n*r}.- jStPk- V^.^/^ it- •', ■ j" ■ dtm "iSn ■;n yu ^.j Xs &.f. &--V. '/&i 1 HINTS TOWARD PHYSICAL PERFECTION: OK, 1UK |j)HosopIjs of iumHtt imutg; ■MOWING. HOW TO AOQl'IP.B AND RKTAIN BODILY SYMMETRY, HEALTH, AN J) VIGOR, 8ECUKK ♦ LONG LIFE, AND AVOID THE INFIRMITIES AND DEFORMITIES OF AGE. rfl By D. H. JACQUES. The Irtea of Iwanty of person is synonymons with that of health and a perfect organization. Prtichnrd. ">^ 'ELVIS' strength to support the weight of the body, which rests upon it, it is not less perfectly adapted to protect and sustain the vital organs situated within it, and to afford them room for the proper performance of their func- tions. It is larger in the female than in the male, for an obvious reason, and gives that breadth to the hips of a well-developed woman which adds so much to the beauty of her form. The grand central pillar, the spinal column, on whose capital rests that sublime "dome of thought," the cranium, has its base on the sacrum, a wedge-like bone which forms the keystone of the pelvic A Veetebeal Joint. arco> The spinal or vertebral col- umn itself is one of the most wonderful of Nature's wonderful 22 The Human Body. works. It is composed of twenty-four bones, called vertebra), linked firmly together by a complicated system of ligaments, giving it immense strength, and, at the same time, great flexi- bility. It is pierced by what is called the vertebral canal, through which passes the spinal cord (medulla spinalis), of which we shall have more to say in another place. The spinal column is not straight, since that form would have rendered it more liable to be broken, but forming a double curve, readily yields a little to any unusual pressure. Attached to the dorsal or back vertebra? by strong ligaments, and bending forward so as to form the grand cavity of the thorax, are the twenty-four ribs, twelve on each side. The uppermost seven on each side are called the true ribs, because each of them is connected by a separate cartilage di- rectly with the sternum or breast-bone; while the lower five are call- ed false, because one or two of them are loose at the anterior extrem- ity, and the cartilages of the rest run into.each other instead of being separately prolonged to the breast-bone. The arms are loosely attached to the body by means of mov- able shoulder-blades, which are kept in place by the collar- bone and the strong muscles which overlay them. Bonos are of various shapes—long, as in the arm artd leg; cuboidal or six-sided, as in the wrist and instep; and flat, as in the cranium and the shoulder-blades. The larger ones are hollow, which prcperty gives them more strength in proportion The Tiiobax. The Joints and Ligaments. 23 to weight than could, otherwise have been obtained, and also secures a permanent storehouse for nutriment in the form of marrow, which seems to be set aside as a reserved fund for the sustenance of the body when all other supplies fail. The connections of the bones, called joints, are very beauti- ful contrivances, which no mechanic or artist could improve. These connections are of various kinds—by sutures or a sort of dovetailing, by cartilaginous attachments, and by movable joints. There are hinge joints, allowing only a forward and backward movement, and ball and socket joints, which allow the bone to move in all directions. 2. The Ligaments.—The ligaments have been inci- dentally mentioned already. They help to form the joints, and are properly " , , „ ,. Veetebkal Ligaments. called organs of connection. Their strength and toughness is so great, that it is hardly pos- sible, by means of any ordinary force, to tear them asunder. " It is wonderful," a late medical writer says, " to see how admirably the ligaments are arranged to answer the purposes for which they are intended! Where the ends of two bones meet, as in some of the joints, ligaments pass across from one to the other; and so firm are they in their structure, that they never allow the joint to become loose, however much it may be exercised. Some of the ligaments are arranged so as to .keep the joint from bending the wrong way. The knee joint, which, were it not for its numerous ligaments, would be alto- Knee Joint. gether unfit for the important offices it fulfills, has in it two of these bands, crossing each other like 24 The Human Body. the legs of a saw-horse, in such a manner as to prevent the leg from being carried too far backward or forward; and to guard against dislocations sideways, strong lateral bands are placed on each side of the joint. Not only the large, but the small bones of the body, likewise, are bound together in this way as firmly as if they were secured by clasps of steel. Add to all this, the ligaments, like the bones themselves, are nearly insen- sible, being of a white and shining substance." The provision for keeping the joints constantly oiled, so that they never wear out and are never injured in any way by fric- tion, is not less wonderful or less efficacious than the arrange- ment "by which they are held together. 3. The Muscles.—The muscles are simply bundles of red flesh, growing tougher and more compact toward the extremities by which they are attached to the bone, and terminating in white tendons or cords. The muscles are, par excellence, the organs of motion. It is by means of them that the indwelling mind, telegraphing its mandates through the appropriate nerves, effects any desired movement, by causing a contraction of the fibers of which they are composed; thus drawing the parts to which they are attached toward each other. This contractile power is very great—so great, in fact, that it may even destroy the cohesion of the parts, or tear- the tendon from the bone. There are twenty-seven distinct muscles in the human body, di- vided into two classes—voluntary and involuntary; the former acting in obedience to the will, and the latter independently of it. Those by means of which we move the limbs belong to the first class, and those which keep the heart in motion and carry on the vital processes, while we sleep as well as when we are awake, to the second. They present a great variety of forms, and are of all lengths, from a fourth of an inch, as in some of the muscles of the larynx, to three feet, as in the sartorious or tailor's muscle, which is used in crossing the legs. Plate II. gives a very good representation of the muscles, so far as they appear in a front view. The muscular system, in its development and organic con- Plats III. Thk Vital System, A. Heart. B. Lungs. C. Liver. D. Stomach, below which are seen the large and small intestines. 8. Spleen, m. Kidneys, g. Bladder, d. Dia- phragm, which forms the partition between the thorax and the abdomen. A. Ovaries, i. Uterus. i Pl.ATF IV. Fig. 1--VlSW OF THH HSART AND LnSOS. Fig, 2—Thk Nerves Coshkctbd with thb Braih The Vital System. 25 dition, is more completely under our control than any other part of the body, a circumstance of vast importance in con- nection with the subject of human physical perfectibility. II.—THE VITAL SYSTEM. The vital or nutritive system consists of three classes of or- gans, forming a complicated apparatus of tubes, which perform the functions of absorption, circulation, and secretion, and inci- dentally of purification. Their principal seat is the trunk of the body, and they exercise a minute peristaltic or pulsating motion. They are designated as— 1. The Lymphatics, 2. The Blood-Vessels, and— 3. The Glands. 1. The Lymphatics.—These are small transparent tubes, furnished with valves at short intervals, and connected with the ganglia or glands which are distributed over the body, but are most numerous on the sides of the neck, the armpits, the groins, and the mesenteric folds of the intestines. Their office is to absorb nutriment and pass it into the circulation. They convey the lymph from every part of the system to the descend- ing vena cava, where it mixes with the venous blood returning to the heart. When, through disease or deficiency of food, the supply of nutriment from the ordinary sources is inadequate to the wants of the system, these absorbents take up the fat which has been deposited in the cellular tissues, to be reserved for a time of need, and empty it into the chyle duct, to be thrown into the circulation. This causes the falling away or emaciation observed in the sick or starving. Even the muscles and cellular tissues are thus appropriated, in extreme cases. These organs, when they open into the intestines and serve to convey a portion of the nutriment elaborated by the stomach through the thoracic duct to its proper destination, are called lac teals. 2. The Blood- Vessels.—That all-important function, the cir- culation of the blood, is effected by means of a system of tubes, 2 20 The Human Body. or, rather, two interwoven systems of tubes, which carry it to every part of the body and then return it to the center of cir- culation. This center of circulation is the heart, a muscular organ situated in the lower part of the thoracic cavity, between the two folds of the pleura, which form the central partition of the chest. It consists of twTo parts, a right and a left, in each of which are two cavities, an auricle and a ventricle. In other words, it forms a double force-pump, most ingeniously con- structed, with well-fitted valves, which always act perfectly, and never get out of order or wear out. These pumps send the bright-red vitalized blood through the arteries to every part of the system, to be taken up by those minuter organs, the capillaries, whose millions of fibers permeate every- where, and furnish just the supply needed to each organ and part. To bring the blood back to the heart to be sent to the lungs and revitalized, we have a system of veins, which, com- mencing in minute capillaries, like little rills, gradually unite and enlarge till they pour their contents, river-like, through two large tubes (one ascending and the other descending), into the right auricle or receptacle of the heart. A muscular con- traction sends it into the right ventricle, which, contracting in turn, forces it into the pulmonary artery and thence into the lungs, where it is purified and changed by contact with the air, and becomes again fitted for its life-bestowing mission. 3. The Glands.—The glands or filters are the organs which secrete or deposit not only the various substances of which the different organs are composed, but the fat, milk, hair, and other animal products. They are composed of two sets of capillary vessels, the one for the circulation of arterial blood, and the other for secreting their proper materials. The lungs, stomach, intestines, reproductive organs, and especially the liver, are mainly glandular in structure and function, and so far are in- cluded in this system. "The lungs are two conical organs, situated one on each eide of the chest, embracing the heart, and separated from each other by a membranous partition, the mediastinum. On the Wonders of the Lungs. 27 external or thoracic side they are convex, and correspond with the form of the cavity of the chest; internally they are con- cave, to receive the convexity of the heart. Superiority they terminate in a tapering cone, which extends above the level of the first rib, and inferiorily they are broad and concave, and rest upon the convex surface of the diaphragm. Their posterior border is round and broad, the anterior sharp, and marked by one or two deep fissures, and the interior, which surrounds the base, is also sharp. Each lung is divided into two lobes by a long and deep fissure, which extends from the posterior surface of the upper part of the organ, downward and forward, to near the anterior angle of its base. The right lung is larger than the left, in consequence of the inclination of the heart to the left side. It is also shorter, from the great convexity of the liver, which presses the diaphragm upward upon the right side of the chest, considerably above the level of the left. It has three lobes. The left lung is smaller, has but two lobes, but is longer than the right."* The lungs present to the view a spongy mass, made up of air-tubes, air-cells, and blood-vessels, all bound together by a cellular tissue. Of the air-cells, there are many millions ;t and the internal surface presented by the combined air-cells and air-tubes is probably more than ten times the external surface of the body. Around each of these minute cells is woven a net-work of hair-like tubes, through which come and go the venous and arterial blood. It is through the coats of these that the air acts upon and vitalizes the blood, giving it oxygen and receiving carbonic acid in return. The liver, which is the largest gland in the body (weighing about four pounds), extends from the right to the left hypo- chondrium, and is situated obliquely in the abdomen, its convex surface looking upward and forward, and its concave down- T M ' Eochoux has calculated that as many as 17,790 are grouped around each terminal bronchus: and that their total number amounts to not less than 601 millions ! 28 The Human Body. ward and backward. It is attached by strong ligaments to the diaphragm and other adjacent parts. Its office is to secrete bile from the blood, which is poured from the gall-bladder into the duodenum, a few inches below the stomach. The stomach is a musculo-membranous reservoir, continu- ous on the one side with the esophagus, and on the other with the duodenum. It is situated beneath the diaphram, liver, and spleen, and occupies the epigastrium and a part of the hypo- chondrium. Its office is to convert the food into chyme. The intestines, or bowels, comprise the duodenum, or second stomach, the jejunum, and ileum, which collectively are called the small intestine; the ccecum, the colon, and the rectum. The duodenum, or second stomach, leads from the pyloric ori- fice of the stomach to the jejunum. Its length is about twelve fingers' breadth, and hence its name. The jejunum, so called from being generally found empty, forms the upper two fifths of the small intestine, leading from the duodenum to the ileum. The ileum, which signifies to twist or convolute, forms the re- maining three fifths of the small intestine, ending in the colon. It is smaller, paler, and thinner than the jejunum. The kidneys are hard, glandular bodies, lying on each side of the spine, near the last ribs. The office of the kidneys is to separate the urine from the blood and convey it into the bladder, by means of its long tubes called ureters. The spleen is also a glandular body, and is situated at the left of the stomach. Its function is not well known. The intimate relation and sympathy between the glands and the brain give rise to some singular phenomena, as .vill be seen further on. III.—THE MENTAL SYSTEM. It is by means of this system that sense, thought, and impulse to action, and consequently all connection between the soul and the external world, takes place. It consists of a series of globules, bound by membranous investments into fibers of various forms, the motion of which is invisible. The chief The Ai'i^lkatus ov Thought. 29 seat of this system is the head. It admits, like the other sys- tems, of a division into three orders of organs: 1. The Organs of Sense, 2. The Cerebrum, and— 3. The Cerebellum. 1. The Organs of Sense.—The organs through which we re- ceive impressions from external objects—the eye, the ear, etc. —need not be described. They communicate their impressions to the brain by means of special nerves, some of which are represented in Plate IV., fig. 2. They all seem to center in the base of the brain. 2. The Cerebrum.—The human brain, speaking of it as a whole, is an oval mass filling and fitting the interior of the skull, and consisting of two substances—a gray, ash-colored, or cineritious portion, and a white, fibrous, or medullary portion. It is divided, both in form and in function, into two principal masses, called the cerebrum and the cerebellum. At its base there are two other portions, called the annular protuberance and the medulla oblongata. The cerebrum is divided longitudinally by the falx, or scythe- shaped process, into two equal hemispheres, and each of these, in its under surface, into three lobes. But the most remark- able feature in the structure of the cerebral globe is its compli- cated convolutions, the furrows between which dip down into the brain and are covered by the pia mater, a delicate fibro- vascular membrane, which lies upon the immediate surface of the brain and spinal marrow, bending down into all their fur- rows or other depressions. By means of these foldings the sur- face of the brain is greatly increased, and power gained with the utmost economy of space; for it is a well-ascertained fact, that in proportion to the number and depth of these convolu- tions, is the power of the brain. " The mind's revolvings," as Wilkinson beautifully expresses it, "are here represented in moving spirals, and the subtile insinuations of thought, whoso path lies through all tilings, issues with power from the form of cerebral screws. They print their shape and make them- 30 The Human Body. selves room on the inside of the skull, and are the most irre- sistible things in the human world."* The cerebrum is the organ of perception, reflection, and all the other essentially human faculties and sentiments. 3. The Cerebellum.—The cerebellum is the organ of perma- nent action and of physical life. It lies behind and immediately underneath the cerebrum, and is about one eighth the size of the latter organ. It is divided into lobes and lobules, and con- sists of a gray and a w7hite substance, like the cerebrum, but differently disposed, the white portion being internal in the lat- ter, and external in the former; in which also both substances are disposed in thin plates instead of convolutions. There is said to be no direct communication between the lobes of the cerebrum and the cerebellum. Extending from the base of the brain to the atlas or bony pivot on which the head rests, is the medulla oblongata. It is conical in shape, and may be considered as merely the head or beginning of the spinal cord, which continues it, and, in fact, extends the brain down the vertebral canal, and by means of the nerves which it gives off and which pass through notches between the vertebrae, connects it with every part of the body. There are generally reckoned eleven pairs of nerves arising from the brain and thirty-one from the spinal marrow. It is thus seen that the whole nervous apparatus is included in the mental system, as we have defined it, and that the brain is omnipresent in the human body. With these briefly stated facts, which form the outlines of the system of anatomy on which this work is based, the reader will be measurably prepared to read with profit what is to fol- low. Those who have access to anatomical and physiological works, and leisure for their study, will do well to pursue the subject further. * The Ilumai Body and its Connection with Man. 11. THE PERFECT MAN AND WOMAN. A form, indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man.—Shaknpeare. A perfect woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort, and command.— Wordsworth. UR highest con- ceptions of what should be, are, it is said, merely obscure prophecies of what will be. So the ideal man and woman of to-day are but foreshadowings of the actual man and woman of the future. The injunction, "Be ye perfect," was not pro- nounced in mockery ; and if moral perfection be within the range of human capability, phys- ^^^-^ ical perfection, surely, must also be attainable. But in what does this perfection con- sist? and by what signs may the perfect man and woman be known, when they shall have made their advent upon the earth ? These questions would hardly be asked in reference to one of the lower animals, and if they were, our answer would ba 32 The Perfect Man and Voman. ready and brief. Perfection in a horse, for instance, consists in the entire fitness or adaptation of the animal, as a whole, to all the functions or uses of the horse, and of each member in particular to its special function; and the external sign of this complete fitness is perfect equestrian beauty. Adaptation of form to function in different animals gives us widely differing lines, and we admire in one what would displease us in another; but, in all cases, it is fitness to the design of the species which seems beautiful to us. Beauty, then, whether in plants and animals or in men and women, is the grand external sign of goodness of organization and integrity of function; and the highest possible beauty can indicate nothing less than perfection in these particulars. In the proportion, therefore, that we approach physical perfection, we become beautiful, "the idea of beauty" being, as the learned Dr. Pritchard truly says, " synonymous with health and a perfect organization." Physical goodness (or health) and beauty will always be found to bear a strict relation to each other, the latter being everywhere the sign or symbol of the former. A lack of beauty in any member or system of the body indicates a lack of goodness or health in that member or system. A deformity of limbs shows clearly enough a want of goodness in the loco- motive system; a bad complexion not less certainly indicates something wrong in the vital system ; and a malformation of the brain, made manifest by the shape of the cranium, is a sure sign of want of balance or symmetry in the mental system. This relation was well understood by the ancient Greeks, who placed beauty next to virtue and made it an object of worship; and a French writer (a zealous son of the Church, too), declares that the true object of all religions is the progressive develop- ment of beauty, since that "tends to unite man with God by making them like Him.* But it is from external forms and colors, and their arrange- * Plus on s'approche de la divinite, plus on reflete, son 6ternelle beaute. Le but de toutes les religions est done le developpement progressif de la beaute, puisque toutes elles tendent a reunir Phomme a Dieu.—Delaage. Plate V. Reposing after the Chase. The Sexes Contrasted. 33 ment, merely, it may be said, that beauty results, while physical perfection includes the complete performance of all the internal functions as well. This is true; but, as we shall show in the proper place, the former are always imperfect where the latter is wanting. Any functional defect or derangement manifests itself at once externally. A dyspeptic stomach or a diseased liver records its condition on face and form in characters which can not be misunderstood. Beauty, the sign of health, has no fellowship with disease. Looking at the subject more in detail, let us ascertain, if possible, what are the forms, proportions, and combinations which the law of perfect adaptation and, consequently, of per- fect beauty, requires in the human body. As the law just referred to demands in the female form what would be ugliness, if not absolute deformity, in the male figure, and vice versa, we shall best describe both by contrasting the one witli the other. The male and female figures, viewed together, present several striking differences, and show that the distinction of sex is plainly marked upon the organization in its ensemble, as well as upon particular parts. First, we note that man is several inches taller than woman. The ancients made the Apollo a little more than half a head taller than the Venus, and proportionally stout. Man has a more massive head, and the outlines of his form are more angular. The next thing that strikes us is, that, while his shoulders are broader than his hips, and he tapers downward from his shoulders, woman's hips are broader than her shoulders, and she tapers both ways from the hips. Cam- per showed that, in tracing the forms of the male and female within two elliptical areas of equal size, the female pelvis ex- tended beyond the lines, while the shoulders were within, and that the male shoulders reached beyond the lines, while the pelvis was within them.* The neck of woman is proportionally shorter than that of man; her arms and legs are also shorter * Memoire snr le Beau Physique. 2* 34 The Perfect Man and Woman. and her trunk longer, her back more hollow, her bust smaller but more rounded, and her bosom greater in volume and more elegant inform. He is characterized by compact muscular de- velopments and a strongly-hinged frame, indicative of power; she, by bending and varied lines, gracefully rounded limbs, smooth surfaces, and elasticity, indicative of delicacy and grace. As Milton say: For contemplation, he, and valor formed; For softness, she, and sweet attractive grace. Plates V. and VI. will illustrate the principal differences be- tween the male and female figures, as well as the beauty which results from fitness for their respective functions in each; but we offer them, beautiful as they really are, as we do these chapters, simply as hints toward perfection. For embodiments of ideal beauty, in its completeness, we may at present, perhaps, look in vain to forms of flesh and blood; but we may find it in frag- ments all around us. In one person we may observe a perfect forehead; in another, a perfect nose or mouth; and in a third, a limb or a bust, which no artist could improve. "Heavens! what an arm!" Powers is said to have exclaimed one day, as the mantle of one of the fair visitors of his studio—a young American girl—falling from her shoulders, disclosed the deli- cate beauty of a perfect arm and hand, which, in an ecstasy of enthusiasm, she was extending toward some work of art—"Heavens! what an arm! Oh, for the art to petrify it !"* * American Gentleman's Guide. Goethe and St. Elizabeth. 35 This is not an isolated example. These fragmentary illustra- tions of physical perfection are not rare. Who will dare to say. that they may not all be yet combined in one individual ? According to the descriptions we have of him, Goethe must have approached closely to perfection, physically as well as mentally. Lewes says: " Long before he was celebrated, he was likened to an Apollo; when he entered the restaurant, the peo- ple laid down their knives and forks to stare at him. Pictures and busts give a very feeble indication of that which was most striking in his appearance ; they only give the cut, not the play of features ; nor are they very accurate even in mere form. The features were large, as in fine, sweeping lines of Greek art. The brow lofty and massive, from beneath which shone large, lus- trous brown eyes of marvelous beauty, their pupils being of al- most unexampled size ; the slightly aquiline nose was large and finely cut; the mouth full, with a short arched upper lip, very expressive; the chin and jaw boldly proportioned, and the head resting on a fine muscular neck—details which are, after all, but the inventory of his appearance, and gave no clear image of it." Of the saintly Elizabeth of Hungary, the most beautiful woman of her time, Montalembert says: "Her beauty was regular and perfect; her entire figure left no improvement to be desired in it. Her complexion was dark and clear (brun et pur); her hair black; her figure of unrivaled elegance and grace; her walk full of nobleness and majesty." It was by selecting the most beautiful parts of various indi- viduals, and combining them in one harmonious figure, that the ancient Greek artists succeeded in creating those models of ideal beauty which are to this day the admiration of the world. Thus the parts are truly copies of real beauty, once enshrined in flesh and blood, though the ensemble is ideal. The arti&ts have forerun rather than outdone Nature, whose intentions and tendencies, which are always toward perfection, are constantly thwarted by human ignorance and stupidity. They have created, in periods of social incoherence and physical and men- tal imperfection, models of the perfect forms which will be the 30 The Perfect Man and Woman. necessary result of the true life of the coming ages of social harmony and perfect obedience to law. Following out the tendencies of Nature, instead of merely copying her actual forms, great artists have demonstrated, te such works as the Venus de Medici, the Apollo Belvidere, and the Greek Slave, that there are possibilities for the human form which it has not yet reached—at least in these latter ages of the world. The perfect fitness of each part to its place and function, and the complete symmetry and harmony of the whole of each of these figures, show that the artists who con- ceived and executed them must have been close students of Nature, and understood clearly in what manner physical integ- rity and well-being, and a perfect organization, are expressed in external forms. Now, may we not, taking a hint from the artists, and co- operating with Nature, instead of contravening her tendencies, aid her to.embody in real, living forms our ideals of beauty? May we not select, modify, combine, and harmonize the beauti- ful members already often produced singly, in spite of us, as it were, and thus obtain all the symmetry and grace of the mar- ble Venus or Apollo in the soft, warm, sentient flesh and blood of living humanity? The purpose we have in view in this chapter does not require a minute description of the typical man and woman, but a few of the more important details of the figure and features, as re- quired by the law of fitness, which is also the law of beauty, will prepare the reader for the closer analysis which will be necessary when we come to speak of the various kinds of beauty as modified by temperament. The proportions of the perfect human figure are strictly mathematical. The whole figure is six times the length of the foot. Whether the form be slender or plump, this rule holds good. Any deviation from it is a departure Irom the highest beauty of proportion. The Greeks made all their statues ac- cording to this rule. The face, from the highest point of tho forehead, where the hair begins, to the end of the chin, is one Plate VI. Preparing \or the Bath The Yenus de Medici. 