University of Virginia Library

24. General Health Hints.

THE frequent allusion in the preceding chapters of this work to the necessity for the care of the general health, and the relation of the various disorders mentioned to general bodily health, will naturally have created in the mind of the interested reader a desire for further information upon this important subject; and there is no class of persons for whom information of this character is more desirable, and of greater practical value if accepted and carried out, than those who are suffering the results of any of the forms of sexual transgression which have been referred to in the preceding chapters. One who finds himself early in life bankrupt of vitality as the result of squandering his nerve force and physical energies in the indulgence of vicious propensities, certainly needs the help of all the aids to recovery which can be afforded by a knowledge of the laws which relate to the general well-being of the body.

Of those into whose hands this work may fall, there will be many who have fortunately escaped the pitfalls which the author has endeavored faithfully to point out, and who, he trusts, may be by the perusal of this volume inspired with that degree of reverence for the crowning work of the Divine Author of our existence, and such a sense of the binding obligation of physical law, that they will welcome any information which will aid in elevating

them to a higher plane of existence, to a life of physical rectitude which is the best foundation for a high grade of mental and moral culture.

It is hoped that in the following pages, which are made up of somewhat miscellaneous observations upon health topics, the reader will find much which will interest him, and which may prove of real and lasting benefit if adopted in his daily life.

Hygiene of the Muscles. — The following remarks on this subject are extracted from another work by the author, "The Home Hand-Book of Domestic Hygiene and Rational Medicine": —

How to Take Exercise. — It is not sufficient to simply take exercise indiscriminately, and without reference to the object for which it is taken, the manner, time, etc. It must be taken regularly, systematically, at proper times, and in proper quantities. Perhaps we cannot do better in treating this subject practically than to ask and answer some of the most important questions relating to this matter.

1. When is the best time to exercise? There is a popular theory extant that exercise taken early in the morning has some specific virtue superior to that taken at any other time. After careful observation on the subject, we have become convinced that this popular notion is a mistake when adopted as a rule for everybody. For many busy professional men, especially lawyers, editors, authors, clergymen, teachers, and others whose vocations keep them mostly indoors, the morning may be the only time when exercise can be taken conveniently; and if not taken at this time it is likely to be neglected altogether. Such persons, unless they are laboring

under some special derangement of the health, as dyspepsia or some other constitutional malady, had better by far take the morning walk or other form of exercise than to take none at all. However, we are pretty well convinced that for most persons the middle of the forenoon is a much better time to take any kind of active or vigorous exercise. In the morning, the circulation is generally weakest, and the supply of nerve force is the least abundant. In the forenoon, when the breakfast has been eaten and digestion has become well advanced, the system is at its maximum of vigor; hence, if the individual is at liberty to choose his time for exercise, this should be his choice.

For poor sleepers, a half-hour's exercise taken in the evening not long before retiring, will often act like a soporific, and without any of the unpleasant after-effects of drugs.

Vigorous exercise should never be taken immediately, nor within an hour, after a meal, and should not be taken immediately before eating. Disregard for this rule is a very common cause of dyspepsia.

2. What kind of exercise shall be taken? The answer to this question must, of course, vary with the individual. Exercise must be modified to suit the strength, the age, the sex, and even the tastes of the individual. As a general rule, persons who take exercise for health are apt to overdo the matter, the result of which is damage rather than benefit. For most persons, there is no more admirable and advantageous form of exercise than walking; but many find walking simply for exercise too tedious to persevere in it regularly. Such will find advantage in walking in companies, pro-

vided care is taken to avoid all such questionable diversions as walking matches, or any kind of exercise in which there will be a strife which will be likely to excite to excess.

Horseback-riding, for those who ride well and enjoy this form of exercise, may be of great benefit. It is not so well suited for ladies as for men, however, on account of the awkward and unnatural manner in which custom compels them to ride. It is impossible for a lady to ride with the same degree of comfort, ease, and grace that her male companion may, on account of the one-sided way in which she sits in the saddle. In many countries, ladies ride in the same manner as men; with them, of course, this objection does not hold.

Horseback-riding is an excellent aid to digestion, and often effectually relieves habitual constipation of the bowels.

Carriage riding is worth little as a form of exercise except for very feeble invalids, for whom the gentle swaying of the vehicle and the excitement of viewing objects seldom seen may be sufficient and appropriate exercise. Riding in a lumber wagon over a corduroy road is about the only kind of carriage riding which is worth speaking of as exercise for people in ordinary health.

Skating, rowing, racing, base-ball, foot-ball, dancing, and most other exercises of the sort, are more often harmful than otherwise, because carried to excess, and associated with other evils of a pernicious character. Performance upon the trapeze, boxing, and pugilistic training, are open to the same objection. Calisthenics, for school-children and young students, is a most admir-

able form of exercise. It is also well adapted to invalids who are unable to walk more than a short distance at a time. In our opinion, every home ought to be fitted out with all the conveniences for parlor gymnastics. They afford not only healthful exercise, but a large amount of excellent amusement for the little folks.

