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Lea diagrammea suivants illuatrent la m^hode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 S 6 smM^i ' ^.^jf^ipPPiWfi THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA Iv, mt ^:T>"|; »i^.^| ■iv. : j| WOODWARD HISTORICAL COLLECTION '■',Mm% m' m ■ iT iNHEAL^ ^^ ti:b BY THE . He6RiTn. ■^ / -l -% Mi [VERSITY OF COLUMBIA L ^ lee of Pai T. suci liar tol bor a b( Lin his gov oth ben i^ LECTURES ON ^^m^:^ ■'m .:'^f^. DELlVERIiD BY TMB Late Dr. T. 6. MeGltiTR^ Wd are happy to offer to the public the lectures of the late Dr. McGrath, the proceeds of which will go towards the repairing of St. Patrick's church. The sun had s-.t while it was yet day. . ■ ^ ■ ■* These words are well adapted to the late Dr. T.. Gr. Mcd-rath, whose brillant career was suddenly brought to a close by the ruthless Hand of death, when the future presented itself to him under the most smiling aspect. He was born on the 21st September, 184t, at Ne\y-Port, a beautiful town, some twenty five miles from Limerick, county Tipperary. In the same year, his father, who was a civil engineer and government surveyor, was sent, with several others, to lay out some public works for the benefit of the poor. In the course of these five ■:J- ^; y^irs that he was employed in these public works, he became disgusted with the misery and destitution which he witnessed,on all sides, lind resolved to emigrate to this country, which he did on the 24th August, 1853. Upper Canada was to have been his destinatiq^i, but immedia- tely on his arrival he was engaged by the members of the Turnpike Trust to lay out macademized roads around Quebec, he therefore settled in Quebec and remained until 1858, when he was sent to lay out the Sills {chemins des Tfois-RivUres) for the North Shore here, while surveying in the bush, he took cold which ultimately settled on his lungs and carried him off in 1859, leaving his family almost destitute. A few months previous to his death, he placed his young son in tlie model school, under the care of Rev. Mr. Langevin, Principal of the Laval Normal School. It does ♦not always happen that the characteristic of the future man can be traced in the impulse of the child, but in the late Dr. McGrrath this was riot the case ; from his very childhood, he showed a wonderful aptitude for learning. When old enough, he entered the Laval Normal School, where he made a solid and brilliant course of studies, under the watchful eye of his good protector, the Principal, who is now Bishop of Rimouski. His mother wished him to become a priest, but upon .-Mj^l-SS-*:; ■.«>:&,• ^m. •mr public misery 1 sides, which Canada media- \>Y the 3ty out erefore 1858, 'hiBmins 3 here, which id him stitute. placed ier the of the- always re man d, but f^ case ; derful h, he ere he udies, or, the i. His t upon g 8 his being questioned by the Principal about hijs* vocation, he answered that he did not think he was called to the priesthood, his only ambition was to study medicine. He therefore entered, in 1864, the Laval University,' as a medical student. It was here that his talents showed in a remarkable manner, by carrying off, three years successively, the firbt Morrin Prize from such brilliant students us Grill and Larose. -On the 20th May, 1867, he entered the Military School and, in the incredible space of three weeks, obtained the first class certificate after undergoing a most honorable examination before Lord John Bussell. He seemed to have had no difficulty in studying, for he not only found time to pursue his. own studies, but also to give lessons , which he did, three times a week, in the family of the Hon. Judge Caron — our present Lieutenant Governor, and if he had any leisure moments, he passed^them with his moth er whom he tenderly loved. He w^as naturally of an original, proud and independant disposition, admirably mild and full of energy, he had hardly begun the practice of medeciiie when fortune smiled on him. In a very short time he had an immense practice and probably,if he had beeii spared, he would have been, in a few years, the leading physician of the city. "Whilst a student, though poor, he was never discouraged. '> ^v li^iifSil '---^' •• -r^-iTT-'! -jism^'^- From the first year of his University career, he looked to the future with calm and without uneasiness ; he seemed already to hold fortune captive ,in his iron will and now, when his numerous friends beheld him, with pleasure, attain the first rank in his profession, deilth suddenly put an end to his career on the 18th February, 1872, after five years practice and this very lecture on Health, which we now off*er to the public, was to have been delivered by him on the 25th of the same month. The events in connection with his death are too well known to need recapitulation. Half past six o'clock, on that memorable Sunday morning, he accompanied his aged mother to church,and after Mass, on his way home, he entered J. A. Burke's druggist. On leaving there, he directed his steps towards the Place d'Armes,but not feeling well, he stopped at Mr. Bouchard's who was then under his care ; he had hardly enterred when he fell back on a chair exclaiming, " Oh ! My poor mother ! " and instantly expired. Dr. Jackson was ;.alled, in haste, who could scarcely realize that the Doctor w^as dead. To him was assigned the melancholy task of breaking the sad news to Mrs. MeGrath. We can easily conceive the grief and sorrow of this mother, on hearing that her Only son and support, her beloved child, whom sh6 had left one half hour before, full of life aud energy, was ho more. Dr. Jackson ,in these trying moments, showed himself a friend by his truly christian and charitable conduct. His many friends were thrown into a profound melancholy at the news of^ his sudden d«ath, they showed their respect and love by surround- ing his regretted remains, during the days previous to his interment, and many tears were shed for his premature death. As a surgeon he had his equals among his professors, but it would be very difficult to find his superior in the country. A short time before his death, he operated with success on a case that two of our best physicians considered almost impossible. A grateful and devoted son, he employed his income towards the support of his mother and sisters. Warmhearted, he never forgot his kind benefactors, among others, his Lordship, Bishop Langevin,whom he always regarded as a second father. -« wl^riij^f ii'ii B 6 LECTURE ON HEALTH. Ladies and Gtentlemen, Last winter I had the honor oi' addressing yoii on the subject of children. I spoke to you of the great mortality to be met with in our large cities, among this interesting portion of the population. I showed you the causes of this mortality and I pointed out the means of diminishing and preventing it. I(ow, this evening, I intend to speak to you of adult life, of yourselves, of each and every one of you. I will try and show you that if, as I proved in my last lecture, a great many infants and young children perish each year, throui>h the ignorance and neglect of their parents, that also a great many adults a great many parents, contract disease and perish miserably through their own ignorance folly and vice. It is the law of nature, Ladies and Gren- tlemen, that we all must die one day. It is also the law of nature that we must suffer from disease and sickness. No matter how well we may conduct ourselves; what great care we may take ; what wise laws we may follow, still we are under the curse of poor humanity suffering, disease and death. We are cursed, we have the proofs of it each day we rise ; the young, the strong and the pale, drop off from around us. "We are cursed from the begining ; we are also cursed in our generation. The sins of the Father shall descend 1. on the children to the third and fourth genera- tion. But we are also blest, for in that book, where we find recorded the sentence passed on our firdt transgression, we find the words, '' That the days of one just man shall be long in the land ;" that the days of the man who follows nature's laws, thjit the days of the man who lives according to what his reason, his intelli- gence and not his passions teach him ; that the days of the man who shuns vice, debauched and intemperate pleasures, that his days shall be long. Whilst, on the other hand, he who gives Yeni to all his evil inclinations, who follows the dictates of his diseased passions &.nCi vices, that he shall sufier, shall be subject to disease to pain and to sorrow and that hin children's r^iildren shall, in after years; curse him again in the feeble hollow tones of consump- tion, scrofula and those other affections inherited as the fruit of vice. I am not here, this evening, Ladies and Grentlemen, with the intention of preaching to you. No. I should not be in my place if I did, neither would the cloak of canting hypo- cracy fit one well. I am here,in my true capacity, as your Physician, obliged to tell the truth as a Physician, to show you that although we inherit, with our nature, the seeds, of disease, that although we are exposed to epidemics, to contagion and a host of other evils, still that we can trace a great deal, if not the most of our sickness, to our own fault, to our own ignorance, to our own bad habits. I know that human nature is human nature '-TTHSf 8 and that neither my lecturing nor the lecturing of those who preceded me, nor of those who will come after me, can change it, have changed it or will ever be able to change it. The exi)erience of centuries, of thousands of years, has not improved it much. The teachings of the wisest men, of the greatest scholars, have left it where they found it. Christianity itsefr which has done so much, which has ennobled and lifted man from the level of the brute, has not been able to do that. It is true, m^n's nature may be elevated, it may be more learned, it may under- stand the motion of the heavenly bodies, it may have penetrated the bowels of the earth and dug from it its secrets, it may have rendered the powers of nature subservient to its will, but after all, has it rendered man more wise in what is true wisdom, the