37 tenth of the whole stature. The hand, from the wrist to the end of the middle finger, is the same. The chest is a fourth, and from the nipples to the top of the head is the same. From the top of the chest to the highest point of the forehead is a seventh. If the length of the face, from the roots of the hair to the chin, be divided into three equal parts, the first division determines the point where the eyebrows meet, and the second the place of the nostrils. The navel is the central point of the human body; and if a man should lie on his back with his arms and legs extended, the periphery of the circle which might be described around him, with the navel for its center, would touch the extremities of his hands and feet. The height from the feet to the top of the head is the same as the distance from the extremity of one hand to the extremity of the other when the arm's are extended. These are general measures of the species. We shall see, in a future chapter, that there is also a rule of proportion of an individual in regard to him- self, which in nature is dif- ferent in all the individuals of the species. The Venus de Medici is considered the most perfect existing model of the female form, and has been the ad- miration of the world for ages. Alexander Walker, after minutely describing this celebrated statue, says: " All these admirable cha- racteristics of the female form, the mere existence of which in woman must, one is tempted to imagine, be, The Venus de Medioi. even to herself, a source of Ineffable pleasure—these constitute a being worthy, as the per- 38 The Perfect Man and Woman. sonification of beauty, of occupying the temples of Greece; present an object finer, alas! than Nature even seems capable of producing; and offer to all nations and ages a theme of admiration and delight. Well might Thomson say: So stands the statue that enchants the world, So, bending, tries to vail the matchless boast— The mingled beauties of exulting Greece. And Byron, in yet higher strain : There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills The air around with beauty; Within the pale We stand, and in that form and face behold What mind can make when Nature's self would fail; And to the fond idolaters of old Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mold. We gaze and turn away, and know not where, Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart Reels with its fullness; there—forever there— Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art, We stand as captives, and would not depart. We beg our fair readers to observe the form of the waist (evidently innocent of corsets and tight dresses) of this mod- el woman, and also that of the Greek Slave, in the accom- panying outlines. These forms are such as unperverted na- ture and the highest art alike require. To compress the waist, and thereby change its form, pushing the ribs inward, displacing the vital organs, and preventing the due ex- pansion of the lungs, is as destructive to beauty as it is to health. If the shape of an hour-glass had been the best shape for a woman—if her The Gkeek Slave. functions had been such that their perfect performance would Plate VII. Isabelle—The Brunette. Plate VIII. Blanche—The Blonde, Heads and Faces. 39 require this form—she would doubtless have been so created in the beginning. The perfect head in man, as we have already remarked, is larger than in woman, less smoothly rounded, and more undu- lating. It is also more prominent in the superior frontal re- gion, indicating stronger reflective faculties. In woman it is characterized by greater delicacy of structure, diminished capacity, finer proportions, and a greater extent backward from the occipital bone. In both sexes there must be such a development of the upper "part of the head as will give the whole, including the face, a pyriform appearance, in which, in every aspect, it is larger at the superior portion, and diminishes gradually as it descends, till it terminates in the delicate outline of the chin. Great artists have always been guided by this rule, and in every fig- ure designed to embody ideal beauty, the lower part of the face diminishes, while the upper part is more fully developed. Venus, Apollo, Diana, Juno, Psyche, and the Graces furnish mythological illustrations of this principle. Camper's lines for determining the cerebral mass, and con- sequently the intellectual capacity of races and individuals,' though exceedingly fallacious in the extended application which he and his followers have given to them, serve admirably to illustrate the facial angle. The base line is drawn from the roots of the upper incisors to the external auditory passage; and another line from the upper incisors to the most elevated point of the forehead. The angle thus formed is, in the most beautiful races of men, about eighty-five degrees. The Greek artists imparted an air of majesty to the heads of their gods by giving them an opening of ninety degrees. The beauty of the face depends much upon the profile, which, in its perfect form, approaches a straight line. Perfection in the nose requires that it should be so placed as to divide the face into two equal parts, and that it should be on nearly the Bame line with the forehead, with but a slight inflection at its junction. In woman, the nose itself should be perfectly straights £0 The Perfect Man and Woman. as shown in Plates VII. and IX. In man, a small degree of convexity, making it slightly aquiline, indicates the strength and energy of character which should characterize the masculine element. In both sexes it must be fine, smooth, and delicately chiseled. Our initial cut furnishes good illustrations of the male and female faces in profile. The law of perfect beauty requires that the mouth—that most expressive and eloquent feature of the human face divine —should be of medium size, but smaller in woman than in man. The curve of the upper lip is said to have furnished the ancient artists with a model for the bow of Cupid. It must extend beyond the lower lip, which must, however, be more fully developed and rounded, turning outward so as to leave between it and the chin a gracefully curved hollow. The teeth must be small, slightly rounded, and perfectly even and white. The chin should be of moderate size, but larger in man than in woman, in whom it must be white, soft, and gracefully rounded. Perfect beauty in the eye requires a long rather than a short high opening between the eyelids, and immaculate clearness of both the white and the iris. Dark blue, black, and brown eyes are most beautiful in woman, and light blue, gray, or hazel, in man, since the latter indicate hardihood and mascu- line vigor. The eyes should be large rather than small, espe- cially in woman. Eyes loving large, as Gerald Massey has it, have been admired in all ages'and by all nations. They find a place in almost every description of beauty, real or imaginary, from Helen of Troy to Ninon de L'Enclos. Plates VII. and VIII. illustrate the beauty of the eye. The former also shows an exceedingly beautiful face in profile. The cheeks should be moderately plump, and delicately tinged with the hues of thriving health. The most beautiful hair is fine and soft, especially in women, Plate IX. Makgarita—The Fearl \ Beauty of the Hair. 41 and either wavy or curling.* Brown, auburn, and golden are generally thought to be the most beautiful colors. The ancients were great admirers of golden hair, which they be- lieved to symbolize the highest mental beauty and excellence. Many of the historic characters of antiquity are described as having hair of this color. Of Milto, the beautiful Ionian, we are told: " Her hair was yellow, the locks a little curled." Helen of Troy, Poppaea Sabina, and Lucrezia Borgia are de- scribed as having beautiful golden hair. Among the great men of whose hair history hag taken note, Alexander the Great, Demetrius of Macedonia, Sylla the dictator, Commodus, Camoens, Tasso, and Alfieri had yellow or golden locks. Cer- vantes had brown hair and a yellow beard. Of Commodus, • the historian tells us, that when he walked in the sun his locks glittered like fire, so that some believed that they had been sprinkled with gold dust. Hair dividing in a line extending from the crown to the forehead and falling over the temples, as it generally does in women and sometimes in men, indicates symmetry and beauty of soul; hence the ancient sculptors never omitted this in their highest characters. In pictures of Christ, also, we always see this peculiarity. The most, beautiful neck in woman is white, smooth, straight, and flexible; less above, and increasing gently toward the shoulders. The masculine neck should be more muscular and less rounded, but easy and pliant. The shoulders should be whiter, narrower, and more softly rounded in woman than in man, but firm and elastic. * There are many allusions in the poets to what the Romans were wont to call " the smiling locks" [crines ridentes). The hair of the Beatrice of Dante was of this description. Io miro i crespi e gli biondi capelli, the poet says in one of his canzoni; and in another he speaks of the fair locks which love, to consume him, had gilded and curled : Biondi capelli Ch' amor per consumarmi increspa e dora. 42 The Perfect Man and Woman. The whiteness, firmness, and elasticity of the neck and shoulders should extend to the bosom, which, in woman, must be well developed, but not so large as to be at all out of pro- portion with the rest of the figure. The breasts must be grace- fully rounded, smooth, equal in size, and distinctly separated. The arms and hands are sus- ceptible of a degree of beauty of which we see few examples. In woman, the arm is plumper and more rounded, and has soft- er forms and purer and more flowing outlines, than in man. The hand in woman is softer, whiter, and fuller. The fingers, in their perfect form, are long, round, tapering, and delicate. Beautiful ankles are not rare, but the feet of the moderns, and especially the women, are almost universally deformed by tight boots and shoes. The second toe, which naturally Canova's Hebe. projects most, as we see in the antique, is arrested in its development, and the foot, which in the outline of its extremity, ought to approach the elegant form of the ellipsis, is rounded without beauty, and disfigured by our ridiculous compressions. The ancients attached much importance to the form of the feet, and the historians, as well as the poets, make mention of their beauty in speaking of Polysene, Aspasia, and others* Conjoined with perfection of form in figure and face, we shall not fail to find that index of perfect functional integrity, a soft, smooth, transparent, and delicately tinted skin. This * Walker. The Barometer of Health. 43 is " the barometer of health and soundness of the individual, and the most indubitable sign of beauty."* The cheeks must have the true blending of the rose and the lily. Too much redness is as far removed from the highest beauty as a deficiency of color. These outlines will suffice for the present. In future chapters we shall enter upon more minute descriptions of the forms which the law of perfect human development requires, and show by what means they may be acquired and retained. * Sir James Clark. III. THE TEMPERAMENTS. The comparative standing of individual man, as relates to his race, is gradu- ated by the predominance of his leading organs.—Caldwell. S^ N order to prepare the read- / \ er fully to comprehend and J * appreciate the important practical details which fol- low", it is necessary for us to set clearly before him the doctrine of the temperaments, as we un- derstand and purpose to apply it. It will be seen to have an import- ant bearing on the lead- ing topics of our work. When we compare man with the other animals, we observe that he is distinguished by charac- teristic features which do not permit us, for a mo- ment, to confound him with any of them; and when we compare man with man, we are struck by the no less obvious fact, that there exists between individuals differences analogous to those which mark the different species. One is tall and muscular, another short and plump, a third small and slender. We observe, also, that the functions of life are not performed in all with the same degree of force or rapidity, and that their likes and dislikes have neither the same direction nor the same intensity.* Cabanis' Eapports Physique et du Moral de I'Homme." Plate X. The Motive Temperament Definition and Classification. 45 These differences are the result and indication of what we call temperament, which is defined as "a particular state of the constitution, depending upon the relative proportion of its dif- ferent masses and the relative energy of its different func- tions." In their last analysis, the temperaments are as numerous and varied as the individuals of the race, no two persons being found with precisely the same physical constitution. Tracing them back to their simpler forms, however, we shall find them all to result from the almost infinite combinations of a few simple elements. In the outlines of a natural system of anatomy, which we have given in a previous chapter, it is shown that the human body is composed of three grand classes or systems of organs, each of which has its special function in the general economy. We have denominated them— 1. The Motive or Mechanical System, 2. The Vital or Nutritive System, and— 3. The Mental or Nervous System. On this basis rests the true doctrine of the temperaments, of which there are primarily three, corresponding with the three systems of organs just named. We shall call them— 1. The Motive Temperament, 2. The Vital Temperament, and— 3. The Mental Temperament. It is the predominance of the class of organs from which it takes its name that determines each of these temperaments. Thus the first is marked by the superior development of the osseous and muscular systems, forming the locomotive appara- tus ; in the second, the vital organs, the principal seat of which is in the trunk, give the tone to the organization; and in the third, the brain and nervous system exert the controlling power. The simple or primary temperaments are, however, practi- cally, little better than abstractions; but they serve as points of departure from which to arrive at their various combina- tions. 46 T II E T E M P E R A M E N T S . I.—THE MOTIVE TEMPERAMENT. The bony framework of the human body determines its gen- eral configuration, which is modified in its details by the mus- cular fibers and cellular tissues which overlay them. In the motive temperament the bones are proportionally large, and generally long rather than broad, and the outlines of the form manifest a tendency to angularity. The muscles are well de- veloped, but only moderately rounded, and correspond in form with the bones. The figure is commonly tall, elegant, and strik- ing; the face oblong; the neck rather long; the shoulders broad and definite; the chest moderate in size and fullness; the ab- domen proportional; and the limbs long and tapering. The complexion and eyes are generally, but not always, dark, and the hair dark, strong, and abundant. Firmness of texture char- acterizes all the organs, imparting great strength and endurance. Men of this temperament are naturally vigorous, active, en- ergetic, and impassioned, and possess strongly marked, if not idiosyncratic, characters. They manifest great capacity for conception, receiving and combining rapidly many and varied impressions, and are constantly carried away, bearing others with them, by the torrent of their imagination and passions. They are leaders, rulers, and conquerors in the sphere in which they move. This is the temperament for rare talents, great works, great errors, great faults, and great crimes.* The motive temperament was the prevailing one, apparently, among the ancient Bomans. An aquiline nose, great ambition, and an insatiable love of power and conquest, very frequently accompany it. It is pre-eminently the American temperament. In a woman of this temperament, the bosom is only moder- ately developed, the waist remarkable for its fine proportions, the haunches not very broad, the thighs elegantly formed, and the arms and legs indicative of agility and lightness. "The whole figure," Walker remarks, "seems almost aerial; and we should imagine that if our hands were placed under the lateral * Cabanis. Plate XI A Real Hebe Plate XII. The Vital Temperament Helen of Troy. 47 parts of the tapering waist of a woman thus characterized, the slightest pressure would suffice to throw her into the air." Plates X. and XL, also the accompanying portrait of Mary Maky Wortley Montague. was tall, and that she had " a very long and white neck, whence she was said to be the daughter of a swan." The motive temperament, in its typical form, is less proper to woman than to man; but we may note two or three modifica- tions of it which constitute its more feminine phases: The first is that in which the bones, except those of the pel- vis, are proportionally small, which gives the figure additional delicacy and grace. This conformation, while it adds to the beauty of the female figure, detracts from the strength and, consequently, from the beauty of the masculine form. The second is that in which the development of the ligaments and the articulations which they form are proportionally small, which adds to the beauty of the female figure by correcting tho 48 The Temperaments. tendency to angularity and abrupt bendings which, as we have seen, is characteristic of this temperament, and rounding and softening the contour of the joints. This will be particularly apparent in the wrists and ankles. The third is that which presents proportionally shorter bones, and, except around the pelvis, smaller and more rounded mus- cles, affording less strongly marked reliefs and more of that rounded plumpness essential to the highest beauty in woman. An abnormal development of the motive temperament, in which both the vital and the mental systems are sacrificed to mere animal strength, forms what the ancients called the ath- letic temperament. It is marked by a head proportionately small, especially in the coronal region; a thick neck; broad shoulders; expanded chest; and strongly-marked muscles, the tendons of which are apparent through the skin. The Farnese Hercules furnishes a model of the physical attributes of this abnormal constitution, in which brute force usurps the energies necessary to the production of thought, and leaves its possessor decidedly deficient in all the higher mental manifestations. This temperament does not occur in woman. II.-the vital temperament. As this temperament depends upon the predominance of the vital or nutritive organs which occupy the great cavities of the trunk, it is necessarily marked by a breadth and thickness of body proportionately greater, and a stature and size of limbs proportionately less than in the motive temperament. Its most striking physical characteristic is rotundity or plumpness. The face inclines to roundness; the neck is rather short; the shoulders broad and round; the chest full; the abdomen well developed ; the arms and legs plump, but tapering and delicate, and terminating in hands and feet relatively small. The com- plexion is generally rather florid; the countenance smiling; the eyes blue; and the hair soft, light, and abundant. In a woman of this temperament (which seems peculiarly the temperament of woman), " the shoulders are softly rounded. The Beauty of Plumpness. 49 and owe any breadth they may possess rather to the expanded chest, containing these organs, than to the bony or muscular size of the shoulders themselves; the bosom, a vital organ, in its luxuriance seems laterally to protrude on the space occupied by the arms; the waist, though sufficiently marked, is, as it were, encroached on by that plumpness of all the contiguous parts which the powerful nutritive system affords; the haunches are greatly expanded for the vital purposes of gestation and parturition; the thighs are large in proportion; but the loco- motive organs, the limbs and arms, tapering and becoming delicate, terminate in feet and hands which, compared with the ample trunk, are peculiarly small; the complexion, de- pending upon nutrition, has the rose and lily so exquisitely blended, that we are surprised it should defy the usual opera- tion of the elements; and there is a luxuriant profusion of soft and fine flaxen or auburn hair. The whole figure is soft and voluptuous in the extreme."* Such forms and faces have had more numerous admirers than those of any other style, and enter into almost every de- scription of beauty in the works of both Asiatic and European writers. Americans are said to be the only people who mani- fest a decided passion for slenderness. The arts which women have practiced in order to acquire the desired embonpoint are detailed at length by various writers. Camus tells us that the women of Egypt are wont to " bathe themselves several days in lukewarm water, eating and drinking while in the bath. During the time they are in the bath, they take every half hour some broth made of a fat pullet. After taking this sort of bath four times, they eat a fat pullet, all but the head!" The Empress Theodora also "made abundant use of the bath, remaining in it long, and leaving it only to eat and rest in bed, during the greater part of the day and night," to increase her plumjmess and heighten her charms. * Walker. Beauty: Illustrated chiefly by an Analysis and Classification of Beauty in Woman. __ id7'??* ) 50 The Temperaments. Plates XII. and XIII. furnish good illustrations of the species of beauty founded on this temperament. See also the initial cut, at the head of this chapter (a portrait of Anna Cora Mowatt Eitchie), for another example. Persons of this temperament are characterized mentally by activity, ardor, impulsiveness, enthusiasm, versatility, and sometimes by fickleness. They have more elasticity than firm- ness, more diligence than persistence, more brilliancy than depth. They are frequently violent and passionate, but are as easily calmed as excited; are generally cheerful and amiable, and almost always very companionable and fond of good living. An undue and abnormal preponderance of the absorbent system and a sluggish action of the circulatory organs give rise to what has been called the lymphatic temperament, which pre- sents forms even more rounded and softer than those we have been describing, but lacking their well-defined and graceful out- lines. A feeble color of the skin, a lack of expression in the countenance, insurmountable sloth, and a general weakness and apathy, both of body and mind, characterize this state of the system, which is so evidently the result of disease that we see no propriety in setting it down as one of the natural temper- aments. When perfect health shall have become universal, we shall have no lymphatic people, and no lazy ones. in.-the mental temperament. The mental temperament, depending upon the predominance of the brain and nervous system, is characterized by a slight frame, and a head relatively large and of a pyriform appearance. The face is generally oval; the forehead high and pale; the features delicate and finely chiseled; the eye bright and ex- pressive ; the hair fine, soft, not abundant, and commonly of a light color; the neck slender; the chest rather narrow; the limbs small; and the whole figure delicate and graceful rather than striking or elegant. In woman, the bosom and pelvis are only moderately expanded, and there is a decided lack of that embonpoint which characterizes the vital temperament. Plate XIII. La Belle Anglaise. Plate XIV. The 1.'entai Temperament, Plate XV RA'"'HBL. Rachel la Tragedienne. 51 Illustrations of this temperament are furnished by Plates XIV. and XV. The face of Rachel is particularly fine, and no ideal can express, in general contours, more intellectuality. The following brief but graphic description of the great Queen of Tragedy, as she appeared on the stage in New York, in 185G, will complete the picture. "Pale, with jet-black hair, a small, regular nose, a mouth mobile enough, but rather sweet in its expression and tender in its lines for the heroine of tragedy, and a large forehead quite protruding itself over the straight, black brows that shad- ow her wondrous eyes, she is the very embodiment of feminine intellect. Her figure is slight, and her mental entirely domin- ates her vital system; but her limbs, with all their delicacy, have a firm look, and she is rather lithe than fragile. The fall of her drapery would make any sculptor despair, did he not see that itself is but the reproduction in tissue of lines into which the Grecian sculptors wrought their marble." In persons of the mental tempe- rament, the brain and the nervous system are act- ive, the thoughts quick, the senses acute, and the im- agination lively and brilliant. It is the literary and artistic, and espe- cially the poetic, temperament, of which Byron, Shelley, Keats, and Poe furnished good examples. There is at the present day, and in this country, an excess- Keats. 52 The Temperaments. ive and morbid development of this temperament, especially among women (to whom, even in its normal predominance, it is less proper than the preceding), which is most inimical to health, longevity, and happiness. It answers to the nervous temperament of the old classification, and is characterized by the smallness and emaciation of the muscles, the quickness and intensity of the sensations, the suddenness and fickleness of the determinations, and a morbid impressibility. It is caused by sedentary habits; lack of exercise; a false system of education, inducing a premature and disproportionate development of the brain; the immoderate use of tea, coffee, and tobacco; and habits of sensual indulgence. We shall show farther on how this state of the system may be prevented, or, if already exist- ing, remedied, in a measure, at least. The three primary temperaments combining with each other in different proportions, and being modified by various causes, form sub-temperaments innumerable, presenting differences and resemblances depending upon the relative proportions of the primitive elements. The simplest combinations of which the three primary temperaments are susceptible, give us six sub- temperaments, which may be designated as— 1. The Motive-Vital Temperament, 2. The Motive-Mental Temperament, 3. The Vital-Motive Temperament, 4. The Vital-Mental Temperament, 5. The Mental-Motive Temperament, and— 6. The Mental-Vital Temperament. The names.of these compound temperaments sufficiently in- dicate their character. The motive-vital and the vital-motive differ but slightly, the name placed first in either case indica- ting the element which exists in the larger proportion. The same remark applies to the motive-mental and the mental-mo- tive, and to the vital-mental and the mental-vital. It is evident that perfection of constitution must consist in a proper balance of temperaments. If any one of them exists in great excess, the result is necessarily a departure from symme- Change of Temperament. 53 try and harmony both of form and character. Whatever, therefore, has a tendency to promote the disproportionate de- velopment of either of them should be carefully avoided. Each person is born with a particular temperament, in which there is an inherent tendency to maintain and increase itself, since it gives rise to habits which exercise and develop it; but this tendency may be counteracted and changed entirely by external circumstances—by education, occupation, superin- duced habits, climate, etc., and more particularly by special training instituted for that purpose. George Combe, in one of his valuable works, points out the important changes pro- duced in the temperament by a continued course of training. " It is common," he says, " for the bilious [motive] to be changed into the nervous [mental] temperament by habits of mental activity and close study; and, on the other hand, we often see the nervous or bilious changed into the lymphatic [vital] about the age of forty, when the nutritive system seems to acquire the preponderance." Spurzheim was accustomed to say that he had originally a large portion of the lymphatic temperament, as had all his family; but that in himself the lymphatic had gradually diminished, and the nervous increased; whereas, in his sisters, owing to mental inactivity, the reverse had happeend, and when he visited them, after being absent many years, he found them, to use his own expression, " as large as tuns." Let these facts be borne in mind when we come to give practical rules and directions for physical improvement. IV. THE LAAVS OF HUMAN CONFIGURATION. It is the law of formation, that the development of any part of the body is in direct proportion to the vital currents which, by means of exercise, are brought to bear upon M.— Theophile Gautier. Quaud on sonde la nature humaine a une certaine profondeur, on trouve 1'ame.—Anonyme. hension of the laws of animal life, on which human develop- ment and configuration and, consequently, human health and beauty, depeud, is certainly not less important to him who would attempt his own physical culture, undertake the training of children, or assume the office of public teacher or reformer; and we shall, we believe, best promote the practical ends we have in view by devoting a few pages to an exposition and illustration of these laws. Form Adapted to Function. 