FOOTE’S HAND-BOOK OP •"Hints ami l!j«u(ir jt'j«i]ics COMPRISING INFORMATION QF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO EVERYBODY, CONCERNING THEIR DAILY HABITS OF EATING, DRINK- ING, SLEEPING, DRESSING, BATHING, WORKING, ETC., TOGETHER WITH MANY USEFUL SUGGESTIONS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF VARIOUS DISEASES ; RECIPES FOR RELIEF OF COMMON AILMENTS, INCLUDING SOME OF THE PRIVATE FORMUL2E OF DR. r >OTE AND OTHER PHYSICIANS OF HIGH REPUTE, AND DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARATION OF DELICACIES FOR INVALIDS AS PUR- SUED IN THE BEST HOSPITALS IN THIS COUNTRY AND EUROPE. Price Twenty-fivo Cent*. NEW YORK: MURRAY PUBLISHING COMPANY, 129 EasW Twenty-Eighth Street. 1888. [Copyrighted September.0, 1881, by E. B. Foots M. J\] .Dr. FOOTE’S HAND-BOOK OF ami !(catljr Ijjtipts COMPRISING INFORMATION OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO EVERYBOD", CONCERNING THEIR DAILY HABITS OF EATING, DRINK- ING, SLEEPING, DRESSING, BATHING, WORKING, ETC., TOGETHER WITH MANY USEFUL SUGGESTIONS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF VARIOUS DISEASES ; RECIPES FOR RELIEF OF COMMON AILMENTS, INCLUDING SOME OF THE PRIVATE FORMULAS OF DR. FOOTE AND OTHER PHYSICIANS OF HIGH REPUTE, AND DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARATION OF DELICACIES FOR INVALIDS AS PUR- SUED IN THE BEST HOSPITALS IN THIS COUNTRY AND EUROPE. Price Twenty-five Cents. NEW YORK: MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 129 East Twenty-Eighth Street. 1888 CONTENTS PAGB. CHAPTER I.—Hygienic Advice on Habits of Liv- ing for all Seasons, including over thirty sub- jects and comprising 52 pages 5 CHAPTER II.—Common Sense on Common His, composed of short “ talks ” on chronic diseases, consumption, malaria, cancer, female weakness, skin diseases, and nervous debility 55 CHAPTER ni.—Some Hygienic Curative Measures, treating of obesity, cure of intemperance, climate cure, hot water bags, sand bags, infantile diar- rhoea, warming the feet, curing colds, prevention of croup, cure of rupture, and restoration of sight 73 CHAPTER IV.—Fewer Children and Better,” or How to Avoid Undesirable Children, a discourse on stirpiculture 87 CHAPTER V.—Health Hints and Sanitary Siftings, including : Terse Suggestions and Timely Warnings.. 92 Food Facts 97 Knacks Worth Knowing 99 Guide Posts and Danger Signals 101 Hints to Bathers 106 Hints on Nursing the Sick 107 Hints for Emergencies no Hints for Pregnant Women 114 CHAPTER VI.—Ready Recipes for Cure of Com- mon Slight Ailments 119 Preparation of Delicacies for Invalids 127 PREFACE. We were led to issue this little book by the suggestion of a prominent publisher, who, being an attentive reader of Dr. Foote's Health Monthly, believed that he found in it articles of permanent interest and items of practical importance that were worthy of preservation. Instead of binding the complete numbers of the past six years in bulky and expensive volumes, we persuaded Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., to devote a portion of his summer leisure to the selection from back numbers of the most practically useful articles on the subjects of health and hygiene, and thus were compiled the first four chapters. He also found time to “boil down ” the substance of half a dozen valuable books, and present it in a condensed form as found in the chapter of ‘ ‘ Health Hints and Sanitary Siftings.” Of the chapter headed “Beady Kecipes,” which was added at our request, he asks us to say that he presents only long-tried remedies and reliable expe- dients for the relief of common ailments, such as could be safely entrusted to people in general. The remedial recipes and suggestions together with the selected for- mulae of food for invalids make it a valuable reference book and one worthy of careful preservation. We have endeavored to crowd into these 128 pages as much of the real essence of what people ought to know about hygiene, and what they want to know about self- treatment, as possible. Those who arise from its peru- sal with an appetite for more, will find nearly a thou- sand pages, twice as large as these, in the book entitled “Plain Home Talk, embracing Medical Common Sense,” by E. B. Foote, Sr., M. D. ; but if any purchaser of the large book should not find in it the special information on medical subjects for which he is in search, let him re- member that the purchase of the book (Plain Home Talk) confers the privilege of consulting its author free of cliary Finger Nails. Theke is popularly supposed to be some poison com- municated by an abrasion of the skin by the finger nail, or when it comes in contact with a wound. We question this. Unless a person has a very decided scrofulous dia- thesis or unless the system is greatly diseased with syphilis there ought to be nothing in the hard tissues of the body to communicate disease. What to our mind more likely is this : People are not particular enough about keeping the finger nails clean. Those of refined tastes and who belong to what is termed “good society” take pride in keeping the nails free from anything which discolors them. But that kind of material gathering under the nails which makes them look disagreeably is not as apt to contain some insidious poison as something which may not exhibit itself to the visual organs at all. The bright blade of the lancet when it looks free from any corrosion and when it seems to be entirely clean, if introduced beneath the skin may convey a poisonous in- oculation. In various ways the finger nails may come in contact with transparent fluids which, brought in contact with the blood by an abrasion, would cause a sore—per. haps obstinate ulceration. These poisonous matters may be gathered up by contact with the various objects we take hold of, for we are constantly handling things which have passed through the hands of hundreds of others- In public conveyances, especially, the hands grasp and find rest where thousands of hands have been before. A person having a cutaneous affection will be very likely to have his finger nails charged with the poison for the 44 HYGIENIC ADVICE ON HABITS reason that he is so often scratching himself. There are some occupations which are liable to charge the nails with irritating matters. Both for the purpose of entire cleanliness and for complete safety every person should use a nail brush and apply it thoroughly as often as twice a day, while its more frequent use would be even still better. Shut your Mouth. One of the foreign medical journals calls attention to the evils of breathing by the mouth, and reminds us that the nose was made for a two-fold purpose : first, to sense impure air and lead us to avoid it; secondly, the ine. qualities of the nares retain solid particles of the atmo- sphere, and prevent the inhalation of irritating dust in the delicate tissue of the lungs. Therefore “shut your mouth,” instead of being an impudent demand is good hygienic advice. False Teeth Plates. Much has been said from time to time in respect to the injurious effects of rubber plates for false teeth ; es. pecially the red rubber, which contains mercury. Sev- eral cases having come under our observation in the course of the past year or two we wish to add our testi- mony. In one case of a lady over seventy years of age, who had been troubled for years with a sore mouth which had resisted all remedies of all schools of practice, we advised the substitution of celluloid for the rubber, and a new set of teeth was made using this new, excellent and cheap material. Nearly or quite a year has elapsed since the celluloid plate was introduced, and she has not had an attack of sore mouth since making the change. A patient who had suffered long and severely with sore mouth was finally interrogated by us in respect to the teeth. We found that she was wearing the red plate. We immediately advised the substitution of celluloid, and her long and serious trouble with the mouth was speedily cured. Many other cases might be mentioned, but these two will suffice. OF RIVING FOR ALL SEASONS. 45 Near-Sight. Dr. Loring in an essay upon the human eye changing in form under the influence of modern education shows that what is commonly called near-sight or, technically, myopia, is produced between the tenth and fifteenth years. At this age the investing membrane of the eye; which is elastic at this period of life, yields to the press- ure of the watery contents of the eye-ball, and these are increased by close application, resulting in a lengthen- ing of the eye, or what would be called a too full develop- ment of the cornea. It is, therefore, recommended-that a greater number of years be allowed for study in order that the eye may not be unduly taxed. It is said that the English who give greater time to education are not as subject to myopia as the Germans who crowd their students. The pressure of the fingers upon the ball of the eye has a tendency to diminish the convexity of the eyes as they expand from the above or other cause. Dr. T. D. Lente says the most important desideratum for the invalid is occupation—something to give employ- ment to both body and mind. Want of it is a stumbling block to the improvement and enjoyment of many of the visitors to Florida. Ennui is the dangerous enemy of the invalid. The same idea is expressed in the following Chinese proverb : “The dog in the kennel barks at his fleas, but the dog who is hunting does not feel them.” Occupation for Invalids. 46 HYGIENIC ADVICE ON HABITS Baby Comforts. (?) In January last a physician reported to a medical jour- nal a case of a child three years old with a tape-worm. The same journal in April records another case of the same parasite affecting a child two years old. The latter was cured, by pumpkin seeds and castor oil, after being much worn in health, and producing over forty-live feet of specimen. How did this persistent and terrible para- site get into the children? Probably the grandmother or some “good nurse” thought the baby would like a piece of raw meat to exercise its gums upon, and the un- fortunate child took in the parasite in the meat. We have seen babies lustily sucking on pieces of fat raw pork, given them in the place of soothing syrup ; but we hardly know which is the most dangerous of these two favorite baby comforts. The soothing syrup con- tains an insidious drug that gradually undermines the health and makes the child irritable and nervous. The fat pork or even a piece of raw beef may contain a germ that will find such agreeable quarters for development in the intestine of the child that it will take firm hold there ; it sometimes refuses to be dislodged till by its grip of death the poor infant wastes and dies. Babies are better without meat, either raw or cooked, and thrive best on the milk diet which nature as a rule provides for them. Alcohol as a Food and a Medicine. Annie Wittenmeyee, President of the Woman’s National Christian Temperance Association, and claiming to repre- sent 100,000 women, addressed a letter of inquiry to the members of the medical profession who were gathered together in International Congress at Philadelphia, dur- ing the centennial days, concerning the physiological status of alcohol, its food value, and its medicinal pro- 47 perties. The following reply may therefore be regarded as the expressed opinion of the leaders of the old school practice. We quote it without further comment than that it is a subject on which high authorities are far from unanimous in their opinions, and ‘ ‘ where doctors disagree, who shall decide?” OF LIVING FOP. ALL SEASONS. Dear Madam I am instructed by the Section on Medicine, In- ternational Medical Congress of 1876, to transmit to you, as the action of the Section, the following conclusions adopted by it with regard to the use of alcohol in medicine, the same being in reply to the communication sent by the Woman’s National Christian Temper- ance Union : 1. Alcohol is not shown to have a definite food value by any of the usual methods of chemical or physiological investigation. 2. Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stimulant, and often admits of substitution. 3. As a medicine, it is not well fitted for self-prescription by the laity, and the medical profession is not accountable for such admin- istration, nor for the enormous evils resulting therefrom. 4. The purity of alcoholic liquids is in general not as well assured as that of articles used for medicine should be. The various mix- tures, when used as a medicine, should have known and definite composition, and should not be interchanged promiscuously. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. Ewing Mears, M. D., Secretary of the Section on Medicine. Annie Wittenmeyer, Pres’t of the Woman’s Nat’l Christ’n Temperance Union. International Medical Congress, Philadelphia, September 9, 1876. Among the causes are long-continued straining of the eyes, sudden excitement, bad air, exposure to heat of the sun, remaining too long in bath, going without a meal, alcoholic drinks, rheumatism, long hair and false hair so arranged as to increase the heat of the scalp, stove- pipe hats, tight boots and shoes, exhaustion from brain- work, six o’clock dinners, tea and coffee drinking, going without sleep, and excessive exercise of any function; Causes of Headache. 48 ‘ ‘ but by far the larger share of headache has its origin in that foul state of the system, particularly the stomach and bowels, caused either by bad dietetic habits or by in- sufficient elimination of morbid matter through the bow- els, skin, lungs or kidneys.” Those who are subject to headache will probably be able to pick out of this long list of causes the one Avhich properly applies to their own individual cases ; and when once satisfied the cause is known, of course the rational remedy is its removal; but, besides this one important thing, it is recommended to try more exercise, wetting of the forehead, morning baths, putting the arms or feet into hot water, manipu- lating the head by magnetic hands, and, when needed, more rest and quiet. hygienic advice on habits Parasites of the Shin. An English physician whose devotion to his profession led him to make experiments upon himself with vegeta- ble parasites of the skin, obtained some results which agree with our oft expressed opinion that parasites are not apt to readily take up their abode in the tissues of those who enjoy perfect health. He found that all vege- table parasites could not be made to live upon all per- sons ; that a healthy skin often obstinately resists the endeavor to implant upon it a parasitic fungus, and that even the milder forms of such affections originate upon skins below par in vigor. Poisoning by Homoeopathy. A physician writes to the Medical Record that he was called to attend a lady who exhibited severe symptoms of strichnia poisoning, due to her having taken seventy granules of Homoeopathic nux during an hour and a- half. She said she supposed ‘ ‘ that Homoeopathic medi- cine was harmless, that it could affect only the disease and not the patient.” Inhalation of chloroform and nitrate of amyl relieved the convulsions caused by the drug. People are too apt to consider the sweet and palatable preparations of Homoeopathy as harmless, and inactive, except in cases of disease. Too often such pellets are left where they are accessible to children who would know no better than to eat a bottle-full of them, mistaking them for candy. Had a child taken as many pellets of nux as the lady above referred to, it is extremely doubtful if antidotes would have availed to save it from death. In- deed we knew of one case of death of a four-year-old, an only child, from a similar unfortunate mistake, and so we would caution every one who has occasion to use Homoeopathic pellets, or sugar-coated pills of other make, to take them only according to the directions of a physi- cian, and be sure to keep them out of the reach of every- one else, for there are grown persons as simple-minded as children, and equally prone to devour sweets where- ever they may find them. OP LIVING FOB ALL SEASONS. 49 Seven Good Rules foe Preserving the Eyesight. (1). Cease to use the eyes for the time being, and look away from the work, when it becomes in the least pain- ful, blurred or indistinct. After perfect rest for a mo- ment, or longer, work may be resumed, to be discon- tinued as before when the eyes feel again fatigued. (2.) See that the light is sufficient, and that it falls properly upon your work. Never sit facing it. It is best that the light should fall upon the work from above and behind. Failing this, it may fall from the side. Never use the eyes at twilight. When artificial light is 50 at all painful, it is safer to read or write only during the day. (3.) Never read in the horse or steam cars. It requires too great an exertion of the accommodative power to keep the eyes fixed on the letters. [This rule, in our opinion, is only useful for those who are conscious of possessing weak vision.—Eds. Health Monthly.] (4.) Never read while lying down ; it is too fatiguing for the accommodative power. Many a tedious case of weak sight has been traced to the pernicious habit of reading in bed after retiring for the night. (5.) Do not read much during convalescence from ill- ness. Before the muscular system generally has quite recovered its healthy tone, we ought not to expect the muscles of accommodation to bear the continuous use to which they are subjected in reading or writing. We cannot he sure that the delicate muscles of the eye are in a condition to he used until the muscles of the leg and the arm have regained their strength and firmness. (6.) The general health should be maintained by a good diet, sufficient sleep, air, exercise, amusement, and a proper restriction of the hours of hard work. (7.) Take plenty of sleep. It is a sovereign halm for those who suffer from weak sight. Eetire early, and avoid the painful evening lights. Ten hours’ sleep for delicate eyes is better than eight.—H. C. Angell, M. D., in the Atlantic Monthly. hygienic advice on habits Care of the Teeth. Scarcely any of the various organs of the human body can be so simply and easily cared for as the teeth : and yet the neglect of them is extremely common, and the consequence very painful and annoying. It is safe to say that there is no form of pain, common among the OF LIVING FOE ALL SEASONS. 51 people, that is so distressing, and so wearing upon the nervous system, as that caused by the teeth.* Nor is there any ordinary cause of such disfigurement to young or old, as the presence of decayed and diseased teeth. Yet all this injury, both to comfort and to personal ap- pearance, can in most cases be avoided by a little simple care, which when once learned becomes very easy. Here, as in most other matters of personal habit, the whole subject may be slimmed up in the words cleanliness is health. The essential point is to keep the teeth thoroughly clean ; and for this purpose the following di- rections may be given : (1.) In the first place, the teeth should be picked and washed after each meal, so as to remove particles of food from cavities and interstices. (2.) All persons should learn the habit themselves, and teach it to their children, when quite young, of brushing the teeth vigorously, both inside and outside, at least once a day. It is better to do so both night and morn- ing, but at all events before retiring. It is also very de- sirable to employ some soft cleansing substance, in ad- dition to the mere rubbing. Such are soap and precipi- tated chalk, f But in all cases care should be taken not to use any preparation that feels harsh and gritty to the teeth, as all such are injurious. Many powders are sold, professing to render the teeth brilliantly white, which are yet liable to this objection. A.ny substance which is harsh and gritty in feeling, when rubbed on a tooth, shows that * Much of what passes for “ neuralgia in the face ” is simply due to this cause. f The following formula of Dr. Fred. Hoffmann renders an excel- lent tooth-powder : 8 parts by weight of precipitated chalk, one part of powdered Castile soap, } a part of salicylic acid, | a part of pow- dered myrrh ; this mixture may be flavored according to taste, either by a few drops of oil of peppermint, oil of rose, or oil of wintergreen. 52 HYGIENIC ADVICE ON HABITS it is unfit for such use because it scratches and wears the enamel—the hard outside coating which protects the interior bony tissue, or dentine. If the enamel be at all worn away, the surface of the tooth is far more exposed to decay. Such hard powders do indeed clean the teeth brilliantly ; but they do so at the cost of permanent inj ury. A very valuable fluid preparation is the tincture of myrrh, either alone or mixed with a little alcoholic solu- tion of soap. Like the beforementioned tooth-powder, this may be obtained from any good pharmacist. A few drops upon the toothbrush, furnish an excellent means of cleansing and apparently hardening the gums. This effect is probably due to the astringent properties of the myrrh. There is no better direction to give than to use the tincture of myrrh in the morning, and the tooth- powder at night. (3.) It often happens, however, that a dark-colored coating, called tartar, forms like a thin crust upon the teeth, especially if there are places where the brush does not reach. When this is perceived, it should be removed by rubbing the place with a small bit of hard wood, and with finely powdered chalk, until the surface becomes white and smooth again. (4.) If in the course of rubbing or brushing, any spot is found to be tender or painful, there is strong reason to believe that decay is already begun there. In such case, recourse should be had promptly to a good dentist, who can easily fill the cavity and arrest the disease before it becomes seriously painful or injures much of the tooth. The sooner such a matter is attended to, the less trouble and expense it will involve.