AND ANIMAL LIFE. Ill 



strength of our constitution quickly overcomes, 

 the various organs peculiar to her sex are deve- 

 loped ; and from the organization, and extreme 

 vascularity of these at certain periods, the op- 

 pression of the internal circulation is relieved by 

 an excited action of these organs, often long be- 

 fore their operation is required for the ultimate 

 ends of Nature. We thus perceive, that the vi- 

 gour of the one and the delicacy of the other are 

 secured by different designs : the former by the 

 natural robustness of the frame, and by the sports 

 and pursuits proper to that sex, which tend 

 particularly to maintain a moderately external 

 and uniform condition of the circulation ; and 

 the latter, by the influence of functions that might 

 be called premature in their formation, if we con- 

 sidered only the other purposes which these are 

 intended to fulfil. 



CX. The acute and chronic diseases of both 

 sexes from sixteen to twenty-five, and the vari- 

 ous slight derangements to which the system is 

 exposed, may be alluded to as presenting addi- 

 tional proofs in corroboration of this view. In- 

 flammation of the lungs, or thoracic viscera, is 

 not at all unusual ; but this may be determined 

 at every age of life, and therefore may be said 

 to arise rather from the agency of occasional 

 causes than from any constitutional predisposi- 

 tion. But it is between the above-mentioned 

 periods that consumption is the most common 