For the majority of persons, no form of exercise is more highly beneficial, healthwise, than some kind of physical labor. For ladies, general housework is admirably adapted to bring into play all the different muscles of the body, while affording such a variety of different exercises and such frequent change that no part need be very greatly fatigued. There are thousands of young ladies pining under the care of their family physician in spite of all he can do by the most learned and complicated prescriptions, for whom a change of air or a year's residence in some foreign clime, or some similar expensive project, is proposed, when all in the world that is needed to make the delicate creatures well, is to require them to change places with their mothers for a few weeks or months. Let them cease thrumming the piano or guitar for a time, and learn to cook, bake, wash, mend, scrub, sweep, and perform the thousand and one little household duties that have made their mothers and grandmothers well and robust before them. We made such a prescription once for a young lady who had been given up to die of consumption by a gray-headed doctor, and whose friends were sadly watching her decline, and in six weeks the young miss was well, and has been so ever since; but we entailed her everlasting dislike, and have no doubt that any physician or other person who should adopt the same course in similar cases will often be similarly rewarded.

For young men, there is no better or healthier exercise than sawing and chopping wood, doing chores about the house, working in the garden, caring for horses or cows, clearing walks, bringing water, or even helping their mothers in laundry work. Such exercise is light, varied, oft changing, and answers all the requirements for health most admirably. We can heartily recommend it, and from personal experience, too. We advise all young men, who can possibly get a chance, to adopt this form of exercise as being the most certain of bringing back the largest returns for a given expenditure of force of any which can be suggested. There is no gymnasium in the world which is better calculated to secure excellent results from exercise than the kitchen, the wash-room, the workshop, the woodyard, the barn, and the garden. These are nature's gymnasia. They require no outlay for special appliances, and are always fitted up for use.

Deficient Exercise of Students. — The common idea that study and brain work are harmful, has chiefly grown out of the fact that students usually confine themselves too closely to their books, keep late hours, and take as little as possible of active out-of-door exercise. There is no doubt but that the majority of students could do more work and better if they would devote at least two hours of each day to purely physical exercise. In ancient Greece, in the palmy days of that empire, physical training was considered as much a part of the necessary education of young men as their mental culture. Every inducement was offered to them to make themselves strong, vigorous, and athletic. Their schools were called gymnasia, on account of the attention given to gymnastics.

The young women, too, were trained in physical exercises as well as the young men. Small waists and delicate forms, white, soft, helpless hands and tiny feet were not prized among the pioneers of modern civilization. The mothers of heroes and philosophers were not pampered and petted and spoiled by indulgence. They were inured to toil, to severe exercise. Their bodies were developed so as to fit them for the duties of maternity, and give them constitutions to bequeath to their children which would insure hardihood, courage, and stamina in the conflict with the world to obtain a subsistence, and with human foemen in the rage of battle. The women developed by this system of culture, were immortalized in marble, and the beauty of their forms has been the envy of the world from that day to this; yet no one seems to think of attempting to gain the same beauty in the same way. It might be done; there is no reason why it cannot be; but the only way is the one which the Grecian women adopted, — physical culture.

Overtraining. — The careful observation of results in large numbers of cases shows very clearly that there is such a thing as overtraining, and that excessive development of the muscular system is not only not advantageous, but absolutely harmful. Trainers are not long-lived. Dr. Winship, who developed his muscles until he was able to lift three thousand pounds, died when he should have been in his prime. The result of overtraining, or excessive development of the muscular system, is the weakening of other vital parts of the body. Symmetrical development is the best for health and long life. This is what we plead for, not for

extremes in any direction. Let the nerves and the muscles be developed together and equably, and we shall have better results from both than would otherwise be possible. Mens sana in corpore sano was the motto of the ancient Greeks; and the experience of every day shows that the man with strong muscles and good digestion, with fair intellectual abilities, is the one who wins the goal to-day in the strife for wealth and fame and all that men seek after. "A sound mind in a sound body" is as necessary for assured success in life in the nineteenth century as when the sentiment was first inscribed upon the gates of the temples of ancient Greece.

Necessity for Unrestrained Action. — A muscle tied up is rendered as helpless as though it were paralyzed. It will be observed that when a muscle acts, it does so by swelling out in thickness, while contracting in length. From this it will be evident that if a tight band is put around a muscle in such a manner as to prevent its expansion or increase in thickness, it cannot possibly act. Hence, a fundamental requisite of healthful muscular action is entire freedom from restraint. Unrestrained action is indispensable to complete action and perfect development. When a broken arm is done up in a splint for a few weeks, upon removing the bandage it is usually found that the arm has shrunken in size; the muscles have wasted, partly in consequence of pressure, and partly on account of the enforced inaction of the muscles. The very same thing happens whenever pressure is brought to bear upon the muscular tissues.