—Popular Health Almanac. “Doctor, is tight-lacing injurious?” “Of corset is, Madam.” OF LIVING FOR ALL SEASONS. Porous Plasters. 53 Almost everybody who has a back-ache, or pain in the side, at once thinks he must put on a plaster. Latterly there has been so much said of the importance of the pores that the plaster makers have made what they call porous plasters. How well these can answer the purpose, and still allow nature to perform her proper functions, can be perceived when it is considered that on the back part of the body there are five hundred perspiratory glands to the square inch. On the soles of the feet and palms of the hands there are twenty-seven hundred to every square inch. Every one of these glands has one or more openings upon the skin, and the pores, as they are called, have their functions to fulfill, every one of them. About two pounds avoirdupois passes through them every day ; and what is thrown off in this way con- tains a great amount of effete or waste animal matter. If the plaster seems to give some momentary relief, the ultimate effect cannot fail to be injurious, if not locally where applied, then constitutionally. Removal of Superfluous Hair. We often receive letters inquiring how superfluous hairs about the face can be removed—usually from young ladies. We are at a loss to know just how to answer them, for it is no easy matter to remove these unwelcome visitors ■permanently. They can be pulled out one by one, but they soon return to be pulled out again,—an opera- tion which is rather more tedious than painful, especially if they constitute a tiny but too apparent moustache. Shaving of course stimulates the hairs to renewed vigor, and they come faster and thicker than before. The dif- ficulty consists in destroying the hair follicle. Mildly caustic local applications sometimes do this, but must be HYGIENIC ADVICE ON HABITS. used with great caution lest they destroy the skin also and leave a scar. To show the harsh means necessary to destroy the hair follicles we will quote a method sug- gested in the Michigan Medical Neves, which could hardly be practiced except by a physician, and an expert one too. A needle point is to be passed down parallel to the hair within its sheath, and to the bottom of the follicle. It is then to be removed and a smaller needle dipped in fused nitrate of silver (a severe caustic) which crystallizes on the point, is to be put into the puncture already made. No scar is left and no hair returns. We wonder how many young ladies with an immature hirsute appendage, which does not her suit, would be willing to submit to such an operation for herself, or even for her suitor ? If a fond lover, he would set his face against it—the, the— well, both the operation and the appendage aforesaid. Preparations for removal of hair, called depilatories, will be found among recipes. We would like to give some good, practical instructions on ladies’ dress-reform before finishing this chapter, but it has already taken more pages than were allotted to it, and as the information can be had at very small cost, we will refer our readers to a little thirty-cent pamphlet en- titled “ Dress and Health,” published by John Dougall, Montreal, Canada, and to the illustrated catalogue of Miss Page, 20 West 12th Street, New York, which is sent free to any address. Hygienic Undergarments. CHAPTER II. COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. Chronie Diseases and their Cure. When any one is taken with a raging fever or other acute attack, in a few weeks at the utmost the sufferer either goes to his long rest or he gets upon his feet and dispenses with the services of his physician. There is no trial of patience in a case of this kind ; it is anxiety as to the result rather than impatience. But there are moving over the face of this curious planet great num- bers of people who are continually suffering from some pains, aches, or peculiar derangements of their physical machinery, many of whom seem to think they must go through life in this way because they have tried their family physician, somebody else’s family physician, and finally a whole catalogue of nostrums of various de- scriptions. They say, and it is said of them, that they have a chronic disease. They suffer themselves ; they cause almost everybody around them to suffer to some extent, because every shadow that is thrown in our path- way in life, whether it comes from our personal suffer- ings or from those about us who suffer, is a real shadow which affects our cheerfulness and consequently our happiness. Moreover, when it is considered how many of those chronic sufferers are reproducing themselves, and in some cases, raising large families, it can readily be seen how, by hereditary transmission, they are pro- jecting their ills into the ages, unless indeed their im- mediate posterity shall be more resolute and more pa- 56 COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILES. tient than their ancestors have been in pursuing remedial agents with sufficient thoroughness to eradicate the blight. This remark implies that these chronic diseases may be radically removed. That is precisely the impli- cation we choose to have drawn. The only obstacle in the way of some such complete convalescence is the want of patience and of perseverance in pursuing a sys- tematic course of medical treatment for the removal of the malady whatever it may be. Those who have ac- quired their difficulties instead of having inherited them, will, if they take a retrospect of the pathway which led downward to the existing condition, see at various steps of their downward course that they had days of sunshine when they would imagine that the progress of the dis- ease had been stayed and that they had reason to believe that they were to be delivered from the physical enemy which pursued them. This we think has been the expe- rience of every one who has through a series of years of accumulating physical suffering reached a diseased con- dition which is generally recognized as chronic. All such people should realize that if they are to get well they must retrace their steps and go over a good deal of the same ground which they have traversed ; the excep- tion will be that on the road to health they will be over- taken by dark days—hours of discouragement —as well as by those which encourage hope. By no miraculous remedy, nor yet by months of watchful care of them- selves can they hope to reach a condition of health. Months, and in some complicated cases even years of skillftrl alterative treatment is necessary to so change the constitutional condition as to leave nothing for their troublesome symptoms to hold fast to. Whether in ac- quired or inherited chronic disease, it is necessary to remove the predisposing causes which exist in the system. These causes may lie in the blood or in the nervous sys- COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. 57 tem. Blood impurities are capable of obstructing vital changes and may fasten upon tissues and produce almost every physical ill known to the human family. Nervous disturbances may unbalance the mind or may atfect one or more of the vital organs to the extent of inducing in- harmony of action throughout the physical machinery. Whether inherited or acquired, the derangements, whether in the blood or nervous system, must be taken hold of by a specialist who has made such chronic ills a study, and then the remedies must be administered or applied with such regularity and persistence as will ef- fectually dispose of*the diseased conditions. The family physician is not usually the one to carry out successfully a treatment of this kind. His pharmacopoeia is too limited, his practice in such cases too small and his own patience too unreliable to enable him to attain success. Having selected the physician in whom the invalid has confidence, the work should go forward earnestly and pa- tiently on the part of both physician and patient. Pro- gress must not be expected without interruption. In the changes of the seasons we have snow storms in April and Indian summer in October. In geography, sand bars, islands and innumerable little bays obstruct our approach to the boundless ocean. So in diseased con- ditions which are recognized as chronic, we should be patient with the intermediate discouragements which must be encountered in seeking the haven of health. So long as there are some encouraging symptoms, even though there be but few, and even if the improvement be slow, the only hope of success is in obeying implicitly the directions of the physician and following his advice to the end. If those who have been discouraged by the failures of the family physician and of a great variety of recommended panaceas, would take this course we feel confident that the great army of chronic sufferers would 58 COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. be returned to the ranks of industry and the comforts of health. The requisites, however, are so important we will epitomize them thus : A capable physician who has had extensive experience in the treatment of chronic ills ; resolution, patience and perseverance on the part of the fnvalid. Consumption. Andrew Clark, F. It. C. P., which means Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, of London, when visiting the medical fraternity of New York city recently favored the students of Bellevue College with a lecture on the varieties of the consumption of the lungs. His know- ledge of the several varieties had been acquired by hos- pital practice and hundreds of dissections of the victims of consumption. After describing minutely the four or five different ways in which the lung tissue may be de- stroyed by phthisis, how the process is in one instance quick and in another slow, how in one instance the lung becomes solidified by the destructive effects of more active and feverish inflammation, and after relating cases that had come under his observation, illustrating these different kinds of consumptive disease, he in one short sentence thus disposed of the method of treatment: “In none of these cases have I been able to render any thera- peutic service whatever.” While the close observation and study which this eminent physician has given to the various manifestations of consumption are doubtless of scientific value, and will in time probably lead to scien- tific methods of treatment, those who are now so un- fortunate as to have the disease developed in them will do better to apply, for treatment, to those who have de- voted more time to the discovery of efficient modes of treatment than to acquiring the ability to distinguish nice points of difference between the several varieties of COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. 59 disease, which are in fact all due mainly to one cause, as rain, snow and hail are different manifestations of the one thing, the fall of water from the clouds. When the eminent students of human disease have pursued their studies far enough to learn that almost all changes of bodily tissues from the healthy to the diseased state are due to the depraved state of the blood or imperfect cir- culation, and that such minerals as iron, arsenic, bis* muth, antimony and mercury are not capable of making good blood or eradicating impurities, there will be a great gain in the number of recoveries from serious or- ganic diseases which now kill their victims by inches, and which are more certainly transmitted to offspring than the worldly goods in these days of contesting wills. By the way, if the children could by quarreling over their hereditary diseases as surely rid themselves of them as they can of their hereditary estates by bickerings? how fortunate it would be ! So far as hereditary tenden- cies to consumption are concerned, there is no well in- formed new-school physician who is not familiar with the means of removing them. Even the disease itself, after it has been developed, is as curable as almost any other ill, under a rational system of medication. Advice for Invalids. The following letter, which was forwarded to ns, is from a patient to a friend : July 30, 1880. Brother B. H., Sir : When you paid us your last visit you stated your son had some difficulty in the head and you thought you would have him treated, but at an enormous expense, etc. What I wish to say is this—I was almost confined to the house for three years —took treatment of eight different doctors, but got no better. Finally I saw an account of Dr. E. B. Foote, who treats 60 none but difficult cases of all sorts Avithout seeing the patients. I wrote, took treatment and am mending. If you liave not commenced treatment write to him—tell him of your son—request him to send you a list of his questions to invalids ; enclose a tliree-cent stamp for re- turn ; then answer those questions, or such as the boy complains of; send your answers, upon which you will receive a correct explanation of causes of the trouble, and all further arrangements needful. Yours truly, D. L. G. P. S. Do as you wish, of course. I simply felt it my duty to inform you. Thus you may probably have your son treated for much less : it will cost you but little to find out. Address, E. B. Foote, box 788, New York, N. Y. COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. Malarial Affections. Just now the human family seems to be infested with malarial affections. Various attempts have been made to account for the prevalence of malaria. Locations which have never before exhibited any traces of it are in many instances found to give trouble to some of the old- est inhabitants. It is probable that there is more than one cause for this. Our atmosphere varies in its quali- ties even more than a stream varies in the character of its waters. The air that we live in may not only be affected by celestial bodies but by the vegetation above ground and the minerals under ground. These complex causes may produce atmospheric conditions altogether different at one time from those existing at another. It is not im- possible that the perihelion has something to do with promoting malaria. Another cause has not perhaps been thought of. It is the hard times through which the business and laboring people have passed. Since 1873, until quite recently, those who depended upon business or upon daily labor for support have been nearly worried to death. The vital system greatly lowered by any cause becomes more easily the prey to disease. A person in rugged health in many instances may be found to be liv- ing' in a well-known malarious climate without suffering from malaria. It is when, from any cause, his vital sys- tem becomes reduced that he prepares himself for the reception of a malarial poison. We submit, therefore, in all seriousness the proposition that the hard times have had much to do with the prevalence of malaria. It used to be supposed that malaria could only produce fever and ague, or chill and fever. It has been found, however, that, like a cold, malaria affects the weakest part or brings to prominence latent physical difficulties- Without having any of the characteristic symptoms of malaria, according to the old idea, a person may be a great sufferer from it. It may awaken rheumatism, neu- ralgia and a host of aches and pains in different parts of the system. It may affect the liver only, or the digestion only, or the urinary organs only. It may produce noth- ing more than drowsiness and general debility. If there be lung affection, or a uterine trouble, or a spinal affec- tion, or, indeed any ill to which the flesh is subject, it may be greatly aggravated by what is now commonly de- nominated “malarial influence.” The treatment of physical ills produced or aggravated by a malarial influence must be comprehensive enough to give attention to every disabled part. Usually only anti-periodics like quinine or other preparations of bitter barks are employed. Nearly all the panaceas for mala- rial troubles are composed of these anti-periodics. Hence, they can only succeed in uncomplicated cases- Their success in uncomplicated cases give them some- thing of a standing, not only with the profession, but with the people. But even this class of cases would be more successfully treated or, in other words, more speed- COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. 61 62 ily cured, if every weakened part were to be carefully inquired into, and as thoroughly attended to. If there be liver torpor with the customary constipation, elimi- nation should be thoroughly awakened. If the kidneys are failing to perform their work, then the treatment should include proper diuretics. If respiration be some- what imperfectly performed in consequence of some af- fection of the bronchia or lungs, then the respiratory or- gans should receive their share of attention. We might illustrate the proposition farther still, but this will suf- fice. The thing to do is to build up the entire system, every organ and part, to the end that the recuperative powers of the system may be fully restored. This ac- complished, nature will soon divest herself of malarial influence. We receive many letters of consultation, and many visits at our office from those who are unquestion- ably affected by the prevailing influence. Unless the lo- cation of their residences is greatly noted for malaria, we have little difficulty in overcoming the trouble. Even in regions having a bad reputation we can, in most cases, establish a comfortable degree of health in spite of the unfavorable environment. We are always pleased to give our opinion and advice in any case presented either by mail or in person. COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. Cancer—Cause and Cure. Lincoln, Neb., February 21 1881. “ 1 commenced talcing your little monthly last year and have got many good ideas from it. I wish you would give us an article on cancers, explaining if possible why they are so prevalent. There have been five cases among my acquaintances in different parts of the country within a few months. If this is an example of their frequency among people in general, I think it would be well for people to know something about their cause and cure, if there is such a thing as the latter.” In our Plain Home Talk, on page 544, we present our views on the causes of cancer. We there speak of it as COMMON sense on COMMON ELLS'. 63 a disease of the blood. This view of it presented by us over twenty years ago, is beginning to be accepted quite largely by the profession. Even the celebrated Dr. Car- penter, the English physiologist, falls in with the theory. It is questionable, however, whether there is any great increase in the prevalence of cancer. If one is so un- fortunate as to have this disease his attention will be so directed to it that he will find out every case within a ra- dius of a hundred miles of him. If, instead of being a victim himself, some relative or friend is afflicted, his at- tention will be sufficiently called to the matter to lead to more or less conversation upon it, which conversation will bring to his knowledge many other cases in his im- mediate neighborhood. Whereupon it is conjectured that the disease is becoming more prevalent, while the real fact is that he has become more interested in it. The nature of the difficulty naturally suggests the cure. The old surgical method of removing the diseased tissue with the knife is well known to most people. The parts immediately diseased may be thus completely removed without eradicating a tendency to cancer. One cancer removed will be pretty certainly followed by another. We once successfully treated a case of cancer on the neck, the patient having had both breasts amputated in the course of some six years. There are various cancer plasters which are believed to be effective in removing the tumor. The application of these plasters is usually attended with as much pain as an operation with the knife. In some instances even more. Unless accompa- nied with constitutional treatment for a radical change in the character of the blood, this plan is not attended with permanent success. In cases where suppuration has set in, however, the knife or the cancer plaster may as well be resorted to, for when the tumor is discharging the exposure of its virus to the air seems to renew its poison- 64 COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. ing power and, by reabsorption into the system, it vitiates the blood more rapidly than any blood purifiers can im- prove it. In all cases which have not reached the stage of suppuration constitutional treatment is far preferable. In our practice we would rather see a case of bilious headache than one of cancer ; but taken in time a large percentage of cancerous cases are curable, and in those we have accepted as patients we have generally suc- ceeded. In the Medical Record we find the following frank state- ment of the result of that very popular practice of em- ploying pessaries to prop up displaced organs : “ It is an an every-day occurrence for a practitioner to be called upon for the relief of uterine trouble, to apply a pessary and leave the patient to go her way without caution or instruction, may be never to be seen by the same medical man again.” This was followed by a detailed account of a case in which a surgeon found it necessary to resort to a tedious and difficult operation, requiring the use of anaesthetics, knives, cutting forceps, etc., in order to remove a hard- rubber pessary which had been placed in position four years previously, and, in course of time, had caused ul- ceration and thus become deeply embedded in and cov- ered by the tissues. This is of course an exceptionally severe result of this mode of treatment, but injury from pessaries is not at all uncommon, and we have heard one of the most expert of their advocates declare, that on the whole, more harm than good follows their use ; that in fact but very few physicians understand the art of apply- ing them properly, though a host of tyros have the self- conceit to consider themselves proficient. Jt is not our intention here to compare in detail the merits and de- merits of this method of treating ‘ * female weaknesses ” with methods which we consider far preferable, but we Female Weakness. 