55 It is everywhere the indwrelling life which determines the external forms of things. The soul shapes the body and not the body the soul. This principle (which runs quite through nature) we take as our point of departure. Among all created things, in strict accordance with the law just stated, differences of form are found to be commensurate with differences of character and use. Things which resemble each other in quality and function resemble each other in shape; and wherever there is unlikeness of quality and function there is unlikeness of configuration. It may be observed, further, that whenever a change of vital character takes place in any- thing, whether mineral, plant, or animal, there is a tendency to a corresponding change of form. We are hardly permitted to doubt, therefore, that there is, in all cases, a determinate relation between the constitution and the appearance of things, though we may not always be able clearly to trace it out. The dif- ferences we observe among species, and among individuals of the same species, are not accidental, nor are they mere arbitrary marks. There is a cause in the nature of things why each in- dividual, plant, or animal should assume its own precise figure rather than any other, and this cause may be found in the ne- cessity of adapting form to character. The outer or physical man, then, is but an image or material representation of the inner or spiritual man. The soul, mod- ified in its manifestations by external conditions, and subject to constant impressions from the various objects by which it is surrounded, builds up the body and changes it at will, to meet its own changing character and wants; every alteration in a man's style of being necessarily tending to express itself in every fiber, fluid, and movement. It would carry us too far from the practical work we have undertaken, to discuss the abstract question of the soul's con- nection with the body or to investigate the mode of its action upon it. It is better, in cases like this, to dogmatize, if nec- essary, than to theorize. There exists then in man, we will as- sume, circulating through every nerve, a very subtile fluid. We 56 Laws of Human Configuration. do not see it; it can hardly be said that we feel it; but we rec- ognize it as an influence running along the nervous fibers from the limbs or body to the head in sensation, and from the head to the limbs or body in voluntary motion. This fluid seems to form the connecting link between soul and body, and to be the instrument by means of which the former builds, rebuilds, and shapes the latter. It is generally supposed to be electric or magnetic in its nature. The ancient Magians called it the living fire. Delaage, our French thaumaturge, gives it the name of Vesprit de vie, and says that "it has the color of fire or the electric spark, and is generative and plastic, inducing formation, and bending everything it touches into the forms prescribed by the directing intelligence." "Soul of the world," he continues, "spirit diffused through all nature, it is the vital essence of all the bodies which it ani- mates and of all the species in which it is incarnate; and is it- self profoundly modified by all the mediums which it traverses. It is flesh when it traverses the flesh, and bone when it traverses the bones; and so truly is it the essence of each man, that if you present to a lucid somnambulist a lock of hair impregnated with this fluid, he will, in his super-normal condition, describe physically and morally the person from whose head it was taken. " As another illustration of the fact that this fluid develops and animates specifically each body which it traverses, take a branch of the plum-tree and graft it upon an apricot-tree. The spirit or sap, which is the life of the latter, penetrates the for- mer, where it is changed into the sap of the plum-tree, and, by virtue of its generative power, develops the branch and covers it, at the proper season, with leaves and flowers, and in due time with matured and ripened fruit, having the proper form, color, and flavor of plums." Virgil proclaims very clearly, through the lips of Anchises, the same great truth. The passage is a magnificent one: Know first, a spirit with an active flame, Fills, feeds, and animates this mighty frame ; Runs through tha -vatery worlds and fills the air, Virgil and Cuviek. 57 The ponderous earth, the depths of heaven afar, Glows in the sun and moon, and burns in every star* Now, the reader may accept the theory (which our quotations show to be not a new one) thus briefly stated and illustrated, or he may supply its place by one that may suit him better. In either case our facts retain their full value, and the real foundation of all our practical teachings remains unmoved. Constantly but unconsciously We build and unbuild our echoing clay, changing, particle by particle, fluid, muscle, and bone. Cuvier, in developing this grand idea, remarks: " In living bodies no molecule remains in its place; all enter and leave it successively; life is a continual whirlpool, the di- rection of which, complicated as it is, remains always constant, as well as the species of molecules which are drawn into it, but not the individual molecules themselves; on the contrary, the actual material of the human body will soon be no longer in it; and yet it is the depository of the force which will con- strain, the future material in the same direction as itself; so that the form of these bodies is more essential to them than the material, since the latter changes unceasingly, while the other is maintained." Cuvier refers to the general form, characteristic of species. Molecular changes do not effect this. Individuals change, but; species are permanent. The " force" of which he speaks con- strains new material to follow the direction marked out by the old, which it displaces, so far only as character and function re- quire the same configuration. Any change in life and habits changes correspondingly the direction of the vital currents; so that, while the perpetual process of building and rebuilding our physical frames leaves us all the marks which distinguish the race to which we belong, individual peculiarities may be * ^Eneid, Book VI. In these sublime and exalted verses Virgil follows the refined sentiments of Plato concerning the anima m >in. New York Fowler and Wells. [Price, *1 2">.l How to Sit. 149 daughters to be virtuous, but they urged them still more to hold themselves upright and put back their shoul- ders. We give emphasis to the latter clause of this exhortation because it is. that alone which need be addressed to American maidens. To acquire erectness of body, practice the position represented in the accompany- ing cut for a few minutes at a time, several times a day, performing the inhaling pro- cess, described in another place, at the same time. The other movements recommended for expanding tho chest will contribute to the same result. A bad position in sitting is quite as com- mon as in standing. It is by constantly assuming it that students and literary men so often become round-shouldered, and particularly liable to Positions in Sitting. 150 Direct Physical Culture. diseases of the lungs. The two figures of school-boys in the cut illustrate very happily the right and the wrong positions. Malpositions in lying, sitting, and standing frequently result, especially among women, in curvatures of the spine and other distortions. walking. An erect posture requires the use—a certain degree of ten- sion, at least—of nearly all the muscles. Walking calls them all into action, especially where inequalities of ground throw the body into a variety of positions. As a health-promoting exercise, walking kas been too much extolled by some and undervalued by others. A prescribed walk over a familiar road, and with no object in view beyond mere exercise, is of comparatively little value; but when one climbs a hill to obtain a better view of a fine landscape, or wanders through a wood in search of a rare plant, or to seek beneath the leaves the hidden blossoms of the fragrant may- flower, he returns refreshed and invigorated. We find the following excellent rules for walking in print, but do not know to whom to credit them: " 1. When we rise to walk, the whole body—the trunk, the head, and extremities—should be thrown into a universal but general tension; all lassitude, bending, carelessness, falling of the head, dangling of the limbs, bending of the trunk, and loose, irregular gazing should be avoided; this general vigor brings all the muscles up to that state which instantly fits them for action. It is a positive injury to the body to exercise when it is toneless, lax, flexible, and careless. " 2. The body (if not the spirit) should be perfectly erect. The whole body must be easily poised upon its own gravity as the beam of the scales upon its pivot. Then the various mus- cles acting upon the body, levers of the limbs and chest, will be freed from the labor of holding the body up, for that will then be done by the happily balanced skeleton, and then the muscles will be ready to move the various joints as the will of A IIixt to Women. 151 the individual may dictate. Ordinarily, walkers throw their bodies so far form the center of gravity as to compel the mus- cles to not only bend the joints in the exercise, but in addition actually sustain the whole weight of the body. The erect po- sition in walking is all-important; not only is it valuable to the corporal system, but begets an erect habit in the mind and heart. No person can walk with a dignified, honorable, and executive mien without feeling a mental and moral elevation. As an aid to this position, the eye should not strike the ground for many rods in the distance; the sight should run horizon- tally ; this will prevent the head from drooping, the trunk from bending, and the joints from being lax and weak." To make your walks in the highest degree profitable to body and soul, cultivate a love of the beautiful as manifested in nature—in hills, rocks, forests, birds, flowers, and insects— and pursue, if leisure permit, such studies as botany, geology, mineralogy, ornithology, so that your spirit will always ac- company your body, animating and invigorating it at every step, instead of wandering elsewhere, or remaining snugly housed at home. Those who would add the beauty of graceful movement to the attractions of face and form, must be careful to correct any inelegance of gait to which they may be addicted. A little careful and systematic practice is all that will be found necessary to effect this. " Our women," an accurate and critical observer (G. W. Cur- tis, if we mistake not) remarks, " are too stiff in their walk and attitude. In walking, an American woman only bends her knees, and hardly that; she should yield a little in the upper joints. Her gait gives a movement to her body like the squirming motion of a wounded insect with a naturalist's pin through its midriff. American women hold their arms badly in walking; they almost universally bring them forward, cross- ing their hands in front; they have, in consequence, the look of a trussed fowl, and have about as much freedom of motion. If the arms were allowed to fall freely by the side, our women 152 Direct Physical Culture. would move more gracefully, walk better, and look better. The prevailing mode of carrying the arms hoops the shoulders, contracts the breast, prevents all proper development of the bust, ruins health, and what our ladies will be more likely to attend to, destroys beauty of form and all grace of movement." RUNNING. Running, if not carried to excess, is a fine exercise for healthly and well-formed boys and men; but it must be cautiously, and at first very moderately indulged in by those who are at all fee- ble. The most serious injuries have frequently resulted from the injudicious use of this and other violent movements. Little girls may run with their brothers and playmates as much as they please (fashion and their mammas permitting), though they are generally less fleet of foot and fall oftener than boys. They will, like the boys, be invigorated by the sport; for, during childhood and early youth, the two sexes differ very slightly from each other. On the approach of womanhood, when the peculiarities of form which distinguish her sex begin to manifest themselves, and new functions are brought into operation, the maiden, without by any means neglecting out- door exercise, should discontinue some of the ruder sports of childhood. She is no longer like a boy; for if she were, the boy would never love her. She can not run swiftly and leap gracefully if she tries, or without danger. A distinguished author rather maliciously observes, that " women run merely in order to be pursued and caught." We have not, however, forgotten the fable of Atalanta (was she not finally caught, too ?), or the fact that the maidens of Lace- demonia ran and wrestled naked in the arena; and we by no means deny that some modern women, might, by means of the necessary training, become models of swiftness in the foot- race ; but we do not say that such exercises as running and leaping are inconsistent with the character and functions of true womanhood. * Skating and Swimming. 153 SKATING Skating is an exhilarating and invigorating exercise, and we are glad to perceive that it is becoming fashionable. It requires a moderate exertion of nearly all the muscles in the body; but a skillful and experienced skater can travel on the ice at the rate of from six to ten miles an hour, for several hours in suc- cession, with very little fatigue. Girls and women may skate with profit and (if fashion permit) with propriety, provided great caution be observed in the first attempts, and before the skill which renders the exercise so easy has been acquired, to avoid the falls and violent straining of the muscles that boys usually experience. In Holland, skating is universal among the ladies. Queen Victoria of England also skates, it is said, and surely the fair female sovereigns of America may do the same. SWIMMING AND BOWING. When the ancient Athenian; wished to designate a man who was good for nothing they were accustomed to say, " he can not even swim;" which shows how important the art was consider- ed by them. With the moderns it is by no means a common accomplishment, notwithstanding we are so often placed in sit- uations in which it may at any moment become of more import- ance to us than all the rest of our boasted acquirements put together, and even essential to the preservation of our lives, or of other lives even dearer than our own. Really good swim- mers—men who might bridge the Hellespont with their strong limbs, as Leander did for love and Byron for glory—are very rare indeed among us. Even sailors, it is said, are not infre- quently unable to swim a single stroke. As a hygienic agency and a means of physical culture, in which aspects, mainly, it concerns us here, swimming very properly takes a high rank. In fact, we consider it to be, with- in the range of its application, one of the most efficient of bodily exercises. Its free and graceful movements give health- ful action to the muscles; the contact with the animate waves, so full of magnetic virtue, which it involves, refreshes and in- 7* 154 Direct Physical Culture. vigorates the body; and the conquest of a new element,which it secures,dilates the whole being with a sense of triumph and of power. Everybody, we believe, should learn to swim—women no less than men. " Beauty, the mother of love," according to one of the significant myths of the ancients, " is the daughter of the waves and of light." Water and sunshine still acknowl- Beginnino of thk Pull. edge the relationship, and the fairest forms grow fairer still in the loving embrace of the limpid elements. The maidens of the Pacific islands swim like water nymphs; so do the Italian, Mexican, and South American women, and many others. Our wives and daughters need not be ashamed to follow their ex- ample in this matter; and we earnestly recommend our fair End ok the Pull. readers (as well as our readers not so fair), who have not al- ready learned, to commence their lessons at the earliest oppor- tunity. A practical treatise on swimming with the necessary illus- trations would occupy too much space to be admissible here; but all necessary instructions, so far as they can be conveyed in words and drawings, may be found in Walker's " Manly Ex- The Saddle Vs. the Ca rriage. 155 ercises," Trail's "Family Gymnasium," or in a little paper-cov- ered volume entitled "The Science of Swimming," which may be bought of the publishers of this work for twelve cents. Sailing and rowing should be mentioned in connection with swimming, and with almost equal commendation. The latter may be learned in two or three lessons; and with a light skiff and light oars is a fine exercise for girls as well as boys. biding. Riding on horseback is a fine manly exercise (and womanly too), promoting respiration, circulation, and digestion ; expand- ing the chest, and giving tone and energy to the whole system. It has fallen into almost total disuse in most parts of the Northern and East- ern States, but in the South and West is a uni- versal accomplishment, children of both sexes learning to ride almost as soon as they learn to walk. Our elegant vel- vet cushioned carriages are very comfortable and The Cokkect Position. convenient; but if we allow them to effeminize us and deprive us of the use of our limbs and lungs, they are of questionable utility. They have their place and use, however, and so, let us not forget, has the saddle. A Bad Position. BALL PLAYS AND BOXING. The various out-door athletic games—base-ball, foot-ball, cricket, etc., need merely be mentioned with a word of hearty commendation. Those who have been long unaccustomed to 156 Direct Physical Culture. active and vigorous exertion should however begin cautiously, or their aching bones might discourage them. Boxing and fen- cing, although the prize-fighter and the duelist have sometimes degraded them to unworthy and bloody uses, are noble manly arts and have our warmest approval. DANCING. We have the greatest respect for true piety and for all tho moralities and proprieties of civilized life, and just a little for the honest prejudices begotten by erroneous ideas of human life and fostered by a false education; but we can not allow this respect to warp our judgment or fetter our pen. The " resolu- tions" of synods and presbyteries doubtless have weight, but the truths of physiological science, we must be permitted to think (and, on all proper occasions to say), are sufficient, when the two conflict, to turn the scale against them. In other words, we do not believe that dancing is " an invention of the devil," although many most excellent and pious people have repeatedly denounced it as such. That the devil sometimes makes use of it to promote his own ends, we freely grant; so he does of music, poetry, painting, and even religion itself; but that is no reason why we should give him a monopoly of it. We could fortify our opinion by an array of quotations from learned and pious authors, but we prefer to let it rest upon the sure foundations of science and common sense, merely intro- ducing here a single witness. Fordyce, in his "Sermons to Young Women," says: "It seems to me there can be no impropriety in it, any more than in modulating the voice into the most agreeable tones in singing; lo which none, I think, will object. What is dancing, in the most rigid sense, but the harmony of motion rendered more palpable? Awkwardness, rusticity, and ungraceful gestures can never, surely, be meritorious." Looking upon dancing from a physiological point of view. we see in it one of the most effective instrumentalities for pro- moting a harmonious bodily development, a graceful carriage, a Plate XYII. Ready to Beoin—Feet in First Position—Hands at Rest, Dancing Defended. 157 free circulation of the fluids, and a cheerful flow of spirits, all of which are in the highest degree friendly to health and beauty. It is, in fact, the best of all in-door exercises, as it brings to bear upon the physical system a greater number of energizing and harmonizing influences than any other. Dancing is particularly beneficial to women and to students, literary men, and those engaged in sedentary occupations; but, as Miss Harriet N. Austin truly says, "even the man weary with physical toil, inspired by the music of the violin or the piano, feels the weight of his fatigue lifted from him and can join the dance for an hour in the evening with positive refresh- ment." It is hardly necessary, we presume, to say that because we so heartily recommend dancing, it does not follow that we ap- prove all dances, much less all the concomitants frequently as- sociated with their performance—such as late hours, unphysio- logical modes of dress, and midnight suppers. The beautiful and beauty-giving Terpsichorean art—the veritable "poetry of motion"—is no more responsible for these abuses than true re- ligion is for the puritanic public opinion that drives those who desire to dance to the hotels and public halls, instead of opening private drawing-rooms and saloons to them. " There are hun- dreds and thousands of youth" (we quote Miss Austin again), "the sons and daughters of pious fathers and mothers, too, who will dance, though it were on the brink of ruin. They can not dance in their fathers' parlors; they will go where they can— to the ball-room, where they mingle with such companions and such associations as cluster round public houses. And as the opportunity to dance is not very frequently enjoyed, they wish to make the time as long as possible, and often dance on till morning." Let the responsibility rest where it belongs. Dances which throw the body into unnatural and painful (not to say Indecent) postures, and those that require violent exer- tion, should be left to the professional dancers of the theater and the opera. They deform and demoralize rather than ele- vate and beautify those who engage in them. 158 Direct Physical Ctlturk. The waltz is generally looked upon as inimical to morality and true delicacy. We need not discuss it on those grounds here. It is enough for us to say that, as an exercise, physiology pointedly condemns it. The rapid whirl of its movement makes the blood rush to the principal internal organs—the heart, the lungs, and the brain—and tends to cause dangerous congestions. We leave instructions in dancing to be given by those better qualified for the task than we, but two or three hints having a direct physiological bearing will not be out of place. The arms should ve kept in an easy semi-oval position, so that the bend of the vlbows be scarcely perceptible, otherwise they would present angles which would offend the eye and de- stroy all appearance of elegance. The feet should be turned out, in order that both may attain an equal degree of execution. All idle attitudes must be avoided. Forcing the shoulders up to the ears, stooping or rounding the back, if long permitted, may give rise to local deformities. The body should be kept in an easy and graceful position—the chest advanced and the waist retiring; by which means the breast will be naturally and elegantly developed, and the shoulders brought to range evenly with the back and form a graceful contrast with the waist.* THE EXEECISES OF THE GYMNASIUM. All the exercises we have mentioned in the preceding sec- tions might, properly enough, have been introduced under the general head of gymnastics, but the word is now generally used and understood in a more restricted sense, embracing merely those systematic movements performed within the walls of a gymnasium and mostly by the help of apparatus. These exercises, taken together, form a most efficient means of bodily culture, developing the muscles, imparting activity and grace of movement, increasing bodily strength, improving the form, curing disease, and promoting health and beauty. * Riofroy. The Gymnasium. 159 To secure all the benefits which a course of training in gym- nastics is capable of imparting, a well-appointed gymnasium and a judicious teacher are re- quisite; and we earnestly advise all who can, to avail themselves of these helps ; but where nei- ther gymnasium nor teacher are within reach, a balancing-bar, a climbing stand, and other simple fixtures (which can be easily and cheaply erected), will prove a tolerable substitute for the former, while the place of the latter may be partially supplied by the instructions found in books. The caution thrown out with reference to other exercises must be repeated here with emphasis. The danger with most persons, and especially with boys, is in daring and doing too TnE Arm of a Gymnast.* * We introduce this engraving to show the effects of exercise upon the growth of muscle. It is taken from a cast of the arm of Mr. James L. Mont- gomery, a teacher of gymnastics in New York. Mr. Montgomery, we are told, commenced the practice of gymnastics when about 19 years of age—was quite slender—weight 145 lbs.—chest 36 inches, arm around the biceps muscle or upper arm, 12} inches. At the time the cast was taken he had practiced about four years—weight increased to 160 lbs.—chest 43 inches, fore-arm 13J inches, around the biceps or upper arm 15{ inches. We do not believe that so great a development of muscle is generally de- sirable, or that it can be attained, in ordinary cases, without a sacrifice of brain power; but it shows what influence gymnastic exercises give us over the development of the physical system. For a model we should take Apollo in preference to Hercules; although the latter was by no means a uselesi member of tt« semi-celestial fraternity. 160 Direct Physical Culture. much at the outset. Those who are weak or in any way diseased must be particularly careful in this respect, or serious injuries may result. With the precaution we have indicated, incalcula- ble good may be derived from the simplest private gymnasium. Among the most important and useful exercises of the gym- nasium are, 1. Balancing; 2. Leaping, in its various forms; 3. Climbing; 4. Hanging by the arm; 5. Wrestling; and G. Throwing. 1. Balancing is usually performed on a pole or bar, as repre- sented in Plate XVIIL, or on a tight rope. It is admirably calculated not only to develop, strengthen, and give flexibility to the muscles of the body, and especially of the loins, but also to confer accuracy of eye and promote self-command and cau- tion. 2. Leaping strengthens and gives elasticity to the feet, the legs, the thighs, the knees—to the whole frame, in fact; braces all the muscles; improves the faculty of measuring distances by the eye; imparts such a command over the body that there is but little danger from a fall; and makes one courageous and self-reliant. Vaulting is the exercise of leaping on ahorse, into the saddle, or over the saddle. The accompanying figures show how it is Hobbe Mounting. Side Vaulting. Vaulting over the Saddle. done. The wooden horse used in the exercise is easily con- structed. Well-wadded leathern pads should be buckled on any part of the horse on which the exercises are to be performed. Climbing and Wrestling. 1G1 3. "Climbing," the veteran Salzmann says, "is oue of the mosi advantageous of exercises." It strengthens the body, fortifies the courage, and increases the means of escaping from various dangers. It is performed on ladders of several kinds, masts, poles, and ropes, as shown in Plates XIX. and XX. The hands, arms, legs and thighs should be considerably strengthened by other exercises before climbing may properly be attempted. 4. Hanging by the arms is a preparatory exercise to climbing. It is varied in maiw ways. Modifications of it are seen in the exercises with th« parallel bars, which are specially calculated The Parallel Baes. to act upon the joints of the wrists and shoulders, and to in- crease the capacity of the chest. The bars can easily be con- structed by any person who understands the use of the handsaw and the hammer. 5. Wrestling is a somewhat violent exercise, but may be en- gaged in without danger by persons whose physical powers have already been invigorated by other athletic games. It gives action to every muscle in the body. 6. Throwing strengthens the hands, the arms, the shoulders, and the muscles of the chest. Combined with aiming at a mark it exercises the eye. The popular games of quoits and tenpins furnish good means of taking this kind of exercise. Gamblers and the hangers-on about public houses should not be permitted to monopolize them. 162 Direct Physical Culture. TnE GYMNASIUM FOB GIBLS. We do no' believe, as we have had occasion to say before, that women should have precisely the same culture throughout as men; simply because they are not, and were never intend- ed to be, precisely like men—because, in fact, they differ radi- cally from our sex in some of their most important functions and characteristics. The remark applies to their physical as well as to their mental education. We desire to give them neither that towering expanse of forehead, nor that hardness and prominence of muscle, which are so fitting, so advantageous, and so beautiful in man; but they have minds and bodies, and in behalf of both have a right to demand all the conditions re- quisite to a healthy, natural, and beautiful development. The training of the gymnasium is as useful and as important to girls as to boys, and should be sought by women as well as men; but wjiile some of its exercises are equally suited to both sexes, others are adapted to only one of them. But the first thing to be attended to is the dress. In the long, flowing drapery worn in the parlor, and so suitable there, the principal gymnastic exercises would, of course, be impos- sible. The costume must be adapted to the occasion. The principal requisites in such a costume are, that it be as light as may be consistent with the protection of the person, and so fashioned as to allow perfect freedom of movement. The more beautiful and becoming it may be made the better, provided these points be not sacrificed. The prettiest costume for the gymnasium that we have seen is composed of a short dress or frock reaching to the knee, made with a yoke and belt, and pretty full; and trowsers of the common pantaloon form. The sleeves of the dress may be short for summer wear, and gath- ered into a band and buttoned at the wrist for winter. A sack or basque of a different color from the skirt has a fine effect as a part of this costume. Such a dress as this, or some other appropriate exercising costume, should form a part of every woman's wardrobe, and should be worn a portion of every The Indian Scepters. 