114 USE OF CLOSED CASES IN ILLNESS. 
cteteris paribus, from irregular action and confor- 
mation. Humboldt has remarked, that, among 
several nations of South America, who wear very 
little clothing, he never saw an individual with a 
natural deformity ; and Linnaeus, in his “ Lachesis 
Lapponica,” enumerates constant exposure to 
solar light as one of the causes which render a 
summer’s journey through high northern latitudes 
as peculiarly healthful and invigorating. 
In enumerating the benefits likely to arise from 
the use of the closed cases, it must not be for- 
gotten that, as a means of administering comfort 
to the afflicted and distressed in body or mind, 
they are invaluable. I have had repeated appli- 
cations from parties who have been confined, from 
paralysis or other causes, to a bed or sofa, either 
in country or town, and they have thus been en- 
abled to beguile many a weary hour ; and with 
numberless persons labouring under that most 
distressing of all human maladies, mental aber- 
ration, I have much reason to believe that their 
soothing influence would have a most beneficial 
result ; and how easily could this be effected. 
Take the long gallery at St. Luke’s — the gloomy 
tone of which is sufficient to depress the mind 
of a sane person — and introduce a dozen or two 
of closed cases into the walls, containing tableaux 
vivans of old ruins or portions of natural scenery, 
