UC-NRLF B 4 .^i ^^s bi*^ hit : r»- ^ u * <• ««*, ^f-W* » m^.^fi^ -' Jm. - Ji.:. -a $ ■Kf . J, LAWSON WRIGHT- O^IBRARY.O My Books are my Treasures. No friend v/ill deface or thoughtlessly neglect to return a borrowed book. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID L^l /^••S .m. fti^iP'' ^. K Thof ChiAtbiuk^^npT^ ,^nrwiie2d,3rass THE GUIDE-BOARD TO Health, Peace and Competence; OR. THE ROAD TO HAPPY OLD AGE. BY W. W. HALL, ]VI.D., New York. Author or "Soldier Health," "Sleep," "Journal of HEALrH," Eto., Bk Men consaine too much food, and too little pure air; They take too much medicine, and too little exercise- SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. SPRINGFIELD, MASS.: D. E. FISK AND COMPANY. C/ffuyVf^ Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1869, by D. E. nSK & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by D. E. FISK & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. GRANT, FAIRES & KODGEIIS, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, PIIILADZLPIIIA. BTEKEOTTPED AT THE BOSTON 8TEKE0TTPE FOimDRT. NOTE. Knowing that, to a very great extent, the life of each human being is in his own hands, that it is his duty to guard it with watchful care, that " it is worth the efibrt of a lifetime to die well," and having witnessed many living evidences of the treatment of the celebrated author, we have been induced, for the benefit of mankind, to bring this book before the public, firm in the belief that we shall receive the patronage it merits, and the " "Well done " of our fellow-beings. Publishers. ivi34835'4 PREFACE. The first and immediate aim of the good and great phy- sician, is to restore his patient to health in the shortest time, with the smallest amount of medicine, and with the least discomfort practicable. When this is accomplished, he has a more elevated ambition; an object nobler and still more humane presses upon his attention — the prevention OF ALL DISEASES. It is hard enough to get along in this world when a man is well ; but to have to make a living under the depressing influence of sickness, and pain, and suflfering, is worse than having to climb a steep clay bank m wet weather. Old age is comfortless enough of itself; but to be old, and full of aches and pains, and gout and rheumatism, is dreadful to think of. To prevent the young from getting sick, to enable all to grow old gracefully, with a heart full of the milk of human kindness, a genial smile and a pleasant word for everybody, and to go down to the grave " like as a shock of com fully ripe in his sea- son," — these are the main objects of this book. The Author. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. 1. Portrait or THE Author. (Steel Plate) 2. Health^ Peace and Competence, Frontispiece 3. Genius and Science 9 4. The Most Efficient Exercise 22 5. The Joking Clergyman 40 6. The Little Courtesies of Life 70 7. The Quaker AND Thief 74 8. Salt Lake Mail Party 109 9. Effects of Imagination on Health 115 10. Our Clergy Feasted too much 131 11. The Knickerbocker and Yankee 1C5 12. Prosperity the Best Pill 183 13. How TO BE Happy 186 14. Mr. Income and Little Tommy. 199 15. The Two Donkeys 213 16. Martin Luther and his Three Frogs 214' 17. Queen Victoria and the Butcher's Daughter 254 18. Sowing Seet^ for a Harvest of Woe 275 19. The Bulletin Board 297 20. The Doctors who Attended Lazarus 314 21. Tomboys 331 22. How TO Make Home Happy 344 23. Cold Water Mania 353 24. Jack Tar and the Newspapers 391 25. Eiches and Poverty 437 26. The Best Gymnasium 462 27. Babies 489 28. Farmers' Wives Overtaxed 525 29. A Mother's Responsibility 533 30. Poetry, Music and Health 540 31. Playing Cook 595 32. Dirty Children 622 33. Piazzas 681 34. Growing Old Happily 747 THE GUIDE-BOARD. THE BIBLF-. The Bible is of divine origin. Its Author is God. He did not write it himself. He dictated it. He influenced good men to write it. He caused a desire of writing to come over them, and they wrote, as we are impelled to write letters to kindred and dear friends, far away, by some vivid remem- brance of them. Under such circumstances we may write what is not true ; but holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Almighty Mind, who could not have moved them to write one syllable which was not strictly true in all its bearings. God is the author of one book — The Bible; man, of many. His book needed no second edition, because it con- tained all that was necessary to be known on the great sub- ject of which it treated ; and all it did communicate was true, without any admixture of error. Not so with the work of man. No sooner is it written than he discovers mortif^'^ing errors and inaccuracies, and ho alters and amends until he dies. As years pass on, anm y oiu* body, pure air puts the finishing stroke of perfection to the new particles which are to take their place, and the whole body, in proportion, becomes new and fresh, and healthful and young. And whatever advice is given you in other printed or written papers, it is designed as an aid to bring about these things in a shorter time and easier way. This aid is needed in most cases, because, unfortunately, the disease has been neglected or mistreated so long, that nature has lost the power, to a great extent, of helping herself, and medicine must be taken, or the patient perish. There are two dangers in taking exercise, that of overdoing it, and of getting cool too quick afterwards. Therefore observe the following rules : — If you ride and walk on any occasion, do the riding first, then the walk will warm you up ; but riding after a walk, you get chilled before you know it. At the end of a ride or walk, do not for a singi*? moment sit or stand still anywhere out of doors, nor on damp places, nor on stone or iron seats. Never end a walk or ride in a new building, or in a room which has been closed for some days, or has no fire in it, especially in winter. Walk quickly, cheerfully, with the chin on or above a horizontal line. Make no other efibrt to walk straight, except thus to elevate your chin ; in other words, hold up 3^our head. Breathe habitually with your mouth closed, in damp or cold weather ; and iu going into the out-door air, close it before you leave the house, and keep it closed until you get warm, especially after speaking or singing. Embrace every opportunity of running up a pair of stairs, or up a hill, with the lips closed : a dozen times a day, if pos- sible. A rapid run of fifty or a hundred yards and back, three or four times a day, with the mouth closed, will be of inestimable advantage. The reasons you can study out at your leisure. AIR AND EXERCISE. 21 But simple as these things are, never attempt them without the special advice of an experienced physician, for in certain forms of heart aflections, as every practitioner well knows, as also iu one or two other ailments, such exercises would, in some cases, cause certain and speedy death. It is of high importance to the healthy who wish to keep PC, and to the sick who are in search of so gi*eat a happiness as that of being sound and well again, to breathe habitually with the lips closed in cold weather : in going from a warmer to a cooler, or from a cooler to a warmer atmosphere, the injury is perhaps equally great either way. Close the mouth before leaving a concert room, or church, or other warm apartment, and keep it resolutly closed until you have walked far and fast enough to have hastened the circulation of the blood, and made it more full, as well as active. In going into a ^^ arm apartment, from the cold, out-door air, the same direction is not of less importance ; nor should you go at once to the fire ; a delay of two or three minutes is sufficient in this case. The object, in both cases, is the same, to prevent a sudden transition from heat to cold, or the con- trary. Such sudden transitions give pain to the solid tooth, or discomfort when made to a single square inch of the skin ; and when it is remembered that the air passages are among the most delicate structures of the body, and that the lungs, if spread out on a wall, would cover a surface ten times larger than the whole skin would do, the importance of the subject must strongly impress every reflecting mind. With the above precaution, you need not be afraid of out- door air, night or day, as long as you are in notion sufficient to keep ■ off a feeling of chilliness; hence, in cold weather, exercise on foot is preferable to riding. While walking in moderately cold weather, the hands should be covered with a thin pair of gloves, such as silk or thread, and woollen ones iu midwinter. If you have to ride iu winter, endeavor to have clothing enough to prevent ix feeling of cJiilliness, but be care- ful to w^ear a loose fitting boot or shoe ; never put on a new pair, winter or summer, when starting on a journey, or coming to the city. In very cold or windy weather, ride in a close carriajre. S2 HORSE BACK EXE BOISE. HORSEBACK EXERCISE. Riding ou horseback is, perhaps, of all others, the most mauly, elegant, and efficient form of exercise. In the first place, it cannot be taken without being out of doors ; then it enables you to breathe a larger amount of fresh air than if walking, because you pass through a greater space in less time, and consequently a greater number of layers, or rather sections, of fresh air come in contact with the nostrils, with less fatigue. Another advantage is, that all the muscles of the body are exercised in moderation, and, to a certain extent, rt to break up these habits. For ten days and nights he was not con- scious of one moment of sleep ; he w^as half delirious for several days ; the blood in his veins felt like boiling water, TOBACCO: ITS USE AND END. 43 aud rushed with such fury to the head as to uiakc him feel as if it Avould split open. For a whole year he was as fcel)lo as a child, "a walking depository of aches and distressing sensations." He then quitted his profession, and retired to the country to study law. He was attacked with neuralgia in the head and face ; this at length became unendurable, and he was advised to take morphine and quinine, which fixed the habit of using opimii as firmly as ever. For two years he made no decided eifort to escape from his habits, when he applied for admission into an asylum, and for eighteen months never f ;lt well, free from pain "for one remembered day." Troubles came, aud he returned to the use of his opiate, and continued for two years, when he found himself using sixty grains of sulphate of morphine, that is, nearly nine grains a day, or thirty-six times more than a common dose for a strong man, — enough to destroy life in a few hours. He now took charge of a country parish, where he remained for two years ; but found it impossible to perform his official duties, mentally or physically, without the aid of a quarter of an ounce of morphine, and sometimes more, a week, which ia equal to some seven hundred grains of opium, or sixty drops to a dram or tea-spoonful, — equalling ten table- spoonfuls of laudanum a day, or twenty-four hundred drops ; and when it is remembered that half a drop of laudanum is considered a dose for a young infant, the reader may have some idea of the magnitude of the daily portion. He is now striving to do with from half an ounce to an ounce of opium a week, averaging some five table-spoons of laudanum a day. Time only can tell the end of this strife. Most probably it will be the gutter and the grave. Will any young man, especially any aspirant for the min- istry, after reading this statement of actual facts, dare allow the first, or another particle of tobacco, or any other mere stimulant, ever pass his lips? You are commanded to pray every day, " Lead us not into temptation ; " can you thus pray, as often as the morning comes, that you shall not be aoandoned to the power of temptation, and j^et that very day, perhaps that very hour, first expose and then yield yourself to it? If so, then it well becomes you to investigato auew "what manner of spirit ye are of." 44 BRONCHITIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. The author feels that any comment on the history just given would l3ut weaken it, and he yields the young reader to the power of fact and conscience. BRONCHITIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. There is no necessary reason why men should not generally live to the full age of threescore years and ten, in health and comfort. That they do not do so, is because flieT/ consume too much food and too little pure air; they take too much medi- cine and toi little exercise. And when, by inattention to IhesG things, they become diseased, they die chiefly, not because such disease is necessarily fatal, but because the symptoms, which Nature designs to admonish of its pres- ence, are disregarded, until too late for remedy. And in uo class of ailments are delays so uniformly attended with fatal results as in affections of the throat and hm2:s. II ow- ever terril)le may have been the ravages of the Asiatic cholera in this country, I know of no locality where, in the course of a single year, it destroj^ed ten per cent, of the population. Yet, taking England and the United States together, twenty per cent, of the mortality is, every year, from diseases of the lungs alone. Amid such a fearful fatality, uo one dares say he shall certainly escape, while every one, without exception, will most assuredly suffer, cither in his own person or in that of some one near and dear to him, by this same universal B«;ourge. No man, then, can take up these pages who is not hitercsted, to the extent of life and death, in the important inquiry, WJtat can be done to mitigate this gi^eat evil? It is not the object of this article to answer that question, but to act it out ; and the first great essential step tjiercto is to im- press upon the common mind, in language adapted to common readers, a proper understanding of the first symptoms of these ruthless diseases. Every reader of common intelligence, and of the most ordinary observation, must know that countless numbers of people, in every direction, have been saved from certain death, by having understood the premonitory symptoms of BRONCniTIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. 45 cholera, and acting up to their knowledge. The pliysician does not live, mIio, in the course of ordinary practice, cannot point to a little army of the prematurely dead, who have paid the forfeit of their lives by ignorance or neglect of the early symptoms of consumptive disease. Perhaps the reader's own heart is, this instant, smitten at the sad recollection of similar cases in his own sphere of observation. This bock is not intended to recommend a medicinal pre- ventive, or a patented cure for the diseases named at the head of this article: it will afford no aid or comfort to those who liope, by its perusal, to save a doctor's fee, by a trifling tam- pering with their constitutions and their lives. Nor is it wished to make you believe that if you come to me I will cure you. If you have symptoms of disease, I wish you to auderstand their nature first ; and then to take advice from some regularly educated physician, who has done nothing to forfeit, justly, his honorable standing among his brethren, by the recommendation of secret medicines, patented contri- vances, or travelling lecturers for the cure of certain diseases. I may speak of persons in these pages who had certain symp- toms, and, coming to me, were permanently cured. You may have similar sj^mptoms, and yet I may be able to do you no good. I have sometimes failed to cure persons who had no symptoms at all. In other cases, where but a single Bymptoni of disease existed, and it, apparently, a very trivial one, the malady has steadil}^ progressed to a fatal termination, in spite of every effort to the contrary. The object of these Etatements is to have it understood that I make no engage- ment to cure au}' thing or anybody. The first great purpose i;? to enable you to understand properly any symptoms which you may have that point towards disease of the lungs ; and, when you have done so, to persuade you not to waste your ilme, and money, and health in blind efforts to remove them, by taking stuff, of which you know little, into a body of which you know less ; but go to a man of respectability, and stand- ing, and experience, — one in whom you have confidence; one who depends upon the practice of his profession for a living; describe your symptoms according to your ability, place 3'our health and life in his hands, and be assured that thus you, and millions of others, will stand the highest chance 46 BRONCHITIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. of altaining a prosperous, cheerful, and green old age. The rule should be universal, and among all classes, not only never to take an atom of medicme for anything, but not to tcike anything as a medicine, — not even a tea-spoon of com- jnou sirup or French brandy, or a cup of red pepper tea, unless by the previous advice of a physician ; because a spoon- ful of the purest, simplest sirup, taken several times a day, will eventually destroy the tone of the healthiest stomach : and yet any person almost would suppose that a little sirup ^^ could do no Jiarm, if it did no good." A table-spoon of good brandy, now and then, is simple enough, and yet it has made a wreck and ruin of the health, and happiness, and hope of multitudes. If these simple^ that is, well-known things, in their j^urity, are used to such results, it requires but little intelligence to understand that more speedy injuries must follow their daily employment, morning, noon, and night, when they are sold in the shape of "sirups," and "bitters," and "tonics," wdth other ingredients, however ^'simple" they, too, may be. The common-sense reader will consider these sentiments reasonable and right, and think it a very laudable desire to diffuse information among the people as to the symptoms of dangerous, insidious, and wide-spreading diseases ; but he will not be prepared for the information, that the publication of such a book as this will be considered " unprofessional " by some. But latitude must be allowed for difference of opinion, else all progress is at an end. Whoever lends a helping hand to the difi'usion of useful knowledge, is, in proportion, the benefactor of his kind. Whether it be useful for man to know the nature and first symptoms of a disease which is destined to destroy one out of every six in the country, is a question which each one must decide for himself. I belief o that such an effort is useful, and hereby act accordijigly. Experienced physicians constantly feel, in reference to per- sons who evidently have consumption, that it is too iatc, because ihe application had been too long delayed. The great reason why so many delay is, because they "did not think it was anything more than a slight cold." In other words, they w^ere entirely ignorant of the difference between the cough of a common cold and the cough of consumption, DRONCniTIS, AND KINDBED DISEASES. 47 find the general symptoms attendant on the two. It is not [inicticable for all to study medicine, nor is it to bo expected that, for every cough one has, he shall go to the expense of taking medical advice ; it therefore seems to me tlie dictate of humanity to make the necessary information more acces- sible, and I know of no better way to accomplish this object than by the general distribution of a work like this : aiid when I pretend 1o no new principle of cure, no specific, and no ability of s access, beyond what an entire devotion to one disease may give any ordinary capacity, no further apology 13. necessary. TIIROAT-AIL, oi laryngitis, pronounced lare-in-GKE-tis , is an affection of the top of the windpipe, where the voice-making organs are, ansAvering to tlie parts familiarl}^ called "Adam's apple." When these organs are diseased the voice is impaired, or " there is someiJiing icroug about the sivalloiv.'" BRONCHITIS, pronounced hron-KHE-tis, is an affection of the hranches of the windpipe, and, in its first stages, is called a common cold. CONSUMPTION IS an affection, not of the tojo or root of the windpipe, for that is throat-ail ; not of the body of the windpipe, for that ia croiqj ; not of the brandies of the windpipe, for that is broil' chitis; but it is an affection of the lungs themselves, which are millions of little air-cells, or bladders, of various sizes, from that cf a pea downwards, and arc at the extremities of the branches of the windpipe, as the buds or leaves of a tree are at the extremity of its branches. What are the Symptoms of Tliroat-All? — The most uni- versal symptom is an impairment of the voice, which is more or less hoarse or weak. If there is no actual want of clear- ness of the sounds, there is an instinctive clearing of the throat, by swallowing, hawking, or hemming, or a summing uj) of strength to enunciate words. "When this is contimied for some tune, there is a sensation of tiredness about tho 48 BRONCHITIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. throat, a dull, heavy aching, or general feeling of discomfort or uneasiness, coming on in the afternoon or evening. In the early part of the day there is nothing of the kind perceptible, as the voice-muscles have had time for rest and the recovery of their powers, during the night. In the beginning of this disease no inconvenience of this kind is felt, except some urusual effort has been made, such as speaking or singing in public. But as it progresses, these symptoms manifest Ihemselves every evening ; then, earlier and earlier in the day, until the voice is clear only for a short time soon in the morn- ing ; next there is a constant hoarseness or huskiness frcra 'week to month, when the case is most generally incurable, and the patient dies of the common symptoms of consumptive disease. In some cases the patient expresses himself as having a iensation as if a piece of wool or blanket were in the throat, or an aching or sore feeling running up the sides of the neck, towards the ears. Some have a burning, or raw, sensation at the little hollow at the bottom of the neck ; others, about "Adam's apple"; while a third class speak of such a feeling, or a pricking, at a spot along the sides of the neck. Among others, the first symptoms are a dryness in the throat after speaking or singing, or while in a crowded room, or when waking up in the morning. Some feel as if there were some unusual thickness or a lumpy sensation in the throat, at the upper part, removed at once by swallowing it away ; l)ut soon it comes back again, giving precisely the feelings whic h some persons have after swallowing a pill. Sometimes this frequent swallowing is most troublesome after meals. Throat-ail is not, like many other diseases, often getting well of itself by being let alone. I do not be- li(!ve that one case in ten ever does so, but, on the contr?iy, gradually grows worse, until the voice is permanently husky or subdued ; and soon the swallowins: of solids or Huids be- comes painful, food or drink returns throuirh the nose, causinn: a feeling of strangulation or great pain. When throat-ail symptoms have been allowed to progress to this stage, death is almost inevitable in a very few weeks. Now and then a I'.ase may be saved, but restoration here is almost in the nature of a miracle. BRONCHITIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. 49 \V7iat are the Sym2')toms of Bronchitis? — Bronchitis is a hiid cold, and the experience of every one teaches what its symptoms are. The medical name for a cold is acute brou' cJiitis: called acute^ because it comes on at once, and la&ts but a short time, — a week or two, generally. The ailment that is commonly denominated bronchitis is what physicians term chronic broncJiitis : called chronic^ because it is a long time in coming on, and lasts for months and years, instead of day3 and Aveeks. It is not like throat-ail or consumption, which have a great many symptoms, almost any one of which may be absent, and still the case be one of throat-ail or con- sumption ; but bronchitis has three symptoms, every one of which are present every day, and together, and all the time, in all ages, sexes, constitutions, and temperaments. These three universal and essential symptoms are, — 1. A feeling of fulness, or binding, or cord-like sensation about the breast. 2. A most harassing cough, liable to come on at any hour of the day or night. 3. A large expectoration of a tough, stringy, tenacious, sticky, pearly, or grayish-like substance, from a table-spoon- ful to a pint or more a day. As the disease progresses, this becomes darkish, greenish, or yellowish in appearance ; some- times all three colors may be seen together, until at last it is uniformly yellow, and comes up, without much ellbrt, in mouthfuls, that fall heavily, without saliva or mucus. AVhen this is the case, death comes in a very few weeks, or — days. What are the Symptoms of Consumption? — A gradual wasting of breath, tlesh, and strength are the three symp- toms, progressing steadily through days, and wrecks, and months, which are never absent in any case of true, active, confirmed consumptive disease that I have ever seen. A man may have a daily cough for tifty years, and not have consump- tion. A w^oman may spit blood for a quarter of a century, and not hUve consumption. A young lady may breathe forty times a minute, and have a pulse of a hundred and forty beats a minute, day after day, for wrecks and months together, and not have consumption; and men, and w^omen, and 3'ouug ladies may have pains in the breast, and sides, and shoulders, 50 BRONCHITIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. and flushes in the cheeks, and night-sweats, and swollen ankles, and yet have not an atom of consumptive decay in the lungs. But where there is a slow, steady, painless decline of flesh, and strength, and breath, extending through weeks and months of time, consumption exists, in all persons, ages, and climes, although, at the same time, sleep, bowels, appe- tite, spirits, may be represented as good. Such, at least, are the results of my own observation. The great, general, common symptoms of consumption of the lungs are, night and morning cough, pains about the breast, easily tired in walking, except on level ground, shortneps of breath on slight exercise, and general weakness. These are the symptoms of which consumptive persons com- plain, and as they approach the grave these symptoms gradually increase. How does a Person get TJiroat-Ail? — A woman walked in the Park, in early spring, until a little heated and tired ; then sat down on a cold stone. Next day she had hoarseness, and a raw, burning feeling in the throat, and died within the year. A man had sufiered a great deal from sick headache. He was advised to have cold water poured on the top of his head : he did so ; he had headache no more. The throat became afiected ; had frequent swallowing, clearing of throat, filling of jjalate, voice soon failed in singing, large red splotches on the back part of the throat, and white lumps at either side ; but the falling of the palate, and interminable swallowing were the great symptoms, making and keeping him nervous, irri- table, debilitated, and wretched. He was advised to take oft' the uvula, but would not do it. Had the nitrate of silver applied constantly for three months. Tried homoeopathy. After suffering thus two years, he came to me, arid, on u subsequent visit, said, "It is wonderful, that for two yean 1 have been troubled with this throat, and nothing would relieve it, and now it is removed in two days." That was four months ago. I saw him in the street yesterday. He said his throat gave him no more trouble ; that he had no more chilliness, and had never taken a cold since he came under my care, although formerly " it was the easiest thing in the world to take cold." BRONCniTIS, AND KIND BED DISEASES. 51 A merchant slept in a steamboat state-room, in Decem- ber, with a glass broken out. AYoke up next morning with a hoarseness and sore throat. For several months did nothing, then applied to a physician. Counter-irritants were employed, without any permanent etlect. At the end of four years, he came to me with "a sort of uneasy feeling about the throat, more at times than others, — not painful ; sometimes a little hoarseness, Avith frequent inclination to SAvallow, or clear the throat. At the little hollow at the bottom of the neck, just above the top of the breast-bone, there was a feeling of pressure, stricture, or enlargement, — no pain, but an un- pleasant sensation ; sometimes worse than at others. It is absent for days at a time, and then lasts for several hours a day." This case is under treatment. A clergyman has a hoarse, cracked, weak voice, easily tired in speaking ; a raw sensation in the throat, and in swallowing has "a fish-bony feeling. ^^ lie had become over- heated in a public address, and, immediately after its close, started to ride across a prairie, in a damp, cold wind, in February. Had to abandon preaching altogether, and be- come a school-teacher. This gentleman wrote to me for advice, and, having followed it closely for eighteen days, reported himself as almost entirely well. I greatly desire it to be remembered here, that in this, as in other cases of throat-ail, however perfectly a person may be cured, the disease will return as often as exposure to the causes of it, in the first place, is permitted to occur. No (ure, however perfect, will allow a man to commit with impunity such a thoughtless and inexcusable act as above named, that of riding across a prairie in February, in a damp, cold wind, within a few minutes after having delivered an excited address in a warm room. None of us are made out of India-rubber or iron, but of flesh and blood, and a reason- able soul, subject to wise and benevolent conditions and restrictions ; and it is not to the discredit of physic or physi- cians that, being once cured, the disease should return as often as the indiscretion that originated it in the first instance is re-committed. Three weeks ago one of our merchants came to me with a troublesome tickling in the throat. At first it was only 52 BRONCHITIS, AND KINDRED DISEASES. a tickling ; but for some weeks the tickling compels a frequent clciiring of the throat; and, without a cough, each clearing, or hemming, brings up half a tea-spoonful of yellow matter, Mith some saliva. On looking into his throat, the whole back part of it was red, with still redder splotches here and there ; epiglottis almost scarlet. Ou inquiry, I found he had for years been a chewer of tobacco ; then began to smoke ; w^ould, day after day, smoke after each meal, but especially after tea Avould consume half a dozen cigars. In time, the other naturally consequent steps would have been taken, — con- sumption and the grave. Among other things, I advised him to abandon tobacco absolutely, and at once. In two weeks he came again. Throat decidedly better ; in every respect better, except that he, in his own opinion, "had taken a little cold," and had a constant slight cough, — not, by any means, a trifling symptom. Let the reader learn a valuable lesson from this case. This gentleman had the causes of cough before ; he found that smoking modified the tickling, and, taking this as an indication of cure, he smoked more vigorously, and thus suppressed the cough, while the cause of it was still burrowing in the system, and widening itg ravages. It will require months of steady effort to arrest the progress of the disease, and he may consider himself fortu- nate — more so than in any metjantile speculation he ever made — if he gets well at all. If he does get well, and re- turns to the use of tobacco, the disease will as certainly return as that the same cause originated it ; for the following reason : Throat-ail is inflammation ; that is, too much heat in the parts. Tobacco-smoke, being warm, or even hot, is drawn directly back against the parts already too much heated, and, very niiturally, increasing the heat, aggravates the disease. Again : any kind of smoke — that of common wood — is irritating, much more that of such a powerful poison as trbacco, — soothing, indeed, in its first transient efi"ects, like many other poisons, but leaving behind it conse- quences more remote, but more destructive and enduring. A gentleman, just married, with a salary for his services as secretary to a Southern house, applied to me to be cured of a sore throat. He was permanently hoarse ; swallowing food was often unendurably painful, besides causing violent BRONCHITIS. AND KINDRED DISEASES. 53 paroxysms of cou ANNUAL AILiMENTS. Some persons are sick once a year. In some cases, tbo regularity is such, that, on the very same day of each return- ing year, their " old enemy " makes his unwelcome appear- ance. These ailments are various ; with some, it is an attack of sick headache ; others have an entire loss of appetite ; a third person has some kind of an eruption. Kegular annual returns of " biliousness " are very common ; a sore leg, a chronic head-ache, or bleeding from the nose or lungs, afflict others. One man has a yearly " sneezing spell," another a most uncomfortable watering of the e^^es or nose, while the great mass of people have "the spring fever," which was a familiar by-word in our school-boy days, and was a covert way of telling one that he was lazy ; for while there was no decided sickness, no special ailment, yet there was such a vis inertia^ such a power of doing nothing, that an epithet of some kind was needed. On the approach of warm weather, in the month of April, and more decidedly so in May, we are all sensible of a want of usual vigor ; an indefinable languor pervades the w^hole man, mind and body ; when we sit down, we feel like staying there. It is really an effort to undertake anything ; we drag ourselves along to necessary work ; and as for getting up in the morning, we are never ready to do it. We wake soon enough, especially when there is some little yearling to crawl over and manipulate the nose, or explore the eye, Avith a straight finger suddenly converted into a hook, and then drawn out with infinite glee ; no gesture, or growl, or impatient turning over, frightens away the little lishermau ; in fact, he rather likes it ; it is real fun to him. Then, incontinently, he makes a grab at proboscis with his Boft, warm, tiny hand, and misses it just enough to let two or three sharp finger-nails " make their mark " for an inch or 60 in parallel lines ; at length the corner of one unwilling eye is opened with the express purpose of seeing in what direction you must send your frown, when you find two of the sweetest little peepers playing upon you so confiding, so loving, so twinkling with gleesomeness, that, pressing the tiny tor* 76 ANNUAL AILMENTS. mentor to your bosom, you smother him with kisses, and are fairly waked up. This is the sweetest alarm-clock in all nature, and the most effectual. As regular as the dawn, too, while it practises, — a perseverance worthy of a better cause than breaking up a summer morning's nap. Perhaps the reader may remember that we were speaking of the " spring fever," that universal lassitude which makes us mere automata at the departure of cold weather. But this is not the only symptom. The appetite begins to flag, our meals come before we are ready for them, and we sit down to them un- willingly ; if we enjoy the bliss of boarding, we begin to com- plain of the landlaly, or lord, as the case may be, and grumble threats of making a change ; that the table is not as good as it used to be, and the old saw about " new brooms,'' and their performances, refreshes our memories; at lengtb, things begin to take a serious turn ; our clothing does not fit, it hangs like a bag ; and to quench uncertainty we get on one of Fairbanks' best, and find that we have lost in two months about " seven per cent," and pronouncing it a " ruinous rate," we promptly resolve, and with a good deal of determination, too, that we must "do something." In this case, the first resolutions are the best, but, as we think it over, we come to the conclusion that it would be better to talce something, and, as the calling in of a phj^sician endangers our largest lihert}^ and he might impose restrictions which might not be agree- able, we resolve upon a patent medicine, and, if not sooner advised, or, if having no choice ourselves, we are at a loss to determine what is best, we very wisely go to a druggist and ask him if he has not something that will do us good ; of course he has, having at least half a dollar clear interest in every bottle he sells ; or, it may be, we see an advertisement in one of the papers, reading like the following : — "certificate" A MODEL OF ITS KIND. Dear Doctor : I will be one hundred and seventy-five years old next October. For ninety years I have been an invalid, unable to move except when stirred with a lever ; but a year ago last Thursday, I heard of the Granicular Syrup. I bought a bottle, smelt of the cork, and found myself a new ANNUAL AILMENTS. 77 man. I can now run twelve and a half miles an hour, and throw nineteen double somersets without stopping. P. S. A little of your Alicumstoutum Salve applied to a Vooden leg, reduced a compound fracture in nineteen minutes, aiid is now covering the limb with a fresh cuticle of white gum pine bark. \We go at once to the "Patent Medicine Depot," and ask tlii shopman if the " Granicular " and " Alicumstoutum " are reilly good. He assures us that according to his best interest anl belief, they have cured persons " a great deal worse off " thai we are ; so to make assurance doubly sure, we purchase a bttle of each, and take a dose of both thrice a day, on the priiciple that if one medicine cures everything, two medicines wil cure all, and more too, and we will not only get well of our present ailments, but all that are to come. Thus it is, thepatent medicine men live in up-town palaces, have their beaitiful villas on the banks of the Hudson, build splendid stoES on Broadway, and drive in unexceptionable equipages ; and to make all these go in the same direction as their physic, the J head subscription lists, especially the published ones, with their hundreds and their thousands. Meanwhile we, theiis^ictims, go down to our graves, unsuspecting why or how. TJs brings us to our second reminder of " spring fever," or raher its termination. We will now take the back track, and liscourse of its cause, its cure, and its prevention. Readii*, it will save you many a sorrow, many a dollar, and, may le, many a day of glorious life, if you will take heed to our uue ranee. AVeeat about one third more in winter than in summer, bccau^ we not only have to repair the wear and waste of the systed but we eat to keep the body warm ; a portion of the food i^jonverted into fuel ; we must keep a bodily warmth of nin(^ or a hundred degrees, winter and summer ; but it is easy t< understand, that, as the thermometer is at forty in winter nd eighty in summer, less fuel is required to sustain the nat|al temperature in warm weather. Yet, if in defiance of this,^re pile on the fuel, a wreck and ruin is as inevitable as the bwing up of a steam engine, if double the necessary quantity)f steam is constantly generated. 78 ANNUAL AILMENTS. For a while after the opening of spring, we have the appe- tite of winter, and not using our knowledge, we indulge it as extensively ; and thus generating more heat than is needed, we soon begin to think " we are feverish ; " in other words, we are too warm; but, instead of making less fire, we beoin to tear down the walls of our bodily house by taking off cur winter clothing, and thus add another cause of disease md death. In a short time, however, nature comes to our rid, and, to save us, takes away our appetite ; but we, taking :his as an evidence of declining health, decide upon one of two things : either to eat without an appetite, — which is exjres- sively denominated as " forcing it down," — or we decide upon taking a tonic, forgetting that nature can neithe' be forced nor coaxed with impnnity. The effect of eating rith- out an appetite, or forcing an appetite by the use of tonrs, is the same ; that is, the introduction of more food int( the stomach than nature requires, than there are juices to diget it ; for, although you may take a tonic which whets the apptite, it does no more ; it does not increase the amount of gistric juice, for nature supplies it only in proportion to thetieeds of the system ; and if she gave as much when twenty dgrees of heat were required as when sixty were necessar , she would commit a great blunder ; this she never does when unmolested. Then we have more food in the stomaa than there is gastric juice for ; more wheat than there ar mills to grind it ; more work than there are workmen to prform. But nature has not a " lazy bone in her," but goes to "tork to do the best she can ; the food is digested, but not thorughly ; it is ground up, but not perfectly ; the work is done, >ut it is badly done ; hence an imperfect material for makig blood is furnished ; and an impure blood, an imperfect lood, is inevitable. Do not many of us recollect the old-tim custom of taking "sassafras" tea in spring, or some othe favorite remedy, with the expressed intention of " purifying tb blood ? " It is a habit with multitudes to use some kind of m^licine in the spring of the year, and, beyond all question, wii present good effect, as they all act in one way essentially, sd that is, to remove the surplus from the system. It all nounts to this : we eat in the spring more than we can disfse of, and then take medicine to get rid of it, and all for t> transient ANNUAL AILMENTS. 79 plcasiiro enjoyed for the few minutes of each day that it 13 passing down the throat. But some are "principled," as they terra it, against taking physic ; but they are not " principled " against the greater harm of eating against the appetite ; for by taking the physic they would be consuming something which might destroy others ; whereas, by eating a meal with- out an appetite, they consume — and that tD their own injury — that which would save many a famishing creature, man or beast, from starvation. None can read, without disgust, of a Roman ruler, who would eat to his full, then take au emetic, that he might eat again, or be saved from the effects of a gorge. Even this person acted more wisely than does he who eats without an appetite, and allows it to remain in him to vitiate the blood and finally destroy the body, but, in the slow process of destruction, affording time to transmit to the innocent unborn, a vitiated constitution, to afilict and plague for untold years to come. If the man could but die in the act, as it were, the world would be left the better, for there would be more left to be eaten by the more worthy, and he would not leave his slimy trail behind him in the per- son of a child. If he is said to be a real benefactor to his race who makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, what ought he to be thought of, who absolutely de- stroys food each day by forcing it down, which it would take a million blades of grass to reproduce? Eeader, do you pload guilty to having eaten without an appetite, to having "tn'ced it down?" Then do it no more, for it is a sia against yourself, against nature, and against all human kind. We are all familiar with the prevalence of bowel-complaints of all kinds, in the spring of the year, and of their fatal nature, sometimes spreading from house to house, from family to family, from neighborhood to neighborhood, like some infectious or contagious disease, and often, but most errone- ously, attributed to the use of fruits, berries, and the like , the cause is one and universal ; — it is over-eating, with its legitimate results, sour stomach, wind, loose bowels, debility, diarrhoea, dysentery, and death. Thus it is, that the more sudden the coming on of spring weather, and the hotter it is, the more sickness there will be ; while, in the fall of the year, as the weather gets colder, and however suddenly, 80 ANNUAL AILMENTS. we begin at once to gain in appetite, in vigor, in flesh and health. The remedy for spring diseases, by whatever name, is eat LESS. We do not mean that you shall starve yourself, or that you shall deny yourself whatever you like best ; for as a general rule, what you like best, is best for you ; you need not abandon the use of tea, or coffee, or meat, or anything else you like, but simply eat less of them. Eat all you did in winter, if you like, but take less in amount. Do not starve yourself, do not reduce the quantity of food to an amount which would scarcely "keep a chicken alive," but make a beginning, by not going to the table at all, unless you feel hungry ; for if you once get there, you will begin to tasto this and that and the other, by virtue of vinegar, or mustard, or syrnp, or cake, or " something nice ; " thus a fictitious appetite is waked up, and, before you know it, you have eaten a hearty meal, to your own surprise, and perhaps that, or something else, of those at table with you. The second step towards the efiectual prevention of all spring disease, summer complaints, and the like, is, diminish the amount of food consumed at each meal by one fourth of each article, and, to be practical, it is necessary to be specific ; if you have taken two cujjs of coffee, or tea, at a meal, take a cup and a half; if you have taken two biscuits, or slices of bread, take one and a half; if you have taken two spoonfuls of rice, or hominy, or cracked wheat, or grits, or farina, take one and a half; if you have taken a certain, or uncertain quantity of meat, diminish it by a quarter, and keep on diminishing in proportion as the weather becomes warmer, until you arrive at the points of safety and health, and they are two : — 1. Until you have no one unpleasant feeling of any kind ftftei your meals. 2. Until you have not eaten so much at one meal, but that when the next comes, yon shall feel decidedly hungry. If these suggestions are attended to in any community, in any spring, the physician in that locality will "book" but cweiity-five cents in the aoUar. Think, for a moment, how beautiful, and wise, and kind, is nature's mode of procedure in such cases. You may " force " yoiu* food for a while, but ANNUAL AILMENTS. 81 ftt length she goads you on until you loathe its very smell or siiiht, or even mention. And when some mistaken mother, or sister, or aunt, or granny prepares you " something nice," and before you are aware of it, places it right under your nose, with the assurance that you must take something to keep up your strength, you can only smother your impa- tience, or hold in your imprecations of left-handed blessings, at the expense of the most heroic efibrts. For days and weeks you do nothing but " sit around ; " you cit nothing, you loaf and lounge about, more dead than alive, with a counte- nance nineteen yards long, and so unfeignedly solemn to behold, as to excite the commiseration of the kind-hearted, or ihe cachiuation of the healthy. Supplies being thus effectually cut oiF, that is, the cause being first removed, nature next proceeds to work off the surplus, as the enginoor does unwanted steam ; and as soon as this surplus is got rid of, we begin to improve ; the app'e- tite, the strength, the health retoi'n by slow and safe degrees, and we at length declare we are "as veil as ever." Now, if, instead of eating against nature, we would do at once what nature will inevitably compel us to do, sooner or later, that is, lessen supplies, at the very first and faintest intimation of approaching ill, we would, if under the couusel of a regular physician, not lose an hour from our daily avo- cations, and would be as well as ever at the end of a week, instead of at the end of months, and save, too, all the mouths of sufiering, and making them, as to pleasure or business, the blanks of our existence. But the uninformed and the poor are "not able to lose time," they must work for their daily bread, and the day they cease their toil, has no bread for wife and children at its close ; thus it is that many an honest poor man, and many a widowed mother, strive to weather it out, day after day, eating without an appetite, in the mistaken notion that it keeps up their strength, until the system becomes so impreg- nated with disease, that at last they reluctantly "give up;" they find "it's no use ; " take to their bed, and but too often, not until all the restorative energies of nature are gone, and never leave, until they make it in the grave. It is this 'rain, this unwise struggle against nature, this doing more 82 THE HOURS MOST FATAL TO LIFE. than they are able, which places many an industrious wife and mother in an early grave ; the almost universal excuse is, they "can't help it," there is "so much to be done." But if they die, isn't it helped then ? with your children left to grow up in neglect, or to be brutalized over by some unprincipled, or selfish, or unfeeling, or artful successor? Mother, look on your little ones, and think of this the next time you commit the sin of doing more than you are really able, against the remonstrance of your husband, your mother, your physician, and your own judgment. According to my observation, there is not much danger of a man's overdoino: himself. The first thing the lord of cre- ation does when he gets " out of kelter," is to go to his T;^ife to be "fussed over." A half-and-half sick man is the veriest " conanny " in existence. Reader, do you know what that is ? It is the synonym of " poor shoat," in the west ; perhaps a clearer idea maybe given by the word "calf." A half-and- half sick man is a calf, for he makes a great ado about noth- ing; he whines, and complains, and grumbles, and makes you think he is very sick, and for a long time he refuses to take anything; at length, by dint of persuasion, he agrees to take what you propose ; and when you bring it to him, he is out of the notion, and says he can't, and thus he lounges about the house for days together ; whereas his wife, if nothing more had been the matter with her, would have worked it ofi", and said nothing about it. THE HOURS MOST FATAL TO LIFE. The hours of death, in two thousand eight hundred and eighty instances, of all ages, have been ascertaiued. The population from which the data are derived is a mixed popu- lation, in every respect, and the deaths occurred during a period of several years. If the deaths of two thousand eight hundred and eighty persons had occurred indifferently, at any hour during the twenty-four years, one hundred and twenty would have occurred at each hour. But this was by no means the case. There were two hours in which the proportion was THE nOURS MOST FATAL TO LIFE. 83 remarkably below this, namely, from midnight to one o'clock, when the deaths were eighty-three per cent, below the aver- age ; and from noon till one o'clock, when they were twen- ty and three-fourths per cent, below. From three to six o'clock, A. M., inclusive, and from three to seven o'clock, P. M., there is a gradual increase, — in the former of twenty- three and one-half per cent, above the average, in the latter of five and one-half per cent. The maximum of death is from five till six o'clock, A. M., when it is forty per cent, above the average ; the next, during the hour before midnight, when it is twenty-five per cent, in excess ; a third hour of excess is that from nine till ten o'clock, in the morning, being seven- teen and one-half per cent, above. From ten, A. M. to three, P. M., the deaths are less numerous, being sixteen and one-half per cent, below the average, the hour before noon being the most fatal. From three o'clock, P. ]\I., to seven, P. M., the deaths rise to five and one-half per cent, above the average, and then fall, from that hour, to eleven, P. M., averaging six and one-half per cent, below the mean. Daring the hours from nine till eleven, in the evening, there is a minimum of six and one-half per cent, below the average. Thus the least mortality is during the mid-day hours, namely, from ten to three o'clock ; the greatest, during early morning hours, — from three to six o'clock. About one-third of the total deaths were children under five years of age, and they show the influence of the latter still more strikingly. At all hours, from ten o'clock in the morning until midnight, the deaths are at, or below, the mean ; the hours from ten to eleven, A. M., from four to five, P. M.; and from nine to ten, P. M., being minima; but the hour after midnight being the lowest maximum. At all the hours from two to ten, A.M., the deaths are above the mean, attaining their maximum at from five to six, A. M., when it is forty-five and one-haif per cent, above. 84 WEAT IS CECLERA9 WHAT IS CHOLERA? Cholera is the exaggeration of intestinal vermicular motion. This definition, explained in language less professional, would do more good than all the popular recipes for the cure of cholera ever published, because it expresses the in- herent nature of cholera, and suggests the principles of cure, in its early stage, to the most unreflecting mind. The public is none the better, or wiser, or safer, for one of all the ten thousand "cures" for cholera proclaimed in the public prints, with a confidence which itself is a sufficient guarantee that, however well-informed the authors may be hi other matters, as regards cholera itself they are criminally ignorant ; for no man has a right to address the public on any subject connected with its general health, unless he under- stands that subject in its broadest sense, practically as well as theoretically. As cholera has become a general, and, perhaps, at least for the present, a permanent disease of the country, and, at this time, is more or less prevalent in every State of the Union, — and one, too, which may, at any hour, sweep any one of us into the grave, — it belongs to our safety to understand its nature for ourselves, and do what we may to spread the knowledge among those around us. A " live " cheese, or a cup of fishing-worms, may give an idea of the motion of the intestines in ordinary health. The human gut is a hollow, flexible tube, between thirty and forty feet long ; but, in order to be contained within the body, it is, to save space, arranged as a sailor would a coil of rope, for- ever moving in health, — moving too much in some diseases, too little in others. To regulate this motion is the first object of the physician in every disease. In headaches, bilious afiec- tions, costiveness, and the like, this great coiled-up intestine, usually called "the bowels," is "torpid," and medicines are given to wake it up ; and what does that cures the man. Costiveness is the foundation, — that is, one of the first be- ginnings, — or it is the attendant, of every disease known to WHAT IS CHOLERA? 85 man, in some stage or other of its progress. But the human body is made in such a manner, that a single step cannot l)e taken without tending to move the intestines. Thus it is, in the main, that those who move about on their feet a great deui have the least sickness; and, on the other hand, those who sit a great deal, and hence move about but little, never have sound health : it is an impossibility. It is a rule to which I have never known an exception. Cholera being a disease in which the bowels move too much, the object should be to lessen that motion ; and, as every step a man takes increases intestinal motion, the very first thing to be done, in a case of cholera, is to secure quietude. It requires but a small amount of intelligence to put these ideas together ; and if they could only be burnt in on every heart, this fearful scourge would be robbed of myriads of its victims. There can be no cure of cholera without quietude, — the quietude of lying on the back. The physician who understands his calling is always on the look-out for the instincts of nature ; and he who follows them most, and interferes with them least, is the one who is often- est successful. They are worth more to him than all the rigmarole stories which real or imaginary invalids pour in upon the physician's ear, with such facile volubility. If, for example, a physician is called to a speechless patient, — a stranger, about whom no one can give any information, — he knoAvs, if the breathing is long, heavy, and measured, that the brain is in danger ; if he breathes qu>ck from the upper part of the chest, the abdomen needs attention; or -f the abdomen itself mainly moves in respiration, the lungs are suffering. In violent cases of inflammation of the bowels, the patient shrinks, involuntarily, from any approach to that pai't of his person. These are the instincts of nature, and are invaluable ijuidcs in the treatment of disease. Apply this principle to cholera, or even common diarrhoea, when the bowels do not act more than three or four times a day ; the patient feels such an unwillingness to motion, that he even rises from his seat with the most unconquerable re- luctance ; and when he has, from any cause, been moving about considerably, the first moment of taking a comfortable eeat is perfectly delicious, and he feels as if he could almost S6 WHAT IS CHOLERA'} stay there always. The whole animal creation is liubjeet to disease, and the fewest number, comparatively speaking, die of sickness. Instinct is their only physician. Perfect quietude, then, on the back, is the first, the im- perative, the essential step, towards the cure of any case of cholera. To this, art may lend her aid towards making that quietude more perfect, by binding a cloth around the belly pretty firmly. This acts beneficially, in diminishing the room within the abdomen for motion. A man may be so pressed in a crowd as not to be able to stir. This bandage should be about a foot broad, and long enough to be doubled over the belly ; pieces of tape should be sewn to one end of the flannel, and a corresponding ninnber to another part, being safer and more effective fastenings than pins. If this cloth is of stout woollen flannel, it has two additional advantages, — its rough- ness irritates the skin, and draws the blood to the surface from the interior, and by its warmth retains that blood there ; thus preventing that cold, clammy condition of the skin which takes place in the last stages of cholera. Facts confirm this. When the Asiatic scourge first broke out among the German soldiery, immense numbers perished ; but an imperative order was issued, in the hottest weather, that each soldier wear a stout, woollen flannel, abdominal compress, and immediatelj' the fatality diminished more than fifty per cent. If the reader will try it, even in cases of common looseness of bowels, he will generally find the most grateful and instan- taneous relief. The second indication of instinct is to quench the thirst. When the disease, now called cholera, first made its appearance in the United States, in 1832, it was generally believed that the drinking of cold water, soon after calomel was taken, would certainly cause salivation ; and, as calomel was usually given, cold water was strictly interdicted. Some of the most heart-rending appeals I have ever noticed were for water, watei ! I have seen the patient, with deathly eagerness, mouthe the finger-ends of the nurse, for the sake of the drop or two of cold water there, while washing the face. There are two ways of quenching this thirst, — cold water, and ice. Cold water often causes a sense of fulness or oppression, and not alwaj^s satisfying ; at other times the stomach is so very WHAT IS CnOLEBA7 87 irritable, that it is ejected in a moment. Ice does not givo that unpleasant fnlncss, nor does it increase the thirst, as cold water sometimes does, while the quantity required is very much reduced. A Case. — About a year ago, I was violently attacked with cholera symptoms in a rail-car. The prominent symptoms were, a continuous looseness of the most exhausting char- acter, a deathly faintness and sickness, a drenching perspi- ration, an ovei'powering debility, and a pain as if the whole intestines wert- wrung together with strong hands, as washer- women wring 01 1 clothing. Not being willing to take medi- cine, at least for a while, and no ice being presently obtainable, at the first stopping-place I ate ice-cream, or rather endeav- ored to swallow it before it could melt. I ate large quantities of it continually, until the thirst was entirely abated. The bowels acted but once or twice after I began to use it ; I fell asleep, and next morning was at my office, as usual, although I was feeble for some days. This may not have been an actual case of Asiatic cholera, although it was prevalent in the city at that time ; but it was sufficiently near it to require some attention, and this is the main object of this article, to wit, attention to the first symptoms of cholera when it prevails. According to my experience, there is only one objection to the ice-cream treatment, and that is, you must swallow it without tasting how good it is : it must be conveyed into the stomach in as near an icy state as possible. The next step, then, in the treatment of an attack of cholera, is to quench the thirst by keeping a plate of ice beside you, broken up in small pieces, so that they may be swallowed whole, as far as practicable ; keep on chewing and swallowing the ice until the thirst is most perfectly satisfied. PEACTICAL RESULTS. The first step, then, to be taken where cholera prevails, and its symptoms are present, is, — To lie down on a bed. 2d. Bind the abdomen tightly with woolen flannel. 3d. Swallow pellets of ice to the fullest extent practicable. 4th. Send for an established, resident, regular physician. Touch not an atom of the thousand things proposed by braiua 88 WHAT IS CnOLEEAl as " simple " as the remedies are represented to be, but Avait quietly and patiently, until the arrival of your medical at- tendant. But many of my readers may be in a condition, by distance or otherwise, where it is not possible to obtain a physician for several hours, and where such a delay might prove fatal. Under such circumstances, obtain ten grains of calomel and make it into a pill with a few drops of cold water ; dry it a little by the fire or in the sun and swallow it down. If the passages do not cease Avithin two hours, then swallow two more of such pills, and continue to s^valioAV two more at the end of each two honrs until the bowels cease to give their light-colored passages, or until the physician arrives. Why 9 In many bad cases of Cholera, the stomach will retain nothing, fluid or solid, cold water itself being instantly returned. A calomel pill is almost as heavy as a bullet ; it sinks instantly to the bottom of the stomach, and no power of vomiting can return it. It would answer just as well to swallow it in powder; but the same medium w^hich would hold it in suspension while going down, would do the same while coming up. The first object of a calomel pill in Cholera, is to stop the passages from the bowels. This is nsutilly done within two hours; but if not, give two next time, on the principle, if a certain force does not knock a man down the first time, the same force will not do it the second. Hence, to make the thing sure, and to lose no time — for time is not money here, but life — give a double portion. Not one time in twenty will it be necessary to give the second dose — not one time in a thovi- sand, the third ; but as soon as your physician comes, teil him precisely what you have done, w^hat its apparent eficcts are, and then submit yourself implicitly to his direction. When the calomel treatment is effectual, it arrests the pas- sages within two hours ; and in any time from four to twelve hou4's after being taken, it afiects the bowels actively, and the passages are changed from a watery thinness to a mushy thickness or consistency, and instead of being the color of rice water, or of a milk and water mixture, they arc brown, or yellow, or green, or dark, or black as iuk, according to the violence of the attack. Never take any thing to " work olf WHAT IS CnOLEBA^ 89 calomel, if there is any passage within ten hours after it is taken ; but if there is no passage from tlie bowels Avithin ten, or at the most twelve hours after taking calomel, then take an injection of common water, cool or tepid. Eating ice or drinking cold water after a dose of calomel, facilitates its operation, and never can have any effect whatever towards causing salivation ; that is caused by there being no action from the bowels, as a consequence of the calomel, sooner than ten or twelve hours after it has been swallowed. What are the facts? I have been between two and three years in the midst of prevalent Cholera, continuously, winter and summer, the deaths being from two to two hundred a day. In all that time I had no attack, never missed a meal for the want of appetite to eat, ate in moderation whatever I liked and could get, and lived in a plain, regular, quiet way. Dur- ing this time I had repeated occasions to travel one or two thousand miles, or more, in steamboats on the Mississippi, with the thermometer among the eiglities in the shade, and over a hundred on the deck, with from one to three hundred passengers on board, many of wdiom were German emigrants, huddled up around the boilers of a Western steamer — boat- men, Dutchmen, and negroes ; men, women, and children ; pigs and puppies, hogs and horses, living in illustrated equality. These persons came aboard from a hot and dusty levee, crammed with decayed apples, rotting oranges, bad oysters, and worse whiskey; and almost invariably the report of the first morning out, would be. Cholera among the deck passengers, and the next thing, is there a physician on board? Sometimes I was the only one ; at others there were several, and we would divide. Practice of this kind is always gratui- tous, and is attended with much personal labor, discomfort, Rud exposure. On the last occasion of this kind, I treated eighteen cases, all of whom w^ere getting well, apparently, when landed along the river at their various homes, my desti- nation being, usually, as far as the boat wculd go. Thero were only two deaths — one during the first night, l)efore it was known that the cholera was aboard ; the other occurred just as the boat was landing at the young man's home ; how anxious he was to reach that home alive, no pen can ever por- tray. I did nothing for him. Before I knew he was sick, he 90 WHAT IS CUOLEBA^ was in the hands of a stranger who came aboard, and who had a remedy Avhich Avas never known to fail. During the voyage, my patients slept around the steamboilers in mid summer, or on the outer guards, exposed to the rain, which several times beat in upon them, and their bedduig, being every night just at the water's edge, and no protection against its dampness, nor against the sun in the heat of the day. And yet Avith these unfavorable attendants, not one of the iughteen died on board the "Belle Key," in her six days' jour- ney. In all these cases the treatment was uniform: quiet, ie(5, and calomel pills, Avhich last I was accustomed to carry Avith me. Some of them had been made five years, but lost none of their efficacy. Whether it AA^as the ice, or the quiet, or the pills, or faithful nature AA'hich kept these persons from dying, I do not pretend to say ; I merely state the doings and the result. My OAvn views as to the cure of cholera, as far as I have seen, are, that Avhen calomel fails to cure it, everything else will fail, and that it will cure every curable case. PEEMONITORT SYMPTOMS OF CHOLERA. The cure of this scourge depends upon the carliness with which the means are used. It can be said, Avith less limitation than of all other diseases together, that cholera more certainly kills, if let alone, and is certainly cured, if early attended to. What, then, is the earliest and almost universal sj^mptom of approaching cholera ? I have never seen it named in print us such. During the two years above referred to, I could tell in my OAvn office, without reading a paper, or seeing or speak- ing to a single person, the comparative prevalence of the dis- ease from day to day, by the sensation Avhicli I Avill name, and I hi")pe to the benefit of thousands ; and perhaps not a single reader Avill fail to respond to the statement from his OAvn ex- perience. The boAveis may be acting but once, or less than once, in twenty-four hours, the appetite may be good, and the sleep may be sound ; but there is an unpleasant sensation in the belly — I do not, for the sake of delicacy, say " stomach," for it is a perversion of terms — it is not in the stomach, nor do I call it the abdomen. Many persons don't know Avhat abdo- men means. Thousands have such good health that they have WHAT IS CHOLERA'} hi no '' realizing sense " of being the owners of such " aj)parati," or " usses" as the reader may fancy, and it is a great pleasure to me to -write in such a manner that I know my reader will understand me perfectly, without having the headache. Who wants to hunt up dictionary words when the thermometer is a hundred at the coolest spot iu his office ? It is bad enough to ha\"e to write what you know, at such a Fahrenheitical eleva- tion as I do now, but it is not endurable to be compelled to find the meaning of another by hunting over old lexicons, and, after all, running the risk of discovering that the word or phrase was, in its application, as innocent of sense as the nog- gin was of brains which used the expression. Speaking, then, of that sensation of uneasiness, without acute pain, in the region named, it comes on more decidedly after an evacuation of the bowels. In health, this act is fol- lowed by a sense of relief, or comfortableness ; but when the cholera influence is in the atmosphere, even a regular passage is followed by something of this sort, but more and more de- cided after each action over one in twenty-four hours. The feeling is not all ; there is a sense of tiredness or weariness which inclines you to take a seat ; to sit down, and maybe, to bend over a little, or to curl up, if on a bed. This sensa- tion is coming cholera, and if heeded 'vvhen first noticed, would save, annuallyl( thousands. The patient should remain on the bed until he felt as if he wanted to get up, and as if it would be pleasurable to walk about. While observing this quiet, and while swallowing lumps of ice, nothing should Lio eaten until there is a decided appetite, and what is eateu should be farina, or arrow-root, or tapioca, or cf>ru starch, or what is better than all, a mush made of rice Hour, or if preferred, common rice parched as coiFee, and then boiled, as rice is usually for the table, about twelve minutes, then strain the liquid from the rice ; return the rice to the stew pan and let it steam about a quarter of an hour, a short distance from the 6re ; it will then be done, the grains will be separate ; it may then be eaten with a little butter, at intervals of five hours. There can be no doubt that thousands upon thousands Jiavo died of cholera, who might now be living had they done nothing but observed strict bodily quietness under the prompt- ings of nature the greatest and the be.:t physician. 92 WHAT IS CHOLERA? What is a " looseness?" An indefinite description oi direc- tion in reference to health is worse than none at all. Physi- cians very generally and very greatly err in this respect, and much of their " want of success " is attriliutable to this very omission. A patient is told he " mustn't allow himself to be- come costive," mustn't eat too much, must take light suppers, mustn't over exercise. These things do much mischief. The proper way to give a medical direction is to use the most com- mon words in their ordinary sense, and in a manner not only to make them easily understood, but impossible to be misun- derstood, and to take it for granted that the person prescribed for knows nothing. How many readers of mine have an easy and complete idea of the word " expectorate " in medicine, or regeneratior. in religion? and yet the terms expectoration and regeneration are used as glibly by preacher and physician as if their meaning were self-evident. Why shoot above people's heads, and talk about justification, and sanctification, and glorification, and a great many other kinds of " ations," when the terms do not convey to one ear in a dozen any clear, well-defined, precise idea? And so, emphatically, with the words looseness and costiveness when applied to tbc bowels. They are relative terms, and a practical idea of what they are is only to be conveyed by telling what they are, and what they are not. One man will say he is very costive, and that he has not had an action from the bowels in three or four days or more ; but a failure of the bowels to act in twenty- fcur, or forty-eight, or seventy-two hours, is not of itself cos- tiveness, for the person may have had four or five passages in a single day ; then nature requires time to make up, so as to average one a day. Costiveness applies to the hardness and dryness of the alvine evacuations, and not to lelative fre- quency. A more indefinite idea prevails in reference to the more important (in cholera times at least) terms looseness, loose bowels, and the like. The expression must be measrred bg- color and consistency of the discharges in reference to cholera. We have heard and read a great deal about rice-water dis- charges. Reader of mine, — physicians, nurses, and cooks excepted, — lay this down a moment, and say if you ever saw vice watci in your life. The]], again, how is the reader to WHAT IS CnOLEBA? 93 know whether the cholera rice water is applied to rice water aa to color, or consistence, or taste, or smell. The terni "loose ness " as applied to Asiatic cholera, as a premonitory symp torn, is simply this : if, in cholera times, a man passes from his l)owcls, even but a single time, a dirty, lightish-colored fluid, of consistence and appearance, a few feet distant, of a mixture of half and half milk and water, that is a premonition of cholera begun, and he will be dead in perhaps twenty-four hours at furthest ; and as the passages become less frequent, and of a darker, or greener, or thicker nature, there is hope of life. It docs not require two such passages to make a 'ooseness ; one such is a looseness, and a very dangerous one, T^~or does it require a gallon in quantity ; a single table-spoon- ful, if it weakens, is the alarm-bell of death in cholera times. But do not suppose that if looseness of bowels is a premoni- tor}'' symptom of cholera, costiveness — that is, an action of the bowels once in every two or three days — is a preventive, or an evidence that you are in no danger ; for constipation is often a forerunner of looseness. Some of the most fatal chol- era cases I have seen were characterized by constipation pre- vious to the looseness — the patient having concluded that as there was nothing like looseness, but the very reverse, he was in no danger, and consequently had no need of carefulness in eating or drinking, or anjrthing else. Unusual constipation, that is, if the bowels, during the prevalence of cholera, act less frequently than usual, or if they even act with the same fre- quency, but the discharges are very hard or bally, then a physician should be at once consulted. That is the time vhen safe and simple remedies will accomplish more than the most heroic means, a few days or even a few hours later. THEORY OF CHOLERA. It is, in its nature, common diarrhoea intensified, just as yel- Jow fever is an intensification of common bilious fever — a concentrated form of it. But what causes this loose condition of the bowels, which is not indeed a premonitory symptom of cholera, but which is cholera itself? That which precedes the loose bowels of diarrhoea and chol- era is liver inaction : the liver is torpid ; that is, it does not abstract the bile from the blood, or if it does, this bile, instead 94 WnAT IS CHOLERA ? of being discharged, drop by drop, from the gall bladder into the top or beginning of the hitestiues, where the food passes out of the stomach into the bowels proper, is retained and more or less re-absorbed and thrown into the general circula- tion, rendering it, every hour, thicker and thicker, and more impure and black, until at length it almost ceases to flow through the veins, just as water will very easily pass along a hose pipe or hollow tube, while mush or stirabout would do so with great difficulty: and not passing out of the veins, but still coming in, the veins are at length so much distended that the thinner portions ooze through the blood-vessels. That which oozes through the blood-vessels on the iijner side of the stomach and bowels, is but little more than water, and consti- tutes the rice-water discharges, so much spoken of in this con- nection : that which oozes through the blood-vessels on the surface constitutes the sweat which bedews the whole body shortly before death ; and it is this clogging up of the tliick, black blood in the small veins which gives the dark blue ap- pearance of the skin in the collapse stage. What is the reason that the liver is torjiid, — does not work, — does not withdraw the bile from the blood? It is because the blood has become impure, and being thus, when it enters the liver it fails to produce the natural sthnu- lus, and thus does not wake it up to its healthful action, just as the habitual drinker of the best brandy fails to be put " in his usual trim" by a " villainous article." But how does the blood become impure ? It becomes im- pure by there being absorbed into the circulation what some call malaria, and others call miasm. But by whatever na'ne it may be called, this death-dealing substance is a gas arising from the combination of three substances, heat, moisture and vesretation. Without these three thinofs in combination there can be no "cholera atmosphere," — there can be no epidemic cholera in these ages of the world. Vegetable matter decom- poses at a heat of between seventy and eighty degrees, and that amount of heat, in combination with moisture and some vegetable substance, must always precede epidemic cholera. The decomposition in burial grounds, in potters' fields, or of animal matter in any stage or form, does not excite or cause cholera ; if anything, it prevents it. I have n3 disposition to WHAT IS CnOLEJiA? 95 argiie upon these points. I merely give tlicm as my views, which, I think, time und just observation will steadily corrob- orate. There are many interesting questions which might be discussed in this connection, but the article is ah-cady longer than was designed. The reader may think that he could state some strong facts in contravention of those given, but I ihinli it quite likely that on investigation, these facts of his will be corroborants. For example : how is it that cholera has raged in latitudes where snow is on the ground five or ten feet deep ? The people in such countries are generally poor ; myriads of them live in snow houses, which are bare spacc-s dug in the snow, with no outlet but one for the smoke, and in this house they live with their domestic animals, and all the family oli'al for months together, so that in the spring of the year there is a crust of many inches of made flooring, while the interioi heat from their own bodies, and from the fire for cooking purposes, is often eighty or ninety degrees. T/ie theory of cure. — I have said that a torpid liver is an immediate cause of cholera, that it does not work actively enough to separate the bile, the impure particles from the blood. Whatever, then, wakes up the liver, removes this tor- pidity ; or, in plainer language, whatever stimulates the liver to greater activit}^, — that is curative of cholera. Calomel is a medicine which acts upon, which stimulates the liver to action, with a promptness and certainty infinitely beyond all the other remedies yet known to men, and the use of any other medicine as a substitute in any plain case of cholera, is, in my opinion, a trifling Avith human life ; not that other rem- edies are not successful, but that this is more certain to act upon the liver than all others ; and what sensible man wants to try a lesser certainty in so imminent a danger. My whole view as to cholera and calomel is simply this. That while cholera is arrested and cured by a variety of other agents, calomel will cure in all these and thousands of othera where other remedies have no more effect than a thimbleful of a^hes ; that calomel will cure any case of cholera Avhich any other remedy cures, and that it will cure millions r>f other cases which no other remedy can reach ; that when cab omel fails to cure, all other things will inevitably fail. How do we know all (/n'sf The natural color of healthy 96 WHAT IS CH0LERA1 and jroperly secreted bile, is yclloAvish, hence that is the color of an ordinarily healthful discharge from the be wels ; but as the liver becomes torpid, the bile becomes greenish, and still further on, black. If you give calomel under such circumstances, black, green, or yellow discharges result, according to the degree of torpidity. When the liver gives out no bile at all, the passages are watery and light colored. The action of a calomel pill in cholera, is to arrest the dis- charges from the bowels, and this it does, usually, within two hours, and in five, eight, or ten, or twelve hours more, it starts the bowels to act again ; but the substance discharged, is no longer colorless and thin, but darker and thicker, and less debilitating, and the patient is safe in proportion as these passages are green, or dark colored. I have seen them some- times like clots of tar. PREVENTIVES OF CHOLERA. There are none, there never can be, except so far as it may be done by quietude of body and mind, by personal cleanli- ness, by regular and temperate habits of life, and the use of plain, accustomed nourishing food. Anything taken medicinally as a preventive of cholera, will, inevitably and under all circumstances, increase the liability to an attack. W7ii/9 Nothing can prevent cholera, in a cholera atmos- phere, beyond the natural agents of nutrition, except in pro- portion to its stimulating properties. The liver takes its share of the general stimulus and works with more vigor. Where the system is under the effect of the stimulus, it is safer ; but it is a first truth that the stimulant, sooner or later expends its force, as a drink of brandy, for example. That moment the system begins to fiiil, and falls as far ])elow its natural condition as it was just before, above it, and while in that condition is just as much more susceptible of cholera, as it was less liable under the action of the stimulant, until, by degrees, it rises up to its natural equilibrium, its natural con- dition. You can, it is true, repeat the stimulus, but it must be done with the utmost regularity, and just at the time the etfects of the previous one begin to subside. This, it will at once be seen, requires a nicety of observation, and correct- WHAT IS CI10LEEA7 97 uess of judgment which not one hi a multitude can bestow, saying nothing of another nicety of judgment, that of gradu- ally increasing the amount of the stimulant, so that the ell'ect sliall be kept up to the regular notch ; for a given amount of one stimulant will inevitably fail, after a few repetitions, to produce the same amount of stimulation ; and the moment that amount fails to be raised, that moment the person is more susceptible of cholera than if he had taken nothing at all. He Avho takes any medicinal agent, internal or external, for the prevention of cholera, commits an act of the most con- summate folly ; and I should consider myself an ignoramus or a knave were I to concoct a professed anti-cholera mixture. THE SUIVIMING UP. AVhen cholera is present in any community, each person should consider himself as attacked with cholera, — 1st. If the bowels act less frequently than usual. 2d. If the bowels act oftener than twice in twenty-four hours. 3d. If the discharge from the bowels is of a dirty white in color, and watery in its consistence. 4th. If he have any indefinable sensation about the belly, which not only unpleasantly reminds him that he has such an article, but also inclines him to sit down, and makes sitting down a much more pleasant operation than usual. Some persons may think that this fourth item is putting " too fine a point " on the matter, and that it is being over careful ; but I know that these very feelings do, in a vast majority of fatal cases of cholera, precede the actual "loose- ness " so universally and so wrongfully regarded as the pre- monitory symptom of cholera ; " looseness," is not a premon- itory symptom of cholera ; it is cholera begun ! Whenever cholera is prevalent in any community, it is as much actual cholera, under such circumstances, as the first little flame on the roof of a house, constitutes "a house on tire." When cholera is present as an epidemic — as a " filling upon the people," which is the literal meaning of the w^ord epidemic, in a liberal tianslation — a i)crson may have one regular action every twenty-four hours; it may not be hard 08 WEAT IS CEOLEBAI and dry, it may not be in lumps or balls, and it may be con- sistent enough to maintain its shape and form, and this ia ncitlicr too costive nor too loose, and is just what it ought to be in health ; but, at the same time, if a person in a cholera atmosphere has such a passage from the bowels, and it is fol- lowed not merely by an absence of that comfortableness and sense of relief with which all are familiar in health, but by a positive sensation, not agreeable, not painful, but unpleasant, inclining to stillness, and there is a feeling as if a slight stoop- ing, or bending forward of the body would be agreeable, — these are the premonitories of Asiatic Cholera ; and it is won- derful that they have never, as far as I know, been published in book or newspaper, for popular information. At such a stage no physician is needed, no physic is required, only quietude on the back, ice to be eaten if there is any thirst, and no food but toasted bread, and tea of some kind, green, black, sage, sassafras, or any other of the common herbs. Keep up attention to these things until you can walk without any uucomfortableness whatever, and even feel as if it were doing you good, and until you are not sensible of anything unpleasant about the belly. If you get tired of tea and toast, or if it is not agreeable to you, use in their place, boiled rice, or sago, or tapioca, or arrow-root, or corn starch, or mush made of rice flour. With all these articles, a little boiled milk may be used, or they may be eaten with a little butter, or syrup of some kind, for a change. If, under the four circumstances named on page 97, there is not an improvement in the symptoms within a very few hours, by the three things there named, to wit : — 1st. Quietude on your back, on a bed. 2d. Eating ice, if thirst v. 3d. A diet of tea and toast, or boiled rice, or some of the Btarches, then do not trifle with a holy, human life, by taking any medicine on your own responsibilit}^ nor by the advice of any unprofessional man ; but, by all means, send for a phj^si- cian. But if you have violent vomiting, or have a single lightish colored, watery passage, or even a thinnish passage every hour or two, and no physician can be had in several hours, do not wait for him, but swallow a ten-grain calomel WHAT IS QHOLERAI 99 pill, and repent it every second hour, until the symptoms iihate, or the physician urrivcs ; or, if at the end of two hour.-j after the first pill has been taken, the symptoms ht'vo become aggravated, take two calomel pills of ten grains each, and then patiently wait. If the passages stop, if the vomiting ceases, you are safe ; and if, in addition to the cessation of vomiting, or looseness, or both, the passages become green, or dark, and more consistent within eight, or tcE, or twelve hours after the first pill, and, in addition, urination returns, you will get well without anything else in addition beyond judicious nursing. The most certain indication of I'ecovery from an attack of Asiatic Cholera is the return of free urination ; for durini? the attack it ceases altogether, — a most important fact, but not known, perhaps, to one person in ten thousand, and is worth more than all other symptoms together. CAUSES OF CHOLERA. A very great deal has been uselessly written for public perusal about the causes of cholera. One person will tell you that a glass of soda gave him cholera, or a mess of huckleberries, or cucumbers, or green corn, or cabbages, which is just about as true as the almost universal error, that a bad cold causes consumption. A bad cold never did, nor ever can originate consumption, any more than the things above named originate cholera. A bad cold excites consumption m a person whose lungs are already tuberciilated, not otherwise, certainly; and so green corn, or cucumbers, or cabbages, or any other food, ivhatever it may be, which is rot well digested when it passes into the stomach, will excite cholera, when a person is living in a cholera atmosphere, and the atmosphere is made " choleric " by its holding in suspension some emana- tion which is the product of vegetable decomposition. Limestone water. — Much has been written about this agent as a cause of cholera. Those who know least are most posi- tive. It may be true to some extent, and, under some cir- cumstances, it may be an excitant of cholera ; but I cannot think it is "per se " — that it is remarkably or necessarily so. It is known that the whole southwest has suffered from cholera, New Orleans especially; yet there is scarcely a 100 WHAT IS CHOLERA? decent dwelling there which has not a cistern attached to it, above (/round, and wholly supplied by rain water ; and this is the usual drink, and it is the same case with multitudes of the better class of dwellings in the southern country As to escaping prevalent cholera, the great general rules are : — 1st. Make no violent changes in your mode of life, whether in eating, or drinking, or sleeping, or exercise. 2d. Endeavor to attain composure of mind, quietude of body, regularity of all bodily ha1)its, temperance in the use of plain, substantial, nourishing food; and let ycur drinks be a moderate amount of tea, and cofl'ee, and cold water. If ac- customed to use wine or brandy, or any other beverage or alcoholic stimulanis, make no change, for change is death. If anj'' change at all, it should be a regular, steady, system- atic increase. But as soon as the cholera has disappeared., drink no more. Fruits, in cholera times, are beneficial, if properly used. They should be ripe, raw, fresh, perfect, — should be eaten alone without cream or sugar, and without fluids of any kind for an hour after, and they should not be eaten later in the day than the usual dinner hour of two P. M. In cholera times nothing should be taken after dinner, ex- cept a piece of cold bread and butter, and a cup of tea of some kind. This, indeed ought to be the rule for all who wish to live long and healthfully. The indefinite unpleasantness in the bowels, which I have so much insisted upon as the real premonitory symptom of Asiatic cholera begun, whether there be looseness or constipa- tion, most probably precedes every acknowledged attack of cholera, from hours up to daj^s. There are no means for [)roving this certainly ; for the mass of people are too unob- gerving. But it most certainly is a safe rule, in cholera times, tc regard it as a premonitory, and to act accordingly. Whatever I have said of cholera in the preceding pages, 1 wish to be understood as applicable to what has come under my OAvn observation during the general prevalence of cholera in a community. In different states and coimtrics there are circumstances «hi(ih modify the disease, its symptoms, and everything con* WEAT IS CnOLEEAf 101 nected with it, such as locality, variety of exciting causes, their different degi'ces of virulence or concentratedness, the different habits and modes of life. These things constitute the reason of the various modes of treatment, and the great error has been in publishing a successful remedy in one local- ity, and relying upon it in another. But the treatment by quietude, ice, and calomel, is equally applicable on every spot of the earth's surface, wherever a case of epidemic cholera occurs, since the essential cause of cholera is everywhere the game, to wit, the miasm of vegetable decomposition ; the effects of that cause are the same, to wit, a failure on the part of the liver to work with sufficient vigor to withdraw the ])ile from the blood and pass it out of the system ; and the mode of removing that effect is the same, to wit, the stimu- lation of the liver to increased action. And although, in milder forms, a variety of agencies may stimulate the liver to work, aud thus restore health, yet, inasmuch as calomel is infinitely more reliable than all other liver stimulants yet known, it is recommended as having precedence of all others, on the ground previously named, that when danger is immi- nent, aud a few hours makes the difference between life and death, it is unwise to trust to a less certain agent when the more certain one is equally at hand, and is the easiest medi- cine known to be taken, as it has no appreciable taste, its bulk is exceedingly small, and by reason of its weight it sinks to the bottom of the stomach, and cannot be rejected except in rare instances. Some of my views are peculiar, perhaps. They were formed from observations made in 1832, '3, and '4, my first experiences being on a crowded steamboat which left Louis- ville, Kentucky, in October, 1832. In twenty-four hours the cholera broke out. It had just reached the west from Cana- da. No one knew anything about its nature, symptoms, or treatment, practically, and the panic was terrible. I had re- tired early. A Virginia gentleman was lying on the floor sufforins: from an attack. At midnight I awoke and found the cabin deserted, not a living creature in it, nor on the boat either, as well as I now remember ; and everj^ berth but mine was entirely divested of its bedding. The man had died, and they were airmg the boat, while a few were engaged in depos- 102 WHAT IS CHOLERA 7 iting him at the foot of a tree in a coarse wooden box, on the banks of the Ohio. The boat was bound for St. Louis, but few of her passengers to that port, or officers, lived to re^ch tlieir destination. I was young, then, had perfect health, and knew no fear. Ever since that terrible " trip," and the expe- riences of the following years, every thing that I have seen or read on the subject of cholera has seemed to me to confirm the views advanced in the preceding pages, and 1 trust that general readers, as .well as professional men, who may chance to see this article, wdll hereafter direct their attention to all facts bearing upon cholera, and notice how far such observed facts will bear them out in concluding, 1st, that epidemic Asiatic cholera cannot exist aside from moisture, heat, and vegetable matter; 2d, that quietude, ice, and calomel will cure where anything else will, and will succeed in multitudes of cases where all things else have signally failed. CALOMEL PREJUDICES. If, then, calomel is such an admirable agent in cholera, why is it not universally used ? I might as well ask, if honesty is the best policy, why are not the majority of men honest from principle ? It is because the majority of men are ignorant or misinformed. Many persons do not know the power of calo- mel in curmg cholera, while others are afraid of it because it sometimes salivates. Suppose it does, better to run the risk of salivation than to die. And even if salivated, a man is not necessarily permanently injured by salivation. I have been badly salivated several times, very many years ago, but I be- lieve I have as good health as most men. I do not recollect to have lost three meals from sickness in fifteen j^ears past, except from sea-sickness, and no doul)t there are tens of thou- sands of persons, who have been salivated, who can speak eimilarly. But the objection is perfectly childish when it is rememliercd that perhaps a thousand persons in succession may take calomel, and not two in the thousand be salivated. I might s;iy not two in ten thousand, and that in a vast major- ity of those who are not designedly salivated, this salivation is the result of injudicious administration ; thus. Salivation is caused by keeping the system too long under file influence of calomel, in two ways : — WEAT IS CHOLERA f 103 1st. By giving small doses at short intervals. 2cl. By giving an amount so small that it fails to work itself off in ten or twelve hours. 3d. By giving a larger amount, but mixing opium in some form or other wdth it ; for in all case the more opium or other anodyne you give with a dose of calomel, the longer it will 1 e in producing its legitimate action. The best method of administerinor calomel is to srive enough at one time to make it act of itself within twelve hours, and if it does not act within that time, take an injec- tion of half a pint of tepid water, or a table spoonful of salts in a half pint of warm water every hour until the bowels do act. Any action of the bowels at all after six hours since taking the calomel, may be set down as an action from calo- mel, and nothing need be done to " work it off." If salivation is not designed, it is not best to give a dose of calomel oftener than once a week. By observing the two rules just stated, I do not believe that any general practitioner will have one case of undesired salivation in ten years' practice. It is important for the reader to remember that there are sporadic cases, that is, scattering cases of cholera, which may not be preceded by constipation or looseness of bowels, or uneasiness sufficiently decided to have attracted the observa- tion of the patient ; for in many cases, the patient declares that he ''felt " as well as he ever did in his life ; or acquaint- ances remark that he ''appeared " to be in perfect health, and yet to-day he is dead of cholera. Yet I very much doubt if a case of cholera ever occurred without the premonitions above named, in a greater or less degree. Still, for all practical pur- poses, and to be on the safe side, let no one who has loose- ness to-day, in cholera times, conclude that it cannot be chol- era, because he " felt" so and so the day before, or because no premonitions were observed ; rather let him conclude they were slight or unobserved, and act as he should do if he were perfectly assured that he had at that moment in his own per- son, undisputed epidemic Asiatic cholera. The truth is, it is as impossible for a man in perfect health to be stricken down in a moment with a dangerous disease, as it is for a man who has been honest from principle for a lifetime, to become in a day a forger or a swindler. 104 WHAT IS CHOLERA? As far as my observation has extended, I believe that the most frequent of all exciting causes of cholera is, going to bed too soon after a hearty meal, whether it be a late dinner, or merely a supper of fruits and cream or milk, with sugar. I think that eating freely of fruits or berries, ripe, raAv, and perfect, with any fluid after them, and then going to bed in an hour or two, will excite cholera in cholera times. I am inclined to think that huckleberries, with cream or milk, except in very small quantity, make a dangerous dish in cholera times. It may subserve a good purpose to remark that I have written on this subject, not to support a theory, but to draw attention to the suggestions, and, least of all, to obtain a cholera practice. I never treated a cholera case except gra- tuitously. I do not visit persons out of my office, except in rare cases. I prescribe only for those who come to see me, and who write to me ; and my practice is closely confined to ailments of the throat and lungs, and has been for ten or fifteen years. I will close the subject by answering an inquiry which, no doubt, has occurred to the reader as a conclusive refutation of all that I have said as to the fundamental cause of cholera, to wit : — If cholera is the result of heat, moisture, and vegetable matter in combination, why has it not prevailed from time immemorial? Because the climates of the world, and of the various countries of the earth, the constitutions, and habits of life, and modes of living, are constantly changing; hence new diseases are making their appearance from time to time, while others have vanished from the world. And when a single element of many is changed, an entire new combination may be the result. But whatever may be that new, or changed, element, it can no more, as far as our present knowledge ex- tends, excite epidemic cholera, without the aid of vegetable decomposition, than powder can be ignited without the aid of fire. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. While cholera prevails, no marked change should be made as to the general habits of a regular temperate life, as long as tlie person feels entirely well ; but the moment the great pre- WEAT IS CE0LEBA9 105 monitory symptom is observed, even in a slight clcgrcc, to wit, an indefinable uncomforlahleness in the belly ^ inclining to rest, then an instantaneous change should be made from physical activity to bodily rest ; from mental activity to men- tal relaxation ; from the habitual use of wines, or malt, or other alcoholic drinks, to total abstinence, — from everything of the kind, using ice or ice-water as a substitute, or cold spring water, a few swallows only in any twenty minutes ; but if ice is to be had, and there is thirst, it may be eaten continuously from morning until night. Whatever may have been the diet before, it should bo changed at once to tea and toast, or cold bread and butter with plain meat, salted or fresh, whichever is relished most. I mean that these changes should be made on the first appear- ance of belly-uncomfortableness ; and if iu six or eight hours you arc not decidedly better, send for a physician ; if you are better, continue your own treatment until the feeling in the belly has entirely disappeared, and you have a desire to walk about, and experience a decided relief in doing so. If you have over two (or three at most) passages within twenty-four hours, do not make an experiment on your life by taking even a calomel pill, simple as it is, unless it be wholly impracticable to obtain a physician within three or four hours. DIET m CHOLERA TIMES. If you have no especial liking for one thing more than another, and have not even the premonitory symptom, to wit, the helhj-uneasinesSy then the following diet will render you more secure : — BreaTxfast. — A single cup of weak coffee or tea, with toasted bread, or cold bread and butter, and a small piece of salt meat, ham, beef, fish, or the like, and nothing else. Dinner. — Cold bread, roasted or broiled fresh meat of gome kind, potatoes, rice, hominy, samp, or thickened gruel. For Dessert. — Rice, or bread-pudding, or sago, arrow- root, tapioca, farina, corn-starch, prepared in the usual man- ner, and nothing else, fiuid or solid. Tea, or Sujjjier. — A single cup of weak tea of some kind, or coffee, with cold bread and butter, — nothing else. Eat nothing between meals ; go to bed at a regular hour, — 106 OUB FOOD AND DRINK. not later than ten o'clock ; attend to your business with great moderation, avoiding hurry, bustle, worriment of mind; weai thin woollen flannel next the body, during the day, — air it well at night, sleeping in a common cotton night-garment ; remain in bed of mornings, after you have waked up, until you feci rested in all your limbs ; but do not, by any means, take a second nap. Do not sleep a moment in the day time, and let all your enjoyments and recreations be in great moderation. Fruits have not been named, because it is so difficult to get them fresh, ripe, perfect, — many looking so, are wormy. Except potatoes, no vegetables are named, because they more readily sour on the stomach, require more power of digestion, while they do not afford as much nutriment and strength to the body in proportion. OUR FOOD AND DRINK. It is worth the effort of a life-time to be able to die well, — to die without pain, and in a well-grounded hope of happiness beyond. To die without pain, we must live in health, and live a long time. As a very general rule, those who live to great age pass away without apparently suffering, as if they were going to sleep. The great secret of a long and health- ful life lies in the judicious use of what we eat and drink. What is judicious we propose to discuss ; but not in such a ■way as to dictate dogmatically what this or that one shall use, but to let each one decide for himself, under the guidance of a few general principles, founded on observed facts, not on imagined fallacies. On the 6th day of June, 1822, a robust, hearty French Canadian, of eighteen years, was accidentally shot in the left side. The wound healed, but left an opening in the stomach, which allowed the physician to see, at any time, what was passing inside ; and for the space of fifteen years, a gi-eat variety of experimeuts were made, and observations taken; and in the light of these we make our way. In clear, cool, dry weather, a thermometer, introduced into the stomach, settled at one hundred degrees, Fahrenheit. In OUR FOOD AND DRINK. 10? raw, damp, cloudy weather, it rtmaiued stationary at niucty- four. One point gained, then, is, that the temperature of an empty and healthy stomach, in good weather, is about ono hundred degrees. Soon after a meal is eaten, the temperature of the stomach is slightly increased, digestion goes on healthily and well, and, in four or five hours, the stomach is empty again. By digestion here we mean, that what was eaten, whether meat, bread, vegetables, or other food, is gradually changed, until it becomes whitish, and thinnish, and sweetish, like milk. Jt matters not what we eat, or of how many different kinds, it is the same in color, taste, and consistence ; that is, when digestion is healthy. When digestion is not perfect, the food ferments, becomes sour, rises in the mouth, generates wind, causes belching, and the like familiar symptoms. Digestion, being a process of nature, whatever arrests digestion is a direct interference with nature, always does wrong, and, if persevered in, destroys health and life, inevitably. It was further observed, that cold water, swallowed durins: the process of digestion, instantly arrested it ; and the process was not resumed, until the water had been there lonoj enough to be warmed from the temperature at which it was drank, to that of the stomach, or from some forty degrees to a hun- dred. To accomplish this, the heat must be abstracted from the general system, chilling it. Strong, robust persons may not feel this ; but if a, man in feeble health drink cold water at a meai, at all largely, he rises from the table chilly, and soon has fever ; while the stomach, being kept that much longer at work in digesting the food, loses its vigor, the digestion is imperfect, and the food becomes impure, thus laying the foundation of disease. The inevitable inference from these facts is, that COLD WATER IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH, if taken at meals. Injurious to the most robust, if taken largely ; and to persons in feeble health, if taken at all, be- yond a few swallows, at a meal. I therefore set it down, as a clearly established fact, that a glass or more of cold water, drank habitualhj at meals, or soon u/ier, is a pernicious practice, even to the most healthy. 108 OUR FOOD AND DEINK. Injury is done in another manner, — water, or any other jluid, dilutes the gastric juice, and thus weakens its jDowei to dissolve the food. The amount of gastric juice is nol lessened, but its power is diminished, by its dilution. The finger will be scalded by dipping it into a vessel of boiling water; but if an equal amount of cold water is added, it may be thrust in with impunity, although there is as much heat in the mass as before ; but it is more diffused. A glass of brandy will almost strangle a person not accustomed to it; but if largely diluted, it gives no discomfort, although ill the brandy is there that was there before. We have, then, made another advance, that any kind of jluid largely taken at a meal, :r soon after, is positively injurious to health. " Largely " is a relative term. An advance ( f fifty per cent, in the price of anything is large; and when it is remembered that but a few table-spoonfuls of gastric juice are furnished at a meal, a glass of cold water, or two or three cups of coffee or tea, is a large amount of fluid for one meal. Thus, a standing item of advice to my patients is, — Take but half a glass of water at a single meal, or a single cup of weak coffee or tea, never increasing the strength or quantity, and drink nothing within an hour after eating. If cold drinks are injurious at meals, cold food, is for the same reason, also injurious ; thus it is that some of the most terrible forms of disease are brought on by persistence in eat- ing cold food, exclusively, especially in winter time. If cold fluids are injurious at meals, we naturally conclude that warm fluids, in moderation, are beneficial ; and rightly so. The young of the animal creation are furnished with sustenance warmed by Nature ; and the choice morsel is v, armed in the beak of the parent bird, before arriving at the nest of her young. We instinctively, almost, prepare something waim for the weary or the invalid ; hence the virtue oftentimes ascribed to drinking milk, warm from the cow, — not a very palatable idea, it must be confessed. It then follows, that, if we drink anything at meals, it should be first warmed. We may safely admit, that the universal custom of a coun- try is founded on common sense, common sense being the teachings of experience. Common consent and the experi- ence of the civilized world is, that a cup of good hot cofl'ee OUR FOOD AND DRINK. 109 for breakfast, and a cup of good hot tea for supper, is '* whole- some.'* If a person is prejudiced against " store tea and colfce," then any of our common garden herbs may be sub- stituted, as balm, sage, sassafras, and the like. It is the warmth that comes first in importance ; and there must be the taste of something palatable in it, or the stomach will loathe it. I am well aware that some persons consider tea and cofi'ee poisonous, as did an enthusiastic young "theological" at New Brunswick, a few years ago ; and demonstrated it, as he thought, to the old dominie, then in his eighty-sixth year, and still an efficient laborer in the vineyard. "It may be a poison, as you say," replied the old veteran, as the sly mis- chief twinkled out of the corner of his eye, "but it must be a very slow poison ; for I have taken it regularly, night and morning, for these eighty years, and am, as you see, not dead }'et." The same has been said of Dr. Johnson. But how comes it that so many sensible people believe that tea and coffee are poisonous ? Just as they have come to the adoption of any other fallacy. Somebody, who had nothing else to do, imagined it, then hunted up facts and parts of facts to prove it ; and what with adding a little to one fact, and suppressing from another, a really plausible case was made out to every reader or hearer wlio had rather admit a statement then take the trouble thoroughly to sift its truth, and there are many such. " Once upon a time," a party of men left Salt Lake City for St. Lcuis, with the United States mail, to bo delivered at Independence or, ^St. Jo\ It was winter. They found the prairies covered with snow, and finally their ' ani- mals ' perished with hunger ; at this stage the six men found themselves utterly destitute of any kind of food ; the game had taken to the woods, there were no rivers, and they were still hundreds of miles from their journey's end, while Ibe bleak winter winds whistling across the wide prairies iu unobstructed fury, froze them sometimes almost to the heart'? iiore. All, absolutely all they had to subsist upon under these desperate circumstances, was snow-water and a quantity of green coffee ; this they burned and boiled in snow watei*, and upon it travelled for six days, until they reached a place of help." These are the bare facts of the case, as reported to 110 OUB FOOD AND DRINK. government, and demonstrate that coffee, alone, is a suste- nant, as well as a stimulant, that it contains the elements of nutrition, consequently is not a mere stimulant, and all that has been said of " mere stimulants," is not applicable to it. Coffee, then, being of itself nutritious, capable of sustaining life for days at a time, under circumstances of severe cold and the labor of travelling on foot, and it being customary to use it with cream and sugar, which are themselves concentrat- ed nutriments, and withal, being drank hot, the conclusion appears to us as legitimate as one of Euclid's corollaries, that coffee, as generally used in this countryj is a valuable, nutri- tious, healthful, and comfortable item. Chemical analysis, has of late, under the direction of the most competent and intelligent minds of the age, arrived at the point just stated, and declares that coffee is a nutriment, and that its essential principle, although one hundred and twenty-five per cent, less, is identical with that of the tea of commerce ; and when facts, imiversal custom, and science, all unite in one point, surely we may feel safe, and hereafter take our cup of coffee and tea " in peace and quietness." The first cup of coffee is the best. The last cup of tea is the best. Never take more than one cup at a meal. Never increase the strength. If it were a mere stimulant, then, after a while, it might, if not increased in strength or quantity, produce no sensible effect, might do no good, as brandy, opium, or any other mere stimulant ; but as tea and coffee are nutritious, the more so as they are used with milk and sugar, a cup of the " self- same " is likely to do you as much good and as little harm twenty years hence as to-day. It has been justly said that, "In the life of most persons, a period arrives when the stomach no longer digests enough of the ordinary elements of food to make up for the natural daily waste of the bodily substance. The size and weight of the body, therefore, begin to diminish more or less perceptibly. At this period tea comes in as a medicine to arrest the waste, to keep the body from falling away so fast, and thus enable the less energetic powers of digestion still to supply as much as is needed to repair the wear and tear of the solid tissues. OUR FOOD AND DRINK. Ill No wonder, therefore, that tea should be a favorite, on the one hand, with the poor, whoso supply of substantial food is scant}", and on the other, with the aged and infirm, especially of the feebler sex, whose powers of digestion, and whoso bodily substance have together begun to fail. Nor "!s H sur- prising that the aged female, who has barely enough of ':veek- ]y income to buy what are called the common necessaries ol life, should yet spend a portion of her small gains in purchas- ing her ounce of tea. She can live quite as well on less com- mon food when she takes her tea along with it ; while she feels lighter, at the same time more cheerful and fitter for her work, because of the indulgence. The use of tea became general in China about the year six hundred, A. D., and after a dozen hundred years' use, they seem to live as long as the Anglo-Saxons do, with whom, a thousand years later, it was so costly, that the East India Company considered the present of two pounds of it to the Queen of England, a rare gift; and now the average length of life in Great Britain is greater than when that present was made, although the inhabitants consume fifty-five million pounds of tea every year. The effect of tea is to enliven ; it produces a comfortable exhilaration of spirits, it wakens up and increases the work- ing capabilities of the brain, and brings out the kindlier feel- ings of our nature in moderation, having them always under our control. Alcohol, in any of its combinations, intoxi- cates, makes wild, places a man out of his own power ; he gets beside himself, he can't control himself, nor can any one else control him, except by brute force. Upon some persons :t has the effect of eliciting the darkest and deadliest passions uf our nature. Who ever heard of a cup of tea inciting its sippers to "treasons, stratagems, and spoils?" In certain iriitated states of the body, it soothes the whole system, allays inflammation, cools fever, modifies the circulation, ind ceur teracts the stupor of opium and brandy. 112 EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ON HEALTH. EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ON HEALTH. What is the nature of that mysterious bond of connection between mind and body we may never know, but the notice of the effects is sometimes interesting, startling, awful, as will be subsequently shown by well attested facts. The gen- era", lesson which I wish to inculcate, because of its bearing on the health and happiness of men, is the importance practi- f / cally, of keeping the mind constantly employed in something useful and agreeable. One of the great secrets of human happiness is to be profitably busy. Of all men they are the most miserable, who have nothing to do ; and yet, as far as my observation has extended, those who have nothing to do, never have time to do anything. The mechanic who is fully employed, is the very man to perform a job for you punctu- ally. When nothing presses on the attention, the mind is prone to dwell on small things ; and strangely too, these small things are, nine times out of ten, among the disagreea- bles. The absence of a neighborly nod from an acquaintance or fellow-citizen, who never failed to nod before, instantly sets a " nothing-to-do " to work ; his whole soul is full of business ; so much so, that he can think of nothing else : the mind is tumultuously tossing, and all creation is veiled in a hurting gloom. There is no stopping to inquire whether the ofiending one is near-sighted ; whether he is not going for the doctor, or worse than that, " shinning it " among his business friends to meet a note in bank. Mr. Xothing-To-Do gets hold of a fact, or story, or occurrence, and by its help he imagines a great wrong has been done him ; he pores over it, he cherishes it most pertinaciously, he even wakes up in the night and thinks about it, until the mind itself is fully roused, Rnd he cannot go to sleep again. The more he thinks the more sleepless he becomes, and tosses and tumbles about on the bed by the hour ; and as the mind becomes hotter, the body begins to sweat, and he gets up in the morning as hag- gard and weary as an exhausted madman. It is a well known fact among medical men, that a young student of physic will have a dozen difierent diseases in the EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ON EEALTH. 113 first 5'-ear of his novitiate. Dr. Reese says, ''It would seem US if the study of certain diseases sometimes favored their real or imaginary development. (The great Loennec, whc spent a large portion of his life in the study of consumption, fell a victim to it himself. So did Wooster, of Cincinnttti, ind Hastings, of London, who set the world agog on the use of Naphtha as a certain cure for Phthisis, and yet he failed to cure himself of it.) Corvisart made disease of the heart his study, and died of it. When the celebrated Professor Frank of Paria was preparing his lectures on diseases of the heart, his own became so much disturbed that he was obliged to rest for a while. JNIen and women have often come to me for the treatment of consumption, when, on examination, the lungs were found to be as sound and full acting as the lungs of a race-horse, as was usually proved by subsequent perma- nent recovery ; a slight thinness in flesh, or pain in the breast, or troublesome cough, from a disordered stomach or liver, or diseased spine, having been magnified to mean that they were falling into a fatal disease. Alas, how often are these imaginings taken advantage of by wicked men, who have only assumed to be physicians, and subsequent restora- tion is blazoned abroad, and certified to, in the newspapers, as " cures of consumption," when the consumption never existed, but in the imagination of a " nothing -to-do." I often feel, in reference to a patient, — You are too rich to get well ; if yon had to take in washing at fifty cents a dozen, or had a house full of children "to do for," and no servants to help, with a sick husband to boot, you would soon be well enough. Let i the reader remember, then, "a symj)toni is the very last thing I you should thinh about.'''' It is related of a prime minister, that to prove to his king 1 that actual bodily suffering was less destructive in its influ- 1 ences than imagined danger, he took two lambs, broke the I leg of one, placed it in an enclosure with food beside it, and 1 left it ; the other, with food beside it, was placed in another I enclosure, in which was a tiger, so confined that he could spring near to the lamb, but could not possibly touch it. Next morning, the wounded lamb had eaten all its food, while that of the other was untouched, and the lamb itself was dead. 114 EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ON EEALIH. Dr. Noble, in an analytic lecture at Manchester, " On the Dynamic Influence of Ideas," told an anecdote of M. Bouti- bouse, a French philosopher, in illustration of the power of imagination. M. Boutibouse served in Napoleon's army, and was present at many engagements during the early part of the present century. At the battle of Wagram, in 1 809 , he was engaged in the fray ; the ranks around him had been terribly thinned by shot, and at sunset he was nearly isolated. While reloading his musket, he was shot down by a cannon ball. His impression was that the ball had passed through his legs below hi3 knees, separating them from the thighs ; for he sud- denly sank down, shortened, as he believed, to the extent of about a foot in measurement. The trunk of the body fell backwards on the ground, and the senses were completely paralyzed by the shock. Thus he lay motionless amongst the wounded and dead during the rest of the night, not daring to move a muscle, lest the loss of blood should be fatally in- creased. He felt no pain, but this he attributed to the stunn- ing effect of the shock to the brain and nervous system. At early dawn he was roused by one of the medical staff, who came round to help the wounded. " What's the matter with you, my good fellow?" said the surgeon. "Ah, touch mo tenderly," replied M. Boutibouse, "I beseech j'^ou ; a cannon ball has carried off my legs." The surgeon examined the limbs referred to, and then giving him a good shake, said, with a joyous laugh, " Get up with you, you have nothing the matter with you." M. Boutibouse immediately sprang up in utter astonishment, and stood firmly on the legs which he thought he had lost forever. " I felt more thankful," said M. Boutibouse, "than I had ever done in the whole course of my life before. I had not a wound about me. I had, indeed, been shot down hj an immense cannon ball ; but instead of passing through the legs, as I firmly believed it had, the ball had passed under my feet, and had ploughed a hole in the earth beneath, at least a foot in depth, into which my feet suddenly sank, giving me the idea that I had been thus short- ened by the loss of my legs." The truth of this story is vouched for by Dr. Noble. A St. Louis gentleman, who had a slight affection of the head several weeks, became alarmed a few days since, and EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ON EEALTH. 115 took the matter so much at heart, that ho fully persuaded himself that his head was growing unusually large. It became a settled conviction in his own mind that it was absolutely swelling. A few nights since, after taking his wife to church, he had occasion to leave and attend a meeting of an associa- tion to which he belonged. He was very uneasy while there, occasionally feeling his head, and finally bolted again to the church, to get his wife, and go immediately home. In the hurry of leaving, he picked up another man's hat, vastly too small for him, and in full run, clapped it on his head. What was his horror to find that it wouldn't bes^in to fit ! In vain he tried to press it over his aching brow, but the beaver wouldn't yield a particle. This only strengthened his convic- tion in relation to his growing head, and with the utmost Speed he gained the church just as it was breaking up and the people retiring. The congregation were amazed at his ab- sent manner in calling for his wife and then a doctor. " What is the matter? " said one. " O, matter enough ! My head is getting as large as a court-house door : a doctor — giiick ! " In a few minutes a physician who was present came for- ward, but could not satisfy him that his head had no extra bulk. He finally prescribed free bleeding and cupping on the back of his neck. The patient and his wife started home, and called, on the way, on a cupper and leecher, to get his assistance in the matter. Just as the man of cups was about to commence operations, the lady observed that her husband had a strange hat, and immediately informed him of the fact. He looked at it carefu ly for a moment, and his strange fancy of a swelled head seemed to give way mider the disclosure, and at once h3 dispensed Avith the bloody preparations to reduce it. Not only the body, but the mind and the heart, become diseased by giving loose to the imagination ; in this very way was it, that men were once led into heathenism. Paul states, in the first chapter of Romans, that the world " became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened," that is, I presume, their judgment was blinded. The reader will also see, I trust, the beautiful appro})riateness of Scripture language, so often repeated as a caution against " vain / 116 HEALTH, WEALTH, AND BELIOION. IhoughtSy* groundless, without reason : these vain imagina- tions lead to moral and physical death, aid ought to be striven against as a religious duty DYSPEPSIA AND VINEGAR. As soon as food reaches the stomach of a hungry, healthy man, it pours out a fluid substance, called gastric juice ^ as irstantly as the eye yields water, if it is touched by anything hard ; this gistric dissolves the food from without inwards, as lumps of ice in a glass of water are melted from without in- wards. If, from any cause, the food is not thus melted or dis- solved, that is indigestion, or dyspepsia. Vinegar, in its action on food, is more nearly like the gastric juice than any other fluid known ; thus it is that a pickle, or a little vinegar will ^* settle the stomach^'' when some discomfort is experienced after eating. HEALTH, WEALTH, AND RELIGION. These are the three grand duties of life. Each additional year confirms me in the opinion that pulpit teachings in refer- ence to money are erroneous, mischievous, and inconsistent. Tlic vanity of riches, that silver and gold are dross, that wealth is a snare, that it is hard for a rich man to enter heaven, these are stereotyped themes, and afibrd scope for a beautiful dis- play of words and imagination. If money is indeed so trashy, if its pursuit perils a man's soul, why is it that in some cases we never go to church on the Sabbath day without having a silver plate handed round, that tells plainly enough whether the giver throws in a copper cent or a silver dollar, thus shaming the humble poor, and tempting the ostentatious to go beyond their means ? We thus give the lie to our teachings, and more than this, we prac- tically ignore the expressive teachings of Scripture, that we must not let the left hand knovv what the rio^ht hand doeth. HEALTH, WEALTH, AND RELIGION. 117 I will leave it to the reflective man of wealth, who is yet fimong the world's people, if he does not often turn away with a feeling of contemptuousness at theory and practice bo tnal ajjropos. At one moment we are told that wealth is a canker ; how unavailing to procure happiness ; the next we are reminded of how blessed a thing it is to give, and what a large good may be done in the judicious use of a small amount ( f money. These inconsistencies perplex the " feeble folk," and confuse the lambs of the flock, for whom we ought specially to care. ]\Ien of New York, and Philadelphia, and Boston, and of the thousands of smaller cities and towns of this broad land, whether money be a hindrance against entering heaven or not, judge ye ; but this I know, its possession here is necessary to a seat near God's altar. We cannot sit under the droppings of the sanctuary if we are not rich, at least comparatively. It is notorious that the radical, the distinctive principles of primi- tive Christianity, are reversed among us. In early times, when the love of a recentl}'' ascended Saviour burned within the hearts of his followers, it was heralded abroad as some- thing singular and almost miraculous, that " The poor have the gospel preached to themJ*^ Such is not the case in New York. Here we must give a thousand dollars for a pew holding five persons, and, in addi- tion to that thousand, we must pay seven per cent, every year for church expenses. In our Fifth Avenue Church, there is not a pew, or even single sitting, to be had. This is largely complimentary to our minister, one of the best of men, and of commanding talents ; yet this is the very kind of man needed for the poor, for it requires all his piety to stoop so low as to wash their feet, and all his talents to make the hid- den things of the Bible plain to their uncultivated minds. But the rich bid the highest, and the poor must put up with any crumbs they may get from the tables of their richer brethicn in the way of standing room in the vestibule, or gallery, or an occasional vacant seat on rainy days, or very dusty, or very warm, or very windy, or veiy cold, or in the dog-days, when it is not fashionable to be seen in town : in this last case, in- deed, there is plenty of room ; but the voice of that pious and talented man is not there to instruct by "thoughts that breathe 118 HEALTH, WEALTH, AND RELIGION. and words that burn ; " still there is a voice there giving sound, coming from some weak brother, or practising licentiate, or high-tliliitin sophomore. I really do not know but after all, our Quaker Friends are nearest primitive practices in this most important respect. Their houses of religious meeting are very large, very plain, very clean, and abundantly free to all who come. The " weary and the heavy laden " may indeed there literally find rest — rest for the weary body, rest in the decent quiet of the place, from the tumultuous tossings of the world's conflict with want, its strivings for bread. Next to them are the lovely Moravian Bretliren^ and then, our Meth- odist friends ; but they, alas ! are receding before so-called ciiilization, or falling in with the fashion of the world, in selling places, near God's altar, to the highest bidder. Last taonth I went to a church in Arch street, Philadelphia. The heads of the three aisles were crowded with people waiting for the one sexton to show them places ; and we observed, in several instances, that when the owners came they took keys from their pockets and unlocked the pew doors. No doubt reasons are at hand for the fine church and for the pew sys- tem ; but whether they will stand the test of universal broth- erhood — all being children of the same common Father of all, who is himself no respecter of persons — I cannot say. The question comes back with some power. Ought I to lock my pew door on a waiting brother? Ought I to exclude the poor from the kingdom of heaven, by virtually excluding them from receiving those teachings which guide and pre- pare for that kingdom? These things may at least be rein- I estigated. The general impression in a Christian community is, that the first duty of man is to become a Christian. A physician is naturally possessed of the confidence of his patients as to health, and gradually that is extended toother things as dear. I am often consulted as to marrying, and professional duty sometimes leads me to take the initiative as to advice on that subject; the first item of all is, *' Let the man or woman you marry be healthy.'' If your companion for life is ignorant, you may instruct ; if poor, you may enrich ; if wanting posi- tion, you may elevate ; if lacking religion, you may place at hand the means of conversion — your own pious life will HEALTH, WEALTH, AND RELIGION. 