Man, moral and physical: or, The influence of health and disease on religious experience

Chapter I

Connection between the Material and Spiritual parts in Man — David's language concerning his fearful and wonderful make, supported by the researches of physiology — The connection between the body and soul of man as inexplicable as the mystery of the Trinity — We know nothing of the substance of which either is composed — The attempts of science to explain these ultimate facts a failure — Much that is written concerning the soul no more than speculation — Remark of Dr. Abercrombie — We know only a few facts in relation to either mind or matter — Nervous system, the medium of communication between them — The subject blends with all that conduces to the enjoyment and usefulness of life — What is proposed in the present treatise — A book of the kind called for by the exigencies of the Church — Numerous works exhibit the subject in its pathological bearings, or as a department of physiology — Intended to be a portable tract for Christians of unequal and fluctuating experience — The nerves, how they are the channels

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of communication between the mind and the body — Their branches or ramifications have a sort of omnipresence in the animal fabric — Sympathy and sympathetic nerve — What constitutes the nervous system — No perceptible change in the size, colour, or shape of the nerves when diseased — Nature of the nervous force — Not identical with electricity — How the communion between the brain, spinal marrow, and nerves is effected, we do not know — Not necessary to our happiness to know the essence of mind and matter — The morbid results of the union of the two, called " nervous," a penalty for this abuse of the blessings of civilized life — Nervous diseases little known among savages — Medicine not extensively cultivated among the ancients — Less occasion for the study and practice — How far was the great age of man, originally, the result of physical causes — Dr. Cheyne's opinion of the effect of luxurious, intemperate, and licentious habits — The records of prisons and almshouses — Idiotic in a Massachusetts' Charity — Juvenile delinquents at Parkhurst, England — Remark of Mr. Coleridge. Pages 25 — 35.

I. The Sacred Writings — The comparative silence of the Scriptures on the subject easily accounted for — Modern discoveries of physiology not found in the Bible, but exemplifications of their truth in the experience and exercises of the religious — The case of Saul — of David, as exhibited in many of his psalms — Of the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane — The Apostle Paul — Quotations from serious minded heathen by the Fathers — Cicero on human nature — Mixture of Christianity and Persian philosophy in the system of the Manicheans of the third century. Pages 35 — 39.

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II. The Testimony of Science — Connection between the material and spiritual parts implied in the abuses of science — Made the basis of materialism under the form of cranioscopy, phrenology, &c. — The system of Lawrence — The human frame made a barrel-organ — Such sentiments at variance with sound science — Discoveries concerning the whole internal apparatus of the body. Pages 39—43.

The Brain — Soldier at the battle of Waterloo — A British captain — Patient of Sir Astley Cooper — of Dr. Caldwell — Size of the human brain — of Lord Byron's — Baron Cuvier's — of Bonaparte's — Case of Dean Swift — Conceit of some physiologists — of Descartes — We do not know how the power of thought is originated. Pages 43 — 48.

The Stomach — Its connection with the mind — Appetite affected by the states of the mind — King Lear — Dr. Brigham — Cardinal Woolsey and Henry VIII. — The psalmist David — The stomach reacts upon the mind — Dyspepsia supposed to be a disease of the brain — Aristotle and the hypochondriacs of his day. Pages 48 — 51.

The Lungs and Heart — Affected by the brain. Pages 51, 52.

The Spleen — The use of this spongy viscus — Opinions of Dr. G-ood and Archdeacon Paley — Remarks of a lady of genius and accomplishments on the subject of hepatic influence. Pages 52, 53.

The Liver — The uses of this organ — Its influence on the temperament, mental functions, &c. — The story of Tityus — Version of Lucretius, Hippocrates, G-alen, Aretseus — Their use of the term "melancholy." Pages 53—58.

Love — Power of the passion — Antiochus and Stratonice. Page 58.

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Hope — Its connection with the success of surgical operations and the results of medicine — Battle of Mincio, in 1859 — The French, Sardinians, and Austrians — Patient of Dr. Rush — Parke, the traveller. Pages 58—61.

