LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE. BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM. 'Know thyself.' PEOPLE'S EDITION. LONDON: HORSELL, ALDINE CHAMBERS, 13 PATERNOSTER ROW; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1849. THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE. PREFACE. HE work which I now present to the public in unlearned reader, why I have not wholly refrained a printed form, is the result of my observations, from the use of the technical terms of scientific reflections, inquiries, investigations and re-language, and expressed myself in terms that every searches for more than forty years; nearly a fourth one can readily understand? This is a difficulty part of which time has been exclusively devoted to which I have fully appreciated, and at first, enit with an assiduity which has almost wholly sacri- deavored to avoid; but I soon found that it would ficed my social enjoyments of life, and taxed my mind compel me to use great circumlocution and tedious and body to a degree which has greatly impaired the repetition: and on further reflection, I was satisfied vigor of my health, and probably in no small measure that it is best even for the unlearned reader, that the abbreviated the period of my earthly existence. And technical terms should be retained, and so explained yet I am very far from being satisfied with what I that he can understand them. Thus, when describ have done. I feel that if I could have ten years ing the nervous system, I at first gave a particular more of health and opportunity, I could greatly per- description of the trisplanchnic nerve (220), without fect the labors of the past ten years. In regard to giving its scientific name; and in the course of one or the great principles which I have advanced, and all two pages I was obliged to speak of that nerve again, the practical bearings of those principles, I feel the and found myself under the necessity of repeating the most entire confidence, and have no wish for longer whole description, for want of a name; and then the time to satisfy myself of their correctness; but I thought occurred to me, that however well my readers think that with more time and labor, I could, in might become acquainted with the anatomy of the many respects, improve the method in which I have nervous system by studying my book, yet if they presented them, and give more strength to the argu- should take up any other work, in which the trisment and force to the illustration. planchnic nerve, or any other part of the human system was spoken of in the ordinary language of science, they would not be able to understand what parts were intended, any better than they would if they had never seen a description of the parts. If by any means, therefore, we can make the unlearned reader acquainted with the meaning of these terms, we greatly benefit him; for we thereby, as it were, teach him the alphabet of science, and greatly increase and enrich the furniture of his mind; which always enlarges his understanding and facilitates his attainments in knowledge. With this conviction, I have retained the technical terms of science pertaining to my subject, and have endeavored to enable every reader to understand them, by explanations in the text, and by continual references. Thus in 313 I explain the meaning of the terms, organ, tissue, viscera, etc., and afterwards when I use these terms, I frequently refer back to this section. By these means, and by the help of a key or dictionary, attached to the volume, containing all these terms with a full explanation of them, I hope every reader will soon be able to come to a clear and ready understanding of them. My undertaking has, from the commencement of my career as a public lecturer, been a most difficult, as well as a most arduous one. I have endeavored, for nearly ten years past, by oral instruction, to bring to the comprehension and understanding of the popular and unlearned mind, one of the most abstruse and complicated subjects within the range of the natu ral sciences. To do this with any degree of success, and to excite and keep up sufficient interest in the minds of those I wished to benefit, to make them willing to attend to such instructions, I have been compelled to exercise all the versatility of power and resource that I have been able to command. This of necessity, has obliged me to depart widely from that conciseness and simplicity of method which properly belong to scientific reasoning; and to be at times diffuse in manner, and redundant in illustration. And now, I am fully conscious that if learned men, of severely disciplined minds, do my work the honor to peruse it, they will find occasion to complain of the same evils in the printed form of my lectures. And my apology is, that I have still in view the same great class of people. If my design had been to prepare a work for the scientific reader only, I should have written it in very I have endeavored, as far as I could in such a work different style and method; but my desire is to carry as this, to follow the plan of Euclid's Elements of my instruction into every family, and to be understood Geometry: that is, by referring continually to preby every individual of ordinary capacities. And