163 day. I'or a ramble in the country, Fashion deigning to permit, it would be just the thing; but surely a woman has a right to wear what she pleases in the privacy of her own home, and during that portion of the day in which " calls" are not in order. With the habits and modes of dress which now generally pre- vail among our women, a great number of the most import- ant muscles of the body, especially those around the hips, can not possibly get their proper development. The consequences are of the most serious and painful character. Having secured an appropriate dress, the young girl or woman may commence her gymnastic education with the easy and graceful exercises of the Indian scepter, alternating with skipping the rope, "the graces," and various other movements sometimes taught in schools under the name of calisthenics. The Indian scepters, or clubs, are made of heavy, hard wood of the proper size and weight to adapt them to the strength of the pupil, or hollowed so as to be loaded with any desired weight, and are used in pairs. They promote greatly the development of the muscles around the chest, give strength and grace to the arms, and aid in the process of breathing. We greatly prefer them to the dumb-bells, so much extolled by some. They should not be too heavy, nor the exercises with them violent. Such a development of muscle as is shown in the arm of Mr. Montgomery, a drawing of which we give in another place, would hardly be appropriate in a woman. Take Praxiteles' or Canova's Venus for a model, and not Minerva of Lacedemonia, with a helmet and spear. Trail's " Family Gymnasium" furnishes a great number of ex- amples of the movements which may be executed with the Indian club or scepter; and most of them are as well adapted to girls as to boys. To call into action and develop the lower limbs and the muscles about the loins, the triangle may be brought into requisition. It is a short pole or bar of wood suspended by a 164 Direct Physical Culture. rope from the ceiling at tho height of the head. (See Plate XX. and the accompanying cuts.) The bar is to be grasped with the hands while various prescribed movements are ex- ecuted with the feet, legs, and body. " It is desirable," Kiofrey remarks, "that a lady should be able to go up a wooden or even a corded ladder; that she should know how to make use of her hands, hold a rope, and mount a horse; that she should pass without fear from one vessel to another, and maintain her equilibri- um in a small boat, crossing a nar- row river ; that she should walk steadily on a plank placed over a ditch; and that she should swim." We fully agree with the learned Frenchman, and therefore advise that, after the muscles have been considerably strengthened, and a de- gree of confidence acquired by the exercises already mentioned, the more difficult ones of balancing and climbing be engaged in and practiced till they become easy and pleasant, and the requisite skill be acquired. An occasional recurrence to them afterward will suffice. See Plate XX. for illustrations of the various forms of climbing in which girls may properly engage. Their balancing exercises may be similar to those of the boys or men, and performed od a similar bar, as represented in Plate XVII. They are by no means difficult, though they will seem so at first to the up- initiated. Expansion of the Chest. 165 MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 1. For the Expansion of the Chest.—The assertion of a dis- tinguished physiologist, that "many people die for want of breath—when it is their own carelessness alone that prevents them from breathing," is no less true than startling. Our vitality is in proportion to our respiration. If we only half breathe, we only half live. To expand the chest, therefore, and increase our breathing capacity, where it is deficient, is of the utmost importance. Whether, as Alphonse Le Koy and others have contended, the development of the chest be actually an absolute standard of the length of life or not, it is clear enough that by expanding it life may often be prolonged and health and beauty promoted. As special exercises for expanding the chest, the following are excellent and if perseveringly made use of will prove in- fallible preventives of consumption. (1.) Stand erect with the feet in the first position (see Plate XIX.), throw the shoulders back, and then breathe slowly, freely, and deeply, filling the lungs to their utmost capacity at every inspiration. Do this several times a day, in the open air if practicable, and if not, in a well-ven- tilated room, continuing the operation from one to five minutes at each time, or as long as you can without fatigue. (2.) Stand in an erect position, as in the first case, set the hands fast on the hips, and i in this half-bent position throw the arms forcibly,back as far as possible, the trunk remaining immovable. The backward mo- tion must take place at the same time as the inhaling of the breath. Repeat the move- ment a prescribed number of times, avoiding fatigue, as before. (3.) With the body still in the same posi- tion, clasp the hands behind and then stretch 166 Direct Physical Culture. them downward as far as possible, making this movement at the same time with the exhaling of the breath. Repeat as before. By the last two movements the shoulders are strengthened and thrown back as well as the chest expanded. The last also draws the shoulders down, thereby promoting a nobler car- riage and remedying the wing-like standing out of the shoul- der-blades so often seen. (4.) Take a full, deep inspiration (standing erect as in the pre- vious movements), retain the air in the lungs as long as possi- ble, and then let the breath go out steadily and slowly, at the same time beating the chest, abdomen, and back with the hands, gently in front, but more smartly on the back and sides. Keep up the movement through from two to six inspirations. (o.) Extend the arms forward as nearly as possible at right angles with the body, and then throw them backward a num- ber of times with considerable force; afterward, from the same commencing position, bring the arms downward and backward, bent at the elbow, and strike the elbows together, or try to do so. These motions expand the chest in the line of the collar-bone, flatten the shoulder-blades, and thus tend to cure the deformity of too round shoulders, as well as enlarge 0 A Noble Carriage. 167 the breathing capacity. Women who have contracted the diameter of the chest by tight lacing will find this exercise particularly serviceable. 2. For the Improvement of the Carriage.—Take a short, rounded stick and put it straight across the back under the arms, which are thrown backward, and bent at right angles. In this manner walk up and down for ten or fifteen minutes, preserving as much as possible the upright position of the body. One principal point is the drawing of the shoulders back and down at the same time. A good carriage is thus promoted, and that position and bearing of the arms and shoulders which it is difficult always to preserve if the exercise be not per- formed with something to hold. The attention is to be directed exclusively to the upright bearing of the body while thus in motion. The aim of the movement, at the same time that it contributes to the strengthening of the muscles of the shoulder back, and foot, is to promote and confirm a habitually noble and healthy carriage. It is therefore designed as a remedy against a one-sided, loose, and unsteady carriage of the back, and in general of the whole body. This bad habit often shows itself in young people who are growing fast, and its effects are then most prejudicial (defective growth, faulty formation of the chest, etc.), extending their influence over the whole after- life. 3. For Giving Strength to the Buck and Loins.—(1.) The arms being extended, bend the body from side to side (as shown in the left-hand figure on next page), very slowly at first, count- ing in a prolonged monotone to correspond with the bodily mo tion. Continue it for from two to five minutes. 168 Direct Physical Culture. (2.) Place the closed hands firmly at the small of the back (as shown in the right-hand figure) and then bend backward as far as pos- sible. As the trunk is thrown backward, the head must be inclined moderately fo r w a r d . This movement should always be performed slowly. Repeat from four to sixteen times, counting with the backward motion only. (3.) After raising the arms and throwing the body moderately backward, throw it forward (as shown in the figure), the knees being kept straight and the flexion being done on the hips and vertebral joints. From four to sixteen times. 4. For the Promotion of Circulation.—(1.) Standing erect and placing the hands on the hips (as shown in the following cut), hop on the points of the toes, first of one foot and then of the other, from ten to a hundred times or more. The body should not advance, but remain upright in its place. The joints of the knee and the ankle must be quite free and elastic, for only by this means can be promoted that soft and whole- some shaking of the body which, after the setting in motion of the leg and foot muscles, is the aim of the movement. The degree of intensity of the movement can be regulated at will, by raising the foot to any desired height. This movement promotes the circulation of the blood in the abdomen, carries off humors from the head and chest, cur^s cold feet, and is especially adapted to the bringing again into order hemorrhoidal fluxes and the inonthlv courses of females Round Shoulders. 169 which may have got out of order by obstruction, due atten- tion, of course, being paid to the general principles which should regulate all exer- cises, and of which the careful reader of this book will not remain ignorant. (2.) Standing upright and throwing the arms into a nearly horizontal position, rub the hands together backward and forward, from forty to a hundred times; or, to vary the ex- ercise, strike the palms vigorously together from ten to fifty times. This exercise in connection with the previous one is useful as a remedy against affluence of the blood and nervous affections of the head. It can be also used against the same complaint of the inner organs of the chest. But in this case the energetic striking together of the 55=5=1 hands, which rather strains the muscles of the chest, should give place to a quiet rubbing together of the same, which being longer performed, the operation gains in amount what it loses in intensity. 5. For the Correction of Bound Shoul- ders, etc.—Perform the following exercise /--------^ with the '"..........%w..... ^ i""-) long back- board for a short time every day. Take the back-board by the handle with the left hand, placing the right hand on the top while the other end rests on the floor; then, at the word " attention" (or without the word), bring it in front of the body, holding it with both hands, their backs being in front. From this position raise it slowly to a horizontal position over the head, and then bring It down gradually across the back of the 8 170 Direct Physical Culture. shoulders, where it may be held for a minute or two, or the movement may be immediately reversed. This exercise may be profitably alternated with that of the Indian scepter. For other special exercises we must refer the reader to works on medico-gymnastics, or'to Dr. Trail's "Family Gym- nasium," from which last we have borrowed several of the foregoing examples. On the subject of vocal gymnastics—reading, speaking, sing- ing, etc.—which should form a part of every system of physi- cal education, the best work in the English language (or in any language so far as we know) is Profossor C. P. Bronson's " Elo- cution, or Mental and Vocal Philosophy," which we commend to our readers in place of the brief and unsatisfactory remarks which we might have offered here. A popular little hand- book, entitled " How to Talk," has some excellent hints on this subject. SOME GENERAL RULES AND HINTS. 1. The best time for gymnastic exercises is early in the morn- ing. Toward evening, however, is also considered a favorable time. If practiced late in the evening or near bedtime, they should be more moderate. 2. Gymnastic exercises should never be taken immediately before or immediately after a meal—-Riofrey says, "not within two hours of the meal-time." It is doubtless true that the stomach should be empty, or nearly so. 3. The open air is the best place to take all kinds of exercise; but as, in a systematic course of physical training, the exercises must not he interrupted, as they would be, by bad weather, in the open air, an in-door gymnasium is to be preferred; but it must be perfectly ventilated, and kept at a low and, so far as possible, an equable temperature. 4. The dress should be light and easy, so as not to impede the movements of the body, and nothing should he carried in the pockets. 5. "Exercises," Dr. Trail remarks, "should always be com- menced and finished gently, and all abrupt transitions, as a Plate XXI. Movements with the Indian Scepttcr- General IiuL.«;». 171 general rule, avoided." They should also be frequently varied, so as to call into action alternately various sets of muscles. 6. The exercises should never be so prolonged as to induce great fatigue; for injury rather than benefit might result from such a course. 7. When heated and perspiring from exercise, do not sit or lie down at once, but walk about for awhile, till the circulation becomes slower and the body cooler; and carefully avoid cur- rents of cold air, and the too copious drinking of cold water. 8. Never go into the water to bathe or swim when fatigued. " A high temperature, perspiration, or feverishness of the body is, in itself, no objection to cold bathing, but rather an indica- tion for it, provided the body be not fatigued or the respiration disturbed." 9. It is by moderate and prolonged rather than violent and fitful exertions that organs or parts of the body are developed and strengthened. 10. The weaker organs or parts should receive most attention and be most frequently subjected to exercises specially adapted to invigorate them. 11. It must be borne in mind that gymnastic exercises, to effect their object, must be proportioned to the age, sex, and strength of the pupil. A movement that might develop, strengthen, and beautify one, might cause serious injury and perhaps death to another. Begin moderately, and feel your way along, as it were, to more difficult feats. 12. Our general directions and examples apply, for the most part, only to persons who are (in the common acceptation of the term) naturally formed, and not affected by any serious or- ganic disease. Where deviations, distortions, or alterations of structure exist, they might be increased instead of being rem- edied by many of the movements recommended. Such cases require special exercises under the guidance of a competent teacher or physician; or in the absence of these, the instructions to be found in the works of such writers as Moritz Schreber, Ling, Dclpech, RiofVey, and Roth. 172 Direct Physical Culture. 13. Avoid extremes. "The great art in education," it has been truly observed, is to combine in their proper proportions mental and bodily development; and not to oppose the one to the other. If a prodigy of learning be required, he will prob- ably be weak and sickly; while if extreme bodily strength be sought, and we strive to make a young Hercules, he will be ignorant." 14. All exercises should be made as attractive as possible; should engage the mind as well as the body; and should be regular, systematic, and perseveringly applied. 173 XIII. PRACTICAL HYGIENE. Unerring Nature—still divinely brigbt^- One clear, unchanged, and universal light- Life, force, and beauty must to all impart, At once the source, and end, and test of Art.—Pope. EALTII and beauty, as we have shown in previous chap- ters, are inseparable—the lat- ter being hut a sign or visible manifestation of the former. Our teachings throughout this work, therefore, since they all relate, either directly or indirectly, to the means of ac- quiring and preserving beauty, may be considered as more or less complete enunciations and illustrations of the laws of health—using the latter term in its broadest signification as the perfection of bodily or- ganization and functional ac- tion. On some points, however, we have touched lightly, and on others scarcely at all; and we purpose here to set the whole subject before the reader in a compact and methodical, but popular, form. Our statements and illustrations will neces- sarily be brief, but they will at least indicate the path to be pursued, if they do .not furnish a complete chart of the whole route. 174 Practical Hygiene. Health, even in the restricted sense in which the word is generally used, is now so rare a phenomenon that we seem to be getting accustomed to look upon illness as our normal state. To the common salutation, "How do you do?" we are wont to reply, "Very well," when, in nine cases out of ten, a more correct answer would be, "No sicker than usual." But health is possible. Individual men and women may, even at this day, be found in almost every country, who have at least escaped actual sickness through the whole course of a long life. In fact, large communities have existed, if we may credit the earlier navigators, in entire exemption from disease. When the celebrated Captain Cook first visited the New Zea- landers, he says he found them enjoying perfect and uninter- rupted health. In all the visits he made to their towns, where old and young men and women crowded around the voyagers, they never observed a single person who appeared to have any bodily complaint; nor among the numbers that were seen naked was once perceived the slightest eruption of the skin, or the least mark which indicated that such eruptions had for- merly existed.* Health, then, since it occurs in individuals, must be possible for the race as a whole. Is it reasonable to believe that the means of attaining and preserving it are hidden beyond the possibility of discovery ? Health depends upon the existence of certain conditions, clearly indicated by our physical and mental constitutions, all of which may be included under the following general heads: 1. A sound physical organization; 2. A vigorous and well- balanced mind; 3. A constant and adequate supply, and the right use of all the elements essential to the sustenance of the body, including air, sunlight, electricity, food, and drink; 4. Physical exercise, rest, and sleep; 5. Cleanliness ; 6. A proper temperature; 7. The satisfaction of the affections, or harmonious social relations. * Kippis' Life of Captain Cook. The Dependence of Things. 175 1. As the only secure basis of perfect functional efficiency we must have a sound and well-formed body, complete and symmetrical in all its parts and proportions. Without this, the most perfect combination of all the other conditions named will not avail. If, for instance, the chest be narrow and tho lungs imperfectly developed, the most copious supply of pure air, since it can not be efficiently made use of for the purpose of vitalizing the blood, may be continually presented in vain. So with defects in the stomach, the limbs, or any other part of the physical system. It has already been shown how a sound physical organiza- tion may be secured to children at birth by the observance of certain pre-natal conditions; how such an organization may be preserved in all its harmony, strength, and beauty through the great perils of infancy; and how original defects of consti- tution may, in a measure at least, be remedied, especially in childhood and youth. Under this head, therefore, we need merely refer the reader back to previous chapters, and particu- larly to V., VI., and XII. 2. That mental vigor and balance are essential to physical health can not be doubted by any one who is at all acquainted with the laws of life. Without mind, the body, at best, merely vegetates. Activity, guided by intelligence, is essential to bodily well-being. If the intelligence be wanting or deficient in balance, the activity must either fail or be irregular and ab- normal. It is for this reason that idiotic and insane persons are generally sickly. But this point, like the preceding one, has been sufficiently elucidated in the preceding chapters. 3. The human body has been thrown into the circle of " the great dependence of things," from which no amount of mental power can rescue it. As physical beings, we are compelled to owe the continuance of our lives to the elements^and objects, organic and inorganic, by which we are surrounded—to air, sunlight, electricity, food, drink, and so forth. (1.) Air is the first and the last demand of our lives. "Ac- tive life, the vital union of body and spirit, and all the power? 176 Pli ACTIC A L II V O I K N E . and susceptibilities of our our earthly being, are only main- tained by the action of air in our systems—air which we inhale incessantly, day and night, from birth to death. There is an awful life-import in these never-ceasing, rythmic movements of inspiration and expiration—this tidal flux and reflux of the gaseous ocean through animal mechanisms."* Atmospheric air, in its natural state, consists of four sub- stances—two elements, nitrogen and oxygen; and two com- pounds, carbonic acid gas and the vapor of water. Of the nitrogen—the neutral or diluting principle—dry air contains nearly seventy-seven per cent.; and of the oxygen—the active or life-supporting principle—twenty-three per cent. The per- centage of moisture is small and very variable, and that of car- bonic acid amounts, on an average, to no more than one two- thousandth. Such is the air which the human respiratory system demands, and which is essential to healthy vital action. In breathing, the air is drawn in by the nostrils, and, pass- ing through the bronchial tubes, is received into the air cham- bers (see description of the lungs in Chapter I.), where it is brought into contact with the venous blood, to which it yields a portion of its oxygen, and receives carbonic acid in return. It is by this process, and by this alone, that our blood can be purified and re-vitalized. It comes to the lungs in dark and turbid tides, meets the air, freighted with the life-giving ele- ment, casts off its poisonous load (to be taken up and carried out by the same willing messenger), and is thrown back in crimson streams to the outmost boundaries of the vital domain. It is this oxygenated or vitalized blood that imparts the hues of health to the human skin; and the fair one who desires to have rosy cheeks and ruby lips on any other terms than the copious breathing of pure air, must buy them at the shop of the chemist, and renew them every time she makes her toilet. It is to the oxygen of the atmosphere, it will be perceived, * Youmans' Hand-Book of Household Science. IIow Air becomes Impure. 177 that the effects we have noted are to be attributed. The same element which kindles our fires keeps alive the vital flame. Without it both are quickly extinguished. If the proportion of oxygen in the air we breathe be diminished, all our powers of body and mind are depressed to an extent corresponding with the deficiency Now, every time we breathe, a certain portion of air is deprived of a large part of its oxygen, and rendered, by that loss alone, unsuitable for respiration. If tbo same air be again taken into the lungs, another portion of its oxygen is abstracted, and so on till it is no longer capable of sustaining life. But this abstraction of its oxygen, it must be remembered, is not the only effect which respiration has upon the air. The place of the life-supporting element taken away is supplied by a deadly poison—the carbonic acid received from the venous blood. Besides this, constant streams of effete animal matter exhale from every living body, and help to poison the air by which we are surrounded in close rooms. The breath of diseased persons is particularly noxious. The odor of the air at the top of the ventilator of a crowded room is of so obnoxious a character that it is dangerous to be exposed to it for the slwrtest time* If the room be provided with no means of ventilation, as is too often the case, this foul and deadly air must be breathed over and over again by those con- fined within. The mere thought of it is almost sufficient to make one sick! Out of doors, fresh supplies of pure air are constantly offered to the lungs, and the vitiated products of respiration are re- ceived by the general currents of the atmosphere to be carried through the perpetual round of purification; but in our almost air-tight rooms the case is quite different. A single person will deprive from one to two hogsheads of air of its blood-purifying qualities, and saturate it with poisonous gases in a single hour. In the light of this fact, consider what must be the effects of the in-door life of our people, and especially of our women. * Leblanc, :j quoted by Youmans. 8* 178 Practical Hygiene. Think of our crowded work-rooms; of family gatherings around the sitting-room stove; of evening parties in unventi- lated parlors, where the lights which make everything so bril- liant rapidly hasten the deteriorating process which respiration has commenced; and of two or more persons sleeping all night in a close seven-by-nine bedroom. " Close bedrooms," Dr. Hall says, "make the graves of thousands." The occasional opening of doors gives us now and then a breath of fresh air in the rooms occupied during the day; but even this is denied us in our sleeping apartments. Could we but see the mass of vitiated and poisoned air in the midst of which we pass so large a portion of our lives—should it for a moment become visible in the form of a lurid mist, for instance, we should flee from our stove-heated and unventilated rooms as from a city swept by a pestilence! Is it a wonder that pale cheeks, sallow complexions, cutane- ous eruptions, dyspepsia, scrofula, and consumption prevail? It can not be otherwise. To maintain good health, and live through the long winters, which prevail in the northern parts of our country, in unventilated or ill-ventilated rooms, is utterly impossible. Beauty fades; the cheek loses the roseate tinge which, as we have seen, fresh air alone can give, and body and brain alike sink into premature imbecility. If you would acquire and preserve health and beauty, do net forget that pure air must be constantly supplied for the purpose of respiration, and that unventilated rooms are entirely unfit for human beings to live in, and absolutely fatal, in the end, not only to health and beauty, but to life itself. As it is now, we are safe nowhere except in the open air. At home, we sit around that " household demon," as Dickens calls it, the air- tight stove, and breathe carbonic acid; at church we breathe carbonic acid while we listen to a sermon which has probably been written under the depressing influences of the same gas; in the lecture-room, the theater, the opera-house, and even in the schoolroom, in which our children spend five or six hour9 a day, the same atmosphere of disease and death prevails, Thk A ir-15ath. 179 Need we say more? The easy remedy for this terrible state of things is—ventilation.* Everything which vitiates the air should be, so far as possible, excluded from our rooms, and especially from our sleeping apartments. Even flowers should not be permitted in any room where there is not a free circulation of air. The leaves of plants give off oxygen, but flowers absorb it. A rose placed under a bell-glass very quickly destroys the vitality of the air, so that a candle will not burn in it. Having secured a copious and constant supply of fresh air, the next requisite is that it be made use of to the fullest extent. Some of us (partly because we are so much subjected to the depressing influences of bad air) only half breathe. This is not enough. The lungs should be well expanded at every inspiration. On [this point, see directions for expanding the chest in Chapter XII. But it is not through the pulmonary organs alone that we are affected by the different states of the air with reference to purity. The skin is closely akin to the lungs. It also breathes, in its way, imbibing oxygen and throwing off carbonic acid. Hence come the great benefits of the air-bath, so much extolled by Dr. Franklin. A bath in carbonic acid, however, is not to be recommended. (2.) Solar light, although generally left almost entirely out of the account by physiological and hygienic writers, has a great and striking effect upon the human physical system. Without it, in fact, nothing like perfect bodily development, health, or beauty can possibly exist. * To give a description of the various modes of securing the thorough venti- lation of our dwelling-houses and public buildings would occupy more space than we can give to the subject here ; but we are happy in being able to refer our readers to a work in which the necessary information may be found in an available form, together with much other needed knowledge. We have refer- ence to Youmans' "Hand-Book of Household Science," a most admirable work, the teaching of which should be as " familiar as household words" in every fami'.y 180 Practical Hygiene. It is well known that plants growing in the shade or in dark- ness are always slender, weak, and pale. Deprivation of light has a similar effect upon man, as shown by persons confined in dungeons, mines, or other dark habitations. The complexion grows sallow, the strength fails, aqueous humors break out on the skin, and dropsy often intervenes. Women who avoid the sunlight, and darken their parlors and sitting-rooms through fear of spoiling their complexions, invite thereby the very evil which they wish to avoid. Here, as elsewhere, however, extremes are to be avoided. The direct rays of a noonday sun should be warded off by broad-brimmed hats and sun-shades; but to shun the solar ray altogether, and shut it out from our dwellings, is equaled in folly only by the exclusion of fresh air. To promote the symmetrical development of the body and limbs, and the health of the skin, it is useful to expose the whole person frequently to the light in a well-lighted (day- lighted) room, or better still, where it can be made practicable, in the open air. The air-bath mentioned in another place should be made a light-bath as well. Light is particularly necessary to children and youth during the process of growth. (3.) Electricity is undoubtedly an important agent in the development and sustenance of the human body; but our pres- ent knowledge of the modes of its action is too limited to permit any profitable discussion of the subject here. Fortunately, we can not so effectually exclude this subtile element from our dwellings and persons as we do air and light. (4.) We now approach the subject of food—one of the most important in the whole range of hygienic inquiry, and one i uvolving a greater number of mooted questions than any other. To discuss it properly in all its bearings would require a large rolume. We shall not, of course, attempt even the outlines of such a discussion within the compass of a few pages. Our purpose is rather to put the reader in the way of settling the question of diet for himself than to essay the solution of it here. We shall, however, endeavor to give our brief remark? Abuses of the Stomach. 