Opinions of a Medical Man.

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very frequently change their position, or suffer the terrible penalty for every violation of that law.

Dr J. V. C. Smith, in his Anatomical Class Book, makes the following remarks on the sternum or breast bone.

If distorted or forced from its natural position in youth, it produces alarming consequences in age. If, for example, a person seated, bends his body habitually forward, it eventually bends the point of the sternum inward, where it will finally remain. The consequence is, the capacity of the chest is diminished, and diseases of the lungs, among a catalogue of other maladies, may result from it. Children should be warned of such liability to disease before a habit is formed, that when confirmed is formidable.'

But of what use is it to 'warn' children of this tendency to disease,' when the parents and others concerned compel them. to sit six hours in a day, cramped in our miserably constructed school seats and desks? The public should be told in a voice of thunder that they are criminal, highly so, in not seeking a remedy for these evils. The Alleviating Writing Desk certainly furnishes such a remedy. Our greatest apprehension is that the public cry will be Cost! Cost! Cost! We cannot preserve the lives and health of our children, it will cost so much. They must be sick. A measure of sickness is sent to us all. They must be deformed; it will happen; who can help it? They must die-it will cost 40 cents, per head, a year to prevent it.'

Dr S. again says, 'There is a radical defect in the seats of our school rooms. The seats should be more comfortable, and prevent the bones of the chest from being cramped down and binding the digestive organs.

'Very small children, in schools, become excessively weary, after sitting a little time on stiff benches-are sleepy, and can scarcely be kept awake. This is nature's mode of seeking relief from the pressure and gravity of the chest which is confining both bones and muscles. They should certainly be permitted either to have a recumbent posture, which is thus indicated, or they should be kept but a very little time in one position. Malformation of the bones, narrow chests, coughs, ending in consumption and death in middle life, besides a multitude of minor ills, have often had their origin in the school room.'

So much for the breast bone. Now for the views of the same writer on the spine.

'Between the vertebræ of the spine or back bone, there is an intervening substance, exceedingly elastic, convex on both sides, thick in the centre, and thin at the edge, which is analogous to

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Appeal to Parents and Teachers.

cushions to prevent a sudden jar in our movements. Persons become round shouldered, as the expression is, in consequence of the elasticity of these parts being overcome. permanent stoop or bend of the back is the result. Old age gradually weakens the elastic power, and therefore aged men are often crooked, infirm, and shorter than in early youth. Distortions of the body, producing deformity are referable to the want of spring or elasticity of these cushions.'

Now if the present modes of constructing and using desks in schools, counting houses and elsewhere, is productive of distortion and deformity, must not men be deranged, idiotic-madto persist in the use of seats and desks which produce such results-to prefer distortion, deformity, coughs, consumption, dyspepsia and even death itself, to a little precaution? Or shall we hear the cry, It costs so much? Let the Alleviating Desk but come into general use-we will not say in counting houses and schools alone, but in families too; though peradventure the same desks may yet be found to supply the wants of family and school both-and we will warrant the public, that in less than one century an improvement in the habits and health of our community will be visible, of which few at present have any adequate conception.

Once more we say, let us not hear a word about the cost, especially from those who pay double-nay fourfold-the sum necessary to purchase one of these desks, for articles of furniture which, to say the least, might be dispensed with. We have no objection to the piano forte at two hundred dollars-nay six hundred or a thousand-and mirrors at one hundred, centre tables at twentyfive, &c., and chairs at twelve, provided other wants of the community still more imperious are properly supplied in the first place. We would not complain so much of any sort of extravagance in the community, were it not for the tremendous but undeniable fact, that to procure or use these extravagances, the mass of mankind are obliged to sacrifice comfort and health.

We are unwilling to say more; and yet we feel as if we had as yet said nothing. We long to see the eyes of our community open on this subject. We long to see a measure of that wealth which now goes to purchase the needless or the destructive-in the form of drink, food, dress, furniture, lands, houses, equipage, &c.,-expended in promoting real comfort and happiness. There is not a family, or school, or counting house in Boston, or elsewhere, which cannot better afford to purchase the Alleviating writing desk, or some other desk destined to accomplish the same object-if any such there be-than to do

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without it. Nor is there one family in four from Maine to Georgia, or from the Atlantic to the Rocky mountains, that could not annually save enough by a proper and just economy to purchase one of the smaller single desks of which we have been speaking. We close our remarks with the following letter to the inventor of the desk in question, from the same Dr Smith from whose work we have already made such free quotations.

MR LUTHER,

QUARANTINE GROUND, BOSTON HARBOR,

'Sir: Your invention is admirable. Since making an examination of the Alleviating Writing Desk-a beautiful specimen of cabinet work-it has occurred to me, that if introduced into banks, and in fact all other public institutions where clerks are habitually confined many hours daily, for weeks, months and even years in succession, they would be less liable to painful affections of the chest from which they are certainly very severe sufferers.

