220 On Chronic Debility 



were accustomed to much bodily exertion. There vere few or no 

 pleasure carriages in most parts of the country. Both men and wo- 

 men almost universally rode on horseback. Professional men as 

 universally had farms. The mechanics, whose employments were of 

 a sedentary nature, busied themselves about agriculture, also, to a 

 considerable extent. Now, the disease is spreading extensively. 

 Multitudes of clergymen, of mechanics, of students at colleges, and 

 of women, are losing their health from this cause. Clergymen have 

 no farms ; Mechanics, from the increasing division of labor, are in 

 the same predicament. A large proportion of both these classes of 

 persons, and many others, have in a great measure ceased riding on 

 horseback. At the outset it is less fatiguing to ride in a carriage. 

 When exercise must be taken, the inquiry seems to be, What kind 

 ivill excite the least weariness? not. What will most promote health? 

 It is laughable as well as melancholy, to hear the sons of farmers, as 

 soon almost as they have entered on a studious course, and mechanics, 

 by nature sturdy, complaining piteously of the hardships of any em- 

 ployment which requires certain bodily exertions, to which they are 

 unaccustomed. Females, to a great extent, are becoming dyspeptic 

 from dress, from diet, and frorxi want of exercise. The effects will 

 be more evident and distressing in the next and succeeding genera- 

 jions, 



THE stomachs of all animals, though they may dif- 

 fer in many respects in the different species, agree 

 in this, that they are concerned to an important ex- 

 tent, in the process of digestion. Some animals live 

 wholly on animal food ; others wholly on vegetable ; 

 while man is fitted to live on either kind, but more hap- 

 pily on a due mixture of both. The digestive powers of 

 different meUj are often exceedingly different, in various 

 respects, and even of the same individual, at different pe- 

 riods of his life, so that what is healthful at one period, is 

 noxious at another. Thus, a person debilitated by a fever 

 cannot bear the food, whicli, in health, is wholly mild and 

 grateful. On a aound state of the stomach, no small part 

 of our comfort, andenergy of body and mind, depend. — 

 If the digestion is vigorous, the animal motions are usu- 

 ally pleasant, the secretions and exeeretions regular, the 

 spirits cheerful, the body attains its utmost strength, and 