181 such a bearing that they will not be wholly without practical value, apart from their use as guides in the true path of investi- gation and thought. A superficial knowledge of the subject, a few loosely con- ducted experiments and observations, and some very hasty generalizations have of late been made the basis of a good deal of confident but specious and unreliable inculcation on the subject of diet. We have had too much dogmatism and too little thorough investigation and sound deduction. Much, however, has been learned within the last ten years, and the knowledge which we possess, or which lies within our reach, is far in advance of our practice. The confessed uncertainty in which some points are yet involved is not a sufficient excuse for the abominably bad feeding of which we are guilty at the present day, and especially in this country. No other civilized peeple, probably, are accustomed to abuse their stomachs so badly as we, Americans of the United States. Our food is often badly chosen, still more frequently spoiled in cooking, and almost always eaten in utter disregard of dietetic rules. We eat far too much flesh-meat (and especially pork, its most objectionable form*), and too little bread, vegetables, and fruits. Our hot, soda-raised biscuits; hot griddle cakes, saturated with butter; and the hot, black, intolerable coffee, which form the staples of our breakfasts, are, in the way in which they are taken, among the most deleterious articles ever put upon a table. Pies are another American abomination, and have no small share of our ill health to answer for. The mince pie, as it is generally made, is the abomination of abom- inations. Some one describes it as " very white and indigest- ible at the top, very moist and indigestible at the bottom, and with untold horrors in the middle." Even our bread is un- wholesome. It is made of the finest of fine flour, and either fermented till its natural sweetness and a large portion of its * More than thirty millions of swine are slaughte ed annually in the United States, nearly all of which are appropriated for food 182 Practical Hygiene. nutritive elements are destroyed, or raised with those poisonous chemicals, soda and cream-of-tartar. In either case it is unfit to be eaten. The rich cakes which our good housekeepers deem so indispensable are still worse, and so on. Now add to our badly chosen dishes and our objectionable cookery the rapid eating, imperfect mastication, and the continually interrupted digestion which our intense and feverish life necessitates, and we have a complication of abuses which would, one must be- lieve, have long since have utterly destroyed the vital stamina of any people not originally endowed with marvelous physical powers. In the lower animals (except where domestication has greatly demoralized them), instinct seems to be a perfect guide in the choice of foods and drink. With them the demands of appe- tite and the sense of taste are always in harmony. The wild beast or bird makes no mistakes, and never poisons itself by eating or drinking anything inimical to its life or health. This instinctive perception of what is adapted to his system and fitted to supply its needs belongs also to man; and a natural appetite is, no doubt, an infallible guide, in our case as well as that of the lower animals. But our natural appetite has, for the most part, been so perverted that it is now impossible, in many cases, to distinguish the undepraved cravings of the sys- tem from the demands of acquired and vicious tastes. If we can but find our wray back to Nature once more, no doubt all our original endowments will be restored to us; in the mean time, we must make our observing and reasoning faculties serve us instead. A late writer,* who has given us some excellent hints tow aid a system of dietetics founded upon a firm basis of science, lays down the principle, which we believe can not be successful'y called in question, that " The body itself is the rule of its food —that is, as is the chemical nature of the body at large, such must be the chemical nature of the entire mass of aliments * Professor Levi Reuben, in a series of articles in the American Phreno- logical Journal, v0is. XXII. and XXIII. What to Eat. 183 taken; and as is the nature of each particular structure to which we would secure nutriment and efficiency, such must be the nature of the particular aliment employed to that end. Or, to express the same thought in other words: A person should eat such material as he is, or such material as he would be, so far as that is allowable in view of known truths of physi- ology." Taking this grand principle as our guide, we might, if time and. space were allowed us, approximate, at least, the true answers to such questions as these: "For what do we eat Why do we eat what we do? Why should particular persons employ or avoid particular kinds of food? What are the special uses in the body of special kinds of food? To produce or maintain a required condition of bodily health and power, what aliments, in a particular case, will prove most effectual? Why do we not always subsist on some single article of food— say upon potatoes, or wheat-flour, or flesh? How is it that many of the lower animals do subsist on substantially one spe- cies of aliment?" The first thing to be done is to ascertain the nature of the substances which compose the blood and tissues—the fluids and solids—of the human body, and the next to examine the various alimentary principles found in the ordinary species of food, with reference to the especial use of each in the economy of the living physical system. Having a clear conception of what his body is made of, and of what the bread, meat, vege- tables, and fruits placed before him consist, one may eat and drink understandingly. The course of investigation we have suggested (for which recent standard works on physiology and chemistry will furnish the required facilities) will make clear the reason why variety in food is essential to health; why diet should be modified by climate, season, occupation, temperament, age, sex, and so forth, and why the same dietary is not adapted to all persons alike, or to the same person at all times. Some of the conclusions arrived at by the writer last quoted 184 Practical Hygiene. may here be concisely stated, although the investigations which led to them can not be followed out. (a) The law previously stated that "The body is the rule of its food" is modified by another equally imperative, namely: that " Exercise is the rule of food'''—that is, "the food we eat should contain as nearly as possible the several elements in the same proportion as their expenditure occurs in the individual system of the consumer, owing to his particular mental and physical activities." In other words, if a man exercise his muscles largely, he should consume largely of muscle-forming aliment; and if he work his brain continually, he must satisfy the cravings of the system with brain-food. (b) The plastic, cell-forming, or nutritive aliments are albu- men and the substances usually grouped with it—gluten, casein, and the substance of muscle-fiber, nerve-tube, and cell- membrane; the calorific or respiratory foods are sugar, starch, and the oils or fats; the acids are cooling, purifying, and blood-perfecting in their action; water is indispensable, both as vehicle and material to digestion, absorption, assimilation, cir- culation, nutrition, secretion, and excretion, muscular and brain-action; the inorganic elements other than water, some- times called nutritive minerals, have various uses.* (c) Among the alimentary compounds particularly fitted to produce muscle are wheat-meal, corn-meal, beans, cabbages, car- rots, and the flesh of quadrupe Is ; while eggs, nuts, cream, oils, fish, and the flesh of poultry are specially adapted to nourish * The bones, especially in the young and growing, must have phosphate and carhonate of lime ; and the phosphate of lime must also enter freely into all nutritive materials and processes. The blood, brain, and muscle, as also the hair, must have sufficient iron. Digestive fluids, blood, all nutritive processes, and secreting or excreting glands, demand a due supply of common salt. All circulating fluids, together with muscles, demand potash, and all the former, with all the secretions, but in particular mucus and bile, require soda. Nutri- ent fluids, bones, and tissues call for the phosphate of magnesia, though in a less degree than for that of lime. Muscles, nerves, bile, and hair must receive a due supply of sulphur ; and nerve*, but more especially brain, necessitate, in proportion to their activity, a plentiful allowance of pho?jhoms—Prof Levi Reuben. Pules oe Diet. 185 the brain. " Oatmeal and milk seem to belong to both classes of aliment:-; and rice, potatoes, fruits, and a large list of foods may be styled indifferent, as specially favoring neither devel- opment. (d) " The diet of no two persons should be, in reality, exactly alike, since their constitutions, states of health, avocations. and forms and amounts of physical expenditure are necessarily different. (e) " Insufficient variety in food is as great an evil as insuf- ficiency in the quantity of food, and an evil of the same kind; because it necessarily withholds from the system a due supply of some one or more essential forms of aliment. A moderate variety is desirable at every meal; a greater, from day to day. (/) "That diet is most perfect for each individual which furnishes to each the various forms of substance necessary to make up his fluids and solid tissues, and in the same proportion as they exist and are daily expended in his particular constitu- tion and mode of life. (g) "Muscle and nerve both necessitate albuminous food; the former, in connection with the finer or phosphorized fatty substances; the latter, with the grosser fats and the phosphate and carbonate of lime. (h) "Excess in food is not to be defined by any particular quantity. It exists only when there is a surplus over health- ful expenditure; and by this rule one adult system may require more than twice the amount of food demanded by another. (i) "Both vegetable and animal foods have their uses; the former favor and support more especially the organic develop- ment and processes, such' as nutrition and secretion; the lat- ter, the animal or active functions, such as locomotion, will- power, and intellectual action. (j) " No imperfect vegetable or animal production, as those that are dwarfed, or sickly, or immature, or undergoing decay, can furnish materials for complete human alimentation. (k) "Some food* constitute necessary compensating adjuncts 186 Practical IIygiknk. to others, and should be used with them. Thus, rice, corn, 01 potatoes require the addition of wheat-meal bread, or flesh, or milk and eggs, to supply the albuminous and mineral elements which they possess in much less degree. So beans, pease, cab- bages, cauliflower, asparagus, etc., lack the oleaginous element, and this should be added in our cookery." (Z) A larger proportion of fatty or heat-producing food is re- quired in the winter than in the summer, and in a northern than in a southern climate. The points at issue between the vegetarians and the advo- cates of a mixed diet can not be argued here. We can do little more than state our own opinion, which may pass for what it is worth. After a thorough trial of both systems, we have become convinced that a mixed diet (embracing, how- ever, a much smaller proportion of flesh-meat than is usually taken in this country, and excluding pork altogether) is, on the whole, better than one composed exclusively of the products of the vegetable kingdom, for the great majority of adult persons living in a northern climate, and uader the regime of existing social and industrial organizations. That health and long life can be enjoyed in the use of either, history and observation furnish conclusive evidence. Exceptional in- dividuals, or persons placed in exceptional positions in civilized society, may find a vegetable diet best suited to their needs; but we think there is an admirable harmony between the mixed diet and existing social and industrial antagonisms. Life is, with most of us, a perpetual warfare, not with persons, perhaps, but with circumstances, and the soldier who carries beef and bread in his knapsack is generally more than a match for him who is provided with bread al6ne. In the coming ages of Harmony we may, perhaps, return to the diet of Eden. But that we eat too much flesh-meat in this country (and more than any other civilized people) is beyond a doubt, and that we are too careless in reference to its quality is equally clear. The opponent of vegetarianism need not fear to admit this, and should, for the sake of the cause he advocates (leav- Bread and Butter. 187 ing out of sight all high considerations), be foremost in pro- moting a reform in this particular. Among the best articles of food for general use we should enumerate bread, wheaten grits or cracked wheat, hominy, rice, beans, pease, milk, cream, butter, eggs, poultry, beef, mutton, fish (such as have scales), potatoes and the other com- mon garden vegetables, and fruits. The best bread is made of wheat-meal (commonly called Graham flour); but a mixture of wheat and rye meal, or of corn-meal with either, makes excellent bread. The meal should be freshly ground, as it soon deteriorates by keeping. Unleavened bread is the sweetest and most nutritious. If fer- mented or raised bread be required, hop yeast is the best fer- ment that can be used. The exclusive use of fine or bolted flour for bread is exceedingly injurious. Johnny-cake or corn- bread is an excellent article, if properly made and cooked, and not eaten hot. That favorite New England dish, pork-and- beans, minus the pork, is not to be despised. Supply the place of the swine's flesh (if you will take our advice) by a little sweet milk or cream, or a slice of beefsteak. Meat should be chosen with great care. It should always be the flesh of a healthy animal, and must not be in the slightest degree tainted. It should be eaten sparingly, if at all, during hot weather. Baked meats are more nutritive and wholesome than boiled. Salted meats are less easy of digestion than fresh, unless they be merely corned. Milk and butter, to be wholesome, must be pure and sweet. Butter that is in the slightest degree rancid is as hurtful to the stomach as it is repugnant to the palate. Heat renders butter empyreumatic and very objectionable, especially for weak stomachs. A slight degree of heat effects the change, and this accounts in part for the hurtfulness of hot bread or hot biscuits and butter. All the fats are liable to be changed by heat into various acrid and irritant fatty acids. It is this that renders frying so objectionable a form of cooking, and makes cakes mixed with a large proportion of butter or eggs (th*» 188 Practical Hygiene. yolk being rich in oil) so injurious to the stomach, the high heat of baking rendering these oils empyreumatic. Dr. Pereira remarks: " Fixed oil or fat is more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach, than any other alimentary principle. Indeed, in some more or less obvious or concealed form, I believe it will be found the offending ingredient in nine tenths of the dishes which disturb weak stomachs. Many dyspeptics, who have most religiously avoided the use of oil or fat in its obvious or ordinary state (as fat meat, marrow, but- ter, and oil), unwittingly employ it in some more concealed form, as yolk of eggs, livers of animals, rich cheese, fried dishes, buttered toasts, suet puddings, etc." Dr. Chambers says: "Fatty food can be taken without pain by gastric inva- lids, very closely in proportion as it is fresh and without ran- cidity. New-made butter often agrees, when the empyreu- matic fat in baked meat makes it utterly indigestible. If there is much emaciation, it is right to try several forms of oleaginous food in each case, to see if one can not be found capable of supplying nutriment to the failing adipose tissues." Fresh eggs, slightly boiled, form a wholesome basis for a substantial breakfast. With good brown bread, sweet but- ter, and a cup of fragrant Mocha, they leave little to be desired. Fruits, in their season, should have a far more prominent place on our "bills of fare" than is now generally awarded to them. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes, figs, strawber- ries, raspberries, and melons are food fit for gods. They should be perfectly ripe and free from decay, and should form a part of our regular meals. They can not be improved by cooking, being " baked, roasted, and boiled in the sunlight." Dishes compounded from many different articles are gene- rally unwholesome, however unobjectionable these ingredients individually may be. They do not agree with each other. Until we know something more of the harmonies of diet, it is best to be content with the simplest accords. Very highly seasoned viands are for the most part bad; so are old smoked What to Drink. 189 salt meat and fish, old strong cheese, sausages, mince pies, and fat pork. " Good cheer is friendly to health." A generous diet pro- motes vitality and capability for action; but high living is not always good living. Let all your dishes be nutritious, but plain and wholesome. Three meals a day are enough; and if the second be not promptly digested, the third should be omitted. The latter should always be light, and taken at least two hours before bed- time. Nothing should ever be taken between the regular meals. Regularity in the time of taking meals is particularly important, and we should allow no ordinary hindrance to interfere with it; but we must not eat when we have no appetite. It is bet- ter to wait till the next meal-time. Eating without an appe- tite is one of the most fatal of common errors. Food taken under such circumstances generally remains for a long time undigested, and may become rank poison in the stomach. We should also avoid eating when greatly fatigued, or when excited by any violent emotion. Tranquillity and cheerfulness promote digestion. " Chatted food is half digested," the proverb says, and truly. A meal eaten slowly in the midst of pleasant con- versation is readily assimilated, and at once invigorates body and brain, while another, composed of the same viands, but eaten rapidly and in silence, may prove but a clog upon the energies of both. Eat slowly, masticate thoroughly, and, if possible, rest awhile after each meal. In reference to quantity, we can only say, eat so much as the system demands and is capable of assimilating, and no more. "Drunkenness is de- plorably destructive," Dr. Kitchener says, "but her demure sister Gluttony destroys a hundred for her one." (5.) For a universal drink, we can safely recommend water; and we suppose there will be few to call our recommendaion in question. We have heard of persons, however, who contend that man is not naturally a drinking animal; and once, by way of experiment, we ourself abstained entirely and without incon- venience from every kind of drink for several weeks in succes- 190 Practical Hygiene. sion, eating copiously of juicy fruits, however, and refrainug from the use of animal food at the same time. But we are not disposed to put an exception in the place of the general rule. Water, in some form, is absolutely essential to the welfare of the physical system. If, however, we make use of none but wholesome articles of food, with a proper proportion of fruits and vegetables, and do not over-eat (the most common cause of thirst), we shall require comparatively little drink of any kind. The water made use of both for drinking and for cook- ing should be fresh and quite pure, many diseases arising wholly from the use of that which is impregnated with decaying animal or vegetable matter, or with unwholesome mineral substances. We have felt half disposed to pass over tea and coffee with- out even a mention. To speak of them without committing ourself either for or against their use would (as we have settled convictions on the subject) do no credit to either our honesty or our moral courage. To condemn them in toto, contrary to our convictions, and in the face and eyes of our practice, would be still worse; while by giving our approval to their use with- out being able, for want of available space, to set clearly and fully before the reader our reasons for doing so, or to draw the necessary sharp lines of demarkation between use and abuse, is liable to subject us to misapprehension, and perhaps to throw discredit upon our work in the eyes of some whose counte- nance we should be sorry to lose. The last-mentioned course, however, has been decided upon as preferable to absolute silence. A little dogmatism (for which we have the example of those who take the opposite side of the question) may be unavoidable, and will, we trust, be charitably excused. Tea and coffee are stimuli, and on this ground are generally condemned by physiological and hygienic reformers. We are disposed to call in question the justice of the sentence. Stim- ulation, instead of being inherently wrong, as their verdict assumes, is a law of our being. We are all subjected every day and every hour of our lives to the action of stimuli, which legit- imately animate, but in excess might destroy our organism. Tea and Coffee. 191 They present themselves in various forms, material and spirit- ual, natural and artificial; but so far as they comport them- selves alike or with equal propriety in the system, all are equally admissible. Now, looking at them, for the present, merely as stimulants can any substantial difference be pointed out between the phys- ical effects of a cup of coffee and those of a piece of good news received with one's breakfast ? Has not the lively conversation of a brilliant woman the same exhilarating influence as the infu- sion she is wont to pour from her tea-pot? Five or six cups of the tea or the coffee, taken in rapid succession, might cause great ultimate depression and exhaustion of the vital energies; so intense joy, from an excess, so to speak, of good news, may throw one into a swoon, or even destroy life; and the wit of a beautiful woman, if it elevate overmuch, may leave one dis- pirited and downcast in the end. In all these cases, it is the excess to which the mischief is to be attributed. But we are reminded of a second ground of objection to tea and coffee—that they are poisons. We do not so label them; but it matters little whether they be called by this or some other name. That, taken in moderate quantities, they act in any proper sense as poisons in the human system, has not to our knowledge been shown. We have the greatest respect for chemistry, but when it pushes its inquiries within the domain of physiology, without fully acknowledging the sovereignty of the life which reigns there, and which it can not analyze, we have a right to distrust its deductions. Poisons destroy the structure or subvert the functions of the body. We have yet to see the proof that tea and coffee, in their moderate use, do either. In excess they may act as poisons; and so, under cer- tain circumstances, may a too full meal of Graham bread or roasted potatoes. To some weak stomachs they may be injuri- ous in any quantity, as may a ripe apple or a glass of cold water. The eyes of some persons are so debilitated that they can not bear the light; but that, surely, is not a sufficient reason for shutting us all up in dark rooms. The same excep- 192 Practical Hygiene. tional phenomenon may be recognized on a spiritual plane; for high truths, " the stimuli of the soul," often intoxicate and render insane the more weak-minded of their receivers. We condemn as strongly as any one can the abuses of tea and coffee which so generally prevail. The strongest and healthiest man, to say nothing of delicate and nervous women, can not possibly drink eight or nine cups of strong tea or half that number of coffee per day, and continue the practice from month to month and from year to year, without the most disastrous consequences to both stomach and nerves. Let no one, there- fore, who is guilty of any such excess, endeavor to shelter him- self under our recommendation. Throughout this work we have constantly warned our readers against extremes and ex- cesses, and counseled moderation. In this, as in other matters of diet, allowance should be made for differences of age, sex, temperament, and so forth. Some persons may take more than others, and some, as we have said, should abstain wholly. As a general rule, a single, medium sized coffee-cup full of coffee with one's breakfast, and about the same quantity of not very strong black tea with his supper, are sufficient.* Black tea should be used in preference to green, the latter being objectionable from the chemicals used in its preparation, to heighten its color. Tea should be infused (not boiled) in a tight vessel, boiling water being poured upon it. The beverage drunk at most American tables under the name of coffee, is a vile, black, muddy compound, as disagreeable to the unperverted taste as it is harmful to the stomach; but the properly extracted flavors and aromas of the genuine Arabian * We have not alluded in the text to the fact that both tea and coffee serve another purpose—in some cases, an important one—in the system besides stim- ulation. The investigations of Lehmann and Bocker prove that they protract decomposition and greatly diminish the waste of the system; so that, if the diet be sufficient, the body is more likely to gain weight if they are taken than when not; and that when the diet be insufficient, they limit the loss of weight thereby entailed. Juice of the Grape. 193 or East Indian berry, tempered into mild deliciousness by the right proportions of boiled milk, sweet cream, and refined sugar, compose a draught which the gods of Olympus, with their cups overflowing with nectar and ambrosia, might covet* The drugged preparations generally sold at the present day under the name of wine can not be too strongly condemned or too carefully avoided; but the pure juice of the grape, as a beverage of occasions, is worthy of the place it has held for ages on the festive board. Those who hold, with the total ab- stinents, that alcohol can not be received into the system in the smallest quantity without injury, and who therefore reject wine altogether, may make use of the unfermented juice in the form of a syrup, which is slightly stimulating and very pleasant to the taste; and it is our firm belief that in no other way could the noble cause of temperance be so greatly promoted, and the * As good coffee is one of the rarest of luxuries on American tables, we shall deserve, if we do not receive, the thanks of some of our readers for the following hints: 1. To have good coffee, the first essential is to procure the genuine berry (Mocha or Java are always to be preferred, and the first is best of all) in a perfect and undamaged state. It should be round, small grained, free from dust, and of a light color. Never buy ground coffee, unless you are willing to pay a high price for roasted chiccory, peas, and corn. 2. It must be properly roasted. On this point most housewives fail; and the best coffee badly roasted caa hardly be distinguished from the poorest In roasting, the heat should be strong and the operation as brief as possible. The proper degree of heat gives the berry a glossy appearance, and a peculiar flavor and aroma, which fail to appear with too little heat, and are totally destroyed by too much. Avoid burning, as a single charred grain will spoil the whole. 3. It should be ground fine, and just before using. 4. It should be infused, and not boiled. Use the French coffee-pot {cafe- titre) ; or if this can not readily be procured, or is too expensive, Stockwell's patent coffee-strainer, which can be used in any common coffee-pot, is an ex- cellent substitute. Pour boiling water upon the coffee and let it stand a few minutes to steep, and you will have a strong infusion, with all the proper flavor and aroma of coffee. Dilute this in the cup with ric t boiled milk (adding cream, if you have it), and sweeten to the taste. Use at least two parts of milk-real cow's milk-to one of coffee, making the latter very strong. Allow Bridget to boil it, and you have quite a different article, which let those drink who like it. The flavor and aroma which give the properly prepared coffee its magic charm are gone. 0 194 Practical Hygiene. detestable poisoned strong drinks, with which our people are besotting themselves, driven from our midst, as by covering the hill-sides of our country with vineyards.