if I viously ascertained principles, or established facts and have not erred in judgment, I have not retained conclusions, whenever they are involved or illustrated more diffuseness of style, nor copiousness of illustra- or alluded to in any process of reasoning, I have made tion, nor indulged more in repetition than the best one part explain and corroborate another, and by this adaptation of such a work to the popular mind re-means, I have put it in the power of every individual quires. My great object is to have the principles of suitable age and ordinary intelligence, by a proper which I inculcate, clearly understood. And minds degree of application, to attain to a very clear and full wholly unaccustomed to scientific investigations can- understanding of my work, not only in its particular, not readily apprehend the general principles of such practical bearings, but in its general system of prina complicated subject without a fulness of explanation ciples as a science. I hardly need remark, however, and illustration, approaching to redundancy. that a work of this kind cannot be read as an amusing novel, nor as an entertaining narrative or history; But it may be asked, if I intend my work for the but it must be studied, attentively, and perhaps at first, with considerable labor, or few will be the wiser or the better for the time they devote to it. It is not possible that such a work as this, which has required the intense mental labor of many years to produce it, can be fully comprehended from a single hasty perusal, even by a well disciplined and much improved mind; and still less, by minds destitute of scientific education and habits of close and connected thinking. It is, perhaps, proper that I should explain in this place, a single point, in relation to my general subject, concerning which there appears to have been much popular error of opinion. The idea has very frequently been advanced, that my whole theory in relation to human diet, has been founded on the opinions of Pythagoras and others who have taught that man ought to subsist entirely on vegetable food. But nothing is farther from the truth than this. I had, it is true, read Pythagoras and others who subsisted on vegetable food; but the subject had never made the slightest impression on my mind; and nothing was more remote from my thoughts, when I commenced my labors as a public lecturer, than the idea that man ought to confine himself wholly to vegetable food. From the natural turn of my mind, I had from childhood been given very much to ob servations and reflections and inquiries concerning the anatomy and physiology of the human body (550); but without any other object in view than the gratification of my thirst for knowledge, and particularly knowledge of first principles, and the relation of cause and effect. Being very early in life convinced by observation, of the mischievous effects of intoxicating drinks, I began while yet a lad to remonstrate with my companions and others against the use of them. This led me not only to apply what physiological knowledge I possessed, but also, to improve that knowledge continually, in order to convince others of the correctness of my opinions. In June, 1830, I was prevailed on to become the general agent of the Pennsylvania State Society for the suppression of the use of Ardent Spirit. But with my mental constitution, it was impossible for me to be satisfied with mere declamation against drunkenness. I wished to give my hearers the reasons why they should not use intoxicating drinks. This led me to apply my mind more exclusively and diligently than ever to the study of human physiology, and finally to animal and vegegetable physiology in general: but without proposing to myself any conclusion to which I could arrive, or even dreaming whither my pursuits would lead me. I was an honest and sincere inquirer after truth, and willing to receive its teachings and follow where it led without waiting to see how it would affect my interests or my habits. In this manner I was led on, from step to step, in my purely physiological investigations, and was as much surprised at the discoveries which I made, as any have been at the conc.usions to which I arrived. Having served the Pennsylvania Temperance Society about six months, I resigned my agency, without any idea of continuing my labors as a public lecturer. Soon after my resignation, however, I was persuaded to give a course of my lectures on human physiology, diet, and general regimen, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia; and before I had completed this course, I received an urgent invitation from New York, to visit that city, and deliver my lectures there. In New York, I received pressing invitations from every quarter; and thus, most unexpectedly to me, have I been kept industriously employed in this great field of labor, till the present time: and my public lecturing, though extremely arduous, has by no means been the severest part of my labor. Almost every hour of my life, during the whole time not necessarily appropriated to the wants of my nature-including many hours that others devote to sleep-I have employed in the most intense mental application to the great subject which has occupied my attention. My theory