UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOUNDED  1836
WASHINGTON,  D. C.
GPO  16—67244-1 
 
 
Extracts from Reviews, and Notices of this Work.
  ' We regard this volume as one of the most important that has
been offered the public for many years.  Small though it^be, if is
full of sound doctrine and  practical wisdom.   Every  page  is
pregnant with instruction of solemn import; and wc would that
it were the text book, the  great and sovereign guide, of every
male or female in  the country, with whom rests the responsible
care of rearing or  educating a child.  Were  it so, the next gen-
eration would be vastly superior to the present, both in bodily
vigor and mental  energy and cultivation.  We  repeat that we
have no terms too strong to express our admiration of the senti-
ments uttered in this little  volume.  The times require  such a
publication, and we fervently hope that, it may reach every eye,
carry conviction of its truth and importance  to every heart, and
be the means of arresting the progress of a species of infatuation
that seems to posssess all in  our day respecting early education.'
                         Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

   ' We have  been highly  gratified  by a hasty perusal of this
work, on a most important topic in education.  We could wish to
aee it in the hands of all who are destroying themselves or their
children by endeavoring to produce one of those mental prodigies,
which are  as really monsters, as the beings born  with a double
head.  We promise  ourselves the pleasure of making our read-
ers better acquainted with the work hereafter, although  we nei-
ther hope nor desire to supersede that necessity of perusing it for
himself, which we think every parent who is not familiar with
the subject will feel.' —American Annals of Education.

   ' Though it has a grave title, this is a lively book, abounding in
curious iflustrations  and occasionally  seasoned  with a spice of
pleasant satire.  There  is,  moreover, a plenty of good sense in
these ' remarks,' and we are of opinion that the author has spoken
 seasonably and well.  The  practices against which he contends,
 we deem to be  great evils,  and he has  done  battle against  them
 like a worthy knight.' — Christian Examiner.


   ' We  have derived much pleasure and instruction from  the
 work.  It gives evidence of strong  sense,  shrewd observation,
 extensive reading, and great independence in the formation, and
 boldness in the expression, of opinions.  We hope that it will be
 generally read, and its  warnings and  admonitions duly  heeded.
 We recommend it in strong terms.' —J\~ew England Magazine.


   ' This is a neat  duodecimo  volume of little more than an hun-
 dred pages, into  which the sensible author has compressed  the
 substance of much research, and, as we think, judicious reflection.
 •  « »   We  have  made  no attempt to follow our ingenious
 author  through the arguments he  has  brought to sustain  his
 positions,  but  merely adverted to a few of these, referring  our
 readers to the volume itself.  Such a  reference,  we can assure
 the reader will afford him both  pleasure and profit.'
                        American Journal of Medical Sciences. 
I 
                     REMARKS



               ON  THE   INFLUENCE


                              OF


     MENTAL   CULTIVATION


                             AMD


MENTAL    EXCITEMENT




              UPON   HEALTH.
BY AMARIAH BRIGrfAM, M. D.
  Is not that the best education which gives to the mind and to the body all the
force, all the beauty, and all the perfection of which they are capable ?  plato.

  S' il est possible de perfectionner I'espece humaine, c'est dans la medicine qu'il
faut en chercher les moyens.                              descartes.
Second  EiJftfon.

GSi'i/-'
           BOSTON:
MARSH,   CAPEN  &   LYON,

                18 33. 
WM
1233
»o*"
  Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1833,
             By Marsh, Capen & Lyon,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
     BOSTON:
Printed by James B. Dow,
  122 Washington-St. 
       PREFACE
TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION.
   The favor with which the first edition of this work
 was received by the public,  has been extremely  grati-
 fying to the author, not  only by confirming his  belief
 of the importance of the truths it contains,  but by giv-
 ing promise that they will be regarded,  in  the educa-
 tion of the youth of this country.
   The inutility, and even the danger of very early at-
 tempts to cultivate the minds of children to a high de-
 gree,  are  beginning to be acknowledged, not only in
 this country, but also in England.  An article in a re-
 cent number of the  Christian Observer, denounces in
 strong terms this dangerous  practice ; and  from vari-
 ous parts of our own country, I have been assured that
 experience has convinced many of the most intelligent
 and reflecting people, that it has been prosecuted to an
 injurious extent.
   Public attention is now awakened to the importance
 of manual labor and  exercise  for scholars,  in  high
 schools and colleges.   I rejoice at this; but I still  be-
 lieve  there is far more injury  caused by  too much
 mental labor required of children, when young, and by
 efforts to  suppress  their natural gaiety and  love  of
amusements, than by neglect of exercise in after life.
This is more particularly  true as regards females.
               1* 
VI
PREFACE.
   The author has endeavored to improve the present
edition of this work by the correction of  some verbal
errors, and the addition of  some new matter, particu-
larly upon the influence of  mental  excitement in  pro-
ducing diseases of the heart; upon self-education, and
upon the Sunday Schools of this country.
   He would again express  the hope that  his  country-
men, and particularly those who  have  the care of
youth, would give more attention than they have hith-
erto, to the study of anatomy and  physiology ; — sci-
ences which he regards as of the utmost value to man-
kind, and which  ought to be understood by every in-
dividual.
   Hartford, Ct.,June 15th,  1833. 
PREFACE
TO  THE FIRST EDITION.
  The object of this work is to awaken public atten-
tion to the importance of making some modification in
the method of educating children, which now prevails
in this country.   It is  intended to show the  necessity
of giving  more  attention  to  the  health and growth of
the body,  and less to the cultivation of  the mind,  es-
pecially in early life, than is now  given ; to teach that
man,  at every period of his existence, should be con-
sidered both as a spiritual and material being  — as in-
fluenced both by physical and moral causes,  and that
therefore all plans for his improvement should  be form-
ed, not from a partial view of his  nature ; but from a
knowledge of his moral, intellectual, and physical pow-
ers, and of their development.
  The importance of Physical Education, or the per-
fect development of the organs of the body, appears in
modern times to be nearly forgotten.   This  forgetful-
ness has, no doubt, been  occasioned by modern dis-
coveries, inventions and improvements in the  mechan-
ic arts, which have rendered the  employment  of the
physical strength of man less necessary than  it was  in
past   ages,  and  produced  a general  conviction  that
1  knowledge alone is power.'   The invention of gun-
powder, in particular, has  contributed  very greatly  to 
viii
PREFACE.
this neglect of physical  education.  So little  regard,
however, is now paid to this subject, that the connex-
ion between the mind and body is by many entirely over-
looked, and the necessity of well-developed organs for
the manifestation  of good mental powers, seems to be
generally unknown.  But,  as  exclaimed the eloquent
Dupaty, on seeing the magnificent  Anatomical Muse-
um at Florence, ' Philosophy has been  in  the  wrong,
not to descend more deeply into physical man ; there
it is that the moral man lies concealed.'  >.
   The  people  of the United  States ought to become
the most vigorous  and powerful race of human beings,
both in  mind and  body, that the world has ever  known.
Living in a climate which permits  the fullest develop-
ment of all the powers of human nature — enjoying
entire freedom — possessing an abundant supply of the
best nutriment, and of everything necessary to promote
the increase and healthy action of  their  physical pow-
ers— exempt from those influences which tend to re-
press the mental and physical improvement of the peo-
ple of most other  countries,  they certainly ought to
reach the highest  perfection of which humanity is ca-
pable.   But to  effect this, all that  belongs  to  human
nature  should  be  regarded  in education ; the  whole
man should be  improved.   And not only should all his
powers  be developed, but they should be  developed
harmoniously, and at the  proper time.
   An  improvement in female education has become
very necessary  in this country. It is lamentable,  and
in  fact alarming, to find that the females  of the  United
States, especially  those in cities, and those belonging to
the most  wealthy class,  are in general  more delicate
and feeble than those in several countries of Europe. 
PREFACE.
ix
From my own observation, I am confident  that a far
greater proportion of the  females seen in the cities of
this  country,  are pale,  slender, and apparently  un-
healthy,  than  of those  seen in the large towns of Eng-
land and France.   The truth of this remark is abun-
dantly confirmed  by our own  and foreign travellers.
But there is no other country where females generally
receive so early  and so much intellectual culture,  and
where so little attention is paid to their physical edu-
cation.   Unless  there  is  a reform  in this respect, the
general  feebleness of the females  in this country will
be increased.   Besides, there is danger of ultimately
regarding extreme delicacy as requisite to beauty, and
thus a false and  most dangerous error may be encour-
aged.   No people will  long hold a high rank among
the nations of the earth, where such an opinion exten-
sively prevails, and where females are generally feeble.
   It is not, however, the object of this  publication  to
discountenance,  in the least degree,  any judicious ef-
forts to cultivate the human mind.   On the contrary,
I wish to awaken a more general attention to this  sub-
ject.  But I would not have this attention confined  to
children, and to that age when the human  system re-
quires all its energies to perfect the organization. Edu-
cation should be  made  the business of life, and the
multiplication of books  has now placed the means  of
acquiring knowledge within the reach of all.
   I have  endeavored, also, in this work, to point out
what I conceive to be the most frequent cause of the
ill health of literary men  in this country ; and  to show
that only by carefully developing and judiciously exer-
cising the organs of the body, and especially the brain, 
X
PREFACE.
 can mental labor be long performed with energy, with-
 out injury to the health.
   I hope also that my remarks may  serve  to  awaken
 some attention to the  study  of human  Anatomy and
 Physiology; on which all plans of education ought to
 be  founded.  The general neglect of these sciences is
 one of the most extraordinary facts of the kind that this
 inquiring age presents.  Not to know the composition
 of most inorganic substances, and not to understand the
 mechanism of the steam-boat or the spinning-jenny, is
 considered disgraceful, by men who live and die total-
 ly ignorant of the far more curious and wonderful me-
 chanism which their own  bodies present.
  This work is given to the public with  the hope that
 it will be read with candor, and that the facts adduced,
 though presented in a  very imperfect manner, will have
their proper  weight.    If they  do, I shall confidently
 expect that it will prove of some  service to the cause
of education in this country.
                                         A. B.
  Hartford, Nov.  2\st,  1832. 
CONTENTS.
                                                   PAGE.
Influence of Mental Cultivation upon Health.  General
  Observations.......................................13

                       Section  I.
The brain the material organ by which the mental facul-
  ties are  manifested.................................17

                      Section II.
Condition of the brain  in  early life — Effect of excite-
   ment and enlargement of the brain by disease, on the
  mind — Mental precocity usually a symptom of disease. .34

                      Section III.
Consequences which  have resulted from inattention to
  the connexion between the mind and body — The best
  minds not caused by early mental culture...............51

                      Section IV.
Opinions of celebrated physicians respecting early mental
  cultivation — of Tissot—Hufeland — Spurzheim — Si-
  nabaldi — Friedlander — Ratier — Londe — Broussais
  — Johnson — North-Jackson, &c. &c.................62

                       Section V.
Influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement, in
  producing  insanity, nervous affections, and diseases of
  the heart..........................................76 
XU                   CONTENTS.

                      Section  VI.
Remarks upon moral education — Influence of example... .87

                     Section VII.
Mental cultivation at a proper time of life, not injurious,
  but beneficial to heallh..............................92

                    Section VIII.
Influence of mental cultivation introducing dyspepsia in
  literary men — Irritation of the brain the most frequent
  cause of this disease...............................102

                        Table,
Exhibiting  the  age  attained by some of the most distin-
  guished literary persons in ancient and modern times.. .123 
INFLUENCE  OF
   MENTAL   CULTIVATION

             UPON  HEALTH.


  The influence which the exercise of the intellectu-
al faculties has upon the  health, growth, and  proper
development of the body, is a subject of interesting in-
quiry to every rational being.
  The peculiarly intellectual character of the present
age,  the  high mental excitement  which pervades all
classes of society, and of which the child partakes in
its very infancy, render it  more important now, than
has  ever  been before, for  men, and  particularly for
the inhabitants of the United States, to possess cor-
rect  views upon this  subject.   In  this  country, where
the Government and Institutions are of the  most lib-
eral  character, where the highest  honors and distinc-
tions are  put into one common market, and made the
rewards of personal merit, men are constantly stimu-
lated to mental industry.  The accidental circumstan-
ces of fortune, parentage, or the  favor of the great,
have here but little control; the  power to gain high
and  desirable stations is to be derived from knowledge;
and  nobility  and dignity of character  belong  only to
those who possess enlarged  and cultivated minds.
              2 
14
   Hence we find, that, by all classes of the communi-
 ty, the culture of the mind is  considered  as the first
 and most  important pursuit,  especially for  those  in
 early  life.   The  parent whose own  education  was
 deficient, soon  perceives its value, in the influence and
 power with which it rewards those around him who do
 possess it, and  is  willing to make great exertions to
 enable  his children  to  acquire that knowledge which
 it was his  misfortune not to have obtained.   Though
 he has  never  expected, for himself,  any  other  sta-
 tion in society than that of  a  daily laborer in  the
 field or  the  work-shop;  yet he aims to prepare  his
 son  for a different fortune, and  aspires to  place  him
 among the most distinguished of the learned, or among
 the rulers of his country.  Conscious that without ed-
 ucation such an elevation cannot be attained, he be-
 comes  earnestly  desirous  of  the mental  improve-
 ment of his child :  he watches over  his infancy with
 intense anxiety, endeavoring to call forth and strength-
 en at an early period those powers of mind which  will
 enable him in  future years  to  sway and delight man-
 kind.
   This prevalent  eagerness for  intellectual improve-
 ment in our republic, leads  to  a  constant search after
new and sure methods by which the education of chil-
dren may  be  promoted.  Hence  we  so  frequently
hear novel  plans  proposed  for the earlier  and more
rapid development of the infant mind, and  see ma-
chines invented for accelerating the progress of babes
in the acquisition of what is called ' useful knowledge.'
Bookstores are  filled with innumerable works of in-
struction for children, and parents anxiously resort  to
every method which  will enable their offspring to  be- 
15
come prodigies in mental endowments, while in every
other respect they remain weak and delicate infants.
  When such feelings and opinions prevail  extensive-
ly, respecting  the importance of developing and culti-
vating the  mental powers of young children, it would
not be surprising if, to accomplish that which is thought
to be so desirable an object,  some injudicious  if not
dangerous methods should be  adopted.  It becomes
important, therefore, to examine occasionally and see
whether parents and teachers, in their great eagerness
to produce good results, are not sometimes too regard-
less of the  injury which some of the methods employ-
ed may produce.
  Many physicians of great experience  are  of the
opinion, that efforts to develope the  minds of  young
children are  very frequently injurious; and from in-
stances  of  disease in children which I  have witnessed,
I am forced to believe that the danger is indeed great,
and that very  often in attempting to call forth and cul-
tivate the intellectual faculties of children before they
are five or six or seven years of age, serious and lasting
injury has  been done both to the  body and the mind.
The  danger  arises from  parents and  teachers forget-
ting or disregarding this important  fact, that, although
the  mind  is immaterial and  indestructible, it  is yet
allied to a  material  body, upon  the  healthy state of
which the intellect is  dependent for vigor and power.
   Of the nature or essence of mind we are ignorant. —
We  believe it is distinct from matter.  We do know,
however, that it  manifests itself solely by the aid of
material organs, and that a well-formed  and healthy
condition of these organs is as essential to correct and
powerful mental action, as well-developed and healthy
lungs are for the  performance of free  and perfect res- 
16
 piration, or a  sound state of the eye and  the ear for
 seeing and hearing.  In  consequence of this intimate
 connexion  between  the  mind  and body, we cannot
 doubt that mental labor calls into  action some organ,
 and that, if continued for a great length of time, it will
 fatigue, and may injure this organ, and unfit it for its
 accustomed duties, just as too much excitement of the
 heart or stomach will injure these organs, and derange
 the circulation and digestion.
   If these observations are true, (and that  they  are I
 think can  be abundantly proved,) every person will
 perceive, that in cultivating the mental powers of chil-
 dren, we  should  be less anxious to  ascertain  how
 rapidly and to  how  great an  extent they may be de-
 veloped, than how muchthe delicate organ or organs
 by which the mind acts may be excited without injury
 to the body or the mind.
   Very  different  views, I am  aware, respecting the
 education  of  children,  prevail  in  this  country.  In
 most schools, the importance of a sound  body, and a
 well-developed organization to  the production of cor-
 rect  and  long-continued mental  action  has been over-
looked ;  and both parents and  teachers have chiefly
 labored to  discover the quickest methods of develop-
 ing the minds of  children, without once  thinking that
 mental labor itself could injure any part of the corpo-
 real system.
   But in commencing the inquiry as to the influence
 which the cultivation of the mind has upon the health
 of the body, it will be necessary first to ascertain  what
 part or organ of the human system is called into action
 by mental  labor, and then  to trace  the effect which
 this labor has upon that part of the system,  and  upon
 other organs of the body, at different periods of life. 
SECTION I.
THE BRAIN  THE  MATERIAL  ORGAN  BY WHICH  THE
       MENTAL  FACULTIES  ARE MANIFESTED.

  Every part of the human  system  has undoubtedly
been created for the performance of  some action;  as
the heart for  the circulation of the blood, the eye for
seeing, the ear for hearing, the nerves  for sensation, the
bones to sustain, and the muscles to move the body.
  That action which nature intended  a certain organ
to perform, cannot be executed by another organ; the
ear cannot supply  the place of the eye, or the  nerves
perform the duties assigned to the muscles.   The par-
ticular action or  duty assigned to several organs of the
body we know by the evidence of our senses. We can
see and feel the  heart beat and the muscles  contract.
But as regards the action or function  of other organs,
we  have not the same evidence.  We do not see the
action by which  the liver secretes the  bile,  nor that by
which the eye conveys to us a  knowledge  of outward
things, and of their different colors, &c.   We do not
know, from the evidence of our senses, that any action
at all is excited in  these  organs to produce  such re-
sults ; still we are confident that the liver does produce
the bile, and that the eye sees.  So as regards mental
action, we do not, to be  sure, witness it.   We never
see the mind at work.   So far as we can discover by
our senses, the most profound thoughts of the philoso-
              2* 
18
pher, or the finest conceptions  of  the  poet, produces
no action of the brain.   The mental operation  which
determined  Caesar to pass the Rubicon, or Napoleon
the heights of St.  Bernard, could  not be perceived  to
increase or change the action of the brain; yet such
facts do not force us to believe  that the  mind acts  in-
dependently of this organ.   We do not doubt that the
stomach is in action, when it separates  from the nu-
merous articles  which  compose an epicure's dinner,
or from the coarse and simple fare of the Esquimaux,
those particles and those only which are nutritious, and
appropriates them  to the support of the body, although
this action cannot be perceived  by  us.  Neither do  we
doubt the formation of bile from the blood by the liver,
as has been hinted, nor the  action  of numerous other
organs of the body, though we  can derive  no  know-
ledge concerning their operations  through the senses :
they  are just as  mysterious to us as the  manner  in
which the brain  modifies thought by its action.
  The brain is one of the  largest organs in  the body :
it is better supplied with blood than any  other, and  is
better protected.  These facts show that nature de-
signed it to answer very important purposes ; and un-
less it is the organ by which mental operations are per-
formed, there is  but little for it  to  do, and that little
comparatively trifling.   That it is, however, the ' mate-
rial organ of all  the mental faculties, scarcely, at this
period of science,  requires to be proved.' *   To ' dis-
cipline the mind,'  means, therefore, to call into regular
and repeated action certain portions of the  brain, and
to enable them to  manifest easily  and  powerfully cer-

  • Elements of Pathology, by Caleb  Hillier Parry. 
19
tain mental operations :  this process is like that of ex-
ercising other organs of the body, thus giving them in-
creased facility in the performance of their respective
functions.
   There is much proof that the brain consists of a con-
geries of organs, each  of which,  in a  healthy  state,
manifests a particular faculty of the mind, and that the
power of each faculty  chiefly depends  on the size of
its appropriate organ.   I allude to  these facts,  howev-
er, only for the purpose  of directing the  inquiries of
others to them.  My present  aim  is simply  to show
that the brain, considered as a  whole, is the instrument
by which the mind operates ; and  I hope  to  impress
this fact deeply upon the minds  of all those  who  are
engaged in the education of youth.
   As a first  proof, I will refer  to that belief in the de-
pendence of the mind upon a sound state of the  body,
which is forced upon us by almost  daily occurrences.
We see that severe blows upon the head are followed
by an entire deprivation  of intellect; sensation and vo-
lition are destroyed, at the same time  no part of the
system is injured but. the brain, and the action of other
organs goes on as usual.   When a person is thus, by a
blow or by a fall, deprived of  his reason, the bystand-
ers  by an instinctive impulse look  to the head to  find
the injury.    No one  ever supposes that an injury of
the hand or  foot will affect the  mind and  derange its
operations, but all uniformly expect such a result when
 the brain is  wounded ; and  this general expectation is
 founded upon observed facts.
   Insanity furnishes further evidence that the'brain is
 the organ by which the mind acts ; for this is not a dis-
 ease of the immaterial  mind itself, but of the brain, and 
20
often resulting from  some  injury.  Such a  diseased
state of the organ of the mind, of  the  very instrument
of thought or of some part of it, deranges the intellec-
tual faculties,  just  as a diseased state  of the stomach
deranges digestion.  The immortal and immaterial mind
is, in itself, surely, incapable of disease, of decay and
derangement;  but being allied to a material organ, up-
on which  it is  entirely dependent for its manifestations
upon earth, these manifestations are suspended or dis-
ordered when this organ is diseased.
  If the mind could be deranged, independently of any
bodily  disease, such a possibility would tend to destroy
the hope of its immortality which we gain from reason ;
for that which is capable of disease and decay may die.
Besides, it would be natural to expect that mere  men-
tal derangement might be cured by reasoning, and by
appeals to the understanding.   But attempts to restore
the  mind  in this manner generally prove useless, and
are often injurious; for  insane  persons feel that  their
understandings are insulted whenever opposition is made
to their own hallucinations and to the evidence of their
senses.   It is fortunate  for  them,  that the  true nature
of mental derangement has of late  been acknowledged
in practice, and that in all attempts to benefit and cure
this unfortunate class of beings, they have been assign-
ed to the physician, and treated for corporeal  disease.
  The phrase derangement of mind, conveys  an  erro-
neous idea; for such derangement is only a  symptom
of disease in the head, and is not the primary affection.
It is true, that moral and mental causes may produce
insanity, but they produce it by first occasioning either
functional or organic disease of the brain.   On examin-
ing  the heads of those who die insane,  some disease of 
21
the brain  or its appendages is generally found.   I am
aware of the statement by many writers, that they have
examined heads of the insane, and  found no trace of
organic  disease.   But, until late years, there  has not
usually  been great accuracy in such examinations, and
slight organic  disease  might have been overlooked.
Even admitting that there was no organic disease  in the
cases described  by these writers, there was undoubt-
edly functional  disease  inappreciable by the  senses;
just as there is often great disorder  of the stomach and
derangement of digestion which  cannot be discovered
by dissection.   There are in fact  no diseases  which
are  independent of affected organs, although the affec-
tion may  not always be evident to  the senses.
   Although mental derangement may  perhaps  some-
times occur in individuals who after death exhibit no
trace of organic disease,  I think such  cases are  more
rare than has generally been supposed.  Dr.  Haslam
says, that insanity is always connected  with organic
alterations of the brain.  Greding has noticed thicken-
ing of the skull in one hundred and  sixty-seven  cases
out of two hundred and sixteen, besides other organic
disease.  Spurzheim says he always found changes of
structure  in the heads of insane people.  M.  Georget
dissected a great number of brains, and his experience
is  conformable  to that of the authors above-mention-
 ed.*   Mr. Davidson, House Surgeon to the Lancas*
 ler County Lunatic Asylum, examined with great care
 the heads of two hundred patients  who died  in  the
 asylum,  ' and he scarcely met with a single instance
 in which traces  of  disease  in the brain or  its mem-
<• Medico-Chirurgical Review, 1837« 
22
 branes were not evident, even when lunacy was recent,
 and a patient died of a different disease.' *
   Dr. Wright, of the Bethlem Lunatic Hospital, states,
 that in one hundred cases of insane individuals, whose
 heads he examined, all exhibited signs of  disease; in
 ninety cases the  signs were very distinct and palpable ;
 in the remaining ten they were  fainter, but still existed
 in some form or  other, — such, for instance, as that of
 bloody points, when the  brain was cut through.f
   One of these writers for the prize offered some years
 ago by the celebrated Esquirol,  for the best Disserta-
 tion on Insanity,  observes, that he examined the heads
 of more than one hundred individuals who died from
 insanity, and comes to the following conclusions : —
   1st. That in the brains of those who die of insanity,
 changes of structure will always be  found.
   2d. That  these  changes are  the  consequences of
 inflammation, either acute or  chronic.
   3d. That  there  exists a  correspondence between
 the symptoms and the organic changes ;  and that  the
 names monomania, mania, he. ought only to be  em-
 ployed as representing degrees and  stages of inflamma-
 tion of the brain.J
   These references to  the  intimate connnexion be-
tween insanity and disease of the brain have  been made,
because I propose to show hereafter, that  whatever
strongly excites the mind or its  organ, whether it  be
study or intense feeling,  tends to produce this awful
calamity.   I  shall proceed now  with additional evi-
dence that the brain is the material organ of thought.