* We do not, let it be understood, insist upon tea, coffee, or wine as essential to physical well-being. One may probably live as long without them as with them—if that be the point mainly aimed at—and perhaps longer. We merely express the opinion that the highest planes of existence can not be reached, and the greatest sum and the richest experiences of life possible for us enjoyed, without some stimulation, material or spiritual, beyond what our common food and the ordinary routine of every-day sensations and emotions afford; and that these bever- ages furnish, in a desirable form, a portion of the needed exhil- aration. Faith, enthusiasm, fanaticism, love, and other passions of the soul, serve with some to raise their lives, and sustain them for a long time above their original level. These stimuli are more powerful than wine, and those who are subject to them are often intoxicated. They have no need of other ex- citants, unless it be to neutralize the effects of these. But we leave the whole subject in the hands of the reader. " Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind," and if he drink tea, or coffee, or wine, let him not do it on pretexts.t (6.) In connection with what is received into the system in the form of food and drink, the excretions, or what passes off by the natural outlets of the body, should be considered. These are the worn-out materials of the system, and those parts of the food which, although perhaps of the greatest use, are not assimilable. Retained in the system, they poison its fluids and * Those who desire to see what may be said on both sides of the alcoholic question should consult Youmans' "Alcohol and the Constitution of Man," and Trail's " Alcoholic Controversy," on the side of abstinence, and Wilkin. son's " Human Body and its Connection with Man," on the side of temperance, The last-named work treats the subject on the high grounds of vital philosophy. t We beg the reader not to hold any person or class of persons with whom we may be supposed to be in any way associated, or whose views are, in the main, the same as ours, in any way accountable for the sentiments we have »iere or elsewhere expressed We claim the entire responsibility. Exercise and It est. 195 ultimately destroy its tissues. The complete and rcguiar per- formance of the excretory functions is therefore of the utmost importance. A stoppage of the bowels or of the pores of the skin can not exist for a single day without positive injury to the health. A too great relaxation, on the other hand, is equally to be avoided. A properly regulated diet will generally insure regularity and efficiency in the action of the bowels. If costiveness or diar- rhea occur, the cause should at once be ascertained, if possible, and removed. This will ordinarily suffice. The diet is often in fault, in which case it should at once be changed. Among the foods of a constipating tendency are bread and cakes from fine wheaten flour, rice, beans, peas, meats, eggs, and tea. Bread from wheaten meal or unbolted flour, rye or corn ; fruits, raw and cooked; raw sugar and molasses; and gener- ally substances abounding in ligneous matter, are laxative in their tendency. Avoid purgative medicines, as they have a tendency to in- crease, in the end, the very evil they are intended to remedy. If the means we have suggested do not prove sufficient, a few injections of pure water, even in the most obstinate cases, effect the desired result. 4. The necessity of bodily exercise has been sufficiently in- sisted upon in a previous chapter. The amount required varies with age, sex, and temperament; but no person can enjoy vigorous health, or acquire or retain any high degree of per- sonal beauty, without more or less active bodily exertion. The women of our country are suffering incalculably for want of the proper exercise of their muscles. Exercise in the open air should be an every-day duty, and an every-day pleasure, with every man, woman, and child. If exercise is essential to human well-being, repose is not less so. The one is the complement of the other. Without exercise, repose would have no meaning and no use; and without repose, exercise would soon wear out and destroy the body. 196 Practical Hygiene. The most complete and refreshing repose, is found in sleep- Tired Nature's sweet restorer. "The vital energy expended in many ways, during the activ- ity of the day, is recruited during the repose of the night. Rest without sleep affords a less complete opportunity for the re- storative process, but to a certain extent is efficacious for the same end. During mere rest, the whole of the voluntary mus- cular actions at least can be suspended, and with the help of quiet and darkness, new impressions from the outward world can be excluded. The activity of the mind not being so easily within control, the brain may continue to fulfill the demands of thought, imagination, or memory. In order that the brain and nervous system may also obtain rest, the state of sleep is provided." Hardly anything is more destructive to health and beauty than insufficient sleep. Children require more sleep than adults ; and some individuals more than others. From seven to eight hours is, perhaps, a good average for adults. The harder we labor, either with mind or body, the more sleep we need. To answer the purpose for which it was bestowed, sleep must be quiet and sound. Among the causes which pre- vent or disturb sleep are, indigestion (often caused by late or heavy suppers); too great bodily fatigue; mental excitement; strong tea or coffee in excess; disordered passions; unsatisfied desires; bad air; too much or two little clothing—in short, all unnatural conditions.* * Dr. Binn, in his curious essay on the " Anatomy of Sleep," thus directs how to fall asleep: " The great point to be gained in order to secure sleep is to escape from thought—especially from that clinging, tenacious, imperious thought which, in most cases of wakefulness, has possession of the mind. I always effect this by the following simple process : I turn my eyeballs as far to the right or left, or upward or downward, as I can without pain, and then commence rollinu them slowly, with that divergence from a direct line of vision, around in their sockets, and continue doing this until—I fall asleep; which occurs generally within three minutes, and always within Ave at most. The immediate effect of this procedure differs from that of any other which I ever heard, to procure sleep. It not merely diverts thought into a new channel, but actually suspends it Cleanliness and Godliness. 197 Feather beds should be avoided, as unwholesome at all times, and especially so in summer. Healthy persons, who wish to continue healthy, must not sleep with the sick; nor children with old people. The sick and the aged may be thus benefit- ed, but the healthy and the young are sacrificed; and it is a sacrifice which no one should be selfish enough to demand. Well may we all join Sancho Panza in invoking blessings on him who invented sleep, and sing with Keats the following sweet lulhaby: What is more gentle than a wind in summer ? What is more soothing than the pretty hummer That stays one moment in an open flower, And buzzes cheerily from bower to bower ? What is more tranquil than a musk-rose blowing In a green island, far from all men's knowing? More healthful than the leanness of dales ? More secret than a nest of nightingales ? More serene than Cordelia's countenance? More full of visions than a high romance ? What but thee, sleep ? Soft closer of our eyes! Low murmur of tender lullabies ! Light hoverer around our happy pillows! Wreather of poppy buds and weeping willows! Silent cntangler of a beauty's tresses! Most happy listener! when the morning blesses Thee for enlivening all the cheerful eyes That glance so brightly at the new sunrise. 5. It was the good St. Ambrose, we think, who said that " Cleanliness is next to godliness; and we commend the aph- orism to our modern saints, who are too much disposed to ig- nore the body and its needs altogether. Cleanliness promotes godliness by promoting health, beauty, and happiness. "Dirt upon the skin," Wilkinson says, "is not merely dirt, but dirty feeling; and the latter is no sooner set up than it travels soul- ward ;" while cleanliness " places a cordon of pure life around our bodies', as a troop of angels around the bed, and before the path of the faithful." The millions of pores which everywhere pierce the skin, exercise important functions, respiratory and excretory, and their stoppage, among other evils, causes accumulations of im- 198 Practical Hygiene. pure humors, which finally break out in the form of pimples or sores, to the great disfigurement of the body. To keep them open, frequent ablutions are required. This necessity, no doubt, results in a great measure from our artificial and erroneous modes of life and dress; but we state the fact as ix exists and manifests itself under the existing order of things. If you would be healthy you must keep yourself scrupulously clean. As a general rule, the whole body should be washed all over every day in summer, and at least once a week in winter. Tepid water—say from 80° to 92°—or that which feels slightly cool, but not cold to the body, is best for general use. The cold bath is a powerful stimulus, and, like other stimuli, must be used in moderation and with good judgment. The skin as well as the stomach may be stimulated too much. As a remedial agent, in some forms of disease, the cold bath is invaluable. The warm bath may be used occasionally with great benefit, but, like the cold bath, is liable to abuse. It must not be indulged in too frequently. The moderate use of tepid and warm baths tends to increase the plumpness of the body, the smoothness, softness, and freshness of the skin, and the sr ppleness and elasticity of the muscles. Tha towels used at the bath should be only moderately coarse. The friction required should mostly be given with the hands The violent rubbings and scrapings with very coarse towels, flesh-brushes, etc., which some have recommended, may sometimes, in cases of torpid skin and general sluggishness of the vital functions, be highly useful as a remedial agency, but they should never be applied to any tolerably healthy skin. 6. In speaking of the effects of climate (in Chapter XL), the relation of temperature to the human body was pointed out and illustrated. We need only add here that sudden transitions as well as extremes of temperature should, so far as possible, be avoided. Clothing should be proportioned to temperature; but in our changeable climate it is seldom safe to go very thinly clad. Our rooms are generally kept too warm in winter, and we wear too much clothing in-doors, by which means our sys- Brain and Heart. 199 tems are relaxed and weakened, and the necessary occasional exposure to the open air rendered far more deleterious than it would be if we kept our in-door temperature lower. From 60° to 62° Fahrenheit, is, we believe, as agreeable and as whole- some a temperature as can be designated. 7. The influence of mental states upon bodily health can not be adequately discussed here. We have already devoted a chapter (VII.) to an elucidation of the effects of intellectual culture on the configuration of the body. The statements which seem to be called for here, are but corollaries of the facts therein set forth. Mental activity has already been shown to be almost as es- sential to health as bodily exercise; but to act is not enough. We must also enjoy. "Sorrow," Melancthon says, "strikes the heart, and makes it flutter and pine away with great pain." And if one merely feels "stupid," or is out of "humor," or ha3 the " blues," he is already half sick, and likely soon to be wholly so. The cheerful man digests his food properly; his blood circulates freely ; and his system is duly nourished; but depress his mind with sorrow or care, and all his functions are obstructed and he grows lean and pale. As a people, we need more cheerful amusements, more re- laxation from work, more time to enjoy the objects which we pursue with such terrible earnestness. 8. Finally, the affections must also find their satisfaction in our lives. Unsatisfied longing for love, for the joys of mater- nity, or for the companionship of kindred and friends, depress the vital energies, wither the roses and lilies of the cheek, and dim the light of the eye. Unhappy marriages, and family dis- cords in general, bring with them physical derangement as well as mental suffering. The whole man must be in har- mony with itself and with all surrounding circumstances, or perfect health can not be enjoyed. The whole tenor and spirit of our remarks, in this chapter and throughout this work, inculcate temperance in the use of all good things, and abstinence from all hurtful indigencies— 200 Practical Hygiene. in other words, the dominance of the intellect and moral feel- ings over our lower or animal nature; we will not therefore particularize here the various abuses and vicious indulgencies which are destroying the health and the lives of so many, and among them some of our otherwise promising young men. They are all condemned in the preceding rules and hints in terms, which, although they may not name them, will be un- derstood by all who are willing to be instructed. 201 XIV. WOMANHOOD. The destiny of woman is to be a wife and mother, but she does not, like Eve, awake full grown. She has to pass through the various phases of growth before she is able to fulfill the duties of her ordination.— Bur aud Riofrey. OMAN HOOD, crowned with pecu- liar honors, is also environed by pecu- liar perils. With the education and habits which gener- ally prevail at the present day, the crisis of puberty, common to both sexes, is fraught with far greater danger to the girl than to the boy; and the culminating point of joy and of exaltation, in maternity, is reached by the woman through trials of which the man knows nothing. If by a few words of counsel, drawn from the teachings of physiological science, we shall be able to lessen, in any degree, these trials and dan- gers, we shall not have written this chapter in vain. At the age of from twelve, to fifteen, according to climate and temperament, the young girl who lias reached that period under tolerably healthful conditions, experiences that wonder- 9* 202 Womanhood. ful change which transforms her, in the course of a few months, from a child into a woman. Among the physical modifications which this crisis ushers in are the rapid development of the reproductive organs; a considerable widening of the pelvis, which makes the hips appear broader and larger; a marked expansion of the base of the brain ; a gradual filling up of the interstices of the muscles with cellular tissue, resulting in more delicate and rounded contours; and increased fineness of tex- ture and smoothness of the skin. The bosom expands into luxuriant fullness, the features acquire new and more expressive lines, the cheeks become more fresh and rosy, and the lips glow in tempting ripeness. Nature has accomplished her work. Beauty has reached its climax. The girl is a woman, and may become a wife and a mother. Normally, these changes are accomplished, the monthly flow established, and the new phase of life fully inaugurated with very little pain or inconvenience, and no real danger. In the abnormal state to which our unnatural and pernicious systems of education and our unphysiological habits, with the conse- quent depreciation of vital stamina, have brought a majority of girls, particularly in cities, the case is widely different; and thousands on thousands either lose their lives at once (the hap- pier fate), or enter upon what should be the supremely happy and honorable career of womanhood with constitutions irre- trievably ruined, and utterly incapable of the distinctive func- tion of the sex. In the debilitated and diseased state of the system to which we have alluded, puberty exhibits itself under several abnormal aspects. It is frequently precipitated; sometimes it is retarded beyond the natural period; and very often, when taking place at the proper age, it is accompanied by the most serious and dangerous derangements and diseased conditions. Over-heated rooms, feather beds, improper clothing, rich and too stimulating food and drink, want of exercise in the open air, improper books, pictures, and conversation, and the pernicious example of depraved persons, tend *o bring on premature sexual inatu- A Word to Mothers. 203 rity, establish the menses before the proper age (sometimes, we are told, as early as the eighth or ninth year), and lay the foundation for disease and premature death. At this point we beg the fond mother to pause a moment and reflect on her position, her duties, and her responsibilities. It is your fault mainly if these false and unhealthful conditions be permitted to exist, and your daughters be subjected to this premature and abnormal development. We beg you, then, as you value their health and beauty (and what mother does not desire to see her daughters beautiful?), their moral welfare, and their present and future happiness, see to it that the condi- tions we have named be all reversed, and that in their educa- tion and management everything that is calculated to promote precocity, either mental or physical; impair the strength of the constitution; or interfere in any way with the natural, orderly, and harmonious development of every organ and faculty of body and mind, be carefully avoided. Above all, beware of that direct incitement to sexual feeling, so common in many families, which consists in allusions to love, courtship, and marriage, in the company of boys and girls, and with the express purpose of directing their attention to these subjects. No harm is meant by this sort of talk, we are aware; but harm, and great harm is done, nevertheless. Never talk to a young girl of lovers, or tease her with reference to any person of the other sex, and by no means allow her to be kissed or fondled by any boy or young man, except a father or a brother. But if you have not already corrupted her, or allowed her to be corrupted, you will have no occasion to forbid such liberties. Her own instinctive modesty and sense of propriety will be a sufficient safeguard. If, however, you are accustomed to urge her, against these instinctive feelings, to kiss this or that boy or young man whom you represent as a lover or suitor, you have already taken the first step toward her ruin. Allow her, we beg you, to remain a child till Nature, in her own good time, shall make her a woman. In peculiar diseased, debilitated, or sluggish states of the 204 Womanhood. system, the phenomena of puberty, instead of being precipi- tated, fail to appear at the proper period. This retarded devel- opment is oftea. characterized by great derangement of the general economy, extraordinary tastes, and diseased appetites. Girls thus affected sometimes eat with avidity chalk, charcoal, plaster, clay, slate pencils, and other innutritious substances, and are pale, sickly-looking, dyspeptic, and nervous. The thing to be done in cases like this is to restore the gen- eral health, by first removing the causes through which it has been lost, and then bringing to bear upon the system such hygienic agencies as a well-chosen diet, exercise in the open air, judicious bathing, lively company, and pleasing amuse- ments. Thus Nature may be assisted, and the function finally established. Avoid drugs in all such cases. None but an ignorant or dishonest physician would prescribe them; and yet the health of thousands, already sufficiently deteriorated, is utterly ruined by their use. The fault is frequently in the ignorant mother, who either doses her daughter with some advertised nostrum, or insists upon receiving medicines for her from her physician. Where there is simply a degree of tardiness in the appear- ance of the menstrual flow, without any other symptoms of dis- ease or debility, no alarm need be felt. The case may be left mainly to Nature. No harm will result from a little delay. The desired development may be legitimately promoted, how- ever, by the tonic and stimulating action of cold water dashed upon the bosom at the morning bath ; by wet bandages, worn low down on the abdomen, and by cool sitz-baths. Every mother should inform herself thoroughly on the sub- ject of which we have been speaking, that she may be qualified to prepare her daughters for the important changes which await them at the verge of girlhood. She should understand the rationale of the menstrual function, know the conditions on which its normal development depends, and be deeply im- pressed with its important bearings upon health and beauty. With this conviction and this knowledge she will endeavor tn Marriage. 205 surround her daughters with all the conditions of health, re move carefully every cause of disease or debility, and prepare their minds, by such instructions as may be necessary, for the new and interesting phase of life upon which they are about to enter. Tho crisis will thus be mainly disarmed of its dangers and its terrors, and, safely passed, will usher the young girl into a healthy and beautiful womanhood. Regularity in the performance of the menstrual function, once rightly established, depends upon health, regular habits, and regulated passions. Irregularity indicates disease or debility, and leads to the most disastrous results, affecting health, beauty, and life itself. The menstrual function being regularly established, it would seem to be in accordance with the intentions of Nature that, other conditions being favorable, marriage should at once take place, and the grand work for which the materials and forces are now prepared be consummated. If puberty has not been precipitated, but has been established and become regular at the normal period, under circumstances of perfect physical de- velopment and sound health, we see no physiological objection to this course; but taking the physical conditions as we find them at the present day, it seems to us far better, in a majority of cases, that marriage be deferred for several years, or till more solidity and vigor of constitution than generally exists at puberty be attained. Of marriage it is not our purpose to speak at length; but we can not forbear a word or two of counsel to the young maiden or wife in reference to its physiological bearings; for looking upon it from the point of view here suggested alone, it is fraught with the most momentous consequences. The young woman who has honored these pages with a peru- sal need not be told, after reading so far as this, that an educa- tion, to be worthy of the name, or anything better than a mis- fortune to the receiver, must embrace other branches than French, Italian, music, and. drawing—that physiology and its applications must not be ignored. Having arrived at woman- 200 Woman jiood. hood, a thorough knowledge of your own physical and mental constitution becomes imperative. Whatever relates to the re- quirements of your destiny as wife and mother—a destir.y which no true woman, we believe, can desire to avoid—is at this juncture of paramount importance to you. Without this knowledge you launch your bark upon an unknown sea, and sail forth without chart or compass. The most perfect phys- ical organization and the best health are thus liable to be ship- wrecked during the first matrimonial voyage. With how many thousands, alas! is this the sad actual which takes the place of the maiden's ideal wifehood. For proof, look about you and observe the contrast between the blooming brides and the pale and sunken-cheeked wives of even the best and most loving of husbands, who have tenderly tried to shield them from all the harms which their own ignorance has permitted them to see. A little easily acquired information on the part of the wife, and a course of action dictated by it, would, in a majority of cases, entirely prevent the deplorable consequences we have noted. Permit us to urge you again to seek this knowledge at once; for, without it, whatever may be your other qualifica- tions, physical or mental, you are utterly unfitted to marry.* Marriage, when love and physiology unite in sanctioning it, gives the finishing touch to the beauty of both man and woman; nor does maternity, exercised under proper conditions, impair in the least the attractions of the latter—in fact, it adds to them. If, then, you would retain your health and beauty, become the mother of healthy children, and remain a perpet- ually overflowing fountain of joy to your husband, study and obey the laws of your being. * In connection with standard works on general physiology, Dr. Edward II. Dixon's "Women and her Diseases," Alexander Walker's " Intermar- riage," and O. S. Fowler's "Love and Parentage" and "Matrimony," and especially the last named (in spite of a blunt and unpolished style, which ia apt to repel), may be read with profit. 207 XV. THE SECRET OF LONGEVITY. Nothing is more advantageous to man than long life. * * * * That which gives one the truest pleasure is to perceive that age and experience may render a man wiser than the schools can ma'.ie him. We do not know the value of ten years of healthy life at an age in which man can enjoy all his faculties and profit by all his experience.—Louis Comoro. NE FOURTH, at least, of all the M (r children who are r\$jA born, die before they have com- pleted their sev- enth year, and one half before reach- ing the age of sev- enteen. Only six persons in a hun- dred reach the age of sixty-five, and hardly more than one in ten thou- sand lives one hundred years. What an appalling picture of life—or of death, rather—on this globe do these startling facts present! Is it possible that this terrible premature mortality is natural and inevitable—a part of the permanent Providential order of things ? Is man, as a physical being, essentially a failure? Among the lower animals nothing of this kind occurs; and anatomy and physi- ology have failed to discover anything in the structure or 208 The Secret of Longevity. functions of the human system that necessarily leads to these sad resets. On the contrary, they show clearly enough that every child born with a sound constitution possesses the basis of a long life. The one in ten thousand—the man who lives a hundred years—to say nothing of the still longer lives of which history and observation have taken note—is only a man, and has no organs, faculties, or powers which are not the birth- right of the race. Now, as all men are subject to the same fixed natural laws, it follows that under the same set of con- ditions throughout, the same length of life would have been possible for each individual of the ten thousand, and is fairly within the capabilities of the race. How comes it, then, that this birthright is not also the pos- session of the race? What are the causes which have thus shortened life and filled it with pain? How shall we regain our lost inheritance—length of days? It is upon these im- portant questions that we now purpose to throw such light as we have been able to bring to the proper focus. The means by which we shorten life and swell the melan- choly records of premature mortality are almost innumerable, consisting of whatever lessens the sum of vital power, weakens or mars the organism, hastens vital consumption, or hinders the natural restorative processes—in a word, we abbreviate exist- ence by the same means, in the main, that we make use of to destroy health, bodily symmetry, and beauty; and these have already been pointed out. Multitudes of children (through the transgressions of their parents) are brought into the world with the seeds of disease and dissolution already implanted in their bodies, or with organ- isms so weak or imperfect that they are unable to carry on the processes of life, and they die almost as soon as they have be- gun to live. Other multitudes, more fortunate in the outset, and born with tolerably sound constitutions, perish during the first few months, frdin the combined effects of improper food, over-feeding, impure air, rocking and jouncing, laudanum, par- egoric, c;Lstoi'-oil. and tight bandages. Thousands on thou- The Perils of Life. 209 Bands, with their systems weakened, their functions deranged, and their vitality lowered by the abuses just enumerated, and whatever else the ignorance or stupidity of their parents has been able to inflict upon them, lose their lives at the period of the first dentition, which, although a natural process, and fraught with no danger to the well-managed and perfectly healthy child, constitutes a most perilous crisis for those who are weak and surrounded by unhealthful conditions. The second dentition, made dangerous by similar means, carries off a great number more. Then come the perils of puberty, and, with woman, those of maternity follow, leaving but a shattered remnant of the great phalanx of life still on their feet. Im- proper food; intemperance in eating and drinking; dissipation and excesses of various kinds; family cares; the excitements and anxieties of business; and unphysiological habits and false conditions generally, carry off the remainder, one by one, long before they have reached the natural term of life. The perils which thus environ us at every turn, and at almost every step, are mainly the creations of our own ignorance or folly, and might therefore be avoided, and the highway which leads to old age rendered pleasant and safe, by pursuing that course of conduct which knowledge and wisdom would dictate. What this course of conduct seems to us to be will appear from what follows. The conditions on which longevity depends (to give our remarks a less negative turn) are mainly these : 1. A sound physical constitution. We have shown how this may be insured to all infants at birth. The children of long- lived parents, other things being equal, are most likely to be long-lived, because they generally inherit those qualities of constitution which are favorable to that result. 2. A judicious physical education, symmetrically developing, solidifying, and hardening the bodily organs. 3. Simplicity, wholesomeness, and regularity of diet, and the efficient action of all the nutritive or restorative functions. 4. Sufficient pleasurable exercise in the open air to promote 210 The Skcret of Longevity. a healthy circulation and keep the muscles in tone, and ade- quate rest and sleep. 