'It is generally admitted by physicians, that a tendency to disease of the lungs may be accelerated, and not unfrequently originates in consequence of an unnatural position of those whose vocation it is to write continually at a badly made table or desk. That multitudes of clerks die of pulmonary consumption, is a fact of medical notoriety. Any contrivance therefore which will allow of frequent changes in the position of the writer, and at the same time wholly relieve the breast bone from violence, must be considered in the light of an important invention.

'If you could also adapt the Alleviating Writing Desk to the School Room,* where a total reform in the construction of seats as well as writing desks is absolutely required, the achievement would be worthy of all praise. To those wretched articles of Common School Furniture are we to look, in some measure, for the cause of so many distortions of the bones, spinal diseases, chronic affections, now so prevalent throughout the country. Symmetry of form may be deranged, the vital organs imperfectly perform their functions, and a train of maladies destructive to health, may all be referred, in some instances, to the stiff bench and the still worse writing desk in the common class of school houses. It is a matter of surprise that the evil is not seen in its proper light, by those who exercise a controlling influence in every thing relating to primary education.

As a whole, the desk you have constructed, is not only very

*This, it will be perceived by the foregoing article, can be done.-ED.

464

Elevating the Conscience.

ingenious as a piece of mechanism, but calculated to be exceedingly useful; and cannot fail to be appreciated by those who profess to be interested in the physical as well as the moral and intellectual condition of our race.

Very respectfully,

'Your ob't servant,

'J. V. C. SMITH.'

TRAINING THE CONSCIENCE.

IT is unnecessary to enter here, upon the inquiry, What is conscience. That there is a voice within which pronounces in regard to the right and wrong of human actions, to a greater or less extent, and to which we ought to yield implicit obedience, as to a vicegerent of the Deity, is so generally believed, that whether the view be right or wrong, few will be likely to mistake the meaning of the remarks which follow.

If there be a department in education which may justly be said to be particularly neglected, where neglect, in almost every thing, is little short of universal, it is the moral department. The physical nature, indeed, fares hard at our hands; but is not so universally left to shift for itself, as the moral nature. It is only the intellect—the dry intellect-that receives a measure of attention which approximates to its value and importance.

But amid the neglect of every thing, in the moral department, one thing is neglected more than all-the conscience. Something is done, little as it may be, for the temper; something for the affections; something for the passions and sentiments. Slight efforts are made-by fits and starts, it is true, rather than systematically-to repress anger, revenge, and undue self love; to encourage a proper affection for parents and others, and to inspire with faith and hope. It is rare, however, in the common walks of life, and indeed in any other, that parents and teachers seem to find time for even this part of moral training.

But alas! where is the father, where the mother, where the teacher, who pays any regard to the development or training of the conscience? Is there one person in a hundred, even among those who profess to be guided by the principles of the christian religion, who even so much as thinks of the possibility of increasing or diminishing the conscientiousness of his child, or feels the least degree of responsibility on the subject? Is there one in a hundred, even of the few who believe that the law of conscience

An Error of Daily Occurrence.

465

is imperfect, and may and should be continually elevated to meet the demands of the divine law, who makes a practical application of this knowledge in the education of those committed to his charge? Is there, on the most liberal allowance, one person in a thousand, the measure of whose conscientiousness has been varied by direct effort?

I will not say, positively, that none of these questions can be answered in the affirmative. Lhope, for the honor of human nature, as well as that of christianity itself, that they can. But if so, it must be by those to whom has been assigned a sphere of observation far different from my own; and who have ranged it with far different eyes.

Paul teaches us that whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we should do all to the glory of God. The same doctrine, though perhaps in terms less obvious, is again and again inculcated by the Saviour, and is most strikingly sanctioned by his daily practice. Whatsoever he did, whether the action were regarded as great or small, was done conscientiously. He seemed always to act upon the principle that what was worth doing, was worth doing well. And in no one action of his life-I repeat it-have we reason to believe he ever left out of consideration the approbation or the disapprobation of conscience.

I have indeed heard some psuedo disciples of Christ contend, with earnestness, that there was a large range of the common actions of life which had no moral character at all; and that to cultivate a conscientiousness in the minds of young in regard to them, would be to mislead them, and to set up for them a standard of duty which the Creator never intended. I do not believe, indeed, that there are many who would openly avow such a sentiment, in the face of the Bible itself.

To overt acts of crime-obvious infractions of the laws of the two tables-in civilized and especially christianized states of society, there is, no doubt, in most minds, a good degree of susceptibility. There are probably few individuals among us who break the Sabbath, for example, in a way which would expose them to the penalties of the statute book, without feeling also the reproaches of conscience. The same may be said of profaneness, abuse of parents, direct and obvious theft, gross licentiousness, &c. &c.

But in the ordinary course of daily life, temptations to highhanded acts of vice come but seldom. To take the same example as before; there are few persons among us, who were they thousands of miles from home and among savages, or where there was scarcely a possibility of their conduct ever becoming known to their friends, would not feel at first the reproaches of