WITH MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 117 



fatigues them so much as to render them unfit for 

 every thing for some days after, and that they are 

 never so well as when allowed to remain in the 

 house. But if, in perfect reliance on the regularity 

 of the Creator's laws, we seek out the cause of this 

 apparent exception, we shall almost uniformly find, 

 that, instead of beginning with a degree of exertion 

 proportioned to the weakened state of the system, 

 such persons have (under the notion that it was riot 

 worth while to go out for a short time) forced their 

 muscles, already weakened by inactivity and con- 

 finement, to perform a walk to which only regularly 

 exercised muscles were adequate. The amount 

 of exertion which is always followed by exhaustion 

 is thus, through mere impatience and ignorance, 

 substituted for that lesser degree which always 

 gives strength ; and because the former is followed 

 by headache and debility, it is argued that the latter 

 also must be prejudicial! Many sensible people 

 delude themselves by such puerile plausibilities as 

 this ; and it is only by the diffusion of a knowledge 

 of the laws of exercise as part of a useful educa- 

 tion that individuals can be enabled to avoid such 

 mistakes. 



The effects of exercise upon the organs employed 

 are very remarkable, and useful to be known. When 

 any living part -is called into activity, the processes 

 of waste and renovation, which are incessantly 

 going on in every part of the body, proceed with 

 greater rapidity, and in due proportion to each 

 other. To meet this condition, the vessels and 

 nerves become excited to higher action, and the 

 supply of arterial or nutritive blood and of nervous 

 energy becomes greater. When the active exercise 

 ceases, the excitement thus given to the vital func- 

 tions subsides, and the vessels and nerves return at 

 length to their original state. 



If the exercise be resumed frequently, and at 

 moderate intervals, the increased action of the blood* 