65 will frankly confess that to us it would seem as sensible to provide a boy with a pocket multiplication table in- stead of drilling it into his memory, as it is to prop up a relaxed and weakened part instead of using proper means to restore the muscular tone and contractibility of the tissues whose duty it is to keep it in place. In view of the acknowledged carelessness in the use of pessaries, and the many evil results which are known to be not only possible, but probable, we would recommend all unfortunate women to beware of them, and avoid those physicians whose minds are so pervaded by “ me- chanical principles,” to the exclusion of physiological facts, that they can think of nothing more effective for weak spots in the human body than props. Local applications of various cauterizing and strength- ening astringent preparations by the attending physi- cian are also objectionable. Twenty years or more ago we were put to our “ wits-end ” to devise means for local treatment by the patient herself, so as to give proper at- tention to sufferers at a distance who consult us. These means have been steadily developed till they positively exceed all known devices for curing such difficulties when properly supplemented with constitutional aids cal- culated to remove the predisposing causes. Our “Evidences of Success,” which are all free, show what are being done by our methods. COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. Scrofula a Cause of Skin Disease. Those who are familiar with our ideas of chronic dis- eases in general, either from reading “Plain Home Talk,” or by letter of consultation, are aware that we have main- tained in opposition to many of the so-called authorities, that chronic skin aifections are invariably due to a scrofu- lous taint in the system. This idea has been fast making its way in the minds of medical men, but we do not re- 66 COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. member to have seen it so distinctly stated in print in any of the old school journals as it is in the following quotation from a paper read by the late venerable Dr. L. P. Yandell, of Louisville, Kentucky, before the society of his state: Scrofula in Dermatology.—Both the profession and the public are likely to obstinately combat, and indeed to resent, the idea of the origin of skin disease, for the reason that scrofula is universally considered a vulgar and disreputable disease, and no one likes to acknow- ledge its existence either in his person or m his family. My time will not admit of the consideration of the nature of scrofula at any length on this occasion. I believe it to be a disease of nutrition leading usually to the deposit of tuberculous matter. It affects all portions of the sys- tem. In the lungs it is called consumption, and in the glands and bones it is called scrofula. It is found in all races and climates, and no age is entirely exempt from it. It is both hereditary and acquirable. It may remain la- tent in the system of an individual for an indefinite period of years, and indeed it may not only remain latent in the system of an individual, but even for a generation or more, and may then be brought into active existence by some disease or injury, or by the performance of a natural function, as of dentition, menstruation, parturi- tion, or the like. It is immensely the most prolific of all the sources of human death. It not only kills of itself, but often determines the course and the termination of other diseases. But few physicians even, I am persuaded, have a just conception of the extended prevalence of scrofula. Ac- cording to Sir James Simpson, this disease carries off seventy thousand persons annually in Great Britain, in a population of thirty millions, which is two thousand and a third to every million ; and it is fair to estimate that this calculation only embraces the frank, well-defined cases, and does not include numerous deaths from ob- scure forms of scrofula. Lawrence, in his work on the eye, quotes Beer as follows : “Nine-tenths of the opthal- mia in Vienna in children is scrofulous.” In Breslau it is greater, according to Benedict, the proportion being ninety-five per cent.; and ‘ ‘ not a single family in Scotland is free from scrofula," according to Dr. Gregory, of Edin- burgh. Dr. John Thompson, in his lectures on inflam- mation, says : “It is rare to meet with an individual who has not, at some period of his life, experienced disease in some shape or another belonging to one of the several forms of scrofula. ” The latter quotations are from Lawrence’s work. COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. 67 Skin Diseases. Ekuptions of the skin so frequently met with, while depending for their persistence upon a vitiated state of the blood, are often communicated by causes which might be avoided. If there be a kind of family towel in the house, and a member of the family or one casually entering it having an eruption of the hand or face, there will be at least a great liability to the spread of the cu- taneous affection among other members. Sometimes, in- deed, that horrid, loathsome disease, syphilis, is commu- nicated to an innocent person by the use of a towel which some one affected with it has failed to properly dis- pose of. The use of public hairbrushes is often a source of scalp diseases. A family hairbrush is hardly a proper thing, but when one steps into the wash-room of a hotel and picks up a hairbrush which is used by all sorts of people, he runs great risk at least of contracting some disgusting affection of the scalp. Second-hand clothing, especially that which must come next to the skin, is often a curse rather than a 68 COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. blessing to the poor to whom it is given. Cutaneous dis- eases are often conveyed to innocent persons through this instrumentality. No one adopting a second-hand garment of any description should put it on his person until it has been thoroughly cleansed, either by the laun. dress or by the clothes cleaner. And to the clothes cleaner we would suggest the employment of disinfect* ants in renovating old clothes, even when such clothing is to he worn again by the person who has enjoyed the new of it. When it is remembered that the human body throws off from twenty to forty ounces of effete mat- ter through the skin every day, if it be properly active, it will be readily perceived how—particularly heavy— woolen goods may become permeated with effete matters if the fabric be not cleansed from time to time. Those who employ barbers should watch their move- ments closely. Many knights of the razor are intelli- gent men who look out well for the personal comforts of their customers. But they are not all of this class.- When somebody has left the chair after a “shave,” and you are about to occupy it, take a little pains to observe the cuticle of your predecessor. If you see any indica- tions, however slight, of skin disease request your bar- ber in an undertone to thoroughly wash his hands be- fore applying the razor to your face ; and be sure always that it is your, own razor wrhich he holds. In having what is called a dose shave there is often sufficient irrita- tion of the cuticle produced to permit a pretty thorough inoculation if the fingers of the barber or the blade of the razor have so much as a microscopic particle of the exuded matter of a pimple or face-sore upon them- Then, again, watch the towel which he uses, and if ne- cessary remind him that you want a clean one. One who patronizes a barber should really always have his own shaving cup, shaving brush, hairbrush and comb as well as razor. These valuable little hints might be followed out in numerous details, but what are here given ought to be suggestive enough to enable every reader to trace them out for himself in a variety of directions. There is much said now-a-days about stamping out epidemics, and school children suffering with measles, scarlet fever, etc., are urged to sequester themselves during the presence of these maladies. 'We would like to urge in this con- nection the importance of stamping out cutaneous af- fections which are so often communicated through gross carelessness. All having such affections must generally resort to constitutional as well as local remedies for their extirpa- tion. If the eruptive affections are the products of their own blood, then manifestly the blood must be thoroughly attended to. If they have been contracted by some such means as we have indicated thev have inoculated the blood with an impurity which lorms, so to speak, a root for their continuance. Therefore in cases belonging to this class the blood needs to receive attention fully as much as the local difficulty. COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. 69 Some experiments made on patients in a large hospital in Philadelphia, proved that in the majority of cases cod- liver oil passes through the alimentary canal without be- ing absorbed. A second series of observations in the same institution, but conducted by another physician, gave the same results. When the state of the system shows lack of due assimilation of fatty materials, it is of no use to crowd them down even in the easily digestible form of cod-liver oil, which is the favorite plan of most physicians. The proper plan is to employ remedies that Anti-Lean. 70 will improve the assimilative functions, and then the pa- tient will be able to appropriate sufficient fat from the ordinary diet. COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. Nervous Debility. We feel safe in saying that next to scrofula and its allied blood impurities nervous debility is the cause of more varied and various ills that flesh is heir to than any other cause. When we come to look for the causes of nervous debility itself, we find that like scrofula it is both inherited and acquired. Functional depression of the nervous system or lack of nerve-tone is as surely a matter of hereditary transmission as are the more serious nervous diseases manifested in insanity, epilepsy and chorea, but it may be acquired by physical or mental overwork, by excessive or misdirected action of any of the emotions, by sudden shock or long-continued and ex- hausting disease. Its signs or symptoms are usually self-evident to its unfortunate victims, but it is never- theless true that many chronic sufferers are misled to believe that they are suffering from an actual disease of some of the vital organs, perhaps the heart, stomach or kidneys, when the real fact is that the functions of one or more of these organs are imperfectly carried on, merely from lack of sufficient nerve-stimulus or the proper balance of the circulation of the nervous forces or impulses. In other words, functional diseases of vital organs are often merely manifestations of nervous de- bility. Just as one may suffer from blood-congestion, or too much blood in the head while the extremities are cold, so in cases of nervous debility there may be such an imperfect distribution of the nerve-forces that the brain will be over excitable and irritable, and may be af- fected with neuralgic pains, while in the ‘ ‘ pit of the stomach,” actually in the main ganglia of the sympa- COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. 71 thetic nervous system, there will be a sense of ‘1 gone- ness” or depression that will cause the sufferer to believe that indigestion is the real source of all his trouble. Often the nerve-forces exhaust themselves in peri- odical congestion and over excitation of the sexual organs—a disease known as spermatorrhoea—the waste in this direction being sufficient to cause a detraction from vital organs of that nerve-stimulus which is needed for the perfect and harmonious operation of their functions. A very large number of cases of nervous debility are of this kind, but as this subject is more fully treated in special pamphlets, we will invite those interested to send ten cents to the Murray Hill Pub. Co. for an address which was delivered by Dr. E. B. Foote before a medical association of the state of New York, in which he pro. sented his views on the proper methods of treatment for this class of cases. We propose now to offer an explanation of the reason why cases of nervous debility are called difficult and ob- stinate, and why so many come to consider life not worth living, through believing that it is incurable. A great many proprietary or patented specifics are widely offered through advertisements, and the general argu- ments put forth to prove their merits are much the same. It is said that in cases of nervous debility the nerve-centers or ganglia are lacking in certain vital ele- ments, mainly phosphorus and the phosphates, and that the blood needs iron. It is claimed for these specifics that they supply these needs in a form that will furnish food as it were for the starving nerve centres and blood corpuscles. Some are doubtless honestly made up with this intent, but to prepare food of this nature in a form to be readily assimilated is a very difficult thing, and the reason why the really nutritious articles fail in so many instances is simply because the digestive and assimila- 72 COMMON SENSE ON COMMON ILLS. tive powers of the body are too far below par to be able to take up and convey such material to the nerve centers. Of what use would be food if one could not carry it to the mouth ? Then again where there is perverted action of the nervous system, such so called nerve tonics may simply serve to aggravate the trouble. Cases of simple nervous debility are indeed rare, and the vast majority of cases really require a wise selection of remedies such as will be well suited to the needs of each particular case. There must be included not only such things as will serve as food for the nerve centers, but also those which will at the same time correct perverted nerve- action. Others to improve the process of digestion and assimilation, so that “ all shall be grist that goes to the mill, ” and no really useful material, whether con- sumed as food or medicine, thrown out as waste. Low vitality may result from anxiety, watching, over- work, intemperance, vice or from a lack of adequate nourishment. High health offers little lodging-place to the germs of disease, somewhat as the seeds of weeds find no room in a well-cultivated grass-field. Low health opens a chance at almost every point. Few things how- ever so let down the system as insufficient or improper food and want of sleep. CHAPTER III. SOME HYGIENIC CURATIVE MEASURES Obesity. Remarkable Reduction of Flesh; One Hundred Pounds in a Year. Those of our readers who received the July, 1877, num- ber of 'the Health Monthly, may remember to have seen an account given therein of a “Cure for Obesity.” To refresh their memories, and for the benefit of recent subscribers, we will now reprint a portion of that article : “ Last sammer we met a prominent government official who weigh- ed something over 300 pounds, and who felt that his excess of flesh and lymph were quite a burden to him. We therefore prescribed an anti-fat remedy which he took for about three weeks and which he thinks gave him a start in his efforts to lessen his weight. Being a man of intelligence, however, he brought his own good sense to bear in regard to his habits of diet and exercise. He breakfasted upon one-half a pound of the round of a steak and two or three table- spoonfuls of oatmeal mush. For dinner he used about the same ar- ticles of diet that any one would excepting that he avoided pastries and sweet things. For tea he partook of oatmeal mush together with stewed prunes or other dried and stewed or canned fruits. lie exercised every day ; put on warm clothing and walked four or five miles from his house to his office and back again. Then in the eve- ning he bundled himself for the purpose of promoting perspiration and walked from four to six miles perspiring so that the perspira- tion ran off the ends of his hair. This was during the past winter, and he says that many times he came in with icicles clinging to the hair which projected from between his coat and head covering. He commenced this on the 28th day of January, 1877. He then weighed 304 pounds. He reduced his flesh at the rate of about two pounds a day ; sometimes more and sometimes less, and on the sixth of May when we last saw him he had reduced his weight to 230J pounds.” 74 Just one year from that time this gentleman commenced to take advantage of our advice, Jan. 28; we had the pleasure of another call from him, or rather, as we should say, we were favored by a call by what was left of him— only two-thirds of our first acquaintance. He came to account for the disappearance of the other third, and gave us the following information : While accumulating the many pounds which finally caused him to turn the scale at 304, he was in the habit of drinking much water, eating late dinners, and partaking freely of pork and beans and other fat-forming foods. The diet to which he confined himself for a year is stated in the above quota- tion. During the past year he has twice, by way of ex- periment, succeeded in checking the fall of the tide, and even caused a rise of two or three pounds by resu- ming a promiscuous diet, and particularly ice-cream. After the first of May last he gradually dropped the sweating process by long evening walks, but still con- tinued his daily walks between his home and place of business, and of late has taken to horseback riding. The progressive decrease of weight was recorded by weekly tests, and from his long list we select a few items showing the loss each month, first remarking that the slack in his dress-coat shows a difference of 18 inches about the waist: SOME HYGIENIC CURATIVE MEASURES. DATE. POUNDS. 1877. January 28th... 304 February 26th. 2741 March 26 th ... 264.4 April 30th .. .235 May 28th 227 it June25lh 220 it July 30th 214 DATE. POUNDS. 1877. August 27th 212 “ September 24th. 208 October 20th... .... 207 “ November 12th. 204 “ December 19th. 202 1878. January 19th . 199+ “ “ 28th... 200 A comparison of these figures shows that during the first month there was the remarkable reduction of thirty pounds, during the second month twenty pounds, and thereafter a much slower decrease, due to the less amount of exercise taken in the summer months. One other fact is worthy of mention in considering this very interesting qjise. There was doubtless in this gen- tleman’s family an hereditary tendency to the accumula- tion of flesh. His grandfather weighed 400, his father was a very large man, and his mother weighed at one time 250. SOME HYGIENIC CUKATIVE MEASUBES. 75 It seems that many years ago Liebig, the great chemist, said that people could take wine with animal food but not with farinaceous or amylaceous nutriment. On the strength of this statement Mr. Charles Napier has been making some very interesting and instructive experi- ments. He has prevailed upon old topers to give up the use of animal food and resort to vegetables. At the out- set the change was not agreeable to them because it seem- ed to destroy all their taste for their accustomed “toddy.” But gradually they became more attached to their vege- table diet and outgrew their taste for liquors! An old military officer, of Scottish family, over sixty years of age, who had contracted the habit of pouring down w'his- ky while in military service in India, found some diffi- culty in adopting the diet recommended by Napier until a panic occurred among the flesh-eaters in England in consequence of the cattle plague. He suddenly found himself compelled to change from his roast-beef to a vegetable regimen. He grumbled a good deal, felt rather dissatisfied, but his taste for whisky steadily decreased, and in some sixty days after he became a vegetarian he entirely relinquished alcoholic stimulants, since which time he has neither returned to flesh nor to alcohol- Many other remarkable instances are related by Napier. Among the articles of food which this scientist regards as Dietetic Cure for Intemperance. 