119 almost certainly be that means of conversion ; if lazy, or dirty, or nnmethodical, which is just as bad, perhaps, you can correct these by example, and by judicious and encouraging teachings ; but if you marry a bad constitution, a radically diseased body, there is no effective certain remedy, and you lay the founda- tion for a life of disquietude, discouragement, and expense to yourself; while, if any children are born to you they will inherit that misfortune in an aggravated form, and thus you will have a sickly child to be a canker, a festering wound, a rankling thorn, a weary, wasting anxiety, to the latest hour of life : for can anything throw one ray of sunlight across my heart, when the child of my bosom is wasting and waning before me to a certain and premature grave ? I think not. To be truly religious, and to have true views on all subjects connected with religion, a man should have undisputed health. / A sound mind in a sound body is, I believe, an axiom — a first principle ; and as no child is born religious, and all " go astray from the womb, speaking lies," a healthfully acting mind in a healthy body seems to be a prerequisite towards giving the arguments for religious truth the consideration due them. If this be so, then the^rs^ parental duty to the new-born child is, not in reference to religion directly, but in reference to its health — its preservation if good, and its improvement if defective. It seems, then, to follow, that good health, other things being equal, is a prerequisite in the inves- tigation of religious truth, and rather increases the probabili- ty that the arguments substantiating such truth will be prop- erly appreciated. In other words, a healthy man is more likely to be brought under the power of religious truth, and to become a Christian from sterling principle, than an im- healthy man. I know it is said by the blessed One himself, " Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; " Init a search presupposes eyes to see, health to perceive, the full force of exhortation, argument, miracle. I will not take it upon me to run this out ; therefore I go no further than to say, that the preservation and the promo- tion of the highest health of body is among the very first » /' duties of an immortal mind ; for, the better we can under- stand our duty here, the higher and the more glorious will be our position hereafter; and to be able to comprehend our 120 HEALTH, WEALTH, AND BELIOIOK duty in its broadest sense, and with the most convincing power, we ought to be able to bring to bear on that truth the greatest strength of mind which the highest health of body can secure. If these things be so, where stands the man who pays no attention to the j)reservati07i of his health? Where stands the parent who gives no instruction to his children, nor causes them to be instructed, as to the laws of health and life? Does a good citizen, even, let alone a Christian parent, do his duty by his children, when he goes no further than the catechism, the confession, or the prayer-book ? If, then, I were required to comprise in three parts the main effort of life, I would say, — Strive J with all the energy God hath given you to he healthy^ to be religious, to be rich. The more healthy you are, the more truly and highly religious you can be ; and the rich- er you are, the more can you do towards placing the same glorious religion within reach, at least, of the perishing myri- ads of earth's poor. What I have said is not so much against fine churches, as against the very general habit of bearing hard on riches and rich men, in theory, while in practice, all that is possible is done to cause the rich to bestow their riches on the church and its professed objects. Is it right for the pulpit to bear so hard from Sabbath to Sabbath on riches, and rich men, jper sef More pains ought io be expended in a just discrimination between abused wealth, unsanctified wealth, and wealth itself. We say, money is the sinew of war ; not less true is it that money is the sinew of the war spiritual. The great Head of the Church has chosen to ordain that religion should be extended over the world, not by miracle, but by money ; and the iusti-ument should be honored at least for the uses it is put to, and net fulminated against, as it is, almost with spitefulness, some- times as unwise as the railings of the rabble, in the times of barricades, against the rich, and the titled, and the elevated. Our newspapers, too, make it a standing and favorite theme to bespatter the rich — to anathematize them. Indeed, the unguarded are almost persuaded sometimes to consider it a crime to be rich. This is all wrong, radically wrong. Instead CORN BREAD AND CONSTIPATION. 121 of cherishing a kind of malignant feeling against such men, wo ought rather to go on the principle that to be rich, pre- supposes its possessor to have been a man of industry, of self-denial, and of economy : therefore, in all justice, the very fiict of a man being rich entitles him to our respect ; for I am persuaded that more men are rich from inheritance, and from economy and industry, than from dishonorable practices. And surely there is nothing discreditable in being wealthy either by inheritance or by industry. Away, then, with this railing against the rich. Let it be preached from the pulpit, and let it be proclaimed by the press, with its million tong le », that to accumulate wealth is one of the first, one of the hiirh- est, one of the noblest, duties of an immortal mind ; and then, that to use it benevolently, makes that mind akin to God. CORN BREAD AND CONSTIPATION. Corn Bread, — the " Indian " of the North, — when prop- erly made and of suitable materials, is a sweet, healthful, and delightful article of food. We seldom see Southern corn bread on a Northern table, because the meal is ground entirely too fine, and becomes soggy in the baking. To obviate this sogginess, and its effects on the system, Northerners put physic in their meal, and make it, sometimes, apparently as good as the Southern bread, whose only constituents are meal itself, a little milk, and some salt. One pound of Indian, that is, corn meal ; one and a half pints of milk, five eggs, a piece of butter as large as a hen's egg, a lump of soda as large as a pea, and a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Bake it three quarters of an hour. Real Corn Bread. — Persons who prefer not to take physio in their food, may make a very superior and healthful article of corn bread, as follows : One quart of sour milk, two table-spoons of flour, three eggs, and as much corn meal as will make a stiff batter. Indian-Meal Waffles. — Boil two cups of hominy very soft, and an equal quantity of sifted Indian-meal, a table-spoonful of salt, half a tea-cup of butter, and three eggs, with milk 122 EEALTHFULNESS OF FRUIT. enough to make a thin batter. Beat altogether, and bake in waffle irons. AVhen eggs cannot be procured, yeast is a good substitute ; put a spoonful in the batter, and let it stand an hour to rise. The medicinal effects of corn bread, as also of bran bread, wheaten grits, &c., arise, in part, from the roughness of the j)articles of meal gently irritating the surface of the intestines along which it passes, causing the secretories to pour out a more copious supply of Huid, which, gradually accumulating in the lower intestines, acts on the same principle as an in- jection, namely, by the distension which it occasions, and the subsequent reaction of contraction, which expels tho contents of the loAver bowel, called the rectum. I cannot but pause here to call the reader's attention to this, among the multitude of other evidences of the wonderful wisdom displayed in our formation, by Him who made all worlds. The functions of the anus, considered the most despicable part of man, are carried on by principles, which, at the expiration of six thousand years, man has just learned to apply to machinery, and which, when observed, for the first time, in the machine-shop, strikes the beholder with wonder. It is observed in the printing-press, when the bed has moved to a certain limit, it instantly returns, apparently of itself, to its former position, and that, too, when the main wheels continue rumiiug in the same direction, the whole mass seeming to act by instinct, as if it knew how far it ehould go, and then return without bidding. It is well worth (he reader's while to visit an establishment where steam- engines are made, to witness this. HEALTHFULNESS OF FRUIT. Raw fruit, fresh, ripe, and perfect, is safe and healthful at all seasons of the year, and amid the ravages of disease, whether epidemic, endemic, or sporadic, general, special, or local. Under proper restrictions as to quantity, such fruit, IS named, will cure a diarrhoea, aid in removing a cold, colic, fever, or any other disease whose treatment requires the MORAL CAUSES OF CHOLERA. 123 bowels to be kept freely open. For this effect, fresh ripe fruit is good ; but to be used advantageously, in health and disease, the following rules are imperative : — 1st. Fruit should be eaten ripe, raw, fresh, and perfect. 2d. It should be eaten in moderation. 3d. It should be eaten not later than four o'clock in the aftenioon. 4th. No water, or fluid of any description, shjuld be swal- lowed within an hour after eating fruit. 5th. To have its full, beneficial effect, nothing else should be eaten at the time the fruit is taken. It is to the neglect of these observances that erroneous impressions prevail in many families, and to an extent, too, in some instances, that the most luscious peach, or apple, or bunch of grapes, is regarded as that much embodied cholera and death. When will men learn to be observant and reflective ? MORAL CAUSES OF CHOLERA. The " London Christian Times " suggests that moral causes have much to do in engendering this disease, and that moral remedies may go far to alleviate or cure it. The filthy, low-lying regions, says the ''Times," where the disease presents itself with most inveteracy, are also the regions of coarse, imbruted vice. Self-indulgence in sordid and unwholesome luxuries undermine the constitution. Per- severance in such indulgence, for a series of generations, debili- tates a race. The harass and anxiety attendant upon preca- rious and dishonest means of obtaining a livelihood, shake terribly such enfeebled constitutions. Vicious indulgence and sordid habits, by demoralizing a large proportion of the lower classes, are the real cause of predisposition to a new and awful form of disease. The filth and squalor are merely the external indications of this inter- nal rottenness. When a large portion of any community has been thus predisposed, disease catches around it like wild-fire, and even those who have kept themselves above the general 124 THROAT-AIL. degradation are not exempted from its visitations. The hon- est poor are by their poverty brought into contagious prox imity to the class prepared for sickness. The wealthy are brought into contact with the infected stratum of society by business relations. Let the whole truth be told : the viciou» and the unreflecting of the wealthier class expose themselve? to contagion by visiting infected dens in search of illicit pleasure. Nay, more ; the anxious, mammon-hunting, volup- tuous habits of the wealthy predispose them to contagion. Moral causes of disease can only be combated by counter- agents. It is not meant that physical remedies and lenitives for cholera are to be dispensed with, but that moral remedies and lenitives are to be superadded. THROAT-AIL. I HAVE endeavored in all my writings to substitute the words Throat- Ail for Laryngitis ^ or Clergymen^s Sore Throat : it is shorter, more comprehensive, more correct, and has the advantage of being plain English. It is a disease which every mother ought to understand ; for, in the shape of croup ^ it puts her child in the grave in a few hours. Every person who loves to sing should know its nature, for it destroys the voice. Every lawyer, every clergyman, every politician, ought to make it their study, for it robs them of their capital in trade, and often XayB them on the shelf for life. In short, it should be generally understood, at least as to its symptoms, for it is very often the forerunner of consumption, that hated name. There are two forms of throat-ail — the rapid and the slow. By rapid throat-ail, the great and good Washington perished prematurely, in a few hours' illness. By the slow kind, many public men are deprived of their means of usefulness and of support, and have to spend their remaining days in struggling for a scant subsistence, or in following some new trade in their yld age. I ^Tite for the people, and think it sufficient for the general THROAT-AIL. 125 good, to acquaint my readers with merely the symptoms and the causes of whit is called throat-ail, par excellence, the kind which lasts for weeks and months and years, endinj]^ in disablement of voice, and finally death by consumption. Throat-ail is like a fire — the sooner you know of its exist- ence, the better ; and like a fire, too, which seldom goes out of itself. So throat-ail seldom indeed gets well of itself, but burrows and deepens, until it undermines the constitution, wastes away the health and strength and flesh, and finally, fastening itself in the lungs, completes the wreck and ruin of the whole man. The first symptoms of Throat- Ail, or Chronic Laryngitis, or Clergymen's Sore Thioat, are usually a frequent hemming and hacking, in order to clear the voice or throat. This is slight and seldom at first, and may not be noticed for weeks ; but then it is so decided, that it forces itself upon the atten- tion, either by its frequency, or by the force required to clear the throat sufficiently to speak with distinctness. After a while, it requires such an efi'ort to enunciate plainly, that the patient, for the first time, becomes aware of a certain feeling of tiredness about the throat or neck ; most generally it is a dull hurting : or he finds there is a kind of lumpish feeling in the throat, and he attempts to swallow it away, and it does seem to go down, but it does not stay down, and he swallows again, and soon he finds himself swallowing all the time. Oc- casionally there is a difierent cause for swallowing : the throat appears to be dry, and swallowing for a time seems to moist- en it ; finally, the swallowing is almost incessant, especially if the mind is directed to it. For a time, nothing is brought away ; gradually a little pearly or whitish or cottony-like phlegm is brought up, and the patient becomes hoarse. In the progress of things this phlegm becomes dryish, and so tough that it clings to the inside of the throat, and can only be dislodged by a decided eflTort at clearing, with a dipping forward of the head. The voice next becomes husky ; at last a positive cough is necessary to dislodge the phlegm, and con- sumption soon follows. The symptoms detailed are present in the history of every case I have known. Accompanying these, there are occa- sional additional symptoms. A kind of pain, sharp or hurt- 126 TEBOAT-AIL. ing, runs up the side of the neck towards the ear. Some complain of a burning feeling now and then at the little hol- low at the bottom of the neck, or up and down the breast bone in the centre, or at the pit of the stomach. These burn- ing sensations are not felt continuously in any case, but at certain times during the day. A very common symptom is a depression of spirits, alto- gether greater than the actual feeling of discomfort warrants. In the progress of the disease, the feet become cold ; there is a bad taste in the mouth of mornings ; occasional headache ; the bowels do not act daily, or if they do, what is passed is hard or bally ; the patient is easily chilled ; " the slightest thing in the world" gives him a cold, and "a cold always makes the throat worse." The food either sours on the stom- ach, or remains there like a weight for hours at a time ; the appetite becomes impaired ; or, it is so voracious that " I can eat almost anything," and yet " hungry all the time." The patient begins to lose flesh and strength, and does not swal- low as easy as he used to ; at length he cannot swallow at all ; in the effort, even, water comes back through the nose, and the man dies of starvation. Reader, if you have incipient symptoms of throat-ail, do not be a fool, and go to some old woman or Indian doctor, or some officious and all-knowing granny, and waste time, and perhaps life, in experimenting on red-pepper tea, or the soup made by Shakespeare's witches. Do not go to swallowing brandy, or the still more murderous lozenges of the shops ; for brandy may not certainly kill any man ; lozenges will. But go at once to a regularly educated physician, who is, as I think, necessarily a gentleman ; he will not promise to euro you in a week, or in a month, or in a century ; he will promise you just nothing at all ; he takes it for granted that you un- derstand that he feels it his duty and his interest to do for you the best he can, and he will do it. Do not tell him that, if he cures you, there are a few more of the same sort left in your neighborhood who will also come. Do not promise him an extra fee if he is successful in your case ; for it will only make him feel that you are as green as you suppose him to be. Do not come the pathetic over him — that you have six wives, living and dead, and nineteen children, and you hope TniiOAT-AIL. 127 he Avill do the best he can for you, for — the smallest price possible. lu calling upou such a phj'sician, you have onl\' two things to do : tell your symptoms, and follow his advice implicitly and well. His reputation and his bread depend on his success : you can appeal to no higher motives. And always remember, that it is impossible for such a physician to say to you, "No cure, no pay." Is a man to spend weary hours, and anxious days, and sleepless nights, in trying to save your life, and to be paid nothing unless he succeeds, especially when you have spent all your money on patent med- icines and advertising certifyers ? Shame on the man \\ ho could make such a proposition ! Causes of Throat- Ail. — I cannot here state them all, nor at length, only the principal ones, and them succinctlv. I have now these many years confined my attention rigidly and exclusively to throat and lung diseases. I think I was the first physician in the United States to do so, as rigidly. I know not that there is any one besides myself in this country who dismisses every case, invariably, in which the air pas- sages are not involved. I make this statement for the pur- pose of enabling the reader to place the deserved estimate at the assertion I am going to make, to wit : Three cases out of every four, coming to me for throat-ail, have it as the result of improper eating and drinking. Such a large proportion of cases of throat-ail originating in the stomach, I found my remaining remarks on this general origin : — How can the St07nach make the Throat Sore 9 — A stroke against the elbow is felt at the fingers' ends. When your foot is asleep, from sitting on a hard edge of wood for some time, the cause is at the point of pressure, and yet it tingles in the toes a yard ofi". A good knock on the head " makes the firo 'ay" at the o>'es. The condition of the throat is affected by the condition of the stomach, because a certain nerve branches off: one pail of that nerve goes to the stomach ; the other fork goes to the throat. The nerves are like the telegraphic wires : touch them at one end, and an effect is produced at the other. So if the nerves which supply the stomach are disordered, those in the throat are liable to become so too. Most of us have heard of 528 THROAT- AIL. " heart-burn ; " some have felt it. It is a burning sensation, sometimes felt at the point familiarly called " the pit of the stomach ; " and sometimes, in persons who use their voice much, this same burning is felt at the little hollow at the bottom of the throat, and the region of Adam's-apple ; and tliat is the spot where tbroat-ail is located. I wish here to arrest the attention of clergymen, singers, teachers, and public speakers, to this interesting inquiry : If sour stomach, or dyspepsia^ as the physicians term it, causes burning, or other sensations, in the throat of clergy- men, and other persons who use their voice much, why does not sour stomach affect the throats of all, as the same nerve supplies branches to both throat and stomach? This is the reason : a slight stomach derangement does not affect the throat perceptibly, if the voice-organs are in a strong, active, healthful condition, because they have vigor to rejDel disease. It is a law of the human frame, that an ailment is apt to make itself felt next, or most decidedly, in that particular part of the body, which, at the time, is weakest in the performance of its functions ; and as the voice-organs are often in a lax or debilitated condition from frequent or unusual voice- efforts, or injudicious conduct after voice-effort, and are, at length, made permanently feeble by these repeated uses and indiscretions, so, being the next weakest part, disease flies there. Thus it is, too, that, when such persons take cold, the throat, being the weak part, feels it promptly. A proper use of the voice strengthens the throat, and gives it a capability of resisting disease, just as a judicious use of any other muscles of the body increase their strength an I health ; but improper use, as just stated, by weakening, ren- ders them more susceptible of disease of any kind, and specially of the stomach, in consequence of the nervous connection before described. Any injury done to any part of the body may be resisted, cr, if not, may be repaired, by the curative energies of Nature; ))ut if these injuries are frequently repeated, the strength of Nature is exhausted in endeavoring to make repairs ; then she remains prostrate and powerless, and disease has unbridled sway. When, in any given case, a man is in a condition to have THROAT-AIL. 129 his throat affected by the state of his stomach, violence is offered the throat at each meal, three times a day. In time, these effects last longer, until the effect of one meal reaches to another, and the throat is more or less ailing all the time. But, to follow up the case, how is it that persons have sour stomach, or heart-burn? All understand that what is sweet cider to-day is sour to- morrow. We look at it, and find it in constant motion : it i^i " working," fermenting. When food is taken into a healthy and well-acting stomach, it is, in a short time, digested, — that is, converted into a kind of liquid ; no lumps, or anything of the sort in it; just as Avhcn you place a great many bits of ice and snow in a glass of water, the mass soon becomes all fluid alike. The food is made into this one fluid substance by the action of the stomach, and what pertains to it. But the amount of food which the stomach can thus turn into a liquid form is limited ; just as if you put a certain amount of ice lumps in a glass of water, that Avater will melt them ; but if you put in too many, none of them are wholly melted, and it remains a mixture of water, spears of ice, and solid \o,e.. When, then, more food is taken into the stomach, at any one time, than it can convert into a homogeneous fluid, it remains in lumps, more or less, and it is said to be und'i- gested, and begins immediately to ferment, to become sour, and produces in the stomach the same sensation that swal- lowing vinegar causes in the throat — a burning. We see, then, that sour stomach is caused by eating more than the stomach can digest. But how are we to tell how much the stomach can digest? Observe Nature. The brutes are regulated in all these things hy instinct. To us the nobler reason is given, and it must be our guide ; we must observe and judge. AVliat one man eats or drinks, in qualit}' or quantity, is no guide for any other man, any more than the amount of labor one can perform is the criterion for another. Each man must, for himself, bring his own observation and judgment to Ijear on the question, Hoio much must I eat ? The general rule is. Do not eat so much as to cause any unpleasant sensation afterwards. If you, at any time, take a meal, and afterwards, within an 10 130 THROAT- AIL. Iioiir or two, feel uncomfortably, then, what you have eaten doefi not ariree icitJi yon,; you have eaten, cither hi quantity or (liiality, what your stomach cannot digest. Nine times out of ten it ii. the quantity, and not the quality, which docs the mischief. When persons have been ailing some time, almost every- thing they eat, or drink, sours on the stomach; even a cup of tea, or a glass of cold water, or toasted bread, gives sour- ness, or weight, or oppression, or some other ill feeling. In time the throat begins to feel tired, dry, or to burn, or smart, or is clogged up a little, and we are all the time clear- ing it away. This is "dyspeptic throat-ail," or clergymen's sore-throat. But why was such a name given to it? Be- cause, to a certain extent, it is a comparatively new disease. We read little or nothiug of it in the old books ; — a new dis- ease as much, then, as cholera is a new disease. It was, perhaps, tirst noticed to attack clergymen, for two reasons : (he injudicious use of the voice, as noticed in the article on "Air and Ii^xercise," page IG ; and from increased notoriety over a common patient ; for when the minister is ailing, the whole town and adjoining country soon know it. But I am now come to the point of exposing one of the two grand mis- takes of modern times in reference to health. 1 will name them both here, .although I will, at present, discuss but one. The lirst mistake is, about injuring one's health by hard study ; and the other is, that a minister has i)ecome disabled by his "arduous labors.'" These two things are simply pious frauds : the former committed, generally, by young students ; the latter, by young clergymen, securing for them a kind of sympathy considered to belong to martyrs. Two things I know : the lirst is, I never injured my liealth by hard study ; the n(!arest I came to it was in ruining ni}' eyes by studying the miserable edition of Schrcvelius' Lexicon, "a long time ago," till twelve o'clock at night, the days having been spent in writing poetry and pathetic epistles to a schoolmate. I received sympathy, instead of the switch, just as nine young gentlemen out of ten, in the college, the university, and the lecture-room, are complimented, when their health gives way, with the appellation of a Jtard student, 1 never knew a man, young or old, to injure himself by hard study. It is a mistake. OUR CLERGY FEASTED TOO MUCH. page iu.> THROAT-AIL. Idl The other of the two grantl niistakcs, before alliulocl to, I propotjc to discuss, is this : ClergijmeiCH sore iJirout is wrong- fuUf/ set down to Ihe score of '' arduous labors.'" Let the ol>- servaiit reader reflect a moment on a little fact which may not have, as yet, formed itself in words, but which, upon men- tion, will bring with it a realizing sense of its truthfulness. Away out in the wild woods of the West, where I ""waa laised," the people are a type of Gotham and Fifth Avenue, the only diftcrence being, as Wadsworth told us one Simday, not long since, in one of his grand efforts, the greater or less exaggeration of any given characteristic. Well, away out there, where the folks are, as Eastern people believe, a kind of half-and-half mixture of the civilized and the savage, spe- cially the latter, people love their minister, — they love him affectionately as David did Jonathan, — and if he does not come to see them often, their feelings are hurt. But if he comes, and does not eat with them, "it is no see at all;" it is not considered a visit. He must not only come, but "come of (en.'' As it is their minister, they honestly think that nothing they can put on the table is too good for him ; conse- quently the modern Martha " dishes up " everything she thinks good, and everything "her man" thinks is good, and every- thing the guest is supposed or known to like ; and the result is a conglomeration of everything under the sun. Suppose it 81 " supper," as is generally the case ; they do not take a dish of tea, out West ; they "eat supper ' — the third and last meal of the day. Well, look in on that Kentucky supper. There is coUee and tea, to begin with, and hot biscuit, and corn bread, and wheat bread, and boiled chicken, and a mackerel, and chipped beef, and ham and eggs, with a pitcher of pure milk, and honey, and molasses, and all the different kind of preserves ever thought of, besides butter- milk, and^j/e, and cider, and baked apples. That is a West- ern supper, reader; and the minister is expected to take a bit of everything there. They would be almost affronted, if he did not ; if he did not make a dash at the whole category, they would say he was proud, and there his influence would end. He Icnows it, and feels, in a sense, compelled to eat more than he wants — certainly more than he needs, and more than he would eat if there Avas not variety to tempt. 132 THRO AT- AIL. Wc Imre the sfimc thiiisr here in New York, fillhoiiirli in a more refined shape. Instead of snch " suppers " at sundown, we have regular dinners at ten o'clock at night; and, having to wait several hours longer than usual, there is such a raven- ous appetite, that an amount is eaten very far beyond the need? of the system, keeping the stomach laboring, for hours after, to relieve itself of the unwonted burden. Such occur- rences, frequently taking place, will inevitably induce dys- peptic habits, and all their long catalogues of ill. Our miinsiei's are fe isled too much. Another cause of dyspepsia in ministers is, eating too soon nftci preacJdng. For two or three hours the tide of nervoua eneigy has b(;en setting in strongly towards the brain, and it cannot be suddenly t jrncd towards the stomach ; but the men- tal efi'ort has occasioned a feeling of faintness or debility about the stomach, and a morbid appetite ; and if food is taken at all largely, there is not the nervous energy there requisite to effect its digestion ; for the brain will be running over the discourse. You may bring the mind back to the eating, for a moment ; but, before you are aware of it, it will be laboring at the discourse again. Every public speaker knows this ; and the food lies there, like a weight, or a lump for hours. The same result is produced, in a less decided form, by studying out a sermon. The mind becomes absorbed ; the announcement for dinner is made ; you are unprepared for it ; it is rather unwelcome. You do not feel hungry ; for the brain is at work, not the stomach. However, as it is meal- time, you go down; but the mind is in your "study," and you eat because it is dinner-time, and not because you have an appetite — the principal cause of the most aggravated forms of dyspeptic disease — eating luitJiout an appetite — one of the most suicidal of all domestic practices ; eating, *imply, because it is eating-time, rather than, by waiting until the appetite comes, give the trouble to prepare another meal. Every student should leave his books at least half an hour before a meal, and spend that half-hour in a leisure walk in the open air, or in agreeable conversation on the piazza, or in the garden. An Instructive Warning to Clergymen. — In illustration of the principles stated, I will record here a fact. A very THROAT-AIL. 133 eniine.it D.D., -vvitlnn a ^'"car, has c:ivcn up the charoro of his congregation, from a complaint in the iJiront. His imrishioii- erij, ill parting with him, presented him with a farm ; and now he is lecturing over tiic country, and nothing is heard about his throat-complaint, except when he leaves his wife at /tome; Avhen that is the case, he is laid up instanter. As long as she is at his side, to Avatch over what he cats, as to quality and amount, he keeps well ; when he transgresses, the food sours on the stomach, the throat burns, gets clogged up. he is hoarse and useless. I have extended this article beyond my calculation ; but it^ importance cannot be over-estimated ; for I consider it a sli- tistical fact, that three out of four of all the clergymen who are prematurely set aside, as unavailable workers, arc thus set aside in consequence of errors in diet — errors, to a cer- tain extent, inseparable from their present connection with society, in the manner I have stated. Throat-ail, then, being generally located in the stomach, what is the use of gargling the throat with acids and metallic preparations, which destroy the teeth? And what is the use of swabbing out the throat with nitrate of silver, when the source of the disease is elsewhere?- It does, I know, some- times give relief; but it is not permanent; it cannot be, for it is merely covering a black spot on the wall with whitewash. The spot is not seen, but it is there still ; but, 'inlike the black spot, which is in statu quo, the disease, though covered, is bur- rowing still. If, again, the disease is really in the stomach, it is a useless waste of time, it is unphilosophical, to tell a clergyman who has throat-ail that he must abandon preaching ; because the voice-muscles must be treated like any other nnis- cle of the body which is debilitated — their energies nuist be invited back by judicious forms of exercise, just as in recov- ering from a fever, we mcrease our strength, by exercising carefully and gradually, and safely increasing that exercise. Besides, if the minister gives up his congregation, he givca up his bread ; and he not only has leisure to brood over, and thus aggravate, his ailment, but also to worry himself as to some mode of obtaining subsistence in a manner not incon- sistent with his former calling. Hence, the indispensable means of curing an ordinary case of clergymen's sore-throat 134 THROAT-AIL. are to keep the patient at work, modifying tlie forms of voice« exercise according to the needs and habits of each case, and the regulation of the digestive functions by a proper adapta- tion of food, as to quantity and quality, to the needs of the system. Cold feet often produce a burning sensation in the throat, which, if allowed to continue in operation, ultimately under- mines the health. The reason is, less blood being in the feet than is natural, there is an extra amount at the other end of the body. Can anything be more absurd than to clip off a man's palate, whack out his tonsils, and " burn out his throat," for such an aihnent? Can that send warmth to the feet? Can we purify the fountain by purifying the stream? When will men learn to think for themselves ? My experience is, throat-ail is not to be radically and per- manently cured in any case, except by rectifying first and then building up the general health of the system, and that requires time, determination, and systematic habits of rational life. Who thinks differently, and acts up to his belief, will tind himself just as miserably deceived, as that unfortunate class of theologians, who assert, "It is no matter what a man believes, if he is sincere in his belief." Is not such a logician a "sincere" fool? Clergymen's Sore-throat is better cured, as a general rule, in the continuation of ministerial duty. My ordinary advice is, preach every day, and Sunday, too, rather than once a week. These fitful efforts are often a main cause of throat-ail; just as a man who travels ten miles u foot on Sunday, and on other days none at all, will be wearied every Sunday night; whereas, were he to walk live, or six, or eight miles every day, rain or shine, he would per- form ten or twelve on the Sabbath, without appreciable fatigue. ^Icn of "the cloth," why don't you think for your- selves? Sometimes I think I am not altogether a drone in creation, because there are excellent men now, in different parts of the country, whom I have never seen, who, having abandoned preaching, applied to me for advice, and on being urged to resume pastoral charges immediately, as a means of cure, have done so, and have steadily recovered, and are now bearing "the burden and heat of the day." So that I am every Sabbath preaching by proxy, to many a listening mul- EOW TO LIVE LONG. 135 litudc. It is not politic to say here how many I have killed off, or to inquire if those referred to might not have recov- ered without doing anything. They came and were cured as Ruteccdcut and sequent, not necessarily as cause and effect HOW TO LIVE LONG. Oun Maker has constructed the human machine to W(»rk easily, healthfully, and well for seventy years ; and that is the period which he has appointed to us, and which he haa guaranteed to us, on the condition of a life of temperance, wisdom, and piety. Why is it, that of the nine millions of human beings who, as the venerable and distinguished Presi- dent Nott told us, in his eighty-first year, are this year to swell the tide of death to boundless eternity, not less than three millions pass on, before their time, their own suicides? I propose to show how this waste of human life can be avoided, and how my readers may add many glad years to their existence, except it be their lot to perish by violence. Less than half a dozen words give the requisite instruction ; less than half a dozen words contain the almost infallible receipt. Secure a daily alvine action ; have one motion from the bowels every twenty-four hours. I may say, with- out exception, that nine tenths of all diseases involve the infraction of this habit. Ask any ten persons coming into a physician's oflice, if they have one regular, daily action of the bowels, and none of them will answer "Yes." When a person does not have as many as one action of the bowels during each twenty-four hours, he is said to be " costive," to be " cons- tipated ; " this state of things is "costiveness," or "constipa- lion:" these terms have one and the same meaning. The principle once stated is self-evident ; and 3'et, perhaps, the majority of men and women, who reach the age of twenty-five 3'cars, have not felt the necessity of this daily discharge. How many parents who read these lines, can lay them down a moment, and sajs truly, that they have even given one le;;son to their children as to the importance of attending to it? If you pour into a vessel any amount of water to-day, 136 HOW TO LIVE LONO. however small, and repeat the operation daily, that vessel will, sooner or later, overflow, unless each day as much is let out as was poured in. If you eat a certain amount of food to-day, and nothing passes from the body, it must inevitably become so full, in a few days, that you cannot swallow any Uiorc ; that is, nature with her instincts comes to the rescue, and deprives the body of the desire of food. We call it want of appetite; we loathe food, because in reality there is no room for it. This want of appetite is beautifully expressed by the medical term of " anorexia ; " and in reading any medi- cal work, which describes the symptoms of the various dis- eases, this word soon becomes an old acquaintance. But let a man who has no appetite, in other words, who has swal- lowed so much, that he has not room for a morsel more, take an active vomit, take a puke, — for I want my most unlearned country friend to understand fully what I mean, — and in a few hours he will have the appetite of a horse. Or, if he does not admire the operation of " casting up," he can take a " brisk cathartic," which will relieve his gorged carcass in the opposite direction ; and "the premises being evacuated" (in law phrase), Richard Avill be himself agaiu in a day or two. Let the reader understand, that I do not hereby advise him to take a puke or a purge, if he has no appetite, and yet wants one. I am only stating how he may scientifically and promptly recover his appetite, if he has lost it, by allow- ii y constipation. For my own part, I have such an intestinal auomination of physic, as Mother Partington would say, that I would rather stay without an appetite for a considerable time, than to take a puke or a purge, especially as I cau'ot see why anybody should want an appetite these times, wnen beef is thirt}^ cents a pound, green apples two dollars a bushel, and flour twelve dollars a barrel, such being the prices [ have paid in this city for these articles. While food is at these prices, money is sky-high. Wall street says it is thirty-six per cent. " Under the peculiar circumstances of the case," I would really advise my anorexiated individual to remain in statu quo, to repose on his reserved rights. In fact, the man without an appetite nowadaj's, is like a traveller without a trunk ; he is enviably iudcpeutlent. The conclusion then forcrs itself upon the understanding, without having had now TO LIVE LONG. Vol the slip:litcst premeditation in thnt direction wlion the head- ing of this article was penned, before breakfast, this niorning, that the most direct and prompt cnre for the present haul times is to become costive, and then yon can snap yonr finder and thnmb trinmphantly at bntchers, hucksters, green-grocers, et id omne genus, — all that fraternity. But how to become costive? — that is a question which comes directly home to tho pocket, with cumulative power, because the times, like, tho ice, are becoming harder every hour. EECEirT FOn BECOMING COSTIVE. For yourself, take a little opium, or a few drops of land- anum, which is opium in a liquid form, two or three time! a day. If you want to begin at the beginning, and economize from the baby upward, and make a pint of milk last as long as a quart, give it a little paregoric (diluted laudanum) every time it cries, or Godfrey's Cordial. If you w^ant next to attack your wife, and anorexiate her, and yet would rather do it on the sly, find out if she has not a little dryness in the throat, or a slight hack, or hem, or cough, or a little clearing of the throat, you have only to get her one of those nice little boxes filled with any sweetish lozenge : it is perfectly immaterial what name they go by ; if it is a lozenge at all, it has the two essential requisites — sugar and opium. No cough lozenge is made which does not con- tain both these ingredients, and each ingredient acts infallibly in the same direction. The sugar itself, the purest loaf, or the best s^Tup which can be made, would destroy the tone of the stomach, that is, impair the appetite, if taken "three times a day before meals," that being the stereotj'pe recipe for t;ik- ing all patent medicines. Anything sweet, thus taken, acts directly on the stomach, and causes want of appetite. Opium causes want of appetite in a more roundabout way ; it causes constipation, and that causes loss of appetite, as already ex- plained. Therefore, if sugar alone destroys the appetite, and opium alone does the same thing, both combined, do it in double-quick time. I never tasted a lozenge, or a lialsam, or balm, or cough mixture, or pectoral, which had not both the sweetish and a bitterish taste, and I presume no one else ever 138 EOW TO LIVE LONG, did. An educated driiirgist "would question a man's sanity, who would ask for a congh medicine which had no bitter or sweet taste about it. Therefore, yon may set it down as an infallible fact, that no lozenge or cough' medicine can be taken even for a short time, without impairing the appetite and causing constipation ; that is, preventing a regular daily action of the I^owels. There is, however, some caution to be observed in the production of artificial anorexia and constipa- tion. If kept up long in grown persons, a natural and certain result is piles first, and then fistula, which last, if cured at all, must be by the surgeon's knife ; or, my neighbor Bcdrnhamer will cure your fistula without a knife, but he will expect a foo, ranging from fifty to five hundred dollars. Now that I havo come to count the cost, I think it would be rather a savlnuf* after all, to let your wife have her appetite, and take no lozenges or cough remedies; so, after "second thoughts," I would rather advise 3^ou never to give or swallow a lozenge or a cough drop as long as you live, unless you wish to be considered a candidate for some lunatic asylum. As for the baby, it likes anything sweet ; at least, ni}^ Bob and our new little Alice glory in SAveets ; and as they are l)ut a type of their kind, I conclude that all children like an^-thing sweetish, and they will take the lozenge or the " syrup " from the father's or the mother's hand, with such loving, smiling confidence, that one must smile and love in return to witness it. It is true, these things do, in a few weeks, give, by degrees, an unusual brightness of the eye, succeeded by water on the brain on the first attack of sickness ; and all its growlh i' in the head, and its little body dwindles, and its eyes stare out with a maniacal frenzy or an idiotic blankness, closing soon in death ; but then 3'ou have saved a pint of milk :\ day for a good while. What I have written refers to scientific constipation. I began the article v;ith the intention of explaining simpl}' ho^v persons generally became costive, and no more important ex- planation in reference to bodily health has ever appeared in the pages of any book, nor ever will. The answer to the question, — EOW TO LIVE LONG. 139 HOW DO PERSONS GENERALLY BECOME COSTIVE? I do not recollect to have seen in any publication, popular or professional, that I have ever read, and yet it will come home to every thinking reader. It is of authenticated and historical record, that, in the last war between China and Great Britain, the Chinese confidently anticipated ultimate victor}'- by negative means alone. It is almost incredible, and yet it is a fact, that they believed that if they cut off the sup- plies of rhubarb, the British would all die, because that article is known to be used to prevent constipation, and if it could not be had, the British soldiers would bloat up and explodoj or at least die in consequence. It cannot be denied that con- stipation would conquer Sebastopol sooner far than the allied army. HOME ILLUSTRATION. To explain the effects of constipation upon human health and life by objects nearer to us than the Crimea, take a steam engine : if the steam is not Avorked off ao fast as it accumu- lates in the boiler, total destruction is absolutely inevitable. The smallest particles of dust will, one by one, find their way from the vest pocket into your watch, and in a 3'ear or two, the accumulation will have been such, that the whole machin- ery is clogged, and it stands still ; and so with the clock on your mantel, however closely it may be shut and covered every time your tidy house-keeper " dusts the room." It i3 because there is a constant inlet, yet no outlet, and just as cer- tainly, just as nevitably, will the machinery of life stand still, sooner or later, if we eat dailj'', and do not pass from us as daily, the refuse of what we eat, after it has subserved the purposes of life. If what we eat to-day, and its refuse, does not pass from us to-morrow, it remains but to clog, and irri- tate, and inflame, and fester, and destroy, and rot every part with which it comes in contact. How, then, do persons generally become costive? How does the young woman pine away before maturity ? IIow does the strong young man, who almost thinks that nothing can hurt, wither and waste and die long before his prime? How is it that the mass of men do not live out half their days? 140 EOW TO LIVE LONG. These questions are all answered by stating the manner in ■which the rcmilar functions of the bowels are deranged. Order is Heaven's first law. Regularity is nature's univer- sal rule. Morning, noon, and night, the healthy man becomes hungry at the usual eating hour for half a century ; no human machine can work the twentieth part so long without adjust- ment or repair. At the accustomed hour the infont becomes jlcepy ; within ten minutes of the time does the regular man wake of a morning, for weeks and months in succession. So is it with the desire to stool ; with almost all, it comes on soon after breakfast. This appears to be the most proper time; and, if not interfered with, this inclination wi'l come on for a life-time, with but a few minutes' variation, and a hcaltii- iul old ag3 is the result; but, if interfered with, the founda- tion l)egin8 to be laid of nine-tenths of all our maladies, and a premature and painful death. And hero we come to the most important item in this article : — now IS THE DAILY ACTION OF THE BOAVELS INTERFERED WITH ? Reader, I will appeal to your own experience, confident that millions of others would respond to it if questioned. I will suppose you to have good health, — that usually after breakfast, awhile, you experience an inclination to go to the privy : generally you do go promptly, but sometimes you do not. You are reading an interesting newspaper article, and you Avant to finish it, or a chapter of a novel, or a political speech, or scientific lecture ; or are attending to an early visitor, hoping every moment his departure ; or you are hem- ming a handkerchief, or engaged on a piece of embroidery ; or you are hurried down town by inexorable business, and when the desire comes, there is no convenient locality. I might mention dozens more of instances which are presented as in- ducements to defer nature's demand for the moment, and, before you arc aware of it, the desire has departed, and houra may elapse before it is felt again, and so faintly that absorp- tion in business may prevent its notice. The next day it comes later and fainter; and, before 3'ou are aware of it, you have fallen into the habit of passing a day or two, or more, without attending to a call of nature ; and the next thing )'ou observe the symptoms of some troublesome disease, EOW TO LIVE LONG. 141 an illu?.tration of which I now give, in order to impress upon the reader's attention the evils which may result from con- st i[)at ion. A British soldier was wounded in the Spanish war at Barossa, in 1811, and, having served twenty-one years in the army, he was placed on the pension list, which he enjoyed for forty-one years in sound health ; but, lately, on leaving work, he became liable to constipation. At first his bowels moved every other day, then seldom oftener than (•nee a week, and finally only once in four weeks. At lust his belly became so large, that his trowsers would not meet ; and he applied to Professor Christison to enable him to button his breeches. He measured at the waistband near forty inches. The proper means were used to procure a discharge, and an immense amount was the result. On other medicine beinj:: administered, another immense dischar2:e Avas the result : still his belly was as large as ever, and next day a third dose of medicine was exhibited, which gave an ordinary discharge ; and on the third day, there being no diminution in size, two tea-spoons of turpentine and twelve table-spoons of castor oil gave only tAvo small passages, and the abdomen was as large as ever. Extreme and painful means were then used with more success ; but he declared, Avith an oath, he never Avould submit to them, and had rather be shot ; but being allowed a day's rest, he did submit next day; and. at the end of a fortnight's treatment, he AA'as dismissed Avith daily-acting boAvels, in his seventy-fourth year. The gretit practical lesson Avhich I Avish to inculcate, to be engraven, as on a plate of steel, on the memory of children, and 3^outh, young men and Avomen, the mature and the gmy- headed : Alloio noUiing short of fire or endangered life to induce ycu lo I'esist, for one single tnoment, nature's alvine mil. So far from repressing a call for any reason short of life and death, you sliould go at the usual time and solicit, and doing so, you Avill have your rcAvard in a degree of hcalthfulness, and in a length of life, which very fsAv are ever permitted to enjoy. If the love of health and life, or the fear of inducing painful disease, cannot induce you to adopt the plan I have recommended, there is another argument, which, to young 142 177^ BIBLE AND MATERIA MEDIC A. gentlemen and young ladies may appear more convincing — personal cleanliness. If you resist a call of nature, a degree of uneasiness and irritation and heat is the immediate result. This heat causes the more airy and watery particles of the fecal matter, which is waiting to be discharged, to evaporate and to be re- absorbed into the system, to be taken into the blood again, which bears the horrible burden to the lip of beauty, which we kiss with so much devotion ; and the very tear-drop of affection has mingled with it what ought to have been de- posited in the privy a few hours before, making the very breath unbearably disgusting : the breath of a costive child even is scarcely to be endured. Cold feet, sick head-ache, piles, fistulas, these, with scores of other diseases, have their first foundations laid in constipa- tion, which itself is infallibly induced by resisting nature's first calls. Reader, let it be your wisdom never to do it asrain. THE BIBLE AND MATERIA MEDICA. When the last hour comes to me ; when in that upper chamber, long past midnight, the flickering light burns lone- ly, and passing forms, noiselessly and quick, too plainly show that death is there ; when the bleak winter's wind whistles from without, or sends its melancholy moan through the lattice, alternating with the groan of the dying; when the softest tread and the slightest whisper fall harshly on the last sense ;* when feeling, and sight, and taste, and speech, all are gone, but immortal thought, the more immortal as it shakes away its mortal shackles, still lives in the freshness of eternal youth, — in such an hour, when this present l)ody shall have been wasted to a skeleton, this hand palsied of its strength, lliis eye glazed with the film of the grave, this check blanched with the last chill, inis forehead, high and white, and broad and clear noAV, shall be thickly studded with the dew-drops of death, and this tongue falters out the last farewell to the * It is said that the hearin!; is the last sense to die. THE BIBLE AND MATERIA MEDIC A. 143 dear ones around, so long loved and labored and cared for, — when such an hour comes to me, I want to feel the ineffable consolation, that something said, or something done, some line written, some sentence published, some page composed, some sentiment recorded, shall live after me, which shall in its intiuenccs continue to benefit and bless jome candidate for the skies, to the last hour of recorded time. Feelii;g thus, now and heretofore, I desire to repeat of the Bible, that — A nation Avould be truly liappy, if it were governed by no other laws than those of this blessed book. It is so complete a system that nothing can be added to it or taken from it. It contains ca erything needful to be known or done. It affords a copy for a king, and a rule for a subject. It gives instruc^^iou and counsel to a senate, authority and direction to a magistrate. It cautions a witness, requires an impartial verdict of a juiy, and furnishes the judge with his sentence. It sets the husband as lord of the household, and the wife as mistress of the table — tells him how to rule, and her bow to manage. It entails honor to parents, and enjoins obedience to chil- dren. It prescribes and limits the sway of the sovereign, the rule of the ruler, and the authority of the master ; commands the subjects to honor, and the servants to obey ; and promises the blessing and protection of the Almighty to all that walk I y its rules. It frives directions for weddings and for burials. It promises food and raiment, and limits the use of both. It points out a faithful and eternal guardian to the depart- ing husband and father — tells him with whom to leave his fatherless children, and in whom his widow is to trust ; and promises a father to the former, and a husband to the latter. It teaches a man how to set his house in order, and how to make his will ; it appoints a dowry for his wife, and entails the right of the first born, and shows how the younger branches shall be left. It defends the right of all, and reveals vengeance to every defaulter, overreacher, and ojipressor. 11 144 THE BIBLE AND MATERIA MEDIC A. It is the first book, the best book, and the oldest book m the world. It contains the choicest matter, gives the best instruction, affcjrds the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that ever was enjoyed. It contains the best laws and most profound mysteries that ever were penned ; it brings the best of tidings, and affords the best of comforts, to the inquiring and disconsolate. It exhibits life and immortality from everlasting, and shows the way to glory. It is a brief recital of all that is past, and a certain predic- tion of all that is to come. It settles all matters in debate, resolves all doubts, and eases ttie mind and conscience of all their scruples. It reveals the only living and true God, and shows the way to him, and sets aside all other gods, and describes the vanity of them, and all that trust in such. In short, it is a book of laws, to show right and wrong ; a book of wisdom, that con- demns all folly, and makes the foolish wise ; a book of truth, that detects all lies and confutes all errors ; and a book of life, that shows the way from everlasting death. It is the most compendious book in the world — the most authentic and the most entertaining history that ever was published. It contains the most ancient antiquities, strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, unparalleled wars. It describes the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal worlds, and the origin of the angelic myriads, human tribes, antl devilish legions. It will instruct the accomplished mechanic, and the most profound artist. It teaches the best rhetorician, and exercises every power of the most skilful arithmetician ; puzzles the wisest anatomists, and exercises the wisest critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and confutes the wise astronomer : it exposes the subtle sophist, and makes diviners mad. It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity, an unequalled narrative, a book of lives, a book of travels, and a book of vovao^es. THE BIBLE AND MATERIA MEDIC A. 145 It is the best covenant that ever was agi-ccd on — the l)cst deed that ever was sealed — the best evidence that ever was produced — the best will that ever was made, and the l)cst testament that ever was signed. To understand it, is to 00 wise indeed ; to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom. It is the king's best copy, the magistrate's best rule, Ihe house-wife's best guide, the sei-vant's best directory, and the young man's best companion ; it is the schoolboy's spelling- hook, and the learned man's masterpiece. It contains a choice grammar for a novice, and a profouni leaving churchy shut your mouthy and move on.** A LIFE-SAVING THOUGHT. An amount of sicisness, suffering, and death will be saved to multitudes, during any spring and summer, if the sugges- tions which I am about to make are attended to. Children eat for three objects : — 1. To keep them warm. 2. To supply the wastes of the system. 3. To afford materials for growth. Hence children who are in health are always hungry, are always eating : we can well remember the happy time when we could eat apples all day, and melons, and grapes, and gin- gerbread, and candies, besides the regular meals of morning, noon, and night. But in mature life the experience of each will tell him, how changed ! The reason is, one object of eat- ing has ceased to exist — we grow no longer ; and Nature, with her watchful instinct, steps in and moderates the appe- tite ; for if we ate as when we were children, very few would survive a third of a century. The objects, then, for which men eat, are two only : first, to keep them warm ; second, to supply the waste of the system ; and whatever is eaten beyond what is necessary for these two things, engenders disease in everybody, everywhere, and ujder all circumstances, and never fails, no more than fails the rising of the daily sun ; for Nature's laws are constant as (he flow of time. No man works as hard in summer as in winter ; consequent- ly the wastes of the system are less ; therefore a less amour:t of food is wanted in summer than in winter. The supply must be regulated by the demand. Again, we eat to keep us warm. Some articles of food have ten times more fuel than nutriment. It must therefore be apparent that we do not require as much food m sunuuei 184 BE SYSTEMATIC. illustrated in the report of M. Vellerme, Secretary of the Poor Law Commissioners in Havre, where the average age of the rich is twelve years greater than that of the poor. 1088 prosperous persons died at an average age of 42 years. 4791 middling class *« *♦ 29 " 19849 poor " «' 20 " Therefore, as it is easier to take money than to take pills, 1 advise my readers, one and all, as a means of long life, to get lich by prudent industry and honorable economy. BE SYSTEMATIC. This will add more to your convenience and comfort through life than you can now imagine. It saves time, saves temper, saves patience, and saves money. For a while it may be a little troublesome ; but you Avill soon find that it is easier to do right than wrong ; that it is easier to act by rule than without one. Be systematic in everything : let it extend to the most mmute trifles ; it is not beneath you. Whitefield could not go to sleep at night, if, after retiring, he remembered that his gloves and riding-whip were not in their usual places, where he could lay his hand on them, in the dark, on any emer- gency ; and such are the men who leave their mark for good on the world's history. It was by his systematic habits from youth to age, that Noah Webster was enabled to leave to the world his great Dictionary. " Method was the presiding prin- ciple of his life," writes his biographer. Systematic men are the only reliable men : they are tho men who comply with their engagements. They are minute men. The man who has nothinoj to do is the man who does nothing. The man of system is soon known to do all that he' engages to do, to do it well, and do it at the time prom- ised ; consequently he has his hands full. When I want any mechanical job done, I go to the man whom I always find busy ; and I do not fail to find him the man to do that job promptly, and tc the hour. EOW TO BE UAPPT, 185 And more, teach your children to bo systematic. Begin with your daughters at five years of age ; give them a drawer or two for their clothing ; make it a point to go to that drawer any hour of the day and night, and if each article is not properly arranged, give quiet and rational admonition : if arranged well, give aficctionate praise and encouragement. Remember that children, as well as grown people, will do more to retain a name than to make one. As soon as practicable, let your child have a room which shall be its own, and treat that room as you did the drawer ; thus you will plant and cultivate a habit of systematic action, which will bless that child while young, increase the blessinji when the child becomes a parent, and extend its pleasurable influences to the close of life. A single unsystematic person in a house is a curse to any family. A wife who has her whole establishment so arranged, from cellar to attic, that she knows, on any emergency, where to go for a required article, is a treasure to any man (my experience, reader !), while one who never knows where anything is, and -when it is by acci- dent found is almost sure to find it crumpled, soiled, out of order, such a wife as this latter is unworthy of the name, and is a living reproach to the mother who bore her. HOW TO BE HAPPY. Thai is the question. Reader, I have seen a great deal, and felt more ; have talked, and travelled, and enjoyed, and suf- fered with all sorts of people ; have wandered much, and staid at home more ; have been on the sea, and in it, and under it ; have been laughed at, shot at, quarrelled at, praised, blamed, abused ; have been blown at, and blown up ; have had much, and had little, — so much as to enjoy nothing, so little that I would have enjoyed a crust of bread ; because the ship went to the bottom with everything in it, leaving me to float to a sand-bank. And then, again, I have wandered over the earth, and under it, and through it, — its caves, and its dungeons and darkness, — after stalagmites, and stalactites, and speci- mens of black rocks and white ones, blue stones and gray ; 186 APPETITE. lived for months on desert islands, just for the purpose of picking up new shells on the beach, which the tide of night never failed to leave behind it. In those bygone days, when I had the three great requisites of an enjoying traveller, to wit, plenty of time, plenty of patience, and plenty of money, so, if the coach turned over and smashed up, I could afford to wait until another could be had, or if the ship went to the bottom, instead of to its destined port, it was just the same to me ; because if I was not at one place I was at another, and there was always some strange rock to look at, some queei " dip," that set me calculating how many horse power it required to make that vock just turn up so, and all the millidu inquiries which geology, astronomy, conchology, and a dozen other dry names suggested, which not only had the effect to keep me from fretting, but kept me in an interested humor, — well, in all these different situations, and as many more, I have found out, among others, three things : — 1 . That a man out of money cannot be happy. 2. That a man out of health cannot be happy. 3. That a man without a wife cannot be happy. Therefore I have come to the conclusion, that the best way to be happy is to take care of your health, keep out of debt, and get a wife. APPETITE. " Asking FOR," that is the meaning. Who asks? Nature: in other words, the law of our being, — the instinct of self- preservation, wisely and benevolently implanted in every living thing, whether animal, worm, or weed. Yielding to this appetite is the preservation of all life and health, below man ; he alone exceeds it, and in consequence sickens and dies thereby, long before his prime, in countless instances. The fact is not recognized as generally as it ought to be, that a proper attention to the " askings " of nature not only maintains health, but is one of the safest, surest, and mo*t permanent methods of curing disease. ^ ^' '/I '/§ HOW TO BE HAPPY. PAGE 1 86. 14 APPETITE. 187 It is eating without an appetite wliich is, in many instances, the hist pound whicli breaks the camel's back ; nature had taken away the appetite, liad closed the house for necessary repairs ; but, in spite of her, avc "forced dovm some food,''^ and days, and weeks, and months of illness followed, if not cholera, cramp, colic, or sudden death. In disease, there are few who cannot recall instances whero a person was supposed to be in a dying condition, and in the delirium of fever, or otherwise, had arisen, and gone to the pail or pitcher, and drank an enormous quantity of water, or gone to the pantry, and eaten largely of some unusual food, and forthwith begun to recover. We frequently speak of persons getting well having the strangest kind of appetite, the indulgence of which reason and science would say would be fatal. We found out, many years ago, when engaged in the gen- eral practice of medicine, that when the patient was conva- lescing, the best general rule was. Eat not an atom you do not relish ; eat anything, in moderation, which your appe- tite craves, from a pickle down to sole-leather. Nature is like a perfect housekeeper ; she knows better what is waul- ing in her house than anybody else can tell her. The body in disease craves that kind of food which contains the element it most needs. This is one of the most important facts in human hygiene ; and yet we do not recollect to have ever seen it embodied in so many words. We have done so to render it practical, and to make it remembered, we state a fact of recent occurrence. Some three years ago, a daughter of James Damon, of Ches- terfield, fell down a flight of stairs, bringing on an ilhicss from which it was feared she would not recover. She did, however, recover, except the loss of hearing and sight. Ilei anpetite, for some weeks, called for nothing but raisins and candy ; and since last fall, nothing but apples were eaten. A few Aveeks ago she commenced eating maple buds ; since which time she has nearly regained her former health and activity, and her sight and hearing are restored. We all, perhaps, have observed that cats and other ani- mals, when apparently ill, go out and crop a particidar grass 01' weed. In applying these fiicts, let us remember to indulge 1S8 DECISION OF CnABACTER. this *' asking for " of nature, in sickness especially, in moder- jition ; feeling our way along by gradually increasing amounts, thus keeping on the safe side. We made this one of oui earliest and most inflexible rules of practice. DECISION OF CHARACTER. "Without this no man or woman was ever worth a button, nor ever can be. Without it a man becomes at once a good- nnturcd nobody, the poverty-stricken possessor of but one solitary principle — that of obliging everybody under the sun, merely for the asking. He is like the judge who uniformly decided according to the views of the closing speech. Having no mind of his own, such a man is a mere cipher in society, without weight of character, and utterly destitute of influ- ence. Such a one can never command the respect, or even the esteem, of men around him. All that he can command is a kind of patronizing pity. The man to be admired, respect- ed, feared, and who will carry multitudes with him, whether right or wrong, is ho who plants his foot upon a spot, and it remains there, in spite of storm, or tempest, or tornado : the very rage of an iufuriated mob but gives new inspiration to his stability of purpose, and makes him see that he is so much the more of a man. Then, again, what a labor-saving machine is this "decision of character" — this thin-pressed lip — in all the departments of life ! The infant of a year knows its meaning well ; children see it with intuition. Servants, the dullest of the dull, — the veriest flaxen waddle, a week only from "Fader Land," — learn it at a glance. Why, this decision of character, this lirmness of purpose, pays itself in any walk down Broadway. The little match-girl docs not repeat, "Matches, plcaso?" the ragged crossing-sweeper docs not take the pains to run half across the street after you ; he knows better. Your own child does not repeat its request, however anxious to have it granted ; and wifey hei'self soon learns " it's no use knocking at the door any more," if the first tap does not gain admis- siou. BE COURTEOUS. 189 Then, a2:ain, what a happy deliverance it is from tliat stuto of bctweenity, wliieh is amongst the most wearing of all feel insfs ! AVhy, half the people don't know the luxury of having made up one's mind irrevocably. AVhat an amazing saving of time it is, of words, of painful listening to distressing appeals ! Why, it is a positive benefit to the ])crsons refused ; for it enables them to decide without an eti'ort that further importuni^.y is useless. But, my brother, see to it that j^our decisions be always right first ; and to guarantee that, you must have a sound head ajd a good heart : then may it well be like a Melo-Persian law — unalterable. But "be kiudly firm." BE COURTEOUS. Does a lady ever ride in an omnibus or a city rail-car? Women do often ; and now and then a lady may, when im- pelled by some emergency of rain, or mud, or cash. The manner in which Avomen take the seats vacated by gentlemen, who have, in consequence, to stand the remainder of the trip, is anything but confirmatory of the fact that our fair country women, as a class, know what common courtesy is, practi- cally. In a daily car-riding of five or six years, we cannot remember as many instances of a lady-like acceptance of a proilered seat. It is almost universal, that a gentleman's place is taken without the slightest acknowledgment, byword, or look, or gesture, that a benefit has been conferred and received. And yet it is a very great accommodation ; for to stand in the passage-way, while the cars are in motion, for a dozen squares or so, the centre of thirty pairs of eyes, is little short of purgatorial ; and being such an accommoda- tion, the smallest kind of a remuneration would be a word, or look, or gesture, of felt indebtedness. The perseverance which New York gentlemen exhibit, in instantaneously quit- ting their seats when a car is crowded and a woman enters, is highly creditable to their manliness and chivalry. We suggest, as a remedy, that all the " boarding-schools," " day-schools," and " institutes," which have the prefix Female, hold a convention immediately, if not sooner, for 190 . BE COURTEOUS. the purpose of debating the questiou whether or not a Professor of "Politeness" might not be appointed, to uni- versal advantage, whose duty it should be to "give lessons in politeness" to every young girl in the school, from her entrance luitil her exit from the establishment. We have seen tottering gray-headed men resign their seats to young women, and not a smile, or courtesy, or "thank you," ever escape from their lips. Shame on the superficial, inadequate, corrupting, and debasing system of " female boarding-schools " and "institutes" as a class, whose absorbing object is, not to prepare the girls committed to their care to become helping wives, intelligent mothers, discreet matrons of a household, and ornaments in useful and benevolent society, but to make money, and return therefor a painted flower, a gilded time- piece, with no enduring quality but the brass of which it is chiefly composed. How sigh we for the wives, the mothers, the daughters of a b^^gone age ! There is a name, now passed away, we love to think upon — a synonym, a representative, in his age, of all that was honorable in his dealing, courteous in his deportment, manly in his bearing, and Christian in his heart — a fine Virginia gentleman of the old school was James Harjper. He once related to us the following incident : — " Some years ago an old woman entered a public convey- ance in Broadway. It was raining, and there was no vacant seat ; I instantly ofiered her mine. She declined, and in a manner which showed that she felt she had no claim for the seat, nor to such an evidence of consideration from a stranger. I insisted, and, as if fearing to wound my feelings by a fur- ther refusal, she took it, with a courteous expression of her obligation. When she wanted to leave the conveyance, it stopped in a muddy part of the street, and, feeling assured that I was with a lady, I did not hesitate to pass out befoie her, and hand her to the sidewalk. I then returned to my seat doubly gratified : first, in having it in my power to oblige a lady; and, second, in seeing that it was appreciated — not a common thing, doctor, nowadays," as he turned away with one of his hearty, full-souled laughs. But who was the lady ? I learned afterwards that it was Mrs. Alexander Hamilton DYSPEPSIA. 191 EATING TOO MUCH. What countless thousands it puts into the doctor's pockets I — furnishes his splendid mansion in Union Square and Fifth Avenue; enables him to " sport his carriage," to own a villa mi the banks of the Hudson, and live in style to the end of the chapter. " I canH help it,''^ says the poor unfortunate milk-and-water individual, who never had decision enough to do a deeci worthy of remembrance an hour later. ISfy wishy-washy fiiend, suppose I help you to avoid making a beast oi yourself. Have two articles of food sent to your room, besides bread and butter, with half a glass of cold water. I will give you permission to eat as much as you want, thus, thrice a day. Or, if you prefer eating wath company, you may safely sit down to the ^' best table" in the land, if you have manhood enough to partake of but any two articles. It is the variety/ of our food which brutifies us. DYSPEPSIA. The nervous energy is the motive power of the whole man, spiritual, mental, and physical. When that power is equally distributed, the body is well, the brain is clear, and the heart is buoyant. If the brain has more than its share, it burns itself up, and n.akes the "lean Cassius" — the restless body and the anxious countenance. As there is a given quantity of nervous influence for the whole body, ii' the brain has more than its natural portion, the stomach has less ; consequently the food is not thoroughly assimilated, or, as we call it, digested. This being the case, the requisite amount of nutriment is not derived from the food, and the whole body suffers — doubly suffers; for not only is the supply of nutriment deficient, but the quality is imperfect. These things go on, aggravating each other, until 192 DYSPEPSIA. there is not a sound spbt in the whole body ; the whole niaclil- nery of the man is, by turns, the seat of some ache, or pain, or " symptom." This is a common form of aggravated dys- pepsia. Such being the focts, some useful practical lessons may be learned. 1. Never sit down to table with an anxious or disturbed mind. Better, a hundred-fold, intermit that meal ; for there will then be that much more food in the world for hungriei stomachs than yours ; and, besides, eating under such circum- stances can only, and will always, prolong and aggravate the '3ondition of things. 2. Never sit down to a meal after any intense mental effort ; Tor physical and mental injury is inevitable — and no man has a right deliberately to injure body, mind, or estate. 3. Never go to a full table during bodily exhaustion, designated by some as being ivoini out, tired to death, u.sed up, done over, and the like. The wisest thing 3^ou can do, under such circumstances, is to take a cracker and a cup of warm tea, either black or green, and no more. In ten min- utes you will feel a degree of refreshment and liveliness u'hich will be pleasantly surprising to you ; not of the tran- eient kind, which a glass of liquor affords, but permanent; for the tea gives present stimulus, and a little strength ; and before it subsides, nutriment begins to be drawn from the sugar, and cream, and bread ; thus allowing the body, grad- uall}'' and by safe degrees, to regain its usual vigor. Then, in a couple of hours, you may take a full meal, provided it does not bring it later than two hours before sundown ; if later, then take nothing for that day, in addition to the cracker and tea, and the next day you will feel a freshness and vigor not recently known. No reader will require to be advised a second time, who will make a trial as above ; while it is a fact of no unusual observation, among intelligent physicians, that eating heartily, under bodily exhaustion, is not an infrequent cause of alarming and painful illness, and sometimes of sudden death. These things being so, let every family make it a point to assemble around the family board with kindly feel- ings, with a cheerful humor, and a courteous spirit ; and let that member of it be sent from the table in disgrace who presumes to mar the ought-to-be blest reunion, by sullen HEREDITARY DISEASE. 103 silence, or impatient look, or anp:ry tone, or complaining tongue. Eat in thankful gladness, or away with you to the kitchen, you graceless churl, you ungrateful, pestilent lout that you are. There was grand and good philosophy in the old-time custom of having a buffoon or music at the dinner- lal)le. HEREDITARY DISEASE. There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as heredidry disease. Children are not born diseased, however (some specific maladies excepted) much one or both parents arc, but the}'' are simply born with a predisposition to such paren- tal malady. They are born with the material, with the powder ; but actual disease will no more occur, unless ex- citing causes are applied, than powder Avould clicve that Providence has anything to do with (he production of sickness or disease, beyond the institution of certain laws which He has made for the government of tlie world, any more than that He has an agency in the burning of our finger, if we put it in the fire. We think that very many obituary notices are impious, so far as the agency of the Aj- migbty in removing valuable lives is specially charg 3d. That He mercifully overrules, we thankfully admit ; but that He changes any organic law, or throws up miraculous barrieis to resist the ordinary results of their infringement, we do not believe. Our meaning practically is this : had we gone to Norfolk to help the sick, we should have uttered no prayer for protection against the disease ^jer se ; we would have looked for no preternatural shield to have been thrown around us ; but we would have steadily sought for guidance to live in such a manner as was most wisely calculated to give \is strength, vital force to resist and to throw oflf the causes of the epidemic ; we would have hoped for no favor because of the humanity of our mission, but we Avould have looked for immunity in proportion as wc lived up to the laws of our being. Let no weak brother t^s^c. oficncc at this doctrine, but take courage when we assure him that our view of the subject is the ground of more heartfelt thankfulness than his, while its rationality is so much the more ennol)ling. Wc feel thankful, not that He throws around us an abnormal, or preter- natural barrier against disease, but that the laws of our being arc so lovingly instituted, that their observance m inevitable of safety, health, and happiness, thus ofiering the highest j)re- raium for the cultivation of our intellect in the study of His ways ; this vcr}' cultivation happifying us here, and prepar- ing us for a nearer elevation to Himself when time has passed iway. Norfolk was sickly because it was unwisely located : more sickly this last summer than usual, because its inhabitants have not had the industry and forethought to remove far *^nough from them the accumulating garbage of successivo PROVIDENCE AND DISEASE. 203 years, and to iuteriiose those contrivances which an elevated science would have indicated, had she I)ecn importuned. The elements of disease have been accumulating from year to year I>y a succession of impressions on the constitution of the in- habitants, until the culminating point was reached, and noth- ing more was wanting to the terrible explosion but "'he appli- ciition of the match, which was nothing more than a greater variation than conmion in the warmth and moisture of the season. Either of two things would have caused an immedi- ate disappearance of the pestilence : submerging the city and suburbs with a foot deep of running water, or a temperature steadily below seventy degrees of Fahrenheit. The reaso'i for these sentiments are not given now, but we propose doing 80 in some more inviting form in a future article. We merely hint enough to set our intelligent readers thinking. "\Ve love to make people think ; it is only the thoughtful who are of any account in a world like this ; it is the thoughtless, the heedless multitude, who heap want and calamity and disease on themselves, and on too many of those with whom they are bronght in frequent association. Now for the bone to pick ; untying the Gordian knot. A heat of ninety degrees will always generate miasm in damp and dirty localities. This miasm is the cause of epi- demic diseases, but it cannot rise through running water, nor can it exist as such at seventy degrees. The reason that epi- demics do not promptly abate on the advent of either of the conditions named, is, that at any given time there are some S}Tnptoras just ripening into disease. The great itractical lesson taught b}'" these considerations is, that in times of individual or general sickness our wisdom consists in indus- triously searching ont and removing the causes of disease, looking humbly to God for suggestive guidance in these in- vestigations, for strength in the prosecution of our activities, ftith thankful reliance on thi triumphant working of the laws .vhich He has ordained. 204 EQUANIMITY OF MIND. EQUANIMITY OF MIND. How health-saving, how dignified, liow philosophical ! pev contra^ the fiery folh, the hipdog sort, how terribly fierce they are ! in a moment blazing hot — about nothing, when you come to examine into the merits of the case. Spasmodic l)eople, who take the world l)y fits and starts ; in the skies to- day, to-morrow — in the cellar ! everything, anything, noth- ing: doubtless they have their uses, like the insect of an hour, or an atom in the air, but if ever any single individual of this not innumerous tribe came to anything, we have yet to arrive at the knowledge of the fact ; their more obvious uses are, by misapprehensions, to set people by the ears, to excite family quarrels, and originate ill-will among neighbors. Whipper-snappers are they, busybodies, never happier than when up to their eyes in other people's business, at the ex- pense of their own ; marvellously benevolent towards every body else but their own Avives and children. The end of such is to die early, and to die poor; or, if they live long, their lives are more a burden than a blessing to the community among whom it was their lot to fall. Widely difterent is the aim and end of the man who takes the world calmly, who takes time to make himself master of the whole fact ^ before he moves a step ; such a man seldom acts wrong, is seldom found in a false position, and is conse- quently under no necessity of resorting to humiliating quib- l)les, or even questionable expedients, to extricate him from a predicament ; the necessary result being, in the course of years, an abiding impression on his own mind tjiat he has act- ed right in all things ; and being conscious of no wrong, of no quibble, feels always safe, is subject to no unpleasant sur- prises. Such a man., having no ground for apprehensions, and yet being open to all the enjoyments which other men are, has that stereotyped equanimity of mind which, while it closes the gate against the host of ills Avhich wrong-doing entails on the wicked, opens a door to pleasures innumeral)le, boundless I These are the men who uniformly " succeed '" in life, in any country and in every clime ; — succeed, not mere- WEARING FLANNEL. 205 ly in the accumulation of money, but in that which is of greater worth, in securing a position in society, and a name, which is the syuonyme for all that is solid, manly, and good ; not only so, the pulses of life beating regularly, thoy neces- sarily beat long, for the system is subject to no shocks, is i-acked by no explosions : so that they have not only made a fortune and a name, but secured long life to enjoy them, that very enjopnent consolidating both. This is not a beautiful theory spun out at our own ofFice-fire of a bright frost}'" morning in December, nor yet under the unreliable exhilaration of a cup of tea, or a glass of wine, but it is the result of convictions founded on the observation of men and things, confirmed by a living truth, in the perscms of a whole community of people, whose increasing fewness in the Old ^Yorld, as well as in the New, we on some accounts do sincerely deplore : we mean the "Society of Friends," com- monly called Quakers. Recent published statistics in Eng- land show, that Avhile the average duration of human life is estimated at thirty-three years, that average among these peo- ple is fifty-one years ; exhibiting thus this broad, practical fact, that a course of life which promotes an habitual equa- nimity of mind, the feature which stands out above all others in the every-day character of Friends, in this country as well as in England, is highly conducive to bodily health and length of days. WEARING FLANNEL. Put it on at once. Winter or summer, nothing better cars be worn next the skin than a loose, red woollen flannel shirt : " loose," for it has room to move on the skin, thus causing a litillation, which draws the blood to the surfiice and keeps it there ; and Avhen that is the case, no one can take cold ; " red," for white flannel fulls up, mats together, and becomes tight, otiff, heavy, and impervious; "AvooUeu," the product of n sheep, and not of a gentleman of color — not of cotton- wool, because that merely absorbs the moisture from the surfiice, while woollen flannel convevs it from the skin and deposits it in drops on the outside of the shirt, from which the ordinary 206 KEEP TOUR MOUTH SHUT. cotton shirt absorbs it, and by its nearer exposure to the ex- terior air, it is soon dried without injury to the body. Hav- ing these properties, red woollen flannel is w^orn by sailors, even in the midsummer of the hottest countries. Wear a thinner material in summer. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. Keep your mouth shut, all you that will keep late hours in cold winter nights, in crowded, heated rooms, until animal vigor and mental sprightliness are exhausted, and yd must breast the bleak winds of January to get home. I see noth- ing amiss in the festivities of friends, and neighbors, and kindred, of evenings : better that than moping at home : nothing amiss in the glad reunions of the young and cheery- hearted, even though they may be extended, once in a while, to the "wee short hours ayant the twal." I love to see glad- ness in all, at any hour of the twenty-four; but to do these things safely and long, make it a practice to observe two or three simple and easy precautions. Before you leave, bundle up well — gloves, cloak, com- forter. Shut your mouth before you open the street door, and keep it resolutely closed until you have walked briskly for some ten minutes ; then, if you keep on walking, or have reached your home, you may talk as much as you please. By not so doing, many a heart, once happy and young, now lies in the churchyard, that might have been young and happy still. But hoAv? If you keep your mouth closed, and walk rapidly, the air can only reach the lungs by the circuit of tho nose and head, and becomes warmed before reaching tho lungs, thus causing no derangement; but if you converse, large draughts of cold air dash directly in upon the lungs, chilling the whole frame almost instantly. The brisk walking throws the blood to the surface of the body, thus keeping up a vigorous circulation ; making a cold impossible, if you don't get into a cold bed too quick after you get home. Neglect of these brings sickness and premature death to multitudes every year. THERMOMETERS. 207 THERMOMETERS. Thermometers, if properly used, might be ma,lc one of the most money-saving articles of the household. There sJiould oe a thermometer in every chamber in the house, one in cni^h liall or passage, and a large one at some easily accessii)le northern exposure out of doors, with a red column, and which could be seen without opening a door or window. They sliould be hung about five feet from the floor, not only fijr the purpose of enabling the children to see the index, but as indicating the temperature of the air which is breathed • as that at the floor is coldest, while that at the ceiling is the most heated, as well as the most impure. With these facili- ties, we can tell accurately whether our apartments are of a proper temperature, and also whether to put on more and heavier or lighter garments in the morning. By attention to these things we will save ourselves time and suflcring, and many a doctor's bill ; one of which would sup])ly every room in the house with these useful articles, which, when once pur- chased, last for life, if taken care of. Speaking of changing the clothing, we consider it hazard- ous to lessen its amount after dressing in the morning, unless active exercise is taken immediately. No under-garment should be changed for lighter ones during the day, ordi- narily. The best, safest, and most convenient time for le/ - senins; the clothinir, is in the morninir, when we first dres^i for the day. Hence the first thing, after rising, should be to notice the thermometer. If you have but one, place it t»utside before getting into bed. Not less than twenty de ^rees from the temperature of the preceding morning should Justify any special change in the clothing, unless person , aru very sensitive. There is a moral advanta2;e in thermometers which merits the attention of every parent. All children love novelty, — which is nothing less than knowledge to them, — and they will take as much interest in what is usefully true as in what IS viciously so. You have only to turn their attention, in a kindly, encouraging, and judicious way, to the rise and faH 208 CORNS. of the mercury, and keeping a memorandum of it, in order to insure to them agreeable employment for many an hour in the year, and to consequent reflection, which we all know is the first step towards manliness and distinction. Make a child reflective, and he is safe for life. Get your children interested in observing natural truths, and you will have but little trouble in keeping them out of street associations ; so that the purchase, and proper use, of a fifty-cent thermom- etei, may be, to any child, the difference between a life of disease and viciousness, or one of health and virtue ; the difl'crence between a life lost, and a man saved to his country and his race. CORNS. Corns are nature's barricades. The skin hardens itself in order to afibrd protection to the inner and more delicate parts ao-ainst an ill-fitting shoe ; for whether too tight or too loose, the result is similar. Corns are the deserved punishments of all pretenders and make-believes. You endeavored, when younger, to persuade people to think that your understandings were less extensive than they really were — illcs June lacrymce; hence those out- bursts of passion which invaded corns daily give rise to. How instinctively is fended ofl' the tread of youth and beautj even, by the gallant beau of forty-five ! What unpleasant reminiscences of our infirmities are these self-same corns in dull weather, the very time when we need some extra exhila- ration I A man, whom I did not know from Adam, came into my office yesterday, sat down vis-a-vis^ took me by the hand. "I'll read you through, from infancy up," said he. "Read away," said I. I fixed my eyes on the ceiling, he his on the carpet for a "spell," as Jonathan would say. " What a kindly nature 1 " was his abrupt exclamation ; ^ kind towards everybody and everything ; generous to a fault, decidedly frank, — too much so for your own good, — free. You were born in Kentucky, in one of the inland comities, where there were many girded trees standing; in COBNS. 209 a log-house, not two stories high, and more than one ; the upper windows were smaller than those below. I see a door, with a window on one side, and perhaps on the other, with casings around them ; a temporary shed at one end of the house, the right ; while to the left and back the ground trended rapidly away,*' &c. But what in the world has this to do with corns on people's toes? It was pertinent enough, if we had stopped at the right p^iace ; but our pen-editorial is like two things : first, like the man with a cork leg, it worked so well, that when he got onco started he couldn't stop : so he has been going ever since — shouldn't wonder if he had got to the other side of the moon by this time; second, like that memher of Scripture classics, l)elonging to one of our household. " WJiat a hindhj nature! " We should have stopped there, and given an illustration, in the fact of our being so benevo- lent as to publish to the world a cure for corns, — infallible, — for nolldng I Never let anything harder than your finger-nail ever touch a corn ; paring it as certainly makes it take deeper root as catting a weed ofi" at the surface. The worst kiud of corns are controllable, as follows : — Soak the feet in quite warm water for half an hour before going to bed ; then rub on the corn with your finger, for sev- eral minutes, some common sweet oil. Do this every night ; aud every morning repeat this rubbing in of oil with the finger. Bind on the toe, during the da}^, two or three thick- nesses of buckskin, with a hole in the centre to receive the corn. In less than a week, in ordinary cases, if the corn does not fall out, you can pinch it out with the finger-nail ; and weeks, and sometimes months, will pass away before you will be reminded that you had a corn ; when you can repeat the process. Corns, like consumption, are never cured; but may be indefinitely postponed. The oil and soaking softens and loosens the corn, while the buckskin protects it from press- ure, which makes it, perhaps, to be pushed out by the under* growth of the parts. 210 PRESERVED SUNSHINE. PRESERVED SUNSHINE. Light and life are inseparable ; that is, siicli was the gen- erally received opinion many years ago, and in accordance with it, houses were built liberally supplied with windows, nnd as liberally now ; but go along any of the fashionable streets of New York, and you will find not less than three, and often six, distinct contrivances to keep out the sunshine and gladness. First, the Venetian shutter on the outside ; second, the close shutter on the inside ; third, the blind which is moved by rollers ; then, fourthly, there are the lace cur- tains ; fifth, the damask, or other material, ditto. In the same train comes the exclusion of external air, by means of double sash, and a variety of patent contrivances to keep any little stray whiff of air from entering at tlie bottom, sides, and tops of doors and windows. At this rate we will in due time dwindle into Liliputs, if, indeed, we do not die off" sooner, with all science and art, and leave the world to begin anew, from the few sons of the forest who persisted in eschewing civilization. We lay it down as a health axiom — The more out-door air and cheery sunshine a man can use, the longer he will live. But the preserved sunshine ! What about it? That very -jame sunshine which so lavishly beamed upon our continent, vS'ith all its tropical fervor, in the earlier ages of creation, what has become of it? A casual reader will exclaim, " AVhat a fool of a question that is ! " Let us leisurely inquire into it ; but in doing so, we must take it for granted that the reader knows something. In Central America, where the sun shines with all its bril- liancy and fierceness, vegetation is of fabulous growth, of a luxuriance almost incredible. But how does a tree grow? Without light no wood is made in any vegetable growth ; the woody fibre is formed from carbonic acid gas being absorbed by the leaves and through the bark of any growth. But light separates the two constituents which compose this carbonic acid gas, carbon and oxygen, and two different uses are made of it ; the oxygen is PRESERVED SUNSHINE. 211 liberated, thrown out, and breathed by animals and men, while the carbon or " coal " goes to form the woody fibre of the plant, which presents a kind of ring, plainly seen in saw- ing through any tree, the nuniljer of rings indicating the age of the tree in years ; some of these rings are broader, some narrower, indicating, most probably, the more or less sunshine of that year, for a plant will not grow as much in a cold sum- mer as in a Avarm one. In a section of a California tree, a part of which avc have in our office, more than two thousand such rings were counted, showing that these trees must have liA'cd in the times of David, and perhaps of Abraham. In the earlier ages of the world, some great flood or floods fwept over the immense growths of the warmer climes, which then, no doubt, included what is now called Ohio and Penn- sylvania. In process of time, this growth was covered with earth and stones, and eventually became "coal," the anthracite and bituminous, with which we are so familiar; and the very identical carbon, which the sunlight of ages ago separ- ated for the purpose of vegetation, is now, by its combi- nation with its old associate, oxygen, returning to its original condition of carbonic acid gas, and in making that change, b}- what we call "burning," warms our houses, lights up our streets, and is preparing to grease our rail-cars by the oil which it is capable of yielding. Such, reader, are some of His ways, w.io ruleth the world in loving-kindness ; in the thousands and thousands of years ago, He commenced processes for laying up in store a mate- rial, which in these latter ages is such an essential agent for the advancement of civilization — the "coal-beds" of the world ; for without them our manufactories would stop, our mills and engines rust, and cold and privation, with their attend- ant diseases, would sweep from the world the race of civil- ized men. 212 SUNDAY DINNERS. SUNDAY DINNERS. That it is humane to have as little cooking done on Sunday, and thus giving as much rest to our servants as practicable, no one will deny. As to the healthfulness of a cold dinner on Sundays, a mo- ment's reflection will be conclusive. As we take very much less exercise on the Sabbath day than when engaged in our ordinary avocations, we need that much less food. No one can eat as much of a cold dinner as ho would if it were smoking hot. There is no danger of our not eating enough dinner on Sundays, let it be evei so cold and uninviting ; for if any business man would take nothing at all for his Sunday dinner, and for the following supper were to drink a single cup of any kind of tea, weak and hot, and eat with it a bit of toast or a piece of cold bread and butter, he would be all the better for it in mind and body next day ; and would go to his business on a Monday morning with a vigor and elasticity which that man never knows who makes his Sunday dinner the dinner of the week. Taking so much less exercise on Sundays than on a week- day, and stimulated to eat more on that day by its superior excellency, aided by idleness, there is of necessity a repletion, an over-supply of food, Avhich will be as certainly disastrous as the feeding of a locomotive with more fuel while she is standing still than when she is going ahead with her long retinue of passengers and freight. But in a sober, religious point of view, those inviting Sun- day dinners are not judicious ; the nervous energy is drawn *.o the stomach in extreme quantities, in order to dispose of the over-load, leaving the brain scantily supplied, causing dulness, drowsiness, and almost stupidity, Avholly unfitting the mind for proper attention to the religious exercises of the afternoon, the palpable cause of wasted sermons, of wasted opportunities. This subject is worth a serious thought on the part of pious people, especially those who have a growing family. Cold bread and meat, with pie or baked apples, and a single cup of good hot tea or coffee, make a good enough Sunday dinner for anybody. MEDICAL FANTASIES. 213 MEDICAL FANTASIES. One of the earliest Hydropathic prescripticns we read c»f was recorded long before the days of Priessnitz ; it was gi\cii by an Ass to a brother Ass, was followed iwitantery to the death, and has been kept in the same style ever since. The legend goes in this wise : — Two donkeys were travelling one hot sumraer's day, heav- ily laden, one with a sack of wool, the other with a sack of yalt. Almost exhausted with heat and fatigue, they came at length to a river; and, wiselj'' enough, it was concluded that one should try the ford first. The one with the salt plunged in, and on reaching the opposite shore safely, found himself so much refreshed by the cooling of the waters, and so invig- orated was he, that he felt all at once as if he had no load at all, — as if he could carry two or three sacks more; and, being naturally benevolent, he urged his companion to lose no time, and plunge into the stream, triumphantly pleading his own delightful experience ; so Assy number two jumped in, according to directions, and — was crushed to the earth. We scarcely need remind the reader, that in the first in- stance the salt was dissolved and passed down the stream, while the wool, absorbing more water, became more weighty, and hence the very signal failure of the prescription. The wisest among men may learn a useful lesson from this homely fable. It is this reasoning a-:a-donkey that fills the world with errors, not only in medicine, but in morals ; not merely errors in theory, but in practice ; pervading every pro- fession and every calling of human life. The miscliief arises from confounding cause and effect with antecedence and subse- quence. If I faint and fall to the earth, and cold water is thrown in my face, I " come to ; " if spirits of hartshorn be applied to the nose, the same result is observed ; hence these methods are resorted to the world over, and the cold water and the hartshorn have the credit of restoration, but erro- neously ; the}'' were applied, and the restoration followed, but this was merely antecedence and subsequence ; the water was dot the cause of the restoration, nor Avas the restoration the 16 214 MEDICAL FANTASIES. effect of the application of the water, for if a fointiug man be laid upon his back, he will come to by simply being let ulone, and in a much more gentle, gradual, and agreeable Ava}^ w^ith- out being shocked almost out of his senses, or having his best clothes all drabl)lcd over with water. The real cause of res- toration is natural reaction; it is a something which is kindly and wisely made a part of our being by Him whose ways to men are goodness and love personified ; the name of this be- nign agency is beautifully denominated the Vis Medico trix N^aturoi, the power which nature has of curing herself. This is the doctor patronized by all regular physicians ; but as no amount of argument would persuade the common people to do the same, n'c pass the point for the purpose of having a little fun at the expens3 of great men. 'I'aking a mere subsequence for an effect, the great Martin Luther declared, " If you run a stick through three frogs, dry them in the sun, and apply them to any pestilent tumor, they draw out all poiscm, and the malady will disappear." Sup- pose the frogs had been guillotined or hung, and then dried in the sun, it is not likely they would have been less effica- cious. It requires some considerable time, especially in win- ter, to dry a frog ; meanwhile the " pestilent tumor " would pass its crisis, and get well of itself. Modern wisdom has improved on Luther's prescription, for it has discovered that a chicken split open, and applied while warm, is of sovereign efficacy in similar cases. The thing that cures is not the stuck frog nor the divided pullet, but keeping the parts soothingly moist and warm for some time without disturbance. A poultice made of flax-seed or bread and milk would have all the virtues of thvi frog or the chicken, with the no small advantage of being more instantly available. It would require some considerable hunting to secure three frogs in New Yoik, or anywhere, in midwinter, and as for our chickens, they are all dead a long time airo, lonij enoui^h to gi'ow very tender. The great Bi:;hop Berkeley, one of the most accomplished and best educated men of the age in which he lived, wrote a book " concerning the virtues of tar-water," advocating its efficacy in coughs, colds, and consumption, dropsies, fevers, and small-pox. Some people made fun of the bishop, but he confidently appealed to time and observation. But time is a MEDICAL FANTASIES. ,215 slow coach for the bishcp, as a hundred and ten years have failed to certify his theory. One day the bishop was taken suddenly ill, but he hadn't a bit of tar in his house, and be- fore any could be had, he — died. It was a great over- sight that, not to have had two or three barrels of tar stowed jnvay in his house to meet emergencies. Bacon believed that the application of ointment to a weapon which inflicted a wound, was more efficacious than if it Avere applied to the wound ilself ; and the great Boyle believed that the thigh-t ine of a criminal who had suffered deatli was a cure for some I)Owel affections, which indeed is a fict, with this limitation: any other bone of any other man, brute or beast, if burned and pulverized, would have been equally efficacious ; quite as efficacious as a remedy once uttered in our hearing : " A chicken's gizzard well boiled, then burnt to a cinder, then finely pulverised and swallowed ; a cure for the diarrhoea." And so it is in some forms ; but burnt cork is equally efficacious ; and it is quite likely, in fact certain, that a tablespoonful of tadpoles or shrimps, or a good big crawfish, burned to a cin- der, then pulverized, would avail as much. But instead of regarding these outre articles as having medicinal merits, or being the cause of cure, we should endeavor to ascertain whether there was not some one quality common to all, and whether there was not reason to believe that all the virtue resided in that ime quality. A-t the first glance we perceive that innocuous, impalpable fineness is the great requisite ; hence, in certain forms and stages of loose bowels, we find that the nitrate of bismuth, or a tablespoon of fine flour fatirred in a little cold water, and drank quickly, are both very reliable remedies ; but let no reader illustrate his genealogy by running to the flour-barrel the next time he has a loose visitation ; for if it be a bilious diarrhoea, it will do no good ; if it be the premonitory of cholera, the delay might be death ; or if it be the looseness of a surfeit, the flour would have no eflfect : in either of these cases, show yourself a sensible man, by lying down and sending for your family physician. The great lesson we desire to inculcate in this article is, — If you would avoid serious errors, do not confound mere sub- sequents with causes in your philosophy : such a mistake is the rock on which millions have wrecked all human hopes, and i>iillions more, will do the same. 216 HARD STUDY. HARD STUDY. Hard stud}^ hurts nobody, but hard catuig hurts man3\ II is a very common thing to attribute the premature disabil it}' :)t death of students and eminent men to too close application to their studies. It has now become to be a generally admitted truth that "hard study," as it is called, endangers life. It is a mischievous error that severe mental application undermines health. Unthinking people will dismiss this with the exclama- tion of, "That's all stuff!" or something equally conclusive. To those who search after truth, in the love of it, we wish to offer some suggestions. Many German scholars have studied, for a lifetime, for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, and a very large num- ber from twelve to fifteen hours ; lived in comparative health, and died beyond the sixties. A strong example of the truth that health and hard study are not incompatible, is found in the great Missourian, Thomas II. Benton. A more severe student than he has been, the American pu])lic does not know. Dr. Charles Caldwell, our honored preceptor, lived beyond the eighties, with high I odily health, remarkable physical vigor, and mental force bcarcely abated ; yet, for a great part of his life, he studied fifteen hours out of the twenty-four, and, at one time, gave but five hours to sleep. John Quincy Adams, the old man eloquent, is another equally strong example of our position. All these men, with the venerable Dr. Nott, made the preser- vation of health a scientific study ; and, by systematic tem- perance, neither blind nor spasmodic, secured the prize for which they labored, and Avith it years, usefulness, and honor. The inculcation of these important truths was precisely the object we had in view in the projection of this work ; with the more immediate pr ictical application to the clergy of this country, whom we see daily disabled or dying, scores of years before their time, not, as is uniformly and benevolently stated, from their "arduous labors," but by a persistent and inexcusable ignorance of the laws of life and health, and a wicked neglect of them. We use this strong language pur- CIVILIZATION AND HEALTH. 217 posely ; for ignorance of duty to their own bodies is no more excusable than ignorance of duty to their own souls ; for upon both classes of duty the lights brightly shine, full bright enough for all practical purposes, — the lights of nature, ol science, of experience, and of grace. How much of the hard, intolerant theology of the times was concocted, and is per [)etualed, by dyspeptic stomachs, reflecting men can readilj conjecture. We do not with malice aforethought indite hard tilings against a class of men so good, able, so useful, as the American clergy are ; nor is it any gratification. But we feci that they need to be sharply spoken to. Their habit is dic- tation, and there is none to dictate to them. We take it upon ourselves to guard and guide the shepherds. We would like to say much more on this subject; but long articles are neither read nor copied, and, by many, a long cigar or a long quid of tobacco would be preferred. For the present, there- fore, we content ourselves with the enunciation of the gist of this article : — students and professional men are not so much injured by hard study as by hard eating; nor is severe study, for a lifetime, of itself incompatible with mental and bodily vigor to the full age of threescore years and ten. CIVILIZATION AND HEALTH. The past history of nations is conclusive as to one pomt, that prosperity begets refinement, luxury, disease, and ruin. Is this a necessary result? Will this great and prosperous coun- try, with its daily developing improvements, tending to the re- duction and perfection of labor, as well as to the conveniences and comforts of life, eventually fall into effeminacy and extinc- tion? We utter a decisive negative. There are two kinds of civilization, — the ignorant and the educated. Of two families, in all respects equal, having at their command every modern convenience, one will live in high health, and in the steady enjoyment of the blessings of life, until an honorable old age ; while the other will as certainly fade away, the children per- ishing first, and last of all the parents : and even they, long 218 CIVILIZATION AND HEALTH. before the attainment of threescore years and ten ; their very names blotted from social memory. This wide difference ig the direct result of the manner of life of the respective fam- ilies ; one having lived rationally, having lived up to the laws of our being, the other having wholly neglected them. The latter, dying off prematurely, have cut off the race of effemi- nate imbeciles, while the former have handed down to society the bequest of healthful constitutions. Thus we perceive Ihat educated civilization will perpetuate a nationality, while an uneducated one destroys it. But in the fierce race which the masses run for pleasure, wealth, fame, is there any probability of inducing any great number to stop a while in their course, and learn something of a true life? There are a few such in all communities ; and as these leave seed, while the others leave none, the inequality will rapidly diminish. Thus it is that within a hundred years the average of human life has increased all over the world ; but more largely in its most civilized portions. The investi- gations and teachings of the true laws of our being have been confined to the medical profession ; and they have been pur- sued with a diligence and a self-denial practised by no class of men on the habitable globe, because, for the most part, these investigations have been made under circumstances of animal and human suflering, of squalor, disgust, and horror often, which, to any other than a trained medical mind, would have been impossible of enJurance. We may say, with great truth, that the material glory, per- manence, and power of any community consists in the physical vigor of the individual men and women who compose it ; for physical perfection gives mental energy and mental health. An exemplification of this important truth is found in the stability of everything English, and the evanescent state of everything French. We believe that physical perfection begets mental vigor, and that, in turn, by appropriate tui- tions, begets moral power ; and that this combination makes the perfect man. Many persons are frightened away by the mere mention of living up to the laws of our being, and at once begin to think of something painfully abstruse or laboriously indefinite. An image of feeling after something in a fog at once arises before CIVILIZATION AND HEALTH. 219 their mind ; and anon come spectres of self-denial, starvati; n, physic, and pills, ad infinitum. In all investigations, it is best to clear away the rubl)ish first, and look for some foundation stones ; to ferret out some first principles, some elementary ideas, which must, in the very nature of things, be few and well defined, and conse- quently as facile of lemembrance as they are practicable ii: their application. The Hcly Scriptures, with beautiful exactness, declared, four thousand years ago, what the scientific investigations of subsequent ages have steadily confirmed, that the blood is the life of all animal being. It is the blood which originates, governs, and completes every vital power in the whole machinery of man ; consequently perfect health is only to be secured by maintaining the blood in its natural state. The researches of the lights of our profession have estab- lished the facts, that this natural state of the blood compre- hends a fourfold development : — 1. The organic element, or chylid. 2. The coloring element, or hcematid. 3. The animal element, or hjmphid. 4. The fluid element, or liquor sanguinis. In a few hours after food is eaten it is converted into a >v'hitish, sweetish, thickish fluid, whatever may be the nature of the food ; but in it are found innumerable little globules which are called chylids. These globules consist of a little bladder, or cell, in which is an atom, called an egg. Thd cell being a boat floating about in the chyle, the atom is its freight, which, as it passes along, becomes a living thing, as an egg becomes a chick ; but, being quickened into life, it changes into a reddish color, and takes another name in its new and living nature, and is called a hcBmatid. This won- derful change, from dead food to living existence, owes its origin to that equal Power which made all worlds. These animalcular hrematids are so diminutive that a small box, an inch deep, an inoh broad, and an inch long, will hold more than a hundred thousand millions of them. These hiematids are the foundation of all health and life. If they are trans- ported in their little boats, in unimpaired vigor, to tte diJOTer- ent parts of the body, those parts grow with the .sime life 220 CIVILIZATION AND HEALTH. and hcaltli "which those hicmaticls have ; but il hijiircd in then transmission in any way, the part of the body to which they go is inevitably injured — becomes diseased. Our next step, then, is to inquire, taking it for granted that digestion \? good, what circumstances in practical life have the effect to injure these new-born voyagers? The blood of a vigorous man, on the instant of being drawn, it; just as full of life as our own great Broadway on any sunn}! afternoon. It is this life which gives the blood its solidity, rtr, more properly, its thickness. When a person dies from using chloroform, the blood is as liquid almost as water ; it does not coagulate, become thick and clotted, as the blood does from natural or other forms of death. On examinins; into the cause, it is discovered that of all the millions of hasmatids not a single one is alive ; for the little cell-boat has been dissolved, and its occupant has perished. The poison from the bite of venomous snakes has the same effect. It is found also that when a person dies by breathing the fumes of charcoal, or breathing carbonic acid gas in any other form, every single haematid is found dead, asphyxiated, just as the subject was. If, then, breathing carbonic acid gas kills the hacmatids, they carrying none of their life to the difiercnt parts of the body, the man himself just as certainly dies, because his supply of life is cut off; and if for any single minute this living freight of hccmatids is arrested, that minute we die. A little reflection here will suggest one of the most impor- tant principles connected with human health — that is to say, out-door air has no carbonic acid gas ; hence the}^ who breathe if always revel in glorious health. If, again, pure carbonic acid gas as certainly kills a man in a 5 short time as the breathing of choloroform or the poison of an adder, by killing the hacmatids, so any air breathed, in proportion as it is impregnated with carbonic acid gas, will do violence to the life of the hasmatids. But a man in sleep- ing, not only breathes out carbonic acid gas, but converts the air, in a clo&e room, into carbonic acid gas ; and the smaller the room the sooner will that conversion be made, and the closer the room the more perfect will be that conversion. CIVILIZATION AND HEALTH. 221 It will be thus seen that it is au utter impossibility for an} owi to sleep, I'or a siugle night, in a room with windows and dojrs closed, without inflicting death, at its birth, to that M'liich otherwise would have given to the body vigor, healtli, and Hie. And although the mischief is not made apparent 1)> the death of the individual next morning, that mischief is not (ho less real, although it is less extensive, and its ill resnlts are sooner or later inevitable. Within a year, a ship wa£ undergoing an ( xamination in a dry dock ; and at a certain point its bottom, for a few inches square, was found to be not thicker than a piece of paper. On examination, it was ascertained tViat a small pebble was lodged in the space bo. Iwecn the plank which faced the water and that which made the inner floor of the vessel. It had been there for two years, and with every motion of that vessel on its billowy home that little pebble also moved, and in its motion wore away some of the timber. Too small, it may be, for detection by any ordinary' microscope, but in the course of a year it was enough to wear away au inch of solid timber, and in the second 3'ear nearly two inches more ; for with the increase of room which it nitide for itself there was an increase of momentum, and consequent wear. Because the captain of that vessel was Ignorant of that imprisoned pebble, and because he saw no indication of its destructive influences, those influences were not the less real, and not the less certain of terrible disaster, but for the fortunate discovery. Thus it is wi;li human life and health. The breathing of a vitiated atmos- phere, whether in close and small rooms or large and close bedrooms, or in family rooms over cellars without ceilings, whose noisome odors rise incessantly day and night to the upper portions of the buildings, — the fumes from decayed vogetables, barrels and boxes sodden with dampness, which I ;ive not seen the light of the sun for years, saying nothing of old bones, rags, brooms, and various other things for which the cellar is used as a common receptacle, — or whether these miasms and malarias are generated in dirty back-yards, or piles of sweepings heaped up under stairs or iu closets or dark corners, or from livery stables, or cow-houses, or pig- pens, or butcher-stalls, or vegetable markets, — we repeat, the breathing of such, or other vitiated atmospheres, does, 222 SLEEPLESSNESS. by an immutable law of nature, bring injury to the system with the same certainty that gravity will affect a projected feather, or cannon-ball, or mountain. These are truths which every person should know for him- self, and should teach to his children from their earliest years ; for it is only by the diffusion and practice of knowledge like this that we can ever hope to see a healthy offspring, and to pnjoy, not only with impunity, but with advantage, all that is meant by the term " modern conveniences." SLEEPLESSNESS. Sleeplessness is the result of over bodily or mental effort. When a man works beyond his strength, or thinks or studies more than rest can restore, then, sooner or later, comes that inability to sleep soundl3% that wakefulness, which is more wearing even than bodily labor, and which feeds the debility which first gave rise to it. The result is, a man is always tired, never feels rested, even when he leaves his bed in the morning ; hence he wastes away, and finds repose only in the grave, if indeed insanity do not supervene. It is too often a malady remediless by medical means. Avoid, then, as you would a viper or a murderer, all over-effort of mind and body. It is suicidal. Whatever you do, get enough sleep ; whatever you do, take enough rest to restore the used energies of eacn preceding twenty-four hours. If you do not, you may escape for a few months, and, if possessing a good constitution, years may pass away before any decided ill result forces itself on your attention ; but rest assured the time will come when the too-often baffled system, like a baffled horse, will refuse to work. It will not take prompt and sound sleep, it will not be rested by repose ; and that irritating wakefulness will come upon you which philosophy cannot conquer, which medicine cannot cure, and, wasting by slow degrees to skin and bone, rest is found only in the grave. INSANITY. 223 INSANITY. A GENTLEMAN passiiig iiloiig the streets of London, not k»ng ago, was suddenly accosted by an entire stranger. " Did you ever thank God that you liad never lost your mind?" "Really," replied the gentleman, as soon as he recovered from the surprise which the circumstance excited, " I cannot say that I ever did." " You ought to ; for I have lost mine," said the strange interrogator, as he passed rapidly on, and was soon lost in the living tide which ceaselessly flows along Ihe Strand. To be a drivelling idiot, to be hopelessly insane, to be feel- ing after something for a lifetime and never find it, to be for long years in that troubled dream which, in health, before now, — although it was but for a moment or two, — has caused us to awake, drenched in an agony of perspiration, or found us trembling like an aspen — and yet, reader, that may be your ending I Under such circumstances the lamp of life may go out to you ; you may go down to the grave, the universe a blank ! We propose telling you how you may avoid it. We will give you no impossible rule, no impracti- cable recipe, difficult of remembrance ; for less than half a dozen words will tell it all — don't dwell on one idea. Without the rationale of this you, perhaps, would not re- member it twenty-four hours ; therefore, in order to impress it on the memory, and save you from so terrible a fate as a mind in ruins, we will give here the pathology ^ as a doctor would say — nutritive degradation; or, if you want the whole idea in a single word, it is atrophy. Some time ago we "went to meeting," which, modernized, is, "attended church," to hear one of the most scholastic tiivines of o:rea<, Gotham. Amons; other maoiiificent truths, the speaker declared, ^* Anthropomorphism is theopjieitsticf" There he left us. As we knew Greek, it was not difficult of remembrance. It took us, however, a good while to dig out the diamond. But we took it in good part, as just then w»> remembered one of our own definitions of " consumption," in those earlier years when we essayed to be tremendously 224 INSANITY. learned — Consumption is tJie oxydation of the exudation corpuscle. That is a fact, to be sure; but it would take a "Philadelphia lawyer" to elaborate it; and we cannot say that a wondering world is any the Aviser for either of the grand announcements. For fear, then, that nutritive degradation might meet the fhte of all the Capulcts, Ave will abate the top-loftiness of the diction, and come down to the commons. The brains of all persons dying insane are withered, as it were, in some portion or other, in the sense that a limb or muscle withers when unused — withered in a far greater deofree than are the brains of those who do not die of insanit}'. According to the present state of medical knowl- edge, the whole mass of the brain of a person dying insane weighs less than it would have done had the person perished instantaneous I}-, in health. Inactivity is destruction throughout the universe of things. j / The human body as a whole, or as to any one part, is no exception to that boundless law. The unused arm dwindles to skin and bone; the unused lungs soon weaken, then rot away. The brain comes within the universal law of our physical being, and, if unu'jed, perishes before its prime, either in whole or part. But now we come to the great phrenological fact, which only prejudice denies, that the brain is not a unit, but is made up of compartments, each of which is the fountain from which springs the sense, or feeling, or sentiment, peculiar to it. All men pi-actically believe this essentially, whatever may be their ex])r('ssed opinions. 