WHAT OUR 
 GIRLS OUGHT TO KNOW, 
 
 MARY J. STUDLEY, M.D., 
 
 GRADUATE, RESIDENT PHYSICIAN, AND TEACHER OP THE NATURAX 
 SCIENCES IN THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, FRAMINGHAM, MASS.; 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 GRADUATE OP THE WOMAN'S MEDICAL COLLF 
 
 EMILY ELACK.WELL, SECRETARY OP THF 
 
 PARKEK, CHAIRMAN Or TH"
 
 ' ; ng to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, 
 'NTK & WAGNALLS, 
 
 " -ngress at Washington, D. C.
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR 
 
 OIF 1 
 
 Dr. Mary J. Studley. 
 
 There is no study so interesting to man, as 
 man; hence it is that the biographies of eminent 
 men and women are more sought after than any 
 other kind of literature. An interest is taken in 
 them in proportion to what they have done or 
 written, which have added to the world's store 
 of learning, civilization and entertainment. Biog- 
 raphy introduces us to all great men as friends, 
 enhances our estimation of character, and trans- 
 fuses the life of the departed into us. Great 
 characters, like great mountains, are best seen at 
 a distance ; we do not, therefore, as a general 
 thing, form a true estimate of them until we lose 
 them. It is so with many other things. We 
 have to be deprived of them before we learn 
 their value. We see most of the third's beauty 
 \vhen it stretches its wings for flight. 
 
 O o 
 
 In this brief sketch of the life of Dr. Marjr
 
 ii Introductory. ' 
 
 J. Studley we can only speak of her public char- 
 acter. Like most struggling women, she had a 
 side that was hidden from the world ; and there 
 was, at times, a pressure upon her mind which 
 none would have suspected, who only saw the 
 exterior of the calm, sweet, gentle woman that 
 she was. 
 
 Dr. Studley was born in Worcester, Massa- 
 chussetts, about the year 1835. She was the 
 daughter of parents who were able to give her 
 more advantages in early life than commonly fall 
 to the lot of young women. She was educated 
 at Newton, in her native State, and early de- 
 veloped a thirst for those branches of education 
 which most girls pass over. She acquired a 
 thorough knowledge of Latin, mathematics, nat- 
 ural history and physiology, to which, later on, 
 she added the German and French languages in 
 the first of which she could speak and write with 
 great fluency. No State has furnished so many 
 female teachers as Massachusetts ; and, being 
 full of ambition and independence, she enlisted 
 in that high and honorable calling, locating her- 
 self at Sandusky, Ohio, where she proved her 
 stability, worthiness and fidelity, by remaining 
 there twelve vears all the time engaged in the 
 education of youth. At the end of this time 
 family inducements brought her to New York, 
 where she lived four and a half years in the
 
 Introductory. in 
 
 family of her brother. It was about this time 
 that she resolved to study medicine and become 
 a physician. With her to resolve was to do ; and 
 at once she entered the Woman's Medical Col- 
 lege of the New York Infirmary, and took a full 
 course, graduating with honor. The first experi- 
 ence of Dr. Studley as a physician was at Eliza- 
 beth, New Jersey. She went there, if not abso- 
 lutely a stranger, still without the assistance so 
 essential to new beginners in the profession. It 
 was with her an experiment, and her hopes came 
 from confidence in herself her splendid health 
 and buoyant spirits. She had to contend with 
 ignorance, apathy, and settled physicians of ex- 
 perience and skill, who, like most practitioners 
 in medicine, were jealous of and unfriendly to 
 new comers especially towards a woman, un- 
 known, unheralded and but newly graduated. 
 
 A young lawyer advertises himself, and waits 
 long for a first client, but what is that to a woman 
 with the popular prejudice against her sex, and 
 with questions of life and death to be submitted to 
 her skill ? Dr. Studley, with womanly trust, put 
 a modest card in the papers, placed her sign upon 
 the house, and waited for her first patient. It 
 may be readily believed that she had abundant 
 leisure ; but, she did not waste her time. As we 
 have seen she had obtained much and varied 
 learning, and she had withal a vigorous and
 
 iv Introductory. 
 
 versatile pen. Her strength was in her clear- 
 headed, common-sense, and the gift of expressing 
 her thoughts in good English, never saying too 
 much or too little. With a wise calculation of 
 the charms of attracting popular attention she 
 resolved to lecture on the subject of physiology, 
 first delivering a few lectures to a promiscuous 
 audience, and then a course exclusively to ladies. 
 Her first lecture was delivered to between fifty 
 and a hundred curious listeners ; with whatever 
 feelings they came, they went away satisfied that 
 she knew how to treat her subject with masterly 
 skill. Her experiment as a lecturer was success- 
 ful and satisfactory. If patients came in slowly, 
 they did come ; so that by the end of the first 
 year Dr. Stuclley was a self-supporting woman, 
 with the prospect of a fair share of the practice 
 of the city. 
 
 More than fifteen years of teaching, however, 
 had formed habits which could not be wholly 
 overcome ; and although she labored zealously in 
 her own profession, there was always an under- 
 current of longing for the teachers desk and in- 
 quiring students. A quiet city like Elizabeth did 
 not satisfy her ambition ; and after a residence of 
 about two years she left it and located in New 
 York city, where every thing had to be begun 
 anew. She met difficulties and obstacles with 
 womanly determination, lecturing as before and
 
 Introductory. V 
 
 using all legitimate means to achieve success; 
 but Providence had decreed that she should oc- 
 cupy a wider and more congenial field of useful- 
 ness. Taking better counsel than that which 
 carried her to New York, she returned to Massa- 
 chussetts, and for a while practised medicine in 
 her native city, Worcester, where she had many 
 friends who gladly welcomed her home. She next 
 was offered and accepted a position in the State 
 Normal School, at Framingham, as Professor of 
 the Natural Sciences, and as Resident physician. 
 Here, she was indeed at home. Her studies in 
 medicine had not been lost ; they had rounded out 
 her talents as a teacher, they had widened her 
 knowledge of human nature, and all her faculties 
 were fully developed. This was, undoubtedly, 
 the Summer period of her life. She was to her 
 scholars, what Mentor was to Telemachus a 
 guide, a counsellor and a friend and they loved 
 her as such. 
 
 Twice she visited Europe, each time in com- 
 pany of a party of young and eager travelers and 
 students, and furnished some interesting letters 
 to the JVeivark Advertiser, giving graphic ac- 
 counts of their travels. From her last trip she 
 returned with somewhat impared health, the re- 
 sult of over-fatigue and anxiety, from which she 
 never fully recovered. She became nervous and 
 restless ; and some action on the part of the man-
 
 vi Introductory. 
 
 agers of the Normal School, of which she did 
 not approve, led to her resignation, and tem- 
 porary loss of employment. Unwilling to return 
 to the practice of medicine she finally opened a 
 private school in Framingham, which opened with 
 every promise of success and abundant returns in 
 reputation and money. But, alas ! a cloud may 
 suddenly obscure the brightest sky ; so it some- 
 times happens, that what seems to be the hour of 
 triumph becomes the hour of affliction. 
 
 " Death comes to all, his cold and sapless hand 
 Waves o'er the world, and beckons us away. 
 Who shall resist the summons ? " 
 
 The strain upon the great heart of the strong 
 woman had been too long endured ; the fatigue of 
 body and mind had been excessive ; and even as a 
 host of loving friends and relatives were rejoic- 
 ing over the new departure, and eager scholars 
 were waiting her words of wisdom and sympathy, 
 the Angel of Death claimed her as his own. 
 There was but a momentary struggle, the light 
 fled from the eyes, the firm lips closed, and the 
 spirit of Mary J. Studley was before the throne 
 of the Creator. 
 
 In character, Dr. Studley mingled strength 
 and tenderness. She was fearless in the dis- 
 charge of her duty, and her life was full of heroic 
 self-sacrifice, and rich in noble deeds. In her 
 off-hand talks to her scholars or assemblies, she
 
 Introductory. vii 
 
 would draw upon her exhaustless fund of humor, 
 creating ripples of laughter ; and with the door 
 thus opened, and the attention gained, she would 
 crowd into their minds a wonderful amount of 
 information. She had a large head, a round face, 
 with honesty written in every line of it, and bright 
 sparkling eyes, with a sweet clear voice. She 
 was warm in her friendships, and loved the so- 
 ciety of intelligent people. If she had her fail- 
 ings, which is not improbable, she had a wonder- 
 ful way of hiding them from all but herself and 
 her God. 
 
 As a writer, this little volume is a fair ex- 
 ample of her style and versatile powers. Her 
 love for the young was great, and she had a 
 strong, desire to contribute all in her power to the 
 mental and physical developement of her own 
 sex. This volume will be found to contain a 
 large store of illustration and information, show- 
 ing the extensive and varied character of her own 
 studies. Dr. Studley has left other manuscripts 
 behind her which deserve to, and which we trust 
 may, some day, be permitted to reach the public. 
 
 J. K. HOYT. 
 JUNE 1, 1882, NEWARK, N. J.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 SAID Confucius : " If I am building a 
 mountain, and stop before the last basketful 
 of earth is placed on the summit, I have failed 
 of my work. But if I have placed but one 
 basketful on the plain, and go on, I am really 
 building a mountain." 
 
 This is my little basketful of earth which 
 I bring to the ever-growing mountain of liter- 
 ature upon education. " There cannot be, on 
 such an inexhaustible subject, one book too 
 much, even after the best except the worst." 
 
 In my basketful you will find some grains 
 of simple truth which I have picked up "along 
 the shore of the great ocean." I have set 
 them among gems from Homer, from Moses, 
 
 from Solomon, from Plato, from Jesus, and 
 
 ix
 
 x Preface. 
 
 from many modern poets, philosophers, 
 teachers, and now they are yours, dear' girls, 
 for whom they have been collected. ^ lyfay 
 they help you " to do and to become your 
 
 best"! 
 
 M. J. S. 
 
 STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, 
 FKAMINGHAM, Mass., Jan., 1878.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE iii 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 "STUDY GOD'S POEM" 12 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "KNOW THYSELF " 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WHAT SHALL WE EAT, AND How SHALL WE 
 
 COOK IT ? 42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE HEART 54 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 How WE BREATHE 68 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 How WE BREATHE. Continued . . . 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BRAIN AND NERVES 97 
 
 xi
 
 xii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NERVES AND NERVOUSNESS 113 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 How PLANTS AND ANIMALS ARE PERPETUATED. . . 134 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 How TO BECOME BEAUTIFUL 146 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE USES AND ABUSES OF DRESS. 171 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE MATE AND THE HOME 199 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE PERFECT WOMAN 225 
 
 INDEX. . 257
 
 Ouf G[iiW Ou^t to Eqow. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 As vigorous health, and its accompanying high spir- 
 its, are larger elements of happiness than any other 
 things whatever, the teaching how to maintain them 
 is a teaching that yields to no other whatever. HEU- 
 BEKT SPENCER. 
 
 HAVING been privileged, for a number of 
 years, to associate with " our girls " in schools 
 both public and private, as a teacher of the laws 
 of health, there have come to me from time 
 to time not a few requests, both from mothers 
 and daughters, for a printed manual of the 
 lessons given in this capacity. These requests 
 have led me to believe that there is room for 
 such a book among the many which seek to 
 make our young women wiser and- better.
 
 6 Introductory. 
 
 The higher education of " our girls " is the 
 prominent topic of the day in the press, in the 
 magazine, in the parlor, and on the platform. 
 New colleges are springing up for them, and 
 old ones are gradually opening their doors to 
 them. The nineteenth century is coming to 
 recognize the meaning of what Moses told the 
 world so long ago, when he said God put Eve 
 beside Adam, instead of putting her above him 
 or below him, or into a " female seminary " all 
 to herself; and along with this recognition goes 
 the underlying one that a sickly Eve was no 
 more a part of the Divine plan than was a 
 sickly Adam. The record is emphatic and 
 clean upon this point. Sublime in its simple 
 eloquence as is the character of Moses himself, 
 the narrative says, " And God saw everything 
 ihat he had made, and, behold, it was very 
 good"; but in the years that roll between then 
 and now it appears that there has been a deal 
 of interference with the original "very good" 
 work, until it would hardly seem as if God 
 could recognize his pattern in the sickly, feeble, 
 nervous, jaded, hysterical, worry -faced, and 
 wasp-waisted creature who spends half her time
 
 Introductory. 7 
 
 in telling her aches and the other half in the 
 specialist's office. 
 
 It is not strange that this creature should 
 have been refused admission to colleges whose 
 work is planned for sound minds in sound bod- 
 ies, nor that the world should be slow to be- 
 lieve that she is capable of doing this work ; but 
 it happens that, along with the movement to- 
 ward higher intellectual culture, there is a no 
 less vigorous campaign in behalf of the temple 
 which the soul inhabits, that it may become fit 
 for the Holy Ghost's indwelling If Eve is 
 going to stand beside Adam, where God put 
 her, she must take such care of her body as to 
 insure its being a help rather than a hindrance 
 to her work; and it has been a constant joy 
 during my association with school-girls, in the 
 capacity already named, to find a growing senti- 
 ment in faVor of that vigorous health which 
 is the prime factor of success in life. 
 
 It has long been said by prominent medical 
 men that women themselves are responsible 
 for a large share of their characteristic weak- 
 nesses, and the following extract from a note 
 addressed to me by Dr. "Willard Parker only 
 echoes the prevailing sentiment of the profes-
 
 8 Introductory. 
 
 sion. He says : " Women kill themselves b) 
 their bad management ID a mechanical way. 
 They make themselves portable machines for 
 effete matter. Their nerves cry out when fed 
 by a dirty blood, and the. cry is called neural- 
 gia. What folly to give an anodyne for the 
 neuralgia and let the cause of it remain !" 
 
 It is not strange that the gentlemen of 
 the profession were limited to generalities in 
 their charges against women for maltreatment 
 of their bodies. They never wore the absurd 
 machinery with which the conventionally-dressed 
 woman is deformed, and how could they attack 
 its details or make any real progress toward 
 reform ! The real dress - reform necessarily 
 waited to be inaugurated by medical women, 
 and its progress keeps pace with theirs toward 
 popular acceptance. No woman who under- 
 stands the beauty of the original design of the 
 human body will ever seek to distort that 
 body by subjecting it to the demands of a 
 fashion which is totally regardless of natural 
 laws; it therefore follows, as surely as day 
 follows night, that the women who study med- 
 icine are the women who have most respect 
 for their bodies, and who have, therefore, the
 
 Introductory. 9 
 
 soundest and most serviceable bodies bodies 
 upon which they can count for any amount 
 of intellectual or other work as surely as men 
 can depend upon their bodies. 
 
 Says the Rev. Charles Kingsley in his ex- 
 cellent book on "Health and Education": 
 " Let women who have studied medicine teach 
 to other women what every woman ought to 
 know." And long before he said it they were 
 in the field, ready and anxious to carry the 
 gospel of health to their misguided and suffer- 
 ing sisters. Having learned what is causing 
 so much misery among them, they find it diffi- 
 cult to wait in the office for the mischief to 
 be done which they know is so much more 
 easily prevented than cured ; hence they go 
 forth to the school and the lecture-room as 
 missionaries and ministers of the goddess Hy- 
 geia, the fair daughter who put more faith in 
 correct living than in the charmed serpents of 
 her father ^Esculapius. 
 
 " The laws of health are the laws of God, 
 and are as binding as the decalogue," is an 
 oft-quoted saying of Dr. Parker's. We take 
 great care to teach the decalogue to our young 
 men and maidens ; but are we just to them
 
 10 Introductory. 
 
 when we neglect to teach them what they 
 ought to know about their bodies, in order 
 that they may obey the laws of those bodies ? 
 
 My experience with " our girls " convinces 
 me that they do not willfully sin against their 
 bodies, but that they are sadly ignorant of 
 the laws which govern them. We all admit 
 that it is the mother's duty to acquaint them 
 with these laws ; but it is a lamentable fact 
 that the present generation of mothers is wo- 
 fully deficient in the ability to do so. They 
 admit it, and are, as a rule, glad to secure 
 the aid of an educated lady physician in sup- 
 plementing their home work. 
 
 And so, dear girls, we come to you, glad 
 to help your mothers teach you what you 
 ought to know. It is the expression of the 
 highest thought of God, this temple which we 
 inhabit ! 
 
 Plato said to his pupils: " You take a jour- 
 ney to Olympia to behold the work of Phidias, 
 and each of you thinks it a misfortune to die 
 without a knowledge of such things ; and will 
 you have no inclination to see and understand 
 those works for which there is no need to take 
 a journey, but which are ready and at hand,
 
 Introductory. 11 
 
 even to those who bestow no pains ! Will 
 you never perceive what you are, or for what 
 you are born, or for what purpose you are 
 admitted to behold this spectacle !" 
 
 " Phidias worked on marble, and the light 
 of his creation still beams from afar. Raphael 
 worked on canvas, and gave to the world a 
 beauty which has thrilled hearts through all 
 these ages. What shall we fashion, who work 
 upon the breath of God?"
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "STUDY GOD'S POEM." 
 
 "THOU need'st but eyes rightly to see his work, 
 A soul, a soul to understand it all, 
 A heart to feel it simply as it is: 
 How will the loving soul thrill through thee then, 
 Which he has breathed into the eternal work, 
 Into the beauteous face of man and flowers ! 
 
 
 It becometh man to understand 
 
 What God doth speak out loudly through his works." 
 
 LEOPOLD SCHEFER. 
 
 " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
 earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." 
 
 MOSES. 
 
 You can find this " dust of the earth " very 
 easily by putting any bone into the fire long 
 enough for its animal matter to be separated 
 from its earthy constituents, and then your
 
 " Study God's Poem." 13 
 
 knowledge of chemistry and mineralogy will 
 tell you that the dust into which the bone 
 resolves itself is just the same dust which goes 
 to make the marble of the Yenus de Milo, 
 the coral which you wear over your heart, 
 the jewel which sparkles on your finger, or 
 your plaster cast of Psyche. 
 
 I once had a little black girl in a Sunday- 
 school, who, in reply to the question, " Of 
 what are you made ?" said, " Mud, ma'am." 
 And she was no less accurate than Moses ; for 
 you know you have learned that three-fourths 
 of your body consist of water, and we all know 
 that dust and water make mud. And do you 
 know what becomes of the dust which remains 
 when the bone is burned ? Some of this 
 " dust " is called phosphate of lime, and the 
 farmers put it on the fields, that you may get 
 it for your own bones in the form of corn 
 and beans and wheat, while the match-makers 
 (I mean Lucifer matches) also take a share 
 of it to use in their factories. It is said that 
 each one of us carries about in her skeleton 
 enough phosphorus, in the form of phosphate 
 of lime, to make four thousand matches. 
 
 Other portions of the "dust" which com-
 
 14 "Study 6W* Poem." 
 
 poses the bones are called carbonate of lime; 
 and when we have spent " our years as a tale 
 that is told," it is quite possible that this dust 
 of ours may reappear as a handsome coral 
 spray to adorn the maidens who shall come 
 after us. Besides the phosphate and carbonate 
 of lime, there is a bit of fluoride of lime in 
 our bones, and this may have existed in some 
 gem which has sparkled in the crown of an 
 emperor, so wisely does Dame Nature econ- 
 omise her resources. She has, as you know, 
 but sixty-three elements to work with, and she 
 has to turn and twist and hash and warm over 
 her odds and ends, over and over and over 
 again, in order to keep all her ovens supplied. 
 These, then, are the main elements which go to 
 make the dust of your bones phosphate, car- 
 bonate and fluoride of lime and the bones of 
 your pet kitten are made of the same sub- 
 stances. Not only this, but she has about the 
 same number of bones that you have, for is 
 she not a first-class creature, a vertebrate ? Do 
 you know how a vertebra looks ? If not, let 
 me beg you to go to the meat market at once 
 and learn just how that column of little bones 
 looks of which your " spine " consists. Look,
 
 "Study GocTs Poem." 15 
 
 too, at the nice little cushions between the ver- 
 tebras by which all the vertebrates except the 
 poor turtle and the corseted woman secure 
 such flexibility of the spinal column as consti- 
 tutes the grace of motion. 
 
 Have you seen the inner surface of a turtle's 
 back, and how all the vertebrae are consolidated 
 so that the creature can no more execute a 
 graceful movement than you could if you had to 
 carry your house on your back ? Mythology 
 tells us that the turtle alone of all the animals 
 refused to attend the wedding of Jupiter and 
 Juno, and that for this slight the latter con- 
 demned her to forever carry her house on her 
 back. I wonder what offense those M r omen are 
 expiating who hold their vertebrae in the man- 
 ner of the turtle by means of " stays ? " It 
 hardly seems possible that any animal would 
 voluntarily put itself under such restraint. 
 
 Have you ever observed the beautiful adapt- 
 ations of the parts of the skeleton of a verte- 
 brate to eacli other and to their uses ? If not, 
 let mo ask you to go to a Natural History mu-. 
 seum at your earliest opportunity, and see what 
 a superb specimen of architecture is presented 
 by this array of*bones.
 
 16 "Study Gotfs Poem." 
 
 Observe the skull or brain case ; if possible, 
 the human skull, since that is the finest of all. 
 How perfect the arch of the dome ! How firm, 
 and yet how fine, the sutures or seams where 
 the separate bones unite ! How strong and able 
 to resist the shock of falls is the occiput, or 
 backbone ! Compare its thickness with that of 
 the bones which form the eye-sockets, and see 
 with what nicety the requisite strength 'is secured 
 at this point by thin bones, which are almost 
 transparent, and have no need to be thick to 
 resist shocks such as the back of the skull is 
 liable to receive. Look then into the nostrils, 
 and see those fine and beautifully twisted bones 
 which are so nicely adapted to increasing the 
 space over which the air has to pass on its way 
 to the lungs, that it may be wanned and fitted 
 for introduction into such choice company as the 
 air-cells of the lungs afford. Not only this, but 
 also an increase of space for the distribution of 
 the nerve of smell is secured. The longer the 
 dog's nose and the more twisted these turbina- 
 ted bones, as they are called, the keener is his 
 sense of smell. And why not for you ? The 
 nez retrousse may possibly add to the saucy 
 prettiness of the face which it matches, but for
 
 " Study Gotfs Poemr \t 
 
 real service and as a mark of high breeding the 
 aquiline and the Roman noses can hardly be 
 excelled. A strongly - built nose and a chin 
 which does not retreat as if anxious to get out 
 of eight are proofs of a well-built skeleton. 
 
 The houses built with hands soon fall into 
 hopeless ruin if the frames be of poor timber, 
 poorly jointed, and the same is true of the house 
 each of us lives in and which Paul asks us to 
 call a temple for the Holy Ghost's indwelling. 
 I don't believe the Holy Ghost will ever make 
 his home in a poorly-built house. He may 
 make it occasional missionary visits, and then 
 the soul may shine out of it with a luster which 
 is truly surprising ; but he doesn't, as a rule, 
 take up his abode there. Infinitely better than 
 an inheritance of bank stock with a poor house- 
 frame is a well-built house without the bank 
 stock, for if our parents give us the latter we 
 can know the luxury of winning our own dollars 
 and spending them, too ; while in the former 
 case we can only lie about in helpless impo- 
 tence and see our bank stock going to enrich 
 the doctors. Says Mr. John Burroughs : " I 
 notice that when a family begins to run out, it 
 turns out its toes, drops oif at the heel, shortens
 
 18 "Study God's Poem? 
 
 its jaw and dotes on small feet and hands." 
 What's to hinder a structure from going to 
 ruin when the corner-stones give way ! 
 
 Look now at the thorax or chest. See what 
 a perfect cage it is for the protection of its 
 occupants, and how light and airy it is at the 
 same time. Strength joined with lightness and 
 elasticity sufficient for perfect freedom of mo- 
 tion of all its parts. See how beautifully the 
 round head of each rib fits into the little socket 
 prepared for it, and which in life is so nicely 
 lubricated that the constant motion of each head 
 in its socket is unnoticed, although each rib 
 rises and falls with every breath ; that is, when 
 it is not held in splints by that instrument of 
 torture which one sees in all the shop - windows, 
 labeled " Patent glove-fitting," a machine which 
 has been the cause of more misery to women 
 than any other one thing. I sometimes think 
 that Moses' account of Eve's eating the fatal 
 apple and then running for a fig-leaf refers to 
 her putting on a corset and the abominations 
 which hang thereby. 
 
 Believe me, dear girls, you cannot compress 
 the walls of this delicate cage without paying 
 the penalty in ways which you would never
 
 "Study God's Poem." 19 
 
 suspect. The corner-stone of a house may 
 crumble away and never be noticed till the 
 tower falls over, and so you may undermine 
 your foundation by crowding your chest bones 
 upon each other, and the head alone will utter 
 its protest by aching. That is the tower falling 
 over. 
 
 Look now at the complexity of the frame- 
 work of the wrists and the ankles, the hands 
 and the feet. Note that it takes eight little 
 bones in the wrist, all of them so adjusted and 
 lubricated as to move upon each other in most 
 exquisite nicety, so that the movements of the 
 human hand have no parallel in the universe 
 for beauty and variety. What do you suppose 
 the Author of all this mechanism thinks when 
 he sees a string of bangles hung on it ! 
 
 Look at the foot with its marvelous array 
 of bones, all adapted for motion by the most 
 perfect system of joints which could possibly be 
 made, and tell me what the maker of it must 
 think when he sees that complex and beautiful 
 instep tipped wholly out of its position on a 
 French heel, and those toes folded upon each 
 other in helpless inactivity, not one of them able
 
 20 "Study God's Poem." 
 
 to move itself or assert its " inalienable right to 
 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 
 
 Says Mr. John Burroughs in his charming 
 little book, " Winter Sunshine," which I hope 
 you all have read or will read, " Occasionally on 
 the sidewalk, amid the dapper, swiftly-moving, 
 high-heeled boots and gaiters, I catch a glimpse 
 of the naked human foot. Nimbly it scuffs 
 along: the toes spread, the sides flatten, the 
 heel protrudes ; it grasps the curbing, or bends 
 to the form of the uneven surfaces a thing 
 sensuous and alive, that seems to take cogniz- 
 ance of whatever it touches or passes. How 
 primitive and uncivil it looks in such company 
 a real barbarian in the parlor ! We are so 
 unused to the human anatomy, to simple, un- 
 adorned nature, that it looks a little repulsive ; 
 but it is beautiful for all that.. . .That unham- 
 pered, vitally playing piece of anatomy is the 
 type of the pedestrian ; man returned to first 
 principles, in direct contact and intercourse 
 with the earth and the elements ; his faculties 
 unsheathed, his mind plastic, his body tough 
 ened, his heart light, his soul dilated ; while 
 those cramped and distorted members in the 
 calf and kid are the unfortunate wretches
 
 "Study Gods Poem." 21 
 
 doomed to carriages and cushions.. . .1 fear the 
 American is becoming disqualified for the manly 
 art of walking by a falling off in the size of 
 his foot. ... A small, trim foot, well booted or 
 gaitered, is the national vanity. How we stare 
 at the big feet of foreigners, and wonder what 
 may be the price of leather in those countries, 
 and where all the aristocratic blood is, that 
 these plebeian extremities so predominate. If 
 we were admitted to the confidences of the 
 shoemaker to Her Majesty or to His Royal 
 Highness, no doubt we would modify our views 
 on this latter point, for a truly large and royal 
 nature is never stunted in the extremities ; a 
 little foot never yet supported a great char- 
 acter. 
 
 "It is said that Englishmen, when they 
 first come to this country, are for some time 
 under the impression that American women all 
 have deformed feet, they are so coy of them 
 and so studiously careful to keep them hid." 
 
 Indeed, it seems to me that many of us 
 spend our lives in trying to convince our Maker 
 that he doesn't understand his business. We are 
 averse to the study of his plan of action, and, 
 instead of taking the body as he gives it to us,
 
 22 "Study God's Poem: 1 
 
 and trying to make it conform to his laws, we 
 squeeze it and bind it and tilt it from its 
 erectness, until we are mere caricatures of the 
 Eve whom we pretend to admire in the pictures 
 and statues, but whom we utterly refuse to 
 imitate. 
 
 Believe me, dear girls, God knows best 
 how to shape the framework of your soul's 
 habitation so that the light of a healthy, free 
 and happy life shall shine out from its walls 
 and through its windows. Do not, I pray you, 
 distort and fetter it into total deformity, but 
 rather seek to glorify him who made you by 
 becoming gloriously strong. 
 
 Mr. Emerson, in his essay on " Beauty," 
 tells us " it is the soundness of the bones that 
 ultimates itself in a peach-bloom complexion ; 
 health of constitution that makes the sparkle 
 and the power of the eye. 'Tis the adjust- 
 ment of the size and of the joining of the 
 sockets of the skeleton that gives grace of out- 
 line and the finer grace of movement. The 
 cat and the deer cannot move or sit inelegantly. 
 The dancing-master can never teach a badly- 
 built man to walk well. The tint of the flower 
 proceeds from its root, and the lusters of the
 
 "Study God's Poem." 23 
 
 sea-shell begin with its existence.. . .The felici- 
 ties of design in art or in works of nature are 
 shadows or forerunners of that beauty which 
 reaches its perfection in the human form. All 
 men are its lovers. Wherever it goes it creates 
 joy and hilarity, and everything is permitted 
 to it. It reaches its height in woman. l To 
 Eve,' say the Mahometans, ' God gave two- 
 thirds of all beauty.' A beautiful woman is a 
 practical poet, taming her savage mate, plant- 
 ing tenderness, hope and eloquence in all whom 
 she approaches.'' 
 
 And each one of you has the right to be 
 perfectly beautiful by so living that you shall 
 be perfectly healthy. The transient beauty of 
 the hectic flush and the brilliant eye of the 
 dying consumptive are akin to the ephemeral 
 brilliancy of the autumnal foliage, but it is the 
 final flicker of the candle which precedes its 
 extinction. 
 
 To be truly beautiful, with the unfading 
 beauty of health and culture of mind and soul 
 which good health make possible, is to grow 
 beautiful as long as you live. What could be 
 finer in the way of a beautiful face than the 
 pictures give us of Martha Washington in her
 
 24 "Study God's Poem." 
 
 post-meridian ripeness! Yet how rarely one 
 sees so handsome a face past the age of fifty ! 
 It is the exception where it ought to be the 
 rule, and the reason why it is the exception is, 
 because young women have learned so little 
 up to the present time of natural ways of liv- 
 ing. 
 
 It seems to be characteristic of the reason- 
 ing animal to err, while the ones who depend 
 upon instinct are pretty sure to go right. 
 
 " But," I hear you ask, " supposing we be- 
 gin life with sickly bodies, as a direct inherit- 
 ance from sickly parents. What if our bones 
 are already deformed by rickets, because our 
 fathers and mothers had rickety skeletons, or 
 because they fed ns in such wrong ways in 
 our infancy as to make ours so ?" Then, I say, 
 go to work and learn what it is which makes 
 rickety bones, and supply those defects in 
 your early diet which have resulted in such 
 deformities. Enough has been written upon 
 this subject to eradicate rickety skeletons from 
 the whole human family, if they would but 
 read and heed. 
 
 But, above all things else, if you are one 
 of those unhappy ones whose inheritance is a
 
 "Study God's Poem." 25 
 
 frail body which no amount of hygienic care 
 can make sound, I pray you think well before 
 vou venture to transmit your frailties to inno- 
 cent children who ought never to be born. 
 Rather be content to live and die an "old 
 maid," and so a heroine.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "KNOW THYSELF." 
 
 THE beautiful youth Cliarmides, who is also 
 the most temperate of mortals, is asked by 
 Socrates, "What is Temperance?" He answers 
 (1), " Quietness." " But temperance is a fine 
 and noble tiling; and quietness, in many or 
 most cases, is not so fine a thing as quick- 
 ness." lie tries again, and says (2) that tem- 
 perance is modesty. But this, again, is sot 
 aside by a sophistical application of Homer: 
 for temperance is good, as well as noble, and 
 Homer has declared that " modesty is not good 
 for a needy man." (3), Once more Charmides 
 makes the attempt. This time lie gives a defi- 
 nition which he has heard, and of which he 
 insinuates that Critias is the author : " Temper-
 
 " Know Thyself." 27 
 
 ance is doing one's own business." But the 
 artisan who makes another mairs shoes may 
 be temperate, and yet he is not doing his own 
 business. How is this riddle to be explained ? 
 . . . Critias, in the spirit of Socrates and of 
 Greek life generally, proposes as a fifth defi- 
 nition, Temperance is self-knowledge. But all 
 sciences have a subject: number is the subject 
 of arithmetic, health of medicine : what is the 
 subject of temperance or wisdom ? The answer 
 is, that (6) Temperance is the knowledge of 
 what a man knows, and of what he does not 
 know. . . . 
 
 In this dialogue may be noted the Greek 
 ideal of beauty and goodness, the vision of 
 the fair soul in the fair body, realized in the 
 beautiful Charmides. Jowetfs Dialogues of 
 Plato. 
 
 Although Plato, in this dialogue, gives no 
 abstract definition of temperance, it is yet 
 plain that he includes self-knowledge as a 
 prime constituent of that virtue. Another 
 writer says, " Nearly all the evils in life come 
 to us from a want of self-domination," and I 
 am sure you will all agree with both of them.
 
 28 "Know Thyself? 
 
 Let us therefore go on to study ourselves, 
 that we may know how to manage ourselves. 
 
 You have learned, in the foregoing chap- 
 ter, that a variety of elements enter into the 
 composition of the framework of your bodies, 
 and that the various parts of that framework 
 are most nicely adapted to each other and to 
 their respective offices. Your own observation 
 shows you that this bony framework is clothed 
 with a covering of soft tissues, and you also 
 are conscious that a certain number of organs 
 reside in its cavities. These organs you are 
 accustomed to call vital organs, and you are 
 aware that all your powers of thought and 
 action depend upon their harmony of action. 
 That constitutes health. All sickness is dis- 
 cord. 
 
 Let us now go on to study in detail the 
 provision made by the Author of all this 
 mechanism for maintaining both its vitality 
 and its harmony. We will begin, if you 
 please, with the provisions for digestion in the 
 simplest forms of animal life, and glance at 
 the beautiful gradations by which we arrive at 
 the most complex apparatus, as it exists in 
 our bodies, by which the constant wear of all
 
 "Know Thyself:' 1 29 
 
 animal organisms is made good, and life and 
 growth maintained. 
 
