rs, we have noticed the various causes, which,
one or all, operate to produce that melancholy delicacy and decay of the
female constitution, which are the occasion of so much physical and
mental suffering throughout this Country.

These, in a more condensed form, may be enumerated thus:

A want of exercise, inducing softness in the bones, weakness in the
muscles, inactivity in the digestive organs, and general debility in the
nervous system: A neglect of the care of the skin, whereby the blood has
not been properly purified, and the internal organs have been weakened:
A violation of the laws of health, in regard to food, by eating too
much, too fast, and too often; by using stimulating food and drinks; by
using them too warm or too cold; and by eating that which the power of
the stomach is not sufficient to digest: A neglect of the laws of
health, in regard to clothing, by dressing too tight, and by wearing too
little covering, in cold and damp weather, and especially by not
sufficiently protecting the feet: A neglect to gain a proper supply of
pure air, in sleeping apartments and schoolrooms, and too great a
confinement to the house: The pursuit of exciting amusements at
unseasonable hours, and the many exposures involved at such times: And
lastly, sleeping by day, instead of by night, and protracting the hours
of sleep, beyond the period of repose demanded for rest; thus
exhausting, instead of recruiting, the energies of the system.

But all the other causes, combined, probably, do not produce one half
the evils, which result from a want of proper exercise. A person who
keeps all the functions of the system in full play, by the active and
frequent use of every muscle, especially if it be in the open air, gains
a power of constitution, which can resist many evils that would follow
from the other neglects and risks detailed. This being the case, there
can be no subject, more important for mothers and young ladies to
understand, than the influence on the health, both of body and mind, of
the neglect or abuse of the muscular system.

It has been shown, in the previous pages, that all the muscles have
nerves and blood-vessels, running in larger trunks, or minute branches,
to every portion of the body. The experiments of Sir Charles Bell and
others, have developed the curious fact, that each apparently single
nerve, in reality consists of two distinct portions, running together in
the same covering. One portion, is the n