in a Boy six years of age. 33 



one of the functions is employed in excess, a corresponding 

 deficiency will, I think, be found in the usual exercise of the 

 others. A few examples of this principle will at present suffice. 



To begin with the case of J M above related, 



the only circumstances in which he obviously differs from child- 

 ren of the same age, are his precocity of organic developement, 

 attended with a decided deficiency of intellect, or activity of 

 mind in the intellectual department. As the attentions that 

 have of late been paid to him on all hands have evidently excited 

 his ambition, and as he appears tohave acquired a greater activity 

 of mind in consequence, it will be highly interesting to observe 

 the future reciprocal effects, if any, which his intellectual may 

 have on the physical progress of further developement. 



In all cases there is evidently m utero a very great activity 

 of the constructive functions. This activity generally dimi- 

 nishes after birth in a degree, which, setting disease aside, bears 

 an evident ratio to the increasing exercise of the intellectual 

 functions. The remission or temporary suspension of the in- 

 tellectual functions which occurs during sleep, is attended with 

 an evident intention of the constructive functions, by which, in 

 the time of healthy repose, the wearied or impaired organs are 

 put into a state fit for renewed action. Great precocity of in- 

 tellect, I have certainly seen attended with a marked decrease 

 of the constructive functions. It is common for young persons 

 of either sex to acquire about the time of puberty a sudden 

 and extraordinary activity of the constructive functions, and I 

 have long observed that the intellect then, except in matters 

 that regard the final cause of that activity, becomes uncommon- 

 ly sluggish and inactive. The reproductive functions succeed 

 to the completion of the constructive, and it is well known that 

 too great exercise of them is incompatible with an intense ap- 

 plication of the mind to study. On the other hand, excessive 

 intellectual exercise is sometimes destructive of health, (which 

 depends upon a due performance of the constructive functions) 

 and also of the reproductive powers or inclinations. Sir Isaac 

 Newton, whose intellectual powers were never perhaps exceeded, 

 is said to have exhibited this inactivity or deficiency of the repro- 

 ductive. 



NEW SERIES. VOL. I. NO. I. JULY 1829. C 



