24 ILLUSTRATIONS. 



preceding months of summer and autumn. But in 

 proportion as they are deprived of these advantages 

 by the advance of winter, and are subjected to the 

 evil influence of confinement to close rooms, defi- 

 cient exercise, cold damp air, and deprivation of the 

 stimulus of light, the stamina of the constitution 

 become impaired, and debility and relaxation begin 

 to be felt, and make progress from day to day, till 

 on the arrival of spring they have reached their 

 maximum, and either give rise to positive disease, 

 or gradually disappear at the return of the invigo- 

 rating influence of longer and warmer days. This 

 principle, however, will not apply where pulmonary 

 or other disease pre-exists; for in such cases, the 

 east winds prevalent in spring are directly injurious. 



If the above view be correct, it is obvious that the 

 hurtful cause is not, as is commonly supposed, so 

 much any positive quality of spring as the accumulated 

 mass of the winter influences then reaching their 

 maximum ; and this is not perceived, only because 

 the operation of the cause from day to day, although 

 perfectly real, is too small to attract notice, while 

 the aggregate of the many days composing winter 

 is striking enough. The fact that those who are 

 sufficiently robust to undergo the necessary expo- 

 sure in winter suffer much less in spring, seems to 

 corroborate the above explanation. 



We must not suppose, then, that because a single 

 excess of any kind does not produce a direct attack 

 of disease, it is, therefore, necessarily harmless; 

 for it is only when the noxious agent is very pow- 

 erful indeed that its deleterious influence on the 

 system becomes instantly sensible. In the great 

 majority of situations to which man is exposed in 

 social life, it is the continued or the reiterated appli- 

 cation of less powerful causes which gradually, and 

 often imperceptibly, unless to the vigilant eye, 

 effects the change, and ruins the constitution before 

 danger is dreamed of And yet this great truth is 



