117

universally adopted and recommended,namely, the early use of means in order to

effect speedy delivery. This woman was

only fifteen hours in labour, and yet, from itsnature, the child was lost. If the unnaturalspasmodic contractions in this woman’suterus had been removed six or eight hoursafter the commencement of labour, the childwould not only have been sooner born, butin perfect safety, at least, as far as strangu-lation was concerned. I am, Sir, your obe-dient servant,

JOHN CRAIG.Paisley, March, 18J3.

JOHN CRAIG.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

EDUCATION, CONSIDERED PHY-SIOLOGICALLY.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-It has long been my wish and de-sign to submit to public consideration a fewremarks on the importance of recognising thegeneral principles of physiology in the edu-cation of youth, being fully convinced thatthe strongest constituttons and the highestintellectual powers may be seriously injuredby their violation ; while bodily and evenmental powers of naturally a very feebleorder may derive great strength from theirobservance. Being, however, engaged ineducation myself, I have felt some hesitationin stating my views, lest my so doing shouldappear merely a device to attract publicnotice; but the following paragraph in theCambridge Advertiser of the 22nd ult., hasboth forcibly recalled my former resolutions,and decided me in at once bringing forward,as briefly as possible, my views on the

subject :-″ Sudden Death of an Ijredergraduate at

Cambrige.yesterday (Tuesday) morning, about

six o’clock, George Hillman, Esq., of Mag-dalene College, in this University, was dis-covered by one of the college servants quitelifeless, having evidently been dead severalhours. It appears that the deceased wentto his tutor from seven to eight o’clock theprevious evening, and after taking tea withanother of his companions about nine o’clock,he complained of a pain in his head, to whichhe was constitutionally liable, and was recom-mended to retire to rest immediately by afriend who left him at a quarter-past teno’clock. * He was universallybeloved by his associates for his kind dispo-sition and honourable character, and re-

spected by the college authorities for thesobriety and blamelessness of his universitycareer. An inquest on the body was heldyesterday, before Mr. Cooper, coroner forthe borough. A post-mortem examination

was made by Mr. Sudbury. Verdict-’ Died by the visitation of GOD."’Now, I would beg to observe, that in the

course of my own limited experience, bothas a military man, and as superintendent ofa school chiefly established for prophylacticdiscipline, such tendencies to prematuredeath, with high promise of social worth andintellectual excellence, have been painfullypresented to my notice. Few, so consti-

tuted, survive the age of forty-five, and atall periods, diseases and mechanical injuries,which would but slightly affect individualsof a resilient temperament, very generallyprove fatal. I also believe that from thesame class a large proportion of the melan-cholic inmates of our lunatic asylums isfurnished. It, therefore, becomes matter ofserious inquiry, whether during the secondseptennial period, when constitutional pro-clivities to disease are, for the most part,under control, any mode of treatment can beadopted likely to ensure due vital energy inmore adult life; and this investigation pre-sents itself to the mind with more than ordi-

nary interest, because the individuals ofwhom I speak, as a class, afford the best

hopes, in their early years, of a manhoodcalculated to adorn and improve the world,which, looking on the world as it is, can as-suredly but ill bear the loss of the wise, thegentle, and the kind; suca as are wont to

display-" Labours of good to man,

Unpublished charity, unbroken faith,-°Lovf that midst oriet began ;And g-rew with years, and faltered not indeath."

In the individuals to whom I particularlyallude, there will constantly be found a

, highly nervous organisation, a hydroæmicstate of the blood, and the neurotic diathesis,combined with the bilious or lymphatic tem-perament. There is a quick perception ofthe beautiful and sublime in morals and inexternal nature, at an age when life, to:the

mnltitude, is little more than mere animalexistence. But while parents and friendsentertain hopes that are pleasant to cherish,to the experienced eye there are signs and[ tokens of coming evil; the skin is thin and

transparent, the complexion pallid, or occa-sionally tinged with a hectic flush, some-times permanently but unduly florid ; and, the circulation, whether slow or accelerated,is always feeble.