curbing of his passions, the protection of his health ? I am sorry to say no, and firmly believe it never will. It is a poor thing to be obliged to admit that neither the experience of ages nor the teaching of science can make us understand what we owe to ourselves and to those who come after us. It is a proved thing which we are obliged to admit that with all our boasted knowledge, with all our discoveries, our improvements, that we have not advanced one iota in the true road of knowledge, the care of our health. And is not the science of health, after that of religion, the true the only knowledge ? Is there anything on this earth of more importance ? Do we work during life for anything else ? Are not all our efforts in that direction ? Do we not grow 9 old seeking for it ? Are not all our wonderful discoveries, our improvements in arts and sciences, are they not all made use of to give us health ? Of course they are. "We do not seek for riches, for the gratification of being rich only for the happiness it can purchase, for the pleasures it can give. "We do not seek for position, ifor honors, but that we believe by being honored, by being in. a high position we shall be more happy, and where will you find happiness without health ? Are they ever separate ? Ask the man who once had health and has now lost it, and he will answer you : To regain health he is willing to sacrifice all ; he is willing to become poor once more, despicable ; he will exchange places with the beggar at his door ; he will sacrifice riches, honors, position, everything, for one drop out of that golden goblet of health. He will travel, he will consult, he will listen to the voice of ignorance which on any other occasion he would despise ; he will deprive himself of all pleasures, he will follow the strictest rules, and all with joy, to regain that which he has lost and which he knows to be more precious than anything else this world can give. And we know all that and we will throw it away as if it were but dross ; we know its value and we will take every means, both natural and unnatural, to lose it ; we know its value and we are ready to barter it for a few moments of pleasure. It is inconceivable but it is too true, and that is human nature. . What constitutes the strenth of a nation ? Is it its extent, its population ? No. Is it its iZjgK J 10 \. riches, its fertility ? No. Is it' its domiiiiou over surrounding peoples ? No, It is none of these. What constitutes its strenth, what is the foundation of its prosperity, the lever of its power, what makes it prosperous and rich, what gives it dominion and respect, virtue to its daughters, strenth and wisdom to its sons ? it is its health. When a nation is healthy, it is riehi When a nation is healthy, it is wise. Look at the history of all those powers which have once ruled and are now forgotten. The Egyptians under the Pharoahs. The Indes, Persians and Assyrians* under G-ambyses, under Cyrus. The Grreeks under Aristides, Themis- tocles, Leonidas, Alexander. The Carthaginians under the first days of its republic. The Romans under their consuls who left the plough to conquer the world, who returned to it when their country was out of danger. Why have they fallen from their high position ? AVhy have they disappeared, leaving, some of them, not even a stone to show where they once stood ? Why ? Because they lost that health which gave them wisdom, that health which gave them strength. Rome was great in those days, when its youth would break the ice on the Tiber to take their daily bath. When her statesmen lived on the fruits of the earth which their own hands had cultivated and she fell when she gave birth to her LucuUus, when she gave birth t<> those men who lived but for the gratification of their most beastly appetites, when she gave birth to those men who would leave the table rv^ JMJ.J1H iiuijjrmnppip«s»»- "WWgl'W W^IPIPII mm: 11 to reject what they had taken so as to be able to commence again. Some of you may think that I exaggerate the importance of health, but I really do not ; we can be nothing without it ; we can be neither virtuous, religious, wise nor useful without it. What is the religion, the virtue, the wisdom of the sickly man ? It may be of use to himself. It may enable him to bear with fortitude the evils under which he suffers ; but Will his wisdom be of any use to the community to which he belongs ? Can he import it ? Can he make use of it for the good of his species ? His religion, may save his soul but will it lead others to follow his example ? Can that man make a good citizen ? Can he add his share to the common stock ? Can he become the father of a family ? Yes, he can and give birth to a race of miserable wretches who curse him, at 6very lengthing of the chain of their existence, as the cause of all their evils, of all their torments. He can, by spreading the poison of his own rotteness through succeeding ages, by sapping the foundation of that society to which he belongs. What constitutes society ? It is the family. It is health. Can any family circle exist where there is not health ? No, when sickness enters, love and happiness fly out. It will bear up against misfortune, against poverty ; but it disappears as soon as sickness shows itself What are the feelings of the father, the mother, when they see their children dropping off each year, one after the other ? when they behold W" ■«• 12 I' ' I ft-' I those who are still left with the marks of gradual decay in every lineament of their sickly features ? What are the feelings of the father when he iinds himself dying and leaving a helpless and sickles family to the tender mercy of this world's charity ? of one poor widow who follows shortly to the same premature grave ? And whose fault is it if they die young ? "Whose fault is it if they cast on society the foulness of their own nature in the persons of an idiotic sickly, scrofulous and consumptive family ? "Whose fault is it ? It is theirs and their own curse, of their own crime. ^ "What ri jht has that consumptive wretch, that ulcerated libertine, that confirmed drunk- ard, what right has he to give children to society ? What right has he to perpetuate in his offspring the disease contracted through his own imprudence or bequeathed to him as the heritage of vice ? Oh ! truly the sins of the father descend on the children to the third and fourth generation. Look at the sons, the daughters of that man who has spent his youth, his strength, in the pursuit of licentiousness, who has thrown on every dunghill of debauchery the health, the virtue that he once received as the most noble heritage,the greatest boon,from virtuous parents. See its fniits now. Behold the stupid, syphilitic and consumptive family. Look at their blotched and withered countenances, their feeble shrive- led limbs. What are they fit for ? What can he do with them ? Nothing. They are fit for nothing. Li 13 All that they possibly can do is to perpetuate, through a few more generations, their inheri- tence of vice and infamy. And is not that a curse ? Must we look beyond the tomb for one still greater ? Can there be on earth or Hell a greater curse to that man, if he has any heart, than to see himself the cause of so much misery. Can there be a greater curse when he beholds the friends and companions of his youth who started in life no more favored by nature, or by fortune than he, and who are now the proud and contented fathers of a numerous and healthy offspring, whilst the unhappy and miserable outcast is buried unhonored and despised in the premature and poor grave of the Libertine and Drunkard. The sickly family is to society what one rotten branch is to the tree. Let it remain there for some time audit will contaminate the whole trunk ; if it be not cut off and destroyed the tree falls. It is so with society, let sickness and disease sap its foundation and it must perish. Since health is so necessary to all men, since without health we cannot know those pure joys of the family circle, since without health we cannot be a good father or a good citi- zen, do you not believe that we should do all in- cur power to preserve it, when we are blest in its possession, that we should use every means to regain it, if we have the misfortune to lose it ? And is health such a very difficult jewel to find ? Is it not within reach of each and every one of us ? Does it require great efforts on our part to preserve it ? No, it is within the grasp ' 9 14 of all men. Very seldom indeed, do y^e meet with that outcast who cannot, with a little trouble and patience, regain that health which he has lost, but to do that he must strive. Health will not come to him, he must go to it. It will not be bought with gold. Doctors cannot give it and neither can Quacks ; but still h« can have it by doing one thing, and that is by following naiture's laws. By following those laws which nature tells him are right and avoi- ding what she tells him are wrong. Nature says, be regular in all* your habits; be regular in your hours of work and in your hours of repose. Nature says, be regular and frugal in your meals, eat to nourish your body and not to satisfy your diseased appetites : Nature says, exercise your body as well as yovir mind, so that they both shall work in unison : Nature says, be chaste and temperate, and to recompense you for whatever trouble it may cost you, to recompense you for those false pleasures of which you shall be deprived, you shall have health and with it you shall have happiness. Sacrifice for me that love of immo- rality ; sacrifice forme that love of ease ; sacrifice for me that love of intemperence and I will give you strenth of body and sanity of mind ; I will give you energy and vigor, fortune and contentement. And is it so very difficult to do what nature says ? Is it so very difficult to do what is right in preference to what is wrong ? Is it so very difficult, with such a prize before our eyes, to curb our paseions sufficiently to gain it? No, jadit jasiei ill hi ►ood tbllo\ Wl those saffei Th iire • M mn n f f tmin i!