Spring Biliousness. — Biliousness is not, as most people suppose, a disease of the liver, but pertains

almost altogether to the stomach. It is chiefly the result of overeating, eating too freely of sweets, pastry, fats, and highly seasoned dishes. The cold, tonic air of the winter months antidotes the bad influence of these digressions in diet to some degree; but as the warm, relaxing weather of spring comes on, the stomach begins to fail more perceptibly in its efforts to accomplish the unnecessary and injurious labor imposed upon it. Indigestion is the result. By and by the poor stomach gets so far behind in its work that it is altogether overwhelmed and disabled, and the difficulty culminates in a bilious attack, which is nothing more nor less than a cessation of work on the part of the stomach. The over-worked organ needs rest. A bilious attack can always be prevented by giving the stomach rest, by fasting a meal or two before the final crash comes. No organ in the body will endure more abuse and still patiently continue its work than the stomach; but finally forbearance ceases to be a virtue, and the faithful servant rebels against abuse. Correct and properly regulate the diet, and there will be no trouble with bilious attacks at any season of the year.

The Tobacco Bondage. — The following forcible article on the subject of tobacco-using was contributed by Hon. Neal Dow, in response to an invitation of the author, to the columns of his journal, Good Health, a few years ago, but is so excellent as to be deserving of a more permanent record than the columns of a monthly journal. It is well worthy of thoughtful perusal: —

"I do not think there is in the world a more absurd custom than that of the tobacco habit. There are many things about it worse than the absurd, but this particu-

lar feature is in my mind now. The Chinese women have crippled feet, which renders it almost impossible for them to walk; it is not their fault, the deformity is inflicted upon them in childhood. The natives of some barbarous countries are tattooed the operation inflicting upon them great and protracted pain. The natives of some other countries have flattened heads, — a wrong imposed upon them from their infancy. Some African tribes knock out the two upper front teeth of every male, and others have the front teeth filed like those of a saw. There are many other deformities found among savages, but none of them so absurd as the tobacco habit.

"Here is a minister, possibly a Doctor of Divinity, smoking a cigar; there is a reason for it, there must be; what is it? Ask him. He will say, `It's a great pleasure.' Is that true? — No, it's false; it is not in any proper sense a pleasure. Then why does he practice that disgusting habit? — Because it is a necessity to him, not because it's a pleasure. How a necessity? — Be cause if he could not smoke, he would be in great torment.

"The hard drinker does not take the alcohol because he likes it, but for the same reason that the tobacco slave takes that drug; viz, if he did not, he would be in agony. The alcoholic slave has brought himself by degrees into his wretched condition, precisely in the same way that the tobacco slave has lost his liberty, but with far more excuse, or rather with far less liability to the contempt of men of independent minds and independent ways of life and action. Why? — Because all alcoholic drinks can be easily made extremely

pleasant to the taste of beginners in the downward road, which is never the case with tobacco. This is so loathsome and disgusting and repulsive to the system, that in acquiring the tobacco habit, the novice is desperately sick for days, sometimes for many weeks. There is scarcely any other sickness so dreadful as that caused by the tobacco to beginners. There is dreadful vomiting, with splitting headache, livid lips, parched tongue, and eyes like those of dead fish.

"Then why do these poor fools persevere? — Because they are such very poor fools as to believe it to be manly to smoke or chew! Why? — Because others do it. Men or boys, even of independent minds, judge for themselves as to what is right and proper or otherwise, and will not be led into any habit or way of life blindly, simply because others do it.

"But now the young man has `conquered his prejudices' and has `learned to smoke.' What has he acquired by it? — Nothing but the tobacco habit. Is there no good in it whatever, no pleasure? — None; it is simply the tobacco habit which has such a mastery over its victim that he must yield to its demands under the penalty of intolerable pain and suffering, pains so great that it is very difficult for the strongest men to endure them.

"I called at a gentleman's office one day, and found him smoking. I said to him: —

" `What would you give if you had never learned to smoke?' He paused a moment, and replied:

" `Every dollar I have in the world.'

" `Then why do you not abandon the habit?'

" `I cannot now do that; I could not endure the suffering it would cause me.'

"Ask any man of forty years, and he will tell you he is very sorry he learned to use tobacco, but cannot now abandon the habit. A friend of mine was a tobacco slave for many years, and had made frequent vain attempts to emancipate himself. At last, he resolved that come what might, he would be a wretched slave to tobacco no longer. He told me afterward that the struggle with the habit was more fearful than he could describe, and added, that all the money in the Bank of England would not tempt him to endure the like again.

