ttratxiAj

HALL'S

JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

FOR I860.

"HEALTH IS A D IT T Y."— Anon.

"men consume too much food and too little puke air;
they take too much medicine and too litlle exercise." — ed,

"I labor for the good time coming, when sickness and disease, except con-
genital, or from accident, will be regarded as the result of ignorance or animalism,
and will degrade the individual in the estimation of the good, as much as drunken-
ness now doe3." — Ibid.

EDITED BY

W. W. HALL, M.D.,

VOL. VII.

NEW-YORK

PUBLISHED 'BY THE EDITOR, AT NO.

AND BY

TRUBNER & COMPANY, NO. 60 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

1860.

0. *4a~HtVING- PLAOB,

INDEX TO VOL. VII.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH

PAGE

Averting Disease 80

Ash-Sifter 88

Athletics 145

Apples 233

Alexander, J. W., D.D 241

Aim of Life 256

Action, A Kind 273

Benefits of Reading Aloud 32

Bites, Poisonous 36

Burying Alive 38

Bread and Milk 73

Bowels Regulated 92, 271

Bathing 101

Breakfast Early 116

Balance of Population 120

Best Doctors 162

Breakfast Early 216

Boys, Our 217

Baby-Talk 265

Causes of Disease 38

Corns 67

Crazy People 83

Costiveness 92

Clerical Marriages 129

Central Park 147

Cellars 178

Catarrh 189

Colds 37, 85, 189, 219

Children 11, 184, 228, 231

Checking Perspiration 252

Consumption 45, 69, 72, 169, 261

Disease, Causes of 38

Death-Bed Repentance 59

Depopulation 106

Dying Nations .108

Donation Parties 121

Dyspepsia 42, 160

Doctors, The Best 162

Drinking Water 184

Drunken Women 185

Domestics 193

Drunkenness 1, 42, 280

Eye3 10, 39, 69

PAGE

Early Breakfast 116

Each the Best 181

Eight to Sixteen 183

Eating 94, 232

Electric Magnetism 234

Fruits, Use of 36

Flannel, Wearing 72

Feet 91

Fire on the Hearth 226

Farming , 269

Green Persons 18

Growing Beautiful 68

Gymnasiums 253, 152, 134, 109

Growing Old Happily 117

Garters, Wearing 234

Hotel Life 16

Hominy 20

Health Tracts 22

Health without Medicine 21

Husbands 29

How to Walk 46

Hair-Wash 71

Hammer on 141

Household Slaveries 193

House Warming 226

Households Contrasted 247

Happy Marriages 267

Inconsiderations 35

Infants and Air 108

Ice-Water 173

Infant Night Management 278

Living on Excitement 15

Living Yet 190

Lager Beer 216

Life's Maxims 223

Lunatics Gladdened 285

Music Healthful 41

Manly Carriage 47

Moral Excitement 61

Measles and Consumption 69

Mistaken Benevolence 87

Marriage 267, 129

Manners 170

IV

Index to Volume VII.

PAGE

Metamorphoses 187

Miasma 204

Manual-Labor Schools 219

Milk 73, 112, 230

Magnetism 234

Matches 284

New Shoes Made Easy 67

National Dietetics 76

Neglecting Colds 85

Nicholas of Russia 89

Night Air 213

Nervousness 222

Olden Time 104

Old Age Beautiful 117

Our Boys 217

Over-Eating 232

Position in Sleep 47

Phrenological Chair 45

Physiology 57

Poisonous Rooms 107

Panacea 113

Prostituted Health 128

Parks, Public j 149

Periodical Literature 241

Physical Training 134, 152, 253

Printers and Printing 273, 277

Piano, the Worcester 282

Riding in Cars 8

Reading Aloud 32

Rules for Winter 44

Regimen 174

Retiring from Business 256

Restless Wanderers 281

Sleeplessness 25

Skating 34

Spinal Deformities 45

Successful Men 63

PAGH

Sabbath Physiology 70

Sour Stomach 93

Spring Diseases 118

Singular Medicine 119

Sleeping in Church 120

Sleep 25, 47, 95, 175

Spitting Blood 179

Small Bed-Chambers % . . 180

Slavery North and South 193

Snapping up 225

Sleeping with the Old 275

Strela Matches 284

Too Late 15

Traveling Hints 30

Three Health Essentials 73

Thrift and Health 79

Throat and Lungs 114

Teeth 150

Table Manners 170

Tomatoes " 172

Tobacco Users 179

Unitary Households 53

Ways to Drunkenness 1

Winter Rules 44

Walking 46

Winter Shoes 67

Wise Charities 88

Worth Remembering 90

Whisky Doctors 124

What Killed Him 132

Washington Irving 133

Water Filters 159

Water, Ice 173

Wearing Garters 234

Young Old People 41

Young and Poor 284

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WB AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAT BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] JANUARY, 1860. [No. 1.

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 agreea-
ble or not. Some ladies vouchsafe the pleasurable certainty 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 consid-
ered by some as indispensables. The result being, that in the
joyousness of the interview, 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, lem-
onade, or pure cold water, the eatables remaining the same.
Let every mother, who has a son who might be misled, 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,

NO. I. VOL. VII. — 1860.

hall's journal of health.

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 months
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 year is fixed by common consent for " adjusting these
arrearages," 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 Year's
night, the gladness of the day is very liable to be followed with
recollections which are painfully sad. Some faces she expected
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
returnless 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 pro-
gression, and now the diminution is really frightful. Formerly,
when youth and beauty were theirs, the door-bell began to
tingle as soon as the clock struck nine of the morning, with
scarcely an intermission until it verged toward midnight. But
now how great the change ! Merry voices are 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 embodied idea stands out
in high relief — Passee !

But yonder comes a poor unfortunate bachelor ; his hat is
faultlessly sleek, as faultlessly shine his boots. Christadora has
supplied him with one of his most natural wigs, and to the
whiskers Phalon has imparted the deepest, glossiest black. Al-
len has given him teeth, whose perfection of finish vies with

WAYS TO DRUNKENNESS.

3

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, and 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
an hundred, he was soft enough to imagine that he was enti-
tled 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, and 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 old stamping-ground,
confident that he will receive the greetings 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 down-
ward ; 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."

Let it be then the wisdom of the reader, whether man !

woman, if as yet unmated, to resolve that the first day of J ,

ary, eighteen hundred and sixty, shall be the last New r

which shall find them out of the bonds of steadying. y

pifying wedlock ; for out of it there is no purehI • Gn '
, ., ? ., . -it -, . . -,. otle circum-

wnile m it there is bliss or — otherwise! according But "

stances of the case and the wisdom of the p?u +w • ' ,

i. n -n i ,i i ^ tnat 1S CalcU-

much as out of wedlock there is no rest and our mture whfl.
lated to wilt and wither the finer feeling m the aviate -
in married life there is for the most he'st and j£ ^ Q
world oi enjoyment in cherishing th ;* ^
qualities' of the human heart, it ip

<

hall's journal of health.

WARMING HOUSES.

The subject of keeping family dwellings healthfully and
agreeably heated in winter-time is of great practical importance
to every reader, and has long engaged the earnest and pro-
tracted study of the most inventive minds in the country.
How to have a comfortable heat with the least waste of fuel,
is a question which involves the health and lives of thousands,
and millions of money every year.

There is no heat more soothing, more cheerful, more delight-
ful, than that of a wood-fire in an old-fashioned fire-place,
broad, deep, high and capacious. Most minds run back lovingly
to the times when the then unappreciated wood-fire was the
rule — the stove, the grate, the exception. But wood-fires in
capacious fire-places are now a pecuniary impossibility to the
masses in cities, and more and more so every day, even in the
country. Various patterns of stoves have been devised as a
means of saving wood, but unless wisely managed, and with
constant attention, it is difficult to regulate the heat, and besides,
there is a " closeness " which is disagreeable to all, and to some
unendurable. But even a wood -fire in a stove is an expensive
luxury, costing twenty-five dollars in New-York for a single
good-sized room for the winteT, while that amount expended in
al would answer all the domestic purposes of many families,
common grate for anthracite coal sends full two thirds of
at up the chimney to warm all out- doors, thus thirty
X worth of coal yields but ten dollars' worth of warmth ;
this 1 N^ calculation of scientific men. To remedy this waste,
an ,rfT ^e trouble °f kindling and keeping up half a
• A ' t^fires m tne same household, stoves have been
devise , N to -j-^ ]arge enough for a whole house ; these

are p a vHlar where one kindling does for all. and for

a week or month fK. _ -.it i ^

a ' n t T^her, with a happv deliverance from the

dust and as/ies and Tk> x i- i^* ^ -p

mi L - ^hle attending a multitude of separate

Thee immense sx « A, & -,, n j *

for the cellar are called furnaces,

cted to any desired part of the

are built into the wall, while

These furnaces with their

fires. Tne/e immense s^ e
the heat frcvQ which is cc
building though tin tubes
tne House ij in course of erectS

'\

WARMING HOUSES. 5

pipes and registers, are in important respects highly objection-
able.

In the first place, either owing to the parsimony of
landlords, or to the ignorance of contractors and builders and
architects, they are constantly burning down houses, public and
private, as well in Philadelphia as in New- York.

A second objection is, that a great deal of heat is conveyed to
the upper parts of the building, and to rooms where heat is not
wanted, when it is indispensably needed on the first and second
stories.

Thirdly, no furnace yet known, keeps a good-sized house
comfortably warm in the severest weather, unless by such a
ruinous consumption of fuel, or danger of conflagration, that
persons prefer calling in the aid of the grate, when the thermo-
meter hugs zero, or comes within a dozen degrees of it, so that
every furnace yet devised is an acknowledged failure.

A fourth objection to furnace heat, is perfectly fatal to its
wise adoption. The air which comes in contact with the fur-
nace, is burnt, it is in part decomposed, and is no longer fit
for purposes of healthful respiration. Whenever air comes in
contact with a nearly or quite a red-hot metallic surface, it is
no longer fit to enter the lungs of any thing that breathes, and
is instantly detected by the feeling which is expressed by the ,
term " closeness." The air has in it such a small amount of
living sustenance, that an ordinary quantity taken through the
nostrils is not enough, and the person instinctively opens the
mouth, literally gasps for more, as a fish for water when thrown
out of its native element.

Almost every furnace inventor will tire you with reasons why
his furnace does not burn the air, but any man's nose gives the
flat contradiction. Besides, all these cellar furnaces are perfect
maelstroms of fuel ; they lick it up as the flame licks up water.

Another plan has been devised, and is in successful operation
in the Breevort House on Fifth avenue, and in prisons and
insane asylums. Hot water is conveyed in pipes from the
cellar to every part of the house; this certainly gives an equable
and balmy warmth, and is second only to a wood-fire in the
old time fire-place. But it is too expensive for general adoption ;
besides, the pipes may commence leaking at any one of their

6 hall's jouknal of health

hundreds of joinings, and the building drenched with hot water
at any hour of the day or night.

Under all the circumstances of the case we think the fire
which warms our office at this present writing, when the whole
air is filled with driving snow, and Farenheit is below the freezing-
point, is, next to the old-fashioned wood- fire of forty years ago,
the very best ever devised, as we think any intelligent observer
will see in a moment, if he chooses to call. It is simply com-
mon anthracite coal burning flat on the hearth, in a fire-place
nearly a yard across, with oval back and flaring jams, which
necessarily throw the heat out into the room. As evidence,
the thermometer five feet from the floor and twelve feet from
the fire, on the wall opposite, is at this moment above seventy
degrees, and has been in that neighborhood since the early
morning; the fire having been made at daylight and never
touched since, except to lay on a few pieces of coal about two
o'clock, and no more will be needed for the remainder of the
day and evening ; in other words, without more coal, our office
will be comfortable until near midnight, so we are informed,
for we trot off to bed at nine, and can not speak from personal
knowledge.

But what is the quality of this heat ? According to our best
judgment and remembrance, it is as balmy as that of the uni-
versal favorite, a wood-fire. But how can that be, when coal
has no oxygen, and without oxygen it can not burn at all, and
must get it from the air of the apartment where the fire is, pro-
ducing the u closeness " which belongs to all furnace heat ? It
happen in this wise, all the premises are true, except one. The
oxygen is not supplied from the air of the room, but from the
cellar ; hence the air of the apartment is simply pure air warmed.

Another advantage is, this fire is kindled without the trou-
blesome and unsightly " blower," and the ashes are taken up
but once a year, for they fall through crevices in the hearth into
a close brick receptacle in the cellar without any possibility of
contact with any combustible material ; hence the flying dust
of ashes inseparable from the cleaning of a grate is avoided.
The deposit on the mantle from a whole day's burning is scarcely
observable, for a poker is never needed. After all, the prime
consideration with rnany, is the cost of the fuel, in comparison

WARMING HOUSES. 7

with other modes of heating apartments. "Without troubling the
reader with statistical tables, a few figures will be given in connec-
tion with this low-down grate.

"We have weighed and used to-daj, and on several simi-
lar days, very near fifty pounds of coal, the thermometer with-
out having been steadily below the freezing-point, while it has
stood about seventy in our office in the position before described.
Hence fifty pounds of coal will keep a room two hundred and
forty square feet rather too warm for comfort and health when
it is freezing out of doors, and at a cost of five dollars a ton,
(placed in bins in the cellar,) two thousand pounds being a
]STew-York retail ton, or twenty-five bushels of eighty pounds
each, one pound of coal costs a quarter of a cent, or twelve and
a half cents for fifty pounds, or eighty -seven and a half cents a
week, three dollars and three quarters a month, or twenty-two
dollars and a half for the season of six months, supposing that
each day was freezing cold without, but there are not thirty
such days during any winter, and from observation we think
that thirty pounds a day would be an ample average, or seven
and a half cents a day, fifty cents a week, or thirteen dollars for
the winter.

For a family apartment, in ordinary cases, the thermometer
should not be higher than sixty-five, twelve feet from the fire ;
more than that debilitates, and less is too cool for children and
persons at rest.

We must say in addition, in praise of the " low-down" grate,
that when the thermometer is at twenty, its broad bed of flam-
ing coals, two and a half feet across, with the soft and soothing
atmosphere of the apartment, is cheery to the sight and to the
sensations most delicious, and as such a grate costs from
thirty to fifty dollars, when there are no extra attachments,
we heartily commend it to public attention.

The judgment of the observant is rapidly settling down in
the conviction that furnace-heated houses are rapidly undermin-
ing the constitutions of whole families, and thus render them
the easy prey to every acute disease. Such being the case, it is
literally a matter of vital importance to discover a remedy or a
substitute, to discover some method of heating a family apart-
ment in such a manner as will combine regularity of tempera-

8 hall's journal of health.

ture, sufficiency of Heat and adequate ventilation, with an econ-
omy of fuel adapted to the means of the masses. It is believed
that any one who will call at the Editor's office will be con-
vinced that the low-down grate is one of the greatest improve-
ments yet introduced for the healthful warming of family
apartments. It is, without exaggeration, really difficult to
point out a single defect, or offer a single well-grounded objec-
tion to this invention, so new to New- York, yet known to a
neighboring city for seven years.

BIDING IN THE CARS.

One of the most important promotives of health is the
getting along smoothly in the world, and one of the ways of
doing this, is to be habitually courteous and accommodating,
and to " give a little." Don't stand up for all your rights. Do
not exact the last cent due you in your dealings, under the de-
ceptive plea, that you owe it to yourself to be just, and to the
one dealing with you, to let him see that you will not counten-
ance imposition. In our experience through life, we have found
that generous men have about as good an idea of what is justice
as any other class of people ; for they are just enough to make
allowances for the mistakes, forgetfulness, prejudices, misappre-
hensions and ignorance of their fellow-men. Hence if his
grocer makes a mistake of a dollar or two in his own favor, he
does not go off in a huff, and let him severely alone for the
remainder of his life. If a poor man makes a purchase of him,
and lacks a few cents, he does not refuse to let him have the
article on the plea that it is wrong to give any one the oppor-
tunity of defrauding. If a neighbor in straitened circum-
stances borrows a dollar, to be returned certainly on a fixed
day and hour, and fails, he does not resolve that he will not
notice him the next time he meets him, and that he will never
help him again the longest day he lives.

Ah ! there are very many of the opposite of this, such pre-
cise people! we hate their characters. They are a living
lie to themselves, and a disgrace to humanity. The gene-

RIDING IN THE CARS. 9

rous man, instead of going away in a rage, turns an eye of
pity and consideration on the delinquent. He has the mag-
nanimity to suggest a sufficient reason for the short coming.
The grocer may have made a mistake in casting up his ac-
counts at the close of a weary day's labor, (and it was just as
likely to be against himself,) as who may not in making any
addition ? The poor man whose heart is oppressed with the
care of a helpless family, may have forgotten the trifling differ-
ence of a few cents, in the more important question, where
shall I get work to day to keep me and mine from starving ?
The borrowing neighbor may be on a sick-bed and alone, or he
may have confidently relied on the promise of a rich man to
pay his "little bill," without fail, and that was the last of it.

But surely we have gone a wool gathering ! we have run off
the track most decidedly, for we intended to commend to public
notice as a sensible man and a benevolent, Mr. W. Weybridge
of Medford, who, on the fifth day of October, eighteen hundred
and fifty-nine, wrote an article which is quite as good as the
one we published ourselves last summer, and which ran the
round of the press in little or no time. We copy the article,
premising that whoever follows the advice which " Mr. Brown"
had wit enough to see was worthy of being printed, will be
liberally paid for his consideration.

Mr. Brown : I will tell travellers how to ride in cars. Open
your eyes. Find out where you are going. Be five minutes in
front of time. Semper paratus. Get into an ample linen over-
coat with pockets. Take sufficient money for your journey,
then double it; take no trunk if you can help it; take "re-
freshments," quantum sufficit, from your wife's clean store-room ;
take her advice and take a kiss to season it ; but do not keep
the cars waiting. Buy your ticket at the office. Look out for
your pocket-book and check your baggage. Give a kind word to
your conductor ; take your seat before the cars have got in motion.
Let your position be as near the centre of the car as possible,
for wheels are dangerous and noisy. Enter into easy conversa-
tion with your seat-companion. Draw him out; the dullest
will have something to instruct or entertain you if you skill-
fully address him. If a lady, let her lead the way, or sit in
silence. Do not read, but talk, or think. Be attentive to the

10

aged; to the ladies. Have a "bon bon" for the child that
cries behind you ; and keep to your good rule of taking every
thing with cheerful temper through the day. Eat not your
" lunch" alone. The half is better than the whole. Wear still
a smiling face ; for this is " evangelical " and better than a ser-
mon. " Keep your eyes open." Men are books that are books ;
here you have a chance to read them. There'll be plenty of
sleeping in the grave. Be alive while you are alive ; make
others so. Avoid a window slightly raised, a door ajar;
a " cold " comes in that way, and then a " cough," and then a
" coffin." Let the cars stop, stone still, before you leave them.
A leg is heavier than ten seconds of time ; but life goes but too
often, with the leg. Eye your baggage ; help that lady also.
Pay your hackman in advance, but walk if possible ; you need
the exercise. Transact your business promptly, honorably,
judiciously. Behave as well in the stranger city as at home.
Keep away from haunts of mischief. Read Proverbs 7th
chapter, commencing at the 4th verse. Go read it now lest you
forget it. Do not sacrifice water for wine. Pick up information,
by scraps if you must, but be sure and get it. Hasten home as
soon as possible; your wife is at the window. "Keep your
eyes open," I repeat again; be a true gentleman in every place,
and you will enter your dwelling wiser than you went out of
it, and will not trouble the ears of the one " you left behind
you" with "doleful groans" about the miseries of travelling,
the ill manners of men, nor will you be likely ever to bring an
action against a railroad company, or it one against you.

W. Weybkidge.

WEAK EYES.

Many who are troubled with weak eyes, by avoiding the use
of them in reading, sewing, and the like, until after breakfast,
will be able to use them with greater comfort for the remainder
of the day, the reason being, that in the digestion of the food
the blood is called in from all parts of the system, to a certain
extent, to aid the stomach in that important process ; besides,
the food eaten gives general strength, imparts a stimulus to the
whole man, and the eyes partake of their share.

SCHOOLING CHILDKEN. 11

SCHOOLING CHILDREN.

The outrages and stupidities practised in modern education
are not amazing, for a sensible man is prepared for any thing,
and has no amazement ; but they are mischievous in the ex-
treme. Who expects a young girl to know any thing as it
should be known ? If there is such an individual, he ought to
be sent to Barnum's Museum, and the price of admission ad-
vanced fifty per cent !

There are good schools here and there, but three out of four
are the merest shams, are perfect impositions. Too much is at-
tempted, hence much is passed over, but there is thoroughness
in nothing. The young ladies know nothing well. We knew
a graduate of one of the oldest schools in this city, make a mis-
take against herself of fifty per cent, in a bill against us for the
private tuition of two of our children.

We believe the public schools in New- York, especially as to
girls, are making an admirable change in this regard ; we know
more particularly of the Twentieth Street School, under the pre-
sidency of Miss Purdy, and of the Twelfth Street, of which
Miss Greer is the principal. These ladies are remarkable for
their energy, system, tact, and sound judgment, and merit well
of the public. We trust they will long occupy their places and
put the community under still higher obligation to them, for their
fidelity to their trusts. Of the sub-teachers, the names which we
have heard mentioned by different persons, with most praise
for their assiduity, their conscientiousness and their unweary-
ing patience towards the children under their care, are those of
Misses Moran, Turnbull, Corneille, Thompson and Carpenter,
connected, we believe with the schools named.

In all our public schools there is considerable need for amend-
ment in several directions. We have before insisted on the
wisdom and humanity of reducing school hours, to all under
twelve years of age, to four a day ; two in the forenoon and
two in the afternoon ; and that nothing whatever should be
given to the children to learn, out of school hours. But this
is so far ahead of this driving age, that we fear we shall be as
gray as a rat and as blind as a beetle, before such desirable
changes come.

12

There are several things which could be easily remedied, and
doubtless would be, if they were properly brought before the
teachers, superintendents, and trustees. The best way to do
this would be to appoint us with a liberal salary, to make the
circuit of the city schools once a month, the year round, and
beat some common-sense into the craniums of those who need
the commodity. It is of some importance to parents to have
healthy children. Nothing can afford any solid satisfaction
when a dear child is sick ; for then, there is a cloud hung all
over the world, and the brightest sun is veiled in black. Those
who know most are the most alarmed at the slightest ailment
of a child, for no one can conjecture what any sickness will
end in. On the other hand, when every child is well, how the
countenance brightens up ; how the heart rises in its gratitude
and its gladness, and how the whole world is changed!

To have a child go out to school in the morning in joyous
health, and to come home with a broken limb, a gashed face, a
lost tooth or an endangered eye ; or to be waked up in the
night by the ominous sound of the dreaded croup, or a putrid
sore throat, or the more insidious scarlet fever ! Any one of
these things, by their suddenness, is well calculated to send
terror into a parent's heart. All of them may be said to be of
daily occurrence, and yet all of them are more or less avoidable.

A month or more ago, we heard a little girl of ten, complain-
ing in the street of her hard lesson. On inquiry, we found
that between four o'clock of a winter's day and the hour of
school next morning, her teacher had required her to get the
meaning of all the words, which she thought she did not know
— in a hundred pages, twelvemo ; and besides this, there were
two other lessons. One might well suppose that such a teacher
had been lately imported from a lunatic asylum.

One of the down-town schools on the late Thanksgiving oc-
casion, when it was desired to dismiss school from Wednesday
night to Monday morning, the teacher gave out lessons for
three ordinary days, on the ground that the children had a long
holiday. "We did not inquire, nor do we know the teacher's
name, but no doubt it will become famous one of these days.

Within three months a public examination took place in one
of the schools, a class at a time. When one was under exami-
nation, requiring three quarters of an hour, another, numbering

SCHOOLING CHILDREN. 13

perhaps fifty, from eight years to thirteen, were told that
they must steadily look at a certain spot on the wall during
the examination, and that whoever turned the head, or was
restless, should be " kept in" after the school was dismissed at
three o'clock, for every afternoon during the remainder of the
week ; one little girl is reported to have grown sick, and
perhaps fainted away, under the ordeal. We do not know
that this is literally true, not having seen it ; but such is the
report of " visitors," on the occasion referred to. If the report
is pretty nearly correct, the teacher who gave the order merits
the severest reproof.

Partially informed persons have an over-dread of foul air.
"We know a teacher, who, during winter, has a company of sev-
eral little girls in a room, but fearing the effects of breathing
the air over and over again, where the heat comes from a regis-
ter, she keeps the sash down several inches near the ceiling, for
purposes of ventilation ; but the air rushes in with great power
on a winter's day, and drives directly upon the heads of the
children in a steady cold stream, and they sitting still, must
experience disastrous results, such as cold in the head, sore
throat, fevers and croups. A wiser plan would be to allow the
children to promenade the hall for ten minutes every hour, and
during that time open the window to its utmost and the door
also, thus causing a most thorough ventilation. No person can
sit still in a warm room in winter in a draft of air for five
minutes without injury ; but for children to be thus exposed by
the hour is monstrous. As the feelings are very deceptive, there
should be a thermometer in every school-room, at about five
feet from the floor, and at the coldest part of the room, where
it should never be allowed to fall below sixty, nor to rise higher
than sixty-five.

With a view to obviate the hurtful effects of confinement,
some of the public schools give a few minutes every hour, for
the children to recreate. Usually, they are sent down into the
yard, and it is forbidden for any child to stand still. This is a
most judicious arrangement in the main. But if the thermo-
meter is at thirty, it is freezing cold out of doors, and even if
twenty degrees higher, if there is a raw wind blowing, which
makes it equivalent to thirty, the change from the school-room
is not less than near forty degrees, and nothing short of very

14 hall's journal of health.

active running or play can avert bad colds, croup, pneumonia
or pleurisy. It would be far better, because entirely safe, to
make the children exercise in the hall of the building, when
the thermometer was under thirty-five, especially if a cold wind
was blowing.

It ought to be remembered by all, that it is far safer and
much less disastrous to breathe any ordinary bad air, if warm,
than to be in the purest air on the globe, if it is cold enough to
cause a general chilliness, or a partial feeling of cold for a very
short time, such as on the back, or neck, or throat, or any other
susceptible part. Children should not be allowed to sit for five
minutes with their backs to a register, or stove, or fire ; nor to
stand over registers for a moment, nor to sit near one for any
length of time ; and in cold weather they should be made to
bundle up before leaving the school-room, and be counselled to
run home and not delay a single moment on the way.

TOO LATE.

Our sympathies were excited lately in receiving the follow-
ing note from the only son of a mother, and she a widow who
was looking up .to him as the support and comfort of her old
age : " Your opinion of my case only confirmed my own dread
suspicions — suspicions I entertained before I wrote to you. I
have very little hope left of ever being well again ; but for the
sake of my mother, who has grown poor, thin, and pale, as I
have grown poor, thin, and pale for her sake, would I make one
effort to save myself. I feel as though I should be able, were my
life spared, to render her comfortable and happy for many
years yet. She will be alone, indeed, when I am gone."

This noble-hearted son lost his health not from any necessity,
but from want of a little knowledge as to the means of taking
care of the health, such knowledge as one year's reading of this
journal would have clearly and abundantly given ; hence our
wish, irrespective of any personal advantage, and our convic-
tion, too, that where there is one reader, there ought to be a
million.

LIVING ON EXCITEMENT. 15

LIVING ON EXCITEMENT.

He lives the longest who eats plain, substantial food, and
drinks pure water, other things being equal. But many prefer
highly-seasoned and mixed dishes and stimulating drinks. All
such persons die before their time, usually from inanition or
wasting disease of the bowels. As certainly will the mind suf-
fer declining vigor and efficiency, its stimulants being novel-
reading and a morbid thirst for new things.

Id the moral or spiritual world the general principle holds
true ; hence, those who feed on the " pure milk of the word,"
who travel in the "old paths," are the surest to grow in the ex-
ercise and practice of principles, stern, high, and life-giving.
What highly-seasoned food and stimulating drinks are to the
body, what novel-reading is to the mind, sensation preaching
is to the heart ; and yet after " these three," the great world,
the masses run with eager pace. It is suggested that the clergy
should do all in their power to put down the last practice, by
not allowing it to be heralded in the papers when, or where, or
on what subjects they are to preach. That is the best " society"
which always attends its own meetings when its own doors
are opened, and which seldom attends any others. Gadding
about creates a pernicious excitement, it unsettles and dissatis-
fies. Let every man attend religious services as a matter of
course, the matter of worship, of prayer and praise and medi-
tation being the absorbing objects ; all other things being
considered as unimportant incidentals. Let no man inquire
whether "Paul or Apollos or Cephas" is to preach, and let him
take it for granted that the great theme shall be, " The Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

How wide is the departure from these wholesome ways, may
be estimated from the fact, that in a secular daily newspaper
for Saturday, there are over fifty " notices" under the " reli-
gious" head, of places, themes, and preachers, but not one of
them announces a discourse on the subject of " Christ, and him
crucified." The whole of them ranging, up or down, from John
Brown to the devil. Let no one imagine from this expres-
sion, that on the great subject of black and white we are "on

16 hall's journal of health.

the fence." This would do us injustice. We are very decided
in our opinions. The first third of a century of our life we
passed in the very midst of the " peculiar institution," and an-
other third we have reason to believe will be passed out of it,
hence we have had unusual facilities of personal observation,
and therefore from a broad and liberal view of the whole ques-
tion, we most unhesitatingly declare that we are on the other
side ; and lest this should not be explicit enough for some, we
will further add that we are on the right side, so that our
friends North and South may hereafter know where to find us,
that is, not on the fence, but on the other side of it, the right
side.

HOTEL LIFE.

Of all the miserable ways of living, that of hotels and board-
ing-houses takes the lead. One of the best sermons we ever
heard, as connected with domestic life, was delivered in New-
Orleans many years ago, by that eminent divine and scholar,
the Kev. W. A. Scott, D.D., now of San Francisco. We thought,
at the time, that humanity would have been a gainer, if a tract
had been made of it and placed in the hands of every married
couple in the Union. It is hoped that, should the eminent
author ever see this article, he will publish the pith of it in his
own monthly. A life of this sort eats out domestic love ; it
creates a morbid desire for tinsel and show ; it cultivates sham
in morals, in dress, in personal deportment ; it turns every thing
into pretense and hollowness. There is no depth in any thing
that is really useful or good. All is superficial, cold, and
heartless.

From such a life, gormandizing, idleness, and ennui are insep-
arable ; eating, sleeping, lounging, and dilettanteing make the
dreary routine — the two great events of each succeeding day
being the dinner and the opera or theatre or lecture. They
wake to think of what there shall be for breakfast, and, after
reading the morning papers and an objectless and lazy stroll,
the subject of conjecture or conversation, if not both, is what
kind of dinner will be spread ; if this or that new or rare or
favorite dish will be in the bill of fare.

As to conversation, there can be no real intercommunion

HOTEL LIFE. 17

with persons whose acquaintance rarely exceeds a month,
oftener not a week. There is nothing to draw out the bettei
natures and the deeper feelings of the heart in a transient " soci-
ety" like this, while the risk of becoming acquainted with
unworthy persons is very great. To young sons and daughters
it is simply fearful, for adventurers, fortune-hunters, and pre-
tenders, with fast young men and those who have nothing but
a fine personal appearance, are the habitues of all public places.

But there are physical evils of the most serious nature.
When a wife or daughter has nothing to do, and the appetite is
stimulated day after day by all the arts of "scientific cookery,"
when the five o'clock dinner is universal, and when the stom-
ach is " raving" for food in consequence of the almost entire
abstinence since breakfast, a double work is thrown in upon it
in its debilitated state, and keeps it " laboring" during the
greater part of the night, making what ought to be the hours of
peaceful rest, absolutely hideous by terrible dreams, and the
morning comes without the blest renewal of strength which
healthful sleep would have given, and this for weeks and
months together. Yerily, it is no wonder that the thoughtful
physician should apply the epithet, " Thou fool," to any parent
who would expose a family to such a life. And in the light of
it, we may gather that the most certain means of making life a
failure in toto on the part of any newly -married couple, is to
" go to boarding." Better a thousand times, socially, morally,
and physically, hire a two-roomed shanty, live on bread and
potatoes and do the housework without the aid of menials, and
continue to do these things until means are accumulated to take
a step higher. Thus doing, we would not see a tithe of the
sick wives we now do, not a tithe of the unhappy matches, the
disgraceful divorces and the early wreck of business prospects
which leave so many men disabled before they are thirty years
of age; disabled for life from engaging in any handsomely
profitable employment in consequence of a load of indebtedness
which it would take a lifetime to liquidate.

In view of these things, our advice to every young man of
energy, a high spirit, and any respectable calling, is, marry
before you are thirty, even if you have not five dollars ahead.
Take a cabin of a single room, if you can do no better ; live
within your means, whatever Mrs. Grundy may say, and with

NO. I. vol. vii. — 1S60.

18 hall's journal of health.

moderate perseverance, never rising faster than your gains,
things will go well with you, and three times out of four you
will, in a race of twenty years, come out triumphantly ahead of
those who had a small fortune to begin with — theirs having
insensibly dwindled away, while yours is increasing with a
steady and wholesome rapidity.

GREEN PEOPLE.

Some people are as green as the grass they tread upon ; or,
to change the simile, their noggins are as soft as mush ; it is a
wonder they have sense enough to breathe. An individual in
this city has an amount of stupidity which is perfectly refresh-
ing, that is, to one who possesses a temperament like our own,
which breaks out into a horse laugh as loud as a fourth of July
torpedo whenever any thing turns up, which is too insignificant
to be ruffled at, but is so unmistakably simple, as to put one in
a betweenity whether to laugh or growl ; and as no man of the
least common-sense Y/ould choose the latter when he could just
as well indulge in a loud guffaw, so we did have a little quiet
merry-making in receiving a note from the penny-post, charge
two cents, from a name we never heard of, to the effect that the
writer from reading a piece of ours headed Long Life, would be
greatly obliged for our opinion as to whether "smoking" was
injurious to health, and to send a note, with the answer, stat-
ing at the same time whether tobacco was a poison. All we
can say is, that we do not think that any thing could " poison "
this gentleman — we think he must be "impervious" to the ef-
fects of any toxological agent known to us or to any one else.
We really do not think he is capable of being hurt at all.
While we are among the stupidities, brief mention may be
made of one of constant occurrence, and which, by the way,
puts a good many dollars into our pocket in the way of editor-
ial perquisites. We receive from one to five or ten or more dol-
lars at a time from persons whom we do not know, in the way
of subscriptions, purchases of books, opinions, medical advice,
etc. ; but the obstacle to our compliance is in the little item,
that the name of the person is not mentioned, or the post-office
address is omitted altogether as to State, county, or town.

NEW- YORK HOTELS. 19

NEW-YORK HOTELS.

For the convenience of our readers, who are scattered all
over every where, and who may chance to come to the metrop-
olis of the nation, for purposes of business, health, or pleasure,
the notice below is given from the Home Journal, which for
elegance in manner and matter may be considered the first and
best weekly publication of its kind, not only in the Union, but
in the world. In transferring the article to the pages of the
Journal of Health, it is premised that our office and resi-
dence are within three blocks of Union Place Hotel, the Everett
House, and the Clarendon. Consequently we are very near
royalty, for we have long observed that titled persons from
abroad oftener a put up " at one of the three houses named than
elsewhere, for true nobility always seeks retiracy, quiet, and
comfort. "We are not personally acquainted with either of the
" hosts, "and make this mention less for them than for our
readers.

i: Hotel life is so rapidly superseding house-keeping in this
metropolis, that the private residence promises soon to become
a rarity ; and indeed this is not strange when we consider the
exorbitant rents demanded for decent tenements, and contrast
the comforts of our first-class hotels and their well-drilled at-
tendants, with our ten-pin-alley houses all up-stairs, and the
stupid servants that so try the patience of housekeepers. The
hotels of this city have attained such size and magnificence, as
to be among the curiosities for country visitors to see. For-
eigners are especially surprised at their luxury and elegance,
and have taken many valuable hints from their management
and arrangements. The old Astor still continues to be a fa-
vorite among the merchants whose duties require proximity to
their counting-houses, and maintains its reputation for prompt
attendance and bountiful larder. The St. Nicholas is patronized
principally by transient visitors, and persons fond of the excite-
ment inseparable from large crowds. The Metropolitan is pop-
ular on account of its central locality, being near the shops of
Broadway, and most of the places of public amusement. The
New- York Hotel is remarkable for the artistic marvels of the
entres ; and the Brevoort, for the privacy of its suites of rooms
and the excellent family restaurant. The Fifth Avenue Hotel

20

lias been filled since the first day of its opening, and seems to
give satisfaction. A new house always has a rush, and its pop-
ularity afterwards is dependent upon its management. The
Everett is generally preferred by those who remain for any
length of time in town, on account of its beautiful locality— be-
ing opposite Union Square, on the corner of Seventeenth street
and Fourth Avenue — and the admirable management of all the
interior arrangements, in order to afford every attainable com-
fort and enjoyment for its inmates. Its recent proprietor, Mr.
Glapp, has retired from business, and is succeeded by Mr. L. L.
Britton, who has had much experience in keeping hotels, hav-
ing been for twelve years the proprietor of the best house in
Albany. That the excellence of the Everett will be sustained
under the new government, there is every reason to believe.
Mr. Britton is making a few changes that will be very accepta-
ble and attractive. The admirable Union Place Hotel, the St.
Denis, the La Farge, the Clarendon, the Prescott, and other
well-known establishments, are, like those already mentioned,
generally well filled with visitors. This is also the case with
the hundreds of hotels " on the European plan" and the thou-
sands of boarding-houses on no plan at all, which are scattered
every where throughout the city. A monster hotel on Fifth
Avenue, opposite the Central Park, to occupy an entire square,
is in contemplation. It will, of course, make a sensation — when
finished."

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 pre-
paration.

Next to the common white bean, hominy is the most nutri-

HEALTH TRACTS. 21

tious, the most economical, and the most healthful article of ve-
getable 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 maybe 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 desert. The portion laid away can be cut in slices,
about half an inch thick, and fried brown for breakfast, with
or without the addition of syrup, or it may be warmed up
just as it is, or with a little milk, or a tablespoonful or two in a
bowl of good milk, will of itself make a sufficient meal. A
bowl of milk and hominy thus prepared would make a sus-
taining and healthful dinner for a day laborer. If prepared
fresh every day, it can be taken for weeks together with an
appetite and a relish, while it is perhaps not inferior to cracked
wheat as an agency in the healthful regulation of the system.

HEALTH TRACTS.

A gentleman of true benevolence has succeeded in accu-
mulating a large fortune within a half-century's time, beginning
at the bottom round of the ladder, by following two things :
minding his own business and doing good to others. How
many there are who would do well to learn that trade ! It is
simple, useful, and ought not to be hard to learn. What a
grand thing it would be for the whole country, just at this
juncture, had it learned that useful art !

One of his ways of doing good is to print a multitude of one-
paged health tracts at his own expense, and to distribute them
personally broadcast. We gave one of them last month, and
now another. Like a sensible man, when he can't make a
tract to suit himself, he makes a selection from the writings of
those who best please him. It will be seen that at this time
Hall's Journal of Health is his text-book. We commend
the extract to every man who has a mind and a conscience. We
are constrained to say, however, it strikes us as rather odd that
this gentleman should be so mindful and considerate of other
people's wives when he persists in not having one for himself:

HEALTH TRACT, No. 20.

mmn without imwm

A NEW YEAR'S PRESENT FOR TOUR WIFE.

^"Begin with, the January !N"i:im.'ber._^

SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED

I l0iffil 0{ Siiltii

A MONTHLY PUBLICATION",

Price One Dollar per year.

"HEALTH IS A DUTY" INCUMBENT ON ALL.

[from dr. hall's journal of health.]

Health is a duty. — When we announced as a starting-point in the first
number of our Journal that a man ought to keep well, and being sick was
an implied wrong, no doubt it appeared to many rather a rigid doctrine :
to wit, that it is a sin to be side. But men of reflection will not be long in
coming to the conclusion, that if it is not so in some cases, it is so in a vast
number of instances; and a practical man may benefit himself largely, if he
be also conscientious, by inquiring, when incapacitated from discharging
the duties of life by illness, "Is it my fault .?" A servant who cuts off his
hand to avoid labor, does, certainly, a deliberate wrong to the person to
whom he justly owes his labor. And although we may not deliberately
make ourselves sick, yet, if it is done through gross inattention or from
ignorance, the degree of criminality in the latter is but a short distance
from the former.

To use a not uncommon expression, a man has no business to be sick.
In other words, his being a sick man is not always a necessity. People do
not get sick loithout a cause, except in rare cases ; and that cause is, very
generally, within themselves, resulting from inattention, ignorance, or reck-
lessness, either on the part of themselves, their parents, or their teachers.
It is a very poor excuse for a man to say that he can not pay a debt — that
declaration becomes insulting to the creditor — when that inability is the
result of improvidence or actual extravagance. When any man is disabled
by sickness from discharging his duty to himself, his family, or to society,
the question should at once be, " Is it from Heaven or of men V Not of
the former, for it is said He does not willingly afflict the children of men ;
consequently, sickness is not of His sending. It is the result of causes
within ourselves. In a literal sense, as well as a moral, it is true, " 0 Israeli
thou hast destroyed thyself!" In plainer terms, disease is not sent upon us ;
we bring it upon ourselves, and, therefore, health is a duty incumbent on all

A CARD. — PAIN A BLESSING. 23

A CARD.

It is the universal custom with periodical publishers to send
their subscribers a title-page and contents at the end of each
volume for conveniences of binding. Our former publisher
declined doing this, the plates being offered. We supply the
deficiencies in this number to all who renew. To those who
do not, we will send the same, post-paid at our own expense,
on being requested to do so.

In resuming the publication department of the Jouknal of
Health, we expect, as long as we have strength to wink an
eye or wag a finger, to make our issues with some regularity
and promptitude, and in a style of typographical correctness
and mechanical finish which shall be to our pet as creditable as
it is new.

To those of our exchanges who have written to us of late
complaining that for one, two, three, twelve months they have
not received a single Journal, we have to say, that we had no
control over the exchange department last year, and do not
know where to place the fault ; but desiring to make things
pleasant and satisfactory, we will send the missing n ambers to
such of our exchanges as will designate them.

PAIN A BLESSING.

Pain is the sleepless sentinel, always at the outposts, an-
nouncing on the instant the first approach in the distance, of
the great enemy disease ; and that half humanity dies scores
of years "before the time," is because the faithful warning goes
all unheeded. Suppose, for example, a man gets "boozj^," and
falls asleep, if fire gave no pain, he might wake up next morn-
ing minus a foot, or nose, or with a hole in a head, all empty.
A plain case.

24

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HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAT BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] FEBRUARY, 1860. [No. 2.

SLEEPLESSNESS.

A gentleman of superior culture once became deranged, and
after a weary time, at a well-conducted asylum, was restored to
mental health and remained perfectly well. One of the most
striking observations he made in detailing the remembered por-
tions of his history for the period including his aberration, was
that the madness came on him by a slowly-increasing inability
to sleep, and at its height, it seemed to him that he did not sleep
at all; but from the very first day he could get a little sleep, the
mind began to clear, and the two continued ^pari passu until com-
plete recovery.

The experience of medical men of all countries is in striking
accordance with the above. And if a fact so well established
was generally known, many persons would be saved from the
living death of hopeless lunacy, and a large number from the
abhorrent crime of self-destruction.

Sleep is the great renovator of the brain. It is during its
rest, of sleep, that it is nourished and invigorated ; and without
that food of rest in sleep, the mind can no more be sustained,
than the body without food.

One of the very worst economies of time, is that niched from
necessary sleep. The wholesale but blind commendation of
early rising, is as mischievous in practice, as it is errant in theory.
Early rising is a crime against the noblest part of our physical
nature, unless it is preceded by an early retiring. Multitudes of
business men in large cities count it a saving of time, if they can
make a journey of a hundred or two miles at night by steam-

NO. II. VOL. VII. — 1860.

26 hall's journal of health.

boat or railway. It is a ruinous mistake. It never fails to be
followed by a want of general well feeling for several daj^s after,
if, indeed, the man does not return home actually sick, or so
near it, as to be unfit for a full attention to his business for a
week afterwards. When a man leaves home on business, it is
always important that he should have his wits about him ; that
the mind should be fresh and vigorous, the spirit lively, buoyant,
and cheerful. No man can say that it is thus with him, after a
night on a railroad or on the shelf of a steamboat.

The first great recipe for sound, connected, and refreshing
sleep, is physical exercise. Toil is the price of sleep.

To sleep well, a man must be regular in his hours of retiring
and rising, and avoid sleeping in the day-time. Nature will
take healthfully a certain amount of sleep, as she will take
healthfully a certain amount of food, and no more ; all over tends
directly to disease and ends in premature death. In the desire
to avoid eating too much, men have weighed, their food, but
some have eaten too little and died before their time in conse-
quence of an error of judgment. There need be no mistake in
this regard as to sleep in ordinary health, for if a man retires
regularly after judicious and usual eating and exercise, he will,
if let alone, be waked up by nature the very moment he has
had enough of repose for the needs of the system. Instinct
teaches the infant and the mere animal to cease taking aliment
when they have had enough. Infants and animals never have
dyspepsia, if let alone, for nature is the wise apportioner. Thus
is it with sleep. Nature, herself sleepless, wakes us up the
moment we have had enough, if we are not tampered with.
Thus it is with men who live temperately and regularly ; they
wake up within five minutes of the same time morning after
morning. If we go to sleep again, if we take a "second nap,"
nature is thwarted, and the result is, we go to sleep later the
following night, sleep more unsoundly and later in the day ; or
if we get up early, we become insupportably sleepy during the
day-time, and this goes on until we have no refreshing, sweet,
connected sleep, day or night, when the general health begins
to wane and the spirits droop. The laugh is less joyous ; the
countenance less cheerful ; the eye less bright, and the road is
downward ! If at this phase of affairs medicines are given to
promote sleep, it is only an artificial repose ; it does not build up

SLEEPLESSNESS. 27

the system, but soon begins to clog the whole machinery, and in
due time, the wheels of life stop forever. For let it be remem-
bered, that every form of anodyne, whether of hop or poppy,
such as morphine, laudanum, or paregoric, will, if continued
beyond a very few doses, constipate the bowels, take away the
appetite, torpify the liver, and derange the whole digestive
machinery.

Labor, then, physical industry, temperance, and regularity,
are the great panaceas for producing sound, healthful invigorat-
ing sleep. Various substitutes have been adopted to serve as
temporary expedients, some of which may excite a smile, but
all may be of greater or less avail.

1. Fix the thoughts, on getting into bed, on some one thing,
vast and simple ; such as a cloudless sky, or the boundless
ocean, or the ceaseless goodness of the great Father of us all.

2. It has been said that sleep is promoted by lying with the
head towards the north, and not by any means to the west,
because of certain electric currents.

3. A writer recommends to commence rolling the eye-balls
round the circuit of the eye, in the same direction, until sleep
comes.

4. Another avers that a better plan is to place the head in a
comfortable position, shut the mouth, and breathe through the
nostrils only, making an effort to imagine that you see the
breath going out all the time.

5. We have known, on the failure of all forms of anodynes,
the gentle, continuous friction of the soles of the feet with a soft
warm hand, to be admirably successful.

6. "When persons are prevented from sleeping by a slight
hacking cough, sleep is sometimes induced by having two pieces
of muslin, say six inches by four, and three or four folds thick,
to be used alternately thus : have a saucer at hand, half filled with
alcohol, dip one of the cloths into it, then press it out, so as not to
dribble, and lay it across the chest, the upper edge of the cloth
ranging with the collar-bones, let it remain five minutes, then
put on the other, alternating thus (by the nurse) with as little
motion or noise as possible, the patient being on his back in the
bed composed for sleep.

7. A French medical journal advises on retiring, to put five
or six bits of sugar candy, as large as a hazelnut in the mouth,

28 hall's journal of health.

averring that before they are melted the desired effect will have
been produced. This may avail in a case of simple sleepless-
ness, not as the result of any special disease. We would not
advise such an expedient, for persons have been known to lose
life by going to sleep with something in the mouth. If it is
attempted at all, the candy should be placed between the cheeks
and the gums, and the mouth kept resolutely closed.

The general rule is, that persons require seven hours of sleep
in summer, and eight in winter. There are however occasional
exceptions. Women require less sleep than men; possibly
because they are less in the open air, the soporific effects of
which are seen in infants speedily going to sleep when taken
out of doors.

Children require more sleep than those in maturer life. Old
people seem to require very little sleep, except in extreme age ;
but then it is rather a doze, or in short naps. Much of the
credit given to elderly people for early rising is not deserved.
They get up early because they can't sleep any longer ; nature
does not want any more, and they feel better when up and
about than when in bed.

Napoleon the Great, seemed to require very little sleep, and
he had a remarkable facility in going fast asleep at will.
Pichegru said that during a whole j^ear's campaign, he did not
sleep more than one hour in twenty-four. We knew a man,
named Paxton, who having been an engineer or pilot on a
steamboat on the Mississippi, was not able on leaving his em-
ployment to sleep more than three hours out of any twenty-four
for several years, but he died early.

We earnestly advise that all who think a great deal, who
have infirm health, who are in trouble, or who have to work hard,
to take all the sleep they can get, without medicinal means.

We caution parents, particularly, not to allow their children
to be waked up of mornings; let nature wake them up, she will
not do it prematurely ; but have a care that they go to bed at
an early hour ; let it be earlier and earlier, until it is found that
they wake up of themselves in full time to dress for breakfast.
Being waked up early, and allowed to engage in difficult or any
studies late and just before retiring, has given many a beautiful
and promising child brain-fever, or determined ordinary ail-
ments to the production of water on the brain.

NEW-YORK HUSBANDS. 29

Let parents make every possible effort to have their children
go to sleep in a pleasant humor. Never scold or give lectures
or in any way wound a child's feelings, as it goes to bed. Let
all banish business and every worldly care at bed-time, and let
sleep come to a mind at peace with God and all the world.

NEW-YORK HUSBANDS.

!N"o observant man who is daily " on 'change," or promenades
Wall street will fail of the impression that a large number of
our most driving business men drink brandy every day. They
seem stuffed, always full, and scarcely a month passes that the
morning paper does not make the record of some familiar
name : " Died yesterday, suddenly, of disease of the heart."
Further on, we learn from the figures that he has passed away
in the very prime of life, while he ought to have lived a third
of a century longer. A very great deal of this arises from the
abandonment of the old-time custom of merchants living in the
rear or upper part of the building in which they do business.
In fact, "up-town" residences are rapidly working a social
ruin. The old-fashioned dinner hour of noon has become the
most business portion of the day. Not less than two hours are
consumed in going to Union or Madison Squares to dine, and
the merchant who does it would soon go to the wall. If he
goes without a dinner, the exhaustion consequent would unfit
him for the proper performance of his duties. The remedy is
"a snack" or "lunch" at an eating-house, and, from various
pretenses, porter, ale, beer, wine, or brandy are used now and
then, in small quanties at first, steadily increasing in frequency
and in amount, until lunch and brandy are indivisible.

Most men of position, principle, and self-respect hesitate long-
to take brandy at dinner in the presence of wife and children.
Many a man would take it abroad, when he would be very far
from indulging at home, so that the practice of taking the mid-
day meal at an eating-house or a hotel opens an easy door to one
of the very worst forms of intemperance, that is, habitual drink-

30 hall's journal of health.

ing, seldom, if ever, descending to the degradation of actual
drunkenness, yet having " brandy aboard" all the time.

One of the finest legal minds in New- York city died not long
ago. He dropped suddenly dead. The papers all said of
"disease of the heart." His casual acquaintances were not
aware of his being an invalid. When they met him on the
street he was courteous, frank, and manly. There was an
activity in mind and motion, which left the impression of good
health and prosperity. But they never saw him early in the
morning, nor did his family often, for he seldom appeared at
the breakfast table, as he said he had no appetite until late in
the day. He rose late, and went directly to his office near
Wall street, commencing his day's labor with a large drink of
brandy, and it was this which misled those who casually met
him ; it was on this he lived until noon, when he " took dinner
down-town," the almost only meal of the day, made ravenous
by the previous potations, and in order to " carry this load," to
" settle his dinner," to " aid digestion," he drank brandy largely
after dinner, and with this transacted the business of the after
part of the day, and in the evening returned to his family, when
the double excitement of food and drink made him appear so
"fall of life," that his own household were misled as to the
actual condition of his health, and were not awakened from their
delusion until his corpse was one day brought to the door, he
having fallen dead in a drinking saloon.

This is no solitary history, no made-up case, for we knew the
man and his habits. We have known of other men whose fate
was similar. We know men now who are travelling the same
road, and who will soon arrive at the same destination !

To every wife in New- York whose husband " dines down-
town," this narration should carry with it a lesson and a warn-
ing, and however great may be her confidence in her husband,
there ought to be some misgivings and some effort to have him
dine at home ; rather than not do it, the family had a great
deal better move down to " the store," and occupy the spacious
airy "lofts," as they are called, which, with proper fitting up,
would afford a roominess, a cheerfnlness, and a pureness of atmo-
sphere equal to the most favored dwellings on the Avenue or
Murray Hill. The richest private individual in the world, the
Paris Rothschild, lives in the rear of his counting-house, and

NEW- YORK HUSBANDS. 31

his western prototype, our olden friend Sayre, the financier, the
bunker, and the philanthropist, does the same thing, having the
wife of his youth literally at his elbow, his parlor and his din-
ing-room opening into his office, and with such propinquity
they have grown young in love ; age has come without
wrinkles, and prosperity without toil, and, like two young tur-
tle-doves in their affections, they are billing and cooing down
life's pathway, apparently as happy as the happiest. And who
does not know that multitudes in our large cities fail annually
in the great aim of their life in consequence of not living on the
spot where their business is, in consequence of having houses
" up-town" and " out of town," with the additional cost of from
three thousand, at least, to ten thousand dollars a year.

If there are insurmountable objections to the plan suggested,
there is another, which may be regarded as next best. Let the
wife, at least, invite herself down-town to dine with her hus-
band every day, and thus keep away the liquor-bottle ; let her
cheerfulness, her tidiness, her intelligence, her affection, the
brightness of her eyes, and the sweetness of her voice* be the
" seasoning" of each meal, the tonic of each repast ; let her joy-
ous presence be the whetstone of the appetite, the great exhil-
eratorof the spirits, the great waker-up of those ambitions and
energies which are essential to business success.

The dwelling-houses of the business men of New- York are
very little more to them than lodging places. It is the custom
of some to leave their homes in winter, at least, before the child-
ren are up, and return after they are asleep. This is not liv-
ing ; it is more like the unsatisfying life of a man at the
galleys. It may be true that this entire consecration to busi-
ness is not to last many years ; that wealth may begin to roll
in, and elegant leisure come before " fifty;" but from any hun-
dred in this race for gold, who started at twenty -five, take out
the " failures" in money, in character, or in health, not a tithe
are left ; and of that small number, more than half have had
the juices of their affections, their capabilities, and their better
natures so eaten out, there is no substance left, there is no capa-
city for any other enjoyment than that of calculating the cent
per cent than that of clutching gold. "What a prostitution of
the ends and aims of life I

32 hall's jouknal of health.

BEADING ALOUD.

THIS is an accomplishment possessed by so few that a good
reader is almost as rare as a man of common-sense. It is greatly
to be regretted that so little attention is paid to a branch of edu-
cation so agreeable, so important, and so useful. Months of
time and multitudes of dollars are expended on studies which
could be profitably dispensed with altogether, while the cultiva-
tion of the ability to read aloud gracefully is very sadly ne-
glected— in fact, is not considered as by any means an important
acquisition. A beautiful singer delights a whole assembly, a
beautiful reader not only delights but instructs. A fool may
sing divinely. But a good reader must possess mind. Let the
parents then, whose daughters have no taste for music, no ear
for song, but who have hearts and intellects worthy of any man,
give them a chance of showing what they are made of, a chance
of making their way in the world, of cultivating the habit of
reading /doud with care, with grace, with understanding, and
thus put it in their power of bearing their part in the entertain-
ment of any company into which they may be thrown.

But it is to the physical benefits to be derived from reading
aloud, to which the attention is more particularly called. It is
one of those exercises which combines mental and muscular effort,
and hence has a double advantage. It is an accomplishment
which may be cultivated alone, perhaps better alone than under
a teacher, for then, a naturalness of intonation will be acquired
from instinct rather than from art ; the most that is required
being that the person practising should make an effort to com-
mand the mind of the author, the sense of the subject.

To read aloud well, a person should not only understand the
subject, but should hear his own voice and feel within him that
every syllable was distinctly enunciated, while there is an in-
stinct presiding which modulates the voice to the number or
distance of the hearers. Every public speaker ought to be able
to tell whether he is distinctly heard by the farthest auditor in
the room ; if he is not, it is from a want of proper judgment
and observation.

Eeading aloud helps to develop the lungs just as singing does
if properly performed. The effect is to induce the drawing of

HEADING ALOUD. 33

long breaths every once in a while, oftener and deeper than
if reading without enunciating. These deep inhalations never
fail to develop the capacity of the lungs in direct proportion to
their practice.

Common consumption begins uniformly with imperfect, in-
sufficient breathing ; it is the characteristic of the disease that
the breath becomes shorter and shorter, through weary months,
down to the close of life, and whatever counteracts that short
breathing, whatever promotes deeper inspirations, is curative to
that extent, inevitably and under all circumstances. Let any
person make the experiment by reading this page aloud, and
in less than three minutes, the instinct of a long breath will show
itself. This reading aloud develops a weak voice, and makes
it sonorous. It has great efficiency also in making the tones
clear and distinct, freeing them from that annoying hoarseness,
which the unaccustomed reader exhibits before he has gone over
half a page, when he has to stop and hem and clear away, to the
confusion of himself, as much as that of the subject.

This loud reading when properly done, has a great agency in
educing vocal power, on the same principle that all muscles are
strengthened by exercise, those of the voice-making organs
being no exception to the general rule. Hence in many cases ,
absolute silence diminishes the vocal power just as the pro-
tracted non-use of the arm of the Hindoo devotee, at length,
paralyzes it forever. The general plan in appropriate cases is.
to read aloud in a conversational tone thrice a day, for a minute
or two, or three at a time, increasing a minute every other day,,
until half an hour is thus spent at a time, thrice a day, which is.
to be continued until the desired object is accomplished. Man-
aged thus, there is safety and efficiency as a uniform result.

As a means then of health, of averting consumption, of being
useful and entertaining in any company ; as a means of show-
ing the quality of the mind, let reading aloud be considered an;
accomplishment more indispensable than that of smattering
French, of lisping Italian, of growling Dutch, or dancing cotil-
lions, gallopades, polkas, and quadrilles.

From the practice of a life-time, North and South, I am fully convinced^,
that the remedies for disease which are of the most universal application,
and of the most undeviating efficiency, are rest, warmth, and sleep, with
moderate abstinence and exercise. Dr. W. W. Hall,

NO. II. VOL. VII. — 1860.

34 hall's jouknal of health.

SKATING

Is one of the manliest and most invigorating of all forms of
exercise, and it is due to the Commissioners of the Central
Park, to say that the pains taken by them to afford to our citi-
zens the facilities of skating have met with public appreciation.
If the ice did not freeze smooth, it was overflowed and frozen
over again. If the snow fell upon it, it was promptly removed ;
and when the ice became cut up, it was again overflowed, and
thus during the cold weather, thousands and tens of thousands
of men, women, and children have found innocent, exciting,
and healthy amusement. A separate lake of ice was prepared
for the ladies, with an apartment on the bank for convenience
of dressing, resting, warming, etc. On several occasions, espe-
cially on the day celebrated for New Year's, we were one of
the skaters, and among the thousands on the ice at the same
time, we did not hear an oath, an unbecoming, or even angry
word.

HEALTH TRACTS.

The Editor has been solicited at various times, by strangers
as well as friends, to republish articles which have appeared
from time to time in the Journal of Health. This has suggested
a better plan, which is to make a selection of those which are
of more universal application, and have them printed in the
form of tracts for general distribution. The facsimile of each
is given in the following pages. Those of our subscribers who
wish to exercise their benevolence in distributing them, can
have them sent, assorted and post-paid, for twenty -five cents a
hundred. The postage on a single tract is one cent, each piece of
printed paper being liable to a separate postage, but when fifty
or a hundred are sent, printed on one piece of paper, the postage
is the same ; hence they will be sent assorted in pamphlet form,
and they can be easily divided. And as we desire to take care
of number one while we are doing a good turn to number two,
an advertisement of our publications will be found on the re-
verse of each tract ; so being free-hearted, we don't charge for
the advertisement, only for the advice on the opposite page. The
Editor of the Journal of Health is a very generous person,
sometimes, by fits and starts, pretty much according to the state
of the weather, the stomach, and the money-market

35

HEALTH TRACT, No. 1.

INCONSIDERATIONS.

It is inconsiderate to eat when you don't feel like it. Sleepless nature
calls for food when it is needed.

It is inconsiderate to eat to "make it even," to swallow a thing, not be-
cause you want it, but because you do not want it wasted by being left on
the plate, and thrown into a slop-tub ; but then it would have gone to
fattening the pigs or feeding the cows, whereas it goes into your stomach
when not needed, only to gorge and oppress and sicken.

It is inconsiderate to enter a public vehicle, and open a window or door
without the express permission of each of the several persons nearest.

It is inconsiderate to ask persons nearest to a window or door of a public
conveyance to open the same, for you thereby tax their courtesy to grant a
request for your gratification, at the expense of their own preferences, and
thus show yourself to have the selfishness of a little mind, and the manners
of a boor ; for you have no claim on the self-denial of a stranger, nor should
you put such to the risk of injury to health for your mere gratification.
The most that can happen from a too close vehicle is a fainting fit, which
kills nobody, and which would rectify itself in five minutes if simply let
alone ; but an open window in a conveyance has originated pleurisies, in-
flammation of the lungs, sore throat, colds, peritonital inflammations, and
the like, which have hurried multitudes from health to the grave within a
week. The openness of a travelling conveyance has killed a hundred,
where closeness has killed one.

It is inconsiderate to be waked up in the morning as a habit; it is an
interference with nature, whose unerring instinct apportions the amount of
sleep to the needs of the body, nor will she allow that habitual interference
with impunity, under any circumstances.

It is inconsiderate to crowd the doors or vestibules of public assemblies,
whether of worship or of pleasure ; they are for purposes of ingress or
egress, and to stand in them, to lounge or gaze about, to the incommoding ot
a dozen or more persons, within any five minutes, is not only impolite, but
it is impertinent.

