84 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



excepted. How admirable this adaptation of the amount of labor 

 requisite for health to that required to provide man with the neces- 

 ries of life. 



u In the light of this required amount of exercise, what shall we 

 say of those merchants, clerks, lawyers, students, and the sedentary 

 classes generally, who confine themselves to their offices, desks, 

 and books, from morning till night, year in and year out, scarcely 

 going out of doors, except to and from their business, and then 

 TAKING AN OMNIBUS ! If these principles of exercise were put in 

 practice, very few city conveyances would be required or patronized. 

 One would think that our sedentaries, starved almost to death for 

 exercise, would embrace every opportunity to take it, walking at 

 least to and from their business, sawing their own wood, and the 

 like. Yet fashion requires that they hire horses to do the former, 

 and servants to do the latter. Such fashions I despise, practically 

 and theoretically." 



While on the one hand very many persons suffer from want of 

 sufficient exercise, we believe that an equal number suffer from the 

 opposite cause, namely, excessive labor, as farmers and mechanics. 

 The country as well as the city give many melancholy instances of 

 persons who have broken down their systems from over exertion ; 

 lifting, straining, and long-continued exertion, arising either from 

 necessity or an inordinate desire to accumulate money. This prac- 

 tice is much worse than indolence. Look at poor girls in cities, 

 who toil incessantly for ten or fifteen hours during the day, in fac- 

 tories or other places, perhaps .in a sitting position, constantly at 

 work in a close atmosphere. Many children and youth also are 

 compelled to labor much more than their strength permits, which 

 often ' entails disease upon them. Hence a due medium must be 

 observed to ensure health. When any muscle of the system be- 

 comes weak from any cause in addition to proper exercise, friction 

 or rubbing the part will be found useful. Also a douche or stream 

 of cold water, followed by rubbing with a coarse towel. 



There are hundreds of worthy but indigent girls who are com- 

 pelled to labor far beyond their strength to obtain a bare subsistence^ 

 while there are thousands who triumph in the possession of their 

 riches, and live in luxury and pleasure. How can such men recon- 

 cile this with their consciences, if they have any, or if they are 

 not " seared " with a hot iron ? There is one miserable old miser 

 in this city, Astor, now about eighty years of age, worth at least 

 ten millions, who, if the iceberg could be taken from his heart, 



