IN SELECTING RECRUITS. 291 



healthy growth, the practice of receiving recruits 

 at 17 or 18 years of age would never have been 

 sanctioned, and the country would have been saved 

 the pain and the expense of sending thousands of 

 young men to " encumber the hospitals and the 

 road-sides" of the Peninsula, or to perish under the 

 exhausting influence of a tropical climate. 



I have dwelt at some length on this subject, both 

 because the practice which I condemn was lately 

 in full operation, and is even yet not entirely ex- 

 ploded, and because, from the magnitude of its re- 

 sults, and the clearness with which they can be 

 traced to a direct violation of a natural law of the 

 constitution, it affords an instructive example of the 

 evils arising from ignorance of the structure and 

 functions of the human body, aid of the aid which 

 might be derived from a general acquaintance with 

 physiology in preserving health, and promoting the 

 happiness of the race. 



It was my intention to analyze, in the same way, 

 various other practices in which public or private 

 health is concerned, and to offer some suggestions 

 for improving the treatment of the insane, by a more 

 extensive observation of the conditions required for 

 the healthy exercise of the mental functions ; but I 

 have already so far exceeded the limits originally 

 proposed, that I must now draw to a conclusion, and 

 judge, by the reception of the present volume, how 

 far I am right in believing that information of the 

 kind now communicated will be acceptable or use- 

 ful to the public 



THE END. 