 The general name Protozoa, meaning first 
 animals, is applied to a large number of very 
 email, simple, aquatic creatures, too small to 
 be seen by the naked eye, and only visible 
 by aid of the microscope. These little crea- 
 tures are mere dots of jelly-like tissue, desti- 
 tute of any apparatus for taking in or digesting 
 food, beyond a set of delicate fringes, called 
 cilia, meaning eye-lashes, whose office is to 
 float little particles of food toward them as 
 they swim about in the water. They are not 
 only rnouthless, but headless, and one part of 
 their body is just as capable of eating as an- 
 other. They may be said to get around their 
 food. A very easy way of living, you see, to 
 float around iu the water and live on what 
 happens to stick to you, without even the 
 trouble of swallowing. The next sub-kingdom 
 includes all the radiated animals, such as star- 
 fishes, sea-urchins, sea -cucumbers, etc. You 
 can pick up great numbers of star-fishes on 
 the rocks by the seashore at low tide, and if 
 you look carefully in little pools and crevices 
 between the rocks you may find something
 
 30 "Know Thyself." 
 
 that looks like a chestnut-burr. That is a sea- 
 urchin, or echinus. Then, if you look at the 
 under surface of the star-fish, you will find a 
 round hole in the center of him. That is his 
 mouth, and quite likely his stomach will he in 
 his mouth, turned wrong side out, as that is a 
 way he has of doing. He is very fond of oys- 
 ters, raw. He takes one in his arms, shell 
 and all, and thrusts his stomach in the cleft of 
 the valves and sucks out his victim alive. This, 
 you see, is quite an advance upon the proto- 
 zoan style of eating ; but when you look at 
 the under surface of the sea-urchin you will 
 find a surprising improvement upon the star- 
 fish, in that he has a whole set of teeth. Not 
 only this, but he is, in one sense, ahead of you 
 in the dental business, in that he has five jaws, 
 while you have but two, and each jaw has its 
 own tooth all to itself. 
 
 The next sub -kingdom includes the Mol- 
 lusks, or soft-bodied animals like snails, oysters 
 and clams, who live in shells and carry their 
 houses wherever they go, alwaj^s having their 
 trunks packed and ready for a move. If you 
 take a clam from his house before he is cooked, 
 and look carefully at that edge of him which
 
 "Know Thyself." 31 
 
 was under the hinge, and at that end of him 
 which is opposite his siphon (that is, the tube 
 which is often called his neck, but it isn't hie 
 neck at all, because it isn't in the right place 
 for a neck, and because he hasn't any neck, 
 either), you will find a hole with two pairs of 
 feelers to it. That is his mouth, and the feelers 
 are his lips. They are very long for lips, but 
 they have to serve for lips and tongue, too. 
 He has no teeth, and his mouth opens right 
 into his stomach, in the handiest way possible. 
 Taken as a whole, he is considerably more 
 highly organized than the people already spoken 
 of, even though the sea-urchin is ahead of him 
 in dentistry. But there's a fellow in his kingdom 
 who is considerably ahead of him, even, and that 
 is the snail. It' you have never made the ac- 
 quaintance of the sea-snail, let me beg you to 
 do so at your earliest convenience. You can 
 easily find him in the mud at low tide. Put 
 him in a pan of sea-water, and see him prome- 
 nade ! Look at the size of his foot, and when 
 you have drawn his portrait alive, en prome- 
 nade, drop him in alcohol, leave him there a 
 few hours in his last sleep, and then hunt for 
 his tongue. This is the greatest marvel in the
 
 32 "Know Thyself." 
 
 way of dentistry which has yet appeared. It 
 is all covered with teeth. Only think how con- 
 venient ! You will find clam and mussel shells 
 on the shore, with little round holes in them 
 which the snail has gnawed with this wonder- 
 ful tonguo of his. That's the way he gets his 
 clams and mussels for his dinner. 
 
 The next sub-kingdom includes the articu- 
 lated or jointed people, like lobsters, crabs, spi- 
 ders and insects. They carry their skeletons 
 on the outside, instead of inside, and move 
 their jaws from side to side, instead of up 
 and down. Their entire eating apparatus is 
 very much more complex than that of any 
 of the people previously spoken of, and they 
 are considered " pretty well up in the world," 
 as the saying is. The insects are very airy 
 people after they get their wings. "While they 
 are in the larval stage they are very voracious, 
 and keep their jaws going most of the time. 
 These jaws are so hard and horny that they 
 make quite a loud noise when they move, soma 
 of them ; but after they evolve from, the 
 larval to the winged state they are much 
 more dainty, and their side-moving jaws are 
 replaced generally by a long, sucking tube,
 
 "Know Thyself." 33 
 
 which they plunge into the flower-cups for the 
 nectar which they have scented from afar. 
 
 Last of all come the vertebrates, and that is 
 where you and I come in. We all of us, from 
 the fishes to you and me, except the turtle, 
 have our skeletons out of sight, and we all 
 move our jaws up and down instead of from 
 side to side. More than this, we have a most 
 elaborate set of tools with which to do our 
 eating and digesting. See what an array of 
 them is found in the mouths of all the higher 
 vertebrates ! Note the delicacy of the lips in 
 the horse, for instance. The finest velvet can- 
 not compare with them in softness, and so 
 keen is their perceptive sense that not one 
 offending substance is allowed to pass them. 
 If our lips did such faithful service for us, we 
 should be spared a large proportion of the ilia 
 from which we suffer. 
 
 Look now at your own teeth ! What vari- 
 ety of form, and what nicety of adaptation, do 
 you find ! The front ones for cutters, the next 
 ones for tearers, and the back ones for grind- 
 ers ! And then the tongue! "A little mem- 
 ber," to be sure, " but it boasteth great things," 
 and well it may, for we should have a hard
 
 34 "Know Thyself." 
 
 time without it. But the most elaborate appa- 
 ratus in the mouth is the glandular, by which 
 no lesa than four different kinds of saliva are 
 supplied for moistening the food and fitting it 
 for conveyance to the stomach. No less than 
 two or three pounds a day of this fluid are 
 prepared by a mouth which only chews the 
 necessary quantity and quality of food, while 
 the mouths that are forever chewing gum, or 
 peanuts, or slippery-elm, or tobacco, or any 
 superfluous substance, prepare very much more : 
 for as the blood has to supply the materials 
 for this excess, for which there is no provision 
 in the original plan, it thereby becomes very 
 much impoverished. By and by the results of 
 this impoverishment begin to appear in the 
 way of a thirst which calls for rum if it's a 
 tobacco-chewing boy, and for tea if its a gum- 
 chewing girl ; and that's the way a good many 
 forms of intemperance begin. The beautiful 
 youth Charmides, with the fair soul in the fair 
 body, was no chewer of tobacco ; and Minerva, 
 the beautiful goddess, was no tea-drinker, for 
 no tea-drinker ever had the elegant repose and 
 dignity which belong to her. 
 
 But the main point to which I would espe-
 
 "Know Thyself." 35 
 
 cially call your attention is the pains displayed 
 for moistening the food without any help from 
 without. If the Divine Architect of this temple 
 in which we dwell has taken such infinite 
 care, proceeding by these nice gradations from 
 the polyp to the vertebrate, to supply our 
 mouths with thirty-two teeth for chewing, and 
 four kinds of saliva for wetting, the food we 
 need, are we not committing a positive sin 
 when we descend to the level of the alligator 
 by tossing the food past the teeth as soon as 
 they have grasped it, and sending it swim- 
 ming in ice-water down to the stomach ? 
 
 It is no less true of the work of digestion 
 
 o 
 
 than it is of every other work, that the final 
 success depends upon the thorough perform- 
 ance of the preliminary work, and you may 
 be very sure of life-long immunity from dys- 
 pepsia if, having secured the right kind of 
 food, you carefully folknv Nature's plan for 
 the preparatory work of the mouth ; while you 
 may be equally sure of becoming a confirmed 
 dyspeptic, when you ought to be iu your prime, 
 if you neglect to use your teeth faithfully on 
 your food, and, in addition to that, you wash 
 it down with cold water.
 
 36 "Know Thyself." 
 
 We Americans have much to learn from 
 our more mature neighbors across the sea in 
 this matter of water drinking at table, and the 
 sooner we banish the omnipresent pitcher of 
 ice-water from its central point there to its 
 appropriate place, the better for us all, for 
 we work a deal of mischief by our intemper- 
 ance in this matter : first, by diluting the gas- 
 tric juice, and second, by reducing the temper- 
 ature of the stomach. 
 
 Another way in which we invite the foe 
 dyspepsia to abide with us is by restricting 
 the free and easy motion of the stomach by 
 our belts. The habit of wearing belts or bands 
 of any kind about the body has too long held 
 sway over us. No other animal could endure 
 it without having its vitality sadly impaired, 
 just as ours has been. And really there is no 
 call for belts and bands now, even by that 
 most capricious personage we call Fashion, for 
 she has most amiably conformed to the grow- 
 ing demand for more common-sense in the 
 matter of women's attire, and has given us the 
 easy- fitting and graceful princesse and polo- 
 naise styles, which bring out the graceful con- 
 tour of the body without cutting it in two by a
 
 11 Know Thyself." 37 
 
 belt. The fickle creature really deserves a long 
 
 * 
 credit-mark for thus cooperating with the hy- 
 
 gienists in dispensing with all bands and belts 
 upon any part of the body. It really seems 
 as if she had been studying Physiology and 
 Greek art for a change. 
 
 Let us, then, hear the conclusion of the 
 whole matter. Chew your food long and well, 
 drink no water with it, and wear no bands 
 round the body, either over or under the dress ; 
 so shall you never know dyspepsia, provided 
 you get proper food and are temperate at all 
 times and in all ways. Do not keep eating a 
 thing till you feel uncomfortable, simply be- 
 cause it tastes good, else you will be where 
 the good old Quaker was of whom we read in 
 Boswell's " Johnson." Here is a leaf from his 
 diary : 
 
 " Tenth month, 17 An hypochondriac ob- 
 nubilation from wind and indigestion. 
 
 " First month, 22 A little swinish at din- 
 ner. 
 
 " Fourth month, 29 Mechanically and sin-' 
 fully dogged." 
 
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
 
 A few of many questions which have been
 
 38 "Know Thyself." 
 
 proffered by different members of schools where 
 I* have given these lessons will be here and 
 there introduced, in the hope that the answers 
 may cover* some of the many points which 
 necessarily go unnoticed where the field is so 
 wide. 
 
 "Shall we, then, drink no water?" 
 There's a time to drink as well as a time 
 to eat, and since water constitutes three-fourths 
 of the body, arid since three or four pounds of 
 this water daily pass out of it by way of the 
 lungs, the skin and the kidneys, it is evident 
 that an equivalent for this daily loss must be 
 provided. Not only this, but the lining of 
 the alimentary canal requires to be washed 
 after it has done its work, just as the mouth 
 and teeth do ; hence it follows that a good 
 time to take a full glass of water is two or 
 three hours after eating. Two other good 
 times are a half hour before breakfast and 
 the retiring hour. 
 
 "And shall we drink nothing at table?" 
 
 Drink all the milk you can get. Milk is 
 
 the most perfect form of food which we 
 
 have provided for ns. Many will say that 
 
 they can't drink it, that it makes them bilious,
 
 "Know Thyself r 39 
 
 etc., etc. This idea has gained ground by the 
 fact that many people eat just as much solid 
 food with the milk as they would without it, 
 forgetting that the milk is a very rich, nutritious 
 food, and that it adds nearly as much to the 
 labor of the digestive organs as does so much 
 
 o O 
 
 roasted turkey. We are all of us quite as 
 apt to be injured by excessive quantities of 
 food as by errors in quality. 
 
 "But shall we drink no tea or coffee?" 
 "When you get to be fifty, if you re- 
 quire a staff to lean upon as you begin the 
 descent, you can take a cup of properly-made 
 coffee in the morning; but be sure you don't 
 drink the boiled stuff which is left after the 
 aroma has all passed off into the kitchen. Drink 
 the best or none. The same with tea. You 
 might as well tan your stomach with tan-bark 
 as with boiled tea. I have had more cases of 
 dyspepsia among servant-girls, caused by boiled- 
 tea drinking than from any other single cause. 
 During Lent they fast so rigidly those of 
 the Romish faith that they drink great quan- 
 tities of strong tea, by which the lining of 
 their stomachs is converted into leather, and 
 they are rendered, of all women, most miser-
 
 40 "Know Thyself:'' 
 
 able. They had much better live on milk 
 during Lent. It would certainly be more eco- 
 nomical than tea and sugar and milk and the 
 inevitable doctor's bills. 
 
 " What is pepsine ?" 
 
 Pepsine is the substance which every 
 healthy stomach supplies for the digestion of 
 the albuminous portions of the food, such as 
 milk, meat, eggs, and the glutinous portions 
 of grains. "Dyspepsia" implies an absence 
 of pepsine, and when the human stomach is no 
 longer able to prepare the article for itself, 
 the chemist has to supply the defect by ob- 
 taining it from the stomach of the pig. Hor- 
 rible to relate, but true ! Pig may be admit- 
 ted into Christian society if properly introduced, 
 but his credentials are so questionable and his 
 personal habits so filthy that it is quite as 
 well to take the cleanly ox or sheep, as long 
 as we can get them, and leave the dirty porker 
 to wallow in his mire and keep his scrofulous 
 tendencies in his own family. 
 
 Said the Rev. Adam Clark : " If I wished 
 to offer a burnt-offering to the Devil, I would 
 send him a pig stuffed with tobacco." And 
 his favorite blessing at table was: "Lord,
 
 "Know Thyself r 41 
 
 bless tliis fruit and these vegetables; and if 
 thou canst bless under the gospel what thou 
 didst curse under the law, bless, we pray thee, 
 this swine-flesh." 
 
 I don't believe that the beautiful youth 
 Charmides, "the fair soul in the fair body," 
 ever ate pig.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WHAT SHALL WE EAT, AND HOW SHALL 
 WE COOK IT? 
 
 You have learned from your studies in 
 chemistry, or you will learn, that of all the 
 sixty-three elements which constitute matter, 
 so far as is at present known, only four take 
 any large share in the composition of the 
 body, namely: oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and 
 carbon. It is one of the most marvelous as 
 well as beautiful evidences of the infinite skill 
 of the Creator that he has combined and re- 
 combined these few materials in so many dif- 
 ferent proportions as to give us bone, and 
 muscle, and skin, and nerve, and hair, and 
 teeth, and all this nice variety of tissues which 
 compel us to say we are " fearfully and won-
 
 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 43 
 
 derfully made." To these four prominent ele- 
 ments a little sulphur, a little phosphorus, a 
 little lime, a little chlorine, and a little sodium 
 are added in the way of finishing off, some- 
 what as the builder of a house "made with 
 hands" adds the hinges and the knobs and 
 the paint and varnish to the already -con- 
 structed frame and superstructure. How these 
 few simple elements are held together, and 
 how the life comes and goes to and from 
 them is the mystery which science has not 
 yet unlocked, for now " we see through a glass, 
 darkly." Probably Paul spoke thus of the 
 obscured glass which the Greeks used to soften 
 the brightness of their sky ; but we, with our 
 clear-glass lenses in microscope and telescope, 
 still see but dimly through the curtain of mys- 
 tery which hides God from us. Prof. Draper 
 has lately found oxygen in the sun by means 
 of the spectroscope, and Prof. Hall has found 
 out by his telescope that "Mars has twins"; and 
 so they have come so much nearer to God and 
 to his secrets than we less able students; but 
 neither the microscope nor the telescope nor the 
 spectroscope has yet made it possible for man to 
 combine oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and car-
 
 44 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 
 
 bon BO as to make a living plant, much less 
 a living animal. But it is a great gain upon 
 what the people of earlier times knew, to have 
 proved that these four elements are used in 
 the making ; and as the years roll on and 
 science strides on, we shall hope to learn more 
 of the process, being always assured that the 
 more we study his works the nearer we get 
 to our Maker. 
 
 If we wish to know Beethoven, or Men- 
 delssohn, or Raphael, or Phidias, we study 
 their works ; and the more we get into the 
 spirit of these works, the nearer we come to 
 a comprehension of the great artists themselves. 
 How much more is this true of the great Artist 
 of the Universe ! 
 
 But do you ask what practical answer this 
 knowledge brings us toward solving the ques- 
 tion " What shall we eat, and how shall we 
 cook it?" 
 
 Let us see ! The chemists and the doctors, 
 working together, have found out that starch 
 and sugar and fat contain no nitrogen, but that 
 meat, milk, eggs and the gluten of grains do 
 contain it. Now, our muscles are just like 
 what we call " lean meat " in our animal food,
 
 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 45 
 
 and as they are constantly wearing out and the 
 ashes being removed, we naturally ask, What 
 is the kind of food which will supply this 
 loss ? We have the answer before us : Meat, 
 milk, eggs and the gluten of whole grains. A 
 diet of either or all of these foods will give 
 us good muscles. That is a fact as fixed as 
 the multiplication-table. 
 
 What, then, do wo get from the sugars, 
 Btarches and fats ? Principally fat and heat. 
 The Greenlander relishes his candles as a des- 
 sert, probably as thoroughly as you do your 
 sweetmeats. It is the coal which he must 
 have to keep up his fires. You relish your 
 cakes and candies and peanuts because your 
 bodies call for enough of them to give you a 
 layer of wadding between your muscles and 
 your skin, to fill out the wrinkles and to keep 
 you warm ; but when you find that this layer 
 of wadding is getting so thick as to be intru- 
 sive, and to fetter the action of the muscles; 
 when you get weary on slight exertion, and 
 are tempted to squeeze yourself in tight clothes 
 to hide your increasing corporosity then you 
 had better cut off your supplies of cakes and 
 candies and peanuts. So much for muscle-and-
 
 46 What to Jl'at, and How to Cook It. 
 
 fat-making foods. For bones and nerves and 
 pure blood you want liberal supplies of fruits 
 and grains and vegetables. Oatmeal and corn- 
 meal and wheatmeal and ryemeal, each and 
 all, will help to keep your bones and nerves 
 and brain in good order, provided you get the 
 whole goodness of them. If your miller has 
 taken oif all the outside envelopes of the 
 grain, and has left you nothing but the starch 
 of its interior, then are your bones and teeth 
 and nerves just so much defrauded, and the 
 pigs' bones and teeth and nerves enriched. 
 
 We come now to the last, but by no means 
 least important, part of our question, namely : 
 " How shall we cook it ? " 
 
 First and last and all the way between, 
 don't fry it nor make it into pies ! If you 
 have no other way to cook food than to fry it, 
 you had better take it raw. I do not make 
 one exception, not even that dear delight of 
 the New Englander, the ubiquitous doughnut. 
 I believe this popular food has been the cause 
 of a great deal more dyspepsia than is gener- 
 ally suspected. I always observe a great deal 
 of eructation of badly-smelling gases by habit- 
 ual doughnut eaters, and also by fried-potato
 
 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 41 
 
 eaters. Yon cannot put any food into a more 
 difficult form for digestion than bj enveloping 
 it in a coat of hot fat. You might almost as 
 well wrap it in sole-leather. 
 
 Now for the pies. I never see an apple- 
 pie without thinking of the sad waste of time 
 and labor and substance of which it is the 
 outcome. To put that king of fruits, the ap- 
 ple, all shaven and shorn of its gorgeous cover- 
 ing and the wealth of flavor and fragrance 
 and bone food which go with it, into a foul, 
 pasty mass of hogs' lard and starch, is for me 
 the literal rendering of the wise man's "jewel 
 in a swine's snout." 
 
 Hear Joel Benton talk about the apple ! 
 " As iron is rated among the metals, BO the 
 apple ranks among fruits. . . .As the word book 
 is appropriated as the fit name for the chief 
 book of all, so apple sometimes stands for 
 fruit in general. Scripture and geology, which 
 have been supposed to differ about some things, 
 agree as to its age, both placing its birth just 
 a little before man's, as if it were said, 'Now 
 the apple is born, it is time for man to be, 
 who is destined to eat it.' It is not Genesis, 
 but tradition, which makes it the apple that
 
 48 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 
 
 was put into Eve's hand, and afterward into 
 her own and Adam's mouth ; but literature 
 seems quite at unison in accepting this version 
 of the matter. The unfortunate fruit, what- 
 ever it may have been, was said to be of the 
 tree of knowledge; and, curiously enough, the 
 apple has a very pertinent relation to the brain, 
 stimulating its life and its activity, which it 
 does by its immense endowment of phospho- 
 rus, in which element it is richer than anything 
 else in the vegetable kingdom. But phospho- 
 rus is not only brain-supporting : it is light- 
 bringing; and must thus contribute to knowl- 
 edge .... The epicure of this fruit tells you 
 they should always be eaten raw ; and the sec- 
 ond orthodox rule is, to ' dispense with the 
 knife.' Any one, however, who is not anx- 
 ious to have them as good as they can be, will 
 do the next best thing in following this recipe, 
 which I will venture to vouch for: Buy a 
 small tin apple-corer ; core with it as many 
 apples as you want, without peeling them; set 
 them on a tin dish ; place this in a hot oven, 
 having first filled up the vacancies left by your 
 surgery with the best of sugar. Let them 
 bake till they are well done. Take them out,
 
 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 49 
 
 and if you do not know what to do next, call 
 in your nearest and best friend for further ad- 
 vice." 
 
 All the cook-books that ever were made, 
 or ever will be, cannot give a better recipe 
 than that for cooking apples. I always feel 
 that I've been swindled when compelled to ac- 
 cept apple-sauce as a substitute for the above 
 form that is, apple-sauce according to the ap- 
 proved pattern, where nil the peelings, and the 
 rich flavor and nutriment which go with them, 
 have gone to make the pigs glad, and left me 
 to grieve over that mistaken notion of the fit- 
 ness of things which is forever sacrificing the 
 substance for the show. "But they don't look 
 nice !" is the only protest which the misguided 
 matron offers, and that is quite apt to be a 
 sufficient reason for her to continue to do just 
 as she always has done. So she peels her ap- 
 ples and rolls them up in lard paste, and tells 
 you she never gets time to go out-doors for 
 any fresh air, when, if she would only look at 
 the matter without the spectacles of custom, 
 she could put her apples in the oven and leave 
 them to take care of themselves while she 
 refreshed herself with a brisk half hour or so
 
 50 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 
 
 away from her cook-stove and her flour-bar- 
 rel. 
 
 It's just so with potatoes, alas ! What a 
 deal of time is wasted in peeling them, to say 
 nothing of the valuable nutriment which goes 
 with that part of them which is right under 
 the outer skin ! By all means, bake your po- 
 toes with their jackets on, or, if the exigencies 
 of the occasion compel you to boil them, then 
 boil them with their jackets on, else a large 
 part of their best qualities is dissolved and 
 thrown away in the water of boiling. 
 
 The best way to cook beef is to broil it or 
 roast it. In both cases it should be subjected 
 at once to a heat intense enough to form a 
 protective crust which shall retain the juices 
 at its center. Corned beef contains very little 
 of the original nutriment, this having dissolved 
 out in the brine, so that we get not much but 
 chips. They may have an agreeable taste, due 
 to the brine, but it is best to partake sparingly 
 of anything which simply pleases the palate, 
 but which offers no compensation to the di- 
 gestive organs for the labor they must bestow 
 upon it. 
 
 If meat is to be boiled, it should be put at
 
 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 51 
 
 once into boiling water, for the same reason 
 that it should be put in a hot oven to roast: 
 BO as to assist it to retain as much as possible 
 of its own juices. If Boup is the objective 
 end, then put the meat in cold water and let it 
 gently simmer for several hours. Thus may you 
 get its substance in the water of cooking, but it 
 is poor policy to eat the fibrous remains of 
 Boup-meat. The virtue has gone from them. 
 Put them away from you. Don't attempt to 
 economize by making them into mince -pies, 
 else it will cost you more to pay your doctor's 
 bills than a whole ox, properly cooked, would 
 cost. The only thing which is fit to eat in 
 a mince-pie is the apple, and that is only half 
 an apple, deprived of its skin. I have seen a 
 heart-rending sight during the past summer 
 in the way of mince-pies. It was a poor wo- 
 man bending over the chopping - bowl and 
 rolling-pin and cook-stove, in the heat of mid- 
 summer, for the sake of saving (!) some meat 
 by putting it with dried apples for mince-pies. 
 And this in the height of the berry season, 
 and the poor soul thought she couldn't afford 
 to buy berries, so she took money enough to 
 buy several quarts of berries, and threw it
 
 52 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 
 
 ft way on the sugar and spice and greased paste 
 which went to make those horrible pies. Ver- 
 ily, her children called for berries and she gave 
 them stones. 
 
 For bread, find where they keep flour which 
 retains all the goodness of the grain, and buy 
 no other; then let the bread be twenty-four 
 hours old before you eat it. It is not chemically 
 done till then. Hot bread is so difficult of 
 mastication that it is quite apt to pass into 
 the stomach in the form of a bullet, and is 
 nearly as indigestible as that article. The 
 perfection of bread is found in " Graham gems." 
 When properly made, nothing could be nicer. 
 When not properly made, nothing could be 
 poorer. A light, well-beaten batter of the best 
 Graham flour, wet with equal parts of milk 
 and water, and dropped upon hot iron pans 
 and baked in a quick oven, makes the model 
 " Graham gems." The longer you chew them 
 the sweeter they grow and the stronger you 
 grow. 
 
 I have seen girls, when out on a tramp, stop 
 at a village store and buy doughnuts with which 
 to refresh themselves ! The doughnuts made 
 them thirsty, and then down went the ice-water.
 
 What to Eat, and How to Cook It. 53 
 
 Next day they came to school with the com- 
 plaint that they had had a headache the night 
 before and couldn't study, and so must be 
 excused. No wonder they had headache ! The 
 brain protests against the poor blood which is 
 conveyed to it after such a repast as that. 
 There were plenty of nice, ripe pears at the 
 same store, to be had for less money than tho 
 miserable greasy doughnuts cost. The pears 
 would have left their brains clear and free from 
 aches or clouds. I think they will buy the 
 pears next time. And so it is through life : 
 
 " We slight the gifts that every season bears, 
 And let them fall unheeded from our grasp." 
 
 Said Milton: 
 
 " Not to know of things 
 Remote from daily use, obscure and subtle, 
 But to know of that which all about us lies in daily 
 
 life, 
 Is the true wisdom." 
 
 Let us seek the true wisdom, so may we 
 become as fair and as strong as Minerva!
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE HEART. 
 
 THE heart, u that little three-cornered expo- 
 nent of our hopes and fears. . . .What authority 
 we have in history or mythology for placing 
 the headquarters of god Cupid in this anatom- 
 ical seat, rather than in any other, is not very 
 clear, but we have it, and it will serve as well 
 as any other. Else we might easily imagine, 
 upon some other system which might have 
 prevailed, for anything our pathology knows 
 to the contrary, a lover addressing his mistress, 
 in perfect simplicity of feeling, ' Madam, my 
 liver and my fortune are entirely at your dis- 
 posal.' " CHAKLES LAMB. 
 
 The sacred Scripture says the heart is " de- 
 ceitful and desperately wicked." The anato-
 
 The, Heart. 55 
 
 mist calls it " a hollow rnusclc." The physiol- 
 ogist calls it " a pump." And they are all 
 right. It is all these things, and more: for, 
 psychologically, it is too deep for the human 
 eye to comprehend, and, anatomically, it is the 
 one essential muscle upon which the body's 
 life depends ; while, physiologically, the integ- 
 rity of the valves by which it is so aptly called 
 " a pump " is the feather which may turn the 
 scales for life or death. 
 
 You have learned from your studies in 
 zoology, or, if you have not, you will learn, by 
 wiiat marvelous gradations from the lower to 
 the higher forms of life this most perfect mech- 
 anism has been achieved. 
 
 Beginning with the radiates, you will find 
 a simple tube in the rays of the star-fish, which 
 is at once a water-pipe to supply the impetus 
 for motion, by conveying numberless little 
 streams into its tubular feet, and which at 
 the same time acts as a pulsatory heart a 
 very simple heart, to be sure, but one which 
 serves its purpose just as well as yours serves 
 you. The sea-urchin gets a step or two higher 
 and gets a ring-shaped heart around his seso- 
 phagus, or swallow-tube; while his mastership
 
 56 The Heart. 
 
 the clam, one of the princes among mollusks, 
 actually comes to the dignity of a two-cham- 
 bered heart, with a real auricle and a ventri- 
 cle. He is even more gifted in the way of a 
 heart than any of his more active friends in 
 the sub-kingdom of articulates the crabs, the 
 lobsters, the moths, and the butterflies, and all 
 those fine people with their gay feathers; for 
 they have only a straight tube running along 
 their backs. If you get a live clam and invite 
 him to make himself comfortable in a pan of 
 fresh sea-water, and then gently remove his 
 left valve, you can see his heart beat, if you 
 look in the right place. As old Roger Bacon 
 told the people away back in the thirteenth 
 century, when they asked him how he made 
 his gunpowder, " Take of saltpeter, with pound- 
 ed carbon and eulphur, and you will then make 
 thunder and lightning, if you know how to 
 prepare them." So if you know how to look 
 for the heart of a clam, you will find it, and 
 you can also count his pulse beats, as he is one 
 of the cool and collected kind of people who 
 never get up a palpitation of the heart on any 
 slight provocation. 
 
 The fishes also boast of a two-chambered
 
 The Heart. 57 
 
 heart, and his frogship and his snakeship get 
 BO far up in the ranks as to have three rooms 
 in their hearts. This, you will easily see, if 
 you study into the matter, results in a mixed 
 quality of hlood, so that no one of these people 
 can boast of any real " true blue blood," al- 
 though they are of the race of vertebrates, 
 each having a real backbone all to himself. 
 The upper-crust people who live on the top 
 rounds of the ladder are obliged to count them 
 in, but they by no means put them on an equal- 
 ity with the rest of the backbones, who have 
 four rooms to their hearts. 
 
 If you have never seen the inside of the 
 perfect mammalian heart, let me ask you to go 
 and get one from your market-man as soon as 
 possible. That of a pig, a sheep, a calf, or an 
 ox will serve you. Then take your physiology 
 book and find out its beauties. You will see 
 just how your own heart looks, and you will 
 never wonder that the poets have said so much 
 about it in a figurative way. 
 
 Let us now turn to the consideration of 
 what this little four-chambered " three-cornered 
 exponent of our hopes and fears " does for us. 
 Into its right upper chamber, or "auricle," as
 
 58 The Heart. 
 
 it is called, from its resemblance in shape to a 
 little ear, as the word signifies, comes the liquid 
 which has been prepared from the food by the 
 organs of digestion. The stomach, the liver, 
 the pancreas, and the intestinal glands have all 
 been at work to transform the bread and milk, 
 and the candies and the peanuts, and, alas ! 
 the doughnuts, too, into a fit form for their 
 reappearance as bone and muscle and brain 
 arid nerve and all those complicated fabrics of 
 which each of our bodies is made. But before 
 this liquid result of so much \vork can appear 
 in such high company it must report at the 
 central office, the heart. Entering its " Vor- 
 hof," as the Germans call it, or vestibule, it is 
 passed on through the most beautiful system 
 of gates, called the tri-cuspid, or three-pointed 
 valves, to the right lower chamber, or " ventri- 
 cle"; thence to the lungs, where it receives the 
 finishing touches in the way of exchanging it& 
 carbonic acid, or its old clothes, for the life- 
 giving oxygen which there awaits its coming, 
 in lungs which are left to work as their Maker 
 intended they should. Returning thence, 
 brightened and vivified, it enters the left ves- 
 tibule or auricle, is pumped past a beautiful
 
 The Heart. 59 
 
 two-pointed valve from there to the left ven- 
 tricle, whence it issues through some most 
 delicate half-moon-shaped valves into a large 
 tube called the " aorta," which there begins 
 to send off branches to all parts of the body 
 and its extremities, so that every tissue may 
 receive a supply of nourishment. On it sweeps, 
 this life-current, with its bone-food, its nerve- 
 food, and its muscle-food, so swiftly that it gets 
 back to the heart, through the capillaries and 
 veins, in twenty-five or thirty seconds from the 
 time it leaves it, bringing a supply of worn-out 
 material which it has taken in on its round, in 
 exchange for the new goods it carried out. 
 "Like the water flowing through the Croton 
 pipes, that carries health and wealth to the por- 
 tals of every house, and filth and disease from 
 every doorway, the blood, flowing through the 
 canals of the organization, carries nutriment to 
 all the tissues and refuse from them. Its cur- 
 rent sweeps nourishment in and waste out." 
 
 It is comparatively an easy thing to describe 
 the circulation of the blood after it has been 
 shown us, but it took centuries of hard study to 
 find it out, and it is only three centuries since 
 Dr. William Harvey, of England, who gave
 
 60 The Heart. 
 
 to the world the true statement of it, was born. 
 For full three centuries before Christ and for 
 sixteen centuries after him the wise men had 
 been asking nature to reveal this wonderful 
 secret to them. Each of them came a little 
 nearer to the truth than his predecessor, but 
 the glory of the final discovery belongs to 
 Harvey. 
 
 I wish, my dear girls, that I might help 
 you to comprehend, in some slight measure, 
 the perfectness of God's plan, as thus described, 
 for keeping your whole bodies supplied with 
 pure blood, so that your cheeks shall always 
 wear the rose-tint of health, and your eyes 
 always sparkle with the light which shines out 
 only from brains which are fed with such 
 blood. " Polished steel is not quicker dimmed 
 by the breath than is the brain affected by 
 some abnormal condition of the blood." 
 
 Every headache is a protest which the brain 
 puts forth, either against the unclean blood 
 which is sent to it, or against an excess of 
 either arterial or venous blood. If you have 
 eaten three or four hot biscuits for supper and 
 poured down one or two glasses of cold water, 
 yon have taken one way to get a headache,
 
 The Heart. 61 
 
 and a bad breath which will report you to 
 your neighbors next morning. If you have 
 added to this one or two pieces of rich cake, 
 or a piece of mince-pie, you may be pretty sure 
 of an aching head with troubled dreams. The 
 brain is fastidious in its choice of blood, and 
 will not accept the stuff which comes from 
 half-digested fried food, hot biscuits and pies, 
 without protesting. Eat only bread which is 
 twenty-four hours old, chew it well and moisten 
 it only with your own saliva given you for 
 that very purpose ; omit the pies, fried things 
 and rich cakes, and your head will never ache 
 because of dirty blood : certainly not if you eat 
 plenty of apples, either baked or raw, witli 
 their skins on. Chew the skins well until 
 you have extracted all their virtue, and then 
 reject such portions as may be too tough to be 
 finely chewed. When you cannot get apples, 
 get the best substitute you can find. All kinds 
 of fresh fruit, such as the market supplies at 
 all seasons whether oranges, bananas, grapes, 
 peaches, tomatoes, berries or melons are infi- 
 nitely better blood purifiers than all the nos- 
 trums ever concocted for the ostensible purpose 
 of effecting this object ; and when you cannot
 
 62 The Heart. 
 
 get the fresh fruits, get either the dried or the 
 canned ones. Every dollar you spend for fruits 
 is so much saved in the way of doctors' bills, 
 and every pie you eat is as good as a prescrip- 
 tion for the dose of pills which will be pretty 
 sure to follow it. As for pig-meat, however 
 served whether as Extract casiene caput 
 (head-cheese), Pulv. Sausagiae (sausage-powder), 
 or Infus. JBaconii (bacon infusion) whoever 
 eats it is pretty sure to pay heavily for it, un- 
 less she spends the next six or eight hours out- 
 doors in active exercise, so as to get oxygen 
 enough to burn up the stuff. One may be 
 pardoned for eating pig-meat when nothing 
 else can be had, but, as long as the markets 
 abound in so many better things, pray let us 
 leave the pig in his own rnire and not soil 
 our brains with his foulness. 
 
