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1 2 3

}.J

SLEEP:

OB THE

HYGIENE 01" THE NIGHT.

Dr. W. W. hall,

rnrOR OV hall's journal op HKALTH, and author op " HKALTH BT

aOOD LIVING," BRONCUITIS AND EINDKHD DISKASES," " COK-

SUMPIION," "hCALTB and DISEASB." BtO.

MONTREAL:
PUBLISHED BY DAWSON BROS.

1870.

J_ u-/^^

::.-n.-v ..^

( '■'

PREFACE.

Between the closing of the chamber door at
night and its opening in the morning, a third of
human life passes away, and upon the manner of
its employment the physical, mental, and moral
character of man largely depends.

If so considerable a portion of existence is spent
in breathing an impure air, bodily disease and a
premature death will inevitably result; to this
subject the first part of the book is devoted.

If during this third of life improper habits are
cultivated, or there is an intemperate indulgence
in the propensities of our nature, moral contam-
ination and physical deterioration follow.

If by the above or other causes a full propor-
tion of sound and regular sleep is prevented, the
mind sooner or later fails of its elasticity, its vigor,

PREFACE.

and its life, to be followed by nervousness, weak-
ness of intellect, softening of the brain, insanity,
and death.

The following pages are intended to urge the
practical and individual application of these truths
on the part of husbands, wives, and children ;
hence every intelligent reader has a personal in-
terest in ascertaining the most healthful method
of filling up a portion of his existence which has
such important bearings, — in acquainting him-
self with

"THE HYGIENE OF THE NIGHT."

In addition to the ventilation of chambers and
securing abundant healthful sleep, it was thought
desirable to make the book more thoroughly prac-
tical and extensively useful by discussing other
topics connected with the night-time of life, —
subjects in which every intelligent and thought-
ful reader will feel a special, personal interest.

SUBJECTS TREATED.

— •—

PAOl.

Blbbpinq with thb Old 5

Deadly Nature of Bad Air 9

Pure Slekpino Rooms I9

IV.

Sleeping in Prisons 43

Vitiated Chambers 55

VI.
Bodily Emanations 69

VII.

Night Lodgings in Cities 81

VIII.
Sleeping with Others 109

IX.
Indulgences op the Night 119

Business and Sound Sleep 130

iv SUBJECTS TREATED.

ZI« tAQn.

NOrsino Children at Night 136

XII.
Morning Debilities 1*1

XUL
Bad Night Habits 347

XIV.
Ventilating Chambers 199

XV.

Ventilation and Housu Warming 229

XVI.
Ventilation and Longevity 248

XVII.
The Breath op Life 277

XVIIL
Sleeping with Consumptives 285

XIX.
Poisonous Chambers 295

• • XX.

Nervousness, Debilities, etc 326

XXI.
Private Considerations 333

XXII.
Books on Physiology, Manhood, Marriage, etc.,
i their False Teachings, their Peunicious Ef-
fects, AND their Corrupting Tendencies , 341

SLEEP.

• *•

SLEEPING WITH THE OLD.

On a beautiful September morning in the
year eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, a note
was found on the author's table in a hand-
writing which was immediately recognized as
that of a wife and mother of high culture,
in behalf of a young sister, whom she had
hoped would have grown up as healthful, as
beautiful, and as accomplished as herself; but
the lovely blossom seemed to be fading in its
unfolding, and the communication was a his-
tory of the case, intended to give the physi-
cian an idea of its nature and its needs.

6 SLEEP.

" Baby Bell, as we all grew up to call her,
might have been an exquisite model for a
baby llebc ; so rounded, so rosy, so full of
vivacity and health I As I recall her child-
ish form now, after the lapse of years. I can
imagine nothing more beautiful in mortal
shape. Her fair head was covered with sun-
ny curls which dropped apon white and dim-
pled shoulders. She was of the Saxon type,
her eyes of the most limpid blue, 'roses
were her cheeks, and a rose her mouth.'
Until six years old, she retained all her
health and beauty, when her system began
slowly to undergo a change. Her limbs lost
their roundness, her cheek its dainty bloom.
Was it not strange ? She seemed well ; but
as the next six years wore on, each succeed-
ing day stole something of her vitality, which
changed the once ruddy and healthful child
into a puny, pallid, nervous girl. Yet she had
no constitutional ailment; no hereditary dis-
ease ever developed itself. She never had a
serious illness, and yet she was always ailing.
She was troubled with nervous headaches, so
unnatural to a child, whose perfect organism
sliould have made her unconscious of the
possession of nerves.

THE FAr.WG CHILD.

"She was my little sister, my darling lit-
tle sister. I saw her at intervals during the
lapse of six or seven years, and was always
troubled by the unagreeable changes which
each succeeding year wrought in her person.
Those who were in the habit of seeing her
daily, laughed at my expressed fears that her
health was declining ; they said : * She was
growing, that was all.' Growing! Yes! but
so slowly, that at twelve years she was not
taller than the generality of children at ten,
and not so broad across the chest as an or-
dinary child at five; and her little puny
arms, how slender they were; the skin on
her temples was transparent. Growing ! Yes !
other children were 'growing' and developing
likewise. Chubby faces and limbs are cha-
racteristic of childhood. Slender and delicate
forms in children are untrue to nature, there-
fore there must be a cause for them. The
constant exercise and generous appetite of a
shild should secure to it well-developed mus
sles and an abundance of pure blood. When,
therefore, the venous fluid seems through the
fikjA to be no more than mere lymph, and
'^ limbs evince no muscle at all, there must

SLEEP.

be a cause, and oaght to be a remedy. " What
id it?"

Special inquiry elicited the fact, that at the
close of the fifth year, this promising child
became possessed with the idea that she must
sleep with an aged relative, and in failing
health. Her whim was gratified. Time passed
imperceptibly. The practice had become a
habit which parental indulgence had not the
firmness to break up. All suggestions that
the evident failing in health and vigor and
comeliness in the once beautiful child, was
the result of sleeping in the same bed with
an old person, who was evidently now sink-
ing into the grave with an incurable disease,
or rather a complication of ails, were re-
garded with indifference, and the child pined
and withered away like a flower without
J water. -. ' . - ' " ' ""' ' *' ''' ■'■''
': Authentic history records the following
mcumful narration:

rJ5f

BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA.

"Lord Clive, while a colonel in the British
Army, commenced his career as founder of
the British empire in India. Full of honors
and wealth, he returned to England ; but being
defeated in getting into Parliament, in seven-
teen hundred and fifty -five, sailed again un-
der the King's command for India, the Com-
pany appointing him to the governorship of
Port St. David. But the very day he stepped
into the gubernatorial chair at Madras, the
Bengal Nabob took Calcutta. Then came that
chapter of unheard of cruelty, familiar to
every child who has learned to read his story-
books. The tragedy of the Black Hole oc-
curred in seventeen hundred and fifty-six. The
dungeon was twenty feet square. The little
garrison thought it all a joke when they were
ordered to go in : but to refuse was to die, for
Surajahul Dowlak's orders must be obeyed;
prolonged suffering was better than instant
death ; they entered I one hundred and thirty-
six in all. The door was closed, the small
aperture admitted neither light nor air. When
they began to exchange breaths the startling
truth burst upon them. The air already was
almost putrid' they shrieked, they yelled in

SLEEP.

mortal agony ; they screamed for water, and
then killed each other over the cup which was
passed through the grating. While the poor
prisoners were biting and squeezing each
other's life away, gasping for air, for water,
for any thing that would relieve them of their
agony, the jailers laughed and danced in
pure delight. Holmeil, the highest in rank,
offered the jailer heavy bribes; but no, the
Nabob was sleeping, and no one dared to wake
him. In the morning, when the debauch was
slept away, he ordered the dungeon-door to be
opened, and out staggered twenty -three swollen,
distorted living corpses! One hundred and
twenty-three were piled up, a putrefying mass
of men ; all shapes and forms were represented
in the death-struggle. The English woman
who survived was sent to the harem of the
Prince of Moorshebadad. Holmeil was saved
and tells the tale. The dead were burned on
the spot, but the harrowing picture did not
move in the least the granite disposition of
the human tiger. The horrible deed reached
Olive, and the celebrated battle of Plassey
showed the inhuman Nabob that it was a
fooUhardy thing to trifle with the feelings of

DEADLY AIB. 11

Englishmen. The soldiers fought like bull-
dogs; revenge stimulated them, and the Na-
bob's array of sixty thousand strong was
broken like a reed. Clive lost but twenty-
two men."

At about four o'clock in the afternoon of
Friday, in the latter part of August, eighteen
hundred and sixty, the following distressing
occurrence took place in Federal street, Alle-
gheny City, Pennsylvania :

"Alfred Bottles, William his brother, and
James Vance, were engaged in digging a well
in the rear of the beer-hall of Herman Hendal,
corner of Federal street and Center alley, on a
lot owned by John Chislett, Esq., of the Alle-
gheny Cemetery, from whom Hendal had leased.
The object was to drain a privy- vault, and the
well was dug thirteen feet deep close to the vault.
Alfred Bottles, after four o'clock, descended
into the well by a ladder, and made a hole in
the vault, six feet from the ground, to drain
off the contents. When he thought the hole
«ras through, he stooped to look, when the foul
ftir in the vault came out, suffocated him, and

12 SLEEP.

he fell from the ladder to the bottom of the
well, where the filth poured down upon him.
Vance, seeing him fall, waited a few moments
and followed him, but was also overcome by
'; the foul gas, and fell to the bottom. William
Bottles next went down to the assistance of
the others, and shared the same fate. By this
time there was a foot or more of liquid in the
well, ; d those undermost, Alfred Bottles and
Vance, were partially covered with it. At
this juncture, John Taggart, gardener for Mr.
Wilson, at Shousetown lane, who was in a
store on Federal street receiving pay for some
articles he had sold, heard of the accident and
hastening to the spot, jumped into the well,
to save, if possible, the lives of the three suf-
ferers. Wm. Bottles had then been in the
well some five minutes. Mr. Taggart was
overcome, in like manner with the rest, by
the gas, and fell over Wm. Bottles, forcing
his head partially under the fluid in the well.
" The bystanders were paralyzed, and near-
ly all were afraid to give any assistance. But
tt young German, named William Brown, about
twenty-five years of age, fearless of the con-
sequences, volunteered to go down. A rope

NATIONAL HOTEL DISEASE. 13

was fastened around his waist and with an-
ther in his hand, he was let down in the well,
and fastening a rope around the body of Tag-
gart, he was drawn up. Brown descended a
second, third and fourth time, and thus the
four bodies were brought to the surflice. Al-
fred Bottles and James Vance were dead when
taken out, and Taggart expired soon after
being carried in a house adjacent. William
Bottles was taken to his residence and re-
covered." '

In the early part of the yt^ar eighteen hun-
dred and fifty-seven, the inmates of the Na-
tional Hotel in Washington Cit^, the capftal of
the United States of America, were filled with,
consternation at the fact that several of their
number were taken ill. in and about the same
time. Eeports were immediately circulated,
that the symptoms were uniform and were
those which ordinarily attend arsenical poison,
10 wit, severe griping pains, uncontrollable
diarrhea, inward "burning" sensations, and
the like. Persons were attacked under a great
2

14 SLEEP.

variety of circumstances. Some were habitues
of the Hotel ; others ate there, but slept -else-
where. Some neither ate nor slept there, but
passed several hours of each day in the rooms
on the ground-floor. Some were attacked
who had slept there but a single night A
traveler ate a single dinner, and came near
dying. Some persons died in a few days,
others lingered for months and then died.
Some lingered for years without recovering
their wonted energy of mind and vigor of
body. Some went to Europe in the hope of
wearmg the poison out of their systems, and
returned the next year with but little of the
desired improvement. Some of the first phy-
sicians in the country gave their convictions
in the public presses, that there could be no
remaining doubt that all was the result of
some mineral poison, in some way introduced
into the food. But two simple facts were tes-
tified to on an ofl&cial investigation, and of their
truth there was not the shadow of a doubt,

DEADLY EMANATIONS. 15

and could not be denied. Persons were at-
tacked who never ate an atom or drank a drop
on the premises. Second, not a single case
occurred in any family living across the streets
which bounded the Hotel, and where none of
the members of which had visited the build-
ing. A third fact needed no proof, that
persons, especially some of the ladies who
had been living at the Hotel for weeks, and
occupied rooms in it during the time, were
not affected at all, and yet they came down to
the common table day after day. i ' ^v.j»r
On official inquiry, it was ascertained by
ocular demonstration, that a large sewer of
the city opened into the cellar of the Hotel,
and also, that the privies under the same roof
were in an ill condition, one of them being so
full, that when a person stepped on the floor
of it, the matter beneath spirted up between
the joinings of the boards. t . , > vfi ;.^i: •

During the summer of eighteen hundred
and sixty, a gentleman was traveling in

18 SLEEP.

Italy. Aa he left Rome, he was warned of
the danger of sleeping at Baccano. He was
told to travel all night rather than stop at thai
place, as a malignant fever prevailed there.

He arrived there about bed-time. The air
was balmy, and the accommodations inviting.
He concluded co stop for the night Those
whose interests would be promoted by his
doing so, told him there was no danger.

He rose in the morning and proceeded on
his journey. Some days after he had reached
Florence the fever developed itself, and he was
soon in his grave.

Signer Ardisson, now o^ New York, an ex-
iled Italian patriot of high culture, was born in
Rome, where he spent the first twenty or twen-
ty-five years of his life, and therefore must be
familiar with the habits and customs of the
people, and with the peculiarities of the country.
While on a visit to his friend, Robert Earle,
Esq., he informed the author, on inquiries
made, that always when hunting in the Pontine
marshes, it was well understood by himself and

GROTTA DEL CANE. 17

companions, that it was necessary to avoid
hunger during their excursions, and also to
keep up a vigorous circulation, either by ac-
tive exercise, or mental hilarity, such as by
singing, shouting, and slapping one another
on the shoulders. On one occasion, when
there was a failure of these precautions, it
was followed in his own person by a danger-
ous illness of several weeks' duration. . , *

In the celebrated Grotta Del Cane, there is
an apartment where a man may walk with
impunity, and yet his dog following him will
fall down dead, and if the master lies on the
floor, he too will die, showing the existence
of a poisonous air near the floor. ..s i; r, -.

The argument of this book is founded on
the narrations which have been given. Vol-
umes of similar ones, well authenticated, might
be easily collected, going to show that breath-
ing an impure air for various durations, will
occasion states of ill-health of all grades, from
an almost imperceptible decline, to symptoms
2*

2S SLEEP.

which have the malignity of tho most viruleni
and speedily fatal poisons.

It needs no caution, generally, to keep per-
sona from breathing an atmosphere which
will produce certain death in a few hours or
minutes even. But the most earnest and
irresistible arguments have failed thus far to
impress upon the public mind the conviction
of the certainly destructive influences upon
human health which follow from too many
persons sleeping in the game room, of several
persons sleeping in the same bed, or of a
single person sleeping habitually in a small
apartment. ••''.' -

The plan of this book is to show the de-
structive influence on health and life which
bad air exercises and state a variety of the
causes of deterioration ; among these, the most
rapid in their effects are emanations from the
human body, and the expirations from the
lungs; and therefore, as we spend a third of
our existence in sleep, during which, in con-

PURE 8LEEPINO ROOMS. 19

flequence of its passive condition, the corporeal
system is greatly more liable to the influ-
ence of the causes of disease, it is of the
utmost consequence that every practical and
rational means for securing a pure air for the
chamber should be employed, the most im-
portant of these being large rooms and sin-
gle beds. • / • r
It is not only unwise, it is unnatural and
degenerative, for one person to pass the niglit
habitually in the same bed or room with an-
other, whatever may be the age, sex, or rela-
tionship of the parties. Unwise, because it
impairs the general health and undermines the
constitution, by reason of the fact, that the
atmosphere of any ordinary chamber occupied
by more than one sleeper, is speedily vitiated,
and that in this vitiated condition, it is breathed
over and over again for the space of the eight
hours usually passed in sleep, amounting,
in the aggregate, to one third of a man's entire
existence. Unnatural, because it is contrary

SLEEP.

to our instincts; and it is lowering, be*
cause it diminishes that mutual consideration
and respect which ought to prevail in social
life. A person feels elevated in proportion to
the deference received from another, and there
springs up a self-restraint, a consciousness of
personal dignity, which has an exalting eflfect
on the whole physical, moral, and social nature
of man; but the habitual occupation of the
same chamber must largely detrac- from tuese
in a variety of ways.

"Without the argument of analogies, that the
moat spiteful, the vilest, and the filthiest of the
animal kingdom — wolves, hogs, and vermin —
huddle together, the physical aspects of the
case will be considered in their bearings on
human health. It is not denied that two per-
sons have slept together in tho same bed for
half a century, and have lived in health to
a good old age; this only proves how long
some may live in spite of a single bad habit.
Persons have Uved quite as long in the habit

INTENT OF THE BOOK.

ual indulgence in low, vicious, degrading, and
drunken practices. It will be found, however,
that in these cases there were counteracting
causes in steady operation, such as open cham-
bers, houses with a thousand cracks and cran-
nies, and frequently during the time, the earth
a pillow, a canopy the sky, with the additional
fact that a large portion of every day was
habitually spent in wholesome activities in the
open air. To these considerations may be
added the high advantage of a good constitu-
tion to begin with, and the necessity of a plain
and primitive mode of life. Exceptional cases
are not to be considered in a general argument.
It is proposed to show that the tendencies of
certain social habits are uniformly pernicious,
iind that prejudicial results will follow as cer-
tainly as that water will fall over a precipice, if
physical obstacles are not presented, such is
that of its being frozen at the instant, diverted
from its course, or caught in the beginning of
•ts descent.

SLEEP.

The general argument against sleeping witli
others, is found in the undeniable fact, that
when several persons sleep in the same apart-
ment, the fewer conveniences are there for per-
sonrl cleanliness, which is at the very founda-
tion of bodily health, of moral purity, and
mental elevation.

There is another argument of an exceedingly
wide range, and yet a mind of very limited cul-
ture can not fail to feel its force. As men im-
prove in their condition, there is a strong desire
for greater domestic conveniences and com-
forts ; the very first of these is " more room ;"
and eventually, instead of several members of
a family sleeping in the same bed, each child,
as it grows up. has a separate apartment, and a
rich man's dwelling has more than one room to
each member of his household.

In former times, it was oftener the case than
at present, that the married children would
remain with their parents as a matter of econ-
omy, for several years ; but now it is usually a

CROWDED LIVING.

settled thing to secure a " home of their own"
before the marriage ceremony; "going to
housekeeping," is an event second only to the
marr.age itself, and is one of the surest indica-
tions of thrift.

On the other hand, as families herd together
in the same building, there are found those
brutal debasements which have made famous
the "tenement-houses" of New- York, where as
many as one hundred and twenty distinct fam-
ilies lived under the same roof, and where there
were thirteen thousand six hundred and twen-
ty-three houses which averaged nearly six fam-
ilies each, and thus three fourths of the popula-
tion of the metropoli^^ of the United States of
North- America, lived in the year of grace one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, with the
result of its being the sickliest of all the large
cities of the civilized world; while Philadel-
phia, but eighty-six miles away, with hotter
summers and sometimes colder winters, without
thai proximity to the sea, which ia so fruitful

SLEEP.

K^^
^'■A

&;. I

of sanitary blessings, is one of the healthiest
cities in the Union. But Philadelphia has a
house to every six persons, while New- York
has but one to every thirteen. Such facts as
these prove, on a large scale, that the moro
house-room a community has, the more health-
ful will that community be.

Another great fact iii. that there are three
times the number of deaths, in proportion to
the population, in those parts of the city where
the poorest, and consequently the most persons
live together in the same house, as compared
with the mortality where neprly every family
lives in a dwelling of its own. For example, ,
in the First Ward of the city of New- York,
where almost all are poor, one person died out
of every twenty-two, while in the Fifteenth
Ward, where the inhabitants live mostly to
themselves, in large, roomy buildings, only
one died out of every seventy I

Further, in the sixteenth century, when the
great majority of mankind lived in huts and

CONVULSIONS OF CHILDREN.

hovels, whole families eating, sleeping, and
working in the same apartment, the average of

aman life was five j'-ears, according to the
estimate of Marc ..'Espine and others ; but in
the former half of the nineteenth century, that
is, from eighteen hundred to eighteen hundred
and forty, it had increased to forty-one y<^ars.

Nothing, perhaps, more accurately measures
the thrift of any community than the greater
number and size of its buildings, and the
allowable inference is, that the more houses
there are, in inverse proportion to the number
of people, the further they sleep from one an-
other, the larger the number of persona who
have rooms to themselves, and the more capa-
cious are their chambers. . , '

The convulsions or " fits " of children usuallv
occur at night, while sleeping; these, in most
cases, arise from over-eating or breathing an
impure air. Fifteen hundred and ninety-nine
children under two years of age died in New-
York City durng eighteen hundred and fifty- 'i
3

SLEEP.

five, from this malady alone. While bad air

causes these convulsions, immediate introduc-
tion to a piire atmosphere gives instantaneous

and efficient relief.

The broad fact can not then be denied, that,
as a general rule, and in the sense in question,
the further people sleep apart, the more they
occupy separate rooms, the greater are their
chances of life. A more critical examination
into the nature of things will show, in a most
conclusive manner, the reason of such results.

Dr. Arnott reports that a canary hung up in
a bed surrounded with closely-drawn curtains,
and in which two persons slept, was found dead
in the morning. This was because that, after
the sleepers had breathed the air, there was not
life enough left in it, not oxygen enough to
feed a bird, and it perished. This shows in a
general way, that when the breath comes out
of the mouth, there is no substance in it, no
nutriment, no life, and that we can no more
live upon it than we could live upon food

CAPACITY OF THE LUNGS. M

after all its nourishment had been extracted
from it, and it had become as innutrieiit as
saw-dust, or as the driest husks of the field.
Experimenters have ascertained that a breath
of air is so wholly deprived of its substance,
its life, while in the lungs, that if re-breathed
without any admixture of the common air, it
would cause death in a minute or two. ,? . i •

The lungs of an ordinary man hold some
ten pints of air ; but as they are never entirely
emptied in life, they take in about six pints,
or one gallon at a full breath. ,. ,.:■,', ,n ;.. ,•

In the breathing of repose, as in ordinary
occupations about one pint, or forty cubic
inches, is taken in at a breath. A person
breathes at Dut eighteen times a minute during
sleep, or two and a quarter hogsheads in one
hour; or eighteen hogsheads during the eight
hours which are usually given to sleep, or
two hundred cubic feet ; tliat is, in eight
hours, every particle of nutriment would be
abstracted from a room containing that amount

SLEEP.

of air. To make it more tangible, if a person
were put to sleep in a room six feet high,
eight feet long, and a little over four feet
broad, and no air was allowed to come in
from without, all the life of the air would be
consumed, and he would die at the expiration
of the eighth hour, even if each breath given
out could be kept to itself. But this would
not be the case, for the very first breath of
the first minute would, on passing out of the
mouth, mingle with the air of the room, and
taint and corrupt it, so that in reality, the first
breath of air taken would be the only one that
was pure, each succeeding one would be less
and less so, and long before the eight hours
had expired, the whole mass, although not
entirely vitiated, would be so to such an extent
that it could not possibly sustain life. All
have observed the disagreeableness of the air
of an ordinary-sized room, in which one or more
persons have slept all night, when first entering
it from a morning walk ; and this, too, when tlie

SIZE OF SLEEPING ROOMS.

various crevicea about the doors and windows,
and an open fire-place, allowed some fresh air
to come in, and some of the foul air to escape.
With this view of the case, physiologists ad-
vise that each person should sleep in a room
equal to twelve feet square and eight or more
feet high. The floor-surface of a room is mea-
sured by the length and breadth multiplied to*
gether. But ordinary chambers do not equal
twelve bv twelve ; do not measure a hundred
and forty-four square feet. Not one in a thou-
sand hotel-chambers is as large ; very few of
the "state-rooms," so called, of ships and
steamers, measure over seven ffeet long, seven
feet high, and four broad, giving only two hun-
dred and forty-five feet for two persons, which
is barely enough to save one from inevitable
death, if there were no crevices to admit the
fresh air. ^. / i -jh.

I'-r j' 'I

« U

Since, therefore, each out-breathing vitiates

the whole body of air in a close chamber, as a

drop of ink will discolor a glass of water, it
3-»

SLEEP.

should have a thorough ventilation ; that is, a
current of air should be passing through the
room from without up through the open fire-
place and chimney, carrying before it the bad
air, leaving a fresher and u purer in its place. ..

But very few chambers in this country mea-
sure twelve feet square, and consequently are
not large enough for one person, let alone two ;
and in proportion as the room is too small, in
such proportion are the lungs and body and
blood deprived of their essential food, as es-
sential to life as water is to a fish ; and in such
proportion are sown the seeds of disease and
premature death.

All know that a fish can not live an hour
out of its natural element, water ; nor can man
live an hour out of his natural element, air,
nor a quarter of an hour, and tc both a fresh
supply of these must come in as steadily as
used, or harm will follow as inevitably as uni-
versal darkness would envelop the earth, if
the sun were blotted from existence. ; , ,

SIMOONS OF AFRICA. 9i

To show how a little taint of the atmosphere
with a substance not natural to it will materi-
ally influence the animal economy, it is suffi-
cient to state a fact of repeated observation,
that a man who sleeps neai a poppy-field with
the wind blowing steadily towards him from
the field, will die before tlie morning. Intelli-
gent readers have often perused descriptions of
the fatal effects of the dreadful Simoons which
sweep over the African desert, leaving whole
caravans of beasts and men dead from the in-
stant contact with their scalding breath. Simi-
lar winds are also known in India. Vit a late
meeting of the Meteorological Society of Lon-
don, Dr. Cook remarked that there are certain
days in which, however hard and violent the
wind may blow, little or no dust accompanies
it, while at other times every little puff of air
or current of wind raises up and carries with it
clouds of dust, and at these times the individ-
ual particles of sand appear to be in such an
electrified condition, that they are even ready

82 SLEEP.

to repel each other, and arc consequently dis-
turbed from their position and carried up into
the air with the slightest current. To so great
an extent does tliis sometimes exist, that the
atmosphere is positively filled with dust, and
when accompanied by a strong wind, nothing
is visible at a few yards, and the sun at noon-
day is obscured. This condition of the atmo-
sphere is evidently accumulative ; it increasea
by degrees till the climax is reached, when,
after a C/Crtain time, usually about twenty-four
hours, the atmosphe. s cleared, equanimity is
restored. Dust-columns appear under a similar
condition of electrical disturbance or intensity.
On calm, quiet days, when hardly a breath of
air is stirring, and the sun pours down his
heating rays with full force, little circular ed-
dies are seen to rise in the atmosphere near the
surface of the ground. These increase in force
and diameter, till a columu is formed of great
hight and diameter, which usually remains sta-
tionary for som' time, and then sweeps away

SIMOONS OF INDIA. 88

acro8s the country at great speed, and ulti-
mately, losing the velocity of its circular move-
ment, dissolves and disappears. Dr. Cook had
seen in the valley of the Mingoehav, which is
only a few miles across, and surrounded by
high hills, on a day when not a breath of air
stirred, twenty of these columns. These seldom
changed their places, or but slowly moved
across the level tract, and they never interfered
with each other. j .,•

The author then spoke of the Simoon, that
deadly wind which occasionally visits the des-
erts of Cutchee and Upper Scinde, which is
sudden and singularly fatal in its occurrence,
invisible, intangible, and mysterious. Its na-
ture, alike unknown, as far as the author is
aware, to the wild, untutored inhabitants of
the country which it frequents, as to the Euro-
pean man of science ; its eflfects only are visible,
its presence made manifest in the sudden ex-
tinction of life, whether of animal or vegetable,
Dver which its influence has extended. Dr.

S4 SLEEP.

Cook gives the resulte of his infonuution ro-
epecting the Simoon as follows:

1. It is sudden in its attack.

2. It is sometimes preceded by a cold cui>
r(Mit of air.

8. It occurs in the hot months — usually
June and July.

4. It takes place by night as well as by day.

5. Its course is straight and defined.

6. Its passage leaves a narrow "knife-like"
track.

7. It bums up or destroys the vitality of
animal and vegetable existence in its path,

8. It is attended by a well-marked sul-
phurous odor.

9. It is described as being like the blast of
a furnace, and the current of air in which it
passes is evidently greatly hoated.

10. It is not accompanied by dust, thunder,
and lightning. ,,,., ., . ;,, ,. .^ .

It is so generally known to be fatal to travel-
ers to pass the night in the campagna in Italy,

ROIiniNS AND CAUrENTER. 86

that citizens uniformly caution strangers to
pn.s8 directly tlirou);?h it. And nearer home it
is known that it was considered almost certain
death for those crossing the Isthmus of Pana-
ma to spend a night there, and sailors were
threatened with severe punishment who did
not return to their ships in the offing before
the night came on.

Dr. E. Y. Bobbins says of Professor Carpen-
ter, the first physiologist of Great Britain, if
not of the world, that, in his experiments, he
"had ascertained that air containing five or
six per cent of carbonic acid gas would pro-
duce immediate death, and that less than one
half that quantity would soon prove fatal.
Now, if effects are proportioned to their causes,
and if an atmosphere impregnated with five
per cent, or one twentieth part of its volume,
of carbonic acid, will thus produce death in a
few minutes, what must be the probable effect
of breathing for twenty or forty years, even
the much minuter proportions which must be

36 SLEEP.

present in every inhabited room where there
is not i. constant ingress and egress of air?
It must lower the standard of health and
shorten the duration of life. But not only if
the air in a close room thus constantly being
impregnated with carbonic acid gas to the
amount of about twenty-eight cubic inches per
minute for each adult man occupying such
room, but there is also, according to the best
authorities, constantly being discharged by the
lungs and pores of the skin an equal amount
by weight, that is, about three or three and a
half pounds in twenty-four hours, of effete,
decaying animal substance, in the form of
msensible vapor, which we oftt see condensed
in drops upon the windows of crowded rooms
and railroad cars. These drops, if collected
and evaporated, leave a thick putrid mass of
animal matter. The breathing of these exha-
lations is believed to be quite as efficient in
producing disease as carbonic acid itself, -f:
c* In the winter of eighteoa hundred and
sixty, in one small, ill-ventilated room in

CHARCOAL FUMES FATAL. 37

a house at High Blantyre, Sootland, a man
named Kobertson, his wife, and three child-
ren were in the habit of sleeping. One
morning the wife awoke i.bout five o'clock
in a very exhausted state, and found her
infant child, aged nine months, lying dead
in her arms. She immediately aroused her
husband, who also felt in a weakly condition,
but had strength enough to get out of bed.
They then discovered that their next eldest
child, a boy aged about three years, was also
dead, and the third, a girl nine years old, ap-
parently dying, but upon being removed into
another apartment she eventually recovered.
Facts like these show that breathing a bad
air for a single night is perilous to life. Few
are so ignorant as not to have learned that if
a handful of charcoal is lighted in a small,
close room, death before the morning is an in-
evitable result, hence it is used sometimes as
a means of self-destruction. The reason is, that
charcoal in burning, subtracts the oxygen from

38 SLEEP.

ihe whole body of the atmosphere, and this
oxygen is its life, and is as fully used up in
breathing as in the bu ning of charcoal. It is
not actually destroyed in either case, but a new
combination is formed called carbonic acid,
which has no oxygen, no life, and a single
breath of it induces instantaneous suffocation.
It is this carbonic acid which taints a sleeper's
chamber, and the taint increases at every out-
breathing, for every expiration is loaded with
it, and where two sleep in the same room the
poisonous vitiation increases with a two-fold
rapidity, and tbe UDhealthful results are inevi-
table and ruinous. To impress these vital
lessons on the mind, the philosophy of breath-
ing or respiration, should be understood.

The object of breathing is to make a change
in the condition of the blood, which is said in
the sacred Scriptures, with philosophical ac-
curacy, to be " the life of a man." It is suf-
ficiently precise, for all practical purposes, to
say that a man takes into the lungs in twenty-

OFFICE OF THE liUNGS. 89

four hours, about sixty hogsheads of air, as in
health he breathes about eighteen times in a
minute, on an average, for the twenty-four
hours, and takes in about a pint or forty cubic
inches at a breath. During the same time,
there passes through the lungs an amount of
blood equal to twenty-four hogsheads ; with
this blood, the sixty hoqisheads of air come in
virtual contact, and a g^eat change takes place
in both the blood and the air ; for the oxygen,
the life of the air, is taken from it as such,
and becomes, in a measure, incorporated with
the blood so as to give life to it ; at the same
time, the impurities of the blood are taken up
by the breath of air just taken into the lungs,
so that when expired, when passed out of
the lungs, it is so loaded with these impurities,
that it is utterly unfit for being breathed again ;
so much so, that ss has been already stated,
if re breathed, without the admixture of some
fresh air, it would cause ai instantaneous de-
struction of life, from its entire destitution of

40 BLEEP.

nutritious particles. Each breath of air then,
in healthful respiration, goes into the lungs
perfectly pure, but comes out, loaded with the
impurities of the blood, and thus the blood
is purified, made fit to be re-distributed over
the body, to impart life, renovation and growth.
It is easy to see then, that if the air which
is breathed is not pure, it fails to unload the
blood of its impurities, and hence it is unfit
for the purposes of life; for to purify tlie
blood, is to give health to the whole system ;
and when it is not purified, disease and pain
and ultimate death are the inevitable results.
This, then, is the great physical evil of sleep-
ing together, the air is rapidly contaminated
by two sleepers in any ordinary room; this
contamination begins at once to lay the foun-
dation for disease, and that result is inevitable
in the very nature of things. Such result,
however, does not become very marked in a
short time, as there are counteracting agencies,
such as the fact that there are crevices in the

BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA. A>

doors and windows, and througli these some
fresh air is constantly passing; small, it is
true, yet enough to keep the body alive ; but
how more doad than alive many a one feels
without any suspicion of the cause, in that
exceedingly languid sensation which some-
times pervades the whole body on first waking
up in the morning; a little greater depriva-
tion, and the sleepers would have waked no
more! In the case of the already narrated
tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta, it may
be well to state, that " It was eight o'clock in
the morning, when the unfortunate prisoners
were locked up, and in less than three hours,
fifty of them had ceased to exist. The sur
vivors of the next morning were said to be
the ghastliest forms that were ever seen alive.
But for two small windows for approach to
which, there was through the night a frantic
struggle, not one would have lived to tell the
fearful tale." '

Another more recent incident of Indian
4*

42 .r.v.i BLEEP. ■''

history, is given to illustrate the pernicious
influence of a deficient supply of fresh air,
although not to the degree of causing instant
death. When Sir Charles N'apier was the
Commander-in-Chief of the Indian army, the
hill-stations of Sabathor and Kussowlie, which
ought, from their position, to have been most
healthy, were in disgrace, and denounced aa
pestilential. Sir Charles resolved to ascertain
the cause of the mischief, and had no difficulty
in accounting for the pestilence which had
destroyed so many lives.

The barrack-rooms were only eight feet
high and had been crammed full of soldiers.
"I altered the barracks," said Sir Charles,
"and put hrlf the number of men in them,
and they became at once the most healthy in
India. When I last saw my own regiment
with which I made the experiment, in con-
junction with the 'Sixtieth Kifles,' both hav-
ing been nearly decimated by fever, the twen-
ty-second had but nineteen in hospitals, out

PRISON ATMOSPHERE. 48

of one thousand and fifty, in the sick season,
and the sixtieth about the same."

In the times of Pope and Swift, the Au
gustan age of England, a little over a cen-
tury ago, " debtors and pirates were confined
together in the Marshalsea. Thirty, forty, and
even fifty prisoners were locked up at night
in a single room, not sixteen feet square and
eight feet high. For a whole year, there were
sometimes forty, never less than thirty-two,
persons locked up in George's ward every
night, which is a room sixteen by fourteen
feet, and about eight feet high. The surface
floor was not sufficient to contain that num-
ber when laid down, so that one half were
hung up in hammocks, while the others re-
mained on the floor under them. The air
was so wasted by the number of persons who
breathed in that narrow compass, that it was
aot sufficient to keep them from stifling, sev-
eral having, in the heat of summer, perished
for want of air. The more offensive part of

44 ,, . SLEKP.

the account is omitted, but it may be found
entire in the state papers of England." f« .\

John Iloward, of immortal memory, found
that there were dungeons in Cornwarl, mea-
suring seven and a half feet long, six and a
half deep, and live feet broad, in which " two
or three persons were chained together. Their
provision was put down to them through a
hole in the floor of the room above, and the
foulness of the air coming up through that hole
was such, that those who thus served the
food often caught the fatal fever, and the
keeper and his wife died in one night." / j

Other dungeons containing about four hun-
dred cubic feet of air, measuring seven and a
half feet long, by six and a half broad, and
eight and a half high, had only a hole of
four inches by eight, over the door, the only
avenue of air to the interior, and even that
coming through long, dark passages reeking
with dampness and filth and slime. " Yet, in
cacli of these dungeons, three human beings

HOWARD, THE PHILANTHROPIST. 46

were commonly locked up for the night, which,
in winter, lasted fourteen or sixteen hours."

In Cheater there were cells measuring nine
feet by three, and seven and a half feet high,
with a single aperture of four inches by eight.
In each of these, three or four felons were
locked up every night. •/ , v-

In the Chink of Plymouth jail, there was
a "diabolical dungeon," eight feet by seven-
teen, and only five and a half feet high, with
a wicket in the door seven inches by five.
Yet Howard learned with horror, that three
men had been confined in this dungeon for
two months. "They could neither see nor
breathe freely, nor could they stand upright.
To keep alive at all they were forced to
crouch, each in his turn, at the wicket, to
catch a few inspirations of air, otherwise, they
must have died of suffocation, for the door
had not been opened in five weeks."

No wonder is it, tliat with such arrange-
ments, the jail-fever raged throughout Eng-

46 1 '. *. SLEEP. I

land, slaying tens of thousands in its fury,
spreading its terrible conttigions in such a
deadly manner, that the prison-physicians
would not engage their services in some cases,
without the express understanding, that tliey
should not be required to visit persons who
had the jail-fever. -

These cases show that a certain r.mount of
fresh air is necessary to life, and that if that
amount is largely curtailed, fearful diseases
and speedy death ensue. If there is but a
moderate diminution, as in sleeping together
in small rooms, the consequences are not in-
stantly fatal, but the life of the system is
slowly undermined, predisposing it to wast-
ing disease. ,- i .. , ; .

But why need the dark and dismal dun-
geons of England, a hundred years ago, be
cited for proof ? On the fifth day of October,
eighteen hundred and sixty. Judge Pierrepont,
of the Supe: ' . .' Court of the city of New- York,
resigned his seat on the bench, which, by his

Randall's island lmbeciles. 47

ability he had ornamented so long, on the
ground that the court-rooms were *' ruinous to
health and dangerous to life."

It is sad to note that valuable lives are often
sacrificed by the breathing of a bad atmosphere
for a few hours, as in the following case : —
Chief Justice Anthony Lispenurd Robertson,
of the Superior Court of New York City,
ioved, respected, and honored by the profes-
sion as one of its brightest lights, eminent for
his legal abilities, for his general acquirements,
and his lucid decisions, was known among his
peers as the " Just Judge.'* He was for some
eight hours continuously exposed to the delete-
rious air of a crowded court-room, a broken pane
at the same time admitting a December wind
upon him, inducing pneumonia, of which he died
ivithin a week ; died in his mental prime, from
a few hours' exposure to a bad atmosphere.

An observant correspondent of the New
York World, having visited Randall's Island,
where there are about eight hundred idiotic
children maintained by public charity, says: —

48 • BLEEP.

"In a dingle room, porliapn eighteen by twenty-eight fnt in
area, I found thirty-scvon inil)«:cilo ciiildren seated ciotwly together
upon benches and ciiairR arranged around the room — some roclt-
ing themselves incessantly to and fro, some screaming at the top
of their voices, some yelling out a laugh, itself the token of a
vacant mind, others moaned and muttered, or emitted an unearth-
ly noise, intended for music. Here they chattered and quarreled,
and grinned their ghastly smiles, seemingly under little restraint
other than might bo needed to keep them glued to one spot. This
room also is unclean an<l noisome; the floor reeks with a nauseat-
ing steuch ; the air is Irathsomely putrid, poisoning the ' breath of
life,' which the inmates take impure, only to give back impurer;
scrofulous sores saturate their clothing by their purulent issues.
What a horrible picture this is ! What a fearful condition these
helpless and miserable children are now in ! ilow long is it to bu
protracted? How long shall they be permitted to sutler, languish,
lie, when it is possible to make most of them useful pei-sons

society, and to afford relief to all of them, at least ! How long
shall a gentleman — James B. Richards — who has made the
treatment ot imbeciles a specialty', with the utmost success, beg
the Commissioners to give him a chance to redeem these wretched
and most unfortunate children, without expense as regards his
time and labor? For the sake of our character as a Christian peo-
ple, whose welcome duties are philanthropy and active benevo-
lence, as well as for the sake of the suttering children, it is to be
hoped that the reform is not far off— that the beneficent agencies
may soon be put in operation that shall consummate this humane
work."

