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WITH 29 ILLUSTEATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR. gmxDi &\tm, tonsikrablg twkqt^. LONDON: N. TRIJBNER & CO., 60, PATJ^RNOSTER ROW.>. 1870. „..'.> [All Rights reserved.'] ' '^" COPYRIGHT. EiJ.ered at Stationers' JIaU. % I- — 1 ^ / \ OCT i 1941 ^ • • • . » •• • • •.•t • •• • • • . • • ••( • • 0-. • •• • • ••• til, — J(Ullft;i[ILD8 AMD SON, PRINTKRe PREFACE. No person on eartli who reads this little work will condemn it : it is only a question how many millions may look through it and benefit themselves by adopting its precepts. THE AUTHOR. SHUT YOUR MOUTH. This communication, being made in the confident belief that very many of its Readers may draw from it hints of the highest importance to the enjoyment and prolong- ation of their lives, requires no other apology for its appearance, nor detention of the Reader from the in- formation which it is designed to convey. With the reading portion of the world it is generally known that I have devoted the greater part of my life in visiting, and recording the looks of, the various native Races of North and South America : and durins: those researches, observing the healthy condition and physical perfection of those people, in their primitive state, as contrasted with the deplorable mortality, the numerous diseases and deformities, in civilized commu- nities, I have been led to search for, and able, I believe, to discover, the main causes leading to such different results. '^i: SHUT YOUR MOUTH. During my Ethnographic labours amongst those wild people I have visited 150 Tribes, containing more than two millions of souls ; and therefore have had, in all probability, more extensive opportunities than any other man living, of examining their sanitary system ; and if from those examinations I have arrived at results of importance to the health and existence of mankind, I shall have achieved a double object in a devoted and toilsome life, and shall enjoy a twofold satisfaction in making them known to the world ; and particularly to the Medical Faculty, who may perhaps turn them to good account.* Man is known to be the most perfectly constructed of all the animals, and consequently he can endure more : he can out-travel the Horse, the Dog, the Ox, or any other animal ; he can fast longer ; his natural life is said to be * threescore and ten years,' while its real average lengthy in civilized communities, is but half equal to that of the brutes whose natural term is not one-third as long ! This enormous disproportion might be attributed to some natural physical deficiency in the construction of ♦ As the information contained in this little work is believed to be of equal importance to all classes of society, and of all Nations, the Author has endeavoured to render it in the simplest possible form, free from ambiguity of expression and professional technicality of language, that all may be able alike to appreciate it ; and if the work contains several brief repetitions, they are only those which were intended, and such as always allowed, and even difficult to be avoided, in conveying important advice. I i SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 3 Man, were it not that we find him in some phases of Savage life, enjoying almost equal exemption from dis- ease and premature death, as the Brute creations ; lead- ing us to the irresistible conclusion that there is some lamentable fault yet overlooked in the sanitary economy of civilized life. The human Race and the various brute species have alike been created for certain respective terms of exist- ence, and wisely supplied with the physical means of supporting that existence to its intended and natural end ; and with the two creations, these powers would alike answer, as intended, for the whole term of natural life, except from some hereditary deficiency, or some practised abuse. The horse, the dog, the ox, and others of the brute creations, we are assured by the breeders of those ani- mals, are but little subject to the fatal diseases of the lungs and others of the respiratory or digestive organs ; nor to diseases of the spine, to Idiocy or Deafness ; and their teeth continuing to perform their intended func- tions to the close of natural hfe, not one in a hundred of these animals, with proper care and a sufficiency of food, would fail to reach that period, unless destroyed by intention or accident. Mankind are everywhere a departure from this sanitary condition, though the Native Races oftentimes present a near approach to it, as I have witnessed SHUT YOUR MOUTIl. amongst the Tiibes of North and South America, amongst whom, in their primitive condition^ the above- mentioned diseases are seldom heard of ; and the almost unexceptional regularity, beauty, and soundness of their teeth last them to advanced life and old age. In civilized communities, better sheltered, less ex- posed, and with the aid of the ablest professional skill, the sanitary condition of mankind, with its variety, its complication, and fatality of diseases — its aches and pains, and mental and physical deformities, presents a more lamentable and mournful list, which plainly indi- cates the existence of some extraordinary latent cause, not as yet sufficiently appreciated, and which it is the sole object of this little work to expose. From the Bills of Mortality which are annually pro- duced in the civilized world, we learn that in London and other large towns in England, and cities of the Continent, on an average, one half of the human Race die before they reach the age of five years, and one half of the remainder die before they reach the age of twenty- five, thus leaving but one in four to share the chances of lasting from the age of twenty-five to old age. Statistical accounts showed, not many yeai-s past, that in London, one half of the children died under three years, in Stockholm, one half died under two years, and in Manchester, one half died under frve yeai-s ; but owing to recent improved sanitary regula- SHUT YOUR MOUTH. tioiis, the numbers of premature deaths in those cities are much diminished, leaving the average proportions as first given, no doubt, very near the truth, at the pre- sent time ; and still a lamentable statement for the contemplation of the world, by which is seen the fright- ful gauntlet that civilized man runs in his passage through life. The sanitary condition of the Savage Races of North and South America, a few instances of which I shall give, not by quoting a variety of authors, but from estimates carefully made by myself, whilst travelling among those people, will be found to present a striking contrast to those just mentioned, and so widely different as naturally, and very justly, to raise the inquiry into the causes leading to such dissimilar results. Several very respectable and' credible modern writers have undertaken to show, from a host of authors, that premature mortality is greater amongst the Savage, than amongst the Civilized Races ; which is by no means true, excepting amongst those communities of savages who have been corrupted, and their simple and temperate modes of life changed, by the dissipations and vices introduced among them by civiHzed people. In order to draw a fair contrast between the results of habits amongst the two Races, it is necessary to con- template the two people living in the uninvadcd habits peculiar to each ; and it would be well also, for the SHUT YOUR MOUTH. t writer who draws those contrasts, to see with his own eyes the customs of the Native Races, and obtain his information from the lips of the people themselves, in- stead of trusting to a long succession of authorities, each of which has quoted from his predecessor, when the original one has been unworthy of credit, or has gained his information from unreliable, or ignorant, or malicious sources. There is, perhaps, no other subject upon which his- torians and other writers are more liable to lead the world into erroneous conclusions than that of the true native customs and character of Aboriginal Races; and that from the universal dread and fear which have generally deterred historians and other men of Science from penetrating the solitudes inhabited by these people, in the practice of their primitive modes. There always exists a broad and moving barrier between savage and civilized communities, where the first shaking of hands and acquaintance take place, and over which the demoralizing and deadly effects of dissi- pation are taught and practised ; and from which, un- fortunately, both for the character of the barbarous races and the benefit of Science, the customs and the personal appearance of the savage are gathered and portrayed to the world. It has been too much upon this field that historians and other writers have drawn for the exaggerated SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 7 accounts which have been published, of the excessive mortality amongst the Savage Races of America, lead- ing the world to believe that the actual premature waste of life caused by the dissipations and vices introduced, with the accompanying changes in the modes of living in such districts, were the proper statistics of those people. I have visited these semi-civilized degradations of Savage life in every degree of latitude in North America, and to a great extent also in Central and South America, and as far as this system extends, I agree with those writers who have contended in general terms, that pre- mature mortality is proportionally greater amongst the Native Races than in Civilized communities ; but as I have also extended my visits and my inquiries into the tribes in the same latitudes, living in their primitive state, and practising their native modes, I offer myself as a living witness, that whilst in that condition, the Native Races in North and South America are a healthier people, and less subject to premature mortality (save from the accidents of War and the Chase, and also from Small-pox and other pestilential diseases in- troduced amongst them), than any Civilized Race in existence. Amongst a people who preserve no Records and gather no Statistics, it has been impossible to obtain exact accounts of their annual deaths, or strict propor- #■ is I 8 SHUT f OUR MOUTH. tionate estimates of deaths before and between certain ages ; but from verbal estimates given me by the Chiefs and Medical Men in the various tribes, and whose statements may in general be relied on as very near the truth, there is no doubt but I have been able to obtain information on these points which may safely be relied on as a just average of the premature mor- tality in many of those Tribes, and which we have a right to believe would be found to be much the same in most of the others. As to the melancholy proportions of deaths of children in civilized communities already given, there is certainly no parallel to it to be found amongst the North or South American TriDcs,. where they are living according to their primitive modes ; nor do I believe that a similar mortality can be found amongst the children of any aboriginal race on any part of the globe. Amongst the North American Indians, at all events, ^vhere two or three children are generally the utmost results of a marriage, such a rate of mortality could not exist without soon depopulating the country ; and as a justification of the general remark I have made, the few following instances of the numerous estimates which I received and recorded amongst the various tribes, I offer in tho belief that they will be received as matters for astonishment, calling for some explanation of the SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 9 causes of so wide a contrast between the Bills of Mor- tality in the two Races. Whilst residing in a small village of Guarani of 250 persons, on the banks of the Rio Trombutas, in Brazil ; amongst the questions which I put to the Chief, I desired to know, as near as possible, the num- ber of children under 1 years of age, which his village had lost within the last 10 years, a space of time over which his recollection could reach with tolerable ac- curacy. ' After he and his wife had talked the thing over for some time, they together made the following reply, viz. — that * they could recollect but three deaths of children within that space of time : one of these was drowned, a second one was killed by the kick of a horse, and the third one was bitten by a Rattle-snake.' This small Tribe, or Band, living near the base of the Acarai Mountains, resembled very much in their personal appearance and modes of life the numerous bands around them ; all mounted on good horses ; liv- ing in a country of great profusion, both of animal and vegetable food. The ' 8leep)i Eyes* a celebrated chief of a Band of Sioux, in North America, living between the head- waters of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, in reply to similar questions, also told me that in his Band of 1500, he could not learn from the women that they had 10 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. lost any of their children in that time, except some two or three who had died from accidents. He told me that the women of his Tribe had no instances of still-born children : and thev seerued not even to know the mean- ing of ' Abortions.' I asked him if any of their children were ever known to die from the pains of cutting their teeth, to which he replied, that they always seemed to suffer more or less at that period ; but that he did not believe that in the whole Sioux Tribe a child ever died from that cause. This Tribe I found living in their primitive con- dition. Amongst the Tribe of Man dans, on the upper Mis- souri, a Tribe of 2000, and living entirely in their primitive state, I learned from the Chiefs, that the death of a child under the age of 10 years was a very unusual occurrence ; and from an examination of the dead bodies in their Cemetery, at the back of their village, which were enveloped in skins, and resting separately on little scaffolds of poles erected on the prairies, amongst some 150 of such, I could discover but the embalmments of eleven children, which strongly cor- roborated in my mind the statements made to rae by the Chiefs, as to the unfrequency of the deaths of chil- SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 11 dren under the age above-mentioned; and which I found still further, if not more strongly, corroborated in the collection of human Skulls preserved and lying on the ground underneath the scaffolds. By the custom peculiar to this tribe, when the scaf- folds decay, on which the bodies rest, and fall to the ground, the skulls, which are bleached, are carefully and superstitiously preserved in several large circles on •^v» , ^^ /^ the ground ; and amongst several hundreds of these skulls, I was forcibly struck with the almost incredibly small proportion of crania of children ; and even more so, in the almost unexceptional completeness and sound- ness (and total absence of malformatio i) of their beauti- ful sets of teeth, of all ages, \\ hich are scrupulously kept 12 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. W" m together, by the lower jaws being attached to the other bones of the head.