76 SOME HYGIENIC CUBATIVE MEASUEES. specially antagonistic to alcohol are dried pease, haricot beans, maccaroni and lentils, all of which should be well boiled and flavored with plenty of butter or olive oil. Highly glutinous bread, such as that made from the new process flour, is of utility, but it must not be sour. Fer mented, sour and salted foods will increase the appetite for alcoholic stimulants. Spicy condiments are, according to Napier, apt to be coupled with a fondness for alcoholic liquors. The Sun, from which we gather these facts, re- marks that the “carbonaceous starch contained in mac- caroni, beans or oleaginous elements appears to render unnecessary, and therefore repulsive, carbon in alcoholic form. Liebig affirms distinctly,” adds the Sun, “that alcohol and fat oil mutually impede the secretion of each other through the skin and lungs,” and says that “na- tions living on a diet composed largely of starch, such as the rice-feeding population of the tropical east, are less given to drunkenness than are meat-eating communities.” Mr. Napier’s experiments are well calculated to support a hint thrown out in some previous number of our Health Monthly regarding the value of vegetable food in over- coming the appetite for drink. If the proposition as originally propounded by Liebig, as accidentally dis- covered by various dietetic reformers from time to time, and as now seems to be sustained by a series of experi- ments made by Napier, proves, after further investiga- tion and trial, to be correct, the wife who is compelled to support not only a little family but a worthless, intern, perate husband, has within her reach a ready and effec- tive weapon for combating her husband’s unfortunate habit. In most instances of this kind she is the provider ; she supplies the table. The reckless man spends every penny he can obtain for rum. The wife purchases and prepares the food. She has therefore only to abolish meats and substitute vegetable food to reclaim her dissi- pated companion. Parents who are annoyed beyond measure by a dissolute son, have it greatly within their power to overcome his unfortunate appetite through his food. As a trial of this remedy is cheap, not particularly inconvenient, and in every respect harmless, we would commend it to those who wish to reclaim dissolute friends and to those resolute individuals who are dis- posed to make an effort themselves to overcome intem- perate habits. SOME HYGIENIC CUKATIVE MEASURES. 77 Climate Cure. Theke are two justly definite propositions concerning this climate question which we consider well settled. The first is that unless there is reason to believe that the climate “at home” is specially unfavorable for the in- valid, it is better for him to remain at home, and have the best possible treatment there. The second proposition is, that if a change of climate is found necessary, then it should, if possible, be made permanent, or at least be protracted until every trace of the disease is banished. There is too much waste of time and money in the taking of short trips to “avoid the March of winds.” Lives may have been saved in this way, but only to' prolong the sufferings. In Bermuda we met an old gentleman of over seventy years, who came of a consumptive family, and who was compelled to leave his home in Boston at the age of twenty-one. He never returned to Boston excepting occasionally during a few months of summer, and when we saw him he exhibited no more evidence of consumptive tendency than of measles. Tight lacing predisposes to red noses by interfering with the free circulation of the blood and causing con- gestion of the capillaries of the skin. 78 The Hot-Water Bag as a Curative. SOME HYGIENIC CUBATIVK MEASUEES. In our January number we made a brief paragraph on the virtues of the hot-water bag. It deserves more at- tention. We will repeat here what we said then as to what we mean by the hot-water bag. The manufacturers of rubber goods are now making bags of various sizes and of a flat shape. Some of them are just about as large as our Monthly. That which we consider the best article is covered with cloth in the making, and we think this idea of manufacturing rubber with cloth attached to it must have been originally suggested by the inventor of our pneumatic truss pads. When Dr. Hicks, some twenty years ago, proposed to cover the face of his pneumatic pads with cloth, the manufacturers declared it an impos- sibility. By standing over the workers in rubber the feat was accomplished under the suggestions made by Dr. Hicks. Well, it is immaterial first discovered the process of manufacturing the cloth and the rubber to' gether. The best hot-water bags are found in the market thus manufactured. Those, however, made from the naked rubber may be covered with a case of flannel. Such cases are furnished by the manufacturers and an- swer the purpose very well. Possibly there are those who would like this arrangement better. The style of the article differs according to the taste of the buyer. What is it good for ? It is something invaluable in every house- hold for sickness. The hot-water bottle has been used from our earliest recollection. It has proved useful for a variety of purposes. But a hard, round body like a bottle is not so convenient for use, nor can it be applied in so many ways as the hot-water bag. When a member of the family takes cold and something is needed for the feet, perhaps the only advantage of the bag over the bottle is that it will hold more water, will hold the heat longer, and will feel more comfortable to the feet. But SOME HYGIENIC CURATIVE MEASURES. 79 when there is any trouble about the abdomen, the form and cushion-like character of the bag render it vastly su- perior to the bottle. In all cases where it is desirable t® apply heat to the stomach or abdomen it is just the thing. When it is deemed advisable to apply some embrocation to a part, it is well oftentimes to, at the same time, apply something which will warm it in. Consequently in in- flammation of the bowels, colics, cramps in the stomach and bowels, etc., the hot-water bag may be used with great advantage. In nervous chills or in coldness pro- ceeding from a low state of the blood, the application of the bag to the pit of the stomach will give wonderful re- lief. Applied in this way to one who cannot get bed- clothing enough to keep warm, it will prove a most valu- able bedfellow. For warming the feet in most cases it is best applied directly to them. But in some conditions of the system, when digestion is sluggish and the blood poor, the circulation will be best stimulated by the ap- plication of the bag to the pit of the stomach. Applied here it will generally produce the most agreeable warmth of the extremities and of the entire body. In many ner- vous disorders the application of the bag to the pit of the stomach produces almost instantaneous relief. In affec- tions of the mind bordering on insanity, it has been found useful applied directly to the head. Sometimes such mental troubles proceed from a want of blood in the brain. The application of this warmth to the head directs the blood to the affected part. Some have found relief from headache by laying the head on the bag filled with hot water. One would suppose this would be only beneficial to persons deficient of blood. But we have known at least of one gentleman of full-blood and healthy appearance who says he can relieve his headache in this way. Those who find that cold water answers better can fill the bag with ice water if desirable. In 80 SOME HYGIENIC CUBATIVE MEASTTBES. cases of congestion of the head this plan might prove the most beneficial. While we were crossing the ocean we found nothing so efficacious in sea-sickness as the appli- cation of the bag filled with hot water to the pit of the stomach. Perhaps it would not serve all persons as well as it did us ; but some fellow passengers did try it with advantage. In the various ills of children, the hot-water bag in the hands of a mother of intelligence would prove “a friend in need and a friend indeed.” In the nursery it would certainly save many a doctor’s bill. The cost of the bags, we believe, is from $1.75 to $5, according to size and finish. But if they even cost $100, an investment in one would in time pay for itself besides relieving an incalcu- lable amount of suffering. Sand Bag for the Sick Room. They can be made at home at no expense save that of the necessary amount of flannel and linen cloth. The sand should be fine and dry. Bags may be made of sev- eral sizes. They can be put in the oven to be heated before using, and hold the heat a long time. In readily conforming to the surface of the body, they must neces- sarily be more comfortable than hot bottles or bricks. Their cost is very much less than rubber bags for water. Restoring the Sight. We daily receive letters from those who are using the Eye Sharpener with success, but we do not feel at liberty •o make use of such testimonials unless our correspond- ents say we may. Mrs. S. J. Stoddard, of Richland, Dak., gives us permission to publish the following which comes to us in a letter dated January 5, 1881 : '‘We received the Eye Sharpener which I am using, and find my sigLt much improved. I shall continue its use until my sight is perfectly restored, for considering the improvement already made, I have reason to believe that by using it according to directions, it will do all that it is recom- mended to do. It is a wonder that ihose who are obliged to wear glasses do not avail themsel ve? of the opportunity and buy your Eye Sharpener wlieu it cep be had at the low price of $2 ; an 1 a still greater won ier that those whose sight is failing and are about to wear glasses do not use your restorer instead of being bothered with spectacles, for, of course, all dread them and feel a deli- cacy in wearing them at first.” This is good but hardly as valuable as a testimonial as the letter from Mr. Louis Bancroft, given below : SOME HYGIENIC CURATIVE MEASURES. 81 Dr. Foote I received a sample copy of The Health Monthly and find excellent reading matter in its col- umns. I bought your Eye Sharpener several years ago, used it and set aside my glasses. So has my wife. We have no use for glasses now. I have passed my eighty- eighth birthday and my wife has passed her eightieth birthday, and we are both enjoying very good health at this time. I can say as to the Eye Sharpener that if any person desires to retain good sight he must use the Eye Sharpener, not only once or twice, and then lay it by thinking it will not do him any good, but continue the use of it according to directions as occasion may require. Used rightly it will help the eyesight as it has mine, for I can now, after using it, see better without glasses than I could ten or fifteen years ago when I used glasses. I have not written anything for publication, but if it will be of benefit to the Eye Sharpener you may publish it, or any part thereof, as you think best. Respectfully yours, Loins Bancroft. Springfield, Clarke Co., Ohio, Nov. 26, 1880. 82 SOME HYGIENIC CURATIVE MEASURES. An eminent physician of this city, who devotes most of his time to the treatment of the eyes, gives the following very excellent advice for cases of scrofulous eyes which are so commonly met with in poorly nourished children ; though we imagine that in active practice he would to a great extent nullify the good effects of his hygienic ad- vice by the administration of such drugs as arsenic and Epsom salts, the use of which he advocates : “ We are prepared to urge that in every case of inflammation of the conjunctiva (the lining membrane of the lids and eyeball) the diet and regimen be placed upon a hygienic basis. The practice common in every walk of life of giving the diet of the family table to the young child as soon as it can stretch out its hands to gratify its naturally gluttonous propensities, is here seen to produce one of its many evil results. We should prescribe woolen underclothing, with a change of the same for the night, in order that the winter temperature of the domicile need not be kept above 65 deg. We should insist upon daily outdoor life, and keep the child when do- miciled in a well lighted room, warmed, at least, ventilated if possi- ble by an open fire in winter, and its eyes free from shades, banda- ges, poultices and sugar of lead washes. The child should never be allowed, sick or well, to play long or sleep in a room that is not above the ground-level and provided with direct sunlight during some portion of the day.” Sore Eyes. Pneumatic Truss Pads. The following letter was received from an old corres- pondent who inquires as to the present price of the re- lief and permanent cure pads for rupture : “In the year 1869 I purchased several rupture pads of you, and by wearing them about three weeks they effected a perfect cure of a rupture which had been standing ten years ; so I laid the truss aside and never was in need of wear- ing a truss again. For this I can say I am very thankful to you.” The pamphlet advertised in this pamphlet, “Comfort and Cure for the Ruptured,” not only explains the mechanism of these pads but presents many valuable hints in reference to the management of ruptnre and hernia. SOME HYGIENIC CURATIVE MEASURES. 83 In our Plain Home Talk we have suggested proper methods for warming the feet. We will repeat those and also suggest one other. Pressing the palm of the hand closely over the instep and toes while the boots are on will restore circulation. The hands of another person are better than one’s own hands ; but the latter will an- swer. Putting the right leg across the left knee and firmly grasping the instep and toe of the shoe or boot with the left hand will in a little while induce a warmth in the right foot; then put the left foot across the right knee and grasp that with the right hand and hold it until it becomes warm. Putting thin-soled slippers on the feet and sliding them rapidly over a woolen carpet—a Brussels, a Velvet, a Wilton or an Axminister preferable—is another effective plan. The exercise continued for a few moments will make the feet “burning hot,” to make use of a common expression. How to Warm the Feet. Nothing is more necessary than to restore the activity to the skin. Taking cold closes the pores of the skin, and the thirty or forty ounces of etfete matter which would otherwise pass off from the pores every twenty - four hours are retained, in the circulation, and are often thrown upon the mucous membrane, causing irritations if not inflammations. In this condition nothing gives more speedy relief than a Russian Yapor or Turkish Bath. The old-fashioned method of drinking herb teas and piling on blankets is much better than neglect; bet- Hovv to Cure a Cold. ter still is an alcohol bath. For this purpose seat the pa- tient in a cane-seat chair ; wrap blankets about him and pin them closely about the neck ; allow the blankets to fall to the floor so as to exclude all air ; then place in a little saucer a little alcohol and light it ; when lighted raise the blankets and push the saucer under the chair. Repeatedly renew the alcohol till the patient is brought to profuse perspiration. Then, without removing the blankets, he should wipe himself dry and creeping from the chair to the bed pass as carefully and quickly as pos- sible beneath the bed clothing while shedding the blan- kets used for the bath. A good night’s rest with warm covering and a sponge bath in the morning in a warm room, using cool but not cold water, will give the pa- tient relief. Exposure to the wintry air should however be avoided for twenty-four hours to give time for the re- cuperative powers to do their work and prepare the skin to take care of itself. 84 SOME HYGIENIC CURATIVE MEASURES. How to Prevent Croup. Febkxiaey 6, 1879. Dear Doctor : * * * I think there are a number of ladies who would send for the Croup Tippet were it not so high, hut for my part I think it very cheap at the price you ask for it, far cheaper than a little coffin or long doctor’s bill and untold suffering for children and mothers both. Mine has proved satisfactory so far, and I have newly covered it this winter. It is strange to me that even if people are slow to try anything new or un- known to them, that they should be so after seeing the good results brought about by others who are not afraid to try for themselves, as those hereabouts have seen in my example with the Croup Tippet.” The “Croup” pamphlet (price ten cents), should be read by every mother. SOME HYGIENIC CUBATIVE MEASUKES. 85 Infantile Diarrhoea. Many of the methods and processes of the water-cure plan of treatment have been of late favorably received and adopted in acute affections by the leaders of the old- school profession, and they seem to be gaining in favor. The free use of water both externally and internally in fevers was a wise change for the better from the not yet forgotten rule of withholding it from fever patients. In one of our medical journals we find Dr. Comegys, of Cincinnati, credited with having first employed to ad- vantage cold bathing in the very distressing stages of infantile diarrhoea which have so frequently ended fa- tally. By immersing children from fifteen to twenty minutes in cool water every three hours until the alarm- ing symptoms of high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and threatened collapse have subsided, this physician claims that he has not lost a patient in five years of constant practice. We should not be surprised if some of our hy- dropathic friends could show that this method of treat- ment had been known among them for over twenty years, and that the credit of its origination belongs out- side of the regular ranks ; but the fact that this plan of cool water immersion has been proved by long practice to be beneficial is of more importance than the discovery of its origin, and when a prominent author of works on therapeutics speaks of it in the following manner we may be sure that it is efficient. Prof. H. C. Wood re- marks: “The sudden sweet sleep, replacing after the bath the fretful nights and days of unrest, is a thing never to be forgotten when once seen, and the arrest of the diarrhoea is no less remarkable. ” Smearing tlie body with salad oil two or three times a day has proven to be excellent treatment in cases of in- fantile bronchitis, convulsions, diarrhoea and fevers. 86 Soliloquy of Dr. Ole Fogy, An Opponent to “Fewer Children and Better.” Such children undesirable ? Not if they have a sire able To pay my bills as they come due, For treating ills they fall heir to ; The colic, cramps, and throwing off, The measles, mumps, and whooping cough, Sore eyes, swelled glands, and skin disease, The more the ills, the more the fees! Why should I wish that children “fewer And better ” were. Though I can’t cure My syrups soothe, and help them to Enjoy this life a year or two ; I visit oft till “ death ends all,” Then leave “regrets ” at my last call. E. Br F., Jr. CHAPTER IV. “FEWER CHILDREN AND BETTER.” How to Avoid Having Undesirable Children. The opinion that all children born with physical and mental deformity are undesirable now meets with pretty general assent, and among them should be included children of little or no vitality and those of incorrigible evil tendencies. The Spartans would not permit imbe- ciles and cripples to live lest they become a burden to the state, and intellectual and humane people now would not willingly cause them to be born ; nor would the av- erage American family wish to bring into the world children of such low vitality that they could not survive more than five years, or children with such evil moral propensities that they must become criminals. The father of Charles Guiteau, the assailant of President Gar- field, long before that insane act was committed, regret- ted that he had become the father of such a being, and after fruitless efforts to reform him resigned him to fate as an utterly hopeless case. Who will not say that Charles Guiteau ought never to have been born ? The Pomeroy boy was born with fiendish propensities to cruelly tor- ture living things, and was imprisoned years ago for mu- tilating his playfellows and killing a child. His evil pro- pensity grows no less and sefems ineradicable. Who will not say that he ought never to have been born ? Who would like to be known as the father of such a mon- strosity? Yet half the children born have too little vi- tality to carry them through five years’ existence, and of the other half but a small proportion can be considered desirable children. Some are positively undesirable be- cause of weak minds and deformed bodies, which render them a burden to themselves and society ; others de- velop in the course of time evil propensities that bring them to the prison, or to the gallows. Why is it that so many imperfect specimens of humanity are born? It is mainly because the laws of reproduction and heredity are little understood, and the multiplication of human beings is haphazard and accidental. There is needed a careful study and thorough discussion of the laws of re- production, and a wide dissemination of the knowledge acquired. This would be simply an extension to the hu- man family of methods which have been employed for the improvement of live stock. In the words of Herbert Spencer : “It is time that the benefits which our sheep and oxen have in the years past derived from the investigations of the laboratory should be participated in by our children. Without calling in question the great importance of horse-training and pig-feeding, we would suggest that the rearing of well-grown men and women is also of some moment.” We have not space here for even a brief review of all that is known of the improvement of species by wise and cautious regulation of the reproductive function and se- lection of parentage, but we can give a few suggestions for the guidance of those who desire to avoid becoming the parents of sickly, weak, imbecile, deformed, evil dis- posed, undesirable children. First, let it be remembered that the constitution and character of the child are resultants of the physical and mental conditions of the father and mother for years pre- vious to conception, at the time of conception, during the foetal life of the child, and during its development after birth. One who desires to become the parent of a 88 “ FEWER CHILDREN AND BETTER.” prize boy cannot go back and reform bis grandparents, but if be bas been so unfortunate as to inherit physical infirmities be can by a life of strict obedience to hygienic laws do much to rid himself of his unwelcome inheri- tance, and by a judicious marriage with a woman who is strong in his weak points he can be sure to have children far better than the average—children that will not have occasion to regret that they were born. Nature has a wonderful faculty of wiping out old scores and scars when favorable conditions are offered ; and, on the other hand, she exhibits a wonderful and useful faculty of de- stroying the power of reproduction where evil tenden- cies are too much multiplied or aggregated by fusion of specimens possessing similar faults, weaknesses and per- versions. Those who wish to take part in the reproduction of their kind should, therefore, from the time when they can appreciate the importance and responsibility of it, always remember that everything which tends to their own perfection in physical and moral development will render them fit for parentage, while every new vice or acquired infirmity must not only detract from their own comfort and happiness, but also burden their children, it may be even unto the third and fourth generation. “By their fruits ye shall know them,” and by defects in the children faults in the parents are made manifest. “Ye cannot gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles,” and hearty, healthful and beautiful children cannot be expected to be born of dissipated, tobacco-chewing, tip- pling fathers, or tight-laced, dyspeptic, constipated, ner- vous and fretful mothers. Of equal importance with healthful parentage is a good selection of partners, or temperamental adaptation in marriage. This is a large subject which we can only re- fer to here, but those interested to know what we have “EEWEB CHILDKEN AND BETTEB.” 