The terrestrial day, and consequently the length of the cycle of light
and darkness, being what it is, we find various parts of the
constitution both of animals and vegetables which have a periodical
character in their functions, corresponding to the diurnal succession of
external conditions; and we find that the length of the period, as it
exists in their constitution, coincides with the length of the natural
day.
Man, in all nations and ages, takes his principal rest once in
twenty-four hours; and the regularity of this practice seems most
suitable to his health, though the duration of the time allotted to
repose is extremely different in different cases. So far as we can
judge, this period is of a length beneficial to the human frame,
independently of the effect of external agents. In the voyages made into
high northern latitudes, where the sun did not rise for three months,
the crews of the ships were made to adhere, with the utmost punctuality,
to the habit of retiring to rest at nine, and rising a quarter before
six; and they enjoyed, under circumstances apparently the most trying, a
state of salubrity quite remarkable. This shows that, according to the
common constitution of such men, the cycle of twenty-fours is very
commodious, though not imposed on them by external circumstances.
The succession of exertion and repose in the muscular system, of excited
and dormant sensibility in the nervous, appears to be fundamentally
connected with the muscular and nervous powers, whatever the nature of
these may be. The necessity of these alternations is one of the measures
of the intensity of these vital energies; and it would seem that we
cannot, without assuming the human powers to be altered, suppose the
intervals of tranquillity which they require to be much changed. This
view agrees with the opinion of the most eminent physiologists. Thus,
Cabanis notices the periodical and isochronous character of the desire
of sleep, as well as of other appetites. He states that sleep is more
easy and more salutary, in proportion as we go to rest and rise every
day at the same hours; and observes that this periodicity seems to have
a reference to the motions of the solar system.
Now, how should such a reference be at first established in the
constitution of man, animals, and plants, and transmitted from one
generation of them to another? If we suppose a wise and benevolent
Creator, by whom all the parts of nature were fitted to their uses and
to each other, this is what we might expect and understand. On any other
supposition, such a fact appears altogether incredible and
inconceivable.[5]
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Footnote 5:
Abridged from Whewell’s _Bridgwater Treatise_.
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