Fear — Experiment in Russia on four murderers — Exemption of the inmates of Cherry Hill prison from cholera during its prevalence — Immunity of physicians from attacks of disease — Curative efficacy of fear — -Cases mentioned by Drs. Batchelder, Rush, and Boerhaave — Prevention of the monomania called by Dr. Moore the " fashionable apology for murder" — Case of a man in New Hampshire — -The effect of the teachings of Broussais — Case of Dr. Hunter — Corvisart's lectures on the heart, at Paris — Opinion of Testa — -Disease of the heart common in times of political agitation — France at the time of the Revolution — -Case recorded in the French Journal of Medicine — Hair on half the head of a patient in Pennsylvania Hospital whitened by fear — Whole head of Marie Antoinette made white by the same cause — Case of a Sepoy of the Bengal army mentioned in the London Medical Times, 1858 — Of the young man attempting to rob an eagle's nest — The young gambler at San Francisco. Pages 61 — 68.

Grief — Description of it by Father Chrysostom — Melancthon — Philip V. of Spain — Dr. Zimmermann's opinion of the cause of his death — Dr. Johnson — Metaphorical expression, "broken heart," sometimes pathologically correct. Pages 68, 69.

J oy — A woman in the city of New York — Cases of Sophocles, Chilo, Juventius, Talma, and Fouquet — A man in Richmond, Virginia — The door-keeper of Congress in 1777. Pages 69, 70.

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Chagrin, or Shame — Story told by the Rev. Daniel Baker. Pages 70—72.

Physical effects of a morbid imitative Sympathy, and of Imagination — Rev. Dr. Davidson's History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky — His account of the "bodily exercises" which attended revivals of religion — The falling, rolling, running, dancing, barking, and jerking exercises — Account of the Jerks — Bodily exercises in Ireland — Account of Rev. Dr. Macnaughton — Power of imagination exemplified in the records of empiricism — "Metallic tractors" — Wooden tractors of Dr. Haygarth — -Dr. Woodhouse and nitrous oxide — Bartholini, a physician of Copenhagen, 1616 — Dr. Franciscus Borri, of Milan — Case of a Neapolitan merchant mentioned by Glregorius Leti in his history of the Duke D'Ossuna — Seldon's "Table-Talk" — Case of a gentleman cured by a card wrapped in taffeta — The reflected influences of the mind and the body too little understood — The subject a branch of Moral Therapeutics of great importance to those who are charged with the health of either the body or the soul. Pages 71 — 82.

III. Christian Experience — Religious frames closely allied to what is called the "constitution" — Idiosyncrasies of nature not merged in grace — Remark of the astrologers concerning Cyrus — Example of Simon Peter — of Paul and J ohn — of Melancthon — of Martin Luther — ■ Rev. Timothy Rogers — Christianity made to suffer from the physical sufferings of its professors — Their spiritual fluctuations produced by physical causes — Rev. Dr. J. R. McDuff— Dr. Francia— Sir Woodbine Parish— Effect of the North wind in Buenos Ayres — Of the East wind on Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander — Case mentioned by

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Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn — Case of Rev. Mr. Cecil — Rev. Dr. James Hall, of North Carolina — A venerable clergyman lately deceased — Dean Milner — Richard Baxter — Dr. Payson — David Brainerd, and the poet Cowper. Pages 82—111.

Chapter II

Uses of Knowledge on the subject — Remark of Rev. Dr. A. Alexander concerning yonng preachers — Rev. Mr. Greenham's sentiments. Pages L12 — 115.

Doctrine — Subject profitable for — President Edwards' remarks concerning Brainerd — Case of Dr. Rush — His Essay on the Influence of Physical Causes on the Moral Faculty — Rev. Thomas Boston — His "Crook in the Lot" — Dr. Alexander's opinion of the work — Extract from a preacher's diary — Case of Rev. Dr. Thomas Scott — of Rev. Andrew Fuller — of Dr. Madan and Cowper — Censure of physicians by the Secretary of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris. Pages 115 — 121.

Charity — Subject profitable for — The melancholy claim our condolence — Are not to be treated with levity or ridicule — Dr. John Cheyne's description of nervous diseases — The sufferings which they cause inconceivable to any who do not know them by experience — Such sufferers not to be rebuked with severity — Rev. Mr. Dod — Rev. Timothy Rogers — The power of kind words. Pages 121—127.