* In this Tribe of 2000, I learned also from the Chiefs, that there was not an instance of Idioc// or Lunacy — of Crooked Spine (or hunch-back), of Deaf and Dumb, or of other deformity of a disabling kind. The instances which I have thus far stated, as rather extraordinary cases of the healthfnlness of their chil- dren, in the above Tribes, arc nevertheless not far dif- ferent from many others which I have recorded in the numerous Tribes which I have visited ; and the appar- ently singular exemption of the Mandans, which I have mentioned, from mental and physical deformities, is by no means peculiar to that Tribe ; but, almost without exception, is applicable to all the Tribes of the American Continent, where they are living in their primitive con- dition, and according to their original modes. This Tribe subsists chiefly on Buffalo meat, and maize or Indian corn, which they raise to a consider- able extent. Amongst two millions of these wild people whom I have visited, I never saw or heard of a Hunch-back * A short time after I had described to the World the beautiful form- ation and polish of the teeth in these skulls, the forceps came, and (like the most of those left in the Indian graves on the frontiers), the most beautiful of them, which had chewed Buffalo meat for 25 years or a hr.lf century, are now chewing Bread and Butter in various parts of the World. SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 13 (crooked spine), though my inquiries were made in every Tribe ; nor did I ever see an Idiot or Lunatic amongst them, though I heard of some three or four, during my travels, and perhaps of as many Deaf and Dumb.* Shar-re-tar-rushe, an aged and venerable Chief of the Pawnee-Picts, a powerful Tribe living on the head- waters of the Arkansas River, at the base of the Rocky Mountains, told me in answer to questions, * we very seldom lose a small child — none of our women have ever died in cliildbirth — they have no medical attend- ance on these occasions — we have no Idiots or Lunatics — nor any Deaf and Dumb, or Hunch-backs, and our children never die in teething.' This Tribe I found living entirely in their primitive state ; their food, Buffalo flesh and Maize, or Indian corn. SJci-se-ro-ha^ Chief of the Kiowas, a small Tribe, on • Some writers upon whom the world have relied for a correct account of the customs of the American Indians, have assigned as the cause of the almost entire absence of mentjil and physical deformities amongst these people, that they are in the habit of putting to death all who are thus afflicted; but such is not only an unfounded and unjust, but disgraceful assumption on the part of those by whom the opinions of the world have been led ; for, on the contrary, in every one of the very few cases of the kind, which I have met or could hear of, amongst two millions of these people, these unfortunate creatures were not only supplied and protected with extraordinary care and sympathy, but were in all cases guarded with n superstitious care, as the probable receptacles of some important mystery, designed by the Great Spirit, for the undoubted benefit of the families or Tribes to which they belonged. 2 p' 14 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. I tlie head-waters of the Red River, in Western Texas, replied to me, * My wife and I have lost two of our small children, and perhaps tea or twelve have died in the Tribe in the last ten years — we have lost none of our children by teething — w^e have no Idiots, no Deaf and Dumb, nor Hunch-backs.' This Tribe I found living in their primitive con- dition, their food Buffalo flesh and Venison. Cler-mont, Chief of the Osages, replied to ray ques- tions, 'Before my people began to use ^^ fire-water " it was a very unusual thing for any of our women to lose their children ; but I am sorry to say that we lose a great many of them now ; we have no Pools (Idiots), no Deaf and Dumb, and no Hunch-backs — our w^omen never die in childbirth nor have dead children.* Naw-JcaWi Chief of the Winnebagoes, in Wisconsin, the remnant of a numerous and w^arlike Tribe, now semi-civilized and reduced, — ' Our children are not now near so healthy as they were when I was a young man j it was then a very rare thing for a woman to lose her child ; now it is a very difficult thing to raise them:* — to which his wife added — * Since our husbands have taken to drink so much whiskey our babies are not so strong, and the greater portion of them die j we cannot keep them alive.* The Chief continued, * We have no Idiots, no Deaf and Dumb, and no Hunch-backs ; our SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 15 litive con- women never die in childbirth, and they do not allow Doctors to attend them on such occasions.' Food of this Tribe, fish, venison, and vegetables. Kee-mon-saw, Chief of the Kaskaskias, on the Mis- souri, once a powerful and warlike Tribe, told me that he could recollect when the children of his Tribe were very numerous and very healthy, and they had then no Idiots, no Deaf and Dumb, no Hunch-backs ; but that the small-pox and whiskey had killed ofiP the men and women, and the children died very fast. ' My mother,' said he, * who is very old, and my little son and myself, all of whom are now before you, are all that are left in my Tribe, and I am the Chief ! * The above, which are but a very few of the numer- ous estimates which I have gathered, when compared with the statistics of premature deaths and mental and physical deformities in civiHzed communities, form a contrast so striking between the sanitary conditions of the two Races, who are born the same, and whose terms of natural life are intended to be equal, as plainly to show, that through the vale of their existence, in civilized Races, there must be some hidden cause of disease not yet sufficiently appreciated, and which the Materia 3Iedica has not effectually reached. Under this conviction . I have been stimulated to search amongst the Savage Races for the causes of their 2 * 1 '4 I n 16 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. exemption from, and amongst the civilized communities for the causes of their subjection to, so great a calamity; and this I believe I have discovered, commencing in the cradle, and accompanying civilized mankind through the painful gauntlet of life to the grave: and in possess- ion of this information, when I look into the habits of such communities, and see the operations of this cause, and its lamentable effects, I am not in the least aston- ished at the frightful results which the lists of mortality show ; but it is matter of surprise to me that they are not even more lamentable, and that Nature can success- fully battle so long as she does, against the abuses w^ith which she often has to contend. This cause I believe to be the simple neglect to secure the vital and intended advantages to be derived from quiet and natural sleep ; the great physician and restorer of mankind, both Savage and Civil, as w^ell as of the Brute creations. Man's cares and fatigues of the day become a daily disease, for which quiet sleep is the cure ; and the All- wise Creator has so constructed him that his breathing lungs support him through that sleep, like a perfect machine, regulating the digestion of the stomach and the circulation of the blood, and carrying repose and rest to the utmost extremity of every limb ; and for the protection and healthy working of this machine through the hours of repose. He has formed him with nostrils SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 17 ommimities a calamity; ncing in the nd through i in possess- he habits of this cause, least aston- of mortality lat they are can success- abuses with neglect to be derived ysician and I, as well as ome a daily id the All- 3 breathing e a perfect ;omach and repose and and for the ine through ^^ith nostrils intended for measuring and tempering the air that feeds this moving principle and fountain of life ; and in pro- portion as the quieting and restoring influence of the lungs in natural repose, is carried to every limb and every organ, so in unnatural and abused repose, do they send their complaints to the extremities of the system, in various diseases ; and under continued abuse, fall to pieces themselves, carrying inevitable destruction of the fabric with them in their decay. The two great and primary phases in life, and mu- tually dependent on each other, are waking and sleep- ing ; and the abuse of either is sure to interfere with the other. Por the first of these there needs a lifetime of teaching and practice ; but for the enjoyment of the latter, man needs no teaching, provided the regulations of the All-wise Maker and Teacher can have their way, and are not contravened by pernicious habits or erro- neous teaching. If man's unconscious existence for nearly one-third of the hours of his breathing life depends, from one moment to another, upon the air that passes through his nostrils ; and his repose during those hours, and his bodily health and enjoyment between them, depend upon the soothed and tempered character of the currents that are passed through his nose to his lungs, how mysteriously intricate in its construction and important in its functions is that feature, and how disastrous may 18 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. t be the omission in education which sanctions a de- parture from the full and natural use of this wise ar- rangement ! AYlien I have seen a poor Indian woman in the wilderness, lowering her infant from the breast, and pressing its lips together as it falls asleep in its cradle in the open air, and afterwards looked into the Indian midtitude for the results of such a practice, I have said to myself, ' glorious education ! such a ^lother deserves to be the nurse of Emperors/ And when I have seen the careful^ tender mothers in civilized life, covering the faces of their infants sleeping in overheated rooms, with their little mouths open and gasping for breath ; and afterwards looked into the multitude, I have been struck with the evident evil and lasting results of this incipient stage of education ; and have been more forcibly struck, and shocked, when I have looked into the Bills of Mor- tality, which I believe to be so frightfully swelled by the results of this habit, thus contracted, and practised in contravention to Nature's design. There is no animal in nature, excepting Man, that sleeps with the mouth open ; and with mankind, I be- lieve the habit, which is not natural, is generally confined to civilized communities, where he is nurtured and raised amidst enervating luxuries and unnatural warmth, where the habit is easily contracted, but carried and practised with great danger to life in different latitudes SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 19 and different climates j and, in sudden changes of tem- perature, even in his own house. The physical conformation of man alone affords sufficient proof that this is a habit against instinct, and that he was made, like the other animals, to sleep with his mouth shut — supplying the lungs with vital air through the nostrils, the natural channels ; and a strong corroboration of this fact is to be met with amongst the North American Indians, who strictly adhere to Nature's law in this respect, and show the beneficial results in their fine and manly forms, and exemption from mental and physical diseases, as has been stated. The Savage infant, like the offspring of the brute, breathing the natural and wholesome air, generally from instinct, closes its mouth during its sleep ; and in all cases of exception the mother rigidly (and cruelhj, if necessary) enforces Nature's Law in the manner ex- plained, until the habit is fixed for life, of the import- ance of which she seems to be perfectly well aware. But when we turn to civilized life, with all its comforts, its luxuries, its science, and its medical skill, our pity is enlisted for the tender germs of humanity, brought forth and caressed in smothered atmospheres which they can only breathe with their mouths wide open, and nurtured with too much thoughtlessness to prevent their con- tracting a habit which is to shorten their days wath the croup in infancy, or to turn their brains to Idiocy or A 3 k 80 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. Lunacy, and their spines to curvatures — or in manhood, their sleep to fatigue and the nightmare, and their lungs and their lives to premature decay.* If the habit of sleeping with the mouth open is so destructive to the human constitution, and is caused by sleeping in confined and overheated air, and this under the imprudent sanction of mothers, they become the primary causes of the misery of their own offspring ; and to them, chiefly, the world must look for the cor- rection of the error, and, consequently, the benefaction of mankind. They should first be made acquainted with the fact that their infants don't require heated air, and that they had better sleep with their heads out of the window than under their mother's arms — that mid- dle-aged and old people require more warmth than children, and that to embrace their infants in their arms in their sleep during the night, is to subject them to the heat of their own bodies ; added to that of feather-beds * The weekly Bills of Mortality in London sliow an amount of 10, 15, and sometimes 20 deaths of infants per week, from suffocation, in bed with their parents ; and Mr Wakley, in May, 1800, in an inquest on an infant, stated that 'he had held inquests over more than 100 Infants which had died during the past winter, from the same cause, their parents covering them entirely over, compelling them to breathe their own breath.* '—Times. The Registrar-General shows an average of over 700,000 infants born in England per annum, and over 100,000, which die under one year of age — 12,738 of tliese of Bronchitis, 3G00 from the pains of teething, and 19,000 of convulsions, and says, 'suffocation in bed, by overlaying or shutting off the air from the child, is the most frequent cause of violent deaths of children in England.* SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 21 manhood, heir lungs pen IS so caused by his under come the 3fFspring ; the cor- nefaction cquainted leated air, Js out of •that mid- nth than heir arms em to the ;her-beds 3unt of 10, tion, in bed jucst on an 00 Infants leir parents wn breath.