22 USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 



the laws of health, as if these were entirely without 

 influence, and their future breach or observance 

 could in no way affect him ! Just as if it were not 

 better by a rational exercise of judgment to preserve 

 health when we have it, than first to lose it, and 

 then pay the penalty in suffering and danger, as an 

 indispensable preliminary to its subsequent resto- 

 ration ! 



One cause of such anomalous conduct is the dan- 

 gerous and prevalent fallacy of supposing, that be- 

 cause glaring mischief does not instantly follow 

 every breach of an organic law, no harm has been 

 done. Thus, what is more common than to hear a 

 dyspeptic invalid, who seeks to gratify his palate, 

 say, that vegetables, for example, or pastry, or heavy 

 puddings, do not disagree with him, as he ate them 

 on such a day, and felt no inconvenience from them ? 

 and the same in regard to late hours, heated rooms, 

 insufficient clothing, and all other sources of bad 

 health, every one of which will, in like manner, be 

 defended by some patient or other, on the ground 

 that he experienced no injury from them on a cer- 

 tain specified occasion ; while all will readily admit 

 the abstract fact, that such things are, and must be, 

 very hurtful to every one else. 



Happy would it often be for suffering man could 

 he see beforehand the modicum of punishment 

 which his multiplied aberrations from the laws of 

 physiology are sure to bring upon him. But as, in 

 the great majority of instances, the breach of the 

 law is limited in extent, and becomes serious by the 

 frequency of its repetition rather than by a single 

 act ; so is the punishment gradual in its infliction, 

 and slow in manifesting its accumulated effect ; and 

 this very gradation, and the distance of time at which 

 the full effect is produced, are the reasons why man, 

 in his ignorance, so often fails to trace the connex- 

 ion between his conduct in life and his broken 

 health. But the connexion subsists although he 