1/ The compartments of the brain in the skull may be appro- priately compared to an extensive and well-conducted manu- factory, with its numberless rooms, in each of which some one portion of a great machine is made. In one part of oiir brain, we may say, our mirth is manufactured ; in another our vanity, in another our j)ride, and so on ; and that Inain is in its healthiest state, is the best balanced, in which every room has its proper work, well, fully, and industriously done. But if one part is worked too much, mischief is the result ; or if one part works too little, disorder is inevitable. If too much mirth is made, the expression leaps from our lips, INSANITY. 225 "He is as funny as ti fool;'' and we bestow a les3 compli- mentary epithet on one who fails to exercise his obseiTant faculties, likening him to the animal which was exactly like a mule^- only more so. Il is (he full, steady, equable exercise of evevy mental fiv ulty icJiicJi is the only infallible guarantee against fatuity. Let every man and woman mature this idea well, and steadily guard against one thought, one pursuit, one exclu- sive emplo3aiient, one hate, one love, one grief. Blessed is that Providence which seldom sends a single trouble ! T< is Fatherly beneficence which often orders another, to tear the heart away from dwelling on the one great calamity. It is single troubles wdiich craze men. It is not the general student whose mind becomes unbalanced. It is not the man who has a great many irons in the lire at a time ; it is not the worker who has more business than he can attend to : it is the man who has leisure to do nothing, it is the man who nurses the one thought wholly, who makes shipwreck of the immortal jjart. It is the one-idea man who is without ballast, \_/ and we patronizingly excuse him by saying, " On every other subject he is a sensible person." Asylum statistics force upon us the unexpected truth, thai of all classes of inmates farmers make the largest, in spite ol the fabulous health-giving influences of a farming life. Such a result can in no way be accounted for, except in the same- ness of thought and pursuit. Another fact, quite unantici- pated, is, that in an equal number of New England men, and slaves on Southern plantations, the proportion of lunatics is five times greater among the whites : there are five lunatics, to one among the negroes. It is because steady concentra- tion in a limited sphere is essential to securing plenty from the stony soil of New England — so barren indeed that multi- tudes are driven from agricultural pursuits, and in patents and inventions eat out their minds. Our farmer readers will very naturally inquire what we svould advise as the most perfect safeguard against so lamen table a close of life. Unhesitatingly we respond, Scientific agriculture ; for there is not a quality of the mind which in its far-reachings it will not wake up and energize : for, to be properly and most profitably pursued, it makes almost every 226 A PRESENTIMENT. other science subservient to it. Thus followed, it is the most ennobling of all human pursuits, because it perfects the body and refines and elevates the mind. What we have said, therefore, at the commencement of this article, we desire to repeat at its conclusion, with most im- pressive emphasis — don't dwell on one idea. A PRESENTIMENT. A TEESENTiMENT is an impression on the mind that some- thing is going to take place — and usually such is the case. Perhaps we may say, without exaggeration, that something always does occur after a presentiment is formed. If such were not the fact, we cannot conjecture what would become uf everybody. Just imagine, for a moment, that something did not take place in such a large world as this I Presentiments love weak places ; hence they flourish among weak-minded people — not necessarily weak-minded by na- ture, but made so by a diseased body. We are told of a young lady at Kinderhook, who was visited by an apparition, two years ago, at dead hour of night, which announced to her, in solemn accents, that in two years she would be the inhabitant of another and a better world. This circumstance had such a depressing influence on her mind that she pined away by degrees, and did die at the close of the term named, and ^^as buried a few days ago. An eminent clergyman, on parting from another in St. Louis, said, " I have a strong presentiment that we shall never meet again ; " and within a few hours he perished at the gasconade on the Pacific Railway. An almost infallible cure for i^rescntiment, however violent, is a good emetic, a grubbing hoe, with a few days' bread and water diet. For ourselves we would omit the emetic, as we do not patronize physic, except by proxy. The reason we give medicine at all is, that people arc always in a hurry — not exactly to get well, but to get able to eat. If they can only eat, nine out of ten think they are getting along famouslj*. Everybody wants to get well in a minute ; and for the bare i A PBE SENTIMENT. 227 chances of doing so, with a slight degree of assurance to that effect from any knave who is willing to promise, it having the wit to see at a glance that the assurance must be father to the fee, — we repeat, with a very slim assurance of being made well in a short time, the large majority of invalids would swallow a quart of Shakespeare's soup thrice a day, said soup being made, as the reader may remember, by sev- eral old witches, of such things as newt's eyes, frog's toes, lizard- wings, stings of rattlesnakes, and other ingredients not necessary to be named, but all brought to the climatic point by — onions. An emetic will dissipate a presentiment in five minutes, while the vigorous use of the grubbing-hoe in the open air would work off the extra and thick blood, — accumulation in the brain generates these diseased imaginings, — while the diet of bread and water would supply a pure article of blood in the place of the impure material. Who ever heard of a healthy, out-door day laborer having a "presentiment" in the pursuit of his occupation? The fact is, they have not time to be moping about such tomfooleries ; the only presentiment that ever troubles them is a veritable fact, a tangible reality. Presentiments do not exist except in connection with one of the three following things : 1. A weak mind. 2. A dis- eased body. 3. An idle condition of life. Loafing and gluttony are the great originators of this unfor- tunate cond ition of mind ; and its almost certain removal fol- lows temperate eating, combined with physical activity. If unattended to, and friendly death does not step in to save from a greater calamity, insanity winds up the history. To the reflecting we suggest a fact which dissipates the mystery which hangs around presentiments. In ordinary oases a thing is not baptized as a " presentiment " until the coincidence of the fact. Superstitious minds, in which pre- sentiments mostly dwell, take no note of the countless impres- sions that certain things might ti ke place, which did not afterwards take place. One such coincidence makes an im- pression against a million non-concurrents. 17 228 POLITICS AND PHYSIC. POLITICS AND PHYSIC. It is a very difficult matter to prevent a politician from becoming a drunkard ; and very fcAV there are Avho can run the dangerous gantlet without becoming lovers of liquor, at least to the extent of an occasional glass. The large jumber of distinguished political names which have passed dovn into a drunkard's grave, within the last twenty-five years, will appall any one who will take the trouble to make the enu- meration ; and still more appalling would be the array of splendid minds, splendid in promise, whose glory has gone prematurely out, drowned in the wine-cup 1 But the idea to which we wish to draw parental attention, in this article, is not to professed politicians, but to that numerous class of young men who depend on political party for a living. In a large number of cases, their destination is one of three : — 1. Premature death. 2. Brandy drinking. 3. A blank life. It is well known that most governmental employees hold their position by reason of their political opinions ; conse- quently every change of policy throws them out of em- ployment. Those who are not dismissed by an incoming administration are such as have rendered their services neces- sary to the government, by their self-sacrificing assiduity in the faithful discharge of their duties. If this were all, it might be borne ; but, as might be expected, a mere partisan ofiice-holder neglects his duties, and the performance of them falls on those Avho are more faithful to their trusts ; and in this double work numbers perish prematurely, by diseases (engendered through OAcr-labor and over-solicitude. But nine out of ten of those who hold political places, change with the administration ; and being thrown out of office, have no other means of livelihood. With perhaps a wife and y, child or two to be provided for, it is not difficult to perceive the weighty inducements such have to labor for another turn of the political wheel ; and, in performing that POLITICS AND PHYSIC. 229 labor, they full into such practices and associations as make an escape from drunkenness an exception rather than the rule. But in the few cases where the love of liquor is not a result, — where there is too much moral rectitude to go dcwn to that doirradation, — the want of employment soon brings want of subsistence ; then come despondency, idle habits, want of energy, and in its train want of ambition, and finally loss of self-respect, and a "blank life." In view of these things, we consider it a great calamity for a young man to obtain any salaried political office ; better a great deal, because safer and immeasurably more indepen- dent, to serve a regular apprenticeship to some useful handi- craft ; for then, however bright may be the fortunes of after life, there will be in reserve, in case of reverses, a capital to draw upon which misfortune cannot sink, which governmental changes cannot destroy. We feel safe in going still further, and recommend to every parent who reads this work to sedulously avoid placing a child in any fixed salaried position ; for such a position will engen- der habits of idleness, of inattention, of want of thoroughness, which will be an effectual barrier against success in life. A young man with a fixed salary soon begins to reason thus : "I will get so much anyhow, even if I am not quite so par- ticular ; " and that is the first step towards doing things slightingly ; and when such a disposition takes possession of any youth, he is virtually lost to society : for such a person will never obtain an enviable preeminence. Kor is this all. A fixed salary presents a direct bribe to laziness : it discour- ages activity and enterprise ; for as to the odds and ends of time which necessarily fall to persons employed to do busi- ness, the young man reasons thus: "If I do more than is required of mc, if I work ever so hard, I get no more for it." Hence the time which now and then falls on his hands is frittered away in some unremunerative manner, if indeed it is not spent in ways which ultimately end in a snare. The point which we wish most to impress on parents is this : If you place your child in any salaried position ; if you wish to encourage him, to stimulate his ambition ; if you wish to encourage a feeling of self-appreciation and self-reliance, 230 CLERICAL MORTUARY. which are absolutely essential to high success in any depart- ment of human life, place your children in positions which will moderately remunerate them, in proportion to their in- dustry. We say " moderately remunerate ; " for we believe that greatly disproportioned remuneration has dangerous and ruinous tendencies, in more ways than one ; for it engenders a taste for "short cuts" to wealth; and that be- gets, necessarily, hazards, wasting anxieties, and desperate "throws;" then comes unscrupulousness, loss of pnnciple, and with it loss of all that is dear to a business man. On the other hand, if young persons are schooled to expect but moderate remuneration for their labor, that begets moderate desires, moderate ambitions, moderate expectations, — and such only are the safe citizens in any community. In conclusion, we desire to say, if a parent could only see one sight in a hundred, of what any eminent city physician witnesses, of the foul and festering disease, of the bloated brutality, which riots in the young whom idleness or want of em.ployment has ruined, they would feel relief in laying their children in an early grave, rather than see them placed in offices, however honorable and remunerative, the loss of which is so often attended with results already described. We cannot but consider the general tendency, becoming still more common, to bring up children without mechanicnl employments, and without regular and thorough agricultural training, as one of the serious mistakes of the times ; for not only must we become effeminate without labor, but thai effeminacy is perpetuated in the offspring, while all of us must acknowledge that the hardy artificer and the sturdy farmer are the main elements of national thrift and national perpetuity. CLERICAL MORTUARY. Of clergymen of all denominations, dying during 1855, in the United States, there were one hundred and twenty. The smallest number, five, died in February ; the largest number, seventeen, died in October. The three most healthful consecu- CLERICAL MORTUARY, 231 tive mouths, were December, January, and February, giving twenty-two deaths, or about one fifth of the whole ; the three most fatal consecutive months were September, October, and Kovcmber, giving thirty-nine deaths, or one third of the whole ; showing the error of the prevalent opinion, that " bad weather," as it is called, is unhealthy, necessarily ; for, during the most inclement months of the year, the smallest number died; while during the three fall months, when the weather is neither too cool nor too hot, the mortality is nearly double. Railroad con- ductors, who are in and out of sutlbcating cars incessantly during the coldest months of the year, are observably healthy men. The men of the Arctic expeditions do not die of bud colds, pleurisies, and the like. Persons often make the inquiry, when in a decline, " Will it hurt me to go out of doors? " Our almost universal reply is, " No ! it will do you good. Go out, rain or shine ; if it is raining, have an umbrella, and let it rain on." How is it? Part of the lungs are gone, or at least they are working imperfectly, consequently such person is living on a less amount of air than the system requires ; hence, the air he does consume should be the purest possible ; and as no air within any four walls can be pure, the air of out-doors, during daylight, must be the most proper for all, especially for consumptives, the world over. It is the Irrational dread of taking cold, by going out of doors, which kills nine consumptives out of ten far sooner than the disease itself would have done. If any man, sick or well, wants an infallible receipt for getting into that unfortunate condition in which " the slightest thing in the world gives him a cold," let Lin: hover around the fire all day, let him bundle up, head and ears, every time he puts his head out at a door or window, and besides, keep his room regulated to a degree, for months fit a time. Such a person never can get well of anything ; such a person, with such habits persevered in, will die long before his time, it matters not what may bo his ailment. Under " the sunny skies of Italy," Avhere, according to poetic account, it is a happiness to breathe, so balmy is its at- mosphere, the average of human life is shorter than in any other civilized country. Do not fear, then, the bleak December or the fiercer January, unless quite an invalid, or very old : 232 CLEBICAL MORTUARY. the first consideration witli tlie infant of one year, or seventy- five, is warmtJi, ivarmth, warmth. There is, however, one condition of the weather which all^ except those in good health, shoujd endeavor to avoid. An east wind is fraught with danger and calamity now, as it Mas in the days of Scripture history. Such winds prevail after rains in this country, and there is a rawness and a dampness about them which urgently calls for shelter for man and beast, even in midsummer. None, not even the healthy, can be exposed to east or north-east winds in the United States, at least, east of the Rocky Mountains, with impunity, except under one condition, and that is, under circumstances of l>odily activity sufficient to keep off all feeling of chillinesu ; and when such activity ceases, immediate retirement to a closed room, if indeed not to a good fire, even if in summer time, for it is in summer time the most consumptive colds originate. Of the one hundred and twenty clergymen dying during 1855, two thirds, eighty, have their ages recorded, the youngesi twenty-seven, the oldest ninety-four ; of these eighty, one half had passed threescore and ten ; thus confirming the generally received opinion of statisticians, that theologians are the long- est lived of all the members of the human family, the reasons for which, we believe, are mainly these : — 1. Being poorly supported, they have to "rough it;" iltp luxuries of life are impossible to them. 2. The largest portion of their time, as a class, is spent on horseback, or other modes of travel, thus securing a large consumption of out-door air, with the very great ad- vantage of frequent changes of air, food, and mode of prep- aration. 3. Pleasurable associations. The contemplations of a minis- ter are of a soothing character; his is a mission of love, of pure benevolence, the exercise of which must always be happifying. Not only so ; the clergymen of this country, and we feel thankful that it is so, are everywhere received with a respect- ful, cordial, and affectionate welcome. What house is there in this whole land, outside of cities, where every thing is upside down, wrong end foremost, antipodean, except in material POPULAR FALLACIES. 233 benevolences, — where, we sjiy, can a family be found, which has not at least one Martha to be careful of the minister's cojnfort, that he have the best of everything; and in return for these attentions, aside from duty and natural solicitude for llieir spiritual wcllare, there runs out from the minister's hcarl towards those with whom he is brought in contact, a living stream of tender concern, which, in its reflex influences, gives warmth and health to soul and body ; thus verifying the promise, that those who love and serve God best, not only have the life that now is, but that which is to come. Haviiig secured religion, all other necessary things are thrown iu POPULAR FALLACIES. It is not true that sugar and candies are of themselves inju- rious to the teeth, or the health of those who use them ; so far- from it, they are less injurious than any of the ordinary forms of food, when employed in moderation. Any scientific dentist will tell you, that the parts of teeth most liable to decay are those Avhich aflbrd lodgment to par- ticles of food ; such particles, being decomposed by moisture and heat, give out an acid which will corrode steel as well as teeth ; but pure sugar and pure candies are wholly dissolved ; there is no remnant to be decomposed to yield this destruc- tive acid ; we remember now no item of food which is so per- fectly dissolved iu the mouth as sugar and candy. When visiting the sugar plantations of Cuba, the attention was con- stantly arrested by the apparently white and solid teeth of the negroes who superintended the process of cane-grinding ; they drank the cane-juice like water, there was no restraint an tc its use, and the little urchins playing about would chew the sugar-yielding cane by the hour. It is much the same in L )uisiana, where the shining faces and broad grins of the blacks are equally indicative of exuberant health and " splendid teeth." How does it happen, then, that there should be "the prev^- alent belief" that sugar and sugar-candy destroy the teeth and undermine the health? Perhaps the most correct reply 234 . POPULAR FALLICIES. is, Tradition, the father of a progeny of errors in theory and practice ; of errors in doctrine and example, " too tedious to mention." One of the common faults of the times is an indisposition to investigate on the part of the masses. We take too much for granted. A very common answer to a demand for a reason for a time-honored custom is, " Why, I have heard it all my life. Don't everybody say so?" It would be a strange contradiction in the nature of things, if sugar and candy, in moderation, should be hurtful to the human body in any way, for sugar is a constituent of every article of food we can name ; there is not a vegetable out of which it cannot be made, not a ripe fruit in our orchards which does not yield it in large proportions, and it is the main constituent of that " milk " which is provided for the young of animals and men all over the world. Perhaps the child has never lived which did not love sweet things beyond ..all others; it is an instinct, a passion not less universal than the love of water. A very little child can be hired to do for a bit of sugar what it will do willingly for nothing else. The reason of this is, that without sugar no child could possibly live — it would freeze to death; it is the sugar in its food which keeps it warm, and warmth is the first necessity lor a child. But to use this information intelligently and profitably, it must be remembered that sugar is an artificial product, is a concentration, and that, if used in much larger pro- portions than would be found in our ordinary food, as pro- vided by the beneficent Father of us all, we will suf- fer injury. We should never forget that the immoderate use of anything is destructive to human health and life, if persevered in. The best general rules to be observed are two : — 1. Use concentrated sweets at meal-times only. 2. Use them occasionally, and in moderation. BATH ROOMS. 235 BATH ROOMS. Let us for a moment lay aside all book and newspaper knowledge, all preconceived notions, and consult our feelinirs in the operation of that kind of bathing whose object is to make the body clean of the grease, scales, dust, &c., which are constantly accumulating on its surface. We all know that cold w^atcr will not make the hands ch an, nor wall hard water, even if it is warm. Hence, when wo wish to wash ourselves very clean, w^e use warm water with Boap, and if we can get it, rain, or cistern, or snow water. With the present habits of civilized life, comparatively few persons among the middle and upper classes of society have vitality enough to make a cold bath advisable ; they have not that " reaction " which gives to a cold bath its highest advan- tage, hence even the most rabid cold-waterist does not advise cold baths under such circumstances. Then, when we take into account how many children there are who are too young for a cold bath, that old have not the stamina for it, whilst to that large numljer, neither inftmts, nor aged, nor young peo- ple, but "children," who roll about in the dust and mud and snow, who sprawl upon the floor and dabble in water and dirt, the bathing Avhich is most needed is a cleansing operation ; nothing short of soap, warm water, and a bristle brush will meet their demands, so that, after all, especially in wirtev time, by nine persons out of ten in the whole community of those w^ho practise bathing, the tepid or warm bath is what in needed. In fact, only the very small class of persons who are robust can stand a cold bath in winter, and in our opln • ion such persons do not need it. If you arc well, let your- self alone, as to remedial means, for you can't be better than well. Personally, this is our theory, and practice too ; we never had a cold bath but once since boyhood, and that made us sick, and we shudder at the thought of a cold bath ever since. We believe cold shower-baths arc the ordinary pun- ishments inflicted on refractory convicts in our penitentiaries ; we have understood that they regard them with the greatest flread, aud yet there are wiseacres among us who daily sub- 236 BATE ROOMS. mit tlieiTisclvQS to that self-infliction. Such peisous ha>P expatiated in eloquent terms as to the delightful feelings ex pericnccd after the operation is over of a morning. As for that matter, ^ve feel deli2:htful of a mornins: without all that trouble and penance. The perusal of the morning papers before a bri^rht coal tire in the grate makes us feel delis^htful : and more delightful still, hearing now and then, the mean- while, the rapid patting of the little feet of our children on the floor alcove us, as they get out of bed and run to the tire, being the ur.st telegi'aphic message to us in the morning that they have waked up well, merry, and happy. This is a feel- ing niore purely delightful than any cold shower-bath can originate, without the preceding " shock," which we always think of with a shudder. So our advice is, if you want to feel "delightful" of a winter's morning, have a young dozen of little children about the house, — your own, mind, — take one or two morning papers, and pay for them in advance ( for there's a singular virtue in that) , get up, dress for the day, and be seated before a brisk, burning fire by the time it is fairly light enough to read ; be sure, though, to have no " bills payable ' that day, for that will spoil all the fun. There's nothing " delight- ful " under such circumstances when there are no assets to draw upon. But we have unconsciously wandered from the bath-room to Wall Street. Surely we are getting worldly-minded. Wonder if our readers have been led to surmise the same thing ? Ah, me, we find ourselves, and most unwillingly, arriv- ing at the experience of Lord Byron, when he declared that he had come to the point of his life in which he began to feel the highest possible respect for the smallest amount of cur- rent coin, and we find within us a growing, .^oving attraction towards the avocations which, as Jonathan \/ould say, "i)ay best ! " Our experience and observation convince us that nine men out of ten will pay, in experiments for regaining health, a thousand dollars, more cheerfully than they would pay one for information which, if acted upon, would certainly preserve it ; and fortunate it is for us doctors that the masses are such numskulls, else we would find our occupation gone, and would have to go to cracking rocks for the turnpike, oi picking oakum. TRUE COURAOE. 237 When we sat down, we intended to tell on one side of a half sheet how a bath room ought to he constructed, but oui mind is forever calculating how much money this six inches of snow, on the morning of the nineteenth day of March, Auiio Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, with zero, just ten days ago, will bring ns ; hope it will be "considerable," un yhow. Now for the bath room, desperately. As nine tenths, if not its whole use in winter, at least in the majority of families, is for cleansing purposes, the water should be warm, but if the body emerges from the "water into an atmosphere much colder, we all know the uncomfortable- ues3 of the feeling which follows ; this causes us to perfonu the operation hurriedly, and consequently slightingly, while to a great many the more serious result is a severe cold, caus- ing days and weeks, if not months, of subsequent discomfort or illness. The w^ater, then, in the bath room should feel comfortably wann, while the air of the room should be of such a temperature as to prevent any sensation of coldness amounting to the disagreeable. It is safer to be guided by one's feelings as to the temperature of the water and the air of the room than a thermometer ; for not only do diifcrent persons, l)y reason of their dillerent degrees of health, require a different temperature, but for the same reason the same person may reqiui'e a temperature to-day which would not be suitable a week or a month hence. TKUE COURAGE. True courage is not so much marching up to the cannon's mouth, in the hurry of battle, or mounting the scaffold for a principle, or enduring the surgeon's knife, as by living un- knnwn and poor in a great city, striving hard, day by day, for daily bread ; yet striving hopefully, resolutely, uncom- plainingly, and rightfulhj. Many a young heart from the coKiitrij, of poor hut jnous parents, comes every year to New York, and thus labors, in hope of keeping dear ones at home, until life itself is worked out, and uncheered by any kindl}' word, unsustaincd by an}' helping hand, unaided by any puro 238 CLEAN YOUR CELLARS. philanthropist, unsought by any man of God, whose misoiou is to seek out and ''feed my lambs," he goes down to the grave, exclaiming, "Thou, God, onl(/ hast been my helper." CLEAN YOUE CELLARS. By a beneficial arrangement of Providence, the gases and odors most prejudicial to human life are lighter than the air which surrounds us, and, as soon as disengaged, rise immedi- ately to the upper atmosphere, to be purified and then returned to be used again. The warmer the weather, the more rapidly are these gases generated, and the more rapidly do they rise ; hence it is, that in the most miasmatic regions of the tropics the traveller can with safety pursue his journey at midday, but to do so in the cool of the evening, or morning, or midnight, would be certain death. Hence, also, the popular, but too sweeping dread of " night air." To apply this scientific truth to practi- cal life in reference to the cellars under our dwellings, is the object of this article. In the first place, rio dwelling-house ought to have a cellar. But in larffe cities the value of land makes them a seeming necessity, but it is only seeming, for during many years' resi- dence in New Orleans we do not remember to have seen half a dozen cellars. But if we must have them, let science con- struct them in such a manner, and common sense use tbeni in such a way, as to obviate the injuries which would otherwise result from them. The ceilings of cellars should be well plastered, in order most efTectuall}'^ to prevent the ascent of dampness an.l noi' some odors through the joints of the flooring. The bottom of the cellar should be well paved with stone, cobble-stones are perhaps best ; over this should be poured, to the extent of several inches in thickness, water-lime ce- ment, or such other material as is known to acquire in time almost the hardness of stone ; this keeps the dampness of the earth below. If additional dryness is desired, for special purposes, in CLEAN TOUR CELLARS. 239 parts of the cellar, let common scantling be laid di wn, at convenient distances, and loose boards be laid across them for convenience of removal and sweeping midcr, when clean- ing time of the year comes. The walls should be plastered, in order to prevent the dust from settling on the innumerable projections of a c.:r.imon stone wall. Shelves should be arranged in the centre of the cellar, not in the corners, or against the walls; these shelves should hang from the ceiling by wooden arms, attached firmly before plastering ; thus you make all safe from rats. To those who are so fortunate as to own the houses in ANhich they live, we recommend the month of June, but to renters, the great moving month of May, in Ne^v York at least, as the most appropriate time for the following recom- mendations. Let everything, not absolutely nailed &st, be removed into the yard and exposed to the sun, and, if you please, remain for a week or two, so as to afford opportunity for a thorough drying. Let the walls and floors be swept thoroughly, on four or five different days, and let a coat of good whitewashing be laid on. These things should be done once a year ; and one day in the week, at least, except in midwinter, every opening in the cellar, for several hours, about noon, should be thrown wide, so as to allow as complete a ventilation as possible. Scien- tific men have forced on the common mind, by slow degiee?, the importance of a daily ventilation of our sleeping apart- ments, so that now none but the careless or most obtuse neglect it; but few think of ventilating their cellars, although it is apparent that the noisome dampness is constantly rising upwards and pervading the whole dwelling. Emanations from cellars do not kill in a night ; if they did, universal attention would be forced to their proper manage- ment; but it is certain, from the very nature of things, that unclean, damp, and mouldy cellars, with their sepulchral fumes, do undermine the health of multitudes of families, and send many of their members to an untimely grave ; espe- cially must it be so in New York, where the houses are 240 EOW TO LEND MONET. generally constructed in such a manner that the ordinary access to the cellar, for coal, wood, vegetables, &c., is within the building, and every time the cellar door is opened the draught from the grating in the street drives the accumula- tion of the preceding hours directly upwards into the halls and rooms of the dwelling, there to be breathed over and over again by every mem!)cr of the household, thus poison- ing the very springs of life, and polluting the whole blood. With these vicAvs, we earnestly advise our city readers, as a life-saving thought, in the selection of a dwelling for the ensuing year, to give ten per cent, more for a home which has a model cellar; 3^ou will more than save it in doctors" bills, in all piobability, to say nothing of taking pills, and drops, and bitters, and gin, from one month's end to another. Let a good cellar determine your choice, rather than the more coveted " brown-stone front," or the locality of Fourteenth Street, Union Squafe, or Fifth Avenue. now TO LE^^) money, if you lend at all. To your friends ! As a pure business transaction, you may not be too careful. But when a friend of other years comes along, who has not been as successful as yourself, whom dis- appo'Mmcnt, or misplaced confidence, or unavoidable calami- ty has pressed to the earth, — a friend who was once your equal in all things, inferior in none, except, perhaps, that liardness of character which is a general element of success in life, — don't begin to hem and haw, and stroke your chin ; don't talk about '' buts,"' and "whys," and the " tightness of the money market," — he knows that already; spare him the intoUigence that you " once loaned Mr. So-and-so a sura of money which was never returned ; " — he don't want 3'our biog- raphy, he wants your cash. Don't remind him that if he were to die, you would lose it : that arrow may sink deeper into his heart than any amount of money could ever fjithom ; and then close with a recital of this, that, and the other thing, which, if really true, could not materially interfere with your furnishing him the required amount. If you have ordinary EOW TO LEND MONET. 211 sagacity, yo". can make up your mind in a momont wlictlier to grant the accommodation or to refuse it. Jf you arc a man, and you design a refusal, tell him at once, in sonic kind- ly way, that you do not feel prepared to accede to his wishes. If, on (he other hand, you have a heart to help him, don't do i^ as if you felt it were a mountain grinding you to powder, or as if each dollar you parted from was inflicting a pain equal to the drawing of a tooth ; don't torture him with cross- questioning, nor worm out of him some of the most sacred secrets of his life ; awa}'" with your inquisitorial, brassy imper- tinence ; don't lay him on the rack for an hour at a time, a? if 3^ou gloated at the sacrifice of his manhood, as if yf ti wished to make him go down on his very knees to win his way into your purse. Away with it all, we say, and stand up like a man ; give him a cordial greeting ; let a hol}^ sunshine light up your countenance, and speak out before he has done asking ; tell him how much you are gratified in having it in your power to help him ; and let that help go out in a full, free soul, and with a good slap on the shoulder bid him look upward and ahead, for there's sunshine there for him. Why, the very feeling in that man's heart, as he goes away from you, is worth more to humanity than all the money you let him have, ten times told. He goes out of your presence with a heart as light as a feather, in love Avith all the world, and full of admiring gratitude towards you. He feels his manhood ] he feels that confidence is reposed in him, — that he is still a man ; and this conviction nerves him up to a resolution, to nn ambition, to an energy, which are of themselves a guarantee of after-success. He goes to work with a will, which hewa down the obstacles and melts away the icebergs which hedge up the ways of men ; and behold, in a moment, rough places are made smooth, and straight places made plain to him. Reader ! suppose you never get your money back, and you have a heart so big, that you can, notwithstanding his non^ pa3'raent, give him at every meeting a cordial smile of friendly recognition, can speak to him without ever reminding him of his indebtedness ; it may be that you are his only friend, but then you are the world to him, and however hardly that world Qiaj have dealt with him, your single exception is placed to 242 CAUSE OF DEATH. the credit side of humanity, a thousand times its individual value ; that man can never die a misanthrope, for he will insist upon it, to his latest breath, " there's kindness in the world, after all." What a grand thing it is to have a man close his eyes in death, and one of the last thoughts of moi- tality be a prayer for blessings on your head. We repeat, then, if you lend money at all, do so freely, promptly ; do it with a whole soul. Do it with a grace that becomes a man, with a cordiality which will do quite as much as your money in raising 3'our friend from the depressing in- fluences which surround him. We do not advise the loan of money in any given case, but write to show in what manner it should be done, when decided upon, to bring the most pleasant reminiscences to yourself hereafter, and to carry with it the largest advantages to him whom you wish to befriend. CAUSE OF DEATH. Medical science is much indebted to the able researches of Wundt. In one of these, the important induction is drawn, that " the proximate cause of death is asphyxia ; " that is to say, " a man dies for want of breath," and science has found it out 1 But everybody knew that before, still it was knowl- edge with only one leg ; to know a fact is one thing, to know the reason of it is a very different matter ; indeed, it is all the difference between a wise man and a fool. Now, to get a practical idea out of all this, we must make the circuit of •* Robin Hood's barn," of infantile memory. If, when a man dies, it is for want of breath, how is it pos- sible for him to die when his head is cut off ? for his head does not breathe, but his lungs ! It is true that the lungs are supplied with breath through the nose and mouth, but if that were all, we could put the nozzle of a bellows in the wind- pipe and let the body dance away ! There is a nerve which comes from the brain, — gi'ows out of it, as it were, and in coming from the head it divides into two branches, one of which goes to the stomach, the other to the throat and lungs. If you cut the stomach branch, there is CAUSE OF DEATH. 243 no digestion ; if you divide the lung branch, there h no breathing. If you injure one branch, that injury, if kept in continuance, affects the other branch ; hence it is, that dys- peptic people have throat-ail, sooner or lat^r ; hence it is, that such persons dwindle away, and if not cured, fall into a decline. The consumptive may eat a great deal ; and he has a good appetite to the last day of his life, but his food docs not seem to afford nourishment, because the stomach liranch of the nerve has lost its power; hence he eats, but it gives him no strength ; he has not the strength to breathe without an effort, and that effort he has not power to make except at intervals ; hence consumptives breathe short and quick, and shorter and quicker to the last struggle. Consumptive people do not die for want of lungs, as is generally supposed. A man can live an age with half of all his lungs in full opera- tion, and live in considerable health, too. General Jackson had lost a third of his lungs, as his autopsy indicated, twenty years before his death. Most consumptives die long, very long, before half their lungs are gone ; and why? Simply for imnt of breath! iov want of bodily power to fill the lungs they have to their full of pure air. To have bodily strength, we must have a good digestion, and good digestion will give bodil}'^ strength under all circumstances ; hence, to cure a consumptive, that is, to arrest the further progi'css of lung decay, and enable him to live on what lungs he has left, the man must be made to digest substantial meat and bread — the most healthfully nouiishing of all human edibles — as a meaun of enabling him to draw in pure air. Therefore, we are impelled to the conclusion — and it is one of world-wide sig- nificance — that there are no means of arresting the progress of consumptive disease in any case, except by increasing the capabilities of the stomach of food digestion, to the end that, the lungs be empowered thereby to draw in and use a larger amount of pure air, — that very air which the Almighty, in his w^isdom, has made to be food for the lungs. By a section, a cutting off, of this nei-ve of which we have been speaking, the Pneumogastric^ Wundt found that it re- piired more time and more strength to draw a sufficient oreath ; the breathing then became slower, the quantity of air inspired gradually diminished, the body grew colder, Iho 18 244 THE MIND. lungs became clogged, and the victim died. Therefore, reader, if you wish to be a " well man," perfect your diges- tion ; perfect your good breathing. THE MIND. / That mysterious thing, the God within us, which no eye I / can see, whose dwelling-place none can tell, yet of whose presence the habitable globe gives note, how inexorably does it govern the body, whose instrument it is ; how it makes or mars the human fonn divine ; how it blanches the ruddiest cheek ; how it dims the lustrous eye ; how it bends in a night the stateliest carriage, and in a night frosts over the raven ringlet ; in an hour strikes down the strength of manhood, and in a moment can make itself a blank for the balance of the lifetime of its crazed tenement ; how important to keep that agent well ; how heaven-like the skill to minister to a mind diseased I Few persons have an adequate conception of the importance and frequent need of mental medication. " The very trip of your feet along the corridor makes me feel half well again, doctor," said a Catholic priest to me one day, as I entered his cheerless room ; as cheerless and cold, too, must be every room where the wife and the child .can never come to brighten and to happify. As any man of good observation is his body's own best physician for ordinary slight ailments, so the mind may be rendered, by proper tuitions, its safest and most efficient doc- tor. These tuitions should be early begun ; they should com- iiipnce with the toddling infant of a year, by letting it learn to locomote itself, by giving it an opportunity of trying to get up the very first time it falls on the floor. In a thousand little ways may any parent of good common sense implant a germ — the habit of self-reliance — whose subsequent fruit- age may be the glory of the nation ; self-reliance, more price- less than any diadem that ever graced a monarch's brow ; a " sscurity " which the " tightest times " only serve to improve ; self-reliance which falters in no strait, which pales before no obstacle, which no disaster can paralyze, no calamity appall. TEE MIND. 245 " Rod dot it, I'll try it again," said a ragged little urchin, as he sliiDped and fell under a heavy piece of timber which he was carrying to his mother one bleak winter's day ; and no sooner said than done, and up he jumped, and raising the timber to his shoulder, was soon lost in the crowd as to sight, but not in sound, for some operatic notes about " supper " and " old Dan Tucker " showed a cheery heart within him, and that he felt there was gladness at home for him. Who doubts either of two things ; that that boy had a noble mother ai. home, and that if he lives he will be a man of mark in the community about him ? Within a month our city was startled by the sudden and unexpected death of one of the leading members of a mer- cantile firm who became bankrupt a few days before, origi- nating in the villany of a partner several years ago. He was a man of noble bearing and of a proud spirit, but the outra- geous abuse oi two or three remorseless creditors, in the pres- ence of his clerks and others, so weighed upon his spirits that he died within forty-eight hours. For his sensitiveness we owe him our love and sympathy, and a monument to his memory will we give for the bravery of an eight years' efibrt to retrieve the losses which another brought upon him, then ran away ; but for the last act of his life, the permission of a broken heart, figuratively speaking, we hold him accountable to the bar of society, as no man has a right to flee on the oc- currence of any financial disaster, for the simple reason that his personal explanations can always lessen the losses of his friends by enabling them the better to gather up the frag- ments ; so no man has a right to run away from himself to take refuge in death, by cherishing the remorses of an injured spirit, especially, when, as in this case, those remorses arise from a miseducated integrity or a miseducated conscience as to financial matters. It is immaterial what Mrs. Grundy will say, or what the world may think of our conduct, as long as we are conscious of a well-informed mercantile integrity. With that, a man may utterly fail half a dozen times, and stand the higher after each successive failure, as did Josiah LaAvi-ence, of Cincinnati ; and with a proper portion of the self-reliance of the ragged and overburdened boy on the street, such a man will die at last, in the most desirable sense of the word, "a successful man," 246 SENSE AND NONSENSE. SENSE AND NONSENSE. Many persons have the intelligence to feel that exercise is essential to good health, but domestic and financial duties press upon them so much that it is only occasionally that the claims of health attract their practical attention, and then theyi go about it with a kind of spasmodic desperation, as if they intended to do as much in a day as would answer for a month j past and to come. The early spring-time has a peculiar influ- ence in waking up the dormant industries of this class of pcr-j Bons, and on some sunny morning they sally out with rake, or] axe, or spade, or hoe, anl with the energy of a quarter horse,] they carry everything before them for an hour, or perhaps several hours, when, before they are aware of it, their strength is exhausted ; they feel " weak as water ; " the Avhole body is in] a perspiration ; and, weary and worn out, and overheated,] they make for the house, the ordinary warmth of which now] seems oppressive, and with hat and coat or shawl laid aside, they throw themselves on the sofii, in some cool part of the] house, and fall asleep ; or, if they do not, they take early sup-J per and go to bed, waking up in the morning haggard, sick-j ish, and as stiff and sore, in joint and limb and muscle, as aj veteran rheumatic ff half a century ; and for days, if not for] weeks, they feel more dead than alive, and come to the con- clusion that exercise does not agree with them, and it takes] them about a year to get rid of the conviction. For sedentary persons to exercise safely and with advan-' tage, a few rules should be strictly adhered to. 1. Let your labor be moderate, and of short duration for tlie first day, gradually increasing it from day to day in time nnd intensity. 2. The moment you cease the exercise, whatever it may be, )ut on the garments you laid aside before you began, go at once to the house and sit down by a fire, or in some warm room or kitchen, if necessary, without washing, or drinking, or eating, and in the course of fifteen minutes, according to circumstances, push back from the fire, take oft" your hat, next lay aside any surplus garment, then wn^^h your face and SENSE AND NONSENSE. 217 hands in tepid, if not warm water, with soap ; take a very little supper, that is, a piece of cold bread and butter, and h;ilf a glass of water, and at your usual hour retire to bed. Exercise, with such precautions, will seldom fail to yield the richest and most enduring results : a sound sleep for the night, a keen appetite in the morning, with a feeling of newness and freshness and vigor next day, delightful to think of. We cannot here enter into a detailed explanation of the leasous for all this, but will merely state the governing idea, which is, that getting cool slowly makes all the diflercnce be- tween exercise which is beneficial and exercise which affffra- DO vates the evils it was intended to cure. To impress this on the mind more fully, we have only to state this interesting fact, that on the surface of the body there are millions of little tubes which are always conveying effete, useless matter from the system, either in a solid, fluid, or gaseous form, but during exercise these operations are car- ried on with greatly increased activity ; a dash of cold air or cold water instantly closes up the outlet of each one of these little tubes, which, if placed continuously, would amount to many miles in length, and this sudden check is as infallible a cause of bodily calamity as the explosion of a steam boiler under a full head of steam, if the valve is shut and kept down after the engine has ceased motion. Hence no man ever did or ever can fall asleep uncovered, or in a draught of air, after exercising, without waking up with unpleasant feelings of all degrees, from a slight pair, or soreness, to the agonies of dis- solution in a few hours. How illy nature bears the sudden arrest of some of her operations, is strikingly exemplified in the fact, that if the blandest of all liquids, lukewarm milk, is injected into a blood-vessel, against the current, instant death may result, but if introduced gently in the direction of the cm-rent, it 'm boi ae with impunity. 248 HEALTH AND WEALTH HEALTH AND WEALTH. Most persons have a kind of spite or grudge against rich people, the foundation of which we presume is in envy, — one of the very meanest feelings of our nature. " He has more than his share, more than he can use, and I have less. My family are starving," said a poor fellow one day, when he was asked if he had anything to say in mitigation of his sentence for a paltry theft from his wealthy neighbor's prem- ises, "and people ought to be made to divide." "But sup- pose there was an equal division," replied the judge, who for a moment felt willing to humor the prisoner's absurdity ; " your idle habits and the industry of your neighbor would soon make as wide a difference between your respective con- ditions as there exists at present." " Very true, your honor," said lazy ; " then we would divide again." Just as ridiculously absurd and one-sided are many of the sentiments entertained by the poor towards their more thrifty fellow-citizens. But the rich can afford the indulgence of these, and kindred feelings, against them. Many of us have a sufficient want of magnanimity to cherish an unexpressed chuckle of gratification at the intelligence that some notably lich family has met with some sudden calamity, personal, domestic, or pecuniary ; and sometimes the less cautious out-slip such an expression as, " Served them right." "Ah, his wealth couldn't save him." "He ought to have trouble." "Nothing more than he deserves." How infini- tesimally small is the poor human heart sometimes, in some of its phases I Of a multitude of wrong impressions about the rich, we single out one, more particularly appropriate to these pages. It is this, that one of the penalties of wealth is disease. This is not so. The rich are not more sickly, as a claso, than the poor ; they are not as much exposed to the causes of disease as the poor are ; their lives are more equa- ble ; less su')ject to great exposures, whether to the extremes of labor, or of active effort, or of heat and cold, and privation and hunger. Statistics in European countries plainly show that the average ao^e of the well-to-do in the world is greater, HEALTH AND WEALTH. 249 by quite a number of years, than that of the struggling poor. If the price of health were poverty, then it is a bootless en ileavor to strive for the means of securing comfortable dwell- ings, and abundant fuel and clothing and provision for the cheerless winter-time. Especially is it true in largo towns and in cities, that it is the children of the poor, Mho, from want and neglect, fill our graveyards ; often does the weekly mortuary report show the appalling fact that more than half of all who die are young children ; and a more minute exami- nation of the list shows to the physician that the very large proportion of such deaths are those which have their origin in exposure and want and cold. How few of our compara- tively very rich men die short of the sixties. In New Orleans, where exposures at certain seasons are so fatal, the very rich live to an old age, as witness McDonough, and Touro, and risk, and Wilder, and a long list of others. Their wealth made exposures less necessary, and enabled them to take the world easy, — a prophylactic which counteracts many a drunken bout, many a midnight carousal, many a gormandic dinner; as witness, too, the lords and bishops and chancellors and dukes of England, who so often measure to the eighties, and at last, like the "Iron Duke," die with their harness on, in the full performance of their civil duties ; to which results we believe they are mainly indebted to their wealth, which aflfoids to them the comforts of life without embarrassment, while it gives them time for all things, relieving them from that weary, wearing, wasting away, which is the inevitable result of our Yankee hurry ; time and means to roll in the carriage, to drive in the phaeton, or gallop on the horse, over hills and dales, and far away. Our word for it, half of all the glorifications of poverty and its advantages, Avhich so often help to turn a sentence or to fill out a line, are mere balderdash, the coinings of fledglings of the quill, or of braudied brains. We never could see any advantages in poverty which intelligent wealth could not compass. Pov- erty, per se, is disreputable to any man, just as wealth, of itself, is creditable to its possessor, being, as it is, prima fade evidence of long years of industrious economies and coura- geous self-denials. That worthy people may be poor, and 250 HEALTH AND WEALTH. that unworthy people may be rich, we do not contravene. We are speaking of the rules, not the exceptions. In our opinion, those who reprobate the rich so glibly are a set of poor, lazy good-for-nothings, whose idolatry is their ease, whose god is their belly, and who glory in their shame. AVho pretends that the poverty of a nation is not its crime, and, reasoning from the greater to the less, from the masses to the individuals, is not particularly unsafe in this connec- tion? It is the care of to-morrow, the gnawing, corroding anxieties for the future, which eat away the health and life of multitudes. The rich man and the slave are wholly free from this everlasting worm, while in its stead there is au abiding composure and quietude, worth more than all medi- cine ; and to this we attribute, in great part, the truth of one of the revelations of the last census, that thirty-three and a third per cent, more of blacks were reported to have died of old age than of whites, although there are seven whites where there is one negro. There is another interesting similarity in the life of the rich man and the slave. While the fear of want troubles neither of them, their previous lives, although from very ditferent causes, bear a striking resemblance. Their lives have been lives of active industry, lives of temperance and self-denial, — compulsory as to the slave, but from choice, habit, principle, on the part of the white Dives. We are speaking specially, be it remembered, of those who have made their own for- tunes. From the laboratory of the doctor, then, we issue this for- mula, divested of all its hieroglyphical technicalities, and issue it, too, with singular confidence for universal good, to wit : — If you desire to live long in ease and comfort, free from grunts and groans, and aches and pains ; if you would have a countenance of genial sunshine, instead of vinegar; if you would be overflowing with risibilities, instead of being raclced with rheumatics, get rich, by spending your youth in tem- perate industries and prudent economies, having in view the wise and kindly expenditure of your wealth in a healthful old age. C BECKED PERSPIRATION. 251 CHECKED PERSPIRATION. Checked perspiration is the fruitful cause of sickness, dis- ease, and death to multitudes every year. If a tea-kettle of water is boiling on the fire, the steam is seen issuing from the spout, carrying the extra heat away with it ; but if the lid be fastened down, and the spout be plugged, a destructive explo- sion follows in a very short time. Heat is constantly generated within the human body by the chemical disorganization, the combustion, of the food we cat. There are seven millions of tubes, or pores, on the surface of the body, Avhich, in health, are constantly open, convejdng from the system, by what is called insensible per- spiration, this internal heat; which, having answered its pur- pose, is passed off like the jets of steam which are thrown from the escape-pipe, in puffs, of any ordinary steam-engine ; but this insensible perspiration carries with it, in a dissolved form, very much of the waste matter of the system, to the extent of a pound or two, or more, every twenty-four hours. It must be apparent, then, that if the pores of the skin are closed, if the multitude of valves which are placed over the whole surface of the human body are shut down, two things take place : First, the internal heat is prevented from passing off: it accumulates every moment ; the person expresses himself as burning up, and large draughts of water are swallowed to quench the internal fire. This we call fever. When the warm steam is constantly escaping from the body, in health, it keeps the skin moist, and there is a soft, pleasant feel and warmth about it ; but when the pores •are closed, the skin feels harsh and hot and dry. But another rrsult follows the closing of the pores of tho skin, and more immediately dangerous : a main outlet for the waste of the body is closed ; it remingles with the blood, which in a few hours becomes impure, and begins to generate disease in every fibre of the system ; the whole machinery of the man becomes at once disordered, and he expresses him- self as "feeling miserable." Tho terrible effects of checked perspiration of a dog, who 252 CHECKED PERSPIRATION. sweats only by his tongue, is evinced by his becoming mad. The water runs in streams from a clog's mouth in summer if exercising freely. If it ceases to run, that is hydrophobia. It has been asserted by a French physician, that if a person suffering under hydrophobia can be only made to perspire freely, he is cured at once. It is familiar to the commonest olserver, that, in all ordinary forms of disease, the patient begins to get better the moment he begins to perspire ; simply because the internal heat is passing off, and there is an outlet for the waste of the system. Thus it is that one of the most important means for curing all sickness is bodily cleanliness, which is simply removing from the mouths of these little pores that gum and dust and oil which clog them up. Thus it is, also, that personal cleanliness is one of the main ele- ments of health ; thus it is that filth and disease habitate together the world over. There are two kinds of perspiration — sensible and insen- sible. When we see drops of water on the surface of the body, as the result of exercise or subsidence of fever, that is sensible perspiration^ — perspiration recognized by the sense of sight ; but when perspiration is so gentle that it cannot be detected in the shape of water-drops, when no moisture can be felt, when it is known to us only by a certain softness of the skin, that is insensible perspiration; and is so gentle that it may be checked, to a very considerable extent, without special injury. But, to use popular language, which cannot be mistaken, when a man is sweating freely, and it is sud- denly checked, and the sweat is not brought out again in a very few moments, sudden and painful sickness is a very certain result. What, then, checks perspiration? A draught of air while we are at rest, after exercise ; or getting the clothing wet, and remaining at rest while it is so. Getting out of a warm bed and going to an open door or window has been the death of multitudes. A lady heard the cry of fire at midnight : it was bitter cold , it was so near the flames illuminated her chamber. She left the bed, hoisted the window ; the cold wind chilled her in a moment. From that hDur until her death, a quarter of a cen- tury later, she never saw a well day. FAMILY PEACE. 253 A young lady went to a window in her night-clothes, to look at something in the street, leaning her unprotected arms on the stone whidow-sill, which was damp and cold. She hecame an invalid, and will remain so for life. Sir Thomas Colby, being in a profuse sweat one night, liappened to remember that he had left the key of his wine- cellar on the parlor table, and fearing his servants might improve the inadvertence and drink some of his wine, he left his bed, and walked down stairs. The sweating process was checked, from which he died in a few days, leaving six million dollars in the English funds. His illness was so brief and violent that he had no opportunity to make his will, and his immense property was divided among five or six day- laborers, who were his nearest relations. The great practical lesson which we wish to impress upon the mind of the reader is this : When you are perspiring freely^ keep in motion until you get to a good fire^ or to some place where you are perfectly sheltered from any draught of air whatever. FAMILY PEACE. 1. Kemember that our will is likely to be crossed every day ; so prepare for it. 2. Everybody in the house has an evil nature as well as ourselves, and therefore we are not to expect too much. 3 . To learn the different temper of each individual. 4. To look upon each member of the family as one for whom Christ died. / 5. When any good happens to any one, to rejoice at it. ' ^ 6. When inclined to give an angry answer, to lift up the heart in prayer. 7. If, from sickness, pain, or infirmity, we feel irritalle, to keep a very strict watch over ourselves. 8. To observe when others are so suffering, and drop a word of kindness and sympathy suited to them. 9. To wait for little opportunities of pleasing, and to pul little annoyances out of the way. X / 254 TEE DOLLAR AND BLOOD ARISTOCRACY. THE DOLLAR AND BLOOD ARISTOCllACY. Our first visit to London found us in private lodgings — No. 3 Spring Gardens. Early next morning we sauntered into St. James's Park, close by, and on inquiring the owner- ship of a very common, unpainted, dingy-looking dwelling, some three stories high, if we remember well, we learned it was the residence of " Queen Victoria." Not far from it wag an old cow, tied to a tree, around which were congregated a number of nurses, each with a baby and a mug, going up in turn to get their share of pure and undiluted milk. \V^e cannot tell how wide our unsophisticated mouth opened just at that moment, but it was considerable, if not more so. Our ideas of a palace, formed away out yonder in the grazing pas- tures of Kentucky, a long, long time ago, were, that it could not be much less than a dozen stories high, with all sorts of towers, and gilded things to match ; and as for such a vulgar article as a cow being within miles of it, we never dreamed of such a thing ; but the reality was as we have stated. We cannot imagine that Queen Victoria feels at all lowered in occupying for herself, and rearing her children in a common three-story brick house. It is on her blood and birth that she relies. Her character and her position are her pride. Yes 1 the heirs of an untoiled-for income of hundreds of thou- sands a year are content to occupy a three-story brick house. It is the recently rich, the newly-elevated, who revel in glare, and glitter, and show. It is the brewer's wife, whose whole ambition is to get into society. It is the butcher's daughter, who dresses violently. Those whose positions have been un- doubted for generations — man, woman, oi child — would not be considered " anybody in particular," in a walk along Broadway, from anything that pertained to dress ; but an observer detects it in a moment : there is an " air," there is a " presence " about them which needs no interpreter. On the other hand, what violent transitions are there between the * superbly dressed woman " and hei plebeian face ; between the splendid " turn-out " and its pug-nosed occupant ; between the bandbox exquisite, or the "flushed" blackleg, and the THE DOLLAR AND BLOOD ARISTOCRACY. 255 impudent stare, or cowering look, which are the inseparable attendants of the consciously degraded the world over. Well ! passing up our own Fifth Avenue, or down Four- teenth Street, or around Union Square, or Madison Park, or Murray Hill, we find multitudes of palatial residences as far superior in their external appearance to the palace of St. James as one can well imagine. A residence costing one hundred thousand dollars is a common thing in the above- named localities. The oak carvings — beautiful and chaste they are — of a single parlor in University Place cost three thousand dollars ; and there are several dwellings, the adorn- ments of single rooms of which have cost fifteen, twenty, and even as high as thirty thousand. These men have made their own money by severe industry and patient assiduity in busi- ness ; and we are rather fearful that we are not a little imper- tinent in making any special remark about the outlay of what is their own. The fact is, we like a generous expenditure of one's means ; it elevates the man, and has an elevating influ- ence on all about him, — his servants, his tradesmen, his friends, his children, and all. It is your poor, pitiful, narrow- hearted, close-fisted, mean-minded miser, who never parts with a dollar but with a pain ; that is the kind of man on whom we look with unpitying contemptuousness. But for all this, we have often inquired whether any parent, wisely kind, can bring up his children in a style and manner of living which he cannot leave them the means of sustaining. There are men so stupid, that their heads cannot be turned by any elevation ; no unanticipated heights make them dizzy. But to descend safely, to do it in youth, to begin married life with a declivity, who is equal to it? Not one in many thousands. And what is the result, ye merchant princes, ye successful stock-jobbers, ye retired bankers of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, we repeat the inquiry? What is the necessary result as a general rule, as aflfecting the destinies of your chil- dren, who cannot, if they go out into the world, sustain the style of their father's house? The boys decline marriage, and with it give up, at one fell swoop, the purities, the joys, the elevations of domestic life. The next thing is to join some " club," where introductions are soon made to the cigar, the wine-cup, the chess-board, the coarse jest, the loud laugh, 256 EARLY MARRIAGE S. the bacchanal song, the rail against " Puritanism," the Sab- bath drive, or yachting, vi sauntering. Then comes apace things said and done which the pure ears of beauty can nevci hear, nor eyes see, nor hearts conceive, without mantling the young cheek with shame. As for your daughters, so loving and so loved to you, what is their future ? To marry "upwards," as the world calls it, they cannot. Nor can they marry men, except in rare in- stances, who can even maintain the style of living in their father's home. They must therefore marry downwards, or not marry at all ; and not marrying, may almost as well be dead. In a few years their father and mother will be gone. Brothers have formed other ties. One by one of the associates of other years is lost from their visiting list, by removal, or mar- riage, or death. Every year leaves them more and more lonely, more and more neglected ; and soon thereafter the great world loses sight of them ; their very names are only now and then mentioned, while all this time they are consum- ing themselves with sad memories, and anon pass unwept into a forgotten grave. Therefore, we say to wealthy parents, if you truly love your children, live in that style which you can enable each one of them to sustain. EARLY MARRIAGES. Early marriages — by which we mean under twenty- three for the woman, and under twenty-eight for the man — are the misfortune and calamity of those who contract them. The constitution of the woman is prematurely taxed by early child-bearing, and is broken down before she is thirty-five, the age in which she ought to be in all the glory of matronly beauty, of social and domestic influence and power and enjoyment. But instead of this, in what condition does * thiitj -five " find the great majority of American women ? — thin, pale, wasted, hollow cheeks, sunken and dark-circled eyes, no strength, no power of endurance, with a complica- tion of peculiar ailments, which, while they bafile medical EABLY MARRIAGES. 257 skill, irritate the body, and leave the mind habitually fretful and complaining ; or what is less endurable, throw it into a state of hopeless passivity, of wearisome and destructive in- difference to family, children, household, everything 1 The influence which these things have on the manly ambi- tion of the husband is disastrous ; his solicitude and sympa- thy for his suffering wife waste the mental power which ought to have been put forth on his business ; his time is di- verted, whilst the reckless waste of servants unlocked after, and that unavoidable wreck and ruin to house and furniture and clothing, which is an inseparable attendant on every wife- less fimily, — these things, we say, soon begin to have a depressing effect on the energies of the young father and hus- band, who is too often driven into do-nothing indulgence, into reckless shifts, or into the forgetfulncss of habitual drunkenness. All this time the children are increasing in number, are more and more neglected, growing up in igno- rance and idleness ; or if learning at all, having the more leisure to learn but too well the habits and practices of igno- rant, trifling, deceiving, blarneying, treacherous servants, for such the mass of them are, as we know by sorrowful experi- ence, in all the large cities of this country. A woman who begins to have children at eighteen, cannot have that vigor of body and mind wdiich is essential to a well- regulated household ; we say, therefore, to every young man, — Do not marry under twenty-eight for yourself, nor under twenty-three for your wife ; and remember, too, that the best dower a woman can bring you is a sound constitution ; it is vvoi-th more to you than " a fortune," while its moral and physical effect on the future health and happiness of the children who may be born to you cannot be measured by any array of dollar^. 19 258 FRUITS IN SUMMER. FEUITS IN SUMMER. By an arrangement of Providence, as beautiful as it ia benign, the fruits of the earth arc ripening during the who!'} summer. From the delightful strawberry, on the opening of spring, to the luscious peach of the fall, there is a constiuit succession of delightful aliments ; made delightful by that Power, whose loving-kindness is in all his works, in order to stimulate us to its highest cultivation, connecting with their use, also, the most health-giving influences. And with the rich profaseness of a well-attended fruitery, it is one of the most unaccountable things in nature that so little attention is paid, comparatively speaking, to this branch of farming. It is a beautiful fact, that while the warmth and exposures of summer tend to biliousness and fevers, the free use of fruits and berries counteract that tendency. Artificial acids are found to promote the separation of the bile from tlie blood, with great mildness and certainty; this led to the sup- position that the natural acids, as contained in fruits and berries, might be as available, and being more palatable, would necessarily be preferred. Experiment has verified the theory, and within a very late period allopathic writers have suggested the use of fresh, ripe, perfect, raw fruits, as a reli- able remedy in the diarrhoeas of summer. How strongly the appetite yearns for a pickle, when nothing else could be relished, is in the experience of most of us. It is the instinct of nature, pointing to a cure. The want of a natural appetite is the result of the bile not being separated from the blood, and if not remedied, fever is inevitable, from the slightest grades to that of bilious, congestive, and yellow. "Fruits are cooling," is a by-word, the truth of which has forced itself on the commonest observers. But why they aio so, the^^ had not the time, opportunity or inclination to inquire into. The reason is, the acid of the fruit stimulates the liver to greater activity in separating the bile from the blood, which is its proper work, the result of which is, the bowels become free, the pores of the skin are open. Under such circum- btances, fever and want of appetite are impossible. CARE OF TEE EYES. 2Ji) HOW TO USE FRUITS. To derive from the employment of fruits and berries ail that healthful and nutritive effect which belongs to their nature, we should First. — Use fruits that are ripe, fresh, perfect, raw. tSecond. — They should be used in their natural state, with- out sugar, cream, milk, or any other item of food or drink. Third. — Fruits have their best effect when used in the early part of the day, hence we do not advise their employment at a later hour than the middle of the afternoon ; not that, if per- fect and ripe, they may not be eaten largely by themselves, within two hours of bed-time, with advantage ; but if the sour- ness of decay should happen to taint them, or any liquor should inadvertently be largely drank afterwards, even cold water, acidity of the whole mass may follow, restilting in a night of distress, if not actual or dangerous sickness. So it is better not to run the risk. To derive a more decided medicinal effect, fruits should be largely eaten soon after rising in the morning, and about mid- way between breakfast and dinner. An incalculable amount of sickness and suffering would be prevented every year if the whole class of desserts were swept from our tables during summer, and fresh, ripe, perfect fruits and berries were substituted, while the amount of money that would be saved thereby, at the New York prices of fruits, would, in some families, amount to many dollars — dollars enough to educate an orphan child, or support a colporter a whole year in some regions of our country. CARE OF THE EYES. Do not read or write before sun-up or after sundown. Let the light fall upon the page from behind. Never read while lying down. Those whose eyes are weak should never read or sew by candle or gas light, nor by twilight. Suffer nothing to be applied to them, unless by the "^ueeial advice of an experienced physician. If the lids stick 260 DAMP WALLS. together in the mornmg on waking up, moisten them with the Baliva ; it softens and dissolves the matter sooner than any liquid known. The best and safest treatment for most af- fections of the eyes is rest, especially if weak orinHamed ; rest from reading, writing or sewing, from every use of them which requires close observation, spending a large portion of the time out of doors, as then large objects are mostly viewed. Persevere in this for weeks and months if necessary, and if not then relieved, consult a physician. Avoid reading on horseback or in rail-cars, or any wheeled vehicle while in motion. Many persons will find that in read- ing before breakfast an effort is required to keep the sight clear, but after breakfast, no such difficulty is experienced ; the reason is, the eye under such circumstances is more or less inflamed, that is, has too much blood about it, but nature calls that excess of blood away to the stomach after eating, to enable it to perform its work more thoroughly. Therefore, persons with weak eyes should not read or write, or do fine sewing, on an empty stomach. Our preceptor, Professor Dud- ley, who is among the very first of living surgeons, used often to say, "Young gentlemen, never let anything touch the eye or ear stronger than lukewarm water." We have but one sight to lose, its preservation merits all our care, and it is un- wise to tamper with, or experiment upon an organ so indis- pensable to our comfort, happiness, and usefulness. DAMP WALLS. INIuLTiTUDES of people contemplate building family dwellings this year. Most persons can bring to their remembrance cases where splendid mansions have been erected with a portion of the wealth which a lifetime of well-directed industry and economy has secured, and just about the time when every- thing has been completed, the owner has lain down and died ; if not, indeed, other members of the family. Damp walls are a sufficient, yet not the only cause of such a result. Walls are not damp of themselves, but they are made so, as a pane of glass is made damp, the glass itself being colder than the CLEANLINESS. 261 atmosphere of the room, condenses some of the moisture which that atmosphere contains, and drops of water are formed on its surface ; a glass or pitcher of ice-water presents the same appearance. In southern cities, streams of water may be seen on the floor, having trickled down from the walls when the atmosphere has been overcharged with vapor. To prevent this, strips of wood, an inch or more thick, should be fastened to the walls, on which the lath j should be nailed ; this leaves space for the circulation of the air, and keeps the whole building dry in all seasons of the year. Our readers may rest assured that a very large proportion of the diseases which affiict men, and prevent them living out half their days, literal- ly, arises from ignorance, and inattention to the known laws of things. CLEANLINESS. Cleanliness of person — the strictest cleanliness — should be among the earliest and most imperative of our teachings to our children ; not external cleanliness, but that which is most promotive of health — cleanliness of the skin, and the garments which are nearest to it. With what contempt would we look on the best-dressed and handsomest person on the street, if we could know that the feet had not been washed for a week, nor the inner garments for a month ; and yet it is undeniable that many persons are satisfied that the outer garment should be unexceptionably clean ; if that be whole and without a rent, it matters not how soiled and tatteied those out of sight are. No such mind can be pure ; it implies a deceptiveness of heart which it is impossible to admire. Let mothers especial- ly charge it upon their daughters, from earliest life, that it is actually as discreditable to have a hole in the stocking as in (he silk dress ; that a splash or stain, or grease-spot on an inner garment, is not less unpardonable than if found on a sbawl or cloak or bonnet. Let every mother feel that clean- liness, temperance, and thrift are the antipodes of filth, bestiality, and improvidence, and that spotless cleanliness of l»crson, and purity of mind, are absolutely inseparable. 262 REWABD OF PHYSICAL LABOR. REWARD OF PHYSICAL LABOR. At the funeral of a clergyman who died with his harness on, at the age of eighty-eight years, it was said of him, "He was favored with a robust and healthy constitution. On his father's farm he acquired the habit and love of agricultural labor, which he retained thiough life, and which contributed so eminently to the health and vigor, which, with scarcely any interruption, he enjoyed all his days." We believe that the church commits an error in putting young men into the ministry so early. If the Divine Author of our religion worked at the trade of a carpenter until he began to be about thirty years of age, we see no sufficient reason why men less divine, and so immeasurably less gifted, should hurry into it at an earlier period, with all their in- experience of mec and things ; that very inexperience which has led many a talented young clergyman into the commission of mistakes, which have colored a subsequent lifetime ; mis- takes, which have made life a failure. We are not sure that a five years' course of working with one's hands for daily bread would not, in the long run, be productive of incalculable benefits to the church and to the world. 1. It would raise up a ministry of robust health, capable of performing in one year more real hard work in the field of the world, than would a score of theological fledglings of the present day. 2. It would give a ministry who, knowing something of human nature, could sympathize with its sorrows, could compassionate its weaknesses, and could, having been tempted as we are, be touched with a feeling of our infirmities ; could weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. GET MARRIED, 263 GET MARRIED. Young ladies, you will never be satisfied until you do ! It IS the surest road to a long life and a happy one. There is a (horn in the path now and then, but there is a rose always hard l)y. Did you never know it before? We will tell you something. We never heard it or read it. We found it out. D.)ctors, you know, are very inquisitive folks, always pryiiio; and peeping about, through their own eyes, and other peo- ple's ; and when these are not sufficient, they use their micro- scope, — a very favorite instrument with some of them, inas- much as it enables them " To see what is not to be seen " : by anybody except themselves ; and full often they are like the sailor on the lookout: he could not see land exactly, but he could pretty near do it. Well, all at once, one day, this [bright idea (so we call it for the present ; it may after- rwards arise to a fact, for there is a shade of dificrence [between the twain) broke in upon us cff'ulgently. The roses land the thorns of married life are not one and indivisible ; [they grow on separate stocks, and all that is required to part them is a good head and a kind heart. There is one diffi- culty in the way : the thorns are indestructible, but you have only to throw them aside, and if anj'bocly else chooses to pick them, that is their lookout ; every one must see for himself. A bunch of this sort happened to fall to our lot once upon a time, but we can easily account for it, and that is [highly satisfactory : we always had weak cj^es, and the vicin- [age thereof is much of a sameness, in a certain phase of the [moon. But we fully calculate on repeating the operation ; and "we intend to have a pair of specs, next time, such as will diminish the blinding glare which curls and cotton, in certain [conjunctions, attitudes, and combinations do most devastat- [ingly throw around them. Not long since a man was head over heels in debt, and he [declared that his last speculation left him head over heeler. kSo, one who tries by marriage to get out of trouble, some- 264 OUB DAUGHTERS. times gets into greater; but in the large main, marriage is the balm of life, — it is the natural condition of human kind ; hence Divinity has ordained it. The idea which we wished to convey, in connection with the heading of this article, is, that while more women than men, in the country at large, die of consumption yet five hundred married men will die of consumption, while three hundred married women die of it. Therefore, as to women, marriage, after twenty-Jive, is a preventive of consumption. OUR DAUGHTERS. Our daughters are the hope of our country's future. Their physical, moral, and domestic education are of an importance which no array of figures can express, which multitudes of ponderous tomes could not adequately portray. As is the mother, so is the man. If she be a woman of physical vigor, a high guarantee is given of healthy children. If her moral character is pure, formed in the mould of Bible piety, we may anticipate for her offspring lives of the self- same piety, with its benevolent influences spreading far and wide from all their habitations. If the mother, in her domestic relations, be a pattern for all that is cleanly and systematic, and punctual and prompt and persevering, with womanly dignity and lovingness pervading sU, then may we look for every son of such a woman to be a man of mark for his time, and for every daughter to become a wife well worthy of a king. When such destinies hang upon the future of our daughters, ought they to be hurried from a loving mother's side tit seven- teen, at fifteen, rt twelve, to the purchased care of a govern- ess? to the herded tuition of fashionable boarding-schools, where glitter and superficiality and empty show predominate ; where nothing that is radically useful and good is thorough ; where associations are inevitable with the children of the parvenu, as w^ell as with the scion of the decayed aristocrat, thus exposing the pure heart to the withering and corrupting examples of mere pretence and of baseless pride? RULES FOR TEE SICK ROOM. 26.*) The theatre, the ball-room, the sea-shore, or the spa, are these the schools to mould aright the character of the girls who are to bo the mothers of the next generation ? Is the heterogeneous weekly newspaper, the trashy monthly, the " last novel," be it from whom it may, — are these suitable text-books to form the principles of her who is soon to bp- oome the wife, the mother, the matron? We trust these suggestive inquiries will arrest the atten- tion, and command the mature reflection of every parent who reads this article. RULES FOR THE SICK ROOM. Never place yourself between the patient and the fire, for there is always a current in that direction from all parts of the room ; hence the effluvia from the sick man passes by, and is breathed by you. Never swallow the saliva, nor eat or drink anything in a nick room. Do not go where the sick are while in a perspiration, nor under any circumstances of exhaustion. In your visits to the sick, in pity be brief. In watching with sick people, eat a regular meal before you go into the room, and repeat at intervals of not over four hours ; this keeps the stomach in a state of excitement, which lopcls infection. Speak kindly, cheerfully, encouragingly to the sick. In waiting upon them, study the happy mean in anticipating their wants, without being annoy ingly officious. Do not stare at a sick man, nor show a surprised counte- Dauce ; and speak softly, with distinctness. 266 PEB8PIRATI0N. PERSPIRATION. Perspiration is the transfusion of water from the interior of the body, through the skin, to without us. This transfused fluid is not pure water, it is saltish to the taste, and it con- veys, is the carrier of, a large amount of various impurities out of the body ; it is one of the scavengers of the human frame. If the passage-ways, the hose-pipe's through which the perspiration is conducted, are closed, these impurities are retained, are remixed with the blood, and the whole mass of it becomes impure from that cause within two minutes ami a half; and every two minutes and a half the impurity is mme and more concentrated ; and so rapidly does this corrupting process go on, and so deleterious are its effects, that if the whole of them are kept closed, by any gummy substance, or we are completely ouve'oped in an India-rubber garment, we would die in a few hours. Moderate exercise keeps these passages open; hence, those persons who are moderately exercising all day, whether in or out of doors, are the longest lived, the world over. This moderate exercise is to the body what a fire-engine or a common pump is in practical life ; it keeps the fluid passing along, and as it passes, washes us clean of all impurities. A quart of water, laden with concentrated impurities, passes through the skin of a healthy person every twenty foui hours ; hence the necessity of keeping these sluices of the system always in operation by moderate exercise, and their extensive openings free by the strictest habits of thor- ough personal cleanliness. This one idea of keeping the pores of the skin steadily open by means of habitual moderate exercise and strict personal cleanliness, would, if generally practised, contribute more to human happiness than tons of physic or millions of money. LONa LIFE. 267 LONG LIFE. The physiological law of animal existence is, that the dura* tiou of life should be at least five-fold that of growth. The liorse is four or five years attaining his full growth, and lives twenty-five years. The ox lives fifteen, and the dog ten years. The cat lives six times the growing period, the rabbit eight. Men usually attain their growth at about twenty years of age, and yet comparatively few reach fourscore years. More than one half of all who are born do not attain the age of twenty. Being made to live a hundred years, it is a sad reflection that nine tenths die before they reach the half-way house ; before half the work of life is done. This result is owing to three main causes : — 1. To artificial modes of life. 2. To over-indulgence of the appetites and passions of our nature. 3. To the wearing ambition, to the wasting anxieties, \o tlie depressing cares of life. A cultivated intelligence and a well-informed conscience, and these only, are competent to remove these causes of the premature decay of our race. But mark — a man must bo conscientious as well as intelligent. He must be wise, to know what is duty ; he must be moral, to impel him to its discharge. The secret of long life is given in the short history of one who, in his eighty-fourth year, was the picture of a mellow old age, and bade fair to live twenty years longer. Sharon Carter, of Philadelphia, at that great age, had rarely been sick. His life was one of industrious out-door activities, lie travelled much, always on foot ; slept with his window wide open, in all kinds of weather, and maintained a cheerful equanimity. Therefore, in the beautiful language of that ripe medical scholar, Dr. Thompson, of London, "Let our education be so conducted as to train the mind for tranquil superiority to passing cares, and to qualify for the exhilarating occupations of a useful life." 268 OUR DAUGHTERS RUINED. OUR DAUGHTERS RUINED. Where? At fashionable boardinsr-schools. How? In manner and form to wit : — A young lady in good health was sent to a distant city, to finish her education in a boarding-school of considerable note. In one mouth she returned, suflcring from general debility, dizziness, neuralgic pains, and headache. It must be a very telling process, which, in a single month, transforms a rollicking, romping, ruddy-faced girl of sixteen lo a pale, weakly, failing invalid. It is not often done so quickly ; but, in the course of a boarding-school education, it is doue thousands of times. Public thanks are due to a correspondent of the "Bufialo Medical Journal," for the pains he took to ferret out the facts of the daily routine of the establishment, the proprietors of which so richly merit the reprobation of the whole commuuity, both for their reckless- ness of human health and their ignorance of physiological law. Said an accomplished lady to us, not long since, " My only daughter is made a wreck of, — she lost her mind at that wretched school I " At this model establishment, where the daughters of the rich and of the aspiring are prepared for the grave every year, twelve hours are devoted to study out of the twenty- four, wheu five should be the utmost limit. Two hours are allowed for exercise ; three hours for eating ; seven hours for sleep. Plenty of time allowed to eat themselves to death, at the expense of stinting them to the smallest imount of time for renovating the brain, the very fountain of life, upon whci3 healthful and vigorous action depends the ability of advan- tageous mental culture and physical energy. But what is ths kind of exercise which prevails iii city boarding-schools? The girls are marched through the streets in double file, dressed violently, of course, so as to inure to the benefit of the proprietors, in the way of a walking adver- tisement, knowing well enough that a file of young ladies from the families of the upper-ten would monopolize atteu- SOUND SLEEP. 2G9 tion on any thoroughfare, even AVall Street. But what does an hour's prim -walk effect, when, conscious of being the cvnosure of every eye, they are put on their most unexcep- tionable behavior ; when a good side-shaking, whole-souled laugh would subject the offender to a purgatorial lecture, to be repeated daily, perhaps, for a month? Verily, Moloch has his worshippers in this enlightened age, when parents are Ibund to sacrifice the lives of their daughters for the reputa- tion of havi'js: them at the fashionable boarding-school. SOUND SLEEP. Any man who can bound out of bed as soon as he wakes, of a midwinter's morning, is worth something. No fear of his not making his way through the world creditably, because he has the elements of a promptitude, decision, and energy which guarantee success. To invalids we make a comfortable suggestion w^orth knowing. If you have force of will enough to keep you from taking a second nap, — and it is the second nap which makes its baneful influence felt on multitudes, — it is better for you to lie a w^hile and think about it, until that feeling of weariness passes out of the limbs which you so commonly feel. But to sleep soundly, and to feel rested and refreshed when you wake up of a morning, four things are essential : — 1. Go to ")ed with feet thoroughly dry and warm. 2. Take nothing for supper but some cold bread and butter and a single cup of weak warm tea of any kind. 3. Avoid over-fatigue of body. 4. For the hour preceding bedtime, dismiss every engross- ing subject from the mind, and let it be employed about something soothing and enlivening, in cheerful thankful- ness. 270 BATHING. BATHING. Once a week is often enough for ii dev^ent white man to wash himself all over ; and, whether in summer or winter, that ought to be done with soap, warm water, and a hog's- hair brush, in a room showing at least seventy degrees Fahrenheit. If a man is a pig in his nature, then no amount of washing will keep him clean, inside or out. Such a one needs a bath every time he turns round. He can do nothhig neatly. Baths should be taken earl}^ in the moining, for it is then that the system possesses the poAver of reaction in the highest degree. Any kind of bath is dangerous soon after a meal, or soon after fatiguing exercise. No man or woman should take a bath at the close of the day, unless by the advice of the family physician. Many a man, in attempting to cheat his doctor out of a fee, has cheated himself out of his life ; ay, it is done every day. The safest mode of a cold bath is a plunge into a river ; the safest lime is instantly after getting up. The necessary effort of sAvimming to shore compels a reaction, and the effect is delightful. The best, safest, cheapest, .and most universally accessible mode of keeping the surface of the body clean, besides the once-a-AVcek washing with soap, warm water, and hog's-hair brush, is as follows : — Soon as you get out of bed in the morning wash your face, hands, neck, and breast; then, into the same basin of water, put both feet at once, for about a minute, rubbing them briskly all the time; then, with the tcwel which has been dampened by Aviping the face, feet, &c., wipe the Avhole body Avell, fast and hard, mouth shut, breast projecting. Let (he vA'hole thing be done within five minutes. At night when you go to bed, and whenever you get out of bed during the night, or Avhen you find yourself Avakeful or restless, spend from two to five minutes in rubbing your whole body Avith your hands, as far as you can reach, hi every direction. This has a tendency to preserve that soft- ness and mobility of skin which is essential to health, and which too frequent washinsrs will always destroy. NO COMPASS AT SEA. 271 NO COMPASS AT SEA. It is a boon of priceless value to have an unfaltering rcli<]rious belief. One of the most affectini? incidents in the histor}' of the Divine Rccleeraer occurred when, looking over the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them, " because they were as sheep having no shepherd." That state of mind, which no gold can purchase, whost. value no costly gems can express, which finds perfect repose in contemplating the present individual condition of humanit}^, and its future irrevocable destiny, in the expression, "The Judge of all the earth will do right," — such a state of mind, we say, bears with it a sweetness of comfort worth more than all worlds. And fortunate beyond computation is that child whose reverence for Scripture teachings has become so incor- porated with its very nature that, even in mature life, the ultima TJnde as to duty and morals is, "The Bible says it." Seldom have these viesvs had a stronger corroboration than m a meeting which we attended lately in this city. A "Shaker" w^as to discuss the doctrine of celibacy. The room was well filled. The Shaker was to speak ten minutes, and any one else might reply for the same length of time. In all that assembly of men and women we failed to discover one single countenance which indicated composure. There was an expression of anxious unrest, so general that we weie moved to pity. The women had a kind of he-look, which was grating to our feelings. There was only one female face there to which we could turn for relief, which was found in a certain benignity of expression which eventually cleared away that "first impression" of one of the ugliest, little old phizzes which we had been lately called on to contemplate. As to the men, there were two classes : One whose "ex- pression " indicated that they had missed the aim of life ; that they were deeply dissatisfied with their status, and were seek- ing, revengefully, for a change. There was another set of countenances, few in comparison, but as widely different as daylight is from darkness. There was the high, broad fore- bead, benign and intelligent, as if the owners wished all men 272 UNTIMELY EXERCISE. to be bappy, and felt it to be their duty to labor for that happiness ; conscious of their intelligence, and of their duly to employ it in search of the true secret of the highest human good. In the speeches made, there was a frequent quotation of Scripture ; but in such a way as to impress us with the feel ing that the quotations were made, not because of a loving and reverential confidence in Scripture authority, but from a conviction that it was authoritative in most of those who were present ; as much as to say, " You see I am on the side of the Bible ; do not be afraid of me as of an infidel." Be assured, reader, that no scheme of human amelioration ever can succeed where the Bible is not received in the love of it; hence the miserable failures of Ann Lee, of Fourier, of Brisbane, of Owen, and the thousand and one modifications of the Agrarian of ancient times, of the Arcadian, and tJie Philansters of the present. To make all men happy we must first make them unselfish, in obedience to the Bible precept, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- bor as thyself." But when that is done the world becomes truly religious, and nothing more is needed. As a means, then, of making earth a paradise, where love and intelligence and plenty shall universally prevail, leaving no room for dissatisfaction, disquietude, for wasting anxieties and corroding cares, nor for want and famine and disease, M'o earnestly commend one item of early education : — Implant into the very nature of your children, from earliest infancy, an affectionate and implicit belief in all Bible teachings. UNTIMELY EXERCISE. A BKiSK walk, in a cool, bracing atmosphere, is a luxury, provided it be taken under proper circumstances. Sidney Smith made a great mistake when he said that a public speaker would never break down if he would walk a dozen miles before speaking. He might not break down, in one sense of the word ; for there would be nothing to break. rie would have no strength, and there would be no elevation CLERICAL EXPOSURES. 27,*^ to tumble from, because his speech would be as flat as cold soup. The less a mau exercises before a morning's sermon or speech the better. The vital energy should not be ex- jiendcd on the muscles, but on the brain. To speak with freshness, and with a vigor which shall carry all before it, a man should neither sing, talk, nor walk before speaking. CLERICAL EXPOSURES. A STERN and honorable sense of duty has led many a self sacrificing clergyman and physician to encounter exposures which have laid them in the tomb ; and many a martyr to professional obligation sleeps in his lonely and forgotten grave. An active, talented, and efllcient clergyman from the far West, writes, " Three weeks ago I overdid myself in walk- ing, caught a cold, preached with the cold on me ; rode out immediately afterwards to see a dying man, took a fresh cold, which settled on my lungs, coughed tremendously for a few days, had asthmatic symptoms ; but in eight or ten days all disappeared, and I think the lungs are free from all disease." iVt the same time, the fore part of the letter complained, "On preaching days I experience a sensation of relaxation in throat and whole body, down to fingers and toes, huskiness of voice, and a slight soreness about the hollow at the bottom of the neck." Riding on horseback immediately after a public address, in damp or rainy weather, or windy weather, even in summer time, is enough to fasten a fatal disease on any man of ordinary health. Public men must decide for themselves how far they are cidled upon to take risks, with chances so largely against them. As to preaching with the hoarseness of a fresh cold upon him, no man is justifiable under any circumstances short of Ihroatened life. After speaking in weathers above named, persons should remain in the house at least twenty minutes, then button up, and keep the nose and mouth well veiled. 20 274 OUT-DOOR SAFETY. OUT-DOOR SAFETY. The fear of the weather has sent multitudes to the grave, who otherwise might have lived in health many years longer. The fierce north wind and the furious snow-storm kill com- paratively few, while hot winter rooms and crisping summer suns have countless hecatombs of human victims to attest their power. Except in localities where malignant miasms prevail, and that only in warm weather, out-door life is the healthiest and happiest, from the tropics to the poles. The general fact speaks for itself, that persons who are out uf doors most, take cold least. In some parts of our country, uear one half of the adult deaths are from diseases of the air passages. These ailments arise from taking cold in some way or another ; and surely the reader will take some interest in a subject, which, by at least one chance out of four, his own life may be lost. All colds arise from one of two causes. 1. By getting cool too quick after exercise, either as to the whole body, or any part of it. 2. By being chilled, and remaining so for a long time, from want of exercise. To avoid colds from the former, we have only to go to a fire the moment the exercises cease in the winter. If in sum- mer, repair at once to a closed room, and there remain with the same clothing on, until cooled off. To avoid colds from the latter cause, and these engender the most speedily fatal diseases, such as pleurisies, croup, and inflammation of the lungs, called pneumonias, we have only to compel ourselves to walk with sufficient vigor to keep off a feeling of chilliness. Attention to a precept contained in less than a dozen words, would add twenty years to the average of civilized life. Keep away chilliness hy exercise; cool off slowly. Then you will never take cold, in door or out. TOBACCO AND LIQUOR. 27b TOBACCO AND LIQUOR. Those who revel in these luxuries htive an interesting time ill prospect. It is stated, tliat in order to give an almond ^flavor to tobacco, the manufacturers are beginning to u.-e priissic acid — a few drops of which on a man's tongue will j)roduce death in five minutes. Several persons arc alleged to have lost the use of their lower limbs by smoking cigars thu^j flavored. A government inspector states, that of several hundred lots of liquor examined, nine tenths were imitations, and that a great portion of them were poisonous concoctions. Not one gallon of brandy in a hundred is pure ; and as to the wines, not one in a thousand : that chemical analysis shows them to be made of water, alum, pepper, horse-radish, and oil of vitriol ; and that some of the whiskey had enough of sulphuric acid in a quart to eat a hole in a man's stomach. The council of state of Berne, Switzerland, in consequence ul the deleterious effects of tobacco on the human frame, have recently determined to prohibit the use of it to all " uncon- firmed " young men : this religious rite is there administered at sixteen. A highly esteemed Presbyterian clergyman, in Virginia, recently committed suicide, from a state of nervous irritation caused b}^ the excessive use of tobacco. An instructive and alarming fact may be here stated, in reference to the Wall Street forger, recently sent to the penitentiary. It was proven on the trial, that he was never seen down town without having a cigar in his mouth ; that he was never well. On entering the prison, smoking was absolutely and at once prohibited, by an inflexible rule. In Ibrce months he gained fifteen pounds in flesh, and his general heahh was improved in proportion. This showed the value of the expression, "I can't do it," so readily used by slaves to the habit. ^ No man who is a man will use that phrase in reference to any bodily habit, lie who does it utters an un- qualified untruth, and should be ashamed of himself, not only for his want of courage, but for his want of morality. A large quantity of siuifl' was found lodged in the nasal cav- 276 SCHOOL CHILDBEN. ities of the celebrated Dr. Cooper, of Boston, who was a, hiveterate snuff-taker, and died of a disorder of the head induced by the pernicious habit. General Sullivan, of the Revolutionary army, carried his snuft* loose in his vest pocket. " At times," says the Medical \A'"orld, " he had violent pains in the head ; the intervals grew shorter, and the returns more distressing, ending in palsy, which rendered him helpless and miserable, and put him in his grave before he was fifty years old." The earlier in life, and the earlier in the day tobacco is used, the more pernicious is its effect on the constitution. SCHOOL CHILDREN. Many a child, the light of the house to-day, will have been laid in the grave before the winter is ended, by inattention as to heat and cold, inducing pleurisies, inflammation of the lungs, colds, croups, and other dangerous maladies. Teachers should be spoken to about allowing the children to sit with the back near a stove, or register, or window, or in any position where the child is exposed to a draught of air, or to over-heat. The children should not be allowed to come directly to a fire, or stove, on entering the school-room. In addition, they should be detained in an outer room fifteen or twenty degrees colder, for a few minutes after the school is dismissed, and then have their gloves put on, and a veil put over the face and fastened, so as not to be blown aside. The colder the weather, and the higher the wind, the more neces- sary' are these precautions, not only in leaving the school- room, but en leaving home. The grateful relief which is experienced when facing a tierce cold wind, on putting a silk handkerchief over the face, will surprise any one who tries it. All India-rubber shoes or garments should be removed the moment on coming in-doors. Children should be instructed to run with the mouth shut for the first block or two after getting out of doors in cold weather. EEALTn OF EMPLOYMENTS. 277 HEALTH OF EMPLOYMENTS. The following iustructivo table was of the jSIassaehusetts Legislature, by w average age of Gentlemen, is Judges, . Farmers, Bank Officers Coopers, Public Officers Clergymen, Shipwrights, Hatters, Lawyers, Roperaakers, Blacksmiths, Merchants, Calico Printers, Physicians, Butchers, Carpenters, Masons, Traders, Tailors, . Jewellers, Manufacturers Bakers, . Painters, Shoemakers, Mechanics, Editors, Musicians, Printers, Machinists, Teachers, Clerks, . Operatives, Agriculturists, prepared by direction hich it appears that the Years. 68 65 64 64 58 57 56 55 54 54 54 51 51 51 51 50 49 48 46 44 44 43 43 43 48 43 40 39 38 36 34 34 32 64 278 BE ALT II OF EMPLOYMENTS. The most striking cliscrcpuncy in the above table is betwecu the lifetime of a "gentleman" — that is, one who lives on his income — and a eommon laborer, who lives, in an expressive vulgarism, " from hand to mouth " — who lives upon the pro- ceeds of each day's work. A " gentleman," with his sur roundiugs, lives more than twice as long as the man, who, if he does not find w^ork to-day, must go without food, or go in debt to-morrow. A like result has been noticed in the report of M. Villcrme, in France, where the average age of a thou- sand "prosperous" persons was forty-two years, while the average age of twenty thousand "poor" persons was twenty years — less than one half I about the same as in Massa- chusetts ; showing, that in states, climes, and continents, as wide asunder in locality as in their civil politics, the same great general pi'inciples prevail in reference to the human body and mind, to w'it, that a mind at ease gives long life to iliehody. On the same principles is it, that pensioned people and paupers, who feel that they are provided for, so often live to a good old age. Next to the "gentleman " comes the salaried man, judges, justices, bank officers, and public officers, who can go to bed any night with the quiet assurance that they will not wake up paupers in the morning; that whatever betides, their salaries go on. In sad contrast with this are printers, machinists, clerks, and teachers, whose bread stops wath their daily labor, or depends on the caprice of another. The broad fact thus comes out, that between dependence and independence there is literally an age, a lifetime, or, in Wall Street language, a difference of one hundred per cent. : the difference in despotic France pf twenty and forty-two ; in democratic America, of thirty-two and sixty-eight ; and let the weekly mortuary tables of New York reiterate the same lesson, when they show us that of the multitudes who are daily striving for bread, one out of evf ry six dies from a disease of the brain or nerves ; showing, that the next great destroyer to remorseless con- sumption is worldly care! — the greed of gold — the strife for bread I For these things, the Bible at once presents a rational, a speedy, a certain remedy, and wdthal practicable, when it warns us against hastinsj to be rich; counsellins: us to be moderate in our ambition, and to be " temperate in all things." 2mBSINQ. 279 NURSING. A GOOD nurse is better than physic. That nnrse should be a woman ; her soft hand, her soothing voice, her s^Tiipathetic nature, her capabilities of endurance, her alertness, her tidi- ness and scrupulous cleanliness, make her incalculably better adapted for attending on the sick than man possibly can be. Many a valuable life would be saved if nursing could bo made • a " calling " for women ; if they should be regularly instructed in the performance of duties of that character. If we were ill of any disease known to man, especially scai- Ict fever and small-pox, we would rather take our chance for life with a good woman nurse than any apothecary shop. Let us give an illustration, which will impress the truth on the mind indelibly, that it is a greater calamity in sickness to be without a good nurse than to be without a doctor. That human angel, Florence Nightingale, says, that during the first six months of the Crimean campaign, the deaths among the soldiers were at the rate of sixty out of a hundred per an- num ; during the last six months, with the same physicians, the mortality an^ong the sick was only two thirds of what it was among the healthy soldiers in England. This great change arose from improvements carried out by the Sanitary Commissioners in reference to the care of the sick and their surroundings. Sixty persons dying out of a hundred, in a year, is worse than the great plague in London, worse than the terrible rav- ages of cholera. Ordinarily, only twentj'-one persons out of every thousand die in a year. It may be instructive to know what were some of the circumstances, the removal of which makes such a remarkal)le change. Each patient had only one fourth of the room necessary ; the windows were not hoisted so as to admit fresh air ; the ground about the buildings was always wet, for want of draining ; dead animals lay around on the ground for several weeks ; the floors were incrusted with dirt, and could not be washed, for the necessary scrubbing caused the rotten planks to crumble ; the walls and ceilings were satu- 280 HAIR DYES. rated with decomposing matters ; rats and vermin swarmed everywhere, and to exhibit the want of furniture, utensils, &c. , a common bottle was used as a candlestick. Not much better, according to a correspondent of the Boston Medical Surgical Journal, was the condition of things in the buildin<]r where oricrinated the disease which destroved so many people : — a water-closet under the same roof was so full that the filth came up through the cracks of the floor when he stepped on it ; and other things to match. Physic has power, sometimes, almost miraculous ; hut it is shorn of its locks, and is weak as an infant, when it has to contend against dirt, dampness, and the want of fresh and pure air ; nor can the best nurses in the world do better under the circumstances. Let everything about the sick be per- fectly dry and scrupulously clean, with an orderly arrange- ment of everything about the bed and room; be quiet in movement, cheerful in countenance, prompt in action, with a plenty of pure air steadily circulating. Have a large, high room, with windows facing the sun, for a greater part of the day ; let the fireplace be always open ; remove all bottles and other "signs" of physic ; allow no standing liquids, not even pure water ; and have no hanging garment about. As you love the invalid, attend to these things. HAIR DYES. One of the European journals relates the case of a gentle man who became a maniac in consequence, as said, of th*^ free use of a hair dye. We know of no efficient hair dye which does not owe its prompt virtues to a solution of " ni- trate of silver," which in its solid state is known by the name of "lunar caustic ;" it stains the skin black by burning it, and will burn into the flesh, if steadily applied. A hot iron will sear the skin, and render it hard, callous, unfeeling, and unfit for natural purposes, preventing that free evaporation which is essential to the health of the body. If this is done by investing a man with an India-rubber garment, he will die in a few hours. OVER-EATING. 281 Hair dyes for whiskers have become very common of late years ; they have to be repeated once a month ; their more im- mediate eflcct is to impart a dead, black color, which at once reveals the hypocrisy ; and that it should so disturb the uatu ral functions of the skin, by such frequent application, as to lay the foundation for callosities, cancers, and other affections, is at least to be apprehended. The employment of such cheateries is altogether incompatible with that feeling of inde- pendence and self-respect which characterizes an educated sreutleman. OVER-EATING. How many people eat to make it even? All the butter is gone, but the bread is not quite eaten, so another piece of butter is taken ; but it was too much, and the bread has given out. How many a time has the reader eaten some remnant on his plate, not because he wanted it, but to prevent its being wasted? How often have you eaten as much as you wanted, and were about pushing back from the table, when very un- ex|3ectedly a new dish, or splendid-looking pudding, dum- pling, or pie is presented, and you immediately " set to," and before you are done, have eaten almost as much in bulk as 3 Du had done before? Many a time have you gone down to the table, not only without an appetite, but with almost a feeling of aversion to food ; and yet you tasted this and that and the other, and before you were aware of it, you had " made out " a consider- able suppei ! All these practices are wasteful, hurtful, and beastly — no, wo recall that ; we are doing Mr. Pig an injustice ; for, like all other respectable animals, when he "is done," he "quits" — a thing which rational man seldom does. 282 TEUE HOSPITALITY. TRUE HOSPITALITY. Trite hospitality is seldom foinul except in country places, Wc sacrifice reason, and iicalth, and comfort, to pride, })re' fence, and a vain show. How hateful to our cars arc the de- ceitful apologies made to guests at the dinner-table. In all cases they arc to us a moral emcsis, a dose of tartar emetic. How much lack we of that high independence which should characterize the man anywhere — everywhere. We all knon" Ihat such apologies arc falsities in others ; but seem to forget that others regard them in the same light as to ourselves, and the meal is commenced with a feeling of disparagement as to om' host and hostess, if not of actual contempt; and in pio- portion to its intensity, does it retard digestion. All feelings at the dinner-table should be of the positively pleasurable Rind ; in proportion as it is not so, " dining out " is a bore and an injury to the body. To be truly hospitable, make your guest feel himself at nome. Let him see that your usual routine is not disturbed : and in proportion as he is conscious of this, will he feel free to come again, throw off resti'aint, and make himself at home ; feel that he is welcome. An infallible recipe for mak- ing a friend's visits few and far between is, to let him see, or l)lainly tell him, how much you are doing out of your daily routine to make him comfortable. Some people torture you through half a meal with details as to the worthlcssness of their servants, the troublesomeness of their children ; or, if they have bodily infirmities, they pile up the agony to a most ex- cruciating extent ; and, instead of dining on a fine turkey, you are dining on tortures. Others revel in the details of the exploits of their children, or in genealogical rehearsals, or something equally contcmptil)le. We once heard a profes- sional gentleman at his table say that he "never did a stroke of work in his life." We looked about his house, and came to the conclusion that his wife and servants could pretty nenr say the same thing. On leaving him, we saAv the well hard by ; and the sum total of conveniences for getting water for the supply of the whole family was — a rope, one end of which TRUE HOSPITALITY. 283 was tied to a tree, the other to a tin pan. A laJy once told us at a dinner-table, with apparent jDridc, that she had not a poor blood-relation in the world, until the last generation, which found them and herself in proximity to the littk; end of nothing — sharpened. Let your guests see and feel that in all you do or think or say, there is truth, earnestness, good-will and courtesy. Let the aim be not merely to spread the table with luxuries, with things early and rare, but let the surroundings be abundant in smiles, in kind-heartedness, in hiirh-bred courtesies, in genial humor, in conversation on sub- jects not only pleasurable in themselves, but in their sugge.-:- tions, and let everything "go off" with that unselfish abandon, with that careless good-nature, that decorous unreserve, which throw around both guest and host the delightful atmosphere of home. If people in the city could thus visit one another, and allow their "country" cousins and acquaintances to visit them, an incalculable benefit would redound to the physical man ; most especially would it have a healthful effect on the minds and bodies, and tempers of our wives and daughters, by that change of food and air, and subject of thought and feeling and conversation, vrhich is essentially necessary to our well- being. Were dinner and tea thus taken from home two or three times a week, by every woman in cities, old and young, it would not only add to the bodily and mental health of the individual, but society would be benefited by that warming up of our sympathies, our humanities, and that gen- eral kindliness of heart which such associations engender, and which so elevate our nature. We arc social beings; "man was not made to be alone." There is a yearning in all hearts for company, for congenial associates; and by its wise indul- gence, men promote manliness, and women cultivate tlio.se charms of character which make them on earth our guard iau angels. 284 TEE POOR MAN'S BOOK. THE POOR MAN'S BOOK. A FEW Sundays ago we heard from our minister the ex- pression, " The Bible is emphatically the poor man's book ; " and on reflection it occurred to us that it was a most truthful sentiment. One of the very last recorded warnings in the Old Testament dispensation is directed to "those that op- press the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless." What could be more beneficent in its aims for the daily labor- er, than the imperative injunction of Moses, " The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night, until the morning.'"' Whit multitudes of hearts of the poor, in a great city like this, sink within them, when, appl3ang for their wages, they are told to wait a few days, or even until to-mor- row ; that it is not " convenient " now. Nor is it convenient, reader, for that sick child at home to wait a day or two for medicine ; nor for a hungry family, without credit, to wait until to-morrow for this day's bread ; — cold and sleet, and sun and storm, never wait. The authoritative expression to laborers, " You must wait a day or two," is equivalent to, in cases not a few, " For a day or two you must abide in hunger and cold." How soothingly to the poor in this world's goods, who make the Bible " their " book, is the assurance that its great Hero " had not a place to lay his head ; " that he could be touched with the feelings of their infirmities, having been tempted in all points as they were ! And as to the physical well-being of the poor, nothing could be more to the purpose than the numerous injunctions in the Scriptures — injunctions of the most specific character as to cleanliness, as to moder- ation, as to temperance, as to the restraint of evil passions and propensities, and as to the cultivation of the finer feelings of our nature — parity of body, purity of mind. Anxiety and privation and want hurry mu'/titudes of poor every year to a premature grave. But thrift and Bible religion go together the world over; and its principles, pure, and unadulterated by human traditions and human exposi tions and commentaries, are the only panacea for the cure of •lisease and want and crime ; hence it is not at all ou*i of the FAMILY ORDER. 285 way in a " Journal of Health " to draw attention to a book which so largely inculcates attention to the three great founda tions of human health and physical well-being — Cleanliness, Temperance, and Industry. FAMILY ORDER. What a delightful thing it is to know, that from cellar to garret, there is not a hiding-place for the smallest piece of dust, or dirt, or rubbish ; that everything about you is in a cleanly condition ; that every piece of clothing is in its usuai and proper place ; that of the multitudinous articles of domestic convenience and necessity, there is not one which is unfit for immediate use, not one that could not have hands laid on it at any hour of the day or night ; to have children and domestics so well drilled, that none of them will fail, in a month, to put a thing in its proper place the moment it ceases to be used ; to have all know that doors are to be closed behind them ; that the feet are to be well wiped on the door-mat ; that nothing is to be stepped over ; that any unsightly thing is to be removed by the first discoverer, by whatever accident placed there ; that every garment be left at night at the same spot, and arranged in such a way, that the first one touched is the first to be put on ; that no one is to be called twice to either meal or to get up in the morning ; that each one study to spare labor to another, soiling as few garments as is compatible with fault- less cleanliness ; to be willing to incommode one's self, rather than impose unnecessary labor on cook, laundress, nurse, seamstress, or housemaid ; that children be self-denying as to one another, iovirg as to parents, deferential as to guests, and courteous towards servants I To have these things requires a wife who is orderly, systematic, and industrious. It requires a great deal of patience to develop them in children and hirelings. Yet it can be done, for there is a house of that sort opposite our ofiice window, and there is another of the same kind opposite that house. Notable wives are they, worthy of a long hunt, and rich without a dollar. It is true, that in cases of the kind which have come under our notice, there 'S 286 FAMILY ORDEU. rather a preponderance of capsicum, a mite more than is com- patible with perfect felicity ; but even gold has some alloy. What a terrible life must that unfortunate husband lead, whose "partner" is so aflcctionate and amiable that she can- not bear to be cross, or to reprove anybody about her ; who is willing to let all have their own way ; who never can see the use of having everything "just so ; " who can never tell where anything is ; whose ])ractice is to fit for use when wanted, on the ground that if it is never wanted, there is so much labor saved ; who never lays a garment away smoothly, because if it has forty thousand wrinkles in it, it can't be stiff, and is there* fore more pliable ; who believes that much exercise is danger ous, and prevents that rotundity and fulness of muscle, of check and limb, which all admire ; who is satisfied in her own mind, that if everything is allowed to take care of itself, there will be no need of her taking care of it, unnecessary labor being a clear loss ; who does not believe in " shams," there- fore will not have the ceilings whitewashed every spring,, because whitewash only covers up the blackness under it ; who says it is wasteful to sweep a carpet, because it wears it out, and if let alone, the dirt will hide itself " underneath ; " who] has always l3een under the impression that dampness in a dwelling is unhealthful, and therefore never has the stairs or] floors scrubbed ; who avers the uselessness of having the! painted wood-work washed, as it takes ofi* the paint, and if it] was not intended that the paint should remain there, it should] not have been put on ; who never sews on a button for herj husband, because, if he has to sew them on himself, he wiUJ be more careful not to twist them off; who does not employ a seamstress, because it is expensive, then sits and sews froral morning till night, until she is laid up for want of exercise, then must have an extra servant for a nurse, which, with the doctor's bill, would pay a seamstress for a j^ear's work ; who sews until midnight, because in the morning ghe alwaj'S feels sleepy, and it takes until breakfast-time to get her sleep out ; who spends half her time in showing the housemaid how to do things, Biddy looking on with great soberness (as she used to do in her " last place," and will do again), because it is a fine thing for the mistress to earn the wages of the maid ; who don't like to go down into the kitchen to "look after FAMILY ORDER. 