802 EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 



feted, or the exertion required been beyond what the 

 lungs were fully able to bear, the effect would have 

 been, not to improve health, but to destroy life ; and 

 this condition of accurate relation between the 

 amount of exercise and the state of the organization 

 must never for a moment be overlooked. With a 

 little care, however, the point at which direct exer- 

 cise of the lungs ought to stop may easily be deter- 

 mined by observing its effects. 



The same principle leads to another obvious rule \ 

 When disease of any kind exists in the chest, the 

 exercise of the lungs in speaking, reading, and sing- 

 ing, and also in ordinary muscular exertion, ought 

 either to be entirely refrained from or strictly regu- 

 lated by professional advice. When a joint is sore 

 or inflamed, we know that motion impedes its re- 

 covery. When the eye is affected, we, for a similar 

 reason, shut out the light ; and when the stomach is 

 disordered, we have respect to its condition, and 

 become more careful about diet. The lungs demand 

 a treatment founded on the same general principle. 

 If they are inflamed, they must not be exercised^ 

 otherwise mischief will ensue. Hence, in a com- 

 mon cold of any severity, silence, which is the ab- 

 sence of direct pulmonary exercise, ought to be 

 preserved, and will in truth be its own reward. In 

 severe cases, and in acute inflammations of the 

 chest, this rule is of the greatest importance. It is 

 common to meet with patients who cannot speak 

 three words without exciting a fit of coughing, and 

 who, notwithstanding, cannot be persuaded that 

 peaking retards their recovery. In like manner, 

 in spitting of blood, and in the early stage of tuber- 

 cular consumption, when the breathing cannot be 

 excited without direct mischief, it is often difficult 

 to convince the patient of the necessity of silence. 

 He perhaps does not feel pain on attempting to 

 speak, and says that " it merely raises a short tick- 

 ling eough, which is nothing." But if he persists, 