^ - mmm 15 ■ve meet a little h. which strive. ?o to It. 8 cannot 1 he can is by those id avoi- habits ; and in regular nourish liseased >ody as 11 work iperate, >uble it ►se false 3d, you 1 have immo- acrifice I will mind ; lie and nature J right > very res, to ? No, jadies and Gentlemen, it is not ; there is nothing iasier, if we go the right way about it. It is ill habit, whatever habits we get into, be they •ood or bad, they are what we find easy to follow. What are the great evils of the day ? What are I those causes of so much debility, so much I suffering" among adult life ? They are various, but the principal, the chief are : Licentiousness, intemperance, want of exercise and impure air. It is impossible for me, in a lecture like the present, and before a mixed audience, to touch on all these subjects ; all I can possibly do is to say a few words on some of them. Intemperance ! ! It is said that laziness is the parent of all vices. I dare say it is. But I should think that we are by far too poor to be much troubled with such a very aristocratic vice as laziness ; but we certainly are not too poor to be intemperate. Intemperance, so far as I can see, is our great failing; it is the first and pr^" icipal cause, of so much sickness, of so many accidents, of so many sudden deaths. Of all vices to which poor human nature is allied, intemperance is perhaps the worst. It is the cause of more sorrow, of more trouble, of more disease, of more crime, than any other evil tacked on to this garment of flesh. There are more dying,each year, either directly or indirectly, through the effects of intemperance than from any other cause. AVhat is intemperance ? What constitutes m i=iii 16 intemperance in the medical sense ? For yon must remember, Ladies and Gentlemen, that what I say on this subject is as a Physician. I ha*^'e not the least desire, the least ambition to constitute myself an apostle of temperance. My duty, »ince I have undertaken to lecture on this subject of health, is to speak to you of the evil effects the abuse of alcoholic stimulants has on our constitution, aiid not what harm it may do in a moral or social light. I say abuse, for tnere is no harm whatsoever in the use of alcohol, on the contrary, alcoholic liquors arc as , useful and as necessary to man as any other gift of a merciful Providence, audit is only when we abuse it that it turns against us and that we have reason to curse its existence. Alcohol is a very respectable personage, none can lay claim to greater antiquity ; thousands and thousands of years have rolled over the world since old father oats first gave it birth and honored it with his friendship and protec- tion. Empires have arisen and disappearexl. "Worlds have been destroyed. Crusades have been formed against it, societies have been organised against it, preachers have spoken against it, but alcohol has stood through all, both time and persecution, and alcohol is stronger, has more vitality, is sought after, more beloved, than at any other period of this world's history. It is all nonsense and moonshine, the idea of ever being able to do away with alcoholic stimulants, so long as man exists, so long shall he have man's nature, so long shall alcohol be a privileged favorite. Al ^^m^tm 17 All nations make use of stimulants, from the most civilized to the most barbarous. The Frenchman takes his wine, the Englishman his beer, the Dutchman his gin, the Irishman his poteen, and, to come nearer home, the Canadian, — why he is not part^^ilar. Alcohol has done a great deal of good and alcohol has done a great deal of harm; and, in that, it does not differ, in the least, from many other gifts for which we ought to be thankful. Many and many is the life alcohol has saved from the jaws of death and many and many is the one it has destroyed. Many and many homes have been rendered happy by the proper use of alcohol, and many and many are the homes where it has brought poverty, wretched- ness, sickness, crime and death. Many and many are the fathers who have been rendered childless through its abuse, and many and many are ^e widows who owe to its existence the loss 6f a husband, once kind and affectionate. Many and many the orphan who now lies hivering under the county rags of christian charity who, were it not for its existence, would not deplore, this day, the loss of the parental roof. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, many and many are the curses, many are the crimes all due to this one thing alcohol. No ! not alcohol ; but ourselves, our own passions, our own depravity in abusing that which has been given to us as a medicine and a help and not as a destroying, noxious and maddening poison. Does the child in health require stimulants ? Does the young min"' i ' ' ^^'i^'^r^^mmif^^fm 18 Pi man of twenty require stimulants ? Does the strong and vigorous adult require stimulants ? No, thy were never intended for them ; but let sickness visit them, let that man lie on the bed of fever, feeble, delirious, with the last breath of exhausted life on his parched and livid lips, and then it will stepin mercifully and enable him to battle against the foe, to conquer his weakness, to resist the enemy. When old age comes on, when his body is bent under the load of time, when his feeble limbs refuse to support him, when his blood is cold and sluggish, then it appears again and infuses new life inio that shattered and exhausted frame. Those are its true, its real uses ; it is in those cases that it acts as a blessing and a boon. But unhappily those are not the only cases in which it is used ; on the contrary, it is by the young and the strong, by those'with a superabundance of animal spirits, that the most of it is consumed, arid it is to that class of friendship, has first led into the tap-room. Tippler, the personification, as a general rule, of bestiality, stupidity, meanness and vice. When a man tipples, that is to say, when a man takes seven or eight glasses of strong spirituous liquors,such as brandy,gin or whisky, in the day, he is killing himself, and how many ^^^mm 23 are there who take double and even treble that quantity ? When a man, ai distant intervals, takes an overdose of alcohol and gets intoxicated, it acts like an o rerdose of many other poisons and effects its own cure, by sickening the culrnt, but when it is taken continuallv as a habit, the system gets accustomed to is use and instead of rebelling against it, it on the contrary, asks for more. Liquor, in this case, acts as a slow poison, undermining the consti- tution, it acts gradually,its evil influcice cannot be appreciated until it is too late. It is like the drop of water which, in time, wears its way into the heart of the rock. The man who tipples, who takes seven or eight glasses in the day, not more than that quantity will be quite sufficient, has but nineteen years to live. He is committing suicide. He does not put an end to his life in that shocking manner of blowing out one's brains, or throat cutting, those ways of dying are too low, he has too much honor, too much self respect, too much dignity to leave the world and his admirers in such ungentlemanly ways as those, no, he has recourse to tippling which will answer the same end and which has the advantage of being by far more riespectable. Tippling will kill in nineteen years. It is not I who say so, Ladies and Grentlemen, it is experience which we all must believe. Stati- stics have i)roved that the man who, say at twenty, begins to tipi^le, will die at thirty-nine. This seems incredible, but it is nevertheless but too true. There are exceptions I know, there is mm^^ Pflp'^'w^w' &>*■■•■ 24 • . 'r .;!■ Ukii m i ill : i: r -I ■ ll •■■t , not one amongst yon but would be able to cite some remarkable exception, but the ex] ception is not the rule, and it proves nothin[ more than that, some men are by nature strongly constituted that what would kill the generality of men, has but a slight effecJ upon them. And how does the tippler die ?| He dies of the same death in the very same manner as the old man of seventy or eighty, h( dies of old age — of premature old age, attainec at that period of life at which the sober man isi in his full strength and vigor. The old manj who lias reached the venerable age of seventy or more, dies because the mechanism is woriil out ; the principal organs of life, the heart] liver and kidneys are no longer able to perfori their functions. In the days of his youth an( strength those organs were powerful and mus| cular, but they have been gradually decaying,! every year more and more of their substancel has been disappearing and replaced by inferioi| tissue which has no power to work and so it is , going from year to year, and month to month,! and day to day, until they < an work no longeTl — until death. It is so with the tippler, it is not| the natural process of time that produces thes( changes in him, he forestalls time by the indulJ gence of his beastly i>assion, and every glass h<3i takes is a day less in his calendar of lifej every glass he takes is one step nearer to premature and dishonored grave. How is it that we see so many deaths among! young and middle-aged men, among those whomj we naturally consider as the bone and sinew of society the strong and healthv V / -"-■fl^^^fPppip! w^^im ^mm 25 I How IS it thjat we cannot t^ke up que of < m^ of Bomft y^^ man, tie ,4e^%of «? lather of a family, \v%om we toc^pryr. 7<^?|^l< How is it tha| we, cannot t^lce ]iyp pi^ie of our '^ "" ".tftwi|jjfee ly, wnom we mm- MW^^Y ley we?e ija the pijy^ of he^^ ja^ v|ggrbus EiO^efij^ osc cj^rrift^. 9ff by ^PfHticy illiim w#^n bie sQp>er jm^n wqw(^ , ,haV^ c^jii^hatteii TOth [gjjr js it that ;^e aee $gjii||any sunenna jrom [uip^W^ r JteTOfttisift,: 691^ 8^5i, frp^,^avel YMe those" af&c^ons. 4i^e to y^ l^lfSf^ 9^ ^be e met are pimale»jhe on^ 1^ ^ I muDceirt i the daWe }g toplmg.. .^| ^,f , | . . ■JF^ strpj3ijj[ amj l^|ay mau, boni pf hf al^iy no reaifon tpr (^^d.^jpidemics, cou^gian sh(mlr nc^l q^e.^eajJUBj a»4 ispis tj^ecajie? Qufte^ Jd th^^^afls: t^\1^9t|J |9? mor^al^^ ; m .onr jpi jie*. ' Tt^ere is Iwdly an mqne^t h^iA tnia'O^ty, hn^,|li^-caufie of;4ea9i m^y ]j)(^ said w t|pplipg. Thi(t*|V^ili npi'be the y^rdict^. , x^ hfi» die^ of appople^y, con^esticin otine'ljaiigs^ hut ^hat Urn m^ioihiB^m^ conges- t^pn ? pjpplinj^ is the first ^n^^p^W^JY causf. It I youi cotlJ^ijbjiiy coikceiye,.