The law of human increase, or population based on physiology and psychology / by Nathan Allen.

  • Nathan Allen
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The law of human increase, or population based on physiology and psychology / by Nathan Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    in a perfectly liealtliy state, and one feeble, weakly, and of low vitality. In the former case the muscle is not only larger, but of harder substance, stronger •fibre, abounding in arterial blood, and will bear a greater amount of exercise without fatigue ; but in the latter case the muscle is soft, flabby, compara- tively ])ale, and easily tires under exercise. No law in physiology is more thoroughly established than that exercise alone gives strength to an organ. The order of nature is that this e.xercise should commence early in life, and that the most important part of this training should be obtained before tlie system reaches maturity. It is true, however, some improvement may be made in the muscular fibre after the ai^e of twen- ty, and even thirty, but such a change is not so easy or common. Another design of nature is, that the muscles must have a slow groAvth, in order to be healthy and strong. It is mod-erate exercise^ ^ong continued, and repeated over and over, that gives a healthv tissue. In accordance with this law it has V been found that the lighter exercises of gymnastics are more favorable to health than the violent. There is also another important law or condition in this matter of exercise ; inasmuch as there is a great vari- ety of muscles, differing in size, connection, and use, there must be also a great variety of exercise in oj’der to develoj) and strengthen all these muscles. Now what has been the early training of our females for the last thirty or forty years, as it respects work, and what are the present practices ? It is a fact established by a series of statistics that domestic
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