884 PATHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF 



sometimes sudden death, obviously because the 

 small amount of force thus expended, is not re- 

 newed by the nutritive process. It is generally 

 known that violent exercise diminishes, and some- 

 times arrests the process of digestion, by diverting 

 arterial blood from the stomach to the voluntary 

 muscles ; and that life is often destroyed sud- 

 denly by a large draught of cold water, which 

 abstracts the small remainder of caloric from the 

 capillaries of the stomach, and paralyzes the ac- 

 tion of the heart. For the same reason, diges- 

 tion is always impaired when the stomach is 

 weak, and often entirely arrested for some time, 

 by drinking cold fluids, which are a very fre- 

 ' quent exciting cause of flatulence, colic, cardi- 

 algia, and spasms, which are more promptly 

 relieved by hot drinks, and the application of 

 external warmth, than by any other means. 



A correct knowledge of the manner in which 

 animal heat is expended by exercise, will enable 

 us to explain why it is that when greatly fatigued, 

 health is often destroyed by immersion in the cold 



the expense of the brain, which is generally small among pedes- 

 trians, wrestlers, boxers, country labourers, and all individuals who 

 take much exercise, compared with what it is in men employed in 

 intellectual pursuits, and who lead a less active life. The true 

 method of securing the highest degrees of physical, intellectual, 

 and moral excellence, is to exercise all the organs within the 

 limits of pleasurable excitement, and without producing fatigue, 

 which is incipient disease, and should therefore be carefully 

 avoided. 



