but in what precise way we cannot undertake to point out, The resulting sensation can be more readily described. The most painful aggravation of the state occurs when a morbid activity is generated beyond the control of the individual, hurrying him for a time into still greater depths of painful exhaustion.

This state of mind merits a full and orderly delineation. Commencing as usual with the great characteristic distinction. of pleasure and pain, we must attribute to it an exaggerated form of the latter. This pain is marked not by acuteness or intensity, but by massiveness or quantity. It is a wide spread and oppressive sensation, seeming to involve the entire nervous system. We are very strongly alive to it, a character probably belonging to all affections of the nerve substance. Its peculiar quality or tone cannot be seized by any descriptive phrase. I must appeal to each person's own experience for the perception of it. The re-action of an intense excitement, the exhaustion of a severe loss or grievous mortification, will bring up an instance of it to most minds. It will also be illustrated by contrast with the opposite state to be next treated of. The expression of the feeling is one of pain, not acute but deep seated and engrossing; collapsed features, restlessness, fretting, and melancholy. The action suggested is usually something quite extravagant and misplaced: the getting rid of life itself is one of the most natural desires when the condition assumes its most virulent forms. This is a proof of the total loss of freshness and tone through the entire substance of the nervous system, the final triumph of ennui.

I am aweary, aweary, O God that I were dead.

As regards intellectual marks and peculiarities, the condition is by no means one that has an intellectual persistence; when it recurs in idea, there is apt to be something of the reality at bottom. The most obvious comparison that the state suggests is to excessive burden or toil in the moving organs.

To fix by a precise delineation this condition of organic nervous exhaustion is an extremely important attempt, notwithstanding the difficulties arising both from the imperfection

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of our language and from the fluctuation and various nature of the condition itself. The importance lies in this great fact, that the state is the termination or final issue of a great many other forms of pain. The struggle that we maintain against painful inflictions of all kinds, whether bodily or mental, preys at last on the substance of the nervous system, and produces as its result this new form of evil. Hence the common source of complaint with all classes of sufferers,—the weariness, the ennui, the heavy tread of time, the impatience, the impossibility of being effectually soothed or comforted.

5. The consciousness arising out of the healthy and fresh condition of the nerve tissue, or out of the operations of the various artificial stimulants, is the exact contrast of the state now described. I do not enquire into the use and abuse of those stimulating materials, but merely advert to the effect common to them all, and for which they are had recourse to; an effect also to be reaped from the natural condition of the nervous organs when in their unexhausted vigour, as may be seen more particularly in early life. Emotions may likewise contribute to the same exaltation of the cerebral activity; but we must endeavour to distinguish between the purely nervous condition and the influence exercised upon the nerves by the various sensations and emotions. I am here considering causes unquestionably physical or material, such as can have no other action but on the organic condition of the nerve fibres and centres.

Following a parallel course of description, therefore, we may say of the state in question that the outward causes or antecedents are either healthy agents, or stimulants and drugs; and that the change in the tissue is of a physical nature, but not capable of being otherwise specified. The consciousness itself, is pleasurable, massive, and strongly felt. The expression, as might be expected from an exalted nervous activity, is lively and animated, and of the cheerful and pleasurable cast. The action and desire that it prompts are for continuance unlimited, and the cast of thought is hopeful for the future. The intellectual persistence is, as in the other case, extremely low; that is to say, the state is one difficult to

be remembered or imagined when once entirely gone, and when either the opposite condition or some intermediate neutral one has taken the place of it.

Organic Feelings of the Circulation and Nutrition.

6. The circulation of the blood through the arteries and veins by the force of the heart, the secretion of nutritive material and of excrementitious matter in the several tissues and glands, and the various acts of absorption corresponding to those processes, cannot be unattended with feeling. But the sensation arising out of the different degrees of vigour attending this course of operations is both vague and difficult to isolate. We may surmise with some probability that the depression of a low pulse and languid circulation has its seat in the capillaries situated all over the body, or is a sensation of the circulating machinery. To the same connexion we may assign the feelings of starvation when not reducible to the alimentary sensation of hunger. Thirst, also, is a feeling whose seat passes beyond the region of the stomach, and oppresses the entire system wherever the blood takes its course. The nerves distributed to the various tissues, muscular, glandular, mucous, &c., give note of the condition of those tissues as regards nutrition and the absorption of waste, in other words as regards the vigour of the blood's action in those parts. We may centralize all such indications, when they are general to the whole body, in the sufficiency of the composition and current of the blood.