287 things," because it looks close and mean to the servants ; who hates to lock up things, because it is unfeeling to let the " help " see that you are suspicious, when you have no evidence that they are dishonest ; that it is no use to be so saving of food and fuel, for then scavengers and beggars would have no encouragement to go around and get an honest living ; who will at times exert themselves beyond their ability, because there is work to be done, and they can't help it ; if they are made sick by it, somebody must be sick, or the doc- tors would starve ; who will tease their husbands for this, that, or the other coveted item, because such and such a one has just bought one. " But they live on their income, and we are in moderate circumstances." "I don't believe in denying our- selves for the sake of our children ; let them tug and toil for themselves." Such is the line of argument in many house- holds, the result, in too many cases, being the destruction of family peace, comfort, and enjoyment ; it is thus that many an ambitious, economical, and industrious young husband has been discouraged into idle habits, or driven to spend his " evenings out" in societies, clubs, bar-rooms, and brothels, to end in a drunkard's death, a family unprovided for, in a long widow- hood of toil, and penury, and want, bringing to mother and children that crushing out of all life's hopes, which is the cer- tain precursor of wasting disease and premature death. Let mothers, therefore, as the best means of saving their daughters from wreck and ruin, make it their daily care to bring them up in such a manner, that when they enter practi- cal life, they may be able to perform well the responsible duties of wife, mother, matron. Such a mother honors her- self, lays a broad foundation for the happiness of her chil- dren and her children's children, and is one of society's best benefactors. In view of these facts, we earnestly advise young men to let the character of the mother have a large influence in determin- ing their choice of a wife ; a choice which makes or mars the lot of life, and often moulds the destiny beyond. With a good wife, a man may be comparatively happy under all circum- stances J without one, he cannot be happy in any. 21 288 HUMAN GROWTH, HUMAN GROWTH. From the mechanism of a mite to that of a mau, there are inherent evidences of the same great Creating Mind — great in Wisdom, great in Power, and great in his Beneficence. Trees grow most in summer-time, and so do men. In summer there is warmth, relaxation, opening, budding out — there is growth ; in winter there is the struggle for life — the great manufactories of the system have to do increased work, in order to keep the body warm. It is often so cold in winter, that most of a farmer's time, during the day, is expended in keeping up the fires. It is the same in the human body : extra labor must be done by the multitudinous workmen, whose business it is to keep the wheels of life in motion. In winter we eat a fourth more, and require more sleep, by a full hour, in the twenty-four. So that he who is so sj^stematic as to go to bed at the same hour, and leave it the same hour, the year round, does a violence to his constitution, which will tell undeniably in the direction of debility and premature decay. The " stripling " and the " sapling " spread out luxuriant- ly ; but as the time of the " sear and yellow leaf" comes on, their growth becomes more and more feeble, then ceases, and they die 1 The hair grows fastest in the summer, and in the young. A finger nail is renewed in a hundred and thirty-two days in winter, but requires only a hundred and sixteen of warm weather. And as light hastens vegetation, so it is known that the hair grows faster in the daytime than in the night ; and the beautiful principle holds good as to our moral being. We all expand and grow in the likeness of our Great Father in proportion as charity keeps up the warm summer time in our hearts ; while the sunlight of a life that is pure and true dispels the clouds and darkness of wrong-doing, and creates an atmosphere fit for the breath of angels. POISONOUS MILK. 289 POISONOUS J\IILK. Action is the universal law of animal life. There is not a living thing, whether insect, or bird, or beast, that will not pine and fall away and perish under bodily restraint. Man himself is no exception to the world-wide ordinance. The flesh of no pent-up fowl or brute ought to be eaten, because it is diseased llesh. No wonder that gormands luxuriate on " wild flesh ; " the meat is not only more tender and sweet and juicy, but it is healthy flesh. Many families are considered fortunate who can afibrd to keep a cow in cities and large towns. But, however various may be their food, and abundant, and however clean their stalls, they inevitably become diseased, and within a very short time, too, unless they can walk about in the open air, and crop something from the surface of the earth. Hence the milk of stabled cows becomes putrid much sooner than that of a pastured animal ; for the microscope discovers minute globules of corrupted matter floating through this stabled milk. Just imagine, reader, a few drops of the yellow mat- ter of a sore stirred in among the milk, which, from silver pitchers, you pour into your morning coflee 1 The reason of this is, a confined cow gets little or no lime from the food which she eats. This lime she gets from the green grass itself, and an additional quantity in the shape of dust, which settles on the grass, or sticks to some of the roots of the grass, which sometimes are pulled up in her browsings. If, therefore, a cow must be stabled, a handful of bone-dust should be mixed with her food every day. A cow will very 30on become consumptive if closely confined ; and infants might as well use the milk of diseased mothers as that of diseased cows. These are facts about Avhich, we presume, there can be no dispute ; and we consider ourself as the author of a benefac- tion to any family whom we can induce to use the Condensed Milk, which is nothing more than milk deprived of a great part of its water, and left thicker than the thickest cream. As it leaves no sediment, it is proof, so far, that it is pure. 290 POISONOUS MILK. Two teaspoonfiils of it whiten a cup of tea or coffee as much as half a cupful of boiled milk, thus saving a family that troublesome process. Another advantage is, it will remain perfectly good for weeks, in summer time, if kept in an ice-chest ; and as long in winter, if kept in a dry, airy place, not cold enough to freeze. Thus, by taking it once a week, the daily noise of milkmen, and the trouble of attending to them, is wholly got rid of; and, being brought from the interior of New England, where there are no distilleries to slop-feed the cows, but where it is known to be a farming neighborhood, there is every guarantee that we are using the milk of form-houoe cows. It is afforded now at rather a less cost than common city milk. The only imposition to which we are liable is in the thickness of this milk ; and we hope the proprietors will, in time, sell it by weight. Noio an honest pint weighs just twenty-one ounces. Twenty years hence that weight will bo a fable, and will have dwindled down to about one half. This testimony to the value and the virtues of Condensed JSIilk is borne without the " knowledge or consent " of the pro- prietors, but from the conviction, from Ipng use of it, that it is one of the most beneficent domestic luxuries which we havp ever had occasion to notice. As a nutriment in consumptive diseases, it is, in our esti- mation, more efficient than cod-liver oil ; for we know that consumptives need nutrition above all other things, — the want of it is the thing which prevents recovery. And two other things we know : Pure milk is the only article in nature which has in it all the elements of nutrition. It has the ele- ment of heat, of repair, and of growth ; while cod-liver oil has only the calorific element, and keeps us warm, nothing more ; it gives no enduring strength ; the patient gets heavier, but he gets no stronger, no more long-winded. It is wonder- ful that medical men have not had their attention directed to this most important distinction. As long as a consumptive person is getting no stronger, he is getting no better, however more favorable other symptoms may be growing. Thus it is that cod-liver oil, affording only the elements of beat, can never be a substitute for milk, which gives both heat and repair. SMALL-POX. 291 But are consumptive people to suppose that, by drinking pure milk or cream abundantly, they are going to get well without consulting a doctor? The person Avho attempts it will die very much sooner ; because an}' one living largely on milk will soon become costive, or derange his digestion, and then strength declines. But if an experienced phj'sician can superintend the case, to keep the liver and bowels in proper condition, and will judiciously arrange the exercises of the patient, in a manner best calculated to digest a previous meal, and create a vigorous appetite for another, and do this for three meals a day, then the chances for protracting life in considerable comfort, or eradicating the disease, are manifold greater than by any other method hitherto devised. SMALL-POX. From extended and close observation, the following general deductions seem to be warranted : — 1. Infantile vaccination is an almost perfect safeguard until the fourteei.th year. 2. At the beginning of fourteen the system gradually loses its capability of resistance, until about twenty-one, when many persons become almost as liable to small-pox as if they had not been vaccinated. 3. This liability remains in full force until about forty-two, when the susceptibility begins to decline, and continues for seven years to grow less and less, becoming extinct at about fifty, the period of life when the general revolution of the body begins to take place, during which the system yields to decay, or takes a new lease of life for two or three terms, of seven years each. 4. The great practical use to be made of these statements is: Let every youth be re-vaccinated on entering fourteen. Let several attempts be made, so as to be certain of safety. As the malady is more liable to prevail in cities during winter, special attention is invited to the subject at this time. 292 SLEEP DELICIOUS. SLEEP DELICIOUS. What person of mature years can look on a sleeping child, and not envy the unconscious luxury of that undisturbed re- pose, especially if it is one's own child. It is none other than a pure delight to the parental beholder. A lady correspondent writes, "From utter exhaustion, 1 slept all night like an infant. How ineffably soothing and refreshing was that sleep, three nights since I This poAver of resting, even for one brief night, encouraged me greatly. I feel, even now, wasted as I am, if I could only have refresh- ing sleep, if I could rest, I could get well." The excellent writer was suffering from no specially dan- gerous or critical malady, but from a general derangement of the whole nervous system. The incident is recorded for the purpose of bringing to the reader's mind the duty of habitual thankfulness for any ability he may have to go to bed, to fall asleep within ten minutes, and know nothing more until the gray morning breaks. A deep and warm gratitude should well up constantly from a loving heart to the Giver of all good, for the unfelt bliss of a whole night's sleep. Some persons are put to sleep by having the soles of the feet rubbed gently with a soft, bare hand, when opiates make wild. We know of no better plan, for securing good sleep to persons not specially invalids, than to observe the fol- lowing : — 1. Take a very light supper, not later than six, P. M. 2. Heat the bare feet before a fire, for the last fifteen min- utes before bedtime. 3. Occupy a large room, with a window or door partly open, and the fireplace unclosed. 4. Go to bed at a regular hour. 5. Get up the moment of waking next morning, at what- ever time that may be. 6. Do not, on any account, sleep a moment in the daytime. The result of these observances will be, in all cases where there is not serious disease of body or mind, that the person will, in a few days, go to sleep promptly, and wake the very moment that nature has h:id all the repose needed. QOINQ DOWN, 293 TEETH OF CHILDREN. No woman can be beautiful whose front teeth are defective or lost : such a blemish to a young girl is an irreparable calamity. A truly wise and loving mother would rather dress her daughter for a whole year in linsey-woolsey, and reduce her diet to the plainest kind, — would painfully econo- mize in every direction, — rather than let that daughter's teeth be neglected. Many a tooth is lost in early life which would have done service for an age, if the timely care of a judicious dentist had been given it ; and this at an expense of only two or three dollars. Cases have come to our knowledge where teeth have been preserved for more than a quarter of a cen- tury, and still appear sound, by the skilful plugging. It is a cruelty to neglect the teeth of children. From the time the first teeth begin to be shed, until the tenth year, every tooth ought to be most carefully inspected once in three months, by a conscientious and skilful dentist, and thereafter, at least once in six months ; for it is known that a decay less than the size of a pin's head will be arrested for a lifetime by a well-placed plug ; but if delayed a very few months, the tooth will be irrecoverably lost. GOING DOWN. A oi^ERGYiMAN wrote to US, somc time since, to know if it would not be better to give up preaching, so as to rest his throat and give it a chance to get well, he meanwhile taking the editorship of a religious newspaper. As well may a man become able to run a long distance without getting out of breath, by not running at all, as one suffering from an ordi- nary throat afiection may expect to recover the power of his voice by the entire disuse of his vocal organs. Besides, we have very often noticed that when clergymen, for any cause, sufiicient or not, lay aside the gown, they seldom get fully into the traces again. It is infinitely easier to go dowu to a 294 TOMATOES AND MELONS. worldly calling thau to climb up to a higher and holier one. Entering the busy arena of life for money has a contaminating effect on the mind of any man Avho has been once a clergy- man ; and the spot is seldom washed out. It is, at all events, a most dangerous experiment, and ought not to be lightly made. Sometimes this intermission is a providential means of purification, and a preparation for wider and larger in- fluences ; but it is not safe for any one to assume to himself such a supposition. So our voice was against the experi- ment ; and in reply to some of our arguments, he states, " You speak the truth, as to at least some religious editors. The Lord save me from filling the office of a pious, influential blackguard. Still I might fall into the same temptation." TOMATOES AND MELONS. Use tomatoes largely, both at breakfast and dinner ; take them hot or cold, cooked or raw, with vinegar or without vinegar, fried in sugar and butter, or stewed with salt and pepper. Their healthful properties consist in their being nutritious, easily digested, and promotive of that daily, regular action of the system, without which health is impos- sible. Their anti-constipating quality is in the seeds : on the same principle that grapes, raisins, jlnd white mustard-seed have stood high in this respect, the attrition of the seeds on the mucous surface of the alimentary canal exciting its peri- staltic motion, thus causing regular daily action. As to watermelons, they are the only things we know which can be eaten with impunity, until we cannot swallow any more. The best time for taking them is about eleven o'clock in the morning, and about four in the afternoon. They are not safe for very young children; the seeds are especially injurious to them. FRUIT SEASON. 21)5 FRUIT SEASON. As we are "writing, lovely June has come, and the delicious strawberry will soon be here, to be followed in succession by other berries and fruits, until the fall, showing at once the wisdom and beneficence of our common Father. How to use them wisely, and thus derive the fullest advantage from that wise beneficence, it is worth while to know. The earlier in the day fruits are eaten the better : they should be ripe, fresh, and perfect, and eaten in their natural state, with the impor- tant advantage of its being almost impossible to take too many ; their healthful qualities depend on their ripe acidity ; but if sweetened with sugar, the acidity is not only neutral- ized, but the stomach is tempted to receive more than it is possible to digest, and if cream is taken with them, the labor of digestion is increased : hence the fearful attacks of cholera morbus, which sometimes follow the free use of fruits and hemes with sugar and cream. No liquid of any description should be drank within an hour after eating fruits, nor should anything else be eaten within two or three hours after ; thus, time being allowed for them to pass out of the stomach, the system derives from them all their enlivening, cooling, and opening influences. The great rule is, eat fruits and berries while fresh, ripe, and perfect, in their natural state, without eating or drinking any- thing for at least two hours afterwards. With these restric- tions, fruits and berries may be eaten in moderation during any hour of the day, and without getting tired of them, or ceasing to be benefited by them during the whole season. It is a great waste of lusciousness that fruits and berries, in their natural state, are not made the sole dessert at our meals for three fourths of the year ; human enjoyment and health, and even life, would be promoted by it. 296 SPRAINS. SPRAINS. Sprains or strains of the joints are very painful, and more tedious of recovery than a broken bone. What we call flesh, is muscle; every muscle tapers down to a kind of string, which we call cord or sinew. The muscle is above the joint, and the sinewy part is below it, or vice versa ; and the action is much like that of a string over a pulley. When the ankle, for example, is " sprained," the cord, tendon, or ligament (all mean the same thing) is torn, in part or whole, either in its body, or from its attachment to the bone, and inflamma- tion — that is, a rush of blood to the spot — takes place as instantly as in case of a cut on the finger. Why ? For two reasons. Some blood-vessels are ruptured, and very natural- ly pour out their contents ; and second, by an infallible phys- iological law, an additional supply of blood is sent to the part, to repair the damages, — to glue, to make grow togeth- er, the torn parts. From this double supply of blood, the parts are overflowed, as it were, and push out, causing what we call " swelling," — an accumulation of dead blood, so to speak. But dead blood cannot repair an injury. Two things, then, are to be done, to get rid of it, and to allow the parts to grow together. But if the finger be cut, it never will heal sa long as the wound is pressed apart every half hour, nor will a torn tendon grow together, if it is stretched upon by the ceaseless movement of a joint; therefore, the first and indispensable step, in every case of sprain, is perfect quietude of the part ; a single bend of the joint will retard what nature has been hours in mending. It is in this way that persons with sprained ankles are many months in getting well. In cases of sprain, then, children who cannot be kept still, should be kept in bed, and so with many grown persons. The swelling can be got rid of in several ways ; by a bandage, which, in all cases of sprain, should be applied by a skilful physician. — otherwise, mortification and loss of limb may result. A bandage thus applied keeps the joint still, keeps an excess of blood from coming to the part, and by its pressure, causes an absorption of extra blood or other extra- neous matter. PATENT MEDICINES. 297 Another mode of getting rid of the swelling is, to let cold water run on the part injured for hours ; this carries away the heat, and the more volatile parts of extraneous matter already there, and, hy cooling the parts, prevents an excess of blood being attracted to the place : so that, in reality, a l)andage and a stream of cold water cure sprains in the same manner essentially, by a beautifully acting physiological law. The linowledge of these principles should be treasured up in every mind, as, in cases where a physician cannot be prompt- ly had, incalculable pain and permanent damage may be hap- pily avoided. PATENT MEDICINES. The editor of the "Letter Box" says, that within a year he " has taken pains to count the different medicinal prepara- tions offered for sale for the cure of human ailments, and that they number over ^/?/1;ee?i hundred; and that, among all that are liquid, there is not one which does not contain either opium or alcohol." Still newspapers, secular and religious, advertise these without compunction, when they would be horrified to see in their columns, even by mistake, an adver- tisement to sell "pure liquors " by the glass or barrel. Per- haps conscience is quieted in this way : " Pure liquors are certainly mischievous ; but if they are rendered impure l)y putting medicine into them, they may do some good." Bui yet these hair-splitting gentlemen launch out their severest anathemas against the " unprincipled men who fabricate wines, and brandies, beers, and other forms of alcohol." Every liquid patent medicine is nothing more or less than disguised alcohol or opium. Fanatical men exclude wine from the communion-table; so teetotal are they, that a drop is not admissible under any ordinary circumstances ; and yet they adv^ertise, and purchase, and swallow, and commend what is essentially alcohol, only it is called medicine — somebodj^'s "bitters " or "tonic." If alcohol is essentially pernicious, — poisonous, — as is claimed by temperance men, it is not the less so for being simply disguised by some other name or ingredient. If we hope for victory we must be consistent , 2i)8 LEAD POISON. and it is naturally considered that consistency — a firm ad- herence to solid principles — should commence with the reli- gious press, and with the respectable secular newspapers, and let tonics, bitters, renovators, schnapps, made brandy, beastl}/ beers, and rot-gut whiskey be considered as in the same category. LEAD POISON. All who use water, conducted into their dwellings by leaden pipes, are interested in the quest on, whether the lead, under any circumstances, can impregnate the water with poison? It is certainly so. No argument, beyond that of often-ascertained facts, is necessary to prove this. But the water delivered to one family will cause a slow, wasting, and latal disease, while the water from the same sources, intro- duced into the next house, is used for years without any ap- preciable ill results. The simple reason is, that in the fatal case, the jlow of water is obstructed, either by a too sudden bend in the pipe, or by a pebble or other indestructible im- pediment. Standing water ivill corrode lead. Simple damp- ness will corrode lead, and bring out its poisonous qualities. Obstructions to a flowing stream of water will arrest any par- ticles in that water which are not the pure water itself: those particles are usually of vegetable origin ; and as soon as a small portion of them are collected in any part of the pipe, or rather arrested by the obstacle, destructive de composition begins ; and the gases escaping in consequence of this process act upon the lead, and make it poisonous. Every man, therefore, who builds a home for himself, should understand that, if it is to be supplied with water by leaden pipes, his life, and that of all his, depends on the fidelity of the plumber ; and as plumbers trust their work to apprentice- boys and uninterested journeymen, the owner should watch the laying of every foot of pipe, and not allow an inch of it to be put down during his absence ; the points to which he should bend his most fixed attention are, — First. Let the pipe be laid as straight as possible. Second. Let every joint be made perfectly smooth. WEAK EYES. 291) Third. See to it that not an atom of anything be left inside the pipe which would obstruct the smallest particle of any substance, Avhcthcr it be leaf, or wood, or grass, or hair, or string, or worm, or insect, or anything else. We believe the only thing in nature which docs not cor. rode, or diminish in bulk or lustre, by exposure to dampness or earth, is glass. It is the most durable thing in the mii- verse ; it can be manufactured into any shape, and is perfect as a water conduit ; the insuperable obstacle being, that it cannot be spliced or joined perfectly. We notice, in that invaluable paper, the Scientific American^ that this difficulty is at last claimed, by patent, to be overcome. If so, another foot of lead pipe should never be laid for the purpose of giving water to be drunk or used for cooking. Meanwhile, as long as it is certain that still water corrodes lead, the most unthinking person will draw the practical inference, that the water from the hydrant should be allowed to run off for the first five or ten seconds after turning the faucet to get a supply for drinking or eating. WEAI^ EYES. bOME persons are unable to read much, because there is a constant efibrt to clear away something by winking the eyes ; at other times they water, and thus interfere with their use- ful employment. Under such circumstances, do not hurrj' ofi" to an oculist, nor go to poulticing your eyes, nor use any of the hundred and one cures which reckless and presumptu- ous ignorance will advise with wonderful volubility and confi dence. In many instances, the difficulty may be controlled by darkening the room, letting only a small amount of light fall upon the page or sewing, — just enough to enable you to (see distinctly without straining. Let the light come in rafher from behind, and to one side. The habit of reading and sewing by artificial light is ruin- ous to many eyes, and those who persist in it will bitterly re- gret it in after years. 300 DIGESTION. DIGESTION. Digestion is that process which extracts from our food the elements of growth, repair, and sustenance. If the digestion is imperfect, the health of the body becomes imperfect in a few hours ; and if by any means digestion ceases altogether soon after a hearty meal, a man will certainly die within a few hours, and sometimes almost as suddenly as if a bullet were shot through his heart. Any great emotion of passion or pleasure, soon after eating, causes death ; hence, no highly exciting or momentous news should be communicated, even to the healthiest, let alone the sick and the feeble, immediately after a full repa,3t. Sometimes the wisest of us will eat too much ; for an occa- bional indiscretion of this kind, two or three teaspoon fuls of strong vinegar afford relief to some persons, but aggravate the evil in a few. The better plan is, to take a long leisure walk in the open air, with a pleasant associate. Keep on walking until entire relief is experienced, and eat no more of anything until next morning, so as to allow the overtaxed stomach to recover its tone, vigor, and elasticity. If we become conscious of a surfeit after night, and from that or any other cause a walk is impracticable, a good sub- stitute is found in standing erect with the clothing removed, except the stockings, mouth closed, and rubbing the region of the stomach, and for a foot around it, with the open hand. Very great relief is often afforded, even in serious cases, within half an hour, by a vigorous manipulation of this sort, taking for breakfast, next morning, a cup of some kind of hot drink and a single piece of dry bread ; and for dinner, a bowl of soup with bread-crust, and nothing else for that day. The stomach should always be allowed extra rest after over- work. PERFUMING SICK ROOMS, 301 PERFUMING SICK ROOMS. Various things have been recommended : such as the sprinkling of sugar on burning coals, the odor of roasted coflee, sliced onions, and the like. These things are worse than useless. The odor of the sick-chamber is merely over- powered, it is neither removed nor destroyed ; and, by the additional odor of the sugar or coffee, each breath of air becomes more solid, by the displacement of its more yielding, vital qualities — as the same point of space cannot be oc- cupied by a particle of odor and a particle of oxygen at the same time. The odoriferous atom being more material than an atom of oxygen, the latter yields, gives way to the former, so that the expedient is only apparently beneficial ; it may be grateful to a visitor, but it is positively hurtful to the invalid. There are some articles which, if dampened with water, absolutely absorb bad odors, such as unslacked lime, or pulverized charcoal. . Half a pound or less of copperas, dissolved in water, and thrown in a privy, absorbs the odors in a few moments, by its strong attractive affinity for the sulphuretted hydrogen. Still the only safe, certain, and absolutely perfect deodorizer, is a thorough ventilation of the chamber of the sick, and it is a humanity to accomplish it. It should be the study of every nurse and every physician, during every hour of attendance, to promote, in all possible ways, a constant moderate change of atmosphere. This is easily done in fire-time of the year, by keeping the grate or fireplace open, and occasionally opening a window or door opposite. In the summer-time, the most simple and effectual method is to build a fire of light materials in the fireplace, ^evo'al times during the day, oftener during the night hours, with the door open all the time ; this will inevitably give a gentle circulation, by which sick odors will be driven up the chimney, to be replaced by the fresh out-door air. It is not meant that a fire should be kept burning all the time, of a hot summer's day; but to have a small blaze from very light materials, which will burn out in half an hour. The reason for this is, that in the whole circuit of nature the most 22 302 HAIR SPECIFICS. efficient of all remedial means, in every disease, and without which there can be no perfect recovery, is an abundant and constant supply of a pure, fresh air from without. HAIR SPECIFICS. Let them alone. The whole of them are a cheat. There is not one single exception under the sun. A "specific" in medicine, is a term which implies certainty of effect. Hair falls out from the want of nutriment. It dies, just as a blade of ffrass dies in a soil where there is no moisture. Thi? want of nutriment is functional or organic. The mechanism which supplies it, the apparatus, is there to make it : but it is out of order, and makes it imperfectly : so the hair being imperfectly nourished, is dry, scant, or a mere furze, according to the decree of the defective nourishment — that is " functional " baldness, and can be remedied radically and permanently in only one way, and that is, by taking means to improve the general health. " Organic " baldness is when the defect of nutriment arises from the destruction of the apparatus which made it : there is no machine there. Under such circumstances, nothing short of the power which made man first, can make that hair grow again. When the scalp is in any part bare of hair, and shiny, or glistening, that is organic baldness, and there is no remedy. If there is not that shining glistening appearance, but a multi- tude of very small hairs, causing a " furziness " over the scalp, that is functional baldness ; and two things are to be done. Keep the scalp clean with soap-suds — that is a " balm of a thousand flowers," flavored ; and more specially, and prin- cipally, seek to improve your general health, by eating plain, substantial food, at three regular times a day, and by spending three or four hours, between meals, in moderate exercise in th« open air, in some engrossing employment. As to men, we say, when the hair begins to fall out, the best plan is, to have it cut short, give it a good brushing with d moderately stiflT brush while the hair is dry, then wash it COMFOBT. 303 well with warm soap-suds, then rub into the scalp, about the roots of the hair, a little bay rum, or brandy, or camphor- water. Do these things twice a month ; but the brushing of the scalp may be profitably done twice a week. Dampen the hair with water every time the toilet is made. Nothing ever made is better for the hair than pure soft water, if the pcalp ia kept clean in the way we have named. The use of oils, or pomatums, or grease of bears, pigs, geese, or anything else, is ruinous to the hair of man or woman. We consider it a tilthy practice, almost universal though it be, for it gathers dust and dirt, and soils whatever it touches. Nothing but pure soft water should ever bo allowed on the heads of our children. It is a different practice that robs our women of their most beautiful ornament, long before their prime. The hair of our daughters should be kept ■within two inches, until their twelfth year. COMFORT The great end and aim of the mass of mankind is, to get money enough ahead to make them " comfortable ; " and yet a moment's reflection will convince us that money can never purchase " comfort " — only the means of it. A man may be "comfortable " without a dollar; but to be so, he must have the right disposition, that is, a heart and a mind in the right place. There are some persons who are livelj'-, and cheerful, and good-natured, kind and forbearing, in a state of poverty which leans upon the toil of to-day for to-night's supper and the morning's breakfast. Such a disposition would exhibit the same loving qualities in a palace or on a throne^ ^ ,— -^ Every day we meet with persons, who in their families are cross, ill-natured, dissatisfied, finding fault with everybody and everything, whose first greeting in the breakfast-room is a complaint, whose conversation seldom fails to end in an enumeration of difficulties and hardships, whose last word at flight is an angry growl. If you can get such persons to rea- son on the subject, they will acknowledge that there is some "want " at the bottom of it ; the "want " of a better house, a 304 COMFORT. finer dress, a more handsome equipage, a more dutiful child, a more provident husband, a more cleanly, or systematic, or domestic wife. At one time it is a "wretched cook" which stands between them and the sun ; or a lazy house-servant, or an impertinent carriage-driver. The " want " of more money than Providence has thought proper to bestow, will be found to embrace all these things. Such persons may feel assured that people who cannot make themselves really comfortable in any one set of ordinary circumstances, would not be so under any other. A man who has a canker eating out his heart, will carry it with him wherever he goes ; and if it be a spiritual canker, whether of envy, habitual discontent, un« bridled ill-nature, it would go with the gold, and rust out all its brightness. Whatever a man is to-day with a last dollar, he will be radically, essentially, to-morrow with millions, un- less the heart is changed. Stop, reader ; that is not the whole truth, for the whole truth has something of the terrible in it. Whatever of an undesirable disposition a man has to-day without money, he will have to-morrow to an exaggerated extent, unless the heart be changed : the miser will become more miserly ; the drunkard, more drunken ; the debauchee, more debauched ; the fretful, still more complaining. Hence, the striking wisdom of the Scripture injunction, that all our ambitions should begin with this : " Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness ; " that is to say, if you are not comfortable, not happy now, under the circumstances which surround you, aud wish to be more comfortable, more happy, your first step should be to seek a change of heart, of disposi- tion, and then the other things will follow — without the greater wealth 1 And having the moral comfort, bodily com- fort, bodily health will follow apace, to the extent of your using rational means. Bodily comfort, or health, and mental comfort, have on one another the most powerful reactions; neither can be perfect without the other, at least, approx- imates to it ; in short, cultivate health and a good heart ; for with these you may be " comfortable " without a farthing ; (vithout them, never ! — although you may possess millions I BATING BY RULE. 305 EATING BY RULE. Scientific investigation assures us, that "the amouut of Qourishmeut required by an animal for its support must be in a direct ratio with the quantity of oxygen taken into tho system ; " w-hich, being put into homely English, means, that as our supply of oxygen comes from the air we breathe, it fol- lows, that the more pure air we inhale, the more oxygen we consume ; it then follows, necessarily, as out-door air is tho purest, that is, has most oxygen in it, the more we breathe of that out-door air, the more nourishment do we require ; and the more nourishmeut a man requires, the better appetite he has : hence, to get a natural appetite, a man must go out of doors ; and as it is very tiresome to be out of doors, unless one is doing something, and, as if we do something, it had better be of some account, therefore, whoever wants to whet up his appetite, had better spend his time out of doors, doing something useful. A very j)erspiccKious ratiocination! All this seems very x'ational and very right. Then why do we not act up to it? Why pursue the very opposite course, and instead of going out of doors when we feel dull, and stupid, and cross, and desponding, loll about the house, as blue as indigo, with not a word or smile for anybody? Having no appetite, we bethink ourselves of "tonics." The reckless take wine, or brandy, or vulgar beer; the con- scientious do worse, and take physic, calling it " bitters," tansy, dogwood, quinine, and such " simple things," especially the quinine, which has helped to invalid and kill more people than would make a monument sky high. Well, what is the result of these " tonics "? They make us feel better — for a while — give us an appetite for more than we can digest, and being imperfectly digested, the blood which it makes is not only imperfect as to quality, it is t(;o great in quantity ; but it is in the body, and must crowd itself somewhere, always selecting the weaker part, M'hich, in most cases, is the head ! — very natural that ; and there is head- ache, dulness — never was much brightness in that head any- how — in fact, it amounts to stupidity, and such persons 306 DISINFECTANTS. being naturally stupid, and making themselves artificial!}'- so» they have a double right to the title : as the youth had to a diploma, who graduated at two colleges, and became, as the calf did which sucked two cows, a very great calf! Therefore, never eat by rule. Never eat at one meal as much as you did at the corresponding one the day before , simply because that was your usual quantity ; but eat accord • ing to your appetite. If you have no appetite, eat nothing until you do. If you are in a hurry for that appetite, and time is valuable to you, do not attempt to whet it up by stimulating food, by exciting drinks, or forcing tonics ; but bring it about in a natural way, by moderate and continuous exercise in the open air, in something that is interesting, exciting, and, in itself, useful. Violent spasmodic exercise is injurious, and even dangerous to sedentary persons ; hence we are opposed to gymnasiums, unless superintended by intelligent men, practical physiologists. Let it be remem- bered, as a truth which cannot be denied, that a given amount of violent exercise, taken within an hour, will do many times the good if scattered continuously over a space of five hours, without any of the danger that pertains to the former, es- pecially as to feeble persons. All exercise carried to severe fatigue is an injury ; better have taken none. DISINFECTANTS. Some one says that noxious effluvia are absorbed in an in- credibly short space of time, if two or three onions are cut in thin slices and put on a plate, to be renewed every six hours. This is just as true as that the smarting from the scratch of a pin becomes instantaneously unfelt if the person is knocked down. The only safo, healthful, and eft'ectual method of keeping a sick-room "sweet" is, to keep everything scrupu- lously dry and clean. Instantly remove every article of clothing or bedding which has an atom of dampness or moisture upon it ; do not allow even pure water to stand a moment in the apartment ; let the fireplace be always kept open, with a frequent and free admission of the pure and the EARLY RISING. 30 < fresh air from out-doors. This should be done every two or three hours during the twenty-four. It is the pure air that eick people want, not an atmosphere loaded with the fumes of onions ; for in a pint of air they displace just as many par- ticles of fresh air as would burnt sugar, cologne-water, or tlio sulphuretted hydrogen of the privy ; for, be it remembered, it is not the odor which does the mischief, so much as the deficiency of nutritious particles of the atmosphere which it takes the place of. We should rather think that every addi- tional odoriferous article introduced into a sick-room only added to the difficulty, even though it were the perfumes from " Araby the blest." The greatest humanity we can show to the sick is, to secure to them the most important remedies ever known, to wit, quietness, cleanliness, and pure air. These alone would cure three fourths of all our diseases ; but we will not use them ; yet they are everywhere attain- able, and cost nothing but a little trouble. With the same physicians and the same medicines, the mortality of the British army in the Crimea was diminished one half, through the influence of Florence Nightingale in the procurement of greater comfort and cleanliness among the sick. EARLY RISING. Health and long life are almost universally associatea with early rising; and we are pointed to countless old people, ns evidence of its good effects on the general system. Can any of our readers, on the spur of the moment, give a good and conclusive reason why health should be attributed to this nabit ? We know that old people get up early ; but it is simply because they can't sleep. Moderate old age does not require much sleep ; hence, in the aged, early rising is a necessity, or a convenience, and is not a cause of health in itself. There is a large class of early risers — very early risers — who may be truly said not to have a day's health in a year, — the thirsty folk, for example, who drink liquor until midnight, and rise early to get more. One of our earliest recollections is that of "old soakers" makinir theii 308 EABLY BISING. "devious way" to the grog-shop or the tavern bar-room, before sunrise, for their morning grog. Early rising, to be beneficial, must have two concomitants, — to retire early, and, on rising, to be properly employed. One of the most eminent divines in this country rose by daylight for many years, and at the end of that time became an invalid ; has travelled the world over for health, and has never regained it, nor ever will. It is rather an early retiring that does the good, by keeping people out of those mischievous prac- tices which darkness favors, and which need not here be more particularly referred to. Another important advantage of retiring early is, that the intense stillness of midnight and the early morning hours favors that unbroken repose which is the all-powerful reno- vator of the tired system. Without, then, the accompaniment of retiring early, "early rising" is worse than useless, and is positively mischievous. Every person should be allowed to " have his sleep out," otherwise the duties of the day cannot be properly performed, will be necessarily slighted, even by the most conscientious. To all young persons, to students, to the sedentary, and to invalids, the fullest sleep that the system will take, without artiticial means, is the balm of life ; without it there can be no restoration to health and activity again. Never wake up the sick or infirm, or young children, of a morning. It is a barbarity. Let them wake of themselves ; let the care rather be to establish an hour for retiring, so early, that their fullest sleep may be out before sunrise. Another item of very great importance is, do not hurry up the young and the weakly. It is no advantage to pull them out of bed as soon as their eyes are open ; nor is it best for the sUidious, or even for the well, who have passed an unusually fatiguing day, to jump out of bed the moment they wake up ; let them remain without going to sleep again, until ■'.he sense of weariness passes from the limbs. Nature ubhors two things, — violence and a vacuum. The sun does not break out at once mto the glare of the meridian. The diurnal flowers unfold themselves by slow degrees ; nor fleet- est beast nor sprightliest bird leaps at once from its resting- place. By all of which we mean to say that, as no physio- STAMMERING. 309 logical truth is more demonstrable than that the brain, and with it the whole nervous system, is recuperated by sleep, it is of the first importance, as to the well-being of the human system, that it have its fullest measure of it ; and to that end, the habit of retiring to bed early should be made imperative on all children, and no ordinary event should be allowed to interfere with it. Its moral healthfulness is not less impor- tant than its physical. Many a young man, many a young woman, has made the first step towards degradation, and crime, and disease after ten o'clock at night : at which hour, the year round, the old, the middle-aged, and the young should be in bed; and then the "early rising" will take care of itself, with the incalculable accompaniment of a fully-rested body and a renovated brain. We repeat it, there is neither wisdom, nor safety, nor health in early rising, in itself; but there is all of them in the persistent practice of retiring to bed at an early hour, winter and summer. STAMMERING. Stammering is sometimes the result of habit or careless- ness ; at others it succeeds a long attack of sickness. It is a kind of St. Vitus's Dance of the tongue. Not unfrequently it is brought on by the harsh treatment or inveterate ill-nature of parents, teachers, or superiors, in habitually meeting those under them with threateniugs, scolding, or fault-finding. We have met before now with a miserable class of human, cir rather inhuman, beings, who scarcely ever enter a room, where are children, or servants, or dependants, without the expression of some disapprobation or complaint. This has very naturally the efiect to confuse and intimidate a child, especially one of a highly nervous or excitable temperament ; while steadiness find composure are the very antipodes of stuttering, which is essentially the throwing out too much uervous power, sending too much nervous influence to the muscles which are employed in speaking ; the result is, a want of proper control of those muscles. Hence, whatever diminishes the nervous supply to those parts, vrhatever directs 310 S TAMMERING. the nervous flow to some other part of the body, dhiiinishes the stammering in the same proportion. This is the princi- ple of cure in all cases, although we have never seen a refer- ence to it by any writer. Some twenty years ago the New York world was struck with dumb amazement at the instan- taneous remedy for stammering, which was, thrusting a knitting-needle through the tongue. But it cured only until the tongue got well, because, while the tongue was sore from the barbarous operation, the extra nervous energy was ex- pended in the instinctive effort to refrain from any other than a careful movement of the tongue. The expedient of Demosthenes, in speaking with little pebbles in his mouth, was in the same direction. One of the most inveterate stammerers in London became possessed Avith a fancy that he would make a good actor. On his first appearance the theatre was crowded, in curiosity. During the whole play he did not mispronounce a single word, did not fail to utter distinctly a single syllabic ; because the mind was engaged in another effort, was excited in another direction, the extra nervous power found vent in another outlet ; precisely as in the more recently alleged accidental discovery of a lady, that reading or speaking in a whisper is an instantaneous remedy ; because it requires an effort to whisper, the mind's attention is directed to the act of whispering, and not to the distinct- ness of utterance. We will venture the assertion that no man ever stammered in "popping the question," nor a young lady halt out " Y-ye-ye-yes." Instinct itself prompts a cure. After a long illness from an accident, our Robert, aged three years, suddenly began to stammer most vexatiously. His whole system was in a debilitated and irritable condition. He had never come in contact with a stammerer ; and be- lieving that scolding, or threats, or ridicule, would only serve to fix the habit for life, — which would have been a great misfortune, — we made an effort, without apparent effort, to divert his attention to some other thing than the stammering. For example, when he asked for anything, he was told, " Now, if you ask for it plainly, you shall have it ; " and, before we were aware of it, we found him, whenever he attempted to ask for anything, striking his little hand against his thigh, as he stood before us, at the enunciation of every NIOHT AIR. 311 syllable ; and, by encouragement, we found the habit broken up in a few months. As it is a lifelong calamity to have a son or daughter grow up a stutterer, we trust these hints may be turned to practical account by those whom it may concern. Anything else done at the time of uttering each syllable divides the attention, gives two outlets to the extra nervous flow, and the remedy is complete ; make a mark, pull a string, turn a leaf, stamp the foot — any one of them will effect a cure m a reasonable time. NIGHT AXE. During the months of September and October, throughout the United States, wherever there are chills, and fever and ague, intermittents, or the more deadly forms of fever, it is a pernicious, and even dangerous practice, to sleep with the outer doors or windows open ; because miasm, marsh ema- nations, the product of decaying vegetation, — all of which are different terms expressing the same thing, — is made so light by heat, that it ascends at once towards the upper por- tion of atmospheric space, and is not breathed during the heat of the day ; but the cool nights of the fall of the year condense it, make it heavy, and it settles on the ground, is breathed into the lungs, incorporated into the blood ; and if in its concentrated form, as in certain localities near Rome, it causes sickness and death within a few hours. The plagues which devastated eastern countries, in earlier ages, were caused by the concentrated emanations from marshy locali- ties, or districts of decaying vegetation ; and the common observation of the higher class of people was, that those who occupied the upper stories, not even coming down stairs for market supplies, but drew them up by ropes attached to bas- kets, had entire immunity from disease, for two reasons : the higher the abode, the less compact is the deadly atmosphere ; besides, the higher rooms in a house, in summer, are the warmer ones, and the miasm less concentrated. The lower rooms are colder, making the air more dense. So, by keep- ing all outer doors and windows closed, especially the lower 312 STUDENT LONGEVITY. ones, the building is less cool and comfortable, but it ex- cludes the infectious air, while its warmth sends what enters through the crevices immediately to the ceilings of the rooms, where it congregates, and is not breathed* hence is it thaf men who entered the bar-room and dining-saloons of the National Hotel, remaining but a few brief hours, were at- tacked with the National Hotel disease, while ladies who occupied upper rooms, where constant fires were burning, escaped attack, although remaining in the house for weeks at a time. It was for the same reason that Dr. Rush was accus- tomed to advise families, in the summer time, not being able to leave the city, to cause their younger children especially to spend their time above stairs. We have spent a lifetime om'selves in the West and extreme South, and know in our own person, and as to those who had firmness to follow our recommendation, that whole families will escape all the forms of fall fevers who will have bright fires kindled at sunrise and sunset in the family room. But it is too plain a prescrip- tion to secure observance in more than one family in ten thousand. After the third frost, and until the fall of the next year, it is an important means of health for persons to sleep with an outer door or window partly open, having the bed in such a position as to be protected from a draught of air. We advise that no person should go to work or take exercise in the morning on an empty stomach ; but if it is stimulated to action by a cup of coflfee, or a crust of bread, or apple, or orange, exercise can be taken, not only with impunity, but to high advantage in all chill and fever localities. STUDENT LONGEVITY. Students are not necessarily short-lived. There is nothing in the active exercise of the brain which impairs the constitu- tion, or lessens the duration of existence. Newton died at the age of eighty-five ; Roger Bacon reached his eightieth year ; and his namesake, the Lord High Chancellor of Eng- land, of whom it was said that, " as a man of genius and a philosopher, no language can be too lofty for his praise," was STUDENT LONGEVITY. 313 in his sixty-sixth year when ho closed his eyes ; and but for his extravagant habits, might easily have lived a quarter of a century longer ; Copernicus was seventy. These are amon" the very greatest names in science, philosophy, and law, of (he era preceding our own; and of the great minds of the l)rcseut generation which dazzle the eye b}'- the splendor of (heir shining, by the extent of their attainments, or the beauty of their characters, and often both, we might name, in medicine, Charles Caldwell, of Kentucky, aged eighty-one ; in genius and learning, Eliphalet Nott, now in his eighty-sixth year ; in natural philosophy. Professor Silliman, but six years younger. In his ninetieth year, the great Humboldt was not conscious of any abatement of mental power, and his splendia mind still commanded the veneration of two hemispheres. The greatest students among our political men were Benton, at seventy-five ; and John Quincy Adams, who died with his harness on, at the age of fourscore years. Hamel, one of the greatest scientific minds of Russia, visited Valentia, " not far from ninety," to wonder and admire, as he gazed at the ac- complishment of the age, — the Atlantic Cable. Then com- ing down to a broad fact, here at home among ourselves, within one year, of thirty graduates of Harvard College dying, more than one half were over seventy years ; nearly a quarter were over eighty ; and one died at the age of ninety- three. Durini^ the same year, of one half the graduates of old Yale who have passed to fields of exploration be3'ond the Kiver of Death, and to them all new, one half had passed the limits of threescore years and ten. When it is taken into account, that of all the modern names given, it is known that a temperate life has been a peculiarity, almost to a proverb, — temperate as to drinking, and as to eating — almost abste- mious, — we are impelled to the conclusion, that a man who is temperate as to the habits of his life, may study never so hard, and not only " endure to the end " of the usual limit of "threescore years and ten," but even at that age may possess a mind " undimmed by the flight of years." On the other hand, when we see a great mind go out in the night of the grave at forty or fifty, or any short of threescore, that mind should at least inquire, and leave an answer as a beacon-light for after voyagers. Do I die thus early " in the course of 314 MEDICAL PRINCIPLES. nature," or has it come thus by mine own hand, in that 1 have not, as I ought to have done, striven against the pas- sions and appetites of a lower nature ? To die at the maturi- ty of a great intellect, upon the very entrance of fields of view, just expanding to the enraptured gaze of the beholder, — the loss to himself of a pure delight how immeasurable ! and to the world, figures may not compute it. Doubtless the dial of " progress " has been put back many a degree in just such a way as this. Reader, health is a duty to yourself and the age you live in. The gi-eater your intelligence, the greater your dereliction ; and for which you will have to ac- count at the Judgment. To know what health is, and how to preserve it, is the great object of our writings ; and the regret is, that it is a ki»id of knowledge almost entirely neglected by high and low, rich and poor together, until a time in life too late to make its acquisition of any great practical advantage — a knowledge which the fewest of the few are wise enough to acquire in early life. None but an Adams, a Nott, a Benton, a Humboldt in embryo, is com- petent to a wisdom like this. MEDICAL PRINCIPLES. 'rnERE are certain general principles in medicine, few and simple, easily understood, and remembered without difficul- ty ; but instead of mastering these, the masses prefer to lum- ber up their memories with innumerable, and often ridiculous applications of them. We name one at this time. Poultices are of very extended application ; that of a live chicken cut open and applied instantly, is ?3elieved by some to possess extraordinaij' virtue ; the entrails of a frog are in great esteem by others ; but how a frog is to be obtained in winter, is not explained ; while a live chicken would be rath- er an expensive application in a city. Scraped potatoes are advised by some as possessing very great " drawing " powers. Dogs get well of their wounds without poultices. Dogs were the doctors who attended Lazarus ; and what is more than can be said of some modern doctors, they treated him as they INSTINCT OF APPETITE. 317 simple, and safe — to say nothing of the advantage it has over many others, that it may be so readily remoistened, and thus cleaned oflf. INSTINCT OF APPETITE. Observant formers know that one kind of grain or seed, or phmt, will flourish luxuriantly in a particular field, while another in that same field will grow feebly, and fail to arrive at perfection ; it is because the soil in the former instance contains an clement which nourishes the thriving plant, an J in the latter case it is deficient in that clement which is the life of the sickly growth, and yet there is nothing amiss in the soil or in the seed — simply a want of adaptation. So, in the case of a mother and her new-born child ; both may be in ordinary good health, and yet the child dwindles and dies, not because there is essential disease in either, but because there is want of mutual adaptation. In a few days there may be a change, and all is right. But it is interesting to remark the wisdom of Omnipotence in implanting an instinct for the child's safety, and it refuses to take the breast; or, if intense hunger impels it, it is done unwillingly, and nature may, to some extent, be conquered, and the infant may come to toler ate what it could not welcome ; but it will die, for all that. Another parallel in agriculture is, that for a number of years a field will give abundant crops of a particular grain, but after a while they become less and less bountiful under the same culture, and finally there is a total failure. In like manner, many of us have observed in our own persons, that for a long time we had a hearty relish for a particular kind of food ; it almost seemed that we could never eat enough of it ; but in process of time the expression escapes us, "I don't care anything about it now ; " in some instances there is a positive aversion. We constantly notice, at our own table, that a child will be ravenously fond of a particular dish, and after a while turns from it. The reason is, that there was a constituent in the much-loved food which the system required, and which it .^18 INSTINCT OF APPETITE. drank up greedily until it was fully supplied, and then in- stinct would receive no more. A thirsty man, like the arid soil, drinks in the water until the one is full and the other is saturated, and then the water is refused or rejected. The soil will not receive it, and it flows ofi": and when a man has enough, he becomes nauseated if he tries to drink more. To most persons, water has a very disagreeable taste, if it is at- tempted to be forced. The practical conclusion to be drawn from these facts is simply this : Do not force your children or yourselves to take one single mouthful of any food or drink which they do not like. In sickness or health, consult the instincts of the appetite, and yield to them implicit and instant obedience. There is sometimes a morbid appetite, and if indulged in freely, injurious, if not fatal effects may follow ; but in the most of these cases even, we prefer to believe that it is the quantity which does the harm, and not the quality : so that we are in the habit of saying to some classes of dyspeptics, " Eat what you most crave ; but if you find that it is uniform- ly followed by some disagreeable feeling, instead of discard- ing that article of food, take half as much next time, and con- tinue to diminish the quantity until it is found out how much of its favorite dish nature can take with perfect impunity ; if a spoonful only can be taken with perfect impunity, give nature that spoonful as long as she craves it." ]\Iost of us can call to mind cases where a craved dish or drink was most imperatively forbidden, under fear of death, if indulged in ; and yet the patient, in desperation, has gotten up in the night, satisfied the appetite, and recovered from that hour. We advise the safer plan : take a very little at a time of what is so earnestly craved, and gradually feel the way along to an amount which nature will bear. Physicians may rest assured that if the instincts of the invalid and the convalescent were more closely observed and studied, they would be more successful, with less medicine. SJSLF-BESTBOFEBS. 319 SELF-DESTROYERS. We do not hold the drunkard guiltless, who by his infirmi- ty has disabled himself, disgraced his friends, and beggared his family. The convict who cut off his right hanl in order to avoid work, is not excused from labor, but receives our reprobation ; and if, by any form of inconsideration or reck- lessness, we bring on ourselves an incapacity for performing the duties of life which devolve upon us, we are responsible for their discharge towards the party to whom those duties belong. A clergyman of talent and culture, in the very prime of life, advertises that being by ill health incapable of perform- ing ministerial duty, he is willhig to do almost anything for a moderate compensation ; he is ready to preach an occasional sermon, prepare an essay, write an editorial, copy papers, read proof, prepare manuscripts for the press, keep bocks, deliver lectures, teach school, give lessons in elocution, read- ing, or speaking — in any of which ways he hopes he might give satisfaction, and would do his best to please. We have no reason to question this gentleman's ability for any of these offices, and do certainly regret, when in our own country there are thousands of persons, singly and in whole commu- nities, who do not hear a gospel sermon in a year, that one so competent should be disabled. But to use a common phrase, he has no business to be sick. In other words, his being a sick man is not a necessity, most likely. People do not get sick without a cause, except in rare cases ; and that cause is, very generally, within themselves, resulting from inattention, igno- rance, or recklessness, either on the part of parents, teachers, or themselves. It is a very poor excuse for a man to say that he cannot pay a debt — the declaration becomes insulting to the creditor when that inability is the result of improvi- dence or actual extravagance. When any man is disabled by siclmess from discharging his duty to himself, his family, or society, the question should at once be, is it from Heaven or of men? Not of the former ; for it is said. He does not will- ingly afflict the children of men : consequently sickness is not I 320 HOW MUCH TO SLEEP. of His sending. It is the result of causes within ourselves. In a, literal sense, as well as a moral, it is true : "O Israel ! thou hast destroyed thyself!" In plainer terms, disease is not sent upon us ; we bring it on ourselves — and health is a duty. HOW MUCH TO SLEEP. The amount of sleep which persons require varies with the age, habits, and conditions of men. If we will yield to nature's guidance, instinct will desig- nate the exact quantity required for each, with promptitude and accuracy. All know that a night's full natural sleep gives an awaking of freshness and vigor, which insures bodily enjoy- ment for a whole day ; but if sleep is broken and disturbed, it is certaiuly followed by lassitude of body and mind : this palpable fact demonstrates that body and brain, flesh and spirit, are recuperated by sleep ; it then follows that the more we work, the more we study, the more sleep we require. To ascertain how much sleep each one needs, we will give a rule presently ; but it is useful to knoAV that nature will not take too much sleep, except by violent and artificial means : if forced upon her long, obesity, or other form of destructive disease, is inevitable ; but if we attempt to rob the body of its requisite amount, debility of body, madness of mind, or premature death will always result if this violence is perse- vered in. There are persons whose voraciousness of time is such, that they consider that the hours spent in sleep, beyond the briefest number, are hours lost ; that if they can go to bed very late and get up very early, it is so much added to life. We once heard a man say that no time should be lost ; that a book should be always at hand, so that in waiting for dinner or a friend we might read, even if it were but a line. He practised this. His was accounted one of the gi-eatest minds in the nation ; his writings will live when the names of Presidents will be repeated but once in an age. He lost hia mind, and died in his prime ! The truly wise will, therefore, yield themselves to nature's apportionment. It is a law of SCHOOL DANGERS. 321 oiir being, as beneficent as it is wise, that if we are let alone we wake up of ourselves, as soon as the system has taken an amount of rej^ose proportioned to the exertions of the pre- vious day, and the usual ones of the day following. All that remains, therefore, for us to do, is to aid nature in the outset, or rather avoid acting in such a way as to interfere with hei operations, by simply going to bed at a regular hour, with a mind, and body, and stomach unoppressed with the cares and labors and food of the preceding day, and to arise in the morning as soon as we wake up of ourselves, not sleeping a moment in the daytime. It is scarcely possible for any one to pursue this course rigidly, if in moderate health, without in a week or two usually securing the following delightful results : an ability to go to sleep within a few moments of laying the head upon the pillow ; of sleeping soundly all night and of waking up refreshed, within a very few minutes of the same time for weeks together, giving us perhaps an hour more in midwinter than in summer time, because the mind and body, and digestion are more vigorous in winter, when nature favors us by giving longer nights. SCHOOL DANGERS. Many girls and boys of promise, the gi-eat hope of life to yearning parents, are sacrificed every year to the cu- pidity of sordid, stupid, or reckless school-teachers, aided and abetted by the contemptible vanity of the thoughtless parents themselves. We regard public examinations and school exhibitions a cheat and a sham in three cases out cf four. It is done for the benefit and behoof of the teacher, and to the irreparable injury of the scholar ; while the poor dolt of a parent has not sense enough to see through it. We hope never to see a child of ours competitor for any prize or titation at school. Not long since a gentleman of wealth, from the east, con- sulted us in behalf of an only child, a daughter of seventeen, at school. She was expected to complete her studies at an u(;ademy in two months. Already she had been preparing for 322 SCHOOL DANGERS. an examination for some weeks. The report was, that she was so much " interested " in her studies that she barely al- lowed herself necessary sleep ; that she always ate in haste, and went to her books immediately after her meals. She had all the symptoms of a commencing decline, and she was de- termined to " keep up " until the close of the session. Those two months seemed to us an interminable age ahead. We felt as if she ought to have been hurried out of the school- room without an hour's delay, and driven out among the beautiful hills of her own New England, and scarcely allowecl time out of the saddle to take her meals ; we felt as if she ought to have been compelled to eat most of her meals on horseback. But the gratification which was to result to her from a successful examination outweighed all considerations of the happiness of healthful youth. We declined giving special advice while she was at school. We have no doubt that the reaction which will take place after the examination will, with her previous condition, send her to an early grave — as it has done in multitudes of similar cases before. Par- ents ought to remember that reviewing studies for an exami- nation is for the glorification of the teacher, without any com- mensurate advantage to the scholar. A young lady, the hope of a widowed mother, and both poor, wrote only in June last, that she was at school prepar- ing herself as a teacher, with a view to support herself and mother, by obtaining a position in the school of which she was then only a scholar ; but, in order to do that, it was ne- cessary that her examination should entitle her to a diploma. How long and how hard she had been striving, we do not know ; but the struggle had been so severe, the tension so great and continued, that she writes, "A weakness and drowsiness has come over me, from which I cannot arouse myself, and causes me almost to despair of recovery. Meie talkinor is a weariness. It seems as if I shall never feel wide iwake again. I feel as if I could sleep forever. This sleepi- ness is experienced, not only at noon and at night, but also in the early morning. Having always ranked first in my classes at school, I have endeavored, the present year, to maintain my position ; but I feel that my health is not equal to the task. It seems that the faculties of my mind are not HYDROPHOBIA. 323 what they once were, especially my memory. The time is drawing near when the diplomas will be awarded to our class. The apprehension of a failure, on my part, weiglis heavily on my mind ; and fail I must, unless I can be aroused from my stupid state. The very efforts I make to keep my- self awake in the daytime often makes me sick at heart.'' Here is a case of a young brain stimulated to sheer ex- haustion, while all the powers of life were failing with it. Out upon it, we say. Let the barbarous customs of the school-room be abolished ; and let parents and teachers un- derstand, that education can be so conducted as to make it a self-buoyant process, from the commencement of the alphabet to its successful close. Really competent teachers can make it a delight, instead of a burden and a bore — can make it the meat and drink of those who learn. These are practical teachers, and deserve treble salaries, with the respect and Oianks of all the humane HYDROPHOBIA. Hydrophobia follows the bite of various animals, but more frequently that of a dog. There are tAvo errors generally prevalent in reference to this most fearful of all diseases, which merit con'ection. Hydrophobia is almost as frequent an occurrence outside oF the " dog-days," as during that period ; and second, mad dogs are not always afraid of the water, nor do they always cxhiljit a furious manner. The more certain signs of their being rabid are an unsteady walk, a haggard appearance, and an extraordinary and striking wildness in the expression of the eye. AVe, therefore, most earnestly advise that when- ever a person is bitten b}'' any dog, even to the extent of the smallest scratch, whether in summer or winter, to saturate a rag instantly with common spirits of hartshorn and sop it on the wound for at least half an hour, on the principle that all bites and stings owe their injurious effects to their acid nature, and hartshorn, being one of the strongest, simplest, and most accessible alkalies, is the most practicable anti- 324 THE STOMACH. dote in Nature ; the sooner it is applied, the more certain will be the success. The next most accessible thing to the same nature is the liquor resulting from a cup of hot water poured on a handful of fresh ashes of wood. THE STOMACH. The stomach is the source of a very large share of our animal enjoyment, if treated properly ; but if allowed to fall mto disease, life is rendered miserable, in spite of all the advantages that wealth or station can bestow. Eating largely raid late, is the most common cause of the long catalogue of neuralgias and dyspepsias which everywhere prevail, more or less, and are increasing in frequency. As the day closes, we all become weary, and the body yearns for the repose and rest which only the quiet chamber can fully give. The whole system is weak, — feet, fingers, arms, every- thing. There is not a muscle in the body which does not participate in that tiredness. The stomach is a collection of nmscles, and these are called to work at each meal ; and to dispose of that meal is a work of four or five hours. The more that is eaten, the more work has to be performed. Any Dne can see, then, the striking absurdity of giving an already .A^eak stomach four or five hours' work to do at the close of ihe day — of giving rest to the body by sleep, and yet keep- mg the stomach hard at work until nearly daylight. Its repose then is the repose of exhaustion, and it does not wake up for breakfast, any more than the body would, if kept out of bed long past midnight. Not being waked up, it does not call for food, and there is no appetite (no " seekiug," as the word literally means) for food. But another result follows from a hearty supper, or a very late dinner : the digestion of the food requires a large amount of nervous power, leaving the other parts of the s^'stem to the same extent deficient of their natural supply, the brain in com- mon with the others ; hence, no one can sleep soundly and refreshingly after a hearty meal. More than this, if a large meal be taken at the close of the i TEA AND COFFEE. 325 day, when the body is weary, tired out, the stomach not only requires an extra amount of nervous power, which must be supplied at the expense of the other parts of the system, but it requires, also, an extra supply of heat, which must be sup- plied in the same way — and the stomach will have it, what- ever mischief may result to other parts of the body — leaving the body chilly ; which, in its severest forms, is called in the south a congestive chill, where the engorgement of blood is so great as to oppress the powers of life, and a stupor pervades the whole frame, out of which it never fully wakes up again, except, perhaps, for a single gleam at a time of partial con- sciousness. Hence the impropriety, at all times, of going out into the cold air, or taking a cold bath immediately after a hearty meal, if the person is at all weakly, or is in a tired condition ; for the chilliness is only increased thereby, and a fatal result is the more likely to ensue. A thousand times better would it be for this whole land, if not an atom of food was ever allowed to pass adult lips at a later hour than five o'clock in the after- noon. Such a practice, habitually and literally adhered to, would save more lives every year than are destroyed by steam, and sea, and all wars together. TEA AND COFFEE. Taking into account the habits of the people, tea and coliec, tor supper and breakfast, add to human 1 ealth and life, if a single cup be taken at either meal, and is never increased in strength, frequency, or quantity. If they were mere stim- ulants, and were taken thus in moderation and with uniformity, they would, in time, become either inert, or the system would become so habituated to their employment, as to remain in the bame relative position to them as if they had never been used ; and, consequently, as to themselves, they had better never have been used, as they are so liable to abuse. But science and fact unite in declaring them to be nutritious, as well as stimulant ; hence, they will do a new good to the system every day, to the end of life, just as brer.d and fruits 32(3 TEA AND COFFEE. do ; hence, wo never get tired of either. But the use of bread and fruits are daily abused by multitudes, and dyspepsia and cholera morbus result ; yet we ought not to forego their em- ployment on that account, nor should we forego the use of tea and coffee because their inordinate use gives neuralgias and other ailments. But the habitual use of tea and coffee, at the last and hrst meals of the day, has another high advantage, is productive of incalculable good in the way of averting evils. We will drink at our meals, and if we do not drink these, we will drink what is worse — cold water, milk, or alcoholic! mixtures. The regular use of these last will lead the young to drunkenness ; the considerable employment of simple milk, at meals, by sedentary people, — by all, except the robust, — 1 will either constipate, or render bilious ; while cold water! largely used, that is, to the extent of a glass or two at a meal,] especially in cold weather, attracts to itself so much of the heat of the system, in raising said water to the temperature of the body — about one hundred degrees — that the process of digestion is arrested ; in the mean while giving rise to al deathly sickness of stomach, to twisting pains, to vomitings,] purgings, and even to cramps, to fearful contortions, and sud- den death ; which things would have been averted, had even] the same amount of liquid, in the shape of simple hot water,! been used. But any one knowing these things, and being] prejudiced against the use of tea and coffee, would subject j himself to be most unpleasantly stared at and questioned, if j not ridiculed, were he to ask for a cup or glass of hot water.] But, as tea and coffee are now universal beverages, are onj every table, and everybody is expected to take one or the other as a matter of course, they are unwittingly the meansl of safety and of life to multitudes. They save life, where aj glass of cold water would have destroyed it. So that the usef of these beverages is not merely allowable, it is politic, it is a necessity. VEGETARIANISM AND ILL-TEMPER 32^ VEGETARIANISM AND ILL-TEMPER. Solomon was a great lover of beefsteak ; and when he wanted a tit comparison with one of the meanest and lowest liaits of onr nature, to wit, a bad temper, he compares it to a vegetable dinner! saying, that even a "dinner of herbs," \\ith love and affection, was preferable to the most splendid table, marred with the presence of ill-nature. As writers of note are found, sooner or later, to have treated of things coming under their own experience and observation, we can- not resist the conclusion that Solomon had a "tartar" in his household. Other Solomons have the same. Steele had some experiences of a growling, grumbling ill-nature, and xeems to have had a woman in his eye, when he declared, " A bad temper is a curse to the possessor. To hear one eternal round of complaint and murmuring, to have every pleasant thought scared away by this evil spirit, is a sore trial. It is like the sting of a scorpion, a perpetual nettle, destroying your peace, rendering life a burden. Its influence is deadly. The purest and sweetest atmosphere is converted into a deadlj'^ miasm wherever this evil genius prevails. It is allied to martyrdom, to be obliged to live with one of a com- plaining temper. One string out of tune will destroy the music of an instrument otherwise perfect. So if all the mem- bers of a family do not cultivate a kind and afiectionato temper, there will be discord, and every evil Avork." Solomon and Steele evidently had their eye on the family relation. O, the curse, the living martyrdom of having one member in a household, whose low-bred nature, exhibitiug itself in every hour of waking existence, clouds the brow of the parent, petrifies the glad smile of childhood, fixes a stern hatred on the heart of the servant, and tills the breast of the guest, or stranger, with sadness and inexpressible contempt ! In the estimation of the wisest of men, the distance between a dinner of beefsteak and vegetables was almost immeasurable ; but, between vegetables with lovingness, and a splendid repast with a carping grumbling nature, there could be no •iomparison, and he gladly chose the former. Let, then, the 328 FOOD CURE. snarling curs, fortunately met "with only here and there, make a note of this, if they can but know their picture ; and remem- ber, that to see no beauty in any flower, to feel no warmth in any sunshine, to draw no lovingness from any smile, is, of all temperaments, the most to be pitied, the worst to be feared. FOOD CURE. This book aims to show how to maintain health by natural agencies, and by the same means to restore it if lost. It is not pretended that all diseases are cured in this way ; but it is very certain that quite a number of ordinary ailments may be removed by the judicious employment of the contents of a well-furnished larder ; and with this great advantage, the cures are more permanent, and less liable to return, — ac- complishing their object without any shock to the system, and without the danger of killing the patient, by mistaking the quantity, or quality, or name of the dose. Ripe fruits and berries, slightly acid, will remove the ordi-j nary diarrhoeas of early summer. Common rice, parched brown like coffee, and then boiled and eaten in the ordinary way, without any other food, is, i with perfect quietude of body, one of the most effective rem- edies for troublesome looseness of bowels. Some of the severest forms of that distressing ailment] called dysentery, that is, Avhen the bowels pass blood, with! constant desire, yet vain efforts to stool, are sometimes entirely cured by the patient eating a heaping tablespoon, at a| time, of raw beef, cut up very fine, and repeated at intervals of four hours, until cured, eating and drinking nothhig else in the meanwhile. If a person swallows owy poison whatever, or has fallen into convulsions from having overloaded the stomach, an instanta- neous remed}^ more efficient and applicable in a larger num- ber of cases than any half a dozen medicines we can now think of, is a heaping teaspoon of common salt and as much ground mustard, stirred rapidly in a teacup of water, warm or cold, and swallowed instantly. It is scarcely down before it begins FOOD CURE. 329 to come up, bringing with it the remaining contents of the stomach ; and lest there be any remnant of a poison, however small, let the white of an q^^, or a teacup of strong coffee, be swallowed as soon as the stomach is quiet ; because these very conmion articles nullify a larger number of virulent poisons than any medicines in the shops. In case of scalding or burning the body, immersing the part in cold water gives entire relief, as instantaneously as the lightning. Meanwhile get some common dry flour, and ap- ply it an inch or two thick on the injured part the moment it emerges from the water, and keep sprinkling on the flour thrnigh anj-thing like a pepper-box cover, so as to put it on evenly. Do nothing else, drink nothing but water, eat noth- ing, until improvement commences, except some dry bread softened in very weak tea of some kind. Cures of frightful burnings have l)cen performed in this Avay, as wonderful as they are painless. Erysipelas, a disease often coming without premonition, and ending fatally in three or four days, is sometimes promptly cured by applying a poultice of raw cranberries, pounded, and placed on the part over night. Insect bites, and even that of a rattlesnake, have passed harmless, l)y stirring enough of common salt in the yolk of a good eg^ to make it sufficiently thin for a plaster, to be kept on the bitten parts. Neuralgia and toothache are sometimes speedily relieved by applying to the wrist a quantity of bruised or grated horse- radish. Costive bowels have an agreeable remedy in the free use of tomatoes at meals — their seeds acting in the w^ay of the seeds of white mustard or figs, by stimulating the coats of the bowels over which they pass, in their whole state, to increased action. A remedy of equal efficiency, in the same direction, is tracked wheat — that is, common white wheat grains, broken into two or three pieces, and then boiled until it is as soft as rice, and eaten mainly at two meals of the day, with butter or molasses. Common sweet cider, boiled down to one half, makes a most excellent syrup for coughs and colds for children — is 330 MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL. pleasant to the taste, and will keep throughout the year in a cool cellar. In recovering from an illness, the system has a craving for some pleasant acid drink. This is found in cider which i« placed on the fire as soon as made, and allowed to come to a boil, then cooled, put in casks, and kept in a cool collar. Treated thus, it remains for many months as good as the day it was made. We once saved the life of an infant which had been inad- vertently drugged with laudanum, and was fast sinking into the sleep which has no awaking, by giving it strong coffee, cleared with the white of an Qgg, a teaspoonful every five minutes, until it ceased to seem drowsy. Our book on " Health and Disease " was written with a view to introduce people to the knowledge of items like these, in the hope of doing something towards abolishing the ruinous and almost universal habit of purchasing patent medicines, which, in so many instances, are either inapplicable, hurtful, or utterly useless, and, in this latter case, are indirectly the means of death, by the loss of time in obtaining the services of a competent physician to apply the proper means with a wise discrimination. MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL. This is the standing injunction to a large family of steady and affectionate children, of a "Friend" mother, whom we know, and we regard it as one of the most important les- sons which childhood can learn. Many a young man would have been saved from the halter, had he learned in his father's house how to " make himself useful " under all the circum- stances of life. And well do we know, that many a girl with a good heart has gone down to an early grave of infamy, from being brought up, by a false kindness, without the knowledge of how she was to " make herself useful " in the various changes and adversities of life. Very many girls, in this drear winter weather, go to bed hungry, and rise to hover around stinted fires, and shiver all day in scanty cloth- 24 TOMBOYS. 331 ing, wearing the wrinkles of sadness and care on faces yet in their teens, willing enough to work — and abundant work to do, with liberal pay, in luxurious mansions, whose rich oc- cupants would count it a " fortunate thing " to find a person suited to the place. Why, then, are the doors of all our charities besieged and daily thronged? and why does the pitiful appeal strike the ear of the pedestrian in his early walk, or noonday promenade, or nightly visit to the party, the lecture, the concert, or the opera ? It is simply because these starving, freezing girls were not brought up to be useful, were not taught, by careless or over- indulgent mothers, how they might command situations. The incessant and earnest cry of thousands of almost despair- ing housekeepers, is for competent "help," to cook, to nurse, to sew, for chamber work, or for waiting. AVithin any twenty- four hours, two thousand, may we not say ten thousand, such girls could find welcome homes, in the very best families in New York, at high wages. But American girls think it degrading to cook, and nurse, and wash, and wait on the table, and their more inexcusable and short-sighted parents confirm them in their views ; and the next we hear of them is " starvation," " suicide," prema- ture disease, or a dishonored grave. Let all these, especially those who can leave their families nothing, impress on the minds of their children, day by day, that it is more dishonor- able to beg than to work ; that it is more criminal to do noth- ing than to be industrious ; that no employment is dishonor- able which is useful ; and that it is not only a disgrace, but a crime to be idle, from feelings of a despicable false pride. T o :m B O Y S . How we love the phrase I How it carries us back to the good old times when girls were not afraid to laugh out a whole heart at once, and never knew anything of modern "pro- priety;" sanctity before folks, satanity behind ; angelic in the street, animal in the pantiy, and in the study asinine 1 332 TOMBOYS. " Tomboys " is associated in our mind wath saleratus. Sal- eratus rises, and helps to rise ; so does a tomboy, for she is so full of romping and of fun, that, with her joyous nature and her unsuspicious abandon, she fires up every young heart around her, and makes the saddened faces of the old beam with the subdued but sweet smiles of the memories of Auld Lang Syne, when they too were young. The first time we ever saw that household word, " Saleratus," was when we were just beginning to take lessons in " Cor- derii," the first Latin primer. There was the picture of an angel broke loose. It was a young girl, with her long hair lloating back in the breeze, an uncontrollable joyousness in her face, and, withal, a most unsuspicious, don't-care look about her ; she was not ou earth or in heaven, but between the two, in mid-air like, as if she had taken a spring, which was to end in a somerset, landing her right side up ; and under this pic- ture was, in large letters, Sal Eratus. Our first impulse was to "translate that." "Sal," we confidently believed, meant Sal, and " Eratus " had something to do with erring ; so we concluded that if Sal and Erring were put together, it would make, in plain English, "Erring Sal;" and that somebody's daughter, named Sal, would ver}' probably, if she " cut up so," in the end " put her foot in it," that is, " spoil the broth ;" or, in other words, make a tool of herself; which means, to take her pigs to a poor market ; that is to say, would come out at the little end of the horn. Will any spirit about us vouchsafe an ability to express our idea in more courtly phrase, and better adapted to the modern market ? For we ran back a moment to old times ; and their associations so enveloped us, that we were " possessed " of old words, phrases, comparisons, old everything ; specially did it bring to oui mind, of how we went a moonshiny night to a prayer-meeting in ^he country, with Dr. Clelland's daughter, and how, when an essay was made to help her over the fence, with the tip end of u gloved finger, she exclaimed, "O, get out I" and laying one hand on the top rail, she cleared the panel at a bound 1 We felt mean ft^ossity is ever present for holding up 338 BODILY CABRIAOE. the head ; if ii man does not do it, he will, in any walk along a principal street, knock his brains out ; or, if he be unusu- ally hard-headed, knock out the brains of some less gifted pedestrian. Instead of a^ivinor all sorts of rules about turning out the toes, and straightening up the body, and holding the shoulders back, all of which are impracticable to the many, because soon forgotten, or of a feeling of awkwardness and dis- comfort which procures a willing omission, — all that is neces- sary to secure the object is to ]iold up the head and move on! letting the toes and shoulders take care of themselves. "Walk with the chin but slightly above a horizontal line, or with your eye directed to things a little higher than your ow^n head. In this way you w\alk properly, pleasurably, and with- out any feeling of restraint or awkwardness. If any one wishes to be aided in securing this habitual carriage of body, accustom yourself to carr}' the hands behind you, one hand grasping the opposite wrist. Englishmen are admired the world over for their full chests, and broad shoulders, and sturdy frames, and manly bearing. This position of body is a favorite with them, in the simple promenade in the garden or gallery, in attending ladies along a crow^ded street, in stanJ- ing on the street, or in public worship. Our young men seem to be in Elysium when they can Avalk arm in arm with their divinities. Now, young gentlemen, you will be hooked on soon enough without anticipating your captivity. While you are free, walk right, in all tvays; and when you are able, get a manly carriage ; and take our word for it, it is the best way to secure the affectionate re- spect of the woman you marry. Did you ever know any girl worth having Avho could wed a man who mopes about -vith his eyes on the ground, making of his wdiole body the seg- ment of a circle, bent on the wrong side? Assuredly, a woman of strong points, of striking characteristics, admires, beyond a handsome face, the whole carriage of a man. Evectness being the representative of courage and daring, it is this which makes a man of " presence." Man}^ persons spend a large part of their waking existence in the silting position. A single rule, well attended to in this connection, would be of incalculable value to multitudes : — Use chairs with the old-fashioned straight backs, a little BODILY CARRIAGE. 33& inclining backwards! and sit with the lower portion of the body close against the back of the chair at the seat ; any one who tries it Avill observe in a moment a grateful support to the whole spine. And wc see no reason why children should not be tauaht, from the beginning, to write, and sew, and l-;nit, in a position requiring the lower portion of the body and the shoulders to touch the back of the chair all the lime. A very common position in sitting, especially among men, is with the shoulders against the '^air-back, with a space of several inches between the chair-u^ok and the lower portion of the spine, giving the body the shape of a half-hoop ; it is the instantaneous, instinctive, and almost universal position assumed by any consumptive on sitting down, unless counter- acted by an effort of the will ; hence parents should regard such a position in their children with apprehension, and should rectify it at once. The best position after eating a regular meal is, to have the hands behind the back, the head erect, in moderate locomo- tion, and in the open air, if the weather is not chilly. Half an hour spent in this way after meals, at least after breakfast and dinner, would add health and length of days to women in easy life, and to all sedentary men. It is a thought which richly merits attention. As to the habit which many men have, of sitting during praj'er, in forms of worship not reqni)*- ing it, with the elboAvs extended along the back of the pew, and forehead resting on the arms, we will only say, in passing, that besides being physiologically unwise and hurtful, it is socially an uncourteous and indelicate position, while in a religious point of view it is an unpardonable irreverence ; a position which no man Avith the feelings of a gentleman, unless an invalid, can possibly assume, and we Avonder that it is a practice of such general prevalence. It is a position which, we venture to affirm, is in almost every instance the dictate of bodily laziness, or religious sleepiness or indifference. Women are not required to stand in prayer ; it is physiologi- cally hurtful ; they should sit or kneel. 340 COMMON SENSE. ,^ COMMON SENSE. / . . Not one in a multitude lias it. Not one in a multitude of those who uiakc use of the expression knows what it means. Let the reader try this moment to define it in concise lan- guage, and in a moment he will find himself "in endless mazes lost." Yet it is a correct and appropriate phrase, if we can but distinguish between the possession and the exercise ; the oAmership and use of our senses. The word " common" qualifies as to the amount of sense, but does not apply to its use. The exact meaning to be attached to the expression is the use of an amount of intelligence which the mass of per- sons possess. Common sense is the use of experience and observation. It is the practical employment of an ordinary amount of intelligence. Most persons have it — few use it. Its possession is common — its practice uncommon ; hence the literal correctness of the expression, " Very few people have common sense." It would be plainer to say, "Very few people make use of their common sense." For example. Ask the first man you meet if he has not pushed up his wristbands in washing his hands, with a view to their remaining up, to prevent wetting them, until the operation is over. Ask him, fiii-ther, if he has not done the same thing a hundred times, and if, in a shigle instance, he ever knew them to stay up until he was done. And yet that man, until the day of his death, will attempt that same use- less thine as oftrn as he has occasion to wash his hands with his coat on, or without the trouble of unbuttoning the wrist- bands. He has, in common with the multitude, sense enough to know that the wristbands will not stay up, but yet he does not use his intelligence. Hence it is appropriately said of that man, "He has not common sense," — that is, he does not exercise common sense. A man knows how to be polite. He may be in a company which docs not merit its exercise, in his opinion, still the omission of it laj^s him liable to the charge, " He has no po- liteness," — that is, he does not practise it. The mass of ])eople know that jumping out of a vehiclo SLANDERING DOCTORS. 341 when the horses are running away, is very certain to be fol- lowed with loss of limb or life ; they know, too, that drop- ping one's self out from behind is attended with comparatively little danger, and yet nine out of ten will jump out at the side — not one in a million will spill himself out from behind. Thus every one of the million has sense enough to know the fact, yet only one in the million is found to use it, to practise his knowledge. Anybody has sense enough to know that, if additions are daily made to any vessel, and nothing be taken from it, day after day, the vessel will soon ovcrlioAv, and there will be mis- chief and loss ; and yet there are multitudes in every com- munity who ruin their health in early life, preparatory to a premature death or an age of suffering, by eating heartily two or three times a day, for days together, without heeding the necessity of a daily action of the bowels as a preventive of irretrievable mischief. Countless numbers of literary men, students, lawyers, clergymen, lose their health, and are laid aside from usefulness and duty, by failing to recognize practi- cally a principle so self-evident, that daily additions to the contents of the body, without a proportionate outlet, must result disastrously. Thus it is we say of many great men, men of extraordinary acquirements — all their talents canno£ preserve them from poverty. They have the sense but do not use it. They know better, but do not act out their knowledge. The different results from the possession and use of sense and money are striking. The less a man uses (spends) the money he accumulates, the richer he becomes ; the less a student uses his daily accumulation of knowledge, the bigger bore he is. Therefore, save your money — use your sense. SLANDERING DOCTORS. A GREAT many jokes are cracked at the expense of the doc- tors, and at the expense of the reputation of intellect of those who crack them ; for a moment's consideration, which, by the way, in this fast age is not given to anything of true importance, except by the few — a moment's consideration 342 SUROIGAL INSTRUMENTS. would teach any one that it is to the doctor's interest to keep the patient alive as long as possiljle, for as long as the patient lives he pays. Witness the desperate efforts made to protract life for a few hours in the last extremity ; how the medicine is poured down every five minutes as long as the dj'ing man can swallow ; how the blister-plaster encases ankle, wrist, and waist, to kindle up again the powers of life, for with return- ing life returns the prospect of dollars. For our part we could never appreciate the philosophy of torturing the poor dying body in the ways just alluded to, to the last moment of existence. The great Washington prayed to be allowed to die in peace. When our last hour comes, hoist the window, throw the door wide open, without a draught ; moisten the lips ; clear the room of all but one or two ; let all the pure air possible get to the laboring lungs. Just imagine, reader, what would be your feelings for relief, if a pillow were pressed over your face for a minute, and you may have some idea of the desire a dying man has for all the air he can get. But as an evi- dence that doctors are not such a murderous class as repre- sented sometimes, the last census shows that it requires eighty doctors to keep one undertaker, there being forty thousand doctors in the United States, while there are only five hun- dred professed undertakers, the irregulars of both not included. SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS. Surgical instruments are quite the rage nowadays. Men and women, as " flat as a flounder," patronize abdominal sup- porters, when the great mischief is, they haven't anything to support. Deaf women, the dumb ones having all died off before the flood, are provided with patent " auricles," which stick ouf on each side of the head like two great rams' horns, all re- gardless of the fact whether there is any hen ring to be aided or not. Then there are shoulder-braces and back-straps, respirators, inhalers, et id omne, ad infinitum; so that there is scarcely a member of the human body that is not provided with an " aid." The stomach has a million ; among the worst GLOVED TO DEATH. 343 are German gin and British beer, nmcle out of worse than bilge-water. Now, any intelligent physician knows that the vast mass of persons who patronize these gi-eat variety of supporters, need aids of a very diiierent kind. The Ijest respirator in the world is, to shut your mouth and go ahead ; the most efEcient " shoulder-braee" is, to hold up your head and march on ; while the most valuable general " supporter," nud the only one needed in nine cases out of ten, is, to make (he patient go t^ work, and compel him to live on his daily earninjrs. GLOVED TO DEATH. There are many almost inappreciable sappers of onr life, any one of which might be in operation for a long time with- out causing any alarming condition of the system ; but when a multitude of these are at work, critical symptoms appear with alarming rapidity. The purest water will become putrid if allowed to stagnate. The purest air from the ocean or the poles, if kept still, becomes corrupt in the cleanliest habita- tion in the land ; and the healthiest blood in the system be- gins in a moment to die, if for a moment it is arrested in its progress through the system. In either of these cases of fresh water, of pure air, and healthy blood, corruption is the inevitable result of stagnation. To keep them all pure and life-giving, activity of motion is a physical necessity. What- ever tends to arrest or impede the flow of blood through the body, does in that same proportion inevital)ly engender dis- ease ; any other result is physically impossible, because im- pure blood is the foundation or an attendant of all sickness. Very recently a New Yorker purchased a pair of Ijoots. rjut they fitted so tightly that he was compelled to take them off before night, but they caused his death within forty-eight hours. The most unobservant know that cold feet and hands are uniform symptoms in those diseases which gradually wear our lives away. The cause of these symptoms is a want of circu- lation. The blood does not pass to and from the extremities ^vith facility. Nine tenths of our women, at least in cities M4 MAKE HOME IIAFPY. and large towns, have cold feet or hcands, or both ; hence, noi one in a hundred is healthy. It is at our feet and hands that we begin to die, and last of all the heart, because, last of all, stagnation takes place there. In the worst cases of disease, the ph3^sician is hopeful of recovery as long as he can keep the extremities warm ; when that cannot be done, hope dies within him. It needs no argument to prove that a tight glove prevents the free circulation of blood through the hands and fingers. It so happens that the very persons who ought to do everything possible to promote the circulation of the blood are those ^^ilo most cultivate tight gloves, to wit, the wives and daughters who have nothing to do but dress ; or, rather, do nothhig but dress ; or, to be critically accurate, who spend more time in connection with dressing, than on all other objects together, not including sleep. No man or woman born has any right to do a deliberate injury to the body for a single hour in the day ; but to do it day after day for a life- time, against the lights of science and common sense, is not wise. We may wink at it, glide over it, talk about this being a free country, that it is ridiculous for a doctor to dictate whether a glove shall be worn tight or loose, but the eflcct won't be laughed or scorned away, for whatever is done which impedes the circulation of the blood, is done wrongfully against our bodies, and will be as certain of injurious results as the hindering of any law, physical or physiological. Every grain of sand must be taken care of, or the universe would (lash to atoms ; and so with the little things of the body. MAKE HOME HAPPY. Parents, if you wish to prevent your children from falling into practices and associations which lead to loss of lieaith und morals, and to a premature grave. The love of home, ds a part of parental teaching, forms the subject of an article in that very excellent publication, " The Presbyterian Maga- zine," of Philadelphia ; and we trust that all who read it will give it adequate consideration. It is not enough that our children have abundant food and clothing, and comfortaljle 25 MAKE HOME HAPPY. 34^ lodging. There is a monotony about these thhigs w !iich sood tires ; the very al)seuce of such comforts is an airreeablc re« lief, at any time, if away from home. It is a common remark, that a child eats almost as much as a grown person, and nothing Avill satisfy a hungry child. It is strikingly so with Ihe mind; it must have food to feed it; that food is variety — the variety of the new, the unknown — that is Avhat de- lights children of all ages; and to gratify that delight by presenting to their attention, with moderate rapidity of succession, what is substantial, valuable, practical, is one of the most important of all parental occupations. And parents should feel themselves constantly stimulated to efforts of this kind by the consideration, that, if they do not hold these things up to their attention, their reverses will be presented to them in endless combinations, by the lower associations of the street and of the kitchen. The three necessities of children are food, exercise, amuse- ment. They will eat, they will move about, they will be entertained. The feeding of the mind is as essential as the feeding of the body ; and not half a parent's duty is done in securing house, and food, and raiment. So far from appre- ciating this mental necessity, we are too apt to thwart their own instinctive etibrts to satisfy it, by our short and listless, if not, indeed, impatient and angry answers to their multi- tudinous inquiries. Under such treatment, they soon learn the uselessness of seeking information from their parents, and gradually seek it elsewhere, with its large admixture of incorrectness, imperfectuess, and, too often, viciousness. In our opinion, neither sons nor daughters should be al- lowed to sleep away from home, unless their parents are with them. We sincerely hope that such a blessing may be secured to ours, until the day of marriage. It is a true mother's love which seeks to keep her daughter in sight, until superior claims come ; it would save many a family from social ruin, and many a parent's heart from breaking. As for our sons, it should be impressed upon them, that no business is to .require their attention, and to keep them out of the house after sundown, unless the parent is along, as long in their teens as it is possible to secure obedience to such a requisition. And, to make such obedience pleasurable, let it be the par- 34() POSITION IN SLEEPING. ents' study to render home inviting, by the cultivation of all that is courteous and kindly, and by the large and habitual exercise of the better qualities of our nature, especially those of sympathy, and love, and aflcction. To all parents we say. Keep your children at home as nnich, and together, as long as it is at all possible for you to do it. No better plan can be devised for enabling a house hold to grow up loving and being loved, in all its members. POSITION IN SLEEPING. It is better to go to sleep on the right side, for then tho stomach is very much in the position of a bottle turned up- side down, and the contents are aided in passing out by gravitation. If one goes to sleep on the left side, the opera- tion of emptying the stomach of its contents is more like drawing water from a well. After going to sleep, let the body take its own position. If you sleep on your l)ack, espe- cially soon after a hearty meal, the weight of the digestive organs, and that of the food, resting on the great vein of the body, near the backbone, compresses it, and arrests the How of the blood more or less. If the arrest is partial, the sleep is disturbed, and there are unpleasant dreams. If the meal has been recent or hearty, the arrest is more decided, and the various sensations, such as falling over a precipice, or the pursuit of a wild beast, or other impending danger, and the desperate effort to get rid of it, arouses us ; that sends on the stagnating blood, and we wake in a fright, or trembling, or perspiration, or feeling of exhaustion, according to the degree of stagnation, and the length and strength of the effort made to escape the danger. But, -when we are not able to escape the danger, when we do fall over the precipice, when the tumbling building crushes us, what then? That is deafh! That is the death of those of whom it is said, when found lifeless in their bed in the morning, " They were as well as they ever were the day before ; " and often is it added, "and ate heartier than common." This last, as a frequent cause of death to those who have gone to bed well, to wake no WINTER RAILROADING. 347 more, wo give merely as a private opinion. The possibility of its truth is enough to deter any rational man from a late and hearty meal. This we do know with eert:iinty, that waking up in the night with painful diarrhoea, or cholera, or bilious colic, ending in death in a very short time, is properly traceable to a late large meal. The truly wise will take the safer side. For persons who eat three times a day it is amply sufficient to make the last meal of cold bread and butter and a cup of some warm drink. No one can starve on it ; while a perseverance in the habit soon begets a vigorous appetite for breakfast, so promising of a day of comfort WINTER RAILROADING. Such multitudes travel in rail-cars in wmter time, it will be a public benefit to make some statements in its bearing ou health. To regulate the temperature of any car to suit the hundred different persons who occupy it, is simply impossible. Only general principles can be profitable and practical. It is better that the car should be too warm than too cold, for the many who come into it in a more or less heated con- dition, from various causes, too well known to be enumerated. A person terminating exercise in a very warm room cannot take cold. A person terminating exercise causing the slight- est moisture on the surface, will always take cold within fifteen, often within five minutes, after sitting still in a cold apartment; and, if continued, an attack of pleurisy, or in- flammation, or congestion of the lungs, is an almost certain event, from either of which results a life-long inconvenience, if not, indeed, a speedy death. Therefore, as to all persons entering a car at the beginning of a journey, it is safer, be- yond comparison, that it should be too warm than too cold. Persons sitting in a cold car, for a time suflBcient to allow them to get thoroughly chilled, will scarcely fail to suffer from an attack of some acute disease, in spite of a subsequent warming up by exercise or otherwise ; while it is well known that persons may remain for hours in an apartment heated to a hundred degrees and over without any permanent discom- fort, if they are careful to cool off slowly. 348 GROW BEAUTIFUL. Bui, as the cars may be very hot in midwinter, and pas- sengers are put down at every station, and often without anj fire to go to, it is, most of all, important to know how to conduct one's self without injury under the circumstances. It is only necessary to have all the clothing adjusted — hat, gloves, everything — before the cars stop; as soon as they stop, shut your month, open the door, and run as fast as you can to your destination, or the first available house, keeping the mouth resolutely shut, if possible, until you get within doors, and then remain with all your clothing on for ten oi fifteen minutes. The running keeps the blood warm, and to the surface. The closing of the mouth sends the cold air by the circuit of the nose, and heats it before it reaches the lungs. The retention of the clothing allows the circulation to become natural slowly, and while so, no one can take cold. With these precautions, the more a person travels by rail- road the more hearty w^ill he become, and, eventually, will not take cold in a year's travel. In winter railroading the feet require most attention. The floor of the car is the coldest part of it under any circum- stances ; while a single plnnk separates them from a zero temperature, it may be. Persons will greatly consult their comfort by keeping their feet on the foot-boards, and, iu addition, have the feet and legs well wrapped in a substantial blanket or other covering. It is vastly better to shuAvl the feet than the shoulders iu a rail-car. GROW BEAUTIFUL. Persons may outgrow disease, and become healthy, by proper attention to the laws of their physical constitutions. By moderate and daily exercise, men may become active and strong in limb and muscle. But to grow beautiful, how? Age dims the lustre of the eye, and pales the roses on beauty's cheek ; while crow-feet, and furrows, and wrinkles, and lost teeth, and gray hairs, and bald head, and tottering limbs, and limping feet, most sadly mar the human form divine. But MILK. 34 1> Uiui as the eye is, as pallid and sunken as may bo the lace of beauty, and frail and feeble that once strong, erect, and man- ly body, the immortal soul, just fledging its wings for its home in heaven, may look out through these faded vvindown as beautiful as the dew-drops of a summer's morning, as melt- ing as the tear that glistens in affection's eye, by growing kindly, by cultivating sympathy with all human kind ; by cherishing forbearance towards the foibles and follies of our race, and feeding day by day on that love to God and man which lifts us from the brute, and makes us akin to angels. MILK. Many persons imagine that the milk of cows is one of the most healthful of all articles, and yet it is a great mistake, except under certain limitations. By stout, strong, hardy, industrious out-door working men it may be used advanta- geously for breakfast and dinner, but, except in tea and coffee, and now and then half a glass for brcaltfast or dinner, it is not a proper article of food for invalids. In many instances patients have said to me, "I used to be a dear lover of milk, but I thought it made me bilious, and I have ceased using it altogether." This is the common-sense observation of ordi- nary men — one that, without any theory, and against a life- time of prejudice, has forced itself upon the attention. The rule that a man may eat almost anything with impunity, applies to one in good health, eating in moderation, according to the quality of the food ; but when an invalid is to be fed , very different principles are to govern. In all that I may say, I ask credence for nothing, except in propoiliou as it is followed up by the argument of whole /acts. 350 LIVING IN TEE COUNTur. LIVING IN THE COUNTRY. Living in the country and doing business in to^m, is a "dog's life," from beginning to end, as far as New York is concerned. Instead of adding to one's comfort and quiet, it diminishes both. So far from promoting health, it undermines it ; while in a business point of view, it is attended with a nmltitude of annoyances of every variety. We have tried it under very favorable circumstances, and speak from ex- l)erience. We know that many persons think that they would like nothing better than to be able to work in town and live in the country. In some few cases it may be a com- fort : it is when a man can afford to go to his place of business not sooner than ten in the morning ; or, if he does not go at all for any day, or two or three of any week in the year, it makes no kind of difference, having persons on the spot who Avill do just as well. But to be the main spoke in the wheel of any establishment, whose punctual and daily presence is indis- pensable, it is an unmistakable bore to live out of the citj limits. The semi-citizen is in a hurry from one j'ear's end to another. When he goes to bed at night, among his last thoughts are — and there is an anxiety about it — that he may oversleep him- self, or that the cook may be behind time with his breakfast ; 30, going to sleep with these thoughts, the instant he wakes in the morning there is a start, and the hurry begins — he opens his eyes in a hurry, to determine by the quality of the light whether he is in time. His toilet is completed with despatch ; but instead of composedly waiting for breakfast-call, his mind, even if not on his business, will be in the kitchen. Can a man converse composedly with his family', when the fear is upper- most of his being left by the train? It is impracticable. Even with the case in a thousand, where the cook is a minute-mnn, he can't for the life of him eat with a feeling of leisure : may be his watch is a little slow ; may be the train is a little before time, and the result is, a hurried and unsatisfactory meal, to pay the least of it, under the most favorable circumstances ; but suppose the cook is like the multitude of her class — never LIVING IN THE COUNTRY. 851 before but always behind the time — what a fretting feeling is present, mad as fire, yet afraid to say anything; soon the wife gets the contagion, and then the play begins ; stand about, everybody. You are deposited in the cars for town ; accidents and delays will occur; your mind is in your office, may be a customer is waiting, or you are pressed for time to meet an engagement. As soon as midday is past, the solicitude begins lest circum- stances should prevent your departure by a specified train ; this increases as the hour draws near, and when we take into account the dilatory nature of most men, it will be a marvel if some one is not late in meeting you, or making an expected payment ; or a customer does not hang on your button-hole, and you don't wish to offend him. In short, there are such a multitude of causes in operation to crowd the last moments of the business day, that we do not believe that one semi-citizen ir a hundred, of any day, walks to the depot from his place of business with a feeling of quiet leisure. AV^hen you get home, you are too tired and too hungry to be agreeable until you get your last meal ; even then there is a calculation about getting to bed early, so as to have your full sleep by morning. We ask. Where is the "quietude" of a life like this? It does not exist. Such a man is an entire stranger to composure of mind. One beautiful morning a sprightly young gentleman entered the cars just as they were moving off. We had seen him often, always in a hurry, always in a pleasant humor. He said to a friend, as he took his seat, "I've been in a hurry from morn- ing until night for the last two years — always on the stretch, but never left. Came very near it this time." Soon after- guards it appeared that he had been industriously engaged the whole of that time, and had accomplished a great deal ; for he had, in various directions, disposed of seventy thou- sand dollars belonging to a public institution, of which he was the custcdian. If this incessant hurry, from one year's end to another, can promote quietude of mind, can conduce to one's pecuniary advantage, can foster domestic enjoyments, it is new to us. We think, rather, that it tends to fix on the mind a stereotype impiession of anxious sadness, which, in the father of any family, to be seen every day, must have a decided effect in subduing that spontaneous joyousness which 352 WATER CURE. should pervade the countenance of every member of a happy household. There is one little matter -which we prefer to speak of before dismissing the subject, ■which we consider of vital importance, and is the idea which led to the penning of this, article. A daily action of the bowels is essential to good health ander all circumstances ; the want of it engenders the most painful and fatal diseases. Nature prompts this action with great regularity, most generally after breakfast. Hurry or excitement will dispel that prompting, and the result is, nature is baffled. Her regular routine is interfered with, and harm is done. This is a thing which most persons do not hesitate to postpone, and in the case of riding to town, a delay of one or two hours is involved. This never can occur with impunity, in any single instance, to any person living. This very little thing, — postponing nature's daily bowel actions ; failing to have them with regularity, — is the cause of all cases of piles and anal fistulas, to say nothing of various other forms of disease : fever, dyspepsia, headache, and the whole family of neuralgias. A man had better lose a dinner, better sacri- fice the earnings of a day, than repress the call of nature ; for it will inevitably lead to constipation, the attendant and aggravator of almost every disease. To arrange this thing safely, breakfast should be had at such an early time as to allow a full half hour's leisure between the close of the meal and the time of leaving for the cars. WATER CURE. One of the most powerful of remedial means is the use of cold water — powerful for good or ill. Much of the prejudice existing against it is unjust, having arisen from its injudicious application by incompetent men. Any valuable remedy is liable to abuse. Beyond all question calomel, in the estima- tion of the Old School, is worth all the other remedies of A.llopathic Materia Medica; but nine tenths of those who emjiloy it do so injudiciously, and one of the great reasons of WATER CURE. 353 this injudicious use is in the fact that inconsiderate practi- tioners, living in one section of the country, have takeu " reported cases " from other and distant sections for their guide. So with the errors of water cure. Its wise and safe applica- tion consults the varying habits, tcniperamcnts, constitutions, and modes of life of those who employ it. The truly intel- ligent men who practise the water cure, owe it to the repu- tation of a useful remedy to impress upon their younger brethren the value of a thoughtful discrimination in every case. A lady of unusual intelligence writes, — " I was so unfortunate as to be over-treated at a water-cure. I believed the doctor did his best to cure me, but the treat- ment was too powerful for a person the most marked feature of whose case has always been great depression of vital power. It produced entire sleeplessness. It was more. I was preter- naturally awake. For four days and nights I did not lose my consciousness for a single moment. When, at the end of this time, and life was almost extinct, I would fall asleep, and for a week sleep some, after a fashion ; then another of those ter- rible attacks of sleeplessness would come on, and run its course, no matter what was clone. In this way I suffered for more than a year, and then I began to sleep better ; but I am sure my itystem received a great shock, and I doubt if I ever sleep as u'cll as other people. I have been obliged to give up cold bathing altogether. A single bath will deprive me of the power of sleeping. I now use tepid sponging every other day, with soap, and think it agrees with me." We knew an estimable gentleman some years ago, of small vitality, and very feeble constitution. He could not keep warm. The cold-water mania seized him at this time ; he carried it to the greatest extremes, when chronic diarrhoea set in, and he died. He had two small children — girls — of three and five years. His theory was, that to secure them a hardihood of constitu- tion, they must have a cold bath every morning. They would regularly come from the bath shivering with cold, lips and finger nails blue, even in summer, and it would be a long time before they could get warm. Their mother, an unresist- ing Quaker woman, of great excellence of character, saw her 354 BODILY ENDURANCE. children paling away before her daily, while her husband had become so fonatical that she saw argument and remonstrance >vould be alike unavailing. His death terminated these vio- lences. The children rallied soon after, and grew up in excel- lent health, and for aught we know are alive and well to this day. The idea which we wish to impress upon the minds of our readers is, cold water is a valuable and powerful remedy, but as a remedy in any decided ailment it should never be em- ployed except by the direction of a physician of experience and education. Scientific h3^dropathy is no more responsible for the abuse of cold water as a remedy in disease, than are the Old School doctors for the abuse of calomel by ignorant or reckless per- sons. In the hands of experienced men, both are remedies of very gi'eat value, and both in their places are indispensable. Our general opinion is, that all children under ten years of age, all invalids, people of thin flesh, and those who are easily chilled, should always wash their limbs and bodies in warm water, with soap and brush, in a room almost as warm as the water itself. BODILY ENDURANCE. An ecclesiastic, whose keenness of logic, whose thorough scholarship, whose depth of thought and breadth of view h^ve made his name familiar to both hemispheres, in a pri- vate letter gives us credit for possessing a sounder theology man half the ministers in the land. May be he had not learned that we have considered it a self-evident proposition that the human heart was the seat of a depravity all-pervading. In that respect we are John Calvin, and, if anything different, ivith a bend baclnvards. We do not believe that every hu- man heart is equally bad ; some are worse than others, incal- culably worse, just as of several glasses of pure water, a few drops of ink will color the whole body of water in one glass, making it totally discolored — not an atom of it that is not colored some ; a few additional drops will give a more dis- tinct coloring to the next glass, so that of each glass it may BODILY ENDURANCE. 355 l»e bald, as to the water within it, it is totally discolored, yet FOine are of a deeper black than others ; but all are blackened — every particle of each glass is discolored. No atom of any Sflass is clear ; so no one outgoing of the human heart, in its natural state, is clear, is pure, is without a stain. But the extent of that stain, the depth of its blackness, has a strong exhibition in one of the British Reviews. The article is en- titled " Christian Missions a Failure." That is to say^ all the money expended by missionaries for the purpose of enabling the heathen to read the Bible, has been a bad investment; that the effort made to enlighten the nations for a century or two past has " cost more than it comes to " — the good done has not been commensurate with the money expended. We can scarcely conceive of a piece of more virulent, ill- natured malignity tlian that which must have pervaded the heart of the writer at the time of his penning the article. We can all appreciate the feeling which prompts the using of a dagger — deliberate, determined, vengeful, murderous ! We would handle such a one in this way : Your composition shows that you are highlj'- educated, that your associations have been of an elevated character, and that you would shrink from making yourself liable to the charge of being wanting in gentlemanly bearing or honorable dealing. But none of this money was yours, not a cent of it. The persons who made that money appropriated it willingly in tlue direction of an object which you yourself admit is desirable. Do you think it altogether proper for one gentleman to dictate to another how he shall spend his own money, or when he has spent it to inform him that it was improperly done, and hint that it would have been a great deal better if he had appro- priated it in a different direction ? Intermeddling, an officious interference with the pecuniary expenditures of a neighbor, of a fellow-citizen, dictating to him as to its appropriation — what is it ? What would you do in the j)remiscs ? Here are a number of people who are anxious that certain persons, strangers to them, should be taught how to read the Bible, thinking that it would promote their happiness ; and thus thinking, they, with a noble consistency, use their own money largely to purchase the Bibles, and to send persons to teach how to use them ; and here is a man in Scotland, a cul- 356 BODILY ENDURANCE. tivatcd scholar, raised in the bosom of the church, engajrin" without fee or reward in an effort to throw ridicule on the attempts of those benevolent men ; and in order to make his shafts more efficient, falsifies history, falsifies fact. Verily, wo can scarcely imagine, under all the circumstances, a greater depth of innate malignity against the Christian reli- gion. There is one man totally depraved, and the depth of the blackness is unmistakable. The great burden of Bible teach- ing is love to all human kind, industry in all human calliuga, temperance in all human enjoyments, and unflinching justice in all human transactions ; a book which encourages no wron"- doing ; which winks at no vice, tolerates no crime ; and here is a man who seeks to thwart the efforts of nobler hearts to make this book available to the millions of our earth, who else will die Avithout its sight — opposing these efforts on the ground that they cost too much money, not a dollar of which was his. How deeply dark, how unfathomably mean must that man's heart be ! what a disgrace to the noble land w^hich gave him birth ! May he live to feel ashamed of all that he has written. So far from Christian missions being a foilure, one single individual within a single lifetime has been the menus of ini- tiating instrumentalities which have done more to break up the slave trade,, than have the fleets of the three greatest nations on the globe for the last quarter of a century ; a single indi- vidual, by shutting himself out of civilized society for eighteen years, consorting wdth savages, traversing deserts, swimming rivers, torn by wild beasts, famished by w^ant, and tortured by fiercest fevers, has opened a door to the civiliza- tion of a whole continent, occupied by millions of human beings of whose existence the world never dreamed, — an interior continent with its fruitful plains, and navigable rivers, and rich forests, — the people themselves comparatively harm- less, friendly, and docile ; and this man is a Christian mis- sionary, a ph^^sician — Dr. Livingstone, w'ho has "endured more anxious moments, experienced difficulties and perils, and performed grander and more noble deeds than any Cri- mean hero ;" of whom the Earl of Shaftesbury declared, " His great regearchcs and operations will be followed by great and mighty benefits to the whole human race ; " while Colonel Sii BODILY ENDURANCE. 