It is inconsiderate in passing out of a public assembly to stop an instant
for purposes of salutation or conversation, to the detention of a dozen, or a
hundred, or a thousand who are behind you.

It is inconsiderate to keep a caller waiting in a cold or dark or cheerless
parlor for two, ten, or twenty minutes, to his risk of health or loss of time,
merely for the purpose of showing a style of dress or personal adornment
not habitual, or of making an impression of some kind foreign to the facts
of the case.

It is inconsiderate to take a medicine, simply because it had cured some
one else who had an ailment similar to your own. Of two donkeys on the
verge of utter exhaustion and prostration, the one laden with salt was greatly
refreshed, and had his burden largely lightened by swimming a river ; the
other with a sack of wool by the same operation doubled the weight of his
load, and perished.

36

HEALTH TRACT, No. 2.

SUMMER SOURS

PnxsiOLOGiCAi. research has fully established the fact tbat acids promote the separation of
the bile from the blood, which is then passed from the system, thus preventing fevers, the pre-
vailing 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,*1 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 fur greens
and lettuce and salads in the early spring, tbei-e 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 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 we eat them alone, not taking any liquid with them whatever. Hence also is
buttermilk, or even common sour milk promotive of health in summer time. Sweet milk tends
to biliousness in sedentary people ; sour milk is antagonistic. The Greeks and Turks are passion,
ately ft >nd 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.

THE DIFFERENCE.

When a simpleton wants to get well, he buys something " to take ;" a philosopher gets some-
thing "to do;1' and it is owing to the circumstance, that the latter has been in a minority almost
undistinguishable in all nations and ages, tbat doctors are princes, instead of paupers ; live like
gentlemen, instead of cracking rocks for the turnpike.

POISONOUS BITES.

During the increased travel of summer, the bites from insects and reptiles of various kinds
are of frequent occurrence. Persons of healthful blood are bitten with impunity sometimes,
while those in feeble health suffer distressing, and sometimes fatal, consequences.

Almost all poisonous bites arise from the acidity of the virus; it then follows that an alkali is
the best antidote, because an alkali and an acid are as much opposed to each other as light and
darkness, as sweet and sour, i^id as expedition is sometimes the life of a man, it is of consider-
able practical importance to know what is the most universally available remedy. A handful of
the fresh ashes of wood is the most generally accessible ; pour on enough water, hot is bes-t, to
cover it, stir it quickly, and either apply the fluid part, that is the ley, with a rag or sponge, or
have lees water, and apply a poultice made of simple water and fresh wood-ashes. Eenew the
poultice every half-hour until the hurting is entirely removed. As to minor insects, the relief
is almost instantaneous. The next most convenient remedy is common spirits of hartshorn, a
small vial of which should be in every family, and in every traveller's trunk or carpet-bag, in
summer-time at least. Saleratus, dampened and applied to the wound or stung place, is not as
powerful as hartshorn. It failed recently to cure the sting of a bee, the gentleman dying in con-
vulsions within an hour after he was stung; this arose from some peculiarity of constitution, an
" Idiosyncracy," as physicians term it.

37

HEALTH TRACT, No. 3.

HOW TO CURE A COLD

The moment a man is satisfied he has taken cold, let him do three things

First, eat nothing ; second, go to bed, cover up warm in a warm room ;
third, drink as much cold water as he can, or as he wants, or as much
hot herb-tea as he can ; and in three cases out of four he will be almost
well in thirty-six hours.

If he does nothing for his cold for forty- eight hours after the cough com-
mences, there is nothing that he can swallow that will, by any possibility,
arrest the cold, for, with such a start, it will run its course of about a fort-
night in spite of all that can be done, and what is swallowed in the mean
time in the way of food, is a hindrance and not good.

"Feed a cold and starve a fever" is a mischievous fallacy. A cold always
brings a fever ; the cold never beginning to get well until the fever subsides ;
but every mouthful swallowed is that much to feed the fever; and but for
the fact that as soon as a cold is fairly started, nature, in a kind of despera-
tion, steps in and takes away the appetite, the commonest cold would be
followed by very serious results, and in frail people would be always fatal.

These things being so, the very fact of waiting forty-eight hours gives
time for the cold to fix itself in the system ; for a cold does not usually
cause cough until a day or two has passed, and then waiting two days
longer gives it the fullest chance to do its work before any thing at all is
done.

Intelligent druggists know that all medicines sold for coughs, colds, con-
sumption, and tickling in the throat, contain opium in some form or other.
They repress the cough but do not eradicate it ; hence the first purchase
paves the way for a second or a third ; meanwhile, as it is the essential
nature of opium to close up, to constringe, to deaden the sensibilities, the
bowels do not feel the presence of their contents calling for a discharge, and
constipation is induced and becomes the immediate cause of three fourths
of all ordinary ailments, such as headache, neuralgia, dyspepsia, and piles.

Warmth and abstinence are safe and certain cures when applied early.
Warmth keeps the pores of the skin open, and relieves it of the surplus
which oppresses it ; while abstinence cuts off the supply of material for
phlegm, which would otherwise have to be coughed up.

38

HEALTH TRACT, No. 4.

NINE NEVERS.

Nevee write a letter or a line in a passion.
Never spit or blow your nose on the sidewalk.

Never find a fault until you are as sore as you are of your existence that a fault has been com-
mitted.

Never say what you would do under any given circumstances.

Never disparage another by name in a letter.

Never get in a rage.

Never utter a syllable in a passion.

Never refuse to pay a debt when you have the money in your pocket

Never take physic until you have tried patience.

CAUSES OF DISEASE.

The complaints of people are in a measure innumerable ; every now and then a peculiarity of
ailment is presented which is not recorded in any book extant; just as new questions of law «»re
constantly arising. But while tlie effects of disease are so numerous, the causes of them may bo
reduced down so low as to be all told in the number five:

First— Poisons.

Second — Improper eating.

Third— Yariations of atmosphere.

Fourth— Occupations.

Fifth — Hereditary tendencies ; which last, indeed, is a modification of the first.

Of the four, by far the most frequent causes of disease are found in the food we eat, and in
the air we breathe, the rectification of both of which is within our own power; requiring only a
moderate amount of intelligence, but a large share of moral power, that is, a resolute self-
denial. It thus follows, that death, short of old age, ischargea le to man himself; that in an im-
portant sense, the great mass of those who die short of threescore years and ten, are the authors
of their own destruction. And each should inquire, " To what extent am I chargeable with my
own ailments?"

BURYING ALIVE.

" Tis well," were the last recorded words of the great Washington, uttered in reference to
his burial.

" Do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead," and,
looking earnestly into his secretary's face, he continued, " Do you understand me ?" "Yes," said
Mr. Lear. " 'Tis well," replied Washington, and spoke no more.

The great Dr. Physic left an injunction that a blood-vessel should be severed before he was
buried, in order to make it certain that he was dead.

The marvellous stories put in circulation by the credulous, in reference to the turning of
bodies, and the tearing of the grave-clothes in the fearful struggle for breath, are without any
rational foundation. If a hot iron raises no blister on the skin, or if a severed artery does not
bleed-, there can be no reasonable ground for doubting that death has taken place. These tests
should be applied not sooner than eight or ten hours after the apparent decease.

39

HEALTH TRACT, No. 5.

CARE FOR THE EYES

Peescott, the historian, in consequence of a disorder of the nerve of the eye,
wrote every word of his " Historicah" without pen or ink, as he could not see
when the pen was out of ink, or from any other cause failed to make a mark. He
used an agate stylus on carbonated paper, the lines and edges of the paper being
indicated by brass wires in a wooden frame.

Crawford, the sculptor, the habit of whose life had been to read in a reclining
position, lost one eye, and soon died from the formation of a malignant cancerous
tumor behind the ball, which pushed it out on the cheek.

There are many affections of the eyes which are radically incurable. Persons
of scrofulous constitutions, without any special local manifestation of it, often
determine the disease to the eye by some erroneous habit or practice, and it
remains there for life. It is useful, therefore, to know some of the causes which,
by debilitating the eye, invite disease to it, or render it incapable of resisting
adverse influences.

Avoid reading by candle or any other artificial light.

Reading by twilight ought never to be indulged in. A safe rule is — never read
after sun-down, or before sun-rise.

Do not allow yourself to read a moment in any reclining position, whether in
bed or on a sofa.

The practice of reading while on horseback, or in any vehicle in motion by
wheels, is most pernicious.

Reading on steam or sail-vessels should not be largely indulged in, because the
slightest motion of the page or your body alters the focal point, and requires a
painful straining effort to readjust it.

Never attempt to look at the sun while shining unless through a colored glass of
some kind : even a very bright moon should not be long gazed at.

The glare of the sun on water is very injurious to the sight.

A sudden change between bright light and darkness is always pernicious.

In looking at minute objects, relieve the eyes frequently by turning them to
something in the distance.

Let the light, whether natural or artificial, fall on the page from behind, a little
to one side.

Every parent should peremptorily forbid all sewing by candle or gas-light, espe-
cially of dark materials.

If the eyes are matted together after sleeping, the most instantaneous and
agreeable solvent in nature is the application of the saliva with the finger before
opening the eye. Never pick it off with the finger nail, but wash it off with the
ball of the fingers in quite warm water.

Never bathe or open the eyes in cold water. It is always safest, best, and most
agreeable, to use warm water for that purpose over seventy degrees.

40
. HEALTH TRACT, No. 6.

Hints for the Travelling Season.

At this season many persons contemplate travelling ; to do so with the largest
amount of comfort and advantage, physical, social, and mental, the following sug-
gestions 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 starting 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 with,
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 if not 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 sandwich eaten leisurely in the cars, is better for 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.

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 pretensions.

41

HEALTH TRACT, No. 7.

MUSIC IHIIE.A.X.TIHCIFTTIIL.

Music,' like painting and statuary, refines, and elevates, and
ennobles. Song is the language of gladness, and it is the utter-
ance of devotion. But coming lower down, it is physically bene-
ficial ; it rouses the circulation, wakes up the bodily energies, and
diffuses life and animation around. Does a lazy man ever sing ?
Does a milk-and-water character ever strike a stirring note?
Never. Song is the outlet of mental and physical activity, and
increases both by its exercise. No child has completed a religious
education who has not been taught to' sing the songs of Zion. No
part of our religious worship is sweeter than this. In David's
day it was a practice and a study.

YOUNG- OLD PEOPLE.

Some look old at less than forty ; others beyond threescore have
the vivacity, the sprightliness, and the spring of youth. One of
the most active politicians of the times is now in his seventy-fifth
year, and yet goes by the name of " the ever youthful Palmer-
ston," and with the weight of nations on his shoulders, will
find time to take a rapid ride on horseback daily, from ten to
twenty miles. " The heavy cares and severe labors of the Earl
of Malmesbury average eleven hours a day," and yet at the age
of " fifty years, he is scarcely above forty in appearance." It is
by no means an uncommon thing to read the deaths of men and
women of the English nobility at eighty and ninety years, to be
accounted for in part by their taking time to do things, and
thereby doubling the time for doing them. The British are a
dignified people, manly, mature ; a deliberative people, with the
result of being as a nation, the most solid, the most substantial,
and the greatest on the globe. They are worthy of that great-
ness, and we above all the peoples should be proud of it.
Americans, on the other hand, are a hasty race; their habitual
hurries and anxieties eat out the very essence of life before half
that life is done, and all bloodless, fidgety, skinny, and thin, we
are but " a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away.''

42

HEALTH TRACT, No. 8.

DYSPEPSIA AND DRUNKENNESS.

A drunkaed is never so great a fool as to kill himself; the
dyspeptic is.

More persons are destroyed by eating too much, than by drink-
ing too much. Gluttony kills more than drunkenness in civilized
society.

The dyspeptic kills himself; the drunkard kills others.

The dyspeptic takes his own life under the influence of mental
depression ; the drunkard kills others under the influence of
mental excitement. But, although both are unlike unconscious
at the time of what they are doing — one slaying himself, the
other slaying his fellow-man — the suicide has the sympathies of
society, and finds among it many apologists ; while towards the
drunken murderer of another the feeling is one of vindictive
impatience for the gallows to do its duty.

Both the drunkard and the dyspeptic are unconscious of crime
at the instant of its perpetration. Both states are brought on by
over-indulgence of the appetite ; the one for food, the other for
drink ; and both end in shedding blood.

The dyspeptic lays his plans for self-murder with deliberation ;
the drunkard murders another in the surprise of ungovernable
passion ; and, if deliberation darkens the deed, then is the drunk-
ard the less criminal of the two.

If the drunkard is murderously inclined, it is only for a brief
hour, while the fit is upon him, and he need be watched only for
that time. But the dyspeptic, who is set on his own heart's
blood, must be watched sedulously for days and months, or, the
first moment that the eye is off his movements, he improves to
his ruin.

Few palliate the drunkard's deed, while the dyspeptic meets
with universal sympathy. Should this be so ? What is the
ground for this partiality ? Surely all are called upon to mature
this subject and to inquire, with a feeling of considerable personal
responsibility, if, in the matter of eating, there is a daily watch
against excesses, which so often end in that worst of all crimes,
(because done with deliberation, and is not repented of,) self-
murder !

43

HEALTH TRACT, NO. 9.

USES OF ICE.

In health no one ought to drink ice-water, for it has occasioned 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 possible, not only
without injury, but with the most striking advantage 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, has allayed
violent inflammations of the brain, and arrested 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 miracu-
lous 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
Dlood 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 them 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.

44

HEALTH TRACT, No. 10.

RULES FOR WINTEE

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 in pleurisy, pneumonia, and other
serious forms of disease.

Never sleep with the head in the draft 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
during the night.

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 half-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-rubber in cold, dry weather.

If compelled to face a bitter cold wind, throw a silk handkerchief over
the face ; its agency is wonderful in modifying the cold.

Those who are easily chilled on going out of doors, should have some
cotton batten attached to the vest or other garment, so as to protect the
space between the shoulder-blades behind, the lungs being attached to the
body at that point ; a little there is worth five times the amount over the
chest in front.

Never sit for more than five minutes 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 without 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 permanent loss of
voice, a life-long invalidism.

^^ ^^r^^r ^^ "%^ '

^^; ^^r ^^ ^ ./^

5

)

(

"If you wish to be aided in securing this
habitual carriage of body, accustom yourself,
while walking, to carry the hands behind you,
one 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 fa-
vorite with them, in the simple promenade, in
the garden or gallery, in attending ladies along
a crowded street, in standing on the street, or
in places of public worship.

" Our young men seem to be in elysium
when they can walk arm-in-arm with their di-
vinities. Now, young gentlemen, you will be hooked on quite soon
enough, without anticipating your captivity. While you are free,
walk right in all ways ; and when you are able, get a manly carriage ;
take our word for it, that it is the best way in the world to secure the
affectionate respect of the woman you marry. Did you ever know any
girl worth having, who could or would wed a man, who mopes about
with his eyes on the ground, making of his whole body the segment
of a circle bent the wrong way 1 Assuredly, a woman of strong
points, of striking characteristics, admires, beyond a handsome face,
the whole carriage of a man. Erectness, being the representative of
courage and daring, is that which makes a ' man of presence' in the
hour of impending danger or peril."

"Walking or Sleeping, with the Mouth open.

" There is one rule which should be strictly observed by all in taking
exercise by walking — as the very best form in which it can be taken
by both the young and the able-bodied of all ages — and that is, never
to allow the action of respiration or breathing to be carried on through
the mouth. The nasal passages are clearly the medium through which
respiration was, by our Creator, designed to be carried on. " God
breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life," previous to his becom-
ing a living creature.

" The difference in the exhaustion of strength by a long walk with
the mouth firmly and resolutely closed, and respiration carried on
through the nostrils instead of through the mouth, can not be conceived
as possible by those who have never tried the experiment. Indeed,
this mischievous and really unnatural habit of carrying on the work
of inspiration and expiration through the mouth, instead of through
the nasal passages, is the true origin of almost all diseases of the throat
and lungs, bronchitis, congestion, asthma, and even consumption itself.

"That excessive perspiration to which some individuals are so liable
in their sleep, and which is so weakening to the body, is solely the ef-
fect of such persons sleeping with their mouths unclosed. And the
same exhaustive results arise to the animal system from walking with
the mouth open, instead of — when not engaged in conversation — pre-
serving the lips in a state of firm but quiet compression. Children
should never be allowed to sleep, stand, or walk, with their mouths
open; for, besides the vacant appearance it gives to the countenance, it
aids in producing coughs, colds, and sore throats.

48

PUBLICATIONS OF DR. W. W. HALL,

HEALTH AND DISEASE;

Showing how health may be preserved, and how many serious ailments may be
safely and permanently cured, without risk or expense, by a proper use of food,
warmth, air, exercise, and rest.

The nature, causes, and cure, without medicine, of Constipation, Neuralgia, Sick
Headache, Dyspepsia, and similar Maladies.

The Management of the Voice.

The Cure of Cold Feet.

The Remedy for Unsatisfying Sleep.

The Prevention of Colds.

298 pages, 12rao. Third Edition. $1.

BRONCHITIS AND KINDRED DISEASES.

Ninth Edition. 12mo. pages. $1.

What is Bronchitis ? Its Nature and Causes. How to distinguish it from Con-
sumption, Throat- Ail, or Chronic Laryngitis. How to distinguish it from Bronchitis ;
its Causes, its Prevention, and its Remedies. The value of Topical Application,
Nitrate of Silver, etc., considered.

CONSUMPTION.

Second Edition. 12mo. 290 pages. $1.

The Nature of Consumption.

It very first infallible Symptoms.

The Rules by which to distinguish it from all other Diseases of the Throat and
Lungs.

The importance of the very earliest attention to its first faint beginnings.

The certainty with which it can then be averted.

The rarity of cure when the Lungs have once begun to give way. It never ad-
vises a dose of medicine.

The remarkable efficacy of out-door activities, without any medicine whatever,
in all stages of the disease, illustrated by striking cases in the practice of eminent
physicians in different parts of the country.

The worthlessness of the Nitrate of Silver, of Medicated Inhalations, and various
other remedies.

That without pure air, substantial food, and moderate but long-continued exer-
cise, daily, no medicine yet known has any reliable value.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH. $1 a year; single numbers ten
cents. Address the Editor, Dr. W. W. Hall, 42 Irving Place, New-York.

THE FIRESIDE MONTHLY, edited by Dr. W. W. Hall, 42 Irving
Place, New-York, $1.50 a year, single numbers twelve cents, is devoted to

SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND PRACTICAL LIFE.

It excludes fiction, and although not intended to be a religious publication, it
will always be on the side of

THE BIBLE, THE SABBATH, AND EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY.

It is designed to supply a safe, wholesome, and instructive reading for every
family, and as such is commended to the patronage of the young, and of every
thoughtful parent.

TJie Fireside Monthly and HaWs Journal of Health will be sent to the same sub-
scriber for two dollars a year.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WB AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] MARCH, 1860. [No. 3.

THE LOSS.

Who knows what a single hour may bring forth ? of disap-
pointment, vexation, sorrow, sickness, death, of sweetheart or pet
puppy ! One short hour ago, we toddled off to the printer's with
the copy for the Journal of Health for March in the pocket,
and when nearly there, it was not in the pocket. And what does
the reader suppose was the first emotion ? It was, that it was pro-
vidential ; that most likely there were things in it which ought
not to have been printed ; and next, that we would return forth-
with and make a better number. As for spending time in re-
gretting any past mishap, it is sheer folly ; it can do no good,
and always does harm : for oftentimes the energy spent in vain
regrets, or vexatious moodiness, would more than repair all the
damages.

It was said of a great man that he had been engaged seven
years in preparing a book for the press, and just as he had con-
cluded the tedious task he left his study, to return in a few
moments and find the manuscript burned to ashes ; the light
having been turned over by a favorite little dog. His only ex-
clamation was, " O Diamond ! little dost thou know the injury
thou hast done !" and at once sat clown to repair the loss.

Many a man would have kicked the poor little puppy out of
doors, or hung him up instanter. But where would have been
the philosophy of the thing? Pup "didn't go to do it!" and
besides, his death would not have remedied the mischief.

A month ago we were at the Knickerbocker office. The dis-
covery had just been made that the Magazine, the old-time
favorite of its many thousand readers, and now the greater

no. in.— vol. vil— 1860.

50

favorite, by reason of the life, energy, and force which the
untiring industry and energy Dr. Noyes has thrown into it, had
a dozen pages or more of some other publication bound in among
its leaves. Here was a predicament indeed. It was the day
of publication. To serve it out in that plight, would have dis-
graced the whole establishment. We said to the secretary, who
was looking at the mischief with a pretty long face : " Didn't
you get mad when you found it out ?"

" Get mad ! and then feel mean about it I"

Which one of our readers can lay his hand on his heart, and
say that he has not, many a time and oft, got mad at some unim-
portant thing, and talked and blamed and scolded for " ever so
long," and, when the fume and froth and fury were all gone,
felt as if it would have been the most delightful retreat in the
world to have crept into an auger-hole ; felt so particularly
mean that he could not, by any possibility, have raised courage
enough to look a man in the face ?

The times are numberless at which we have seen travelers,
at home and abroad, on land and sea, suffering the most pitiful
mortification in consequence of some out-burst of passion. Let
the reader feel assured it pays well under all great emotions to
say not a word. It saves conscience, saves dignity, saves self-
respect. "Get mad! and then feel mean about it!" Thank
you, Mr. Green, for the embodiment of an idea of such practical
every- day value, and that too in brave old Saxon monosyllables :

" GET MAD ! AND THEN FEEL MEAN ABOUT IT !"

THE VICTIM.

We have no time to study what subjects we shall treat of
under the circumstances related on our first page, and as to
remembering what we had written, that would be an impossi-
bility. In five minutes the words of the pen are gone from the
memory, utterly bej^ond reach.

But she was just eighteen, the only child of a retired merchant.
Never was there a more indulgent father, never a more doating
mother. That father had spent thirty long years bending over
his desk. How sedulously had he made every entry ! How late

THE VICTIM. 51

in the night of every day was it that he found himself running
over his "blotter" to see if he had forgotten an item ! 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 heart-aches 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 for 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," or
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
night-fall more dead than alive, hungry, tired, dispirited, and
sad, soliloquizing, " What's the use of all this ?" and yet, turn-
ing 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 for me, it's for these !

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. Money 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 " ex-
amination" 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 "interested in
her studies" 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 was buried in her books ; and thus it had
been for weeks, months, may be years. Great nature never

52

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 counseled to abandon school. But as this
was not assented to, we declined special advice. It was inti-
mated that when the examination 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 we 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 out-doors was a treasure to her, and that the early
morning 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 kind-
ness overreached itself. Moral firmness was wanting. And
the school kept on. She graduated with great honor, and in
the following June she died. The desolation of that household
was immeasurable. " I see my error now," said the stricken
father.

How many of our readers will take warning from this unvar-
nished narration of facts, and look with horror on those murderous
stimulations of pride and ambition which are practised 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 blast-
ing of the hopes of a lifetime ; the penalty, an age of desolation,
a going down to the grave in an awful 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 academy
and college and seminary are numberless. Not, indeed, 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 pro-

UNITARIANISM. 53

fessional 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 torture
the body and harrass the mind for the remainder of life, making
it a martyrdom instead of a glory a gladness and an enduring

UNITARIANISM.

Do not be alarmed, reader ! We are a doctor of physic, not
of polemic theology. Besides, we don't believe in blazing away
at the religious beliefs of any body, for who, worth converting,
was ever converted by a doctrinal dispute ? Our general ob-
servation is, that when a man leaves the church of his birth, and
goes over to another, he either is not worth having, in a sense,
or his new friends in course of time wish they had never seen
or heard of him. To this there are exceptions.

The busiest of created beings is the old fellow down yonder.
Not exactly " down" either, we rather think that to say "in and
about us" would be more literally correct. To head him off,
Christian people must be wide awake, and must sleep, if at all,
with one eye open. The necessity for this vigilant look-out, is
especially great in cities, where the personage in question man-
ages so generally to form an alliance, offensive and defensive,
with the editorial fraternity. With the exception of such papers
as the Courier and Inquirer and the Commercial Advertiser, and
perhaps one or two others, no man can tell any morning that he
shall not sit down to his breakfast with an outraged moral or
religious sentiment.

What a poor, unfortunate, commiserable individual is an old
"bach." You can tell him a mile off, more or less. There is a
peculiarity in his physiognomy that is unmistakable. Eight
nice old fellows some of them are, so friendly, so deferential to
the ladies, willing to do almost any thing in the world for them
"in reason!" One of them came navigating around to our
office within a week. We had not seen him for years. He
wanted a "boarding-place." He did not expect to live, merely
to exist. He had been roughing it so long in the world, know-
ing nothing of the softening influences of wife, children, and
home, he seemed to have no ambition, no anticipation of any

54

thing softer than a board, hence he wanted our advice as to an
eligible " boarding" place.

Now for the connection between the old boy, New- York edi-
tors, and this old "bach." The party first above named, as we
said, is always very busy in "farthering his views," and being
up to the ways of the world, he obtains the " assistance" of those
who are most "handy" in aiding and abetting as to matters in
hand. Thus he secures the editors first. So he procured sev-
eral of them to advocate "Unitarianism," which they have done
from time to time within a few months past, rather gingerly at
first, so as to feel the public pulse, to break the ice like, throw-
ing in an objurgatory now and then, so as not to excite special
alarm all at once. One of these papers had gained our confi-
dence somewhat, and through its representation we concluded
to try Unitarianism the first convenient opportunity, which was
"embraced" the moment the old "bach" gave out his idea.
" Try the Unitarian plan awhile," said we.

"Unitarian! botheration on any thing unitarian. I hate
every thing that has a unit about it. I have been a unit all my
life, and I am becoming uniter every day. ' Friend after friend
departs,' he and she, even now, I know almost nobody and
nobody knows me, and very soon there will not be an eye to
weep or a heart to sorrow, when this bag of bones is huddled
into its last resting-place."

We saw that he was touchy, excitable, and fidgety, and at
once put out a mollifying aura, and explained, that there were
"unitary households" in New-York, where there were reported
to be excellent rooms, accommodations, and company, at liter-
ally " cost" prices. This pleased him much, and he started out
on a voyage of discovery. Now, our friend was an exemplary
bachelor, a man of honor, of uprightness and morality. Meet-
ing him on the street, a few days later, we inquired " what pro-
gress ?"

" All very fine. Large house. Prices satisfactory. Splen-
did parlors, faultless mirrors, curtains of the richest kind, and
carpets of the orient,

"Soft as downy pillows are."

"Are you beatifically ensconced therein ? Are you delight-
fully domiciled in such an elysium?"

UNITAEIANISM. 55

': My dear Doctor, not a bit of it. I'm not quite green enough
for that."

" What's the matter?"

;:I don't like the principles of the place."

" Principles ? Why they hav'nt got but one. One principle
and one inference. They believe that 'cost' should be the
'limit of price,' and therefore, the millennium is at hand, as
heretofore every thing has ' cost more than it came to,' hence all
the hard times and misery in the world."

" Now, Doctor ! you have known me at home and abroad, for
very near a quarter of a century. We have slept under the
same tree. We have bedded together on the same blanket on
the boundless prairie, in forests untrodden by white man's foot
before. We have watched at midnight against the common
enemy on the same shipwrecked shore. We have divided to-
gether the last half-pint of water, and through it all, you have
found me a man, and woman's best friend. The principal said
to me : Our ' society' is unexceptionable. We estimate people
from what we see. It is not our business to inquire if any wo-
man is wife, maid, or widow. And now, Doctor, not to misre-
present, for I would not do a solitary human soul the smallest
mite of harm, so I will not pretend to repeat the precise words,
for my memory is poor, and I may not have heard very well, or
the gentleman may have expressed himself imperfectly or awk-
wardly; all I can say is, that the impression made upon my mind,
from what I thought I heard him say was, that he never in-
quired of ladies coming there whether they were maid, wife, or
widow, and when they went away, they were all the same.
Now Doctor, the good book says of the old, that ' fears are in
the way.' I am getting old, and hence must be getting fearful.
There is so much iniquity in this world, that I have become a
boy again, and think there is, or may be, a bug-a-boo behind
every stump ; and may be, my inferences were illegitimate, de-
riving their impression from the auras of the homoeopathic prin-
ciples and entities about me. I am dull too. The brightness
of youth is past. My perspicacity is more or less obtunded.
The problem is beyond my solution. I believe I will stop in at
Prof. Mitchell's on Union Square, only a block away. I under-
stand he can solve problems a million, billion, quadrillions of
miles away, and make them as plain as if you had them in your

o6 HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

hand. The problem which I wanted him to resolve into its
original elements, and to expound with that crystal clearness for
which he is so famous, is simply this, If a lady becomes a Unita-
rian, whether the blooming sweet 'queecher' of enrapturing sev-
enteen, or the captivating widow of twenty-five, or of the angel
wife, pure, loving, and true — I say, what I want to know is this,
how they all come away the same when they get tired of the
place. And if when they become the same, they naturally act
like the people who hold the doctrine of falling from grace, they
turn in and then turn out, and 'try the spirits,' first of one
household and then another, getting to believe in the doctrine
of Cowper, that

' Variety 's the spice of life.' "

We saw at once that our old-time friend was in a fog, just as
dense as the one by reason of which our ship went to the bottom,
leaving us " high and" — wet as drowned rats, to swim for shore
or go right down to Davy Jones' locker. Once again we threw
out the mollifying aura, quieted his nerves, and calmed his ap-
prehensions, by saying he had .better take things by the smooth
handle, and cultivate the amiable spirit of him who "thinketh
no ill" of his neighbor, advising him as we parted on the side-
walk, for we had been standing "stock still" on the same spot
all this time, at the imminent risk of having our eyes gouged out
by the expanded umbrellas of careless pedestrians, that it was
an old-time policy of ours that the safest plan was the best plan
in morals as well as in medicine ; and further, that it was a prime
principle in " doctoring," which common-sense corroborated, that
if a man was made sick by any particular thing once, he should
simply avoid it ever after, and that although very few persons
had sense enough to adopt that rule, we thought there would be
no difficulty in his applying the principle of the thing to the
case in hand, to wit : As it was perfectly certain that being a
unit had injured him, he had better give all unities a wide berth
for the remainder of his days.

"Why Doctor ! you are eloquent in this drizzle; cold water
don't squench your oratory. You have convinced me, sir. I
will take you hereafter, not only as my doctor, but as my priest.
I'll pin my faith to the very tipmost extremities of your trowser-
loons. I despise unity in any shape, matter, or form ; it is my
inmost antipathy. My stars ! what handsome young lady was

PHYSIOLOGY. 57

that who passed just now ? I'll step up and lend her my ' urn-
brell.' Oh ! that's cousin Loo, she is over at the ' Everett,' the
handsomest woman in New- York, a poetess too, rich, a wife and
mother." His eyes fell, and he walked slowly and sadly away,
muttering, "Every body double and happy but me," ending in
a strain of song

" I won't be an un."

We heard no more. We are huge on being strictly literal,
and suppose that if we had heard the remainder of the sentence
it would have run thus :

"I won't be an unitarian."

Reader, may be he is, like you, wise too late I

PHYSIOLOGY.

Among the curses of modern times, greater than that of
"the yellow-covered literature," or the infidel magazine, or the
fiction-crowded monthly, are those innumerable little books,
known usually by the heading of this article. They are written
by unprincipled men or men so ignorant, that their impudence
should be considered a crime. Their object is, by " illustra-
tions," to induce a purchase, and then, by various means, to
inflame the imagination and play upon the credulity of the
reader first, and his fears next, so that by the time the end of
the volume is reached, he is impressed with the profound
knowledge of the writer, his undoubted skill, and the necessity
of having the benefit of both speedily, and without regard to
cost, to remedy existing imagined evils in his own case.

We are in the very frequent receipt of letters from various
institutions of learning, showing clearly that the writers have
long been laboring under an agony of apprehension as to all
sorts of possible ills, and three times out of four with the con-
fession that they have paid their money, sometimes reaching
hundreds of dollars without having received the desired benefit.
Sometimes, more than that, very often their letters show an
amount of mental disquietude to have existed for years, enough
to have sent the writers to a lunatic asylum. Some of these

58

letters come from a class of persons which we do not choose to
name, and whom we would suppose would be ashamed to be
found reading a duodecimo on " Physiology." Parents owe it
to themselves to prevent their children from owning such books.
In fact, in times like these, when mental poisons are distributed
from sources which hitherto were considered respectable, when
it is rare to find a publishing-house which is proof enough
against the temptation to turn a penny, to refuse to print an
article or a book written by a selling name, even if it has a no
very hidden squinting towards obscenity or infidelity, we say
that in such times, it becomes judicious parents to let both sons
and daughters know in plain terms that no book is to be pur-
chased or read by them without its being first submitted to their
inspection, and that no newspaper, or magazine, or other period-
ical should be taken which was not uniformly on the side of the
Bible, the Sabbath-day, and a sound morality. But the truth
is that there is no magazine published in the United States, in
our knowledge, which is suitable for common family reading of
a practical, safe, and truthful character, unless they are so de-
cidedly in the interests of a particular religious denomination as
to disincline those not of that denomination to patronize it.
The Fireside Monthly is such a periodical as one would
think would have a wide circulation. It excludes fiction. It
contains always plain, practical family articles, striking histories
of the actual and true, articles suitable to the young and old?
short, pertinent, and pure. It is not in the interest of any reli-
gious denomination, nor does it profess to be a religious publi-
cation at all. It is devoted to u science, literature, and practi-
cal life," but is by no possibility ever against the Bible, the
Sabbath, the ministers of the Gospel, or an evangelical Christ-
ianity. It is not only not unacceptable to any sect of Christ-
ians, or party of politics, but can not fail to be read with
interest and profit by any family, and yet nobody thinks of
patronizing such a publication. At the age of six months it
has not obtained a hundred subscribers. We make it pay, but
no thanks to the public appreciation. We mention this as a
striking indication of the taste of the times, of its vitiated cha-
racter. The rage for pictures and fiction is such that publica-
tions which abound in both, sell by scores of thousands every
week. "These things are not mentioned with any expectation

DEATH-BED REPENTANCE. 59

tliat any special change will take place in consequence of it,
but merely as an item of suggestive information to our habitual
readers, and with the hope of impressing their minds with the
practical fact that as the public taste is so generally vitiated as
to the character of its reading, men without any high moral
principle will fall in with the current, and will publish what-
ever will pay, making it necessary for those parents who really
love their children to exercise a strict supervision over all they
read, and especially the books referred to.

These books first acquaint the boy with the practices referred
to, with the almost inevitable result of falling into them, or if
they have been learned before, the fears of the reader are so
worked upon that the most erroneous impressions are produced,
impressions which lead to the injury, literally of "soul, body,
and estate." If the mind is disturbed, do not apply to any
"Association," to any man at a distance, but to a physician of
respectability in your own town, and you will almost always
find that your fears are almost if not wholly groundless. Where
the trouble does exist, remember this plain fact, no medicine
ever cured it. It may suppress for a time, to return inevitably.
The only efficient remedy is in the right ordering of the habits
of life and in the exercise of force of will.

DEATH-BED REPENTANCE.

An old negro was on his dying-bed. Some one had done
him a great injury, the forgiveness of which his faithful minis-
ter had labored hard to induce him to profess. At length,
when just on the verge of the border-land, a strong last appeal
was made :

" Tom, won't you forgive him ?"

" Well, Massa, if I'm going to die, I suppose I must ; but if
I ever do get well, I'll give him another dig."

Our own impression, from long and special observation, is,
that death-bed repentances have no reliable value ; it is the re-
pentance of desperation ; there is no alternative, but that of the
preached perdition! the straw is eagerly clutched at spas-
modically, and not with a clear, discriminating, and intelligent

60 hall's journal of health.

faith. The whole Bible gives but one saving case ; one, that
none might despair ; only one, that none might presume !

Of all living men, the physician feels most deeply that a sick-
bed is the unfittest of all places for that mental composure
which must be essential to a proper attention to the "great
concern."

In this light, the parading of the professed contrition of crim-
inals through the newspapers is most injudicious ; it is an un-
mixed evil. Its tendency on the minds of the living, the des-
perate especially, is pernicious. The soliloquy runs thus: "I
knew him well. He was a scoundrel of the deepest dye, yet he
died happy, and I can do the same thing — live a rascal and die
a saint." Thus the fear of death and retribution is blunted, and
the way paved for a greater abandonment to all wrong-doing.
Hence the clergyman who steps in, and allows himself to be
made a tool of in this regard, desecrates his holy office, and must
be pitied for his ignorance or despised for his presumptuous im-
pertinence.

A most remarkable case of this kind has occurred within a
few days. Two clergymen, whose names were unknown to
fame before, and we do not propose by mentioning them, to illus-
trate them into a greater obscurity, published in the daily pa-
pers, under their own signature, that the man just hanged was in
their opinion innocent of the crime charged against him, and
that they believed he died a Christian. Such a declaration was
equivalent to bringing the law into contempt, a thing which a
good citizen will never do. It was calculated to foster a spirit
of hatred on the part of the friends of the deceased, and very
many others, against the sheriff, jury, judges, the Governor of
the State, and against law itself, which is the shield of all good
men, and, as Paul says, "The ordinance of God."

This man was hanged for murdering his wife by administering
poison, indicating the utmost deliberation — giving her poison
while nursing her in her sickness ! she, in her weakness, and
all confiding, receiving it in love, as a means of cure. It is diffi-
cult to conceive of a more unpardonable crime. The poison was
found in her stomach after death. The jury condemned him;
the judge acquiesced in the wisdom of their decision. The case
was tried a second, if not a third time, with the same result. It
was then taken from court to court, with the same unvarying

EXCITEMENT. 61

verdict. The Governor of the State was appealed to in the last
extremity, known of all, especially in the city of New-York, to
be humane and generous beyond most men of his time ; but he
is also known to be judicious and inflexibly just. He declined
to interfere with the course of the law, because he saw not a sin-
gle point which could justify him in the exercise of his authority
— not coming to this conclusion until he had carefully examined
the whole case, with the aid of his official counsellor. And yet,
here are two men, with a presumption literally unparalleled,
who come forward and give the public, who had never heard of
them before, their opinion, that this man was judicially mur-
dered, because — he said he was innocent ! when up to within
forty-eight hours of his execution he had carried a revolver,
either to shoot himself or the warden — fiercely denying, with
pretended indignation, that he had a deadly weapon at all,
which, however, he confessed he did have, when the officer took
it out of his pocket ! " He said he was innocent !" as if a man
who would poison his wife, and carry a revolver for weeks,
seeking an opportunity to use it on the warden of the prison,
when by it a chance of escape occurred, as if such a man's word
was to be believed ! If clergymen begin to aid in bringing the
law of the land into contempt in this and other ways, the sooner
all good people abandon it, the better. For if the law does not
reign supreme, crime, debauchery, unthrift, destitution, disease,
and death will. If the watchmen sleep, who shall guard the
shepherds ?

EXCITEMENT.

As a specimen of "the ways and means" for titillating the
moral tastes of the people, we give a few of the fifty-four
" Eeligious Notices" contained in the paper for Saturday, Feb.
11th. At the "head of the heap" is :

THE PURPLE AND FINE-LINEN GENTRY are not invited to Room No. 5,
for they have received their consolation, (Luke 6 : 24 ;) neither are the swinish
and doggish multitude, for we are commanded not to cast pearls before swine, nor
to give things holy unto dogs, (Matt. 8:6;) nor are the Pharisees, lay and reverend,
who outwardly appear to men to be righteous, (Matt. 23 : 28 ;) but we do invite,
most cordially and respectfully, all honest and good-hearted sinners of all classes
to meet us there at 10| A.M. every SUNDAY — all who desire to understand the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which can alone make a man wise unto
salvation, (1 Tim. 3 : 15, 17.) The seats all free, and the teaching without money
or price, (Isa. 54 ; 1, 4.)

62 hall's journal of health.

No. 2 is, "Dr. Cahill vs. Protestantism." No. 3, "Absalom,
the ' Fast Young Man.' " Then another gentleman with a
double D and a D. Y., promises to prove that the " Eoman
Catholics worship Saints, Angels, and Images." Another man
asks, in large letters, "Are we to continue killing people accord-
ing to law?" ending with a question in small letters : "Is uni-
versal salvation possible ?" Next, "The messenger of the coming
Saviour holds meetings" at, etc. Another, "The friends of
religious liberty are invited to hear an exiled minister of Ken-
tucky." Another " G-ent" " lectures" on " marriage." This is
certain to draw the young folks who want to get married, and
who would like to learn the best mode of doing it. But is this
the way to " win souls" ? The Keverend Mistress Blackwell
Brown preaches on "Divine Impartiality." An enterprising
" Baptist" preaches " at the Baptistery" on the " Glory of Bap-
tism." There is Bap all the way through. Bapto, Baptizo,
Babble. The rear is appropriately brought up by the little end
of nothing sharpened. " Andrew Jackson Davis is engaged to
speak, etc. etc.," and finally "Mrs. Cora L. Y. Hatch will speak
at 3J and 7£ o'clock at, etc."

The great mass of subjects named in the fifty -four notices are
of a controversial character, and assuming that all are sincere,
good people, it presents a sad spectacle of brother going to war
against brother; and is equal to an invitation : "Come and see how
well I can fight." Hyer, Heenan, Sullivan, etc., have often given
precisely the same invitation. But suppose all these men were
to change their subjects to such as these, " Come and see what
the Lord hath done for my soul," "Eepent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand," the burden of the whole being " Peace
and good- will to men and glory to God in the highest ;" if such
were the tenor and spirit of every discourse, it is reasonable to
suppose a much larger measure of good would be accomplished
on any Sabbath day.

All this kind of thing is theological quackery, and no durable
good can come of it. No man can fill his church by advertis-
ing. The very necessity of it, shows that these men have no
solid reputation or ability, any more than advertising doctors
have. Medical quackery brings on insidious diseases, more
destructive than those they attempt to cure. Moral and reli-
gious quackery will do the same thing.

SUCCESSFUL MEN".

SUCCESSFUL MEN

"Who are they ? They are those who, when boys, were com-
pelled 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 who have greatly distinguished themselves, we find their
whole youth passed in self-denials, of food, and rest, and sleep,
and recreation. They sat up late, and rose early to the perform-
ance of imperative duties ; doing by day -light 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 almost impassable ;
but the way has cleared, sunshine came, success followed, then
the glory and renown !

A young man writes us : "I am an 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, stitch-
ing, 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 ! For he has the two great elements
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 effort and a glorious fruition, disease, crippling the
body, depressing the mind, and wasting and wearing away the

64 hall's jouknal of health.

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, standing on the
borders, looking wistfully, oh ! 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 sacri-
ficed ; pitilessly, remorselessly sacrificed by inattention and
sheer ignorance ; learned in every thing else ; critically in-
formed in every thing else ; perfect masters of every thing 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 a mind accustomed to think.

Within a few months two men have died in the very prime
and vigor of mental manhood, being not far from fifty, one the
first scholar of his time ; the other, one of the very best and
most useful men of the age ; both of them the victims of wrong
habits of life ; habits framed in youth, and utterly repugnant 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
meals ; taking for supper only a piece of cold bread and butter
with a single cup of any warm drink.

3. Go to bed not later than ten o'clock, and never remain
there longer than eight hour3 at farthest, not sleeping a moment
in the day-time.

4. Cool off with the utmost slowness after all forms of ex-
ercise ; never allowing an instant's exposure to the slightest
draught of air while in a state of rest after that exercise.

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 out-door 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.

NOTICE. 65

NOTICE.

Having repaired the loss of twenty -four hours ago, by a new
programme of subjects, we trust that it will cost no one any
thing, except a hard day's work for ourselves. If the finder of
our manuscript for March can make any thing out of it, or can
decipher enough to learn that it belongs to 42 Irving Place, we
may be saved some work for April. If it never comes to hand,
we will only say, that there were valuable crumbs of comfort
given to Northern men with Southern principles, or Southern
principles with Northern men, or Northern principles Southern,
or something of that sort. It's all mixed up some how, and our
mishap has put us in such a hurry we hadn't half time to enjo}r
the turkey-dinner to-day specially provided for our children,
who were all at home from school. Our Southern correspond-
ent who inquires of us so courteously to know whether we were
on the fence, on the great black and white question, has, no
doubt, leisure to unravel the complication. Most Southerners
have time, because they have other people to do the work for
them. Wish some body would come and work for us a spell.
In the event, however, that he is not disposed to thus emplo}7-
himself, we advise that he purchase the six bound volumes of
Hall's Jouknal of Health, price only seven dollars ! and he
will be certain to find interspersed through its pages, not only that
we have thought and written about slavery, but that much good
advice about health and good morals has also been given, the
practice of which will be well calculated to make him a wise,
healthy, happy, and good man, if he is not so already. We will
vouchsafe this much, however, that in a sense we are on the fence,
which pre-supposes that we are also out of the mud, above the
fierce combatants; looking complacently down on the indig-
nation of the one, and the needless excitement of the other. It
must not be supposed, however, that we have no creed, or are
afraid of our faith ! Not a whit more than the editors of the
New - York Observer are supposed by some to be. Our principles
are solid, substantial, valuable. They are the principles of nine
tenths of the sensible and insensible men North and South, with
the wromen and children thrown in. In fact, we go with the
majority. Like the London Times we sail with the tide. We

66 hall's journal of health.

follow the straws. That is the reason we get along so smoothly.
Having thus plainly declared our creed, we take leave, with all
due respect, of our Southern correspondent, with the request
that he will send us a telegram, at his earliest convenience, when
he has got hold of the right end of the string.

SF. B. — To our other subscribers, who have not the advantage
of having the "key" which is in the possession of our corre-
spondent, we will merely say that the principles of which we
have spoken in such high terms are seven in number, to wit :
" The five loaves and two fishes."

A REWARD.

Fifteen cents will be paid to the finder and deliverer at
Forty-Two Irving Place, New- York, of a roll containing, first,
a piece of a newspaper covering a copy of the February Num-
ber of Hall's Journal of Health, and eleven smaller rolls of
the off-sheets of old letters, etc., containing a great variety of
hieroglyphics pertaining more or less directly to the following
subjects :

Knowing and Unknown. " Surfeiting and Drunkenness."

Northern Butcheries. Life Saved.

Health and Palmerston. Faulty Construction of Churches.

Fever and Ague. Instinct of Appetite, etc., etc.

Ten cents will be paid for the Journal alone, or five cents
and no thanks for the manuscript.

Railroad Safety. — Of the millions of passengers traveling in the cars of
the New-Jersey Railroad, in a quarter of a century, not a single life has been
lost of any passenger who was in his proper place at the time of any acci-
dent. The Camden and Amboy road has never been operated with greater
regularity, safety, and comfort to passengers than now. :

Sewing-Machines. — The wife of one of the most prominent and influential
citizens said yesterday, if "Wheeler and Wilson's Sewing-Machines had the
patent needle threader, requiring little use of the eye, it needed nothing more
to be a perfection. Why don't they have it ?

Dr. John Ellis has published, at room No. 20 Cooper Institute, New-York,
a dollar book of 348 pages on The Avoidable Causes of Disease, Insanity, and
Deformity, under the motto : "The prevention of disease is better than its
cure." It contains a vast amount of interesting, reliable, and practical in-
formation. We recommend it because he is worse than a homoeopath : he
gives no medicine at all. H. B. Price, publisher, 884 Broadway, keeps it.
Postage ten cents extra.

67
HEALTH TRACT, No. 14.

WINTEE SHOES.

(From HalVs Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, New- York.)

Like the gnarled oak that has withstood the storms and thunderbolts of centuries, man him-
self begins to die at the extremities. Keep the feet dry and warm, and we may snap our
fingers in joyous triumph at disease and the doctors. Put on two pair of thick woollen stockings,
but keep this to yourself ; go to some honest son of St. Crispin, and have your measure taken for
a stout pair of winter boots or shoes ; shoes are better for ordinary, every-day use, as they allow
the ready escape of the odors, while they strengthen the ankles, accustoming them to depend on
themselves. A very slight accident is sufficient to cause a sprained ankle to a habitual boot-
wearer. Besides, a shoe compresses less, and hence admits of a more vigorous circulation of blood.
But wear boots when you ride or travel. Give directions also to have no cork or India rubber
about the shoes, but to place between the layers of the soles, from out to out, a piece of stout hemp
or tow-linen, which has been dipped in melted pitch. This is absolutely impervious to water — does
not absorb a particle, while we know that cork does, and after a while becomes " soggy" and
damp for a week. When you put them on for the first time, they will feel " as easy as an old
shoe." and you may stand on damp places for hours with impunity.

CURE FOR CORNS.

Corns are caused by too tight or too loose shoes, and sometimes in the bottoms of the feet by
the wooden pegs protruding through the soles of the shoe, by the neglect of the maker to rasp them
off sufficiently smooth.

Medical books record cases where the injudicious paring of corns has resulted in mortification
and death. The safest, the best, the surest plan is to never allow a corn to be touched with any
thing harder than the finger-nail. As soon as it becomes troublesome enough to attract attention,
soak the foot fifteen minutes, night and morning, in quite warm water ; then rub two or three
drops of sweet oil into the top of the corn, with the end of the finger. Do this patiently for a
couple of minutes. Then double a piece of soft buckskin, something larger round than a dime,
rather oblong. Cat a hole through it large enough to receive the corn, and thus attach it to the
toe. This prevents pressure on the corn, which always agravates it, and in less than a week the
corn will generally fall out, or can be easily picked out with the finger-nail, and will not return for
many weeks or months ; and when it does return, repeat the process. No safer or more efficient
plan of removal has ever been made known.

NEW SHOES MADE EASY.

All part from an old shoe with special reluctance, because of the easiness of its adaptation to
the foot. To put on a " bran new" boot or shoe, with the easy fitting of the discarded old one.
is well worth knowing how to do. It is only necessary to keep a secret. Before you have your
measure taken, put on two pair of thick stockings, and let Crispin go ahead. The new pair will be
almost as easy as the old.

68
HLALTH TRACT No. 15.

GROWING BEAUTIFUL.

{From HalVs Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, New- York.)

Persons may outgrow disease and become healthy by proper attention to the laws of their
physical constitution. 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 crowfeet, and furrows, and wrinkles, and lost teeth, and gray
hairs, and bald head, and tottering limbs, and limping most sadly mar the human form divine.
But dim as the eye is, as pallid and sunken as may be the face of beauty, and frail and feeble that
once strong, erect, and manly body, the immortal soul, just fledging its wings for its home in
heaven, may look out through those faded windows as beautiful as the dew-drop of a summer's
morning, as melting as the tears that glisten in affection's eye — by growing kindly, by cultivating
sympathy with all human kind, by cherishing forbearance towards the follies and foibles 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.

WE^K EYES.

WILLIS ON HALL.

(From the Home Journal of Jan. 28, 1860.)

A Good Hall. — A " very good haul," indeed, does he get, every month, who with a net
dollar, takes the "Journal of Health," edited by Hall the Doctor ! Of the pocket-wisdom most
wanted, plain, pithy and pertinent, this little periodical, in our opinion, is the very purse. Now,
what weak-eyed man or woman, for instance, will not be wiser for the following : " Many who
are troubled with weak eyes, by avoiding the use of them in reading, sewing, and the like, until
after breakfast, will be able to use them with greater comfort for the remainder of the day, the
reason being, that in the digestion of the food the blood is called in from all parts of the
system, to a certain extent, to aid the stomach in that important process; besides, the food
eaten gives general strength, imparts a stimulus to the whole man, and the eyes partake of their
share."

The Door-bell Requiem. — To the belle men no longer adore, a door-bell tolls the requiem,
(with its fewer-and-farther betweenities on New-Year's day,) or so seems to think Dr. Hall. Ah !
the poetry there is — or might be — under the following statement of it in prose ! " There are
maiden ladies, who, some years ago, numbered 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. Formerly, when youth and beauty were theirs, the door-bell
began to tingle as soon as the clock struck nine of the morning, with scarcely an intermission
until it verged toward midnight. But now how great the change ! Merry voices are 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, former visions begin to assume more tangible
shapes and the embodied idea stands out in high relief— Pass'ee /"

HEALTH TRACT, No. 16.

MEASLES AND CONSUMPTION.

{From Rail's Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, New- York)

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-conduct-
ed 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 for an experienced physician. Meanwhile keep the
patient in a cool, dry, and well-aired room, with moderate
covering, in a position where there will be no exposure to
drafts of air. The thermometer should range at about sixty-
five degrees, where the bed stands, which should be moderately
hard, of shucks, straw, or curled hair. Gratify the instinct for
cold water and lemonade. It is safest to keep the bed for seve-
ral 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 out 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
off too quickly afterwards, and to save the danger of exposure
to drafts of air, which, by chilling the surface, causes chronic
diarrhoea, if it falls on the bowels ; deafness for life, if it falls on
the ear ; or incurable consumption, if it falls on the lungs.

The easiest method of securing an erect and manly carriage is
to walk with the chin slightly above a horizontal line, as if
looking at something higher than your own head.

70
HEALTH TRACT, No. 17.

sa.bb-a.th: physiology.

{From HaU's Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, New-York.)

Thb Almighty rested one seventh of the time of creation, commanding man to observe an equal
repose. The neglect of this injunction will always, sooner or later, bring mental, moral, and phy-
sical death.

Rest is an invariable law of animal life. The busy heart beats, beats ever, from infancy to
age, and yet for a large part of the time it is in a state of repose.

William Pitt died of apoplexy at the early age of forty-seven. When the destinies of nations
hung in a large measure on his doings, he felt compelled to give an unremitting attention to af-
fairs of state. Sabbath brought no rest to him, and soon the unwilling brain gave signs of ex-
haustion. But Ms presence in Parliament was conceived to be indispensable for explanation and
defense of the public policy. Under such circumstances, it was his custom to eat heartily substan-
tial food, most highly seasoned, just before going to his place, in order to afford the body that
strength and to excite the mind to that activity deemed necessary to the momentous occasion.
But under the high tension both brain and body perished prematurely.

Not long ago, one of the most active business men of England found his affairs so extended,
that he deliberately determined to devote Ids Sabbaths to his accounts. He had a mind of a wide
grasp. His views were so comprehensive, so far-seeing, that wealth came in upon him like a flood.
He purchased a country seat at the cost of $400,000, determining that he would now have rest and
quiet. But it was too late. As he stepped on his threshold after a survey of his late purchase, he
became apoplectic. Although life was not destroyed, he only lives to be the wreck of a man.

It used to be said that a brick kiln " must be kept burning over the Sabbath ;" it is now
known to be a fallacy. There can be no " must" against the divine command. Even now it is a
received opinion that iron blast furnaces will bring ruin if not kept in continual operation. Eight-
een years ago, an Englishman determined to keep the Sabbath holy as to them, with the result, as
his books testified, that he made more iron in six days than he did before in seven ; that he made
more iron in a given time, in proportion to the hands and number and size of the furnaces, than
any establishment in England which was kept in operation during the Sabbath.

In our own New-York, the mind of a man who made half a million a year, went out in the
night of madness and an early grave in only two years, from the very strain put upon it by a
variety of enterprises, every one of which succeeded.

" It will take about five years to clear them off," said an observant master of an Ohio canal-
boat, alluding to the wearing-out influences on the boatmen, who worked on Sabbaths as well as
other days. As to the boatmen and firemen of the steamers on the Western rivers, which never
lay by on the Sabbath, seven years is the average of life. The observance, therefore, of the
seventh portion of our time for the purposes of rest is demonstrably a physiological neces-
sity— a law of our nature.

71
HEALTH TRACT, No. 18,

THE BEST HAIE-WASH.

{From HalVs Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, Neio-York.)

A Southern correspondent says: "In the matter of a hair- wash, in a recent
number of the Journal of Health, I have received a thousand times its cost,
and it has also been a benefit to many others."

Make half a pint soap-suds with pure white soap and warm water, on rising any
morning ; but before applying it, brush the whole scalp well, while the hair is per-
fectly dry, with the very best Russia bristle brush, scrub back and forth with a
will, let not any portion of the surface escape. When brushing the top and front,
lean forward, that the particles may fall. After this operation is finished, strike
the ends of the bristles on the hearth or on a board, next pass the coarse part of
the comb through the bristles ; next, brush or flap the hair back and forth with
the hand until no dust is seen to fall ; then with the balls of the fingers dipped in
the soap-suds, rub the fluid into the scalp and about the roots of the hair; do this
patiently and thoroughly. Finally, rinse with clear water, and absorb as much of
the water from the hair as possible with a dry cloth ; then (after allowing the hair
to dry a little more by evaporation, but not to dry entirely) dress it as usual,
always, under all circumstances, passing the comb through the hair slowly and
gently, so as not to break any one off, or tear out any one by the roots.

By this operation the alkali of the soap unites with the natural oil of the hair,
and leaves it perfectly clean and beautifully silken, and with cold water washings
of the whole head and neck and ears every morning, it Avill soon be found that
the hair will " dress" as handsomely as if " oiled to perfection ;" with the great ad-
vantage of conscious cleanliness, giving, too, the general appearance of a greater

profusion of hair than when it is plastered flat on the scalp, with variously scented

hog's fat, as is the common custom.

It has been recently established, in a court of justice in the city of New- York,

that one of the most popular hair-washes ever known was made by adding a little

alcohol, scented with a perfume, to common soap-suds.

72
HEALTH TRACT, No. 19.

WEARING FLANNEL.

(From HalVs Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, New-York.)

In our climate, fickle in its gleams of sunshine and its balmy airs, as a co-
quette with her smiles and favors, consumption bears away every year the
ornaments of many social circles. The fairest and loveliest are its favorites.
An ounce of prevention in this fatal disease is worth many pounds of cure, for
when once well seated, it mocks alike medical skill and careful nursing. If the
fair sex could be induced to regard the laws of health, many precious lives might
be saved ; but pasteboard soles, the low-neck dresses, and lilliputian hats, sow an-
nually the seeds of a fatal harvest. The suggestion in the following article from
the Journal of Health, if followed, might save many with consumptive tendencies
from an early grave :

" Put it on at once ; winter and summer nothing better can be worn next to the
skin than a loose red woollen shirt ; ' loose,' for it has room to move on the skin,
thus causing a titillation which draws the blood to the surface and keeps it there ;
and when that is the case no one can take cold ; ' red,' for white flannel fulls up,
mats together, and becomes tight, stiff, heavy and impervious. Cotton-wool
merely absorbs the moisture from the surface, while woollen flannel conveys it from
the skin and deposits it in drops on the outside of the shirt, from which the ordi-
nary cotton shirt absorbs it, and by its nearer exposure to the air it is soon dried
without injury to the body. Having these properties, red wool flannel is worn by
sailors even in the midsummer of the warmest countries. Wear a thinner material
in summer."

TO COISTSUMPTIVES.

You want air, not physic ; you want pure air, not medicated air ; you want nu-
trition, such as plenty of meat and bread will give, and they alone ; physic has no
nutriment ; gasping for air can not cure you ; monkey-capers in a gymnasium can
not cure you ; and stimulants can not cure you. If you want to get well, go in for
beef and out-door air, and do not be deluded into the grave by advertisements and
unreliable certifiers.

THREE ESSENTIALS.

The three great essentials to human health are: Keep the feet always dry
and warm ; Have one regular action of the bowels every day ; and Cool ofl
very slowly after all forms of exercise.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAT BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] APRIL, 1860. [No. 4.

BREAD AND MILK.

The " staff of life" is different in different countries. In Ken-
tucky, it is " hog and hominy," and that it " agrees" pretty
well with the people, is evidenced from the fact, that in our
native county, and which may be considered the model county
of the State, in respect to the richness of its soil, the weight of
its pigs, the fatness of its cattle, and the unsurpassable beauty
of its woodland, blue-grass pastures, dotted with thousands and
tens of thousands of cattle grazing, in the brightness of a June
morning — in this same county of Bourbon, whence comes the
best whisky, the best bacon, and the best beef in the land,
there are also found the best specimens of giant growth among its
men, not only in body, but in mind. As to physical develop-
ment, there are whole families whose average hight is six and
a half feet. As to mind, let us see, taking Paris as a center,
with a " spoke" (of a wheel — a good many may not know what
a radius is) twenty miles long, there have grown up into life,
notice and renown, such men as, putting the Editor of the Jour-
nal of Health first for the convenience of a gradual accretion
of greatness, " topping off" with the greatest, man of all nations
of the present age ; and lest it might be forgotten, we will
repeat ; there is, in the first place, the Editor of Hall's Journal
of Health to begin with ; next, Tom Corwin, the wagon-boy ;
Dr. Durbin, the great Methodist divine, and who now main-
tains the same relative position here in New -York ; and Dr. T„
A. Mills, the right-hand man as to mind and efficiency in the
New School Presbyterian Church, pronounced its " leader" by
the New- York Observer and the Evangelist also. Then there

NO. IV.— VOL. VII.— 1860.

74: hall's journal of health.

is Dr. B. W. Dudley the elder, who, as a successful surgeon
and physician, has had no equal in modern times, his great
agents being nature, brown bread, and warm water ; he having
been our medical teacher, we took our cue from him, hence
our large quantum of common-sense' — theoretically, for does
any body suppose we practice half what we preach in this Jouk-
nal ? very clear of it. "Why should we? We have good
health, and always have had it, and why should we be
bothered with innumerable " rules and regulations," making of
ourselves a very slave ? It is one of the very worst kind of ty-
rannies to bring yourself into the predicament of breathing and
talking by rule. With a few cardinal principles, a man, as far
as the preservation of health is concerned, may live above rules,
at least until he gets old and ricket}r ; then, indeed, he must
be propped up and live by " rote ;" indeed, the old and infirm
will always live the longer by so doing.

One of Dr. Dudley's favorite counsels was :

" Young gentlemen, observe Nature and obey her laws ; let
her alone ; never interfere with her, but follow out her indi-
cations."

Those few plain words embrace the whole range of practical
medicine ; they include anatomy, physiology, melancholy, ob-
stetrics, botany, and medicamentum !

" OBSERVE NATURE AND FOLLOW HER INDICATIONS !"

These half-a-dozen words are the foundation of all practical
hygiene ; and if the young gentlemen from our medical schools
could retain their perfection in anatomy and physiology, for-
getting every thing else, and would observe Nature accurately
and follow wisely her indications, and the people, nine tenths
of the apothecaries of the nation would have to close their doors
within a year, especially if the people had the minutest mite of
common-sense, and would show it, by never taking even a ho-
meopathic pill without special medical advice.

It is interference with nature which kills multitudes of those
who die of disease, as it is the defiance of her laws which made
those multitudes sick.