%adif4c^n|^ Qimrtlemen, wha^ SF^^^ki cl^anges the; haj^itu^tj ithj^se of mi^imm^^m^fiiimliim 1 • *h ISI ".f < i' 26 you h&t)^ had reason to b^lieiTe wore in Erpunj ieafth, Hifi^i iti Reality, le; it hobnobs with hM at ' the bar of his fardtite tavern, it reti^fe With 'fcm at night, it is his companion, his be^ fellbW,. hjel shiaudoW, eter watchml and vldlraiit, re«4^ to| sti^ke at the moment when he least expects. 2T Death to the tippler shows no mercy. He rill not send sickness, weakness and debility lo warn him of his dissolution, to give him time lo repent of his follies and his crimes, he will lome on him treacherously, like the robber in (he dead of night. Perhaps the poor miserable victim is,at that moment, congratulating himself ^n his strength and health. Perhaps he is [hinking of the loilg and happy days that are ret to come, on the pleasures he shall enjoy. ft may be in the bosom of his family, in the lidst of his friends, at church, in the street or [t may be, some where else, where he would lot wish to be seen, that the final blow is struck, le does not know, he cannot tell ; he is alive LOW, the next moment he is dead and to morrow le is forgotten. That is the end of the tippler. TT' V jili k li m i- m II >ii" II niwagiaiwwia stf^ m i\^mv' MORTALITFir' AMONG ■:.■.. CHILDREN OF OUR CITIES Its CAue^ and tkb means to phevknt it. \adies atid Gentlemen^ 'tibe ^ortftUty ampng children pf this city, W larffe^r tj^w^ it ought iQ be, when we take into ^nsiderfiWfit all those diseas^^ and affections, whiph infahcy 4^d childhood 'ire exposed} and so, wHatt reasoQS c^ we give to {tpcon;at for ? what means liiTe we at out di8];>osal to iminish and prevent it ? This, li^es and entj^eine^, is the subjiect I 3,f that the lortjftUty, amon^ iiuants aiid youug children, really yery great and but of aU proportion ith; that of our coxuitry )[>arisheB, iq|jd^lththat loiig adults ; and also that Ihe cause, the only 30 rl4 ■m ;!!• ■ill m ii ril cause, I may say, of this, is the ignorant, preju- diced and unscientific nursing of the childl whilst in its in^fmcy. -, f: t > r^ f^' What are those diseases which carry off so many children every year ? They are, Infantile Cholera or Diarrhoea, Convulsiohs and diseases of the Biaimj OSfeasles, Scarlatin, fever and inflammation of the lung.s| and air passages. Now, of all these, that which, without douhi, commits the most havoc, which destroys the greatest number, is Infantile Cholera or Diarrhoea. That is the great scourge of this] City, particularly during our summer months. There are more chil|4reii ifiiej from this ;one| disease, Diarrhoea, in bur Cl^ of Quebee, jtHaiJ from all the other causes ^ut tog^iiet; and what is the reason of this ? Ignoraiit nursing,! spoonfeeding the young infant, a habit io bej Ibund in all classes, and added to this, waiit oi cleanliness and bad air. The hejalthy infant, born of healthy parents, iiotl tainted with any hereditary disease, and whpsej physique is well formed, should uot be sitkl That child should not suffer. 'Inhere sh6ili4l;^e| no crossness nor peevishness,' no "^oraitingj|i6| diarrhoea, no convulsions ; every brgah sho^ldl act with Tegularity.' /^■^-•'r "^'/''^S^pT^y '■^^'^^^'r.^j In fact, the child should exhMt' but' tWol wants, that of sleep and that of npurisiitneilt[ He should drink well dUd with an appi^tite, and ^lie should sleep pleity. The child, whoi takes his food with a xjravSng, aUd who slebps the placid sleep of infancy, is in health, if he dol 31 not, he is sick and there must be eomt reason for it. What can be the reason then,(always consider- ing the children naturally healthy,) of so mtich sickness among them, of so. many deaths '? Because most mothers are ignorant t>f the care the infant and young child require. BeciAUSe they do not know, that when they spooinfeed the youtig infant, when they drug it, an^ tear it, in ill-vehtilated and crdwded apcdrtments, that they are undermining its constitution ; that they are laying the foundation^ where all those diseases, I ha'\^e just mentioned, diarrhoea, convulsions, ferer, &c., may the more eai^ily, spring up and where they will have the surlest hold. Mothei's, and all you, to whom the young infant looks for that protection and care which he cannot give himself, how great is yotit res- ponsability, how weighty the obligaiioti society has imfwsed on you in the well brining up of those children confided to yotur care. How great your crime if, throug'h your ignorance or neglect, you ruin their young constitution in its bud and throw them on the world with the seeds of affections which will be the cause of continued suffering to them in after life. Society demands a great deal of the christian mother, m fact she is its prop and pillar, and without her society could not exist. Not only are the morals of a country but also its intellect, its health all are in her hands. As she r6ars the child so will be the man morally, mentally arid physically, and as the man is, so will be society. 32 What then are the duties of the mother towards her child, so far as its bad health is concerned ? They are these, few in number and simple in execution. Feed it well, clothe it well, and give it plenty of air and exercise. The momer "^ho follows these simple rules has healthy children, if they are not followed, sickness and death will be the consequence, The first condition is feed it well, ly hat should be the ^t of the young infant ? There js but one nourishment for the young child and that is milk. That is its diet and that only. Nature who does every thing right, when she is i^oi balked or prevented, has provided for man in his infancy, the best and most complete diet containing in its greatest purity and in the most perfect proportions, every thing necessary for the support of life and preservation of health. As you probably know, the diet of man must be mixed and in certain proportions varying accord • ing to health age and climate. Well, milk ans- wers all theise purposes ; we have thje: cream or pastey maiiter for the formation of animal heat, the curds which form the lean or muscle, we have sugar, water and salts, everything neces- sary to constitute a nutritive and wholesome diet and all joined together and elaborated hy nature, in so perfect a manner, that .the science of man will never be able even to imitate her. Such then is the diet of nature, such is the mother^s milk and such should be the infant's only food. But unhappily for the young infiint of th^ present day, particularly in large towns and 5:1:, '^' 88 cities, and unhappily for its parents, this, for reasons not necessary for me to mention, cannot be always had. Bad air, had nourishment, crowding together in the lower classes, whilst late hours, want of exercise and unnatural fash- ions in the higher, have cut off that source of health and comfort from many a young infant. By what then, since this is so frequently the ease, by what should it be replaced ? By the milk of the cow and by that alone. Cow's milk, mixed with a little water and sugar is the best, and only substitute for that of the mother and should constitute the child's only diet until he has reched the age of, at least, iiye or six months. G-o into our country parishes, where the fash- ions of the day have as yet taken but little hold. Where the good old custom of bringing up children, according to the dictates of reason, has not yet been abolished. Where the people enjoy the good air and exercise so requisite for health. Will you see there many deaths among infants? You will see none. The only death you xtill see is that of the old grandfather ^ of the old grayheaded sire, who has run his course, from infancy to extreme old age, never ailing, never complaining, who sees in his sturdy sons himself of former days, in his blooming daughters, the faithful likeness of his venerable companion, and their children, his grand children, with sparkling eyes and healthy bodies, are they the fruit do you think of spoon feeding in infancy, of drugging, of bad air, of want of elercice ? Compare these children with those of our cities, of our suburban districts particularly. i« .'111! \^ 84 See on, the oue side, weakness, emaciation, pale- ness, precocious intellect, on the other, strength, vigor and health both of body and mind. I could never say too much, were I to speak tor hours on the good effect milk diet has on the young child, and per contra, of the evil etiect of spoonfeeding in infancy. There is more disease brought on by this abominable habit than by any other cause. This spoonfeed- ing, and drugging, are the two great curses of infancy. You will probably ask how this can be, how boiled bread and milk or cracker and milk, how coi*n starch or arrow-root, substances so very nutritive and digestible, recommended, every day, to sick persons and invalids, cai^ be productive of so much harm, for the simple reason that the stomach of the infant is not so powerful as that of the grovsm child, of the man, because to digest these substances the stomach has to perform »'"'<^e times the work it would have to perform to digcw^ "<> much milk and being overworked, although it may accom- modate itself for awhile to this over taxation of its powers, it must ultimately give way, then, follow vomiting perhaps convnlsions and diar- rhoea. The infant then, as I have just said, should, on no account, before it has attained the age of, at least, five months, receive any other food than milk. If the milk diet be continued up to seven inont)is, so much the better, about and after this period will be the time for spoonXeed- ing. Then the child's stomach is strong enough. fA\:'hAt. 85 r accom- to bear it, but before five months, ad an inva- riiable rule, it should never be given. What generally happens, when We spoonfeed a child of only a few weeks or months did? G-enerally, as I said a moment ago, the stomach rebek, but sometimes, and very often, quite the contrary happens ; the child seems* to \fe thriving, it gets biffger,. the mother ilatters herself that her child is «r^aily bet- tei^ed by it. Perhaps her medical Aftendiint warned her against such practice, t>ut she^'is young and ihejq>erieinced and some kitid hefgh- bout, -ivho has had a good Dlaiiiy of her oWH. and who certainly must Imow something about it, we, perhaps, the professional nurse, Whose phy- sician is tne only one who knows anythihg or the wise women of the district think otherwise. What does the Doctor know about children ? It is all very Well to binda br■.'