  * Observations on Mental Derangement, by Andrew Combe,
  t Medico-Chirurgical Review, 1828.
  X Archives Generales de Medicine, 1825. 
23
  This appears then farther, from the fact, that pres-
sure on the  brain suspends all the operations of mind.
If a person  receives a blow upon the head which de-
presses a portion of the skull upon the brain, his intel-
lect is suspended or deranged until such pressure is re-
moved.  Cases like  the following are not uncommon.
A man at the battle of Waterloo, had a small portion
of his skull-bone beat in upon the brain, to the depth of
half an inch.   This  caused  volition  and sensation  to
cease, and he was nearly in a lifeless state.   Mr. Coop-
er  raised up the depressed portion of bone  from the
brain, and  then the man   immediately arose,  dressed
himself, became perfectly  rational, and recovered rap-
idly.*
   The following case  occurred in Hartford,  within a
few weeks : — H. O., a young man, fell in the evening
ihrough the scuttle of a store, but arose  immediately,
mentioned  the fall to  some of his acquaintance, and
transacted business during the evening.  Next day he
was found in bed in nearly a senseless state, and soon
 became  incapable  of speaking, hearing,  seeing,  or
 swallowing, and appeared  to be dying.  There was no
 evidence of any fracture of  the skull, and but very
 slight appearance of any  external injury whatever.   A
 small swelling over the right ear, and  the conviction
 that he could live but a few minutes in the state  in
 which he then was, determined  his  medical advisers
 to perforate the skull.
    I removed a small portion of the  bone beneath the
 slight swelling over the ear, by  the trephine, and found
 more than a gill of clotted blood, which had probably
• Principles of Military Surgery, by John Hennen. 
24
flowed gradually from a wounded  blood-vessel.   On
removing this blood, the man immediately spoke, soon
recovered his mind entirely,  and is now,  six  weeks
after the accident, in good health, both as to mind and
body.
   Richerand  mentions the case  of a woman whose
brain was exposed,  in consequence of the removal of
a considerable portion of its bony covering by disease-
He says he repeatedly  made  pressure on the brain,
and each time suspended all feeling and all intellect,
which were  instantly  restored when the pressure  was
withdrawn.   The same writer also relates another case,
that of a man who had been trepanned, and who  per-
ceived his  intellectual  faculties failing, and his exist-
ence  apparently drawing to a close, every time the
effused blood collected upon the brain so as to produce
pressure.*   Professor Chapman, of Philadelphia, menr
tions  in  his Lectures,  that he saw an individual  with
his skull perforated and the brain  exposed, who  was
accustomed  to submit himself to the same  experiment
of pressure  as the above, and who was exhibited by
the late  Professor Westar to  his class.   His intellect
and moral faculties  disappeared, on the application of
pressure to the brain : they were held under the thumb,
as it were, and restored at pleasure to their full activi-
ty by discontinuing  the pressure.f
   But the most  extraordinary  case of this  kind within
my knowledge,  and one  peculiarly interesting to the
physiologist  and  metaphysician, is related by Sir Astley
Cooper in his  Surgical Lectures.

  * Richerand's Elements of Physiology.
  t Principles of Medicine, by Samuel Jackson, M. D. 
25
  A man, by the name of Jones, received an injury of
his head, while on board a vessel in the Mediterranean,
which rendered him insensible.  The vessel, soon after
this accident, made Gibraltar, where Jones was placed
in the hospital,   and  remained  several months in the
same insensible  state.   He was then carried on board
the Dolphin frigate to Deptford, and from thence was
sent to St. Thomas's  Hospital,  London.   He lay con-
stantly on his back, and breathed  with difficulty.  His
pulse was regular, and each time it beat, he moved"his
finge/s.  When  hungry  or thirsty, he  moved his lips
and tongue.   Mr. Cline, the surgeon, found a  portion
of the skull depressed,  trepanned him, and removed
the depressed portion.   Immediately  after this opera-
tion, the motion of his fingers ceased, and at 4  o'clock
in the afternoon (the  operation  having been performed
at  one,)  he sat up in bed ; sensation and  volition re-
turned,  and in four  days he got  out of bed and con-
versed.   The  last thing he remembered  was  the cir-
cumstance  of taking a prize in  the Mediterranean.*
' From  the  moment of the  accident, thirteen months
and a few days, oblivion had come over him,  and  all
recollection had ceased.  He had, for more than one
year, drank of the cup of Lethe,  and  lived wholly un-
conscious of existence ; yet, on removing a small por-
 tion of bone which pressed upon the brain, he was re-
 stored to the full possession of the  powers of his mind
 and body.' f
    It is curious  to  notice, that often  an  injury of  the
 brain impairs  only that part of the  mental faculties.
 Such instances give  great support to the Phrenological

   * Lectures of Sir Astley Cooper, by Frederick Tyrrell.
   t Scalpel, 1824.
               3 
26
views of Gall and Spurzheim, who contend for a plu-
rality of organs in the brain, and a separate and pecu-
liar function to each organ, as, one organ for compari-
son, another for language, another for tune, &c.
   Dr. Beattie  mentions  the  case  of a learned man,
who, after a blow on his  head, forgot all his Greek, a
language he was  well versed in  before  the  injury.
His mind and memory were not affected in any other
respect.  Another  person, mentioned  by  Dr. Aber-
crombie, lost all  recollection of his having a wife and
children, for several days after a  similar injury, while
his memory of the accident and of recent  circumstan-
ces was perfect.
   Sir Astley Cooper mentions, from personal  know-
ledge, the  case of  a German sugar-baker, with dis-
ease of  the brain, who, in the early stage of his com-
plaint, spoke English, but, as his disease advanced, for-
got this language, and remembered only the German.
The same  author relates the case of  a  man  at St.
Thomas's hospital, who,  after a blow upon his head,
was  found talking in a language unknown  to all, until
a Welsh woman, who entered the hospital, recognized
it as Welsh : the blow upon his head had  caused him
to forget the English language.
   Dr. Conolly relates a  still more remarkable  case of
a young clergyman, whose head was severely injured a
few days before  that on  which he was to have been
married.   He  recovered  as to his health, and lived
until the age of eighty ; but from the time of the injury
his understanding was permanently deranged, though
he retained the recollection of his approaching mar-
riage, talked of nothing else during his whole life, and
expressed impatience for the arrival of the  happy day. 
27
  But  we  see analogous  affections  resulting from
fevers,  and  other  diseases which  affect  the  brain.
Dr. Rush says  that  many of the  old  Germans and
Swiss in Pennsylvania, who had not spoken  their na-
tive  language  for  fifty or sixty years,  and who had
probably forgotten  it, would often use it in sickness;
and he  explains  it by supposing that the  stimulus of
the fever in their brains revived their recollection.
   He  refers also  to  the case of an Italian,  who was
master of the Italian, French  and  English languages,
but who, in  a fever which  terminated  his life in the
city of New York, spoke English  in the commence-
ment of his disease, French only in the  middle,  and
on the day  of his death Italian.
   Numerous cases are related, of persons, who, from
disease  affecting the brain, forget  names  and  events,
times and places, but retain a  perfect  recollection of
persons and numbers.  As  like  symptoms arise from
blows on the head, and often from fevers, we cannot
doubt that the  brain  is very similarly affected  in both
cases.   Insanity is known frequently  to arise from
blows on the  head, and fevers often make  people
insane  for  years, who  are suddenly restored  to  the
full possession  of their mental  powers, just  as Jones
was restored by trepanning, after remaining  a year in
an insensible state.
   Numerous instances similar to those which I have
related, are found in  works on  mental derangement,
and they all tend to  prove  that a well-developed and
sound  brain is absolutely  necessary for  correct  and
 powerful operation of  the  mind.  Many of  them are
exceedingly interesting, and very difficult  to explain,
except on the ground adopted by Gall and Spurzheim, 
28
and  eloquently developed and  illustrated  by Messrs.
Combe.*
  These  writers divide  the  intellectual faculties into
two  classes — the knowing  and the reflecting.   The
knowing faculties are individuality, form, size, weight,
coloring, locality, order,  time, number, tune, and lan-
guage ; the reflecting faculties are comparison and caus-
ality.  Each faculty has a separate and material instru-
ment or  organ in the brain; and  memory belongs to
each faculty:  hence  there  are  as  many  kinds  of
memory  as there are organs for the knowing and re-
flecting faculties.   They say, moreover, that memory
is only a degree of  activity of the organs :  hence from
disense or other causes,  increasing the activity of the
organs, the recollection of things is far  more vivid at
one  time than at another.  This enables us to explain
those cases that frequently occur, in which, from some
injury of the brain, a  person  loses the  memory of
words, but retains that of things.   Dr. Gregory men-
tions the case  of  a lady,  who, after  an  apoplectic
attack, recovered her recollection of things, but could
not name them ; others forget the names of their most
intimate  friends, whose  persons they  perfectly recol-
lect.  I  have a patient  at the present time, whose
memory  is good as respects everything but places:
he  recollects perfectly,  persons, names, events, &,c,
but does not recollect his own or his neighbors' houses,
or the place in  which he has resided for  many years.
  Further proof of the  connexion between the state
of the brain and  that  of the  mind, might be  ad-
duced from  the  many  instances  of  idiots  and cre-

  * See System of Phrenology by George Combe, and Observa-
tions on Mental Derangement, by Andrew Combe, M. D. 
29
tins, who  are  all  nearly  destitute  of intellect, and
defective in the organization of  their heads.   There
have been  many examinations  of the heads of such
individuals, says Esquirol, and they have usually been
found to- be of vicious  formation.   The  same writer
adds this  important remark, ' that idiots  and  cretins
sometimes  manifest great intelligence in early life, and
give promise of  possessing superior  mental powers;
but these  premature  beings soon become exhausted,
their intellects  remain stationary, and  the  hopes they
excited soon vanish.'*
   The  general proposition which I  wish  to establish,
is made evident, also,  from the fact  that whatever
excites  the mind, excites and stimulates the brain.
   This we know from  experience in  a severe head-
ache.   We  perceive  the   pain  to  be increased by
intense  study or  thinking,  and that mental application
determines more blood  to the head.   So true is it that
mental  excitement  produces  an  increased  flow  of
blood  to the head, that surgeons are  very careful to
preserve a  quiet state of mind in those whose heads
are wounded.    Sir Astley Cooper, speaking of such
injuries, says,  that if any  mental power remains,  all
excitement of the brain  should be avoided ; and relates
the following case.  ' A young gentleman was brought
to me from the north of England, who had lost a por-
tion of his skull just  above the eyebrow.    On exam-
ining the  head, I distinctly saw  the  pulsations of the
brain, which were  regular  and slow;  but  at this time
he was agitated by some  opposition to his wishes, and
directly the  pulsations  of the  brain were increased,

        • Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales, Vol. 23.
               3* 
                        30

and became more violent, and  more blood  rushed to
the brain.  If, therefore, you omit  to  keep the mind
free from agitation, your other means will be unavail-
ing in injuries of the head.'*
  The same author mentions another similar case ; that
of a young  man,  who had an opening in his skull from
a wound, through which he could see an increased ac-
tion in the  brain, whenever anything occurred, even in
conversation, to agitate the mind of the  patient.
  The following case is related by M. Broussais.   M.
Thavernier, a captain in the-----regiment, forty-two
years of age, moderately stout,  but well  formed, re-
ceived in the  middle of the Palais Royal, in  May,
1815, ninety days before his death, a letter containing
bad news.  Whilst perusing it, he remained motionless
as if  thunderstruck, and the left side of his face  be-
came paralysed,  and drawn to the opposite side.   He
was taken to Val de  Grace, and attended to.  At this
time he had complete  paralysis of the arm, thigh,  and
leg of the right side, and was unable to speak.   After
using various remedies for more than two months, he
began to  improve, and became so much better as to be
able to stand up, and to speak, although with difficulty.
  In this state of improvement, M. Thavernier receiv-
ed another letter, said to be from his wife : he  read it,
and instantly there occurred loss of speech,  general
immobility, abolition of sense, and complete apoplexy.
He died  in  three days  after this attack,  and, on  ex-
amining  the head, there was found engorgement of
blood in  the sinuses, and  several abscesses were ob-
served in the substance of the brain, and other marks
* Lectures on Surgery, fee. 
31
of organic disease.   M. Broussais considers this a case
of chronic  inflammation  of the brain induced by  a
moral cause.*
   The same general fact, that mental excitement stim-
ulates the brain, is proved by numberless cases, and
forms the basis of correct treatment of diseases of the
brain, and especially of insanity.
   This disease is generally  produced  by morbid ex-
citement of some portions of the brain,  and requires for
its cure that this disordered  organ should be  left in ab-
solute  repose.   Hence arises the benefit  of Asylums
for Lunatics, where this unhappy class of persons have
no cares, no wants to provide for, and where  their
minds  are not excited, but soothed by  kind  words and
gentle and affectionate treatment.
   Sometimes the increased  flow of blood  to the  head
is such as wonderfully to increase the powers of the
mind.    Pinel,  and other writers on  insanity,  relate
cases of patients, who possessed but weak minds when
in their usual state of health, but who exhibited  very
superior powers of intellect during paroxysms of insan-
ity, which determined more blood to the head than or-
dinarily.  Similar facts I  have  noticed in the insane :
sometimes the memory  seems  to be  wonderfully  in-
creased ; at other times, imagination, or  wit, &c.; and
thus many of the  insane are supposed to possess un-
commonly brilliant mental powers.  I have  known an
insane person, during a paroxysm of insanity,  which
usually occurred about once a month, exhibit a very
animated countenance, and  repeat correctly and with
great force  and dignity, passages from  Shakspeare and

   •History of Chronic Phlegmasiae, by F. J. V. Broussais. Vol. 1. 
32
other writers, but who in the intervals of these parox-
ysms, appeared stupid, thoughtless, and forgetful.
  Many instances are on record,  of  the development
of genius by disease during childhood.   The celebrat-
ed Novalis had his great mind apparently created by a
very severe disease when he was in his ninth year.*
An  increase of power may be given to the brain by an
increased determination of blood to it, just as the senses
are  often rendered more acute, by disease  and partial
inflammation j  or it may arise from the repose allowed
the  brain during disease, and its feeble powers not being
overtasked and injured by mental application.
  I might adduce many more cases  to prove the very
intimate connexion between the brain  and  the  mind,
that it is a defective brain which makes  the idiot,  and
a diseased  brain  which causes delirium and insanity;
and that all the various states of mind produced by al-
cohol or by opium, he, arise from the  disordered ac-
tion which these articles  produce in the brain; that the
weak mind manifested by  the infant, and  the feeble
mind by the aged, are produced by a small  and  unde-
veloped, or an enfeebled  and diseased  brain, and not
by a change of the immaterial mind itself.   But cases
enough have been cited to prove these truths.  And if
we do admit that the  brain is  the organ by which  the
mind  acts,  we  must acknowledge  the necessity of
guarding this organ most carefully, of exercising it with
extreme caution,  of not endangering its delicate struc-
ture at any period of life by too much labor,  or pre-
venting  its full development by too little ; for the reg-
ular exercise of all the organs of the brain is necessary
* Foreign Review. 
33
to prepare them for the active and powerful manifesta-
tion  of the mental faculties.
  The healthy condition and  proper exercise of the
brain, are therefore far more important than of any oth-
er organ of the body, for we might as well expect good
digestion with a diseased stomach, or good music from
a broken instrument,  as a good  mind with a disordered,
enfeebled, or improperly developed  brain.  And yet,
how little  regard has been  paid to these important
truths, in the cultivation of the mind!  While people
are  exceedingly fearful of enfeebling and  destroying
digestion, by exciting and overtasking  the  stomach,
they do not appear to think they may enfeeble or de-
range the operation of the mind by exciting the  brain,
by  tasking it when it is tender and  imperfectly devel-
oped, as it is in childhood. 
SECTION II.
CONDITION OF  THE  BRAIN  IN EARLY LIFE--EFFECT
  ON THE  MIND--OF  EXCITEMENT  AND  ENLARGE-
  MENT  OF THE BRAIN BY DISEASE--MENTAL PRE-
  COCITY USUALLY  A SYMPTOM  OF DISEASE.

  Since at first, no organ is fully developed,  and  pre-
pared  for  the  powerful execution  of its appropriate
function, let us inquire  at what time of life, nature has
prepared the  brain for the performance of the impor-
tant office of manifesting the mind.
  Let us begin with the infant, and ascertain what is
the condition of its brain in  early life.
  The brain of a new-born  infant weighs about ten
ounces ;* that of an adult, generally, three pounds and
a half, apothecaries' weight, frequently a little less. —
But if the mind of an adult has been long devoted  to
thought, if he has been  engaged in constant study, his
brain is usually increased beyond  this weight.   The
brain of Byron, for instance, is said to have  weighed
four  pounds and a  half;  and that of the  illustrious
Cuvier, four pounds thirteen ounces and a half.   The
size of this organ increases from  the time of  birth till
manhood, remains stationary from this period  until old
age, and then diminishes in  bulk  and weight,  f   The