As we were saying, making Paris, Bourbon county, Ken-
tucky a center, with a radius of twenty miles, a circumference
will be described, within which have sprung into honorable
notoriety, a young multitude (or baker's dozen) of names, (one

BKEAD AND MILK. 75

of which is ours, let it be remembered,) of which any age or
nation might be proud. Some of these we have mentioned ;
among the others worthy, are Alexander, the Hawaiian Mis-
sionary, and " Bob Breckenridge," the John Knox of modern
Presbyterianism, the Politico-Divine, whose great mind and
greater heart have lately so grandly commended themselves to
the sober, conservative, and patriotic masses of the nation by
his Union letter to his nephew, the Vice-President of the United
States, which letter can well be placed side by side with an
ecclesiastical document of his composing, the (Presbyterian)
famous "Act and Testimony," the adoption and adherence to
which, quieted the troubled waters of his Church, and at the
same time laid the foundation for that peace and prosperity
which now crowns Old School Presbyterianism, and which
aids in making it one of the most conservative of all Christian
sects ; conservative in principle, in practice, and in wide-reach-
ing influences. Why, the Union can't dissolve with such a
leaven within it? Well, we have stuck to the text with a
vengeance.

If any body can tell what connection there is between bread
and milk and " Bob Breckenridge," it is more than we can do,
unless it be the connection of disconnection, a kind of antipodal
Union ; for bread and milk suggests milk and water, which in
turn is associated with that multitude which no man can num-
ber, of dodling wishy-washy nonentities who are of no account
to themselves or any body else, the dead-weights to all that is
great and good. Well, the " connection" between " Bob Breck-
enridge" and milk and water is impossible, and we rather think
this is a good place to break off at, and we will toddle back to
first principles, at least so far as to say, that within the famed
circumference, not that magnificent unique square which the
New- York Times described during the late war, other names
still have become famous, such as Drs. Charles Caldwell and
John Esten Cook, of Transylvania University, Dr. Eice of Chi-
cago, and last of all, the friend and neighbor and peer of Brecken-
ridge, the friend of " The Constitution, the Union, and the en-
forcement of the Laws," and the friend of man — Henry Clay !

Perhaps, not until their greatness was achieved, did either of
these names ever pass a day in Kentucky, in which they did
not eat hog or hominy, or both, with perhaps a reasonable pro-

76

portion of the spirit of " old Bourbon" besides ; for when we
were growing up with the great men named, it was considered
a breach of politeness, of which the veriest boor would have
been ashamed, not to place a bottle of whisky and a glass to
every caller. How we all lived through it, may admit of de-
bate ; and as argument (domestic ones especially) is our mortal
antipathy, by reason of the fact of our never failing to come out
of it second-best, we leave it to our readers to debate at their
leisure, and decide for themselves whether all of us survived by
reason of the whisky antagonizing the destructive nature (so
claimed by some) of the pork, or whether the pork was an an-
tidote to the whisky, or whether, indeed, eating pork and drink-
ing whisky daily, made a grand system of feeding, which
gave splendid bodies and more magnificent minds. We our-
selves ate the pork, but never "took to whisky-drinking,"
hence, possibly, the reason that the mind is so far ahead of the
body.

The staff of life for New-England, the three articles daily
used by the men who grew up over thirty years ago, were
pork, molasses, and rum ; but as the last two articles were the
products of slave labor, which was against their principles, yet
patronizing slave labor contrary to their principles, conscience,
being systematically and deliberately violated, worried the mind.
Now, no person can thrive or grow fat when the mind is dis-
tressed ; it may be argued that this is the reason why there are
so many thin, skinny Yankees scattered around every where.
Not only lean in body but lean in morals and faith. At all
events, they do say, that New-England is becoming more re-
probate, going further away from the faith of their fathers, trend-
ing towards infidelity, and as Dr. Scudder says, a veritable pan-
theism ; the Sabbath day worship of some of their theological
lights being conducted without prayer or praise or reading of
the u word," but a simple cold " speak" or address. Some
may say that there is no connection between a dwarfed theology
and a feeding on pork, rum, and molasses against the con-
science. At the same time, it is an opinion gaining prevalence
with thoughtful minds, that something is at work in eating out
the stern piety and the Bible theology of glorious New-Eng-
land of the olden time. While the land of the Puritans, with
its codfish and potatoes, its Jamaica rum and pumpkin-pies,

BREAD AND MILK. 77

gives such men as Parker and Emerson and Phillips and
Holmes and Garrison, Tennessee with its corn-bread and bacon,
its potatoes and its beef, gives a Blackburn, a Gallaher, a David
Nelson and a host of other worthies, with a Sam Houston and
an Andrew Jackson to lead them.

Beef is the staff of life to sturdy John Bull, or rather beef
and beer, and no such nation ever existed as that same grand
English people ! great for ages past and will be great for ages
to come !

In China and Japan, rice is the alpha and omega of teeming
millions, as bread and wine is that of the grand nation which
has given to the world two Napoleons and a list of savans
who shine in the coronet of France as stars of the first mag-
nitude glitter in the clear sky of night.

But bread and milk is the staff of life to all juvenility ; child-
ren thrive upon it the world over, until they reach a certain age,
when more substantial food is needed, at least north of the tro-
pics.

In Germany, sour krout (vinegar and cabbage) is the staff of
life ; and at once the image of a fat Dutchman rises before us
with his smoke-pipe and his pot of Lager, all jolly, rubicund,
and a mile round ; but in a trice he vanishes from sight, in
transcendental mazes lost !

But here come the Jews, whose staff of life is not pork, and
a long line of patriarchs, and apostles, and prophets file away
before us in holy memories ; and coming down to later times
we find them kings in music and in song, in painting and in
finance, and the autocrat and the emperor besiege their doors,
and say to a Bothschild, We can not go to war unless you let us
have the money.

A long circumbendibus have we made ; we have doubled
and trebled the famous barn of Eobin Hood, in order to come
to a practical focus, and which common-sense might have taught
any man with two ideas ; it is this, national greatness and indi-
vidual eminence do not depend materially on what a man
feeds. Nor does robust health belong to a man mainly be-
cause he eats this and refuses that; but a wise providence
has so ordered it, that the people of a clime may live and thrive
and be happy and great by the products of that clime, and that
in individual constitutions, there is an adaptability by which

78

men can live in health any where, whether to the manor born
or not, only if they eat and drink in moderation any of the
good things about them. In short, the world was made for
man, by that Father whose boundless goodness has provided
for him all things richly to enjoy. Those who do not indulge
in the wholesome variety which has been prepared for them,
but insist on discarding this, that, and the other, finally come
down in their vagaries, until a man writes a book of two hun-
dred pages to prove that meats are forbidden, and that if we
don't quit eating so much wheat- bread, the bone will become so
brittle, that every time a man stumps his toe, said bones will
snap like pipe-stems, closing by suggesting as the surest means
of living long in vigorous health, that men should live almost
exclusively on grapes. "We know he made one convert, for
sometime after, we chanced to drop in at the old Clinton Hall,
where a phrenological lecture was grinding out. A black-
headed, pale-faced, lantern-jawed young clerk was on the stand
and the phrenologist's fingers were on his head. Silence pre-
vailed ! At length Sir Oracle spoke : ■ - You are deficient in
vitality and in brains, and the only safe plan for you to pursue
is to take out-door exercise and live on grapes."

It is a notable coincidence that these exclusives, either have
no brains to begin with, or they grow weak in the upper story
with marvelous rapidity on their watery diet. We can tell one
of them on Broadway as far as we can see him, if a "him" at
all ; the sure signs are the parted hair, sprangling over a
greasy coat-collar, with a dusty musty beard, a mile long, more
or less, and that peculiar impudent look which is known at
first sight; but if it be a "her," she is rendered distingue by
the short hair, the short dress, the man's hat, and a man's
brass.

It is a maxim of ancient date, misery loves company, and
just as true, that kind loves kind, and birds of a feather flock
together. The timbers of a ship dashed to pieces on the rocks,
come together at last on the shore ; it is on this principle per-
haps, that wooden-headed people are found all in heaps, are
vastly gregarious. Well, a wooden head and a weak head
being pretty much the same thing, may account for the fact,
that upon the announcement of any novelty to which the
public are invited to attend, such as a Bloomer lecture, a wo-

THRIFT AND HEALTH. 79

man's rights address, a phrenological examination, a health con-
vention, or any thing of that nature, the assembly is sure to be
made up of a " so-so" looking crowd; neither high nor low,
but a kind of mediocrity, with the vulgar look or twang pre-
dominating ; and if any one characteristic is in the ascendant,
it is a kind of impudent swagger in the men ; and in the women —
" schuze me," as our little Alice says ; he who speaks disrespect-
fully of a woman has no music in his soul, and is fit for trea-
son, strategems, and spoils ; therefore we won't do it, especially
as the most tantalizing sight we ever had, was a jaunty Bloomer
of seventeen, black eyes, and a world of curls.

But how is it that when we meet a vegetarian, he is almost
sure to be a phrenologist, a free lover, a root-doctor, a woman's
rights, a mesmerist, a spiritualist, a socialist, a cold waterist,
a ranting abolitionist, an abnegator of the Bible, the Sabbath-
day, and " the religion of his fathers !" The Editor is per-
suaded that observation will carry him out in the assertion, that
in the vast majority of cases, a man who advocates one of these
isms, will, if pressed, advocate them all. We say this in no
spirit of ridicule or intolerance, but utter it as a fact, with a
view to drawing a wholesome, truthful, and practical lesson
therefrom ; and it is this, that in health, in dietetics, in ethics,
in politics and religion, extreme views are always unsafe, dis-
organizing, and destructive; and that the wisest plan, espe-
cially for the young, for women, and for all uncultivated minds
is to make the fact that a thing is radical, extreme, or new, a
most conclusive reason for keeping aloof from it, until the cler-
gyman or other educated or mature-minded person of the place,
has given it a thoughtful examination and an unequivocal ap-
proval.

THRIFT AND HEALTH.

By returns made to the Eegistrar-Greneral in France, it ap-
pears that persons who are "well to do" live, on an average,
eleven years longer than those who are dependent on their daily
labor. One reason for this is, the health-giving influence of
composure of mind ; another, that forehandedness removes the
necessity for hard exposures. The same important truth is

80 hall's journal of health.

shown by the fact that the average life of those who belong to
the Society of Friends in England is some fifteen years greater
than of others in the same sphere of life, the Friends being, the
world over, models of thrift and quiet composure.

As judicious economy promotes thrift, we propose it to our
readers as a good medicine — a medicine safe and efficient, appli-
cable to all climes, countries, and classes. It is " hard to take"
to some, but steady persistence in its practice soon makes it a
habit, when it is rather easier to be economical than to be ex-
travagant.

Extravagance, waste, and carelessness not only ruin those
who practice them, but have a demoralizing effect on those who
may be benefited thereby in a material point of view. Persons
seldom thrive whose occupations or modes of obtaining a living
depend on chance, are in a great measure fortuitous or uncer-
tain— such as gamblers, stock-brokers, robbers, wreckers, hunt-
ers, miners, office-holders, and speculators in general. Hence
those parents are wisest who bring up their children to the ex-
pectation of making a living or of becoming rich by some one
occupation which brings with it gains which are moderate, uni-
form, and steady. As a general rule to young men, the first
political or salaried office, the first bet won, the first successful
speculation, is at the same time the first step towards material
unthrift, towards moral degradation, and towards a premature
grave.

AVERTING DISEASE.

The very instant the scientific engineer observes any thing is
wrong on ship, or train, or engine, he cuts off the supply of
steam ; so the very moment there is any sensation about the
body sufficiently decided to attract the attention unpleasantly,
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 exact nature of the trouble.

If cutting off the supply of steam is not adequate to the recti-
fication of the mischief, the next step taken is to work off the
steam already generated ; so, if abstinence from food is not suf-
ficient to remove a given symptom or ailment, means should be

AVERTING DISEASE. 81

taken to diminish, the amount of that which the food previously
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 is 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 mode-
rately full ; but the very moment disease, or harm, or violence,
by blow or cut or otherwise, comes to any part of the body, nature
becomes alarmed as it were, and sends more blood there to re-
pair the injury — much more than is usually required ; that ad-
ditional quantity distends the 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, un-
less 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 accumulates, dams up,
congests, distending the veins, which in their turn make pres-
sure on some adjoining nerve, and give dull pain. This con-
gestion 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 withdraw-
ing the blood to itself, gives instantaneous relief. Opening a
vein will do the same thing ; and so, but not as expeditiously,
will any purgative medicine, because that by all these things, by
diminishing the amount of fluid as to the whole body, each par-
ticular 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 same, even if it is per-
formed with so soft a thing as the human hand, for any rubbing

82

reddens, that is, attracts blood to the part rubbed, and thus di-
minishes 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 off 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 al-
ways in operation ; she is constantly engaged in unloading the
body of its surplus fluids — unloading it in a million places at the
same time, and in a million ways ; every pore of the skin, at
every instant of our existence, is discharging 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 fin-
ger 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 remedy 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 dis-
ease, (and sickness never comes without a friendly premonition
in the distance, only that in our stupidity or heedlessness we
often fail to make a note of it,) is simply to observe three things.

1. The instant we become conscious of any unpleasant sensa-
tion 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 perspira-
tion for several hours. And an observant person will seldom

CRAZY PEOPLE. 83

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 efficient, 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 dying embers
on the hearth.

CRAZY PEOPLE.

O^ce upon a sunnier time, when visiting the linen factories
of Belfast, a notice was observed above one of the doors, writ-
ten in Latin, which translated, meant that they would be wise,
who, in passing through the world, kept their eyes and ears
open. In fact, this makes all the difference between an intelli-
gent man and a know-nothing. Much may any man learn in a
large city who will thus employ two of his senses. Lessons of
great practical value may be read as well in the narrow alley as
on splendid Broadway ; in the hovels of the poor as in the mag-
nificent mansions of the Avenue ; in the cellars and garrets of
the mechanic and the artisan, as well as on change or at the
banking-house.

Many an editor and book- writer remembers to have seen in the
sixth story of Gray's Mammoth Printing Establishment, a thin,
weazen, snappy-eyed, quick-motioned, sharp-faced gentleman,
the cock of the walk in that upper sphere, the lord, ruler, gov-
ernor, and director of that floor. Always busy, always meeting
you with a smile ; and yet so picked at and pecked at by Tom,
Dick, and Harry, that we have often wondered how he survived.
He has been visited regularly for weeks and months by three doc-
tors at least, and he is not dead yet ! The man of the Scalpel comes
and thunders away, as if he would raise the roof from the build-
ing and send it off on a tour of exploration for one of Professor
Mitchel's lost stars. Words of wit and wisdom flash out of his
mouth, like the scintillations of the great Kohinoor, when they
were grinding it into a more comely shape for her majesty,
Queen Victoria, long live the same ! It is no uncommon thing
when Dixon gets on one of his high horses, to have a crowd

84

around him of all the employes, (who are working by the day,)
with eyes and mouth open, drinking in the riches of his diction.
We have seen it. Then comes Dr. Noyes, his mind ahead of
his body ; earnest, quick, indefatigable. He, too, gives Powers
a twitch or a dig, for the shortcomings of some of Dixon's
auditors ; and just as that item is settled by the promised recti-
fication of the grievance, in comes the Journal of Health
man, unseen, noiseless, and unknown, and going point-blank at
his business in hand, is in the middle of it in double-quick
time, every thing being in apple-pie order, and in plain black
and white ; that is, the black and white are plain enough as to
color, although now and then there may be some slight incon-
venience in deciding whether the manuscript is French or Mo-
gul ; and then pouring in the oil and wine to prepare the way
for a welcome next time, he vamooses the ranch, with the
sound dying away ; " Glad to see you again, Doctor !"

One day we stopped a moment in wonder at the innumerable
twitches at Powers. What with the bother of proof-readers
and doctors, of calls for more copy, and solicitations of compo-
sitors to decipher hieroglyphics ; to spell out words that never
had any spell in them, or to " make out" words which were of
every language under the sun. At length we said to him : " It's
a wonder you don't go crazy !"

" Crazy ! Haven't time to get crazy ; too many things to do,"
and away he went with a merry laugh, but his words remained,
to be a text for some future article in the Journal of Health.

" Haven't time to get crazy; too many things to do." There
is philosophy enough in those dozen words to fill whole tomes
of octavos. It's the grand secret of human health and human
happiness, to have a plenty to do. " Go ahead, keep moving."
There's wisdom in that, and health ; health of body, health of
brain, and a long life. It's the people who have leisure to mood
and mope, and hug sharp-pointed memories, who fill our asy-
lums, and not those who have a dozen irons in the fire at the
same time, some round, some square, and some in the pig, so as
to bring out and exercise, and develop different mental capa-
bilities, thus making all parts of the brain to grow equally, not-
only strengthening it but by keeping up equal activities in all
its parts, a maturity of judgment and a keenness of discrimina-
tion are the result, and these are qualities at the very foundation

NEGLECTING COLDS. 85

of human success. The lesson of the article is, as you would
avoid an aimless life, a miserable pilgrimage to the land beyond,
a mad-house or a premature grave, avoid leisure, avoid one idea,
one only pursuit.

NEGLECTING COLDS.

Eyeey 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 ab-
solutely 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 expres-
sion, "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 sometimes 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 Eussias. For more than a year before
his death, his confidential medical adviser observed that in con-
sequence of the Emperor " not giving to sleep the hours needed
for restoration," his general vigor was declining, and that ex-
posures which he had often encountered with impunity, were
making unfavorable impressions 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
apprehensions 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 should not allow a com-
mon soldier to leave the hospital if he were in the state in
which your majesty is."

86

"Well, you would do your duty — I will do mine," and the
exposure was repeated, with, the result of greatly increasing the
bad effects of this original cold, and lie died in a week after-
wards.

It is not the weakness of a few great men to transfer their
superiority in other things to their knowledge of health and
medicine. The self-reliant or self-opinionated have been often
heard to exclaim : " I believe I know about as much as the
doctors. A doctor don't know more than any body 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 panegy-
rist said of him, that be held medical science in a kind of con-
tempt, had little or no confidence in medicines or physicians.
These are not the exact words, but they embody the impression
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 judicious
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, when
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 unan-
nealed and un shriven 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 amazement h£s not long ago been utterly
exhausted in the contemplation of the stupidities of mankind.

Health Tracts of one page are sold and sent for 25 cents a hundred, by
addressing Dr. W. W. Hall, New- York. Subjects : Winter Shoes, "Wear-
ing Flannel, Care of the Eyes, Cold Feet, Regulating the Bowels, How to
Sit, Walk, Breathe, Curing Colds, Avoiding Disease, Best Hair Wash, etc.

MISTAKEN" BENEVOLENCE. 87

MISTAKEN BENEVOLENCE.

A woman, with a dog on each side, hitched to a hand-cart,
may be seen in any street in New- York of a bleak winter's day ;
or little girls with baskets, the girls, not the baskets, in tatters,
filth, and rags, without bonnets or shoes, picking from the ash-
barrels any little piece of half-burnt coal which by chance may
be there. Half a basket is sometimes obtained from a single
barrel ; it is then taken to some desolate home to warm a fail-
ing mother or thriftless household. In view of this, is it not
11 mean" to make the servants riddle the ashes so that a single
lump of coal might not be thrown out ? and would it not be
generous, even to put in the ash-barrel a handful or two of the
best coal in order to reward these poor creatures ? No !

Chance living seldom fails to end in moral depravities of the
deepest dye, and in this very plain way. A person " finds" a
plenty to day, and to-morrow, and may be for weeks together,
and the feeling grows : " I will get a plenty more, and it is not
worth while to be careful." But a night comes during which
there is a storm of sleet or hail or deep drifting snow, and
the ash-barrels are not put out, or by some other chance no coal
is found, and the dreadful alternative is to freeze or obtain sup-
plies of fuel in some other way. First comes the borrow, then
the beg, and last the steal, for these three characteristics gene-
rally follow close on the heels of each other.

Apropos — In passing sixty-three East Sixteenth street, near
Third Avenue, a few days since, one of our citizens, known for
his activity and energy, and for his keen appreciation of the
useful, said to us: "Buy one of my coal-sifters, cost sixteen
hundred dollars to get out the patent, and I will sell you
one for only four dollars and a half. I'll send it to your
house, you shall keep it and try it, and if it does not
meet your expectations, I will call for it." He sent it, called

again, and got his money. We now say to our readers,

without the knowledge, consent, assent, or acquiescence of
the gentleman aforesaid, that Booth's Patent Coal Ash-Sifter is
the most perfect thing of the kind ever yet presented to the
public. You empty the scuttle into the top of the sifter with-
out any more dust than would arise from throwing it into the

ash-barrel, and without turning any crank, or shaking, or any
thing else on your part, there is a perfect separation of ash and
coal by the time the empty scuttle is set down on the floor,
without further dust, there not being found in the ashes a bit
of coal as large as a common thimble, nor among the coal a half
a pint of ashes, the ashes in one box, the coal in the other, all
in an almost air-tight wooden inclosure, hence the suppression
of dust.

WISE CHARITIES

Life Illustrated, ever alive to the diffusion of intelligence
which its editors believe tends to ameliorate the condition of
the suffering, the friendless, and the poor, says that Alfred
White, clerk of St. Paul's Mission, has established in Laight
street a " Church Home Intelligence Office," where unprotected
females, of good character, may find an asylum while unem-
ployed.

Also, that there is at least one hotel in the city of New- York
where a sick man can secure some little attention, and even
nursing, without its costing him ten dollars a day, for the mere
shadow of these things. In the bare hope that it may be a
" Maison Sante," a Home of Health, we give its locality, No.
158 Bleecker street. We once took a friend to an up-town
boarding-house. He was very ill. His bill for " accommoda-
tions" for four days was eighty dollars, while we did the nurs-
ing.

Another of the deserving charities, and of rather a novel
character, is referred to in the Express by its editor, the Hon.
Erastus Brooks, a large portion of whose time is expended in
personal attention to the eleemosynaries of the city. He states
that at No. 31 Yesey street twent3r-five tickets can be purchased
for a dollar, each one of which will give a poor outcast, a friend-
less boy or girl or woman, a comfortable night's lodging or a
good meal of victuals.

Who of our readers will smoke a cigar after this, and yet pro-
fess that he can not afford to give any thing to support a charity
of this kind ? The price of a cigar will give a bed for a night
to a human brother or sister, who else would have to sleep in a

ALEXANDER OF RUSSIA. 89

barrel, or stoop, or store-box, or be taken to prison ; not only a
bed, but a sufficient breakfast after it, enough to give strength
to set out in the morning and hunt for a job or a home. Pam-
pered young ladies of New- York, look on your diamond rings,
your breast-pins of costliest material, your bracelets of solid gold,
and remembering how many famishing women and children,
and discouraged men, the price of these would comfort and
cheer, and mayhap save from discouragement and crime, look
at them, and rather than say you have nothing to give, sell
them for what they will bring, and deposit the proceeds with
Mr. Whitfield for tickets, which carry in your pocket, and when
you meet a brother or sister famishing for bread ; or when you
are importuned by some pallid child or gray-haired woman,
"For the love of God, a penny to buy a bit of bread," give a
ticket ; and it will show where a full meal can be had for it.
And as disease follows close on to the heels of destitution, you
may thus keep many well. To show that such institutions are
needed, nineteen hundred meals and lodgings were supplied at
four cents each at three hundred and sixty-seven Pearl street,
New- York, in one month. A similar establishment is found at
Eighty-one Third avenue, corner of Twelfth street. JSTo doubt
Greorge F. Cooledge has a hand in these matters. Such of our
readers as have a sympathy for the poor and money to venti-
late it, may feel assured that what they give in this direction:
will be expended wisely and to the best advantage, while the-
money given to street beggars encourages vagrancy, and is very
often spent foolishly if not criminally.

NICHOLAS OF RUSSIA.

A private memoir of the late Emperor Nicholas the First was published and dis-
tributed among the more immediate relatives and friends of the autocrat of sixty mil-
lions of human beings. It is made up from his private papers, from official records
and other authentic sources ; hence it may be regarded as a true representation of
the inner life of the real character of that distinguished personage. From a peru-
sal of it, by the courtesy of a friend, who was in St. Petersburgh at the time of the
Emperor's death, and whose personal knowledge confirms, as far as it goes, the
literal truth of the memoir, we are constrained to say, that perhaps not one in a
million of all who speak the English language has a proper estimate of the late-
Czar. As an emperor, a husband, a father, a brother, a master, a friend, there is
a beauty in his character which has few parallels among sovereigns. No one can
rise from its perusal without a deep impression that he was a Christian. A synop
sis of the memoir will be found in the April number of the Fireside Monthly.

90
HEALTH TRACT, No. 20.

WORTH RE^ZEMBERinSTC*-

From HalVs Journal of Health, One Dollar a Year, New- York

POISONS.

Fob any poison, the most speedy, certain, and most frequently efficacious remedy in the world,
if immediately taken, is a heaping teaspoonful of ground mustard, stirred rapidly in a glass of
cold water, and drank down at a draught, causing instantaneous vomiting. As soon as the vomit-
ing ceases, swallow two tablespoonfuls or more of sweet-oil, or any other mild oil.

If no ground mustard is at hand, drink a teacupful or more of sweet-oil, or any other pure
mild oil, melted hog's lard, melted butter, train oil, cod-liver oil, any of which protect the coats of
the stomach from the disorganizing effects of the poison ; and, to a certain extent, by filling up the
pores of the stomach, (the mouths of the absorbents,) prevent the poison being taken up into the
circulation of the blood. Persons bitten by rattlesnakes have drank oil freely, and recovered.
These are things to be done while a physician is being sent for.

BITES AND STING-S.

Apply instantly, with a soft rag, most freely, spirits of hartshorn. The venom of stings being
an acid, the alkali nullifies them. Fresh wood ashes, moistened with water, and made into a poul-
tice, frequently renewed, is an excellent substitute — or, soda or saleratus — all being alkalies.

To be on the safe side, in case of snake or mad-dog bites, drink brandy, whisky, rum, or other
spirits, as free as water — a teacupful, or a pint or more, according to the aggravation of the cir-
cumstances.

POULTICES.

As to inflammation, sores, cuts, wounds by rusty nails, etc., the great remedy is warmth and
moisture, because these promote evaporation and cooling ; whatever kind of poultice is applied,
that is best which keeps moist the longest, and is in its nature mild ; hence cold light (vvheaten)
bread, soaked in sweet milk, is one of the very best known. There is no specific virtue in the
repulsive remedy of the " entrails of alive chicken," of scraped potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, or
any other scrapings ; the virtue consists in the mild moisture of the application. Hence the memory
need not be burdened with the recollection of particular kinds of poultices, but only with the prin-
ciple that that poultice is best which keeps moist longest without disturbance.

SCALDS AND BURNS.

The best, most instantaneous, and most accessible remedy in the world, is to thrust the injured
part in cold water, send for a physician, and while he is coming, cover the part an inch or more
deep with common flour. The water gives instantaneous relief by excluding the oxygen of the
air ; the flour does the same thing, but is preferable, because it can be kept more continuously
applied, with less inconvenience, than by keeping the parts under water. As they get well, the
flour scales off, or is easily moistened and removed. If the injury is at all severe, the patient
should live mainly on tea and toast, or gruels, and keep the bowels acting freely every day, by
eating raw apples, stewed fruits, and the like. No better and more certain cure for scalds and
burns has ever been proposed.

Health Tracts, one page each, are sold or sent for 25 cents a hundred, by addressing Dr. W. W.
Hall, New-York.

91
HEALTH TRACT, No. 21,

ATTENTION TO THE FEET.

From HaWs Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, New- York.

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

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

On getting up in the morning, dip both feet at once into
water, as cold as the air of the room, half ankle deep, for
a minute in Summer ; half a minute or less in Winter, rub-
bing one foot with the other, then wipe dry, and if
convenient, hold them to the fire, rubbing them with the
hand until perfectly dry and warm in every part.

If the feet are damp and cold, attend only to the morn-
ing 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 damp-
ness, put on a pair of dry stockings, leaving the damp ones
before the fire to be ready for another change.

Some person's feet are more comfortable, even in Winter,
in cotton, others in woolen stockings. Each must be guided
by his own feelings. Sometimes two pair of thin stockings
keep the feet warmer, than one pair which is thicker than
both. The thin pair may be of the same or of different
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
basting half an inch thickness of curled hair on a piece of
thick cloth, slipping this into the stocking, with the hair
next the skin, 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,
on coming home for the night, remove their shoes and
stockings, hold the feet to the fire until perfectly dry ; put
on a dry pair, and wear slippers for the 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 condens-
ing it ; hence the old-fashioned low shoe is best for health.

92
HEALTH TRACT, No. 22.

EEGTTLATING THE BOWELS.

From HalVs Journal of Health, 42 Irving PlacCj New- York.

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 break
fast next day, and even then, do not take anything except a
single cup of weak coffee or tea, and some cold bread and
butter, or dry toast, or ship-biscuit.

Meanwhile, arrange to walk or work moderately, for an
hour or two, each forenoon and afternoon, to the extent of
keeping up a moisture on the skin, drinking as freely as
desired as much clear 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 aggrevated 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 en-
tirely melted in the mouth ; if necessary, wear a bandage
of thick woolen flannel, a foot or more broad bound tightly
around the abdomen ; this is especially necessary if the pa-
tient has to be on the feet much. All locomotion should
be avoided when the bowels are thin, watery or weakening.
The habitual use of pills, or drops or any kind of medicine
whatever, for the regulation of the bowels, is a sure means
of ultimately undermining the health ; in almost all cases
la}'ing 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, such as
the coarse foods and exercises above named.

93
HEALTH TRACT, No. 23.

SOUE STOMA.OH.

{From HalVs Journal of Health, 42 Irving Place, New- York.)

Nature provides a liquid (the gastric juice) in the stomach,
sufficient 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 decom-
pose— 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 sour-
ing, 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 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 ferment, 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 machinery fails to rectify itself, looses the power of
readjustment, works with a clog, and the man is a miserable dys-
peptic for the remainder of life ; and all from his not having had
wit enough to know when he had eaten a plenty, and being fool-
ish 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 dyspeptic can appre-
ciate. What a fool man is ! He is a numskull, a goose, a sheep,
a goat, a jackass.

Health Tracts, one page each, are sold for 25 cents a hundred ; address Dr. W.
W. Hall, New- York.

94

HEALTH TRACT, No. 24.

EATING.

(From HalVs Journal of Health, One Dollar a Year, New -York.)

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

Eminent physiologists have said, that as this liquid mass passes the door of
exit, where there is a little movable muscle, called the Pyloric Yalve, (a faithful
watchman,) that which is fit for future purposes gives a tap, as it were ; the
valve flies open, and it makes an honorable exit. Thus it goes on until the stom-
ach is empty, provided no more food has been taken than there was a supply of
gastric juice for. If a mouthful too much has been taken, there is no gastric juice
to dissolve it ; it remains hard and undigested, it is not fit to pass, and the janitor
refuses to open the door ; and another and another circuit is made, with a steady
refusal at each time, until the work is properly done. Boiled rice, roasted apples,
cold raw cabbage cut up fine in vinegar, tripe prepared in vinegar, or souse, pass
through in about an hour ; fried pork, boiled cabbage and the like, are kept danc-
ing around for about five hours and a half.

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

When food is thus unnaturally detained in the stomach, it produces wind, eructa-
tions, fullness, acidity, or a feeling often described as a " weight," or " load," or
" heavy." But nature is never cheated. Her regulations are never infringed with
impunity ; and although an indigestible article may be allowed to pass out of the
stomach, it enters the bowels as an intruder, is an unwelcome stranger, the parts
are unused to it, like a crumb of bread which has gone the wrong way by passing
into the lungs, and nature sets up a violent coughing to eject the intruder. As
to the bowels, another plan is taken, but the object is the same — a speedy rid-
dance. As soon as this unwelcome thing touches the lining of the bowels, nature
becomes alarmed, and like as when a bit of sand is in the eye, she throws out
water, as if with the intention of washing it out of the body, hence the sud-
den diarrheas with which two-legged pigs are sometimes surprised. It was a
desperate effort of nature to save the body, for if undigested food remains too
long, either in the stomach or bowels, fits, convulsions, epilepsies, apoplexies, and
death, are a very frequent result. Inference : Always eat slowly and in modera-
tion of well-divided food.

These Health Tracts are furnished at 25 cents a hundred, assorted.

95
HEALTH TRACT, No. 25.

SLEEPING.

(From HalVs Journal of Health, One Dollar a Year, New- York.)

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

Both in city and country the chamber should be on the second, third or higher
floor ; its windows should face the east or south, so as to have the drying and puri-
fying influences of the blessed sunlight ; there should be no curtains to the bed or
windows, nor should there be any hanging garments or other woven fabrics except
the clothes worn during the day, each article of which should be spread out by it-
self, for the purpose of thorough airing. There should be no carpet on the floor
of a sleeping-room, except a single strip by the side of the bed, to prevent a sud-
den shock by the warm foot coming in contact with a cold floor. Carpets collect
dust and dirt and filth and dampness, and arc the invention of laziness to save
labor and hide uncleanness.

Ordinarily, mattresses of shucks, chaff, straw, or curled hair are best to sleep
upon. For old persons and those of feeble vitality, there is nothing better than a
clean feather bed. No one can sleep well if cold. Have as little covering as pos-
sible from just above the knees upwards, but cover the legs and feet abundantly,
for by keeping them warm, the blood is withdrawn from the brain, and to that ex-
tent, dreaming is prevented.

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

The entire furniture of a chamber should be the bed, two or three wooden chairs,
a table and a bureau or chest of drawers. Every article of bed-clothing should
be thrown over a chair or table by itself, and the mattress remain exposed, until
the middle of the afternoon ; not later, lest the damps of the evening should im-
pregnate them. From morning until afternoon of every sunshiny day, the win-
dows of the chamber should be hoisted fully. The fire-place should be kept open,
at least during the night, thus affording a draft from the crevices of doors and win-
dows. As foul air is lightest in warm weather, it is best that the sash should be
let down at the top half an inch or more, and the lower one elevated several inches ■
by this means the pure and cool air from without enters and drives the heated
impure air upwards and outwards.

In a very cold room, without a good draught or ventilation, carbonic acid being
generated by the sleeper, becomes heavy and falls to the floor ; this gas has no nour-

96 HEALTH TKACT. — SLEEPING.

ishmerit for the lungs, and to breathe it wholly for two minutes, is to die ; it is this
which causes suffocation in descending some wells. In summer it goes to the ceil-
ing, in winter to the floor ; hence it is more important that a sleeping-room should
have a very gentle current of air in winter than in summer.

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

Different persons require different amounts of sleep, according to age, sex, and
occupation. Nature must make the apportionment, and will always do it wisely
and safely ; and there is only one method of doing it. Do not sleep a moment in
the day, or if essential do not exceed ten minutes, for this will refresh more man
if you sleep an hour, or longer. Go to bed at a regular early hour, not later than
ten, and get up as soon as you wake of yourself in the morning ; follow this up for a
week or two, and if there is no actual disease, nature will always arouse the sleeper
as soon as enough sleep has been taken to repair the expenditures of the preced-
ing day, a little more or less in proportion to the amount of bodily and mental
effort made the day before. Commonly there will be but a few minutes' difference
for weeks together. It is not absolutely necessary to get up and dress, but only to
avoid a second nap. Sometimes it is advantageous to remain in bed until the
feeling of tiredness, with which most persons are familiar, has passed from the
limbs. It is safest and best for all to take breakfast before going out of doors in
the morning, whether in summer or winter, most especially in new, flat or damp
countries, as a preventive of chill and fever.

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

When it is remembered that one third of our whole time is spent in our cham-
bers, and that only uncorrupted air can complete the process of digestion and as-
similation and purify the blood, it is most apparent that the utmost pains should
be taken to secure the breathing of a pure atmosphere during the hours of sleep ;
and that the most diligent attention in this regard is indispensable to high health.

HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE OR MONEY.

A Medical Library which never advises a dose of medicine, except in cholera, may be found in
the following works, written by Dr. W. W. Hall, of 42 Irving Place, New- York, after having spent
many years in special and exclusive attention to diseases of the throat and lungs :

Hall's Journal of Health, six volumes, $1.25 each : whole set, $7.00

Health and Disease, a Book for the People, third edition, 298 pages, 1.00

Bronchitis and Kindred Diseases, ninth edition, 382 pages, 1.00

Consumption, second edition, 280 pages, 1859, 1.00

The object of these books is to show, to the young especially, how health may be preserved by
natural agencies, and how, by the same means, to remedy ordinary ailments, such as cold feet, sick-
headache, constipation, neuralgia, dyspepsia, etc.

Hall's Journal of Health is published monthly, for one dollar a year, specimen numbers ten
cents.

The Fireside Monthly is $1.50 a year, specimens twelve cents ; it excludes fiction, and is de.
voted to science, literature, and practical life. This, with the Journal of Health, will be sent for
two dollars a year.

The Health Tracts are furnished at 25 cents a hundred, assorted.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

TE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BS AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] MAY, 1860. [No. 5.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

For rapidity of improvement and thoroughness of instruc-
tion, the public schools of the city of New-York are believed to>
be without equals any where. The children are educated to a-
promptness of speech, and thought, and action ; to a system of
habit and propriety of deportment which is simply wonderful tfe
those who, for years and years, have submitted to the extrava-
gant charges, the degrading shams, the skinnings and the skim-
mings of nine tenths of the private schools, academies, and in-
stitutes with which our city abounds. The pretentious charac-
ter of these latter establishments is so generally conceded, that
they are patronized by two classes mainly • — ■ both, however,
rich ; those lately so, hoping to edge their daughters into
"good society," and those who are "too busy" to give their-
attention to the best interests of their children, or have' not the
intelligence necessary to determine what those best interests are ;-
while the true " society," the wealthy and reflecting, are com-
pelled to adopt the system of private teachers.

Those who wish to give their daughters a thorough educa-
tion, have the alternative of the public school or the "govern-
ess." Unfortunately, the latter involves an expense far beyond
the masses, while as to the former, thoughtful and observant
men will scarcely hesitate to say that, as far as physical benefits
are concerned, as far as pertains to the future well-being and
happiness of the girls, to say nothing of the best interests of our
community, every public school building in the city of ISTew-
York had better be razed to its foundation-stone and " light-
ered" into the Atlantic ; every teacher- supplied, with a sewing*
no. v.— vol. vii.— 1860.

98

machine or thrifty husband, and every school commissioner and
superintendent of public instruction sent to picking oakum
or cracking rocks for the Central Park.

A more systematic series of machinations for the slaughter of
our daughters under the guise of philanthropic efforts could
not well be devised than that which prevails in the conducting
of the public schools for girls in this city. These charges are
sweeping, but they are literally and critically but too true.

Mother, look at your joyous and perpetual-motion daughter
of four, Hive, or six years old. Put her in a chair, and require
her to sit still, or try to keep her in the room for half an hour ;
nay, try it yourself, and you will find the former, at least to
you, an impossible thing, and the latter intolerable. But that
same child is confined to the walls of a public school from nine
in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon, and for
four or five hours of that time sits on a hard bench ; and for a
considerable portion of these they are required to sit still under
penalty that if they move foot, or hand, or head, they shall be
"kept in" after three o'clock, with the disgrace of the thing
patent to every eye of hundreds of their schoolmates. It is
truly pitiful to look at the countenances of the little creatures
as they come out from the place of stocks and thumb-screws at
three o'clock of a spring or summer afternoon. There is an
expression of fatigue and sad exhaustion in most of them
which almost extorts a curse upon all who aid and abet the
murderous inhumanity.

But these enormities become more infamous. Talk about
the lash of a negro-overseer ! These maudling croakers, these
" scribes and pharisees — l^pocrites !" had a million times better
give a tithe of their attention towards " ameliorating the condi-
tion" of their own children — a tithe of their money towards
constructing an "underground railroad" for emancipating their
own offspring from the infliction of moral lashings which not
only kill the body, but murder the intellect and prostrate the
higher nature in the dust.

These children, not having eaten any thing since about
eight o'clock except a "lunch" of candy, pound-cake, ginger-
bread, or sandwich, which is always required to be eaten in a
few minutes, and not unseldom while standing in a line, it may
be readily supposed that they are very hungry by the time

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 99

they get home, and are ready to sit down to dinner about four
o'clock, when, almost famished and exceedingly weary, they
very naturally swallow with rapidity and eat a great deal. But
before the four o'clock dinner is scarce half- digested, the tea-
bell of six and a half or seven rings, and they sit down again to
a fill of preserves, sweet-cakes, tea-biscuit, and other delicacies,
so that from four until bed-time they are more like gorged ana-
condas than any thing else. But what then ? Do they go out
to joyous play ? Not a bit of it. They have " lessons to get,"
to which task the parents' command is not necessary to drive
them. Either the fear of their teachers, or dread of disgrace in the
presence of their companions, or a consuming ambition, goads
them to their books, from which, if they are conscientious, they
do not feel at liberty to rise, on an average, until eight, nine,
or even ten o'clock, only to hurry up in the morning to tramp
the same tread-mill until breakfast, all anxious to get to school
in time for fear of a " mark" against them.

There is nothing like plain facts for illustration. In a house
in this street, on the second day of April, in the year of prog-
ress, eighteen hundred and sixty, a girl of ten years was bend-
ing over a "geography lesson." Something was evidently the
matter ; the countenance was sad, dispirited, and by flashes,
angry. On asking the cause, " Such a hard lesson !" On look-
ing at it, it was found to consist of three pages of double col-
umns, each line containing one question, and sometimes four !
Questions embracing the name of the capital of each State, its
situation, and a variety of other particulars, which gave the
sum total of questions to be hunted out by a child of ten years
of age, from four o'clock until eight next morning, of one hun-
dred and fifty-two.

Besides this, there were two other lessons to learn, one of
spelling, the other in arithmetic. The next day the lesson was
not " said," because there was not time for its recitation. That
is to say, there is more to be learned by the children at home,
from four in the afternoon until school-time next day, than can
be listened to by the teacher in the six hours from nine to three.
On another occasion the lesson was so clearly beyond the ability
of the children to compass, that the class, nearly a hundred,
recited it so imperfectly, that half of the same lesson was given

100

out for the next day. Such a lack of judgment on the part of
teachers merits most severe condemnation.

It requires no argument to prove to any man, not an idiot,
that any child must, under such a routine, wilt and wither like
a flower without water. Under the circumstances, a modifica-
tion of the public school system is imperative, and we call upon
the two great moral leaders of the age, the pulpit and the press,
to the immediate advocacy of the abolishment of home study ;
that no lessons, under any circumstances, be required to be
learned out of school hours ; and no greater evidence of prog-
ress, of advancement in intelligence and a sound policy has
lately been given to the country, than in the recent action of the
school commissioners of Boston, in forbidding the assignment of
lessons, for study out of school, to girls — the city physician hav-
ing become convinced of the alarming evils resulting from such
studies. Can New-York, with all its wealth of gold, and mind,
and money, and magnificent enterprise, furnish no intellect
bright enough to see and expose the intolerable stupidity of our
public school management ? Out of the pages of this monthly
and those of Fowler & Wells, to wit, Life Illustrated, The
Water Cure, and The American Phrenological Journal, we read
no word of remonstrance, of entreaty, or alarm against the
startling evil !

Teachers are commended for bringing the children on so
rapidly. Parents are flattered at the progress of their little
ones, and school committees and superintendents are charmed
with the tokens of solid advancement made by the youthful
martyrs ; but they take no note of the sad face, of the dray-
horse look, of the heavy tread, the flushed cheek, the preter-
naturally bright eye, the cold fingers, and the clammy feet !
Out upon such short-sighted intellects, such leaden dolts ! If it
is a question of education and disease, or of ignorance and glo-
rious health for our daughters, we ourselves clutch at the union
of health and ignorance with the greediness a famished tiger
pounces on a fresh fat lamb. Ignorance with health may be
useful 3 may be happy ; but a finished education with a fell dis-
ease eating out the life, can be neither, and must early go down
to the grave a blighted bud, a priceless jewel shivered in the
polishing. But health and high development need never be

COLD WATER BATHING. 101

dissevered. Extend the time of girlhood, of " going into society,"
of " husbanding," from sixteen to twenty-six. Let one study
be pursued at a time ; one solid study and one ornamental ac-
complishment, and when one is thoroughly mastered, take up
a second and a third, giving, from the age of ten, three hours a
day to domestic activities and superintendencies and out-door
exercises; then, at twenty -five, a young man may marry a
woman, not a lady — may mary a help-meet, not a puny, whin-
ing, simpering, skinny bag of bones ; may marry a counselor,
a cooperator, and an adviser, not a thriftless, lounging, dressy,
helpless doll. The incooperative, useless, senseless, sickly
wife drives not a few men, capable of higher things, to discour-
agement, to the bottle, to the prison, and to the suicide's grave,
because their wives were first ruined mentally and morally by
the shams of dress and show learned but too facilely at the
detestable " boarding-school for young ladies," or the hot
houses of mental culture, the M public school." The mother
molds the man ; she molds the destinies of her country ; but an
invalid at twenty, as nine out of ten are, they can not do other-
wise than bring to their country's altar, nat the lambs " without
blemish and without spot," but sons and daughters in body
diseased, feeble in intellect, in heart and soul a shell and a
sham !

COLD WATER BATHING.

Dr. Tomfool is exhibiting the dimensions of his mental
caliber, by furnishing the newspapers with the fact that he
bathes in the river daily throughout the winter ; usually runs
two miles, plunges in, splurges about, and runs home.
Rather think he hasn't much " practice" to attend to beyond
that on his own person ! He has sometimes to cut the ice, and
takes his bath when the thermometer has been fifteen degrees
below zero. Suppose it was a thousand ; the water itself is no
colder than if it were thirty-two degrees above. He frequently
stands in the snow while using flesh-brush and towels ; and
dries himself by a cold north-east wind. Well ! what is the
advantage of this particular fuss eyery day ? Why, that he
has a good appetite, sleeps soundly, seldom takes cold, and

102 hall's journal of health.

never had disease of any kind. Rather an unfortunate confes-
sion ! for a person seldom has but one disease in the body at a
time : if he has gout, he has nothing else ; if he has sick head-
ache, he has nothing else ; if cancer or consumption, nothing
else. Again : there is a malady, a very serious one, whose
existence all see and know and admit, except the unfortunate
patient ; and although it is daily wearing him to the grave, he
can not be made to acknowledge its presence, and dies, believ-
ing himself a sound man. It is a disease of the upper stor}^.
For fear the reader may not " comprenez-vous," we will ex-
plain. When a man is a fool, you can't make him believe it ;
he will not medicate his malady ; hence with all his experien-
ces, he gets to be a bigger fool every day to the very last.
The tendency of the article is to make persons believe that
such heroic bathing prevents coughs, colds, and sickness in
general.

Per contra : The Editor of this Journal has good health,
sleeps soundly, seldom takes cold, has not swallowed a dose of
medicine in many }^ears, nor lost a meal for want of an appe-
tite, always eats as much as he pleases, and never bathes in
cold water. The last bath of that sort was nearly twenty years
ago, on a Christmas-day, by jumping off the bow of a ship,
into the Gulf of Mexico, " for the fun of the thing." He
always washes face and hands in quite warm water, when it
can be had ; and the body once in a while. He drinks tea,
coffee, etc. daily, and is about as spry in thought, word, and
deed as most people. He might as well say that these " advan-
tages" were owing to his washing in warm water, as the other
doctor, that his immunity from coughs, colds, and sickness, was
owing to his bathing in the river when the thermometer was
below zero ; or that avoiding liquors, tea, coffee, and tobacco
made him a healthy man.

The probability is, that both of us had good health to begin
with, and learned by regularity, carefulness, and temperance to
take care of it. The " Propter hoc" mode of argument is
exceedingly fallacious, the inference because a healthy old
man did this, that, or the other thing all his life, that therefore
he was thus healthy. Persons have lived in good health to
the age of three-score years and ten, who rose early and rose
late ; who drank liquor three times a day, (or an indefinite

COLD WATER BATHING. 103

number of times,) and did not drink it at all ; who were out of
doors a great deal, or seldom had the sunshine on them ; who
were very good, and who were very bad. The object of these
statements is to show the fallacy of attributing a long and
healthful life to one thing, to its presence or its absence, and
to direct attention to this important truth, one which strikingly
exhibits the wisdom and the love of our Father in heaven.
That men can live long in any country, clime, or latitude, in
the use of the things around them, by wisely adapting them-
selves to their circumstances, in temperance, industry and equa-
nimity ; that these not only of themselves promote length of
days, but antagonize the baleful effects of deleterious agencies.
If a man does bathe every day, or never uses tea, coffee, liquor,
or tobacco, or eschews fish, flesh, and fowl, he will not be ex-
empt from disease and premature death, unless he is temperate,
careful, systematic, and serene, and with these, he can cover " a
multitude of sins " physical.

More than a year ago, we met a shipping-merchant, an old
friend, one of the most estimable of men as a husband, father,
citizen, and merchant. He began to expatiate on the enjoy-
ment of a regular morning bath ; the delight, the recreation,
the glow and subsequent feeling of refreshment. " I never take
a cold, am regular as a clock, eat no suppers, take nothing
from breakfast until five o'clock dinner, for which I have a
relish which is delightful, and as I think, owing to my regular
cold morning shower-bath."

" Were you in good health when you began?"

11 Oh! yes, always had good health."

Three months ago we saw him at his own house ; not the
portly, vivacious, and rubicund man of the previous year; the
cheek had faded, the flesh had nabbed, the eye had paled of
its lustre, and the voice itself was subdued and sad. He was the
victim of an agonizing chronic disease.

It should be the wisdom of all to look for a healthful life,
not in this one thing, or that or the other ; but in the cultivation
of a habit of temperance, industry, and equanimity.

104

THE OLDEN TIME.

" What are you doing there, Pat ? digging a hole ?"

"No, your honor; I'm digging out the dirt, and leaving the
hole there!"

In the early times of the old " Chamberlain," we were elected
to the office of "critic," and kept it all the days of our sojourn
at college, with short exceptions, to go up higher. We were so
full of fun, and so merciless on delinquencies, that if at any part
of the "session" there was "a fall house," it was sure to be
when "Father Hall" had his reports to make. How well we
remember being a committee of one about some trifling repairs
to be made, costing perhaps ten cents, and presenting a report
of ever so many pages. Such uproarous cachinnations never
came so near raising the roof of " Old Center." And only think
of it ! The society, by a unanimous vote, ordered it to be read
a second time, and then to be placed in full on the minutes,
when such men were there as Gideon Blackburn, and David
Nelson, author of that unsurpassable book, " The Cause and
Cure of Infidelity," and John Green, and Nathan L. Eice, and
others who have since become eminent in their day and genera-
tion, such as Lewis W. Green and — ahem ! — the Editor of Hall's
Journal of Health, etc., and so on.

About this time it was our custom now and then to go
out to "Judge Green's," where our correspondent lived. We
asked him a very simple question, and with his remarkable vi-
vacity, promptness, and fearlessness, he replied thereto.

"What is a hole, C?"

" It's an orifice bounded by space."

"If in a pane of glass, does space bound it?"

" Yes, at the two ends."

" But the side boundaries ?"

" Then a hole has two ends and a side."

"But suppose it's a well?"

" Then all the end is in one direction !"

" Won't do, C, try it again. What is a hole ?"

"It's a vacancy surrounded by circumstances, varying ac-
cording to the nature of the case."

There's fun in the remembrance of these things, as there was

THE OLDEN TIME. 105

fun in the action of them. Blessed times they ! when ail was
sunshine, emblematic of the better country on the thither side of
Jordan, where we shall be always young, always happy, always
good. Surely it is worth a lifetime of special effort to reach
that land. Another "thirty," and we'll both be there, to go no
more out. Eeader, may you be along !

Such were the thoughts suggested on receiving the following
from an old college-mate, who has made himself a place and a
name among men, and whose work has been neither wood, hay
nor stubble, but "goodly stones" in the great building:

"I READ IT STRAIGHT THROUGH!

"You ask, 'What?' Hall's Journal for March. I began
j ust after closing my Greek Testament in the morning, intend-
ing five minutes for glancing over its contents. Despite of the
weightier matters pressing, an hour was gone, and I was at the
end of a number which no one can read without profit. That
loss of yours ! What use had pickpockets for your manuscript ?
If they will pay good prices, I can furnish them some from the
same hand, written in other days and under other skies. I
wonder if you would know yourself were I to report to you a
bundle of extracts ? Is it the same Hall that I used to see and
hear in the academic shades of Old Center ? that sat at the same
table at Aunt Tabitha's ? that met us in the intellectual gym-
nastics of the Chamberlain Hall above the chapel ? that wrote me
those valued epistles when our paths diverged so widely ? I
see very clearly the ear-marks of mental identity. But the
physical temple has been four times taken down and re-built.
Has this process been like the re-building in your metropolis-
home — for a cottage, a palace ; for a city of brick, a city of mar-
ble ? Then I must look out for a sturdy athlete — the six-foot stat-
ure, and the raven black hair gracefully falling over that ' teeming
dome of thought and palace of the soul.'

"I can not find words to express my high appreciation of the
moral animus of your Journal. The right and the true forever !
This I perceive to be your motto, though no where blazoned in
golden letters. I was present at the sowing-time ; the harvest
has for years been ripening. We see how the ancient law abides
— the seed yields after its kind. ' Let the earth bring forth grass,
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind .'

106

I see how the same law sweeps up into the higher ranges of the
moral world. Once we did meet at Irving Place. You marked
it by your able volume on throat diseases, placed in my hands
for old acquaintance' sake. Before I got home I met a clergy-
man of distinction, sinking rapidly. His charge was surren-
dered ; great ulcers were choking his utterance. I lent him the
book. All that followed I do not know. This much I can tes-
tify : that minister became a successor of the late and revered Dr.
Spencer, and now is Professor in the great N~. W, Theological Semi-
nary. He started the book to me in my Ohio home, through
the Post- Office. I suppose some suffering official intercepted it,
as it never reached me. H. G. C."

DEPOPULATION.

The Society of Friends, called Quakers, are allowed by com-
mon consent to be the most exemplary people in the world ; no
sect or class exceeds them in integrity, industry, and in individ-
ual deportment as to all the proprieties of life. While as a
community they are prosperous in business, live in simple
comfort and abundance, there is a thrift about them individ-
ually, which is the admiration of all who know them. In
a million of paupers, or beggars, or criminals, there will scarcely
be found a single " Frie'nd ;" and yet they are depopulating with
a greater rapidity than the Sandwich Islanders, whom wasting
diseases decimate every few years. In 1690 there were in Great
Britain and Ireland some seventy thousand " Friends ;n to-day
there are not more than twenty-six thousand, although the pop-
ulation of those countries has been trebled. Since 1810, the
deaths among Friends in Great Britain have exceeded the births
by twenty-four hundred. These facts strikingly show how sta-
tistics may be read amiss, and how actual figures may lie ; for
at first glance it would seem that they were wasting away by
disease, when it would follow that industry, thrift, and a blame-
less life not only failed to give length of days, but promoted
premature decline and death. This would be on a par with the
reasoning of some wicked men, who assert that . because more
than half the Sandwich Islanders have died off within the mem-
ory of men, and that within that time they have been civilized
and Christianized, that Christianity is the cause of their humeri-

POISONOUS KOOMS. 107

cal decline ; when the true reason for it is known to be the in-
troduction of the small-pox in part, but in greater part the dis-
semination of. an infamous disease among them by French and
English sailors, and by the introduction of brandy at the muz-
zles of the cannon of French men-of-war. Hence, so far from
missionary labor being the cause of their depopulation, it is to
missionary labor, its antagonizing influences as to drunkenness,
idleness, and effeminacy, the fact is owing that a Sandwich
Islander lives to prove that such a people ever existed.

As to the "Friends" in Great Britain, so far from their blame-
less lives being a cause of their depopulation, it is known that
they live longer than the people around them, by an average
of fifteen years. Hence a cause of their decline must be looked
for elsewhere than in a physical, physiological, or hygienic
point of view. Premiums have been offered for the best essays
as to the causes of a decline which thinking men contemplate
with a melancholy regret. The general opinion, outside of them-
selves, seems to be that they have declined in numbers from the
strictness of their discipline and their dislike of a " hireling min-
istry." Whatever may be the cause of their decline, that de-
cline, and to their credit be it spoken, is a source of sincere re-
gret by the reflecting and the good.

POISONOUS ROOMS.

Nothing short of "line upon line" is sufficient to impress
great practical truths on the common mind •; hence the reitera-
tion of the fact that using wall-paper having a green color in
it, especially if fuzzy, and not glazed, is immediately destructive
of health, and of life itself if persisted in ; as proof: H. Ful-
land, near Tipton, England, lately moved in a new house ; , all
his children became curiously affected, worse at night than dur-
ing the day : they were exceedingly restless ; a singular twitch-
ing or jerking of the muscles, especially of the face, and gen-
eral decline of health, indicated the working of some insidious
agency. The physician had them promptly removed to another
room, when they began at once to recover their health. On a
small piece of green-colored paper on the walls of the room
left, there was found on analysis enough arsenic to poison a
man.

108

DYING NATIONS.

Why do nations die ? Cultivated Greece and all-conquering
Rome ; Yandal, and Goth, and Hun, and Moor, and Pole, and
Turk, all dead or dying ! Why ? Murdered by nations more
powerful? Swallowed by earthquakes? Swept away by pes-
tilence and plague, or starved by pitiless famine ? Not by any
of these. Not by the lightning and the thunder ; not by the
tempest and the storm ; not by poisoned air or volcanic fires
did they die, and do they die ! They perish by moral degre-
dation ; the legitimate results of gluttony, intemperance, and
effeminacy. When a nation becomes rich, then there is leisure
and the means of indulging in the appetites and passions of our
nature which waste the body and wreck the mind. As with
nations, so with families. Wealth takes away the wholesome
stimulus of effort, idleness opens the flood-gates of passional
indulgence, and the heir of millions dies heirless and poor, and
both name and memory ingloriously rot !

If then, there is any truth and force in argument, each man
owes it to himself, to his country, and more than all, to his
Maker, to live a life of temperance, industry, and self-denial as
to every animal gratification, and with these, having an eye to
the glory of God, this nation of ours will live with increasing
prosperity and renown, until with one foot on land and another
on sea, the angel of eternity proclaims time is no longer !

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 out
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 se-

GYMNASIUMS. 109

curing to children the habitual breathing of the purest air possi-
ble ; 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 se-
cure both, should be our constant study. There are more
deaths under five years of age, in New -York, than there are
from five to sixty years, owing to three things, a want 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.

GYMNASIUMS

What is the use of eating like a pig, and then have to work
like a " nigger" to get rid of it, or explode ? The best gymna-
sium is a wood-yard, a "clearing," or a corn-field. There is
some sense in these things, because a valuable object is accom-
plished 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 im-
pure, that if kept a single minute longer in the lungs than ordi-
nary, we fairly gasp for life ; and yet, that 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 to earn
a small farm, to climb a greased pole -fifty feet high, what is he

110

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 busi-
ness ?

What if he can jump sky-high, or turn a dozen somersets
without stopping, or lift a calf bigger than himself, or hold, at
arms' length, for two or ten minutes, 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 enor-
mous 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 thousand one hun-
dred and thirty-six pounds, and that he was sanguine, in twenty
days more, of being able to lift twelve hundred pounds. The
more he can prove himself to lift, the bigger fool he is, and the
more fit for an asylum ; for the next thing 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 some body will have to sup-
port him.

It is reported that arrangements are in progress for establish-
ing gymnasiums for students, and the members of Young Men's
Associations. Are our embryo doctors, and lawyers, and cler-
gymen, going to make Tom Hyers and Bill Pooles and Yankee
Sullivans of themselves? Does the ability of a jurist depend
on the amount of beef he carries ? Is a physician's skill to be
determined 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 swing-
ing up to touch his nose against the big toe of " 'tother foot" ?

A man's intellectuality does not depend on the amount of
brute force which he possesses. It does not require a giant's
strength to write a sermon, or make a book, or "clear" a thief,
or feel a pulse. Of an assembly of French swvans. oif a certain
occasion, Humboldt, being present, was found, by an accurate
mode of measurement, to have the least muscular strength of
the whole company, of which he was the greatest and the old-
est. Small men, fragile men, men of little muscular vigor may
have good bodily health, and among such are found a vast ex-
cess in numbers of the opposite class, and in all age's and coun-
tries who are the brightest of the world's bright stars. As a
very general rule, it holds good — the bigger the man the bigger

GYMNASIUMS. Ill

fool is he. Whoever saw a giant who was remarkable for any
thing 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 np in
developing the muscles, the brain must suffer. If one expects
to make his living by the exercise of muscular strength^ let him7
as a boy and a youth, develop that strength by steady labor,
and a regular and temperate life ; if it is his wish to make
money by legerdemain, by monkey capers, by rope-walkingr
by miraculous poses, and astonishing feats of ground and lofty
tumbling, 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 muscles ; but if he aims at a
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, and not to the beef, must the energies of the sys-
tem 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. Sol-
diers die early. To-day they are doing nothing — to-morrow
the forced march, the terrible battle summon up to the very
dregs the employment of dormant energies. The disabilities
and death of a campaign are many time greater by disease than
by the bullet, for shocks, great alternations, always cause
disease.

The exercise of the student should be regular, gentle, delibe-
rate, 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 gymnasium
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 activities.

112 hall's journal of health.

PUBE MILK.

In the city of Brooklyn there is a large high building, which
overlooks a Milkery, containing several hundred cows. Within
a few weeks, the official duties of a gentleman required his pres-
ence for several days in succession in the upper part of the
house first named. He counted the dead cows daily dragged
out from the living ; one morning there were no less than twen-
ty, and every cart driven from the establishment to supply New-
York families, was labeled, "Orange County Milk." The
plain inference is, that cows in a condition so horribly diseased
that they die in their stalls, are milked to the very day of their
death, and this same milk is stirred in the coffee of New-York-
ers every morning, with silver spoons, faultlessly bright. This
may be reasonably set down as one of the causes of the nine
thousand and odd unnecessary deaths which take place in this
city every year, to say nothing of the thirty thousand cases of
sickness which need not occur ; as one of the causes why the
average duration of human life is twenty -six years, when it is
thirty years longer (so said) in Philadelphia, not a hundred
miles away, and is not as healthfully situated as New- York.

Within two years, a few gentlemen farmers who had friends
and relatives in the city, appropriated ten thousand dollars
towards a plan for furnishing them pure milk, fresh from farm-
house cows, within a few hours of the milking, and at the same
price with the swill article. The friends of their friends availed
themselves of the opportunity, until it has now become a busi-
ness, and the demand is at times greater than the supply. But
for the purpose of keeping to the mark of their original deter-
mination to supply pure milk only, and it being necessary to
have a number of irresponsible employes, it has been found
indispensable to institute extraordinary means of watchfulness.
A special agent comes to town with the milk every day ; and
more, under his eye the milk is poured into cans on which are
placed in metallic letters the name of each patron ; the can is
then locked, the patron having a duplicate key. Further, the
agent is at pains from time to time to inquire of the customers
if there is any fault to be found with the milk or the milkmen.