"Can a smoker be an honest and honorable man? Can he? I do not answer, I ask the question. In the street, on steamboats, in public places, in railway cars, everywhere, in fact, except in smoking cars or in smoking rooms, we have a right, all of us, to the free, fresh, pure air. This is as much our right as the purse in our pocket. No one has more right to take it from us than he has to pick our pockets. Has he? I ask the question. It's my view that he has not. Am I mistaken? To pick a pocket is stealing, robbery; what is it to take away the pure air from another, and to put stinking, poisoned air in its place?

"To sit beside another at the table, and sprinkle his food with cayenne pepper or cover it with mustard, or flavor it with asafetida, — what would such a procedure be called? What word is there in our language by which to characterize it? How would that differ from infusing a disgusting stench into the air for others to breathe? To flavor or poison another's food in that way would be called an intolerable abomination, and the doing of it would expose the party to a summary expulsion from decent society. But the poisoning of the air

which others must breathe is so common a thing to do, so many persons practice it who would not pick a pocket, or poison other people's food, that most persons do not look upon it in its true light.

"I have often seen in the streets, ladies and others walk very slowly or stop upon the sidewalk to allow the smoke to pass on out of smelling distance. I have also seen people cross the street to avoid the stench of tobacco, which to many persons is intolerable. Have these people an undoubted right to the free, fresh air as they walk the streets? Then what term are we to apply to the act of poisoning — for tobacco smoke is a poison — the air for them to breathe? How may we justly stigmatize those who do it?

" `But people can endure the tobacco smoke, they can pass along the streets in spite of it. Then why make a fuss about it?' Yes, so they could pass the sidewalks somehow, if piled up with boxes, bales, and barrels, and intersected with ditches and holes; but for all that, people have a right to unencumbered passage ways. Am I wrong?"

A Healthy Smell. — Some years ago we had occasion to request a gentleman to give attention to the condition of his back yard, which was in great need of the services of a scavenger, containing in addition to a very foul barn-yard and a much neglected privy, the carcasses of two dead horses buried a little beneath the surface. We expected that only a gentle hint would be necessary to secure prompt attention to the matter, as the party was almost a fanatic on the subject of diet. Imagine, then, our surprise when this radical advocate of vegetarianism and many other good reforms retorted, "Some people's

noses turn up at every little smell. Why! a barn-yard smell is the healthiest kind of a smell, and I have always been told it was good for consumption."

There was a time when such notions seem to have been generally prevalent. A few hundred years back, the streets of London were in a worse condition than the back yard referred to, — a cordial invitation for the Great Plague, which came in due time. According to an eminent European authority, personal cleanliness was for a thousand years so universally disregarded "that scarce a man, woman, or child throughout Europe made a practice of daily ablution. During this carnival of filth, again and again the Black Death ravaged European countries. In the reign of Justinian, as Gibbon records, a large proportion of the human race was swept away by an epidemic which, with but slight intermissions, raged for fifty years. In Constantinople, 1,000 grave-diggers, in constant employ, could not hide away fast enough the victims of this dreadful disorder. We have all been made acquainted, through the ghastly picture drawn by Baccaccio, with the fearful plague that desolated Florence in the fourteenth century, and by Defoe, with the ravages of the Great Plague in London."

When spring approaches, it is important to be on the lookout for possible sources of air contamination when the winter ice is melted, and the conditions favorable for decomposition are developed. Let every nook and corner of the house, the cellar, the back yard, and the entire premises be thoroughly inspected so as to eradicate every possible source for germs to germinate and multiply. The germ question has come to be an intensely practical one; and everybody ought to know enough

about it to be fully awake to the danger from this source, and anxious to take every precaution to escape injury themselves, and secure safety to others.

Clothing of Children. — A point of primary importance in regard to the clothing of children which mothers should ever bear in mind, is the fact that frequent changes are necessitated by the almost constant changes of temperature in this climate. The weather of a temperate climate is always subject to changes which will be recognized, and should be as far as possible anticipated, by the careful mother. Children possess very little power to resist the influence of cold or heat. Their vital functions, while very active, are more easily disturbed than those of older people, hence they are more susceptible to injury from change of weather than older persons. Mothers should be constantly on the lookout for changes which may involve the life of their little ones. The fashion of putting on flannel under-garments at the beginning of the cold season of the year, and putting them off again at the beginning of spring, is a pernicious one. There is no time of year when flannel clothing is more imperiously required than in the cool, damp days of spring and the occasional cool days in summer. Clothing should be adjusted to the weather of each day independently. In the winter time, an unusually cold day demands an additional supply of clothing; in summer time an unusually hot day may require an opposite change of garments. In the spring and autumn, particularly when the weather is very changeable, it may be necessary to change the clothing two or three times a day in order to meet the exigences of the weather.

