accompanied by 
 mental depression, were often my portion. Other
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 201 
 
 bad habits joined with the tea in producing my 
 misery, no doubt. But a great part of my distress 
 left me when I left tea, although I still retained 
 many bad habits. But I was not wholly relieved, 
 till I adopted the temperance system in all its parts. 
 After I left tea, I became gradually a slave to coffee. 
 I had, therefore, a good opportunity to judge of the 
 effects of each. I am satisfied coffee much increases 
 arterial action, produces palpitation, weakness and 
 trembling. I used coffee when my other habits 
 were better, much better than they were when I 
 took tea. I can judge better, perhaps, of the effects 
 of coffee, than of tea, though I am convinced tea is 
 equally hurtful. My weakness, and trembling, and 
 sickness became so great during the forenoon, (for 
 I only took coffee habitually in the morning,) that 
 I was not able properly to attend to my duties as a 
 teacher. In the afternoon my abused system would 
 rally its powers, and I would be bettef. I resolved 
 to abandon coffee. I did so, and immediately my 
 system became renovated. I was enabled to per- 
 form my duties with ease and cheerfulness, free 
 from nervous prostration, or mental depression, free 
 from palpitation, weakness and trembling. I now 
 take plain food, with no seasoning except a very 
 little salt. If 1 wholly disused salt, I believe it 
 would be better. I take no fluid with my meals, 
 except a small cup of milk, perhaps twice in the 
 14
 
 202 LECTURES ON 
 
 day. I eat no flesh, no oils, or grease of any kind ; 
 and unless I use much exercise, I am seldom 
 thirsty. I have sometimes passed weeks without 
 taking any drink, or any fluid, only the small quan- 
 tity of milk I eat morning and night. When I do 
 need drink, water is the most grateful of all fluids. 
 There is a delicious taste in pure water that tea 
 and coffee drinkers know nothing about. But pure 
 water is seldom found. Much impurity exists in 
 our water. This impurity is the cause of many 
 evils. The gravel is no doubt often caused, and 
 always aggravated, by drinking impure water, espe- 
 cially such as contains calcareous matter. Rain 
 water, where it is caught in a proper manner, is 
 probably better than any that many people can get. 
 Filtered or distilled water would be better still, 
 perhaps. But if so much mischief results from 
 drinking impure water, should we not avoid, as far 
 as we are able*, the necessity of drinking it ? Should 
 we not eat succulent food, good milk and fruits, 
 rather than light up a fever in our veins by the use 
 of flesh, oils, condiments, &tc., which we must 
 quench with impure water, or something worse ? 
 
 Great care should be taken with respect to milk. 
 Still slops, dirty swill, &tc., are not the natural food 
 of a cow ; and such horrid slops, drained through 
 the vessels of an unhealthy animal, (for a cow fed 
 in this manner will quickly become unhealthy,)
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 203 
 
 must be very improper food, to say the least of it. 
 Good milk is good diet for many, though it does 
 not agree with some, especially those who have a 
 tendency to fat, or are troubled with humors. Let 
 our habits be such that we have none but natural 
 thirst, and pure water will be grateful and health- 
 ful. 
 
 Extract of a Letter from Dr. John Burdell, dated 
 NEW YORK, JAN. 27, 1842. 
 
 MRS. GOVE : In accordance with your request, 
 I send you the following on the subject of Tea and 
 Coffee, which is the result of my own experiments 
 on various animals. 
 
 It is a law of the animal economy, that stimu- 
 lants and excitants invariably result in a corres- 
 ponding depression ; and if the depression goes 
 beyond a certain point, death is the consequence. 
 
 During my dental practice I have had an oppor- 
 tunity of observing the condition of those of my 
 patrons who were in the habit of drinking strong 
 tea, and I have found that such persons have weak, 
 irritable and sensitive nerves ; also their offspring. 
 This led me to make some experiments, the results 
 of which I now present to the public. 
 
 I took a pound of young hyson tea and steeped 
 it in soft water, and boiled it down to half a pint.
 
 204 LECTURES ON 
 
 I then procured a rabbit of about three months old, 
 and kept it without food a sufficient length of time 
 to leave the stomach empty. I then gave it ten 
 drops of the decoction, holding its head in a position 
 to cause the fluid to enter the stomach. The ani- 
 mal appeared to be somewhat exhilarated for the 
 space of three or four minutes, then laid down on 
 its side and began moaning, as if in great distress ; 
 and in about ten minutes from the time of my 
 administering the dose, its struggles ended in death, 
 the limbs being distended and very stiff. 
 
 I also tried the effects of tea on a cat of the same 
 age, after making another decoction from black tea, 
 which the person who sold it said was of the best 
 quality, arid was highly recommended by a cele- 
 brated physician to a lady in delicate health. The 
 decoction was stronger, as I boiled it down to less 
 than a gill. The results were the same, only more 
 rapid, as the animal ceased to breathe in less than 
 three minutes, although the dose was not as large 
 as I gave the rabbit, being but eight drops. 
 
 I have used the decoction of tea for destroying 
 the nerves of teeth, as a substitute for mineral 
 poisons. Arsenic is used by many dentists for the 
 purpose. 
 
 Again I took a pound of coffee in its natural 
 state, and boiled it in the same manner as I did the 
 tea, and administered it in the same way, but had
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 205 
 
 much difficulty in keeping it in the stomach long 
 enough to produce much effect, before it was thrown 
 off by vomiting. But when it could be kept down 
 for any length of time, it destroyed life, but took 
 longer to do it than tea. 
 
 My last experiment was in trying the effects of 
 tea and coffee on frogs. The former would make 
 them jump three or four feet at first ; but the leaps 
 grew shorter and shorter, until they were incapable 
 of drawing up the hind legs for another jump, and 
 soon expired. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 JOHN BURDELL. 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 
 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 IN treating on the various parts of the human 
 economy, I pretend to no originality. I bring the 
 opinions of the best recent physiologists before my 
 sisters. There is some difference of opinion between 
 late writers on physiology, respecting the nervous 
 system. This difference in no wise affects the 
 pathological remarks, or hygienic deductions of 
 these lectures. 
 
 In these lectures I shall give you the different
 
 206 LECTURES ON 
 
 opinions of physiologists. First, I shall bring before 
 you the opinions contained in my oral lectures. 
 
 Under the name nervous system, anatomists 
 include those organs which are composed of a ner- 
 vous or pulpy tissue. The nervous system, in 
 man, is composed of two parts. That which is 
 called the cerebro-spinal axis, which is the brain 
 and spinal marrow, and thirty-nine or forty-two 
 pairs of cords, called nerves, which pass off later- 
 ally from the cerebro-spinal axis, and ramify over 
 every part of the body. Secondly, the ganglions 
 and plexuses, with their various cords, branches 
 and filaments. 
 
 Under the term encephalon, are included the 
 contents of the cranium, which are the cerebrum, 
 or brain proper, the cerebellum, or little brain, and 
 the medulla oblongata. These different parts are 
 included under the name brain. The brain proper, 
 or cerebrum, occupies the upper part of the head ; 
 the cerebellum is next below it, posteriorly ; and 
 the medulla oblongata is lower still. 
 
 I would here remark, that I cannot go into a 
 description of the brain phrenologically, but I am 
 fully impressed with the value of phrenology as a 
 science, and would earnestly recommend to my 
 readers, especially those who are skeptical as to its 
 truth, the admirable works of George Combe, and 
 the Messrs. Fowler.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 207 
 
 Combe's " Constitution of Man " is a work that 
 is above praise. His other works are exceedingly 
 valuable. The writings of O. S Fowler contain 
 physiological and phrenological truth, well adapted 
 to the wants of our age, and eminently calculated 
 to bless humanity. L. N. Fowler is said, by good 
 judges, to be the best practical phrenologist in 
 America, 
 
 French anatomists recken forty-two pairs of 
 nerves. Of these, twelve pairs draw their origin 
 from, or are connected with the encephalon, and 
 thirty come from the spinal marrow. 
 
 Each of the spinal nerves consists of filaments 
 destined for two distinct uses, motion and sensi- 
 bility. They have two roots, one arising from the 
 posterior, the other from the anterior part of the 
 spinal marrow. Sir Charles Bell says, that the 
 anterior part gives rise to nerves of motion, the 
 posterior, to nerves of sensibility. 
 
 The series of ganglions and plexuses, with the 
 nervous cords, fibres and filaments which unite 
 them, are collectively termed the great sympathetic 
 nerve. It is connected with each of the spinal 
 nerves, and with several of the encephalic, but 
 does not arise from either. The sympathetic is 
 considered the great system of involuntary nerves. 
 The nerves of the brain and spinal marrow, with 
 their various ramifications, are called the nerves of
 
 208 LECTURES ON 
 
 animal life. These are distributed principally to 
 the muscles of voluntary motion, and to the sensi- 
 tive surface of the body, or external skin. 
 
 The sympathetic or ganglionic nerves are called 
 nerves of organic life. The ganglions of the sym- 
 pathetic nerve give off branches, which some of 
 them connect the ganglions with each other, and 
 some interweave and inosculate and form plexuses. 
 From these, numerous branches are given off to 
 supply the different organs with nerves. 
 
 Besides the more deeply seated ganglions, con- 
 nected with the principal viscera, there are two 
 series of them, which range along the anterior side 
 of the spine, connected by nervous cords, which 
 extend from the lower extremity of the spine to the 
 base of the cranium, and enter by small branches 
 through the carotid canal, along with the artery, 
 and form connections with the fifth and sixth pairs 
 of the nerves of the brain. 
 
 These two series of what are termed peripheral 
 ganglions, with their connecting cords, are called 
 sympathetic nerves, because they are believed to 
 form the most intimate union of sympathy between 
 all the viscera concerned in organic life. 
 
 At the base of the diaphragm, on the anterior 
 side of the spine^ are two large ganglions, called 
 semilunar ganglions. These give off numerous 
 large branches, which, together with several from
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 209 
 
 other parts, and some from within the cranium, form 
 a very large central plexus in front of the spine, 
 which constitutes a kind of common centre of action 
 and sympathy to the whole system of organic nerves. 
 This is called the solar plexus. From this branches 
 are given off in every direction, uniting with nerves 
 from the brain, and supplying the different organs, 
 particularly the stomach and arteries. These are 
 invested with a lace-work of nerves, which accom- 
 panies them to their termination in the glands, skin, 
 and mucous membrane, and other membranes. 
 
 The cerebro-spinal nerves are instruments of sen- 
 sation and perception. The sympathetic or gan- 
 glionic nerves are instruments of sympathy ; and in 
 a healthy state are not instruments of sensation ; but 
 in a diseased state they have great morbid sensi- 
 bility ; and a morbid sympathy may also be induced. 
 You know that the nerves of the bones, in a state 
 of health, convey no appreciable sensation to the 
 brain. But bones may become diseased ; and no 
 pain is more acute than the pain of diseased bones. 
 The many abuses of the nervous system disorder 
 the organic nerves, and render them acutely sen- 
 sible. The nerves of sensibility partake of the 
 injury. Thus there is disease from abuse, and 
 disease from sympathy. 
 
 A great physiologist, from whose works these 
 views of the nervous system are taken, has said,
 
 210 LECTURES ON 
 
 " The proper performance of the functions of life, 
 and the welfare of each and every part of the sys- 
 tem, depend upon the integrity of the nerves, in 
 supplying the necessary vital energy ; and this again 
 depends on their healthy state. By inducing a 
 diseased condition, and inflammation of any part, a 
 new and abnormal centre of action may be estab- 
 lished, equal in the power and extent of its influ- 
 ence, to the importance of the part, and the de- 
 gree of its morbid irritation, which will not only 
 derange the functions of the part itself, but also, to 
 a greater or less extent, those of the other parts, 
 and sometimes of the whole system, causing an 
 undue determination of the fluids to itself, and re- 
 sulting in morbid secretion, imperfect assimilation, 
 chronic inflammation, disorganization, by change 
 of structure, by softening, or indurating, producing 
 scirrhus, ossification, calculi, ulcers, cancers, and 
 dissolution ; or mounting into a high state of acute 
 inflammation, and in a more violent and rapid ca- 
 reer, bringing on gangrene, or general convulsions, 
 collapse and death." 
 
 Since these lectures were written, some new 
 views of the nervous system have been given to 
 the world by Miiler, a German anatomist. These 
 views will be found in the annexed extract from a 
 letter which I received a short time since, from 
 that profound scholar and able writer, D. Francis
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 211 
 
 Condie, M. D. of Philadelphia. The letter was 
 hastily written, with no view to publication, but 
 Dr. Condie has kindly given me leave to make 
 extracts from his letters, remarking, " that from the 
 rapid manner in which these communications are 
 written, in moments of uncertain leisure, their style 
 is necessarily somewhat loose and careless, and cer- 
 tainly very different from that in which I should 
 clothe my thoughts, did I contemplate they were 
 to be given to the public." I shall avail myself 
 of the privilege thus kindly given, and shall mark 
 the extracts with the letter C. 
 
 After carefully studying these views of the ner- 
 vous system, you will be better able to understand 
 how we are affected by hurtful influences. 
 
 " In the first place, it will be proper to lay down a 
 definition of tone which is that state of the nervous 
 system, when it responds with sufficient prompti- 
 tude, vigor and regularity, to the healthful and natu- 
 ral stimuli. Want of tone is of two kind ; first, 
 when, from deficient excitability, the nerves do not 
 respond with sufficient promptitude, vigor and reg- 
 ularity, to the natural excitants, and the functions 
 of the system in all, or in part, fall into a state of 
 torpor. The second species of deficient tone is, 
 when the nerves, from excess of excitability, re- 
 spond too promptly, and often irregularly, to the 
 ordinary stimuli, and often act with violence, from 

 
 212 LECTURES ON 
 
 the impression of causes, which, in their normal 
 condition, affect them but little, if at all. It is this 
 latter species of deficient tone with which we have 
 principally to do. It is produced by over-excite- 
 ment, moral as well as physical by over-exertion 
 of the organs, without sufficient intervals of rest 
 by whatever reduces the physical energies of the 
 system, deficient exercise, deficient food, mental 
 and moral indolence, as well as by excessive men- 
 tal labor, excessive evacuations, and by whatever 
 impairs or vitiates the nutritive functions of the sys- 
 tem, as excessive, improper, or deficient food, im- 
 proper drinks, vitiated and confined air, deficiency 
 of sleep, the depressive passions, &;c. 
 
 " In regard to the extension or diffusion of morbid 
 action, this takes place through the nervous cen- 
 tres. Irritation of the stomach, by being reflected 
 upon the heart and lungs, hurries the respiration 
 and circulation. Irritation of the uterus, by being 
 reflected upon the stomach, causes sickness, gas- 
 trodynia, &tc. ; or upon the spinal nerves of motion, 
 hysteria; and neuralgia, when upon the nerves of sen- 
 sation. A piece of indigestible food in the stomach 
 of a child, gives rise, by reflection upon the nerves 
 of motion of animal life, to convulsions. A portion 
 of a briar in the end of the finger, by a similar re- 
 flection, causes tetanus, &c. &c." c. 
 