357 R. H. Eawlinson, the learned Oriental traveller, expressed his belief that Dr. Livingstone had laid the train which would raise interior Africa, with its untutored millions, from the depths of savage degradation. This unpretending missionary has made himself old in forty years ; his face is furrowed by hardships and thirty fevers, and literally black by exposure for sixteen years to an Afri- can sun ; his left arm crushed and made helpless by a fero- cious lion. Having i:)assed through all these privations, he made a journey of a thousand miles on foot, and then farther on into an unknown country, stopping not until he had added to his discoveries that of a river navigation of two thousand miles. And while he has done so much for humanity, at so much personal toil and suffering, here is a Scotchman in scho- lastic Edinburgh, who quietly sits down in his own study and writes " Christian Missions a Failure " — " cost more money than the benefits attained pay for." The life of the great missionary presents several features of physiological interest. 1. The constitution of man adapts itself to all climates. 2. The hardships which the human body can endure are incredible until seen, and when encountered without the use f)f spirituous liquors, leave the constitution as firm and as capa- ble of new endurances as it was at the beginning. 3. In all great undertakings requiring persistent endur- unce of toil, and privation, and exposure, those are most likely to succeed who discard alcoholic drinks of every de- scription, and make up their minds to the temperate indul- gence of all the appetites. 4. Systematic temperance in eating and drinking is capa- ble of shielding the human body from the pestilences of all climes, and from the fatal diseases of all latitudes. 5. That the hardships which great travellers are called to encounter do, by their large exposure to out-door air and daily bodily activity, consolidate the constitution and make it more healthy, while the mental powers take their share of increased vigor and activity. 26 358 GETTING WORSE. GETTING WORSE. "The vror d is worse than it used to was," is the expressed entimeut of many a poor, unfortunate, woe-begonc, used-up fellow. His face is as long as a fence rail — as dolefully seri- ous as Dan Tucker without his dinner — as blue as an indigo bag. He lives down in the cellar himself, and thinks all the world is doing the same thing. Being of no account, doing nothing, he thinks all creation is like his old shoe, "going down heel," while he is too lazy to pull it up. He is of the 2^everwas family. Everything and everybody compares im- favorably with the things and bodies of his youth ; he excepts himself, of course ; and while he is the most striking illustra- tion of going backward, he is a firm believer that he alone of all creation has made progress. Who are the people that will have it that the summers are hotter, the winters colder, the beef tougher, the turkeys smaller, the pigs poorer, the pota- toes more watery? They never saw the eggs so small, or corn- ears so short ; the girls are uglier, the boys ruder ; the minis- ters don't preach as much gospel, nor judges administer the same law ; the sun does not shine so bright, nor do the skies look so clear ; there is less color in the grass and less bloom on the rose. In short, the whole world is getting worse, and they are tired of it — in which last the world accords its heartiest reciprocity, for the very good reason, they are of no account to anybody. But Avho are the persons most given to depreciate the present? Not the money-making man, not the energetic mechanic, who finds he h^s more than he can do ; not Ihe clergyman, whose influences for good pervade a whole community, and whose pulpit is surrounded by respectful multitudes. The fact is, the world is retrograding only to those who are themselves ffoinof down hill. When a man begins to croak about " hard times," and about eve-rybody get- ting worse, the whole world included, it behooves him to in- quire if it is not he himself who is thus depreciating in value, in his industry, his activity, his sterling worth, and his high resolution. Energetic men are not croakers. The resolute, and those whose motto is "Upward" — whose actions show SOAP SUBS AT TEN DOLLARS A GALLON. 359 "progress," — are not the men who feel disposed to believe in coming ruin. No ; tliere is progress everywhere — elevation in precept and in practice everywhere around us. In all call- ings do liberal views prevail. Take the whole question, and let a single fact decide it. Where a dollar was given in pri- vate charity a hundred j'^ears ago to found a college, endow a seminary, build a hospital, or sustain an asylum, millions are now bestowed. A hundred years ago the pence only were given to humanity ; now it is the pound. Be of good cour- age, then, ye noble workers of good ! This world is better for your life, and daily is rising into the more perfect similitude of what it shall be, when, donning its millennial garb, it shall be tJie ■'iun of all worlds ! SOAP SUDS AT TEN DOLLARS A GALLON 1 A MONEY-MAKING busiucgs that. But is any man so ver- dant as to pay such a price for an article which can be made for six cents a gallon? Yes, there are ten thousand men and women who are regular customers, and have been for years in succession — at least so we judge from developments made at a special term of the Supreme Court in the city of New York, Judge Duer presiding. On the hearing, the receipt for making the " Balm of a Thousand Flowers " was produced, and it appeared that it was compounded of grease, lye, sugar, and alcohol, dignified by the name of palm oil, potash, &c. We have seen it recommended in the papers, with various cer- tificates, as the best thing in the world to make the hair grow, to keep the face and hands clean, and to perfume the whole body generally. It so happens that it is a fact that soap suds is the best thing known to keep people clean, to shave with, or to make the hair grow, when it can be made at all, or to keep it from falling out when it has been brought to that state by plastering the scaip and hair with hogs' lard, or any other form of fat, for months in succession — this same oil being " good for " making all floating dust and dirt adhere to the bair, when in a reasonable time a layer of grease and dirt is found spread over the scalp, closing up the pores, destroy- 360 AN EASY DEATH. iiig the vitality of the hair, causing it to fall out by the roots. Under such circumstances, the "Balm of a Thousand Flowers " is truly a useful article, for its thorough application will be followed by the growth of the hair, when it has been prevented from growing by accumulated filth, or by se- vere sickness. But, then, soap suds will do the same thing, by adding a little spirits of hartshorn or alcohol. In our judgment, therefore, there is no hair tonic known more effi- cient and appropriate for the masses than a bottle of " Balm 1 .jf a Thousand Flowers," at one dollar, or half a pint of soap suds at one cent. Similar percentages do patent medicines yield, with the drawback, however, of their failing uniformly] to meet the reasonable expectations of the purchasers. AN EASY DEATH. Not the least of all the rewards of a life of systematic tem-| perance, is that of an easy death. The whole machinery of j the body wears out together. Its fly-wheels and its rollers, its cogb', its scapements, and its springs, lose all their power] by equal and slow degrees. No one part runs on in the full! vigor of its newness while others are wholly incapacitated.] " He suffered a thousand deaths in his last illness," is the! familiar description of the closing scene of many. And why?! Because one part of the complicated machinery had worn out! before its time, from having been overtasked, or had been! made a wreck of by destructive habits or exposures. It is! the being "temperate in all things" to which the sacrec Scriptures attach the blessing of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come ; to which we may allowably attach the meaning, enjoyment of to-day, exemption from suffering on to-morrow. Present health and an easy death are the uniform perquisites of those who obey the Scripture injunction in the love of it. No less a violation of the inflexible law of our being is it to wear out the throat by vociferous preaching ; or the voice organs by injudicious singing ; or the brain by ruthless habits of mental appliances ; or the eyes by persistence in night SLEEP OF CHILDREN, 3G1 study; or the imagination by unlicensed delving into the '* hidden wisdom," in order to be wise above that which is written ; or the stomach by taxing it daily with a labor it was never formed to accomplish ; or the hands themselves, or feet, by imposing a task on their capabilities which they were never made to endure ; we say these are no less infractions of physical law than are wiMul violations of written moral precepts. As to the latter, we have an " Advocate " who can " clear " us ; from the former no power can deliver, short of the miraculous, and that it is useless to expect. It is the regular and temperate who live long. It is the very old who die without sickness or pain — whose lamp of life goes out as gently as the last flicker of an expiring caudle. Cornaro died at ninety -six, without the illness of a day. Old Aunt Hay died among the nineties, without the sickness of an hour. The Rev. Mr. Davies, of England, had no disease of any kind during his life except poor sight, and died at the age of a hundred and five years. If, then, we covet an "easy death " as to the body, let us obey the Book of books in being "temperate in all things." And more, if we would " die easy" as to the more immortal part, the soul, let us still cling to the guardianship of that sacred volume, and be, like Cornelius, men "without guile," striving " to have always a conscience void of ofience toward God and toward men." SLEEP OF CHILDREN. Many a bright and beautiful child is destroyed, or made idiotic for life by their nurses, in one of two ways. By the administration of laudanum, paregoric, opium, or other form of anodyne. By teaching self-abuse, in order that the exhaustion it pro- duces should promote sleep. Medical books abound in cases of this lamentable character. How to guard against them with most efiicacy, is worthy of inquii"}'. All children, under five years of age, will be made the 362 TROUBLE KILLS. better, healthier, happier, and more good-natured, by an un- disturbed sleep of one or two hours in the forenoon. Children under eighteen months may require two day-naps in summer time. If a child is regularly put to sleep at the same time, for only three or four days in succession, the habit will so rapidly grow upon it, that with the aid of quiet and a little darkening of the room, it will, if well, fall to sleep within a few minutes of the time, for weeks and months in succession : such is na- ture's love for system and regularity. We appeal, then, to every mother, as she values the securi- ty, the health, happiness, and sanity of her children, to adopt this inflexible rule. Never allow a child to be put to sleep by any servant, on any pretence whatever, nor permit it to go to sleep at any other than the regular time ; and then put the child to sleep yourself, and, if properly managed, all that you have to do is, to take the child to a quiet, darkened room, place it in the bed with a few affectionate words, uttered in a kindly tone, leave it, and it will be asleep in five minutes, without rocking, singing, coaxing, or anything else. It is wonderful how soon a child learns to do a thing as a matter of course, when it is put in a proper habit by a quiet and kindly firmness. By such a plan of operation, it will be seen that all induce- ment to make a child sleepy, by either of the fearful practices named, is taken away from the servant. To all mothers we say, you cannot safely trust your children out of your sight with one servant in a million ; and, least of all, to one of the plausible sort, who have a ready " O yes, ma'am," to every inquiry or request you have to make. TEOUBLE KILLS. The secret sorrow ot the mind, a sorroAV which must be kept, how it wilts away the whole man, himself all uncon- scious, meanwhile, of its murderous effect I He cannot feel that he is approaching death, because he is sensible of no pain ; in fact he has no feeling, but an indescribable sensation TROUBLE KILLS. 363 perceived about the physical heart. Lord Raghm, command- er-in-chief of the British army before Sebastopol, the bosonj friend of the Duke of Wellington for forty years, — of whom partial friends have often said, " his character seemed without a flaw," — such a man died, figuratively, of a broken heart. In a moment, almost, trouble came like a whirlwind ; ava- lanche followed avalanche, in such quick succession, that no time was left for the torn spirit to rise above its wounds. The British government, quailing before popular clamor, left the brave old man to bear the brunt alone, because it could not aflbrd to recall him, and yet had not the courage to sus- tain him. While the tone of official communications deprived him of his sleep, weighing heavily upon him and breaking his gallant spirit, the failure at the Redan closely followed. On reaching headquarters, a letter was in waiting, which an- nounced the death of the last surviving member of a large family of brothers and sisters ; the next day, the death of a general, his old companion in arms. Next came the news that the gallant son of Lord Lyons was sinking under his wounds. These things, coming so rapidly one after another, in the course of a few hours, as it were, caused such a change in his appearance, all unknown to himself however, that his physician had to request him to take to his bed, and within forty-eight hours he died, without supposing himself to be in any danger whatever. Within a j^ear a worthy lady in Ohio sickened, in conse- quence of some wholly groundless rumors affecting her char- acter in the community into which she had recently moved. She knew they w^ere groundless ; she knew the motives of the miserable wretches w^ho originated them ; but her dellcatc- and sensitive spirit shrunk before the shock, retreated withiL itself, and, all torn and bleeding, she died ! Within a few months, a most excellent clergyman found the feelings of his people so generally against him that he resignea his office. The resignation was accepted ; but all under such circumstances, that it was really a dismissal, and that, too, for causes which ought to have made every member of the community stand up to him like a man. Conscious of hi.' •Qtegrity, and feeling that he had been badly dealt with, hi. .sensibilities received a shock which earned him to a prema ture grave in a few days. 364 CHAPPED HANDS. " You are worse than you should be from the fever yo u have. Is your miud at ease? " said a quick-sighted physician to a sleepless, wasting patient. "No, it is not," was the frank reply, and the last recorded words of Oliver Goldsmith, whose "Vicar of Wakefield" and "The Deserted Villaije" will only die with the English language. Died at the age of forty-six, of a malady of the mind, from blasted hopes and unkind speeches of the world around him ! He was a man whose heart was large enough and kind enough to have made a whole world happy, whose troubles arose from his humani ty ; yet the base things said of him, so undeserved, so malig nant and untrue, "broke his heart." In view of these facts, let parents early impress on the minds of children. It is not what they are charged with, but what they are guilty of, that should occasion trouble or re- morse ; that a carping world should not blanch the cheek or break the spirit, so long as there is conscious rectitude within. And let all learn what the commonest humanity dictates, to speak no word, write no line, do no deed, which would wound the feelings of any human creature, unless under a sense of duty, and even then, let it be wisely and long con- sidered. CHAPPED HANDS. This is an annoyance in winter-time ; while to keep them soft and white is sometimes very desirable. To do this, wash the hands not more than once or twice a day, and alwaj's in water a little warm, using the finest, purest white soap. Rinse them well, so that the soap be entirely removed, then wipe them with a soft, dry towel, closing the operation vy rubbing the hands with one another very freely until there is a feeling of comfortable softness in them. At bed-time, especially of the coldest days, a few drops of sweet oil should be most thoroughly rubbed with one hand into the other. If coal must be handled, or fires made or replenished, do not go near the fire until a pair of gloves, lined with some soft material, are put on. A WIFE WORTH HAVING. 365 A WIFE WORTH HAVING. A LADY writes, "At present I do all my own work, cook for five in family, sweep, dust, and build fires ; take care of my two little ones, teach eight piano pupils, giving to each two hours a week, give three lessons a week to a class in vocal music, besides classes in the school-room several hours every day. In addition, I canvass for pupils, receive our friends, retire at half past eleven, and rise at five in the morning. But I find my eyes growing heavy, and my bonea ache with servitude." Who does not feel that a woman of such energy ought to succeed? Who does not regret that she should be called to perform labors so multifarious and so incongruous. In view of this, there are multitudes of married women, not "wives," who may well hide their foccs in shame, Avho, with no larger family, have a cook and housemaid, and yet are ceaselessly complaining of how much trouble they have, how they are worn out with work ; who can dilate indefinitely on the hardness of their lot, and who, without earning a dollar a week, complain of being tired of living in such destitution, and cry and pout by the hour whenever a coveted silk dress, or beauty of a bonnet, or love of a point-lace collar or cuflf is not procured, on the slightest intimation of being wanted — we do not say " asked for." There are women who think themselves descending, to ask their husbands for anything ; who want money placed where they can get it at will, without any account of its expenditure ; women who, in the vacillation of business, meet the prudent suggestions of re- trenchment with impatient reproaches, if not with downright epithet and rage; who never inquire, "Can we afibrd it?" who cannot brook the delay of a few days, until the " quar- ter's rent " is paid ; who would not fail to be present at the " opening " of an autocratic milliner, even if it risked their husband a bank protest. What was the manner of the rearing of such wives? As daughters, they were allowed to have their own way ; every wish was gratified, every obstacle was removed from their 366 TEE ATB WE BREATHE. path without aoy effort of their own. They were never allowed the opportunity of a self-denial, and were practically taught that the convenience and comfort of mother, father, brothers, everybody, must be sacrificed to their own ; hence they grew up selfish, impatient of control, and, too often, to their own undoing and that of their husbands. THE AIR WE BREATHE. The air we breathe is composed of one part oxygen and four parts nitrogen. The former supports life, the latter ex- tinguishes it. The more oxygen there is, the livelier, the healthier, and the more joyful are we ; the more nitrogen, the more sleepy, and stupid, and dull do we become. But if all the air were oxygen, the first lighted match would wrap the world in instant flame ; if all were nitrogen, the next instant there would not be upon the populated globe a single living creature. When oxygen was discovered by Priestly, nearly one hun- dred years ago, there was a universal jubilation among doctors and chemists. The argument was plausible, and seemed perfectly convincing, " If oxygen is the life and health of the atmosphere, as we have found out how to make oxygen, we have only to increase the quantity in the air we breathe, in order to wake up new life, to give health to the diseased, and youth to the aged." But, on trial, it was found that it made a man a maniac or a fool, and, if continued, a corpse. Various other experiments have been made, to improve upon the handiwork of the all-wise Maker of the universe ; but they have been successive failures, and thinking men have long since come to the conclusion, that as there cm be no improve- ment upon the cohl water of the first creation in slaking thirst, so there can no addition be made to pure air which will better answer its life-sustaining purposes. And, as there is not, in all nature, a still, warm atmosphere, that does not instantly begin to generate decay, corruption, and death, so there is no chamber of the sick, graduated to a degree, that will not hasten the end desired to be averted. Nor is "FIFTEEN YEARS IN BELL." 3G7 there an atom in nature which can add to the health and life- givhig influence of the pure air of heaven ; for, if it disp/iices the oxygen, in the same proportion does it diminish its life; and, if it displaces the nitrogen, just to the same extent does it loosen the conservative power of nature, and kindle up a fever which is to burn up the body. "FIFTEEN YEARS IN HELL!" " Fifteen years in hell ! " as, with a stamp of the foot, he dashed on the table the pen which had just made him a bank- rupt and a beggar, was the exclamation of a gentleman of sixty, who had been born and reared in luxury and wealth. This excellent man, in the course of business, had become involved, but was hoping and striving, as honorable men do, to "work out of his embarrassments ; " and, for all that long time, he did work, and worked hard, — allowed himself nc indulgences, sacrificed his large property freely, whenever necessary to " meet an engagement." But all would not do ; and he closed the strife by saying, " I am old, and poor, and have no home I " Not long ago, a gentleman who had failed in business, but had subsequently paid all his debts, and was now acting in a capacity which, while it involved no pecuniary responsibility, M'as sufficient to enable him and his family to live comfortably, said, " I am one of the happiest men in New York, and no amount of money could induce me to repeat my former career. I could not do it. The efibrts to keep up the name of our firm would now eat out my mind." Another gentleman, still in active business, who lives in his own house, and who is adding to his fortune every year, said, with the seriousness of a man who, in a moment's retrospec- tion, had lived over the strifes of a quarter of a century of business, " Could I have known, the day I entered New York a poor boy, the cares and anxieties which I have had to en- counter, Manhattan Island, and all that is upon it, would not have presented the slightest inducement to undertake the task." 368 '' FIFTEEN YEARS IN EELL." Within a month a gentleman, whose "house," in a single year, cleared six hundred thousand dollars in legitimate busi- ness, has been sent to the lunatic asylum, and has since died, at an age but little beyond that at which men are fairly pre- pared to live to purpose. Little does the careless, and penniless, and light-hearted passer-by of the splendid palaces of Fifth Avenue, and Union Square, and Fourteenth Street, imagine what storms of passion and of fear, what wrecks of heart and hope, what withering of the sweet joys and anticipations of youth, ^^hat a drying up of the better and purer feelings of our nature, these stately mansions have sometimes cost their owners. "What did that house cost you?" is not an infrequent in- quiry. " I am ashamed to tell you ; " or, " More than it is worth," is a very common response. The true answer, in too many instances, is, "It has cost me my soul." To maintain a good name at bank, at the exchange, or on the " street," is an idolatry with many New Yorkers ; and to that idol, rather than be sacrificed, men will offer heart, con- bcience, independence, everything. A good name, certainly, can never be overvalued ; it is worth more than millions of money to the man in business ; it is as much his duty as his interest to maintain it at any pecuniary cost, at any personal sacrifice ; and it is highly creditable to our business commu- nity that so honorable a feeling generally prevails. But the error consists in men placing themselves in positions which present the strongest of all possible temptations to sacrifice independence, and heart, and conscience, in order to maintain their standing in the business world. Beyond all question, the great, the most universal error of the age in this country is the disregard of the scriptural warning against " hasting to be rich ; " and this neglect brings with it, in multitudes of cases which we never dream of, the premature decay of body and mind together, and, in the sweeping ruin, carries with it down to death, truth, manliness, heart, conscience, all! — confirming the saymg, " They that will be rich fall into temp- tation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition ; — which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." And again, TEA DRINKING. 3Gi3 **He that raaketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." " He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon hira." TEA DRINKING. If the question be narrowed down to "Tea, or no Tea," wo advocate the weed. The world will be the happier and healthier by the moderate use of any of the China teas, in their purity, than without them. The immoderate use of cold water is prejudicial to health, whether as a drink or a lavement, and so is the immoderate use of bread and butter. It is the argument of a fanatic to say, that, because the ex- cessive use of anything is injurious, it should, therefore, be discarded altogether. Chemistry decides that the essential elements of coffee and tea are identical, and are nutritious. Tea is a stimulant, and so is any other nutritive article. That which imparts no stimulus is not fit for food. An ordi- nary meal stimulates the pulse to a greater activity by five or ten per cent. Tea, being used warm, and at meal-time, promotes diges- tion by its warmth, as any other warm drink would do. Any cold drink, even water, taken at meal-time, arrests the progress of digestion, until it is raised to a heat of about a hundred degrees, and, if that arrest be too long protracted, convulsions follow, and sometimes death, — as has happened to children many times, by eating a couple of hard-boiled eggs hastily, or upon an empty stomach, or, indeed, eating much of any indigestible article. Thus it is, that, as far as the use of tea at our meals banishes the use of cold water at meals, it is a safeguard. Late and hearty suppers destroy multitudes, either out- right in a night, or in the insidious progress of months and years. It is almost the universal custom to take tea for sup- per. It is a stimulant. It aids the stomach in digesting more than it would have done, just in proportion to its stimulating qualities. And, as all eat too much at supper- 370 TEA DRINKING. time, tliG general use of warm t^* .is a drink, at the last meal of the day, is beneficial in the direction just named. True wisdom lies in the moderate use of all the good things of this life. It is stated that, at a tea-party of sixty old women, in England, it was ascertained that they were the mothers of eight hundred and sixty-nine children. The presumption is, that these women were tea-drinkers habitually, and it is equally inferable that they did not drink it very "weak;" yet they were healthy enough to be old, and healthy enough to be the mothers of large families. An isolated fact proves nothing, but this one is suggestive. It is, then, safer and healthier to take a cup of warm tea for supper, than a glass of cold water. With our habits of hearty suppers, it is better to take a cup of warm tea, than to take no drink at all. By the extravagant use of tea, many persons pass their nights in restlessness and dreams, without being aware of the causo of it. We advise such to experiment on them- selves, and omit the tea altogether at supper, for a few times, and notice the result. If you sleep better, it is clear that you have been using too much tea, in quantity or strength. In order to be definite, we consider the following to be a moderate use of tea : A single cup at each meal, as to quan- tity ; as to strength, measure it thus : put a teaspoonful in a hot teapot ; pour on a quart of boiling water ; two thirds of a teacup of this, adding a third of cream, or boiling milk, or iiot water, with sugar or not; this is strong enough. We believe that such use of China teas, by excluding cold drinks at our meals, and by their nutritious and pleasantly stimulating character, may be practised for a lifetime to very great advantage, without any drawback whatever ; cofiee also. We believe that the world, and all that is created upon it, IS for man ; and that the rational use of its good things wiU promote the health and happiness of all mankind. COLD BATHINO. '6l\ COLD BATHING. We detest cold bathing, in summer or winter, except it be to jump into a river, splurge about for two or three minutes, and then dress, and walk home as hastily as possible. All animate nature, except the hydric, instinctively shrinks fi'om the application of cold water, if in health. Everybody knows that cf Id water cannot wash the hands clean, and yet whole tomes arb scribbled about the purifying cfiects of cold water. Cold water kills more than it cures. Hundreds of children are killed every year by fanatical mothers sousing them, head and ears, in cold Avater every day. We never saw a modern bath-tub until we were thirty yearp of age, and ever since the sight we have not ceased to hate it with great cordiality, on account of the mischief which it con- stantly occasions. The ordinary use of a bath-tub is an indecency. A great deal of stufl' is printed about the bathing habits of the ancients, about the Eastern nations, and their love of the bath. What if they did love it? The ancients have all gone to grass long ^go, and " Eastern nations " are going to pot as fast as possi- ble, individually and collectively ! The average of human life is shorter, by many years, among the Eastern peoples than among the Western. Of three hundred inhabitants m the United States, only four persons die every year, while six die in England, and eight in France, and the farther we go " east" (he greater is the mortality. As to the United States, it is the healthiest country on the globe, as a whole ; according to the last statistics, Virginia, the very embodiment of the " Great Unwashed," is the healthiest of her healthy sisters, and next comes North Carolina, all smoked with pine knots, ana berjrimed with coal-dust and tar : and it is doubtful if one in leu thousand of its fomilies ever saw a modern bath-tub. How many of our grandsires, now hale and hearty at three- score and ten, ever felt a shower-bath, or jumped into a tub of cold water to wash themselves? Who are they, amongst the beautiful women of present or past time, whose cheeks are «he softest, and remain the longest free from the wrinkles of 572 COLD BATHING. age ? They are those who never washed their faces in cold water; and if, indeed, they were washed at all, it was do;'*? with warm water, or spirits of wine, as practised in the times of Louis Quatorze. Soft as velvet is the cheek of infancy • and it only groiws harsh, and hard, and rough as the practice gains of washing them with cold water. A pig gets no cleaner by wallowing in a puddle ; yet men and women wallow in a bath-tub, diluting the excretions from nameless parts of the person, to come in contact with the '"leaner hands and face, and even lips, it may be ! People talk glibl}' about the bathing habits of Eastern na- tions, and the cleanliness of the Houris, who grace the Turkisn harem, and then we essay an imitation in this fashion: A Turk takes a hot bath, we take a cold one ; we jump into a bath-tub, a thing which no decent Turk ever does. We ques- tion if there is a single bath-tub in all the dominions of the Sultan, unless it be the pet property of some Avater-mad Yankee. A Turk washes himself under a stream of running water, after a vigorous first-scrubbing ; so that no impure particle, loosened from one part of the body, can, by possi- bility, come in contact with the body again. We wash our- selves in bath-rooms as cold as Greenland : the Turk cleanses himself in an apartment almost as hot as an oven. We really cannot see how a man can make himself clean in a bath-tub, after the usual fashion. The sum of the whole matter is this : If we want to cul- tivate habits of personal cleanliness and health, let us, at rational intervals, say once a week, have a room, in fire-time, which shows seventy degrees of Fahrenheit, and with strong soap-suds and a hog's-hair brush, let the whole body be most thoroughly scrubbed, almost as effectually as if we were rubbing a grease spot out of a plank floor, then let the whole surface be rinsed with warm water, running from the spigot. When that is done, an instantaneous souse in a bath-tub, or Better still, a bucket of cold water dashed on the head, falling all over the naked person, and then to be wiped dry and dress in two minutes — that indeed is a glorious luxury to any gro^ii person not an invalid. That " taking a bath " requires the exercise of a sound judgment, and that without this, it is uot unattended with fatal consequences, New Yorkers especial- WEARING FLANNEL. 373 •y ba\e recently had some sad lessons. The lovely young wife of our national representative at Rome went from the dinner-table to a warm bath, and died in a few hours. One f)f our most distinguished lawyers, the stale's attorney, we believe, was found dead in his bath-room. Mortimer I^iving- ston, one of New York's noblest merchants, "took a bath one morning, remaining in the water a long time. On coming out, he complained of cold over his entire person, and all tho means made use of to restore warmth failed ; he lingered a while, and died in a few days, aged fifty years," in the very prime of life I Bishop Heber, the author of that charming hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," died from the effects of a bath : and how many thousands of children arc annually hurried into the grave by injudicious washings, we will not hazard to conjecture. Let those who are wise learn from these things a lesson ; and let none controvert the statements made but those who Know something, and can give whole facts. WEARING FLANNEL. Put on, the first week of November, a good, substantial, old-fashioned, home-made, loose, red woollen flannel shirt, and do not lay it aside for a thinner article, at least until the firsi day of May, even in the latitude of New Orleans. We advise the redy because it does not full up, thicken, and become leathery by wearing. Wear it only in the daytime, unless you are very much of an invalid ; then change it for a similar one to sleep in — letting the t^^o hang alternately on a chair to dry in a warm dry room. If leaving it off at night gives you a cold, never mind it; persevere until you take no more cold by the omission. No one ceases to wear shoes because they caused corns ; it is the proper use of things which makes them innocuous. The less you wear at night, the more good will your clothing do you in the daytime. Those who wear a great deal of clothing al night, must wear that much more in the day, or tbey will feel 27 374 WEARING FLANNEL. chilly all the time ; and our own observation teaches us, that the people who muffle up most are the most to complain of taking cold. But why wear flannel next the skin, in preference to silk or cotton ? Because it is warmer ; it conveys heat away from the body less rapidly ; does it so slowly, that it is called a non- conductor; it feels less cold when we touch it to the skin than silk or cotton. If the three are wetted, the flannel feels less co'd at the first touch, and gets warm sooner than silk or cotton, and does not cling to the skin when damp as much as they do. We know what a shock of coldness is imparted to the skin when, after exercise and perspiration, an Irish linen shirt •worn next the skin is brought in contact, by a change of position, with a part of the skin which it did not touch a mo- ment before — often sending a shivering chill through the whole system. A good deal has been said and written about silk being best on account of its electrical agencies ; but all that is guess- work. We are mere blind leaders of the blind when we talk about that subtle agent ; and until we knoAV more of it, it is the greater wisdom to be guided by our sensations. Another reason why woollen flannel is better is, that while cot- ton and silk absorb the perspiration, and are equally saturated with it, a woollen garment conveys the moisture to its outside, where the microscope, or a very good eye, will see the water standing in innumerable drops. This is shown any hour, by covering a profusely sweating horse with a blanket, and let him stand still. In a short time the hair and inner surface of the blanket will be dry, while the moisture will be felt on the outside. If we would be wise, we must use our senses, and observe for ourselves. Some persons prefer white flannel, which may be prevented from fulling up if first well washed in pretty Avarm soap-suds, then rinsed in one water as hot as can be well borne by the !uuid. After being once made, a woollen white flannel shirt should never be put in cold water, but always washed as above, not by putting soap on it, but by Avashing it iu soap-suds, not verv hot HOT-AIR FURNACES. 375 HOT-AIR FURNACES. Hot-air furnaces ought not to be tolerated ; they ruin tho wood-work of any building, ruin the furniture, and, more than all, impair the health of every person who breathes the atmosphere of houses thus heated by them. Warm air relax- es, debilitates, the world over; cool air braces up, gives tone, vigor, power, to the whole frame. Warm air evaporates every article that has moisture in it, — fluids, meats, vegetables — everything : these particles are distributed all through the air of the house, to the exclusion, to that extent, of the life-giving oxygen ; so that not one sin- gle breath of pure air is taken into the lungs, as long as the person occupies such a house ; and when it is remembered that during the most inclement season of the 3'ear there are days, even weeks, during which the very young and the very old of the family, as also the invalids, do not pass outside the door, it is not to be wondered at that there is not one day, during all the winter, in which health dwells in any house- hold so warmed. But a great deal of the ill effect of furnace- heated rooms may be obviated, if the fireplace is always kept open ; but in very cold weather there should be fire in the fireplace, in order to create a more decided draught towards it, so as to promote a circulation, and carry the bad air more rapidly up through the chimney, and out of the 1 mil din ST. It is a great mistake, and an almost universal one, that sud- den changes from one temperature to another are prejudicial to health. If persons will close their mouth, and send all the air to the lun2:s throuijh the circuit of the head, and thus tem- per it to the air of the lungs, a positive benefit will result, although there may be a change of forty degrees in a second of time. Only one precaution is needed : Shut your mouthy and keep moving. The proof of all this is, railroad conductors are healthy men, as a class, and yet their changes are fifty degrees, hun- dreds of times in a day. In addition, it is known to all persons of observation, that 376 BUCKWHEAT CAKES. the inhabitiiiits of the equable and moderate dlimates are not long-lived. The "Italian skies," and the " South of France," so much boasted of, do not give length of days to those who enjjy their balmy atmosphere. Our grandsires lived in cosy parlors, and fireplace heated dining-rooms, with passages and halls as cold as Greenland, and yet they boast a higher health than their degenerate sons and daughters. These are facts, and they ought to have a rational consideration. Down, we say, with every hot-air furnace in the land 1 BUCKWHEAT CAI^S. Buckwheat cakes and molasses make a favorite dish for multitudes in winter time. Why not in summer, also? We need in winter the food which contains most carbon ; that is, the heat-producing principle, something which will keep up the internal fires, to compensate for the external cold. Meats, everything containing fat, are largely made of carbon ; hence, we instinctively eat heartily of meats in winter, but have small appetite for them in summer. The same instinct receives greedily the buckwheat cakes in winter, and turns from them in summer, while other forms of bread materials, meal and flour, are desired all the year. It is because buckwheat cakes are superior to bread as to fatty matter, while the syrup and butter used with them are almost entirely of carbon ; so that there is nothing more suitable for a winter morning's brealdast than buckwheat cakes and molasses. In New York, where almost every kitchen is under the same roof with the dining-room and parlors, the fumes arising from the baking of the cakes on the ordinary iron instrument, which requires greasing, are not very desirable ; this may be obviated by using a soapstone griddle, which does not require to be greased to prevent the cakes from sticking. Children and delicate persons should use the finest white flour of buck- wheat. The robust, who exercise or work a great deal in the open air, should use the buckwheat flour which contains all the bran, because the bran is the richest part, yielding more nutriment and strength. THE HUMAN HAIR. 377 If any unfortunate dyspeptic cannot tolerate them, such a one has only to let them alone, and there will be more of thie luxurj"^ left to those who can eat them with pleasure and im- punity, having had the wit to avoid eating them like a glut- ton. The simple fact that any given item of food " is not srood for " one man, — does not " set well " on the stomach, — is no proof that it is not positively beneficial to others ; it is simply a proof that it is not good for him. This is a practi- cal thought of considerable importance. THE HUMAN HAIK. Baldness is considered a great calamity by many. It is brought on, in many cases, by wearing the hat too constantly, or by any other means which keeps the head too warm. An- other cause of baldness is the filthy practice of keeping the hair soaked in various kinds of grease, or allowing the scalp to remain unwashed for weeks and months togetlier. Instead of throwing money away for any of the thousand inert, if not hurtful " hair restoratives," which meet the eye in every paper, our readers would do well to at least tiy the following wash : Pour three pints of hot water on four handfuls of the stems and leaves of the garden " box," boil it for fifteen minutes in a closed vessel, then pour it in an earthen jar, and let it stand ten hours ; next strain the liquid, and add three table- spoonfuls of cologne water ; wash the head with this every morning. It is cleansing and tonic, and if the root-bulbs of the hair are not destroyed (which is the case where the scali» looks smooth and shiny, and then there is no remedy), the hair will beijin to jjrow with vio;or. If this w^asli fiiils after a few weeks perseverance, the baldness may be considered incurable, because the structure of hair growth is destroyed, the cogs and wheels are gone, and no power can replace them short of that which made them first. But a more certain and more easily understood method of restoring the hair, when such a thing is j^ossible, is to strive to secure a larger share of general health ; keeping the scalp •;lean, in the mean while, by the judicious application of a 378 TEE HUMAN HAIR. moderately stiff brush, and a basin of plain, old-fashioned soap-suds ; for, as a general rule, baldness arises from one of three things, — inattention, which brought on a decline of health, dirt, or stupidity. What, for example, could a woman expect better than an unsightly broad path of skull along the line where the hair is parted in front, when she has kept each particular hair on a constant strain at the root, at the same identical spot, from earliest "teens" to thirty, instead of changing the line slightly every month or two, or giving entire rest, by having no parting at all, but to carry the hair backward for a month or two at a time, or adjust it in any way which a correct taste and a sense of appropriato- ness will readily suggest to a quick-witted woman. In this way the delicate line of parting may be made to look rich and young to the confines of old age. The judicious cultivation of the hair — that natural orna ment, of which, when possessed in its abundance, richness, and beauty, all are pardonably proud — is most unaccounta- bly neglected ; for we are all conscious of the fact, that if the hair is plentiful, and is handled with a pure taste, it will add to the impressiveness of any set of features. As i'v is, the hair begins to fall before our girls are out of their " teens." In a room full of them, not one in a half dozen can boast of anything on the " back head " but a knot about the size of a hickory nut. If appearances are to the contrary, it will be found that it is a borrowed ornament, whose original owner is in the grave, or has parted with it for a few pennies, or glazy ribbon, or gaudy handkerchief, to " raise another crop " just as rich and beautiful. The girls of Brittany, and the lower Pyrenees, repair to the annua] "hair fairs " in droves, where each one waits her turn for shearing, with her rich long hair combed out, and hanging down to the waist. The most valued head of hair brings five dollars, and down to twenty cents, according to quantity and quality. One dollar, in fiery ribbons, violent colored calicoes, and the like, is the average, bringing double these prices when taken to the Paris and London wholesale dealers. The weight of a marketaljle head of hair, when first taken from the head, is from twelve to sixteen ounces, or from three quarters of a pound to a pound; under twelve not being "accepted," and THE HUMAN HAIR. 379 over a pound, or sixtoeu ounces, espeeially if silken and long, bringing fabulous prices. Rare qualities have been sold at double the price of silver, weight for weight. Two hundred thousand pounds of hair are shorn from the heads of young girls every year, to supply the demands of the Paris and Lon • don markets, and from these we derive our supplies. The hair " growers " seem to be rather a degraded set ul people, living in mud huts, iu filthy community, garments so patched and worn as to scarcely hold together by their own weight. For once, at least, fashion bows to profit, and the richest and most luxuriant head of black hair is accounted an incumbrance. Caps are worn by these people, so as to con^ ceal the hair almost entirely. So, as far as personal appear- ance is concerned, it would seem of very little consequence whether they had any hair or not. But an important practi- cal hint may be taken from this historical fact. Caps being thus worn, there is no need for combs and pins, and plaits and ties, and as a consequence no hair is strained at its roots, nor is it distorted by being pulled against the grain — against its natural direction. The Manillans have the longest, blackest, and most glossy hair iu the world. They do not wear caps at all, but allow the hair to fall back behind in its own natural looseness. Taking these two facts together, it would seem that one con- dition for having a fine head of hair is, that it should never be on a strain, and should hang j retty much in the direction of its growth, or if diverted at all, as from over the face, it should be in a gentle curve over and behind the ears, with .1 loose ribbon to keep it from spreading too much at the back of the neck, the hair hano-ins: its len'T^th down the back. The girls of Brittany wear their hair under their caps, so as to conceal it entirely, and those of Manilla, having theirs still longer, more glossy and abundant, wear no caps at all, but allow it to fall loose over the shoulders. One instructive circumstance connected with this richness of female orna- ment is, that in both, one condition is present ; the hair is not strained against its natural direction, nor indeed is it strained at all. But there is one or other condition in the case of the Manillans, which may aid in causing that superiority in length, glossiness, and abundance — it is not braided or tied, 01 380 . THE HUMAN HAIB. knotted up in any way, but floating in perfect freedom: a thorough ventilation is allowed. It has been found by observ- ant ladies, that when nature is aided in respect to ventilation, by redding the hair very gently and freely night and morning with a fine-tooth comb, its richness, glossiuese, silkiness, and length are all increased, as the following incident, related by a traveller, strikingly illustrates. He stated that he fell in with a man, whose bearing indicated that he was a gentleman, one of position, and of unusual scholastic attainments ; bul without these, there was a singularity about him which would have forcibly arrested the attention of the most careless ob- server : his hair was the longest, most abundant, the most silkenly beautiful, that he had ever observed in man, or woman either ; and more, he seemed to bestow a large share of his attention upon it, and he was evidently proud of it. Ho spent a great part of his time, when not necessarily engaged otherwise, in combing it, exhibiting in the operation a careful- ness, a delicate and gentle tenderness, amounting almost to an aflfection. At night, he bound it up, so as not to be strained or tangled in any manner. Our traveller's curiosity was excited, and he rested not, until he learned that the gentleman in question was a minister of some religious sect, and that his order was debarred every personal adornment, except that of the hair, which was allowed to be cultivated and worn to any desired extent. The priest gave, as his opinion, that the suc- cess of his cultivation depended on gently combing it a good deal in the direction in which it grew, and preventing all strain beyond that of its own weight. This mode of treating the hair is strikingly opposed to that prevalent among us; the practice being to begin, in almost infancy, to part the hair in front, and plait it, and knot it, and strain it, almost to pulling it out sideways, crossways, and upwards ; the ingenuity being taxed apparently to strain it in every direction, so it be contrary to that which it would naturally take ; not only so, but the meanwhile it is kept saturated with any and every kind of grease, tallow, hog's fat, and rancid butter, disguised, intermixed, or partially purified, and then with a flourish of trumpets and certificates, written by knavery, signed by stupidity, and published abroad un- hlushingly to the end, that while the fabricators and falsifiers TEE HUMAN HAIB. 585 make mouey, our daughters' heads become maugy, the hair dropping out, the scalp becoming diseased, giving headaches, dulness, smarting eyes, and a dozen other 'ixjrrclative symp- toms. Then comes a subterfuge and a degradation both together, in order to make up for the deficiency^ and some dead corpse is robbed, or some filthy Breton or Manillau is despoiled, the deception not being known until the marrisige ceremony has made it too late to be remedied. Out upon it, we say ! these s.iams of ivory, and cotton batting, and haii of people dirty or dead. Why, most of us young men, if we marry at all, have to risk marrying parts of half a dozen peo- ple at once. The lessons learned by these statements, are, — 1. The hair of children should never be plaited, or braided, or twisted, or knotted. 2. Nothing should ever be put on it except simple pure water, and even this not until the scalp is cleaned. 3. The hair should be kept short. It would be a valuable accomplishment, if, when a woman becomes a mother, a few lessons were taken from a good barber, so that the child's hair, after the third year, might be trimmed by its mother once a week, only cutting off the longest hairs, by ever so little, so as to keep it of a uniform length. This practice is proper for male and female, old and young. 4. The hair should be always combed leisurely and for some considerable time, at least every morning, and neither brush nor comb ought to be allowed to pass against the direction of the hair growth. Pomatums and hair oils, and washes of every description, are wholly pernicious and essentially disgusting, because they detain on the hair and scalp that dust and those animal excre- tions, which otherwise would full off or be blown away. The most perfect cleanliness of the scalp should be sedulously labored for, the first step being that of pure soft water (rained or distilled), applied by rubbing it in upon the scalp with the "balls" of the fingers, thus avoiding wetting the whole mass of hair when long ; after it is thoroughly dried, then it should be patiently followed by a brushing in its dry state, in the direction of its growth. This is most assuredly the best way to give the hair all that beauty and polish of which it is 382 THE HUMAN HAIR. susceptible. It is abundantly soon to allow the hair of girls to begin to grow long, on entering their fourteenth year; nor should it be allowed to be parted in front sooner than two u\ three years later, if there be any desire to have the " parting " delicate, beautiful, and rich. But all this while, there should be secured the same perfect cleanliness of scalp ; the same daily ventilation at the roots ; the same daily redding and brushing in its dry state, it being done leisurely and long; while the clipping should be made every fortnight, but only of those hairs which have outgrown the others, or which xxvuy have " split " at their ends. Do not " thin " the liair, only cut off the smallest length of the straggling or most lenglhy ; Ihe object being a greater uniformity as to length, preventing thereby any undue or irregular straining in handling. As the hair of most persons tends to curl in some direction, that direction should be noticed and cultivated when a beauti- ful curling is desired. As a general rule, we would discourage any application to the hair ; but if, on some rare occasion, we may desire to give greater firmness or durability to any particular adjustment of it, in curling or otherwise, a very weak solution of isinglass is the best thing that can be employed. And if at times any "falling off" is observed, and it is desirable to arrest it sooner than mere cleanliness and im- proved health would do it, one of the most accessible washes is boiling water poured on tea leaves, which have already been used, and allowed to stand twelve hours ; then put in a bottle, and used as a wash to the scalp : it should be of mod- erate strength. Another good wash is one grain of spirits of tannin, and six ounces of spirits of Castile soap, well rubbed in the head every morning, a tablespoonful or "^wo at a time, until the hair ceases to fall off. Curling tongs and papers are destructive to the hair. If anything is used on an uncommon occasion, it should be silk, or the very softest paper, as near the color of the hair as pos- sible. The hair should not be tied at any time with a string, but loosely with a thin soft ribbon, or carried in a loose twist on the part of the neck about the line of the hair, so as to avoid all straining, especiafty against the direction of the hair growth. The almost universal custom of our women to draw- SELF-MEDICATION. 383 iug it up fiom behiud, for the purpose of wcaiing it at the back of the head, or at the top, is contrary to good taste and physiological wisdom, the gieat point being to wear the hair without any strain upon its roots beyond its own weight, and loosely, so as to aflbrd a constant, free, and thorough ventila- tion. It is a great mistake that water " rots " the hair ; it 13 accumulated dust, and dirt, and grease which does that. Watei lightly applied to these accunmlations becomes hurtful, by merely softening them, but if pure soft water is cleansingly applied, it is in every way benelicial. SELF-MEDICATION. Of any four persoLS met successively on the street, three will strongly inveigh against taking medicine and agaliist the doctors, and multitudes of publications are scattered through the laud every day by a class of persons as reckless and im- pudent as they are ignorant, assuming to themselves the name of " reformers," their papers being the vehicles of their trumpery, making all sorts of imaginary and impossible state- ments as to the ravages of what they call "druggery," and lighting under the popular banner of "temperance," wdth maudlin professions about "progress," "human amelioration," " elevation of the masses," "equality," "fraternity," and all that ; and last, but not least, pandering to the passions of a depraved nature, they stab secretly, and behind and under cover of false garbs, the fundamental principles of our holy religion, and indeed of all religion, and by these means have got up such a hue and cry against physic, that even medical men, despicably weak-minded, of course, take up the refrain, chime in with the prejudices of a gullible community, and are getting into the way of prescribing almost no medicine at all, in cases where it was ui'gently demanded ; doing violence to their own better judgi lent, rather than incur the hazard of censure, in case the disease should take a fatal turn. On the other hand, as among the people themselves, there is a most extraordinary paradox, in that they have fallen into the habit ef swallowing medicine on their own responsibibty, or by the 384 SOFTENING OF TEE BRAIN. advice of any ignoramus or knave who may happen to fall in with them, and this, too, for ailments so trifling sometimes, that simple rest and warmth for a few hours would restore them to usnal health. Not long ago a lady near us gave a little girl a dose of castor oil for what appeared to her to be a little cold. This acted on the bowels freely, and, by weakening the system, took from it the power of throwing out the real disease on the surface, and the only child of wealthy parents died in forty- eight hours of undeveloped scarlet fever. More recently, a man felt unwell, and concluded to cure himself by mixing with a pint of beer a tablespoonful of salt, a raw onion, and twenty-five cents worth of quinine. Soon after taking it, vomiting set in, and he died in twenty-four hours. Fools cannot die off too soon ; but we earnestly advise all whose lives are of worth in the community in which they live, that in any case where, in their own opinion, they are ill enough to require medicine, swallow not an atom by any- body's advice, however simple the remedy may appear, but send at once for a respectable physician. The remedy advised may do no harm, if it does no good ; but even in that event, it may cause a loss of time in waiting for its effects which no medical skill may be able to make up for. SOFTENING OF THE BRAIN. Softening of the brain is a disease for which there is no known remedy ; its progress is slow, steady, and resistless as an avalanche, and body and mind go out together. It generally comes on with a gradual loss of sight, while the health of the remainder of the body is usually good. The younger son of the " Iron Duke " died of this disease, which is becoming of more frequent occurrence than formerly. For eight long years he had been totally blind, and had amused himself with making willow baskets. It usually attacks men who have overworked their minds. But Lord Charles was neither a student nor a roue ; but, being a man of great wealth, he lived at his ease. There were no sufficient inducements to DIETING FOR HEALTH. 385 mental and bodily activities — hence mental and physical stag- nation first, then disorganization; and he died prematurely, in the midst of his millions. Multitudes think it a hard necessity to tug and toil for daily ])read, or that it should require their undivided energies of body and mind in planning, and contriving, and laboring to maintain their f)osition. This is not a hard, but a happy necessity, as these very activities are not only the preserva- tives of body and mind, but are productive of those utilities which hasten human progress, develop our powers, elevate the people, and happify mankind. DIETING FOR HEALTH. Dieting for health has sent many a one to the grave, and will send many more, because it is vdone injudiciously or ignorantly. One man omits his dinner by a herculean effort, and thinking he has accomplished wonders, expects wonder- ful results ; but by the time supper is ready he feels as hungry as a dog, and eats like one, fast, furious, and long. Next day he is worse, and " don't believe in dieting " for the remainder of life. Others set out to starve themselves into health, until the system is reduced so low that it has no power of resuscitation, and the man dies. To diet wisely, does not imply a total abstinence from all food, but the taking of just enough, or of a quality adapted to the nature of the case. Loose bowels weaken very rapidly — total abstinence from all food increases the debility. In this case food should be taken, which, while it tends to arrest the disease, imparts nutriment and strength to the system. In this case, rest on a bed, and eating boiled rice, after it has been parched like coffee, will cure three cases out of four of common diarrhoea in a day or two. Others think that in order to diet effectually, it is all-im- portant to do without meat, but allow themselves the widest Uberty in all else. But in many cases, in dyspeptic con- ditions of the system particularly, the course ought to be 38fi REASON AND INSTINCT. reversed, because meat is converted into nutriment with the expenditure of less stomach power than vegetables, while a given amount of work does three times as much good, gives three times as much nutriment and strength, as vegetable food would. REASON AND INSTINCT. The Power which sets all stars and suns in motion, or- dained that it should be kept in continuance by inherent properties : we call it Gravitation. That same Power started the complex machinery of corporeal man, and endowed it with regulations for continuance to the full term of animal life ; and we call it Instinct. The in*esponsible brute has no other guide to health than that of instinct ; it is in a measure absolutely despotic, and cannot be readily contravened. By blindly and implicitly following this instinct, the birds of the air, the fish in the sea, and four-footed beasts and creeping things, live in health, propagate their kind, and die in old age, unless they perish by accident or by the warfares which they wage against one another; living, too, from age to age, Avithout any deterioration of condition or constitution ; for the whale of the sea, the lion of the desert, the fawn of the prairie, are what they were a thousand years ago ; and that they have not populated the globe, is because they prey on one another, and man, in every age, has lifted against them an exterminating arm. Man has instinct, in commou with the lower races of animal existence, to enable him to live in health, to resist disease ; but he has, in addition, a higher and a nobler guide — it is Reason. Why he should have been endowed with this additional safeguard, is found in the fact that the brute creation are to be used for temporary puqjoscs, and at death their light goes out forever ; but man is designed for an immortal existence, of which the present life is the mere threshold. He is destined to occupy a higher sphere, and a higher still, until, in the progress of ages, be passes b}'' angelic nature ; rising yet, archangels fall before bim; and leaving these beneath rnd behind him, the regeuer- i( IN THE BLOOD. 387 iited soul slaiids in the presence of the Deity, and hasks f(»r- cver in the sunshine of his gloiy. Considering, then, that such is his ultimate destination, it is no wonder that, in his wise benevolence, the great i\Iakcr of us all should have vouchsafed to the creature man the double sal'jguard of instinct and of % diviner reason ; that by the aid and application of both his life might be protected, and protracted too, under circumstances of the highest ad- vantage and most extended continuance, in order to afibrd him the fullest opportunity of preparing himself for a destiny so exalted, and for a duration of ceaseless ages. IN THE BLOOD. DrED in the wool, radical, inherent, of a piece, — these are various forms of exjjression intended to conve}^ one and the same idea, to wit a part of a chip of the same blocJv. But by the expression "in the blood," Ave desire here to convey a moral idea, l)y the aid of a medical phrase ; an idea repudi- ated l)y multitudes, abhorred hy not a few, but true for all that, as the following narration may illustrate : A city mer- chant wanted a small boy in his store ; one, aged ten years, was highly recommended by a lady, who guaranteed his good conduct, she having befriended and aided the family materi- ally, for several years, since their arrival in this country. The j^outh was not known to have been in a place of trust before. He proved to be diligent and attentive ; small pieces of money were brought to the proprietor from time to time, as picked ip from the floor in sweeping out, and there was an evident eflbrt to please. Within a week of his en- trance, stolen property and money were found in his pocket, which, at the instant before discovery, he declared contained nothing Avhatever ; but it did contain the proprietors pocket- book, with money, papers, &c. Here was a systematic effort of a mere child, begun from the very first day of entering the store, by an appearance of strict honesty and integrity in trifling matters, to throw the proprietor oft* his guard, to enable the child to steal from the shelves and cash-bo:; 388 IX TEE BLOOD. vviihout suspicion. Wo personally knew tlie facts of the case, and can account for sucli precociousness in crime, such adeptness in deception, such facility and aptitude for perpe- Irating thefts, in no other way, than that both father and mother were thieves and liars, and had never been anything else, having been indoctrinated thus for perhaps long genera- tions preceding. Wo know that persons are born with the physical characteristics of their parents — born with their parents' diseases. Napoleon's mental nature was impregnat- ed from his mother before his birth, when she rode by her warrior husband, at the head of armed bands, for days, and weeks, and months together ; while, at the same time, ho inherited the disease of his father, and likewise perished with it. It is notorious that three fourths of the idiotic are born of parents, one or both of whom are drunken ; shadowing the state of mind of the parent, bestial, stupid, low, at the instant of conception, as the mould in which the child is cast. Some practical use may be made of these things, but not, Ave pre- sume, until the human mind becomes more generally, more thoroughly, more supremely religious from principle, high, uniform, abiding. What, therefore, physiology teaches of corporeal man, the Bible repeats as to his moral nature, in the stern declaration, that " the wicked are estranged from the womb ; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." That it is just as natural for man to sin, as it is for the sparks to fly upward, or for a duck to take to the water the instant it breaks from the shell. Sin and crime bring desti- tution, disease, and death. From another direction, then, we come to the practical conclusion, that the time for impressing the future child, with the greatest certainty, with a high moral character, is during the months preceding its birth, iust as certainly as a high state of physical health, kept up .luring gestation, is one of the most certain means of insuring a good constitution to the coming being. It, therefore, seems to follow, that all modes of human re- form, in order to be successful, must be founded on truth, and that the million plans which have been spawned forth on the world, with only a butterfly life, have had their foundations laid in error, in false doctrine, and that false doctrine has colored almost every system of human amelioration which has HUNGER. 389 ever been presented ; it is the doctrine of human perfectibility as opposed to human depravity, innate and total : a depravity not equally deep as to all, but a depravity of varying shades, pervading all, from the new-born infant to the centenarian. Owen of Lanark, Cabot of Paris, Communism, and the Phi- lanstery, all foundered here ; and their defeated glorifiers, now crimson not to confess that their systems are only adapted to the unselfish ; which means really, that to succeed, they must have perfect men to begin Avith ; but ask them how they will make men perfect, and they are either as dumb as the ass, or utter incoherent ravings about education and the elevation of the masses. Then, philosophers, so called, may blunder and flounder, and prate as they please, but it all comes to this at last, that the very first step towards human elevation is in human abasement; each man for himself must see, and feel, and acknowledge that he is a poor, weak, miserable sinner, and then, in the light of the Bible, look for help in the direc- tion of Him, who is able to elevate and save all who, while looking, believe and live. HUNGER. If a man in good health has not eaten anything for some days, he will die if he eats heartily. When persons are found in an almost starving condition, light food, in small quanti- ties, and at short intervals, is essential to safely. The rea- son is, that as soon as we begin to feel hungry, the stomach rolls and works about, and continues to do so, unless satis- fied, until it is so exhausted that there is scarcely any vital energy; it is literally «?mo6t^ tired to death, and, therefore, digestion is performed slowly, and with great difficulty. Hence, when a person has been kept from eating several hours bej'ond his usual time, instead of eating fast and hearti- ly, he should take his food with deliberation, and only half as much as if he had eaten at the regular time. Sudden and severe illness has often resulted from the want of this precau- tion, and sometimes death has followed. 28 390 MORAL NUTRIMENT. MORAL NUTRIMENT. Whose mind does not run fur back into the past with sunny memories in reading the dear familiar lines, — " In works of labor or of skill I would be busy, too, For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do ? " Lazy people eat more than the busy, at least for a while, because it affords them enjoyment ; it is a standing source of gratification, until they become dyspeptic, when every meal becomes more or less a torture. But want of occupation has its attendant moral evils as well as physical. Idlers are nervous, fretful, peevish, cross. Ill- nature becomes a second nature, and they grumble, and com- l^lain, and whine from morning until night, with chance inter- vals of sunshine, but ever so transient. One of the causes of the deep moral degradation of many sailors, is want of occupation in the interval of their " watches," especially in long voyages. We have many a time and oft been with them in the forecastle, from the full-rigged ship down through bark, and brig, and schooner, and tiny sloop, and have seen and heard all that was degrading in story, and foul in act, profane and beastly, for want of occupation to lead them to hio-her things. The knowledge of this has led us for a long time past to preserve carefully all our religious ex- changes, our agricultural papers, and the outside half sheet of many weeklies, which, for safety in sentiment, purity of teach- ing, and courteousness of spirit, favorably compare with the religious press. For these a friend, whose heart is in the right place, comes regularly on the first of every month. No win- ter's frost or summer's fire by any chance keeps him away, although gray hairs are upon him, and his shadow is lengthen- ing for the grave ; and going down among the shipping, he hands them to the sailors of such vessels as are just weighing anchor, for the chance that some good sentiment may strike their attention in hours of quietude, and make them think of MORAL NUTRIMENT. 3D1 home, and sisters, and mother, and minister, the country church, the graveyard close by, and of heaven ; for even transient thoughts like these have a restraining, an elevating, purifying power. "These are the best things that come aboard for my men ; they keep them out of mischief," said Captain , of the steamship Prince Albert, as the distrib- utor jumped aboard and handed him a large bundle of read- ing matter. " We don't swear half so much when we have your papers to read," said a hardy Jack tar. These two un- varnished statements are full of meaning ; and we trust that our readers will give them a practical turn, by carefully pre- serving their religious papers for future perusal. A good religious newspaper ought not to be destroyed ; nor, as we think, ought it to be laid away, to become moulded and worm-eaten, in the calculation of reading it again ; for it is hiding in the napkin — it is hoarding up, instead of putting out at interest. We have many times copied a good article, rather than mutilate the paper which contained it, thinking that, if it did us good, it would be likely to do as great a good to some others, or a dozen others. Further, those who can write well for their favorite paper, who can throw off senti- ments sparkling and pure, and short, terse, striking, and do not do it, are responsible to humanity and to God for the default. The making of a religious newspaper interesting, uselui, influential, by reason of the sterling character of its reading matter, ought no more to be left to the editor, than the build- ing up of an active, efficient church society should be left wholly to the minister. Every man, woman, and child ought to help him in all ways possible ; and so ought the editor to have the sympathy, encouragement, and literary help of every reader who can thus contribute ; for, next to the minister, a well-conducted religious newspaper is an in- strument for present, extensive, enduring good, and they are essential to the times, as counteracting the malign influencca which are scattered with a reckless hand by anonymous writers, who can stab from behind and in the dark, or by those who, leaving foreign countries for their country's good and their own safety, boldly solicit to be made the paid con- tributors of our best papers ; and, having left home disap- 392 MORAL NUTRIMENT. pointed and depressed, take refuge in " liberal " views in doctrine and in drink, and pour out their infidelities and atheisms as largely as a sleepy public will allow ; when, at length, having lived up to their principles for a year or two, or more, their death and their nom de plume, with " real name," are, for the first time, made public; the "report" being, ''Died" of mania a potu, delirium tremens, drowned, run over by the cars at midnight ; " died " by his own hand, by the visitation of God I Such are not a few of the men who, through the daily, the weekly, the monthly, and the quarterly, enter our parlors, and talk to our wives, and sons, jnd daughters, in gingerly infidelities, in gilded whoredoms. Men of a true humanity and a true progress 1 look to it that Vou write to counteract these poisons, and write as splendidly ; look to it further, that your centre-tables be cleared of all this worse than trash, and assert and practise your right of a proper supervision of Avhat your families are to read. There is "death in the pot," literary and moral, as, in olden time, there was in the culinary, — moral death in many a fascinating novel, and high-sounding magazine, and "popular" weekly. Some reason was there in the declaration made to ns lately by one of our sternest, most useful, and aged divines, "I al- low no newspaper to be read in my family." Another, of a dificrent profession, who was second to none in position and professional ability, since passed away with years and honors, said, "There is but one daily paper in New York that I con- sider fit to enter a family of daughters." Therefore, while one part of the community should watch the reading of their families with a jealous care, let those who can write well, pungently, and powerfully, feel it their duty to do what in them lies to insure that the liter ary pabulum of the people shall be unpoisoned, — shall be prepared with materials that arc morally pure, safe, and nutritious, — that the reading for the masses be sound, truthful, and divine. BULL DOGS. 393 BULL DOGS. When quite a child, a beautiful big dog came to our fa- ther's house, no one knew whose or whence. All the children were wonderfully taken with him ; he was fed, and caressed, and played with, from morning till night, and we all thought we had gotten a valuable prize. Before long, however, we discovered a failing, a serious drawback ; there was no reli- ability in his mood ; for, in the very midst of our gambols with him, he would sometimes turn round and snap at us so savagely, that we began to avoid him. Strangers would often exclaim, " What a beautiful dog you have!" But avo could not join in any commendation of him. We let visitors praise him, and we let him alone. Later in life we have found bull dogs everywhere, in eveiy party, in every sect, in every profession, and in very many families. A young man is a suitor ; his dross and address mark the gentleman. He is educated, travelled, handsome. His de- meanor is unexceptionable, and he wins the hand and trusting heart, and makes them his own. But, on a nearer view, after marriage, unexpected developments are made, startling principles are enunciated, — the principles of the roue, of the gambler, of the infidel. With such a one a pure heart can never assimilate, and retires more and more within itself; while the other, left more and more to itself, grows cold and fretful ; becomes, daily, more soured ; and complaints, and fault-findings, and growls are the order of the day ; — that is a Domestic Bull Dog. A strange physician arrives. He is polished in his man- icrs, plausible in his theories, and confident in himself. Courteous in deportment, agreeable and gossiping in conver- sation, he wins his way among the people ; they forsake the man to whom they have been bound by ties of citizenship and near neighborhood for a dozen or twenty years, and the new- comer is all and all. But time develops character. With a remorseless maw, he snaps at his new patrons' purses, bites out, in merciless mouthfuls, the substance of his patients, 394 BULL DOGS. who, just about that time, find out that he is not as good as their "old doctor." But the new one got their purse, and they got their experience by paying the — Medical Bull Dog. A minister comes among us. We never heard of him be- Ajre ; but he " walks into our affections " unresistingly, for we are carried away with his eloquence. As lavishly as corn grains to a brood of chickens, does he scatter around him the bright jewels of thought ; we feel as if we could sit and listen to him always, and he settles among us. But no sooner fixed, than some idea is proposed which we do not like altogether; but, thinking that we must have heard amiss, it is passed over, and, for "a spell," all moves on smoothly as before; then another new idea is thrown out, rather more rousing than before, — in fact, it is disquieting; and, with the charity which many good qualities engendered, we think, perhaps, he did not mean what he said ; had failed to express himself clearly ; but, before the irritation has subsided, another shot is cast, and another, and another, with shortening intervals, until not a sermon is heard, without some expression is niade more or less startling, enough to make us feel that it is nothing short of a desecration of the day, and the place, and the occasion. These things go on until, by degrees, the new- comer is " shied " from by the more reflectuig ; they cease to wait on his ministrations, say nothing in his praise, and let him alone. Next, the newspapers take him up. They handle him gingerly at first ; but his sentiments and his conduct be- coming more and more "liberal," in an ungracious sense, he is, after much long-suffering, in consequence of his undenied mental power and other bright qualities, reluctantl}'^ " read out," and he settles down among the heterodox and the infi- del, where he belonged from the first, and, thenceforward, i^ regarded as a Clerical Bull Dog. A daily, a weekly, a monthly, a qiiarterly publication is left at our doors. A close criticism discovers nothing ob- jectionable, and much to commend. It comes, too, at a low price, and we conclude to give it the support of our patronage and influence. It continues good, and, by degrees, we begin to feel a personal interest in its prosperity ; and, about this time, the rise in price to that of others of its class is an- nounced ; we wince and bear it. Later still, there is a I BULL DOGS. 395 latitudinarlanisra in its editorials not wholly agreeable ; these gradually grow more and more decided, to become in time as doo-matical, as impertinent, as levelling as any of its class, and we tolerate when we do not admire ; and, as we can't better ourselves, we submit, to be aroused to indignation, even, at sentiments uttered every now and then, political, social, re- ligious, which almost determine us not to take that paper another day. But we must have a paper ; it is no worse than the others, while in some things it is better ; and we take it still, forgetting that an arrow poisoned Avith a false dictrine in politics, in domesticities, in religion, especially whe.i barbed with ridicule, never fails to leave in young minds a venom, which remains, and rankles, and corrupts, to the utter ruin, sometimes, of the whole moral character. Beware, then, of Editorial Bull Dogs. The dog which came to our father's house had, no doubt, been kicked out of somebody else's ; we, at length, did the same thing, and he slunk off to find another home. He was a peripatetic bull dog ; his prototype is found in those who go about the country lecturing, professionally, on this, that, or the other specified subject; but, to cut the whole matter short, we will state it, as our observation, that, with very few exceptions, we come away from a public lecture with feelings varying from dissatisfaction to disgust, and, now and then, with horror ; for, no later than last night, having, for the reason above given, almost wholly ceased from attending public lectures, we heard a man discoursing, professedly, on "Fun." We love a laugh ; for we know it to be a better pill for the dispersion of blues, inanity, and the like, than imy ol our compounding, hence we go willingly where a whole-souled risibility may be expected. The lecturer pleased us hugely at first. He hit off gaming, and profanity, and drunkenness, to a T, closing, however, with the laudification of Punch, and Thackeray, and Dickens, making quotations from these men as being superior to any sentiment from any pulpit in Christendom ; and, with a twitting of parsons and people, who were so pious that a smile was considered a profanity, he ceased with the growl of a Bull Dog Lecturer. The lesson of thiiJ article is — Beware of new men, of strangers. Take 396 LIVINQ AGES. time to "try the spirits." Of social bull dogs, domestic bull dogs, and bull dogs medical, as also those of the press, the rostrum, and the pulpit, beware I LIVING AGES. It has been the aim of our writings to inculcate the idea that man should be in his fullest mental prime at sixty, and ought to live in good health a hundred years, and so would we, as a general rule, if we lived wisely, temperately, every day. We expect to be living a hundred years to come, not bodily, but in influences. This book will influence its steady readers, from month to month, to live more or less according to its teachings, giving them increased vigor of body and of mind, to be perpetuated in their offspring, and they again to theirs. This is what we call " living for ages." One of the best specimens of a whole man in New York said of our writings, " They ought to be read, they will be read when you are gone." This single expression, in the busiest hum of high noon in New Yorli, tlirew over our most time sunny heart one of the most sudden and sombre cloud? in our remembrance ; not, indeed, a cloud of sorrow or of dis appointment, but of responsibility. It came upon us like the weight of an avalanche, starting the inquiry. Have I written truthfully? invitingly? Have I, in anything, hoisted a false light, which some foundering brother long afterwards looking trustfully to, shall mislead and make a wreck of? Then came the resolve, We will write more carefully here- after, especially as our readers are more than fivefold what they ever were before. The next moment our thoughts ran awa} ofl among our brother editors, and then all the writers and clergymen. Do they feel as fully as they ought, that every line they write, every sentiment they utter, are pebbles thrown on the bosom of the great sea of human life, which shall make waves of influences that, for all times, shall aid in propelling some human brother to glad successes, or to bitter disappointments, to final happiness, or to ultimate despair? Let us resolve then, one and all, as we must "live BEAUTIFUL OLD AGE. 897 for ages," foi good or for ill, that we will live to elevate aud bless humanity, by being truthful in every line we write, ia every seutimeut we utter. BEAUTIFUL OLD AGE. '' What a lovely old man he was, so simple and modest." Such is a traveller's testimony of a sage in his ninetieth year ; a man " whose greatness has not destroyed his nobleness of heart, but nobleness of heart has rendered still greater." The author of " Cosmos " stands out among a million of men in his intelligence, in his age, in his striking physiognomy ; the blue bright eye, the "massive forehead, deep, broad, over- hanging ; " and the heart, too, stands out, in even higher relief, than all the others, and the stranger apostrophizes, " What a lovely old man ! " Religion makes a man lovely in his age ; true and deep science makes a man lovelj'^ in age ; and so does a real great heart : but the imperfections of our nature altogether fail to do it, too often, when there is not sound bodily health under- lying the whole. It is good health which moulds the features in smiles, which warms up the affections, and mellows the heart with human sympathies ; on the other hand, illness cor- rugates the brow, freezes up the fountains of loviugness, and despondency and fretful ness reign supreme, unless counter- acted by high Christian principles. With so much depending on bodily health when gray hairs come upon us, who shall not say that, next to securing a Bible piety, it should be the aim of all who are truly wise to do what is possible by study, by observation and steady oclf-denial, to maintain all the time a high state of bodily health. To grow kindly as age comes on, is to gi'ow in likeness to, and a fit preparation for, companionship with angels in the mansions where all is love ; but to grow cross, and peevish, and complaining, by reason of the irritating influences which a diseased and suffering body exercises over the heart, making it a leafless tree, sapless and dry, when it should have boughs 308 OBJECT OF E ATI NO. bending almost to the earth with the delicious fruits of a loving nature, — how Avide the contrast ! Old age with religion and health, and old age with neither, let Cornaro and Voltaire be the representative men : and let every man determine with- in the hour which portrait he will set to, in what mould he shall be cast, forgetting not that that mould is in process of formation now. OBJECT OF EATING. Taking food into the body is called eating, passing it from the body is called defecation. Three fourths of all our ailments occur, or are kept in con- tinuance, b}"" preventing the daily food which is eaten from passing out of the body, after its substance has been extracted by the living machinery for the purpose of renovation and growth. A healthy laboring man will eat daily two pounds of solid food, of meat, bread, vegetables, and fruit ; these two pounds, if brought together in one heap, would fill to over- flowing the largest sized dinner-plate, and yet there are myriads of grown-up men and women to whom the idea has never occurred, that if this mass is retained in the body, day oy day, inevitable harm nmst accrue. If a man eats two pounds daily, near two pounds daily must in some way or other pass from his body, or disease and premature death is a Bpeedy and inevitable result. The object of passing food through the body is threefold in 3'outh ; in maturity, two : for growth, sustenance, and repair in the one, in the latter for support and repair only ; that is, nutrition ; and the process by which the system sej^arates the nutriment from the food is called digestion ; the distribution of this digested material to the difierent parts of the body where needed, for the purpose of being incorporated inio Done, flesh, nerve, and tendon, is termed assimilation. HEART DISEASE. 399 HEART DISEASE. When an iQiividual is reported to have died of a "Disease of tlie Heart," we are in the habit of regarding it as an iuevi- lable event, as something which could not have been foreseen or prevented ; and it is too much the habit, when persons sud- denly fall down dead, to report the " heart" as the cause ; this silences all inquiry and investigation, and saves the trouble and inconvenience of a repulsive "post mortem." A truer report wonld have a tendency to save many lives. It is through a report of " disease of the heart " that many an opium eater is let off into the grave, which covers at once hii* folly and his crime ; the brandy drinker, too, quietly slides round the corner thus, and is heard of no more ; in short, this report of " disease of the heart " is the mantle of charity, which the politic coroner and the sympathetic physician throw around the grave of "genteel people." At a late scientific congress at Strasburg, it Avas reported, that of sixty-six persons who had suddeul}' died, an immediate and faithful post mortem showed that only two persons had any heart affection whatever : one sudden death only, in thirtv- three, from disease of the heart. Nine out of the sixty-six died of apoplexy, one out of every seven ; while forty-six, more than two out of three, died of lung affections, half of them of "couircstion of the lunirs," that is, the luniks were so full of blood they could not work ; there was not room for air enough to get in to support life. It is, then, of considerable practical interest to know some of the common every-day causes of this "congestion of the lungs," a disease which, the figures above being true, kills three times as many persons, at short warning, as apoplexy and heart disease together. Cold feet, tight shoes, tight (lothing, costive bowels; sitting still, until chilled through and through after having been warmed up by labor or a long or hasty walk ; going too suddenly from a close, heated room, as a lounger, or listener, or speaker, while the body is weak- ened by continued application, or abstinence, or heated by the effort of a long address; these are the fruitful, the very 400 SLEEPING TOGETHER. fruitful causes of sudden death in the form of " congestion of the lungs ; " but which, being falsely reported as "disease of the heart," and regarded as an inevitable event, throws people ofl* their guard, instead of pointing them plainly to the true causes, all of which are avoidable, and very easily so, as ^ general rule, when the mind has been once intelligently drawu to the subject. 1 SLEEPING TOGETHER. If a man were to see a quarter of an jnch of worm put in his cup of coffee, he could not drink it, because he knows that the whole cup would be impregnated. If a very small amount of some virulent poison be introduced into a glass of water, the drinking of it might not produce instant death, but that would not prove that it was not hurtful, only that there was not enough of it to cause a destructive result immediately. We sicken at the thought of taking the breath of another the moment it leaves the mouth, but that breath mingles with the air about the bed in which two persons lay ; and it is re- breathed, but not the less offensive is it in reality, on account of the dilution, except that it is not taken in its concentrated form ; but each breath makes it more concentrated. One sleeper corrupts the atmosphere of the room by his own breathing, but when two persons are breathing at the same time, twelve or fourteen times in each minute, in each minute extracting all the nutriment from a gallon of air, the deteriora- tion must be rapid indeed, especially in a small and close room. A bird canno" live without a large supply of pure air. A canary bird, hung up in a curtained bedstead where two persons slept, died before the morning. Many infants are found dead in bed, and it is attributed to having been overlaid by the parents ; but the idea that any person could lay still for a moment on a baby, or anything else of the same size, is absurd. Death was caused by the want of pure air. Besides, emanations aerial and more or less solid, are thrown out from every person, thrown out by the processes of nature, because no longer fit for life purposes, because tliey are dead U SURFEIT. 40; md corrupt ; but if breathed into another living body, it is just as abhorrent as if we took into our mouths the matter of a sore or any other excretion. The most destructive typhoid and putrid fevers are known to arise directly from a number of persons living in the same small room. Those who can afford it, should therefore arrange to have each member of the family sleep in a separate bed. If per- sons must sleep in the same bed, they should be about the same age, and in good health. If the health be much unequal, both will suffer, but the healthier one the most, the in^ alid suffering for want of an entirely pure air. So many cases are mentioned in standard medical works, where healthy, robust infants and larger children have dwin- dled away, and died in a few months from sleeping with grand- parents, or other old persons, that it is useless to cite special instances in proof. It would be a constitutional and moral good for married persons to sleep in adjoining rooms, as a general habit. It would be a certain means of physical iuvigoration, and of advantages in other directions, which will readily occur to the reflective reader. Kings and queens, and the highest person- ages of courts, have separate ajjartments. It is the bodily em- anations, collecting and concentrating under the same cover, which are most destructive to health, more destructive than the simple contamination of an atmosphere breathed in com- mon. SUEFEIT. Surfeit in man is called founder in a horse, and is over- eating, eating more than the stomach can j^ossibly convert into healthful blood. Wise men, and careful men, will sometimes inadvertently eat too much, known by a feeling of fulness, of unrest, of a discomfort which pervades the whole man. Under such circumstances, we want to do something for relief; some eat a pickle, others swallow a little vinegar, a large number drink brandy. We have swallowed too much ; the system is oppressed and nature rebels ; instinct comes to the rescue and 402 CEILDREIPS EATING. takes away all appetite, to prevent our adding to the burden by a morsel or a drop. The very safest, surest, and least hurtful remedy, is to walk briskly in the open air, rain or shine, sun, hail, or hurricane, until there is a very slight moisture on the skin ; then regulate the gait, so as to keep the perspiration at that point, until entire relief is afforded, indicated hy a gen- eral abatement of the discomfort ; but as a violence has been offered to the stomach, and it has been wearied with the ex- tra burden imposed upon it, the next regular meal should be omitted altogether. Such a course will prevent many a sick hour, many a cramp, colic, many a fatal diarrhoea. CHILDREN'S EATING. "When a child is observed to have little or no appetite for breakfast, sickness of some kind is impending. If in addition to this indifference for food in the morning, there is a uniform desire for a hearty supper at the close of the day, a dyspepsia for life will be founded, which will embitter many an other- wise happy hour ; or some other form of chronic disease will result, which medical skill, for many years, will often fail to eradicate. This want of appetite in the morning, and this over-appetite late in the day, is the creator of disease in multitudes of grown persons who have reached maturity in good health, but whose change of position, of business, or of associations, has gradu- Ally led to the perversion of nature's laws. Young children naturally, in common with the animal crea- tion, are greedy for breakftist, after the long abstinence of twelve hours ; this is the natural arrangement, and it is wise. As persons of any intelligence at all cannot but know that eating heartily late in the day is destructive of health, we need not stop here to prove it ; but by pointing out an easy remedy, we will, if it is attended to by every reader, arrest more disease, and save more life, than can easily be computed. The importance of attending to what we shall say is such, that we entreat all parents who have any true wisdom and affec- tion, who have an abiding desire for the future happiness of WELL DONE. 405 their offspring, to give it their mature consideration, their steady and prompt attention. Allow nothing to be eaten between meals, not an atom of anything, and let the time of eating be fixed, and regular to a minute almost, for nature loves regularity. On the first evening allow the child just half of his common supper. In three or four days diminish the last allowance one half more. For another week allow nothing at all but one or tAvo ordinary slices of cold bread and butter, and a cup of hot water and milk, with sugar in it, called cambric tea, from its similarity in color to that fabric. Meanwhile the ap- petite for breakfast will gradually increase, until it becomes a hearty meal, and all the exercise of the day wall go to its thorough digestion, and perfect adaptation to the nutrition of the whole system. It is contrary to physiological law, to nature and to com- mon sense, to eat an atom of anything later than an hour after sundown, and alike contrary to all these is it, to make the last meal of the day the heartiest one, as in the manner of five o'clock dinners. AVELL DONE. To do anything well, there should be a sound mind m n healthy body. There have been men who were perhaps never well, never for an hour enjoyed good health, and yet they lived to purpose, for their deeds are this day exerting a hap- pifying influence on mankind. "William the Conqueror was a wheezing asthmatic all his days. Bishop Hall was a martyr to pain as ceaseless as it was severe. Baxter had an infirmity of constitution, and, from early youth to the grave, labored under bodily disease and wearing pains. Calvin scarcely knew, in twenty years, what it was to have a well day. No doubt the sufferings of these men aided in moidding their char- acters to a form which the age required. The most wo can say of these cases is, that their diseased condition was over- ruled, and good was brought out of it. What greater good might have resulted had they been men of stalwart constitii- 29 404 LIQUOR DRINKING. tions, we may never know, but certain it is, that when we are well, thought is a pleasure, and labor is a pleasure, but when sick, both are a burden, and every thought, and every act, is the result of an effort. We shall never do anything perfectly until we get to heaven; but there, jDain, and sickness, and disease can never enter. And if health is needed to enable us to do our duty well in a perfect state, much more is it needed to help us perform our parts well on earth. But whether sick or well, let us do what we may towards fulfilling our duty, and that is all that will be required of us. We can readily see how personal afilictions may humble, and subdue, and sanc- tify, and thus redound to the good of the individual ; but for all that, the great cause of humanity must suffer by it. The Almighty may permit disease, as he permits sin, and we can- not believe that he has an}'^ agency in sending either ; we bring both on ourselves ; but for all that, both may be overruled to our good and his glory. LIQUOR DRINI{:iNG. If men will drink alcohol in some shape, the least injurious time for it is during a regular meal, or within a few minutes after, for then the strength of the stimulus is expended on the digestive organs, and enables them to* perform their work more thoroughly ; hence an amount of brandy which would make one tipsy on an empty stomach, would have no such effect if taken during dinner. But the amount taken, to be in any way beneficial, must be in proportion to the fat, butter, or oils used at the same meals ; in this case, it aids the system to appropriate the fat to itself; in other words, brandy taken with fatty food, tends to fatten quickly, but it does not give strength ; fat people are not strong. On the other hand, it is A conceded fac'^ in physiology, that alcohol in every shape im- pedes the digestion of the albuminous portion of our food ; that is, brandy makes no flesh, makes no muscle, gives no strength. The prize-fighter does not want fat ; one main object in his training is to get rid of it, and replace it with substantial muscle, with flesh ; hence, when in training, he DANGERS OF SPRING. 405 never touches liquor. The advocates of brandy triumphantly point at a ruddy-faced drinker, with his apparently -well-de- veloped muscle and well-filled skin ; but fat is a disease, is a puff; he has no agility of limb, no activity of body; there is no power in his arm, no courage in his heart; for he knows, and we do too, that a lean stripling, or a plonghboy of twenty, who was never drunk in his life, "could whip him all to piece.« in five minutes." Away, then, with all the nonsense about brandy strengthening anybody ; it weakens the head, it cow- ers the heart, and wastes away the whole man. DANGERS OF SPRING. About one fifth more persons die in New York City in May than in November. After being pent up in the winter, it might be supposed that the ability to go out and exercise in the luscious air of spring-time would be productive of in- creased vigor and health of body ; but this is simply not the case, as evidenced by the ably-prepared and valuable reports of our City Inspectors. This difference of mortality between the last month of spring and the last month of fall, arises from causes which are under the control of the people, or be- yond ; two of each will be mentioned. The natural causes are, — 1. The increased dampness of the atmosphere, proven by the fact that doors which shut easily in winter do not do so in summer. 2. Nature takes away the appetite for meals, for heat-giving food, in order to prepare the body for the in- creased temperature of summer. But two errors in practice, at this time, interfere with wise nature's arrangements, and induce many, and painful, and dangerous diseases. First, the amount of clothing is diminished too soon. Second, the conveniences of fire in our dwellings are removed too early. All persons, especially children, old people, and those in delicate health, should not remove the thickest woollen flannel of midwinter until some time in May, and then it should be merely a change to a little thinner material. Furnuces should not be removed, nor fireplaces and grates cleaned for the summer, until the first of June ; for a brisk 406 PURE FOOD. fire in the grate is sometimes very comfortaLle in the last week ill May ; that may be a rare occurrence ; but, as it does sometimes take place, it is better to be prepared for it, than to sit shivering for half a day, with the risk to ourselves and children of some violent attack of spring disease. By inat- tention to these things, four causes are in operation to chill the body, and induce colds and fevers. First. The dampness of the atmosphere in May. Second. The striking falling off in appetite for meats and other "heating" food. Third. The premature diminution of clothing. Fourth. The too early removal of the conveniences of fire. And, when the very changing condition of the weather of May is taken into account, it is no wonder that, under the influence of so many causes of diminution of the temperature of the body, many fall victims to disease. In November, the healthiest month in the year, we have put on our warmest clothing, we have kindled our daily firef , we have found a keen relish for substantial food, while the dampness of the atmosphere has been removed by the conden- sation of increasing cold. The wise will remember these things for a lifetime, and teach them to their children. PUKE FOOD. It is no economy to use inferior food. It is a saving of money, and time, and health, to give a higher price for what we eat, if it be fresh and perfect, than to obtain it for less, on account of its being wilted, or old, or partially decayed. Some people prefer to make their meat tender by keeping ; which means, that decomposition is taking place ; in plainer phrase, it is rotting. Such meats require less chewing, and may appear very tender ; but it is a physiological fact, that they are not digested as easily, or as quickly, as solid fresh meat. When a vegetable begins to wilt, it is no longer that vege- table, because a change of particles has taken place, and, in such proportion, it is unnatural, — it is dead, — and to eat it tends to death. PURE FOOD. 407 Oue of the most horrible forms of clisciisc is ciiuscd by eat- mg sausages which have been kept a long time ; more com- iDon in Germany than elsewhere; Scarcely anything saddens us so much, in passing through some of the by-streets and the more eastern avenues, as the sight of the long-kept meats and shrivelled vegetables which arc sold to the unfortunate poor at the Dutch corner groceries. But the poverty-stricken are not the only sufferers r the richest men come in for their share, for themselves and for their families, in proportion as the mistresses of their splendid mansions are incompetent or inattentive to those household duties, the proper performance or neglect of which makes all the difference between a true wife and a contemptible doll. With all the high-sounding advantages of high-sounding "Young Ladies' Boarding Schools," and "Institutes," and all that ; with all the twaddle about learning French and German, and music and aesthetics, how many of these paint-like girls are any more fit to take charge of a man's household than to navigate a ship, or calculate a parallax? Does one in a mil- lion of them know the philosophy and uses of that now indis pensable article of household furniture, a refrigerator? If taken to Bartlett's, on Broadway, how many of them can tell why he places the ice on the top of his Polar refrigerator, and, by so placing, gives the greatest cold to the articles below ? why it is there is no wood on the inside to become saturated with dampness and the fumes of butter, and lard, and milk, and meats? why it is that a particular kind of metal, of a par- ticular shape, by the aid of ten pounds of ice a day, will give a large family all the ice-water needed, and will keep the bottom, and sides, and area of the refrigerator dry, by attract- ing all the dampness to a particular spot, and by an interior arrangement gives no dark corners for dirt, but makes the whole as light as day ; and thus combining dryness, coolness, and cleanliness, every article is kept fresh and perfect for any reasonable time ? The study of an article of a practical nature of this kind will give a "young lady," about to be married, a better idea of the philosophy of things of this sort, than she has learned from all the books skimmed over, or learned by rote or mere memory, through her whole "course" of study, and would savp her husband more money, than, without that 408 WEAKLY YOUTHS. knowledge, she is worth ; for the woman who does not know how, and does not make it her business, to take care of what her husband brings into the house, is not worth a button, even if she could smatter a dozen languages, dance every indecent polka ever devised, and play all the tunes in the music-book. The study of milk, its nature, qualities, and uses, might well be made a branch of education in every school for girls. Studied aright, it is a fruitful and very extensive field of most interesting investigation ; i. e. — The nature of swill milk, and that of the pure article. How long milk remains pure. What part of any vessel of milk is richest, and what part the most inferior, and Avhy. Why it is that warming milk, or freezing it, decomposes it and changes its nature. How to keep it in its pure state for a long time together. The knowledge of these things, on the part of our wives, would save the money, and promote the happiness and health, of every family in the land. WEAKLY YOUTHS. Within one week, three persons have complained that their lives have been made lives of suffering, by the ignorance of parents, thus : They grew up rapidly, almost as tall at sixteen as at mature age. The rapidity of their growth was attended with great debility ; while the parents, judging i?f the ability to work by the size, required more of them than they were able to perform, and a strain was imposed upon their constitutions which made them a wreck after ; not, in- deed, destroying life, but leaving the body a shell, and all its functions so impaired, as to their capabilities, that none of their work was well performed, resulting in disease of the whole system, making life a torture; and, in one case we know of, there is a never-failing reprehension of parental memory. Persons who are healthy and hearty themselves, do not know how to sympathize with a rapidly growing child, and its complaints of weariness are unheeded, blamed, or scolded at. To all parents, then, especially to farmers and mechanics, we give the advice, when a child has grown up BOTTLED WBATH. 409 rapidly, impose but little labor, and that never violent, nor long-protracted ; it should be light, short, steady, not by fits and starts ; never drive, always encourage, and, when they go to bed at a regular, early hour, let them have all the sleep they will take ; never allow them to be waked up, let nature do that, and she will do it regularly, and in due time. We know a man who almost daily execrates his father's memory, although he left him a handsome fortune, and a lady who, at seventy-five, thinks hard of her mother's severity and wani of sympathy in this regard. BOTTLED WRATH. Bottled wrath, like pent up steam, is all the better and safer for being " let off." If a little boy "stumps his toe," ho grits his teeth, hisses out a malediction, gives the offending stone a savage kick, and straightway feels better. A groan is the healthful vent, the anodyne of pain ; and tears relieve and save the almost breaking heart. It is he who cannot cry, who dies with sorrow. There is neither sense nor safety in uu- complainmg suffering, as to the repression of its instinctive exhibition. There is no pain where there is no nerve. The more nerve, the greater the susceptibility to suffering. The nervous influence, as it is called, is a fluid, just as blood is a fluid ; and as the blood flowing along the blood vessels gives life, so the nervous influence flowing along the nerve channels gives sensation. If the blood has no outlet, we become dis- eased in a few hours. If a wound is inflicted, it will get well, ordinarily, the sooner if blood flows or is taken. So in the infliction of pain, it is relieved instantly if the nervous influ- ence has vent. That vent, the scapement, the water-way, is in every movement of a muscle, in every wink of the eye, in eveiy crook of the finger, in every thought we think ; for we can no more think, or move, or feel, without the expenditure of nervous influence, than would a telegraphic record be made without the expenditiu'e of electricity, or the locomotive would move an inch without the consumption of an amount of steam. If, then, pain is inflicted as to mind or body, the sooner we 410 BOTTLED WRATH. can give an outlet to tl'e nervous influence, the more imme- diate will be the reliei therefore nature, in her philosophy, has implanted an instinct which complains on the very instant the harm is done ; hence the groan, the cry, the shriek, and these before second thoughts have time to come and whisper it is not dignified to cry, or shriek, or groan ; and many a one has exclaimed in mortification, at the supposed weakness of so doing, " What a fool, to have made such a racket ! " So it does seem that at almost every turn of life, we attempt to thwart wise nature, and hedge her up by bald reason, in her attempt to soothe and save. To put all this in plainer phrase, the louder you groan in sickness and suffering, the sooner will you get well. Hence, to a certain extent, when a person complains a great deal, we have fallen into the habit of saying, O ! there's not much the matter with him ; he is more scared than hurt. We have insensibly fallen into the habit of drawing such con- clusions, because we have noticed that persons who complain a great deal, complain a long time ; they don't die, and very often get well in a few days. And here let us make an earnest appeal for infimcy and early childhood. When a child is hurt, never hush it up ; it is an inexcusable barbarity ; it is fighting against nature ; it is repressing her instincts : and for the same reason, if physical punishment is inflicted on a child, never repress its crying ; it is a perfect brutality ; cases are on record where children have been thrown into convulsions in their efibrts to silence ; and very little less hurtful is it to hire them to silence. A thou- sandfold better is it to soothe by kindly w^ords and acts, and divert the mind by telling stories, or b^- explaining pictures, or by providing with new toys. We have many a time in our professional experience as to sick children, found more bene- fit to be derived from a beautiful or interesting toy, than from a dose of physic. The greatest humanity a mother can exhib- it in respect to her sick child is to divert it^ divert it, DI- V^ERT IT, in all the pleasing ways possible, as we ourselves, who are larger children, feel sometimes really sick, when a cheerful-faced and much-loved friend has come in, and before we knew it, we had forgotten that anything was the matter with us. We have sadly wandered from what we intended when the COOLINGS. 411 heading of this article was written ; and not to detain the reader longer, we will sum up as concisely as possible, that if any man has a fretful wife, one who docs not fail to greet him, on his return from the business of the day, by pouring out her complaints with overwhelming volubility, who never sit? down to a family meal without some whine or doggish growl, let him adopt the following plan for letting out the " bottled wrath " before he comes in gunshot of home. Let one of the servants be very little, very lazy, very fat, and very stupid, in fact, pretty much of a fool. Such a girl can no more be excited into a passion than she could be stimulated to hurt herself by hard work, and she will bear h great deal of verbal pummelling. You can't make her saucy. She is too lazy to give " warning," and too wise to get mad, for there is no fool but has some redeeming quality ; she will stand the fire of verbal abuse by the hour, for she knows words don't hurt. So while the boy kicks the stone, let the wife blaze away at the lump of dough, and all the ammuni- tion being expended before you get home, the steam being exhausted, "reaction" takes place, and the hyena of high noon will be a lamb at sundown, at the tea-table, at the parlor fire, and at bed-time. COOLINGS. To make water almost ice cold, keep it in an earthen pitcher, unglazed, wrapped around with several folds of coarse linen or cotton cloth, kept wet all the time. The evaporation from the cloth abstracts the heat from within, and leaves the water as cold as it ought to be drank in summer, consistent with safety and health. Cooling rooms : the least troublesome plan is to hoist the windows and open the doors at daylight, and at eight or nine o'clock close them, especially the external windows and shutters, if there be any, except to admit barely necessary light. Churches may be kept delightfully cool in the same way, and thus greatly add to the comfort of public worship, leav- 412 COOLINGS. ing the windows open, but the lattice shutters closed on the north side of the house, which will secure a thorough ventilation. Still greater coolness may be produced by having a large, heavy cotton or linen sheet hung near each open window oi door, and kept constantly wet ; the evaporation produces a vac- uum, and a continual draught of air is the result. In India and other eastern countries, common matting is used ; long grass plaited answers a good purpose. In Germany, a broad vessel or pan is kept in the room, nearly jQUed with water, — the pan not the room, — the surface of the water being covered with green leaves. To have delightfully hard butter in summer, without ice, the plan recommended by that excellent and useful publication, the Scientific American, is a good one. Put a trivet, or any open flat thing with legs, in a saucer ; put on this trivet the plate of butter, and fill the saucer with water ; turn a common flower-pot upside down over the butter, so that its edge shall be within the saucer, and under the water. Plug the hole of the flower-pot with a cork, then drench the flower-pot with water, set it in a cool place until morning ; or if done at breakfast, the butter will be very hard by supper time. How many of our city boarding-school girls, who have been learn- ing philosophy, astronomy, syntax, and prosody for years, can, of their own selves, write us an explanation. To keep the body cool in summer, it is best to eat no meat, or flesh, or fish, at least not oftener than once a day, and that in the cool of the morning ; making a breakfast dessert of berries of some kind. Dinner, light soup with bread ; tho.n vegetables, rice, samp, corn, cracked wheat ; dinner dessert of fruits and berries, in their natural state, fresh, ripe, and perfect. Touch nothing later than dinner ; taking nothing at all at supper but a piece of cold bread and butter, and a single cup of son.e hot drink, or, in place of these, a saucer of ripe berries, without sugar, milk, cream, or anything else, not even a glass of watei , or any other liquid, for an hour after. To keep the head cool, especially of those who live by their wits, such as lawyers, doctors, editors, authors, and other gentlemen of industry, it is best to rise early enough to be dressed and ready for study as soon as it is sufficiently light FANATICISM. 413 to use the eyes easily without artificial aid, having retired the evening before early enough to have allowed full seven hours for sound sleep ; then study for about two hours ; next, make a breakfast of a piece of cold bread and butter, an egg, and a cup of hot drink, nothing more ; then resume study until ten, not to be renewed until next morning ; allowing no interrup- tion whatever, until the time for study ceases, except to have the breakfast brought in. The reason of this is, the brain i?> recuperated by sleep ; hence its energies are greatest, freshest, purest, in all men, without exception, immediately after a night's sleep, and every moment of thought diminishes the amount of brain power, as certainly as an open spigot diminishes the amount of liquid within. Nature may be thwarted, and her plans wrested from her, and habit ov stimulation may make it more agreeable to some to do their studying at night, but it is a perversion of the natural order of things, and such persons will be either prematurely dis- abled, or their writings will be contrary to the right and the true. As the brain is more vigorous in the morning, so is the body, and vigor of both must give vigor of thought and ex- pression, that is, if the head has anything inside. FANATICISM. Fanaticism is seeing the seeming as if it were real, and acting accordingly ; hence the fanatical merit our pity, instead of receiving our sneers, and our severer reprobation. In a radical senso, a fanatic is one who treats a phantom, a fancy, an apparition, a figment, as if it were a fact, and giving a wider scope, it is the exaggeration of a fact, or principle, or practice. It is on this latter that the success of many of the greatest enterprises of all ages have succeeded. A kind of fanaticism seems essential to any great success. It is a quality belonging to the ardent, to the highly imaginative, to the hopeful. But it may be well questioned, whether the world would not have made a steadier, a safer, and a farther progress, without the aid of this mental characteristic, with the advantage of having prevented the wasting of energies 414 FANATICISM. iu a wrong direction, the blasting of highly cherished but unauthorized hopes, the utter ruin and wreck of many a fine intellect, the breaking of many a warm and noble heart. In truth, fanaticism is a mental weakness ; it arises from an unbalancing of the faculties, an exaggeration of some, a deficit in others. Now and then the fanatical succeed ; but oftener, or at least more happily do they succeed, who have what is called "well-balanced miids." Such do not ac- complish things as rapidly, but thej do it with greater cer- tainty, with greater durability, and with far less waste of power. In this equable adjustment of the high qualities, the English is a representative nation, while we find the type of the fanatical in the Frenchman : the American is between the ttvo. As far as health and disease are concerned, we have instruc- tive examples of the practical failure of fanaticism iu the lives of Priessnitz, of Shew, of Graham, and Alcott. As citizeuy, all of them, as far as we know, were good men, honest, well- meaning, benevolent, and humane ; but when we look for the practical good effect of their theories, as exhibited in their own persons, and we may well suppose under the very highest advantages of correct, intelligent, and thorough application, there is confessedly a sad failure. Dr. Shew, the American champion of Hydropathy, died a comparatively young man. Priessnitz did not live to be old. Graham, who gave name to the famous " Graham bread," died at the age of fifty, and Alcott only completed his threescore years ; all of them frittered away their lives in attempting to foist their crude notions upon public acceptance, with loud assurances of a serene and healthful old age. They exhibited great goodness of heart in their self-denials and their severe sacrifices in attempting to prove the truth of their vagaries ; but this does not sanctify their own destruction, and the destruction of mul- titudes of weaker-minded persons, who took hold of their half facts, and ran them into the ground, to their own undoing. Their sincerity, their honest belief in the truth of their theories, did not extend their own lives to an encouraging limit ; while, on the other hand, there is reason to suppose they shortened them by their ill-advised experiments. Alcott drank no water for a whole year, and lived many years on fruits and vegetables, never tasting meat, or milk, or butter, LONGEVITY PllOMOTED. 