Children should never be allowed to suffer for the want of a change of this kind simply because the needed garment has been soiled or must be saved for Sunday wear, or for any other trivial reason. If a child cannot be properly clothed, it should be sent to bed and kept there until the proper garments can be provided for it. The excuse which mothers often make for carelessness in this particular, that "they have been too busy" to make the necessary garments for the little one who has outgrown its old clothing, is no justification for such neglect; and it will generally be found that the required time has been worse than wasted in the preparation of unwholesome dishes which will have no other influence than to deprave the taste and to undermine the health of husband and children, or in the entertainment of fashionable friends who are themselves squandering valuable time which belongs properly to their children, in the discussion of the latest fashions or the most recent scandal suit.

The clothing of the child at night is also a matter of importance. As a rule, flannel night-gowns should be worn, as by this means the little one avoids the chill often given by coming in contact with cotton or linen sheets, and is better protected from the chilly night air if, as is often the case, it becomes uncovered in the night by the displacement of the bed covers through its restlessness.

Capnizomania. — An uncontrollable propensity to steal is known as kleptomania. A similar propensity for the use of liquor is termed dipsomania; so an uncontrollable disposition to smoke the pipe may be termed capnizomania. There are a few kleptomaniacs, a good

many dipsomaniacs, and a still larger number of capnizomaniacs. It is not surprising that thousands of persons who are addicted to self-indulgence as a matter of habit should acquire a taste for liquor by the use at first of light alcoholic drinks, such as wine or small beer or cider; but it is a marvel that any human being should ever become so perverted in his instincts as to acquire a mania for such a sickening and nauseating drug as tobacco. We have, however, met hundreds of persons who were as completely enslaved by tobacco as ever any human being was by the use of alcohol or opium. Thousands of those who become addicted to the use of this drug, never abandon it, even after they become thoroughly convinced of its harmful character. Parents will do well to see that their children do not contract this dangerous form of insanity. We say dangerous insanity; for we are thoroughly convinced that there is no form of insanity from which the world is suffering so much at the present day as the pipe-mania.

Popular Medical Education. — For some years in the past there has been much discussion among prominent physicians respecting the propriety of encouraging the education of the common people in medical subjects. Among a certain class of the profession there has been great opposition to the popularization of medical subjects, it being claimed that more harm than good would be done by so doing, since unqualified persons would thereby be led to undertake the management of cases which required the educated judgment and skill which are possessed alone by the physician who has had a long course of training in the schools and an extensive experience at the bedside. We have long believed that

this objection was based on a partial or prejudiced view of the subject, and that a consideration of its various bearings from a more liberal standpoint would lead candid thinkers to a different conclusion. It would not be urged that because every one cannot become proficient in all the abstractions of modern theology, the masses should be kept in utter ignorance of religious theories, notwithstanding the possibility that such knowledge might be used in an unwise manner under some circumstances. Every man who desires to do so has as good a right to learn all he is capable of comprehending of the science of medicine, as well as of the science of mathematics, astronomy, law, or any other department of human knowledge.

We are glad to be able to quote the following very sensible paragraphs on this subject from an address read before the Michigan State Medical Society, by Thomas N. Reynolds, M. D., of Detroit Mich., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics and of clinical Medicine in Detroit Medical College, and visiting physician to St. Mary's Hospital: —

"In view of the fact that there is still in the world the most extraordinary misconception with regard to the true functions of medicine and medical men, it may not seem wholly unfit that we should somewhat briefly advert to it here.

"As it existed among the people in earlier times, it amuses us now perhaps more than it surprises us; and when we recognize it still here and there among those in lowly favored circumstances of life, it usually makes little or no impression upon us; but when we so often see it among the refined and cultured of our time, we

are sometimes led to inquire why it is. But this misconception is not confined entirely to the laity or to the crude charlatan, but more or less pervades the educated and legitimate fraternity itself; and it is no uncommon thing to see among the younger members of our profession men confidently attributing to medicines particular cures that they never produced. And even the older practitioners, with quite an abiding faith, sometimes prescribe remedies that serve little more than to mutually satisfy the mind of the patient and the doctor that the necessary and essential thing has been done in the premises.

"This undue credit to the effect of the drugs prescribed, when it occurs among medical men, probably arises mostly from the habit and routine of always prescribing in certain approved manners in certain kinds of cases; and when improvement takes place, forgetting to allow sufficiently for the healing power of time and nature herself.

"As nothing but hard-earned experience and frequently disappointed hopes in his scientific prescriptions, will ever thoroughly convince the young practitioner of their frequent inutility, so nothing but the proper kind of education on these matters will ever convince the people of their frequent too great confidence in the efficacy of drugs alone.