But the farmers themselves, being in independent circum-

THE PANACEA. 113

stances, could not be expected to milk their own cows, and
must employ hirelings : the general agent has found it neces-
sary to watch these, and inspect the milk as it is delivered at
the railroad station, thirty miles from the city. Within a few
weeks, the milk of one of the oldest, richest, and most honora-
ble-minded members of the Association was found to be largely
thinned with water. The member was promptly and fearlessly
acquainted with the fact, and that the matter must at once be
investigated. Knowing his own integrity, this gentleman did not
knock the agent down, but promptly sifted the matter, and as^
certained that only that once " the boys" had accidentally
spilled the milk, and thought to cover their negligence by add-
ing an equal amount of water.

This milk is delivered in New- York twice a day. It is re-
ceived by the agent warm from the cows. It is next stirred
until the whole is thoroughly cooled ; it is then surrounded with
ice and sent to the city. Thus the milk is uniformly rich, is
not partially converted into butter by the jolting of transporta
tion, and a drink of it is perfectly delicious to a citizen. The
office is at one hundred and forty-six East Tenth street, near
Broadway, New-York. These statements are made without the
knowledge of any of the parties concerned, and those of our
city readers who by changing their residences on May-day, may
lose their old milkman, would do well to give the Rockland*
and New-Jersey Milk Association a trial.

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
nourished 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 firm
faith that if it is dark to-day, it will be bright to-morrow, saying
and feeling of every dispensation : " Not as I will, but as Thou
wilt." This is the balm of Gilead ; this is perennial health ; it
is happiness, it is bliss.

114 hall's jouknal of health.

THROAT AND LUNGS.

In a practice of seventeen years, devoted exclusively to the
treatment of throat and lung affections, we have arrived at the
following conclusions, that :

First : Throat-ail, or Clergymen's sore throat, called chronic
laryngitis, is, in four cases out of five, originated in the stomach,
and that to attempt to remove it by any other means than
such as are adapted to improving the digestion and waking
up the activities of the liver, is the sorriest absurdity of the age.

Second : When consumption of the lungs is threatened, or is
actually present, the first great and efficient remedial agent,
worth incomparably more than all the drugs on earth, is the
spending of every hour of daylight possible, in the open air, in
some moderate, unfatiguing employment, and the eating of as
much plain, nourishing, and relished food as the stoij ^h will
digest. Next to that, as being more universally ace le, is
an India-rubber Life Preserver, and for reasons which no phy-
siologist of even ordinary acquirements would for a moment
dispute.

The health of a man's lungs in reference to consumption, de-
pends upon their capacity to receive the air he breathes. Hence
that capability is called " vital capacity," and is measured by the
amount of air the lungs can throw out at a full expiration.
This capacity varies according to age, sex, weight, and stature ;
all of these can be safely left out of view in ordinary cases, ex-
cept the hight. One man can blow up a bladder, can fill it
at a breath ; another in equal health of lungs would require
two breaths, showing that the lungs of the former had twi^e as
much air as those of the latter. The cubic method is that
ndopted for the measurement of the air in the lungs, or by the
pint ; and it can be as accurately done as if it were water, to
the fraction of a gill or inch.

Forty cubic inches make a pint : a man of ordinary size, in
good health of lungs, will expire at a single effort, six pints of
air, or two hundred and forty cubic inches.

If a man five feet ten inches high could distend fully at a
single breath, an India-rubber bag, bladder, or other receptacle,
which held two hundred and forty cubic inches of air, it would
be a physical demonstration, that all his lungs were within him,

THROAT AND LUNGS. 115

that they were in full operation, and as a matter of course,
there could not possibly be, under the circumstances, any act-
ual consumption, which would be corroborated beyond all cavil,
if the pulse was uniformly under seventy beats in a minute.

A person never becomes consumptive until for many weeks,
and for months, the lungs have worked imperfectly; thus
working imperfectly, the system receives at each breath, less
air than it requires ; the blood is that much less purified ; the
body is that much less nourished ; hence, as a man falls more
and more decidedly into consumption, he has less breath, less
blood, less flesh, less strength ; this, all know.

But suppose a patient becomes acquainted with the fact that
his lungs are declining in their capability of receiving air, los-
ing their vital capacity, the evident indication would be to ar-
rest that decline, and not rest satisfied until it was fully remov-
ed. And what more rational course than to practice on the
lu to exercise them artificially; to accustom himself sev-

eral times a day to blow upon his India-rubber ; to trjr more
and more on each occasion to fill it more fully at a single
breath ?

Some months ago a man came to us who could expire with
the utmost effort only ninety- four inches; we sat him down
ar.ong the incurables; we adjudged him to certain death; still
he was urged to try. He promised he would. Ten days ago,
March 17th, he presented himself again, having practiced these
artificial breathings, and gave a measurement of a hundred and
forty-four. Perseverance and an equal rate of increase for a
few months longer, will certainly restore him. But this is
only one of a multitude of similar cases.

The lesson of the article is :

If coming consumption is always attended with a diminution
of vital capacity, of lung activity, of capability of full, free breath-
ing, it must be averted by such practices as will arrest that de-
cline first, and then reestablish the activities. But nobody will
heed these momentous lessons, because their practice would
cost no money, and they have not the charm of mystery, nor
the prestige of brazen trumpets and shameless falsehoods ; hence
we are not afraid of our practice declining by communicating
the information, for we have done it for years, yet our report
is as practically unbelieved as that of the prophet of the olden
times.

116

EARLY BREAKFAST.

Beeakfast should be eaten in the morning, before leav-
ing the house for exercise, or labor of any description ; those
who do it will be able to perform more work and with greater
comfort and alacrity, than those who work an hour or two be-
fore 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. Most
persons begin to feel weak after having been engaged five or
six hours in their ordinary avocations ; a good meal, reinvig-
orates, but from the last meal of the day until next morning,
there is an interval of some twelve hours ; hence the body in a
sense is weak, the stomach is weak, and in proportion can not
resist deleterious agencies, whether of the fierce cold of mid-
winter, or of the poisonous miasm which rests upon the surface
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, because 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 sun 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 immediately into the circulation of the
blood, and carried directly 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 midnight ; and the older merchants of
Charleston may remember that when deadly fevers prevailed in
hot weather, they dared not ride into town in the cool of the
morning or evening, but 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, balmy and de-
lightful, the citizens prepared themselves for still greater rava-
ges of the deadly epidemic for the first few days following.

If early breakfast was taken, in regions where chill and
fever, and fever and ague prevail, and if in addition, a brisk

GROWING OLD HAPPILY. 117

fire were kindled in the family - room, for the hour including
sunset and sunrise, these troublesome maladies would diminish
in any one year, not ten-fold, 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 prac-
tice, it being no " trouble," requiring no effort, to shiver and
shake by the hour, daily, for weeks and months together ; such
is the stupidity of the animal, man !

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 piece-
meal from racking rheumatism, from torturing gout, or the
slow-eating cancer ! the mind all the while, by reason of inces-
sant pain growing morose, querulous, bitter, and atheistic!
On the other hand, how ineffably beautiful is it to arrive at a
hearty, buoyant old age, without ache or pain or sadness ; sun-
shine always in the face, gladness in the eye, the heart mean-
while welling up and running over with human sympathies and
love divine, of whom " my mother sang" so often in the clear,
sweet, and cheery tones of youth and health.

" 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 :

118 hall's journal of health.

" 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. Header ! may such be your exit and
mine.

SPRING 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 advances
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 sas-
safras-tea has the reader taken to that end 1 No such purifica-
tion 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 spinnage,
the radishes, and the like. Why ? Just look at it ! Meats

SINGULAR MEDICINE. 119

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 ! Potatoes have eleven per cent,
turnips three per cent, gooseberries only one.

Literally, incalculable are the good results which would fol-
low a practical attention to these facts. Those who are wise
will take no tonics for the spring, will swallow no teas to purifj-
the blood, nor imagine themselves to be about getting sick, be-
cause they have not in May as vigorous an appetite as in De-
cember, but will at once yield themselves to the guidance of
the instincts, and eat not an atom more than they have an in-
clination 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.

SINGULAR MEDICINE.

Isaac V. Fowler, our city Postmaster, is said to be the
handsomest bachelor in New- York ; but next to him is one of
his " subs.," whom, meeting in Nassau si, the other day, so
rosy, rubicund and round, we thus accosted :

" Why, you're as hearty as a buck !"

" Yes ! I keep the bowels free, and read Hall's Journal
of Health."

"With the utmost confidence we advise all who are well, and
desire to keep so, to follow the same prescription. As to those
who are ailing, there can be no doubt that three fourths would
get well of all ordinary maladies, by the same means ; but the
practical motto is: "Untold thousands to regain health; to
retain it, not a dollar." Weeks and months of effort to arrest
the progress of wasting disease ; to prevent its commencement,
not an hour. Such is the inconsideration, such the improvi-
dence of nine persons out of ten, even among the educated.

120 hall's journal of health.

SLEEPING IN CHTJECH.

Most persons know the distresssing effort it requires, some-
times, to keep awake, during the delivery of a long and not
particularly interesting sermon, on a summer's day ; various
expedients have been devised to remedy the indecency, such as
pinching one's self, holding one foot three or four inches above
the floor, or taking a short nap immediately before going to
church. One of the most quiet, efficient, and prompt remedies
we have yet fallen upon, is to put into the vest-pocket, a tea-
spoonful of the powder of pure cayenne pepper, and when any
drowsiness is experienced, put a good pinch of it in the mouth.
Some enterprising apothecary might make a hit by fabricating
Red Pepper Lozenges.

BALANCE OP POPULATION.

In Newtown, Mass., one person in every seven, of eight
thousand souls is Irish ; at the same time, half of all the births
were of Irish children ; that is, one Irishman is equal to six
Americans in populating power. It is stated that in Boston,
the births from Irish parents are more numerous than Ameri-
can. At this rate, we will soon be extinguished, like the Sand-
wich Islander and the Indian. But there is an antagonizing in-
fluence always at work. The Irish are day -laborers ; the Ame-
ricans are well to do, hence, live ten or fifteen years longer ; in
addition, the inherent love of liquor, an appetite which seems
to be born with them, works an early death ; another still greater
cause of mortality, is their domestic habits ; as a class, they live
in hovels, unfit even for the beasts of the field ; this, with their
notorious improvidence, aids in bringing about the general re-
sult of a greater proportional mortality.

The same general rule holds good as to rich and poor ; the
laboring poor have the most children, as in the days before
Moses and Aaron ; at the same time, their greater exposures,
hardships, privations, excesses, and sorrows equalize life.

j»0fc MotUtfl.

H. B. Price, 884 Broadway, New-York, has issued in handsome style, a book
which few can read without pleasure and profit, being Fragments from the Study
of a Pastor. 252 pages 12mo, 75 cents. By Rev. George W. Nichols, A.M.

Gould & Lincoln, Boston, merit the patronage of the Christian public by pub-
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anew, with Special Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times.
454 pages, $1.25. It is eminently worthy of a wide circulation.

Phonography. Pitman's Manual, Cincinnati. 12mo, 50 cents. It is the most
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How to Live Economically. By Fowler & Wells. 343 pages, 12mo, 63 cents.
Is literally and without exaggeration worth its weight in gold to all classes of per-
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Among a multitude of valuable issues, the Messrs. Francis, 554 Broadway, in
the Guide to the Knowledge of Life, being a comprehensive Manual of Vegetable
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A book which of itself is a library, and without which no gentleman's or scholar's
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Journal of Rational Medicine, Cincinnati, 0. Edited by C. H. Cleaveland. $1
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Hygienic and Literary Magazine. Atlanta, Ga. $2 a year. M. A. Malsby, Ed-
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Pacific Expositor. San Francisco. A Monthly, $3 a year. By Rev. W. A.
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enjoy hereafter, is the common lot of good and great men.

Public Schools. The school committee of Salem, Mass., to prevent overtasking
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Balance of Brain and Body is a singularly instructive, practical, and curious
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The New- York Mentor is one of the most thoroughly scissored of all our secular
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American Druggists' Circular, New-York, contains more practical information in
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Braithwaite's Retrospect. Semi-annually. $2 a year. By W. A. Townsend &
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THIRTY-TWO! Health Tracts are sent post-paid for 12 cents.

Missing Nos. of the Journal of Health will be supplied for 6 cents.

No person need write on any subject without inclosing a post-paid envelope to
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All subscriptions to the Journal of Health begin with January last.

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HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] JUNE, 1860. [No. 6.

DONATION-PARTIES,

Surprise- visits, lottery-drawings, fairs, et id omne, away with
them ! they are a hypocrisy, a cheat, a degradation, the whole
of them, not a single exception, and being so, the sooner they
are abandoned the better.

Donation-parties and surprise-visits are the ways and means
of giving material aid to clergymen, who either need it or do
not : if they do not need this aid, then the proceedings are
simply a stultification of all concerned ; if they do need such aid,
it shows the great inconsideration if not actual injustice, of
those to whom the minister preaches ; it clearly indicates the
fact that he is not properly sustained, and that his parishioners
know it.

The practical workings of these machineries are always de-
ceptive, always degrading, and lead to unmixed harm ; they
are a pecuniary loss to the clergyman himself, and a moral loss
to the people of his charge.

It is the nature of gifts to degrade, to cause a feeling of de-
pendence, of inferiority, and of obligation. A minister's palms
should be as guiltless of a bribe as that of a judge. No for-
eign minister of our government is allowed to receive a present
of any description in his official capacity, or even privately, by
virtue of his station ; not even the President of the United
States can receive a gift or present from any nation. This is
wise, and is based on a true knowledge of human nature ;; audi
neither ought a minister of the Gospel, who is, by virtue of
his office, a minister from the Court of the King of kings, an
ambassador from the skies.

To the disgrace of the American people, three fourths of the

no. VI.— vol. vii.— 1860.

122

clergy who should live by the Grospel, who should be amply
supported, are not adequately paid, are compelled, if they have
no private means, to the most pinching economies ; live in cir-
cumstances distressingly straitened ; and endured, too, in multi-
tudes of cases, with an uncomplainingness and a heroic courage
which is beyond praise.

The usual history of a case is this ; a Society needs a min-
ister ; they engage to give him a certain amount, which is most
generally barely if at all adequate to his necessities, arid the
people know it. Perhaps not one in any dozen would be
willing to give a year's labor for what is promised the minister ;
but there is an unexpressed feeling that there are certain perqui-
sites which may supply the deficiencies ; there are the wedding-
fees, and the donation-visits and surprise-parties, the proceeds
of which are of course greatly exaggerated ; the consequence
is an actual pecuniary loss in the long run to the minister, who
is supposed to have been benefited by them. If there were no
perquisites at all, then a larger salary would have been provided,
and it would be more promptly and punctually and fully paid,
with the incalculable advantage of enabling him to make his
calculations and frame his expenditures to the amount received,
with the result of a mind at easa all the year round. But
knowing the salary to be inadequate, and not knowing what
the sum total of the perquisites will be, there is hesitancy, un-
certainty, disquietude, perplexity and unrest from one year's
end to another, crippling the energies of the minister himself,
depressing his wife, and causing a somber cloud to rest upon
the whole household, to the moral injury of the minister him-
self and that of every single member of his society. The most
wearing of all feelings is that of uncertainty, and especially of
apprehension, and these are the abiding feelings of a large class
of men who are literally the salt of the moral world, the
national conservators; men who, for intellectual attainments,
for moral culture, and a refinement of feeling at once elevating
and pure, have not their equals in all human society besides ;
and all the more galling to these superiorities, are the uncer-
tainties of an indefinite salary.

Another constant source of deception is, presents of articles
are made, which the minister's family does not want ; or are
commercially valuable, but not worth to the minister one tenth

DONATION-PARTIES. 123

part of what they cost. A twenty dollar " work-box" is a beau-
tiful present to a minister's wife ; but she could do without
it, and two dollars in money would be practically more valuable
to her. That two dollars would purchase a religious news-
paper, which would be of more actual advantage to a minister's
growing family, and to himself, too, than a room full of twenty-
dollar work-boxes, which, as presents, he would not feel at
liberty to sell. Moral : If you have any thing to give to your
minister, give it to him in money, and it will be worth to him
at least double its value in any thing else, in three cases out of
four.

It then follows that these machineries, which the Evil One no
doubt contemplates the workings of with considerable satisfac-
tion, operate a pecuniary loss, both to the receiver and to the
giver ; to the giver, because two dollars in money would have
done more actual good than the twenty- dollar work-box ; while
as to the minister, these costly presents are counted as cash, as
that much of a salary, when he is not able to make use of them.
So these fancy, costly presents to ministers' families are money
thrown away by the parishioner, and money lost to the persons
intended to be benefited by them.

It is not in human nature to resist the mollifying influences
of gifts : the great mind of Lord Bacon could not resist it ;
hence it is every where ground for impeachment and removal
as to our j udges, and there is a universal sentiment of approval,
even in the midst of the most uncultivated of our population.
In short, there is only one true, honorable, safe and manly
course to be pursued in reference to our clergy, and if it were
universally adopted, it would throw over this nation a con-
servative and an elevating influence which would make it in
reality the glory of the whole earth ; and it is this : Let every
evangelical clergyman of all sects have a salary fully adequate
to a plain, unostentatious mode of life, and let it be promptly,
regularly and fully paid in money, to the very last cent ; and
never let him be presented with a single dollar or its value, ex-
cept under circumstances which would effectually prevent the
giver being known, except to that giver and to God, who will
reward him openly in due time.

To pay a laborer half-a-dollar for a day's work, when it is ac-
knowledged to be worth a dollar, and then to make a present

124

to him of the other half — what is it ? Your minister ought not
to be treated thus. The laborer is worthy of his hire. A
clergyman's salary is his right, it is for work done, and he is en-
titled to his pay in money, in full, and promptly at the day.
But to seek to pay a part of it as a gratuity, is nothing less than
a trickery, a subterfuge, a meanness, and a degradation, and is
direct temptation, a bribe and a command : " Speak unto us
smooth things." Hence these things are a profanation, and
always will bring leanness to priest and people.

Since the above was put in type, it is stated that, " At one
of the recent festivals in Boston, Judge Thomas of the Supreme
Court, in urging the necessity and justice of giving an adequate
support to clergymen, condemned donation-visits, as being mor-
tifying confessions of the failure to pay an honest salary to the
clergy, and as eking out an insufficient support by giving what
is not wanted, and what is worse, making a charity of the
wages of honest labor."

WHISKY- DOCTORS

A considerable number of persons*' applying to us for the
treatment of throat and lung affections, in answer to the in-
quiry, " What have you been doing for your ailment," reply,
"Using Bourbon whisky:" nine times in ten adding, "It
seemed to do good for a while, but has not effected any perma-
nent benefit." Yery many persons troubled with a tickling in
the throat or annoying hawking or hemming, as a consequence
of a disorder of the stomach, evidenced by a changeable or in-
different appetite, bad taste in the mouth of mornings, cold feet,
or general chilliness, have been " advised to take a little whis-
ky at meals." The very fact of their seeking further counsel
after trying the whisky treatment, is conclusive of its ineffi-
ciency. In nearly all the cases, especially from New-England,
the practice has been adopted by the "advice of the family
physician." One of the best American surgeons known to us,
is the most inveterate liquor-drinker. Loving it himself, it was
a standard item of commendation to a great number of his pa-

WHISKY-DOCTORS. 125

tients. This might be accepted as a proof of the efficiency of
whisky as a medicine, except for the fact that for the last few
years the community have lost confidence in him, and he is no
longer considered as A ISTo. 1 among his brethren.

Some physicians have a practice of attempting to make a
good first impression by " bolstering" up their patients at once
with the various preparations of alcohol or opium, so as to get
a good report started. " Why ! as soon as Dr. Blank came to
see me, I began to get better, even from the first dose of medi-
cine." But when the inevitable death takes place, it is compa-
ratively easy to find a plausible reason for the result, in a sud-
den change of the weather, in an unfortunate cold, or an error
of diet. It is not believed that among regularly-educated prac-
titioners, there is one such in five hundred ; but there are such,
and it is well for the intelligent reader to be on his guard
against employing a man who is not slow to advise whisky, or
gin, or beer, or any other alcoholic material, as a daily medi-
cine, and for the very sufficient reason :

The " benefits" arising from the daily use of any thing that
can intoxicate is always factitious, unreal, and deceptive, and
sooner or later, the cheat will be found out, by the system not
only failing to be kept up, but going down to a point lower
than that from which it started, with the attendant ill results of
its greater inability to rise, and its greater inability to repel the
attacks of disease or the ill effects of deleterious agencies.

It is the very nature of alcohol, in all its forms, to goad, and
not to strengthen ; as it is of opium to blunt and not to eradi-
cate ; neither of them ever cured, or aided to cure, any human
ailment, except so far as they gave nature time to rally her
forces; hence, beyond one or two administrations or " doses,"
in any given case, their use is mischievous ; for, while their im-
mediate effect is deceptive and unsubstantial, the secondary ten-
dency is always, and under all circumstances, to aggravate the
malady and to increase the chances against restoration.

It is not contended, at least at this time, that neither opium
nor alcohol in any form ought ever to be used as medicines, but
it is asserted without any fear of disproof, that the physician
who never prescribes or takes either, will be the most success-
ful man as to promptness and permanency and frequency of
cure.

126 hall's journal of health.

It is with these views that two articles have been read in the
April number of the American Gazette, whose able and veteran
editor stands among the highest in the allopathic ranks, which
good and wise men will not fail to regret. One is a philippic
against Dr. Hiram Cox, of Cincinnati, whose efforts, in an offi-
cial capacity, to present to the people demonstrative evidence of
shameless and perfectly murderous adulterations by the liquor
trade certainly merit the countenance and commendation and
respect of every benevolent man.

In the same number, which attempts to bring ridicule on Dr.
Cox, there is found an indorsement of some body's whisky, all
the way from Philadelphia, as the real, original, identical "Ja-
cobs," as being pure as the dew-drop, and " as the very best
thing for the sick." This " celebrated" whisky is. commended
by the editor, on the very conclusive and absolutely irresistible
ground that the maker of it stands " vouching that nothing
but the genuine pure article" will ever be offered for sale. So
will the milkman within five minutes from a "swill-dairy,"
vouch, nay assert his willingness to make his "affidavy" that
he sells pure Orange county milk, and as further proof points
to the name of "Orange" in gilt and gold on one end of his
cart, and a cow with a long tail on the other, exclaiming, with
the conscious pride of argumentative strength: "Don't yer
know that it's only stump-tail cows what gives swill milk?"
In addition, the official opinions of four expert chemists are
paraded to give weight to the whisky ; and in close proximity
to their names is read: " Such whisky is in many cases of dis-
ease, a nutritious and wholesome stimulant." But whether said
chemists say these identical words, is not stated ; even if they
did, their sentiments must be taken with some allowance, for
some of these sponsors for the superior excellence of Philadel-
phia whiskey have "aforetime" stood god-fathers for lager beer,
German gin, under the name of " Schiedam Schnapps," and
swill-milk; that "lager," in any takable quantity, could not
intoxicate, and that there was not such a tremendous sight of
difference between swill-milk and other ordinary kinds. It
seem to us that Wolfe's gin was chemically analyzed and be-
praised by some of these men ; and the professional opinions
which they have given of the hurtless nature of the contents
of patent medicines which have been submitted to their analysis

WHISKY-DOCTORS. 127

for the last few years, would fill a volume. Does any body
with a single mite of sense left, suppose that a patent medicine
compounder would put the real constituents of his "stuff" in
the sample which he furnished the chemist for analysis ? "Would
he not be a "born fool" not to keep out of "that bottle" at
least, all the corrosive sublimate, prussic acid, sugar of lead,
copperas, and strychnine which was common to the articles "on
sale" ? It is greatly to be regretted that scientific men should
for pay, in money or soft sawder, lend their influence to sim-
pletons and knaves, to the risk of the health and life itself of
the community at large.

The assertion that Mr. Thingumbob's Philadelphia whisky is
" nutritious," and " good for the sick," draws rather strong on
common-sense; but money is the stronger — so down it goes!
This Philadelphia whisky is said to be " celebrated." We
never heard of it before, or in our multitude of exchanges came
across its name once ; but on the day we read of it, we heard
of a " Philadelphia fact" of some " celebrity," and from one of
the denizens thereof, that within, the memory of the present
generation, it has never been known that so many persons have
died suddenly as during the last winter in the City of Brotherly
Love ; that a most extraordinary mortality has been observed
to prevail during the last eighteen months among business men
and others of the " fast" class, between the ages of forty -five and
fifty-five. They herded together pretty much. They dined,
and drank, and played, and champaigned, and terrapined, and
lobstered with each other by turns. They were very proper
men. Nobody ever saw them drunk !

" They were nae fou'
But just had plenty."

Now if the Philadelphia man's whisky was so particularly
good, it must have come to their knowledge and patronage, and
putting the two together, it is perfectly plain as to the manner
in which the apple got into the dumpling and the milk into the
cocoa-nut. " Vivas," long and loud to chemical experts and
accommodating editorial doctors, to Philadelphia whisky and
humbug !

128

PROSTITUTION OP HIGH HEALTH.

Never having read Shakspeare, or Milton, or Byron, or the
productions of the " Great Unknown," the presumption is that
we have missed a great deal or nothing. Schiller is the high-
priest of some, and we have heard Emerson quote Goethe, as if
he were a god in his estimation. The life of the " Patriarch
of German Literature," was one of great contradictions. Before
he was eight years old, he was exercising in German, French,
Italian, Latin, and Greek, yet did not die of brain-fever or
dropsy in the head. He drank wine, was prodigal of money,
and was odd in his manners. His "social faults looked society
contemptuously in the face," but as a swordsman, a rider, and
a skater, beyond most of his time, he lived to the age of eighty-
two years. He wrote one of the most doleful books ever pub-
lished, known as the Sorrows of Werther, yet himself took life
without sadness, and enjoyed it to the full. His writings gave
out a light of their kind, in the glare of which multitudes de-
light still to live ; yet at the age of sixty he doubted the exist-
ence of a divine providence, because he could not see through
His dispensations, who in wisdom ruleth over all, and at the age
of eighty-two, he still could not see, and died exclaiming :
" More light!" He died in darkness when the world was in a
blaze of sunshine ! And why ? because he was without a
Bible, without a religious faith, and without a God, if we take
his favorite expression a3 the embodiment of his creed,

" The end of life is life itself,"
which, if it means any thing, is,

Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.

Goethe had high health, a vigorous constitution, a great posi-
tion, and a world of friends. But with the baleful sentiment
that this life was every thing, God was not in all his thoughts,
and he lived only in himself.

This narration is given as a warning to the few who never
have an ache or a pain, that they may not grow up and live
thankless and thoughtless of the great talent of perfect health,
but rather consecrate it; in humility, to good-doing, so that
when the mortal eye closes in the night of the grave, it may
open upon the ineffable splendors of an immortal existence.

CLERICAL MARRIAGES. 129

CLERICAL MARRIAGES.

Some irate individual has worked himself up to fever-heat,
and the next very natural step of fault-finding, in the daily
papers, that young clergymen would marry almost as soon as
they obtained their "license," with the doleful result, in a
great many cases, of a houseful of children on a starvation
salary. Perhaps this gentleman was so ugly or so shamefaced,
that he could get no body worth having to marry him ; for oi
all persons in the world, girls of any kind of spirit have a con-
tempt for " sheepish" young men and small-soul calculating
people. Maybe he was more successful in getting a wife than
children ; and took to the tactics of the Fox without a rudder.
Be that as it may, every liberal-minded man will cordially ad-
mit, that as the clergy, as a class, are the best educated, the
most influential, as well as the most unexceptionable in their
deportment in the relations of life, whether as citizens, neigh-
bors or kindred, they are richly entitled to all the privileges
and immunities of law-abiding men, whether they be candidates
for matrimony or for Congress. Let young clergymen take
their chances, and if they have to pay a good price for the same,
if the whistle costs them dear, it is their own look-out. " As
they mak their bed, so they maun lee doon."

It is particularly doleful to have a whole houseful of child-
ren, and not have the wherewithal to support them in any
kind of respectability ; but then there is something in the doc-
trine of compensations ; and who shall deny that a dear,
delightful, sweet-tempered wife, as neat as a new pin, as prudent
as Miss Prim ; as firm as a rock in the right ; as pure as the dew-
drop, and as smiling as the morning, is worth more than a
houseful of children, and will counterbalance many of the in-
conveniences of too much property of that sort, and not enough
of another kind ?

In important respects, a man without a wife is of " no ac-
count." He has very little "position," either in society or in
the financial world, because it is felt that there is nothing to fix
him ; nothing to prevent him any day from spiriting himself
away to "parts unknown." These items hold good as to
clergymen, while their relations are such, that being unmarried,

130

they are disqualified from the unexceptionable performance of
some of their duties ; making them liable to be thrown into
many embarrassing situations ; besides, they can not truly and
properly sympathize with those who are married and have
children, and are sore vexed, and " careful about many things."

But any thing can be done which, under the circumstances,
ought to be done, and the following straight shoot between
Scylla and Charybdis is proposed :

Whereas, a man without a woman is " a poor shoat" any how ;
and

Whereas, he is a baby, without a wife, and is always in a
fret or a stew or most annoying unfixedness, being in " a strait
betwixt two," (a wife or no wife) ; and

Whereas, a state of betweenity is as uncomfortable as a
locality upon the points of two horns of a dilemma; and

Whereas young clergymen will get married, whether it is
prudent or advisable or not ;

Let it be permitted that they marry immediately if not
sooner, with the following sole restriction :

That no unmarried clergyman be allowed to take to wife
any one who is not a maiden of a third of a century in age.

The advantages of such an arrangement are neither few nor
small, while the disadvantages are not important.

There would most probably be no more than three or four
children.

The chances would be very great that the mother would
have the health, strength and vigor to perform to them all of a
mother's duties, live to see them settled in life, and still not be
very old.

The minister would then have a wife whose maturity of
judgment, whose force of character, and whose bodily energy
would enable her to be to him a counselor, a sustainer, a
housekeeper — thereby not only being a help-meet for him, in
his official capacity, but by relieving him of all household
cares, he would have leisure to devote himself entirely to his
more appropriate duties.

A woman at the age of thirty-three and a third years, who
has never been married, is considered passee ; is called an " old
maid," and the term is most unjustly used in derision. The
very fact of being an old maid is prima facie evidence of the

CLERICAL MARRIAGES. 131

posses-ion of purity, prudence and self-denial, and these are
essential to the character of a perfect wife • without them, no
woman is worth having.

Being an " old maid," implies decision of character ; neither
shams nor shows nor courtly manners nor splendid persons
have won them over ; nor fair promises nor shallow tears ;
they looked beyond the manner and the dress, and finding no
cheering indication of depth of mind and sterling principles,
they gave up the specious present for the chance of a more
solid future, and determined in hope and patience and resigna-
tion, to " bide their time."

It is this firmness of purpose, this trait of the mind which
looks at future utility, more steadily than at present gratifica-
tion, that makes all the difference between a mother who is
priceless, or of nothing worth. She can not gratify her child or
herself to-day, for the reasonable chances of an ill to-morrow.
The too-yielding mother has been the utter ruin of multitudes,
who else might have been an honor to their kith and kin and
country.

In a hygienic point of view, the advantages of marrying a
woman who is mature in body, in age, in mind, in judgment,
in culture, can not be easily computed ; they are beyond mea-
sure. On the other hand, for a mere girl to become a mother,
is to give up almost every chance of health, and peril life
itself ; is to throw away a decade of joyous youth, of delicious
anticipations "long drawn oat" in gladness, growing the
sweeter in their expectancy, making of girlhood a lengthened
sabbath of sunshine, which ending in a wise marriage, is looked
back upon to the close of life with the most delightful associa-
tions, yet not regretfully, a deeper sweetness being in the
present — all this is thrown remorselessly away, by her who
marries too early.

The subject may not be better closed, than by recording the
sentiments of a noted name in behalf of that class, from among
whom this article recommends the clergy to wed. " I have no
sympathy with that rude, unfeeling, and indelicate phrase, old
maid, which is bandied about in the mouths of rude, unfeeling,
and indelicate persons. It is true, that a selfish nature, cut off
from all duties and ties, and sinking back into the solitary life
of a selfish heart, becomes most unlovely and useless. But

132

shall the few cloud the true nobleness of the many ? How
many elder sisters, it may be unblessed with outward comeli-
ness, have entered into a brother's or a sister's family, and
accepted all its cares as the duty of their life, and, joining
hands with the mother, given to each child, as it were, two
souls of love, like two wings of God, to help it fly up withal
from weakness and ignorance to manhood and strength ! How
many have cheerfully given up their own whole life, built no
nest, sought no companion, but sang in the tree, and near the
younglings of another's nest, patient in toil, watchful and labo-
rious in sickness, frugal amidst poverty, rich in nothing but
good works, and in these abounding in wealth ! When the
roll is read above, and they are named that lived in self-sacri-
fice, in gentleness, in patience, in love, and in the only triumph
of disinterested mercy, they who are unmarried and childless,
that they might more heroically serve the households of others,
and become mothers of children not their own, shall stand
high and bright."

WHAT KILLED HIM?

Pleasant memories gather around the name of Washington
Irving. By six years, he had passed the " threescore and ten,"
and with the advantage of his quiet and regular mode of living,
he might well have remained with us for some years to come,
had it not been for advice, kindly intended no doubt, but given
in thoughtlessness and reckless ignorance. He had a cold,
which " by some injudicious prescription, had been converted
into an asthma, which was at length accompanied by an en-
largement of the heart," of which he died without a moment's
warning ; this at least, is the published record. Who gave that
"prescription," and what it was, the outside world may never
know. Doubtless half a dozen lines would embody it, and
would do more good as a beacon-light than will be done by any
hundred pages of his " Complete Works," now in process of pub-
lication by Putnam. It may be safely taken for granted that
the prescription was a drug of some kind, if not a dozen of
them, " simple" and unsimple, the main one being opium in

WHAT KILLED HIM? 133

some form, laudanum, paregoric, or morphine, for no mixture
ever sold for coughs, colds, and consumption, ever, by any
chance, fails of one of these ingredients. Such mixtures always
soothe, always diminish the cough, causing a belief that they
are doing good, hence they are more freely and frequently
taken. It is precisely as if, when the hold of a ship is on fire,
the hatches are closed, and because no more smoke is seen to
arise, the captain should immediately place himself at ease,
under the conviction that the fire is out, while in reality it is
but kept under, gathering force, only a little later to break
forth with resistless power.

Opium does not cure any thing ; it never did. All that can
be scientifically claimed for it is, that it gives time to nature or
the physician, as does closing the hatches when the hold is on
fire ; but if the time is not wisely improved, disaster must
follow.

Cough, in a cold, is nature's effort to eject from the lungs
what does not properly belong there ; precisely as when a
crumb "goes the wrong way," that is, into the windpipe instead
of the stomach. In each case opium diminishes . the sensibility
of the parts so that they do not feel the presence of the offend-
ing particles, and nature is cheated. Any one can see that be-
cause a dose of morphine quiets the cough from a crumb in the
windpipe, it does not "cure," it does not bring it away. Most
precisely so is it with phlegm in the lungs ; it has the effect to
keep it there to accumulate, just as water does in the spout
of a pump, when little boys close the mouth of it with their
hands, pumping on all the time. Here the comparison ends.
However long the water is kept in, it is water still. Not so
with phlegm in the lungs ; every instant it is kept there, the heat
of the parts being a hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, it evapo-
rates, becomes less watery, and of consequence, more tough,
harder to dislodge, increasing in bulk by accumulations which
also grow thicker by evaporation, until " the pipes" are plugged
up with tough phlegm so that the air passes it with increasing
difficulty, and the patient wheezes like — an asthmatic ; the
lungs labor fearfully for breath, they can not get enough air,
hence the blood becomes impure and thick, and in this condi-
tion goes to the heart, which labors to send it on through the
body, but can not wholly empty itself at each beat, as is natural ;

134 hall's journal of health.

and the blood still pouring into it from the lungs, it gets pre-
ternaturally full, hence its fibers are relaxed and then distended :
this is " enlargement of the heart." For a while nature strug-
gles to relieve herself of this surplus, until the laboring heart
has expended all its strength in the vain effort, until it can not
give another beat, and suffocation is the instantaneous result.

Many a man before now, has been literally " killed with kind-
ness," as it would seem was the fate of Washington Irving, of
whom it may be truthfully said, he was kindness personified. No
sooner does a man show that he has a cold, than advice is pro-
truded in the glibbest manner possible by every second friend
he meets. Let the reader learn by the sad narration given,
never to give or take advice, even in so simple a thing as a
common cold. Let counsel come in all cases from common-
sense or a physician.

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

Muscle, not money, has been the absorbing topic of conver-
sation for some weeks past, on both sides of the water. It is
well to derive what good we may from passing events, espe-
cially as in them there is much that is exceedingly curious, in-
teresting, and instructive. A " ring" is made, which can be de-
scribed by a rope inclosing a space of twenty -four feet square ;
into this arena the two champions enter, each having his " cor-
ner," with two seconds beside him; the spectators are outside
the ropes. At a signal, each approaches the center, and od meet-
ing, begin to batter each other's faces and heads with their fists.
The moment one falls to the earth by slip or stratagem, or a
knock-down, both retire to their respective corners, to remain un-
til the referee calls out " time." Each of these operations is
called a " round." Ordinarily, persons might suppose, that when
a man is knocked down, he should be carefully placed in a bed,
with camphor and smelling-salts, and a soft sponge, and delicate
cotton rags, or the finest lint, and the nicest court-plasters should
be put in requisition, to restore him as soon as possible. Not
so in the prize-ring. The interval between a man's being felled

PHYSICAL TRAINING. 135

to the earth like a bullock, and that of his facing his antagonist
for the chance of another flooring is very short, generally short
of a single minute ! In the famous battle in 1825, between
Jack Jones and Pat Tunney, two hundred and seventy-six
rounds were fought in two hundred and seventy minutes. This
statement is made to show first, how little time a man has for
rest after having been knocked down — not half a minute on an
average — and second, how rapidly, in a high state of health,
the human constitution recovers from such shocks.

It is exceedingly curious to notice with what studied care the
strength of the combatants is husbanded, and it should be made
a note of by all who are called to nurse the sick ; for to " save
the strength," that it may be expended by nature in bringing
the invalid back to life and health, is in many instances of vital
importance. Nothing is allowed in the ring, which by any pos-
sibility could be seized upon, in a fit of passion, to inflict an
injury; hence a chair or stool is not permitted. Everyone
knows that it requires a great deal more effort to rise from the
ground or floor, than from a chair; hence the second, or bottle-
holder, takes his position with one knee on the ground, the other
so disposed, that it makes a convenient and soft seat for the con-
testant during the very brief period of his rest.

In the recent contest, when one of the combatants was down,
his seconds would not allow him to waste any of his strength in
efforts to rise, but ran to him and brought him to his corner in
their arms. Towards the last of the contest, the Englishman
did not waste his strength in keeping his arms up in the attitude
of defense, until his opponent came almost within reach of him ;
it perhaps did not amount to ten seconds of time, but it was
something. There are cases of spasmodic asthma, when the pa-
tient feels as if he would almost die if he were to speak three
words, there is so little breath to go upon ! In an election-fight
in our childhood, between Isaac Allen and John Lyon, which
was continued after both of them were unable to speak, and
neither could strike hard enough to hurt a chicken, the former
proved victorious ; but he afterwards said that the friendly pat
of encouragement with the ends of the finger on the side,
seemed to almost knock the breath out of his body. He was
much the smaller man, and lived to the age of four-score years.
Hope our readers will not jump to the conclusion that i sticufrs

136

promote longevity ! Within three years we saw a gentleman
dying ; he sat up a moment or two, and motioned to be laid
down ; his attendant was not strong enough to place him on his
pillow in an easy, gentle manner, but did it with a sudden ef-
fort, which had the effect to knock out what little air there was
in the lungs, and death was instantaneous ; it might otherwise
have been deferred for hours. Hence it is impossible to be too
tender, to be too gentle with the sick. If persons could know
the effort the sick have to answer a simple question, even if it
could be done with a yes or no, they would be very sparing of
them. When a person is quite ill, it requires strength to listen
to a question ; it requires strength to frame an answer, and
strength for enunciation, all of which is strength wasted, in very
many cases indeed.

There is an immense amount to be learned in the item of
nursing the sick ; untold agonies might be saved to them in the
matter of tone, and look, and gesture, and motion. We have
not seen Florence Nightingale's book on nursing, but from ex-
tracts in the papers, it is very likely the most useful book on
the subject ever printed, for it seems to be the result of obser-
vation, not of " authority" or mere theory.

As every reader is destined to nurse or be nursed, sooner or
later, and as very many of them may be earnestly longing for
that vigorous health and strength which they once possessed,
but of which, alas ! they were too prodigal, we think a good
purpose may be subserved by copying from the New- York Clip-
per an article headed " Training," being hints on diet, exercise,
muscular development, etc., including a description of the man-
ner in which the principles were carried out in actual practice
in several cases, embodying, as they do, a sound physiology,
according to the best lights of the times.

" It is an indisputable fact, that no animal is so much improved by train-
ing as man— none stands such long and severe preparation with advantage,
and none displays the difference between condition and its absence in so
great a degree. But it is not only that man may be enabled to do certain
feats of activity and strength that training is desirable, but that he may do
them with pleasure to himself, and even with advantage to his general
health ; and this marks the grand principle which every man who values
health should constantly keep in view, namely, that no one should attempt
to compete in any contest requiring agility or strength, unless he has had
such a preparUi n as shall enable him to perform his task without feeling

PHYSICAL TRAINING. 137

any ill effect from it. For instance, the man in condition can row through
a race of three or four miles, in which his whole powers are taxed to their
very utmost, and shall at the end of it be almost blind from the exertions
he has made ; and yet before he gets out of the boat he is f. all right,' and
could go through the same in half an hour without injury ; whilst the man
out of condition lies nearly fainting, or perhaps quite insensible for many
minutes, or even still longer, and is only revived by stimuli to an extent
which will not allow any further liberty to be taken with his naturally strong
constitution. Pluck will do much in place of condition ; but numberless are
the instances of ruined health from the excessive drafts which have been
made upon this valuable quality, whilst a little care and abstinence would
have prevented any such irreparable misfortune. To enable the man who is
of sound constitution — but, from mismanagement, out of health — to restore
himself to such a state as will allow him to go into training without mischief,
is rather a difficult task in most cases, because it not only requires some
skill to know what to do, but also great self-command to avoid that which
ought not to be done. In the vast majority of instances the health has been
impaired by excess of some kind, and in many by every variety of excess
which human ingenuity can suggest. But it is wonderful how completely
the anticipation of a great match or contest will enable a ' fast man' to
throw all temptation on one side, and to adhere to all the rules laid down for
his guidance with the rigidity of an anchorite. His reply to all tempting
offers is : ' No, that is bad training.' Such is not always the case, it is true ;
but to a great extent ; and more pluck is frequently shown *in abstaining
from temptation, than in sustaining the prolonged efforts which such a race
demands. There are two kinds of excess which are the most likely to have
produced such a state as we are supposing — namely, excess in eating, drink-
ing, etc., and excess in literary or other sedentary pursuits. Either will for
a time entirely upset the powers of the stomach, and in fact the whole sys-
tem, and each will require very different treatment in order to restore those
powers. These conditions will also vary very much according to the rank
in life, habits, and natural constitution of the individual. For instance, a
gentleman's son, having been generously brought up, goes to the university
and indulges to excess in wine, smoking, etc., all the while taking strong
exercise. For a time his naturally strong constitution enables him to with-
stand the attacks of the poisonous doses of wine and tobacco which he is
taking, but soon his hand begins to shake, his appetite for solid food ceases,
his eyes become red, his sleep is restless and unrefreshing, and he is threat-
ened with an attack of delirium tremens. Now, if in such a state as this an
attempt is made to go suddenly into training, the consequence is either that
the above disease makes its appearance at once, or, in milder cases, that the
stomach refuses to do its duty, and the prescribed work can not be performed
from giddiness, faintness, sickness, or headache. By a little care and time,
however, this state of things may be removed. But suppose the case of \
young man in a lower rank, who has been brought up on a spare and rig-
idly abstemious fare, and who from circumstances is suddenly allowed to,,
ndulge in all the temptations of the public house ; he has no other resource^

138 hall's jouenal of health.

— no hunting or cricket to take up his attention — no lectures to attend, and
the consequence is, that beer and tobacco commence the day, and tobacco
and spirits wind it up. Such a man suddenly finds all his energies going ;
his mind dull and enfeebled, his body weak, flabby, and bloated. In a happy
moment he bethinks himself that he will take to boating, or some other
amusement which he has formerly perhaps been addicted to, and at once
proceeds to the river or the road. "Well, what is the consequence ? Why,
instead of feeling the better for his exertion he is completely knocked up,
and perhaps permanently discouraged and deterred from any further trial ;
in fact, he requires a much more careful treatment to get him into a state of
health fit for such an exertion than some others, because the change from
his former habits has been greater, because the imbibition of beer and spirits
has been more uninterrupted, because the rooms he has frequented have
been less perfectly ventilated, and because he has taken little or no exercise.
Indeed, it is astonishing what quantities of intoxicating drinks may be im-
bibed without much injury, provided that a corresponding amount of exer-
cise is regularly taken. We have known young men take from one to two
gallons a day of strong ale for many months, etc., without any great injury.
One of the most plucky oarsmen we ever knew, regularly swallowed the
above quantity, and still pursues the same course, apparently uninjured by
it. This gentleman, however, is always walking or riding, and is also by
nature of an iron constitution. But a far more difficult task lies before the
reading man, who has been devoting twelve to eighteen hours a day to a
preparatfon for honors ; and who, finding his health giving way, determines
upon going in for honors of another kind. Here the nervous system has
been overtaxed, aided by green tea, wet cloths around the head, and perhaps
a liberal supply of tobacco ; the consequence is, that the neglected muscular
system is unfit for exertion, and the limbs become stiff" and cramped on the
slightest effort. This state of things requires many weeks, or even months
to restore the system to a state fit for undertaking any severe work, because
the muscles are wanting in solid material, and the nervous system is so irri-
table as to be totally incompetent to stimulate them with that steadiness and
regularity which is essential to success. The same state of things often oc-
curs in the counting-house — a young man is confined for ten or twelve hours
a day to the desk and ledger ; he has no time for exercise, and his nervous
system is over-stimulated by incessant calculation, and also by the constant
view of the white paper spread before his eyes ; he' gets the 'ledger fever,'
and many a young man is rendered by it utterly incompetent to continue
this kind of drudgery. Some relieve this unnatural condition by early rising
and pedestrian or horse and rowing exercise.

"CAPTAIN BARCLAY'S METHOD OF TRAINING.

" The great object of training for running or boxing matches, is to increase
the muscular strength, and to improve the free action of the lungs, or wind,
of the person subjected to the process, which is done by medicine, but may
be effected by regimen and exercise. That this object can be accomplished
is evident from the nature of the human system." (To be continued.)

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 139

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The May article on this subject has elicited very considera-
ble attention and commendation. A physician of long expe-
rience and close observation called to express his gratification,
and, at our request, made the following statement corroborative
of our views :

" I have, in many instances, explained, warned, and remon-
strated in vain with parents, against the overstraining of the
brains of children. A lady informed me that she did not know
what to do with her little boy, aged six years. He had become
fractious and irritable ; small provocations threw him into a vio-
lent passion, and he was becoming uncontrollable. On inquiry,
I learned he was going to school, was learning very fast, often
repeated parts of his lesson in his sleep, which was restless and
disturbed. At one time his head was hot, at another the per-
spiration from it would drench his pillow ; his appetite was ca-
pricious, his limbs were small, his flesh, which he was losing,
was soft; all indicating, as I informed her, an over-worked
brain, and that the powers of life were being rapidly exhausted.
She promised to speak to the father, but proceeded : ' What
in the world shall I do with him? He is so fractious, there is
no living in the same house with him. Besides, the teachers
do not want to give him up. He is one of the best scholars at
school. If taken away now, readmission may be refused here-
after.' In about a month after I met the mother again, but she
was in deep mourning. The element of household disturbance
had been removed, but in a manner most unwelcome. The child
had taken a fever, which at once settled on the brain. The
1 best boy in the school' talking incessantly : day and night,
in his delirium, he kept on repeating parts of his' lessons, and
so continued until the last hour of his life !

" This is not a solitary case. There are others like it of daily
occurrence, and the child of promise and of pride passes away ;
the parents, meanwhile, all unconscious of the very direct
agency they had in a death so premature and sad. Prompt re-
forms are needed in all schools, public and private ; parents and
people, the pulpit and the press, should agitate and agitate un-

140 hall's journal of health.

til wiser and better and more humane counsels prevail. Our
public schools are too much on the high pressure system ; too
many hours are allotted to study ; too many lessons ; too many
kinds at one time ; too much urging ; too much stimulation by
compulsion or penalty ; by shame or fear ; above all, too much
is imposed on the pupils out of school-hours. Mothers in fee-
ble health are compelled to toil from morning until night in the
performance of household duties, while their half-grown daugh-
ters are poring over their hard lessons, with tired and fevered
brains ; both mother and children needing help in their respec-
tive employments."

To these well-put statements of Dr. Shepherd, another may
be added, which commends itself to the humane. Public
schools were primarily intended for the poor, whose children
otherwise would have grown up in ignorance, neglect, idleness,
and crime. But by the systematic, thorough, and able manner
in which they have been conducted in the city of New-York,
some of them, especially those located in certain districts, have
so commended themselves to the higher classes, that, in bad
weather, private carriages, with their various liveries, are seen
to take up or deposit the " responsibilities" of our wealthier
citizens at the doors of the public school-room, with this most
oppressive result to the poor, and their children : Lessons are
invariably given to the children to be learned at home, in addi-
tion to the six hours spent in the school-room ; to master these
requires almost the entire time from dismission in the afternoon
until the hour for reassembling in the morning ; and even this
would, in many instances, be an impossible task but for the
aid which educated and well-to-do parents can render their
children. But when the parents are poor and ignorant, they
have not an hour to spare, even if they had the mental ability
to aid their children in their tasks. In fact, in many cases, the
almost discouraged and exhausted mother needs the aid of her
half-grown daughters, as Dr. Shepherd so well observed, in the
performance of indispensable household duties. How many of
these children of poverty, in their ambition to stand well in
their classes, study themselves into exhausting nervous fevers,
inflammation of the brain, and an early death, we may never
know, but the number must be great ! This goading of the
children of the poor to death is worse than the overseer's lash ;

HAMMER ON. 141

it is literally a murderous inhumanity, and reason and common-
sense call aloud for its immediate rectification, by the uncondi-
tional and absolute abolishment of study out of school-hours,
in the city, out of the city, every where !

HAMMER ON.

Fortunate are they who, while they are living, can witness
the fruit of their good doings, and are further rewarded by evi-
dences of a grateful appreciation on the part of those for whose
benefit they live and labor.

A worthy and conscientious clergyman — and there are many
such — was greatly distressed in the inability to see that he was
living to purpose : his advice was unheeded ; his counsels dis-
regarded, he seemed to himself like one who was beating
the air, and that the work of his hands was labor lost. Nor was
this the greater trouble ; with the humility which belongs to a
good heart, he began to lay all the blame on himself ; to feel that
he was not only not doing any good, but was hindering some
other and more able laborer from saving the " lost." In such
a frame of mind, scarcely knowing what to do, it is related that
he had a dream, to the effect, that with the tiniest hammer, he
was appointed to break in pieces an immense rock. The task
seemed utterly hopeless, yet he did as he was bid, without
seeing that he made the slightest impression, and he was on the
very point of exclaiming, in irrepressible impatience, " Where-
fore all this useless labor ?" when the huge mass crumbled to
pieces. He was one of that happy class of minds which en-
deavored habitually to see the hand of Providence in all that
occurred, and felt and sang

" In each event of life how clear,
Thy ruling hand I see."

And with unwonted alacrity, he girded himself to new and
wider labors, with the result of gathering such a harvest as in
his wildest imagination he never dreamed of.

While this is a beautifully encouraging lesson to all who are
called to work in darkness, it should make those thankful who

142

are permitted to see that they are doing a good work, that they
are accomplishing useful ends, and that lookers-on clap their
hands and pleasantly exclaim : ff Good speed be to ye."

This latter is the editor's lot in conducting the Journal of
Health. Letters of commendation are coming in from all
quarters, written by stranger hands ; names unknown take upon
themselves a personal visit, to express a word of encouragement.
A professional gentlemen of this city, who is destined to emi-
nence, made free to say: "I hope you will never abandon your
writing, whatever you may do as to your profession. You are
filling a space which was never thus occupied beforehand which
is of the highest importance. I hope you will hammer on."

We do confess to an abiding yearning after earlier paths, and
can not say what a day may bring forth : we make no engage-
ments, only to let every thing be arranged for perfect freedom
of action when the time for action comes. Fetters, avaunt !

A correspondent says : " There was one suggestion in one of
the early numbers of 1859, which has been worth a dollar a
week to me every since. I allude to your advice to eat abso-
lutely nothing after four o'clock in the afternoon. My sleep,
since I acted on this advice, has been so much sounder and more
refreshing, that I begin to feel like another man.

" I was much interested in the bachelor's tract, on page
279, of vol. 6, 1859. Inclosed is something similar, a re-publi-
cation of essays to do good, selected from Hall's Journal and
others, which is being circulated here gratuitously, in the hope
that it may help to happify many hearts and homes.

" It is my intention to do more than ever this year to extend
the knowledge of your Journal among clergymen and theologi-
cal students, many of whom are perishing, or leading compara-
tively useless lives, for want of the hints it gives, and which can
be found no where else that I know of, unless where they are so
mixed up with phrenology, or a quasi-infidelity, that these good
men are not likely to esteem as truth what they find in such
doubtful company."

Will the Messrs. Fowler, the editor of the Herald of Pro-
gress and the Water Cure, who write so many good things in
reference to temperance and a wise life, make a note of it that
we are only making a verbatim quotation ? !

A letter dated from the " House of Representatives'' says :

HAMMER ON. 143

" I feel constrained to say, that I am more than satisfied with
your Journal, as eminently deserving the support of an intelli-
gent people. Indeed, I have said more than once, ' It is worth
fifty dollars a year,' and I believe it."

Another writes : " I had the opportunity, a part of last winter
and spring, of reading your Journal of Health, at the house
of a relative, and I was so well pleased with it, that I have de-
sired to have it myself, but I can not spare the dollar. I am an
invalid, a broken-down clergyman ; I have no salary, and con-
sequently can not send you the subscription-price. I hope you
will not give me the go-by, for I will pay you as soon as I am
able."

Keader, don't you wish you had the chance of paying for that
subscription ? You can't have it ; that's all. But you might
do well to order the Journal of Health for your own minis-
ter ; it would be difficult for you to spend a dollar for him to
greater advantage, or to make so acceptable a present at so little
cost. We have had a number of contributions of this sort, but,
with a very few exceptions, they have all come from the south
of Mason & Dixon's line. Who will explain it ?

A letter just received from a Southern planter, in closing an
account of long years of suffering from nervousness and sudden
attacks of debility, says : " When half a mile only from home, I
would at times feel as if I could never get there. About that time,
I began to take your Journal of Health, and then obtained
your book on Health and Disease, and learned how to manage
myself better, and have gradually improved every year. I had no
hope of getting better, but after I found I improved every year
from reading your writings, (for there is no doubt it was the
saving of me,) I thought I would now explain my case to
you."

Letters like the above, from unknown persons, and verbal re-
lations of strangers from a distance, who come to express their
gratifications in person, are, without exaggeration, of almost
daily occurrence, and are certainly calculated to encourage us
to " hammer on," in cheerful hope that we are doing a substan-
tial good to many whom we may never see or know. Let such
of these as may chance to read this page, pay us in full, by
doing some act of goodness to any brother being next them,

144

with the sweet assurance of promoting human harmonies there-
by, and that

" It will all be right in the morning."

A literary gentleman wrote us five years ago : " I read your
Journal with great pleasure and profit, the only medical work
I ever saw that was full of one's own symptoms, and yet not
calculated to give him the blues, en avant" Oui, Monsieur, Ya,
Mynheer, Si, Signor. In the light of these things we will
" hammer on," not, however, with the happy don't-careativeness
and abandon of former years ; for, with a steadily-increasing
circulation, there grows apace an increasing feeling of responsi-
bility, and a fear of compromising any influence for good which
the Journal possesses, by some ill-advised expression or senti-
ment. We fear that we are approaching the confines of the
other half of the century, for we do daily find that there is a be-
ginning of " fears in the way," that the repressive influences of
"policy" are more and more decidedly felt ; an inkling after
conciliation rather than provocation ; an effort to " walk softly ;"
there is an instinct for whispering out unpalatable truths, and
for assuming the "stereotype smile." Tell us, ye aged pilgrims
on the lowering side of fifty, if it was thus with you at an earlier
time ? Say, is it an infallible sign of coming age ? If so, please
remember all signs fail in dry weather. Our family Bible was
lost in a wreck, and people who haven't the slightest use for false
teeth, wigs, " specs," or hair-dye, can't be old; it is out of the
question ; they are only growing wise, learning by degrees that
it is better to make a friend than an enemy, and that under any
circumstances, a man's "last word" should be one of self-respect
or courtesy, if not of actual kindness ; for then it is the other
party who " burns," or passes a sleepless night, not you !

COURTESY.

No woman can be a lady who would wound or mortify an-
other. No matter how beautiful, how refined, how cultivated
she may be, she is in reality coarse, and the innate vulgarity
of her nature manifests itself here. Uniformly kind, courteous
and polite treatment of all persons, is one mark of a true woman,
and of a true man also. — Anon.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAT BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] JULY, 1860. [No.

ATHLETICS.

New-Yoek is destined to be one of the grandest cities in the
civilized world ; because it has within it the elements of me-
chanical and commercial greatness possessed by none other on
the globe. The only obstacles at present seen, which can blast
these anticipations, are the want of physical and moral health.
The latter may, with great confidence, be committed to an
educated, active and devoted clergy, and a consistent, liberal
and zealous church membership : as to the former, there are
signs of promise ; thanks to the intelligent and persevering efforts
of Drs. Grriscom, Sayers, E. Y. Bobbins and a few others, pub-
lic attention is strongly turning towards securing clean streets,
clean houses, clean cellars, clean yards and well-ventilated
buildings for the accommodation of the poor. In due time,
cheap bathing-houses for the masses ; elevated, large, light and
airy work-rooms for those who live by sewing, knitting and
embroideries, the use of which may be obtained for a few cents
a day, thus giving them warmth, pure air, quiet and cleanliness,
enabling them to work in comfort, cheerfulness, and health.
These things will follow in due time, with others of a like hu-
manizing and benevolent character.

We look with great delight in another direction for facilities
to promote the health of the children, the boys and the girls,
the young men and maidens of our growing city ; that is, to the
Centkal Paek, one of the very largest for purely public pur-
poses in the world.

Fresh and full of sunshine are the memories of what we have
seen on the Paseos of Havanna and Matanzas on the sea, in
the garden of the Tuileries, the splendid Champs Elysees and
the Parks of London, of thousands of well-dressed people on

NO. VII.— VOL. VII.— 1860.

146

horse, on foot, in carriage, bent on some gladsome enjoyments,
some to see, others to be seen ; and all brimful of animation,
activity, and life ; these daily cavalcades of wealth and fashion
and youth and beauty, will of themselves add more to the de-
sirableness of the Metropolis as a residence, than any one other
thing connected with it; they will promote health, banish
ennui, increase enjoyment, and scatter money, transferring it from}
the coffers of the liberal rich, to the pockets of the industrious
poor and the enterprising, thus increasing the pleasure and
happiness of all.

The Central Park will be a magnificent gymnasium, where
opportunities will be afforded for every variety of exhilarating
exercise. There will be no vain beatings of the air, no frog-
puffing, no pendulations of doleful dumb-bells, no vulgar fisti-
cuffs, no objectless arm-swingings ; but there will be the drive,
the saddle, the promenade, the row, the skate, the cricket and
the base-ball. There will be a five-mile foot-path for the
lounger, the lover and the contemplative ; there will be a nine-
mile carriage-drive over an easy graded and beautifully smooth
turnpike and a separate bridle-road of twenty miles, now up-
hill, now down, straight a bit, then winding around some pro-
jecting rock or miniature mountain, through shaded dell and
by secluded cavern, over hills and through tunnels, thus giving
to our sons and daughters invaluable opportunities for perfect-
ing themselves in that most exhilarating and health-giving of
all the graces, riding on horseback.

For this good time coming and soon to be here, we look long-
ingly ; for Gotham will then be the Mecca of the sick, the very
paradise of doctors, the maelstrom of apothecaries and all
druggery ! These are not inconsistent ends ; they logically
concatenate ; the ratiocination is perfect, the reasoning is without
a flaw. In the first place, the sick will congregate here from
all points of the compass for the unequaled (in the whole
world) facilities for securing all forms of exercise in the open
air, without the disadvantages of dangerous exposures ; and as
judicious out-door activities, with waking up entertainments,
is the million of remedies out of a million and one for the cure of
ordinary ailments, the people, through the influence of common-
sense and Hall's Journal of Health, will at once be arous-
ed to the advantages offered. The sick being once brought
here. New- York will be the very elysium of the educated phy-

ATHLETICS. 147

sician, because he will have nothing to do but sit in his office
during certain specified hours daily, give advice and take the
fees, which last will be liberal, as travelers always have money ;
and travel has the effect of liberalizing expenditures ; for any
reader of reflection must know that he does not think one tenth
part as much of a dollar abroad as he does at home.

11 Apothecaries" will go to pot, because there will be no use
for their "villainous compounds." The fresh out-door air amid
sunshine and fashion and youth and beauty, is more infallibly
exhilarating than any branched " tonic" ever devised — the best
anodyne in the world is out-door exercise. No sudorific ever
compounded, concocted, macerated or mixed, is more certain of
its desired effect, than a walk, or drive, or game in the open air.
Nothing so infallibly acts " like a charm" in loosening cough
and dislodging phlegm, as wisely conducted out-door activities.
Let the experience of any man give its certificate, signed, sealed
acknowledged and sworn to, of the appetizing effects of five
miles on horseback " and repeat." Does anybody, can any
body have the impudence to assert that there is any better
'; Liver pill" in the world than a two-hours' trot in the saddle
at a two-forty pace ? The most unsophisticated ninny of a
"first course" student knows that if the appetite is right, the
skin perspires, the cough is loose, and the "liver works," a man
can't die of any thing except of love or a bullet, or some other
incongruous concatenation of circumstances. The Central Park
then being a panacea for all sickness, drugs and druggery must
go by the board, swilling liquor under the guise of "tonics,"
will be done away with, which by the way has unsuspectingly
lured many a man to the bottle, and many a splendid woman
to the poppy, to fade away from the society they once ornamented
to go down eventually to a contemptuous grave ; so that the
great Central Park of New- York City, with its eight hundred
and forty-four acres of hill and dale, of field and woodland, of
rock and plain, will not only be a splendid gymnasium, but a
free dispensatory, not of drugs ! but of health, and a grand
Temple of Temperance.