* ifants born ne year of thing, and ilayiiig or of violent and overheated rooms, the relaxing effects of which have been mentioned, with their pitiable and fatal conse- quences. There are many, of course, in all ranks and grades of society, who escape from contracting this early and dangerous habit, and others who commence it in child- hood, or in manhood, a very few of whom live and suffer under it to old age, with constitutions sufficiently strong to support Nature in her desperate and con- tinuous struggle against abuse. When we observe amongst very aged persons that they almost uniformly close the mouth firmly, we are regarding the results of a long-practised and healthy habit, and the surviving few who have thereby escaped the fatal consequences of the evil practice I am con- demning. Though the majority of civilized people are more or less addicted to the habit I am speaking of, compara- tively few will admit that they are subject to it. They go to sleep and awake, with their mouths shut, not knowing that the insidious enemy, like the deadly Vampire that imperceptibly sucks the blood, gently steals upon them in their sleep and does its work of death whilst they are unconscious of the evil. Few people can be convinced that they snore in their sleep, for the snoring is stopped when they awake ; and so with breathing through the mouth, which is If m I 22 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. generally the cause of snoring — the moment that con- sciousness arrives the mouth is closed, and Nature resumes her usual course. In natural and refreshing sleep, man breathes but little air ; his pulse is low ; and in the most perfect state of repose he almost ceases to exist. This is necessary, and most wisely ordered, that his lungs, as well as his limbs, may rest from the labour and excite- ments of the day. Too much sleep is often said to be destructive to health ; but very few persons will sleep too much for their health, provided they sleep in the right way. Un- natural sleep, which is irritating to the lungs and the nervous system, fails to afford that rest w-hich sleep was intended to give, and the longer one lies in it, the less will be the enjoyment and length of his life. Any one waking in the morning at his usual hour of rising, and finding by the dryness of his mouth, that he has been sleeping with the mouth open, feels fatigued, and a wish to go to sleep again ; and, convinced that his rest has not been good, he is ready to admit the truth of the statement above made. There is no perfect sleep for man or brute, with the mouth open ; it is unnatural, and a strain upon the lungs which the expression of the countenance and the nervous excitement plainly show. Lambs, which are nearly as tender as human infants, SHUT YOUR MOUTH. S3 lat con- Nature lies but perfect [This is pgs, as excita- tive to Lich for y. Un- md the 3ep was ihe less ^nj one ig, and s been and a iis rest of the th the •n the d the fants, commence immediately after they are born to breathe the chilling air of March and April, both night and day, asleep and awake, which they are able to do, because they breathe it in the way that Nature designed them to breathe. New-born infants in the Savage Tribes are exposed to nearly the same necessity, which they endure perfectly well, and there is no reason why the opposite extreme should be practised in the civilized world, en- tailing so much misfortune and misery on mankind. It is a pity that, at the very starting-point of life, ^lan should be started wrong — that mothers should be under the erroneous belief that while their infants are awake they must be watched ; but asleep, they are ' doing well enough.' Education is twofold, mental and physical; the latter of which alone, at this early stage, can be com- menced ; and the mother should know that sleep, which is the great renovater and regulator of health, and in fact the food of life, should be enjoyed in the manner which Nature has designed ; and therefore that her closest scrutiny and watchfulness, like that of the poor Indian woman, should guard her infant in those import- ant hours, when the shooting germs of constitution are starting, on which are to depend the happiness or misery of her offspring. It requires no more than common sense to perceive that Mankind, like all the Brute creations, should close •i ! S4 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. their mouths when they close their eyes in sleep, and breathe through their nostrils, which were evidently made for that purpose, instead of dropping the under jaw and drawing an over-draught of cold air directly on the lungs, through the mouth ; and that in the middle of the night, when the fires have gone down and the air is at its coldest temperature — the system at rest, and the lungs the least able to withstand the shock. For those who have suffered with weakness of the lungs or other diseases of the chest, there needs no proof of this fact ; and of those, if any, who are yet incredul- ous, it only requires that they should take a candle in their hand and look at their friends asleep and snoring ; or with the Nightmare (or without it), with their eyes shut and their mouths wide open — the very pictures of distress — of suffering, of Idiocy, and Death ; when Na- ^iiWa^'jaii SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 26 ^ep, and ^identJj- under [ectly on middle the air "St, and of the 10 proof credul- idle in loring ; 5ir eyes 6 •as rp N \ ■es of I Na- ture designed that they should be smiling in the sooth- ing and invigorating forgetfulness of the fatigues and anxieties of the day, which are dissolving into pleasur- able and dreamy shadows of * realities gone by.' Who ever waked out of a fit of the Nightmare in the middle of the night with his mouth strained open and dried to a husk, not knowing when, or from where, the saliva was coming to moisten it again, without being willing to admit the mischief that such a habit might be doing to the lungs, and consequently to the stomach, the brain, the nerves, and every other organ of the system ? Who, like myself, has suffered from boyhood to middle age, everything but death from this enervating and unnatural habit, and then, by a determined and 26 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. uncompromising effort, has thrown it off, and gained, as it were, a new lease of life and the enjoyment of rest — which have lasted him to an advanced age through all exposures and privations, without admitting the mis- chief of its consequences ? Nothing is more certain than that for the preserv- ation of human health and Itfe, that most mysterious and incomprehensible, self-acting principle of life which supports us through the restoring and unconscious vale of sleep, should be protected and aided in every way which Nature has prepared for the purpose, and not abused and deranged by forcing the means of its sup- port through a different channel. We are told that ' the breath of life was breathed into man's nostrils ' — then why should he not continue to live by breathing it in the same manner ? * ♦ A recently invented aid for tlie lungs, which the usual efforts for pccuuiai-y results, and the accustomed and unfortunate rage for novelties, have been pushfaig into extensive use, has been doing great mischief in society during the last few years j and by its injudicious use, I believe thousands on thousands have been hurried to the grave. I refer to the * Respirators,' so extensively in use, and as generally * in fashion,* amongst the Fair Sex. For persons very weak in the lungs, and who have con- tracted the habit so strong and so long that they cannot breathe except- ing through the open mouth, this appliance may be beneficial, in the open air 5 but thousands of others, to be eccentric or fashionable, place it over their mouths when tliey step into the street ; and to make any use of it, must open their mouths and breathe through it, by which indiscretion they are thoughtlessly contracting the most dangerous habit which they can subject themselves to, and oftentimes catching their death in a few days, or in a few hours ; little aware that closed lips are the best protection against cold air, and their nostrils the best and safest of all Respirators. The was mac the ston their de warming construe lungs— during The breathi process admitti upon t epiden Th intrica out aj breatl] pass t by wl T that ' feren pon(3 upoi pass dist: ?jaa!BiBawM«j8!5 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 27 med, as |f rest— >ugh all iie mis. 3reserv- tcrious which )us vale 5iy way nd not ts sup Wthed onUnue Forts for ovclties, icliief in believe ' to the ■mongst t'e con* except- ic open it over eofit, m they ey can ection /Ors. The mouth of man, as well as that of the brutes, was made for the reception and mastication of food for the stomach, and other purposes j but the nostrils, with their delicate and fibrous linings for purifying and warming the air in its passage, have been mysteriously constructed, and designed to stand guard over the lungs — to measure the air and equalize its draughts, during the hours of repose. Tho atmosphere is nowhere pure enough for man's breathing until it has passed this mysterious refining process ; and therefore the imprudence and danger of admitting it an unnatural w^ay, in double quantities, upon the lungs, and charged with the surrounding epidemic or contagious infections of the moment. The impurities of the air which are arrested by the intricate organizations and mucus in the nose are thrown out again from its interior barriers by the returning breath ; and the tingling excitements of the few which pass them, cause the muscidar involitions of sneezing, by which they are violently and successfully resisted. The air which enters the lungs is as different from that which enters the nostrils as distilled water is dif- ferent from the water in an ordinary cistern or a frog- pond. The arresting and purifying process of the nose upon the atmosphere, with its poisonous ingredients, passing through it, though less perceptible, is not less distinct, nor less important, than that of the mouth 28 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. which stops cherry-stones and fish-bones from entering the stomach. This intricate organization in the structure of man, unaccountable as it is, seems in a measure divested of mystery, when we find the same phenomena (and others m perhaps even more surprising) in the physical conform- ation of the lower order of animals ; and we are again more astonished when we see the mysterious sensitive- ness of that organ instinctively and instantaneously separating the (/ases, as well as arresting and rejecting the material impurities of the atmosphere. This unaccountable phenomenon is seen in many cases. We see the fish, surrounded with water, breath- ing the air upon which it exists. It is a known fact that man can inhale through his nose, for a certain time, mephitic air^m the bottom of a well, without harm; but if he opens his mouth to answer a question, or calls for help, in that position, his lungs are closed and he expires. Most animals are able to inhale the same for a considerable time without destruction of life, and, no doubt, solely from the fact that their respiration is through the nostrils, in which the poisonous efiluvia are arrested. There are many mineral and vegetable poisons also, which can be inhaled by the nose without harm, but if taken through the mouth destroy life. And so with poisonous reptiles, and poisonous animals. The man who kills stands al no harm whom h< tiles, he mouth, death ei Inii eye, are every b vegetab and ev( the air, man; the ail things where air, ar A: and t( muco their arres dust soon trils and mmmsm SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 29 lenterinff o of man, [ested of d others (onform- 'e again 'nsitive- ineously ejecting n many breath- wn fact certain t harm; or calls and he ime for tnd, no iion is ^ia are 3 also, but if with man who kills the Rattle-snake, or the Copperhead, and stands alone over it, keeps his mouth shut, and receives no harm ; but if he has companions with him, with whom he is conversing over the carcases of these rep- tiles, he inhales the poisonous effluvia through the mouth, and becomes deadly sick, and in some instances death ensues. Infinitesimal insects also, not visible to the naked eye, are inhabiting every drop of water we drink and every breath of air we breathe ; and minute particles of vegetable substances, as well as of poisonous minerals, and even glass and silex, which float imperceptibly in the air, are discovered coating the respiratory organs of man ; and the class of birds which catch their food in the air with open mouths as they fly, receive these things in quantities, even in the hollow of their bones, where they are carried and lodged by the currents of air, and detected by microscopic investigation. Against the approach of these things to the lungs and to the eye. Nature has prepared the guard by the mucous and organic arrangements, calculated to arrest their progress. Were it not for the liquid in the eye, arresting, neutralizing, and carrying out the particles of dust communicated through the atmosphere, ]\lan would soon become blind ; and but for the mucus in his nos- trils, absorbing and carrying off" the poisonous particles and effluvia for the protection of the lungs and the 30 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. brain, mental derangement, consumption of the lungs, and death would ensue. How easy, and how reasonable, it is to suppose then, that the inhalation of such things to the lungs through the expanded mouth and throat may be a cause of consumption and other fatal diseases attaching to the respiratory organs ; and how fair a supposition also, that the deaths from the dreadful Epidemics, such as cholera, yellow fever, and other pestilences, are caused by the inhalation of animalcules in the infected dis- tricts ; and that the victims to those diseases are tliose portions of society who inhale the greatest quantities of those poisonous insects to the lungs and to the stomach. In man's waking hours, when his limbs, and muscles, and his mind, are all in action, there may be but little harm in inhaling through the mouth, if he be in a healthy atmosphere ; and at moments of violent action and excitement, it may be necessary. But when he lies down at night to rest from the fatigues of the day, and yields his system and all his energies to the repose of sleep ; and his volition and all his powers of resistance ai 3 giving way to its quieting influence, if he gradually opens his mouth to its widest strain, he lets the enemy in that chills his lungs — that racks his brain — that paralyzes his stomach — that gives him the nightmare — brings him Imps and Fairies that dance before liiiu SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 31 during the night ; and during the following day, head- ache — toothache — rheumatism — dyspepsia, and the gout. That man knows not the pleasure of sleep ; he rises in the morning more fatigued than when he retired to rest — takes pills and remedies through the day, and renews his disease every night, A guilty conscience is even a better guarantee for peaceful rest than such a treatment of the lungs during the hours of sleep. De- structive irritation of the nervous system and inflam- mation of the lungs, with their consequences, are the immediate results of this unnatural habit ; and its con- tinued and more remote effects, consumption of the lungs and death. Besides this frequent and most fatal of all diseases, bronchitis, quinsey, croup, asthma, and other diseases of the respiratory organs, as well as dyspepsia, gout of the stomach, rickets, diarrhoea, diseases of the liver, the heart, the spine, and the whole of the nervous sys- tem, from the brain to the toes, may chiefly be attri- buted to this deadly and unnatural habit; and any physician can easily explain the manner in which these various parts of the system are thus aff'ected by the derangement of the natural functions of the machine that gives them life and motion. All persons going to sleep should think, not of their business, not of their riches or poverty, their pains or 83 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. their pleasures, but, of what are of infinitely greater importance to them, their lungs ; their best friends, that have kept them alive through the day, and from whose quiet and peaceful repose they are to look for happiness and strength during the toils of the following day. Thev should first recollect that their natural food is fresh air ; and next, that the channels prepared for the supply of that food are the nostrils, which are supplied with the means of purifying the food for the lungs, as the mouth is constructed to select and masticate the food for the stomach. The lungs should be put to rest as a fond mother lulls her infant to sleep ; they should be supplied with vital air, and protected in the natural use of it ; and for such care, each successive day would repay in increased pleasures and enjoyments. The lungs and the stomach are too near neighbours not to be mutually affected by abuses offered to the one or the other ; they both have their natural food, and the natural and appropriate means prepared by which it is to be received. Air is the especial food of the lungs, and not of the stomach. He who sleeps with his