oomed_, by his
_parent_, to consumption and early death! Do you not see, every Sabbath,
at church, the young man or woman, upon whose fair and delicate
structure the peculiar impress of the EARLY DOOMED is stamped? and as a
slight but hollow cough comes upon your ear, does it not recall the
death-knell which rang in the same sad note before to the father or
mother? Who of you has not followed some young friend to his long
resting-place, and found that the grass had not grown rank upon the
grave of his brother? that the row of white marbles, beneath which slept
his parents and sisters, were yet glistering in freshness, and that the
letters which told their names and their early death seemed clear as if
cut but yesterday?

"They tell us that physical education is attended to in this country;
and yet, where is the teacher, where is the clergyman even, who dares to
step forth in these cases, and say to those who are _doomed_, you must
not and shall not marry? and where are the young men and women who would
listen to them if they did? It is not that they are wanting in
conscientiousness; they may be conscientious and disinterested; but they
do not know that they are doing wrong, because they are not acquainted
with the organic laws of their nature. All that is done in schools or
colleges toward physical education is the mere strengthening of the
muscular system by muscular exercise; but this is not half enough. These
remarks may be deemed irrelevant to my subject, but they can not be lost
to an audience whose highest interest is the education of man; and if I
am mistaken in supposing that little attention has been paid to the
subject, its importance will guaranty its repetition."

Before dismissing this subject, I will introduce two additional
quotations from American authors, whose opinions are received by the
medical profession in this country not only, but throughout Europe. In
both instances, I copy from works published in Great Britain, into which
the opinions of these American writers have been quoted. In regard to
hereditary transmission, Dr. Caldwell observes: "Every constitutional
quality, whether good or bad, may descend, by inheritance, from parent
to child. And a long-continued habit of drunkenness becomes as
essentially constitutional as a predisposition to gout or pulmonary
consumption. This increases, in a manifold degree, the responsibility of
parents in relation to temperance. By habits of intemperance, the