PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN THE LUNGS. 203 



dearly-bought experience will teach him his error, 

 and dispose him to regret, as did a lamented friend 

 of the author, that a few weeks of the many years 

 usually dedicated to the classics had not been de- 

 voted to communicating to him some knowledge of 

 the structure and functions of his own body. In 

 the instance alluded to, after spitting of blood had 

 been induced by severe bodily labour, the patient 

 continued talking almost the whole day to the visit- 

 ers and inmates of a large public establishment, 

 and believed himself all the time to be very careful, 

 as he said he was no longer exerting his body. 

 When the error was pointed out, and the mechanism 

 of the lungs explained to him, he deeply bewailed 

 the ignorance which had allowed him to act in a 

 manner so pernicious. 



All violent exercise ought, for similar reasons, to 

 be refrained from, during at least the active stages 

 of cold. Every thing which hurries the breathing, 

 whether walking fast, ascending an acclivity, or 

 reading aloud, has the same effect on the diseased 

 lungs that motion of the bones has on an inflamed 

 joint. It seems to me, that many people hurt them^ 

 selves much more by the active exercise they take 

 during a severe cold than by the mere exposure to 

 the weather. It is well known, that a person when 

 colded may go out for a short time, even in an open 

 carriage more safely than on foot, and there is much 

 reason to believe, that it is the absence of active ex- 

 ertion of the lungs in the former case which makes 

 the exposure less hurtful. 



After al 1 active disease has been subdued, or when 

 nothing bux delicacy remains, the adequate exercise 

 of the lungs is one of the best means of promoting 

 effectual recovery. Those parents, therefore, act 

 most erroneously, who, in their apprehensive anx- 

 iety for the protection of their delicate children, 

 scrupulously prohibit them from every kind of exer- 

 cise which requires the least effort, and shut them 