Breathing a bad air for a very few days may
introduce a poison into the system which shall

INSIDIOUS AIR POISON. 4t9

SO impre;*nate it that no amount of subfjequcnt
exposure to a pure atmosphere will avail to
arrest its malignant and fatal influences, al-
though months and years have passed away
since the occurrence of the infection. On
Friday, June twcntv-four, eighteen hundred
and fifty-nine, the telegraph announced that
the *' Hon. D. F. Robison, ex-member of Con-
gress died from a disease contracted at the
National Hotel in the spring of eighfrrn hun-
dred and fifty-seven." The circumstances con-
nected with this aflfair have already been de-
tailed, among which it may be important to
repeat, it appeared in evidence that persons
who slept in the hotel a single night were
attacked so seriously that their lives for a time
seemed to be endangered.

It has now been shown that a single sleeper
requires a chamber twelve feet square, and well
ventilated by having currents of air constantly
passing from the crevices, a it the doors and

60 SLEEP.

windows, up through the fire-place ami chim*
ney, carrying with it the foul, exhausted air.
But a majority of sleeping-rooms do not have a
length and breadth which, when multiplied
into each other, will give a superfices of a hun-
dred and forty-four square feet, and yet not
one, but the father and mother, and for a long
period of married life, a child also, sleep in
SI oh room ; and more, all three in the same
bed, to say nothing of the space occupied by
the furniture and clothing hanging around, nor
of the sources of contamination of the air of
the apartment, such as the toilet apparatus,
wash-water, and other standing fluids. Under
these circumstances, it seems to be little short
of a murderous process for more than one per-
son to sleep in a chamber of ordinary size.
But when it is remembered that two and three
and even more persons often sleep habitually in
rooms less than twelve feet square, and when
we take into account the harrowing details of
the Black Hole of Calcutta, it must be ad-

STINT OF PURE AIR. BQ&

mitted that sleeping together as a habit, is a
sufficient cause for a gradual diminution of
bodily vigor, a gradual undermining of the
constitution, and an inevitable cause of prema-
ture decline and death to multitudes. nr?

If ordinary chambers are but equal to
twelve feet square, and that is barely enough
for one sleeper, and it is the common custom for
two at least to occupy such a room, we have
the general fact of a world of people volun-
tarily allotting to themselves just one half of
the requisite amount of air during every night
of their existence, by which their blood is just
half purified, their systems just half washed
out, just half renovated 1 No wonder then
that there is that earnest craving for more sleep
in the morning on the part of the frail and fee-
ble, and of those who violate the laws of their
being, in the manner pointed out. ,.^v=.„

This is not all. If two married persons give
themselves but half the needed amount of air
for eight hours, and during those eight hours

52 'i- SLEEP. -> ' .

and at the close of them, as is most generally
the case perhaps, a new being is irade, it is
inevitable that it will be made in weakness, in
imperfection, in incompleteness ; hence is born
deteriorated, with a hereditary susceptibility to
disease, and with an incompetency to resist the
ordinary causes of human ailments. Thus it is
that the children of large cities, especially in
suinmer time, when the entire air has so much
less nutriment in it than is normal, are swept
away as if by a pestilence ; a pestilence more
terrible than any epidemical cholera that ever
visited our shores ; and yet it creates no alarm,
seldom a remark !

According to Inspector Morton's returns for
eighteen hundred and fifty-five, there died in
New- York City ''uring July and August, under
five years of a^e, three thousand seven hun-
dred and two children; more than the total
number of deaths from cholera during the pre-
ceding year ; more than died of the first chol-
era of eighteen hundred and thirty-two ! These

INFANT MORTALITY. 58

figures are found in the exceedingly valuable
" Table of the Mortality of the City of New-
York for the fifty-two years, comprising the
full period from January the first, eighteen
hundred and four, to December the first,
eighteen hundred and fifty -five, inclusive."

Total cholera deaths in New- York City for 1832 3618

•• ♦' «• ^.,..^: 1849 6071

*♦ '« ** 1864 2609

" deaths of children alone during July
"'-'''"'■' jpij August 1866 3702

Many are now living who have a vivid re-
membrance of the terror pervading all hearts
during the prevalence of the first cholera, and
yet when a greater number of children die
during two months of any summer, it is passed
without special remark. This is because in part
we have become used to it; and in part be-
cause the greatest mortality is among the
trowded poor, whose wailings rise not up to
the ears of the great world above them. It is
6*

5f. ,V^n. SLEEP. '' :

not claimed that this fearful annual mortality
among children under five years of age is
wholly owing to the fact of too many persons
sleeping together in the same room or bed ; but
that, under all the circumstances of the case, as
presented, this great sacrifice of life is attribu-
table, in considerable part, to the habit alluded
to, there can be not a shadow of a doubt in any
reflecting mind.

Let it be remembered that there is a double
agency at work in this regard. The children
are not only begotten in weakness, in want
of vitality and vigor, but the causes of this
are still in operation as to themselves ; for very
generally the infant sleeps in the same bed
with the parents, and if a bird actually dies in
a night under the circumstances already de-
tailed, it is no wonder that the bird-like life
of a tender infant is gradually sapped away
by the same causes kept in operation every
night for weeks and months and years; for
it is not sooner than five years that children

CAUSES OF VITIATED CHAMBERS. 66

in poorer families — ^and they aro the majority
— are put in other rooms than those in which
the parents sleep; but after five years, the
mortality of children diminishes fifty per cent.
Our calculations have been made on the
purity of the air in the twelve-feet chambers, *
yet the causes of rapid vitiation of that atmo-
sphere are numerous. There are liquids of
various kinds in every chamber, besides the
soap for washing, which is constantly sending
out its emanations ; and there are damp towels
and bedding, combs and brushes, and the
clothing worn during the day, which, as to .
some persons, is alone sufficient to taint the
air of a whole room in five minutes afl«r it
is laid off. Besides these, if inner doors are
left open during the night, emanations from
close cellars and warm kitchens, and slops of
various kinds, are constantly ascending, espe-
jiially during sleeping-hours ; for then the outer
doors and windows are closed, no air is in
circulation to carry them outside the build*

"56 :, -i/JV/.v SLEEP.

ing; hence they rise, by their own laws, to
taint and corrupt the atmosphere of the sleep-
er's apartment. ^ < .' ^ f . . .

Then again, there arc found in most cham-
bers, hung-up clothing, closets, wardrobes,
drawers, and the like, with the carpeting, all
of which are sources of dust and lint, and
dampness and close air, so that, taking every
thing into consideration, it is an almost un-
known thing that any sleeper within the four
walls of any private house or hotel, gets one
single breath of real pure air in a whole night.

In the third volume of HaWs Journal of
Health, page one hundred and forty-nine, the
following statements are made, founded on
carefully conducted experiments in one of
the best-kept European hospitals : m-^i iUi

" If a small portion of the air of a crowded
room is made to pass up through distilled water,
a sediment is left which contains various colored
fibers of clothing, portions of hair, wool, bits
of human skin or scales, and a fungus growth,

AIR OF CROWDED ROOMS. 57

with its particles of reproduction, which adhere
wherever they strike, or fall on wet surfaces or
bruises, or sore places, and grow wherever they
adhere ; there is also a small amount of inde
structible sand and dirt, with great numbers of
the forms of animal life.

"But if that room be emptied for a few
hours, and a portion of its atmosphere be treated
in the same way, nothing will be found but a
little sand and dirt, a few fibers of woven cot-
ton, and only a trace of fungus ; but no animal
life, no bits of skin or hair, or scales of dead
human matter.

"If five times the amount of neighboring out-
door air undergoes the same process, a single
fiber of wool or cottc»n is now and then found,
with a few specimens of fungus, and their atoms
of reproduction, but no traces of decayed ani-
mal matter, nor are there any signs of organic
life : thus showing that in our close apartments
we are surrounded with organic living bodies,
and that animal matter, living, dead, and de-
cayed, loads the atmosphere which we breathe
in the chambers of our dwellings and crowded
rooms, and that these corrupting particles are
swallowed into the stomach, and are breathed

B§ ^■*" -' SLEEP.

into the lungs every moment of in-door exiflt*
enee, thus strongly urging us, by all our love
of pure blood and high health, to hurry from
our chambers at the earliest moment in the
morning, and to consider every hour of out*
door breathing a gain of life.

"No wonder is it that the blood is soon
tainted and corrupted, by making sitting-apart-
ments of our chambers, by spending hours in
crowded assemblies, or stage-coaches, or rail-
cars, where every breath we draw is a mouth-
ful of monster-life, or of decaying or foreign
substances,"

But with all our precautions, foreign sub-
stances are floating in the air every where.
Dust falls on the tops of the highest moun-
tains, and drops on the decks of vessels many
leagues beyond the shore. Under the head
of Mkographie Aimospherique, the Gazette Heh'
dom, dated April 1st, 1859, reports a meet-
ing of the French Academy of Sciences, at
which M. Pouchet reported a paper as follows :

" The atmosphere which surrounds us holdd

DUST OF ALL CENTURIES. 59

in suspension a mass of corpuscles, the detritus
of the mineral crust of our globe, animal and
vegetable particles, and the debris of all that is
used for man's purposes. These diverse cor-
puscles are proportionably more numerous and
voluminous as the atmosphere is more or less
agitated by the wind, and it is to these that the
tenn dust has been applied."

The author enumerates the various cor-
puscles of mineral, animal, and vegetable ori-
gin with which the air is loaded. Under the
latter — the vegetable products — he mentions
especially particles of wheat, which are always
found mixed with dust, be it recent or old,
as well as those of barley, rye, potatoes, which
have been discovered in rare instances.

"Astonished at the proportional abundance
of flour which I have found among the atmo-
spheric corpuscles," says Mr. Pouchet, "I un-
dertook the task to examine the dust of all cen-
turies and of all localities. I have explored
the monuments of our large cities ; those of
the shore and those of the desert ; and in midst

60 . . c; SLEEP.

of the immense variety of corpuscles that uni-
versally float in the air, almost always have I
found the dust of grain, in greater or lesser
abundance. Endowed with an extraordinary
power of preservation, years seem scarcely to
have altered it. * •■ -• • ••

" Whatever may be the antiquity of atmo-
spheric corpuscles, we find among them the
dust of grain yet recognizable. I have dis-
covered it in the most inaccessible retreats of
our old Gothic churches, mixed with their
blackened dust of eight centuries ; I have met
it in the palaces and hypog^es of Thebes, where
it dates back perhaps to the epoch of the Pha-
raohs. I have found it even in the interior of
the tympanal cavity of the head of a mummi-
fied dog, which I have recovered from a sub-
terranean temple of upper Egypt. ■ *- • > '

** It can be proposed as a thesis, that in all
countries where wheat forms the basis of food,
its debris is mixed throughout with the dust,
and may be detected in it in laiger or smaller
quantities." -^"^ t'-^ .!.}..,.i.'.fii

Perhaps the reader will pardon the quota-
tion of an article entire, written by some un-

DUST EVERY WHERE. 61

acknowledged worker for human entertain-
ment and profit: •"• '♦ *"

" Whence does the dust all come ? You may
sweep your room twice every day, and you
will find that a cloud arises every time the
broom and the floor make acquaintance. You
may dust every article of furniture, every book,
every picture; you may wipe all about the
book-shelves and the floor with a damp cloth ;
and yet, after all your labor, there will be dust.
Dust flying in the air; dust settling on the
books and tables ; dust on the pictures, on the
flowers — dust, dust every where. It %$ dis-
couraging. You think, perhaps, that 'tis be-
cause the room in which you sit is so large ;
you think that if you were in snugger quarters
there would not be so much of this annoyance ;
you therefore move into a smaller apartment,
but you are worse off now than you were be-
fore. You can't turn around quick, nor even
heave a sigh, without setting in motion ten
thousand tiny particles of dust. You may
hweep till your broom fails, and dust till your
arms fall off, and the story will be always the

il ' .. SLEEP.

same. Even out at sea, where the good ship
rides the billows, thousands of miles from laud,
the dust gathers. It matters not how much the
sailors rub the masts and holystone the decks,
the dust will gather, even amid tlie salt spray
of the sea. It is forever flying and settling
wherever there is any solid substance on which
it can alight. Where it comes from is no mys-
tery, when we remember what sort of things
we are.

^''Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return"
is written on clothing, on wood, and iron and
steel, just as truly as it is in our frail, perishing
flesh ; and this changing and going back to
its despised original is going on before our very
eyes, in each thing that we look upon. Con-
stantly — some rapidly, others with a slower
waste — but certainly all things are returning
whence they came. 'Tis enough to make one
fear the dust — to make one feel a horror at the
atoms falling on one's garment and one's limbs,
to read and understand their language. That
language is one of decay and death ; of earth,
the grave, and worms; of darkness, forgetful-
ness, and despair. This, if one can not look

DUST AND CONSUMPTION. 6tf

beyond the dnnt, and sec and take hold upon
the eternal life.

"How carefully and purely should wo step
through the world, did we but read, an we
walk, all that is written for our admonition
and warning. But we go hastily, with care-
less eye and dumb heart, taking little heed
when we should be most studious. Many
there be who have deep skill to read the dark
sayings who yet have never understood the
plain language of the gathering dust."

Under the head of " Analytical and Critical
Eeviews," in the British and Foreign Me-
dico Chirurgical Review for January, eigh-
teen hundred and fifty-nine, is the following:
"The fact seems to come out strikingly in
these investigations, that one marked indubi-
table cause of lung diseases, and especially
of consumption, is the inhalation of fine hard
dust. This seems to be the case in Warwick-
shire, especially where the metallic manulao-
tares are of a kind to give rise to such dust,

64 SLEEP.

more than where the work is of a coarser de-
scription. The same fact is observed where
fine pottery is made ; it is well known in the
hardware manufactures of Yorkshire, and the
mortality of mines where thd ore lies in dry
sandstone, is said to be from tlie same cause.

" On the other hand, where the dust inhaled
is of a soft character, as in woolen, flax and
cotton factories, asthma and chronic bronchitis
are more prevalent, as also in lace-making
and straw-bonnet making."

Alston, England,is situated in a most salu-
brious country district, yet there are more
widows there than in any other district in Great
Britain ; at the same time, fewer infants die in
Alston than in many other parts of the country.
The actual facts of the case make this a very
suggestive item in connection with the dele-
terious influences of an atmosphere loaded with
foreign particles. Alston is the most exclu-
iively lead-mining district in England, but only

INHERITED INFIRM/TIES. 65

the men work in these mines, where they are
constantly breathing a dusty atmosphere, hence
their early decease.

But it is remarked that more women die
of consumption in the healthy atmosphere of
Alston, than in other localities which do not
enjoy so pure an air. This is accounted for
au "due to acquired hereditary tendency,"
those women having been born of men who
breathed habitually a dusty atmosphere, bring-
ing to the mind the strong conviction of the
sentiment uttered on a preceding page, that
children begotten by persons sleeping together
in the same small room for eight hours out of
every twenty-four, must inevitably partake of
the parental infirmity, which, not enough to kill
the parent outright, not enough to destroy the
power of reproduction, not enough to eat out
the life of the new-born in its first years, yet
is enough to lay the foundation, either of
actual disease or of feeble capabilities of re-
sisting the ordinary causes of disease, with
0*

66 SLEEP.

the result of becoming life-long martyrs to
depressing and wasting sickness, to end in
premature death. These are facts collected
by men of ability, of industrious research;
facts gathered with reference to the discussion
of theories of a different nature, hence are the
more valuable ; and those " not convinced by
these would not likely be by the piling up of
pyramids of such like.

The great difficulty in having these state-
ments result in immediately practical results,
lies in this, that death does not presently follow
from two persons sleeping together all night
in the same bed or room. "Were this the case,
the task were easily performed, and a few
pages would tell the whole story. But most
assuredly, wise men, of pecuniary ability, are
most inexcusable if they do not arrange in
all their families, that each member have, as
far as possible, a separate, airy room, to
sleep in.

The fact has been already stated, that one of

EOOMINESS AND HEALTH. 67

the very first channels of expenditure, on
the part of those who are improving their pe-
cuniary condition, is in the direction of more
house-room; and this may reasonably be con-
sidered, at least, one of the causes of the undis-
puted fact, that in France, the average life of
those who are well to do, is twelve years
longer, than of those who are considered poor,
and consequently huddle together more, and
are restricted to fewer apartments.

It is true, as has been remarked on a pre-
vious page, that there are multitudes who have
slept two and three in a bed, and double the
number in the same room, and yet have lived
to a good old age. But such persons generally
live in very open houses, and spend most of
the twenty-four hours in the open air, in neces-
sary labor, and these act as counteracting
causes. But this argument is of little weight,
inasmuch as the constitution of these hardy
people, seldom, with all its strength and advan-
tages, descends to their children, rarely indeed

68 ' SLEEP.

to their grand-children; and that their close
living has a tendency to deteriorate the vigor
of their descendants, can not reasonably be de-
nied.

As communities become enriched, their
modes of life grow more enervating ; hence the
necessity increases of greater care to ward off
disease, of removing its causes, and of guarding
against the avenues of sickness. What our
fathers did with their stalwart frames and iron
constitutions, and simple, temperate and regu-
lar modes of life, we attempt at our peril, with
our easy, gormandizing, pampered ways, our
furnace-heated apartments, and our dwellings,
three rooms deep, with chambers all guiltless
of a window, with curtained apartments as
gloomy as the grave, and into which the bless-
ed sun-light never enters, except on chance oc-
casions, few and far between. Hence, if our
motto be, " As our fathers lived, so will we,"
we will not live long; we w^Il perish in out

BODY EMANATIONS. 69

folly, and if we leave descendants behind us,
they will be but shadows, the mere outlines of
men and women. •- -■

All know that emanations are constantly
passing from the body, its impurities, its dead
and effete matter, which nature has no use for,
and which she is constantly endeavoring to cast
off by the pores of the skin, the average num-
ber of which for each square inch of the body
is estimated by Erasmus Wilson to be two
thousand five hundred, or seven millions in all,
making, if joined together, a canal twenty-
eight miles long, which conducts from the sys-
tem every twenty-four hours, in a state of sen-
sible perspiration, or water called " sweat," or
insensible perspiration, called " vapor," three
pounds and a half from one person in the ordi-
nary occupations of life, and much more in
extraordinary callings. For example, men
employed in keeping up the fires in the gas-
works, were found to have lost in weight, on
an average, over three pounds in forty-five

70 . SLEEP.

minutes, wbile some, in an unusually hot place,
lost as much as five pounds two ounces in
seventy minutes' work.

The insensible perspiration from a sleeper
during the night, is of itself enough to taint
the atmosphere of a whole room, even a large
one, as almost every reader has noticed on
entering a sleeping-chamber in the morning
after having come directly from the out-door
air ; and it is the breathing and rebreathing of
an atmosphere contaminated in the variety of
ways alluded to, which makes the night the
time of attack of the great majority of violent
human ailments ; it is this which fires the train
of impending disease, and which would have
been deferred, if not entirely warded off, with
the advantages of a pure chamber. It is from
close bed-rooms come the racking pains of
fever, its torturing thirst, and speedy death ;
this it is which wakes up the cholera morbus,
the cramp colic, the bilious diarrhea, and the
multitudes of other ailments whi ;h surprise us

HUMAN EFFLUVIA. 71

in the night-time, and from which, it is worthy
of repetition, a night of good sleep in a clean,
pure, and well-ventilated chamber would have
effected a happy deliverance, as expressed in
the familiar phrase of " sleeping it off."

It is related that a whole family was once
suffering from sickness which no skill of the
physician could abate, when accidentaUy a win-
dow-glass was broken out, and the means not
being at hand for repair, the entire family
began to get well ; the cause of the improve-
ment was at once suggested to be the broken
pane, which admitted a purer air. -

It is not known as extensively as it ought to
be, that if the effluvia which escapes from the
human body in a close room, is breathed by
another person, some of the most incurable
forms of disease result therefrom, especially the
"low fevers," as they are called, as well as
" typhoid " ailments, which oppress the whole
man, putrefy the blood, take away all sense
and feeling, when muttering delirium comes

t% SLEEP.

on, to be followed apace by a mortal rttupon
and the man passes away, but *' makes no
sign." All must look upon such a death with

" shrinking, and yet it is frequent in the abodes
of the poor, whom hard necessity compels to
huddle together like pigs in a pen. Lesser de-
grees of this crowding together will have a
proportionate ill effect, without the possibility
of avoidance. The whelming avalanche does
not the less come because its motion is not at

' first perceivable, and as inevitably will come
the destructive effects of crowded sleeping

' apartments, not only curtailing the health and
vigor and life of the sleepers themselves, but in

' perpetuating human infirmity on the innocent
ones to whom being is given under the circum-
stances. . . . - ,

The high moral effect of each member of a
family occupying separate chambers, will be
least contravened by those who know most of

■ human nature. There is great practical truth

*' in the saying that " No man is a hero to his

DEMORALIZATION OF CROWDING. 73

valet" "All men," said the first Napoleon,
" lose on close view." Proofs of this are con-
stantly recurring to the observation of the
thoughtful. Hence there must be a greater or
less depreciatory effect in the close associations
of " bed- fellows." Those who, by humanity
or self-interest, or in the discharge of official
duty, have become familiar with persons living
in crowds, have frequently given their testi-
mony to the moral debasements, social, physi-
cal, and mental, which follow therefrom ; and
that these feed on one another, is proven by the
testimony of one of the reporters connected
with the New- York Daily Times, as detailed in
the issue of that journal for the firsi day of
July, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine. No
person of feeling and refinement can read the
account without a shudder. And as these
things are in passing, in the middle of the nine-
teenth century, in the richest city on the conti-
nent, and within five hundred yards of Bioad-
way, one of the most magnificent streets in the

74 SLEEP.

world, occurring every night, being literally a
standing institution, it is convincing proof that
a book on the subject of human beings herding
together, in personal propinquity, is a want of
the times. The article referred to is headed

" THE ABODES OF THE POOR.

VISIT TO THK CELLARS AND ATTICS OP THD FOUBTH
WAUD, NEW-YORK CITY.

OOW BAT AT MIDlflOHT.

" There is no pleasure in visiting the haunts
of wretched men and women, and none in
writing about them. Indeed, if we tell what
makes their abodes most wretched, cleanly peo-
ple think we have sullied our sheet. Still, it is
wholesome to know how humanity suffers in
our midst, how it even contents itself amidst
its suffering. We continued our rambles in the
Fourth Ward last week. ' ;

" A house in Dover street, near Front, for its
rickety, lazy look — as if the winds must not
visit it too roughly lest it throw up all efforts
to maintain its uprightness and crumble down
— arrested attention. The policeman said it

cow BAY AT MIDNIGHT. 1i

would be an ugly place to visit at night, but by
daylight was safe enough. Picking our way
tlirough the filth on the staircase, we ascended
to the second story. A knock on the half-
open door of the first room brought no answer.
Pushing in, a fat baby, some two years old,
whose face was plastered thick with dirt, sat on
the floor, a cat purring at her side. On the bed
lay a woman dead drunk — a nursing infant
cuddled beside her. No other person was visi-
ble, about the premises. Before fiightening
the baby or alarming the guardian kitten we
retreatcid. In the next room two women were
idly gossiping. We asked who lived in the
room we had just left. They said it was a
woman who had gone out somewhere. In the
third room, a woman was washing — she said
she knew nothing about the rest of the house,
and didn't know what rent she paid. Ascend-
ing another flight of stairs that creaked and
trembled at every step, we found one vacant
room under the attic. In another a woman lay
drunk on the floor, face upward, snoring heav-
ily. Two children, about three and seven
years old, were playing together. There was
no means of exit from this house except by

76 SLEEP.

the frontdoor. The out-house of the concern
wafl accessible through the adjoining shed,
where a negro kept a rum shop.
■ " We next visited the collars in James street,
between Oak and Madison. One of them, kept
by a man of insignificant stature, but consider-
able selfrcspect, was particularly interesting.
This and the adjoining house are old two-story
shanties ; still, one of thorn rented last year for
$387. For the two, $550 was offered and
refused this year. The collar was just deep
enough fbr us to stand erect in with our hats
on. It was fitted up for lodgers. It contained
no bedsteads, but on the left side as we entered,
two shelves were placed against the wall, one
above the other, making accommodations for
four beds. A door on the right opened into a
room where more shelves were placed for the
same purpose. Stooping low to avoid a beam,
we passed to the rear-room, where were a stove,
a few kitchen utensils, and three more beds.
Passing into the area behind, we thought we
had seen the last bed, but the landlord opened
the door of what was built for an ash-hole, atid
pointing through the darkness to a heap of
rags, said that it was his bed. The side of a

LODGING CELLARS. ft

shoe-box fastened by leathern hinges, stood as
a door to what we took for a dog-kennel — but
he said it contained anotlier bed. All iold, the
beds numbered eleven. Our policeman said lie
had seen one of them occupied by a woman
and her five children. The landlord protested,
however, that he only took in male lodgers,
and " some of them were gentlemen too — cap-
tains who sailed their own boats, having been
on a bit of a spree, and coming here to sleep it
off before going on board." He charged a shil-
ling a night for lodgers, and meant to take none
but those he knew ; but they wouM break his
door down if he didn't take them in, so some-
times his company wasn't so select as he would
choose to have it.

" In the next cellar were three women. They
too took lodgers, but only families that they
knew. While the two who belonged on the
premises were quietly responding to our in-
quiries, a young woman, who sat on the side of
a bed, gaudy in a high-colored and low-necked
dress, suddenly burst out in a very loud tone of
voice, but decidedly a low tone of morality,
that her cha-rack-ter was being assailed ; that
she knew some body who would not stand it ;

78 SLEEP.

that if some folks could not attend to their own
business, she knew some body who knew what
was what, etc. The two ladies of the cellar fell
to quieting their gayly-dressed visitor, in such
loud tones of entreaty to shut up and be civil^
and not be offended, and of assurance that no
body meant her, whereupon she grew so much
more turbulent, and they so much more demon-
strative in thei^ efforts to hush her, that the
policeman on that beat turned in to see what
the row was, and we prudently retreated.

" Our next visit was '.o the famous Cherry
street tenement-house. It consists of cwo build-
ings, both standing with their ends toward
Cherry-street, one double the width of the
other. Between them runs * Gotham-court,*
into which the lower entry-ways open. 'East
Gotham-court ' is the alley into which the den-
izens of one half of the larger building debouch.
T\e wisdom of the builders of this five-story
box )f b^ick and m( .tar for the packing of
mortnla, led them, when there was a fair oppor-
tunity t*"" get a ventilation, carefully to exclude
it. If you enter from Gotham-court, Tishing
to get through to Last Gotham court, there is
no wa) but te climb to "\e roof and pass down

THE TENEMENT-HOTTSE. 79

again five flights of steps, and if a current of
air should feel inspired to blow through, it
would need to take the same route, which of
course it would refuse to take, and die out first,
vainly endeavoring to dilute the prevalent
stench. As if eight feet w'Jth of air, walled in
between two five story buildings, might still be
rathd* raw and cool for the lungs of those
whose windows open upon it, the proprietors
of the place have erected at the far end of the
court a blacksmith shop, whose perpetual emis-
sion of charcoal smoke and heat tempered the
summer wind to the pretty well shorn lambs
inside. Five years ago the Croton water pipes
were laid on each floor, but since then they
have been taken out ; and if, under the eaves
of this model tenement, a weary woman should
resolve to try "^he virtue of cleanliness, she
must fii-st descend to the foot of all the stairs
to fill and then tug up to the top again with
her pail of water. Some ninety-six families
claim this abode as their home, and pay va-
riously from ,"^4.50 to $6 rent. It has no cel-
lar, but from every hall a flight of steps leads
down to a diu i unr'er the pavement of the
oourt^ that empties into the street-sewer. Over

80 SLEEP.

tliis drain are erected the water-closets, without
doors. The stench that emanates from this
drain, and that is thrown back from the sewer,
pervades the whole place. A more successful
device to poison slowly, on a large scale, hun-
dreds of poor people, could not easily be con-
ceived.

"This ended our tour for the day. The
wretchedness it exposed seemed as if it could
scarcely be paralleled in a civilized city, but to
some of the miserable shanties we looked back
after our next expedition, and in comparison
they seemed cleanly, wholesome, and tolera-
blel

" It was late Sunday night when our party
set out from the Sixth Ward Station-house,
under convoy of Sergeant Preston, and another
oflScer, who took the lead, lantern in hand.
The first cellar visited was at No. 35 Baxter
street. Down half a dozen rickety steps, the
door was already open to one of the filthiest,
blackest holes we had yet seen. The stout
Irishman, who claimed to be landlord, assured
us that we should find clean sheets in his lodg-
ing-house, whereat we laughed, supposing him
to be of a merry turn ; but he was in earnest—

NIGHT LODGINGS. 81

he washed them himself every Thursday, he
said. We looked in vain for sheets, however ;
they might have been there, but all the bed-
clothes were of one color, whatever their tex-
ture. There were bunks arranged along the
wall, two or three deej), a 1 in most of them
men or women, black or white, sleeping
soundly. The glare of the lantern in their
eyes did not disturb them at all — ^pretty clearly
indicating the possession of consciences cleaner
than their faces, or that the sleeper had had the
run of the back-door into the liquor-shops
during the day. The landlord charged six-
pence a night for lodging, and lodged none
under any circumstances but honest hard-work-
ing people — which statement the police received
with smiles and without contradiction. Two
inner rooms were equally well occupied — in
one of the hideous beds two children sleeping
as sweetly as if their couch had been down,
and the horrible den a cottage. The older
sister of these children was out begging even at
this hour.

" In another cellar close by, a young woman
jvith a single scanty garment on, sat on a chest
crying. That old woman's husband, she said,

82 SLEEP.

(the keeper of the place,) had been ' banging
his wife, and hit her a lick sideways that al-
most killed her.' The wretch had kicked an-
other girl so severely that she had gone to bed
early in the day and not got up since. The
person thus alluded to, lay on a pile of shavings
in the corner of the room, snoring vigorously.
The old woman, wife of the brute who admin-
istered the ' banging,' the ' sideways lick,' and
the * kick,' sat on the side of her bed in very
good spirits. The old man was a little wild
when he was in liquor, but he'd gone now, and
that was a comfort. She sympathized with
the crying woman, and said it was a shame to
treat the other girl as he did, but he'd gone
now. She evidently was disposed to let by-
gones be by-gones. There was a child asleep
in a cradle, whose mother was also asleep in
another bed. Two men slept soundly in the
next bunk, and never minded the light sud-
denly flashed on them from the lantern. But
the state-bed, the one that occupied the central
position, and looked as if a double fare had to
be paid for its use, was occupied by a stalwart
negro. * Then you have no prejudices about
color?' we asked. 'No,' said the old woman,

SCENES IN NEW-YORK.

* he pays for his bed, and his money is as good
as any body's.'

" The next visit was to a spot a little south
of the Ladies' Five Points Mission-room. The
access to it was through a long, winding hall.
Reaching the end, the door of one room stood
half- open, through which a giant negro was
visible, lying in bed, and, by the light of
a candle, reading a yellor -covered novel.
' Who's there ?' he asked, but as no one an-
swered, he kept his eyes on the crack of the
door, though the book was still held in its
place. But it was at an adjoining door at
which the officer knocked. The only answer
was a volley of oaths. Another knock and
another explosion of oaths. ' Come, Mose,
turn up and let us in,' said the officer, and his
voice seemed to explain the matter, for there
was soon heard a noise inside as of Mose fumb-
ling for his clothes, and of feet shuffling oil' into
a distant part of the room. At last Mose was
ready. He turned a key, took down two bars,
drew a bolt, and took the lighted match handed
to him. A bottle in the center of the floor
held the candle, to which he applied the light,
and Mose's quarters were dimly visible It

<cnb SLESPt

was a large room, with a low ceiling, hung
round with torn posters of great mass-meetings
and candidates for office, pasted up, however,
not so much for ornament as to stop the chinks
in a windy day. In one corner lay a man
asleep on a blanket ; in the distant corner lay
rolled into a heap, from which Mose essayed in
vain to kick off the blankets and show the face
of his wife, two white women. His own bed
was invisible, though when asked where it
was, he pointed to the fireplace. There was no
furniture of any sort on the premises. Mose
apologized for being sober ; the Sunday liquor-
law didn't work very well for him — being
short, and every thing shut up, he had gone to
bed earlier than usual. He was about the
blackest specimen we had yet crossed, his legs
were set on his body crookedly, his stature ex-
ceedingly short, and his humor large. He evi-
dently felt flattered by the visit, and boasted
that, though his room was nearly empty now,
it was generally full enough. He could accom-
modate with a board on his floor all that would
come.

" Leaving Mose to mourn his enforced sobri-
ety, the officer pushed open the door of the

THE COLORED BACHELOR. 86

oolored bachelor whom we had seen reading
in bed. Ilis book was the Volunteer, one of
the choice issues of the Pliiladelphia press.
He was evidently in an interesting passage
when we entered, and had no courtesy to spare
for us. He answered questions with the air of
a man who feels that his hou^e is his castle,
which no man has a right to enter unless to
search for stolen goods. He would be obliged
to us if we would knock the next time we
came — gentlemen always did. He declined to
bid us good night as we left. His room was a
contracted one, but his outfit of crockery and
kitchen-ware creditable — showing that though
literary tastes may not conduce to polished
manners, they are not always inconsistent with
order and neatness.

We dropped into another cellar, some twen-
ty feet long and ten feet wide, at one end, and
eight at the other. Two tiers of bunks, placed
end to end along the side, were only in part
occupied. In an emergency the sleepers were
tucked under the lower one on the earth.
Twenty could be lodged there comfortably,
said the German lessee of the premises, and
he had taken thirty in. The loud voices of

86 SLKEP.

the people carousing in the ' closed ' bar-
room over head did not prevent one little
one from sleeping soundly by the side of its
mother. Air there was none, nor could be,
except as it might be forced in through the
only door of entrance. Quite a company had
gathered aboufr the cellar-way, who asked as
we left 'whether we found it?' When as-
sured that we were not looking for stolen
property, one asked earnestly, if it was yel-
low fever we were looking for then, instinc-
tively presuming in what haunts Yellow Jack
will be sure to be found when on shore.

" Next, we turned into Cow Bay, and in turn
ex{>lored most of the rooms that are entered
from this noted alley. Climbing to the top of
one of the furthest up, much knocking on the
door brought an answer from a gray-haired
old man who deplored his poverty. He used
to take lodgers, but all his bed-clothes had
been stolen, and now he had none, but lived
in filthy solitude. In another attic room a
black man owned the drunken white woman
at his feet on thv) floor as his new wife. Three
wretched white women were in a corner, one
of whom protested that theirs was the true

DKGRADATIONS OF CUOWDING. 87

happy family, but their ribaldry degenerated
into angry oaths and curses on us as we left.
A vacant room adjoining emitted a most sick-
ening odor, and for causes that were apparent
on entering it. In another an infant was cry-
ing. A woman of reputable appearance and
cleanly, who was trying to comfoii; it, with a
scowl of despair on her face, said her husband
was away, locked up now three months, as a
witness. And so they all were, each with a
tale of misery to tell, or if asleep, with a still
more hopeless story written in their faces.
Some of these people pay rents that would se-
cure for them decent apartments in decent parts
of the city. But they seldom leave them, ex-
cept to go up to Blackwell's Island, or to their
common lodging in the ditch of Potter's Field."

That the same degradations, social, civil, and
moral, are found in other countries and other
ages, to result from many persons herding to-
gether in the same small house, or hut, or single
apartment, and that a change to larger apart-
ments and more roomy buildings, effects a
like change in social character and position,

88 SLKEP.

is strikingly illustrated by a writer of the past

age.

" The town of Cardington, England, was
one of the worst loealities in the kingdom.
Like all others of their elass, the huts of the
people were huddled together, were dirty, ill-
built, ill-drained, impcrfeetly lighted and wa-
tered, and altogether, so badly eonditioned and
unhealthy, as to be totally unfit for the resi-
denee of human beings. While thus miserably
cabined, compelled to be uncleanly on their do-
mestic hearths, uneomfoi*tablc in their homes,
any attertipt to improve their minds, to induce
them to become more sober, industrious, and
home-loving was useless, except by first aim-
ing to improve their physical condition, to
supply them with the means of comfort, at-
taching them thus to their own fireside, the
great center of all pure feelings and sound
morals, to foster and develop in them a relish
for simple domestic enjoyments and thus open
to them a way to the attainment of such mo-
derate intellectual pleasures, as their lot in life
did not forbid,"

To these wise and humane ends the first

HOVELS AND corrAdEs. 89

step taken waa to render the Lomea of the
poor fitter dwellings for self-reapccting men,
by removing the mud huts, and replacing
them with luind.some little cottages, and in a
few years, Cardington became one of the most
orderly and prosperous localities in the king-
dom ; the people kept their homes neat, clean
and comfortable, while they themselves became
honest, sober, industrious, and religious; and
at the end of nearly a hundred years, this
same village is distinguished for the order,
regularity, respectability, and thrift of its in-
habitants. These' changes, be it remembered,
were commenced by exchanging the contracted
mud hut of the family, for the roomier and
more inviting cottage. In these mud huts, as
in Ireland to-day, which the author has visited
in person, a whole family dwells, of half a
dozen or more, in the one single room, which
answers at once for kitchen, chamber, dining-
room, and parlor. In such a mode of life
there must be degradation, self-debasement
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90 SLEEP.

and disease, proving Mly all that was charged
on a previous page ; and more, that the
breaking up of this huddling, crowded life,
with other things which naturally follow in
their train, is the first, the essential step to-
wards elevating the people and fitting them
for the duties of citizenship and religion.

The force of the above statements, which
are corroborated by other writers, will be par-
ried perhaps, by those living in the country,
by saying that they apply only to the crowded
portions of large cities, but that those who
live in separate dwellings in the healthful and
pure atmosphere of the country, need not be
specially careful in having large airy rooms
for each individual member of the family.

To this it may be replied, that Dr. Green-
how, in an official paper on " The Preventa-
bility of certain kinds of Premature Death,"
published in London in eighteen hundred and
fifty-eight, states that one half of the deaths
occurring m a certain district within a period

ATMOSPHERIC TAINTS. 91

of seven years, were of persons under tweii'
ty years of age, and that such a result —

" Does not require large aggregations of im-
purity for development. A neglected sewer,
ash - pit or cess-pool, an unsound soil pipe,
whether in town or country, may be all that
is required.

" The farm-house or laborer's cottage, nay
the mansion of the squire, though situated in
the most healthy district, if putrefying animal
and vegetable refuse is permitted to taint its
immediate atmosphere, is as liable to be in-
vaded by fever, as the town Cvvelling in a
close alley.

" The taint of the atmosphere in the vicinity
of fermenting and decaying matter, proceeds
chiefly from the gases, but partly also from
organic matter, in a state of active decomposi-
tion. Lctherby and Barker most thoroughly
demonstrate, not only how certainly sewerage
gases affect both health and life, but how small
I, proportion of the gases are capable of extin-
guishing of life, giving rise to forms of disease
according to the intensity and duration of their
administration.

92 SLEEP.

" The demonstrations of Dr. Barker were
chiefly in the way of experiment. Exposure
by means of a suitable and mgenious contri-
vance, to the gas of a large cess-pool, proved
fatal to a mouse, and produced in larger ani-
mals a series of symptoms analogous to those
of febrile disease. Sulphurcted hydrogen, car-
bonic acid and ammonia, (hartshorn,) the prin-
cipal and most deleterious components of sew-
age gas, were experimented with separately.
Of the first, less than two per cent in the air
killed a puppy in two minutes and a half, and
so small a proportion as forty -three hundredths
(or less than one half of one per cent) killed
another within the hour.

" A dog exposed to an atmosphere contain-
ing one quarter of one per cent of the gas,
died in nine hours and a half, but another in
the same description of atmosphere, suffered at
first, but soon recovered. Others were more
violently affected in a less contaminated air.

" Hartshorn and its salts produced what may
be unhesitatingly considered typhoid symptoms ;
and prostration and diarrhea followed the in-
halation of carbonic acid in small proportions.''

Two most important facts developed by

EMANATIONS IN THAMES TUNNEL. 93

these statements are, first, that different in-
dividuals arc aifected with a different degree
of violence on exposure to the very same
causes of sickness, as was exhibited in the
matter of the "National Hotel Disease."
Second, the small "^ mount of a deleterious
gas mixed with the atmosphere, sufficient
to produce disease. Let it be remarked that
sulphureted hydrogen, carbonic p.cid and
ammonia, so small a proportion of which be-
ing mixed in a pure atmosphere causes
disease and death, are the very gases which
are given out in largest proportions by a
sleeper, and the usual standing liquids of a
chamber.

In the cutting of the Thames Tunnel, the
workmen suffered seriously from the delete-
rious gas. Falling away in flesh, low fever,
and actual death, were the result in several
cases, and this, when all chemical tests, and
those of the most delicate kind, failed to dis-
cover more tlian one part of the gas in a him-

94 SLEEP.

dred thousand of the air in which they
worked.

These facts show beyond denial, that it
matters not how healthful the location of a
man's residence may be, whether in city,
village or country, whether on a plain or on
a mountain-top — if there are causes in opera-
tion which taint the atmosphere of the room
in which he spends hours together, disease
will inevitably resultj and speedily. And as
crowding in rooms and sleeping together in
the same bed, are indisputable causes of a
vitiated atmosphere, it would seem to be an
imperative duty on the part of all reflecting
persons, to make it a study how to best secure
large, airy, well-vontilated rooms to sleep in,
one person in a bed, and, as often as practica-
ble, one apartment to each perscm.