  * Meckel's Anatomy, Vol. 2.
  t Andrei's Pathological Anatomy, Vol. 2. 
35
relative size of its different portions constantly varies
during several of the first years of life,  and it is not un-
til about the seventh year that all its parts are formed.*
During childhood it is  ' very soft, and even  almost
liquid  under the finger, and its  different  parts  cannot
be clearly  distinguished.'f   Still at this time it is sup-
plied with  more blood, in proportion to its  size,  than
at any subsequent  period.  It then  grows most rap-
idly, and more rapidly than any other organ : its weight
is nearly doubled  at the  end of the first six  months ;
and hence the nervous system, being connected with
the  brain,  is early developed, and becomes  the pre-
dominating system,  in youth.   At this period of life,
however, which is devoted to the increase of the body,
it is necessary that the nervous system should predom-
inate ; for  this system is the source of all  vital  move-
ment, and presides over, and gives energy  to  those ac-
tions which tend to the growth of the organization.—
Besides, ' Infancy,' says Bichat,' is the  age  of sen-
sation.  As every  thing  is new to  the  infant, every
 thing attracts its eyes, ears, nostrils, &c.    That which
 to us is an object of indifference,  is to it  a source  of
 pleasure.   It  was then necessary that the  nervous ce-
 rebral system should be  adapted by its early develop-
 ment to the degree of action which it is then to have.'J
    But this great and early  development, though ne-
 cessary for the above  purposes, very much  increases
 the liability to disease : it gives a tendency to  convul-
 sions, and to inflammation and dropsy of the brain, and
* Meckel.
t Bichat's General Anatomy, Vol. 1.
t General Anatomy. 
36
to other  diseases  of the nervous  system,  which  are
most common and fatal in childhood.
   It is, therefore, deeply important,  that  the natural
action of the nervous system should not be  much in-
creased, either by too much exercise of the  mind,  or
by too strong  excitement of the  feelings, lest  at the
same time the  liability of children  to  nervous diseases
be increased, and such a predominance given  to this
system as to make it always easily excited, and disposed
to sympathize with disorder in any part of the body;
thus generating  a  predisposition  to  hypochondriasis
and numerous afflicting nervous affections.
   Mental excitement, as has  been shown,  increases
the flow of blood to the head, and augments  the size
and power of the brain, just as exercise of the  limbs
enlarges and strengthens the muscles of the limbs ex-
ercised.  The wonderful powers of mind which an in-
fant or child sometimes manifests, and by which he
surpasses ordinary children, do not arise  from better
capacity in the mind itself of the child, but, in fact, from
a greater enlargement than  usual  of some portion or
the whole of the brain, by which  the  mind is sooner
enabled to  manifest  its  powers.   This  enlargement
takes place whether the mental precocity  arises from
too early and frequent exercise of  the  mind,  or from
disease, and it must arise in one  of these two  ways.
But in my opinion, mental precocity is generally a
symptom of disease ;  and hence those who exhibit  it
very frequently,  die young.  This fact ought  to  be
specially remembered by parents, some of whom re-
gard precocity, unless accompanied by visible disease, as
a most gratifying indication;  and, on account of it, task
the memory and intellect of the  child.  Sometimes, 
37
however, it is accompanied by visible deformity of the
head, and then the fears of parents are greatly awak-
ened.  Take for instance the disease known  by  the
name of rickets.   Every person  understands that this
is a disease  of childhood, and, according to the best
medical authorities, it arises from the irritation or in-
flammation of some organ, and frequently of the brain.
Its most  characteristic  symptoms when  it affects the
brain, are an enlargement of the head, and premature
development of the intellectual faculties.  On exam-
ining the heads of those who have died of this disease,
the brain is found  very voluminous, but ordinarily heal-
thy.  Meckel observes that its mass is increased  in
rickets; an  effect  gradually produced,  without disor-
ganization of the brain by increased action in its blood-
vessels, and the consequent transmission  to it of more
blood than usual.  Being thus augmented in size, in-
creased mental power is the consequence of this  aug-
mentation.  ' One of the most remarkable phenome-
na in the second stage of rickets,' says M. Monfalcon,
1 is the precocious  development, and the energy  of
the intellectual faculties.   Rickety children have minds
active and penetrating ; their wit is astonishing;  they
are susceptible of lively passions, and have perspicaci-
ty which does not belong to their age.   Their brains
enlarge in  the  same manner as  the cranium does.'
He adds,  ' this wonderful imagination, this judgment,
this premature mental power  which rickets occasion,
has  but a short duration.   The intellectual faculties
are soon exhausted by the precocity and energy of this
development.' *
       * Dictionare  des Sciences Medicales, Vol. 46.
                4 
38
   I do not say or believe, that cautious tasking of the
minds of young children will frequently cause this dis-
ease, but I believe there is great danger that it will pro-
duce the same unnatural growth of the brain, and this
will give rise to an exhibition of superior mental pow-
er, and be followed, as in the case of  rickets,  by per-
manent weakness, or loss of  mental energy.   That an
increase of mental power results  from other diseases
besides rickets, which stimulate the brain, is  evident
in many instances ; as in fevers that affect the head,
in inflammation of the  brain, and  insanity.  The fol-
lowing cases are in point.  ' I  have often,' says Pinel,
' stopped  at the chamber door of a  literary gentle-
man, who, during his paroxysms, appears to soar above
the mediocrity of intellect that was  familiar to him, sole-
ly to  admire his newly acquired powers  of eloquence.
He declaimed upon the subject of the revolution with
all the force, the dignity and  purity  of language, that
this very interesting subject could admit of.  At other
times he was a man of very ordinary abilities.'
   The memory sometimes receives a wonderful addi-
tion of power from an  increased flow  of blood to the
head, caused by some slight irritation, or stimulation
of the brain.  Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of a
boy, who was trepanned for a fracture of the skull, at the
age of four.   He  was at the time  in complete  stupor,
and after his recovery retained no recollection of the op-
eration.  At the age of fifteen, during the delirium of
a fever, he gave a correct description of the operation,
and the persons that  were  present at it, with their
dress and other  minute particulars.  It is added, that
he had never  been heard to allude to it before, and
no means are known by which he could have  acquired 
39
a knowledge  of the  circumstances he mentioned.  I
have myself seen repeated instances of the increase of
the power  of memory during delirium, paroxysms of
fever,  and other  affections which determined  more
blood than usual to the head.
   Intoxication  sometimes increases the  energy of the
intellectual faculties, and revives  the memory.  Mr.
Combe mentions the case of a porter, who, in a state
of intoxication, left a  parcel at a wrong house,  and,
when sober, could not recollect what he had done with
it.   But  the  next time he became stimulated with
liquor,  he recollected where he  had left it.   Shaks-
peare,  no bad  authority, says  that ' wine makes the
brain apprehensive, quick, and inventive;' and anoth-
er  author of celebrity truly observes,'that wine, up
to a certain point, rather tends  to steady the intellect,
and that  a  few glasses advantageously  affected  his
own.'*  This effect,  almost  all  persons  have expe-
rienced.   They have  perceived that their mental and
moral faculties were greatly and rapidly changed by
alcohol, or wine,  or opium, or  some other substance
which affects the  circulation.   Who has not  felt that
transient joy, happiness, or courage, is  a marketable
commodity,  ' that extacies  can  be  corked up in bot-
tles,  or peace of mind sent  in gallons  by the  mail
coach.'
   From such facts we learn, that the varying states of
the  organization have a powerful influence upon the
intellectual and moral  faculties; and that to affect the
 mind beneficially, and to increase and perpetuate its en-
ergy, it is necessary to give constant attention to the
P Confessions of an English opium-eater. 
40
 agents that act upon the body, and watch that they do not
 injure the mind by too much excitement of the physical
 system, nor prevent the proper development of its pow-
 ers, by too little ; for wine,  and  all  other  unnatural
 stimuli, though they may for a short time quicken and
 give energy to the intellect, ultimately depress and en-
 feeble it;  and on the other hand, long-continued low-
 diet, and a want of sufficient nutriment  for the body
 debilitates the mind.
   I proceed to mention additional cases, to prove that
 mental power is increased by the action of the  brain.
 During  an  attack  of  delirium,  many  people have
 learned to read and  write with great rapidity, but have
 been unable  to do either after  their reason returned,
 and increased determination of blood to the brain had
 ceased.   Another attack of insanity, however, revived
 their memory, and  their ability  to  read and  write.
 Many people have  their recollection of  past events
 wonderfully restored by dreams.   Several  instances
 of this  kind  are  related by Dr. Abercrombie,  in his
 'Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers ; '  but I
 think they must be  accounted for on the ground of
 increased activity of  certain portions of the brain, dur-
 ing sleep.  In  somnambulism, which  differs  but little
 from dreaming, some persons have been able to recol-
 lect things long forgotten, and to talk in a language of
 which they possessed no knowledge when  awake, but
 with which they had in early life some partial acquaint-
 ance,  This wonderful power of the memory has been
 frequently exhibited,  by a few,  when  under  great
 excitement; and, in  ignorant  and  fanatical times, has
induced a belief in the  gift of tongues.  Those  who
had learned but little of  a language when youn°-, and 
41
had totally forgotten  it, were  now, when in a  convul-
sive state, able to speak it fluently; while others were
able to repeat long passages from books that they had
never read  but once, and had  not seen for many
years.*    Similar  effects have  been  produced  by
animal magnetism, which, as every one knows, power-
fully  affects  the imagination.  During  the  state  of
' extase,' caused by magnetism, the memory has been
often surprisingly perfected ; and some have been ren-
dered able to speak in a  language they had long for-
gotten.   This state was always accompanied by symp-
toms that showed an increased determination of blood
to the head.  All had slight  convulsions, the face be-
came red, the eyes bright, and after  a while humid.f
   Like  effects  are  produced by disease.   They are
not rare, says  M.  Bertrand, in  all  diseases which
greatly excite the brain.   M. Moreau (de la  Sarthe)
says,  in the Encyclopedic  Methodique, (Art. Medicine
Mental,) that he  had the care  of a child twelve or
thirteen years of age, who knew only the first elements
of the Latin language, and yet  suddenly, during the
excitement  of  a nervous fever, became  capable  of
speaking this language with fluency.
   But the most remarkable and instructive case with-
in my knowledge, one that serves to show the influence
of the organization and action of the brain on the men-
tal and  moral  character,  and which  appears to  me
very deserving of the consideration of the metaphysi-
cian,  is related  in the American Journal of Medical

  * See interesting accounts  of the Possedes; Trembleurs des
Cevennes; Convulsionnaires de Saint-Medard; Malades exorcises
par Gasner, &c.,in Magnatisme Animale par Bertrand.
  t Bertrand.  Magnetisme Animale.
               4* 
 Sciences, for  1829, by Professor  Horner, of the Uni-
 versity of Pennsylvania.
   Master William M., the fourth child of his parents,
 was born in  Philadelphia on the 4th of June,  1S20.
 At  birth, his head was of ordinary  size,  but very -
 soon, after an attack of  dropsy of the brain, it  began
 to grow inordinately.  After he began to walk, its size
 was so great  that he attracted much attention; and  he
 was apt to fall, especially forwards, from readily  losing
 his equilibrium.   His health was  generally good.
   Dec.  12th, 1828, he fell against a  door, and  bruis-
 ed his forehead;  in an  hour afterwards he  vomited,
 became  very  sick, and died  the next evening.   Dur-
 ing his short  sickness  he had no head-ache, and com-
 plained only of his stomach.
   On  examining his head, the  day after his  death, it
 was found to be considerably larger than that of a full-
 grown person, measuring twenty-eight inches in cir-
 cumference.  The lateral ventricles contained a great
 quantity of  transparent serum,  which had  distended
 the brain to a very great  degree, and  produced  much
 of the enlargement of the head.  The appearance  of
 all the parts of the brain it is not necessary to particu-
 larize.    Many parts, especially those  at  the base  of
 the brain, were  healthy,  and the small blood-vessels
 were generally congested with blood.
  The following interesting  account  of this child's
mental and moral faculties, was furnished by Dr. J. K.
Mitchell,  the  family physician.  'When  15 months
old,  the child  spoke  well, and, at 18 months, was able
to sing a variety of musical airs with tolerable correct-
ness,  and always  exhibited a  strong  predilection for
 music.   His intellectual faculties generally were very


                                                            i 
43
respectable, and his powers of observation rather re-
markable.   But his  memory, both of language and
sentiments, was  such  as to excite surprise in those
who took pains to converse with him.   The following
example of his powers of recollection  may  not  be
amiss.   A  customer of his father  having  been absent
two years, returned, and, on his entrance into the shop,
saluted  as an acquaintance, its inmates;  but they had
forgotten him.   On  turning to little M.,  the latter im-
mediately called him by name, inquired  kindly about
him, and then told him that  he had not been to see
them for two years.
   Of a grave and quiet temperament, he  preferred the
society  of  his seniors,  and took little interest in the
common pastimes of childhood.  Only sedate children
were agreeable to him.   For so youthful a person, his
sentiments  and  affections  were of a lofty character.
Seeing the  distress of  his mother, when commercial
affairs took his father to  Europe, the child, then five
years of age, said, ' Father will soon be back :  if  he
don't come again, I  will be a husband to my mother,
and will work for her,  and take care of  her when she
is old.'
   For  two years before his  death, little M. became
affected by religious impressions, which grew  stronger
and stronger, until his  death.   Often  advising others,
he presented  in his own  conduct, a fine  exemplifica-
tion of his principles, being  distinguished among the
children of the  family and the school, for love  of truth,
and general sincerity of character.   At  length,  even
while in full health and vigor, he  spoke of death as a
 thing  to  be  desired;  and  when  dying,  expressed
pleasure at the  approaching crisis.' 
44
   The following, in my opinion, is the true explanation
of the surprising mental powers exhibited by this boy.
Disease or some other cause, irritated his brain;  this
irritation  attracted  more  than an ordinary quantity of
blood to  the head, and thus excited, and unnaturally
or prematurely  developed,  certain  portions of  the
brain ; and just in proportion as these were developed,
his mental powers were increased.
   A  similar  case  of enlargement  of the head from
dropsy, accompanied  by great  power of memory, is
related by Dr. Monro, in the  second volume of  the
Medical Transactions  of the  London  College of Phy-
sicians;  and cases like the  following are not rare in
medical  books,  or in  practice.   L. H.,  aged 14, had
always appeared in   delicate health, without having
any serious disease.   He exhibited more maturity of
understanding than is common at his age, and prefer-
red study to  the usual amusements of children.  At
the age of  13, he had scrofulous swellings,  then dis-
ease  of the head, and finally convulsions, of which he
died.   On opening his body, the brain was found very
large; its  vessels turgid  with  blood.*   In  the sub-
stance of the  brain was  found a small   tumor of  the
size of a walnut, and  of a red color.  Mental applica-
tion did  not,  in this  case, probably,  produce the dis-
ease ;  but the disease itself,  by increasing the deter-
mination  of blood to the brain,  caused the early com-
parative maturity of understanding.  I  have referred
to it to show that disease, and  constant excitement of
the mind in childhood, have  similar effects upon  the
brain, and  each may  unfit it for  the long continuance
of its appropriate functions.
•Merat, Journal de Medicine, Vol. X 
45
  I  have repeatedly  seen cases  very similar to the
above as to the symptoms, in connexion with scrofu-
lous diseases, and premature development of the mind.
Dangerous forms of scrofulous disease among children}
have repeatedly fallen under my observation, for which
I could not account in any other way, than by suppos-
ing that the brain had been exercised, at the expense
of other parts of the system, and at a time of life  when
nature is endeavoring to perfect all the  organs of the
body.   And after the disease commenced,  I have wit-
nessed,  with grief, the influence of the same cause,  in
retarding or preventing recovery.    I have seen several
affecting and melancholy instances of children, five  or
six years of age, lingering awhile with diseases from
which those less gifted readily recover , and at last dy-
ing, notwithstanding the utmost efforts to restore them.
During   their  sickness, they constantly manifested  a
passion  for books, and mental excitement,  and  were
admired for the maturity of their minds.  The chance
for the recovery of such precocious children, is in my
opinion small, when attacked by disease ;  and several
medical  men have informed me that their own  obser-
vations had led them to form  the  same opinion; and
have remarked, that in two cases  of sickness, if one of
the  patients was a child of superior and highly  culti-
vated mental powers, and the other one equally sick,
but whose mind had not been excited  by  study, they
should feel much less confident of the recovery of the
former than of the latter.   This mental precocity, re-
sults from an unnatural development of one organ  of
the body, at the expense of the constitution, as is thus
explained by  two of the  most celebrated  men  of the
 medical profession.   ' It is a  fundamental  law  of thg 
46
 distribution of vital powers,' says Bichat,  ' that when
 they are increased in one part, they are diminished  in
 all the rest of the living economy ; that the sum is nev-
 er augmented, but that they are necessarily transport-
 ed from  one organ to another, and therefore to increase
 the powers of one organ, it is absolutely necessary they
 should be diminished in the others.'*   ' Extra  devel-
 opment  and sensibility of the brain,' says Dr.  James
 Johnson, ' cannot take place, but at  the  expense  of
 some function or structure in the  animal or organic sys-
 tem ; when, therefore, an undue  share of the vital en-
 ergy of any individual is directed to a particular organ
 or system, a  proportionate subduction is made from
 some other organ  or system ; and  this is  a  most un-
 doubted  and most important truth, which  is little  un-
 derstood, and less attended to by  the world in gen-
 eral.' f
  It is thus, that a child is made an intellectual  prodi-
 gy.  The  premature development  of mind, is owing
 to the premature development of the brain, occasioned
 by undue excitement, and the robbing of other organs
 of their  natural  share of vital energy.  But, as  Dr.
 Johnson  says,  this is a ' truth little attended  to by the
 world in  general.'  Most  parents are ignorant  of it,
 and are generally anxious for the early cultivation of
 the minds  of  their children.  To  effect this object,
they  are  assisted  by teachers,  who undertake, with
the  aid of books, maps,  machinery and  pictures,  to
make children of only a  few years of age  understand
a vast many truths in  Chronology, History, Geometry,
  "Physiological Researches upon Life and Death.
  t Influence of Civic Life on Health, &c. 
47
and  many  other  sciences;  to mature  very  rapidly

their  understandings,  and surprisingly quicken  their

reasoning powers.   And  when a child from much in-

struction, or from  disease, has reached  this  superior

mental condition Memoirs, and Anecdotes of his Life

are published  (for  such  children  seldom  live many

years,)  for  the sake  of  instruction  and  example.*

Such publications have been  extensively circulated ;

they have been greatly approved, and probably have

had much influence with parents in the  education of

infants.
   Much of  the thoughtlessness  of  parents, regarding

the injury  they may do  their  children  by too  early

cultivating their minds, has  arisen from the mystery in

which the science of mind has been involved, and igno-

rance of the connexion between  the mind  and body;

for we  find them  exceedingly anxious and careful

about the health  of their  children  in  other respects.

Entirely forgetful of the brain, they know there is dan-

ger in  exercising  many  other parts of  the body  too

much, when they are but partially developed.  They

  * See Memoirs of John Mooney Mead, who died April 8th, 1831,
aged 4 years, 11 months, and 4 days.  He was ' taught hymns be-
fore he could speak plainly,' < reasoned with,'  and constantly in-
structed until his last sickness, during which, ' when the parents
and physician thought  him getting better, the  disease, without
any assignable cause,  suddenly put on a violent and unexpected
form.'  the Memoir  was < examined by several judicious persons
—ministers and others, all of whom united in the request that it
might be published ;  and all agreed in the  opinion, that a knowl-
edge of the manner in which the child was treated, together with the
results would be profitable both to parents and children, and a ben-
efit to the cause of education.'  I sincerely hope they will be ; but
by producing a very different impression from that which the Me-
moir is designed to make ; and by teaching parents to avoid adopt-
ing a similar course with the children committed to their care.—
See also Memoirs of Addison Pinneo, Mary Lothrop, Nathan W.
Dickerman, and  notices of numerous other  young intellectual
prodigies, which are to be found in bookstores, in Magazines, ana
various Periodicals for children. 
48
 know that caution is necessary with children in respect
 to their food, lest their delicate digestive organs should
 be injured by a too  exciting and stimulating regimen.
 A  parent would be greatly alarmed if  his little child,
 by continued encouragement and training, had learned
 to  eat as much food  as  a healthy adult.   Such a
 prodigy of gluttony  might undoubtedly be  formed.
 The method of effecting it, would be  somewhat like
 that of enabling a child to remember, and reason, and
 study,  with  the ability  and constancy  of an  adult.
 Each method is dangerous, but probably the latter is
 the  more  so, because  the  brain  is  a  more delicate
 organ than the stomach.
   The activity of most of the organs of the body can
 be very greatly increased; they can  be made  to per-
 form their functions for  a while with unusual  facility
 and  power.  I will dwell upon this fact a little.   A
 child, for instance,  may be  gradually accustomed to
 eat and digest large  quantities  of stimulating animal
 food.   I have seen an instance of this kind, and when
 I remonstrated  with  the parents  on the impropriety
 and  danger of allowing a child but  two years old, such
 diet  constantly, I  was  told that he was uncommonly
 robust; and  indeed  he  appeared  to be in  vigorous
 health ; but soon after this he had a long inflammatory
 fever, of  an  unusual  character  for  children, which I
 attributed  at the time, to the  stimulating diet allowed
 him.   This diet appeared also to have an effect upon
his disposition, and confirmed the observation of Hufe-
land, that  ' infants  who  are  accustomed to eat much
animal food become robust, but at  the same time pas-
sionate, violent  and  brutal.'   A  child  may  also  be
made to execute surprising muscular movements, such 
49
as walking on a rope, and other feats; but these are
learned only by long practice, which greatly developes
the muscles  by which  the movements are executed.
From frequent and powerful  action,  the  muscles of
the  arms  of blacksmiths and boxers and  boatmen,
those of the lower limbs  of dancers, and those of the
faces  of buffoons,* become  strikingly enlarged when
compared with the muscles in other parts of the body.
Every employment in which  men engage brings into
relatively greater action particular parts of the system ;
some  organs are  constantly and  actively  exercised,
 while others are condemned to inactivity.   To  make,
therefore, one organ superior to another  in power, it
 is necessary not only to  exercise it frequently, but to
render other organs inactive, so as not to  draw away
 from it that  vital energy  which it requires in order to
 be made perfect.
   The  important truth resulting from  these facts, that
 the  more  any part  of the human system  is exercised,
 the  more it is  enlarged, and its powers  increased,
 applies  equally to  all  organs  of the body; it applies
 to the brain as well  as  the  muscles.  The heads of
 great thinkers, as  has   been  stated,  are  wonderfully
 large; and it has been ascertained by  admeasurement,
 that they frequently continue to increase until the sub-
 jects are  fifty years of  age, and  long after the other
' portions of  the  system have ceased  to  enlarge.f
 4 This phenomenon,' says M. Itard, '  is  not  very rare,

   *  People who are in the habit of indulging anger, very often
 develope certain muscles of the face to such a degree as tu impart
 to the countenance an expression of ill-nature, when they are not
 in anger.
   t Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales,  Vol. 22,  Art. Hydroce-
 phale* 
50
 even in the  adult, especially among  men given  to
 study, or  profound meditation, or  who  devote them-
 selves, without  relaxation, to the  agitations of an un-
 quiet and  enterprising spirit.  The head of Bonaparte,
 for instance, was small in youth, but acquired,  in after
 life, a development nearly enormous.'
   I would have the parent, therefore, understand that
 his child  may be  made to  excel in almost anything ;
 that by increasing  the power of certain organs through
 exercise,  he can be made a prodigy of early mental  or
 muscular  activity.   But  I   would have  him  at the
 same time, understand the conditions upon which this
 can be effected, and its consequences.   I  would have
 him fully aware, that  in  each case,  unusual  activity
 and power is produced by extraordinary development
 of an organ ;  and especially that in early life, no one
 organ of the body  can be disproportionately excercis-
 ed, without the risk  of  most injurious  consequences.
 Either the over-excited and  over-tasked  organ  itself
 will be  injured  for life, or  the development of other
 and essential parts  of the system will be arrested for-
 ever.
   From  what has  been said hitherto, we  gather the
 following  facts, which should be made the basis of all
 instruction;  facts  which I wish often to repeat.   The
 brain is the  material  organ by which  all the mental
faculties are  manifested; it is  exceedingly delicate,
 and but partially developed in  childhood; over-ex-
 citement of it when in this state, is extremely hazard-
 ous. 
SECTION  III.
CONSEQUENCES WHICH HAVE  RESULTED FROM INAT-
   TENTION TO  THE CONNEXION BETWEEN  THE MIND
   AND BODY.--THE BEST MINDS NOT PRODUCED  BY
   EARLY MENTAL CULTURE.