But there is one point which yet remains to be clarified. How,
under these circumstances is New- York to become the paradise
of doctors, the regulars we mean ! for we throw overboard as
unfit for ballast even, the steamer, the mesmerist, the clairvoy-
ant, the cold waterist and the infinitesimal, et id omne class of

148 hall's jouenal of health.

vragarists, for none of them ever had an idea which was not
derived from the investigations, researches, and studies of re-
cognized medicine ; nor can the whole cavalcade of them name a
single authenticated discovery in anatomy, physiology, surgery,
or physic, nor indeed in any thing else, unless in certain forms
of vulgar legerdemain, by which a transference of " meum and
teum" is effected by means of oil or fog, without any honorable
" quid pro quo." But let that go down into the tomb of all
the Capulets.

Scientific medicine will flourish in the dawning Gothamite
millennium in this wise. Its legitimate object is to teach the
people how to keep well, how to avoid disease, the high and
first "chair" in which "school" was conceived, founded, in-
augurated and occupied by the editor of the Jouenal of
Health. But there will be cases, not a few, where there will
be causes of mishap and disease which no human sagacity can
either foresee or prevent ; in such cases, the educated practitioner
will be called in to ascertain the exact " state of the case," and
to "prescribe," not drugs, but such forms of activities and such
rules of dress, rest, eating, drinking and sleeping, as will most
happily meet the requirements of each particular patient ; then
by degrees, curing disease without physic, even in homeopathic
quantities, will become more and more a science, educated
allopathy will be king, and New- York become the home and
the Temple of Hygeia !

Nor is this day indefinitely distant. Says the Daily Times,
already are the available spots of the Central Park visited by
large numbers on fine days ; citizens of all classes, from the mil-
lionaire to the humble artisan, may be seen enjoying the de-
lightful walks and drives, and snuffing the invigorating atmo-
sphere. When the boats and cheap hacks and the grounds for
the ball-players, cricketers, and military are finished, the Park
will present on fine days, a scene of brilliancy and picturesque-
ness unequaled by a Venetian carnival ; and that day ! thank
the energy and fidelity of the Commissioners, is not far distant.
Already has it become a fashionable resort. On any fine day
at five in the afternoon may be seen a display of equipages
quite surpassing any thing of the kind on this continent.
Horseback-riding is coming more into vogue since a place is
provided where that health and grace-provoking amusement
can be comfortably prosecuted. Not a few families have changed

ATHLETICS.

149

their hour of dining in order to be able to ride or drive at a
time when the world is to be seen. Not a few persons of
means, who heretofore have not cared to keep carriages and
horses merely to drive around town, have obtained them recent-
ly. Livery-stable keepers have not open vehicles enough to
supply the demand of those who wish to hire. The Park is all
the rage ; it is more frequented and more talked about than the
opera ; the imported swans are discussed more vigorously than
the prima-donnas ; riding-habits are in greater demand than
opera-cloaks, and a new bridge on a new road provokes more
comment even than the debut of another tenor, or the announce-
ment of another work of Yerdi. The leaders of the ton have
agreed to make Wednesday and Saturday the fashionable days
for the drive. Eeader, let us be there to see !

English tourists may remember that the Oxford students have
boats for rowing, sharp, narrow and long, holding but one per-
son only, and in these they spend many an hour, acquiring hj
degrees an agility of management and a rapidity of motion
very remarkable. It is greatly to be desired that some of these
should be promptly prepared for use on the lake in the Central
Park under such regulations as will best secure their proper
and general use. There is perhaps no form of mere exercise
so well calculated to bring into free play the whole muscular
system, and so specially well calculated to develop the chest
and the strength of the arms ; its advantages to girls would be
almost incalculable.

It may be of general interest to append the size of the city
parks, fractions omitted, and the largest ones elsewhere, pre-
mising that the Central Park is, we believe, the largest in the
world within the limits of a great city and set apart exclusively
for purposes of public pleasure, recreation, and amusement.

Acres.

Bowling-Green, New- York, \

Grammercy, 1-J

Union Square, 3

Stuy vesant, 4

Hudson, ,
Madison.

Park, City Hall, 11

Battery, (enlarged,).

Boston Common, (near,)

Fairmount, Philadelphia,

Thiergarten, Berlin,

25

50

72
200

Acres.

St. James', London, 290

Victoria, 290

Regent's, 860

Hyde Park, 395

Birkenhead, Liverpool, 500

English Garten, Munich, 500

Central Park, New-York, 844

Phoenix Park, Dublin, 1000

Prater, Vienna, 1500

Bois de Boulogne, near Paris, 2158

Versailles Garden, 3000

150 hall's journal of health.

THE TEETH

Said Dr. Ostrander, (at the head of his profession in 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 year. 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 pov-
erty 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
reconcile 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 their
children most important service by doing what they may to se-
cure to them perfectly sound teeth, not only as an important
means of preserving health, but as an invaluable aid in form-
ing 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 child with 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 ap-
pear ; and from that time the frequent and vigilant services of
a sharp-eyed dentist ought to be secured. The eye-teeth ap<

THE TEETH. 151

pear between the eleventh and twelfth year ; 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
same meal.

The teeth should not be washed in cold water, 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 moderately
stiff, to be 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 rubbing 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 mouth
and throat well with water. }

For cleaning the teeth and mouth, warm water, always at
hand in cities, should be used, but never employ water so hot
or cold as to cause uncomfortableness to the teeth, for they will
soon be destroyed thereby. When it is very inconvenient 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 any thing
later than supper.

The tooth-brush should be always used leisurely, for a slip
or inadvertence may scale or break off 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 em-
ploy the brush on the side of the teeth next the tongue, above

152 hall's journal of health.

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 in-
stantly destroyed by soap-suds, when tobacco-juice and the
strongest acids have no effect.

Charcoal, even when made of the bark of wood, is one of the
most destructive of all tooth-powders. Eminent dentists 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,
to antagonize any 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, common
salt, once in two or three months, seems to have answered an
excellent purpose ; put on a damp brush, rubbed across and up
and down the teeth. It is not advised to keep 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 pummice-stone and
a piece of soft wood. Bad teeth induce dyspepsia, from insuf-
ficient 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 life-time.

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

The following is a continuation of the article in the June
number on the same subject, and merits especial attention, par-
ticularly on the part of those who wish to obtain more physical
vigor, and wish to do it in a safe way, avoiding the shocks,
irregularities, strainings, wrenchings, etc., which attend gym
nastic trainings:

PHYSICAL TRAINING. 153

" It has been proved by experiment that every part of the firmest bones
is successively absorbed and deposited. The bones and their ligaments, the
muscles and their tendons, all the finer and the more flexible parts of the
body, are continually renewed, and as properly a secretion as the saliva that
flows from the mouth, or the moisture that bedews the surface. The health
of all the parts, and their soundness of structure, depend on this perpetual
absorption and perpetual renovation ; and exercise, by promoting at once
absorption and secretion, promotes life without hurrying it, renovates all the
parts, and preserves them apt and fit for every office. When the human
frame is thus capable of being altered and renovated, it is not surprising
that the art of training should be carried to a degree of perfection almost in-
credible, and that by certain processes, the breath, (or wind,) strength, and
courage of man, should be so greatly improved as to enable him to perform
the most laborious undertakings. That such effects have been produced is
unquestionable, being fully exemplified in the astonishing exploits of cele-
brated pedestrians and pugilists, which are the infallible results of such pre-
paratory discipline. The skillful trainer attends to the state of the bowels,
the lungs, and the skin ; and he uses such means as will reduce the fat, and
at the same time invigorate the muscular fibers. The patient is purged by
drastic medicines ; he is sweated by walking under a load of clothes, and by
lying between feather-beds. His limbs are roughly rubbed. His diet is
beef or mutton ; his drink, strong ale ; and he is gradually inured to exer-
cise by repeated trials in walking and running. By exterminating the fat,
emptying the cellular substance, hardening the muscular fiber, and improv-
ing the breath, a man of the ordinary frame may be made to fight for one
hour, with the utmost exertion of strength and courage, or to go over one
hundred miles in twenty- four hours. The most effectual process for train,
ing in the days of Tom Cribb, was that practiced by the celebrated pedes-
trian, Captain Barclay, and the particular method he adopted has not only
been sanctioned by professional men, but met with the unqualified approba-
tion of amateurs. The following statement, therefore, contains the most ap-
proved rules ; and it is presented to the reader as the result of much expe-
rience, founded on the theoretic principles of the art, and as practiced by
Captain Barclay :

" The pedestrian, who may be supposed in tolerable condition, enters upon
his training with a regular course of physic, which consists of three doses.
Glauber salts are generally preferred, and from one ounce and a half to two
ounces are taken at each time, with an interval of four days between each
dose. After having gone through the course of physic, he commences his
regular exercise, which is gradually increased as he proceeds in the training.
When the object in view is the accomplishment of a pedestrian match, his
regular exercise may be from twenty to twenty-four miles a day. He must
rise at five in the morning, run half a mile at the top of his speed up-hill,
and then walk six miles at a moderate pace, coming in about seven to break-
fast, which should consist of beef-steaks or mutton-chops underdone, with stale
bread and old beer. After breakfast, he must again walk six miles at a mod-
erate pace, and at twelve lie down in his bed without his clothes for half an

154 hall's jouknal of health.

hour. On getting up, he must walk four miles, and return by four to dinner,
which should also be beef-steaks or mutton-chops, with bread and beer as at
breakfast. Immediately after dinner he must resume his exercise, by run-
ning half a mile at the top of his speed, and walking six miles at a moderate
pace. He takes no more exercise for that day, but retires to bed about eight,
and next morning proceeds in the same manner. After having gone on in
this regular course for three or four weeks, the pedestrian must take a four-
mile sweat, which is produced by running four miles, in flannel, at the top
of his speed. Immediately on returning, a hot liquor is prescribed, in order
to promote the perspiration, of which he must drink one English pint. It is
termed the sweating liquor, and is composed of the following ingredients,
namely : one ounce of caraway-seed ; half an ounce of coriander -seed ; one
ounce of root-liquorice ; and half an ounce of sugar-candy ; mixed with two
bottles of cider, and boiled down to one half. He is then put to bed in his
flannels, and being covered with six or eight pairs of blankets and a feather-
bed, must remain in this state from twenty-five to thirty minutes, when he
is taken out and rubbed perfectly dry. Being then well wrapped in his
great coat, he walks out gently for two miles, and returns to breakfast^
which, on such occasions, should consist of a roasted fowl. He afterwards
proceeds with his usual exercise. These sweats are continued weekly, till
within a few days of the performance of the match, or, in other words, he
must undergo three or four of these operations. If the stomach of the pe-
destrian be foul, an emetic or two must be given about a week before the
conclusion of the training, and he is now supposed to be in the highest con.
dition.

" Besides his usual or regular exercise, a person under training ought to
employ himself in the intervals in every kind of exertion which tends to ac-
tivity, such as cricket, bowls, throwing quoits, etc., so that, during the whole
day, both body and mind may be constantly occupied.

"The beneficial consequences, both to the body and the mind, arising
from training, are not merely temporary, but may be . made permanent by
proper care and attention. The simplicity of the rules is a great recommen-
dation to those who may be desirous of trying the experiment, and the whole
process may be resolved into the following principles : 1st. The evacuating,
which cleanses the stomach and intestines. 2d. The sweating, which takes
off the superfluities of flesh and fat. 3d. The daily course of exercise, which
improves the wind and strengthens the muscles ; and lastly, The regimen,
which nourishes and invigorates the body.

" The criterion by which it may be known whether a man be in good
condition, or, what is the same thing, has been properly trained, is the state
of the skin, which becomes smooth, elastic, and well-colored, or transparent.
The flesh is also firm, and the person trained feels himself light and full of
spirits. But in the progress of the training, his condition may be ascertained
by the effect of the sweats, which cease to reduce his weight; and by the
manner in which he performs one mile at the top of his speed. It is as dif.
ficult to run a mile at the top of one's speed as to walk a hundred ; and?
therefore, if he performs this short distance well, it may be concluded that

PHYSICAL TRAINING. 155

his condition is perfect, or that he has derived all the advantages which can
possibly result from the training process.

"Training for pugilism is nearly the same as for pedestrianism, the object
in both being principally to obtain additional wind and strength. The pro-
cess observed by Cribb, the champion of England, preparatory to his grand
battle with Molineaux, which took place September 29, 1811, is as follows:

"THE TRAINING OF TOM CRIBB.

"The champion arrived at Ury, Capt. Barclay's residence, July 7 of that
year. He weighed 224 lbs., and from his mode of living in London, and the
confinement of a crowded city, he had become corpulent, big-bellied, full of
gross humors, and short-breathed ; and it was with difficulty he could walk
ten miles. He first went through a course of physic, which consisted of
three doses ; for two weeks he walked about as he pleased, and generally
traversed the woods and plantations with a fowling-piece in hand. The re-
ports of his musket resounded every where through the groves and the hollows
of that delightful place, to the great terror of the magpies and wood-pigeons.
After amusing himself in this way for about a fortnight, he then commenced
his regular walking exercise, which was at first about ten or twelve miles a
day. It was soon after increased to eighteen or twenty ; and he ran regu-
larly, morning and evening, a quarter of a mile at the top of his speed. In
consequence of his physic and exercise, his weight was reduced, in the course
of five weeks, from 224 lbs. to 205 lbs. At this period he commenced his
sweats, and took three during the month he remained at Ury afterwards ;
and his weight was gradually reduced to 187 lbs., which was ascertained to
be his pitch of condition, as he could not reduce farther without weakening.
During the course of his training, the champion went twice to the Highlands,
and took strong exercise. He walked to Mar Lodge, which is about sixty
miles distant from Ury, where he arrived to dinner on the second day, being
now able to do thirty miles a day with ease, and probably he could have
walked twice as far if it had been necessary. He remained in the Highlands
about a week each time, and amused himself with shooting. The principal
advantage which he derived from these expeditions was the severe exercise
he was obliged to undergo in following Captain Barclay. He improved more
in his strength and wind by his journeys to the Highlands than by any
other part of the training process. His diet and drink were the same as used
in the pedestrian regimen, and in other respects, the rules previously laid
down were generally applied to him. That he was brought to his ultimate
pitch of condition was evident from the high state of health and strength in
which he appeared when he mounted the stage to contend with Molineaux,
who has since confessed that, when he saw his fine condition, he totally
despaired of gaining the battle. Cribb was altogether about eleven weeks
under training, but he remained only nine weeks at Ury. Besides his regu-
lar exercise, he was occasionally employed in sparring at Stonehaven, where
he gave lessons in the pugilistic art. He was not allowed much rest, but
was constantly occupied in some active employment. He enjoyed good
spirits, being all the time fully convinced that he would beat his antagonist.

156

He was managed, however, with great address^ and the result corresponded
with the wishes of his friends.

"HOW THE BENICIA BOY WAS TRAINED.

" He rises at six o'clock a.m., and strikes out a couple of hundred times
with small dumb-bells just to stretch the muscles. As soon as he is dressed,
he takes a walk of about three miles. Upon reaching home on his return,
he does some ' sprint' running at the top of his speed — a hundred yards, say,
six or seven times. In this performance, Cusick and Falkland stand at
either end of the distance, with watches in their hands, giving him half a
minute's time for rest at the score. He then goes into his room, and if per-
spiring freely, (which is seldom the case,) is rubbed down. Then, after a
rest, breakfast is served precisely at eight. This meal is composed of mut-
ton-chops or beef-steek cooked very rare. He is very particular as to the
time of his meals. Half an hour after breakfast, he takes a salt-water bath.
The bath is prepared every day, and consists of soft water and rock-salt.
After this he puts on his sweating-suit, and at nine o'clock, accompanied by
Cusick, (and now with McDonald or Cusick.) he starts out for his ten-mile
walk, carrying in either hand a three-pound dumb-bell. The firstfour miles
are covered at a gentle pace, after which he increases his speed gradually.
When within four miles of home on his return, he puts on a mask (to sweat
the face) made of white flannel, with openings for the mouth and eyes, but
none for the nose. He then commences a pace of ten minutes to the mile,
finishing the last mile home at a Flora Temple speed, always leaving the
company behind. As soon as he gets into his room, he sits by the fire to
assist the perspiration, and when he thinks he has had enough of it, he strips
to the buff, and is briskly rubbed down. Now, during his hard training, he
takes an egg in a glass of sherry after this. It is then half-past eleven, when
he proceeds to the barn, and strikes out the dumb-bells, slings the clubs, or
battles with the bag. Exercising in this manner for some time, he walks
into farmer Pocock's library, and selects a book to amuse himself with until
dinner, which is served at one o'clock precisely, consisting of roast beef, roast
mutton, or boiled mutton. A rest of an hour or so intervenes, which is con-
sumed in reading or talking, when he accouters himself for his afternoon's
walk of eight or nine miles. This he commences at 2:30, or thereabouts.
He returns at near five o'clock, when he changes his clothes, and then takes
another rest before tea, which is at six o'clock, consisting of dry toast, no
butter, weak black tea, with occasionally an egg. Half an hour or so after
this, he commences his ' sprint' running. He then returns to the house, and
sits up talking or reading until nine o'clock, when he takes a bowl of thin
oat-meal gruel, and at ten o'clock he retires to bed, to rise again at six next
morning, and go through the same course of exercise, diet, and treatment.

"SAYERS IN HIS TRAINING.

" Sayers rises from his virtuous couch at six o'clock in the morning, and
soon after starts out for a quiet walk of three miles, or thereabouts, return-
ing leisurely to his habitation. At eight o'clock breakfast is announced, for

PHYSICAL TRAINING. 157

which the champion is now ready. The meal is plain, consisting, as a gen-
eral thing, of mutton-chops, (with the addition, occasionally, of eggs,) with
a single cup of strong tea, of the proper strength of which Sayers is allowed
to be the judge. After having finished breakfast, he takes a rest of an hour or
two, the time being enlivened by the telling of anecdotes by Bob Fuller, his
trainer ; Sayers now and then, in turn, regaling Bob with a laughable yarn.
At the conclusion of this mirthful repast, the champion goes out for his long
walk, which he terms the ' sweating process.' The distance covered in this
pedestrian-excursion is from twelve to fourteen miles, during which the
champion carries a seven-pound dumb-bell in each hand. By the lime he
gets through with this performance, and returns home, it is 12 o'clock. He
is then rubbed dry with hard towels, next washed with cold water, and again
rubbed vigorously with dry towels, which brings the blood to the surface
of the skin, and gives a clear and healthy glow to the cuticle. Fuller now
puts on the finishing touches like a skillful painter, and to attain this end he
dons a pair of horse-hair gloves, and with these he gives the champion a rub-
bing such as but few persons could undergo.

" After submitting to these ' gentle and soothing' specimens of the veteran
Bob's handiwork, the skin of the champion is moistened with Irish whisky,
after which he is incased in a thick, dry suit of flannel, and then he saun-
ters forth for a short ramble, returning home to dinner at two o'clock. This
meal consists of roast beef, roast or boiled mutton, varied from day to day.
Of course, the morning exercise has given him a keen appetite, and he dis-
cusses the fare with a lively sense of the importance of the occasion. The
inner man satisfied with a due allowance of plain but wholesome food, a
1 season of rest' is indulged in — the champion being permitted to use his own
judgment at to the requisite length of the time for the siesta — at the expira-
tion of which, another walk of nine or ten miles is prescribed, in thick
clothing, which, on returning home, is immediately changed for a dry flannel
suit. Thus wears the day along, and from the hour of returning from the
afternoon walk, generally about five o'clock, Tom is master of his own time,
and passes it, as in his judgment, may seem most fit and proper. The last
meal is extremely simple, consisting of dry toast and tea, with, very fre-
quently, a beaten egg or two in the latter. After resting sufficiently, he
takes a gentle walk of four or five miles over the heath, and then returns
home to entertain, or be entertained by any friends who may have called to
see him. At half-past nine o'clock, ' balmy sleep, tired Nature's sweet re-
storer,' wooes him to her couch ; when, to use the champion's own words, he
enjoys ' most delicious repose in the arms of Mons. Murphy? "

If for brutal honors men like these encounter self-denials
with heroic resolution and cheerful acquiescence, how ought we
to be willing to crucify " the flesh with the affections and lusts,"
in order that we might "win" the meed of immortality; might
secure that high health of body and manly vigor which are
essential to the safest and purest enjoyment of religion ; essen-

158 hall's journal of health.

tial to an active and efficient life of good doing, a death of
ease, of triumph, and beatific Faith, in being that same u day"
— "in Paradise."

Men of low nature " endure" "joyfully" the self-denials of
the appetite, and the most laborious exercises, to prepare them
for their brutal conflicts, and in the engagement, encounter the
most fearful u millings" courageously and uncomplainingly, that
they may obtain a " corruptible crown." Let us, then, who seek
an " incorruptible that fadeth not away," consider habitually,
that it is no trial to deny ourselves " the world, the flesh, and
their blandishments," only if thereby we are able so "to fight
that we may obtain "

DESSERTS.

These are the agents which cause a vast amount of human

l£>

suffering, inasmuch as they tempt the appetite and bribe nature
to a transgression, which never fails of being punished sooner
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 any thing 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 under the oppressive influence of an in-
glorious surfeit.

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 unattainable, an agreeable,
neat, and healthful substitute may be found in a "mint-stick,"
a bit of cream-candy, or a piece of pure maple-sugar.

WATER-FILTERS. 159

WATER-FILTERS.

There is such, a thiug as going headforemost, of progressing
backwards, and the use of water-filters in many cases is one of
these, especially in New-York. The waters of the Mississippi,
from St. Louis downwards, are thick with mud, and yet those
who live along its banks and use it habitually, do not complain
of its unhealthiness. If water passes through a common fil-
ter, its impurities are left in that filter ; the next water which
passes through has to pass through the detained impurities of
the previous portion, and thus it goes on from day to day, for
a new filter every day has not been advocated by any one. But
it is the nature of the substances which water ordinarily holds
in solution, to remain unchanged as long as they are covered or
held in a plentiful amount of cool water, but when the water
has been withdrawn, and they remain merely damp, they do,
in the ordinary heat of summer, begin to undergo a process of
destructive decay, they rot, and the very gases which they dis-
engage in that process are speedily destructive of health and
life, being the miasms which originate the deadly fevers on
water-courses ; if the gases be thus deadly, it may well be sup-
posed that the more solid portions are not without their ill effect
when taken into the stomach with water which is known to
pass into the circulation within a few moments after it has been
swallowed. That filtered water becomes changed in its charac-
ter, is known by the familiar "flat" taste which belongs to it.
Under this view of the case, it would be well to discard filters
altogether, and not for the sake of getting rid of a few micro-
scopic bugs and monsters, to take into the system instead, the
deadly miasm which is generated in the sediment of all river-
water, as soon as the water is removed and a summer tempera-
ture is applied to it, for then there is destructive decay ; but no
such thing can take place in the human stomach, although the
sediment is swallowed in much larger quantities. These re-
marks do not apply to substances which may be thrown into
the water and precipitate its impurities to the bottom, from
which the water is at once poured off and used and the sedi-
ment thrown away ; nor does it apply to any filter which may
be thoroughly cleansed after each single filtering process. All ,
nitrations yet known do take away from the water that fresh,

160 hall's journal of health.

sparkling, and refreshing quality which belongs to the bubbling
spring, or is taken from the brim of " the moss-covered bucket
which hangs in the well."

The " Double Grlobe Filter," patented in January last, has
been brought to our notice since the above was put in type. It
costs three dollars, can filter a gallon of water in five minutes ;
it does it nearly as fast as it runs from a " Croton" faucet, to
which it is attached permanently or removed in half a minute.
It is metallic, and, with care, will last a lifetime. This filter is
thoroughly washed and cleansed in an instant by the easy crook
of the finger ; and if this cleansing is neglected, the water will
not run. It is capable of universal application, it delivers the
water with all its freshness, and seems to perform its office as
perfectly as is necessary for all drinking and cooking purposes.

DYSPEPTIC LETTERS.

New- York, Feb. 16th, 1860.

Dear Sir: You have a most tremendous sight to learn,
if you would get along swimmingly in this mundane sphere.
As far as health and medicine are concerned, you will have to
begin at forty degrees below ABC. You have dyspepsia
and liver complaint ; these give debility and promote discharges
which react and increase the debility. Some pills act on the
stomach, such as Ipecac or Tartar Emetic. Some act on the
upper portion of the bowels, as Rhubarb. Some act on the
rectum, or lower bowel, as Aloes ; others act on the whole,
by acting first on the liver : and yet you say my pill acted as
any pill would. I gave you a pill to act on the liver, and the
difference in color of the action of such a pill and one which
merely acts on the bowels, is as different as black or green from
yellow or red.

You say you don't think you need medicine. If you know
so much, you ought to have cured yourself. If you consult a
physician, you ought to make up your mind to take his advice
and his medicine too ; he don't want to know what you think,
because he knows your " thinks" are not worth a button.

DYSPEPTIC LETTEES. 161

You are young — you have a good constitution, and have no
serious disease at this time ; yet what you complain of will in
time destroy both body and mind. Already you complain that
your mind is not clear, and that when you go to bed, if you
can not go to sleep at once, you lie and think, and sweat, and
fret, and fidget, and toss, and tumble for hours together. You
complain also of an emptiness before meals, and a distressing
palpitation of the heart, which incapacitates you from exercise.
These symptoms are present in a greater or less degree in all
cases of torpid liver and a weak digestion. Some hearts pal-
pitate so much on going to bed as to prevent sleep for hours ;
it or some of the larger blood-vessels beat and tick and throb
and thump and click and breeze for half a night.

Some minds in dyspepsia are not only not clear, but are in-
capacitated for connected thought. The attention can not be
fixed steadily on any thing, and horrible fears come on ; dread
of loss of character ; of loss of reason ; of loss of friends ; of
loss of money ; at other times most terrible fancies run riot
through the brain ; temptations of darkest import assail the
heart, and nothing is safe, nobody is safe — it is a perfect
11 mania," not a "Potu,"but "mania Phagi," not a madness
from drinking, but a madness from eating, and from this, some
of the best and most useful and successful men go down to the
terrible grave of a suicide every year, every month. A drunk-
ard seldom kills himself a dyspeptic often does ; and the cor-
oner's verdict is, "Died by his own hand while in a state of
mental aberration." If they do not murder themselves, they
live only to be the pest and plagues of themselves and those
who are nearest and dearest to them.

One of the reasons of the incurability of dyspeptics is, that
they have not sufficient force of will, sufficient persistence of
purpose, to follow out the continuous plan necessary to their
restoration. To-day they think they would be willing to do
any thing, to-morrow they determine they will do nothing. At
one time they will swig cod-liver oil by the gallon, rub goose-
grease on their nose, make ducks of themselves at water-cures,
drink their own urine by the quart ; all these things are done,
as physicians know, constantly. At another time they will
assert, like you, that they don't think they need medicine ; that
they are tired to death of medicine, and had rather die than

162

take another dose. A great name told us once, having written
for advice, that he would take no medicine from any man,
especially if he did not know what it was, and gave his reason
for it. Now a fool's reasons always confirm him in his foolish-
ness. It was, that he had been taking medicine of his own
prescribing for twenty years, and it had done him no good.
We wrote to him that he could go to grass. We don't like to
be made a fool of.

Years rolled on, and he rolled with them into the Niagara
Eiver. From these things I would be glad to rescue you, but
then you must not bother me with your' u thinks" and sugges-
tions. Tell me what your actual sensations are ; then I will tell
you how to remove them, and send or describe the instrument-
alities. I have no objections to tell persons what I give, or
why I give it — I always prefer it when I am satisfied that the
patient has any sense ; if .he has not, what's the use of wasting
time ?

Hoping that you may be profited by these hints, I send in
another paper such directions as I think are applicable to your
case. Duly yours.

A physician must be crusty sometimes. The above was
written for a young gentleman who subsequently became a very
obedient patient, and we have published it, for the suggestions
contained may be practically useful to a large class of persons -
the patient was laboring under dyspeptic debility, constipation,
etc.

THE TWO BEST DOCTORS.

For 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 ; and
a fortunate thing would it be for humanity, if not an atom or a
drop of physic were ever taken, unless specially prescribed by
those who had the advantage of a thorough medical education.

163

potto, §mtw, (&it.

Blackwood 's Magazine, and British Reviews. L. Scott & Co., 54 Gold St., New-
York, continue to publish the following leading British Periodicals: 1. London
Quarterly, Conservative ; 2. Edinburgh Review, Whig ; 3. North British Review,
Free Church ; 4. Westminster Review, Liberal ; 5. Blackwood's Magazine, Tory ;
presenting the three great political parties of Great Britain, Whig, Tory, and
Radical. But politics form only one feature of their character ; as organs of the
most profound writers on science, literature, morality, and religion, they stand, as
they ever have stood, unrivaled in the world of letters, indispensable to the
scholar and the professional man, while to intelligent readers of every class, they
furnish a more correct and satisfactory record of the current literature of the
day, throughout the world, than can be possibly obtained from any other source,
and at a cost extraordinarily small — of ten dollars a year for the five ; three dollars
each, singly. Any subscriber sending us a check for ten dollars, payable to the
order of Leonard Scott & Co., will receive for one year the five publications above
named, and Hall's Joural of Health from January last. In cities and large towns,
Blackwood and the Reviews are delivered free of postage ; elsewhere, Blackwood
is twenty-four cents a year, each Review, fourteen cents.

The British and Foreign Medico- Chirurgical Review ; or, Quarterly Journal of
Practical Medicine and Surgery. Republished by S. S. & W. Wood, 389 Broad-
way, New-York, at $3 a year, in advance : free of postage, is in its twenty-fifth
volume, and is now, as it always has been, a standard and sterling medical quar-
terly, which every educated physician ought to patronize.

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, $3 a year, is a monthly in its sixty-
second volume ; is edited with industry and ability, and is widely patronized.

The Christian Review. E. G. Robinson, editor. Published at $3 a year, by
Sheldon & Co., 115 Nassau street, New- York. Is one of the ablest quarterlies in
the Protestant Church, and a credit to the Baptist Church, of whose doctrine and
polity it is the exponent ; its reviews of new publications are always written dis-
criminately, conscientiously, and after a full examination ; a line of conduct which,
as is to be regretted, too many so-called reviews fail to follow, to the deception
and injury of their patrons.

The same enterprising publishers isssue monthly, at $1 a year, the Mother's
Journal, edited by that excellent woman, Mrs. Caroline 0. Hiscox. We wish it
could be, as it well deserves, a family visitant to multitudes of homes.

The Home Monthly. Buffalo, N. Y. ; $1.50 a year, edited by Mrs. Arey and
Gildersleeve ; has the very suggestive motto : " There is a power behind the
school-room and the church." It is judiciously edited, and its selections are
always good.

The Happy Home. Boston, monthly, $2 a year, C. Stone & Co. Is largely
drawn upon by the press, a substantial evidence of its value.

The Ladies'' Home Magazine. By T. S. Arthur <fc Co., 323 Walnut street, Phi-
ladelphia, Pa., $2 a year, with the editorial aid of Virginia F. Townsend. Will
profit and instruct and refine and elevate any family which secures it monthly.

Godey's Lady's Book, $3 a year, Philadelphia. This is The Pictorial Monthly.
The most elegant in the Union, and distances all competition. Now in its sixtieth
volume. Its practical value has been increased of late by the contributions of Dr.
J. S. Wilson, of Georgia, to the Health Department.

164 hall's jouknal op health.

The reader is specially invited to read all the following notices, for many of
them are practical, and all are useful.

Balliere Bros., 440 Broadway, New- York, have issued a comely 12mo of S18
pp., $1, entitled, A Knowledge of Living Things, with the Laws of their Existence,
by Dr. A. N. Bell, late Surgeon in U. S. Navy, and now physician to Brooklyn City
Hospital. It is a volume which may be read with absorbing interest by every
student of nature, and by every scholar, while it abounds with information practi-
cally useful for all classes of readers.

The Human Voice. Fowler & Wells. 30 cents. By Rev. W. W. Cazalet, A.M.
Cantab. Its right management in speaking, reading, and debating, including the
principles of true eloquence ; contains a large amount of useful information to all
public speakers and singers.

The Chemist and Druggist. A monthly trade circular, 24 Bow Lane, London.
$2 a year, single numbers, 12 cents. Contains a vast amount of information for
apothecaries, druggists, medical and surgical instrument dealers, etc. etc. New-
York office, C. F. A. Henricho, 150 Broadway.

Patients' and Physicians' Aid. By Dr. E. M. Hunt ; 365 pp. 8vo. with copious
index. Published by C. M. Saxton, Barker & Co., New-York, and H. H. Bancroft
& Co., San Francisco. Showing " how to preserve health, and what to do until
the doctor comes," a kind of information greatly needed in multitudes of families
in the country. There is not a household in the land which should be without a
plain, reliable book of this kind, it would prevent much mental and bodily suffering,
and often save life.

Thermometers. — V. Beaumont, 1*75 Centre street, New-York, has patented a cir-
cular, dial-plate, metallic Thermometer, where no mercury is visible ; a long index,
like that of the minute-hand of a watch, shows the degree of heat or cold by
Fahrenheit's scale parallel with the centigrade. Its delicacy is such, that laying it
on the hand for an instant, changes the degree. It can be easily carried in
the vest-pocket, and is altogether the best pattern of a thermometer we have ever
seen.

The Water-Cure Journal. Monthly, $1 a year, New- York. Fowler & Wells
have done much for the promotion of temperance, cleanliness, and hygiene. But
why don't it keep its temper ? A madman always loses the battle, whether in the
" Ring," on the Forum, or on the Tripod. Look how it blazes away at some per-
son whom it supposes advocates tight-lacing. Now tight-lacing is a prime remedy
for maniacs ; nothing so calms them down as a strait-jacket !

" One of our allopathic medical journals has advocated tight-lacing as a pre-
ventive and a curative measure for consumption ; a proposition so self-evidently
absurd, so ridiculously silly, would hardly call for serious refutation, were it not
put forward and urged and reiterated with a show of anatomical and pathological
knowledge just sufficiently plausible to deceive the ignorant and mislead the un

BOOK NOTICES. 165

thinking. The author of this outrageously foolish notion is not only the editor of
a medical journal, but the author of a work on consumption ; and however non-
sensical his teachings may seem to us, and are of themselves, we are bound to
regard him as earnest and honest in his opinions. It can not be possible, at least
we will not believe it, that he misleads the people intentionally for the sake of the
professional perquisites and advantages. We treat his lucubrations on this subject
with more attention, also, because they have been extensively copied and circulated
through the newspapers of the country without note, comment, or dissent, which
is equivalent to their indorsement." Yerily !

We thought that hydropathists contended that if a man would live on bran, ber-
ries, and fruits, would soak in cold water every day, and open a canal for it through
the body to slosh out all its impurities, he would become as active and unkill-
able as a cat ; his heart all the time chock full of love towards every body and the
rest of mankind too, while the mind would be habitually as clear as a bell and as
calm as a summer evening. Rather think there is a screw loose somewhere.
Either the theory won't work, or the editor won't practice it, and both are going to
seed. Hope not, for few papers contain more good things when its editor is oblivi-
ous of the fact that there is a drug or an allopathic doctor in existence.

New- York Teacl sr. Albany ; $1 a year, 48 pp. There are several articles in
this valuable monthly for May, which merit a wide distribution. Physical Culture,
(from the Massachusetts Teacher, Boston,) Classical Training, by Henry C. Mitchell,
Necessity of Teaching Children to Think, Aids to Science, Spelling and Writing,
At what Age and how many hours for Schooling Children, by Luther Haven, of
Chicago, The Family.

The Western Watchman, of St. Louis, is one of the handsomest sheets among
our religious exchanges, and we always open it with interest. Neither it nor the
Watchman and Reflector, of Boston, nor the True Union, of Baltimore, nor the
Examiner or Chronicle, of New-York, ever pass from our hands without the wish to
read them more thoroughly. These are all Baptist publications, and are well worthy
of a large patronage among that very numerous denomination of Christians.

No lover of the beautiful in art and mind culture, can open the fair pages of the
Musical World ($2 a year, New- York) without finding something to feed upon ;
something elevating and refining. Its last page of reading-matter, made up of
short sentences, must be the work of a cultivated mind and heart.

The Louisana Baptist, at Mount Lebanon, we always receive with interest ; we
trust it receives the patronage which it merits among that large body of Southern
Christians.

The Banner of tJie Cross, of Philadelphia, seldom passes from our hands, without
the wish for leisure to read more of it. It is really a family paper which can not
fail to benefit those who read it regularly.

We would like to know that the Witness, of Indianapolis, is as liberally patron-
ized as a paper of its merit and influential position deserves. We have pleasant
memories of beautiful Indianapolis.

Bare Necks, Arms, and Legs of Children, their evil effects ; see June Number,
1859.

A Wonder. A lady correspondent writes : "My mother has taken from the left
side, near the heart, a piece of a needle an inch in length, which broke off near
the center of the palm of the left hand fifteen years before. For nearly all that
time it has caused untold sufferings, feeling the pain at intervals in arm, back,

166

shoulders, spasmodic anguish at the heart and many other symptoms indescribable.''
Similar cases are given in standard medical works. It is a rule in the animal econ-
omy that when any foreign substance is introduced into the living body, nature
gives no rest until it is expelled ; hence the utmost care should always be given to
extract every wounding material, whether of wood, glass, or metal ; the sOoner it
is done after an accident the better. This piece of needle traveled up the arm,
over the arm-pit, along the ribs and thence outwards.

Lung and Life-Preservers. As to our May article on Wind and Lungs, we
merely add : If a person wishes to be benefited, let him purchase any where an
India-rubber life-preserver to be inflated with air. Let a healthy man of your own
age, weight, and hight see how many breaths it requires for him to fill it to the
utmost. If he does it at one full expiration, and you can not, your lungs are work-
ing imperfectly. If it requires two full breaths for him, and three for you, then
one third of your lungs are inoperative, and you should practice its inflation several
times a day, or run a certain distance and back tbrice a day with the mouth closed
until the life-preserver can be easily filled by you in the same number of breaths as
by your friend. Forty cubic inches to a pint is the standard adopted by English
physicians for lung-measurement. That need not be taken into account. The
question is, can you fill a life-preserver with as few full breaths as a man of the above
conditions ; if not, you are in danger of dying of consumption sooner or later, and
will certainly do it (unless this ill condition is rectified) if you do not perish by
violence.

Right pungently does the veteran editor of the American Medical Gazette apos-
trophize his readers on the occasion of so slim an attendance on the sanitary lecture
of E. Y. Robbins, Esq., of Boston :

" New-Yorkers are too busy in paying their devotions to the almighty dollar, to
attend to such insignificant matters as life and death, health and sickness, etc. ;
they can not be persuaded from the opera, the theater, the ball-room, the negro-
minstrels, and the grog-shops, to learn how to prevent pestilence or lessen mortality.
Alas ! that "Wendell Phillips & Co., lecturing on the everlasting Negro, and teach-
ing treason, should draw crowds of listening dupes, while lessons of philosophy and
wisdom from eloquent lips should be repeated to empty benches. He who would
attract the multitude should play the fool, make gorgeous shows of magic-lanterns,
administer laughing-gas, or shoot off fire-crackers, for nonsense and humbug are in
the ascendant."

That's true, Doctor, but people must have fun, and they will crowd where there is
the most of it. Phillips is full of mirth and wit. People go to hear him because
they know they will get a good number of tremendous laughs, while they might
not, and many of them do not, value his principles or his logic beyond the worth
of a pewter button. They will command the largest audiences in a New- York
community who will abound most in mirth and wit, the subject being secondary,
Let public speakers, reformers, and humanitarians remember this ; for after the
severer occupations of business and labor during the day, the body demands repose
and the mind yearns for diversion, which is its rest, and will have it, and when
pleasurable, so much the more satisfactory, efficient, and recreative.

Life Illustrated calls us to task for heading an article " Protest against Early
Rising." It was done for us by some lazy editor. It well says that the title alone
would give a first impression which would be injurious as well as untrue. We both
agree that under all circumstances a plenty of sleep is essential to health, and that

BOOK NOTICES. 167

all should practice early rising, and begin the day at least at sunrise with mind,
body, and brain fully rested and renovated.

Health and Disease. A correspondent from the " Old North State," says, of this
publication : " I am so pleased with its just and sensible views, that I feel I am doing
a real good to every one whom I can induce to get a copy." A lawyer of this city
said of it to a friend : " I have derived more instruction, and have been made better
acquainted with the nature of health and disease by reading Dr. Hall's book on that
subject, than from all the books read in a lifetime." The third edition of this
book having been called for within nine months after its first issue, is evidence of
its appreciation. It is sent, post-paid, for one dollar.

A Westoner writes of the Jouknal of Health : "I am well pleased with it.
You talk more to the point than any man I have ever read ; in other words, you
have more white-oak sense than any one I have found. I mean by that, more
good mother-wit." He wanted us to give him a book. "We did !

Milk. Dr. Gardner, of this city, a connoisseur in milk, says that he had used
the milk of the Rockland Co. Association, and knew it to be good ; had recom-
mended to various families, and of all the children brought up on it from birth,
under his eye, not one had failed to do well and gain flesh. Dr. Clark, of Newark,
and the veteran Dr. Reese, with the Hon. Erastus Brooks, all of whom have used
the milk, corroborated the statements of Dr. Gardner. We ourselves know that
it is pure milk from farm-house fed cows. 146 E. Tenth st., New- York.
The editor of the Hightstown Village Record pokes fun at us in this style :
" Rules for Sleep — An Improvement on Dr. Hall. — 1st. As soon as you are
in bed, have Bridget hand the wash-bowl to you. Then place it immediately
beneath the small of your back, and you will immediately sink into a calm slumber.
It should not remain in that position long enough to produce stupor.

M 2d. Try to think of something you can't remember ; the more you can't think
of it, the sleepier you will get.

" 3d. Let John or Phineas pour ice-water down the sleeve of your shirt for an
hour or two, while he holds a lump of assafoetida to your nose.

" 4th. Count two millions slowly and deliberately. You will certainly be asleep
before you have counted that number.

11 5th. Hold a wire against the nerve of your tenderest tooth. This is infallible
— patent applied for.

" 6th. Have your back gently smothed with a curry-comb.
" *7th. Try and fix your mind on one thing ; if that don't succeed, fix it on two."
In examining the exchanges brought to us on Saturday last, there were seventeen
articles from our pen, which shows very fairly the partiality of our editorial breth-
ren. A few days earlier we took up a paper which contained five columns of our
handiwork, but looking for the " credit," we found "nary red." A sixth column,
however, in another part of the paper, seemed to indicate that the editor had some
recollection of the fact that there was such a publication as Hall's Journal of
Health. But who cares for credit as long as the more important thing is done,
that of disseminating what is useful and true ? Let us all join in the song :

" Row, brothers, row,
The tide runs fast;
The rapids are near,
And the daylight's most past,"

and " Work while the day lasts."

163

Hall-y. George J. Hall, of Hall County, Georgia, writes to Dr. Hall to send him
Hall's Journal of Health for 1860.

A gentleman who has been married for perhaps two weeks, at a guess, writes :
" We, (that is, self and wife,) the only two members of as happy a family as ever
was, can not do without the Journal of Health." He wants further to know
what is the cause and cure of palpitation of the heart. The first kiss from " sweet
seventeen" will give it to any body; the "mitten" will cause its very speedy sub-
sidence. It is an unimportant symptom of dyspepsia.

A subscriber to the Journal of Health, and to the Fireside Monthly, writes :
" ' Dr. Hall says so,' is thought the finale in any argument or recommended in my
family."

That excellent and standard weekly, The Country Gentleman, quotes from
Lavater, " Young women who neglect their toilette indicate in this very particular
a disregard for order, a deficiency in taste, and the qualities which inspire love.
The girl of eighteen who does not desire to please in so obvious a matter as dress,
will be a slut and probably a shrew at twenty-five ;" and that there is more pleasure
in giving than in receiving, especially as to medicine, kicks and advice ; and further :
" Most persons are particularly spiteful against the follies in others which they
themselves have."

Missing numbers of the Journal are supplied to subscribers for six cents. All
subscriptions begin with January last.

CONTENTS OF HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH FOR JULY.

(New-York, $1 a year.)

Athletics, 145

Central Park, 147

Size of Parks, 149

The Teeth, 150

Physical Training, 152

Water Filters, 159

Dyspeptic Letters, 160

Two Best Doctors, 162

Notices, Reviews, etc., 163

Book Notices, 164

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, T5
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] AUGUST, 1860. [No. 8.

IS CONSUMPTION CONTAGIOUS?

Eminent French, English and American physicians advocate
the doctrine that " consumption is catching." Morgagni, one
of the greatest medical lights of his time, was such a firm be-
liever in the opinion, that he never would assist in the examina-
tion of a person who had died of the disease. Some of the
most distinguished writers as well as some of the most
celebrated and successful practitioners in that disease have
eventually died of it themselves, among whom were the great
Laennec, Morton, Wooster, and not forgetting the empiric
St. John Long, (so said.)

A large number of persons evidently consumptive will be
found on inquiry to have had a husband, wife, sister, or child
to have died of that disease. Statistics seem to show that a
wife whose husband is consumptive, is more liable to consump-
tive disease than a healthy husband with a consumptive wife :
the reason of this, if true, will suggest itself to the thoughtful.

Introducing the matter of small-pox into the system prevents
small - pox. Laennec inoculated himself with consumptive
matter but it did not " take." He subsequently died of con
sumption himself. He made this experiment to show that
consumption was not inoculable. MM. Alberti and Biett
thought that cancer was not communicable by the matter of
cancer, and to prove it, tried to inoculate themselves with it
but it did not " take." Both of them died afterwards from
cancer.

It is most probable that consumption is not of itself com-
municable, that it can not beget consumption in one who has
vigorous health and is perfectly free from all taint of the disease

no. viii. — VOL. VII.— 1860.

170 hall's journal of health.

But if any person who has not a vigorous constitution, whether
inclined to consumption or not, lives, eats and sleeps with a
consumptive, as man and wife do, as a sister is apt to do with a
consumptive sister, or a mother with consumptive children, such
persons will very generally die of consumption themselves, not
from its communicability per se, but from the foulness of the
atmosphere about a consumptive, from warm rooms, decaying
lungs, large expectoration, sickening night-sweats and bodily
emanations ; but the same amount of exposure to air made foul
in any other way would light up the fires of consumption in
one of feeble vitality or broken constitution. It is best, there-
fore, that the nurse of a consumptive should possess the most
vigorous health, and to make assurance from infection doubly
sure, the most scrupulous cleanliness possible should be observ-
ed and carried out in every conceivable direction, extended to
every minutiae and maintained with the most inveterate constancy
through every hour of the twenty- four, not allowing any ex-
cretion, even a single expectoration, to remain about the person,
bed or room for one instant. An incessant ventilation should
be going on in the chamber, the best method for which under
most circumstances is simply to keep a fire on the hearth and
an inner door open ; even in mid-summer, this is better for the
patient as well for the nurse than a room kept closed all the
time from an almost insane dread of taking cold.

TABLE MANNERS.

Of all the articles copied from the Journal of Health,
that has had the widest and most persistent circulation, which
suggested the importance of the family meeting around the din-
ner-table, and breakfast and supper as well, in a happy, loving,
and cheerful frame of mind. It went across the water, and re-
turned as copied from Chambers's Journal, under which credit
it is going the rounds of the American press again. It was
scarcely half a page, but it has caused us a great deal of re-
flection. Why was it so extensively copied at home and
abroad ? Was it because of the justness of its views? or ra-
ther that the experience of the press, as to the reverse of the

TABLE MANNERS. 171

picture, is so universal ? If so, many gentlemen of education
and culture have experienced the sad feeling of having wives
or children come to the table, only to fret, and growl, and com-
plain, 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 wholly eaten out, by husbands who
come to the table with a terrible dignity ! or with a selfishness
so predominant that it places every body 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 appar-
ent torture to him ; there must not be a whimper or a whis-
per, 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 incubus, an iceberg ; and there is only gladness when
he is gone ; it is then only that the sunshine of family affection
and love comes out, and filial and motherly sympathies well up
from loving hearts.

To meet at the breakfast-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 break-
fast-table, where all the family have met in health, only to
frown, and whine, and growl, and fret ! it is prima facie evi-
dence of a mean and groveling and selfish and degraded na-
ture, whencesoever the churl may have sprung. Nor is it less re-
prehensible to make such exhibitions at the tea-table ; for be-
fore 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 mouthfuls, 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 ener-
gizes digestion and assimilation. The extremes of society cu-
riously meet in this regard. The tables of the rich and the

172 hall's journal of health.

nobles of England are models of mirth, wit, and bonhommie ;
it takes bours to get tbrougb a repast, and they live long. If
any body will look in upon tbe negroes of a well-to-do family
in Kentucky, while at their meals, they can not but be im-
pressed with the perfect abandon of jabber, cachinnation, and
mirth ; it seems as if they could talk all day, 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, promotive as these things are of good digestion, high
health, and a long life.

TOMATOES.

This is one of the most healthful as well as the most univer-
sally 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 advantage and to the ut-
most that can be taken with an appetite. Its healthful quality
arises from its slight acidity, in this, making it as valuable per-
haps 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, owing to the seeds which it contains, they
acting as mechanical irritants to the inner coating of the bowels,
causing them to throw out a larger amount of fluid matter than
would otherwise have been done, to the effect of keeping the
mucous surfaces lubricated and securing a greater solubility of
the intestinal contents, precisely on the principle that figs and
white mustard seeds are so frequently efficient in removing con-
stipation 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 may be improved to great prac-
tical advantage for the benefit of many who are invalids and
who are fond of the tomato.

ICE- WATER. 173

ICE -WATER.

If the reader is down-town or away from home on a hot day,
and feels as if it would be perfectly delicious to have a glass of
lemonade, soda-water, or brandy toddy, by all means let him
resist the temptation until he gets home, and then take a glass
of cool water, a swallow at a time, with a second or two inter-
val between each swallow. Several noteworthy results will
most assuredly follow.

After it is all over, you will feel quite as well from a drink of
water as if you had enjoyed a free swig of either of the others.

In ten minutes after you will feel a great deal better.

You will not have been poisoned by the lead or copper which
is most generally found in soda-water.

You will be richer by six cents, which will be the interest on
a dollar for a whole year !

You will not have fallen down dead from the sudden chills
which sometimes result from drinking soda, iced water, or toddy,
in a hurry.

No well man has any business to eat ices or to drink iced
liquids in any shape or form, if he wants to preserve his teeth,
protect the tone of his stomach, and guard against sudden in-
flammations and prolonged dyspepsias. It is enough to make
one shudder to see a beautiful young girl sipping scalding
coffee or tea at the beginning of a meal, and then close it with
a glass of ice- water ; for at thirty she must either be snaggle-
toothed or wear those of the dead or artificial.

Fresh spring or well-water is abundantly cool for any drink-
ing purpose whatever. In cities where water is artificially sup-
plied, the case is somewhat different ; but even then there is no
good excuse for drinking ice- water, because, even if the excuse
were good in itself, the effects on the stomach and teeth are the
same.

Make a bag of thick woolen doubled, lined with muslin ; fill
it with ice ; have in a pitcher an inch or two of water above
the faucet, and let this bag of ice be suspended from the cover
within two inches of the surface of the water. The ice will melt
slowly and keep the water delightfully cool, but not ice cold.
A still better effect will be produced if the pitcher is also well
enveloped in woolen. Again, water almost as cool as it can be,

174

unless it has ice actually in it, may be had without any ice at
all, by enveloping a closed pitcher partly filled with water, with
several folds of cotton, linen, or bagging, and so arranging it
that these folds are kept wet all the time by water dripping
from another vessel, on the principle of evaporation.

As to the management of refrigerators, Bartlett's " Polar,"
being the most philosophical, the ice never comes in contact
with the provisions, (for freezing disorganizes all meats and
vegetables,) hence can not freeze them, but keeps them just
above the freezing point, dry and cool, while the arrangement
is such, that the ice as it melts, is used for drinking purposes.
Thus, six cents' worth of ice a day, or about twenty pounds, is,
with proper management, enough for the use of a family of ten
persons throughout the summer, not only for drinking pur-
poses, but for the preservation of the eatables.

REGIMEN.

Eight well hath some old codger of the ancient time written
in respect to health and its preservation ; doubtful are we that
any man of this diluting age could possibly comprise so 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, therefore I
will not continue it ;" than this — " I find no offense of this,
therefore I may use it ;" for strength of youth in nature passeth
over many excesses which are owing a man till his age. Dis-
cern 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 any thing thou shalt judge hurtful, to discontinue it little
by little ; but so, as if thou dost find any inconvenience by the
change thou come back to it again ; for it is hard to distinguish

SLEEPING : OR, THIS AND THAT. 175

that which is generally held good and wholesome from that
which is good particularly, and fit for thine own body. To bs
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
env}r, envious fears, anger, fretting inwards, subtle and knotty
inquisitions, joy and exhilarations in excess, sadness not com-
municated. Entertain hopes ; mirth rather than joy ; variety
of delights rather than surfeit of them ; wonder and admira-
tion, and therefore novelties ; studies that fill the mind with.
splendid and illustrious objects — as histories, fables and con-
templations of nature.

SLEEPING: OR, THIS AND THAT.

Some one-sided, one-eyed individual has made the following
calculation, which is mathematically correct, but practically as
false and mischievous as can well be expressed in plain English.

THIS.

" The difference between rising every morning at six and at
eight, in the course of forty years, amounts to twenty -nine
thousand three hundred and ninety hours, or three years, one
hundred and twenty-one days and sixteen hours, which are
equal to eight hours a day for exactly ten years ; so that rising
at six will be the same as if ten years of life were added,
wherein we may command eight hours every day for the culti-
vation of our minds and the dispatch of business."

THAT.

The following communication was recently made to a British
society :

" A Chinese merchant had been convicted of murdering his
wife, and was sentenced to die by being deprived of sleep.
Thi3 painful mode of death was carried into execution under
the following circumstances :

" The condemned was placed in prison under the care of three

176 hall's journal of health.

of the police-guard, who relieved each other every alternate
hour, and who prevented the prisoner from falling asleep, night
or day. He thus lived for nineteen days without enjoying any
sleep. At the commencement of the eighth day his suffer-
ings were so intense that he implored the authorities to grant
him the blessed opportunity of being strangulated, guillotined,
burned to death, drowned, garroted, shot, quartered, blown up
with gunpowder, or put to death in any other conceivable way
which their humanity or ferocity could invent."

Crazy people can't sleep at all. The man who is "fat as a
fool," sleeps all the time, except when eating. A thin Yankee,
so keen after making money that the look of his eye goes right
through you, and his word pierces like a poniard, goes to bed
at midnight and is ready for work or a bargain at peep of day,
is teetotally dried up at the age of forty years ; the skin fairly
clings to his bones, and before you know it, he has evaporated.
But look at that fat, lazy Dutchman, who never was fairly and
fully awake since he was born, and, in spite of pipes of " lager,"
and whole tierces of tobacco, he lives to see the third, if not in-
deed the fourth, generation. Whoever heard of any one sleep-
ing himself to death ? But no sleep brings death in nineteen
days.

It is stated of one of the most eminent, one of the very best
of the men of this nineteenth century, that, while at college, he
retired at twelve o'clock at night and rose at six and a half. A
man of his activity of brain ought to have had at least eight
hpurs' sound sleep in every twenty-four. But look at the sketch
he makes of himself about this very time :

.J? Pardon the vagaries of a half-crazed student. My old com-
plaint, the blues, has come upon me like a strong man armed.
Misanthropy, I despise it, I loathe it, yet I hug it to my heart.
Truly I am depressed, devoured by spleen, fostering a crabbed,
morose, silly, churlish, sinful despondency."

Such feelings as these continued to haunt this gentleman
more or less throughout life, and he failed to reach "three-
score " by several years. That insufficient sleep would aggra-
vate the malady of misanthropy, even when it does not largely
aid in originating it, and that it lays the foundation for a pre-
mature death, no intelligent physician will deny. The observ-
ant reader need only bring to his remembrance the disagreeable

TOBACCO-USERS. 177

feelings of any day which has been preceded by a sleepless
night, to be fully convinced of the serious evils which must fol-
low a systematic short allowance of sleep.

We heard one of the greatest theological minds of the cen-
tury advise that time should not be wasted ; that students
should carry some book in the pocket which they could take
out and read, when waiting at an appointment or for sitting
down to a dinner, while others were collecting ; that even if
but half-a-dozen lines were read, it was that much time saved.
He believed in his theory, put it in practice, died early and —
demented ! The brain must have rest ; sleep is the best rest.

Let parents who do not want their children to die of water on
the brain, allow them to have the fullest amount of undisturbed
sleep they possibly can take, especially while at school.

The more sick people can sleep, the sooner they will get well.
Sleeping in the daytime, if before noon, enables them to sleep
better the following night. Students, women, and nervous per-
sons need all the sleep they can get, and so do the melancholy
and those who are in trouble. Early rising is not condemned,
it is heartily commended. But if not preceded by an early re-
tiring, it is a crime against the body.

TOBACCO-USERS.

It has become very common to invest chewing-tobacco and
snuff in lead-foil. Herr Hockel examined some snuff from a
quantity, part of which had been used by a patient who was
laboring under a severe attack of lead poisoning, and found
that it contained two and a half per cent of metallic lead. The
tobacco near the corners of the package, being more perfectly
inclosed by the foil, contained the most lead, which is decom-
posed by dampness and remains in the tobacco or snuff in the
form of carbonate of lead, which is the white lead paint of
commerce, which inflicts such horrible sufferings on many of
those whose business compels them to work in it. The slaves
of the disgusting "weed" would do well to make a note of this,
and either abandon the inexcusable fllthiness or avoid using
any that is enveloped with lead-foil.

178 hall's journal of health.

C S L L A B

There ought to be no cellar under any building designed
for the residence of families ; but in cities where ground is very
valuable it is considered a necessity. The only access to the
cellar of a New-York dwelling is through the lower hall or
passage ; hence, whenever the door is opened, all the fumes,
gases, odors and damps which arise from it, ascend through the
building and impregnate every room with the foul air generated
by decaying wood, vegetables, bones, skins, scraps of meat, etc.,
of which the cellar is too commonly made a common receptacle.

In the spring or early summer, every movable thing should
be taken out, the walls and floor should be most thoroughly
swept, and then the walls and ceiling should be most profusely
whitewashed. No cellar should be without a well -plastered
ceiling, not only to exclude the dampness and bad air; but to
protect the lower room from cold and changeable weather.

There can be no doubt that an ill-conditioned cellar is the
unsuspected cause of death among many a happy household.
A gentleman recently built for himself a splendid mansion in
this city. He had not been in it long before several members
of a hitherto healthy family became unwell. On minute in-
quiry he found that the house had been erected on a fllled-in
swampy lot. He at once removed elsewhere, and the usual
health returned to his household.

During one of the cholera years in Boston, the whole city
was divided into small districts, and trusty citizens were ap-
pointed to visit each, and to leave no part of any suspicious
premises unexamined, with power to compel a thorough and
immediate cleansing. Their care was happily rewarded : only
in one neighborhood was there any marked disease, when upon
a more rigid exploration of a particular building, it was found
that one compartment of a dark cellar was almost filled with a
disgusting compound of all the offal of a kitchen for a long
period. With such facts, those who possess any intelligence,
with even a moderate affection for their wives and children,
will give a prompt and wise attention to the subject.

SPITTING BLOOD. 179

SPITTING BLOOD.

From an old Patient to a Clergyman who had Hemorrhage.

" Five years ago, after having had a bad spasmodic cough for
about three months, I suddenly bled about a gill, cough con-
tinuing and slight bleeding for two months more ; was feeble all

summer and following winter ; tried Dr. and then Dr.

and S , who, I thought, helped me much, and in great joy

I wrote him a letter, which he published. But I think my re-
covery after all was owing to out-door exercise, regularly and

perse veringly kept up. I called on Dr. • , a year ago last

spring, when I considered myself pretty well. He examined
my lungs and told me they were then sound and working well,
that my recovery was complete. Last winter, however, I had
no time for any thing, and by hard work and confinement
brought on my former difficulty, cough ; bleeding in April of
last year about as before, repeated two or three times, the last
the fifth of July. Did not preach from June to October. I
consulted no physician during this sickness, relying on my
former experience and my former method — out-door exercise.
But Dr. Hall's advice was what I followed, taken when I before
consulted him for such difficulties.

"First. All the gentle out-door exercise possible, short of fa-
tigue. Never get exhausted.

" Second. All the good plain food you can digest ; avoid pas-
tries and cakes. The best diet is plain bread and beef.

" Third. Try and have pure air always. Connected with this

advice of Dr. , I used, by the advice of a Boston physician,

a tablespoon of Bourbon whisky three times a day before eating.
Furthermore, I rubbed my chest daily with a crash towel, then
a strong liniment. I think a warm bath in a warm room once
a week all-sufficient in the matter of bathing. I think the great
thing is out-door exercise — that is the cure. It was very ob-
stinate— so was I. I persevered, almost despairing many times ;
but the last Sabbath in October I tried preaching. For four
Sundays it was hard work. From that time until the present,
however, my voice never was clearer and stronger. I have
preached and talked just as much as I chose. Henceforth I
hope not to over-do, and to have a plenty of out-door exercise.
I would advise you by all means to go to Dr. . I think he

180 HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

is the man of all others. Be of good courage. I do think that
no one need die of consumption ; as long as one can walk a
quarter of a mile he can be cured.

" In your case all violent or protracted exercise ought for a
time to be avoided.

" P S. — Coarse brown or Graham bread is better than all
wheat bread. A free passage daily of the bowels is of vital
importance. If brown bread sours on your stomach, do not eat
it. The idea is to get up a good digestion, and so build up the
general strength."

