means of phosphorus that the blood is empowered to eliminate soul-aliment for the use of the brain and nerves. The direct and reflex action of the internal nerves, whether the mind is sleeping or waking, and several metamorphoses at the looping terminations of the involuntary conductors, are referable to the electro-chemical action of phosphorus in the brain and blood. Many physiologists have supposed that even the "nervous influence" is generated by the oxydation of the vesicular tissues, which is regarded as one of the four metamorphoses accomplished in the empire of ganglionic jurisdiction. The just and healthy action of the lymphatic system is inseparable from the vigilant operations of the cerebro-sympathetic nerves.

By means of these internal Nerves the cerebellum is apprised of any and every transaction in the vital department. Thus, for example, if any nauseous and poisonous substance be swallowed, the irritation occasioned by it in the stomach would instantaneously be reported to the brain, which, in its turn, would rouse the intellect and the involuntary system, and each is forthwith summoned to "fly to the rescue of the afflicted part-while headache, dizziness, prostration of the will, and exhaustion, are effects very likely to ensue. In this manner one part telegraphs to all other parts through the great Sympathetic Nerve and the brain, which is the central agent and righteous ruler over the empire. And now let the remedial benefit of this be well understood What is that benefit?

It is this:

The intuition of the Sympathetic Nerve is wiser than the best physician. Should water get into one of the air-passages, the Nerve says-" expel it!" and your judgment obeys the impulse to "cough it out." When your finger is bruised, the Nerve says" bind up the injured member," and your judg ment responds, "protect it," but perchance you disobey. The penalty in some cases has been "death by mortification," You

are disposed to exercise when chilled, and admonished to sleep when fatigued, because the Nerve's intuition so dictates to your judgment. Do you obey? Or, instead, do you expose yourself to unhealthy temperatures, and stave off the natural sleepiness by artificial heat and ephemeral means of stimulation. If so, you do not harmonize with the intuition of the ganglionic system. You are guilty of disobedience. When diseased, the Sympathetic Nerve says "Rest, rest, rest; be soothed by magnetism; let the lymphatic vessels operate upon and purify the adipose matter in your system: do not eat nutritious food now; be patient; let time work upon you." So the intuitive ganglia prescribe for the prostrate patient-not so the educated physicians of the land; though many of them know that this course would be far best in the majority of cases.

The pathological value of the Sympathetic Nerve is exhibited in its lessons of what is best and most needful when diseased. If the toad, the turtle, the mole, the bee, the dog, cat, horse, &c., (when left to themselves,) will properly prescribe the remedies adapted to their peculiar or accidental ailments, why not the more exalted and finely organized human being? Man's ganglionic system says: "Give me no drugs, but instead, gentle aids and magnetic principles." But that great experimentalist, the front brain, says—“ Why not try a box of pills, a bleeding, and a blister?" And thus many times, when the whole Sympathetic system is crying out against the injustice, the voluntary experimentalizing brain decides to "try the nostrum." Once begun, it is hard to prophesy the result. So, then, since man cannot immediately affect the ganglia of the Sympathetic system by his will, let him at least permit his judgment to be instructed by the wise intuitions which are thus telegraphed to his sensorium and thinking faculties.

CHAPTER VIII.

PHYSIOLOGICAL VIRTUE.

Go to the superficial, and therefore pompous, teacher or professor of Physiology and Health, and he will merely educate your perceptive organs and train your memory. It is the inherent tendency of his school to educate and store your retentive faculties by means of isolated facts and multifarious observations. The experimental and never certain character of his outward science and skill, is, therefore, inevitable, and beyond the necessity of logical illustration. Even the most unlearned the unpretending and common mind-can discern, at a glance, the unreliableness of much of the so termed medical science of the day. The fact, we believe, is conceded, that very few diplomatized and college-bred physicians pretend to master any of our continental diseases-such as Dyspepsia, Hepatic Disorders, Scrofula, Rheumatism, Erysipelas, and Consumption.

We trace the secret of this impotency, among medical men of learning and research, to one cause, namely: the Professors of our colleges of medicine-with few, but glorious exceptions -take the student out of himself, as though he were a spectator, a foreigner, a secondary and subordinate fact, to the science of health and the uses of medicine. The Regular Faculty seem shorn of the natural faculty of truth-seeing. They are scholastic in the department of ritualism, of formulas, of routine, of

factarianism; they can remember and quote illustrative remarks, from this, that, and the other medical authority; but how impoverished and used-up, how unscientific and shallow, how wordy and flatulent, when we call their attention to the deeper truths, to the sublimer realities, to the philosophical principles of Life.

On the other hand, to see the undisguisable contrast, observe how naturally the harmonial teacher of health approaches his subject and the student. He establishes, to begin with, the common profound principle, that "Health is Harmony ". that any, even the least, variation or departure from this fine balance and adjustment of the vital energies, is "Disease." If this departure and derangement be recent and severe, it is termed "Acute;" if of remote origin, congenital, or superinduced by violations upon healthy organs and conditions, it is termed "Chronic."

And now observe further, how the harmonial teacher of Physiology and Therapeutics appeals, not to the student's perceptives and memory merely, but to all the groups of organs, which are the physical foundations of the temple of Reason! He interests the pupil in himself; he attracts and brings him home. He then opens up to his intellect the realities of his own wondrous constitution. He explains the marvellous harmonies and fair proportions of the physical organization. He persuades the student out of his books into himself, and reveals the invisible fountains of recuperative energy, that rise and fall, that repel and attract, that expand and contract, that repose and labor, in the beautiful empire of individual physical existence.

What a glorious medical revelation! The great men of the Colleges pretend to disdain it, do they? Shallow pretense! Say, rather, that they envy the possessor of such simple, yet

sublime knowledge of Nature and her Laws. Under the influence of this harmonial teaching, the student himself becomes a systematic work on Physiology. His self-healing energies constitute the most scientific Pharmacy of curative preparations. The inexhaustible treasuries of scientific lore are secreted in man's organization. The true physician, the unritual, but spiritual, teacher in the departments of physiology and health, is certain to reach the unseen springs of life, and he invariably depends upon the immutable flowings of vital energy for the success of his prescriptions. But patients seldom take any interest in the workings of the natural powers. Hence, frequently, to the efforts of the true physician the words of Pope are lamentably applicable:

"Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand."

By physiological "VIRTUE" we design to imply, not a careless confidence in the never-failing operations of bodily functions -by which abuse and neglect are oftentimes surrounded and defended—but we mean the co-operation of habits and daily conduct with the requirements of the laws of life and happiness.

For example: If your lungs demand pure air, in order to circulate and purify the crimson current of life, you are vicious -morally and intellectually vicious-unless you supply that virtuous demand. If your mouth asks for bread and

you give it tobacco instead, then you are not physiologically virtuous. If your body calls for rest, quiet, or a change of occupation, and you heed it not, or, instead, give it brandy and irritating stimulants, you are then violating the laws of organic virtue.

What follows? All the vagabond troupe of vicious feelings which pervade, torment, betray, and crucify you, when you would be at peace within the temple. The reverse of these