89 90 ‘ FEWER CHILDREN AND BETTER.” written on the subject can obtain for ten cents apiece two pamphlets entitled respectively, Physiological Marriage and Physical Improvement of Humanity ; also see sev- eral chapters of Plain Home Talk, advertised elsewhere. Even those who are in good general health and well mated may, at times, find themselves temporarily out of health or otherwise so circumstanced that children if born to them would not be likely to have a fair start in life. This should of course he sufficient reason for post- poning any increase of family until more favorable con- ditions can be had. It is no uncommon thing to observe robust and sickly children in the same family, though by a wise exercise of parental prudence all of them might have had an equally happy start. It is very fortunate when the inception of the life of a human being results from the union of well-mated healthy parents. Then begins what is called its “pre- natal culture.” In the womb of its mother the child is influenced for good or evil, its physical features and moral cliaracteris.ics moulded by her habits of living and habits of thought. This subject has been much talked of during several years past, and has formed no small part of the subject-matter of the Health Monthly and the Alpha. An excellent pamphlet has been written by A. E. Newton, entitled “Pre-Natal Culture.” It is to be had of the Alpha, 1 Grant Place, Washington, D. C., for twenty-five cents. At the same address may be obtained for ten cents a pamphlet entitled “The It elation of the Maternal Function to the Woman Intellect,” by Augusta Cooper Bristol, an essay possessing the usual interest and high merit of writings by this lady. We refer to those pamphlets because we have not space to take up in detail any of the important branches of the subject to which we are calling attention, and to show that the in- formation is ready for those who wish to acquire it. It is “fewer children and better.” 91 the object of an. organization known as the Institute of Heredity, that held its first convention in Boston during May of 1881, to encourage the advance of knowledge on the subject of stirpiculture or race culture, and its pro- ceedings have been and will be reported in the Health Monthly. The College of Archaeology and -Esthetics, of the city of New York, is in its ethnological sections giving the subject especial attention, bringing it before a class of students and professional men who can do much to direct popular views and feelings. Not only have pre-natal influences been too little con- sidered, but an error has also been made in forgetting that the true education of a child commences with its birth, and cannot be postponed until it is old enough to leam its A. B. C. A child’s mind is deeply moulded by its earliest impressions, and whether it has good disci- pline or bad management will make every difference in the bent of its mind, the control of its passions, and the capacities of its intellect. The publications which have been sent forth by the promulgators of kindergarten methods of early education are very useful to parents in the instruction which they afford concerning the man- agement of very young children. They can be obtained from all bookdealers and in all libraries, but we have in mind to recommend one entitled of “Three Books in One”: “From the Cradle to the School,” by Berther Meyer ; “The Bights of Children ” by Herbert Spencer, and ‘ ‘ The Government of Children ” by Dr. M. Hol- brook. It is published by Dr. Holbrook of 13 Laight street, New York, and the price is only fifty cents. CHAPTER V. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. Terse Suggestions and Timely Warnings. Three good physicians—Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Merriman. Which nobody can deny. Many headaches are caused by straining the eyes either because of poor light or because the individual ought to wear glasses to assist the vision. When the new baby arrives do not at once give it sore eyes by washing its head with an irritating soap. Try the soap on your own eyes first. Children who drink tea and coffee are nervous and fretful and lose their appetite for substantial food. They have less ability to resist disease and become stunted in growth. De. Jackson’s arguments in favor of only two meals per day are, in brief, that this plan gives both the women of the family and the stomachs a chance to have the rest they need. It is not wise, nor in the long run economical, to ‘1 turn down the lamp ” when leaving the room. When burning low foul gases are generated and there is much more danger of explosion. Keep the lamp well filled. Foe reasons well understood sewage always contains salt, and so if the amount of salt in well-water exceeds a few grains per gallon, we should strongly suspect that it is contaminated with sewage. Bitter pacts : Analyses made by Nichols, Hoffman and others show that “vinegar bitters” consist of a mixture of aloes, gum guaiac, anise seed, acetic acid, sulphate of soda, gum arabic and alcohol. The Shakers, besides avoiding the use of stimulating drinks, including alcohols, tea and coffee, have for thirty years rejected swine’s flesh, and believe that they are on this account less subject to fevers and consumptive dis- eases. Bice powder, which is much used by ladies upon their faces, is said to often contain lead, which renders it very injurious. If a little iodide of potash is dropped upon the powder the presence of lead will be revealed by its turning yellow. The Scientific American referring to the fact that Chief Justice Noah Davis was badly poisoned by ivy while gathering autumn leaves, regards it as “evidence of the prevailing neglect, even among educated people, of at- tention to common objects in nature.” The Boston Journal of Chemistry ventilates the delusion that a pitcher of water will ventilate a close room by ab- sorbing all its noxious gases, and denies that even a large tub of water would serve instead of an open window for purifying the air of a sleeping apartment. A daily paper tells how a boy almost lost his eyesight by rising to wipe his own face with a handkerchief which he had previously used about the mouth of a horse suf- fering from epizooty. One experience of this kind, if widely published, ought to be the last to occur. A cold bath as a tonic can be safely used ‘ ‘ all the year round ” (by those who can bear it at all), if one will re- member that the temperature of the water should be uni- formly about 60 deg. F., and not take it as it comes, cool in summer and way down toward freezing in winter. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITABY SIFTINGS. 93 94 A sanitary inspector of Glasgow, Scotland, says that the colors used in painting bright colored toys are of a mineral nature and injurious to health, if not directly poisonous ; and this reminds us that “ Little Willy had a monkey, climbing on a yellow stick ; And when he licked the paint all off, it made him very sick.” In one of our city hospitals a case of obstinate malarial fever was treated with all the medicines (one after an- other) usually employed in such cases without success ; but a cure was effected by taking the patient to the upper floor. All houses in malarial districts should have an “upper floor” for refuge. Anatomically and physiologically it is a complete mis- take to have the heel of the foot raised from the ground beyond the level of the palm of the foot. The moment the heel is raised, the plan of the arch is deranged, and the elastic, wave-like motion, of the foot impeded. The arch always ought to have full play. By the ignorance and carelessness of the attendants in charge of an orphan asylum in Brooklyn, N. Y., a large number of boys became affected with a contagious dis- ease of the eyes, by wiping indiscriminately on the same towel. Some will lose their sight entirely, and the guardian of one has brought suit against the institution. Mr. George Catlin, in his history of the North American Indians, says that he never met one that breathed through the mouth, nor one that was deaf, unless born so. The habit of breathing naturally through the nose would therefore appear to preserve a healthy state of the air-passages leading from the back of the throat to the middle ear on each side. Dr. F. Barker, who has had many years of medical ex- perience in this city, thinks that there is abundant evi- dence to prove that the poison of scarlet fever can be preserved in houses, in clothing, etc., for weeks, months HEALTH HINTS AND SANITABY SIFTINGS. and even a year, and finally develop its full effects on any person in a favorable condition to receive it. This fact shows the necessity of thorough disinfection of all rooms in which contagious diseases have been prevalent. De. Anders, writing in the Philadelphia Medical Times, argues that house plants are not unhealthy in sleeping rooms. He thinks that the moisture they throw off is beneficial, and after a number of inquiries among gard- eners and florists, he thinks it probable that living in a room with plenty of plants tends to lessen the predispo- sition to consumption in those who have a hereditary ten- dency that way. He says the plants should have soft, thin leaves with extensive leaf-surface, but should not bear flowers with heavy perfume. The vapors arising from the igniting of the chemical toy known as Pharo’s Serpents’ Eggs have often been declared to be hurtful—poisonous—but how fatal they might be was never known until the daily press reported the death of Mr. J. Dickinson, of Brooklyn, who made a business of manufacturing these eggs, and died from the effects of inhaling the vapor which escaped from a crack in the retort in which the chemicals were mixed and heated. It will be a gain to the rest of us if the secret of the manufacture was lost with the victim. Whisky.—“There is nothing like whisky in this world for preserving a man when he is dead ; but it is one of the worst things in the world for preserving a man when he is living. If you want to keep a dead man, put him in whisky ; if you want to kill a living man, put whisky into him. It was a capital thing for preserving the dead admiral when they put him in a rum-puncheon ; but it was a bad thing for the sailors when they tapped the cask, and drank the liquor till they had left the admiral, as he had never left his ship, high and dry.—Dr. Guthrie. HEARTH HINTS AND SANITARY SITTINGS. 95 96 A. 11. Grote tells us that “insects on a blade of grass or a fallen bough are carried down a river by the current to found colonies for their race far from their place of origin and specialists in skin affections inform us that the migratory and restless cat, and the amiable but in- constant lap-dog are often the abode of animal and vege- table parasites that are thus enabled to establish new colonies in the children of families that kindly take them in, and are, in return “ taken in ” by them. Indeed this is a common source of the parasitic ring-worm. Beware of quadrupedal tramps! The question arises: “Is there any connection be- tween the tiresome and unvarying drudgery of the life of a farmer’s wife and the meaningless jabber of an insane asylum?” for it is well known that farmers’wives form no small proportion of the unfortunates found in insane asylums. It is certainly fair to presume that the question should be answered in the affirmative, for endless mo- notony will wear the fiber of any mind, and cause aberra- tion, or else react on the body and create disease, and such a result is all the more likely if overwork be added to monotony and drudgery. Bovs who are about to run in races or to leap, put on a belt and strap it tightly in order, as they say, to hold in their wind or breath. Workmen who are about to lift weights or carry heavy burdens put on a belt for the same purpose, their declaration being that it gives sup- port. Actually there is not a figment of truth in this be- lief. The belt impedes respiration, compresses the ab- dominal muscles, compresses the muscles of the back, subjecting them to unnecessary friction, and actually impedes motion. Beside the other injuries the use of the belt frequently causes hernia or rupture. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SITTINGS. Asparagus and celery are good food for rheumatics. HEALTH HINTS ANB SANITARY SIFTINGS. Food Facts. 97 Maize, or Indian corn, is one of the most nutritious of the grains, and contains more of the fatty elements than the others. The substitution of from four to six drams of glycer ine for the amount of sugar usually added to cream, milk or water is recommended in preparing food for infants. The better qualities of flaxseed contain about thirty per cent, of oil, and if well masticated may be eaten freely by those whose system requires more fat—such people as are recommended to use cod-liver oil. Beans contain all the elements of true aliment except- ing fat. To obtain this it is not necessary to bake beans with pork. A fat piece of corned beef is an excellent substitute and is extensively used by those who entertain a prejudice to pork. Try it. During the first two months of an infant’s life it should not be fed oftener than once in two hours. After this the intervals between meals may be lengthened with ad- vantage, and at the end of six months farinaceous or starchy food may be allowed in small quantity. A writer in the Laws of Life speaking of pork parasites tries to make the swine-eaters flinch by stating that an ounce of flesh may contain a quarter of a million of the infinitesimal larva} of the trichinae, and that a pork eater may with a few mouthfuls fill himself with 50,000,000 vermicularis. One who has made the calculations finds that as a flesh- producing food eggs are equal to meat; that they sur- pass it in ability as a heat and force-producing agent; and that a pound of corn will be more than twice as valuable if transformed into eggs by means of the hen, as when put into the form of meat by feeding to pigs. 98 “ If a fit of passion in a nurse will so vitiate the quality of her milk as to cause colic, spasms, and even the death of the nursing child, who has reached an almost inde- pendent existence, what must be the effect upon delicate organization in the formative stage, when so wholly de' pendent on the mother for life and nourishment as to be almost a part of herself?”—Alpha. Curry, the sauce used so largely by the natives of India upon their rice, and by the English in all parts of the world for flavoring meats and soups, is a most abomi- nable mixture compounded upon red-pepper as a base. It acts like a curry-comb to irritate and inflame the stomach, and those who desire to use it ought to prepare themselves by having the stomach tin-lined. Actual experiments made upon nursing women with such substances as iron, arsenic, zinc, mercury and anti- mony, which are readily detected by chemical analysis, show that they reappear in the breast-milk after a few hours in sufficient quantity to affect the sucking infant. The morals to be drawn from this fact are that the mother should be very careful in her diet while nursing a child, and that if it becomes necessary to give a child medicine perhaps it can be done best at second hand. Mothers who begin to feed their babies meat before they are two years old should remember that if it was in- tended that meat should be given thus early, teeth would have been provided for the purpose ; or in other words children should not be fed on articles requiring mastica- tion until they have something better than gums to chew with. Milk and those farinaceous articles which can be prepared in it are sufficient for a child’s nourish- ment up to the fifth year, and meat may well be post- poned till the twentieth. In its circular on the care of children during the sum- mer months, the Board of Health of New York city re- HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SITTINGS. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITABY SIPTINGS. 99 commend in certain instances the giving to very young children of brandy on sugar. We are glad to see in the Independent a just and necessary caution against such very injudicious advice both on moral and physiological grounds. It is ill-advised to administer alcoholics to in- fants ; more especially dangerous is it to give such ad- vice for home prescription of brandy among a class of people who are already too free to use this very harmful drug on slight occasions, and often when it is even posi- tively injurious. The writer in the Independent says that a few drops of ginger is just as effective as brandy for the troubles for which the latter is recommended. ‘ ‘ Thebe can be no doubt that nurses’ bottles may be worse for children than nursing bottles. M. Anarian, in the Archives cle Toxologie, reports two cases in which children, at the breast of apparently healthy and well-to- do nurses, were suffering from convulsions, and in which the children were saved by depriving the nurses of alco- holic potations, in which they were found to be freely in- dulging. As the Philadelphia Reporter remarks, it is a pernicious delusion of nursing mothers and wet-nurses, that, when suckling infants, they require to be ‘ kept up ’ by alcoholic liquors ; and women who are little given to alcohol at other times become, for the nonce, determined tipplers,—this being, perhaps, of all times that when al- cohol is likely to do most harm and least good. ” Knacks worth Knowing. An eminent physician once wrote this prescription for a patient suffering from imaginary ills : “Do something for somebody.” Ip the collar or cuff be too stiff to button easily press the finger a little damped with water to the button-hole, and you will have no further trouble. 100 HEALTH HINTS AND SANITAKY SITTINGS. When the glass-stopper of a bottle sticks pour some warm water on it, or lay a cloth saturated in warm water around the neck of the bottle and the stopper can be easily removed. A pleasant acidulous drink can be made by pouring boiling water on West India tamarinds, and allowing it to cool; but the stones of the fruit should first be re- moved, as they contain poisonous properties. A cheap deodorizer and disinfectant can be made by dissolving a teaspoonful of lead nitrate in a pailful, and a teaspoonful of common salt in a jugful, of soft water. Then mix the two solutions and sprinkle about the floors or saturate cloths to be hung where needed. Salicylic acid is being largely advertised in France for preserving wine, beer and cider during the summer months, and for preserving milk and bouillon from sour- ing ; also for aiding the preservation of jams, jellies and other confections, with an economy of sugar of 25 per cent. The comparatively slight quantity needed for these purposes is not likely to have any injurious effect on the system. A dentist in Philadelphia has for sometime success- fully employed a simple method of producing anaesthe- sia before removing troublesome teeth. He requires the patient to practice during several minutes short and. rapid respiration. The first effect is to make the head feel a little full and confused, but soon the sensibility is benumbed and the teeth can be pulled with compara- tively little pain. Sciatica is one of the most distressing and obstinate of nerve pains, and any effectual way of affording even temporary relief during the severe paroxysms is thank- fully received by the sufferer. A French physician thinks he obtains the combined influence of heat and electricity by covering a hot flatiron with a woolen cloth wrung out in vinegar and applied over the seat of the pain. For many years it has been his custom to employ this method in cases of neuralgia and sciatica, and by repeating the application two or three times a day, not only temporary relief but permanent curative results have often been brought about. health hints and sanitary sittings. 