 The world has so long looked upon passions
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 213 
 
 misdirected, or excessive in action, that many seem 
 to have come to the conclusion that certain passions 
 or propensities are inherently bad, and that they 
 should consequently be eradicated. Now if we 
 look into this subject, we shall find that it is only 
 the excessive or erratic action of the passions, 
 that is productive of evil. The passions are them- 
 selves good; and could the human being be so de- 
 veloped that there would be a harmonic action of 
 the passions, we should then see the perfection 
 of humanity. For instance, caution is a faculty or 
 passion that is productive of great good, but its ex- 
 cess makes fear, or cowardice, which may produce 
 great evils ; and its deficiency makes men reckless ; 
 which is often a very great evil. The same is true 
 of hope, reverence, or even conscientiousness. But 
 you may say, surely we cannot have too much 
 conscientiousness. You must remember that the 
 moral sense is blind, and unless enlightened by the 
 infusion of truth into the mind, is as likely to lead 
 us wrong as right. The devotee is conscientious 
 in casting himself beneath the wheels of Jugger- 
 naut. The Hindoo widow is conscientious in im- 
 molating herself upon the burning pile with the 
 corpse of her husband. Christians are conscien- 
 tious in adhering to various rites and ceremonies, 
 that divide and scatter in Israel, and produce any 
 thing but the fulfilling of the law, which is love.
 
 214 LECTURES ON 
 
 "Every physiological propensity, appetite or 
 passion, is implanted in the human organism by its 
 Almighty Author, for a wise purpose, and hence 
 the indulgence to a proper physiological extent is 
 proper and commendable nay, necessary for the 
 well being of the individual, and for the preserva- 
 tion of the species." c. 
 
 It should be remembered that whatever deterio- 
 rates, tends to destroy. 
 
 " The great hygienic law in relation to all these 
 passions is, carefully to guard against every thing 
 which has a tendency to cause any of them to be- 
 come so excessive, as to control the action of the 
 organism, or to remove them from the control of 
 the judgment and the will, and to render them 
 masters, destroying by their tyranny our individual 
 happiness, and depriving us of our power to do 
 good, instead of being servants, ministering to our 
 good, and that of our fellow beings." c. 
 
 The natural degree of activity should be given 
 to all our passions or propensities. Excessive or 
 deficient action produces evil. He who loves his 
 children too much, will be unjust to them, as well 
 as he who loves them too little. Go over the cat- 
 alogue of passions or faculties, benevolence, con- 
 scientiousness, reverence, love of approbation, self- 
 esteem, philoprogenitiveness, amativeness, &c. &c., 
 in excess or deficiency, all produce evil. God has
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 215 
 
 not implanted evil passions within us, but we have 
 destroyed the healthy balance that should exist in 
 us ; we have " sought out many inventions," and 
 wrought out for our race that physiological, phre- 
 nological, and consequently moral disorder, charac- 
 terized by many, by the term total depravity. 
 
 " We are to recollect, that while the excess of 
 any of our natural propensities, appetites or pas- 
 sions is to be guarded against, so nothing should be 
 allowed under the normal circumstances for which 
 we are created, which is calculated to obliterate, 
 or render dormant, either of these propensities, ap- 
 petites or passions. Their natural degree of activity 
 should be aimed at, which, governed by reason and 
 the higher order of sentiments, secures our health, 
 our happiness, and our usefulness all of which are 
 more or less diminished, or even entirely destroyed, 
 equally when either of our appetites or passions is 
 in excess, or deficient in energy. 
 
 " These remarks are especially true of that appe- 
 tite, instinct or passion which impels us to the prop- 
 agation of our species. When kept within bounds, 
 and exercised according to the dictates ;of nature, 
 of reason and of virtue, it has not only a beneficial 
 influence upon the Health and longevity of the sys- 
 tem, it not merely promotes our individual happiness, 
 and fulfils an important law of our being, ' increase 
 and multiply,' but it has a tendency to soften and
 
 216 LECTURES ON 
 
 improve the heart, and by the new relations thus 
 resulting, to promote feelings of kindness and be- 
 nevolence, and to interest us more deeply in the 
 happiness and well being of our fello\v creatures. 
 But the instinct of which we are speaking, is one 
 which requires to be watched with the greatest 
 care. Its tendency in the present artificial state of 
 society is to premature and excessive develop- 
 ment, and to unnatural, excessive and destructive 
 indulgence ; and to this cause are to be attributed 
 very many, if not all of the sexual diseases, which, 
 instead of being confined, as formerly, to those 
 classes which revel in luxury, commence now to 
 inflict their pains and penalties upon the sex at 
 large." c. 
 
 It is time that parents should know the evils that 
 flow from a premature or excessive development 
 of animal instincts and passions. No false delicacy 
 should hinder parents and guardians, and all who 
 have the care of children, from getting information 
 on these subjects. I propose first to bring a few 
 of these evils before you, and then to show how 
 they are caused, and how they may be prevented. 
 In doing this, I shall endeavor, by divine assistance, 
 to use all necessary plainness of speech. I see 
 myself standing on the verge of eternity. What I 
 have learned I would leave to the world ; and I am 
 confident that it will be well received by the virtu- 
 ous and intelligent.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 217 
 
 The belief that the premature and excessive de- 
 velopment of the sexual instinct constitutes disease, 
 and becomes, by its immoderate gratification, the 
 cause of numerous diseases, has been too much 
 confined to physicians. Well meaning Christian 
 ministers have not been slow to declaim against 
 the sinner and the sin, whilst they have been 
 wholly ignorant of the physical means of prevent- 
 ing the evil. And let it be remembered that with- 
 out proper physical training, all moral means are 
 utterly inefficient to stay this evil. As well may 
 we drop a living coal of fire into a magazine of 
 powder, and beg, and pray, and exhort it not to 
 explode, and expect to be obeyed, as to train our 
 children in a manner directly calculated to produce 
 impurity, and expect them, by the mere force of 
 precept, to counteract the immutable laws of nature 
 and remain pure. Causes must produce effects. 
 If the rays of light pass from a rarer to a denser 
 medium, they will be refracted. 
 
 The diseases which may be traced to the exces- 
 sive development and inordinate indulgence of the 
 sexual instinct, are exceedingly numerous. I shall 
 give a list of these diseases, premising that they 
 may all be caused by social or solitary licentious- 
 ness, yet that they may be produced by other causes. 
 Diseases of the uterus, fluor albus, floodings, pro-r 
 lapsus uteri, cancer of the uterus, &tc. &c. Medi- 
 15
 
 218 LECTURES ON 
 
 cal writers tell us that abandoned women very of- 
 ten suffer from cancer of the uterus. The fact that 
 the ceremony of marriage has been performed, will 
 not save people from the consequences of venereal 
 excesses. The laws of our nature remain the same ; 
 and if violated, we must suffer the consequences. 
 
 Numerous other diseases are produced by the 
 excess which we are contemplating. Besides abor- 
 tions and monstrosities, there are those general dis- 
 eases which are caused by over excitement of the 
 nervous system, hysteria, dyspepsia, undue nervous 
 excitability, epilepsy, and various kinds of fits, pain- 
 ful menstruation, diseases of the eye, apathy of the 
 sexual appetite, or its undue violence, pulmonary 
 complaints, bleeding at the lungs, diseases of the 
 heart, St. Vitus' dance, exhaustion of the system, 
 idiocy and insanity. Hundreds and thousands are 
 hurried into a premature grave, or made wretched 
 whilst they live, by these diseases, with no knowl- 
 edge of their causes. 
 
 Many lovely young women enter the married 
 state, frail as the gossamer, from wrong physical 
 training, unable to bear the slightest hardship, when 
 it is their right, by God's intendment, to be hardy 
 and robust. They fall victims immediately, and 
 often the grave covers them and their first born, 
 and " Mysterious Providence " heads their obitu- 
 ary. Parent of Wisdom ! shall such ignorance for-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 ever shroud our world ? The functions of gesta- 
 tion and parturition are as natural as digestion ; and 
 were mankind brought into a natural and healthy 
 state, we have reason to believe that these func- 
 tions would be attended with little, if any pain. 
 But the healthy tone of the nervous system is de- 
 stroyed. Diseased, convulsed, and erratic action is 
 established by the various abuses of civic life, and 
 the most tender and endearing of all relations be- 
 comes a terror and a curse. 
 
 I know many mothers who, with their husbands, 
 have adopted the " Graham System," or in other 
 words, those correct habits recommended in these 
 lectures ; and these mothers have abridged their 
 sufferings in parturition from forty hours to one hour, 
 and have escaped altogether the deathly sickness 
 of the three first months of gestation. But they 
 avoided all excesses as far as possible. We know 
 that the Indians, the lower orders of Irish, and the 
 slaves at the south, suffer very little in child bear- 
 ing. Why is this ? God made us all of one blood. 
 Is it not that these, living in a less artificial manner, 
 taking much exercise in the open air, and living 
 temperately, have obeyed more of the laws of their 
 being, and consequently do not suffer the penalty 
 of violated laws, as do our victims of civilization ?
 
 220 LECTURES ON 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 
 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 No form of nervous excitement is so injurious as 
 solitary vice. The reports of our hospitals for the 
 insane, if we had no other means of obtaining in- 
 formation, would convince us that this vice is ex- 
 ceedingly common. I shall proceed to show some 
 of its effects, and then point out its causes and the 
 means of preventing it. That the unnatural, pre- 
 cocious, or excessive development of the sexual 
 instinct is disease, as much as fever, and should be 
 treated as such, I am fully persuaded. If hospi- 
 tals were built for the social and solitary licentious, 
 instead of casting them out from society, and suffer- 
 ing them to herd in dens of infamy, destroying and 
 destroyed, society might be in a more healthy state. 
 But such is the excessive and diseased develop- 
 ment of the animal nature of man, that the civilized 
 world might well be turned into a hospital for the 
 cure of diseases caused by licentiousness. 
 
 In the reports of our lunatic hospitals, masturba- 
 tion, or solitary vice, ranks next to alcohol in pro- 
 ducing insanity. All the diseases caused by social 
 licentiousness are produced by this form of nervous
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 221 
 
 abuse. I would again remark, that many of these 
 diseases may be produced by other causes. I have 
 given advice in almost every form of disease in- 
 duced by this vice. I have seen idiocy and insan- 
 ity caused by it ; and I think with the excellent Dr. 
 Woodward, " that it is time something were done 
 to rescue the most moral, conscientious, and some- 
 times the most promising youth from the mind- 
 wasting ravages of an indulgence, of whose terrible 
 consequences they have never been forewarned." 
 
 Dr. Woodward says farther, " It is the vice of 
 ignorance, not of depravity ; the sufferers are per- 
 sonally less offenders than victims." This is a 
 truth to be remembered. We should labor in the 
 spirit of love, not of blame, for the restoration of 
 fallen, diseased humanity. Children are born with 
 the impress of sensuality upon their whole being, 
 in consequence of the excesses of their parents. 
 They are trained in a manner destructive to health, 
 and it would be indeed a miracle if they should es- 
 cape this vice. 
 
 I am unwilling to leave this subject without 
 again calling attention to the diseases which are 
 caused by this habit. There is hardly an end to 
 these diseases. Dyspepsia, spinal disease, head- 
 ache, epilepsy, and various kinds of fits, which dif- 
 fer in their character according to the degree of 
 abuse and consequent disease of the nervous sys-
 
 222 LECTURES ON 
 
 tern. Impaired eye-sight, palpitation of the heart, 
 pain in the side, and bleeding at the lungs, spasm 
 of the heart and lungs, and sometimes sudden death, 
 are caused by indulgence in this vice. Diabetes, 
 or incontinence of urine, fluor albus, or whites, and 
 inflammation of the urinary organs, are induced by 
 indulgence in this practice. Indeed, this habit so 
 diseases the| nervous system, and through that the 
 stomach and the whole body, that almost every 
 form of disease may be produced by it; though 
 these disorders may arise from other causes, and 
 may afflict those who never indulged in the habit. 
 Some who have been in a degree enlightened on 
 these subjects, have feared to have others enlight- 
 ened, lest it should increase the evil. They say 
 there is safety in ignorance. I answer, the silent 
 course has been tried till our world has become one 
 vast pit of corruption. Has the world been safe 
 in its ignorance ? If not, will it be so hereafter ? 
 Deslandes says that St. Vitus' dance is also at 
 times caused by this vice. 
 
 Deslandes and Tissot contain abundant evidence 
 that the worst forms of spinal disease are occasion- 
 ed by masturbation. But light has dawned upon 
 us, and we should be thankful for the blessing. 
 
 About eight years since, my mind was awaken- 
 ed to examine this subject, by the perusal of a med- 
 ical work that described the effects of the vice,
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 223 
 
 when practised by females. This was the first in- 
 timation I had that the vice existed among our sex. 
 Since that time I have had much evidence that it 
 is fearfully common among them. 
 
 I have it from good authority, that among the 
 insane admitted into the lunatic hospitals, from 
 this cause, the proportion of females is nearly as 
 large as that of males. The reports of our luna- 
 tic asylums furnish melancholy evidence of the 
 prevalence and increase of this vice. In the Fifth 
 Annual Report of the State Lunatic Hospital at 
 Worcester, Mass., we find the following :. 
 
 " The number of cases of insanity from mastur- 
 bation [self-pollution] has been even greater than 
 usual, the past year, and our ill success in its treat- 
 ment the same. No good whatever arises in such 
 cases, from remedial treatment, unless such an im- 
 pression can be made upon the mind and moral 
 feelings of the individual, as to induce him to aban- 
 don the habit. In this attempt, even with the ra- 
 tional mind, we have to encounter mistaken views, 
 as well as active propensities. No effectual means 
 can be adopted to prevent the devastation of mind 
 and body, and the debasement of moral principle 
 from this cause, till the whole subject is well un- 
 derstood and properly appreciated by parents and 
 instructors, as well as by the young themselves." 
 
 How many of earth's noblest, even the brightest
 
 224 LECTURES ON 
 
 and best of our youth, have sunk beneath slow, 
 wasting, nervous disease, the cause of which was 
 neither known nor suspected by themselves or their 
 friends. They have felt that they were doomed 
 that a destiny from which they could not escape 
 held them in its relentless grasp. They have shrunk 
 from the struggle of life as if they were all nerves, 
 and as if each nerve was bared to the pitiless pelt- 
 ing of the storm of life. They have felt sure that 
 they were born with a " constitutional nervous sen- 
 sibility," that made life a burden and a curse and 
 often they have sought refuge in voluntary death, 
 as a relief from sufferings that it was not in hu- 
 manity to bear. Though there are many causes 
 for nervous disease, still we have good reason to be- 
 lieve that many who rise every morning " like an 
 infernal frog out of Acheron, covered with the ooze 
 and mud of melancholy," may trace their misery to 
 this cause. Is he the friend of his species, is he 
 the true philanthropist nay more, is he a Christian, 
 who, knowing all this, can be silent ; can put his 
 finger on his lip and say, " this subject is too deli- 
 cate to be meddled with you will but increase the 
 evil by your efforts ?" Let ministers, let Christians 
 cease to denounce theft and murder. Let them 
 blot from the blessed Book the commands against 
 licentiousness, and give us an expurgated edition of 
 the Bible, lest the reading of the Holy Scriptures 
 increase the evil.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 225 
 
 A short time since, two sisters, ladies of the first 
 respectability, informed me that when very young, 
 they were put to a female boarding school, where 
 this vice prevailed, and the practice was explained 
 to them. They were blessed with parents who 
 were willing to converse with and warn their chil- 
 dren, and they escaped the contamination. 
 
