The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-21


this somewhat extravagant recommendation
OF the study of natural history will be justified
by the case of the lady who died on seeing
the spider. For, suppose such a nervous
individual to be the mother of large family,
or the superintendent of a number of young
children, what a quaking little set she
might soon convert them into by her con-
slant display of terrors; her EXPLANATIONS
of horror at a "horrid spider" "poisonOus
toad !" At the sacrifice of jackets and
shoe leather, at the cost of glass cases and
broken bowls, let our ohildren-always under
judicious guidance and in moderation--be
encouraged to rake and poke among the sea-
weed, to scramble over hedges and ditohes to
hunt out and treasure up whatever of the
wonders Of Gods creation excites their curl
osity, and-sUbsequently, we will hOpe-their
reverence.
This sorambling and chasing has the further
advantage of developing muscle as well as
mind, and Of imparting to youthful limbs
that agility and readiness which are only
to be obtained through the cultivation Of
the corporeal powers. And though this
may seem stale and trivial to write about,
it is not every one, even in these days of
gymnasiums, who looks upon running,
tumbling, jumping, swimming, riding, walk.
ing on cliffs and narrow lodges, all ath-
letic sports, even dancing, as preserving
powers for they all impart properties which,
limbs, put us in position to sustain little or
no hurt in case of accidents. Ethardo Bon-
din, Leotard, and other acrobats, also the
Zouaves in their wonderful military feats, are
examples of what training may do. (The
word discretion might claim some space here,
were we not addressing intelligent readers
who know what precise portion of valor that
quality forms.) Praotised with discretion,
then, these accomplishments procure for us a
sort of immunity from danger, so that happen
what may, we shall-fguratively speaking
alight on all fours, like a cat. Such an
adept is puss in the aforementioned feats,
that she has obtained the credit of having nine
lives. Her steed, from kittenhood, has been
rope line, a waving bough, or the topmost
branch in a gale of wind. Puss must possess
that faculty which phrenologists connect with
the organ of vitativeness in conjunction with
form, size, weight, comparison, etc.; faculty
which enables us to recover, poise quickly, to
dexterOusly convert a loss of footing into a
leap, and so save ourselves from a fall. It is
faculty to be acquired in youth, and the
more it is cultivated the fewer will be the
losses of life from casualties.
(f all the modern clubs, the swimming
clubs, and of all the popular feats, the swim
ming matches, are among the most useful and
life-preserving. The art of swimming is one
of the most Important yet in England it has
been, till of late years, one of the most ne
elected in education. We read that it was as
great disgrace for Roman youth to be
unable to swim as for a Spartan youth to be
coward; yet in England we can scarcely take
up newspaper in which death from drown
ing is not recorded. Four school-boys in
one day at Brighton, not long since; three
more in the north while l write this and
the recently published "Reports' informs us
that in one year (lS64) the number of persons
accidentally drowned was two thousand seven
hundred and fourteen
The organ of vitativeness which we Just now
accredited to puss, and which indicates the
disposition to cling tenaciously to existence,
does-so phrenologists inform us--by creating
a certain resistance to disease, contribute
essentially to the preservation of life. DR..
Adam Clarke, Kant, and Schiller were ex-
amples of strong will in resisting disease; SO
were DIR. Andrew Combe and the Bronte
family. And the lady who died at the sight
of spider was an instance of very feeble will
in yielding to foolish fears.
An example, in proof of the power which an
intelligent man can acquire over his own
frame, may be cited in the case of an American
clergyman, who, in position of extraordinary
danger, was truly said to have saved his own
! life.
He had, on some special occasion, been in
vited to preach at Lynchburg, in the hilly re-
gions of Virginia. After an evening service in
mid-winter he was returning to his lodging,
| by way Of a street which, to avoid hill was
! being eXcavated in the middle; leaving the
houses and foot-path at a considerable eleva-
ton on either side. Upon this elevated pave
ment the reverend gentleman was walking,
and, unaware of the alteration in progress, was
about to cross, when-the street being ill
lighted, and the night very dark-he fell with
violence over the deep cutting on the rocky,
half-made road below, where he lay for time
completely stunned.
Consciousness returning he became aware
that he was lying on his back, unable to move
limb, or draw breath. Feeling himself on
the point of fainting, the horrible thought
flashed upon him, that there he must lie and
die, the road being impossible.
Suspended respiration, whether caused by O
violent concussion, or by drowning, can, we
know, be sometimes restored. But to achieve
this-as the Royal Humane assistants car
testify-several persons set promptly to work
and place the insensible person in such posi-
tiOn as to expand the chest, using friction anC
a variety of stimulants to set in motion tht
breathing apparatus. But here, in SOLITARY
plight, lay an injured and helpless man, who's,
only aids to recovery were intelligence anC
himself at once to werk to rekindle the fur
mace of life in the physical vestibule, TIN
lungs. His first efforts to inspire were agony
but, after intense exertions, benumbed anC
stiff as he was, he drew feeble breath, thel
another, and another, of gradually increasing
power; each fresh inspiration invigorating anC
encouraging him. Whilst engaged in thes
efforts he still lay motionless, but, having ao
complished the breathing, he next endeavore(
to move, when he discovered that beside
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