Illustrated medical in-door gymnastics, or a system of medico-hygienic exercises requiring no mechanical or other aid, and adapted to both sexes and all ages, and for special cases / by Moritz Schreber ; translated from the 3rd German edition by Henry Skelton.
- Moritz Schreber
- Date:
- 1856
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Illustrated medical in-door gymnastics, or a system of medico-hygienic exercises requiring no mechanical or other aid, and adapted to both sexes and all ages, and for special cases / by Moritz Schreber ; translated from the 3rd German edition by Henry Skelton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![his mental faculties and bodily powers is requisite. But the full exercise of our physical powers — motion bring- ing the muscles into play — is, however, much more in- dispensable to our existence than mental exercise, as will be better seen by what follows. The whole organisation of our being depends upon the uninterrupted renewing of the material of which our body is composed — on the getting rid of that which, having served its purpose, is now of no more use, and the assimilation of fresh organic stuff, or matter, which the body receives from the nourishment we take, and the air we breathe. The more therefore this renewal of stuff — this transforming process — is brought into action — within certain bounds — the more does the body gain in freshness, force, and durability. We see then that a con- tinual renewal and revivifying of its parts is necessary. All interruption of this process, if not soon remedied causes sickness, disease, and death. Thus is happens that anj insufficient assimilation of matter, and an insufficient throwing off of used-up and therefore useless matter (the remaining of the same in the body) — in short the want of .balance between the amount of matter taken into the body and the amount of it which is consumed, is one of the most general causes of irregularity in the development and working of the mechanism of our nature. But the causes which lead to a renewal of matter are a consequence of the activity of the physical organs in genera], as long as it is in just proportion to the inter- vals of repose. Now the muscular system is by far the most voluminous of all the systems of the body, and the muscle (flesh) substance belongs to those organic tissues](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20407762_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