101 Guide Posts and Danger Signals. Don’t sleep in a draught. Don’t go to bed with cold feet. Don’t stand over hot-air registers. Don’t eat what you do not need just to save it. Don’t try to get cool too quickly after exercising. Don’t sleep with insecure false teeth in your mouth. Don’t start the day’s work without a good breakfast. Don’t sleep in a room without ventilation of some kind. Don’t stuff a cold lest you be next obliged to starve a fever. Don’t try to get along without flannel underclothing in winter. Don’t use your voice for loud speaking or singing when hoarse. Don’t try to get along with less than eight or nine hours sleep. Don’t sleep in the same undergarment you wear du- ring the day. Don’t toast your feet by the fire but try sunlight or friction instead. Don’t neglect to have at least one movement of the bowels each day. Don’t. Don’t try to keep up on coffee and alcoholics when you ought to go to bed. Don’t drink ice-water by the glass ; take it in sips, a swallow at a time. Don’t eat snow to quench thirst; it brings on inflam- mation of the throat. Don’t strain your eyes by reading or working with in- sufficient or a flickering light. Don’t be too modest to ask the way to the water-closet . when you have a call that way. Don’t use the eyes for reading or fine work in the twi- light of evening or early morn. Don’t try to lengthen your days by cutting short your nights’ rest; it is poor economy. Don’t wear close, heavy, fur or rubber caps or hats if your hair is thin or falls out easily. Don't eat anything between meals excepting fruits, or a glass of hot milk if you feel faint. Don’t take some other person’s medicine because you are troubled somewhat as they were. Don’t blow out a gaslight as you would a lamp : many lives are lost every year by this mistake. Don’t conclude that anything looking like water is fit to drink ; it may be a fatal poison, such as lye. Don’t act upon the supposition that exhausting physi- cal exercise is strengthening ; it is debilitating. Don’t permit yourself to think too much on one sub- ject ; the brain is rested by a change of thought. Don’t attempt to cool off quickly when overheated ; many a fatal “cold” has been caught by so doing. Don’t consider brandy a remedy for half the ills that flesh is heir to : its medicinal uses are really quite few. 102 HEALTH HINTS AND SANITABY SITTINGS. Don’t poke things into your ears to remove dried se- cretions ; warm water syringing is a safer and a better way. Don’t take a dose of medicine without first looking at the label and making sure you are not getting a poison or an overdose. Don’t punish a child by boxing or pulling its ears ; there is a better place for the application of the palm when necessary. Don’t think you can with impunity adopt the follies of other folks ; your constitution may not be equally well able to bear abuse. Don’t be too anxious to check a cough by some quieting syrup ; the mucus is better raised than left to decompose, irritate and cause ulceration. Don’t think the more you eat the stronger and fatter you will become ; all food more than can be easily di- gested is a needless strain upon the system. Don’t do that which you know to be hurtful, thinking that you may escape the penalty ; nature is unrelenting, and there is no vicarious atonement for sins against her. Don’t be too ready to diagnose your own symptoms, or to practice medicine upon yourself; physicians when sick prefer the judgment of professional brethren except in mild attacks. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. 103 Try popcorn for nausea. Try cranberries for malaria. Try a sunbath for rheumatism. Try ginger ale for stomach cramps. Try clam broth for a weak stomach. Try cranberry poultice for erysipelas. Try. 104 HEARTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. Try gargling lager beer for cure of sore throat. Try a cabbage leaf in the hat to prevent sunstroke. Try a fresh cut of watermelon in feverish conditions. Try a wet towel to the back of the neck when sleepless. Try swallowing saliva when troubled with sour stomach. Try eating fresh radishes and yellow turnips for gravel. Try eating onions and horseradish to relieve dropsical swellings. Try buttermilk for removal of freckles, tan and but- ternut stains. Try to cultivate an equable temper, and don’t borrow trouble ahead. Try the croup tippet when a child is likely to be troubled that way. Try a hot dry flannel over the seat of neuralgic pain and renew frequently. Try taking your codliver oil in tomato catsup, if you want to make it palatable. Try hard cider—a wineglassful three times a day— for ague and rheumatism. Try breathing the fumes of turpentine or carbolic acid to relieve whooping-cough. Try taking a nap in the afternoon if you are going to be out late in the evening. Try a cloth wrung out with cold water put about the neck at night for sore throat. Try snuffing powdered borax up the nostrils for catarrhal “ cold in the head.” Try an extra pair of stockings outside of your shoes when traveling in cold weather. Try walking with your hands behind you if you find yourself becoming bent forward. Try a silk handkerchief over the face when obliged to go against a cold, piercing wind. Try planting sunflowers in your garden if compelled to live in a malarial neighborhood. Try a saturated solution of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in diarrhoeal troubles : give freely. Try manipulating the bowels with the hands when troubled with wind-colic or constipation. Try the patent inflated rubber pads for cure and relief of rupture. (See advertisement elsewhere.) Try a newspaper over the chest, beneath your coat, as a chest protector in extremely cold weather. Try to remember that regularity in eating and sleeping conduce to health ; order is nature’s first law. Try a teaspoonful of fine charcoal after eating when fermentation is taking the place of digestion. Try glycerine in place of sugar in your tea or coffee when troubled with flatulent (wind) dyspepsia. Try tobacco water—one pound of tobacco boiled in three pints of water—for removing insects from plants. Try barley grains or peas roasted in place of coffee if you find the latter is causing headaches and nervousness. Try the application of kerosene twice a day to warts— after scraping the surface a little. It will cause them to depart. Try eating lightly at supper, retiring early and eating a hearty breakfast, if you wish to keep a clean tongue and good appetite. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. 105 Ax orange eaten before breakfast curbs the craving for liquor and improves disordered stomach. A glass of water, taken when retiring, and on rising, will often relieve costiveness. 106 HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. Hints to Bathers. De. J. H. Kellogg, of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, gives these ratings of temperature for baths : Cold . .33 to 60 deg. F. Cool ' 60 to 70 “ Temperate 70 to 85 “ Tepid 85 to 92 “ Warm . ,.92 to 98 “ Ilot 98 to 112 “ 1. When using baths as curative means do not de- pend upon your hand to determine the temperature, but use a thermometer. 2. Let the room be heated above 70 deg. and made impervious to draughts. 3. ■ Extremes of temperature are seldom useful in health and may be dangerous to very young or old per- sons, to invalids and convalescents. 4. Cool baths are not well borne bytmyone when cold or fatigued,—during the menstrual period, nor by many persons not constitutionally robust. 5. -Do not bathe soon after hearty eating or drinking or when overheated ; though a cool plunge is not likely to be hurtful when somewhat overheated if it is of but a few minutes’ duration and followed by brisk rubbing. 6. Before leaving a warm bath add a little cold water, unless the bath is to be immediately followed by a warm bed. 7. Neither in health or disease is there any advantage in prolonging a bath more than fifteen minutes, and tonic cold baths should consist mainly in a plunge or a dip and a rub. 8. If reaction or a returning glow of warmth in the skin is not made sufficient in brisk rubbing and exercise, a warm drink will assist, and sometimes the use of a mild stimulant may be necessary. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITABY SIFTINGS. 107 9. The head should as a rule be wet proportionately with the rest of the body, so that the blood circulation may be equalized. 10. In fevers the sponge bath is usually the safest, and a decrease of bodily temperature is more safely and surely achieved by warm than by cold water. 11. In sickness, nervousness, restlessness and ex- haustion, relief is often afforded by a salt sponge-bath, and a little alcohol or ammonia in the water may make it more agreeable. 12. In administering sponge baths it is usually best to finish one part by wiping before wetting another. 13. Compresses are folded wet cloths, which may be wrung out with cold, warm or hot water, laid upon a part and covered with a dry flannel cloth. 14. Full baths, half baths, sitz and foot baths and compresses are employed for tonic, sedative, quieting, astringent, laxative, warming and cooling effects, either on the whole body or locally. 15. In use of local applications for relief of pain be guided by the experience of the patient, and use cold, cool, warm or hot water as pleases him best. Hints on Nursing the Sick. Endeavor to keep an equable temperature of about 65 deg. to 70, and good ventilation. Have no superfluous furniture or clothing about, and often matting is preferable to carpets. Cover all food preparations, medicines and drinking water that must remain in the sick room. Anticipate the patient’s wants and attend with regu- larity to the administering of food and medicine. For a sick person select a room on the sunny side of the house, and preferably one having an open fire place. 108 In cold -weather keep an open fire, and admit fresh air from outside the house or from an adjoining room with a window open. In warm weather the air of the room can he cooled by hanging before open windows blankets, frequently wrung out in ice water. Remove dishes, slop-pans and all other utensils from the room as soon as there is no longer use for their. See page 22 for directions about disinfecting. Avoid whispering, washing dishes, rattling of newspa- pers, swinging of rocking-chairs, creaking shoes, rustling silks and all unnecessary noises, such as make some people feel nervous. Be sure that you always get the right bottle when about to give a medicine, and be accurate in measuring the dose. Teaspoons vary greatly, but most in use now will hold two drams, and not one as is ordinarily supposed. Tablespoons will usually hold about half a fluid ounce, or four drams ; a wineglass about two fluid ounces, and a teacup four fluid ounces. “Deops” are not accurate, their size ranging accord- ing to the bottle, the amount in the bottle, and the weight and fluidity of the medicine. Apothecakies’ measure : 60 minims (approximately drops), one fluid dram ; 8 fluid drams one fluid ounce ; 16 fluid ounces one pint; 8 pints one gallon. The pulse in health varies from 130 per minute in the infant to 70 or less in the adult, and is more rapid when standing than when sitting or reclining. In disease the pulse varies not only in number of beats per minute, but also in its regularity, fullness and other qualities to be recognized by a sensitive and experienced hand. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITABV SIFTINGS. Respiration occurs in health about eighteen times per minute, but becomes more frequent in some diseases. The normal temperature is about 98 deg. It may be increased in fevers to 105 deg. or more, and is a bad in- dication in proportion to its increase and steady continu- ance above the normal. A pall of temperature two degrees below the normal is more dangerous than an equal rise above, as it indi- cates prostration, and especially if continuous. Two thermometers are often required, one for the room and one to test the temperature of the patient, by being placed in the armpit or beneath the tongue. A good wTay to prevent ice from melting has been sug- gested by Dr. Gangee in the Lancet. Instead of placing the broken ice in the ordinary bowl or tumbler it should be suspended in a piece of coarse open flannel stretched across the mouth of the bowl and allowed to fall partially into it. The ice thus supported in the flannel pouch had better be covered over with another piece of the same ma- terial. Protected in this way from the light and the water formed by its own melting—which filters through to the bottom of the vessel—it can be kept for 10 hours. Nothing is more easy to an experienced nurse, or more difficult to an inexperienced one, than to change the bed linen with a person in bed. Everything that will be re- quired must be at hand, properly aired, before the begin- ning. Move the patient as far as possible to one side of the bed, and remove all but one pillow. Untuck the lower sheet and cross sheet and push them toward the middle of the bed. Have a sheet ready folded or rolled the long way, and lay it on the mattrass, unfolding it enough to tuck it in at the side. Have the cross sheet prepared, and roll it, also, laying it over the under one and tucking it in, keeping the unused portion of both HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. 109 110 HEALTH HINTS ANH SANITAKY SIFTINGS. still rolled. Move tlie patient over to the side thus pre- pared for him ; the soiled sheets can then be drawn away, the clean ones completely unrolled and tucked in on the other side. The coverings need not he removed while this is being done ; they can be pulled out from the foot of the bedstead and kept wrapped around the patient. To change the upper sheet take off the spread and lay the clean sheet over the blankets, securing the upper edge to the bed with a couple of pins ; standing at the foot, draw out the blankets and soiled sheet, replace the former and put on the spread. Lastly, change the pillow-cases. —Scribner’s Monthly. For more complete instructions procure Florence Nightingale’s “Notes on Nursing” (Appleton & Co.), or the “Handbook of Nursing,” 2G0 pages, published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., for the New Haven, Connecticut, Training School for Nurses. Hints for Emergencies. Unconsciousness : If you see a man suddenly become unconscious and fall helpless, don’t conclude right away that he is drunk. Smell his breath, for it may be that apo- plexy, sunstroke, heart disease, or mere exhaustion is the cause. If palid, it is probably a faint; if suffused or red in the face, apoplexy ; and if struggling while uncon- scious it is jirobably an epileptic fit. Fainting : Lay the person flat on the back, loose the clothing and sprinkle cold water on the face. If the fainting is from exhaustion a few drops (10 to 30) of aro- matic spirits of ammonia taken in water will afford a good stimulant. Apoplexy is always attended by congestion of the brain, and the injury to the brain is proportionate to the con- gestion. So fix the patient into a sitting posture and sup- HEALTH HINTS AND SANITAEY SIFTINGS. 111 port the head well. The presence of blood in the head can, in extreme cases, be relieved by tying bandages about the limbs near the body. Such bandages permit the blood to pass into the limbs by the arteries, but prevent the return flow by the veins, and by congesting the limbs take off the blood-pressure on the head. The banda- ges should in fifteen minutes be removed, one at a time. Epileptic fits : During a fit no remedy can be ap- plied, but observers may do much to save the patient do- ing himself an injury, by holding him down and placing a wooden wedge between the teeth to prevent biting the tongue. Suspended animation at bieth : Many a child still- born may have beating of the heart though enirely with- out breathing, and something must be done to establish respiration. Sprinkling cold water on its face and body, slapping it and placing it first in cold then in warm water are methods that have been found successful. It is im- portant to clear the mouth of mucus and to rub the limbs toward the body, but if these means fail, artificial respiration should be faithfully tried. The infant being upon its back its lungs can be inflated by closing the nostrils and blowing directly into the mouth—the mouth of the operator making a tight joint with the face of the child. Pressure upon the chest will force out the air, which can be again blown in. Many repetitions of this may be necessary before breathing will go on naturally. To remove an insect from the ear, place a sponge wet with chloroform against the opening. This will suf- focate the insect, which can then be washed out by means of an ear-syringe and warm water. Mad-dog bites : Lose no time in cauterizing thorough- ly and deeply with nitrate of silver, pure carbolic acid, nitric or sulphuric acid, whichever can be most speedily obtained. 112 HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. Nose-bleeding : Apply something cold to the back of the neck or forehead, and snuff warm water up the nos- trils, as it assists coagulation of the blood ; or stuff the nostril with soft paper and retain it there for several minutes. Poisoning : If the poison swallowed is known to be a caustic or corrosive substance give sweet oil, melted but- ter or lard. If the nature of the poison is not known, try to cause vomiting by giving a teaspoonful each of salt and mustard in a glass of warm water, and afterwards give the whites of eggs and strong coffee. Iodide of starch is also a useful remedy for many cases of poisoning. Fires : If the clothing of a person takes fire, wrap them about at once and completely with blankets to ex- tinguish the flames. If caught in a burning house re- member the best air to breathe is near the floor, and that a wet handkerchief placed over the mouth permits breathing and excludes smoke, thus avoiding suffocation. Something in the eye : Wash out with water if possi- ble, or have some friend turn the upper lid wrong-side out over a pencil, and this will usually discover the ob- ject, which can be removed by a blunt pointed pencil or penholder. To turn the lid over the person must look down while the operator takes the eyelashes between thumb and finger and reverses the lid over a pencil placed upon the lid. The lid readily resumes its proper po- sition. When a particle of steel or other substance is im- bedded in the eye itself a physician must be sought at once. Look out for sunstrokes, and remember that prevention is always better than cure. Here are some timely hints by the Board of Health which will help to make life en- durable during the heated term : Sunstroke. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SITTINGS. 