5. Immunity from harassing cares and anxieties, excesses of every kind, and all unhealthful conditions. 0. Constant moderate activity of body and mind. No idler ever reached a great age. 7. Happiness. "Enjoyment," Dr. South wood Smith says, " is not only the end of life, but it is the only condition of life compatible with a protracted term of existence. The happier the human being is, the longer he lives; the more he suffers, the sooner he dies. To add to enjoyment is to lengthen life; to inflict pain is to shorten existence." But all this, in substance, has already been set before the reader in previous chapters, and the simple statement of these conditions is all that is necessary to show their extended appli- cation. A new statement of the principal question raised in a preceding paragraph may, however, bring out new facts and illustrations. "But I can not, in my own person," the reader may say, ■' go back to the beginning, and insure myself a perfect consti- tution and a judicious physical education. I must forego the full realization of these conditions. Taking myself as I am, then, with the measure of soundness and the sum of vital power with which I find myself possessed, what are the prac- tical means by which I may prolong my days in health and comfort to the greatest possible extent?" Consider, in the first place, the sum of your vital power and the strength of your organism as making up your stock of life —the capital on which the business of existence is to be carried on—life itself, which is action, making constant drafts upon it; so that, if there be no process of restoration—no income—it must soon be exhausted. But here you must understand, in the second place, that Nature takes care to guard against this bankruptcy by provid- ing means by which the original stock may be kept good, and und?r favorable conditions, even increased. Constitution and Vital Power. 211 The simple facts thus briefly stated and illustrated are of vital importance, and seem to suggest something like the fol- lowing practical rules: 1. Every available means must be made use of to strengthen the constitution and give a sufficient degree of solidity and hardness to the organs. Exercise, within proper limits (which will be indicated in another rule), bathing and friction, a mod- erately cool temperature, and a free use of gelatinous nourish- ment, impregnated with iron, are some of the more important agencies to be made use of for this purpose. A degree of solid- ity and hardness amounting to rigidity must, however, be care- fully avoided, as it will shorten life by rendering the organs sooner unfit for action. We should carry the hardening process so far as to make strong, but not stiff. 2. The sum or fund of vital power must, if practicable, be increased. The means of doing this should be sought mainly in the expansion of the chest (see Chapter XII.) and the inhal- ing of copious drafts of pure air, whereby the blood is more highly vitalized, the digestive functions rendered more efficient, and circulation and nutrition more active. But here, too, there may be excess. Overmuch vital power leads to a higher degree of action than is consistent with long life, and also increases the liability to inflammatory diseases. Hufeland says: "Sound health may shorten the duration of life by intensifying it, and a certain kind and degree of weakness may be the means of prolonging it."* The idea he wishes to express is no doubt a correct one; but the excessive vitality to which he probably refers is not sound health, although it may temporarily assume the appearance of it. A very ruddy face and a full habit are by no means signs of longevity, as the most cursory examination of the subject will convince the can- did reader. A degree of paleness and lankness, although de- noting deficient vital power, are more favorable indications. A moderate plumpness, and a diffused, but not a high color in the face, are the marks of enduring vigor. * Art of Prolonging Life. 212 The Secret of Longevity. 3. Vital consumption must be so lessened or moderated that it may not be attended with a too speedy wasting of the powers and the organs. If you would live long, you must not live fast. The energy of life is in inverse ratio with its duration.* It is for each individual to judge for himself how slowly or how rapidly, within practicable limits, it may be desirable to live; but the question now before us is in reference to the duration of life, and not to its absolute sum. Of two persons, then, each possessing the same stock of vital power and capability of physical endurance, one may consume twice as much in a day as the other, and, other things being equal, live only half as long. To retard vital consumption, moderation must govern all our thoughts, feelings, and actions. We must avoid— (1.) Excessive stimulation of all kinds, intensity of feeling, the excitements of the passions, and whatever unduly increases organic or functional activity. (2.) All straining of the mental powers by too intense or too greatly prolonged study or thinking. (3.) Too violent or long-continued muscular exertion. (4.) Irritants of all kinds, whether affecting body or mind. (5.) Immoderate excretions. Retarding vital consumption must, however, have its limits. Without a degree of activity, the organs lose their power, and become unfit to act at all. Some of the lower animals have the power of remaining dormant—the activities of life ceasing without life itself becoming extinct—and their existence may be prolonged in that way indefinitely; but man is differently constituted, and the idea of Dr. Franklin and others, of sus- pending the processes of life entirely for a time, and afterward restoring animation, will probably never be found practicable with the human being. 4. The restoration of the vital power consumed by the activ- ities of body and mind must be complete and easily effected. Nutritive food, a good digestion, repose, and sleep are essential * Hufeland. King David and Abishag. 213 to this end. The last-named must be especially insisted upon. Without it, necessary restoration of vital power can not be effected. With insufficient sleep, the vigor of the body is very soon impaired, and the term of life greatly shortened. There is another means of restoring vitality and prolonging life, which we mention merely to express our abhorrence of the atrocious selfishness which would make use of it. Ever since the time when Abishag the Shunammite was brought to King David to "cherish him" and lie in his bosom, "so that he might get heat," it has been well known that living with the young and healthy, and especially sleeping with them, has a restorative effect upon the old and the feeble. Reinhart calls living with the young the restoration of the old,* and Bartho- lin says the same, that it is a preventive to the chilliness of old age, and by the breath restores much of the expired physical powers.! Rudolph of Hapsburg is said, according to Serar's account, when very old and decrepit, to have been accustomed to kiss, in the presence of their relations, the daughters and wives of princely, ducal, and noble personages, and to have derived strength and renovation from their breath. The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, near the end of his life, was advised, by a Jewish physician, to have young and healthy boys laid across his stomach, instead of using fomentations.} The story of Lucius Claudius Hermippus, who reached a great age by being continually breathed upon by young girls- detestable old man!—has often been quoted. Hufeland re- cords the following inscription discovered in Rome : "To iEsculapius and Health this is erected by L. Clodius Hermippus, who, by the breath of young gir's, lived 115 years and 5 days, at which physicians were no little surprised. Successive generations, lead such a life!" «' Bibelkronkheiten des Alten Testaments. t De Morbis Biblils. t Ennemoser. History of Magic 21i The Secret of Longevity. What became of the young girls whose virgin lives were thus absorbed—mide use of as so much tonic medicine—by this shameless and selfish old philosopher, we are not told. The Bible is equally silent with reference to the condition of Abishag when she had done keeping King David warm. Old men, on the same principle, prolong their days by mar- rying young wives,* and invalid mothers by daily contact with their children. That those who thus impart vitality where they receive nothing in return must experience a loss equal to the gain on the other side, is sufficiently plain.t The grand secret, after all (a sound constitution and an ade- quate fund of vital power being assumed as a basis), is Modera- tion in everything, and a happy medium as to climate, tem- perature, employment, social condition, diet, and so forth. Almost the entire substance of Coruaro's celebrated "Dis- courses,"! and of Hufeland's "Art of Prolonging Life," may be reduced to this single aphorism—Without moderation, the strictest obedience to all other rules will be vain. "Few would believe," M. Reveille-Parise says, " how far a little health, well managed, may be made to go;" and Cicero declares, " To use what we have, and to act in every thing according to our strength, is the rule of the sage.''§ * De Longueville, who lived to the age of 110, had ten wives, the last of whom he married when he was ninety-nine. We saw it recently stated in a newspaper that a man in Massachusetts had lived forty-one days without eat- ing anything, during which period he had been nourished altogether by cold water, and " by the influence absorbed by him while daily holding the hand of his wife." t Dr. E. P. Foote says : " I once knew a woman who had become prostrate with incurable consumption. Her infant occupied the same bed with her almost constantly, day and night. The mother lingered for months on the verge of the grave, her demise being hourly expected. Still she lingered on, daily disproving the predictions of her medical attendant. The child mean- while pined, without amy apparent disease. Its once fat little cheeks fell away with singular rapidity, till everybone in its face was visible. Finally it had imparted to the mother its last spark of vitality, and, simultaneously, b> tli died." i Discorsi della Vita sobria. § De Stneetute. How Long We May Live. 215 In connection with the means of prolonging it, the question, What is the natural duration of human life ? may very properly receive a passing notice. Leaving out of the account the antediluvians, whose bones we will not now disturb, and coming down to comparatively modern times, we find at least ten instances of persons living to one hundred and fifty years and upward.* Petrarch Czarten, a Hungarian peasant, lived, as the record is, from 1587 to 1772, or one hundred and eighty-five years; Louisa Truxo, a South American negress, one hundred and seventy-five years; Henry Jenkins, an English laborer, one hundred and sixty-nine years; Thomas Parr, an Englishman, one hundred and fifty-two years. Instances of persons reaching the age of one hundred years and upward are comparatively numerous, and come within the observation of almost every one. The tables of mortality for England and Wales, for a period of eighteen years, commencing in 1813 and ending in 1830, as quoted by Pinney, show that seven hundred and seven persons lived to the age of one hundred years; eighteen to one hundred and ten; three to one hundred and twenty; and one to one hun- dred and twenty-four. Now it is by no means certain, or even probable, that the longest lived individuals on our list lived in strict accordance with the laws of nature, or reached the furthest possible limit of human life. Thomas Parr, who lived one hundred and fifty-two years, died of a fit of indigestion, brought on by hav- ing been feasted at court. Dissection showed that all the viscera were perfectly healthy and the cartilages not ossified. He might have lived many years longer, had he not died thus of an accident. May we not reasonably infer from these facts that it is possible, under the most favorable conditions, for men to live nearly or quite two centuries? This was the opinion * Captain Eiley thinks he has met with Arabs on the Great Desert who were three hundred years old, and that "a great many of them live two hundred years and upward." We can not quote these, however, among our well- authenticated instances of longevity. 216 The Secret of Longevity. of the celebrated physiologist Haller, who says that "man should be placed among the animals that live the longest."* But there is another means of reaching, approximately at least, the point at which we aim. As long ago as the time of Aristotle it was known that the length of the growing period is an index of the possible length of life—the latter being some number of times the former. Buffon, the great natural- ist, develops and illustrates this idea in his works; but there has existed an element of uncertainty in this method, growing out of the difficulty of ascertaining the exact limits of the period of growth. M. Flourens, a late French writer, has re- moved this difficulty by finding a sign of this limit—the union of the bones with their epiphyses.^ This having taken place, the animal grows no more. According to this rule, man reaches the limit of growth in about twenty years ; the camel in eight years; the horse in five years; the ox in four years; the dog in two years, and the rabbit in one year. Now, if the camel lives about forty years, the horse twenty-five years, the ox twenty years, the dog ten years, and the rabbit five years, or, in each case, Jive times the period of growth, man should live one hundred years, or five times his period of growth. This is the result at which Flourens arrives. The lives which exceed this term he sets down as extraordinary or exceptional, and adds: " Just as the duration of growth multiplied a certaiD number of times—say five times—gives the ordinary duration of life, so does this ordinary duration, multiplied a certain number of times—say twice—give the extreme duration."!: It is possible, then, as we have already inferred from historical facts, for man to live ten times the period of growth, or two hundred years. Ought not this, then, to be received as the normal duration of life, and possible, under supposable con- * Elementa Physiologiae. t Epiphysis (plural epiphyses), Gr. eirtdrofftj, accretion; the growing of one bone to another by simple contiguity. X Human Longevity and the Amount of Life on the Globe. By P. Flourens. Translated from the French. London. 1S55. Human Capacity for Life. 217 ditions, for all men? So it seems to us. Whether all the essential conditions are now attainable or not is another question. A late writer, to whose contributions to our scien- tific literature we have before had occasion to refer, remarks that " we must distinguish between the possible and the prac- ticable length of life," and that "the distinction is very wide." He continues: " In fine, although the problem is yet in a degree open, and the results may require to be somewhat varied, we feel war- ranted in drawing from the facts presented [in the series of articles from which we quote] the following conclusions: " 1. Men and women have lived to an age of near two hun- dred and fifty years, and within the last few centuries a few individuals to from a hundred and forty to a hundred and eighty-five years. "2. Since these were but men and women, they possessed no capabilities but those which all of us possess; and provid- ing our parentage, habits, and external and internal conditions in all respects were as good as theirs, all men and women now could attain to ages of from a hundred and forty to a hundred and eighty-five years. "3. Just as soon as the race at large shall have discovered and reduced to unmistakable rules the principles of health and endurance on which those few stumbled, as it were, by chance, the majority of human kind may live to at least a huudred and forty or a hundred and fifty years. "4. When for a few generations the practice of hygienic living has been quite universally adopted, so that the constitu- tion may recover from its present broken and enfeebled con- dition, deaths under eighty should become as unusual as deaths over a hundred now are; and the whole race, with rare excep- tions, could then attain to ages ranging from a hundred to a hundred and fifty years, and may even beyond that, to near or quite two hundred years. We have, as human beings, the germs of the capacity to do this; we only need to look after and develop them. 10 218 The Secret of Longevity. " 5. While a life thus prolonged is our birthright, and would become our possession if our condition and modes of living were brought to a perfection of system and practice, it is evi- dent that until some great change is made in the causes now at work, we shall continue to reap the present consequences. And so, with a right to exist in health, comfort, nay, positive happiness, to the age of one hundred and fifty years, the coming century will likely, as the past has done, find children and adults dying rapidly from the first year, and indeed the first hour of being, until the number of centenarians, even if somewhat increased, shall still be extremely small."* Notwithstanding the lamentable premature mortality of the present day, statistics show that the length of life has been steadily increasing since the sixteenth century, when, accord ing to Dr. Buchanan, its average was only eighteen years. It is now forty-three years. In Geneva, Switzerland, of whose population, births, and deaths an accurate account has been kept for three centuries, the mean duration of life— was 21 years 2 months " 25 " 9 " " 82 " 9 " " 40 " 5 " " 47 " 0 " The mean duration of life among the ancient Romans, not including the servile classes, according to Ulpianus (as quoted by Dr. South wood Smith), was only thirty years. Among the same class in Great Britain at the present time it is fifty years. For the whole population of Great Britain the average is forty- five; for France forty-two, and for the United States about forty-three. These facts illustrate in a very striking manner the influence of civilization and an increase of knowledge and the comforts of life in promoting physical welfare. The poor and laboring classes in most countries (popular belief to the contrary not- From 1500 to 1600 " 1600 to 1T00 " 1700 to 1800 In 1830........... Inl^50 .......... * Prof. Levi Reuben, in Life Hlustrated. Louis Cornaro. 219 withstanding) are shorter lived by more than one-fourth than the wealthy. A comparison made for France by M. Ville- merme, and based on actual statistics, shows that the wealthy live on an average twelve years longer than the poor. The pro- portion would be different here, however, as even those whom we call poor possess most of the conditions essential to health and long life as largely as the rich, and are free from some of the unfavorable conditions to which the latter are subjected. " Philosophers and men of quiet reasoning, naturalists, states- men, and other men whose studies and avocations were espe- cially calculated to develop and maintain the supremacy of the moral and intellectual powers, have been proverbially long- lived. In this connection we may name, among the ancients, Homer, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Plutarch, Xenophon, Plato, Thales, Carneades, Sophocles, Zeno, Galen, Democritus; and among the moderns, Locke, Newton, Galileo, Boyle, Leibnitz, Buffon, Olbers, Blumenbach, Hahnemann, Swedenborg, Sir Edward Coke, and Fontenelle. All of the persons thus named were distinguished by active and laborious habits, and some of them were intense, if not intemperate workers." The married live longer than the single; large men live longer than small ones; more women than men become old, but men only attain the highest point of longevity. Savages do not live so long as civilized people; but in this country the most remarkable instances of longevity have been found among the negro slaves of the Southern States. One of the most remarkable and instructive instances of longevity on record is that of Louis Cornaro, author of "Dis- courses on a Sober and Temperate Life,"* who was born in Venice, of an illustrious family, in the year 1467 (according to the " Biographie Universelle"), and died in 1566. Born with a very feeble constitution, and plunging early into the fashionable excesses of his times, he lost his health, and when only thirty-five years old was told by his doctors that he could not live more than two years. * Published by Fowler and We'ls. N\-w York, price 3 > rents. 220 The Secret of Longevity. This serious warning had the effect of inducing him to abandon his pernicious habits and commence a simple and tem- perate life. His abstemiousness became almost excessive. Twelve ounces of solid food and fourteen ounces of wine each day were for more than half a century all his nourishment; and this diet agreed so well with him that during the whole of that half century he was never ill. He took this quantity, in the beginning, at two meals; but afterward, as he became older, he made four meals of it. He ate, he says, " bread, mutton, partridges, and so forth. All such articles of food are suited to old men, who, if they he wise, will be contented with them, and not seek for others." But for the particulars of Cornaro's way of living we must refer the reader to his book. We call attention to him here simply as an example of the extent to which one's health and longevity are in his own hands. What a noble victory was that which he gained over himself and over the disorders and weaknesses which assailed him! No wonder he is proud of living, and never ceases speaking of what he calls his beautiful life, and of the victory he has gained. " What 1 am going to say," he exclaims, "will appear impossible or hard to believe; nothing, however, is more true. It is a fact known to many persons, and worthy of the admiration of posterity—/ have at- tained my ninety-fifth year, and find myself as healthy, merry, and happy as if I were but twenty-five.'1'1 221 XVI. THE ARTS OF BEAUTY. 'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on.—Shakspeare. { Nature or thwart her beneficent inten- tions is not true Art, but an impostor working under her name. Somfl ( <" the means already brought forward for the promo- tion of v symmetrical and beautiful physical development, and the corrr ^ponding functional harmony, may be called artificial; but they ill have their foundation in natural laws, and co-ope- rate har; loniously with Nature's more direct agencies. So far as dress, personal ornaments, cosmetics, and so forth, can be 222 The Arts of Beauty. properly placed in the same category, they have our approval, and no further. The Arts of Beauty, so far as we purpose to treat of them here, may be properly considered under three heads: 1. The Use of Cosmetics ; 2. Dress ; 3. The wearing of Ornaments. I.—THE USE OF COSMETICS. A cosmetic (from the Greek xoff^ixoi) is properly a beautifier —anything that is capable of improving personal beauty. It is in this broad sense that we use the term. Of course, then, we approve of cosmetics, but not necessarily of everything that passes under that name. The careful reader of the foregoing pages no doubt already anticipates the drift of our remarks under this head. The principal beautifiers have already been described and recommended; but, at the risk of repeating some of the hints presented in previous chapters, we beg permission to offer here the following SSUcipes. 1. To Acquire a Beautiful Form.—Take abundant exercise in the open air—free, attractive, joyous exercise, such as young girls—when not restrained by false and artificial proprieties— are wont to take. If you are in the country, or can get there, ramble over the hills and through the woodlands; botanize; geologize; seek rare flowers and plants; hunt bird-nests, and chase butterflies. Be a romp, even though you may be no longer a little girl. If you are a wife and a mother, so much the better. Romp with your children. Attend also to your bodily positions in standing, sitting, lying, and walking, and employ such general or special gymnastics as your case may require. Live, while in-doors, in well-ventilated rooms; take sufficient wholesome and nourishing food, at regular hours; keep the mind active and cheerful —in short, obey all the laws of health. Take a lesson from the English girl, as described in the fol- lowing extract: The English Girl. 223 " The English girl spends more than one half of her waking hours in physical amusements; that is, in amusements which tend to develop, and invigorate, and ripen the bodily powers. She rides, walks, drives, rows upon the water, runs, dances, play3, swings, jumps the rope, throws the ball, hurls the quoit, draws the bow, keeps up the shuttlecock, and all this without having it forever impressed upon her mind that she is thereby wasting her time. She does this every day, until it becomes a habit, which she will follow up through life. Her frame, as a necessary consequence, is larger, her muscular system better developed, her nervous system in subordination to the physical; her strength more enduring, and the whole tone of her mind healthier. She may not know as much at the age of seventeen as does the American girl; as a general thing she does not, but the growth of her intellect has been stimulated by no hot-house culture, and though maturity comes later, it will last propor- tionably longer."* 2. To Promote Plumpness.—A lack of the proper degree of embonpoint, for which no other physical quality can compen- sate, is a very common defect among American women. The cause of this want of plumpness is generally either actual ill health, or an abnormal development of the mental tempera- ment. If the vital system be naturally well developed, the desired fullness will come with health. To increase the vital temperament, moderate (within the limits of health) the activ- * Among the items particularized in the published accounts of the bridal outfit of the Princess Royal of England, on the occasion of her marriage with he Crown Prince of Prussia, is the following: "Twelve dozen pairs of boots of useful and solid make ; some of them in- tended for rough walking, being provided with treble soles, and small but pro- jecting nails." "Only think," an American newspaper says, "of some of our 'paper-soled,' delicate-footed damsels, sporting, by way of novelty, hob-nailed, triple-soled shoes! Does any one doubt, however, that such an innovation would do more to preserve the roses in fair cheeks than any style of hygiene which ' the fac- ulty' could recommend? "We denounce often the fashions of England as mo- narchical-we think the Princess Royal might set us good republicans an ex- ample in the matter at understanding." '124: Tn k Arts of Bkauty. ity of both mind and body; choose your diet with reference" to the formation and deposit of cellular tissue; and live, so far as possible, an easy, serene, and cheerful life. Tepid and warm baths (keeping in mind the cautions we have already dropped with reference to bathing) will contribute to the same end. We do not recommend spending half one's time in the bath, as some women of historical renown are said to have done, but when taken for the purpose here indicated, they may be some- what prolonged with profit. 3. To Improve the Features.—Cultivate the mind, refine the tastes, cherish all the virtues, and every gentle and loving mood, avoid gross food and strong drink, and harbor no dis- turbing passion. Be lovable, and you will be beautiful. 4. To Acquire a Beautiful Complexion.—The beauty of the complexion, depending upon the efficient performance of the vital functions of nutrition, circulation, and excretion, is gen- erally in proportion to the integrity and vigor of the vital sys- tem. The complexion, then, is improved by increasing vitality, and injured by depressing it. To promote vitality (and through it a clear complexion), expand the chest by deep, full breathing, either in the open air or in well-ventilated rooms, and by other appropriate movements (for which see Chapter XII.); keep the pores of the skin open by bathing and gentle friction; avoid hot bread or biscuits and butter, all very greasy or high- seasoned food, rich pies and cakes, hot or heating drinks, the excessive use of tea and coffee, bad air (and, if possible, stove- heated rooms), excessive heat and cold (and especially sudden transitions from the one to the other), dissipation, and late hours. If you are troubled with pimples or-other eruptions on the face and neck, avoid washing these parts with cold water, as it will have a tendency to cause a still greater flow, not only of the blood, but of the impure humors also, to them. Use tepid or slightly warm water instead. A bath composed of tepid water and wheat bran is said to be remarkably efficacious in cleansing, purifying, and beautify ■ How to have Rosy Cheeks. 225 ing the skin. Milk, or milk and water, are also recommended. There is certainly no harm in trying either of these, or the much-lauded pimpernel water, made by infusing the plant in pure rain water, as auxiliaries to the grand hygienic agencies we have enumerated.* Beware, above all, of the cosmetic lotions advertised in the papers and sold by the apothecaries. They are, almost without exception, worse than worthless, and in the end destroy, instead of improving, the complexion, whatever their makers and venders may say to the contrary. 5. To Obtain Rosy Cheeks.—Cultivate a flower-garden. Rise early, and try to discover where the roses and carnations get their brilliant complexions. It is a secret worth knowing. You will find the cosmetic you seek in the same place. 6. To Beautify the Hair.—Keep the head clean, the pores of the skin open, and the whole circulatory system in a healthy condition, and you will have no need of bear's grease (alias hog's lard) or Macassar Oil. Where there is a tendency in tho hair to fall off on account of the weakness or sluggishness of the circulation, or an unhealthy state of the skin, cold water and friction with a tolerably stiff brush are probably the best remedial agents. 