in relation to the diet of man, therefore, has neither been founded on, nor suggested by, the opinions of others who have taught that vegetable food is the proper aliment of the human species; but my eye has been continually fixed on the living body, observing its vital phenomena, studying its vital properties and powers, and ascertaining its physiological laws: and wholly without the consciousness that any human being had ever advanced the idea that man should confine himself to vegetable food; and wholly without the purpose in my mind, of establishing such a position! But I was unexpectedly and irresistibly brought to such a conclusion, purely by my physiological investigations. Yet when I had thus arrived at this conclusion, and began to look about me, and survey the history of man, I soon discerned that there were not wanting facts, in the experience of the human family, to corroborate the conclusion to which I had been brought by my physiological investigations: and when I came to advance my opinions on the subject in public, immediately, on every hand, statements and facts and testimonies began to flow in upon me in abundance. Every one who heard me, and who had ever read or heard of anything which corresponded with my views, kindly communicated it to me. In this manner I have come in possession of nearly all the facts and authorities which I have employed in the illustration or corroboration of my principles; but in no case have the principles been drawn from these facts and authorities. And it is but just that I should add, that many of the authors which I have cited, I have not read, but have been indebted to the kindness of friends, who have read them for me, and furnished me with such extracts as they thought would be serviceable to me. In short, I must frankly acknowledge that I have had much less to do with books than with living bodies, in all my physiological investigations. I shall not therefore be surprised if men of general reading find that many opinions which I have advanced as peculiar to myself, have been advanced by others, with whom I am unacquainted: for my mind has ever been much more given to observation and reflection than to reading, and hence my knowledge of books is very limited. On the subject of anatomy, my attention has been more directed to the nervous system, than to other parts of the body; and, therefore, though I have attended much to dissection and general anatomy, yet in preparing my work for the press, I have frequently felt the want of a more familiar acquaintance with before regarded as of comparatively little importance the minute anatomy of particular parts, which I had printed work in order to render it complete. I am, to physiology, but which I consider necessary in my therefore, not entirely certain of being perfectly ac that I have in no case made any great mistake; and curate in every minute point of anatomy, but I trust I am confident that I have made no mistake on any important point. In regard to phrenology, I have perhaps said enough in the body of my work (532, et seq.), but I wish the zealous advocates of that theory distinctly to understand that I entertain no hostile feelings towards it. I have aimed not to misrepresent it; and if I have fallen into any mistakes in regard to it, I shall be glad to be corrected; and am ready to embrace it as fully and as warmly as any of them, when I can be as fully convinced of its truth and importance as many of them appear to be. But at present, I must honestly confess I have doubts on some points; albeit I am not far from a full conviction that, in the true science of intellectual and moral physiology, the brain is to be regarded as an assemblage of special organs, according to the views of Dr. Gall. Concerning the natural element or elements of matter (47, et seq.), its properties and laws, and the production of the various forms of material things, I suppose I shall be considered sufficiently visionary, by some; but it will be seen that I am not wholly alone in the speculation; although I supposed myself to be alone in it, for several years after I embraced the notion, and have, from time to time, been not a little gratified to find myself sustained in it, by such high authorities as I have since met with (74, et seq.). But, whatever may be true in regard to the number of natural elements, the great physiological and psychological principles which I have advanced (522, et seq.), are, I am confident, irrefragably true: and these are all that I wish to insist on, in relation to the nature and properties of matter. (105, 106.) adelphia, New York, Boston, and other places, whose In all my public labors I have carried with me a deep and solemn sense of responsibility, which has at times almost overwhelmed me. Most conscientiously have I desired, and sought to find out the truth, for the truth's sake, and to promulgate it for the good of man. With the same deep and solemn sense of responsibility, and that same conscientious purpose of soul, I now present this printed work to the public. If I believed it to contain any mischievous error, God knows I would not send it abroad, to do evil in the world. Yet I am but a human being, and with all my sincerity of purpose, and untiring diligence to