ance so generally prevalent in regard to the simplest functions of
the animal system, and the consequent absence of the judicious
co-operation of friends in the care and cure of the sick. From ignorance
of the commonest facts in physiology, or from want of ability to
appreciate their importance, men of much good sense in every other
respect not only subject themselves unwittingly to the active causes of
disease, but give their sanction to laws and practices destructive
equally to life and to morality, and which, if they saw them in their
true light, they would shrink from countenancing in the slightest
degree.

Were the intelligent classes of society better acquainted with the
functions of the human body and the laws by which they are regulated,
continues this judicious writer, the sources of much suffering would be
dried up, and the happiness of the community at large would be
essentially promoted. Medical men would no longer be consulted so
exclusively for the cure of disease, but would be called upon to advise
regarding the best means of strengthening the constitution, from an
early period, against any accidental or hereditary susceptibility which
might be ascertained to exist. More attention would be paid to the
_preservation_ of health than is at present practicable, and the medical
man would then be able to advise with increased effect, because he would
be proportionally well understood, and his counsel, in so far, at least,
as it was based on accurate observation and a right application of
principles, would be perceived to be, not a mere human opinion, but, in
reality, an _exposition of the will and intentions of a beneficent
Creator_, and would therefore be felt as carrying with it an _authority_
to which, as the mere dictum of a fallible fellow-creature, it could
never be considered as entitled.

It is true that, as yet, medicine has been turned to little account in
the way of directly promoting the physical and mental welfare of man.
But the day is, perhaps, not far distant, when, in consequence of the
improvements both in professional and general education now in progress,
a degree of interest will be attached to this application of its
doctrines far surpassing what those who have not reflected on the
subject will be able to imagine as justly belonging to it, but by no
means exceeding that which it truly deserves.

Every person should be acquainted with the organization, structure, and
functions of his own