The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-11-20 00:00:00

LAWS OF HEALTH.

Dr. Thorburn delivered a long and interesting lecture, in-
troductory to a course of lectures on Physiology and the
Laws of Health, on the evening of Friday last, in the Theatre
of the Medical Institution, corner of Hope-street, Liverpool.
At least a third of the audience consisted of ladies: we
counted upwards of sixty. The doctor discussed his subject
popularly, and possessed the audience with clear ideas of the
science. He illustrated its objects with their laws. The
understanding of every topic touched upon was simplified,
by a constant reference to drawings; diagrams, casts, and a
series of beautiful plates. In a way for which we were un-
prepared, Dr. I'. showed the range of the objects, their im-
portant uses, and boundless associations of Physiology, e hich
is the science of human nature. The audience marked their
appreciation of the applications of which a knowledge of the
laws of human nature admits of to the every day pursuits of
families and nations. A knowledge of man was useful to
statesmen, man being the object for whose protection or ad-
vantage all acts of legislation were passed. All blundering,
defective, and injuirous legislation is traceable to the igno-
rance of human nature and the laws of health, which physi-
ology explains. The laws of digestion and thought, the
physiology of singing and speakieg, the passions and emo-
tions, &c.. were illustrated. Physiology was useful to every
member of society. It was particularly so to all who might
have to serve as jurors. The popular demand for "national
education" was adverted to. Mats should be looked at as he
was, and not as visionaries and demagogues would have him
to be. Physiology taught us the actual nature of man under
the existing influences and temptations to which a fallen
nature through disobedience had exposed him. Here the
lecturer's illustrations were highly successful. Knowledge
of our structure, and of the laws of our functions, suggested
the necessity of self-denial. The operation Of the principle
of antagonism was ever apparent in. the human body. The
moral and intellectual appetites balance those of the gross
and.sensual, or animal desires. Apply the- inference from
such facts to the cry for national education ; ,unless mankind
was educated morally and religiously, mere,scientific educa-
tion would prove a curse instead of au advantage to society.
Instigated by revenge or avarice, unless restrained by the
antagonising feeling inseparable franc their moral and reli-
gious feelings roused into actioci by moral and religious in-
struction, men would have little or no scruple in abusing
their scientific information and making it subserve the grati-
fication of their most unhallowed desires. By acquaintance
with the science and art of chemistry, an immoral and reck-
less community would be enabled to select poisons to remove
an enemy, or to get possession of property; and this in a way
so guarded and secret, as to defeat the ends of justice : such
doubts might be thrown on the evidence against them, that
every conscientious jury must return a verdict of acquittal.
This was not the view of an alarmist : occurrences of this
nature had been experienced. Our own rights and those of
our fellowmen are often assailed; people are often plundered
of their property by conspiracies which could not he success-
ful if men studied the science of human nature. Many a one
had been deprived of freedom, and confined in a private
madhouse, on unreal charges of lunacy; people had been
sent to asylums on the strength of certificates from what are
called "mad-doctors," and which mad-doctors, in the way of
reprisals, should have been made to change places with their
comparatively more sane patients. Popular physiology
would expose or defeat nearly every kind of quackery and
imposture, to which people in a state of unacquaintauce with
it were exposed.
The other lectures which are to follow are to be delivered
each Friday evening, at eight o'clock, in the Medical Insti-
tution They are addressed to the members, and suppotters
from the public, of the Literary, Scientific, and Commercial
Institution.