The Code of Health and Longevity

ON ATHLETIC EXERCISES. 13! tary exertion, and of fenfation, are in great meafure In-7 compatible with each other.. Hence the utility of the bullet in the foldier's mouth, who is fuffering punifh- ment: by ftrongly exerting the mufcles of maftication on this unyielding fubftance, he dlmlnilhes the fenfation of pain. Even our immortal bard appears to have been acquainted with this fa£l, wiien he makes Henry the Fifth dellre hisibldiers, previous to mounting,the deadly hreach, to " Stiffenthe finevvs, fuqimon up the blood ; " T o f e tt h e t e e t h , a n df t r e t c h t h e noftril w i d ^ , " Holdhard the breath, and bend up every fpirit " To hisfull height; 1 ' Such is the condition of perfons engaged in a boxing match. And many who can contemplate the gallantry undfpirit difplayed in aconteft of this kind, withcon­ siderable fatisfaftion, would flirink with abhorrence from, •the fpeftacle of a man beaten in like manner, werehe at the fame time deprived of the power of refiftance. It is alfo matter of common obfervation, that a man, in poffeffion of a robuft and vigorous conftitution, fuffers much lefs pvn from a certain degree of injury than a perfon in a more feeble ftate of health. ,Carry this a little farther, and we find a delicate lady, whofe flaccid mufcles hardly fufficeto fupport a debilitated frame from one chamber to another, yet highly fufceptible of pain from the^flighteft external injury, and fuffering almoft annihilation at the fudden clapping of a door. It would feem, therefore, as if the force and irritability of the mufcles, and the mfceptibility of the nerves were in the anverfe ratio of each other. The effedlof a courfe of training appears to be to augment the quantity, and irri­ tability of the mufcular fitrre, and, at the fame time, to z 2 diminilh