LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 301 



necessary for the support of our economy, as well as the circulation of the blood, 

 yet it is not sufficient to keep the thread of life together even for a minute, 

 if deprived of the power of breathing. The peculiarly beautiful mechanism of the 

 chest and cellular tissue of the lungs, so admirably adapted to receive and expel 

 the atmosphere, as well as to facilitate the chemical change that necessarily takes 

 place in the passage of the blood through these organs, where it becomes freed of 

 its impurities, and changed as to colour and character, was next taken into 

 consideration ; and here the lecturer observed, that every class of organized 

 beings, from the elephant to the worm, from the whale to the herring, all required 

 the presence of atmospheric air for their existence, though the quantity necessary 

 for each differed, warm blooded animals standing in need of the greatest proportion. 

 Many facts were detailed, showing the importance of an unrestrained action of 

 the lungs, and the inhalation of air free from contaminated vapours. The horrors 

 of the black-hole of Calcutta were feelingly dwelt on, where out of 146 persons 

 confined in a close prison, not 18 feet square, only 23 survived the night. Mr. R. 

 in order to impress more fully on the minds of his audience the baneful effects arising 

 from limiting the action of the chest, introduced sketches, contrasting the capacity 

 and form of the chest of the Venus de Medici, with those of persons who daily 

 immolate themselves at the shrine of fashion, under the false impression that they 

 can improve the human form divine. Mothers, he continued, are first induced 

 to adopt the common practice of bandaging their children, at the advice of their 

 nurses, who assert that it will bring them into shape. From the continuation of 

 this practice, the capacity of the chest evidently becomes diminished in propartion 

 as the child grows ; for the rib?, at this early period of life, are but cartilage, and 

 easily yield to compression. The infant, in consequence, is attacked by a slight, 

 short cough, a hurried aspiration, considerable restlessness at night — the nurse musi 

 sleep — recourse is had to what may be called " a real blessing" to inhuman nurses — 

 anodynes, as opium, &c., remarkable for their " soothing" and compo^in^ effects. 

 The poor innocent sleeps, but it gradually becomes emaciated, and she who was once 

 a fine little girl, is considerably less at three months' old than when she was born. 

 The mother then becomes alarmed — calls in professional assistance ; the error is 

 pointed out, and the child saved — a lesson is given to an anxious mother she never 

 forgets, but the nurse continues obstinate in proportion to her years. When at the 

 early age of ten, these bandages are converted into a more formidable and injurious 

 apparel, being fortified with bones running in every direction, the young lady is sent 

 to a boarding school, where every attention is paid to her studies, and she ultimately 

 becomes a paragon of excellence. Nature has endowed her with an adequate share 

 of intellect, which has been highly cultivated, and she is found proficient in every 

 branch of literature, science, and the fine arts. Nature has also endowed her with 

 the outline of a good and graceful figure ; but this, alas ! has been most seriously 

 mutilated and deformed. That constitution, which w'as once strong and healthy, 

 has become enervated and debilitated — the space where the purification of that 

 important circulating fluid, the blood, is effected, has been seriously diminished, and 

 there exists a predisposition to affections of the heart and lungs ; in fact, the body 

 and general health suffer in the inverse ratio as the mind becomes improved. Mr. 

 lieece concluded his observations on this subject, by citing the case of death from 

 tight lacing, which lately appeared in the public prints. 



The lecturer then remarked on the importance of every individual, however 

 exalted in station, or humble in society, being acquainted with the most ready means 

 of restoring suspended animation, arismg either from drowning, hanging, or expo- 

 sure to noxious vapours — and after giving a full explanation of the best method to be 

 adopted for resuscitation, he proceeded to the chemical investigation of the atmos- 

 phere, the elementary constituents of which are oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid, 

 and although the quantity of the latter does not exceed one part in 500, and is hence 

 considered as adventitious and extraneous, still it is found to bear the same propor- 

 tion in every part of the universe ; in fact, by chemical analysis, the uniformity of 

 its composition is found to be exactly the same at an altitude of 22,000 feet, as was 

 ascertained by Guy Lussac — at the level of the sea — on the deserts of Arabia — or 

 the crowded metropolis. Sir H. Davy submitted to analysis the atmosphere from 

 every quarter of the globe, and found it to be uniformly the same. Saussure 

 examined the air on the summit of Mont Blanc, and Baron D'Humboldtthat on 

 the summit of the Andes, and no difference in their chemical constituents could oe 



