124 SHAMPOOING A SUBSTITUTE FOR EXERCISE. 



duties imperatively requires from every member of 

 the human race. 



Considered in this point of view, the hurried 

 breathing and quickened circulation, of which we 

 are so apt to complain when engaged in muscular 

 exercise, instead of being evils, are, in fact, the 

 beneficent means by which we become fitted to con- 

 tinue the exertion. Without a more than usually 

 rapid flow of blood to the part in use, the necessary- 

 stimulus to its vessels and nerves could not take 

 place, and its action could not be sustained. But 

 were the blood-vessels not so situated among the 

 muscles as to have their contents propelled more 

 quickly by the compression to which every muscular 

 contraction necessarily subjects them, it is obvious 

 that no increase of circulation could take place. 

 And if respiration, on the other hand, were not to 

 become accelerated, so as to oxygenate the venous 

 blood more quickly as it arrived at the lungs, it is 

 obvious, that the requisite stimulus must again have 

 failed, as, in that case, the blood must either have 

 accumulated in the lungs and caused death, or have 

 passed through them imperfectly prepared, and ex- 

 tinguished life more slowly, but not less certainly. 



It is from this effect of muscular compression in 

 promoting the flow of blood through the arteries and 

 veins, that shampooing, which consists in a kind of 

 kneading of the flesh, is so successfully resorted to 

 in the warm climates of the East, and among the 

 richer class of invalids in our own country, as a 

 substitute for active exercise. Shampooing fur- 

 nishes from without that impulse to the circulation 

 which the Creator had destined it to receive from 

 active muscular exertion ; and the principle of its 

 action being the same, we cannot wonder that it 

 should prove indisputably useful in promoting circu- 

 lation, strength, and nutrition, in cases where active 

 exercise cannot be enjoyed. 



It is a common observation, that sedentary persons 