 There is reason to believe that in nine cases out 
 of ten, those unhappy females who are the tenants 
 of houses of ill fame, have been the victims of this 
 vice in the first place. Were this the peculiar vice 
 of the low and vulgar, there might be more excuse 
 for the apathy and false delicacy that pervade the 
 community respecting it. But it invades all ranks. 
 Professed Christians are often among its victims. 
 Sometime since I became acquainted with a lovely 
 and intellectual young man, who was a student in 
 one of our theological seminaries. His health be- 
 came so poor that he was obliged to leave the sem- 
 inary and return to his friends. I saw him lose his 
 reason and become a maniac. I was satisfied, from 
 all the symptoms in the case, that this sin was the 
 cause of his wretched condition. He died without 
 recovering his reason, and a friend of his who was 
 in the seminary with him, told me after his decease, 
 that he was indeed a victim of solitary vice that 
 it caused his death.
 
 226 LECTURES ON 
 
 The following statement was given me by a lady 
 of great worth and intelligence. 
 
 " MY DEAR MRS. G. You request an account 
 of my case. I little thought once that I should 
 ever communicate my fearful experience to any one. 
 But a sense of duty to my fellow creatures makes 
 me willing to give the facts in my case ; and if only 
 one is warned and saved from the misery it has been 
 my lot to endure, I shall greatly rejoice. 
 
 " My early education was religious, and guarded 
 in the extreme. I was taught early to repeat a 
 prayer every night ; and the Holy Scriptures were 
 my almost constant companion. My parents never 
 warned me against licentiousness, either social or 
 solitary. It is true, social licentiousness was allud- 
 ed to as a very shameful thing. Solitary vice was 
 never mentioned. My parents being people of prop- 
 erty, I was delicately reared, and took very little 
 exercise ; doing very little work, with the excep- 
 tion of nice and very laborious embroidery. I have 
 little doubt my sedentary habits were a great injury 
 to me. 
 
 " My parents were very luxurious in their mode 
 of living, using much animal food and large quanti- 
 ties of the different condiments. As nearly as 1 
 can recollect, I became addicted to solitary vice 
 about the age of nine years. I was never taught
 
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 227 
 
 the vice. Previous to this time, I think I had en- 
 joyed as much health as most children perhaps 
 more, for my constitution was always considered 
 unusually firm. 
 
 " At about twelve years of age, my health began 
 to fail; I became dyspeptic and nervous. I often 
 awoke in the morning bathed in tears ; and the most 
 indescribable and horrible sinking of spirits was my 
 portion during the forenoon. If I committed any 
 little mistake, or fault, the recollection of it would 
 haunt me for days, and make me superlatively 
 wretched. I became pale as death, weak, feeble 
 and emaciated. I had severe palpitation of the 
 heart, pain in the side, and many symptoms of con- 
 sumption. I had also, much of the time, distressing 
 pain in the head. I had much dizziness, and my 
 sight would often become entirely obscured, espe- 
 cially when I stooped and rose quickly. My pa- 
 rents were much alarmed about me, and the best 
 medical advisers were called. They termed my 
 disorder chlorosis,* and they gave me different pow- 
 erful medicines calomel, brandy and iron, and let 
 blood till my arms were frightfully scarred. 
 
 " During all this time I was practising solitary 
 vice to a great extent. My conscience often told 
 me it was wrong, but the force of habit prevailed 
 
 * A derangement of the menses.
 
 228 LECTURES ON 
 
 against my better feelings, and I continued to com- 
 mit this sin against my body and soul. Social licen- 
 tiousness I had learned to consider a dreadful crime, 
 and I should have recoiled with horror from the 
 deed. O that some one had arisen then, like your- 
 self, to warn young women to tell them that sol- 
 itary vice was sin, was adultery, as well as social 
 licentiousness. O, how much misery I should have 
 escaped, and not I alone, but numbers of others, 
 had this been done. But no one raised the warn- 
 ing voice. 
 
 " For several years I continued in wretched 
 health. My father travelled with me, and spared 
 no pains or expense in purchasing gratifications, and 
 in procuring the attendance of physicians. But at 
 last relief came. God in his providence raised up 
 that blessed man, Dr. Graham, and opened his 
 mouth to speak on this subject. No words can 
 express my gratitude to this devoted philanthropist. 
 He stepped between me and death temporal, and 
 for aught I know, eternal. The blessing of him that 
 was ready to perish is emphatically his. Though 
 he, like yourself, may have to bear slander and 
 reproach for the blessed cause of purity, yet your 
 reward is sure. 
 
 " To Dr. Graham belongs greater praise than to 
 the conqueror of a world. Shortly after the publi- 
 cation of his Lecture to Young Men, I met with it.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 229 
 
 I opened it merely from curiosity, having little or 
 no idea what it contained. Never shall I forget the 
 mingled sensations of agony and gratitude that filled 
 my soul. I here read my sin and its consequences. 
 I procured a copy of the book, and perused it with 
 great care. I left the wicked habit, and confined 
 myself strictly to vegetable food, with a small quan- 
 tity of milk and good fruits. I took my meals reg- 
 ularly, about six hours apart. I procured a mat- 
 tress and slept on it, instead of feathers, and daily 
 used the cold bath. I took much exercise in the 
 open air, and was particular in ventilating my apart- 
 ment. In a short time my health began to improve. 
 " Before my mind was enlightened on the subject, 
 I had not the slightest idea that this practice was 
 injuring my health. I had suffered much from 
 a disease of the eyes. This soon left me. After 
 a time the pain in my side left me entirely. I 
 became free from palpitations and headache, and 
 the glow and animation of health again returned. 
 Though I began to recover very soon after the 
 change in my habits, yet the pain in my side con- 
 tinued with more or less severity for a considerable 
 length of time, and the tendency to palpitation was 
 very strong. 1 find myself now more inclined to a 
 disease of the eyes, palpitation, and pain in the side, 
 than any other illness. If I err in the quantity or 
 quality of my food, or the amount of my exercise, I
 
 230 LECTURES ON 
 
 am apt to have a recurrence of these complaints ; 
 but by care I can maintain a comfortable state of 
 health all the time. 
 
 " I am acquainted with a number of persons who 
 have been the victims of this vice ; and I am per- 
 suaded, from their experience as well as my own, 
 that the entire abandonment of the habit, and the 
 adoption of the Graham system of diet and regimen, 
 will produce renovated health, if any means on 
 earth can do it. 
 
 " The Lord bless you, Mrs. G., and prosper you 
 abundantly in your efforts to spread light on this 
 truly awful subject. May parents be awakened, and 
 this foul and blighting curse be removed from our 
 midst." 
 
 A pious young woman has given me the follow- 
 ing. I have never received a statement of this kind 
 except from the most conscientious and worthy. 
 
 "Mr DEAR MRS. G. I am willing to give you 
 a statement of facts relative to solitary vice. You 
 say you never found it among your mates. Would 
 that I could say the same. My most dear and 
 intimate friend was a victim of this vice, though 
 considered a pattern of loveliness by those who 
 knew her. I was induced when quite young to 
 practise it, but not to any great extent. Fortu-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 231 
 
 nately, I met with a moral reform paper, that rep- 
 resented the evil in its true light. I left the habit 
 with loathing and abhorrence. I did not suffer 
 materially in my health, with the exception of an 
 obstinate disease of the eyes. 
 
 " With the most earnest desire that information 
 on this subject may be spread, I am your friend." 
 
 The distressing details to which I have listened 
 of nervous disease and irritability, of those disorders 
 which are peculiar to females, of moral aberrations 
 in consequence of the morbid condition of the suf- 
 ferer, and of a state of partial insanity, have brought 
 me to look upon my erring fellow creatures more 
 as patients, than as criminals more as the victims 
 of disease, than of crime. I would by no means 
 discredit the doctrine of accountability. So long as 
 the actions of persons are under the control of the 
 will, they are accountable for them. But we all 
 know that there is an amount of disease and insanity 
 that removes us beyond the limits of responsibility. 
 Let us diligently inquire into this matter before we 
 blame the erring. 
 
 Physicians have done much, within the last few 
 years, to stay the progress of solitary vice. But 
 many of them are still too fearful to do all that is 
 required at their hands. A short time since I was 
 conversing with a physician, who seemed to feel
 
 232 LECTURES ON 
 
 deeply on the subject. "But," said he, "-what 
 can be done ? I dare not offend parents by telling 
 them the habits of their children. Only the other 
 day," said he, " I was called to a youth who was 
 destroying himself by this practice, but I dared not 
 mention it. The parents would have been very 
 angry if 1 had." 
 
 Surely it is the duty of physicians to make an 
 effort to save the children of such parents, and 
 clear their own souls of the guilt of suffering them 
 to perish for lack of knowledge, even if they anger 
 them. A parent had better be angry, than to 
 mourn over the premature death of a promising 
 child, or to see him languish in hopeless insanity or 
 idiocy. 
 
 One of the most powerful procuring causes of the 
 premature and excessive development of the sexual 
 instinct, is the neglect of exercise. Active exercise 
 in the open air, with a loose dress, is all important 
 to health, at all ages, but particularly during the 
 period of youth. The confinement of children 
 during six hours of the day, to one position, in our 
 close, un ventilated school rooms, is a tremendous 
 evil. Girls are much more unjustly treated than 
 boys, because they are not allowed scarcely any 
 exercise out of school, and because of their tight 
 dresses. 
 
 If I were asked on what conditions, more than
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 233 
 
 all others, health and purity depend, I should 
 reply, ACTIVE EXERCISE ATTRACTIVE INDUSTRY, 
 
 and HEALTHFUL EMPLOYMENT FOR BODY AND 
 MIND. 
 
 The bodies of children are enfeebled by indo- 
 lence. The brain is excited by premature instruc- 
 tion ; and the early reading of love tales, amatory 
 poetry, romances, &,c., excite the imagination un- 
 duly. Of course the imagination influences the 
 organism, and the fires of passion rage and consume, 
 while all without is calm. Parents and friends are 
 unsuspecting, but the worm is in the bud. The 
 healthy balance of the system is lost. A giant 
 passion is roused, and with morbid and insane vio- 
 lence it crushes its victim ; or if slower in its pro- 
 gress, it still saps the foundations of life and health, 
 and eventually destroys. Little can be effected in 
 cases like this by outward remedial treatment ; a 
 new direction must be given to the mind. Parents 
 and care-takers must be aware that nothing but a 
 passion can control and subdue a passion. They 
 must make powerful and judicious appeals to some 
 other passion or propensity. With some, the love 
 of life is strong, and the certain death that their 
 unhappy state will cause should be set before them. 
 Conscientiousness, reverence for God and his laws, 
 should be appealed to. But no occasional appeal, 
 no transient effect, should be trusted. Regular 
 16
 
 234 LECTURES ON 
 
 attractive occupation for body and mind, should 
 above all means be provided for the sufferer. 
 
 We should strengthen the minds of the young by 
 encouraging them to read history, biography, and 
 books upon the natural sciences. The study of 
 philosophy, mathematics and the languages, is worth 
 much to health. Hygienic rules for securing the 
 health of the body are invaluable, when the mind 
 is taken into the account. But mere rules for the 
 treatment of the body, without reference to the 
 mind, must often, if not always, prove unsuccessful. 
 Improper associates do much toward corrupting 
 children. Still it will be altogether vain to guard 
 children from improper associates, if the conditions 
 of health are not complied with ; for they often as 
 effectually corrupt themselves as another could do 
 it. Still, our boarding and day schools are sources 
 of untold mischief. If parents and teachers, and 
 those who have the care of children, could know 
 the laws of health as respects body and mind, the 
 aspect of things in our world would soon be 
 changed. The terrible waste of health, and life, 
 and mental energy, that we now see result from the 
 excessive development of the animal nature of man, 
 would cease. Those sins that are the consequence 
 of this unnatural development would cease, and 
 then we might be convinced that the name of these 
 sins was " legion." There is vast meaning in the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 235 
 
 words of Scripture, that " men are perishing for 
 lack of knowledge." 
 
 The dietetic habits of the people have much to 
 do in causing the evil we are contemplating. A 
 stimulating, oily diet of animal food, is probably 
 next to neglect of exercise, in causing the undue 
 development and excessive indulgence of the ani- 
 mal instinct. Parents should religiously abstain 
 from giving their children rich, stimulating food, or 
 tea and coffee. Cold water is the only proper 
 drink for them. The importance of correct diet 
 should be felt by every parent. Alas, for children 
 and for parents, where the " table is made a snare." 
 The sins of Sodom were said to be pride, fulness of 
 bread, and abundance of idleness. 
 
 But some parents say, " If these things are so, 
 why have I not known it long ago ? " I know 
 many are reared in a plain, temperate, healthful 
 manner, and escape vice, and a knowledge of it. 
 Let such observe and inquire. 
 
 There is a great want of confidence between 
 parents and children. This ought not so to be, 
 Parents should confide in their children, and in- 
 struct and warn them, and treat them like reason- 
 able beings, and not like mere animals. If the} 
 are curious about their organization or origin, the} 
 should never be met with subterfuge and falsehood
 
 236 LECTURES ON 
 
 but kindly told that when they are old enough they 
 shall be properly instructed. 
 
 We all know that the world is very corrupt, and 
 is growing more and more so. What is the course 
 for us to pursue in order to roll back the polluting 
 tide that is overwhelming our world with moral and 
 physical desolation. Every transgression against 
 the laws of our nature, is visited on the head of the 
 offender with a fearful penalty. The only course 
 by which we can hope to renovate the human 
 constitution, is, with the blessing of the Almighty, 
 a course of strict temperance, a course of obedience 
 to the laws of our nature, and the correct education 
 of our children and youth. Let children be reared 
 in temperance ; let them be daily bathed thoroughly : 
 let them sleep on a mattress of hair, straw, or some 
 elastic substance ; let them be encouraged to ex- 
 ercise ; let the mind be occupied in a healthy and 
 invigorating manner, and then the feeble, the in- 
 efficient, the nervous, the fanatic, will not cross our 
 path every hour, as they now do. Our insane hos- 
 pitals will not be flooded with victims, as they now 
 are, and those dens of infamy will cease to exist, 
 which are at once the product and the bane of 
 civilization. And the blessing of God will rest 
 upon us and our children. 
 
 The importance of a knowledge of these laws is 
 beginning to be felt. People begin to be aware
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 237 
 
 that insanity, idiocy and ill health have causes. 
 Formerly they were considered mysterious dispen- 
 sations of Providence. That they are dispensations 
 of Providence, and depend on infraction of God's 
 laws, phrenologists and physiologists have plainly 
 demonstrated. 
 
 Not long since I took up a book by a clergyman, 
 containing an account of a whole family of children 
 who were successively reduced to idiocy. The good 
 man marvelled at this mysterious providence being 
 permitted to afflict pious parents. He found the 
 case in darkness [to him] he left it so. Truly 
 such men must be called blind leaders of the blind, 
 however excellent their intentions may be. 
 
 In conclusion, let me entreat my sisters to study 
 the science of human life. It is the science of 
 sciences. We want light. The cause of humanity 
 is the cause of God, for 
 
 " God is paid when man receives. 
 Tb enjoy is to obey." 
 
 [When my Lectures were put to press, I supposed that the 
 popular course would make three hundred pages. The two 
 Lectures subjoined, though not in the regular course, I trust 
 will be found valuable to the reader.]
 
 238 LECTURES ON 
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 DISEASES OF THE SPINE. 
 
 DISEASES and deformities of the spine have be- 
 come so common, and almost fashionable, that it 
 seems to me the votaries of science would be verily 
 guilty, if they have so little philanthropy that 
 they neglect to speak out on this subject, and in 
 such a manner that the community can understand. 
 I know there is a class of the community who can 
 be benefited only in a reflex manner by scientific 
 efforts. The want of common and general informa- 
 tion, is a barrier raised between us and a certain 
 part of the people. But if those who are abundantly 
 able to understand these subjects, and to benefit the 
 world by their example and conversation, will but 
 use their energies, they will be instruments of great 
 good in correcting abuses. Sometime since I was 
 in a city where spinal diseases were very fashiona- 
 ble. A lady was ill, and a Thomsonian practition- 
 er was attending her. I inquired what her illness 
 was. "Why," said one lady, "she has got the 
 spine in her neck." It is evident these persons had 
 little knowledge of anatomy. 
 