7. To Beautify the Bosom.—The fullness, whiteness, smooth- ness, and elasticity on which the beauty of the bosom mainly depends, are due to the perfection of the vital or nutritive sys- * We may add to the foregoing auxiliary beautiflers the celebrated lait vir- ginal, which is said to have been known to the beauties of the court of Charles II. It is a simple tincture of benzoin precipitated in water. It emits a most agreeable perfume, has a slightly stimulating effect upon the skin, and gives at hTast a temporary brilliancy to the complexion; but those who put this or any- thing else in the place of pure air, light, exercise, wholesome food, and good habits, will soon see how powerless it is for any grand cosmetic effect. It may be made according to the following ftecije. Take a small piece of gum benzoin, and boil it in alcohol till it becomes a rich tincture, which bottle up for use. Ten or fifteen drops of this in a tumble! full of water makes the famous virgin mi'k. I-j* 226 Tin-: Arts of Beauty. tern, and are promoted in the same way as the general plump- ness of form of which we have spoken in another place. Cold water and gentle friction will stimulate the development of the breasts. The cotton padding so generally used to give "the appearance of something where there is nothing," is utterly destructive to the health and beauty of these organs. They should be covered as lightly as may be consistent with their protection, and left to grow in unrestrained luxuriance, like the lilies of the field. All compression, and especially the pressure of such hard substances as steel or whalebone, and above all, whatever tends to push them out of their proper place—the place in which symmetry and use alike require them—is sure to result in more or less deformity, and may give rise to more terrible evils still, in the form of abscesses or cancers. To young girls just budding into womanhood these cautions are of the utmost importance. 8. To Improve the Arms and Hands.—The recipes already given for the promotion of beauty of form, complexion, and so forth, will apply here. An additional hint may be found in the following extract: " It has been suggested that the Greek or Ionian, whose arms were of so perfect a form, owed that beauty in some measure to the custom of leaving them nude, or covered only by loose dra- pery, as in that case no pressure constricted the roundness of the fleshy parts, and prevented their development; no ligature, binding the upper part of the arm, altered the color of the skin; and the arm, being always uncovered, received at the toilet the same attention as other parts. * * * * It is certainly not improbable that we may attribute the absence of this beauty, in some measure, to the custom of wearing long sleeves; but want of exercise is the great cause."* 9. To Retain Beauty and Youthfulness.—The rules we have given for acquiring beauty supply also the needful instructions for retaining it. It comes and goes with health. The bad * Walker. Beauty May be Retained. 227 habits and false conditions which destroy the latter render the former impossible. Youthfulness of form and features depends upon youthfulness of feeling. Spring still makes spring in the mind When sixty years are told— Love wakes anew the throbbing heart, And we are never old. If, then, we would retain youthful looks, we must do nothing that will make us feel old. Beauty is generally spoken of as a fleeting show, a fragile flower, an evanescent gleam of celestial radiance; and too often these terms are well applied, especially in this country. This, however, we are convinced, is not according to the intentions of Nature. Some women have retained their beauty and youthful appearance till a very advanced period of life. Of Diana of Poitiers, who died at the age of sixty-seven, Bran- tome says: " I saw her six months before her death, still so beautiful that I know not a heart so rocky as not to be moved at the sight of her." "I believe," he adds, "if this lady had lived a hundred years, she would never have grown old, either in the face, so finely was it formed, or in the person, so good was her constitution, and so excellent her habit of body."* Ninon de l'Enclos and other famous beauties are also represented as being exceedingly fascinating at forty or even fifty years of age. Examples of the same well-preserved loveliness are not entirely wanting at the present day. A late writer, speaking of English society, says: " One meets ladies past fifty, glowing, radiant, and blooming, with a freshness of complexion and full- ness of outline refreshing to contemplate.""!" Another, speaking of the Italian women who have passed what he calls the " first bloom of youth," remarks: "Instead of presenting a shriveled and withered appearance, they seem to grow in beauty as they grow in years, and although age of course makes its progress, yet its ravages are well-nigh imperceptible. In no country in Galantes ((Euvr-8 ton. IV.i. t Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe. 228 The Arts of Beauty. the world are so many middle-aged beautiful women as in Italy, and this also we attribute to the fullness of their imagination and spiritual nature, which permits them to bear the sacred pangs of motherhood without impairing the vigor and buoyancy of their physique or their intellect." Is all this impossible for American women? We do not believe it. The women spoken of in the foregoing extracts keep their beauty because they keep their health. Here is the grand secret, after all; and it is mainly because they lose their health that American women lose their beauty. We have shown how health is lost, and indicated the means by which it may be regained and preserved. It is not necessary to repeat here the instructions scattered through the preceding chapters. The writer whose remark in reference to the English women is quoted in the preceding paragraph continues: "How comes it that our married ladies dwindle, fade, and grow thin—that their noses incline to sharpness, and their elbows to angularity, just at the time of life when their island sisters round out into a comfortable and becoming amplitude and fullness? If it is the fog and the sea-coal, why, then, I am afraid we shall never come up with them. But perhaps there may be other causes why a country which starts some of the most beautiful girls in the world produces so few beautiful women. Have not our close-heated stove-rooms somewhat to do with it ? Have not the immense amount of hot biscuits, hot corn-cakes, and other compounds got up with the acrid poison of saleratus, something to do with it? Above all, has not our climate, with its alter- nate extremes of heat and cold, a tendency to induce habits of in-door indolence? Climate certainly has a great deal to do with it—ours is evidently more trying and more exhausting; and because it is so, we should not pile upon its back errors of dress and diet which are avoided by our neighbors." Another writer, after detailing the various abuses which are undermining the constitutions and ruining the beauty of Ameri- can women, says: "All day long in winter the stove-heat burns into the brain. Lack of Taste in Dress. 229 and withers the cheeks, and palsies the muscles, and enfeebles the step; and though summer comes with its outer air, and its fruits and flowers, the loads it is asked to remove are too much for it, and the years circle round—the weary, aimless, soul- consuming years! and the bad diet, and the uncleanly habits, and the foul air, and the hot stove have done their miserable work. Beauty is gone, health is vanished, hope has set, and the young mother, who should be just beginning to shed beauty and goodness and light around her, has shrunken mournfully into the forlorn and wrinkled and unlovely old woman."* Need we add anything more? These warning words are from the lips of your own sisters. Ponder them well, wre beg you. II.-DRESS. Women are sometimes charged with devoting too much attention to matters of dress. There is, perhaps, some founda- tion for the accusation, for these things should not, certainly, be made the principal business of their lives; but we would by no means counsel them to treat dress as a trifling or unimpor- tant matter. The grand cause of regret is, not that they devote themselves so zealously to it, but that their studies and labors in that direction are not guided by a better kuowledge and more artistic tastes. With all the time, attention, and labor bestowed upon the subject, comparatively few women, espe- cially in this country, dress well, either in an esthetic or a hygienic point of view; and what is intended to heighten their charms, too often obscures, and, in the end, destroys them. A woman who has herself the reputation of dressing well, and who has had abundant opportunities of observing the toilets of different nations, says: "The great majority of my sex understand the art of dress no further than that ' fine feathers make fine birds;' hence, they dress more or less in bad taste." The fact is, dress is not studied as an art, and in the light * Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis. 230 The Art* of Beauty. of the fundamental principles of taste, as it should be, but is subjected to the arbitrary and senseless rules of fashion. Fashion is an arch tyrant whom we would gladly overthrow, but she is securely enthroned beyond the reach of our blows- A direct attack would be useless. Our only hope is in gradu- ally undermining her power by the diffusion of knowledge and the cultivation of the popular tastes. To contribute to such an extent as our very limited space will permit, to these ends we offer the following hints: 1. The Uses of Dress.—Dress has primarily two functions— to clothe and to ornament; but use and beauty, in this as in other cases, so far from requiring any sacrifice for combination, are found, each in the highest degree, where both are most fully obtained—the fittest or most comfortable dress being that which is most graceful or becoming. Fitness is the primary demand, and the dress that appears uncomfortable is untasteful.* 2. Subordination of Clothes.—"Dress is always to be con- sidered as secondary to the person." This is a fundamental maxim in the art of costume, but is often lost sight of, and dress made obtrusive at the expense of the individuality of the wearer. A man's vest or cravat must not seem too important a part of him; and a woman should not be wholly lost in her crinoline. If you are not better and more beautiful than your clothes, you are, indeed, a man or a woman of straw.t Mrs. E. Oakes Smith very happily says : " The greatest com- pliment that can be paid to a woman is to forget her dress, or rather not to see it—as proving it to be so characteristic that we are not incommoded by observation, and are thus left to unalloyed companionship. We see, as it were, face to face, and not through whalebone and starch. The rose in her hair is a part of her womanhood, and the robe, in hue and shape is so a part of her mold that we do not see it, but her. All is harmony, and she is the genius to which everything else has become subordinate." * The Crayon. t How to Behave. T IIE L A W O F F I T N E S s. 231 3. Fitness of Dress.—It follows from the principles already stated, that any costume, to fulfill properly either of its impor- tant functions, must possess fitness in forms, materials, and colors to the person of the wearer, and to the conditions of time, place, and occasion on which it is worn. The fact that fashion compels us constantly to violate this principle does not invalidate it. In treating of dress as an art, we must ignore fashion altogether. In our practice we must do what we can. It is but justice, however, to fashion and its promoters, to admit that they are not responsible for all the incongruities with which we meet. They are often mainly due to bad taste and affectation. (1.) The first application of the law of fitness gives us the dis- tinction of sex in dress, and shows the absurdity of dressing men and women alike. The physiological reasons why every form of dress which is becoming on one sex may with propriety be rejected by the other, will suggest themselves to any one at all familiar with the human figure. "Some," Mrs. Smith says, "have contended that there should be no difference in the dress of the sexes. I think that a moment's reflection will convince us that this is a mistaken taste. As a general rule, we are shorter than the other sex, and I am sure we do not wish to seem only a poorer sort of men."* (2.) There should be fitness to the individual, as well as to the sex. We instinctively know that the young and the old should not dress alike. Neither should the tall and the short, the pale and the rosy, the grave and the gay, the tranquil and the viva- cious. Each variety of form, color, and character has its ap- propriate style. "Woman," the erratic, but beautiful and witty Lola Montes, says, "may take a lesson on dress from the garments whiob Nature puts on at the various seasons of the year. In the spring of youth, when all is lovely and gay, the light and trans- * Hints on Dress and Beauty. 232 The Arts of Bkalty. parent robes of brilliant colors may appropriately adorn the limbs of beauty. Especially if the maid possess the airy form of Hebe, a light, flowing drapery is best suited to display her charms. This simple garb leaves to Beauty all her empire. No heavy ornaments should load the figure or distract the atten- tion in its admiration of the lovely outlines. The young woman of graver mien should select her apparel with reference to her different style of beauty. Her robes should always he long and more ample than those of her gayer sister; and they should also be thicker in substance and of a more sober color." "In form," another writer says, "simplicity and long, un- broken lines give dignity, while complicated and short lines express vivacity. Curves, particularly if long and sweeping, give grace, while straight lines and angles indicate power and strength. In color, unity of tint gives repose—if somber, grav- ity, but if light and clear, then a joyous serenity—variety of tint gives vivacity, and if contrasted, brilliancy." Tall women should not wear dresses with longitudinal stripes, as they will make them appear taller than they really are. Flounces and stripes running around the dress have an opposite effect, and should be avoided by short persons. Light colors are more suitable to small persons than to large ones, as they increase the apparent size. The colors worn should be de- termined by the complexion, and should harmonize with it and with each other. The following suggestions from Youmans' " Household Science" will be useful to our fair readers : " Any colored objects, as bonnet trimmings or draperies, in the vicinity of the countenance, change its color; but clearly to trace that change we must know what the cast of complex- ion is. This varies infinitely, but we recognize two general sorts, light and dark, or blonde and brunette. In the blondes or fair-complexioned the color of the hair is a mixture of red, yellow, and brown, resulting in a pale orange brown. The skin is lighter, containing little orange, but with variable tinges of light red. The blue eye of the blonde is complementary to the orange of the hair. In brunettes the hair is black, and the skin Hints on Colors. 233 dark, or of an orange tint. The red of the brunette is deeper or less rosy than that of the blonde. Now the same colors affect these two styles of complexion very differently. A green setting in bonnet or dress throws its complement of red upon the face. If the complexion be pale and deficient in ruddy freshness, or admits of having its rose-tint a little heightened, the green will improve it, though it should be delicate in order to preserve harmony of tone. But green changes the orange hue of the brunette into a disagreeable brick-red. If any green at all be used, in such case it should be dark. For the orange complexion of brunette the best color is yellow. Its comple- mentary, violet, neutralizes the yellow of the orange and leaves the red, thus increasing the freshness of the complexion. If the skin be more yellow than orange, the complementary violet falling upon it changes it to a dull pallid white. Blue imparts its complementary orange, which improves the yellow hair of the blondes, and enriches white complexions and light flesh tints. Blue is therefore the standard color for a blonde, as yellow is for a brunette. But blue injures the brunette by deep ening the orange, which was before too deep. Violet yellow 3 the skin, and is inadmissible except where its tone is so deep as to whiten the complexion by contrast. Rose-red, by throwing green upon the complexion, impairs its freshness. Red is ob- jectionable, unless it be sufficiently dark to whiten the face by contrast of tone. Orange makes light complexions blue, yel- low ones green, and whitens the brunette. White, if without luster, has a pleasant effect with light complexions; but dark or bad complexions are made worse by its strong contrast. Fluted laces are not liable to this objection, for they reflect the lio-ht in such a way as to produce the same effect as gray. Black adjacent to the countenance makes it lighter." (3.) Dress should accord with the wearer's pecuniary means, her social position, and the society in which she moves. (4.) One's costume should be suited to the time, place, and other circumstances under which it is to be worn. You would not, of course, wear your summer clothes in winter, or your 234 T II E A R i s O F i > E A l." T Y . winter clothes in summer. For a similar reason you should have one dress for the parlor and another for the kitchen, one for in-doors and another for the street or a ramble in the coun- try. " Long flowing and even trailing skirts are beautiful and appropriate in the drawing-room, but in the muddy streets, drag- gling in the filth and embarrassing every movement of the wearer; or in the country, among the bushes and briers, they lose all their beauty and grace, because no longer fitting." (5.) No dress that hinders the movements of the body or pre- vents its symmetrical development can be either fitting or in any high sense beautiful, whatever Fashion, which has no respect for physiology, may say to the contrary. 4. Variety in Costume.—An application of the principles just laid down would give a pleasing variety in style and color in place of the uniformity which now so generally prevails. No two persons should dress precisely alike, unless two can be found between whom no point of difference, either in physical or mental character, can be discovered. What is wanted is to get rid of the absurd tyranny of Fashion,, so that what is be- coming to each person, whether man or woman, may be worn without social outlawry or discredit. Of the advent of such a state of things as this we have strong hopes. There is now certainly a tendency in the right direction among the more thoughtful and independent of both sexes. 5. A Hint to Married Women.—A newspaper writer, whose name we do not get hold of, has the following hint, which we hope no fair reader of ours will feel constrained to take to herself. "It is no uncommon thing for women to become slatternly after marriage. They say they have other things to attend to, and dress is habitually neglected—except, perhaps, on great oc- casions, when there is a display of finery and bad taste abroad, to be followed by greater negligence at home. Great respect is shown to what is called ' company,' but apart from this there is a sort of cui bono abandonment, and the compliment which is paid to strangers is withheld from those who have the best O R X A M E N T S . 235 right to claim, and are most likely to appreciate it. This is a fatal, but too common error. When a woman, with reference to the question of personal adornment, begins to say to herself, ' It is only my husband,' she must prepare herself for conse- quences which, perhaps, she may rue to the latest day of her life." 6. The Hair and Beard.—The hair and beard, in one of their aspects, belong to dress. In reference to the style of wearing them, consult the general principles of taste. A man to whom Nature has given a handsome beard, deforms himself sadly by shaving. On this point, we believe fashion and good taste at present agree. In dressing the hair there is room for the display of a good deal of taste and judgment; but every lady will be able, after a few experiments, to decide what mode renders her face most attractive. " Ringlets hanging about the forehead suit almost every one. On the other hand, the fashion of putting the hair smoothly, and drawing it back on either side, is becoming to few; it has a look of vanity instead of simplicity: the face must do every- thing for it, which is asking too much, especially as hair, in its pure state, is the ornament intended for it by Nature. Hair is to the human aspect what foliage is to the landscape." III.-THE WEARING OF ORNAMENTS. That beauty Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, But is when unadorned adorned the most, is a trite observation; but with a little qualification it is worthy of general acceptance. Aside from the dress itself, ornaments should be very sparingly used—at any rate, the danger lies in overloading oneself, and not in using too few. A young girl, and especially one of a light and airy style of beauty, should never wear gems. A simple flower in her hair or on her bosom is all that good taste will permit. When jewels or other ornaments are worn, they should be 23(5 The Arts of Beauty. placed where you desire the eye of the spectator to rest, leaving the parts to which you do not want attention called as plain and negative as possible. There is no surer sign of vulgarity than a profusion of heavy jewelry carried about upon the person. XVII. EXTERNAL- INDICATIONS OF FIGURE. The eye of the physiologist penetrates all disguises.—J. H. Daniels. "° ': " xX physical characteristics of those parts of the person concealed by the dress. An oblong face, for instance, we know indicates the motive or active temperament (see plates X. and XL), and is associated with dark, strong, and abundant hair; a somewhat long and tapering neck; rather broad and definitely marked shoulders; only a moderate fullness of bosom (in woman); a finely shaped waist, and rather long and slender limbs; while a round face is a sure index of the vital temper- ament (see plates XII. and XIII.), and is found in connection with soft and light hair; blue eyes; a clear complexion; a rather short neck; finely rounded shoulders; a full chest (and, in woman, a luxuriant development of bosom); large, but tapering limbs; and comparatively small feet and hands, the whole figure being portly in man, and soft and voluptuous in woman. The oval or pyriform face (see plates XIV. and XV.), 238External Indications of Figure. symbolizing the dominance of the mental powers, goes with the high forehead, the straight nose, the intensely expressive eye, wavy or curling hair, rather a small frame, deficient in fullness, moderately rounded limbs, and a figure, as a whole, characterized by intellectuality and grace. The correspondence between the arm or the hand and the figure as a whole are equally perfect. " Long-handed persons," 0. S. Fowler says, "have long fingers, toes, arms, legs, bodies, heads, and phrenological organs ; while short and broad shoul- dered persons are short and broad-handed, broad-fingered, and broad-limbed. When the bones on the hand are promi- nent, all the bones are generally so, and thus of all other characteristics of the hand or any other part of tho body. Hence, let a hand be thrust through a hole, and I will tell the general character of its owner, because if it be large or small, hard or soft, strong or weak, firm or flabby, coarse-grained or fine-grained, even or prominent, small-boned or large-boned, or whatever else, the whole body must be built on the same principle, with which brain and mentality must also corre- spond."* Alexander Walker thus remarks upon some of the indications of the female figure afforded by the walk: " In considering the proportions of the limbs to the body— if, even in a young woman, the walk, though otherwise good, be heavy, or the fall on each foot alternately be sudden, and rather upon the heel, the limbs, though well formed, will be found to be slender, compared with the body. " This conformation accompanies any great proportional de- velopment of the vital system; and it is frequently observable in the women of the Saxon population of England, as in the i ounties of Norfolk, Suffolk, etc. "In women of this conformation, moreover, the slightest in- disposition or debility is indicated by a slight vibration of the shoulders and upper part of the chest at every step in walking. * ?>lf-Instruotor. Walker's Remarks. 239 " In considering the line or direction of the limbs—if, viewed behind, the feet, at every step, are thrown out backward, and somewhat laterally, the knees are certainly much inclined in- ward. " If, viewed in front, the dress, at every step, is as it were gathered toward the front, and then tossed more or less to the opposite side, the knees are certainly too much inclined. " In considering the relative size of each portion of the limbs —if, in the walk, there be a greater or less approach to the marching pace, the hip is large; for we naturally employ the joint which is surrounded with the most powerful muscles, and in any approach to the march, it is the hip-joint which is used, and the knee and ankle-joints which remain proportion- ally unemployed. "If, in the walk, the tripping pace be used, as in an approach to walking on tiptoes, the calf is large; for it is only by the power of its muscles that, under the weight of the whole body, the foot can be extended for this purpose. " If, in the walk, the foot be raised in a slovenly manner, and the heel be seen, at each step, to lift the bottom of the dress upward and backward, neither the hip nor the calf is well developed." * Beauty. INDEX. A. Page Arm, The Perfect................ 34 " Beauty of.................. 42 " How to Improve........... 226 JEneid, Extract from...........:. f.6 Atavism..................... 72 Air, Necessity of, to the Infant... 79 " as a Condition of Health___ 175 " How it is Poisoned......... 177 Atmospheric Influ en ces.......... 135 Affections, Early Cultivation of... 8n " Satisfaction of........ 199 Anxiety, Effects of............... 128 Attitude........................ 134 Appetite as a Guide............. 182 B. Body, Structure of.............. 19 Bones, Growth of................ 2(1 Brain, Description of.......... 29 Beauty a Sign of Goodness....... 32 " Worship of.............. 32 " Native Country of........ 131 " Arts of.................. 2'1 " of Form ................ 221 " HowtoRetain........... 226 Bosom......................... 42 " How to Beautify......... 525 Breasts...................... 42, 2;6 Butchers, Health of............. 120 Book-keepers................... 122 Bed, Position in................. 147 Balancing...................... 160 Back, Exercise for Strengthening. 167 Breathing ...................... 179 Body, its own Rule of Food...... 182 Bread........................... 18T Butter.......................... 187 Bathing......................... 198 C. Chin............................. 4n Cheeks......................... 40 " Rosy..................... 2.5 Pagh Configuration, Laws of.........54, 62 " Affected by Mental Culture........ 91 " Affected by Civili- zation ..........114 Cuvier on Molecular Changes — 57 Childhood...................... 76 " Chief Business of...... 78 " Conditions of its Healthy Development........ 79 Children, How to make them Healthy....................... 86 Cradles Condemned.............. 81 Caspar Hauser................... 88 Cleanliness..................82,197 Chaucer ........................ 93 Catholicism,Influence of on Beauty 105 Conditions, Social............... 112 Country, City and...........116,137 Clerks.......................... 122 Country Girl...................124 Clergymen, 111 Health of......... 126 Climate......................... 130 Climates of the United States___131 Cold, Effects of................... 181 Colleges Condemned............ 144 Climbing....................... 161 Chest, Expansion of.............. i6i Carriage, How to Improve......167 Circulation, Promotion of........ 168 Coffee .......................... 190 " How to Prepare........... 193 Cornaro, Louis.................. 219 Cosmetics...................... 222 Complexion, How to Improve ... 224 Color, Hints on................. 232 D. Dryness of Air, Effects of........ 135 Direct Physical Culture.......... 140 Dancing........................ 156 Dress for Exercise............... 162 " Hints on.................. 229 242 Index. Dark Rooms to be Avoided...... 180 Diet, Hints on...............184, 1-.9 Drink, Universal................ 1S9 E. Elizabeth of Hungary........... 35 Eye, Color of........-............ 40 *' Size of.................... 40 Exercise, Development Promoted by................... 5S " Essential in Childhood. 82 " a Duty................ 195 Exercising Dress for Girls........ 162 Education, Narrow and Mistaken Notions of.......... 61 Physical..........83,140 " of Infancy........... 84 " Physical Effects of... f-9 Embryology..................... 64 Epochs, Physiognomy of........ 93 Ease, Effects of................. 114 Erectness........................ 149 Electricity....................... 180 Eggs........................... 138 Excretions...................... 194 English Girl..................... 223 F. Face, Profile of.................. 39 " Altered by Education..... 9>, 194 Sleep............................ 196 244 Index. T. 'AGK 9*>, Temperaments, Classiflcation of.. 44 " Combinations of. 54 Temperament, Motive ... 46 " American..... 46 " Lvmphatic (so- called) 48 " Vital.......... 48 " Mental ...... f