BONES, MUSCLES, EXERCISE, AND BEST. 283 



later years she said that, for near forty years, she had not 

 walked from her house to the village, and she thought she 

 had not strength to do it. 



652. The strength and size which the muscles gain by 

 exercise are to be preserved by the same means. If suffered 

 to remain inactive, they lose their fulness and power, they 

 shrivel, and become soft and feeble. Whatever may be the 

 cause of the disuse of the limbs, these consequences of waste 

 and weakness must follow. An active and strong man re- 

 ceives an injury, perhaps a cut on the foot. This wound, 

 without producing any general disease, may lay him up, and 

 keep him still for some months. When his wound is 

 healed, he finds his legs are weak, and unable to do their 

 former labor. 



653. Dr. Reid cut the great nerve that went to one of 

 the legs of a rabbit. The limb was immediately palsied, and 

 could not move. In seven weeks he killed the animal, and 

 compared the muscles of the palsied leg with those of the 

 opposite and sound one. They were paler, softer, and 

 smaller, and weighed only about half as much as those of 

 the other limb. The bones, also, of the inactive leg were 

 diminished in size. So the muscles of the paralytic man, 

 who does not and cannot walk, become shrivelled and weak. 

 Mr. J., in consequence of an injury, has not been -able to 

 bend the foot on the leg. for more than sixteen years. The 

 muscles which formerly lifted his foot, not having been used 

 for so long a time, are now shrivelled, and much smaller 

 than in other men of his size. 



654. Exercise not only invigorates its own apparatus of 

 motion, but it contributes to the strengthening of all the 

 other systems, and aids them in the performance of their 

 functions. The man of active habits of body has a better 

 appetite and digestion and is better nourished, he breathes 

 more freely, he has a freer circulation of the blood and a 

 clearer brain, than the inactive and the sluggish. The la- 

 borer, the farmer, the active mechanic, and sailor, seldom 

 complain of want of appetite or of indigestion. They work 



