Health of Body [pp. 209-214]

THE LADIES' REPOSITOR X.
our gratification incidentally, or occasionally,
even in the highest degree. Health is undeniably a more precious gift than riches, or honors,
or power; for who would exchange it for either
of these, the chief objects of human ambition?
A man would rather retain health, or recover it,
than achieve any grand success upon which the
heart is set, and the attainment of which may
have appeared to him to be the perfection of
earthly bliss. We, of course, leave out of consideration those cases, happily numerous, in
which a noble nature would freely sacrifice not
only health, but life itself, for the promotion of
some good cause, or on the generous impulse
of friendship, or gratitude, or love.
It is a very trite observation that we learn the
true value of any blessing by its loss. But we
hlave, perhaps, all of us, been enabled, in a
greater or less degree, to understand the comforts of health by the privation of them during
a season of sickness. It needs but a fit of the
toothache to make any one of us sensible of the
actual blessedness of freedom from pain. And
to the invalid enfeebled by disease, or to one
who is disabled or detained in inactivity by
some local affection or accident, how enviable
appears the mere power of moving freely from
place to place, and pursuing the ordinary business of the day, without hinderance from suffering or weakness! It is remarkable, however,
how soon these effects pass away, and how
health when restored becomes again a matter
of no consideration, and is enjoyed without the
consciousness of enjoyment.
Health, it has been said, is common. More
than nine-tenths of our population, probably,
are in good health for more than nine-tenths of
their lives. The fact can not but appear surprising to any one who reflects for a while on
the numerous circumstances by which health is
every-where, and in every instance, endangered.
If we glance through a general treatise on
medicine, or the report of a Sanitary Commission, we must be painfully impressed with the
multitude and variety of diseases to which our
species is liable, and of the active causes of
disease which are prevalent in all manner of
localities, employments, and conditions of life
and action. Opening a newspaper, we are
struck with the diversified forms of accident by
which injuries to the person are occasioned.
The perusal of a book on anatomy or surgery,
or an hour's attendance at a lecture on the
human frame, is enough to possess the unprofessional mind with an alarming sense of the
frailty of our whole structure, and especially of
its most important and vital organs. The natural effect of the contemplation of the innu
merable tendons, ligaments, valves, ducts. fibers,
tissues, and whatever other classes there may
be of the constituents of our organization, is to
make one almost afraid to walk, or run, much
more to jump, or climb, and renders it incomprehensible how one survives a cough or a
sneeze. And since it is undeniably true that
the lesion or derangement of any portion of this
delicate mechanism must cause pain or disease,
and may cause death, the protracted continuance
of health and life really becomes a marvel and
a mystery "Strange that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long."
But, common as health is in spite of the numberless risks to which it is in all cases exposed,
it might be much more common. It is impaired
and destroyed, perhaps, as frequently by men's
own acts, as by causes independent of themselves, and beyond their control. V7ice, selfindulgence, and folly, will account for a large
proportion of occasional or chronic disease.
And many of the dangers by which health is
threatened would be either removed or greatly
diminished by the exercise of prudence and
common-sense, and the practical use of so much
knowledge of sanitary principles as all may
easily acquire. The following observations on
the means of preserving and improving health
are offered in the hope of promoting the consideration of various details of the whole economy of health by a large circle of readers, rather
than with any pretension of increasing the information already possessed by them upon the
subject. In this matter, as in others of equal
or greater importance, it is not by the presentation of new truth to the mind, but by securing
its attention to acknowledged truth, that the
most satisfactory results are to be obtained.
The principal components of the human frame
will naturally indicate and classify the topics for
consideration in dealing with the subject of
bodily health. The body may be roughly described as an organization of bones and muscles,
permeated by blood, covered with skin, and
containing a breathing and digestive apparatus.
A healthy condition of the bones, muscles, and
blood, may be said, in general terms, to be
chiefly or appropriately promoted by exercise;
of the skin, by cleanliness; of the breathing
organs, by sufficiency and purity of air; of the
digestion, by food taken in due quantity, of good
quality, and at right seasons. Each of these
means for the preservation of health, however,
produces its beneficial effects not only upon
those parts of the system with which we have
especially connected it, but more or less directly
upon all the others.
2IC