INDEX.

CONVERSATION I.

Meaning of the word Physiology.-Its use.-Laws of Nature
ought to be learnt by all ages and all classes.--Health, the
first blessing of life

CONVERSATION II.

Physiology teaches how to secure Health, and avoid Disease.
The skin composed of three layers, or coats.-The cuticle
-it thickens with use.--The mucous coat.-The third, or
true skin.-Exhalation.-Effects of cold on the skin.-In
infancy the skin most susceptible.-Mortality of infants,
from exposure to cold.

CONVERSATION III.

Defence of Physiology.-Women of the upper classes more
delicate than Peasants.-Water and a rough towel.-Air-
ing bed rooms and bedding.-Neglect of washing in Ame-
rica. The skin a regulator of heat.-Clothing-too little
and too much, both bad.-Wet feet

1

7

19

CONVERSATION IV.

The Skin absorbs.-Example in a dog.-Malaria absorbed
by the Skin.-Sunshine and Light good for the Skin.-
Skin the seat of sensation.-Mental emotions affect the
Skin. The robust and healthy feel cold less than the in-
valid

29

CONVERSATION V.

Laws of Nature unchangeable.-Obedience to them the
source of happiness.--The Muscles.--Exercise.--The
young require exercise most.-When rest is no rest.-
Muscles require the stimulant of the mind.-Deformity
results from feeble muscles.-Retreat of the French from
Moscow. Story in "The Spectator."

CONVERSATION VI.

There should be harmony between the mind and muscles.-
Exercise should be in proportion to strength.-The plea-
sure-trip of a person unused to exercise.-Stiff stays.-
Times for exercise.-Boys and girls as differently brought
up as if of different species

CONVERSATION VII.

Different sorts of exercise.-Young men often overtask
their muscles.-Quotation from Dr. Combe on the neces-
sity of studying Physiology.-Riding on horseback.-
Archery. To overtask the muscles as bad as not to use
them.-Reading aloud. The bones composed of two sub-
stances one animal, one earthy

CONVERSATION VIII.

37

47

57

Bones have Blood-vessels and Nerves.-A continual decay
and renovation.-In youth, manhood, and old age the
bones vary. The Skull decreases and increases with the
Brain. The Chest small in childhood-increases in man-
hood-decreases in old age.-Exercise.-Physical, as well
as Moral Laws, binding.-Truth

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INDEX.

ix

CONVERSATION IX.

Circulation of the Blood.-The Lungs.-Red arterial blood.
Dark venous blood.-Lungs absorb-they throw out waste
matter.-Consumption.--Matrimony.-Money and health.
-Insufficient food bad for the Lungs.-Original forma-
tion important.-Free expansion of the Chest.-Stays.-
Grief causes Consumption

CONVERSATION X.

Oxygen, or vital air.-One pair of Lungs take from the air
1440 cubic inches of oxygen, and add to it 1440 inches of
carbonic acid gas.-Black Hole, Calcutta.-Crabbe, the
poet.-Churches ill-ventilated.--Gas.--Effects of bad air
on the robust, and on the invalid.-Animal heat

CONVERSATION XI.

Indirect and direct exercise of the Lungs.-De Fellingberg's
School at Berne.-Climbing hills.-Riding on horseback.—
Noisy play good for children.-A common cold.-Con-
sumption. Physical system most important in youth.—
Nervous System and Brain.-The first condition for a
healthy brain, is a good natural formation.-Matrimony..

CONVERSATION XII.

A mother's care begins earlier than is imagined.-James the
Sixth's excuse for his cowardice.-Many idiots born du-
ring the French revolution.-The second condition for a
healthy brain is a good supply of blood.-Starvation causes
madness. Exercise.-The consequences of inactivity of
the Brain.-Foreign baths

CONVERSATION XIIL
Over-exertion of the Brain.-A peep into the Skull.-Scro-
fulous children often precocious.-Infant manuals of
science.-Infant Schools.--Example of a precocious child..
American annals of education.-Sir Humphrey Davy.-
Sir Walter Scott

73

84

94

104

113

CONVERSATION XIV.

The time to exercise the Brain-not after eating or hard la-
bour-the morning best.-Periodicity.-Perceptive powers
-their exercise.-A savage wiser in education than we are.
-Love of praise.-Benevolence.-Justice.-The moral
and pious suffer equally with the wicked from neglecting
the physical laws.-Bad health originates with ourselves,
and not with our benevolent Creator

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PHYSIOLOGY FOR YOUNG LADIES.

CONVERSATION I.

Ir was a fine May morning: the pale primrose was waning in the hedge-rows: the tall blue-bells were ringing their silent melodies in the breeze, and the cuckoo," wandering harbinger of Spring," was singing his short song, as he flew over the green meadows. All nature seemed beautiful-all living things blithe and happy; fulfilling the duties that their wise and beneficent Creator had designed. And no minds could better appreciate and reflect upon that harmony and happiness than Grace Clifford and her aunt Mrs. Fitzwarine, who were walking over the fields on this bright May morning.

Grace was sixteen, and with the elastic step of youth and health she tripped merrily over the soft green turf, carrying on her arm a basket containing something for a poor sick cottager. The aunt kept pace more demurely with her youthful companion, carrying in her hand some medicine, which she was going to administer, by the doctor's advice, to the same sick person.

"Aunt Ellen," said Grace, "what did Dr. Dee mean by saying that people in general were so igno

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