322 NATURAL TIIEOLOaY. 



recovery does not take place, this patience of the human 

 constitution under many of the distempers by which it is 

 visited, to two benefactions of our nature. One is, that she 

 works within certain limits, allows of a certain latitude 

 within which health may be preserved, and within the con- 

 fines of vv^hich it only sufiers a graduated diminution. Dif- 

 ferent quantities of food, diilerent degrees of exercise, differ- 

 ent portions of sleep, different states of the atmosphere, aro 

 compatible with the j)ossession of health. So likewise it is 

 with the secretions and excretions, with many internal func- 

 tions of the body, and with the state, probably, of most of its 

 internal organs. They may vary considerably, not only with- 

 out destroying life, but without occasioning any high degree 

 of inconveniency. The other property of our nature, to which 

 we are still more beholden, is its constant endeavor to restore 

 itself, when disordered, to its regular course. The fluids of 

 the body appear to possess a power of separating and expel- 

 ling any noxious substance which may have mixed itself with 

 them. This they do, in eruptive fevers, by a kind of despu- 

 mation, as Sydenham calls it, analogous in some measure to 

 the intestine action by which fermenting liquors work the 

 yeast to the surface. The solids, on their part, when their 

 action is obstructed, not only resume that action as soon as 

 the obstruction is removed, but they struggle with the imped- 

 ment. They take an action as near to the true one as the 

 difficulty and the disorganization with which they have to 

 contend will allow of. 



Of mortal diseases, the great use is to reconcile us to 

 death. The horror of death proves the value of life. But 

 it is in the power of disease to abate, or even extinguish this 

 horror ; which it does in a Avonderful manner, and often- 

 times by a mild and imperceptible gradation. Every man 

 who has been placed in a situation to observe it, is surprised 

 with the change which has been wrought in himself, when 

 he compares the view which he entertains of death upon a 

 sick-bed, with 1he heart-sinking dismay with which he should 