ascertain the truth, it is possible I may have fallen into some mistakes; and this consideration has led me to refuse to have the first edition of this work If In presenting my lectures to the public, at this time, in a printed form, I feel it my right and duty to remark, that it would be very unjust in the public to date their existence from this period. It must be remembered that I have been repeating these lectures in public for nearly ten years When I began these public labors, the subject of human physiology, so far as I am informed, had not been named nor thought of, by any other person, as a matter of popular knowledge and general education: but since that time, it has been continually becoming more and more a subject of public interest: and now, physiology and physical education are common topics of conversation, in almost every circle. I do not mean to imply however that my labors alone have produced all this effect. Since I have been in the field, several works have appeared both in England and stereotyped, because I wished to have the opportunity America, which have embraced different portions of to correct any errors that might be pointed out: and the same great subject. These have undoubtedly had therefore, I now sincerely and earnestly entreat all much influence on the public, and contributed to pro- medical gentlemen and others, for the sake of truth duce the present state of things. There is one work, and humanity, to examine this work critically, and however, which I believe was published in England to expose every error they may discover in it. or Scotland, before I commenced my public lectures, they attack it with ridicule and vituperation, I shall and which has probably done more than any other have no confidence in their honesty, but will neverone, to excite a popular interest on the subject of phy-theless endeavor to be benefited even by their abuse: sical education: but I speak of it only from report, as I have never read it, and know nothing of its merits, except from the testimony of others. I allude to the Constitution of Man,' by Mr. George Combe. The first time I ever heard of this work was in the summer of 1833, when I was accused of having borrowed my views from it. This induced me to form a resolution never to look at it till my own lectures had passed through the press. I have adhered to that resolution, and can therefore only say, if there are views in my lectures corresponding with those advanced by Mr. Combe in that or any other work, we have both hit on them without any indebtedness to each other. Indeed I have seen but few of the works which have appeared since I commenced my public labors, in relation to the general subject embraced by my lectures, and those which I have seen, I have been able only to glance at hastily. Aber crombie's writings I am wholly unacquainted with: and in fact, it is nearly twenty years since I have read any work on intellectual and moral philosophy. While, therefore, I have gathered all along my course such facts and testimonies, in illustration and corroboration of my views, as my numerous friends have kindly placed within my reach, or selected for me, yet all the principles and the main body of my lectures, which now first appear in print, have a just claim to at least as early a date as 1832. but if, in a manner which evinces an honest disposition to serve the cause of truth and humanity, they point out its errors or its blemishes, I shall gladly and gratefully receive their corrections, and apply them to the improvement of my work Many good people have entertained the idea that the dietetic doctrines of my lectures are contrary to the Sacred Scriptures, and that the promulgation of them is unfriendly to religion. The fears and prejudices of such people, however ill founded, are to be regarded with respect, seeing that they spring from those elements in the mental and moral constitution of human nature, which, when properly exercised, lead to the just regulations of society, and on which the correctness and stability of all good institutions among men depend. I wish, therefore, to assure such people and all others, that I have not been unmindful of these things, but have thoroughly examined them. It was not suitable that I should include the results of my investigations on these points in such a work as this; but I have another work ed extensively and fully into a careful examination nearly prepared for the press, in which I have enterof every point of relation between my lectures and the Holy Scriptures. It is my purpose to preand I trust it will wholly satisfy every honest and sent that work to the public as soon as possible ;* conscientious mind, that there is the most entire harmony between the Sacred Scriptures, and the dietetic and other principles taught in this work. Northampton, February, 1839. In the progress of my labors, however, I have been much indebted to many professional and scientific gentlemen, of our own country, for numerous advantages and facilities which have been greatly serviceable to me; and were it proper, I would gladly name It has since been published, and should circumstances several gentlemen of the medical profession in Phil-justify, we may issue an English edition of it some time.-ED. |