Useful for Reproof and Correction — It explodes the popular error of ascribing certain disordered states of

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the mind to the influence of religion — Testimony of Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander — Insane monks in France before the Revolution — Mental disorder caused by epidemical delusions — Dr. George Moore, member of the Royal College of Physicians in London — His opinion on the alleged influences of religion in producing insanity — Of Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green — Of Doctors Abercrombie, Burrowes, John Cheyne, and Combe — Dr. James Johnson's remark on the subject — Patient of Dr. Kirkbride in the Pennsylvania Hospital — Four cases of mental disorder within the sphere of the author's pastoral experience — The mistake of imputing to Satanic agency what is dependent on bodily disease — Case of the wife of Rev. John Newton — Case of John Bunyan — of Martin Luther — Opinion of Richard Baxter — Injurious influence on the mind ascribed to Calvinism — Opinion of a writer in the Encyclopedia Britannica — of Esquirol — Macaulay — Haley's insinuation in relation to Cowper unwarranted — Judicious remark of Dr. Cheyne — Case of an injured wife in London. Pages 127 — 146. Use for Consolation — Doctrine of physical influences liable to be perverted — It suggests many questions not to be solved by referring them to conscience — Case of a young man preparing for the ministry — Of others who had made whimsical vows — How far the exercises of Christians in their morbid states are moral, a very perplexing question — Moral qualities hereditary — Opinion of Dr. Rush — An innate tendency to evil not an apology for yielding to the inclination — How the doctrine is a source of relief — Exclamations of a soul in giving vent to its spiritual anguish — Case presented at the noonday prayer-meeting in Philadelphia, 1859 — Case of a clergyman in New England — Gloominess consistent with a re-

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generate state — An opinion from the highest medical authority — Observation of Mr. Pearson in his life of Mr. Hay — The Saviour's declaration — Payson's Biography — Private diaries of Christians — Error in publishing Cowper's during the period of his gloomy aberration — The doctrine of physical influences not to be used as an excuse for wilful delinquency — If rightly considered, may minister relief and make us watchful — Extract from Mason's Spiritual Treasury. Pages 146 — 161.

Chapter III

Temptations of Desponding Christians — Reproof of the Apostle James — Morbid physical influences often erroneously ascribed to Satan. Pages 162, 163.

Christians tempted to believe that they have committed the sin against the holy grhost — Opinions of Father Austin, of the fourth century, concerning this sin — Six opinions of the schoolmen of the Middle Ages — Twenty-six of others — of Calvin — Arminius — Dr. Chalmers — These fears may be indications only of imperfect bodily health — Mr. Kemper — A young man twelve years under the impression that he had committed this sin — Dr. Ridgley's opinion — Rev. Daniel Baker's case. Pages 163 — 169.

Tempted to adopt a false standard op Duty, and

ambiguous evidences op a regenerate state

Like the Jews, they look for " signs" — Many distressed or misled by the sudden occurrence to their mind of an " alarming text of Scripture" — Case of Mr. Lackington — Others tempted to trust in "dreams" — The character of our dreams depends much on our physical condition —

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Case of Baron Trenck — of Condorcet — Coleridge — President Edwards — Not denied that Grod may reveal Himself through supernatural dreams — Case of a young lady in England — Cases mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie — Shakspeare's theory — Queen Mab. Pages 169 — 177.

Christians of a nervous temperament make too much op Religious Frames — Mr. Brownlow North — Case of a female mentioned by him — Example of Mrs. Hawkes — Rev. J. Newton's remark — Letter of Rev. Mr. Cecil — Rev. Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, England. Pages 177—182.

Mental Introspection — Remark of Rev. Mr. Spencer — Indulging in melancholy meditation does no good — Dr. Chalmers' letter to Mr. Anderson. Pages 182 — 185.

Temptation to "make an idol of comport" — Observations of Dr. Harris — Many mistake an abatement of comfort for its removal — Christians often make the same mistake as did the sons of Zebedee — Extract from William Mason. Pages 185—189.

Temptation to Despair — The climax of morbid spiritual disquiet — in most cases evidently the result of bodily disease — Apt to be promoted and nurtured by perverted views of truth — Some morbid Christians afraid to pray — Others fear that they have eaten and drunk damnation to themselves — Case of an interesting female — Distress caused by endeavouring to harmonize the decrees of Grod and his foreknowledge with free agency — Such cases closely analogous to the temptations of those who imagine themselves guilty of the unpardonable sin — Persons exposed to this temptation are apt to neglect the means of grace — Despair never made a human being better — Remarkable case mentioned by the Rev. Mr. Spencer. Pages 189—196.