mouth open draws cold air and its impurities into the stomach as well as into the lungs ; and various dis- eases of the stomach, with indigestion and dyspepsia, are the consequences. Bread may almoi^t as well be taken into the lungs, as cold air and wind into the stomach. A VI attribute treated ; lungs; the dig svstems and lift natural the bod The avy pal action, withou the act sleep ^ raachs wrong If true, 1 from ■ cveati Sava^ the q unac( Kace chiel said, SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 33 food is |J for the ^"pplied ^"igs, as icate the it to rest }' should ? natural ay would iglibours the one )od, and y which of the ps with ies into )us dis- pcpsia, veil be ito the A very great proportion of human diseases are attributed to the stomach, and are there met and treated ; yet I believe they have a higher origin, the lungs ; upon the healthy and regular action of which the digestive, as well as the respiratory and nervous, systems depend ; the moving, active principle of life, and life itself, are there j and whatever deranges the natural action at that fountain affects every function of the bodv. The stomach performs its indispensable but second- ary part whilst the moving motive power is in healthy action, and no longer. Man can exist several days without food, and but about as many minutes without the action of his lungs. Meu habitually say * they don't sleep well, because something is wrong in their sto- machs,' when the truth may be, that their stomachs are wrong because something is wrong in their sleep. If this dependent affinity in the human system be true, besetting man's life with so many dangers flowing from the abuse of his lungs, with the fact that the brute creations are exempt from all of these dangers, and the Savages in the wilderness nearly so, how important is the question which it raises whether the frightful and unaccountable Bills of Mortality amongst the Civilized Eaces of mankind are not greatly augmented, if not chiefly caused, by this error of life, beginning, as I have said, in the cradle, and becoming by habit, as it were. 84 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. a second nature^ to weary and torment Mankind to their graves ? Man is created, we are told, to live threescore and ten years, but how small a proportion of mankind reach that age, or half \\'ay, or even a quarter of the way to it ! We learn from the official Reports before alluded to, that in civilized communities, one half or more perish in infancy or childhood, and one half of the remainder between that and the age of 25, and physicians tell us the diseases they die of ; but who tells us of the causes of those diseases ? All effects have their causes — disease is the cause of death — and there is a cause for disease. When we see the Brute creations exempted from premature death, and the Savage Races comparatively so, whilst CiviUzed communities show such lamentable Bills of Mortality, it is but a rational deduction that that fatality is the result of habits not practised by Savages and the Brute creations ; and what other cha- racteristic differences in the habits of the three creations strike us as so distinctly different, and so proportioned to the results, as already shown ; the first, with the mouth always shut; the second, with it shut during the ight and most of the day ; and the ihird, with it open most of the day and all of the night ? The first of these are free from disease ; the second, comparatively and the third show the lamentable results in the of Mortality already given. 1 Ho\^ these fa cause of the othe of the inentioi such ai mainsp questio natura from every^A am a was e> when in the those throv anim can ^ uiou qua^ and trac and IIu SHUT YOTTR MOUTH. 35 ikind to 'ore and d reach way to alluded 'e perish [mainder s tel] us e causes -disease disease. ed from iratively lentable on that ised by er cha- eatioiis ftioncd th the ng the t open 'rsi of -lively n the How forcible and natural is the deduction from these facts, that here may be the great and principal cause of such widely different results, strengthened by the other facts, that the greater part of the fatal diseases of the body as well as diseases of the mind, before mentioned, are such as could and would flow from such an unnatural abuse of the lungs, the fountain and mainspring of life; and how important, also, is the question raised by these facts, how far such an un- natural habit exposes the human race to the dangers from Epidemic diseases. The Brute creations are everywhere free from cholera and yellow fever, and I am a living witness that the Asiatic cholera of 1831, Avas everywhere arrested on the United States frontier, wlien in its progress it reached the Savage tribes living in their primitive condition ; having been a traveller on those frontiers during its ravages in those regions. Epidemic diseases are undoubtedly communicated through the medium of the atmosphere, in poisonous animalcules or infectious agents ; and what conclusion can be more rational, than that he who sleeps with his mouth open during the night, drawing an increased quantity of infected atmosphere directly on the lungs and into the stomach, will increase his chances of con- tracting the disease ? And how interesting to Science, and how infinitely important to the welfare of the Human Race, mUjlit yet he the inquiry, whether the i 86 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. thousands and millions of victims to chole -a and yellow fever, were not those very portions of society who were in the habit of sleeping with their mouths open, in the districts infected with those awful scourges ! * It is a well-known fact that fishes will die in a few moments, in their ow^n element, with their mouths kept open by the hook ; and I strongly doubt whether a horse or an ox would live any length of time, with its mouth fastened open with a block of wood, during the accustomed hours of its repose ; and I believe that the derangement of the syi '.em by such an experiment would be similar to that in the human frame, and that death would be sooner and more certain ; and I believe also, that if the American Races of Savages which I * My opinions on this important subject having been formed many- years ago, as seen in the foregoing pages, I have had opporturities of making observations of an interesting nature, in my recent travels ; and amongst those opportunities, one of the most impressive, whilst I was making the voyage on one of the Mail Steamers from Montevideo to Per- nambuco, on the coast of Brazil, in the summer of 1857, during which melancholy voyage about 30 out of 80 passengers died of the yellow fever, and were launched from the deck into the sea, according to the custom. Having been twice tried by that disease on former occasions, and conse- quently feeling little or no alarm for myself, I gave all my time and atten- tion to the assistance of those who were afflicted. Aware of the difficulty of closing the mouth of a corpse whose mouth has been habitually open inrough life, and observing that nearly every one launched from the vessel had the character and expression strongly impressive of the results of that habi', T was irresistibly led to a private and secret scanning of faces at the table and on deck, and of six or seven persons for whom I had consequent apprehensions, I observed their scats were in a day or two vacated, and afterwards I recognized their faces, when brought on deck, as subjects for the last, sad coremony. have visi differenc (if not xvhichth beauty that th< nearer than th BeJ which 1 hav€ senses which: impor ture c in the teeth and strar but Soc- ial cho^ hur trie dis SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 37 Id yellow 'ho Were fn, in the in a few fths kept ether a with its nng the that the eriment nd that believe which I ■med many ^uri^ics of vds; and '^st I was !o to Per. Uff which ow fever, custom, d conse- id atten- iifficultj JJy open vessel of that s at the 'fqucnt cd, and !cts for have visited, had treated this subject with the same in- difference and abuse, they would long since have lost (if not have ceased to exist) that decided advantage which they now hold, over the Civilized Races, in manly beauty and symmetry of physical conformation ; and that their Bills of Mortality w^ould exhibit a much nearer approximation to those of Civilized communities than they now do.* Besides the list of fatal diseases already given, and which I attribute chiefly to the pernicious habit which I have explained, there are other results affecting the senses, personal appearance, and the enjoyments of life, which, though not fatal, are themselves of sufficient importance to demand its correction ; such as Curva- ture of the Spine, Idiocy, Deafness, Nightmare, Polypus in the Nose, Malformation and premature Decay of the teeth. Toothache, Tic-douloureux, Rheumatism, Gout, and many others, to which the Brute creations are strangers, and to most of which the Savage Races are but little subject. By another reference to the Statistics of Civilized Societies, we find that in some, one-half per cent, are Idiots or Lunatics, one-third per cent, are Deaf and • I have before said that the Brute creations are everywhere free from cholera, yellow fever, and other epidemics ; yet they are as subject as the human species to the effects of other poisons. Who knows, until it is tried, how long a horse, an ox, or a dog could exist in one of those infected districts, with its mouth fastened open, and its nostrils closed P fl ti 38 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. Dumb, one-half per cent, are Hunch-backs, and from three-fourths to one per cent, of other disabling diseases and deformities ; all of which are almost unknown to the American Native Races ; affording a strong corro- borative proof, if it were necessary, that such defi- ciencies and deformities are the results of accidents or habits, and not the works of Nature's hand. Nature produces no diseases, nor deformities ; but the offspring of men and women whose systems are im- paired by the habits which have been alluded to, are no doubt oftentimes ushered into the world with constitu- tional weaknesses and predilections for contracting the same habits, with their results ; and it is safe to say, that three-fourths of the generating portions of every civilized community existing, are more or less under these disqualifications, which, together with want of proper care of their offspring, in infancy and childhood, I believe to be the cause of four-fifths of the mental and physical deformities, loss of teeth, and premature deaths, between conception and infancy, childhood, manhood, and old age. I have said that no diseases are natural, and de- formities, mental and physical, are neither hereditary nor natural, but purely the results of accidents or habits. A cloven-foot produces lo cloven-feet, hunch- backs beget straight spines, and mental deformities can have no progeny. Whai vantages and rep like 35, Dumb, pi'oporti the oth( Nat dares t( existen< the iTQC upon t next t cave a subjec spine over ' ment ivnpe whic nior( lun^ con the fro be SHUT YOUR MOUTn. 39 •d irom [diseases [lown to corro- ^ii defi. [ents or s; but are iin. are no nstitu- png the to sav, every under ant of Jliood, nenta] lature hood, I de- '\tmy 5 or ich- can What a sad bill to bring against the glorious ad- vantages of Civilized life, its improvements, its comforts, and refinements, that in England there are something like 35,000 Idiots and Lunatics, 17,000 Deaf and Dumb, and 15,000 Hunch-backs, and about an equal proportion of these mental and physical deformities in the other Civilized nations of the Earth ! Nature makes nothing without design ; and who dares to say that she has designed these lists of pitiable existence amongst the Civilized Races of Man, and that the more perfect work of her hand has been bestowed upon the Savage (and even the Brute) creations ? And next to Nature, our dear 3Iothers, luuler whose kind care and tender handling we have been raised, could subject us to no accident to turn the brain or crook the spine ; but easily and thoughtlessly might, even in their over anxiety for our health, subject us to early treat- ment engendering habits which would gradually and i:nperceptibly produce the whole of these calamities ; which I believe have never, as yet, been traced to a more probable cause than the habitual abuse of the lungs, in the manner which has been described. The teeth of Man, as with the Brutes, are wisely constructed to answer their intended purposes through the na'.ural term of life, and would so, no doubt, but from abuses, the princi[)al one of which T consider to be the pernicious habit already explained. The saliva 40 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. exuding from the gums, designed as the element of the teeth, floods every part of the mouth while it is shut ; continually rising, like a pure fountain, from the gums, at the roots of and between the teeth ; loosening and carrying off the extraneous matter which would other- wise accumulate, communicating disease to the teeth and taint to the breath. By nature, the teeth and the eyes are strictly am- phibious; both immersed in liquids which are prepared for their nourishment and protection, and with powers of existing in the open air long enough for the various purposes for which they were designed ; but beyond that, abuse begins, and they soon turn to decay. It is the suppression of saliva, with dryness of the mouth, and an unnatural current of cold air across the teeth and gums during the hours of sleep, that produces malformation of the teeth, toothache, and tic-doulou- reux, with premature decay, and loss of teeth, so lamentably prevalent in the Civilized world. Amongst the Brute creations, that never open their mouths except for taking their food and drink, their teeth are protected from the air both day and night, and seldom decay; but with Man, who is a talking and laughing animal, exposing his teeth to the air a great portion of the day, and oftentimes during the whole of the night, the results are widely different — he is often- times to( ift bis gi If C absence like the and kni misery he exis would provid provid their ' for th A know who it sl( pity; pro^ atio ha\ eiti an pii so 41 SHUT TOTJR MOUTH. ,„estooa.- at middle age. »d in seven case, in ten. i, his grave before he is fifty- „t, and It Civilized man, witlr h.s usual del g <• t^otl, hid been compelled to crop iul „ absence of *«<=*' J^;'; ^^ ^, „ea„s of his livmg. like the OK and the horse, t ^^^^^^ ^ ,„d knew not the glonous use '^^ ^^^ ,,„u u ViP have been doomed, and noNv lu ^ r ' ::t 1 sH a tooth or two with those ammals he exist ? the loss oi ^^^ j^^,^ ..ould result in their death; ^^ J^^.^^^^^^ ,,^0 has p..ovident.therefor.thed.igiis^ to the ^''^^^''''""f *'""T"'\liev seem to have a Amongst the Native ^^-^ ^>^ J 1„ ,-oinan knowledge of these facts; ^^^ ^ ^^^f.^geth^ -;-i:;r:ira:;in^^^^ it sleeps in its ciacue ^^^^.^ ^^^ ^^^, have no dentists nor "^^^^^^^^^^^.^ either; their teeth almost mvnaWy ^^ ^^ ^ „„, „.„ge then.e vcs as .gidai ^^^^^_, piano; and without decay ^,,tication, to soundness and enamel, and poveis ot 4£ SHUT YOUR MOUTH. U old age : and there are no sufficient reasons assigned yet, why the same results, or nearly such, may not be produced amongst the more enlightened Races, by similar means. CiviHzed man may properly be said to be an open- mouthed animal; a wild man is not. kxv Indian Warrior sleeps, and hunts, and smiles, with his mouth shut ; and v;itli seeming I'eluctance, opens it even to eat or to speak. An Indian child is not allowed to sleep with its mouth open, from the very first sleep of its existence ; the consequence of wIuc'lI is, that while the teeth are forming and making their first appearance, they meet (and constantly /e'c/) each other; and taking their relative, natural positions, form thai healthful and pleasing regularity which has secured to the American Indians, as a Race, perhaps the most manly and beauti- ful mouths in the AVorld.