In order to make an ineffaceable impression
on the reader's mind, of the immediate deadly
effects of breathing a bad air, the very kind of
air which comes from the lungs at each «jut-

FATAL EXPERIMENTS. 96

breathing, to wit, Carbonic Acid Gas, the fol-
lowing memorandum of a French gentleman is
given verbatim. From some cause, he became
tired of life, and not being willing to commit
the fearful crime of self destruction, without
having something useful connected with it, he
wrote a statement of his sensations as long as he
was able to trace an intelligible line, thus secu-
ring for himself an immortality, which, perhaps,
could never have been achieved by him in any-
other way. M. Deal resolved to destroy him-
self by burning charcoal in a close room, and
thus narrates:

"I have thought it useful in the interest of
science, to make known the effects of charcoal
upon man. I place a lamp, a candle and a
watch on my table, and commence the cere-
mony.

" It is a quarter-past ten ; I have just lighted
the stove ; the charcoal burns feebly.

" Twenty minutes past ten ; the pulse is calm,
and beats at its usual rate.

" Thirty minutes past ten ; a thick vapor

96 SLEEP.

gradually fills the room ; the candle is nearly
extinguished ; I begin to feel a violent head-
ache ; my eyes fill with tears ; I feel a general
sense of discomfort ; the pulse is agitated.

" Forty minutes past ten ; my candle has gone
out ; the lamp still burns ; the veins at my tem-
ple throb as if they would burst; I feel very
sleepy ; I suflfer horribly in the stomach ; my
pulse is at eighty degrees.

" Fifty minutes past ten ; I am almost stifled ;
strange ideas assail me. ... I can scarce-
ly breathe. ... I shall not go far

There are symptoms of madness. . .

"Sixty minutes past ten ; I can scarcely write.
. . . my sight is troubled. . . . My
lamp is going out. ... I did not think it
would be such agony to die. . . . ten . .

". . Here followed some quite illegible
characters. Life had ebbed. On the following
morning he was found on the floor."

The expired breath is loaded with Carbonic
Acid, which was the agent of death, in the case
just cited. The fatal eflfects were produced in
a little over an hour. But not less destructive
are the results of breathing the atmospher of a

EFFECTS OF BAD Allt. 97

room crowded with human beings, as was terri-
bly illustrated in the passage of the steamer
Londonderry, which loft Liverpool on the sec-
ond of December, eighteen hundred and forty-
eight, for an Irish sea-port. A sudden and
fearful sto'm came on, which threatened the
immediate destruction of the vessel. In order
to allow the sailors the fullest opportunity of
managing the ship well, the passengers, two
hundred in number, were required to go below
into the cabin, which was eighteen feet long,
eleven wide, and seven high. The hatches were
closed, and a stout tarpaulin was fastened over
the only entrance, so as to prevent the passen-
gers from coming on deck in their uncontrolla-
ble alarm. There is no evidence to suppose
that the captain acted otherwise than in good
faith. He took the course, best calculated in
his own opinion, to secure the safety of the ves-
sel and passengers, but he was fearfully igno-
rant of the nature of bad air and human ema-
nations; as much so, perhaps, as some who
9

98 SLEEP.

may read these lines. lie acted on the " spur
of tlie moment ;" there is no time for delibera-
tion in a sudden, fearful storm at sea. The re-
sult, however, was, that in a short time, in the
fearful agony of the death-struggle, tlie surging
mass of suffocating unfortunates burst open the
hatches and poured out on the deck, the blood
started from nose, eyes, and ears, and horrible
convulsions agonized the sufferers. Many were
dying, seventy-two were already dead I What
they endur.d, no pen has described; but in the
very nature of the case, they must have en-
dured the terrors of the Black Hole of Calcutta,
already referred to ; and in the wish to produce
complete conviction on the reader's mind as to
the corrupting influences which human emana-
tions have on the atmosphere of a close room,
and as to the deadly effects of breathing such
an air, the description of Commander Holwell
is given, as printed in the Annual Register for
seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, rie, himself,
having been one of the prisoners.

BLACK IlOhK OF CALCUTTA. 99

" Figure to yourself the situation of a hun-
dred and forty-six wretches, exhausted by
continual fatigue and action, crammed together
in a cube of eighteen feet, in a close sultry-
night in Bengal, shut up to the eastward and
southward (the only quarter whence air could
reach us) by dead walls, and by a wall and
door to the north, open only to the westward
by two windows strongly barred with iron,
from which we could receive scarce any circu-
lation of fresh air. . . We had been but a
few minutes confined before every one fell into
a perspiration so profuse, you can form no idea
of it. This brought on a raging thirst, which
increased in proportion as the body was drained
of its moisture. Various expedients were
thought of to give more room and air. To
gain the former it was moved to put off their
clothes ; this was approved as a happy motion,
and in a few moments every one was stripped
— myself, Mr. Court, and the two young gentle-
men by me, excepted. For a little while they
flattered themselves with having gained a
mighty advantage ; every hat was put in mo-
tion to gain a circulation of air, and Mr. Baiilie
proposed that every man should sit on his

100 sriiEf.

hnins. This expedient was several times put
in practice, and at ea"li time many of the poor
creatures, whose natural strength was less tlian
that of others, or who hud been more exhausted,
and could not immediatiily recover their legs,,
when the word was given to rise — fell to rise
no more, for they W(^re instantly trod to death
or suffocated. When tlie wlu^le body sat down,
they were so closely wedged together that tiiey
were obliged to use many efforts before they
could get up again. Before nine o'clock every
man's thirst grew intolerable, and respiration
difficult. Efforts were made to force the door,
but in vain. Many insults were used to the
guard to provoke them to fire on us. For my
own part, I hitherto felt little pain or uneasi-
ness, but what resulted from my anxiety for the
suff^;rings of those witlim. By keeping my
fiice eljse between two of the bars I ol»tained
air enough to give my lungs easy play, though
my perspiration was excessive, and thirst com-
mencing. At this period, so strong a urinous
volatile effluvia came from the prison, that I
was not able to turn my head that way for
more than a few se<',()nds at a time.

"Now every bod}', e\ce})t those situated

EFFECTS OF CIIOWDED ROOMS. 101

in and near the windows, began to grow out-
rageous, and many delirious. Water I water 1
became the general cry. An old Jcmmantdaar,
taking pity on us, ordered the people to bring
US some skins of water. This was what I
dreaded. I foresaw it would prove the ruin
of the small chance left us, and essayed many
times to speak to him privately to forbid it
being brought ; but the clamor was so loud it
became impossible. The water appeared.
Words can not paint the universal agitation and
raving the sight of it threw us into. I flat-
tered myself thnt some, by preserving an equal
temper of mind, might outlive the night ; but
now the reflection that gave me the greatest
pain was, that I saw no possibility of one
escaping to tell the dismal tale. Until the
water came, I had not myself suffered much
from thiidi, which instantly grew excessive.
We had no means of conveying it into the
prison but by hats forced through the bars ;
and thus myself, and Coles, and Scott, supplied
them as fast as possible. But those who have
experienced intense thirst, or are acquainted
with the cause and nature of this appetite, will
be sufficiently sensible it could receive no more

102 SLEEP.

than a momentary alleviation ; the cause still
subsisted. Though we brought full hats
through the bars, there ensued such violent
struggles and frequent contests to get it, that
before it reached the lips of any one, there
would be scarcely a small teacupful left in
them. These supplies, like sprinkling water
on fire, only seemed to feed the flame. my
dear sir I how shall I give you a just concep-
tion of what I felt at the cries and cravings
of those in the remoter parts of the prison,
who could not entertain a probable hope of ob-
taining a drop, yet could not divest themselves
of expectation, however unavailing, calling on
me by the tender considerations of affection
and friendship. The confusion now became
general and horrid. Several quitted the other
window (the only chance they had for life) to
force their way to the water, and the throng
and press upon the window was beyond bear-
ing ; many, forcing their w aj from the further
part- of the room, pressed down those in their
passage who had less strength, and trampled
them to death.

"From abou!- nine to eleven 1 sustained
this cruel scene, still supplying them \vrith

TERRIBLE SCENES. 108

water, though my legs were almost broke with
the weight against them. By this time I my-
self was near pressed to death, and my two
companions, with Mr. Parker, who had forced
himself to the window, were really so. At last
I became so pressed and wedged up, I wag de-
prived of all motion. Determined now to give
every thing up, I called to them, as a last in-
stance of their regard, that they would relieve
the pressure upon me, ind permit me to retire
out of the window to die in quiet. They gave
Aray, and with much difficulty I forced a pas-
sage into the center of the prison, where the
throng was less by the many dead, amounting
to one third, and the numbers who flocked to
the windows ; for by this time they had water
also at the other window. ... I laid my-
self down on some of the dead, and, recom-
mending myself to Heaven, had the comfort
of thinking my sufferings could have no long
duration. My thirst now grew insupportable,
and the difficulty of breathing much increased ;
and I Lad not remained in this situation ten
minutes before I was seized with a pain in my
breast, and palpitation of heart, both to the
aiost exquisite degree. These obliged me to

104 SLEEP.

get up again, but still the pain, palpitation,
and difficulty of breathing increased. I re-
tained my senses notwithstanding, and had
the grief to see deaih not so near me as I
had hoped, but could no longer bear the pains
I suffered, without attempting a relie:^ which I
knew fresh air would and could only give me.
I instantly determined to push for the window
opposite me, and by an effort of double the
strength I ever before possessed, gained the
third rank at it — with one hand seized a bar,
and by that means gained a second, though I
think there were at least six or seven ranks
between me and the window. In a few mo-
ments the pain, palpitation, and difficultly of
breathing ceased, but the thirst continued in-
tolerable. I called aloud : ' Water, for God's
sake I' I had been concluded dead ; but as
soon as the men found me amongst them, they
Lstill had the respect and tenderness for me to
cry out, ' Give him water ! ' nor would one of
them at the window attempt to touch it till I
had drunk. But from the water I had no re-
lief; my thirst was rather increased by it; so
I determined to drink no more, but patiently
wait the event. I kept my mouth moist from

TERRIBLE SCENES. 105

time to time by sucking the perepiration out
of my shirt-sleeves, and catching the drops as
they fell like heavy rain from my head and
face; you can hardly imagine how unhappy
I was if any of them escaped my mouth.

I was observed by one of my com-
panions on the right, in the expedient of al-
laying my thirst by sucking my shirt-sleeve.
He took the hint, and robbed me from time
to time of a considerable part of my store,
though, after I detected him, I had the ad-
dress to begin on that sleeve first when I
thought my reservoirs were sufl&ciently replen-
ished, and our mouths and noses often met in
contact. This man was one of the few who
escaped death, and he has since paid me the
compliment of assuring me he believed he owed
his life to the many comfortable draughts he
had from my sleeves. No Bristol water could
be more soft or pleasant than what arose from
perspiration.

" By half-past eleven the much greater num-
ber of those living were in an outrageous
delirium, and others quite ungovernable; few
retaining any calmness but the ranks near the
windows. They now all found that water,

106 SLEEP.

instead of relieving their uneasiness, rathet
hightened it, and Air ! air I was the general
cry. Every insult that could be devised
against the guard was repeated to provoke
them to fire on us, every man that could, rushing
tumultuously towards the windows with eager
hopes of I leeting the first shot. But these
failing, they vhose strength and spirits were
quite exhausiv^d laid themselves down, and
quietly expired upon their fellows ; others who
had yet some strength and vigor left, made a
last effort for the windows, and several suc-
ceeded by leaping and scrambling over the
backs and heads of those in the first ranks, and
got hold of the bars, from which there Was no
removing them. Many to the right and left
sunk with the violent pressure, and were soon
suffocated; for now a steam arose from the
living and the dead which affected us in all its
circumstances, as if we were forcibly held by
our heads over a bowl of strong volatile spirit
of hartshorn until suffocated ; nor could the
effluvia of the one be distinguished from the
other. I need not ask your commiseration
when I tell you that in this plight from half
an hour after eleven till two in the morning, 1

TERRORS OF SUFFOCATION. 107

sustained the weight of a heavy man with his
knees on my back, and the pressure of his
whole body on my head ; a Dutch sergeant who
had taken his seat on my left shoulder, and a
black soldier bearing on my right : all which
nothing would have enabled mc to support but
the props and pressure equally sustaining me
all round. The two latter I frequently dis-
lodged by shifting my hold on the bars, and
driving my knuckles into their ribs ; but my
friend above stuck fast, and, as he held by two
bars, was immovable. The repeated trials I
made to dislodge this insufferable incumbrance
upon me, at last quite exhausted me, and to-
wards two o'clock, finding I must quit the
window or sink where I was, I resolved on the
former, having borne truly, for the sake of
others, infinitely more for life than the best of
it is worth.

"I was at this time sensible of no pain, and
little uneasiness. I found a stupor coming on
apace, and laid myself down by that gallant old
man, the Reverend Jervas Bellamy, who lay
dead with his son, the lieutenant, hand in hand,
near the southernmost wall of the prison. Of
what passed in the interval, to the time of re-

108 ■ SLEEP

surrection from this hole of horrors, I can give
you no account."

Surely, further argument can not be needed
to produce a practical conviction on the read-
er's mind of the absolute necessity to health, of
so arranging, that these destructive, human em-
anations shall not accumulate in the chambers
where a third of existence is passed, but
that while as few of them as possible shall be
emitted, even these should be swept away by
such ventilating contrivances as will most effi-
ciently secure so desirable an object; the two
first steps being large rooms and separate beds.

A conjectural reason forms another argu-
ment against two persons sleeping near each
other. Each individual has an amount of
electrical influence, which in its normal pro-
portion, is health to him. Electricity, like
air and water, tends constantly to an equi-
librium, and when two bodies come near each
other, having different quantities, that which

SLEEPING WITH OTHERS. 109

has the greater imparts to that which hart the
less, until both are equal. The lightning
and the thunder are caused by this exchange
between a cloud which has plus, and another
which has its own share, minus. Wind is
the passing of air from a section which has
more to a another which has less. But if a
human body, with its healthful share of elec-
tricity or other influence, gives part of it to
another which has less, it gives away just
that much of its life, and must die, unless it
is recovered in some way ; hence the frequent
fact, which it needs no authority to substan-
tiate, that a healthy young infant, who sleeps
with an old person, will wither and wilt and
wane and die. Thus, also, the healthy have
been observed to grow diseased themselves,
by sleeping with sickly persons

In the author's experience, of some twenty

years, in the special study and treatment of

common consumption of the lungs, the fact

tias stood out with constant confirmations, that

110 SLEEP.

of the widows and widowers applying for
relief, quite a large proportion had lost their
companions by consumption.

On the other hand, no facts have come to
light as yet, which prove that the more weak
or sickly person is at all benefited by what
injures the healthier party.

If then, two clouds of diflferent electrical
states, can not approach each other without a
mutual change of conditions, and if a man, who
has an electrical state, natural and healthful
to him, comes near another in an unhealthful
state, it would seem demonstrative that harm,
by an unchangeable physical law, must fall to
the healthier, without benefiting the other;
and that sleeping together in the same bed, is
a certain injury, and ought to be avoided as
a habit, by every reflecting person, who is so
fortunate as to have the means of having a
**oom and a bed to himself. It certainly is
undeniable, that influences are exchanged, call
them what we may, which waste away the life

now TO SLEEP SOINDLY. Ill

of the child, and make it witlier tand wilt and
die, like a flower without water. The same
is true of tlie robust sleeping with the weakly ;
and the feeble sleeping with the strong. This
int(;rchange of influence from close associa-
tion, is such, that in the course of years,
the man and wife have been taken for brother
and sister. But it is a law of nature, enforced
by authority, human and divine, that kindred
shall not intermarry ; observation shows that
it detiiriorates the race morally, mentally, and
physically. This may point to the fact that
human health, that the perfection of our
physical nature, at least its preservation, is
dependent to a great extent on intermarriages
between persons who are at as great a remove
as possible from one another, and, we may say,
of electrical states, as different as possible. Ix
must be confessed that this is conjecture as
to the system, but the one fact is clear, that
sleeping together in the same bed is des-
tructive to health as between the old and the

112 SLEEP.

young, as between the well and the sick,
and we may infer as between persons of
(lifTeieat constitutions.

A beneficent Providence has wisely ordered
that the preservation and perpetuation of
the race should depend on the gratification
of certain appetites and propensities, and
that such gratifications should be pleasurable.
But a high wisdom dictates that these should
not be blunted by immoderate indulgence,
nor marred by too frequent repetition ; and it
should be remembered that they are all under
the same general laws, for infinite wisdom
avoids unnecessary complications and diversi-
ties. "Few and simple" may be considered
the description of all the regulations neces
sary for the preservation of corporeal man.
"Regularity and moderation" is written on
all that gives us pleasure, with a wise view
that it should wear out only with life, and
that at a good old age. The regulations
connected with eating, drinking, sleeping, etc.,

INSTINCT AND REASON. 113

are so much alike, the t.^mptations to over-
indulgence so conntant, the necessity of re-
straint so apparent, and the evils of excess
as to times and amounts, so much to be
dreaded, that a volume might be filled in
illustrating each. It may, however, suffice to
treat only of one or two, leaving it to the
intelligence and aptness of the reader to
make a general application, and thus much
time and space will be saved, while the
practical lessons will be equally valuable.

Instinct is given to the brute, but diviner
reason to man — the great end and aim of
both being the preservation and perpetuation
of the species of each. This instinct and
reason were implanted for the purpose of re-
gulating the enjoyment of those pleasures
which are wisely and benevolently made a
happiness and a necessity. Instinct leads the
brute to the indulgence of the appetites, and
how often and how much it shall eat and
drink and sleep is apportioned in a manner
10*

114 SLEKP.

which makes excess impracticable ; hence
there is a happy (^xi^mption from the mil-
lion forms of disease and pain and suffering
belonging to the lot of man. He was made
of a nobler njiture, and was treated as a
nobleman, in that he waa not bound down
to rules and regulations as inflexible as fet-
ters of brass, but was left to govern him-
self, to choose for himself, to act for him-
self, with the reward of elevation here, and
happiness hereafter, if he deported himself
well ; but y,'Iih the penalty of suffering and
death, physical and moral, if he failed to
practice a high and wise and dignified self-
restraint, the first element of which, as to
eating, drinking, and sleeping, is uniformity'.
A certain amount of sleep rests, renews, and
strengthens the whole man, but to accomplish
such a result, sleep must be regular. As to
what constitutes regularity, it is only neces-
sary to remark, that the general l\abit should
be to relire at the same hour in the early

now TO SLEEP SOUNDLY. 116

evening of every day. In a short time the
result will be an ability to go to sloop within
a few moments aftor retiring, and to sleep con-
tinuously until morning, provided the sleeper
leaves his bed at the moment he first wakes
up, and does not sleep during the day. In
this way sleep will be refreshing, will be de-
licious, and to the busy worker of brain or
body, will be worth more than silver or gold,
and this priceless habit of sleeping soundly
will be continued to a good old age.

It is in ore sense a daily miracle that a
man wakes up out of sleep ; the more it is
considered, the more wonderful will it ap-
pear. With a regularity of retiremert, and
arranging to guard against interruptions, na-
ture wakes us up the very moment the sys-
tem has had enough repose, the propensity
to sleep will come on within a few minutes
of the regular time, will grow stronger until
it is yielded to, and eventually will become
m a measure irresistible, or its resistance will

116 SLEEP.

be attended with great discomfort. Another
result will be that the body will wake up
from sleep within a few minutes of the same
point of time, from one month's end to an-
other, bein^i^ a little sooner or a little later,
making variations according to the tempera-
ture of the weather, the condition of the at-
mosphere, and the amount of the exercise of
the preceding day. Thus it is with other
desires of the animal nature. Let there be
an appointed time, not to be changed for
any common reason ; the feelings will come
at that appointed time, and when satisfied,
nature calls for no more until the appointed
time comes round again.

But suppose enoiigh sleep is not given.
Suppose we make an effort to rob nature of
her due allowance, madness, unending and
hopeless, is the result; if the curtailment is
not great, various degrees of debility and
wasting and decline come on apace.

Suppose, on the other hand, it is attempted

■"1

SLEEPING AND EATING COMPARED. 117

to force more sleep on nature than she re-
quires, it is an unnatural sleep, it does not
rest a:^id refresh and invigorate; and instead
of having more good sleep, the whole of it
is rcotless and disturbed, and we lose the
lusciousness of it all.

As to eating, there is a remarkable paral-
lel. If a man eats when he is decidedly
hungry, and at regular hours of the day, not
stimulating or teasing or tempting the appe-
tite by a great variety of food or otherwise,
he will be regularly hungry under ordinary
circumstances, will digest his food well, and
will not desire it especially, except at the
stated times.

If, on the other hand, the pppetite is
stimulated, if it is tempted, or if a person
places himself in a situation where food can
be had for the turning round, or for the
stretching out of the hand, and it is taken
when there is no special desire for it, and

118 SLEEP.

when the person would just as lief let it
alone as to take it, under these circumstances
a fictitious and an unnatural appetite will be
created, the digestion will be deranged, a de-
praved craving for food will be set up; but
no sooner is it swallowed, than some trouble-
some feeling will arise, only to be arrested
by another gratification ; and thuy the whole
life is a craving, an unsatisfied desire, and so
much of a burden that the predominating
wish is to die.

In this same manner have multitudes fallen
from high positions into degrading habits of
beastly intoxication, by allowing themselves
to have convenient drinks at hand, and at
first to taste them, not for any particular re-
lish, but just tO be doing something; and
having no regular hours for drink, and no
regular quantity, an unnatural desire springs
up, a steady craving is generated, increasing
in its remorselessness day by day, until there

REGULARITY OF GRATIFICATION^ 119

is no happiness but in constant indulgence,
when at length even that ceases to satisfy,
•5,' 1 life is a torture.

The appetites, tlen, are to be gratiiSed at
stated times, and at none others; they are
not to be teased or tempted or stimulated by
always having at hand the facilities for grati-
fication, but kept in abeyance for fixed oc-
casions; those occasions being determined at
first by the decided calls of nature, which
will then be made regularly, moderately, and
continuously, to the end of life. -> ; i c

But if the means of gratification are kept
at hand, if the mind is permitted to rest on
them and cherish them, to look forward to
them, to tempt and tease and worry, the in-
evitable result will be a morbid appetite, p
voracious craving never to be satisfied, ener^
gies wasted, powers prostrated, and an early
and irretrievable decay, inducing, in a greater
multitude of cases than one in many would
iraagina, a depressed and soured life, and a

'" • r

120 SLEEP.

miserable suicide's grave. If the victim sur-
vives incessant tortures, life is but a drawn-
out agony. Inordinate indulgence wastes
away the physical constitution, the influence
of which is perpetuated to all that is born
of it; throwing around the hapless victim
the slimy coils of a boa-constrictor, which
are tightened pitilessly every day, until health
and hope, and life itself, mortal and im-
mortal, are crushed out helplessly and for-
ever.

What is said of real but unlawful indulgen-
ces, is true of all forms of the artificial ; and ex-
cesses in the lawful are not the less pernicious,
are not the less destructive of body and health,
and heart and soul, than are excesses in the un-
natural and the unlawful ; and in this state-
ment there is a lesson of the very highest prac-
tical importance to every reader ; hence, one of
the grounds for the pains taken in these pages
to convince the understanding, that as to the
appetites of our nature, barriers should be op-

RESTRAINT OF APPETITES. 121

posed to the too inordinate and too facile op-
portunities of gratification ; and that as to
them all, there should be such metes and
bounds as the nobler reason may indicate, and
as observation and experience may show are
proper, healthful and safe. Without wise re-
straints, as exp3rienced physicians well know,
effects, unsuspected by the sufferers themselves,
or by their friends, are sometimes induced,
which have a deplorable influence on mind and
body; as to the latter, wearing it away into
hopeless emaciation and decline ; and as to the
mind, inducing an exaggeration of many of the
most undesirable characteristics of our nature ;
it becomes unsteady, vacillating, fretful, mo-
rose and suspicious ; self-respect and self-esteem
are lost ; an intolerable depression weighs down
the whole man ; hope, and desire, and ambition
fail, and relief is madly sought in suicide, the
sorrowful verdict being, "Died by his own
hand ;" a verdict rendered, oftener than many

122 SLEEP.

think for, over the doubly dishonored body;
dishonored in the manner of the death, and
more deeply still by the degrading causes of it.
Such being some of the results of over-indul-
gences, thoughtful persons naturally seek for
some rule of guidance, and we are not left
without an index, without some friendly line
of right and safety. Kevelation seems to mark
out that line, interposes a mete and bound, de-
cides the measure of our gratifications in the
comprehensive expressions : " Be ye temperate
in all things." " Let your moderation be
known to all." If this temperance is not ob-
served, if this moderation is not practiced habit-
ually, persistently, and with a wise, noble, he-
roic self-denial, the penalty will not fail to be
inflicted, pleasure will first lose its keenness,
next, it will pall upon the senses, and ultimate-
ly fail. In one direction, the power of sleep
has been lost ; in another, the appetite for food
has been lost ; and the person becomes the vie-

EXTINCTION OF FAMILY NAMES. . 123

tim of ills, physical, mental and moral, which
make of life a crushing burden, a miserable
failure, and a continual curse.

It is to the excessive indulgence of the appe-
tite which leisure and easy opportunity affords
in large cities, that family names die out so
soon. It is rare in Paris, that the grand-child
reaches manhood in vigorous health, if at all,
whose parents and grand-parents were bom,
and lived, and died in that voluptucas capital.
The rapid disappearance of family names which
were prominent and numerous in New -York in
the beginning of the present century, shows
that the greatest city in the New "World is not
behind the greatest of the Old, in the respect
named ; not owing wholly, it is true, to extrav-
agant indulgences, but largely owing to that,
beyond contradiction. .'..•;>

In every direction, idleness and opportunity
have led multitudes every where, in the city
and in the country, to brutalize themselves.
For example, one very common cause of some

124 . SLEEP.

of the worst forms of dyspeptic disease, is the
not being particularly engaged, while at the
same time, some inviting article of food is at
hand, in the same room. This has been al-
ready referred to ; it is the same in relation to
drink, and every other form of indulgence, and
there is no safety against any of them, but in
the interposition of efficient barriers to too
facile gratifications, and the more of these a
man can erect, the safer will he be, and thoy
are wisest, who use all means for the purpose
which can even slightly aid in accomplishing
the desired result.

The reflecting reader can here form the re-
quisite rules of action ; the first great laws be-
ing regularity and temperance ; the latter being
promoted by not having at hand the easy op-
portunity of indulgence ; by putting temptation
out of the way ; by cultivating an active and
fully occupied life, and by not making it his
chief aim and end, to eat, and drink, and enjoy
the pleasures which perish in the moment of

AVOIDING TEMPTATION. 126

their using, but to live for the high and absorb-
ing purpose of human elevation, and of achiev-
ing an immortal existence beyond the present
scenes. Sight, and propinquity, and touch,
hriu^ wants which otherwise would not have
sprung up, wants which grow, and strengthen,
and overpower, until reason and common-sense
are swept away as with a flood, and the reign
of unrestraint sets in, to the end of a complete
brutalization ; and to prevent such results, or
any approach to them, the expedient of the
book is proposed, as offering a comparatively
easy remedy ; for a quaint writer says : " When
a man has once got into the rapids of Niagara,
the next thing he will do, will be to go over
the Falls. Having once got in, there is no pos-
sibility of getting out. The way for him to
escape going over, is not to get into the rapids.
When a man has once put a spark to powder,
he need not clap his hand upon it to keep it
from going off. It will do no good. The only
way for him to keep it from going off, is to

II*

123 SLEEP.

keep the spark away from it. Many men can
let the cup alone if they keep away from it ;
who can not, if they go where it is. Many
men can abstain from lust, if they do not go
within the circuit of its malaria, who can not
free themselves from it, after they have once
become infected by it. Many men can control
their temper, so long as they avoid every thing
calculated to arouse it, who have no power
over it, after it has once become aroused.
Many of our dispositions must be taker care
o:^ beforehand, not » ..;rwards. And when
they have led us into wrong courses, our error
consists, not in the fact that we could not keep
ourselves, but in the fact, that we did not learn
enough about ourselves to know that some
parts of our nature were not to be exposed;
that some parts of our nature must be carried
with watching, with vigilant forelooking."
The great principle is well put here, that to
avoid excesses, we must not put ourselves in
the way of a too ei^iy indulgence of what is al-

' EFFECT OF EXCESSES. 127

lowable. If all the evils which arise fronx any
kind of over-indulgence, ended in the persons
who practice them, it would be, comparatively
speaking, a happy thing ; but they are far-reach-
ing in their pernicious influences ; they extend
beyond those who practice them, and are car- ^
ried into the ages to come, destined to be a
blight on generations yet unborn.

All excesses beget debility of the organs
connected with them, and these organs, whether
they be the lungs, the stomach, the liver, or
any others, will always, under this excessive
action or stimulation, prepare a vitiated, im-
perfect material, diseased and monstrous, ac-
cording to circumstances. Hence the multi-
tude of weakly, sickly, puny persons, in every
direction ; muscles flabby, bones slight, face
wan, gait unstable, and the whole " physique "
an abortion. As to the moral nature, there
is a blight over it all — a wanting to be some-
thing, without an ability to be any thing— fickle,
wayward and unfixed; while in another di-

128 BLEEP.

rection, there are low inclinations^ vicioTiS ten*
doncies, degrading practices, and a general
lack of all that is high, and noble, and ele-
vating. As to the mind of those begotten in
brutalizing indulgences, it is without strength,
without persistence of purpose, and without
either the capacity or the desire for high cul-
ture and exalted aims. Thus the whole na-
ture, physical, moral and mental, is a blight,
a blot, a blank.

That the characteristics of the future being,
in body, and brain, and heart, are colored by
those of the parents, which prevail about the
time of reproduction, is conceded by scientific
men, and demonstrated by facts. A Massa*
chusetts state paper, on "Lunacy," reports
that four fifths of the idiotic children, were
those of parents one or both of whom, lived
in habits of drunkenness — indicating that
children begotten in the stupor of debauch,
will have a vacuity of mind for life. On the
other hand, it is known that the mother of

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION. 129

the first Napoleon, for months before he
was born, acconpanied her soldier husband
in his martial expeditions, and traversed the
country side by side with him on horseback,
thus sharing in all his toils. Hannah of old,
conceived and carried Samuel, while her
whole nature was imbued Tivith a deep reli-
gious devotion, under the influence of which
she consecrated the future piophet to the
supreme service of his Maker. It would
seem, then, to be a wise forethought, that
perpetuation should be accomplished under
favoring conditions of mind and body ; the lat-
ter in high health, invigorated by a regular,
unbroken and refreshing sleep, the blood all
pure, by an eight or ten hours' breathing of
fresh, luscious, life-giving air ; while the former,
fully aroused to a sense of high responsibili-
ties, the heart and affections, at the same time,
loving and pure, would present a combina-
tion of desirable circumstances, which could
not possibly be hoped for in any other way

180 SLEEP.

than by the expedient which the idea of
the book proposes, whereby every thing
could be made a subject of deliberate, thought-
ful, and rational calculation, and surprise, in
moments of mental, moral and physical un-
fitness, would be impossible.

BUSINESS AND SLEEP.

It will not be denied that a night of sound,
undisturbed sleep,, is essential to bodily com-
fort for the next day, and quite as essential
in its renovating influences on the brpin, for
the proper discharge of the business duties
of each; and it can not be gainsaid that
separate apartments greatly proi^ote this end.

To provide well for the family, is the first
social duty, and it is the absorbing aim of
every intelligent and affectionate parent. Such
provision falls mainly on the father, and it is
of primary importance that when he comes
home from the labors of the day, he should
be able to retire early, and remain undisturbed

BROKEN SLEEP PERNICIOUS. 181

until the morning, that fully refreshed and
invigoratad as to body and mind, he may be
placed in the most advantageous position
possible, for the exhibition of that activity
and alacrity which are essential to business
success. That in moments of weakness, in-
attention, or want of concentration, men have
made mistakes, have fallen into errors of
judgment foreign to their general character,
by which fortune, and perhaps position too,
have been compromised, and their families
brought to subsequent deprivation and actual
d'^stitution, will not be disputed. That there
were causes for such transient mental weak
ness, is just as true, and that want of suffi-
cient rest and sleep is an adequate cause, is
patent to all. Certain it is, that battles have
been lost, and the fate of nations decided, for
less causes than the want of a good night's
sleep. In order to secure this to business
men and to laboring men, to the fullest ex-
tent, they should have rooms, or at least

132 SLEEP.

beds, to themselves It is of importance,
also, to the wife, but not to so great an extent,
because she is always at home, and if her
sleep is interrupted from any cause during
the night, she can take it in the daytime;
but the husband is at his business, and it is
impracticable. In very many cases, house-
hold duties may not allow the wife to retire
at an early hour. Ten, eleven, and even
twelve o'clock finds some of them barely
able to complete their daily round of duties,
in consequence, however — ^in too many cases
— of the inexcusable habit of remaining in
bed during the precious hours of the early
morning. But be that as it may, whether
it is actually necessary or not, the effect is the
; same, to wit, to disturb the sleeper in the first
■ sleep, preventing falling asleep again, in many
persons, for hours afterwards — ^valuable hours
utterly wasted. And as similar results occur
• to both parents, while infant children are
growing up, it is in place to propose some

INFANTS SLEEPING. 183

rules in reference to the same; this is espe-
cially desirable for the mother's sake first, and
that of the child itself, also ; for if she has
her rest broken, it has a most debilitating
effect on the body, anr". causes great mental
irritability or depression, all of which react
on the body and mind of the child through
its natural aliment, and in other ways.

It may be proper, for the first month
or two, that the child should sleep in the
same bed with its mother, but ailer that,
both will be greatly benefited by separate
beds. An infant should not be allowed to
sleep for several hours previous to its bed-
time, which should be about one hour after
sun-down, when it should be fed and put
to sleep. When the mother retires, it
should be fed again, then if the crib be
on the same level with the bed, and close
to it wif\ the side ?et down, the mother
can place the child in it without straining
herself. At the end of several hours, hun-

184 SL£KP.

ger will wake it up, when it can be
nursed replaced in its crib and sleep souDd-
\y until the morning, if it has not been
allowed to sleep too long or too late in
the afternoon, and thus afford the wearied
mother a delicious night's rest, to arise in
the morning with a renovated system, re-
freshed, thankful, and hopeful, and ready to
enter on the duties of the day with a
light and cheerful heart. On the other
hand, in consequence of bad management
and a want of system as to the times of
eating and sleeping for the nursling, and by
keeping it in the same bed with her, it be-
comes restless, it wakes up a dozen times
perhaps in a night, and each time, by some
noise or motion rouses the mother, with the
result of depriving her of that rest and re-
pose which she so much requires, and the
morning finds the body still weary, the
mind discouraged and depressed, totally
unfitted for the proper discharge of house-

NURSING AT NIGUT. 135

hold duties, as is too plainly indicated by
the expression of listlessness and sadness
which pervade the features. Indeed, a
mother can better afford to eat too little
than to sleep too little, but by arranging to
liave the regularities named carried out for
several nights in succession, there will be a
happy change in all respects. When a child
is six months old, it can safely fest five or
six hours if asleep, and, as before, if fed a
little before sun-down, it shomld be put to
bed a little later, and not be allowed to
take any thing more until the mother retires
for the night, which may be about ten
o'clock, and if nursed then, it need not be
repeated until the morning, thus allowing
the mother to have her " first" sleep unin-
terrupted, a consummation so earnestly de-
sired by many an overtaxed wife, but which
she is imable to arrange for want of a lit-
tle thought, firmness and management. The
reader is earnestly requested to make par-

136 SLEEP.

ticular note of it, tliat the seeds of a life-
time suffering, if not an early death, are
sown in the constitutions of children by
their own mothers during the nursing pe-
riod. Millions of children die before they
are two years old, by a wrong system of
feeding, originating in the ignorance of the
parents. The instinct and the highest plea-
sure of the new-born child is to eat, it is
the balm for all its cries, it hushes every
complaint. The young mother soon finds
this out, and putting it to the breast is the
panacea for infant fretfulness. But it soon
happens that the stomach is overtaxed. A
second feeding occurs before the first has
been disposed of, the stomach is thus kept
working all the time, and soon has not the
strength to work any longer, and the food
being unactod upon, begins to ferment, turns
sour, generates wind and this is the "colic"
of infancy. Colic gives pain, pain excites
crying, to quiet which, food is given, or

FEDDING OF INFANTS. 187

"soothing" syrups are administered, with the
inevitable result in all cases, of exaggerating
the trouble sooner or later ; and in countless
instances, there is a speedy and entire break-
ing down of the system, and death ends the
outrage, as to the child, but in the mean
while, by reason of the child's sufferings,
many a night has been passed in sleepless-
ness by both parents. Under such circum-
stances, separate chambers are a necessity, so
that at least one of them may have the
repose so much needed in the increased de-
mands of the occasion. Under the circum-
stances, it is fitting here to append a few
remarks, as a means of avoiding nightly
disturbances, on the

FEEDING- OF INFANTS. 7

For the first few weeks the child may
be nursed every two hours, at the beginning
of the third week every three hours. When
six months old, no good purpose can be

12*

188 SLEEP.

subserved by feeding a child oftener than
every four hours, and never between. Hence
if fed at sun-down when it it should be put
to bed for the night, then fed again when
the mother retires four hours later, she will
not be waked during the first sleep which
does so much good, and only once during
the night, and long before the child is two
years old, she will have brought it into the
habit of not requiring food during the whole
night, a consummation which many a mother
has earnestly looked for, but not knowing
how to bring it about, has fallen into irregu-
larities of nursing, which in the way already
described, have entailed life-long injuries,
physical, mental and social.

DIFFERENT TEMPERAMENTS
SLEEPINa TOGETHER.

It is a well-known fact that some persons
require more bed-clothing than others; one
feels so much oppressed as not to be able

CHILDREN SLEEPINa TOGETHER. 139

to sleep witli an amount of covering which
leaves another in so chilly a condition as to
make refreshing sleep an impossibility. A
high hard bolster is essential to the com-
fort of one, while another is incommoded
by a slight elevation of the head during
sleep. There are cases not a few where
one person can not sleep with a window up
without especial bodily suffering for some
time afterwards ; others feel as if they would
suffocate, or are in a process of certain
poisoning, unless the windows are hoisted to
their fullest capacity for the admission of
an abundant supply of out-door air. In all
these varieties of cases, there does not ap-
pear to be a better and an easier remedy
than that of separate beds and rooms for

CHILDREN SLEEPING- TOO-ETHER.

As soon as children reach their seventh
year, various good purposes would be sub-
served by their sleeping apart; indeed, the

140 SliEEP.

neglect of this arrangement lias chenshed
feelings, and has ultimately led to early
vicious practices, alike destructive of the
health of the body and the purity of the
heart — to become, years before adolescence is
passed, a source of physical and mental
maladies sometimes, from which death itself
is a welcomed deliverance.

Here, a branch of the subject opens a
field of investigation at once wide and im-
portant, but one which requires so much
judgment in the handling, that it is a
debatable question, whether or not it should
be left unexplored. Some have treated the
subject, but with such want of discretion^
that Carpenter, of England, one of the best
physiologists of the age, hesitatingly records
his opinion and regret at the evil tenden-
cies of the publications made.

During the later "teens" of youtli, cer-
tain debilitating occurrences take place in
the early morning hours in the rather un-

MORNING EXHAUSTIONS. 141

Bound or dreamy sleep which precedes the
waking up, which, if allowed to continue
unchecked, waste away the vigor and flesh and
strength of the body, eventually impairing
the mind itself, causing an unaccountable
depression of spirits, a distressing nervous-
ness which declines sometimes into a settled
stupor or deplorable idiocy ; others again
become furious maniacs, according to the
various constitutions and temperaments of
the persons affected.

This malady does not occur to all young
or unmarried persons by any means, but it
does afflict many to a greater or less ex-
tent ; not especially hurtful to any, if it does
not occur oflener than two or three times
a month ; that much is perhaps a necessity ;
beyond that, it soon becomes a disease, with
the manifestations already described. -

These occurreaces take place as a result
of nature's exuberance, or as a consequence
of practices, of the ill effects Df which,

142 SLEEP,

those who engage in them, are most profound-
ly unconscious. These effects are sometimes
traced to their legitimate causes by those
who are unusually bright or thoughtful,
the practices are at once abandoned, and the
effects cease to be observed to any special-
ly hurtful extent. But multitudes of the
young never have the practices nor the de-
plorable results presented to their minds as
cause and effect, and hence they continue
the practices, and thus aggravate the eflfects,
atil the bodily and mental condition are
alike pitiable and deplorable. Many parents
who have grown up virtuously, witness with
deep concern the pallid faces of once ruddy
children, the trembling fingers, the averted
eye, the thinned flesh, and the melancholy
features; on inquiry, the feet are cold, the
limbs weak, the body chilly, the appetite
indifferent, the general system irregular, and
pictures of a deep decline, wake up the af-
fections in the deepest alarm; but. nothing ia

TUE UNrORTUNATE. 148

oomp lined of; there is no pain, no suffering,
while both parent and child may be alike
unconscious of the existence of the causes
of such effects ; and while they are hoping
for a change for the better to take place,
for the renovating influences of the gladden-
ing spring-time, or the bracing power of
the coming fall, the malady may have run
on to a condition irremediable, and the
victim passes to the mad-ho\ist or to the
grave.

