HYGEIA. 541 



ferently-named fields of the same labor : " The Art of Pro- 

 longing Life,"* "The Philosophy of Living,"f "The Laws 

 of Health,"! " Life and Health," " Human Health, or Ele- 

 ments of Hygiene,"|| "Elements of Health, "f "Physiology 

 Applied to Health and Education,"** "Physical Educa- 

 tion," and the whole domain of "Human Physiology," etc. 



Grand in thy niche, great, kind, and brooding Prophylactic, 

 " What shall I do to thee, thou preserver of men ?"ff 

 Surely not make thee superior to thy father ? See the grace 

 and fitness of the classical myth ; the mild maid, with flow- 

 ing robes, leans upon her father. Being only a " personifica- 

 tion" of one of the "powers" ascribed to him, is it justice in 

 poetry or science to exalt her at the sacrifice of the dignity 

 and supremacy of her sire, the venerable god ? 



Hear the sage Mayo, from Boppard on the Rhine, (1851,) 

 more than fifty-five years after Hufeland, of Jena, had pub- 

 lished "The Art of Prolonging Life:" "In the Greek 

 medal which furnishes the device for the title-page, [of his 

 book ' Philosophy of Living,'] Hygeia is represented with 

 emblems of greater efficiency than the healing god. Her 

 snake is three times as big as that of JGsculapius, and could 

 evidently eat half-a-dozen such at a meal. Besides, she 

 handles it with familiar dexterity, while the god's is care- 

 lessly twined round his life-preserver. Even so, in the ad- 

 vance of knowledge, hygiene^ is found to be an art more 

 important than medicine prevention is recognized to be 

 something better than cure. The tons of medicine which 

 were annually swallowed by the British public are already 

 sensibly reduced. Physicians and apothecaries begin to 

 look anxiously around for protection ; and society, at this 

 pace, is not unlikely soon to adopt the sage custom of the 

 court of China, which consists in paying its medical adviser 



* Hufeland, a philosophic physician and professor of medicine in 

 the Universty of Jena. f Mayo. J Beale. 



g Alcott. || Dunglison, Smith, Johnston, and others. 

 J Tilt. ** Combe. ff Job, vii. 



J| The italics are our own except a few. 



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