Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

9. The same law prevails throughout the entire body. If little or no exercise be taken, the whole body will be literally starved; for while the blood flows in a sluggish stream it very poorly performs its office of building up the system and keeping it in repair.

10. Yet, notwithstanding the importance of exercise, several cautions are necessary respecting it. The young, especially, should be guarded against taking too severe exercise, and against continuing it too long; for there is a point beyond which the muscles will be enfeebled, rather than strengthened, by exertion. Their healthy condition requires that exercise should be moderate at the commencement, and never continued so as to produce a feeling of exhaustion.

11.

"Begin with gentle toils; and as your limbs
Grow firm, to hardier, by just steps, aspire.
The prudent, even in every moderate walk,
At first but saunter; and by slow degrees
Increase their pace.

When, all at once, from.indolence to toil
You spring, the fibres, by the hasty shock,
Are strained and tired, before their oily coats,
Compressed, can pour the lubricating balm.
Besides, collected in the passive veins,
The foaming blood a sudden torrent rolls,
O'erpowers the heart, and deluges the lungs
With sudden inundation."

12. An erect attitude while sitting, standing, or walking, is found to be most conducive to health, and to be attended with far less exhaustion of the muscles than a stooping position; for in the former case the muscles, being well balanced, mutually support each other. The spinal column should be kept erect, so far as possible, whatever occupations we may be engaged in, and the shoulders should be kept thrown back, that the chest may become broad and full. If a stooping posture be acquired in youth, we may be very certain that the deformity will continue to increase throughout life.

13. But whether the body be at rest, or in action, no one position of the muscles should be continued until weariness results from it. How often is it noticed that small children, after sitting a short time, become restless. Nature is warn

ing them of the danger of violating her laws. A sitting or a standing posture occasions a continued strain upon certain sets of muscles; and rest, or change of position, is required for their relief. To one who has long been sitting, walking or running will often give the needed rest. We may learn from this the importance of giving to young and feeble children at school frequent out-door recreation."

14. Moreover, the muscles should be exercised in pure air, and in the light, neither immediately before nor immediately after severe mental toil; and they should be rested gradually, by continuing some gentle exercise, when they have been vigorously used, and are greatly fatigued. They should never be so compressed by bandages or clothing as to restrain their free motions, unless the desire be to starve them into prematures decay. The pressure of tight dresses, in females, enfeebles the muscles, and is a common cause of projecting shoulders, curvature of the spinal column, and consumption. What then shall we say of those fashions and modes of dress that violate all physiological laws? May they not justly be regarded as enemies of the human race?

15.

"Knowest thou the nature of the human frame,

That world of wonders more than we can name'?
Say', has thy busy, curious eye surveyed

The proofs of boundless wisdom there displayed'?
Each fibre ranged with such amazing skill
That every muscle may attend thy will'?
How every tendon acts upon its bone,

And how the nerves receive their nicer tone'?
Convey the keen vibration1o of the sense,
And give the wakeful mind intelligence'?

How some strong guard each vital part sustains,
How flows the purple balsam11 through the veins'?"

1 SIN'-EW (sin'-nu), a tendon.

2 €AV'-I-TIES, hollows.

3 FLAB'-BY, Soft; hanging loose.

4 VIG-OR-OUS, active; powerful.

5 DE-VEL-OPED, filled out in size.

6 EX-HAUST -ION, weariness; deprived of strength.

B

7 REC-RE-A-TION, amusement; diversion.
8 PRE-MA-TURE, before the proper time.
9 PHYS-I-O-LOG'-I-CAL, pertaining to the
laws of physiology or health.

10 VI-BRA-TION, supposed motion of the
nervous fluid.

11 BAL-SAM, here used for the blood.

LESSON IV.

MUSCULAR EXERCISE AND MENTAL STIMULUS.

1. THERE is still another important principle connected with muscular exercise that must not be disregarded. The muscles depend, almost wholly, for their strength and activity, upon the stimulus' which they receive from the mind. Let the mind encourage them by pleasurable excitement, and they will labor long and actively with but little fatigue; but if the mind be unoccupied, gloomy, and desponding, the muscles will soon become weary.

2. That muscular power depends but very little upon the mere unaided strength of the muscular fibres, is shown by the fact that, when separated from the body, the muscle, which formerly sustained and raised a weight of one hundred pounds, will be torn asunder by a weight of ten pounds. And how has it lost all this power'? Is it not because its appropriate mental stimulus has been taken away'?