415 or yeasted bread, o\\\y to die at a time when both body and mind ought to have been in their highest prime. Let these melancholy results learn us, "who still live, the true wisdom of avoiding extremes, remembering that a kind Providence has given us all things richly to enjoy, only enjoin- ing to be temperate in the use of them, and in this is enduring health, an effective life, a serene and happy old age. LONGEVITY PROMOTED. To a very great extent, our life is in our own hands, al- though it is the prevailing fashion of the times to regard death, especially if it is premature, or if the person dying, of any age, occupies a position of influence and usefulness, as a " mysterious dispensation of Providence," when, in reality, " Providence " had nothing to do with it ; had no direct agency in the matter ; only indirectly, in having founded the laws of our being. When men die short of eighty or a hundred years, it is the result of violated law, and almost always on their own part. If a sedentary man eats a hearty meal late in the day, or a laborious man does the same thing after long fasting and pro- tracted exertion, ending in great bodily fatigue, and is at- tacked in the night with cramps, colic, or cholera morbus, or other form of looseness of bowels, ending in death next morn- ing, there is no " mystery " in that. The man is his own de- stro^^er, and in that destruction his Maker had no agency. A man in the prime of life enters a crowded omnibus, after a long or rapid walk, which has induced free perspiration ; the air appears alone to him almost suflbcating, and with an insanity resulting from detached scraps of knowledge about the advantaga of pure air, he opens the window, and the breeze is delicious ; but before he is aware of it he finds him- self chilled, and wakes up in the morning with acute throat disease, or inflammation of the lungs, or violent fever; or the magazine of impending consumption has been fired, and he wilts, and w\astes, and dies — by his own hand, from ignorance of the fact, that no air of any coach, or conveyance, oi 416 LONGEVITY PROMOTED. crowded room, is a thousandth part as injurious or dangerous to a new comer as the purest air that was ever breathed, if it comes with a draught upon one who is perspiring, and remains in a still position. The most talented and useful clergyman in the land, whose influence is widening and deepening every day for good, carry- ing all before him by the power of his eloquence, after an unusual effort, in which the heart, as well as brain and body, all have been brought into an exhausting requisition, all heated, and perspiring and debilitated, feels it his duty to attend some urgent call, and hastes away into the cold, raw, damp air, the bleak wind whistling fiercely by, and in a week, in the midst of his usefulness, he is laid in the grave, by peritoneal (abdominal) inflammation, or quinsy, Oi* pleurisy — his own destroyer, for he acted as if he were made of iron, instead of flesh and blood. He threw his life away, in an in- distinct impression, that as he was doing a good work, a miracle would be wrought for his protection ; and because the laws of nature were allowed to take their usual course, it is deemed a " wonderful and mysterious dispensation of Prov- idence," and we cry, "His ways are past finding out." A woman holds on her lap a lovely child. It was born per- fect, fair, and beautiful, but the aristocratic mother has not the stamina to feed it, for the natural fountain is short of a full supply, and ale and beer, and the universal milk-punch, are swilled by the pint and quart a day, to " make milk." But just in proportion as it is alcoholic, it is innutritive ; it creates an appearance of flesh, and strength, and thrift, but all as un- real and transient as Jonah's gourd, and the child, by the ex- citement thrown to the head, dies of water on the brain ; or if, by virtue of the father's more robust and vigorous constitution and temperament, infancy and youth are survived, the instinct for excitement planted in the first year wakes up again at maturity, and the young lady wastes her intellect in the .stimulus of novel reading, or the young man destroys intellect and body too, in yielding to the fires of liquor and of license ; and suddenly as the bank deposit of a spendthrift heir gives out, so suddenly is exhausted the vital force ; and he dies at his toilet, in his chair, at the table, or on the street, — of heart disease, so the coroner's jury reports ; a " mysterious dispensa^ WHY CHILDREN DIE. 417 tiou of Providence " is the response from another dh-ection. The true verdict is, " Died by a mother's folly, committed twenty years agone I " Great men are gentle. God is Love. His way of removing his children from their lower home is in tenderness, fur he has appointed that, in the habitual exercise of moderation all the parts of the human machine shall wear out equally, one not taster than another ; one no sooner than another ; all graduallv cease, all fail at the same instant; one worn-out function does not cea-j its operation, while another, in its full vigor, strives to go on without it; hence the universally observed fact is, that the very old die gently, without a strug- gle, and scarce a pang ; die as an infant falls to sleep amid its mother's lullaby ; " like as a shock of corn cometh in hi 3 season." " So fades a summer cloud away; So sinks the gale when storms are o'er ; So gently shuts the eye of day ; So dies a wave along the shore." WHY CHILDREN DIE. 1 HAVE seen persons who gather for the parlor their choicest flowers, just as they begin to open into full bloom and fragrance, lest some passer by should tear them from the bush and destroy them. Does not God sometimes gather into heaven young and innocent children for the same reason ? — lest some rude hand may despoil them of their beauty." Some weak brother has been trying his hand to see what a beautifully sounding sentence he could make out of a whopper. The reason why children die is because they are not taken care of. From the day of birth they are stuffed with food, choked with physic, sloshed with water, suffocated in hot rooms, steamed in bed-clothes. So much for in-doors. A\^!ien permitted to breathe a breath of pure air once a week in sum- mer, and once or twice during the colder months, only the nose is permitted to peer into daylight. A little later they are sent out with no clothing at all, as to the parts of the body which most need protection. Bare legs, bare arms, bare 418 CONSTITUTIONS CREATED. necks ; girted middles, with an inverted umbrella to collect the air, and chill the other parts of the body. A stout, strong man goes out on a cold day with gloves and overcoats, woollen stockings and thick, doubled-soled boots, '^irith cork between and rubbers over. The same day, a child of three years old, an infant in flesh and blood, and bone and con- stitution, goes out with soles as thin as paper, cotton socks, legs uncovered to the knees, arms naked, necks bare ; an ex- posure which would disable the nurse, kill the mother outright in a fortnight, and make the father an invalid for weeks. And why? To harden them to a mode of dress which the^'' never are expected to practice. To accustom them to exposure, which a dozen years later would be considered downright foolery. To rear children thus for the shiughter-pcn, and then lay it on the Lord, is too bad. We don't think that the Almighty has any hand in it. And to draw comfort from the presumption that he has any agency in the death of a child, in the manner of the quoted article, is a presumption and a profanation. CONSTITUTIONS CREATED. To build up a good constitution, we must take good care of what we have, and add to it, by pretty hard work and mod- erate thought, until the age of forty-five ; then, there sh»uld be less work and more thought. Bodily labor consolidates the constitution up to forty-five ; then mental labor preserves it, keeps it good to the verge of fourscore years, if the bodily activities are very moderate. As witness Humboldt, who was a great traveller in early life ; but from fifty to ninety a great student. Many similar in- stances will occur to intelligent minds. The general idea is of great practical importance. Work hard until forty-five ; think hard after, and all the while be "temperate in aU things." This is to live long. KILL OB CUBE. 419 KILL OR CURE. "Kill or cure, neck or nothing," are favorite saws with some people, and with other some, a little more daft, there ia a still more dearly-hugged comforter, "so simple," that it can't do any harm, if it does no good ; and armed with that philosophy, multitudes daily swallow poisons to an incredible amount, with the result of losing the last remnant of health, if not life itself. They start out on the assumed fact, that what is " simple " can't injure. If this is applied to men, we think it rather unfortunate, for there are " simple " men and women in myriads, who are doing hourly more harm to them- selves, their friends, their neighbors, their children, than any arithmetic can compute ; so simple in eating, in dress, in opinion, in conversation, in judgment, in conduct, that often the expression escapes themselves in reviewing the past, " What a fool I am ! " But this is a moral simplicity. The simplicity of remedial agents is the subject more immediately in hand. The people who are so marvellously fond of what they call "simple" things, start out on the unwarrantable supposition, that what is " simple " is synonymous with the fact that they are "familiar" with it. Whiskey, for example, is a ftimiliar, and we might say, a very familiar article with some people ; verily it is with them an old acquaintance, a bosom friend, an inseparable companion ; their testimony is uniformly that it is ^ood for the " insides " and good for the out ; that it not only never did them anj^ harm, but always did them good ; they "always felt better after taking it." We are very well acquainted with tobacco. Look at the Virginian, for example : he talks of tobacco, he dreams about it, he eats it, he smells of it ; the very dollar ia his pocket is redolent with its hateful fumes ; it is wedged in under his finger nails, it spots his shirt bosom, it stains his vest, its juice is scattered over his pants, it cakes at the corners of his mouth, and the long streaks of colored saliva dribble from his lip, and stripe his cheeks. As he uses it more, the necessity for its use is greater, until finally he goes to sleep with a lump of it 80 420 KILL OR CURE. in his mouth. Next he begins to dry up, his llesh shriulvs away, his face is gaunt, his body slab-like, his legs spindles, his gait is tottering and unsteady, and head and fingers and arms shake like the palsied or the agucd. Next comes the wasting of the life powers ; digestion ceases, appetite fails, the nervous energies are exhausted, and dulness, and stupor, and the sleep of death come on. Coffee and tea are very "simple," very familiar things, and have been used for a lifetime by multitudes without any noticeably injurious effects which could be fairly and conclu- sively attributed to them ; but "simple" as they are, their in- judicious use has made many a one miserably nervous and dyspeptic for life. " Simple " would it seem to rub a little candle grease on a trifling pimple, and yet death followed from the poisonous corrosion of the brass candlestick. Then again, what may be " simple" and safe for one, may not be simple and safe for another. The tired donkey found his oppressive load of salt lightened, and himself greatly refreshed, by swimming a swollen stream ; but his brother donkey, loaded with a huge sack of wool, was delighted at the instant relief afforded to him by the same means, but it was a transient and deceitful remedy, for no sooner did he begin to emerge from the stream, than the increased weight of wool and water crushed him hopelessly. A newspaper writer, as green as the grass he treads upon, recommends what he considers a very " simple " remedy — ice. Hear him : — "Attacked with pneumonia, salivated, broken down in con- stitution, subject to hemorrhages from the lungs, digestion totally deranged, and rheumatic neuralgia, he tried in vain the remedies prescribed by American physicians, the effects of foreign travel, the most rigid diet, and the most careful and systematic habits of life. The most learned physicians of London, Paris, Genoa, Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Rome could do no good." In this condition he began " the use of ice, first melted in water, and then applied it in the solid cake to the person." At first he " took a sponge bath in a bowl of water, in which was dissolved a piece of ice the size of a walnut ; from day to day larger lumps were used, and applied directly to his body, KILL OR CURE. 421 until finally he dissolved five or six pounds of ice upon his person every morning." In a time not stated, the following changes occurred : — "He gained sixty-five pounds of flesh, was restored not only to perfect health but to a state of vigorous energy, physical strength, vital power, unwasting glow of feeling, and an ability to endure any amount of fiitigue and exposure with apparent impunity. His description of his present condition is ravishing. Unbroken sleep, perfect control of his nervous system, mind always serene and cheerful, muscles firm and hard, no consciousness of the existence of his internal organs, ability to do with half the sleep he formerly required, appetite always good, digestion perfect, no taste whatever for un- healthy food ; in short, a supernatural state of miud and body, in which " every moment of his waking existence seems to be consciousness of physical, intellectual, moral, and social happiness." With the wisdom of his brother named above, he declares that to numerous pale, lean, sallow, dyspeptic, tobacco-using, excess-indulging authors, teachers, editors, clergj^men, &c., the same remedy will bring unwonted power of mind and body, constant cheerfulness, a power of moral control, "a blessed clearness of thought," absence of all nervousness ; in fine, an ability to " walk farther, stand up longer, work harder, and do everything better than he could do it before." " Ex- istence will grow brighter, and the flame of life will burn with more calmness, serenity, glow, and splendor than you ever dreamed of." He attributes these wonderful transformations to the action of " certain chemical properties and the electrical heat which the ice contains," which explanation of the modus operandi of the matter is as philosophical and as lucid as could be given by an — ignoramus. We would not advise the application of solid ice to old peo- ple or infants, or to any person of a frail constitution, without consulting a physician, for it would with great certainty hurry many to their graves. To have made the communication practically valuable, the writer should have stated the time it required to give him an increase of sixty-five pounds in weight ; what he did in addition to the ice applications ; what 422 SUMMER SOURS. he did to place liira in the deplorable condition described, and what bad practices he abandoned. Meanwhile, let the reader remember that applications or remedies which benefit one man may be reasonabl}'^ expected to benefit another one, in propor tion as the conditions of the two are alike, not merely in effect, but as to oause. No wise man would experiment on his own body and health and life on the loose statements of anonymous newspaper writers. After all, when a reasonable allowance has been made for the evident exaggerations of the writer, there is not much that is unusual or remarkable in the changes. AVe have never known a mar. to gain sixty-five pounds in weight on ice, in a short time ; but there are a good many who have " in the course of time " gained that much on vulgar beer. Salivated people have before now got well, by letting themselves alone ; dyspeptic and lean folks, by simply ceasing to be pigs ; and many a ''bilious" man, as j^ellow as a pumpkin, has become as "hearty as a buck," by being simply compelled to go to work and make an honest living, which, by the way, is more health promoting than the icebergs of a thousand poles. The. trial will demonstrate this to almost any reader. SUMMER SOURS. Physiological research has fully established the fact that acids promote the separation of the bile from the blood, which is then passed from the system, thus preventing fevers, the jDrevailing diseases of summer. All fevers are " bilious ;" that is, the bile is in the blood. Whatever is antagonistic of fever, is cooling. It is a common saying that fruits are " cooling," and also berries of every description ; it is because the acidity which they contain aids in separating the bile from the blood; that is, aids in purifying the blood. Hence the great yearning for greens and lettuce, and salads in the early spring, these being eaten with vinegar; hence, also, the taste for something sour, for lemonades, on an attack of fever. But, this being the case, it is easy to see that we nullify the good effects of fruits and berries, in proportion as we eat them LIQHTNINO STROKE. 423 with sugar, or even sweet milk, or cream. If we eat them in their natural state, fresh, ripe, perfect, it is almost impossible to eat too many, to eat enough to hurt us, especially if Ave eat them alone, not taking any liquid with them whatever. Hence, also, is buttermilk, or even common sour milk, pro- motive of health in summer time. Sweet milk tends to bil- iousness in sedentary persons ; sour milk is antagonistic. The Greeks and Turks are passionately fond of sour milk. The shepherds use rennet, and the milk dealers alum, to make it sour the sooner. Buttermilk acts like watermelons on the system. LIGHTNING STROKE. It is said that exposure to the rain, or being drenched with buckets of water, seems to have some agency in restoring per- sons to life who have been prostrated by lightning. It is better to take some precautions against the lightning, which will be the more easily remembered, and the better ap- plied, if some explanations are given as to the nature of light- ning. There is a stillness in the atmosphere, when all parts of it are of equal temperature, whether cold or hot, for the air is then in equilibrium. But if one part be hot, and the other be cold, as in two adjoining rooms, the moment the door be- tween is opened there is a commotion, and the cold air rushes into the warmer room. If two vessels of water adjoin, and are connected by a hollow tube under the surface, both bodies of water are still, if each vessel is filled to an equal height. But if one vessel has a greater depth of water than the other, there is a commotion until an equilibrium is secured. When the atmosphere about us is uniformly filled or satu- rated with electricity, there is quiet, safety, equilibrium. But if a layer, either side, has more or less electricity than the one about us, there is a passing of the electricity from one to the other, until each body of air is alike filled, or equally satu- rated. But, with this passing, there is noise ; as the passing •)f air makes the noise of wind, and the passage of water 424 LIOETNINQ STROKE. causes roariDg, so the noise made by the passage of electricity is called thunder ; the force of it is the lightning, as the force of wind, or moving water, carries us away, according to its rapidity ; but lightning, like a cannon-ball, moves so swiftly, that the body which it strikes has not time to have motion imparted to it, and it is shivered or perforated ; the compari- son, however, does not hold good at all points. But the electricity of the fuller section or body of air gets to the other which has less, with greater or less facility, ac- cording to what is between them, or connects them. If a pointed piece of metal — gold, silver, or iron — connects these bodies of different fulness of electricity, the communi- cation or stream is conducted so constantly and steadily that there is no noise or commotion, there is no obstruction. But if wood is used, it does not conduct the electricity quick enough, hence wood is not so good a conductor as iron. Hence, where there is more electricity above us than on the earth, it comes down quietly and unnoticed, if there are a great many iron communications or conductors, such as light- ning-rods ; but if trees, only, extend from one to the 'Other, or tall chimneys, there is noise and destruction. Hence, it is best to keep away from chimneys and trees, or tall objects, in thunder-storms in warm weather; therefore, if in the house, keep as near the centre of the room as possible. But the course or direction of the lightning is always from the fuller air to that which is less full, as water runs from the fuller vessel towards the other. Hence, if the air in the clouds has most electricity, the " stroke " comes from above ; if, however, the air on the surface ii fuller of electricity, then the stroke is upwards ; this is the reason, in many cases, why men and animals are killed by lightning in the open fields, or on prairies. But these unequally filled bodies of air may be parallel with each other, and, if a house is between them, it will be a con- ductor, and a person sitting at an open window will be killed. If the window had been down, he might have been saved, for glass repels lightning, -- that is, it can keep it from passing; hence, if a man stands on the ground and takes hold of an electrical wire, the electricity will pass freely through his body into the earth ; but if he stands on a glass block, the OCCUPATIONS OF LIFE. 425 electricity does not go through, but collects in the man him- self; he gets full of it, and fire flies out of him every time jou touch him. Lightning, or electricity, has a love, so to speak, for metals, has an affinity for them, or seeks for them ; hence, the less of iron, or steel, or other metals, you have about your persons during a thunder-storm in summer, the safer you are. OCCUPATIONS OF LIFE When a youth is about determining what he shall follo-w for a living, the first rule is to select the employment which he likes best, — one which he can follow con amore^ that is, with the most satisfaction to his inclinations, tastes, or de- sires, always presupposing that it is not merely an allowable calling, but one that is useful and honorable. The second inquiry should be. Will health admit of it? Sickly, or even merely feeble persons, should not think, for a moment, of any indoor occupation. It is worse than suicidal ; because, besides the risk of destroying their own lives, there are chances of this being done not soon enough to prevent the introduction of a diseased progeny, to be life-long mis- erables themselves, and to be a burden to others. Of the in- door occupations, some of the most trying to the human con- stitution are working in cotton, hemp, paints, dyeing furs, tobacco, lucifer matches, manufacturers' trimmings, and the like, involving the filling of the air with minute particles. Blondes, — that is, persons with light hair, fair skin, and blue e^es, — as also those having sandy or reddish hair, should, by all means, select some active, outdoor vocation. Brunettes, persons having a dark skin, indicating the bil- ious temperament, accompanied, usually, with black hair and dark eyes, should select a calling, which, whether indoor or out, will require them to be on tneir feet, moving about nearly all the time, in order to "work off" the constantly accumu- lating bile. The mixed temperaments can best bear sedentary, indoor occnpation ; such as a combination of the bilious and uei'vous. 426 NOSEOLOGT. Spare persons, not having much flesh, but enough of the ner- vous and sanguine temperament to give them a wiriness of constitution, — these can bear indoor occupations best ; their activity, arising from the nervous temperament, keeping them in motion (the tongue, anyhow, if women), while their hope- fuhiess, arising from the sanguine temperament, keeps up their spirits, which is an element as essential to success as it is to health. But, of all human occupations which do not render a man amenable to the laws of his country, the most universally and invariably destructive to the health of the body, as well as that of the mind and heart, and yet coveted by many, although it is the hardest work in the world, — is that of having nothing to do. NOSEOLOGY. Some persons have an ugly habit of jerking out the little hairs growing inside the nostrils ; the surface from which they grow is exceedingly sensitive, and the slightest touch of one of them causes an itching, or titillation, which is quite sure to arrest the attention, and thus an effectual guard is placed against insects and worms crawling in daring sleep. In addition, each individual hair resists the passage of air, and, altogether, they make a valuable respirator, by detaining the very cold air from rushing into the lungs, — the fruitful cause of deadly pneumonias (inflammmation of the lungs). And more than all, being so near the gristle, the skin has very little vitality, very little power of healing, and if this healing is baffled at too short intervals, by the tearing away of these hairs, that power is soon lost, and a cancerous sore is the result. Some persons are deluded into the belief, that drawing water up through the nose to wash it out is beneficial ; it can only result in clearing off that bland fluid which nature throws out for the lubrication of the parts, and to prevent their becoming dry by the constant passage of the air over them ; all are familiar with that uncomfortable dryness in a common cold. The purest water has great harshness compared with the soft fluids which nature manufactures: for her own purposes. WELL AND SPRING CLEANING. 427 Bleeding from the nose, when spontaneous, should, in al- most all cases, be let alone. It is an effort of nature to relieve herself of internal congestions, of a surplus of blood, often giving instantaneous and grateful relief from headache and other ailments. A teaspoonful of blood from the noso has prevented many a fatal attack of apoplexy ; hence a noso bleeding is sometimes the safety-valve of life. We once saw an infant apparently dying from an Dverdose of paregoric, given by an ignorant mother to keep it quiet while travelling in a stage-coach ; but, by the gushing of blood from the nose, it at once revived and was saved. It is time enough to interfere with a bleeding from the nose, when a tablespoonful has dropped, or when it is seen to come out in a continuous stream ; then the patient should sit up- right, and have cold water poured on the head, or a cushion of fine ice kept over the whole scalp ; if more is needed, snuff up powdered alum, or alum-water, or the fine dust from a tea-canister, or the scrapings of the inside of tanned leather. A spontaneous bleeding at the nose is nature declaring that there is too much blood in the body ; then, not an atom of food should be eaten for twenty-four hours. WELL AND SPRING CLEANING. As spring approaches, we earnestly advise all persons who '.se well water and spring water, to have both wells and springs thoroughly cleaned out, and then washed out in early May, and also during October ; as there is strong reason to believe that the settlings which have accumulated, including decayed vegetation, impart their disease-engendering quali- ties to the water, and thus originate some of the most dan- gerous forms of low or typhoid fever, at a time of the year when the weather is so cool as to preclude the idea of their arising from vegetable decomposition. The stench of the d6bris at the bottom of wells should induce all cleanly per sons to expurgate them thoroughly, aside from considerations (»f health. 428 PRESERVATION OF FOOD. PKESERVATION OF FOOD. It is the common air which sustains the life of all thai breathes or grows ; but when breath and growth cease, that same air is the agent of destruction, and reduces all to ashes and dust. But in proportion as we can successfully exclude the common air from anything which has parted with life, whether animal or vegetable, it may be indefinitely preserved. Meat begins to decompose after a few hours' exposure to a warm sun, but human ingenuity has devised means for keep- ing it fresh for weeks, and months, and years even in warm climates. Milk begins to decompose within an hour after it is drawn from the cow, but the genius of Gail Borden has laid New York under contribution by supplying it with a con- centrated article which maintains its freshness for weeks, and even months. This gentleman is also the unacknowledged instrument in the preservation of Dr. Kane and his men, on their mission of humanity for Sir John Franklin, for they were rescued from imminent starvation by food prepared by a process of his own devising. It is not known whether he is still pushing his experiments in that direction, but it is very certain if government had extended to him a modicum of the moral countenance and material aid bestowed on experiments in the construction of murderous fire-arms, humanity might have been benefited to an incalculably greater extent. The secret of the success of the self-sealing cans in preserv- ing fruits, berries, and vegetables, lies in the perfection and handiness with which common air is excluded. Yet, after all, they are but a questionable improvement of the plan of our grandmothers, who used to fill common bottles with the desired fruit, then pouring in hot syrup to fill up the in- terstices, the cork was put in loosely, and the whole placed in boiling water for a minute or two ; the cork was then driven home, the bottles placed neck downwards in a trench in the earth, in the cellar, covered over and let alone for use in after months, or years. Sir John Ross states, that a tin case of preserved beef was landed from the "Fury" in August, 1825, and taken by him AUTUMNAL DISEASES. 4211 in July, 1833. This case lie presented to a friend several years later, and in April, 1859, it was opened at a bachelor's party. "Along with the entrdes came the contents of the tin case of boiled beef, which proved to be as sweet and fresh, and containing as much nourishment as it formerly did, when carried to the Arctic regions in the unfortunate Fury, ir ] 825." Taking this statement as true, and there is no reason to doubt it, food carefully put up can be preserved thirty- four years. The old-time plan of bottles buried, is safer and better than any other for the preservation of fruits and berries for domes- tic use. Tin cans and glazed crockery are liable to be acted on b}'' the acid of fruits and berries, so as to produce poison ous effects, but glass is indestructible by such chemical agents ; it is cheap, and can be had anywhere ; besides, it is more readily and more perfectly cleaned, and the mode of prepara tion is simple and easy. Those who prefer to use the patent self-sealing cans or jars, should give the glass ones the preference ; next, the glazerl stoneware ; and tin, the last. It would greatly promote the health and comfort of families, if bushels of fruits, and berries, and tomatoes were put up for winter use, instead of quarts and gallons ; not in the costly and laborious method of old- time " preserving," but on the more simple plan of the present day, by vhich they can be preserved in their nearly natural state, little or no sweetening being required. AUTUMNAL DISEASES. These are diarrhoeas, dysenteries, and fevers. Diarrhoea is when the evacuations are thin, frequent, and weakening. Dysentery is when there is blood in the discharges, accom- panied with a distressing straining without accomplishing any- thing, called " tormina and tenesmus " by physicians. Fever needs no description. Diarrhoea, dysentery, fever and ague, bilious fever, conges- tive fever, typhoid fever, yellow fever, are all one and the same disease, in the opinion of many eminent physicians, 430 AUTUMNAL LISEASES. differing ouly in degree, commencing with diarrhoea; this appears earliest in the season, and attaclis those who are the weakliest, or are most susceptible of disease. Those who have a stronger constitution hold out longer, but the causes of disease being still and steadily in operation, their effects are concentrated, and at last manifest themselves iuthe more aggravated form of dysentery in September. In October, bilious fevers become the ruling disease. Persons still more robust, who hold out until November, lall under the terrible congestive chill, or typhoid fever, to perish within a few days. Yellow fever is the result of a more rapid generation of the causes of these ailments, and in a more concentrated or viru- lent form, but being more speedy in its manifestations, is not, in proportion to the number of persons attacked, as certainly deadly as fevers of the typhoid or congestive type ; hence yellow fevers begin in July and August. Multitudes of lives would be saved every fall if the people could be induced to give the subject a little examination, and follow it up by the timely observance of a few precautions. These ailments arise from the decomposition of vegetable matter, requiring, however, three conditions. There must be vegetable matter. There must be moisture. There must be heat. When these three conditions meet, a gas is always the result ; that gas is called miasm, which means an emanation, but it is an emanation of a particular kind — it is that which arises from decaying vegetation alone. The emanations from other things, as a carrion, or a sulphur spring, or privy, are denominated malaria — simply " bad air." Miasm, the destructive emanation from decaying vegetation, as wood, leaves, weeds, and the like, has one marked dis- tinctive feature, although a negative one, — it has no smell, it is unseen and unfelt; chemistry, with all its power, cannot detect its presence. But worse than all this, while the carrion drives us with a power from its neighborhood, miasm not only gives no intimation of its deadly presence, but comes in an atmosphere 8o cool and so delightfully refreshing, that the temptation to AUTUMNAL JJHSEASES. 431 indulge in taking in delicious draughts is as irresistible as tho lusciousness of yielding to sleep on the point of being frozen to death. But here is an apparent contradiction. It is apparent only. Investigation not only confirms the statements, but points out the patli of safety, uniform, and infallible. Miasm is generated by heat of over eighty degrees Fahren- heit, but this so rarefies the atmosphere, that it shoots up into the sky as instantly as an inflated balloon, and as long as tho weather continues hot it is kept among the clouds. But the cool nights of the fall condense this atmosphere ; by which condensation, it descends at sundown to the surface of the earth, where it is breathed until the weather becomes warm enough next day to carry it up again. Hence the popular prejudice against night air. The Roman authorities do not station officials to caution travellers against stopping in the Campagna during the day- time, but in the night, when its swamps are reeking with disease and death. For the same reason, forty years ago the Charleston mer- chants in summer were not afraid to ride to the city at mid- day and transact their business, but a night's rest there was almost certain death. But not to make this article too long for universal quotation, which ought to be accorded, to it, it suffices to point out its practicalities in all places where autumnal dieases prevail, especially if they are epidemic. 1. Sleep with the outer doors and windoAvs closed, especial- l}'' if the chamber is on the first floor or story, or even second. This keeps the atmosphere of the room so warm, that the miasm is kept at the ceiling. 2. Take supper at sundown, and breakfast at daylight, or at least before leaving the house in the morning, even to go outside of the door, or sit at an open window ; this has the effect to prevent the stomach from absorbing the deadly miasm, as it is preoccupied by taking something more material and substantial. No doubt the Dutch custom of eatinsf break- fast by daylight, and of the Creole, that is, the native popula- tion of Louisiana, taking their coffee in bed, were founded on observations in this connection without knowing: the reason. 432 DYSENTERY. 3. If a fire is kindled ia every dwelling at snndown and sunrise, and the family sit in the same room until bed-time, with all outer doors and windows closed, and kept closed during the night, all autumnal diseases, as epidemics, would become impossible of occurrence, because it would be con- trary to physical law. 4. A large lump of ice suspended in a sleeper's room, so as to keep the air at the level of his breathing, at seventy-five degrees, would be equally efiective in this regard, because miasm cannot be held in solution in an atmosphere of that temperature. It would, as it were, be precipitated to the floor of the room, as we know carbonic acid gas is thrown to the floor by a certain degree of cold. It is greatly to be regretted that these things are not more thoroughly known among physicians, as well as the people, for practical and rational attention to them would avert an incalculable amount of human sufiiering. DYSENTERY. Multitudes of lives are lost by ignorance of the nature of simple diseases at their first appearance. Few know the essential difierence between diarrhoea, which is ordinarily a trivial disease, and dysentery, which is often a speedily fatal malady. Diarrhoeal discharges always afibrd a feeling of relief, with- out pain necessarily, or blood. Dysentery, on the contrary, is always attended with painful gripings, with distressing and ineffectual straining, and more or less blood. In dysentery, too much blood is thrown in upon the bowels, and nature attempts to relieve herself by passing it ofl". If she is interfered with, and the mouths of the little tubes which are throwing off the blood are suddenly closed up by styptics, such as alum, or sugar of lead, or logwood, and the like, or by opiates in any form, which, in eflect, operate in the same way, then the blood takes another direction, and goes to the brain, oppresses it, weighing down all the powers of life, and (here is delirium, stupor, death. These are vital facts, known SCROFULA. 438 to all educated physicians ; and yet the very first effort made in the cure of dysentery is to stop the Mood, and its diminu- tion is considered encouraging by the ignorant. There is in- tolerable heat and thirst in dysentery ; this heat extends from the tip of the tongue all through tl^e body ; this attracts more blood, just as a mustard plaster attracts blood. The true cure is to cool the internal surface of the bowels, and nature calls ravenously for this cooling ; yet every swallow of ice- water increases the pain, but ice broken up in pieces small enough to be swallowed whole, and taken to the fullest desire and capacity of the patient, cools off the inner surface of tho mtestinal canal, just as certainly as small lumps of ice, con- stantly placed on a red-hot iron surface, will, at length, cool it. As an aliment, raw beef, in the shape of mince-meat, given in quantities of two tablespooufuls four times a day, at equal intervals, fiicilitates the cure, while it sustains the pa- tient. These things are advised as domestic expedients only, until a physician can be had. Dysentery is very generally caused by a sudden cooling of the skin, especially after exercise ; or, in weakly persons, a sudden change in the weather is all-sufficient, particularly when, with a greater coolness, there is a raw dampness in the atmosphere. Thus it is that this serious ailment is so common in the fall of the year, — midday being hot, and the cool nights closing, abruptly, the pores of the skin, which the heats of the day had relaxed. The best jDreventives are wear- ing woollen flannel shirts, and having fires kindled in the family room at sundown, especially in valley situations, and those otherwise damp, beginning these on the first cool nighl of the fall. SCROFULA. Ihis is a term wnich takes its name from a Latin word, which signifies sow ; while the Greeks used a word of the dame meaning for the same disease, possibly because both Greeks and Romans found that those families suffered most with scrofula who lived after the brutish manner of swine, al- though tb** elevated and refip*>d are not exempt from the 434 SCROFULA. taint. Scrofula is an error of nutrition, and hence may at- tack all colors, constitutions, and temperaments ; but those who have light hair and fair skin are most subject to it. All through the body there are little bunches of vessels, called "glands," which, in their natural state, are not seen; but, if diseased, they swell, and, when near the surface of the skin, form protuberances of irregular shapes, always rounded ; hence, the ancients, who often named things from an apparent quality, called them glands, from their resemblance to an acorn, or a bunch of them. Our aliment, that which nourishes the body, must pass through what is called the absorbent glands before it is fit for nutrition ; in these glands it undergoes considerable changes ; but, if they are in an unnatural condition, are hardened or swollen, the changes made are not perfect, — are not health- ful ; hence it is that scrofula is, essentially, an error of nutri- tion ; the food does not give all its strength ; the person may eat a great deal, and may even look stout and robust, but the appearance is deceptive, — there is no endurance. Scrofula, then, is manifested in an abnormal condition of the glands, giving a name to the disease according to the lo- cality of the part aflfected ; if in the sides of the neck, it is called king's evil, because, in earlier ages, the touch of a king was thought a cure ; if the glands of the joints are affected, it is white swelling ; if in the lungs, it is consumption ; if in the bowels, it is tabes mesenterica, or consumption of the bowels; the person wears away to skin and bone, and is literally con- sumed to death, without any cough whatever. Why the glands of one part should become more particu- larly diseased than elsewhere, is simply because that part has been weakened by some violence offered to it. But how do the glands become diseased at all, or what is the cause of their unnatural condition? In other words, What causes sjrofula? Most generally, persons are born scrofulous, in consequence of one or both parents being diseased in some way or other ; but scrofula may be originated in any constitution by pro- tracted wrong living, such as a want of personal cleanliness, or a continued dwelling in low, or damp, or filthy localities, or in habitual excesses as to the animal appetites and passions. SCROFULA. 435 Scrofula, like insanity or family resemblances, may pass over a generation. A man may be scrofulous ; his children may not have a trace of it, yet his grandchildren may be de- cidedly so. A person may be very slightly scrofulous, — only a mere trace of it, — so little of it as to be scarcely perceptible, oi it may be of such an aggravated character as to distort the whole body. As a general rule, scrofula shows itself in some kind of breaking out on the skin, or in some aflectiou of the eyes. As scrofula is, essentially, an error of nutrition, by which the food does not impart its full strength to the system, it is characterized by a want of endurance, Ijy a lack of power of resistance, of warding off disease, or averting "colds ; " hence, scrofulous persons take cold very easily, and often describe themselves as " always taking cold," or " the least thing in the world gives me a cold," and that "cold" "settles" in the weak part ; if in the tonsils, they swell internally ; if the lungs are the weak part, a bad cold is the result ; if in the head, — and a great many have a weakness there, — it is de- scribed as a cold in the head. Under certain conditions, a scrofulous person has a greater chance of long life than one who is entirely free from it, especially if well-informed and well to do ; because, being conscious of a want of robustness of constitution, common sense dictates carefulness, and a systematic avoidance of those causes of ailment which obser- vation indicates as the uniform precursor of particular symp- toms, while the tact of being "well to do "gives the means of nursing, and of guarding against those exposures, over-exer- tions, and deprivations, which are the fruitful sources of sickness to the unfortunate poor. A person born scrofulous, or becoming so after birth, need not necessarily remain so to any specially hurtful extent. If, for example, a man suffers from white swelling, or a long and tedious "running" in the neck from king's evil, the " ill hu- moi-s" of the system, as they are called, seem tD find vent there, leaving the constitution comparatively healthy, and a long life of reasonable health is the result. Scrofula may be almost entirely " worked " out of the sys- tem in another way, as by a great and protracted change in 31 436 SCROFULA. the habits of life, — such a change as involves large outdooi activities for the greater part of every twenty-four hours. The same thing may be accomplished, to a great extent, indoors, as, where a sedentary life is followed, by spending a large portion of each day in active employment on foot, especially if the mind is deeply and pleasurably interested in that em- ployment ; more decided results will follow, if the tid is given, meanwhile, of judicious personal habits, such as scru- pulous cleanliness of body and clothing, of regular, full, and sufficient sleep ; of plain, simple, and nutritious food, eaten at regular intervals of five or six hours, and nothing between, with that daily regularity which is essential to health under all circumstances. A scrofulous person should eat fresh meats largely, and bread, and fruit, and berries of every description, using vegetables sparingly. In short, whatever promotes high bodily health, promotes the eradication of a scrofulous taint ; hence it is the greatest wisdom, on the part of those who are scrofulous, to study how and what gives to them the greatest general good health, and to live accordingly. Scrofula manifests itself externally in some, as in lumps, or a variety of breakings out on the skin ; in others, it causes some internal malady. In either case, the essential disease is the same ; it is in the system, in the blood, and the attempt should be to eradicate, not to cover up. If there is an external manifestation, external appliances can never radically cure, can never eradicate ; their tendency is to suppress, to drive inwards, or elsewhere ; generally, if not always, to find refuge in some more vital part ; and the whole history reads, " cured, then died." Hence, external manifes- tations of scrofula are not, indeed, signs of health, but they are signs of safety. It is when measles " strike in " that there is danger. Salt-rheum is scrofula, and afflicts persons for many years, then sometimes disappears for "good and all," to the great gratification of the patient. The next report is "consump- tiou," if in grown persons ; *' water on the brain," if in young children. I PAGE 437. TEE LONGEST LIVERS. 437 As lo talving iutcrnjil remedies, one of three things is the uniform result : — First. The medicine gradually loses its power. Second. The system is benefited only while it is taken ; or, Third. The remedy gradually poisons the system, or im- pairs the tone of the stomach, thus aggravating the " error of nutrition," and hastening a fatal resnit. It is greatly to be regreted that these things are not gen- erally known ; an incalculable amount of human suffering would thereby be prevented, and the unfortunate poor saved many a hard-earned dollar. The most that can be expected, as to the cure of scrofula, is, that it may be kept in abeyance, — may be kept under by wise habits of life, such as regularity, cleanliness, temperance in all things, and daily industry in the open air, living, the meanwhile, on plain, simple, nutritious food, of which fresh meats, ripe fruits, coarse bread, and cold water, are the main. We believe that no medicine ever eradicated scrofula, or kept it under any longer than while it is taken. THE LONGEST LIVERS. The longest livers are they who dwell in palaces and poor- houses. As contradictory as this appears, it is not the less true. The reason of it is in the fact, that, knowing they are provided for, the mind is at rest, and is wholly disencumbered of that eating anxiety, that care for to-morrow, which press so heavily upon the mass of mankind. The very rich and the very poor are not the healthiest; on the contrary, they, are seldom entirely well ; this indisposition takes away what little appetite a loafing life allows them, hence, for a short time, they eat almost nothing; this gives the stomach time to recuperate, while nature works off the surplusage, and, by this double operation, they are made as well as ever in a few days. Hence, the best " Life Insurance " is to secure for yourself, at the earliest possible day, a moderate, uniform, and CERTAIN income. 438 AORICULTURE. AGRICULTURE. Nine times out of ten the best answer which a physician can give to the patient, who, with direful look and dolorous tone, inquires, What shall I do? is. Go to worh. The most important injunction that can be given to this fast age, whether in regard to solid financial prosperity, or to enduring personal enjoyment, or to gladness of heart, or health of body, is. Be content with a slow and moderate increase of your substance. The crying educational error of the age is, allowing sc many boys and girls to reach adult life without the knowl- edge of some handicraft, by which they might earn a living in any country, in case they were reduced to penury. There are scores of thousands of persons in this country who are living from hand to mouth, whose loss of a single day's labor would be followed by a dinnerless day, who might live in careless comfort on a single acre of land, but for the want of a littlp patient industry and self-denial. Look at it : — A single acre of land will readily afford room for forty apple trees, and forty bushels to a tree is not an uncommon product, making sixteen hundred bushels of fruit, which, in midwinter, in any of our large cities or large towns, will readily bring, if in good order, half a dollar a bushel, and sometimes a dollar, by the barrel. A plain, industrious, and economical family in the country can live comfortably on half that amount of money. Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, to whose industry, sagacity, and enterprise this nation owes a large debt for what he has done to promote the culture and perfection of the strawberry and the grape, writes, that in Germany an acre of grapes will yield eight hundred gallons of wine, whose lowest value is one dollar, and that the same yield can be had here ; and when once in bearing, one half is clear profit. A New England farmer, of forty years' experience, writes, that he raises six hundred bushels of onions on an acre of land ; that at the last weeding, in August, he sows turnip- seed, and gathers a crop of four hurdred bushels ; each of WEARING RUBBER SHOES. 439 these sell in New York, and other large cities and towns, and sell readily, by wholesale, for eighty cents a bushel, in almost any year. An acre of cold, marshy, sandy land will yield forty barrels of cranberries, which often sell for thirty dollars a barrel. An acre of the common white bean, which is easily cul- livated, reqnires but little skill, and which is not affected by frost or rot, and which is always a salable article, will yield an equally profitable crop, if well managed. J. W. Manning says he cultivated a piece of ground '*oii which was an orchard of apple trees, some of them four inches in diameter ; one hundred and fifty grape vines, part of them in bearing ; a hundred and thirty currant bushes in bearing; fifty hills of rhubarb, and one third of the whole in the Cutter strawberry, which, in a season of thirty-five days, yielded five hundred quarts. And all on one fifth of an acre of ground ! " With these facts before us, we say to all, if you want to live long in health, and quiet, and independence, go to work in the love of it, be satisfied with moderate gains, cultivate moderate ambitions, practise self-denials, and you will reap a rich reward here and hereafter. WEAEING RUBBER SHOES. The tendency of India-rubber shoes is to make the feet cold, and in such proportion endanger health ; hence, they are useful only in walking when the ground is muddy or sloshy with melting snow — in these cases they are invaluable, and there is no equal substitute. Two rules should be ob- served whenever it is possible : when rubbers are on the feet persons should keep moving, and remove them on entering the house, if it is intended to remain over a few minutes. If the rubbers have been on the feet several hours, both shoes and stockings are necessarily damp by the condensation and confinement of the perspiration, therefore all should be re- moved, and the naked foot held to the fire until warm and dry 440 MORALS OF SICKNESS. in every part ; if then a pair of dry stockings are put on, and a pair of warmed and loose slippers or shoes, there will be a feeling of comfort for the remainder of the day, which will more than compensate for the trouble taken, to say nothing of the ailments averted. But it must not be forgotten that asf India-rubber shoes are impervious to water from without, and ought not to be worn except in muddy weather, and only then while the wearer is in motion, so leather shoes, ren- dered impervious to water, by blacking or by any other means, should be used like India-rubbers, temporarily, and when walking in mud or slosh. For common purposes the old- fashioned leather boots and shoes are best, if kept well blacked, with several renewals of dry socks during the day if the feet perspire profusely. As cold and damp feet are the avenues of death to multitudes every year, a systematic atten- tion to the above suggestions would save many a valuable I'fe. MORALS OF SICKNESS. There are certain forms of disease which, while they waste the body, depress the mind, and stupefy the moral sentiment ; hence, the wise physician often feels compelled to address his remedies to the mind, to bring the religious element into requisition, in strong appeals to a sense of duty. Sometimes there is not left energy enough for an effort at restoration. This is often the case with clergymen, literary men, and pro- fessors in colleges. One of these is like a man just entering the current above the falls of Niagara: he is sensible of his danger, feels that in a short time all effort will be unavailing, yet he has not the moral energy requisite to make use of the means necessary for his deliverance. This condition is in nearly all cases the result of dyspepsia ; that is, it is the result of a want of thorough digestion of the food, a defect which is brought on by injudicious eating. Persons who use opium, tobacco, liquors, or strong coffee and tea, eventually fall into this same state. No Christian man will have any difficulty in saying that the use of liquors should be given up as a duty, under such circumstances. But let the physician MORALS OF SICKNESS. 441 of acknowledged science and ability press upon that same man the duty of abandoning the use of tobacco, or of adopting a plainer mode of feeding, he will find his appeals powerless. Can a man be guiltless who condemns his neighbor for drink- ins: errors, but does not condemn himself for errors in catins:? In other cases, where comparatively little is needed beyond a pill or two a month for a short time, except judicious exercise, the prescription is met with, " Well, I cannot spare the time ; my professional duties are such that I have not the leisure." But suppose you die, what then? You cannot lose now au i:our a day, then all time is lost ! Physicians well know that three fourths of the ordinary- attacks of sickness are the result of imprudence ; that if men lived wisely, the average age would be full threescore years and ten, instead of half that term, as it now is. We know that if human life is valuable to all, the increase of its duration would increase its value. That if any man is useful to the church or the world from thirty to forty, he would be still more useful from fiftj' to sixty ; and that it is his duty to protract his usefulness, there can be no doubt. Again, none will deny that a man in robust health is more available in any calling than he would be if he were an invalid. If, then, it is the duty of every one to do the largest amount of good possible for him to do, he is doing a wrong to society, and to his Master in heaven, if he fail to use the means to avoid disease, and to keep him in robust health ; that is, if he fail to inform himself as to the best method of accomplishing such results. The most terrible of all spiritual conditions, as well as the most utterly hopeless, is for a man to be conscious of his going lo perdition, and yet to feel a total indifference to his situa- tion, sc much so. as to be incapable of making any effort to escape the ruin. Such is the bodily condition of many per- sons ; they are not sufficiently alive to their situation to be stimulated to proper efforts for their deliverance by any appeals to duty, — whose end is death I 442 THE FEET IN WINTER-TIME. THE FEET IN WINTER-TIME. No person can be well long, whose feet are habitually cold ; vvhile, securing for them dryness and warmth, is the certain means of removing a variety of annoying ailments. The feet of some are kept more comfortable in winter if cotton is worn, while woollen suits others better. The wise course, therefore, is, for each one to observe for himself, and act accordingly. Scrupulous cleanliness is essential to the healthful warmth of the feet ; hence all, especially those who walk a great deal out of doors during the day in cold weather, should make it a point to dip both feet in cold water on rising every morning, and let them remain half ankle deep, for half a minute at a time, then rub and wipe dry, dress and move about briskly to warm them up. To such as cannot well adopt this course from any cause, the next best plan is to wash them in warm water every night just before going to bed, taking the pre- caution to dry them by the fire most thoroughly before retiring; this, besides keeping the feet clean, preserves a natural softness to the skin, and has a tendency to prevent and cure corns. Many a troublesome throat affection, and many an annoying headache, will be cured if the feet are kept always clean, warm, soft, and dry. The moment the feet are observed to be cold, the person should hold them to the fire, with the stockings off, until they feel comfortably warm. One of the several decided objec- tions to a furnace-heated house, is the want of a place to warm the feet, the registers being wholly unsuited for that purpose. Our wealthy citizens do themselves and their families a great wrong if they fail to have one room in the house, free for all, where a fire is kept burning from the first da}-- of October until the first day of June, on a low grate, on a level witJi the hearth, after the pattern of Dixon, of Chest- nut Street, Philadelphia ; for the closer the fire is to the hearth in a grate, or to the floor in a stove, the more comfortable is it, and the less heat is wasted. This is one of the delights of the good old-fashioned wood fires, the very thought of which TEE BIRDS OF TEE WOOD. 443 carries so many of us away to the glad scenes of childhood and early homes. It ought to be known in New York, where hard or anthracite coal is burned, that with one of the grates named, filled with hard coal and a few pieces of Liverpool or caunell put on top, nearly all the advantages of a wood fire are secured, at least as far as cheerfulness, comfort, and warmth are concerned. Some feet are kept cold by their dampness from incessant perspiration ; in such cases cork soles are injurious, beciuse they soon become saturated, and maintain moisture for a long time. Soak a cork in water for a day or two and see. A better plan is to cut a piece of broadcloth the size of the foot, baste on it half an inch thickness of curled hair, wear it insido. the stocking, the hair touching the sole ; remove at night, and place before the fire to dry, until morning. The hair titillates the skin, thereby w^arming it some, and conducts the damp- ness to the cloth. Scrupulous cleanliness of feet and stockings, with hair soles, are the best means known to us of keeping the feet warm when they are not cold from decided ill health. A tight shoe will keep the feet " as cold as ice," when a loose-fitting one will allow them to be comfortably warm. A loose woollen sock over a loose shoe will maintain more warmth than the thickest soled tight-fitting boot. Never start on a journey in winter, nor any other time, with a new shoe. THE BIRDS OF THE WOOD. The true uses of the beautiful are to happify man ; hence we shall never fail to find, throughout the wide empire of the beneficent Father of us all, that beauty has its uses ; or if those uses are not known to us now, a closer observation will discover them. Then spare, O, spare, the beautiful birds of the early spring-time, and of the maturer summer ; for while they delight us with their sweet, glad twitterings, they pei'- form a toil all day, which sturdy man, with all his wisdom and all his power, would be wholly inadequate to accomplish. Time out of mind have we been told that the birds were the 444 ANAL ITCHINGS. worst enemies of the hard-working tiller of the soil, and with that impression, millions of these loving warblers have been remorselessly, yes, gladly destroyed. But not long ago, y farmer, as observant as he was humane, shot a yellow-bird in his field, in order to convince a neighbor that birds were actually useful rather than destructive. On examining it;- little stomach, they found it contained two hundred weevilp and only four grains of wheat. Birds, like our domestic fowls, thrive on flesh, and are the voracious destroyers of insects. But as sweetness of character is the steady attendant of benevolence in men, so there is a kindness in the little bosom of the feathered songster, which well accords with its bonny plumage, its beautiful voice, and its sterner utilities. The correspondent of a Washington paper relates, that noticing an extraordinary commotion near a bird's nest, he found that a mother-bird had been caught by the wing among the twigs of a tree ; her cries brought others ; and when hei efforts for release were unavailing, the other birds flew away, but after a while returned, each bearing an insect of some kind, or other article of food, in its bill ; some gave to the mother, others gave to her half-grown nestlings near by. When the gentleman released the mother, there seemed to be a universal jubilation for a short time, when the others flew away, and the mother-bird nestled among her young ones. Who that reads this beautiful incident will ever hurt a bird again, or allow children, or any person under them, to do it? And if the little birds thus help one another in trouble, let not man, with his high relationship to angels, ever fail in aiding an unfortunate brother in his sorrow, in his poverty, or in the hour of crushing trial, or wasting illness. ANAL ITCHINGS. This is a malady which is never referred to, except in pro- fessional works, and yet it is an ailment which gives an incred- ible amount of annoyance, coming on as it does on retiring to bed, and continuing nightly for many years, making sleep WINTER RULES. 445 impracticable, sometimes for many hours together. It is sometimes a dyspeptic symptom, ut others, it arises from a multitude of small worms at the parts. As an unprofessional man is not likely to know the real cause, and yet may not like to ask for advice, strict cleanliness and frequent ablutions are essential ; then regulate the diet, living mainly on cold bread, fruits, and fresh meats. But for instantaneous relief, inject a tcaspoonful of camphor water, or dip the fore-finger in the water, and apply it. One or two applications are often sufficient. Or apply, twice a day, an ointment made of sixty grains cf calomel and a heaping teaspoonful of hog's lard, then powder with camphorated starch, made by mixing intimately a dram of camphor with four drams of starnh WINTER RULES. Never go to bed with cold or damp feet. In going into a colder air, keep the mouth resolutely closed, that by compelling the air to pass circuitously through the nose and head, it may become warmed before it reaches the lungs, and thus prevent those shocks and sudden chills which frequently end ir. pleurisy, pneumonia, and other serious forms of disease. Never sleep with the head in the draught of an open door or window. Let more cover be on the lower limbs than on the body. Have an extra covering within easy reach in case of a sudden and great change of weather durinof the nijiht. Never stand still a moment out of doors, especially at street corners, after having walked even a short distance. Never ride near the open window of a vehicle for a single Iialf minute, especially if it has been preceded by a walk ; valuable lives have thus been lost, or good health permanently destroyed. Never put on a new boot or shoe in beginning a journey. Never wear India-rubbers in cold, dry weather. If compelled to face a bitter cold wind, throw a silk hanr"- 446 WATS TO DRUNKENNESS. kerchief over the face : its agency is wondeiful in modifying the cold. Those who are easily chilled on going out of doors, should have some cotton battinsr attached to the vest or other orar- ment, so as to protect the space between the shoulder-blades behind, the lungs being attached to the bod}'' at that point ; a little there is worth five times the amount over the chest in front. Never sit for more than a minute at a time with the back against the fire or stove. Avoid sitting against cushions in the backs of pews in churches ; if the uncovered board feels cold, sit erect with- out touching it. Never begin a journey until breakfast has been eaten. After speaking, singing, or preaching in a warm room in winter, do not leave it for at least ten minutes, and even then close the mouth, put on the gloves, wrap up the neck, and put on cloak or overcoat before passing out of the door ; the neglect of these has laid many a good and useful man in a premature grave. Never speak under a hoarseness, especially if it requires an effort, or gives a hurting or a painful feeling, for it often results in a permanent loss of voice, or life-long invalidism. WAYS TO DRUNKENNESS. A BEAUTIFUL Knickerbocker custom is it for a gentleman on New Year's Day to call on his lady acquaintances as a token of respectful remembrance, intimating thereby that he desires this acquaintance to be continued, and he judges from the manner of his reception whether such a continuance would be Agreeable or not. Some ladies vouchsafe the pleasu.'able cer- tainty by returning the call, the next day, to those whom they specially desire to remain their recognized friends. With this commendable custom has grown up a usage of questionable expediency, that of having a table spread with various delicacies — wines, cordials, and brandies being con- sidered by some as indispensables. The result being, that in WATS TO DRUNKENNESS. 447 ttie joyousuess of the iuterview, not lasting, generally, over two or three minutes, a sip is taken of this, that, and the other, and being repeated at every dwelling, gentlemen, ere they are aware of it, find themselves unmistakably drunk, and the Rubicon once crossed, the ice once broken, the morale once lost, life ends in the gutter. Seeing these objections, some thoughtful persons have for years removed the wine-cup, and replaced it with coffee, lemonade, or pure cold water, the eatables remaining the same. Let every mother who has a son who might be mis- led, be equally considerate ; and if she have not a son herself, let her remember that some other sister woman has a son to be lost or saved, and act accordingly. Aside from this objection, the custom is a beautiful one, beautiful morally, beautiful socially, especially in large cities, where the press of duties and the rush of business insensibly defer intended calls on prized friends until weeks and mouths have passed away, when the shame of the delinquency comes in, excuses are framed, and finally it is concluded the interval has been so long that the acquaintance may as well be dropped, and the parties meet indifferently ever after. But when a day in a 3'ear is fixed by common consent for "adjusting these ar- rearages," for making out a list of pleasant faces whose remem- brance it is not wished should pass away, the very work of casting about for the names of the prized has a sweetness , about it which of itself is worth much. But when a lady lays her head on her pillow on New Yeai'a night, the gladness of the day is very liable to be followed with recollections which are painfully sad. Some faces she ex- pected to see did not present themselves ; a year before, how merry they were, how joyous was the greeting ! But one has removed to a distant part of the country ; to another, reverses have come, pecuniary or social ; a third has gone upon the retumless journey; while here and there one is found who has chosen to drop the acquaintance without any assignable reason. Then there are maiden ladies, who, some years ago, num- bered their callers by dozens and scores, and even hundreds ; but for a few years past they have fallen off in geometrical progression, and now the diminution is really frightful. 448 WAYS TO DRUNKENNESS. Formerly, when youth and beauty were theirs, the door-bell )>egau to tingle as soon as the clock struck nine of the morn- hig, with scarcely an intermission until it verged towards mid- night. But now how great the change ! Merry voices arc heard outside, but they do not greet their ears ; brisk footfalls sound on the pavement, but they do not stop at their doors ; and a weary forenoon has almost passed away, with only one or two visitors to break the disturbing monotony, and former visions begin to assume more tangible shapes, and the em- bodied idea stands out in high relief — Passee! But yonder comes a poor unfortunate bachelor ; his hat is faultlessly sleek, as faultlessly shine his boots. Cristadoro has supplied him with one of his most natural wigs, and to the whiskers Phalon has imparted the deepest, glossiest black. Allen has given him teeth, whose perfection of finish vies with Dame Nature herself; in fact, at a short distance, the man is without a fault ; but, on a nearer view, it is seen that youth has fled from the face ; the eye is no more joyous ; the nimble step, the supple joint, the rollicking air, all are gone, aud as for the poor heart, why, there is nothing in it ! it is as hollow as his head ; for in the heyday of youth, when he had his pick and choice of a hundred, he was soft enough to imagine that he was entitled to a piece of perfection ; and while he was looking around for it, this one, whom he thought almost so, was caught up by a wiser man ; then the second best, and the third best, aud so on, until the remnant were so common, in/ his judgment, that he went off on other explorations, where the same fatality followed him, and now he has come back to the lid stamping-ground, confident that he will receive the greet- ings as of yore. But he has got old in the mean time, changes have come, new names are on the doors, and if now and then the name is the same, the once merry occupant has mated with another, and anon his face becomes a mile long ; the corners of his lips are turned downward ; in his meditations he has forgotten the day and the occasion ; he walks along, a veritable "abstraction," and, when too late, soliloquizes in reality, — " I feel like one who treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted ; Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, And all but me departed." HOMINY. 449 Let it be then the wisdom of the reader, whether man or woman, if as yet unmated, to resolve that the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy, shall be the last New Year's which shall find them out of the bonds of steadying and happifying wedlock ; for out of it there is no pure enjoyment, while in it there is bliss or — otherwise ! according to the cir- cumstances of the case and the wisdom of the parties. But, inasmuch as out of wedlock there is no rest, and much that \& calculated to wilt and wither the finer feelings of our nature, while in married life there is, for the most part, in the aggi'e- gate, a world of enjoyment in cherishing the highest and most refining qualities of the human heart, it is wise to wed. HOMINY. When that kind of Indian corn called " flint corn " is broken into three or four pieces with a wooden pestle, as is done in the West and South-west, it is called hominy. The outer skin, which answers to the " bran " in grinding wheat, is removed by steeping or boiling it in the ley of wood ashes. In the North, this corn, broken coarsely, is called " samp," while that which is denominated " samp," in the South, is the same corn prepared in such a way that each particle, as it appears on the table, is not larger than a grain of rice, and is quite as white, but it has not the juiciness and sweetness of the coarser prep- aration. Next to the common white bean, hominy is the most nutri- tious, the most economical, and the most healthful article of vegetable growth which can be placed on our tables. The usual mode of preparing it is to cover it an inch deep with water over night, and let it soak until the morning ; then boil it slowly and steadily six, eight, or ten hours, until it is quite soft enough for being eaten easily. After it has thus been boiled, a part of it may be taken, prepared with a little milk and butter, and placed on the table, to be eaten as a vegetable, or with syrup or loaf-sugar, as a dessert. The portion laid iway can be cut in slices, about half an inch thick, and fried brown for breakfast, with or without the addition of syrup ; oi 32 45C TEE VICTIM. it may be warmed up just as it is, or, with a little milk, or a tal)lespoonful or two in a bowl of good milk, will, of itself, make a sufBcient meal. A bowl of milk and hominy, thus prepared, would make a sustaining and healthful dinner for a day laborer. If prepared fresh every day, it can be tf.kcu for v>ceks together with an appetite and a relish, while it is, per- haps, not inferior to cracked wheat as an agency in the health- ful regulation of the system. THE VICTIM. She was just eighteen, the only child of a retired merchant. Never was there a more indulgent father, never a more dot- ing mother. That father had spent thirty long years bending over his desk. How sedulously had he made every entry ! How late in the night of every day was it that he found him- self running over his "blotter," to see if he had forgotten an item I How, to the latest verge of conscience, had he gone every Saturday night over the balance-sheets. How, through wind and rain and storm and snow, he had regularly "gone on " to purchase goods twice a year ! How many heartaches he had endured in that " age " of business, in the failure of customers to "pay up," in their questioning the correctness of some of the entries, in listening to interminable excuses ibr want of promptness. How often did it happen, when, after having done all that he could possibly do to " meet his own notes," the announcement was made, just before the clocK struck " three," that he must " take up " a customer's paper, on the faith of which he had obtained a " discount," 01 go to protest? How many nights he had slept not a wink, in the apprehension that he might not be able to meet the " calls " of the coming day ? How many times he had come home at nightfall more dead than alive, hungry, tired, dis- pirited, and sad, soliloquizing, " What's the use of all this?" and yet, turning his eye on his patient, quiet, beautiful wife, and the more beautiful blossom which nestled by her side, would find a new inspiration in the thought : " It's not forme, — it's for these ! THE VICTIM. 451 How many times such things occurred in the course of that thirty years of mercantile life, none can say ; the number was, doubtless, large, very large. But the sun of prosperity shone in a cloudless sky. Mone}^ multiplied on itself; and, at the age of fifty-eight, he found himself a rich man, retired from business, the owner of a splendid mansion, the husband of as good a wife, the father of as sweet a child, as any reasonable man could wish to have. On the second day of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, we were consulted as to the health of that daughter. She was at school in a distant city. The " examination " was coming on. She had maintained a high position in school. Hers was the glory of being at the " head of her class." Her ambition was to maintain that position to the end. On inquiry, it appeared that she was so much " in- terested in her studfes," that she would not give any time to recreation. She would even take her food in her hands, hurry off to school, eating and studying on the way. The moment she returned from school her face Avas buried in her books ; and thus it had been for weeks, months, may be years. Great nature never allows an outrage against herself to be committed with impunity ; neither youth, nor beauty, nor position, nor gold, ever bribed her ; her laws are as immutable as adamant. The danger appeared imminent. It was coun- selled to abandon school ; but, as this was not assented to, we declined special advice. It was intimated, that, when the ex- amination was over (and it would only be a few weeks), she could give full attention to herself. Not having seen her, we hoped that our fears were exaggerated. Still w^e felt as if every book had better be thrown in the fire ; that not one single day should be allowed to be passed in a school-room, not an hour in study ; that every moment in the beauteous outdoors was a treasure to her, and that the earlj- moruiuo' and the later evening should find her in the saddle, scouring the hills of her own beautiful New England. Only a few weeks ! Why, it seemed to us, in its necessities, to be a million years' duration, — in fact, an interminable time, irre- deemable ! But she was anxious to graduate with honor. Parental kindness overreached itself. Moral firmness was wantinir. And the school kept on. She gi-aduated with great honor. 452 SUCCESSFUL MEN. and in the following June she died. The desolation of thai household was immeasurable. "I see my error now," said the stricken father. How many of our readers will take warning from this un- varnished narration of facts, and look with horror on those murderous stimulations of pride and ambition which are prac- tised at almost all our schools ? Practised always, to show off the teachers, without ever bringing one single benefit to the child. The price we pay for the education of our sons and daughters is, in ten thousand instances, the price of blood, paid for by the blasting of the hopes of a lifetime ; the penalty, — an age of desolation, a going down to the grave in an aw- ful loneliness ; for it is not merely to be alone, but the being attended with a remorse which death only can wipe out. The victims to ill-advised applications at school, and acad- emy, and college, and seminary, are numberless. Not, in- deed, the applications themselves, but the injudicious habits and modes of life in connection with them. We are all too much in a hurry to have our children gradu- ate ; to hasten their studies ; to expedite their entrance on professional life, with the result of an utter failure ; or, if the professional goal is reached, let the experience of the myriads of sufferers from various forms of disease testify, which tor- ture the body and harass the mind for the remainder of life, making it a martyrdom, instead of a glory, a gladness, and an enduring joy. SUCCESSFUL MEN. Who are they? They are those who, when boys, were compelled to work, either to help themselves or their parents ; and who, when a little older, were under the stern necessity of doing more than their legitimate share of labor ; who, as young men, had their wits sharpened by having to devise ways and means of making their time more available than it would have been under ordinary circumstances. Hence, in reading the lives of men wno have greatly distinguished them- selves, we find their whole youth passed in self-denials of food, and rest, and sleep, and recreation. They sat up late. SUCCESSFUL MEN. 453 and rose early to the performance of imperative duties ; doing, by daylight, the work of one man, and, by night, the work of another. Said a gentleman, the other day, now a private banker of high integrity, and whom we knew had started in life without a dollar, " For years together I was in my place of business at sunrise, and often did not leave it for fifteen and eighteen hours." Let not, therefore, any youth be discouraged, if he has to make his own living, or even to support, besides, a widowed mother, or sick sister, or unfortunate relation ; for this has been the road to eminence of many a proud name. This is the path which printers and teachers have often trod, — thorny enough at times, at others so beset with obstacles as to be al- most impassable, — but the way has cleared, sunshine came, success followed, then the glory and renown 1 A young man writes us, '*I am a humble school-teacher; with the duties belonging to half a hundred pupils, I issue a monthly printed nine miles away, and do all the folding, stitching, binding, and mailing, of three thousand copies, with a deep feeling that good may be done. I hope I will succeed." Certainly he will succeed I For he has the two great ele- ments of success, — a will to work, and a heart in the right place, — a heart, whose object is not glory, but good. But too often has it happened that there comes in, between the manly efibrt and a glorious fruition, disease, crippling the body, depressing the mind, and wasting and wearing away the whole man. Who does not remember grand intellects, which have gone down in the night of a premature grave ? Who has not seen young men, with magnificent minds, stand- ing on the borders, looking wistfully — O, how wistfully! — over, but unable to "go in and possess the land," only for the want of bodily health? A health, by no means wanting originally, but sacrificed — pitilessly, remorselessly sacrificed — by inattention and sheer ignorance ; learned in everything «lse ; critically informed in everything else ; perfect masters of everything else, except the knowledge of a few general principles as to the care of the body, — principles which could be perfectly mastered, in any twenty-four hours, by u mind accustomed to think. 454 LAUGHTER AND MUSIC. Within a few months two men have died in the very prime nnd vigor of mental manhood, being not fur from fifty, — one, tlie first scholar of his time ; the other, one of the very best and most nsefiil men of the age ; both of them the victims ot wrong habits of life, — habits framed in youth, and utterly re- pugnant to the commonest dictates of common sense. Some of the most useful rules for the preservation of the health of the young, while obtaining an education, are these : — 1. Keep the feet always dry and warm. 2. Eat thrice a day, at regular times ; not an atom between nieals ; taking for supper only a piece of cold bread and but- ter, with a single cup of any w^arm drink. 3. Go to bed not later than ten o'clock; and never remain there longer than eight hours at farthest, not sleeping a mo- ment in the daytime. 4. Cool ofi" with the utmost slowness after all forms of exercise, never allowing an instant's exposure to the slight- est draught of air while in a state of rest after that exer- cise. 5. If the bowels fail of acting daily, at the regular hour, eat not an atom until they do, but drink all that is desired, and give more time than usual to outdoor exercise for several days. These five rules can easily be remembered ; and we appeal to the educated physicians of all lands for confirmation of the truth of the sentiment, that a judicious habitual attention to them is essential to the preservation of sound health, and the maintenance of a good constitution, the world over. Their proper observance would add a young lifetime to the average age of man. LAUGHTER AND MUSIC. Laughter and music are alike in many points, — botJi open the heart, wake up the affections, elevate our natures. Laugh- ter ennobles, for it speaks forgiveness ; music does the same, by the purifying influences which it exerts on the better feel- infi^s and sentiments of our beinij. Laughter banishes gloom ; music, — madness. It was the harp in the hands of the son AVERTING DISEASE. 455 of Jesse, which exorcised the evil spirit from royalty ; and the heart that can laugh outright does not harbor treasons, strata- gems, and spoils. Cultivate music, then , put no restraint upon a joyous na- ture ; let it grow and expand by what it feeds upon, and thus stamp the countenance with gladness, and the heart with the impress of a diviner nature, by feeding it on that " concord of sweet sounds," which prevails iu the habitations of angels. AVERTING DISEASE. The very instant the scientific engineer observes anythinsj i.. wrong on ship, or train, or engine, he cuts off the supply of steam ; so tlie very moment there is any sensation about thn body sufEcicntly decided to attract the attention unpleasantl}', that very moment should all supply of food be cut off; not an atom should be swallowed, at least until there has been time to ascertain the nature of the trouble. If cutting off the supply of steam is not adequate to the rectification of the mischief, the next step taken is to work off the steam already generated ; so, if abstinence from food is not sufficient to remove a given symptom or ailment, means should be taken to diminish the amount of that which the food pre- viously eaten has made, that is, blood, including waste. Pain is a blessing ; it is the great life-preserver ; it is the sleepless, faithful sentinel which gives prompt warning that harm is being done. All pain is experienced through the nerves; they telegraph it to the brain, and there the mind takes note of it. Pain is the result of pressure on or against a nerve ; that pressure is made by a blood-vessel, for there i^ no nerve without a blood-vessel in close proximity. A blood- vessel is distensible, like an India-rubber life-preserver — both may be full and yet may be fuller. In health each blood- vessel is moderately full ; but the very moment disease, or harm, or violence, by blow or cut, or otherwise, comes to any part of the bod}', nature becomes alarmed, as it were, and sends more blood there to repair the injury — much more Hian is usually required; that additional quantity distends the 156 AVERTING DISEASE. blood-vessels, and gives disquiet or actual pain. In these cases this increased quantity of blood is called " inflammation ; " and if there is not this increased flow to the injured part, there is no healing, and that part dies, unless some stimulating Application is made. But pain comes in another way. If a man eats too much, or is constipated, or by some other means makes his blood impure, it becomes thickened thereby, and does not flow through its channels as freely as it should ; hence it ac- cumulates, dams up, congests, distending the veins, which in their turn make pressure on some adjoining nerve, and give dull pain. This congestion in the arteries gives a sharp or pricking pain. Pain, then, is the result of more blood being determined to the part where that pain is, than naturally belongs to it. The evident alternative is to diminish the quantity of blood, either at the point of ailment or in the body in general. Thus it is that a mustard plaster applied near a painful spot, by with- drawing the blood to itself, gives instantaneous relief. Open- ing a vein will do the same thing ; and so, but not as ex- peditiously, will any purgative medicine, because that by all these things, by diminishing the amount of fluid as to the whole body, each particular part is proportionably relieved. On the same principle is it that a " good sweat " is " good " for any pain, and affords more or less relief. Friction does the the same, even if it is performed with so soft a thing as the human hand, for any rubbing reddens, that is, attracts blood to ihe part rubbed, and thus diminishes the amount of pain at the spot where there is too much blood. But the safer, more certain and durable method of relieving pain is to do it in a natural way, without the violence of the lancet, or the blister-plaster, or the purgative ; and that is, by diminishing the amount of blood in the body, by cutting oft' the supply of its manufacture. The blood is made out of the food we eat, and it is just as easy to make a world out of nothing as to make more blood in the body without eating more. Ceasing to eat would be of itself a negative remedy — its only effect would be not to increase the pain ; but nature's forces are always in operation; she is constantly engaged in unloading the body of its surplus fluids — unloading it in a AVERTING DISEASE. 457 million places at the same time, and in a million ways ; every pore of the skin, at every instant of our existence, is dis- charging its portion of the substance of the body in the shape of insensible perspiration ; and besides this, every breath we breathe, every emotion of the mind, every movement of a muscle, down to the crook of a finger or wink of an eye, is at the expense of atoms of the body ; it contains less, weighs less, than at the instant before. Thus it is, that if, in any pain, we instantly stop eating, and thus stop adding to the quantity of blood already in the body, nature will perform the other part, and diminish the supply every instant. So that the great lemedy for pain is to lie still, wait and do nothing — the very course which blind instinct, by the wise and loving Father of us all, points out to wounded bird and beast and creeping thing, and they get well amain. The great thing, then, to do, in order to ward off serious disease (and sickness never comes without a friendly pre monition in the distance, only that, in our stupidity or heed • lessness, we often fail to make a note of it), is simply to ob- serve three things. 1. The instant we become conscious of any unpleasant sen- sation in the body, cease eating absolutely. 2. Keep warm. 3. Be still. These are applicable and safe in all cases ; sometimes a more speedy result is attained if, instead of being quiet, the patient would, by moderate, steady exercise, keep up a gentle perspiration for several hours. And an observant person will seldom fail to discover that he who relies on a judicious abstinence and moderate exercise for the removal of his "symptoms," will find in due time, in multitudes of cases, that the remedy will become more and more ef- ficient, with increasing intervals for need of its application, until at length a man is not sick at all, and life goes out like the snuff of a candle, or as gently as the dj'ing embers on the hearth. 458 NEGLECTING COLDS. NEGLECTING COLDS. Every intelligent physician knows that the best possible method of promptly curing a cold is, that the very day in which it is observed to have been taken, the patient should cease absolutely from eating a particle for twenty-four or forty -eight hours, and should be strictly confined to a warm room, or be covered up well in bed, taking freely hot drinks. It is also in the experience of every observant person, that when a cold is once taken, very slight causes, indeed, increase it. The expression, " It is nothing but a cold," conveys a practical falsity of the most pernicious character, because an experienced medical practitioner feels that it is impossible to tell, in any given case, where a cold will end ; hence, and when highly valuable lives are at stake, his solicitudes appear some- times to others to verge on folly or ignorance. A striking and most instructive example of these statements is found in the case of Nicholas the First, the Emperor of all the Russias. For more than a year before his death, his confidential medical adviser observed, that, in consequence of the Emperor " not giving to sleep the hours needed for restoration," his general vigor was declining, and that exposures, which he had often encountered with impunity, were making unfavorable impres- sions on the system — that he had less power of resistance. At length, while reviewing his troops on a January day, he took a severe cold, which at once excited the apprehensiouG of his watchful physician, who advised him not to repeat his review. " Would you make as much of my illness if I were a com- mon soldier? " asked the Emperor, in a tone of good-natured pleasantry. " Certainly, please your Majesty ; we would not allow a common soldier to leave the hospital if he were in the state in which your Majesty is." " Well, you would do your duty — I Avill do mine ; " and the exposure was repeated, with the result of greatly increasing the bad efiects of this original cold, and he died in a week afterwards. NEGLECTING COLDS. 459 It is not the weakness of a few great men to transfer their superiority in other things to their knowledge of health aiid •jiediciue. The self-reliant or self-opinionated have been ofien heard to exclaim, " I believe I know about as much as the doctors. A doctor don't know more than anybody else." One of the most eminent clergymen of his sect recently died, learned above any of his fellows, could write and converse in some half a dozen languages. An intimate friend and panegyr- ist said of him, that he held medical science in a kind of con- tempt, had little or no contidence in medicines or physicians. These are not the exact words, but they embody the impreu- sion which the exact words would make on ordinary minds. The result was, that he kept ailments to himself for more than a year ; ailments whose nature is to go on steadily and become more and more aggravated, to a fatal issue; but which judi- cious remedial means have a thousand times eradicated. He died in the very prime of intellectual manhood. The pilot, who has a thousand souls aboard, is many a time almost crazed with a sense of his responsibility, Avhen he is steering his vessel over dangerous places, while the pas- sengers themselves see nothing but unrippled waters and the clear blue sky ; at the same time, a quarter's turn of the wheel, more or less, would, in the briefest space, send them all unannealed and nnshriven into the presence of their Maker. Hence, in a well-regulated ship, a passenger is never allowed to address a word to the man who is at the wheel. Thus it is with an intelligent physician in reference to his patient, and he is wise who will read the lesson well by remembering that it is his business to do and not to babble ; for the people's ignorance of Nature, and her operations as to the human body, is amazing to those whose stock of amusement has not long ago been utterly exhausted in the contempla'^ion of the stupid- ities of mankind. 460 SPUING DISEASES. SPEING DISEASES. Any housekeeper would be considered demented who would keep up as fierce a fire on the hearth in the spring as in mid- winter. On the contrary, as the days grow warmer, less and less fuel is used, until the fire is not kindled at all. One of the two main objects of eating is to keep the body warm ; and it need not be argued that less warmth is required in summer than in winter ; but if we eat as heartily as the spring ad- vances as we did in cold weather, we will burn up with fever, because we have made too much heat. The instincts of our nature are perfectly wonderful. To our shame is it, that we not only do not heed them, but oppose them, fight against them with an amazing fatuity. As the warm weather comes on, we are all conscious of a diminution of appetite, and we either begin to apprehend we are about to get sick, or set about stimulating ourselves with tonics, and bitters, and various kinds of teas, with a view to purifying the blood. How many swills of sassafras tea has the reader taken to that end I No such purification would be needed, if we would follow Nature's instincts, and eat only with the inclination she gives us, instead of taking tonics to make us eat more, when we actually require less. Observant persons have noticed that, as spring comes on, there is less relish for meats of all kinds, and we yearn for the early spring vegetables, the " greens," the salads, the spinage, the radishes, and the like. Why? Just look at it? Meats have more than fifty per cent, of carbon, of the heat-forming principle. Vegetables and berries have ten per cent., five per cent., one per cent, of heat I Potatoes have eleven per cent., turnips three per cent., gooseberries only one. Literally incalculable are the good results which would follow a practical attention to these facts. Those who arc wise will ta^e no tonics for the spring, will swallow no teas to purify the blood, nor imagine themselves to be about getting sick, because they have not in May as vigorous an appetite as in December ; but will at once yield themselves to the guid- (fcnce of the instincts, and eat not an atom more than they INFANTS AND AIR. 461 have an inclination for, to the end of a joyous spring-time and a summer of glorious health ; while those who will eat, who will stimulate the stomach with tonics, and " force " their food, must suffer with drowsiness, depression, and distressing lassitude ; and while all nature is waking up to gladness and newness of life, they will have no renovation, and no well- springs of joyous and exuberant health. INFANTS AND AIR. Parliamentary returns show that, of twenty-eight hundred infants annually sent to various hospitals to be taken care of, twenty-four out of twenty-five died before they were a year old ! A law was immediately passed that they should be sent to the country thereafter, when it was found that only nine of twenty-five died the first year ; that is, instead of twenty-six hundred and ninety dying, there were only four hundred and fifty, a difference of twenty-two hundred and forty. This simple, unvarnished statement of an indisputable fact, ought to impress the mind of every parent deeply, with the importance and the duty of using all practicable means for securing to children the habitual breathing of the purest air possible : being careful to avoid a radical, mischievous, and most prevalent error, that warm air is necessarily impure. Warmth is as essential to infantile health as pure air. How best to secure both, should be our constant study. There are more deaths under five years of age, in cities generally, than there are from five to sixty years, owing to three things, — a i\^ant of pure air, of suitable warmth, and proper food. In these three wants are found the overwhelming majority of causes for the fearful statement above named. Let every parent in city or country, in hovel or mansion, mature these things. To die childless, after having been once blessed with dear children, must be one of the most terrible of all calamities of the heart ; yet, in countless multitudes of cases, the sufferers are the authors of their own crushing sorrows, by reason of their unpardonable ignorance or more criminal neglect. 462 OTMNASIUM8. GYMNASIUMS. What is the use of eating like a pig, and then have to work like a " slave " to get rid of it, or explode ? The best gym- nasium is a wood-yard, a "clearing," or a corntield. There is some sense in these things, because a valuable object is ac- complished by the efforts, and the healthful influence of the same thrown in, thus killing two birds with one stone, which is Nature's method of procedure in many beautiful instances. The saliva, the tear-drop, and the perspiration lubricate the mouth, and eye, and skin, and, at the same time, carry out from the body a large proportion of its waste and impurity. The breath which comes from the lungs is so loaded down with the debris of the system, that, if inhaled in the state in which it leaves the body, it would produce instantaneous death ; so impure, that, if kept a single minute longer in the lungs than ordinary, we fairly gasp for life ; and yet tha^ same foul breath, under the name of carbonic acid gas, makes, in its outward passage, the soft whisper from beauty's lips, the ravishing notes of delicious music, or the thunder-tones of resistless oratory. Suppose a fellow learns in time, and by labor enough tt) earn a small farm, to climb a greased pole fifty feet high, what is he to do when he gets there but to slide back in double-quick time to the place he started from, and then go about his business? What if he can jump sky-high, or turn a dozen somerset.-j without stopping, or lift a calf bigger than himself, or hold, at arms' length, for two or ten miimtes, a heavier weight than his own soggy head, what does he get by the " operation " : We hear of some "doctor " going about the country lifting up enormous weights, and exhibiting feats of strength which make a practical man feel what a pity he wasn't employed in felling trees, or mauling rails, or grubbing potatoes. It is stated that he has lifted, with his hands, a weight of one thou- sand one hundred and thirt3'-six pounds, and that ho was sanguine, in twenty days more, of being able to lift twelve hundred pounds. The more he can prove himself to lift, the GYMNASIUMS. 463 bigger fool he is, and the more fit for an asylum ; for the next tiling will be that he has ruptured a blood-vessel, and then, for the remainder of life, he won't be able to earn his salt, and somebody will have to support him. Are our embryo doctors, and lawyers, and clergymen, go- ing to make Tom Hyers and Bill Pooles and Yankee Sullivans of themselves? Does the ability of a jurist depend on tho amount of beef he carries? Is a physician's skill to be deter- mined by the hardness of his muscles? Is a clergyman's efficiency measured by the agility of his monkey capers, by his dexterity in hanging on to a beam by his hind-leg, and swinging up to touch his nose against the big toe of " t'othei foot?" A man's intellectu.ality does not depend on the amount of brute force which he possesses. It does not require a giant's strength to Avrite a sermon, or make a book, or "clear" a thief, or feel a pulse. Of an assembly of French savans, on a certain occasion, Humboldt, being present, was found, by an accurate mode of measurement, to have the least muscular strength of the Avhole company, of which he was the greatest and the oldest. Small men, fragile men, men of little mus- cular vigor, may have good bodily health, and among such are found a vast excess in numbers of the opposite class, and in all ages and countries, who are the brightest of the world's bright stars. As a very general rule it holds good, — the bigger the man the bigger the fool is he. Who ever saw a giant who was remarkable for anything beyond the size of his body; while the smallness of his head, and the little that is in it, is a notable thing. Both body and brain need vital force ; the mind is great in proportion as that vital force is expended in the brain ; but, if it is used up in developing the muscles, the brain must suffer. If one expects to make his living by the exercise of muscular strength, let him, as a boy ani a youth, develop that stroigth by steady labor, and a regular and temperate life ; if it is his wish to make money by legerdemain, b}' monkey capers, by rope-walking, by mirac- ulous poises, and astonishing feats of ground and lofty tum- bling, then the gymnasium is a very proper place for him, and it is well that the energies of the system should be ex- pended in the direction of the Diuscles ; but if he aims at a 464 THE PANACEA. professional life, — one which is to be followed as a means of living, — he must exercise the mental, not the muscular, powers ; to the brain, not to the beef, must the energies of the system be sent, in order that, by their exercise, the brain may be developed, and the mind work with power. To sedentary persons, violent, sudden, and fitful exercise is always injurious, and such are gymnastic performances. Soldiers die early. To-day, they are doing nothing ; to-mor- row, the forced march, the terrible battle, summon up to the very dregs the employment of dormant energies. The disa- bilities and deaths of a campaign are many times greater by disease than by the bullet ; for shocks, great alternations, al- ways cause disease. The exercise of the student should be regu/ar, gentle, delib- erate, always stopping short of felt fatigue. One hour's joyous walk with a cheerful friend, in street, or field, or woodland, will never fail to do a greater and a more unmixed good, than double the time in the most scientifically conducted gymnasium in the world. There are individual cases where the gymna- sium is of the most undeniable benefit ; but the masses would be the better for having nothing to do with them. A million times better recipe than the gymnasium for sedentary persons is,— Eat moderately and regularly of plain, nourishing food, well prepared. Spend two or three hours every day in the open air, regard- less of the weather, in moderate, untiring, and useful ac- tivities. THE PANACEA. The great cure-all, the catholicon for the removal of untold human ills, physical and mental, which will make of life a summer sky, which will replace the darkest clouds with the gladdest sunshine, which will put a budding rose where erst flourished the ragged thorn, is the blessed habit of an implicit reliance on the wisdom and the love of Providence in every occurrence of life ; of humble gratitude if it is gladsome ; of uncomplaining resignation if it is adverse ; abiding in the EARLY BREAKFAST. 465 firm faith, that, if it is dark to-day, it will be bright to-mor- row ; saying and feeling of every dispensation, " Not as I will, but as Thou wilt." This is the balm of Gilead ; this is peren- nial health ; it is happiness, it is bliss. EARLY BREAKFAST. Breakfast should be eaten in the morning, before leavmg the house for exercise, or labor of any description ; those who do it will be able to perform more work and with greatei comfort and alacrity, than those who work an hour or two before breakfast. Besides this, the average duration of the life of those who take breakfast before exercise or work, will be a number of years greater than of those who do otherwise, ^lost persons begin to feel w*eak after having been engaged five or six hours iu their ordinary avocations ; a good meal re- invigorates, but from the last meal of the day until next morn- ing, there is an interval of some twelve hours ; hence, tho body, iu a sense, is weak, the stomach is weak, and in propor- tion cannot resist deleterious agencies, whether of the fierce cold of midwinter, or of the poisonous miasm which rests upon the surf ice of the earth, wherever the sun shines on a blade of vegetation or a heap of offal. This miasm is more solid, more concentrated, and hence more malignant, about sunrise and sunset, than at any other hour of the twenty-four, be- cause the cold of the night condenses it, and it is on the first few inches above the soil in its most solid form ; but as the aun rises, it warms and expands, and ascends to a point high enough to be breathed, and being taken into the lungs with the air, and swallowed with the saliva into the stomach, all weak and empty as it is, it is greedily drank in, thrown im- mediately into the circulation of the blood, and carried direct- ly to every part of the body, depositing its poisonous influences at the very fountain head of life. When in Cuba, many years ago, we observed that the favorite time for travel was mid- night ; and the older merchants of Charleston may remember that when deadly fevers prevailed iu hot weather, they dared aot ride into town in the cool of the morning or evening, but 4fi6 THE TEETH. midday was accounted the safest. "We know, from many years' living in New Orleans, that it was when the evenings and mornings were unusually cool, balm}^ and delightful, the citizens prepared themselves for still greater ravages of the deadly epidemic for the first few daj's following. If early breakfast was taken, in regions where chill and fever, and fever and ague, prevail, and if, in addition, a brisk fire were kindled in the family-room, for the hour including sunset and sunrise, these troublesome maladies would diminish in any one year, not tenfold, but a thousand-fold, because the heat of the fire would rarefy the miasmatic air instantly, and send it above the breathing-point. But it is " troublesome " to be building fires night and morning all summer, and not one in a thousand who reads this will put the suggestion into practice; it being no "trouble," requiring no efl^ort, to shiver and shake by the hour, daih^ for weeks and months to^o-ether • such is the stupidity of the animal, man ! THE TEETH. Said Dr. Ostrander (at the head of his profession m his own State) , " If dentistry had reached its present perfection when I was a young man, the whole tenor of my life would have been altered." Why? "I was addressing a young lady of great moral worth, of unusual personal attractions, and the heiress of a large fortune. She had not reached her twentieth j'car. In a state of repose, her face was perfectly beautiful. But when she smiled, a set of teeth were presented, so discolored, so uneven, so defective and decayed, and the breath was so offensive, that I could not possibly reconcile it to myself to be linked for life to circum- stances so repulsive. The very thought of it was abhorrent to me, so I gradually withdrew my attentions, and wedded poverty, with a sweet mouth." Charity may cover a multitude of sins ; and a great estate may veil as great a multitude of personal defects, to the un- educated and the vulgar, but the wealth of Croesus could not THE TEETH. 467 re(>oncile a man of culture and refinement to wed a snaggled- tooth and an odoriferous breath. In the matter of lovability, nothing can compensate for the absence of beautiful teeth and a sweet breath. Hence, parents will perform towards theii children most important service by doing what they may to secure to them perfectly sound teeth, not only as an important means of preserving health, but as an invaluable aid in form- ms, desirable alliances. Two things are indispensable : First, from the age of four years until marriage, have a good dentist to examine every tooth most minutely, several times a year. Second, begin quite as early to impress the chllu wdth the importance of keeping the teeth clean, and how best to do it. A child has ten teeth in each jaw ; all these, and these only, are shed ; generally, in healthy children, two teeth are shown at eight months, at least eight in fourteen months, and the whole twenty at two and a half years. From five to six years of age the first permanent teeth appear ; and from that time the frequent and vigilant services of a sharp-eyed dentist ought to be secured. The eye-teeth appear between the eleventh and twelfth 3^ear ; at fourteen the large double-teeth present themselves, and the wisdom teeth at about twenty. Hot and cold drinks should be avoided, particularly at the bume meal. The teeth should not be washed in cold w^ater, especially after eating, because the contrast between it and warm or hot food is too striking, and chills them. Each person should have two tooth-brushes, one moderate- ly stiff, to b& employed the first thing in the morning ; the other, which may be a morning one, which has been used for some time, should be softer, and should not be used in rub- bing across the teeth much, lest it might cause the gums to recede, and thus pave the way for their falling out, but should be twisted up and down, so that each bristle may act as a tooth-pick, to dislodge any particles between the teeth. These softer brushes should be used immediately after each meal, taking care, at the end of the operation, to pass the brush across the back part of the tongue, and then gargle the Diouth and throat well with water. 4G8 THE TEETH. For cleaning the teeth and mouth, warm water, always at haud in cities, should be used, but never employ water so hot or cold as to cause uucomfortableness to the teeth, for they will soon be destroyed thereby. When it is very incon- venient to have warm water, hold the cold water in the back part of the mouth, keeping it from the teeth with the tongue as much as possible, until it is warmer, and then use the brush. It is frequently advised to clean the teeth the last thing at night; a much better plan is to do it the first thing after supper, and then they are in a clean condition for four or five hours longer out of every twenty-four, while the trouble of cleaning the teeth a second time would tend to prevent eating anything later than supper. The tooth-brush should be always used leisurely, for a slip or inadvertence may scale or break oif a valuable tooth. Once or twice a week, the first or last brushing should be with pure white soap, thus : Wet the brush, and draw it several times across the soap, then put it in the mouth, rubbing the teeth until the mouth is full of foam, and for a minute or two employ the brush on the side of the teeth next the tongue, above and below, for it is there that tartar collects, to the eating away of the gums, and eventual falling out of the teeth. In most cases this tartar is deposited by a living creature, which is instantly destroyed by soap-suds, when tobacco-juice and the strongest acids have no efiect. Charcoal, even when made of the bark of wood, is one of the most destructive of all tooth powders. Eminent dentista agree in this ; it finds its way between the teeth and the gums, and destroys both. Almost all the tooth powders have a strong acid of some kind, and this cleanses the teeth, but destroys their texture ; this may be obviated to a great extent if, immediately after using any tooth powder, the teeth are well brushed with soap, tc antagonize am acid which may be left about them. If the brush is used as above, powders will not be necessary more than two or three times a year ; in our own case, com- mon salt, once in two or three months, seems to have an- swered an excellent purpose, put on a damp brush, rubbed across and up and down the teeth. It is not advised to keop TABLE MANNERS. 469 the teeth always of a pearly whiteness, for they may be cleaned so much as to be worn away. It would be a good plan for a dentist, once a year, to go over every tooth with powdered pumice-stone and a piece of soft wood. Bad teeth induce dyspepsia, from insufficient chewing of the food; they also corrupt the breath, and are frequently the causes of serious and distressing disease ; while good teeth not only beautify the face, but promote health and long life ; hence, special care expended on their preservation will be repaid an hundred-fold in the course of a lifetime. TABLE MANNERS. A SAD thing it is to have a husband, or wife, or child come to the table, only to fret, and growl, and complain, and sulk. It is horrible to think of. And yet it may be presumed that the happiness of quite as many excellent wives is marred, if not Avholly eaten out, by husbands who come to the table witli a terrible dignity ; or with a selfishness so predominant, that t places everybody else, and every thing, under tribute to its supreme gratification ; moroseness stamped on every feature ; a belittling querulousness in every uttered sentence. Here one comes now, as stately as a turkey-cock, as cross as a bear, and as rough as a corn-cob. He speaks in short, crusty words ; the innocent prattle of his children is an apparent torture to him ; there must not be a whimper nor a whisper, for he is poring over a newspaper, or in the midst of some plan or project for gain or fame. His very presence is felt as a cloud, an imubus, an iceberg, and there is only gladness when he is gone ; it is then only that the sunshine of familj affection and love comes out, and filial and motherly sympa- thies well up from loving hearts. To meet at the breakfiist-table father, mother, children, all well, ought to be a happiness to any heart ; it should be a source of humble gratitude, and should wake up the warmest feelings of our nature. Shame upon the contemptible and low-bred cur, whether parent or child, that can ever come to the breakfast-table, w^here all the family have met in health, 470 REGIMEN. only to frown, and whine, and growl, and fret I It is primd facie evidence of a mean, and grovelling, and selfish, and de- graded nature, whencesoever the churl may have sprung. Nor is it less reprehensible to make such exhibitions at the tea-table : for, before the morning comes, some of the little circle may be stricken with some deadly disease, to gather around that table not again forever ! Children in good health, if left to themselves at the table, become, after a few mouth- fuls, garrulous and noisy; but, if within at all reasonable or bearable bounds, it is better to let them alone ; they eat less, because they do not eat so rapidly as if compelled to keep silent, while the very exhilaration of spirits quickens the circulation of the vital fluids, and energizes digestion and as- similation. The extremes of society curiously meet in this resrard. The tables of the rich and the nobles of England are models of mirth, wit, and bonhommie ; it takes hours to get through a repast, and they live long. If anybody will look in upon the negroes of a well-to-do family in Kentuck}'', while at their meals, they cannot but be impressed with the perfect abandon of jabber, cachinnation, and mirth; it seems as if they could talk all da}^ ; and they live long. It follows, then, that, at the family table, all should meet, and do it habitually, to make a common interchange of high-bred courtesies, of warm affections, of cheering mirthfulness, and that generosity of nature which lifts us above the brutes which perish, pro- motive as these things are of good digestion, high health, and a long life. REGIMEN. Right well hath some old gentleman of the ancient time written in respect to health and its preservation ; doubtful are we that any mar. of this diluting age could possibly comprise BO much sound sense in as few words as those which follow : — " There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic. A man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health ; but it is a safer conclusion to say, 'This agreeth not well with me, there- fore I will not continue it; ' than this, — 'I find no oflencfl DESSERTS. 471 of this, therefore I may use it;' for strength of youth in na- ture passeth over many excesses which are owing a man till his age. Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still ; for age will not be defied. Beware of sudden change in any great point of diet, and, if necessary, enforce it, fit the rest to it ; for it is a secret both of nature and state, that it is safer to change many things than one. Examine thy customs of diet, sleep, exercise, apparel, and the like, and try, in anything thou shalt judge hurtful, to discon- tinue it little by little ; but so, as if thou dost find any incon- venience by the change, thou come back to it again ; for it is hard to distinguish that which is generally held good and wholesome from that which is good particularly, and fit for thine own body. To be free-minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat, and of sleep, and of exercise, is one of the best precepts for long lasting. As for the passions and studies of the mind, avoid envy, envious fears, anger, fretting inwards, subtle and knotty inquisitions, joy and exhilarations in excess, sadness not communicated. Entertain hopes ; mirth rather than joy ; variety of delights rather than a sur- feit of them ; wonder and admiration, and therefore novelties ; studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histories, fables, and contemplations of nature. DESSERTS. iHESE are the agents which cause a vast amount of human suffering, inasmuch as they tempt the appetite, and bribe na- ture to a transgression, which never fails of being punished soouer or later. All eat as much as they want of the ordinary dinner before the dessert comes in, and, without the dessert, would feel a comfortable exhilaration for the remainder of the day ; but the tempter comes in ; the satiated palate is tickled, is whipped up ; the man stuffs on, and, for the remainder of the day, is more like a gorged anaconda than anything else ; so full, that he rises from the table with deliberation, strives •against coughing, lest he might jolt up his dinner, and then sits down to doze away a whole afternoon imder the oppressive influence of an injrlorious surfeit. 472 TOMATOES, A large addition would be made to the comfort and health of any family which should discard the whole catalogue of pies, pastries, and puddings, as desserts, and take, in their stead, one or two oranges or apples, or a dish of fresh, ripe berries in their natural state ; or, if out of season or unat- tainable, an agj'eeable, neat, and healthful substitute may l)e found in a " mint-stick," a bit of cream-candy, or a piece of pure maple-sugar. TOMATOES. This is one of the most healthful, as well as the most uni- versally liked, of all vegetables. Its healthful qualities do not depend on the mode of preparation for the table ; it may be eaten thrice a day, cold or hot, cooked or raw, alone, or with salt, or pepper, or vinegar, or all together, to a like ad- vantage, and to the utmost that can be taken with an appetite. Its healthful quality arises from its slight acidity ; in this, making it as valuable, perhaps, as berries, cherries, currants, and similar articles ; it is also highly nutritious ; but its chief virtue consists in its tendency to keep the bowels free, owiug to the seeds which it contains, they acting as mechanical irri- tants to the inner coating of the bowels, causing them to throw out a larger amount of fluid matter than would otherwise have ))oen done, to the effect of keeping the mucous surfaces lubri- cated, and securing a greater solubility of the intestinal con- t3nts; precisely on the principle that figs and white mustard seeds are so frequently efficient in removing constipation in certain forms of disease. The tomato season ends with the frost. If the vines are pulled up before frost comes, and are hung up in a well-ventilated cellar, with the tomatoes hanging to them, the " Love-Apple " will continue ripening until Christmas. The cellar should not be too dry nor too warm. The knowledge of this ma}^ be improved to great practical advantage for the benefit of vavmy who are invalids, and who are fond of the tomato. CATABBH. 473 CATARRH Catarrh is a Greek word, which means a " flowinor from," and is synonymous with a common cold. A cold in the head causes a running from the nose ; a cold in the eyes makes them watei ; a ccld in the chest or lungs causes an increased ex- pectoration ; a cold in the bowels occasions diarrhcea. This "flowing," whether from nose, eyes, lungs, or bowels, is nature's effort to ward off the effects of a previous injury ; it is essentially a curative process, and ought never to be in- terfered with. If this " flowing from " is stopped in any way, whether by external applications or internal medicines, the in- evitable etiect, always, is to drive it to some other part to seek an outlet, for nature will not rest ever, until the riddance is effected. Within a month, a lady was attacked with a great itching and running in the nose ; some ignoramus advised her to use a certain kind of snuff, to " dry it up ; " it had the effect in a few hours, and she was charmed with the result ; she thought it a wonderful medicine : that night she was attacked with asthma, which confined her to her bed for two weeks, to say nothing of the distressing sufi'erings which filled the in- terval, day and night. A gentleman complained of a cold in the head, with sick headache ; some one advised him to have buckets of cold water poured on the top of his head, which was followed by a welcomed relief; the next day he complained of a sore throat, which troubled him as long as he lived. Many persons have diarrhoea as a consequence of a cold ; they cannot rest until they " take something" to " check it," with the certain result of its falling on the liver, to end in a " bilious attack," if not on the lungs, to cause pneumonia, or l^leurisy, or other more serious form of disease. A gentleman had a cold in the head, which affected bis hear- ing ; it was ignorantly tampered with, and apparently cured ; but the eyes began tu complain shortly after, to remedy which he spent two years, and a thousand dollars, under the most eminent allopaths and water-cures, with no efficient result; and his eyes are as troublesome to-day as they were some ten 474 OUR BOYS. years ago. All " flowings," "runnings," etc., are the result of what, in common parlance, is a " humor in the blood," and nature is endeavoring to "run it oft';" but our reckless aud ignorant interferences thwart her in her eftbrts, and bring on greater calamities. It is sad to think of how many thousands of money, honest- ly and hardly earned by persons living in the country, have been lost by treacherous advertisements. Catarrh seldom leads to any serious results, if it is simply let alone, except as stated further on. In all catarrhs, chronic or acute, long or short, a wise physician will do nothing to stop or repress, but will use means to cause a greater activity of the liver, and prescribe au unstimulating and cooling diet, warmth, and judicious exercise. For ourselves, we would give physic a wide berth. If we had a "flowing from," a catarrh, a cold, all of which mean precisely the same thing in nature and essence, we would let it flow, and thus have the system relieved of an enemy, whose presence it will not tolerate. But there are three other things which may be done to very great advantage, because they would expedite the cure. 1. Keep the body very comfortably warm by all available means, especially the feet. 2. Take a good deal of exercise in the open air, to the extent of keeping up a very slight perspiration for several hours during the twenty-four. 3. Live on light, loosening, cooling food, — modeiLte amounts, — such as water-gruel, crust of bread, stewed fruits, ripe berries, and nothing else, until entirely well. OUR BOYS. What shall we make of them? What will become of them? These are practical questions, and made every day with serious solicitude by intelligent and thoughtful parents. The rich and the poor have a like ambition to put their sons in good places ; they take more pains to select places which OUR B0T8. 475 will honor their sons, than to make their sons capable of honoring places. The inquiry should be, not for a place large enough for a son, but how to prepare a son to fill a place with profit to those who may call him to it, and with credit to himself. An ancient and honored family name in this city has beeo inefliiccably tarnished lately, by using family influence to gel one of its members into a place of very high trust and re- sponsibility ; au office for which he was so utterly incompetent, that its accounts have fallen into inextricable confusion, while he himself, charged with a degrading crime, has been led in chains to a felon's cell, in a state of bodily health which n elta the hardest heart with pity, while his venerable mother is made to weep tears of blood over the sad misfortunes of the child of her heart. Inquire, then, what your child is fit for, rather than what will fit him ; the Presidency of the Republic is fit for him, but he may not be fit for it; it may receive him, but he may not be able to fill it with ability and honor. That office is fit for any man, the greatest and the best, but your son might not be tit for it ; to occupy it and fill it, to discharge its duties with fidelity. You must seek a place adapted to your son's capa- bilities, for you may not adapt his capabilities to a place. Seek a place for him which he will honor by elevating it, and making it the more influential ; but do not seek to put him in a position which is to honor him. You are a rich man. It is neither safe, nor respectable, nor wise, lo bring any youth to manhood without a calling, without an occupation by which he could maintain himself in case he should lose his fortune. In looking around for such a calling, instead of making the inquiry what you would like him to become, seek rather to know what occupation is suited to his capacities — what calling his abilities can fill. You might well like him to become an eminent lawyer, but has he that plodding and that tenacity of purpose, which will enable him to investigate and compare and deduce with unerring accuracy for forty years, before he can be fairly able to commence practice? You might like for him to become a physician, but has he the self-denial to cut ofi" the flesh from dead mens' bones, to live in the charnel- house for long years together ; and then have the patience to 476 OUR BOYS. wait for practice for other long years ; and the self-sacrifice to go at every call, of prince or pauper, in the midnights of December, or the fierce suns of July, in rain, or storm, or sleet, or snow ? Will he do this until forty years of age for a bare subsistence, before he can make patients come to him instead of he going to them ? Perhaps your heart burns to make him a minister, and in rapt imagination peering beyond the shores of time, you see him like some tall archangel leading along his vast battalions to the Great White Throne, saying, " Here am I, the instru- mentality Thou hast made, of bringing these immortals here," and then loud paans come from seraphic legions in glad reply, " Welcome, brother, Home ! " No greater glory than this is there in earth or heaven for any created intelligence. But for such an office, it becomes a man that he have a range of learn- ing beyond that of other men. Has your son made the acquisi- tion? He must have an abiding feeling that he is less than the least of all who love the Master, and must have the capa- city to become all things to all men. Has he these humilities, and these versatilities ? He must be silent when he is scorned ; he must not return a stroke, nor answer to a taunt ; when curses come, he must bless ; when sinned against, he must for- give ; has he the moral courage to meet these debasements, and yet above them all to stand and feel that he is second to no living man ; that he is an ambassador from the court of the King of kings? Has he the breadth of intellect to com- pass all learnings ? the humility of heart to feel abidingly be- fore his INIaker that he is but a worm, and yet the grandeur of soul in the light of the Lamb to feel, " I heir the universe by right of birth?" Instead, then, of determining what you would like your son to be, seek to ascertain what he is capable of being ; what he is certainly competent for. In short, seek not for )'our child the post he can get, but the post he can fill ; for it is better to be an honor to the hod than a disgi'ace to the crown — better be an accomplished mechanic than a con- temptible king I NERVOUSNESS. 477 NERVOUSNESS. A WEALTHY Carolina planter, who claims to have " one of the best wives in the world," applied for medical advice some time ago. He was full of the fidgets, was a bundle of nerves, every one of which had some complaint to make every now and then ; at another time they would all squall out together, then he would literally faint away ; at other times he felt an insupportable "goneness " at the stomach, and often wished it had "gone," for there was such an incessant "gnawing," es- pecially before dinner, that he felt as if he must eat something or die. We sent him some medicine, and advised him to die •. or, at least, to make the experiment, to see whether it avouI', kill him or not, rather than to be such a slave to his "belly.' At an interval of some months he sends us, — not our fee, that we always take before we give advice, for then we know that we are paid, and work cheerfully and hopefully. Wj medicate by the month, not by the job, because we want to make our patients spry, and improve their time, and not hang on our hands indefinitely, and run up long bills against them- selves. If they don't begin to get decidedly better within a month, it is a " sign " that they would do well to go elsewhere. As we were saying, our quondam patient writes, that he has not had as good health in seven years, and that he attributes it entirely to our advice. Somebody began to sniff a mice just then, — " entirely to your advice ! " He took everything — but our pills. We thought of publishing the letter until we came to that part of it inquiring, " Will they keep good until next summer?" This was July, and the pills were sent in April ! If he had only left out that part of it, what a good • sertificate " we would have had ! There are, however, several valuable lessons to be drawn by our readers from this narration. First, serious ailments may be cured without physic. Second, yielding to the guawings of the stomach before meal-times is, generally, a means of fixing the dyspepsia. Third, a judicious system of dieting, that is, eating j^lain, nourishing food, at regular times, and in moderate amounts, is sometimes happily eflScacious in t78 SMALL POX. removing that "nervousness," or "nervous irritability," which not only makes the life of the dyspeptic or the bilious wretched, but makes the members of their families more or less so. The subject certainly merits the consideration of nervous persons. Nervousness and dyspepsia may be, and are, generally, cured without starvation or medicine ; in fact, they are often aggravated thereby. Dieting, starving, is good in its place ; but it has been unwisely practised in many cases, and life has paid the forfeit. Exercise, suitably conducted, is an impor- tant means of invigoration ; but taken injudiciously, it kills rather than cures. But how to order the exercise, and how to appoint the food in quantity, quality, and frequency, when to give medicine and when to withhold it, to the surest benefit and highest safety of the suffering, requires the learning, the experience, the observation, and the comparison of a lifetime. Yet millions dail}' give and take medical advice from one single experience or observation ; and multitudes daily die in consequence. SMALL POX. From a very wide field of observations, diligently made and carefully collated, European statisticians have arrived at the following conclusions : — Of one hundred persons vaccinated, and who subsequently take the small pox, six die; while of one hundred unvacci- nated, who take the disease, six times that many die, or thirty- six out of every hundred ; in other words, the vaccinated man, if he does take the small pox, has six chances of getting well, while the unvaccinated has only one. Infantile vaccination has, of late years, become less efficient than formerly ; not that there is less protectiiig power in vac- cination, but because it is done too negligently, or because there has been remissness in procuring good vaccine matter from healthy sources ; and it may be that the vaccine matter has deteriorated since its introduction by the immortal Jenner, three quarters of a century ago ; therefore, one of two courses should be followed, — either have the hild revaccinated at APPLES. 