The writer knew a gentleman of wealth,
who had two sons ; the elder was sent to a
distant institution of learning at the age of
eighteen years. He was a youth of manly
bearing and of high promise. His attain-
ments were unusual for one of his age ; an
estate was coming to him at his majority,
which would yield him a revenue of twenty -
three thousand dollars a year. His health
bgaeii to dechne. Th., was traced to prac

144 SLEEP.

tices into which, he had been inveigled of
which no one could know any thing but
himself. He was ignorant of their tenden-
cies, and continued them until the morning
debilitations became a drain so exhaustive
to the vital powers, that he grew pale
and thin and nervous. In a few months
his bodily elasticity was gone. In place of
the habitual court3sy, the high-bred deport-
ment, and the joyous abandon which onc«
characterized him in a remarkable decree,
there was a listlesness of demeanor, a slov-
enliness of person and dress, with a settled
shade of deep melancholy. A mental de-
pression seized upon him, which it seemed
impossible to remove by the amusements
and diversions which commonly have great
attractions for the young. In short, he be-
came idiotic eventually, lost the power of
speech, and now for nineteen years has not
uttered a single word, nor is it at all like-

EFFECTS OF BAD HABITS. 145

ly that he ever will, although thousands are
spent every year in vain efforts for his re-
storation.

Some by the same means fall into con-
sumptive disease and die in a few years ; others
become insane, and spend their weary lives in
a lunatic asylum, or, in a moment of frenzied
delirium, end their tortures and their exist-
ence by a suicide's guilty hand. Standard
medical books abound in such deplorable
narrations, but no public good could arise
from varied repetitions. The causes and the
consequences are the same, and the end
uniformly deplorable. A very common cause
is allowing children to sleep together, and
when once the practices are commenced, sleep-
ing together nourishes and cherishes them
until they become an unquenchable rnd an
unappeasable pleasure. There are, however,
some so pure-minded, who have been so
well brought up by worthy mothers, in being
kept away from evil associations, that they

146 SLEEP.

have never learned the pernicious lessons,
and learning them intuitively i^ a bare proba-
bility. One of the very best safeguards, in
this direction, is never to allow your own
children to sleep with the children of others,
even for a portion of a single night. Your
neighbor may be as pure and blameless as
yourself, but never having had the attention
directed to the point in question, may have
been remiss in the matter of her children's
associations, or may have had an overweening
confidence in their correctness, by which the
taint may have been introduced, and may have
grown into a settled habit without any concep-
tion of its existence ever having entered the
imagination. >

Whi sleeping together generally founds
the habits in question, on the part of children
and youth, sleeping alone affords the amplest
opportunity of unbridled indulgence. Hence,
if parents observ^ a decided manifestation of
symptoms which have been enumerated, very

CORRECTING BAD HABITS. 147

especially if connected witli a seeking for
solitude, with a desire to be alone, and sleep
alone, the best means for ascertaining certainly
that such habits exist, and at the same time,
without wounding the self-respect, is 'o occupy
the same bed for several nights in succession,
in wakefulness, and the manifestations will be
made in a most unmistakable manner, either
as to the habits or the exhaustions. It is
barely possible that a week shall pass without
such exhibition. In either case, take your
child into your confidence, and without blame
or accusation, without any charge of crimi-
nality, but in an incidental and affectionate
manner, say : " My child, I noticed something
last night not uncommon with youth, and as
you may not know the nature of it, perhaps
it might be best for me to tell you all about
it, because sometimes persons become deranged
by it, or kill themselves." Then make the
communication in such a way that your child
aiav not feel like a criminal, and at the same
time, may be deeply impressed with the nature

148 SLEEP.

of the results which will follow a continuance
of the practice. If the exhaustions occur
without any connection with the practices,
as is the case in multitudes of instances, from
an exuberance of nature's fires, and hence
without an iota of blame to the subject of
them, or whether they have arisen from the
practices in question, the remedy is the same,
which is to adopt such means as will most
effectually break up the occurrences, which
can be done with comparative ease when the
parent and the child work together, without
there being any necessity of calling in a
physician, which would be more or less em-
barrassing to all parties.

In using the methods about to be proposed,
it is again particularly urged, as an important
means of arriving more speedily at valuable
practical results, that parents take special pains
to show that they do not regard these things as
degrading, as the result of criminal influences ;
for they are not so, necessarily, but simply as
an exuberance of nature or of health, over

BOOKS ON "physiology." 149

which the party affected has no control. It
will have a good influence in every way, to
let it be seen that it is regarded simply as an
attack of illness, such as bilious fever, rheu-
matism, neuralgia, and the like. In this
manner, the self-respect of the party is not
wounded, and the way is opened for con-
fidences and the interchange of affectionate
sympathies, as in the case of other sicknesses,
between parents and children, with the result
that the means employed will be undertaken
with a spirit and hopefulness which would
not exist under other circumstances. ■""^

It may be proper here to advise parents of
the existence of books of a vile character,
which are scattered broadcast over the land,
under various names, but the general term,
'Physiology," is used to designate them.
Under the pretense of explaining the physiolo-
gy of the parts implicated, the passions and the
curiosity are stimulated by illustrations and de-
*K)riptions, and plates which no person of pro-

13*

150 SLEEP.

per self-respect would ever be seen examining,
and which can not possibly fail of having a
corrupting and a degrading influence. The
reading of such books is fraught with unmixed
evil. The first design is to effect a sale of the
book, the next is to mislead the reader, to work
upon the fears, under the guise of " frankness,"
and "humanity," and when the mind is
wrought up to a pitch of frenzied terror of im-
possible things, to propose " a remedy efficient
and certain in all cases, by reason of the fact
that the writer has had a life-time's experience
and success, his studies having led him to in-
vestigations and remedies, in the prosecution
of which a fortunate accident led to a series
of discoveries of incalculable value, and that
out of sympathy for the misfortunes of the
young, this mode of living usefully has present-
ed itself."

Sometimes, a man constitutes himself a " So-
ciety,'' under some other taking designation,
"Benevolent," "Humanitarian," and the like,

IMPOSITIONS. 151

and advertisements, carefully worded, contain-
ing expressions of great charity and disinterest-
edness, are scattered every where, carrying
with them influences and results of a most de-
plorable character. The young are lured by
them, first to apply for a circular or a book,
sent, sometimes, absolutely free of all cost, with
the expectation, but too frequently realized,
that the next thing will be an application for
advice. The symptoms are inquired for, then
comes a letter enlarging upon the " very dan-
gerous character of the case, but that, possibly,
by prompt and very close attention, the evil
may be warded off, although it will necessarily
be very expensive."

Let it suffice to say, that city physicians are
constantly applied to, anonymously, for advice.
The general tenor of the letter is, after express-
ing, in the most lively terms, the mortification
and self-abasement felt, with the strongest self-
accusatory confessions, to say that having ex-
pended ten, fifty, a hundred dollars, and some-

152 BLEEP.

times several hundred, in taking medicines of
some individual or society, they find that, if
benefited at all, it was but transiently, and that
their troubles have returned. But while in
correspondence with their wily advisers, great
care was taken by them to impress on the
mind of their victim the disreputable nature
of the ailment, to the following result, in cases
not a few: Means have been devised by the
victims to procure money in an unauthorized
manner ; how many " tills " of employers have
been invaded; how many parental treasuries
have been surreptitiously depleted ; how many
false representations of needs have been prefer-
red to indulgent and confiding parents, may
never be known; but that these things have
been done on an extensive scale, and that it
has been the first step towards actual crime in
many a youth, only ending in the penitentiary
or the gallows, is certainly true; and that
the number is multitudinous, can not be rea-
sonably questioned for a moment. It could

THE WILES OF DECEIVERS. 168

not be otherwise; the youth is alarmed, and
sensitive as the young are to such develop-
ments, it is not wonderful that their brains are
literally racked with devices to procure the
ways and means for meeting the remorseless
demands of the "practitioners" named; and
that those who have no means of making
or earning money, should resort to subterfuges,
and to untruthful representations, or to conduct
actually criminal, in order to raise the requisite
amount, requires no special stretch of the imag-
ination to conjecture. Hence, the judicious use
of the suggestions of these pages may save,
and will save many a youth from a fate worse
than that of death itself. . . " . i • . j /

These pernicious books, with a great show of
frankness, give various formulas for making the
requisite medicines to be taken ; but these are,
for the most part, known to be inert. This is
adroitly done, for the victim in all cases will cer-
tainly try what can be done, in the hope of avoid-
ing the necessity of a confession or exposure, or

154 SLEEP.

the payment of a considerable fee. When, how*
ever, the means prescribed fail, the next impres-
sion is that it must be a very aggravated and
threatening case, and at once the way is pre-
pared for a consultation and the subsequent de-
mand for a high fee.

Let it be distinctly remembered there is no
absolute cure for the exhaustions in question
short of marriage, old age, or death. There
are some remedies which repress them while
they are taken, and for a short time after, but
the trouble returns, and with it the necessity
for renewed applications for advice and reme-
dies, and with them renewed extortions.

No medicines should ever be used by the
persons themselves, on their own judgment and
responsibility ; nor should they be advised by
any but the educated physician. Hence, there
will be proposed in these pages only such
remedial and moral means as can be employed
with perfect safety and with an infallible good
efifect, more or less decided, according to the

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS. 165

fidelity with which they are attended to, and
according to the force of character and will of
the person employing them. ^*

Let it be remembered that these early morn-
ing exhaustions often arise in debility, without
any other cause, as swollen feet and ankles
arise from debility from various causes, and do
not exist of themselves as an evidence of the
last stages of consumption, although it is a
symptom which generally attends the last stages
of that disease, but it is not a " sign" of it,
for it exists in other cases of debilitating dis-
ease when the lungs are not at all consumptive.
The occurrences in question, when excessive,
are of themselves simply a "sign" of debility,
but greatly aggravate it, and thus they react
on one another. Debility produces them, they
increase the debility, and in process of time a
single occurrence so depresses mind and body,
that for hours and even days afterward, the
mind is utterly incapable of concentrating it-
self properly on any business, while the body

166 SLEEP.

is absolutely unfit for any efficient ciuployment,
except at a sacrifice of its well-being.

But there is another enormity to which at-
tention is specially invited. The remedies em-
ployed, which are repressive, are believed by
many intelligent medical practitioners to be
hurtful if injudiciously used ; that is, used too
largely, or too long ; hurtful to the extent of a
lifelong disablement; and it is easy to con-
ceive that a young or inexperienced, or reck*
less, or unprincipled practitioner may be tempt-
ed, by a variety of selfish considerations, or be
led by actual incapacity, to employ these medi-
cines to the hurtful extent named. Nor is this
all. In the event of failure of success, men
have been found vile enough to advise as the
only means of cure, when marriage was imprac-
ticable, unlawful associations, which is but the
opening of the flood-gates of vice, leading to
the ruin of all that is noble and virtuous and
pure ; and how greedily the mind would lay
bold of the excuse of the necessity of the

UNLAWFUL INDULGENCES. 157

thing, backed by the counsels of a medical
adviser, all heedless of the utter selfishness of
an act which brings a mere conjectural good to
self, at the expense of an irreparable ruin to
another 1 No one, it is repeated, can fail to see
how willingly the mind would lay hold on such
an apology as a satisfactory reason for greedily
embracing the tempting alternative. It was in
this connection that one of the most eminent
medical writers has expressed his "regrets to
be obliged to remark that some recent works
which have issued from the medical press, con-
tain much that is calculated to excite, rather
than to repress the propensity, and that the
advice sometimes given by practitioners to their
patients is immoral ns well as unscientific."
And it may be said without exaggeration, that
of all the rash and reckless and demented (for
the time being) creatures in the universe, the
greatest, the highest in the scale is the person
who allows a single indulgence out of honor-
able and legalized wedlock; for one error in
14

168 SLEEP.

this direction is but the opening of flooc! -gates
as resistless as an Alpine avalanche ; it is the
lighting np of desires as unsatisfiable and as
remorseless as the Norwegian Maelstrom. And
not only so, a single error, committed in a
much briefer time than is sufficient to express
the sentiment, has been followed, in literally
millions of cases, by the most revolting of hu-
man maladies, which, when even cur^d as far
as external indications are concerned, still bur-
rows in the system, poisoning the whole blood,
and liable at any time to break out again like
the smothered fires of a hatch closed ship, to
eat the flesh away, rottening even the bones,
until life becomes a drawn-out torture. And
in all cases when the system has been once im-
pregnated with the virus, it never being eradi-
cated, however perfect the health may seem to
be, the effects are perpetuated to the offspring,
to grow up with a worm at the root of life, a
p ison at the fountains of health, which sends
out disease to every fiber of the system, cor

nOKIlOIlS OF INFECTION. 159

rui^ting tlie blood and vitiuting the whole
hody to such an extent, that it never knows an
hour of pure health during its entire existence,
although it may drag itself in weariness to the
verge of three-score yearo and ten, literally
years of sorrow and suffering 1 Such are some
of the dangers to which the young are deliber-
ately counseled to expose themselves, in the
numberless cases where the medical adviser
finds that all his vaunted remedies fail of even
a temporary cure, and in recklessness and des-
peration, he counsels the passing of the Rubi-
con, with the results to the victim just de-
scribed. And that under the circumstances,
and with these views, which are true without
exaggeration, it is the duty of every parent to
know the position of his child in these regards,
can not for one single moment be questioned
by any rational mind.

Sometimes mc, inical devices are employ-
ed, which, while they are grounds for greater

160 SLEEP.

chai'ges, do but increase the mischief in the
end, although their certain efficiency and their
harmlessness are insisted upon with the most
plausible arguments imaginable. " Eings "
have been used to a great extent. Enlarge-
ment always precedes an exhaustion, which
occurs in a state of unsound slumber, early in
the morning, when the sleep is nearly out and
very little suffices to waken up ; if the sleeper
is wakened up, the thing is avoided. The
ring interferes with the enlargement, and causes
pain, and this pain wakens up. But, suppose
the sleep to be so sound that there is no
waking up, this mechanical interruption of
the flow of the blood being still applied, there
may be a rupture of important blood-vessels,
of internal arteries, causing life-long and irre-
parable injuries, if not death itself, for any
one knows that if the blood be too long
arrested in its flow at any point in the body,
it must result in dangerous congestions, or in

PERNICIOUS INSTRUMENTS. 161

depriving the part of its natural amount of
nourishment, which if continued, must result
in its disability or death.

But the wise physiologist will see in an
instant, that while its immediate efficiency is
undoubted, its ultimate result can only be to
increase the evil labored against — thus : during
the night water always accumulates in the
bladder, and with this, there is the double
stimulus of heat and distention, occasioning
an increased flow of blood to the parts, which
of itself is a powerful excitant ; and this blood
being detained by the ring, feeds and prolongs
the excitemenf, intensifies it, and hence its
inevitable effect is to aggravate the very
trouble striven against. In process of time,
however, the parts become accustomed to the
presence of the ring, become callous to the
waking-up pain which was occasioned by it,
and it is powerless to waken up any more,
hence it is utterly useless, but in the mean

14*

162 SLEEP.

time its employment has generated a habit of
increased flow of blood to the parts, and with
it, an increase in the frequency of the debilita-
tions, and the body is left helpless against its
destroyer.

In all these cases there is a want of vigorous
general health, and the very first step, as well
as one of the most indispensable, is the em-
ployment of means for its improvement, for
the very essence of the ailment is debility,
which debility it increases, and thus they feed
on one another, and grow in power while the
body weakens and wilts away under the
malign influence. The strictest personal
cleanliness must be observed. The whole
body shoulc. be scrubbed with a brush, soap
and warm water, once a week at bed-time,
with a cold instantaneous shower-bath im-
mediately after, which shower-bath should be
repeated every morning, whether in winter or
summer, the very firsu thing after getting out

EATING REGULARLY. 163

of bed, the whole operation to be completed
within five minutes ordinarily, and in
winter, within two minutes, if practicable.

Next to personal cleanliness, is the necessity
of eating, regularly and temperatciy, plain,
nourishing, well-cooked, unstimulating food,
using absolutely nothing as a beverage or a
drink, but cold water, and that not in quan-
tities greater than an ordinary tea-cupful at
meal-times, and none within an hour after
eating; at other times, as much cold water
may be drank as the appetite calls for. If a
person is easily chilled, or has not much
stamina, it would be better to take, in place
of a half-glass of cold water at meal-time, a
tea-cupful of hot milk and water, with or
without sugar.

Nothing whatever should be eaten between
meals under any pretense whatever. Break-
fast should be made of the drink above named,
with cold or well-toasted bread and butter and
baked apples, and nothing else, except, as an

164 SLEEP.

occasional substitute, one or two soft-boiled
eggs, or some fish, or a piece of well-broiled
fresh meau of any kind. Dinner, take what-
ever the appetite calls for, of plain food,
without sauces or spices or condiments of any
kind, using as a dessert baked or stewed or
ripe apples, or in their place — ^in their season,
— melons, berries, oranges and the like. Sup-
per, that is, the last meal of the day, should
be taken not later than an hour after sun-down,
and should consist of nothing but some cold
bread and butter with a cup of hot milk and
water. An arrangement of this kind will
seldom fail, within a week, of causing a vigor-
ous appetite for breakfast and dinner, while
by taking but little supper, the stomach is
allowed to rest while the other part of the
body is doing the same thing, and more undis-
turbed and refreshing sleep is a natural con-
sequence.

To promote the restoration to more vigorous
health still further, two or three hours in the

OUT-DOOR ACTIVITIES. 165

forenoon and one or two in the afternoon
should be spent in the open out-door air, in
moderate bodily activities, in some employment
which involves muscular motion, and if com-
bined with mental interest of a pleasurable
character, so much the better. Very little
good need be anticipated from mere mechan-
ical exercise, which involves no other interest
than that of accomplishing a specified amount ;
the mind should be engaged, not merely
pleasurably, but in a manner which shall in-
terest it, to the extent of calling out its power
in some degree, and thus diverting it from the
intention of the thing, as well as from the
bodily conditions, which these exercises are
intended to change or remove or favorably
effect. Hence if it is at all possible, consider-
ing what human nature is, the activities should
be pecuniarily remunerative, and if liberally
so, it is that much the better. But to be more
fall as to the means of improving the general
health, which indeed is the safest and surest

166 SLEEP.

way of removing a variety of bodily ailmenta,
it may be well to treat in detail as to Bating,
Drinking, Sleeping, Regulating the Bow-
els, and Attention to tue Feet.

EATING".

Before a man becomes hungry, watchful
nature has calculated, in her way, how much
nutriment the body needs, and provides as
much of a liquid substance as will bo neces-
sary to prepare from the food which may be
eaten that amount of sustenance which the
system may require. When this is stored up,
and all is ready, the sensation of hunger com-
mences, and increases with the steadily increas-
ing amount of the digesting material just re-
ferred to, and the very instant the first mouth-
ful of food is swallowed, this "gastric juice"
is poured out into the stomach through a
thousand sluices ; but no more has been pre-
pared than was necessary, for Nature does
nothing in vain ; so that if a single mouthful

SOUR STOMACH — HEARTBURN. 107

more of food has been swallowed than the
un tempted, or unstimulated appetite would
have called for, there is no gastric juice for its
solution, and it remains but to fret and worry
and irritate for hours together. If the amount
eaten is much in excess, the stomach, as if in
utter discouragement at the magnitude of its
task, ceases its attempts at digestion, and forth-
with commences the process of ejecting the un-
natural load by means of nausea and vomiting
in some cases ; in others, it remains for an hour
or more like a weight, a hard round ball, or
a lump of lead, an uneasy heaviness ; then it
begins to " sour," that is, to decompose, to rot,
and the disgusting gaa or liquid comes up into
the throat, causing more or less of a scalding
sensation from the pit of the stomach to the
throat; this is called "heartburn." At length,
the half-rotted mixture is forced out of the
mouth by the outraged stomach with that
horrible odor and taste with which every
glutton is familiar. In some cases the stenchy
mass is passed out of the stomach downwards,

168 SLEEP.

causing, in its progress, a gush of liquid from
nil parts of the intestinal canal, to wash it,
with a flood, out of the system ; this is the
"Diarrhea" which surprises the gourmand at
midnight or in the early morning hours, when
a late or over-hearty mojil has been eaten.
When sufficient food has been taken for the
amount of gastric juice supplied, hunger
ceases, and every mouthful swallowed after
that, no gastric juice having been prepared for
its dissolution, remains without any healthful
change, inflaming, and irritating, and exhaust-
ing the stomach by its efforts to get rid of it,
and this is the first step towards forming
"dyspepsia," which becomes more, and more
deeply fixed by every repeated outrage, until
at length it remains a life-time worry to the
mind, filling it with horrible imaginings, and
a wearing, wasting torture to the body, until it
passes into the grave.

The moral of the article is, that the man
who " forces " his food, he who eats without an
inclination, and he who strives bv tonics, or

WORK OF THE STOMACH. 169

bitters, or wine, or other alcoholic liquors, to
" get up " an appetite, is a sinner against bodj
and soul — a virtual suicide I

The stomach has two doors, one for the en-
trance of the food, on the left side ; the other,
for its exit, after it has been properly prepared
for another process. As soon as the food is
swallowed, it begins to go round and round
the stomach so as to facilitate dissolution ; just
as the melting of a number of small bits of
ice is expedited by being stirred in a glass of
water; the food, like the ice, dissolving from
without, inwards, until all is a liquid mass.

Eminent physiologists have said, that as this
liquid mass passes the door of exit, where
there is a little movable muscle, called the
Pyloric Valve, (a faithful watchman,) that
which is fit for future purposes gives a tap, as
it were ; the valve flies open and it makes an
honorable exit. Thus it goes on until the
stomach is empty, provided no more food has
been taken than there was a supply of gastric
15

170 SI.EEP

juice for. If a mouthful too much has been
taken, there ia no gastric juice to dissolve it;
it remains hard and undigested ; it is not fit to
pass, and the janitor refuses to open the door ;
and another and another circuit is made, with
a steady refusal at each time, until the work is
properly done. Boiled rice, roasted apples,
cold raw cabbage cut up fine in vinegar, tripe
prepared in vinegar, or souse, pass through in
about an hour; fried pork, boiled cabbage
and the like, are kept dancing around for
about five hours and a half.

After, however, there has been a repeated
refusal to pass, and it would appear that any
longer detention was useless, as in the case of
indigestible food, or a dime, or cent, or fruit-
rttone, the faithful watchman seems to be almost
endowed with intelligence, as if saying : "Well,
old fellow, you never will be of any account ;
it is -not worth while to be troubled with you
any longer; pass on, and never show your face
again."

WEIGHT OR LOAD ON STOMACH. 171

When food is thus unnaturally detained in
the stomach, it produces wind, ciuututions,
fullness, acidity, or a feeling often di'scribcd
as a "weight," or "load," or "heavy." But
nature is never cheated. Ilcr regulations are
never infringed with impunity ; and although
an indigestible article may be allowed to pass
out of the stomach, it enters the bowels as an
intru<lor, is an unwelcome stranger ; the parts
are unused to it, like a crumb of bread which
has gone the wrong way by passing into the
lungs, and nature sets up a violent coughing
to eject the intruder. As to the bowels,
another plan is taken, but the object is the
same — a speedy riddance. As soon as this
unwelcome thing touches the lining of the
bowels, nature becomes alarmed, and like as
when a bit of sand is in the eye, she throws
out water, as with the intention of washing
it out of the body ; hence the sudden diarrheas
with which two-legged pigs are sometimes
surprised. It was a desperate effort of nature

172 SLEEP.

to save the body, for if undigested food re
mains too long, either in the stomach or bowels,
fits, convulsions, epilepsies, apoplexies and death,
are a very frequent result. Inference : Always
eat slowly and in moderation of well-divided

food.

As a universal rule in health, and, with very
rare exceptions, in disease, that is best to be
eaten which the appetite craves or the taste
relishes.

Persons rarely err in the quality of the food
eaten; nature's instincts are the wise regu-
lators in this respect.

The great source of mischief from eating
are three: Quantity, Frequency, Eapidity;
and from these come the horrible dyspepsias
which make of human life a burden, a torture,
a living icith.

Rapidity. — ^By eating fast, the stomach, like
a bottle being filled through a funnel, is full
and overflowing before we know it. But the
most important reason is, the food is swallowed

HOW OFTEN TO EAT. 173

before time has been allowed to divide it in
Bufficientlj small pieces witli the teeth; for,
like ice in a tumbler of water, the smaller the
bits are, the sooner are they dissolved. It has
been seen with the n^^ked eye, that if solid
food is cut up in pieces small as half a pea, it
uigests almost as soon, without being chewed
at all, as if it had been well masticated. The
best plan, therefore, is for all persons to com-
minute their food; for even if it is well chewed,
the comminution is of no injury, while it is
of very great importance in case of hurry,
forgetfulness, or bad teeth. Cheerful conversa-
tion prevents rapid eating.

Frequency. — ^It requires about five hours
for a common meal to be dissolved and pass
out of the stomach, during which time this
organ is incessantly at work, when it riust
have repose, a^ any other muscle or set of mus-
cles, after sach a length of effort. Hence per-
sons should ■- >t en* within less than five hours'
^ntcival. The heart itself is at rest more than
5^

174 SLEEP.

one third of its time. The brain perishes
without repose. Never forcB food on the
stomach.

All are tired when night comes; every
muscle of the body is weary, and looks to the
bed ; but just as we lie down to rest every
other part of the body, if we, by a hearty
meal, give the stomach five hours' work,
which, in its weak state, requires a much
longer time to perform than at an earlier hour
of the day, it is like imposing upon a servant
a full day's labor just at the close of a hard
day's work; hence the unwisdom of eating
heartily late in the day or evening; and no
wonder it has cost many a man his life. Al-
ways breakfast before work or exercise.

No laborers or active persons should eat an
itom, later than sun-down, and then it should
not be over half the mid-day meal. Persons
of sedentary habits or who are at all ailing,
should take absolutely nothing for supper
beyond a single piece of cold stale bread and

DRINKING AT MEALS. 175

butter, or a sLip-biscuit, with a single cup of
warm drink. Such a supper will always give
better sleep and prepare for a heartier break-
fast, with the advantage of having the exercise
of the whole day to grind it up and extract
its nutriment. Never eat without an inclina
tion.

Quantity. — It is variety which tempts to
excess ; few will err as to quantity who will eat
very slow. Take no more than a quarter of a
pint of warm drink, with a piece of cold, stale
bread and butter, one kind of meat, and one
vegetable, or one kind of fruit. This is the
only safe rule of general application, and allows
all to eat as much as they want.

Cold water at meals instantly arrests diges-
tion, and so will much warm drink ; hence, a
single tea-cup of drink, hot or cold, is sufficient
for any meal.

For half an hour after eating, sit erect, or
walk in the open air. Avoid severe study or
deep emotion, soon after eating. Do not sit

176 SLEEP.

down to a meal under great grief or surprise,
or mental excitement.

DRINKING.

Man is the only animal that drinks without
being thirsty, swallowing whole quarts of
water when nature does not call for it, with the
alleged view of "washing out" the system.
When persons are thirsty, that thirst should be
fully assuaged with moderately cool water,
drank (in summer time or under great bodily
heat or fatigue) very leisurely, but not within
half an hour of eating a regular meal. Emi-
nent physiologists agree that drinking at meals,
dilutes the gastric juice, diminishes its solvent
power, and retards digestion, especially, if what
is drank is cold. Persons in vigorous health,
and who work or exercise a great part of every
day in the open air, may drink a glass of
water, or a single cup of weak coffee or tea, at
each meal, and live to a good old age. But it
is very certain that sedentary persons and in*

BAD EFFECTS OF ICE-WATER. 177

valids can not go beyond that habitually, with
impunity. The wisdom of such consists in
drinking nothing at all at the regular meals be-
yond a swallow or two at a time of some hot
drink of a mild and nutritious character. Fee-
ble persons will be benefited by hot drkiks, be-
cause they warm up the body, excite the circu-
lation, and thus promote digestion, if taken
while eating, and not exceeding a cupful.

Cold water ought never to be drank within
half an hour of eating; for the colder it is, the
more instantly does it arrest digestion, not only
by diluting the gastric juice, but by reducing
its temperature, which is near one hundred de-
grees. Ice-water is something over thirty-two
degrees, and, when swallowed, mixes with the
gastric juice, and lowers its temperature, not to
be elevat'jd until heat enough has been with-
drawn from the general system ; and that draft
must be made until the hundred degrees of
warmth sfce attained ; but some persona have so
'ittle vitality, that the body exhausts itself in

178 SLEEP.

its instinctive efforts to help the stomach, from
which its life and strength come ; and the per-
son rises from the table with a cold chill run-
ning down the back or over the whole body.
Sometimes, these drafts upon the body for
warmth to the stomach are so sudden and
great, that they can not be met, and instantane-
ous death is the result. Many a person has
dropped dead at the pump or at the spring;
such a result is more certain if, in addition to
the person being very warm at the time of
drinking, there is also great bodily fetigue. A
French general recently fell dead from drink-
ing cold water on reaching tl>e top of a moun-
tain over-heated and exhausted in the effort of
bringing up his battalions with promptitude.
Under all circumstances of heat or fatigue, the
glass of water should be grasped in the hand,
held half a minute, then, taking not over two
swallows, rest a quarter of a minute ; then, two
awallows more, and so on, until the thirst is
riearly assuaged. Tt will seldom happen that a

ALCOHOLIC J)RINKS. 179

person is inclined to take over half a dozen
Bwallows thus.

No case is remembered in the practice of a
quarter of a century, where malt liquors, wines,
brandies, or any alcoholic drinks whatever,
Lave ever had a permanent good effect in im-
proving the digestion. Apparent advantages
sometimes result, but they are transient or de-
ceptive. If there is no appetite, it is because
nature has provided no gastric juice ; and that
is the product of nature, not of alcohol. If
there is appetite, but no digestive power, liquor
no more supplies that power than would the
lash give strength to an exhausted donkey. If
torture does arouse the sinking beast, it is only
that it shall fall a little later into a still greater
exhaustion from which there is no recovery ; so
with the use of liquor and tobacco as whetters
of the appetite, when, at length, the desire for
the accustomed stimulus ceases, and the man
" sickens ;" there is no longer a relish for the
dram and the chew, and life fiides apace, either

180 SLEEP.

in a stupor from which there is no awaking, or
by wasting and uncontrollable diarrhea.

SLEEPING.

Inability to sleep is the first step toward
madness, while sound and sufficient sleep im-
parts a vigor to the mind, and a feeling of well-
ness and activity to the body, which are be-
yond price. To be able to go to sleep within a
few minutes of reaching the pillow, and to
sleep soundly until the morning breaks, and to
do this for weeks and months together, is per-
fectly delightful. How such a thing may be
brought about, and kept up, as a general rule,
is certainly well worth knowing, and will be
appreciated, even by those who have lost but
half a night's sleep. The reader can study out
the reasons of the suggestions at his leisure.

Both in city and country, the chamber
should be on the second, third, or higher floor;
its windows should face the east or south, so
as to have the drying and purifying influences

SLEEriNG ArAllTMENTS. 181

of the blessed sun-light; there should be no
curtains to the bed or windows, nor should
there be any hanging garments or other woven
fabrics, except the clothes worn during the day
each article of which should be spread out by
itself, for the purpose of thorough airing.
There should bo no carpet on the floor of a
sleeping- room, except a single strip by the side
of the bed, to prevent a sudden shock by the
warm foot coming in contact with a cold floor.
Carpets collect dust and dirt and filth and
dampness, and are the invention of laziness to
save labor and hide uncleanness.

Ordinarily, mattresses of shucks, chaff, straw,
or curled hair are best to sleep upon. For old
persons and those of feeble vitality, there is
nothing better than a clean feather-bed. No
one can sleep well if cold. Have as little cov-
ering as possible from just above the knees
upwards, but cover the legs and feet abundant-
ly, for by keeping thera warm, the blood is
16

182 SLEEP.

withdrawn from the brain, and to that extent
dreaming is prevented.

There should be no standing fluid of any de-
scription, nor a particle of food or vegetation or
any decayable substance allowed to remain in a
bed-room for a moment ; nor should any light
be kept burning, except from necessity, as all
these things corrupt the air which is breathed
while sleeping.

The entire furniture of a chamber should be
tlie bed, two or three wooden chairs, a table,
and a bureau or chest of drawers. Every arti-
cle of bed-clothing should be thrown over a
chair or table by itself, and the mattress remain
exposed, until the middle of the afternoon ; not
later, lest the damps of the evening should im-
pregnate them. From morning until aftemooa
of every sunshiny day, the windows of the
chamber should be hoisted fully. The fire-
place should be kept open, at least during the
night, thus affording a draught from the crevices
of doors and windows. As foul air is lightest

NOXIOUS GASKS IN CHAMBERS. 188

in warm weather, it is beat that the sash should
be let down at the top several inches, and
the low(T one elevated quite as much ; by
tliis means the pure and cool air from without
enters and drives the heatedj impure air up-
wards and outwards.

In a very cold room, without a good draught
or ventilation, carbonic acid being generated by
the sleeper, becomes heavy and falls to the
floor; this gas has no nourishment for the
lungs, and to breathe it wholly for two minutes
is to die ; it is this which causes suflfocation in
descending some wells. In summer it goes to
the ceiling, in winter to the floor ; hence it is
more important that a sleeping room should
have a very gentle current of air in winter than
in summer. •

Never go to bed with cold or damp feet, else
refreshing sleep is impossible; but spend the
last five or ten minutes before bed-time, at least
in firetime of year, in drying and heating the
feet before the fire, with the stockings off. In-

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184 SLEEP.

dians and hunters sleep with their feet towards
the camp-fire.

Difierent persons require dilferent umounta
of sleep, according to age, sex, and occupa-
tion. Nature must make the appointment,
and will always do it wisely and safely; and
there is only one method of doing it. Do
not sleep a moment in the day, or if essen-
tial do not exceed ten minutes, for this will
refresh more than if you sleep an hour, or
longer. Go to bed at a regular early hour,
not later than ten, and get up as soon as you
wake of yourself in the morning ; follow this
up for a week or two, and if there is no ac-
tnal disease, nature will always arouse the
sleeper as soon as enough sleep has been
taken to repair the expenditures of the pre-
ceding day, a little more or less in propor-
tion to the amount of bodily and mental
effort made the day before. Commonly there
mil be but a few minutes' difference for
weeks together. It is not absolutely neces-

franklin's aik bath. 186

Barj to get up and dress, but only to avoid
a second nap. Sometimes it is advantageous
to remain in bed until the feeling of tired-
ness, with which most persons are familiar,
has passed from the limbs. It is safest and
best for all to take breakfast before going
out of doors in the morning, whether in
summer or winter, most especially in new,
flat, or damp countries, as a preventive of
chill and fever.

If from any cause you get up during the
night, throw open the bed-cloihes, so as to
give the bedding an airinj^, and also with
the hands give the whole body a good rub-
bing for a minute or two ; the effect will be
an immediate feeling of refreshment, and a
more speedy falling to sleep again. This
was Franklin's remedy in case of restlessness
at night.

When it is remembered that one third of
our whole time is spent in our chambers,
and that only uncorrupted air can complete

16*

186 ST.EEP.

the process of digestion and assimilation and
purify the blood, it is most apparent that the
utmost pains should be taken to secure the
breathing of a pure atmosphere during the
hours of sleep; and that the most diligent
attention in this regard is indispensable to
high health.

REaULATINa THE BOWELS.

It is best that the bowels should act
every morning after breakfast ; therefore,
quietly remain in the house, and promptly
attend to the first inclination. If the time
passes, do not eat an atom until they do
act ; at least not until breakfast next day,
and even then, do not take any thing except
a single cup of weak coffee or tea, and
some cold bread and butter, or dry toast,
or ship-biscuit.

Meanwhile, arrange to walk or work
moderately, for an hour or two, each fore-
noon and afternoon, to the extent of keep-

REGULATING THE BOWELS. 187

ing up a moisture on the skin, drinking
i\B freely as desired as much cold water as
will satisfy the thirst, taking special pains,
as soon as the exercise is over, to go to
a good fire or very warm room in win-
ter, or if in summer, to a place entirely
sheltered from any draught of air, so as to
cool off very slowly indeed, and thus avoid
taking cold or feeling a "soreness" all over
next day.

Eemember, that without a regular daily
healthful action of the bowels, it is impos-
sible to maintain health, or to regain it, if
lost. The coarser the food, the more freely
will the bowels act, such as com (Indian)
bread eaten hot; hominy; wheaten grits;
bread made from coarse flour, or "shorts;"
Graham bread ; boiled turnips, or stirabout.

If the* bowels act oftener than twice a
day, live for a short time on boiled rice,
farina, starch, or boiled milk. In more ag-
gravated cases, keep as quiet as possible on

188 SLEEP.

a bed, take nothing but rice, parched brown
like coffee, thea boiled and eaten in the
usual way; meanwhile drink nothing what
over, but eat to your fullest desire bits of
ice swallowed nearly whole, or swallow
ice-cream before entirely melted in the
mouth ; if necessary, wear a bandage of
thick woolen flannel, a foot or more broad,
bound tightly around the abdomen ; th:*s is
especially necessary if the patient has to be
on the feet much. All locomotion should
be avoided when the bowels are thin,
watery, or weakening. The habitual use of
pills, or drops, or any kind of medicine
whatever, for the regulation of the bowels,
is a sure means of ultimately undermining
the health, in almost all cases laying the
foundation for some of the most distressing
of chronic maladies ; hence all the pains
possible should be taken to keep them regu-
lated by natural agencies, such as the coarse
foods and exercises above named.

COLD FEET REMEDIED. 189

ATTENTION TO THE FEET.

It is utterly impossible to get well or
keep well, unless the feet are kept dry and
warm all the time. If they are for the
most part cold, there is cough, or sore
throat, or hoarseness, or sick headache, or
some other annoyance.

If cold and dry, the feet should be
soaked in hot water for ten minutes every
night, and when wiped and dried, rub into
them well ten or fifteen drops of sweet
oil; do this patiently with the hands, rub-
bing the oil into the soles of the feet
particularly.

On getting up in the morning, dip both
feet at once into water, as cold as the air
of the room, half-ankle deep, for a minute
in summer; half a minute or less in win-
ter, rubbing one foot with the other, then
wipe dry. and if convenient, hold them to

190 SLEEP

the fire, rubbing them with the hand until
perfectly dry and warm in every part.

If the feet are damp and cold, attend
only to the morning washings, but always
at night remove the stoclrings and hold the
feet to the fire, rubbing them with the
hands for fifteen minutes, and get immediate-
ly into bed.

Under any circumstances, as often as the
feet are cold enough to attract attention,
draw off the stockings and hold them to
the fire ; if the feet are much inclined to
dampness, put on a pair of dry stockings,
leaving the damp ones before the fire to
be ready for another change.

Some person^' feet are more comfortable,
even in winter, in cotton, others in woolen
stockings. Each must be guided by his own
feelings. Sometimes two pair of thin stock-
ings keep the feet warmer than one pair
which is thicker than both. The thin pair
may be of the same or of different mate-

DRY AND WARM FKET. 191

rials, and that whicli is best next the foot
should be determined bj the feelings of the
person.

Sometimes the feet are rendered more
comfortable by basting half an inch thick-
ness of curled hair on a piece of thick
cloth, slipping this into the stocking, with
tlie hair next the skin, to be removed at
right and placed before the fire to be per-
fectly dried by morning.

Persons who walk a great deal during the
day, should, on coming home for the night,
remove their shoes and stockings, hold the
feet to the fire until perfectly dry, put on
a dry pair, and wear slippers for the re-
mainder of the evening.

Boots and gaiters keep the feet damp,
cold, and unclean, by preventing the escape
of that insensible perspiration which is al-
ways arising from a healthy foot, and con-
densing it; hence the old-fashioned low shoe
is best for health.

192 SLEEP.

But coming to more direct agencies for pre-
venting morning debilitations, and recapitulat-
ing somewhat in reference to the procurement
of sound sleep, in view of its primary import-
jince as a remedial means, as an aid in making
it sound and connected, it being known that
the exhaustions occur m the unsound sleep of
the later part of the morning, often during tlie
" second nap," ps it is called, it may be added
that persons who sleep in the daytime, and thus
render the sleep of night less deep, are more
troubled with these things. By going to sleep
at a regular early hour, say not later than ten
o'clock, by not sleeping a moment in the day-
time, and by being regularly waked up at the
end of seven hours, which is about as much as
persons usually require, the sleep would, gener-
ally, in a week be sound, deep, connected, and
refreshing, up to the last moment of waking ;
and thus, by removing the chance of unsound
sleep, the occurrence would be broken up with-
out further effort, in cases not particularly ag-

SECOND NAPS. 193

gravated. The aid of an alarm-clock may bo
necessary sometimes to waken up persons, but
within a week or two, nature loves regularity
so much she would waken up the body within
a few minutes of the time, if only the habit
were persistently followed of getting up at the
very first moment of waking, or at least, by a
strong exercise of the will, avoiding a second
nap ; for it is this, by the unsoundness of the
sleep, which gives rise to dreams, that precipi-
tates the trouble, in a very great degree.