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Chapter IV

Counsels to the Troubled and Desponding — Book not written for medical men — Why the subject of this volume not more frequently treated in later times — Prominency given it in the older English writers — Remark of Dr. Cheyne on the ignorance of many religious men of the influence of physical causes on their spiritual enjoyment. Pages 197 — 199.

Desponding Christians should ascertain the cause op their Religious Disquietude — Baxter's opinion — Should not chide themselves for faults which are chargeable to bodily disease — Counsel on this subject attended with more or less danger — Many of our sorrows of soul retributory, and we are only made to possess the iniquities of our youth — The subject guarded against perversion — Remark of Dr. A. Alexander — Case mentioned by Mr. Douglass, of Cavers — Some predisposed to think that their gloom proceeds from a culpable cause — Inquiries into our personal state should be pursued diligently — Despondency may be produced by false views of religion, or it may cause them — Not always easy to determine which is cause and which effect — A good rule for guiding the judgment — Religious vapours. Pages 199 — 205.

The desponding should avail themselves of judicious Medical Advice — Case of Dr. Rush — Baxter's counsel — What a well instructed physician can do — Every physician not competent to treat the cases of the desponding — Physicians often betray a culpable ignorance of the reciprocating relationship between body and mind — Book of the heart — Sentiments of an eminent lecturer in a medical school — Advice of Mr. Rogers — Change in the character of diseases in later years —

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Nervous diseases the most numerous— Sydenham's estimate of fevers at the close of the seventeenth century; Dr. Cheyne's of nervous disorders; Dr. Trotter's — Deaths in England during 1856 — No opinion expressed as to the accuracy of these computations — They show that the subject of nervous disorders importunately demands the attention of physicians — A morbid mental state often removed by a drug — Case of a lady in Philadelphia — Another mentioned by Rev. M. B. Hope, M.D. — The poet Dry den — Descartes — Plutarch's saying, Not tamper with drugs — Case of Rousseau. Pages 205 — 219.

The desponding should seek suitable Society — Remark of Mr. Locke — Story of Caesar — Proverb of Solomon — Often good to compare exercises — Hard to disabuse the mind of the desponding of their erroneous opinions concerning their state — Remark of Mr. Rogers — Mr. Robert Bruce of Edinburgh relieved after having been twenty years in terror of conscience — Such sufferers do not receive sufficient sympathy — Captain Benjamin Wickes of Philadelphia, and Rev. Joseph Eastburn — Cowper and the Unwins — One of four cardinal rules — Company of cheerful Christians recommended to the melancholy — Avoid that of the gloomy — Dr. Hufeland's opinion — Counsel of Dr. Everard Mayn waring in his Tutela Sanitatis — Advice of Seneca — Teachings of St. Paul — Compare our state with that of others in a condition far less desirable — Two cases mentioned by Dr. Hall — a lady helpless by palsy — Archdeacon Paley on the goodness of Grod — Digestion aided by laughter — Solomon on cheerfulness. Pages 220 — 230.

Those who would enjoy Spiritual comport should be Temperate — Dr. Johnson's opinion of water — Hippocrates — Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy — Dr. Rush 2

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on the effect of diet on the moral faculties — Dr. Paris on animal food — Dr. McNish, of Glasgow — The effect of living solely on beef — Hon. C. A. Murray — Dr. Arbuthnot on vegetable regimen — Payson's excessive abstinence — Nervous disease caused by excess — Dr. Combe's opinion — An eminent physician of London on the effects of the luxurious habits of the people — Persons subject to nervous depression should give special attention to the subject of dietetic economy — The spiritual man should keep his body under — How far a healthy appetite may be indulged — Dr. Holland's three rules — Remarks of Dr. Hall — of Dr. J. Johnson — His rule for regulating the appetite — President Edwards — Latin distich. Pages 230—241.

The desponding should be habitually occupied — The mind should be employed — Diseases often caused and increased by habitually thinking of them — The philosopher Kant — A man retiring from business — Quotation from Cecil — Persons not made more religious by a constant thinking on religion — The pious man should have but one dominant motive — Another rule for the relief of melancholy Christians — Tendency of ministers in their sine titulo condition — Remark of Dr. Ashbel G-reen — Brooding over our spiritual maladies — Cowper's translating Homer and Madame G-uyon — Johnson's advice to Boswell — His translation of Thuanus — Panacea for the tsedium vitge — The history of a human soul marvelous — Case of a fellow student — of Dr. Lobdell — Activity in promoting the welfare of others — Harlan Page — Selfdenial — Difficulty of complying with these counsels — Trying case of clergymen in declining health, especially in advanced life — Casus omissus. Pages 242 — 252.