* * When I speak of roniparativc personal appearance or of the habits of a peoph?, I speak oT them collectively, and in the aggregate. I often see months and other pliysical conformations amongst the Civilized por- tions of mankind eqnally beautiful as can be seen amongst the Savage llaces, but by no incans so often. Symmetry of form, gracefulness of movement, and other constituents of manly beauty are much move generul amongst the Savage Kaccs ; and their Societies, free from the humbled and dependent misery which comparative poverty produces in Civilized communities, produce none of those striking contrasts which stare us in the face, and excite our disgust and our sympathies, at nearly every step wc take. The American Savages are all poor, their iughest wa?H is that of food, which is generally within their reach ; their faces are therefore not wrinkled and furrowed with the stamp of care and distress, which ex- treme poverty begets, the repulsive marks which avarice engraves, nor and with tioni thcii and agn SHUT YOrR MOUTH. 43 assigned fy not be •-'ices, by ^ri open- Tnclian s mouth even to owed to >Ieep of at while earance, takingf fill and nerican beauti- le Jjabits I often zed por- Savage Incss of general unibled ivilizccl e us m 'J step is that ;rcfore 3I1 cx- \ nor Nature makes no derangements or deformities in teeth or mouths ; but habits or accidents produce the disagreeable derangements of the one, and consequently the disgusting expressions of the other, which are so often seen. With the Brute creations, where there is less chance for habits or accidents to make derangements, we see the beautifn.l system of the regvdarity of the works of Nature's hand, and in their soundness and durability, tho completeness of her works, which we have no just cause to believe has been stinted in the physical con- struction of man. The contrast between the two Societies, of Savage and of Civil, as regards the perfection and duration of their teeth, is quite equal to that of their Bills of Mor- tality, already shown ; and I contend that, in both cases, the principal cause of the difference is exactly the same, that of respiration through the mouth, during the hours of sleep. Under the less cruel, and apparently more tender and affectionate, treatment of many Civilized mothers, with the loathsome and disgusting expressions which the prodigal dissipa- tions of wealth often engender in Civilized Soeietics. Their tastes and their passions are less refined and less ardent, and more seldom oxerted, and consequently less abused; they live on the simples of life, and im- agine and desire only in proportion; the consequences of which are, that their faces exhibit slighter inroads upon Nature, and consequently a greater average of good looks, than an equal community of any Civilized people. u SHUT YOUR MOUTH. their infants sleep in their arms, in their heated exhal- ation, or in cradles in overheated rooms, with theii faces covered, without the allowance of a breath of vital air ; where, as has been said, they from necessity gasp for breath until it becomes a habit of their infancy and childhood to sleep with their mouths wide open, which their tender mothers overlook, or are not cruel enough to correct ; little thinking of the sad affliction which the croup, or later diseases, are to bring into their house. There is nothing more natural than a mother's near and fond embrace of her infant in her hours of sleep ; and nothing more dangerous to its health, and even to its existence. The tender sympathies of love and in- stinct draw her arms closer around it, and her lips nearer, as she sinks into sleep and compels it to bi-eathe the exhausted and poisoned air that she exhales from her own lungs ; little thinking how much she is doing to break her l.art in future days. Nothing is sweeter or more harmless to a mother than to inhale the feeble breath of her innocent ; but she should be reminded that whilst she is drmving these delicious draughts, she may be returning for them pestilence and death. All mothers know the painful and even dangerous crisis which their infants pass in teething ; and how naturally do their bosoms yearn for the sufferings of these little creatures whose earthly careers are often stopper alone, An seldom| it is tc may b| SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 45 ^^'ith theii ?atii of vital '^ssity gasp nfancy and pen, which lel enough ^^'^iich the "• house, hcr's near '' of sleep ; ^d even to 'e and in. i^er Jips to bi-eathe ales from ' is doinjr 3 sweeter he feeble emindc'd ?hts, slie I. ngerous nd how rings of e often stopped by that event. (3660 per annum in England alone, under one year of age, as has been shown.) Amongst the Savage Races, we have seen that death seldom, if ever, ensues from this cause ; and how easy it is to perceive that unnatural pains, and even death, may be caused by the habit of infants sleeping with their mouths strained open, and exposed to the cold air, when the germs of the teeth are first making their appearance. The Statistics of England show an annual return of '25,000 infants, and children under five years of age, that die of convulsions.'' What causes so probable for those convulsions as teething and the croup ; and what more probable cause for the unnatural pains of teething and the croup, than the infernal habit which I am condemning. At this tender age, and under the kind treatment just mentioned, is thoughtlessly laid the foundation for the rich harvests which the dentists are reaping in most parts of the Civilized world. The infant passes two-thirds of its time in sleep, with its mouth open, while the teeth are presenting themselves in their tender state, to be chilled and dried in the currents of air pissing over them, instead of being nurtured by the warmth and saliva intended for their protection, when they project to unnatural and unequal lengths, or take 43 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. different and unnatural directions, producing those dis- anjreeable and unfortunate combinations, which are fie- H quently seen in Civilized adult societies, and oftentimes sadly disfiguring the human face for life. "While there are a great many persons in all Civilized societies who adhere to the designs of Nature in the habits above referred to, how great a proportion of the individuals of those societies carry on their faces the proofs of a different habit, brought from their child- hood, which their constitutions have so far successfully battled against, until (as has been said) it becomes like a second Nature, and a matter of necessity y even dming their waking hours and the usual avocations of life, to breathe through the mouth, which is constantly open ; while the nasal ducts, being vacated, like vacated roads SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 47 that grow up to grass and weeds, become the scat of Polvpus and other diseases. In all of these histances there is a derangement and deformity of the teeth, and disfigurement of the mouth and the ivJiole face, which are not natural ; carrying the proof of a long practice of the baneful habit, with its lasting consequences ; and producing that unfortunate and pitiable, and oftentimes disgusting expression, which none but Civilized communities can present. Even the Brute creations furnish nothing so abomin- able as these ; which justly demand our sympathy in- stead of our derision. The faces and the mouths of the Wolf, the Tiger, and even the Hyena and the Donkey, are agreeable, and even handsome, by the side of them. What physician will say that the inhalation of cold 4 * P 48 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. air to the lungs through such mouths as these, and over the putrid secretions and rotten teeth within, may not occasion disease of the hmgs and death ? Infected districts communicate disease — infection attaches to putrescence, and no other infected district can be so near to the lungs as an infected mouth. Most habits against Nature, if not arrested, run into disease. The habit which has thus far been treated as a hahit, merely, with its evil consequences, will here be seen to be worthy of a name, and of being ranked amongst the specific diseases of mankind. Indulged and practised until the mouth is permanently distorted from its natural shape, and in tlic infectious state above named, acting the unnatural hand-maid to tlie lungs, it gains the locality and speciality of character which characterize diseases, and therefore would properly rank amongst them. No name seems as yet to have been applied to this malady, and no one apparently more ex- pressive at present suggests, than 3Ialo inferno, which (though perhaps not exactly Classic) I would denomin- ate it, and define it to be strictly a human disease, confined chiefly to the Civilized Races of Man, an un- natural and pitiable disfigurement of the * human face divine,' unknotvn to the Brutes, and unallowed by the Savage Races, caused by the careless permission of a habit contracted in infancy or childhood, and submitted to, humbly, through life, under the mistaken belief that i'l i Kl SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 49 these, and ithiii, may Infected ttaches to can be so ested, run en treated , will here Jg ranked Indulged distorted ate above ^ iungs, it er whicli 'crly rank five been more ex- 0, vvliich hnomin- discaso, an un- lan face ^y tlie 3n of a •n) it ted cf tJint it is by an unfortunate order of Nature — its Remedy (in neglect of the specifics to be proposed in the follow- ing pages) the (/rave (generally) between infancy and the age of forty. The American Indians call the Civilized Races 'pale- faces' and ' hlach-mouths^' and to understand the full force of these expressions, it is necessary to live awhile amongst the Savage Races, and then to return to Civil- ized life. The Author has had ample opportunities of testing the justness of these expressions, and has been forcibly struck with the correctness of their application, on returning from Savage to Civilized Society. A long familiarity with red faces and closed mouths affords a new view of our friends when we get back, and fully explains to us the horror which a savage has of a * pale- face,' and his disgust with the expression of open and Hack mouths.^ No man or woman with a handsome set of teeth keeps the mouth habitually open ; and every person * Of the party of 14 loway Indians, who visited London some years since, there was one whose name was Wash-ke-mon-ye (the fast dancer) ; lie was a great droll, and somewhat of a critic ; and had picked up enough of English to enable him to make a few simple sentences and to draw amusing comparisons. I asked him one day, how he liked the White people, after the experience he had now had ; to which he replied — ' Well, White man— suppose — mouth shut, putty coot, mouth open, no coot — me no like um, not much.* This reply created a smile amongst the party, and the Chief informed me that one of the most striking peculiarities which all Indian Tribes discovered amongst the white people, was the dci-angement and absence of their teeth, and which they believed were destroyed by the number of lies that passed over them. ^*,A:mt 60 SHUT I'OUR MOUTH. with an iinimtural derangement of the teeth is as sure seldom to have it shut. This is not because the derangement of the teeth has made the habit, but because the habit has caused the derangement of the teeth. If it were for the sake of the teeth alone, and man's personal appearance, the habit I am condemning would be one well worth struggling against; but when we can so easily, and with so much certainty, discover its destructive effects upon the constitidion and life of man, it becomes a subject of a different importance, and well worthy of being understood by every member of society, who themselves, and not physicians, are to arrest its deadly effects. The Brute, at its birth, rises on its feet, breathes the open air, and seeks and obtains its food at the next moment. The Cliicken breaks its own shell and walks out on two legs, and without a gaze of wonder upon the world around, begins selecting and picking up its OAvn food ! Man, at his birth, is a more helpless animal, and his mental, as well as liis physical, faculties requiring a much longer time to mature, are subject to greater dangers of misdirection from pernicious habits, which it should be the first object of parents to guard against. The Savage Tribes of America allow no obstacles to the progress of Nature in the development of their SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 51 IS as sure 'Cause the 'li'ibit, but ent of the and man's "g wouhl when we iscover its 'fa of man, , and well of society, arrest its . breatlies the next nd walks ler upon ig iJ|) its iiial, and uii'ing a greater i> vvJiich against, testacies )f their teeth and their lungs for the purposes of life, and con- sequently securing their exemption from many of the pangs and pains which the Civilized Races seem to be heirs to; who undoubtedly too often 02' and the t stage of lie easiest to correct )pro])riate pleasures iration of is watcli- =i of Man. e grown up to the age of discretion, and are able to read, the above information and advice are doubly important, be- cause you have long lives of enjoyment or misery before you; and which, you now being out of your mother's im- mediate care, are to be controlled by your own actions. And that you may not undervalue the advice which I am about to advance directly to you, I may (as the clergyman repeats his text in his sermon, or a fond parent the important points of his advice to his son) repeat .lome things that I have said, while I am giving you further evidence of the importance of the subject I am now explaining to you. I advise you to bear in mind the awful Bills of ^lortality amongst Civilized societies, which I have quoted ; and realize the dangerous race which Civilized man runs in life — how very few live to the age designed by Nature — how many perish in infancy, long before they are of your age, and consequently the dangers which you have already passed; and contrast all of these uith those of the Wild Iiulians, who, by Nature, are no stronger than we are, but who generally live to good old age, with comparatively few bodily pains in life, and their teeth almost unifonnly regular and sound, with- out the aid of dentists and tooth-brushes. Have you observed by those Bills of Mortality, that ycu arc but one out of two or three of your little com- panions who started and commenced playing along with ,n;l, ^►i 66 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. you, permitted to live to boyhood ; and also that you have but one chance in four, or thereabouts, of liviiifr to tolerable old age ? Can you read those lamentable estimates, which arc matters of fact, and draw such fearful conclusions from them as to your own condition and prospects, without realizing the importance of the subject ? and can you compare those disasters amongst the Civilized with those of the Savage Races, which I have explained, without believing there is some cause for all this, that is unnatural, and which may be, to a great degree, corrected, if we make the proper effort ? You have read in the foregoing pages, that man's life depends from one moment to another on the air which he breathes, and also that the atmosphere is no- w^here pure enough for the healthy use of the lungs imtil it has passed the purifying process which Nature has prepared in the nostrils, and which has been ex- plained. Air is an Elementary principle, created by the hand of God, who, as has been said, creates nothing but perfections ; and consequently is nowhere impure, ex- cept from the causes which I have already explained ; and in the infinity of His wisdom and goodness, those accidental impurities were foreseen and provided for (even with the I'rutes, as well as with Mankind), by the mysterious organizations through which the breath of life first came to man. Th are by CO the particL employ Avhich Til from cxcmp SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 07 d that yon } of livillrr o , which are sions from s, without can you ized with explained, ' this, that at degree, hat man's >ii tlie air icre is no- the hiiigs •h Nature been e.