by such means? Is not the patient made weaker? Does he not become emaciated by the premature removal of the sound parts of his body? If the patient were a fish, such a process might revive him; or if he were some amphibious animal, such treatment might be congenial to his nature. A state of health is when every organ, membrane and tissue of the body performs its own appropriate duty. Whatever tends to promote and maintain such an equilibrium, is conducive to health; and whatever essentially disturbs that, produces to some extent a morbid condition. If the skin, by means of some artificial stimulus, is made to perform more than its proper, healthy function, the proper action of some other organ or tissue becomes diminished at the same time; and, on the other hand, if the action of the skin is materially diminished for any considerable length of time, some other organ undertakes the vicarious duty, and the system becomes deranged. On this account it is always highly important that all such disturbing causes should be avoided, and guarded against. Therefore we are obliged to regard many of the pro-