 In considering distortions of the spine, it must be
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 239 
 
 kept in mind how much the muscles have to do in 
 keeping the body upright, and in maintaining the 
 equilibrium of the body. If the integrity of the 
 muscles is destroyed, they cannot support the spine. 
 For instance, if the muscles that support the chest 
 are paralyzed, they cannot hold the chest upright. 
 Hence that stooping posture so common among 
 young women who destroy the contractility of the 
 muscles by lacing. The spine is bent forward, the 
 intervertebral substance gives way, and assumes a 
 wedge-like shape, and the spine becomes fixed in a 
 degree of distortion. 
 
 Young persons who sit much in a stooping pos- 
 ture, or who incline to one side, and perhaps lean the 
 elbow on a bench or desk, are subject to distortion ; 
 the latter, to what is called lateral curvature of the 
 spine. It is indispensable to the health of muscles, 
 that they be alternately contracted and relaxed. 
 You have probably all noticed that we tire much 
 sooner when we stand for a considerable length of 
 time, than when we walk. More muscles are brought 
 into action by walking, than in standing. They 
 are thus alternately relaxed and contracted ; and this 
 is more favorable than either continued relaxation 
 or contraction. Children who are obliged by fear 
 of punishment to keep in a fixed posture at school, 
 suffer greatly from the continued contraction of the 
 muscles.
 
 240 LECTURES ON 
 
 From being obliged to keep constantly poring 
 over a book, children contract a habit of stooping, 
 or resting on the right side at school ; and owing to 
 the length of time they are confined at the desk, the 
 evil is greatly increased. Lateral distortion of the 
 spine is thus produced. Many have this distortion 
 who are not aware of it. It generally first shows 
 itself in young girls by a prominence in the right 
 shoulder, and by the right breast appearing larger 
 than the other. 
 
 The following excellent extracts are from Dr. 
 Warren's Lecture on the Importance of Physical 
 Education. The reader will perceive that I 
 strengthen my positions by extracts from medical 
 men of eminence. 
 
 "Causes which affect the health and produce 
 general weakness, operate powerfully on this part, 
 in consequence of the complexity of its structure, 
 and the great burden it supports. When weaken- 
 ed, it gradually yields under its weight, becomes 
 bent and distp/ted, losing its natural curves, and ac- 
 quiring others, in such directions as the operation of 
 external causes tend to give to it ; and these curves 
 will be proportioned, in their degree and in their 
 permanence, to the producing causes. If the sup- 
 porting part is removed from its true position, the 
 parts supported necessarily follow, and thus a dis- 
 tortion of the spine effects a distortion of the trunk 
 of the body.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 241 
 
 " The change commonly begins at the part which 
 supports the right arm. The column bends towards 
 the right shoulder, forms a convexity on the side 
 where the shoulder rests, and thus elevates the right 
 higher than the other. This elevation, or, as it is 
 commonly called, growing out of the shoulder, is 
 the first phenomenon that strikes the friends of the 
 patient. Often when observed, it has already un- 
 dergone a considerable change of position ; and the 
 change is not confined to the shoulder, nor to the 
 portion of spine immediately connected with it. On 
 examination, it will be discovered that the curva- 
 ture to the right in the upper part of the column, is 
 accompanied, as a natural consequence, by a bend 
 of the lower part to the left, and a correspondent 
 projection of the left hip. It is perfectly obvious, 
 that the inclination of the upper part of a flexible 
 stick to one side, will leave the lower part on the 
 other ; and when, by this inclination, the vertical 
 support is lost, a disposition to yield at the curving 
 points will continually increase, until it be counter- 
 acted by some other power. Thus it happens, then, 
 that any considerable projection of the right shoul- 
 der will be attended by a correspondent projection 
 of the left hip. 
 
 " The rising of the shoulder involves other changes 
 in the osseous fabric. For, as the spinal bones sup- 
 port the ribs, when these bones project, they neces-
 
 242 LECTURES ON 
 
 sarily push forward the ribs dependent on them. 
 These ribs form the frame of the chest, and of 
 course the right side of the chest is projected for- 
 wards, and causes a deformity in the fore part of 
 the body. Nor do the changes stop here. The 
 posterior ends of the ribs being pushed forwards, 
 and the anterior ends being confined to the sternum 
 or breast-bone, the right edge of the sternum will 
 be drawn forwards, and the left edge consequently 
 turned backwards. The fore-parts of the left ribs 
 will be gradually forced inwards or backwards, and 
 thus the left side of the chest distorted and con- 
 tracted. 
 
 " I am aware how difficult it is to have a distinct 
 notion of these intricate changes in the human ma- 
 chinery, without an exhibition of the parts concern- 
 ed in them ; but it is my duty to present the train 
 of phenomena as they exist in nature ; and I think 
 they are sufficiently intelligible to excite considera- 
 tion and inquiry. 
 
 " Perhaps it may be imagined, that the cases 1 
 have described are of rare occurrence, and that we 
 have no occasion to alarm ourselves about a few 
 strange distortions, the consequence of peculiar and 
 accidental causes. If such were in fact the truth, 
 I would not have occupied your time with the mi- 
 nute details of these unpleasant subjects. Unhap- 
 pily they are very common. I feel warranted in the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 243 
 
 assertion already intimated, that of the well-educated 
 females within my sphere of experience, about one 
 half are affected with some degree of distortion of 
 the spine. This statement will not be thought ex- 
 aggerated when compared with that of one of the 
 latest and most judicious foreign writers. Speaking 
 of the right, lateral curvature of the spine, just de- 
 scribed, he tells us, ' It is so common, that out of 
 twenty young girls, who have attained the age of 
 fifteen years, there are not two who do not present 
 very manifest traces of it.' 
 
 " The lateral distortion of the spine is almost 
 wholly confined to females, and is scarcely ever 
 found existing in the other sex. The proportion of 
 the former to the latter is at least nine to one. In 
 truth, I may say that I have scarcely ever witness- 
 ed a remarkable distortion, of the kind now spoken 
 of, in a boy. What is the cause of the disparity ? 
 They are equally well formed by nature ; or, if there 
 be any difference, the symmetry of all parts is more 
 perfect in the female than in the male. The differ- 
 ence in physical organization results from a differ- 
 ence of habits during the school education. It is 
 not seen till after this process is advanced. The 
 girl, when she goes from school, is, as we have be- 
 fore said, expected to go home and remain, at least 
 a large part of the time, confined to the house. As 
 soon as the boy is released, he begins to run and
 
 244 LECTURES ON 
 
 jump and frolic in the open air, and continues his 
 sports till hunger draws him to his food. The re- 
 sult is, that in him all the organs get invigorated, 
 and the bones of course became solid ; while a de- 
 fect exists in the other proportionate to the want of 
 physical motion. 
 
 " A question may fairly be asked why these evils 
 are greater now than formerly, when females were 
 equally confined ? The answer, in reference to 
 the young females of our country is, that they then 
 took a considerable share in the laborious part of the 
 domestic duties ; now they are devoted to literary 
 occupations of a nature to confine the body and re- 
 quire considerable efforts of the mind." 
 
 You will readily see, that if the bones are not 
 properly formed, they will be bent out of place 
 much more easily. And bone cannot be properly 
 formed if the habits of the individual are wrong 
 if exercise is neglected, and pure air is not breathed. 
 We can hardly insist too much on exercise. The 
 bones of men, and of race horses during what is 
 called training, are hard and white like ivory. These 
 same bones will very soon degenerate where there 
 is neglect of exercise. If the food be improper in 
 quality or quantity, the blood will not be good. 
 Of course the bones cannot be properly formed. 
 Hence, too, distortion is easily produced. 
 
 Neglect of the skin causes bone to be improperly
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 245 
 
 formed. But you may ask, what can the skin 
 have to do with the bones ? The worn out, useless 
 and pernicious matter of the system is thrown out by 
 the excretories of the skin, when the functions of the 
 excretories are properly performed. The functions 
 of the skin cannot be properly performed, without 
 the pores are kept open by frequent bathing. Where 
 this is neglected, the waste matter of the system, 
 which should pass off through the pores, is thrown 
 upon the lungs. The lungs are made to do the 
 work of the skin. By this unnatural labor, and by 
 means of the morbific matter thrown upon the lungs, 
 they become diseased. The necessary changes by 
 which the blood becomes perfect cannot be pro- 
 duced. The blood is not good, and of course the 
 bones cannot be properly nourished. They become 
 soft, and easily bent out of shape. The super- 
 incumbent load that rests on the spine and pelvis, 
 peculiarly dispose these bones to distortion. 
 
 A scrofulous state of the bones often induces 
 distortion ; though this is but one among many 
 causes of distortion. Scrofula is at the present day 
 a prevalent and formidable disease ; and many 
 causes operate in its production. 
 
 It will at once be seen, that as all parts of the 
 body are dependent on the blood for nutrition, they 
 cannot be properly nourished unless the blood be 
 good. The muscles that support the spine become
 
 246 LECTURES ON 
 
 weak, torpid and shrivelled. They cannot support 
 the spine. There will be irregular contractions and 
 relaxations. The spine will be thus distorted. 
 There are so many causes steadily at work to pro- 
 duce distortion, that it is not at all wonderful that 
 almost every third female we meet with is more or 
 less crooked. Whatever deteriorates the blood, 
 affects the muscles and the bones thus increasing 
 the chances of distortion. Impure air deteriorates 
 the blood. No blood can be good unless vitalized 
 by pure air. Improper and innutritious food of 
 course affects the blood, tending to produce scrofula 
 and other disorders. 
 
 Respecting the causes of scrofula, I find the 
 following sensible remarks in an essay on scrofula 
 by Dr. S. Durkee, of Boston, published in the 
 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal : 
 
 " Whatever is calculated to impair the healthy 
 tone of the system, may lay the foundation of the 
 disease. I have now under my care a young man 
 afflicted with scrofula, and in whom no hereditary 
 taint can be traced. He has, until recently, led a 
 sea-faring life. His complexion is dark. He is 
 one of five children belonging to the same family, 
 none of whom ever exhibited any signs of the 
 complaint ; nor yet the parents. This patient's 
 legs have been covered at times with large crops 
 of scrofulous ulcers, duriner the last four or five 
 
 * o
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 247 
 
 years. My knowledge of his habits satisfies me 
 that the disease is chargeable to them. 
 
 " Another case is that of a female, who from 
 childhood was the object of fond parental regard ; 
 and while no means were unemployed for the cul- 
 tivation of her mind, her physical education was 
 comparatively neglected, and, as a consequence, 
 her constitution, naturally slender, has been greatly 
 undermined. For several years she was kept at a 
 crowded boarding school, where little regard was 
 had to pure air, exercise and diet. Her digestive 
 powers first became enfeebled, which in time led 
 to a train of symptoms of uncommon obstinacy, 
 such as constipation, abdominal tumefaction, and 
 glandular enlargements. I have long been ac- 
 quainted with the family of which this young wo- 
 man is a member, and have no reason to suppose 
 that the scrofulous affections, under which she 
 suffers, are attributable to hereditary predisposition. 
 The health-destroying agencies to which she was 
 subjected in early years, operating slowly and in- 
 sidiously, afford an explanation of all that apper- 
 tains to her case, so far as causes are concerned. 
 
 " It is a matter of medical history, made certain 
 by the investigations of Alison, that scrofula pre- 
 vails to a greater extent in large towns and cities, 
 than in the open country. What is the reason of 
 this difference ? Certainly not because a higher
 
 248 LECTURES ON ^CK?A1 
 
 per cent, of hereditary predisposition exists among 
 the same number of inhabitants in one district rather 
 than another, but because of the artificial modes of 
 life incident to the abodes of city residents. Causes 
 dissimilar in kind, but the same in effect, are con- 
 tinually at work among the operatives-of extensive 
 manufactories ; and hence the prevalence of the 
 disease in these establishments. It were idle to 
 dwell on these causes at length. Every practical 
 man in the profession is familiar with them ; and is 
 often compelled to contend with their influence in 
 his efforts to conquer the disease. Take, for in- 
 stance, an enlargement of the lymphatic glands in 
 the first stage. If the patient live in a close, con- 
 taminated atmosphere, and on meagre or unwhole- 
 some fare of any description, or if he be under the 
 influence of any cause calculated to bring debility 
 upon the system, every exertion to benefit him will 
 prove nugatory. Judicious hygienic measures con- 
 stitute the sheet anchor in the case ; and it may be 
 laid down as a correct proposition, that those 
 causes which interrupt the cure, will produce the 
 disorder. Scrofula has many features which bring 
 it into near alliance with scurvy. 
 
 " The digestive apparatus is the grand laboratory 
 for preparing the materials for the support of the 
 animal economy ; and if the digestive powers are 
 subjected to the influence of causes which serve to
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 249 
 
 debilitate them and disturb their proper functions, 
 the process of chylification, being a part of their 
 work, will be partially executed. The blood will 
 consequently be deteriorated in its properties 
 will be less nutritious less capable of sustaining 
 and stimulating the general organization, and the 
 vital forces will be depressed. 
 
 " If by reason of impure air, bad food, or imper- 
 fect digestion, the blood is degenerated and unfit 
 for adequate nutrition, the organs most essential to 
 life will often suffer to a fatal extent. So true is 
 this fact, that in the lower animals strumous affec- 
 tions in the lungs, mesentery, &c., can be produced 
 to almost any amount, by withholding a sufficiency 
 of food, or by allowing them that which is too rich. 
 Quadrupeds and birds, transferred from their wild 
 state and confined in menageries, where the atmos- 
 phere is contaminated, and their food too concen- 
 trated in form, frequently droop and die with lym- 
 phatic engorgements. The same causes produce 
 like effects in the human subject. In large towns 
 the children of the poor suffer for lack of healthy 
 sustenance, while those of the opulent are over-fed 
 with all the varieties which the genius of cookery 
 can invent. 
 
 " Of all artizans in this country, shoe-makers are 
 most liable to be attacked with scrofula from arti- 
 ficial causes. The apartments in which they labor 
 17
 
 250 LECTURES ON 
 
 are small, and usually crowded ; the temperature is 
 raised to an unhealthy degree, and the confined 
 atmosphere largely impregnated with human effluvia 
 and the smoke of lamps and tobacco, as well as 
 with the specific exhalation arising from the mate- 
 rial manufactured. Their attitude, in leaning with 
 the head depressed for twelve or fourteen hours a 
 day, and the pressure of the shoes against the ster- 
 num, occasion a permanent deformity of the chest 
 and crookedness of the spinal column. These 
 causes induce torpidity in the functions of the 
 stomach and intestinal canal, and the whole diges- 
 tive apparatus is deranged ; the sanguineous fluid 
 is depraved, its circulation indolent, and the powers 
 of assimilation blunted the muscles flaccid, the 
 countenance pale and sickly, and the whole con- 
 stitution atonic." 
 
