66 ON THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN MENTAL, &C. 



pure air. The clothing of the bed should not be too heavy or too 

 hot, since by exciting the circulation too much, that of the brain 

 becomes disturbed, and unpleasant dreams, partaking of the charac- 

 ter of night-mare, might be produced ; the same effects would be 

 brought about by the head lying too low, which would prevent a 

 return of venous blood from the brain. The state of the stomach, 

 above all, should be attended to ; if the food be difficult of diges- 

 tion, an undue degree of acidity will be produced, which, acting 

 upon the peculiar sensibility of the lining membrane of the stomach, 

 and secondarily upon the brain, will produce all the evils which, in 

 the course of the lecture, I have passed in review. An overloaded 

 stomach causes similar effects, but in a different way ; it acts chiefly 

 by irritating the heart, and quickening the circulation ; and if the 

 conjecture of an ingenious physiologist be true — that only a certain 

 number of pulsations are allotted to every man — we should be most 

 anxiously watchful how we suffered moral impression, or bodily af- 

 fections, over which we had any controul, to accelerate the action of 

 the heart. Late hours are attended by a slight degree of fever, 

 which acts in a similar manner ; and early rising is productive of 

 the benefits attributed to exercise, in the third division of causes 

 affecting the body. 



If we wish, therefore, to have pleasant dreams, the body 

 should be slightly fatigued, the pulse should be quiet, the mind 

 calm, the skin cool, and the stomach nearly empty. We shall then 

 not need a ''pillow of hops" to woo us to repose. We shall not 

 have to think of the sounding rain, the murmur of bees, the mean- 

 dering river, the waving corn, or the restless ocean. We shall 

 not have then to exclaim *'I cannot win thee, sleep, by any stealth;" 

 but our slumbers will be light and protracted till long after " the 

 small birds* melodies," and the " first cuckoo's melancholy cry." 



