Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / With notes by R. Macnish.

  • Brigham, Amariah, 1798-1849.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / With notes by R. Macnish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/160
    very necessary in this country. It is lamentable, and in fact alarming-, to find that the females of the United States, especially those in cities, and these belonging to the most wealthy class, are in general more delicate and feeble than those in several countries of Europe. From my own observation, I am confident that a far greater proportion of the females seen in the cities of this country, are pale, slender, and apparently un- healthy, than of those seen in the large towns of Eng- land and France. The truth of this remark is abun- dantly confirmed by our own and foreign travellers. But there is no other country where females generally receive so early and so much intellectual culture, and where so little attention is paid to their physical edu- cation. Unless there is a reform in this respect, the general feebleness of the females in this country will be increased. Besides, there is danger of ultimately regarding extreme delicacy as requisite to beauty, and thus a false and most dangerous error may be en- couraged. No people will long hold a high rank among the nations of the earth, where such an opinion extensively prevails, and where females are generally feeble. It is not, however, the object of this publication to discountenance in the least degree, any judicious efforts to cultivate the human mind. On the contrary, I wish to awaken a more general attention to this subject. But I would not have this attention confined to children, and to that age when the human system requires all its energies to perfect the organization. Education should be made the business of life, and the