Pains should be taken to keep the mind en-
gaged during the day in the important affairs
of life, and to avoid exciting subjects of
thought and feeling at the close of the day.
As urinary accumulations during the night are
sources of unhealthful stimulation, the bladder
should be emptied the very last thing on going
to bed ; and if the person could be waked up
about two o'clock in the morning, or every
third hour, to do the same thing, it would very

194 SLKKP.

greatly promote the objoct in view. This is aa
important suggostioa.

The bed-chamber sliould be hirge and well
ventilated, and every thing done to promote
coolness of the body; a hard bed, with 'lair or
strav/ mattress, is indispensable, with as little
covering on the upper portion of the body as
consistent with comfortable warmth, while from
the middle of the thighs downwards, there
should be an abundance of covering, so that
by keeping the feet quite warm, the blood will
be diverted thereto, and thus be productive of
important results. If these things do not avail,
it is recommended to sleep on the floor, with
nothing under the person but a " comfortable,"
or a common blanket and sheet doubled. When
these things also fail, there remains but one of
two safe alternatives, either marriage or the
consultation of a physician of known ability
and of high character; but the latter aid can
only benefit to the extent of a temporary ex])«)-

SAFEOUAHD OF MAUIilAQE. 195

dii'iit, and Hbould be regarded aa a means of
gainiii.; time for a better preparation for mar-
riage, wbieh, after all, is tbo great purifier, the
(livifioly-appointed means for bappifying hu-
manity, and for perpetuating tlie race in healtb
and vigor and prosperity, and vvliicb every pru-
dent and wise })arent siiould use all practicable
means for encouraging at an early age, not
later tlian twenty-five ; it is the honorable safe-
guard against many ills, and one which every
affectionate and considerate parent should en-
deavor to throw around the young as a matter
of high duty, imposed by the very nature of
things.

That all the pains named should be taken by
panmts for the correction of the troubles in
question, it ought to be a sufficient, an over-
whelming argument, that mental aberration in
some form is a frequent result of a neglect of
the same, either lunacy or the more terrible
condition of being a hopeless, driveling idiot.
On the seventeenth day of July, eighteen hun-

196 SLEEP.

dred and sixty, a man died in the hospital in
Jjublin, Ireland, which was founded by Dean
Swift, (himself crazed in later years, and with
great certainty, as a result in one way or an-
other of not having married in early life,) at
the age of one hundred and six years, having
been an inmate of the institution since May the
twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and two, a
period of fifty-eight years. It is literally terri-
ble for a parent to contemplate the possibility
of his child, so loved now, spending more than
half a cencury in the dreary walls of an asylum,
behind grates and bars of iron, in cold, cheer-
less, and dreary apartments, never enlivened in
all that time by one single smile of parent,
brother, friend I And how often in the mean
while to be neglected, to be maltreated, to be
brutalized over by hired oflGlcials, upon whose
hearts pure pity never made an impress, who
can say ?

Aftei all, one of the most efficient aids in
breaking up the occurrences in question is force

/ >.

FOROK OF WILL. 197

of will, an iron determination to compel the
mind to subjects and objects which are of so
much interest as to direct the greater flow of
the nervous energies to the brain, or to engage
in severe manual labor. Really great students
and hard workers in mechanics, handicrafts,
and fields are not much troubled in this direc-
tion ; those most suffer who have idle time on
their hands, or whose employments permit sev-
eral hours of leisure, sufficient to allow nervous
influences to be directed to unmeet subjects.
Mere manipular occupations are not the best,
such as writing, or other exercises, which
can be performed while the mind can run riot in
other directions. Let it be remembered that in
any successful treatment this force of will,
strength of character, mental diversion will be
found of very great advantage. And when the
serious nature of the ailment is taken into con-
eideration, and the large bearings it has upon
the happiness and well-being of those who are
ander its influence, all means should be resorted
17*

198 SLEEP.

to which will have even a slight influence in
breaking up the evil.

Sleeping on the back increases the trouble ;
hence whatever means are used to promote
sleeping on the side, should be adopted, which,
indeed, ought to be done, for the benefits to be
derived in other directions. It is believed that
no one has nightmare who sleeps on the side.
If one falls asleep on the right side, it favors
the passage of the food from the stomach,
which there opens into the lower bowels, repre-
sented by the greater ease with which water is
removed from a bottle by holding it upside
down, than if, when held in its natural position,
it is drawn upwards. On this principle the ex-
pedient of attaching a ball or block of wood to
the back has been adopted by some.

To compel the exhaustive use of the moans
named, no medicine is advised. In the rai'c
cases where drugs are necessary, consult an
honorable and educated physician. As to
"oomy apartments, it is well to record some

NEW PLANS FOR HOUSES. 199

tinn-rrostious as to the propriety of introducing
dwelling-houses in the larger cities of the
United States on the European system, in
reference to which J. R. Hamilton, of New-
Y'ork, has said that

" The very great difficulty experienced by
families of moderate means, in attempting to
obtain economical and convenient residences,
easy of access, in the lity of New- York, is felt
and acknowledged by so large and respectable
a portion of the community, that I hope the
importance of the subject will be a sufficient
apology for my venturing to intrude upon your
valuable space.

" After devoting long and serious attention to
this matter, I have prepared a plan which I
take the liberty of submitting to your inspec-
tion, and which, I think, will be found capable
of supplying, to some extent, what has been so
long desired. I claim no especial novelty for
my scheme ; nor should it be considered in the
light of an experiment, for it is simply an adap-
tation of the well-known and convenient system
of living in what are called 'y?ate,' so common
among families of the best standing in Paris,

200 SLEEP.

Edinburgh, and most of the large cities of Eu-
rope.

" You will observe that although there is but
one general entrance and grand central stair-
case to my building, the inmates have each a
private entrance-door and vestibule from the
common landings on each floor, and are conse-
quently as much cut off from all communication
with nch other as if they really inhabited
houses Ui.der separate roofs. The main entrance
and staircase, which are intended to be as pri-
vate and well-kept as those of any private man-
sion, (and there is nothing in the exterior to dis-
tinguish it from that of any first-class private
residence,) are, nevertheless, to those who enter,
nothing more than a continuation of the side-
walk. On arriving at their destination, be it on
the first or fourth flooi, visitors will come to the
private vestibule entrance of a gentleman's
house, and will have to ring the bell before
gaining admission, precisely as they would have
to do in the street. This is what forms the es-
sential difference between such a building as I
propose, and associated houses of any descrip-
tion hitherto erected in New- York — at any rate,
to my knowledge. By my plan there can be

Hamilton's house plan. 201

no intrusion whatever upon one's piivacj, no
unpleasant and inevitable commingling of fam-
ilies, any more than among people living next
door to each other on the same block.

" If you examine the plans, you will find that,
upon an ordinary double lot of fifty feet by one
hundred feet, I give to each dwelling or fiat, of
which there arc eight in my building, (two to
each floor,) the following accommodation : A
large front parlor, four good bed-rooms, dining-
room with china-closet, kitchen, and kitchen
pantry, bath-room and two water-closets, a wide
covered piazza in the rear, abundance of closets
and every other household convenience, and my
rooms are all thoroughly ventilated, and lit by
direct lights. In the rear I have provided a
staircase inclosed by brick walls, not only for
thorough security in case of fire, but giving ac-
cess from each dwelling to a separate laundry
and coal-cellar provided for each in the base-
ment, and having direct access to the back-
yards. In the basement are also rooms for the
janitor and his family, and two large double
offices which would rent well to physicians and
others in any good locality. The kitchen de-
partment is so arranged that fuel can be brought

202 SLEEP.

Up by a lift from below, and all kitclien refuse
descend to one common receptacle (to be daily
removed by the janitor) without the necessity
of any one going down a single step. The
building is calculated to be thoroughly supplied
with all the usual modern improvements of our
best dwellings.

"After a careful calculation of the cost of
such an edifice, including tiie ground, I am
prepared to prove that with rentals varying
from five hundred dollars for the first to three
hundred dollars for the fourth floor, such a
building would yield, if erected in one of our
best neighborhoods, a profit of at least ten per
cent upon the outlay. I shall be glad if, through
the instrumentality of the press, the attention
of some of our builders and capitalists can be
seriously and practically directed to this import-
ant question. I think it can clearly be shown
that whoever undertakes to supply the demand
to which I have alluded, will speedily find his
account in it among hundreds of our citizens of
the highest respectability, who are at this mo-
ment undergoing all sorts of annoyances and
inconvenience in vain attempts to obtain pri-
vate, economical, and suitable homes for tlieir
familier^"

griscom's ventilation. 208

In the same direction the author of that ex-
cellent treatise on the " Uses and Abuses of
Air" has communicated to the editors of the
Scientific ATnerican an improved method of ven-
tilation, and which has been introduced into* the
dwelling of one of the prominent citizens of
New-York, in reference to which the editors
remark :

" This plan for ventilating houses, suggested
and put in execution by Dr. J. H. Griscom, of
New- York, received the sanction of the Third
National Quarantine and Sanitary Convention,
held in this city. It pertains to the chemical
method, the motive power of the air being
heat, but requiring no extra expenditure of
fuel, the heat used for the purpose being only
the waste heat of the furnace by which the
house is warmed. The arrangement consists in.
the construction of independent ventilating
flues in the walls of the house, in proximity to
the hot-air tubes, so that the two may be con-
nected together by means of a lateral or branch'
tube, by which a current of hot air may, at any
desired moment, be transmitted from the hot air

204 SLEKl'.

tube to the ventilating flue. By this means, the
ventilating flues, which terminate in the o;)en
air like an ordinary chimney, will be warmed
by the hot air from the furnace, when the ordi-
nary hot-air register is closed, as at night in a
dwdtling, or in a school -house after school
hours.

" If properly constructed of brick or smooth
stone, the walls of the flue will, after a current
of hot air has passed through it a short time,
become sufficiently heated to rarefy the air
within, thus giving the flue a good ventilating
power, even after the current of hot air has
been withdrawn. For example, if the hot-air
register of a parlor be closed at ten o'clock at
night, and the heat, instead of being thrown
back into the furnace, is allowed to pass through
the lateral tube into the ventilating flue, and so
continue till six the next morning, it is evident
that, during those eight hours, the interior oP
the ventilating flue must become thoroughly
heated, so that the next day, when the current
of hot air is restored to the parlor, the heated
sides of the ventilating flue will continue to
rarefy the air within them for many hours, and
perhaps even days afterwards.

VENTILATING REGISTERS. 205

" There being no danger of a reaction of the
air of the flue through the ventilating register,
(as is the case when voiitihiting openings are
made in ordinary firc-fliics,) connections with
the apartment to be ventilated may bo made at
any point, and even carried to the opposite side
of the house, between the beams of the ceiling,
to ventilate distant apartments. Dr. Griscom's
method has the advantage of being applicable
to all edifices warmed by hot air furnaces of
any description, which, in general, are those
most needing ventilation. This arrangement
may be introduced into many houses already
erected, by connecting the hot-air tubes with
such of the ordinary chimney-flues as are not
used with fire.

" One of the principal advantages appertain-
ing to this plan, is the capability of having a
large number of ventilating flues put in connec-
tion with the furnace. In fact, the number
may correspond with the number of hot-air
registers, and thus any desirable amount and
extent of ventilation be obtained."

Some have gone farther in their benevo-
lences than to advocate roomy and well-

206 SLEEP.

ventilated sleeping apartments for their fel«
low men. The interests of the noble horse
are thus pleaded for by a recent writer :

"Most stables are built low 'because they
are wanner.' But such people forget tluit
warmth is obtained at a sacrifice of the health
of the animal and pure air. Shut a man up in
a tight, small box. The air may be warmed,
but it will soon lay him out dead and cold if
Jae continues to breathe it. If stables are tight,
they should have high ceilings ; if they are not
tight, but open to the admivssion of cold cur-
rents of air from all directions, they are equally
faulty. A stable should be carefully ventilated,
and one of the cheapest of modes is to build a
high one."

The whole subject finds a powerful il
lustration, in one direction at least, in the
discoveries which the celebrated traveler,
Doctor Krapf, has recently made in the in-
terior of Africa, where he has found a na-
tion of people of whose existence the civil-
ized world never heard, until the year
eighteen hundred and fifty -nine or sixtyj

SLEEl'ING IN PUnii AIll 207

showing that with social habits of the most
degrad(}d and brutalizing character, " dis-
eases arc never known annong them; they
die only of old age, or through the assaults
of their enemies." The only redeeming cir-
cumstance, the only great influence antag-
onistic of unheard-of degradations as to
social habits, and which can at all account
for the fact even in part, that " sickness is
unknown, " is in the declaration that they
have neither houses nor tents, have no cov-
ering but the trees and the sky. To make
it more satisfactory, the exact words of the
traveler are given ;

" To the south of Knffa and Susa, there is
a very sultry and humid country, with many
bamboo woods, inhabited by the race called
Dokos, who are no bigger than boys of ten
years old; that is, only four feet high. They
have a dark, olive-colored complexion, and live
in a completely savage state, like the beasts ;
having neither houses, temples, nor holy trees,
like the Gallas, yet possessing something like

203 SLEKP.

an idea of a hi<^M»er being called Yer, to whom
in moments of wrotchcdness and anxiety they
pray — not in in an erect posture, but reversed,
with the lioad on tiio ground and the feet sup-
ported upright against a tree or stone. In
prayer they say : * Yea, if thou really dost
exist, why dost thou allow us to be slain?
We do not ask thee for food and clothing, for
we live on serpents, ants, and mice. Thou hast
made us, why dost thou permit us to be trodden
under foot?' The Dokos have uo chief, no
laws, no weapons ; they do not hunt, nor till
the ground, but live solely on fruits, roots, mice,
serpents, ants, honey, and the like, climbing trees
and gathering the fruits like monkeys, and both
sexes go completely naked. I^hey have thick,
protruding lips, flat noses, and small eyes; the
hair is not W(>nll3'^, and is worn by the women
over the shoulders. The nails on the hands
and feet arc allowed to grow like the talons of
vultures, and are used in digging ants, and in
tearing to pieces the serpents, which they de-
vour raw, for they are unacquainted with fire.
The spine of the snake is the only ornament
worn round the neck, but they pierce the ears
with a sharp-pointed piece of wood.

A SINGULA It RACE. 209

" The Dokoa multiply very rapidly, but have
no regular maiTJa^es, tli(! intercourse of the
8ex( s leading to no 8elect(.'d homo, each in per-
fect independence g<Mng whitlier fancy leads.
The motluiP nurses her cliild only for a short
time, accustoming it as soon as possil)lc to the
eating of ants and scrj)ents ; and as soon as tlio
child can help itself, the mother lets it depart
whither it pleases. Although these people live
in thick woods, and conceal themselves amongst
the trees, yet they become the prey of the slave-
hunters of Susa, Kaifa, Dumbaro and Kulla ;
for whole regions of tlieir woods are encircled
by the hunters, so that the Dokos can not easily
escape. When the slave-hunters come in sight
of the poor creature, they hold up clothes of
bright colors, singing and dancing, upon which
the Dokos allow themselves to be captured
without resistance, knowing from experience
such resistance is fruitless, and can lead only
to their destruction. In this way thousands
can be captured by a small band of hunters ;
and once captured they become quite dcolie.
In slavery the Dokos retain their predilection
for feeding on mice, serpents and ants, although
often on that account punished by their mfisters,

18*

210 SLEEP.

who in other respects are attached to them, as
they are docile and obedient, have few wants,
and enjoy good health, for which reasons they
are never sold as slaves beyond Enarea. As
diseases are unknown among them, they die
only of old age, or through the assaults of their
enemies."

OLD AND YOUNG SLEEPING
TOGETHER.

As to the ill effects to the young, from sleep-
ing with the old, a medical writer says :

" A habit which is considerably prevalent in
almost every family of allowing children to
sleep with older persons, has ruined the nerv-
ous vivacity and physical energy of many a
promising child. Every parent who loves his
child, and wislies to preserve to him a sound
nervous system, with which to buffet success-
fully the cares, sorrows, and labors of life, must
see to it that his nervous vitality is not ab-
sorbed by some diseased or aged relative.

" Children, compared with adults, are elec-
trically ill a positive condition. The rapid
changes which are going on in their little bodies,
abundantly generate and as extensively work

CHILDKEN SLEEPING WITH ADULTS. 211

up vital nervo-electric fluids. But when, by
contact for long nights with elder and negative
persons, the vitalizing electricity of their tender
01 ganizations is absorbed, they soon pine, grow
pr.le, languid, and dull, while their bed com-
panions feel a corresponding invigoration. It
was sought in the olden time to invigorate King
David, the Psalmist, by causing a young and
vigorous and healthy person to sleep with him.
Although it failed of the desired eft'ect, it proved
that there was a popular impression that health-
ful influences were absorbed by one party. Be
that as it may, it is undeniable that healthful
influences are lost, and to a fatal extent some-
times. A woman ^vas prostrated with incura-
ble consumption. Her infant occupied the
same bed with her almost constantly day and
night. The moth v. x lingered for months on the
verge of the grave — her demise being hourly
expected. Still she lingered on, daily disprov-
ing the predictions of her medical attendants.
The child, meanwhile, pined without any appa-
rent disease. Its once fat little cheeks fell
away with singular rapidity till every bone in
its face was visible. Finally it had imparted
to the mother its last spark of vitality, and
simultaneously both died.

212 SLEEP.

Becent medico-chemicul investigations, in a
German city, have proved that the green color-
ing matter used in the manufacture of curtains
and paper hangings, contains poisonous sub-
stances in sufficient quantities to cause illness.
Several physicians testified triat patients sleep-
ing in rooms hung with decorations containing
much dark green, speeJily recovered their
health upon being removed to apartments not
so decorated. And chemical analysis soon
succeeded in ascertaining the presence of nox-
ious matter.

The general argument of these pages is to
show that sleeping-rooms should be large,
should be supplied with a pure atmosphere,
that this should be constantly renewed, and
that as sleeping with others in the same room
and in the same bed is an important source of
impurity to the air of a chamber, arrangements
should be made by all who are so fortunate as
\o possess the means, to have a separate room

ENGLISH AND P RENCH VENTIL\TION. 213

and a separate bed for every member of the
household ; for there are strong reasons for be-
lieving that every year there are more cases of
darigf^rous and .atal diseases gradually engen-
dered by the habit of sleeping in small, unven-
tilated rooms, and by crowding persons in the
same bed and room, than have occurred from a
cholera atmosphere during any year since its
first appearance in this country. Very many
persons sleep in eight-by-ten rooms, that is, in
rooms the length and breadth of which multi- .
plied together, and this again by ten for the
hight of the chamber, would make just eight
hundred cubic feet, while the cubic space for
each bed, according to the English apportion-
ment for hospitals, is twenty-one hundred feet.
" To give the air of a room the highest degree
of freshness," the French hospitals contract for
a complete renewal of the air of a room every
hour, while the English assert that double that
am )unt, or over four thousand feet an hour, is
required. Yet there are multitudes in the city

214 SLEEP.

of New- York who sleep with closed doors and
windows, in rooms which do not contain a thou-
sand cubic feet of space, and that thousand feet
is to last all night, or at least eight hours of it,
except with such scanty renewals as may be ob-
tained through the crevices at the windows and
doors, not an eighth of an inch in thickness.
But when it is known that in many instances a
man and wife and infant sleep habitually in
rooms which do not net a thousand cubic feet
of space, it is no marvel that multitudes prema-
turely perish in cities ; nor is it wonderful that
infant children wilt away like flowers without
water, and that five thousand of them die in
the city of New- York alone, during the hun-
dred days which include the middle of July of
any year.

Another fact is suggestive, that among the
fifty thousand persons who sleep nightly in the
lodging-houses of London, expressly arranged
on the improved principles of space and ventila-
tion already referred to, it has been proven that

WALL-PAPER POISON. 215

not oue single case of fever has been engender-
ed in two years. Let every person of intelli-
gence improve the lessons of this fact without
an hour's delay.

Nothing short of " line upon line" will avail
to impress these great practical truths on the
popular mind ; hence the reiteration of kindred
facts bearing on the general subject of the im-
pure air of sleeping-rooms, and the disastrous
effects connected with them. Using wall-paper
having a green color, especially if fuzzy — called
velvety — and not glazed, is immediately de-
structive of health, and even of life, if persisted
in. As proof, H. Fulland, near Tipton, England,
moved into a new house in eighteen hundred
and fift} -nine ; in a short time all his children
became curiously affected, although they had
enjoyed good health up to the day of removal.
They were worse at night than during the day ;
they were exceedingly restless ; a singular
twitching or jerking of the muscles, especially
those of the face, with a decline of the general

216 SLEEP.

health, indicated the working of some insidious
agency. The medical man had them promptly
removed to another room, when they began at
once to improve, and soon recovered their
health. They were then returned to their for-
mer room, when there was an immediate re-oc-
currence of the former symptoms. This sug-
gested that the cause of the symptoms was in
the room itself. There was a green-colored
paper on the wall, from a small piece of which
was scraped fuzz enough to contain, on analy-
sis, enough arsenic to poison a man.

There was a very handsome house near one
of the best provincial towns in England which
could never keep its tenants. At last it stood
empty and became worthless, because a detest-
able fever seized upon every family that lived
in it. A ready-witted observer promised the
owner to find out the cause. He traced the
mischief to one room, and presently conjectured
what was the matter there. He let a slip of
glass into the wall, and found it next day

PAPERING ON PAPER. 217

dimmed with fetid condensed vapor. He toro
down a strip of paper, and found abundant
cause for any amount of fever. For genera-
tions the walls had been papered afresh, with-
out the removal of any thing underneath.
And there was the putrid size and fermenting
old paper, inches deep I A thorough clearance,
scraping, and cleaning, put an end to the fever,
and restored the value of the house.

In another house, more deadly effects still
were traced to a workman who, having been
employed to paper a room, and finding a con-
siderable hollow in the wall, filled it up with a
bucket of paste and remnants of paper, and
then covered it over. The result was, destruc-
tive decomposition took place, of the paper, the
paste, and the various coloring matters, throw-
ing into the room the most deadly gases, which
were at times of so much power that sensitive
persons were attacked with various symptoms
of illness, within ten or fifteen minutes after en-
tering the room.
19

218 sleb:p.

Two children of a manufacturer of "air-
balls" of colored India-rubber have been de-
clared bj a coroner's jury to have been "acci*
dentally poisoned by the continuous inhalations
of particles of deleterious powder used in the
coloring of air-balls." The father deposed that
he used ultra- marine blue, Chinese red, and
rose-pink, adding; "I did use Brunswick
green, but desisted when another maker told
me he had poisoned his fmger wi -i it." The
balls would burst occasionally during the pro-
cess of inflation, and the whole powder would
fly about the room like smoke. Sometimes the
children would pick up a ball after it had
burst, and the father had seen the powder
about their mouths.

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently says, in
reference to the poisonous effects of the inhala-
tion of arsenic:

" We know, ourselves, of the case of a young
and beautiful lady of this city, whose health
was shattered for years, and whose life was se-

WALL PAPER POISON. 219

riously jeopardized from li.ibitu{illy sleeping in
a room covered witli paper colored green by
arsonia. Ilor early symptoms were merely a
slight dryness about the throat and fauces, with
some diaiThca. These gradually increased, and
'•esisted all treatment. Dropsy suj)ervened, and
from being a beautiful girl, she became an ob-
ject so bloated and repulsive in appearance, as
to be painful to look at. Tier physician sus-
pected slow poisoning, but the most careful
analysis of her food could detect nothing, and
her life was despaired of. At last, however, he
bethought him of the possibility of the air she
breathed being the vehicle of the poison. A
small portion of the wall-paper was taken to
his laboratory, and, being subjected to analysis,
was found to contain arsenic. The lady was
removed to another part of the house, and her
recovery, protracted through many months,
dated from the day of the change."

It is a well-known fact that one or more of
the European governments have prohibited the
manufacture of the common Lucifer matches,
in consequence of the terrible eating sores
which form on the jaws and other portions of

220 sr.EEP.

tlie persons of trie girls who pass their time in
rooms where there is a coiiHtant smell of brim
stone.

These are but a sample of multitudes of
cases of authentic record, showing the dan
gerous and fatal cflfects of breathing habit-
ually an impure atmosphere, and that as
one third of existence is spent in sleeping-
chambers, the atmosph'To of which is spe-
cially corrupted by two or three persons
sleeping in the same small un ventilated
room at thr ime time, strenuous eflforts
should be promptly inaugurated by the more
intellifjent classes of society to abate a social
custom which exercises such a wide influ-
ence for evil on the health and happiness
of the people.

In reference to the fact that the more
crowded the habitations of a locality are,
the more disease there is, and vice versn,
Parliamentary returns show that of twenty-
eight huii'lred infants annually sent to vaii*

VITALITY OF COUNTRY AIR. 221

ous hospitals in cities and towns to bo
taken care of, twenty-four out of every
twenty-five died. A law was immediately
passed that they should be sent to the
country thereafter, when it was found that
only nine out of twenty-live died the first
year; that is, instead of twenty-six hundred
and ninety dying, there are only four hun-
dred and fifty, a diflforence of twenty-two
hundred and forty, showing in a striking
degree the susceptibility of infants to the
ill-efltects of a contaminated air, and the
value of causing them to sleep where the
atmosphere can not be tainted with the
breath which comes all loaded with im-
purities from the lungs of others. This
simple unvarnished statement of the fact,
which is indisputable, ought to impress the
mind of every parent deeply with the im-
portance and the duty of using all practicable
means for securing to their offspring the ha*

19*

232 SLEEP.

bitual breathing of the purest air possible ;
not only in the daytime, but also during
the night, when the system is less capable
of resisting injurious influences of any kind,
by reason of the inaction of a state of
sleep, and quite as much from the bodily
debilities caused by the labors and exer-
cises of the day, being careful, however, to
avoid a general, but radical and mischievous
error, that warm air is necessarily impure.
Warmth is as essential to health as pure
air, and how best to secure both, should be
the constant effort of all who are wise for
themselves, and for those whose health and
lives they are the providential custodians.
To die childless, after having had children,
must be one of the most crushing of all
calamities of the heart ; yet, in multitudes of
cases, the sufferers are the immediate authors
of their own sorrows, by reason of their un-
pardonable ignorance or more criminal neg

BLfiEPINQ APARTMENTS. 228

lect, in the direction, among others, of im-
proper regulations as to the sleeping and
breathing of their children.

A very considerable portion, at least one
third, of our time is spent in our sleeping-
rooms, and it is well worthy of considera-
tion how to make such arrangements as
will exclude the greatest number of sources
of atmospheric contamination ; the greatest
abundance of air and its most plentiful re-
newal and as a single sleeper will taint
more than one half the air of a large-sized
chamber, only one person should be allotted
to each, when practicable. The chamber
should be the highest, the airiest, the sun-
niest, and the cleanest room in every family
dwelling; and yet the smallest, the most
cluttered up, and the most out-of-the-way
apartments are selected too frequently for
dormitories. "Almost any place will do to
sleep in," is the tacit language of perhaps
three fourths of the people; hence, many

224 SLEEP.

sleep habitually in garrets, attics, closets,
under the steps, under the counters, any
where. Hufeland, the great German physi-
ologist, says that : " As we spend a considera-
ble portion of our lives in tlie bed-chamber,
its healthiness or unhealthiness can not fail
to have a very important influence on our
well-being."

In hospitals of very moderate liberality,
an apartment is allowed to each invalid
equal to ten feet each way, or one thousand
cubic feet in all; according to this distribu-
tion, the chamber of a man, wife, and child
should be at least sixteen feet long, fifteen
broad, and twelve i-l''h, which would give
less than a thousand feet for each. A. hard-
working man requires fully this much, to
enable him to derive from sleep that re-
novation and vigor which will fit him to
discharge the duties of the succeeding day
with comfort to himself and with fidelity to
his employer, hence it has been most perti-

FETOR OF CROWDED ROOMS. 225

nently observed that " small bed-rooms are no
less a curse to the laborer, than they are to
the farmer, the foreman, the landlord, and
the nation."
It is well said in the Scientific American :

" If the impure air of the Black Hole of Cal-
cutta could, out of one hundred and forty-six
Englishmen, kill, in six hours, no less than
seventy-nine, leaving in the morning no more
than sixty-seven survivors in the whole, the
pemiciousness of bad ventilation can not be too
much warned against. If you wish to preserve
your health, and the health of others, ventilate
your large rooms, and never live in small ones."

The following, from Dickens' Household Words,

will be read with interest :

"People have often said that no difference
can be detected in the analyzation of pure and
impure air. This is one of the vulgar errors
difficult to dislodge from the ordinary brain.
The fact is, that the condensed air of a crowded
room gives a deposit which, if allowed to remain
a few days, forms a solid, thick, glutinous mass,
having a strong odor of animal matter. If ex-

926 SLEEP.

amined by the microscope, it is seen to undergo
a remarkable change. First of all it is convert-
ed into a vegetable growth, and this is followed
by tlie prodi.jtion of multitudes of animalcules,
a decisive proof that it must contain certain
organic matter, otherwise it could not nourish
organic beings. This was the result arrived at
by Dr. Angus Smith, in his beautiful experi-
ments on the air and waters of towns, wherein
he showed how the lungs and skin gave out
organic matter, which is in itself a deadly poison,
producing headache, sickness, disease, or epi-
demic, according to its strength. Why, if a few
drops of the liquid matter obtained by the con-
densation of the air of a foul locality, introduced
into the vein of a dog, can produce death by
the phenomenon of typhus fever, what incalcu-
lable evils must not it produce on those human
beings who breathe it again, rendered fouler
and less capable of sustaining life with every
breath drawn I Such contamination of the air,
and consequent hot-bed of fever and epidemic,
it is easily within the power of man to remove.
Ventilation and cleanliness will do all, so far aa
the abolition of this evil goes ; and ventilation
and cleanliness are not miracles to be prayed

TENEMENT HOUSE SYSTEM.

227

for, but certain results of common obedience to
tbe laws of God."

It was announced, at a meeting of the New-
York Sanitary Society, that only one fourth of
the population lived in houses which contained
but one family ; it is therefore almost literally
a city of tenement- houses:

"There are faiugle tenement -houses which
contain one hundred and twenty rooms, about
the size of a state-room, and in a single pest-
house of this description about four hundred
human beings are immured in an atmosphere
of effluvia, disease, and indecency. In such
stupendous sties, ventilation and cleanliness are
as likely to be found as in the Black Hole in
Calcutta. On a single block, covering an area
of four hundred feet square, nearly twice as
many families are found as on the whole extent
of the Fifth Avenue I It is also found that New-
York, with twenty-one thousand families more
than Philadelphia, has twenty-three thousand
less dwellings thi?.n the Quaker City. Truly,
these are astoundin/^ facts to every Christian and
every philanthropist among us. Who can bring

228 SLEEP.

any clean, thing out of such immeasurable un»
cleanness? Do you ■vs'onder that fraud and
peculation abound, when the majority of the
electors in New- York issue from the tenement-
house ? Do you wonder that streets are filthy,
children are degraded, property insecure, and
Sabbath-breaking has to be kept within the
limits of open heathenism only by the strong
arm of the police ?"

From such statements, the conviction presses
itself upon us, that crowding and crime grow
together as to communities ; for where there are
'■^ ninety - six families in a single house^ men,
women, and children sleeping, like pigs or sheep,
together, without air or ventilation, without
light, with no protection, and no privacy, all
breathing the same putrid effluvia," there must
be moral and physical contaminations at the
very thought of which the heart of humanity
sinks and sickens. As with communities, so
with families : crowding degrades.

There is significance in the emphatic enuncia
tion of a popular writer, that "it is one of the

VENLILATION AND HOUSE WARMING. 229

moral duties of every married woman, always td
appear well dressed in the presence of her hus'
band." Nothing can so much aid in this regard
as a separate chamber, and if this were mutual in
the married relation, it would add incalculably
to that personal self respect, that dignity of de-
meanor, and that courteousness of bearing, the
most sedulous cultivation of which adds so
incalculably to the amenities of domestic life.

VENTILATION AND HOUSE
WARMING.

For the double purpose of making this vol-
ume practical on the general subject of ventila-
tion, and to show that the popular mind is
waking up to the importance of the subject,
the subjoined articles are copied. "A Me-
chanic," in Buffalo, New- York, writes, on the
conjoined subjects of House-warming and Ven-
tilation: ,. . . .,

" Those who have made experiments for the
purpose of determining the quantity of pure air

^80 SLEEP.

required per minute for each individual, vary in
their conclusions. They publish from three to
ten cubic feet, but when physiological facts in
relation to the size of lungs, health of persons,
and various circumstances arc considered, we
concede the accuracy of either amount.

" We learn by science that the laws of nature
do not long permit the enjoyment of health
where pure air is not ; and also when health is
lost there can be no possible recovery of it
without the aid of pure air. When we breathe,
although the air in the lungs is on one side of
the membrane and the blood on the other, a re-
ciprocal action takes place between them. The
blood receives through the membrane oxygen
from the air, and at the same time the air re-
ceives from the blood carbonic acid gas and
watery vapor. The amount of oxygen and
carbonic acid gas thus exchanged are said to be
equal — that is, pure air taken into the lungs is
expelled with about eighty-five per cent car-
bonic acid gas and an equal amount of oxygen
has been taken from it by the blood.

" It appears that a middle-sized man, aged
about thirty-eight years, and whose pulse is
seventy on an average, gives off three hundred

CARBONIC ACID OF EXPIUATION. 281

and two cubic inches of carbonic acid gas from
his lungs in eleven minutes, and supposing the
production uniform for twenty-four hours, the
total quantity in that period would be thirty
nine tliousand five hundred and thirty-four
cubic inches, (agreeing almost exactly with Dr.
Thompson's estimate,) weighing eighteen thou-
sand six hundred and eighty-three grains, the
carbonic acid in which is five thousand three
hundred and sixty-three grains, or rather more
than eleven ounces Troy. The oxygen con-
sun'xed in the same time will be equal in vol-
ume to the carbonic acid gas. See respiration
under Physiology in the JSncyclojpcedia JBri-
iannica.

" It has been shown by experiment that the
pure air once breathed contains eighty-five per
cent of carbonic acid, and that the same air by
continued respirations would not take more
than ten per cent. Hence the necessity in the
preservation of health of breathing air but
once as it enters and departs from a room.
Proper ventilation permits the air to pass away
after having been once breathed, for in respira-
tion the air expelled from the lungs being
warmed ascends and is not where it may be re-

232 SLEEP.

ceived by their next expansion. But if by in-
sufficient ventilation air is breathed more than
once, it gives less oxygen to the blood and
takes less carbonic acid and watery vapor from
it than is necessary for the preservation of
health. The efficacious action of the blood
ceases because of the deleterious presence of
carbonic acid in the blood and in the air. Car-
bonic acid gas has a little more specific gravity
than atmospheric air, but the difference is so
slight that when in a current of air it is carried
upward, or where there is no current, it tends
downward.

" Because of the bad ventilation, children in
school may dread their task. For want of
pure air their digestion is impeded. They then
feel as if a heavy burden was upon them. If
they try to learn they never succeed. If they
succeed in committing a paragraph to memory,
it is soon forgotten. Being ignorant of them-
selves and the causes of their maladies, they
judge themselves incapacitated for intellectual
pursuits.

" It is from the same cause, very frequently,
that religious congregations have many mem-
bers who spend in church an hour of sleepy

IMPURE AIR OF CHURCHES. 233

thoughtlessness, and return home without being
able to tell the points of the speaker's discourse,
though they had been where one of the most
instructive and interesting sermons was preach-
ed. It is doubtless because of bad ventilation
that the power of the advocate of the Gospel in
the pulpit is much less than it otherwise would
be.

" Houses of worship are mostly so construct-
ed that the impure air is driven, by opening
the door upon the preacher. He, in the act of
speaking, inhales it more injuriously than
others. As a victim he may be marked for an
early death. The sympathy and defense which
he would have if a wild beast of the forest
should assail him in the pulpit does not appear
to defend him from the consequences of bad
ventilation, which fact is a proof of the absence
of knowledge in relation to the subject."

VENTILATION OF KITCHENS.

A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer says :

" There is always more or less steam and
grease-smoke caused by cooking, and their re-
movid is always desirable without resorting to
open doors and windows.

20*

284 SLEEP.

" In eighteen hundred and fifty-six I put a
cook stove into my kitchen, which is fourteen by
sixteen feet, and placed a ventilator over it, in
the shape of an inverted funnel, to the upper
end of which was attached an eight-inch pipe,
that entered the flue above the stove-pipe. My
stove and ventilator still remain there, and we
are never troubled with smoke or steam — all is
instantly carried away.

" This ventilator is of my own planning, and
made of sheet iron. The eight inch pipe has a
circular elbow, connecting it with the flue, and
both it and the stove pipe are below the ceiling.
The flue is twelve by sixteen inches inside, and
is therefore capable of carrying off a good deal
of smoke and air. The rim, or widest part of
the ventilator, is thirty inches in diameter, and
is suspended four feet above the top of the
stove. There is a damper in the ventilator
pipe, that enables me to shut it entirely, if I
desire to start the fire quick, by increasing the
draft. It soon becomes necessary to open it,
however, as the draft in my chimney is too
great, and burns the wood too fust. Many peo-
jjie have seen it, and think it worth ten dollars
a year to any kitchen. A hole can be made

KITCHEN VENTILATION. 286

easily in the flue, or the pipe may be carried
through the ceiling, and enter the flue above,
especially if the kitchen is one story, and an
open garret above it. More room is obtained
by the latter method. It will also do equally
well if the pipe is carried through the roof or
side of the house. It is not like a stove-pipe,
and there is no danger from fire. It is easily
and cheaply made, and may bo obtained from
any tin-plate or sheet-iron store."

MANAGING- WINDOWS FOR AIR.

" There is always a draught through key-
holes, window-crevices, because as external air
is colder tlian the air in the room we occupy, it
rushes through the window-crevices to supply
the deficiency caused by the escape of wind up
the chimney. If you open the lower sash of a
window, there is more draught than if you open
the upper sash. The reason of this is because
if the lower sash be opened, cold air will rush
into the room and cause a great draught inward ;
but if the upper sash be opened the heated air
will rush out, and of course there will be less
draught inward. A room is better ventilated

286 8LEE1>.

by opening the upper saah, because the hot
ventilatxMl air, which always ascends upwards
towards the ceiling, can escape more easily.
The wind dries damp linen, because dry wind,
like a sponge, iinbihea the particles of vapor
from the surface of the linen as fast aa they are
i'ormcd.

"The hottest place in a church or chapel is
the gallery, because the heated air of the build-
ing ascends, and all the cold air which can enter
through the doors and windows keeps to the
floor till it has become heated. Special atten-
tion should be given to the ventilation of sleep-
ing-rooms ; for pure .air, and an abundance of
it, is more necessary when we are sleeping than
when we are awake. Sleeping-rooms should
be large, high and dry, more especially in warm
latitudes, and in situations where the windows
have to be kept closed at night on account of
malaria."

VENTILATION OF SHOPS.

"Few things," says a foreign writer, "are
more insidiously undermining the constitution
and vital stamina of many 'young people'
than the want of shop ventilation, particularlj^
in the evening, when the gas is lighted.

VENTILATION OF SHOPS. 237

••There arc many traflea, the occupation in
which is very light, and requires little or no
exertion. Statiotu^ra, fiincy wool, top-shops,
and tiu; likc^, nearly all keep tlunr doors closed
'because it is so cold;' the result is, that tho
burning gas vitiates the air in the shop; and
the assistatits inhaling this, the circulation of
the blood is lowered, and the outward cold is
felt all the more. Again, there are some shops
the contents of which naturally yield emanations
of an unhealthy kind when a free current of air
is excluded. Who, for insta. jc, can go into a
shoe-shop, the doors of which are kept closed,
without at once being conscious of the unplea-
sant odor of old and new leather ? The same
may be said of a ready-made clothing depot ; the
peculiar odor of the cloth and fustian, the burnt
gas, and the confined breath of the people serv-
ing therein, make it exceeding disagreeable to a
stranger on entering out of the fresh air. If a
remark be made by .a purchaser that the shop
'smells close,' the assistant is almost sure to
reply that ' they don't notice it.' What, how-
ever, they do notice, is headache, languor, loss
of appetite, ennui, .ability, pallor of the fjvee,
blotchy skin, redness of the nose, and white face,

288 SLEEP.

All unheeded warnings to ventilate the dwelli^^g-
place, which, if not attended to, produce worse
results.

" Many drapers' shops are badly ventilated ;
some, where they drive a good trade, have been
enlarged by the addition of neighboring houses,
all the fireplaces have been removed, and but
one or two entrances are left to the whole build-
ing. There are, on the other hand, many trades
where the door is always open ; the result is
that all engaged in it are healthy, and never
complain of being cold. Look at the butcher-
boy, blooming and healthy; furniture- dealers,
tavern keepers, and many other occupations are,
as a general rule, healthy, because of the free
ventilation of the shops or places of trade.

" The nose is the gate to the lungs, and what-
ever is indicative of unpleasantness is unhealth-
ful, and should be shut out. Instead of closing
the doors to keep the shop warm, it is better, if
the cold is severe, to wear warmer under-cloth-
ing — half gloves, thick stockings, warm jackets,
and woolly neckerchiefs. In winter, dress ac
cordingly in warm clothes, and plenty of them.
Arising from well known causes, cold air, par-
ticularly fresh air, warms the person that

BWKA'IIIING DUST. 239

breathes it more than warm air. It is proverb-
ial that persons sitting quietly in a room * feci a
draught' from every cranny. 'The key-hole
blows enough to turn a mill ;' though they
' creep into the fire,' and roast themselves, they
have always one side cold ; yet a little exertion
in fresh open air would put them into a glow.

