The cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / Edited by John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly.

Date:: 1848

Credit: The cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / Edited by John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

767/828 (page 765)

$she opened a school, which she superintended with unremitting assiduity. Her nervous maladies vanished, and for years she persevered steadily in her altered but more happy course of life. It would have been fortunate if she had commenced this earlier; for the delicacy of constitution created by early mismanagement laid the founda- tion of phthisis, of which she eventually became a victim. While inactivity of brain leads to evil, over- excitement is no less injurious; and if persisted in without suitable relaxation, exhaustion and permanent weakness are the results. In ordinary- education both errors are committed. The mental powers exercised are too few, and these are con- tinually overworked, while the larger portion is left to chance for obtaining any exercise at all. In education, too, attention is too exclusively directed to the intellectual powers, while the effective and moral faculties are unheeded, or only acted on through the intellect. And yet they admit of rational culture equally as the intellectual powers, while on them and on their government do the virtue and happiness of mankind far more depend. Intellect is no doubt capable of assisting in this government, but never can the moral feel- ings be disciplined through intellect alone. Ethical discourses, the most eloquent and conclusive, may be pronounced, but alone they reach not the heart. The moral sentiments, to be truly cultivated, must be felt; objects must be presented capable of ex- citing emotions; and then intellect may interpose to assign the just limits of their indulgence. No discourse on charity can have the effect of a real opportunity for doing a benevolent action. No lecture on justice can make impression equally as an occasion of exercising this quality, especially where other incitements opposed to it require to be overcome. A conquest thus gained does more to confirm the principles, from the deeper impres- sion made by a practical example beyond that of a speculative rule, and from conscious satisfaction and heartfelt pleasure derived from every victory over self, when once the victory is completed, than all that the most profound moralists ever wrote. The minds of the young should be exer- cised in all the faculties by which their social condition in after-life is to be maintained, and in this some attention should be given to the natural order of their development; for some precede others in activity, and also become more quickly matured. Most of the affections and moral senti- ments may be observed in their manifestations even in the cradle. Of the intellectual powers, those which are employed in acquiring a know- ledge of the external world are earliest developed. The reflective faculties advance more slowly, and hardly attain full power until the body reaches its full growth. Much of our ordinary courses of education is in opposition to these facts. Many of our classical books which mere boys are con- demned to read, require not only mature intellect, but considerable knowledge of the world for their comprehension. The object of education is to fit human beings for maintaining their social relations, and perform- ing all their several duties in life. For this end they should learn the properties of bodies, and also the qualities by which men act on these and on each other. Minute and Intimate knowledge of all these it would be impracticable for any indi- vidual to attain, nor is it necessary ; but an outline of them is within the reach of all, and this, which to any ordinary capacity would be only pleasura- ble acquirement, may prove of much practical utilit)', while by exercising the cerebral organs it will invigorate both these and their functions, be a source of much pure gratification, withdrawing the mind from selfish and sensual pursuits, and through its manifold influences have a beneficial effect on the general health. The various branches of natural science are among the best exercises on which the young mind can be employed; for while they engage a large number both of the knowing and reflecting faculties, they incite also several of the higher sentiments by presenting to the mind the wisdom and goodness of the great Creator, so abundantly displayed in all his works ; the benevolent purposes for which all these are designed, the good which they impart, and the happiness which they diffuse. Such contempla- tions withdraw the mind from selfish passions, consigning them to that quiescence which lightens the task of keeping them under due control. Above all other studies, however, that of the mind itself is the most interesting and the most important. By it alone can we form a just estimate either of ourselves or others, or have any clear conception of the powers with which nature has endowed us. Some knowledge of these powers must be of material assistance to us in regulating their exercise, ascertaining their objects, and re- straining their excesses. The subject, however, is far too copious for this place, and unsuited for the present occasion. What has been adduced was necessary in order to convey any conception of the influence of mental actions on the bodily frame, and to show the intimate connection that subsists between mental and physical education. That the foregoing sketch of the latter is far from complete we are well aware. Many points of de- tail have been passed over or slightly noticed, which would admit of more copious illustration and more explicit instruction. If we mistake not, however, enough has been advanced to display the principles on which physical education should be conducted; and an outline at least has been furnished which each reader may readily fill up according to his intelligence, and to the condition of life to which it is to be applied. E. Barlow. ELECTRICITY. —When a substance had acquired the power of first attracting and then re polling light bodies placed in its vicinity, and of emitting sparks, it is, in the language of electri- cians, said to be excited. These phenomena, we are told, were first observed by Thales of Miletus in a piece of amber, which by the Greeks was called i]\tKTpov, and heiace the origin of the term electricity. Electricity may be developed by several means, the chief of which are friction, the contact of dis- similar substances, pressure, variations of tempe- rature, and chemical action. In the present article we shall confine ourselves to the first-mentioned source, and shall dwell even upon it no further than may be necessary for rendering intelligible$