479 the age of ten years, by a careful physician who would take the utmost pains to obtain good matter, or have a cow inocu- lated with the matter of small pox from a man; then, that which the cow produces will be fresh, pure, and powerful ; this would give a new and unadulterated article, sufficient for half a century to come. The Prussian, more than any government in existence, practices vaccination ; and every soldier is revaccinated ou entering the army, which numbers several scores of thousands, the result being, that, during 1859, there were only twc deaths from small pox. Out of one hundred persons vacci- nated in infancy, seventy " take," when revaccinated on enter- ing the Prussian army. Varioloid is when small pox is taken after vaccination. APPLES. There is scarcely an article of vegetable food more widely useful, and more universally loved, than the apple. Why every farmer in the nation has not an apple-orchard, where the trees will grow at all, is one of the mysteries. Let every family lay in from two to ten or more barrels, and it will be to them the most economical investment in the whole ransre of culinaries. A raw mellow apple is digested in an hour and a half; while boiled cabbage requires five hours. The most healthful dessert which can be placed on the table, is a baked apple. If taken freely at breakfast, with coarse bread and butter, without meat or flesh of any kind, it has an ad- mirable effect on the general system, often removing consti- pation, correcting acidities, and cooling off febrile conditions, more effectually than the most approved medicines. If fami- lies could be induced to substitute the apple, — sound, ripe, and luscious, — for the pies, cakes, candies, and other sweet- meats with which their children are too often indiscreetly stuffed, there would be a diminution in the sum total of doc- tors' bills in a single year, sufficient to lay in a stock of this delicious fruit for a whole season's use. 34 480 COLD PHILOSOPHY, COLD PHILOSOPHY. "When Patrick was asked what he woukl take to climb a steeple one frosty morning, " I'll take a cold, yer honor, be sure," was the ready reply. Sandy, standing hard by, said he would " take a dollar." It may be practically useful to know how a cold acts on the system. Colds always come from out- side agencies. In health, from two to six pounds of waste and impure matter, in the shape of fluid and gas, is passed from the interior body towards the surface ; the skin is per- forated by millions of little holes, through which this waste is poured outside the body ; a good deal of it dries and forms into flakes. In health, these holes or "pores" are open, known by a " soft feel " of the skin ; they are kept open by warmth, but close instantly on the application of cold«; if the closure has been sudden, decided, or general, a feeling is caused, familiarly known as a "chill; " these waste and im- pure fluids, not being able to have an exit through their natural channels, retreat and seek a place of escape elsewhere ; if they find it instantly, as in an attack of loose bowels, the shock to the system is expended in that direction, and the cold is cut short oflf; the same if the person is seized with an attack of vomiting, or of violent bleeding at the nose, or an excessive watering at the nose, or of an accidental wound causing the loss of a large quantity of blood. It is as if the natural vent of a steam-engine were closed while in operation ; if an equal " vent " is made in another direction, all is well ; and the vent must be had, or an explosion is inevitable. But before this vent is made, in case of a cold having been taken, and the arrested outgoing fluids not having as yei found egress, there is that much more of actual matter in the system than it is accustomed to, making us feel " stuflTed up," " full," " op- pressed." Most expressive and literally true are these phrases, and until a vent is made, the fuller and fuller does the body become. We express ourselves as feeling "bad all over," and no wonder, for every blood-vessel in the body is not only fuller than it ought to be, but it is filled with a fluid made up of the pure blood, mixed with all the impurities which would COLD PEILOSOPHT. 481 otherwise have been thrown out of the system as effete matter ; and the blood of the whole body being impm-e, imperfect, feeling, taste, appetite, every bodily sense is deranged, the mind participates in the general disorder, and petulance and ill-nature pervade the whole deportment, and what the suf- ferer feels, others see, — that he is "as cross as a bear." If, however, within a few hours after a felt chill, or after a cold has been taken, and before the current has become in a measure fixed in its unnatural direction inwards, the " pores ' of the skin are reopened, that current is turned back and harm is avoided; hence, the efficacy of what is called the "ol.l woman's remedy," "a good sweat," produced by putting the patient to bed, "tucking in" the bed-clothes, and pouring down a gallon, more or less, of hot "catnip tea," or any other hot drink. We have pleasant memories of the good taste of a " stew," a mixture of Bourbon whiskey, hot water, sugar, a little butter, and hot spices. O, how good it was ! It's a medicine we always take with pleasure, but we don't advise others to do so — it's dangerous, very ! its ultimate effects have been the death of many a noble-hearted fellow. But if all the discomfort of a cold is caused by an unusual amount of matter being shut up in the system, is it not the most consummate folly to eat an atom of anything, or drink a drop of water, to increase the " fullness " of the body ? We should, instead, the very moment a chill has been experienced, or that we in any other way become sensible of the fact that we have taken cold, set about doing two things : First, get up a feeling of warmth in the body, even if it requires a room to be heated to two hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, and keep it at that point until perspiration has been induced, and con- tinued for some hours ; in addition, do not eat an atom of food, at least until next day, or until you are conscious that the cold has been broken; and then, for a few days, live ex- clusively on soups, crust of cold bread, hot teas, and fruits. Let it be kept in remembrance that every mouthful of food, even of the mildest, a man swallows from the instant the cold has been taken, only makes a proportional amount of phlegm to be coughed up. " Feed a cold and starve a fever," is a tremendous lie. Starve them to death, as we would a gar- rison, by cutting off supplies, and the fortress will be yielded 482 TEE AIM OF LIFE. within thirty-six hours, if the process be begun within twelve hours after the cold has been taken. If a chill has been ex- perienced, begin on the instant to stop supplies, and then to cause an artificial drain, by the means already named for in- ducing free perspiration ; in this manner, the very worst colds will be arrested, will be cut short off in four cases out of five. Unfortunately, the first effect of a cold is to increase the ap- petite, the indulgence of which protracts the cold to days and weeks, with this result, that after the first two or three days, food becomes an aversion, and there is no appetite for weeks together sometimes ; better, then, starve willingly for a day or two than be unable to eat anything for a fortnight, to say iicthing of the troublesome coughing and other discomfoi-tx | during the whole of that time. THE AIM OF LIFE. The chief ambition of most young men of intelligence and j energy, on entering the gi-eat field of the world, is to accumu late money enough to enable them to retire from business, and] pass the latter years of life in quiet comfort. On a minute inquiry as to the meaning they attach to that expression, itj will be found that it is to have a plenty of everything, except] that of having a plenty to do of what is necessary to be done. They want to be placed in a position which will allow them toj do something, anything, or nothing, according to the inclina- lion of the moment. This is an aim at once narrow-minded,' selfish, and dangerous; dangerous to soul, body, and estate; dangerous alike to social position and to moral character. That very activity, energy, and enterprise which enables a man to " retire on a fortune * at fifty, and be compelled to do comparatively nothing, will as certainly make a wreck of mind and body, as that the fleetest locomotive in the world will bo shivered to atoms if it is instantaneously arrested in its progress. But there is this difference between man and machinery : the magnificent engine may be gradually brought to a perfect stand-still, and can be put in motion again to ac- complish other labors new and grand ; not so with the ma THE AIM OF LIFE. 485 chinery of the mind; in its "connections" with the material ])ody, it has acquired a ** momentum " in half a century's prog- ress, a habit of action, which cannot be arrested, cannot be brought to a dead stand, to a position of having nothing to do, and doing nothing, without the wreck of mind or ruin of body, if, indeed, not both. The only way in which a man can " retire on a fortune " with safety, with comfort, with happiness, and honor, is to lay his plans so that his time shall be fully and compulsorily oc- cupied in advancing the well-being of others, in every way compatible with the safety of his own fortune and health. It may be instructive to know the way to death which many suc- cessful business men travel, the steps taken as seen by an observant physician, the little things which lead to grand results, the total subversion of the aims and labors of a life- time. A man retired on a fortune has nothing to do after he has built his house, laid out his grounds, and arranged his affiiirs perfectly to his " own notion," according to his own "ideas of comfort." The mind can no more be arrested in its activities, than can a star in space. He gets tired <^i sitting about; gets tired of reading; gets tired of riding around his "place;" gets tired of visits and visitors; then the greatest pleasure, the one which can be looked forward to several times every day, is that of eating; it in time becomes, to a certain extent, the only pleasure ; it is indulged in ; after a while, the surplus not being worked off, the appetite either fails, or discomfort attends its indulgence, and there being nothing to do but for the mind to dwell on these discomforts, they become exaggerated, and nine times out of ten a sip of brandy is resorted to ; nine times out of ten it alleviates, and having an alleviant so easily accessible, it is not at ail »Tr»u- derful that it should be frequently resorted to ; so frequently, indeed, that before the man is aware of it, or even his watch- ful wife, he is a regular drinker, is "uncomfortable " without it ; the appetite for it grows apace ; he is a confirmed and hopeless drunkard, and "death and hell " his end. That now excellent paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, narrates the follow - ing, and can give the names of the parties : — " About five years ago an enterprising firm was engaged in a lucrative business on Water Street. Its integrity in ihi TEE AIM OF LIFE. business was beyond suspicion or cavil. The promptness with which its obligations were met was the subject of general encomium, and its paper had, in every case, the value of bank notes, or of specie. The firm was composed of two members, both of them wealthy. With time their riches grew apace, and with cash their kindness and integrity increased. The senior partner resided in a magnificent West End mansion, surrounded by all the luxuries which money could command and taste could ask. The junior partner lived with his family in a rural district, upon a small farm. He passed the business hours in his establishment upon Water Street, and in the cool of the evening rested in his cottage. His children grew up healthy and contented, and all the fireside virtues gambolled about his feet. " In the lapse of time the firm dissolved. Its purposes nad been subserved in the success of its speculations and the preservation of its integrity, and each partner retired to his home to enjoy the profits of his labor. The West End millionaire has forfeited the respect and friendship of his ancient partner. We passed him last evening in a state of bloated intoxication, filthy with exposure and absolute want. The men with whom he once associated would blush to-day to recognize him. His fortune has been squandered in con- tinued excesses, his family is scattered and penniless, and the sole aim of his degraded ambition is to find the where- withal to purchase, drink. The junior partner has not changed in circumstances. The home ties have proved strong- er with him than the attractions of vice, and he still lives to demonstrate the ad^autage of retired virtue and contented competence." Instead, then, of aiming to pass the latter part of life in dangerous, inglorious ease, let the ambition be to spend it in active benevolences, happifying alike the heart of both giver and receiver, thus leaving a name behind, not written in the sands of selfish indulgence, but engraven in imperishable characters on the grateful memories of man, and in the " Book of Life." HEARTY 8UPPEB8, 485 HEARTY SUPPERS. In this exaggerating age, we think we can safely say, that Bcarcely a day passes, in which we do not receive, personally or by letter, some manifestation of felt indebtedness to our writings; and if the question is asked, In what direction? it is most frequently answered, " In reference to the benefits de- rived from abstinence, in whole or in part, from eating any- thing later than a midday dinner." It was with a feeling ol painful disappointment, with, perhaps, some vexation, that we recently read of the death of a brother editor. He died in the very prime of life, — not thirty-one, — in the midst of usefulness, and in the enjoyment of usual good health, until within twenty-four hours of his decease. He was an able preacher, and a fine belles-lettres scholar. He was on a jour- ney, on the Master's business, and died from home. So many good people lovcJ him and looked up to him 1 In less than three lines the whole story is told. "He travelled all day, ate in the evening a hearty supper, waked up in the morning with a headache, became unconscious, and died at five o'clock in the afternoon of apoplectic disease I " Eating heartily in an exhausted, or even in a greatly debili- tated bocTily condition, is dangerous at any hour. j\Iauy a man has fallen apoplectic at the close of. a hearty dinner ; but the danger is greatly increased by going to bed soon after ; for the weight of the meal — a pound or two — rests steadily on the great veins of the body, arrests the flow of the blood, as a continuous pressure of the foot on a hose-pipe will, more or less completely, stop the flow of water along it. This ar- restment causes a damming up of blood in the vessels of the brain, which, at length, cannot longer bear the distention, and burst, causing efi'usion there, which is instant death some- times, and certain death always. There is scarcely a reader, of middle life, who has not more than once been nearer death than he imagined, from this very cause. A man feels in his sleep as if some terrible calamity was impending, some horrible beast is after him, or some fearful flood is about to overwhelm him ; but, in spite of every 486 HEAETY 8UPPERB. effort, he cannot remove himself sufficiently fast ; the enemj behind is increasing upon him ; and, at length, in an agony of sweat, he is able, by a desperate effort, to set the stream of life in motion by uttering some sound fearful to be heard, or only saves himself from falling into some fathomless abyss, by a convulsive and desperate effort. In cases where there is no power to cry out, or no effort can be made, the person is overtaken, or falls, and dies ! Eating a hearty meal at the close of the day is like giving a laboring man a full day's work to do just as night sets in, although he has been toiling all day. The whole body is fatigued when night comes ; the stomach takes its due share ; and, to eat heartily at supper, and then go to bed, is giving all the other portions and func tions of the body repose, while the stomach has thrown upon it five hour J more of additional labor, after having already worked four or five hours to dispose of breakfast, and a still louder time for dinner. This ten or twelve hours of almost incessant labor has nearly exhausted its power ; it cannot promptly digest another full meal, but labors at it for long hours together, like an exhausted galley-slave at a newly im- posed task. The result is, that, by the unnatural length of time in which the food is kept in the stomach, and the imper- fect manner in which the exhausted organ manages it, it becomes more or less acid ; this generates wind ; this distends the stomach ; this presses itself up against the more yielding lungs, confining them to a largely diminished space ; hence every breath taken is insufiicient for the wants of the system, the blood becomes foul, black, and thick, refuses to flow, and the man dies, or, in delirium or fright, leaps from a window, or commits suicide, as did Hugh Miller, and multitudes of others, as to w^hom the coroner's jury has returned the non- committal verdict, " Died from causes unknown ; " if not more impiously stating, " Died by the visitation of God." Let any reader, who follows an inactive life for the most part, try the experiment for a week, of eating absolutely noth- ing after a two o'clock dinner, and see if a sounder sleep, and a more vigorous appetite for breakfast and a hearty din- ner arc not the pleasurable results, to say nothing of the happy deliverance from that disagreeable fulness, weight, oppression, or acidity, which attends over-eating. The greater CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION. 487 reuovation aud vivacity which a long, delicious, and connected sleep imparts, both to mind and body, will, of themselves, more than compensate for the certainly short and rather du- liious pleasure of eating a supper with no special relish. CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION. Not by bad colds, nor hereditary predisposition, nor drink* iug liquor, nor tight-lacing, — for men do not lace, and yet as many of them die of consumption as women ; few habitual drinkers die of that disease ; and, as for hereditary taint and bad colds, millions of the latter have gotten well of them- selves, while the naturally feeble are compelled to an habitual carefulness of themselves, which gives them, in multitudes of cases, an immunity against all disease, except that of old age. The very essence of consumption is a decline in flesh. Flesh is made of the food we eat ; if that food does not give flesh, does not sustain the proper proportion of it, we begin to fade, and fail, and consume away. But, as there is not one in a hundred thousand who has not a plenty of food, and yet one out of every nine in the Union dies of consumption every year, the cause of that malady is not a want of food, although it is a want of flesh ; and yet only food can give flesh. It must, then, be from the fact, that, although we have a plenty of food, that food does not give the amount of flesh and strength w^hich it ought to. The process by which food gives flesh is a double one — digestion and assimilation ; in other words, it is the taking of the nour- ishment from the food, and distributing it to the body at various points. The human body is much like a clock with its many wheels ; if one goes slow the others go slow, and bad time is the re- sult ; if one little wheel of the body (one organ or one gland) works imperfectly or slowly, all the others are influenced thereby, and lag also. But what is the wheel w^hich oftenest gets out of gear ? It is the liver. What infallible telegraphic signal is always made when the liver is out of order? It is constipation of the bowels In a natural, healthful state of the 488 CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION. human body, the bowels act, at least, once a clay ; less thac that is a certain indication that the liver is halting in its pace, and, if the admonition is allowed to remain long unheeded, disease is as inevitable as the falling of a stone when cast from the hand. The moment constipation commences, that moment the blood begins to become impure and poor ; loses its life and heat, and the body chills ; "the least thing in the world " causes a chill to run along the back, or gives a cold outright ; and a cold being so easily contracted, before one is cured another comes on, and that cold is continued, and this is the synonyme of consumption. This article might, therefore, be closed with the important practical inference, that, by avoiding or correcting constipation, very many of those dis- eases might be avoided or cured which arise from impure blood. But another step may be taken with great advantage. What makes the liver grow slow in its action ? what makes it torpid, or work weakly? For the same reason that an overworked horse, or servant, or man, becomes slower and slower in every motion. The liver has a certain amount of bile to manufacture every day. This bile is made out of the blood ; if that blood be of a good quality every day, the work is regularly performed and well done, for the space of a hundred years 1 Any me- chanic knows that it is a comparatively easy matter to make a good job out of good materials ; but to turn out a good day's work from bad materials is a most tiresome, wearing, wasting thing. The blood becomes of a bad material within six hours after a man eats too much ; if that excess is committed three times a day, this bad blood becomes a permanent supply in time; the liver, for a while, does its duty, — longer, accord- ing to the greater vigor of the constitution ; but, sooner or later, it lags ; it is worked to death. In the mean while con- stipation becomes a habit, and the work of death is done. But this curious fact is not unfrequent, — when consumption is fastened on the lungs by continued colds, all the disease of the body is, in a measure, attracted there, the liver resumes its apparent healthy function, and the bowels remain daily acting^ until death. Over-eating, then, three times a day, maybe considered as a primary, a radical cause of the great majority of consumptive BABIES. 489 (liseasea, and each reader is advised to take the matter in hand as to himself, by, — 1. Eating moderately every day. 2. By securing a daily action of the bowels. But if he is so much of a baby — has so little self-denial and manly moral courage, that he ''can't help eating too much!'' then an autagonizer of hearty eating is presented. Work steadily in the open air every day, from sunrise until sunset, with dry feet and dry clothing, singing or whistlinnj all the time. BABIES. Some Rev. Benedictine is ventilating himself througrh the papers, on the subject of " Baby Talk." He mounts on stilts forty feet high, and then lowers himself by using such strong words as "detestable," "unjust," "ridiculous," "distorted," "mangled," "burlesque," "barbarized," etc. Now, who but a crusty old "bach" could look at a sweet little child, and then go off into such a diarrhoea of sweeping adjectives, not one of which can be thought of without feelings akin to those associated with a mouthful of vinesjar. He thinks a ereat wrong is done a little prattler by teaching it to say *' Horsey," and " Mudder." And to call a dog " bow-wow," is awful ! He is only mad because he couldn't raise a baby himself, and wants to put a " sj^ider in the dumpling " of those who have a house full of the dear, delightful responsibilities. Only hear the man: "This seems ridiculous, but that is not all, it is unjust to teach pronunciations which he must unlearn, as laboriously as they were learned. You thus double the task. The folly and injustice are the same, w^heu j'ou teach a little child to speak a distorted, mangled, burlesque language, of which, when older, it becomes ashamed. I object to thia clipped and barbarous English, because it involves a waste of time, and brain-power, and patience." Surely this man is snuflBng the wind. He must have been in a highly imagina- tive mood when he wrote those lines, or the east wind was blowing, or lie had a fit of dyspepsia. Perhaps he had lust 490 BABIES. received a "mitten." At all events, his mental vision was considerably obfuscated, or preternaturally brightened, since, " Optics sharp, it needs, I ween ! To see what is not to be seen." We indite this article for tlie special benefit of Babydora fol now and all time, and desire to crush the error in the bud ; and these are the reasons : — It will not be denied that the most natural language in the. world, and the most easily learned, is that Avhosc words ex- press the most characteristic quality of the thing named. The rumbling of the thunder, the hissing of a snake, the barkiLg of a dog, in the bow-wow, are associated in name and nature. It must be manyfold easier for a child to connect bow-wow with a dog, after the first heard bark, than with the word "dog." It can see the connection in the former case, and the memory is aided by the association ; in fact, it requires but an instinctive efi'ort of the memory ; while to connect " dog " with the noise it makes, requires an abstract effort of the memory, which is burdensome, and in mature life we all avoid it when we can, by thinking of a familiar thiug, with a view to its connection with something less familiar, which is desired to be remembered. The same may be said as to the word mother. It is much easier for the lisping child to say " mudder," for it has not acquired that faculty of tongue and lip movement which is necessary to a distinct pronunciation of the dear name. In fact, it is simply an impossibility for a child just learning to talk, to say "mother." A child must toddle before walking; it must also toddle before talking ; and it requires no more eftbrt to talk better, than to walk better ; both abilities come to them so gradually and so naturally, as the muscles of the parts become more flexible and under control, that in neither case is there a consciousness of efi'ort. A man must learn the pronunciation of a language foreign to his own, whether living or dead, by degrees ; and to require a faultless pronunciation from the first, is an unnecessary infliction — it cannot be done. The ear must gradually learn the niceties of pronuncia- tion by frequent hearing, and the lips and tongue must be ad- justed accordingly. HAPPY MARRIAGES. 491 Again, all languages have forms of expression which signify endearment or iatensiticatiou. In the English it seems to he a kind of a rhyme, such as Ilorsey-porsy, Piggy-wiggy, Georgy- porgy, Lijah-pygy. Besides, a close observer may see that it is easier to pronounce a word ending with y, than oae which has none ; just as it is easier to stop by degrees, than short off. It is easier to say Horsey, than a :lear, sh-^rt " Horse." The fact is, a man can't talk dictionary himself, without piling up the dignity ; and why should a parent care a fig about dignity, when he is melting away under the softening influences of childhood's sunshine ? It's only " stuck-up " peo- ple who are everlastingly retreating on their own proprieties. It requires a Pitt to play marbles with his boy ; a Napoleon to be on all-fours, with his child astride of his back, to be swept off on the floor by the biped horse running under the tables. They are wise who can be children twice ; who can bend at pleasure from age to infancy. There is no incompatibility be- tween firmness and love ; between stately dignity and an af- fectionate heart. A parent's presence should carry with it the gladdening sunshine, and not the chilling iceberg. So, dear reader, if you are so happy as to have children, do not mar it when you are with them, by mounting stilts or talking dic- tionary ; throw off your corsets, make yourself " one of them," and be assured, you and they will be the happier thereby ; the Rev. J. T. Benedict, D.D., to the contrary notwithstanding. HAPPY MARRIAGES. All sorts of " old saws " are grunted out as to love and marriage, and how to be happy in domestic life ; but very few enter that beatific state, whose first steps were taken in deliberate calculation ; still, it would be far better for all con- cerned, if these first steps had been preceded by a wise ieliberation and foresight. In almost all cases, the first "bias " is determined b}' some physical quality — the face, the foot, the ankle ; the twinkle of the eye, the dimple of a cheek, the lisp of the tongue, the port of the head; the length, the 492 HAPPY MARRIAGES. richness, the color of a curl, or the general carriage or contour of the body. Mental and high moral qualities command re- spect; and, as to that middle ground between respect and love, that is, admiration, it is excited by the qualities of the heart, such as frankness, nobility of nature, and implicit trust- fulness. But for the kindling up of real, old-fashioned, flam- ing, world-defying, heart-breaking love, the physical prop- erties, in too many cases, have the initiating and predominant agency. Ill-assorted marriages are, in a great number of instances, the result of parental remissness, in not beginning early enough to instil into the mind of the child such an aversion lo certain traits of character, and such a high estimate of certain moral qualities, as a true wisdom would dictate in the premises. It certainl} is not an impossible thing to impress the youth- ful mind with an unconquerable repugnance against a char- acter, the most striking trait of which is a contemptible trick- ery, an abhorrent profanity, a little-souled meanness, or a degrading animalism. Just as well may the young heart be fortified against loving the miser, the spendthrift, and the gamester, — against those whose prominent exhibitions de- monstrate an irascibility, an all-absorbing selfishness or stony- heartedness ; or a contempt of honest labor, of religion, or of pecuniary obligation. While our children may be early taught an aversion to such traits of character, their admiration may be cultivated for all that is manly, and honorable, and self- sacrificing; for all that is true, and pure, and generous ; for all who are industrious, diligent, and economical. It is unwise to hope for domestic happiness in the posses- sion of a single favoi'able trait of character ; it is better to look for a combination, and they are to be most congratulated who can discern, and woo, and win the possessor of the largest number of good points. First of all, the man whom you love, the woman whom you adore, should possess a high sense of right and wiong; next, bodily health; and, thirdly, moral bravery, — a courage to be industrious, economical, and self- denying. AYith these three traits, — principle, health, and a soul that can do and dare all that one ought to, — domestic feli- cit^f will abide. None ought to marry who cannot command the PBINTEBS' DISEASES. 493 [neaus of enabling them to live in comfort according to their station in life, without grinding economies. It is useless to talk about love in a cottage. The little ras- cal always runs away when there is no bread and butter on the table. There is more love in a full flour-barrel than in all the roses and posies and woodbines that ever grew. No mechanic should marry until he is master of his tiade ; nor a professional man, until his income is adequate to the style of life which he determines upon ; nor the merchant, until his clear annual gains are equal to his domestic expendi- tures, unless, indeed, there are, in either case, independent and unconditional sources of income. No man ought to marry who has to work like a horse from morning until night to supply family necessaries, whether it be by brain or body ; for, if the body is thus made a drudge of, it perpetuates impaired power to the race ; while, if the brain is overwrought, its effects will be seen in children of feeble intellect, if, indeed, they be not demented. To calcu- late, therefore, on a reasonable share of domestic enjoyment, the parties most interested should aim to find in each other as great an amount as may be of high moral principle, of bodily health, and either the actual possession of a suitable maintenance, or an individual ability to secure it without per- adventure. PRINTERS' DISEASES. Many printers are in the habit of holding types between tneir teeth. When the types are damp, and especially when they are new, a substance is upon their surface, which, when applied to the lips, causes troublesome fissures, which some- times end in incurable cancers, which eat away life by piece- meals, in the slow process of weary months. This same substance sometimes finds its way to the inner side of the lips by means of the tongue and the saliva, causing troublesome tumors, which inflame, ulcerate, and rapidly as- sume the form of torturing cancer. The only remedy is prevention, by keeping the type out of the mouth. The most common of all diseases among printers are those of the air 35 494 THE TWO BEST DOCTORS. passages, of i ^hich bronchitis is the most frequent. Next to that, inflammation of the lungs and consumption, in conse- quence of the bent position of their bodies, which prevents full, deep breathing, when the lungs, from inaction, become debilitated, and unable to resist impressions from cold, to which printers are so liable, in consequence of their rooms being kept very warm, and their inattention to proper rules when they leave them. Being so much in the composing- room, they become forgetful of the cold without, and, at the close of the day, in that tired, weary condition that follows a ten hours' labor, they come out on the street, stand aroimd the office-doors talking with one another and looking around, and, before they are aware of it, they are often chilled through, and thus, through mere inattention, the foundation is laid for the fatal ailments enumerated. Nearly one fourth of printers die of consumptive forms of disease. Hernia is common, es- pecially among pressmen. Dimness of sight, shortsighted- ness, and weakness of eyes are very common, in consequence of the constant strain on that organ, and its exposure to arti- ficial light. Fissures and hard lumps often form on the fore- finger and thumb of the right hand, from handling damp type. But the great disease which sweeps so many of them into a premature grave is consumption ; but which would not occur with a tithe of the frequency, if the following few precautions were habitually taken : — First, regularity in eating and in bodily habits. Second, put on all the extra clothing before going into the street ; avoid stopping an instant, but move on at a brisk pace, with the mouth closed, so that, instead of a dash of cold air going in upon the lungs, at each breath, to chill them, it may be first warmed by being compelled to pass around through the nostrils. THE TWO BEST DOCTORS. rOR all minor aches and ails, Dr. Letalone is the most uni- formly and happily successful physician I ever knew ; but, in the severer forms of disease, it is always wisest, safest, and best, to seek, promptly, the advice of an educated practitioner ; BESTLESS WANDERERS. 495 and a fortunate thing would it be for humanity, if not an-etora or a drop of physic were ever taken, unless specially pre- scribed by those who had the advantage of a thorough medical education. RESTLESS WANDERERS. We are moved to pity many times in meeting with a class of men who are seeking for, they know not what. They see evil in the world, and sorrow ; they see oppression and deg- radation, and, while observing them, feel the more, in that they have experiences in the same directions, — tearful, bitter, almost heart-breaking experiences, it may be ; and in blind- ness and powerlessness, they are groping about wearily and painfully for a remed3^ In all these, not a single man or woman is found who does not begin by attacking the present system of received religion. Most of them persuade themselves that they believe the Bible, and readily refer to it as confirmatory of their peculiar sys- tems ; but, in every case, they will only consent that the holy book shall be interpreted according to some preconceived views of their own. They are quite willing to make the Bi- ble their arbiter, the tribunal of last resort, but then they insist that they must have the interpretation of its meaning. Yet, with all this, they are dissatisfied and unhappy ; there is a feeling of unrest which is devouring them, and they will talk, ad infinitum, to everybody, inferring, from admissions of the occasional good sentiments which they avow, a more or less implied assent to their whole system ; and drawing gome comfort therefrom, they arrive at the conclusion that the whole world is rapidly falling into their views ; and soon fanaticism assumes its sway, to hurry them to still greater extremes, until they are dashed on the rocks of suicide, of luuac}', or of perdition. All these people look sad ; they are extremely excitable ; they fire up on the instant ; and, in all, we never fail to see a degree of bitterness towards opponents, and especially is a bitterness exhibited towards ministers, and churches, and communities, in proportion as these appear thriving, prosper- 496 ODORIFEROUS FEET. ous, and happy. Nor is this all ; the rich are their universal anvil ; on it they pound most mercilessly. With them, the selfishness of the rich is an exhanstless theme ; or, if they ever come to a conclusion, it is this, that if these same rich people would commit the distribution of their property to them, the millennium would come in a very few days ; and, while handling the money which they never had the capacity to earn or keep, they would be the happiest people on the face of the earth, and would thence assume that everybody else w^as prosperous and happy too ; just as, a short time be- fore, they had concluded that everybody was poor, and wretched, and miserable, because they were so themselves. We earnestly counsel any chance reader of this article, who las no heart-warming and cheerful religious faith of his own, to disabuse himself of the notion that the whole world is go- ing wrong, by simjily taking a general, generous, and liberal view of any evangelical denomination of Christians, and note for himself, in conversation with any considerable number of them, if there is not a most implicit faith in the great general doctrines of religion, of repentance, faith, and a new life ; of the forgiveness of sins, of spiritual holification, of a Saviour born, and of final restoration to the bosom of the great Father of us all. They feel no more doubt of these things than they do of the shining of the sun on a cloudless day ; and more, they are humble in that belief as to themselves, and merciful, and loving, and forbearing as to others who are out of their faith, in that they spend their time and their money cheerfully, gladly, if, by any means, they can bring others to the knoAvl- edge of the great salvation ; and, withal, they are happy in their faith, happy in their hope, happy in their labors, and happy in their liberalities. Restless wanderers ! if you will not believe this, "come and see." ODORIFEROUS FEET. That an odor issues from every person, peculiar to him- self, is proven by the fact that the dog can find his master, al- though out of sight ; but this emanation from the body is so ethereal, generally, that the human sense of smell cannot dis- SLEEPING POSITION. 497 tinguish it. In very rare instances the calamity may be inherited, or may arise from a scrofulous constitution. At the Bame time, it is true, that in almost every case, bad-smelling feet, or person, arises from old perspiration in a decaying con- dition. There is no special odor to the perspiration from the hands. It is because they arc constantly exposed to the air, and are frequently washed and ventilated ; and so with the face. It is from the feet, always covered ; from the arm-pits, seldom washed ; and from the groins, always in a perspiring condition, that fetid odors come. The remedy, then, is the plentiful and frequent application of soap and hot water, twice a day, as long as needed. This may not avail sometimes » especially with men, for many keep their boots on the whole day ; the perspiration of the feet condenses on them, decora- poses, and the gas given out is absorbed by the leather, and remains permanently. In such cases, not only is the strictest personal cleanliness necessary, the toes and nails being very particularly attended to, but shoes should be worn to allow .if a more free escape of gases ; they should be changed every day ; and when not on the feet, should be exposed to the out- door air, so as to have a most thorough ventilation. " Aqua Ammonia " (Hartshorn water) is used by some for the removal of unpleasant personal odors ; but it has one of its own scarcely more agreeable, and perhaps it acts only by having a stronger smell. The most efficient plan is attention to the strictest cleanliness, and the use of shoes, as above ; and if, in addition, a high state of general health is maintained, by temperance and exercise out of doors several hours daily, the most inveterate fetors will seldom fail of removal. SLEEPING POSITION. The food passes from the stomach at the right side, iience its passage is facilitated by going to sleep on the right side. Water and other fluids flow equably on a level, and it requires less power to propel them on a level than upwards. The heart propels the blood to every part of the body at each suc- cessive beat, and it is easy to see that, if the body is in a 498 FABMERS AND CITIZENS. horizontal position, the blood will be sent to the various parts of the system with greater ease, with less expenditure of power, and more perfectly, than could possibly be done if one portion of the body were elevated above a horizontal line. On the other hand, if one portion of the body is too low, the blood does not return as readily as it is carried thither ; hence, there is an accumulation and distention, and pain soon follows. If a person goes to sleep with the head but a very little lower than the body, he will either soon waken up, or will die with apo- plexy before the morning, simply because the blood could not get back from the brain as fast as it was carried to it. If a per- son lays himself down on a level floor for sleep, a portion of the head, at least, is lower than the heart, and discomfort is soon induced ; hence, very properly, the world over, the head is elevated during sleep. The savage uses a log of wood or a bunch of leaves ; the civilized, a pillow ; and if this pillow is too thick, raising the head too high, there is not blood enough carried to the brain ; and as the brain is nourished, and invig- orated by the nutriment it receives from the blood during sleep, it is not fed sufficiently, and the result is unquiet sleep during the night, and a waking up in weariness, without refresh- ment, to be followed by a day of drowsiness, discomfort, and general inactivity of both mind and body. The healthful mean is a pillow, which, by the pressure of the head, keeps it about four inches above the level of the bed or mattress ; nor should the pillow be so soft as to allow the head to be buried in it, and excite perspiration, endangering earache, or cold in the head, on turning over. The pillow should be hard enough to prevent the head sinking more than about three inches. FAEMERS AND CITIZENS. An extended series of observations seems to have war ranted two conclusions, both adverse to commonly received opinions : — 1. There are more persons in lunatic asylums from the coun- try than from the town. 2. The average of human life is greater in the largest cities, FARMERS AND CITIZENS. 49& than in the country adjoining; yet farmers eat plain, fresh food, take abundant exercise, retire early, and get up by day- light, breathing the pure out-door air for at least half their existence. On the other hand, citizens retire late, rise late, oat food and fruits one, two, or a dozen days old ; are in- doors three fourths, if not nine tenths of their time, breathing an air vitiated by furnace-heat and a variety of other causes, and take comparatively little exercise. It is practically useful to note some of the general reasons which may very rationally be considered as explanatory of such results. The universal tendency of concentration of thought upon one subject is to monomania, madness ; this is so palpable a fact, that argument is not necessary. When, therefore, the subjects of thought are few in number, this same tendency exists. The weather, the crops, the market, is the idol trinity of most farmers ; in a wide sense, they think, talk, dream about nothing else with any special interest; all bpsides is secondary, and if by any novelty the mind is compelled out of its wonted track, it soon relapses into the old tread-mill circle, into the same rut of ages gone. In great cities this destructive concentration is almost an impossibility ; the morn- ing papers, the prices current, the stock-markets, the acci- dents, the wars of nations, the exhibitions of curious and stirring things, keep the mind on the look-out ; in fact, almost too active ; there is scarcely enough time for needed rest. The day begins with running over the state of the world, as exhibited in the newspaper. From nine until four the whole mind is absorbed in matters of business ; from that until near midnight, there is a comparative abandon to dinner, to social ties, to giving or receiving visits from acquaintances, friends, and kindred ; in going to the concert, the lecture, the opera, to evening parties, or other sources of agreeable diversions, or profitable intercommunions. The farmer, glorying in his health and strength, thinks his constitution impregnable ; scouts at method, and system, and precaution, considering them as nothing but doctors' whims and old women's notions. He believes in eating hearty sup- pers, and late ; he has done it all his life, and is not dead yet, and resolves so to continue until the end of the chapter, when X)0 FARMERS AND CITIZENB, some moruing the news goes round, "Died last night" of apoplexy, cholera morbus, cramp colic, or the like. At other times bilious fever carries him from health to the grave in tei. days, in consequence of going to sleep in the entry or on the front stoop after a hard day's work ; or he brings on some other malady by damp feet, bad cookery, neglecting the calls of nature, or deliberately postponing them. The citizen, on the contrary, has more or less informed himself on these mat- ters, both by reading and observation ; he is compelled to pay deference to nature's laws ; he knows that their infraction is attended with certain penalties, and his better judgment leads him to estimate properly the value of a wise course of life; while all the time he is relieved from the necessity of encoun- tering great exposure to heat and cold, of excessive and ex- hausting physical efforts, which accidents and the hurry of the seasons impose on those who cultivate the soil. Farmers will become healthier in body and in mind, in pro- portion as agricultural papers are taken, for several reasons : these publications uniformly contain a large amount of unex- ceptionable family reading, as to health, temperance, and sound morals ; they will also gradually waken up the mind of farming people to experiments, to what is often snecringly styled " scientific farming." Every day the helter-skelter mode of agriculture is becoming less and less remunerative ; every day it is becoming more and more necessary to study the laws of vegetable growth, the habitudes and needs of plants, and grains, and trees ; and in proiiortion as this is done, and the analysis of soils becomes an indispensable pre- requisite, there will be a world of novelty and light to break in upon the farming mind to interest, electrify, and enrich. The time will come when to attempt the successful manage- menc of a farm, large or small, without some considerable practical knowledge of chemistry, and botany, and geology, will be considered the extreme of Quixotism. Meanwhile, let farmers and farmers' wives, with their children, bear in mind that, to diminish the chances of a dyspeptic or bilious madness, or a premature death from acute disease, they should practise habits of personal cleanliness and bodily regularity ; should eat only at regular hours, not oftener than thrice a day, and never between meals, swallowing not an atom after sundown ; A DANOEROUS CURIOSITY. 501 eat always slowly and with great deliberation ; take nothing for the last meal of the day beyond some cold biead and butter and a single cup of water or warm drink, so as to throw the main meal to breakfast or dhnier, thus having all the exercise of the day to "grind it up," to convert it into healthful nutri- ment. Avoid damp clothing, and cold or wet feet ; keep out of even the slightest draught of air after all forms of exercise ; and all the while practise, as to the body, regularity, tem- perance, and self-denial ; while, as to the mind, cultivate a cheerful spirit, a courteous temper, and a loving heart. The great general idea is this, that as between farmers and citizens of the largest cities, the chances are in favor cf the latter as to length of life and mental integrity ; that less bodily exercise and more mental activity bring better results in the long run, than more exercise and less mental activities ; that what tends to waken up and divert the attention, is quite as indispensable to our well-being as bodily activities. A DANGEROUS CURIOSITY. It is the most natural thing in the world, when you have gone to bed, to get up, run to the window, hoist it and look out, at an alarm of fire or any unusual noise or clamor going on outside. A lady was roused from her sleep by a cry of " Fire ! " Her chamber was as bright almost as day when she opened her eyes. She went to the window, and soon saw that it was her husband's cotton factory. She felt on the instant a shock at the pit of the stomach ; the result was a painful disease, which troubled her for the remainder of her life, a period of nearly fifteen years. A young lady, just budding into womanhood, was called by the sound of midnight music to the window, and in her im- dress leaned her arm on the cold sill ; the next day she had an attack of iuHammation of the lungs which nearly killed her. She eventually recovered, only to be the victim of a life-long asthma, the horrible sutFering from the oft-repeated attacks of which, during now these tAventy years, is the painful penalty, to be paid over and over again as long as life lasts. 102 TRIALS OF LIFE. A letter just received from a successful banker, who liaa been an invalid for five years, every now and then spitting blood by the pint, with a harassing cough which makes every night and morning a purgatory, states that the immediate cause of all his sufferings, and the final blasting of life's pros- pects, was his getting up on a cool night to look out of his chamber window, his body being in a perspiration at the time. That sturdy old Trojan, Dr. Johnson, used to say, that "man- kind did not so much require instructing as reminding ; " hence the piesent reminder, that it is dangerous for people to be poking their nightcaps out of windows after nightfall. Another mischievous habit, in the same direction, may have pertinent mention here : standing in the street doorway in cold weather, while the door itself is open, in taking leave of visitors. The cold air from without rushes into the dwelling, causing a draught, which chills the whole body almost instant- ly. It is a hundred times safer to close the door and stand without, bareheaded. Many a tedious case of sickness and suffering has been occasioned, and even life itself has been lost, by an exposure apparently so trifling. May our readers remember these things, and teach thera to their children on the instant. TRIALS OF LIFE. We start upon life's journey full of hope, full ot giaaness, and full of joyous ambition, confident in our own strength and in the support of friends and kindred stationed round about us, on whom we lean with great satisfaction ; but as years pass on, one of the outposts, the supports, falls ; and then another and an- other, each succeeding year, leaving one or more the less. For a while we scarcely miss the acquaintances and friends of our childhood, for we have so many ; but as time rolls on, the num- ber becomes so small that each additional loss makes a greater void. Father, mother, brothers, sisters, our oldest neighbors, all gone ; the minister of our youth has grown gray before us, — he, too, has passed away ; and beyond a schoolmate here, and another there, nothing is left to connect us with the times and the home of childhood, and such a feeling of desolation SPRING SUGGESTIONS. 503 comes over us, that we are ready to sink iu perfect helpless- ness and despair. To the old who may chance to read these lines, the suggestion is made, which, if wisely heeded, may save the body from sinking under the whelming load, and it is this : Pie who made us is the Father of us all ; and the dispensations of this life are designed to prepare us the more certainly for a beatitic existence beyond the grave, and to en- able us to make the transition with the least violence ; and, at the same time, to train us to those habitudes of heart which will the more elevate us iu the world beyond, he arranges that we shall learn to lean less on ourselves, less on others, and more on himself, as a weary man leans on a staff; and tho sooner we begin to learn thus to lean, the happier we shall be in time, and the more ready shall we find ourselves to take up the returnless journey, without a murmur and without a sigh. There are no words more beautiful and more true, in any lan- guage, than that " God is Love " to all his true children ; and the longer they live, the more constantly does he gather him- self about them with his providences, not, certainly, in the way that man's wisdom would devise, but in the manner most surely to eventuate in their safe arrival at their heavenly home. So that, while it is natural that we should feel the death of those who are near to us more and more acutely the older we grow, we should gain even physical power to resist the most crushing trials in the sweet reflection, that behind the darkest cloud a loving Father hides a face all radiant with pity, sympathy, and atfection, to be shown in due time, when fiiith has done its perfect work. So that, for life's suf- ferings, there is a balm in Gilead, there is a Physician there ! SPRING SUGGESTIONS. Do not take off your winter flannel sooner tnan the first of May, but then change to a thinner article of the same material. They are wisest and healthiest who wear woollen flannel the whole year. Sailors wear it in all latitudes and all seasons. Arrange to have a fire kept up all day in the family room, however warm it may be out of doors, until the first of May , 504 SPUING SUGGESTIONS. and iu the morning and evening, daily, until the first of June. The author has lived in the most malarial region in the world, perhaps, and when the thermometer was a hundred and twelve at noon, a fire was regularly kindled at sunrise and sunset in his ofiice, and sat by. Disease, malignant fever, and d^ath reigned in every direction, and yet he had not a second's sickness. It is because a brisk fire not only creates a draught, and thus purifies a room, but so rarifies the deadly air that it is carried to the ceiling, where it cannot be breathed. The simple precaution of having a fire kindled iu the family room at sunrise and sunset, in late spring and early fall, is known by eminent names in the army and navy surgery to be the most efficient preventive of all forms of fever and ague, and 8i)ring and fall diseases ; in flat, wet, warm countries, it is almost a specific against those diseases. No man would be considered sane who should keep up as hot fires in his house as the spring advances as he did iu midwinter. Food is the fuel which keeps the human house — the body — warm; hence, if as much is eaten in spring as in winter, we are kept too warm ; we burn up with fever ; we are oppressed ; we suffer from lassitude. All nature takes a new lease of life with spring but man. It is because he alone is unwise. The brute beasts, — the cow, the horse, the ox, — these turn to a new diet and go out to grass, to crop every green thing ; they would never come to the stable or barnyard of choice, to eat the " heating," " binding " oats and corn on which they luxuriated during the winter; they eat watery food, which is light and purifying. Not so with man ; he continues his meats and fats, his greases and his gravies, as at Christmas. "Watchful nature takes away his appetite for these, and because he does not " relish " them as he did a few weeks before, he begins to con- clude that something is the matter, and measuring the amount of his health by the amount he can send down his throat, he begins to stimulate the appetite, thinks he must use some tonic, readily assents to any suggestion which includes bitters and whiskey, especially the latter; in addition, he puts more mustard, and pepper, and catsup on his meats, seasons every- thing more heavily, until nature has been goaded so that she vvill bear no more, and yields to the fatal dysentery or bilioua SPUING SUGGESTIONS. 505 colic, or, happily, relieves herself by a copious diarrhoea. Does uot every reader know that fever, and flux, and diarrhoea are common ails of spring? But you did not knoAv one of the two chief causes, man's gluttony, as above described ! Tens of thousands of lives would be saved every spring, and an incalculable amount of human discomfort would be pro vented, if, early in March, or, at most, by the first of April, meat, and grease, and fried food of every description, were banished from the table wholly, at least for breakfast and supper. If meat will be eaten for dinner, let it be lean ; use hominy and " samp " largely ; have no fries, eat but little but- ter ; use eggs, celery, spinach, vinegar ; keep the body clean ; spend every hour possible in the open air, snuffing in the spring; but by every consideration of wisdom and of health, have a good fire to come to and sit by with all your garments on, for eight or ten minutes after all forms of exercise ; other- wise, 3'ou will wake up next morning as stiff as a bean-pole, and as " sore " as if you had been pounded in a bag, to the effect of your exercise having done you more harm than good ; and, concluding that work don't agree with yon, however beneficial it may be to others, you take no more for weeks and months. Man is, certainly, the biggest mule that ever was created. For the sake of giving some general idea as to how much sedentary persons should eat in spring, particularly those who are most of the time indoors, it may be well to name the bill of fare. At breakfast, take a single cup of weak coffee or tea, some cold bread and butter, with one or two soft-boiled eggs, and nothing else. Twice a bit of ham or salt fish nwiy be used in place of the eggs ; but then no meat should be eaten for dinner that day. If there is no appetite for eggs or the salt meat, it is because nature needs nothing more than the bread and butter and the drink ; and nature is wise. When there i- not much inclination to eat, a baked or roasted potato, with a little salt and butter, is a good substitute for an egg or piece of ham. Substitutes for these, again, are found in a roasted apple, or in stewed fruit or cranberry sauce. Dinner, cold bread and butter, and a piece of lean meat of any sort, with baked or roasted potatoes, or some other vegetable ; aa dessert, ste\^ed fruits or berries of any sort, and nothing else. 506 CROUPY SEASON. Supper, a single cup of weak tea, some ccld stale bread and butter, and nothing else whatever; any "relish," as it is called, whether in the shape of a bit of dried beef, or cold ham, or sauce, or preserves, or cake, is nothing less than an absolute curse. This is strong language ; but such things do give millions of persons restless nights, uncomfortable aw^ak- enings, and succeeding days of unwellness in every degres, from simple fidgets to ennui, ill-nature, fretfulness, and the whole catalogue of little, mean, low traits of character, such as snappishness, fault-finding, querulousness, glooms, and the like ; this is because nature does not need food for supper, does not call for it ; and a plain tea-table, with nothing but bread and butter on it, repels us the moment we enter the room. The next thing is to have something which has more taste in it, which " relishes ; " in other words, which tempts nature to take Avhat she i7ould not otherwise have done ; and when once inveigled into the stomach, it must be got rid of; but no preparation has been made for it ; it is as unwelcome as the appearance of a friend at dinner on a washing day. The result is, that what has been eaten is imperfectly digest- ed, a bad blood is made of it, and this, being mixed with the good blood of the system, renders the whole mass of blood in the body imperfect and impure ; and as the blood goes to every part of the system, there is not a square inch of it that is not ready for disease of some sort, those parts being most liable to attack which had suffered previous injury of any land ; those who have weak brains, for example, become " softer " still, under the charitable name of " nervousness." CROUPY SEASON. In the early part of spring many children die of croup, which is simply a common cold settling itself in the windpipe, and spending all its force there. Why it should tend to the throat in them, rather tban to the lungs, as in some grown persons, and to the head in others, giving one man influenza, another pleurisy, a third inflammation of the lungs, and a fourth some low form of fever, is not so important as to know the A CBOUPY SEASON. 507 causes of croup and tho means of avoicliu from midday until bedtime, to visiting purposes. Let him, with the utmost cheerfulness and heartiness, leave his work, dress himself up, and take his wife to some pleasant neighbor's, friend's, or kinsman's house, for the express purpose of relax- ation from the cares and toils of home, and for the interchange of friendly feelings and sentiments, and also as a means of securing that change of association, air, and food, and mode of preparation, which always wakes up the appetite, invigorates digestion, and imparts a new physical energy, at once delight- ful to see and to experience; all of which, in turn, tend to cultivate the mind, nourish the affections, and to promote that breadth of view in relation to men and things Avhich ele- vates, and expands, and ennobles, and without which the whole nature becomes so narrow, so contracted, so jejune and uninteresting, that both man and woman become but a shadow of what they ought to be. 7. Let the farmer never forget that his wife is his best friend, the most steadfast on earth, would do more for him in calamity, in misfortune, and sickness, than any other hu- man being, and that on this account, to say nothing of the uiarriaire vow, made before hiirh heaven and before men, he owes to the wife of his bosom a consideration, a tenderness, a support, and a sympathy, which should put out of sight every feeling of profit and loss the very instant they come in collision with his wife's welfare, as to her body, her mind, and her affections. No man will ever lose in the long run by so doing; he will not lose in time, will not lose in a dying hour, nor in that great and mysterious future which lies be- fore all. 8. There are ** seasons" in the life of women, wnich, as to fcome of them, so affect her general system, and her mind also, 528 FARMERS' WIVES OVERTAXED. as to commend them to our warmest sympathies, and which imperatively demand from the sterner sex the same patience, and forbearance, and tenderness, which they themselves would want meted out to them if they were not of sound mind. At these times, some women, whose uniform good sense, propri- ety of deportment and amiability of character command our admiration, become so irritable, fretful, complaining, quarrel- some, and unlovely, as to almost drive their husbands mad ; their conduct is so inexplicable, so changed, so perfectly causeless, that they are almost overcome with desperation, with discouragement, or indignant defiance of all rules of justice, of right, or of humanity. The ancients, noticing this to occur to some women for a few days in every month, gave it the appellation of " Lunacy," Luna being the Latin name for moon or monthly. Some women, at such times, are liter- ally insane, without their right mind ; and, as it is an infliction of nature, far be it from any husband, with the feelings of a man, to fail, at such times, to treat his wife with the same kind care, and extra tenderness, and pitying love, that he would show to a demented only child. The skilful physician counsels, in such cases, the scrupulous avoidance of every word, or action, or even look, which, by any possibility, could irritate the mind, excite the brain, or wound the sensi- bilities, and, as far as possible, to yield, gracefully and good- naturedly, to every whim and every caprice, to seem to con- trol in nothing, to yield in all things ; under these calming influences the mind sooner resumes its wonted rule, the heart gushes out in new loves, and wakes up to a warmer afiection than was ever known before. A misunderstanding of the case, and an impatient resistance at all points, has, before now, driven women to desperation, to a life-long hate, to suicide, or to a fate worse than all, — to peer through the iron bars of a lunatic's cell for a long and miserable lifetime. Let every husband who has a human heart mature the subject well. 9. In these and other peculiar states of the system, arising from nervous derangement, women are sometimes childish, and various curious phenomena take place ; there is an inabil- ity to speak for a moment or a month, the heart seems to "jump up in the mouth," or there is a terrible feeling of im- pending suffocation ; at other times there are actual convul- FABMEBS' WIVES OVERTAXED. 529 sions, ..r an uucontrollable bursting out into tears ; these, and other disagreeable phenomena, are derisively and unfeelingly called "h^'sterics," or "nervousness;" but they are no more unreal to the sufferer than are the pains of extraction for " nothing but the toothache." These symptoms are not un- frequently set down to tne account of perverseness, when it should no more be done than to call it perversity to break out in uncontrollable grief at the sudden information of the death of the dearest friend on earth. The course of conduct to be pursued in cases of this kind is at once the dictate of science, of humanity, and of common sense ; it is to sympathize with and soothe the patient in all ways possible, until the excess of perturbation has passed away, and the system calms down tn its natural, even action. 10. Unless made otherwise by a vicious training, a woman is as naturally tasteful, tidy, and neat in herself, and as to all her surroundings, as the beautiful canary which bathes itself every morning, and will not be satisfied until each rebellious feather is compelled to take the shape and place which nature desigioed. It is nothing short of brutality to war against those -J^ife, elevating, and refining instincts of a woman's bet- ter nature ; and it is a husband's highest duty, his interest, and should be his pleasure and his pride, to sympathize with his wife in the cultivation of these instincts, and to cheerfully afford her the necessary means, as far as he can do so consis- tently. No money is better spent on a farm, or anywhere else, than that which enables the wife to make herself, her children, her husband, and her house appear fully up to their circumstances. The consciousness of a torn or buttonless jacket or soiled dress degrades a boy or girl in their own esti- mation ; and who that is a man does not feel himself degraded under the consciousness that he is wearing a dirty shirt? The wife who is worthy of the name will never allow these things if she is provided with means for their prevention ; and it is in the noble endeavor to maintain, for herself and ftimily, a respectability of appearance which their station demands, with means and help far too limited, which so irritates, and chafes, and annoys her proper pride, that, many a time, the wife's heart, and constitution, and health are all broken to- gether. This is the history of multitudes of farmers' wives ; 530 WHEN BEGAN WEI and the niggardly natures which allow it, after taking an in- telligent view of the subject, are simply beneath contempt. What adds to the better appearance of the person, elevates ; what adds to the better appearance of a farm, increases its value and the resjDectability of the occupant ; so that it is al- ways a good investment, morally and pecuniarily, for a farmer to supply his wife generously and cheerfully, according to his ability, with the means of making her family and home neat, tasteful, and tidy. A dollar's worth of lime, a shilling rib- bon, or a few pennies' worth of paint, may be so used as to give an impression of life, of cheerfulness, and of thrift about a home altogether beyond the value of the means employed for the purpose. Finally, let the farmer always remember that his wife's cheerful and hearty cooperation is essential to his success, and is really of as much value in attaining it, all things con- sidered, as anything that he can do ; and as she is very cer- tainly his superior in her moral nature, it legitimately follows that he should not only regard her as his equal in material matters, but should habitually accord to her that deference, that consideration, and that high respect, which is of right her due, and which can never fail to impress on the children and servants, who daily witness it, a dignity and an elevation of manner, and thought, and feeling, and deportment, which will prove to all who see them, that the wife is a lady and the husband a man, a gentleman ; and a large pecuniary suc- cess, with a high moral position and wide social influence, will be the almost certain results. WHEN BEGAN WE? We end never ! for the soul is immortal, jind cannot die. When the soul's existence commences is as yet a conjecture. Nor can we tell when the immaterial first takes up its dwelling with the material ; when the soul enters the body. But this we do know : that, at a point when the man that is to be is 80 minute as to require the microscope to determine whether it exists or not, the first faint outlines of the new being ar«» WEEN BEGAN WE ? 531 defined to be a nervous system. The very first step cogniza- ble to us, which nature takes to make a man a living sonl, is to prepare the machinery, so to speak, through which thai soul is to manifest itself. It is the nervous system which first begins to live, and to appropriate to itself those materials of growth which eventually become the human body, and make a man. Nothing can be clearer than that the nervous system of the new being is connected with and is dependent on that of the parent, and that the hues, the impressions of :he young, depend on the character of those of the parent. If, at this time, the parent is in perfect health, and so remains, it is fair to picsume that the child will be born in perfect health, body and mind. These statements make the strongest possible ap- peal to all who may become mothers, to make it their constant study, their steady aim and efibrt, to secure a healthful con- dition of the body, and a state of mind which shall be, uni- formly, all that the mother desires the child to possess — piety, integrity, dignity, and an elevation of soul which proves re- lationship to the Infinite. If the mother that is to be, wishes her child to possess vigorous, manly health, she must cultivate the strictest personal cleanliness, extending to the most mi- nute item pertaining to the human body ; she must eat with regularity, not oftener than thrice a day ; she must keep her feet, by all possible means, always dry and warm; her sleep must be early, and of the greatest abundance that nature can possibly take out of daylight ; one half of eacn day should be spent in open-air activities ; and nearly all the time of in-dooir should be emploj'ed in cheerful, interesting, active work, con- stantly diversified, so as not to overtax one set of muscles, and leave others comparatively idle. The t ery best course to pursue is, to take a part in everything going on, in fact, "everything by turns, but nothing long." One of the most important items of advice that can be given in this con- nection is, that an hour or two should be spent in walking in the open air, at two or three difierent times, until the very last. Nothing so certainly, so safely, and so pleasantly con- tributes to an easy deliverance. A volume could be given of the most strikingly illustrative facts, but the single sentence must suflSce. Let it be pondered well ; let the father insist upon it, encourage it, and do all he can to make its perform- 532 WHEN BEGAN WE^ ance easy and agreeable. These, with regular daily, bodilj habits, would add, incalculably, to the sura total of humau happiness ; whilst by their neglect, by simply passing the time in eating, lounging, and listlessness, in the wearing, irri- tating inactivities of a boarding-house, or hotel life, monsters in bodily shape, and imbeciles in mind, are constantly thrown out on society, to be disgusted by their presence, or to bo taxed by their confinement in some insane retreat, or some friendly asylum. As certainly as one end of a telegraph-wire is answered at the other, so certainly do the nervous conditions of the new being and the parent answer to one another, only with thia difierence : the telegraph responds from either end ; in the case in hand, influences go out from the parent only. What kind of a character, then, shall be impressed on the coming man depends upon the abiding states of mind of the mother. The material was made to her hand ; it is her part to mould it ; to her arc the destinies of this coming man committed, and the responsibilities are fearful. She gives the hues to an ex- istence which is immortal, and which it must bear for good or ill all along the way of that immortality, saving the modi- fications which Divinity may make. The true mother, then, will not, at such an interesting, such a momentous period of her existence, allow her mind to be absorbed in questions of what she shall eat and what she shall drink, and thus give a grourmand to the world ; she will not luxuriate in the frivoli- ties of dress, in the study of the fashions, the dissipations of society, nor yield herself to the seductions of the courtier, the flatterer, and the ladies' man, and thus add another to the throng of the giddy-minded, the empty-headed, and the inane ; nor let her pine in pettishness and anger for what is now bej'^ond her reach, — for a position in circles and sets above her present sphere ; let her not call in question the wisdom, the benevolence, or the justice of the wise and kind Father of all for her allotment in life ; let her not employ the mind in irritating and wearing envies and jealousies, in carping criti- cisms, in wearing, wasting complaints, in oppressive forebod- ings of ills to come ; let her, on the contrary, war against all these with the whole energy of her nature, regarding them as her worst enemies, and the bane of domestic life. Let her A MOTHER S RESPONSIBILITY. Page 533. CURIOSITIES OF BREAD. 533 constantly look at the sunshine and the sk}', the leaf and tbo flower; let her take the first step towards all true elevation, the contemplation of individual uuworthiness of any blessing the merciful One could bestow; then look around upon the innumerable ones enjoyed; and next wake up in gladsome gratitude, that such a profusion of goodness should come to one so insignificant, from the generous hand of Omnipotence. Then there w^ill begin to flow in upon the heart, all the time, a perfect flood of elevating emotions ; there will be joy and gladness ; there will be life and light ; there will be mirth anl song ; there will be mercy and magnanimity ; there will be sympathy and beneficence ; and purity and truth, generosity and nobleness of nature, will color the whole character, to be perpetuated in a long line of generations to come. A mother's responsibility! who can measure it? She has the moulding of the race, for good or ill, in a measure second only to the God who made her ! And honored far, far above kings, and conquerors, and potentates, be she, however lowly ma}'' be her position among the millions of earth, w^ho most deeply feels these responsibilities, and who most humbly endeavors to perform them according to her ability, leaning, meanwhile and always, on Him whose kingdom ruleth over all. CUEIOSITIES OF BREAD. There is Divine authority for saying that " bread is the staff of life." As to food, it is our main stay ; we never get tired of it ; it is alwaj^s palatable when we are hungry, as is cold water when we are thirsty. But cold water is made more refreshing, and bread is made more nutritious, by the introduction of a gas, which, if breathed into the lungs in its unmixed, pure state, causes instant death. We turn with disgust from eating anything that is rotten, that is, in a state of decay ; and yet, in the middle of the nine- teenth century, the "loaf" upon our tables is itself rotten in part, — the product of rottenness and whiskey I But a new light has risen upon our world ; for bread is now made which 534 CUBI0SITIE8 OF BREAD. contains no alcohol ; which does not require any putrefactive process, contains no alum, nor soda, nor saleratus ; no emana- tion from the sweaty hands of a greasy cook, nor aught of those ten semicircular lines of black which bound the digital extremities of the queen of the kitchen ; nor does it ever be- come sodden or sour. This new bread is made of flour and water, into which, when mixed, is forced carbonic acid gas, which, although so deadly to the lungs, makes all the differ- ence between the sparkling water of the spring and the flatness of long-standing water, or that which has been once warmed ; furthermore, from the time the flour is taken from the mill, until the loaf is baked, human hands do not touch it. Now, however much the mouths of our country friends may water at the very thought of so deliciously pure and clean an article, they must prepare themselves for some disappoint- ment at the announcement, that it is said not to be economi- cally made, except in large quantities. If every family made its own bread in this way, the great big bakery, on the opposite side of the way, would collapse immediately. But how has "light bread" been made hitherto? By the aid of this same carbonic acid gas, and in this wise : If water is mixed with flour simply, and the dough is thus baked, it is as heavy as lead and as hard as a rock, because the flour is so fine the particles lie close together, and form a compact, sodden mass ; hence it became necessary, in order to have the bread " light," to introduce something between the particles of flour, so as to keep them apart, and allow the heat to get around them and "cook" them. To accomplish this, an agency was necessary, as subtile and unsubstantial as thin air itself; otherwise the heat would be kept away from each par- ticle of flour, and would as effectually prevent the process of cooking as would the flour itself. To this end, some ancient gourmand set his wits to work, or else, by some fortunate accident, made the discovery that " rising," or " yeast," intro- duced into the dough, and allowed to remain for a few hours, accomplished the object. Whether he got out a patent forth- with, or more generously spread his knowledge on the wings of the wind, — as we doctors do, as soon as we are satisfied, beyond all mistake oi cavil, that some valuable new remedy CURIOaiTIES OF BBEAD. 5.35 has been discovered, — cannot now be known ; at all events, the patent has long since rnu out, and yeast, and rising, and leaven are all public jiroperty. Fermentation and rottening are the vulgar and select names for one and the same thing, meaning "destructive decay," decomposition. When a thing is fermenting, bubbles are seen forming, and rising, and breaking ; each bubble contains a light, thin air, called carbonic-acid gas ; this gas, when a little warmed, begins to rise up through the dough, and would go up to the sky instanter, but it can't get out ; it is a regular prisoner of war ; it is literally bagged, surrounded, sewed- up, cabined, cribbed, confined, as helpless as a baby until it gets big; then it breaks away in high dudgeon, nolens volens, and scampers off to the regions of space. In the mean time, however, the bread has baked, and there is no further use for the prisoner at the bar ; in fact, the more speedily he makes off with himself the better ; for only until he has teetotally vamosed the ranche, does the bread become " stale," and really fit to eat, healthfully speaking. Hence the propriety of exposing a new-baked loaf to the air. But what prevents the carbonic-acid gas from escaping the instant it is formed? Flour contains a kind of glue ; the gas, rising, is caught by this glue, in the manner of pushing your finger upward under a spread newspaper, or the blowing up of soap-bubbles ; each particle of gas expands as it gets warmer, and tends to carry away the detaining particle or sheet of gluten before it, and thus is made the numerous honey-comb cells which are seen on a cut loaf of bread. The eye can even discover, on the side of a large cell, a glazy or shiny lining, — this is the dried gluten, bladder-like. If the heat is too great, the carbonic-acid gas exjDands too rapidl}-, and bursts its envelope, as soap-bubbles will burst if you blow too hard, and the bread will be heavy. If there is not warmth enough, the dough begins to decompose, to rot itself, and the bread is sour. But, in the new process, the gas is forced in at once ; and from the time the dough is mixed, until the bread is delivered from the oven, one hour passes. Hence, as no sour rising or yeast is put in the dough, there is nothing to communicate its sourness, and no time is 536 WET DON'T HE DIE^ allowed for fermentation to be originated. This is the only known method of producing absolutely pure wheateu bread of nature's own constituents ; and doubtless the time will come when means will be devised for making " aerated bread," economically, in families. WHY DON'T HE DIE ? Pio NoNO, according to newspaper writers, has been, pe- riodically, on his last legs for at least half an age ; and yet, al- though born in 1792, and has had a stormy reign, Piu'' the Ninth still lives, because he is a philosopher. In the first place, he has great benignity of disposition ; writers agree in saying, that, on the very first instant the eyes light upon his features, an indescribably winning cflfect is produced from the conviction of an inherent kindness of nature dwelling: within. In the second place, the venerable Pontiff has an extraordinary predilection for the greatest cleanliness of person, which is said to be next to godliness. In the third place, the simplici- ty of his diet is a model for all mankind. His breakfast is made of a piece of bread and a mixture of chocolate and coffee, at about nine o'clock in the morning. He dines alone, takes a short nap, and takes a drive, at four o'clock in the afternoon, to the country, where he walks about for an hour, and returns home at six o'clock, and works about four hours, and goes to bed, thus not eating but twice a day. In summer time, the former Popes used to order refreshments of sherbets, ice- creams, and various cooling drinks and pastries ; but the Papal head takes a single orange, cuts it and squeezes it in a glass ; and, indeed, there is nothing better to cool a person off iL a warm day than an orange or a lemon, not only possess- ing considerable nutriment, but containing an acid, which, in its action on the general system, is the very best antagonizer of fever. It is said that the "Holy Father" lives as simply and economically as when he was an obscure priest ; that then one dollar a day supplied his table, and so it does now. The practical result of such an abstemious life is that " His A SAD REFLECTION. 537 Holiness," at the age of seventy-seven years, possesses an excellent constitution, is above the middle stature, has a full, broad chest, and bids fair to live many a long day to come. If any man or woman of forty-five or over, not engaged in hard manual labor, especially the studious, sedentary, and in- door livers, would take but two meals a day for one month, the second not being later than three in the afternoon, and absolutely nothing afterwards, except it mii?ht be, in some cases, an orange, or lemon, or cup of warm drink, such as tea, broma, sugar-water, or ice-cream, there would be such a change for the better in the way of sounder sleep, a feeling, on waking, of having rested, an appetite for breakfast, a buoy- ancy of disposition during the day, with a geniality of temper and manner, that few, except the animal and the glutton, would be willing to go back to the flesh-pots of Egypt. A SAD EEFLECTION. One of the heart-sorrows which few parents escape, who live to see their children nearly grown, is the early disposi- tion, which both sons and daughters show, to throw ofl* parental control, and exercise their own judgment in all that pertains to practice and principle. Youth is vain, hopeful, dogmatic, and impatient. At six- teen, seventeen, and even earlier, they have already regarded it as a settled fact that they are largely wiser than those who have gone before. They consider it as a weakness to be pitied ; the fears and misgivings which bitter experience has burnt into the father's and mother's heart have left them all cut and scarred. If the counsels are given in the stern- ness of parental right, they are met with a feeling which soon grows into defiance ; if given with the beseechings of a mother's undying affection, which still clings to a prayer, when com- mand, and reason, and persuasion, all have failed, they look down on this deep solicitude, this heart-breaking anxiety, with a patronizing pityingness, and with silent neglect or com- 638 A SJD REFLECTION. passionate smile, mingled with a feeling amounting almost to contempt for such useless earnestness, and they pass stead- ily on to courses which, sooner or later, work out their irre- trievable ruin. On a beautiful morning of the past spring-time. Dr. Al- exander, standing at our door, his head whitening for the grave, and into which he has already passed, said in tones at once earnest, tremulous, and deep, " I cannot induce my son to forego the use of tobacco, although he sees in his father its mischievous effects." That father had long since, with the will as well as with the intellect of a giant, dashed the chain of habit in pieces, doing it the moment he became convinced of the perniciousness of the practice, but not soon enough to have escaped the impress of its disastrous effects in enfeebled limbs and palsied trem- bhngs, and that, too, when the hill-top of life had scarcely been reached as to years, but, in reality, as to him, passed a long time ago, one foot being already in the grave, the other on its crumbling verge. The cruel heedlessness with which the youth of our time pass by the known wishes of their parents, as to what their parents well know would, in good time, add to their comfort, happiness, and prosperity, is a sign of the times, and merits a stern rebuke. Pareuts may not complain of such neglect ; they may not bring it distinctly to the notice of their wayward children ; but their hearts are wounded for all that, and many is the tear that is dropped in secret for that selfsame cause ; and the exclamation breaks up from the depth of their affliction, "Is it for this I have suffered, and watched, and toiled from their infimcy up ? Is it for this I have practised a life-long self- denial, and self-sacrifice, and weary, wasting labor, until my back is bent with years, my limbs stiffened with work, and my hand hard as bone itself ? " and scalding tears flow plenteously down, else the overburdened heart would break in its agony. Let every child, then, having any pretence to heart, or manliness, or piety, and who is so fortunate as to have a father or mother living, consider it a sacred duty to consult, at any reasonable perso'ial sacrifice, the known wishes of such PURE AIR A MEDXCINE. 53^ a parent, until that parent is no more ; and our word for it, the recollection of the same, through the after pilgrimao'c of life, will sweeten every sorrow, will brighten every gkidness, Vrill sparkle every tear-drop, with a joy ineffiible. But be self- ish still, have your own way, consult your own inclinations, yield to the bent of your own desires, regardless of a parent's commands, and counsels, and beseechings, and teai-s, and as the Lord liveth, your life will be a failure ; because "the eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the youitg eajrles shall eat it." PURE AIR A MEDICINE. On one occasion an English family became ill in midwinter. Medical advice was obtained, and the usual remedies applied for a long time, without producing any marked favorable change. All the physicians who heard of the circumstances were greatly puzzled to explain the case satisfactorily, even to themselves. At length, a pane of glass was accidentally broken in the only room of the house, and the inmates were so much taken up with their troubles, that it was either not noticed, or there was not time, or disposition, or ability, to repair the damage. All at once, however, the sick began to improve ; the doctor's eyes "svere simultaneously opened a little wider, and he gave orders to let the window alone, with the result, that, in a short time, every member was entirely well. Let every invalid who is as " 'fraid as death " of a puif of pure air bear this suggestive incident in wise remembrance, the balance of his days ; or, if an open door or window is not practicable, at least keep open the fireplace, and either have u little fire in it, or a liberal lamp, or a brisk jet of gas burn- ing in it ; this causes a draught up the chimney, and is a safe, easy, and efficient way of ventilating any sick-room — a ven- tilation which would save valuable lives in multitudes of instances. 540 POETRY, MUSIC AND HEALTH. POETRY, MUSIC, AND HEALTH. Many persons, when hungry, are so "ugly" and irritable, that they remind us of a parcel of starving pigs called up to the slop-trough of a farmer's kitchen; they will grunt, and push, and squeal, and bite one another with surprising vigor, until they get to eating fairly, when there is a sudden and all- pervading silence, with scarcely any evidence of life, except the wagging of their tails, in token of profound satisfaction with themselves and all the world ; when perfectly filled, they retire in dignified silence, and take their siesta on the sunny side of some fence or wall, in the most benignant humor ima- ginable. Children who are hungry often come to the table in the same mood ; and, discreditable as the announcement may seem, many parents, not unpossessed of some excellent traits of character, exhibit, on their entrance into the dining-room, such a fretful and complaining nature, that any inquiry, however kind, courteous, or conciliating, is almost sure to be met with an insulting silence, an impatient reply, or a downright boor- ish rejoinder, showing, very conclusively, that in temper, in disposition, and nature, they are not much above "the brutes which perish." Many a notable, affectionate, and loving-heart- ed wife, after exercising all her ingenuity in preparing an inviting meal for her husband, often waits patiently, and yet vainly, for some expression which recognizes her fidelity to Lousehold duties; others, more unfortunate still, have no re- ward but querulousness and ungracious fault-finding. When the meal is over, these " monster " husbands return to their " right mind," and are every whit as gracious and good-natured as" any other pigs. There are some who are subject at periods to an ugliness of disposition, which excites a conjecture that possibly they may be "possessed of a devil," sometimes two or three, or more — transiently, at least; others there are, beyond all questior, who have always had that companionship ; and forty thousand woes be to the unfortunate individual who has such a yoke- fellow, — the devil of habitual ill-nature, beginning with the POETRY, MUSIC AND HEALTH. Page 540. POETRY, MUSIC, AND HEALTH. 541 early morning, ceasing only with the exhaustion which gives sleep. There was known to be a cure for the acute form of this malady, three thousand years ago ; for it was said of a certain king, that he was subject to these "spells" of devilishnoss , and that on one occasion the evil spirit left him, and he " was well,'*' as soon as the skilful and handsome son of Jesse took down his harp and swept its strings with the fingers of an amateur. Whether there was an accompaniment of " thoughts that breathe and words that burn," is not certainly knoAvn, but as David has written some of the sweetest, and some of the sublimest poetry which has fallen from the pen of mortals, it is not impossible that he sang when he played ; and the result certainly was, that whether it was music or recitation, or both, the evil spirit was put to flight, and the royal patient was pronounced " well," without the necessity of a strait jacket, pills, castor oil, or chloroform. It is the ftishion of the times, however, to take it for granted, that this evil spirit, whose origin is from below, the spirit of fretfulness, of dissatisfaction, of incessant fault-finding, and chronic ill-nature, as exhibited in domestic life, can by no pos- sibility exist on the diviner side of the house ; but, as a matter of course, can only be found in the lords of creation; hence, or for other reasons, every mother in the land is at more pains, and has more solicitude for her daughters' musical training, than for anything else, as if it were to be expected, as a matter of course, that all husbands had to be exorcised. And it is a fact, that if any man had forty thousand Beelzebubs tearing round within him, making a very Pandemonium in the house- hold, every individual one would scamper ofi" with the rapidity attributed in olden times to a shot placed in particular circum- stances on a shovel, the very instant that Beauty's voice swelled the notes, and tapered fingers swept the octaves. While, therefore, it is philosophical to have our daughters learn music, it might be well to remember that "spirits differ." Some men have no ear for music, — have no music in their souls, — while all have more or less of human nature ; more or less of the leaven of ill-temper, of impatience and wrathfulness, which is not amenable to the symphony of sweet sounds, but which is softened down to the lovingness of a baby's cooing at 542 POETRY, MUaW AND HEALTH. the exhibition of a little common sense ; of tidiness of person, of worldly prudence, of domestic management, and household handiness on the part of the wife. No man possessed of any force of character can bear with equanimity the daily observa- tion of the fact, that what he brings into the house for the com- fort and sustenance of his family is not taken care of, is de- stroyed by unprincipled servants, or used with a criminal lav- ishness which benefits nobody, and yet is an hourly injury t(i him, inasmuch as the fruit of his labor and his care is ruin- ously used. The demon of deep dissatisfaction will take possession of the man who has any respect for himself, his family, and his social position, when he begins to find out that his wife "has no taste for housekeeping ; " that this branch of domestic duty is left entirely to the servants, and, as a consequence, the carpets are moth-eaten the first summer ; the costly furniture, in six months, looks as if it had been in use a dozen years ; the rose- wood is "nicked; " the sienite marble is stained with all the colors not belonging to it ; the costliest velvets and tapestries are irremediably greased ; while the walls are scratched and match-marked in every possible direction. It cannot be a just matter of surprise, that a man should become possessed of an evil spirit, when he finds that as often as he presents his wife with a charming hat, with a splendid Gilk, with a magnificent set of furs, he is doomed in less than a week to find the " love of a bonnet " lying about, first on a bed, next on a centre-table, next hitched on to the hat-rack ii' the hall, as il it were a mere " hack," to be put on only when it was like to rain, or when going out to make " next door " u neighborly visit after nightfall ; or if the costly silk, after the first wearing, has been hastily dumped down on the floor, or hurriedly crammed into a drawer, to be taken out with a hun- dred thousand unsightly creases; or if the diamoud brcastpiu is broken, or the bracelet-guard lost, or a diamond is missing from the finger-ring after the first wearing. Not a less power- ful means of bringing up an evil spirit into a man, is the find- ing his house all topsy-turvy when he comes home after tbo business of the day ; the children crying, the servants " in a stew," while the wife is in a humor so ungracious, that the moment her husband enters the door, she begins with the vol- POETRY, MUSIC, AND HEALTH. 543 ability of a dozen ordinary women, to pour out one complaint after another, about every servant and every child ; about the butcher, and the baker, and the milkman, ending with an inti- mation of a very unmistakable character : " It's your fault." And if, after all this, the five o'clock dinner is placed on the table at six, the potatoes hard, the roast beef black, the bread half dough, the milk sour, and the soup dishwatery, it cannot be surprising if evil spirits do catch him up and whisk him off to the village tavern, the grog-shop, the billiard-saloon, or the gaming-table, returning home later and later, until, after a while, he habitually enters his house in the small hours of the morning, beastly drunk, and Avith oaths, and curses, and savage blows, sometimes enforces those attentions to his more beastly wishes which the self-punished wife had not wit enough before to see the wisdom of giving voluntarily. It is too late, then, for any human music to charm such a man, or to tame and lay the evil spirit within him. These things being so, it might be well, for city mothers es- pecially, to have their daughters take fewer lessons in music, fewer in French, fewer in crochet-work, and more in common sense ; more in domestic duties, such as sewing, knitting, patching, darning, dusting rooms, making beds, taking care of their own clothing and that of the smaller children ; helping the mother in all possible ways, — thinking for her, planning for her, anticipating her wants, and desires, and directions; doing all these things not merely as a duty, but as a pleasure ; doing them promptly, cheerfully, and lovingly, at all times, and under all circumstances ; feeling the while that the child Bhould be the servant, and the mother the served. No one can doubt that a daughter thus brought up, with frequent opportunities of trying her hand at making cake, baking a loaf, roasting a joint, boiling a potato, drawing a cup of tea, spreading a table, getting up a party, fitting her own dress, trimming her own bonnet, and being her own seamstress, would have a power over a man, all-controlling, in subduing his passions, in chastening his extravagances, and moulding his nature into a form, the very embodiment of all that is noble, manly, generous, and loving. The music, then, which the wife should practise, in order to have a healthful influence over the physical, moral, and mental 544 POETRY, MUSIC, AND HEALTH. nature of a man, — restraining him from vice, and jrime, and gluttony, and late hours, and drunkenness, — and the poetry which she should recite to him every day are the music and poetry of a tidy home, of cleanly and well-behaved children, of quiet and respectful servants, of a table spread so invitingly, that if only bread, and milk, and butter were there, they would taste like nectar and honey just from the hive ; while the all- pervading and happy influence of a quiet, loving, and lady-likb wife, sanctifies the whole household, and makes it a commu- nity of love, of enjoyment, of domestic beatitude. There must be music, and poetry too, in the husband ; he must strive daily to deport himself towards the woman who Las borne him children, with a like respect, and deference, and consideration, and gentleness, to that which he was accustomed to exhibit shortly before the marriage ceremony had made them one. We say "strive," for many a time it will require an effort, a moral power akin to the heroic ; for there is much in the life of almost every man of business, so wearying, de- pressing, and often harrowing to the whole nature, that he would be more than mortal, if, under their influences, when the physical nature is tired with labor, he could exhibit the beau- tiful amenities of an elevated domesticity, without some sum- moning up to his aid all the latent power within him, to recall the feelings, and afiections, and deportment of the happy days of courtship. He may sometimes have to contend with woman's waywardness, only exhibited, it may be, when under the influence of sickness, or inward grief, or deep disappoint- jQent, or bitter mortification, or of a hard lot in life ; but surely it will be the more manly part, under such circumstances, to shut his eye, and ear, and sense to many things, covering Ihem with that mantle of charity which he should always have at hand, for her sake, who left father, and mother, and all the dear associations of home and kindred, and threw herself so trustingly on his protection, his love, his honor, and his care. Let the daughter also practice, for her who bore her, that sweetest of all music to an aged mother's heart, to wit, a prompt, a cheerful, an unhesitating obedience to all her known wishes ; let her feel abidingly, that nothing she can do for the mother who loved her, and watched over her with so much tenderness and solicitude, and anxious care, through the run- POETRY, MUSIC, AND HEALTH. 545 ning years of infancy, and childliood, and mature age, can ever half repay her; let that mother's peace, and comfort, and repose, and quiet happiness, be the constant study and tlie steady aim of every dutiful daughter ; for, however much she may do, it would not be considered half enough, when thai mother has passed into tlie grave. Yes, however much sIig may have done, it will then be felt the strangest thing in the world that she had not done more ; she will constantly re- proach herself for want of consideration in a thousand little things, each one of which might have been a rill of pleasure to the aged heart as it was nearing its final resting-place. Let the dutiful and loving daughter practise that other music-lesson for her mother's sake, — the willingness to learn ; to practise it so diligently, that there need never be a repeti- tion of a mother's counsel, or direction, or advice. Said a mother to me once, " I never recollect the time when I found it necessary to repeat a wish to any child of mine ; I have only to half tell it, when it is done." Happy mother ! dear loving children ! How I wish there were more such I I know there are too many daughters who are directly the reverse ; who seem to think that a mother's advice is out of date, her coun- sel old-fogyish, and all her pains to show her how to do things, are not only disregarded, but are listened to or witnessed with the utmost impatience, as evidenced by the surly look, the unsightly frown, or some disrespectful exclamation. Poor child 1 every one of these will be a dagger to your heart, the more painful as you grow older ; striking deeper and deeper as years roll on, causing many an hour of sadness by day, and of remorse, 0, how grinding 1 in the sleepless hours of mid night, so many of which are the lot of old age. The things of which we have been speaking are moral music and moral poetry ; these promote the health of the heart ; but there are pieces of real, tangible poetry, the repetition, or the reading of which aloud, at times, when the mind is in the mel- low mood, or when sorrows weigh it down, or when grief presses upon it like a crushing millstone, will many a time lighten the load which burdens poor humanity's heart, and at other times will lift it up, and elevate, and waken it to nobler purposes and to higher resolves, instead of letting lifa go out in blank despair, or in the dreadful night of suicide. 546 POETRY, MUSIC, AND HEALTH. Poetry and song have not, in three thousand years, lost any of their efficiency in medicating the maladies of the mind, which, by the way, are sometimes more terrible in their ill effects, than are physical diseases. Song soothes the troubled soul, it calms the perturbed spirit, and sweetly lessens the weight of those mournfully pleasing recollections of the far-distant past of childhood and home ; of the friends long since departed, but still, 0, how deeply, truly, sweetly loved 1 Simple, silent reflection has a power to " Calm the surges of the mind," especially at eventide, when the day's work is done; and clear it of the gross encumbrances which corrupting business trans- actions have left behind them, that it may be empty, swept, and garnished, fit for the Master's use ; yea, fit for the dwell- ing-place of God ! If music and meditation have such a power separately, that power must be intensified, when living sentiments are ex- pressed in searching words, and glorious thoughts are em- bodied in words and music too. Then, sweet as the motlier's lullaby will the heavenly influences come over the heart, in repeating to itself, as the day gradually dies into the night, — " I love to steal a while away From every cumbering care; And spend the hours of setting day In humble, grateful prayer. "I love to think on mercies past, And future good implore; And all my cares and sorrows cast On Him whom I adore." No one, we should think, could " hum " those lines in a minor key, without improving both the mental and bodily condition. How sweetly comforting and love-sustaining, what a moral ** tonic," acting physically, waking up the whole man to greats er activities, and with greater courage to meet life's labors and duties, and toils, is there found in a single verse of the immortal Watts ! — " The God we worship now Will guide us till we die; Will be our God while here below, And ours above the sky." MENTAL BEST. 647 MENTAL REST. When a locomotive is under full headway, it cannot be safely Btopped in a moment ; the stream of steam must be gradually turned in another direction, and made to play on thin air, or on the fly-wheel, as well as to have its supply cut oif. So when Die nervous energy of the human system has been acting on the brain, under a " full head " for an hour or more, as in the performance of the most harrowing tragedy, or in the deliv- ery of an impassioned address, or in the execution of some momentous surgical operation, it is not safe to arrest instant- ly the outgoing of that power through the brain ; the fact is, it is not possible. If the performers just named were carried direct from the theatre of their operations to a prison or vacant room, and were so bound that bodily motion was impossible, the mind would run in ceaseless circles over the performances, would be vainly striking against the air, and sleep would be impossible, except as a result of sheer exhaustion. Even then it would not bring its natural renovation : the tragedian, in spite of himself, would go over his part ; the orator would rehearse his sentences ; the advocate would join together again his points and proofs ; the minister repeat his weighty appeals ; and the surgeon perform again his terrible opera- tions, — all in the mind, vainly, and with the almost invariable accompaniment, disagreeable and wearing, to wit : measuring the effects which might have resulted from certain variations in their respective performances, the surgeon would think that his operation might have been sooner performed, or would have had a more favorable recovery, if he had done this, that, or the other thing, which he had not done ; the clergyman will have his conscience touched by the reflection that if he had applied another text of Scripture, or presented another line of argument, or had summoned a deeper feeling of the heart, his discourse would have made a more lasting impression, and might have eventuated in more inefiaceable convictions. In one sense these are vain thoughts ; they increase the exhaiis- tion attendant on the previous actual labors, and are altogeth- er unprofitable. The greatest lady tragedienne of moderD 548 MENTAL BEST. times, Rachel, after an exciting performance, would go liomo^ and although past midnight, would sometimes spend an hour or more in the physical effort of moving the furniture of one room into another, and in arranging it, as if it were to remain so for months, as a means of calming the mental excitement, so that she could go to sleep ; the philosophy of the matter was, that the nervous energy was diverted from the brain, and compelled, in a measure, to pass out of the system through muscular action ; while the mental exercise necessary wag such as to engage a different portion of the brain altogether, allowing those organs opportunity of quiescer.ee, which had been so lately exercised to an unwonted degree. Our clerical readers know it often happens that Sunday night is the worst night for sleep in the week, especially for those lazy, and im- provident, and unsystematic unfortunates, who put off their preparation for the Sabbath until the very last moment, as it were, and hence have to sit up late on Saturday night, and even encroach on the sacred hours of the Sabbath, thus pro- faning holy time, in the feeling that the end sanctifies the means, or that it is a perfectly legitimate labor, forgetting that it is an unnecessary labor, as it might and ought to have been done in proper work days. As we were saying, clergymen sometimes cannot get to sleep for hours after preaching at night : let such take a lesson from the above recital, and in- stead of going to bed as soon as they get home, let them per- form some muscular movements, with the end above-named in view ; or, if that be not practicable at times, they should di- vert the current of nervous energy from the organs of the brain which have been unusually exercised, to the considera- tion of subjects which will employ other organs. This may very well be done by reading a number of short articles on every variety of subject, and by various authors. This is very much on the same principle that one set of muscles are rested by the exercise of another set, which allows them to be qui- escent. There are times to all, when the most industrious are utter- ly indisposed to do a single hand's turn, when the most dih- gent readers and thinkers lose the power of concentration, and would entirely fail to interest the mind in reading the most exciting history ; neither can they go to sleep, which, indeed, MENTAL REST. 549 would be the very best thing they could do ; and then again, in times of groat calamity, or trouble, or despondency, wliich, unfortunately, come to all, sooner or later, it will answer an excellent purpose to divert the mind and rest it, by reading a variety of short articles, which require no lengthened tlinught, no special mental elFort to take in ; even in these cases the reading may sometimes be almost mechanical, yet every now and then a paragraph will be met with which will compel at- tention more or less ; sometimes from its incongruity, its odd- ity, its fun, its ridiculousness, or its profundity. The striking sentences which are met with in reading some new book, and which are industriously penned for the entertainment of its readers, aside from their intrinsic merit, are worth more than money, if used in the ways and at the times referred to in this article. When a man don't feel like "doing a single thing," he is in danger, because he is very apt, under such circumstances, to dawdle or mope about, and do nothing, — the very state of mind which the great adversary delights to find, and is sure to take advantage of, *• For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do," as the unequalled Isaac Watts has written. Rather than allow perfect idleness under any circumstances, read the news- paper, with its short and varied articles, even its advertise- ments, or even an antiquated scrap-book, as a healthful mental diversion, recreation, and rest, under the circumstances ad- verted to. To the Christian heart, to that happiest of human kind, who can receive with an unquestioning confidence and childlike trust all that the Bible says, the Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon are of incalcula jle value in this con- nection ; they make the body forget its weariness, they bring comfort to the desponding, cheer to the broken-hearted, cour- age to the fallen, and faith, and rest, and hope, and happinsaa to all 550 HINTS FOE THE TBAVELLING SEASON. HINTS FOR THE TRAVELLING SEASON. About the first of June many persons contemplate travel- ling. To do so with the largest amount of comfort and advan- tage (physical, social, and mental), the following suggestions are made : — Take one fourth more money than your actual estimated expenses. Acquaint yourself with the geography of the route and region of travel. Have a good supply of small change, and have no bill or piece higher than ten dollars, that you may not take counterfeit change. So arrange as to have but a single article of luggage to look after. Dress substantially ; better to be too hot for two or three hours at noon, than to be too cool for the remainder of the twenty-four. Arrange, under all circumstances, to be at the place of start- ing fifteen or twenty minutes before the time, thus allowing for unavoidable or unanticipated detention on the way. Do not commence a day's travel before breakfast, even if that has to be eaten at daylight. Dinner or supper, or both, can be more healthfully dispensed witli, than a good warm breakfast. Put your purse and watch in your vest-pocket, and all under your pillow, and you will not be likely to leave either. The most secure fastening of your chamber door is a common bolt on the inside ; if there is none, lock the door, turn the key so that it can be drawn partly out, and put the wash-basin under it ; thus, any attempt to use a jimmy or put in another key, will push it out, and cause a racket among the crockery, which will be pretty certain to rouse the sleeper and rout the robber. A sixpenny sand\Mich, eaten Jeisurely in the cars, is better lor you than a dollar dinner bolted at a " station." Take with you a month's supply of patience, and always think thirteen times before you reply once to any supposed rudeness or insult, or inattention. USES OF ICE. ' 551 Do not suppose yourself specially and designedly neglected, if waiters at hotels do not bring what you call for in double- quick time ; nothing so distinctly marks the well-bred man as a quiet waiting on such occasions ; passion proves the puppy. Do not allow yourself to converse in a tone loud enough to be heard by a person two or three seats from you ; it is the mark of a boor if in a man, and of want of refinement and lady-like delicacy, if in a woman. A gentleman is not noisy : ladies are serene. Comply cheerfully and gracefully with the customs of the conveyances in which you travel, and of the places where you stop. Respect yourself by exhibiting the manners of a gentleman and a lady, if you wish to be treated as such, and then you will receive the respect of others. Travel is a great leveller ; take the position which others assign you from your conduct, rather than from your pre- tensions. USES OF ICE. xN health no one ought to drink ice-water, for it has oc- casioned fatal inflammations of the stomach and bowels, and sometimes sudden death. The temptation to drink it is very great in summer ; to use it at all with any safety the person should take but a single swallow at a time, take the glass from the lips for half a minute, and then another swallow, and so on. It will be found that in this way it becomes disagreeable after a few mouthfuls. On the other hand, ice itself may be taken as freely as possi- ble, not only without injury, but with the most striking ad- vantage in dangerous forms of disease. If broken in sizes of a pea or bean, and swallowed as freely as practicable, without much chewing or crushing between the teeth, it will often be efficient in checking various kinds of diarrhoea, and has cured violent cases of Asiatic cholera. A kind of cushion of powdered ice kept to the entire scalp, 39 552 MEASLES AND CONSUMPTION. hag allayed violent inflammations of the brain, and arrestod fearful convulsions induced by too much blood there. In croup, water, as cold as ice can make it, applied freely to the throat, neck, and chest, with a sponge or cloth, very often affords an almost miraculous relief; and if this be followed by drinking copiously of the same ice-cold element, the wetted parts wiped dry, and the child be wrapped up well in the bed- clothes, it falls into a delightful and life-giving slumber. All inflammations, internal or external, are promptly subdued by the application of ice or ice-water, because it is converted into steam and rapidly conveys away the extra heat, and also diminishes the quantity of blood in the vessels of the part. A piece of ice laid on the wrist will often arrest violent bleeding of the nose. To drink any ice-cold liquid at meals retards digestion, chills the body, and has been known to induce the most dangerous internal congestions. Refrigerators, constructed on the plan of Bartlett's, are as philosophical as they are healthful, for the ice does not come in contact with the water or other contents, yet keeps tl»«3m all nearly ice-cold. If ice is put in milk or on butter, and these are not used at the time, they lose their freshness and become sour and stale, for the essential nature of both is changed, when once frozen and then thawed. MEASLES AND CONSUMPTION. This disease prevails extensively in cities during the winter season, and will usually cure itself, if only protected against adverse influences. The older persons are, the less likely they are to recover perfectly from this ailment, for it very often leaves some life-long malady behind it. The most hopeless forms of consumptive disease are often the result of ill-con- ducted or badly-managed measles. In nine cases out of ten, not a particle of any medicine is needed. Our first advice is, always, and under all circumstances, send at once fcr an experienced physician. Meanwhile keep tho REGULATINO THE BOWELS. 553 patient in a cool, dry, and well-aired room, with moJerato covering, in a position where there will be no exposure to draughts of air. The thermomc ter should range at about sixty- five degrees where the bed stands, ^^ Inch should be moder- ately hard, of shucks, straw, or curled hair. Gratify the instinct for cold water and lemonade. It is safest to keep the bed for several days after the rash has begun to die away. The diet should be light, and of an opening, cooling character. The main object of this article is to warn persons that the greater danger is after the disappearance of the measles. We would advise that for three weeks after the patient is well enough to leave his bed, he should not go ou^ of the house, nor stand or sit for a single minute near an open window or door, nor wash any part of the person in cold water nor warm, but to wipe the face with a damp cloth. For a good part of this time the appetite should not be wholly gratified ; the patient should eat slowly of light nutritious food. -In one case, a little child, almost entirely well of the measles, got to playing with its hands in cold water ; it gradually dwindled away and died. All exercise should be moderate, in order to prevent cooling oflf too quickly afterwards, and to save the danger of exposure to draughts of air, which, by chilling the surface, causes chronic diarrhcea, if it falls on the bowels ; deafness for life, if it falls on the ear ; or incurable consump- tion, if it falls on the lungs. REGULATING THE BOWELS. It is best that the bowels should act every morning after breakfast ; therefore, quietly remain in the house, and promptly attend to the first inclination. If the time passes, do not eat an atom until they do act ; at least not until breakfast next day, and even then, do not take anything except a single cup of weak coflfee or tea, and some cold bread and butter, or dry toast, or ship-biscuit. Meanwhile, arrange to walk or work moderately, for an hour or two, each forenoon and afternoon, to the extent of keeping up a moisture on the skin, drinking as freely as desired as 554 ATTENTION TO TUE FEET. much cold water as will satisfy the thirst, taking special pains, as soon as the exercise is over, to go to a good fire or very warm room in winter, or, if in summer, to a place entirely sheltered from any draught of air, so as to cool off very slowly indeed, and thus avoid taking cold or feeling a " soreness " all over next day. Remember, that without a regular daily healthful action of the bowels, it is impossible to maintain health, or to regain it if lost. The coarser the food, the more freely will the bowels act, such as corn (Indian) bread eaten hot ; hominy ; wheaten grits ; bread made from coarse flour, or " shorts ; " Graham bread ; boiled turnips, or stirabout. If the bowels act oftener than twice a day, live for a short time on boiled rice, farina, starch, or boiled milk. In more aggravated cases, keep as quiet as possible on a bed, take nothing but rice, parched brown like coffee, then boiled and eaten in the usual way ; meanwhile drink nothing whatever, but eat to your fullest desire bits of ice swallowed nearly whole, or swallow ice-cream before entirely melted in the mouth ; if necessary, wear a bandage of thick woollen flannel, a foot or more broad, bound tightly around the abdomen ; this is especially necessary if the patient has to be on the feel much. All locomotion should be avoided when the bowels are thin, watery, or weakening. The habitual use of pills, or drops, or any kind of medicine whatever, for the regulation of the bowels, is a sure means of ultimately undermining the health ; in almost aU cases laying the foundation for some of the most distressing of chronic maladies ; hence all the pains possible should be taken to keep them regulated by natural agencies, Buch as the coarse foods and exercises above named. ATTENTION TO THE FEET. It is utterly impossible to get well or keep well, unless the feet are kept dry and warm all the time. If they are for the most part cold, there is cough or sore throat, or hoarseness, or sick headache, or some other annoyance. If cold and dry, the feet should be soaked in hot water for ATTENTION TO TEE FEET. 555 ten minutes every night, and when wiped and dried, rub into them well, ten or fifteen drops of sweet oil ; do this patiently with the hands, rubbing the oil into the solos of the feet particularly. On getting up in the morning, dip both feet at once into water, as cold as the air of the room, half-ankle deep, for a minute in summer, half a minute or .ess in winter, rubbing one foot with the other, then wipe dry, and if convenient, hold them to the fire, rubbing them with the hand until pei-- fectly dry and warm in every part. If the feet are damp and cold, attend only to the morning washings, but always at night remove the stockings, and hold the feet to the fire, rubbing them with the hands for fifteen minutes, and get immediately into bed. Under any circumstances, as often as the feet are cold enough to attract attention, draw off the stockings, and hold them to the fire ; if the feet are much inclined to dampness, put on a pair of dry stockings, leaving the damp ones before the fire to be ready for another change. Some persons' feet are more comfortable, even in winter, in cotton, others in woollen stockings. Each must be guided by his own feelings. Sometimes two pairs of thin stockings keep the feet warmer than one pair which is thicker than both. The thin pair may be of the same or of difierent materials, and that which is best next the foot, should be determined by the feelings of the person. Sometimes the feet are rendered more comfortable by bast- ing half an inch thickness of curled hair on a piece of thick cloth, slipping this into the stocking, with the hair next the fcskin, to be removed at night, and placed before the fire to be perfectly dried by morning. Persons who walk a great deal during the day, should, oii coming home for the night, remove their shoes and stockings, hold the feet to the fire until perfectly dry ; put on a dry pair, and wear slippers for the remainder of the evening. Boots and gaiters keep the feet damp, cold and unclean, by preventing the escape of that insensible perspiration which is always escaping from a healthy foot, and condensing it ; hence the old-fashioned low shoe is best for health. 556 DYSPEPSIA, DYSPEPSIA. Dyspepsia is the inability of the stomach to prepare from the food eaten the nourishment requisite to sustain the body, and to supply it with pure blood, which, in its impure, un- natural condition, is sent to every fibre of the system ; hence there is not a square inch of the body which is not liable to be affected with uneasiness or actual pain, and that portion will suffer most which has been previously weakened, or diseased, or injured in any way. Hence, among a dozen dyspeptics, no two will have the same predominant symptoms, either in nature or locality ; and as these persoi s differ further in age, sex, temperament, constitution, occupation, and habits of mind and body, it is the height of absurdity to treat any two dyspeptics precisely alike ; hence the failure to cure in many curable cases. Dyspeptics of high mental power, and of a bilious tempera- ment, are subject to sick-headache ; those who are fat and phlegmatic have constipation and cold feet ; while the thin and nervous have horrible neuralgias, which make of life a continued martyrdom, or they are abandoned to forebodings so gloomy, and even fearful, sometimes, as to eat out all the joy of life, and make death a longed-for event. Some dyspeptics are wonderfully forgetful ; others have such an irritability of temper as to render companionship with them, even for a few hours, painful, while there is such a remarkable incapacity of mental concentration, of fixedness of purpose, that it is im- possible to secure any connected effort for recovery. There are some general principles of cure applicable to all, and which will seldom fail of high advantages. 1. The entire body should be washed once a week with Boap, hot water, and a stiff brush. 2. Wear woollen next the skin the year round, during the daytime only. 3. By means of ripe fruits and berries, coarse bread, and other coarse food, keep the bowels acting freely once in every twenty-four hours. 4. Under all circumstances, keep the feet always clean, dry, and warm. SOUR STOMACH. 557 5 It is most indispensable to have the fullest plenty. ol sound, regular, connected, and refreshing sleep, in a clean, light, well-aired chamber, with windows facing the sun. 6. Spend two or three hours of every forenoon, and one oi two of every afternoon, rain or shine, in the open air, in some form of interesting, exhilarating, and unwearying exercise ; walking, with a cheering and entertaining companion, is the very best. 7. Eat at regular times, and always slowly. 8. That food is best for each which is most relished, and is followed by the least discomfort. What may have benefited or injured one, is no rule for another. This eighth item is of uni- versal application. 9. Take but a teacupful of any kind of drink at one meal, and let that be hot. 10. Confine yourself to coarse bread of corn, rye, or wheat; to ripe, fresh, perfect fruits and berries, in their natural state ; and to fresh lean meats, broiled or roasted, as meat is easier of digestion than vegetables. Milk, gravies, pastries, heavy hot bread, farinas, starches, and greasy food in general, ag- gravate dyspepsia by their constipating tendencies. 11. It is better to eat at regular times as often as hungry, but so little at once, as to occasion no discomfort whatever. 12. Constantly aim to divert the mind from the bodily coi> dition, in pleasant ways ; this is half the cure in many cases. SOUR sto:mach. Nature provides a liquid (the gastric juice) in the stomacn, Bufficient to dissolve as much food as the system requires, and no more. Whatever is eaten beyond what is needed has no gastric juice to dissolve it ; and being kept at the temperature of the stomach, which is about a hundred degrees, it begins to decompose — that is, to sour — in one, two, three, or more hours, just as new cider begins to sour in a few hours. In the process of souring, gas is generated ; as in the cider-barrel, the bung is thrown out, and some of the contents run over at the bung-hole, because in souring the contents expand, and require 558 PRECAUTIONS. more room. So with the stomach. It may be but partially filled by a meal ; but if more has been swallowed than wise nature has provided gastric juice for, it begins to sour, to fer- ment, to distend, and the man feels uncomfortably full. He wants to belch. That gives some relief. But the fermentation going on, he gets the " belly-ache " of childhood, or some other discomfort, which lasts for several hours, when nature succeeds in getting rid of the surplus, and the machinery runs smoothly again. But if these things are frequently repeated, the ma^ chinery fails to rectify itself, loses the power of readjustment, works with a clog, and the man is a miserable dyspeptic for the remainder of life ; and all from his not having had wit enough to know when he had eaten a plenty, and being foolish enough, when he had felt the ill effects of thus eating too much, to repeat the process an indefinite number of times ; and all for the trifling object of feeling good for the brief period of its passing down the throat. For each minute of that good he pays the penalty of a month of such suffering as only a dyspep- tic can appreciate. PRECAUTIONS. 