   Teachers of youth,  in general, appear  to  think,
that in  exciting the  mind, they are exercising  some-
thing totally independent of the body,  — some myste-
rious entity, whose operations do  not require any cor-
poreal assistance.   They endeavor to accelerate, to
the utmost, the movements  of an extremely delicate
machine,  while most  unfortunately  they are totally
ignorant or regardless of  its dependence on the body.
They know  that its  action  and  power  may both be
increased  for a while, by the  application of a certain
force; and when the action  becomes  deranged, and
the power destroyed,  they know not what is the diffi-
culty, nor  how  it can be remedied.  Fortunately they
do not  attempt to remedy it  themselves, but call in
the physician, who, if he  affords any relief at all, does
it by operating on a material organ.  If medical men
entertained the  same views as teachers, they would, in
attempting to restore  a deranged  mind, entirely over-
look the agency  of the  body, and instead of using
means calculated  to  effect a  change of action  in the
brain, would rely solely  upon arguments and appeals 
52
to the understanding.   For if the mind may be culti-
vated independent of the body,  why may not its dis-
orders be removed without reference to the body ?
   Instructers of yrouth, and authors of books for chil-
dren, would do  well to acquaint  themselves with hu-
man Anatomy and Physiology, before they undertake
to cultivate and  discipline the mind.   The neglect of
these sciences on their part, is a most  lamentable evil.
If they had been understood, I  am confident that in-
numerable books for children, which have been highly
recommended and esteemed very useful, would never
have been  published;  books, which instead of being
blessings to  the  community, have, I fear, done incal-
culable injury.   Few things, I  think,  will  be more
surprising to  future generations  than  the  fact,  that
those whose business it is, in this enlightened age, to
cultivate the human  mind, were ignorant of  the organ
by which the mind acts, and of course were inattentive
to the  condition  of that organ.  It will appear strange
hereafter, that many, through the  medium  of books,
ventured to  dictate  the manner in  which  the mind
should be disciplined and tasked ; and when it became
disordered,  acknowledged its dependence on an or-
ganization of which they were ignorant, and expected
to have  it  restored by those who, in all attempts to
remedy it, act upon the  bodily organization.  Should
teachers of  youth venture thus, like Phaeton, to guide
the  chariot  of the sun, while ignorant  of the power
they endeavor to superintend, and  of the  means of
controlling its irregular action ?
   As reference has just been made to  books for chil-
dren, it seems a  fitting opportunity to  enlarge a little
upon this topic.   They are then  excessively abundant. 
53
 Some are announced as purposely prepared, ' for chil-
 dren from two to three  years old.'   Many are for the
 week-day infant school; some for the ' Sabbath infant
 school;' some to teach children History and Geogra-
 phy ;  others to instruct them in Geometry, Theology,
 and Metaphysics,  < The Child's,' ' The Girl's,'' The
 Boy's,' Books have been multiplied on  almost all sub-
jects, until they have become nuisances. Where is the
 proof that they have  ever  benefited  a single child ?
 Do the youth now, of the age of 15, who  have used
 such books most of  their lives,  who committed to mem-
 ory innumerable truths, and were taught to reason when
 at the age  of 3 or 4, possess  more  active and inde-
 pendent minds than their parents possessed at the same
 age ?    Does their mental power now  show the good
 effect of their early and  extraordinary  culture ?   Do
 not  the  numerous  slender, delicate, and  pale-faced
 youths who are seen in our colleges, and  in boarding
 schools for girls, exhibit the bad effects of this system?
 I ask again, where is any  evidence that books, put in-
 to  the  hands of children  before the age of seven or
 eight, are of any lasting benefit, either to the body or
 the mind ?  I have shown that they may do immense
 injury.
   But apart from  the  injury  which  such  books pro-
 duce, by too early exciting the  mind and  feelings of
 children, many of them are very objectionable, on ac-
 count  of the nonsense and falsehood which they con-
 tain.   Some, designed for children from two to three
 years of age, contain such trash as the following : ' En-
 glishmen  love roast  beef and  plum pudding.  The
 Dutchman loves cheese and red herring. The French-
 man loves soup and sallad.  The German  Joves ham
               5* 
54
and pompernicle,' foe. foe*  Surely children of any
age  are  better  without  such knowledge than with it.
Other ' Books,' ' Lessons,' ' Manuals,' and  'Tales for
Infants' and  for ' Infant Schools,' contain much that is
questionable as to its truth, much that infants  had bet-
ter not know, and much that is far above their compre-
hension.   Some contain garbled  accounts from  Scrip-
ture,  of  the  creation of man,  and his  apostacy, and
other  religious  truths which  no  child can understand,
or profit by, if he could understand them ; the full  ac-
count given in the Bible  is  far  better.   Other books
for infants contain  ' Lessons in Geometry,  Botany,
Astronomy,'  foe. foc.f
   The method of teaching little  children varies in dif-
ferent schools ;  but that is everywhere considered  the
best,  which  forces  the  infant mind the fastest.  In
some  schools, the  memory is chiefly cultivated, and
children are taught innumerable  facts.   Here we  see
those  who are scarcely able to talk, exhibited as won-
derful children.  They  are declared to be deserving
of the highest praise, and prophesied about  as giving
promise of great distinction in future, because they are
able to tell us who was the oldest man, and many oth-
er equally useful and important facts.    They are also
able to tell us many truths  in Astronomy,  Geometry,
Chemistry, foe. foe, of which the innocent beings know
about as much as do parrots of the jargon they deliver.
In other schools, teachers are opposed  to  such prac-
tice ;  and  say  that  a child  should  learn nothing but

  * See Lessons for Children, two or three years old.
   t See Lessons for Infant Sabbath Schools, 1831.  Infant School
Manual, 1830, and a vast number of other books for infants, with
which bookstores abound. 
55
what  he understands;  that  the  memory should not
alone be cultivated ; therefore they teach children that
Methuselah was not  only the  oldest man, and nine hun-
dred and sixty-nine years of  age, but that he was the
son of Enoch, and the grandfather of Noah,  and that a
year means 365 days, and a day 24 hours ; and all this
they teach, in order, as they  say, that a child may ful-
ly understand  what he learns.   Other teachers say,
that it is very wrong to compel  a  child to learn — very
wrong indeed ;  and  that he should learn no  more than
he will  cheerfully :  but though  they  do not  gain their
purpose by exciting fear, they awaken  other  passions
of  the  strongest kind in the child, by a system of re-
wards and  of  praise.  Now of all these methods, if
there is any preference, it should be given to the first;
for that is the least objectionable which has the least
 tendency  to develope  the mind, and awaken the pas-
 sions prematurely.   They must all, however, be wrong,
 if they  call into action an organ which is but partially
 formed ; for they  do not conform to the requirements
 of the laws of  nature, and wait for organs to be devel-
 oped, before they are tasked.
   I beseech parents, therefore, to pause before they at-
 tempt to make prodigies of their own children. Though
 they may not destroy them by the measures  they adopt
 to  effect  this  purpose, yet they will  surely enfeeble
 their bodies, and greatly  dispose  them  to nervous  af-
 fections.  Early mental excitement will serve only to
 bring forth beautiful, but premature flowers, which are
 destined soon to wither away, without producing fruit.
    Let  parents not lament,  because their children  do
 not exhibit uncommon powers of mind  in early life, or
 because, compared with  some other children, they are 
56
deficient in knowledge derived from books.  Let them
rather rejoice if their children reach the age of six  or
seven, with well-formed  bodies, good  health,  and  no
vicious  tendencies, though  they  be at the  same time
ignorant of every letter of the alphabet.   If they are in
this condition, it is not to be inferred that their minds
are inferior to those  of children who have  been con-
stantly instructed.   It is a great  mistake to  suppose
that  children  acquire no knowledge  while  enaged  in
voluntary play and amusements.
   They  thus do acquire knowledge  as  important  as
is  ever  acquired  at  school, and acquire it with equal
rapidity.   Many think that the child who has spent the
day in constructing his little dam, and his mill, in the
brook, or the stream that runs in the gutter;  or in rear-
ing his house of clods or of snow,  or  in  making him-
self a sled or cart,  has been but idle, and deserves
censure for n waste of his time, and a failure to  learn
anything.   But this is a great error of judgment; for,
while he has thus followed the dictates of  nature, both
his mind and  body have been active, and thereby im-
proved.   To him  anything which  he sees  and  hears
and feels is new, and nature teaches him  to examine
the causes of  his various sensations, and of the phe-
nomena which he  witnesses.  For him,  the Book  of
Nature is the  best  book,  and if he is permitted  to  go
forth  among   the  wonders of creation, he will gather
instruction by the eye, the ear,  and by all his  senses.
   He is for  a while just  as  ignorant that stones are
hard, that snow will  melt, that ice is cold, that  a fall
from the tree will hurt him, and a thousand other com-
mon facts, as he is of a ' parallelogram,'  or ' perime-
ter,' or the 'diameter of the sun,' or the 'pericarpium 
57
of flowers,' or of many other similar things, which some
think important for infants to  know.*   If his time  is
constantly occupied in learning the last, he will grow
up ignorant of many common truths, and  fail in  the
best of  all learning,  common sense.
   The  child, when left  to himself, manifests a  true
philosophical spirit of  inquiry.  The story related  of
the celebrated Schiller, who, when a boy, was found in
a tree,  during a thunder storm, trying  to find where
the thunder and  the lightning came from, is an instance
of the natural tendency of every child  to  self-educa-
tion.  This tendency it is highly important to encour-
age,  for  it involves  the  cultivation of that  spirit  of
inquiry,  ' which is  far more valuable than limited
acquirements in knowledge ; a spirit which teaches  us
 to distinguish what is just in itself, from what is merely
 accredited by illustrious names; to adopt a truth which
 no  one has sanctioned, and to reject an error of which
 all approve, with  the same calmness as if no judgment
 was opposed to  our own.'t  But this spirit will never
 be acquired, when the child is taught from his infancy
 to depend upon others for all he knows, to learn all  he
 does learn as a  task, and not from the desire  of ascer-
 taining the truth and gratifying his  curiosity.  /
   Let  not the  parent, therefore, regret that his  child
 has  passed  his early  hours out of school; for in  all
 probability the knowledge he has gained while running
 and exercising in  the  open air at play, is more valua-
 ble than any he  would have gained at  school.  At  all
 events, he has  gained  what is far,  very far more  valu-
* See Infant School Manual.
t Brown's Philosophy. 
58
able than any mental acquirements which a child may
make, viz. a sound body, well-developed organs, senses
that have all been perfected by exercise,  and stamina
which will enable him in future life to  study  or labor
with energy and without injury.
  The remarks  which I have made relative to the dan-
ger of too early exerting and developing  the minds of
children, are not made without some knowledge of the
education of children in various parts  of our country.
  That children do have their mental  powers prema-
turely tasked, is a fact which I know,  from  personal
observation.  I have seen  a course  like the  following
pursued in many families in various parts of  the coun-
try, and I  know that  this course  is approved of by
many excellent persons.   Children  of  both  sexes are
required,  or induced, to  commit  to  memory many
verses, texts of scripture, stories,  foe.  before they are
three years  of  age.   They  commence  attending
school, for six hours each day, before the  age of four,
and often  before the age of three ;  where they are
instructed during three years in  reading, geography,
astronomy, history,  arithmetic, geometry, chemistry,
botany, natural  history, foe foe   They  also commit
to memory, while at  school, many hymns, portions of
the Scriptures,  catechisms, foe   During the  same
period,  they  attend every Sunday  a Sabbath school,
and there recite long lessons : some are required to
attend upon divine service at the church  twice  each
Sunday, and to give some  account of the sermon.  In
addition to these labors, many children  have numerous
books, journals,  or  magazines to read, which are de-
signed for youth.  I  have known  some required to 
59
give strict attention  to  the  chapter  read in the family
in the morning, and to give  an account of it; and have
been astonished  and alarmed at the wonderful power
of memory exhibited on  such occasions  by  children
when  but five  or six  years of age.  I have  known
other  children, in addition to most  of the above per-
formances, induced to learn additional hymns, chapters
of Scripture, or to read certain  books, by the promise
of presents from their parents or friends.
  The foregoing account fails to describe the  amount
of mental labor required of many children in intelligent
and respectable families.
   The  injurious and  sometimes fatal effects of such
treatment have been already mentioned.   But  I can-
not forbear again to state that I  have myself seen many
children who were supposed to  possess almost miracu-
lous mental  .powers, experiencing  these  effects and
sinking under them.  Some of them died early, when
but six or eight years of age, but manifested,  to the
last, a maturity of understanding which only increased
the agony of a separation.   Their minds, like some of
the fairest flowers, were  'no sooner blown than blast-
ed.'  Others have  grown up  to  manhood, but with
feeble bodies and a disordered  nervous  system which
subjected them to hypochondriasis, dyspepsia, and  all
the Protean  forms of nervous disease.  Their minds,
in some cases, remained active, but their earthly tene-
ments were frail indeed.   Others of the class of early
prodigies, and  I believe  the  most  numerous  portion,
exhibit in manhood but small mental powers, and  are
the mere passive instruments of those who  in early life
were accounted far their inferiors.   Of this fact I am
assured, not  only by the authority of books, and my 
60
own observation, but by the testimony of several cele-
brated teachers of youth»
  The history  of the  most  distinguished men will,  I
believe, lead us to the conclusion, that  early   mental
culture  is not necessary, in order to produce the high-
est  powers of mind.  There is  scarcely  an  instance
of  a great man, one  who  has  accomplished  great
results,  and has  obtained the  gratitude of mankind,
who in early life received an education in reference to
the wonderful labors which he afterwards performed.
The  greatest philosophers, warriors,  and poets, those
men who have stamped their  own characters upon the
age in which they lived, or who, as Cousin says, have
been the ' true representatives of the spirit and ideas
of their time,' have received no better education, when
young, than their  associates who were  never  known
beyond their  own neighborhood.  In  general their
education was but small in early  life.  Self education,
in after life, made them great, so far as  education had
any effect.  For their elevation they were indebted to
no early hot-house culture, but,  like the towering oak,
they grew up amid the storm and the tempest  raging
around. Parents, nurses, and early acquaintances,  to
be  sure, relate  many anecdotes of the childhood of
distinguished men, and they are published and credited.
But when  the  truth is known,  it is ascertained that
many, like  Sir Isaac Newton,  who,  according to his
own statement, was ' inattentive  to study, and  ranked
very low in the  school until the  age of  12;' or, like
Napoleon, who  is described,  by those who knew him
intimately when a child, as ' having good health, and 
61
in other  respects was like  other boys,' * do not owe

their greatness to any early mental application or dis-

cipline.   On the contrary,  it often appears, that  those

who  are  kept from school by ill health or some  other

cause in  early life, and left to follow their own inclina-

tion as respects study, manifest  in after life powers of

mind which make them the admiration of the  world.f


  * Memoirs of the Dutchess of Abrantes.  This lady says, ' My
uncles have a thousand times assured me that Napoleon in his
boyhood had none of that singularity of character attributed to
him.'
  t Shakspeare, Moliere, Gibbon, T. Scott, Niebuhr, W. Scott,
Byron, Franklin,  Rittenhouse, R. Sherman,  Prof. Lee, Gifford,
Herder, Davy,  Adam Clarke, &c.  The last named person  was
a very unpromising child, and learned but little before he was
eight  or ten years old.  But  at this age he was ' uncommonly
hardy,' and possessed bodily strength superior to most children.
He was considered a ' grievous dunce,' and was seldom praised
by his father but for his ability to roll large stones; an  ability
however which I conceive a parent should be prouder to have his
son possess, previous to the  age of seven  or eight, than  (hat
which would enable him to recite all that is contained in  all the
Manuals, Magazines, and books for infants that  have ever been
published.
                      6 
SECTION IV.
 OPINIONS OF  CELEBRATED PHYSICIANS RESPECTING
            EARLY MENTAL CULTIVATION.

   Or  the danger of developing the minds of children
 to a great degree at  a very early  age, I have no doubt
from my own observation ; but I cannot expect to pro-
duce a change  in  public sentiment on this subject by
 the publication of my own views and  opinions,  espe-
 cially in those parts of the country where parents are,
generally, strenuous advocates for infant schools and
 early mental excitement; but I  request all who have
the care of children, and are desirous of giving  them
 sound minds and sound bodies, to consider  attentively
the observations of those whose situations in life, great
learning, and experience, have eminently qualified  them
to be high authorities  on this  subject.   Let us  then
inquire  what  are  the  opinions of learned  and expe-
rienced medical men, as regards the cultivation of the
infant mind.
  The  celebrated Tissot,  a  learned   and practical
physician, honored by sovereigns,  and the friend  and
intimate  companion of Zimmerman, and Haller,  and
the most distinguished men of his time; published a
work  on the  Health of Men of Letters, which has
been greatly commended,   and   in  Europe has  had 
63
 great influence.  In this work he says, ' The effects of
 study  vary much, according to the age of the student.
 Long  continued application, in infancy, destroys life.
 I have seen young children,  of great mental activity,
 who manifested a passion for learning far above their
 age; and  I foresaw,  with  grief, the fate that awaited
 them.   They  commenced their career as prodigies,  -
 and finished  by  becoming idiots, or persons of very
 weak  minds.   The age  of infancy is consecrated by
 nature to those  exercises which fortify and strengthen
 the body, and  not to study, which  enfeebles it, and
 prevents its proper increase and development.'  After
 referring to instances observed by himself and  others,
 of disease and death caused  by great mental applica-
 tion in youth, he adds, ' I have elsewhere mentioned
 the injury that peasants do their children, by requiring
 of them more bodily labor than they ought to perform.
 But those injudicious parents who require from their
 children too much  labor of the intellect,  inflict  upon
 them an injury far greater.   No custom  is more im-
 proper and  cruel than  that of some  parents, who
 exact of their  children  much intellectual  labor, and
great progress in study.   It is the tomb of their talents
 and of their health.'   He concludes  with  this advice.
' The  employments for which your children are des-
tined in  after life, should  regulate  their  studies  in
youth;  not  requiring  (as  is  the custom with  many
parents)  the most study in early life,  of those who are
to be devoted to literary pursuits, but  on the contrary,
the least.'  ' Of ten  infants,' says he, ' destined for
different vocations, I should prefer that the one who is
to study  through life, should  be the  least learned at
the age of twelve.' 
64
  Let us ascertain what views are entertained respect-
ing  early mental culture, in those countries which have
produced the most learned men.  It is probably  true
that no other country has ever  produced or now  con-
tains so many profound scholars as Germany.  In truth,
the  Germans have so far surpassed the  people of other
nations, in whatever relates to the cultivation of the in-
tellect, that Madame De Stael  very justly styled  their
country ' the Land of Thought.'  We may therefore
derive great advantage  in this  enquiry from the opin-
ions of the Germans, for the course  they  have adopted
cannot be bad, since we find their scholars and learned
men  generally  healthy, and  remarkable for longevity.
Besides, the effect of mental cultivation upon the health,
the importance  of Physical Education in  early life,
and the best method of perfecting  both the mind and
body, have for a long time been subjects of much in-
quiry, and  engaged the attention of the most  learned
men in that country.  Some of their most distinguished
medical men have devoted great attention to this sub-
ject,  and published their views and opinions.  From
some of their works I will make a few extracts.  Upon
this subject, perhaps  there can be  no  better authority
than that of the distinguished  Hufeland, physician  to
the king of Prussia, who, by his learning, and acquaint-
ance with the greatest scholars of the age, is eminently
qualified to decide upon this subject.   In his valuable
work on the Art of Prolonging  Life, he observes,
' Intellectual effort in the first  years of life  is very  in-
jurious.  All labor of the mind which is required  of
children before  their seventh year, is  in opposition  to
the laws of nature, and will prove  injurious to the or-
ganization,  and  prevent  its  proper  development.' 
65
Again, he says, ' It is necessary that we should not be-
gin to exercise the faculties of the mind too early ;  it is
a great mistake  to suppose that we cannot commence
their cultivation too soon ; we ought not to think of at-
tempting this while nature  is wholly occupied with the
development of organs, and  has  need of all  the vigor
of  the system to effect this object.   If  children are
made  to study before this age, the most noble part of
the vital force is withdrawn from perfecting the organ-
ization, and is consumed by the  act of thought; from
which il necessarily  results,  that the  bodily  develop-
ment  is arrested  or disturbed, digestion  is  deranged,
the humors deteriorated,  and scrofula produced.   In
fine, the nervous system thus acquires a predominance
over all others, which it preserves for the remainder of
life, producing innumerable  nervous complaints, mel-
ancholy, hypochondria, foe.   It is  true, however, that
diversity of character requires different methods in this
respect.  But in all  cases the course to be pursued  is
directly opposed to  that which is usually  adopted.   If
a child shows at an  early age a  great propensity for
study,  instead of animating and  encouraging him  to
proceed in this  course,  as  most teachers do, it is ne-
cessary to moderate his zeal, for precocity of mind is
nearly always disease, or shows an unnatural propen-
sity, which it is most prudent to  correct.  A child  of
more dull intellect, whose thoughts are slow, may,  on
the contrary, apply to study  at an earlier period of life,
for in him  this exercise is necessary for the proper de-
velopment of the mental faculties.'
   Doctor Spurzheim, whose inquiries upon this subject
have been  very extensive, and who has for many years
devoted himself to the task  of ascertaining  the  influ-
                    6* 
                         66

ence  of the organization  upon the mental and moral
faculties, thus remarks, in his Essay upon  the Elemen-
tary Principles of Education : ' Many parents anxious-
ly strive to cultivate the intellect of their children,  and
neglect to fortify their constitution.  They believe that
children cannot too soon learn to read and write.  Their
children,  therefore, are obliged to remain many  hours
in school, breathing an impure air, while they ought to
be  developing the  organs  of the body by exercise.
The more delicate the children are, and the more their
affections and  minds are precocious, the  more impor-   *
tant it is that the above error should be avoided ;  if it
is not,  premature death is often the consequence of this
infraction of the laws of nature.   We  often see, also,
that  those  much  admired in infancy for their genius,
waste all their energies in youth, and at a mature  age,
possess but ordinary minds.  Experience demonstrates,
that of any  number of children,  of equal intellectual
powers,  those that receive no particular care in infan-
 cy, and  who  do not  learn to read and  write until the
constitution begins to be consolidated, but who  enjoy
the benefit of  a good physical education, very soon sur-
 pass in their studies those who commence study earlier
 and  read numerous  books, when very young.    The
 mind  ought never to be cultivated at the expence  of
 the  body;  and physical education ought to precede
 that of the intellect; and then proceed simultaneously
 with it, without cultivating one faculty to  the neglect of
 others ;  for health is the base and instruction the orna-
 ment of education.'*
   * The above is taken from the French edition  of this  valuable
  work  A later  edition in English, with additions, has been pub-
 lished, which I  have not seen.   The learned and estimable aoUuw 
67
   That these views  respecting early education,  have

had, and continue to have a practical influence in Ger-

many,  I have  been  assured by those long  resident in

that country,  and by  Germans  who have been edu-

cated  there.   By a  learned and accomplished German

lady, now resident in this country, and who  in her own,

enjoyed the best opportunities for knowing the views of

the most  intelligent  class,  I was  assured,  ' There  is

but one voice in Germany, upon  this subject, and that

is, — very early  learning affords no advantage to the

mind,  and does essential injury to the body.'