•' ;' ■'••■ What has killed it? It is SjKKxnfeeding ! Why certikinly not; The mother itiid the old wise heads of the neighborhbod hili.Ve decided that the Doctor knew* nothing about the child's disease and that it was he who killed it. r' t Hi i 36 Now that is what happens every day. Young infants spoonfed from the moment of their birth, brought up in crowded and ill-ventilated apfiiou,'(se to ftpoonfeeding!^ giving: them plenty boikd bread <=)tii 7 *■ ' " -^':^i4^; ■;* Z1 AwX milk, &om the moment of their birth. They all appeared as strong axtd as healthy as this one, but at about six or eight weeks they took convulsious and died. He told her that there was nothing to prerent this ebildirom living, if she would eease giving the bread and milk and i^plaee it by cow's ms^ and water^ iu the proportion^ of 400 parts of the former md one of the latter, sweetened with a little white sugar. This, with a few other simple prescriptions about the clothing, &c., which heordercii, she has followed to the letter, and to-day the child is alive and strong, having passed that period at which she lost the others by several months. I am quite confidant that the convulsions which carried off this woman's children were due to nothing else but that irritation produced on the sioma^. and bowela by the presence of the indigestible and irritating diet which had been given to them from the moment of their birfch. Since death then haft beetlthe invariable consequence of spoonfeeding iin this woman's family may it not also be the same in yours ? You may ansvrer* it is very true, that there are a great many families who bring up their children in this mannc^r, and that it Has not killed them, on the contrary^ that they are strong and healthy, stronger and heal thiei- than thc«e of many of your acquaintettces who have be>en reared entirely on na^k. So it is ; but how do you know, but if yours had been reared otiherT ' 3, that they . woiftld not have' been stronger, even more healthy? Are you sure '^mipii^^^t^^^^r^i; 38 •T. i)' •'■ '.':t that in some months or years from this, those! spoonfed children will l>e able to resist diseasel as well as they would have, had th«y been| reared otherwise ? * ' Yon do not know, but I do, and I tell yon that| they neTer will be as strong, as healthy, as intelli- gent ; that they will not be able to resist the I bainfal influence of those x^oisons and mi^mas so common in all our large towns and cities, and that, if they do struggle through And arrive at manhood, they will be feeble and sickly, both in mind and body, an ohject of pity to the strong and intelligent, thei friiit of natural nursing, and a waMng, living proof of the evil ] effects of spoonfeeding. Tak6 up one of our daily papers. Iiook at the record of deaths. You wi 11 see there tiie name of | a young man aged thirty of a young lady aged eighteen, or twenty. You know 'them inti- mately. You ask what they died of.— " Conges- tittn of the lungs, '^ " inflamation, " "fever." No! They did not' die of those diseases. They should not die. We do not die at that age. They died from the eflect» of '* ignorant nursing. " That is what killed them. You hear, every day of children dying of" convulsions'- of " water on the brain. " No, they died from the effects of spoonfeeding of drugging. ' ' Drugging " is another great scourge of childhood and, I am sorry to say, but too general. Where is the child that has not been drugged more orles6 in its infancy? If the child be cross and fidgety, he is drugged ; if he be restless^ if he disturbs his nurse's slumbers, he is drugged ; if ^f^i■■k at the i name of I ady aged lem inti- ' Conges- ver." No! y should •hey died "That y day of water on effects of ourge of 3 general, drugged 1 be cross lessi it'he igged ; if 39 he has lost his appetite or if he eats too much land vomits in consequence, he is drugged; in fact drugging is the great resource the only I means by which we cure all evils and quiet all woes. A small bottle of " medicine for children,' ' say by Mrs. Winslow or the famous Dr. Picaud, i of Montreal, or some other benefactor of infancy, in the hands of an experienced nurse, of oiie who perfectly understands what she is about, I can do more good» relieve more pain, cure more di»»e^^»* than all the Doctors and their prescrip- ts »iii I. the country. There is nothing like Mrs. I "VV lU&low, and the rest of her kind, when guided I by a sure hand, to relieve the distress of families where childhood is su^ring. We cannot thank her too much, and all other quacks and rogues like her, for the great boon they have conferred on society ; and society can never be too grateful can never express sufficiently the obli- gation it is under to those mothers and nurses for the seutdble, judicious habit they have of dosing, ther engaging title of a medicine unkaown as ret to the riiecUeal worlds extracted £rom the sim- »lest oC herbs, containing nothing injurious aid eve ^f Mng benefidali No opium, particu- larly no i. ercury, poor mercury has got a very 40 ir* bad name in public and is always expelled from every respectable association, prepared in the most careful manner and which in doses of sa many drops will cure colds, coughs, vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions, water on the brain, fever, corns and God knows what not besides, will restore the appetite if it be lost, will diminish it if too strong and anything and all for one dollar. Then follows a lo ^^^ ]ist of recommendations by such and such a £. r and Mayor who have used it or seen it useu with the very best result — ^by Mr. so and so what feels bound to recommend it to the public, having proved so serviceable in his family. It is true you do not know Mr. so and so nor the 'Doctor nor the Mayor, but some body must, and then is it not extracted entirely from nurses so the medicine is bought and the child is quacked. Now, in reality, what are all these quack medioinee, sold both for children and adults ? Are they different from what we use ourselves ? If we would but consider for a moment, we would easily understand that they tire not, that they inust be drawn from one or other of the three kingdoms. They must be extracted either from the animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom ; well then, are not apothecary's medicines drawn from the same source ? Certainly they are: ' The medicine, the physicisn makes us€) of, the pills and globtdes of the-m^se hoDkeopaihs, are all the same hi substance; Now tlisny ia we know that all tnedicinal agents are drawn from -T?-- 41 the same mother earthy I may tell you that they ill have the power of curing when given in the right time and place, and that they all have the )ower of killing when this rulei& not followed. A quack medicine will cure in certain eases^f it be only the appxopriate one for its use^which is the great thing to know. The learned Physi- jian's prescription will always do good, f(» he [uows what to give and when to give it The in- telligent homeopath, if there be such a thing, his Mh and globules will never do harm, for there 18 no harm in them. I would not say as much though of ihe ignorant self-conMant individual who takes to Homeopathy as a mode of picking thoughtless, credulous, wonderseeking person's )ockets, I would not like to see my recovery or leath depending on his reasoning faculties. All medicines, those used by Physicians as [well as those used by. old womian, gifted men Lomeopaths, &c., are the same. They have all the same i)ower for good or evil ; the onlv diffe- rence is to know when and. how to use them, land it is this knowledge that constitutes the IPhysician, the man worthy of that honorable Ititle. Medicine in the bauds of the learned in his [profession, does a great amount of good, in the Ihands of th« igiK>rant and unprincipled, it does |a great amount of harm. > . The more a medicine is powerful the more ^are must be taken in its administration. This, then, is the reason why so much harm ensues, levery day? fro^m the use of quack medicines, not Ibecause the medicine itself is bad, but because 42 ifVi ■^i M';, 1' it it is made use of where it shduld not have been givem. This is the re&son why so mtioh injury is done to the young, delicate crnistitution of the infant, by the use and abuse of agents which are not necessary, generally injurious and always dangerous. A young child is cross, freti^l, cannot sleep perhaps, all this depends on the too tight bandaging of its little body, or what we frequently see, perhaps it is due to the agreeaLle tickling of the point of a pin inserted underneath the skin or perhaps it is produced by pains in the stomach and bowels due to the irritation brought on by spoonfeeding. Whatever may be the cause, one of these or none of these, do you think it is generally looked after so as to be removed ? Not at all ; it is far easier to give a small dose of the soothing syrup which will have the same eiFect and give much less trouble ; perhaps it is only the follow- ing day the pin will be notified; as for stopping the spoondiet and having recourse to milk and bandaging the child le«s tightly, these will never be thought of. The basis or active principle of all these quack medicines for children is opium. Now opium is certainly one of the best medicines we have got, it is one of the greatest gifts to us from Grod, but the more good it can do when rightly used where it is required, the more harm will be not wanting. Certainly in the case I have »poken of, it is not a dose of opium you would give. If you had a thom in your finger, causing you great pain and suffering, you 43 would not think of relief by means of a dose of opium, but you woi^ld go