1. Never sleep in a room where there is any green paper on the walls, as this color is made of arsenic or lead ; the former is by far the most dangerous, being Scheele's green, and is known positively by a drop of muriatic acid on the greea leaving it white. 2. White glazed visiting-cards contain sugar of lead, and will poison a child who is tempted to chew them from the slight sweetish taste. 3. Green glazed cards, used for concert-tickets, are still more poisonous ; a single one of them contains a grain and a half of arsenic, enough to kill a child. 4. Never put a pin in the mouth or between the teeth, for a jsingle instant, because a sudden effort to laugh or speak may convey it into the throat, or lungs, or stomach, causing death in a few minutes, or requiring the windpipe to be cut open to get it out ; if it has passed into the stomach, it may, as it lias PRECAUTIONS. 559 done, cause years of suffering, erasing only when it has made its way out of the body through the walls of the abdomen or other portion of the system. 5. It is best to have no button or string about any garment worn during the night. A long, loose night-gown is the best thing to sleep in. Many a man has facilitated an attack of apoplexy by buttoning his shirt-collar. 6. If you wake up of a cold night, and find yourself very restless, get out of bed, and standing on a piece of carpet or cloth of any kind, spend five or ten minutes in rubbing the whole body vigorously and rapidly with the hands, having previously thrown the bed clothing towards the foot of the bed 8 J as to air both bed and body. 7. If you find that you liave inadvertently eaten too much, instead of taking something to settle the stomach, thus adding to the load under which it already labors, take a continuous walk, with just enough activity to keep up a very slight moisture or perspiration on the skin, and do not stop until entirely relieved, but end your exercise in a warm room, so as to cool off very slowly. 8. Never put on a pair of new boots or shoes on a journey, especially ou a visit to the city ; rather wear your easiest, oldest pair, otherwise you will soon be painfuUy disabled. 9. A loosely-fitting boot or shoe, while travelling in winter, wiU keep the feet warmer, without any stockings at all, than a tight pair over the thickest, warmest hose. 10. Riding against a cold wind, immediately after singing or speaking in public, is suicide. 11. Many public speakers have been disabled for life by speaking under a hoarseness of voice. 12. If you happen to get wet in cold weather, keep moving on foot with a rapidity sufiicient to keep off a feeling of chilli- ness until you get into a house, and not waiting to undress, drink instantly and plentifully of hot tea of some sort ; then undress, wipe dry quickly, and put on warm, dry clothing. 13. Never go to bed with cold feet, if you want to sleep well. 14. If a person faints, place him instantly flat on a bed, or floor, or earth, on his back, and quietly let him alone at least for ten minutes ; if it is simply a fainting-fit, the blood, flowing 560 HEALTHFUL OBSERVANCES. on a level, will more speedily equalize itself throughout the system ; cold water dashed in the face, or a sitting position, are unnecessary and pernicious. 15. Never blow your nose, nor spit the product of a cough, nor throw a fruit peel, on the sidewalk. HEALTHFUL OBSERVANCES. 1. To eat when you do not feel like it, is brutal ; nay, this is a slander on the lower animals, they do not so debase thom- Belves. 2. Do not enter a sick-chamber on an empty stomach ; nor remain as a watcher or nurse until you feel almost exhausted ; nor sit between the patient and the fire ; nor in the direction of a current of air from the patient towards yourself; nor eat or drink anything after being in a sick-room until you havo rinsed your mouth thoroughly. 3. Do not sleep in any garment worn during the day. 4. Most grown persons are unable to sleep soundly and re- freshingly over seven hours in summer, and eight in winter. The attempt to force more sleep on the system by a nap in the daytime, or a " second nap " in the morning, renders the whole of the sleep disturbed and imperfect. 5. Some of the most painful " stomach-aches " are occasioned by indigestion ; this generates wind, and hence distention. It is often promptly remedied by kneading the abdomen with the ball of the hand, skin to skin, from one s.de to another, from the lower edge of the ribs downwards, because the accumulated air is forced on and outwards along the alimentary canal. 6. When you return to your house from a long walk or other exhaustive exercise, go to the fire or warm room, and do not remove a single article of clothing until you have taken a cup or more of some kind of hot drink. 7. In going into a colder atmosphere, keep the mouth closed and walk with a rapidity sufficient to keep oflf a feeling of chilliness. 8. Two pairs of thin stockings will keep the feet wamw than one pair of a greater thickness than both. SICK HEADACHE. 561 9. The " night-sweats " of disease come on towards daylight; their deathly clamminess and coldness is greatly modified by sleeping in a single, loose, long woollen shirt. 10. The man or woman who drinks a cup of strong tea or cjffee, or other stimulant, in order to aid in the better per- formance of any work or duty, public or private, is foolish, because it is to the body and brain an expenditure of what is not yet got ; it is using power in advance, and this can never be done, even once, with impunity. 11. The less a man drinks of anything in hot weather the better, for the more we drink the more we want to drink, until even ice-water palls and becomes of a metallic taste ; henco the longer you can put off drinking cold water on the morning of a hot day, the better will you feel at night. 12. Drinking largely at meals, even of cold water or simple teas, is a mere habit, and is always hurtful. No one should drink at any one meal more than a quarter of a pint of any liquid, even of cold water, for it always retards, impairs, and interferes with a healthful digestion. 13. If you sleep at all in the daytime, it will interfere with the soundness of your sleep at nigiit ; much less, if the nap be taken in the forenoon. 14. A short nap in the daytime may be necessary to some. Let it not exceed ten minutes ; to this end sleep with the fore- head resting on a chair-back or edge of the table. 15. Never swallow an atom of food while in a passion, or if ainder any great mental excitement, whether of a depressing or elevating character ; brutes won't do it. SICK HEADACHE. &ICK Headache is sickness at stomach, a tendency to vomit, combined with pain in some part of the head, generally the left side. It is caused by there being too much bile in the system, from the fact that this bile is manufactured too rapidly, or is not worked out of the system fast enough by steady, active exercise. Hence, sedentary persons, those who do not walk about a great deal, but are seated in the house nearly all 562 SICK HEADACHE. the time, are almost exclusively the victims of this distressing malady. It usually begins soon after waking up in tho morn- ing, and lasts a day or two, or more. There are many causes ; the most frequent is, derangement of the stomach by late and liearty suppers ; by eating too soon after a regular meal (five hours should, at least, intervene) ; eating without an appetite ; forcing food ; eating after one is conscious of having had enough ; eating too much of any favorite dish ; eating some- thing which the stomach cannot digest; or sour stomach. Any of these things may induce sick headache ; all of them can be avoided. Over-fatigue, or great mental emotion of any kind, or severe mental application, have brought on sick headache, of the most distressing character, in an hour ; it is caused by indulgence in spirituous liquors. When a person has sick headache, there is no appetite ; the very sight of food is hateful ; the tongue is furred ; the feet and hands are cold, and there is a feeling of universal discomfort, with an utter indisposition to do anything whatever. A glass of warm water, into which has been rapidly stirred a heaping teaspoon each of salt and kitchen mustard, by causing instantaneous vomiting, empties the stomach of the bile or undigested sour food, and a grateful relief is often experienced on the spot ; and rest^ with a few hours of sound, refreshing sleep, com- pletes the cure, especially if the principal part of the next day or two is spent in mental diversion and out-door activities, not eating an atom of food (but drinking freely of cold water or hot teas), until you feel as if a piece of plain, cold bread and butter would " taste really good." Nine times in ten the cause of sick headache is in the fact, that the stomach was not able to digest the food last introduced into it, either from its having been unsuitable, or excessive in qua-^tity. When the stomach is weak, a spoonful of the mildest, blandest food would cause an attack of sick headache, when ten times the amount might have been taken in health, not only with impu- nity, but with positive advantage. Those who are " subject to sick headache " eat too much and exercise too little, and have cold feet and constipation. A diet of cold bread and butter, and ripe fruits or berries, with moderate continuous exercise in the open air, sufficient to keep up a very gentle perspiration, would, of themselveB, PREMONITIONS. 66ii cure almost every case within thirty-six hours. Two tea- spoonfuls of pulverized charcoal, stirred in half a glass of water, and drank, generally gives instant relief. PREMONITIONS. An incalculable amount of sickness, suffering, and premature death would be avoided every year, if we could be induced to heed the warnings, the premonitions, which kindly nature gives of the coming on of the great enemy — disease. Many a mother, especially, has lost a darling child, to her life-long sorrow, by failing to observe the approach of disease, in some unusual act or circumstance connected with her offspring. 1. If an adult or child wakes up thirsty in the morning, however apparently well at the moment, or the preceding evening, there will be illness before noon always, infallibly. It is generally averted by remaining warm in bed, in a cool, well-ventilated room, eating nothing, but drinking plentifullv of some hot tea all day ; some little may be eaten in the after- noon by a child. But as long as a person wakes with thirst in the morning, there is an absence of health — there is fever. 2. If, when not habitual to him, one is waked up early in the morning by an inclination to stool, especially if there is a feeling of debility afterwards, it is the premonition of diar- rhoea, summer complaint, dysentery, or cholera. There should be perfect quietude, etc., as above ; in addition, a piece of warm, thick, woollen flannel should be wrapped tightly around the abdomen (belly) ; the drink should be boiled milk ; or far better, eat pieces of ice all the time, and thus keep the thirst perfectly subdued; eat nothing but boiled rice, corn-starch, sago, or tapioca, and continue all these until the tiredness and thirst are gone, the strength returned, and the bowels have been quiet for twelve hours, returning slowly to the usual ac- tivities and diet. 3. If a child is silent, or hangs around its mother to lay its head on her lap, or is most unusually fretful, or takes no in- terest in its former amusements, except for a fitful moment at a time, it is certainly sick, and not slightly so. Send at once 564 PREMONITIONS. for a physician, for you can't tell where or in what form the malady will break out; and in children especially, you can never tell where any particular ailment will end. 4. When there is little or no appetite for breakfast, the con- trary having been the case, the child is sick, and should be put to bed, drinking nothing but warm teas, eating not an atom until noon ; then act according to developments. 5. If a child manifests a most unusual heartiness for supper, for several nights in succession, it will certainly be sick within a week, unless controlled. 6. If there is an instantaneous sensation of sickness at the stomach during a meal, eat not a particle more ; if just before a meal, omit it ; if after a meal, go out of doors, and keep out in active exercise for several hours, and omit the next meal, for all these things indicate an excess of blood or bile, and ex- ercise should be taken to work it off, and abstinence to cut off an additional supply, until the healthful equilibrium is restored. 7. A kind of glimmer before the eyes, making reading or sewing an effort, however well you may feel, will certainly bo followed by headache or other discomfort, for there is too much blood, or it is impure ; exercise it off in the open air. and omit a meal or two. 8. If you are not called to stool at the accustomed hour (except when travelling, then let things take care of them- selves — do nothing), eat not an an atom until it is done, for loss of appetite, or nausea, or loose bowels, or biliousness, is certainly impending. Exercise freely out of doors, and drink cold water or hot teas to the fullest desired extent. 9. If there is a most unnatural indisposition to exertion, you need rest, quiet, and abstinence ; exercise in weariness never does any good, always harm. But if causelessly de- spondent, or there is a general feeling of discomfort, the blood is bad ; warm the feet, unload the bowels, eat nothing for twelve hours, and be out of doors all day. 10. If, without any known cause, or special pain, you are exceedingly restless, cannot sleep, or if you do, it is dreamy, disturbed, or distressing, you have eaten too much, or are on the verge of some illness. Take nothing next day but hot drinks and toasted bread, and a plenty of out-door exercise. i NEVRALOIA. 5G5 Id all these cases, a thorough washing with soap and hot water, and vigorous bodily friction, greatly expedite resto- ration. NEURALGIA. Neuralgia, from two Greek words, Neuros, nerve, and Algos, pain, means nerve-pain ; but as there is no pain except in connection with the nerves, every pain or ache in the body is really " neuralgia." Ailments are generally named from the part affected, or the nature of the malady. "Headache," because the pain is in the head. "Pleuritis," or pleurisy; because there is inflammation, too much arterial blood in the pleura, or covering of the lungs. Neuralgia is always caused by bad blood ; bad, because too poor or too much of it ; too poor, because there is not exercise and pure air enough to secure a good digestion, and the person is thin and pale ; too much blood, because there is too much eating, and the bowels not acting every day, more is taken into the system than passes from it, and it is too full. The person may be fleshy enough, and does not appear sick at all. For a week, live on cold bread and butter, fruits, and cold water. Take an enema of a pint or more of tepid water daily, and spend the whole of daylight in active exercise in the open air, and the neu- ralgia will be gone in three cases out of four — the feet being kept warjn, and the whole body most perfectly clean. There are two kinds of neuralgia, sharp and dull ; both caused by there being too much blood in or about the nerve. Perhaps the arterial blood gives the sharp, venous blood the dull or heavy pain. In either case, the pain is of all forms of intensity, from simple discomfort to an agony almost unendurable. In the more fleshy parts the pain is less severe, since the soft flea^ yields before the distending nerve : distended by more and more blood getting into it, until it is occasionally three times its usual size ; but when the nerve is in a tooth, or between two bones, or passes through a small hole in the bone, as in the face, or " facial neuralgia," which is neuralgia prope-r, or the Tic Douloureux of the French, the sufi*ering is fearful, Ijecause there is no room for distention, and every instant the 566 EBYSIFJiLAS. heart, by its beating, plugs more blood into tlie invisible blood vessels of the nerves. But in any such case, open a blood- vessel in the arm, or elsewhere, until the person is on the very point of fainting, and the most excruciating neuralgia is gone in an instant, because the heart ceases to send on blood, and the blood already in a part, as naturally flows out of it as water naturally flows out of an uncorked bottle on its side. Hence, a skin kept clean by judicious washings and frictions, helps, by its open pores, to unload the system of its surplus ; the bowels kept free by fruits, berries, coarse bread, and cold water, is another source of deliverance of excess. While these articles of food supply but a moderate amount of nourishment, in addition active exercise still more rapidly works ofi" the sur- plusage of the system, and the man is well ; not as soon as by the bleeding, but by a process more efibctive, more certain, more enduring, and without harm or danger. Hence, there is no form of mere neuralgia which is not safely and permanently cured in a reasonable time by strict personal cleanliness, by cooling, loosening food, as named, and by breathing a pure air in resting in our chambers at night, and in moderate labor out of doors during the hours of daylight. Those who prefer un- certain physic or stimulants to these more natural remedies are unwise, and ought to have neuralgia — a little. ERYSIPELAS. From the two Greek words, meanmg '*to draw" and " neighboring ; " from the nature of the disease to draw in or invrlve adjacent parts. The Scotch call it the "rose," from i+o color ; others, St. Anthony's fire, from its burning heat. It IS a diffused inflammation or redness of the skin of the face and head ; fever precedes the local inflammation, with sore throat as an almost invariable attendant. The premonitory symptoms are, the patient feels ill, shivery, feeble or tired, languid, and often drowsy ; sometimes there is nausea, vomit- ing, and diarrhoea. The actual attack begins with a chill ; then some part of the face, nose, one cheek, or rim of one ear, begins to feel hot, stiff", and tingling, and on close examination ERYSIPELAS. 567 is found to be of a deep, continuous red color, swollen and hard ; this redness and swelling advances gruduall}-, sometime^! rapidly, with a distinct, elevated margin as of a wave, until the whole scalp and face are involved. No disease, except the small-pox, so obliterates and deforms the features ; for the cheeks enlarge, the lips thicken enormously, and the eyes are completely closed by the swelling of the lids; the mind begins to wander, especially at night; then delirium, and in a fcAv days — death! In cases of recovery, the redness declines in three or four days, the swelling subsides, and the person gradually gets well. Erysipelas of the head and face is so generally fatal in three or four days, spreads with such rapidity, and by extending to the throat, which, by its swelling, closes [up the passage of the air to the lungs, causing instant death, [that it is important to know the distinguishing symptoms already [enumerated, and to have some means at hand by which families, lany miles distant from medical aid, may do something towards 'arresting its wave-like progress until the physician arrives. This is, of late, claimed to be done by the very simple process uf pounding raw cranberries, and covering the part affected with a poultice made of them. A more generally accessible remedy is, to paint the whole affected surface, and a little beyond, with common white paint, laying it on with a feather ; add a fresh coat every two hours, until a thick layer is ob- tained, and thereafter sufficiently often to keep the parts entirely and perfectly covered ; the object being to exclude the air, which is supposed to be the great irritant. This coat- ing of white-lead paint peels off in a week or ten days with the shed skin, and leaves the surface beneath clean, smooth, and healthy. To make assurance doubly sure, promptly un- load the bowels by an injection of a pint of lukewarm water ; eat nothing but a crust of cold bread or toasted bread broken into some warm tea, every four hours during daylight, and occupy a clean, dry, well-aired room and bed. When the phy- sician arrives, if you are not well, put the 2ase implicitly and entirely into his hands. The almost universal cause of erj'- sipelas is bad blood, arising, in nearly every instance, from constipation of the bowels ; that is, their failure to act every day. This is generally brought on by resisting the calls of nature ; by over-eating ; by neglect of exercise in the open 40 568 SKATING. air, 01 by cooling oflF too quickly after such exercise ; in such cases, the cold is apt to settle in the throat, and prove speedily fatal. If erysipelas sets in after a wound, it is because of the impure state of the blood from the same causes — the wound, in this case, being merely the excitant, the spark to the powder already there. SKATING. Skating is one of the most exhilarating of aU pastimes, whether on the ice, or over our parlor or hall floors with roller- skates. In the days of " Queen Bess," some three hundred years ago, it was a favorite amusement with the Londoners, whose facilities for the same were limited to pieces of bone attached to the shoes. As lives have been lost in connection with skating, the following suggestions are made: — 1. Avoid skates which are strapped on the feet, as they prevent the circulation, and the foot becomes frozen before the skater is aware of it, because the tight strapping benumbs the foot and deprives it of feeling. A young lady at Boston lost a foot in this way ; another in New York her life, by endeavor- ing to thaw her feet in warm water after taking off her skates. The safest kind are those which receive the fore-part of the foot in a kind of toe, and stout leather around the heel, buckling in front of the ankle only, thus keeping the heel in place without spikes or screws, and aiding greatly in support- ing the ankle. 2. It is not the object so much to skate fast, as to skate gracefully; and this is sooner and more easily learned by skating with deliberation ; while it prevents over-heating, and diminishes the chances of taking cold by cooling off too soon afterwards. 3. If the wind is blowing, a veil should be worn over the face, at least of ladies and children ; otherwise, fatal inflam- mation of the lungs, " pneumonia," may take place. 4. Do not sit down to rest a single half-minute ; nor stand still, if there is any wind ; nor stop a moment after the skates are taken off ; but walk about, so as to restore the circulation about tlie feet and toes, and to prevent being chiUed. NURSING HINTS. 569 5. It is safer to walk home than to ride ; the latter is almost certain to give a cold. 6. Never carry anything in the mouth while skating, nor any hard substance in the hand, nor throw anything on the ice ; none but a careless, reckless ignoramus would thus endanger a fellow-skater a fall. 7. If the thermometer is below thirty, and the wind is blow ing, no lady or child should be skating. 8. Always keep your eyes about you, looking ahead and up- ward, not on the ice, that you may not run against some lady, child, or learner. 9. Arrange to have an extra garment, thick and heavy, to throw over your shoulders the moment you cease skating, and then walk home, or at least half a mile, with your mouth closed, so that the lungs may not be quickly chilled by the cold air dashing upon them through the open mouth; if it passes through the nose and head, it is warmed before it gets to the lungs. 10. It would be a safe rule for no child or lady to be on skates longer than an hour at a time. 11. The grace, exercise, and healthfulness of skating on the ice can be had, without any of its dangers, by the use of skates, with rollers attached, on common floors ; better if covered with oil-cloth. JNURSING HINTS. To the nurse is intrusted a holy human life, and to tail of duty by inattention or ignorance, is cruelly criminal. 1. The nurse should not eat, drink, or sleep in a sick-room. 2. Nor fast longer than five hours, whether a day or night watcher. 3. Always go into the room for day or night duty, with a full meal. 4. A strong body and a wide-awake mind are equally essen- tial to a capable and efficient nurse ; hence, seven hours of consecutive sleep out of each twenty-four is a necessity. 5. Do not sit between the bed and the fire, or on the other wide of the patient from an open door or window. 570 NUBSING HINTS. 6. Clean your teeth, dress your hair, and wash your whole body well with soap and water after watching, so that you may sleep in clean linen: in no garment worn during your watching. 7. Wear as few Avoollen or dark clothes as possible ; they hide dirt and harbor noxious exhalations. 8. Never speak in a whisper or undertone in the sick-room, unless the patient is asleep ; it engenders suspicions. 9. Avoid all discomposure, flurry, and noise, especially sudden, harsh, or discordant ; and wear no creaking shoes or rustling garments. 10. Maintain at all times a countenance which is at one© composed, self-possessed, cheerful, hopeful, kindly, confident, and sympathetic, else you are utterly unfit for the place. 11. As far as possible, anticipate every want, without at the same time being officious. Avoid all unnecessary question- ings, and do not be forever fixing things about the bed. 12. Keep scrupulously out of sight everything in the shape of druggery, such as bottles, vials, spoons, pill-boxes, etc. 13. Do not allow any liquid thing to remain in the room one single moment longer than it is in use, not even a glass of ice- water. 14. Have no hanging garments in the sick-chamber, and as little woollen carpeting and bed-coverings as possible, and no bed or window-curtains. 15. Keep the room in perfect order, and arrange things with an eye to taste, neatness and cheerfulness. 16. If visitors are admitted, ask them to leave the room the moment conversation flags. No patient can possibly desire to be gaped at in silence. 17. Never allow a frown, or an angry word, or an impatient expression of countenance, whatever may be the provocation. However '* cross" the patient is, it is your business to be propitiative. 18. Guard against draughts of air and damp bedclothes or garments. 19. Always have the fireplace open, and a window or door, as nearly opposite as porsible, a little raised and lowered, or ajar. If there is no fire, have a lamp or candle bui-umg in the fireplace, to create a draught up the chimney. INVERTED TOE-NAIL. 671 20. Let the room be as clean and as sunshiny as possible. 21. If fire is needed in the chamber, a thermometer should hang about five feet from the floor, opposite the fireplace, and should range about sixty degrees. 22. Let all kinds of impressive intelligence be communi- cated gradually, and as unimpressibly as possible. 23. Sleep is the best agency of recovery in all nature ; hence never wake a sleeping patient, but promote sleep in all possible ways. 24. Do all you can to inspire confidence in the physician ; never make a suggestion to him in the presence of the patient, and be faithful to his instructions. INVERTED TOE-NAIL. Inverted toe-nail is excruciatingly painful, and has re- peatedly destroyed life by mortification or lockjaw. The nail does not grow into the flesh, but the flesh, being irritated by a tight shoe, inflames and swells, crowding itself up against the sharp and unyielding edge of the nail, until it ulcerates, when the slightest touch is agonizing. 1. The old remedy was to drag out the entire nail with pincers ; but even this was not always successful, terrible as it was. 2. Cut a notch in the nail down to the quick, along the centre of the arch, from the root outward, or scrape it with a glass ; this breaks the arch, and the pressure at the sides tcntls to close it up, and thus relieves, because the Lail changes its curvature, and the outer edges turn up, instead of down. 3. Take equal quantities of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) and common alum, burnt ; reduce them to a fine powder, mix- ing them together most thoroughly; then sift it through muslin ; next, wash the parts well with Castile soap-suds ; iind apply the powder; repeat this four times every twenty- four hours. 4. Scrape the whole nail moderately with a piece of glass, 60 as to diminish its thickness considerably ; then rub it all over well with a piece of solid nitrate of silver, moistened 572 INVERTED TOE-NAIL. with a little water ; then apply a hot poultice of linseed-meal, to remain until next morning, when the whole nail will be loosened, and may be removed without any pain ; if not en- tirely loosened, make another but milder application of the caustic. D. Scrape the toe-nail to the quick with a piece of glass, from the root outward, as near as possible to the ailing edge ; then with a pair of pincers, catch hold of the edge of the nail far- thest from the sore spot, and gently draw the nail away from it towards the centre, and repeat daily. 6. Freeze the parts ; scrape the nail longitudinally to the qui ck, the eighth of an inch from the ailing edge ; then with tweezers draw out the offending part ; this is done without pain. 7. Spread an ointment of per-chloride of iron on some lint, and lay it over the excrescence ; renew it twice daily, and in four days the excrescence becomes dry, is easily detached, and ill a week all is well. 8. When there is " proud flesh," or ulceration, drop two or three drops of melted tallow between the nail and the granu- lations. One application usually gives immediate relief, by the hot tallow insinuating itself in every interstice under the nail, acting as a liquid cautery, the parts drying up in a few days. 9. The editor's plan is simply to insinuate, with a bodkin or silver teaspoon-handle, a small amount of lint or cotton between the edge of the nail and flesh, in the gentlest manner, and let it remain there until next day, when more is to be insinuated, and so on, until, by the absorption caused by the pressure, the swelling or proud flesh entirely disappears. If this is done when attention is first directed unpleasantly to the toe, it gets well in a day or two. If neglected until there is great pain and swelling, or ulceration, it is better to go to bed and keep the toe poulticed with bread and milk or linseed-flour, put on hot and renewed every four hours ; then scrape the nail to tlio quick at the centre, from the root outward, and proceed aa above. Remember that it is best, in trimming both finger and toe-nails, not to trim down to the corners, but let the nail grow out rather more square, not rounding off at the angle. It will hasten the cure, if the cotton, after being put in, is mois tened with liquid nitrate of silver, forty grains to the ounce. PEYSIOLOOICAL APHOEISMS. 673 PHYSIOLOGICAL APHORISMS. 1. The foundation of three fourths of all cases of consump lion is laid before the age of twenty-five years ; in women, during their teens. 2. The hereditary element is not of special account as a (jause of consumption, as less than twenty-five per cent, of cases are clearly of consumptive parentage. 3. One of the ruling causes of disease and premature death, in large cities, is found in that exhausting strain of the mental energies in the struggle for subsistence — a death-race for bread. 4. Insanity runs in families ; but, as in the case of family likeness, it sometimes overleaps a generation or more. 5. Personal resemblance entails like characteristics of mind and disposition. 6. A current of the purest air from the poles, for half an hour, on a person sleeping, sitting still, or overheated, is a thousand fold more destructive of health and fatal to life than the noisomeness of a crowded room or vehicle, or the stench of a pig-sty for thrice the time. 7. To exercise in weariness, increased by every step, is not only not beneficial, it is useless and worse than useless ; it is positively destructive. 8. As no good traveller, after having fed his horse, renews his journey in a trot, but with a slow walk, gradually increas- ing his pace, so in getting up to address an assembly for a continued effort, the first few sentences should be uttered in a low, slow tone, gradually intensified, otherwise the voice will break down in a very few minutes, with coughing or hoarse- ness. 9. A growing inability to sleep in sickness is ominous of a faita' result ; in apparent health, it indicates the failure of the mind and madness ; so, on the other hand, in disease or de- mentia, a very slight improvement in the sleeping should be hailed as the harbinger of restoration. 10. No one can possibly sink if the head is thrust entirely under water ; and in this position a novice can swim as easily 574 URINATION. as walk, and get to shore readily by lifting the head at intervals for breath. 11. Intense thirst is satiated by wading in water, or by keeping the clothing saturated with water, even if it is taken from the sea. 12. Water cannot satisfy the thirst which attends cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea, and some other forms of disease ; in fact, drinking cold water seems to increase the thirst, and induce other disagreeable sensations ; but this thirst will be perfectly and pleasantly subdued by eating a comparatively small amount of ice, swalloAving it in as large pieces as practicable, and as much as is wanted. 13. Inflammations are more safely and far more agreeably subdued by the application of warm water than of cold. 14. Very excessive efibrt in a short space of time, as in running, or jumping a rope, etc., has repeatedly caused instant death, by apoplexy of the lungs, the exercise sending the blood there faster than it can be forwarded to the heart, and faster than it can be purified by the more infrequent breathing on such occasions. 15. No disease ever comes without a cause or without a warning ; hence endeavor to think back for the cause, with a view to avoid it in future, and on the instant of any unpleasant bodily sensation, cease eating absolutely until it has entirely disappeared, at least for twenty-four hours ; if still remaining, consult a physician. 16. The more clothes a man wears ; the more bed-covering ne uses ; the closer he keeps his chamber, whether warm or cold ; the more he confines himself to the house ; the more nu- merous and warm his night-garments, — the more readily will he take cold, under all circumstances, as the more a thriftless youth is helped, the less able does he become to help himself. URINATION. Carefully conducted and reliable experiments show, that when the thermometer is at seventy, and the air is fine, dry, and clear, a healthy adult will pass something less than three URINATION. 575 pints of urine in twenty-four hours ; but he will pass six pints if the day is raw and wnndy, the atmosphere saturated with dampness, and is several degrees cooler. On the other hand, it is found, that on a beautiful, clear day, six pints of fluid are passed from the skin and lungs, and but four pints on a damp, raw day. That is, on fair days, thirty- eight per cent, of the fluids passed from the system is *n th46 MILK SICKNESS. must be a delightful resort for consumptives, at least during the hot summer months, which make such large draughts upon the strength of all invalids. MILK SICKNESS. Milk Sickness, called by some the Trembles, is a disease prevalent in some parts of the west and south-west, and many have died with it. It is caused by drinking the milk of a diseased cow ; a more fatal form of it arises from the use of butter or cheese, made from such milk, or from eating the flesh of any animal fattened with the milk, while the cow her- self, or the animal fattened with her milk, does not necessa- rily manifest symptoms of disease. One of the first questions of many seeking homes in the far west is, Has milk sickness ever been known here ? Some of the finest lands in the world are without a market, because the disease is in the neighbor- hood. Soon after swallowing the milk, the person has thirst, nau- sea, swimming in the head, vomiting, fever, skin hot, eyeballs blood-shot, excessive debility, paralysis, oppression, stupor, hickup, and death. In some cases, the heart beats with such violence as to strike the bystanders with horror, and even alarms the physician who has never witnessed it before. The legislature of one State at least, and perhaps of several others, has off"ered large rewards for the discovery of the thing which caused the cow to give such a deadly aliment. Kentucky offered a thousand dollars, but it has never been awarded, because various theories have been presented with- out a satisfactory quality of facts. A recent visit to the west, and the usual reports of this one an 1 that having died of milk sickness, coupled with the fact of my connection with a health journal, induce me to make a statement which I have never seen in print, and which I trust will do much good, if the newspaper press should give publi- cation to the fact, and the farmers of the west would make a practical use of it. I will not take time here to meet objec- tions to the statement I am going to make ; the object is not argument, but a plain statement cf what I consider a fact, i MILK SICKNESS. 647 vvliicli subsequent observation will establish in all time to come. Well-fed cows never give milk sickness. I Lave revelled in the use of the most luscious milk, and the most delightlul fresh butter, for weeks together, in perfect fearlessness of milk sickness, when several persons had just died of it on the next farm. The reason was, the cows were fed, night and morning, in winter, with as much corn and meal as they want- ed, and had sweet hay to eat during the day, and plenty of it ; wnile in the summer they had fresh pasture, and still some- thing to eat of the slops of the kitchen at milking times ; and knowing they would get something good, they never failed to come of their own accord : they thus literally " rolled in fat," summer and winter. Some persons have attributed it to one vegetable, or weed, or grass ; others to drinking from a certain spring, each local- ity having a different plant ; these diiferences of opinion, to- gether with the conceded fact, that it is not known on a well- cultivated farm, are proofs, in my mind, of the truthfulness of the opinion which I have suggested. Most persons who go far out west are poor, and soon become improvident. Very many study their ease, and how they can best remove the necessities of locomotion. To save chopping wood, for example, they take time by the forelock, and cut the bark off the tree for the space of a foot all around ; the tree dies, and sooner or later, having become dry, the wind blows it down, and the limbs break into innumerable pieces, which are only to be picked up and put on the fire, cut and dried to hand. The same improvident carelessness leads many to turn their cows, like their pigs, into the woods, to gather their own food, scarcely ever giving them a " nubbin " at milking : the result is, the cattle will eat closer than they otherwise would, espe- cially in the fall of the year, when the grass is drying up, and the weeds have been wilted by frosts, and being eaten down^ or nibbed close to the ground, the roots many times give way, to which are attached sand and dirt ; and I give it as my opin- ion, that this sand and dirt, taken into a system debilitated by scant feeding, causes the secretion of a milk which it is death to use. But whether it is the sand which attaches itself to Uie root of a close-nibbed shrub, or weed, or grass, is not of 648 INFLUENCES. the most practical importance ; the two great facts already named, that a well-fed cow has never been known by me to give diseased milk ; and second, the general admission that milk sickness is not known on a well-cultivated plantation, — for he who cultivates his land well, will always feed his cattle well ; these two great facts are sufficiently instructive, and warrant the following advice : — Feed your cows well, and you will never be troubled with milk sickness. And when travelling in newly settled parts of the western country, or even through old settlements, never stop at a house where you see a poor cow at the door. INFLUENCES. For weal or woe, influences are falling around our children, especially in large cities, every hour of their existence, and how wide awake should every parental heart be to the direc- tion of the character of those influences ! A short time since, one of our daily papers, in noticing the death of an individual, says, " He was a man of undoubted talent, and had he fallen under proper influences might have achieved a reputation and secured a fortune ; as it was, he died at forty-two, without character or morals, a drunkard, an outcast, and a forger." What were some of the malign influences which shaped this man's course for infamy, who otherwise might have been a credit to the nation and an honor to his kind ? The love of dress, the love of drink, and the love of the drama. Foppery, brandy, and the theatre, were his ruin, as they have been the ruin of countless multitudes before. And what were some of the proper influences which the notice above intimates would have worked out a different destiny ? The influence of a home made happy, in childhood, by parental unity and piety, by sisterly purity and afi'ection, and by such a remembrance of the Sabbath day, as secures it to be spent in the sanctua ries of religion. WASHING TEE FACE AND BANDS. C4? WASHING THE FAQE AND HANDS. Washing the foce and hands is performed by millions everv day, and yet perhaps not a dozen in a million will do it right. The common practice is to take a basin of cold water, catch up a double handful of water, dash it into the face and rub it vigorously, thus rubbing all the matters of the soiled hands which have accumulated during the night, into the skin of tho face. It is a great luxury to wash the hands thoroughly and well with soap and warm water, among the very last things on going to bed at night. The cleanliest person will often find that a tea-cupful of warm water will be soiled by the opera- tion, and the same will again occur the first thing in the morning, since, in addition to adventitious causes, there is, during sleep, an exudation of an oily substance through the pores of the skin, and to this floating dust of the rooms, furni- ture, and clothing will adhere. It is one of the inestimable blessings of city life, that both warm and cold water are at hand at all hours, day and night. Take a tea-cupful of warm water, not more, and with soap make a lather, with which wash the hands thoroughly, not forgetting under the ends of the finger nails, and dabble in the water until every particle of accumulation is removed. This is better than to use a brush, because the hard bristles will irritate and harden the tender skin under the ends of the finger ni.f.!s. Scraping out the dust with a penknife is an inexcusable vio- lence ; and an indecency, too, when done in company. Next rinse the hands in an abundance of water, until all the soap is thoroughly removed. The face may then be washed in anoth- er supply of water, warm or cool, according to the taste of the individual. Warm water is better, as it dissolves more readi- ly any accumulations about the eyes or ears ; and then, with an instantaneous rinsing of the face in cold water, the work is done ; and then your hands and face are clean enough to pat the face and kiss the cheek of the one you love best, as a morning salutation. 650 FABMEBS' HOUSES. FARMEKS' HOUSES. "Where to build, and what shall be the plan of the house are questions which have to be decided ever}'- year by thou sands and thousands of enterprising farmers all over the coun try — either young men just married, who are about "opening* a farm in the boundless west, or by men more advanced in life, who, having done well, have decided to treat themselves and their faithful wives to a new and better house than the one in which they have lived and striven so long and so well together. In either case it is of the first consequence, and is necessarily the first step to be taken, after having decided to build, to fix upon an answer to the question, — WHERE SHALL I BUILD? Upon the wise decision of this important inquiry depends, to a greater or less extent, the health, the consequent happi- ness, and eventual success in life of every young farmer. It has been the experience of tens of thousands who began life hopefully, .and who went to Avork with willing and brave hearts to "clear" a farm, and make it a home for life for themselves and families, that they did well until sickness came, under which their strength and energy wilted away like a flower without water : they fell behindhand, lost their energy, ran in debt, and, finally, settled down in the poor ambition of only meeting their expenses from month to month, their idea of o^ettinut if not at nil injurious, the idea must be abhorrent to every feeling of purity of taking such a substance into our bodies, and incor- porating it into the very blood which is at the next instant to be dashed to the lips and tongue for food and nutriment. In the winter of 18G0, a man named Robertson, his wife, and three children, were in the habit of sleeping iu one small, ill-ventilated room. One morning, about five o'clock, the wife woke in a very exhausted state, and found her infant of nine months dead in her arms. She immediately aroused her husband, who had barely strength to get out of bed. They next discovered that their son of three years of age was also dead, and a daughter of nine iu an apparently dying condi tion, but recovered on being removed to another apartment. Facts like these show that breathing a bad air for a single night is perilous to life, and ought to have an impressive effect on the mind of every man who has a family when he is contemplating building or arranging for them a home for life. Every chamber, then, should be arranged to have a venti- lating process going on all the time, when it can be done by having an open fireplace in it ; and as there can be no advan- tage, but a positive injury, resulting from sleeping in any room colder than forty degrees above zero of Fahrenheit, a little fire should be kept bm-ning in the grate or fireplace un- der such circumstances. This creates a draught up the chim- ney, and keeps the atmosphere of a sleeping-room compara- tively pure. In cases of sickness, where an actual fire can- not be kept, an admirable substitute will be found in placing a large lamp in the firejDlace, to be kept burning all night. This creates a draught without ma-lsing much heat, and is a ffood means of ventilatinsr a sick chamber when warmth is not desirable; such, for example, as in measles, scarlet fever, and other skin diseases, where a cool air, and at the same time a pure one, is an indispensable means of a safe and speedy cure. But let it always be borne in mind that cold air is not necessarily pure, nor is warm air necessarily impure. AVith a little fire in a cold bed-rcom not only is the cham- ber kept ventilated, but fewer bed-clothes are needed ; less 672 FARMERS' HOUSES. clothing docs more good next day, while there is a freei escape of gases and exhalations from the body of the sleeper, and the person wakes up in the morning more fresh and vigorous. Chambers should not only be constructed with a view to a constant, thorough, and unpreventable ventilation, but also with an eye to their perfect dryness, and their free exposure to the sun for the greater portion of each day. Florence Nightingale, whose beautiful name and more beau- tiful character, which will go down to posterity with that of John Howard and Dorothea Dix, and others of nature's no- bilit}^, writes, after long years of experience with the sick and suffering, " A dark house is always an unhealthy house, always an ill-aired house, always a dirty house. Want of light stops growth and promotes scrofula, rickets, &c., among children. People lose their health in a dark house, and if they get ill, they cannot get well again in it. Three out of many negligences and ignorances in managing the health of houses generally I will here mention as specimens. First, that the female head in charge of any building does not think it necessary to visit every hole and corner of it every day. How can she expect that those under her will be more care- ful to maintain her house in a healthy condition than she who is in charge of it? Second, that it is not considered essen- tial to air, to sun, and clean rooms while uninhabited, which is simply ignoring the first elementary notion of sanitary things, and laying the ground for all kinds of diseases. Third, that one window is considered enough to air a room. Don't imagine that if you who are in charge don't look after all these things yourself, those under you will be more careful than you are. It appears as if the part of the mistress was to complain of her servants and accept their excuses, not to show them how there need be neither complaints nor ex- cuses made." In reference to the same subject, and in confirmation of what has been already stated in this article, Dr. Moore, the metaphysician, thus speaks of the efiect of light on body and mind : " A tadpole confined in darkness would never become a frog, and an infant being deprived of Heaven's free light, will only grow into a shapeless idiot, instead of a beautiful FARMERS' HOUSES. 673 and responsible being. Hence, in the deep, dark gorges and ravines of the Swiss valleys, where the direct sunshine never reaches, the hideous prevalence of idiocy startles the travel- ler. It is a strange, melancholy idiocy ; many citizens arc incapable of any articulate speech ; some are deaf, some are blind, some labor under all these privations, and are mis yhapen in almost every part of the body." I believe there is in all places a marked difference in the healthiness of houses, according to their aspect with regard to the sun ; and those are decidedly the healthiest, other things being equal, in which all the rooms are, during some part of the day, full}'- exposed to the direct light. Epidemics attack inhabitants on the shady side of the street, and totally exempt those on the other side ; and even in epidemics, such as ague, the morbid influence is often thus partial in its labors. SMOKY CHIIVINEYS. This household calamity can easily be prevented, and al- ways in building new houses ; thus, let the throat of the chim- ney be so constructed that immediately inside of it the space shall be abruptly increased several inches in length and breadth. Let it increase upward for two or three feet, and then be gradually drawn in to the dimensions necessary, and let the whole inside of the chimnej' be plastered with cement, which will harden with time. A very convenient method of ventilating a room already liuilt is, to arrange that one of the panes of glass in the upper sash shall move on a pivot at the centre of each side, so that i( can be turned, the upper end outward, the lower end in- ward, or vice versa ; or, to prevent breakage, a thin board painted white, or a piece of tin or zinc, may be made to re- place the glass. A similar arrangement in new houses will have its conveniences. But in every room this device should be near the ceiling, above the fireplace. For ordinary rooms the orifice should be a foot long and five or ten inches broad, arranged so that a, cord shall open or close it, without the necessity of getting on a chair or step-ladder. There should be a door opposite every fireplace. This diminishes the chances of having a smoky chimney, for in fire-time of year the cold air will be always entering the room at the crevices G74 FARMERS' HOUSES. of the door, and in the direction of the fireplace, and upward through the chimney. The draught of a chimney may be in- creased by the simple expedient of cutting out a small part of the floor with a saw, so that it may be easily replaced after the fire is kindled. No chimney will draw well if there is any wall or other thing near which is higher than the chim- ney itself. In building a house in the country it will save expense and trouble, besides preparing the way for a great deal of comfort on emergencies, to have a neat opening left for a stove-pipo near the ceiling in every room in the house, so that, in case of excessive cold weather, a common stove for burning wood (or coal) may be put up, and thus have the facilities of mak- ing at least each room in the house comfortably warm during any spell of bitter cold weather, and warmed, too, at a com- paratively small expense ; for let it be remembered that with a common fireplace or grate more than one half the heat goes up the chimney, and is an utter waste. The longer a stove- pipe the more heat is saved in a room ; hence the advantage of having the arrangement for receiving the stove-pipe near the ceiling. Many persons, for the sake of appearance, or a mistaken notion of economy as to the cost of pipe, have the pipe adjusted so as to open into the fireplace, by which a very large amount of heat is lost. Much has been said of the injurious efiects of a dry stove air, and to obviate this it has been recommended that a vessel of water be kept standing on the stove. If this is left to be attended to by the servants it is far better to have nothing of the kind, because, unless the pan is of white stone-ware, and is emptied, washed, and filled with pure fresh water every three or four hours, it collects dust, dirt, gases, and emana- tions, which, by being kept warm, generate a most pernicious malaria, which is much more .ikely to produce disease than a simple dry air. It should be jemembered that a room is very little ventilated, and even that very sloAvly, by simply open- ing a folding door. Many persons ignorantly, and to their own injury, rely upon this method of ventilation when they sleep in the same room in which a fire has been kept all day ; and for this reason, also, every chamber should have a venti- lation arranged in the original construction of the house. FARMERS' HOUSES. r75 The coolest part of a room in warm wcatlicr for slccpiirr i? ihe floor; but, by the operation of the same law of nat jre. that cool air is heavy and falls to the surface. The hetilthicst [lart of a chamber in very cold wcLther is the hiirher. A sleeping person consumes two hogsheads of air an hour that is, deprives it of all its oxj^gen, and reiDlaces it with carbi/r/'c acid gas, which is a negative poison, leaving it so destitute oi any life-giving property that the person breath- ing it will die in a short time. This is the operation goins; on in a close room where charcoal is burning in an open vessel. The ox3gen is consumed in burning the coal, and its place is supplied by carbonic acid. Cold condenses this carbonic acid, makes it heavy, and causes it to settle on the floor. It has been so condensed by cold as to be made visible in the shape of a snow-white sub- stance, just as the invisible, warm, moist air, by the applica- tion of cold, is reduced to mist, to dew, to rain-drops, and to solid hailstones. There are some localities in Italy and elsewhere, into which if a man and his dog come, the dog will die in a minute or two, while his master will remain uninjured. There was car- bonic acid there. It was concentrated, condensed, nir.de heavy, and settled on the surface, where the dog breathed 't ; but the man's nostrils being four or five feet higher tool in none of it. From these facts, two practical lessons of very great importance to human health and life are cliawn. First. There is more need of ventilating a chamber in winter than in summer. Second. There is no advantage, as to health, in sleeping in a very cold room — cold enough to have ice formed in it during the night. Thousands of persons, who have gone to bed in perfect health at night have waked up next morning with pneumonia, — that is, inflammation of the lungs, — and have died in a few days, because the room was too cold for them, to say nothing of the debilitating effect of breathing an atmosphere more or less loaded with carbonic acid gas, which deprived the system of its ability to resist the ap- jn'oach of disease. Had the room been well ventilated, the attack would have been less severe, or there might have been none at all, l^ccause the breathing of a pure air would have 67») FARMERS' HOUSES. given power to ward off any ordinary attack of sickness. Ileuce they are the most conclusive reasons for building houses, or remodelling them, so as to have the utmost facil- ities for ventilation. Keally every chamber should have two systems of ventila- tion — internal and external ; so that either may be em- l)loyed, according to the season of the year, and the health tuid vigor or peculiarity of the sleepers. The internal venti- lation — that is, openings above the fireplaces — for feeble persons, or for very cold weather, or in the autumn ; the ex- ternal — that is, through the windows frcm all out-doors — for the vigorous, and in moderate weather. To some persons in any latitude, and to aL in some sec- tions of the country, it is certain suffering to sleep with an open window, especially in August and September ; and by understanding the reason of this fully, the necessity may be removed from some families of selling out, or of building elsewhere. Before changing a residence on account of its being un- healthful, it should first be noticed whether it is connected with any special season of the year, with any special part of the house, or any particular habit of the persons who are attacked ; in other words, does the sickness appear during the autumnal months ? Does it appear among that part of the family sleeping on the same side of the house, — on the northern side for example, — keeping the rooms always more or less damp, or in that part of the building nearest to some pond, or marsh, or sluggish stream, or whether, of several persons sleeping on the same side, only those are attacked who sleep with their windows open ? As a general rule, young children, invalids, infirm and old people, should have their chambers during the night venti- lated from within, and so should all families living in bottoms «)n low lands, near ponds, sluggish streams, marshes, or re- cently cleared lands, especially during the autumnal months, or where there is more or less chill and fever, fever and ague, etc. The reason for this is, that from these localities miasm constantly rises, and comes through the open windows upon the sleeper, who breathes it into his lungs, corrupting and poisoning his whole blood in a night. FARMEBS' HOUSES. 677 Many cases are given in standard medical publications, where persons sleeping in certain parts of a building suddenly became ill, although they formerly had good health, and had occupied the same chambers, and had slept with open win- dows all the time. But a change of dwelling, or a determi- nation to build elsewhere, should not be hastily made by the farmer, for some standing water may have been drawn off recently for a mere temporary purpose, — the repairing of a mill-dam for example, — and when reflooded, so as to cover the wet, muddy bottom several feet in water, the sickness will immediately disappear ; or a belt of timber between tlie dwelling and some standing miasm-producing water may have been cut down ; if so, a substitute should be provided by planting a thick hedge of sunflowers, or other rapidly grow- insf and luxuriant veofetation. The lower floor of every country house should be on the same level, for every step upward taken by domestics and women in the family, is not only a useless expenditure of strength (and a large portion of it, too, when it is consid- ered how many times a day the cook, and housemaid, and the wives and daughters, who do the household work, must go in and out, and pass and repass from one room to another) , but it is physiologically a great strain upon those internal organs which are peculiar to the sex ; and when too much of it is done, diseases are every day induced which are to embitter the whole after-existence. It is very easy to wink the eye, — an inappreciable efibrt, — but if a man attempts to do it a hundred times in succession, its repetition becomes a painful efibrt. It is very easy to step up a step or two, but the strongest will pant and blow if a hundred have to be gone up as briskly as an ordinary cook steps about. It may be said that the objection does not apply because only one step is taken at a time ; but it must be remembered that those who do housework almost always have something in hand — a bucket of water, a pile of plates, an armful of wood, a scuttle of coal, etc., — and these must be raised that one step, besides the body of the person, altogether weighing between one and two hundred pounds. A certain amount of strength is expended in this unnecessary effort, and however small it is, each repetition of it is that much taken from the 678 FARMERS' HOUSES. store of strength with which the person arose in the morning. A purse containing a hundred dollars is as much depleted bji taking out a dollar at a time until fifty are withdrawn, as if the whole fifty were extracted at once. The kitchen should, as far as practicable, be central to the whole house, having the dining-room on one side, the wood- house, and the place for meats, milk, and vegetables on anoth- er, unless these are all kept in the cellar, located as previ- ously advised. If, however, the dairy is an important item about the farm, that is, if it is intended as a source of income, it should be arranged by all moans to be on the side of a hill or rising groind, if possible, over a spring, otherwise in such a way that a natural stream should flow through it, or that the surplus water of the well, or spring, or cistern should do so : but by all means let the dairy be approached from the kitchen by a raised gravel walk, with a view to have it as dry as possible at all seasons, for this walk must be passed over many times a day, and if not dry it dampens the feet, and thus endangers the health. WATER CONVENIENCES. If water is not supplied by artificial means, so as to come into the kitchen by pipes and a faucet, it should be arranged to have the well, or cistern, or spring deliver its supply in an Apartment immediately adjoining the kitchen, on the same level, and without going outside of the house. It cannot be truthfully denied that multitudes of women lose health and life itself every year by having to step out from the dry, warm floor of the kitchen upon the cold stones and wet path out- side, going to the spring, wood-yard, and smoke-house. And, with the experiences and harrowing narrations which daily come to physicians from this direction, that farmer is crimi- nally remiss, who, in building a new house or reconstructing an old one, does not arrange to have a dry and level floor for those who do the cooking, washing, and general house- woik of the family, so as to make dairy, cellar, wood-house, water-closets, and smoke-house easily accessible by a dry pathway. FARMERS' HOUSES. 679 PRIVIES AND WATER-CLOSETS. The location of these in connection with a family residence has an important bearing on the health of any family, or a g-rcater influence on the destiny of many than would be sup- posed by other than a medical practitioner, from the operation of a single law of the animal economy in connection with a fact to be afterwards stated, which no observant person can truthfully deny. It is of the very first importance that the water-closet should be always and instantly and easily acces- sible, as in proportion as this is not the case, the calls of na- ture are postponed. This never can be done with impunity, for nature never does anything in vain nor out of time. But it is singular to observe how she never allows herself, as it were, to be trifled with ; if her call is not heeded, it is less and less urgent ; her appeals to the nerves of sensation are less and less strong, until the}^ cease to be felt ; the inclina- tion passes oflT, and it may be hours before she has recovered strength to call again, but with this unvarying result: the next day the call is made later, and later, and later, until after a while it. is omitted for a whole day, and before the person is aware of it, it is found that the bowels are consti- pated — that several days pass without an evacuation, and with this certain uncomfortable feelings are observed, entirely n^.w to the person in question ; they are simply symptoms, the indications that disease is setting up in the system, such as headache, cold feet, bad taste in the mouth on getting up in the morning, an irregular appetite, qualmishness, an ab- sence of accustomed vivacity ; and in due time there is actual disease, in the shape of sick headache, sour stomach, piles, wasting diarrhoea, catarrh , " the least thing in the world gives me a cold," dyspepsia, with all its horrors, or a general de- cline of the whole system. Every observant physician knows that more than half of all ordinary diseases have their foun- dations laid in a constipated condition of the bowels ; that is, a failure in them to act every day with almost the regularity of the rising of the sun ; and he further knows that the be- ginning of this irregularity was brought about by deferring the calls of nature until company was gone, until the chapter was finished, until the newspaper was looked over, until some 680 FARMERS' HOUSES. work in hand was completed, or until the "coast was clear." It is in this as in thousands of other cases that the greatest of calamities arises sometimes from almost inappreciable causes ; and in all human record there is not a stronger exem- plification of it than in the case in hand. There are thou- sands and tens of thousands of intelligent and observant persons in mature life, and still later on in years, who would cheerfully give a large portion of what they possess if they could have a natural, regular action of the bowels every day without any artificial aid, and who can and do look back in vain remorse to the times when there was a proper and health- ful regularity, and to the occasions and manner of their first breaking into it, simply for the want of a little personal en ergy, a little self-denial, a small modicum of force of will, which would resolutely, and even impatiently, clear out of its path those trifling, those cobweb obstacles, which were in the way of our physical duty, as it were. But it is not alway? that nature allows persons to escape with a moderate, or pro- tracted, or slow punishment. There are multitudes of cases recorded where, from motives of false delicacy, as riding in public vehicles, waiting for others, or for daybreak to come, or from sheer laziness, the power to pass water has been taken away, acute inflammation has set in, and death has followed in two or three days. It is well worth while, then, to say all that has been said, if by it a single family should, in the erec- tion of a new house, or in the remodelling of an old one, be led to make a wise and practical use of the facts which have been presented, in having a privy constructed with two or three apartments, appropriated to the difi'erent classes of the family, so that one may never need have to wait on another for a single instant, and also that approaches may be made with as much privacy as practicable, and by a path protected from the weather, to be used when inclement, and by another to be used in good weather, and still as distant from the house as can be conveniently arranged ; for example, to be ap- proached through the wood-house or perhaps through the garden. The deposits should be made in a water-tight plank box, placed on the surface of the earth, on runners or wheels, to be removed and emptied once a week, and buried in a com- post heap. The faeces of one individual will fertilize an acre FARMERS' BOUSES. 681 of ground every year to an extent greater than any ordinary compost. In addition, for the seven warmer months of the year, lime or fresh ashes of wood should be scattci-cd around the receptacle every fortnight, while a gallon or two of the following solution should be thrown into the receptacle itself every Aveek or two : one pound of copperas, known as sul- phate of iron, costing but a few cents, dissolved in four gal- lons of water, will most completely destroy all offensive odors, whether in sinks, privies, or cellars. The warmer the weather the oftener must the application be repeated. Sprinkling the copperas itself is advantageous, and, if in cellars, is one of the best means of keeping rats away. One of the most sensible thoughts in this connection, anc* one which would scarcely occur to any other than one of the members of the Society of Friends, so remarkable for their thoughtfulness and happy talent of having about them all the conveniences and appliances which so much add to the com- forts and enjoyments of domestic life, was in having a privy connected with his barn, for the convenience of his gentlemen friends who visit him in the summer at his delisrhtful mansion on'the banks of the Hudson. This is one of the earliest pieces of information 2;iven to those cominir for the first time. To this they can repair at any hour with a feeling of perfect privacy. PIAZZAS. There can be no good reason why a piazza, from eight to twelve feet broad, should not extend the whole front or end and part of the rear of every fiirra-house ; and, considering the personal advantages of such an arrangement, and the air of coolness, and beauty, and liveliness which they present in summer, it must be put down as a great oversight in that they are not more common than they are. It cannot be denied that they contribute greatly to the coolness of the lower rooms in warm weather, and afford facilities for play to the children in inclement or muddy weather, and for exercise to grown persons, which are of inestimable value in promoting health. It would surprise most persons greatly to know how many girls in the country have fixed diseases grafted in them before they leave their teens ; this is most strikingly the case with the daughters of farmers who are "well off" and actually 682 FARMERS' HOUSES. rich. This comes about largely from the fact that they have not the iuducements of exercise half equal to similar classes m large towns and cities. They, perhaps, sweep a room, or dust the parlors, or make up a bed or two in the morning ; and that is about all the exercise they take on foot during the day, except when they have visitors ; the remainder of the time they sit and sew, or read, or loll about, not altogether because they do not want to exercise themselves, but because there are not tJae facilities of doing so in the way most agree able tc them. Few farmers have a spare horse suitable for a girl to ride, and if they did, she must have some one to ride with her; that requires a second horse, and the brother or father must accompany her. These circumstances narrop/ down the chances of horseback exercise, exclusive of church- going days, to about a dozen or two hours in a year to eleven farmers' daughters in a dozen. And however inclined to walk, it is impracticable in winter, because they must step from the door-sill into mud, or slush, or snow. In summer it is too hot in the middle of the day ; in the morning the grass is bedewed ; and so in the evening, unless it is early, say just before sundown, when it is not altogether safe to be out of sight of the house. All these are deemed satisfactory excuses for neglect of a plain duty. If there were commo- dious piazzas, there would be admirable facilities for walking at all seasons, and every day for games, rope-jumping, plays, and promenades of every description ; and by reducing it to a system, an amount of exercise in the open air could be taken every day, the value of which upon the physical health, the mental power, and general vivacity, cannot be readily estimated. In building a new house, or remodelling an old one, the upper rooms, the chambers especially, when practicable, should be so arranged that the sun should shine into them as much as possible to give the light, and dryness, and cheer- fulness which so much contribute to the healthfulness of a chamber, and the lively, cheerful temper of those who occu- py them. All farm-houses should be arranged, as far as pos- sible, so that the rooms which are most generally occupied should have most of the sun during the day. It is too often the case that the parlor, the company room, is the largest, FARMERS' HOUSES. 683 lightest, and best room in the building ; this parlor is barri- caded with curtains, window shutters, and closed doors, ex- cept when there is company, which will, perhaps, average not a dozen half days in the year; the remainder of thp time all its sweetness is •' Wasted in the desert air." By all means let the best room in the house be enjoyed every day by the members of the family ; give the room which is largest and lightest to your own wife and children all the time, instead of saving it for other people for a dozen hours in the year. Besides, such a room, almost always closed up. is a positive injury to every person who enters it ; for in win- ter it has a pernicious closeness about it, while in summer there is a mustiness and dampness, often a chilliness, present, which makes it feel almost sepulchral the moment it is entered. HOUSE-WALLS. Wall-papers, like carpets, are the inventions of laziness and lilth ; they conceal dirt and noisomeness of every description. The milk-white floors and white-plastered walls of olden time have almost entirely disappeared, to the great detriment of family purity and personal health. It is greatly to be regret- ted that this is the case to the extent that it is. White-plas- tered walls can be kept clean for a number of years ; the lime in them has the eifect to purify them. Next to this the painted wall, covered well with a suitable varnish ; for it can be readily washed without injury, and is easily kept free of dust. In cases where walls must be papered, if for the first time, there are two important precautions : use no paper which has a green color, especially a fuzzy green, which is composed of arsenic, and is capable of causing convulsions and fata disease in a single night. Children have been taken extremely ill after playing a few hours in a small room cov- ered with paper which had considerable green-colored pat- terns on it. Care should be taken that the paste should be fresh, and put on equally and thin, and that any holes in the $vall should be filled up with plaster. A tidy room in a cer- tain dwelling was appropriated to lodgers. It was noticed, after a time, that as certainly as a person slept in that rouui 684 FARMERS' HOUSE a. a single night, severe sickness next day was the result. TJie authorities ordered an investigation, when it was found th:it a depression in the wall had been filled up by one of the workmen by gathering up a bucketful of pieces of paper and some remnants of paste to make them adhere. After a time decomposition began to take place, giving out emanations of the most poisonous character; and for this reason, if any wall of plaster or of wooden partition is to be papered or le- papered, it should be thoroughly cleaned first, then made fsmooth ; every particle of old paper should be removed. The way in which the smallest amount of money can be made to go farthest on a farm, morally and pecuniarily, is by investing it in lime and white lead. Filth, dirt, darkness, and untidiness always and inevitably degrade those who dwell among them. Cleanliness purifies and elevates. If whitewash is used, it should be applied every year to what- ever is exposed to Avind and weather; that which is, perhaps, the cheapest, most durable, and most generally available, is made thus : one ounce of white vitriol, — that is, sulphate of zinc, — and three ounces of common salt to every four poujidf-. of fresh lime, which is lime not fallen into any powder from exposure to the atmosphere, with water enough to make it sufficiently thin to be applied with a brush ; this makes a durable out-door whitewash. When white paint is used, two precautions are necessary : first, obtain a good article of white lead from a dealer whom you know to be honest. There is, perhaps, not one pound of pure white lead in a million that is sold for pure white lead, as there is a substance called barytes, which can be purchased by the ton for, perhaps, less than a cent a pound, which, when mixed with white lead, cannot be distinguished until some time after it is spread, when it becomes dark. When it is remembered that white load sells for ten times as much per pound, the temptation to adulterate is too strong for tlie honest}' of any white lead manufacturer known to the writer. The proportion of this adulteration is from ten to ninety per cent. Zinc paint is used especially for inside work, and makes a beautiful glossy white finish ; second, the preservative power of white paint depends, in considerable measure, on the time of year. If in hot weather, the water of the oil evaporates so quickly that FARMERS' HOUSES. 685 the paint itself is not carried into the wood, and remains as a powder on the surface, and can l)e wiped otF with the fingers. If in the inclement weather of winter, it is apt to l)c washed ofl" by the rains before it has sufficiently dried. The autumn is l)est, when the ground is not likely to be dusty, and whcp the weather is long enough dry to allow the paint to get thoroughly dry itself, Out-door wood-work should be paint- ed once in every three years, if white, but colorel paints last much longer; nor is white the most desirable color for a farm-house in all situations, and if done as just proposed, it not only preserves the building far beyond the cost of its ap- plication, but it gives an air of thrift, and life, and beauty, of which almost every reader has had personal experience. And in case of wishing to sell a farm thus kept painted and white- washed, as to its fences and buildings, a better price can always be had, and from a better and more elevated class of purchasers. ICE-HOUSES. are beginning to be considered indispensable appendages to a farmer's house, and, indeed, to every man who owns his premises. They are not a necessity, and where there is a good spring, or never-failing well, they can be dispensed with, especially as they do not contribute to the general health of any family, unless the use of ice is wisely controlled. The free use of ice-water tends to the decay of teeth prema- turely, is liable to produce dangerous inflammations of the stomach, and certainly is the immediate cause of dyspeptic diseases in multitudes of cases where it is freely indulged in at the regular meals of the day. At the same time, as many will prefer building ice-houses, it is proper here to give some directions in reference to the subject. That ice keeps better ordinarily above ground than below, and that ventilation is necessary in order to its Avell-keeping, are two indisputable facts. The more compact the ice is, the longer will it keep ; hence plans have been devised of letting a otream of water run slowly into the ice-house after it has been filled, so that all the crevices may be filled up ; or, where a running stream is available, some persons have arranged to let the water in a foot deep during very cold weather ; when this has frozen solid, let in a few inches moie, 086 FARMERS' BOUSES, until the house is entirely filled ; or it can be done with Icsa trouble and attention, if during very severe weather the water is conveyed into the ice-house during the night, by or from a running stream, in a very fine spray, freezing as it falls. There should be a double roof; the under part of the rafters should be boarded closely, and between that and the shingles a space of eight or ten inches or more should be filled up with saw-dust, spent tan-bark, or other porous substances. There should be a space between the straw on the surface of the ice and the roof for purpose of ventilation, to prevent the air from becoming damp and close, with a wooden chim- ney of eight or ten inches square piercing the roof; or a slid- ing panel in the door would answer ; the ventilation must not be a current of air. If the eaves of the roof extend a foot or two over the sides, a greater protection is ufibrded again&t rain and the rays of the sun. The roof of an ice-house should be steep. Great care should be taken against leakages of this as well as of all other farm buildings. A cement may be applied with a trowel or case-knife to all leaks in roofs, or about chimneys, &c., made thus: Take pure white lead and mix it with boiled oil until it is of the thickness of thin paint, add to this common sand until of the thickness of common mortar; there is, perhaps, nothing better than this. A space twelve feet in the clear in every direction will hold enough ice for a large family. Ice-houses should be located, as a general rule, on the north side of a hill, if built under ground, so that the ice can be approached on a level with the ground on which it is built. On many farms such a location is impracticable, and the only alternative is to build one on the surface, w^hich is now, on the whole, considered the most approved way. The general construction should be a wooden frame building, with another outside of it, with a space intervening of from fifteen to thirty inches, which should be filled in with coal-cinders, tan- bark, or, which is better than either, pulverized charcoal. Tt would be better if the inner building were made of solid timbers close together, and about three inches thick ; the outer one, or the shell, may be a common frame, neatly weather-boarded, and kept well painted with white lead, so as to repel the heat of the sun. It will add to the con- FARMEBS' HOUSES. 687 venience of an ice-house if the bottom, or at least a part of it, is arched, so as to form a place for a larder under this arch, or the drainings of the ice should be made to pass through the dairy or spring-house. The following extract, from Moore's Rural New Yorker, shows how a farmer may build an ice-house cheaply. This has been built ten 3'cars, and is perfectly sound except the inside boarding, which requires renewing once in five or six years: "The size is eight by ten outside, six feet high. 1 took two-inch plank, twelve inches wide, for sills and plate?, halved together at the corners. I used studs on the inside, and boarded up and down outside. The cracks should bo covered with battens, to prevent the air striking the ice. The inside should be boarded the other way, to wnthin a foot or so of the plates, which should be left until the space is filled. The rafters should be five or six-inch stufi", boarded on the inside, and the space filled with either sawdust or refuse tan-bark. I place poles or scantling in the bottom, and cover with slabs, which will afford all the drainage neces- sary. The door should always be on the north side. The cracks in the north gable-end should be left open for the pur- pose of ventilation. I consider sawdust the best to fill the sides with, but tan-bark, turner's shavings, chafl^, or straw will do. The size of this house may be objected to by some, but mine holds enough for a large family, and also a dairy of twenty cows. I don't believe any dairyman who has had ice to use one year would be without it for ten times the cost. "One thing more about the house : It should be tanked up at the bottom, for any circulation of air through the ice will melt it as fast as water poured through it." Many farms have small streams of water running through them. In such cases the locality for an ice-house should be selected with reference to the convenience of damming this stream near it, before Christmas, in such a way that a lake ol a hundred feet or more in diameter, and about tw^o feet deep, may be formed, and properly protected from cattle and all nuisances. This body of water would yield enough ice foi a large farm, and by its shallowness would be more certain to yield a crop of ice, because a less degree of cold would be required to freeze it solidly than in a deeper stream, 01 S88 FARMERS' HOUSES. one which Wcis ninnuig, even with a sluggish current. One freezing over would yield thirty or forty one-horse loads of this summer luxury. While the lavish use of ice and ice- water cannot but be prejudicial to the health of any family, common ice is one of the most valuable of remedial means in case of sickness in various forms. To a person burning up with internal fevers ice is a comfort beyond expression. Swallowing ice freely in small lumps is the chief treatment in inflammation of the stomach. The constant application of ice pounded fine and enveloping the head with it by means of a cushion or other contrivance, is the most reliable remedy for that dangerous malady, in- flammation of the brain, which so often sends its victim to the grave in a few days, or to that living death, the mad-house. In all inflammations, whether internal or external, ice diminishes rapidly the size of the blood-vessels, and thus i"e- licves the pain they give when thus swollen by their pressing against the nerves, which are always in the neighborhood of the arteries of the system. Diptheria, and some of the w^orst of other forms of sore (hroat, have been arrested in a very short time by pounding ;• piece of ice in a bag, then laying the head back, take the lamps of ice and swallovv'ing them continuously until relieved, allowing them to be detained in the throat as long as possi- l)le, there to melt. In all forms of diarrhoea and dysentery, where there js /Treat thirst, the gratification of which by drinking any liquid increases the malady, they are promptly controlled, and in many cases perfectly cured, by simply swallowing as large lumps of ice as possible. Epilepsy itself, one of the most uncontrollable of human maladies, is said to be treated successfully in London by the a[)plication of ice to the spinal portion of the system. A piece of ice laid on the wrist will often arrest profuse .ind dangerous bleeding of the nose. In croup, water as cold as ice can make it, if applied freely and persistently to the throat, neck, and upper part of the chest with a sponge or cloth, often aff'ords an almost mirac- rlous relief, especially if followed by drinking copiously of io'j water, wiping the wetted parts perfectly dry, then Avra[»- FARMERS' HOUSES. 6«J* ping the child closely up in dry flannels, allowing it to full into a delightful and life-giving slumber. These statements may induce the farmer to be at pains, if he does conclude to build an ice-house, to have it done in the most thorough manner, and after the most approved pattern SHADE TREES. It looks Avell in the midst of summer to see a tidy farm- house almost hidden from view by trees and bushes ; but the influence they have in keeping a dwelling damp in summer, and in producing a raw and chilly atmosphere in winter, thus engendering disease the year round, are sufficient reasons for exercising a w4se discretion in this direction. Persons who have visited England have often admired the country places of the gentry, one very uniform attendant being a beautiful green lawn in front of the buildings, not a single bush or Iree, unless it may be in a diagonal direction from the front corners of the buildings, forward and away. It would sub- serve the purposes of health, especially in level, or low^, or damp localities, to have neither tree nor bush within twenty or thirty feet of the front of the farm-house, unless it be a flowering plant here and there, or some stately and ancient denizen of the forest, to give an air of antiquity and substan- tialness to the surroundings ; but even these should not be so near as to keep the roof of the building always more or less damp, nor to darken the best and most frequented rooms of the house ; for the first, the most indispensable requisite in building or remodelling a farm-house should be to arrange for its healthfulness. BAENS. These should be erected in as dry a locality as possible, where the sun can shine upon them the w^hole day, and where the ground descends in every direction. Special attention should be paid to the roofing, so that the rain may be turned off" rapidly, and that the snow may melt very soon, without the possibility of large accumulations. THE STABLE. should be arranged to be above ground, to be well ventilated, and to have abundant light ; in short, to be cool in summer 48 690 FABMERS' BOUSES. and warm in winter. He can never be a successful farmer who does not shelter his cattle effectually and well, in all seasons, from the inclemencies of the weather. It is not only a humanity, but a great pecuniary saving on every farm where there is a single living animal. Some build stables low for warmth, but the advantage is more than lost by the vitiation of the atmosphere. A warm, bad air is worse than the cooler and still atmosphere of a stable. The ceiling of a stable should be at least ten feet high, with an aperture for the es- cape of foul air ; the walls or partitions should be close, and arranged to have abundant light admitted through glass win- dows. In summer the sash may be removed. The American Agriculturist for December, 1863, givefi a description of a stable for draught and farm horses, which con- tains the most important points on this subject, though, per- haps, not practicable for farms generally. " The stable should not be less than eighteen feet wide, and of such length as will allow six feet standing for each horse. It should be ten feet high. The horses stand in a single row. and the harness is hung on pegs in the wall behind them. This width admits of thorough ventilation to the stable with- out subjecting the horses to draughts. Each standing should be parted off by an upright post reaching from the ground tu the ceiling rafter, placed three feet from the wall at the horse'b head. The partitions should be closely boarded up three feet above the manger and hay-crib, to prevent the horses quarrel ling about the food, and biting each other. To each of the posts a bale, eight feet long and twenty inches wide, should be hung by a strong chain to divide the standings, and sus- pended by another strong chain at the hinder end from the ceiling rafter. Each chain should have a hook and eye within reach, that may be readily unfastened. This arrangement will leave a space of six feet opposite the head of each horse available for feeding purposes. The manger for corn and chaff (cut feed) may be two and a half feet long. It should be two feet wide at the top, one foot two inches at the bot- tom. The hay and straw, which should be cut into six-inch lengths, will require a larger receptacle, which should be three feet six inches long, two feet wide at its upper part, and half that width below. It should be so constructed that while ii FARMERS' HOUSES. 691 is even with the manger above, it should reach to the ground, two feet above which should be fixed to the wall a bottom, sloping to one foot above the ground in front, where some upright openings should be cut to allow the escape of seedf; and dirt. At the top of this hay and straw-crib, an iron rack, with bars six inches apart, should be so hung as to open uji and fall back against the wall to let the fodder be put in, and then be put down upon it for the horse to eat through. It should be so much smaller than the opening that it can fall down with the fodder as it is consumed, by which means not a particle is wasted. The manger may be constructed of yellow deal, one and a half inches thick for the front, back, and ends ; the bottom of slate, three quarters of an inch thick. The top of the front and ends should be covered with half round iron, two and a half inches wide, screwed on to pro- ject over the front, a quarter of an inch outside and three quarters of an inch inside the manger. This prevents the food being tossed out and the manger being gnawed. A short post must be put up as near the centre of the standing as po>- sible to support the manger, into which a large screw ring must be put to let the chain or rope of the headstall pass freely up and down without constant friction. The manger may be three and a half feet from ground to top ; the hay- crib of course the same height. The paving of the standings to three and a half feet from the head should be flat, then with a fall from both sides to the centre, where an angle iron drain of four inches wide from end to end, with a removable flat iron cover fitted to the inside of it, should be placed straight down the standing, with a fall into another larger cross main drain, ten feet six inches from the head, so placed as to carry away the urine from all the smaller drains into a tank outside the stable. This main drain so placed takes the urine from the mares, and has a loose cover also fitted to it, easily removed for sweeping out when necessary, perhaps once a week. This system keeps the stable healthy, econ- omizes the urine and the straw also, the latter very impor- tant where it can be sold, or consumed as food. The width of eighteen feet for the stable gives room for narrow corn- bins three feet high, so that each carter may have his horse'e corn separate." 692 MIND AND CHARCOAL. Ill the above, paving has been alluded to for standings, but n hard, dry, dirt floor i& greatly better than stone or plank. A nice, smooth, hard, and dry floor may be secured with small stones packed like a macadamized road, the interstices being filled up with good cement, or with the dust made by breaking up limestone rock. This will make a floor which water cannot penetrate nor horseshoe disturb. The cheap- est and best bedding, at least near mills, for such a floor, or for any other if kept dry, is sawdust, which should be laid in abundantly when dry, in the fall of the year. It may be added that a good farmer and a generous man, ha"\'ing arranged his house for the comfort, health, and happi- ness of his family, and the elevation of the tastes of his neigh- borhood, will not rest satisfied as long as the noble horse, the useful cow, and the patient ox and mule are without comfortable quarters, warm in winter, cool in summer, and all the year round abundantly fed and kindly treated, extend- ing these with a right good will to pigs and poultry too. MIND AND CHAECOAL. The diamond, the, most valuable thing in nature, so spar- kling, so beautiful and bright, whose lustre does not pale a particle in the lapse of ages, is but another condition of car- bon, or charcoal, which you cannot touch without soiling your fingers ; beautifully shadowing to us that greater change which shall come over the frail tenement of man, when it shall be raised a spiritual body, fit for the heavenly mansions, and destined to a beatific existence M'hen time shall be no more. But the human mind cannot act without the agency of carbon, and by this same agency do the trees grow, and the flowera bloom, and the connectio/i between these is called "The Cor- relation of Mental and Physical Force ; " which phrase we were afraid to put at the head of this article, lest the reader should be frightened by its apparent abstruseness, and skip it over ; for all like the kind of reading best which requires the least thinking; the newspapers, civil, religious, and mongrel, have found this out, and load their columns with all sorts of I MIND AND CHARCOAL. 693 impossible fabrications, as weak as water, and as witiliy-washy as cold soup ; but publishers know that " there is money in it," the thoughtless public arc pleased, and do^vu we arc go- ing, at railroad' speed, ad infernum. Carbon represents heat; vegetation grows by absorbing carbon ; and the hotter the climate the faster does vegetation grow. At the poles there is no carbon, and there is no vege- tation. When a tree is growing, it absorbs as much carbon as it will give out, when it is cut down and burned ; if a pound of carbon, or wood, is burned and applied to water, so as to make steam, that steam, if economized, will raise a man to the top of Mount Washington. But if a man wants to go to the top of Mount Washington, he can raise himself up there by the force of his will, acting on his teet; but in order to do this, the brain must act upon the muscles of the body, and to do that carbon must be supplied to it ; this carbon is obtained from the food we eat ; and unless we eat food which contains carbon, we will soon die, as the body gets cold ; in a sense, freezes. Thus Ave see that carbon, acting on water, will raise a man sky-high ; this is called physical force ; car- bon feeding the brain enables a man to will himself to the same altitude, and away he goes, as fast as his legs will carry him ; this is the result of mental force ; and now the reader sees the connection between physical and mental force, that they accomplish the same result, and by the use of the same agency, heat, obtained from carbon or charcoal. That is to say, the vital force of the body and of the vegetable is gen- erated by carbon. It would be useless to bother the reader with this long rigmarole, unless we could derive from it some practical lesson, by which we can be made better or happier. The largest specimens of vegetation and animals grew in the earlier ages , in parts where the atmosphere was a furnace ; and as the crust of the earth cools, both grow more slowly, and the time for dying comes before they reach as great a stature as of old ; and so it must be with man, the more car- bon he absorbs, the more food he can eat and appropriate healthfully to the bodily uses, the larger or stronger will he be, according to whether the greater amount of carbon is ab- sorbed by the brain or muscles ; it is the stomach which is to prepare the food for the elimination of the carbon contained 694 MIND AND CHARCOAL. in it ; this process is called digestion ; hence, the more per- fect, the more vigorous, the more healthful a man's digestion is, the more vigorous will he be in mind or body, if not both ; so whatever we do to weaken, to disease the stomach, we do that much towards impairing mind and body ; towards de- praving the race ; degrading it towards the mere animal aud the idiot. If we eat just enough, both mind and body aro invigorated ; if we eat too little, both become weak and faint ; the body trembles, the mind is inefficient; if we eat too much, the stomach cannot eliminate the material which is 1o give out a pure carbon, and it then gives out an impure ar pHes of lime for the teeth and bones from the bread we eat ; but observe, the bran, the outer covering of corn and wheat, is separated from the flour and meal, and thrown away ; but fine flour contains only thirty-five parts of elements of bone out of five hundred, while bran contains one hundred and twenty- five parts of the element of bone out of every five hundred. If, then, you want strong-boned and perfect-toothed children, feed them on bread made from the whole product of the grain, from the time they begin to eat bread, — beginning, too, with the mother, to make assurance doubly sure, a year before they are born. Many dentists inculcate two most mischievous errors. Threads should never be drawn between the teeth. A per- maneut tooth ought never to be extracted to make room for others. Nature knows what she is about ; every tooth is needed to develop the jaw, and that is of more importance than regularity. Soft brushes only should be used for the teeth, and no wash except soap-suds twice a week, and every night and morning the following: Dissolve two ounces of borax in three pints of boiling water ; then add a teaspoonful of spirits of camphor; keep it well bottled. A table-spoonful in as much warm water at a time. Or dip a brush in water and rub it on the teeth until the accumulation of saliva is sufficient. This makes the softest, safest, and most cleansing tooth-wash known. 51 liiS CHILDISH BAD HABIT a. CHILDISH BAD HABITS. Some time ago a child died under such circumstances that Hie physician made an examination after death, and found that the stomach was ulcerated in various places, and that at each ulcerated spot there was a bit of finger-nail stuck into the membranes. The symptoms attendant on the pernicious habit of girls at school, particularly of biting off the finger-nails, are great paleoess of the face, and occasional bleeding at the nose. When once a child gets into this habit, it is almost im- possible to break it up by verbal admonitions, or even by pun- ishment ; the very fact of its being forbidden, seems to impel to the act of biting the nails and swallowing the particles, when they are alone or unobserved. A very efficient method of breakmg up the habit is to compel the wearing of a woollen mitten. Sometimes young children get into the way of sucking a finger or thumb, apparently as an amusement, or as a means of getting to sleep : it is not known that any special ill results follow this, except that it may cause a deformity of the part, by preventing natural and healthful growth; but a coarse wool- len mitten will very certainly break up the practice. Infants carried mainly on the left arm of the nurse, very soon get to use the left hand. Whether from this or any other cause, the the child is getting to be left-handed, a large woollen mitten, tied to the wrist, so that it cannot be easily removed, wil' break up the habit in a short time. Some children are peculiarly wayward and perverse, aaA fall into bad habits imperceptibly ; and when once formed, they seem to take satisfaction in keeping them up, especially if the parents remark upon them, in the presence of others, a8 a singularity. Children, as well as grown persons of no great strength of mind, will do more to keep up the character of singularity, if it is remarked upon, however undesirable or unseemly it may be, than they would to break it up. There seems to be a something in us all, more or less, which impels us to invite attention to ourselves, even though it be by affectr ing disagreeable singularities. Many a child is confirmed in stuttering by unwise comments on it on the part of the parents. TYPHOID. 739 When a child is observed to be falling into any bad habit or practice, it is the best plan to devise some method of breaking it up without calling the attention to it, by so arranging mat- ters that the habit cannot be indulged in without inconven- ience or discomfort, such as requiring the mittens to be worn in the cases above named. Children will always be more tractable, and will be much more easily withdrawn from undesirable ways, if parents would only take the simple precaution of never speaking of thf* fault in the presence of a third person. TYPHOID. iP you knock a man down, he may rise up again, but after two or three such knockings he loses the power of rising. In ordinary fevers the system has a recuperative power, espe- cially when the weight of the malady has been removed by suitable medicine ; but when that recuperative power is lost, the system will not rise to health, although medicine has done all that was expected from it, and the patient dies. This ina- bility may exist in all forms of disease. " Typhoid " means " like typhus," and typhus itself means " stupor " — a kind of sleep or death. There is a growing tendency in all diseases to take on the typhoid type, which simply means that the con- stitutions of the people are growing weaker and weaker, less and less capable of resisting the onsets of disease ; hence, a less amount of sickness kills now than formerlv ; and added to this, physicians of every grade have observed that their patients can't bear as large doses of medicine as heretofore, and the tendency is to give less, and at longer intervals, and wait and see what nature will do. The practical use to be made by the reader of these facts, is to habituate himself to a greater watchfulness against the causes of all disease, and to a greater care of himself when he is sick ; and this care should be observed in three main directions : — 1. In recovering from any form of disease, keep abundantly and comfortably warm. 2. Studiously avoid taking cold. 3. Watch against over-exercise for several days or weekp 740 SALT OF TEE EARTH. 4. Eat very moderately, and at regular intervals, of plain, nourishing food. If these four things are observed, relapses would be rare, and the patient would be saved : the most difficult of the four is to avoid eating too much ; there is special danger of yield- ing to a craving for some particular kind of food. We knew an estimable lady who was happily recovering from an attack of typhoid fever, but she had such a strong desire for a sweet potato that it was allowed her ; in less than an hour the symptoms became unfavorable, and she died the next day. The sleepiness or stupor of typhoid arises from the fact that the brain, and thence the whole nervous system, is oppressed by the disease ; is weighed down ; can't act ; — goes to sleep, and dies 1 SALT OF THE EARTH. Without religion, this planet would not contain one solitary human inhabitant in all the ages. The salt of the sea pre- serves it from corruption and unbearable noisomeness; it is the salt in the human body which prevents physical decay. It is the moral salt, the preservative influences of the Chris- tian religion, which upholds social existence, which sustains all civilized governments, and prevents the extinction of na- tionalities ; and this, too, is the preservative influence in the individual, which saves him from bestiality, and crime, and degradation ; any man without it becomes a savage. It is this which throws around woman the halo of her holiness, and her purity, and her social exaltation ; hence it is that the enemies of religion are the vipers of society; they poison, and corrupt, and destroy all social influences for good, and wherever they habitate together, crime and beastliness, in their most degrad- ing, disgusting, and most horrid forms, reign rampant; society has no guarantees, decency is outraged, law has no power, and virtue is extinct. These are not the vagaries of an excited imagination, for not only has the Divine Master declared of his followers, " Ye are the salt of the earth," but actual facts multiply in these later ages, demonstrating the truth of the principle ; one may be stated as a sample of multitudes of others. SALT OF THE EARTH. 741 Some years ago a town was founded by a set of German infidels ; one article of the organization was, that no house of religious worship should ever be erected on the spot. A few- years later, a terrible calamity befell the place, and as if the curse of Heaven attached itself to the ill-fated town, a more recent incident has occurred which will shock humanity wherever it is narrated. Three strangers stopped at the public house in the village, within a year ; it was towards evening, and they expected to resume their journey the next morning. Without any adequate cause, they were set upon and beaten in the most savage manner. One of them, not being quite dead, yet in a dying condition, was taken up and hung. These statements are made from memory. The judicial record brings up the history to this date, ten months after the occurrence, in the language of an intelligent gentleman on the spot: — " Well might the judge remark, when commenting upon the conduct of the jury, that he had anticipated the strength of these influences in New Ulm, and to avoid them as far as possible, had removed the court forty miles from there, but that it was evident it had not been removed far enough to get beyond their reach. That w4ien three men had lost their lives by violence, on the same day, in the same village ; that when there were one hundred and fifty witnesses to the killing of two of them, and they (the Grand Jury) had had a selection from the whole number, and as many as they could hear the testimony of in six days, and could yet return, upon their oaths, that no ofi'ence had been committed, or if any offence, that there was not evidence before them as to who were the guilty parties, presented a mournful and unprecedented state of things ; although the jury would never, by their action, convince either court or people that no offence had been com- mitted, or that there was no evidence to charge anybody with its commission." And but for the controlling influences of the principles of the Christian religion, our whole country, with all its wealth, and grandeur, and intellect, would become, in a short time, the same Pandemonium. 742 MABBIAGE MAXIMS. MARRIAGE MAXIMS. A GOOD wife is the greatest earthly blessing. A man is what his wife makes him. It is the mother who moulds the character and destiny of the child. Make marriage a matter of moral judgment. Marry in your own religion. Marry into a different blood and temperament from your own. Marry into a family which you have long known. Never talk at one another, either alone or in company. Never both manifest anger at once. Never speak loud to one another, unless the house is on fire. Never reflect on a past action, which was done with a good motive, and with the best judgment at the time. Let each one strive to yield oftenest to the wishes of the other. Let self-abnegation be the daily aim and effort of each. The very nearest approach to domestic felicity on earth is in the mutual cultivation of an absolute unselfishness. Never find fault unless it is perfectly certain that a fault has been committed; and even then prelude it with a kiss, and lovingly. Never taunt with a past mistake. Neglect the whole world beside, rather than one another. Never allow a request to be repeated. " I forgot " is never an acceptable excuse. Never make a remark at the expense of the other ; it is » meanness. Never part for a day without loving words to think of dur- ing absence ; besides, you may not meet again in life. They who marry for physical characteristics will fail of happiness ; they who marry for traits of mind and heart will never fail of perennial springs of domestic enjoyment. They are safest who marry from the stand-point of senti- ment rather than from that of feeling, passion, or mere love. The beautiful in heart is a million times of more avail in securing domestic enjoyment, than the beautiful in person or manners. RECOGNITION HEREAFTER. 743 Do not herald the sacrifices you make to each other's tastes, habits, or preferences. Let all your mutual accommodations be spontaneous, whole- souled, and free as air. A hesitating, tardy, or grum yielding to the wishes of the other, always grates upon a loving heart, like Milton's " gates c n rusty hinges turning." Whether present or absent, alone or in company, speak up foi' one another, cordially, earnestly, lovingly. If one is angry, let the other part the lips only to give a kiss. Never deceive, for the heart once misled can never wholly trust again. Consult one another in all that comes within the experience, and observation, and sphere of the other. . Give your warmest sympathies for each other's trials. Never question the integrity, truthfulness, or religiousness of one another. Encourage one another in all the depres^ing circumstances under which you may be placed. By all that can actuate a good citizen, by all that can melt the heart of pity, by all that can move a parent's bosom, by every claim of a common humanity, see to it that at least one party shall possess strong, robust, vigorous health of body and brain ; else let it be a marriage of spirit with spirit ; that only, and no farther. RECOGNITION HEREAFTER. "Whatever sentiment of the mind is universal may well be considered as an inherent quality inseparable from it — a part of it and created with it ; hence, of Divine origin : else, why should Divinity, who is the very embodiment of benevolence, incorporate with every soul brought into existence, as a part of it, a false sentiment, or belief, or instinct ? All nations of all ages believe in an hereafter, and there is an hereafter. All nations of all ages believe in a future state of rewards and punishments, and there is a future state of re- wards and punishments. 744 RECOGNITION HEREAFTER. All nations of all ages have a sense of remorse for the per- petration of what is considered as a wrong : hence there is a conscience, which bears testimony against wrong doing, as wrong. All nations of all ages have consoled themselves in the death of dear ones, that they shall know them lovingly, when they meet in the future world ; hence we may infer that there is a blessed recognition hereafter of all the good ; else, how can the Beneficent One allow the creatures of His power, the work of His nands, the children of His love, to universally feed on hopes that can never be realized ; to take comfort in anticipations which can have no existence ? Will He, who is the personification of "love" itself, thus mock the crushing grief of those whom' he made in His own image? How can it be? . " I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me," said King David, when he would comfort himself for the death of his darling child. Such a speech would be the merest nonsense, if, when David went to him in heaven, he would not recog- nize him from any other angel-children there. Certainly we shall not know less in heaven than we do here. One of the greatest delights in any society or company is the personal knowledge of those who are present. Well may we suppose that next to the thrill of bliss which shall sweep across the soul at the first sight of the blessed Saviour in paradise, will be the joy unutterable of finding the loved ones of earth there, safe ; forever safe — and happy too ! *' Friends, e'en in heaven, one happiness would miss, Should they not know each other when in bliss." Memory cannot die ; otherwise the soul would lose its iden- tity ; because our experiences are a part of ourselves. And it cannot be supposed that the terrestrial experiences of the soul shall become a blank in heaven — shall be forever blotted out ; for surely it will heighten the bliss of immortality to compare the dangers, and toils, and sins of earth, with the safety, and rest, and holiness of heaven ! Paul said to the Hebrew church, the converted Jews, that angels were the "ministering spirits," waiters, guards, care- takers of God's people in this world — their helpers towards heaven ; and certainly they will continue to know us when we POISONOUS MOULDS. 745 get there ; and will it not heighten the gladness of the meet- ing, that we shall intuitively know them as our friendly at- tendants in the world Ave have left far below? just as Peter, James, and John, in the Mount of Transfiguration, intuitively knew, without an introduction, that it was Moses and Elias who talked with the Saviour ? The " rich man " in Tophet recognized Lazarus, and knew Abraham, intuitively ; for as soon as he saw him he spoke to him, calling his name. If there be no recognition hereafter, whence the universal desire, and hope, and longing to be buried with the departed — an idea so touchingly presented by Mrs. Sigourney of a dv ing child ? — " One only wish she uttered, While life was ebbing fast : * Sleep by my side, dear mother, And rise with me at last.' " And these things being so, let us cherish the thought, when remorseless death crushes our fondest hopes, that we shall meet the good again, not only as a means of inciting us to live more like them, but as a means of joyousness of spirit, to give a new sparkle to the life-blood, as it courses through the veins, carrying with it an energy and healthfulness which shall vital- ize the body, and give it a new lease of existence. POISONOUS MOULDS. Moulded bread, meat, cheese, or any other eataoie, is an actual poison, whether inhaled or eaten. One kind of mould causes the fatal ship-fever. The mould in damp cellars causes various grades of typhoid fever, diarrhoea, dysentery, &c. Re- cent chemical researches and microscopic observations seem to show that miasm is nothing more or less than a mould, and that this mould is, in reality, a cloud of living things, each too small to be seen by the naked eye, and are drawn into the lungs, swallowed with the saliva, incorporated with the food eaten, and by being absorbed into the blood are sufficient to cause all grades of deadly fevers. Elevated or dry localities ar*^ wholly exempt. 746 WAKEFULNESS. WAKEFULNESS. Some persons cannot go to sleep for hours after going to bed ; others wake up in the night, and toss and tumble until near morning, when they fall asleep from a kind of exhaustion, and do not wake up until the sun is high in the sky ; such habits can be broken up, nine times out of ten, in a week, by the exercise of a little force of character ; if the individual does not possess that, he is of no earthly account, and tho next time he goes to sleep he had better stay there. In nearly every case the discomfort of habitually restless nights arises from the person being so unfortunate as having noth- ing to do, or at least doing nothing, and endeavoring to force more sleep on Nature than she wants ; and she never will be forced with impunity to do anything : she is as stubborn as a mule, or a pig in a poke. The sedentary require less sleep Ihan the active, those who live in-doors less than those who ire out in the glorious open air. Women require more sleep ihan men, other things being equal, the nervous system being more active. Few persons after fifty can sleep longer than seven hours, unless they are hard out-door workers ; healthy children under ten ought to have ten hours for sleep ; school girls, from twelve to eighteen, ought to sleep at least nine hours. But from various causes there is a great difierence in the amount of sleep required by difierent persons ; hence each should observe for himself how much sleep he requires, and arrange to give nature that much every night ; if unusual exertions are made any day, sleep longer the night following. If kept up several hours later than usual, on chance occasions, arrange not to be disturbed in any way next morning, and wLon nature wakes up, get up, and do not sleep any during the day, but go to bed at the regular hour, and the increased soundness of sleep for that night will make up for the loss. If you cannot go to sleep when you first go to bed, give orders to be waked up at daylight; get up promptly; do not sleep a wink during the day ; go to bed at your regular time, with directions to be waked up as before ; in a week you will find that you can go to sleep promptly; but then be careful to get up as soon as you wake in the mornings; thus you will i GROWING OLD HAPPILY. PAGE 747. QEOWINO OLD HAPPILY. 741 soon find out how much sleep your system requires, and act accordingly — always avoid sleeping in the daytime; for if you require seven hours' sleep, and spend that much in sleep at night, whatever time you spend in sleep during the day must be deducted from that seven hours, or you will soon be- come wakeful again. If you wake up in the night, either go to bed two or three hours later, or when you wake, get up, even if it be but one o'clock in the morning, and do not sleep a moment until your regular hour for going to bed ; and if you go to bed regularly, get up as soon as you wake, and do not sleep in the daytime, you will find out in less than a week how much sleep you require ; then act accordingly. Na- ture loves regularity, and the four hours' sleep from ten to two is worth six hours after twelve o'clock. The great rule is, Retire at a regular early hour, and get up always as soon as you wake, if it is daylight. If persons have force of will enough to keep from going to sleep a second time, it is great- ly better to remain in bed ten or fifteen minutes after Avaking up, to think about it, and enjoy the resting of that kind ol' feeling of pleasurable tiredness which comes over us on wak- ing, especially if we have taken more exercise than usual the previous day, or have been kept up later. GROWING OLD HAPPILY. There is naturally but one disease — that of old age. To leave the world as gently as go out the embers on the hearth, or as the candle in its socket, without pain, or shock, or spasm, — this is worth taking pains for ! Literally, the lot is terrible of a man with tottering limbs, and gray hairs, dying by piecemeal from racking rheumatism, from torturing gout, or the slow-eating cancer ! the mind all the while, by reason of incessant pain, growing morose, querulous, bitter, and athe- istic 1 On the other hand, how inefiably beautiful is it to arrive at a hearty, buoyant old age, without ache, or pain, or sadness — sunshine always in the face, gladness in the eye ; the heart meanwhile welling up and running over with human sympathies and love divine, of whom " my mother sang" so 748 GROWING OLD HAPPILY. often, in the clear, sweet, and cheery tones of youth and health I " The day glides swiftly o'er their head, Made up of innocence and love, And soft and silent as the shade. Their nightly minutes gently move. " Quick as their thought their joys come on. But fly not half so swift away; Their souls are ever bright as noon. And calm as summer evenings be." And when their work is done, their journey ended, the life of time melts into an immortal existence, — " As fades a summer cloud away, As sinks a gale when storms are o'er. As gently shuts the eye of day. As dies a wave along the shore." To have the lamp of life thus go out, physically, we must live regularly, temperately, actively ; for by these means only can the great human clock work well until all the wheels wear out together, and all cease their running at the same instant : then there is no shock, no pain, no torture, and scarce a perceptible struggle ; so that the moment of departure can be noted only by the most scrutinizing eye. Reader 1 may such be toub exit and ione. I INDEX. A. PAOR Adulterations 639 Age, beautiful old 397 Agencies, destructive 728 Agriculture 438 Air and exercise 10 Air we breathe 306 Anal itcliing-B 444 Annual ailments 75 Apliorisms, physiological 573 Apojilexy 620 Appetite li^O Appetite, instinct of. 317 Apples 479 Aristocracy, the dollar and blood. ... 264 Babies 489 Backbone 693 Hath, Sir Astley Cooper's 37 Bath, a lady's 38 Bath-rooms 235 Brttli, towel 39 Bathing 270 Bathing, cold 371 Beards 678 Bible, the 7 Bible and materia medica 142 Biliousuess 631 Birds of the wood 443 liites and siings, to cure 155 Blood, in the 387 Bodily carriage 337 Bodily endurance 354 Boils 638 Book, the poor man's 284 Bowels, regulating the 653 Boys, our 474 Briiiu, softening of the 384 Brain and thought 644 Brain and body work 722 Brandy and throat disease 36 Bread, curiosities of. 633 Breakfast, early 465 Breathing, curiosities of. 625 Bronchitis and kindred diseases 44 Bulldogs 393 Build, where shall I ? 650 Cakes, buckwheat 376 Cancer 618 Catarrh 473 rioi Cellars, clean your 238 Cellars in dwelling-houseg 660 Chambers 667 Character, decision of. 188 Charms 732 Children, dirty 622 Children eating 402 Children, rearing 595 Chimneys, smoky 673 Cholera, what is 84 Cholera, moral causes of. 123 Church, how to leave 179 Civilization and health 217 Cleaning, well and spring 427 Cleanliness 201 Clergyman, the joking 40 Cofi'ee. substitutes for 576 Cold, how people take 151 Cold, to cure 174 Colds, neglecting 458 Comfort 303 Common sense 340 Constitutions created 418 Constitution, hardening the 177 Consumption, cause of. 487 Consumptives, a sugp^estion to 645 Contemplations, healthful 200 Coolings 411 Corn bread and constipation 121 Corns 208 Country, living in the 350 Courage, true 237 Courteous, be 189 Courting 633 Croupy season 506 Curiosity, dangerous 501 I> Dangers, school 321 Daughters, our 264 Daui'hters, ruined 268 Deatli, avenues of. 616 Death, cause of. 242 Death, an easy 360 Death, in-doors 640 Death, natural. 169 Death, sudden 198 Debt and death 150 Dentistry 736 Desserts 471 Diarrhoea 716 Dieting 696 Digestion 300 Dinners, Sunday 212 Diphtheria 6\H3 749 750 INDEX. Disease and crime 333 Disease, averting 455 Disease, essence of. 706 Disease, heart 399 Disease, liereditary 193 Disease, printers' 493 Diseases, autumnal : . . . 429 Diseases, spring 4(10 Disinfectants 300 Doctors, the two best 494 Draw tliem up 198 Drowning' 612 Drunkard, the 725 Drunlcenuess, ways to 446 Dysentery 432 Dyspepsia 191, 556 Dyspepsia and vinegar 116 Eiarly rising 307 Earth, salt of the 740 Eating, object of. 398 Eating, philosophy of. 735 Eating by rule .305 Eating too much 191 Employments, health of. 277 Epilepsy 580 Exercise, horseback 22 Exercise, untimely 272 Exposure, clerical 273 Eyes, care of the 259 Eyes and cold water 173 Eyes, weak 299 Erysipelas 566 Face and hands, washing the 649 Fallacies, popular 159, 233 Fanaticism 413 Fantasies, medical 213 Farmers and citizens 498 Farmers' wives overtaxed 518 Fever and ague 583 Feet, attention to the 554 Feet, children's 730 Feet, cold 19(i Feet, odoriferous 496 Feet in winter time 442 Filth, reproductive power of. 710 Fire, escaping from • . 614 Flannel, wearing 205, 373 Food the best physic 702 Food for cattle 632 Food cure 328 Food and drink 106 Food, digestibility of. 630 Food, elements of. 629 Food, nutritiousness of. 634 Food, preservation of. "128 Food, pure 406 Food we eat 13 Fruit, healthfulness of. 122 Fruit, how to use 259 Fruit season 295 Fruit in summer 258 Furnaces, hot-air 375 €3r Getting worse 358 Gloved to death 343 Going down 293 Grow beautiful 348 Growing old happily 747 GymuaNiums 462 H Habits, childish, bad = . . . . 738 Hair dyes. 280 Hair, human 377 Hair specifics 302 Hands, chapped 304 Happy, how to be 185 Headache, sick 501 Healtli for children 7ciO Health, dieting for 175, 385 Health, effects of imagination on. . . . 112 Health and house-hunting 109 Health and wealth 248 Health, wea.'th, and religion 116 Hell, fifteen /ears in 307 Hints, housekeeping 5'.>0 Hints for the travelling seasons 550 Hominy 449 Hospitality, true : . . . . 282 House walls , . . . . 08^? Houses, farmers' ,...,. 650 Houses, ice ,...<.,. 685 How to live long. . . . , 135 How to preach elTe^tively 178 How to sit 643 Human growth 288 Hunger 389 Hydrophobia 323 Ice, uses of. 551 Idiots 714 Infants and air 401 Influences 018 Inheritance, the best 5u9 Insanity 223 Insanity and bad temper 176 Instruments, surgical 342 IS. Keep your mouth shut 206 Kill or cure 419 Kindness the best punishment 73 Kitchen COS Labor, reward of physical 2(K{ Laughter and music 454 Life, aim of. 482 Life, courtesies of. 69 Life, duration of. 601 Life, hours most fatal to 82 Life, long 207 Life, occupations of. 425 Life, trials of. 502 Lightning stroke 423 Liquor drinking 104 Living ages 396 Livers, the longest. . . .• 437 Longevity promoted. , . , llis Longevity, student 312 Love, law of. 729 Lungs, the 35 Lungs, meacurement of. 27 SO. Make home happy 344 Man, marvels of. . 514 Marriage maxims 742 Marriages, early 250 Marriages, happy 491 INDEX. 751 Married, get 2(iM Moaslcs und consumption 552 Modiciuos, patoiit 2U7 Men, Bucccsi^irul 452 Miasm 052 Milk 3-lU Milli, poisonous 2H> Milk sii^'kness (VKi Mind, tlie 2H Mind and cliarcoiil (ii)'2 Mind, equanimity of. . . . • L'04 Ministers, saving (iUi Money, how to lend 240 Money a medicine IKt Money and mind 705 Mortuary J clerical 230 Mother, the ?:« Moulds, poisonous "45 Music 5U0 Rest, mental. Uheumatism. IV Nails, fing-er 195 Neural<^ia 5()5 Nervousness 477 Nifjhtair 311 Noseoloj,'-y 42(i Nursinj; 27'.t Nursing hints 500 Nutriment, moral 390 Nuts aud cheese 731 O Observances, healthful 500 Old age, fatuity of. 641 One acre. 02(5 Order, family. 2S5 Out-door safety 274 Over-eatingr 281 Sabbath rest Salt rheum Scalds an(i burns School children Scrofula Sea, no compass at. Self-destroyers Self-medication Sense and nonsense Shoes, winter Shoes, rubber, wearing- Sickness, common ■ . . Sickness, morals of. Sickness not causeless Sick-rooms, perfuming Sick-rooms, rules for Skating Slandering doctors Sleep Sleep of children Sleep, delicious Sleep, how to Sleep, how mucli to Sleep, sound Sleeping together Sleeplessness Small pox Smoking Soaji suds at ten dollars a gallon. Sores Soups, poisonous South, going Sprains. 547 5UI 501 r.23 Mi 27fl 43.3 271 310 .WJ 24a 194 >3U 709 H€ 017 301 26i 50« 341 197 301 X am • . . • Panacea, the , Pence, family Perspiration , Perspiration, clucked , Pliiloso)jhy, cold , Physical cultivation Piazza Poetry, music, aud health Poisons Poisons, lead Politics and physic Position in sleeping 340. Prayers, long Prayers^ morning Precautions Premonitions. Presentiment, a Principles, medical I'rivies and water-closeta Providence and disease Pure air a medicine 597 4(H 20(; I 251 ] 4,S0 I 04-2 I OM i 540 155 29.S 228 407 178 005 558 503 220 314 ()7y 202 530 Spring, dangers of. . Spring suggestions. Stable Stammering Stimulants. . . . Stomach Stomach, sour. . . . Study, hard Summer sours. . . . Summerings Sunshine, preserved. Sunstroke Suppers, hearty. . . Surfeit Sugar, buggy. . . . Symptoms Systematic, be. . • . Rage and ruin 71 Railro.ading, winter .347 Reason and instinct 3S0 Recogniliou hereafter 743 Reflection, sad 637 Regimen 470 Reprove, how to 720 Resignation 610 Table manners Tea and cotfee Tea-drinking Teeth, the Teeth of children The deaf hear Thermometers Tilings, private »• • • Thought, a life-saving Thro;it, tickling in Throat-ail 47, Throat-ail symptoms Tobacco, use and end Tobacco and liijuor Toe nail, inverted Tomatoes Tomatoes and melons Tomboys Trees, shade Trouble kills Typhoid 21 .320 209 400 478 727 359 003 704 23 290 405 503 089 309 703 324 557 216 422 588 210 037 4.><5 401 716 028 184 40y 325 309 46r 293 007 207 511 182 711 124 47 41 276 571 294 331 089 302 739 15-2 INDEX. D Urination 574 Useful, make yourself. 330 Vaccination 598 Vegetarianism and ill temper 327 Ventilation, church ('i24 Victim, the 450 W Wakefulness 746 Walkin" erectly 715 Walls, damp 260 Wanderers, restless 495 Water 663 Water-closets and priviei 679 Water, cold 107 Water conveniences 678 Water cure 352 Water pipes 665 Way to be safe 701 Weather and wealth 734 Well done. . , 403 What a fool ! 717 When began we? 53u Whitlow 604 Whitewashes 609 Why children die 417 Why don't he die ? 536 Wife worth having 365 Winter rules 445 Wrath, bottled .409 YoutbB, weakly. I lETURN BIOLOGY LIBRARY rO— » 350 3 Life Scien ces BIdg. OAN PERIOD 1 642-2531 ^^.^MON^ CH - ^-^MOr^QGRAPH ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Renewed books ore subject to immediate recall DUE AS STAMPED BELOW MJGBm '"mw i i^teiy ^3W4Xi f >l 1 iW^^ ^?^r NOV J m 03 RtjBct^ IkedS ^Wf£- d rCB 2 ,> l^ijb cy> CD .^ _2 ffl- #m? ■ttW^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FORM NO. 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