Rhode Island American And Providence Gazette

[For the American & Gazette.]

A word to invalids who visit Rhode-Island, or an essay to show the necessity of voluntary muscular motion in order to prevent disease.

To preserve health, and to prevent the occurrence of disease, it is not sufficient even to be placed in a healthy atmosphere, and to enjoy the most congenial refreshments of food, drink, and sleep; motion is requisite—voluntary muscular motion. To eat, to drink, and to sleep, are functions which no one ever thinks of dispensing with, who intends to enjoy health; yet either of these, when properly examined, is less indispensable to the vital existence of the human system, than the motion of the voluntary muscles. In perfect health, no man can lie or sit six hours without moving a limb or muscle, or changing his position. A complete change from the waking state—sleep must be induced, in order to qualify the muscles;—motion must be suspended. Men have gone for days without food, or drink, or sleep; but whoever ceased all voluntary muscular motion for twenty-four hours? Nothing but disease or sleep can qualify the system for this state. The state of voluntary as well as organic motion, is an affection or disposition as fixed in the human system, as a state of rest is in inorganic matter. To a considerable extent, voluntary motion may be dispensed with, as men learn to live with little food, drink, or sleep; but in the end, like the frequent omission of the latter, it is sure to undermine the constitution; to disorder the stomach and the liver, but especially the nerves—the prime exciters of all muscular motion.

Look at the human frame: examine the multitude of its joints; see them like pulleys rolling in the most lubricating fluid; notice the fleshy and tendinous chords or muscles which run over the joints; draw them tight with your fingers, and you will see every limb in motion as in life; and after this examination, you cannot but recognize a purpose in this wonderful mechanism, much less hidden than is manifested in the stomach for the digestion of food, or in the nervous system for the purpose of sleep.

The natives of this country, in whom the muscular system is earlier and more fully developed and matured than it is among us, no civilized plans or ingenuity can wean from the pleasures of their active and wholesome pursuits; the disposition to move in the chase clings to them like the appetites of hunger and thirst. Mankind in a civilized state, sensible of the general necessity of motion to be free of disease, take to cradles, swings, and carriages, as substitutes for that easy, healthful, and graceful motion for which the human system is adapted.—Such substitutes for muscular motion are best suited to children who are incapable of locomotion; and who, unless moved in these ways, must be wholly indebted to their joys and sorrows for that exercise of the muscles so necessary to health.

The writer has not recommended voluntary muscular motion merely as an auxiliary to health and ease; but has made it essential to the enjoyment of them, by showing it to be grounded on the same indispensable footing in the human system, with eating, drinking, sleeping, and, he could almost add, breathing.

If any further illustration of this doctrine is necessary for conviction, we appeal to the very beginning of life and organization, as it is illustrated in the instinctive habits of the feathered tribe—to the sitting hen who, in her natural care for her future progeny, forgets not her daily task of moving and turning her eggs, until the chick, fully organized and equipped for motion, walks forth from the shell. Even the senseless oak, as if to arm itself against the force of the elements, grows thriftier and stouter, and strikes its roots deeper into the earth, the oftener it is bent, and writhed and shocked by the winds. But all this is dwindling into the mere taper-light of analogy to prove what we have already noticed as self-evident, a principle, the extent of which only needs to be described in order to be perceived and practiced.

Not only the muscular system, but the eye, the ear, and the mind require exercise in order to enjoy the sweet and natural refreshment of sleep. To the nervous and to the bilious, no fit repose can come without a universal exercise of all the moving powers of the system. Then let those who go to Rhode Island hie to the beach, and listen to its soporific sounds; to the heights of the island, and gaze upon the most distant objects; and explore every nook and corner for minerals and shells. In bathing, which should be about ten in the morning, let them adopt the farrier discipline, and rub themselves for a full half hour with their own hands: bask in the sun beams, and take the ocean air upon the skin as well as into the lungs: and let none forget that a foul, dry skin, no less than a foul, feverish stomach, is productive of disease. Fishing is an exercise for the mind as well as the body; and the oftener this amusement is followed, the more healthy it will be found; as all fishermen, from the great ones of Nantucket down to the mackerel catchers of Cape Cod, enjoy the blessing of health.

As to diet, the inhabitants of the island must dictate it. The vegetable as well as the animal productions of the island are of a superior kind. There is a heart and maturity in them not a little remarkable. The soil and climate determine the nature of the vegetables; and the vegetables the nature of the animals. The Rhode Island mutton, like the Rhode Island apple, and the Rhode Island fish, we hope will soon be celebrated throughout the continent, and verify the assertion of Sir George Fordyce, that it is the easiest of digestion of all the meat kind.

S. B. D.