" As gas burns, and people breathe, water is
produced and exhaled ; if this steam has been
condensed on the inside of windows, you may
be sure the shop wants ventilation. Dust of
every kind should also be avoided with scrupu-
lous care. Every morning when the shop is
dusted, doors and skylights should always be
wide open, so as to clear away the dust as it
flies about. It avails but little to dust without
getting rid of it out of the premises ; to make a
dust with a brush in one place for it to settle in
another, is labor in vain. Persons who take a
morning or evening draught of dust are sure to
be troubled with air-tube complaints. This,
then, is another reason for ventilating the shop.

"Those observations apply not only to the
tradesman's shop, but also to the workshop or
factory. The fearful decadence of the health
of such towns as Manchester, Oldham and Shef-

240 SLEEP.

fiold, whicli are in truth but congregations of
workshops, is notorioup ; the pale, wan faces of
the dwellers there too truly tell the want of
pure, clean, fresh air.

" Passing now from the private shop to pub-
lic institutions, we are compelled to admit the
same radical fault — the want of that element
which is ' the breath of life.'

"In the churdies, schools, and assemblies,
people who go there suffer more or less from
this evil. It is proverbial how persons, young
and old, suffer from colds, bronchitis, and influ-
enza, all of which are said to be * caught ' when
they return from some public place of assembly.
The question naturally arises, how is this?
The answer is, that it is caused by the sudden
change which the body undergoes in passing
from a heated, impure air to that of the natural
temperature, containing also its proper propor-
don of elements. Man requires for his health
one gallon of air every minute of his life ; the
individuals of a church congregation are rarely,
if ever, supplied with a quarter of that quantity.
Only at the cathedrals is the air space in pro-
portion ■'d the worshipers. A man of large
lungs inhales about twenty-five cubic inches of

VITIATED AIR OF CROWDED ROOMS. 241

air at each respiration ; lie breathes eleven times
a minute, and thus requires nine and a half
cubic feet of air evGry hour. Now when there
are a thousand persons under one roof (some of
the metropolitan churches and chapels contain
twenty-five hundred personii) for a couple of
hours, it is evident that twenty thousand cubic
feet of air are required to supply that which is
necessary for existence to those thousand per-
sons in a pure atmosphere, so that, of course, a
much larger quantity than that is required in
order that a current can be established to remove
the effete matter of exhalation.

" The evils of vitiated air are also more to be
guarded against, because persons can live in it
without being aware of its danger, so far as
their sensations are concerned. When we enter
a crowded assembly on a cold day, the air is, at
first, repulsive and oppressive, but these sensa-
tions gradually disappear, and then we breathe
freely and are unconscious of the quality of the
air. Science, however, reveals the fact that the
system sinks in action to meet the conditions of
the impure air, but it does so at the expense of
having the vital functions gradually depressed,
and when this .is continued disease follows. No

242 SLEEP.

disease can be thoroughly cured when there is
a want of ventilation. It is related that illness
continued in a family until a pane of glass was
accidentally broken, and then it ceased; the
window not being repaired, a plentiful supply
of fresh air was admitted."

BURYING- UNDER CHURCHES.

"The practice of building sepulchral vaults
under the churches was fraught with the great-
est evil to the health of those who went into the
edifice for sacred purposes. But, with few
exceptions, it is now interdicted by the legisla-
ture ; still a great deal has to be done. Nearly
all the churches in the empire require some
artificial means of ventilation to render them
physically fit receptacles for the body during a
prolonged service. The Sunday-schools, also, as
I a general rule, are very ill-ventilated, and in

the second hour the lessons arc far worse ren-
dered than in the first, solely arising from a
semi-lethargic coma that comes over the pupils
breathing a carbonic air, which has already
done duty, and been inhaled by others several
times. However it is to be regretted, it is yet
true that people will sometimes sleep during

BURYING UNDER CHURCHES. ^43

the sermon. Now, the minister must not be
twitted with this, for with the oratory of a Jer-
emy Taylor or a Tillotson, people could not be
kept awake in an atmosphere chaiged with
carbonic gas, the emanations of a thousand
listeners. The church-wardens should ventilate
the churches, and see that the congregations
liave sufficient air for breathing; if people go
to sleep, the church-wardens are more to blame
than the preacher."

VENTILATION AS INFLUENCING-
HEALTH AND LONGEVITY.

In a public lecture on this subject, Br. E. Y.
Robins, an indefatigable worker and an able
and scientific writer on subjects allied to venti-
lation and general hygiene, said that air was the
prime necessary of life ; that we could live
more days without food than we could minutes
without air. The purpose of our breathing was,
first, to supply the blood with oxygen, which
is the life-sustaining principle of the air, and
second, to free the blood from carbonic acid and
other impurities. The air which we breathe is
found, on expiration, to have lost a large part
of its oxygen, and to be impregnated with car-

244 SLEEP,

bonic acid gas — that substance which often
proves fatal to persons who descend into wells,
and which is the active agent of death in cases
of suicide by burning cliarcoal. It produces
death whether retained in the blood or inhaled
into the lungs — the poisoning process in both
cases being precisely the same.

To produce death by that agent, it was by
no means necessarv that it should be breathed
in a pure state. Dr. Carpenter had ascertained
that air containing five or six per cent of car-
bonic acid gas would produce immediate death,
and that less than one half that quantity would
soon prove fatal; and Dr. T. Herbert Barker
had ascertained by experiments with this sub-
stance, that an animal in an atmosphere con-
taining only two per cent of carbonic acid
would die in about two hours. Now the air
which we exhale from the lungs contains, ac-
cording to standard authorities, ab< at five per
cent of carbonic acid, and hence if exactly the
same air were remhaled it would quickly prove
fatal. It is a substance that is constantly ac-
cumulating in the blood, and if it is not as con-
siantly removed it will speedily produce death.
The process of breathing is but the instinctive

VENTILATION AND LONGEVITY. 245

eflfort of nature to free herself from the presence
of this poison. But air which has once been in
the lungs, will no longer perform this office,
being already saturated with carbonic acid.
Hence the necessity of inhaling fresh air at
every breath. The importance of this was
illustrated by Dr. Southwood Smith, who said :
" Stop the respiration of an animal, or confine
it to air which has already been respired, and
carbon accumulates in the venous blood and
mixes with the arterial blood. In half a minute
the blood flowing in the arteries is evidently
darker; in three quarters of a minute it is of a
dusky hue, and in a minute and a half it is
quite black. Every particle of arterial blood
now disappears, and the whole mass becomes
venous, sensibility is abolished, the animal falls
down, and in three, or at most in four minutes,
the heart entirely ceases its action, and can
never again be excited." Now, if effects are
proportioned to their causes, and if an atmos-
phere impregnated with five per cent — or one
twentieth part of its volume — of carbonic acid,
will thus produce death in a few minutes, what
must be the probable effect of breathing, for
iwenty or forty years, even the much minuter

246 • • SLEEP.

proportions which must be present in every in*
habited room where there is not a constant in-
gress and egress of air? It must lower the
standard of health and shorten the duration of
life. But not only is the air in a close room
thus constantly being impregnated witli cai-
bonic acid gas to the amount of about twenty-
eight cubic inches per minute for each adult
man occupying such room, but there is also, ac-
cording to the best authorities, constantly being
discharged by the lungs and pores of the skin,
an equal amount, by weight — that is, about
three or three and a half pounds in twenty-four
hours — of effete, decaying animal substance,
in the form of in&c'nsible vapor, which we often
see condensed in drops upon the windows of
crowded rooms and railroad-cars. Those drops,
if collected and evaporated, leave a thick, putrid
mass of animal matter. The breathing of these
exhalations is believed to be quite as efficient
in producing disease as carbonic acid itself.
But there is still a third deterioration produced
in the air by respiration, and that is, the loss of
its oxygen. Oxygen is the vital and life-sup-
porting principle of the air, and it is found that,
when the air enters the lungs, the blood absorbs

AIK OF CLOSE BOOMS. 247

about forty per cent of the oxygen which it
contains. It is upon this we live ; and the air
that is exhaled being deficient by almost one
half in this vital element, of course can no
longer support life. And as we inhale about
five hundred cubic inches of air every minute,
we of course deprive that quantity of air of '
forty per cent of its oxygen each minute. The
Creator has provided for the constant and com-
plete removal of these poisonous exhalations by
causing the expired air to rise, by its increased
warmth and consequent levity, quickly above
our heads and beyond the reach of a second in*
halation, and by sweeping it away by the winds;
but by our impervious ceilings and tight walls,
we obstruct the operation of this beneficent
law, and prevent these poisonous exhalations
from escaping. Hence the air of a close room,
though occupied but by a single person, becomes,
from the very first moment of occupancy, im-
pregnated with these impurities, which accu-
mulate more and more, the longer it is occupied
without vontiliititju, and the more it is crowded.
It would certainly be difi&cult to over-estimate
the importance to life and health of the purity
of the air we breathe, and it would ali^o be diffi-

248 SLEEP.

cult to determine to what period of duration
human life might be prolonged, did we and had
our ancestors always broatlied a perfectly pure
atmosphere. A most remarkable and convinc-
ing illustration of the effects of the quality of
the air we breathe upon health, is to be found
in the experience of the armies of England and
France during the late Russian war. England,
out of a total force of ninety-three thousand
nine hundred and fifty nine men engaged in the
campaign in the Crimea, lost thirty-three thou-
sand six hundred and forty-five, of which num-
ber only only two thousand and fifty-eight were
killed in action, and one thousand seven hun-
dred and sixty-one died of wounds, while no
less than sixteen thousand two hundred and
ninety-eight died of disease at the seat of war,
and about thirteen thousand were sent home on
account of sickness, many of whom, no doubt,
afterwards died. To every one taken to the
hospitals on account of wounds, twelve were
taken there on account of disease. The chief
destroyer was typhus fever. M. Boudens, Sur-
geon-in -Chief of the French army, in a letter
written home during the war, says of this
disease: "It is engendered by crowding and

VENTILATION OF SCHOOL-ROOMS. 249

want, either in hospitals, prisons, or on board
of vessels. The disease may indeed be called
forth and removed at will." And he adds:
"The first remedy is pure air and powerful
ventilation." The great mortality in the Eng-
lish army was during the early period of the
war. After the Sanitary Commissioners ar-
rived and commenced their operations by secur-
ing greater ventilation, the sickness was i lid,
and finally disappearv The great panacea
was fresh air. In the French army, where no
sanitary reforms were introduced, the great
mortality continued and increased, thus showing
clearly that the changes made by the Sanitary
Commissioners in the English army were the
sole causes of the decrease of mortality where
they labored. Recurring again to the condition
of our buildings here, the lecturer said : In our
school-rooms the matter is still worse ; while in
our railroad-cars we have actually less breath-
ing room than the wretched prisoners in the
Black Hole of Calcutta — they having had about
forty cubic feet per man, while in our cars we
have only an allowance of about thirty cubic
feet. In addition to this, the lighting of our
rooms in the evening is a source of great con-

250 SLEEP.

tamination to the air— cacli giis-burner buing
cstirnuted to generate as much carbonic acid gas
as the respiration of four peraons, or more tlian
one hundred cubic inches per minute. Every
gas-burner should liave a ventihiting tube to
carry off the products of combustion, and con-
vey thorn entirely out of the room, as is tlie
case in the Houses of Parliament, and many
other public and private buildings in England.
In conclusion, he stated his belief, that by due
attention to sewerage and ventilation, the mor-
tality of this city would be decreased ten thou-
sand every year. The lecture, which occupied
about an hour in reading, was listened to with
great satisfaction by all present. When the
lecture was concluded, Dr. Harris stated that
the next lecture would be delivered on Monday

evening.

" In answer to a call, Dr. Halliday referred to
recent visits he had made to the houses in this
cit}'' in which a number of families lived to
gether. He said that the Italian residents here,
especially, were in the habit of living several
families together, in one comparatively small
room. He also mentioned that in a single block
he found forty-five families, not a single one of

MJjkM

RICIIAIIDS ON VENTILATION. 261

whom had a child living. When he asked for
their children, the answer generally was : * God
has taken them away to lieaven.' This terrible
infant mortality was caused by want of cleanli-
ness and ventilation in their residences."

The best, the ablest, and most successful
weekly publication of its kind in the world, ia
the New- York Scientific American. One of its
special correspondents, E. M. Richards, writes on
the same important subject of ventilation :

" Many persons have remarked the languor
and sleepiness that are apt to creep over them
after sitting for an hour or so in a crowded
church. Many persons refer this to other than
the real cause — to dullness of the discourse,
bodily derangement, etc. — while really, in mcJst
cases, it is solely to be attributed to a deficiency
of vital air. On first commencing the religious
services, the supply is generally sufiicient ; but
before the close, it becomes totally inadequate.
Many sick stomachs and bilious headaches are
thus inflicted on devout but physiologically ig-
norant worshipers. . , , ',1

" Our schools are little better than ' mephitic

252 SLEEP.

dens/ in which the poor children are almost
poisoned, and their brains stupified, by the im-
purities they are obliged to take into their sys-
t<!ms th^'ough their lungs. Under these circum*
stances it is equally imp /ssible for the pupils to
attend as well to their studies, and for the mas-
ters to exhibit as much tact or patience in im-
parting knowledge, as they would if they were
placed under more favorable circumstances. So
keen is the writer's remembrance of the miseries
he endured from this cause, during his school-
boy days, and so deep his conviction of the last-
ing injury inflicted thereby, that, if compelled
to choose between the two evils, he would pre-
fer having his children to remain untaught all
their lives than subject them to the same blood-
corrupting process which he underwent.

" The railroad-car, the ship, the steamboat, all
give evidence of the presence of the same demon
— foul air. A night's ride in some of our trains
is enough to develop consumption in those pre-
disposed to that disease. The climax of hor-
lors, however, is reached in the crowded steam-
ship, where, to an abundance of carbonic acic .
are added stinking bilge-water, sea-sick passen-
gers, fumes of cookery, oil and rancid tallow

FOUL AIR W CAi:3 AND SHIPS. 25S

from the machinery, and all other abominations
only to be found on ship-board. There is no
use in multiplying examples ; they are to be
found on all sides, if we only look for them.

" The following is a good test of the salubrity
of any apartment : Let a healthy person, whose
sense of smell is unimpaired, tjike a brisk walk
in the open air, then come at once into the
room, and if there is any close or other unpleas-
ant smell, the atmosphere of that room is more
or less hurtful. How many of our oed-cham
bers could pass that ordeal in the early morn-
ing, after being slept in during the night ?

" Having glanced at the prevalence of bad air
and the evil consequences that always follow its
habitual inhalation, the means whereby we may
protect ourselves from it are now to be consid-
ered. The theory of the whole thing is simple
enough : the vitiated air must be removed as
fast as produced, and pure air introduced (with-
out intermixture) to supply its place. The
practice, however, requires some little care. It
may be here stated that winter is the season in
which peoT "* suffer most from defective ventila-
tion, as the external cold makes them cjf.reJally
close all the apertures in their rooms ; while, on

264 SLEEP.

the contrary, in the summer, tlie heat obliges
them to open them all. But ventilation is more
easily effected during cold weather. We must
be careful not to confound pure air with cold^ or
warm air yi\\h.foul; this is a very common mis-
take, and a very dangerous one, too ; for warm
air may be quite pure, and cold air just the
reverse.

" To obtain proper, reliable ventilation, it will
not do to trust to the doors, windows, or fire-
places (should these latter exist) of our apart-
ments ; the first are for ingress and egress, the
second to transmit light, and the last to pass the
products of combustion from the fire into the
open air. No doubt, in the absence of any
better means, the rooms may be kept in a toler-
ably wholesome condition by the free use of
doors and windows, but not in such a perfect,
pleasant, and economical manner as when
proper apparatus is used to secure this result.
As before stated, the breath exhaled from the
lungs, being heated, rises rapidly to the highest
portion of the room, where, if means for its
exit are provided, it will at once (in most con-
ditions of the atmosphere) pass out into the
open air ; but if, as is the case in most build-

BAD AIR OF ROOMS. 256

ings, public or private, there is no foul air-
escape near the ceiling, the heated portion of
air under consideration remains a short time
suspended aloft ; then, as it becomes cooler, it
descends lower and lower, till at last it mingles
with the air near the level of the mouths of the
occupants of the apartment. Should there be
an open fire-place, the foul air, having descend-
ed from the ceiling, generally escapes in great
part up the chimney ; having first come below
the level of the mouth, even of a seated person.
This fact is especially to be noted, as showing
that an open fire- place very indifferently sup-
plies the place of a regular foul air-escape.
Some of it may also, in certain states of the ex-
ternal atmosphere, pass out at the crevices over
the tops of the windows and the top of the
door, supposing them to be closed, as they gen-
erally are in winter ; but if they are open, of
course the case is not so bad. Now, to supply
the place of this out passing vitiated air, fresh
air usually comes in through any cracks or
openings that it can find at or near the level of
the floor ; and in cold weather, if there is a fire
burning in the apartment, the external air will
pour in at any opening it can find, high or low.

256 SLEEP.

It is evident that, under these circumstances,
the in-coming fresh and out-going foul air be-
come more or less intermingled, so that it is
impossible for the inmates to breathe any but a
partially impure element. Opening the win-
dows in winter, though preferable to being
poisoned with noxious gases, is objectionable,
as it causes sudden drafts of very cold air, and
thus may injure invalids, besides being unpleas-
ant to those in robust health ; and, moreover, it
only somewhat remedies the evil. In cases
where there are no fire-places, if it were possi-
ble to construct rooms perfectly air-tight, (and
the best mechanics always leave their work the
freest from flaws and cracks,) there could be no
in-coming or out-going draft in a chamber of
this kind ; in a very little time it would be im-
possible to exist, so rapidly would the noxious
gases ccumulate. It thus appears that, for the
ability to remain in such a room without abso-
lute and immediate danger to life, we have to
thank the bad joints, crevices, and holes left
about windows and doors by the defective work
of the house-carpenter. Certainly, we of the
nineteenth ceiit'iry have not much reason to
boast of our advances in the art of house- build-

VITIATED ATMOSPHERE. 267

ing when we tlius construct our dwellings. It
is not many centuries since there were no chim-
neys to the abodes of the great and wealthy ; a
huge fire was kindled in tlie middle of the large
room whore the baron and his family lived, the
smoke and soot from which fire was allowed to
make its escape in the best way it could through
an aperture contrived in the roof. The discom-
forts of an apartment thus warmed can hardly
be over-rated.

" We may, perhaps, laugh at the rude habits
and the little knowledge of ' household science '
that could tolerate such a state of things ; quite
forgetting that we are just as far behind, in not
providing for the exit of the poisonous products
of respiration. If we have improved on our
forefathers in one respect, we have gone back
in another ; for the aforementioned opening in
the roof, though inferior to the modern chimney
for passing the smoke, provided a much better
outlet for the other exhalations of the spacious
hall below."

The Philadelpliia Bulletin remarks, in the
same direction :

" Human nature is skeptical concerning that
22*

258 SLEEP.

whicli it can not see. If every body could see
foul air, if it was as palpable as foul water, men
would no more breathe it as they do, than they
now drink the water of a green and stagnated
pool. It is odd how slowly u plain truth works
its way when it has the disadvantage of being
new. Even architects, who ought to understand
their business, will build houses, public halls, and
churches, without an intentional crevice for
ventilation. We remember that an old gentle-
man in one of our boroughs was the laughing-
stock of the town because he ventilated his par-
lor. And in great rooms, built for the purpose
of accommodating thousands, there will some-
times be little or no provision for discharging
the foul air which is poisoning the people.

'* But the greatest imposition that we know
of, in this regard, is the condition of the cars on
the great railway lines in the winter. Imposi-
tion, we say, because while the going to a lec-
ture or concert in a public hall is voluntary, it
is often a necessity of travel. Two large stoves,
heated red hot with anthracite coal, are placed
in a space of say fifteen feet wide and ten feet
high. This space contains about eighty people,
«nd is closely hut up. The stoves use up

BAD AIR OF RAIL-CARS. 269

oxygen with great rapidity, and what is left is ,
breathed over and over again by the eighty
people, who are giving out from their lungs,
constantly, a gas utterly unfit to be breathed.
Is it not incredible that upon roads conducted
with the propriety, good sense, and acutenosa,
with which some of our good lines are managed,
there is not wit enough to cut a few holes neai
the top of the car, to let out the foul air ? Gen-
tlemen, presidents, superintendents, engineers,
and conductors, pray have mercy on passengers I
We plead for the people with headaches, with
nausea, and with a stifling sensation which
forces them to sit in a draught with a car going
twenty-five miles an hour, and the thermometer
twenty degrees below freezing point, at the risk
of their life — or else endure slow poison,"

SUNLIGHT AS A VENTILATOR.

But it must be remembered that the vf^ntila
tion of no apartment is perfect without the aid
of the blessed sunlight.

" Sir James Wylie, late physician to the Em-
peror of Russia, attentively studied the effects of

260 SLEEP.

light as a curative agont in the hospitals of St.
Petersburg ; and he discovered that the number
of patients who were cured in rooms properly
lighted was four times greater tlian of those
confined in dark rooms. This led to a complete
reform in lighting the hospitals of Russia, and
witli the most beneficial results. In all cities
visited by the cholera, it was universally found
that the greatest number of deaths took place
in narrow streets, and on the sides of those
having a noithern exposure, where the salutary
beams of the sun were excluded. The inhab-
itants of the southern slopes of mountains are
better developed and more healthy than those
who live on the northern sides; while those
who dwell in secluded valleys are generally
subject to peculiar diseases and deformities of
person. These different results are due to the
agency of light, without a full supply of which
plants and animals maintain but a sickly and
feeble existence. Eminent physicians have ob-
served that partially deformed children have
been restored by exposure to the sun and the
open air. As scrofula is most prevalent among
the children of the poor, this is attributed by
many persons to their living in dark and con-

VALUE OF SUNLIGHT. 26l

fined houses ; such diseases being most common
among those residing in underground tenements.

" The health statistics of all civilized coun-
tries have improved greatly during the past
century. This may be justly regarded as duo
to the superior construction of houses, by ad-
mitting more light into them. The old-
fashioned houses were built with narrow,
dwarfish windows, and as glass, until within
recent years, was very dear, its application to
windows was proportionally limited. Dwellings
of the present day are generally built with
windows of four times the dimensions of those
belonging to the olden times; and the streets
of our cities (upon which houses depend so
much for their light) are made much wider
than those of a past age. Light is now more
valued, for its influence is better understood
than was the case fifty or one hundred years
ago ; and the most gratifying results have fol-
lowed. But we are not at the end of city im-
provements yet ; and it »s felt, in almost all our
cities, that if the streets (even the broadest of
them) were twice their present width, a general
benefit would be the result."

" The following %ct," says a good authority,

262 STiKKP.

" has been established by careful observation :
That where sunlight penetrates all the rooms
of a dwelling, the inmates are less liable to
sickness, than in a house where tlie apartments
lose its health- invigorating influences. Base-
ment-rooms are the nurseries of indisposition.
It is a gross mistake to compel human beings to
reside partially under ground. There is a de-
fective condition of the air in such rooms, con-
nected with dampness, besides the decomposing
paint on the walls, and the escape of noxious
gases from pipes and drains. It is strange that
builders persist in doing violence to humanity,
by still erecting houses with basements."

In continuation of the same subject, that

beautiful and lovable character, Florence

Nightingale, observes of

THE MANIA FOR DARK ROOMS.

American women have a strange mania for
dark rooms, but hear what Florence Nightin-
gale, in her Notes on Nursing, says on the sub-
ject: "A dark house is almost always an un-
healthy house, always an ill-aired house. Want
of light stops growth, and promotes scrofula,

DARK ROOMS MISCHIEVOUS. 268

rickets, etc., among the cliildren. People lose
their health in a dark house, and if they get ill,
tlioy can not get well again in it. Three out of
many * negligences and ignorances' in manag-
ing the health of houses generally, I will here
mention as 8|)ecimens. First, that the female
head in charge of any building does not think
it necessary to visit every hole and corner of it
every day. How can she expect those who are
under her to be more careful to maintain her
house in a healthy condition than she who is in
charge of it ? Second, that it is not considered
essential to air, to sun, and to clean rooms while
uninhabited ; which is simply ignoring the first
elementary notion of sanitary things, and lay-
ing the ground ready for all kinds of diseases.
Third, that the window, and one window, is
considered enough to air a room. Don't
imagine that if you who are in charge don't
look to all those things yourself, those under
you will be more careful than you are. It ap
pears as if the part of the mistress was to com-
plain of her servants, and to accept their
excuse — not to show them how there need be
neither complaints made nor excuses."

26-1 SLEEP.

A SUNNY WRITER IN A * PLEA
FOR THE LITTLE ONES."

"Let tlie warm weather come! Let your
children amuse themselves out of doors. Don't
keep tiiem shut up like house-plants, until they
become as pale and as thin as ghosts. Strip
off the finery, put on coarse garments, and turn
them out to play in the sand — to make ' mud-
cak(^s' — to daub their faces with any thing of
an ' earthy nature,' which will have a ten
dency to make them look as though they liad
entered into a co-partnership with dirt. Keep
them in the house, and they will soon look
like, and be of about as much value as a potato
which grows in the cellar — ^pale, puny, sickly,
sentimental wrecks of humanity. Turn them
out, we say, boys and girls, and let them run,
snuff the pure air, and be happy. "Who cares
if they do get tanned? Leather must be
tanned before it is fit for use, and boys and
girls must undergo a hardening process, before
they are qualified to engage in the arduous
duties of active life. Let the sun come into
our dwellin^js, and let our chambers be on the
sunny side of the house. All know that a

TUE ULKSSEI) SUNSHINE. 266

north light is cold, Bearcliing, and imflcnti-
mental, and tiies both complexion and the
heart; it reveals gray hairs, and the first
faint footprints of the bird of ill-omen in the
comers of the eyes with appalling distinetncss.
The flowers of the carpet are duller, for it has
not a tint to lend ; except the light of early
morning, nothing is less complimentary than a
northern aspect.

" But a room that the sun is not permitted to
look into at all, should bo without a door ; it is
unfit for human occupancy. Even the flowers
will grow pale, and be frightened to death in
it. The primary object of a window is not for
the sons of men to look out, but for the sun to
look in.

" Pleasant sunshine not only brightens a
man's buttons, but his heart; it makes his
spirit as cheerful as the landscape. He can not
live and be haj)py — he can not be happy witli-
out it.

"White is not beauty, any more than a melan-
choly blue is the ' color of virtue,' and yet the
insane dodging of the sun has its origin in some
such optical delusion. We catch school-girls
•Rting chalk and drinking vinegai to render

266 SLEEP.

themselves pale and interesting. Next to an
inky skin, they dread a rich brown cheek, and
a brow that the sun has pressed as pure a kiss
upon as the mellifluous lips of Israel could give.
"More windows in the sunny side of our dwell-
ings, more living in the open air ; less fear of
an unclouded and parasoUess sun, and more
bold, free exercise, would kindle a tru?, coun-
try, milkmaid-glow upon cheeks as chalky as
the cliffs of Do 7er, and let a little sunshine into
the shady corners of many a heart. Light,
daylight, was not made merely to see by and
warm by, but to grow bright and glad in ; and
that beam of a clear, autumn morning has failed
to reach its destination that has not shone into
the spirit, and burnished the thought, as it has
brightened the eye."

OUT-DOOR LIFE.

'* Jast as that poetry is the freshest which
the out-door life has the most nourished, so 1
believe that there is no surer sigu of the rich
vitality .vhich finds its raciest joys in sources
tlie most iPAOcent, than the childlike taste for
that same out-door life. Whether vou take
Srom fortune the palace or the cottage, add to

AVERAGE OF OUT AND IN-DOOR LIFE. 267

your chambers a hall in the courts of Nature.
Let the earth but give you room to stand on ;
well, look up. Is it nothing to have for your
roof-tree — heaven ? Breathe fresh air if you
wish to live long. Tn New-England, farmers,
who pass their days out of dooi-s, live to an
average of sixty- four years. The average ago
of persons who have in door occupation is, in
Massachusetts and Khode Island — Shoemakers,
forty -three; tailors, forty -two and a half; drug-
gists, jewelers and teachers, from thirty-nine to
fcrty ; machinists, thirty-eight and one quarter ;
printers thirty-six and a half. Fresh air, there-
fore, almost doubles a man's life, while it more
than doubles his capacity for enjoyment."

IN-DOOR LIFE.

" Sitting-rooms, school-rooms, sleeping-rooms
— every place occupied by human beings, should
be well ventilated. In a school-room, for ex-
ample, thi -ty feet square and eight feet high,
there arc seven thousand and two hundred cubic
feet of air. Such a room will seat sixty pupils,
and allov* ng se '■en cubic feet of air per minute
!o each person — the least allowed by any phy-
siologist — all will be vitiated in less than

268 SLEEP.

gighteen minutes. And as all the blood in
tlie human system traverses the whole breath-
ing surfece of the luniks in about two and a
half minute?!, every one who breathes such m
impure atmosphere for two and a half mi-
nutes, has every particle of his blood acted on
by the vitiated air, making it less vital, less
capable of repairing waste, and of carrying on
the functions of life. And the longer such
air is breathed, the more impure does it be-
come, and the more corrupt the blood, and
the more surely does it lay the foundation for
disease and death."

TOWN AND COUNTRY AIR.

The relative diflference between the out
and in-door air of any locality, in favor of
the greater purity of the former, is not more
decided than what exists between the air
of the country and that of the city, wliich
may in large part be regarded as one of
the reasons for the greater healthful ncss of
those who live in the country. That coun-
try air is the purer, is curiously shown b_y

BAD AIB ANALYZED. 269

an Englisli gentleman wlio for several years
has devoted his attention to the condition of
the air of towns, and communicates to the
London Athenceum the result of some of his
experiments for ascertaining the amount of
organic matter contained in the air of vari-
ous localities. The process by which this
is accomplished consists in finding how much
of a solution of permanganate of soda will
be decomposed by the amount of air. The
process occupies about half an hour. There
is as much difference between the back
streets of a town and the air of a hilly
district in the North of Lancashire as from
one to twenty-two. In other words, there
was found in the air of a close court twenty-
two times more matter capable of decomposing
the solution, than there was found in a free,
hilly district.

23*

270 SLEEP.

GAS-LIGHTS IN SICK-ROOMS.

There is a cause of impurity in the atmos-
phere of our dwellings where coal-gas is burn-
ed, which demands attention, especially as
rriany persons sleep with a small jet of gas
burning all night, and it should be particularly
noted in the sick-chamber, both for the sake of
the watchers and the invalid.

When gas is first generated from soft coal, it
is combined with many deleterious ingredients.
Investigation and experiment have by degrees
found out the means of purifying it of its most
objectionable and offensive combinations; but
the best means of chemical purification yet
found out, still leave some sulphurous com-
pounds, which, when burned, yield sulphurous
gas. Experiments prove that in burning one
hundred cubic feet of London gas, seven and a
half grains of sulphur are yielded in summer,
and ten in winter, having pernicious effects on
the human economy, as well as tarnishing the

SEA-SIIORE AND MOUNTAIN AIR. 271

pictures, gilding, and furniture. It is scarcely
doubted that means will be found, in the prose-
cution of chemical experiments, which will
still further purify the gases burned in our
dwellings.

Not only is there a marked difference be-
tween the out and in-door air of any locality,
and between the air c f the town and that of
the country, but also between the air of differ-
ent localities in the country ; and the instincts
of the people in all climes seem to have led
them to the most healthful places. For exam-
ple, it is every where known that the hill
country and the sea-shore are healthful above
all other localities ; hence they are places of
general resort during warm weather, and when
epidemics prevail. It has lately been ascer-
tained, that an unfamiliar constituent of the
atmosphere is found in greater abundance on
ihe mountains and the sea - shore than else-
where. This constituent is called "Ozone,"
which means an "odor," from the fact that

272 SLEEP.

where it is found in abundance a smell is
perceptible, similar to that noti(.ed at the
" Anope," or positive surface in electrical
operations. Very little is known, certainly,
of its nature or propci-tics, beyond the fact
that it seems to abound in peculiarly healthful
situations.

RELATIONS OF AIR.-AIR
AND LIFE.

Prof. B. G. Dalton shows that " the oxy-
gen of the air is the great agent for renewing
the blood, eliminating impurities, warming the
body, and giving a healthy tone to all the vital
powers. A full supply of pure air, then, is as
essential to life and health as an adequate
amount of unadulterated food. If stringent
laws are made against manufacturing or selling
unwholesome bread, which may be consumed
two or three times a day, still more should
health-offlcers and legislators make provision
Against impure air, which is drawn into the
very life-blood eighteen times a minute. Tlic
extent, constancy, causes, and consequences of

OXYGEN CONSUMED IN BREATHING. 278

this poisoning process, should be well under-
stood by all.

" The air becomes unfit for use in two ways —
by the abstraction of oxygen, and by the intro-
duction of deadly elements. From many and
careful experiments it is found that each inspir-
ation takes from tlie air about thirty-five per
cent of oxygen, or seven per cent of the whole
air, which lessens its natural quantity one and
one third cubic feet in a minute, and duiing the
same time one cubic foot is vitiated by exhaled
carbonic acid. For the combustion of five
pounds of Lehigh coal in an hour, six hundred
feet of air most be withdrawn from a room, or
ten feet per minute. This is safe, if air is
copiously supplied ; if not, oxygen is dimin-
ished, and foul gases are driven into the room,
corrupting the air as in respiration. In the
process of lighting, every cubic foot of coal-gas
consumed takes fi'om the air about two and a
half feet of oxygen, and produces two feet of
carbonic acid. A burner consuming one cubic
foot per hour, would spoil a hundred for breath-
ing in the same time, or one and two thirds
feet per minute. Add to these agencies the
exhalations from the sl^in, polluting two or

274 SLEEP.

three feet per minute, and we have before ua
the startling fact tliat a singles person in a close
room, with a farnace and light, renders six
or eight feet of air unfit for use every minute.
How appalling, therefore, in crowded halls,
over-heated, brilliantly illuminated, and badly
ventilated, must be the consequences to the
unthinking multitude who draw in tbe seeds
of death at every breath I

" The results, in general, are, nature's supplies
are cut oflf, the vital powers famish, and poisons
are introduced to obstruct the feeble action
which remains. The recuperative powers of
the body are thus weakened, and the noble
framework of man becomes the peculiar soil of
contagious and chronic affections. Cholera
works its way most mortally among the inmates
of filthy and unventilated apartments. The air,
corrupted by marsh or typhoid miasma, induces
the various types of fevers. A 'truly scrofu-
lous disease' is supposed to be caused by a
vitiated air. And ' consumption is,' too often,
but ' scrofula localized in the lungs,' originating
in impure air. Blanketing and curtaining in-
fants from the life-giving breezes of heaven are
a more efficient cause of their mortality than

CONNECTION OF AlU AND TllOUGUT. 275

parental > ices or destitution. The per centuj^e
of deaths in New- York is greater than in Phila-
delphia, because there are more underground,
crowded apartments, whose inmates are poisoned
by noxious gases, and from which deadly efllu-
via aseouds to loftier habitations.

" The results of vitiated air on the mind are
as palpable and awful as on the body. If the
brain, the organ of thought, is supplied witli
unvitalized blood, the order and activity of the
mind's thoughts can not be sustained. Hence
all school and study rooms should be amply
supplied with pure air. Bad air ' takes off the
cliariot-wheels ' of thought, pinions the wings
of iinaginatioD, • bewilders reason, dissipates
memory, makes a general wreck of the intel-
lect, and distracts all the passions and instincts
of man's nature."

" Few persons," says another writer, " imagine
that their luugs are inseparable from their
thoughts. Not that the pulmonary structures
and functions occupy the heart of thoughts ; but
that as a man inspires the physical atmosphere,
80 does his mind conduct itself as to thinking,
willing, and wishing. For example : If a hu»
lum being should be imprisoned in a small

276 SLEEP.

room, not properly ventilated, and not replen-
ished with freali air from without — so that hia
breathing would be confined to the same atmoa»
phere for a great number of hours each day —
the consequence would unmistakably be ex-
hibited in the mental operations of the victim.
He would tliink in a circle, because he would
breathe in a circle, and his dig<stion would be
imperfect, llis thoughts could not bound
cheerily over the landscape, because the atmos-
phere of the landscape would not enter his lungs.
Physicians and patients are habitually imagin-
ing that a ' change of scene ' is the secret of ben-
efit in many cases of nervous prostration. Al-
though there is truth in this Impression, yet it
is far from divulging the whole cause of the
salutary results that sometimes follow pilgrim-
izing away from home in quest of health.
When once the real secret is intelligently known,
and when the knowledge accruing therefrom is
promptly applied by the possessors, then may
the multitudes of sick ones save thc^mselvcs the
fatigue and expense of journeys. If you wish
to travel for recreation, first get a stock of
health to sustain you, in the shape of Air, Light,
and Electricity.

THE IJUKATU OF LIFE. 277

** The shortest route to firm liealth is tliroiigh
the lungs and nerves, which sup{)ly them and
the stomach. Small lungs — small minds ; or,
large lungs and bad air — large minds and few
thoughts."

THE BREATH OF LIFE.

Adam did not become a "living soul," did
not assume humanity, did not become a human
being, as we are, and in the full sense of the
term, until the breath of life was introduced
into his body ; nor does the unborn being be-
come "alive" until the external atmosphere
h'as been introduced into the lungs through the
nostrils. " And the Lord God formed jfian
from the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living soul." (Genesis 10 : 7.) The human
machinery is never set in full and perfect mo-
tion until the air lights up the tires of life. And
imponderable and viewless as that air is, its
agency is necessary to sustain life. Men say
that food sticngthens r,nd nourishes tliem; but
24

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(716) 872-4503

278 SLEEP.

it gives DO strength, imparts uo nourishment,
until the air has acted upon it. We sit down
to a dinner ; in five hours, what wo ate has
been converted into a homogeneous substance
called ''chyme;" it then passes out of the sto-
mach into the smaller intestines, and becomes a
sweetish milky fluid, in which state it is ab-
sorbed and carried into the heart, into which it
falls the moment the blood falls into it, which
has come to it throug].t the veins from its cir-
cuit of the body, all which is impure and
black. This black blood and light-colored nu-
trient chyle are mixed together in the heart,
and^sent direct to the lungs, where it is contained
in numberless minute vessels or channels, the
sides of which are so thin that the air breathed
passes its life-giving virtues through the sides
of these vessels, and is at once incorporated
into the mixture of milk-like chyme and the
impure black blood, and when these three meet,
and not before, a transformation is effected with
the rapidity of lightning ; the red blood of life

LIFE IN THE BLOOD. 279

is formed, and the very next instant, full of
nutriment and vitality, it passes back to the
heart, to be instantaneously dashed to the
remotest ends of the system, imparting instant
animation, renovation, and strength to every
fiber of the body ; and in proportion as the air
is impure in quality or deficient in quantity,
this strength, renovation, and animation are
imperfect. Without air, pure and fresh, thus
supplied to the lungs, in vain would we seek
for rest and renewal in sleep on beds of down ;
in vain look for manly vigor from the richest,
purest food, and the best ever placed beOre a
hungry man 1 So that, whether in eating or
sleeping, the pure air of heaven is essential to
existence itself, essential to health of body and to
activity of mind ; for it feeds, invigorates, and
regenerates both, bringing us back to the felt
necessity of having the purest air possible in
our chambers, where we spend at least one third
of our entire existence.

It has been shown, then, that pure air and a

280 SLEEP.

plenty of it during the hours of sleep, is indis-
pensable to our well-being ; that all adultera-
tions of it tend to destroy health, and eventu-
ally life itself; that one of the most constant,
general, and fruitful sources of atmospheric
impurity, is found in the practice of two or
more persons sleeping in the same bed, or in
the same small room, and that consequently
the habit should be abandoned in every case
where it is at all practicable ; the reader being
charged to remember, however, that any neces-
sity which may seem to exist for its contin-
uance, does not alter the nature of the evil, or
diminish its amount ; consequently, if it be in
truth a necessity in any case, it ii an unfortu-
nate one.

EXCESSIVE CHILD-BEARING-.

However numerous a household may be,
the parent does not feel willing to spare any
one of the children, and there is a prevailing
sentiment, more pious than true, that if Frovi
dence sends children, he will in some way pro-

EXCESSIVE CHILD-BEARING. 281

vide for them. It will not be deDied that
many children die of neglect and want; the
neglect arising from the criminality of parents,
and the want from their idleness, improvidence,
or nn thrift ; and fuither inquiry will satisfy the
reflecting, that whenever a family is overbur-
dened with children, it is di" itly owing to the
fact that the parents have brought the evil on
themselves by an unwillingness to observe a
proper self-denial, the very key-stone of prac-
tical Christian character ; precisely as it is the
want of self-den*' il which leads many into
bankruptcy and degradation .and crime, the
self-denial which would have enabled them to
have lived within their means. That many a
woman sinks into a premature grave as the
result of bearing children too rapidly, and that,
as a consequence, those she has left behind her
are, in multitudes of cases, nejilectcd, and grow
up uncared for, to become a burden to society
afterwards, is beyond denial. It is just as plain
that these evils could have been prevented
24*

282 SLEEP.

wholly, by a simple restraint on indulgence,
and wliich the measures proposed in these
pages would make comparatively easy of ac-
complishment, as it is less difficult to resist
hunger when food is not seen than when it is
spread out before the eye and within easy
reach. These suggestions will bear more con-
sideration than the short space allowed them
would seem to entitle them to, and they are not
matters of minor importance, for they affect the
happiness and well-being of those alive and of
those yet unborn. Denials from two days
before until eight after the periods, with a
second's cold sitz-bath the instant after each
occasion, are thought perfect eflSicients.

