below par. If the 50 millions sterling, annually expended for spirits, wine, and malt liquors, in Great Britain, were rightly employed in the promotion of a sound physical and moral education of the lower classes, pauperism would soon disappear; while vast multitudes would be rescued from crime, madness, and premature death. Recapitulation. The cardinal facts embraced in this Chapter may be reduced to the following general propositions: 1. That each zone affords in the greatest abundance those descriptions of aliment best suited to maintain the well being of its inhabitants. 2. That excessively cold climates abound with animals which contain a large amount of oil and fat, that are rich in carbon and hydrogen, which afford an abundant supply of animal heat where it is most required. 3. That the middle latitudes abound with grass, grain, and domestic animals, which are less numerous, and contain a much smaller proportion of fat in hot climates, where there is an exhaustless profusion of saccharine fruits, gum, and farinaceous aliments, that afford less carbon and hydrogen, therefore, less caloric by respiration, than animal food. 4. That the various species of grain afford a much larger amount of actual nourishment, than an equal weight of animal food, if we except cheese, butter, fat, and lean meat deprived of water. 5. That during the process of respiration, starch, sugar, gum, and fat are converted into blood, by absorbing nitrogen from the air, and by giving off carbon and hydrogen; consequently, that the elements of respiration, when combined in due proportion, are employed in nourishing the solids, like the fibrin, albumen, and caseine, of both animal and vegetable food. 6. That as the chemical composition of all animals is the same, herbivora must derive a portion of their nitrogen from the atmosphere, because their food does not contain enough of that element to maintain their nutrition and growth, which are even more rapid than in car nivora. 7. That the living body is a self-repairing machine, which has the power of transforming both ternary and quaternary compounds into its own tissues; and when wholly deprived of food, is capable of living for many days on its own ruins, which are repeatedly renovated in the lungs, where they are also gradually converted into carbonic acid, water, and other inorganic compounds. 8. That the rapid increase in the weight of the body after long abstinence or illness, the speedy healing of broken bones, the filling up of ulcers, and the rapid growth of herbivorous animals, all tend to prove, that the nitrogenized portions alone of vegetable food are insufficient to account for the renovation of their composition, and the supply of waste. 9. That a suitable variety of vegetable aliments is better adapted to the organization, health, strength, intelligence, and moral excellence of the human race, than a diet of animal food alone. * 10. That although spirits, wine, and malt liquors, when taken in moderation, elevate the temperature of the body, augment the circulation, produce a temporary flow of spirits, remove the sensation of hunger, fatigue, and other disagreeable feelings, they impair the vital properties of the blood, and diminish its coagulating power, when used to excess,-derange the nutritive process, cause a dropsical or phlegmatic condition of the solids, and gradually destroy the vis medicatrix naturæ, as shown by the slowness with which wounds and ulcers heal in intemperate drinkers. It is important that every one should know there is about three times more solid and nutritive matter in a pint of milk than in the same measure of porter, and 20 times more in a pound of good bread. Yet 35 million bushels of barley are wasted annually in England in making malt liquors, (which vitiate the breath and gradually destroy health,) or enough to nourish 3 millions of human beings. Nor is there a more palpable error than the general opinion that malt liquors are essential to support the strength of a labouring man. But it is in vain to reason with men whose appetites and reasoning faculties have been perverted by artificial customs. CHAPTER III. Sleep, "that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, THE essence of nearly all that has been written on the subject of sleep, from the time of Hippocrates to the present day, is contained in the above lines of Shakespeare. But the rationale of the process has never yet been explained in a philosophical manner. I have already shown that the power of the stomach to digest, of the muscles to contract, of the brain to think, and of the nerves to feel, is directly in proportion to the rapidity with which their composition is renewed, ceteris paribus,-but that the animal heat obtained by respiration, and the organic particles of arterial blood by which the solids are nourished, are still more rapidly expended by the action of the brain and voluntary muscles, than they are renewed-in short, that the cause of force is always expended in pro ducing motion or action,—that the object of aliment is to supply materials for supporting respiration, and for repairing the waste of the solids, induced by exercise, after which it is carried out of the system by the different emunctories, in the form of carbonic acid, sweat, urine, &c. I shall now proceed to shew, that the proximate cause of sleep is an expenditure of the substance and vital energy of the brain, nerves, and voluntary muscles, beyond what they receive when awake;— and that the specific office of sleep, is the restoration of what has been wasted by exercise. That the necessity for sleep arises from an exhaustion of sensorial and muscular power, would appear from the fact, that it is induced by intense bodily pain, laborious exercise of the brain and voluntary muscles; when not carried so far as to interrupt the nutritive process. So pressing is the demand for it in cases of painful and difficult parturition, that women often fall into a slumber between the paroxysms of violent uterine contraction. They also require more sleep during gestation, than at other times, owing to the expenditure of blood and vitality in support of the fœtus. In accordance with these facts, sleep is more profound and long continued, after the body has been greatly wasted by protracted illness, or exhausted by over exertion of any description, whether of the nervous or muscular organs. Again: that the system actually increases in |