eddoes has shown very clearly in his
Hygeia, that it is the cause of a great many diseases which take
place at boarding schools, and that it there gives origin to a great
number of diseases that afterwards arise, and, indeed, not
unfrequently ruins the constitution. It produces relaxation of the
vessels, asthenic or passive inflammation, and even gangrene. He has
shown that in most schools children are afflicted with chilblains
from this cause; this is a case of passive inflammation, but is only
a symptom of the general debility induced, which shows itself
afterwards by the production of other symptoms. Hence it is necessary
for the preservation of health, that the temperature of school rooms
should always be kept equable, and regulated by means of a
thermometer. It should not exceed 50 degrees, nor should it be
allowed to fall much below it. If precautions of this kind are
thought to be necessary, and practised with uncommon attention, in
places where vegetables are reared, surely they ought not to be
neglected in those seminaries where the human species are to be
brought to maturity, and a good constitution established.

But though I have no doubt whatever, that this equable temperature
would prevent a number of diseases, which originate in too low a
temperature, yet I am far from wishing to have it thought that I
would not induce a hardy state of the constitution, which would
enable it to bear the vicissitudes to which it must be exposed in its
journey through life, by every means in my power. Hardiness is the
most enviable of all the attributes of animal nature, and can neither
be acquired, nor recovered when it is lost, but upon certain terms,
to which many people submit with reluctance, because they must give
up many indulgences and gratifications with which it is utterly
inconsistent.

One of the causes that chiefly contributes to reduce persons living
in affluence below the standard of hardiness, is the dependence they
place on a considerable degree of external warmth, for preserving a
comfortable state of sensation. From what has been said again and
again in some of the latest of these lectures, it must be evident
that continued warmth renders the living system less capable of being
excited to strong, healthy, and pleasant action: heat in excess,
whether it may be excess of duration or intensity, constantly
debilitates, by exhausting the excitability of the system, and thus
producing a state of indirect debi