"To this end the study of anatomy, physiology, hygiene, and particularly the laws of life, with the influence thereon of habits, conditions, and surroundings, should enter largely into, and be assiduously carried all the way through, the education of the young, even if it be to the exclusion of almost no matter what other

branch besides. And if the use of drugs be referred to at all in their education, it should be with a special care that they be taught the facts as they are, — that the essential and useful drugs are really few and their administration rarely necessary; that in the aggregate in the world it is probable enough that more harm is being yearly done by their indiscriminate and unskilled use than there is good by their timely and judicious employment.

"Physicians can do much more than is usually done in this direction by their individual influence in practice. Each physician should constantly endeavor to establish in the minds of his patrons the fact that they should seek intelligent opinions and skilled advice more than prescriptions. And even at an occasional risk of losing patronage, when medicine is not required at all, he should dare to say so, and give the right advice instead. Doctors should be educators more than physic-mongers. Whatever time the occasion demands should be taken to fully explain the trouble for which persons present themselves, and the best regulation of living to be adopted under the circumstances; and for this opinion and advice alone, when kindly given, they should, and generally will, expect to pay.

"If imposition and quackery are ever removed or lessened at all, it will be in exact proportion to the amount of correct information and thorough enlightenment the people may obtain on this entire subject; for it can never avail very much that a few educated and honorable practitioners labor to bring the comparatively few whom they reach, up to a reasonable and correct estimation of the practice of medicine, while the masses

remain unable to discriminate between the imaginary and what is real in it, or between the artful and unscrupulous pretender and the genuine medical man. As long as there is a general and popular demand for the different forms of quackery, there will always be found an ample supply; and legislation, though necessary and good as far as it goes, can never entirely prevent it. The early and continued education of each individual on the subject is the only successful remedy."

Depraved Appetites. — Most persons shudder and their stomachs revolt at the mere mention of the horrible gnappee of the Hindoos, the bird's-nest puddings of the Chinese, the horse steaks of the Parisians, and the earth-worm soup of some continental gormands; but not a few of the same individuals raise no objection when invited to partake of a fashionable paté de foië gras, or to indulge in a bit of roasted cheese which has an odor decidedly ancient and suggestive of putrefaction. We have met people whose tastes had become so utterly perverted that they had acquired a decided fondness for cheese alive with "skippers." Some years ago, while stopping a few weeks in Wilmington, Del., completing the manuscript for a book, we devoted an occasional afternoon to the study of microscopic life by way of recreation. One day we strolled down to the market-place in search of a specimen of cheese containing "skippers," which we wished to make the subject of study. We wandered about for some little time among the different stalls without seeing what we thought to be a promising cheese, but at last were attracted by a strong odor of decay to a certain stand where numerous specimens of cheese were displayed. We in-

quired of the salesman if he could furnish us with a piece of very old cheese, something strong and well filled with "skippers." "Oh! yes;" he replied, "I have just what you want; it is just the thing for toasting. Some people like cheese containing `skippers;' better for toasting than any other. It seems to be richer and more highly flavored." We secured a segment of the choice article which he cut from a mass far advanced in decomposition, half covered with green and brown mold, and odorous as a barn-yard, and hurried to our room to study the lively fellows which we hoped to find sporting about in the fragment of rotten milk which we carried carefully wrapped in several folds of paper.

Imagine our intense disappointment when after an hour's anxious search by the aid of a good microscope, we were unable to discover a single specimen. Evidently the tiny creatures had become disgusted with their habitat, and left for more savory quarters. We laid the specimen aside for further study, and went out on an errand. When we returned to a late dinner, we noticed that our landlady had a merry twinkle in her eye, but were quite unsuspicious of the cause until she accused us of lunching in our room, — she knew we were opposed to eating between meals, — and informed us she had carried off on a chip the remainder of our meal, as it gave rise to such an unsanitary smell in the house.

We have had no further experience with old cheese; but a rather funny story is told of Charles Lamb, the great wit, which is too good to be lost, as an illustration of the depraved condition of the civilized palate, even in his day.

One evening Mary Lamb took a sudden and violent

fancy to have some Stilton cheese for supper, an article of which they had not a scrap in the house. It was very wet, and getting rather late; but Charles, with that self-denial which showed itself in a life-long devotion to his sister, at once volunteered to try whether any could be got. He sallied forth, and reached their cheese-monger just as the shutters were being put up. In reply to his demand, he was assured that they had some fine, ripe Stilton; and the shopkeeper proceeded to cut off a slice. As it lay on the scales, Lamb's attention was forcibly arrested by the lively gambols of a number of little creatures which came to the surface of the "fine, ripe Stilton." "Now, Mr. Lamb," said the cheese-monger, "shall I have the pleasure of sending this home for you?" "No, th-th-thank you," said Charles. "If you will give me a bit of twine, I cou-cou-could, perhaps, l-l-l-lead it home!"

