570

Instruction in Anatomy and Physiology.

CHEEVER'S LATIN ACCIDENCE. Boston, 1838: pp. 72.

If it were possible for mere antiquity to give claims to excellence in a school book, that before us should certainly be regarded as among the first in our own country. It is an elementary work, compiled by Ezekiel Cheever, who was 70 years a teacher of Latin, and was used in this country almost two centuries. The copy before us has just been carefully revised, corrected and stereotyped from the 18th edition. It is designed for mere beginners in the study; but might afford hints for not a few who are somewhat advanced. We cannot now enter deeply into an examination of the work; but it is at least a great curiosity. We observe, however, that it comes to us highly recommended by those who ought to be judges of its merits.

POPULAR INSTRUCTION IN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.

The House I live in,' written by the editor of this journal, having been republished in London, with some slight changes by Mr Thoinas Girtin, a surgeon, and having been once more carefully revised and somewhat enlarged by the original author, and rendered as perfect as the nature of the case will permit, has just passed to a third edition, and is stereotyped.-In the present shape it is more happily adapted to schools than ever before; and will, we suppose, meet with a more extensive sale for this purpose.

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The advantages of understanding, thoroughly, the philosophy of the human structure, and the laws which prevail within us, are rated vastly too low, by the great mass of the community. It is not our object — it never has been our object — in pressing the study of Anatomy and Physiology upon the public mind, merely to render men better animals than they were before. We trust we have a higher and more noble object. Mankind can never- —even professing christians attain to the standing they may desire-they can never become the perfect men and women they desire or should desire to be-till they have more perfect bodies than at present they possess. Teachers must understand these matters, and teach them to their children. Ministers must understand them, and their knowledge must modify their instructions. Legislators must make laws with the human constitution, its laws and relations, full before them; and, above all, parents must educate in the light of the same scien

ces.

In regard to the importance of having females so educated that they may become in this respect what they should be, in their influence upon society, we know not that we can do better than to make the following extract from the November number of the Library of Health.

'We had long been looking at every point of the social horizon, for the appearance of some intelligent and philanthropic female, whose in

Physical Man.

571

structions on this vastly important subject should prove the favored means of emancipating her sex from a bondage more cruel and more destructive a thousand times more so – than that worse than Egyptian bondage to which in this professedly free country, two and a half millions of men made of the same blood with ourselves, are subjected. 'Male instructors never can perform the service to which we refer, in a proper manner, at least till christianity - pure and undefiled — becomes more common among us; but as this can never happen till mothers and daughters are instructed in anatomy, physiology and hygiene, the world has been long involved in a dilemma from which nothing but female instruction and female philanthropy could extricate it. In this state of things, forth steps Mrs Gove, a lady possessed of the very qualifications demanded, and proposes, not without great diffidence, a course of lectures. She is sustained and encouraged by the physicians both of Lynn and Boston. She is, moreover, sustained by four to five hundred exclusively female hearers; and in one instance, when her lecture on tight lacing was repeated gratuitiously in the Marlboro' Chapel, by no less, it is said, than two thousand. But this is not all. A new spirit is roused. Her hearers, especially the friends of physiological science, begin to take courage.

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Such results - so unexpected to the friends of the cause, and even to Mrs Gove herself are full of promise, not only to Boston and its vicinity, but to the world. For although little permanent reliance should be placed on mere lectures, yet the instruction of classes of female pupils in anatomy and physiology, is no longer problematical. Let our young ladies devote years of patient attention to these hitherto neglected subjects, as Mrs G. has, and then let them enter-not of necessity into Marlboro' Chapel, or any other fashionable or costly edifice - but into those minor chapels with which our land is studded the school houses and academies. Nor is this all. Let them enter the sanctuary of their own household, and there reveal, as circumstances and opening years may render it practicable, the laws of the Creator established in the human frame; and the relations of that frame and its wonderful machinery to the rest of the world within and without it. Then will improvement go - then will the desert of the human heart be cultivated.'

on

PHYSICAL MAN.