The above letter incorporates our own sentiments, and it may
be suggestive to state that the person to whom it was addressed
declined placing himself under our care because we refused to
prescribe any medicine, showing, as far as it goes, that druggery
is the folly of the age, not from the prescription of the physician,
but from the folly of the people, added to their impatience ; they
are willing to do any thing that will make them feel better for
the moment rather than adopt means, which, although slower in
the promotion of beneficial results are radical, safe, and lasting,
any one of which three things are of the first importance. A
wise man ought to want to be safely dealt with, to be thoroughly
cured, and to be cured lastingly, yet such are the views prac-
tically of very few people, and every educated physician has
cause to lament it constantly.

SMALL BED-CHAMBERS.

There is reason to believe that more cases of dangerous and
fatal disease are gradually engendered annually by the habit of
sleeping in small, unventilated rooms, than have occurred from
a cholera atmosphere during any year since it made its appear-
ance in this country. Yery many persons sleep in eight by ten
rooms, that is, in rooms the length and breadth of which mul-
tiplied together, and this multiplied again by ten for the height
of the chamber, would make just eight hundred cubic feet, while
the cubic space for each bed, according to the English appor-
tionment for hospitals, is twenty-one hundred feet. But more, in

EACH THE BEST. 181

order "to give the air of a room the highest degree of freshness,"
the French hospitals contract for a complete renewal of the air
of a room every hour, while the English assert that double the
amount, or over four thousand feet an hour, is required. Four
thousand feet of air every hour ! and yet there are multitudes
in the city of New- York who sleep with closed doors and win-
dows in rooms which do not contain a thousand cubic feet of
space, and that thousand feet is to last all night, at least eight
hours, except such scanty supplies as may be obtained of any
fresh air that may insinuate itself through little crevices by door
or window, not an eighth of an inch in thickness. But when it
is known that in many cases a man and wife and infant sleep ha-
bitually in thousand-feet rooms, it is no marvel that multitudes
perish prematurely in cities ; no wonder that infant children
wilt away like flowers without water, and that five thousand of
them are to die in the city of New- York alone during the hun-
dred days which shall include the fifteenth of July, eighteen
hundred and sixty ! Another fact is suggestive, that among the
fifty thousand persons who sleep nightly in the lodging-houses
of London, expressly arranged on the improved principles of
space and ventilation already referred to, it has been proven that
not one single case of fever has been engendered in two years !
Let every intelligent reader improve the teachings of this article
without an hour's delay.

E ACH THE BEST.

A gentleman called for medical advice the other day, whose
reputation as the manufacturer of a certain article of hard-
ware would sell any thing with his name upon it. On being
asked if the quality of the article depended on any secret mode
of preparation, or any peculiarity of handwork, or any patent
protection, he replied: " Nothing of the sort; the article is not
patented, nor is there any secret in my establishment. On the
contrary, while my process is peculiar, it has at the same time
been made public, and I have debated the propriety of my
course, and defended it against my friends and rivals in the
same business. I took my stand at the age of twenty years, and

182

have resolutely adhered to it for nearly a third of a century
through every phase of the market ; there is no year, of all that
time, in which we failed to make money ; although, at times,
we may have been compelled to sell at actual cost. But now,
for many years, I have had the preference in the markets of the
world ; seeing this, my name was pirated by thirty manufactu-
rers in Manchester, at one and the same time, and in every sin-
gle case, the English courts decided in my favor, and compelled
the rectification of the wrong. My plan was simply this ; I al-
lowed my name to be stamped, only on the very best article
my establishment could turn out. I had a finished expert in
each particular branch and stage of the manufacture, to inspect
the article ; he had nothing else to do, and it was not ' passed,'
until each one had declared that it was without a flaw. At first,
multitudes were thrown aside, but by rigidly requiring each
department to strive to make each successive article the best of
any that preceded it, we now habitually make ' each the best,'' and
this is the answer to your question." So he will live longer, who
will strive to make each day the best, in industrious exercise and
a comprehensive temperance ; who, if he work too little to-day
for a good night's rest, will strive to work more to-morrow ; if
he eats too much to-day for subsequent comfort, will retrench
to-morrow, or so modify his eating in quantity or quality, that
there will be no unpleasant reminder after any meal, that an ex-
cess has been committed; this apparently little thing has en-
gaged the attention, and waked up the resolves, and baffled the
efforts of the greatest minds in all ages ; showing that a brute
appetite wars daily with a nature divine, as, in handicraft,
cupidity tempts integrity and generally overcomes it ; hence so
few men, in any branch of business, legitimately succeed in the
long run. Let every nurse, then, endeavor to do better with
each succeeding invalid ;• let every physician endeavor to give
more thought and attention to each new patient, and let us all,
in all things, strive patiently, resolutely, persistently, to make
each day "the best" of any that preceded it, and thus do more
than could possibly be done in any other way, to prevent our
lives being a failure ; a calamity than which no greater could
befall any man. Eeader ! let you and I strive to live, so that it
mav be justly inscribed on the slab which covers our graves :
"He did not live in vain."

EIGHT TO SIXTEEN. 183

EIGHT TO SIXTEEN.

Lord Shaftesbury recently stated in a public meeting in
London, that from personal observation be bad ascertained,
tbat of tbe adult male criminals of that city, nearly all bad
fallen into a course of crime between tbe ages of eigbt and six-
teen years ; and tbat if a young man lived an bonest life up to
twenty years of age, there were forty-nine chances in his favor,
and only one against him, as to an honorable life thereafter.

Thus is it in the physical world. Half of all who are born,
die under twenty years of age, while four fifths of all who reach
that asre, and die before another "score," owe their death to
causes of disease which were originated in their "teens." On a
careful inquiry, it will be ascertained that in nearly all cases,
the causes of moral and premature physical death, are pretty
much one and the same, and are laid between the ages of " eight
and sixteen years." This is a fact of startling import to fathers
and mothers, and shows a fearful responsibility. Certainly a
parent should secure and retain and exercise absolute control
over the child until sixteen ; it can not be a difficult matter to
do this, except in very rare cases, and if that control is not wise-
ly and efficiently exercised, it must be the parent's fault ; it is
owing to parental neglect or remissness. Hence the real source
of ninety eight per cent of the crime of a country such as Eng-
land or the United States, lies at the door of the parents. It
is a fearful reflection ; we throw it before the minds of the fa-
thers and mothers of our land, and there leave it, to be thought
of in wisdom, remarking only as to the early seeds of bodily
disease, that they are nearly in every case sown between sun-
down and bed-time, in absence from the family circle, in the
supply of spending-money never earned by the spender, open-
ing the doors of confectioneries and soda-fountains, of beer and
tobacco and wine, of the circus, the negro minstrel, the restau-
rant and the dance ; then follow the Sunday excursion, the
Sunday drive, with easy transition to the company of those
whose ways lead down to the gates of social, physical and moral
ruin. From " eight to sixteen I" in these few years are the des-
tinies of children fixed ! in forty-nine cases out of fifty ; fixed
by the parent ! Let every father and every mother, solemnly
vow : " By God's help, I'll fix my darling's destiny for good by
making home more attractive than the street."

184 hall's jouknal of health.

DRINKING WATER.

Even pure cold water may be drunk too freely in summer-
time. Persons who are in feeble health or suffer from the effects
of summer diseases, will derive great advantage from swallow-
ing bits of ice whole, after craunching them with their teeth, in-
stead of taking large draughts of ice- water, which often have the
efiect to increase the thirst ; this is not the case if ice is eaten.

A person who drinks water largely in the early part of a
summer's day, will be more troubled with thirst during the
remainder of the day than if these cravings had been resisted
for a few hours.

The more water a man drinks in summer, the more he per-
spires, and after a certain point, perspiration becomes debili-
tating, and is then a cause of disease.

"When persons are feverish and thirsty beyond what is natu-
ral, indicated in some cases by a metallic taste in the mouth,
especially after drinking water, or by a whitish appearance of
the greater part of the surface of the tongue, one of the best
"coolers," internal or external, is to take a lemon, cut off the
top, sprinkle over it some loaf sugar, working it downward into
the lemon with the spoon, and then suck it slowly, squeezing
the lemon and adding more sugar as the acidity increases from
being brought up from a lower point. Invalids with feverish-
ness may take two or three lemons a day in this manner with
the most marked benefit, manifested by a sense of coolness,
comfort, and invigoration. A lemon or two thus taken at " tea-
time," as an entire substitute for the ordinary "supper" of
summer, would give many a man a comfortable night's sleep
and an awaking of rest and invigoration, with an appetite for
breakfast, to which they are strangers who will have their cup
of tea or supper of "relish" and "cake" and berries or peaches
and cream.

The lemon thus eaten was the great physical solace of Gene-
ral Jackson in his last illness, which was consumption combined
with dropsy. It loosened the cough and relieved him of much
of that annoying hacking and hemming which attends diseases
of the throat and lungs, many times more efficient, speedy, and
safe than any lozenge, or " Trochee" ever swallowed.

DRUNKEN WOMEN. 185

DRUNKEN WOMEN,

Or " Intemperate Ladies," as a cotemporary more elegantly
expresses it ; but it is better to speak of evils so as to bring
them np before the mind in all their startling deformity ; still
we recoil at the heading, and are conscious of an inner effort to
persuade ourselves that there is not such a thing in existence as
a "drunken woman." My mother drunk? my sister? my
daughter ? my wife ? Impossible ! yes, impossible to me, but
not to all.

One of the handsomest young wives in New- York, and of a
family name, which, as to social position, was second to none,
died of an over-draught of her favorite stimulus. In default of
other supplies, she frequently drank the cologne water of her
toilet-table ; and yet for the troubled and the sorrowing she
had a heart so generous and a nature so kind, we have known
her, when sudden and crushing trials came to the poor and
obscure, of whom she never heard before, to visit the saddened
household, speaking words of sympathy, and sharing her ward-
robe with the children of sudden misfortune.

Not long ago there died the wife of a great name, whose in-
fatuation for the cup was such, that for the last years of her
life an attendant was appointed to follow her, every hour of
her waking existence, and yet the heiress of hundreds of
thousands died a drunkard's death !

For a summer we lived in the same house with a lady whose
intellectuality shone conspicuously in any company ; whose
poetry, as pronounced by herself, would charm all hearers;
and whose vivacity and conversational powers, were such as
to compel the admiration of every stranger ; and yet when the
desire for drink came upon her, like a strong man armed, she
hesitated not to practice the most degrading deceptions, to
feign the most fearful diseases, that in the absence of her
accomplished husband, stimulants should be brought to her by
kind and unsuspecting attendants ; and then for several days
she would revel in the most beastly intoxication.

An official announcement was made not long ago, that some
four hundred applications had been received for admission into
the asylum for inebriates, now in process of erection at Bing-
hamton, a large portion of which were from women in the
upper walks of life.

186 hall's journal of health.

Not long ago a man of great wealth was applied to for a
donation for the State Asylum ; he declined on the ground that
he had no personal interest in such an establishment, as there
was no danger of any of his family requiring its aid. Later on,
a young man of this city died in a drunken revel ; it was his
son, just entering manhood ! The truth is, no parent can say
that any son or daughter will not die an inebriate. A writer
says of New-York :

" There is a great and growing evil in this city, but one of
such delicate nature as to almost forbid being dragged into
public print. I refer to the increasing and lamentable habit
now so common, of the indulgence by ladies in intoxicating
drinks. I do not refer to those who do wrong almost from
necessity, but to that other class who have rich husbands and
homes that might be made happy. A larger number of this
class seem steadily to be diving deeper into dissipation every
year, than many persons greatly interested in their welfare and
happiness even imagine. I have heard recently of several
distressing cases of this kind, and to-day I learn that the wife
of a well-known citizen, reported to be very wealthy, has been
sent to the lunatic asylum, in the hope that she may, with re-
turning reason, be enabled to overcome the terrible temptations
which intoxicating liquors have of late had for her. Her hus-
band's name is almost as familiar in some parts of the South as
it is here."

It is unwise to attribute this growing evil to any one cause,
for there are a variety in operation ; a few may be named, and
the reader must make such use of them as an intelligent con-
science may urge.

Reputable physicians seem to be falling into the habit more
and more of advising alcoholic remedies, either frankly and
above-board, or under the disguise of Tonics and Tinctures and
Bitters. Scarcely a religious newspaper of any name or sect
can be taken up, which does not contain advertisements of these
same mischievous agencies with " Reverend" certifiers ad nau-
seam. The editors of respectable medical journals, and the
publishers of the same lend their aid towards the introduction
of wines and beers and brandies into the families by whose pa-
tronage they live ; thus prostituting their influence to vile pur-
poses for the sake of the few dollars they receive from the ad-

METAMORPHOSES. 187

vertisement of the same. To show the extent to which these
things are practiced, we take up a medical periodical for July,
of this city, issuing from the establishment of a name, which, for
half a century has commanded the respect of this whole commu-
nity ; the editor, an old man, of learning and culture, and high
position in his profession and in his church ; such men, we say,
are found introducing to the knowledge of their readers " Pure
Liquors for the use of the sick," and telling where such a brand
of gin and such a quality of whisky can be had ; showing, how-
ever, some little deference to public decency, by saying: "So long
as people will take domestic medicines, they ought, at least, to
discriminate the good from the bad." How is it possible to
"discriminate" between good and bad London Dock Gin, and
Philadelphia Whisky, and French Cordials, when all are bad ;
when the use of any of them for a short time tends to set up a
desire for more, which no man of intelligence, and who has any
respect for himself, or for the truth, will deny. How many
men and women under the habitual use of Tonics, and Bitters,
and Beers, and Cordials, have waked up at last to the fearful
truth that they " can not do without tliem," " must have them,"
let our asylums, and prisons, and poor-houses testify, and let
ruined families, and blasted reputations, and broken hearts
from the land over, confirm the terrible record ! He, and he
only, is safe from a drunkard's death, who never tastes a drop
of any thing that can intoxicate.

METAMORPHOSES.

A learned doctor once delivered himself thus : " Alcohol
arrests the metamorphosis of the tissues ; hence, as Phthisis is
the oxydation of the exudation corpuscle, the article designated
should be ' exhibited ' in the premises."

Man alive ! why didn't you say: "I believe brandy is a cure
for consumption."

This grandiloquence is a reminder of another deliverance
effected safely by a tip-top preacher, on one of the " squares :"
"Anthropology is Theopneustic:" that is, the Wottapottimy
man believes in the power of gunpowder. If Drs. Hawkes,

188 hall's jouknal of health.

Davidson, McGill, or any other of our clerical D.D.s, will give
us a more literal and luminous u rendering," we shall be happy
to avail ourselves of their exegetical acumen and learned lore.

No doubt some canny Sawney invented the argument in the
Westminster JReview three years ago, that as alcohol arrested
the metemorphosis of the tissues, prevented the waste of flesh and
strength of man, hence " Punch"* was good for every body, sick
or well. The meaning of this is, that we are all the time burn-
ing up, the flame must have something to feed upon; that
flesh is carbon, whisky is carbon : that carbon only will feed
fire, is food for the fire of life, and that, under the circumstances,
it is better to furnish whisky, than to supply the demand with
ones own flesh. Bat if you put some " Old Bourbon" in a
dish, and set it on fire, it goes off in a blaze, and soon there is
but little left beyond a spoonful of water, and if the flame is to
be kept up, more whisky must be supplied : hence, who ever
heard of a toper who wasn't a personified horse-leech and
Oliver Twist " give-more !"

For a time liquor does arrest destructive decay ; the fever of
disease feeds upon it, instead of the flesh ; but then it creates
an " excitement," a fever of its own ; this, too, must be sup-
plied with fuel : hence, in any given case, either in health or
disease, the alcohol must be supplied in increasing quantities,
in order to keep the system up to a certain point, and if that
increasing quantity is not supplied, the body begins to burn
itself up ; the man feels wretched ; whole pitchers of water are
ravenously drank in the vain effort to satiate the remorseless
thirst, but an ocean of cold water can't put out the fire; there
is a burning fire within the man ; it must have flesh to feed it ;
there is no appetite for the solid food, which otherwise might
have formed flesh; the stomach and intestines have been so
scorched, as it were, by the immense amount of " fire-water"
introduced into them, that they will receive it no longer, or if
tolerated, it does not meet the wants of the system, and there is
no pther alternative but to make fuel of the remnant of flesh
yet remaining; pound by pound does that flesh melt away,
and the full-fleshed, red-cheeked, hilarious man of a few months
ago, has lost his jesting and his jokery, the ruby has faded from

* A mixture of whisky, hot water, sugar, and lemon ?

CATARRH. 189

his face; on cheek, and arm, and hand, and "calf," the dry
and parched skin clings as tightly as a drum-head ; he totters
along on two spindles ; eats nothing, drinks nothing, and
miserably dies !

Therefore if any reader of this Journal tries hereafter to get
well of any ailment nnder the sun by drinking liquor, he is so
hopelessly stupid, that any additional reading of it will be
utterly useless, and he had better write for the balance of his
year's subscription.

CATARRH

Is a Greek word, which means a " flowing from," and is syno-
nymous with a common cold. A cold in the head causes a
running from the nose ; a cold in the eyes makes them water ;
a cold in the chest or lungs causes an increased expectoration ;
a cold in the bowels occasions diarrhea. This "flowing," whe-
ther 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 interfered with. If this "flow-
ing from" is stopped in any way, whether by external applica-
tions or internal medicines, the inevitable effect, 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 suffer-
ings which rilled the interval, 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 wel-
comed relief; the next day he complained of a sore throat,
which troubled him as long as he lived.

Many persons have diarrhea as a consequence of a cold;
they can not rest until they "take something" to "check it,"
with the certain result of its falling on the liver, to end in a

190 hall's journal of health.

"bilious attack," if not on the lungs, to cause pneumonia, or
pleurisy, or other more serious form of disease.

A gentleman had a cold in the head which affected his hear-
ing ; it was ignorantly tampered with, and apparently cured ;
but the eyes began to complain shortly after, to remedy which
he spent two years and a thousand dollars under the most emi-
nent Allopaths and "Water-Cures, with no efficient result ; and
his eyes are as troublesome to-day as they were some ten years
ago. All "flo wings," "runnings," etc., are the result of what,
in common parlance, is a " humor in the blood," and nature is
endeavoring to "run it off," but our reckless and ignorant in-
terferences thwart her in her efforts, and bring on greater
calamities.

In all catarrhs, chronic or acute, long or short, a wise physi-
cian will do nothing to stop or repress, but will use means to
cause a greater activity of the liver, and prescribe an unstimu-
lating 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 dur-
ing the twenty-four.

3. Live on light, loosening, cooling food — moderate amounts
— such as water-gruel, crust of bread, stewed fruits, ripe ber-
ries, and nothing else, until entirely well.

LIVING YET.

More than a quarter of a century ago, while attending
medical lectures at the University, we wrote a short article for
the press ; within a few days it has appeared in four different
newspapers, credited to this, that, or the other source, or none

LIVING YET. 191

at all. About three quarters of it had been lopt off, to say
nothing of change of sentiment and phrase. Thus it is with
the books which men write : as years roll on, fewer and fewer
of them are thought worthy of republication; next there is
only a synopsis of the best, then a chapter, or a paragraph, or a
single sentence, is all that remains of the work of a life-time.
Thus, too, is it with the actions of great men. When they die,
this thing and that is published about them ; long forgotten
and unimportant incidents are brought up from the musty past,
and are read with peculiar interest. In a short time the less
striking acts fall into forgetfulness, until but a single one is
prominently remembered of all that was ever done !

So, too, of the sayings of the great. Words are affirmed by
some to but air, and yet they are the most enduring monuments
of men ; just as the hair of the head seems to be the most perish-
able portion of the human frame, and yet in the grave it sur-
vives muscle, and brain, and tendon, and nerve, and the solid
bone itself. The lives of some men are compressed into a single
sentence, which brings up their whole history; their moral
photograph is taken at a dash. " Pray to the Lord and keep
your powder dry," and Oliver Cromwell stands before us in his
stern, practical, great English heart, that could, like Washing-
ton, indignantly reject a crown. "Don't give up the ship,"
and the heart yearns for the brave and dying Lawrence, whose
name is not likely to be forgotten while Liberty lives. " A
little more grape, Captain Bragg," and old Eough and Eeady,
the hero of Buena Yista, comes to our memories as the embodi-
ment of all that is honest, manly and brave. " I'd rather be
right than President," and we feel that well did such a senti-
ment become the greatest heart and the greatest orator of his
age, the peerless Henry Clay. There is no conclusive proof
that any one of these sayings was uttered by the persons to
whom they have been attributed, while there is reason to be-
lieve the contrary ; and that they were words put into their
mouths by writers who had the rare gift of sketching a charac-
ter truthfully, with the dash of a pen.

There are two sayings which are authentic, and which are
destined to make the names of those who uttered them, as
imperishable as the mountains of ages : " England expects
every man to do his duty," and the indomitable Nelson, with

192 hall's journal of healtpi.

bis one eye and his arm-stump, looms up before us as the
greatest hero of the greatest nation. But longer than any of
these, because a hallowed sweetness gathers around it, and its
associations, may live the name and utterance of a young man,
whose body, all torn and bleeding, was ebbing its mortal life
away, only, however, to exchange it for a life of immortality
among the hosts on high. " Stand up for Jesus, father!" and
saying it, died ! Dudley A. Tyng. Blessed man ! "We know
of no simpler, sweeter, grander sentiment in the whole range of
language ; fit to echo from the lone hill-tops of the ages, when
the departure of the last of earth's millions announces that
" Time shall be no longer !"

Human life is a talent, a privilege, a probation. To live to
purpose, men should live long, in order that they may gain
experiences, for by the wise use of these, grand things are said
and done. It then follows, that this life should be cherished
by all those practices which tend to preserve it in its highest,
healthiest forms, and to its greatest duration, and therefore,

HEALTH IS A DUTY !

CONTENTS OF HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH FOR AUGUST.

(New-York, $1 a year.)

Is Consumption Contagious ? 169

Table Manners, 170

Tomatoes, 172

Ice Water, 173

Regimen, 174

Sleeping, 175

Tobacco-Users, 177

Cellars, 178

Spitting Blood, 179

Small Bed-chambers, 180

Each the Best, 181

Eight to Sixteen, 183

Drinking Water, 184

Drunken Women, 185

Metamorphoses, 187

Catarrh, 189

Living Yet, 19°

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] SEPTEMBEB, 1860. [No. 9.

HOUSEHOLD SLAVERIES.

Being on the right side in reference to the " peculiar institu-
tion," and having been born and raised under its immediate
influences, our opinions on that subject have been formed from
observed facts and not from vain imaginations and false teach-
ings. And now, after some years spent in these Northern
climes, " far from home," we find it difficult to arrive at a
satisfactory conclusion, which; under all the circumstances of
the case, is the happiest and most cheerful class of persons, —
the servants in a Southern kitchen, or the mistresses in a North-
ern parlor. Certainly a greater tyranny may not give as much
unhappiness in ignorance, as petty annoyances may yield to
culture and a higher civilization. And it may admit of debate,
whether more smiles do not flit across the countenances of
slavery in ordinary families, than illume the features of the
daughters of the North in any twenty -four hours. Our Northern
readers need not be at the trouble of imagining that we are
about to defend slavery. We do not choose to do any thing of
the sort, but introduce the subject for the purpose of wedging
in a variety of practical truths in reference to human health
and happiness, more especially connected with our domesticities.

In looking at the whole subject from a dispassionate stand-
point, the most protrusive object in the mind's eye is the con-
trast between the mountain and the mouse ; the grandeur and
the ridiculousness ; the magnificent myth of a free country in
theory, and the contemptible narrow-mindedness of the reality,
when the North unchurches, excommunicates and hands over to
unending perdition all who speak for slavery ; and the South
imprisons, chains, tars and feathers, and hangs as high as Ha-

xo. ix. — vol. vii. — 1860.

194

man hung, all they can — catch ! who speak against it. But
we must say, that Southern folly and injustice carries away the
" belt," in present parlance, in charging upon the whole North
the follies and the crimes of a pitiful few ; in accusing millions
of doing what never entered the imagination of but some twenty
persons to conceive. And now that the din and dust of last
winter's commotions have passed away, let the South learn to
act a wiser and a nobler part, in the event of the reoccurrence
of contingencies, similar to those which all intelligent and good
citizens, North and South, ardently hope may never be repeated*
From opportunities of personal observation in the highways
and byways of the North, which not many possess, we firmly
believe that if any Southerner, from Governor Wise, up or
down, could possibly be made to feel that an auger-hole would
be a most welcome refuge, it would be the presentation of the
actual facts of the case here in the North, in reference to the
" John Brown Kaid." The instinctive exclamation would
bound forth : " What a fool I was, to get in such a pucker
about nothing !" In a multitude of cases, in street or house, or
car or steamer, it was impossible not to be struck with the
general indifference to what the papers would make believe
was the all-absorbing topic of the times. The facility with
which it was dismissed, the careless levity with which it was
handled, compelled the conviction, that the great public regarded
it as a matter with which they had no special concern, as if
they had said : " That is their business, not ours ; let the South
alone, to manage it in their own way."

Scene I. — City Cars.

11 What do you think of this John Brown affair ?"
" Oh ! stirring times these ; makes things lively. What 's
Erie to-day ?"

Scene II. — Steamboat.

" This slavery business seems to be looming up."
" Well ! I don't know. Seems to me to be a bull movement
of seedy politicians and hard-up newspapers, to raise a ' sell.'
I bought a house at Yonkers the other day ; it is the most de-
lightful suburb of the city, accessible at almost any hour by
rail or boat or horse ; having a population, which for refine-
ment and culture is perhaps not excelled. One of its sterling

HOUSEHOLD SLAVERIES. 195

features, and which must commend it to the appreciation of all
solid and conservative people, is the number and liberality of its
churches ; the care they take of their ministers, and the interest
they show in all that pertains to good doing. But I am in a
betweenity, locally and morally. I am equidistant from the
Dutch Eeformed and Episcopal churches, whose respective in-
cumbents are the salt of the earth. Dominie Hulburt is one of
the best of men. His heart is always in the right place (in his
hand) ready to be given at a moment's notice, in kindly sym-
pathy, in wise admonition, or cheerful counsel; a willing,
patient and hard worker. My wife has Episcopalian predilec-
tions, and leans towards Mr. Carter, who will leave a mark for
good behind him. All the carriages go there, and a great deal
of money too ; the latter returning never, except it may be in
the way of bread cast upon the waters ; the talented Eector
contending that the ungiving, as well as the un/or-giving
Christian, are pretty much in the same category."

Scene III. — Ferry-Boat

" I've seen a great deal in the papers about a rumpus in Vir-
ginia, but have not taken time to keep the run of it. Can you
give me a bird's-eye view of the case before we get to the other
side ?"

" Certainly. Some old man, Smith, or Brown, or other short
name, undertook to persuade some slaves to run off to the
"North, but they wouldn't do it ; meanwhile the whites heard
that something wrong was going on, surrounded the Brown
people, killed some, took others prisoners, a few escaping. By
the way, wouldn't you like to buy that lot of mine adjoining
your house ? will be sold at a great bargain to ' close a
concern !' "

Scene IV. — Broadway.

" Do you see that little thin man, walking briskly this way ;
shoulders stooping, eyes earthward, with slouched hat and
walking-cane ? That's Dr. Cheever."

" The man who has the ' wealth of anathema' ? "

" The same."

" He ought to be hung I"

"Why?"

" The malignity which he exhibits against slaveholders, its
aiders and abettors, is devilish."

196

" Hello — stop a minute, or you will show as much ' wealth'
of malediction as he. Don't you believe in earnest men, con-
sistent men ?"

" Yes ; consistency of faith and practice is a jewel, when
exhibited in a good cause, whether in one of a class, a com-
mittee, or a country. If a man advocates temperance, or the
sanctity of the Sabbath, and practices them, I care not how
severely he comments upon the conduct of the enemies of
both."

" Then you must be less severe in your rebuke of the occupant
of the Puritan pulpit. He is an earnest man, impressive and
fearless. No one in my hearing has ever spoke more eloquently
and unsparingly against drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking ; he
has done great good thereby ; and therein, as you must admit,
deserves well of every Christian community."

" Well, I believe you are right, and for his fidelity and fear-
lessness, for his sincerity and his zeal in what he believes to be
right, I am compelled to commend him. If he happens to be
in the wrong, that's his own look-out. But the fact is, I believe
it's none of my business any how. Things will rectify them-
selves. Let the South alone, to manage *<te own affairs. Why
should I go into my neighbor's family on a formal call or social
visit, and while receiving his confidence and courtesies, go into
his kitchen, on a chance turning of his back, and persuade the
occupants to leave him ? By the way, where will you spend
next summer ? Newport is ruinously expensive. Saratoga is
a human menagerie, the cages full of dust, all inclosed in a
patent oven. The 'White Sulphur' is too far off. Beautiful
Kockaway is too near for delightful exclusiveness. The older
I get, the more I am convinced that the most comfortable spot
for a summer's residence is New- York City, any where above
Fourteenth street, between Third and Sixth Avenues. The dif-
ference between the range of a large house and that of a ten-by-
twelve room, between a whole bed with a hair-mattress, and a
bag of shucks across wooden slats, between the best and freshest
fruits and berries which the country can afford, and the ring^
streaked and speckled, which are retained as being 'good
enough for boarders ;' between milk drawn at midnight and
placed fresh and cool on the breakfast-table, as by the Company
in Tenth street, and that which is left after a journey to New-

HOUSEHOLD SLAVERIES. 197

York and back, under a broiling sun ; between a hot roll or
the light loaf of a baker, and the yellow saleratus biscuit or
soggy home-made bread of a plowman's cook ; between the
morning walk on a clean foot-pavement with the animations of
the street and the diversions of the shop-windows, and silent
draggles through weeds, wet grass and dust, with nothing show*
ing rife but pigs and plowmen, the yelp of a dog, the squauk
of a mud-puddle duck, the gabble of geese and the bellowing
of cow-beaux; between the coolness of your own sheltered
house at mid-day and a bald building on a barren hill without
shade, broiling the whole day long under a summer's sun ;
between the short and quiet walk to church of a Sabbath morn-
ing, and the hurry-scurry and haste and bustle attendant on
saddling horses and gearing carriages and other discomposing
preparations for a journey of several miles and back — the
difference, we say, between 'this and that,' is so wide in my
judgment, that I have concluded to spend ' the season' at
home, with the advantage that it costs nothing extra to do so.
I will have neither to spend time, comfort, nor money ; whereas,
if I go to the Springs, every time I turn round or open my
mouth, I must put my hand in my pocket. I must lose time
from my business, be choked with dust in rail-cars, nauseated
at the thought of hotel and steamboat cookery, nap on ' the
rail' or dream on a shelf, while the clamor of baggage-men, the
gauntlets of hack-drivers, and the imposition of porters are all
standing and standard grievances hard to be borne."

Such conversations, to be heard any where and every where,
showed to our eye that the great public sense of the North felt
no special personal concern in a subject which at that very time
was regarded by Southerners generally with such a deep and
intense interest. We give it as our opinion, that the prevailing
sentiment of Northerners, the bone and sinew of them, on the
general subject of slavery is this, that in every present slave
State, slavery and slaveholders shall be protected at any cost
of blood and treasure which may be required of them for the
same ; that the Union will and shall be preserved ; that who-
ever is elected President according to the law of the land, they
will accept and obey, as they always have done ; they are just
as unalterable in their determination that domestic slavery as it
now exists South of Mason's and Dixon's line, shall never be

198 hall's jouknal of health.

extended over one single additional inch of territory now
belonging to the confederation, unless the majority of the peo-
ple of the United States should vote for it. In such an event,
they would most certainly acquiesce. Northern opinion on
another subject is of interest. Millions of voters think that
there is no necessity for meddling with slavery ; that it is merely
a matter of time, a matter of dollars and cents ; that as soon as
it becomes a non-paying institution it will cease to exist, and
that it will as certainly become so, first on the borders, then
inwards, as that the sun will shine to-morrow, and they believe
themselves bound by solemn oath to bide that time. In this
light, the unfairness and injustice of the South stood out in
unenviable relief, when, for the fanaticism and murderous
intent of twenty deluded men, they brought their accusations
against the millions of Northerners besides, as generous and
patriotic and as brave as themselves ; they exhibited a want of
magnanimity and confidence in their Northern brethren which
is alien to the Southern heart. It is to be hoped that they will
never again allow themselves to be misled by calculating poli-
ticians and hair-brained editors, both North and South, who
merited the halter quite as much as the imbeciles, who, bent on
robbery, violence and blood, if there was need for it, embarked
their all and lost it, in an insane raid. Any meddling with
slavery on slave soil, except to increase the safety of the master
and to add to the comfort and happiness, present and future, of
the slave himself, involves the triple crime of theft, perjury
and murder, than which there can be no greater, no meaner, in
all the black catalogue of human guilt. Such are the thoughts
here.

"As we were saying," the upper crust of New-York, that is,

ita leaders and rulers, or, to be more explicit, the sovereign

wives of Gotham, for what is a husband nowadays ? He is a
mere machine to grind out money and hand it over to the
powers that be, who know nothing as to how it comes and care
less, so that it does come, and who spend it as freely as water
for dress and show, for ribbons and feathers ; if any is left, it is
thrown into the "sinking fund" of the kitchen, which, if it
hadn't a maw as large as a continent of greens, would have been
filled to repletion long ago. And now we come to

Firstly. There is reason to believe that the amount of do-

HOUSEHOLD SLAVEEIES. 199

mestic discomfort in Northern homes, arising from the system
of domestic help, is greater than in Southern households.

Speaking in general terms, the domestics of the North, the
cooks, the chamber-maids, the nurses, the waiters and footmen,
are foreign or native ; the latter, whether black or white, are
usually of no account, the colored dishonest, the whites above
their business ; as to the foreign, their business is above them,
they are too insufferably stupid or too utterly careless and in-
different ever to learn ; only two points engaging their atten-
tion, getting their wages and wasting as much as possible.
About one in a hundred seems to have any moral sense of the
duty of taking care of the interests of their employers. It is
perfectly wonderful to witness sometimes the combination of
insolence, pertness, and destitution of any sense of justice or
of right, especially when is known the want and the degrada-
tion with which they were familiar in their own country — a
year, a month ! agone.

The foreign help is made up, mainly, of three classes, the
Dutch, Scotch, and Irish. The Dutch are so dirty, we will let
them alone ; the Scotch drink whisky, and need not be counted
on. The Irish are the main-stay of housekeepers, being too
generally what phrenology terms "secretive," without moral
principle, and seemingly incapable of taking any interest in the
real welfare of the family which they are paid to serve. To
squander, waste and destroy with utter recklessness, is the trait
of how many we do not say ; householders can name the
" figure," which, in their own judgment, is just.

If they have been with you for years, they will leave you at
a day's notice ; if you discharge them short of a month's
1 warning," they are " kilt entirely." If there is any time at
which it gives them rather more pleasure to leave than any
other, it is in the midst of preparation for company or of severe
sickness in the family. The impudence of some of them is
refreshing. A girl declined to engage herself because she ob-
served that the front-gate was kept locked, " as if ye didn't
want ainy one to come and say me at all at all." Another said,
k' I jis cum to say how yer house looked on the outside ; it is
too small entirely, and it's only brick ; it don't suit, so I bid ye
a good avening." A third came as chambermaid. " I like ye
very much mam, indade. I see's ye' re a lady, but I don't like
having the little children to dress.". A fourth was kept wait-

200 hall's journal of health.

ing, the mistress of the splendid mansion being necessarily de-
tained, certainly not over ten minutes, when, on entering her
own parlor, Biddy said : " Ye shouldn't kape me a waitin all
this time." A very summary invitation into the street gave
the young lady to understand that she had miscalculated.
Another protested : " This is a very fine house and looks well
kept, and no doubt ye're a fine lady and I would love to live
wid the likes of ye, but the kitchen (twenty feet square) is too
small."

They are extremely sensitive, too. A footman, at twenty
dollars a month, left, because he was required to wash off the
bricks in the back-area. Another, for being asked to wash
the lower hall. " I'm not a maid of all- work." A neighbor
got up — to no breakfast, because a servant being sick, there was
a requirement to build a fire that morning. Another insisted
on having tea for breakfast and dinner, as coffee gave her the
head-ache. Another wasn't used to riddle out the coal, it
looked mean. Yery likely some of our city readers could give
still livelier specimens of the ridiculous, but we have confined
ourselves to what is literal and known.

It is a great indignity to require one to do what is the proper
duty of another, whatever may be the emergency. " It's not
my business, mam, to cut peraties." " I didn't hire to handle
dirty clothes." Another came to " cook, and not to answer the
door-bell when the waiter is out." The line of demarkation as
to the particular duties of each, is to be defined with all the
distinctness of a city survey or an insurance document, and to
go beyond it is considered unendurable.

Many of them refuse to eat bread which has once been placed
on their employer's table, although absolutely not touched, even
with a fork ; the result is, we have known a peck of sliced
bread to be brought up at a time as the leavings of a week, and
which may be seen any morning, to aid in filling the ash-barrel.
We passed a charitable institution, in the ash-box of which had
just been emptied a basket of good bread, in rolls and slices ;
reminding us of a bill brought in by the manager of an asylum
in this city, about the time of the panic of 1857, for some fifty
or more baskets of peaches, at three dollars a basket. Fine
thing to be poor in New- York ! or to be the money -handling
officer of public charities ! But this is off the subject ; still, it

HOUSEHOLD SLAVERIES. 201

is ominously suggestive of the sunnyside of poverty, and the
luckless use sometimes made of charitable funds, by wasteful
servants.

The first thing a new help does, when the employer is stupid
enough to allow it, is to expatiate on the grand scale of living
at her " last place," The lady "never comes into the kitchen.
The gentleman never goes to market, but gives the money to
the head- waiter, to make all the necessary purchases. I carried
the keys all the time, mam, and when I left, the lady (and she
was a fine lady too, mam) said she had never missed any thing
while I was wid her, no indade and she said right. When we
wanted tay, I wint to the chist and took the fill of my hand for
one time ; and we never used any thing but loaf-sugar, and it
was well for me, for any other* kind gives me the head-ache."

Not the least item is the rod which the cook in the kitchen
holds over the mistress, who is so terribly afraid of being con-
sidered close and mean, that she dare not make any suggestion
about burning less coal or gas, or serving up to a second meal
any remnant of the preceding ; so one thing goes on to another,
until the mistress never gives a command, only makes a request ;
at length cookey becomes chief counselor of state, and reckless
waste is the order of the day. The inevitable result of these
things is, that many a freeman works harder and more inces-
santly than a slave, for he carries the labor of the brain to a
restless bed, when the body-work of the day is over ; still he
does not " get along." The leaks in the kitchen are greater than
the gains of the counter, and the red flag of the auctioneer
closes the history.

In a Southern home, the wife is mistress of her own mansion ;
she expresses her wishes and they are quietly complied with ;
she retires to her chamber without any misgivings that she may
have her own fires to build and her own breakfast to cook next
morning ; she has no apprehension that the hard earnings of
her husband will be expended in filling stranger's mouths ; if
her servants help themselves ever so bountifully, she may con.
gratulate herself that it is only a change of locality from shelf
to stomach, that her " property" eats her property, and that
the sum total is still her property, she can not be a loser, for
she possesses just as much as she had before !

It is difficult to form an adequate conception of the amount

202

of annoyance, irritation, fretfulness, and settled discomfort, which
Northern wives suffer from unfaithful and incompetent domes-
tics ; it is the " skeleton in the house," the raw head and
bloody bones of almost every family, Yet it must be confessed
that a large share of it is due to the mistresses of New- York
mansions. Many know literally nothing of kitchen or cookery,
because nine out of ten of them were brought up with the im-
plied understanding, or under the calculation, that they were
to marry rich men, who could afford to have housekeepers.
But where so many rich men were to come from, does not
seem to have been a considered item in the matter. This is a
fearful and an almost universal oversight on the part of man-
aging mothers. Apparently, the "chief end," the absorbing
and sole object of maid and mother, is to catch a husband and
get a home ; but how to make that home a happiness ; how to
throw around that husband such cords of love and affection, as
will bind him to his own hearth, and make his home the eagerly
sought retreat at each business day's ending, appears not to have
been thought of ; no preparation seems to have been made for
it. By degrees, the husband finds, that for all the practical
purposes of life, his wife is good for nothing. She can not
work, can not sew, can not counsel, nor even sympathize with
him, and in deep disgust or moody despair, he looks to the
club-room, the gaming-table or the decanter for that solace,
which he had a right to expect in the wife of his choice.

When the mistress knows nothing of domestic duties, it need
not be surprising if the maid knows less. If the mistress does
not take interest enough in her household to bend her mind to
the learning of what would make her and her husband and
children happier, there is no ground to complain that the ser-
vants do not care to learn.

The Irish are a sprightly race, and can take up a thing quickly,
only if they have a teacher. But too often, the young wife
knows nothing, can communicate nothing, and two ignoramuses
are at the head of the household !

But there are other faults about young wives. They are
passionate, hasty, inconsiderate. They know almost nothing
about work themselves, and too often impose impossible amounts
of labor on their servants ; can make no allowance for the
accidents of the kitchen ; never think of giving words of

HOUSEHOLD SLAVEKIES. 206

encouragement ; and as for sympathizing with a cook or laun-
dress, that is out of the question ; they think that their entire
duty is performed in paying the wages agreed upon. How
often those wages are kept back ; how often reduced to the
lowest possible amount ; how often excessive washes are given
out ; how often it is twelve or one o'clock before the servants
can retire, or other unreasonable things are done and required,
may not be known ; but they are matters of daily occurrence ;
and that minds uneducated should be gradually soured and
grow selfish and indifferent, on account of these inconsiderations
and injustices and unreasonable requisitions, is, after all, not
very wonderful. If we would have better servants, we must
ourselves be better ; we must be more considerate, more cour-
teous, and teach them, by having an interest in their welfare,
how to take an interest in our own. Human life, in all its
relations, is a series of generous reciprocities, and they who give
them wisely, will receive them in return. We who are of
higher cultivation must take the lead, in the exhibition of all
good and noble qualities. The matron must lead the maid in
patience and in forbearance ; must encourage her to habits of
industry, cleanliness, practicality and system in every depart-
ment of the household ; and by all means, be considerate ;
trying faithfully to do towards a domestic, as, if places were
reversed, they themselves would like to be done to.

Our own experience in the way of Domestics in New- York
has been fortunate. Our cooks have always been Irish or
colored ; we have seldom changed, and in each case on account
of marriage or sickness ; they have always been scrupulously
neat, trustworthy and industrious, keeping good hours, with
few or no visitors. There is something in physiognomy and
general personal appearance ; a great deal, in letting it be
understood from the very first, that there must be prompt and
implicit obedience ; that every thing must be willingly done in
precisely the way you want it, and in no other, without express
permission. Keep your servants at a respectful distance ; never
hold colloquies with them ; never allow a word to be
repeated as to modes of management in other families ; nor
relations of what was said and done ; of all mean things in
creation, an itching ear for servants' tales is the meanest. If
servants are treated considerately, kindly, patiently and cour-

204

teously, many good qualities will be elicited thereby, and a
gradual and certain elevation in tone and character, and general
worth would be an inevitable result ; and housekeepers owe it
to themselves, and to one another, to promptly commence a
reform on their own parts, with the assurance that good and
encouraging results will immediately follow therefrom unto
themselves ; housekeeping will become less a care and more a
pleasure ; there will be fewer annoyances, fewer irregularities,
more leisure, more quiet, more smiles and more health ; and
with these, home will be more inviting to the husband, the
children will be less in the street ; harmony, cheerfulness and
good nature will bind together all hearts, and quiet, unity and
comfort will pervade the household.

MIASM.

A shoet word, but it brings sickness and death to hundreds
of thousands every autumn ; it will bring sickness and death
sooner or later to many a reader of this article, but a sickness
and death which could have been avoided.

Miasm is the principal cause of nearly every epidemic dis-
ease; that is, of every sickness that "falls upon the people,"
attacks numbers in any community, such as fever and ague,
diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, bilious, intermittent, congestive,
typhoid and yellow fevers. But it is an avoidable cause of
disease. Money and wisely directed efforts can banish it from
any locality. All that is needed is to know the laws of miasm,
and adapt ourselves to them. The New- Orleans Bee, which is
one of the very best daily papers in the South, conducted with
uniform ability, recently made the following statement on the
mystery and invincibility of yellow fever.

" The yellow fever has broken out in New-Orleans under
every conceivable variety of circumstances — when the streets
were clean, and when they were filthy — when the river was
high and when it was low ; after a prolonged drouth, and in
the midst of daily torrents — when the heat was excessive, and
when the air was spring-like and pleasant — when excavation

MIASM. 205

and disturbances of the soil had been frequent, and when
scarcely a pavement had been laid or a building erected. If the
disease is endemic and indigenous — a point still in dispute — all
we can say is, that research, inquiry, and sagacity are baffled
in the attempt to trace its origin and develop its causes. It
comes without warning, and goes we know not whither.

" Almost the only fixed and undeniable fact connected with
the disease is that its prevalence is simultaneous with the heats
of summer and that frost is its deadly enemy. From these
frank acknowledgments it may be understood how exceedingly
limited is knowledge of the subject. Although most deeply
interested in it, and although for half a century the most promi-
nent and learned physicians have bestowed labor and investi-
gation upon it, they have failed to establish beyond contra-
diction and controversy a single fact that would prove of clearly
practical utility in guarding against the approach of the destroyer,
or in cutting short its ravages."

There is not a material statement in the above extract that is
correct. Sufficient is known of the Law of Miasm to make
New-Orleans one of the healthiest cities in the Union. Having
received our medical education in the South, and lived and
practiced there many years afterwards, and especially in New-
Orleans, it may be presumed that we speak not altogether un-
advisedly. Not to keep the reader waiting, the plan vail be
first stated and then the reasons given ; a mistake is certainly
not impossible.

Dig a basin in the swamp, in the rear of the city, its sides so
cemented that no water can permeate them, and let a system
of citv drainage be instituted which shall end in this basin, to
be pumped out from June until frost, and delivered into lake
Pontchar train. The Dutch have drained a young State by a
steam-engine. The American ought to be able to reclaim a
few acres by the same agency. All details are purposely left
out. The city of Louisville, Ky., in our early recollection, was
one of the most pestilential spots in the habitable West ; by
filling and draining it is now one of the healthiest, one
of the most beautiful and flourishing of the cities of the great
valley.

Miasm is an invisible emanation, an emanation from vegetable
matter, dependent always and every where on three conditions,

206

any one of which being absent, its generation .is an impos-
sibility. There must be vegetable matter, there must be moist-
ure, there must be heat of eighty degrees Fahrenheit and over,
for a considerable portion of each day. These things are
known and acknowledged by all scientific writers on the sub-
ject, hence it is not necessary to prove them. If then there is
no wood or leaves in a specified locality, there can be no miasm
generated there ; nor can there be, if there is no moisture ; nor
can there be if there is no heat. No human power can get
clear of the heat of New- Orleans, and profuse vegetation is
characteristic of that latitude, so that the only practical mode
of preventing the generation of miasm there, is to cause a
dryness of the surface-soil by means of drainage. The " Mys-
tery" of Miasm, is as plain as the face of day when its laws
are known. Dr. McFarland of New-Orleans has not hesitated
to publish, that the relative nlthiness of the city has nothing to
do with its reputed sickliness, in fact, that the filthier parts
were the healthiest. The nature of miasm is such that an
epidemic may prevail in New Orleans in a very dry summer or
a very wet one. One summer may be a dry one, and there be
no yellow fever ; the next may be a wet one and no yellow
fever ; the third may be a dry one and yellow fever may be
epidemic ; the fourth may be a wet one, and the yellow fever
may be epidemic, and yet one invariable law of miasm governs
the four years, and which, when understood, is plain, even to
a child's comprehension. Every man is interested personally
and vitally in these statements, whose family lives where
autumnal diseases prevail.

Among the phenomena of miasm are these. First. It im-
pregnates the air of the locality, in or very near which it is
generated, and to be affected by it, a person must be in that
locality, and breathe its air.

A son of Colonel Ellis was attacked with yellow fever at his
residence, where the disease had never been known, and there
was no other case in the family or in the neighborhood. Just
before he died, he was asked if he had been to Philadelphia,
where it was then raging in all its fury, he replied, he had not
been in the city, had only crossed over to the shipping, but
had not gone up into town. It was at the shipping, along the
wharves, where it originated, and always does originate. Fam-

MIASM. 207

ilies do not take yellow fever from yellow fever patients, brought
to them several miles in the country, from the city, if they
have not been exposed in any other way. To get any prevail-
ing disease a man must go to the locality where that disease
exists. None took the National Hotel Disease, but those who
entered the building. In Boston, during one of the cholera
years, only the inmates of a certain house, in a specified
district, were attacked. It was ascertained that in a dark part
of the cellar, there was an immense amount of kitchen garbage
which had been in the course of daily deposition for many
months. The lesson is, that when a disease prevails in a ward
of the city, in a certain part of a village, or county, or. district,
there is a local cause for that disease, in a combination of vege-
table matter, heat and moisture, and families should at once
be removed, and measures taken to ascertain the source of the
evil, and remedy it.

It is a fearful fact, that of each hundred English soldiers in
India, ninety-four disappear from the ranks before the age of
thirty-five, when from official statements, it is known that " the
average standard of health for Europeans in India, would bear
comparison with that existing any where else in . the civilized
world if the known sources of disease were dried up." It is
admitted that in forty years, one hundred thousand men might
have been saved, if " proper localities had been chosen for
their dwellings." This shows that a rich man in retiring from
business, should not be guided in the selection of a locality for
building or purchase, as a residence by the "prospect," or
facilities of getting to town. The determination should be
made, according to the known laws of miasm.

The hospitals and barracks, in and near Bengal are now
almost useless, having been erected in places utterly unfitted
for the purpose, in a hygienic point of view, and yet the cost
of their erection to the British government was the enormous
sum of sixty-five millions of dollars ! A very limited knowledge
of the general laws of miasm would have prevented this shame-
ful loss.

Miasm is of a nature so intangible, that no chemical analysis
has ever been able to fix it, to take hold of it, to discern it ; it
is as viewless as the air itself. An atmosphere saturated with
it, gives no more indication of its presence than the purest air

208

of the poles. We must therefore judge of its nature and laws,
from its effects. The low shores of sluggish rivers, lakes, and
ponds, and flat marshes, when exposed to a hot sun, are the
great manufactories of deadly miasm. In the heat of the day,
this miasm is created with great rapidity, but in the heat of
the day it is innocuous, this seems a "mystery," but it is easily
explained, when a little more is known. Heat rarefies the air
which contains the miasm, so rapidly, that it rises instantane-
ously to the upper regions of the atmosphere, where it can not
be breathed. But the cool of the evening condenses it, makes
it heavy, causes it to fall to the surface of the earth, where it
is breathed and becomes the cause of various diseases, some-
times of such malignity, as to resemble ailments produced by
the most virulent poisons, as in the case of the National Hotel
of Washington City three years ago. Hence it is, that in cross-
ing the Pontine marshes near the city of Eome, the traveler is
cautioned against spending the night there, as it is almost cer-
tain death.

Very recently a gentleman had occasion to pass that way,
and contrary to the warnings of his friends in the city, he spent
a night there, the hotel-keeper assuring him that there was
no danger whatever to strangers ; the result was, that he died of
malignant. fever in a few days.

Very recently a daughter of one of the best and wealthiest
families in Brooklyn, having graduated with great honor, visited
Rome, but unwittingly exposing herself to the deleterious
miasms of the Campagna, " lured by the cool and balmy air of
an autumn evening" to breathe its poison, she died. Miasm
which is generated by heat, becomes deadly to man only when
the atmosphere, by becoming cool, condenses it, makes it heavy
and causes it to settle near the surface of the earth, where it is
breathed, to remain there until the morning sun begins to warm
it up again, rarefy it, and carry it above the breathing-point,
and so attenuating it, that if it were breathed it would be com-
paratively harmless. But when the weather becomes so cool as
to deposit the miasm in a layer of a few inches' thickness on the
surface of the earth, and the heat of the atmosphere at the sur-
face is under eighty degrees, epidemics cease ; hence frost is said
to "kill" yellow fever; this is not exactly so, for if a few warm
days were experienced the disease would return, would again

MIASM. 209

become epidemic, warming the chilled miasm into life, and
generating more of it. If then cold paralyzes miasm, and heat
carries it rapidly above, where it can not be breathed, both cold
and heat are its antagonisms, but to be perfectly efficient, cold
and heat must be continuous, with this distinction cold only
paralyzes, heat removes. Heat will disinfect a vessel, where
disease is raging, and not a single new case will occur, even
after the heat is removed, if the ship has been left perfectly dry
inside, because the destructive agent has been carried out of
the vessel, and has been scattered in the region of space above
and beyond. Several tons of ice will also promptly cut short
the disease, more instantaneouly than heat, because it condenses
the miasm which is thereby made heavier and settles within a
few inches of the bottom of the vessel, but as soon as the ice
is removed, the external temperature remaining the same, the
miasm becomes rarefied, rises and revives the disease. These
facts give rise to apparent contradictions, and which sometimes
appear inexplicable. Heat generates malaria, and at the same
time renders it innocuous, cold paralyzes malaria, and it becomes
hurtless. Again it is thus seen, how a little heat, applied to
chilled miasm, may restore to it its violence, while a little cold
after heat, brings it down to the surface from above, and gives
it its malignity. Hence, at sun-down of an autumn day, it
becomes a little cold, and the miasm becomes malign ; at mid-
night it is colder, and it becomes hurtless ; at sunrise it becomes
a little warmer, and the miasm rises from the earth, and covers
it five or six feet deep, to be breathed and to destroy ; by mid-
day, the greater heat has carried it again beyond the hurtful
point, thus the reader sees that there is no " mystery" in miasm,
but that it is governed by laws as fixed as mountains of adamant.
If a mill-pond is drained in the fall of the year when the days
are hot and the nights cold, just leaving the bottom in a mor-
tary condition, it would bring disease and death in a few days,
if not in a few hours, to all who slept on its banks. "No travel-
er dared to sleep at night on the flat damp Tsthmus of Panama,
in the early days of California travel. But if that mill-pond
were flooded a foot or two deep in water, the disease would
abate a3 soon as if there had been a severe frost, because miasm
can not be generated and rise through two feet, or even one of
water. That is the reason, why the " Swamp," in the rear ox

210 hall's jouknal of health.

New-Orleans is sometimes perfectly healthy, when the city
proper is being wasted by disease, because the swamp is inun-
dated by the spring rise of the Mississippi or by a steady hard
wind from the Gulf towards the city, for several days, which
we have known to raise the lake so as to flood the swamp, and
nearly the entire city, nearly up to the old State-House on Ba-
ronne street, where our office was, leaving only a ridge of dry
land between that and the river, some eight or ten blocks dis-
tant. Thus a very wet summer would keep the swamp flooded
so deep as to prevent the generation of malaria ; but if not
locally wet, on the contrary dry, the Mississippi in its annual
rise would do the same thing, as also a steady wind from the
Gulf, and if about the time an " overflow" from either cause
was subsiding, heavy rains should come, then a fall "blow,"
the swamps would be kept inundated until frost, and thus the
whole city would have been healthier than was known to
have been in the memory of the "oldest inhabitant." A very
long and severe drought, with no "blows" from the Gulf and
no overflows from the Mississippi would make the swamp so
dry, that generation of malaria would be impossible. By failing
to make these discriminations, it does appear to make no differ-
ence whether it is a hot or comparatively cool summer, whether
wet or dry, but looking closely into the laws of miasm, order
is brought out of confusion, and all things proceed in beautiful
harmony.

Five families may dwell within half a mile of a drained
mill-pond, upon the damp bottom of which an August or
September sun beams with dog-day fierceness, and yet, by the
known laws of miasm, only one family will suffer from it ; the
other four will be as well as usual. First. If a rapid river runs
between the pond and the house, there will be no sickness at
all. Second. If a thick growth of trees and bushes, only a few
feet broad, interpose, there will be no sickness. Third. If the
prevailing winds be from the house to the pond, there will be
no sickness. Fourth. If the house be on a steep hill, there
may be no sickness-, because miasm does not cross a wide, rapid
river ; miasm does not pass a thick wall of vegetable growth ;
miasm can not travel against the wind ; miasm can not ascend
a steep high hill. There is no mystery in these varieties?
and no complexity, because they all arise from simple, unvary "
ins: natural laws.

MIASM. 211

One year a house immediately on the bank of a mill-pond
will suffer ; the second year it will escape, because it is a very
cold summer ; the third year it will escape because it is a very
hot summer ; the fourth year it will escape, because it is a very
wet summer. Why ? The wet summer kept the bed of the
pond covered over with water a foot or two deep, and miasm
could not form. The hot summer made the bed of the pond
dusty, and miasm could not form ; the cold summer did not
give a heat of eighty degrees, and miasm could not form. Here
is variety, but uniformity ; mysterious to the uninformed, but
to the student and observer, it is as clear as the sunlight ! Any
man may sleep a whole night in the Pontine marshes with im-
punity, if he close his chamber, and hang ice in it, so as to
reduce the temperature below eighty degrees, for then the
miasm would be condensed to the surface of the floor ; or if he
have no ice at all, and keep a fire blazing on the hearth. If,
however, he slept on the floor with the ice, he would breathe
the miasm in its concentrated form, and suffer for it ; in case of
the fire protection, he should sleep on the floor, because the
heat would carry the miasm to the ceiling. All these points
were beautifully illustrated in the famous or infamous Hotel at
Washington. The miasm was so deadly, that many intelligent
persons asserted then, and believe yet, that it was the result of
mineral poison. This miasm was generated from sewers open-
ing into the cellar, and from privies on the ground-floor which
were testified to have been so full, that when a person stepped
on the floor, the compound beneath spouted up between the
planks. On an official investigation it was shown that men,
who came into the bar-room for an hour, suffered ; a man who
came fatigued after a day's travel, and ate a single meal on the
lower floor, nearly died, while ladies who had lived in the
house all winter wholly escaped. These, however, are but
seeming " mysteries." It was winter. The miasm was gener-
ated about the ground-floor of the building, where it was com-
paratively cold, causing the deadly agency to remain condensed
and concentrated where it was produced, and by the men
who spent there most of their time it was breathed. The
ladies occupied the upper rooms and kept their fires steadily
burning, which rarefied any miasmatic air that made its way
from below, and carried it at once to the ceilings of their re-

212 hall's jouknal of health.

spective apartements, while the winter air in all its purity
came directly from without, through window crevices, not only
diluting the already rarefied miasmatic air, but driving it out
by a current through the crevices at the tops of the inner doors
especially.

Again. The stomach of a hungry man will drink in miasm
with all the greediness of a famished wild beast, the whole
blood will be poisoned in an hour, and the drowsiness or stupor
of death will steal stealthily over the unconscious victim. Within
a month, we met an intelligent young Eoman patriot, who had
spent many a day in hunting on the Pontine marshes ; directing
his attention to the subject, he said, that on some occasions, they
were forced by laughter and yells, and uproarious songs, and
pushing and slapping one another, to keep themselves from going
to sleep ; he said that to sleep was to die, almost as certainly
as if yielded to among the snows of Mont Blanc or of Green-
land. On one occasion having had nothing for some hours, to
stay the stomach, the foundation for a tedious and serious ill-
ness was laid. One other brief lesson may be learned, one
which merits annual publication in every paper in the land,
and which ought to be kept in a gilded frame above the mantle
of millions of dwellings.

As moderate coolness brings the miasm to the surface of the
ground, say within its first five or ten feet, the morning and
the evening, embracing the hour including sun-down and sun-
up, in the fall of the year, are the most dangerous periods of
exposure within the twenty-four hours; and yet the atmosphere
is so delicious at those times, that to resist being out in it, and
breathe it, is impossible but to the few. Hence, the remark has
been made in our hearing in New-Orleans, that whenever the
evening air seems for a few days to be most delicious, in epidemic
seasons, it is taken for granted, that an increase of the disease
will certainly follow. Here, the purer the air, the worse the
disease! a seeming truth, and a seeming " mystery," but false
and clear in the light of a sound information.

If then hunger, or an empty stomach, or, which is the same
thing, a weak stomach, ravenously drinks in, as it were, the
deadly poison, and the air is most charged with it at sun-down,
and sunrise, it clearly follows, that in epidemic times, families
should gather around a cheerful fire at sunrise and sunset, and

NIGHT AIR. 213

should fortify the stomach against the malignant miasm, before
they go out in the morning, with a good breakfast, and at sun-
down strengthen it with a cracker and a cup of weak tea
against the effect of the fatigues of the labors of the day just
closing. Families who will conduct themselves in accordance
with the principles laid down, can procure a happy exemption
from autumnal and epidemic diseases. To do so, however, re-
quires an amount of intelligence, self-denial, and moral courage
possessed by the few, but we are not without hope that the
knowledge of these things will gradually spread among whole
communities, who acting from conviction and principle as to
the daily conduct of life, will add a score of years to the aver-
age age of men.

NIGHT AIR.

"Ant extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night air. What
air can we breathe at night but night air? The choice is between
pure night air from without, and foul night air from within.
Most prefer the latter. An unaccountable choice. What will
they say, if it is proved to be true that fully one half of all
the disease we suffer from is occasioned by people sleeping with
their windows shut? An open window most nights in the
year can never hurt any one. This is not to say that light is
not necessary for recovery. In great cities, night air is often
the best and purest air to be had in the twenty -four hours. I
could better understand shutting the windows in towns, during
the day, than during the night, for the sake of the sick. The
absence of smoke, the quiet, all tend to make night the best
time for airing the patient. One of our highest medical author-
ities on consumption and climate, has told me that the air in
London is never so good as after ten o'clock at night. Always
air your room, then, from the outside air, if possible. Win-
dows are made to open, doors are made to shut — the truth
which seems extremely difficult of apprehension. Every room
must be aired from without — every passage from within."

Many a man will wake up on the other side of the " Styx"
and as soon as he rubs his eyes a little, will exclaim, that angel

214 hall's journal of health.

of a woman, Florence Nightingale, has killed me. "We protest
against any body making publications on human health, except
educated physicians, and we counsel those of our readers who
wish to be on the safe side, to give a wide berth to all rules
and regulations and suggestions and dicta about the preserv-
ation of health and the cure of diseases, unless they bear the
name of some medical man of eminence, or of some medical
publication of acknowledged authority. Miss Nightingale is a
professional nurse, a woman of superior powers of observation,
comparison and reflection, and has written a most admirable
book on "Nursing," but not having had a previous education
in the great general principles of anatomy, physiology and
hygiene, she has, in the extract which heads this article, left an
impression on the mind of the general reader, which is at once
confused, erroneous and of vital importance. There is import-
ant truth running through the whole of it, but for want of dis-
crimination and definiteness it may be productive of more in-
jury than good. We are in the habit of saying to consumptive
persons, " Any air is better for you, than in-door air ;" but then
we add the proviso that the hours, including sunrise and sunset,
should either be spent in the house or should, if they choose to
go out of doors, find the stomach fortified with breakfast or
supper, for the reason that in warm weather in all flat, luxuri-
ant localities a deadly air, called miasm, which is an emanation
from the decomposition of vegetable matter, where there is
warmth and moisture, hovers over the surface of the earth,
within its first ten feet, and if this air is breathed into the lungs,
especially when the stomach is empty, disease, more or less
speedy, and more or less intense, will be inevitably excited,
from a slight intermittent, to continue for days, weeks or months,
to a malignant, or putrid, or ship fever to cause death in a few
hours. On the general principle that a heat of eighty degrees
and upwards, rarefies miasm, and carries it beyond our reach,
while a temperature under eighty of Fahrenheit, brings it to the
surface, where it is breathed, and its poison introduced into the
system, a few practical rules may be deduced, which are of
almost universal application and are of incalculable importance.

