82 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 



he was in the daily habit of it. The inference then is plain, that 

 moderate, but regular, periodical exercise of our muscles is requisite 

 to secure their health and use. 



Mr. Fowler, in his work on Physiology, has some pertinent and 

 practical remarks on this subject. He says " Those who will eat 

 more than labor, must suffer. This law cannot be broken with im- 

 punity. In fact, the broken constitutions of most of those who go 

 from the farm and the workshop to college, or some sedentary occu- 

 pation, are caused mainly by violating this law of proportion. 

 They continue to eat as before, yet do not work off that food, and 

 hence the head-aches, ennui, debility, nervousness, dyspepsia, and 

 kindred diseases of our literary and sedentary classes. Study does 

 not make them invalids, but is actually promotive of health and 

 longevity. They are enfeebled by overtaxing their stomachs while 

 they starve their muscles for want of action. 



" Take that city belle, rendered delicate, nervous, sickly, miserable, 

 by excessive nervous and cerebral derangement consequent on novel 

 reading, parties, amusements, and all the excitement of fashionable 

 city life. Medicines can never cure her, but work cam Her malady 

 consists in a predominance of nerve over muscle, and her remedy 

 in restoring the balance between them. She is doomed either to 

 wear out a miserable existence, or else to EXERCISE HER MUSCLES ; 

 nor can salvation come from any other source. And one of the 

 great reasons why journeyings, visits to springs, voyages, and the 

 like, often effect such astonishing cures, is that they relieve the 

 nervous system, and at the same time increase muscular and vital 

 action. The same exercise taken at home will cure them quite as 

 speedily and effectually by the same means a restoration of pro- 

 portion between their functions. Nine in every ten of the invalids 

 of our land are undoubtedly rendered feeble by this one cause, and 

 can be cured by labor. How many thousands, so weakly and sickly 

 that they begin to despair of life, finally give up their business and 

 move upon a farm, and soon find themselves well. Exercise has 

 often cured those who have been bedridden many years, as seen in 

 the following : 



" A physician of some repute in Lowell, Mass., was called thirty 

 miles in great haste, to see a sick woman, whose case had thus far 

 baffled all medical treatment, and was regarded by all her friends as 

 hopeless. All they expected was merely to mitigate a disease of 

 long standing: recovery being considered out of the question. 

 The doctor came, saw that she was very nervous, and had been 



