ILLUSTRATIONS. 23 



does not regard it, and the accumulated conse- 

 quences come upon him when he least expects 

 them. 



Thus, pure air is essential to the full enjoyment 

 of health ; and reason says, that every degree of 

 vitiation must necessarily be proportionally hurtful, 

 till we arrive at that degree at which, from its ex- 

 cess, the continuance of life becomes impossible. 

 When we state this fact to a delicately constituted 

 female, who is fond of frequenting heated rooms, 

 or crowded parties, theatres, or churches, and call 

 her attention to the hurtful consequences which she 

 must inflict on herself by inhaling the vitiated air 

 of such assemblies, her answer invariably is, that 

 the closeness and heat are very disagreeable, but 

 that they rarely injure her : by which she can only 

 mean, that a single exposure to them does not always 

 cause an illness serious enough to send her to bed, 

 or excite acute pain ; although both results are ad- 

 mitted sometimes to have followed. An intelligent 

 observer, however, has no difficulty in perceiving 

 that they do hurt her, and that although the effect 

 of each exposure to their influence is so gradual as 

 not to arrest attention, it is not the less progressive 

 and influential in producing and maintaining that 

 general delicacy of health by which she is charac- 

 terized, and from which no medical treatment can 

 relieve her, so long as its active causes are left in 

 operation. 



The debility so generally complained of in spring 

 by invalids and persons of a delicate constitution, 

 and which renders that season of the year so formi- 

 dable in prospect, and in reality so fatal, seems to 

 result more from the accumulated effects of the 

 preceding winter months than from any thing di- 

 rectly inherent in the season itself. At the com- 

 mencement of winter, such persons feel compara- 

 tively strong from the beneficial influence of expo- 

 sure to the open air, light, and exercise, during the 