\- tcd by the •thing hilt ipure, ex- splained ; 3SS, those ndcd for I), by the )rcath of The various occupations of men, and for which you are by this time preparing, subject them more or less [0 the dangerous effects of the malaria and poisonous particles in the air, in proportion to the nature of their employments, and the districts and atmospheres in which they exist and work. The ]\Iechanical trades are the most subject to these, from which the Farmer and the Gentleman are more exempt ; the Carpenter, therefore, amidst the dust of his shop, should work with his mouth shut, and take care not to sleep upon his bench during his mid -day rest. The Cutlery-grinder should not work with his mouth open amidst the particles of steel which his feet raise from the floor, and the motion of his wheel keeps in circulation in the air. So with the Stone-cutter (and particularly those working in the hardest sort of stones and flint) the same precautions arc necessary ; as by the extraordinary l)roportion of deaths reported amongst those classes of workmen, the poisonous effects of their business are clearly proved, as well as by the accumulated particles of steel and silex found imbedded in their lungs and coating the res[)iratory organs ; and which, to have caused prenmture death, must have been inhaled through the mouth. Physicians are constantly informing the world, in their Reports, of the fatal results of these poisonous things inhaled into thf^ lungs ; but why do l!< 68 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. tlicy not sny at the same time, that there are two modes of inlialation, by the nose and by the mouth ; and inform the Mechanics and labonrers of the world who arctlms risking their Hves, that there is safety to Hfe in one way, and great danger in the other? If pliysicians forget to give you this advice, these suggestions, with your own discretion, may be of service to you. The Savages have the advantage of moving about and sleeping in the open air ; and Civilized RacL., have the advantages over the poor Indians, of conifortabic houses and beds, and bed-rooms ; and also of the most skilful physicians, and surgeons, and dentists ; and still "we are struck with the deplorable results in our society, of some latent cause of diseases, which I believe has been too much overlooked and neglected. Have you not many times waked in the middle of the night, in great distress, with your mouths wide open, and so cold and dry that it took you a long time to moisten and shut them again ? and did it occiu' to you at those moments that this was all tlie residt of a careless habit, by which you were drawing an unnatural draught of cold air in every breath, directly on the lungs, instead of /rawing it through the nostrils, which Nature has made for that especial ])urpose, giving it warmth, and measuring its (piantity, suitable to the denumds of repose ? Watch your little Brothers and Sisters, or other little mouth SHUT YOUR MOUTH. tAvo modes md inform o are thus n one wav, s forget to your own "^' about lacL.. Iiavc )nifortabIc ^ the most tists; and Its in oiu' » I believe middle of •tlis wide 'ong time occur to Jsult of a imiatural y on the Is, which givinnr it ^ to the little innocent playfellows, when asleep with their mouths strained open, and observe the painful expres- sions of their faces — their nervous agitation — the un- natural beating of their hearts — the twitching of their flesh, and the cords of their necks and throats ; and your own reason will tell you that they do not enjoy such sleep. And on the other hand, what pictures of innocence and enjoyment are those who are quietly or otjier sleeping with their mouths firmly shut, and their teeth 'I 70 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. < I. ifi^i- their natural closed, smiling as they are enjoyinj Jf you ml^ for a few moments shut your eyes, and let \ nir liiiufr jaw fail down, as it sometimes does in your s^k's rv you will soon see how painful the over-draught of cold air ou he lungs becomes, even in the day-time, when all your energies are in action to relieve you ; and you will instantly perceive the mischief that siich a mode of breathing might do in the night, when every muscle and nerve in your body is relaxed and seeding repose, and 'he chill of the midnight air is increasing. It is, most undoubtedly, the above-named habit which produces confirmed siiorers^ and also consumption of the lungs and many other diseases, as well as pre- mature decay of the teeth — the nightmare, &c., from which, it has been shown, the Savage Races are chiefly exempt ; and (I firmly believe) from the fact that they always sleep with their mouths closed, and their teeth together, as I have before described. There are many of you who read, to wl^^m this advice will not be necessary, while many others of your little companions will attract your sympathy when you see them asleep, with their mouths strained open, and their sensations anything but those of joy and rest. Their teeth arc growing during those hours, and will grow of unequal lengths, and in unnatural directions, and oftentimes disabling them in after-life from shut- ting their mouths, even in their waking hours, and i ^ SHUT ^:OUR MOUTH. 71 |al repo . . fs, and let 3S in your Iranglit of May-time, |ieve you ; tliat such picn every d see'iu"- o creasinjr. led habit sumption H as pre- ^c., from re cliiefly tliat tliey leir teeth ^">m this J of your 'hen you [)en, and nd rest. md will I'octions, Ml shut- rs, and most lanientnbly iibfiguring their faces for the remaiu- dti' of Llieir days. It is then, my young Readers, for you to evade these evils, to save your own lives and your good looks, by //our own efforts, which I believe the most of you can do, without the aid of physicians or dentists, who arc always the ready and bold antagonists of disease, but never called until the eneniv has made the attack. I imagine you now just entering upon the stage of life, where you arc to come under the gaze of the world, and to make those impressions, and form those con- nections in society, which are to attend you, and to benefit or to injure you, through life. You are just at that period of your existence when the provcrb begins to apply, that * man's life is in his own hands ; ' and if this be not always true, it is quiie true that much of his good looks, his daily enjoyments, and the control of 79 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. yi: his habits, are witliin the reach of his attainment. These are all advantages worth striving for, and if you sternly persevere for their accomplishment, you will perfectly verify in your own cases the other and truer adage, that * at middle age, man is his own best pliy- sician.' I recollect, and never shall forget while I live, that in my boyhood I fell in love with a charming little girl, merely because her pretty mouth was always shut ; her words, which were few, and always (I thought) so fitly spoken, seemed to issue from the centre of her cherry lips, whilst the corners of her mouth seemed (to me) to be honeyed together. No excitements could bring more than a sweet smile on her lips, which seemed to hold confident guard over the white and pretty treasures taey enclosed, and which were permitted but occasion- ally to be seen peeping out. Of such a mouth it was easy to imagine, even with- out seeing them, the beautiful embellishments that were within, as well as the sweet and innocent expression of its repose during the hours of sleep ; and from such impressions, I recollect, it was exceedingly difficult and painful to wean my boyish affections. To young people, who have the world before them to choose in, and to be chosen, next to the importance of life itself, and their future welfare, are the habits which are to disfigure and impair, or to beautify and SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 73 [tainnieiif. "(I if vou you will land truer pest ])1|V- live, tliat ittlc girl, shut ; lier t) so fitlv er cherry I (to nic) kid bring cenied to treasures occasion - 'en with- hat were 3ssion of 5ni such cult and I'c them ortancc habits ify and protect that fee ure which, with man and with woman aUkc, is the riost expressive and attractive of the face ; and at tne same time, the most subject to the influence of pleasing, or disagreeable, or disgusting habits. Good looks and otlier personal attractions are de- sirable, and licensed to all ; and much more generally attainable than the world suppose, who take the various features and expressions which they see in the nmlti- tiide, as the works of Nature's hand. The natural mouth of man is always an expressive and agreeable feature ; but the departures from it, which are caused by the predominance of different pas- sions or tastes, or by the perfectly insipid and disgust- ing habit which h.'is been explained, are anything but agreeable, and but little in harmony with the advance of his intellect. Open mouths during the night are sure to produce open mouths during the day ; the teetli protrude, if the habit be commenced in infancy, so that the mouth can't be shut, the natural expression is lost, the voice is afl'octed, ])olypus takes possession of the nose, the teeth decay, tainted breath ensues, and the lungs are de- stroyed. The whole features of the face are changed, the under jaw, uidiinged, falls and retires, the cheeks are hollowed, and the cheek-bones and the upper jaw advance, and the brow and the upper eyelids are un- 74 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. Nature changed bj habit. naturally lifted ; presenting at once, the leading fea- tures and expression of Idiocy. These are changes in the contour and expression of the face which any one can sufficiently illustrate, with a little eflPort, on his own face before a looking-glass ; and that these results are often fixed aiid permanently retained in society, every sane person is able to dis- SnUT YOUR MOUTH. 75 idinrr fea- ►ressioii of rate, with ng-glass ; cover ; and I believe most persons will agree with me, that they are the unfortunate results of the habit I am denouncing. A" the world judge of men's dispositions and cha- racter by the expressions of their face ; and how dis- astrous may it therefore be for men to indulge an expression of face in their sleep which they would be ashamed of in their waking hours ? The world is full of such, however, and such a man asleep, and a sleep- ing Idiot, are exactly the same. How appalling the thought, and dangerous the habit ! and what are likely to be the results shown in the fixed and lasting expressions of the face ? These remarks and these questions are intended for Bot/s and Young 3Ten, for I can scarcely allow myself to believe that Young Ladies would be caught sleeping thus ; but one word of advice, even to them, may not be am. ^s — Idiots asleep cannot be Angels aivakc. The natural mouths of mankind, like those of the brutes, have a general systematic form and expression ; but the various habits and accidents of life givj *heni a vast variety of expressions ; and the grcate: portion of those deviations from Nature, are caused by the malformation of the teeth, or by the falling of the under jaw, which alon'^, in its intended position, forms the natural mouth. When formed in this way, and unchanged by habit or accident, the mouth is always 76 SHUT YOUll MOUTH. well-shaped and agreeable ; but if the teeth become deranged in the manner I have described, the mouth becomes deformed ; and in endeavouring to hide thai deformity, oftentimes more disagreeable and unnatural than when that deformity is exposed. I knew a young Lady nuuiy years ago, amiable and intelligent, and agreeable in everything excepting the unfortunate derangement and s]iaj)es of her teeth; the front ones of which, in the upper jaw, protruding hall' an inch or more forward of the lower ones, and (piitc incapable of ])eing covered by the lij), for which there .vas a constant effort ; the result of which was a mo.^t pitiable expression of the mouth, and consecjuently of the whole face, wl^ii contiu'ial endjarrassment and un- happiness of the young Lady, and sympathy of her friends. AVitli. all the other charms recpiisitc to have soothed life of c{ a lapse her old gone, serenit} native unnatu The it has express those a 'n\ mutabl shapes. oriGjma press 10 'Vh uses, a niystei Natiu" is evei It riches miple and a it flat SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 77 I become lie mouth liide thill Liniiatiinil iablo ami )tiiig the !t'th; the (ling half 11(1 (jiiitc ich tiiero s a luo.st U!i)tly of and iiu- ^ of her to have soothed and comforted the life of any man, she lived a life of comparative solitude ; and a few years since, after a lapse of 30 years, I met her again ; and though in her old age, she was handsome, — her teeth were all gone, and her lips, from tlie natural sweetness and serenity of her temper, seemed to have returned to their native and childish expression, as if making up for the unnatural and painful servitude they had mulergone. The human mouth, with the great variety of duties it has to perform, is subject to a sufficient variety of expressions and dis-tortions from abuse, independent of those arising from the habit I am condenming. The Ear, the Nose, and the Eyes, beii.g less UHitable, and less liable to change of character and shapes, seldom lose their natural expression ; while original Nature, is as seldom seen remaining in the ex- pression of the adult mouth. This feature, from the variety of its pow(!rs aiul uses, as well as expressions, is undoubtedly the greatest mystery in the matcrml organization of man. In infant Nature it is always innocent and sweet, aiul sometimes is even so in adult life. Its endless modulations of sound nmy produce the richest, the sweetest of nmsic, or the most frightful and unpleasant sounds in the world. It converses; it curses nnd applauds ; it commends and reproves ; it slanders, it flatters, it prays and it profanes, it blasphemes and 78 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. i ; adores — blows hot and blows cold — speaks soft tones of love and affection, and rough notes of vengeance and hatred ; it bites, and it woos — it kisses, ejects saliva, cats cherries, roast beef, and chicken, and a thousand other things — drinks coffee, gin, and niint-juleps (and sometimes brandy), take pills, and rhubarb and ning- nesia — tells tales, and keeps secrets, is pretty, or is ugly, of all shapes, and of jill sizes, with teeth white, teeth black, and teeth vellow, and with no teeth at all. During the dafj, it is generally eating, d linking, singing, laughing, griiuiing, ])()uting, talking, smoking, scolding, whistling, chewing, or spitting, all of which have a tendency to keep it open ; and if allowed to be open during the nujld, is seen, as has been described, by its derangement of the teeth, to create hereby its own worst deformity. How strange is the fact, that of tlie three creations — the Ib'ute, the Savage, and the C.'iviliy.ed Races — the stupid aiul irrational are taught to ])erfectly protect and preserve their teeth, through the mitural term of life; the ignorant, Savage Races of mankind, with judgment enough compuralivrlii to do so ; when eidightened man, with the greatest amount of knowledge, of [)ride, and conceit in his good looks, lacks the power to save them from prenuiture decay, and total destruct-on ! Show- ing, that in the enjoyment of his artilieiid comforts and pleasures, he destroys his teeth, his good looks, and SnUT YOUR MOUTH. soft tones ^eaiicc and cts saliva, tlionsaiul ilops (and and inns- 'ttv, or is cth wliitc, Hh at all. (li'iiikinn;, , sniokinfr, of whicl) )\V(}(1 to he (Icscrihcd, 'lerchy ils c criNitions lacTs — tlie )rotcct and m\ of life ; judgmiMit cncul nnni, prido, aiul save tlicni ! 