fund of 5000l. shall be raised, to be applied primarily to the carrying this measure into effect; and the surplus, if any, to be passed to the general fund of the Association."

These resolutions being passed, it is requisite that something should be done to carry them into effect. That the war we are carrying on should be prosecuted with success, it is essential we should be furnished with that without which we must retire altogether from the field. It is admitted on all sides that we have to look to the public for redress; and it is only by the press that the public can be reached, and that they can be made aware of the evils of the system we are endeavouring to denounce and destroy. The press is the power we must wield-it is the power which, rightly wielded, will accomplish all we desire; and sure are we that the young men of London-the young men who are sacrificing their health and happiness to the customs of sordid trade-the young men whose interests, temporal and eternal, have been lost sight of in the mad pursuit of gold, which, when obtained, becomes a curse; sure are we that they will respond to our appeal-that they will come forward to help themselves to achieve that freedom of heart and head, and to obtain that time for moral and intellectual improvement to which they have an undoubted claim. Confidently we make this appeal to you. In the struggle we wage, many of you will willingly give us a helping hand. That some of you have been backward is but an argument that you should be active now. They slander you who take Tittlebat Titmouse as the type of your common order. Some may see in him their own vices and habits held up to ridicule and contempt; but they, we trust, are a decreasing minority. We ask your intelligent co-operation, your hearty sympathy, your willing aid. To work effectively we must have money. The sum we seek to raise is not large; in London alone you could raise it, if you were so disposed. If the twenty thou sand young men, in this city alone, employed in the shops of grocers, and drapers, and chemists, would subscribe one shilling each, more than half the sum we need would be raised at once; and throughout England and Scotland there are many that would readily and willingly give their mite. You wonder we do not do more—that we have made no further progress. How can we, when we are crippled on account of funds? We respectfully lay this appeal before you: seriously attend to it; quit you like men; act in a manner worthy of yourselves of our common cause. Let it not be through your apathy and indifference that we have to abandon the work we are carrying on for you alone.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN HEALTH:

BEING A VIEW OF THE MEANS OF CULTIVATING AND PRESERVING HEALTH, PROLONGING LIFE, AND PROMOTING TERRESTRIAL HAPPINESS.

BY FELIX WEEKES RICHARDSON.

(Continued from p. 309.)

THE second important essential for securing health is to pay a proper attention to diet.

In order that all parts of the animal system may perform their several duties aright, it is necessary that the digestive organs should be in a sound and vigorous condition, and carry on their functions aright; and it is to their derangement, occasioned by errors in diet, that a vast amount of the aberration from health may be attributed. The object to be kept in view, in selecting articles of food, is to obtain a supply of nutriment that will counterbalance the waste that is continually going on in the animal body. This is to be effected by a constant addition of substances of the same nature as the constituent particles of the body consist. Aliments are derived either from the animal or vegetable kingdom; and Professor Liebig considers that they are composed of nitrogenated substances, which are convertible into blood, and enter into the formation of organized structures, such as muscle, &c., and of non-nitrogenated substances, which support the process of respiration. To the former class belong animal flesh, cascum, milk, &c.; to the latter, fat, starch, gum, sugar, wine, and spirits. To form then a proper diet for the support of life, the food should consist of animal flesh, vegetables, farinaceous substances, sugar, and butter. Man is an omniverous animal, and nature designed that he should feed on all the varied and innumerable bounties with which she has replenished the earth; and anatomy shows that she has constituted his system in a manner suitable to partake of whatever is agreeable to his palate; and the injurious effects of many articles of diet are not so much to be attributed to their peculiar nature as to the refinements of cookery. If individuals would substitute for the heterogeneous mass of artificial compounds, rich sauces, high-seasoned dishes, pickles, and luscious fruits, with which many tables are furnished, a small portion of plain, wholesome food, and pure water for the more deleterious potations of rich wines and distilled liquors, we should see healthy, vigorous persons walking in our streets, which are now thronged with the bloated and diseased victims of voluptuous appetite.

