shoulder, and should support the dress without interfering with the movements' of the arm, is placed nearly midway between the shoulder and elbow, where it manifestly imposes a restraint, which, whether the wearer be a child or an adult, is so inconsistent with comfort as to do away with all idea of taste and ornament.

The injurious consequences of confiding the regulation of the form of our clothes to persons of vitiated taste, and entire ignorance of the economy of the parts of the body which it is their business to cover, may be strikingly seen, as well as painfully felt, in the handy works of the boot and shoemaker, which give abundant occupation to empirical corn-cutters and chiropodists. Whilst the form of the shoe is made to resemble the head and shoulders of a coffin, rather than the natural figure of the human foot, it cannot be surprising that the imprisoned toes should become miserably distorted. The most frequent and general mischief consists in bending outwards the two last joints of the great toe.

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There is considerable loss of power in this contortion of the great toe, which, from its natural position, and from the muscles which are attached to it, is evidently designed to perform a most important part both in standing and walking. I have often made the contrast between the beautiful form of the human foot, as exhibited in antique statues, and as we find it in flesh and bone at the present day; and the consequence is, that I can discover no beauty in our coffin-shaped shoes, whilst they remind me of the deformity which they may cover. not merely deformity, but positive and serious disease; which is at times occasioned by turning the great toe outwards, almost across the foot. The joint is injured by the constant pressure whilst in this position; and the mischief is increased if the heel be raised so as at the same time to throw a disproportionate weight on the toe. Bunion, a painful and untractable' as well as unsightly disease of the foot, owes its origin to this cause. This subject has been treated in a learned essay by my friend Dr. Froreip of Berlin: and in this country it has received the attention of Charles Aston Key, who has written a paper respecting it.

NOTE (7.) P. 33.

SINCE the suggestion of giving a white colour to the exterior of houses was thrown out in these Lectures, the utility of the measure has received ample confirmation by its extensive adoption. It is immaterial whether the change is to be ascribed to the imitation of the good example of our foreign neighbours, or to a spontaneous advance in the taste and contrivance of our countrymen. The improvement, however, is almost exclusively confined to the best parts of London, in which the work is generally executed in a costly and elegant manner. It is very desirable that it should be introduced into the poor and confined quarters; in which it is most needed, and in which it could be effected in the most economical manner; a few buckets of lime-white, a knotted rope with a moveable seat to answer the purpose of a scaffold, and a brush, being nearly all that is wanted.

LECT. II.

ON THE

ARTICLES OF FOOD, SOLID AND FLUID.

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IN conformity with the plan which I sketched in my Introduction, I have now to call your attention to the subject of diet, and endeavour to shew you how essentially the health of all classes is connected with a due attention to the quality and quantity of the articles consumed in eating and drinking.

To render this branch of my subject more intelligible and more interesting, I shall give you a very short description of the process of digestion, by which our bodies are supplied with the materials for growth, and for the reparation of the constant wear and loss which are going forward.

First, the food is received into the mouth;-where, if liquid, it is not long retained, but passes down the throat, through the oesophagus or gullet, into the stomach. If, however, it be a solid substance which has been taken into the mouth, it is, or at least it ought to be, retained there until, by the action of the jaws and teeth, it has been broken up, and so mixed with the saliva or spittle as to be converted into a soft pulpy mass.

You will perhaps wish to know where the saliva comes from. It is formed by three pairs of bodies, called salivary glands; of which, one pair is placed

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in the cheeks near to the ears, and two under the tongue. The movements of the jaws and cheeks, and the contact of the food, have the effect of greatly increasing the quantity of saliva produced; and it is, from this cause, most abundantly poured into the mouth exactly at the time when it is most wanted. When, by the action of the jaws and teeth, and the due intermixture of saliva, a mass has been prepared to pass through the oesophagus, it is carried backwards, by the tongue, to the enlarged upper extremity of the gullet, which at this part is called the pharynx. At the same time that the mass of food is thus carried backwards, the pharynx is prepared to receive it, by the raising of the fore part, which is attached to the back part of what is called "Adam's apple," the movement of which you may any of you perceive by placing the fingers upon it when you are in the act of swallowing. Another great advantage obtained by the movement of this part in conjunction with the carrying back of the tongue, is, that the food is prevented from getting into the windpipe, because its narrow mouth is closed by a little body called the epiglottis, which is situated at the root of the tongue, and is shut down when these two movements take place. You must all of you be sufficiently aware of the great inconvenience produced by the accident of a particle of food happening to make its way into the windpipe, to be quite sensible of the importance of this provision of nature. The pharynx and gullet, which now receive the food, are not an inert tube through which the food descends by its own weight, but have a complicated apparatus of circular and longitudinal fibres, which, successively contracting, carry forward the mass, in whatever position the body may be placed. Hence, most quadru