The organic laws, or, The laws which govern the human organism / by J. Bradford Sax.

  • Sax, J. Bradford.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The organic laws, or, The laws which govern the human organism / by J. Bradford Sax. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    conception of the greatness of the evil. Now take into considera- tion the almost universal prevalence of it, and how can we over- estimate the appalling magnitude of this ever present curse ? But I am digressing. Man, and those animals which he has subjected to his influence, and thereby forced out of their natural mode of living, are alone afflicted with disease, of all the inhabitants of this planet. As a general statement, to which of course there will be here and there an exception, all animals that are left to pursue the guiding of their unperverted instincts, enjoy constant, perfect, and uninter- rupted health. Especially is this true of the more perfect kinds, and particularly of the vegetable eating species. With them •health is the rule—perfect health—and disease is the rare excep- tion. The wild beasts of the forests, the fowls of the air,—they are not afflicted with consumption, or fever, or liver complaint, or dyspepsia, or nervousness, or any ef the ten thousand ailments under which mankind groan and die ; nor indeed with any others. Go to the immense troops of wild horses upon the plains of South America. Do you suppose you would find them with the heaves, the glanders, or any other diseases ? You would find every indi- vidual, unless in case of some accident, enjoying the most perfect, robust, and uninterrupted health. The same would be true of the wild oxen or of the biscm upon our own western prairies, or indeed of animals of any kind and in any place, where they have been left to follow the habits of life natural to them. Disease is almost unknown to the animal kingdom, except where man has exerted his, in this respect, pernicious influence.—Now why is this? Why is man cursed with a thousand diseases, and animals free from them all ? I ask for the cause, since nothing happens without a cause. I press the reader to the point. What is the cause of man's diseases, and of the perfect, or almost perfect, healthfulness of animals ?—Can any other possible cause be assigned than this, viz : animals are endowed with unerring instincts to direct them to habits of life perfectly congenial with the laws of their being, and to warn them against transgression of the same ; and when left to themselves, they follow those instincts, and consequently obey the laws of their organism :—uninterrupted health is the consequence. But man, being also endowed with thinking or reasoning capaci- 2*