OBSERVATIONS FOR PEDESTRIANS. THE Strength of Man is in the ratio of the performance of the Restorative process, which is as the Quality and Quantity of what he puts into his Stomach, the Energy of that Organ, and the Quantity of Exercise he takes. Nutrition does not depend more on the state of the Stomach, or of what we put into it, than it does on the stimulus given to the System by Exercise, which alone can produce that perfect Circulation of the Blood which is required to throw off superfluous Secretions, and give the Absorbents an ap petite to suck up fresh materials: this, re- Exercise and Diet, WHICH ARE NATURE'S OWN REMEDIES. Alluding to the importance of Exercise and Diet, the Spaniards have a Proverb, that "The best Physician is a Horse; The best Apothecary is an Ass." For Nervous, Bilious, Gouty, and for all Chronic Complaints, the natural Cure is so to regulate the Diet and the play of the bodily functions, that those actions which constitute the Disease may subside, and Healthful ones take place. One of the best moderators of morbidly 1 Acute Feeling, is Exercise continued almost to Fatigue. A man suffering under a fit of the Vapours, after half an hour's brisk ambulation, will often find that he has Walked it off, and that the Action of the Body has exonerated his Mind. From the want of due Exercise in the Open Air, some nervous Invalids often become as irritable as over-indulged Infants; and in Warm Weather, they are wan with Languor; and in Cold, are lumps of alive Ice. When persons, who spend much of their time within doors, begin to have too great susceptibility of Cold, it should be considered as an alarming sign that the Constitution is debilitated; and, in general, other symptoms are seldom long in making their appearance. When the same temperature of the Atmosphere, which used to be felt as comfortable, has become the reverse, so will it happen in a short time with all the other powers that act upon the system. Unpleasant feelings will arise in most of those situations in which an agreeable sense of existence used to be felt. Flushings, heaviness, headach, twitchings, pain, and startings from Noises, formerly borne without inconvenience, disrelish of Food and of Occupation, and lowness of Spirits, will arise in regular succession to indicate that so many sets of Nerves have lost their natural and healthy faculty. The patient's comfort for Life will be speedily and totally lost, unless a thorough alteration take place in his habits. The only effective antidote is an increase of Muscular Exertion. A brisk Walk, in quest of some interesting object, will excite the arterial system sufficiently to guard against this access of debility, which makes its victims unfit for any thing but to pore from morning till night over some wretched Novel or idle Romance. The plan of gentle and increasing exertion need scarcely be ever interrupted, since there are few days of our year, whose Mornings are not sufficiently cool. It will confer the additional benefit of putting an end to that tendency to take Cold, with which nervous people are so constantly plagued; and it will restore to the objects of Sight that amenity, to those of Taste that flavour, to those of Thought that interest, and to all Nature that grace and life which were fading so fast. Persons arrived at so diseased a pitch of Delicacy, require to be most pitiably minute in their measures for preserving an equilibrium of Temperature. Till the art of the Physician has restored to the habit somewhat of its original power of resisting the action of the Elements, their toilette may, without reproach, apparently equal |