300 APPENDIX. 



960. In childhood and youth, when the frame is grow- 

 ing, the secretion is greater than the absorption;- in 

 adults, and the middle aged, the effects of the two systems 

 are just equal, there being the same quantity of matter 

 absorbed that there is secreted ; but in old age the absorp- 

 tion is greater than the secretion, and hence the weight 

 and dimensions of the body are diminished, and the skin, 

 instead of preserving its tension, as formerly, becomes 

 wrinkled in consequence of the loss of a part of the bulk 

 which it covers. 



961. Thus during one portion of our lives, we increase 

 in size and vigor, until having arrived at maturity, we re- 

 main for a time stationary in both; and then, lastly, 

 having passed through these two stages, we begin im- 

 perceptibly in both, to diminish, the animal functions 

 gradually becoming more and more feeble, until one after 

 another they cease to act entirely, when life gives place 

 to death. -These are the immutable laws which govern 

 all created beings, and which, therefore, no-human means 

 can resist. All flesh must return to dust. 



APPLICATION OF THESE PRINCIPLES. 



962. In applying these principles to the use of stays, it is 

 almost unnecessary to say, that during the growth of the 

 system, pressure, on any of its parts, though it may be 

 inconsiderable in force, yet if long continued, will pre- 

 vent their increase ; and this not only for want of room 

 to expand, but also by interfering with the 'functions of 

 the secreting system in that part. A lamentable illustra- 

 tion of the practical use of this principle, is seen in the 

 feet of the Chinese ladies; which being confined in iron 

 shoes from infancy to the age of sixteen or eighteen, they 

 remain infant's feet ever afterward, though terminating 

 the extremities of the aged. 



963. But, beside this obvious effect of confinement 

 during the growth of the system, it is well known that in 

 the adult, as well as in the young, pressure will also 

 diminish any part on which it is made, as already stated 

 at the commencement of these observations. Not only 

 the soft, or fleshy portions of the system may be thus ab- 