to your medical atteiidant and get it taken out. IHiat is to say ybu would remove the cause of the pjsiin. Now when you ^ive Mrs. Winslow's ' ' soothing ayrup," the ".nurse's ready relief," to the child who is Buffering, you ate giving a dose of opium, withotit removing the cause, you are hiding the evil, you ate smothering, stiwug nature, bxtt not curing. The cause of the suffer- ing remains .hete stia, and when, in the end, you send for the |j»hv.sioian, it is too late, the evil is beyond remedy. Dr. LaUue, IVofessor of Hygiene and Chemis- try in the Laval University, made a post morlfem examination, some few months ago, in one of our country parishes, near this city, upon the body of the chil4 Who had been poisoned by poppies. The mother of this child had been in the habit of giving to all her children, when any thing was wrong with them, an infusion of poppy heads — the active principle of the poppy, is, as you probably know, opium. I'he consequence was, that she killed one, and all the others were rendered idiotic. The sudden death of this child exposed the case; but how many are killed slowly, every day, so as not to excite suspicion in the parent's breast, how many are rendered idiotic and stupid, how many where Epilepsy or falling sickness are caused, Chorea or St.Vitus* dance, paralysis and other nervous com- plaint9 ate produced, solely by this bad habit of quacking, of using powerftil agents whose action we know nothing about and placing faith and k*; 44 h]- n W ^^1 credence in the word of ignorant and nnprin- cipled scoundrels. .. . .j _, I told you, in the begining of tlv^s, lecture, tj^at the child born without any hereditary coniplaij^t, well formed iii body and mind, whose parents are healthy, should ^lot be sick, that he should not suffer, that his only cravings should be for sleep and food, consequently he i^^quires no n^edicine and should get none, Ifsjfph a child be restless or cross it is j^qi medicii^e he wants, but to remove the cause of ijLi^resiJSeswpss, of his crossness, which you will generally fiu^d depends upon some error in diet. As*a rule, which suffers very few exceptioi^i^, the chield should nev^r get medicine; he does npt want it and he cannot bear it. Nature, Ladies and Grentlemejj, is a great Doctor and, at all timei?, Wt pwrticularly with childhood, all he asks is not to pe thwarted i^r pushed, but guided gently, and if he is, he will generally proye himself far superior to Mrs. Winslow and the rest of her tribe. There are some o>ther kinds of drugs besides those to be found in J^pothecary shops^ A^rtich, not entirely so bad, are nevertheless, well worthy of honorable mention when we are pn the subject of drugging ; I mean those retailea by confectioners and designated undpr the^geijt^ral and very attractive tiije of sweety.^ •r,r ly t [1 . All kinds of sweetieSf and the most kinc^^ of confeotionaryj particularly tl^>se containii^ cjif - rants and raisins are unwhp^es^ine, a^d shpuld never, or v«ry seldo^, be given to children. They donot want them,and if there were no other 45 I*; reason against their use than that they take away and destroy the child's appetite, it ought I to be sufficient, but there are other reasons ; they impair digestion and are often the first and only Inause of " remittant fever/' This excessive love of confectionary and sweet [things in the child, is not a natural craving, but is due solely to the parents' foolish kind hearted- ness, loving parents see no other means of pleasing their children ; it is with them the great motor power by which they foster and encourage all good actions, by which they res- train an evil propensities. Another reason against their use, but certainly not the least, is that this fictitious appetite in the child is very often the cause of petty theft, and the young child who is tempted to steal a copper to Duy a sugar stick, may, when some strong passion of manhood replaces that of the child, forge a note to put off infamy. If parents would eat none themselves nor allow them on their table, their children would soon follow their example and one great cause, at least, of sickness in families would be remowed. Clothing, — ^The clothing of the child should be warm in winter, cool in summer. There should be no bandaging, nothing tight nor constrained about the infant. Fbrmerly it was the fashion, as you are perhaps aware, to roll the infant in flannels in such a manner that he cotUd neither move hand or foot. KoW I am hapijy to say this, in a great measure is done ^9,y with, still we meet, now and then with famines where, t-his barbarous habit is still kept up. \ ^■'■•\ i h i> i\ 46 Clothing at all times should fit loosely, both in man and woman, but if there be any time whero tight clothing can do more harm than at an otner, it is certainly in childhood. The roasons moUiors give for this bandaging of the infant is that its little body requires support, but this is a false notion. Nature does not ask the ai4 of bandages to make a well formed man or woman ; what she requires is liberty and free action. This tight bandaging is frequently the caus of rupture, of conto-rtions of the bones, of rickets. In infancy the clothing should be warmer than at any other period. The child is then more easiley impressed by outward causes. The least change of temperature is easily felt and, in a t'ountry like Canada, where the changes of temperature are so abrupt and extreme, it is well to guard against them by wearing flannels. Flannel being a bad conductor of heat, cools less rai^idly than other textures, consequently any part of the body protected by it is less exposed to sudden arrest of the perspiration which is always dangerous and must be guarded against. TVhen I recommend the wearing of flannel, I do not mean that it should be worn next the skin. No, flannel should not touch the skin. The body is first covered with linen and then outside of this the flanel is put on. As the child grows older he must be taught to stand heat and cold without reference to Tittle or much clothing, he must be hardened to our extre;mes of tempera- ture. There isi nothing more foolish and wtich 41 tends more to weaken and render susceptible to outwai d influences than overclothing, muffling. The next duty of the parentis is to give their children pii^e air anil exercise. Without food, without piire air we cannot live. Food supplies the inatetlal, pure air gives that material its vitality and renders it fit and citable to support life and nourish the system. Food taken into the stomach and bowels undergoes certfiin changes. Still it is d^kd, loaded with Impu- rities, But th«e moment it enters the Itings, it cdines in contact witji the air we breathe, immediately it is rarified it throws out all its imputities ahd absorbs from the atmosphere, in their istead; 'that which gives it life. You can easily understand then, that in a crowded apart- ment where |;h^e are several inhaling at every insi>iratio]i thepure air p^the roo^ and at every etpiraiion thrOti^ing oiit the bad air and impu- rities coming froih th^' system^ thstt in a very short time^ all the ^lireair of the aij)artment wiU be absorbed and! repljiced by the fqiil air and other imMrities of the blood.' If thiBti; roOm be not Ventilated, i^ n6 pure air frbih the oiitside be allowed in, theri the blood cannot beptiriiied and the coiisequence Will be that suffocation will eijisue, t^at ftea-ih will be produced. f_!' -' 'Ko# iinmeidiate'jiftp^iition, immediate c(eath n^Veir hap|>eii uifleiss by accident, but slow stttfocation, slow deaths take place. every day in th^ tDity; There ai;e fbasei^.'bf slow suffocation, of slow poispiiiftff, to be seen^^a any time, in our suburbs, otit^idboiir City v^^alls. There you will see families, infints, youths and adults all if.; i-! 48 huvidled together into one or two small apart- ments, breathing the same vitiated atmospnere and not for a day or for a week, but for n^^ths and years. Look at their faces, pale and eoio- ciated, their limbs feeble and trempling under the sickly weigbt they carry, their mina^ idio- tised and brutified, and you will nhderstand the painful influence of bad air, the evil effects of overcrowding. *. This is not an example dragged to ligliit frpm the lo^^est depths of poverfy. No, This is Wk^^ you will see, as the rule, among our laboring classes, small shop kaep^rs and artisahs. There I is no ventilation, they djo not undef $ianid the necessity of it. When winter comes, wiiidofws are closed and sealed henpa^ticaUy, doors shut tightly and when sumniej: shows itself it is still worse, the windows are opeiied, it is true, but they look on a dirty, nafrow street, ,0^ a filthy confined yard, with stagnant air' ajid fleftid gases its permanent occupants, "V This is the rule. There ^re very few houses of the laboring man, of tbe bone a|^d sinew of society, b<>tter ventilated than this, biit there arc a great niany even still worse. I knoW of houses rotting with dirt and old age, Of streets and alleys of whole neighborhoods teeming with sickly, broken downlifejipyhelte this is ah^aared fold worse, where rotten filthy hpyels aiid still | more rotten, more filthy barracks containing. ten twelve and even more families, live 4rom year to I year in dirt and filth, bteathiuff airformea <^f the most fetid gases, loaded wHh pt^trefle^d cmd decomposed vegetable and animal matter. W^hat 49 fleet will such an atmosphere have in their miserable blood ? How pure it must render >t. Is it to be wondered at that we should have sickness. Is it surprising that young children should die hy hundreds, and that those who i^scape and grow up to manhood should fall a prey, at an early date, to consumption, to fever and all the other diseases so prevalent among the poor and inferior classes of this City V It is lucky for us that we are in a healthy climate, in fact we Could not wish for one more so ; and, if we have epidemics, if we have fever, if we have cholora, if thousands die from con- sumption, we must not say the climate wont agree with us, that it has brought on consump- tion that it is the cause of fever, of cholora. No. Ths cause is our own neglect, neglect of simple hygir 