quality of his food. Cookery gives to it an additional power of affecting the organs of taste, and of course of stimulating the appetite. It is furnished to him, also, at regular intervals, and without intermission. The digestive organs do not at one time undergo the trial of an unnatural abstinence, nor at another of great indulgence after too prolonged a fast.

The effect of this state of things upon man, corresponds, as we apprehend, to that which is produced upon plants and animals. His physical system is improved by it. The observation of those who have been conversant with barbarous and savage tribes, teaches us that they are much inferior to civilized nations in beauty and strength. We know that that race of mankind to which the inhabitants of Europe belong, is decidedly superior to all the rest, not only in beauty of person, but in ability for enduring labor and fatigue. This is the race which has enjoyed for the longest period the blessings of civilization, and whose physical capacities have been in consequence most fully developed.

The same thing has been witnessed on a smaller scale in smaller communities. In some of the South Sea Islands, the rich and noble form a distinct class by themselves, and are much larger, more finely formed and stronger than the poor. In the former, wealth and rank, and consequently good living, are hereditary. In the course of years the effect has been to produce as much difference in the frame and physical constitution of the two classes, as exists in regard to their rank and situation. The same effect has been observed to have been partially produced in some European countries, where wealth and rank have belonged to certain families for a long series of years.

We do not by any means intend to attribute the difference between savage and civilized man, and between the well fed and the ill fed classes of society, wholly to difference of food. Other circumstances in their relative situation no doubt contribute much to these results. But difference of food, is one circumstance, and a pretty important one, which contributes to the improvement of the physical constitution of man, both as an individual and as a species. For many striking illustrations of the actual advantages which the well fed, clothed, sheltered and warmed portion of mankind have over others, in regard to health and long life, we may refer our readers back to a previous number of this journal, in which some very important

and interesting results of late inquiries concerning these subjects, were briefly detailed.*

Now it may be inquired, admitting the statements which have been made to be true, so far as nourishment is concerned, how are these effects brought about? by what process or upon what principle is this improvement produced, and whether the remote evil consequences upon the health of mankind in the production of disease, may not have been such as to counterbalance all the good which has been otherwise derived?

We may account for the changes thus produced in the physical constitution of mankind, by considering, that, in the ordinary course of things in the human body, none of our organs are tasked to the utmost labor which they are capable of performing. They are all capable, if excited by their proper stimulus, of accomplishing a great deal more than is usually demanded of them. The stomach and nutritient organs, for instance, receive and digest a certain limited amount of food, and the system is well nourished, and every function goes on well; yet they have the power of receiving and digesting a good deal more than what is barely enough, and that without any embarrassment; and the system at large has the power of appropriating this superfluous nourishment, and thus of bringing about a more full developement of its organs. In short, it would seem that the food which we take in civilized life, either from its quantity, from its variety, from its agreeable impression on the organs of sense, or else from its stimulating quality, does actually excite the organs of digestion to more vigorous efforts than the more plain and sparing and irregular diet, with which nations in a ruder state of society are obliged to content themselves. The consequence is, that a larger quantity of the circulating fluid is prepared and sent into the blood vessels. Perhaps it is of a more stimulating quality, or of a quality better adapted to excite into action the organs to which it is distributed. These organs have the same power of increased activity with the digestive, and hence are more abundantly nourished. Thus the whole system becomes more fully developed, each organ more capable of action, and all this within the limits of perfect health; for the organs themselves on which the labor first and chiefly falls, viz. the digestive, partake in the same increase of strength and capacity, and gradually become so accustomed to the increased labor, that

* Christian Examiner, N. S. Vol. II. p. 240. Medical Statistics.

they perform it as easily as that which originally belonged to them.

Let us not be understood as carrying this doctrine to an unlimited extent. We wish only to express such opinions as are strictly supported by facts and by sound physiology, and trust that they will not be perverted, so as to countenance gluttony and luxurious indulgence. This power of accommodation in our system, can be carried only to a certain extent. If we increase the quantity or variety, or increase the stimulating quality of our food beyond a certain point, the organs become oppressed, they labor in the performance of their function, they perform it imperfectly, and derangement and disease is the final result. It is only by a due regard to the proper mean in our manner of living, that we can secure all the advantages of this capacity for improvement, without suffering from any of the evils incident to its abuse.

