The influence of civic life, sedentary habits and intellectual refinement on human health and human happiness / by James Johnson.

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of civic life, sedentary habits and intellectual refinement on human health and human happiness / by James Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    In Man we can clearly distinguish three leading systems or series of parts, with their appropriate functions. The first is the organic system, comprehending the heart and vessels which circulate the blood and other fluids— the lungs, the digestive organs, and the glands. These are not under the governance of the will, and perform their allotted func- tions, whether we sleep or wake. The second class comprehends all the voluntary muscles, by means of which we transport ourselves from place to place — construct our edifices and manufactures—lay waste empires in war, or cultivate the fields in peace ! This is termed the animal system. Last of all comes the sen- tient and mtellectual system, viz. the brain and nerves. The innumerable ramifications of the nerves, spread over the surface of the body, and crowded into the tissues composing the different organs of sense, convey to the brain, like faithful videttes, intelligence of every thing that passes in the world around us. From these impressions, the mind forms its ideas, its judgments, and its determinations. In the development of this system Man excels all other animals, as much as the sun excels, in size and splendour, the meanest planet. Now these three systems, although appa- rently independent of each other, are yet linked in the strictest bonds of sympathy and