 But the head may ache, and often does, if 
 it has too much blood, even if it be of nor- 
 mal quality. In fact, a large proportion of our 
 aches mean that the blood is in the wrong 
 place, and all the doctor can do is to " derive " 
 it from the aching spot to one remote from it 
 by the various ways with which all are familiar. 
 But what makes it get into the wrong place ?
 
 The Heart. 63 
 
 Many things make it. If yon wear too little 
 clothing on the feet and lower extremities in 
 cold, wet weather, the blood will not go into 
 them to warm them, but will take the easiest 
 route, to the head, which will then cry out, in 
 its agony, " My veins are full to bursting, 
 and I ache terribly." The same result will 
 follow if the shoes be tight or the hose are 
 kept in place by bands about the extremities. 
 Any band, elastic or otherwise, which is tight 
 enough to keep the hose smooth is tight 
 enough to interfere with the circulation of the 
 blood. Don't wear it ! There is a way of ad- 
 justing hose, which you can learn at any 
 dress-reform store, whereby they are kept per- 
 fectly smooth, and not a single blood-vessel in 
 the whole body is compressed. It dispenses 
 with all bands, and is thoroughly comfortable 
 and convenient. Get it, wear it, and tell all 
 your mates to get it! 
 
 The head may ache, too, because the mus- 
 cles are not exercised enough, and because it is 
 oppressed with the blood which ought to be 
 freely circulating through them. Some of you 
 bend over your books too long at a time, and 
 some of you sit at the piano too long, and some
 
 64 The Heart. 
 
 of yon sit at the sewing-machine too long, 
 and your muscles get pale and flabby and your 
 head gets hot and heavy; and, too often, in- 
 stead of taking the warning and rushing out 
 for a good, brisk walk in the open air, you 
 make a bad matter worse by shutting your- 
 selves in your close rooms and sipping tea. 
 That is the poorest possible substitute for fresh 
 air and exercise. You will get no bloom on 
 your cheeks and no light in your eyes by 
 drinking tea, but you will grow yellow and 
 withered, like the " sere and yellow leaf," 
 which has lost its sources of nutriment. When 
 you see a young woman whose skin looks like 
 old flannel, showing traces of tho starch-box 
 or the rouge-pot, it is pretty safe to infer that 
 she gets very little exercise in the open air 
 and that she is a confirmed tea-toper. Let the 
 tea stay in China till you come to your fifties 
 or sixties, and you may be sure of being as 
 handsome as old ladies as you will be as young 
 ones. 
 
 " What causes varicose veins ?" 
 
 Varicose veins are swellings in the veins 
 caused by interruptions to the circulation of 
 the venous blood. You will understand, from
 
 The Heart. 65 
 
 what has been told you, that the blood has to 
 flow upward in the veins of the trunk and 
 lower extremities in order to return to the 
 heart, and a little thought will show you how 
 easily you can interfere with this current by 
 wearing bands about the body or lower ex- 
 tremities. These all-too-prevalent bands are a 
 common cause of varicose veins. Habitual 
 standing is another cause. 
 
 " What causes palpitation of the heart ?" 
 In the majority of cases, indigestion is the 
 cause. The heart is located directly above the 
 stomach, with only the diaphragm between 
 them. The diaphragm is the muscular floor 
 of the chest. If the stomach becomes distended 
 with the gasea of indigestion, it crowds the 
 diaphragm up against the heart. The heart 
 then utters its protest against the intrusion by 
 a more rapid beating, for it has no room to 
 spare in a chest which is held still by bones 
 and bands and steels, no matter how loose 
 they may be. There can be no natural or 
 free motion for ribs and muscles which are 
 always worn in splints, and where the ribs 
 and their muscles are thus fettered the heart is 
 sorely perplexed by any additional crowding
 
 66 The Heart. 
 
 from below, such as it is subjected to when 
 digestion is arrested. 
 
 "What is the cause of cold feet?" 
 Anything which prevents the blood from 
 circulating freely in the feet will tend to keep 
 them cold. In addition to the bands already 
 mentioned, whether elastic or otherwise, insuf- 
 ficient exercise in the open air is a common 
 cause of cold feet, and the best of all ways 
 for warming them is to take a brisk walk on 
 the sunny side, having first prepared them by 
 putting on warm hose and thick, broad-soled 
 and low-heeled shoes. You can no more walk 
 properly in thin, narrow-soled, high-heeled 
 shoes than you can on stilts ; nor can you get 
 the full benefit of a walk if you keep your 
 arms rolled in a shawl or folded in a muft'. 
 The hands should be so protected that the arms 
 may fall naturally by the side when walking. 
 There can bo no really graceful walking with 
 folded arms. 
 
 " How may cold, sweaty feet bo cured ?" 
 
 By clothing them so that the blood may 
 
 circulate freely in them, and by keeping them 
 
 familiar with clean water and fresh towels. A
 
 The Heart. 67 
 
 good plan is to plunge them rapidly, first into 
 hot and then into cold water, two or three 
 times on retiring, and then rub them very dry 
 with coarse towels.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HOW WE BREATHE. 
 
 "AND the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
 life; and man became a living soul." Genesis ii, 7. 
 
 IN our lessons upon the skeleton we have 
 learned how carefully the framework of the 
 human nose is prepared for the important part 
 it is destined to take in the function of respir- 
 ation. We have seen how delicately the bones 
 about the nostrils are turned and coiled so as 
 to increase the surface over which the air 
 must pass on its way to the lungs, and that 
 the result of this extension of surface is the 
 warming of the cold air to the proper temper- 
 ature for its reception into their more delicate 
 cells.
 
 Ifow We Breathe. 69 
 
 If yon look now at the entrance to your 
 nostrils, you will see how carefully it is guarded 
 by little hairs, whose office it is to sift the air 
 and thus render it still more fit for its be- 
 coming "the breath of life." The lesson 
 taught us by Moses in the above quotation 
 from his history of the Creation, BO sublime in 
 its simplicity, is emphasized by the anatomical 
 study of the nostrils, and one is more and 
 more deeply impressed with the profound in- 
 sight of the "Man of God" into the designs 
 of the Creator whose works he so faithfully 
 studied. Many a writer of books upon anat- 
 omy and physiology has since enforced the 
 truth that the nose is the preparatory organ 
 of respiration ; that the perfection of every 
 function depends upon the thoroughness with 
 which its initiatory work is done, and that all 
 the higher orders of animal life breathe their 
 air. while frogs and turtles and their kin swal- 
 low it ; but no one of them all has said as 
 much on pages as Moses said in this one 
 brief sentence. Let us heed the lesson ! Let 
 us apply it to every act of our lives, and so, 
 by making our beginnings aright, shall we en-
 
 70 How We Breathe. 
 
 sure that success which crowns all work which 
 is well begun ! 
 
 Have you ever noted the imperfect breath- 
 ing of people who, either from habit or from 
 deformity, swallow their air, instead of taking 
 it by the nostrils ? And have you observed 
 the noise they make about it ? Audible breath- 
 ing is not in accordance with the divine plan. 
 All of nature's finest processes, like the growth 
 of tissues, the circulation of sap and blood, and 
 the entrance of the air into the lungs, are noise- 
 less. Let the air enter as God meant to have 
 it, and it will enter with no sound for the most 
 sensitive ear at the ordinary distance between 
 individuals ; but let it enter through a mouth 
 which is habitually open, and the sound be- 
 comes offensively apparent. " The worst wheel 
 squeaks the loudest." Such breathers are an 
 annoyance to their companions by day and a 
 positive nuisance by night. There would be 
 no snoring to echo through dormitories if all 
 breathed as God meant they should, and one 
 of the ways to prevent it is to hold the lips 
 together by an apparatus recently invented by 
 Dr. Wyeth for the purpose, for, those who have
 
 How We Breathe. 71 
 
 been allowed to develop the habit by the in- 
 attention of their nurses in childhood. 
 
 You will notice another characteristic of 
 this class of breathers. They always seem to 
 have a cold, as evinced by imperfect articula- 
 tion and the other accompaniments of a "cold 
 in the head." They generally have large ton- 
 sils, too, and in this condition it is difficult 
 to discriminate between cause and effect, for 
 the large tonsils may have induced the habit 
 of breathing with the mouth open, and, on the 
 other hand, the mouth - breathing may have 
 caused the enlargement of the tonsils; but, 
 whichever may be the cause, the indications 
 for treatment are identical, and point to the 
 reduction of the size of the tonsils. 
 
 This brings us to the consideration of the 
 second part of our breathing apparatus, namely, 
 the throat, at whose entrance stand the tonsils, 
 but whose office is not yet accurately under- 
 stood. Indeed, Dr. Robinson, writing upon 
 the subject, goes so far as to say, " Were I 
 to make a man, I do not think I would put 
 tonsils in him. 5 ' But as we all have them, it 
 is safe to conclude that they are essential, rather 
 than superfluous, organs. It is no less safe to
 
 72 How We, Breathe. 
 
 conclude that if we learn and obey the laws 
 by which the rest of the body is kept in healthy 
 action, we shall not find them to be a source 
 of annoyance and discomfort. 
 
 Let us look, for a moment, at some of the 
 other results incident to their enlargement, ad- 
 ditional to the one already mentioned. From 
 the throat there is a tube, on each side, which 
 communicates with each ear. The closure of 
 these tubes by the enlarged tonsils may lead 
 to deafness, and often does. These three seri- 
 ous results, namely, faulty respiration, muffled 
 and imperfect vocalization, and deafness, are 
 all common conditions among mouth-breathers. 
 But a still more serious complication comes in 
 as a result of large tonsils in growing children, 
 in that the growth and development of the 
 chest and lungs may be arrested in consequence 
 of the interruption to complete filling of the 
 lungs which large tonsils necessarily offer. 
 This may be a cause of consumption in after 
 life, for tliis destroyer finds its surest victims 
 among those who have small, poorly-developed 
 lungs. Thus you see what agents for evil 
 these little bodies become if allowed to grow 
 too laro;e.
 
 How We Breathe. 73 
 
 The question at once arises, How shall this 
 enlargement be prevented ? Nothing could be 
 simpler or more natural than the indication 
 which at once suggests itself to the thoughtful, 
 namely, to guard against excessive flow of 
 blood to the parts in question the same 
 point, you will remember, which was made 
 prominent in our lessons upon circulation. 
 Keep the blood in the right place, and all goes 
 well, provided its quality is good. Granted 
 an excess of it at any one point, and there 
 is an inevitable protest at that point against 
 the intrusion. 
 
 If, for want of proper protection, the sur- 
 face and extremities of the body are habitually 
 chilled, especially in childhood and youth, dur- 
 ing the whole growing period of twenty-five 
 years, ic is more than probable that the above 
 conditions will result. We are all of us, young 
 women and middle-aged women, and children, 
 too, inclined to muffle the throat too warmly, 
 thereby inviting the blood to concentrate at 
 that point, when it ought to be in the hands 
 and feet, keeping them warm. Furs about the 
 neck are in the wrong place. They should be 
 on the feet and hands ; and the yards of
 
 74: How We Breathe. 
 
 woolen mufflers which one sees wound about 
 the necks of children should be on their legs 
 rather than there. 
 
 But the best of all ways to insure one's self 
 from sore throat and swollen tonsils is to keep 
 the entire skin active and ruddy by making it 
 as familiar with cold water as the hands and 
 face are wont to be. Said Miss Jane Porter, 
 the novelist, to her brother, who was a physi- 
 cian : " I am always catching cold everywhere 
 but in my face. I wish my body was all face." 
 " Make it so," was his reply. It is easy to 
 form the habit if one begins in early life ; and, 
 when it is formed, the daily morning ablution 
 in fresh, cold water becomes the one luxury 
 which, of all others, we would least willingly 
 forego ; while the perfect exemption from colds 
 and sore throats which it secures is a state of 
 things which makes life a constant joy. Can 
 you think of any greater joy than to be always 
 well and strong ? To be able to say, I can 
 go and come in all weathers and at all times, 
 because I never take cold ! 
 
 We pass now from the tonsils to the larynx, 
 or organ of vocalization. This is one of the 
 most delicately formed organs in the body.
 
 How We Breathe. 75 
 
 Through it comes and goes every "breath of 
 life," and upon its vocal cords hang the sweet- 
 est harmonies of life. If the air is breathed 
 through the nostrils, and by them warmed and 
 sifted ; if the throat and tonsils are not sur- 
 charged with blood which ought to be in the 
 feet and cannot get there because of the bands 
 and tight shoes in the way ; if, in short, Na- 
 ture can carry the air through the larynx in 
 her own good way, there will be no discord 
 there. The mythical "music of the spheres" 
 can be no more harmonious than the melody of 
 a perfectly correct human voice. Says George 
 MacDonald : " A sweet tone is a messenger of 
 God ; and a right harmony and sequence of 
 such is a little gospel." 
 
 There has never been a time when the hu- 
 man voice has not been an instrument of power, 
 a charm, a delight. When we pass beyond 
 history to the regions of fable, we find that, 
 among the gods of the ancient Greeks, those 
 were held in the highest honor whose voices 
 
 o 
 
 had a sound potent for good or evil. Jove, 
 the imperial monarch of Olympus, had but to 
 direct the lightning and command the thunder.
 
 76 How We Breathe. 
 
 Homer writes: 
 
 "He speaks, and awful bends his sable brow, 
 Shakes his ambrosial curls and gives the nod, 
 The stamp of fate and sanction of a god. 
 High Heaven, with trembling, the dread signal takes, 
 And all Olympus to the center shakes." 
 
 Of the nine muses, six reached gods and 
 mortals through the voice ; and to Calliope, 
 the muse of eloquence and poetry, was given 
 the precedence. 
 
 If we put faith in the grand opening of 
 biblical history, it was the voice of the serpent 
 that beguiled Eve ; and it was the soft voice of 
 the first mother that, falling upon the ear and 
 heart of Adam, betrayed him to his undoing; 
 and, whether we accept the narrative literally 
 or as an allegory, a hush falls upon the spirit 
 as we read of the voice of the Lord God in 
 the garden, calling upon the man and saying, 
 "Where art thou?" 
 
 Jubal was the father of those who played 
 upon the harp, and there is little doubt that 
 the first musical instruments, as are all later 
 ones, were but feeble attempts to imitate the 
 notes given forth by the human larynx, or to 
 accompany the songs of joy and praise of tho 
 people.
 
 How We Breathe. 77 
 
 Miriam sang, after the passage of the Red 
 Sea, those magnificent words which form most 
 thrilling passages in our sacred music and or- 
 atorio, " Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath 
 triumphed gloriously!" and Hebrew history, 
 full of war and bloodshed, of idol worship and 
 sin, as it is, is more than redeemed by Hebrew 
 poetry. Nay, if we go from Earth to the Be- 
 yond, we find the poets and seers, whoso fan- 
 cies paint its attractions for mortals, as in the 
 vision of John, telling us of ten thousand times 
 ten thousand surrounding the throne, with 
 voices and harps attuned to the majestic melo- 
 dies of the skies. 
 
 But if we fail to conceive, with our limited 
 faculties, of celestial sounds, and listen only to 
 mortal tones, we shall have the fullness and 
 the glory of the human voice revealed to us 
 even more forcibly than by any flight of the 
 imagination. We know its compass, we ac- 
 knowledge its power, we listen with rapture to 
 its melodious utterances, we feel in our thrilled 
 hearts its touching tenderness. 
 
 The capacity of the human voice is beyond 
 that of all the musical instruments ever in- 
 vented. In its tones we can read the mind
 
 78 Mbvj We Bivathe. 
 
 of the speaker, without seeing his face. Hope, 
 fear, anger, revenge, love, hatred, despair, are 
 told with unerring directness. 
 
 The voice of Parepa brought adoring thou- 
 sands to her feet. Woman, through her words 
 of love and tenderness, lias exercised a greater 
 power over the race than have all the mon- 
 archs, backed by all the armies, of the world. 
 
 In sickness, her tones of tender sympathy 
 are often more efficacious than medicine ; and 
 the strong man, brought low by suffering, and 
 the restless inlant are alike soothed to slumber 
 by a woman's low voice. 
 
 There is no characteristic in a mother, a 
 teacher or a nurse which is more readily caught 
 up and echoed than the habitual tone of her 
 voice. A screaming, scolding, harsh -voiced 
 mother or teacher will be very sure to find 
 her own tones reflected to her by the little 
 ones who are so unfortunate as to hear them. 
 
 Thackeray says : " The world is a looking- 
 glass, and gives to each individual the reflec- 
 tion of the face he brings to it. Smile on it, 
 and it will smile in return. Frown on it, and 
 it will frown in return." Children are no less 
 accurate mirrors, which reflect, in tone, mannei
 
 How we Breathe. 79 
 
 and action of all kinds, the habits of those 
 whom they oftenest encounter. 
 
 The most delightful school I ever saw was 
 a primary school, of nearly a hundred children, 
 presided over by one woman, whose voice was 
 the very essence of gentleness. During a series 
 of visits there I never heard her raise her voice 
 above the ordinary tones of conversation ; but 
 those tones were exquisitely modulated, and 
 so clear and pure that they reached the most 
 distant ears in all their purity. The children's 
 voices were like hers. They never Bcreamed 
 at her, for she never screamed at them. They 
 never spoke in fretful or peevish tones to her, 
 for she never spoke in any but cheerful tones 
 to them. Do you ask the secret of her power 
 over them, by which she kept them from rest- 
 lessness and noisiness ? She loved them, and 
 her voice showed that she loved them. Added 
 to this tender child-love there was a self-control 
 which, above all else, is essential to the control 
 of others. She kept her whole body subject 
 to the dictates of her reason. She knew that 
 she could do little in her chosen profession, 
 "To teach the immortal mind, no mean employ ;"
 
 80 How We Breathe. 
 
 unless she kept her body in health; and she 
 knew that her voice depended upon large lungs 
 for its power, its sweetness and its endurance. 
 So she gave her lungs the largest liberty, in 
 ways which you shall hear.
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 HOW WE BREATHE. Continued-. 
 
 FROM the nostrils to the larynx, and from 
 the larynx through the trachea and bronchi to 
 the lungs, is not far, but "'tis enough" for all 
 that Nature would do for ns there if she can 
 have her own way. And how rare is the 
 workmanship there displayed ! We saw, in our 
 lesson upon the circulation of the blood, by 
 what gradations in the animal scale she came 
 to that perfection of function which results 
 from a four-chambered heart, and it remains 
 for us to trace out a no less striking gradation 
 up to the human lung. 
 
 All animals are classed as air-breathers or 
 water-breathers, and all breathe either by means 
 of tubes, gills or lungs. Respiration in ani-
 
 82 How We Breathe. 
 
 mals, whatever be its mode of execution, has 
 always the same object, namely : the exchange 
 of carbonic acid, or waste product of tissue 
 wear, for oxygen. The earth, the air and the 
 water are each and all so rich in this life- 
 giving element that each and all can get the 
 requisite amount from their native element, 
 whatever that element be. 
 
 The sponges and coral polyps, and all those 
 very humble little people who are so small 
 that it takes a microscope to find them, do 
 not have any special apparatus set apart for 
 the purpose of respiration, but they breathe 
 at one part of the body just as well as at an- 
 other. Certainly a very convenient arrange- 
 ment, which we might be led to covet under 
 some circumstances. 
 
 The star-fishes, sea-urchins and their rela- 
 tives have a curious " water-pipe system," by 
 means of which their air and their blood and 
 their water are carried round to them all at 
 once. This plan has also ita obvious advan- 
 tages; but when we rise to the estate of the 
 clam and the oyster, who live in " marble 
 halls" with folding-doors, we find a great ad- 
 vance in the style of their breathing, in .that
 
 How We Breathe. 83 
 
 they have very elegantly constructed gills, most 
 finely fringed, by means of which their blood 
 comes to be of quite a select quality compared 
 with that of the people below them, although 
 it is neither blue blood nor yet red, but simply 
 white. The fishes, however, have the perfec- 
 tion of water -breathing apparatus, and you 
 have only to lift the gill-covera of the next 
 one you see to find how delicate and beautiful 
 it is. You will find four or more strong arches 
 supporting little fringes whose component parts 
 consist of minute loops of arteries and veins, 
 which meet here to exchange the carbonic acid 
 
 CJ 
 
 which has been picked up by the veins all 
 over the body for the oxygen which the water 
 brings to the waiting arteries. Those arches 
 are the gill arches, and the fringes on them 
 are the gills, and the gills are for the fish 
 exactly what your lungs are for you : the sine 
 qua non of his existence. Keep his gills wet, 
 and life goes on smoothly for him. Let them 
 get dry, and the way is rough. So, if you can 
 get air for your lungs, life is a joy; but close 
 up this sole avenue for your " breath of life," 
 and your sun must go down in darkness. Not 
 so with the insect world. They have air tubes
 
 84 How We Breathe. 
 
 all over the body. Catch a grasshopper and 
 look on the sides of his abdomen, and you will 
 see little openings, like a row of button-holes, 
 through which the air enters and animates his 
 body. Then take your microscope and find 
 the coils of air-tubing all wound up in him, and 
 you will understand why he is so very much 
 alive : because he gets so much fresh air. No 
 wonder he sings all the time ! Anybody feels 
 like it when the body is full of pure oxygen. 
 Do you know the story of the grasshoppers, aa 
 told by Plato in the dialogue called " Pha3- 
 drus" ? Listen to it : 
 
 Socrates ia represented as having gone out 
 to walk, at mid-day, with his friend. Seated 
 under a plane-tree, he says: "A lover of 
 music like yourself ought surely to have heard 
 the story of the grasshoppers, who are said 
 to have been human beings in an age before 
 the muses. And when the muses came, and 
 song appeared, they were ravished with de- 
 light, and, singing always, never thought of 
 eating and drinking, until at last they forgot, 
 and died. And now they live again in the 
 grasshoppers; and this is the return which the 
 muses make to them : they hunger no more,
 
 How We Breathe. 85 
 
 neither thirst any more, but are always sing- 
 ing, from the moment they are born, and never 
 eating or drinking ; and when they die, they 
 go and inform the muses who honor them 011 
 earth. They win the love of Terpsichore for 
 the dancers by their report of them; of Erato 
 for the lovers; and of the other muses for 
 those who do them honor, according to the 
 several ways of honoring them ; of Calliope, 
 the eldest muse, and of her who is next to her, 
 for the votaries of philosophy, for these are 
 the muses who are chiefly concerned with 
 heaven and the ideas, divine as well as human, 
 and they have the sweetest utterance." 
 
 All insects have these breathing-tubes dis- 
 tributed all through their bodies. They are 
 called tracheae, and correspond in function to 
 the lungs of the higher vertebrates. 
 
 The simplest form of the lung of the verte- 
 brates may be seen in the frog. I wish every 
 one of you would give herself the pleasure of 
 seeing this wonder of creation at her first op- 
 portunity. A toad will do just as well as a 
 frog. You have only to put him in a bottle 
 with a handkerchief saturated with sulphuric 
 ether, and, us soon as he is sound asleep, open
 
 86 How We Breathe. 
 
 the skin of his abdomen with a sharp knife 
 or scjssors. You will see the pretty lungs all 
 inflated, and the little heart beating between 
 them. Then cut out the little heart before he 
 wakes, and he never will know that he has 
 been cut, and you will have seen just how one 
 of the air-cells of your lungs looks. Now you 
 have only to imagine cluster after cluster of 
 these delicate little sacs, all opening into the 
 bronchial tubes, by the thousand, and you will 
 have a very good picture of your own lungs. 
 I hope you will also realize what an awfully 
 wicked thing it is to squeeze the lungs. Be- 
 lieve me, my dear girls, you can do your bodies 
 no greater favor than to let your chests remain 
 in just the shape your Maker left them. He 
 knows very much better how to shape them 
 than you or your dressmaker know. He has 
 put no less than thirty-nine bones into the 
 walls of your chests, and you need no 
 more. There is a set of muscles between each 
 pair of your ribs, and a diaphragm at the bot- 
 tom of the chest, and He who put them, there 
 mea-nt that they should be always in motion, 
 from the time you draw your first breath till 
 you die, and whenever you surround the ciiest
 
 How We Breathe. 87 
 
 with bands or boues you do just what the 
 surgeon does for a broken bone : you put these 
 muscles all in splints and hold them still, and 
 from that moment you are only half as much 
 alive as you ought to be. 
 
 It matters not if you answer that your 
 bands and your bonea are loose. Your broth- 
 ers do not have bands and artificial bones to 
 hold them in shape, and you have just as many 
 bonea as they have. It matters not if you 
 tell me that you cannot hold yourself up with- 
 out corsets. You can do what you should do, 
 and you should hold up your own bodies by 
 the means which God has given you for that 
 purpose. 
 
 Hear what Canon Kingsley said to you 
 in one of his best books, entitled " Health 
 and Education r : 
 
 "I suppose you will all allow that the 
 Greeks were, so far as we know, the most 
 beautiful race that the world ever saw. These 
 people had made physical as well as intellect- 
 ual education a science, as well as a study. 
 Their women practiced graceful, and, in some 
 cases, even athletic, exercises. They devel- 
 oped, by a free and healthy life, those figures
 
 88 How We Breathe. 
 
 which remain everlasting and unapproachable 
 models of human beauty. But they wore 
 no Btays. The first mention of stays that I 
 have found is in the letters of Synesius, Bishop 
 of Gyrene, on the Greek coast of Africa, about 
 four hundred years after the Christian era. 
 
 " He tells us how, when he was shipwrecked 
 on a remote part of the coast, and he and the 
 rest of the passengers were starving on cockles 
 and limpets, there was among them a slave- 
 girl out of the far East, who had a pinched 
 wasp-waist, such as you see on the old Hindu 
 sculptures, and such as you see on any street 
 in a British town. 
 
 " And when the Greek ladies found her 
 out, they sent for her from house to house, to 
 see this new and prodigious waist, with which 
 it seemed to them impossible for a human being 
 to breathe or live ; and they petted the poor 
 girl, and fed her as they might a dwarf, till 
 she got quite fat and comfortable, while her 
 owners hud not enough to eat. So strange 
 and ridiculous seemed our present fashion to 
 the descendants of those who, centuries be- 
 fore, had imagined, because they had seen
 
 How We Breathe. 89 
 
 living and moving, those glorious statues which 
 we pretend to admire, but refuse to imitate. 
 
 " It seems to me that a few centuries hence, 
 when mankind has learned to fear God more, 
 and therefore to obey more strictly the laws 
 of nature and of science, which are the will of 
 God it seems to me that in those days the 
 present fashion of corset-wearing will be looked 
 back upon as a contemptible and barbarous 
 superstition, denoting a very low level of civil- 
 ization in the people who practiced it. 
 
 " That for generations past women should 
 have been in the habit not to please men, 
 who do not care about the matter as a point of 
 beauty, but simply to vie with each other in 
 obedience to a something called Fashion that 
 they should, I say, have been in the habit of 
 deliberately crushing that part of the body 
 which should be specially left free, contracting 
 and displacing their lungs, their heart and all 
 the most vital and important organs, and en- 
 tailing thereby disease not only on themselves, 
 but on their children after them ; that for 
 fifty years past physicians should have been 
 telling them of the folly of what they have 
 been doing; and that they should, as yet, in
 
 90 How We Breathe. 
 
 the great majority of cases, not only turn a 
 deaf ear to all warnings, but actually deny the 
 offense, of which one glance of the physician 
 or of the sculptor, who knows what shape the 
 human body ought to be, brings them in guilty : 
 this, I say, is an instance of what shall I 
 call it ? which deserves the lash, not merely 
 of the satirist, but of any theologian who really 
 believes that God made the physical universe. 
 
 " If one chooses a horse or a dog, whether 
 for strength or for speed or for any useful pur- 
 pose, the first thing to be looked at is the girth 
 round the ribs : the room for heart and lungs. 
 Exactly in proportion to that will be the ani- 
 mal's general healthfulness, power of endur- 
 ance, and value in many ways. 
 
 " If you will look at eminent orators who 
 have attained a healthy old age, you will see 
 that in every case they are men of large size 
 both in the lower and in the upper part of the 
 chest ; men who had, therefore, a peculiar 
 power of using the diaphragm to fill and clear 
 the lungs, and therefore oxygenate the blood 
 of the whole body. Now, it is just these lower 
 ribfi, across which the diaphragm is stretched
 
 How We Breathe. 91 
 
 like the head of a drum, which stays contract 
 to a minimum. 
 
 "If you advised the owners of horses and 
 hounds to put them into stays in order to 
 increase their beauty, you would receive a very 
 decided refusal. And if you advised an orator 
 to put himself into stays, he would reply that 
 to comply with the request would involve the 
 giving up of public work, under the probable 
 penalty of being dead within the twelvemonth. 
 
 " And how much work of every kind, intel- 
 lectual as well as physical, is spoiled or hin- 
 dered ; how many deaths occur from consump- 
 tion, and other complaints, which are the result 
 of stays is known partly to the medical men, 
 who lift up their voices in vain, and fully 
 known to Him who will not interfere with the 
 least of his own physical laws to save human 
 beings from the consequences of their own 
 willful folly." 
 
 The good man who said all these good 
 things to us has gone where corsets and other 
 wicked things " cease from troubling/' but I 
 am sure his blessing rests on the "dress-reform." 
 of which I am going to tell you farther on, 
 aiid which enables you to look your very pret-
 
 92 How We Breathe. 
 
 tiest, while it, at the same time, leaves your 
 chest free to expand to its uttermost. 
 
 And now, in reply to your questions about 
 catarrh and colds, and BO on, I have only to 
 say, as I have already done : Keep the blood in 
 the right place, and leave all its channels un- 
 fettered by any bands ; give the lungs the 
 largest liberty ; keep the skin of the whole 
 body active and familiar with fresh air and 
 cold water ; do not muffle the neck too much, 
 but be very sure that the feet are so clad that 
 they are always warm. Catarrh in the head 
 and cold feet always go together. Keep the 
 feet warm and dry, and you cannot have catarrh. 
 Do not expect to cure a catarrh by snuffs or 
 any patent nostrum. Sublata causa, cessat ef- 
 fectus: The cause removed, the effect ceasea. 
 
 Above all tilings, avoid going to sit, stand 
 or lie in a cool, breezy place when you are 
 warm from active exercise. That is a sure way 
 to catch the " death cold." Do not stand by 
 open windows or open doors when the air of 
 the house is warmer than that out. You are 
 subjected to a strong draft which is sure to 
 result in a " cold." Do not stop to talk in 
 the doorway when parting from a friend. Say
 
 How We Breathe. 93 
 
 what you have to say in the house, and, when 
 you get to the door, go on your way at once. 
 
 Do not arrest a friend on a windy corner 
 when walking, for a five minutes' chat. You 
 may both get chilled fatally. Rather turn and 
 walk in your friend's direction till your chat is 
 over. 
 
 Do not throw off your wraps too suddenly 
 when coming in warm with exercise, but "let 
 your moderation be known to all." 
 
 Do not talk much when walking in a cold, 
 frosty air, but keep the mouth closed, that the 
 air may be warmed by the nostrils. 
 
 Avoid very hot rooms, with the moisture 
 all dried out of the air. Have a thermometer, 
 and never tolerate a temperature above sixty- 
 eight or seventy Fahrenheit. 
 
 Change the air of your room every hour. 
 An hour is long enough to remain in one 
 position or in one room without change. Never 
 sit, eat or sleep in a north room if you can 
 help it. The north side of the house belongs 
 to the refrigerator and the store-room. Let 
 the sun shine into all your rooms as much as 
 possible. You had better have faded carpets 
 than faded faces. Be out doors two hours a
 
 94 How We Breathe. 
 
 day at the very least, and in fine weather let 
 it be three or four. There is always some- 
 thing to go out for. Every page of Nature's 
 story-book is full of interest to her who will 
 read it. The stones are always there to tell 
 their sermons ; the everlasting hills, " whence 
 cometh our help," are always there to remind 
 us that there is too much grandeur in Nature 
 for man to waste his time on strife and con- 
 tention ; and when the glad spring, summer 
 and autumn days come, what a joy there is in 
 studying the flowers, the ferns, the butterflies, 
 the birds and all the fair living creatures that 
 people the woods and fields. 
 
 Not time ! do you say ? But, my dear 
 child, think of the time you put into filling 
 canvas with yarn, in a vain attempt to make 
 something which looks like a flower. Had it 
 not better bo spent in studying the flower it- 
 self? Believe me, when you learn to study 
 Nature's book with the loving heart and eye 
 of an Agassiz, you will be so accustomed to 
 the real air of life that you will wonder how 
 women can be content to stay indoors and 
 make " pretty things to wear," with a great 
 many pounds of not only superfluous, but act-
 
 How We Breathe. 95 
 
 uaily ruinous (in more senses than one), ruffles 
 and furbelows, when they can be so much 
 healthier, wealthier, wiser and happier in sim- 
 ple attire, whose modest lines are lighted by 
 the glow of cheeks whose bloom rivals the 
 rose's, and by eyes whose sparkle rivals the 
 sunlight. 
 
 Finally, keep your noses educated up to 
 the requisite point for the recognition of an 
 air unfit for breathing. For that purpose the 
 sense of smell is given you, and when it tells 
 you the air of a place is foul, get out of it as 
 quickly as you can, unless there is some way 
 of bettering it so as to lit it for respiration. 
 
 I once heard Mr. Beecher tell a crowded 
 audience in Steinway Hall, New York, that 
 there was no subject so much talked about 
 and so little understood as the subject of ven- 
 tilation, and that the air of that hall justified 
 the assertion. He went on to say that, if we 
 were asked to take into the mouth what had 
 been once ejected from it, we should think it 
 a very filthy tiling ; but ws do a much more 
 filthy thing when we take into our lungs not 
 only the breath we ourselves have ejected, but 
 that of our neighbors, too.
 
 96 How We Breathe. 
 
 In the November, 1877, number of the 
 "Popular Science Monthly" Dr. Felix Oswald 
 has an interesting paper on "Modern Troglo- 
 dytes," which you will do well to read. It 
 will help to convince you that pure air and 
 plenty of it, and large lungs in which to re- 
 ceive it, are the essential elements of that 
 beauty which you all covet, and which is found 
 only in healthy bodies which have retained 
 that likeness to their Maker expressed in the 
 statement of the sacred historian, " So God 
 created man in his own image."
 
 CHAPTER TIL 
 
 THE BRAIN AND NERVES. 
 
