306 APPENDIX. 



torpid, and almost without feeling. In the fishes, the 

 small quantity of the circulating fluid, the want of an aorta 

 to give it velocity to the different parts of the body, and 

 the minute quantity of air the water contains ; all con- 

 spire to keep the temperature of these animals down to 

 that of the element in which they live, and to give their 

 flesh a pallid hue, so different from the florid complexion 

 of that of the mammalia. 



981. It is true that the organization of these animals, 

 is undoubtedly well fitted to their conditions, and the 

 places they were intended to occupy in the scale of crea- 

 tion. But we find, as we rise in this scale, that the or- 

 gans of animals become more perfect, and that in the 

 mammalia, and man, the respiratory apparatus is so com- 

 plete, as to expose the whole mass of blood to the influ- 

 ence of the atmosphere ; and that the circulating system 

 is such as to propel the vital fluid with great force and 

 rapidity, to every part of the frame ; and hence it is, that 

 these animals differ so materially from those in which the 

 respiratory function is less perfect, and the circulation less 

 rapid and vigorous. In the former we find a temperature 

 of 98 or 100 at all seasons, instead of a deathlike cold- 

 ness ; and a high degree of vigor and vivacity, with a red 

 muscular fibre, instead of torpor, insensibility, and white 

 flesh, as in the latter. 



982. Now if these very remarkable differences are in 

 any considerable degree dependant on the quantity of oxy- 

 gen, which the different races consume by the process of 

 respiration, and which the facts we have detailed would 

 seem to prove beyond all doubt ; then is it not as clear, 

 that by compressing the lungs so as to prevent the or- 

 dinary supply of oxygen in respiration, that the vigor of 

 the circulation, which depends on that process, must grad- 

 ually be diminished ; and that paleness, torpor, listless- 

 ness, arid gradual emaciation, from poverty of the blood, 

 and a consequent want of a healthy secretion, must be 

 the consequence ? 



983. It is quite certain that all these consequences, in 

 very numerous instances, follow excessive lacing in young 

 females ; and from the hurried, and laborious respiration, 

 which those exhibit who are undergoing the process of 

 being moulded into a fashionable form, there cannot be 



