16 the cabinet of natural history, 
“ By various sports, 
O'er hills, through vallies and by river’s brink, 
Is life both sweeten’d and prolong’d.” 
THE USEFULNESS OF SPORTING. 
It has often been said, that the benefit from any exer- 
cise depended very much upon the immediate effect on the 
mind and feelings, and that those amusements were conse- 
quently the most useful, that produced the greatest portion 
of gaiety and hope. 
Of all the active relaxations that can be enjoyed, few 
rank in the production of these charms of life, with the 
various modifications of sporting. 
Independent of the simple exercise which can be prac- 
tised in other modes, the mind and heart become so inter- 
ested that few of the ills of life can “bear with heavy 
hand” on the enthusiastic railer, or the industrious hunter 
of the woods. He forgets in the all-absorbing excitement, 
the pains of body or of mind diseased; throws aside the 
pressure of care, and loses in the thrilling luxury of the 
moment, the recollection of distresses that had almost borne 
him to the earth. Men who are fond of these amusements, 
are enabled by the simple exhileration of mind, to pass 
through exposure and fatigue, that in more dispassionate 
moments would have produced overwhelming exhaustion 
and disease, and in the infatuating enjoyment of successful 
sport, we feel transported to a state of bliss, the recollection 
of which 
“ Will well repay, 
F or many a long, cold night and weary day.” 
To a sportsman the sight or sound of a gun, of a hunting 
dog or game bird, has music in them that will reach his 
very heart, and recall 
“ Many a pleasure of days gone by,” 
and even in the “ sear and yellow leaf of existence,” I have 
seen the remembrance of field-delights long since faded in 
the vista of years, recall a rejuvenescence of feelings that 
seemed to rob life of its tedium, and age of its feebleness. 
Of the advantages of sporting to the health, too much 
cannot be said. Whether confined to the diminutive cir- 
cumference of a boat, or roaming the wide, wild range of 
mountain forest, the immediate effects are immense. The 
circulation of the blood is increased and regulated, nervous 
derangements corrected, digestion improved, muscular 
pain and debility destroyed, and even some of the alarming 
complaints of the lungs more certainly removed, than by 
all the nostrums that ever emanated from a “ licensed 
murderer.” Many astonishing cures have been made by 
that most effective of all surgical instruments, the gun; 
and the fishing pole and box of worms have cheated death 
of more victims than the pestal and pill boxes of half the 
apothecaries. This I have often seen exemplified in cases 
that had long been targets for medical archery, and would 
still live in spite of the doctors; when, after every regular 
means had been used to “ kill or cure” in vain, the patient 
has turned tail on the quackeries of science, and fled to 
the more grateful medicaments of country air and sylvan 
music, and instead of being cajoled into vain hope by 
bread pills, or frightened to death by long bills, he is 
consoled into certain health by administering lead pills, 
and charmed into a long life by being at the death of 
many a bill far more agreeable to the sight. 
Even some of the very serious complaints of the lungs, 
as discharges of blood, I have known entirely removed 
by these means; and in one gentleman of this city, the 
fatiguing amusement of partridge shooting, was his only 
effective remedy when the blood would appear at every i 
cough. A physician of respectability, “ who would infal- 
libly have consumption if he in the least exposed himself,” 
according to the omniscient opinion of one of these retail- 
ers of health, was perfectly cured of all his ailments by the 
rugged labours of a sportsman. 
I have known cases of rheumatism, where the patient 
could with difficulty bring the gun to his shoulder in the 
beginning, entirely relieved in a few days. Diseases of 
the spine and painful affections of the head, if unattended 
by much fever, are almost invariably assisted by this recre- 
ation. Neither need the invalid fear from the exposure, j 
though violent exertion should be avoided in the com- ; 
mencement, for the excitement of mind keeps up an arti- 
ficial warmth within, that seems to neutralize the cold 
without, and the muscles soon become so accustomed to 
the labour, that they are strengthened, and the nerves im- 
mediately invigorated. For dyspeptics, this remedy far 
surpasses all the humbugs of quacks, or scientific nonsense i 
of the “ regular bred,” as being far more permanently use- 
ful, as well as more agreeable in the dose, than bran 
bread and black tea, with abundance of apothecary stuff ; 
or having a loaf of bread made out of your abdomen by 
the New York system of kneading. 
I would not in the most distant manner insinuate, that a 
regular system of medical practice is not eminently useful 
in all these diseases at a particular stage, for by thus doing, 
my own personal interest might be deeply outraged; but 
there is a time in all cases, when the doctor becomes a 
nuisance and the apothecary a bore; and if physicians 
would but choose to learn the moment when their kind- 
nesses really ceased to be required, and show less interest 