 "Bora in man and woman, the brain is the 
 conservator of strength and the prolonger of 
 xife. Poor brains, like weeds, will grow on 
 any soil. The best brains are built by educa- 
 tion in accordance with the plans of Nature. 
 A human brain is the "consummate flower" of 
 Nature's development on this planet. No per- 
 fect brain ever crowns an imperfectly developed 
 body." DR. EDWARD H. CLAEK ("The Build- 
 ing of a Brain"). 
 
 In our previous studies we have considered 
 the different organs of the body principally 
 with reference to their individual functions. 
 We come now to the consideration of the man- 
 ner in which all these functions are coordi-
 
 98 The Brain, and Nerves. 
 
 nated BO that a perfect harmony of action is 
 secured throughout the entire structure. This 
 harmony is the condition we call health, and 
 the system of apparatus hy the action of which 
 it is insured we call the nervous system. 
 
 There is no form of animal life in which 
 this coordinator of animal force is wanting. 
 True, its manifestations are exceedingly simple 
 in the lower forms, but it requires only the 
 slightest touching of the tentacles of the sea- 
 anemone to reveal its sensitiveness; and if we 
 follow up this contact with the microscope and 
 patience, we shall find the little threads of 
 nerves, radiating from their nervous centers, 
 by whose action the creature is able to so co- 
 ordinate its sensations with its motions as to 
 withdraw its tentacles from the point of con- 
 tact. And all this in a creature which spends 
 its whole life on the rock where that life be- 
 gan, and which looks so very much like a 
 flower that it has received a flower's name ! 
 If we rise a step higher, to the starfish and 
 sea-urchin, we have not only no difficulty in 
 proving that they have nerves and nervous 
 centers, but we can easily find them without 
 the microscope. So, if we pass from the radi-
 
 The Brain and Nerves. 99 
 
 ates to the articulates, we shall find an even 
 more elaborate system of nerves and nerve- 
 centers, by which these creatures are rendered 
 extremely sensitive, and also extremely motor, 
 so that the bee and the butterfly are almost 
 all motion. 
 
 As we pass on to the vertebrates we find, 
 first, a notable difference in the location of the 
 nerve-centers as compared with the articulates, 
 in that they are ranged along the lower or 
 ventral region in the latter sub-kingdom, while 
 all the vertebrates have their spines in their 
 backs. Here, too, in the vertebrates we find, 
 for the first time, a bony case for the lodgment 
 and protection of nerve-centers ; hence they are 
 the first to possess two quite distinct nervous 
 systems, namely : the cerebro-spinal or volun- 
 tary system, and the sympathetic or involuntary 
 system ; the former, as its name indicates, pre- 
 siding over all voluntary action, while the lat- 
 ter is confined to the regulation of such invol- 
 untary acts as breathing, the beating of the 
 heart, and the digestion of food. 
 
 There is quite a marked difference in the 
 tissue composing these separate systems, as you 
 would easily see on inspection ; and their differ-
 
 100 The Brain and Nerves. 
 
 ence in function is at once apparent when you 
 recall the ease with which you open and close 
 your eyelids, as compared with the difficulty 
 of holding your breath for a few seconds. 
 
 To the naked eye, the brain and spinal 
 cord which constitute the center of the volun- 
 tary system, and which are lodged in the skull 
 and in the long canal formed by the succession 
 of openings in the body of the vertebrae, of 
 which we Bpoke in an earlier lesson nre com- 
 posed of two differently colored substances, 
 which are called the white and the grey matter. 
 
 Examined with the microscope, this matter 
 is made up of fibers and cells, and micro- 
 scopists have decided, after much careful study, 
 that the cell portion alone is capable of gener- 
 ating nerve force. Examined chemically, this 
 matter is found to consist of more than three- 
 fourths water; while the phosphates, of which 
 we spoke in the opening chapter under the 
 designation of the " dust of the earth," con- 
 tribute largely toward the remaining fourth. 
 In this revelation of chemistry, which is but 
 one of many facts both useful and beautiful 
 which that wonderful science reveals, we are 
 fortified in the assumption contained in the-
 
 The Jlrain and Nerves. 101 
 
 chapter on Foods, that eggs and the whole 
 grains, crushed into edible form, constitute the 
 best brain food, in that chemistry teaches that 
 the germs of all life, both animal and vege- 
 table, are rich in phosphorus, the " light- 
 bringer." 
 
 It* you look at the brain of any of the 
 higher vertebrates (and any market will fur- 
 nish you the opportunity), you will seo that 
 it is thrown into convolutions. In this respect 
 the brains of reptiles and of birds differ from 
 those of the higher vertebrates, in that the 
 former have no convolutions, and this fact has 
 much significance as related to the degree of 
 intelligence; so that, although size is also an 
 important factor, the brain of the civilised man 
 being larger by nearly thirty per cent, than 
 the brain of the savage, it ia nevertheless true 
 that anatomists rate intelligence quite as much 
 according to the fineness of the brain convolu- 
 tions as by the size of the organ : quality, not 
 quantity, being the rule here as elsewhere. 
 
 You may have observed heads with very 
 prominent foreheads, or with excessive develop- 
 ment upward, and possibly have been led to 
 infer that their possessors had more than ordi-
 
 102 The Brain and Nerves. 
 
 nary intelligence, but it is probable that a 
 closer acquaintance would fail to confirm your 
 assumptions. If you look at the heads of any 
 ot the Greek statues which are models, for all 
 time, of the perfect human form you will note, 
 above all other characteristics, their perfectly 
 exquisite symmetry, while their size often pro- 
 vokes the comment that the Greeks must have 
 had small heads. 
 
 We have spoken, thus far, only of the 
 nerve-centers. We have now to speak of the 
 nerves which have their origin in these centers. 
 From the brain and spinal cord there arise 
 forty-four pairs of nerves, twelve of them from 
 the brain and thirty-two from the cord. The 
 cord itself is described as having four columns, 
 two anterior and two posterior ; and the very 
 interesting fact that each of the spinal nerves 
 has a double root, one corning from an anterior 
 column and being exclusively motor in its 
 function, the other coming from the posterior 
 column arid being exclusively sensitive in func- 
 tion, was never known until the present cen- 
 tury, when Sir Charles Bell discovered it in 
 1810, his discovery being confirmed by Magen- 
 die in 1822. Magendie divided, in the living
 
 The Brain and Nerves. 103 
 
 animal, first the posterior roots, and found that 
 sensibility was lost, but that motion remained. 
 Then he divided the anterior roots, and ob- 
 tained reverse effects. 
 
 Knowing this fact, the series of actions 
 which goes on between the fibers which go to 
 make up any pair of the nerves which animate 
 the trunk muscles or the muscles of the ex- 
 tremities may be aptly likened to an exchange 
 of messages between two telegraphic stations. 
 The finger, for instance, touches an offending 
 object. The sensitive fibers of the double- 
 rooted nerve which animates the finger carry 
 in the announcement to the central office, or 
 spinal cord, that something hot is at the other 
 end of the line, from whose proximity it will 
 bo expedient to withdraw. The order is at 
 once issued to the motor fibers to attend to the 
 withdrawal. This is the analysis of every vol- 
 untary muscular action, and not only this, but 
 the time occupied in the transit of the separate 
 messages from without inward and from within 
 outward has been estimated. 
 
 We turn now from the spinal nerves to the 
 consideration of some of the twelve pairs of 
 cerebral nerves whose origin is limited to a
 
 104: The, Brain and Nerves. 
 
 very small space at the base of the brain, and 
 to whose presence we owe our special senses 
 of smell, sight, hearing and taste in a similar 
 way to that in which we derive sensation and 
 motion from the spinal nerves. 
 
 Says Gerald Massey : " There are many 
 ways in which the Creator seeks admittance 
 into the sonl of man .... We see the flowers 
 come to us every springtide, with messages 
 uttered in lovely forms, and in fragrance which 
 is the breath of the Divine. The winds blow, 
 waters roll, the green leaves dance, the BUH- 
 beams brighten, the colors burnish into beauty, 
 the weeds grow an grace, the skylark mounts 
 up, and l deep calleth unto deep, day unto day 
 uttereth speech ' ; the springing earth laughs 
 out in the light, the starry heavens kindle all 
 aglow with the glory of God.... All nature 
 reflects in some faint wise, in its infinite variety, 
 the Image of the Infinite One. It is as if in 
 man Nature found her heart of hearts her 
 true meeting-place for the Creator, the Crea- 
 tion, the Creature." 
 
 And our five special senses may be regarded 
 a8 the several gateways through which the 
 Creator comes into our souls by these gracious
 
 . The Brain and Nerves. 105 
 
 manifestations of Himself. We are accustomed 
 to call them five separate and distinct senses, 
 yet closer thought suggests that the senses of 
 smell, sight, hearing and taste are but so many 
 modifications of the sense of touch, for do not 
 the odorous particles which float off from the 
 anthers of the rose impinge upon the terminal 
 filaments of the nerve of smell, and by this 
 contact give proof of their presence, as directly 
 as the hot stove declares itself to the finger- 
 tips through the general sense of touch ? 
 
 Consider the sense of vision. Socrates 
 asked : " Does it not look like a work of pre- 
 science, because the eye is so delicate, to have 
 furnished it with lids, which open when we 
 want to see the light and close when we want 
 to sleep ; to have fringed those lids with lashes, 
 which, like a seive, strain the dusty wind and 
 keep it from hurting the sight; and over the 
 eyes to have placed brows, which, like eaves, 
 carry off the sweat from hurting the sight ?" 
 
 Let me entreat you, dear girls, to think of 
 all this careful provision for the needs of your 
 eyes, when you are tempted to hang a spotted 
 lace veil before them to enhance the color of 
 your cheeks, and forbear thus to profane and
 
 106 The Brain and Nerves. 
 
 irritate these most delicate organs. You can 
 hardly offend the nerve of vision more seriously 
 than by following this pernicious fashion. Your 
 brothers would never endure Bueh a thing as a 
 veil before their eyes, but would protest against 
 it with all possible vigor, and your eyes are 
 made exactly like theirs. 
 
 If you would see the mechanism of the 
 eye which is but the servant of the nerve of 
 vision, sent off from the brain you can easily 
 get the eye of an ox from your market, and 
 examine it at your leisure. Note through what 
 a variety of media the light must pass before 
 it is permitted to impinge upon that delicate 
 expansion of the optic nerve which we call 
 the retina ! Just as you saw that the mouth is 
 the preparatory organ for digestion, the nose 
 for olfaction, so you see that the eye is the 
 preparer of light for the brain. Treat the eyes 
 properly, and they will remain your faithful 
 servants for all your threescore and ten years, 
 provided you treat the rest of your body as 
 you should. Abuse them, and there is no power 
 in Heaven or on Earth which can prevent you 
 from paying the penalty therefor. 
 
 Do not hang veils before them ; do not
 
 The Brain and Nerves. 107 
 
 bend over book or work, but sit always erect, 
 and raise the book or work to the requisite 
 height. Use an inclined book-rest for heavy- 
 books. Raise the eyes from the book as often 
 as two or three times in the half hour, for a 
 restful look off into the distance "to the hills 
 whence corneth our help," if possible and let 
 the mind have time to think of the subject- 
 matter. Do not sit with the light opposite the 
 eyes, whether that light be sun light or artifi- 
 cial light, but let it fall over the left shoulder, 
 directly upon the page or the work. Never 
 read or study by artificial light before break- 
 fast. It is ruinous to the eyes. Do not read 
 or sew by twilight. If the eyes require protec- 
 tion from sun-light or snow-light, or light re- 
 flected from water, or if the lids fail " to sift 
 the dusty wind," obscured glasses are better 
 for the purpose of protection than veils. 
 
 The sense of hearing has the ear for its 
 servant, and of all the organs of special sense 
 this is the most complicated and the most beau- 
 tiful. It is impossible for me to convey to 
 you, by words, any idea of this most marvelous 
 structure ; but let me ask you to study a model 
 of it at your first opportunity, and I feel sure
 
 108 The Brain and Nerves. 
 
 you will thus find your whole soul so filled 
 with reverence for the Maker of such a piece 
 of workmanship that you will shrink from pro- 
 faning its pavilion, as the external part is 
 called, by punching a hole in it for the exhibi- 
 tion of an ornament, which, however beautiful 
 it may be, is a desecration to this " temple of 
 the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Keep these gateways for your Lord's in- 
 coming ever open and ever in order ; BO shall 
 you live in that nearness to Him which the 
 " pure in heart " know, " for they shall see 
 God." Do this " in the days of your youth," 
 so that when you reach your meridian your 
 brains shall be richly stored with the records 
 of the impressions which the servants of the 
 nerves will have brought in. So shall your 
 last days be better than your first. 
 
 Dr. Draper tells us that " a shadow never 
 falls upon a wall without leaving there an in- 
 delible trace, a trace which might be made 
 visible by resorting to proper processes. Upon 
 the walls of our most private apartments, where 
 we think the eye of intrusion is altogether 
 shut out and our retirement can never be pro-
 
 The Brain and Nerves. 109 
 
 faned, there exist the vestiges of all our acts, 
 silhouettes of whatever we have done. 
 
 " If, after the eyelids have been closed for 
 some time, as when we first awake in the 
 morning, we suddenly and steadfastly gaze at 
 a brightly illuminated object, and then quickly 
 close the lids again, a phantom image is per- 
 ceived in the indefinite darkness beyond us. 
 "We may satisfy ourselves that this is not a 
 fiction, but a reality, for many details that we 
 had not time to identify in the momentary 
 glance may be contemplated at our leisure in 
 the phantom. We may thus make out the pat- 
 tern of such an object as a lace curtain hanging 
 in the window, or the branches of a tree be- 
 yond. By degrees the image becomes less and 
 less distinct; in a minute or two it has disap- 
 peared. It seems to float away iu the vacancy 
 before us. If we attempt to follow it by mov- 
 ing the eyeball, it suddenly vanishes. Such a 
 duration of impressions on the retina proves 
 that the effect of external influences on nerve- 
 vesicles is not necessarily transitory. 
 
 " In this there is a correspondence to the 
 duration, the emergence, the extinction of im- 
 pressions on photographic preparations. Thus,
 
 110 The, Brain and Nerves. 
 
 I have seen landscapes and architectural views 
 taken in Mexico, developed, as artists say, 
 months subsequently in New York : the images 
 coming out, after the long voyage, in all their 
 proper forms and in all their proper contrast 
 of light and shade. The photograph had for- 
 gotten nothing. It had equally preserved the 
 contour of the everlasting mountains and the 
 passing smoke of the bandit-fires. 
 
 " Are there, then, contained in the brain 
 more permanently, as in tho retina more tran- 
 siently, the vestiges that have been gathered 
 by tho more sensory organs ? Is this the ex- 
 planation of memory the Mind contemplating, 
 such pictures of past things and events as have 
 been committed to her custody ? In her silent 
 galleries are there hung micrographs of the 
 living and the dead, of scenes that we have 
 visited, of incidents in which we have borne a 
 part ? Are these abiding impressions mere 
 signal-marks, like the letters of a book, which 
 impart ideas to the mind ? or are they actual 
 picture-images, inconceivably smaller than those 
 made for us by artists, in which, by the aid of 
 a microscope, we can see, in a space not bigger
 
 The Brain and Nerves. Ill 
 
 than a pin-hole, a whole family group at a 
 glance ? 
 
 " The phantom images of the retina are not 
 perceptible in the light of day. Those that 
 exist in the sensorium in like manner do not 
 attract onr attention so long as the sensory 
 organs are in vigorous operation and occupied 
 in bringing in new impressions. But, when 
 those organs become weary or dull, or when we 
 experience hours of great anxiety, or are in 
 twilight reveries, or are asleep, the latest appa- 
 ritions have their vividness increased by the 
 contrast, and obtrude themselves on the mind. 
 
 " For the- same reason they occupy us in 
 the delirium of fevers, and doubtless also in the 
 solemn moments of death. During a third 
 part of our life, in sleep, we are withdrawn 
 from external influences ; hearing and sight and 
 the other senses are inactive ; but the never- 
 sleeping Mind, that veiled enchantress, in her 
 mysterious retirement, loo.ks over the ambro- 
 types she has collected ambrotypes, for they 
 are truly unfading impressions and, combining 
 them together as they chance to occur, con- 
 structs from them the panorama of a dream . . . 
 
 "Savage or civilized, we carry within us a
 
 112 The Brain and Nerves. 
 
 mechanism which presents us with mementoes 
 of the most solemn facts with which we can be 
 concerned. It wants only moments of repose 
 or sickness, when the influence of external 
 things is diminished, to come into full play, 
 and these are precisely the moments when we 
 are best prepared for the truths it is going 
 to suggest. That mechanism is no respecter of 
 persons. It neither permits the haughtiest to 
 be free from the monitions, nor leaves the 
 humblest without the consolations, of a knowl- 
 edge of another life. Open to no opportunities 
 of being tampered with by the designing or 
 the interested, requiring no extraneous human 
 agency for its effect, but always present with 
 every man, wherever he may go, it marvel- 
 ously extracts from vestiges of the impressions 
 of the past overwhelming proofs of the realities 
 of the future, and, gathering its power from 
 what would seem to be a most unlikely source, 
 it insensibly leads us, no matter where we may 
 go, to a profound belief in the immortal 
 and imperishable, from phantoms which have 
 scarcely made their appearance before they are 
 ready to vanish away." History of Conflict 
 Between Science and Religion.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NERVES AND NERVOUSNESS. 
 
 HAYING considered the structure and func- 
 tions of the cerebro-spinal or voluntary nerve 
 system, it remains to speak more in detail of 
 the great sympathetic or involuntary system, 
 whose nerve-centers, or ganglia, have no bony 
 case for their lodgment, and in this respect are 
 allied to the nerve-centers of the radiates, the 
 mollusks and the articulates, being distributed 
 about among the various internal organs of the 
 four cavities of the body, namely : the skull, 
 the chest, the abdomen and the pelvis. Be- 
 sides these, there is a double row of them 
 lying against the anterior surface of the spinal 
 column, which might be compared to a double 
 string of loosely-threaded pearls, so far as the
 
 114 Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 appearance which they present to the naked 
 eye is regarded. 
 
 From these various ganglia, of which it is 
 estimated there are upward of sixty in the 
 heart alone, numberless delicate nerve fila- 
 ments are given off from each internal organ, 
 which unite not only with similar filaments 
 from neighboring organs, but also with fila- 
 ments sent off from the ccrebro-spinal nerves; 
 by which means you will understand that all 
 the internal organs are not only intimately 
 associated with each other, but also with the 
 body which they inhabit. It is this fact which 
 gives the name "Great Sympathetic" to this 
 system. It is also called the " Great Organic," 
 for the same reason. To the microscopist and 
 the chemist the structure of this system pre- 
 sents some significant variations from that of 
 the cerebro-spinal system ; while to the physi- 
 ologist there is a very wide variation in func- 
 tion, in that a very much longer space of time 
 is requisite for conveying impressions to its 
 centers than is required to convey messages 
 to the brain or spinal cord 
 
 Thus, if the hand or foot come in contact 
 with a cold or hot foreign body, the intelligence
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 115 
 
 is carried in to the brain in less time than it 
 takes to describe the process even to the extent 
 here attempted ; but if we " catch a cold," as 
 the expression goes, the sympathetic nerve- 
 centers dp not evince their recognition of the 
 fact until twenty-four hours or more after the 
 occurrence which gave rise to the condition. 
 
 There is another very important fact con- 
 nected with this sympathetic system, namely : 
 that, although the entire weight of the internal 
 organs is only about one-tenth that of the 
 body, yet one-half of all the blood of the body 
 is sent to these organs. I desire to impress 
 this fact upon you with all possible emphasis, 
 for upon its recognition your comfort depends 
 in large measure. You will remember that in 
 the chapter on " Circulation " I have endeav- 
 ored to impress upon you the fact that physical 
 suffering generally implies blood in the wrong 
 place, and that all remedial measures point to 
 a removal of it to some place remote from 
 the seat of pain. 
 
 Now you all understand that the nerves are 
 the sentinels which report this want of equilib- 
 rium in the circulation, by means of an ache 
 of some kind. Not one of them will allow an
 
 116 Werves and Nervousness. 
 
 excess of blood in its vicinity without protest- 
 ing ; therefore, I say again, as I have already 
 snid to you, Keep the blood clean and in the 
 right place, and your nerves will never give 
 you painful reminders of their presence. 
 
 All painful, inflammatory conditions, like 
 pneumonia, dysentery, and uterine, or ovarian, 
 inflammations, mean this and nothing more. I 
 knew a young lady who stood with her head 
 out of an open window for five minutes, in 
 mid -winter, to gossip with a passer-by. In 
 twenty-four hours she had the initiatory chill 
 of pneumonia, and in a week the passer-by 
 attended her funeral. 
 
 I knew another, who played croquet on the 
 damp ground in early May, going directly out 
 from a warm dining-room, with thin shoes and 
 but little protection from a cold wind. A 
 violent attack of dysentery followed, from which 
 she barely escaped with her life. 
 
 Neuralgia has been defined as the "prayer 
 of the nerve for healthy blood," but the nerve 
 prays no less fervently for the right quantity 
 than for the right quality of the vital fluid. 
 
 Doubtless many of you have felt the pangs 
 of neuralgia, and would like to be informed
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 117 
 
 Low to avoid their recurrence. Let me tell 
 yon, then, right here, that all the anodyne 
 lotions and doses which ever were or will be 
 compounded will never cure neuralgia as long 
 as the cause of it remains, and, in nine cases 
 out of ten, the cause of neuralgia in young 
 women is traceable to want of equilibrium in 
 the circulation. The poor body is so cramped 
 and distorted and loaded down with the thou- 
 sand and one devices for making it look "styl- 
 ish," that the blood has very hard work to get 
 round it at all, to say nothing of getting round 
 on time. 
 
 Take the " corset-liver," for instance, as 
 medical students have learned to call the livers 
 of the female subjects which go to the dissect- 
 ing-room. It is the rule, rather than the excep- 
 tion, for these livers to be so deeply indented 
 where the ribs have been crowded against 
 them by improperly worn clothing, that the 
 wrist may easily be laid in the groove. And 
 this in an organ which is a mass of blood- 
 vessels, through which every particle of blood 
 ought to circulate freely on its way to the 
 heart. Of course, it cannot get through the 
 squeezed portions, and the inevitable result of
 
 118 Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 the half-done work of the liver is an unclean 
 condition of the blood, which utters its cry by 
 means of aching nerves. 
 
 "A sick simpleton asks, What shall I take? 
 A sick philosopher asks, What shall I do ? " 
 
 "What shall I take for my nervousness?" 
 is the question which comes daily, I might 
 almost say hourly, to the physician " that un- 
 fortunate individual," as Voltaire said, "who 
 is hourly expected to perform a miracle ; name- 
 ly: to reconcile health with intemperance." 
 
 All nervous people are intemperate in some 
 respect, because they are deficient in that 
 fundamental element of stability, self-control. 
 There would be no need of any temperance- 
 reform movements if we were all taught the 
 proper lessons of self-control in childhood. T^ie 
 woman who stimulates herself to extra exertion 
 on strong tea ia just as much an inebriate as 
 he who rolls in the gutter because he stimu- 
 lates on alcohol ; and the young girl who never 
 can pass a candy-store without indulging in her 
 favorite sweets is just aa surely on the road to 
 ruin, of one kind, as is the boy who prides 
 himself on being able to smoke cigars. The 
 animal appetite is master in each case, and
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 119 
 
 self control is as deficient as in a creeping in- 
 fant, who lias no higher thought than to eat 
 as often and as long as it can. 
 
 Inactivity ranks next to intemperance as a 
 fruitful cause of nervousness. Some of " our 
 girls" are fond enough of activity of a certain 
 kind. They can dance all night and " never 
 feel tired,'' but they cannot walk a mile with- 
 out getting the back-ache ; so they will shut 
 themselves indoors all day, away from the life- 
 giving air and sunlight, and read emotional 
 novels, and then go to the doctor to get some 
 valerian for their nerves ! Alas ! poor souls ! 
 If you would only go to the woods and to 
 the fields, to the rocks and to the streams, for 
 your books, and let the novels lie on the 
 shelves till your mothers tell you which ones 
 to read ! And then if you would spend your 
 evenings with the best authors, and go to bed 
 at nine o'clock, and do your dancing by sun- 
 light, you would never know anything about 
 nervousness. 
 
 " Nervousness and hypochondria and hys- 
 teria were unknown to the ancients. Perhaps 
 if we emulate them, seeking to be as strong as 
 the Romans, as high-minded as the Greeks,
 
 120 Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 they may in time be unknown to us." Good 
 muscles are the best possible balance for the 
 nerves. People who use their muscles as they 
 should never have hysteria. Nor yet do peo- 
 ple who use their brains as they should have 
 it. Well-directed mental effort never yet made 
 a case of hysteria, nor of its relative, insanity. 
 It is intemperate brain-work, with worry, which 
 leads astray. 
 
 In the annual reports of the Massachusetts 
 Lunatic Asylums for 1876, the superintend- 
 ents all concurred in asserting that "there can 
 be no permanent decrease in the number of 
 the insane till people learn to control their 
 passions, sleep well, and 'keep cool.' 
 
 " Children and older students must take ex- 
 ercise, and the robust and vigorous must be 
 taken from cruel exercise and sports, and put 
 to study and more placid employments. Self- 
 control is, above all things, essential. The 
 marriages of those tainted with insanity should 
 be forbidden. Brain-workers contribute a very 
 immaterial percentage to the total number of 
 the insane." 
 
 It is' a perfectly easy matter to select from 
 a school of young ladies those who will be
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 121 
 
 liable to attacks of hysteria at the test exam- 
 inations of the closing weeks of the term ; 
 and they will not be those who have been 
 " temperate in all things," and faithful not 
 only to each day's mental work, but faithful 
 also to the body, in which the mind dwells, 
 as regards its daily need of sunlight, water, 
 fresh air, and exercise. 
 
 The intemperate ones are they who will, 
 under the spur of some excitement, walk ten 
 miles one day, and then stay indoors, wrapped 
 in shawls and drinking tea, for a week after it. 
 They will sit up all night to " cram " for an 
 examination, when those who have done every 
 day's work in its own good time are quietly 
 refreshing their brains for the test -work by 
 that best of all restorers blessed, balmy sleep. 
 The "crammers" will fidget and worry and 
 make " great cry, but little wool," and when 
 they are informed that they have fallen short 
 of the mark they will fly off into hysteria like 
 any poor crazy- brained creature. Then the 
 opponents to the higher education of women 
 come in and say, " I teld you BO ! That's 
 what comes of cramming girls' heads full of 
 Greek and Latin and science and all that
 
 122 Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 stuff, that's of no use to 'cm ! Better let 'em 
 stay at home and wash dishes !" 
 
 Quite right ! That kind of girls had bet- 
 ter stay at home and wash dishes or darn 
 stockings, so that they do it well, than to 
 make such a pitiful pretense at brain-work. 
 Not what you do, but how you do it, is the 
 test of your capacity. 
 
 " Who sweeps a room, as by thy laws, 
 Makes it and the action fine." 
 
 The third factor, in addition to temperance 
 and activity f , which is requisite for healthy 
 nervea is cleanliness, as applied not only to 
 the body itself, but also to the air which sur- 
 rounds it, and to the clothing which covers it. 
 It is asserted by good medical authority that 
 unventilated clothing tends greatly to aggra- 
 vate rheumatic complaints by its retention of 
 the acid excretions of the skin. All clothing 
 should be frequently exposed to direct sunlight, 
 as should the body which wears it. So should 
 all bedclothing and beds be daily exposed to 
 this most beneficent agent when clouds do not 
 obscure it. 
 
 It is considered by some a proof of a very 
 neat housewife when all the beds are made
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 123 
 
 while the family are at breakfast ; but to the 
 physiologist there could hardly be a more 
 repugnant proof of untidiness. Indeed, I know 
 of a lady who lives in a fine house where no 
 window is opened from October till May. She 
 has her bed made as soon as she and her hus- 
 band leave it, and wonders what her neighbors 
 can be thinking of to open their bedroom win- 
 dows in midwinter. Her children have all 
 died but one, and he is getting ready to go. 
 He sleeps till nine or ten o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, and always wakes with headache. He 
 goes at once for mince-pie and jelly- cake, 
 which are always at his command, and accom- 
 panies them with sausage and doughnuts. Eis 
 breath is simply horrible, his complexion is 
 like that of a withered and sickly old man, 
 and he is a constant sufferer from neuralgia 
 or headache. The blood of such a body is un- 
 clean beyond comparison, and " there is no 
 health in it." 
 
 Let us hear what Mr. John Weiss says 
 about the health of the " Women of Shake- 
 speare": 
 
 " Shakespeare contrived to rear a race of 
 women whose physical soundness was unim-
 
 124 H^rvcs and Jtfervousncss. 
 
 paired. Before the gymnasium and health lift 
 were invented by the peevish persuasion of 
 dyspeptics and invalids, who die by inches of 
 fried food, furnace-air, fricassees of high-school 
 programmes, and ragouts of French novels, 
 his women earned their health on horseback 
 in the broad English fields ; they called it 
 down to them out of the sky where the hawk 
 struck the heron and returned to perch upon 
 the wrist ; they came upon its track in the 
 sylvan paths which the startled deer extem- 
 porized; they overtook it in long stretches of 
 breezy walks upon the heathery downs and in 
 the hawthorn -bounded lanes. The country's 
 nature was their training-room, and its unso- 
 phisticated habits their masters. 
 
 " They saw the sun rise, and could not 
 afford to outflare the setting crescent with gas- 
 light streaming from overheated rooms ; nor 
 did the stately minuet ravage like the " Ger- 
 man " which is sustained into the small hours 
 upon rations of beef-tea and various liquors. 
 They drank small-beer for breakfast, and knew 
 the taste of herrings before the Turks invaded 
 the nerves of Christendom with coffee and the 
 Chinese began to tan its stomach with the acid
 
 JVlirves and Nervousness. 125 
 
 of tea.... Not one of Shakespeare's women 
 utters one line that is inspired by any form of 
 hysteria; the perfect balance of the functions 
 was not yet impaired, so that no nerve-center 
 could exercise a petty tyranny, nor suggest 
 the morbid fancies and curious superfluities 
 which dedicate so many late romances to St. 
 Yitus, the patron of spasm. .. .Nature was so 
 prodigal of health to Shakespeare's women 
 that it overflowed the clay-banks of their bod- 
 ies, and spread in a freshet of gayety." 
 
 Some of you have come to me with ques- 
 tions about headache, about neuralgia, about 
 nervousness, about sleeplessness, and so on, 
 and often you ask me for " something to take" 
 as if the doctor had only to put the hand in 
 the medicine-chest and send a remedy direct 
 to the seat of pain. My dear girls, let me tell 
 you, once for all, that the medicines which 
 cure all ills to which flesh is heir are found 
 only in the advertisements. The true physi- 
 cian effects more by his teaching than by his 
 drugs. 
 
 If you are suffering from headache, it is 
 probably due either to errors in diet, or to 
 fatigue, or to " a cold in the head," or to a
 
 126 Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 constitutional tendency to neuralgia, either in- 
 herited or acquired. In either case the remedy 
 is the same rest. If the stomach has been 
 offended by too much food or by too great 
 variety (either will cause headache), by all 
 means give it rest. Take a twenty-four-hour 
 fast, and give Nature a chance to do her own 
 repairing. She is mighty to prevail if you let 
 her alone. We all incline to eat more than we 
 need when the palate is pleased, and it is esti- 
 mated that where one dies of starvation ten 
 die by overfeeding. The Church of Rome 
 does wisely by her children in one respect 
 as to the matter of stated periods of fasting. 
 If the head aches by reason of nerve-fatigue, 
 there is no remedy like sleep ; and the way to 
 court sleep is to take a warm foot-bath and 
 then firmly resolve to go to sleep. If the 
 mind, owing to the temporary failure of the 
 nerve-power to control its vagaries, tends to 
 go roaming about in such crazy fashion as to 
 repel the sleepy god, then is the time to sum- 
 mon up your self-control. You can, if you will, 
 make it stay at home and count sheep going 
 over a wall ; or any other simple device by
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 12T 
 
 which it is kept steady will suffice to allay 
 that restlessness which drives away sleep. 
 
 Bos well tells us that a few days before the 
 death of Dr. Johnson, when hie physician ar- 
 rived to pay his morning visit, he seemed very 
 despondent, and broke out in the words of 
 Shakespeare : 
 
 " ' Canst thou minister to a mind diseased; 
 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; 
 Raze out the written troubles of the brain; 
 And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, 
 Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff 
 Which weighs upon the heart?'" 
 
 To which the physician replied, quoting from 
 the same great poet : 
 
 " ' therein the patient 
 Must minister to himself.'" 
 
 Johnson expressed himself much satisfied with 
 the application. 
 
 On another day, when talking on the sub- 
 ject of prayer, the Doctor repeated from Ju- 
 venal : lil Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in 
 corpore sano? " 
 
 Let us now briefly recapitulate the essen- 
 tial conditions for healthy brains and nerves: 
 First, be temperate in all things. Eat and 
 drink such things only as will contribute to
 
 128 Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 the building of good blood, in accordance with 
 the instructions already given you. Let, also, 
 the times and the manner of taking the food 
 
 O 
 
 be regulated in accordance with those instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 Be temperate in your observance of the 
 proper hours of study and reading. Mental 
 indigestion is just as sure to result from inor- 
 dinate cramming with book-lore as is gastric 
 indigestion sure to follow food-cramming. Be 
 temperate in respect to your hours of waking 
 and sleeping. Nature puts her flowers and 
 her animals to sleep along with the going 
 down of the sun, and no human being can 
 disregard this example to the extent of turning 
 night into day without, sooner or later, paying 
 the penalty in shattered nerves. The best 
 hours for sleep are those between ten and 
 two, and no amount of sleep prolonged into 
 the daylight can compensate for the loss of 
 these precious hours. Be ready for bed at 
 nine o'clock in the evening, and you will have 
 no disposition to linger in bed after the sun 
 rises. 
 
 Be temperate and systematic in your ob- 
 servance of hours of exercise in the open air,
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 129 
 
 and never, under any circurastances 5 allow 
 yourselves to study in the hour which should 
 be devoted to exercise. Such study is a weari- 
 ness to the flesh, and also to the brain and 
 nerves. You have probably threescore and ten 
 years to live, if you live as you should, and 
 there is time enough to do all youi work well 
 in that time. Do not endeavor to crowd just 
 so many lessons into one term because your 
 companion does so, but let each one be guided 
 by her own individual capacities. Think now 
 totally immaterial it will appear to you ten. 
 years hence whether you graduated with your 
 own class or with the following one. 
 