It is hurtful to subsist entirely on animal or vegetable food, which will support life for many years, but predispose to disease. Animal food exclusively employed, or taken in too large a quantity, preternaturally stimulates the system, often induces plethora, and increases, pro tempore, the physical strength; vegetables, conversely, are less stimulant and nutritive, and will not sufficiently raise the corporeal strength: ergo, health can only be preserved by living on a certain combination of animal and vegetable diet, and the proper proportions are about one-third of the former and two-thirds of the latter; but this rule must be modified by climate, season, mode of life, and age. In tropical countries, a vegetable diet may be carried to a great ex

tent without serious consequences, because the inhabitants require little stimulus; and we accordingly find that they live almost entirely on sago, rice, and vegetables, which grow in abundance: whilst, on the other hand, those who dwell in northern climates are in need of stimulus; hence they devour large quantities of animal food which can be readily obtained. In the summer the quantity of vegetable food should be increased; the propriety of this is pointed out in nature from its abundance at this period. Individuals who lead a sedentary and inactive life require a smaller quantity of diet, and of a less nourishing kind, than those who are employed in active and laborious occupations. During the early months of infancy, the mother's milk is the only aliment required, and much injury is inflicted on infants by giving them panado, arrowroot, &c., which weaken the digestive organs, which are at this period of life very feeble, occasion disorders of the stomach and bowels, and lay the seed for future disease. Dr. Combe states "that nearly one-half of the deaths occurring during the first two years of existence are ascribable to mismanagement and errors in diet." The child should be weaned when the teeth appear, and the diet should then be of a farinaceous kind; and, as the child advances in years, more solid food may be given, and it may be increased in quantity. During the epoch of old age the aliment must be very digestible; and if the bon vivant will still indulge in the luxuries of the table, organic diseases, corpulency, and fulness of the blood-vessels will occur, and his life will be embittered and endangered.

It is necessary to attend to the quality and quantity of our food, and the time at which it is taken. The lower orders, to use ordinary language, suffer from the quality of their food, which is often of an unwholesome nature, and stints their bodies in growth, and entails upon them much misery, which may be prevented, for the most nutritious is also the cheapest diet. The upper orders injure their health from the quantity taken. Many adults, and children especially, are addicted to gluttony, which is to be much deprecated, for the indulging in unnecessary food overloads the digestive organs and impedes their functions, giving rise to pain, restless nights, indigestion, that destroyer of bodily and mental comfort, and to a long train of devastating diseases. The meals should be taken at the same hour every day, for nature loves order and regularity; and it is injurious to tamper with the appetite by loading the stomach with fruits, meats, and other articles, at all hours. It is also hurtful to go too long without eating. There are many men of business in London who reside in its neighbourhood, and have their breakfasts early in the morning before they go to the city, and then do not take any thing till they return home late in the day to dinner, and in this way injure the digestive organs and suffer fearful retribution.

Much or violent bodily exertion is improper directly after eating, because it too much agitates the stomach, and produces fermentation of the food; and mental exertion, immediately after meals, must also be avoided, for it withdraws the nervous influence from the stomach. Men of business dispatch their meals too hastily, and do not properly masticate their food, which becomes difficult of digestion, because the stomach has to perform, besides its own office, that which belongs to the teeth and saliva, and, immediately they have finished, they rush back again to their various occupations, and suffer from indigestion and other complaints.

Liquids constitute an important part of the diet, and are indispensable to repair the perpetual waste which the fluids of the body undergo. Among

drinks, the most wholesome are pure water, toast-water, lemonade, gingerbeer, and other unexciting beverages. The habitual use of distilled and fermented liquors affords no nourishment, but is deleterious to the mind and body of those in perfect health, for they stimulate the nervous system and heart to undue action, which is followed by depression. Beer is very much adulterated: quassia is added instead of hops, because it is a cheaper bitter; cayenne pepper is used to impart strength; a mixture of sulphate of iron (green vitriol), alum, and salt, to produce a frothy head; and the intoxicating qualities are increased with Indian berries (Cocculus Indicus), opium, and other deleterious drugs. Gin is sophisticated with sulphuric acid, oil of vitriol, turpentine, and juniper. These beverages cannot be taken for any length of time without injuring the digestive functions and producing bad effects upon the system. Dr. Combe says, if the constitution be inherently defective in energy, a moderate daily allowance of wine will prove beneficial; and if a healthy person be exposed to preternatural exertion, or to the influence of anxious and depressing watchfulness, he will derive additional security from the use of wine.