   Italy has produced  many  great  and  distinguished

scholars ; and  the same instructions upon early educa-

tion  have been  given by  some of her most learned

men.   Sinabaldi, in his great work  on the Science  of

 Man,  or  Anthropologic, thus speaks  of education  in

 early  life : —' We ought  not to fatigue  the  memory of

of the  above, is now in this country, and proposes to lecture up-
on the interesting science of Phrenology ; a science to which he
 has given a philosophical character, and which, by  his labors, he
 has advanced to its present hi^h standing.  I cannot but believe
 that his visit to this country will be productive of great good, by
 directing the attention of the public to the immense importance of
 physicaf education ; a branch of education the almost entire neg-
 lect of which, in  this country, threatens dangerous and lasting
 consequences.  As to the correctness of the Phrenological system,
 I am not qualified to determine ; but so far as 1  have had  an op-
 portunity of observing,  I think it explains the phenomena of the
 morbid action of the brain far better than any other.
   1 leave this note as it was in the first edition, though the work
 referred to has been reprinted in this country.  I  still hope, that
 although its illustrious author lived but a few months after his ar-
 rival in this country, that his visit will be of great service to it,
 and that he will ere long be accounted a great benefactor.
   In a letter which I received from him but a few days before the
 illness  which terminated his life, he remarks upon  the uncommon
 mental activity of the  people of this country, and expresses his
 belief that the science which he taught would  do great good here.
 and would ' contribute  to a reform in education.'  I trust that he
 has awakened a spirit of inquiry on this subject,  that will not sub-
 side until the benefits he predicted are realized. 
68
children  by precepts, fables  and  histories, of which
they are  not in a state to comprehend either the signi-
fication or morality.  To force the memory, before that
mysterious organ the brain is developed, is the same
thing  as  to fatigue  the  muscles while imperfect, by
long-continued walking  or by  hard  labor, which will
produce a general languor, and  arrest forever the com-
plete  development of the organs of the body.  C  1-
dren at this age ought to be guided wholly by example.
In one word,  this first  epoch of life, from birth to the
age of seven,  ought  to  be entirely consecrated to the
perfect   development  of the  organization  of  chil-
dren, and, by the  agency of  physical education,  to
render them  as  healthy, robust and  strong as the
nature of man will permit.'
   In  France,  the education of  youth has engaged the
attention  of   many  learned  and  distinguished  men.
Numerous treatises upon the subject have been publish-
ed, urging the importance of physical education.   M.
Friedlander,  in a late  work dedicated to M. Guizot,
thus speaks of early instruction : —' Fromt he highest
antiquity we  have this  rule, that mental  instruction
ought not to commence  before the seventh year.'   M.
Friedlander  thinks  this rule is correct, and says that
our climate, which necessarily confines  children much
of the time within doors,  has led to the idea of teach-
ing them early, and  thus making them prodigies.   He
gives the  following table for the hours  of rest and
labor, which he says is adopted by many instructers. 
69
Age.	Hours of	Hours of	Hours of	Hours of
	sleep.	exercise.	occupation.	repose.
7	9 to 10	10	1	4
8	9	9	2	4
9	9	8	3	4
10	8 to 9	8	4	4
11	8	7	5	4
12	8	6	6	4
13	8	5	7	4
14	7	5	8	4
15	7	4	i 9	1 4
  M. Ratier, in an essay  on the Physical  Education
of Children, which was crowned by the Royal Society
of Bordeaux in  1821,  thus  speaks of early  mental
instruction : —' The labor of the mind, to which some
parents subject their children  not only too soon,  but
in a wrong direction, is  often the cause of their  bad
health, and causes nearly  all those who are distinguish-
ed by precocity of the intellectual  faculties, to  perish
prematurely ;  so that we seldom see a perfect  man;
that is, one who exhibits an equilibrium of the Physical,
Mental and Moral faculties.'  M. Julien, late editor of
the  Revue Encyclopedique, in his large and valuable
work on Physical, Moral  and  Intellectual Education,
remarks, —' All the pages of this work repel the double
reproach, of  wishing to   hasten  the progress  of the
intellect, and obtain premature success,  or  retard  the
physical development of children, by neglecting the
means necessary to preserve their  health.  We have
constantly followed the principle of Tissot, who wished
that infancy might be consecrated  to those exercises
which fortify the body, rather than to mental applica- 
70
 tion which enfeebles and destroys it.'  Again he ob-
 serves, ' The course to  be adopted with children for
 the first ten years of life, is neither to press or torment
 them; but by plays, exercise of the body, entire liberty
 wisely regulated, and good nourishment, to effect the
 salutary and progressive  development  of the Physical)
 Moral   and Intellectual  faculties,  and  by  continual
 amusement and freedom from chagrin, (which injures
 the temper of children)  they will  arrive at  the tenth
 year without suspecting  that they  have been made to
 learn anything:  they have not distinguished between
 study and  recreation ; all they know they have learned
 freely,  voluntarily, and always in  play.  The  advan-
 tages obtained by this course, are good health, grace,
 agility,  gaiety, and happiness ;.a character frank  and
 generous,  a  memory properly exercised;  a  sound
judgment,  and a cultivated mind.'
   In a late work which holds a deservedly high rank in
 France,  entitled  Medical Gymnastics,  by  Charles
 Londe, similar  views are  inculcated, and  the true
 Physiological reasons assigned ; — that the moral  and
 intellectual man  depends upon  the  physical; that  the
 mental  faculties depend upon certain  organs,  and the
 exercise of these  organs, developes them  in accord-
 ance to a  general  law, — that ' the more an organ is
 exercised, the more it  is developed, and is able to
 execute its functions with more facility.  Thus habit,
 education,  and other like causes,  do  not change  the
moral and  intellectual character, without acting on the
 physical man,  or changing the action of organs; repress-
 ing some,  and increasing others.'
   Professor Broussais, a  man of great learning  and
genius,  and one of the most distinguished physicians of 
71
the  present  age, thus alludes to this subject.   ' Intel-
lectual labors give rise, in early life, to effects  corres-
ponding with the actual state of the individual consti-
tution.   Thus  the brain, the growth of which is not
complete, acquires, by the exercise of thought, an  ex-
traordinary  energy and volume;  the moral faculties
become  truty prodigious :  but  this advantage is sadly
counterbalanced by cerebral inflammations, which  give
rise to hydrocephalus, and by  a  languor in the rest of
the body, the development of which remains imper-
fect.
   ' It is easy to conceive  what a number of evils must
result from a kind of life so little  in harmony with the
wants of youth; hence we rarely see all those prodigies
of premature intellectual  education  prospering.   If
encephalitis  does  not carry  them off,  they infallibly
perish with  gastritis or scrofula;  most  generally, all
these evils oppress them at once; and  if they do not
sink under  them  in  infancy,  they  carry  along  with
them in  mature age, an irritability which does not allow
of their resisting the morbific  influences, in the midst
of which man is necessarily forced to live.  They are
seen to decay and die, in  the prime of life, if they are
not destroyed, in spite of all the efforts of the art,  by
the first violent inflammation that attacks them.' *
   Similar opinions have been inculcated in England,
by some of the most distinguished medical men of that
country ; and particularly by the celebrated Dr. James
Johnson, in several of his valuable and interesting works.
I ought, however, to remark, that the Treatise of Locke
on  Education  has  had, in England, great influence;
       * Treatise on Physiology applied to Pathology. 
72
and undoubtedly  has done  much injury, by teaching
the importance of ' reasoning with children at  a very
early age.'  The  practice has no doubt been carried
much beyond  what he intended ;  and its injurious  ef-
fects are of late often alluded to.  Writers on  Mental
Alienation, state, that early  and  frequent  attempts to
reason with children,  increases, if it  does not create a
predisposition  to insanity ; * and  its  inutility has been
satisfactorily and abundantly shown by several writers,
and particularly by Rosseau in his Emile, or Treatise
on Education  ; a work  exceedingly  defective and ab-
surd in  some  respects, but abounding with many im-
portant and practical  truths upon education.   The work
has had a great and beneficial influence in Europe, but
appears to be  but little known in  this country.
  The evil  effects  of the course  recommended  by
Locke, have been noticed, as I have said, by the medi-
cal  men  in England.   A late  writer  on Dropsy  of the
head, observes,' the  present plan of education, in which
the intellectual powers are prematurely exercised, may
be  considered as  one of the causes of the more fre-
quent occurrence of this disease.' f
  Another writer, in  a recent and valuable  work, has
also alluded to this subject, and in a  manner that ought
to awaken the attention of parents and teachers.  He
says, ' It is undoubtedly too much the  custom  of the
modern system of education to stimulate the infant  in-
tellect to  premature, and therefore  prejudicial exer-
tion. The recommendations enforced by Struve,  should
never be  forgotten ;   and if  they  are forgotten  by pa-

  * Voison, on the Moral and Physical causes of Mental Maladies.
  t Medico-Chirurgical Review, 1826. 
73
rents, it is the imperative duty of the medical practition-
er to point out the necessity  of complying  with them.
We should operate upon the  tender intellect of a child,
by the gentlest progression.  It must  surely be more
judicious to complete the instrument previous to its use,
than to employ it in an imperfect state.  It is the same
with children  as adults.  In  the cultivation of the men-
tal powers, we are always  to bear  in  mind the capa-
bility of  the  individual to answer the demands which
are made upon him for exertion.  It is  not  only  irra-
tional, but it is frequently destructive, to impose either
upon the mind  or body, but particularly upon the for-
mer, a load which it  is incapable of supporting.  It
may be a source of consolation to those parents who
are too apt to lament any apparent loss  of time in the
very early  periods of  life, that early acquirements are
not to be gained without destruction of health, and that
the future progress and mental powers of the individu-
 al depend upon the foundation which is laid in infan-
cy, by judiciously adapting  the studies of the child to
 its age and constitution.   By premature efforts to im-
prove the powers of the intellect, the organ in which they
reside  is exhausted.   The  practitioner, then, cannot
 too forcibly reprobate  the pernicious enforcement of
 precocious studies.  The  injurious effects arising from
 the  folly and  false vanity of parents, who are ambitious
 of holding forth their children as specimens of extraor-
 dinary talent, are constantly presenting themselves to
 our view, in a train of nervous symptoms, and of sus-
 ceptibility  to  ordinary impressions, which frequently
 pave the way to decided paroxysms of  convulsions.' *

   * Practical Observations on the Convulsions of Infants. By John
 North.
               7 
74
   The same dangerous  consequences,  resulting'JVom

the premature development of the intellect,  have often

been noticed by medical men  in the United States, and

one  of the most distinguished has thus happily referred

to them, in a recent and able work.

   ' In an early age, before the organism has acquired

its proper  development,  the brain its perfect consolida-

tion, or the organs  are confirmed in the order of  their

existence, premature exercises of the intellectual facul-

ties  are the source  of many disorders.   By the undue

excitement of the brain, its organic functions are  aug-

mented  unnaturally, the organic actions of  the  organs

of nutrition, secretion, foe. are enfeebled ; the muscular

system is stunted and debilitated ; the  nervous system

becomes morbidly irritable ; and the brain subject to a

variety of affections.   Those highly gifted with  preco-

cious  intellects possess  miserable health, and  are  gen-

erally short-lived ;  they  are cut off by   chronic inflam-

mations and disorganization of their viscera, or by acute

inflammation of the brain.'*


  * Principles  of Medicine, founded on the structure and func-
tions of the animal Organism.  By Samuel Jackson, M. D.
  Note.—The inutility of early  cultivating the mind, and its
evil results, have been  noticed by observing men, not belonging to
the medical profession.  Cobbett, in his Advice to Young Men, a
work abounding with most excellent  remarks upon the rearing
and education of children,  observes,  ' The mind, as well as the
body, requires time to come to its strength; and the way to have
it possess, at last, its natural  strength,  is not to attempt to load it
too soon ; and to favor it in  its  progress, by giving to the  body
good and plentiful food, sweet air, and abundant exercise, accom-
panied with as little discontent or uneasiness as possible.   It is
the first duty of a  parent to secure to his children, if possible,
sound and strong bodies.'
  A  distinguished and  popular American author has  advanced, in
a late work of fiction, the following just opinion upon this subject.
' Knowledge should only keep pace with  the  natural  jrrowth of
the human faculties.   VVhen I see a little urchin, who ought to 
75
be enjoying nature's holiday, and strengthening  his constitution
by wholesome exercise to bear the vicissitudes of the world in
after times, kidnapped and  sent  to school, to sit on a bench for
four or five hours together, employed in learning by rote what he
is unable to comprehend, I cannot help contemplating him as the
slave  and the victim of the vanity of the parent, and the folly of
the teacher.  Such a system is  only calculated to lay a founda-
tion for disease and decrepitude,  to stint  the  physical and intel-
lectual growth, and to produce a  premature old age of body and
mind.'—Paulding.  Dutchman's Fire-side, Vol. I. 
SECTION V.
 INFLUENCE OF  MENTAL  CULTIVATION  AND  MENTAL
   EXCITEMENT,  IN PRODUCING  INSANITY, NERVOUS
   AFFECTIONS,  AND DISEASES OF  THE  HEART.

   Intellectual cultivation, and powerful mental ex-
 citement, have a very important bearing  upon one of
 the  most appalling  and  deplorable  diseases which
 afflicts  humanity; a disease  which now  prevails to a
 great extent in  this country,  and is, I apprehend, in-
 creasing with fearful rapidity.  The disease 1 allude to
 is insanity, or disorder of the organ  of the mind, which
 produces a derangement in the manifestation of the
 mental faculties.
   We  have  no  means of determining,  correctly, the
 number of insane persons in the United States ; but if
 there are as many in the  other states of the Union as
 in Connecticut, the whole number cannot be less than
fifty thousand, or one in every two hundred and sixty-
 two of the population,  as is evident  from the following
 facts.   In the year 1812, a committee was appointed
 to ascertain the  number of insane persons in the  state
 of Connecticut.   This  committee addressed letters to
 physicians, and other persons in every town in the state,
 requesting correct information upon this subject.  They
 received answers from seventy towns, and, after much
 deliberation and inquiry, reported, they were ' satisfied 
77
there were one thousand individuals within the bounds
of the state, mentally  deranged, and that the condition
of many of them was  truly  deplorable.'   On mention-
ing this statement, recently, to the distinguished physi-
cian of the Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, and my
surprise at the great number reported  by the Com-
mittee, he assured me, it was less than he believed the
actual number of  insane  persons in Connecticut.  But
if we admit  there were 1000  individuals mentally de-
ranged in 1812,  or 1 in every 262 of the inhabitants,
then there were more than twice as many in this deplo-
rable condition as in any  country in  Europe, in  pro-
portion to the population.  The number of the insane
in England has increased within the last twenty years ;
still there are but about  14,000 in that country,  one
half of whom are  idiots.
   In Scotland, the  proportion of insane to the popula-
tion, is 1 to 574; and in the Agricultural  districts of
England,  1 to 820.*   There is, however, more insani-
ty in England than  in any other country of Europe.
   An inquiry, therefore, into the causes of so much in-
sanity  in  this  country becomes very important;  and
these causes  must  be sought among the agents that
act upon the brain.    I have already shown that insani-
ty is a disease  of the brain, and that  whatever power-
fully excites this organ, may so derange its action  as
to  produce  derangement of the  mind.  Sometimes it
is occasioned by a blow or fall upon the head, at other
times by inflammation or fever, which produces an un-
usual determination of blood to the brain.  But far oft-
ener this disease  is occasioned by moral causes, by too
     * Holiday.
7* 
78
violent excitement of the mind, producing  morbid  ac-
tion in some parts of the brain.
   Thus  we  find  that  insanity  prevails most in those
countries  where  people enjoy civil and religious free-
dom,  where every person  has  liberty  to engage in the
strife  for the highest  honors and stations in society, and
where the road to wealth and distinction of every kind
is  equally  open to all.   There is but  little insanity in
those  countries where the government is despotic.  The
inhabitants of such countries  possess but little mental
activity compared with those  who live in a republic,  or
under a representative government.  There is but little
insanity in China, and travellers state that there is but lit-
tle in  Turkey.  The disease  is uncommon in Spain and
also in Russia, out of the large cities.   In France there
is much less in the country than in the cities.*  Hum-
boldt  states that he saw very few cases of mental de-
rangement among the  American Savages.   In such
countries the spirit of inquiry and improvement is sel-
dom  awakened, or is soon  stifled  when it is ; and the
inhabitants exhibit but  little  more mental excitement
than the brute creation.
   In  all countries,  the  disease  prevails  most  among
those  whose minds are most excited. Aristotle noticed,
in his day,  the  great  prevalence of insanity  among
statesmen and politicians.  It is  said,  the disease pre-
vails most  among those whose minds  are excited by
hazardous  speculations, and  by works of imagination
and taste;  and but little among those whose minds are
exercised only by calm inquiry.   The  registers of the
Bicetre, in France, show,  that the insane of the  edu-
cated classes consist chiefly of priests, painters, sculp-

  * Esquirol. Art. Folie. Vol. 16.  Dictionaire des Sciences  Med-
i cales. 
79
tors, poets, and musicians ;  while no  instance of the
disease  in  naturalists,  physicians,  geometricians  or
chymists has occurred.*
   In all ages and countries, insanity has prevailed most
in times of great moral  and mental commotion.  The
crusades, and the spirit of chivalry that followed them,
the reformation  of Luther, the civil and religious dis-
cords of Europe, the French Revolution, the  Ameri-
can Revolution, greatly multiplied  cases of insanity.f
So true is it, that moral and mental causes excite this
disease, that Esquirol says, he ' could give the history
of the Revolution, from the taking of the Bastile until
the  last  appearance of Bonaparte,  by that  of some
Lunatics, whose insanity relates to the events which
have distinguished this Jong period.'
   Not only do the commotions which powerfully affect
the  minds  of people occasion  immediate  insanity in
adults, but they predispose the next generation  to this
terrible disease ; and this  is  a fact that deserves great
consideration.   Esquirol  says   that  many  women,
strongly affected by  the events of the Revolution, bore
children,  whom the  slightest  cause rendered insane.
He is supported by others in  this opinion, that strong
mental emotion of the mother predisposes  the offspring
to insanity.
   Children do not, indeed,  often  become  insane,
though  they do occasionally, from strong mental excite-
ment, and injudicious development  of the moral fac-
ulties.  Esquirol has seen children rendered insane by
jealousy, by fear, and  the severity of their  parents;
and Pinel has made  the same observation.   The  for-
mer relates the  case  of a  child,  ' endowed with pre-

  • Conolly.           t Esquirol, Rush, Voison. 
                        80

Cocious intelligence, with a head uncommonly large,'
and  who became  mentally  deranged  at  the  age of
eleven.  He states, also, that he has known many stu-
dents,  animated by a desire to surpass their comrades,
to become insane after pursuing severe  studies.   M.
Foville says, he has seen a  child of ten years of age,
whom  the assiduous reading of romances rendered
insane.  This child at last believed  himself one of the
heroes of the works he had read, and  passed most of
his time in striking the walls, trees, foe, which he took
to be his enemies.*
   But though mental excitement may not often pro-
duce  insanity during childhood, it  may predispose  a
person to this  disease; and I believe it  does, by giving
an early  predominance  to the  nervous system.   The
following facts support this opinion.  Van Swieten says,
that nearly all insane persons have had convulsions when
young  ; and I have seen repeated instances in which
premature exercise of the mental faculties appeared
to be  the predisposing cause of convulsions.   I  now
know  several boys, with large heads, and  who are
remarkable  for  the  maturi y of their understandings,
and  the  great proficiency they have already made in
their studies, whom slight exciting causes throw into
convulsions.
   In view of these few brief facts respecting Insanity,
we are forced to believe, that among the causes of the
great prevalence of this disease in this country, are
the following: —
   First,  Too constant and too powerful excitement of
the mind, which  the strife for wealth, office,  political

  * Dictionaire de Medicine et de Chirurgie Pratiques, Vol. 1. 
81
distinction,  and party  success  produces in this free
country.
   Second,  The  predominance given to the nervous
system, by too early cultivating the mind and  exciting
the feelings of children.
  Third,  Neglect of Physical education, or the equal
and  proper  development  of all  the  organs  of  the
body.
  Fourth, The general and powerful  excitement of
the female mind.   Little attention is given in the edu-
cation  of  females, to the  physiological  differences of
the sexes.  Teachers seldom reflect, that in them the
nervous system naturally predominates ; that  they are
endowed  with quicker  sensibility, and far more active
imagination, than men ; that their  emotions are more
intense, and their senses alive to more delicate impres-
sions ;  and they therefore require great  attention,  lest
this exquisite  sensibility,  which,  when properly  an d
naturally  developed, constitutes the greatest excellence
of  women, should either become excessive by too strong
excitement,  or  suppressed by misdirected education.
If here was the proper place, it would be easy to show
that efforts to make females excel  in certain qualities
of  mind which in men are considered  most  desirable,
— to make them as capable as men, of long-continued
attention  to abstract truths, would be to act contrary to
the dictates of nature, as manifested in their organiza-
tion, and  would tend to suppress all those finer sensi-
bilities, which render them, in  everything that relates
to sentiment and affection, far superior to men.
   But in general the mental peculiarities of the female
mind are not regarded in  education.   Their  intellec-
tual powers are developed to the greatest  degree, and 
82
 thus their  natural sensibility is changed or  rendered
 excessive.   This excessive  sensibility  is  not always
 counteracted by bodily labor and exercise ; or there is
 probably no  country  where  women  belonging to the
 wealthy class, exercise so little, especially in  the open
 air, as in this.  But they  here participate  more,  per-
 haps, than in any other country, in the  excitement of
 parties and sects, which,  in beings whose nervous  sys-
 tem is easily excited, is very likely to  produce strong
 emotions ; and, as I have shown,  such  emotions  may
 have deplorable effects upon their  offspring.
   It is fearful to contemplate the excited state of mind
 which everywhere prevails throughout this  republic,
 and the vast amount of machinery, if I may  so  say,
 which is in operation, to increase and perpetuate such
 excitement;  and the  little attention  that has hitherto
 been given to the dangers it may  produce.   The fol-
 lowing facts  in reference to the city of  Hartford,  are
 probably applicable to many, if not most of the towns
 of the same  size in the United States.   This  city con-
 tains about  7000 inhabitants.  Nearly  all, if not all,
 the children  of the city, commence attending school as
 early as the  age of three  or four, and attend six hours
 each day, for several years.   Nearly  all attend school
 on the Sabbath, also.*   Most families  have a library,

  * About 1200 children, between the ages of four and sixteen, be-
 longing to the city of Hartford, attend school on the Sabbath, both
 in the forenoon and afternoon.  Most of these children attend at
church also. Thus they are kept at school and at church at least
six hours every Sunday.   I regard this confinement of the body
and the application of the mind, as too great for young children
any day of the week, and when  we call to mind the fact, that
most of them,  especially the younger portion, attend school the
 other six days  of the week,  it appears to me, that every candid
and reflecting person must perceive that it is a practice that ought
in a great degree to be abandoned. 
83
and books for children,  besides newspapers and other

periodicals.   There are nine large churches in the city,

belonging to six different denominations,  exclusive of

one for colored people.   These are all well filled twice,

and frequently three times, every  Sunday.  Besides,

there are religious meetings on other days, amounting,

in the various churches,  to twenty or thirty during the

week.   There are two lyceums, or  literary  associa-

tions, both of which  meet  once a week, and are  open

to all, without expense.  *\t one, are weekly debates,

usually on some political or historical subject;  and at

the other is  a lecture every week, on such subject as

the lecturer pleases.   Both of these are well attended.

Every  week,  seven large political newspapers, advocat-

ing the interests of three different parties, are published

in Hartford;  and also^e  large religious newspapers ;

no two of  which belong  to the same sect.   Several

other periodicals are published here, but not weekly.