The Hygiene of Old Age. — At no period of life is a careful observance of the laws of health of so imperious importance as in advanced age. The vital machinery is worn and weakened, the vitality at a low ebb, and it is of paramount importance that all unnecessary hindrances should be removed, that every removable obstacle to the healthy performance of the bodily functions should be taken out of the way. Thousands of lives are annually sacrificed through the mistaken idea that hygienic rules which are acknowledged to apply to young persons and adults are not to be observed by those in advanced age. For example, many popular writers maintain that while the use of wine as a beverage by youth and adults cannot be condemned too strongly, it is necessary for the aged, as a means of stimulating the declining forces.

Another writer condemns bathing by the aged, because, it is claimed, it uses up the animal heat.

The error of the first theory is apparent when the fact is recalled that stimulation lessens, instead of reinforcing, vital strength, thus weakening the hold on life and shortening its duration. The fallacy of the second theory is equally apparent when we take into consideration the fact that in old age the wastes of the body are greatly increased. The discharges from all the outlets of the body are more heavily laden with organic impurities than during youth and adult age. The breath is laden with the poisonous products of disintegration, and the perspiration with effete matter. It is for this reason that a sudden obstruction of any of these outlets is so speedily followed by fatal results. If frequent bathing is neglected, the skin becomes obstructed, and the kidneys are overworked. The urine becomes irritating in character, and inflammation or congestion of the bladder is likely to be the result. We have met scores of cases of irritable bladder in elderly men which could be traced, in a great part at least, to neglect of the bath.

Old persons should recollect, that the bath is particularly necessary for them as a sanitary measure. As the waste of the body preponderates over the repair, the skin, if unwashed, soon becomes covered with a film of the most intensely poisonous and readily decomposable matter. A few days' accumulation is enough to produce a condition not only in the highest degree detrimental to the individual himself, but offensively injurious to all persons of acute olfactory sensibilities who may be closely associated with him.

It is true that cold bathing may be, and generally is, in a high degree injurious to aged persons; but bathing in water at or near the temperature of the body cannot be more productive of harm than putting on a clean suit of clothes. Cleanliness is enforced by one of the first laws in the "code of health," and is binding at all times and at all ages. The greatest enemy of health is dirt; and the worst of all kinds of dirt is that which arises from the destructive processes at work in the body.

Mouth-Breathing. — Few persons are aware that this practice, so very common, is specially harmful, and many will be surprised when we say that it is exceedingly detrimental to health, even dangerously so. It is generally due to obstructions in the nasal cavities, either through thickening or swelling of the mucous membrane, or the existence of polypi or other morbid growths. Sometimes it is due to habit merely. A child catches cold. The nasal passages become obstructed, necessitating mouth-breathing during sleep, when respiration is involuntary, and hence less forcible than during the waking hours. The cold is soon recovered from, but the habit has been contracted, and is continued even to adult years, or during an entire life-time.

Enlargement of the tonsils is also a common cause of mouth-breathing.

Habitual mouth-breathing ultimately results in serious disease of the throat and larynx. It is also the cause of the peculiar malformation of the chest known as "pigeon's breast."

The remedy consists in the application of such measures as will remove the obstructions, if present. Polypi must be removed. Morbid growths must be removed or

destroyed. Catarrh, if present, must be cured. If mouth-breathing is a habit merely, as is often the case, especially with children, care should be taken to instruct the child to breathe through the nose, and when it goes to sleep the lips should be gently closed. By perseverance, the habit may be cured.

In many cases, mouth-breathing is due to obstruction of the nostrils by morbid growths. These cases require the attention of a physician who has made a special study of this class of diseases.

Coffee and Dyspepsia. — M. Laven, a French medical authority, in a paper read before the Societe de Biologie, and published in the Rev. Med., states that "coffee, instead of accelerating the digestive process of the stomach, as is often supposed, rather tends to impede it. When thirty grammes of coffee, diluted in one hundred and fifty of water, are given to a dog, which is killed five hours and a half afterward, the stomach is found pale, its mucous surface being anæmic, and the vessels of its external membrane contracted. The whole organ exhibits a marked appearance of anæmia. Coffee thus determining anæmia of the mucus membrane, preventing rather than favoring vascular congestion, and opposing rather than facilitating the secretion of gastric juice, how comes it that the sense of comfort is procured for so many who are accustomed to take coffee after a meal? A repast, in fact, produces, in those whose digestion is torpid, a heaviness of the intellectual faculties and embarrassment of the power of thinking; and these effects, and the disturbance of the head, are promptly dissipated by the stimulant effect which the coffee produces on the nervous centers, as shown by experiments with caffeine.