 In this country, the abundant use of pork is doubt- 
 less one great cause of scrofula. It is worthy of 
 remark, that the term scrofula comes from a Greek 
 word meaning swine evil, swine swellings, or morbid 
 tumors to which swine are subject. The use of 
 fat, be it ever so healthy a deposition, has a ten- 
 dency to produce disease, because it is so difficult 
 of digestion. But when mixed with the scrofulous 
 matter, as it doubtless often is, it must be productive 
 of much more evil. Let no one suppose that the 
 deadly virus of disease in the flesh of diseased ani-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 251 
 
 mals, strumous hogs, &c., can be eaten with impu- 
 nity. Sufficient quantities of plain, healthy, nutri- 
 tive food, free from oils, heating condiments, &cc., 
 should be given to children to prevent scrofula. 
 Various opinions are entertained by different medi- 
 cal men respecting this dreadful scourge that in- 
 vades the glands, lungs, bones, &c. 
 
 I know of no animals afflicted with scrofula, 
 habitually, except men and swine. The reason 
 why these two classes of animals are alone infected 
 with this disease is sufficiently obvious. The habits 
 of other animals are not bad enough to cause the 
 disease ; but those of men and swine are just bad 
 enough. The manner in which swine are kept in 
 our country should claim the attention of all who 
 use their flesh as food. 
 
 I trust I shall be excused for giving so vulgar an 
 animal a place in my pages, when our delicate 
 females so often give it a place on their plates. I 
 claim none of that delicacy that would shun a dis- 
 agreeable subject, which it may be beneficial to 
 humanity to discuss. 
 
 It is well known that swine, in their natural 
 state, are very active animals. The wild boar of 
 Germany is exceedingly fleet, and always active. 
 Its food, too, consists of nuts and fruit principally, 
 though considered an omniverous animal. In its 
 natural state, it has the advantages of pure air,
 
 252 LECTURES ON 
 
 good food, and abundance oi exercise. In the 
 artificial life to which the animal is now reduced, it 
 often has neither. Swine are fed on the most dis- 
 gusting substances the most loathsome offal. 
 They are kept in narrow pens, without exercise, 
 and they breathe the most horribly offensive atmos- 
 phere continually. Can we wonder that under 
 such circumstances scrofula is developed. Nor is 
 it at all wonderful, that with the same procuring 
 causes, man should be afflicted with the same dis- 
 ease, as he has one means of procuring the disorder 
 that the hog has not. Men eat the flesh of swine, 
 but the swine do not eat us. 
 
 It is true, distortion of the spine exists in many 
 cases where scrofula is not present, yet it must be 
 evident to all that its presence always increases the 
 evil. The present method of training children 
 makes it a matter of surprise that any escape 
 scrofula. 
 
 Let us contemplate the infant daughter, and fol- 
 low her from childhood to mature age. In nine 
 cases out of ten, perhaps ninety-nine out of a' hun- 
 dred, the parents, particularly the mothers, are dis- 
 eased. 
 
 A writer in the Boston Medical and Surgical 
 Journal says : 
 
 " I recently attended a post mortem examination 
 of an infant who had died of scrofula. The me-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 253 
 
 senteric glands were a mass of tubercles. The ap- 
 petite had been voracious the stomach had been 
 distended till it was nearly transparent. The body 
 was almost entirely bloodless. The brain, lungs 
 and pancreas were studded with tubercles. Much 
 of the brain was in a state of ramottissement. This 
 was a case of hereditary scrofula, evidently from 
 the father, showing conclusively that a subtle virus 
 may be communicated, causing this disease, as well 
 as syphilis. 
 
 " Still, unless the system is deeply infected with 
 the virus, have we not reason to believe that proper 
 management with respect to diet and regimen, may 
 eradicate the taint. I know a practitioner runs the 
 risk, in these days, of being dubbed a Grahamite, if 
 he recommends the antiphlogistic regimen in any 
 case, or if he dare dissent from the long received 
 opinion, that ' animal food is more nutritive and 
 stimulating than vegetable ; that is, that the same 
 quantity of the former will make more and richer 
 blood, and will satisfy the demands of the digestive 
 organs for a longer period, than the latter.' Now 
 I, for one, will not surrender the right of private 
 judgment, through fear that I shall be ranked with 
 this or that class of real or supposed fanatics. 
 
 " It is conceded by all, that meagre diet of any 
 kind, has a tendency to produce scrofula. It has 
 been my lot to mark the effects of a well-regulated
 
 254 LECTURES ON 
 
 vegetable diet in a number of cases of scrofula 
 cases of long standing, and of a marked bad char- 
 acter. My experience in these cases has not dem- 
 onstrated that a mixed diet was best. I am not 
 about to say there are no cases of a character to de- 
 mand animal food. But in every case that has 
 come under my observation, of hereditary or in- 
 duced scrofula, where a well-regulated vegetable 
 aliment has been used, it has been with advantage. 
 In several instances a decided improvement and ul- 
 timate cure was obtained by abstaining even from 
 milk. I have seen some of the finest specimens of 
 athleta who lived upon an exclusively vegetable 
 diet not even partaking of milk ; and I think I 
 should not be haunted with fears of diminished 
 strength, if I could make up my mind to abstain 
 from animal food. 
 
 "Ought we not to be impressed with the belief 
 that prophylactic means are worth infinitely more 
 than therapeutic ? When mothers become enlight- 
 ened on the subject of physical education when 
 pure air, exercise, the use of the bath and a proper 
 attention to the diet of children shall become as 
 common as the neglect of these several particulars 
 now is, may we not hope to see scrofula decrease 
 as rapidly as it has increased for a few years past ? 
 Would it not be profitable to inquire how far the 
 compression which is exerting its influence on the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 255 
 
 nervous tissues, the circulatory system, and directly 
 on the spinal column, has an effect to derange the 
 normal functions of the system, and to produce 
 scrofula ? " 
 
 The child at birth is made the recipient of 
 unhealthy nourishment. There are many causes 
 which combine to make the mother's milk unhealthy. 
 The functions of the whole system are depraved. 
 The lying-in chamber is generally a most unhealthy 
 place. Pure air is almost by common consent ex- 
 cluded from the lying-in chamber. The vitiated 
 air of the room is loaded with impure exhalations. 
 The child is often enveloped in the bed clothes, and 
 its head so covered that it has but a poor chance 
 even to breathe the bad air allowed. Its tender 
 body is bound with a tight swathe, or the more recent 
 contrivance of the elastic band, which, in many in- 
 stances, exactly resembles the leg of a coarse wool- 
 len footing, is drawn on to chafe the tender skin. 
 Clothes a half a yard too long impede, and indeed 
 hinder its first attempts at motion. Bathing is in a 
 great majority of cases entirely neglected. The 
 first four weeks are generally spent in a confinement 
 poorly calculated to make the child enjoy its new 
 mode of existence, or insure its continuance in it. 
 
 To an unreflecting mind, it may seem strange 
 that in many situations half the children die before 
 attaining maturity. It is stated that of 1000 chil-
 
 256 LECTURES ON 
 
 dren born in London, 650 die before ten years of 
 age. It is stated by Combe, that " one hundred 
 years ago, when the pauper infants of London were 
 received and brought up in the work-houses, amid 
 impure air, crowding, and want of proper food, not 
 above 1 in 24 lived to be a year old ; so that out 
 of 2800 received into them, 2690 died yearly. But 
 when the conditions of health came to be better 
 understood, and an act of Parliament was obtained, 
 obliging the parish officers to send the infants to 
 nurse in the country, this frightful mortality was 
 reduced to 450, instead of upwards of 2000." 
 
 Of the alarming injustice done the female frame, 
 from a very tender age, we are all aware, or might 
 be, if we will open our eyes. It is stated by Dr. 
 John Bell, one of the greatest men of our age, 
 " that in ten females free from disease, about eigh- 
 teen or twenty years of age, the quantity of air 
 inspired and expired averaged about three pints and 
 a half, whilst in young men of the same age it was 
 found to amount to six pints an alarming contrast, 
 after allowing for the natural difference in the size 
 of the chest." How deep the guilt of that mother 
 who compresses the tender frame of her infant 
 daughter, cramping the chest, distorting the spine, 
 obliterating much of the circulation, compressing 
 the lungs, and producing misery that it would take 
 a volume to describe in all its details.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 257 
 
 With boys, much of the injustice of the nursery 
 ceases as they grow older. They are allowed to 
 mix in out-door sports and active exercise. Free 
 circulation and breathing pure air make them com- 
 paratively robust and healthy. Not so with girls. 
 They are confined to the school room, the piano, 
 and often to embroidery. They are fed on delica- 
 cies, pies, pastry, &c. Take the hardiest animal 
 in the world the dog, the bear, or the lion, and 
 rear him as are our young ladies, and it would ruin 
 his constitution. Do we wonder at the sufferings 
 and ill health of the daughters of our land, when all 
 is wrong with them from the cradle to the grave ? 
 
 With chest deformed, spine and pelvis distorted, 
 and every organ and tissue of the body imperfectly 
 nourished, can we expect woman to become a 
 mother without indescribable anguHh ? Or can we 
 expect her offspring to live out half the days al- 
 lotted to man ? 
 
 Distortion of the spine is vastly more common 
 than many suppose. Dr. Warren of Boston says, 
 " I feel warranted in the assertion, that of the well 
 educated females within my sphere of experience, 
 about one half are affected with some degree of 
 distortion of the spine." Such a statement, from a 
 man of such enlarged experience and great skill as 
 Dr. Warren, should alarm us exceedingly. 
 
 La Chaise, in his work on Curvatures of the
 
 258 LECTURES ON 
 
 Vertebral Column, when speaking of lateral distor- 
 tion, expresses his belief that " out of twenty young 
 girls who have reached their fifteenth year, there 
 are not two who do not exhibit very manifest traces 
 of it." Dr. Forbes says, " We lately visited in a 
 large town a boarding school containing forty girls, 
 and we learned on close and accurate inquiry, that 
 there was not one of the girls who had been at the 
 school two years, (and the majority had been as 
 long,) that was not more or less crooked." 
 
 This is truly a lamentable, a deplorable picture 
 of society. Is it necessary that this state of things 
 should exist ? If so, why are not animals thus dis- 
 eased ? The lambs that sport in our fields without 
 stays or braces, with natural food, and water for 
 their drink, have no spinal distortion, and no scrofu- 
 lous bones. Btft the confinement, and compression, 
 and impure air, and improper food of females, are 
 enough to produce both these evils, and many more. 
 It is much more wonderful that females suffer so 
 little, than that they suffer so much. Besides the 
 abuses to which they are subjected, they are born 
 with deteriorated constitutions, and often the whole 
 system is infected with scrofula and other diseases 
 "before birth. 
 
 I do not mean to give the idea that scrofula causes 
 all the spinal distortions. By no means. But it 
 always aggravates distortion when it has invaded
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 259 
 
 the bones. There are cases of great suffering and 
 disease from an affection of the medulla spinalis, and 
 the nerves which proceed from it, independent of 
 distortion. Abuse of the nervous system, either by 
 solitary or social licentiousness, causes spinal dis- 
 ease of a terrible character. In spinal disease the 
 injury often is threefold. First, the mechanical 
 pressure exerted by the distorted spine upon the 
 nerves ; secondly, the morbific influence that has 
 caused the distortion ; and thirdly, often an amount 
 of nervous abuse that very greatly aggravates every 
 other evil. 
 
 I have read much on spinal diseases and the 
 mode of cure, and I feel that there is hope even in 
 very bad cases. It will be evident to all that those 
 hurtful influences that have produced the disorder 
 must be removed. Strict attention should be paid 
 to hygienic rules in eating, drinking, dressing, sleep- 
 ing, air, exercise, bathing, &c. 
 
 Unless proper food be eaten at proper times and 
 in proper quantities, we cannot expect good blood. 
 The best regulated diet will avail little if compres- 
 sion is exerting its baneful influence. Again, if there 
 be no compression, if pure air be not breathed and 
 cleanliness attended to, we shall have disastrous re- 
 sults. 
 
 The means for the prevention and cure of spinal 
 diseases and distortions are the same. Dr. John
 
 260 LECTURES ON 
 
 Bell says, " Regular and varied exercise in the open 
 air, and that systematic kind by gymnastics, and 
 good nourishing food, are the chief means for ac- 
 complishing this end. A perseverance in these, 
 for a length of time, has been followed by a cure in 
 cases of a most discouraging nature." Speaking of 
 those who are in quest of health and strength, he 
 says, " To attain this end, no bitter, nor tonic, nor 
 cordial, derived from the shops, no fermented, and 
 still less alcoholic liquor can be regularly taken. On 
 the contrary, a long perseverance in their use will 
 be found eminently detrimental both to health and 
 beauty. The only means of permanent restoration 
 of the exhausted economy and feeble frame, and de- 
 ficiency of contour, are plain nourishing food, free 
 exercise in the open air, regular occupations, tran- 
 quillity of mind, and a proper allotment of time for 
 sleep." 
 
 LECTURE XIV. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 VARIOUS terms have been used to characterize 
 our age. It has been called the " excital age," the 
 " mechanical age," &tc., but it seems to me to be the 
 age of discovery. Great truths, fastened by golden
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 261 
 
 links to the throne of God, are thrown world wide, 
 to be gathered up by mortals. Men are needed to 
 present these truths to the world. The way-farers 
 are too busy to heed them. It is a hard thing for 
 these to cry truth in the market places ; but all 
 things, I had well nigh said, are sold in the sham- 
 bles in our age. 
 
 The Divine Providence gives great minds to our 
 world to discover truth to meet out necessities. 
 But there is so much simulation, so many errors 
 that only gain currency by counterfeiting truth, that 
 men are cautious. This is well ; it brings out the 
 energies of the apostles of truth. They are strength- 
 ened by hardships, and inattention, and neglect. 
 Like the infants of savages, none but the hardiest 
 survive the hardships of their lot. They get " not 
 what they wish, but what they want" in their in- 
 tercourse with their fellow men. 
 
 I have sometimes thought inattention more pain- 
 ful to the philanthropist than contention. If men 
 will think enough to quarrel wjth truth, they are 
 coming. The mischief is, men do not think, as 
 a mass. They appoint some one, if not by vote, at 
 least tacitly, to do their thinking ; and they thank- 
 fully receive ready made dogmas, and perhaps pay 
 for them. 
 
 With all deference to our very wise world, I am 
 inclined to think that the word education is not un- 
 derstood.
 
 262 LECTURES ON 
 
 Some years ago, a friend made me a present of a 
 beautiful ice plant. I immediately set about culti- 
 vating it in such a manner as would insure the 
 largest amount of leaves and blossoms. I succeed- 
 ed. It was the admired of all admirers ; but " pass- 
 ing away" was written on it. I had educated it 
 to death. Such is the course pursued with our 
 children. Those of you who know my labors in 
 the cause of physical education, will not expect me 
 to separate physical from intellectual culture in my 
 remarks. " What God hath joined together, let not 
 man put asunder." 
 
