246 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 



ing from which the sufferer cannot avoid the belief that his 

 heart swells to twice the natural size, occasionally turns 

 over, backwards, and forwards, and is every instant in 

 danger of bursting open and spilling its vital contents 

 into his chest : at the same time he feels that his pulse 

 beats half a dozen strokes in a moment and then stands 

 still, until forced by the stimulus of the blood to begin 

 the same rapid motions again. And yet all this, and 

 even more than we dare to describe to the literary inva- 

 lid, is according to the woful experience of the one who 

 writes this, the consequence of study at the rate of 

 fourteen hours per day, for a series of months. And yet 

 all these symptoms were unfelt and forgotten during the 

 most violent exercise in which the mind was intensely 

 interested, viz. field sports. 



Mere attention to diet of little use. A spare diet, 

 omission of dinner, vegetable food, bran bread, and 

 indeed all the remedies which the science abstemious- 

 ness can suggest will never prove antidotes to these 

 fearful sensations. A laborious student, like a laborious 

 workman, requires nutriment, nor can he sustain himself 

 in his literary pursuits without it. It is true that where 

 the muscles are little exercised, the quantity of solid food 

 may be diminished ; but he who goes to work at a dif- 

 ficult piece of composition with a hungry stomach, will 

 never finish it to suit himself until this sensation is satis- 

 fied. 



An easy and comfortable state of the animal system 

 is absolutely necessary for the student, and so far as we 

 know r , this is only to be obtained by a generous diet, and 

 exciting exercise, according to the wants and feelings of 

 the subject. 



As to the use of medicines, diet and rules of conduct, 

 without muscular action, for the alleviation of nervous 

 palpitation, they are worse than useless, because they 

 offer false hopes to the sufferer, and prevent his seeking 

 the proper remedy in season. And we hereby warn 

 those into whose hands these remarks may fall, and who 

 are thus afflicted, never to be caught by such chaff, as 

 bran bread, and its adjuvants as a remedy for what can 