Very much of the depression of the labouring portion of the community is to be traced to intemperance of drink, which destroys the health of the body, extinguishes the faculties of the mind, produces indigestion, emaciation, disease in the structure of three of the most important organs of the frame-the liver, stomach, and intestines, the healthy action of which are of the first importance to our bodily comfort and terrestrial happiness; and it also occasions imbecility and madness, and cuts off the poor wretches who abandon themselves to this vice in the flower of their age: and drunkards thus die by their own hands; and that man is as much a felo de se who perishes by a slow as he that dispatches himself by an immediate poison.

A proper attention to the muscular system is the third requisite for keeping the human system in full health, beauty, and perfection. The agents employed in producing locomotion in the animal frame are the muscles, which are attached to the bones, have imbedded in their substance most of the blood-vessels, form the bulk of the body, and require daily vigorous exertion, in order that, by contracting on the vessels, they may freely circulate the blood through them to all parts of the system, may promote digestion, respiration, and the other vital functions, and preserve the frame in a sound and healthy state. One of the many reasons why so large a portion of the human family are the subjects of dyspepsia and other disorders, and are hurried to the tomb, is because they neglect to take daily exercise in the open air. Some lead an indolent, inactive, and sedentary life from mistaken refinement of manners; and others, who are now young and enjoying the inestimable blessings of health, strength, cheerfulness, and beauty, almost wholly neglect muscular exercise, because they imagine they feel no need for it, and their various occupations, studies, and engagements allow them no time for it. But it does not rest with yourselves whether you will take exercise or not; for if you neglect it, no means will prevent your bodies running into disease, your comforts being blighted, your fond hopes, prospects, and bliss destroyed, and your lives shortened; but if, contrariwise, you listen to the voice of reason, and take exercise, it will invigorate your frames, render you more fit to carry on your multifarious occupations, and prolong your existence.

There is one great obstacle to muscular exercise, and that is the excessive length of time devoted to diurnal toil; and amongst those who suffer from the long hours are, first, milliners, dressmakers, and others, whose scanty subsistence is to be earned by being incessantly engaged in various kinds of needlework. They are generally crowded together in unsuitable apartments, where the atmosphere is close and unwholesome, and are obliged to work from ten to twelve, and often sixteen hours, daily, and, during the London season, frequently the entire night. By this excessive toil they are deprived of muscular exercise, mental improvement, and relaxation, and suffer from pulmonary consumption, diseases of the digestive and other organs, and, from being compelled to sit all day with the trunk bent forward, curvatures of the spine, and other deformities are produced. The continual application of the eyes to minute work speedily injures the sight, and oftens occasions blindness. The countenance soon becomes anxious, and bears the indelible stamp of care and sorrow; the complexion, which should be fresh and blooming, is palid; and the body, which should be plump and comely, is emaciated, and the mind distressed; sleep is no longer refreshing, but is disturbed, and the short nights become long and weary; and some of the poor girls are prematurely hurried to that goal from which there is no liberation, and others, alas! are driven in despair from the paths of virtue into the depths of ruin, shame, and vice. The remedy lies with the public, for ladies, when they want articles of clothing made for parties and balls, do not give their orders till a short time before they require the work executed, and the sempstresses, in order to get it finished by the specified time, sacrifice their health, peace, comfort, and happiness. The mistresses of these distressed needlewomen ought not to employ them so many hours daily, ought to allow them an hour for each meal, and pay them much better wages.

II. How long, tedious, and injurious are the hours of labour to those men, women, and children who work from early in the morning till late at night, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, in the heated rooms and pestilential atmosphere of our factories, without having time for bodily recreation and mental culture. The pale countenance, the sunken cheeks, and premature old age, tell indeed a tale of woe. Can we then be surprised at the gross immorality of the manufacturing districts? and think you that the pulpit, the gaol, the silent system, or the workhouse will be of any avail in preventing these places from being the dens of vice and crime, and charnel houses for their much-to-be-pitied inhabitants? The remedy consists in shortening the hours of labour, and then the foundation of health, morality, happiness, peace, and prosperity will be laid.

III. The assistants of linendrapers, druggists, grocers, and other men of business, suffer much from excessive labour. They have to stand behind the counter from twelve to eighteen hours daily, and are entirely deprived of rest, for they are not allowed to sit down, and have no time for bodily exercise or mental culture; and if they happen to have an hour's relaxation occasionally in the evening, the overworked individuals seek for excitement at the tavern or in other destructive indulgences, for they are too wearied to improve the mind, and too fatigued to exercise the body, and in a short time they are attacked with diseases of the lungs and heart, and disorders of the stomach, liver, and other important organs, and are no