 I find so many more valuable thoughts on the 
 subject of education than my own, that I feel bound 
 to bring them before you. The following thoughts 
 from the Common School Journal, that able organ of 
 truth, which is, or ought to be, the boast of Massa- 
 chusetts, are beautifully true : 
 
 " Physical education is not only of great impor- 
 tance on its own account, but, in a certain sense, it 
 seems to be invested with the additional importance 
 of both intellectual and moral ; because, although 
 we have frequent proofs that there may be a hu- 
 man body without a soul ; yet, under our present 
 earthly conditions of existence, there cannot be a 
 human soul without a body. The statue must lie 
 prostrate, without a pedestal ; and, in this sense, 
 the pedestal is as important as the statue.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 263 
 
 " The present generation is suffering incalcula- 
 bly under an ignorance of physical education. It 
 is striving to increase the number of pleasurable 
 sensations, without any knowledge of the great laws 
 of health and life, and thus defeats its own object. 
 The sexes, respectively, are deteriorating from their 
 fathers, and especially from their mothers, in con- 
 stitutional stamina. The fifteen millions of the 
 United States, at the present day, are by no means 
 five times the three millions of the revolutionary 
 era. Were this degeneracy attributable to mother 
 Nature, we should compare her to a fraudulent 
 manufacturer, who, having established his name in 
 the market for the excellence of his fabrics, should 
 avail himself of his reputation to palm off subse- 
 quent bales or packages, with the same stamp, or 
 ear-mark, but of meaner quality. Thus it is with 
 the present race, as compared with their ancestors ; 
 short in length, deficient in size and weight, and 
 sleazy in texture. The activity and boldness of the 
 sanguine temperament, and the enduring nature of 
 the fibrous, which belonged to the olden time, are 
 succeeded by the weak refinements of the nervous, 
 and the lolling, lackadaisical, fashionable sentimen- 
 tality of the lymphatic. The old hearts of oak are 
 gone. Society is suffering under a curvature of the 
 spine. If deterioration holds on, at its present rate, 
 especially in our cities, we shall soon be a bed-rid
 
 264 LECTURES ON 
 
 people. There will be a land of ghosts and shad- 
 ows this side of Acheron and the Elysian fields. 
 Where are the young men, and, emphatically, 
 where are the young women, who promise a green 
 and vigorous age at seventy ? The sweat and toil 
 of the field and of the household are despised, and 
 no substitute is provided for these invigorating ex- 
 ercises. Even professed connoisseurs, who lounge 
 and dawdle in the galleries of art, and labor to 
 express their weak rapture at the Jove-like stature 
 and sublime strength of Hercules, or at the majes- 
 tic figure of Venus, beneath whose ample zone 
 there resides the energy which prevents grace from 
 degenerating into weakness, even they will belie, 
 in dress and contour, all the power and beauty they 
 profess to admire. There is a general effeminacy 
 in our modes of life, as compared with the indurat- 
 ing exposures of our ancestors. Our double-win- 
 dows ; our air-tight houses ; our heated and un ven- 
 tilated apartments, from nursery to sleeping room 
 and church ; the multitude of our garments of fur, 
 and down, and woollen, numerous as the integu- 
 ments around an Egyptian mummy, beneath 
 which we shrink, and cower, and hide ourselves 
 from our best friend, the north-west wind ; our car- 
 riages in which we ride when we should be on foot ; 
 all these enervating usages, without any equiva- 
 lent of exercise or exposure, are slackening the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 265 
 
 whole machinery of life. More weakly children 
 are born than under the vigorous customs and hardy 
 life of our fathers ; and, what is still more signifi- 
 cant, a far greater proportion of these puny chil- 
 dren, under our tender and delicate nursing, are 
 reared, than was formerly done. A weak cohesion 
 still exists in many a thread of life, which, under 
 the rough handling of former times, would have 
 been snapped. Amid hardship and exposure, the 
 young were toughened or destroyed. Nature pass- 
 ed round among them, as a gardener among his 
 plants, and weeded out the blasted and mildewed. 
 She shook the tree till the sickly fruits fell off. She 
 did not preserve these as the stock from which to 
 produce the still more degraded fruits of a second 
 season. But, under the modern hot-house system, 
 the puny and feeble are saved. They grow up 
 without strength, passing from the weakness of 
 childhood to that of age, without taking the vigor of 
 manhood in their course. By the various applian- 
 ces of art, indeed, the stooping frame can be kept 
 upright, and the shrunken be rounded out into the 
 semblance of humanity. But these cheats give no 
 internal, organic force. Though the arts of bolster- 
 ing up the human figure, and of giving to its un- 
 sightly angles the curvilinear forms of grace, should 
 grow into a science, and its practice should be the 
 most lucrative of professions, yet not one element 
 18
 
 266 LECTURES ON 
 
 of genuine beauty or dignity will be thereby gained. 
 Such arts can never bestow elasticity and vigor upon 
 the frame, nor suffuse 'the human face divine* 
 with the roseate hues of health. The complexion 
 will still be wan, the pulse feeble, the motions lan- 
 guid. The eye will have no fire. The imagina- 
 tion will lose its power to turn all light into rain- 
 bows. The intellect will never be sufficiently 
 expanded to receive a system of truths ; and single 
 truths cut out from their connections, and adopted 
 without reference to kindred truths, always mislead. 
 The affections will fall, like Lucifer, from the 
 upper, to fasten upon objects in the nether sphere. 
 In a word, the forces of the soul will retreat from 
 the fore-head to the hind-head, and the brow, that 
 ' dome of thought and palace of the soul,' will be 
 narrow and ' villanously low ; ' for it is here that 
 Nature sets her signet, and stamps her child a phi- 
 losopher or a cretin. Here she will not suffer her 
 signatures to be counterfeited, for neither tailors nor 
 mantua-makers can insert their cork or padding 
 beneath the tables of the skull." 
 
 Education means to form the manners, to instruct, 
 to nurture, &c. But the received definition seems 
 to relate principally to the mere memorizing of 
 words at school. A good definition of education is 
 given by a recent writer : 
 
 " The highest object of education is that of form-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 267 
 
 ing the mind and character to every thing that is 
 manly and useful, developing the physical powers 
 in their highest perfection, and seeking a correspon- 
 dent development of the intellectual and moral man ; 
 preparing men for the practical business of life ; to 
 provide for their own subsistence and welfare, and 
 the subsistence and welfare of others ; to advance 
 civilization ; to increase the wealth of the commu- 
 nity ; to adorn and embellish society by all the arts 
 that ingenuity can invent, and to contribute to the 
 general comfort, to multiply and extend the means 
 of enjoyment and improvement, and further the 
 progress of mankind in all that is useful and good." 
 We hear of young ladies who have "finished 
 their education ! " that is, they are just out of a 
 boarding school, where perhaps some six or eight 
 were crowded into one apartment at night, like so 
 many prisoners. Are their bodies developed in a 
 healthy manner? Are they hardy and robust? 
 Can they engage in rural sports or labors with ease, 
 comfort, and indeed high enjoyment? Are their 
 minds disciplined and strengthened? Can they 
 think deeply, closely and rationally on any given 
 subject, and write out their thoughts ? Will a work 
 on metaphysics give them more pleasure than a 
 work of fiction, addressed to their feelings ? I will 
 endeavor to answer each of these questions accord- 
 ing to truth.
 
 268 LECTURES ON 
 
 The first three questions may be ably answered 
 by the following quotations from Dr. Warren's able 
 lecture on the importance of physical education, de- 
 livered before the American Institute. 
 
 " Action is the object for which organization was 
 created. If the organs are allowed to remain inac- 
 tive, the channels of life become clogged, and the 
 functions, and even the structure, get impaired. 
 Young animals are filled with the desire of motion, 
 in order that the fluids of the body may be forced 
 rapidly through their tubes, the solids thus elonga- 
 ted and enlarged, and every part gradually and fully 
 developed. 
 
 " The immediate consequences of action on the 
 bodily frame are familiar and visible to daily expe- 
 rience. Observe the sinewy arm of the mechanic. 
 The muscles are large and distinct ; and when put in 
 motion, they become as hard as wood, and as strong 
 as iron. Notice those who are accustomed to carry 
 considerable weights on the head. The joints of 
 the lower limbs are close-set and unyielding ; the 
 frame perfectly erect, and the attitude commanding. 
 In the cultivator of the soil, though the form may 
 be vitiated by neglect, you may observe that the 
 appearance of every part is healthful, vigorous, and 
 well fitted for labor. 
 
 " While all of us are desirous of possessing the 
 excellent qualities of strength, hardiness and beauty,
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 269 
 
 how defective are our systems of education in the 
 means of acquiring them ! In the present state of 
 civilization, a child, soon after it can walk, is sent 
 to school ; not so much for the purpose of learning, 
 as to relieve its parents of the trouble of superin- 
 tending its early movements. As he grows older, 
 the same plan is incessantly pursued and improved 
 on, till a large part of his time is passed in sedentary 
 pursuits and in crowded rooms. In the short inter- 
 vals of mental occupation, the boy is allowed to fol- 
 low the bent of his inclinations, and seeks in play 
 that exercise which nature imperiously demands. 
 The development of his system, though not what 
 it was destined to be, is attained in a certain way ; 
 and he is exempted from some of the evils which 
 fall heavily on the other sex. 
 
 " The female, at an early age, is discouraged from 
 activity, as unbecoming her sex, and is taught to 
 pass her leisure hours in a state of quietude at home. 
 The effects of this habit have been already spoken 
 of in general terms ; and I would now point out some 
 of its results in a specific manner. 
 
 " In the course of my observations, I have been 
 able to satisfy myself that about half the young fe- 
 males brought up as they are at present, undergo 
 some visible and obvious change of structure ; that 
 a considerable number are the subjects of great and 
 permanent deviations ; and that not a few entirely
 
 270 LECTURES ON 
 
 lose their health from the manner in which they are 
 reared." 
 
 There is a natural joyousness in children, when 
 they are not broken by disease, the same as in the 
 young of all animals. This natural playfulness, if 
 indulged, insures to a great extent the proper de- 
 velopment of their frames. But they are cramped 
 and confined every way, especially females. Their 
 dress makes it even dangerous to exercise ; and then 
 if they go out of their measured pace, they are 
 checked, and told that such things are very im- 
 proper for a little girl ; and perhaps the names romp, 
 or " torn-boy " are added, to effectually cure the 
 child of a disposition to healthful exercise. For six 
 hours a day children must be confined in our prisons 
 called schools ; but then boys make partial amends 
 for this ; but girls are prisoners for life. With such 
 an education for soul and body as our females re- 
 ceive, the law may well class women with infants, 
 minors and idiots, as it does. And yet, under all 
 her disabilities, there are gleams of intelligence to 
 be found even among us, that give promise of a 
 brighter day, when men and women shall under- 
 stand all the laws that govern body and mind, and 
 act in accordance with them. 
 
 It is painful to me to be obliged to present such 
 answers to these questions, but every day's observa- 
 tion confirms their truth. We see ill health and all
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 271 
 
 its train of evils on every hand. I have shown yon 
 in these pages that the miseries of our miserable 
 race commence even before birth. Children live, if 
 live they can, through the errors and ignorance that 
 surround the nursery, and then they are sent with 
 the brain all unformed to our schools, which are 
 nurseries of disease. The females, surrounded by 
 all the disadvantages that custom heaps upon them, 
 grow up feeble and frail. Let us contemplate one 
 of these fair daughters when she first sustains the 
 relation of a wife and a mother. 
 
 A year since she was led to the altar, a white 
 robed vision of loveliness. Alas ! the worm was 
 even then in the bud, and her husband and friends 
 are soon called to weep over the grave of buried 
 hopes. " After life's fitful fever she sleeps well." 
 But did God intend that this misery should be the 
 portion of his creatures ? Did he intend that the 
 marriage relation, his own divine institution, should 
 be the prelude to sufferings that no pen can de- 
 scribe, and that often end in the death of one or both 
 of the beloved beings on whom the friends hang 
 with souls full of anguish and love ? 
 
 We return again to the questions, Has our present 
 system of education a tendency to strengthen the 
 mind, to make deep and rational thinkers ? The 
 vast demand for fictitious writings would alone an- 
 swer these questions. Is the philosopher as well
 
 272 LECTUHES ON 
 
 understood and as much honored by the mass as the 
 writer of fictions, puerile though innocent ? 
 
 I do not ask for the same education for woman 
 that man receives. I do not wish to leave my sub- 
 ject to enter into an argument about the equality of 
 the sexes. I know full well, as woman is educated 
 and enslaved by circumstances, that she is not equal 
 to man. Whether she would be in a better state of 
 things, I stop not to inquire. 
 
 That there will always be a dissimilarity between 
 the sexes, whether their education be the same or 
 different, I think no one will deny. But dissimilar- 
 ity is no proof of inferiority. Man has more of in- 
 tellect, woman more of affection. But I have yet 
 to learn that wisdom is superior to love. 
 
 For the sake of the race, I ask that all be done 
 for woman that can be done, for it is an awful 
 truth that fools are the mothers of fools. For 
 myself, I know that I am not a shadow of 
 what I might have been had I been rightly edu- 
 cated educated with wise reference to soul and 
 body. I am a crushed wreck, a miserable remnant 
 of humanity ; and knowing the disabilities under 
 which I labor, I can plead for children. 
 
 My mind takes cognizance of a few truths ; but 
 had it not been broken by disease, I might have 
 bathed in the ocean of truth, instead of catching 
 drops of spray. But this is a heart sickening sub- 
 ject, and I leave it.
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 273 
 
 I am not one of those who charge man with in- 
 justice to woman. Man as man is no more unjust 
 to woman than he is to himself. Both are the 
 slaves of circumstances. 
 
 There is no doubt in my mind, that society, as it 
 is, is radically and fundamentally wrong ; but we 
 must make the best of it. Children ought to be 
 under the care of those who have an attraction for 
 the care and education of the young. Gold never 
 bought affection. 
 
 Confinement and impure air are not the only evils 
 of our schools ; and we may well expect to ask in 
 vain for pure air for our schools, when the wisdom 
 of our state legislature is not sufficient to insure a 
 supply of pure air. I have just come from the state 
 house in Boston, and I there saw our senators and 
 representatives deliberating amid an atmosphere so 
 impure and disgusting, that it not only causes much 
 present discomfort, but must very much shorten life. 
 One of the representatives remarked to me that he 
 " knew of nothing that he would more gladly pur- 
 chase than fresh air." But such is the state of ig- 
 norance and inattention on the subject, that a few 
 who feel the importance of breathing pure air, do 
 not hazard the expression of an opinion respecting 
 the advantages of ventilation. 
 
 The evil which I am now about to mention I 
 charge upon community. It is educating our chil-
 
 274 LECTURES ON 
 
 dren as Americans do every thing else, in a hurry. 
 We live in a hurry, we eat, drink, walk and think, 
 if we have time to think at all, in a hurry. It is 
 the vanity of parents that leads to the destruction 
 of their children. Infant schools are such a mon- 
 strosity, that is, where the brain of the child is 
 forced, as we often see, that they deserve indictment 
 as much as many other crimes that spring from igno- 
 rance and pride. 
 