'c measures, which every man should folk which every citizen should see carried out. The climate of Canada is neither too cold in winter nor too warm in summer ; all that is necessary to enable us to enjoy it, is to be w^ell clad and well fed, if we are, we need not fear disease. The inhabitants of our country parishes see how healthy they are, what appetites they have an how old they live. They are as strong and as healthy as any race on the globe, and i'ar healthier than a great many. Quebec, although a city with a large influx ot strangers, during our summer mouths, although badly built and badly ventilated#as nevertheless, a healthy city, thanks to its position and its climate. But how much healthier would it not 3 III 50 * be, how considerable would be the decreasa of sickness and mortality, if a few simple rules of ventilation were but followed. If houses w^ere properly built, it streets were widened and kept clean. If we had squares and parks, places where the poor man of outside the walls, and his family might lind "a little of that rest and IVesh air so much wanting after their hard day's toil. How much healthier would it not be if the poor man*s house were better built, if it were kept clean, if it were not over- crowded, if Landlords w ould look rather to the healthiness of their houses, than to the number it can be made to accomodate, to shelter. And what shelter, what accomodation some of then do give ! Why, I know of localities, of streets, of alleys in this city, where the accomo- dation is not fit for the vilest of the brute creation; and it is fit fo? man, for the poor laborer, for his wife and children, a class, that have so much to suffer from cold and hunger, without poisoning them through the air they breathe. I would not like to be the proprietor of such houses, the contented owner of such localities. I would not like to receive the hard earned money of dying, sickly wretches foi that bainful, miserable protection I am giving them. But Do you think we look at that part of their suf- fering ? Do you think we are in the least affected by it ? No. — ^I'ne disease, the wretchedness of such localities ve far from us, we do not see its effects, hear its sufferings, all we do see or wish to see is, that the price of such protection be duly paid, that we receive our rents. 51 And still we are not uncharitable, on the con- trary, we are ver^' charitable. The praises of this noble virtue of onrs are heard for and wide, we are liberal, we found hospitals, hold bazaar», calico balls, subscribe with a free hand to all acts of benevolence, we do all this and more; But to build the house of the poor man more confortably, to ventilate it, to see that he h'>-s pure ait and enough of it, to keep it clean aad in order, this we will not see the necessity of> this we will not do. If sickness, if fever show itself among them, if they die by the score, why it is not our fault, it cannot be helped, and there are plenty more to replace them. I will ask you which of these two is real well placed charity, which benefits the receiver and the giver? To feed and clothe weak, sickly starving wretches reared, lining and dying, in such hot- beds of disease or to give them wholesome, well ventilated, clean and not overcrowded habita- tions, where they will not be in 4anffet of losing their health, but where they will have every chance of preserving it. That health so necessary to all men, but particularly to the poor laborer, the enjoyment of which will place him above mendicity and enable him to earn his bread honestly. A charity which embracer not only those we are ministering to, but alsothosr to com6, the children yet unborn. Of what use to us are riches ? What need we care if our city be richer than its neighbour ? Of "what use to lis are railroads, manufacturies ■UiMlfl flifMiiiiin .t'i ■1 etc., if we have not health. Health to enjoy those riches, to profit by those improvements ? And we will caloul and dispute every day abo'it such things, we will form companies, and vote large- amounts of money to put them into execu- tion ^nd we will not put by a few dollars for the building of better houses, for the widjsn^^g and cleaning of onr streets, for the construction of a few squares and public gardens, l^o, let up first be rich and we will think of h^ftjth fifter- wardfl. ' ^ Quebec, s^- I said a few momQnt& ago, is a healthy city and what it has to thank for this is its climate, its position. If it be not so healthy as these natural advantages woidd lead us to expect, it is our own fault, it is because we have neither squares nor gardens, reservoirs of pure air, placep> where the child may d^spo^ himself, where tl^e Knaa of ofiice, the ha^rd work- ing laborer and citizen generally, may go and find that rest and enjoyment so necess^xy a|t^r the confinement of office, the toil of the di^y. The tJppei; Town is well enough, it i/s gene- rally well built, its streets are cleaner and according to its size, it has breathing places suf- ficient. It bias the Terrace, the Battery, Gardens and Bsptoader But,St» Roch's, St John*s and St. Ix)uis\ suburbs, with their large population what have they, got ? Search them tl^rough and you will not find a single square a single garden. If there be any part of the city which requires them more particularly it is certainly these places, not so well situated for natural ventilation as the Upper Town, having a 'J« ■-•1 ^m 53 population denser and geneially formed of the working anrf poorer classes. No class of society re^nires better air than the working class of large cities, their occupations necessarly demand it. There were rumors sometime ago of knock' ing down the old wall and enlarging the Esf^laiiade, also of a park some distance outside the city, as at Spencer-Wood. Very good impro- vements certainly and against which I should be sorry to say a word. But I should think and and I believe you will be of the same opinion that it would be far better to leave those impk>- vements alone for some time, and in their stead give a garden to St. Uoch's, give one also to our suburbs. If the cite of the old Cemetary opposite St. Roch's Congregational Church were fenced round, planted with trees and shrubs, if the English cemetary of St. John's street were also turned into a public garden, I believe our citiziens would not loose by it, and whatever it might Cost our city in pocket, it would surely regain it in health. If pure air be necessary for the grown man and womiein, it is even more so for the infant, young child and youth. At the dawning of life in man vitality is geater than at any other period, every function seems vying one with the other . which shall do the most work and in the shortest space of time, the formation of new tissue and the destruction of old is done more rapidly. He is also the more easily impressed by outward causes, the least thing will leave its mark on his young and tender constitution. If then he be N'll •r;! 54 reared ill ill ventilated apartments, in crowded buildings, in cellars, where the air he breathes is stagnant and loaded with obnoxious and poisonous subtances, emanating from the decom- position of animal and vegetable matter, if every time he opes his little mouth to intrate that vital air so necessary for life, if he draws into his chest, into his blood along with that air, those poisonous substances those obnoxious gases, is it any wonder then that he should be pale and sickly and a fit subject for vomiting, convulsions, fever and cholera ? Not only should the child have good air, but he must also, as I have said, have exercise. Exercise is absolutely necessary. The more exer- cise we take, the better we are. The more exercise the child gets, the better he is. What effect has exercise on the animal eco- nomy ? This body of ours, as you all know, is continually changing. We are not the same to day as we were yesterday ; we shall not hav , in a year from this, the same body as we have now, it will be a new one bearing the ^ame stamp. The work of creation and death is going on continually within each of us, as well as around us, every moment some portion of our .system dies and is replaced by new tissue and so from day to day ; we die and we come to life until that moment when, we can revive no longer — until death, poor exercise by its stimu- lating effect on the different functions hastens the casting out of this old and dead tissue and hastens the formation of new. Exercise then, when it is reasoned and proper- w •^ ded athes and com- r, if trate raws that 'OUS dbe ting, but 55 tioned to our strength and state of health, has the most salutary eiFect on the constitution. It not only increases the appetiie and activates diges- tion, but it encourages every organ to act with greater force and regularity. All the vital functions are stimulated ana work with in- creased ardor. The body gains in health and strength, the muscles increase insize and consis- tency, all superabundant fat disappears and not only is the body thus benefitted but also the mind, it becomes clearer and more susceptible of com- prehention and retention. The individual who takes ^uflBlcient out-door exercice is very seldom sick, you will hardly ever see him suffering from gravel never from gout. Nay iuvorite of the pampered and idle. You will not hear him complaining of hii5 \^eak stomach his dyspeptic symptoms, his lassitude. You will not see her teasing doctors with her pain in the side, her weakness, her mysteria. Thelnhabitantsof our country parishes, why are they so strong, so healthy, so robust ? On account of the good air they breathe their regu- lar habits but principally because they take plenty out-door exercise. • The citizen, the inhabitant of towns and cities cannot be expected to take as much out-door exercise ; cannot be expected to have good health as he of the country ; his occupations generally being in-door, such as that of the Lawyer, Merchant, Clerk and Tradesman. But the evil of these in-door occupations would be to a great degree mitigated, if, instead of spending all our leisure hours at home, in X iv >ii:i. m ■' I i u : ■ 66 our parlor or smoking room, if instead of passing