First. In cold weather, out-door air, day or night, is purer
than any within doors possibly can be.

Second. In warm weather, the air including the hour of sun-

NIGHT AIR. 215

rise and sunset is pernicious to all, sick or well — especially to
the young, the old and the feeble.

Third. In warm weather, especially in the fall of the year,
when fall sicknesses prevail, persons who sleep on the ground-
floor should keep all outer doors and windows shut, and inner
ones open.

Fourth. In cities as well as in the country, those who sleep
in the second or upper stories may safely open their windows
at bed- time, for by that time the miasm has been carried by the
cold to the surface of the earth ; but summer and winter, the
doors of upper chambers, opening into the halls should be
closed, so as to keep out all bad airs from below, whether the
miasm arising from decaying vegetables, or the malaria, the
"mal," the "bad" air from kitchens, dining-rooms, cellars and
the like.

Upper rooms may be safely aired during any portion of the
twenty-four hours, and should be aired from without. Lower
rooms should be aired in the heat of the day, and closed while
slept in at night, only opening the inner doors.

The " extraordinary fallacy" is in the fair lady herself, con-
veyed in the two inquiries at the commencement of the article.
The air breathed in a lower chamber, with doors and windows
closed early in the evening, is not the night air, it is the day
air, only mixed with night air, miasm coming through small
crevices, and so rapidly rarefied by the greater warmth of the
room, of some ten degrees perhaps, that it becomes in a measure
innocuous. The choice is not between pure night air from without,
and foul night air from within, it is between concentrated cool
miasm from without, and a warm day air with comparatively
little miasm from within. It is incomparably better to sleep in
poor warm indoor air, than in an outdoor air which is saturated
with miasm. Besides, we have met with a number of persons,
men and women, who never failed to be injured, to be made
more or less ill the very next day by sleeping with open win-
dows winter or summer, however well protected from draughts ;
so that, however good the general rule, to have a window or
door open in a chamber for sleeping, persons who find by actual
observation that it is injurious to them, should not persist in
righting against the peculiarity of their system, against their
11 Idiosyncrasy." Upon the whole, we think, that ladies gene-

216 hall's journal of health.

rally had better get good husbands, make babies, happify homes,
and let prosing, poetizing, and lecturing alone, for a woman is
most of a queen and nearest an angel at the head of a well-
ordered family of children, servants, husband, and friends.

LAGER BEER

That is, " strong" beer is different from other kinds, because
it remains longer in a state of fermentation, and just like cider,
the longer it stands, the "harder," the stronger, the more alco-
holic does it become, the less of it will make a man drunk.
Many chemical analyses of lager beer demonstrated that it had
"less nutriment and more alcohol than any beer or ale." It
has not five per cent of malt, in which lies all the tonic
and nutrient qualities. Hence, admitting that beer and ale
give any durable nourishment and strength, more lager must be
drunk to give a specified amount of tone and vigor, with a great
deal more alcohol, than of any other malt liquor. Chemists and
certain accommodating doctors have sworn in open court that
they believed that a man could not drink lager beer enough to
make him drunk, and the impression is sought to be made that
it is milder, less hurtful, and more health-giving than other
malt drinks, but the truth is, that more alcohol and less nutri-
ment are obtained from lager than from any other beer; hence
its habitual use must more certainly impart a taste, a demand,
an insatiable craving for strong drink ; hence its habitual use is
a step towards habitual drunkenness.

CONTENTS OF HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH FOR AUGUST.

(New-York, $1 a year.)

Household Slaveries, 193

Miasm, 204

Night Air, 213

Lager Beer, 216

CONTENTS

OP

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH,

From January to June, 1860.

PAGE.

Ways to Drunkenness, 1

Warming Houses, 4

Fading in the Cars, 8

Weak Eyes, 10

Schooling Children, 11

Too Late, 15

Living on Excitement, 15

Hotel Life, 16

Green People, 18

New- York Hotels, 19

Hominy, 20

Health Tracts, 21

Health without Medicine, 22

Sleeplessness, 25

New-York Husbands, 29

Reading Aloud, 32

Its Social Advantages, 33

Its Physical Benefits, 33

Skating, 34

Inconsiderations, 35

Summer Sours, 36

Poisonous Bites, 36

Curing Colds, 37

Nine Nevers, . . 38

Causes of Disease, 38

Burying Alive, 38

Care of the Eyes, 39

Travelling Hints, 40

Music Healthful, 41

Young Old People, 41

Dyspepsia and Drunkenness, 42

Uses of Ice, 43

Winter Pules, 44

Physiological Chair, 45

Consumption Induced, 45

Spinal Deformities, 45

Antagonistics cf Consumption, 46

How to Walk, 46

Position in Sleep, 47

A Manly Carriage, 47

The Loss, 49

School "Victim, 50

Unitary Households, 53

Physiology, 57

Death-Bed Repentance, . . . ., 59

Moral Excitement, 61

Successful Men, 63

Winter Shoes, 67

Cure for Corns, 67

New Shoes made Easy, 67

Growing Beautiful, 68

Weak Eyes, 68

Measles and Consumption, 69

Sabbath Physiology, 70

Best Hair- Wash, 71

Wearing Flannel, 72

To Consumptives, : . . . . 72

Three Essentials, 73

Bread and Milk, 73

National Dietetics, 76

Thrift and Health, 79

Averting Disease, 80

Crazy People, 83

Neglecting Colds, 85

Mistaken Benevolence, 87

Wise Charities, 88

Nicholas of Russia, 89

Worth Remembering, 90

Care of the Feet, 91

Regulating the Bowels, 92

Sour Stomach, 93

Eating, 94

Sleeping, 95

Public Schools, 97

Cold Water Bathing, 101

The Olden Time, 104

Depopulation, . 106

Poisonous Rooms, 107

Dying Nations, 108

Infants and Air, , 108

Gymnasiums, 109

Pure Milk, 112

The Panacea, 113

Throat and Lungs, 114

Early Breakfast, 116

Growing Old Happily 117

Spring Diseases, 118

Singular Medicine, 119

Sleeping in Church, 120

Balance of Population, 120

Donation Parties, 121

Whisky Doctors, 124

Prostitution of Health, 128

Clerical Marriages, 129

What Killed Him, 132

Physical Training, 134

Public Schools, 139

Hammer On, 141

NOTICES, REVIEWS, ETC. 163

§)$$& §tmm$, (Sits.

Blackwood's Magazine, and British Reviews. L. Scott & Co., 54 Gold St., New-
York, continue to publish the following" leading British Periodicals: 1. London
Quarterly, Conservative; 2. Edinburgh Review, Whig; 3. North British Review,
Free Church; 4. Westminster Review, Liberal; 5. Blackwood's Magazine, Tory;
presenting the three great political parties of Great Britain, Whig, Tory, and
Radical. But politics form only one feature of their character ; as organs of the
most profound writers on science, literature, morality, and religion, they stand, as
they ever have stood, unrivaled in the world of letters, indispensable to the
scholar and the professional man, while to intelligent readers of every class, they
furnish a more correct and satisfactory record of the current literature of the
day, throughout the world, than can be possibly obtained from any other source,
and at a cost extraordinarily small — of ten dollars a year for the five ; three dollars
each, singly. Any subscriber sending us a check for ten dollars, payable to the
order of Leonard Scott & Co., will receive for one year the five publications above
named, and Hall's Joural of Health from January last. In cities and large towns,
Blackwood and the Reviews are delivered free of postage ; elsewhere, Blackwood
is twenty-four cents a year, each Review, fourteen cents.

The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review ; or, Quarterly Journal of
Practical Medicine and Surgery. Republished by S. S. & W. Wood, 389 Broad-
way, New-York, at $3 a year, in advance ; free of postage, is in its twenty-fifth
volume, and is now, as it always has been, a standard and sterling medical quar-
terly, which every educated physician ought to patronize.

Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, $3 a year, is a monthly in its sixty-
second volume ; is edited with industry and ability, and is widely patronized.

The Christian Review. E. G. Robinson, editor. Published at $3 a year, by
Sheldon & Co., 115 Nassau street, New- York. Is one of the ablest quarterlies in
the Protestant Church, and a credit to the Baptist Church, of whose doctrine and
polity it is the exponent ; its reviews of new publications are always written dis-
criminately, conscientiously, and after a full examination ; a fine of conduct which,
as is to be regretted, too many so-called reviews fail to follow, to the deception
and injury of their patrons. »

The same enterprising publishers isssue monthly, at $1 a year, the Mother's
Journal, edited by that excellent woman, Mrs. Caroline 0. Hiscox. We wish it
could be, as it well deserves, a family visitant to multitudes of homes.

The Home Monthly. Buffalo, N. Y. ; $1.50 a year, edited by Mrs. Arey and
Gildersleeve ; has the very suggestive motto: "There is a power behind tbe
school-room and the church." It is judiciously edited, and its selections are
always good.

The Happy Home. Boston, monthly, $2 a year, C. Stone & Co. Is largely
drawn upon by the press, a substantial evidence of its value.

The Ladies' Home Magazine. By T. S. Arthur & Co., 323 Walnut street, Phi-
ladelphia, Pa., $2 a year, with the editorial aid of Yirginia F. Townsend. Will
profit and instruct and refine and elevate any family which secures it monthly.

Godey's Lady's Book, $3 a year, Philadelphia. This is The Pictorial Monthly.
The most elegant in the Union, and distances all competition. Now in its sixtieth
volume. Its practical value has been increased of late by the contributions of Dr.
J. S. Wilson, of Georgia, to the Health Department.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] OCTOBER, 1860. [No. 10.

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 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 till 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 been
ineffaceably tarnished lately, by using family influence to get
one of its members into a place of very high trust and responsi-
bility ; an 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 melts 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 Kepublic 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 fit
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

>ro. x. — vol. vn. — 1860.

218 hall's journal of health.

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 to bring any youth to manhood with-
out a calling, without an occupation by which he could main*
tain 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 occu-
pation 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 off the flesh from dead
mens' bones, to live in the charnel-house for long years together ;
and then have the patience to 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 instrumentality
Thou hast made, of bringing these immortals here," and then
loud peans come from serapic 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 learning beyond that
of other men; has your son made the acquisition? He must have
an abiding feeling that he is less than the least of all who love
the Master, and must have the capacity 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 forgive ; 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

MANUAL LABOR SCHOOLS. 219

intellect to compass all learnings ? the humility of heart to feel
abidingly before his Maker 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 your 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 disgrace to the crown — better be an
accomplished mechanic than a contemptible king !

MANUAL LABOR SCHOOLS.

These were the rage a quarter of a century ago, but one by
one they gradually died out ; and at this time there is perhaps
not a single one in existence. It is very certain, however, that
they may be successfully conducted to the end of placing a
young man on the stage of life in health of body, thoroughly
educated, and with a mind independent and self-reliant ; quali-
ties, by the way, which are inseparable from any high character.
Mr. Eose, of New- York, lately bequeathed three hundred thou-
sand dollars for the purchase of a farm on which to place desti-
tute children, on the condition that an equal amount should be
contributed by other parties. The Hon. Charles Cook, of
Havannah, Schuyler Co., New- York, offers this contribution,
provided the farm is located at that place where there is a
" People's College" established, to which, by the munificence
of this last-named gentleman, a farm is already attached, and
shops are to be erected in which the students can work a few
hours every day, the profits of their labor being placed to
their credit.

The best and truest benevolence is to put a man in the way
of helping himself; this gives him self-reliance: relieves him of
the degradation of dependence, and makes him at once feel that
he is a man — the highest aid and the best guarantee that he will
act like a man. The very moment a youth becomes the recipi-
ent of a gratuity, the very first time the fact breaks in upon him
that he has asked and received from one upon whom he has no

220

claims, that lie is a beggar, the 'prestige of manliness is gone, and
he is ruined for life, as for all great purposes.

It is earnestly hoped that the "People's College," at
Havannah, will be a success, and that it will be the honored
pioneer of a similar establishment in every State in the Confede-
racy. Some of the principles by which such institutions should
be conducted, are as follows : They should be arranged so that
a proficiency in scholarship, agriculture, and the more remuner-
ative mechanical arts should be attainable, so that any young
man may secure a collegiate education or become a proficient in
farming or in some handicraft by which he may sustain himself
when he goes out into the world to hew his way to fame or for-
tune.

A liberal price should be paid for the time spent in work, or
for the job done. Such a price only as the article would com-
mand elsewhere. It is a great injury done to the receiver to
pay him more for a thing than it is worth ; it does an injury to
society ; there should be a just quid pro quo, no more, no less.

The morning should be devoted to study, the afternoon to
labor, the night to sleep, to all that the body will receive. The
brain will always work best in the morning ; it is then most
vigorous ; works with greater ease and to better purpose ; then
bodily labor will be a recreation, a relief, a renovation. If the
first part of the day is devoted to labor, the mind always will
take up study with diminished alacrity.

The work and the study should be performed mainly in the
same clothing ; changing the garments loses time, and imposes
a daily liability to taking cold, and endangers the health.

All should be required to be ready for study at sunrise
throughout the year ; to take breakfast at seven, dinner at one,
and to retire uniformly at nine, winter and summer. The
nights of winter should be devoted to lectures and questionings
on physiology and hygiene, with other subjects which do not
involve the special employment of the eyesight by artificial
light. We have known Southern slaves to purchase themselves
in a few years, by laboring at odd hours and Saturday after-
noons, on a piece of land or in some mechanical calling at which
they were adepts ; and certainly young men could, with the
work of half of each day in the year, pay all their expenses and
leave the institution, owing no man any thing, and have several

SMALL POX. 221

hundred dollars to start with — money of their own honest earn-
ings— and be assured that, with such a start in life, the chances
that such a young man would be heard of, sooner or later, in a
sense honorable to himself and useful to society, is largely
greater than if he had been left a fortune.

SMALL POX.

From a very wide field of observations diligently made and
carefully collated, European statisticians have arrived at the fol-
lowing conclusions :

Of one hundred persons vaccinated, and who subsequently
take the small pox, six die ; while of one hundred un vaccinated,
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 protecting power in vaccin-
ation, 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 de-
teriorated since its introduction by the immortal Jenner, three
quarters of a century ago ; therefore, one of two courses should
be followed, either have the child re-vaccinated at the age of
ten years by a careful physician, who would take the utmost
pains to obtain good matter, or have a cow innoculated 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 a whole country for
half a century to come.

The Prussian, more than any government in existence, prac-
tices vaccination, and every soldier is re-vaccinated on entering
the army, which numbers several scores of thousands, the re-
sult being, that during 1859, there were only two deaths from
small pox. Out of one hundred persons vaccinated in infancy,
seventy "take" when re- vaccinated on entering the Prussian
army. Varioloid is when small pox is taken after vaccination

222 hall's jouknal of health.

NEB VO USNESS,

It is certainly satisfactory to know that there are persons in
different parts of the country who have sent for the various
publications of the Editor, and who make it a work of love to
their kind to distribute them among their neighbors, and give
them to strangers, as a means of leading them to health. A
wealthy Carolina planter, who claims to have "one of the best
wives in the world," writes : "I loaned ' Consumption' to a
traveller who was threatened with it; and 'Health and Disease'
to a minister, and the six bound volumes of the Jouknal of
Health have gone on errands of doing good." He applied to
us for medical advice some time ago. Pie 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" especially 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
would kill him or not, rather than 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. "We 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 themselves.
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. Some body began to sniff a mice just then ; " entirely
to your advice !" He took every thing— 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
is "July 30, '60," and the pills were sent last April! If he
had only left out that part of it, what a good " certificate" 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 gnawings
of the stomach before meal- times is generally a means of fixing
the dyspepsia. Third : A judicious system of dieting, that is,
eating plain, nourishing food at regular times and in moderate
amounts, is sometimes happily efficacious in 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 aggra-
vated thereby. Dieting, starving, is good in its place, but it
has been unwisely practiced in many cases, and life has paid the
forfeit. Exercise suitably conducted is an important 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 observ-
ation, and the comparison of a lifetime. Yet millions daily
give and take medical advice from one single experience or
observation, and multitudes daily die in consequence.

LIP E'S MAXIMS.

Near by the little cottage on the banks of the Hudson,
among the dozen dead from the burning of the " Henry Clay,"
there was one form which attracted attention above all others ;
it was that of a tall, old man, who had already lived beyond his
three-score and ten ; there was in his features a dignity in death,
which showed without information, that he had been a man of
mark in his day. On opening his pocket-book there was written
the honored name of

Stephen Allen,
and among the papers, there was found a printed scrap, dingy
and soiled, almost worn out with the frequent foldings and un-

224 hall's journal of health.

foldings, showing very clearly that it had been perused often
and long for counsel and guidance ; its principles and its pre-
cepts embody the secret of a long life ; of a healthful, useful, and
honorable old age. We lived near by at the time, and the
whole scene has left a life-long impression. The paper was en-
titled :

THE MAXIMS OF LIFE;

OK, HOW TO BE HAPPY.

Keep good company or none.

Never be idle.

If your hands can not be usefully employed, attend to the
cultivation of your mind.

Live up to your engagements.

Keep your own secrets, if you have any.

When you speak to a person, look him in the face.

Good character is above all things else.

Your character can not be essentially injured except by your
own acts.

If any one speaks evil of you, let your life be such that none
will believe him.

Drink no kind of intoxicating liquors.

Ever live (misfortunes excepted) within your income.

When you retire to bed, think over what you have been
doing during the day.

Make no haste to be rich, if you would prosper.

Small and steady gains give competency, with tranquillity of
mind.

Never play at any game of chance.

Avoid temptation, through fear you may not withstand it.

Earn money before you spend it.

Never run into debt, unless you see a way to get out again.

Never borrow, if you can possibly avoid it.

Never speak evil of any one.

Be just before you are generous.

Keep yourself innocent, if you would be happy.

Save when you are young, to spend when you are old.

SNAPPING UP. 225

SNAPPING UP.

Mad-dogs and turtles are not the only snapping animals in
the world. It is to be feared that most families are afflicted
with one or more "snappers," who are wont to exercise their
spitfire propensities especially at the table or around the family
fireside. Addressing herself to her mother, Mary, with her
eyes full of twinkle and fun, says : " I took a walk at ten o'clock
this morning, and — " here John broke in. Now John was just
at that age when a youth knows every thing under the sun, and
more too ; he never makes a mistake, is always positive that
every thing he does, says or thinks, is just exactly so, and could
not possibly be any other way. " Why, sister ! how could you
say it was ten o'clock? it was quarter-past ten at least I" One
sample is enough. Every one of observation can, of his own
knowledge, multiply cases indefinitely.

This unseemly habit is sometimes observed in families whose
position and opportunities of association would lead to the sup-
position that every thing vulgar and uncourteous would be in-
stinctively shunned. The person criticised, not having sense
enough to pass over the boorishness, begins a defense : and be-
fore one is aware of it, the whole table or circle is silenced, and
find themselves in the awkward position of listeners to a series
of angry contradictions about a matter of no possible conse-
quence to any one of the whole company in one sense, but of
importance in another, as there is a certain disagreeableness
about it which all feel more or less. What if a thing happened
a minute or a month later or sooner ? it is the general statement
to which attention is directed. Contradictions and criticisms
and corrections in general company are clownish ; they are clear
proof that, in almost every case, the person who assumes such
an ungracious office is a boor of the first water, and is essential-
ly deficient in that refinement and delicacy, which are insep-
arable from a cultivated mind and a taste for all that is beauti-
ful, elegant and refined. A whole evening's enjoyment has
been frequently marred, and all the company have gone home
with a kind of blight upon the sensibilities, in consequence of a
jar caused by the impertinent contradiction or correction of some
unimportant fact in a narration. And as human health is pro-

226 hall's journal of health.

moted by a series of agreeable sensations, whatever interrupts
that series in a single instance or for a single moment, is a legiti-
mate object of demolition on the part of a Journal of
Health.

WARMING HOUSES.

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

Next to the wood fire-place, is the "Low-down grate," of re-
cent introduction, suitable for burning every kind of fuel ; wood,
soft coal, anthracite, red ash, bituminous, Liverpool, Cannel, any
thing. It is in reality a " fire-place ;" the fuel is placed flat on
the hearth, on a level with the floor, the jambs are broad and
flaring, there is but little use for a poker or " blower," and hence
no dust. The ashes fall through a grating into a receptacle
which may be emptied daily, or are conveyed through an iron
pipe into a close brick chamber in the cellar, to be removed
once a year. By this contrivance the feet are easily warmed,
and are kept so ; there is 4no danger of the coals falling on the
floor or carpet, and the fire is made to burn more or less fiercely
as easily as in an air-tight stove. This is written after a winter's
trial. At an expense of less than three tons of coal, or two
hundred and forty bushels, the thermometer on the wall oppo-
site to the fire-place, in a room two hundred and fifty feet square
and twelve high, was kept at sixty-five degrees when the mer-
cury was in the neighborhood of zero without, the heat being
derived from a broad bed of glowing coals over two feet long.
These coals being on a level with the floor, keep the feet
delightfully warm. The air for combustion is obtained from
the cellar or the street ; hence the atmosphere of the room is
simply pure air warmed, and has the genial heat of a wood-
fire ; hence, also, there is none of the feeling of heaviness,

WARMING HOUSES. 227

sultriness, and oppression which is instantly experienced on
entering a furnace or stove-heated apartment. We certainly
feel that the perfection of house-warming in our country at
present is to have a low-down grate in each sitting apartment,
while the extra heat is economized, to be thrown into cham-
bers, sufficient to take off the chilliness or dampness when
retiring or rising in the coldest weather. If' families are so
constituted that there must be additional heat, at least in cases
of sickness, or company, or extra severe weather, when it may
be desirable to modify the atmosphere of the halls between the
temperature of out-doors and that of the sitting-rooms, Bartlett's
Portable Furnace answers the purpose most admirably, which,
by being placed in the lower hall, and being so contrived that
the warm air given out can not come in contact with red-hot
iron, supplies an atmosphere for breathing which is pure and
exhilarating. Such was our practice last winter, the fire being
kindled in the portable furnace in the lower hall only for
seven days during the whole season, and these were, not at
times when the weather was the coldest, because then the air
was purest, driest, and most bracing, but for the days coming
after the coldest ones, when there was an ugly damp chilliness
in the air, which, by abstracting the heat rapidly from the
body, produced a stronger impression of coldness than when
the weather was twenty degrees colder, but still and dry, for it
is not in the very coldest weather, when zero is hugged by the
mercury, that " colds" are so much taken, but when the air is
raw from being saturated with dampness. It is in thawy
weather that furnaces should be heated up, if ever. By this
arrangement there was scarcely a cold in the family, varying
in age from five to seventy -five, during the whole winter.

Next to a wood-fire or a low-down grate for coal, preference
should be given to the method of warming houses by the "Ea-
diator." This is the latest novelty, and is the best ; its expen-
siveness in the first construction is perhaps the only drawback
worth consideration. The fire is built in the cellar, and it is so
contrived that the heat is given out in any hall or room by
means of large surfaces, which never can become red-hot nor
any thing like it, nor, indeed, is it ever necessary, even in the
very coldest weather. We know at present of no pattern of
furnaces but may be heated to redness by the negligence of ser

228 hall's journal of health.

vants, and which fail to keep a large house comfortably warm
in very cold weather, even if they are red-hot, and this is the
fatal objection to furnace heat ; the surface heated is so small,
that where there is great cold, red heat is a necessity, in order
to give sufficient warmth; but in case of the "Kadiator," the
surface is so large, that it gives out an immense amount of heat
to an apartment when it is itself moderately heated. It costs
about a thousand dollars to introduce the " Eadiator" into a
common-sized dwelling, and it must consume an amount of
coal equal to the common furnace, but it gives a genial and
pure warmth — no dust, no explosions, no leakages. It may be
" comfortable" to have a whole house heated ; but in whatever
way it is done in this country, except in the ways we have
recommended, it is done to the injury of house, furniture, and
health of the families exposed to the pernicious influences of
foul gases, oppressive fumes, and an innutritious atmosphere.
Incomparably better would it be to use the low-down grate
altogether, with the portable furnace for the hall, only to be
fired in cold, damp, raw weather, or when the thermometer is
about zero for several days together. The several sizes of the
low-down grate are furnished and slipped into the ordinary fire-
place at a cost of from thirty to fifty dollars each.

CHILDREN'S EATING.

Some parents compel their children to eat against their will,
as when they come to the breakfast table without an appetite,
or have lost it in prospect of a visit, or ride, or of going abroad,
or for the sake of " eating their plates clean," in discourage-
ment of wasteful habits. Certainly, a child ought to have the
privilege of a pig, that of eating only when it is hungry.
Unless we are thirsty, we can not drink the purest spring water
without a feeling of aversion ; and as for eating when there is
no appetite, it is revolting ; as any one may prove to himself
by attempting to take a second meal in twenty minutes after
having eaten a regular dinner. The complicated machinery of
man, like that of the steam-engine which is in incessant motion,

children's eating. 229

is wearing away every second of his existence. The engine
wears out eventually, and a new one has to be constructed ; but
the machinery of the human body was made by an omnipotent
Architect ; made to last for ages ; made to make its own repairs,
to supply its ovm wastes, so that while it is wearing itself out,
it is at the same time regenerating and renewing itself. "When
the human system is not interfered with, its supply is always
equal to its waste : regulated by an unerring instinct — that
instinct is called " appetite" — which is greater or less, accord-
ing to the previous waste ; that waste is always in proportion
to the exercise which has been taken, as the wear of any
machinery is in proportion to its running. Every man knows
for himself, that if he walks ten miles he becomes hungry ; if
fifteen, he is more so. But what makes hunger, and what
regulates it to more or less ? The wastes of the system set in
motion certain processes by which a fluid is prepared, called
the gastric juice, and it is so arranged by Divinity, that a cer-
tain amount of waste occasions a certain amount of gastric juice ;
their proportion is exact and uniform ; for nature makes no
mistakes, does nothing in vain ; she makes no more gastric
juice than will digest food enough to make up for the waste
and want of the body. The appetite, the hunger is excited by
the presence of the gastric juice about the stomach ; but if there
is no gastric juice there can be no hunger, no appetite, and to
compel a child to swallow food into the stomach when there is
no gastric juice there to receive it, is an absurdity and a cruelty,
because, there being no gastric juice there to receive and take
care of it, it is rejected by vomiting, or remains there for hours
like a "load," or "weight," or "ball," or "heaviness," or else
to ferment, causing "oppression," "wind," " acidity," or general
discomfort, sometimes for half a night ! Similar results take
place in old and young, when more food has been taken than
there is gastric juice to manage properly ; hence, the more than
folly of "forcing" food, of eating to " make it even," or taking
a single swallow beyond the actual calling of the appetite,
expressed in the familiar term, " over-eating," of which too
many are conscious, almost every day of their existence. It
ought to bring the blush of shame to every cheek, the twinge
of penitence to every conscience, because it is a violence offered
to the body, a shock imparted to the system, which never fails

230 hall's jouknal of health.

of more or less derangement, and not unfrequently arrests the
machine^ of life, to run no more forever ! as in an attack of
cramp -colic, or deadly diarrhea, (cholera,) at midnight, as a
consequence of a late over-hearty meal, or the still more terrible
apoplexy, which hurries from life to the judgment without the
opportunity of a moment's consciousness, or of the final fare-
well to the loved ones left behind.

MILK.

It was a sight which brought with it pleasant memories when
standing at the Spring Garden entrance of St. James's Park,
London, within a few rods of the palace of her gracious Ma-
jesty Victoria the First — long live the same ! — we have contem-
plated a multitude of nurses with children of every age, size,
and sex, gathered around a magnificent cow, the cup of each
child sent up in its turn to catch the luscious fluid as it flowed
all fresh and sweet and pure and rich from its natural fountain,
to be transferred in a trice to expectant lips, which would fairly
smack with delight and in another instant ask for " more ! "
This is the method which cousin John Bull, sturdy and prac-
tical as he is, adopts to secure to his little calves the real,
original, identical juice of the — cow. "We do not by any means
pretend to emulate him in all things, although in some we do
excell ; in brag and fight, for example ! But New- Yorkers can
do better. On a great emergency, warm milk is passable, say
when }"ou have not had any thing to eat or drink for a week;
but to have it from a sparkling, clear goblet, creamy, pure, and
cool as the water which drops from the

u Moss-covered bucket that hangs in the well,"

is certainly worth going a little out of the way for. Such a
pleasure we will guarantee any dear lover of milk, who will
choose to call at 246 Tenth street, a very few doors east of
Broadway, where it is delivered from real farm-house cows,
having been drawn a few hours before, and brought in by the
Erie cars, in double-quick time. We make a proposition to the

REARING CHILDREN. 231

sweetest " seventeen" within a hundred miles of Gotham, to get
np a fairy little office on Broadway, and vend this milk in
penny glasses for children, and half-dimes for older people.
What a delicious draught it would be for invalids and feeble
persons, for children going to or returning from school, and
how infinitely preferable to soda-water and root-beer, to gin
sling, brandy toddy, sangaree or lager. Is there no enterprising
Barnum to work up this suggestion into practical operation, to
bless all Gothamite juvenility, and give health and nutriment
and vigor to the sad sons and daughters of sickness and suffer-
ing ? Why might it not — why should it not succeed ?

REARING CHILDREN.

1. Children should not go to school until six years old.

2. Should not learn at home during that time more than the
alphabet, religious teachings excepted.

3. Should be fed with plain substantial food, at regular inter-
vals of not less than four hours.

4. Should not be allowed to eat any thing within two hours
of bed-time.

5. Should have nothing for supper but a single cup of warm
drink, such as very weak tea of some kind, or cambric tea or
warm milk and water, with one slice of cold bread and butter —
nothing else.

6. Should sleep in separate beds, on hair-mattresses, without
caps, feet first well warmed by the fire or rubbed with the hands
until perfectly dry ; extra covering on the lower limbs, but little
on the body.

7. Should be compelled to be out of doors for the greater
part of daylight, from after breakfast until half an hour before
sun-down, unless in damp, raw weather, when they should not
be allowed to go outside the door.

8. Never limit a healthy child as to sleeping or eating, ex-
cept at supper ; but compel regularity as to both ; it is of great
importance.

9. Never compel a child to sit still, nor interfere with its en-

232 hall's journal of health,

joyinent, as long as it is not actually injurious to person or pro-
perty, or against good morals.

10. Never threaten a child : it is cruel, unjust and dangerous.
What you have to do, do it, and be done with it.

11. Never speak harshly or angrily, but mildly, kindly, and,
when really needed, firmly — no more.

12. By all means arrange it so that the last words between
you and your children at bed-time, especially the younger ones,
shall be words of unmixed lovingness and affection.

O V E E-E ATING

The great President Edwards acknowledged that almost
every day of his life he had a battle and a defeat ; the determin-
ation before going to his dinner that he would not eat beyond
measure, and the confession after, that he had exceeded the
limits of temperance and moderation. A venerated name,
Amos Lawrence, was a greater coward, but a wiser man ; for
the latter years of his life he did not dare to go to the table,
but had sent to his private room only as much as was proper
for him. Many a man might add a score of years to his life-
time by rigidly pursuing such a practice while at home.

Few persons, perhaps, "over-eat" deliberately; it is generally
done in haste, in inattention, miscalculation or inadvertence ;
but the consequences are the same, that is, an unmixed harm
to the whole organization ; the injury manifests itself in a great
number of ways, according however to various laws, these
effects lasting from one to a dozen hours, in every variety of
intensity, from simple discomfort to actual torture. At first,
there is general irritability or fretfulness for a short time after
meals, eventually extending from one meal to another, until
the whole existence is a growl or a groan, according to the ac-
tive or passive nature of the culprit victim, who has not only
blotted out his own life for all humane or noble purposes, but
casts a blur and a blight over the existence of all those whose
unhappy lot it has been to be placed under the same roof and
to be seated at the same table. There are two ways of prevent-
ing and of curing these deplorable conditions, the manly and the

APPLES. 238

mean ; the manly, by going to the table twice a day, and nobly
curbing the beastly appetite, saying: "I will eat this and so
much, and no more by a single atom!" The mean or ignoble,
by having "this and so much, and not an atom more" sent to
a private table ; the " this and so much," the quality and quan-
tity, having been determined by the observed instincts and
needs of the system ; each man being a rule for himself, under
the guidance of a wise physician, or of an unerring and compe-
tent judgment of -his own. The failure of the cure of dyspep-
sia in countless instances has arisen from two causes. First,
relying too much on medicine. Second, making another the
rule for himself; when no two persons ever were alike in all
conditions, therefore the same result could never take place in
any two cases. In the successful treatment of dyspeptic disease,
each man must be a rule to himself, adapting every thing to his
individual needs, tastes, instincts, inclinations, temperament,
station and habit of life. These suggestions are made to all
who have force of character ; to such their adoption in appro-
priate cases would be productive of the most happy results.

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 range of culinaries.
A raw mellow apple is digested in an hour and a half; while
boiled cabbage requires five hours. The most healthful desert
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 admirable effect on the- general
system, often removing constipation, correcting acidities, and
cooling off febrile conditions, more effectually than the most
approved medicines. If families could be induced to substitute
the apple, sound, ripe, and luscious, for the pies, cakes, candies,
and other sweetmeats with which their children are too often
indiscreetly stuffed, there would be a diminution in the sum
total of doctors' bills in a single year, sufficient to lay in a stock
of this delicious fruit for a whole season's use.

234 hall's journal of health.

ELECTRO-MAGNETISM.

This agency for the removal of various ailments is of doubt-
ful value ; if it had any uniform efficiency, it would long before
now have become an accredited means for the cure of disease
among educated physicians ; it has not become so, chiefly be-
cause of its uncertain and transient effects, the costliness of its
application, and the need of its prolonged employment. It
ought to be a sufficient ground for its being regarded with
disfavor, that it is almost entirely practiced by ignorant
persons, foreigners, and peripatetics ; that its application has
been succeeded sometimes by an abatement or removal, more
or less permanent, of the symptoms, is not disputed, but these
good results have not followed with sufficient frequency to
enable unprejudiced and intelligent minds to feel satisfied that
electro-magnetism was the cause of the cure, while the immense
multitude of perfect failures, to say nothing of disastrous suc-
ceedences, have operated to produce the general impression on
the minds of educated physicians of various "schools," that up
to this time, electro-magnetism, as applied to the removal of
disease, is among the quackeries of the age.

WEARING GARTERS.

Persons who have nothing but a skinny spindle below the
knee, can wear their garters any where, but those who have a
real leg, swelling, full, and firm, should wear the garter below
the knee, for there it can be kept in position without being so
tightened as to interfere with the circulation of the blood, upon
which depends the calfy rotundity which adorns the lower —
humanity. Several evil results follow a tight-drawn garter
above the knee. 1. The leg dwindles in proportion as the blood
is detained from it. 2. Free and graceful locomotion is inter-
fered with. 3. Yaricose veins form one of the most ugly, un-
sightly, and intractable of diseases — painful, deforming, and of
lifetime duration.

NOTICES, ACCUMULATED ODDS AND ENDS, ETC. 285

§jtatfe#t ^MMfaUA ®M# mA (Bu&#f tit.

One of the very best family religious newspapers in the United States, abounding
in sterling instructive practical matter, is the Presbyterian Expositor of Chicago,
N. L. Rice, D.D., editor; the "Upper House" must have a hand in it.

The World, a daily paper in New- York City, larger than either the Herald,
Tribune, or Times, attained, in less than a month a bona-Jide circulation of over
thirty thousand copies daily. Its price is one half that of either of the papers
named, being one cent each, or three dollars a year ; the weekly edition is two
dollars. It is edited by Spaulding, formerly of the Courier and Enquirer, and
Cummings, who made the Philadelphia Bulletin what it is. It is conducted on
Christian principles, being the steady and consistent friend of religion, of the Bible
and of the Sabbath-day, never admitting any thing into its columns which parents
may not read to their children, or which a gentleman might not read to a lady. Its
commercial and telegraphic reports are as extensive as those of any paper in the
city. It aims to give such items of news as are known to be true ; while its special
foreign correspondents write from the places designated, and communicate actual
facts rather than theories and surmises. Multitudes regarded a "religious daily,"
as it was rather tauntingly called, the merest chimera ; but Christian people and
reflecting business men and sterling citizens have given it a welcome such as no
other daily paper, the world over, ever had before ; already its editorials are largely
quoted. It is independent in all things, neutral in nothing ; and conducted thus
far on the basis of a liberal but decided religious sentiment. We have said thus
much without having any personal acquaintance with the editors ; because a paper
with a uniformly healthful tone promotes healthful morals in the families which it
visits; and good morals are the safeguards against vice, intemperance, disease,
crime, and premature death.

One of the penalties of greatness is, that its sentiments are persistently misunder-
stood or wilfully misrepresented. The editor of the Journal of Health ! ! has the
reputation of being a very plain-spoken individual, and yet he is represented from
Dan to Beersheba as being opposed to early rising. Whatever his theories may
be, his practice is to be ready to read, write, prescribe, or take a fee as soon in the
morning, winter or summer, as a man can use his eyes conveniently without " specs,"
for he is not old enough to need them yet. The renowned Andrew Jackson Davis,
editor of the Herald of Progress, says: "Dr. Hall's philosophy of late to bed and
late to rise, will meet the wishes of the night-loving population of gas-lit cities, and
of those who indulge in midnight debaucheries, voluptuous indulgencies, late novel-
reading, and intemperance. But," says the "seer," in the same article, "we do
enthusiastically urge the practice of early to bed and early to rise, with a substantial
meal to start upon the duties of the day, as the most rational and harmonizing life
for intelligent human beings to live." It would have been almost impossible for
him to have expressed our own views more precisely, unless our identical words
had been employed, (see page 116, Vol. 1, 1860 :) " Breakfast should be eaten in the
morning before leaving the house for exercise or labor.1' That seems pretty plain !

236 hall's journal of health.

Again, in our article on sleeping, (see Health Tract, No. 25 :) " Go to bed at a regular
early hour, not later than ten, and get up as soon as you wake of yourself in the
morning." Now, if any body can frame a plainer or more explicit expression of
sentiment about early rising, we will give such a person credit for being a good old
Anglo-Saxon scholar. Now, friend Davis, we are going to give you a dig under the
fifth rib, and you won't forget it even beyond the boundary-line of the grave. Do
you write as carelessly about the Bible and the received Christian sentiment of the
age as you have done of us and our Journal ? Have you formed your religious
opinions on such a loose reading of the Scriptures as of our article ? The character,
the quality of a man's mind " runs" the same, on whatever subject it expends itself,
and it is essentially the same in all the phases of life. The Journal was plain ; you
read it, or you did not read it ; then represented it as advocating precisely what it
did not advocate, and belabored the Editor accordingly. You read the Bible, or you
did not read it, and then, in your issue of July 14, you commend a book, and offer it
for sale as suitable "for the thousands who have been misled by mistaken believers
in Bible infallibility." Perhaps the same looseness of investigation has led you to
make a standing butt of the clergy as a class, using towards them epithets of the
most degrading character, and then turn round and expend all your sympathies in
behalf of the New-Jersey wife-murderer, who poisoned his victim while caressing
her on his knee. The same kind of an examination of the proprieties of things
leads you, in an article on Sunday Morality, July 14, to quote commendingly the
sentiments of a Sunday paper, which denies the right of any government to make
the Sabbath different from any other day as regards restrictions from labor or
enjoyment. If you strive to destroy the Bible, which advocates every where purity
and justice ; if you strive to destroy the character of the clergy, who, as a class,
are the most learned, the most blameless, and the most useful men in the world,
and plead for the life of the deliberate murderer of his own young, confiding wife ;
if you strive to secure for the ignorant, the idle, the degraded, and the drunken
such an observance of the Sabbath-day as may suit them, contrary as it is to the
law of the land, while it interferes with the enjoyment of that peace and quiet which
[s preferred by the educated, the refined, the industrious, and the temperate, it may
reasonably be supposed that you have arrived at these ends by looking at the Bible,
at the clergy, at the justness of the laws of the land, and the Sabbath-day, as you did
at our article on Early Rising, without any careful examination, and an utter reck-
lessness of the results of making untruthful statements. These remarks are pertinent
to this publication ; for in proportion as communities disregard Bible teachings, and
desecrate the Sabbath-day, in the same ratio do they become degraded, vicious,
beastly, running into all kinds of animal indulgences, until the body becomes
literally rotten in its rioting, perishing before its prime, leaving its generations
withered and diseased at the root and blasted in the bud. That you may re-read
the Bible, and give it the candid examination of an ingenuous, unprejudiced, and
philosophical mind, is our earnest desire.

One of the leading publishing houses of this city, the Mason Brothers, Nos. 5 and
1 Mercer street, have issued the " Avoidable Causes of Disease," by John Ellis,
M.D., 400 pp. 12mo. It is highly commended by the editors of several religious
newspapers. We are persuaded that they never could have read the book, any
more than the excellent publishers ; or any more than we could have read one of
the advertisements in the September Journal of Health, which contains the biggest
lie ever put in print. The advertiser declares that his " dietetic saleratus is as
harmless to the stomach as flour itself." Now, we will be charitable all round, and

etc. 237

suppose that the advertiser employed some body of more impudence than wisdom
to write his advertisements, as Brandreth and the celebrated Medicated Inhalation
man used to do. Dr. Ellis teaches that costive persons generally live to grow old.
He quotes freely from the publications of Fowler & Wells, and uses Catherine
Beecher and Horace Greeley with liberal scissors. In a preface of seventeen pages,
he often speaks of our " Heavenly Father," of " love to man," " Christian," " Divine
command," etc., concluding the volume by suggesting that church-members had a
great deal better give their money to the " heathen at home" than to those ten
thousand miles away. Such a novel idea! So generous to dictate how people
should spend their own money! Such admirable taste, so democratic, to advise
the religious and the rich that they had better help the poor around them more,
and dress less expensively, live in plainer houses, and worship in plainer churches.
All this, and a good deal more of the same sort, in a book purporting to treat of
the " avoidable causes of disease !" It really seems to us that it is becoming more
and more impossible to take up a book or a newspaper or go to a lecture without
being nauseated or outraged, according to the taste of the hearer, with insufferably
stale nonsense in ridicule of the rich and the religious. What are we coming to ?

Laws of Life. — Sometimes assertions are made, and earnestly believed, too, by
those who make them, which are so supremely absurd that one feels as if it would
oe an utterly hopeless task to correct the error, among which are as follows : A
Hydropathist Editor says, in a published lecture, that eating the meat of animals
fatted for the market is a deadly poison. Then, again, that vaccination occasions
a terrible loss of life; and that Dr. Jenner's name will yet "be mentioned with
cursing and bitterness ;" because vaccination has introduced the seeds of scrofula
very generally ; but that it is more easily done by eating the meat of fatted animals.
The time when Jenner is to be "cursed," is when it will be discovered that vacci-
nation causes scrofula ; but inasmuch as the same thing is done by eating the meat
of fatted animals, it will be difficult, between the two causes of scrofula, to decide
which is which. We advise the editor not to wait, else he may have a chance of
getting as gray as a thousand-year-old rat before he can safely "curse Jenner" or
roast beef:

What is the reason that the cold-water people are so full of cursing and bitter-
ness? See how another Water-Cure journal ventilates itself. In the August
Journal of Health we advised the free use of the tomato as a health-promoting
article of diet, premising that it had medicinal effects, by reason of the seed acting
as the seeds of grapes, white mustard, and figs are generally supposed to do by
educated physicians the world over, that is, by keeping the bowels free, as multitudes
have found to be the case. But our theory of the " quo modo" of their action is
abhorrent to the mind of the Editor of the New-York Water- Cure Monthly, and
he forthwith plunges at us with the savageness of a meat-axe, and talks about
"pulverized granite, pounded glass, epsom salts, tin filings, cayenne pepper, nettle-
stings, thorns, thistles, etc.," being as good as tomatoes for the purpose and manner
advocated by us. And, as proof, he asks a question, and makes a statement. The
question is : " Why can not the flippant editor see deep enough into physiology to
understand" better? The statement is, that he has not used any of the above
articles in fifteen years, and is in good health. We verily thought that cold water
had a clarifying effect, but we presume that it does not extend to the brain.

What is the reason that "isms" go in droves? There seems to be a kind of
brotherhood among the whole of them. There is one element which seems to be a

238 hall's journal of health.

connecting link between them all, which makes them conglomerate ; perhaps it is
Spaulding's glue ! No, it is not that. We must search lower down than the hoof
of a beast to get the fundamental principles of affinity between Water-Curers,
Phrenologists, Free-Lovers, and Harmonialists. Just see how an admirer of Seer
Davis meets the apparently harmless suggestion of ours, that it is rather better for
persons to eat their breakfast before they go out to work or exercise. The man does
it bravely, too ; he is not afraid or ashamed of his birth-place or his name : " Horace
Steele, Painesville, Ohio, July, 1860." " It is deplorable that any man who claims
to publish a Journal of Health should sink himself so low as to become a panderer
to vice, by prescribing the means by which its practice may be continued. You
gave Dr. Hall a severe rebuke, but not any more so than he deserves." Then the
Seer Davis comments: "We sincerely thank our elder Brother Horace, in behalf
of the cause of human redemption from disease, for his straight-out and truthful
testimony in favor of early rising." What is the connection between our advice,
that a man should eat his breakfast before he went to work, and "pandering to
vice," must be left to some highly imaginative individual, some man whose appro-
priate phrenological bump is a mile high, or whose "frankness" is a mile deep.
The " seer," however, goes on to say, that he, too, had advised that something
should be eaten before going out of mornings, at least an "orange," something to
stay the stomach; but he says he only .meant that it was necessary for the "poor
Irish," "widow women with large families," "poor seamstresses," and the "debili-
tated." Why, Andrew ! how came you to make such a fool of yourself? You are
as great on "Harmonies" as the man on "Fits," and have almost as much of the
milk of human kindness in you as the Water-Cure people. But we excuse you in
part; these things were written in the dog-days, and that divinity was in the
ascendant; hence the snapping and the snarling. "Just so."

Let us make a clean sweep of the rubbish while we are at it. In the same "dog-
days," the United States Journal, in reference to our recommendation that
Denies and fruits, ripe, fresh, and perfect, should be freely used in summer, as being
at once nutritious, agreeable, and healthful ; and in the same direction that the
acidity of butter-milk, clabber, and the like, led some communities to use them
largely, tilts at us in manner, form, and words, to wit: "It is really surprising how
attractive learned nonsense is to a great many people." Then the editor blazes
away at the Tribune for copying it, concluding thus: "A bundle of greater
absurdities we have seldom seen put together. If Dr. Hall can eat butter-milk,
suet, alum, acid, gooseberries, currants, and vinegar, congratulate him on having
a strong stomach ! but don't undertake to follow his example."

We invite the reader to put two things together. In that same paper there is a
leading editorial, and a very long advertisement. The leader talks about Uncle
Tom's Cabin, and the advertisement speaks of a medicine, which has wonderful
properties in imparting strength to the debilitated, and health to aU who need it.
This same mixture is in quart-bottles that don't hold a quart, at two dollars each;
to be taken in doses which will make a bottle last a week ; but if that is not enough,
take a whole bottle. The medicine is essentially iron-rust and molasses ; iron is
cheap, and so is molasses. Let us see.

There is a spoonful of iron-rust in a bottle, costing a quarter of a mill, the
bottle six cents, and the molasses twelve cents a gallon, (New-Orleans,) or three
more cents for the short quart, total nine cents and one third of a mill. The former
publishers of Uncle Tom's Cabin having failed to place themselves on the " re-
tired" list by publishing fiction, have changed the phase of their tactics, and hope

NOTICES, ACCUMULATED ODDS AND ENDS, ETC. 239

to replenish an exhausted treasury, by dealing in the more substantial articles of
iron and molasses; and as one kind of " progress" is uniformly downwards, we may
find the same enterprising gentlemen, in due time, u fetching up" in another harbor,
loading ebony "for a market." Now as the water-cure people and patent medicine
dealers make common warfare against the Journal of Health whose fundamental
principle is never to advise a dose of medicine, and whose object is to teach
people how to lire healthily by the wise employment of food and exercise, it might
seem to some a legitimate inference, that the motives of these parties were quite as
pure as those of Alexander the coppersmith ; and that they are in trepidation, that if
the principles of the Journal prevail, there will be no body to sell their medicines
to, no body to be sloshed with cold water, and they will have to go to plowing,
which wholesome occupation they have sufficient capacity for, and which they ought
not to have ever left ; a mistake, as unfortunate for themselves as for society. Now
Andrew! be "harmonial," and ye watery spirits who preside at Dansville and
Laight street, keep as cool as the divinity you worship, write us a laughing reply, and
thus get rid of your" black bile ;" it is almost as certain as a good dose of calomel,
to rid you of anger, wrath, malice, and all uncharitableness, and you will sleep better
for a month afterwards. Wonder if the cold-water people ever do laugh ? One would
not think so from their writings. By the general tenor of their monthlies, we are
inclined to conclude that their sole articles of food are " barks" and snapping-turtles,
with alum-water and persimmon-cider as beverages ; they are so puckered up, so con-
stringed are they, that the mollifying juices of human kindness seem never, by any
chance, to exude from their rhinoscerostic hides or hearts.

Miasm. — Of all our exchanges, as far as yet observed, only one has shown a
proper appreciation of the value of our article in the September number.

The editor of the Congregational Journal at Concord, New-Hampshire, says :
" The first two articles are among the best that ever appeared in the Journal of
Health. That on Miasm is worth twice the subscription-price." We ourselves
add that the article deserves to be framed in every household ; its principles are
of vital importance, literally, to every man who wishes to rent or buy or build in
any part of the globe. These principles are as eternal as the laws of matter ; they
can never change, and our highest health and safety depend on our wisely adapt-
ing ourselves to them.

Through every change and crisis and revolution in the civil, political, and finan:
cial world he is safe who abhors debt.

The Anaesthetic Inhaler, invented by H. G-. Luther, Dentist, 42 Great Jones
street, New-York, heavily plated with silver, price five dollars, is pronounced by
Drs. Carnochan, Francis, and Mott, to be superior to any thing of the kind yet de-
vised in France, England, or America.

Photographic Album, by Messrs. Anderson & Archer, 22 and 24 Franklin
street, New- York, makes one of the most beautiful and interesting centre-table or-
naments ; it is arranged to receive the photographs of kindred and friends, to be
looked at by turning over a leaf, instead of the cumbersome opening of cases. The
leaves are so attached to the back with strong linen, that apparently they would
not be displaced, and could not be torn out, in the ordinary handling of a century.
In these days of interchanging photographs, this is one of " hits" of the times ;
there ought to be one on every drawing-room table.

240

Studying out op School-hours. — The wise- and thoughtful care of human
health and happiness and life has led our excellent Superintendent of the Public
Schools of the city, to recommend to the Board of Education the abolition ot
study out of school-hours absolutely in the primary departments, and to curtail
them largely as to the more advanced scholars. It is earnestly hoped that the
Board will follow the humane example set in other cities. To be kept at study
from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon, thus involving an absence
from home of seven hours every day, six of which are employed in severe mental
application, with a few minutes' intermission now and then, is nothing short of a
barbarity worthy of the ignorance of the middle ages, of the days of Salem witch-
ery and ordeal of fire and water ; but when in addition to this, lessons are given
to be learned at home, which require the less bright scholars to rob themselves ot
necessary sleep in order to be able to learn them properly, and to which they are
stimulated by goadings more imperative than the lash, is an enormity which is
inexcusable and inhuman. We hope that the Press of this city, following the
example of The World, will urge this reform with pertinacity and power.

How to get Good Coal for the coming Winter. — Buy it now from dealers
who ask the highest price, and save it by throwing your furnaces into the river, and
use the Low-Do wn Grate in your parlors and sitting-rooms, and thus have some
kind of cheerfulness about your homes. In addition, use the Ash-Sifter sold at 63
East-Sixteenth street, by William E. Jones, Esq. ; it is undoubtedly the best ever
yet invented. Price, four dollars.

Sight-Seeing. — One of the most interesting and pleasurable sights in New-
York, is the Aquaria at Barnum's Museum. We took some ladies there the other
day from Philadelphia. One of them exclaimed : "I could remain here a week."
To see how fish deport themselves at the bottom of the ocean, is well worth a visit
to the Museum, were there not a thousand other objects of interest there, and all
for twentytfive cents. The Museum has never presented so many attractive fea-
tures as since Mr. Barnum's reinstatement.

Odd Numbers of Hall's Journal op Health sent to the address of Dr. W. W.
Hall, New-York, post-paid, one cent each, will be received in payment from sub-
scribers, at six cents each, for any of the Editor's publications, or for new sub-
scriptions to the Journal or the Fireside Monthly, if sent during October of the
present year.

Music. — One thing at a time, and that well, is the admirable motto at the Nor-
mal Academy of Music at Salem, Ct., which has been founded by the enterprise
and energy of the Hon. Oramel Whittlesey. Music only is taught there, vocal and
instrumental ; and, while on so charming a subject, we may appropriately add a
paragraph from the Fireside Monthly for September, on the subject of Music for
our Daughters : " Southerners who are now flocking to our city, will find it to
their interest to call at Worcester's spacious Piano Establishment, on Fourteenth
street, corner of Third Avenue, one of the very oldest Houses in New- York. In
all the financial crises of the country, it has never known a ' suspension,' or a
' removal ' ; thus indicating a thrift, which is only known to men who always make
the best instruments, and thus secure the steady patronage of wealthy families,
which, from its extent, enables the proprietor to sell a better Piano at a lower price
than can elsewhere be had, being more especially adapted to withstand the effects
of a warm and moist climate."

NOTICES, ACCUMULATED ODDS AND ENDS, ETC.

To Parents living in the vicinity of 339 Fourth Avenue, Twenty-fifth street,
we heartily commend Mrs. M'Millan, as a teacher of children ; her terms are from
five to ten dollars a quarter. Her excellent husband lost his health while a foreign
missionary, and she now seeks to provide for her interesting family by teaching
school. We join in the commendation of Mrs. Erastus Brooks and other ladies,
the wives of some of our first citizens, as to Mrs. M.'s ability and fidelity.

An enthusiastic Virginian thus piles up the praises with accumulative power
of the article in the September Journal on " ' Household Slaveries,' every word of
which should be written in letters of gold on the four walls of every room in every
man's house in the world, and read daily."

Mrs. Steel's Preparatory School for Boys and Girls at 10 Irving Place, is
worthy of neighborhood patronage, supported as it is by such prominent ladies as
Mrs. Dr. Doremus, Clark, Bishop, Ward, Schott, and Clapp, all living in and around
Grammercy Park, Union Square, and Irving Place, called the Regal Region of
New-York.

.Liquid Glue. — The French make it thus : In a wide-mouthed bottle dissolve
eight ounces of best glue in a half-pint of water, by setting it in a vessel of water
and heating it until dissolved. Then add slowly, constant!}7 stirring, two and a half
ounces of strong aquafortis, (nitric acid.) Keep it well-corked, and it will be ready
for use. This is the " Celebrated Prepared Glue," of which we hear so much.

The Fireside Monthly. — The character of its articles may be known from the
headings of the first six numbers ; see one of the advertising pages. It aims to ex-
clude fiction, trash, and prosy treatises. No article is ever admitted adverse to
the Bible, to Religion, or the Sabbath-day : it will abound in short practical pieces,
written by persons of acknowledged ability, such as may be read with profit at any
time, in any place, and to any company. Some of the sweetest pieces of poetry in
the English language, will be found in the September number. The June number
contains thirty-six one-page Health Tracts on a great variety of subjects, succinct and
practical, a vade mecum of Hygiene, which every man and woman, boy and girl,
worker and idler, rich and poor in the land ought to read ; sent post-paid by the
Editor for fifteen cents. It is one dollar and a half a year ; afforded to subscribers
to Hall's Journal of Health for two dollars a year for both monthlies. Back-
numbers of both can be furnished to any desired extent.

Harness a horse if you want him to leave a burning building quickly.

The British and Foreign Medical Chirurgical Review, republished by the Messrs.
Woods, 389 Broadway, at three dollars a year is enriched by several original commu-
nications on insanity, chorea, ethnology, etc., with a handsome notice of the work
of our countryman, Austin Flint, M.D., with a great variety of miscellaneous medical
matter. The American Phrenological Journal for August is of unusual inter-
est ; it contains a handsome portrait of Townsend Harris, Esq., our able and efficient
and honored Minister to Japan, and several pages of an admirable lecture on Phy-
sical Culture, by Henry Ward Beecher. The W ater-Cure Journal for August, 308
Broadway, 10 cents, has a valuable article on the Feet and Hands, their pains and
penalties, by Dr. Trail, in reference to corns, bunions, callosities, etc. It is inex-
plicable to us how the American Agriculturist can give for one dollar a year
thirty quarto pages monthly, so much valuable, practical and varied reading
matter, a healthful moral tone always pervading its clean white pages. No fanner's
house would fail to be benefited by such a publication. Our old acquaintance, The

hall's journal of health.

Country Gentleman, of Albany, issued weekly, is still the favorite of thousands of
thrifty husbandmen ; two dollars a year, vol. 16. The Methodist, two dollars a
year, 1 Beekman street, New- York, we commend heartily to every conservative
member of the Methodist Church. With John A. Gray as Printer, Lemuel Bangs
Publisher, and Drs. Crook and McClintock Editors, it could not but merit the high
praise of the New-York Observer : "Beautiful in its dress, rich, varied and attract-
ive in its contents, giving fine promise of vigorous life, and great usefulness.
Conservative, wholesome, alive, and earnest, edited with taste, tact, and ability, it
must make its mark on the Church, and we hope it will become a power in the
world."

SPECIAL NOTICE. — All subscriptions to Hall's Journal of Health begin with
the January number of each year, for convenience of binding and index. Those
who wish to subscribe now, can send one dollar for 1861, vol. 8, and at the rate
of eight cents for each number up to December next inclusive, in postage-stamps.

OLD NUMBERS : six cents each, in any of our publications, will be allowed for
any of the old numbers of Hall's Journal of Health sent post-paid by mail, (one
cent each,) or by private hand to " Dr. W. W. Hall, New-York," any time during
the month of October, 1860. The six vols, of Hall's Journal of Health, bound
two vols, in one, with a copper-plate engraving of the editor's portrait in 1847, and
the three vols, of Bronchitis, Consumption, and Health and Disease, bound
uniformly in morocco in the best style, are sold at 42 Irving Place only ; price,
Twelve Dollars. The Presbyterian Historical Almanac for 1861, by Joseph M.
Wilson, Philadelphia, will soon be ready, and ought by all means to be supplied to
every clergyman of the denomination who belongs to the Old School Presbyerian
Church. Price, One Dollar. Stereotyped.

Journal of Human Science, vol. 1, No. 1, Cincinnati, 0., 32 pp. 8vo.
two dollars a year, edited by Wm. Byrd Powell, M.D., a medical scholar and
writer of ability. This number contains a large amount of Very curious and in-
structive information on the subject of the Temperaments, which is handled in a
masterly manner.

»«♦»« «

CONTENTS OF HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH FOR OCTOBER.

(New-York, $1 a year.)

Our Boys, 217

Manual Labor Schools, 219

Small Pox, 221

Nervousness, 222

Life's Maxims, 223

" Snapping Up," 225

Warming Houses, = 226

Children's Eating, 228

Milk, 230

Rearing Children, 231

Over-Eating, , 232

Apples, 233

Electro-Magnetism, 234

Wearing Garters, etc., etc., 234

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever bsgets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] NOVEMBER, 1860. [No. 11.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

A man died last year, who, in all the relations of life, pos-
sessed as faultless a character, perhaps, as any one in his day and
generation. He was a gentleman — a Christian gentleman; a
man of great learning, of greater piety, of the most unaffected
humility, and, above all, he was a minister of the Gospel, whose
wide experience and power of observation, made him acquainted
with the dangers and the needs of the times, to an extent beyond
that of other men. With such capabilities, and from such a
stand-point, the Eev. Dr. James W. Alexander said in our hear-
ing, but a short time before his death, in reference to "The
Daily Journal Poison" :

"A little mineral admixture in their dailv bread, a little
morbific quality in their daily milk, would be justly dreaded as
tending to wear away the health ; yet the daily journal enters
your doors, distilling by little and little, false, latitudinarian, and
radical opinions. No marvel if you find your old age sur-
rounded by sons who haye made shipwreck of the faith. It is
impossible to watch too affectionately the literature which comes
into the hands of the young. If you desire them to be guarded
and manly Christians, their pabulum must be truth. It is as
certain of the mind as of the body, that whatever is taken into
it should tend directly to its growth and strength ; all that is
otherwise, is noxious. Nutrition, moreover, is a gradual pro-
cess, the result of repeated acts. If, then, the mind and charac-
ter are to make progress, and acquire firmness, there must be
not slight and occasional, but regular and extensive study of
Grod's revealed will. Thus, by promoting knowledge of truth,
and discouraging familiarity with falsehood, we may, under

NO. XI. — VOL. VII. — 1860.

242 hall's jouenal of health.

Grod's blessing, do much to protect ourselves against abounding
infidelity."

This is a " sensation" age. The u Press" has long ago be-
come sensational, and the Pulpit is in danger of the infection.
The daily journal, the weekly newspaper, the monthly maga-
zine, and the quarterly reviews, in their strife for compelling
attention, put all inventive genius to the rack, and but too
often set at defiance justice, decency, and truth. The virus has
entered the ought-to-be sacred precincts of the Sunday-school,
of which the Religious Intelligencer remarks :

" There is nothing connected with the Church, in the present
day, that requires more watching than those institutions which
furnish the Sunday reading of our youth. The time was when
the books of these libraries were selected from the religious
classics of England and America. They were the approved
vehicles of religious truth. Now, however, in the desire to
supply the demand of teachers and scholars for variety, a large
class of works has been introduced into many schools, that, to
say the least, are not calculated to lead to serious thought. In-
deed, we have heard- of churches where the new novels form a
regular supply to the library. Although matters are not quite
so bad as that in general, yet the tendency of our Sunday-school
libraries is more to gratify the taste of the readers, than to
strengthen or instruct their religious faculties. Unless a stop is
put to this evil, it must eventually undermine the foundations of
truth and righteousness in the community."