 The brain of the child, according to Meckel, is 
 not formed in all its parts till the seventh year. 
 This delicate unformed organ is subjected to such 
 excitement in our schools, that it is diseased, and the 
 whole body with it and often insanity is caused. 
 Dr. Pierce, a man of whom Philadelphia ought to 
 be proud, says " that undue excitement is not 
 only injurious to the brain as an organ of the body, 
 but also deranges its functions, producing various 
 diseases of the system, and oftentimes insanity." 
 He says farther, " I shall endeavor to show that the 
 course pursued in our schools in regard to the edu- 
 cation of children, has this injurious tendency, and 
 entirely fails of the object for which it was intended. 
 It is generally known that clever children are sel- 
 dom clever men. The brain is exhausted by over- 
 culture, and the parents' vanity is satisfied by show- 
 ing off a very forward or bright child at the expense 
 of health, life and intellect. Parents see no con-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 275 
 
 nection between the unnatural excitement of the 
 partially formed brain of their child, and dropsy of 
 the brain, various nervous disorders, and that imbe- 
 cility which is the fate of their children in after years. 
 When parents lament that their children are dull, 
 poor scholars, and that no force can make them 
 study when they are bright and active for play and 
 mischief, I rejoice. Happy is the child who can- 
 not be broken into an intellectual drudge, who can- 
 not be excited to preternatural exertion of the mind, 
 who will not submit to be crammed with intellectual 
 food, as fowls are crammed, fattened and diseased 
 for a market. Education is powerful for good or 
 evil. The brain and nervous system, the body and 
 mind of the child, are to a greater or less extent de- 
 stroyed by the unnatural training. Why is it that 
 great men and great women are scarce ? Do you 
 suppose that only one great soul is created in a cen- 
 tury ? or do you suppose the manifestations of mind 
 are dependent on the organization of the body, and 
 that parents and teachers, and the false and unnatu- 
 ral state of society, by diseasing the body and over- 
 tasking the minds of our youth, produce those apol- 
 ogies for men and women with which our world is 
 cumbered ? They strangle and suffocate greatness 
 in its earliest years. Do not think I have finished 
 my catalogue of evils. A child may grow up amid 
 impure air and confinement, and over-culture, weak,
 
 276 LECTURES ON 
 
 feeble and irritable, it is true, but if he is rightly gov- 
 erned, all the mischief that could be done him is not 
 accomplished. If the moral atmosphere he breathes 
 is love, the child is not wholly ruined. But how 
 many teachers suppose that it is improper to treat 
 children kindly and familiarly ! They suppose that 
 their dignity would be compromised by such a 
 course. They do not say, " John, or Mary, will 
 you have the goodness to do such a thing, or please 
 attend now to your studies." But, " John, study 
 your book ; do n't let me see you gazing about. If 
 I see you laugh again, I '11 give you something to 
 laugh for." These are little things, but straws show 
 the way of the wind. I know there are kind teach- 
 ers who do not for ever make a show of authority. 
 There are those who are not hirelings, for their 
 hearts are in their work. These will not be hurt 
 by my remarks. I have heard a teacher say that 
 her scholars loved her dearly, though she scolded 
 and whipped them. This fact speaks well for the 
 children ; but the fount of affection runs dry after a 
 time ; and many an impatient, unlovely man had his 
 temper ruined at school, and looks back to Mrs. 
 Birch with feelings that I should not like to have 
 cherished towards me. 
 
 The government of schools seems to me as rad- 
 ically wrong as the other circumstances that sur- 
 round them. The motive power of all teachers
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 277 
 
 should be love. They should have an attraction 
 for teaching. They should love truth, and love to 
 communicate it. I know many say children can- 
 not be governed by love. Have those who assert 
 this ever made the trial ? I know the natures of 
 even young children are terribly perverted by abuse. 
 When all is wrong at home with children, the 
 teacher's labor is very much increased. But the 
 superiority of love to brute force has not been suf- 
 ficiently tested in our schools. Love is power, al- 
 ways. It may not give us all power over a per- 
 verted and hardened mind, but it gives much. God 
 is omnipotent, and he is love. 
 
 I have had much experience in teaching, and I 
 wish no power over pupils that affection will not 
 give me. I have had lads placed under my care 
 that neither parents nor teachers could govern, 
 with rods, force and fear to aid them, and yet they 
 have been immediately subdued by calmness, kind- 
 ness, and the conviction that I heartily desired 
 their good. 
 
 A lad was once confided to my care, of ten or 
 twelve years of age. He had been turned out of 
 the village school as wholly unmanageable. He 
 had been severely whipped many times. Indeed, 
 it seemed to me that severity and the rod had 
 made him reckless. He came into my school a 
 perfect Ishmaelite. The first day he glowered
 
 278 LECTURES ON 
 
 around him without attending to any thing particu- 
 larly. In the afternoon, at recess, instead of going 
 out with the boys by the door, he very deliberately 
 leaped from a large open window next the road. 
 This was probably intended as the commencement 
 of hostilities with me. I took no notice of the 
 transaction till the close of the school. I then 
 requested him to stop a few minutes. He sullenly 
 took his seat, and I seated myself beside him. His 
 health was poor. He was a pale, nervous child, 
 with combativeness enough, without arousing or 
 irritating the organ. I spoke to him as a reasoning 
 being, with a kindness which I really felt ; for his 
 extreme waywardness had aroused no other feeling 
 in my heart. I spoke to him of living in the world 
 as he ought, in order to insure his own comfort and 
 that of his parents. I told him he must, if he lived, 
 become a man ; that I wished him to be a happy 
 and useful man. I spoke of his capacity for use- 
 fulness, which was truly respectable. I drew a 
 picture of the happiness enjoyed in my school, and 
 told him that I required obedience to all the rules 
 of the school, and that the only penalty for disobe- 
 dience was expulsion from the school ; that I had 
 no other punishment. I alluded to his rude con- 
 duct, and playfully asked him if he did not know 
 that doors were made to go out at, and not windows. 
 The little fellow's combativeness was completely
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 279 
 
 put asleep. His heart was touched ; and when I 
 gave him his choice to leave the school or make an 
 acknowledgment that his conduct had been im- 
 proper, and ask the school to forgive him, he 
 readily chose the latter; and during the whole 
 time he was under my care, he gave me no more 
 trouble than the other scholars. He knew that if 
 he conducted with propriety, he should be happy 
 with us ; and that if he did not, he knew he was 
 self expelled from the atmosphere of love. 
 
 I could relate very many instances of a similar 
 character. 
 
 The manner in which children are classed at 
 school is often productive of much mischief. The 
 dull, slow scholar, who is obliged to study long 
 and patiently, is placed beside the quick intellect, 
 that enables its possessor to know a lesson by in- 
 tuition almost ; and both scholars are required to 
 get the same lessons. Often the result of this pro- 
 cedure is to discourage the slow child, and give an 
 inflated, unhealthy confidence to the " bright child." 
 A judicious course in classing these scholars would 
 often doubtless make the dull child a better scholar 
 than the more brilliant. A slow, reasoning intel- 
 lect is often more valuable than the rapid intuitive 
 kind. 
 
 I think it must be obvious to all, that the intel- 
 lectual powers can never reach that state of per-
 
 280 LECTURES ON 
 
 fection which is desirable, unless the body is de- 
 veloped in health. Attractive industry, or agree- 
 able exercise, are indispensable to health. There 
 is no doubt that it would be far better for children 
 at an early age to be trained to attractive industry. 
 But if this cannot be procured, and we know that 
 it cannot, only in isolated cases, in the present state 
 of society, then agreeable and healthful exercise 
 should be provided. 
 
 Some years ago, when calislhenic exercises were 
 introduced into schools, public opinion was very 
 much against them. Five or six years since I in- 
 troduced a variety of exercises into my school in 
 Lynn, Mass. Strong opposition was manifested by 
 some ; but in two or three years a teacher who 
 proposed to establish a school there, advertised 
 calisthenic exercises, and it was considered a re- 
 commendation of her school. This shows that 
 public sentiment is changing. Within the last year 
 a school for teaching young ladies calisthenic exer- 
 cises, has been established in Boston, by Mrs. 
 Hawley, a lady who has taught these exercises for 
 the last fifteen years. This admirable establishment 
 is well patronized, having at this time one hundred 
 and seventy pupils from the most intelligent fami- 
 lies in the city. 
 
 The following notice of this establishment from 
 the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, shows
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 281 
 
 the light in which these exercises are viewed by 
 the medical profession. It gives me great pleasure 
 to pay this well deserved tribute to Mrs. Hawley in 
 this lecture : 
 
 " A refined civilization is unfortunately accom- 
 panied by various forms of physical deterioration, 
 for which it is one of the special objects of science 
 to provide a remedy. People of advanced age, 
 who do not trouble themselves to philosophize on 
 whatever strikes them as a departure from the 
 common appearance of every day things, never 
 heard in their youth of curved spines, distorted 
 shoulders, or any other unsymmetrical derangement 
 of the frame-work of the body, which are so char- 
 acteristic of the present age, that institutions are 
 exclusively devoted to their correction. Experience 
 shows, too, that they are exceedingly necessary ; 
 and they have been, therefore, well sustained by 
 the intelligent public, and always sanctioned by the 
 medical profession. Very recently, Mrs. Hawley, 
 formerly Madame Beaujeu, of England, has com- 
 menced a series of calisthenic exercises for young 
 misses in this city, which are recognized by very 
 distinguished physicians of Philadelphia, New York 
 and Boston, as worthy of the patronage of parents. 
 It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the value of ex- 
 ercise for young ladies in a crowded city. Those 
 who will take the pains to inspect Mrs. Hawley's 
 19
 
 282 LECTURES ON 
 
 hall, corner of Bromfield and Tremont streets, will 
 be satisfied of the utility of her system. With a 
 view of bringing the subject before the profession of 
 Boston and its neighborhood, that they may avail 
 themselves of ihe curative means which judicious 
 calisthenic exercises promise in many conditions of 
 a debilitated system, particularly in young girls, we 
 are desirous of directing their attention to this lady's 
 qualifications and claims." 
 
 In order that children be rightly educated, it is 
 necessary that teachers understand the conditions 
 on which health of body and mind depend. But 
 how many of our teachers are thorough physiologists 
 or phrenologists, and consequently thorough meta- 
 physicians? And if teachers were entirely qualified 
 for their high trust, such is the ignorance of parents, 
 such the state of society, that they could not fulfil 
 its duties. Still, much might be done that is not 
 now done, were teachers rightly educated, and had 
 they moral courage to act in accordance with their 
 convictions. 
 
 In the words of another, " almost the best de- 
 fence, at least one of the strongest safe-guards of 
 morality, is the feeling of independence. If the 
 world think that to be right which you think to be 
 wrong, follow your own opinion, and preserve your 
 self-respect. Consider that you would rather be 
 honorable and despised, than be honored and dispi-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 283 
 
 cable. If the world holds you in light esteem be- 
 cause it misunderstands your character, every mark 
 of disrespect which it bestows upon you is a certifi- 
 cate of the beauty and excellence of those virtues 
 in which it erroneously supposes you to be defi- 
 cient." 
 
 Jf teachers could realize the truth of these senti- 
 ments, we should not find that "mush of compli- 
 ance " which we now find in too many teachers. 
 But how can we expect them to do justice in ihe 
 education of children, when they have not been 
 blessed with an education to fit them for this high 
 trust ? A course must be struck out and pursued 
 that will strengthen and improve the reasoning 
 powers. Children at present are not taught or 
 encouraged to reason as they should be. They are 
 employed in memorizing words, as Mr. Rantoul 
 has well said in his remarks on Education, published 
 in the North American Review. " Education is 
 not the getting by rote set forms of words, which 
 may be altogether barren of fruit ; no, nor barely 
 storing the memory with the information of facts, 
 however extensive and useful." 
 
 Children can easily be taught to reason ; and 
 we well know that every faculty is strengthened by 
 judicious use. When the mind is active in reason- 
 ing, in searching for truth and the causes of things, 
 no one passion gets the ascendency in such a man-
 
 2S4 LECTURES ON 
 
 ner as to remove itself from the control of the will, 
 and thus lead the individual to folly, fanaticism or 
 crime. Had the saints of olden times been engaged 
 in discovering truth, in sound reasoning, they would 
 not have spent days, weeks, and even years, upon 
 their knees in prayer, till cavities were worn in the 
 solid rock, and their knees became callous. Such 
 a course now would be attributed to an unbalanced 
 state of the mind, and consequent insanity. Thanks 
 to progress ; our age is wiser than the days of 
 witchcraft. 
 
 If girls are taught to reason, they will not spend 
 their days reading fictions, and their nights in mor- 
 bid dreams of love a love that bears about as 
 much resemblance to the true and healthful senti- 
 ment of love, as the blasting simoom does to the 
 refreshing breeze. Diogenes says that love is the 
 occupation of the idle ; he might have said, of the 
 unreasoning. No passion should be allowed to 
 engross all or nearly all one's time and attention. 
 God has given us various faculties. All should be 
 cultivated. All should be exercised. If one as- 
 sumes an undue prominence, mischief is the result. 
 
 The right education of .one child is of immense 
 importance to others. Whilst we live in society, 
 we cannot really increase our own happiness with- 
 out increasing the happiness of others. " True self- 
 love and social are the same."
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 285 
 
 " This is the foundation of all human wisdom," 
 says Le Pere Buffier, " the source from which all 
 virtues purely natural flow, the general principle of 
 all morals and of all human society, that while I 
 live with other men, who equally with myself desire 
 to be happy, I must try to discover the means of 
 increasing my own happiness, by augmenting that 
 of others." 
 
 I In the beautiful language of the gifted Rantoul, 
 " Universal education, a higher education, such as 
 shall put to shame not past ages only, but the pres- 
 ent, must be provided for. The want is felt and 
 will not longer be endured without a strenuous ef- 
 fort to meet it. The philanthropist, the patriot and 
 the Christian feel the urgent need of a generous de- 
 velopment of the noblest powers and faculties, and 
 the richest affections of our common nature, through 
 that dull mass of humanity in whom they now slum- 
 ber, inert and almost lifeless. The refinement of 
 taste, which, without intellectual and moral cultiva- 
 tion, ends only in elegant imbecility ; financial pros- 
 perity, which, if not pressed into the service of vir- 
 tue, may be prostituted to engender corruption 
 absorbing political interests, which convulse the 
 Union to its centre, and which unhallowed ambi- 
 tion may pervert to the destruction of freedom, all 
 these are insignificant, are as nothing and less than 
 nothing, compared with this paramount necessity-
 
 236 LECTURES ON 
 
 The cry of the age is for true education. Its ad- 
 vent is longed for, and prayed for, and believed in. 
 It seems just bursting above our moral horizon, ra- 
 dient with knowledge and virtue, shedding IMit into 
 
 o * DO 
 
 the understanding, and pouring warmth into the 
 heart, a genial sun whose beams are for the healing 
 of the nations. Glorious visions of future progress, 
 and blessed omens of their coming consummation 
 throng upon the soul, and fill it with comfort and 
 joy, when the evidences of the earnest awakening 
 of mankind, under the vivifying and quickening in- 
 fluences of the bright-dawning era, present them- 
 selves to our view. 
 
 " How is the great work to be accomplished? 
 What are our means of levelling the fortifications, 
 impregnable since the creation of the world, in which 
 ignorance and vice have entrenched themselves? 
 Hope, which was Cesar's only portion when he 
 went into Gaul ; faith in man's high nature and 
 destiny ; the ardent enthusiasm which the grand 
 object to be attained inspires ; the unquenchable 
 zeal already active, and which will never rest, nor 
 pause, till the victory is achieved, and darkness ab- 
 dicates her narrowed empire." 
 
 The momentous work of education should be 
 committed to the care of those who love the work ; 
 and they should live by their labor, not merely stay 
 in the world. Dollars and cents can never pay the
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 287 
 
 price of a solid and useful, a true education. But 
 I have known a teacher who had worth and ability, 
 toil through the weary year, unable to purchase the 
 bare comforts of life, so small was her salary ; and 
 yet such was her attraction for the work, that she 
 would submit to privation, and want even, rather 
 than relinquish her pleasant labor. The great want 
 of community is for such teachers. 
 
 The remarks of Dr. Channing, in his address at 
 the Odeon on the 28th of Feb., 1837, are better 
 than any thing I can present you on this subject : 
 
 " We want better teachers, and more teachers, 
 for all classes of society, for rich and poor, for child- 
 ren and adults. We want that the resources of the 
 community should be directed to the procuring of 
 better instructers, as its highest concern. One of 
 the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be 
 the elevation of the art of teaching to the highest 
 rank in the community. When a people shall learn, 
 that its greatest benefactors and most important 
 members are men devoted to the liberal instruction 
 of all its classes, to the work of raising to life 
 its buried intellect, it will have opened to itself the 
 path of true glory. This truth is making its way. 
 Socrates is now regarded as the greatest man in an 
 age of great men. The name of Icing has grown 
 dim before that of apostle. To teach, whether by 
 word or action, is the highest function on earth.
 