CLOSE ROOMS AND CON-
SUMPTION.

It is stated on good authority that "in
England one person in forty-five dies every
year ; in France, one in forty-two ; in Austria,
one in thirty-three, and in Eussia, one in twenty-

CONSUMPTION FROM BAD AIR. 283

eight. About one sixth of all the deaths in
civilized countries are caused by consumption,
and this notwithstanding tlie fact that in some
countries it is absolutely unknown, and in
others prevails very little. Where it does pre-
vail it is really 'the great destroyer.' One
third of all the deaths in England are from
tuberculous diseases. The advantages of the
ec[uable climate there are more than counter-
balanced by the excessive humidity of the at-
mosphere. More females than males die of it
in some places ; more persons in sedentary and in-
door life than among those of active out-door
pursuits. The disease is scarcely known among
the savage races of men. It prevails most and
is most fatal in low situations, where the air is
surcharged with moisture and is less frequently
changed by the wind. In fine, all the facts go
to show that the great cause of consumption is
lack of pure and vitalizing air.

" Miss Nightingale has such faith in the heal-
ing and restorative powers of the air, that she
makes a full and free supply of it, night and
day, the first condition of successful hospital
treatment. In the English hospitals the space
allotted to each bed is twenty-one hundred

284 SLEEP.

cubic feet, and Misa Niglitiiigale insists tliat this
is not sufficient for a single night without con-
stant change by ventilation. If this be so,
what must be the effect of sleeping, as half the
people in this country do, in little eight by ten
bed- rooms, with the windows and doors tightly
closed, and perhaps the heat of a furnace or
stove for warmth besides, in the winter ? The
French hospitals provide for the complete re-
newal of the air of a sick room every hour.
We sleep in about a thousand cubic feet of air
for six or eight hours, without renewing it at
all — and sometimes two or three persons in that
confined space. The fetor of a chamber that
has been thus occupied is a sufl&cient demonstra-
tion of the unfitness of exhausted and stale air
to be received into the lungs; and the pallor,
headache, and lassitude experienced in the
morning by those who sleep ih these close
rooms show very clearly that the repose which
should have renewed the vital powers has only
been the occasion of poisoning them. What won-
der that the lungs, denied their natural aliment,
and fed on poisonous malaria, refuse to perform
their functions and go to premature decay I
We have no doubt that this one sin aojainst na-

SLEEPING WITH CONSUMI'TIVES. 286

turo of sleeping in impure air is the great source
of nearly all the lung uiseases which sweep so
many to early graves in what should be the
bloom and vigor of life. Tlie ilea that the
night-air is hurtful is a mere piejudice. It is
the dead air of our sleeping-rooms, laden with
foul animal matter, that poisons us, corrupts our
blood, and destroys our vitality.

" There are other minor causes of consump-
tion, such as the breathing of air filled with
dr.ot or unwholesome vapors, as in some of the
mechanic shops and chemical laboratories. But
with a little ingenuity properly applied, most of
*:hese exposures might be obviated. Even so
simple a thing as the carpet sweeper, by pre-
venting the filling of our rooms with fine dust,
is a great relief to the lungs of the women of
the household. Consumption is not considered
contagious in the ordinary sense, but there can
be no doubt that sleej^ing in a close room with
a consumptive person is decidedly unhealthy,
and the destruction of whole families by this
disease may be quite as much due tc this as to
any inherited pravity of blood."

It may not be amiss still further to impress

286 SLEsr.

tlio reader's mind with the truth that pui*e,
fresh air is essential to health, and that the
very existence of humanity is as much depend-
ent on it as that of the fish on water. These
impressions may be most agreeably and in*
structively made by showing how pure air acts
on the blood in the lungs, and b^ *vhat laws
these actions are regulated.

The lungs themselves are a multitude of air-
cells or bladders, of all sizes, from the twen-
tieth part of an 'nch in diar.ieter downwards.
These are filled ani emptied through the wind
pipe and its branches at every in and out-
breathing. These air-cells are made of the
thinnest kind of membrane, on the sides of
which multitudes of blood-vessels are spread
out ; so while the blood-vessels are full of
blood, the air-cells are full of air, the air pun*,
the blood full of impurities ; but the blood and
the air never come in actual contact ; two mem-
branes intervene, the membrane of the blood-
vessels and that of the air-cells : neverthelesH

BLACK BLOOD. 287

the life of the air passes into the blood as it
were, and the death, the impurities of the blood
are transferred to the air in the lungs, and the
Vreuth which was an instant before all purity,
becomes in that instant so impure, that it is
utterly destitute of sustenance ; so much so,
that if re-breathed the moment it passes from
the mouth, without any admixture of other air,
immediate suffocation would be the result. It
is known by actual observation, visual inspec-
tion, that when the blood goes to the lungs it is
dark-colored, called "black blood;" on coming
from the lungs it is of a bright, sparkling red,
and that if a person does not breathe, it remains
black. The fair inference is, that this change is
made by the air taken into the lungs at each
breath, and it is easy to see that this change of
death-blood into life-blood is more or less per-
fect according to the purity of the agency
which effects it ; that is, according to the purity
of the air. And so necessary is it that this
change should take place, that if it is inter-

288 HIiKKP.

niptcd for a single miimto, wo die. For a fow
minuica an impure air may not make any very
decided change in the bodily feelings or condi
tiotirt; but if it is continued during the sleeping
hours, which amount to one third of our lives,
its efrects must be as pernicious as they are
wide spreading. Hence the rcaso is for the sug-
gestions of those pages, the design of which is
to uso all practicable moans for furnisliing a
pure air to sleepers, and to remove all the
causes, which it is practicable to clo, of deterior-
ation, of which small and crowded sleeping-
apartments are among the chief.

But to show more clearly that the air which
is breathed into the lungs is the agent of blood
purifioatior and of attendant health and vigor,
it is further proven as follows : If the black
blood of an animal is put into a bladder the
moment it is drawn, and the bladder is sus-
pended in a cool, pure atmosphere, the blood
next the membrane will soon be seen to bo
changing to a redder color. This is explained

POISON MADE IN SLEEP! .a. 289

by the fact that the air is composed of two con-
stituents — oxygen and nitrogen — the former is
the life giving principle, the latter contains no
life whatever, so that it is the oxygenical con-
stituent of the atmosphere which renovates the
blood. Again, the principal constituents of the
impurities of the blood are carbonic acid and
water. All substances in nature have their
likes and dislikes, their affinities and their re-
pulsions. The affinities seek each other, the re-
pulsions stand oflf or retire. The oxygen of the
iatmosphere has such a liking, such an affinity
for the blood, that it breaks down, as it were,
the thin barriers of the air-cells and blood-
vessels, and is embraced, absorbed by the blood.
On the other hand, the carbonic acid con*
tained in the blood has such an affinity for the
nitrogen of the atmosphere which was left be-
hind, all alone in the lungs by the oxygen, that
it also rushes from the blood-vessels, dashes
through the two thin membranes into the arms
of the nitrogen, forming the union so well
25

290 SLEEP.

known under the name of '* bad breath ;" and
the more impure the blood is, the greater the
degree of that bad breath.

The curious reader will find an analogous
exhibition of the more hidden properties of
matter, of chemical affinities, by leaving a mix-
ture of alcohol and water in an uncorked bottle ;
the alcohol having a greater affinity, a greater
liking for the air than the water has, begins
at once to pass out of the bottle and mingle
with the air of the room, as will be known by
the odor of the apartment, and will continue to
pass out until there is nothing left in the bottle
but the water. But fill another bottle with a
similar mixture, and place a thick membrane
over the mouth ; in a few days all the watei
will be gone, while the alcohol remains. '^L^hese
experiments illustrate the doctrine of chemical
affinities, by the laws of which the air we
breathe has such an important influence in pu-
rifying the blood, tbas giving strength to the
body, vigor to the brain, and purity to thfj

CHEMICAL AFFINITIES. 291

heart ; and to stint ourselves for a third of our
entire existence in the supply of agencies upon
which these all-important characteristics de-
pend, is "unwise, unnatural, and degenerative.".
Another illustration of this doctrine of chem-
ical affinities is found in the experiments of
Lewis, of London, in the examination of the ex-
terior of twenty two thousand leaden coffins,
and the contents of a large number in the church-
vaults of the British metropolis, showing " that
nitrogen and carbonic acid gases, holding animal
matter in suspension, unperceived, but steadily
penetrate through, and escape from the pores of
leaden coffins, and disappear in the air ; so that
by the end of fifty or one hundred years, noth-
ing but dry bones remain ; and this escape may
go on, though the coffins are uninjured. It is a
rather ghastly thought that, of so many coffins
breathing out their contents to mix with the
air of the world overhead ; and the merry Lon-
doners breathing in the sublimated remains of
friends and progenitors, supposed all the while

292 SLEEP.

to be, * after life's fitful fever,' sleeping well I
Another authority, Mr. K. V. Tuson, believes
that in manv instances there is a corrosion of
the leaden coffins from within, forming a pecu-
liar anhydrous carbonate of lead, and often
destroying the leaden plates to a mere shell.
Both recommend a discontinuance of burial-
cases of this material."

CHAMBERS FOR THE SICK.

Florence Nightingale, after a wide per-
sonal observation and experience, says of the
rooms which the sick occupy :

"It is very desirable that the windows in a
sick-room should be such that the patient shall,
if he can move about, be able to open and shut
them easily himself. In fact, the sick-room is .
very seldom kept aired if this is not the case —
so very few people have any perception of what,
is a healthy atmosphere for the sick. The sick
man often says : ' This room, where I spend
twenty-two hours out of twenty-four, is fresh-
er than the other, where I only spend two.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 298

Because, liere I can manage the windows
myself.' And it is true. ^

" Do you ever go into the bed-rooms of any
persons of any class, whether they contain one,
two, or twenty people, whether they hold sick
or well, at night, or before the windows are
opened in the morning, and ever find the air
any thing but unwholesomely close and foul ?
And why should it be so ? And of how much
importance is it that it should not be so ? Dur-
ing sleep the human body, even when in health,
is far more injured by the influence of foul air
than when awake. Why can't you keep the
air all night, then, as pure as the air without, in
the rooms you sleep in? But for this, you
must have sufficient outlet for the imp'ire air
you make yourselves, to go out ; sufficient inlet
for the pure air fiom without, to come in. You
must have open chimneys, open windows, or
ventilators; no close curtains round your beds;
no shutters or curtains to your windows ; none
of the contrivances by which you undermine
your own health, or destroy the chances of
»'ecovery of your sick."

As proof, if more is needed, of the impure
stete of the atmosphere of a chamber, or, in-

25*

291 SLEEP.

deed, any inhabited room, the fact is given,
that a pitcher of ice-water placed therein, will
absorb all the gases of the apartment by its
power of condensing, and, as it were, attracting
them by its greater coldness, and thus becomes
too filthy for use. A single pint of water will
absorb a pint of carbc lic acid gas and several
pints of ammonia witho increasing its bulk,
and carbonic acic gas and ammonia are the
constituents, in great part, of the air that comes
direct from the lungs; hence, while ice- water
purifies the air of a chamber or sitting-room, it
becomes utterly unfit for drinking or cooking
purposes, or even for washing the face and
hands. These things being true, water which
has stood exposed in any human habitation for
a single half-hour is too disgusting for use
whether for drinking or cooking. In fact,
Etagnnnt water anywhere begins on the instant
to become corrupi.

Nothing containing moisture should be al-
lowed to remain in an inhabited room. Ke-
ccntly, a gentleman in perfect health, without

POISONOUS ROOMS. ' 295

exposure of any sort, became suddenly nausea-
ted in the middle of his meal, and remaining so
vrithout improvement, notwithstanding entire
abstinence from food, he concluded the cause
of it remained in existence and on close inves-
tigation, ascertained that a pastecup had been
inadvertently left in his sitting apartment, emit-
ting a most sickening odor. An analogous
case occurred in England. In eighteen hun-
dred and fifty-four, a man in perfect health was
placed in a room in London, and in a few days
died of putrid fever. The next, and the next,
and the next occupant became successively ill.
At leng ,h, the authorities ordered an examina-
tion of the premises, when the cause was found
in several pounds of paste and wallpaper
which had been covered up out of sight, the
decomposition in progress, throwing out the
destructive gases. Another English house be-
came so notoriously unhealthy that no one
would live in it free of charge ; the cause was
found in new paper having been pasted on the
old for successive generations perhaps.

296 SLEEP.

LIGHT AND AIR.

It is an encouraging sign of the times that
the editorial mind of the country is waking up
to the importance of breathing a pure atmos-
phere. And for the sake of presenting an im-
portant idea in every variety of phase, the
various extracts have been given in the preced-
ing pages, to which may be added another from
the Boston Transcript :

" Our parlors have become simply furniture
warerooms ; not ' show-rooms ' even, for light
is essential to a good show of any sort; they
are mere places for the storage of carpets,
pictures, and chairs that have cost money, and
have, no doubt, a money value, but whose office
is a sinecure, as far as making a comfortable
home is concerned. On calling to see a 'riend,
we are shown into an utterly dark and airless
room. After a long time she appears, or some-
thing appears, of which we can dimly discover
the outline. If she is very amiable, she
remarks, by waj'' of conversation, ' this room
is rather dark,' and raises one of the various
coverings of the window about an inch. There-

CHEERLESS PARLORS. 297

upon comes in a light streak of sickly hue, that
makes the previous darkness more visible.
You have the pleasure of hearing her voice,
without the slightest notion of her color,
expression, or looks generally. After you
escape into the cheerful brightness of out of
doors, she steps back into the room, drops the
shade closely again, and trips up a darkened
stairway into another dark room, there to sew,
read or write, all the time straining her eyes to
the utmost, in her efforts to see in the dark.
Her eyes ' trouble her very much ' — she * has
constant pain in her eyes and head ' — she has
been to this oculist and to that, and has paid
large sums of money, and ' is nothing better.'
They all tell her one thing — she ' must rest her
eyes' — she 'uses them too much,' and so on.
No part of this is true, as she has never used
her eyes in any good sense, though she has
always abused them. About every third person
of her acquaintance is affected in the same way,
and ' Oh ! dear, what can the matter be ?' Hei
grandmother — all their grandmothers in ' point
of fact' — at eighty-two, could sew the nicest
and most exact seam, and read the finest print
in the evening, with the aid of the usual glasses.

298 SLEEP.

She lived all her long life in rooms whose
shutters were never closed save at night, and
curtains of any kinds, there were none. The
sun in her day did not harm the rich Turkey
carpets that covered the floor, or the ' portraits
by Copley' that hung upon the wall. Uer aunt,
at seventy-one, can make as elegant a button-
hole as eyes ever saw ; can embroider muslin
and cambric in beautiful style, and in fine, plain
sewing has few equals. Her mother, at sixty,
could see to mark her own name in full,
eighteen letters, with her own hair, on the finest
linen-cambric handkerchief; and, at sixty-nine,
can do almost any thing that can be done with
a needle, in the most workmanlike manner.
These three ladies spent thirty years of their
lives in full view of Boston harbor, and the
use of a spy-glass was one of their almost daily
recreations. These are not exceptional cases.
Any lady can recall similar facts among the
circle of her friends between the ages of sixty
and eighty years. But our modern lady is
* troubled with her eyes ;' she has, in fact
no soundness in her. From the crown of
her head to the sole of her foot, she is a bundle
of ailments, produced by broken laws. Horace

VKNTILATION OF CHAMBERS. 299

Mann lias well said, that people who shudder
at a flesh wound, oi- a tinge of blood, would
confine their children like convicts, and compel
them, month iii'ler month, to breathe quanxities
of poison. It can not but greatly impair the
mental and physical condition of children, to
send tliem to breathe, for six hours a day,
the lifeless and poisoned air of some of our
school-rooms. Let any man who votes for con-
fining children in small rooms, and keeping
them on stagnant air, try the experiment of
breathing his own breath only four times over ;
if medical aid be not at hand, the children will
never be endangered by his vote afterwards."

VENTILATION OF CHAMBERS.

In cases where there are no windows which
can be used for purposes of ventilation, or where,
from any cause, the door must be kept closed, a
fire, burning in an open fire-place, answers an
admirable purpose. But if a fire makes a room
oppressive, an artificial light should be kept in
iJie fire-place — such as a candle or two, or a
large lamp, or, better still, a jet of gas, conducted

800 SLEEP.

from an ortlinary burner by means of a flexi-
ble tube. By tliis expedient a eonsiderable
draft may be ereated tlirougli the fire place and
upwards at a small cost, and without adding to
the heat of the apartment. This would be au
admirable ventilator for sick-chambers ; and in
cases not a few, would do more to promote res-
toration to health than all medicines; for pure
air is the best convalescent in the world.

VENTILATION OF DINING-ROOMS,
DRAWING-ROOMS, AND FAMILY
APARTMENTS.

Any xoom, closed even for a night, whether
in winter or summer, acquires a disagreeable
closeness, perceptible on the instant of entering.
Many drawing-rooms are not opened until ten
or eleven o'clock in the morning, when, espe-
cially in cities and large towns, passing vehicles
have filled the atmosphere with dust, making it
Tinadvisable to open the windows. In such
cases, and othei'S similar, the jet of gas in

LOW-DOWN fl HATES. 801

the flre-pluco will answer a good purpose. But
above all tlie devices whioli will answer most
perfectly in warming single rooms, is the "Low-
down Grate," patented several years ago by
the Messrs. Andrews & Dixon, of Philadelphia,
in reference to which, Hall's Journal op
Health for October, two hundred and twenty-
sixth page, volume seven, says :

" In cheeiful comfort there is nothing equal
to a blazing wood-fire, on a commodious hearth.
The very thought of it carries us backwards to
days of unbridled gladness and joyous youth
and genial sunshine. For purity of atmosphere
and consequent hcalthfulness, there can be no
superior to the old fashioned fireplace, 'and-
irons,' back logs and fore-sticks, with the broad
bed of flaming red coals 1

" Next to the wood fireplace, is the ' Low-
down grate,' of recent introduction, suitable for
burning every kind of fuel ; wood, soft coal,
anthracite, red ash, bituminous, Liverpool,
Cannel, any thing. It is in reality a ' fire-plnce ;'
the fuel is placed flat on the hearth, on a level
with the floor, the jambs are broad and flaring,

802 BLEKP.

there is but little use for a poker or 'blower,'
and hence no dust. The aaliea fall through
a grating into a receptacle wliieli may bo
emptied daily, or are conveyed through an iron
pipe into a ch^se brick chandler in the cellar, to
be removed once a year. By this contrivance
the feet are easily warmed, and are kept so ;
there is no danger of the coals falling on
the floor or carpet, and the fire is made to burn
more or less fiercely as easily as in an air-tight
stove. This is written after a winter's trial.
At an expense of less than three tons of coal,
or two hundred and forty bushels, the thermom-
eter on the wall opposite to the fire place, in a
room two hundred and fifty feet square and
twelve high, was kept at sixty-five degroes
when the mercury was in the neighborhood of
zero without, the heat being derived from a
bi .J bed of glowing coals over two feet long.
I'l'ese coals being on a level with the floor, keep
the feet delightfully warm. The air for com-
bustion is obtained from the cellar or the street ;
hence the atmosphere of the room is simply
pure air warmed, and has the genial heat of
a wood-fire ; hence, also, there is none of the
feeling of heaviness, sultriness, and oppression

v:nE ON THE HKAiiTir. . 808

which is instantly experienced on entering a
furnace or stove-lieated apartment. We cer-
tainly feel that the perfection of house-warming
in our countiy at present, is to have a low-
down grate in each sitting apartment, while
the extra heat is (jconomizod, to be thrown into
chambers, suflicient to take off the chilliness or
dampness when retiring or rising in the coldest
weather. If families are so constituted that
there must be additional heat, at least in cases
of sickness, or company, or extra severe
weather, when it may be desirable to modify
the atmosphere of the halls between the tem-
perature of out-doors and that of the sitting-
rooms, Andrews and Dixon's furnace answers
the purpose most admirably, which, by being
placed in the hall or cellar, and so contrived that
the warm air given out can not come in contact
with red-hot iron, supplies an atmosphere for
breathing which is pure and exhilarating.
Such waM our practice last winter, the fire
being kindled in the portable furnace in the
lower hall only for seven days during the
whole season, and these were, not at times
when the weather was the coldest, because then
the air was purest, driest, and most bracing, but

0^ SLEEP.

for the days coming after the coldest ones,
when there was an ugly damp chilliness in the
air, which, by abstracting the beat rapidly
from the body, produced a stronger impression
of coldness than when the weather was twenty
degrees colder, but sti.l and dry, for it is not in
the very coldest weather, when zero is hugged
by the mercury, that 'colds' are so much
taken, but when the air is raw from being satu-
rated with dampness. It is in thawy weather
that furnaces should be heated up, if ever. By
this arrangement there was scarcely a cold
in the family, varying in age from five to seven-
ty -five, during the whole winter.

" The several sizes of the low-down grate
are furnished and slipped into the ordinary
fire-place at a cost of from thirty to fifty dollars
each, except when finished off with German
silver and although these cost from ninety to
a hundred and fory dollars each. Southern gen-
tlemen are not deterred by the price, in conse-
quence of the conviction of their superiority in
the direction of healthfulness, cheapness, and
tbeir special adaptation to house-warming pur-
poses where furnaces are never needed — where
transient fires are so often desirable.

ANDREWS AND DIXON's GRATE. 805

" A gentleman of taste and observation,
near Natchez, having used these grates for sev-
eral years, and is now building one of the
finest rjsidcncos n Mississippi, has introduced
into it rineteen of these grates, six of which
are of the costliest kind, as in his estimation
nothing hitherto devised is equal to it, not only
as regards a cheerful, balmy warmth, but for
the purpose of a thorough ventilator, whether
for the drawing-room, the parlor, or the cham-
ber."

As an evidence of intelligent appreciation of
the low-down grate, nearly every prominent
physician in Philadelphia uses one or more of
them. As to durability, there is no reason
why they should not l«st half a century, need-
ing no repair the mean while, exjpting that of
replacing half a dozen fire-bricks in the course oC
years. Under all the circumstances it seems to
be the perfection of house-warming, for up to
this time it has not in any known instance failed
to give comfort and satisfaction, and generally
has exceeded expectation, and what is of un-
26^ "'

806 SLEEP.

thought of importance, an ordinary grate can
be taken out, the low-down slipped in and be
ready for use in half a day, winter or summer,
unless in cases where the ashes are to be con-
veyed into the cellar, when a longer time is
required, several days perhaps. When the
ashes are to be received into a pan and are not
conveyed into the cellar, a blower is needed to
kindle the fire.

There is a growing disfavor against warm-
ing houses by furnace heat. No plan has
ever yet, in this country, overcome the well-
taken objections to this method of heating
family dwellings. It is costly, insufficient in
very cold weather, especially in exposed
situations; the furniture and the wood-work
of the building itseli is invariably injured,
necessitating frequent repairs and renewals,
and, more than all, an insufficient ventila-
tion, with a close, oppressive and pernicious
atmosphere prevails, which being heated, and
the chambers being in the upper stories, the

baker's HOUSE-WAltMING. 307

effect is to give the sleepers tte warmest
and most impure air in the whole estab-
lishment. T^^^ grave objections to hot-water
pipes have ;en already named, and are
insuperable. Under these circumstances, pub-
lic attention has been directing itself to the
application of steam, as a house-warming
agent. It will perhaps be acknowledged by
those best acquainted with the nature of
steam, that it is capable of being made the
most efficient, manageable, and economical of
all agents yet known for communicating
and distributing artificial warmth. It occu-
pies the same superiority of position in the
heating department that illuminating gas does
in the department of artificial light. Being
of about the specific gravity of gas, and of
an elastic and volatile nature, it is peculiar-
ly calculated to flow to the desired point,
even through long and circuitous sections
of small pipes. It expands seventeen hun-
dred fold over the bulk of water from

808 SLEEP.

which it is generated, and in returning to
water, imparts one thousand degrees of heat
to the air, which in water and in an un-
condensed state would be latent and un-
available. It admits of the most compact
form, both as regards the space occupied
for its generation, and the surface employed
to heat the air. But to construct a steam-
warming and ventilating apparatus which
shall be simple and substantial, not liable
to get out of repair, and entirely secure
under the care of common domestics, is the
great desideratum. William C. Baker, of
the House of Baker, Smith & Co., of New-
York, has for a number of years directed
his attention to the subject, and has pub-
lished several monographs in reference to
it. Under his auspices a manufactory has
been established, and is now in successful
operation, for the exclusive object of warm-
ing and ventilating private dwellings by the
agency, not of hot air nor of hot water

baker's steam- heating. 309

but of steam, which has been hitherto
looked upon as being only a motive power.
In the hot-air furnace, which is the most
common method for heating, the fire is not'
within the dwelling' apartment, hence thore
is but one reservoir for the heated air which-
is conducted by tubes to the different parts
of the building. These tubes must be of
different lengths, both in their horizontal
and perpendicular courses, the longer lateral'
tubes sometimes not conveying Jiny heat,
while the shorter horizontal and the longer '
perpendicular ones may have the concen-:
trated heat of the whole furnace. Further,'
within one brick inclosure, there are the fur-"
nace with its red - hot heating surface, the'
fire, the ashes, the smOke, and all the
noxious gases sot free by the consumption
of fuel, while the only intervening partition be-
tween these and the hot air we are to breathe,
is a single thickness of frail cast iron, with
the numerous joints, already opened by al*

810 SLEEP.

ternate expansion and contraction, to admit
of the discharge of the above - named gasea
and other impurities into the air in process
of heating, to be thence sent to the dif-
ferent apartments to be breathed by the
occupants. Baker's plan claims to obviate
these objections by having several reservoirs.
His boiler has a simple self regulating at-
tachment which controls the draft and the
accumulation of steam to a nominal pressure.
This boiler, with its gases, ashes, chiders,
etc., is located at some remote point from
the warming surfaces, and from this, instead
of one, there are several steam ducts lead-
ing to the different warm - air chambers,
which are in the cellars, but directly be-
neath the registers or points of exit for
the warm air to be conveyed into the dif
ferent apartments. Exterior air is supplied
to the different warm-air chambers through
one main trunk, branching off to the dif
ferent points. The temperature of the steam-

•cSat

WARMING BY STEAM. 811

heated surface is always kept at one low
unvarying point — that is, at about two hun-
dred degrees, which is below the boiling point,
instead of being from three hundred to two
thousand degrees, as is the case with the
hot - air furnace. The fire requires to be
fed, to keep up an even supply of heat,
but twice in twenty-four hours. A fresh
fire will seldom need to be built.

There are no valves or dampers whose
adjustment depends upon the care and judg-
ment of any one. Only the simple and all-
important items of fuel and water are re-
quired to be supplied. The supplying of
these must, under any circumstances, be de-
pendent on human intelligence. The habit
of the common domestic in the kitchen, of
supplying with punctilious regularity, every
morning, the water to the tea-kettle, and the
fuel to the stove, amply qualifies her to
attend to this duty — no more skill, judg-
ment, or trouble is required in one case
^hun in the other.

31^ SLEEP.

The simple act of shutting off or letting
on the heat, by turning the registers, when-
ever agreeable to the occupants of any part
of the house, does, of itself, regulate the
fire, the accumulation of steam, and the
amount of air to be warmed.

CROWDING, DEMORALIZATION
AND DEATH. .

The Rev. H. W. Warren, of Bofstori, in a
valuable article on the intimate connection
between " good morals and good health," re-
ports on good authority : " Of the children
born on Beacon Hill, Boston, not oile third as
many die the first year, as of those born
on Broad street, near Fort Hill. The former
are the children of the richest people in the
city; the latter, those of the pborest. The
former have feeble constitutions, but good
care and medical attendance; the latter have,
for the most part, rugged constitutions, but
perish : some for want of attention, some from

CROVVDLNG DEMORALIZES. 818

deliberate design. Carelessness and ignorance
can not account for the vast disproportion of
deaths among children born within a mile of
each other. The state of morals has much
to do with it. In one place, all is outwardly
moral ; in the other, all is immoral, outwardly
and inwardly. Children of passion have a
perilous future. Passionate themselves, they
contend with furious parents — a most unequal
contest. Living evidences of shame, they
are more the object of hate than of love. The
tender care which they require, is displaced by
unreported neglect and abuse, which no legisla-
tive enactment can remedy.

Immorality forms for itself all manner of
destructive habits. Late hours come to be the
rule, and seasonable retiring the rare exception.
Intoxicating drinks follow, and, as a matter
of course, treble crime, because they influence
the passions, and bereft of reason, the victims
find their gratification in haunts where consum-
ing disease has made its home — the body is left
27

814 SLEEP.

a wreck, the mind in ruins." Thus docH the
reader return to the proposition with which tho
subject opened — that crowding degrades indi-
vidually, as in communities, weakens the body,
impairs the mind, and corrupts the heart ; that
roominess, with pure air and the blessed sun-
light, elevates, energizes, and refines ; and these
having been demonstrated, the book may very
appropriately here close, by merely adding that
only the few will practically apply the sugges-
tions of these pages. But there must be a be-
ginning in all things. Tl' ame may come
when higher principles will prevail ; when
there will be more moral courage, more force
of character, more strength of will ; when to a
greater extent than has ever yet been seen in
the world's history, the masses will act with a
motive founded in wisdom, purity, and benevo-
lence in the conduct of life ; when humane and
generous and loving self-denials will be the
rule, and selfishness and indulgence the rare,
the very rare exceptions. May the good day
coming speed on right quickly I

APPENDIX.

SLEEPING WITH OTHERS.

While tlieso pa^os weru jKissint; throutjli tlio
press, the following case came iiiuler the author's
attentiuii :

" My little son, eight years old, is lively anrl well
ill all respects, as fur as I can judge, in the day, but
at night he wakes up and screams in the most dis-
tressing manner, lie awakes frighUMied almost
every night for a year. He has been subject to this
for several years, but it is getting to be a distressing
case. I almost dread to go to sleep. JI(; sleeps witli
me, and once every night, sometimes twice, he springs
as (piick as I'ghtning, screams the most soul-piercing
screams, and I take him in my arms, and he looks
back, with horror on his face. I could not, unless
you saw it, give you an idea of how distressing it is.
lie is strong and lively, phiyful, and full of fun and
life, until he gets to sleep. This happens every night,
and often it so shocks me I can not go to sleep for a
long time. He takes diimcr at one, su})per at sun-
down, of cambric tea with a piece of bread. All my
other children are entirely ditferent ; they are lively,
hearty, and chet^rful, and so is he, otherwise."

The directions given wei'e on the presumption that
these eifects in the child were caused by sleeping in
the same bed with the father, habitually. In two
months, the report was made that " he had not waked
up frightened for a long time." The national troubles
at this point put an end to the correspondence. It
may be instructive to know under what bodily symp-
toms the father had been laboring for some years, but
whom the author succeeded in restoring to " better
health than had been enjoyed for seven years." Age,
thirty-seven; hight, five feet seven; broad-shoul-

316 SLKKl'.

dcred, dark nlvin, blm^k ('y(\s, uiid had rciimrkablo
health, .str('n<ijth, and nctivity, never havin«^ had
any Kevere Hidkness; be<jjan to cliew tobacco rave-
nously, and became j^ra(bially very nervous, from
one meal to anotlier; especially in Hummer, would
become so exhau.stcd Jis to scarcely Imj able to
walk. The lejist exeitemctit or agitation would
keep him from eating enough to Kustain his stn^ngth
until tlie next meal-time. Then came on chronic
diarrhea, aggravated by any unusual intelligence,
or shock of any deseriptum. "The least feel-
ing like it, or appearance of loose bowels, com-
pletely unmjms me; I can't help it; and if I was
very hungry or exhausted, the occurrence of any
looseness kills my appetite. I can not help being
alarmed at any sym[»t(jm of diarrhea, for ii h;is uscul
me up long ago. I am greatly depressed in spirits
from the sympathy incident to planning for and
nursing my children, and solicitude for them in sick-
ness, for these ten years. My wife is an angel of
goodness to me, and I have every reason to be a
happy man. Pleaso don't say any thing that might
have a tendency to depress me. As soon as I get
the least hungry, I become weak and nervous, and
the same if there is any cause for anxiety or ex(;ite-
ment. Coffee is poison to me; two swallows woidd
distress my head and make my ears feel as if water
were in them; at the same time there is a feeling of
wanting to draw a long breath. If I t:ilk much, or
read aloud at times, \ feel as if I had been violently
blowing up a Hre. Hot weather is ruinous to me."
It was in August, wlier. the thermometer had biu-n
ranging at one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, that he
wrote of the great improvement in his health. This
man's nervous system had been so impaired, and his
general health so poor, that it is not to be wondered
at if a young child sleeping with him constantly

SLEEPING WITH OTHERS, ETC. 817

should have itp own nervous organization impaired.
On boing required to sleep in another bed ; to go to
bed late, but regularly; to sleep on a pillow a little
liigh, so as to antagonize the blood aceurnulating in
the brain ; to be wakcsd up about iifteen minutes be-
fore the starting and sereaming took plaee, so as to
break u\) wiiatever there was of mere habit about it;
and not only to be waked up, but to get out of bed,
walk aeross the room two or three times, and throw
baek the bed-eovering, so as to allow tlie confined
air to escape, then go to bed agjiin, and avoid sleep-
ing any in the daytime. By these means, and these
alone, the starting, etc., began to abate, and to dimin-
ish in lrequ«mcy witliin a fortnight, and in two
months with the results already stated.

A foreign lud^ with five children, betweeu two
and ten, complained, in June, 1846, that for some
years she rose in the morning very languid, spirit-
less, without interest, despondent, want of fixedness
of attention, poor memory, emptiness, such as a ves-
sel endowed with sensation might be supposed to
feel wlien emptied of its contents. The uncertainty
of what these things meant, and the unwillingness to
communicate with a physician, was having such an
elfect upon her, that she was afraid of losing her
mind. Tiie feelings above referred to were more
int 'i in tlie morning, but gradually subsided, until
at tiie close of the day the inconvenience was unim-
portant. On examination, it was found that the pulse
was about seventy, a little hard, but not otherwise
remarkable. She was regular in all the bodily hab-
its ; feet not cold — rather inconveniently warm ; not
8]3ecially liable to take cold ; appetite good — rather
too good ; suffered some from headache. These things
were immediately connected with the simple fact of
Bleeping in the same bed with her husband, (than
whom few men had better health ;) they apparently

318 SLEEP.

had no connection with marital indulgences. If she
slept with her daughter, or sister, or mother, or any
lady friend, or if she "' 3nt from home, or rem.ained
at home, sleeping alone in another apartment, these
symptoms gradually disappeared ; and if continued
for several weeks, her health became good. She had
now been from home two months, and felt " pretty
well," excepting the mental disturbance as to causes
and ultimate results. Directions were given as to the
best means of maintaining the general health, and to
sleep alone ; for it seemed clear that there were ema-
nations ftx the husband, or abstractions from her,
which were prejudicial to her. She had slept in silk
garments, without perceptible advantage. It was
very clear that the mind had something to do in the
premises, for she remarked in answer to an incjwiry,
that she had found herself dwelling too much on the
thought of these things, and that after striving against
^brooding over them, she had been better.

BODILY EMANATIONS.

That there are material emanations, distinsruishable
by the sense of smell, constantly passing fro.a every
thing that breathes, is not denied. That every man
has a different " scent," is proven by the fact that a
dog will follow his master through a crowded street
or road, although not in sight, keeping his' nose to
the ground until he can be seen, when he bounds
away with his head upwards, because the eye then
assists him. An emanation comes from the negro
which it requires no nice olfactory to discover. There
are some white peiBons who will scent a room in live
minutes after their entrance, to the extent of really
sickening delicate organizations. There are most
probably emanations of a still more ethereal charac-
ter, more spiritual than solid or physical. One
unknown person entering a room where there is a

UNHEALTHY HOUSES. 819

promiecuous company, will, without speaking a worvl,
chill the whole party ; another will fill it with dis-
gust ; while a third will send out a genial influence
on every heart. It does not require a very large
stretch of the imagination to infer that a combination
of the ethereal or spiritual emanations with the more
solid or material, may not very reasonabl"'' be thought
to have a malign influence on a highly wrought or
very susceptible organization, especially when brought
into so close a contact as that of bed-fellows. It is
known the world over, that low typhoid fevers of
the most malignant and fatal type are caused by hu-
man emanations, by crowding persons in confined
apartments. These things being true, there is wis-
dom in the universal custom of Germany to have
all beds single. Such a thing as a double bed would
be considered a disao^reeable curiosity in that wide-
spreading nation. What custom prevails in this re-
spect when the ''fatherland " is left, is not known.

UNHEALTHY HOUSES.

A man requires ten cubic feet of air every minute,
in order to supply an amount of orygen sufficient
for the wants of the system. The air enters the
lungs full of* oxygen, it leaves them without an
atom, hence that which leaves the lungs is so wholly
unfit for breathing purposes, that if re-breathed, un-
mixed with any other air whatever, it would cause
instant suffbcation. This unnutritious air is so very
light that when out of doors it rises instantly toward
the clouds, as may be seen any frosty morning ; but
when a person is in a close room, this unwholesome
air mixes with that which surrounds it, and in a few
moments the whole air of any room becomes con-
taminated, and this contamination becomes more ag-
gravated, more virulent at every breath, and this is
i.he reason of the greater rapidity with which persons

820 SLEEP.

and animals recover from terrible wounds when they
have to lie out in the open air, with nothing but
water to drink and roots or berries to eat for days
togetlier, when in fact tlicy would certainly have
died if they had had all the comfort"; of home, fire-
side, and friends. It is estimated that in the course
of lifty years, a man, in round numbers, breathes
five hundred millions of times, taking into his lungs
one hundred and seventy tons weight of air, and dis-
charging therefrom twenty tons of deadly carbonic
acid gas. The great aim of those who have an ambi
tion to live long and healthfully should be to re-
breathe as little of this pernicious gas as possible,
and to have as many as practicable, of the five hun-
dred millions of breaths to be drawn, to be taken
from the exhaustless store house of "all out-doors."
If the circumstances of one's life should make it
necessary to spend a large portion of existence in-
dooi's, then it should be a constant aim and study to
have a good ventilation, to facilitate the egress of the
bad air, and that its place should be supplied by that
•Vyiiich is pure, invigorating, and life-giving.

Cases are given to show that a malign influence
has been given to rooms, houses, and circumscribed
out-door localities; influences so potent, so invisible,
BO persistent, and so mysterious, as to inspire an in-
definable dread and awe of the place. Napoleon
the First once ordered the destruction of a sentry-box
in which several soldiers had successively committed
suicide. A case was reported officially lately, in
Pai'is, to the effect that a gentleman, without any
known reason, destroyed himself; that the pcraon
who occupied the apartment before him, and also the
hitter's predecessor, had committed suicide.
A correspondent writes, April 11th, 1862 :
" Our house is situated on the bank of a large
river, on rather low ground, wi1;h salt-marshes on

UNHEALTHY HOUSES. 821

one side. So niucli for tlie outside. The inside is
the great bugbear. A large drain runs through the
middle of the house, from front to rear, and through
the lawn to the river.

*' On either side of the front of the house is a cis-
tern and pump of spring-water, waste-water from
both running through this drain, which is directly
under the flooring of the kitchen-entry, there being
no sub-cellars.

*' At the river-end of this lower entry are the two
water-closets, contents passing to the river through
said drain.

" Now the stench (for it is nothing else) through
the house from this sewer is overpowering at times,
and always disagreeable. When the wind blows
from the river, words can give no idea of the
effluvia.

*' Before I investigated the subject I was afflicted
for years with a constant diarrhea, for which I con-
sulted several physicians, and adopted several kinds
of treatment.

" My sister, who slept with me, had three long
illnesses of bilious fever. She slept in the corner
of our room, just over the drain. The smell in
that spot is iiitense. The bedstead was then re-
moved as far as possible from the noxious corner,
plenty of sunshine let in the room, and we have
found much benefit from so doing.

" A relative, who was never sick in his life before
he moved into this house, has had fever and ague
several times ; and I am convinced that if it were
not that my mother and her four daughters almost
live in the open air— riding, driving, walking, and
gardening — they would be confirmed invalids from
the air generated through this horrid drain."

The gas whicli lights our dwellings, even when
Dure, causes great contamination, unless the products

822 .*- SLEEP. '• ;'

of combustion are speedily conveyed away. But
illuminating gas is never pure, it always contains bi-
sulphide of carbon, its burning yields sulphurous
acid, wh.'ch speedily becomes oil of vitriol ; another
product is sulphurated hydrogen.