3. It is owing to the stimulus which the muscles receive from the mind that a sportsman will pursue his game for miles, not only without fatigue, but with a great degree of enjoyment, while a dull walk of half the distance would weary both mind and body. The same principle was well illustrated in the retreat from Russia of the defeated and dispirited French army. When no enemy was near, the French soldiers had hardly strength sufficient to carry their arms; but no sooner did they hear the report of the Russian guns, than new life seemed to pervade them, and they wielded their weapons powerfully until the foe was repulsed. Then, the mental stimulus being gone, there was a relapse2 to weakness, and prostration followed.

4. It is thus with the invalid3 when riding or taking a walk for his health. If he have nothing to occupy his mind, he will be apt to return weary and dispirited; but let him have the pleasure of agreeable company, or be able to enjoy the charms of surrounding nature, and his ride or walk will refresh and invigorate him. So it is with the daily vocations5

of life. If the mind furnish the muscles with the appropriate incentive to exertion, the tiresomeness of labor will be greatly diminished. It is ever found that "cheerfulness sweetens toil," thus confirming the wisdom of Solomon, that "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine."

5. Physicians often avail themselves of the principle of combining mental excitement with muscular exertion in the treatment of their patients. Thus the Spectators tells an amusing story of the advice given by a physician to one of the Eastern kings. The physician brought him a heavy mallet, and told him that the remedy was concealed in the handle, and could act upon him only by passing into the palms of his hands when engaged in vigorously pounding with it, and that, as soon as perspiration should be induced,' he might desist for the time, as that would be proof that the medicine was beginning to be received into the system.

6. The effect, we are told, was marvelous; and, looking to the principle just stated, to the cheerful mental stimulus arising from the confident expectation of a cure, and to the consequent advantages of exercise thus judiciously managed, we have no reason to doubt that the fable is in perfect accordance with nature.

7. Of a like character is the anecdote which has been related of a physician in London, who advised a dyspeptics patient, who had baffled all his remedies, to go and consult a celebrated physician several hundred miles distant in the country. On arriving at the place, the patient soon discovered that no such person lived there. The stimulus of expecting a cure, however, had been sufficient to enable the patient not only to bear the journey, but to reap benefit from it; and his wrath at finding no such person as had been described to him, and his anger on perceiving that he had been tricked, sustained him in returning, so that on his arrival home he was cured of his disease.

8. Cases like the following, illustrating the same principle, are not unfrequent. A gentleman immersed in the business and pleasures of a great city becomes disordered in health, and depressed in spirits. He receives much good advice from his medical friend, which he professes to follow with implicit

confidence, and proceeds to do so amid the anxieties of business, bad air, late hours, luxurious dinners, and nearly the total want of bodily exercise.

9. Deriving no benefit from all that is done for him, he hears of some celebrated springs, whose waters have acquired great reputation in the cure of stomach complaints; and at length he makes up his mind to proceed thither, though with little hope of deriving benefit from any thing. He now lays aside all business, lives by rule, keeps early hours, and is all day long in the open air. He soon recovers excellent health, and cordially concurs in spreading the fame of the water by which a cure so wonderful has been accomplished.

10. The advantages of combining harmonious mental excitement with muscular exertion, are thus noticed by Dr. Armstrong in his poem entitled the Art of Preserving Health:

Indulge your taste.
The tennis11 some,

[blocks in formation]

and some the graceful dance.
Others, more hardy, range the purple heath,
Or naked stubble, where, from field to field,
The sounding coveys12 urge their lab'ring flight,
Eager amid the rising cloud to pour

The gun's unerring thunder. And there are

Whom still the meed13 of the green archer charms,

He chooses best whose labor entertains

His vacant fancy most. THE TOIL YOU HATE

FATIGUES YOU SOON, AND SCARCE IMPROVES YOUR LIMBS.'

1 STIM'-U-LUS, impulse; that which rouses to action.

2 RE-LAPSE', a sliding or falling back.

7 IN-DUCED', caused; occasioned.

8 DYS-PEP-TIC, afflicted with bad digestion.

9 IM-MERSED', deeply engaged.

3 IN-VA-LID, a person who is weak or in- 10 FOIL, a blunt sword used in fencing, or

firm.

4 IN-VIG'-OR-ATE, strengthen.

5 VO-CA-TION, occupation; employment.

6 SPEC-TA-TOR, a series of papers written mostly by Addison.

sword exercise.

11 TEN-NIS, a game of ball.

12 Cov'-EY (kuv ́-y), plural cov ́-eys, a small flock of birds.

13 MEED, reward; prize.

« НазадПродовжити »