The Philosophy of Health
9781465635389
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The object of the present work is to give a brief and plain account of the structure and functions of the body, chiefly with reference to health and disease. This is intended to be introductory to an account of the constitution of the mind, chiefly with reference to the development and direction of its powers. There is a natural connexion between these subjects, and an advantage in studying them in their natural order. Structure must be known before function can be understood: hence the science of physiology is based on that of anatomy. The mind is dependent on the body: hence an acquaintance with the physiology of the body should precede the study of the physiology of the mind. The constitution of the mind must be understood before its powers and affections can be properly developed and directed: hence a knowledge of the physiology of the mind is essential to a sound view of education and morals. In the execution of the first part of this work, that which relates to the organization of the body, a formidable difficulty presents itself at the outset. The explanation of structure is easy when the part described can be seen. The teacher of anatomy finds no difficulty in communicating to the student a clear and exact knowledge of the structure of an organ; because, by the aid of dissection, he resolves the various complex substances, of which it is built up, into their constituent parts, and demonstrates the relation of these elementary parts to each other. But the case is different with him who attempts to convey a knowledge of the structure of an organ merely by the description of it. The best conceived and executed drawing is a most inadequate substitute for the object itself. It is impossible wholly to remove this difficulty: what can be done, by the aid of plates, to lessen it, is here attempted. A time may come when the objects themselves will be more generally accessible: meanwhile, the description now given of the chief organs of the body may facilitate the study of their structure to those who have an opportunity of examining the organs themselves, and will, it is hoped, enable every reader at once to understand much of their action. Physical science has become the subject of popular attention, and men of the highest endowments, who have devoted their lives to the cultivation of this department of knowledge, conceive that they can make no better use of the treasures they have accumulated, than that of diffusing them. Of this part of the great field of knowledge, to make "the rough places plain, and the crooked places straight," is deemed a labour second in importance only to that of extending the boundaries of the field itself. But no attempt has hitherto been made to exhibit a clear and comprehensive view of the phenomena of life; the organization upon which those phenomena depend; the physical agents essential to their production, and the laws, as far as they have yet been discovered, according to which those agents act. The consequence is, that people in general, not excepting the educated class, are wholly ignorant of the structure and action of the organs of their own bodies, the circumstances which are conducive to their own health, the agents which ordinarily produce disease, and the means by which the operation of such agents may be avoided or counteracted; and they can hardly be said to possess more information relative to the connexion between the organization of the body and the qualities of the mind, the physical condition and the mental state; the laws which regulate the production, combination, and succession of the trains of pleasurable and painful thought, and the rules deducible from those laws, having for their object such a determination of voluntary human conduct, as may secure the pleasurable and avoid the painful.