113 “Sunstroke is caused by excessive heat, and especially if the weather is muggy. It is more likely to occur on the second, third or fourth day of a heated term than on the first. The time when people are most prone to he sun-struck is between 11 and 4 o’clock. Wear thin clothing, sleep in carefully ventilated rooms, avoid loss of sleep and over-fatigue. Put a moist handkerchief in the hat ; lift the hat off from time to time in order to obtain ventilation. Do not check perspiration, but drink what water you need in order to keep up perspiration. If you feel fatigue, dizziness, headache or exhaustion, stop work at once. Sit down in a cool, shady place. Apply wet cloths, and bathe the face and neck ia cold water. If any one is overcome with heat, send at once for a physician. While waiting for the doctor, give the patient cool water or cold tea. Pour cold water on the neck and wrists, and apply pounded ice wrapped up in a towel to the head. When a person is pale and faint, with a feeble pulse, give some ammonia to smell, and administer a tea- spoonful of aromatic spirits of ammonia in two table-spoonfuls of water sweetened with sugar.” How to Restore the Drowned. Dr. Howard, Medical Officer of New York Harbor, re- cently explained at the receiving-house of the Royal Hu- mane Society, London, his method of resuscitating per- sons taken from the water in a state of insensibility. The principles upon which he acts are those of clearing away the water and mucus which prevent the entrance of air into the lungs, and the imitation of the movements of the chest in respiration. He first empties the stomach and passages of water. For this he places the patient face downward, puts a roll of something hard under the pit of the stomach, so that it is above the level of the mouth, and then presses with all his force on the back. Afterward, to set up artificial breathing, instead of the partial rolling of the body or the pumping action of the arms now practiced, the body is laid upon the back with the clothes stripped down to the waist. The pit of the stomach is now raised to the highest point by something under the back. A bundle of clothing or the body of an- 114 HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. other man will do for this. The head is thrown back and the tongue must be drawn forward by an assistant, so as to keep open the entrance to the air tubes. The hands are passed above the head, the wrists crossed, and the arms kept firmly extended. In this position the chest is fully expanded. The operator then kneels astride the body, places his hands on the lower part of the ribs, and steadily and gradually makes compression. Balancing on his knees he inclines himself forward till his face nearly touches that of the patient, and so lets fall the whole weight of the body upon the chest. When this has yielded as much as it will he throws himself back by a sudden push to his first erect position of kneeling, and the elastic ribs by their expanding bellows- action draw air into the lungs. These manoeuvres must be repeated regularly twelve or fifteen times in the minute. It should be the object of every woman so to regulate her daily habits of living that she may keep comfortable during the period of pregnancy, have a natural labor and be blest with “just the nicest little baby you ever saw.” These may be considered three objects in one, for they will all be promoted by the same favorable condi' tions. There are women who, throughout the period of childbearing, enjoy perfect health, and say they “never felt better in their lives,” and physicians have observed numerous cases that show that the process of childbirth may be wholly safe, speedy and without pain. Professor Huxley has said that “the bearing of children may, and ought to become, as free from danger and disability to the civilized woman as to the savage and Dr. Pancoast declares that “ pain in all cases is a sign of disease—it has no other significance. ” It is no assumption to say Hints for Pregnant Women. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITAEY SIFTINGS. 115 that if all women were well formed and healthy through- out there would he no more suffering from childhearing than from breathing. But at the present time every woman cannot expect even under the most favorable con- ditions during pregnancy to escape all its possible dis- comforts and trials, and to have a painless labor, for bad habits during childhood, injurious customs during girl- hood, and diseased conditions that existed previous to marriage, may have brought about abnormal conditions of the procreative organs or impairment of general health. It is not however too late after pregnancy has occurred to do something toward mitigatiug the usual sufferings which are expected to result from it. Among the most important regulations are those refer- ring to diet, dress and exercise. The diet may be so se- lected as to supply all the necessary elements of food and, at the same time, to avoid the use of foods contain- ing a large proportion of bone-forming elements. By so doing the bones of the fcetal skull will remain cartilagi- nous, soft and pliable instead of becoming ossified, hard and unyielding, and inasmuch as the difficult part of labor consists in the passage of the child’s head, no further explanation is needed of the advantage of pre- venting too rapid hardening of the skull-cartilages before birth. That it is possible to regulate this matter by re- striction of diet, and thereby to favor easy labor without in the least endangering a perfect and sufficient develop- ment of the child, has been proved in many cases, the first woman to experience this benefit being Mrs. Bow- botham, the wife of a London chemist, who first thought of this plan. The following list of articles contains ffiit little earthy or bone-forming material, those containing the least being named last: beans, barley, peas, potatoes, flesh of fowls and young animals, arrow-root, sago, tapi- oca, fish, eggs, cheese, succulent vegetables of all kinds 116 HEALTH HINTS AND SANITARY SITTINGS. and fruits. Preparations of corn-meal, wheat, oat and rye flour contain more earthy matter than the articles in the above list, and whole wheat flour has probably the largest proportion. Easily digestible fruitf and vegeta- bles afford the best food for pregnant women. It is an error to suppose that pregnant women must ‘ ‘ eat for two.” There are nearly nine months in which to build up ten pounds of new tissue in the growing child, and this would not require more than one extra ounce solid food each day. Eat therefore enough to satisfy the normal appetite, and don’t unnecessarily urge the appetite. Special longings for particular and proper articles of food or drink may be moderately indulged, but kept un- der control. If injurious or unnatural substances are craved the habit of yielding may prove unwise in two ways—because of harm to the mother, and the possibility of transmiting a morbid appetite to the child. Dress during pregnancy should be extremely loo«e about the body, to permit free action of the abdominal organs and gradual increase in size. Attempts to con- ceal the fact of pregnancy by endeavoring to restrain the “form” are silly, unwomanly and liable to lead to dis- astrous results by compressing and congesting the kid- neys, and weakening the muscular power of the abdomi- nal walls. Exercise should be sufficient to keep up active blood- circulation and good muscular tone, but hard work is in- jurious, and especially washing, ironing, running sew- ing machines and lifting or carrying heavy things. An enciente woman should be allowed to “live like a lady,” as a brood mare is “turned out to grass,” but if her mind can be pleasantly occupied with the direction of household affairs she will be liable to remain more “con- tented in her mind.” Weather permitting the exercise will of course be best taken in the open air, and walking or riding are the available ways. Bathng is essential in pregnancy and perhaps more so than usual, for an active condition of the skin relieves the kidneys which are the organs most likely to feel the strain of the new condition of things. Hints on bathing will be found elsewhere, but here we may say that a warm bath on retiring will usually be the preferable kind of bath for pregnant women. Its effect is sedative or quieting and soothing, and conduces to a good night’s rest. If nursing a child when pregnancy occurs wean it at once, for otherwise both the child at the breast and the one in the womb will be injuriously affected, either by blood impoverishment or impaired vitality. Women who suppose that it will not be possible to become pregnant while nursing a child very often find themselves an ex- ception to what is really a very poor rule. The symptoms of pregnancy are in the order of their occurrence about as follows : 1. Absence of menstrual periods. 2. Morning nausea or capricious appetite. 3. Sense of fullness and weight in breast. 4. Darkening of areola about nipples. 5. Gradual enlargement of abdomen. 6. Quickening or “feeling life” (about 4£ months.) 7. Enlargement of breast% 8. Pulsation of foetal heart heard by placing the ear on the abdomen. Dropsy or accumulation of water in the legs, causing sweeling and sense of weight, may be due to impeded circulation in the veins, and can be relieved as varicose veins can be, by rubbing with the hands toward the body, and applying tight bandages from the toes up, or elastic stockings. If dropsy occurs to a woman not yet HEARTH HINTS AND SANITARY SIFTINGS. 117 118 under a physician’s care, she should boil a little of her urine in a glass bottle, and if a thick deposit is formed like the white of an egg boiled hard, it will be best for her to place herself under a physician’s care at once. Morning sickness when troublesome may be relieved by taking a glass of cider before rising, dissolving crack- ed ice in the mouth or using the homoeopathic prepara- tions of nux or ipecac. Itching may be relieved by frequent cleansings or sitz baths, followed by local application of solution of one ounce of chloral hydrate in a pint of rose water. For other remedies see chapter of recipes. Soreness of the abdomen from the gradual stretching of its muscles is apt to be felt in the last month of preg- nancy, and we know of nothing so serviceable for its re- lief as the use of Dr. Foote’s Magnetic Ointment, and this again becomes useful in much the same way during and after labor. HEALTH HINTS AND SANITAEY SIFTINGS. For Itching in Pregnancy. The following recipe was suggested by Dr. M. A. 1 alien : Thymol fifteen grains. Vaseline thirty grains. Powdered brick clay three ounces. Dissolve the thymol in vaseline and mix with the clay. Apply once a day, and cleanse thoroughly before reap- plying. CHAPTER VI. READY RECIPES FOR CURE OF COMMON SLIGHT AILMENTS AND PREPARATION OF DELICACIES FOR INVALIDS. “ Black ” Eyes.—Moisten dry starch with cold water, and place over the closed eye ; cover with a piece of coarse brown paper soaked in weak vinegar. Boils.—When first noticed apply ointment of extract fresh arnica flowers, two drams ; honey, four drams. When tense and painful keep soft and warm by fre- quently renewed poultices until ready to discharge freely. Their cure is often accelerated by incisions for relief of imprisoned pus. Then keep clean with a wash of one dram of pure carbolic acid to pint of water. To make the incision of a boil or abscess'painless, first apply to the place to be cut a mixture of pure carbolic acid, two parts ; glycerine, one part. Burns.—Protect from the air by cotton-wadding or lint saturated with olive oil, linseed oil, or glycerine, con- taining five drops of carbolic acid to the ounce of oil or glycerine ; or apply common baking soda, well powdered, and cover it -with a wet cloth ; or apply a mixture of equal parts of linseed oil and lime water, with twenty drops of pure liquefied carbolic acid. Chilblains.—Dr. Hayden recommends soaking the feet in soft warm water for fifteen minutes, then to rub them dry and apply kerosene oil. Repeat every evening till relieved Or collodion, one ounce ; Venice turpentine, 120 half an ounce; castor oil, two drams. Apply with camel’s hair brush. Or borax, one dram ; cold cream, one ounce. Corns.—Hard corns can he quickly removed by means of a sharp knife, without pain, if the knife is expertly used, and the corn kept saturated with alcohol, which not only makes it easier to remove but also benumbs its sensitiveness. When corns are inflamed protect wi*th perforated corn plasters, and use freely Dr. Foote’s Mag- netic ointment. Cosmetic—a harmless one. Prepared chalk one ounce. Pure glycerine half an ounce. Alcohol two and a half ounces. Water one and a half ounce. Extract heliotrope one dram. Cough Mixture. (Used in dispensaries of New York city.) Syrup tolu one ounce. Syrup prunus virg one ounce. Tinct. hyosciamus one ounce. Spirits fetheris comp one ounce. Water one ounce. Dose—one teaspoonful every hour, if necessary. Cholera Mixture—Dr. Squihb’s. Tincture opium one fluid ounce. Tincture capsicum one fluid ounce. Spirits camphor one fluid ounce. Chloroform three drams. Alcohol, enough to make five ounces. Dose—ten to forty drops. Diarrhoea in Infants. Lime water two ounces. Spirits lavender comp one ounce. READY RECIPES. BEADY BECIPES. 121 Syrup of rhubarb one ounce. Laudanum ten drops. Dose—one teaspoonful every two to four hours. Diphtheria.—To detach the false membrane, use lo- cally pure lemon juice, or blow sulphur into the throat through a quill. Give the patient food—preferably milk —every hour, night and day, to keep up the strength, as great prostration is a prominent feature of the disease. Diarrhoeal and Dysenteric Troubles. The following is known as the “ Sun remedy,” pub- lished by the New York Sun many years ago, and made popular by long trial: Tincture of camphor one ounce. Tincture of opium one ounce. Tincture of rhubarb one ounce. Tincture of capsicum .one ounce. Essence of peppermint one ounce. Dose : Ten to thirty drops every hour until relieved. Dandruff.—Flowers of sulphur, one ounce; water, one quart. Mix and shake thoroughly at intervals of a few hours, and the next day pour off the clear solution. Use as a scalp wash. Dr. Danelson recommends subli- mated sulphur, two drams ; sulphate of zinc, two drams ; rose water, one pint. Depilatory—for removing superfluous hair. Bov- det’s : hydrosulphate of soda, three drams ; powdered quicklime, ten drams ; starch, ten drams. Powder and mix rapidly. Mix into paste with water and spread over the place to be deprived of hair. As soon as the hair falls out readily, remove paste quickly and cover the part with cold cream or “magnetic ointment.” Dr. Bartho- low’s prescription : quicklime, half ounce ; yellow sul- phide of arsenic, twenty grains ; starch, three drams. Used as the other. 122 READY RECIPES'. Ear-ache.—Place a little black pepper upon cotton- batting, and roll up the cotton with the pepper inside. Then dip it into sweet oil, insert in the ear, and put a hot flannel cloth over the ear, or hold the ear over a cup containing hot water poured upon tobacco leaves. Eye Wash.—Borax, fifteen grains; soft water, four ounces. Falling of Rectum. Wash the protruding bowel with a decoction of white oak bark, and in pressing back to its place use freely Dr. Foote’s “magnetic ointment.” Felons may sometimes be abated by washing the fin- ger in a twenty per cent, solution of carbolic acid, and after wiping dry apply two or three coats of collodion ; or by wrapping the finger tightly with the skin found be- neath the shell of an egg. If, however, it persists in forming, don’t delay a deep incision too long, for this is the only sure way to avoid deformity, and perhaps even the loss of a joint. Fetid Feet.—Dust into the stockings salicylic acid, one part; talc, or starch, five parts. Or anoint the feet with salicylic acid, ten grains ; vaseline, one ounce. Or use lotion composed of permanganate of potash, six grains ; water, six ounces. Flatulence or Dyspepsia with “wind.” (Dr. Far- quharson’s.) Bicarbonate of soda, two drams ; sugar, two drams ; aromatic spirits ammonia, one dram ; pepper- mint water, eight ounces. Dose—a tablespoonful after meals. Frecklo Lotion. Lime sulpho-carbolate two ounces. Glycerine fifteen ounces, Bose water fifteen ounces. Alcohol five ounces. Spirit neroli one-half dram. Mix and apply twice a day, leaving it on half an hour before washing off. Or powdered nitre, moistened with water, applied to face night and morning. Hiccough.—A lump of sugar soaked in vinegar. Or, five swallows of water. Hive Syrup.—Compound syrup of squill, three oun- ces ; syrup of ipecac, one ounce. Mix and give one tea- spoonful as a dose. Hoarseness.—Let a lump of borax dissolve slowly in the mouth ; or inhale mild ammonia vapor ; and put a cloth wrung out with cold water about the throat when retiring for the night. Itching.—Sulphite of soda, one dram ; water, one pint. Use as a wash. Or carbolic acid (pure), one dram ; water, one pint, used as a wash. Or borax, one dram ; glycerine, one ounce ; water, four ounces, used locally. Chloral hydrate, one dram ; water, half pint, used as a wash. Itching in Measles.—Glycerine, one ounce ; cologne water, one ounce. Mix and use as a wash. Itching Vaginal. Borate of soda six drams. Sulphate morphia five grains. Permanganate potash fifteen grains. Kose water six ounces. After cleansing the parts with castile soap and water, apply the above mixture on a linen cloth. Or use simple balsam of Peru, by smearing the irritable parts with it. Inflamed Breasts—Mammary Abscess.—Apply with the hand : extract belladona, one part; glycerine, three parts, and cover with oil silk. If not in bed sup- port the breasts well by bandaging. Incontinence of Urine.—Syrup iodide of iron, ten to thirty drops at bed time. Or extract belladona, in pills of one quarter of a grain each ; two a day. BEADY EECIPES. 123 Ivy Poisoning—Muriate of ammonia, one ounce : water, one quart. Apply as a wash to the affected part frequentty. Or place a piece of unslacked lime the size of a walnut in a saucer of water, and use the water after the lime has had time to become slacked. Or olive oil, two ounces ; salicylic acid, one dram. Lice.—Follow them up with oleate of mercury, used as a salve. Moles.—Apply carefully on a splinter of wood nitrate of mercury, and don’t let it touch the surrounding skin. It is not painful, and it is very successful in causing the mole to shrivel away. Pimples and Face Eruptions. Try local application of camphor, or this wash : Tinct. gum benzoin two ounces. Hydrarg. bichlor half dram. Rose water two ounces. Glycerine half ounce. "Warm water one pint. Use a stone or glass jar to mix the above. First stir well the tincture benzoin and water ; then add the hy- drag. bichlor. and rose water and stir again ; lastly add the glycerine, and stir the whole. Let stand one day and strain. Piles.—Use internally Dr. Foote’s anti-bilious pills, and the magnetic ointment locally. Rheumatism -acute Inflammatory. Tincture colchicum half ouncn. Tincture cimicifuga two drams. Tincture gelseminum two drams. Sweet spirits nitre ten drams. Essence wintergreen two drams. Simple syrup three ounces. Dose—one teaspoonful every two hours. 124 BEADY IiECIPEP. 125 Ringworm is not an animal but a vegetable parasite tbat can best be destroyed by the use of boracic acid, or of citrine ointment—the latter being an officinal prepara- tion kept by all druggists. The citrine ointment is a caustic preparation that must be applied "with extreme care, and not left carelessly around the house. Roach. Poison.—Powdered borax, Persian insect powder, powdered colocynth—equal parts mixed. Snoring.—Sleep with the mouth shut and snoring will be impossible. To keep the mouth shut it may often be necessary to apply a bandage under the chin before re- tiring, so that the chin cannot fall. Stammering.—Every other day read aloud with the teeth closed during one hour. Sore Mouth.—Borax, one dram ; honey, one ounce. Mix and use as a mouth wash as often as desired. Or chlorate of potassium, two drams ; water, four ounces. Dissolve the salt in the water, and use as a mouth wash ; not to be swallowed. Sore Mouth of Nursing Children.—Borax and fine sugar well ground and mixed together may be applied di- rectly to the sore spots. Sore Throat Gargle. Pure carbolic acid twenty drops. Acetic acid thirty drops. Honey two drams. Tincture myrrh two drams. Water six ounces. Sore Throat. -An excellent gargle for ordinary sore throat may be made by pouring a pint of boiling water over a powder composed of an ounce of sumach berries and half an ounce of chlorate of potash, allowing it to simmer in an earthen vessel, with occasional stirring, to three-fourths of a pint, straining and using in the ordi- nary manner. BEADY EECIPES. Sore Nipples. (Dr. Barker’s.) Tannic acid two drams. Rose water two ounces Glycerine two ounces. Apply lint saturated with the above lotion. Stings and Insect Bites.—Apply a solution of am- monia or “ smelling salts.” Or white of egg coagulated with powdered alum. Sweating Feet. Burnt alum five parts. Salicylic acid three parts. Starch fifteen parts. Talc fifty parts. Mix in a fine powder for dusting into the stockings. Toothache.—Have it out or filled at once—unless too much inflamed. Or try any of the following : Toothache. Powdered gum camphor one ounce. Chlorate hydrate crystals one ounce. Rub together in a mortar until liquefied, and apply on a small piece of cotton. Or creosote on cotton. Or oil of cajeput on cotton. Or the following (Dr. Danelson’s): Tincture aconite root one ounce. Tincture opium one ounce. Carbolic acid one dram. Apply on cotton. Ulcers.—When foul-swelling can be disinfected and encouraged to heal by daily use of wash composed of chloral hydrate, one dram ; water, six ounces. Or Thymol eight grains. Alcohol two drams. Glycerine half an ounce. Water one pint. "Warts and Corns may be gradually softened and caused to disappear by daily application of “glacial” READY RECIPES. acetic acid, applying it cautiously by means of a pointed stick, so that the healthy skin shall not be touched. ■Whooping1 Cough.—Dried red clover blossoms, one and one-half oz.; boiling water, one pint. Steep for three hours Dose—one wineglassful, sweetened with honey or sugar, occasionally during the day. Proposed by Dr. Howard Sargent and found curative in ten days or less. Worms in Children.—(Prof. F. L. Smith.) Fluid extract spigelia and senna, one ounce ; santonine, eight grains. Dose—for a child of five years, one teaspoonful on an empty stomach. To take castor oil add to it an equal part of glycerine together with two or three drops of oil of cinnamon or wintergreen to each dose. READY RECIPES. 127 Preparation of Food for Invalids. Rice ok barley water.—Add two quarts of boiling water to two ounces of washed rice or pearl barley ; boil it down to one quart, and strain. Add sugar, if preferred, or lemon juice to flavor. Non-coagulable bulk.—(A very useful preparation, em- ployed in Bellevue Hospital when the stomach is too weak to accept anything else): Mix a pint of milk and a pint of water and heat them almost to the boiling point, and add twenty drops of dilute muriatic acid. Sage tea.