8lio\v- n forts and looks, and often Ids life, in his tboiightless departure from natinal simplicities and instinct. The Young Readers, whom 1 imagine myself now addressing, are old enough to read my advice, and to understand it, and eonsecpiently able to make, and to persevere in, their own determined resolution'^, which will be siu'e to con(pier in the enil the habit alluded to, if it has already been allowed lo grow upon. them. I advise; you to turn back and read again, \mless you can distinctly recollect it, the perfect success that 1 met with in my own case, even at u far more ad- vanced <'ige, ami consc(ju( iitly the habit more difficult to correct ; and resolve at every moment of vour waking hours (except when it is ncecsmrjj to o))en them) to keep your lips and teeth lirmly j)reased together; and your tcclli, at all events, luuler any ami every emotion, of pain or of plcjisurc, of fe.Mr, of suipiise, or admira- tion ; and IVom a continual hai)it of this sort, which will prepare you to meet more calmly and coolly the usual excitements of life, you will lind it extending through yoiu' shu^ping hours, if you will close your lips and your eyes in the fixed determination, and etl'ectually correcting or preventing the disgusting and dangerous habit of slee[)ing with the mouth open. Not only nuudy beauty is produced, ami manly firnmcss of character cxpr'^sscd, by n habitual compres- sion of the lips and teeth; but courage, steadiness of i w 't f 1 ^-^ : M '1 !| :ll 3 f i-:i :|ifj 80 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. the nerves, coolness, and power, are the infalUble re- sults. Men who have been jostled about amongst the vicissitudes of a long life, amidst their fellow-men, will have observed that all nervousness commences in the mouth. Alcn who lack the courage to meet their fellow- men in physical ctmibat, are afraid, not of their enemy, nor from a conviction of their own inferiority, but from the (IhiO'miug nervousuess of an ( p.en and tremulous iiiouth ; the vibrations of which reach and weaken them, to the ends of their fingers and their toes. In ])ul)Hc debates — in the rorum or the Pulpit, a simihu* alarm results in their certain defeat ; and before a hive of Bees, in the same want of contidence, the odour oi /car which they emit, is sure to gain them the sting. In one of the exciting scenes of my roaming life, I recollect to have witnessed a strong illustration of the above remarks, while residing in one of the Sioux Vil- lages, on the banks of the u})per Missom-i. A serious (piarrel having arisen between one of the Fur Com- pany's men and a Sioux iJrave, a chalhnige was given by the Indian and accepted by the White Mjui, who were to meet upon the ])rairie, in a state of nudity, and unattended; and decide the affair with tlieir knives. A few minutes before this horrible cond)at was to have commenced, both parties being on the ground, and perfectly prepared, the Factor and myself auccecded in liij SHUT YOUR MOUTU. 81 illiblc rc- 'ngst the men, Mill 3es in the ir fellow- 11* cnemv, but from Iremulous ken them, In ])ul)lic ilar alarm a hive of ur of fear og- ling life, I ion of the ^ioux Vil- A serious ^'ur Com- ivas given ilan, who idity, and cnives. at was to )un(1, and .•eeded in bringing them to a reconciliation, and finally to a shak- ing of hands ; by whieli we had the satisfaction of knov/ing, l)eyond a doubt, that \vc had been the means of saving the life of one of these men ; and a short time afterwards, while alone with the Indian, I asked him if he had not felt fears of his antagonist, who appeared much his superior in size and in strength ; to which he very promptly replied — * No, not in the least ; I never fear harm from a man who can't shut his mouth, no matter how large or how strong he may be.' I was forcibly struck with this reply, as well as with the con- viction I had got in my own mind (and no doubt from the same symptoms) that the white man would have been killed, if they had fought. That there is an unnatural and lasting contour, as well as an expression of ugliness and lacl »f manly firmness of character, produced in the hui ii face by the habit i have descril)ed, every discernin nember of society is able easily to decide. v^/-^i 1^; Is'utunil. CImngcd by habit. MaJMMIfim&SK'fii'a 83 SHUT YOCR MOUTH. if No one would lirsitato a inoincnt in deciding wliich of these he would have the most reason to fear in battle, or which to clioose as liis Advocate, for the pro- tection of his life or his property. No young Lady would delay a niouKint, in saying which of these, in lier estimation, is the best-looking young iJian ; or (U'ciding (in her own mind) wliich of then; she would prefer for her Suitor, providtul she were to take (Ml her. No one would iicsitr.le in deciding whicli of these liorses to buy (provided the poor Jirutes were victims to such misfortunes). And no one, most assiuedly, so j)oor a Vhysiog- nomist as not to decide in a moment, wliich of these young Ladies was the most happy, ar.d w':ich would ])e likely to get married the first. And from these iimo- cent and helpless start ings in life, it is easy to perceive how man's best success, or iirst and worst misfortunes, arc foreshadowed, and the fond nh)ther, whilst she SHUT YOUR MOUTH. S3 fear ill tlic pro. |in snyinnr |t-lor)kiiiir wliich of •she were of tlu'so •f victims Ifabit. wntclics, in tliouglitlcss liappiiiesR, over her sleeping idol, may read in that little open niit.1i the certain index to l^r fntnre sorrows. riiysiop:- of these •h would cse inno- perceiv(! 'ortnnes, lil'st uhc It has alnnuly been said that nmn is nn 'opcn- iiionthed animal,' and also shown that he h only so by /i((hi/, and not by Nature ; and tliat the most striking difference which is found to exist between Mankind in Savage and Civil states, consisthi in that habit and its consequences, to be found in their relative sanitary con- ditions. The Atneric.in Savncfo often smiks, but seldom SHUT YOUR MOUTH. and he mcctb most of the emotions of life, jbowever sudden and exciting they may be, with liis 1^ and liis teeth closed. He is, nevertheless, garrulous and fond of anecdote anu jocular fun in his own iire- side circles , but I«els and expresses his pleasure witli- t tile exploMte action of his muscles, and gesticulu- , «rhidk> 4dMPKterize the more cultivated Races of bi» fellow-nn-'-n. if>miYvmf\ people, *lio, fron" their educations, are more ^neiGilblr, regtHi^ moit exciting, amusing, or alarming i^ai*'* with ' outli open; as in wonder, astonishiawiKf, fiMfi, pi' a- <• irr, &c., and in laughing, drswr ^ ^htm m in c. -_iitH of ■^' through their teeth, by which the^» xmrnst (gjAllMfi) p*in for them- selves, in their sober n ts, md for thevr teeth dis- eases and decay which h . ^^06^ *am cure. The Savage, without the i^— jpr ^ ^ muse.*' in liis mce, listens to the ruinliliiifj; of im JKii'*^'t«luake, jaiTiiIoiis )wn firc- ^irc with- jcsticula- I Races of urns, are •sing, or wonder, and in igli their or t/tew- eetk. dis- ^ in Ins e, tw ilw' \ an*^ if arced V) ii in tU- y as a^ iveniles, iresbion, as familiar in our streets, or as it would be viewed by an equal multitude of savage children. .rv^W/^^f 86 SnUT YOUR MOUTH. i: m i fli, *! It is one of the misfortunes of Civilization, that it has too many amusing and exciting things for the mouth to say, and too many delicious things for it to taste, to allow of its being closed during the day ; the mouth, therefore, lias too little reserve for the protection of its natural purity of expression ; and too nuich ex- posure for the protection of its garniture ; and (* good advice is never too late ') keep your mouth shut when you read, when you write, when you listen, when you are in ])ain, when you are tval/cinr/, when you are run- niuff, when you are riiling, and, h// all means, when you are angry. There is no person in society but who will llnd, and acknowledge, ini[)rovenient in health and enjoyment, from even a lonporari/ attention to this advice. Mankiml, from the causes which have been named, are all, more or less, invalids, from infancy to the end of their lives ; and he who would make the most of lif'^ under these necessary ills, secure his good looks, n:id i)i()long his existence, should take care that his lungs and his teeth, however much they may be from habit, or from necessity, abused during the day, should at least be treated with kindness during the night. The habit against which I am contending, when strongly contracted, I am fully a ware, is a difficult one to correct; but when you think seriously of its im- portance, you will make your resolutions so strong, and pit, SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 87 , that it for tlic for it to !»}'; the rotection uicli e.\- Cgood lit when hen vou are run- hen vou who will ilth and to this I named, tlie end most of d looks, that his he from , shouhl ^ht. ?, ^vhen :'ult one its im- iig, ami keep them with such fixed and determined persever- ance, that you will ho sure to succeed in the end. If you charge your miiuls during the day sufli- ciently strong, with any event which is to happen in the middle of the night, you arc sure to wake at, or near, the time ; and if so, and your minds dwell, with sufficient attention, on the importance of this subject (luring the day, and you close your eyes and your teeth at the same time, carrying this determination into your sleep, there will he a strong monitor diu'ing your rest, that your mouth nuist be shut ; aiul the benefits you will feel diu'ing the following day, from even a partial success, will encourage you to persevere, until, at last, the grand and important object will be accomplished. One single suggestion mere, Young Readers, and you will be ready to be your own physicians, your own protectors against the horrors of the nightmare, snor- ing, aiul the dangerous diseases above described. AVhen you are in a theatre, you will observe that most persons in the pit, looking up to the gallery, will have their mouths wide open ; and those in the gallery, looking down into the pit, will be as sure to have their mouths shut. Then, when you lay your head upon your pillow, advance it a little forward, so as to imagine yourself looking from the gallery of a theatre into the pit, and you have all the secrets, with those before mentioned, for disj)elling from you the most abominable ^ \r 1^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^ ^ 1.0 I.I 11.25 UilM 125 itt 1^ 122 lu UA Km ^ »£ 1 20 ■luu U 11.6 - 6" %* Photographic Sciences Corporalion <«\v 13 WBT MAIN STRUT VViUTRR.N..'. UStO (71«) 173^903 C^ ^ i^^ ^^s '^' '/T" 83 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 1 a '■'■H and destructive habit that ever attached itself to the human Race. To Men and Women, of maturer age and experience, the same advice is tendered ; but with them the habit may be more difficult to correct ; but with all it is worth the trial, because there is no possibility of its doing any harm, and it costs nothing. For the greater portion of the thousands and tens of thousands of persons suffering w^ith weakness of lungs, with bronchitis, asthma, indigestion, and other affections of the digestive and respiratory organs, there is a Panacea in this advice too valuable to be disre- garded, and (generally) a relief within their own reach, if they will avail themselves of it. Approach the bedsides of persons suffering under either of the above dangerous diseases, and they will be found to be sleeping with their mouths wide open, and working their lungs with an over-draught of air upon them, and subject to its midnight changes of tempera- ture as the fires go down j and thus nightly renewing and advancing their diseases which their physicians are making their daily efforts in vain to cure. To such persons my strongest sympathy extends, for I have suffered in the same way ; and to them I gladly, and in full confidence of its beneficial results, recommend the correction of the habiC, in the way I have described ; their stern perseverance in which will SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 89 f to the )erience, le habit all it is ty of its md tens kness of nd other ns, there 3e disre- m reach, ig under sy will be pen, and air upon tempera- enewing cians are extends, them I results, e way I lich will soon afford them relief ; and their first night of natural sleep will convince them of the importance of my advice. Man's life (in a certain sense) may be said to ' be in his own hands,' his body is always closely invested by diseases and death. When awake, he is strong, and able to contend with and keep out his enemies ; but when he is asleep he is weak ; and if the front door of his house be then left open, thieves and robbers are sure to walk in. There is no harm in my repeating that Mothers should be looked to as the first and principal correctors of this most destructive of human habits ; and for the cases which escape their infant cares, or which com- mence in more advanced stages of life, I have pointed out the way in which every one may be his or her physician ; and the united and simultaneous efforts of the Civilized World should also be exerted in the over- throw of a Monster so destructive to the good looks and life of man. Every physician should advise his patients, and every boarding school in existence, and every hos- pital, should have its surgeon or matron, and every regiment its officer, to make their nightly, and hourly y ' rounds/ to force a stop to so unnatural, disgusting, and dangerous a habit. Under the working of such a system, mothers guarding and helping the helpless, schoolmasters their i MSpaHMi ■wmui- i pi ii' " 90 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. scholars, hospital surgeons their patients, generals their soldiers, and the rest of the world protecting them- selves, a few years would show the glorious results in the Bills of Mortality, and the next generation would be a Re-generation of the Human Race. The Reader Avill have discovered, that in the fore- going remarks (unlike the writer of a Play or u Romance, who follows a plan or a plot) I have aimed only lit jotting down, with little arrangement, such facts as I have gained, and observations I have made, in a long and laborious life, on a subject which I have deemed of vast importance to the Human Race ; and which, from a sense of duty, I am now tendering to my fellow-beings, believmg, that if sufficiently read and appreciated, thousands and tens of thousands of the human family may, by their oze^w efforts, rescue their lives, and those of their children, from premature graves. And in doing this, I take to myself, not only the satisfaction of having performed a positive duty, but the consolations, that what I have proposed can be tried by all classes of society alike, the Rich and the Poor, with- out pain, without medicine, and without expense ; and also, that thousands of suffering wanderers in the wildernesses and malaria of foreign lands, as well as of those in able hoi for hints The hills, an if you V next, a be wor adverse ized lif be sur would rest, ii nervoi teeth 1 his ea would A terity can c 1 bene advi whe SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 91 bals their >g them- [results in (on would the fore- lay or a ive aimed uch facts ade, in a h I have ace; and ng to my read and Is of the 3ue their reniature only the , but the tried by or, with- se; and in the ell as of those in the midst of the luxuries of their own comfort- able homes, will privately thank me in their own hearts, for hints they will have got from the foregoing pages. The Proverb, as old and unchangeable as their hills, amongst the North American Indians, ' !My son, if you would be wise, open first your Eyes, your Ears next, and last of all, your Mouth, that your words may be words of wisdom, and give no advantage to thine adversary,' might be adopted with good effect in Civil- ized life ; and he who would strictly adhere to it, would, be sure to reap its benefits in his waking hours ; and would soon find the habit running into his hours of rest, into which he would calmly enter ; dismissing the nervous anxieties of the day, as he finnly closed his teeth and his lips, only to be opened after his eyes and his ears, in the morning ; and the rest of such sleep would bear him dail^ and hourly proof of its value. And if I were to endeavour to bequeath to pos- terity the most important Motto which human language can convey, it should be in three words — Shut — your — mouth. In the social transactions of life, this might have its beneficial results, as the most friendly, cautionary advice, or be received as the grossest of insults ; but where I would paint and engrave it, in every Nursery, 93 SHUT YOUR MOUTH. 