Coffee and tea, when taken in excess, are a frequent cause of dyspepsia; from the anæmic condition of the mucous membrane's being periodically renewed, a permanent state of congestion is at last produced, which constitutes dyspepsia. Coffee exerts both a local and a general action, operating locally by means of its tannin, by diminishing the caliber of the vessels, but acting on the general economy by exciting the nervous centers and the muscular system. It renders digestion slower, and is only of good effect by relieving the feeling of torpor after meals."

The evidence against the use of tea and coffee is accumulating so rapidly that there can no longer be any doubt as to the propriety of using these articles as common beverages. They must be put in the same category with opium, alcohol, tobacco, and other harmful drugs.

About Water Filters. — Some time ago a friend wrote us asking the following questions respecting water filters, the answers to which may be of practical interest to many others: —

Questions. — 1. Is hard water rendered soft by filtration?

2. How may a cheap and efficient filter be constructed?

3. How should a filter be taken care of?

Answers. — 1. The hardness of water is not removed by filtration. If a charcoal filter is employed, some of the mineral ingredients of the water will be retained in the filter, but no very considerable proportion. The use of hard water will very soon spoil the best filter made, by the deposit of lime.

2. A cheap filter can be made by the following method: —

Take a large flower pot or earthen vessel, make a hole one-half inch in diameter in the bottom, and insert in it a sponge. Place in the bottom of the vessel a number of clean stones of sizes varying from that of an egg to an apple. Place upon this a layer of much smaller stones and coarse gravel. Then fill the jar within two inches of the top, with equal parts of pulverized charcoal and sharp sand, well mixed. Place loosely over the top of the jar, a white flannel cloth, allowing it to form a hollow in the middle, into which the water can be poured. Secure the edges by tying a stout cord around the outside of the jar. By keeping a suitable vessel under the filter thus made, and supplying rain-water when needed, very pure water can be obtained. It can be kept in a cool place in the summer. It will be necessary to renew it occasionally, by exchanging the old sand and charcoal for fresh. The flannel and sponge must be frequently cleansed.

3. Such a filter, if allowed to become empty every day, or every other day at least, ought to last several years. Water which has a distinct odor should never be passed through a filter. Filtration will not purify such water.

Barricading against Fresh Air. — In some parts of the country, particularly in the New England States, the houses of most of the wealthier classes are furnished with double windows, and every other device for the purpose of keeping out the cold air of winter. Apartments are made as nearly air-tight as possible; and in these close, unventilated rooms, hermetically sealed up, thousands of persons annually spend several months of the year, regardless of the fact that with the air which

they respire day and night, they are inhaling debility, disease, and death. The life-giving oxygen, which a beneficent Creator has supplied in lavish abundance "without money and without price" to all, moans anxiously around these sealed-up houses, seeking in vain for even one small crevice through which to find entrance, to carry life, energy, and purification to the suffocating; inmates.

Let a person from the pure, crisp, outer air, enter one of these magnificent dens of disease. Beautiful carpets cover the floors, fine works of art adorn the walls, luxurious furniture abounds in every room, and no luxury that wealth can buy is wanting; but oh! what a smell! One is tempted to protect his olfactories with a handkerchief, and beat a hasty retreat; but courtesy demands that he should suffer martyrdom, and so he sits down with as much complacency as possible, but involuntarily turns wistfully toward the window now and then, hoping to discover some little crack or crevice through which one breath of pure, unpoisoned air may enter. But in vain. In each breath his keen sense of smell discovers ancient smells from the kitchen, odors of decomposition from the cellar, moldy dust from the carpet, and worst of all, the foul exhalations from half a dozen human bodies, — lungs, skins, stomachs, decaying teeth, etc. On the window-panes little streams of organic filth are seen running down to form pools upon the window-sills. On all the outer walls the same sort of condensation of fetid matter is taking place, but is rendered invisible by absorption by the porous paper and plaster, where it undergoes putrefactive changes, sending out foul and putrescent gases to add still further

to the contamination of the poison-laden atmosphere of the close and musty rooms.

Better by far, from a hygienic standpoint, was the old-fashioned log house, with its huge fire-place and its capacious throat, breathing up great volumes of air, and here and there a chink between the logs, with loosely-fitting window-sash, and door jambs too large for the doors, extending an invitation for God's pure, life-giving oxygen to come in with its energizing, vitalizing, purifying, beautifying, health-giving potencies. If every house were provided with an efficient, automatic, ventilating apparatus, double windows would offer no disadvantage to health. But when windows are the chief means for the admission of fresh air as well as of light, in the majority of houses, they may well be looked upon as dangerous, and deserving of the most vigorous condemnation.