In addition to the papers published in  this town, men


   I know, from my own observation and inquiry in Manchester,
and other large towns in England, that Sunday Schools there, are
among the best institutions ever devised.   And I have no doubt
they are of great service in many towns and sections of this coun-
try.   1 hope, in such  places, Sunday Schools will be continued;
and that wherever children cannot attend school on other days in
the week, that increased efforts will be made  to have them in-
structed  on Sunday.  But I cannot believe that those  children
who attend school during the  week, and at the church on Sun-
day, should also attend school on that day.  I know not of any
good reason for it, nor of any  evidence that such a course has
been serviceable, to children.
   Much has of late been  said, and very justly, I think, of the ne-
cessity of resting from accustomed labor one day in seven, in or-
der to preserve health.  Why is not such rest necessary for chil-
dren also ?  But if Sunday Schools are to be continued, for those
children who attend school every other day of the week,  I hope
that the afternoon session will be discontinued ; an alteration
which has very wisely and  very recently been made by the di-
rectors of the Sunday School attached to the largest religious so-
ciety in the city of Hartford. 
84
of business take one or more of those published in the
larger cities, and most of the  Reviews and Magazines
of this country, and of England, are received here and
read.*
   The papers published in Hartford are not circulated
at.a great distance, but are intended for  the population
of the town and vicinity ; as the large villages in every
section have papers published in their own town.  From
this statement, it is evident that the inhabitants of Hart-
ford are  supplied  with more  mental excitement from
periodical literature, than many of the largest towns in
Europe; yes, even far more than is afforded to the in-
habitants of Naples, Madrid, and Moscow.
   If, therefore, constant mental  excitement is ever or
in any country dangerous, it is so now in this country,
and cannot fail ultimately to have most disastrous con-
sequences, demanding the attention of the patriot and
the philanthropist.
   It is a common and just observation, that the perma-
nency of our republican institutions depends upon the
intelligence and the virtue of the people ; but there may
be other causes besides ignorance and vice, slowly and
silently operating upon the physical man, which  will as
certainly lead to the ruin of the country.   The decline
of the Roman  empire was marked by the general pre-
dominance of a nervous temperament, especially among
the Roman ladies.
   Cobbett attributes our superiority to the British, in the
late war, to the greater strength of our soldiers.   This

   * On inquiry at the post-office, I learn that 80 daily, 110 semi-
weekly, and 432 weekly newspapers, published in other places,
are taken by the inhabitants of Hartford. Besides, more than
$300 are annually received at the same office for postage on pa-
pers and pamphlets that are received irregularly. 
85
superiority we should be  careful to preserve, by the
proper physical education  of both sexes, when young;
and by cultivating every  part of man's nature, and not
the mind exclusively.
   There is another, and I fear a more frequent and fa-
tal disease  than that of insanity,  caused by mental ex-
citement ;  and  which, judging  from my own observa-
tion, and the records of cases in modern medical jour-
nals, appears to be increasing with frightful rapidity.  I
allude to organic diseases of the heart.  The heart is
a vital organ, and its sound state is essential to the pos-
session  of good  health.   When we reflect, therefore,
upon the powerful influence  which the feelings have
upon this  organ, the change from its natural action,
caused by  anger, fear, love, joy, avarice, ambition, en-
vy, revenge, and all those passions and  feelings that
agitate civilized society, we shall not wonder that the
diseases of the heart have increased in modern times.
This disease has also increased in all countries during
times of great political and moral commotion.  Corvi-
sart says,  ' it was  more frequent in the horrible times
of the French Revolution  than in the usual calm of so-
cial life.'
   Testa, in a late work on diseases of the heart,  states
the same fact as  regards  agitated Italy.   This  author
considers the powerful and irregular operation  of the
passions, as the most frequent cause of organic disease
of the heart.   Whoever  reflects upon these facts, must
feel the importance of cultivating a quiet state of mind
in order to preserve  good  health.   This is  important
at all times of life, but particularly so during childhood.
It should be recollected  that the early development  of
the mental powers of children  awakens  the passions
               8 
86
and appetites earlier than they would be, but for this
premature mental cultivation, and therefore excites the
heart  while  it is in  a tender  and delicate state.   ' At
Hofwyl more than one instance has occurred, in which
it  was necessary to diminish the amount of a pupil's
intellectual efforts, in consequence of the alarming ten-
dency to sensuality which it  produced.' *  But not
only does strong mental emotion greatly endanger chil-
dren, but it is to be feared that  the emotions of the
mother may predispose her offspring to disease.   This
is  the opininion of Corvisart,  Esquirol, and  many
other very accurate  observers.   I must  therefore re-
peat what I have elsewhere said,  that the powerful and
constant  excitement of the minds of the females of this
country,  together with their neglect  of proper physical
education, threatens dangerous consequences.   Who-
ever notices their general attendance at meetings where
strong feelings  are  awakened,  and perpetuated for
weeks and months,  by very frequent  meetings, especial-
ly in  the night; and witnesses  their violent  emotions,
and  knows  anything  of the  effect of excited   mind
and agitated  feelings upon a delicate bodily  organiza-
tion,  must, on reflection, fear,  not only  for the  injury
which such procedure  must  inflict upon  the females
themselves,  but  for that which may be entailed upon
the generation to come.  I believe these few  hints are,
at the present time, deserving  the serious  consider-
ation  of all who have influence to perpetuate or  allay
the excitement alluded to.
* Annals of Education, 1833. 
SECTION VI.
REMARKS  UPON MORAL EDUCATION--INFLUENCE OF
                     EXAMPLE,

  The remarks which I have made respecting the dan-
ger of too early  cultivating the intellectual faculties,
do  not fully  apply to the development  of the  moral
qualities ; though in regard to them  some caution is
necessary; for danger is to be apprehended from strong-
ly exciting the  feelings of children and awakening their
passions.   In   endeavoring to call  forth  and  cultivate
those moral qualities  which are good, and to suppress
the bad, we should constantly keep in mind, that the
brain is not only the  seat of the intellectual faculties,
but is also the agent by which the  passions, the  affec-
tions, and all the moral qualities, are manifested.   That
this is true, is shown in the same way as  I have proved
that the  brain  is the material organ of the mind.  In-
sanity  alone furnishes abundant proof.  This disease
of the  brain as often  deranges  the moral as the intel-
lectual faculties.  Some insane  persons are remarkable
for great irascibility, others for  pride,  courage, hatred
foe,  while others  are affectionate,  timid irresolute,
and melancholy.   Dr. Rush  mentions the case  of  a
young lady who was insane for a considerable  time,
during which she  hated her father : after some time
she recovered  a sound mind in every other respect
but this ;  and  at last her complete recovery was marked
by  a return  of her filial attachment.  This  state of
mind undoubtedly arose from deranged action of some 
88
 portion of the brain,  produced, perhaps, by neglecting
 to  develope every part of the brain in a proper man-
 ner, or from inattention to the premonitory  symptoms
 of  this disease ; for  insanity  is usually  preceded  by
 some slight irregularity in the intellectual or moral fac-
 ulties.  ' Some  of the insane,' says Esquirol, ' are dis-
 tinguished from  infancy,  for  excessive  pride, anger,
 melancholy,' foe.   These tendencies not having  been
 arrested or counteracted by the judicious development
 of opposite qualities, the action of the brain finally be-
 came more irregular, and then  what is called  insanity
 was produced.  But to the  accurate observer, partial
 insanity existed long  before this, though the conduct it
 occasioned was considered merely singularity,  eccen-
 tricity, foe.   But this singularity, or, as some  call it,
 perversity of disposition, arises from the predominance
 of the action of some organ of the brain,  and may oft-
 en  be  corrected by care and attention.
   The great  object,  therefore,  in  moral  education
 should be, to call into repeated  action those organs
 that manifest the good  qualities, and increase their ac-
 tivity and  power.   For this purpose, it is necessary to
 study the characters of children when quite young ; and
 when certain moral qualities  appear to  predominate,
 that are likely to produce bad traits of character, great
 efforts should be made  to develope and call into activ-
 ity opposite qualities:  when a child  appears exceed-
ingly selfish, he should  be taught and  accustomed  to
practise benevolence.   In  this manner, it is as certain
that the moral qualities which are most desirable  may
be cultivated and made predominant, as that the mem-
ory may be increased by exercise.*
* Voison. 
89
   Such effects cannot, however, be produced by pre-

cepts alone.   Children should be induced to practise

the virtues which it is intended they shall possess, and

by practice they should be endowed with good propen-

sities and good habits.  If parents would  but feel that

it  is as  essential to  teach a child  to  practise the  vir-

tues that are desirable,  as it  is to cultivate  the  mind,

and would give as  much attention  to  the early devel-

opment and  proper  exercise of the   affections  and

passions, and take that pains to develope all the  natur-

al excellencies of his  character they do to accelerate

his progress in knowledge, we should soon see a great

and pleasing change in the  dispositions  and conduct

of men.  But now, in very many families,  the  great-

est praise is not bestowed upon those children  that  are

merely good,  but  upon, those whose minds are most

active   and  premature.*    In schools,  much  of  the

   • ' How many parents do we see,  who, after teaching their sons,
by example, everything which is licentious in manners, and  lav-
ishing on them the means of similar licentiousness, are rigid only
in one  point — in the  strictness of that intellectual discipline,
which may prepare them for the worldly  stations to which the
parental ambition has been unceasingly looking for them, before
the filial ambition was rendered sufficiently intent of itself!  To
such  persons,  the mind of the  little creature whom they are
training to worldly stations for worldly purposes, is an  object
of interest only as that without which it would be impossible to
arrive at the  dignities expected.   It is a necessary instrument
for becoming ricli and powerful;  and, if he could become power-
ful, and rich, and envied, without a soul, they would scarcely
feel that he was a being less noble than now.  In what they term
education, they have never once  thought, that the virtues were to
be included as objeets ; and they  would truly feel something very
like astonishment, if they were told that the first and most essen-
tial part of the process  of educating  the moral being,  whom
Heaven had consigned to their charge, was yet to be begun — in
the abandonment of their own vices, and the  purification of their
own heart, by better feelings than those which had corrupted it,
— without which primary self-amendment,  the very authority
 which is implied in the noble office which they were to exercise,
 might be a source, not of good,  but of evil, to him who was
unfortunately born  to  be its   subject.' — Brown's Philosophy,
 Vol. 2.
              8* 
90
praise and  censure, reward  and punishment, connect-

ed with early mental culture is calculated  to awaken

rivalry, envy and hatred.   Moral culture is  sacrificed,

in early life, to intellectual,  and the  bad passions  are

called forth to aid  the mind's improvement;  and then

what originates from a faulty or neglected  moral edu-

cation is  considered the  fault of nature itself.   But

nature has  not had fair  play.

   Example is also of great importance in  the educa-

tion of children, in consequence of their  natural  pro-

pensity to imitation.  The influence of this strong pro-

pensity is not sufficiently attended  to by  parents  and

teachers.   Dugald  Stewart has very ably treated  this

subject, and shown its great importance in education.*

Not only should the propensity of the youth  to imita-

tion be regarded  in teaching  ' accomplishments,  and

everything  connected with  grace,' but in  forming the

moral character also.   Every person knows that  ' the

imitation of  any  expression strongly  marked by the

countenance and  gestures  of  another person, has a

tendency to excite, in  some degree, the corresponding


   * See his Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, Vol.
3. Chapter  on the  Principle of Law of Sympathetic Imitation.
The whole chapter is very deserving of attention.  After remark-
ing that this principle has important effects in relation  to our
moral constitution, he adds,  ' The  reflection which Shakspeare
puts into the mouth  of Falstaff,  with respect  to the manners of
Justice Shallow and  his attendants, and which Sir John expresses
 with all the  precision of a philosophical observer, and all the dig-
 nity of a moralist, may be extended to the  most serious concerns
 of life. '  It  is a wonderful thing to see the semblable coherence
 of his men's spirits and his ; they, by observing of him, do bear
 themselves like foolish Justices ; he, by conversing with them, is
 turned into a justice-like serving-man.  Their spirits  are so mar-
 ried in conjunction,  with  the participation of society, that they
 flock  together in concert, like  wild geese.  It is  certain  that
 either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take dis-
 ease; therefore, let men take  heed of their company.' 
91
passion in our own minds ;' * and when it is consid-
ered how prone children are  to imitation, we shall feel
the importance of habitually  exhibiting, both  in  looks
and actions,  only  such feelings as  we  wish them to
possess.   Parents who are constantly manifesting fret-
ful and unhappy dispositions,  will do  much towards
producing like dispositions in their children.  From
these observations, those who have the care of educating
children, cannot fail to see the importance of the exam-
ples they set them ; they will also  reflect that whatever
is inculcated  upon children  by precept  is of trifling
consequence, compared with  that which they learn by
example; and if they wish to  have their children pos-
sess a  spirit  of benevolence, kindness  or humility,
they must cherish an dcultivate these virtues  in them-
selves, and be particularly careful not  to let  any con-
tradiction exist between their expressed opinions of the
value of these dispositions and their own habitual con-
 duct.
                     * Stewart. 
SECTION VII.
THE CULTIVATION OF THE MIND AT A PROPER TIME OF
 LIFE, NOT INJURIOUS BUT BENEFICIAL TO  HEALTH,

  This is evident, first from theorv.  In order to have
good health, it is necessary that every  organ of the
body should not only be  well  developed,  but should
also be exercised.  We  know that  if the muscles  of
the  body are not exercised, they not only cease  to
grow,  but that  they  shrink, and their power, energy,
and activity  are  diminished.  This is also the case with
the brain, and every other organ of the body.  If the
functions of  the  brain are not exercised, the  brain
diminishes in size.   Hence idiots usually have a dimin-
ished, atrophied brain.*   When any  organ diminishes
for want of proper exercise, the whole system  sym-
pathizes, and thus the health becomes impaired.  From
this view of the subject I cannot  doubt but that the
exercise of the  intellect tends to procure and perpetu-
ate sound health.
   But this is also proved by facts.  Literary men, says
M. Brunaud in his Hygiene des gens des lettres,  have
in all countries usually been long-lived.  The class  of
learned men who have lived more than seventy years,
includes the most distinguished that have ever existed.f

   * Andral's Pathological Anatomy.
   t See Table at the end of the volume. 
93
Of one hundred and fifty-two savans, taken at hazard,
one  half from the  Academy of  Belles  Lettres,  the
other from that of  Sciences of Paris, it was found that
the  sum  of years  lived among them  was  10,511, or
above sixty-nine years to each man.  Many of  the
most learned men now living, are very aged.*
   The general increase of knowledge and civilization,
has greatly increased  good health,  and prolonged  hu-
man life.  The discovery of the kine pock, by Jenner,
the invention of the safety lamp, by Sir H. Davy,  and
other scientific discoveries, undoubtedly  save tens of
thousands of  human  lives yearly.  The increase of
knowledge has also led men, in modern times, to build
hospitals and  charitable  institutions for  the sick,  the
young, and the aged ; and thus life has been preserv-
ed and prolonged.  The  march of mind has also  dis-
pelled numerous superstitions, which formerly destroy-
ed, in one way  and another, an immense number of
human beings.f
   Intellectual cultivation  has contributed to the preser-
vation of the lives of  men, by giving a predominance to
the reasoning  powers over the sensual.   Thus we  find
that  the inhabitants of the most civilized  countries live
the  longest.   Savages are usually more feeble than

   • The declaration of American Independence was signed by 56
delegates — 35  from  the  Northern,  and 21 from the Southern
States.  But one survives, and only tioo have died from accident.
The whole number of years lived by these delegates, not includ-
ing the two mentioned, is 3,609 ; or 66 years and 9 months each.
Those from the northern states average TO years and a hall, and
those from the states at the south, a little less than 60.
  t It has been computed, that, in the course of one century, 100,000
human  beings  were put to death for witchcraft in  Germany,
30 000 in England, and more in Scotland.  This delusion respect-
ing witches, was chiefly  dispelled by the increase of science. —
 See Scott, and others, on Witchcraft. 
                        94

civilized nations.   ' Le Pere  Fauque, who lived much
among them, says he scarcely  saw an old man ; Raynal
asserts the same of the savages of Canada ; Cooke and
La Perouse of those of the north-west coast of Ameri-
ca ; Mungo Park of the  Negroes ;  and Bruce  of the
Abyssynians.'*
   In all countries, the mortality has lessened in pro-
portion to the  advance of civilization,  and is now the
greatest in those regions where the inhabitants approach
the nearest to  the barbarous state.  ' At Geneva, good
mortuary  tables  have been   preserved  since   1560.
From these it  appears, that, in  the seventeenth centu-
ry, the probability of life was about eleven and a  half
years ; in the  eighteenth century it increased to above
twenty-seven years.   In  the space of about three hun-
dred years,  the probability of life to a citizen of Gene-
va, at his birth, has become five times greater.   The
mean life, in one century, was eighteen years ; in the
next it  grew to twenty-three ;  and finally, during the
present  century,  from 1815 to  1826, it amounts to
thirty-six years.' f  The expectation, or  mean term of
life of a Roman citizen, from the time of Servius Tul-
lius to Justinian, was thirty years;  but,  according to
Mr. Finlayson, the  expectation  of  life  for  the  easy
classes of England is 1 in 50, and for the whole mass
of the population,  I in 45.
   England is superior in  salubrity to any other country
in Europe.    The average mortality  throughout the
whole of England and Wales,  has been, of late years,
about 1  in 60 ; but in 1810 it was 1 in  50 ; in 1800

  * Foreign Quarterly Review.
  t Elements of Medical Statistics, by F. Bisset  Hawkins, M. D.
London, 1829. 
95
it was 1 in 47 ; and in  1780 the^ ratio of  death wa3  1
in 40.*  In  London, the annual mortality in the mid«-
dle of the last century was  I in 20 ; it is  now  1  in 40.
That of Glasgow is  1 in 44.f   In the first half  of the
16th century, the proportion of deaths to births, in Lon-
don, was as 3 to  2 ; but since  1800,  the number  of
deaths is less than that of births, as 12 to 15.   Other
countries and cities  in Europe have likewise improved
in  the ratio of  mortality.  In  France,  in 1780,  the
deaths annually were 1 in  30 ; but, during the eight
years  previous  to  1824,  1 in 40, or one fourth less.
From  the census of the population in 1817, it appears
that the  average annual difference between the deaths
and the  births for the eight following years,  is nearly
200,000 in favor of the latter. %
    Much of  this  decrease of mortality is no doubt ow-
 ing to the increase  of  wealth,  which  has supplied  all
 classes with  the necessaries of life better than formerly ;
 but as much, I apprehend, is owing to the increase of
 knowledge, and  to the abandonment of  vicious habits,
 — to the predominance which education  has given to
 the rational  over the sensual man.
   * Pembrokeshire  and Anglesey have  one death yearly, in 83
 individuals — the lowest rate of mortality that has been known in
 Europe.  There is  perhaps no section of the United States where
 the annual mortality is less than this. In several towns on Con-
 necticut River, in the state of Massachusetts, the average annual
 mortalitv for  the last fifteen years, is 1 in 81.   Our large cities
 are not more healthy than many of the largest in England.  The
 average number of deaths in Philadelphia for the last ten years, is
  1 in 38.85, annually; but  for the fourteen  years previous, the
  mortality was as low as 1 in 47.dG  of the population . — SeeEm-
  erson's Medical Statistics, American Journal of the Medical  Sci-
  ences, 1831.
    t Hawkins.
    % Discours sur les Ameliorations Progressives de la Sante Pub-
  lique, par l'influence de la civilization.  Par F.  Berard. 
96
   Notwithstanding the still great prevalence of  sensu-
ality in civilized countries, history shows that formerly
it was far greater, and more general, and has decreas-
ed as civilization has  advanced.  For proof of this,
examine historically the prevalence of almost any sen-
sual  and  vicious propensity,  the indulgence of which
tends to shorten life, and it will be found to have been
formerly  far  greater  than  now.   Take the vice of
drunkenness, which,  as every one knows, has destroy-
ed innumerable human beings; and history will show,
that  in proportion as  men and  nations have  become
enlightened, they have regarded this vice as more odi-
ous.   Savages  are  generally  prone to  intoxication.
They regard drunkenness as bliss, and  will part  with
anything they have for rum.
   The ancient Greeks worshipped Bacchus, the  god
of wine ; and in Silenus we see the image of drunken-
ness ; and in many of their  statues we observe repre-
sentations of most beastly intoxication.   So great, for a
while,  were  the evils from  intemperance, in Greece,
that  some rulers condemned  to death  those  found in-
toxicated.   Lycurgus  destroyed  all the vines  of the
country, and made slaves drunk, and  exhibited  them
in  this stale, in Order  to deter  youth  from  intemper-
ance.  The Romans had more than two hundred  dif-
ferent kinds of intoxicating liquors, and drank them to
excess.   The ancient Germans, and the former inhab-
itants of all the northern countries were greatly addict-
ed to drunkenness.   For centuries, no one thought of
the impropriety of drinking to excess: the  only con-
cern respecting intoxicating liquors, was how to pro-
cure them;  and for this purpose  they roamed about
like the beasts of the  forests, and even invaded Italy to
procure them by force. 
97
  On the revival of literature, after the dark ages,  in-
temperance in drinking was exceedingly prevalent; but,
as men became  more enlightened, they had recourse
to measures calculated to prevent it.   And it is a curi-
ous fact, that in  the fifteenth  and sixteenth  centuries,
Temperance Societies were formed by the  most intelli-
gent and influential men,  for the purpose of  stopping
intemperance in drinking.   One was called the Socie-
ty of St. Christopher, others were called Temperance
Societies, and the members of one took the appropri-
ate name of the Golden Band.   These societies were
productive of  great good ;  they augmented industry,
and contributed to the improvement  of manners,  and
the establishment of good order.
   As  respects intemperance in England, if we go back
but one hundred years, we shall  find it far more general
than at present.  One hundred years ago  there  was
scarcely a store in London where intoxicating liquors
were  not kept  for sale.  The  physicians of London
at that time stated to Parliament,  that the  victims of
intemperance were exceedingly  numerous ; and this
caused the number of dram-shops to  be limited-by law.
The French were once exceedingly addicted to intox-
ication : their rulers enacted many and severe laws to
repress the habit;  destroying all the vines of the coun-
try— imprisonment — whipping—cutting off the ears
of those found intoxicated, were  successively resorted
to,  but with  little effect towards arresting the evil.
The age of Louis  XIV,  by  creating a taste  for intel-
lectual and refined pleasures, did more to arrest intem-
perance in France, than all the laws of former rulers.*

  * For the evidence  of the truth of these statements respecting
the history of intemperance, the reader is referred to the accounts
               9 
98
  It is to the influence  which  a taste  for  intellectual
pursuits exerts, that we must look to effect and perpet-
uate a deliverance from  sensuality.   It  was,  in  fact,
increased intelligence  and a growing love for intellec-
tual enjoyment that enabled the people of this  country
to produce the reformation which they have produced,
in the use of intoxicating  drink.  Temperance Socie-
ties, to be sure, did much good ; but they were an effect,
themselves, of the more general diffusion and  love of
knowledge, and could  not have been  sustained  thirty
years ago,  nor by a people  less  intelligent.
  The  cultivation  of  a taste for intellectual  amuse-
ments, is a matter of national importance, and deserves
all  encouragement.  Madam De Stael has said  that
when the  amusements of a people become  not only
harmless but  useful, they  will be in the  right way to
attain all the  perfection of which  they are capable  ;
and we  know that on  the  kind of amusements  which
young people seek, often depends their future destiny
in life.   Let,  therefore,  great  attention be given to
render the amusements of  youth  such as wili be con-
ducive to mental improvement.  They should be se-
duced, if I may so say, from the haunts of the sensual,
by judicious books,  pleasing and instructive conversa-
tion, well-regulated lyceums, and literary associations ;
and made  to prefer the acquisition of knowledge to the
gratification of their appetites.  It is thus that I conceive
the  cultivation of the  mind, at a proper time  of life,
contributes to produce good health, not only  by duly

of travellers among the Indians, and in Liberia, Africa, &c. To
ancient historians, as Diodorus, Caesar, Tacitus, Pliny, Plutarch,
and others.  See also .article Ivrognerie, Dictionaire Des Sciences
Medicales, from which I have selected most of the foregoing facts. 
99
exercising one of the most important organs of the body,
but by placing reason and conscience on  the throne.
Hitherto the conduct of many  people, in all countries,
has been  regulated more by their appetites and  pas-
sions,  than  by their  deliberate opinions of what was
right; but the cultivation of the mind will give  men
more  power to lessen  the influence  of their sensual
propensities.
   But to give this power to men, it is not necessary*nor
proper to commence with the infant,  and task his feeble
powers of mind and injure his physical development.
   It is, in fact, lamentable to see the labor of a steam
engine, as regards the improvement of the mind, put up-
on young and delicate children for a number  of years ;
and when they become young men and  women, but
little or no attention given to their further improvement.
It  is not uncommon  to see  those  whose  early years
were almost wholly devoted to study, pass weeks  and
 months, in after life, without attempting to improve their
 minds by reading or study.   They  do not attempt self-
 education ;  that education which is the  best of all, and
 the only education that is generally  of  much use, and
 which every person,  by the aid of books,  can now ob-
 tain.  The  school-master  is  abroad, and does much
 good, but our youth  should not suppose that they can
 learn nothing without his aid.  To greater  effect,  at
 the present time,  is the book-publisher abroad, and
 tenders to all education, amusement, knowledge and
 power.
    The history of the most distinguished men teaches
 us, that not to early school education, but  to self-edu-
 cation, in after life, were they indebted for the devel-
 opment of their great powers.  It is surprising, consid- 
100
ering the number of such instances, that men have not
attached more importance to the  last, and less to the
former  than  they  have.   A late writer,* of superior
capacity,  has thus alluded to this subject in her re-
marks on the Genius of Walter Scott.
   In speaking of his early education, she says, ' Here
is  a boy lying about in the fields, when  he should  have
been at his Latin grammar ; reading novels  when he
should  have  been entering college ; spearing  salmon
instead of embellishing a peroration. _ Yet this person-
age came out of this  wild kind of discipline,  graced
with the rarest combination of qualifications for enjoy-
ing existence, achieving  fame,  and blessing society.
Deeply learned, though neither the languages, nor the
philosophy of the schools, made part of his  acquisi-
tion ; robust  as a ploughman ; able to walk like a ped-
lar ; industrious as a handicraftsman ;  intrepid as the
bravest  hero of his  own immortal works.   Here is
enough  to put  us on  inquiring, not whether learning,
and even school discipline, be  good things ; but wheth-
er the knowledge usually  thought most  essential, the
school discipline which  is  commonly esteemed indis-
pensable, be  in fact either the one or the other.'
   I hope that the view I have taken of mental cultiva-
tion, while it may  tend to suppress an inordinate desire
for acquiring knowledge from books and  schools, dur-
ing infancy and childhood, may  serve  to stimulate all
those who have  passed their youth, and  possess  good
health, to apply  themselves with great vigor to mental
labor and improvement.   Although  they may  have
had but little early education, yet they should be en-
couraged to persevere in the acquisition of knowledge,
                  * Harriet Martineau. 
101
by the  reflection,  that the  men most  celebrated in  all

departments of learning, had but little education in ear-

ly life.   This is strikingly true of the great and useful

men of this country, both  of the past and present time.