According to the state of the circulation,however, the mental phenomena will ary

exceedingly. When retardetl there willoften be an apparent dulness and apathy,

easily convertible by harsh treatment, diffi.cult tasks, or even cheerless neglect, intoconfirmed stupor. I have had pupils of thisidiosyncrasy under my care at varioustimes, whom many teachers might easilyhave mistaken for idlers, and renderedL feeble in mind and body for life by well

118

meant efforts to nrge them on their studies.But, although at first dull and cheerlessduring the hours of study, when engagedin active exercise suited to their strength, oron retiring to rest (in both cases the affluxof blood to the brain being increased) theywould cheer up, and become animated andtalkative, confirming most satisfactorily ob-servations which have already appeared inTHE LANCET* on the effects of the circula-tion on the mental energies. Where thelymphatic temperament is complicated withthe neurotic diathesis there is simply inani-tionwhenever the blood flows too feebly tothe brain; but in the neuro-bilious tempera-ment, and especially if that part of the coro-nal region, where phrenologists locate self-

esteem, be depressed, there is a deeply-marked melancholy. I believe it will gene-rally be found in our asylums that thehypochondriac patients are of dark com-

plexion, sleep with their heads low, a suresign of feeble circulation, and exhibit thecoronal peculiarity to which I have alluded;while insane patients of light complexionand lymphatic temperament are merelychildish, and harmless if anirritated. Atthe best, the student of proleptics will anti-cipate paralysis, premature senility, andasthenic apoplexy towards middle life, whenhe finds the pulse feeble, and the spirits cor-respondingly low in youth, unless remedialmeasures be adopted in good time, and per-severed in with due diligence.When such indications appear, medical

advice should be obtained at once, as veryprobably the liver or mesenteric glands areat fault, or the state of the skin needs im-provement ; and no head of either a familyor school should venture to administer me-dicinal remedies without professional sanc-tion. The food should be light and nourish-ing, and easily digested ; the clothing com-fortably but not oppressingly warm ; andcheerful instruction and animated recreationshould be made to alternate in such measureas to avoid excessive study, listless vacuity,and nervous exhaustion. Any taste for thenatural sciences, horticulture, &c., shouldbe encouraged. Military drill and thecalisthenic exercises should be gone throughwith the aid of music,-that of the shrillyfife, played with spirit, will answer best;and a turn for music should, if possible, beimparted ; in this case the music-mastershould choose manly airs, marches, theslower waltzes, and many pieces, such aswe find in the compositions of Purcell, Dr.Arne, Shiel, &c., to give tone to the feelings;while many of the Scottish airs are emi- Inently suited to gently cheer and tranquillisethe mind; but nothing too exciting or de-pressing should be attempted. The actionof the heart is, we all know, greatly regu-

* Vide Mr. Ancell’s lectures on theblood.

lated by healthy mental emotions ; and, inyouth or age, equable cheerfulness is the bestmaintaining power of vitality.

’I beg to observe that I express these opi-nions after an experience of nearly twelveyears devoted to tuition, during ten of whichI have had pupils residing under my care ;and I am, therefore, enabled to speak withsome confidence of the possibility of render-ing education abranch of moral therapeutics.Unfortunately, however, remission of symp-toms is but too commonly mistaken for per-manent recovery, and a very naturalanxiety on the part of parents to see theirchildren pushed on, frustrates eventually allthat had been effected in their favour; andthus, I fear, it must be until the public morefully understand the constitution of man, andhis relation to the world in which an all-wiseProvidence has destined him to act no meanpart.

I trust ere long, with permission, to re-sume the subject of my present communica-tion, with reference to the physiologicaleducation of two very different classes, theprecocious, and children labouring under thedisadvantage of constitutional torpor, butnot of the nervous temperament. Mean-while I have the honour to be, Sir, your veryobedient servant,

JOHN A. WALKER,Lieut. half-pay 34th Regt.

Cliff-house, Torquay, Devon,March 6, 1843.

JOHN A. WALKER,

ON THE

SPECIAL FUNCTION OF THE SKIN.

By ROBERT WILLIS, M.D.

(Communicated to THE LANCET.)THE purpose which is answered in the

animal economy by the cutaneous exhalationhas not hitherto been correctly assigned byphysiologists. The author believes theessence of the function to be the eliminationfrom the system of a certain quantity ofwater, and considers the saline and otheringredients which pass off by the skin to

be in too inconsiderable a quantity to deservebeing taken into account. He combats theprevailing opinion that this function is

specially designed to reduce or to regulatethe animal temperature. It has been clearlyshown, by the experiments of Delarocheand Berger, that the power which animalsmay possess of resisting the effects of a sur-rounding medium of high temperature is farinferior to that which has been commonlyascribed to them ; for in chambers heated to1200 or 130° Fahr., the temperature of ani-mals is soon raised 11° and even 16° Fahr.above what it had been previously, anddeath speedily ensues. The diminution, oreven total suppression, of the cutaneous

exhalation, on the other hand, is by no.means necessarily followed by a rise in the