—Leaves of sage, half an ounce, and boiling water, one quart. Let stand half an hour and strain. Panada.—Boil together one ounce of broken wheat bread, one dram of cinnamon, and one pint of water, and add nutmeg and sugar. Irish or Iceland, moss jelly.—Wash the moss and then place an ounce in a pint of water or a quart of milk, and boil fifteen minutes in a covered vessel. Strain while hot and add sugar or lemon-juice, or both, as desired. 128 Gum ababic mucilage.—To a quart of boiling water add an ounce of gum arabic, and let stand till cool. Orange panada.—Squeeze into a saucer the juice of several oranges, and crumble cracker into it. Gratefully accepted by feverish patients. Chicken panada.—Pound in a mortar equal parts of white meat of boiled chicken and stale bread ; add the water in which the chicken was boiled, and boil for ten minutes, stirring constantly. Beef tea.—A pint of cold water is poured upon a pound of finely chopped lean beef, placed in a wide-mouthed bottle and left one hour. Place the bottle with its con- tents in a saucepan of water and boil one hour. Strain and flavor. Chicken or mutton tea can be made in the same way as described for beef tea. Liebig’s beef tea.—(“ Richer and more invigorating than ordinary beef tea,” and far superior in nutriment to the store article, but not as agreeable to taste and smell). Half a pound of minced raw beef, nearly a pint of water, half a teaspoonful of salt and four drops of dilute muri- atic acid. Mix well and let stand one hour. Strain and take cold or merely warmed a little. Oatmeal gruel.—Mix a tablespoonful of groats with two of cold water, and pour over them one pint of boil- ing water or milk; boil for ten minutes while stirring. Sweeten to taste. Milk and milk whey.—Boil half a pint of milk, add a wineglass of sherry ; strain and sweeten. Cooling and diuretic drink.—One teaspoonful of cream of tartar in pint of boiling water, and sweetened slightly. READY RECIPES. purchasers of Plain Home Talk are at liberty to consult its author without fee. Correspondents please to enclose a stamp for prepaying reply. Address Dr. E. B. Foote, 120 Lexington Avenue, New York, The Cheapest Book in the English or German Language! •HI _ > „ m*. 11-REVISED edition of 1888 has ir 12L1H liOHl£ 1 2lLK *[x beautiful colored litho- ■ **"■“**■****» “ plates—three anatomical charts showing relation o 1 vital —embracing—organs, and 21 illustrations of em- bryonic (fcetal) development, or “Origin of Life.” Medical Common Sense, Nearly 1,000 Illustrated Pages, Bound in Extra Cloth, and sent Postage Prepaid, For only One Dollar and a Half. (Two Copies to one address for only two dollars.) By E. B. FOOTE, M.D., Author of “ Science in Story, ” etc. Look over Summary of Contents and observe the great variety of subjects treated ! ! 1 Complete Contents Table sent free. PART L TAGE Disease and its Causes 25 Ignorance 40 Causes of Nervous and Blood Derangements 40 Violating the Moral Nature.. 43 The Food we Eat C4 The Liquids we Drink 75 The Atmosphere we Live In. 95 The Clothes we Wear. 112 Bad nabits of Children 130 Bad Habits of Manhood 141 Sexual Starvation 164 Prostitution 174 Unhappy Marriage 187 Impure Vaccination 189 Adulterated Medicines 193 Brutality and Inhumanity... 190 DISEASE—ITS CAUSES, PREVENTION AND CERE. TAGE Wealth 204 Excessive Study and Labor.. 211 Melancholy 213 How to Have Healthy Babies 220 To Preserve Health of Chil- dren 226 Dietetics for Old and Young. 234 Physiological Instruction of Children 230 Mental and Physical Recrea- tion 241 Sleep, Cleanliness 252 Pure Air and Sunshine 257 A Good Temper 262 Keep the Feet Warm 264 Spring Renovation 268 COMMON SENSE REMEDIES. Vegetable Medicine 273 Therapeutic Electricity 285 Animal Magnetism 302 Water 309 Medicated Inhalation 313 Doctors, “Jacks at all Trades 319 DOCTORS. Female Doctors 321 Rapacious Doctors 320 PART H. CHRONIC DISEASES, THEIR CAUSES AND TREATMENT. CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE BREATHING ORGANS. Chronic Catarrh 369 Affections of the Throat 343 CHRONIC DISEASES OF LIVER, STOMACH AND BOWELS. Bronchitis, Asthma 345 Consumption 351 Affections of the Liver 370 Dyspepsia, Constipation 380 Chronic Diarrhoea 392 Piles, Fistula, Stricture 394 Falling of the Rectum 401 Ulceration of the Bowels .... 401 Intestinal Worms 402 ACHES AND PAINS. Bilious Headache.... 404 Nervous Headache 407 Congestive Headache 408 Neuralgia 409 Rheumatism 411 Old Eyes, Near Sight 415 Chronic Sore Eyes 423 AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES AND EARS. Cross Eyes, Amaurosis 423 Defective Hearing 428 How People are Mistaken ... 435 DISEASES OF THE HEART. Advice to Invalids 436 Diseases of the Kidneys 460 Affections of the Bladder 413 CHRONIC AFFECTIONS OF THE URINARY ORGANS. Affections of the Ureters 443 Gonorrhoea and Stricture 446 Derangements of Monthlies. 453 What Menstruation is for... 456 Leucorrhcea 460 What the Hymen is for 467 Chronic affections of tho Womb 474 PRIVATE WORDS FOR WOMEN. Falling of the Womb 474 Vaginal Affections 476 Amorous Dreams... 479 Sexual Apathy 481 Sexual Dyspepsia 481 Ovarian Diseases 483 HINTS TO TnE CHILDLESS. Causes of Barrenness 489 Local Inadaptation 490 Diseased Condition of Wife. 493 Do. do. of Husband 504 Excessive Amativeness 507 Temperamental Inadaptation 509 To Promote Childbearing ... 511 (This chapter is invaluable to the childless. In many instances ten and more years of fruitless marriage have been remedied by pursuing the hints herein given.) PRIVATE WORDS EOR MEN. The Penis and its Diseases.. 621 The Scrotum and its Diseases 626 EMPOTENCY. Seminal Weakness 532 Satyriasis 541 Females may be Impotent .. 544 CONCLUDING ESSAYS ON DISEASES. Causes and Treatment 546 Paralysis.. 551 Cancer 554 Salt Rheum 557 Spinal Curvature 558 Scrofula 560 Syphilis 664 A variety of Chronic Dis- eases 572 People Dosed to Death 574 Everybody his own Doctor.^_675. TREATMENT OF DISEASE. Evidences of the Curability of Chronic Diseases 639 PART in PLAIN TALE ABOUT THE SEXUAL ORGANS; THE NATU- RAL RELATION OF THE SEXES : CIVILIZATION, SOCIETY AND MARRIAGE. PAGE The Cause of their Disgrace. 608 Influence on Physical Devel- opment 612 Their Influence on Health .. 616 How made the Instruments of Pleasurable Emotions C22 PAGE IIow made the Instruments in Perpetuating the Race 630 The Influence on the Social Position of Women 635 Influence on Civilization 640 History of Polygamy 647 Why Adam had One Wife... 647 Egyptian Marriages 648 Chinese Marriage 649 Ancient Hebrew Marriages.. 653 Grecian Marriage 653 Polygamy in Ancient Persia. 656 Mahommed’s Polygamy 657 Early American Polygamy.. 659 HISTORY OF MARRIAGE. History of Monogamy 659 Marriage in Ancient Rome.. 660 Ancient German Marriages.. 665 Under the Christian Emperors 666 From the 5th to the 15th cen- turies 6C9 Marriages in Ancient Scandi- navia 671 Historical Chips 673 MARRIAGE AS IT IS IN BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. Marriage in the Old World.. 084 "Why Marriage is Unimproved 740 Is it a Divine Institution 750 DEFECTS IN MARRIAGE SYSTEMS. Marriage in New World 711 Demerits of Polygamy 753 Demerits of Monogamy ..... 754 THE REMEDY. New Order of Things Neces- sary 765 A Clergyman on Institutions 767 Rome had a Censor 773 We Want a Secretary of Mar- -r- riage 772 The Causes 777 SEXUAL IMMORALITY. The Cure as 780 Roman Austerity and Puri- tanism Compared 785 CONCLUSION OF PART in. We must Avoid a Reaction.. 785 Agitation on the Question... 787 (Part III takes a view of marriage and the sexual relations from a physiological Btand-point. It is searching, interesting, origimd and startling. PART IV. Marriage must be Improved, 793 THE IMPROVEMENT OF POPULAR MARRIAGES, ETO. What its upholders should do 794 What is Mental Adaptation ? 802 What is Physical Adaptation ? 805 Magnetic Adaptation 805 Temperamental Adaptation. 806 ADAPTATION IN MARRIAGE. Plain Rules as to Marriage .. 81S Difference between Vitality and Vital Tenacity 824 Marriage like a rat-trap 830 LAW SHOULD ENFORCE ADAPTATION IN MONOGAMIO MARRIAGE. Science brought to bear,,,,,. 831 THREE PHASES OF MONOGAMIC MARRIAGE DAGUER- REOTYPED. Mental Marriages 842 Physical Marriages 846 PHILOSOPHY OF ELOPEMENT. Lucifer Matches 856 Ascribed to Depravity 852 INTERMARRIAGE OF RELATIVES. The True Philosophy 8C2 Effects of such Marriages .... 857 As well Marry Half-Sisters as Full Cousins 833 Necessity for Confidence 861 The Wife the Equal Partner.. 863 Sleeping Apart 867 Sexual Moderation 869 ESSAYS FOR MARRIED PEOPLE. Jealousy 873 An Infallible Remedy 873 Sexual Indifference 880 Food for Pregnant Women. 884 Rules and Facts 887 Key to the Mystery 887 Why Resemble Both Parents. 890 Why Resemble One Parent... 892 PHILOSOPHY OF CniLD-MARKING. Why Resemble Neighbors.. 893 Why Children by Second Husbands Resemble the 1st 894 How Frights Mark a Child. 895 ESSAYS FOE YOUNG AND OLD, BEARING ON HAPPINESS IN MARRIAGE. Early Marriage 896 Avocations for Eemales 903 Ladies should he Allowed to Pop the Question 900 AW'D "TO "27* BOOK OF NEARLY 100 LARGE OCTAVO JL Xwulj pages for the sick. Full of valuable notes, by Dr. E. B. Foote, on Scrofula; Diseases of the Breathing Organs; Diseases of Men; Diseases of Women; Aches and Pains; Heart Troubles; and a great variety of Chronic Diseases, with evidences, that in most cases these diseases are curable. Sent for a three-cent stamp. Address MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING sTE>T7 COMPANY, 129 East 28th Street, New York City. Dr. Foote’s Health Monthly. 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Six chapters with the following sub- titles: Social Evils Stated; Scotch Evils at their Source; Radical Remedy Stated; Law of Excess and Waste; Too Frequent Childbearing; Slaughter of Innocents; Great Loss of Life; Fewer and Better Children; Scientific Philanthropy Recommends Regula- tion of Reproduction; How it may be Effected; Self-Limitation of Evils; State Restraint; Malthus’ Deferred Marriage; Neo-Malthus- ian Philosophy; Contraception the Means; Answers to Religious, Moral, Physiological Objections; Abortion Lawful, Contraception Not; Unfair and Unlawful Partiality; Conjugal Sins; Chastity that is Worth Preserving; Voice of the People; An “Awful Let- ter” and Mrs. Wilman’s Comments; Letters from Physicians, Cler- gymen, Crushed Mothers, Conscientious Fathers, n A ATP ni I —OR, THE GERM-THEORY OF O A is 1 t HI A DISEASE and Prevention of Germ-Dis- a# fa 1 k i tin eases; Advocating Personal and Public Hygiene and Opposing the Innoculation Craze and Vaccination De- lusion. 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A ONE-YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION to Dr. Foote’s Health Monthly is also given to anyone accepting one of the above offers when asked for. $9 WILL PAY for "Plain Home * . ’ “Sexual aCi Physiology for the Young ” and the “ Hand-Book of Health Hints and Ready Recipes.” § O Will pay for “ Plain nomo Talk,” “ Sexual Physiology” and £ any Pifty-cent Premium. gO Will pay for “ Plain Homo Talk,” “ Science in Story’’and the “Hand-Book of Health Hints” or any Pifty-cent Pre- mium. g Q Will pay for “ Plain Home Talk,” the “ American Standard .) Dictionary,” “Sexual Physiology” and “Hand-Book” or w any Fifty-cent Premium. MOORE’S UNIVERSAL ASSISTANT: A Pocket Encyclopedia of Information on Every Conceivable Subject. 1?ULL OF VALUABLE EECEIPTS AND FOEMU- JL LAS, costing the author in many instancss $100 each. Invalu- able to professional men, mechanics, farmers, housekeepers and nearly everybody. “ It is a long time since wo havo bad in hand for review so com- plete a work as the ‘Universal Assistant.’ It is in truth what its publishers’ claim—a complete pocket encyclopedia, containing in condensed form information for every one.”— The Outlook. “The ‘Universal Assistant’ is a copious selection of instructions for using various industrial and domestic processes, well arranged and edited. The articles are classified by the trades for uso in which thej are designed, and so form in many cases complete treatises on the different subjects.”—Scientific American. Two Dollars and a half is the price of these valuable receipts and formulas which cost the author fifteen years of time and thousands of dollars in money. A long table of contents sent free. The book eent by mail, postage prepaid, on receipt of $2.50. A BOOK ABOUT THE PET CANARY. All Varieties of Canaries Pictured Superbly in Color— True to Life How to buy, keep, feed, tame, mate and breed them; how to raise singers (male birds): how to nurse tlieir ails; how to treat their many peculiarities of temper, habits, etc., and all elsoapper- taining to these birds. Written by a lady, Mrs. E. C. Earwell, who has made this a study of her life: assisted by two professional bird fanciers who have contributed valuable prescriptions and suggestions for food and treatment, worth $50.00 to anyono inter- ested. Price, 00 cents with Tub Health Monthly one year. MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING CO., 129 E. 2Sth Street, New York. SPECIAL OFFER tO Wl"ES & MOTHERS. Advice to a "Wife- .. the Management of Her Own Health and on the Treatment of some of the Complaints incidental to Pregnancy, La- bour and Suckling. By Pye Henry Chavasse, of the Koyal College of Surgeons, England; and Advice TO A Mother—On the Management of Her Children and the Treatment of their moro pressing Illnesses and Accidents, treating fully of the Hvgieneof Infancy, Childhood, Boyhood and Girldhood. By the same author. Given With Dre Foote’s Health Monthly 1 year for $1. n?” THESE TWO EOOKS, of 264 pages each, are hound in one nice volume, forming a complete Mother's Manual and Wife’s Guide, in which over One Thousand Questions of common occurrence in the best regulated lamilies are fully answered, and no family can be well regulated without it. MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING CO., 129 E. 23th street, New York. Murray Hill Publishing Co., 129 East Twenty-eighth St., Hew-York, Issue the following Valuable Books on Medical, Social and Sexual Subjects : Plain Home Talk and Medical Common Sense. By Dr. E. B. Foote. In one handsome 12mo volume of nearly 1000 pages, fully illustrated. Cloth, §3.25—in English or German. A new cheap edition at only $1,150. Science in Story ; or Sammy Tubbs, the Boy Doctob, and Sponsik, the Troublesome Monkey.—By Dr. E. B. Foote; 5 vola. in one, cloth, $2.00, postage prepaid ; 5 vols. separate, flexible cloth, 60c. per volume; Bed Line edition, suitable for holiday presents, $1.00 per volume. Sexual Physiology for the Young.—250 pages, illustrated, and cloth bound. (The fifth volume of “ Science in Story.”) 60c. Dr. Foote’s Health Monthly.—Devoted to Hygiene, Sexual and Social Science and allied subjects; ninth year. Subscription, with Premium, 50c. per year. Specimen copies Xrco on application. Mother’s Manual—Comprising “Advice to a Wife on the Man- agement of Her Own Health, especially During Pregnancy, Labour and Suckling” and “Advice to a Mother on tho Managementof Her Children in Infancy and Childhood ”; 2 books in 1 vol., 528 pp., $1. Hand-Book op Health IIint3 and Ready Recipes.—A valu- able reference pamphlet of 128 pages. By Dr. Foote. 25c. Home-Cure Series (Dime Pamphlets).—By Dr. Foote, viz.: “ Croup,” “Old Eyes Made New,” “Cold Beet,” “ Rupture,” “ Phi. mosis,” “ Spermatorrhoea.” By mail, 10c. each. Sexual-Science Series (Dime Pamphlets).—By Dr. Foote, viz.: “ Physiological Marriage,” “ Physical Improvement of Hu- inanity,” “A Step Backward” (successor of “Words in Pearl”), Horning Better Babies.—The Radical Remedy in Science; an Earnest Essay on Pressing Problems, by Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr. 25c. Marriage—As It Is, as It Was and as It Should Be.—By Mrs. Annie Besant. Limp cloth, steel portrait, 50c.; without portrait,25c. The Perfect Good In Wedlock; or, The Way of God in Holy Marriage. By a Christian Minister. 10c. Sanitary-Science Series (Dime Pamphlets).—By Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., viz.: “ Bacteria in their Relation to Disease,” presenting the germ-theory, advocating personal and public hygiene and op posing vaccination; “ Health in the Sunbeam,” considering the blue-glass cure—of valuo to sick and well. By mail, 10c. each. Heredity (Books and Pamphlets).—“ Heredity, Cross-breeding and Prenatal Influences,” by Alb. Chavannes, 10c. “Heredity,” by LoringMoody, 159pages, cloth, 75c.; “ The Law of Heredity,” by F. H. Marsh, 10 cents; “ The Alphabet of the Human Temperaments,” with illustrations, by Dr. E. B. Foote, 10cents; “Generation before Regen- eration,” by Dr. E. B. Foote, Jr., 10c.; “ Reports of Conventions and Parlor Meetings during 1882,” 10c.; “ Third Annual Convention of the Institute of Heredity, May 29,1883,” 10c. Moore's Universal Assistant.—The most-complete book of trade secrets, recipes, formulas, tables and rules for mechanics, artizans, tradesmen and the household; 1016 pages, for only $2.50. Home-Cur© Series Of Dime Pamphlets by Dr. E. B. Foote. AAI n rCCT. CAUSES, PREVENTION AND ■ ■ill 19 ill I* CURE; giving full directions whero- WUlilr I ■■ B B by the tendency to cold feet and its at- tendant ill-results may be overcome by several original and simple methods, actually without expense, other than 10c. for this invalu- able pamphlet. A| A P y i“ MADE NEW without Doctors or II III A Medicine; enabling Old Folks to Do Away fc I !■ w with Spectacles, By mail for 10c. Near- sighted folks need not apply. n D n II n CAN positively be PREVENTED I - K 11 II wr AND CURED by means devised by Dr. Foote w 11 W w 1 and made known in a pamphlet which we will send by mail for 10c. Mothers write that they would not be with- out it for $500, as it saves $50 a year in doctors’ calls. D II DTBI D r REDUCIBLE can he cured Kill I || K f" without surgical operation or detention I ■ will* from business, by a method explained by Dr. FOOTE in a pamphlet which we mail for 10c. It has cured a man seventy-three years of ago, and is infallihlo in young men of good constitution. DU! MHC10 CAN BE CURED without circum- ■ M I |VI I |b\| cision or other i>ainful surgical operation. I lllllIU w IV# The now method introduced hy Dr. E. B. FOOTE is one of theNotablo Achievements of Eclectic Physicians in promoting medical progress. It was fully explained and illus- trated in a paper presented to the State Medical Society, which i3 now to he had in pamphlet form for 10c.; in sealed envelope, 20c. HI r D\/H II O DEBILITY (fromSpermatorrhoea) |u f“ K V II 61 and other forms of sexual disease are phil- I ™ “ I m. W UU osophically discussed in an address pre- pared for the consideration of his professional brethren hy Dr. E. B. FOOTE, to present his ideas of the origin and naturo of such af- fections and the true principles in practice which should ho followed to effect a cure. By mail, 10c.; in a sealed envelope, 20c. Av/Mrnni nnv or diseases of won- uTNtbULUb!.EN J!y l)r-E-B Foote>jr- j \ recent treatise or new book, well illustrated on a subject of iuterest to nine out of ten women, and written for the easy comprehension and benefit of all. It treats of causes, direct and indirect, of symptoms, explaining their meaning or significance, and of treatment, comparing the relative merits of surgical and medical methods. It helps every woman to understand herself and her needs, and to adopt inex- pensive means for her relief. It is really worth a $10 consultation with any specialist, and vet costs only Ten cents, by mail. MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING CO., 129 E. 28th St., N.Y. HUMAN FACES. WHAT TIM MEAN; or HOW TO BEAD CHARACTER. By Joseph slums, m.o.. Author of " Physiognomy Illustrated; or, Nature's PevelatCons of Character,” and of numerous popular lectures. 1. CHARLEMAGNE; 2. BOSWELL; 3. CINGALESE; 4. LOCKE; 5. TAS- MANIAN ; 6. Byron; 7. Caius Cassius; 8. Reverend Rowland Hill; 9. Lav ate:; ; 10. Raul I, Emperor oe Russia. The above novel form of illustration was designed by Dr. Simms, and is a fair examplo of the originality that pervades his writings. The paper covered book here olTered at only fifty cents per copy (Human Faces), has sold largely in the United States. England and Australia at $1.50 per copy. 11 has 250 pages of solid instruc- tion about signs of character, and 225 illustrations that make tho text clear to every reader. Itpresentsanewand complete analy- sis of the temperaments or forms of mankind, designates faculties heretofore unrecognized, and their facial signs. It contains val- uable directions for tho cultivation and. restraint of every physi- cal and intellectual power. Dr. Simms, is throughout the English speaking world recog- nized as the authority on this subject, and the most competent, thorough, and systmetic writer upon it. He has developed a system or science of physiognomy, more rational, practical, and easy to be understood than phrenology or any other method of character reading. Price 50 cents. Cloth, $1.00. Agents Wanted. May be ordered as a Health Monthly Premium. JK3"Dr. Simms’ great work entitled PHYSIOGNOMY ILLUSTRATED, or Nature’s Revelations of Character, of which thousands have been sold at $5.00 por copy, has been just republished in fine shape at the low price of $2.00 per copy. \Ve have only space to say that it is a curious and captivating book, of vast interest to all students of men and morals. MURRAY HILL PUBLISHING CO., 129 E. 28th St., N. Y.