through the nerves made for the purpose, to the ash-colored matter of the brain. The vitalizing property of air is mainly electricity, and, consequently, we receive this element by the lungs and pores. from which it is taken up by the blood, and carried to the great receiving reservoir of the brain, which, I may add, accommodates more blood than the fibrous matter of the brain. The blood on

Fig. 2.

entering the ash-colored matter discharges its cargo of electricity and nerve nutriment, and returns to the body for another load.

Large quantities of animai electricity are also generated by the alkalies and acids of the animal organism. The mucous membranes, or linings of the cavities, are continually excreting a semi-fluid called alkali, and the serous membranes, or outer coverings of the same, an aqueous or watery fluid, called acid, and according to the testimony of Dr. Bird, if these fluids are so placed as to be connected by parietes of an animal membrane, or a porous diaphragm, a current of electricity is evolved.

Hence, we find that not only are our stomachs generating electricity, but we are inhaling it by our lungs, and our pores, and the external or serous, and internal or mucous surfaces, united as they are by natural parietes and porous diaphragms,

much, or too little, given to any particular organ, produces disease therein. The complete withdrawal of nervo-electricity from any part paralyzes it, so that it has neither sense nor motion. If withdrawn from the motor nerves only, sensation remains, while motion is lost; if from the nerves of sensation only, then motion continues, but sensation is destroyed. If withdrawn from the nerves of special sense, the power of hearing, seeing, smelling, and tasting is lost; or it may be withdrawn from only one set of the nerves of special sense, producing some of the foregoing difficulties, without affecting the other senses. Too little vital electricity given to the liver, renders that organ torpid-too much, causes nervous congestion and inflammation; too little given to the stomach causes nervous dyspepsia-too much makes the appetite voracious, and induces other derangements to the digestive machinery; and hence, we see that to all the organs a proper quantity must be distributed, or disease results.

It is unnecessary to pursue this explanation further to show that the nervous system is a complex piece of machinery, as delicate almost as the spider's web which is spread out over the meadow grasses, and that many diseases arise from a defective nervous system. Those which do not, and which may not come under the exceptions mentioned at the opening of this essay, can be traced to disturbances of the mind, or an abnormal condition of the blood.

From what has already been said, it is apparent to any logical mind that diseases often result from trouble, or depression of mind. So closely allied are the brain and the nervous or telegraphic system, it is impossible for one to be disturbed without exciting the sympathy of the other. The brain, beside being the receiving and distributing reservoir of animal electricity, is the residence of the mind, or the spirit, and this immortal principle controls its action. When, then, any thing occurs to disturb the equanimity of the mind, the brain at once telegraphs the melancholy news over the wires, or nerves, to every organ of the body, and, like a well-regulated and affectionate family, all join in sympathy for the afflictions of the one which they regard as the head and provider. In some cases, when great grief or emotion is present, the brain works so actively in producing intense thought, that it consumes all, or nearly all the vital electricity of its reservoir, and when this bankruptcy takes place, it even withdraws that which it has supplied to the vital organs. When

it reaches this crisis, death results. Emotions of the mind, it is well known, greatly affect the organic secretions, and Dr. Trall does not greatly magnify a fact, when he remarks "that they may be depraved or vitiated as readily by excessive mental emotion, as by a drug

Fig. 3.

The Nerves

poison taken into the stomach." He continues by saying, that "a paroxysm of anger will render the bile as acrid and irritating as a full dose of calomel; excessive fear will relax the bowels equal to a strong infusion of tobacco; intense grief will arrest the secretions of the gastric juice as effectually as belladonna; and violent rage will make the saliva as poisonous as will a mercurial salivation."

Says Combe: "The influence of the brain on the digestive organs is so direct, that sickness and vomiting are among the earliest symptoms of many affections of the head, and of wounds and injuries to the brain, while violent emotions, intense grief, or sudden bad news, sometimes arrest at once the process of diaccompany the gestion, and produce squeamry part of the ishness, or loathing of food, although an instant before the appetite was keen. The influence of the mind and brain over the action of the heart and lungs is familiar to every one. The sighing, palpitation, and fainting so often witnessed as consequences of emotions of

Arteries in eve.

ARTERIAL CIRCULATION.

the mind, are evidences which nobody can resist. Death itself is not A rare result of such excitement in delicately-organized persons."

A story related by the late English author, Eliot Warburton, is interesting in this connection. "A Howadji, or sacred traveler (more given to lectures than to prayers), met the plague coming out of Cairo, and reproached that demon with his murderous work. 'Nay,' said the fiend, 'I have slain but a few; it is true that twenty thousand of the faithful have died, but only one-tenth of them fell by my hand, the rest were slain by my fellow-demon, FEAR.'"

In times of war, the influence of the mind on the health has been many times strikingly exhibited. During the great Civil War between the North and the South, all newspaper readers knew of the fatality attending the Federal "Army of the Potomac," in the Chickahominy swamps. Most people attributed the prevalence of sickness and death among the soldiers, at that time and place, simply to the unwholesome air of the locality, but this was not all. It was a dark day in our country's history; many of our bravest men felt disheartened; and mental depression, if not despair, rendered our country's noble defenders susceptible to malarious influences, and they consequently became ready victims to the unwholesome vapors with which they were enveloped.

The awful fatality which attended the allied armies at the Crimea,

Fig. 4.

VENOUS CIRCULATION.

The venous system carries back the was undoubtedly more attributable blood after it has deposited its good propto bad management on the part

erties.

of the commanding officers than to inclement weather. The soldiers, having lost confidence in their commanders, became depressed in

spirit; they were filled with fearful forebodings; the buoyancy of their nervous system was disturbed, and thereby digestion impaired. Through these discouragements they were made susceptible to disease, and would have been liable to i's attacks, however favorable the climate; while a slight unfavorable change in a foreign atmosphere, under such circumstances, would induce fatal results.

The English press attributed the sudden death of Lord Raglan to the censures heaped upon him at home. Many politicians in this country ascribe the brief illness which ended the career of America's greatest statesman, to disappointment in not receiving the Presi dential nomination from a convention of his party.

Thus we see the influence of the mind on the body is generally understood and admitted. But few stop to divine the means by which it is effected. It is well, therefore, to understand that every organ is notified on the telegraphic system, if any thing offends the spirit of the human being, and these organs are often taxed or compelled to give back part of the nervo-electricity with which they are performing their offices. If, through any accident to the limbs, contact with any powerful poison, or impurity of the blood, the harmonious evolution and circulation of the nervo-electric fluid in any part of the body are disturbed, the brain feels the effect, discovers the cause, and faithfully informs all the members of the family, who contribute vital healing forces with which they endeavor to conciliate the difficulty, and if they fail, the whole system is thrown into discord.

Next, I will speak of the blood, for all diseases which do not arise from the causes already named and explained, have their birth in a deranged condition of that almost as mysterious fluid which circulates through the entire system. In plain language, the blood is fluid bone, fluid cartilage, fluid muscle, fluid nerve, and fluid every thing that goes to make up the human body. Technically, it is mainly composed of corpuscles floating in liquor sanguinis. These corpuscles are minute bodies, resembling, very nearly, in shape, pieces of coin, as represented in the illustration, Fig. 7. They can only be seen by aid of the microscope. There are two kinds of corpuscles, the red and the white, or colorless. In health, the red predominates in the ratio of three or four hundred to one of the white corpuscle. Hoffman estimates that there are twenty-eight pounds of blood in a man of average size. This fluid is circulated through the system by the heart,