   A taste for reading is one of the  most desirable that

we ever form, and could we believe, with Montesquieu,

that ' reading id a never-failing remedy  for all  the ills

of life,' or  with our illustrious  Jefferson, that ' but for

books,  life  would  scarcely be worth having,' we should

none of us neglect cultivating this  taste  and urging

others  to do likewise.*


  * Since writing the foregoing, I have read the following remarks
upon the same subject, in a sermon by the Rev. Robert Hall,  Of
THE ADVANTAGES OF KNOWLEDGE TO THE LOWER. CLASSES.
  1 The  acquisition of knowledge, by multiplying the mental  re-
sources, has a tendency to exalt the character, and in some meas-
ure to correct and subdue the taste for gross sensuality.  The
poor man who can read, and who  possesses a taste for reading,
can find entertainment at home without being tempted to repair
to the public house for that purpose.  He  does not lie  prostrate
and afloat on the current of incidents, liable to be carried whith-
ersoever the  impulse of appetite may direct. The man  who has
gained a taste for books, will, in all likelihood, become  thought-
ful ; and when you  have given the poor  the habit of thinking,
you have conferred on them a much greater favor than by the gift
of a large sum of money ; since you have put them in possession
of the principle of all legitimate prosperity.  I am  persuaded that
the extreme  profligacy, improvidence, and misery, which are so
 firevalent among the laboring classes in many countries, are chief-
 y to be  ascribed to the want of education.'
9* 
SECTION VIII.
INFLUENCE OF MENTAL CULTIVATION  IN  PRODUCING
  DYSPEPSIA  IN  LITERARY  MEN--IRRITATION  OF
  THE BRAIN THE MOST  FREQJJENT CAUSE OF THIS
  DISEASE.

  The numerous treatises on dyspepsia,  published  of
late, testify to its general prevalence, and its increase.
That many of these treatises have done some good, I
have no doubt; that some  dyspeptics have been bene-
fited by the directions given in books, is very certain;
yet 1 have not seen any work upon  this subject, the
writer  of  which appeared  fully aware of what, accord-
ing to my observation, is the most  frequent  cause  of
this  disease  in literary men, and  consequently the
proper remedies have not  always  been recommended.
For a  great many years, dyspepsia was considered not
only to be a  disease of  the stomach, but to consist  in
' debility  of  the  stomach;'  and bitters, tonics, and
stimulants were the medicines prescribed to cure it.
   But the disciples of a new school in medicine, who
profess to found their opinions  upon Pathological ap-
pearances, have  taught  us  very different  doctrines.
They  say that this disease is closely allied to inflam-
mation of the digestive organs,  and recommend low
diet, bleeding, &c. as remedies. 
103
  No doubt there are cases in which  the  tonic and
stimulating plan is proper and serviceable ; while there
are others in which it would be exceedingly injurious
— cases in which a directly opposite method of treat-
ment would  be  beneficial.  As  a general rule, I am of
opinion that  the last practice  is the best — that more
cases  of dyspepsia require low, unirritating diet, than
bitters and stimulants.
  Both kinds of practice are founded, however, upon
what I conceive to be an erroneous opinion respecting
the origin and most frequent cause of this disease.
Dyspepsia is generally considered a disease of the sto-
mach  primarily.   But I apprehend that in a majority
of cases, especially among students, it is primarily a
disease of the  brain and nervous system, and is per-
petuated by mental excitement.
   Among the reasons 1 have for this opinion, indepen-
dent of my own experience, are the following.
   First. A blow or other injury of the head, or a tu-
mor in the brain, frequently produces sickness,  irrita-
tion of the stomach, and all the  symptoms of dyspepsia.
   Second.  Dyspepsia  ' may be produced by mental
affections,' says Dr. Parry ;  and in this opinion he  is
supported by numerous observers.  Who is there that
has not felt the influence of bad news, or mental agita-
tion, in destroying the appetite and deranging digestion,
and thus producing dyspepsia for a short time ?
   Third. Insanity, or disease  of the brain,  is usually
preceded by the symptoms of dyspepsia, and recovery
from  mental derangement is often marked by a return
of these symptoms.
   During the paroxysm or continuance of insanity, the
brain alone appears affected ; but at other times, when 
104
 the  brain  is relieved, the stomach is affected.   I  am
 aware that Broussais and  others say, that in such cases
 the disorder of the stomach is the primary affection, and
 is truly chronic  inflammation of the stomach ; which,
 after continuing a considerable time,  stimulates  the
 brain until madness is produced.   But the same able
 observer says, that the insanity  is  preceded by  long-
 continued hypochondriasis, and other nervous  affec-
 tions, which  I suppose  to arise from disease of the
 brain, and not of the stomach, as he affirms.  He  re-
 fers  to instances  of  melancholy, from nostalgia, unre-
 quited love, loss of fortune, mortified pride, &c.; but
 which did not amount to insanity until after long-con-
 tinued disorder of the stomach.   He supposes that in
 such cases, the violence of the reaction from the  dis-
 ease of the stomach produces insanity ; but to  me it
 appears more rational to suppose, that the irritation of
 the brain, produced by the moral cause, not only caus-
 ed the disorder of the digestive organs, but by its con-
 tinuance, increased the  disease of  the brain to such a
 degree as to cause mental derangement; just as we see
 a blow on the head  produce at first, only slight sick-
 ness of the stomach,  and vomiting, but followed by vio-
 lent  delirium.   From the cases which  Broussais has
 given, it evidently appears that slight irritation of the
 brain from mental or other causes, gives rise to derange-
 ment of the stomach, and  produces  the ordinary symp-
 toms  of dyspepsia.*
  Mr. Abernethy refers to  cases   somewhat similar;
but  his peculiar and  extravagant  notion, of the vast
influence of the stomach in the animal economy, causes

        * Broussais, De L'Irritation et De La Folie. 
105
him to overlook that of other organs.  He says,  how-
ever,  ' there is no hurt of the head that does not affect
the digestive   organs ;' but adds, ' if these are not
attended to, people will go into a complete state of hy-
pochondriasis,  and therefore I am sure the recovery of
the functions of the brain  mainly depends upon the
digestive organs.'*   That it  is  important  to attend  to
the digestive organs, in injuries of the head, or of any
other part of  the body, I have no doubt; but I cannot
believe that it  is as  important as to attend to the dis-
eased organ itself.   No one  rule, relating to the cure
of disease, is more important, than that which teaches,
to let a diseased organ rest.  If, therefore, the brain is
injured by a blow, or becomes  irritated by disease, or
excited by  passion or mental  anxiety, it  should  be
permitted to remain in a quiet state.  I  have  already
shown  in a former part of this work, that a quiet state
of mind is  essential to recovery  from wounds of the
head ;  but  this state of mind is equally essential when
the brain is in an  irritable state,  from severe study, or
from  the violence  of passion, and it is  a neglect of
this,  which, as I conceive, causes innumerable nervous
complaints  and diseases of other organs, with which
the brain sympathises,
   I very much doubt whether sick-headache as  often
arises from disordered stomach,  as from irritated brain.
I have repeatedly noticed an attack of sick-headache,
after indulging in  stimulating food and drinks in the
evening ; but I have known the headache prevented, by
keeping the  head cool after an evening's debauch.

    * Lectures on Anatomy, Surgery, and Pathology, Vol. 2. 
106
 Dr. James Johnson says that Mr. Weeks of Jamaica,
when intoxicated, always went to sleep with  his  head
in  cold  water, in orJer to prevent headache ;  and it is
a common  practice  in  India, and some other places,
after drinking what is called a musquito dose of brandy,
to  sleep with the  head on  a wet pillow, and thus sub-
sequent headache is prevented.   I have  known  this
practice resorted to, and with like effect.   But  if the
pain of  the head is caused by indigestion, what possi-
ble efficacy can there be in keeping the head cool ?  I
conceive,  however,  that the  increased  action of the
blood-vessels during  sleep, produced by the stimulating
food or liquor, determines an unusual  quantity of blood
to  the brain, irritates it,  and this irritation of the  brain
produces  the  pain of the head, sickness  and disorder
of the stomach.   1 have noticed, moreover, that this
disease  most  frequently affects those whose nervous
systems are  delicate and easily excited ; and I  have
often  known  it  produced  by grief or  great mental
anxiety; and it is seldom relieved without rest or long
abstinence.
   Fourth.  Examination of the  bodies  of those who
have died, after  long continued dyspeptic symptoms,
confirms the opinion  I have advanced, that dyspepsia
is often  a disease of the head,  and not of the stomach.
Dr. Abercrombie,  On Organic Diseases of the Brain,
says, that  ' Symptoms which  really depend upon dis-
ease of  the  brain,  are very  apt to be referred to the
stomach.'   After  mentioning several  cases, in which
for a long  time the prominent symptoms were those  of
dyspepsia, and in which no trace of organic disease  of
the stomach was discovered after death, but tumors,  or 
107
other disease of the brain,  he says, ' Many'other cases
of organic disease of the brain are on record, in which
the only morbid appearances were in the head, though
some of the most prominent  symptoms had been  in
the  stomach.   Some  of  these  resembled  what has
been called  sick-headache, others were chiefly distin-
guished by  remarkable disturbances  of the  digestive
functions.'   Dr. A. adds this important caution :—'In
cases of this class we must beware  of being  misled,
in regard to the nature of  the complaint, by observing
that  the symptoms in the  stomach  are alleviated  by
attention to  regimen, or by treatment directed to the
stomach itself.   If digestion be impeded,  from what-
ever cause,  these uneasy symptoms in the stomach may
be alleviated by great attention  to diet, but no infer-
ence can be drawn from this source,  in regard to the
cause of the derangement.'
   This last  quotation, I think explains  a very common
mistake — a mistake which is not only made by  dys-
peptics themselves,  but  by writers  on this  disease.
They suppose because low diet, &c. relieves the prin-
cipal symptoms in the stomach, that therefore the dis-
ease is  confined to that organ ; when in fact the disease
is in the head, but is manifested only by the stomach,
the  liver, or some organ with which the brain sympa-
thises,  and  the low diet gives relief, by lessening the
too  energetic action  of the brain.
   Dr. Hastings,  of  England, has called  attention  to
this subject, in  the Midland Medical and Surgical
Register  of 1831.   He  says, that  not  unfrequently
cases occur, which  exhibit symptoms of  disordered
stomach,  accompanied by  increased determination of 
103
blood to the head, alternate flushings  and  coldness,
irregular spirits, &tc.; and he states that in all the cases
which  terminated  fatally,  under his care, he found
thickening of the membranes  of the brain, and marks
of chronic inflammation within the  head.   Dr. H. be-
lieves  that many of the nervous symptoms of which
dyspeptic  persons complain  are produced  by  slow
alteration  of the  membranes  of the  brain, in conse-
quence of chronic inflammation; and  recommends
leeches, cold applications to the  head, and  issues in
the neck, for the relief  of such cases.   In the Medico
Chirurgical Review for 1826, is a  case, quoted  from
Dr. Chambers, of a woman  treated, at St. George's
Hospital,  for  an  affection  of the  stomach,  of which
organ she had chiefly  complained.   After death, no
appearance of disease  was  found in the stomach or
bowels, but  several  tumors,  besides other marks of
disease were found in the brain.
   M. Bayle  has  published in  the Revue Medicale,
several  cases, exhibiting the  connexion between dis-
ease of the  brain and  disorder of  the stomach.   He
endeavors to show that  disease  of the stomach  often
produces insanity ; but  he  mentions that many of his
patients were remarkable  for violent temper, or were
melancholy, or exhibited some  symptoms  of nervous
irritation,  before they  were much unwell;  then  the
stomach became disordered, and finally  derangement
of the  mind  ensued.  On dissection, the brain and its
membranes were found diseased;  and here  I  appre-
hend was the original seat of the complaint, (produced
probably by  some moral cause,) which first manifested
itself in change of temper, or slight nervous affections;
then, as it increased, disordered the stomach by sym- 
109
pathy, and finally produced so  much disease of the
brain as to cause insanity.
   Dr. Burrows  relates the case of a lady, who had
been unwell for  several years.   She referred all her
suffering to the stomach, and often said, that when she
was dead, there  would be  found the  seat of her dis-
order.  She died rather suddenly with fever and  deli-
rium, after exposure in a very hot day; and on exam-
ining the body,  no trace  of disease  appeared in the
stomach or bowels,  but  the  brain exhibited marks  of
long standing disease. *
   Some cases  and  observations in a  late work of M.
Barras,t confirm the opinion I have advanced respect-
ing the cause and seat of dyspepsia, though this writer
does not believe, with M. Broussais and others, that it
is an inflammatory  disease, but  that  it consists in  an
affection of the nerves of the stomach, or  what Dr.
Johnson calls morbid sensibility of the stomach, bow-
els,  &tc.   He considers the disease to be  a gastralgia,
and not gastritis.  But what causes this  gastralgia,  or
morbid sensibility of the stomach ?  An attentive ex-
amination  of the cases he has cited, will show that,
 very probably,  the  first cause of morbid action was a
moral one.   Most  of the patients   whose  cases  he
 relates, were of an  irritable, nervous temperament,
 and previous to any symptoms of disease of the stomach,
 they had ' experienced severe domestic affliction,' had
 been  ' melancholy,' or been afflicted  by ' great mental
 suffering,' or had ' studied severely, or been exposed
 to constant turmoils.'  When  such  cases terminated

   * Burrows on Insanity, p. 236.
   t Traite sur les  Gastralgies et les  Enteralgies, ou Maladies
 Nerveuses de l'Estomac et des Intestins.  Par J. P. T. Bar-
 ras,  M. D.
                10 
no
fatally, no  marks of disease were found  in  the  sto-
mach ; but effusion,  or other signs of disease  were
observed in the brain.
  M. Broussais has  also given much attention  to  dis-
eases of the stomach, and refers  to  cases  which were
characterized by dyspeptic symptoms, which he thinks
arose from inflammation of the  stomach, but which
appear to me to have been produced by mental agita-
tion.*   He says himself, that he has often seen diar-
rhoea,  colic, and  other disorders  of  the  digestive
organs, caused  by grief, fright, and  mental  suffering.
He  also says,  that  cerebral  ' irritation will  produce
gastric irritation, and even a certain  degree of inflam-
mation of  the stomach.'  Still he asserts, that ' most
encephalic phlegmasiae are usually induced by gastric
irritation.'   I  cannot but believe  that this observation
is incorrect, and that M. Broussais was led to make it
in consequence of certain opinions which he has form-
ed respecting  ihe frequency of  gastric  inflammation,
and its  influence in producing  sympathetic  disease ;
opinions which 1 think are not fully supported by facts.
From the history which he has given, of cases of  sup-
posed gastritis, or inflarhmation  of the  stomach, we
learn that the  disorder of the  stomach  was often  pre-
ceded by  symptoms of disease o the  head, such  as
slight mental aberration, melancholy, epilepsy, convul-
sions, &c.   Some of his patients had studied  severely,
others had long been  hypochondriacal, while others
were homesick ;  and as his patients   were mostly sol-
diers, many of them conscripts,  it  is  not, improbable
that they had  experienced severe moral suffering.  He

  * See History  of Chronic Phlegmasiae, by F. J,  V. Brous-
sais, M. D. 
Ill
cites  the  case of M.  Beau,  as one of acute  gastri-
tis ;  but states, that the patient, previous to his illness,
had manifested a great passion for study, to which he
had often  sacrificed the hours destined to repose. This
case  terminated  fatally,  and on dissection, marks of
disease were found in  the stomach ; but he  says also,
that ' he was struck with the density, as well as with
the injection of the cerebral substance.'   Still  he  re-
fers to this case,  as one which  ' presents a vivid  picture
of the disorder that inflammation of the stomach may
occasion in the functions of the economy.'   But to me
this is a case which  exhibits the  influence  of diseased
and over-excited brain, on  the system, even according
to his own doctrines.  He  elsewhere says that 'every-
thing  which  only  exercises thought by  requiring  a
lively and constant  attention,   keeps up  in  the brain
a state of vital erection,  by which  it is sensibly trans-
formed into  a permanent  focus of irritation.   Such
individuals  become exceedingly irritable, and easily
contract inflammations through the  influence of food,
drinks, atmospherical vicissitudes, &tc.'  He has  also
abundantly proved, that  ' an organ which at first is only
affected by sympathy, may become organically  diseas-
ed by the effect  of pain.' *
   This was the case,  I conceive, with M. Beau. Long
continued and severe study,  especially in  the night,
during the  time that  ought to have been  devoted to
rest,  produced an  irritated state of the  brain, which
caused sympathetic disease of  the stomach, and subse-
quent inflammation and disorganization.    No doubt
the case was aggravated, as M. Broussais  supposes, by

   * See his Examination of Medical Doctrines, and Treatise on
Physiology applied to Pathology. 
112
too stimulating regimen;  but I apprehend it  was not
first induced by irritating the stomach by food or drink,
but by irritating the brain by too  severe study.
   Fifth.  The fact that dyspepsia is  frequently cured
by permitting the over-tasked and tired brain to rest,
or by changing the mental labor  or excitement, is evi-
dence that it  is primarily a disease of the head, and
not of the stomach.   How often do physicians fail  to
afford any relief by  medicines, in  what  are  called
' stomach affections,'  but  which  are  readily cured by
travelling, or relaxation  in  accustomed  studies, and
freedom from  care and anxiety !   How often a change
of the mental excitement affords relief.   It seems as if
certain portions of the brain having been  unduly excit-
ed,  became diseased, and were benefited by  strong
excitement of other portions of  the same organ.  How
often are stomach affections cured by inert medicines,
aided by the imagination, confidence, hope, &c.
   What is it but the influence of the mind that gives
efficacy to remedies that are secret, which they do not
possess when  known  ?   Who now goes  to  Mr. Hal-
 sted  for the cure of disease  of the stomach, or has
recourse to kneading the bowels to  cure it ? but who
 will deny, that before Mr. H.  unfortunately published
 his method of cure, a vast many nervous people were
relieved and  cured by  him?   By  some, the  relief
 which Mr. Halsted  afforded,  would  be  considered
 proof that  dyspepsia is certainly  a disease of the
stomach; but to  me, it is evidence that the stomach
 complaints he cures, were  affections of  the  organ  of
 the mind, and which  the influence of the  imagination,
 hope, faith,  &c, relieved.  ' There is nothing new
 under the sun' — or certainly  not in  Mr.  Halsted's 
113
method of  curing stomach complaints and  nervous
affections, by kneading the bowels.  It is but  Mesmer-
ism revived and  revised.  In the very  able  Report,
drawn up by M. Bailly, in the name  of a  Committee
of the Faculty of Medicine and of the Academy of
Sciences, appointed by the King, to examine into the
reality and utility of animal magnetism, of which Com-
mittee our illustrious  Franklin was  a member, it is
stated : —' But  more than in any other way, patients
are magnetized by the application of the hands, and by
pressure of the fingers on the middle and sides  of the
abdomen, — applications often  continued  for  a long
time, sometimes for several hours.'   That an immense
number were cured of stomach complaints and nervous
diseases  by this  procedure, no one  will doubt, who
examines the records of Mesmerism.   But the learned
Committee believed these  cures were effected  by the
influence which  the mind has upon the body ; for they
were  magnetized in the same  way,  but experienced
nothing more  than ' soreness of the stomach, in  conse-
 quence of the great pressure made over it.'
   Although the secret of Mr. Halsted, as  relates to
 the cure of dyspepsia, is supposed  to be  published,
yet I would recommend to those who wish to learn the
 true  secret of his success,  to read  the report from
 which I  have  taken the above extracts.*  The  same
 report alludes to a fact which I conceive has a very
important bearing upon the disease we are  consider-
ing.  It  says,  that ' when the attention  is arrested for a
long  time, on  some interior organ of the body, it pro-
 duces heat there, and  modifies the state of that organ,

   * Du Magnetisme  Animal  en France, &c., Par Alexandre
 Eertrand.
                 10* 
114
so that new sensations are  produced.'   Of this I have

no doubt.   I have seldom  known a person very atten-

tive to the sensations that  food produced  in his stom-

ach, who was not, or did not soon become dyspeptic.

   The attention which has been  directed  to the  state

of the stomach, by several popular  works  on  dyspep-

sia, has,  no  doubt,  done  much to  produce  morbid

action of  this organ.   It  is  said  that the  teachings of

Broussais, respecting gastritis, have greatly  multiplied

affections of the stomach,  in  Paris;  and  affections  of

the heart,  real  or  imaginary, were  produced by the

lectures of Corvisart on the diseases  of this organ.