We may now answer the question proposed above, whether the evils actually endured from this source, are not sufficient to counterbalance all the good which proceeds from it. We answer, no. It cannot be doubted that this principle of improvement in our corporeal frames, is open to much abuse; that, by the possession of this power of accommodation, we are tempted too strongly to sensual indulgence, and that too many of us pay the penalty with our health, or even with our lives. We are not even disposed to deny that many individuals suffer in the same way and to the same extent, from a limited and proper use of the appetite, on account of some peculiarity of constitution. Yet we still maintain that the good far outweigh the evil results. The analogy is exact between the improvement of the body which thus takes place, and that cultivation of the intellectual and moral nature which is equally the result of the state in which civilized and refined society places us. This cultivation is the effect of excitements to activity, of various kinds, growing out of the connexions of social life, and the demands for intellectual efforts, which the association of men with one another necessarily occasions. Education supplies the same sort of stimulus to increased activity, and-if we choose so to call it—unnatural developement of the mind, that improved diet does to the body. The result in each case is the same. Within certain limits and in well balanced constitutions, there is an increase in the strength of the powers, and in the ability for proper exertion. In excess, or in constitutions not well balanced, derangement and disease may follow, either of body or of mind.

Much is generally said by writers on dietetics, of wearing out the organs by this system of over-nutrition, even where no immediate evil is the result; and this is probably true, wherever there is any excess. The difficulty is in determining, with regard to each individual, what the measure of excess is. A great difficulty it is; one, indeed, which we cannot well get overso much do constitutions differ, and so remote may be the evil consequences of excess. We can judge fairly only by looking on society in a mass, and comparing the health and length of life of civilized nations with those of uncivilized. The comparison is decidedly in favor of the former. It is true that civilized man is the subject of a much greater number of diseases than the savage; but then he has a greater power of enduring and resisting disease, and of recovering from it; and notwithstanding the multiplicity of his diseases, he enjoys on an average a greater length of life.

We beg that what has thus been said, in explanation of a principle which is as true in a physiological point of view, as it is beneficial in its operation on the physical, moral and intellectual powers of our race, may not be perverted or misconstrued so as to serve as an apology, in any degree, for indulgence. We believe with our author, that, generally among ourselves, and among the richer and middling classes of all civilized nations, the error is, that too much and too stimulating food is consumed. Yet that the error, on an average, is not the enormous one which some represent, is shown by the results to which we have before referred. But it seems to us as clear, that a considerable proportion of mankind, take the world through, suffer from the other extreme, in health, in length of life, and in mind.

We do not doubt, that, to many, the opinions now expressed will seem dangerous, and perhaps false. We sincerely believe them to be founded in truth; and if true, they cannot be dangerous. We must confess that we have no sympathy whatever with the doctrine which would deny to those in health a moderate indulgence of the natural appetites. Was the exquisite sense of taste, corresponding as it does to a profusion of objects around us calculated to excite it agreeably, bestowed upon us only to be mortified and denied its natural gratification? We hold, on the contrary, that the power of accommodation in the animal economy, was intended to allow of this gratification within certain limits, and that the indulgence of the taste and the appe

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tite in moderation, as is done in the social circles of civilized life, has its share in promoting kind feelings and affectionate intercourse between man and man.

The evil, and truly a great one it is, lies in the abuse of the privileges which have been thus bestowed on us. Everything should be done to circulate just views and promote correct habits in so important a particular. Excess is a great mischief; but it does not therefore follow that entire abstemiousness is the proper course in order to avoid that mischief. Let us not be accused of letting down the standard of true temperance in taking this ground, or of parleying with our vicious dispositions for indulgence, and recommending an easy virtue. It is not so. Abstinence is an easier virtue than temperance. It is easier to deny entirely the appetite, than, when excited by indulgence, to stop it at a point short of satiety. The hardest lesson we can learn is that of moderation.

ART. VIII.-An Address delivered before the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, at the Celebration of their Eighth Triennial Festival, October 7, 1830.-By JOSEPH T. BUCKINGHAM.-Boston: John Cotton, 1830. 8vo. pp. 32.

THE Society before which this address was delivered, is composed of mechanics. It was instituted in 1795, and incorporated in 1806, with authority to accumulate a capital fund for the purpose of relieving the distresses of unfortunate mechanics and their families, to promote inventions and improvements in the mechanic arts, by granting premiums for said inventions and improvements, and to assist young mechanics with loans of money.' These noble designs have been faithfully accomplished. The society has a fund of fourteen thousand dollars permanently invested. On the decease of any member, his family is entitled to receive forty dollars. For several years past, a school for the instruction of apprentices in reading, writing, and arithmetic, has been kept for three months in the year, and a course of scientific lectures has been instituted, continuing weekly, from October to April, at which some of the most distinguished citizens of the State have gratuitously filled the chair.