 Be temperate in your attention to personal 
 adornings. Much valuable time is wasted upon 
 personal attire. It is the duty of each one to 
 always look just as beautiful as she can, and 
 no young girl can fail to look beautiful if she 
 is in perfect health, her entire apparel in per- 
 fect order, her hair tidily and tastefully ar- 
 ranged, her teeth and nails perfectly clean, and 
 her dress made in the simplest possible manner 
 consistent with the prevailing mode. The 
 young girl who presents herself at the break- 
 fast-table with half her hair in crimping-pins
 
 ISO Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 and the other half in a frowsy state, her feet 
 ic shabby shoes or slippers, her dress half ad- 
 justed, her collar and cuffs, or ruffles, soiled 
 and crumpled, and everything about her in 
 disorder, can never appear beautiful to the 
 eyes that behold her thus, no matter how much 
 she may strive to adorn herself for the evening 
 dissipation. Such a girl is sure to be intem- 
 perate in her conduct of life. 
 
 Secondly, be active in all good ways, if you 
 would be free from neuralgia and nervousness. 
 Idleness is no less the parent of hysteria than 
 of other vices. People who lead busy lives 
 never find time to have hysteria. Be active 
 in the open air. The sun should never set on 
 the day when you have failed to be out an 
 hour or more in the open air, unless the weather 
 is exceedingly inclement. Ladies of the pres- 
 ent day thanks to the great improvement in 
 outdoor attire can go out in all weathers as 
 perfectly secure from ill effects from exposure 
 as their brothers can. 
 
 We each must have a pound of oxygen per 
 day to consume the waste matter whose accu- 
 mulation in our blood causes neuralgia, and we 
 cannot get it even in the best ventilated apart-
 
 Werves and Nervousness. 131 
 
 ments. We must go outdoors for it, or we 
 shall pay the penalty of our neglect by despond- 
 ency, by neuralgia, by hysteria, and perhaps, 
 eventually, by insanity. 
 
 Thirdly and lastly, be clean. Probably 
 few, if any, of you are negligent of the use of 
 soap and water to the extent of the ordinary 
 demands of propriety ; but I have not failed to 
 observe a disregard of the fact that cleanliness 
 consists in constant vigilance. By this I do not 
 mean that restless scrutiny which leads fussy 
 housewives to be forever armed with the duster, 
 the broom and the fly chaser, but I refer to 
 that timelv forethought which forbids us ever 
 
 V O 
 
 to incur the risk of leaving any accumulations 
 of decomposing animal or vegetable matter 
 where it can taint the air. 
 
 I have seen young ladies allow the water 
 to stand in vases of flowers until the air of the 
 room was foul with emanations therefrom. I 
 have noticed that young ladies who wear cor- 
 sets often continue to wear them unwashed so 
 long that the odor of the perspiration from the 
 axillee announces their presence even before 
 one sees them. These are but few of many 
 little points of nicety in regard to our personal
 
 132 Nerves and Nervousness. 
 
 habits the sum of which constitutes cleanliness. 
 
 I need not remind you that if you engage 
 in the occupation of street-sweeping as your 
 voluntary contribution toward the sanitary good 
 of the city, the skirts which you use for this 
 purpose should be changed before you enter the 
 drawing-room. You certainly would not invite 
 the man who is hired to do this work into 
 your parlor until he had first changed his 
 clothes, and you certainly must be as untidy as 
 he, even though yours has been a labor of love 
 where his has been hired service. Of course, 
 it is evident that each of you also needs to go 
 to the bath as often as you engage in this 
 occupation. 
 
 The last cause of unclean blood of which I 
 have to speak is that very common condition 
 of the alimentary canal known as obstinate 
 constipation. Ask any physician what he or 
 she is oftenest called upon to treat among wo- 
 meu who wear corsets, and who spend much 
 time in sedentary, indoor occupations, or in 
 idleness, and you will find it to be this. It is 
 the inevitable result of such lives, and the foul 
 breath attending the condition is only one of 
 many accompaniments, all of which combine,
 
 Nerves and Nervousness. 133 
 
 at frequent intervals, to induce an aching head 
 or a violent attack of neuralgia in some one 
 or more sets of nerves. Such people are good 
 patrons of patent pills, and are never without 
 them. Uncleanness is stamped upon every drop 
 of blood, where such a condition prevails, and 
 the only blood-purifiers for those who are thus 
 afflicted are fresh air, with large lungs for its 
 inhalation ; fresh water, with plenty of clean 
 towels for rubbing the skin, and heroic doses 
 of muscular exercise in garments which leave 
 the diaphragm and all the muscles of the ab- 
 domen as free to move as if the body had no 
 covering but its own.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS ARE PER- 
 PETUATED. 
 
 WE have confined ourselves, thus far, to 
 the study of the individual life of different ani- 
 mals. We come now to the consideration of 
 the mode in which their succession is insured. 
 
 Your observation of plant life, however lim- 
 ited it may have been, has shown you that no 
 plant, however simple its form or however 
 humble its place on the pages of Nature's book, 
 ever dies without having first matured some 
 seeds or spores by which its type is destined 
 to bo maintained. Its whole life, whether it be 
 long or short, points forward to this, its ulti- 
 mate office. The delicate fronds of the ferns 
 continue to grow in strength and verdure and 
 beauty until their spore-cases mature, and then
 
 Plants and Animals. 135 
 
 they droop and wither and return to the dust 
 from which they came. So the violet and the 
 anemone, the rose and the clematis, the aster 
 and the golden-rod, and all the other bright 
 attendants of the swift-going seasons, grow in 
 grace and beauty until their seed-cups, or ova- 
 ries, have matured, and with that maturing 
 their lives begin to decline and they to tend 
 downward to the sheltering arms of Mother 
 Earth, from whose bosom they sprang and to 
 whose bosom they return. 
 
 As with the plant, so with the animal. 
 The ovule of the former and the ovum of the 
 latter carry the potential successors of the par- 
 ent life. If the animal expels its ovum for a 
 period before the young is matured, and keeps 
 it warm in a nest with its feathers, as the bird 
 does ; or leaves it in the sand, to be kept warm 
 there, like the turtle ; or leaves it on the river 
 bank, to be warmed by the sun, like the fish 
 it is said to be an oviparous animal: but if it 
 carries its ovum in a uterus, instead of laying 
 it in a nest, until its little one is ready to 
 begin its visible existence, it is said to be a 
 viviparous animal. All animals which bear 
 their young alive are also called mammals,
 
 136 Plants and Animals. 
 
 from the Latin mamma, a breast; because 
 they all feed their young at the breast. Some 
 mammals, like the whale and the seal, live in 
 the sea, but most of the mammals are land- 
 dwellers . 
 
 Every form of infant life, whether that life 
 be vegetable or animal, has its father and its 
 mother; and in all cases, whether the infant 
 life be that of a violet, a bird, or a child, its 
 mother has the larger and more responsible 
 share in the work of its maturing. To each 
 one of you, dear girls, is assigned this holiest 
 and highest of all human responsibilities, name- 
 ly: the bearing and rearing of your own young, 
 and to you each is assigned a special set of 
 organs, separate from any of those we have yet 
 studied, yet associated in very close relation 
 to them by means of the "Great Sympathetic" 
 nerve system of which we hive already spoken. 
 
 These organs, in mammals, are called the ovar- 
 ies and uterus. They are located in a cavity with 
 firm, bony walls which we call the pelvi.*, or basin, 
 and this cavity joins the abdomen. By a neglect of 
 the laws of health touching these important organs, 
 the woman who is not in some way afflicted with 
 a female weakness is the exception and not the rule.
 
 Plants and Animals. 13'j 
 
 Hopeful to us all is the fact that she may, 
 if she will, learn nay, that she is seeking to 
 leirn wherein she has erred, in order that she 
 may become what God meant she should be: 
 a companion for Adam, strong in her woman- 
 liness as he is in his manliness; beautiful in 
 her healthf ulness as he is in his; and so, fit to 
 become his help, meet for all good works. 
 
 Some one says, "Nothing is so conducive 
 to a right appreciation of the truth as a right 
 appreciation of the error by which it is sur- 
 rounded." We have been trying to study God's 
 woman the true woman. We are now to 
 search for the causes of the diseases which 
 years have heaped upon her since Eve sprang 
 from the Creator's hand, in the perfect beauty 
 of a healthy womanhood a womanhood which 
 is to-day, for the greater part, but an ideal in 
 the mind of the poet, the painter and the 
 sculptor. 
 
 Said the Hon. Horace Mann: "I hold it 
 morally impossible for God to have created, 
 in the beginning, such men and women as we 
 find the human race, in their physical condi- 
 tion, now to be. Examine the book of Genesis, 
 which contains the earliest annals of the human
 
 136 Plants and Animals. 
 
 from the Latin mamma, a breast; because 
 they all feed their young at the breast. Some 
 mammals, like the whale and the seal, live in 
 the sea, but most of the mammals are land- 
 dwellers. 
 
 Every form of infant life, whether that life 
 be vegetable or animal, has its father and its 
 mother; and in all cases, whether the infant 
 life be that of a violet, a bird, or a child, its 
 mother has the larger and more responsible 
 share in the work of its maturing. To each 
 one of you, dear girls, is assigned this holiest 
 and highest of all human responsibilities, name- 
 ly: the bearing and rearing of your own young, 
 aiid to you each is assigned a special set of 
 organs, separate from any of those we have yet 
 studied, yet associated in very close relation 
 to them by means of the "Great Sympathetic" 
 nerve system of which we hive already spoken. 
 
 These organs, in mammals, are c-lled the ovar- 
 ies and uterus. They are located in a cavity with 
 firm, bony walls which we call the pelvi.*, or basin, 
 and this cavity joins the abdomen. By a neglect of 
 the laws of health touching these important organs, 
 the woman who is not in some way afflicted with 
 a female weakness is the exception and not the rule.
 
 Plants and Animals. 13'j 
 
 Hopeful to us all is the fact that she may, 
 if she will, learn nay, that she is seeking to 
 leirn wherein she has erred, in order that she 
 may become what God meant she should be: 
 a companion for Adam, strong in her woman- 
 liness as he is in his manliness; beautiful in 
 her healthf ulness as he is in his; and so, fit to 
 become his help, meet for all good works. 
 
 Some one says, "Nothing is so conducive 
 to a right appreciation of the truth as a right 
 appreciation of the error by which it is sur- 
 rounded." We have been trying to study God's 
 woman the true woman. We are now to 
 search for the causes of the diseases which 
 years have heaped upon her since Eve sprang 
 from the Creator's hand, in the perfect beauty 
 of a healthy womanhood a womanhood which 
 is to-day, for the grcatsr part, but an ideal in 
 the mind of the poet, the painter and the 
 sculptor. 
 
 Said the Hon. Horace Mann: "I hold it 
 morally impossible for God to have created, 
 in the beginning, such men and women as we 
 find the human race, in their physical condi- 
 tion, now to be. Examine the book of Genesis, 
 which contains the earliest annals of the human
 
 140 Plants and Animals. 
 
 family. As is commonly supposed, it comprises 
 the first two thousand three hundred and sixty- 
 nine years of human history. With child-like 
 simplicity this book describes the infancy of 
 mankind. Unlike modern histories, it details 
 the minutest circumstances of social and indi- 
 vidual life. Indeed, it is rather a series of 
 biographies than a history. The false delicacy 
 of modern times did not forbid the mention of 
 whatever was done or suffered. And yet, over 
 all that expanse of time, for more than one- 
 third part of the duration of the human race, 
 not a single instance is recorded of a child born 
 blind or deaf or dumb or idiotic, or malformed 
 in any way. 
 
 " During the whole period, not a single case 
 of a natural death in infancy or childhood or 
 early manhood, or even of middle manhood, ia 
 to be found. The simple record is, 'And he 
 died'; or he died in a good old age and fall of 
 years ; or he was old and full of days. No 
 epidemic, nor even endemic, diseases prevailed ; 
 showing that they died the natural death of 
 healthy men, and not the unnatural death -of 
 distempered ones. Through all this time (ex- 
 cept in the single case of Jacob, in his old age,
 
 Plants and Animals. 141 
 
 and then only a day or two before his death) 
 it does not appear that any man was ill, or that 
 any old lady or young lady fainted. Bodily 
 pain from disease is nowhere mentioned." 
 
 Certainly it does not appear that any such 
 array of "female weaknesses" has ever dis- 
 graced womankind in any age as characterize 
 the women of this nineteenth century. 
 
 Says Dr. Edward Clark, in hie most sug- 
 gestive and truthful book, "Sex in Education": 
 "Let the statement be emphasized and reiter- 
 ated until it is heeded, that woman's neglect 
 of her own organization, though not the sole 
 explanation and cause of her many weaknesses, 
 more than any single cause adds to their num- 
 ber and intensifies their power. It limits and 
 lowers her action very much, as man is limited 
 and degraded by dissipation. The saddest part 
 of it all is, that this neglect of herself in girl- 
 hood, when her organization is ductile and im- 
 pressible, breeds the germs of diseases that, in 
 later life, yield torturing or fatal maladies." 
 
 Prominent among these maladies are dis- 
 eases of the uterus, which involve its position. 
 Only just so much space being assigned to it 
 in the pelvis, if it is turned forward or back-
 
 142 Plants and Animals. 
 
 ward or to one side or to the other, there is at 
 once a protest from the nerves of the adjacent 
 organs in the way of pain. The prominent 
 causes of these false positions are, first, the 
 unnatural weight of the organ, which is the 
 inevitable result of a mode of drees which 
 forces too much blood to it; and, second, a 
 flabby condition of its texture, which is the 
 natural result of this habitual congestion. 
 
 Not less common than false positions of the 
 organ are unnatural conditions of the mucous 
 membrane which lines it. It is the function of 
 all mucous membranes, when in health, to se- 
 crete enough mucus to keep the surface moist. 
 As soon as this mucous membrane becomes 
 unhealthy, this natural moisture increases to 
 the extent known as a catarrhal discharge; and, 
 whether this discharge be a nasal or a uterine 
 one, its character is the same and its cause the 
 same, namely: congestion. This discharge, oc- 
 curring from the uterus or from the vagina 
 which is the canal leading from the uterus is 
 called a leucorrhu'a. If it occurs from the 
 Dose, it is called a catarrh. 
 
 Prominent among ovarian diseases is the 
 condition known as ovarian cyst, where one or
 
 Plants and Animals. 143 
 
 more of the egg-sacs already spoken of become 
 enormously distended with a fluid, because the 
 ovaries have no mucous lining, like that of the 
 nostrils, the uterus and the vagina, by whose 
 help they can relieve their congestion ; hence 
 they become " dropsical," since they cannot 
 become catarrhal. 
 
 Each and all of these conditions, as we 
 shall see, only express some constitutional de- 
 rangement of organ or of function, induced 
 by one or more of the following causes, as 
 given by Dr. T. G. Thomas in his work on the 
 " Diseases of Women " : 
 
 " First Want of fresh air and exercise. 
 
 " Second Improprieties in dress. 
 
 " Third Excessive development of the nerv- 
 ous system and errors in education. 
 
 " Fourth Imprudence daring menstruation. 
 
 " Fifth Imprudence after parturition. 
 
 " Sixth Prevention of conception and in- 
 duction of abortion. 
 
 u Seventh Marriage with existing uterine 
 disease." 
 
 This is a concise and candid statement of 
 the causes of a line of woman's diseases in 
 Vvhose treatment Dr. Thomas has won a world-
 
 144: Plants and Animals. 
 
 wide reputation for success, and the women 
 who daily crowd hia office for treatment now 
 are only so many confirmations of the state- 
 ments above made. 
 
 I have no desire, my dear girls, to appall 
 you with any needless pictures of misery. I 
 come to you only with timely warnings, if 
 haply I may lead you to take my ounce of 
 prevention rather than that you go blindly on 
 in your disregard of the laws of health until 
 you are compelled to take Dr. Thomas' pound 
 of cure in the form of a pessary, or some inev- 
 itable method of local treatment. This you 
 must unavoidably come to if you persist in 
 weighting down your pelvic organs with long, 
 heavy skirts hung upon your hips; if you per- 
 sist in compressing your chests with corsets 
 or bands so that their contents crowd upon the 
 abdominal organs, causing them to crowd, in 
 their turn, upon the pelvic organs ; and if you 
 disregard any or all of the other laws of health 
 which I have tried to detail to you. 
 
 "As in that which is above nature, so in 
 nature itself, he that breaks one physical law 
 is guilty of all. The \vhole universe, as it 
 were, takes up arms against him ; and all na
 
 Plants and Animals. 145 
 
 ture, with her numberless and unseen powers, 
 is ready to avenge herself on him, and on his 
 children after him, he knows not when nor 
 where. 
 
 " He, on the other hand, who obeys the 
 laws of nature, with his whole heart and mind, 
 will find all things working together to him 
 for good. He is at peace with the physical 
 universe. He is helped and befriended alike 
 by the suu above his head and the dust beneatli 
 his feet; because he is obeying the will and 
 mind of Him who made sun and dust and all 
 things, and who has given them a law which 
 cannot be broken." HEV. CHARLES KLNGSLEY 
 ( il Health and Education").
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOW TO BECOME BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 have now studied the four separate 
 stories of the house we live in ; have learned 
 something of the furniture contained in each, 
 and have seen how perfectly each separate 
 piece is adapted to its individual uses. Wo 
 have also learned how all the four stories are 
 brought into the most intimate relations with 
 each other by means of the blood-vessels, which, 
 like water-pipes which go all over the houses 
 made with hands, permeate every cavity and 
 every cell of this most complex structure. 
 
 We have also learned that two very com- 
 plicated nervous systems accompany and ani- 
 mate these many-branched tubes, through which 
 the life-blood circulates, by whose presence each
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 147 
 
 department is kept constantly informed of the 
 condition of tilings in all the other departments, 
 so that no one organ or set of organs can suf- 
 fer derangement without having the fact known 
 all through the house. 
 
 "And whether one member suffer, all the 
 members suffer with it. And the eye cannot 
 say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; 
 nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need 
 of you/' 
 
 Y\ T e can easily extend our comparison of the 
 human body with the houses made with hands 
 still further, and liken the blood-vessels to the 
 water-pipes, and the nerves to the gas-pipes, 
 for the nerves are indeed our light-bringers, 
 in that all intelligence is due to them ; we 
 shall then realize how entire is this mutual 
 interdependence of all parts of the body. 
 
 We might call the pelvis the basement 
 story, for upon the organs contained in it rests 
 the whole weight of the responsibility of the 
 continuance of animal life. So might the ab- 
 domen be likened to the cook rooms where 
 rare and fine products are elaborated from raw 
 materials ; while the thorax or chest may be 
 likened to the drawing-room, where fair forms
 
 148 JTow to Become Beautiful. 
 
 of thought and art are ventilated, and the head 
 may fitly rank as an observatory. Now, we 
 all know that if the basement story is not 
 maintained in the most perfect order, the fact 
 13 sure to assert itself in the upper stories, and 
 this is no less true of the houses " not made 
 with hands " than of those which man fabri- 
 cates, so that a headache is often referable to 
 a wrong state of affairs in the pelvis ; indeed, 
 this is one of the commonest causes of head- 
 ache, and all the headache cures that ever were 
 invented will avail you nothing so long as their 
 cause remains unsought and unheeded. 
 
 But we have not yet covered our house, 
 and it remains for us now to speak of the skin 
 and its appendages. 
 
 Let us first glance at the long array of ma- 
 terials which Dame Nature has made use of 
 with which to cover her creatures down in the 
 lower ranks of Creation ! Note the firm, crusty 
 skin which protects the soft coral insect, and 
 remember that when you adorn yourself with 
 this memento of a departed life you perpetuate 
 the memory of these " Toilers of the Sea " as 
 efi'ectually as you immortalize your friend whose
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 hair is woven into the ornaments you most 
 prize. 
 
 The pearl, too, which lends you its lustrous 
 light, is but the secretion from the soft mantle 
 of skin which invests the mollusk, whether he 
 be oyster or mussel, and which is but the 
 preface to his harder skin his shell. So, too, 
 the beetle and the bee have their crusty skins, 
 some of them most gorgeously colored, as you 
 know, far beyond imitation by man's device. 
 
 Then there are the scales of the fishes ; the 
 horny plates of the tortoise ; the feathery over- 
 coat of the butterfly, the moth and the bird; and 
 lastly, the woolly and hairy coats of the quadru- 
 peds. What a bounteous storehouse of resources 
 and materials is Dame Nature's workshop ! 
 
 Let us now confine ourselves to the struc- 
 ture and uses of our own natural covering. If 
 
 d 
 
 you could look at a very much magnified verti- 
 cal section of your skin, you would see a most 
 marvelous array of apparatus for keeping you 
 warm in winter and cool in summer, as well 
 as for carrying off your waste material. AVhat 
 a network of minute blood-vessels is there 
 spread out ! and how the bright tint of blood, 
 which is all aglow with fresh air and sunlight,
 
 150 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 shines through the superficial layer of this won- 
 drous structure ! !No outward application of 
 paint or powder can possibly compare in beauty 
 with the natural color of a clean, healthy eldn. 
 Emerson says : " The lesson taught by the 
 study of Greek and of Gothic art, of antique 
 and of pre-Raphaelite painting, was worth all 
 the research, namely : that all beauty must be 
 organic ; that outside embellishment is deform- 
 ity. . . .The tint of the flower proceeds from its 
 root, and the lusters of the sea-shell beinn \vith 
 
 ' O 
 
 its existence." 
 
 So thoroughly is your skin a part of your 
 body that it reveals as infallibly the state of 
 affairs within as it reports to your nerve- 
 centers the temperature of the air and objects 
 without, by means of the countless nerve termi- 
 nals which are imbedded in its layers. This 
 complicated network of arteries, veins and 
 nerves is sustained in position by a foundation 
 structure of cell tissue in comparison with whose 
 delicacy and beauty your choicest laces are 
 mere bungling imitations; while all around and 
 about vein and artery and nerve are glands for 
 collecting the perspiration, and tubes for carry- 
 ing it off tubes whose whole extent, taking
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 151 
 
 the entire skin into account, is estimated at no 
 less than twenty-eight miles, while the openings 
 in the skin by which these drainage tubes dis- 
 charge their contents upon the outside of your 
 body number no less than three thousand five 
 hundred and twenty eight to the square inch 
 in the palm of the hand. Think of allowing 
 this sewage to accumulate upon the body and 
 its garments ! Can you wonder that filth and 
 disease go hand in hand ? 
 
 Besides all this array of tubes and nerves 
 and fibers and glands there are the bulbs in 
 which each individual hair has its origin, and 
 
 O t 
 
 into these bulbs there is poured the nicest of 
 natural pomade, which is elaborated in little 
 oil glands which are put there for this very 
 purpose. A clean and healthy scalp will keep 
 its own hair oiled without any aid from profes- 
 sional hair-dressers, with rancid oils disguised 
 by strong perfumes. 
 
 And last of all is that fine array of tactile 
 corpuscles, or little bodies of touch, by which 
 we get that exquisite sensibility of the finger* 
 tips which enables them to act as eyes for the 
 blind. Look at your finger-tips, and note the 
 ridges, which are quite apparent to the naked
 
 152 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 eye. Those ridges contain such numbers of 
 these little bodies of touch that Meissner tells 
 us he counted one hundred and eight of them 
 in the space of about one-fiftieth of a square 
 inch on the inner surface of the tips of one 
 finger. 
 
 The skin has its own muscles, too, by which 
 it is capable of drawing itself up into little 
 papillae the condition known as " goose-flesh." 
 You have seen horses curl up their skins to 
 shake off the flies. Their skin muscles are 
 more highly developed than yours because they 
 are no longer supplied with five fingers, what- 
 ever may have been their condition in the ages 
 gone by, and they are obliged to walk upon 
 the tip of the one finger which remains to 
 them. 
 
 Let us pass now to the consideration of the 
 uses of all this mechanism. The physiologists 
 have agreed upon quite an array of functions 
 for the skin, namely : protection, secretion, ex- 
 cretion, absorption, regulation of temperature, 
 and general sensation. You have all realized 
 the value of the skin as & protector if you have 
 torn it away from the nerve sentinels which are 
 so thickly stationed under its cuticle, and the
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 153 
 
 bit of court-plaster, or otherwise, to which you 
 at once resort, serves yon kindly in that it acta 
 as a temporary substitute for the lost cuticle 
 while your vital forces make a new one for 
 you. The functions of t secretion and excretion 
 have already been alluded to in speaking of 
 the oil glands and sweat glands. The amount 
 of the waste matter excreted upon the skin, by 
 means of the twenty-eight miles of sew r er-pipe 
 already mentioned, varies between two and 
 three pounds a day, according to the tempera- 
 ture of the atmosphere. This fact is a sufficient 
 argument in favor of a daily ablution of the 
 whole body. 
 
 The function of absorption is taken advan- 
 tage of for the administration of medicines in 
 the way of ointments, liniments, lotions, etc. 
 Anointing or inunction is one of the most prim- 
 itive methods of medication. Isaiah refers to 
 oil as ointment in medical treatment. The 
 Grecian athletes anointed themselves for their 
 games. Homer, in the Odyssey, says : 
 
 "Sweet Polycaste took the pleasing toil 
 To bathe the prince and pour the fragrant oil." 
 
 Juno, in the Iliad, anoints herself with "oil 
 ambrosial sweet," and Yenus anoints the body
 
 15-i How to Jjecome Beautiful. 
 
 of Hector with oil scented with roses. In the 
 Roman baths of Diocletian anointing was car- 
 ried to great perfection, and various spices 
 among them, cloves, cinnamon, lavender and 
 roses were used in the process. The rich had 
 precious ointments, which they carried to the 
 baths in small vials of alabaster. 
 
 It is recorded that the emperor Hadrian, 
 seeing a veteran soldier rubbing himself against 
 the marble of the public baths, asked him why 
 lie did so. " I have no slave to rub me," was 
 the answer. Upon which the emperor gave 
 him two slaves and sufficient to maintain them. 
 Another' day several old men rubbed themselves 
 against the wall in the emperor's presence, 
 hoping to be favored in a similar manner, when 
 the shrewd emperor, perceiving their object, 
 directed them to rub one another. 
 
 Modern practice favors the use of oils in 
 fevers, especially scarlet fever, where the skin 
 is parched, hot and dry ; and it is claimed that 
 thorough inunction not only does not choke 
 the pores of the skin, but actually encourages 
 their opening, forcing the ointment through the 
 outer skin and stimulating the absorbing ves- 
 sels to take it up.
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 155 
 
 If, then, the skin, by reason of its absorbent 
 qualities, is capable of taking in what is deemed 
 salutary for it, it is plain that it is no less ready 
 to absorb obnoxious substances which may come 
 in contact with it. This fact is a sufficient ar- 
 gument in favor of frequent changes of the 
 clothing which is worn next the person, and for 
 its thorough ventilation ; also for a complete 
 change at night from the clothing worn through 
 the day ; also for the most thorough daily ven- 
 tilation of the bed and its belongings in short, 
 for supplying it with the purest possible air at 
 all times. 
 
 To appreciate the fact that the skin is a 
 regulator of temperature, we have only to re- 
 call the discomfort of a hot, dry skin as com- 
 pared with the relief afforded when a natural 
 perspiration ensues, which, by the process of 
 evaporation, speedily reduces the temperature 
 of the whole body. We can also recall the 
 lassitude of a hot summer day when the air is 
 surcharged with moisture to such an extent 
 that the evaporation from the body is checked, 
 and we long to see the sun disperse the heavy 
 clouds, so that our clouds may vanish, too, by 
 the power of his upward attraction.
 
 156 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 That the skin is the seat of a most nice 
 sense of touch needs no proof. It is even 
 affirmed that the blind are able to tell colors 
 by this sense. 
 
 "We come now to the consideration of the 
 hygiene of this most complicated texture. It 
 will be plain to you at once that the same rules 
 \vhich govern the other parts of the body are 
 also dominant here. The skin must have plenty 
 of light, plenty of air and plenty of water to 
 insure its health and its beauty. If it is kept 
 perfectly familiar with these three essentials, 
 the whole body will be full of light and air 
 and comfort. Said Mr. John Quiucy Adams, 
 in his ninetieth year : "Men and women rarely 
 ever allow the fresh air of heaven to touch 
 any part of their bodies except their hands 
 and face, and even to these the ladies are sys- 
 tematically unjust by wearing gloves and veils. 
 The surface of the beautiful human form re- 
 quires to be for a certain period of every day 
 exposed to the action of the atmosphere. I 
 take my air-bath regularly every morning, and 
 walk in my bedroom, in puris naturalibus, 
 with all the windows open, for a full half hour. 
 i also take a water-bath daily. I read and
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 157 
 
 write for eight hours a day. I sleep eight 
 hours, and devote another eight to exercise, 
 conversation, and meals. I feel in myself a 
 reserve of bodily strength, which, I think, will 
 carry me to a hundred years, unless I die by 
 accident or am shot or hanged." 
 
 "Why should not the whole skin have its 
 daily share of air and light and water ! Why 
 give it all to the skin of the face and hands ! 
 Indeed, the amount of chronic hydrophobia 
 (fear of water) which afflicts the human race 
 is simply astounding, and goes far toward ex- 
 plaining why they suffer, in so many needless 
 ways, from catarrh, bronchitis, fevers, " colds 
 in the head," and rheumatism. You will never 
 find that a person whose whole skin knows the 
 daily luxury of an air and water bath is in the 
 habit of " taking cold." 
 
 The importance attached by the hardy Ro- 
 mans to baths is evidenced by the number and 
 magnificence of such establishments : that built 
 by Diocletian accommodated three thousand at 
 a time. Moses and Mahomet made cleanliness 
 religion. Some one says that Dirt, Debt and 
 the Devil make the Trinity of Evil. 
 
 Says Dr. Playfair : " For a thousand years
 
 158 How to Become, Beautiful. 
 
 after the civilization of the Egyptians, the 
 Jews, the Greeks and the Romans faded, there 
 was not a man or woman in Europe that ever 
 took a bath. Hence arose the wondrous epi- 
 demics of the Middle Ages, which cut off one* 
 fourth of the population of Europe : the spotted 
 plague, the black death, the sweating sickness, 
 and the terrible mental epidemics which fol- 
 lowed in their train the dancing mania, the 
 
 o t 
 
 mewing mania, and the biting mania. The 
 monks made no little mischief, imitating the 
 
 ' O 
 
 foul habits of the hermits and saints of early 
 Christian times ; and the association of filth 
 with religion led men to cease to connect dis 
 ease with nncleanliness, and to resort to shrines 
 and winking virgins for cures of maladies pro- 
 duced by their own physical and moral impu- 
 rities." 
 
 It was an Arab motto, " Renew thyself 
 daily. Do it again and again, and forever 
 again." 
 
 I suppose those "hermits and saints of 
 early Christian times" were acting under the 
 delusion that the more they mortified their 
 flesh the more they deified the spirit; so they 
 wore the hair-shirt until it was literally alive
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 159 
 
 with vermin; and it was not until the advent 
 of the Moore into Spain, with their Mahometan 
 habits of cleanliness, that Christian Europe 
 learned the mistake it had made in so falsely 
 interpreting the religion of Jesus. Indeed, it 
 appears that modern Christianity has so largely 
 occupied itself with the idea of self-chastisement 
 that it has almost lost sight of the joy and 
 sweetness which flow through all the life of 
 Jesus, just as the old painters put only sorrow 
 and suffering into their pictures of him, with 
 never a trace of the joy which he must have 
 known by the very consciousness of his own 
 purity. In this spirit painted Guido Reni, 
 who, it is said, actually stabbed the man who 
 sat for his picture of Christ, in order that he 
 might most vividly portray the agony which 
 he, in common with all the old masters, made 
 the dominant characteristic in the face of him 
 who came to inaugurate the kingdom of love, 
 joy, and peace. And so, to-day, the nearer a 
 people are to the darkness and the errors and 
 the gross superstitions of the Middle Ages, the 
 less do they appreciate the good that lies all 
 about us in the abundant butflowing of God's 
 free air and water and joy-giving sunshine. It
 
 160 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 is pitiful to note this in the large cities, where 
 the degraded victims of the poverty which al- 
 ways goes hand in hand with ignorance and 
 vice herd together in dens of darkness which 
 reek with filth. 
 
 During a practice of several months in one 
 of the New York dispensaries, where the poor 
 get plenty of medicines and plenty of prescrip- 
 tions from newly - fledged doctors, "without 
 money and without price," I WHS again and 
 again shocked, not only by the fear of water 
 which prevails among this class of misguided 
 beings, but also by the immense doses of medi- 
 cine which they require to enable them to live 
 without air and water. As a rule, they don't 
 want any advice about living so as to get along 
 without medicine, and they estimate the med- 
 ical skill of their adviser by the amount of 
 medicine given. No medicine, no brains! 
 
 I remember a very filthy woman who used 
 to come every Saturday for pills. All the 
 accumulated filth upon the surface of her body 
 would defy description. As it was in the heat 
 of midsummer, I ventured to propose that she 
 take fewer pills for the inner self and more 
 water for the outer self. In short, I copied
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 161 
 
 Mr. Dick's prescription for little Davy when 
 his aunt Betsy Trotwood asked, " What shall 
 we do with him?" "Wash him!" I wish 
 there were any words by which I might pict- 
 ure for you the expression with which she 
 asked me, "What! all over?" She then in- 
 formed me that she had never done such a 
 thing in her life, and should be ashamed to 
 
 o / 
 
 tell of it if she had. Medicine she must have. 
 God's pure air and water and sunshine she 
 was afraid of. I think I succeeded in getting 
 the whole of that filthy body washed by in- 
 ducing her to take it by installments. I gave 
 her a half dozen powders of carbonate of soda, 
 told her to dissolve one in a basin of water 
 and apply externally until the whole body was 
 thus medicated. The medicine (!) induced her 
 to try this plan of ablution. 
 
 You will, perhaps, say this is an exagger- 
 ated case; but I assure you "such things are 
 common." Even in .ny intercourse with young 
 ladies in schools, to whom I advocate the daily 
 ablution of the entire surface of the body, I 
 am frequently met with the objection, " I can- 
 not spare the time." And this, when five min- 
 utes are all that are required. A basin of
 
 162 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 cold water, where the bath - tub is wanting, 
 and two clean towels, with brisk action of 
 the hands and arms, are all that are required. 
 Let the whole person be denuded at once, 
 and in cold weather let the work be done as 
 briskly as possible. The tonic influence of 
 such a bath in the morning (for the morning 
 is the time for the cold bath, warm baths 
 being indicated only at bedtime) will last all 
 through the day, and is the best possible safe- 
 guard against " taking cold." If you are obliged 
 to have a room-mate, a little ingenuity will en- 
 able you to improvise a screen. I hope the 
 time will come when the putting two girls 
 into one bed and one dressing-room will be 
 recognized as an injustice to each. The pres- 
 ent practice in boarding and other schools, in 
 this respect, is pernicious. 
 
 Let it be understood that in giving these 
 directions to young girls for daily ablutions in 
 cold water, I assume that I address those in 
 health. Invalids must remember that the fam- 
 ily physician must be their guide in this mat- 
 ter. 
 
