ly nourished, and at last strikes work. In civil life we
sometimes meet with such cases among certain classes of artisans:
paralysis of the legs as a result of using the treadle of the
sewing-machine ten hours a day is a good example, and, I am sorry to
add, not a very rare one, among the overtasked women who slave at such
labor.

Now let us see what happens when the intellectual organs are put
over-long on the stretch, and when moral causes, such as heavy
responsibilities and over-anxiety, are at work.

When in active use, the thinking organs become full of blood, and, as
has been shown, rise in temperature, while the feet and hands become
cold. Nature meant that, for their work, they should be, in the first
place, supplied with food; next, that they should have certain intervals
of rest to rid themselves of the excess of blood accumulated during
their periods of activity, and this is to be done by sleep, and also by
bringing into play the physical machinery of the body, such as the
muscles,--that is to say, by exercise which flushes the parts engaged in
it and so depletes the brain. She meant, also, that the various
brain-organs should aid in the relief, by being used in other directions
than mere thought; and lastly, she desired that, during digestion, all
the surplus blood of the body should go to the stomach, intestines, and
liver, and that neither blood nor nerve-power should be then misdirected
upon the brain: in other words, she did not mean that we should try to
carry on, with equal energy, two kinds of important functional business
at once.

If, then, the brain-user wishes to be healthy, he must limit his hours
of work according to rules which will come of experience, and which no
man can lay down for him. Above all, let him eat regularly and not at
too long intervals. I well remember the amazement of a distinguished
naturalist when told that his sleeplessness and irregular pulse were due
to his fasting from nine until six. A biscuit and a glass of porter, at
one o'clock, effected a ready and pleasant cure. As to exercise in the
fresh air, I need say little, except that if the exercise can be made to
have a distinct object, not in the way of business, so much the better.
Nor should I need to add that we may relieve the thinking and worrying
mechanisms by light reading and other amusements, or enforce the lesson
that no hard work should be attempted during digestion. The wise doctor
may haply smile at the co