APPENDIX. H41 



cess of the constitutional treatment of local diseases; and 

 has treated in a very scientific manner of the disorders of 

 the constitution, in which they originate, and of the mode 

 of treating them ; to which works I refer the physiological 

 reader. 



I cannot help observing, in conclusion, that the pursuit 

 of this subject strongly impressed me with sentiments of its 

 importance, in a moral point of view. For if disorders in 

 the digestive functions, which are so easily occasioned, and 

 which are remediable by early attention, be capable, by getting 

 ahead, of exciting the system in such a manner as to produce 

 innumerable forms of bodily disease, and frequently to affect 

 the operations of the mind; considering how general are 

 these disorders, and the mistaken habits which produce and 

 aggravate them, we cannot but regard them as principally 

 efficient in producing the quantity of intellectual depravity, 

 which is so widely conspicuous ; and by weakening the mind, 

 and perverting the character, as impeding the progress of 

 science, and the advancement of truth. That the air, which 

 seems to affect such great changes of the blood in the lungs, 

 should, when its quality is peculiar, by affecting those organs 

 and the skin, cause great changes in the whole system, is no 

 matter of wonder ; but surely all these effects must be greatest 

 on a weakened and disordered constitution. The way, then, 

 to become prepared against atmospheric influence, is to tran- 

 quillize and invigorate the constitution by a systematic plan 

 of temperance, founded on physiological views of the nature 

 and office of the chylopoietic viscera, and of the connexion of 

 their disorders with those of remote organs, and of the system 

 in general ; and, at the same time to adopt habits of season- 

 able exercise abroad, and to enhance, by moral discipline, na 

 habitual state of mental tranquillity, to which such habits 