 An emphatic proof of the danger of stop- 
 ping up the pores of the skin is afforded in
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 163 
 
 history by the case of the child whose skin 
 was gilded to represent the golden age at the 
 brilliant fete which celebrated the election ot 
 Pope Leo the Tenth. The child died in con- 
 sequence of the application. Foucault, a French 
 experimenter, covered animals with a coat of 
 varnish. They died more quickly than if the 
 whole skin had been removed. Horses hud 
 catarrh, dogs had congestion of liver and in- 
 flammation of bowels, and all died in convul- 
 sions. 
 
 Think of this, dear girls, when you are 
 tempted to follow the example of those mis- 
 taken mortals who apply paints and powders 
 and enamels to the face in order to appear 
 beautiful (?) in the eyes of men. The late Dr. 
 Edward Clark, in his most truthful book on 
 " Sex in Education," has given you all the 
 help you need to become beautiful, as follows : 
 
 " ' When one sees a godlike countenance,' 
 said Socrates to PhsedruB, 'or some bodily 
 form that represents beauty, he reverences it 
 as a god, and would sacrifice to it.' From 
 the days of Plato till now all have felt the 
 power of woman's beauty, and been more than 
 willing to sacrifice to it. The proper, not
 
 164: How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 exclusive, search for it is a legitimate inspira- 
 tion. The way for a girl to obtain her por- 
 tion of this radiant halo is by the symmetrical 
 development of every part of her organization 
 1 muscle, ovary, stomach, and nerve and by 
 a physiological management of every function 
 that correlates every organ ; not by neglecting, 
 or trying to stifle or abort, any of the vital 
 and integral parts of her structure, and sup- 
 plying the deficiency by invoking the aid of 
 the milliner's stuffing, the colorist's pencil, the 
 druggist's compounds, the doctor's pelvic sup- 
 porter, and the surgeon's spinal brace." 
 " What is good for pimples ?" 
 Water and work. Pimples indicate that 
 there is an excess of something in the blood 
 which the internal organs of excretion have 
 been unable to dispose of, and they have called 
 in the excretory power of the skin to their 
 aid. If you take very little exercise and live 
 indoors, it follows that you must also take 
 very little food. You know what the result 
 is if you keep putting coal on the fire and neg- 
 lect to open the draughts. There can be no 
 life in the grate nor in your body unless oxy- 
 gen is supplied to each in proportion to tho
 
 IIow to Become Beautiful. 165 
 
 carbon which is brought in. Your candies and 
 sweetmeats are so much carbon, and you need 
 a pound of oxygen per diem to burn up your 
 carbon. In order to make sure of this daiJy 
 pound of oxygen you must make your mus 
 cles work in the open air. Take long, vigo- 
 rous walks, and let the sun shine on you with 
 his life-giving power. Find useful work to 
 do! 
 
 Said an eminent Western lawyer, writing 
 upon the subject of health reforms and reforms 
 in general : " If I had supreme power, or could 
 give one direction which should be followed, 
 and would, in my judgment, do more than 
 any other one thing to reform the world, and 
 especially young ladies, I would say, ' "Work !' 
 I mean manual labor. Every man, woman 
 and child should work. It is the idle ones 
 who become the wicked ones. I do not rec- 
 ollect ever to have seen a downright indus- 
 trious man or woman who was very bad; and 
 it seems to me that a reform in this direction 
 is more needed in the United States than anv- 
 where else. All the American youth are con- 
 triving how to get a living without work, 
 under the silly notion that work is disgraceful.
 
 166 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 How clearly I can see that the Germans in 
 this country are getting ahead of the natives ! 
 They pay their debts, and their families are 
 almost all in comfortable circumstances. It is 
 because they are willing to work. 
 
 " It seems to me that there is another de- 
 cided defect in the bringing up and education 
 of girls ; and that is, that they are too super- 
 ficial. They canter over a great variety of 
 studies, get a smattering of each, and nothing 
 is thoroughly mastered. 'To get on in life' 
 means to be so much the master of your art 
 that you make it for the interest of the world 
 to employ you." 
 
 And he is right. Happy is it for each one 
 of you who is dependent upon her owii exer- 
 tions for a maintenance. Work is the best 
 of tonics and the best of beautiiiers. The list- 
 lessness, the sallowness and the shallowness of 
 her who has nothing to do but to try to look 
 pretty are pitiful to contemplate. No less are 
 you happy who, though not dependent upon 
 your own labor for maintenance, have sought 
 and found ways of work which call out your 
 best powers. You are both out of danger of 
 rusting, and, in large degree, you are out of
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 1"7 
 
 danger of falling "into the hands of the phvsi- 
 
 3 o 1 */ 
 
 cian," as \vc read that he shall do "who sin- 
 neth against his Maker"; for it is the idls, 
 and not the industrious, who are prone to vice. 
 And all these principles of ethics are directly 
 applicable to the question in hand. A lazy 
 skin, which lacks the stimulus afforded by act- 
 ive exercise and by daily contact with air and 
 water, is sure to be the pimpled and blotched 
 skin. 
 
 " What makes freckles, and how may we 
 get rid of them ?' 
 
 Freckles are sun-spots, and the more act- 
 ively you make the skin work and perspire 
 the sooner they will disappear. Do not shut 
 yourselves away from sunlight for fear of them. 
 The best complexions are often the most sensi- 
 tive to these sun-impressions, and you had far 
 better wear a freckled skin than to look like 
 the cellar potato-sprout, lank and pale and un- 
 comely, for lack of sunlight. 
 
 " What are moth-patches, and what can one 
 do for them ?'' 
 
 Moth-patches are allied to the fungi which 
 one sees on the north side of buildings, where
 
 108 How to Become Beautiful. 
 
 the sun never shines. " Walk in the light " 
 for them ! 
 
 "What will make the hair grow?" 
 Water and air and light. The hairs are 
 but so many appendages of the skin, and their 
 health and vigor and luxuriance depend upon 
 its health and vigor. Any excess of artificial 
 applications to the head, which deprive its skin 
 of air and light, lessen its vigor, and so tend 
 to hasten the decay of its hairy covering. The 
 head should be kept just as clean as the rest 
 of the body, and the hair should have its ends 
 clipped as often as once a month, else it soon 
 comes to resemble the lawns which know not 
 the lawn-mower. 
 
 Masses of dead women's hair, or of jute, or 
 any fofeign substance which heats and burdens 
 the head, are not favorable to the health of 
 the hair. It is marvelous how little regard is 
 paid, as a rule, by young ladies to the style 
 of the individual head and face in the choice 
 of the style for the arrangement of the hair. 
 A new style comes into vogue, and all at once, 
 like a flock of sheep following the leader 
 the long-faced and the round-faced, the thin- 
 faced and the wide-faced, the high-headed and
 
 How to Become Beautiful. 169 
 
 the fiat-headed, the big-headed and the little- 
 headed rush to adopt, it, utterly regardless of 
 the question of fitness. I Leg you, if you be 
 lacking in a sense of the fitness of things, to 
 choose from among your friends her who is 
 most truthful and most competent to counsel 
 you in this matter, and, above all other con- 
 siderations, I pray you to put that of tidiness 
 of arrangement first and foremost. 
 
 o 
 
 Finally, to quote once more from Mr. Em- 
 erson on Beauty : " It is a rule of largest ap- 
 plication, true in a plant, true in a loaf of 
 bread, that, in the construction of any fabric 
 or organism, any real increase, of fitness to 
 its end is an increase of beauty." 
 
 Also upon Behavior : " I have seen man- 
 ners that make a similar impression with per- 
 sonal beauty ; that give the like exhilaration, 
 and refine UB like that ; and, in memorable ex- 
 periences, they are suddenly better than beauty, 
 and make that superfluous and ugly. But they 
 must be marked by fine perception, the ac- 
 quaintance with real beauty. They must al- 
 ways show self-control : you shall not be facile, 
 apologetic, or leaky, but king over your word ; 
 and every gesture and action shall indicate
 
 170 HJW to Become Beautiful. 
 
 power at rest. Then, they must be inspired 
 by the good heart. There is no beautifier of 
 complexion, or form, or behavior, like t/ie 
 wish to scatter joy, and not pain, around 
 us."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE- USES AXD ABUSES OF DRESS. 
 
 " THE first purpose of clothes was not 
 warmth or decency, but ornament. . . .The sav- 
 age found warmth in the toils of the chase, or 
 amid dried leaves in the hollow tree, in his 
 bark shed, or natural grotto ; but for decora- 
 tion he must have clothes. Nay, among wild 
 people we find tattooing and painting even 
 prior to clothes. The first spiritual want of 
 a barbarous man is decoration, as, indeed, we 
 Btill see among the barbarous classes in civil- 
 ized countries. . . .Clothes, which be^an in fool- 
 
 t tj 
 
 ishest love of ornament, what have they not 
 become to us ! .... Clothes gave us individuality, 
 distinctions, social polity. Clothes have made 
 men of us ; they are threatening to make
 
 172 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 clothes-screens of us." THOS. CAKLYLE ("Sar- 
 tor Resartus"). 
 
 Since man is the only wearer of artiiicial 
 clothing his natural covering being generally 
 conceded to be insufficient for his needs he 
 has the privilege of choosing his extra suits 
 from among the wardrobes of all the animals 
 below hirn in the scale of creation. Looking 
 about in his own sub-kingdom that of the 
 vertebrates he finds little, if any, use for the 
 scaly suits of the fishes, nor can he appropriate 
 the feathered suits of the birds to any extent 
 beyond that of ornament. Thus he finds him- 
 self, for the most part, restricted to the hairy 
 and woolly quadrupeds for the materials which 
 are destined to supply the deficiencies in his 
 wardrobe. 
 
 History, in the records it gives us of the 
 early Christian monks, tells us that Thomas 
 a Becket, and others like him, wore the hair- 
 cloth shirt until it was a loathsome mass of 
 vermin ; that this example was imitated by the 
 common people ; and that the Saracens, about 
 the eighth century, were the first to introduce 
 into Europe "the often - changed and often- 
 washed undergarment, which still passes among
 
 The Us&s and Abuses of Dress. 173 
 
 ladies under its old Arabic name " (Dr. Dra- 
 per). 
 
 Under such circumstances it is easy to see 
 that the chemise was a godsend ; but ten cen- 
 turies have brought us a step further, and to- 
 day the best-dressed woman is not the woman 
 who wears a chemise. That garment has had 
 its day. Reason and common-sense alike reject 
 it and the hair-cloth garment which it super- 
 seded, while they substitute for its bagginess a 
 neat and comely-fitting garment of wool which 
 covers the entire body as if it grew there. It 
 is not, like the chemise, gathered up into a 
 superfluous mass of drapery round the waist, 
 whose dimensions that garment needlessly in- 
 creases ; it is not, like it, forever slipping off 
 one shoulder; and it does not, like it, leave the 
 body exposed to the harsh vicissitudes of cli- 
 mate. On the contrary, it is everywhere adapt- 
 ed and fitted to the form ; it cannot slip off 
 one shoulder, for all hygienic laws require that 
 the whole body be uniformly covered, the 
 shoulders just like all other parts, and it 
 shields us from sudden climatic changes aa 
 tenderly as it did the lambs from whose fleeces 
 it came. The best thought of the day has been
 
 174 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 devoted, in large measure, to this reform in 
 woman's under-clothing, as well as to one in 
 her outer clothing. 
 
 For years the gentlemen physicians have 
 been uttering their protests against the abuses 
 which woman was heaping upon her body by 
 means of her errors of dress. What I have in 
 previous chapters quoted to you from Dr. Wil- 
 lard Parker and Dr. T. G. Thomas, of New 
 York, and from the late Dr. Edward H. Clark, 
 of Boston three names among the highest in 
 the medical profession are but a few of the 
 many emphatic utterances upon this point. 
 
 But what could they do more ? They never 
 had to wear the abominable gear, and of course 
 they were incompetent to criticise or amend it 
 in detail. They could only reiterate, in a help- 
 less way, what our gentlemen professors in the 
 Woman's Medical College used to say as often 
 as a woman came to the clinical lecture to be 
 examined for chest or other diseases which re- 
 quired her disrobing, " Why will women tie so 
 many miserable strings roimd their bodies !" 
 
 Meanwhile, the world was moving, and it 
 had come to see that a man doctor was not 
 good for much unless he was a good nurse.
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 175 
 
 So it finally carne to think it possible that, 
 since women were very good nurses without a 
 medical education, they might be still better 
 nurses with such an education, and the women 
 began to go to Medical College. It only re- 
 quired one look at the internal mechanism of 
 their bodies in the dissecting-room to show 
 them the inevitable results of putting strings 
 or bands or bones around these bodies ; and so, 
 little by little, out of their convictions, added 
 to those of earnest, thinking women in Boston, 
 there grew the dress-reform movement, which, 
 like many other lights which rose in the East, 
 has spread across the continent even to Cali- 
 fornia, shedding its beams abroad in all the 
 prominent cities of New England and many of 
 the Western cities. 
 
 In IS"ew York city it has its headquarters 
 only next door to that emporium of fashion, 
 Madame Demorest's establishment, so that it 
 really begins to look as if Fashion herself was 
 preparing to become hygienic, and so common- 
 sensible. 
 
 The principles of this reform are natural 
 principles, and are concisely stated as follows: 
 
 " First That the vital organs in central
 
 176 The Uses and Abuses of Dress, 
 
 regions of the body should be allowed unim- 
 peded action. 
 
 " Second That a uniform temperature of 
 the body should be preserved. 
 
 " Third That weight should be reduced to 
 a minimum. 
 
 " Fourth That the shoulders, and not the 
 hips, should form the base of support." 
 
 Soon after the inauguration of this reform 
 the prominent thinkers among the women of 
 Boston and New York co-operated in arrang^ 
 ing for a course of free lectures upon " The 
 Effect of Misapplied Clothing upon the Health 
 of Women," to be given by women physicians, 
 simultaneously, in the two cities. The leading 
 churches in both cities were placed at their dis- 
 posal, and the press reported the lectures at 
 length in the daily papers. 
 
 Thus was the leaven introduced into the 
 immense lump of prejudice which still blinds 
 the eyes of BO many, many women. Some one 
 has said, " There is nothing so painful to hu- 
 man nature as the pain of a new idea; it is, aa 
 the common people say, ' so upsettinV " You 
 remember how I " upset " the woman at the 
 dispensary to whom I ventured to suggest an
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 177 
 
 external application of soap and water to her 
 entire person. I have to confess to you, even 
 now, that it is almost as " upsettin' " to a 
 woman to ask her to give up her chemise and 
 drawers for a single, whole garment, which has 
 all the uses and none of the abuses of the two, 
 as it was to that poor woman to be asked to 
 take a bath. 
 
 Yet I do not lose my faith in the ultimate 
 success of the movement. All reforms must 
 pass through at least three periods on their 
 way to acceptation, namely: the stage of rid- 
 icule, the stage of abuse, and the stage of in- 
 difference. 
 
 Mr. Emerson, in his essay on Beauty, says : 
 "Many a good experiment, born of good sense, 
 and destined to succeed, fails only because it 
 is offensively sudden. I suppose the Parisian 
 milliner, who dresses the world from her im- 
 perious boudoir, will know how to reconcile 
 the Bloomer costume to the eye of mankind, 
 and make it triumphant over Punch himself, * 
 by interposing the just gradations." 
 
 Surely, ten centuries for the chemise is a 
 warrantable gradation to its successor, the com- 
 bination garment, which, in its varied nomen*
 
 178 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 clature of " chemiloon," " chemilette," and 
 " chemille,' 1 still retains enough of its Arabic 
 etymology to give it the dignity of age. Nor 
 is it by a eudden leap that we have come to 
 this happy combination. The first gradation 
 from the chemise toward it is to be found in 
 the " pantalettes," which less than half a cen- 
 tury ago were the only coverings worn by 
 feminine legs, in their individual capacity, ex- 
 cept the hose. These bantam-chicken attach- 
 ments were tied around the leg, below the 
 knee, by a string which fastened both them 
 and the stocking, leaving the entire surface of 
 the extremities from there to the waist ex- 
 posed, except so far as the curtains hung about 
 them, in the form of chemise and skirts, offered 
 a show of protection. Think of wading through 
 snow-drifts in that attire ! Yet women did so, 
 and it was considered quite the proper thing. 
 The next gradation was from " pantalettes " to 
 drawers, which are fastened about the waist by 
 a band or a string, and which are now the rule 
 in the feminine wardrobe, where they were 
 the exception a quarter of a century since. In- 
 deed, they are still the exception in some parts
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 179 
 
 of Germany and in secluded country towns in 
 the United States. 
 
 Now, all that the dress-reform aims at is 
 to combine the chemise and drawers in one 
 garment which shall cover the bqdy and its 
 extremities like another skin, and thus dispense 
 with any bands or strings either about the ex- 
 tremities or the body. By this means all su- 
 perfluous folds about the waist are dispensed 
 with, and thus its symmetry is preserved. Fur- 
 thermore, all the interference with the circu- 
 lation of the blood through its various channels 
 is avoided; for it is impossible for this to go 
 on as it should in any body which is girt about 
 by bands, or whose extremities have strings 
 tied about them tightly enough to keep either 
 the hose or any other garments adjusted. An 
 additional inducement to those who regard 
 economy is the securing of one "piece," in 
 place of two, for the laundry. 
 
 This one principle is adhered to in all 
 the undergarments and in all the overgarments 
 of the reform costume, namely : the unity which 
 dispenses with waist-bands, instead of the dual- 
 ity which renders them indispensable, and thus 
 puts restrictions upon that most important of
 
 180 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 all muscles, the diaphragm. It asks you to do 
 nothing, by way of change in costume, which 
 shall make you grotesque, or even conspicuous, 
 among your companions, except in the results 
 which are sure to follow its adoption, by way 
 of a fresher bloom on your cheeks, or clearer 
 light in your eyes, and greater vigor to your 
 whole carriage, than they can ever enjoy who 
 persist in fettering themselves in ways which 
 have proved, beyond all question, pernicious. 
 
 Of the close-fitting undergarments, there 
 may be one of wool, worn next the person, ol 
 light and airy quality for summer, and of close, 
 warm texture for winter. Over this may be 
 worn a second, of cotton or linen, which can 
 be ornamented at your discretion, and which 
 can be so neatly and elegantly fitted to your 
 person as to more than compensate you for 
 the relinquishment of that instrument of tor- 
 ture and bane of woman's health the corset. 
 Hygeia, the goddess of health, admits no such 
 foe to health as this into her wardrobe. There 
 was a time when this horrible structure was 
 even applied to babies and little girls. That 
 day has passed, and, as a rule, modern mothers 
 are accustomed to dress their little girls in
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 181 
 
 accordance with the requirements of health, 
 and so in accordance with the design of the 
 dress-reform. Let the world rejoice and take 
 hope in the fact that some of them already see 
 that the grown girl needs to make no change 
 in the mode of applying her clothing when she 
 steps from childhood to womanhood. 
 
 So much for the general principles relating 
 to undergarments. For further details and for 
 patterns you are referred to the various agen- 
 cies already established in our principal cities. 
 That iu Boston is at 2^- Hamilton place. That 
 in New York is at 6 East Fourteenth street. 
 Other addresses or patterns may be obtained 
 from these sources. 
 
 We come now to the consideration of the 
 outer garments. Here the question is largely 
 one of ornamentation ; for the claims of com- 
 fort and decency are, for the most part, satis- 
 fied by the system of undergarments already 
 advocated. 
 
 " We must have poetry and art in woman's 
 dress; but poetry and art are never at odds 
 with common -sense and vigorous health.... 
 Fashion must be respected, so far as the pain- 
 ful impressions produced upon the eje by
 
 182 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 marked and obvious departures from her arbi- 
 trary rules ; but fashion is seldom a good physi- 
 ologist." New York Tribune. 
 
 The hygiene of dress does not demand the 
 renunciation of drapery. The artistic eye will 
 not yet accept even the masculine statue in 
 trowsers, as proved by the outcry against the 
 statue of Mr. Lincoln in the Union Square 
 park, New York, and others of similar angu- 
 larity, elsewhere located. Much less, then, will 
 it tolerate either the feminine statue or the 
 feminine personality divested of all the grace 
 which it has come to associate with u robes 
 loosely flowing." It only asks woman to bring 
 her reason and her common-sense to her aid 
 in the matter of the selection and adjustment 
 of her attire, in conformity with the following 
 considerations : 
 
 First, health. I cannot do better here than 
 to call your attention to a sensible little manual 
 entitled " Hints on Dress," by Ethel C. Gale, 
 published in 1872 in the Putnam's "Handy- 
 Book" series. This is what she says on the 
 corset subject, under the health consideration : 
 
 " The idea that a disproportionately small 
 waist is beautiful is one of the immature and
 
 The, Uses and Abuses of Dress. 183 
 
 epidemic fancies of sweet sixteen. Once let it 
 enter a school, and, in spite of physiology and 
 the teachers, it spreads like the measles. Said 
 an elderly gentleman one day, ' Where do the 
 girla get such perverted notions of beauty ? 
 Here were my own daughters, never were 
 taught anything of that sort at home, but when, 
 they returned from school they were drawn up 
 in packs of torturing bones, till they looked as 
 pinched and starved as weasels. Couldn't walk 
 forty rods without fainting ; couldn't take a 
 long breath ; couldn't laugh ; couldn't do any- 
 thing but look as miserable as if they were on 
 their way to the gallows ! I told the girls I'd 
 disown 'em if they didn't take the things off; 
 and so they did, and soon looked like them- 
 selves again.' " 
 
 Hero follow some pertinent suggestions con- 
 cerning the clothing of the feet, which you will 
 do well to read and heed. There has been 
 such a marked improvement in the matter of 
 women's foot-attire durina- the last decade that 
 
 o 
 
 they are inexcusable, to-day, if they allow their 
 personal comfort or their health to be inter- 
 fered with for want of suitably-made shoes or 
 by reason of misapplied hose. The dress-reform
 
 184 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 has perfected a mode of keeping the hose ad- 
 justed so that no bands, elastic or otherwise, 
 are allowed, either on the extremities or about 
 the waist. This disposes of one of the common- 
 est causes of cold feet and aching heads. It 
 also provides a shoe whose sole is shaped like 
 the sole of the natural foot, and whose heel is 
 so low and so broad that it cannot tip the wear- 
 er's spinal column from its natural line ; thus 
 disposing of one of the commonest causes of 
 aching backs. French heels may fit French 
 feet, and Chinese heels may fit Chinese feet, 
 but the American woman had best wear home- 
 made shoes. 
 
 You should also be mindful of the fact that 
 the slipper should be limited to the dressing- 
 room during cold weather. The change from 
 the high walking-shoe to the slipper, for gen- 
 eral home wear, leaves too much of the foot 
 with comparatively less covering than any other 
 part of the body, and is a common cause of 
 sore throats. 
 
 Second only to health in importance among 
 the essentials for beinsr well dressed is neatness. 
 
 o 
 
 Upon this point Miss Gale says, very aptly: 
 "We often see much- bedraggled clothes
 
 The L^es and Abuses of Dress. 185 
 
 worn by women who consider themselves en- 
 titled to be called ladies. But, in whatever 
 circle she may move, we feel certain that the 
 woman cannot be self-respecting who can trail 
 a long skirt across a muddy street, entailing 
 not only the ruin of the dress, but the certain 
 bedaubing of stockings and underclothes, with 
 which the soiled petticoats must come in con- 
 tact. .. .Another point in which neatness is 
 often offended is in wearing 'about house' 
 shabby finery, rather than neater and plainer 
 dresses. There are many who seem to imagine 
 that, when wearing an antiquated, spotted, and 
 even ragged silk, they are better dressed than 
 when attired in something that, though whole 
 and clean, is of plainer fashion and material. 
 .... Infinitely better does a woman clad in a 
 simple, but fresh and tasteful, calico, deserve 
 the epithet well-dressed, than one attired in 
 the most expensive materials, if these, by long 
 use, or from any other cause, have become 
 soiled or frayed. 
 
 " The same is true, in even greater degree, 
 in regard to underclothes. The most elaborate 
 needlework only adds to the disgust one feels 
 if the garments it adorns are begrimed or torn;
 
 186 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 while those of plainest fashion, if clean and 
 whole, or neatly mended, are always pleasing 
 to the eye. 
 
 " The third essential to good dressing ia 
 becomingness. 
 
 " One may be attired in the most healthful 
 of costumes, and both person and every article 
 of clothing may be in the most spotless condi- 
 tion, and yet shock the eye of taste. 
 
 " To be well dressed, one must always take 
 into consideration the complexion, age, features 
 and figure of the wearer, and the harmony of 
 the different parts of the costume. Thus, the 
 brunette cannot wear the delicate shades so 
 beautiful for the blonde ; and the woman of 
 sixty becomes ridiculous if tricked out with 
 the fluttering ribbons and bright colors appro- 
 priate at sixteen. The sylph who scarcely 
 turns the scales at a hundred pounds cannot 
 carry the flowing mantles which have become 
 necessary to obscure the too-expansive outlines 
 of the matron whose position in a carriage ia 
 sufficiently indicated by the condition of the 
 springs. The woman whose sharp, hatchet-like 
 features seem fashioned to hew her way through 
 the world should not follow the Japanese style
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 187 
 
 of hair-dressing ; nor should the woman whose 
 head resembles a large red cabbage deck her- 
 self in big butterfly bows of scarlet ribbon, a 
 jaunty little round hat, and a chignon emu- 
 lating the proportions of the rotunda of our 
 national capitol." 
 
 The fourth point to be considered is, " What 
 we can honestly afford " ; the fifth, " Our sta- 
 tion in life " ; and the sixth and last, " Our 
 present occupation." 
 
 It will be quite obvious to yon all, dear 
 girls, that all these points are worthy of your 
 faithful consideration ; and let me exhort you 
 especially to bear in mind that it is just a9 
 much your duty to your immediate family cir- 
 cle to always appear at breakfast neatly, be- 
 comingly and suitably attired as it is incumbent 
 upon you to always look your best for the 
 evening sociable ; nay, it is a more imperative 
 duty : for to whom do you owe such high 
 honor as to the parents who preside over the 
 home ? 
 
 I find it not uncommon for young ladies t* 
 appear at breakfast-table with the hair in crimp, 
 ing-pins and curl-papers; and I always decide 
 that if I were a young man in search of a wife,
 
 188 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 I should turn my back upon all such girls as 
 that. No woman should ever pour my coflee 
 in the morning who would take more pains to 
 look her prettiest for the evening caller than 
 phe would for me. That is what I should feel 
 if I were a wife-hunter. 
 
 Let me further exhort you, dear girls, to 
 keep the buttons and button -holes on your 
 gowns in good working order. There ia hardly 
 one more common or more repulsive sight than 
 that presented by a pinned-up gown, with here 
 and there a button missing. I, as physician, 
 have had some sanguinary experiences in this 
 matter while trying to minister to the needs of 
 fainting girls. Of course, when a girl faints 
 I go for her corset-strings for she who faints 
 out of corsets is the exception and I have 
 more than once stabbed my fingers most wo- 
 fully witli these abominable pins, on my way 
 to the corset-strings. Please bear in mind that 
 this is your first service to be rendered on such 
 occasions, namely: to cut the corset -strings. 
 That is far more essential than to run for the 
 camphor-bottle. The next service is to open 
 the windows ; the next is to sprinkle a few 
 drops of cold water in the face ; while all the
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 189 
 
 time you must send the curious away, and 
 allow no one to remain in the room, or near 
 the patient, to vitiate the air for her. Give 
 her plenty of air and plenty of chest -room, 
 and nature will do the rest, in most cases. 
 
 And now I have a word to say to you upon 
 the subject of ear-rings. Do you not honestly 
 think, down in your real hearts, that it is about 
 as much a barbarity to punch holes in the ears 
 for the setting of jewels as it is to punch them 
 in the nose for that purpose ? Yet you call 
 yourselves civilized, and the nose-punchers bar- 
 barous. For one, 1 see no difference, except 
 as a matter of taste, concerning which, you 
 know, there can be no fair discussion, so capri- 
 cious is that sense we name " taste " the same 
 sense which leads the women of one nation to 
 tattoo the chin, while the men pierce the lips 
 and insert a double-headed sleeve-button into 
 the aperture. 
 
 We, Christians (?), punch holes in our ears 
 and dangle bangles on our wrists, and send out 
 missionaries to tell the people who are a score 
 of centuries or more older than we that they 
 are heathens, because they jingle bangles on 
 their ankles and hang jewels in their noses !
 
 190 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 We are wont to speak of the "heathen 
 Greeks," but they never professed to believe 
 they were created in the image of their most 
 honored deity without striving to be like the 
 same. They did not claim to be created in the 
 image of the goddess Hygeia, and then seek, 
 by hideous and unnatural contrivances, to de- 
 stroy the harmony and symmetry of that image. 
 They did not pray to be delivered from sick- 
 ness and sudden death, and then rush into fol- 
 lies that are certain to bring one, if not both. 
 They did not utter daily the words, " Lead us 
 not into temptation," and immediately after- 
 ward rush into it. No, Hygeia stood ever to 
 them as a beneficent divinity, providing against 
 disease, rather than as a physician vainly at- 
 tempting to cure that which should never have 
 been contracted. She stood then, as she stands 
 now, the teacher of the laws of health. 
 
 In Lander's "Imaginary Conversations" be- 
 tween some of these "heathen Greeks " occurs 
 the following, between Aspasia and Cleone : 
 
 " Epimedea has been with me in my cham- 
 ber. She asked me whether the women of 
 Ionia had left off wearing car-rings. I answered 
 that I believed they always had worn them,
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 191 
 
 and that they were introduced by the Persians, 
 who had received them from nations more re- 
 mote. 'And do you think yourself too young,' 
 said she, ' for such an ornament ? ' producing, 
 at the same time, a massy pair, inlaid with the 
 largest emeralds. 'Alas! alas!' said she, 'your 
 mother neglected you strangely. There is no 
 hole in the ear, right or left ! We can mend 
 that, however : I know a woman who will bring 
 us the prettiest little pan of charcoal, with the 
 prettiest little steel rod in it; and, before you 
 can cry out, one ear lets light through. These 
 are yours,' said she. . . .' Generous Epimedea !' 
 said I, ' do not say things that pain me. I 
 will accept a part of the present ; I will wear 
 these beautiful emeralds on one arm. Think- 
 ing of nailing them in my ears, you resolved 
 to make me steady; but I am unwilling they 
 should become dependencies of Attica.' ' All 
 our young women wear them ; the goddesses, 
 too.' ' The goddesses are in the right,' said 
 I 'their ears are marble; but I do not believe 
 any one of them would tell us that women 
 were made to be the settings of pearls and 
 emeralds.' 
 
 " I had taken one, and was about to kiss
 
 192 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 her, when she said : ' Do not leave me an odd 
 ear-ring ; put the other in the hair.' l Epime- 
 dea,' said I, ' I huve made a vow never to wear 
 on the head anything but one single flower, 
 one single wheat-ear, green or yellow, and ivy 
 or vine-leaves. .. .Our national dress, very dif- 
 ferent from the dresses of barbarous nations, is 
 not the invention of the ignorant or the slave ; 
 but the sculptor, the painter and the poet have 
 studied how best to adorn the most beautiful 
 objects of their fancies and contemplations. 
 The Indians, who believe that human pains and 
 sufferings are pleasing to the Deity, make in- 
 cisions in. their bodies and insert in them im- 
 perishable colors. They also adorn the ears 
 and noses and foreheads of their gods. These 
 were the ancestors of the Egyptians. We chose 
 handsomer and better-tempered ones for our 
 worship, but retained the same decoration in 
 our sculpture, and to a degree which the sobri- 
 ety of the Egyptian had merely reduced and 
 chastened. Hence, we retain the only mark ol 
 barbarism which dishonors our national dress 
 the use of ear-rings. If our statues should all 
 be broken by some convulsion of the earth, 
 would it be believed by future ages that, in
 
 The U&es and Abuses of Dress. 193 
 
 the country and age of Sophocles, the women 
 tore holes in their ears, to let rings into, as the 
 more brutal of peasants do with the snouts of 
 sows ? ' " 
 
 I beg you to note Aspasia's resolution 
 "never to wear on the head anything but one 
 single flower, one single wheat-ear, green or 
 yellow, and ivy or vine-leaves," for neither art 
 nor fashion ever has or ever can invent BO 
 appropriate an ornament for the human head 
 as this. 
 
 Nor can all the combined efforts of Parisian 
 perfumers ever supply you with any perfumes 
 which you can so safely carry about you as 
 those of natural flowers. 
 
 Be guarded, I beg you, in your use of ar- 
 tificial perfumes. Let them never be so loud 
 as to be intrusive. Loud perfumes and loud 
 costumes and loud manners generally go in 
 company with each other, and each and all 
 indicate a lack of that refinement which marks 
 the real lady. 
 
 For special occasions you require special 
 suits. For mountain climbing or for rambles 
 by the seashore nothing could be better than 
 the short flannel dress, with drawers to match.
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 For promenade nothing could be bettei 1 
 than the Princess walking- dress, minus the 
 train, with the neat and comfortable walking- 
 jacket. The train is elegant in its place in 
 the spacious drawing-room or on the platform ; 
 but for a woman en promenade to be ever 
 restricted to one hand, because her other is 
 detailed to carry her train, argues a defect in 
 her sense of " the eternal fitness of things." 
 
 Shawls are unfit for the promenade, because 
 they restrict the free use of the arms in walk- 
 ing, and should be reserved for driving, where 
 extra wraps are always needed. For the same 
 reason the muff is objectionable as a part of 
 the walking-costume, and should be reserved, 
 with the shawl, for the drive. 
 
 There can be no real grace of motion for 
 the woman who walks with her hands in a 
 muff; nor does she secure that full expansion 
 of the chest, and so that full benefit of a walk 
 in the open air, which are insured when the 
 shoulders are thrown back and the arms lefb 
 to assist, as Nature meant they should, in tho 
 act of walking. "We are but quadrupeds, privi- 
 leged, by reason of very slight variations in 
 the arrangement of our skeletons, to walk \vitlv
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 195 
 
 spines erect, instead of horizontal; but this 
 erect position, while it enables us to look 
 down upon most of the other quadrupeds after 
 we emerge from the quadrupedal manner of 
 progression with which we inaugurate our walk 
 through life, by no means leaves us independ- 
 ent of our upper extremities for purposes of 
 locomotion. 
 
 The sealskins and other skins which go to 
 make muffs hud much better be put into the 
 form of gloves and mittens, and the same skins, 
 which custom has wrapped about the throat, 
 are much more needed about the feet and an- 
 kles than there. We invite many a sore throat 
 by our pernicious habit of wearing furs about 
 the neck till it is in a free perspiration from 
 exercise, and then throwing them off in the 
 church or other public place, so that the tem- 
 perature is suddenly reduced. A pretty bit of 
 lace or of ribbon or of knitted zephyr is as 
 much protection as a young lady in good health 
 requires, in our climate, about tho neck. 
 
