92 REMARKS ON DR. CALDWELL'S 



sists of many different organs, which are again made up of other 

 organs, each performing its specific functions : but, instead of acting 

 every one for itself alone, these organs act also for each other indi- 

 vidually and collectively, and are united in a system by function 

 and sympathy. The condition of one organ, therefore, whether 

 sound or unsound, influences and modifies that of many others : if 

 it be a principal organ, it influences the whole machine. There 

 are three great sets of organs which, while they are intimately and 

 indispensably connected with each other, they control all the rest 

 and assimilate their condition in no small degree to their own. 

 These are the chyle-making or digestive organs : the blood-making 

 and blood-distributing organs, consisting of the lungs, the heart, 

 and the blood-vessels; and the brain, spinal cord and nerves, which 

 are the organs of intellect and feeling, as well as the sources of vo- 

 luntary motion. All the other organs are controlled by these three 

 sets, and they produce this effect by mutually controlling them- 

 selves, by exercising such a reciprocal influence as to be all, at the 

 same time, somewhat assimilated in condition. They are as neces- 

 sary to each other as they are to the whole : when one of them is 

 materially deramred in its action, the two others immediately suf- 

 fer, and all the rest of the system is disordered in its turn. Hence, 

 it is quite evident, that moral and intellectual education which con- 

 sists in amending the condition of the brain, and physical education 

 which is the improvement of the other parts of the body, are indis- 

 pensable to the perfection of each other, and consequently to that of 

 the whole system. Physical education is to the other two, what the 

 root, and trunk, and branches of the tree are to its leaves, blossoms, 

 and fruit : it is the essence and source of their existence : injure or 

 improve it, and you produce on them a kindred effect : without a 

 strict and judicious attention to it, man cannot attain to the perfec- 

 tion of his nature. If history and tradition be credited, the peo- 

 ple of ancient Greece, as a nation, were, physically and intellectual- 

 ly, the most perfect of the human race ; and there is reason to be- 

 lieve that their unrivalled attention to physical education was highly 

 influential in determining this result. If, then, instead of treating 

 technically of moral, intellectual, and physical education, authors 

 and teachers would speak more correctly of the education of the 

 different portions of the body, each portion being trained according 

 to its organization and character, their discourses would be more 

 philosophical than they are, and also greatly more instructive. 



Physical education, in its philosophy and practice, embraces every 

 thing that, by bearing in any way on the human body, can injure 