The feelings of inanition and thirst are the most specific of all those that we can refer to this great function; feelings not so much of the acute character, as of pervading, massive, deep, and intolerable wretchedness. They are far more intense than mere nervous depression, and therefore stimulate a more vehement expression and a more energetic activity. Even when not rousing up the terror of death, they excite lively and furious passions. The unsophisticated brute is the best instance of their power. Like other organic states, they are not very easily realized after they are gone, but the fear, and

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stir, and energy that they produce at the time leaves a much more lasting impression than mere low spirits; we take far greater precautions against them than against nervous depression, which last is perhaps the least provided for of all human pains.

The consciousness growing out of a vigorous circulation, with all that this implies, may be looked upon as the most characteristic sensation of pure animal existence. It is more continuous and persistent than good innervation, sound digestion, or than most of the other organic states. There is a thrill of corporeal gratification, not very acute, but of considerable volume, a gentle glow felt everywhere, rendering existence enjoyable, and disposing to serene and passive con

tentment.

Let me have men about me that are fat;

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights.

It seems to be through the circulation that we are sensitive to atmospheric changes, more particularly as regards moisture and dryness. It is found that in a dry atmosphere the capillary circulation is quickened, and in a moist atmosphere retarded. The influence of heat and cold tells more through the lungs, whose sensations are next to be considered.

Feelings of Respiration.

7. 'Respiration is that function by which an interchange of gases takes place between the interior of an organized being and the external medium; and in the animal kingdom oxygen is the gas received, and carbonic acid the gas given out.' The aeration of the animal fluids or juices is an essential of their vitality; if this is put an end to, death ensues instantaneously, if insufficiently performed, the vigour of the animal is lowered ; and a peculiar painful sensation experienced. In man and in air-breathing animals, there is a wind apparatus, the lungs, inflated and contracted by muscles so as to suck in and force out the air by turns.

In this action we have all the particulars necessary to constitute a Sense: an external object,—the air of the atmo

sphere, which operates by physical contact upon the lining membrane of the tubes and cells of the lungs; an organ of sense, and a resulting state of feeling, or consciousness. The peculiarity of the case lies in its being almost entirely an emotional sense; generating feeling rather than yielding knowledge, or providing forms for the intellect; ranking therefore among the lower, and not the higher, senses.

As respects the object of this sense, the external air, it need only be remarked, that this differs considerably in its quality for breathing purposes, the chief point of difference being expressed by the term 'purity.' The purity is affected first by the loss of oxygen, which happens when the same air is repeatedly breathed, or otherwise consumed; secondly, by the accumulation of carbonic acid, from the same circumstance; and, thirdly, by the presence of foreign gases and effluvia arising from animal life, vegetation, or other causes. Closeness or confinement is the chief aggravation of all those impurities. Of the three evils, the loss of oxygen, the accumulation of carbonic acid, and the generation of effluvia of animal and other substances, the second is the least injurious; for although the production of a carbonic acid atmosphere, by burning charcoal in a close room, is fatal to life, yet the quantity ordinarily occurring in rooms is not found to do any harm if mixed with air otherwise pure. The loss of oxygen, and the diffusion of the gases of decay, are the main influences that deteriorate the atmosphere.

Of the organ acted upon, the lungs, a minute description is not necessary for our present purpose. The structure is so arranged by ramifications and doublings as to present a very extensive surface to the air; the surface consisting of a thin membrane, with capillary blood-vessels, thickly distributed on its inner surface. The exchange of gases takes place through the double medium of membrane and capillary tube. The muscular apparatus for sustaining the bellowsaction, is the diaphragm and abdominal muscles, and the muscles of the chest or ribs. The integrity and vigour of these muscles, and of the centres that sustain and time