The New- York Examiner says of " Sensation Peeachees :''

"There are in all our large cities a crowd of thoughtless,
sensation-loving gossips, who, with mouths agape, will run
after any thing or any body that promises to gratify their
depraved tastes, and as the demand for an article usually
induces, before long, a supply, it is natural enough that there
should be men who will desecrate the pulpit, and degrade it to
the low level of a harlequin's stage.

" "We do not know that there is a larger proportion of this
class of mountebanks in the five hundred pulpits, more or less,
of New- York and its suburbs, than among the same number of
pulpits elsewhere ; but we do know that there are more of them
than there should be. The congregations which employ such
men are partly to blame for their development."

PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 243

The New- York "World" declares that: " Man has been
variously denned by philosophers as a cooking animal, a bor-
rowing and lending animal, and a lying animal ; differing in the
opinion of the philosophers who have thns distinguished him
from the rest of the animated world, chiefly in the respect of
aiding the digestion of his food by means of fire, of negotiating
loans, and of mendacity. The ripening civilization of these
later days permits us to add variously to these definitions.
With the process of the sun, and the scarcely less illuminating
processes of Messrs. Hoe & Co., man has become emphatically
a reading animal. •

"The truth is, he reads a monstrous deal of trash and twad-
dle. Nine tenths of the merely literary emanations of the
periodical press come appropriately under this designation.
Stories of life, such as has never been lived upon our planet, de-
lineations of manners, which are the manners neither of gods
nor men, nor of the "third estate;" salient sketches, treading
close upon the verge of downright immortality ; fetid exhuma-
tions of the subterranean stratum of life, exposed to the light
like the sores of the leper ; coarseness, ribaldry, profanity, all,
however, wearing the thinnest possible cloak of decency, and
assuming to convey a moral inculcation while eating at the root
of morality like a worm, compose an appalling proportion of
the aggregate reading of the day. The denunciation is sweep-
ing, but one less comprehensive would be inadequate.

"The French revolution and the brief but lurid reign of
terror which ensued, revealed the existence in Paris of a hide-
ous nether stratum of life of which king, courtier, priest, physi-
cian, artisan even, had never dreamed. From the Faubourg
St. Antoine, its loathsome tributaries, subsidiaries, and succur-
sals, from every reeking lane and alley of that Mecca of civili-
zation, opulence, and profligacy, poured forth upon the Boule-
vards and the Ely see herds of wild-eyed men with tangled hair
like the furies, unwashed, sans cubtte, merciless, ravenous,
bloody, and drunk. They swarmed about the palaces; they
invaded the churches ; they raved through the wards of hospi-
tals ; they leered and grimaced at the portals of nunneries.
When the deluge of blood subsided, and order came again,
men looked at each other and grew pale. They were walking

244 HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

upon a crust beneath which surged and heaved this hitherto un-
suspected wave of fire.

"Society and literature, no less than geology, have their
nether, intermediate, and upper strata, each in some degree
unconscious of the other, as were the Parisians, of the burrow-
ing herds of satyrs which that social upheaval unearthed. We
have here, for example, a literature devoted to a strenuous ad-
vocacy of Sabbath-breaking; a literature of infidelity, a litera-
ture of crime. The thieves' lexicon is among the works with
which American bibliography has recently been enriched. In
addition to these, there is a huge aggregation of print which it
is difficult to classify, but the effect of which is to enervate the
immature mind, to inculcate false ideas of life, and to render
distasteful to the young the homely and useful pursuits which
alone, in most cases, lead to happiness and honor. What
youth of average gifts is content to follow the plow, or wield
the scythe, or swing the hammer, after the useful and humble
manner of his fathers, when he is instructed by the experience
of that dashing hero of the piratical tale, that the path of glory
and gold is through the demesnes of adventure ; that the coast
of Madagascar, and the deck of a long, low, clipper-built
schooner, rakish as to masts, and with unheard-of qualities
as to speed, are the fields for him instead of the hill-side or the
forge ! Who, among the rustic maidens singing at the spinning-
wheel, or among the milk-pans and other implements incident
to butter, is unaffected by the perusal of the history of that
rural damsel who, eloping from such common-place occupations,
became a countess, and achieved lap-dogs and diamonds, and
carriages and adoration! Many and many of those leprous
specters who flit along the ghastly lamp-light of Broadway,
bedizened, painted, and how often hungry, despairing, sick,
drunk, and dying, can, if memory and mind remain, trace
to the perusal of this species of literature something of the
influence which directed their footsteps down the dark road, at
the end of which glooms the hospital, and happily a grave
without a name. The good and solvent citizen, who daily reads
his mild, unexceptionable newspaper ; the lettered amateur who,
in the snuggest of studies, over the most fragrant of all the va-
rieties of Souchong, beside the most cheerful of sea-coal fires,
luxuriously cuts the leaves of his favorite quarterly, do not per-

PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 245

haps dream that the same press which conveys to them its peri-
odical missives of instruction and recreation, conveys to multi-
tudes that intellectual drivel which enfeebles the mind as nar-
cotics and stimulants do the body. It is true none the less, and
that portion of the press which labors, in the interest of morality
and religion, is recreant to its duty if it ignores it, or fails in its
censure and condemnation.

" Unhappily, this vicious literature is an evil almost without
remedy. Whatever the public taste demands will be supplied.
Literary censorship has of course never taken root in this coun-
try, if we except its temporary grapple upon the stony soil of
early puritanism, and there is, consequently, no relief except in
the moral and religious sense of the community. Something
may be done by the schools in fostering a taste for the better
sort of light literature, something by the heads of families in
rigorously excluding from the household publications bearing a
shadow of taint, much by the pulpit, and much by the press.
But we shall not see the end of this pernicious influence until a
higher degree of education and culture takes the place of that
flippant superficiality which has given us, as a people, the name
of knowing less of any thing, and more of many things, than
any race in the world.

" Benjamin Franklin tells us, in one of his letters, that when
he was a boy, a little book fell into his hands, entitled, Essays to
do Good, by Cotton Mather.

"It was tattered and torn, and several leaves were missing.
' But the remainder,' he says, ' gave me such a turn of thinking
as to have an influence on my conduct through life ; for I have
always set a greater value on the character of a doer of good
than any other kind of reputation ; and if I have been a useful
citizen, the public owes all the advantages of it to the little
book.' Jeremy Bentham mentions that the current of his
thoughts and studies was directed for life by a single phrase that
caught his eye at the end of a pamphlet : J The greatest good of
the greatest number.' There are single sentences in the New
Testament that have awakened to spiritual life hundreds of mil-
lions of dormant souls. In things of less moment, reading has
wondrous power. Greorge Law, a boy on his father's farm, met
an old unknown book, which told the story of a farmer's son
who went away to seek his fortune, and came home, after many

246 hall's jouknal of health.

years' absence, a rich man. From that moment George became
uneasy, left home, lived oyer again the life he had read of, re-
turned a millionaire, and paid all his father's debts. Eobinson
Crusoe has sent to sea more sailors than the press-gang. The
story about little George Washington telling the truth about the
hatchet and the plum-tree, has made many a truth-teller. We
owe all the Waverley novels to Scott's early reading of the old
traditions and legends ; and the whole body of pastoral fiction
came from Addison's sketches of Sir Eobert de Coverley in the
Spectator. But illustrations are numberless. Tremble, ye who
write, and ye who publish writing. A pamphlet has precipitated
a revolution. A paragraph quenches or kindles the celestial
spark in a human soul — in myriads of souls."

Let parents also tremble in view of the responsibility which
rests upon them, not only in preventing their children from im-
proper reading, but also in providing them w ith what will attract
by its beauty, instruct by its truth, and compel conviction by its
point and power ; or which, by its admirable simplicity, and the
sweetness of its sentiments, shall mold the character for high
usefulness in life, and the society of the blessed beyond the
grave.

As a pioneer in this kind of reading for families', the Jouk-
nal of Health claims the support of the reflecting and the
good. Let such deliberately read every article in any of the
numbers, and then ask the following question: Is there a
monthly publication in the world so free of fiction, so full of
truth, so varied in its subjects, and so perfectly free from every
thing calculated to offend the religious sentiment of any man
who makes the Bible his rule of faith and practice, while, at the
same time, it is not, technically, a religious periodical ? Then
comes the practical inquiry : Do I know of any safer publication,
one which contains so much that is good in an equal space and
at so small a cost ? If not, why not order it for your child on
the instant? A great name once said: "Tell me who are a
man's associates, and I will tell you what kind of a man he is."
Not less true is it that the character of a man is molded by his
reading, and if that is truthful and pure, and of a high moral
tone, there comes of it pure men and women, healthful in body,
the mind cultivated, and the character spotless.

HOUSEHOLDS CONTRASTED. 247

HOUSEHOLDS CONTRASTED.

A gorged anaconda is the mildest animal in nature. You
may kick him until you are tired, and he won't take the trouble
to raise his head or give a hiss. We have remembrances as
fresh as of yesterday, of going out to the pig-pen of a frosty
fall morning, and witnessing the changing mood of the occu-
pants while waiting for the men to throw in the corn. How they
would squeal, and grunt, and bite, and snap at each other !
these modes of expression becoming "excelsior" in geometrical
progression with each passing minute of delay. With the first
mouthful, u order reigns in Warsaw." A few minutes later, a
wag of delight takes hold of the tail, and at the u closing stretch,"
pig spoons to pig, and side by side they while their time away
in delicious, dozy grunts. Pigs and people are not far apart.
There are men, and — shall we say it ? — women, too, who, be-
fore they get their breakfast in the morning, are as ferocious as
she-tigers. They have brutalized themselves by late dinners,
or over-hearty suppers the preceding evening, or they have sat
up until midnight, or later, in doing what they considered indis-
pensable— working, it may be in actual weariness and suffering,
with the effect, that when the morning comes, they are not
rested, not refreshed, and, as a consequence, the nervous system
is deranged ; and if they are up soon enough for family wor-
ship, they come into the room where glad children and servants
(for both children and servants being healthy, are light-hearted
in the mornings) are all in waiting, with a tremendous scowl on
the countenance, or a sheepish, slovenly indifference, according
to the temperament of the human animal. But not the honey
droppings of the "Word;" not the glad songs of praise from
other lips ; or thanks for the nightly deliverances or the morn-
ing mercies, the bright sunshine, the dancing fire on the hearth,
while the frost is at the window ; not the consideration that
every child is the picture of health, and a well-spread board,
white and clean and smoking and abundant, is ready, without
even the trouble of ordering ; not all these considerations are
sufficient to mellow down that ugly nature, but it drawls along
to the table to whine and complain and growl and fret. If a
child happens to laugh outright in its gladness, there is an

248 hall's journal of health.

instantaneous snap at it, if, indeed, hV is not driven from the
table, or slapped over with the hand. If the toast is not browned
to a turn, or the steak is the tiniest bit over or under-done, the
cook is raved at with the savageness of a polar bear. If the
table-maid happens in her haste to trip a toe or let fall a roll,
noise enough is made about it to fill a barn ; and if a child over-
turns a cup, a hyena comes up in the "dissolving view."

Eeader ! what think you ? does this picture of a daily reality
in more households than a dozen, suit you in whole, or even
small part ? Be counseled in time, that one of two results will
fall to your lot : if, in humility and repentance towards God and
man, you do not promptly seek a remedy against so low a
crime, you will either die prematurely, or end your days in an
asylum, if not in a worse place still. If you begin a day in so
ungodly a manner, it is a " bad beginning" for you ; the whole
of that day will be a cloud ; the night will set in with humiliat-
ing or fierce remorses, and it will be a day lost — lost forever.
If it were only lost to you, it is of comparatively small moment,
except to yourself. But that is not all. You clouded over a
sunshine which God had sent to gladden the members of your
family. You robbed them of God's good gift, there will be
blasting in the repetition, blasting to the body, and curses to the
soul, ending never ! " That's true, Doctor ; every word of it
is as true as gospel, what you say about parents being pleasant
in families. I've seen it in more cases than one or two." So
said neighbor P., who lives a block or two away, in Seventeenth
street. He ran on so glibly in this style, ever so long, and we
couldn't stop him ; so we let him run ! What a grand good
plan it is, in another direction, to stop a verbosity, as Eev. Dr.
Cox would say, just to say nothing at all. Why, the longest
tongue in nature will stop short in "two forty," if you only
don't say a single thing. It's because we have tried it that we
recommend it so confidently ; and if you have any sly malice
to gratify, you can indulge it so effectually and in so quiet a
way, too ! The more you don't say any thing, the longer will
the remorse of meanness burn with unquenching fierceness
afterwards. But to friend P.'s speech. "You know, Doctor,
I have one of the finest wives in the world, so I am not per-
sonal. c 0 Mrs. P. ! ' said two dear young girls, ' if mother
would only be as lively and kind-tempered as you are ! You

COLD PHILOSOPHY. 249

seem to be always cheerful, and iri. such good spirits! but
mother is always cross.' " On inquiry, we learned that a mer-
chant of great wealth had died before his time in Brooklyn,
and left his widow with three children. Her temper was per-
fectly devilish. It shortened his days. While in the hot pursuit
of business, his mind was diverted ; but when his fortune was
made, and he had leisure to be at home, and to enjoy his child-
ren, the curse of a shrew came upon him, and he had not the
courage or the moral power to apply a remedy. The result
was, that in this case, the young son left the house — had
not slept in it for three years. He found greater pleasure in
running after the "machine," and slept in the engine-house.
The presumption of charity is, that the woman was deranged.

But a merited tribute to our neighbor. He has reared a fam-
ily of sons and daughters in New- York City. Model children
are they all. The sons are handsome, manly, and of moral cha-
racter without the film of a blot. The .daughters, single and
married, are affectionate as children, and notable in the relations
of wife and mother. The father and mother have grown old
in lovingness within and charity without. The frequent re-
unions of parents and children and grandchildren, are tableaux
of earthly delight ; and with peace and plenty, and blessed unity
combined, they bid fair to end their days in gladness and sun-
shine, and all largely owing to a cheerful conduct in the house-
hold ; showing, by the way, that a family of children can grow
up in a city, healthy in body, blameless in morals, and un-
challenged in business integrity, by making home attractive.

COLD PHILOSOPHY.

Whex Patrick was asked what he would 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 perforated
by millions of little holes, through which this waste is poured

250

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 impure 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 ex-
pended in that direction, and the cold is cut short off ; 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 u 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 yet found egress, there is that
much more of actual matter in the system than it is accustomed
to, making us feel " stuffed up," " full," " oppressed." Most ex-
pressive 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 otherwise have been thrown
out of the system as effete matter ; and the blood of the whole
body being impure, imperfect, feeling, taste, appetite, every
bodily sense is deranged, the mind participates in the general
disorder, and petulance *and ill-nature pervade the whole de-
portment, and what the sufferer 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 " old
woman's remedy," " a good sweat," produced by putting the
patient to bed, " tucking in" the bed-clothes, and pouring down

COLD PHILOSOPHY. 251

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 whisky, hot water, sugar, a
little butter, and hot spices. Oh ! 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 any thing, 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 continued
for some hours ; in addition, do Jiot 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 exclusively 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 tre-
mendous lie. Starve them to death, as we-would a garrison,
by cutting off supplies, and the fortress will be yielded within
thirty-six hours, if the process be begun within twelve hours
after the cold has been taken. If a chill has been experienced,
begin on the instant to stop supplies, and then to cause an arti-
ficial drain, by the means already named for inducing free per-
spiration ; 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 appetite, the indul-
gence 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 any thing for a fortnight, to say nothing of the troublesome
coughing and other discomforts during the whole of that time.

252 hall's journal of health.

CHECKING PERSPIRATION.

A Boston" merchant, in "lending a hand" on board of one
of his ships on a windy day, found himself at the end of an
hour and a half pretty well exhausted and perspiring freely.
He sat down to rest. The cool wind from the sea was de-
lightful, and engaging in conversation, time passed faster than
he was aware of. In attempting to rise, he found he was unable
to do so without assistance. He was taken home and put to
bed, where he remained two years ; and for a long time after-
wards, could only hobble about with the aid of a crutch. Less
exposures than this have, in constitutions not so vigorous,
resulted in inflammation of the lungs, "pneumonia," ending in
death in less than a week, or causing tedious rheumatisms, to
be a source of torture for a lifetime. Multitudes of lives
would be saved every year, and an incalculable amount of hu-
man suffering would be prevented, if parents would begin to
explain to their children at the age of three or four years, the
danger which attends cooling off too quickly after exercise, and
the importance of not standing still after exercise, or work, or
play, or of remaining exposed to a wind, or of sitting at open
window or door, or of pulling off any garment, even the hat
or bonnet, while in a heat. It should be remembered by all, that
a cold never comes without a cause, and that in four times out
of five, it is the result of leaving off exercise too suddenly or
of remaining still in the wind, or in a cooler atmosphere than
that in which the exercise has been taken.

The colder the weather the more need is there, in coming
into the house, to keep on all the clothing, except India-rubber
or damp shoes, for several minutes afterwards. Yery few rooms
are heated higher than sixty -five degrees when the thermometer
is within twenty degrees of zero, while the temperature of the
body is always at ninety-eight, in health ; so that if a man
comes into a room which is thirty degrees colder than his body,
he will rapidly cool off, too much so often, even if the external
clothing is not removed.

It is not necessary that the perspiration be visible ; any exercise
which excites the circulation beyond what is natural, causes a
proportional increase of perspiration, the sudden checking of
which induces dangerous diseases and certain death every day.

FHYSICAL CULTUKE. 253

PHYSICAL CULTURE.

To the Editor of the "World:

Hall's Journal of Health for May has an article on
gymnasiums, closing with the following summary :

" To sedentary persons, violent, sudden, and fitful exercise is
always injurious, and such are gymnastic performances.

"The exercise of the student should be regular, gentle, de-
liberate, 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 more un-
mixed good, than double the time in the most scientifically
conducted gymnasium in the world.

"There are individual cases where the gymnasium 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, regardless of all weathers, in moderate untiring activities."

Elsewhere the Journal of Health teaches that " to derive
the highest benefit from exercise as a means of health, it should
be in the open air, moderate, continuous, and having an object
in view, beside that of the mere exercise itself, which shall be
agreeable, interesting, and encouragingly remunerative in a
pecuniary point of view.

" That, if gymnasiums are founded, they should always be
under the immediate direction, control and supervision of those
who are thoroughly versed in anatomy and physiology, not
merely theoretically but practically."

These positions will scarcely be dissented from by educated
physicians, or by any person who has that kind of common-
sense which is derived from extended practical observation.
Your correspondents, in their strictures on the sentiments of the
Journal of Health, deal somewhat in epithets ; that is their
taste ; it would have answered a better purpose to have employed
the same space in explaining how and why muscular exercise is
beneficial. The thoughtful reader would then have been able

254 hall's journal of health.

to form a more correct opinion as to the philosophy and the
value of physical culture than from any thing the Editor has yet
seen in the newspapers on that subject.

Among the anatomical and physiological facts, received the
world over, hence requiring no proof here, are the following :

" No two important organs of the body can be called into
energetic action at the same time without injury to both, because
one organ in high functional action attracts the nervous and
sanguineous fluids from the other organs of the system, and any
attempt to change the direction of the current suddenly, is
always injurious. Hence the ill results to man and beast of
active exercise or working, immediately before or after a meal.
For the same reason, violent exercise immediately before or
after severe study, or after long rest, is always, and under all
circumstances, pernicious to the organ of the brain and to the
muscular organs.

"Nourishment, repair, growth, strength, all are derived from
the blood. If the flow of blood is cut off from any part of the
body, that part begins to die on the instant. A steady natural
flow of pure' blood to a part keeps it in a living, healthful con-
dition. If the flow is increased, but still steady, there is a pro-
portional increase in the vigor of that part. If the supply of
blood is very rapid, the ultimate globules or cells are deposited
more rapidly than steady nature can receive them, and they are
lost or broken, and are passed out of the system as waste, repre-
sented in the destruction of glassware in a burning building,
when there are more persons to hand it out than there are to
receive it.

"Every one knows that exercise of the body increases the
circulation of the blood. The violent exercise in gymnasiums,
as almost, if not universally conducted hitherto, produces a
violent flow of blood, of nutrient particles to the various
muscles which are brought into most active exercise, and being
carried thither faster than they can be taken up, unmixed harm
is the result. Life-long disablements and even deaths have
resulted from gymnastic performances and other violent exer-
cises ; as of the little girl, not long ago reported, who died in
consequence of her ambition to skip a rope a certain number of
times without stopping ; of race-horses dying on the track ; and
minor forms of injuries, down to the feeling of soreness of the

PHYSICAL CULTUEE. 255

whole body the day after some unusual exercise ; and with
which almost every one is familiar.

t:Thus it is that the sudden, violent, fitful, exhaustive exer-
cises of ordinary gymnasiums are unwise, hurtful, dangerous.
To derive from muscular exertion a high degree of health and
manly vigor, it should be moderate, continuous, regular, in the
open air, and furthermore, should be pleasantly remunerative
beyond the mere benefits of the exercise itself. None of these
conditions are fulfilled in gymnasiums as generally conducted
hitherto. Physical culture is not objected to, but the manner
of it. To exercise wisely, the student and all sedentary persons
should begin in moderation, to be gradually increased in its
intensity, and as gradually diminished, and in all. cases should
be left off before any feeling of very great fatigue is experienced,
most especial care being taken to cool off very slowly indeed.

" The impression is sought to be made in the World, that
clergymen, for want of physical culture, are particularly dis-
tinguishable by their unhealthful appearance. But it is an un-
deniable fact that clergymen, as a class, live longer in this
country than mechanics or common laborers. Of 120 clergy-
men who died in the United States in 1855, two thirds had
their ages recorded ; of these, one half had passed seventy years.

" Of 2500 Presbyterian clergymen who were living in 1858,
31 died within the year following, making their [ death rate '
twelve and a half, or one-sixth lower than the most favored
people known on earth as to health. So that if it be assumed
as a fact that clergymen take less muscular exercise than
others, the whole argument of your correspondent, in connec-
tion with the two items above, is a perfect non sequitur. The
Journal of Health does 'look well after the sanitary in-
terests of the clergy;' it was for their benefit and that of theo-
logical students that it was originated, not as a means of ' con-
ciliating them,' but of enabling them to perform more work
and for a longer time, because the ' harvest is great, and the
laborers are few.' They ought to be taken care of; and it is
a sufficient reason for that care, that they are men of high
acquirements and culture ; are the leaders and the workers also,
in the most efficient enterprises for the elevation of the human
family, and yet as a class, do not receive an annual average
compensation for their services, equal to that of a New- York
butcher or drayman."

256 hall's journal of health.

THE AIM OP LIFE.

The chief ambition of most young men of intelligence and
energy, on entering the great 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 in-
quiry as to the meaning they attach to that expression, it will
be found that it is to have a plenty of every thing, 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 to
do something, any thing, or nothing, according to the inclina-
tion 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 com-
paratively nothing, will as certainly make a wreck of mind and
body, as that the fleetest locomotive in the world will be shiv-
ered 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 accomplish other labors
new and grand ; not so with the machinery of the mind ; in its
" connections" with a material body it has acquired a " momen-
tum" in half a century's progress, a habit of action, which can
not be arrested, can not be brought to a dead stand, to a posi-
tion 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 occupied
in advancing the well-being of others, in every way compatible
with the safety of his own fortune and health. It may be in-
structive to know the way to death which many successful busi-
ness men travel, the steps taken as seen by an observant phy-
sician, the little things which lead to grand results, the total
subversion of the aims and labors of a lifetime. A man re-
tired on a fortune has nothing to do after he has built his house,
laid out his grounds, and arranged his affairs perfectly to his

THE AIM OF LIFE. 257

"own notion," according to Ms own "ideas of comfort." The
mind can no more be arrested in its activities, than can a star
in space. He gets tired of sitting about ; gets tired of read-
ing; 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 plea-
sure ; 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 all wonderful that it should be frequently resorted to,
so frequently indeed that before the man is aware of it, or even
his watchful 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 fol-
lowing, 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 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 re-
sided 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 es-
tablishment upon Water street, and in the cool of the evening
rested in his cottage. His children grew up healthy and con-
tented, and all the fireside virtues gamboled about his feet.

In the lapse of time the firm dissolved. Its purposes had
been subserved in the success of its speculations, and the pre-
servation 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

258

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 for-
tune has been squandered in continued excesses, his family is
scattered and penniless, and the sole aim of his degraded ambi-
tion is to find the wherewithal to purchase drink. The junior
partner has not changed in circumstances. The home ties have
proved stronger with him than the attractions of vice, and he
still lives to demonstrate the advantage of retired virtue and
contented competence.

Instead, then, of aiming to pass the latter part of life in dan-
gerous, inglorious ease, let the ambition be to spend it in active
benevolences, happifying alike the heart of both giver and re-
ceiver, 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."

HEALTH OP STUDENTS.

Amherst College, through the agency of gentlemen who
have been admirers and readers of the Journal of Health
for some years, has established a Professorship of " Hygiene and
Physical Education," and have appointed to the chair, Dr. John
W. Hooker, the worthy son of Worthington Hooker, M.D., of
New-Haven. Prof. Hooker brings to his aid the learning and
the skill acquired from the enjoyment of the highest advan-
tages in Europe and America for perfecting his medical studies
and researches ; hence we may confidently look for success in
this first official and practical endeavor to make the health
of students a matter of systematic attention, an indispensable
branch of study in a collegiate course, and as necessary to a
diploma as a proficiency in the languages or mathematics. It is
now thirty-two years since, in a series of letters, we urged
the establishment of a similar chair in a flourishing college, but
" the time was not yet." One of the first objects in commenc-
ing the publication of this Journal was to place the knowledge
of the means of preserving the health within easy reach of
all students, especially of theological students, as will be seen

HEAETY SUPPERS. 259

by reading the prospectus in the first number. If therefore
any reader has a son ready for college, send him at once
to Amherst College, in the Old Bay State, if, while you have
an ambition that your child shall become a scholar, you have
the wisdom and the hiimanity to arrange that he shall graduate
in robust health and live a life of enjoyment and usefulness
instead of passing his weary years in tantalizing inefficiency
and wretched invalidism.

HEARTY SUPPERS.

Ik this exaggerating age, we think we can safely say, that
scarcely a day passes in which we do not receive, personally or
by letter, some manifestation of felt indebtedness to the whole-
some influence of this Journal ; and if the question is asked,
In what direction? it is most frequently answered, "In reference
to the benefits derived from abstinence, in whole or in part,
from eating any thing later than a mid-day dinner." It was
with a feeling of painful disappointment, with perhaps some
vexation, that we recently read of the death of a brother editor,
whose excellent monthly seldom failed of some extract from, or
kindly notice of, this Journal. 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 beUes-lettre
scholar. He was on a journey, on the Master's business, and
died from home. He had made up the copy for his September
issue. Two of the articles were from our August Number ;
one a plea for women, the other for children. So many good
people loved him and looked up to him ! In less than three lines
the whole story is told. " He traveled all day, ate in the
evening a hearty supper, waked up in the morning with a head-
ache, became unconscious, and died at -Q.VQ o'clock in the after-
noon, of apoplectic disease !"

Eating heartily in an exhausted, or even in a greatly debili-
tated bodily condition, is dangerous at any hour. Many 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

260 hall's jouknal of health.

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 arrestment causes a dam-
ming up of blood in the vessels of the brain, which at length
can not longer bear the distension, and burst, causing effusion
there, which is instant, sometimes, 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, spite of every effort, he
can not remove himself sufficiently fast ; the enemy 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 him-
self 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 functions of the body repose, while the
stomach has thrown upon it five hours more of additional labor,
after having already worked four or five hours to dispose of
breakfast, and a still longer time for dinner. This ten or twelve
hours of almost incessant labor has nearly exhausted its power ;
it can not promptly digest another full meal, but labors at it for
long hours together, like an exhausted galley-slave at a newly-
imposed task. The result is, that by the unnatural length of
time in which the food is kept in the stomach, and the imperfect
manner in which the exhausted organ manages it, it becomes
more or less acid ; this generates wind ; this distends the sto-
mach ; this presses itself up against the more yielding lungs
confining them to a largely diminished space; hence every
breath taken is insufficient 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

CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION. 261

suicide, as did Hugh. Miller, and multitudes of others, as to
whom the coroner's jury has returned the non-committal ver-
dict, "Died from causes unknown," if not more impiously stat-
ing, " 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 nothing
after a two o'clock dinner, and see if a sounder sleep and a more
vigorous appetite for breakfast and a hearty dinner, are not the
pleasurable results, to say nothing of the happy deliverance from
that disagreeable fullness, weight, oppression, or acidity, which
attends over-eating. The greater renovation and 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 dubious pleasure, of eating a supper with no
special relish.

CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION.

Not by bad colds, nor hereditary predisposition, nor drinking
liquor, nor tight lacing — for men do not lace, and yet as many
of them die of consumption as women ; few habitual drink-
ers die of that disease ; and as for hereditary taint and bad
colds, millions of the latter have gotten well of themselves,
while the naturally feeble are compelled to an habitual careful-
ness 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 which it ought to. The process by which
food gives flesh is a double one — digestion and assimilation ; in

262 hall's journal of health.

other words, it is the taking of the nourishment 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 result ;
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 which 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 human body, the
bowels act at least once a day ; less than that is a certain indi-
cation 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 be-
come 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 synonym of consumption !
This article might therefore be closed with the important prac-
tical inference, that by avoiding or correcting constipation, very
many of those diseases 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 ac-
tion ? what makes it torpid or work weakly ?

For the same reason that an over- worked 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 an hundred years ! Any mechanic
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, according to the greater
vigor of the constitution ; but sooner or later it lags ; it is

CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION". 263

worked to death. In the mean while, constipation 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 at-
tracted there, the liver resumes its apparent healthy function,
and the bowels remain daily acting, until death.

Over-eating, then, three times a day, may be considered as a
primary, a radical cause of the great majority of consumptive
diseases, 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/11 then
an antagonizer 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 whistling all the time.

As proof that a free open air exposure is a preventive of
consumption, it seems to be conceded that fewer persons die in
the South of that disease than in the North, among an equal
population ; the mildness of the weather, and the leisure habits
of the people, invite and allow an out-door life during all the
hours of daylight. One person out of every five dies of con-
sumption in New-England ; one in thirty-six in Georgia. We
have our Abolition friends tremendously on the hip here !
Southerners don't die of consumption a quarter as fast as the
Yankees, bedause they have negroes to do their work, while
they can ride around and enjoy the fresh air ; while Southern
negroes seldom die of consumption at all, because they have to
work so hard that the impurities of the blood are carried off by
the " sweat of the brow," so as to give the liver leisure to do its
easy work well, making the bowels act usually twice a day
when they work the hardest ; at least, this was our observation
on the plantation on which we lived when we "fleshed our
maiden lance."

264 hall's jouknal of health.

00fc QfitUtt.

Public School Singing-Book, by Prof. John Bower, teacher of music in the
Public Schools of Philadelphia, is another step towards making us a musical people.
Music and song purify the heart and the blood also ; their culture never fail to ele-
vate, under propitious influences.

Eeason and the Bible. By Miles P. Squier, D.D., Prof, of Intellectual and
Moral Philosophy, Beloit College, Wisconsin. Scribner, Publisher, 124 Grand
street, New-York, is founded in the thought that "Reason leads to Faith." 340 pp.
12mo, large type, $1. The reading of this book will sweetly confirm the humble
believer, will establish the wavering, and we trust, will convince many a "philoso-
phical " doubter that there is no firmer "foundation" than that laid in the Rock
of Calvary. To every doubting, halting man or woman, we heartily say, get it and
read it.

The Attorney. Irving. Dewitt, Publisher, is one of the most intensely inter-
esting narrations we ever found in the pages of the Knickerbocker, where it first
appeared. The scenes are laid in New-York City. The book is worth a million of
the trashy, flash productions of the times, and we trust the enterprising publisher
will find his reward in thus wisely drawing from the stronger and purer fountains
of the past.

Harry Harson, by the same author, and published by the same house, will, we
think, be inevitably read by every man who has turned the all-absorbing pages of
The Attorney.

The Movement Cure. — The most sensible " movement" that has come to our
knowledge for a long time. Dr. Taylor has written an interesting and useful book,
and extends the application of the views of Dr. Halsey, his predecessor. As we
are anxious to benefit our readers whenever it is in our power, we will condense it
for those who may not be inclined to pay a dollar for so sensible a book. Our
understanding of it is this : If you want to get well, go to work.

Beriah Green's Sermons and Discourses, with Brief Biographical Hints, 12mo,
556 pp. S. W. Green, 18 Jacob street, New- York, Publisher. With a life-like
engraving. The Rev. Beriah Green is one of the men of our time ; earnest, practi-
cal, and persistent, he has, with the advantage of a clear head, a strong mind, and
a good heart, done more for true progress than many who have made more noise
and gained more of the world's applause.

Daughters. — Our Kentucky readers — and we have a good many — are notified
that the Oxford Female College, an hour's ride by rail from Cincinnati, 0., under
the presidency of the Rev. Mr. Morris, is in most successful operation. President
Morris is himself a Kentuckian in the highest and widest sense ; frank, courteous,
and hospitable. He possesses one of the finest minds in the West. High culture
is united with untiring and indomitable energy. To be under his roof, and under
the influences of his lovely and accomplished wife, is a privilege which is to be
enjoyed by few, and parents who must send their daughters from home to be
educated, will act wisely by securing it at once.

All our publications may be had of Mr. Mowry, at the Post-Office entrance,
Philadelphia, and also of John McFarlan, 33 South Sixth street, in same city.

Please read the leader of the present number, on Periodical Literature ; mean-
while we claim for the Journal of Health, that it is one of the very few Monthlies,
not professedly religious, which has never sought to make capital for itself by
ridiculing religion, its ministers or its friends, but has always and decidedly, advo-
cated the Christianity of the Bible, and in these regards merits the patronage it
receives. We ask an equally wide one for our other monthly, The Fireside.

HALL'S JOURNAL OF HEALTH.

Our Legitimate Scope is almost boundless : for whatever begets pleasurable
and harmless feelings, promotes Health ; and whatever induces
disagreeable sensations, engenders Disease.

WE AIM TO SHOW HOW DISEASE MAY BE AVOIDED, AND THAT IT IS BEST, WHEN SICKNESS COMES, TO
TAKE NO MEDICINE WITHOUT CONSULTING A PHYSICIAN.

Vol. VII.] DECEMBER, 1860. [No. 12.

BABIES.

Some Rev. Benedictine is ventilating himself through 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 diarrhea of sweeping adjectives, not one of
which can be thought of without feelings akin to those associ
ated with a mouthful of vinegar. He thinks a great 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 " spider 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 injus.
tice are the same, when you, teach a little child to speak a dis-
torted, mangled, burlesque language, of which, when older, it
becomes ashamed. I object to this clipped and barbarous Eng-
lish, because it involves a waste of time, and brain power, and
patience." Surely this man is snuffing the wind. He must
have been in a highly imaginative mood when he wrote those
lines, or the east wind was blowing, or he had a lit of dyspepsia.
Perhaps he had just received a " mitten." At all events, his
mental vision was considerably obfuscated or preternaturally
brightened, since

NO. XII. — VOL. VII. — 1860.

266

" Optics sharp, it needs, I ween !
To see what is not to be seen."

"We indite this article for the special benefit of Babydom for
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 whose words express
the most characteristic quality of the thing named. The rum-
bling of the thunder, the hissing of a snake, the barking 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
effort 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 thing, 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 facility 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 effort
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 effort. A man must learn the pronun-
ciation 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 can not be done. The ear
must gradually learn the niceities of pronunciation by frequent
hearing, and the lips and tongue must be adjusted accordingly.

Again, all languages have forms of expression which signify
endearment or intensification. In the English it seems to be a
kind of a rhyme, such as Horsey-porsy, Piggy-wiggy, Georgy-
porgy, Lijah-py gy* Besides, a close observer may see that it is

HAPPY MARRIAGES. 267

easier to pronounce a word ending with y, than one which has
none ; just as it is easier to stop by degrees, than short off. It
is easier to say Horsey, than a clear short "Horse."

The fact is, a man can't talk dictionary himself, without pil-
ing 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 " people 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 between firm-
ness and love ; between stately dignity and an affectionate heart.
A parent's presence should carry with it the gladdening sun-
shine, 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 dictionary ; 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 mar-
riage, 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 concerned, if
these first steps had been preceded by a wise deliberation and
foresight. In almost all cases, the first "bias" is determined
by 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 richness, the color of a
curl, or the general carriage or contour of the body. Mental
and high moral qualities command respect; 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, no-

268

bility of nature, and implicit trustfulness. But for the kindling
up of real, old-fashioned, flaming, world-defying, heart-break-
ing love, the physical properties, 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
instill into the mind of the child such an aversion to certain
traits of character, and such a high estimate of certain moral
qualities, as a true wisdom would dictate in the premises.

It certainly is not an impossible thing to impress the youthful
mind with an unconquerable repugnance against a character
the most striking trait of which is a contemptible trickery, 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 spenthrift and the gamester —
against those whose prominent exhibitions demonstrate an iras-
cibility, an all-absorbing selfishness or stony-heartlessness ; or
a contempt of honest labor, of religion, or of pecuniary obliga-
tion. 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 possession
of a single favorable 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 ot
good points. First of all, the man whom you love, the woman
whom you adore, should possess a high sense of right and
wrong ; next, bodily health ; and, thirdly, moral bravery, a
courage to be industrious, economical and self-denying. With
these three traits, principle, health, and a soul that can do and
dare all that one ought to, domestic felicity will abide. None
ought to marry who can not command the means 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 rascal
always runs away when there is no bread and butter on the

PHYSIOLOGICAL FARMING. 269

table. There is more love in a fujl flour-barrel than in all the
roses and posies and woodbines that ever grew.

ISTo mechanic should marry until he is master of his trade ;
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 in-
tellect, if indeed they be not demented. To calculate, 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 peradventure.

PHYSIOLOGICAL PAEMING.

Michael Sulliyant owns, and has paid for, one hundred
thousand acres of land, near Homer, Illinois. He keeps a large
amount of money always on hand, to pay his workmen at the
end of every week. They take their breakfast at half-past five
o'clock every morning, and ride to the place of work. They
dine at noon, their dinners being carried to them. They quit
work at sundown, and ride home. In this short narration,
there is a knowledge of physiology, of body and of mind, which
is highly creditable to the Napoleon of farmers. To show tlie
wisdom of the whole arrangement, would require a commentary
of many pages. To remark in brief, profitably :

The land having been paid for, saves an immense amount of
up-hill, hard, dragging work. To have to pay out any consid-
erable part of farm earnings for eating interest, even at six per
cent, and every once in a while, an installment of the purchase-
money, instead of being able to expend these in substantial im-

270 hall's journal of health.

provements, in the purchase of fertilizers and labor-saving ma-
chines, such as McCormick's reaper, the grain-sower and the
steam plow, make the cultivation of the soil, in innumerable
cases, a literal galley- life. By this same course, many an hon-
est, industrious, and ambitious farmer has worked himself to
death, before he lived out half his days.

To "farm" pleasantly and successfully, not only must the
land be paid for, but a liberal amount of money should be on
hand to meet emergencies, and pay the laborers always, prompt-
ly, in full, at the hour, and to the last cent, in money. Such a
course will always secure the best hands, and at the lowest
prices ; and more, it keeps the men ; thus avoiding unprofitable
and troublesome changes; and if unavoidable circumstances
compel them to leave, they leave with a kindly feeling, and will
not fail to recommend others to fill their places ; hence, such a
farmer is every where spoken well of, at all times has his pick
and choice of hands, and more, he will get more work out of his
men ; for knowing that their pay is always in full, and at the
hour, they have the strongest stimulus to make an effort to re-
tain their places, and to do their work well ; and by doing it
cheerfully, they perform more work in a given time.

They take their breakfast early in the morning before they
go to their work, thus preventing the inevitable exhaustion
which results from working several hours on an empty stomach ;
and besides, largely contributing to the prevention of fever and
ague, by fortifying the stomach against the morning miasma,
which always abounds in flat and fertile countries, causing innu-
merable cases of chills, fever, diarrheas and dysenteries.

Another little item merits attention. The workmen are not
allowed to waste their early strength by walking a mile or more
to their places of labor ; means are provided for riding there, so
as to enable them to commence the day's work with the full
stock of strength secured by the rest of the night. This same
husbanding of the energies against useless waste is looked to in
having their dinners carried to the workmen ; and then, when
quite enough wearied by the legitimate labors of the day, they
ride home so as to prevent that exhaustion, that over-fatigue,
which a walk of a mile or two or three, would otherwise occa-
sion, and which would have to be subtracted from the strength

COLD-WATER BATHING. 271

of the next day. For let all remember, that the overwork of
to-day is but a draft on to-morrow, which " must be paid," in-
fallibly, and to the utmost farthing.

It is pitiful to think of unrequited toil; of unavailing
labor ; of squandered strength ; of wasting, wearing care, and of
the unsuccessful lives, which every year witnesses, by the unwis-
dom of men in owning more land than they have paid for, or
can thoroughly and easily cultivate.

In any given case, a man who has paid for his ten-acre farm,
and always has money enough on hand, without owing a dollar,
to pay his workmen, and to take advantage of passing circum-
stances, will live longer, more happily, more usefully and suc-
cessfully, than his neighbor, who works harder by many -fold, in
cultivating ten times the amount of land, yet unpaid for, who is
always "behind hand" with his laborers, and pressed for
money.

COLD-WATER BATHING.

A professional gentleman of high character and great
usefulness, writes: "My own experience is somewhat different
from your advice on the subject of bathing. I have always
found a warm bath debilitating, a cold one invigorating. When
the thermometer was below zero, and sleeping in a room with-
out fire, I have often, on rising, broken the ice in a vessel of
water, and sponged myself all over before dressing, and I
thought with decided benefit ; and now, at sixty years of age,
a cold shower-bath seems to inspire me with new life. You
will think, perhaps, that I have very healthy lungs, and an
extra supply of animal heat ; on the contrary, I was given up
in early life to die of consumption. I have been obliged to be
very regular in my habits, and very careful of exposure. Some
years ago, one of the most skillful practitioners in the city gave
it as his opinion that a portion of one lung was entirely gone."
On page 103 of the May Journal a per contra case is given, of
a cold-water bather who has since died. Single cases should
not form rules. We advised bathing once a week in warm

272

water, with soap and brush, as needful in summer-time for
personal cleanliness ; in winter, not so ^often. If such a bath
" debilitates," it is most likely owing to its being too long con-
tinued. The whole operation might be performed in less than
five minutes, and if ended with an instantaneous shower of cold
water, such a bath could scarcely fail to invigorate. We do not
advise a warm bath oftener than once a week. But we must
consult nature and facts. Each man should bathe in a manner
which, from observation and personal experiment, does him
most good. In matters of health and disease, each must be his
own rule. Immense mischief is daily done by ignoring this
principle, which is at once the dictate of a sound philosophy
and of common-sense.

Let not the reader run away with the impression that cold-
water bathing cured this case of consumption, and that by its
invigorating effects he is enabled to live in good health ; for
this restoration from an admitted consumptive condition, was
owing to the fact that the course of the malady was changed,
and its nature modified by an asthmatic turn of the disease, as
for " twenty years and more, I was greatly afflicted with asthma."
It is a settled fact in medicine, one of frequent record and of
constant occurrence, that a consumptive who becomes an asth-
matic, will with great certainty get well of his consumption,
asthma being essentially and under all circumstances antago-
nistic of consumption. In consumption, a man can not get in
enough air ; in asthma, he can not get it out. In asthma, the
lungs are too full of air; in consumption, not full enough. Be-
ing so fall, distended by the confined air, that distension after a
while becomes permanent, the asthma declines, leaving the
lungs with a larger capability of receiving air than is natural ;
hence, although the lungs may have partly decayed away, those
which remain, having greater capabilities, a man may have good
health, who had actually lost a part of his lungs by consump-
tion. It is precisely on these principles that we have treated
consumptive cases, and with occasional success, for nearly
twenty years ; not generally succeeding, in consequence of the
want of the moral courage of persistence on the part of the
patient.

RESULT OF A KIND ACTION. 273

KESULT OF A KIND ACTION.

In September, eighteen hundred and five, a poor young me-
chanic, just arrived from England, was wandering about New-
York in deep dejection ; he was without money, without friends,
and without work ; and fa.r from his native home, he knew not
which way to turn, but passing along Nassau street, an open
door encouraged him to enter. The proprietor was a very little
man indeed, perhaps five feet high, but he had a pleasant coun-
tenance and a large heart ; for upon being asked by the homeless
and penniless stranger if he could direct him to some respect-
able person who cotrid board him until he could find employ-
ment, and thus obtain the means of payment, the storekeeper,
pleased with the expression and demeanor of the eighteen-year-
old boy, had it in his heart to offer him the desired favor him-
self; but he had a wife, whom he knew to be a woman of rare
worth, for she was prudent, self-denying, and humane. He
might have known what would be her answer, for he had only
to make the proposition in a way to indicate his own views, and
it would have met with, an instantaneous and cheerful acqui-
escence, unless from some almost insuperable reason. The
young stranger was admitted into the family. But the yellow
fever was raging in the city. In less than a week the poor lad
was stricken with it, and — recovered ! although he was at
the point of death for several days. During his illness, he was
cared for by his kind host and hostess, with an assiduity and
watchfulness which only they know who act from sterling prin-
ciple and a high humanity. Just a quarter of a century later,
this same man was applied to by Major Noah, of pleasant me-
mories, who was then surveyor of the port of New- York, to put
together a machine in the Custom-House, and take models of
its various parts. This was done, and the mechanic conceived
the idea of constructing a similar article, which should excel
any thing of the kind for efficiency in the Old World or the
New, and he succeeded. He died in eighteen hundred and
thirty-three. His son succeeded him in business, and inheriting
the inventive genius of his father, combined with rare business
tact and indomitable energy, he has added improvement to im-

274 hall's journal of health.

provement, until lie has made the whole civilized world his
debtor. There is not one of all its millions of families which
does not every day derive great benefit therefrom. It carries
light to every household ; hour by hour is lifting the degraded
and the fallen, and is aiding in the revolutionizing of all nations
which exist by oppression, wrong-doing, and injustice. But
that machine, what is it ? Fifty years ago one might have been
purchased entire for a hundred or two dollars ; a common dry-
goods box might have easily contained all its parts ; but now,
in its perfected state, it occupies a space of fifteen feet high and
forty feet long ; it is made of fourteen thousand seven hundred
and thirty parts, weighs fifty thousand pounds, and costs thirty
thousand dollars. One of its belongings, not named above, is
thirty thousand and sixty-three yards of tape. The penniless
English lad was Eobert Hoe. The Good Samaritans of Fulton
street were Grant Thorburn and his wife, the latter ,an angel
now ; the former "still living " in an honored old age, by seven
years over four score. The machine is Hoe's ten-cylinder
printing-press, as now in operation in the office of the New-
York World, and the largest ever made.

The first and only newspaper of our childhood was printed
on a press which, with the aid of three men, turned out forty
or fifty impressions in an hour. When on the twenty-ninth
day of November, eighteen hundred and fourteen, the London
Times announced that it was printed by a machine which made
eleven hundred impressions in an hour, the whole city was as-
tonished, and the pressmen themselves looked on in mute won-
der and admiration ; but to-day, through the agencies of Eobert
Hoe, the English lad of eighteen hundred and five, of the kindly
Grant Thorburn and his wife, and Richard M. Hoe of New-
York, there are made at the office of the World, in Printing-
House Square, twenty -five thousand impressions in sixty
minutes. Who can disclaim indebtedness to these four names ?
The merchant who sips his coffee at breakfast, and reads the
latest news up to two or three o'clock in the morning, perhaps
forgets to whom he is indebted for that pleasure ; and so with
the day -laborer, who finds time to glean from his paper, at a
cost of one cent, what is going on throughout the habitable globe
ere he sallies forth to his daily toil. Rich, and poor, learned

A BOOK NOT FOK SALE. 275

and unlearned, all should remember with respect and gratitude
the heads and the hearts to which every day makes them re-
newed debtors, to wit, to Kobert Hoe and his son Kichard M.,
to Grant Thorburn and his noble wife.

Keader, remember that kind acts pay ; the influence of each
for good drifts over the sea of time, and will drift till time shall
be no more. Gro forthwith, then, " while the day lasts," and
perform as many as you can.

A BOOK NOT FOR SALE.

We have just published a new book, of 300 pages, twelvemo,
entitled, Sleep. The preface reads thus :

"It is the end and aim of this book to show that as a means
of high health, pure blood and a strong mind to old and young,
sick or well, each one should have a single bed, in a large, clean,
light room, so as to pass all the hours of sleep in a pure fresh
air, and that those who fail in this, will in the end fail in health
and strength of limb and brain, and will die while yet their
days are not all told."

The first chapter is on " Sleeping with the Old," and begins
as follows :

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

Next follows one of the sweetest descriptions of a human
cherub and its fading, failing, falling into the cold, dark grave
so soon ! The idea of the book is that, as we spend a clean
third of our existence in our chambers, it is absolutely essential
to sound health and vigor of constitution, that a pure air be
breathed all that time. The sources of impurity are enume-
rated. The effects of breathing these impurities are described
in all degrees, from the slow poisoning of months and weary

276

years, without the victims being conscious of the fact or the
cause, to the instantaneous death. The methods of preventing
these impurities are clearly described, with the great wrong
done to ourselves, and the inhumanity to our children, by their
neglect. It is argued that the young should not sleep with the
old, the well with the sick, the strong with the feeble, as per-
nicious results follow to one party, without any possible good
to the other. Ill effects follow from children sleeping with
one another, bad habits are formed, with the horrible results of
their indulgence ; the impositions practiced on the suffering by
unprincipled individuals and societies with benevolent names ;
the only safe and efficient hygienical means are pointed out,
and which should be under parental application, the interven-
tion of third parties being unnecessary. In describing the
manner in which chambers may be supplied with a pure air,
the subject of building, warming, and ventilating houses is dis-
cussed, and the latest plans described. Striking authenticated
facts are presented, which show how bodily emanations speedily
corrupt the air of a whole room, and how they may destroy
fifty or a hundred lives in a few hours. The remedy proposed
is large rooms and separate beds for all. The book contains
information which ought to be possessed by every family, by
every parent who has a child yet to reach twenty-one years of
age, and by every human being who sleeps within any four
walls. Supposing that about a third of our subscribers might
want such a book, we have printed an edition of that propor-
tion ; it will be furnished in the order of application ; the dilatory
will have to go without one. As a means of making a small
edition save us from actual loss, the following offer is made to
those who desire to possess it. Three dollars will pay for the
book and two subscriptions to the Journal of Health for one
year; or for the book and the Journal of Health with the Fire-
side Monthly for one year, the latter being separately $1.50 a
year. The object of this offer is to induce our subscribers to
add to our subscription-list, by using their influence in inducing
some friend to take our Monthly ; and for the time and trouble
expended in using such influence, they will be paid by getting
a book which, singly, money will not at present buy. Any
one sending three subscriptions to the Journal of Health, or
two to the Fireside, will be entitled to the book for their trou-
ble.

PEINTERS' DISEASES. 277

PRINTERS' DISEASES.

Many printers are in the habit of holding types between
their 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 life away 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 pre-
vention, by keeping the type out of the mouth. The most com-
mon of all diseases among printers are those of the air-passages,
of which bronchitis is the most frequent. Next to that, inflam-
mation of the lungs and consumption, in consequence 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 theii
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 con-
dition that follows a ten hours' labor, they come out on the
street, stand around 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, especially among pressmen. Dimness of
sight, short-sightedness and weakness of eyes, are very common,
in consequence of the constant strain on that organ, and its ex-
posure to artificial light. Fissures and hard lumps often form
on the forefinger 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 pre-
cautions were habitually taken :

278 hall's journal of health.

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.

INFANTS BATING AND SLEEPING.

In" our new book on Sleep, as to the importance of sleep-
ing soundly and in a pure atmosphere, the following sugges-
tions are for the abatement of the nuisance of crying and
colicky babies, for how can a poor fellow, who has been work-
ing hard all day in brain or body, get any kind of rest, repose,
and recuperation, when there is a little responsibility a yawp-
ing and a squirming around, as if a young boa-constrictor were
experimenting on every bone of its body ! "We would just
like to know hov^ it is possible to get even a scintillation of a
doze, under the very afflicting and inflicting circumstances of
the case. JSTow for the remedy, at least in part.

An infant should not be allowed to sleep for several hours
previous to its bed-time, which should be about one hour after
Run-down, when it should be fed and put to sleep. When the
mother retires, it should be fed again ; then if the crib be on
the same level with the bed, and close to it with the side let
down, the mother can place the child in it without straining
herself. At the end of several hours, hunger will wake it up,
when it can be nursed, replaced in its crib and sleep soundly
until the morning, if it has not been allowed to sleep too long
or too late in the afternoon, and thus afford the wearied mother
a delicious night's rest, to arise in the morning with a reno-
vated system, refreshed, thankful, and hopeful, and ready to
enter on the duties of the day with a light and cheerful heart.
On the other hand, in consequence of bad management and a
want of system as to the times of eating and sleeping for the
nursling, and by keeping it in the same bed with her, it be-
comes restless, it wakes up a dozen times perhaps in a night,
and each time, by some noise or motion rouses the mother,

EATING AND SLEEPING. 279

with the result of depriving her of that rest and repose which
she so much requires, and the morning finds the body still
weary, the mind discouraged and depressed, totally unfitted
for the proper discharge of household duties, as is too plainly
indicated by the expression of listlessness and sadness which
pervades the features. Indeed, a mother can better afford to
eat too little than to sleep too little, but by arranging to have
the regularities named carried out for several nights in succes-
sion, there will be a happy change in all respects. When a
child is six months old, it can safely fast five or six hours if
asleep, and, as before, if fed a little before sun down, it should
be put to bed a little later, and not be allowed to take any
thing more until the mother retires for the night, which may
be about ten o'clock, and if nursed then, it need not be repeated
until the morning, thus allowing the mother to have her "first"
sleep uninterrupted, a consummation so earnestly desired by
many an overtaxed wife, but which she is unable to arrange
for want of a little thought, firmness and management. The
reader is earnestly requested to make particular note of it, that
the seeds of a lifetime suffering, if not an early death, are sown
in the constitutions of children by their own mothers during
the nursing period. Millions of children die before they are
two years old, by a wrong system of feeding, originating in the
ignorance of the parents. The instinct and the highest pleasure
of the new-born child is to eat, it is the balm for all its cries, it
hushes every complaint. The young mother soon finds this
out, and putting it to the breast is the panacea for infant fretful-
ness. But it soon happens that the stomach is overtaxed. A
second feeding occurs before the first has been disposed of; the
stomach is thus kept working all the time, and soon has not
the strength to work any longer, and the food being unacted
upon, begins to ferment, turns sour, generates wind, and this is
the " colic" of infancy. Colic gives pain, pain excites crying,
to quiet which, food is given, or " soothing" syrups are admin-
istered, with the inevitable result, in all cases, of exaggerating
the trouble sooner or later ; and in countless instances, there is
a speedy and entire breaking down of the system, and death
ends the outrage, as to the child, but in the mean while, by rea-
son of the child's sufferings, many a night has been passed in
sleepnessness by both parents.

280 hall's journal of health.

/

END OF HABITUAL DRINKERS.

Dr. Hall's new book on Sleep states, in connection
with the uneasy slumbers attendant on late dinners and hearty
suppers, and the plea of "assisting digestion" with wine,
brandies, or other beverages, that :

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

BOUND VOLUMES.

The Journal of Health for eighteen hundred and sixty, is
already bound uniformly with the previous volumes, with a
copious index and title-page. We will exchange it at our
office for the loose numbers, and twenty-five cents in addition
to pay for the binding. Missing numbers will be supplied at
eight cents each.

The old numbers of the Journal, previous to eighteen hun-
dred and sixty, will be received at our office until February
next, at five cents each, for new subscriptions on any of our
publications. We can print them for two cents each, but the
offer is made to encourage our subscribers to have the Journal
of Health in the more substantial form of a bound volume,
for the character of the articles is such, that they will be almost
if not quite, as practical and useful in nineteen hundred as they
are now.

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 ev-il in
the world and sorrow ; they see oppression and degradation, and
while observing them, feel the more, in that they have experiences
in the same directions ; tearful, bitter, almost heart-breaking exper-
iences, it may be, and in blindness and powerlessness they are grop-
ing about wearily and painfully for a remedy.

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 systems, 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 Bible 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 im-
plied assent to their whole system, and drawing some 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 lunacy, 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 bitter-
ness towards opponents, and especially is a bitterness exhibited to-
wards ministers, and churches, and communities, in proportion as
these appear thriving, prosperous, and happy. Kor is this all ; the
rich are their universal anvil ; on it they pound most mercilessly.
With them, the selfishness of the rich is an exhaustless 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
miilenium would come in a very few clays ; 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 was prosperous and happy too ;
just as a short time before, they had concluded that everybody was
poor, and wretched, and miserable, because they were so themselves.

282 hall's jouenal of health

We earnestly counsel any chance reader of this article who has
no heart-warming and cheerful religious faith of his own, to disabuse
himself of the notion that the whole world is going wrong, by sim-
ply 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 im-
plicit faith in the great general doctrines of religion, of repentance,
faith, and a new life ; of the forgiveness of sins, of spiritual holifica-
cation, 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 oh 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 knowledge 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. Rest-
less wanderers ! if you will not believe this, " come and see."

PIANO FORTES.

There is a time-honored and mammoth building cornering on
Fourteenth street and Third avenue, which has met the familiar gaze
of such of our citizens as have been accustomed to pass that way,
for perhaps a greater part of the present half century. This build-
ing stretching its immense length along two streets, is devoted exclu-
sively to the manufacture of the Worcester Piano, which has a name
for durability of structure and sweetness of tone which ought, if it has
not, to have made the fortune of any man of moderate ambitions.
But it is not as easy now as formerly, to make a fortune by strictly
honest dealing ; if done at all, it is only until a man has become
decrepid and gray, and almost ready to take his departure on the
ret urnless journey; one of the reasons of this is found in an article
in the July number, headed " unskilled labor."

Another, at least temporary drawback, as to a speedy fortune by
strict business integrity, is the want of means on the part of the
many, to secure the best materials for their particular handicrafts.
Sometimes on account of a want of foresight or thrift, or a still
more unpardonable want of knowledge, materials are needed for
the construction of a superior article, which no money can purchase,
and time only can procure the needed supply.

PIANO FOKTES. 283

Too many of our mechanical men live from hand to mouth, and
the material purchased yesterday, must be used to-day ; in proof,
look at any floor in any brown stone or marbled front, in the whole
city of New York, constructed within the last five years, and it will
be scarcely possible to find a well-fitting door, an easy moving
drawer or window sash, while the joints in the floors will measure
from a quarter to half an inch or more. This is so undeniable, that
builders find it the shortest cut to say, that it is owing to furnace
heat ; and yet, Forty-two Irving Place, which has a furnace only for
appearances, can show floors on either story half an inch apart at
the ends of the boards, and at the sides in proportion.

When, however, there is a business integrity, and abundant
means to employ the best materials in fabrics of any description,
two results always show themselves, a good name and an ultimate
prosperity ; hence the reputation and success of the establishment in
question, whose instruments stand the test of all weathers, from
Canada to Cuba, and from the borders of the Atlantic to the shores
of the Pacific Sea.

To make this practically useful to all young mechanics, the secret
ehould be communicated, and it consists in three things :

1. A faithful apprenticeship to a good master.

2. A timely supply of the very best materials ;

3. Making them up without haste, and with the utmost careful-
ness.

In the case above, the wood of important parts is obtained years
beforehand; it undergoes a most minute examination as to its
soundness, passing through a long seasoning, according to the vary-
ing thickness and hardness of the particular wood, and if at the end
of this tedious process, the material remains sound and hard, with-
out a blemish, it is used, and not otherwise. It is thus by making
each particular instrument as if for his own personal use, almost
living in the same building with the workmen, passing through
every room at any hour of the day, making the employes feel as
if they were watched every moment ; it is by these means, we re-
peat, that the Piano Fortes of this house have acquired a reputation
at home and abroad, which requires an almost daily shipment to
other countries as well as to the various parts of our own.

To every young mechanic we therefore say, the path of a certain
and honorable success for you is,

1. Be thorough masters of your calling; and,

2. Give honest material and honest work to every article which
leaves your establishment.

284

THE YOUNG AND POOB.

To be young is glorious ; to be poor and young, with a will
to excel, is one of the greatest blessings which can befall a
youth, as it is a certain curse, and a deep one, to be young and
rich, and have no ambition bat to lounge about, with the only
aim of whiling away the time until the death of parents puts
them in possession of inherited treasures. There are three
books which merit a place in every public library, and which
would be of inestimable value to any family of children, and to
any youth who has the courage and energy to achieve a name
or a position : Smiles1 Self-Help, 75 cents ; Life of George Ste-
phenson, $1 ; Brief Biographies, $1.25. They show, by sim-
ple facts, in plain and vigorous language, what a multitude
of men were as boys, poor, without influence, and in cases
not a few, without friends who had the ability to give them the
slightest aid. Let every parent who is anxious that his child
should live to purpose, and who would place before him the
high stimulus of honorable example to that same end, give that
child these three books, opportunely published, in inviting
style, by the Messrs. Ticknor & Fields. They can be had at
any first-class book-store.

MATCHES.

The fumes arising from Lucifer matches, says Dr. Hall's new
book on Sleep and the ventilation of chambers, are so destruc-
tive to the girls employed in the factories, that some of the
European governments have taken measures to suppress them.
Horrible ulcers form in the flesh, and fasten on the jaw-bone,
eating it away by slow degrees. A single box of common
matches will scent a room for several days ; and children have
been poisoned by eating them, as they have a sweetish taste.
It is, therefore, a matter of public gratulation that a patent has
been obtained for making strela matches — a Eussian term for
"lightning." They are without sulphur and without smell; are
beautifully varnished, and are warranted to stand both damp
and hot climates. A box of sulphur-matches contains eighty,
and retails at one cent ; a box of strela matches contains one
hundred and fifty, at two cents. By the ten-gross case, they
are wholesaled at one dollar and sixty cents per gross of one
hundred and forty-four boxes. They light instantly and easily.

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES

III

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