242 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISK. 



a comfort, and even a pleasure, when compared to 

 feeling from which the sufferer cannot avoid the beliei 

 that his heart swells to twice , the natural size, occasion- 

 ally turns over, backward and forward, and is every 

 instant in danger of bursting open and spilling its vital 

 contents into his chest; at the same time he feels that 

 his pulse beats half a dozen strokes in a moment, and 

 then stands still, until forced by the stimulus of the blood 

 to begin the same rapid motions again. And yet all this, 

 and even more than we dare to describe to the literary 

 invalid, is according to the woful experience of the one 

 who writes this, the consequence of study at the rate of 

 fourteen hours per day, for a series of months. And yet 

 all these symptoms were unfelt and forgotten during the 

 most violent exercise in which the mind was intensely in- 

 terested, viz, field-sports. 



764. Mere Attention to Diet of little Use. A spare 

 diet, omission of dinner, vegetable food, bran bread, and 

 indeed all the remedies which the science of abstemiousness 

 can suggest, will never prove antidotes to these fearful 

 sensations. A laborious student, like a laborious workman, 

 requires nutriment, nor can he sustain himself in his lit- 

 erary pursuits without it. It is true, that where the 

 muscles are little exercised, the quantity of solid food 

 may be diminished; but he who goes to work at a 

 difficult piece of composition with a hungry stomach, 

 will never finish it to suit himself until this sensation is 

 satisfied. 



765. An easy and comfortable state of the animal sys- 

 tem is absolutely necessary for the student, and so far as 

 we know, this is only to be attained by a generous diet, 

 and exciting exercise, according to the wants and feelings 

 of the subject. 



766. As the use of medicine, diet, and rules of conduct, 

 without muscular action, for the alleviation of- nervous 

 palpitation, they are worse than useless, because they 

 offer false hopes to the sufferer, and prevent his seeking 

 the proper remedy in season. And we hereby warn 

 those into whose hands these remarks may fall, and who 

 are thus afflicted, never to be caught by such chaff as 

 bran bread and its adjuvants, as a remedy for what can 