If a man weighs himself at bedtime, and again on
first rising, he will find an actual loss in weight of
half a pound, which amount has gone off from his
body and has been distributed through the bed-cloth-
ing and the air of the room. If a single ounce of old
woolen rags is burned in a chamber, the atmosphere
becomes impregnated with the smoke and is scarcely
endurable, yet sixteen times that much of foreign
material, of dead and refuse parts of the body, are
mixed with the air of a chamber, and although not
producing so ill an odor, make it sixteen times more
injurious, because the air is just sixteen times more
impure, has sixteen times less of the appropriate
nourishment of the system, showing again the great
importance of sleeping in well-ventilated chambers.
If two persons sleep in the same room, these perni-
cious deteriorations of the atmosphere are doubled.

PAPERED CHAMBERS.

This subject has been already referred to, but its
importance may be more clearly seen and felt by
considering the effects which are observed in the un-
fortunate poor whose lot in life is to work in color-
ing green leaves and buds in artificial flowers, with
the same substance used in green wall-paper, the
arsenite of copper, both copper and arsenic being
deadly poisons. These workers are mostly women
and girls, and from breathing all day the dust of this
arsenite of copper, diffused throughout the atmos-
phere of the room, soon fall into a most deplorable
condition. The derangement of the general health

PAPERED CHAMBERS. 823

is all-pervading; debility, nervousness, sickness at
stomach, want of appetite, thirst, headache, and loose-
ness of bowels, the throat and gunris become sore,
the eyes red and weak, running of the nose, which
soon becomes sore, and ugly ulcers form on the
hands, face, neck, and other portions of the body;
in fact, the French government, paternal in its na-
ture, becoming acquainted with the facts, forbade the
use of such materials, with the result of more beauti-
ful colors from not unheal thful substances. An in-
quest was lately held on the dead body of a good-
looking girl of eighteen, who had worked in these
flowers ; the lungs, the liver, all the tissues of the
body were impregnated with arsenic. She died in
great agony ; the wearing of muslin masks over the
nose and mouth was not sufficient to protect the
lungs from the insinuating poison.

So vigilant is the French government in guarding
the health and lives of the industrious poor, that a
manufacturer who surreptitiously employed the poi-
sonous and forbidden materials was, in February,
1861, fined and imprisoned, although only a slight
eruption had been caused on the hands of a part of
his employees. This same poisonous dust and ef-
fluvia are constantly escaping from the green paper
on the walls of chambers. If there is a poisonous
agent in any green color, a drop or two of elixir
vitriol discolors it.

In November, 1861, a boy in his fourth year was
found in convulsions, which left him apparently half-
(l(>ad. Just before, the child had complained of being
ijhilly, that Ve felt sick, would not take any break-
fast ; during the night he became exceedingly restless.
Ilis little sister was also seized wiih convulsions,
followed by violent screaming and copious discharge
of the bowels. The boy soon fell into a collapsed
state, and died thirty-eight hours after the com-

324 SLEEP. ; »

mencement of the attack. Arsenic was found in the
stomach, liver, and intestines. On inquiry, it was
ascertained that the children had been playing seve-
ral days in a small room covered with green flock-
paper; the flock brushed olf readily. The quantity
of the poisonous pigment was equal to one third of
the weight of tlie paper. The coroner and his son
experienced headache from sitting in a room hung
with such paper. The verdict of the jury was, that
the child had been poisoned by the inhalation of
arsenical fumes from green paper, and that the manu-
fjxcturer was guilty of very careless and culpable
conduct.

There is ground for the statement that the death
of Prince Albert was the result of an illness caused
by occupying a[)artments, the atmosphere of which
was contaminated by foul exhalations. Three years
before, fevers of a typhoid type were prevalent at
Windsor, and even in the royal apartments at the
Castle. A tliorough investigation was made by com-
petent persons as to the drainage of the locality.
This drainage was found most defective at those parts
of the Castle where the fever appeared. This defect-
ive drainage was at the two extremities of the pile
of buildings, the cloisters and the stables, for tney
were connected with the town sewers ; the middle
portion of the building had a drainage of its own,
in good condition. The royal family occupied thi?
middle portion and escaped the fever; and it is quite

tirobable that the Prince, who was an accomplished
lorseman and a great lover of horses, would natural-
ly be drawn to the stables, and thus drew "into his
nostrils the breath " of death ! the more easily as his
constitution was not of that vigorous nature calcu-
lated to repel diseased influences. A single hour's
breathing of an atmosphere loaded with miasmatic
exhalations may produce deadly effects, as wiU ap*

TEMPERATURE OF CHAMBERS. 826

pear from the following incident in another royal
family, but a short time before the death of the hus-
band of Victoria the First. It is stated in a letter
from Lisbon, in reference to the death of the young
King of Portugal :

" It seems the terrible malady to which the unfor-
tunate monarch, and two of his brothers, fell victims,
was caught during a visit to Alemtojo, where the air
is impregnated with some miasma exceedingly dan-
gerous to strangers. On the evening of his arrival
there, the landlord of the house where the royal
party had put up, came in to inquire at what hour
his majesty wanted breakfast next morning, adding
that it could not well be before eight, as it was very
unsafe for persons not used to the air of that country
to go out early, at least before sunrise ; even the in-
habitants never venturing abroad until the sun had
dispelled the putrid vapors that arise during the
night from tl»e soil. Unmindful of this warning, the
King was at his window at six next morning, asking
fur breakfast."

TEMPERATURE OF CHAMBERS.

Human life would be prolonged, and an incalcula-
ble amount of disease prevented, if a little fire were
kept burning on the hearth during the night, winter
and summer, if the doors and windows are kept
closed. One great advantage would be. that a con-
stant draft would be kept through the room, fire-
j)lace, and chimney, making a gi-eat degree of at-
mospherical vitiation impossible. There is a bale-
ful error in the popular mind as to tlie nature and
effects of pure air, warm air, and cold air. Warm
air may be as pure as that of the poles ; and although
cold air is almost a synonym of pure air, and although
it is healthful to breathe a cold air asleep or awake, yet

826 .t'' SLEEP.

f ; I

the breathing of cold air is healthful only to a certain
extent. It is not true that because it is healthful to
sleep in a cool room, it is more healthful to sleep in a
very cold room, not only because, as has been pre-
viously stated, carbonic acid becomes heavy under a
great cold, and falls from the ceiling to the floor and
bed of the sleeper, but because also a great degree of
3old in a room where one is sleeping is very certain
to cause dangerous and even fatal forms of conges-
tion in the brain and lungs. The same ailments re-
sult from keeping sitting or sleeping apartments over-
heated. In midwinter, the heat of a sitting-room
should not exceed sixty degrees of Fahrenheit, five
feet above the floor. In the chambers of the sick in
French hospitals, the directors are careful that there
shall not be a greater heat than sixty degrees or
about fifteen centigrade. The temperature of a
sleeping apartment for invalids and for children in
health should range about fifty degrees in cold
weather, and not run lower than thirty -five ; there is
no advantage in sleeping in a colder atmosphere.
Five hundred cubic inches of pure air should be de-
livered to invalids and sleepers every hour, as is the
custom in the best-regulated French hospitals.

NERVOUSNESS, DEBILITIES, ETC. :

The nervous fluid is manufactured from the blood ;
the nerves themselves are nourished and repaired by
the blood. The whole nervous system may become
diseased in three ways : first, by sudden shocks ; sec-
ond, by excessive action ; thir(T, by an unnatural con-
dition of the blood for a long time. That mental
shocks, as from fear, or bad news, may prostrate the
nervous system, destroy the mind, and life itself^
needs no argument. That hard work, insufficient
sleep, too great a press of business, or too much time

NERVOUSNESS, DEBILITIES, ETC. 827

Spent in study, with errors in eating and neglect of
exercise, may impair the nervous system, by calling
the nervous fluid into action or use, before it is fully
"ripe" or matured, is an often observed fiict. The
remedy, and the only remedy for these is, an avoid-
ance of their causes ; and it is as useless to look for
relief in medicines, while the causes are in opciation,
as to prevent the finger from burning as long as it is
in the fire. The cure in the latter case must begin
with taking it out of the fire. If there is excessive
use of any part of the nervous system, whether of the
thinking portions or of the propensities, the remedy is
rest ; non-indulgence in the first place, and then ex-
ercising the thoughts and propensities in another
direction, to the extent, if possible, of an almost en-
tire forgetfulness of previous studies and appetites.
If, for example, a man has studied himself into a dis-
eased condition ; if he has had such weighty respon-
sibilities resting on him, that the draft upon his brain
is such that he can not get sufficient sleep, and he
either becomes deranged or is on his way to the
grave by nervous prostration, there is no more safe
and certain means of perfect relief, than that of send-
ing out the nervous influence, or "stores," or accumu-
lations, in a different direction — that, for example, of
absorbing and pleasurably interesting out-door activi-
ties. For the nervous fluids are constantly being gen-
erated, as steam in a locomotive, when the fire is kept
burning ; and if that steam is not expending itself on
the driving mechanism, it must be let out upon the
air. Destruction is inevitable, unless it finds vent
somewhere. Hence the process of cure for all thoso
nervous maladies which arise from over-use, is not
merely a cessation of such uses, which is rest, but an
employment of the influences in a different direction ;
because, without such employment, there is no per*
feet rest, as from mere force of habit these influenoea

828 SLEEP.

will go out through the accustomed channels. To
prevent a country from being devastated by a rising
river, not only must a dam be built, but an outlet
must be opened in another direction.

A Russum nobleman, childless, was banished to
Siberia. His wife was permitted to share his toils
and privations. They were compelled to live on the
plainest fare, to live m a miserable hut, and work
nard every day. At the end of fifteen years, they
had a house full of healthy children. In this case,
the power of reproduction was lost through those
excessive indulgences which are inseparable from a
life of idleness and voluptuous ease. Hard-working
peoples are the most prolific, as witness the Israelites
in the laborious service of Pharaoh. In a recent
census taken in one of the towns of Massachusetts, it
appeared that although the foreign population was
less than the native, a smaller number of Irish fami-
lies gave more births in one year than a larger num-
ber of American. An Irishman docs more hard
woi-k than an American. Idleness predisposes to an
excessive indulgence of the propensities, and this
very indulgence increases the desires; thus being
over-used, they become powerless, inefficient; that
upon which they thus feed inordinately, destroys
them. A state of labor is the natural habitual state
of man ; animal indulgences, incidental, occasional ;
and in proportion as this law is reversed, in such
proportion does it tend to the extinction of the race.

Ihe object '^^ this extended statement, is to im-
press on the mind that the natural, safe, and efficient
means of correcting all nervous derangements, is to
give more rest to the parts deranged or disturbed, and
so to change the modes of life as to send out the
nervous power constantly being generaced in the sys-
tem through other channels, thus giving those which
are overworked time for recuperation. It would be

NERVOUSNESS, DEBTLTTIES, ETC. 820

tho same if a man were dyin^ with excessive physical
exertion. Let tlie body rest, and give him something
to engag<; his tliouglits j)leasantly ; send the nervous
system out of the body, tlirough tiie brain.

Next to over-indulgences as a cause of nervous
disturbances, is an imperfect assitnilation of food,
I liat IS, indigestion, known as dyspe})sia, which is tiio
failure of the stomach and otiier parts of the digestive
apparatus to convert the food into perfect, that is,
health-giving blood; for if the blood is imperfect in
quality, the nervous influence whicli is made out ol
that blood must also be imperfect, not of a suitable
character, hence does not manifest itself naturally,
fails to effect the objects intended by nature. When
a man is dyspeptic, that portion of the nervous fluid
■whicli is sent to the brain is not of a proper quality ;
and whatever part of the brain is in the habit of
greater exercise, is more particularly disturbed, be-
cause more of the imperfect blood, or more of the
imperfect nervous fluid is sent there. Suppose the
moral organs, at the top of the head, are most con-
stantly exorcised, as in the ease of a clergyman, his
teachings will diverge from the right line, will be
unfaithfully lax, or morbidly rigid, painfully exact,
Tiiisympathizing, vituperative, dealing in epithets and
invectives, with not a tithe of the forbearances which
characterized the Master. If he be more of a theo-
rizer, more purely intellectual or imaginative, hia
discourses will tend to what is airy, impractical, and
absurd. If he be " domestic," a great lover of his
wife and children, devoted to their welfare, the effect
of bud blood on this part of the brain is to revolu-
tionize this sentiment, and he becomes insufferably
cross, complaining of tlie very things done for his
comfort and welfiire, overrunning with a multitude
of utterly groundless suspicions, imagining slighta
and inattentions where they were never intended,

880 SLEEP.

and perverting every thing said and done. If such
a person, or exceedingly uitectionate parent, or otiier
relative, becomes actually deranged, the liie of the
child is sought, or of the kindred most loved. It
is thus that mothers are not unfroc^uently known
to murder their own children, the infants of their
bosom.

If a man loves to eat over-much, the imperfect, the
bad blood excites the stomach to inordinate appe-
tites. The man is never satisfied ; he is always eat-
ing, always hungry, can not wait for his meals with
any kind of comfort or patience — hence eats when-
ever he is hungry, giving the stomach no time for
rest; thus it is over- worked and the main difl&culty is
increased.

It is precisely so with the great propensity of our
naturp "^he nervous energies are sent out through
pro* aproper indulgences ; the imperfect blood

r ^jsia, or bad blood from whatever cause, goes

o parts in excess, and has one of two effects : it
auords no nourishment, or excessive ; desire dies, or
is morbidly great. The first step is rest ; the second,
to supply a pure blood, which is best done in im-
proving the general health by perfect cleanliness,
regular daily bodily habits, regular eating thrice a
day, feet always dry and warm, sleeping in a cool,
well-ventilated apartment, sleeping only seven hours,
being in bed only seven hours of the twenty-four,
and that all at the same time — seven consecutive
hours spent in sleep, so as to insure its soundness
In addition to these, and without which the others
can not be expected to be efficient, the n(M'vous influ-
ences must be sent out of the body through another
set of channels; must be expended in physical exer-
cises, steady, hard, remunerative work, calling into
requisition, the while, all that force of will which can

.'O^

NERVOUSNESS, DEBILITIES, ETC. 881

possibly bo b luffht to bear in compelling the mind
into a (lilU'Tcr cTianncl.

The proof oi the tnithfulnoss of the principle pre-
sented niiiy be caHJIy demonstrated in j»ny half-hour.
Move the arm up and down continuously, until mo-
tion becomes })aiuful or impossible ; tln^n running
can be (hme as vigorously as if the arm had not been
moved so. After running for some time, and resting
the arm, it recovers its entire strength. It is precisely
HO with every other muscle or set of muscles in the
system, its glands or manufactories. A man may
think until the brain seems scarcely to work at all,
yet he can go out and work as hard as before he be
gan to think, and after a while can go to b'; study
and think to advantage again.

To administer medicines to stimulate any power
into wonted activity, is only the stimulus of the
lash to an exhausted donkey ; it either kills outright,
or induces an unnatural effort, which can only be
exerted temporarily, with the certain effect of falling
into greater exhaustions. Precisely so is it with the
tonics and other remedies more powerful and more
destructive, when employed to " invigorate." Ap
proof, the universal testimony is, " It seemed to do
good for a while." The recognition of this simple
truth would prevent the blasting of many a fond
liope, would save many a dollar to those who can
ill afford its expenditure, would prevent the rob-
bery of many a till, would save his integrity to many
a (heretofore) noble-minded yc \ Ignorance of
that principle has allowed multiiudes to precipitate
Miomselves into wrong-doing, and into vices which
have ultimated in ruin to body, soul, and estate.

832 SLEEP.

FALSITIES.

Designing persons have perverted facts, witli a view
to impose on tlie young and inexperienced, thus :
The instantaneousness of the acme of propensity is
given as proof of an unfortunate debility. But keen-
ness of appetite after long fasting, is no proof that
there is no ability to enjoy food, no proof of debility
of the digestive apparatus. The colt kept long in
the stable, bounds away like a deer as soon as the
door is opened. All the appetites of our nature are
keen aftr^^ long disuse, or if infrequently gratified.
The very keenness of enjoyment of a favorite dish,
is the strongest proof possible of the power to enjoy,
and of the healthfulness of the parts involved. The
absence of the capability of enjoyment is the proof of
diseased conditions. As to every taste, appetite, and
propensity of our nature, the three great rules are.
Temperance, liest, Diversion. In this connection a
" Society " has been in operation for a number of
years. One of its late announcements is of " new
remedies " of vaunted powers — the strongest acknow-
ledgment of the inefiiciency of the old. This alone
is most suggestive to the reflecting. That self-called
" Society " of one, if possessed of any intelligence,
would naturally employ all the means suggested by
the medical literature and experience of the world,
and the bare notice that it had *'new remedies"
was simply a confession that up to A.l). 1862, there
was no cure of the nervous affections to be found in
any medicine known to that date. It is then clearly
the dictate of common-sense, that if those o'eally af-
flicted can find no relief in the judicious and persist-
ent attention to the suggestions above of rest, tem-
perance, and diversion, the next resort should be to
a known physician of intelligence, experience, and
honorable standing, simply because he has direct

LOSSES. ETC. 833

and immediate access to all the medical discoveries
of the civilized world ; hence no stranger, or charla-
tan, or pretender can possibly be ahead of them, can
possibly know any thing which they do not know.

"LOSSES," ETC.

As to those " losses " which result from early
habits learned from evil associations, one impression
is here sought to be made on every reader, that no
medicine known can by any possibility repress or
" stop " them permanently, except such as endanger
the power of the system and life itself. ■ Repressing
a thing of this kind is no more a "cure" than it is a
cure to drive in measles, nettle-rash, tetter and the
like. The most uninformed know that the striking-
in of measles and such ailments can never be done
with impunity, that life is always endangered there-
by. So with the monthlies, and so with the subject
in question. Nature will find a vent or make one
in some way, as to the unmarried, once or twice a
month or even thrice ; if these bounds are not ex-
ceeded, it is not unhealthful. In proportion as they
are exceeded, there is debility, nervousness, etc., as
named in previous pages. To give some idea of the
power it requires to repress, the remedies ordinarily
employed are not only poisons, but those of the m^st
virulent character, a grain or two of which cause
immediate and certain death, such as strychnine,
gelsemin, igiiatia mara, nux vomica, etc., but in order
not to excite apprehension, less formidable names are
appended to the prescriptions. If this is not suffi-
cient to deter from medicinal remedies, or any reme-
dies from any one except the family physician, it
may be enough to append a letter received April
5th, 18H2, one of a class innumerable received by
city practitioners : " These habits were contracted

834 SLEEP.

at an early age ; they left distressing consequences.
I took various medicines, and after exhausting all
my means I am a confirmed invalid, and my physi-
cian tells me there is no help for me, that J can not
get well."

These habits acquire such a sway over the young
sometimes, that at the early age of twelve the sub-
jects of them are as powerless of resistance as is the
most inveterate drinker or opium-eater at the age of
fifty years. Within a few months standard medical
journals report two cases in California of eleven and
twelve years, where only a terrible surgical operation
could (but did) break up the habit, and save from
clearly approaching idiocy.

The American Journal of Medical Science reports a
case of a child not twelve years old, " of a gentle and
engaging disposition, and endowed with a considera-
ble degree of intelligence, so powerfully influenced
by the fatal pas-.ion which dominated, while it un-
dermined its existence ; this child at length became
an object of horror to the parents and the friends,
and soon after died with all the symptoms of brain
disease," and which, on further examination, was
found to have extended to ihe whole spinal column,
involving the spinal "narrow ; the cerebro-spinal
fluid having become yellow matter " instead of a
clear transparent fluid, as it is in health. It is
not, therefore, by any means strange that in a case
known to the author, a manly youth, born to a for-
tune, in one of the loveliest and happiest families of
brothers and sisters in the land, has been for seveial
years the inmate of a lunatic asylum, hopelessly
idiotic, never speaking a word. As such results are
not infrequent, and any family is liable to the mis-
fortune in st)rae of its members, it is considered pro-
per, wise, and humane to press the subject on the
attention of the judicious and the reflecting. It is

LOSSES, ETC. 885

particularly desir.'^hle to disabuse the mind of a pre-
valent impression, that the physical " losses " neces-
Barily involve moral guilt, or are the result solely of
improper practices, for they will always occur nriore
or less to the most virtuous and to the married, if
from home a short time. Nature will force an outlet
to accumulations when the channels of her own ap-
pointment are in any way closed. But she must
have the cooperation of temperance, cleanliness, in •
dustry, and force of will, moral and intellectual ; a
force of will worthy of a man, in order to keep her
in healthful bounds ; these are safe and efl&cient :
medicinal means are always uncertain, inefficient,
unsafe, or dangerous.

The practical view to be taken of nervous affec-
tions in general, is, that they are an effect ; and whe-
ther it be called neuralgia, nervous debility, nervous
prostration, or any other name, and in whatever
part of the body it is located, the immediate cause
is in the condition of the blood, for it is upon the
blood the nerves feed, it is by the blood tney are
nourished, and from it they derive all their power.
If the blood is not supplied in sufficient quantity, in-
anition is the result, a general prostration ; if the
blood is too rich, there is abnormal actioi ; if the
blood is impure or imperfect, there is nervous irrita-
bility ; the mind is fretful, peevish, unstable, the
body is weak, restless, and invigorous ; if the blood
is over abundant, there are aches and pains, neural-
gias, which are literally " nerve-aches," in any and
every part of the system. There is beside these, a
nervous debility, which arises from the part being
exercised beyond the strength given by the natural
amount of healthful blood sent to it, and that part
oecomes exhausted temporarily ; if rested, it returns
to its natural condition; if called into excessive
action soon again, rest will enable it to regain its

886 ' SLEEP.

usual strength; but that rest must be longer, each
succeeding exhaustion requiring more time for recu-
peration, until, eventually, the power of recuperation
is lost. This is destructive excess, not only to the
part itself, but to the whole system, because the
malady spreads as naturally and as certainly aa the
fire in a burning building, and ceases not until the
ruin is complete. If the brain is exercised too intense
ly, whether in perplexing study, in incessant anxie-
ties, or in the vortex of business, it soon begins at
length to lose its elasticity, its power of concentra-
tion, its continuity of thought, and the mind goes out
in darkness, the body in death, or both body and
mind together wilt and wither away. But even this
condition of things is found in an unnatural state of
the blood, brought about by the brain consuming
more than its share of the nervous supplies ; hence the
stomach and other portions of the digestive apparatus
have loss than their share, perform their duties im-
perfectly, and make an imperfect blood, bringing us
again to the point arrived at before, to wit, that in
the cure of all nervous difficulties, rest to the parts is
the first essential; the absolutely indispensable step;
the next is to supply the parts with a better quality
of blood, a blood which is perfect, pure, and abun-
dant. Nothing can purify the blood without pure
air ; nothing can make it perfect and life-giving but
muscular exorcise, sufficient, yet not excessive, not
exhausting, the whole expressed in three words,
" MODERATE OUT-DOOR ACTIVITIES," always safc, al-
ways permanently efficient, and will always cure, if
cure is possible, when conjoined with all the sleej)
the system will take at night in large, well- ventilated
chambers, having a constant supply of pure out-door
air steadily introduced.

SLEEP. 337

As to the debilitating which take place in the
latter hours of a night's sleep, even the married
sometimes complain, not only of the debility, but of
various other things, as pain in the back, listlessness,
want of concentration of mind, bad memory, des-
pondency, and easily tired ; but none of these are
necessarily the symptoms of what they have been
led to believe by reading mischievous and demoral-
izing books. In nine cases out of ten, these symp-
toms have no real existence ; they are the creations
of a morbid sensibility. The best cure for this state
of things is to exercise manly courage and resolution
enough to drive them away from the mind, by en-
gaging in some active, invigorating, useful, and pro-
fitable business ; one which will allow no time for
useless and idle moping about.

The early morning debilitations are certainly a
reality, but if not connected with present vicious
habits, and they do not occur half a dozen times a
month, they can not have any specially disturbing
ill effect of long continuance. But these debilita-
tions do occur to the virtuously married, and all
ought to know it, without any moral guilt, but from
one of two directly opposite causes — too frequent or
two infrequent marital indulgences ; the mean, pro-
per to each individual, must, like sleep, be ascer-
tained by an intelligent observation. AH rules in
this regard would be as ridiculously absurd as those
which prescribe how much each man should eat, or
work, or sleep ; each constitution, each system should
have the amount proper to it, and any excess or de-
ficiency will always and inevitably result in decided
and permanent harm to the whole body, if persisted
in. The only possible method of determining wisely,
safely, and certainly what each requires, is the exer-
cise of an intelligent observation on effects from a
greater or lesser number. Generally, if healthy,

888 SLEEP.

grown persons sleep less than seven hours in twenty-
K)ur, they are apt to be "dull" during the day ; if
they sleep nine or ten hours out of the tweuty-four,
they are also " dull," because, in attempting to get
so much sleep, to force on nature more than she
requires, the who^e amount of sleep is imperfect ;
the faculties are imperfectly nourished and recreated,
hence are " dull " also. Precisely so in the case in
hand ; the " debilitations" follow an excess or a de-
ficit. Begin with a weekly restraint of fifty per
cent, and if these debilitations diminish in frequency
within a month, then excess has been the cause ; and
vice versa. Let the married so regulate the matter,
that there shall be no debilitations from one year's
end to another. The whole subject is a delicate one,
and the reader's sympathy is claimed in the contem-
plation of the difficulty of the endeavor to convey
most important practical information, needed in every
family, and at the same time to avoid pandering to
depravity. The city practitioner is often consulted
by persons laboring under distressing apprehensions
of indefinite calamities, from that prolific source of
ills, pernicious reading, as found in books which
they would. not care to have it known they pos-
sessed. A lightish-colored, glairy substance, resem-
bling somewhat the white of an egg in appearance,
consistency, and color, is observed to follow a pas-
sage from the bowels or urination, sometimes leaving
a stain. This is uniformly represented in the pub-
lications referred to as a most momentous affair, a
symptom which threatens enormous ills; and being
a symptom of no special importance, easily rectified,
if necessary in a few days, by trifling remedies, it
serves at once as a foundation for exorbitant
charges, and the gaining of considerable credit for
the skill and ability of the charlatan engaged in the
uefarious deceptions. There are not three cases in a

SLEEP. 839

thousand where these things are any more than a
running at the nose on the taking of a cold, a simple
inflammation of the mucous membrane of the parts,
not worth while doing any thing for, unless for the
mere purpose of allaying the groundless apprehen-
sions of the nervous, as they might exist for a life-
time without any appreciable ill result ; and, nine
tinnes out of ten, will cure themselves at a proper
period, if simply let alone. Standard medical writ-
ers, known the world over, write in this view of the
subject, and their testimony is so positive, their rea-
sonings so conclusive, their observations so nume-
rously corroborated, that it is not necessary to make
any quotations or to cite any authority. In conclu-
sion, in reference to this whole class of subjects, the
never-failing remedies are temperance, a high moral
sense, a manly force of will, and a life of steady,
active, useful, and absorbing industry.

As men begin to be about fifty yejirs old, espe-
cially if of sedentary habits, the feeling on rising in
the morning is as if they had not gotten enough
sleep, not as much as they used to have, and as if
they would like to have more, but they can not get
it. They look upon a healthy child sleeping soundly
with a feeling of envy. But it is curious to observe
that there is a bliss to all in the act of going to sleep,
a bliss we become cognizant of only when we hap-
pen to be aroused just as we are falling into sound
sleep ; and there are strong physiological reasons to
suppose that this state is a counterpart of that great
event which is to come upon all, the act of dying.
In fact, those who have in rare cases been brought
back to life when on its extremest verge, and in
several cases as to those who have been recovered
from drowning and other modes of strangulation,
or simple smothering, called "asphyxia" by physi-
cians, the expressions have been, on coming to con-

840 SLEEP.

sciousness : " IIow delicious I" " Why did you not
let me go?" An eminent name, thus brougnt back,
represented that the last-remembered sensations of
which he was conscious were as if he were listening
to the most ravishing strains of music. Let us aU
then cherish the thought that our approach to the
sleep of the grave is the strict counterpart of the
approach to sleep, of which some nameless writer
has beautifully said : " It is a delicious moment ; the
feeling that we are safe, that we shall drop gently to
sleep. The good is to come, not past. The limbs
have been just tired enough to render the remaining
in one position delightful, and the labor of the day
is done. A gentle failure of the perceptions comes
slowly creeping over us; the spirit of consciousness
disengages itself more and more, with slow and
hushing degrees, like a fond mother detaching her
hand from that of her sleeping child ; the mind
seems to have a baln^.y lid closing over it, like the
eye, closing, more closed, closed altogether ! and the
mysterious spirit of sleep has gone to take its airy
rounds." May such be tlie physical " bliss of dying"
to you and to me, reader, with the spiritual added,
ten thousand times more ineffable.

. ■-»?

THE YOUNG SUICIDE. 841

THE YOUNG- SUICIDE.

Beoently, a young collegian of twenty, who had
the love and respect of his teacher and his class-
mates, for his diligence in his studies, his high classi-
cal position, and his generous nature, was found in
his Dcd-room dead, the arteries of his arm having
been severed, and his throat cut from ear to ear ; an
empty vial was found on the floor, labeled " Poison."
A note on the stand read thus :

" Forgive me, my dearest parents, for this dread-
ful deed, but I am unworthy and unfit to live. May
God forgive me I Farewell."

There are scores of such deaths every year, and
the inquiry arises in every thoughtful mind : " What
could have been the reason for such a terrible act?"
This youth was the only child of rich parents ; and
the uninitiated vainly look around for an adequate
motive for a deed so dreadful. A physician, espe-
cially a city physician, and more particularly the
editor of a journal, treating of health and disease, ia
at no loss to unravel the mystery. The key to the
sad history is found in the three facts, the victim was
a man — ^young, unmarried. Medical editors and phy-
sicians are constantly receiving letters like the fol-
lowing: "Can you save me from an ignominious
grave ? God I that some one would give a cure
for those unfortunates who have been so foolish.
Will vou, in God's name, give a cure in your next
issue f and you will have the prayers of thousands."
A day or two later came the following: " Dear Sir :
In the midst of despair, I earnestly address you,
thinking that perhaps my sorrow may by your skill
be turned into joy. I have by indulgence ruined
myself. I have applied to many without permanent
benefit ; hence the cause of despair. Now I feel the
consequence of my crime to a very great extent men-

^42 SLEEP.

tally, in consequence of which I have been obliged
to give up all employment and do nothing, and of
late I am totally unfit for any thing. I have now
before me a copy of your Jouiinal of Hkalth,
volume nine, for October, 1862. Hence I address
3?ou, hoping you may be able to suggest some means
for regaming health and happiness. I feel as if I
would surely die, if I do not obtain some active and
immediate remedy." While supervising these lines
for the press, a letter is received from a young gen-
tleman of high position, untarnished reputation, and
of high moral worth, active, energetic, and faithful
in all the offices of trust in which he has been placed,
and which he has never failed to fill with honor to
himseli^ and credit to his friends. Such an one writes :
" I am satisfied that hell is my portion in robbing Na-
ture and robbing God, my Creator. My mind is giv-
ing way to despair. I am ashamed of myself before
my fellow-men and before God. And if I am dealt
with according to my deserts, I am doomed." The
practical question, and one which very nearly con-
cerns every parent who has an unmarried son over fif-
teen years of age, is. What can produce such states of
mind ? They arise in all cases from a vicious read-
ing ; from perusing books which are sent gratis and
post-paid by cart-loads, to all parts of the country
every year, through the agency of the newspapers,
with advertisements headed in this wise — taking a
city daily, at this present writing^ — and which are
copied, for large "consideration," by the country-
press, (nor are all of our religious papers guiltless of
this damning iniquity:) "To the Unmarried," "Mar-
riage Guide," " rhvsiology," " The Benevolent As-
sociation," " Physiological Inquiries," "Young Man's
Book," "Warning to Young Men," "Manhood,"
"Physical Debility," with a variety of other head-
ings. These publications have the same aim, object,

THE YOUNa SUICIDE. 848

ftnd end, and the midnight depravity which indites
them stands out in every pa^e. It is not necessary
here to enter into minute details, but to make use of
the general facta Tl\e programme marked out by
all of them is essentially the same. First, to pander
to the vitiated curiosity of boys and youth, not only
by the " pictorial illustrations drawn from life," but
by speciousness of argument and reasoning and state-
ments, to mislead the mind, inflame the imagination,
corrupt the heart, and eventually degrade the whole
character. It is an often remarked fact, that among
the young gentlemen who attend a first course of
medical lectures, there are a large number who im-
agine themselves the victims of each successive dis-
ease, as it is presented in course by the lecturer. And
any person not versed in medicine can scarcely read
any book on any disease, without beginning to im-
agine that he has more or less of its symptoms. In
fact, medical biography abounds with notices of the
deaths of men from the very diseases, the successful
treatment of which made them famous ; leaving us
to suppose that imagination has something to do in
causing, or at least in aggravating, some human
maladies. It is not surprising then, that youths in
their teens, or just entering manhood, in reading a
treatise strongly depicting the ultimate effects of cer-
tain symptoms, alleged to be connected with certain
conditions of the system, should run riot in their
fears, and throw themselves helplessly into the hands
of those who seem to know so much on the subject,
and by their own accounts have had such remarkable
success in their line. In every one of these books,
without exception, certain symptoms are mentioned
(not peculiar to any one disease, but common to a
number, or which may exist, and if let alone, would
In time disappear of themselves) as peculiar to a state
of the system indicative of " a want of capabilities."

S44 SLEEP. •

Among these the most stereotyped are, dimness of
vision, loss of memory, incapability of mental con-
centration, no steadiness of purpose, depression of
spirits, etc. Then certain physical appearances are
noted as corroborative of the existence of the malady
in question. The youth, not havin<^ opportunities
of comparing himself with others ; not knowing that
a good many of these very appearances are natural,
or are not incompatible with perfect health, be-
comes alarmed, and in his fright appeals to the author
of the book he has been reading, to save him by all
means from the impending ruin and disgrace. A fee
is extorted, which is up to the utmost ability of the
victim to raise. Kemedics are used. They do not
change the condition of things ; simply because the
conditions are in many cases not unnatural ; but the
patient is made to believe that it is because the case
IS more desperate than was imagined, and that more
powerful and more expensive remedies must be used.
These are alike unavailing ; meanwhile, weeks and
months pass away ; the victim has spent all the mo-
ney he can " rake and scrape," " beg, borrow, or
steal " literally, and then writes to some known
physician in the strain of the letters already quoted,
to make at least one more attempt at rescue ; or if
he does not this, he settles down in the despair which
leads to suicide.

But there is sometimes a more dreadful ending so
far as mental and bodily sufferings are concerned ; we
say more dreadful with design ; for it is more so in
proportion as it is more of a calamity to die on the
rack than by a cannon-ball. When the sharper has
obtained all the money possible from its victim, and
wishes to get rid of him, he says in plain language :

" There is no help for you but in marriage." But
often this is an impossible remedy, and even if it
were practicable, the patient has such a view of his

THE YOUNG SUICIDE. 846

condition, that ho would consider it dishonorablo and
even infamous to impose himself upon a confiding
woman. The sharper is prepared for this, and with
practiced depravity, advises an illegal connection, not
only as a test of capabilities, but as a remedy for cer-
tain symptoms observed to occur in the early morn-
ing, or at the close of certain natural actions. Human
nature can seldom withstand the motives presented
in cases like these. Six months ago a gentleman

a)plicd for advice under the following circumstances,
e had been led, by reading a book on " physiology,"
to believe that in connection with certain practices a
deplorable state of things was induced, lie placed
himself under the care of the writer of the book in
question, and in two or three years had expended a
considerable amount of money, without adequate
results. He was then told that he must form a crim-
inal liaison, which he did with inconceivable loathing,
and which he maintained until he found himself ihe
victim of a degrading disease, showing itself on the
face and hands. To escape the inquiries of relatives
and friends, he left home and came to us, the embodi-
ment of despair, the mind hopeless, the body ruined,
the constitution a wreck. This disease the writer has
never treated in a single case ; and it is always turn-
ed over to other hands, the usual advice being, when
there is any hope of restoration, to have recourse to
the family physician at home, who would be more
likely than any other to take a deep interest in th •
case, and exercise those sympathies which are so re-
quisite under the circumstances.

Cases of this kind are of daily occurrence, and are
constantly coming under the notice of city physi-
cians, by hundreds and thousands every year. Some
practical lessons of an importance which can not
perhaps be over-estimated, may be drawn from this
subject:

846 SLEEP.

1. Allow no paper or magazine to enter your
house whicli offers, by advertisement, to send any
book on health and disease free of cost. No man
can afford to print a book for nothing, and then to
pay postage on it, unless he afterward finds his pay
m the manner above described.

2. Let all parents encourage the early mamage of
their sons ; as soon after twenty-one as circumstances
will permit ; it is a less evil than to be exposed to
the dangers above referred to, by putting it off to
the more physiologically appropriate age of twenty-
five.

3. Let no youth of intelligence ever consult a
man at a distance, for the ailments which have been
alluded to, or the supposed symptoms of impossible
things. It is a thousand times better to consult the
family physician at home ; him you can trust v/ith
safety, as to body and reputation ; a thing which is
never to be done by men who send books free of
charge, which treat of any form of disease.

As tq the symptoms and debilitations of the early
morning, and which have such a depressing influ-
ence on mind and body, second only to those of dys-
pepsia, nothing can be more certain than that there
is no remedy safe and certain in drugs ; but it must
be sought in the diligent following out of some active
industrial pursuit, force of will, and the cultivation
of a high and manly moral power, which looks with
angry and impatient contempt on all that is vicious,
corrupting, and degrading, whether in deed or word
or thought ; this is the only efiicient, the only infal-
lible remedy, anv . is worthy of the mature reflection
of every high-minded and generous-hearted youth.

:.* . ■ ' • t

INDEX TO SLEEP,

A.ir Deadly, ,.. .., 11

" Breathing Bad, 86

" Stintof,.... 61

'* Crowded Rooms, 5Y

•' Taints, 91

*' Loxious, 183

" Batii, 186

•' Country, 219

•' Pure and Impure, 225

*' of Close Rooms, 247

*• of Chambers, 265

" and Thought, 2Y4

Abodes of the Poor, 74

Appetites Compared, 11''

Avoiding Temptation, 126

Alcoholic Drinks, 179

Andrews k Dixon's Grate, 806

Black-Hole of Calcutta, 9, 41, 99

Bodily Emanations, 69, 72

Bad Habits, 146

Burying under Churches, 243

Breath of Life, 277

Black Blood, 287

Crowding, Effects of, 20, 23, 73, 87, 97, 249, 312

Canary Bird, 26

'IJonvulsions of Children, 26

Capacity of Lungs, 27

IL INDEX.

PAOI

\7harcoal Fumes, 87, 95

Chambers Vitiated, 65, 183

Consumption and Dust, 63

" and Close Rooms, 282

Children's Fits, 26

" Sleeping Together, .... 147

Cottage and Hovel, 88

Country Air, 219, 268

Chemical Affinities 291

Deadly Emanations, 15

Dnst,.. 32, 69, 61, 63

Debilitations, 141

DokoRace, 207

Dark Parlors, 262, 297

Emanations, ". 16, 69, 93

Electrical Influences, 108

Eating, 166

Excessive Child-Bearing, 280

Franklin's Air-Bath, 186

Force of Will, 197

Fire on the Hearth, 303

Furnaces, Andrews and Dixon's, 803

Grotto del Cone, 17

Griscom's Ventilation, 205

Gas Burning, 289, 27<;

Howard, John, 44

Human Effluvia, 69, 71

Hovels and Cottages, 88

Health Invigorated, 163

Heart-Burn, i67

Uamilton's Ilouso-Pliin, ) 99

nn>Bx. Ui.

PAQI

House«~Warining, 229, 807

'* Baker's Plan, 809

Infant Convulsions, 26

" Mortality, 61

" Sleeping, 188

•* Feeding, 137

Inherited Infirmities, 65

Instinct and Reason, H3

Important Considerations, 128

Infection, 159

Invisible Impurities, 258

In-Door Life, 267

Kitchen Ventilation, 233

Lungs Capacity, 27

" Office of, 39

" Described, 286

Londonderry Steamer, 97

Light is Curative, 260

Life and Blood, 279

Low-Down Grate, 301

Moderation, 112

Marriage a Safeguard, 295

National Hotel Disease, 13, 49

Nursing at Night, 135

Out-Door Life, 266

Pontine Marches, 16

Pure Chambers, 19

Prison Horrors, 48

Physiology, Books on, 149

Papered Rooms, 216

Pernicious Instruments, 161

If, INDEX.

rial

Plans for Uouses, 199

Poisonous Rooms, 296

Roominess and ITcalth, 67

Reason and Instinct, 113

Ruined Youth, 143

Second Naps 193

Simoons, 81, S3

Sunlight a Ventilator, 269

Sun for Children, 264

Sleeping Together, 180

" withtheOld, 6, 210

" with Consumptives, 109

** Different Temperaments, 138

" ChUdren, 139

" Soundly, Ill, 116

Sick-Chambers 292

Tenement Houses, 79

Thames Tunnel, 93

Town and Country, 268

The Proposition Proven, 314

Ventilation of Court Rooms,. ... , 46

" RandaU's Island, 47

«* ., Griscom's, 206

♦• Stables, 206

«♦". Kitchens, 229

' ** . Shops, 234

<} . .*!.... Longevity and, 245

'** School-Rooms, 249

•* Chambers, 299

•* Sick-Rooms, 800

Vitiated Rooms 249

1 ■■•

vO
«4