108 THE HUMAN LUNGS. 



from the kings of fashion. It is another proof that we speak the 

 truth, because it tends so directly, yet so newly, to reinforce our 

 old duties, which is an excellent test of truth. There are in fact 

 as many kinds of public health as there are different organs. There 

 is one which should be represented at the board of fashion, as hav- 

 ing a veto, and establishing a precedent upon whatever is enslaving 

 in dress. And it is not to be doubted that in what we wear, equally 

 as in what we are, grace, pleasure, and beauty are compatible with 

 freedom, and with freedom only.* 



But dress is not the only thing that coerces the frame ; or rather 

 I should say, the body itself is a dress which under certain circum- 

 stances may oppress and hinder the breathing. A " belly with 

 good capon lined," is a garment difficult to ensoul. Over eating is 

 a tyrant against motion. It impedes the play, not only of the 

 lungs, but of the other members. A mass of crude food is like an 

 avalanche of stones descending upon a country, which buries the soil 

 under dead materials. How plainly do we see the small life in the 

 scant breath of the unwieldy hon vivant, whose lungs have porter's 

 work to do in lifting his disproportioned paunch. So it is that 

 liberty and temperance are among the natural commandments of 

 the lungs. 



We have now spoken of the first commerce of the lungs with 

 the body ; it remains to consider some relations which they main- 

 tain with the senses and the other powers, that is to say, with the 

 faculties of the brain, and by which they again influence the bodily 

 organs. 



Now the material senses inspire the body with its first proper 

 life, and concur with the pulmonary inspiration. For beginning 

 with touch } we find that pleasant contact which soothes the skin, is 



* All parts of the body may be smothered or suffocated if confined. This is 

 often seen in disease, and particularly in delicate and nervous females, who begin 

 to gasp if there is the least pressure of physical restraint, and a touch sets them 

 off into hysterical movements, the feeling of suffocation reacting from the cir- 

 cumferences or limbs towards the centres. Life in such persons is an exquisite 

 balance which appreciates quantities of compulsion and restraint that make no 

 sensible impression upon hardier organisms. 