 Finally, I beg you to strive to dress in such 
 quiet ways, when out on promenade, and on all 
 ordinary occasions, that you shall not be con- 
 spicuous by reason of your clothes. It is aptly
 
 196 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 said that the best-dressed persons in any as- 
 sembly are those who have impressed us so 
 much more by their good manners than by 
 their good clothes that we cannot remember 
 what they wore when the occasion is past. I 
 have met young ladies in society and on the 
 promenade who made a powerful impression of 
 ruffles. I could never afterward recall any- 
 thing above this overpowering sense of ruffles 
 when thinking of them. 
 
 There is daily opportunity for you to exer- 
 cise moral courage in this, as in the weightier 
 details of life, by giving your preference to 
 such modes of dress as are consistent with 
 health and one's daily pursuits, rather than by 
 following the idle caprices of fashion. 
 
 " Do you object to the morning wrapper in 
 the breakfast-room ?" 
 
 By no means. Only let it be clean and 
 whole, and worn with clean collar and cuffs or 
 ruffs, and with whole shoes. The shoes need 
 not be as thick as the outdoor walking-shoe, 
 but they had better be as high, for the cold 
 weather. Above all things, do not wear shabby 
 shoes, with the buttons off and the stockings 
 exposed, either indoors or out.
 
 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 197 
 
 I have seen this done with elegant morning 
 wrappers ; and the same ladies habitually ap- 
 peared at breakfast with the hair in curl-papers 
 or crimping-pins. 
 
 " But how shall we keep our hands warm 
 without muffs?'' 
 
 In the same way your brothers do : by 
 warm mittens or gloves. You can get very 
 nice seal-skin gloves for the money which a 
 rnuff costs. I observe that the hand which 
 carries the train never gets cold, even though 
 covered only with a close-fitting kid glove 
 provided that glove be a " three-button " of 
 the most approved shade. 
 
 " But what shall we do with all our pretty 
 chemises ?" 
 
 Get a pattern for the union garment, and 
 make the chemises and drawers over. This is 
 very easily done. Only summon up half the 
 resolution by which you can manage to make 
 over an old dress so as to make it appear new 
 and "stylish," and the change is achieved by 
 which you substitute " an ounce of prevention " 
 for the pounds of cure which you will have to 
 take if you persist in hanging skirts on your
 
 198 The Uses and Abuses of Dress. 
 
 hips and in buttoning or tying their bands 
 about your waists. " Where there is a will 
 there is a way " and a woman's will, which is 
 proverbial, both for determination and inven- 
 tion, ought not in so easy a matter to fail.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE MATE AND THE HOME. 
 
 "O FORTUNATE, O happy day, 
 "When a new household finds its place 
 Among the myriad homes of earth, 
 Like a new star just sprung to birth 
 And rolled on its harmonious way 
 Into the boundless realms of space." 
 
 LONGFELLOW ("The Hanging of the Crane"). 
 
 You have learned, in the foregoing chap- 
 ters, that no single life, either of the plant or 
 the animal world, ever fulfills its Creator's 
 whole design. Such is the lesson of physiol- 
 ogy. It matters not how simple the organism 
 or how lowly the rank in the scale of creation, 
 there is everywhere and always the dual ele- 
 ment, the maternal and the paternal these 
 twain made one supplementing and complet- 
 ing the individual incompleteness.
 
 200 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 The rose is never a perfect rose until, by 
 its marriage of stamens and pistil, its crowning 
 work the rearing of other roses becomes 
 possible. This is the end and aim of all mar- 
 riage- the perpetuation of the species and 
 every new marriage implies a "new house- 
 hold." There is no moment in the whole life 
 of a woman which is- so big with possible joy 
 or woe as that one which decides who is to be 
 her mate in that " new household " ; and if 
 there is any one warning which I would im- 
 press upon your hearts and souls and minds 
 with an emphasis which shall make it indelible, 
 it is that you be not hasty or inconsiderate in 
 making this decision. There cannot, by any 
 possibility of accumulation of misery, come 
 into your life so terrible a woe as that which 
 results from a hasty, precipitate and rash mar- 
 riage. The most forlorn " old maid " that lives 
 now, or ever has lived, or ever will live, is 
 supremely happy in comparison with her who, 
 like the beetles in summer-time, has rushed 
 headlong into the matrimonial flame and been 
 singed for life. 
 
 As I have already told you, marriage is 
 the ultimate end aud aim of every life, and
 
 The Mate and the Home. 201 
 
 the true marriage is the holiest of all possible 
 relationships. It is of God's own ordaining. 
 The true wife and mother is the queen among 
 women yea, among all created beings. All 
 men honor her, and are ready to accord her 
 the highest place in creation. Second only to 
 her is she who has had the courage to remain 
 single because the right man never came ; for 
 I am of those who believe that no woman is 
 ever single, for her lifetime, for lack of the 
 opportunity to marry at some time in her life; 
 and whenever I meet an " old maid," I am 
 ready to do her honor for living up to the 
 principle, "The best, or none/" 
 
 Said a little girl, who has just said her 
 "Seven times one," to me, "Auntie, what do 
 you want I should be when I'm a woman?" 
 
 Said I, " I would like to see you just such 
 a woman as your dear mamma, with a good 
 husband and some very nice little children, all 
 iu a nice, pleasant home." 
 
 " Well," said she, " I'll gc3t a husband if I 
 can find a good one ; and if I can't, I won't 
 have any; would you, auntie?" 
 
 There, dear girls, is your motto for your 
 matrimonial game. You can find nothing bet-
 
 202 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 ter in the whole range of literature. " The 
 best, or none ! " 
 
 And what constitutes "the best"? First, 
 and always, the healthiest ! And who is the 
 healthiest ? First, and always, the most tem- 
 perate; and Temperance, you remember, means 
 self control. The young man who smokes has 
 lost his self-control. His appetite has run away 
 with him, and it will carry him to other forms 
 of intemperance just as surely as night follows 
 day. Beware of him ! 
 
 Temperance is personal cleanliness ; is mod- 
 esty ; is quietness ; is reverence for one's elders 
 and betters ; is deference to one's mother and 
 sisters ; is gentleness ; is courage ; is the with- 
 holding from aught which leads to excess in 
 daily living ; is the eating and drinking only of 
 that which will insure the best body which the 
 best soul is to inhabit nay, Temperance is all 
 these, and more 
 
 Let me tell you a true story. I know a 
 man and woman who took a sudden fancy to 
 each other upon their first meeting. They were 
 both old enough to know better, but they rushed 
 into matrimony, like two idiots, on a six weeks' 
 acquaintance. Of course, they were terribly
 
 The, Mate and the Home. 203 
 
 disappointed in each other, and have been ter- 
 ribly punished for their folly. They had never 
 heard of each other till they met ; they knew 
 nothing of each other's antecedents, nor any- 
 thing of each other's personal habits, likes and 
 dislikes, caprices or principles, or lack of prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 The man is eleven years older than the 
 woman, and is one of those who " enjoy poor 
 health " to snch an extent that they follow up 
 every new disease until they know and experi- 
 ence all its symptoms. At one time he had 
 five different doctors prescribing for him while 
 he was attending to his daily occupation. He 
 would take medicines by the wholesale, but 
 was as averse to taking a bath as the woman, 
 of whom I told you, in the New York Dis- 
 pensary. He counted his pulse at every odd 
 chance during the day, and looked at his tongue- 
 with a corresponding devotion. He believed 
 that night air is a deadly poison, and that hu- 
 man beings should shut themselves indoors at 
 sunset, all the year round; close all the doors 
 and windows, and keep them closed till sunrise. 
 
 The woman was nineteen at the time they 
 met. She had never known anything about
 
 204: The Mate and the Home. 
 
 " poor health," and was quite unprepared to 
 unite with this man in enjoying it. She had 
 always been accustomed to her daily bath, and 
 regarded every one as intolerably filthy who 
 did not follow her example, for she was of a 
 very intense nature, and what she believed 
 she believed with an overpowering force which 
 tolerated no dissent on the part of her imme- 
 diate associates. In short, she was something, 
 in temperament, like what is implied by the 
 term " bottled lightning. 1 ' 
 
 Their domestic life was very much like 
 that of the cats of Kilkenny, as you may well 
 suppose. She stormed, and took her baths, 
 and opened the windows. He cried, took no 
 baths, shut the windows, and called the doc- 
 tors. There is no law of man's enactment for 
 the punishment of such intemperance as they 
 were guilty of, nor is any needed. They broke 
 God's laws of the eternal fitness of things, and 
 God has punished them in his own way; and 
 they stand to-day, as do many others who have 
 done likewise, as living examples of what men 
 and women should not do. 
 
 I beg you all to take warning, and do not 
 likewise. Do not trust yourself and your
 
 The Mate and the Home. 205 
 
 whole future to one who attracts you simply 
 by a fair exterior, but acquaint yourself with 
 his personal habits, his family antecedents, his 
 associations, his tastes and his distastes, his be- 
 liefs and his disbeliefs. Remember that the 
 marriage contract binds you for life to one 
 who is to be to you like another self, so close 
 is the marriage relation, and you can no more 
 get away from that other self, if he prove to 
 be odious to you, than you can escape from 
 your own self if you make yourself odious. 
 There he must be, day after day, perhaps one 
 of the " unwashed," with a breath horribly 
 offensive, either by reason of his unwashed 
 person or by reason of the use of tobacco or 
 of rum, ever by your side, " till death do you 
 part." 
 
 Ah, my dear girls, if you could only learn 
 to look beyond the orange-blossoms far enough 
 to see the rue which so soon succeeds them, in 
 too many cases, you would learn to be duly 
 cautious in this momentous matter. " The 
 best, or none!" And do not trust your own 
 unaided judgment, but give your whole confi- 
 dence to your mother, or to her who stands in 
 her place, if you be motherless ; for the ex-
 
 206 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 perience of twenty years or more is of untold 
 value in a woman's ability to counsel you in 
 this respect. 
 
 And even as you demand "the best" in the 
 husband, so is it his to demand " the best " in 
 the wife. The best man is he who will look 
 wisely and well for his other self. To win 
 him you must be worthy of him; and to be 
 worthy of him you must be, like him, first of 
 all, healthy, and temperate in all things in 
 order that you be healthy. You must be cour- 
 ageous enough to resist every temptation to go 
 in ways which your better self rejects, and to 
 even be unfashionable, if to be fashionable 
 means to do things which will conflict with 
 
 o 
 
 God's eternal laws for your well-being. 
 
 You must be self-reliant and self-control- 
 ling, for the exigencies of married life call for 
 these qualities in the highest degree. The 
 hysterical wife may tempt the best man to 
 "full from grace," for he is mortal. 
 
 You must be prudent, in speech as in ac- 
 tion; for to be prudent provident is in all 
 respects opposed to thoughtlessness or heed- 
 lessness, or any intemperate word or deed. 
 The wise woman " openeth her mouth with
 
 The Mate and the Home. 207 
 
 wisdom ; and in her tongue is the law of kind- 
 ness. She looketh well to the ways of her 
 household, and eateth not the bread of idle- 
 ness. Her children arise up and call her bless- 
 ed; her husband also, arid he praiseth her" 
 (Proverbs xxxi). 
 
 You must be unselfish. It is all very nice 
 to be admired and courted, and to have him 
 say fair and flattering words to you along with 
 the bouquets and sweetmeats; but these are 
 only BO many little preliminaries. You might 
 as well understand, in the beginning, that mar- 
 riage requires the utmost unselfishness on both 
 sides, and that each is to find his and her .great- 
 est happiness in giving, not in receiving. I 
 have seen some sad instances of the grossest 
 selfishness in homes where the one is always 
 giving and the other is always taking. Some- 
 times it is the husband who gives his every 
 thought and his every effort to an exacting, 
 selfish, peevish and forever-discontented woman. 
 The more he does for her happiness, the more 
 unhappy she becomes, yet he carries him- 
 self serenely over all the ruggedness of her 
 ways, and possesses his soul in patience. Such 
 a man is but " little lower than the angels,"
 
 208 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 and I have seen him. He is comely to be- 
 hold. 
 
 And I have seen homes where the wife 
 does all the giving. It is her daily and hourly 
 study to so order her household and her sur- 
 roundings as that the delicate sensibilities of 
 her lord and master may never be jarred. In- 
 stead of carrying his half of the burdens of life, 
 he puts both halves upon her shoulders, and 
 she meekly trudges on, bending a little and a 
 little more lowly as the years go on, and soon 
 she will fall by the wayside, and he will never 
 know why, for his thoughts are fixed wholly 
 npon himself. He is the kind of man whom 
 George MacDoriald describes as " so sensitive 
 that he shuts his ears to his sister's griefs, 
 because it spoils his digestion to think of 
 them." Yet he is a very proper man in the 
 eyes of society, and very " respectable " in the 
 way alluded to by the same writer when he 
 puts these words into the mouth of Robert Fal- 
 coner : " But one thing is clear to me, that no 
 indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual 
 nature so much as respectable selfishness." 
 The man who is selfish in his own home, and 
 with his own w r ife and children, was, beyond
 
 The Mate and the Home. 209 
 
 all question, equally selfish with his mother 
 and sisters before he had a wife ; and so I say 
 to you again, dear girls, observe how your 
 young men treat their mothers and sisters, and 
 guide yourselves accordingly. 
 
 "But you are terribly practical!" is the 
 reflection which doubtless fills your minds 
 while I hold your attention down to the de- 
 tails of e very-day life, instead of painting for 
 you fair pictures of ideal homes in cloud-land. 
 Dear hearts, you can build all the air castles 
 without any of my help. You are at just the 
 age when that kind of architecture prevails. 
 And the more imaginative your temperament, 
 the more of such castles you will build. You 
 will have no difficulty in investing the hand- 
 some young man who paid you such flattering 
 homage last evening, and who heaped his floral 
 offering with still more attractive flowers of 
 sentiment, with a halo which shall preclude all 
 such questions as, Is he temperate ? Is he un- 
 selfish ? Is he clean, morally and physically 
 and mentally ? 
 
 That was the case with the unhappy pair 
 whose story I have told you. Their vivid im- 
 aginations idealized each other to the utter
 
 210 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 extinction of all common-sense. He was tall 
 and handsome, and of honeyed sweetness of 
 manner, and he took her out sailing by moon- 
 light (the night air had no poison in it then !), 
 and told her that the light of the moon and 
 of the stars was dim compared with the light 
 in her eyes, and that the blush of the roses 
 he brought her was put to shame by the bloom 
 of her round cheeks. 
 
 Of course she forgot to find out whether he 
 washed himself once a year, or once in a life- 
 time, or never. She could never be BO fear- 
 fully practical and unpoetical as that. But 
 the orange-blossoms had not yet faded when 
 she made discoveries even worse than I can 
 tell you here, and which proved the assumption 
 that unclean souls are most at home in unclean 
 bodies. And he found out that the " eyes 
 which put the stars to shame " could flash 
 lightning at him in most terrific fashion. 
 Alas ! poor souls ! If they only had listened 
 to the practical promptings of common-sense, 
 what a world of misery they would have es- 
 caped ! 
 
 .But I must not dweU longer upon the 
 choice of a mate, and will assume that vou
 
 The Mate and the Home. 211 
 
 have chosen deliberately, wisely, and well. 
 He is healthy. That is, he inherits, so far as 
 you can learn from his family physician (for 
 that is the one who should decide upon the 
 titness of parties for marriage), no scrofula, no 
 consumption, and no insanity. He is temper- 
 ate. That is, he neither eats nor drinks that 
 which can do him harm, nor has he, by excesses 
 of any kind, so weakened his digestion that he 
 is obliged to smoke a cigar in order to digest 
 his dinner. He is clean, physically and mor- 
 ally. He is industrious, else he must be 
 vicious. 
 
 You are now, from this time onward, by 
 all the love and honor which you entertain for 
 each other, bound to order your lives in high- 
 est and holiest conformity with the one ulti- 
 mate end and aim of marriage, namely, the 
 establishment of " a new household," and the 
 rearing of immortal souls. Do not, I beg you, 
 rush into that fashionable, but fatal, error 01 
 getting married before your own nest is built 
 and taking up your abode in another's nest, 
 like the cuckoo, the thief among birds. The 
 practice of marrying and boarding leads to 
 more vice and crime than is known to any but
 
 212 The jUCate and the Home. 
 
 physicians. I, with only a limited experience 
 as medical practitioner, can count a score of 
 brides who have come to me to beg me to 
 murder their unborn children, because they 
 were "boarding," and it was not "convenient 
 to have a family " ! Most horrible of horrors ! 
 Most foolish of follies ! Yet any physician can 
 tell you the same terrible fact. 
 
 That " idleness is the parent of vice " is 
 another fact which finds sad confirmation in 
 the life of many a young woman who begins 
 her married life in a boarding-house. She 
 has nothing to do, as a rule, but to fix up in 
 her new clothes and look pretty. After a 
 time she fails to find satisfaction in being ad- 
 mired by one man ; and as there are generally 
 a half dozen idle men for every industrious 
 one, it happens too often, sad as it is to relate, 
 that she comes to court and receive the admi- 
 ration of the six idle ones while her husband 
 is engaged in honest labor. 
 
 Therefore, I say again, and always again, 
 dear girls, do not be in haste to marry, for any 
 reason whatever. The French proverb is no 
 less susceptible of application here than else- 
 where : " He who tires not, tires adversity.
 
 Tfa ?Ji>.te and the Home. 213 
 
 All coryos ri i>;ht to him who can afford to 
 
 <J 
 
 Vrait." 
 
 And '/,'hile you wait, do not shut yourself 
 *\way from air and light and all the joy which 
 ihey insure, hy mousing yourself np TV'ith a 
 sewing-machine and making a pile of elabo- 
 rately-decorated underclothing which will prob- 
 ably be of yery little use to you after it is done. 
 I have in mind a bride who, like many another, 
 did that very thing ; and when she put on the 
 bridal veil, neither it nor the powder on the 
 face conld conceal the pale yellow tint, of the 
 face which was a stranger to air and sunlight. 
 The elegant white silk was fitted to the last 
 degree of smoothness over a waist which could 
 be clasped with t\vo hands, and the poor thing 
 looked more like the bride of death than like 
 a woman going to assume the sacred duties of 
 a wife and mother. 
 
 In due time a poor, little, weak, white-faced 
 boy came to her, who has never known what 
 it is to be ruddy and strong and buoyant with 
 fresh young life, and I fear he never will know. 
 The poor, yellow-faced mother grows yellower 
 every day, along with the useless underclothing 
 which lies in the chests, and in whose fabrica-
 
 214: The Mate and the Home. 
 
 tion she wasted the vitality which she ought 
 to have secured for herself and her boy by 
 going out daily in pursuit of it. Indeed, it is 
 marvelous how it ever came to pass that a 
 young woman on the eve of marriage should 
 be expected to devote herself to amassing such 
 supplies of underclothing as custom has made 
 almost imperative ; for nine out of ten who 
 follow the custom will tell you it is mere folly, 
 that the fashion of these things changes as does 
 that of all outward things, and that they get 
 tired of the old long before they can put it 
 adide for the new. 
 
 Alas ! how true it is, all through the life 
 of woman, that it is her clothing which, more 
 than any single cause, contributes to her phys- 
 ical, as to her moral, undoing ! She who main- 
 tains her chastity none the less loses her health 
 by her devotion to that capricious something 
 which we call " fashion," and she who has bar- 
 tered her chastity has, in most cases, been mis- 
 led by the promise of ribbons and fine clothes. 
 
 The sewing-machine, which ought to be a 
 blessing to woman, has been so sadly perverted, 
 by the excesses in the way of ornamentation to 
 which it has given rise, that it has proved a
 
 The Mate and the Home. 215 
 
 ciirse, in that it has led to many forms of 
 uterine and ovarian disease, and, in not a few 
 instances, to the death of unborn children, 
 whose mothers have ignorantly spent hour 
 after hour at it in the fabrication of more than 
 uselessly betucked and berufned infant ward- 
 robes. 
 
 It seems to me we but dimly comprehend, 
 after all these centuries, what wealth of mean- 
 ing Moses, the learned physician, had in mind 
 when he told us that the making of clothing 
 was the first result of that first yielding to 
 temptation which led to tho knowledge of 
 good and evil. Shall we ever learn ? Shall 
 we ever regain the lost Eden ? If we ever do, 
 we shall surely approach it by the way of the 
 perfect Home. 
 
 And where shall we find this home ? This 
 will be the first question for you and your 
 chosen mate to answer, when you have each 
 decided that you have chosen " the best." 
 First, where, and second, what, shall the home 
 be? 
 
 For location, I beg you avoid the heart of 
 a great city. That is for business and for hotels 
 and boarding-houses, not for homes. Choose,
 
 216 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 rather, the companionship of green fields and 
 vocal woodlands where modern transit conven- 
 iences insure ready access to all the advantages 
 of the city, while, at the same time, you avoid 
 its din, its dust, and its distractions. A homely 
 counsel tells us that it is safe to build a home 
 where a woodchuck digs his hole, for there 
 you are sure of good drainage. Do not be 
 afraid of climbing a hill. I suppose the fore- 
 fathers were so imbued with the idea of get- 
 ting shelter from persecution in all forms, 
 whether ecclesiastical, aboriginal, or climatic, 
 that they nestled together under the hills of 
 New England, rather than on them, so that 
 one is strnck with their apparent disregard of 
 the sanitary instincts of the woodchuck in 
 noting how they established alike their farm- 
 houses and their towns in valleys and beneath 
 hills, where the sanitarian of to-day finds most 
 favoring conditions for typhoid or malarial fe- 
 vers, in defective drainage or in exhalations 
 from low lands. It is curious to note, too, 
 how the instinct for shelter extended even to 
 the churches, and led to the building of close 
 boxes for pews, with closely-buttoning doors to 
 them ; and even the minister was buttoned into
 
 The Mate and the Home. 217 
 
 his pulpit, as if to keep him safe from the 
 Indians. 
 
 But quite other foes than red men are 
 " the foes of one's own household " ; yet no 
 less to be dreaded and shunned are these, 
 when they take the form of bad air, insuffi- 
 cient sunlight, and defective drainage. Lift up 
 your eyes, then, unto the hills, whence cometh 
 your strength, when you look for the place 
 where your model home shall be. Then plant 
 no evergreens nor any other trees about your 
 house where they can cut off your air and 
 your sunlight, unless you want evergreens for 
 a wall of protection from the north winds. 
 The true sanitary home will have no living- 
 rooms nor sleeping-rooms on its north side, 
 but will reserve that for storerooms and for 
 the refrigerator, and that is the only side 
 where the evergreens are tolerable. 
 
 Then plan your house so that every room 
 you occupy shall be a sunny one. You \vant 
 a sunny dining-room, a sunny sitting-room, and 
 sunny sleeping-rooms, and not one of these 
 rooms should have a carpet or any furniture 
 which is too good for the sun to shine upon. 
 If you must have one of those chilling abomi-
 
 218 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 nations known as a "parlor," with its darkness 
 and mustiness and grandeur of upholstery, 
 where formal calls are made, and where each 
 party breathes a sigh of relief when the for- 
 midable task is accomplished if you must have 
 such a place of torture, it may as well be on 
 the north side, with the refrigerator ; but I beg 
 you not to put me in it when I come to see 
 you. 
 
 Your next care, after the insuring of free 
 access of air and sunshine to all the inhabited 
 parts of the house, will be directed to the 
 securing of an abundant supply of pure water. 
 The location of dwellings in low lands because 
 it is easy to get water there is an apt confirma- 
 tion of the saying that " lazy people take the 
 most pains " ; for the low-land dwellers are the 
 best patrons of the doctor and the pill-man ; 
 and if they would work a little harder to get 
 water on a height, they would be spared much 
 of the labor expended in getting money with 
 which to buy the " bitters " and pills which a 
 residence in the low lands implies. If you are 
 to depend upon well-water, you must bear in 
 mind the following facts, which I quote from
 
 The Mate and the Home. 219 
 
 "A Manual of Practical Hygiene," by Dr. 
 Parker, of England : 
 
 " A well drains an extent of ground around 
 it, in the shape of an inverted cone, whicli is 
 in proportion to its own depth and the loose- 
 ness of the soil. In very loose soils a well of 
 sixty or eighty feet will drain a large area, 
 perhaps as much as two hundred feet in diam- 
 eter, or even more ; but the exact amount is 
 not, as far as I know, precisely determined. 
 
 " Certain trades pour their refuse water 
 into rivers : gas-works ; slaughter-houses ; tripe- 
 houses ; size, horn, and isinglass manufactories; 
 wash-houses, starch-works, and calico-printers ; 
 and many others. In houses, it is astonishing 
 how many instances occur of the water of butts, 
 cisterns and tanks getting contaminated by 
 leaking of pipes and other causes, such as the 
 passage of sewer-gas through overflow pipes, 
 etc. 
 
 "As there is now no doubt that typhoid 
 fever, cholera and dysentery may be caused by 
 water rendered impure by the evacuations 
 passed in those diseases ; and as simple diar- 
 rhcea seems also to be largely caused by animal 
 organic suspension or solution, it is evident
 
 220 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 how necessary it is to be quick-sighted in re- 
 gard to the possible impurity of water from 
 incidental causes of this kind. Therefore, all 
 tanks and cisterns should be inspected regu- 
 larly, and any accidental source of impurity 
 must be looked out for. Wells should be cov- 
 ered ; a good coping put round to prevent 
 substances being washed down ; the distance 
 from cesspits and dung-heaps should be care- 
 fully noted ; no sewer should be allowed to 
 pass near a well. The same precautions should 
 be taken with springs. In the case of rivers, 
 we must consider if contamination can result 
 from the discharge of faecal matters, trade ref- 
 use, etc/' 
 
 I quote next from " The Sanitarian " an 
 illustration of the results of a disregard of these 
 precautions : 
 
 "A correspondent of the Massachusetts State 
 Board of Health gives a sketch of the cellar of 
 a house in Hadley, built by a clergyman. It 
 was provided with an open well and sink-drain, 
 with its deposit-box in close proximity thereto, 
 affording facility to discharge its gases in the 
 well as the most convenient place. The cellar 
 was used, as country cellars commonly are, for
 
 The Mate and the Home. 221 
 
 the storage of provisions of every kind, and 
 the windows were never opened. The only es- 
 cape for the soil moisture and ground air, except 
 that which was absorbed by the drinking-water, 
 was through the crevices of the floor into the 
 rooms above. After a few months' residence in 
 the house, the clergyman's wife died of fever. 
 He soon married again, and the second wife 
 also died of fever, within a year from the time 
 of marriage. His children were sick. He oc- 
 
 o 
 
 cupied the house about two years. The wife of 
 his successor was soon taken ill, and barely 
 escaped with her life. A physician then took 
 the house ! He married, and his wife soon 
 after died of fever. Another physician took the 
 house, and within a few monthc came near 
 dying of erysipelas. He deserved it. The 
 house, meanwhile, received no treatment; the 
 doctors, according to their usual wont, even in 
 their own families, were satisfied to deal with 
 the consequences, and leave the causes to do 
 their worst. 
 
 "Next after the doctors, a school-teacher took 
 the house, and made a few changes, ' for con- 
 venience,' apparently, for substantially it re- 
 mained the same for he, too, escaped as by
 
 222 The Mate and the Home. 
 
 the skin of his teetb. Finally, after the fore- 
 closure of many lives, the sickness arid fatality 
 of the property became so marked that it bo- 
 came unsalable. When last sold, every sort of 
 prediction was made as to the risk of occu- 
 pancy ; but, by a thorough attention to sanitary 
 conditions, no such risks have been encountered." 
 It is quite probable that the usual com- 
 ments upon " the mysterious dealings of Provi- 
 dence " were made at the several funeral cere- 
 monies which followed upon the several suicides 
 above recorded, so habitual is it to attribute the 
 consequences of Buch lamentable ignorance and 
 stupidity to the God who 
 
 " moves in a mysterious way 
 His wonders to perform," 
 
 when, if we 'would only look beyond conse- 
 quences into causes, we should see that it is 
 just as much a part of God's beautiful system 
 of cause and effect that typhoid fever should 
 ensue upon bad drainage as that a crop of wheat 
 should reward the sower. 
 
 I recently heard a little hoy commenting 
 upon the death of one of his playmates, and 
 this is the conclusion he arrived at concerning 
 the cause of what the clergyman is wont to
 
 The Mate and the Home. 223 
 
 call a "mysterious dispensation of Providence": 
 
 " Mamma," said he, " I think I know why 
 
 died. His mamma didn't know how to take 
 care of him, and so God thought he had better 
 take him home and take care of him himself." 
 
 It is difficult to see how any commentator 
 could improve upon that conclusion. Alas ! 
 how few mothers do know how to take care of 
 their children, and how few are capable of ex- 
 ercising that intelligent forethought which is 
 necessary for the establishment of a successful 
 " new household "! 
 
 We hear much about " the higher educa- 
 tion of women " as a means of admission into 
 the several professions which have hitherto been 
 regarded as accessible only by men, and society 
 is, for the most part, coolly awaiting, with 
 folded hands, the result of their efforts at com- 
 petition in these professions. The several stages 
 of opposition and ridicule have been surmounted. 
 Women have been through the same college 
 curriculum with men ; have taken diplomas from 
 schools of law, divinity, and medicine ; and are 
 now on trial before a jury which differs vastly 
 from the ordinary array of " twelve idiots," in 
 that it represents, largely, the best thought of
 
 224 The, Mate and the Home. 
 
 the day. It is plain to all that, if a woman 
 essays to perform any work which is not, from 
 its very nature, purely woman's work, she 
 must, for the time being, ignore all consider- 
 ations except those pertaining to the best 
 achievement : hence she must accept judgment 
 upon the work itself, the worker being prac- 
 tically ignored. 
 
 For us, the question is purely and exclu- 
 sively womanly ; and for me, coming to you as 
 a teacher of what you "ought to know," the 
 way is as straight and as plain as God can 
 make it. 
 
 There are some things which God has told 
 women they are to dp, and which none but they 
 can do, and the teaching of those things be- 
 longs especially to the department of Physiol- 
 ogy. It is for me, then, to endeavor to point 
 out to you the way by which you may come 
 most nearly to Wordsworth's standard of 
 
 "A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
 To warn, to comfort, to command, 
 And yet a spirit still, and bright 
 With something of an angel's light."
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE PERFECT WOMAN/ 
 
 "BE ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
 which is in heaven is perfect." MATTHEW v, 48. 
 
 " Read the passage in its connection, and 
 you will comprehend ita meaning. Jesus has 
 just been describing the Father in heaven as 
 causing his sun to shine upon the just and 
 upon the unjust; that is to say, in the concep- 
 tion of Jesus, God is perfect in proportion as 
 he comes down, and not in proportion as he 
 remains above; in proportion as he shows his 
 favor to the worst, not in proportion as he 
 exalts himself above the best.... The perfec- 
 tion of God consists in his communicating life 
 to the smallest things, in his doing the most 
 ungracious tasks for ungracious people, in his
 
 226 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 drudging at enterprises that men think too 
 unclean for their dainty fingers. . . . 
 
 " The perfect life of Jesus how was that 
 expressed ?... .Great he was not, according 
 to ordinary human standards. Socially he was 
 cot great. He was despised aa the friend of 
 the publicans and sinners; he was classed 
 by the saintly people of his day among the 
 'conic-outers' and infidels; because he talked 
 in human fashion with a bad woman in the 
 street he was considered no better than she. . . . 
 Where, then, was his perfection ? Simply in 
 the fact that he could talk with the woman 
 and not despise her; that he could go among 
 the lowest, as one of them, without any word 
 of scorn ever dropping from his lips ; that ho 
 was not cold to any form of human suffering 
 or misery.... A great phrase in our time is 
 * self-development,' as describing the aim of 
 perfection for modern men. But the merit of 
 Belt-development depends wholly upon the qual- 
 ity of the self-hood that is developed. The 
 development of a very cheap, tawdry style of 
 self-hood is not noble. .. .Self-hood does not 
 consist in development above or beyond hu- 
 manity, but in sympathy with it. Take our
 
 The Perfect Woman. 227 
 
 own Emerson that beautiful shaft of polished 
 marble. How exquisite his mind ! how finished 
 his taste ! how delicate his spiritual percep- 
 tions ! how serene and self-absorbed his air as 
 he goes along the streets ! Yet Emerson is 
 one of the most entirely human persons in the 
 country : a patriot ; a neighbor ; a friend to the 
 homely; a man who puts his name to good 
 causes without questioning their popularity, 
 and gives his strength to any work that is 
 work for humanity; a man who has no shame 
 to be seen walking side by side with the illit- 
 erate or the outcast if they are seeking the 
 welfare of the common humanity which includes 
 them both. 
 
 " We are fascinated by the fountain of 
 water, admiring the crystal jet as it pushes up 
 toward the skies, flashing in the sunlight; but 
 it is the turning-point that makes the culmina- 
 tion of the beauty. It is when the column 
 bends over, begins to fall, and, falling, dis- 
 perses itself in drops of dew, clothing every 
 blade of grass with diamonds, that the fount, 
 ain becomes really beautiful." REV. O. B. 
 FBOTHINGHAM ("The Perfect Life"). 
 
 Along with the much talking of " the higher
 
 228 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 education of women " there goes much concern- 
 ing " the perfect home." The world is waiting 
 to refresh itself in that "perfect home," and it 
 will continue to wait until "the perfect wo ; 
 man" comes, for she alone can create it. We 
 have already an abundance of "pattern house 
 keepers," who fight dirt and flies and sunlight 
 out of their houses with a persistency worthy 
 of their Puritan descent. They tread round 
 and round in their little peck measures of daibji 
 duty. They make very nice bread. They fry 
 very nice doughnuts (?). They make very nice 
 pies and pickles and sweetmeats (?). Theij 
 children are patterns of neatness and propriety; 
 they never have soiled stockings nor soiled pin- 
 afores ; they never make mud-pies, nor pick up 
 dirty stones, nor handle " horrid bugs and 
 worms," nor " litter up " the house with 
 " weeds " from the woods. 
 
 Then, too. we have an abundance of the 
 "Top-Lofty' style of women. They can write 
 big books, full of big words, which one must 
 etudy with dictionary in hand, as if they were 
 written in a foreign tongue. 
 
 They can talk in profoundest style about 
 "peripheral influences of an extremely power-
 
 The Perfect Woman. 229 
 
 ful and continuous kind, which can set going a 
 non-inflammatory centric atrophy which may 
 localize itself in those nerves upon whose cen- 
 ters the morbific peripheral influence is perpet- 
 ually pouring in." 
 
 Some of them can " scold upon the plat- 
 form " until " the planets shudder, shrink, and 
 grow more ru?ty " ; but among them all wo 
 yet look in vain for the answer to Solomon's 
 question : 
 
 " TVho can find a virtuous woman? for her price is 
 far above rubies. 
 
 "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in 
 her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. 
 
 " She will do him good, and not evil, all the days 
 of her life. 
 
 "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly 
 with her hands. 
 
 "She is like the merchants' ships: she bringeth her 
 food from afar. 
 
 " She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth 
 meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. 
 
 "She considereth a field and buyeth it; with the 
 fruit of her hand she planteth a vineyard. 
 