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Our readers will have seen, ere this, a notice on the cover of our last 'number, of Robert Mudie's new work, entitled, 'Man, in his Physical Structure and Adaptations.' It is the first of a regular series, of four volumes, the three remaining of which are to be published hereafter.

We are glad to see a demand, in our community, for works of the character of that before us. For although about 30,000 copies of Combe's

Constitution of Man, have been scattered in the community, either this side of the Atlantic or the other, there remains yet a great work to do. Multitudes are prejudiced against Combe's works, because the author happens to be a phrenologist, although little of his favorite science is to be found in his Constitution of Man. With such persons, Mudie will be a favorite, as he is rather opposed to phrenology. In any event his work is highly instructive, were it only on account of its numerous facts. We hope it will be extensively read; and that the whole class of books which have a bearing upon the physical improvement of man will find more and more of public favor.

DELICATE HEALTH.

Weeks, Jordan & Co., of this city, have published a little work, entitled Flora Blanchard, or Delicate Health, with the following paragraph for a motto, A little for the stomach's sake.' It is an excellent thing, and if widely circulated will have a most favorable bearing on the great cause of physical education, and physical man.—In the language of another writer respecting it, we may add; 'It illustrates, in a touching manner, the evil effects which often arise from a custom too prevalent in society, of endeavoring to remedy a weak constitution and delicate health, by stimulating potations, which, instead of benefiting the system, invariably prove highly injurious, both in a moral and physical point of view; to the infant and the adult; to the robust man, or the most delicate woman.'

We are fully prepared to show, did the nature of our journal permit it, that more of life and health are sacrificed at the threshold, by mismanagement, especially by unnecessary dosing, than by any other single cause whatever. From the cradle to the grave, in fashionable society, mankind are, as a general fact, subjected to daily dosing with something. which we call medicinal — liquid or solid. This perpetual but needless dosing lowers the standard of physical vigor in those who are called healthy; it predisposes to actual disease; it has a tendency to render diseases when they come, more severe than otherwise they would be; and lastly, it renders medicine less efficient in its operation when it is actually demanded.

Constitution of Man, have been scattered in the community, either this
side of the Atlantic or the other, there remains yet a great work to do.
Multitudes are prejudiced against Combe's works, because the author
happens to be a phrenologist, although little of his favorite science is to
be found in his Constitution of Man. With such persons, Mudie will be
a favorite, as he is rather opposed to phrenology. In any event his work
is highly instructive, were it only on account of its numerous facts. We
hope it will be extensively read; and that the whole class of books which
have a bearing upon the physical improvement of man will find more
and more of public favor.

DELICATE HEALTH.

Weeks, Jordan & Co., of this city, have published a little work, enti-
tled Flora Blanchard, or Delicate Health, with the following paragraph
for a motto, A little for the stomach's sake.' It is an excellent thing,
and if widely circulated will have a most favorable bearing on the great
cause of physical education, and physical man.-In the language of
another writer respecting it, we may add; 'It illustrates, in a touching
manner, the evil effects which often arise from a custom too prevalent
in society, of endeavoring to remedy a weak constitution and delicate
health, by stimulating potations, which, instead of benefiting the system,
invariably prove highly injurious, both in a moral and physical point of
view; to the infant and the adult; to the robust man, or the most del-
icate woman.'

We are fully prepared to show, did the nature of our journal permit
it, that more of life and health are sacrificed at the threshold, by mis-
management, especially by unnecessary dosing, than by any other single
cause whatever. From the cradle to the grave, in fashionable society,
mankind are, as a general fact, subjected to daily dosing with something
which we call medicinal-liquid or solid. This perpetual but needless
dosing lowers the standard of physical vigor in those who are called
healthy; it predisposes to actual disease; it has a tendency to render
diseases when they come, more severe than otherwise they would be:
and lastly, it renders medicine less efficient in its operation wher
actually demanded.