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Chapter V

Counsels — The special counsel of Dr. J. W. Alexander — Importance of a scrupulous attention to this advice — Connection between our emotions of joy and sorrow and our health — Authors on the subject of promoting health, numerous — Recapitulation of some of the instructions in the preceding pages. Pages 253, 254.

Due discrimination and self-control in relation to our Food — Plutarch and the Boeotians — Richard Cumberland. Pages 254, 255.

Sufficient rest, and at the proper seasons — Despondency caused by study at unseasonable hours — The effect as stated by Dr. Johnson — Manual for the Nervous — Case of a theological student — Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller on night study — M. G-uizot, Minister of Louis Philippe — Henry Kirke White — Urquhart — Henry Martyn. Pages 256—259.

Injurious effects of narcotics — ToBACCo-^Resolution of Methodist Conferences — Cowper and Rev. Mr. Bull, of Newport-Pagnell — " Counter-blast to Tobacco of King James the First" — Edict in the time of Elizabeth — Dr. Dunglison — Letters on Clerical Habits and Manners — M. Bouisson — Excessive use of tobacco by theological students — Its manifold injurious effects — Not easily persuaded of their danger — Ought not to be taken at all, or if ever necessary, in small quantities, and as seldom as possible — The practice a trespass against our neighbour — Some who use it a trouble to themselves and to every body else — A special case — The fact a melancholy one — Its great havoc of life, especially in Germany — Its injurious influences on the mind, causing melancholy, and sometimes insanity — Pupils of the Polytechnic School at

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Paris — Ohio Lunatic Asylum — Alcoholic drinks, and stimulating or stupefying drugs — Opinions of Doctors Good, Cullin, and Moore. Pages 259—268.

Exercise in Pure Air — Tendency of the depressing passions to render us inert and taciturn — The present treatise not an attempt to give all the counsels which are so accessible in standard authors — Opinion of one of the most eminent — A "moral atmosphere" not altogether a figure of speech — Dr. Hall — Utility of exercise understood by literary men — " Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk" — Advice of Horace to Virgil — The men whom " Peter" speaks of, and their mode of taking exercise — Counsel of one restored from prolonged melancholy. Pages 268—274.

Dr. N. L. Rice on Ministerial Depression — Daniel Baker's remark — All ministers cannot apply it to themselves — Many have seasons of mental depression, produced by various causes — How their depression operates — Suggestions not to attempt mental labour while it continues — If necessary to preach, select a subject which demands intellectual effort — How they should commence their discourse — not come to any new conclusions, nor change their plan while under mental depression — We should make no attempt to reason persons out of their gloomy mood — Case of a minister from Virginia — The "blues" — Timely rest and diversion — Dr. Alexander's "Thoughts on Religious Experience" — Importance of special watchfulness and prayer against melancholy in the decline of life — Cases of two persons mentioned by Dr. A. Alexander. Pages 274 — 282.

Let the desponding look to Christ — Extract from Dr. J. Owen on the one hundred and thirtieth Psalm — Rev. Mr. Rogers — We must distinguish between our

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justification and our sanctification — between the effects of faith and faith itself — Our sanctification full of imperfection, but the righteousness of Christ, on which we rely for justification, is perfect — Dr. Church, President of a Medical Society — His opinion on the efficacy of faith in the cure of diseases — Opinion of Dr. Bell — Mr. Shrubsole's account of himself in his Christian Memoirs — Rev. Dr. Ashbel G-reen on excluding ministers from the chamber of the sick — Concurring sentiments of Dr. Rush — Dr. Rush's view of the moral and religious qualifications necessary for a physician — Cures performed by faith and hope — Rev. Mr. Rogers's restoration in answer to prayer — His book a monument of his deliverance — A prevailing temptation of desponding Christians to look to themselves and their fluctuating frames — Like the Israelite in the wilderness, depending on the strength of his constitution instead of looking to the brazen image — Baxter, for many years, in great perplexity about his own spiritual state — Remark of his biographer, Orme — All hope of the guilty creature is exterior to himself — The gospel is the balm of Grilead, and Christ the only Physician — These sentiments cannot be repeated too often — Grod can as easily forgive a thousand sins as one — Poring upon ourselves increases our troubles — "Apt to think we could go to Christ were we so and so" — Not forget the promised help of the Holy Spirit — Watch against a common sin of the desponding — Assurance does not imply that we are free from sin — Remark of Thomas Adam — The despondency and gloom of the pious a mystery of Providence — Rutherford's remark — No more difficulty in the abandonment of good men to despondency produced by a physical cause, than in their being the victim of any other natural evil — No promise 2