OUT evenings in clubs and social gatherings, playing billiards or talking non-sense, we were to give one hour or two, each day, to some manly and healthy exercise. Quebec of late has improved a good deal on this head. It has, at present, gymnasiums, snow-shoe and foot races, lacrosse clubs, Sec, recreations which cannot be too much encmi- raged. But all citizens cannot take part in these ; it is not expected of young ladies and old gentle- men that they should form foot races and lacrosse clubs, but what they can do, at least, is to walk a few miles each day, there aVe none but can find time enough for that, none weak enough, none so busy mothers of families, men of office, &c., none whose occupations will not allow them to give one hour or two, each day, to walking. When once we have seen the necessity of this, when once we have felt its good effects on our own person, then, but not till then, shall we treat out children accordingly and send them out. The infant and young child cannot be expect- ed, of course, to take active exercise ; it must be passive. He should bo carried out every day, for a few hours! There should be no exercise ; when it is the health of the child that is at stake we should do all ' that is necessary. The state of the weather should be very seldom a i retext for keeping children housed in. Here in Quebec, we have the two extremes, m'lii'rfmi' oT igly 11 the one hand the English element who send heir children out in all weathers, be it ever so old or stormy ; on the other hand, the French, vho from early fall to late in spring, never send heir children out. They arc both wrong* the edium is what we showed follow. When the hild has grown up, and is able to go out of imself, and take part, in the amusements and ames of other children, of his age, we should lace no barrier in his way, on the contrary, we hould encourage him by every means in our ower, principmly by showing ourselves inte- ested in his amusements. We should not be fraid, but by playing and mixing with other hildren, even if they should be unwashed and agged, that he will soil his fine clothes, orrupt his good morals. No ; the child is Iways the child, let him be dressed in ctoth or overed with rags, let him have a rich or poor ther still he is the child, full of life and vigor, cupied with nothing but his games, his amuse- ents whose greatest pleasure is to roll and mble without fear or constraint, / The present " Napoleon " when a child and siding in Holland, was one day inconsolable is nur6e had tried every means which wealth d affluence could procure to please him, but was of HO use ; his playthings had no charm r him. Taken to a window, he espied a few young utch sprouts rolling in the gutter ; irame- ately he danced with joy, and called to his use, with true childish glee depicted on his untenance — " Laissez-moi aller jouer dans ''-.■■v^t?*ij,j;^<^i -'■•h%^-r' 08 i!i ■? if fei cette belle bouo." ■ ' Le me go and play in that nice mud." Those were the cravings of Napoleon the Third in his infancy, of one of the greatest men of this age or of any other, if there had been no Sedan, " let me go and play in that nice mud." Why, you would hardly expect worse from a little raggimuffin of St. Sauveur, but such is childhood, is it in after life to fill a throne or carry a pack, at that age the gutter has al peculiar attraction, and so much the better. It is by rolling in the gutter and not oni carpets that they will find health. It is by allowing children to play and tumble that wej shall have healthy, intelligent men and wel' made handsome women. There is no danger of the child getting cor rupted by what he sees or hears from childre of his own age, no matter what class of societ they may belong to. When a child always see& good example, a home, from his father and mother there is ver little danger of his being corrupted. During childhood, the great duty of parents ii to look to their physical education ; of cours they must inculcate good moral principles, bot' by precept and example, but after the men which necessarily must rank first, their gre duty is to give them a good physical educatio It is at this age, it can be done ; when the get'older, it will be too late. They will the neither have the inclination nor the time for i but at this age, there is nothing else to occup them and it is the duty of all parents to see V it be Those hat thi eir foi ey bee Jthy i lives. And le healt th wh ome icrescen Itellecti Public y tryii ly in t: ard to \i .59 in that |ully carried out. Their intellectual education hould be very slight indeed. If the child of on the len or eleven, the age at which boys and girls jst men liay begin to go to school, if at this Age they been no Ian read their catechism and spell a little, it is 5 mud." luite enough. It is rediculous and worse than from aiediculous, it is criminal, wishing to make pro- such isligies of young children, teaching boys of nine [irone orlnd ten, Latin, arithmetic, geography, history i: has alramming his young head with the knowledge of tter. Banhood. Let mothers and fathers take more not oniride in seeing their children strong and robust, '.i is byliepts and lovers of all healthy and manly that welames ; than iii having them the " wright boy md well|f a schools," " top of his class," " winner of 1 prizes," all that will come at the right time ting cor* it be in him. childreul Those hot-bed prodigies never accomplish )f society|hat their precocious intellects might have led eir fond parents to believe, on the contrary, ^mple, aMey become stupid and dull at that age when 3 is ver^ijalthy intelligence begins to emancipate them- llves. >arent8 ilAnd what is the consequence ? Having lost )f cours«e health of the body, having lost those talents lies, botliith which nature had endowed them, they e moralcome outcasts or in figurative language, the ir greaMcrescences of society, neither fit for manual nor ucationltellectual labor. en thejPublic school' but principally college' life is ill the«ry trying on the young constitution, particu- e for i»ly in this country, where all pupils, without occupjard to age or strength, are treated *in the to see de manner. When tho child of ton was to J ' tf assioB hich i st, is Ihose si ever L As in tein eans i as ma< And 60 follow the same rule as the maii of twenty, Thel^ . same number of hours of sleep, the same numbeit^ r of hours of study, the same quantity of recreaf ^y^ tion ; when such badruks as these are foUoweJ^j^ r^ in our public schools and colleges, we must b| j^^ , careful not to send them there too young, befor their tender constitution is able to bear th heavy strain that will be laid on it ; we musi try and fortify them beforehand by a goo physical education. Of what use to a man will be all his honor his learning, his profession, if upon leavinj college and entering public life he has n liealth ? If his constitution be broken dow and undermined first by the ingnorant nursini of childhood and secondly by the P^^^J^^^icelj^^V^^ and unscientific education given in our <^<^ll®&c4i8ure i an education which aims only at stuffing tbl -»nr young head with Greek and Latin and ^i^^l^cl 1 1 * ing the health of the body. Can that Hialg^ follow with satisfaction to himself and to otheff .^ the sacred and laborious profession of the Prieslv hood, the fatigueing calls of the medical profel jj, sion can he stand,for any time, the confinement the Lawyer's office of the merchant's desk ? Y< need not ask, you have examples of the contra every day before your eyes. Young men e dowed by nature with the brightest talents, t most robust health, who at the early age twenty five or thirty,fall aprey to inflammatio to fever and consumption. Health, Ladies and Grentlenien, is a gre| blessing ; we only know its value when we ha lost it. n ie dicti redbi iience. liet wh |e had, le cow jfore it px mon id not |y from iity. The 5 numbei of tecrea Ebllowei must b ig, befori bear th ^\e mus f a gooi s honors I leavin has n< en dowi 61 No matter how high our position in society, 10 matter how learned, how rich we may be, if ve have not health we are not happy. - ,, When we have health let us take care of it . mnThf ^^ not throv^r it away foolishly. I mns j^^ ^^ ^^^^ £^^ ^j^^ gratification of our diseased tassions and inclinations, loose that health v^hich is so very precious and which, when once ost, is so very seldom regained. Let us follow hose simple and easy laws of nature which will lever lead us astray. As individuals, let us be regular and tempe- ate in our habits. As citizens, let us use every eans which sound sense teaches, which science . —as made clear, to render our city healthy. Lt nursini ^^^ ^ parents, as the natural protectors of ^^^J^^^^Jhildhood, let us do all that is necessary to r college Jjjg^y^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ henUh. Man, unlike the brute, comes into the world eble and helpless requiring the soothing, nder care of the mother. Let not that motherly re then, through ignorance, be turned against ^^ ''"^lis young life. jal proie| j^^ mothers follow towards their children e dictates of their own heart, guided and tem- ed by their good sense and the teachings of ience. Let them give to their children that et which nature has provided, or if that cannot had, then let them replace it by the milk of e cow. Let them never spoonfeed the infant fore it has attained the age of, at least, five or X months. Let them rear it in well ventilated d not overcrowded apartments. Let them y from all roguery and quackery, no matter uffing t d negleci that m L to othe he Prie lal prof nement bsk? Y e contra men ilents, t *ly age nmatio i A grei we haf 62 under whyt guise it may present itself. By sol doin^, by IblToAving those simple rules. wniGhl I have laid down, they will have healthy children. They will reap that great comfort, so dear to every parent's heart, of seeing around them, in their old age, a numerous family, healthy and happy, moral and intelligent ; anl honor to the parents who gave them birth and] an honor to the society who receives them. f. By sol s, wniGhl healthyl comfort, ^ around } family, rent ; anl ►irth and! liem.