 288 
 
 LECTURES ON 
 
 " Nothing is more needed, than that men of supe- 
 rior gifts and of benevolent spirit should devote 
 themselves to the instruction of the less enlightened 
 classes in the great end of life, in the dignity of 
 their nature, in their rights and duties, in the history, 
 laws and institutions of their country, in the philos- 
 ophy of their employments, in the laws, harmonies 
 and productions of outward nature, and especially 
 in the art of bringing up children in health of body, 
 and in vigor and purity of mind. We need a new 
 profession or vocation, the object of which shall be 
 to wake up the intellect in those spheres where it is 
 now buried in habitual slumber. 
 
 " We want a class of liberal-minded instructers, 
 whose vocation it shall be to place the views of the 
 most enlightened minds within the reach of a more 
 and more extensive portion of their fellow creatures. 
 The wealth of a community should flow out like 
 water for the preparation and employment of such 
 teachers, for enlisting powerful and generous minds 
 in the work of giving impulse to their race. 
 
 " Nor let it be said that men, able and disposed 
 to carry on this work, must not be looked for in such 
 a world as ours. Christianity, which has wrought 
 so many miracles of beneficence, which has sent 
 forth so many apostles and martyrs, so many How- 
 ards and Clarksons, can raise up laborers for this 
 harvest also. Nothing is needed but a new pour-
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 289 
 
 ing out of the spirit of Christian love, nothing but a 
 new comprehension of the brotherhood of the human 
 race, to call forth efforts which seem impossibilities 
 in a self-seeking and self-indulging age." 
 
 I have no belief that children can be educated in 
 such a manner as to develope the highest powers 
 of the body and mind, without attractive industry. 
 Judicious exercise can do much, but a system of 
 attractive industry can do more. Schools with 
 which labor is connected, have already been estab- 
 lished in our country. 
 
 In Miss Beecher's excellent work on Domestic 
 Economy, I find a sketch of an improved school for 
 young ladies, which I give you with pleasure, pre- 
 mising that I do not like the separation of the sexes 
 in the work of education, though like medicine, 
 surgery, jails, &c., it may be a necessary evil in the 
 present state of society. The institution at Oberlin, 
 Ohio, has all the advantages of the one mentioned 
 below by Miss Beecher, and the sexes are educated 
 together, as in a well regulated family. I have 
 often thought if young persons must be separated 
 during the period of education, why are not fami- 
 lies constituted with reference to this rule ? Why 
 are not some families composed entirely of boys, 
 and others of girls. As this is not the case. T must 
 think the separation unnatural, having its origin in 
 the corruptions of the age. Miss B. asks the fol-
 
 290 LECTURES ON 
 
 lowing sensible questions, which it is hoped the 
 wisdom of our age will satisfactorily answer: 
 
 " But are not the most responsible of all duties 
 committed to the care of woman ? Is it not her 
 profession to take care of mind, body and soul ? 
 and that too at the most critical of all periods of 
 existence ? And is it not as much a matter of pub- 
 lic concern, that she should be properly qualified for 
 her duties, as that ministers, lawyers and physicians 
 should be prepared for theirs ? And is it not as im- 
 portant to endow institutions that shall make a supe- 
 rior education accessible to all classes, for females, 
 as much as for the other sex ? And is it not equally 
 important, that institutions for females be under the 
 supervision of intelligent and responsible trustees, 
 whose duty it shall be to secure a uniform and ap- 
 propriate education for one sex, as much as for the 
 other? It would seem as if every mind must ac- 
 cord an affirmative reply, as soon as the matter is 
 fairly considered. 
 
 "As the education of females is now conducted, 
 any man or woman that pleases can establish a fe- 
 male seminary, and secure recommendations that 
 will attract pupils. But whose business is it to see 
 that these young females are not huddled into 
 crowded rooms? or that they do not sleep in ill-ven- 
 tilated chambers ? or that they have healthful food ? 
 or that they have the requisite amount of fresh air
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 and exercise? or that they pursue an appropriate 
 and systematic course of study ? or that their man- 
 ners, principles and morals are properly regulated? 
 Parents either have not the means, or else are not 
 qualified to judge; or, if they are furnished with 
 means and capacity, they are often restricted to a 
 choice of the best school within reach, even when 
 it is known to be exceedingly objectionable. 
 
 " If the writer were to disclose all that could 
 truly be told of boarding school life, and its influence 
 on health, manners, disposition, intellect and morals, 
 it would be a tale which would both astonish and 
 shock every rational mind. And yet she believes 
 that such institutions are far better managed in this 
 country than in any other; and that the number 
 of those which are subject to imputations in these 
 respects, is much less than could reasonably be 
 expected. But it is most surely the case, that 
 much remains to be done, in order to supply such 
 institutions as are needed for the proper education 
 of American women. 
 
 " In attempting a sketch of the kind of institu- 
 tions which are demanded, it is very fortunate that 
 there is no necessity for presenting a theory which 
 may or may not be approved by experience. It is 
 the greatest honor of one of our newest western 
 states, that it can boast of such an institution, and 
 one endowed, too, wholly by the munificence of one
 
 292 LECTURES ON 
 
 individual. A slight sketch of this institution, 
 which the writer has examined in all its details, will 
 give an idea of what can be done, by showing what 
 has actually been accomplished. 
 
 " This institution [the Monticello Female Semi- 
 nary, endowed by Benjamin Godfrey, Esq., of 
 Alton, Illinois] is under the supervision of a board 
 of trustees, appointed by the founder, who hold the 
 property in trust for the object to which it is de- 
 voted, and who have the power to fill their own 
 vacancies. It is furnished with a noble and tasteful 
 building of stone, so liberal in dimensions and ar- 
 rangement, that it can accommodate ninety pupils 
 and teachers, giving one room to every two pupils, 
 and all being so arranged as to admit of thorough 
 ventilation. This building is surrounded by exten- 
 sive grounds, enclosed with handsome fences, where 
 remains of the primeval forest still offer refreshing 
 shade for juvenile sports. 
 
 " To secure adequate exercise for the pupils, two 
 methods are adopted. By the first, each young 
 lady is required to spend two hours in domestic 
 employments, either in sweeping, dusting, setting 
 and clearing tables, washing and ironing, or other 
 household concerns. 
 
 " Let not the aristocratic mother and daughter 
 express their dislike of such an arrangement, till 
 they can learn how well it succeeds. Let them
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 293 
 
 walk, as the writer has done, through the large airy 
 halls, kept clean and in order by their fair occu- 
 pants, to the washing and ironing rooms. There 
 they will see a long hall, conveniently fitted up. 
 with some thirty neatly painted tubs, with a clean 
 floor, and water conducted so as to save both labor 
 and slopping. Let them see some thirty or forty 
 merry girls, superintended by a motherly lady, 
 chatting and singing, washing and starching, while 
 every convenience is at hand, and every thing 
 around is clean and comfortable. Two hours thus 
 employed enables each young lady to wash the 
 articles she used during the previous week, which 
 is all that is demanded, while thus they are all 
 practically initiated into the arts and mysteries of 
 the wash-tub. The superintendent remarked to 
 the writer, that after a few weeks of probation, her 
 young washers succeeded quite as well as most of 
 those whom she could hire, and who made it their 
 business. Adjacent to the washing room was the 
 ironing establishment, where another class were 
 arranged, on the ironing day, around long extended 
 tables, with heating furnaces, clothes frames, and 
 all needful appliances. 
 
 " By a systematic arrangement of school and 
 domestic duties, two hours each day, from each of 
 the pupils, accomplished all the domestic labor of a 
 family of ninety, except the cooking, which was
 
 LECTURES ON 
 
 done by two hired domestics. This part of domes- 
 tic labor it was deemed inexpedient to incorporate 
 as a part of the business of the pupils, inasmuch as 
 it could not be accommodated to the arrangements 
 of the school, and was in other respects objection- 
 able. 
 
 " Is it asked, how can young ladies paint, play 
 the piano, and study, when their hands and dresses 
 must be unfitted by such drudgery ? The woman 
 who asks this question, has yet to learn that a pure 
 and delicate skin is better secured by healthful ex- 
 ercise than by any other method ; and that a young 
 lady who will spend two hours a day at the wash- 
 tub or with a broom, is far more likely to have rosy 
 cheeks, a finely moulded form, and a delicate skin, 
 than one who lolls all day in her parlor or chamber, 
 or only leaves them girt in tight dresses, to make 
 fashionable calls. It is true, that long protracted 
 daily labor hardens the hand, and unfits it for deli- 
 cate employments ; but the amount of labor needful 
 for health produces no such effect. As to dress and 
 appearance, if neat and convenient accommodations 
 are furnished, there is no occasion for the exposures 
 that demand shabby dresses. A dark calico, gen- 
 teelly made, with an oiled silk apron, and \\ide 
 cuffs of the same material, secure both good looks 
 and good service. This plan of domestic employ- 
 ments for the pupils of this institution, not only
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 295 
 
 secures regular healthful exercise, but also reduces 
 the expenses of education, so as to bring it within 
 the reach of many who otherwise could never gain 
 such advantages. 
 
 " In addition to this, a system of calisthenic ex- 
 ercises is introduced, which secures all the advan- 
 tages which dancing is supposed to effect, and 
 which is free from the dangerous tendencies of that 
 fascinating fashionahle amusement. This system 
 is so combined with music, and constantly varying 
 evolutions, as to serve as an amusement, and also 
 as a mode of curing distortions, particularly all ten- 
 dencies to curvature of the spine ; while at the same 
 time it tends to promote grace of movement and 
 easy manners. 
 
 "Another advantage of this institution is, an ele- 
 vated and invigorating course of mental discipline. 
 Many persons seem to suppose that the chief object 
 of an intellectual education is the acquisition of 
 knowledge. But it will be found that this is only 
 a secondary object. It is the formation of habits 
 of investigation, of correct reasoning, of persevering 
 attention, of regular system, of accurate analysis, 
 and of vigorous mental action, that are the primary 
 objects to be sought in preparing American women 
 for their arduous duties, which will demand not only 
 quickness of perception, but steadiness of purpose, 
 regularity of system, and perseverance in action.
 
 296 LECTURES ON 
 
 " It is for such purposes that the discipline of the 
 mathematics is so important an element in female 
 education ; and it is in this aspect that the mere 
 acquisition of facts, and the attainment of accom- 
 plishments, should be made of altogether secondary 
 account. 
 
 " In the institution here described, a systematic 
 course of study is adopted, as in our colleges, de- 
 signed to occupy three years. The following slight 
 outline of the course of study will exhibit the liberal 
 plan adopted in this respect : 
 
 " In mathematics, the whole of arithmetic con- 
 tained in the larger works used in schools, the 
 whole of Euclid, and such portions from Day's 
 Mathematics as are requisite to enable the pupils to 
 demonstrate the various problems in Olmsted's 
 larger work on natural philosophy. In language, 
 besides English grammar, a short course in Latin is 
 required, sufficient to secure an understanding of 
 the philosophy of the language, and that kind of 
 mental discipline which the exercise of translating 
 affords. In philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, 
 botany, geology and mineralogy, intellectual and 
 moral philosophy, political economy, and the evi- 
 dences of Christianity, the same text books are used 
 as are required at our best colleges. In geography, 
 the largest work and most thorough course is adopt- 
 ed ; and in history, a more complete knowledge is
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 297 
 
 secured by means of charts and text books, than 
 mdst of our colleges offer. To these branches are 
 added Griscom's Physiology, Bigelow's Technolo- 
 gy, and Jahn's Archaeology, together with a course 
 of instruction in polite literature, for which Chal- 
 mer's English Literature is employed as the text 
 book, each recitation being attended with 'selections 
 and criticisms from teacher or pupils, on the various 
 authors brought into notice. Vocal music, on the 
 plan of the Boston Academy, is a part of the daily 
 instructions. Linear drawing and pencilling are 
 designed also to be a part of the course. Instru- 
 mental music is taught, but not as a part of the reg- 
 ular course of study. 
 
 " To secure the proper instruction in all these 
 branches, the division of labor adopted in colleges 
 is pursued. Each teacher has distinct branches as 
 her department, for which she is responsible, and in 
 which she is independent. By this method the 
 teachers have sufficient time both to prepare them- 
 selves and to impart instruction and illustration in 
 the class-room. 
 
 " The writer has never before seen the principle 
 of the division of labor and responsibility so perfectly 
 carried out in any female institution; and believes 
 that experience will prove that this is the true 
 model for combining, in appropriate proportions, the 
 20
 
 298 LECTURES ON 
 
 agency of both sexes in carrying forward such an 
 institution. 
 
 " One other thing should be noticed, to the credit 
 of the rising state where this institution is located. 
 A female association has been formed, embracing a 
 large portion of the ladies of standing and wealth, 
 the design of which is to educate, gratuitously, at 
 this and other similar institutions, such females as 
 are anxious to obtain a good education, and are des- 
 titute of the means. If this enterprise is continued 
 with the same energy and perseverance as has been 
 manifested the last few years, Illinois will take the 
 lead of her sister states in well educated women ; 
 and if the views in the preceding pages are correct, 
 this will give her precedence in every intellectual 
 and moral advantage. 
 
 " Many who are not aware of the great economy 
 secured by a proper division of labor, will not un- 
 derstand how so extensive a course can be properly 
 completed in three years. But in this institution 
 none are received under fourteen, and a certain 
 amount of previous acquisition is required in order 
 to admission, as is done in our colleges. This se- 
 cures a diminution of classes, so that but few studies 
 are pursued at one time; while the number of well 
 qualified teachers is so adequate, that full time is 
 afforded for all needful instruction and illustration. 
 Where teachers have so many classes that they
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 299 
 
 merely have time to find out what their pupils learn 
 from books, without any aid from their teacher, the 
 acquisitions of the pupils are vague and imperfect, 
 and soon pass away ; so that an immense amount of 
 expense, time and labor are spent in acquiring what 
 is lost about as fast as it is gained. 
 
 " Parents are little aware of the immense waste 
 incurred by the present mode of conducting female 
 education. In the wealthy classes, young girls are 
 sent to school, as a matter of course, year after 
 year, confined six hours a day to the school house, 
 and required to add some time out of school to ac- 
 quiring school exercises. Thus, during the most 
 critical period of life, they are confined, six hours a 
 day, in a room filled with an atmosphere vitiated by 
 many breaths, and are constantly kept under some 
 sort of responsibility in regard to mental effort. 
 Their studies are pursued at random, often changed 
 with changing schools, while one school book after 
 another (heavily taxing the parent's purse) is conned 
 awhile and then supplanted by another. Teachers 
 usually have so many pupils, and such a variety of 
 branches to teach, that little time can be afforded to 
 each pupil, while scholars, at this thoughtless period 
 of life, feeling sure of going to school as long as they 
 please, feel little interest in their pursuits. 
 
 " The writer believes that the actual amount of 
 education, permanently secured by most young la-
 
 300 LECTURES. 
 
 dies from the age of ten to fourteen, could all be 
 acquired in one year at the institution described, by 
 a young lady at the age of fifteen or sixteen." 
 
 Other schools, perhaps still better adapted to the 
 wants of humanity, will doubtless be established 
 hereafter. We have great reason to be encourp.^ed 
 when we look at the "signs of the times." \Virh 
 the intelligence and virtue that exist in community, 
 we may be-assured that our course is onward. May 
 it not only be onward, but upward, for ever. 
 
 THE END.
 
 
 
 
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