08 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 



nevertheless all concur in recommending a less nutri- 

 tious diet and exercise, 



b. Anaemia (poverty of blood). — The etymological 

 signification of this term does not accurately describe 

 the condition, for we do not mean a total absence of 

 blood, but a lowering of its quality, a decrease in the 

 proportion of the red globules. This condition is 

 caused by insufficient quality or quantity of food, by 

 defective nutrition, by loss of blood, by too severe or 

 too long continued mental occupation, or by chronic 

 diseases. 



The decrease in the number of the red corpuscles 

 in the blood lessens the power of this fluid to carry 

 oxygen, and accompanied, as this disease very often 

 is, by a diminution of the albumen of the blood, in- 

 terferes with the transformations which are necessary 

 to the conservation of the human economy. The de- 

 velopment of tissue is diminished, the animal heat 

 decreased, and the energy of both nervous and mus- 

 cular systems lessened. 



c. Chlorosis (green sicKness). — Though it may be 

 regarded as a peculiar form of ansemia, has a well- 

 marked idiopathic character, in that it very often 

 arises without appreciable cause. It has been re- 

 garded by many as an affection of the nervous sys- 

 tem, having its origin or seat in the sympathetic, but 

 it is more probable that the nervous affection is an 

 effect, not the cause ; that the nervous system is 

 equally affected with the other organs of the body. 



