It is evident, if we look into the vegetable kingdom, and it is a fact tolerably well known and familiar to the experience of all, that plants will not bloom, flourish or live, if they are deprived of those essential stimulants, light and air; and if any portion of the functions of their respiratory system be interrupted, or suspended, they will soon wither and at length die. It is really surprising, that such analogies should pass unheeded,

There is another very prolific source of nervous disorder to which I wish to draw special attention. Ladies suffer from every variety of nervous derangement and confirmed ill health, entirely referable to their impeding or preventing the supply of oxygen requisite to support life in its due degree of vigour and activity. Many of them inform me that they have consulted the most eminent medical men in the metropolis, who must have observed that much, if not all, their misery was entirely owing to tight-lacing. Yet, strange as it may appear, none thought it necessary to insist on the removal of the cause; so difficult is it even for men of the highest repute and authority, to make innovations upon prejudices and long established habits and customs.

The annexed drawings p. 39 (copied from Erasmus Wilson's work) Fig. 7, illustrates the baneful effects produced by the mechanical action of tight-lacing, unhappily so prevalent amongst females. Fig. 8 shews the outline of the healthy-formed chest, unaltered by mechanical or artificial compression. Fig. 7 shews the melancholy contrast, the capacity of the chest permanently and irreparably contracted and distorted by indulging in the practice of tight-lacing. Hence there is no possibility of amplifying the chest or inflating the lungs. The skeleton from which the drawing is taken is still in existence and presents a hideous picture. A frightful

deformity of what was once perhaps beautiful and the object of admiration.

It may then be reasonably asked, How can it be expected that persons who so distort themselves should enjoy good health, while they thus forcibly prevent the

The figures relating to Diagram 8 shew the positions that the lungs, the liver, stomach, and part of the bowels ought to occupy, when the patient is well formed and healthy, and we need not be surprised if, when they are compressed, they cease to perform their functions healthily.

ingress of that amount of atmospheric air so essential to the purposes of life, and so necessary to maintain the due degree of health and vigour?

If further evidence is necessary of the evil results of an insufficient, or an impure supply of atmospheric air, and of its sure efficacy not only in disposing to, but actually bringing on, consumption, it will be found in the

well known and established fact that tubercles in the lungs, the cause of consumption, can be induced to almost any extent in different animals, e. g., monkeys, by forcing them to breathe a close and impure atmosphere.

Another fertile source of nervous disorder, and one greatly neglected, is inattention to the skin, which performs a very important part in the animal economy. Inattention to its secretion is always attended with more mischief than can at first sight be well imagined by the unprofessional reader, There is a large quantity of waste and effete material which it is necessary to remove from the system, and which, if retained, or but partially removed, proves injurious to animal life. The skin - a diagram, of which (fig. 9), copied from Combe, is here subjoined is an organ intended to exhale, and relieve

the general system from a number of effete principles. This is effected through the medium of the insensible perspiration. The vapour, thus exhaled through the skin, becomes in part absorbed by the dress, and in part is carried off by evaporation, and diffused through the surrounding air. The extent and amount of insensible

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perspiration, is rendered quite evident, in what is termed muggy" day, when the atmosphere is already overcharged with moisture. Such an atmosphere will not absorb any more moisture. Evaporation, consequently, ceases, and the perspiration, not being carried off, condenses upon the surface. Hence it is that an animal, in such a state of atmosphere, will sweat profusely on slight exertion; and it is also on this account, that in marshy damp localities, where the atmosphere is continually surcharged with moisture and various exhalations, consumption, and nervous affections, are generally prevalent.

The exhalation from the skin consists of a complication of materials. These, frequently, become condensed, and deposited upon the surface of the skin, forming a layer or incrustation, which clogs and closes up the pores, and is productive of much mischief, and serious injury to the health, especially where there is any tendency to consumption.

According to the experiments of Lavoisier twenty ounces of waste material pass out through the skin every twenty-four hours. But, during severe exercise, when the action of the skin is greatly increased, the quantity thrown out is largely augmented.

In the treatment of nervous affections, especially when complicated with consumption, it is of the greatest importance, that the functions of the skin be kept in a free and healthy state. We must ever remember, in treating affections of the lungs, that the skin, the liver, the kidneys, and the lungs are the four great purifying organs, and are the media, through which noxious matters are thrown out from the system; if one of them, therefore, be disordered and enfeebled, it is the more necessary that the others should act vigorously, and per

form their functions well, so as to give the weaker organs less to do.

The skin, as I have already remarked, is an exhalant organ, and therefore conveys effete matter away from the system. It also absorbs and takes up matters applied to its surface, and conveys them into the system. Thus mercury, cantharides, and various other agents, applied to the skin, are taken up, and, as is well known, produce their specific effects upon certain parts of the frame. So the noxious principles separated and thrown out by the skin, if, instead of being washed off by regular and sufficient ablutions, they be allowed to remain and accumulate upon it, will be reabsorbed, and taken back into the circulation. They thus poison the blood, and give rise to various and severe disorders.

Few persons, who have not paid attention to this subject, would credit the relief, that may be obtained by the regular use of the warm and tepid bath, cold sponging, and friction of the skin, in the treatment of nervous disorders, when the lungs are implicated. I have treated some thousands of cases of nervous affections, many of which had been the round of the profession; yet, I have been surprised, and feel reluctant to state, how few had been recommended to adopt the sanatory measures herein inculcated. It is surprising, that even the patients themselves should be so indifferent to such obvious means of preserving their health. I am satisfied that not one of them would have kept a groom a fortnight, who omitted to cleanse the skin of his horses, for experience has taught us that, whatever be the nature or excellence of their food, animals will not thrive if this principle be neglected. Strange then that man should so carefully watch over the health of his beast, and yet prove so indifferent to his own.