   Sixth.   The  fact that dyspepsia is a disease chiefly

confined  to  the  studious,  to those  whose  minds  are

much exercised and  excited, and to those  who, by  too

early mental education, have had a predominance given

to the nervous system, is evidence that the brain is the

primary organ affected. *   I  know  it  is said that the

sedentary habits of students cause this disease ; and no

doubt exercise is necessary  to preserve their health ;

but it proves beneficial by changing the circulation and


  * I might refer to numerous instances of  men, gifted in  early
life with superior mental powers,  and  who enjoyed for a  short
time great celebrity, but who were always nervous, melancholy,
passionate, or on the verge of insanity.  Tasso, at the age of 22,
was the author of the finest epic poem of modern times; but he
was always melancholy, or else devoured by passion, and died at
the age of 32.  Pascal also enjoyed premature celebrity as an au-
thor,  but was always hypochondriacal, ever imagining that he
saw a gulf open at his side, and died at the early age of 39.  But
men of  genius  are not always distinguished in  youth.  Roger
Ascham has placed among '  the best natures for learning, the sad-
natured and hard witted child.'  The youth of Goldsmith  was
unpromising; and Gesner was considered a very stupid boy.
' The mother of Sheridan, herself a literary female, pronounced
early that  he was the dullest and most hopeless of her sons.   The
great Isaac Barrows' father used to say, that if it pleased God to
take from  him any of his children, he hoped it might be Isaae, as
the least promising.'—D'Israeli. 
115
determining the blood from the head.   If they studied
less, exercise would not be so necessary.  I  have not
observed that tailors, shoe-makers, &c. are particularly
liable to dyspepsia.   It  often  happens that  men who
commence study late in life, after having been engaged
for years in some laborious employment,  become in a
short time dyspeptic.   I conceive that this arises from
too  severe labor, put  too suddenly  upon  the brain.
This organ should be gradually exercised, as indicated
at page 62, in order to  develope it properly  and fit it
for severe labor without injury.
   It is often said  that intoxicating liquors produce this
disease ;  but I have been astonished to see how many
drunkards are free from it.
   Good living is  said to cause dyspepsia ; but the most
healthy people I have ever known, have  been among
those who lived well—who eat  freely several times a
day of the most nutritious  food.   By  some  it is said
that  tobacco, snuff, tea,  coffee, butter, and even bread,
cause this complaint; but whoever will make inquiries
on this subject  throughout  the  community, will find
that  this is seldom true.  In  fact, dyspepsia prevails,
according to my experience, altogether the most among
the very temperate  and careful — among those who
are temperate and  careful as regards what they  eat
and drink, and the labor they put upon the  stomach ;
but exceedingly careless how much labor they put up-
on that more delicate organ, the brain.  Such people
often eat  nothing but by the  advice of the doctor, or
some treatise on  dyspepsia, or by weight;  nor drink
anything that is not certainly harmless ; they chew ev-
ery mouthful until they are confident on mature reflec-
tion, that it cannot hurt the stomach.    Why  then are 
116
they dyspeptics ?   Because, with all their  carefulness,
they  pay  no regard  to  the excitation of the brain.
They continue to write two  or three  sermons  or es-
says in a week, besides reading a volume or two, and
magazines, reviews, newspapers, &tc, and  attending to
much other business, calculated to excite the  mind.*
   To me it is not strange, that such persons have ner-
vous and stomachic affections.   The constant excite-
ment of the brain sends an excess of blood to the head,
and therefore  other organs  become  weakened; and
morbid sensibility is produced, which  renders the sto-
mach liable to derangement  from very slight causes.
' I tell you honestly what I think (says Mr. Abernethy)
is the cause  of the complicated maladies of the human
race ;  it is the gormandizing, and stuffing, and  stimu-
lating their organs (the digestive,) to excess, thereby
producing  nervous disorders and irritations.  The state
of their  minds is another grand cause; the fidgeting
and discontenting yourselves  about  what cannot  be
helped; passions  of all  kinds—malignant passions,
pressing upon the mind,  disturb the  cerebral action
and do much harm.'
   This statement should be reversed, I think ; it is the
fidgeting and discontenting ourselves  that makes the
gormandizing so dangerous.   I do not mean, however,

   * ' Perhaps the greatest and most general cause of nervous af-
fections, particularly in men, is the great increase of mental em-
ployment, or business requiring mental rather than bodily exer-
tion, and too often accompanied by that anxiety, with its occa-
sional attendants or sequels, disappointment, which is the produce
of the especial ambition, either as to wealth, or honors, or fame,
which denotes the present times.' — Macculloch.
   No author, whose works 1 have seen, has written so much and
so ably upon the tendency which mental excitement has to causa
disease of the body, as the distinguished Dr. James Johnson. Se«
his various works. 
117
to approve of  gormandizing ;  and I know that people
in this country, generally, eat more than is  necessary;
still I do not  believe that good nourishment, and abun-
dance of it, cause  many of the diseases that flesh is
heir to.   Nations that are best supplied with  food, are
the most healthy, live the longest, and  have  most vig-
or of body and mind.   Children, especially, should be
well nourished.   Good diet is an essential part of good
education.   The method  of rearing  children, which
some  propose,  and which I fear some adopt, of re-
stricting them to very light food, that contains but little
nourishment, is very  reprehensible.   Every farmer
knows that such a course  would stint and  ruin his cat-
tle ^  and it  will  as assuredly have  such an effect  on
children.  The  way to  make children thrive  and  do
well,  is to give them plenty of  good  food, and  keep
their minds  free from anxiety and chagrin.
   Insufficient nutriment weakens the mind as well as
the body.   Many writers place  poor  diet at the head
of the causes that weaken attention, and  debilitate all
 the faculties of the  mind.   Thus we often see that dis-
 ease, which  wastes  the body,  enfeebles the mind also,
 though this  is  not always the case ; for sometimes  the
 brain does not diminish as the other parts of the body
 do.*
    But to return to  the causes of dyspepsia.   We do
 not find this disease prevalent in countries  where  the
 people  eat  most enormously.  Travellers in Siberia
 say that the people there often eat forty pounds of food

   * We often  see persons in consumption exhibit clear and power-
 ful intellects; but, according to the researches of M.  Desmouhns,
 the brain does not decrease in bulk or weight in this and many
 other chronic  diseases. — Andral's Pathological Anatomy. 
118
in one day.  Admiral Saritchaff saw a Siberian eat im-
mediately after breakfast, twenty-five pounds of boiled
rice, with three pounds  of butter.  But  dyspepsia is
not a common disease in Siberia.   We  do not  learn
from  Capt. Parry or  Capt. Lyon, that  their friends,
the  Esquimaux,  are  very  nervous  and  dyspeptic,
though they individually eat ten or twelve pounds  of
solid food in a  day, washing it down with  a gallon or so
of train-oil.   Captain Lyon  was, to  be sure, a little
concerned for  a delicate young lady Esquimaux,  who
eat his candles, wicks and all ; yet he  does  not allude
to her inability to digest them.
   The influence  of the mind in producing disease, ap-
pears to be but little regarded in practice, though there
are few  who will  not acknowledge that this influence is
great.   Plutarch  says, in one of his  Essays,  ' Should
the body sue the  mind  before the court of judicature
for damages, it would be found that  the mind  would
prove to  have been  a ruinous  tenant to its landlord.'
The truth of this, mankind  will the  more  realize  as
they become more intellectual, unless great care is tak-
en to develope and  exercise the organs  of  the body
equally  and properly.*
   It is true, however, that the regular application  of
the  mind to severe but  calm study and inquiry, is not

   * Laennaec says that the depressing passions are highly instru-i
mental in producing consumption.  For ten years he had the care
of a religious association  of females, whose rules were excessive-
ly severe : their diet was  not only austere, but their attention was
constantly fixed on the most terrible truths of religion ; and they
were tried by every  kind  of contrariety, in order to bring them to
a renouncement of their own proper will.  ' During the ten years
I was physician to this association, f witnessed its entire renova-
tion two  or three different times, owing to the successive loss by
death of all its members, with the exception of a few who went
out oftener and had  fewer religious duties to perform.' 
119
very apt to affect the health unfavorably.   The illustri-

ous Kant, who lived and studied, to a great age, says,

that ' intellectual pursuits tend to prolong life.' *

   But  studies  that strongly  excite  the  feelings, or

awaken the passions, are very apt to injure the health ;

and it is probably  true that  the literary  men  of this

country are generally  engaged in the strife  of parties

and sects, and conseqently their studies are not always

those  of  calm inquiry.   But  the  excitement of the

mind  produced by the numerous stirring incidents  of

the times,  tends to increase disease,  and  especially

nervous diseases, among  all classes of people.j-  A vi-

olent  election  increases  disorders of the digestive  or-

gans ;  and a  difficulty in the parish, a phrase well un-

derstood in New-England, often multiplies them. %

   Finally.   If dyspepsia is  a disease o the stomach,

why is it not  more frequently cured by attention to diet


   " This distinguished  philosopher placed great reliance on the
power of human reason,  as a remedy for disease.  He believed
 that by the force of reason, alone,  man is, to acertain degree, able
 to master his sensations.  He says that by the strength of thought,
 he was  able to forget the pains of gout, and of other diseases.
 This mental effort, he says, required great force of the will, and
 caused the blood to rush to his head, but never failed to afford re-
 lief.
   i Apoplexy, palsy, and  other diseases of the nervous system,
 have greatly increased in modern times, as the  following state-
 ment exhibits.   During the last four years of the  17th century,
 from 1696 to 1700, there were S0,586 deaths in London ; and dur-
 ing the four last years of the 18th century, 72,591.  But though
 the deaths during the first four years were most numerous, only
 442 were by apoplexy, and 89  by palsy; while, during the last
 four years, 912 were by apoplexy, and 363 by palsy.  Dr. Graham
 says it is notorious that stomach complaints have likewise increas-
 ed. — Graham on Indigestion.
   X The venerable Dr. Perkins, of West Hartford, stated, a few
 weeks since, in a public discourse, that he had himself attended
 one hundred Ecclesiastical  Councils to heal  difficulties  in the
 churches during the  last sixty years. 
120
than it is ?   I know that by this method some are re-
lieved, and I also know that those disposed to dyspep-
tic  disease,  will not be able  to continue  their severe
studies, if they are not careful as respects  diet.  For
if the vital energy is all directed to the brain, and con-
sumed by the act of thought,  the stomach will not  be
able to digest much food.   If, however, they study but
little, they can eat more with  impunity.   I have not,
however, known this disease cured by a change of diet
alone.  I have known  many students, and  professional
gentlemen,  who were  afflicted with troublesome stom-
ach affections for several years, during which time they
frequently believed they had  discovered a remedy  for
their evils.   Sometimes they were to  be  cured  by
eating bran bread ;  at others, by weighing all the food
they eat, or by living on rice, or porridge,  or by living
without coffee or tea, or  by  some trifling change in
diet, about  as important as putting a few grains,  more
or  less, of salt in an egg they eat.*
   Most of the methods afford some relief  for a while,
and this is usually in proportion to the confidence with
which they  are  imposed or  embraced ; but  I do not
know of one solitary cure by any of these means alone.
   The most instances of cure which I recollect, have
been in those individuals whose minds have  been per-
mitted to rest from  accustomed  labors, or have been
directed to  new pursuits, or relieved from  anxiety and
care.   Some have travelled far, and have recovered :
voyages have restored others.  Some  have  become

  * ' Argan.   Monsieur,  combien est-ce qu'il faut  mettre  de
 grains de sel  dans un ceuf ?
  M. Diafoirus.  Six, huit, dix, par les nombres pairs, comme
 dans les mendicaments par les nombres impairs.'
                                Le Malade Imaginaire. 
121
husbands, and forgotten  their  stomach  complaints;
some have succeeded in business and  are  well;  some
are in, or out of office,  and thus their minds are freed
from long-continued  anxiety ; while others remain as
they were several years since ; having just discovered,
for the twentieth time, some new, and, as they believe,
effectual remedy for their indigestion; but  which will
assuredly disappoint them, if they do not cease from
mental  toil,  and for a while let the excited  brain be
quiet.
   These views respecting stomach affections  so  com-
mon among  the students of this country, will,  to many,
appear strange, perhaps absurd ; but to some, I trust,
they will be useful.   I feel  confident  they will  be,  if
they  induce those who are worn down by mental la-
bor and anxiety, connected with long-continued  disor-
der of  the digestive organs ; to throw aside their  bit-
ters, blue pills, mustard seed, bran  bread,  &tc. &cc.
and seek bodily health and  future mental vigor,  in ju-
dicious exertion of  the body, innocent amusements,
cheerful  company,  ordinary diet, and mental relaxa-
tion.
n 
 
TABLE,
EXHIBITING THE AGE ATTAINED BY SOME OF THE MOST
     DISTINGUISHED  LITERARY PERSONS IN ANCIENT
                  AND MODERN DAYS.

    Those marked thus * died through violence or accident.
JVame.	Age.	Country.
Fulton -	50 -	United Sts
* Winckelmann Kiel	- 50 50 -	- Germany. Scotland.
Brumoy Marot -	- 50 50 -	France. do.
* Condorcet	- 50	do.
Pliny the younger -Scarron -	50 -- 51	Italy. - France.
Simson -Smollet	51 -- 51	England. do.
Tasso -	51 -	Italy.
Virg il	- 52	do.
Shakspeare -Tournefort	52 -52	England. - France.
La Bruyere -Clairaut - -	-52 -52	do. do.
Moliere	- 53 -	do.
Cegnard Blarke Descartes	53 - 54 -54	do. England. - France.
Fourcroy -Quinault	- 54 -54	do. do.
Burlamaqui Davila -	- 54 -55	Italy. do.
Camoens -	- 55 ,	Portugal.
 
124
Hutcheson -	55	Scotland.
Gray -	- 55 -	England.
Tycho Brahe	55	- Denmark.
* Pliny the elder -	- 56 -	Italy.
Dante -	56	do.
Schaunat -	- 56 -	Flanders.
Pope -	56	- England.
Helvetius -	- 56	France.
Mendelsohn -	57	Prussia.
Ovid -	- 57 -	Italy.
Horace	57	do.
Gibbon	- 57 -	England.
Spurzheim	57	Germany.
Congreve	- 57 -	England.
Tscharner	58	- Switzerland.
Guiciardini	- 58 -	Italy.
*BaiIly	58	- France.
Ariosto	- 59 -	Italy.
Kepler -	59	- Germany.
Racine	- 59 -	France.
Bayle -	59	do.
Demosthenes	- 59 -	Greece.
Saussure	59	France.
Lavater	- 60 -	Switzerland.
Gesner -	60	do.
Butler, Joseph -	- 60 -	England.
Homer -	60	Greece.
Desfontaines	- 60 -	France.
La Mothe Houdart	60	■ do.
Montaigne	- 60 -	do.
Mosheim	61	- Germany.
Galvani	- 61 -	Italy.
Maupertius -	61	- France.
Villaret -	- 61 -	do.
Boccaccio	61	- Italy.
Charron -	- 62 -	France.
Freret -	62	do.
Paley	- 62 -	England.
Scott, Sir W. -	- 62	- Scotland.
Puffendorf -	63 -	Sweden.
Burton, Robert -	- 63	- England.
Mandeville -	63 -	Holland.
 
125
Nieuwentyt	-	63	■ Holland.
Fenelon	-	63 -	France.
Aristotle -	-	63	- Greece.
Cuvier -	-	63 -	Germany.
Homberg -	-	63	- Batavia.
Boyle -	-	64 -	Ireland.
De Thou -	-	64	- France.
La Harpe	-	64 -	do.
Blondel, David -	-	64	do.
Dwight, Timothy	-	65 -	United State:
Bentivoglio	-	65	- Italy.
Hume -	-	65 -	England.
Sydenham	-	65	do.
Tillotson	-	65 -	do.
Quevedo -	-	65	- Spain.
Schlichting -	-	65 -	Poland.
Condillac -	.	65	- France.
Bacon -	-	65 -	England.
Milton	-	66	do.
Zimmermann	-	66 ■•	Switzerland.
J. J. Rosseau	.	66	do.
Graswinckel -	.	66 ~	Holland.
Huygens -	-	66	do.
Walther	-	66 -	Germany.
Werner	-	66	do.
Montesquieu -	-	66 -	France.
B. Constant	.	67	- Switzerland.
Mackintosh, Sir James		67 -	England.
Griesbach -	-	67 -	Germany.
Smith, Adam	.	67	- Scotland
D'Alembert	.	67 -	France.
Burke -	.	67	- Ireland.
Hevelius -	-	67 -	Germany.
Schmeizel	.	68	- Russia.
Fabricius -	.	68 -	Germany.
Gresset -	.	68	- France.
Duclos	.	68 -	do.
Blondel, Francis	.	68	do.
Lessius	.	69 -	Brabant.
Erasmus	.	69	- Holland.
Muschenbroeck	.	69 -	do.
Baronias	.	69	- Italy.
 
	126	
Paul, Jove	- 69 -	Italy.
Valisnieri	69	do.
Cervantes	- 69 -	Spain.
Berkeley	69	- England.
Origen	- 69 -	Egypt.
Scaliger	69	- France.
Beaumarchais -	- 69 -	do.
Abbadie	69	do.
Pelisson	- 69 -	do.
* Ramus	69 -	France.
Madame Dacier	- 69	do.
Mascaron	69 -	do.
Dryden	- 70	- England.
Clarke, Adam	70	- do.
Temple	- 70 -	do.
Selden -	70	do.
Copernicus	- 70 -	Poland.
Boerhaave	70	- Holland.
Leibnitz	- 70 -	Germany.
Gall	70	- do.
Tissot	- 70	- Switzerland.
Petrarch	70 -	Italy.
Stephens, Henry	- 70	- France.
Crebillon	70 -	do.
Nollet	- 70	do.
Rosseau, Jean B.	70 -	do.
Rabelais -	- 70	do.
Le Sage	70 -	do.
Nicole	- 70	do.
Lemery	70 -	do.
Jenner	- 71	- England.
Dumont	71 -	France.
Borelli -	- 71	- Italy.
Fracastor	71 -	do.
Leti -	- 71	do.
Casaubon	71 -	Switzerland.
Linnaeus -	- 71	- Sweden.
Gronovius	71 -	Holland.
Graevius -	- 71	do.
Lausberg	71 -	Flanders.
Seneca	- 71	- Spain.
Racine ,-	71 -	France.
 
	127	
Diderot	- 71	- France.
Dacier -	71 -	do.
Chaucer -	- 72	- England.
Richardson -	72 -	do.
Robertson	- 72	do.
Van Swieten -	72 -	Holland.
Burnet	- 72	- Scotland.
Sannazarius -	72 -	Italy.
Bourdaloue	- 72	- France.
Barthez	72 -	do.
Malherbe -	- 72	do.
Confucius	73 -	China.
Bonnet	- 73	- Switzerland.
Camden	73 -	England.
Locke	- 73	do.
Crabbe -	73 -	do.
Lopez de Vega	- 73	- Spain.
Mezerai	73 -	France.
La Condamine -	- 73	do.
Dodart -	73 -	do.
Pothier	- 73	do.
De Sacy	73 -	do.
D. Stewart	- 73	- Scotland.
Jenner -	74 -	England.
Nelle	- 74	- Franconia.
Hamilton	74 -	Ireland.
Johnson	- 74	England.
Barros -	74 -	Portugal.
Ranee	- 74	France.
La Fontaine -	74 -	do.
Destouches	- 74	do.
Vauban	74 -	do.
Haller	- 75	- Switzerland.
Stahl -	75 -	Germany.
Heister	- 75	do.
Usher -	75 -	Ireland.
Sheffield -	- 75	- England.
Scaliger	75 -	Italy.
Reaumur -	- 75	do. do.
Bouhours	75 -	
 
128
Perrault	■ 75	- Italv.
Mabillon	75 -	do.
Frederic II.	• 75	- Prussia.
Cardan -	75 -	Italy.
Sanctorius -	75	do.
Solis -	76 -	Spain.
St. Augustin	76	- Barbary.
Wolff	76 -	Silesia.
Prideaux	76	- England.
Mably	76 -	France.
Lagrange	77	- Italy.
Buchanan	77 -	Scotland.
Home, Sir Everard	77	- England.
Euler -	77 -	Switzerland
Bembo	77	- Italy.
Bossuet	77 -	France.
Laplace	78	do.
Galileo	78 -	Italy.
Cullen	78	- Scotland.
Swift -	78 -	Ireland.
Roger Bacon	78	- England.
Flechier	78 -	France.
Mallebranche	78	do.
Corneille	78 -	do.
S. Parr	79	- England.
Galen	79 -	Anatolia.
Spallanzani -	79	- Italy.
Euripides	79 -	Greece.
Kircher	79	Germany.
Marmontel	79 -	France.
Massillon	79	do.
Menage	79 -	do.
Roscoe	80 -	England.
Kant	80	- Germany.
Burder, Geo.	80 -	England.
Harvey	80	do. '
Thucydides	80 -	Greece.
Juvenal	80	- Italy.
Young	80 -	England.
Rollin -	80	- France.
Vertot	80 -	do.
Plato	81	- Greece.
 
129
Warburton	81 -	England.
Mead -	81	do.
Buffon	81 -	France.
Pestalozzi	82	- Switzerland.
Polybius	82 -	Greece.
Huber	82	- Geneva.
Zenocrates	82 -	Greece.
Duhamel	82	- France.
Fleury	82 -	do.
Butler, Charles	83	- England.
Hopkins, Samuel -	83 -	United States.
Goethe -	83	- Germany.
Hoffman	83 -	do.
D'Aguesseau	83	- France.
D'Aubenton	83 -	do.
Herschell	84	- England.
Bentham	84 -	do.
Gleim -	84	- Germany.
Franklin	84 -	United States.
Metastasio	84	- Italy.
Raynal	84 -	France.
Anacreon	85	- Anatolia.
Newton	85 -	England.
Swedenborg	85	. Sweden.
C. Hutton -	86 -	England.
Halley -	86	do.
Young	86 -	do.
Mirabeau	86	- France.
St. Pierre	86 -	do.
Cassini -	87	- Italy.
Crebillon	88 -	France.
Hill, Rowland -	89	- England.
Sophocles	90 -	Greece.
Saint Evremont	90	- France.
Hobbes	91 -	England.
Huet	91	- France.
Wren, Sir C.	91 -	England.
Hutton, Wm. -	92	do.
S. W. Johnson	93 -	United States.
Wilson, Thomas	93	- England.
Hans, Sloane	93 -	Ireland.
Fergusson, Adam	93	- England.
 
ISO
Vida	- 96 -	Italy.
Isocrates	98	- Greece.
Simonides	- 98 -	Isle of Ceos.
*Zeno -	98	- Cyprus.
Saadi	- 99 -	Persia.
Herodian	100	- Greece.
Fontenelle	- 100 -	France.
Gorgias	107	- Sicily.
Hippocrates	'- 109 -	Isle of Cos.
 
 

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