 "She girdeth her loins with strength, and strength' 
 eneth her arms. 
 
 "She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her 
 candle goeth not out by night. 
 
 "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her 
 hands hold the distaff.
 
 230 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 " She stretcheth out her hands to the poor; yea, 
 she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. 
 
 "She is not afraid of the snow for her household, 
 for all her household are clothed with scarlet. 
 
 "She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her 
 clothing is silk and purple. 
 
 "Her husband is known in the gates when he sit- 
 teth among the ciders of the land. 
 
 "She maketh fine linen, and selleth it, and deliv- 
 ereth girdles unto the merchant. 
 
 " Strength and honor are her clothing; and she 
 shall rejoice in time to come. 
 
 "She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her 
 tongue is the law of kindness. 
 
 "She looketh well to the ways of her household, 
 and eateth not the bread of idleness. 
 
 ""Her children arise up and call her blessed; her 
 husband also, and he praiseth her. 
 
 "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou 
 excellest them all. 
 
 "Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a 
 woman that fearcth the Lord, she shall be praised. 
 
 "Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her 
 own works praise her in the gates." Proverbs xxxi. 
 
 During all the centuries which have "dropped 
 like grains of sand " from the hand of the Infi- 
 nite since those words were first uttered, woman 
 has been getting a little and a little nearer to 
 this ideal type. She is making great strides, 
 during this nineteenth century, toward the in-
 
 The Perfect Woman. 231 
 
 tellectual requirements here set forth ; bnt it ia 
 lionestly questioned, by physiologists, whether 
 she is paying that regard to that girding of 
 " her loins with strength '' without which all 
 other acquisitions will avail but little. 
 
 The late Dr. Edward Clarke, when he gave 
 her the fruits of his ripe experience and observ- 
 ation in his book called "Sex in Education, or 
 a Fair Chance for the Girls,'' did more to recall 
 her to a just and rational appreciation of her 
 physiological position in Creation than has been 
 done by any modern writer; and, so far as I 
 know, the educated women physicians of to-day 
 have, in the main, advocated his views therein 
 expressed, in their efforts to induce women to 
 respect the peculiar mechanism of their bodies, 
 and to cease their attempts to stifle and ignore 
 it. He says : " In all their work they must 
 respect their own organization, and remain wo- 
 men. . .If we would give our girls a fair chance, 
 and see them become and do their best, by 
 reaching after and attaining an ideal beauty 
 and power which shall be a crown of glory and 
 a tower of strength to the republic, we must 
 look after their complete development aa wo- 
 men .... Physiology confirms the hope of the
 
 232 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 race by asserting that the loftiest heights of in- 
 tellectual and spiritual vision and force are free 
 to each sex, and accessible by each ; but adds 
 that each must climb in its own way, and ac- 
 cept its own limitations, arid, when this is done, 
 promises that each will find the doing of it 
 not to weaken or diminish, but to develop 
 power." 
 
 Returning, now, to the consideration of Sol- 
 omon's ideal woman, we find that the first 
 essential is that she be " virtuous," and to be 
 virtuous, in the purest sense of the word, is to 
 be strong. "Virtue, Latin, virtus: strength, 
 courage, excellence." Webster. It is sad to 
 acknowledge, as we are compelled to do, that 
 the "virtuous" woman, in this literal sense, is 
 the exception rather than the rule. 
 
 "She considereth a field, and buyeth it; 
 with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vine^ 
 yard." 
 
 This implies a practical knowledge of soils, 
 and of agriculture ; of geometry, of mineralogy, 
 and of botany ; of the comparative value, as 
 well as the measurement, of land. 
 
 If the wives of those ministers and doctors 
 and of the schoolmaster who fell victims to the
 
 The Perfect Woman. 233 
 
 bad air of that Hadley house, of which we 
 heard in the previous chapter, had been prop- 
 erly educated to do their share in the selection 
 of a site for a house it is probable that their 
 lives would all have been saved. You will 
 notice that it was the women and children who 
 died. You know it is the women and children 
 who spend the most time in the house. The 
 men have their outside lives, largely apart from 
 the home and its belongings, and its sanitary 
 conditions have, naturally, far less intimate re- 
 lations to their health than they have to the 
 physical well-being of the wife and children. 
 Therefore, the " perfect woman " will know 
 enough about soils and drainage arid ventilation 
 and water-sources and architecture to aid her 
 mate intelligently in the establishment of their 
 "new household." 
 
 I do not suppose that the second Mrs. Rev. 
 
 , of Hadley, ever thought of asking why 
 
 the first Mrs. Eev. died. Doubtless the 
 
 Rev. Mr. gave her a proper funeral and a 
 
 proper headstone 3 wore the crape of the proper 
 width and for the proper length of time, while, 
 at the same time with the wearing of the crape, 
 the selection of the second Mrs. Rev. pro*
 
 234: The Perfect Woman. 
 
 ceeded in proper manner. The selection being 
 duly made, I suppose the second Mrs. Rev. 
 
 , in spe, at once sat down and made a pile 
 
 of new chemises. Probably she never looked 
 at the cellar or the location of the well and 
 waste-pipes of the house where she was to pre- 
 side. So she went there and died, in her sim- 
 ple ignorance, as the doctor's wife and the 
 schoolmaster's wife did, in theirs. " Provi- 
 dence " was credited with taking them " myste- 
 riously." A little more light and air in the 
 cellar cleared up the " mystery." 
 
 The " perfect woman " " girdeth her loins 
 with strength, and strengthened her arms." 
 
 The ordinary woman "girdeth her loins" 
 with corsets, and weakeneth her arms by fold- 
 ing them in a muff. 
 
 " She perceiveth that her merchandise is 
 good : her candle goeth not out by night." 
 
 This may quite properly imply that she is 
 so well educated in the varieties of merchandise 
 that she cannot be swindled. 
 
 "She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; 
 yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy." 
 
 The idle tramp cannot impose upon her 
 credulity. She has the discretion requisite for
 
 The Perfect Woman. 235 
 
 discriminating between the deserving and the 
 undeserving. 
 
 " She is not afraid of the snow for her 
 household ; for all her household are clothed 
 with scarlet." 
 
 It would almost seem that Solomon's pro- 
 phetic soul projected itself over the centuries 
 into the dress - reform rooms in Boston and 
 viewed the red flannel, close-fitting undergar- 
 ments which are beginning to take the place 
 of white cotton curtains about the legs for 
 snowy weather. 
 
 " She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; 
 and in her tongue is the law of kindness." 
 
 The " perfect woman " will be incapable 
 of gossip or of slander, or of any interference 
 with the domestic affairs of her neighbors. 
 She will be so occupied with doing her own 
 work well that she will have no time for " tea- 
 parties " where tongues unused to " the law of 
 kindness" are wont to make havoc of reputa- 
 tions. Of her neighbors' virtues she will be 
 swift to speak, in society ; concerning their 
 faults she will be charitably reticent. 
 
 " She looketh well to the ways of her house- 
 hold and eateth not the bread of idleness."
 
 236 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 Hence she will never have hysteria. All 
 the doctors know that the hysterical women 
 are those who have no care of house or chil- 
 dren, and whose every thought is centered 
 upon their own personal ease and happiness. 
 The most unhappy woman in the world is the 
 one who has nothing to do but be happy. 
 
 " Her children arise up and call her bless- 
 ed ; her husband also, and he praiseth her." 
 
 There is no jewel in Victoria's crown which 
 can compare in luster with that jewel in her 
 reputation whereby she shines upon her king- 
 dom as a faithful wife and mother ; and each 
 one of you, my dear girls, may shine in your 
 own kingdom, the home whose queen you shall 
 be, with a luster which shall be reflected through 
 all the ages beyond you. The character of its 
 mothers decides the character of every people. 
 
 Every child that is born spends its first ten 
 years with its mother, or with some woman 
 who represents its mother. During those ten 
 years its character is, substantially, formed. 
 
 " For the child, yet in native innocence, 
 before his parents have become his serpents on 
 the tree speechless, still unsusceptible of ver- 
 bal etnpoisonment, led by customs, not by words
 
 The Perfect Woman. 237 
 
 and reasons, therefore all the more easily moved 
 on the narrow and small pinnacle of sensuous 
 experience for the child, I say, on this bonnd- 
 ary-line between the monkey and the man, the 
 most important era of life is contained in the 
 years which immediately follow his non-exist- 
 ence, in which, for the first time, he colors and 
 moulds himself by companionship with others. 
 The parent's hand may cover and shelter the 
 germinating seed, but not the luxuriant tree; 
 consequently, first faults are the greatest; and 
 mental maladies, unlike the small-pox, are the 
 more dangerous the earlier they are taken. 
 
 " Every new educator effects less than his 
 predecessor; until at last, if we regard all life 
 as an educational institution, a circumnavigator 
 of the world is less influenced by all the na- 
 tions he has seen than by his nurse." JEAN 
 PAUL FR. RICHTER. 
 
 Who, then, shall dare to put limits to the 
 "higher education" of a being who holds in 
 her hands the destinies of the human race ! 
 
 "Noverre only required from a good di- 
 rector of the ballet besides the art of dancing 
 geometry, music, poetry, painting, and anat- 
 omy."
 
 238 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 Shall a woman, who, by her influence ovey 
 her son's first decade of existence, is to do 
 more toward his final manhood than all the 
 people and all the nations he is to encounter 
 in after life shall she limit her studies within 
 narrower bounds than those assigned to the 
 " director of the ballet " ? No ! let her climb 
 to the highest heights of science ; but let her 
 always remember that she is designed to be 
 a mother by a law of God which is stamped 
 upon her being in characters which assert them- 
 selves to her, every hour of her life, from the 
 time she passes from childhood through the 
 portals which mark the entrance upon the age 
 of potential maternity till she leaves those 
 eventful thirty-five or forty years behind her ! 
 
 " Her sex is the unalterable decree which 
 she can cast no ballot to vote away from her, 
 and assume no profession to raze it from the 
 eternal tablets of her distinction. All the 
 purely modern questions which relate to her 
 career the efforts to equalize with man's her 
 wages, to multiply her opportunities, to claim 
 her interest in the politics of human rights, 
 to secure her alleviating presence in the rude 
 scenes of republicanism successful as these
 
 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 tendencies may be, cannot transform woman ; 
 and she will not step out of her Shakspearean 
 self. On the figured coast of his page her 
 Essence stands, as yet without the right of 
 suffrage, limited to household cares, or raised 
 to queenly ones ; as learned as Portia can be- 
 come, but not yet admitted to the profession 
 which she mimicked ; provided for by the vari- 
 ous dexterities of man, and still undriven by 
 the modern threat of starvation into risking 
 a single quality that is her birthright. There 
 she stands : the modern world, stooping at her 
 feet, will have to yield Borne of the reputed 
 exclusiveness of men, but only such traits of 
 it as Imogen, Cordelia, Beatrice, Portia, will 
 select. In all this complicated period of over- 
 crowded cities, over -stimulated competition, 
 vices overfed, employees over-purse-proud, and 
 politicians over-careless, there is no strait cruel 
 enough to compel the essential woman to choose 
 a career which would have unsexed one of 
 Shakspeare's plays. I have no fear. Stand 
 aside: cease that frantic bracing of the mas- 
 culine back against so many doors of proscrip- 
 tion. Throw them wide open, and let Shaka- 
 peare's stately crowd pass up and down to scan
 
 240 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 the vista through them. Come, patient, chaste, 
 obedient, high spirited Imogen, too docile Ophe- 
 lia, frank Perdita, warm Julia, bright and witty 
 Beatrice, whose tongue is a pen already, or the 
 etcher's tool; come, thou accomplished, grave, 
 acute and self-possessed Portia ; thou unsophis- 
 ticated Miranda, who would fain share thy 
 lover's toil ; thou shifty, prompt Maria, hater 
 of humbug; thou tender Viola come, choose 
 how many of these men's garments you will 
 continue to wear, preferring to be women, 
 Not one of them, I venture to declare, which 
 your eternal instinct will feel to cramp or to 
 disguise the form. * Dost thou think,' says 
 Rosalind, * though I am caparison'd like a man, 
 I have a doublet and hose in my disposition ?' ' 
 REV. JOHN WEISS (" Shakspeare's Women "). 
 " God is perfect in proportion as he comes 
 down, not as he remains above " ; and so will 
 it be with the "perfect woman." She will 
 have climbed to the heights of all the natural 
 sciences, a knowledge of which is necessary in 
 order that she may superintend her own do- 
 mestic " sphere," and the more thoroughly she 
 understands her business, the more ready will 
 she be to " come down " from theory to prac-
 
 The Perfect Woman. 241 
 
 tice. It is one thing for a pretty girl, radiant 
 in white silk and roses and illusion, mounted 
 on the rostrum before an audience in a fashion- 
 able schoolroom on graduation day, to expound 
 the theory of the conversion of starch into 
 sugar, and to cover the blackboard with for- 
 mulae which express the chemical changes which 
 result from the mixing of flour and water and 
 salt and yeast. She may go to the top of the 
 " Bel Alp " with Prof. Tyndall and his twenty- 
 five hermetically-sealed bottles of infusion of 
 beef and turnips, and tell her audience all that 
 Prof. Tyndall has told the world about " spon- 
 taneous generation," in connection with the 
 yeast which is mixed with the flour and the 
 water; and, by reason of her ability to do this, 
 she may be marked " perfect " in the school 
 rank-book ; but unless she can " come down " 
 from the rostrum to the kitchen, in a clean 
 calico dress, a"hd prove her theories by making 
 some "perfect" bread, she is far from "per- 
 fect" herself. 
 
 The health of her entire " household," when 
 she gets one, will depend upon her ability to 
 "come clown" to the minutest details of kitchen, 
 laundry and nursery life. She may be so cir-
 
 242 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 cumstanced that she need only superintend the 
 work in these various departments of her 
 " sphere " ; but no one can superintend who 
 has not first learned to execute. The quality 
 of her bread and the physique of her children 
 are the points whereon the reputation of the 
 " perfect woman " rests for its support. If tho 
 bread and the children are poor and miserable 
 and " slack-baked," they but reflect the same 
 qualities from her who stamps her character 
 on them. Jerry Cruncher, bear that he is, is 
 yet on the truth's side when he grumbles at 
 Mrs. Cruncher: "With your flying in tho face 
 of your own wittlcs and drink ! . . . . Look at 
 your boy : he's as thin as a lath. Do you call 
 yourself a mother, and not know that a moth- 
 er's first duty is to blow her boy out?" 
 
 And so our fair graduate upon the rostrum 
 may read her well-rounded dissertation upon 
 the " Duties of Home," but unless she has 
 acquainted herself with all those details ot' 
 anatomy, physiology and hygiene which every 
 woman must know before she can " blow her 
 boy out " into a model man, she comes far 
 short of " the perfect woman." She cannot, in 
 justice to herself, nor to the children she is to
 
 The Perfect Woman. 243 
 
 bear, omit the practical reading of that book 
 " in which all her members are written " the 
 book of life. This should be read till its les- 
 Bona stand out in letters of light, and with the 
 assurance that, if disobeyed, they will turn to 
 letters of fire ! But she can never study this 
 book of books by simply reading about it in 
 printed books, 
 
 "Printed books," says the German, "are 
 the spectacles through which the world is seen : 
 good for weak eyes, it is true, but a free look 
 at life keeps the eye healthier." 
 
 The physician, who assumes to know how 
 to assist nature out of morbid conditions, must 
 devote himself or herself, with the utmost fidel- 
 ity, to the study of anatomy and physiology, 
 before lie or she can presume to know anything 
 about diseases. Shall the woman who is to 
 bear children and to nurse them during the 
 years of helpless infancy be limited to a few 
 printed books for the acquisition of the knowl- 
 edge requisite for filling her " sphere," and 
 never go to the dissecting-room to read nature's 
 most impressive lessons ? No ! " The perfect 
 woman " will know the anatomy of her body 
 BO well that she will respect it beyond all
 
 244- The Perfect Woman. 
 
 possibility of abusing it, and so will she be 
 fitted to bear and to rear the perfect man 
 whom the world will be obliged to wait for 
 till "the perfect woman" comes to bear him. 
 These, then, form the essential sciences 
 necessary for the accomplishment of 
 
 "A perfect woman, nobly planned." 
 
 Nor can she dispense with a knowledge of 
 literature, of history, and of the fine arts. 
 There must be beauty in the " new household," 
 and the "perfect woman" will know the differ- 
 ence between a highly - colored chromo of a 
 long woman, in a long blue dress, clinging to 
 a cross on a rock in mid-ocean, and a photo- 
 graph of the " Sistine Madonna " ; and her 
 home will testify to this knowledge. 
 
 "A little music, too, we want. 
 In heaven the angels sing." 
 
 In the present uncertainty concerning " the 
 music of the future," it is safe to Bay that she 
 will prefer the music of Beethoven and Men- 
 delssohn to that of more modern composers. 
 
 For forms of beauty in vases and all those 
 accessories to a beautiful home where the chil- 
 dren will be BO happy that they would rather
 
 The Perfect Woman, 245 
 
 be there than anywhere else, she will hardly 
 be content with highly-colored paper mockeries 
 of birds and butterflies and flowers gummed 
 upon drain - pipes ; for the photographer will 
 have shown her what Greece and Home have 
 given us for beauty, where she cannot go to 
 Greece and Koine to see for herself, and she 
 will choose accordingly; while the children 
 will be so guided by her in the study of nature 
 that they will raise their own real butterflies 
 and make their own collections of " sermons 
 in stones," which will so occupy their minds 
 that sermons for misdeeds will be unknown to 
 them. There is no surer way of keeping boys 
 and girls "in the way they should go" than by 
 interesting them in the study of nature. " Noth- 
 ing is beautiful but that which is true," and 
 nothing is so true as nature. 
 
 Such are the main requisitions for your 
 education as women. 
 
 " Women are by nature intended for people 
 of business : they are called to it by the equal 
 balance of their powers and their keen sense 
 of observation. Children require an ever-open 
 eye, but not an ever-open mouth ; claude os, 
 aperi oculos. But what circle of talking, which
 
 246 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 always incloses only small and trifling relations, 
 could so well exercise that ever-present glance 
 as the circle of domestic affairs ? Boys des- 
 tined for certain occupations to be artists, 
 professors, or mathematicians may dispense 
 with a capacity for business, but never a girl 
 who will marry especially one of the above- 
 mentioned boys. .. .If, now, a girl is intended 
 to grow np with a clear eye for everything 
 around her; if she is not to waste her many 
 eyes in company, as Argus did his, by mis- 
 placing them, as painted eyes in a peacock's 
 tail ; or if she is not, like that sea-fish, the tur- 
 bot, to have two eyes on the right side, but, 
 in compensation, to bj blind on the left let 
 her be many-sidedly exercised in household 
 affairs ; and the parents must not be disturbed 
 if some admirer of an ethereal bride should 
 object to her, as Plato reproached Eudoxus, 
 with having profaned pure mathematics by ap- 
 plying them to mechanics ; for to-day or to- 
 morrow the wedding comes, and the husband, 
 the honeymoon being past, kisses the mother's 
 hand for all that the daughter does contrary 
 to liis expectation." JEAN PAUL FK. RICHTJTB 
 ("Levana").
 
 The Perfect Woman. 247 
 
 The time required for fitting yourself for 
 this " business woman '' for which Nature in- 
 tends you is nothing less than your first twenty- 
 five years of life. Your body does not acquire 
 its full development in less than that time ; 
 much less do your powers of judgment attain 
 their maturity. The great underlying cause of 
 the painfully large majority of raismarriages 
 and divorces which disgrace American life is 
 to be found in the fact that our girls marry 
 too young and on too short acquaintance. 
 Some one has wisely said that " instead of 
 making divorcee more easy, we need to make 
 marriages more difficult." No woman under 
 twenty-live can assume the anxieties and re- 
 sponsibilities of the home and the nursery with- 
 out a premature renouncing of the free and 
 joyous life of a glad and buoyant girlhood. 
 "Rejoice," O young woman, "in thy youth, 
 and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy 
 youth." 
 
 Even by so much as you are raised above 
 the fish by being a warm-blooded creature with 
 a diaphragm, by so much are you entitled to 
 exercise that diaphragm freely by laughing 
 along your first twenty-five years.
 
 248 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 Says Jean Paul, also in "Levana": "I 
 could write a whole paragraph merely in favor 
 of cheerfulness and merriment in girls, and 
 dedicate it to mothers, who so frequently for- 
 bid them. But seriously to assure girls they 
 may laugh on suitable occasions would look 
 very much like presenting them an opportunity 
 of doing so. Mothers have much a habit of 
 grumbling, even though they may smile in- 
 wardly; the daughters, on the contrary, gen- 
 erally only laugh visibly. The former have 
 passed out of the triumphant church of virgins 
 into the church militant of matrons ; their grow- 
 ing duties have increased their seriousness ; the 
 bridegroom is changed from a honey -bird, who 
 invited them to the sweets of the honeymoon, 
 into a resolute honey-hunting bear, who will 
 himself have the honey." 
 
 My final word is to you of "the triumph- 
 ant church of virgins" who, like my little 
 Daisy, of whom I told you in the previous 
 chapter, will decide to have " the best, or none." 
 Cheap husbands, like other cheap things, are 
 always plenty, but good ones are scarce, and 
 BO it will be " none " for many of you. 
 
 The world has plenty of work for you, as
 
 The Perfect Woman. 249 
 
 single women, after you have fitted yourselves 
 to be perfect women. Nor is it a joyless work. 
 Far, very far from it ! If it be " more blessed 
 to give than to receive," then, indeed, are you 
 blessed among women by reason of the joy 
 which you can give in ways in which that sis- 
 ter walked of whom "VVhittier sings : 
 
 "Next, the dear aunt, whose smile of cheer 
 And voice in dreams I see and hear 
 The sweetest woman ever Fate 
 Perverse denied a household mate; 
 Who, lonely, homeless, not the less 
 Found peace in love's unselfishness, 
 And welcome wheresoe'er she went; 
 A calm and gracious element, 
 Whose presence seemed the sweet income 
 And womanly atmosphere of home 
 Called up her girlhood memories, 
 The huskings and the apple-bees, 
 The sleigh-rides and the summer sails, 
 Weaving through all the poor details 
 And homespun warp of circumstance 
 A golden woof-thread of romance. 
 For well she kept her genial mood 
 And simple faith of maidenhood; 
 Before her still a cloud-land lay, 
 The mirage loomed across her way; 
 The morning dew, that dries so soon 
 With others, glistened at her noon; 
 Through years of toil and soil and care,
 
 250 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 From glossy tress to thin, gray hair, 
 
 All unprofaned she held apart 
 
 The virgin fancies of her heart. 
 
 Be shame to him of woman born 
 
 Who hath for such but thought of scorn." 
 
 And so may each of you find 
 
 "peace in love's unselfishness," 
 
 in many ways which I might detail; but as a 
 teacher of physiology, it remains for me only 
 to point you in the ways where Nature has 
 put you by the unalterable decree of sex. The 
 first of thege ways, after that of the mother, IB 
 the teacher, and for this profession you need 
 all the preparation which the mother needs, 
 and even more, for you will have not only to 
 supplement her work, but also to amend it in 
 many ways where hers will be defective. 
 
 For this work you will need to fit yourself 
 with the same fidelity with which your brother 
 must fit himself for his profession ; and when 
 he goes to the Technological Institute to learn 
 to be an engineer, you will go to the Normal 
 School to learn to be a teacher. Do not, I 
 pray you, offer yourself as a guide for other 
 people's children without this preparation. If 
 you do, you put yourself in the ranks of those
 
 The Perfect Woman. 251 
 
 who hang out a doctor's sign without ever 
 having made a study of the profession of medi- 
 cine. Would you call a man to repair your 
 water-pipes who had never studied plumbing ? 
 Would you ask a man to build you a house 
 who has made no study of architecture ? Will 
 you trust your " house not made with hands " 
 to a man or a woman who has never seen the 
 inside of a human body, but who professes to 
 be gifted with a supernatural "clairvoyance" 
 which can dispense with all educational advan- 
 tages and enable its possessor to step from the 
 blacksmith shop and the herb-tea factory into 
 the presence of death, with power to avert the 
 dread monster's sway ? 
 
 Will you assume that you can mould the 
 plastic mind of a little child unaided by a love 
 which is greater than mother-love the love of 
 a profession which calls for most faithful and 
 accurate preparation? 
 
 The third place which belongs to woman 
 by physiological decree is the sick-room ; and 
 even as she needs to be educated in all the 
 ways I have indicated in order that she may 
 meet the requirements of the first two of her 
 physiologically-decreed "spheres," even more
 
 252 The Perfect Woman. 
 
 emphatically does she need the education which 
 the Medical College alone can give, if she as- 
 eumes to cope with disease. 
 
 Mother, Teacher, Nurse, Doctor : either or all 
 of these you may become, because you are wo- 
 men. For anything more "What shall a Por- 
 tia undertake to do ? That which is level to 
 Portia's capacity. Must she do it? That is as 
 she herself may decide. But we let our women 
 do the dirty drudgery of kitchens, expose them- 
 selves to the publicity of saloons, grow gallow 
 and stooping over spindles, and spend all day 
 dodging poverty behind a counter. We pay our 
 money to see them exercise their various talents 
 on the stage, where no exigency of the plot 
 surprises us, no shifts of costume seem inappro- 
 priate, no want of it is amazing. Oh, we gen- 
 tlemen are such sticklers for propriety, so in- 
 terested to keep our women well sequestered ! 
 She must not speak in public, but she may 
 sing. Jenny Lind's open mouth does not look 
 indecent, but Lucretia Mott's is an outrage 01 
 our modesty ! Where will you draw a line 
 through the crowd of competent intelligences ? 
 1 would draw it very quickly by putting clever- 
 ness in, the place of dullness, though many a
 
 The Perfect Woman. 253 
 
 preacher and schoolmaster, many a vapid lect- 
 urer, would have to budge. Why should infe- 
 riority in a swallow-tail be so valued and pro- 
 tected against superiority in skirts ? Napoleon 
 said, 'Careers are open to talents'; but lie 
 dreaded lively and gifted women, and got them 
 out of the country, wisely suspecting that their 
 insight would fathom his weakness. But no 
 country can flourish till the talents and morals 
 of women mix with its affairs. I cannot see 
 why dullness is more respectable in a man than 
 in a woman. .. .Portia is quite competent to 
 lead a single life, and might earn a brilliant 
 living if fate stripped her of wealth. Being 
 without a particle of ambition, she would have 
 to be driven by poverty into setting up house- 
 keeping with her gifts. But no woman is fine 
 enough to persuade Nature to grant her ex- 
 emption from the pain of love. There will 
 always be exceptions an Olympia Morata, a 
 Cassandra Fedele, Florence Nightingale, Harriet 
 Martineau, Maria Mitchell, Clara Barton na- 
 tures of great constancy, who are absorbed in 
 scholarship, poesy, or good works, with a tem- 
 perament that has an even graciousness toward 
 all men, and just pauses short of honoring one
 
 254: The Perfect Woman. 
 
 exclusively. Or, perhaps, the genius of such 
 women was the gradual rally of time around 
 an early disappointment, whose story never will 
 be told ; when something baffled a first love- 
 as the pearl-oyster, stimulated by some foreign 
 substance that has intruded into ita retreat, 
 slowly coats it all over with nacre, till beauty 
 incorporates the secret ill. Man covets it, but 
 can never fix the date when the trouble of a 
 fine soul began to revenge itself so nobly." 
 JOHN WEISS ("Portia"). 
 
 A final word to you, my dear girls of the 
 Framingham Normal School, who have been 
 oftenest in my thoughts while I have been writ- 
 ing these pages. Standing, as I do, in the rela- 
 tion of an older sister, who went out from this 
 our Alma Mater's fostering care before any of 
 you saw the light of life, it is with an almost 
 maternal solicitude that I watch you from day 
 to day and long to guard you from those sad 
 consequences which I too well know must befall 
 you if you neglect and abuse that body which 
 is " the coat of mail and breastplate of the 
 soul." 
 
 You can do and become all things which 
 may become a " perfect woman " if you will but
 
 The Perfect Woman. 255 
 
 learn, in the days of your youth, that all sick- 
 ness and all suffering are the inevitable penalties 
 of disobedience. "Be ye therefore perfect, even 
 as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"; 
 and as an example of what a single woman may 
 become who makes this command the rule of 
 her life, I can do no better than to point you 
 to the beautiful presence whose judicious and 
 loving care makes your school-life a daily proof 
 that a woman can become as efficient, and yet 
 as womanly, as a Principal of a Normal School 
 as she can in the Home.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 A bad habit Page 107 
 
 About wells and typhoid fever 219 
 
 About bangles 19 
 
 About the husband 200 
 
 About people who use their muscles well 120 
 
 A criticism by Socrates 105 
 
 Activity and oxygen 130 
 
 Adam Clark's burnt-offering to the devil 40 
 
 A little more from Solomon 234 
 
 A little boy's philosophy 223 
 
 A look beyond the orange blossoms 205 
 
 Anointing of Juno and Venus 153 
 
 An emperor's humor 154 
 
 A pernicious fashion 106 
 
 A remark from Jean Paul Richter 237 
 
 A sunny house 217 
 
 A sensitive man 208 
 
 A sermon from the woodchuck 216 
 
 A sick simpleton 118 
 
 Aspasia and Cleone 190 
 
 A twenty-eight mile viaduct 151 
 
 A Western lawyer's advice ,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,1C5 
 
 j\ 
 
 Bands that are forbidd^ , , 63 
 
 Beautiful Greeks , 87 
 
 Beauty and behavior . 169
 
 258 Index. 
 
 Best brain food Page 101 
 
 Best hours for sleep 128 
 
 Blossom and fruit 136 
 
 Brain and nerves 97 
 
 C. 
 
 Carlyle on clothes 171 
 
 Causes of disease 142 
 
 Castles in the air , 209 
 
 Charmides and Minerva 34 
 
 Cheap husbands 248 
 
 Cleanliness 122 
 
 Clothing the feet 183 
 
 Close-fitting undergarments 180 
 
 Complementary colors 186 
 
 Corsets 182 
 
 D. 
 
 Dirt, debt, and the devil 157 
 
 Diseases of women 143 
 
 Doctors and women 174 
 
 Doughnuts 46 
 
 Dress reform 175 
 
 E. 
 
 Ear-rings and bangles 189 
 
 Emerson on Beauty , . . .150 
 
 Epimeda's vow 192 
 
 Epidemics of the Middle Ages 158 
 
 F. 
 
 Faded carpets or faded faces 93 
 
 Final words 255 
 
 First corset 188 
 
 Freckles and moth-patches 167 
 
 Functions of the skin 152 
 
 G. 
 
 Golden child 163 
 
 Graham gems 52 
 
 H. 
 
 Heart and Cnpid 54 
 
 Her Majesty's shoemaker 21 
 
 House of four stories. . 146
 
 Index. 259 
 
 How to drink, and what Page 38 
 
 How we breathe 68 
 
 How we ought uot to breathe 70 
 
 How plants and Animals are perpetuated 134 
 
 How to boil potatoes 50 
 
 How women kill themselves 8 
 
 How to become beautiful 146 
 
 How to be handsome old women G4 
 
 How the star-fishes do it 82 
 
 Horses, dogs, and orators. ... 90 
 
 Hygiene of the skin 156 
 
 I. 
 
 Introductory 5 
 
 'J. 
 
 Jean Paul Richter's view of woman 245 
 
 Jerry Cruncher's grumbling 242 
 
 John Quincy Adams' habit .156 
 
 Joel Benton on Apples. t 47 
 
 Juno and the turtle 15 
 
 K. 
 Know thyself 26 
 
 L. 
 Life of the protozoas 29 
 
 M. 
 
 Mate and the home 199 
 
 " Mince-pie "-ty 51 
 
 Moist and sweaty feet 66 
 
 Modern troglodytes 96 
 
 More about respiration 72 
 
 Morning bath 162 
 
 Morning wrapper 196 
 
 Most unhappy woman in the world 236 
 
 Mr. Dick's prescription for little Davy 161 
 
 Music of the voice. , 75 
 
 N. 
 
 Nature's sermon 94 
 
 Nerves and nervousness 113 
 
 O. 
 Obeying Nature's laws .'. .145
 
 260 Index. 
 
 Olympia Morata, Cassandra Fedele, Florence 
 Nightingale, Harriet Martineau, Maria 
 
 Mitchell, Clara Barton Page 253 
 
 P. 
 
 Pain of a new idea 176 
 
 Perversion of the sewing-machine. 214 
 
 Phosphorus and matches 13 
 
 Platonic definitions 26 
 
 Poetry of dress. 181 
 
 Pork as a diet 62 
 
 Prayer of the nerves 116 
 
 Pretty schoolgirl and the kitchen 241 
 
 Pure water 218 
 
 S. 
 Self-control 206 
 
 Self-development 228 
 
 Shadows on the wall .108 
 
 Shakspeare's women 239 
 
 Shawls and muffs 194 
 
 Sickly Eves 6 
 
 Socrates' story of the grasshopper 84 
 
 Solomon's ideal 229 
 
 Street-sweeping 132 
 
 ' ' Sublata causa, cessat eff ectus " 92 
 
 Successor of the chemise 177 
 
 T. 
 
 The apple and its companions Cl 
 
 "The best, or none !" 201 
 
 The cuckoo's nest 211 
 
 The future undergarment 173 
 
 The perfect woman 225 
 
 The perfect woman esthetically considered. .244 
 
 The unforgetful photograph 110 
 
 Time to marry 247 
 
 Tri-cuspid gates 58 
 
 Twenty-five years of laughter 247 
 
 Two idiots 202 
 
 Two kinds of women 228 
 
 Two nervous systems 99
 
 Index. 261 
 
 U. 
 Useless clothing Page 213 
 
 V. 
 Veiled enchantress Ill 
 
 Voltaire's miracle 118 
 
 W. 
 
 What the perfect woman will know 233 
 
 What dress reform aims at 179 
 
 What will make the hair grow 168 
 
 What Napoleon said 253 
 
 What to eat, and how to cook it 42 
 
 What Dr. Edward Clarke said 231 
 
 What causes cold feet 66 
 
 What Dr. Johnson asked his physician 127 
 
 What causes varicose veins 64 
 
 What a Portia shall undertake 252 
 
 What is good for pimples 164 
 
 What woman's education should be 238 
 
 What Thackeray said 78 
 
 What the Church of Rome does 126 
 
 What Plato said 10 
 
 What marriage requires 207 
 
 What causes palpitation 65 
 
 What Horace Maun said 139 
 
 Whittier's dear aunt .249 
 
 Why girls faint 188 
 
 Why the Greenlanders eat candles 45 
 
 Woman's place 251 
 
 Women of Shakspeare , , , , . 123
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 REC'D 
 
 fit O'CT i y 
 
 OCT 1 6 19 
 
 GAVLORD
 
 3 1970 00241 9098 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 001 392 487 3