1 1 ro. ':W I 1 I 1 and on every Bed-post in the Universe, its meaning could not be mistaken ; and if obeyed, its importance would soon be realized. NOTE. FaoM the observations, with their results, on board of a Mail Steamer, given in a former page, together with numerous others of a similar nature made whilst I have been in the midst of Yellow Fever and the Cholera in the West India Islands and South America ; I conscientiously advance my belief, that in any Town or City where either of those pestilences commences its ravages, if that portion of the inhabitants who are in the nightly habit of sleeping with their mouths open were to change their residence to the country, the infection would soon terminate, for want of subjects to exist upon. This opinion may be startling to many ; and if it be combated, all the better; for in such case the important experiment Will more likely be made. AUTHOK. B,io Grande^ Brazil, 1860. meaning portance APPENDIX. lil Steamer, ailar nature ! Cholera in sly advance pestilences are in the lange their for want of ted, all the 5 likely be LUTHOK. Appendices are allowed in all books, and in a work like this, aiming to promote the good looks and the life of man, they will surely be acceptable to the reader who has looked through, and taken an interest in, the fore- going pages. The original design of this little work having been an issue in a brochure form, a portion of the original matter prepared was left out, to limit its intended dimensions : but the numerous editorial com- ments upon its importance to mankind, both in England, the United States, and on the Continent, have suggested a revised edition, which authorizes the addi- tion of the following matter. In the foregoing pages, the Indian's knowledge of the importance of establishing in infancy a habit of sleeping with the mouth shut, and the ignorance of it (or at all events the inattention to it) in civilized societies, and the deplorable consequences flowing from its neglect, have been emphatically treated and illus- trated, yet there are modes and causes of the abominable 7 94 APPENDIX. habit of sleeping with the mouth open, and its effects, important to be named. * H'doo-a, h'doo-a, w6n-cha-d(5o-ats * (straighten the bush and you will straighten the tree), is a proverb amongst the Indians, older than poetry or blank verse. * Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.' In the foregoing pages we have contemplated the Indian mother guarding her infant in its first sleep, and closing its lips to prevent it from contracting a danger- ous habit J and I, who have seen some thousands of Indian women giving the breast to their infants, never saw an Indian mother withdrawing the nipple from the mouth of a young infant, without carefully closing its lips with her fingers ; and for what ? certainly not for her amusement or pleasure, but for the important object which they well understand, and which has been ex- plained. But in civilized societies, how often do we see the tender mother (if she gives it the breast at all) lull it to sleep at the breast, and steal the nipple from its open m of waki] thing is 'and its fraighten proverb Ilk verse. id.' lated the leep, and danger- sands of ts, never from the losing its 1^ not for nt object been ex- lo we see all) lull from its APPENDIX. open mouth, which she ventures not to close, for fear of waking it : and if consigned to the nurse, the same thing is done with the bottle. By these we see that the first thing that is ^au^hi to infants in the civilized world is to sleep with the mouth open ! and in the significant traits of this (otherwise) handsome young man, we see the lasting and pitiful re- sults of it. Fed and nurtured in kindness, and having I 96 APPENDIX. escaped the dangers that beset him in infancy, he has grown up to manhood ; and in his growth, the evil con- tracted in his infancy has grown and strengthened with his growth. Affectionate and doting mother, look at and observe the connection of the two, — see what fondness and kindness, without discretion, have done, — behold the twig that you bent and the tree that you have made. * From a long and careless habit, the wires of his under jaw have lost their spring, — he sleeps with his mouth open during the night, and during the day he has not the power to keep it shut. By the hanging of his under jaw, a counter-effort arches his brows, im- pairing the characteristic expression of the eyes, and giving an aspect of indecision and insipidity to the whole face. The lips, always separated, with currents of alternate cold and heated air passing over them, become parched and feverish, of a cherry red, and swollen to an unnatural thickness, and a pestiferous breath is constantly exhaled from between them : and in eight cases of ten of these instances (for the world is full of them), if asked, 'What is the matter?* the reply would be that — '/ stut-t-t-t-tut-Ji utter ! ' and why not ? how can it be otherwise ? Stuttering may be defined to be an involuntary, nervous hesitation and vibration of the under jaw when APPENDIX. 97 he has Jvil coii- led with I at and fondness -behold |oii have s of his with his day he nging of 3WS, im- yes, and to the currents T them, ed, and stiferons m : and le world r?' the /' and luntary, w when suddenly called up from its habitual hanging position, to perform its part in articulation. This singular and most unfortunate impediment in speech has been attributed to many causes, and some writers pretend to have traced it to physiological defects, making Nature to blame for it : but, like most of the diseases and deformities of mankind, it is undoubtedly the result of habit, and what habit so likely to produce it as the one condemned in this little book, of allowing the under jaw to fall, and to be carried in a hanging position, to be raised by a jerk (instead of being lower- ed) in the effort to speak. In most cases of the fallen jaw, stuttering and other impediments and inelegancies in speech are the consequences ; though, in some few cases, by a rigid practice, those defects have in a measure been overcome. With the handsome young man now under view, of 20 years, turn back to the illustration on page 47, and see the aspect he presents at the age of 50 (if he is for- tunate enough to live so long). Stuttering need not be heai'd to be detected in this case, for it is readable in the lines and expressions of the face. I have lived a long life and communed freely with the world, on various parts of the globe, and I never met (to my recollection) a stuttering old man, and rarely (if ever) an aged man or woman with an open mouth and a hanging jaw. Why this, when the ranks of 98 APPENDIX. youth and manhood are full of them ? The answer is, as has been given in former pages, that one-half of the human species who are allowed carelessly to contract the habit of sleeping with the mouth open, die in infancy and childhood, and the other half, their lungs unable longer to withstand the abuse, disappear from the stage of life before they pass from manhood into old age. These are melancholy (but existing) facts, in all civilized communities, and rendered more striking by the contrast we meet in all savage societies. During my travels amongst the numerous tribes of Indians of North and South America, I never (to my knowledge) met or even could hear of, a stuttering Indian. Their lips and teeth are habitually, firmly closed ; their articulation prompt, and their words clearly spoken. Stuttering, unseemly and unfortunate as it is, is not one of the fatal results of the habit I am com- bating, though I have said that it is seldom, if ever, known to exist in old age — disappearing in manhood, with the life of its patient. It is the cause producing the stuttering, and not the stuttering, that causes pre- mature death. The diseases of a fatal character, resulting from the habit of sleeping with the mouth open, are of greater importance ; and though they have already been APPENDIX. 99 er IS, as of the jontract die in r lungs ar from )od into 5, in all king by tribes of r (to my ;uttering y, firmly r words it is, is im com- , if ever, nanhood, •oducing ises pre- Proni the P greater ly been noticed, there is one of the list too universal and too fatal to be passed over without some final and more impressive observations. The Nightmare. (The reader, to understand me on this subject, should turn back to the illustration on page 24, and keep it before him as he reads.) No person on earth who has waked from a fit of the nightmare will dispute the fact, that when con- sciousness came, he found his mouth and throat wide open, and parched with dryness and fever, and difficult to moisten. No man in existence ever had a fit of the nightmare whilst sleeping with his mouth closed. It is a fair inference, therefore, that sleeping with the mouth open is the cause of that frightful (and though not generally supposed) deadly disease. I say deadly, because every attack of the night- mare, I proclaim, is the beginning of death ! A man in a fit of the nightmare is dying. In the repose of his system, when respiration is necessarily feeble, the over-draught of air into the sleeping lungs, through the open mouth, surpasses the feeble exhalations, pro- ducing irritation and fever, until suffocation takes place, causing the malady in question ; and his sensa- tion of hindrance is caused by the hindrance to free respiration. 100 APPENDIX. His dreamy recollections of the seemingly begin- ning of a new and strange existence, appear to him to have passed over a long time, though the spasm lasted but a minute, or a minute and a half (as long as a man can live without breathing), and in most cases to have lasted a few minutes longer, death would have been the consequence. How awful to be so near to death, and so often ! He wakes suddenly, and con- vulsed, as if shaken : he feeis as if snatched from the jaws of a monster that was devouring him — and what has saved his hfe ? Nothing but the instant rallying — the death-struggle of his abused and sleeping lungs raising him upon his heels and elbows, when he wakes with the tocsin ringing in his ears — * Dying mortal ! moisten your lips and your throat, and shut your mouthy or death is at the door ! * . How many will recognize this picture, and yet how few will properly appreciate the danger they have passed ! It is a well-known fact that persons in the habit of sleeping with their mouths open are subject to con- tinual and frequent attacks of the nightmare ; and if each of these attacks is the heginninj of death, certainly their repetition must be tending to an ending in death. Many constitutions are strong enough to bear these shocks for a long time ; but all men, and all women, subject to them in an aggravated form, exhibit sys- tems of generall The been ei sleeping only GUI It is over-eat man wli sleeps V able, di human sleeping efficien like Ini In elongat tion of more Ba strapp mouth can b( relief is but is, ad that \ begin- him to lasted >ng as a cases to Id have near to nd con- Tom the nd what lilyiiig— ng kings he wakes mortal I hut your and yet hey have habit of to con- ; and if certainly n death. Jar these women, ibit sys- APPENDIX. 101 tems of nerves unstrung, and hold a lease of life which generally expires at a premature age. The cause or causes of this deadly disease have been emphatically explained in former pages; and sleeping with the mouth shut, or the grave, are its only cure. It is often said that nightmare is also caused by over-eating — there is no doubt of this fact — because a man who overloads his stomach, like a stuffed chicken, sleeps with his mouth open. And the most abomin- able, disgusting, and dangerous habit belonging to the human race, and combated in this little book, of sleeping with the mouth open, has but one certain and efficient remedy, which is in infancy, where civilized, like Indian-mothers must be the physicians. In advanced lift, with the muscles unnaturally elongated by long and constant distention, the disloca- tion of the jaw is further from remedy, and the malady more difficult to cure ; but even then it is possible. Bandages may be applied, and the jaw may be strapped up during sleep; but these don't shut the mouthy nor will any mechanical application that ever can be invented, do it. Temporary benefits and partial relief may be obtained in this way — ^yet I believe there is but one effectual remedy for the adult habit, which is, adult consciousness, and constant adult conviction, that premature death is close at hand for him whose 108 APPENDIX. mouth and lungs, during his sleep, are open receptacles for all the malaria (and changes of temperature) of the atmosphere that may beset and encompass him. I have lived long enough, and observed enough, to become fully convinced of the unnecessary and prema- ture mortality in civilized communities, resulting from the pernicious habit above described ; and under the conviction that its most efficient remedy is in the cradle, if I had a million of dollars to give, to do the best charity I could with it, I would invest it in four millions of these little books, and bequeath them to the mothers of the poor, and the rich, of all countries. I would not get a monument or a statue, nor a medal ; but I would make sure of that which would be much better — self-credit for having bequeathed to posterity that which has a much greater value than money. /W^o- {(oct:t^iAif ' JOHN 0HLD8, Aim.iiON, PBINTERS. ceptacles re) of the Q. lough, to i prema- ing from inder the s in the to do the it in four jm to the ries. le, nor a ch would 3athed to due than