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of the Bible that insures them against such a trial — Job's history monitory — Cowper's mental darkness did not militate with the Divine goodness — Affliction used by God to try and manifest the graces of his people — Instrumental in qualifying religious teachers for greater usefulness — Rods of God sharp, but " dipped in honey" — Remarks of Mr. Rogers on the subject — The new creature raised out of the ruins of the flesh — Grod's providence will turn our water into wine, &c. — Dr. Watts's remarks on the disappointments of heaven — The imperfect sanctification of Christians on the near approach of death, a subject of perplexity to many — An enigma to Dr. G-uthrie — His proposed solution. Pages 282 — 301.

Preface

A devout physician once told a friend of the writer, that "he never knew a triumphant death when the disease of the pious patient was below the diaphragm." This remark maybe taken in a broader sense than its author intended, and from which we should earnestly dissent; but it recognizes a power of our bodily maladies to control and pervert the healthful functions of the mind, which none are more concerned to know than they who have the cure of souls. Within the range of almost every pastor's charge of moderate extent, cases of spiritual distress are occurring to which he can minister no relief; they lie beyond the reach of any remedies to which he can resort. The latent cause is the morbid condition of the physical part, which brings them legitimately within the province of the physician. On the other hand, the instances

PREFACE.

are scarcely less multiplied, in which all the science and skill of the healing art are impotent, till the thorn is extracted from the conscience. The influence of physical agents on moral states, moreover, is too little understood or heeded by the instructors of our children. They do not sufficiently consider the connection between intellect and morality, or between sensation and thought. "The study and the statistics of mental disease teach a fearful lesson concerning the giant evils resulting from ignorant mismanagement of the body in relation to the mind and the moral nature."

It has been intimated by judicious friends, that our smaller work on this subject first published, would have been made more instructive and extensively useful by a considerable amplification. The last two letters that we ever received from our lamented friend and correspondent, Dr. James W. Alexander^ related mainly to its reproduction and enlargement " on several points," which he thought " should be treated more fully." None of all our friends ever expressed a deeper interest in the subject of this book, nor helped us more by their counsel, than the late Doctors Alexander, both father and son. The removal of the former,

PREFACE.

like a shock of corn in his season, though causing wide spread sorrow, did not take us by surprise.

The death of the latter, in his full strength, and at the time of so great and increasing usefulness, was painfully abrupt, and seemed to be premature. He was taken from a large circle of admirers, whose memory lingers on their irreparable loss, with the mournful reflection expressed in that "exquisite inscription of Shenstone's," whose aroma no translation can preserve,

They almost forget the living in their reminiscences of the dead.

We have so far respected the suggestions of our advisers as to add to what was presented in the prior edition many interesting facts, which, however familiar to persons conversant with the standard works on Physiology and Hygiene, will be new to others. Changes have been made in other respects by additions and various modifications, especially under the heads of Temptations and Counsels, which have ma-

PREFACE.

terially increased its size, and made it more conducive to the purpose for which it was written. The author makes no pretension to originality or deep thinking, nor to such an acquaintance with psychology, or physical science, as a more thorough and enlightened discussion of the subject requires. So far as the thoughts of others have been approved, and were adapted to the purpose of the writer, they have been adopted, often in their own language, and are here acknowledged in general, to supersede the necessity of multiplied marginal references and marks of quotation. The authors of certain well-written papers on subjects kindred to this, in the Literary and Theological Review, the Biblical Repertory, and Christian Spectator, will perceive our obligations to them. Doctors George and John Cheyne, Combe, Good, Moore, Broussais, Burrows, Rush, Dunglison, Brigham, Hall, and Esquirol, have been consulted, especially Dr. James Johnson, justly called "the ablest and most effective writer of the age on every subject to which his attention was directed." Little is left for a successor to glean in any field of medical research after having been reaped by him. We have also had much assistance from